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Creativity in the Storm – Should You Create in Hard Times?

September 1, 2017 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com Leave a Comment

After going through Hurricane Harvey this week, I wanted to talk about creativity in the storm. Here are some thoughts on how creativity works in hard times.

Listen to the episode here or subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts!


A week ago I was in California speaking at Podcast Movement. The weather was 75 degrees. Sunny. Breezy. AMAZING. I started getting calls about the weather.

“Are you coming home?”

“You know we’re getting a hurricane, right?”

“You should really come home.”

Living in Houston, you get used to hurricanes. We weathered through Hurricane Ike when Sawyer (my oldest) was a few months old. It was a harrowing night with high winds making the giant oaks outside bend to the ground.

We made it, but lost power for a few weeks with trees downed all over town and some rising water. It was a mess. But you get used to the warnings.

Hurricane Harvey Was a Jerk

By now we’ve all heard how Harvey was beyond normal. I’ve heard it called the worst natural disaster in US history. Houston tends to flood anyway and getting trillions of gallons dumped on it in a weekend could not have ended well.

A few days later and we have sun again, shining down on all the piles of carpets and furniture by the curb. Some neighborhoods still have five or more feet of water. Up over the doors and windows.

Grocery stores  actually have food on the shelves.

Roads are opening.

Helicopters are flying overhead.

Military convoys are parked at the football stadium.

Every other pickup truck has a boat in the back.

These are strange times.

My house? We were fortunate. We lost power for thirty minutes. Water lapped at the doors, but did not come in. (You can read all about our experience HERE and HERE.) 

Creating in the Time of Storms

Whether you are facing a literal storm or some other kind of hard time, creativity can flow…or get stuck.

For me, it’s therapy. In the worst moments of the storm, I felt peaceful. But since, I have woken up terrified that water was coming in my children’s rooms. I cried in the grocery store today to see food on the shelves.

I don’t always process in the here and now. Writing? Helps me process.

But it isn’t always that way. Sometimes you might get stuck instead. For now, I’m without childcare, so some of my creative things literally WILL be stuck. I have less than half the time to create. When I have the time, I want to write. I want to get back to the podcast and to connecting with my people.

Whether you thrive or get stuck in the storms, it’s okay!

YOU ARE NOT A SLAVE TO YOUR CREATIVE WORK. 

Rather, it’s something that should bring a benefit to YOU. It should be life-giving.

That means No guilt if you don’t want to be creative for a bit. If you need a breather, it’s okay.

Your creative work serves YOU. Not the other way around.
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So whatever your storms this week, this month, this year, I HOPE that your creativity helps you flourish in it. But if it begins to feel burdensome instead, take some time off. Refresh. Then return when it feels more life-giving to you.


Want updates about new episodes PLUS stellar content on Fridays? Sign up for the Quick Fix! It’s an email that WON’T bring you down. What do we do with our creative work when the storms hit? A look from inside Hurricane Harvey and what YOU can do when the storms hit.

Filed Under: Writing

Copywriting for Authors: Four Steps to Selling More Books

June 8, 2017 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com 6 Comments

This is a guest post on copywriting for authors is from author Chris Syme! See her full bio below and listen to her interview with me on the Create If Writing Podcast.

Copywriting for Authors: Four Steps to Selling More Books with Better Copy

Book descriptions, blurbs, social media posts, ad copy. Even though you consider yourself an author your head may start to spin at the thought of having to write a book description or copy for a Facebook ad.

Yes, copywriting is a different animal with a different goal than writing a book.  But fortunately it’s a learned skill. To simplify the process of learning, let’s break down copywriting for authors into four steps that will sell more books. We’ll go through the four steps as they relate to book descriptions first and then transition to social media and ad copy.

Copywriting for authors is an invaluable skill. Learn 4 steps to selling more books with better copy.

