Use the “Dear Reader” exercise to focus your book writing and marketing
This topic came from one of my favorite newsletters, Build Book Buzz.
"When I read Tara Alemany’s new book, Publish with Purpose: A Goal-Oriented Framework for Publishing Success, I was particularly struck by a new-to-me concept called the “Dear Reader” letter.
It’s an exercise you can do before writing your book that will give both your book and your marketing clarity and focus." Sandra Beckwith
A ghostwriter and book architect, Justin uses this exercise to help his clients clarify who their book is for early in the writing process.
When you have a clear picture of who your ideal reader is, it allows you to write specifically for them. But it also allows you to feel more connected to them and to write in a more conversational way. Because it’s less formal, it makes for a much more engaging book.
Wednesday's topic is going to be very simplified and is not meant to be 'taken to the bank.'
Book royalties and book advances are the means by which publishers pay authors for their work. Following is a brief overview of what the terms mean and how book royalties and advances work.
11 Secrets to Writing an Effective Character Description
I ran across this article while researching something entirely different. So, I thought I would bring it to chat.
I was actually trying to discover if a missing woman from South Carolina had any particular hobbies. Somehow, Google who knows more about us than we know ourselves blended my reality with my writing. It is kind of creepy.
1. Description that relies solely on physical attributes too often turns into what Janet Burroway calls the “all-points bulletin.”
The purpose of a blog tour is to generate interest in your book. (This is called buzz.) That interest should pay off in sales, but it won’t if you don’t capitalize on it with other promotional tools such as giveaways, well-placed author interviews, and, of course, promotion of your blog tour on Twitter, Facebook, and on your own blog and
website. Building an audience takes time, energy and planning. A blog tour is just a part of your promotional plan.
We are back Wednesday for a mini-topic chat about formatting. As writers and bloggers we can't escape formatting.
Publishers mostly agree on formats for manuscript submissions. For editing you may be asked to reformat to make your work with the editor easier for both of you. Then, your publisher re-formats your work for print and again for uploading to various e-sellers.
If you self publish the formatting falls on you. Guidelines are available but you have to change your manuscript. Strip out headers and footers and page numbers. You have to reset line spacing, Chapter Headings and indentation. You have to make certain of your page breaks. And still, your finished project may end up in the readers' hands with totally distracting artifacts.
Let's talk about formatting. Wednesday at 8PM at the Writers Chat Room.
Book Trailers - a Topic Chat
I’ve been working on my personal website. This is the year I set goals. And I am meeting them.
Let’s talk about book trailers. Do they lead to sales? Is there any way to measure sales related to book trailers or anything for that matter?
If you make your own book trailer do you know how to get permission to put music in? Where will you get your images? How long should it be? Where will you home the file?
Making my own trailer made me first hand aware of when and why I should pay someone to do the work for me.
Castelane and Kim did not compensate me for this post. This is a personal recommendation from Sally the Writer not Sally the Moderator.
