How To

How to Market Your Book (without feeling like a salesman)

May 14, 2016 By Rachel Stedman

How to Market Your Book —

Marketing seems to freak out many writers, me included!

writer's notebook — Notebook – Image from Pixabay

I guess it’s because we’re generally introverts who are happiest alone or in small groups – the thought of engaging with strangers to talk about a deeply personal work just doesn’t come naturally.

(Before I write a bit more, a big shout-out to all the salesmen and women who work ethically and professionally. You’re not who I’m talking about. I’m talking about the dodgy folk who prey on the elderly and vulnerable. No-one wants to feel like that.)

This is the third post in a series of three on selling your rights and publishing, sparked by a recent radio interview with Vanda Symon on Otago Access Radio. You can check out the first of these posts here (or you can listen to the podcast!)

5 Steps to Marketing Your Book

1. Know your audience.

If you don’t have an audience, think about the audience you want. It helps if you can get really specific here: not just male/female and age, but where they live and what are their interests; where they hang out, and who their influencers are.

Marketers call this ‘building an avatar’ – not a big blue alien, but an ideal customer. This has never worked for me, because being a writer, I have an extremely fertile imagination – and an avatar has to be reasonably accurate (i.e. not imaginary) to be useful.

Instead, I think of my two most passionate fans (that aren’t related to me:)) I don’t stalk them, obviously, but I know roughly how old these two fans are, where they hang out (facebook, goodreads, instagram, blogs etc) and I know what they like to read.

I develop content for ONLY these two fans. I call them K and N.

Quick side-note: if you’re new to writing, or you’re not really sure who your biggest fans are, then have a look at this podcast on the Author Hangout. Here you’ll find a quick step-by-step guide to developing a reader profile.

2. Develop content for your audience.

Every blog post is written for either K or N. (Except this one, although K might find it interesting). Every post on social media is designed for them. My only criteria about each post is: would K or N like this? (This approach also MAKES me sit down and write my current WIP, because I know that the thing they most want from me is my next book.)

Share your content. When I’ve developed content, like this blog post, I go onto twitter or facebook or whatever, and I say, hey, I’ve made this! I don’t say ‘Hey N, here’s another post just for you,’ – that’s kind of weird. But often one or the other will pick it up and share it or retweet or whatever, and I love that, because it means I’ve done something that makes them happy.

3. Marketing Through Sharing Love

It took me a long time to learn this approach, and I’ve only just started working like this since the beginning of March. But since then interest in my blog is going up and downloads of my books are increasing. Why? Because it’s not just N and K buying my books – hell, I’ve given them my books – it’s because there’s enough people out there like N and K, and they also like the same material.

I am really, really grateful to N and K for their support and I want to deliver more content that makes them happy. It’s just a side benefit that other people like it too.

I’ve summarised this approach in a pdf, which you’re welcome to download.

Before I wrap up this extra-long post here’s a couple of things to consider.

4. Social Media is Not Essential

Don’t be spammy. Don’t stalk. Be compassionate, respectful and behave like a normal human.

Marketing doesn’t mean you have to slather yourself in social media. Old-fashioned print or radio works too.

If your fans don’t live online you may not even need a website (although I would, but that’s another post for another day); the point is, once you know who your fans are, you can design your marketing to serve their needs. Robert Free meets his fans through sending a ballad to Radio New Zealand every day. It seemed to take Robert AGES to get his website up and running, but I’m not sure this really mattered; he was already meeting his audience through radio.

Play to your strengths. If your fans are out and about on a variety of different channels – like blogs, youtube, instagram – chose the channels that suit you best. I like taking photos and I’m totally in love with my iphone, so instagram works well for me.

Kyle Mewburn, who writes books for kids, is a natural entertainer and has a youtube channel. This suits her fans, too, because teachers and parents can play it for their kids.

Finally, although I say you don’t need to be involved in social media, it sure helps you to meet more readers than traditional media. And unless you’re running adverts, social media is free. (As a side note, if you are thinking of running ads on social media, check out Mark Dawson’s Facebook training videos. They’re free, and are almost guaranteed to save you a ton of money.) It always saddens me when I hear (usually older) writers say “oh no, I don’t get facebook.” They’re missing out on an opportunity to hear and connect with readers, and surely, that is why we write, isn’t it?

5. Writing is Connection

Which takes me back to the beginning of this three-part series of blog posts: Why do we write? For me, it’s to connect; to share; to provide enjoyment. Writing, actually, is not about me. It’s about my reader.

