Writing with Intention: How Understanding Why You Write Can Help You Sell

I spoke on the telephone recently with a potential client who has written a nonfiction guide to help parents recognize the signs of late speech development in their children. Besides being articulate and able to clearly describe the book’s contents and its audience, this author was particularly succinct about what she was looking for in the way of publicity. “I want to reach as many parents, teachers, and pediatric health professionals as I can about how to recognize the signs of speech and language development issues in children,” she said. “I also would like to cast as wide a net as possible via the media, so that parents and pediatric associations know about the information in my book and how it can help them.”

This particular client’s clarity about her goals is similar to having a corporate mission statement, which many companies use to provide vision and direction to their employees. When a company has a clearly written statement, employees can use it to tune in to upper management’s expectations and determine how they fit with the corporate mission. They can more easily grasp the company’s purpose and who its customers are, as well as develop a better sense of how to serve those customers.

Likewise, having a clear sense of the purpose your book serves and what you’d like to do with it can be very helpful to you (and the marketing professionals you might hire) when it’s time to promote your work.

In New Age circles, pundits call this sense of clarity and direction working with intention. When we work with intention, i.e., when we’re clear about why we’ve written something and understand its value to others, not only does the work flow more easily, but we are much more likely to be able to correctly describe and promote it.

The intention behind a written work can take many forms. Some authors intend to write books that are instructive or informational. Others write to entertain.

Some write because they feel compelled to do so, or because a certain storyline keeps playing over and over in their heads and they want to capture it in written form.

Some write to heal, as is often the case with memoir. Those who keep diaries or journals may do so as a means of knowing themselves better.

Many authors write because they love language or because they like playing with ideas. Others use writing as a way to develop a community connection, through meetings with other writers and the readers of their work.

Some write to document family history for future generations, while others do it purely for pleasure, as a way to pass blocks of time.

But no matter what the reason, it helps to know why you’re writing, so that when the writing is done – be it a novel, a short story, a nonfiction guidebook, a memoir, or a collection of poems – you’ll better understand it’s purpose and intended audience. This understanding makes it much easier to pinpoint what you need to do to explain that purpose and reach your audience which, in turn, will help you make decisions about how you’re going to promote your work.

So, before beginning your marketing efforts, ask yourself, “Why did I create this piece? What is its purpose? Who is my book written for, and how will it help those who read it?” Write down your answers; they’ll help you understand your original intention and determine what you need to do now to sell it.

Answers to First-Time Authors' Publicity Questions

I receive a lot of calls from first-time authors with questions about how they should promote their books. Here are a few of the questions I hear most often, along with my responses:

1) Do I really need a website and a blogsite to market my book?
Yes, you really do need both. When I contact media producers and editors on your behalf, they will be looking to see what kind of presence you have on the web and whether or not you’re starting to develop any kind of following among readers. And readers interested in your work will want to visit your web and blog sites to learn more about you.

2) I edited my book carefully myself, and my wife/husband edited it, as well. Isn’t that enough?
Sorry, but self-editing (or editing via friends or family who are not professionals) doesn’t cut it. Whether you plan to self-publish or go the traditional route, you should have your work edited by a professional.

Your book is your product – it can have the greatest storyline or nonfiction content in the world, but if it’s poorly written and/or contains errors, readers will notice and say so in reviews. And it will be more difficult to obtain that all-important word-of-mouth promotion that helps some first-time books breakout. There are always exceptions to these guidelines (some might list Fifty Shades of Grey as an example), but in most instances, if you want to sell well, you must have a product that is polished and well-written, and the best way to do that is to have a professional editor review your work.

3) I want publicity for my book, but I don’t want to blog/travel/appear publicly/give interviews. What can you do for me?
If you are a first-time author, you need to find methods to reach your target audience. The best way to do that is to put yourself out there; if you’re unwilling to do so, then hiring a publicist is probably not going to help you.

And, yes, there are methods of reaching out that don’t require personal appearances or blogging. You can pay for advertising, for example, or hire a blog tour company to get bloggers to post about you and your book on their sites.

