Promotion for Authors

Before I was published, I had no idea how much of the promotion would be on my shoulders. I think I had a lot in common with other writers out there. Promotion wasn’t on my radar. I didn’t know what my brand was, or if I had a platform. What I knew was that I had stories to tell.

In the process of telling my stories, I can’t live in a vacuum. Sure, the story will be there, but professional development in the form of classes, critique groups, and professional memberships bring ideas for improvement. Those same avenues can help a beginning writer learn about brand, platform, promotion, and any other questions that come up.

One question a writer should ask: How do I want to be known?

This question takes you to a new thought process. It’s the start of everything else. If you want to be a children’s picture book author, yet your myspace page has indecent jokes all over it, you may need to rethink your image. On the other hand, if you want to sell erotica and your Facebook is covered with pictures of your two single-digit age children, you should address that disparity.

That isn’t to say you can’t have both worlds. Just that your professional image as an author needs to represent the part of you that your audience wants to connect with. It’s a little bit like a banker advertising he has a credit score of 2. Would you trust him? Would you invest your money in what he’s selling?

Take a look out there at authors you admire and aspire to be like. Do searches on them and see what comes up. Their pages are professional and deal with what they’re selling – books. (Or other products, but that happens when you take off, right?)

Posted on 28 April 201028 April 2010 by ransomnoble 5

If you write it, who will read it?

At the most basic level, this question is directed to the writer. Who are you going to share your work with? I’m guessing you’re going to share it with the people you know. This probably includes your friends and family, as well as a critique group and online reviewers if you belong to those communities. Some writers don’t.

Others aim for larger audiences. I hesitate to say higher, because if you’re happy with your audience you shouldn’t worry about it. It’s not a higher goal if you’re not attempting to do something bigger.

These larger audiences are often reached through publication. There are several options, including traditional publication, POD, self-publication, and others. What do I mean by others? Blogging is a form of published work. I’d say the blog itself is self-published, but I have an audience. [If you’d like to disagree with that statement, please leave a comment below.]

When you’re reaching for that larger audience, marketing and promotion are required. Word of mouth with friends and family will only get you so far. Social networking might go farther, but you’ll have to be careful not to get sucked into the time wasting activities also associated with them. Repeat: I will not play Facebook games!

One of the hardest parts about writing for young adults is I know so few of them. How are we supposed to spread by word of mouth without knowing our audience? Well, I do know people who know my targets. I have friends with kids the right age. It’s just going to be a constant struggle to stay in the age as I get older. And yes, I have come to terms with the fact that I will continue getting older.

One of the most fun parts about writing for young adults is that the stories are so amazing to tell. I know, that’s just my opinion – but why else would you be here if not to read that? Thanks for being part of my audience.

Posted on 27 April 2010 by ransomnoble 7

Workshops

What are you looking for in a writer’s workshop?

I see these advertised online and off, and I wonder what it means to everyone out there. I should also mention I teach a class about speculative fiction writing, but it’s not online – or it isn’t yet.

Partly what I like about teaching is the discussion aspect, but I can’t speak for my students. I like to touch on basic things like plot, character, and point of view, as well as more genre-specific things like background and world-building.

Each time I teach the class (I’m almost done with the third section) it changes. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, it just is part of the evolutionary process.

I just hope I teach them something. And that they continue to write.

My copyeditor friend Sarah Holroyd is starting up her own. We will definitely have to keep an eye on her! You may want to keep an eye on me, too…

Posted on 26 April 2010 by ransomnoble 5

Getting Critiques

While this isn’t the most fun part of writing, it is a useful tool to move on the way to publishing. (Or, at least, a better final product.)

I got a critique yesterday, as I mentioned, at the SCBWI-Iowa Spring Conference. It wasn’t all good, it wasn’t all bad, and it held at least one gem from my critique group. I knew they had a point when they brought it up, but I was hoping I’d solved it enough to keep going.

The answer is, I haven’t. I need a satisfying resolution to the puzzle. It’s not quite a Rubik’s Cube where you can just take the thing apart. (Note: I was never a fan of removing the stickers. Eventually they’ll stop sticking. Plus, it’s noticeable.)

So it’s not- quite- back to the drawing board. I just need to explore the other avenues that I had originally drawn up during my brainstorming phase and see in which direction my characters gravitate.

They (my group) will probably be glad to know I’m listening to them.

Posted on 25 April 2010 by ransomnoble 0

SCBWI Conference

I attended today! It was all I could manage of the three day conference, but I got there. They offered a manuscript critique (of synopsis and first ten pages) from an agent, author, or editor.

First, the manuscript critique… I’m still mulling over the advice. I thought of one of them after I’d sent it, so that’s something. And my critique group had been wondering about another thing she brought up. I have to figure out how to fix the things she pointed out. I’ll owe a thank you to Laura Arnold from HarperCollins when Don’t Tell Your Mother gets somewhere.

Second, I managed to meet some members from my area. I haven’t been able to connect with them around here, though I keep running into the Romance Writer’s group. They say they do all genres, but there’s something to be said for joining specific organization that you write. SCBWI focuses on the children’s genres from picture books to young adult, and this is very different from the focus of RWA, who will tell writers all about romance, erotica, and the other shades of love writing. SFWA will tell still different things, taking a turn for the speculative. If we could easily get lumped into one genre, we wouldn’t have them.