Thanks for sticking with me through this incredibly long post. If you have any questions, please get in touch.Here’s a summary as a slide-deck:

Market Your Book (Without Feeling Like a Salesman) from Rachel Stedman MBA

And thanks again, Vanda and Otago Access Radio, who sparked this series of posts. Now you’ve navigated your way to the end of them, here’s the link again to the podcast interview. I hope you enjoy!

How To Tell When Your Manuscript’s Finished

April 4, 2016 By Rachel Stedman

When is Your Manuscript Finished?

It’s hard to know when you’ve finished a creative work.

How many times do you continue polishing, hoping to improve what went before? When do you ever finish?

Wanna know the hard truth?

Your Manuscript Will Never Be ‘Finished’.

For me, I normally do about five ‘Final Drafts’. It’s crazy! Each time, I save the next draft as ‘Draft_FINAL’ and it never is. There’s Draft_FINAL One’; ‘Draft_FINAL Two’ and so on. My personal favourite? ‘Draft FINAL_FINAL’.

Each time I review a draft, I find more errors, or more room for improvement. Each re-draft takes less time than the one before, but each re-draft is harder, more freaky, because each time I re-read it I realist that there’s still so much wrong.

I suppose for me, a piece is finished is when I CANNOT bear to read it again. It’s when I think “If I work on this story anymore I will go insane.”

That’s the time to take a deep breath, package the finely crafted work up and sit it on it for four to six weeks. Then check it one more time – just in case!

I dread the next part, the sending it out into the wide wide world. Because as soon as that happens, I start getting rejections. Rejections are almost inevitable. And oh, how they hurt.

Perfection isn’t Possible.

Your work will never be perfect, but at some point you HAVE to step away. Because only then can you get ready for your BOOK LAUNCH!

9 Tips to Getting Published

April 3, 2016 By Rachel Stedman

How to Get Published

What most people actually mean by the question “How can I get a publishing deal?” is: “How can I see my work in print?”

I totally get this. It is a buzz to see your book on sale at the bookstore (it’s a lot less of a buzz to see it in the sales bin!) My first novel was A Necklace of Souls and when it came out I spent a lot of time visiting bookstores and taking photos of it on the shelves!

Here’s a reprint of my article on Kura Carpenter’s blog last week. Thanks for the opportunity to share, Kura!

Here’s what worked for me…

A ton of hard work. I wrote on and off for about ten years before I got an acceptance. Over that time I wrote one novella, one novel, and many, many short stories.
Write for free. I edited a professional magazine, which gave me experience in working with deadlines, keeping to word counts, formatting documents.
Join a writer’s association. I joined the New Zealand Society of Authors. Associations like the NZSA often have mentoring programmes for new writers and access to grants and competitions.
Formal training. I completed a Certificate in Creative Writing at a local polytechnic, but there are other opportunities both on-line and in person. Just do be aware of cost if you’re doing this, as paid tuition at a university is not cheap.
Develop networks. This sounds cheesy, but often in life it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. (And be POLITE. Apart from the fact it’s the right thing to do, the writing world is a really, really small place!)
Submit to e-zines and small journals. My first paid acceptance was an e-zine which paid TEN DOLLARS! So exciting!!
Enter competitions. Comps can be expensive, so now I only enter those with that offer the opportunity to get my script read by a publisher, or that provide direct feedback on my script. The Romance Writers of America has some good ones, and my lucky break was with Storylines.
Keep writing. Evaluate critically. Write some more. When you feel it’s good enough – and only then – begin submitting to agents or publishers.
And finally, and this isn’t something you can ever predict, you need to get lucky. Why was A Necklace of Souls accepted, when another person’s might have been equally as good? I don’t know. Maybe the commissioning editor liked fantasy. Maybe they were looking for a novel with a strong female protagonist. Maybe the stars had aligned.

Reality checks:

Don’t expect overnight success. Actually, don’t expect to make a living wage from writing, period. Treat it like a passion and then anything’s a bonus.

Or, you could just be famous, notorious or both. Then landing a publishing deal is way, way easier.

Me with a much less famous author... — Me with a much less famous author…

Writing a Novel? How to Improve Your Third Draft.

April 1, 2016 By Rachel Stedman

A Great Third Draft

For me, the third draft is about copy-editing. Tightening the words, so everything is succinct. The third draft makes sure the right word is in the right place. I like doing my third draft. I work in hard copy, sliding a ruler under each line, and read line by line down the page, following the ruler. This stops me skimming, makes sure I consider each word carefully. I often do this in a cafe, just for a change of scene.