  • Put On Your Marketing Hat

First things first. Why is copywriting different than writing a novel or a nonfiction book? Your goal is not to tell a story or teach, but to get the reader to take an action. If you approach copywriting with your marketing hat on, writing effective sales copy will be easier. The marketer’s mindset:

  1. Know that a well-crafted book description will sell more books. Your book description is not a throw away. Successful indie author Mark Dawson surveys his readers via email every year. In his recent survey he asked his readers what convinced them to buy one of his books. Of the 5000+ readers, the overwhelming majority said the book description. Don’t think good descriptions sell books? Think again. My reader surveys (much smaller sample than Mark’s) have confirmed the same. The book cover gets them to read the description and the description makes them click the buy button.
  2. Think like a marketer, not a storyteller. What influences people to to buy a product? Authors need to use time tested marketing principles to help influence readers to buy.
    1. Social proof: Make sure your books get reviews and recommendations early. When people see a long line at a restaurant, they think the food must be good. That is social proof—lots of people like it; I will like it. Develop a strong advance review team. Use a “street team” to help you promote the book on social media. Build a network of loyal fans.
    2. Make them say yes. Marketers have used this technique for years and it’s critical in copywriting. Getting people to answer “yes” to a question makes it easier for them to say yes again when you ask them to buy. Make sure you touch on an emotion or experience that readers can identify with and say yes to.
    3. Authority. This one is particularly important for nonfiction writers. People respect recognized experts and want to follow their lead. Nonfiction writers should establish their expertise.
    4. Scarcity. The rule of the few. When there is a limited supply of something, people are anxious to act. Do you have a limited time preorder or launch sale? What about a bonus available for a limited time? Create an urgent need.
  3. Remember the goal: get them to read the next line. Think of your copy as a compelling story. But story does not mean regurgitating the book’s plot.  It’s about the story of the reader experience. Every line of copy needs to propel the reader to the next line. Remember people don’t buy stuff, they buy an experience. Where is your book going to take them? What problem will it solve? What emotions are you going to connect with? Marketers know how to push their buyers’ buttons.
  • Write Your Best Hook

The hook is part of the traditional copywriting formula called “hook-line-sinker.”

A good hook is a promise. It will tease readers’ emotions, get their attention, and connect with a reader’s need. In fiction, it’s the need to read a good story or be entertained. In nonfiction, it’s the identification of a problem and promise of solutions your book delivers.

Hooks are not paragraphs; they are one or two sentences max. They may even be a sentence fragment. But one thing they do: make the reader want more information. Copywriter Bryan Cohen describes a hook this way: “If someone was making a movie of your novel, what would be the one liner on the poster?”

Many copywriting experts suggest that you brainstorm a list of hooks, leave them for a day, send them out to trusted friends, and revisit to distill. If you have an advance review team, they might be a good source of feedback. I suggest you not post your hooks in a general author Facebook group. Many of the authors there are not your readers, and different genres have different conventions. You’ll get good feedback from a small group of trusted people that know your genre and your voice.

Here are some hooks I’ve run across that grab attention and connect with an emotion readers would be looking for in that genre. Let’s start with fiction; notice the different tone and voice in different genres:

  • Could you murder your wife to save your daughter? (crime and thriller)
  • What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light… (thriller and suspense)
  • Three generations of women. One family funeral business. Two suitors. And a very fat cat. (cozy mystery)
  • I was born into British aristocracy, but I’ve made my fortune in Manhattan. New York is now my kingdom (contemporary romance)
  • Something frightening is happening to time. (Young Adult)

How about a couple from nonfiction that identify a problem-solution for readers in that genre?

  • The difference between helping and selling is just two letters, but those two letters make all the difference. (marketing and sales)
  • What if you could wake up tomorrow and every area of your life was beginning to transform? What would you change? (business and entrepreneurship)

All these hooks succeed in connecting with the genre’s audience and compel readers to move on to the next line.

NOTE: Sometimes a hook is placed after a declaration that has to do with the book’s bestseller status or its series—I’ve noticed this in the crime and and cozy mystery genres quite a bit. If you begin your description with a declaration—a high profile recommendation, a nod to the book’s bestseller status or the name of the series—make sure that piece of the description is short and the bolded hook follows immediately.