But remember, there are over 32 million books on the market right now, and experts predict that number will continue to grow. How will you make your book stand out from all the others? If you want readers to know about you and your book, you’re going to have to get yourself in front of them in as many ways as possible, be it online, on paper, via traditional media and advertising, or through in-person appearances. The more of these activities you do, the better chance you have of reaching readers.

4) How can I promote my book if I don’t have a platform?
Having a platform means that you, the author, have a strong background or some kind of expertise that is newsworthy and will make you a good potential interview candidate for the media. Promoting a book without a strong author platform is difficult, so if your platform is weak or nonexistent, you’ll need to build one.

The best way to build a platform is to establish yourself as an expert in your book’s content area (this is true for fiction, as well as nonfiction). Many authors mistakenly believe this means that they should try to position themselves as experts on writing. That’s true if your book is about writing, but if it isn’t, you’ll want to position yourself as an expert in the genre or subject area that your readers buy. The best way to do this is to create blogs on topics that interest your readers, become a guest blogger on other sites in your genre or specialty area, teach classes, write articles, and do whatever you can to be seen as someone with expertise in the realm in which your book (and its potential readers) reside. Again, this means putting some effort into developing a following on social media sites, writing blogs, making public appearances, writing articles for online and print publications, etc. (Those who are uncomfortable with doing these things, please reread my answer to question #3).

5) I have a good book, but no platform, or I have a great platform, but my book isn’t quite there yet. Will you represent me?
When I read a book by a potential client (and I always read potential clients’ books before I agree to take them on), I ask myself three questions: Is the book well-written and professionally edited? Does the author have a good platform? And can I successfully promote this book and author to my contacts? I will only represent an author if I can answer yes to all three questions.

6) Some pundits are saying that I should have at least three books published before I start any promotion. Is this true?
Many established authors have discovered that if they are successful in a certain genre, they can generate more sales by creating sequels for those books that sell well. And readers are proving loyal to characters and storylines that they love. So, if you write a book that lends itself to creating a series, particularly if it’s genre fiction, it can be a good idea to do so.

But, if you’re self-publishing your work, it’s sometimes hard to know if you have a potential success (or a potential successful series) until you get that first book out there. Even if you plan to write follow-on books, I believe it’s still a good idea to spend some time promoting the first book. And if you have a second book in the wings, you can often build on the publicity for the first book to successfully promote the second.

7) From a publicity standpoint, what general advice do you have for me as a first-time author?
Great question – here’s what I recommend:
● Make sure your book has been heavily workshopped, ruthlessly revised, and polished to perfection by a professional editor before submitting it to agents, editors, or publicists, and certainly before publishing it online or in print.
● Educate yourself on promotion and marketing. Read everything you can by experts and successful authors who publish in your genre. Some of the advice will be tremendously helpful, while some of it may not fit you or your goals for your book; adopt what is useful, and commit yourself to doing what those experts recommend to help your book sell.
● Decide how much in the way of time, effort, and money you’re willing to spend on promoting your book and develop a schedule and budget you can live with.
● Plan to promote your first book full-bore for a set amount of time (6-8 months after release is a good rule-of-thumb) and then consider creating a self-sustaining/long-term strategy, so you can focus on writing the next book.

More questions? Post them here, and I’ll do my best to share what I know.

Advice for Authors: Create A Twitter Profile that Sells

Many social networking pundits agree that Twitter can be a powerful tool for authors looking to sell their work (Jonathan Gunson, for example, calls it the most effective book advertising tool ever).

But like most social media tools, Twitter is only powerful if you use it effectively. If you're an author hoping to use Twitter to sell books, then how you describe yourself on Twitter is an important component to encouraging a potential reader to follow you. It can also help a book blogger, reviewer, or media producer/editor who is researching you learn more about how you’ve positioned yourself as an author. Remember, how you describe yourself on social media sites is a crucial part of creating a platform and presenting yourself to those who might buy your books.

