Time to Write

Here's a switch: a library OPENS

While the news is full of stories about libraries closing, what a pleasure to read about one opening. And not a little corner shop one, either—this one is huge, the size of four American football fields. Of course it’s in Texas, in a town near the Mexican border, McAllen.

The building used to be a Wal-Mart and the re-do won the 2012 Library Interior Design Competition. It replaced an older, cramped library. It’s encouraging to hear a city putting money into this kind of effort—let’s hope it catches on. I hope it gives heart to pro-library campaigners everywhere.

Here what it looks like--pretty spiffy! 

If you have enjoyed my books, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, Your Writing Coach, Creativity Now, and Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done, please suggest that your local library get copies as well--or buy a new copy of each to donate to it.

 

Marketing Your Writing: Why, How, and the First of Ten Things You Must Do

If people are not aware of what you are offering they can’t buy it. That’s why most writers these days also have to be marketers.

Want to get an agent? You have to sell them on yourself and your work. 

Want to get a publisher (or producer, if you're writing screenplays)? Same challenge.

Planning to self-publish? You have to make people aware of your ebook and convince them it's the right book or ebook for them to buy right now.

Marketing doesn’t necessarily come easily to us and it may not be our favorite activity, but it’s necessary. That’s why over the next ten Tuesdays (or more if the response is good) I want to share with you some of the best strategies and tips that I have discovered and employed.

1: Don’t reinvent the wheel

Two questions can lead you to a much faster and more effective marketing approach. The first one is: What are your successful competitors doing that you can adopt or adapt?

There's a good chance that your most successful competitors have spent a lot of time and money coming up with the methods that are working for them. These are not hidden, they're right out there for you to see in action,analyze, and adapt. 

I'm not suggesting plagiarism. Generally these are methods that are not protected by copyright and you're not doing anything illegal or immoral by figuring out how to use them to promote your product or service.

For instance, let's say you're a coach in the field of nutrition and fitness. You notice that the your successful competitor uses contests to motivate people to sign up for their sales newsletters. There's nothing wrong with coming up with your own contests--don't use exactly the same contest name and don't give away exactly the same thing, but otherwise feel free to copy them.

The second question:

What are successful people or companies in other fields doing that you can adopt or adapt?

In this case you're not looking at competitors but at what's successful in other fields. Sometimes you can copy, other times you might parody. For instance, a while back one of the most talked-about and most successful campaigns was conducted by a company that sells blenders. Their gimmick was to make videos showing their blender destroying a variety of items. These videos got millions of views.

At that time, as a coach you might have garnered attention by using a blender to destroy the foods that people who are trying to get fit or lose weight should avoid--candy bars, potato chips, etc. You would have acknowledged that you were following in the footsteps of the blender campaign.

For example, you might have said something like, "I don't know why those other guys are destroying iPods and wristwatches and all that other stuff--what you really need to destroy if you want more energy, better health, and to be more fit and slim is THIS STUFF! Here we go, candy bar, 543 calories!" And in goes the candy bar. 

That could have made an amusing lead in to your main message that you have a system that will help people to make the right food choices.

One warning: In both instances, be sure you are copying or adapting things that work now. Things are moving so fast that what worked a year ago or even 90 days ago may no longer be as effective. Keep track of what's successful and constantly ask yourself how you can take advantage of it. The video parody I described above would have been great at the time; now, not so much. 

APPLYING THIS TO YOUR WRITING

Who is most successful at marketing the kind of writing you do? What's working for them? This could be a publisher or an individual author. Are they using videos? Contests? Tieing in to events? Giving out free sample chapters?

Who is most successful at marketing other products that appeal to the same target audience as yours? For instance, distributors of independent movies have a lot in common with self-published authors. Or take a look at the most successful people on Kickstarter.com, the crowdfunding site. Don't look only at the successful authors using that site, but also designers, film-makers, artists, etc. What makes their videos stand out? What kinds of incentives do they offer? What kind of sales pitch?