  • Identify the Most Compelling Pieces of Your Book

Whether your copy is a book description or a Facebook ad, take some time to identify the most compelling pieces of your book. The biggest mistake I see fiction authors make is just regurgitating a plot summary complete with at least four character full names and one or two towns thrown in where the action takes place. This is a mistake.

Brainstorm a list of the most compelling pieces of your book. What is driving the action? What is the conflict for the hero? Is there an important backstory you can tease? Nonfiction: what is the problem and what are the most important solutions?

Many fiction authors have a severe case of TMI (Too Much Information) when it comes to book descriptions. Here are some problem areas I see often:

  • Too many character names – one or two will suffice and you don’t need last names.
  • Too many locations – you don’t need to name every town involved in your book, or even one unless it’s a compelling part of your story.
  • Spoilers – This isn’t just about giving away endings. Every backstory doesn’t need to be explained in the book description.
  • Too many words to explain – Be succinct. Weed out the prepositional phrases and other poor writing. Write your book description and then edit, edit, edit. Bryan Cohen calls this cutting to the chase.
  • Describing the hero’s entire journey- Leave something to the reader’s imagination that will make them want to read on.
  • Wandering into secondary plots-  Stick to the main events.
  • Citing reader reviews in the description. Unless you have a well-known author or well-known publication’s endorsement, don’t put this in your description. Relegate all this info to the Editorial Reviews section.
  • Don’t repeat yourself – This is especially true for nonfiction. Start with a list of benefits, prioritize them by which ones are the most life changing and limit yourself to five bullet points that address common pain points for all your readers.

The bottom line is that the description needs to tie pieces of compelling information together—not just the retelling of a story you believe is compelling. When it comes to sales copy, people will quit reading when you don’t keep them moving forward. Read your description out loud several times to make sure it sounds continuous and not choppy. The object in a good description: get readers to move to the next line. Personal note: I like to watch movie trailers in a genre when I am working on a description. Sixty seconds to entice people to see the movie. It’s good creative practice.

  • End With a Call to Action

The call-to-action is the “sinker” part of the hook-line-sinker formula. Many authors forget that a book description is, in fact, a sales description. You are trying to get the reader to buy something. You will be remiss if you don’t include a call-to-action at the end of your description. If they make it to the end, give them something to do to. Don’t be afraid to sound pushy–you won’t be. You got them this far, lead them to the logical conclusion.

Calls-to-action should not be just, “buy this book now.” There are a number of different ways you can ask people to buy. In Words That Sell, copywriter Richard Bayan has a wealth of suggestions. I highly recommend his book for anyone that writes any kind of sales copy. It sits on my desk.

Here are a few of my favorite examples for books:

  • I invite you to…or You are invited…
  • Get your copy now…
  • Start reading today…
  • Just click “add to cart”…
  • Put this book in your shopping cart and start reading now…
  • Can’t wait? Get your copy right now…
  • Get it now for a limited time price…
  • Join the story by grabbing your copy today
  • Starting (solution to problem) today…

What About Social Media Posts?

The formula for social media posts is pretty much the same except for the length. Twitter will give you only 140 characters and you should be thinking of no more than 400 on Facebook unless you are including buy links in your post.

There is a golden rule when it comes to selling on social media that many authors are missing: you must engage with people to earn the right to sell. The majority of your social media posts on any channel should be about adding value or making people feel an emotional connection. When you gain their trust and they see you as a valuable connection, you have earned the right to sell.

“Buy my book” billboard posts on social media without the element of an established relationship will never take full advantage of social media’s power to sell. If you abuse that purpose and just post sales ads, people will tune you out. Just don’t do it. Take the time to develop connections and trust. Then readers will give you permission to sell; and they’ll help you sell by telling their friends about you.

Good social media copy understands the psychology of buying and social media’s particular buying culture. People have different motivations for being on social media. People want to connect with other people and causes that fill an emotional need. According to research from HubSpot, people go to social media to feel:

  • Happy. People love to laugh, smile, feel good about themselves, others, and their world.
  • Inspired. Inspiration is a key to perseverance. Let’s face it—the world can be a cruel place. Inspiration gives us confidence and courage.
  • Compassion. Compassion is the capacity to care about people and things outside ourselves. We all want to live in a caring world.
  • Informed. It’s not just FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) that drives people to information. Help people stay on top of news, cultural trends, what’s going on with your books, and much more.
  • Supported. People want to feel that they’re okay and that others identify with their lot in life. Be a friend to everyone and look for posts to share that celebrate diversity and hope.
  • Connected. We humans have a driving need to connect with others. No man (or woman) wants to be an island.

