Novel Marketing

In this episode we are going to talk about developing a Value Proposition for your book! Talking Points: It is time for another Marketing 101 episode! Every once in a while we like to go back to marketing fundamentals and teach you how to apply them to your book. Thomas literally purchased a marketing 101 textbook and from time we pull things out of the TOC for authors. Today we are going to talk about value propositions. So Jim, What is a value proposition? * Jim’s answer * The reason a reader should buy your book! * Thomas: Good value propositions resonate with your readers. When they hear it they sit up and say “Yes, that’s for me!” What a value proposition is not * Tagline – “Brandalyn Collins Seatbelt Suspense” * Logline – “Rooms is the Shack meets It’s a Wonderful Life” * High Concept – “What would you find if your walked into the rooms of your soul?” Why do authors need a value proposition? * The more concisely you can communicate the benefit of your book, the more concisely your readers will be able to do it. This is the seed inside the fruit that grows another fruit. Questions to help you develop a value proposition. * Who am I writing for? * What pain do they feel? * How does your book make your readers feel? The primary benefit for many fiction books is how they make readers feel while they read them. Calm? Excited? Superior? Scared? Courageous? * What problem am I solving for my readers? * How does your book benefit readers? Why are those benefits important? * How is your book different from other similar books? Examples: Courtship in Crisis explains where the singleness epidemic came from, and what to do to end it. If you are single and want to be married, this book will help you understand why finding a spouse is so hard and how to make it easier. Rooms will show you how to find freedom from your fears and step into your destiny. Featured Patron 7 Deadly Friendships    by Mary Demuth Do you have a friendship where there’s there’s something wrong but you can’t put your finger on it? Toxic friendships happen to everyone, but we seldom identify the underlying issues. Here is the value proposition: This book will help you find better friends and be a better friend yourself.   Sponsor: * Book Launch Blueprint #2 Registration is now open! * Booklaunch.fun

In this episode we are going to talk about how to Split Test your book covers, blurbs and book titles using Facebook ads. Question from Patron Mary Hamilton “On this week’s podcast, [Thomas] talked about A/B testing. If you haven’t already, could you do an episode on that? I get the idea generally, but don’t quite understand how it’s set up.” Intro We are about to teach you a technique so advanced, even most publishers don’t use it. So what is a split test? We are not talking about surveys! Surveys Are Less Effective Than Split Tests * People pay to close attention which changes the results. You want real world results. * What people “like” and what people click on are not the same. * The survey often asks too few people and often the wrong people. You don’t want to test your book title on hundreds of people, you want to test it on tens of thousands of people. What You Can Test With The Split Test Method * Book Titles * Book Covers * Book Blurbs Why This is a Good Idea * You are just one person, and if you like your cover, then you know one person likes your cover. * Hard to read the label when you are standing inside the bottle * Sometimes, a good title makes the difference between success and failure. * This can be useful for traditionally published authors as well when discussing decisions with your publisher. * Ideal test because it is in a noisy environment. The thing that makes Facebook ads bad makes Facebook split test excellent. The Big Picture of How This Works * You create two versions of the same ad with one thing being different. You see which version performs better. * Expect to pay around $50 per test. Two Principles: * Test One Thing at a Time * Test on the Right People How to Make it Happen * Create a page on your website to send people to. In a pinch, you can use your homepage. * Go to https://www.facebook.com/business/ and click “Create Ad” * Select “Get More Website Visitors” * Create your ad using Facebook’s Ad Editor. * You want to pick an audience with at least 25,000 people in it. No more than a million. * Open Up the Facebook Ads Manager * Select the ad you just created a click Duplicate. Now you have two copies of the ad running simultaneously. * Click edit and change the one thing you want to test. (Book Cover, Title, or Blurb) What about the money? What You Should Budget Sponsor: MyBookTable is a way to quickly and easily build an online bookstore on your WordPress website. Use it to rank #1 on Google for your book and to boost your book sales on sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Get it free at MyBookTable.com. Novel Marketing Patrons save 25% on MyBookTable Pro. www.mybooktable.com.  

