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The Perfect Gift for Authors is Free!
Book Marketing- Knowledge is Power
As a writer, author, and online marketer, I'm always reading, taking courses, and joining pros in their membership groups.
The reason?
Book marketing and content marketing are part of the turbulent marketing waters.
Keeping up takes work, time, and it can be expensive.
But, what's the alternative?
If you don’t keep your eye on the ball, you’ll fall behind. Your marketing efforts will lose their effectiveness. This will mean less visibility, less authority, less subscribers to your email list, and less sales.
As a business owner (if you’re an author or freelance writer, you’re a business owner), you MUST keep up with what's going on in your industry.
Granted some industries stay steadfast, but even those businesses must market themselves. This means keeping up with changed or new marketing strategies.
Thus, we go back to the title of this post: Knowledge is power.
So, where did this quote originate?
The 'knowledge is power' quote is attributed to Francis Bacon, in his Meditationes Sacrae (1597).
But, Thomas Jefferson is known to have used it at least twice:
Thomas Jefferson to George Ticknor, 25 November 1817
Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Cabell, 22 January 1820
Other interesting quotes on knowledge:
"Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement."
-Peter Drucker
"There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge . . . observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination."
-Denis Diderot
So, keep learning things that will help you move your business forward.
Sources:
(1) http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/knowledge-power-quotation
(2) http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_knowledge.html
Karen Cioffi is an award-winning author, ghostwriter, and author/writer online platform instructor. Get must-know writing and marketing tips at http://thewritingworld.com
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3 Marketing Strategies Geared to Motivate People to Buy
Just about all CTAs (call-to-actions) generate stress.
Something as simple as the wording in your CTA, can increase that stress and it’s your job to take steps to reduce the potential customer’s anxiety. This in turn will increase your conversions.
Conversions in this case relates to getting visitors to actually buy what you’re offering, getting visitors to say YES to your CTA.
Here are 3 Powerful Strategies to Reduce Buyer Anxiety:
1. The CTA Wording
As mentioned, the wording you use in your CTA can increase or decrease buyer anxiety. According to Marketing Experiments, it’s all about the expectation of what your wording produces.
In testing conducted by the marketing group, two CTAs were put to the test. The first was “Start Free Trial.” The second was “Get Started Now.”
Which do you think converted better?
It was “Get Started Now” and the reason is it produced less anxiety because there is NO implied cost. To many, ‘starting a free trial’ conveys an implied cost.
2. Timing of the CTA
Timing is when and where to introduce the CTA on the sales page. In other words, do you put the CTA at the beginning of the conversation, in the middle, or at the end?
For the average marketer, it’s usually a good idea to provide the visitor with focused and persuasive content (information) before introducing the CTA. This will help develop interest and motivation. The information explaining how the product or service will solve the visitor’s problem will encourage him to buy what’s being offered.
3. Offering a Guarantee
For the buyer, one of the most stressful things in the buying process is to think he’ll lose money.
Questions your visitor may think of:
- Is the product high quality?
- Is the cost reasonable for what’s being offered?
- Will the product meet the promises made?
- Will the perceived value meet expectations?
- Is the money I’m going to spend worth it?
- What if it doesn’t help me or I don't like it?
One of the best ways to reduce most of the anxiety related to the buying process is to offer a money-back guarantee, a risk-free guarantee.
The guarantee must be clearly worded. The visitor will need to know exactly what he has to do to get the refund, when he’ll receive the refund, and any other information that will make him feel more comfortable in his decision.
There are five primary elements to a knock-it-out-of-the-park guarantee:
1. The length – you can offer a 5 day, a 7 day, a 30 day, or other refund time limit.
2. The conditions – the refund policy can be conditional. For example, “If you complete Lesson One, including the assignment, and decide this course isn’t for you, I’ll give you a complete refund.”
3. The coverage – you need to make it clear as to exactly what’s covered in the refund. For example, is it just the cost of the product or does it include shipping, handling, and/or other fees.
4. The placement – place the guarantee just below the price and then again after more persuasive content. You might head the additional motivation as, “Still Not Sure?”
5. The process – make it very clear what the customer needs to do to initiate the refund process. For example, she may need to contact your support team or you directly by email.
The article, “How to Craft a Guarantee,” at Digital Marketer provides more information on the first four elements mentioned above.
Using these tips will help you create powerful CTAs that will reduce buyer anxiety.
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Blogging Made Easy (for beginners)
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Writing Courses - Are They for You?
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
I have been intrigued by a new product advertised in magazines like National Geographic, Time, Archaeology and the like. It is a series of courses offered by http://TheGreatCourses.com. All are taught by accredited college or university instructors—mostly colleges we would be familiar with. Their ads always publish a complete list of the individual lecture titles and give the name of the professor.