But that’s just my opinion.

Third, I got to listen to some great speakers. I learned things about picture books, so of course now that’s what’s running through my head thinking about coming out. I doubt it’ll come out soon, maybe not even this year, but it’s bouncing. One day it’ll gel.

I’ll just worry about capturing it at that time. I’ll keep pen and paper by my side. (Like any good writer should do.)

Posted on 24 April 2010 by ransomnoble 3

How do you learn?

A fair number of people learn by mistakes. We try things, we fail, but there is knowledge gained in each venture. So many adults fear the attempt. It may not be the truth, but it does seem like the older one gets, the more afraid they become to try something new.

Perhaps that’s why my nephew, at two years old, could take his daycare provider’s cell phones and make calls. He had no fear. When do we learn that fear? Some of us may never learn it.

There’s a difference in learning by mistakes and getting some education on the beginning side. A little guidance can go a long way to stop from making too many mistakes and becoming discouraged.

One thing I love about reading is that I can pick up a lot of knowledge. I learn by seeing and by doing. Yesterday I picked up some new tricks about internet marketing. For instance, Google ranks this blog with a 2 (from 0 to 10, with 10 being rock star Google and Facebook status). A 2 is respectable. I mean, even Amazon only ranks a 9.

Failure is not necessarily the screwing up of a task. I think of it more as not doing anything about what you learn. I watch my daughter toddle with a few steps. Sometimes she falls on her butt. Other times she goes head-first. Hasn’t stopped her yet!

Posted on 22 April 2010 by ransomnoble 3

Work.

Authors don’t work like other people. We grab snippets of time for our novels where we can. At least, those of us who aren’t lucky enough earn our living each day writing.

So how many moments do we need to finish our masterpieces? Do you cram it in at the end of the day? Do you get up early to manage a few quiet moments before the other inhabitants wake?

Dedication means working in the stolen moments – but when is the downtime?

Posted on 20 April 2010 by ransomnoble 2

A Question of Talent

Everyone has a talent. Some of them might not seem so stellar or business-worthy, but you can find an aptitude to something. Some people sing. Others draw. If you wandered here thinking I’m talented at writing, well, today I’m not so sure. What I might really be good at is math.

Don’t ask what I’m doing being a writer then. It’s not that I stink at it. (At least, I hope not.) This is a difficult profession and it takes a lot of work to get anywhere. So I have to have at least a little talent to get the acceptances with which I have been honored. (See, Sarah? I do learn.)

So while writing may not be my greatest talent, there should be a box to check to just say hey, I love this. I love sharing my stories. I will work at all hours, even with the baby not letting me sleep at night, to make the novel read well.

I’ll admit that without sleep that’s really difficult, but I do keep trying.

I won’t deny that there are other writers out there with more talent. One of them we love to hate is in my online critique group. We read his submissions and just wish we could do as well. Some days he admits that what stops him is inside him. He doesn’t know how far he could get. I don’t know how far I can get, either, but I’m working to find out.

I haven’t let fear of rejection stop me. I refuse to think that because I’m not the most talented writer out there that I should give up and do something different. In spite of all the negativity around me, I still pursue my goal.

All I can tell you is that motivation is at least as important as talent, if not more. I have the drive to keep trying. I send things out again once they’re rejected. Sometimes it works, others it doesn’t. But I am absolutely a published author because I didn’t quit, because I didn’t listen to how difficult it was, and because I wanted to make it work.

Posted on 16 April 2010 by ransomnoble 5

Reading to Baby

I try to do this every day. Sometimes it’s difficult to choose the right books to read.

Writing and reading are related activities. I think about everyone agrees that reading to your children is a great activity to involve the family, but what do you read to your kids?

I vaguely remember the scene from Three Men and a Baby where Tom Selleck is reading to the baby from a sports magazine and telling one of the other guys, “It doesn’t matter what you read, what matters is the tone you use.”

Finding books on the subject isn’t too difficult. I’ve been reading Baby Read-Aloud Basics and I have another book on the subject that I haven’t perused yet. (love the library- they feed my brain!) They had it partly right. The tone does matter.

But it also matters what you read. Reading is giving your child a solid foundation of language. It’s also why you’re supposed to talk to the baby all the time. (even though it’s really hard when you never get coherent answers.) This is how the baby learns to speak, and the more you can do it, the better off the baby will be.

I know, that’s speaking. Reading is just as important though. Those books that you cart around have words you don’t always hear in regular conversations. It’s a wonderful way to boost the vocabulary. Yes, I mean baby books. No, I don’t mean Dr. Seuss.

Don’t think I’m knocking Dr. Seuss, though. He wrote wonderful books, but they’re for the beginning reader. (Proudly marked on their covers that way.) The beginning reader isn’t looking for tough things to say or read, just to gain familiarity. If we only read beginning reader books to our children, we aren’t giving them as many different, complex, learning tools for their vocabulary as we could be.

So one question is, when looking for a book for your baby: Will you be reading it, or will the child? Don’t shy away from books with larger words in them. What’s wrong with fuchsia for a color or exhilarating for a description when the adult is reading it to the baby? Absolutely nothing! If you never introduce your little one to those words, they’ll never know them.

It almost makes me want to read my dictionary to her, but not quite. Now if it had some pretty pictures…

Posted on 12 April 2010 by ransomnoble 2

Ransom Noble

Science Fiction Writer