In my new book, The Newbie’s Guide To Sell More Books With Less Marketing I teach a social media copywriting formula called the 80-20 Content Rule. I explain that if 80 percent of your content is about adding value, readers will expect you to sell 20 percent of the time. You earn the right to sell by adding value first.

Ads

The copywriting formula for ads is much like the formula for book descriptions. You want to remember that the object of an ad is to sell something or sign someone up for something so it’s okay to reference buying in your hook or line sections.

In an ad, your hook is a promise. What are you delivering? An experience, a promise of rise in income, or a particular outcome after reading the book? Many good ad hooks start with a question about a universal problem that will lead to a “yes” answer from the reader, as I mentioned above. You also may hear the term “pain point,” especially as it relates to nonfiction books. What is your reader’s pain? How is your book going to solve that problem?

Good ad copy takes a lot of rewriting, editing, and rewriting again. The fewer character numbers you are allowed in the ad, the tougher the challenge. Amazon ads, for instance, are extremely short. The hook becomes the main attraction there.  Facebook ads give you more rope to hang yourself. My college writing professor always said it is harder to write shorter. She was right.

No matter what kind of sales copy you write, copywriting for authors isn’t like writing a book. The four-step formula can guide you into writing effective succinct copy that will help you sell more books.

 


If you want to learn more about copywriting for authors or super practical tips for selling books, check out Chris Syme! 

Chris Syme has over 20 years experience in the communications industry and is the principal of the award-winning agency, CKSyme Media Group. She is a former university media relations professional, a frequent speaker on the national stage, and the author of the popular SMART Marketing For Authors book series. Her new book, The Newbie’s Guide to Sell More Books With Less Marketing is available on Amazon, Kobo, and Nook. She is a co-host of the Smarty Pants Book Marketing podcast with her indie author daughter Becca Syme. Chris and her husband Terry live in Montana and have two grown daughters.  

Connect with Chris on her blog, the Smarty Pants Book Marketing Podcast, and on Twitter.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Social Media, Writing

Must Know Publishing Tips with Honoree Corder

May 30, 2017 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com 2 Comments

There are so many ways to publish a book these days that when it comes to publishing tips, it seems okay to say: choose what works best for you! But it’s great to trust those who have found success before us. Honoree Corder just released her FIFTIETH book and shares practical launch strategies, whether you should use a hybrid publisher, and more publishing tips in this episode! Read more or listen below!

Listen to Episode 104 – Should You Try Hybrid Publishing for Your Book with Honoree Corder

 

Connect with Honoree

Official bio: Honorée Corder is the author of dozens of books, including You Must Write a Book, The Prosperous Writer book series, Vision to Reality, Business Dating, The Successful Single Mom book series, If Divorce is a Game, These are the Rules, and The Divorced Phoenix. She is also Hal Elrod’s business partner in The Miracle Morning book series. Honorée coaches business professionals, writers, and aspiring non-fiction authors who want to publish their books to bestseller status, create a platform, and develop multiple streams of income. She also does all sorts of other magical things, and her badassery is legendary. You can find out more at HonoreeCorder.com.

This post contains affiliate links!


Must-Know Publishing Tips with Honoree Corder

Tips for Your Launch Strategy

  • Start building your list from the time you consider writing a book. It’s the one thing you need for short-term and long-term success.
  • Each book launch may look different. It depends on the outcome.
  • The launch starts 2-3 or even 6 weeks before the book with the formation of an advanced reader team. This will be made up of your ideal readers, not just friends or random people who say yes.

PRO TIP: Make sure your ideal reader team is targeted to the audience who would be likely to actually BUY your book because of interest. Not just friends or your mom. Probably NOT your mom. When these people buy your book, it can skew your also-boughts underneath the sale area on Amazon, which means that your book may not get shown to the right audience!