In this episode we talk about what to in-between books to keep your brand top of mind with your readers. This episode idea comes from an email loop I’m part of where one of the people asked what they should do to promote themselves during the down time in-between their book launches. A number of people responded to the loop by saying they don’t do anything … they just wait for their next book and then start promoting it a few months before it releases. While that’s an option, we have some other suggestions we feel are more conducive to keeping your career going. A Little Philosophy * Airplanes * Exercise Equipment Center * You are not an author, you are a product Seven Things You Should Be Doing In-between Books * Website Review * Check the technical side of things; everything from broken links to SEO * WooRank * Website Grader * Have a few folks who haven’t seen it before give you their impressions * Rebuild if necessary * Sign up for the Author Media Newsletter for a free course on who to thrill with your website. * Revise Your Reader Magnet * Create a New Lead Magnet * Writing Short Stories / Tip Sheets * Guest blogging * Focus on blogs with low Alexa Scores. * Mention your reader magnet * Focus on Your Newsletter * Work on your drip campaign write an onboarding drip sequence * Develop a reserve of strong content * Study Mailchimp or whatever company you use * Keep your emailing your list some of that great content. At least quarterly. * Get involved * GoodReads * Facebook Groups * Promote your backlist * How to Relaunch a Book With Chris Fox – Episode 134 * Learn * Mail Chimp * Binge Novel Marketing * Take a Novel Marketing Course * Rest Featured Patron Driver Confessional by David L. Winters            A Christian ride-share driver lands in hot water with the Russian mob. Antonio and his cop brother must solve a murder before it’s too late. Sponsor Rubart Writing Academy * March 21st – 24th in Blairsville, Georgia * April 25th – 28th in gorgeous Chelan, Washington

In this episode we are going to talk about the critical mindset you need to have going into the New Year in order to make 2019 your best ever. And to help us out … we have back, for the second time … Susan May Warren! Susan May Warren is the USA Today bestselling, Christy and RITA award–winning author of more than sixty novels. She has four grown children and is married to her real-life hero, going on 30 years now! She loves traveling and telling stories about life, adventure and faith. She’s a skydiver, scuba diver, accomplished dancer … and is a nationally acclaimed writing teacher who runs a writing academy called Novel.Academy. For exciting updates on her new releases, previous books, and more, visit her website at www.susanmaywarren.com. Questions * Looking back on the last year, a lot of authors wished they accomplished more in terms of their careers. What are some of the biggest things holding authors back? * What is the one critical mindset that you would encourage writers to have going into the New Year? * A vast number of writers are female which means families and taking care of kids and grandkids and taking on the business of running a home for a lot of them … so they need to be skilled at time management and organization. You’re an author that has done exactly that. Four children, husband, and writing a million books every year, plus running your teaching companies … how do you do it? * It’s that time of the year when many people set goals … how do you go about setting goals? I know you have a little bit different approach … tell us about that … * Over the years you’ve developed a number of innovative systems for keeping track of projects, goals, staying motivated … and you’ve put all those ideas into a planner that you’re now selling. Tell about why you added developing a planner to your already crazy life and even if someone doesn’t buy your planner (which they should!) how they can use the principles you have in in for their writing career. * ___________________ Links: * www.susanmaywarren.com * https://novel.academy/ * Susie’s My Brilliant Writing Planner (Affiliate Link) Featured Patron 95 Tweets: Celebrating Martin Luther in the 21st Century by Peter DeHaan. Celebrate the Protestant Reformation, with Martin Luther’s ninety-five concerns updated as Tweets for a modern audience. Sponsor: 5 Year Plan to Become a Bestselling Author This plan was crafted by Thomas & Jim to be step by step guide through the first five years of your writing career. Learn each quarter what to do to succeed and avoid the mistakes that hijack the success of most authors. Learn more at NovelMarketing.com/courses. Thomas’s Other Podcasts * Thomas’ one goal for the New Year: Not start any new podcasts! I currently have 5! * Novel Marketing * Creative Funding Show * Liberty Buzzard * Thomas Umstattd Guest Interviews Podcast * Christian Publishing Show

In this episode we are going to talk about 2018, the most popular episodes and what we learned. We are thankful for: * Patreon Backers * Facebook Group * Student success in the Book Launch Blueprint * Baby Mercy * Jim’s Christy   Top 10 Most Downloaded Episodes   #10 140 How to Develop Multiple Streams of Money from Your Writing Career with Joanna Penn In this episode, we shared an episode of the Creative Funding Show where Thomas talked with Joanna Penn about the multiple ways you can make money from your writing career that you might have never considered. #9 137 How to Write Short Stories that People Will Love In this episode, we talked about writing short stories that work, that people like, that readers have to get more of. We were joined by of the best authors in the world to talk about the subject: James Scott Bell. #8 132 How to Blog Your Book Ahead of Time In this episode we talked about how to blog your book, and if you SHOULD blog your book. This was our first episode primarily for nonfiction writers! #7 145 How to Create a Reader (Lead) Magnet In this episode, we talked about how to craft a reader magnet to get more email subscribers. A reader magnet is a prize your readers get in exchange for giving you their email. They can dramatically improve how fast your email list grows. #6 143 Book Marketing 101: Author Advertising In this episode, we talked about four advertising fundamentals that apply when buying ads on Facebook, Amazon, GoodReads, and more! #5 151 How to Write to Market With Chris Fox In this episode, we talked about how to write to market with Chris Fox. The primary way to write books that people want to read is to write the kind of books that people want to read. The better you know what they want, the better your books will sell. #4 130 Myths Authors Believe   In this episode, we talked about a few of the myths and lies writers are prone to believe which can derail us or send us in wrong directions or keep us from going in the direction we should be headed. Surprisingly not as controversial as Thomas thought it would be. #3 129 How to Build an Email List Before Your First Book Comes Out Using Short Stories This episode came from a listener question from Meredith Abernathy who asked: “I keep hearing the advice to start marketing/start a newsletter as early as possible, even before you’re published. I have no books to offer free in exchange for newsletter signups, so of course I have 0 signups. So, is there something I can offer that readers care about, or am I doomed to launch a book to 0 readers?” Our answer was and is short stories. #2 150 A Blueprint on How to Launch Your Book In this episode, we talked about a new course we’ve released that will help you launch your book in a way that will rocket it to success. The course was a one off and an incredible experience. But we have some good news, the Book Launch Blueprint will return, very soon! #1 152 How to Write 5000 Words an Hour with Chris Fox Writing more books helps you make more money. But most authors write slow! In this episode, we talked with Chris Fox about how to write faster and better. Takeaways: What was popular: * Short stories * People love Chris Fox * Email List Building

