Amazon Academy for Authors

It’s all very well writing a book and getting it published but it’s not going to find any readers without some well planned and targeted marketing. And like many authors, the whole selling and marketing thing is something I find difficult. It’s not only reaching potential readers that’s daunting, but also how to find the time to do it – especially when I’d rather be writing.

So a couple of weeks ago I was delighted to get the chance to spend the day at a free marketing information event for authors held in Edinburgh’s International Conference Centre.

It was sponsored and run jointly by Amazon and by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLI) and it was excellent. I certainly learned a lot about marketing and can see I need to take a fresh look at what I do in this respect.

As well as the welcome and introduction from Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) UK head, Darren Hardy, and author and ALLI representative, Paul Teague, there were four main sessions – and a free lunch.

The programme was as follows:

  • Making a Book
  • How to Write a Bestseller
  • Marketing Your Book
  • Making it Happen – The Business of Being an Author.

All the sessions were well judged as to length and content and all proved informative. The suggestions as to how to best go about marketing were also feasible, sensible and realistic. It was especially reassuring that all the experts who spoke at the event presented their views as based on their personal experience of what works and on their preferred way of working. There was no one right way, one true path, or one size fits all preaching. And because of that it’s probably safe to say that all the delegates got something out of the day that they could take away and use.

I particularly liked and related to author, Linda Gillard’s experience and advice, but also got something from the contributions made by Kindle’s Darren Hardy, and authors Paul Teague, Murray McDonald, Steven McKay and Harriet Smart.

It was good to hear ALLi getting so many favourable mentions throughout the day too. They are a fantastic organisation for authors to belong to and worth every penny of the membership fee.

My advice to fellow authors is that if you get the chance to attend a similar event, go for it. I’d be interested to hear from fellow authors how they feel about marketing and if you’ve attended any training events like the one above. Do leave your comments below.

And, a question for book readers: How do you find out about books you might enjoy reading and what is your preferred method for doing so?

As for me – I’m off to completely rework my marketing plan…

The Writers Craft: Four Days of Learning

 

'Write Enough' production centre
The Garret

Writing is both an art and a craft. As such it’s something that requires inspiration,  skill, ability and knowledge. So it’s important that writers sometimes leave their solitary garrets and go ‘fill up the well’ .

image via shutterstock
image via shutterstock

And that’s what I like about attending writing conferences, events and courses. I love the buzz and intensity and I really love those light-bulb, now-I-see moments that arise when listening to a speaker or conversing with a fellow delegate.

image via shutterstock
image via shutterstock

And so it was that from Wednesday to Friday of last week I was a virtual participant in a worldwide book event and then on Saturday I was an actual participant at a local workshop for writers. I got a huge amount out of both. I made contact with other writers and with professionals who had so much expertise to offer. I learned a lot.

ALLI badge-185x185-author

IndieReCon: Indies at the London Book Fair

Last week was a big one in the world of publishing. It was the week in which the London Book Fair (LBF) took place. And it wasn’t just the big publishing houses who were there. Indie publishers – that is individual authors publishing their own books and small co-operatives of authors pulling resources and expertise in order to self-publish – had a real and significant presence there too.

The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) ran an Indie Author Fringe Festival in association with the LBF. It was delivered in  live-streamed and  watch-when-you-can formats over three days and it was called IndieReCon. So while some events were live and interactive and could be attended in person, some (including those live ones) were video (vlog) presentations that could be watched at your own convenience and some were written presentations in blog format where ‘attendees’ could leave comments. All the presentations, whatever the format, were designed to either inform self-publishers how to improve their products or to tell them about the sorts of services, expertise and marketing that are available to them – just as at any trade fair.

And on the third day of the fringe fest there was also an indie book selling event at Foyles bookshop  where indie authors could promote and sell their own books.

So, despite being hundreds of miles from London, I was able to take part. And I’m very glad I did.

The online organisation was mostly slick and with only a few technical hiccups – and it’s important to bear in mind this was a first time and a unique event.

Below is a roundup of the events, talks, discussions I attended.

  • Discussion between ALLi founder Orna Ross and Smashwords (eBook publisher/distributor) chief, Mark Coker. It was a good introduction to e-publishing for those who’ve not done it before and a good round up/reminder of the pros cons and possible future developments for the more experienced.
  • David Farland shared his recipe for fiction that sells well.
  • Ben Galley led a lively and useful interactive discussion on online bookstores.
  • Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware did a live session on the need or otherwise to register copyright.
  • Miral Sattar gave a talk on the basics of online book selling – excellent for first-timers.
  • David Penny and Joel Friedlander shared an often amusing, as well as enlightening, conversation on the principles of good book design. As Friedlander said, the design should be so good the reader doesn’t notice it. He also flagged up his Book Construction Blueprints available free on his site bookdesigntemplates.com
  • Guido Caroti also did a useful presentation on cover design and on copyright issues around covers.
  • Neil Baptista of Riffle and Katie Donelan of Book Bub gave good advice on how to optimise your book for inclusion on their promotional sites.
  • One of the best talks, for me, was the one given by Rebecca Swift of the Literary Consultancy. She stuck her head above the parapet by addressing quality in self-publishing. She made comparisons with the Victorian era’s Penny Dreadful novels. She wasn’t dismissing or deriding self-publishing, but she was making a plea for high ethical standards of editing, for good content both genre and literary and for expert reviewers. She made the point that it shouldn’t be the writers with backgrounds in marketing and with money to spend who flourished. Good thought-provoking stuff.
  • Other highlights were Jessica Bell on self-editing. As an experienced editor as well as a writer she provided a first-class editing checklist which I’ll definitely be using. Ricardo Fayet advised on finding and working with publishing professionals such as editors. Yen Ooi’s excellent ‘What is your Message?’ addressed how to grab readers’ attention. She talked about the importance of crisp, precise description of your book and how to apply it. She suggested thinking in terms of newspaper headlines followed by a suggestion of content. Jay Artale advised on the use of Pinterest for authors – something I’d been wondering about. And finally, Robin Cutler’s piece on getting your manuscript together and on the four most lucrative genres was also interesting and helpful. And finally, author, poet and campaigner Dan Holloway performed his outstanding new poem calling for social diversity in publishing. You can read it here.