  • You can gift a free advance copy to your reader team, but also ask them to buy and review and explain WHY it matters.
  • If people cannot afford your book, consider how they might help you out in another way.

Should You Try Hybrid Publishing?

For a moment, let’s define the terms. Traditional publishing is when you have one of the big five publishers or a small press publish your book. They pay you an advance and royalties if you sell more copies than the cost of the advance.

Indie publishing is the new term for what we used to call self publishing. It means that the author takes control for all aspects of the book (though often this means hiring an editor, a cover designer, etc) and publishes the book without an outside publisher.

Hybrid authors is a term NOT to be confused with hybrid publishing. These authors may have some traditionally published books and some indie books.

Hybrid publishing is when a company asks for an upfront payment from authors in exchange for publishing, printing, distributing, or other aspects of the publishing process. The contracts and terms vary.

Why Hybrid Publishing Might Not Be the Best (or a Good) Choice

There are horror stories. Many. I hear them all the time from authors who paid thousands of dollars to get hundreds of copies of their book that may or may not even look professional. At best, you may end up with a book that has been formatted and have a cover designed…both things that you could do yourself or pay someone to do for MUCH less.

For more warnings on companies to avoid, here is a great site! Hat tip to Elle Mott for this one!

But one of the big points to consider is WHAT ELSE COULD YOU DO WITH THE SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY? (Or even less.) You could hire a top cover designer, editor, and even pay for Facebook ads or AMS ads for less than you would pay a hybrid publisher.

Other Publishing Tips for Authors

  • For non-fiction authors, consider how you can intentionally network. (See Business Dating.) Find 11 other professionals who serve the same client or ideal reader, but are not your competition. Then you can support each other and share clients. Intentionally seek them out. Then if you REALLY like them and connect well, ask for referrals. Practical tip: offer them copies of your book.
  • For fiction authors, consider making a square cover that you’d be using for ACX (audiobooks) and have your followers and readers change their profile image to your book cover on launch day or as they finish the book. Consider having stamps made with this same image and use them to send mail.
  • Ask yourself if you could spend your money in a wiser way.
  • But don’t think about trying to be CHEAP. Consider the way you send money as an investment. Your covers will be helping you sell books and bring in money for YEARS.
  • Hire a professional copywriter or invest time to learn this. A cover gets people’s attention. Copy converts people into buyers.
  • You must write a book. Even if it’s ONLY for your family and the people that follow you.

Can I just say that I LOVE that Honoree burned her own books? There is something freeing there. And humorous.

Links from the episode:

You Must Write a Book 

Amazon’s Media Breakfast Honoree attended

The Prosperous Writer’s Guide to Finding Readers

These must know publishing tips will help you work better and see more ROI from the time and money you spend to publish your books!

Filed Under: Publishing, Show Notes, Writing

Book Marketing Strategies with Chris Syme – 089

February 16, 2017 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com 2 Comments

Building an author platform is second maybe only to thinking about book marketing strategies in terms of things AUTHORS HATE DOING. Not all writers, I’m sure. But many of us just wish we could write the thing and people would gather to read it. This interview with author and marketer Chris Syme will give you some solid tools, book marketing strategies, and maybe help you change your mindset about all this platform stuff! Listen to the interview or keep reading below.

Listen to Episode 89 – Book Marketing Strategies with Chris Syme

Connect with Chris Syme

You can find Chris at her website, listen to the Smarty Pants Podcast (here’s my interview!), follow her on Twitter, or find her over on Facebook.

Book marketing strategies that work with author Chris Syme.

Also, I HIGHLY recommend her book (affiliate link!), Sell More Books with Less Social Media. If you liked this interview, you will LOVE that. And here is the link to her free, vetted book marketing resources that she mentions in the interview!


These book marketing strategies come straight from an author and marketing expert!

Why Authors Struggle with Book Marketing

While it’s amazing that we can do so much on our own with the tools for indie publishing now, that also means that authors are often tapped out from writing, editing, formatting, and all that by the time they get to the marketing point. Social media is also dynamic (as in always changing), so it’s hard to keep up and can be very frustrating to know what works right NOW.