These programs remind me of the ones I took a long time ago; we called them home study courses and everything was done by mail. I can remember typing up my lessons on a typewriter, folding them, and stuffing them into an envelope, licking it, and licking the stamps. Yes! Licking!
This month the ad featured a course called “Writing Creative Nonfiction.” I haven’t bought it—yet. The CD course is $49.95 and the DVD is $69.95, so they’re frugal enough. Lots more frugal that most courses from accredited universities. The teacher for this one is a full professor from Colby College. And the name of one of the lectures: “Writing the Gutter—How to Not Tell a Story” caught my attention. I also thought the one called “How To Not Have People Hate You” might intrigue writers who worry—a lot—about that! Perhaps I would pick up some tips for the presentations I do for writers' conferences.
So, what’s keeping me from ordering the course? So, what is holding me back?
Time. I’m still in the final throes of writing the third full book in the HowToDoItFrugally Series. It is How To Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically: The ins and outs of using free reviews to build and sustain a writing career to be released this fall. I’m through the fun part and am struggling with the Index. So maybe I need a break? What do you think?
BTW, if you are interested in checking this course out, go to http://TheGreatCourses.com/5TME. There may be some other fantastic ones that would interest you. The range of topics that would interest creative people is huge. And, if you buy one, let me know what you think, will you?
ABOUT YOUR SHARINGWITHWRITERS BLOGGER
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.
Three Tips on Starting a Series, Part 2
I am living testimony to this fact. My dream has been to
expand the one undertaking that has taken heart and soul to write, MY BOOK,
into a series. The dream took shape when I realized I didn't want to part with my
characters. Little did I know what the creation of a
series would mean. Thank goodness so many
authors are willing to share their ideas on writing a series, including how to begin, how to
avoid common pitfalls and how to stay on target, whether you're writing a
trilogy or see no end in sight.
In today's post, I would like to summarize three topics that
will help propel you out of the gate, described in Wiesner's book: Book Groupings,
Types of Series and Series Blurbs. If you are looking for good, solid advice on writing a series, I highly recommend Wiesner's book, which offers a thorough approach with many examples and worksheets that can save time and effort.
Book Groupings are as Familiar as Fiction Itself
- Series: Any continuous or interconnected set of stories. The two main types are the books best read sequentially, such as Harry Potter books; and those books read in any order, such as Nancy Drew books.
- Trilogy: Continues one long-term story arc or each story stands alone with a loose connection.
- Serial: Serial, episode or periodical stories come from a single work and are read in installments, such as Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers, first published in 1836; considered to have established the serial format. A current example is Stephen King's story, The Plant (2000).
- Miniseries: A planned number of stories told within an existing series. A personal favorite of mine on television, such as the six-part Roots and John Adams; Wiesner gives as her example in writing, The Darling Birds, by Johnny Dale.
- Other types of groupings include: Prequel, Sequel, Interquel, Spin-off, and Tetralogy (four-book series that can be developed the same as a Trilogy).
What Type is your Series?
The four main types of series Wiesner pins down, summarized
here, has helped me turn a fuzzy idea of what I'm attempting to write into a clear vision.
She points out that authors often create a combination of these types, a good
idea if you want your series to stand out.
- Recurring character: Popular in mystery/suspense stories, fantasy, sci fi and paranormal genres. Wiesner's example: Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer.
Your star character appears in each book, often with her
trusty sidekick. The stories can be told from one or the other point of view.
I considered doing this in my current series project but was advised by an editor that by switching POVs, some of the reader's emotional investment in my main character could be lost. I decided for this first series, to stick with the two mc's who are introduced in Book 1, with one of them the predominant mc. Wiesner advises that in this type of series there's a large cast of characters with varied importance from story to story.
I considered doing this in my current series project but was advised by an editor that by switching POVs, some of the reader's emotional investment in my main character could be lost. I decided for this first series, to stick with the two mc's who are introduced in Book 1, with one of them the predominant mc. Wiesner advises that in this type of series there's a large cast of characters with varied importance from story to story.
- Central Group of Characters: Popular in romance novels, women's fiction, paranormal, sci fi and fantasy. Example: Redwall Series by Brian Jacques.
Your main group of characters have a loose or specific
connection that ties them together, and one or two of the characters become
the mc as the series progresses.
- Premise/Plot Series: Popular in action/adventure, suspense and thriller, inspirational, paranormal, horror, sci fi and fantasy. Example: Unbidden Magic Series by Marilee Brothers.
The connection in this type of series is the plot or premise
that is the underlying theme.
- Setting Series: Your setting works in your series' books across the board.
The stories are tied by the setting. Characters can change, but the setting stays the same.
Series Blurbs on Steroids
One of the most difficult tasks of fiction writing, as we know, is encapsulating our novel in a short, concise sentence.