With that in mind, here are my thoughts (from a publicist’s perspective) on the do’s and don’ts for authors regarding how they describe themselves on Twitter and other social networking sites. First, the don’ts:

1. Don’t deprecate yourself
I’m stunned at the number of authors out there who describe themselves in unappealing terms. Some of the most common self-deprecating monikers are “loser,” “geek,” “nerd, “newbie,” and “wannabe.” I recently came across one author who described her own books as “smutty”; another who claims that he is an “ineffective woman chaser,” a third who calls herself a “troll.” Now I know that some of these descriptions are meant to be funny, but there is so much overuse of these kinds of statements that they’ve lost their uniqueness and risk falling flat with readers. Some might argue that the terms “geek” and “nerd” are a badge of honor for those who are technically competent, but if that’s true, consider positioning yourself with more positive words that might entice readers, bloggers, reviewers, and media folks to see you as an expert, rather than a person who describes himself with over-used and self-deprecating terminology.

2. Don’t label yourself as “aspiring”
Okay, maybe you’re new at the writing game, but if you’re in the process of writing anything, even for the first time, it’s perfectly okay to simply refer to yourself as a writer (no “aspiring” adjective necessary).

3. Don’t say you’re a bestselling author unless you truly are
There are bestselling authors out there, most of whom either have big-time breakout successes or extensive backlists. In either case, these people have sold many, many books. If that isn’t true in your case, please don’t label yourself as something that you aren’t.

4. Don't use religion and politics as descriptors unless they're relevant to your readers
Many authors list Jesus as the first item in their Twitter moniker. Others throw in the terms “conservative” or “liberal.” While this kind of disclosure is fine for those who write Christian or political books, it’s not always great for selling. Remember, some of the readers you may be looking to attract will not be Christian (or Buddhist, or Jewish, or whatever other religion you’ve mentioned). Likewise, if you list yourself as liberal or conservative, you’re sure to scare off the other half of your potential readership. Keep religion and politics out of your descriptions, unless you want to sell only to those who think, and believe, as you do.

5. Don’t refer to your husband, wife, or kids in your profile unless they have something to do with your book
Listen, we’re all members of some family or another. Unless your book is about parenting or family relationships, consider saying something else about yourself that potential readers might find more interesting and relevant.

6. Easy on the cat references
The other extremely over-used descriptors I see out there are “cat-lover,” “cat-owner,” “owner of XX number of cats,” etc. Unless you’ve written a book that has something to do with felines, consider leaving Fluffy where he belongs, on your living room couch.

7. Food is good, but watch that it doesn’t become the only thing that sets you apart
If you’re a cookbook author, then yes, by all means mention certain types of food in your profile. But if you’re not, realize that mentioning anything having to do with coffee (or caffeine), alcohol, or chocolate has been used by thousands of other Tweeps who can’t find something more creative to say about themselves.

8. Don’t overkill with hashtags and website addresses
#There’s #nothing #worse #than #trying #to #read #a #string #of #words #that #are #preceded #by #hashtags #or #anything.com.

9. Don’t say “I follow back” – just do so
Enough said.

Now for the do’s:

1. Think like a journalist
The best advice for positioning yourself to your readers comes from the school of journalism, where writers are advised to focus on the who, what, where, when, and why of the story. The same guidelines apply for your Twitter moniker: tell potential followers who you are, what genre you write, and, if relevant, name your books. A good example is the profile for well-known mystery author LJ Sellers, who describes herself thus: Author of the bestselling Detective Jackson mysteries & standalone thrillers: The Sex Club, The Gauntlet Assassin, The Baby Thief, and The Suicide Effect.

2. Keep your profiles brief
No one likes overkill in anything, even Twitter handles. Remember that less is more when it comes to describing yourself, so be brief and descriptive. A good example comes from self-publishing guru, JA Konrath, whose Twitter profile is simple and elegant: I write thrillers.