Chris’ tip: Find the one place in the marketing world where the light bulb goes off and you really click with something. Quit hating that! Find a way to like it.

These problems are universal. Get into Facebook groups and forums so that you can talk to other authors to hear what’s working for them and what they’re struggling with. You need some camaraderie.

Don’t Be EVERYWHERE

Fear of missing out (FOMO) plays a big role because there are so many posts from authors talking about different platforms and how you need to be everywhere. With a new platform every week, this can totally overwhelm and freeze authors. Find the platforms that work for you and where you can SELL BOOKS. Try something and get good at it. You don’t have to be on every platform 100 times a day. What works for someone else may not work for you. And not ALL advice is good advice! So be discerning and maybe be a little wary of all the advice, especially if it sounds too good to be true or too easy.

What’s the ONE Place You Should Be?

Chris recommends Facebook as the one place to be if you pick only one. The data tells us this is the place to be, with over 80% of online adults using it globally. You can’t just sell your books 100% of the time on ANY platform, so you need a strategy that allows you to engage and sell in the same place. You need to engage AND you need to sell. Facebook really allows you to do that in a place where so much of the adult world is there. (Plus, Facebook ads are a really cheap and great way to advertise if you can lock it down.)

Tips for Marketing Your Books on Facebook

Don’t use a profile to sell. Facebook doesn’t want you to sell there (this is actually against their terms of service) and you can get your account shut down. Pages also have commerce tools and insights that will make it easier for you to be successful.

Don’t even use your profile for engagement. Engage where you will sell. This is huge. So work to engage people on your page, where you will be selling. People struggle migrating people from their profile to their page. Use the 80/20 rule where you’re engaging 80% and then 20%.

Use commerce tools. There are built-in tools on pages from developers to sell your books. You can use the Freebooksy app, for example, or embed a signup form. Check out this screenshot to see some of the ways that Facebook encourages you to use tools as you post. 

Have a group for engagement. Pages were built to sell and groups were built to deepen engagement. If you have time for both, have a group to up engagement. But there are no commerce tools or insights like you’ll have on a page.

How to Use Facebook Ads

Warm Audience Ads- Reach people who are already opted into your page or your email list. (You can actually upload your list–if it’s big enough–to Facebook’s ad manager and run ads that your list will see.) Your fans who have opted into your page are likely to sign up for your page. Then you can use warm ads to your page likes AND to your email list. Ads are also cheaper when you’re running them to a warm group. (This means that they will be more effective for less money!)

Grow Your List- You can grow your list with those warm ads to your Facebook audience. People who already like your page are more likely to want to sign up for your list.

Cold Audience Ads- These are great for promoting your backlist promotions of your books (as in, not the newest books) or some of these joint author events that many authors are doing. These can also be effective for non-fiction authors who are doing courses or similar events.

What Are the Current Trends?

Engagement vs Numbers in Email Lists- Email marketing used to be all about growth in numbers and having a giant list. Now it’s all about upping open rates and engagement.

ONE LINK – Have only ONE link in each email rather than the newsletter style with a lot of links for people.

Email as Audience Research- Ask your email subscribers for feedback on marketing topics. Ask an easy question that people can reply to (like: which platforms do you use online?), enter those email addresses of responders into a giveaway, and then store and utilize that information.

Get rid of newsletters- Consider selling a one-topic email blast (that’s not necessarily sales) that gets your audience engaging and maybe giving you feedback.

Use social platforms for discoverability- You can totally utilize something like Twitter as a placeholder to send people where you actually HANG OUT. You don’t have time to be everywhere, so you can set up a basic account with your name and image and a link or pinned post that tells people where they can really connect.

 

Do you have any book marketing strategies to share? What’s worked (or NOT worked) for you? Share in the comments!

Filed Under: Monetizing, Show Notes, Social Media, Writing

Tips for Indie Authors with Kevin Tumlinson

January 23, 2017 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com 2 Comments

I still remember when I discovered five years ago that I could publish my books on Amazon all by myself. It was a revelation! Still, learning how to self publish a book is an undertaking. We are in a brave new world where self publishing (now more aptly called indie publishing) is a very real way to make a career as an author. Which means you’ll find a ton of posts and tips for indie authors, good and bad.