Returning to the timeliness issues, while it's still useful to be aware of the marketing methods used by two of the most successful Kindle authors, John Locke and Amanda Hocking, keep in mind that when they first had success there were not as many Kindle titles available. Now there are hundreds of thousands more, and many of the authors are using the same methods that were a novelty when Locke and Hocking used them. Be sure you are also looking at the methods being used by newer writers whose books are high on the Kindle (and other ebook) charts now. 

(Come back next Tuesday for then next essential marketing strategy. Also find loads of useful information in the chapters on traditional and guerrilla marketing in my book, "Your Writing Coach." You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller and it's also available as an ebook.)

 

 

 

 

 

52 Tips for Writing Success - 17: Value your voice

In writing, your voice means your style; what sets the way you write apart from the way others write. It's more something you discover rather than invent. If you try to come up with a way to sound different, usually it will seem forced and readers will detect that it's not authentic.

Typically, new writers will take a while before their voice emerges, but some are scared when it does show up. They try to smooth out the parts that don't sound like everybody else. They worry that it will seem too quirky or unusual.

Different is good--as long as it's doing the job. For instance, have you ever read the labels on those bottles of Innocent Smoothies? They're chatty and informal, perhaps sometimes a bit too cute--but they have helped make Innocent a major brand. 

Copywriter Dan Germain is the person responsible for that tone. He told Creative Review, "At that time we couldn't afford to get a billboard, so the labels were our only free advertising space."

He notes, "You just need a second to break people's routine...and think, 'Hello, what's that?' and then maybe start reading and think, 'oh?' Just that first five seconds, that's when the magic happens."

The same is true, by the way, of book covers, or the first paragraph or two of an article or novel. In a world of boring, flattened out prose, a distinctive voice will stand out--and attract readers.

(For friendly guidance from idea through to publication get my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller. And to find out what the greatest writers of all time advise about finding your voice and many other things related to writing, see "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," also via Amazon or other booksellers.)

Childhoods of famous authors cartoon: E L James (50 Shades)

  The source of this cartoon is Jurgen Wolff's writing blog:                                                                 http://www.TimeToWrite.blogs.com

Do these book covers attract--or deceive?

In an effort to make classics more sexy publishers are coming up with new covers that look  A LOT like the covers of the books that have dominated the teen and young adult charts lately. For instance, remember the covers of the Twilight series? Here are two of them:

The formula: dark covers, white bits and one red bit. Yes, like this:

The same treatment is being given to a number of other classics, according to Julie Bosman writing for the New York Times. It's not a stretch for Dracula, of course, but they're doing the same thing with others--notably Wuthering Heights, the cover of which identifies it as "Bella and Edward's Favorite Book."

Others are not copying the color scheme so closely but trying to portray the protagonists as more like the kids in the mall. Frankly, I don't think reading Shakespeare is going to turn into a much more appealing experience for the typical teen just because the cover shows Romeo wearing a tight white tank top, but maybe it'll motivate a few more kids to open it. Whether they'll became fans or feel cheated when they discover the words inside are still the same is anybody's guess.

Hmm, maybe I'm missing a bet here. Maybe the next edition of my book should look like this...

(For guidance on how to market YOUR book or other creative project, check out "Your Writing Coach", especially the chapters on traditional and guerrilla marketing. You can get the book from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

 

 

The scientific reason you should surprise your readers

Science has confirmed that one way to get your readers to enjoy your stories more is to make sure there are some surprises along the way. In an article adapted from "100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know About People," Susan Weinschenk describes the research:

"(Researcher Gregory) Berns used a computer-controlled device to squirt either water or fruit juice into people’s mouths while their brains were being scanned by an fMRI device. Sometimes the participants could predict when they were going to get a squirt, but other times it was unpredictable.

The researchers thought that they would see activity based on what people liked. For example, if a participant liked juice, then there would be activity in the nucleus accumbens, the part of the brain that is active when people experience pleasurable events.