3. Keep them on-point
If your goal is to use Twitter to sell books, then make sure that’s a main point of reference when you describe yourself. If you have other goals for yourself, list them in your profile. For example, best-selling suspense author Bob Mayer describes himself thusly: NY Times Bestselling Author, Speaker, Consultant, Former Green Beret, CEO Cool Gus Publishing.

4. Be professional
In summary, if you want yourself and your books to be taken seriously by readers, then be serious about how you present yourself on social media sites. Your potential Twitter followers (and, hopefully, future fans) will thank you for it.

The Tao of Book Publicity

Of all the books I’ve kept on the nightstand next to my bed, there are two that stand out as mainstays over the years. One is Walden, by Henry David Thoreau. I am perpetually fascinated by the simple truths – self-reliance, economy, and simplicity – described in those pages, and find myself going back to them often for inspiration and guidance.

The other book that has provided years of inspirational nighttime reading is the Stephen Mitchell translation of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching. Written during the 6th century BC by the sage Laozi (or Lao Tzu, which means "Old Master"), a record-keeper in the Zhou Dynasty court, the 81 poems that make up the book comprise an instructional guide for everything from politics and governance to practical wisdom and tips for self-knowledge. The concepts have to do with developing humility, compassion, and moderation in how we govern ourselves and others, including learning to yield when the chips are down. Rather than pursuing desire, the Tao emphasizes being willing to step back, listen, and operate from a central place of quiet certainty. In the world of the Tao, those who are stubborn and rigid in their beliefs will suffer, while those who remain open and flexible prevail.

While perusing the Tao the other night, I was struck by how much of its simple wisdom applies to book publicity. Many authors find the marketing side of publishing crass and stressful, but there are aspects of promotion that can be explained and illuminated by some of the principles in the Tao. Here are a few that seem to apply:

12
The Master observes the world
but trusts his inner vision.
He allows things to come and go.
His heart is open as the sky.

Most of the authors I work with come to me for one of three reasons: they know what to do, but don’t have the time to promote their work themselves; they don’t know what to do and would like some help; or they’ve already tried to promote their books, but have not had much success. My first suggestion in all these cases is that these authors take a moment to observe what is happening with their genre and target market, and then sit quietly and consider what it is they want in the way of promotion. I ask them to decide what sales numbers they hope to achieve, what kinds of publicity they’d like (media interviews? book tours? speaking tours? reviews?), and finally, how much they’re willing to spend to make those goals a reality. Authors have to be comfortable with what we’re doing as a team and how much they’re spending on their publicity programs, and they also have to have some level of trust with what I’m recommending for them. The clients who end up having the most success are often those who listen to suggestions about how to proceed, are willing to embrace the process we agree to undertake, and open their hearts to new ideas and ways of doing things.

56
Those who know don't talk.
Those who talk don't know.

Those who contact me and want to tell me that they already know everything there is to know about book promotion and publicity are often, ironically, authors who have never published a book before, or who have tried it and have not had any success. But those who are willing to admit that they don’t know much about the process, and who listen to and trust their publicist’s expertise, are generally more successful than their all-knowing brethren. Why? Because the business of PR, strangely enough, comes from a place of not-knowing. We have no guarantees that a producer or editor will like our pitch, nor can we strong-arm him or her into accepting it. All we can do is use our established connections and relationships, our experience, and the knowledge at hand to make the best pitch we can.

Likewise, we can make educated guesses about the target readership for a book and where that readership exists, but there are no guarantees that after we reach them, the readers will buy. With publicity, the best we can do is put our work out there and trust that our publicity contacts and knowledge will open the path and allow the right exposure to happen.

Those who claim to already know it all are often surprised at this; they mistakenly believe that there is a magic formula (a certain number of radio appearances, a certain kind of media list) that will make their sales suddenly sky-rocket. That kind of magical result usually doesn’t occur; in most cases, it is the author who takes careful, steady, well-planned steps toward reaching his audience who will ultimately achieve a desirable level of awareness for himself and his books.

64
Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion,
you ruin what was almost ripe.