All of the above people have their own websites, blogs, twitter (etc) accounts and I recommend you check out any who grab your interest. It’s also my understanding that most of the events will be available to view on the ALLi/IndieReCon website within the next fortnight.

Orna Ross and her team and all the presenters deserve a very big thank you for all the hard work they put into this successful event.

image copyright Suriya KK via shutterstock.com.
image copyright Suriya KK via shutterstock.com.

 

Emergent Writers Workshop

Then, on Saturday, I was off out into the real world to a local arts centre for a day’s workshop on self-editing for novelists. This was run by community interest company, Emergents, which as XPONorth offers support to writers in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Novelist, literary agent and editor, Allan Guthrie delivered the workshop. Now, when I was at the Scottish Association of Writers Conference at the end of March,  I’d attended an interesting and informative workshop given by Allan on the topic of getting published (which I wrote about here) so I had high expectations.

I wasn’t disappointed. It was superb and I came away with sheets and sheets of notes and again, I learned a lot.

Writing can be a lonely pursuit. It’s easy to let self-doubt eat away at motivation, to wonder if it’s worth it. It’s easy to be daunted by all you don’t know. It’s easy to get stuck. Having a network of fellow writers and of publishing professionals is vital. And striving to improve is vital. So for me those four days were sound investments in my writing. I learned so much and my own writing-well is full to the brim once more.

If you’re a writer, or other type of creative artist, how do you ensure you keep learning, developing and continue to be motivated?

 

 

 

Invest in Your Writing – Part Three

 

First draft is just the beginning

Welcome to part three of this three part series of posts on investing time, money and effort in your writing.

In the first two parts I covered learning the craft of writing here and then polishing it up and getting it ready to publish here––so now it’s time to consider how best to get your work out to readers.

Publishing and publicising

What follows isn’t a set of rules. It’s based on my own experience and it’s what worked for me. And, yes, again it involves investment on the writer’s part.

So, you may have:

1.submitted your work to carefully researched agents and publishers and you might have got a publishing deal.

2.you may have submitted to the aforesaid and not got a contract and have decided to self-publish i.e. to become an indie-author or author-publisher (pick you term).

3.you may have gone straight to the indie option.

My experience has been 2 and 3, therefore I’m basing my advice on that experience, but a lot of the marketing stuff will apply whether you’re traditionally or indie published.

What sort of investment?

Having finalised the manuscript, the cover and the layout, it’s now time to research and decide on  the best methods of distribution for your work––i.e. paper or e-format, or both; availability direct from you, through Amazon, Kobo, Ingram, Apple etc. Take your time – a worthwhile investment. Ask around in the network you’ve been building, as advised in part two here. Consider joining The Alliance of Independent Authors as an associate member and thereby tap into the wealth of advice offered by this organisation, such as their publication above which is regularly updated.

Next decide on your publication date. Consider whether to do previews – perhaps just of your cover on Facebook and on Twitter, for example. If you’ve already got a good network of fellow authors around you, then hopefully they’ll retweet and share on their own networks.

If you’ve not already done so, consider setting up a blog or website to give somewhere for your prospective readers to come to find out more about you.  Include links to online sites where your book can be purchased. Then go for launch.

After launch day, keep plugging away, but don’t overdo  it. Don’t just go on twitter and post endless tweets saying ‘buy my book’––nothing’s guaranteed to turn off your followers faster than this.

Publicising your work is a long haul, slow burn sort of a process. Thank everyone who reviews, posts, shares and tweets on behalf of your book and be sure to return the favour.

Investigate websites that promote indie-author books, and take advice from your network on which ones are worth the money. Make an informed decision on this one.

Submit your book for consideration to one of the no cost, quality-assurance  review websites that have sprung up and which sift through and promote the best indie-published work. An example of such a site is IndieB.R.A.G.

Out in the real world you could consider approaching your local radio station and newspaper with a pre-prepared pitch/press release. You could offer your services as a speaker at local writing/book groups. Perhaps there’s a local book festival you could approach. Ask the local bookshop if they’d take a few copies.

If your book features a hobby or special interest e.g. one of the characters is into hill-walking or whatever, then approach a club or association that has members who’re into the same thing. If the book’s set in a particular town or city, see if bookshops in that town or city might feature your book in its local author section.

And so on…

Yes, it’s a lot of work. Yes, it’s yet another investment – and it’s mainly an investment of time. But if you’re writing in order to reach readers, then you’re going to have to work at it.

You and your writing are worth it!

All the best with all your writing endeavours.

GO INVEST!