However, that’s not what happened. The nucleus accumbens was most active when the squirt was unexpected. It was the surprise that showed activity, not the preferred liquid."

Of course the challenge is making sure that the surprises actually make sense. For instance, if you have a character who seems like a nice person betray his best friend, plant some clues beforehand that will help us accept he'd do such a thing.

Maybe he is deeply in debt and the only way out is to sell some private information about his friend to a tabloid newspaper.

Or perhaps he is taking medication that is having an effect on his mental state and we see some examples of that before.

The nature of the motivation will depend on the character you have created, but the important thing is to plant a few clues so subtle the reader won't attach any particular importance to them at the time but will recognize them as clues after the fact.

One thing I found surprising in the story above is how scientists pitch their research ideas with a straight face: "Ok, well, we're going to spend the grant on squirting water or orange juice into people's mouths..."

(The great writers knew about the power of surprise all along. You can find what writers like Dickens and Twain and Austen advised about writing by getting a copy of my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." In fact, why not buy it for that special person in your life-- getting it will be a nice surprise. Less messy than squirting orange juice into their mouth.)

 

An innovative way to get people to be aware of your writing

I’m always on the lookout for new ideas on writing and reading, and here’s an interesting one: The Underground Book Club. That’s Underground as in London subway. In an interview in What’s New in Publishing, the co-founder, Andy Brown described it this way:

It’s a book club for commuters and travellers using London Underground. It’s free to join and passengers can read the first three chapters of a number of top book titles for free. The idea, of course, is that rather than read the same old gloomy headlines in the papers they can read the introductory chapters of some really good books whilst travelling to and from work. Publishers also benefit because their books get trialled by new readers and then hopefully bought from Waterstones, Amazon and the like, or downloaded via our iPhone and iPad app.The Underground Book Club is a new, powerful distribution channel for publishers.

They hand out hard copies at the larger Underground stations during commuting hours, or you can download their app from iTunes, or go to their website, www.theundergroundbookclub.com and download from there.

Their first three books are by well-known writers but Brown says they’re also committed to introducing readers to new authors.

Their income derives from advertising and a small commission on the sale of the sampled books. It’s too early to say whether it will be successful but they’re projecting turnover of £700K in the first year, which sounds quite ambitious.

Does that give you an idea for how to bring your writing to the attention of your target audience? Here's how:

1 Identify your target audience

2 Figure out where to find them

3 Create a sample of your work and an interesting, different way to present it to them

4 Make it easy for them to buy the full product

What and how? That's where your creativity comes in. If you need guidance on how to generate ideas, my book, "Creativity Now!" will help. If you want some further inspiration, how about 100 case studies of inexpensive and creative ways people have marketed themselves and their products, along with tips on how to apply their methods? You'll find those in "Do Something Different," published by Virgin Books (with an introduction by Richard Branson). Both are available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller. 

 

52 Tips for Writing Success - 16: Write for one person

Successful writers remember that people will read a book one person at a time. Some say they write for themselves, others have a real or imagined individual in mind as their reader.

By imagining one person as your reader you avoid a danger: trying to write to please everyone. 

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, you can please some of the readers all of the time, and all of the readers some of the time, but you cannot please all of the readers all of the time. 

If you doubt it, read people's comments about the most popular books on Amazon; there are those who hate even the great classics. 

Trying to please everybody will make you censor anything that might offend anybody--which won't leave you with anything but the blandest prose imaginable. It can also be the cause of writer's block.

Who to choose as your imagined reader? If you're happy writing for yourself, that's an easy choice. Otherwise pick someone, real or imagined, who:

* enjoys the genre in which you write

* is intelligent (never underestimate the intelligence of your audience)

* is friendly but not uncritical (in other words, they'll notice mistakes)

* is someone whose company you enjoy (or would if they were real)

* is eager to read your book

Having this kind of individual in mind makes the writing process more enjoyable and keeps you on track. 

