I had the pleasure of speaking with Barbara Vey, Contributing Editor at Publishers Weekly with her blog: Beyond Her Book. Barbara has built an amazing community around her blog, which focuses on women’s fiction. If you are wondering how you can create an engaging blog – one that really brings people together – you should hear Barbara’s story.
We cover the following topics:
How Barbara builds her audience and deepens her connection to them.
How she has brought others in to help create blog content.
How she got more than 22,000 blog comments in a single week.
The value of meeting people in-person, not just online.
And many other topics!
You can watch the full interview by clicking the play button below:
I am thrilled to announce the Fall session of my 8-week online course for writers: Build Your Author Platform. If you are a writer looking to establish your brand and build your audience, please check it out. (and if you know of any writers who may be interested, please let them know. Thanks!)
All of this has me in a constant process of considering how we learn, and in particular, that learning is about more than just the transfer of information. That it is about connection to others; exploration of one’s own identity and goals; it is about how one executes on an idea; about finding ways to safely test and experiment; how we factor in the emotional side of building something; of not just following a list of instructions, but modifying it to fit our specific context and personality, and that of those we are trying to reach.
I would say that 50% of the value of the class I teach is connection with each other – students working together and with myself – not just the information that is shared. Within the course, I build in multiple ways to interact, to have open discussions, to brainstorm, to include guests who share a variety of viewpoints, of ways that students can work together to get new perspectives, ideas, and motivation. A big part of this is working past barriers, often those that are internal: being overwhelmed, juggling too much, trying to find clarity in vision and process, and just knowing that this is all worth the effort – that there is a payoff. We work as a group to actively move each other forward.
I have worked with an elementary school in Harlem since 2003, helping them build their writing and publishing skills. Coming into the school, spending time with the faculty and students, it is clear that the information I share is only part of the value. Being present in the students’ lives; being there to understand their particular challenges and skills; offering feedback that goes beyond sharing a process or list of tips – offering encouragement and motivation – these things matter as much as any information I share. Providing the smallest amount of validation or support to a student can fuel them for years. This is so much more than just transferring my knowledge to them.
There are so many “information products” available on the web. Some are positioned as courses, where information is slowly released over the course of weeks. Others are eBooks, PDFs, white papers, screencasts, and other forms of media. These can each be valuable tools, and they scale well. But my concern is that they may not always address the real challenge standing in people’s way: the very personal set of circumstances they may be in, how to stay motivated, build connections, and deal with the rollercoaster of emotions that most people go through when trying to create a meaningful body of work.
As I have stated before, showing is not teaching. Just because one process works for a single person, that doesn’t necessarily mean that someone else in a different context can replicate it. I have worked with more than 500 writers, and I won’t pretend there is one formula that works for everyone. There are tips and frameworks that are massively helpful, but they need to be personalized and modified to fit a certain context. Not everyone WANTS the same thing, has the same desires and skills, the same resources, and the exact same audience. The value of each is unique.
This is why I have built in so much conversation and connection into the courses I teach – to ensure that I don’t just transfer information, but truly connect people with the goals they are trying to reach. If you are curious about my course or know of someone who may be, please check it out: https://wegrowmedia.com/build-your-author-platform/
I had the pleasure of speaking with author Bob Mayer, where we chatted about the specifics of his success in the ebook space.
We cover the following topics:
His experience of 20 years in traditional publishing, and why he is putting so many resources into ebooks.
The value of getting the rights back on nearly all of the 40 books he has published, allowing him to turn them into ebooks.
In January of this year, he sold 347 ebooks total (with 8 books for sale), grossing $5,000 across all platforms. In July, he sold more than 80,000 ebooks (with 32 books for sale), and had $90,000 in profit.
The importance of pricing: why only two of his books are priced at 99 cents, and the rest at higher prices. Nothing is above $4.99.
How he gets the word out about his books via blogs and forums.
That getting featured by pubit! increased sales from 12 copies a day to more than 400 per a day for one title. This is a book that had previously sold more than 1,000,000 copies in paperback.
The importance of focusing on each individual platform and format, and the incredible amount of work involved in that.
His view that profit sharing will be a bigger part of publishing in the future, instead of advances.
That every author needs to be an entrepreneur, spending at least 50% of their time on the business end of things.
You can watch the full interview by clicking the play button below:
I had the pleasure of speaking with Richard Nash, who gave us a behind the scenes look at what he has been building for publishers, writers and readers. We cover the following topics:
How he and his team have developed the Cursor platform to “power the world’s next 50,000 publishers.”
The ways his new publishing venture Red Lemonade is trying to help writers find readers.
That the economics of content on the web has become “broad and shallow” because that is what people know how to monetize via ads. We dig into long-form reading online, and the “deep and narrow web” with texts of 100,000 words.
Social reading: its value and limits.
How reading and writing have been arbitrarily separated from each other, and that they should not be. That our capacity to create is now equal to our capacity to consume.
Reasons why the traditional publishing system has failed to serve some writers, and how we have an opportunity to change that.