Weisner suggests blurbing your entire series in the early stages of the work, keeping it to one to four sentences; as short as possible and tweaking it as you go along. Your series blurb should:
- Be an overview of the entire series.
- Tell how the books in the series are connected.
- Inspire readers to want to read not just one book but the entire series.
- Let the genre shine through.
- Give the blurb the same tone as the story.
- Consider adding interest by making the blurb a question or an exclamation.
- Should give you a plan on how your series will end.
Nailing down these preliminary tasks, authors say, will save you much time and effort as you write your series. But the initial planning is not yet complete. This trilogy of posts will conclude next month with various worksheet suggestions, that if started early, can serve as reminders of details that might be forgotten and not easily found once your series gets rolling.
Check out last month's post: Is Series Writing for You, Part 1
Image courtesy of: http://all-free-download.com
Image courtesy of: http://all-free-download.com
Linda Wilson, a former elementary teacher and ICL graduate, has published over 100 articles for adults and children, and six short stories for children. Recently, she completed Joyce Sweeney's online fiction courses, picture book course and mystery and suspense course. She has currently finished her first book, a mystery/ghost story for 8-12 year-olds, and is in the process of publishing it. Follow Linda on Facebook.
J.K. Rowling Says Goodbye to Harry Potter
No other book series has had the success that the Harry Potter series has. It allowed J.K. Rowling to build a billion dollar empire. But, as with all things, there comes an end. In this short three minute clip, Rowling discusses her feelings on ending the series.
Definitely worth watching!
NEED HELP WITH YOUR BOOK MARKETING BLOGGING STRATEGY?
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.
Definitely worth watching!
NEED HELP WITH YOUR BOOK MARKETING BLOGGING STRATEGY?
Check out Blogging Made Easy
Simple Steps to Building Your Online Platform and Authority
.
Five Ways to Annoy an Editor
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| Image courtesy of jesadaphorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
The wonderful thing is that you can annoy an editor at any and all points throughout the publishing process. This allows you to get your own back for all the odd comments sprinkled on every page of your great works from kindergarten onwards. After all, your inbox is full of emails insisting you can make a fortune with your writing in a weekend. Who needs an editor anyway?
Well, if you want to be traditionally published, an editor comes with the package deal. So let's get off on the most annoying foot from the start.
Submissions
1) Resist reading the publishers' instructions for sending in submissions. Send in a hefty paper manuscript with all pages stapled together when the instructions ask for email only.
Choose a jolly font -- something unusual like Bauhaus 93 or all caps like Algerian. Ignore the boring fonts like Times New Roman which are so often requested by publishers. Word will happily suggest something it considers better if you run out of ideas.
You'll get more words on the page if you use single spacing and keep the font tiny --try 8 pt.
And better not reread your manuscript before sending it off. After all, you want your editor to have lots to do.
Remember the Rules
2) Follow every typewriting rule you can remember. Sadly we no longer need two spaces before every new sentence. With computers, one space throughout is all that's necessary. Your editor can sort that one out fairly easily but hitting the space bar to create paragraph indents or using tabs does mean tedious days of extra formatting.
Life is hard enough with the latest version of Word happily saving every copy of your work in a single file and creating huge files which need to be reduced to manageable size.
3) Ignore all rules regarding point of view. After all if you know who's speaking what's the problem?
The problem is that readers like identifying with a particular character or characters in a story. This is difficult if they can't have an in depth involvement. If characters are batting thoughts and feelings about like ping pong balls, it may be exhilarating but it is more likely to lead to confusion than empathy.
However, it's your book.
Find the right agent
4} Choose an agent who supports your beliefs and ignores requests for blurbs and synopses, sends in an unread manuscript on parenting to a house specializing in Romantic Fiction. Yes, we can see there is a connection there somewhere but publishers and their editors are apt to concentrate on fact or fiction, or at least have different imprints for each.
What's an Editor For, Anyway?
5} And the final definite No-no. Your editor is not there to write your book. Your editor is there to help you polish your book, make it shine. If you have problems with spelling and grammar, at least do your best to check the manuscript through with Word's tools if nothing else. Read your manuscript out loud--that's a good way to find missing words.
*****
Any more thoughts on annoying editors, or even on annoying editors? Let us know in the comments below :-)
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| Anne Duguid Knol |
A local and national journalist in the U.K., Anne Knol is now a fiction editor for award-winning American and Canadian publishers. As a new author, she shares writing tips and insights at Author Support : http://www.authorsupport.net .
Her Halloween novella, ShriekWeek is published by The Wild Rose Press as e-book and in print included in the Hauntings in the Garden anthology. (Volume Two)
Her column on writing a cozy mystery appears in The Working Writer's Club .
Her column on writing a cozy mystery appears in The Working Writer's Club .
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