(Do you want a writing coach but are not prepared to spend the kind of money that requires? The next best thing is my book: "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

Sunday Video Treat: how one painter approaches creativity

As longer-time readers will know, I like to find out how artists work because it's useful for writers to feed their minds with all kinds of approaches to creativity. Even if there's not a one-to-one correspondence between how writers and painters work we can inspire each other. 

Olef Hajek is an illustrator/artist who mixes the surrreal, folk elements, aspects of nature to come up with often dream-like, slightly disturbing images. In this five minute video from creativebits.com, you'll see examples of his work and hear his thoughts about his process.

(For tips on how to have a creative mindset, how to generate ideas, how to take them into reality, and 25 inspirational case studies, see my book "Creativity Now!" published by Pearson and available via Amazon or your other favorite bookseller). 

A useful site for writers of fiction (esp. teen & YA fiction)

Here’s a writing site that flew under my radar until I saw a story about it in the Washington Post: Wattpad  Anybody who wants to can post any kind of writing there—poems, short stories, novels (these are released chapter by chapter).

They get about 50,000 new stories each month. Many of these come from young people, who tend to access the site via their mobile phones. The site started in 2006 but it took a while before it started to catch on. Now it’s up to about 9 million visitors a month, and the average age has been creeping up as older writers—including Margatet Atwood—have joined.

You can post your material anonymously if you want, and get feedback from the people who read it. The comments tend to be kind and encouraging, a nice change from most of the rest of the internet.

If you appeal to the readers it’s possible to get some amazing exposure. For instance, I had a peek at the humour section. The top entry I spotted there had a total of more than two million reads.

Even if you don’t want to post your own writing, it’s a great tool for seeing what readers like. For example, here’s the story line of  one of the most popular works, “Enjoying the Chase” by Kirsty Mosely:

Nate Peters is a player. He has great friends, a great job, no responsibilities, no girlfriend and LOVES it. He’s never failed to get a girl in his life, that is until he meets Rosie. She’s totally uninterested and he can’t stand it, she dents his ego and he’ll stop at nothing to win her.

So—a familiar plot, but easy to see the appeal to teen girls (I'm fairly sure Rosie will teach Nate the meaning of true love). The execution? Well, this is the first paragraph, judge for yourself:

“My cell phone buzzed in my  pocket and I glanced at my Captain, wondering what he would do if I looked at my message. It was probably Sarah or Sasha or whatever the girls (sic) name was that I was supposed to be taking out tonight. He would be seriously pissed if I got caught checking messages, when I should be listening to his briefing about the raid we were on tomorrow. Screw it, he wouldn’t do anything’ I was the best sniper he had so there was no way he would take me off of point for the operation tomorrow.”

Considering that the site probably attracts a lot more girls than boys, the author does something smart in the next couple of paragraphs: she has the guy go all gooey over the fact that his best friend and the friend’s wife have just had a baby and have sent him pictures of it. “Shit yeah,” I shouted happily, jumping out of my seat.

A macho sniper who jumps out of his seat at the excitement of a friend having a baby, that has to appeal to the young female reader. Although I think maybe a sniper should be paying more attention to a briefing…

Of course the marketers are moving in—which might give you some creative ideas as well. The managers of “One Direction,” the boy band phenomenon of the moment, hired a writer to create fan fiction and post it to the site. It got over 100,000 views the first week and now has inspired fans to write another 12,000 pieces of fan fiction.

You keep the copyright to your material and the founder said that a few writers have used their success on the site to help them get contracts with publishers. If you’ve been looking for a way to get reader reactions to what you write, check out Wattpad.com. 

(Would you like to have Charles Dickens, Anton Chekhov, Jane Austen and many more of the world's best authors give you advice on how to write your book? You'll find it in my latest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Out of ideas for writing your novel, script, or song? There's an app for that!