That the definition of ‘publisher’ is changing. It is no longer about the act of supplying bookstores with product. The part that matters is those who bring together like-minded writers and readers.
How to bring together and serve a community online.
And many other topics!
You can watch the full interview by clicking the play button below:
When is the best time to begin thinking about marketing your book, connecting it to readers? At creation.
Before it is done. Before you have a title. Before the cover is designed. Before you have an agent. Before you have a publisher. Before you know the launch date. Before you have something to “sell.”
Why? Because marketing is not just a selfish process of selling something to people, it is a process of connecting with and understanding those that you share a worldview with. It is a process to understand your audience – what gets their attention – the marketplace they exist in – what gets them to take action – and how the support system around them operates: the agents, publishers, bookstores, book blogs, reviewers, and so many others that create the community around readers.
This is a process of learning.
When you consider marketing while creating, subtle changes can be made at this point that makes your work MORE meaningful to those you are hoping to connect with.
This is not about changing your work to pander to what others want. This is not about dumbing down to get mass audience appeal. I have been an artist, a musician, and a writer: I RESPECT the creative process – the act of listening to your inner voice to create something uniquely you. That you are doing something that moves our culture forward, and not just filling a gap in “the market,” or watering down your work to try to give others what they think they want.
But… if your book needs to find an audience. If you need to take steps to become a full-time author. If your work needs to support your personal life or a professional business. Then…
You may want to consider the process of marketing during creation. In the past I have written that not every creation needs to be shared, and used the example of a series of pop up books that I once spent three years creating. I was exploring ideas and a story in ways I never had before. I realized that the more I thought about ‘the market,’ about becoming a ‘published author,’ the more watered down it became. So I threw that idea out the door, and it became a personal project, with zero goals of sharing it beyond a few close friends. As an artist and writer, that was satisfying. But it should also be noted that those books haven’t seen the light of day in more than a decade. Those who had seen the books during that time still ask me what I am going to do with them, offended that the answer is: “nothing.”
But… I didn’t need those books to be my identity. Or my career. Or the foundation for a business. I just needed to create them for myself. I just needed to explore that story.
So if you are working on a book, and don’t care if 10 or fewer people read it, then – GREAT. I love that. But if you will judge success by the number of people who read your book. By HOW engaged they are. By the connections you make, the lives affected. If you want your ideas to SPREAD. Then consider marketing early in the process of creation. Consider building your author platform. Consider if you know who your ideal audience is and how to reach them. Consider if you know how to talk about your book and how to connect that with interests and desires already in the minds of those readers.
Sometimes this process of marketing at creation happens naturally. You are drawn to the people, places, and ideas that align with what you are creating. Conversations are something you seek out. Relationships are built. Your work is already affecting the world.
But sometimes this doesn’t happen. The idea is coveted – protected – and thus, not shared. The creator hides their process, hides their work, becomes tongue-tied when trying to explain it, gets shy about even mentioning it because it means potential judgment. It takes a lot of confidence to talk about one’s personal creative process openly with friends, family, and coworkers. So, many writers live a double life. Their creation is born in secret.
I think the key is that we get jaded about terms such as “marketing.” That it means a different purpose and identity than “creation.” That great work should speak for itself, and magically find it’s way into people’s lives. That we engage with the business end of things as a painful necessity, hiring mercenaries to shout about our work for short periods, but that our grace comes with the legacy of becoming part of the pantheon of great writers.
I understand that when we talk about marketing, you may be thinking this is akin to selling out, or focusing your very limited resources on the wrong things. But I have worked with enough writers to know that it is a lot of HARD WORK to find success. That too many writers fail to not just share their work, but they give up on the process of writing altogether.
It’s hard work to succeed, and not just for the little guy, the newbie coming up. It’s hard for those famous and successful writers as well – to find continued success. They worked hard to get where they are, and many of them rarely slow down, always trying to further cement their body of work, engage new readers, and extend their legacy. Their success is earned by inches.
I just watched the 2002 documentary, The Comedian, where Jerry Seinfeld shares his process of creating an entirely new comedy routine after retiring all of his old material. It shows the struggle he goes through to create good jokes, and to constantly test them out in front of audiences. He characterizes his work ethic this way:
“When I was starting out, I used to sit down and write a couple times a week. Then one day I was watching these construction workers go back to work, trudging down the street. It was like a revelation to me. I realized: these guys don’t want to go back to work after lunch. But they’re going, because that’s their job. If they can exhibit that level of dedication for that job, I should be able to do the same. Just trudge your ass in.”
The documentary shows Seinfeld – one of the biggest names in comedy – on stage in small clubs, testing new material from scraps of paper, forgetting his jokes, in anguish over nerves before a gig. It shows him – a very wealthy man with one of the most successful TV shows ever – trying again and again.
This is someone whose creative process is inherently a part of how he shares his work. Is it different for writers of books? Sure. In fact, it’s different for every individual. Only you can decide your creative process, how you will develop your writing career, how you will connect with readers. That is the joy of it, and for some, the endless frustration of it. But if your goal is to reach a wide audience, to engage people again and again, then consider how you share your work as you develop it. Consider connection during creation.