I receive a lot of books from potential clients and so many of them are, sadly, not ready for public consumption. As the Tao suggests, rushing a piece of writing to market without the proper preparation, revision, editing, and packaging, can be a recipe for failure. Better for authors to allow adequate time for writing projects to develop and flourish, giving them the experienced, professional polishing and packaging they require before releasing them to the world.

68
Act without doing;
work without effort.
Think of the small as large
and the few as many.
Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts.

Making the long journey of book promotion a successful one by breaking it up into small steps is wise advice for authors when they begin work with a publicist. At first, starting out can seem overwhelming, but there is a system to promoting a person’s work. Initially, we plan our strategy – we define the audience we’re targeting, we create lists of places where those targeted readers can be found, we map out our next steps, including setting up book and blog tours, scheduling speaking appearances, contacting media, sending out books for review, etc. We develop media kits, including press releases, author and cover photos, Q&A’s, etc. We place the releases on the news wires, we work with our established contacts, we develop a schedule, and we move forward, knowing that this series of small steps will eventually help us to complete our journey and accomplish the great task of allowing the author’s work to become known.
__________
Paula Margulies is a book publicity and promotions expert in San Diego, California. You can reach her at paula@paulamargulies.com, or visit her at www.paulamargulies.com, on Twitter at @PaulaMargulies, or on Facebook at Paula Margulies Communications.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Easily the most compelling WWII narrative I've ever read. The story of Olympic track star Louie Zamperini, from Torrance, CA, starts out slow, but as other readers have noted, it is indeed worth staying with the book -- after the first 100 pages, the story explodes with details about Zamperini's stint as an Air Force bombardier, flying in the notoriously dangerous B-24's before being shot down and lost at sea. The details of his harrowing 46-day-journey on the ocean without food or water, where he and his pilot are the only survivors, are barely outdone by the twenty-seven months of horrific starvation, torture, and vicious beatings at the hands of the infamous psychopathic Japanese corporal, Mutsuhiro Watanabe, referred to as "the Bird" by his captives.

Carefully and compassionately written, Hillenbrand's narrative never veers into melodrama or accusation; instead, she faithfully documents the details of Zamperini's life, including his family's steadfast belief that he was alive, even when the war department declared him dead, and his struggles with PTSD and alcoholism during a rocky return to civilian life after the war ended. I found some of the details in this book so amazing and, in parts, horrifying, that I read a number of passages aloud to my husband and daughter. Most unbelievable to me was the number of U.S. airmen lost due to aircraft accidents, engine failures, gas leaks, oil pressure problems, and faulty landing gear. In WWII, Hillenbrand writes, "35,933 AAF planes were lost in combat and accidents," and "in the air corps, 35,946 personnel died in non-battle situations, the vast majority of them in accidental crashes." It was a dangerous time to be an air force recruit, and for those who survived crashes in the ocean or on land, the horrors were just beginning if they were unlucky enough to be captured by the Japanese who, at that time, were indoctrinated into believing that POW's deserved to be beaten, starved, and enslaved, and ultimately executed in "kill-all" orders at the first signs of American invasion.

Everyone should read this book; it simply and clearly describes the horrors of WWII without sensationalizing or amplifying the details. The ghastly events that American POWs experienced during WWII become achingly vivid and real, which makes Louie Zamperini's trials and those of his fellow surviving servicemen, more compelling and unbelievable because, as Hillenbrand's book illustrates, their stories are true.

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The Writers’ Salon: When It’s All About the Writing

A couple of months ago, I entered a Red Room (redroom.com) writing contest and won free admission to the USC Writers Conference. Since this was the first annual writers conference for the university, I correctly assumed that it would be small (it was) and that most of the attendees would be USC students (they were). Even so, it was nice to spend some time at a conference as a participant rather than a speaker, and I enjoyed meeting the attendees and hearing the presentations, especially the keynote by Red Room founder and CEO, Ivory Madison.