I’m a fan of brainstorming, and one iPhone/iPad app that can help you with that is the “Idea Generator”. It suggests three random words (for example, healing, mercenary, toy). You can try combining one or more of these with whatever you are working on. Push the button and it comes up with three more words.

For instance, let’s say that I have a couple talking and the scene feels like it’s just  exposition. Let’s see whether the random words can help.

Healing…what if one of them is feeling ill (maybe food poisoning) but is desperately trying to conceal it from the other person out of embarrassment or because he doesn’t want to end the conversation before he finds out the information he’s after.

Mercenary…what if one of them says at the start she will pay for both of them, and the other one takes advantage by ordering loads of the most expensive dishes, and the payer starts to realize and resent it?

Toy…what if one of them (if it’s a couple, it’ll be the man) keeps checking his phone  and toying with it, but tries to act like he’s paying attention, and the other one finds this infuriating?

Of course what comes up and what could work depends on the nature of your story.

This app is free and you can find it at iTunes or the Apple apps store. Or you can be old school and make your own. Write 50 or 100 words or phrases in each of the categories, put them into three boxes and draw at random.

The same company also offers a Movie Idea Generator that gives you an adjective describing a character (jealous), the type of character (police officer) and an action (craves human brains). Will you generate terrific plots? Probably not, but it might help you warm up your brain and it’s a good for some laughs. This one is $2.99 at the time of this writing.

Or you might like the Song Idea Generator, which gives you an exclamation (Oh baby), a request or statement (get down with) and a location or object or type of person (the virtual world). 

This one costs $2.99 and it's how I came up with my new hit, “Love in the Virtual World”! Of course you have to tweak things a bit…”Oh baby, get down with me in the virtual world, ‘cause in reality we both weigh twice what we say…” 

I won’t go into detail about them but you can also get the Fashion Ideas Generator and the Chef Idea Generator. I intend to come up with even better song ideas by combining suggestions from the different Idea Generators. Get ready to hear Tom Jones belt out,

“Oh baby,  let’s foil the murder of eggs on toast, With your looks and my gun we’ll do better than most…”

 Or maybe I can persuade Tina Turner to make a comeback with,

“Polka Dot Cop, when will you give me your Kobe beef, Get your mind on your lady and off that friggin’ thief…”

 I’m off to buy the mansion that will be paid for by the royalties…

(Want to be creative with the help of writing books? Get "Your Writing Coach," "You Creative Writing Masterclass" and "Creativity Now!, open each one randomly, and see what ideas the combination of the three pages prompts. What it'll prompt for me are more royalties...surely that can't be bad?)

 

What writers can learn from the man who engineered the iPhone (not Steve Jobs)

Can you learn something about writing from the engineer who inveted the iPhone and iPod? I think so. Watch this longer video (about 22 minutes) and assume that Tony Fadell is talking about writing. I think you'll see similarities in terms of:

* experts (and others) who will tell you your idea won't work or won't sell

* where to focus your attention in order to make your creation stand out

* the importance of near-term milestones

* why constraints are actually a good thing

* the importance of shipping (finishing)

* how to get others excited about what you've created

* why doubt and uncertainty are part of the process

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Writers, let your ears feed your head!

I always suggest that writers feed their brains with some of the best works of the past, not just the current best-selling novels or the top films (although of course those are also useful).

If you like listening to audio books or stories, below are links to some that I think are worthy of your time. Most allow you to download the file to your computer or your mp3 player or tablet.