In this interview, I talk with author, speaker, podcaster, and Draft 2 Digital marketing guru Kevin Tumlinson on how to self publish a book, the creative process, and why Draft 2 Digital might make your life a whole lot easier.

This post contains affiliate links, which means at no extra cost to you, purchases made after clicking through links may give me a referral commission.

Listen to Episode 86 – Tips for Indie Authors with Kevin Tumlinson


 Connect with Kevin Tumlinson

You can find Kevin Tumlinson behind the mic for the Wordslinger podcast, plus the Self Publishing Podcast and Creative Writing Career. (That’s a lot of podcasts!) Check out his author site, his books on Amazon, and give him a shout on Twitter.

tips for indie authors with kevin tumlinson

Tips for Indie Authors

Plan & Organize Your Time

Kevin writes fiction and non-fiction and hosts several podcasts PLUS does marketing for Draft 2 Digital. Yet his process for getting everything done is remarkably simple. Here are a few of his big time management tips.

  • Putting first things first when planning out your time
  • Making sure all the things you need to do are on the calendar
  • Using the reminders app to (duh) remind you about tasks
  • “If it isn’t on the calendar, it doesn’t get done.”
  • Be aware when you’re adding a tool that sometimes that tools takes time to learn

Share Your Work

Beyond writing, as authors we need to build our platforms and get our work out there, whether we are talking our books or our blog posts.

Social Jukebox is a tool that both Kevin and I use for our social media scheduling. You can create a content library so that your posts will continue to post to social over time. My tip: add the scheduling of content to your workflow as you publish a post.

Kevin has started utilizing Medium as a space to post both fiction and non-fiction to get in front of a new audience. (Here’s a post on utilizing Medium! If you’re a user, find and follow me HERE and find Kevin HERE.) You can repost OR create original content for the platform.

Give Yourself Permission

You will always be learning how you work and what your process looks like. It will change according to the seasons and situations of our life.

“We have to occasionally step back and reconsider: is this what we’re really after? Is this the dream? Or is this just one version of the dream we’ve grabbed onto?”

Market Effectively

You want to build a mailing list, but even more foundational than that, you want to build your platform. Phenomenally successful authors have built platforms without email lists. The point isn’t to  to build a means of communicating with your readers.

The trick to finding readers is to go where your readers hang out and become one of them and part of that community. You want to find a community where the community is built around the kind of work that you do. Be active and connect and be wise about when it’s appropriate to share your work.

The goal of marketing is to increase your odds. As an author, you’re trying to improve your odds of someone buying your book. Do what works best for YOU. Maybe that’s Facebook or Medium or Wattpad.Want to know how to write, distribute, and market your book? Try these best practices and tips for indie authors.


One of the big things that we discussed was Draft 2 Digital, the indie publishing company that Kevin went from superfan to employee of. Since our conversation, I have signed up and even tried the conversion feature. I would highly recommend using at the LEAST the conversion tool. Or go all out and utilize D2D as a

Easy Distribution with Draft 2 Digital

Kevin uses beta readers and a street team separately. His beta readers help with developmental edits and then the street team gets the manuscript after its done to help with edits and feedback. Once it’s done with those edits and any other editor he uses, he goes right to Draft 2 Digital.

D2D is an aggregator, which means that they have relationships with different vendors. (With the exception right now of KDP.) You can upload your book and choose where you want it distributed and pay a 15% cut of your royalty for that automated distribution.

You can also simply use their free conversion tool to take your word doc and make it into an epub, mobi, or PDF. EVEN if you don’t use D2D as your distributor.

 

Relevant Links

  • Kevin Tumlinson’s author site
  • Draft 2 Digital
  • Vellum (Kevin briefly touched on using this for formatting)
  • 30 Day Author

Do you still have questions about self-publishing? Or have tips for indie authors? Leave them in the comments!

Filed Under: Show Notes, Writing

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