I save my draft two file, make a new one, called ‘Draft Three’ – duh – and insert the hardcopy changes as track changes. It’s time-consuming, of course, but it’s also fun, because it’s a chance to see if the premise and themes I dreamt of so long ago are coming together, that the story kind of hums along.

The big problem that I have is the continual second-guessing. Oh, but will this appeal to a reader? To an agent? To a publisher?

3 Tips to a Successful Third Draft

1- Consider a Critique Partner (CP).

A CP is someone who reviews and comments on your chapters. Preferably, someone who will be brutally honest, without fair of reprisals. Don’t use a family member, or a neighbour, or a friend. You need someone to tell you the parts that are boring, or which scenes don’t make sense.

Personally, I don’t find it too useful to have a CP until draft three, because up until this point, there’s so many changes. But after draft three, it’s invaluable. Especially for the all-important first three chapters.

Where Can I Find a CP?

If you’re doing a creative writing course, well then, it’s obvious. You’ll have more than enough eyes on your manuscript.
You can join a writing group. Google writer’s groups + [the town you live in]. Or look up your local Writer’s Society. Here’s the link to the New Zealand Society of Authors
You can join a special interest group – such as a Romance Writers Association
Or – and here’s a special tip from me to you: join Ladies Who Critique . LWC is kind of like a speed dating service for writers, matching writers with critique partners. I’ve found it useful and its a good way to chat with other writers, all from different parts of the world, with varying experiences. Ignore the ‘ladies’ bit. They welcome men, too. 🙂
Focus on your first three chapters.

2- Focus on your first three chapters and your ending.

Your first three chapters are the ones read by agents, editors and readers. Actually, the first three words, the first three paragraphs, the first three chapters. If you spend time polishing anything, polish these parts of your story. And don’t forget the ending. Endings are what we remember the most, and a great ending makes a reader keen to read another of your books.

3- Allow for length changes.

You may lose a lot of words in draft three. I usually lose about 10 – 20 percent. This means that if I’m aiming for a final word count of say 70,000 (average for a YA novel), I need to write about 100,000 to ensure I still have enough words for my manuscript. By contrast, some writers find they increase their word count. Whatever works for you, just be prepared for changes.

4 – And at the end of Draft Three – will my (good) novel finally be finished?

It’s up to you. If you are happy with it, then yes, perhaps. But for me – no. I will keep going on redrafting for quite a little longer.

How to Improve Your First Draft – Beauty and Murder

March 29, 2016 By Rachel Stedman

After Your First Draft

Finishing the first draft is a massive milestone; an exercise in tenacity and sheer bloody-mindedness. Word after word joining chapter after chapter, until finally you have enough content to make a book.

The good news?

For me, the first draft is the fun part, where the story-telling happens. I’m not bound up with grammar or word-appropriateness or even too much plot. In the first draft, I am feeling my way into the story.

The bad news?

The hard work is just about to start.

Beauty and Murder

So this is what I do. At the end of the draft one – which takes anywhere between six weeks and five years, depending on the number of words and time and circumstances and life just getting in the way – I put the manuscript aside. Usually for about four to six weeks. For some reason, this seems to coincide with other breaks, like school holidays or Christmas or something, so this has never been too much of a problem.

Once the six weeks is over, I re-read it in hard copy with a critical eye. I try not to get too bogged down in the words at this stage (although of course, I do, a little), but for me, draft two is all about STRUCTURE. What goes where.

The point of Draft Two is to kill your darlings. Heighten the tension. Compress the narrative. I find it a very hard process.

In Draft Two I shuffle scenes about. Sometimes I write in the margin – ‘Compress.’ ‘Tighten.’ ‘This drags.’ ‘Do I need this scene?’ If I think a scene should be somewhere else, I circle it, draw a big arrow to where it needs to go.

You can do this in other ways. Some people use post-it notes, drafting a short, cryptic summary on each, and putting them on a big wall. Some use index files or software.

The point of any method is always to ensure that everything in your story has a purpose; that each scene drives the story onwards. Do whatever works for you. It’s not like there’s a right and a wrong here – it’s the outcome that matters, not how you manage your process.

When I’ve ruthlessly worked through the manuscript, I start back on the computer. I make another file called ‘Draft Two’ and work through the marked-up edit points. I start a file called ‘leftover’ and anything I’m not sure about deleting I cut from Draft Two and paste into the leftover. Most of the time I won’t need this pasted material, but it’s like a security blanket, just in case. It’s pretty hard to let my darlings go completely.

I find Draft Two the hardest stage. It’s when I realize that my shining gem of a first draft is actually only a damaged pebble.

Although even a pebble has beauty; Draft Two is about exposing that beauty.