Madison’s talk focused on the amount of time writers spend on peripheral writing activities versus the time they spend actually writing. As Madison pointed out, writers spend a lot of time on activities associated with writing that don’t involve creating any words. For example, she explained that talking about writing is not writing, reading about writing is not writing, blogging or perusing social media about writing is not writing, and yes, attending writers’ conferences is not writing. The only activity that can be considered writing, she said, is sitting down and actually putting words on the page.

One of the activities writers spend a great deal of time on is meeting in groups to critique each other's writing. Meeting in critique groups, Madison pointed out, can be useful for helping to revise a finished work, but it’s still time spent not writing. Although writers need feedback on their work, Madison recommends that they wait to do that until after the first draft of a work is completed.

Madison does acknowledge that writers are social animals, and that group energy and camaraderie are important to writers in helping to provide inspiration, keep each other motivated, and lend a shoulder to cry on during times when the writing gets tough. Although she doesn’t recommend critique groups during a work’s creation, she advocated belonging to what she calls writers’ salons. These are groups of writers who get together for a specified amount of time to do a limited amount of socializing, but whose main focus is to write (she runs a number of these for writers in the Bay Area).

I have personally been a member of some writers groups and found them invaluable when I was writing my first novel, Coyote Heart. Although the meetings did take up some time (my group usually met once a week for about 4 hours), I found the feedback and the interaction extremely helpful to honing my work. But Madison’s point about activities like critique groups taking time away from writing struck home with me. Though the feedback in these groups was useful, why did I have to get it as I went along? Couldn’t I finish a book and then work with a critique group, as Madison suggested?

While mulling this information over at the conference, I discovered that a number of the students there were also big fans of writers’ salons. One woman said that she was in a group that met weekly and found it productive and stimulating. Another said that her salon met online via Skype “We all just sit there and type,” she said. “All you hear are keys clicking while everyone gets the work done.” All of the attendees who are salon members agreed that they were the best way to get work done and still have a social connection with other writers. And all of them said that they were willing to wait until their books/works are completed before having anyone edit or critique them.

Since I had recently begun work on a new novel, I decided to try the writers’ salon concept once I returned home from the conference. There are a couple of organizations that run salons here in San Diego (San Diego Writer’s Ink, for example, runs weekly open writing sessions that cost $5 each to attend). But I decided to start my own unpaid group; I ran ads on Craigslist and in the newsletter of a friend who runs writing workshops and, within a week, was able to form a group of five members that has been meeting for two hours once a week.

What have I learned since starting a writers’ salon? First, it’s a lot easier to set up than a regular critique group. Most of the critique groups to which I’ve belonged required that the group members wrote in a similar genre (for example, all were novelists or short story writers). They also required that everyone wrote at a somewhat decent level, had the same level of comfort and experience with giving critique, and were committed to generating work every week for the group to review. Finding a group that meets all of these criteria can be a daunting task, and when a member or two drops out, groups often fold.

None of that is necessary in a writing salon. The salon concept requires that everyone be there to write, but what each person writes is up to him or her. So, in our salon, we have novelists, short story writers, poets, and song writers. Our group liked the idea of starting out with a ten-minute writing exercise, but after that and a little bit of chit-chat, we get down to work and write for a solid hour and a half (we usually set a timer). After that, the group is free to discuss the writing, share ideas, questions, and concerns, and then disband until the next meeting.

At first, I was a little leery of the notion of writing with a bunch of other people sitting around the table, but I’ve found the group sessions to be amazingly energizing and productive. And the best part of being in a writers’ salon is that there is little-to-no drama. Since we aren’t there to critique each other’s work, there is none of the hurt feelings or resentment that often comes with honest judgment of what we’re each producing. If any of us wants his/her work critiqued, we can easily arrange that as a side option with our fellow group members or with beta readers and/or professional editors.

So, I’m glad I entered that Red Room contest and especially glad to hear what Ivory Madison had to say. If I hadn’t entered, I would never have met the members of my salon group, who I’ve come to treasure, or made as much progress on my new novel, which is moving along nicely.