Emma, Jane Austen: http://librivox.org/emma-by-jane-austen-solo/ (you can download the book there as well)

The Beauties, Anton Chekhov: http://audio.theguardian.tv/audio/kip/books/series/short-stories-podcast/1291737071426/5335/gdn.101207.ic.Short_Story_Pullman.mp3 (short story)

Collected Stories, Anton Chekhov: http://archive.org/details/AntonChekhov-SelectedShortStories

Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad: http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/99/heart-of-darkness/1688/part-1/ (streaming didn’t work for me, download did. This is Part One, the rest of the novel sections are at the same site)

Flapper and Philosophers, F. Scott Fitzgerald: http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/84/flappers-and-philosophers/ (this was his first collection of short stories)

A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Conner: http://manasto.tumblr.com/post/107920720/a-good-man-is-hard-to-find-by-flannery-oconnor (Read by the author in 1959; sound not great but worth it for her accent – short novel)

Bullet in the Brain, Tobias Wolf: http://downloads.newyorker.com/mp3/fiction/080211_fiction_boyle.mp3?_kip_ipx=1760304885-1341099567 (read and discussed by T. C. Boyle – short story, not safe for the office)

There are lots more available, but these should give you enough for now to upload to your brain via your ears. 

(All the great authors above give advice about writing, in my newest book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, available now via Amazon or your other favorite book seller--consider supporting your local independent bookshop by ordering it from them.)

 

Two writing opportunities (and what's Circalit?)

I had an email from Rob Tucker, of Circalit, about two writing opportunities to pass on to you. Neither of these charges an entry fee and neither pays, so I recommend them only if you're interested in the potential exposure. To qualify for the flash fiction one you have to review three stories by other writers on the site. Take a look at the rules yourself to decide whether these are right for you. 

LAUNCH YOUR SCI-FI STORY INTO THE COSMOS!

Cosmos, founded in 2004, is a literary science magazine that reaches 40,000 readers every month around the globe, and covers everything from science fact to science fiction. Cosmos are now on the lookout for innovative science fiction short stories that that make you think about the future in a different way. The winning short story will be printed in the next issue of Cosmos Magazine, and the two runners-up will see their work published on Cosmos Online. For more information and to submit your work, please visitwww.circalit.com/screenplay/competitions/view/client/cosmos.

ECLECTICA FLASH FICTION COMPETITION!

Eclectica, founded in 1996, is one of the longest running online literary publications, publishing a wide range of fiction from all different genres. Now Eclectica have teamed up with Circalit to host a flash fiction competition. Simply write a story on any theme in under 800 words and get your flash fiction published in the October/November issue of this notable ezine. For more information and to submit your work, please visitwww.circalit.com/screenplay/competitions/view/client/eclectica.

About Circalit:
Circalit is a platform which enables writers to showcase their projects and build up an online following. Through Circalit, writers can market their work to consumers and industry professionals in a copyright secure environment. Writers can receive professional and peer feedback on their projects, manage their fanbase, build a network of industry contacts, and enter free writing competitions. Publishers, literary agents and other industry professionals use Circalit to receive updates on the hottest new scripts and access market data on those projects. Circalit’s aim is to unearth new literary talent.

52 Tips for Writing Success - 15: Keep moving forward

The biggest cause of writer's block is stopping to judge what you've written while you're still writing it.

Some writers keep going back over and over what they've written rather than moving forward and completing a draft and then rewriting.

Others are so critical of the first part of their first draft that they give up the project entirely and start on something new--and then repeat the process again when they get to the mid-point of the next one.

Here are a few things to keep in mind in order to be able to move forward and complete your draft:

* A first draft isn't supposed to be judged by the standards of a finished book.

* Most successful writers do at least three or four, and sometimes many more, drafts of their books. Of course some of them think it's more impressive to say on talk shows that they just write one draft.

* As mentioned in another tip in this series, most writer experience what Seth Godin calls "the dip"--a time somewhere around the middle of a project when they doubt its quality. Expect it and work through it.

* If you have ideas for changes as you go along, jot them down as they occur to you. They will give you a head start when you are ready to start on your second draft.

* You will learn more from the process of writing one complete novel, even one that doesn't turn out well, than from writing six half novels.

If you find yourself itching to go back and rewrite as you go along, review this tip, ignore the itch, and move forward.

(There are valuable tips from Mark Twain, Ray Bradbury, Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway and many others in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)