In this episode we are going to have a special crossover episode with my new podcast. As some of you know, I’ve launched a new podcast called the Christian Publishing Show. This podcast explores everything about publishing in the Christian market. One of my guests on that podcast was our very own James L. Rubart. As we did that interview I realized we have never shared his story on this podcast. So if you have ever wanted to know where Jim came from here is his origin story. Stick around, after the interview Jim and I will come back on this show. Chances are you are friends with other writers but have you heard their stories? Ask them sometime you may be surprised at what you learn. Telling each other your stories can inspire, encourage, build a deeper relationships … and often be quite humorous. Sponsor: 5 Year Plan to Become a Bestselling Author This plan was crafted by Thomas & Jim to be step by step guide through the first five years of your writing career. Learn each quarter what to do to succeed and avoid the mistakes that hijack the success of most authors. Learn more at NovelMarketing.com/courses. Featured Patron Pathway of Peace: Living in a Growing Relationship with Christ by Cheryl Elton Heal from broken relational patterns so you can choose safer friends. Evaluate when it’s time to press into a friendship or let it go. Other Links * Health + Wealth + Love Test * Sacred Rest Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity  

In this episode we are going to talk about the right way to use Facebook to sell more books! Last week we talked about why Facebook is overrated for book marketing, but we didn’t say it’s completely useless, so today we’re going to talk about the ways Facebook CAN work for you to promote your books. Quick Recap Why Facebook is Overrated: * you don’t want to become a digital peasant farmer * it reaches people in the wrong state of mind * Facebook hides your content from 96% of fans. * you could be doing something more valuable with your time * you are competing with multimillion dollar shadow organizations that will outspend and out optimize you. Questions: * I’m an introvert. I’d rather [kill myself] than give talks in public. Or make the effort to talk to people to arrange talks in public. * Doesn’t a podcast take time?… * How do you drive people to your blog if you don’t notify them on Facebook or Twitter that there’s a new post up? * Thomas post, 19 Ways * I am writing more books. But you don’t get the organic visibility on Amazon (or elsewhere) that you got 5 or more years ago. How do people know you have a new book unless you advertise? * Overrated does not mean useless. Ten Ways Authors Can Use Facebook to Promote Their Books * Don’t use Facebook to promote your books. Let us explain: * Facebook is a party, have that mentality when you post or interact. * As An Advertising Platform. Some indie authors have seen success buying Facebook ads. Most don’t but some do. That said, it never makes sense for a traditionally published author to pay for ads. The margins don’t work. * Market Testing. Facebook ads are a great place to test book covers, titles, and marketing copy. Not sure which book cover is best? Buy ads for both covers and see which one gets more clicks. * Organizing a Launch Team. Facebook groups can still be a good place to organize a launch team, especially if your audience is older. * Facebook Live. This doesn’t work as well as it used to and may not work next year, but you can still get decent results from Facebook live, especially if you are targeting an older audience. If your audience is younger, you may want to go with YouTube live instead. * Create a private group for your hard core readers. This is what we have for our hard core fans. * Join groups that fit your genre and get active * Make sure you’ve set up alerts when someone mentions you or your novel(s) and go in and interact. (It’s a party, yes?) Share trivia or photos, or behind the scenes info. In this way you’re contributing to a conversation that’s already going on. * (Every now and then …) ask readers to follow your blog, or join your newsletter. You can explain to them (carefully) what’s going on with Facebook. * Announce book launches. It won’t do much, but it will do something   Featured Patron Women of the Bible: The Victorious, the Victims, the Virtuous, and the Vicious  (Affiliate Link) by Peter DeHaan Heal from broken relational patterns so you can choose safer friends. Sponsor: 5 Year Plan to Become a Bestselling Author This plan was crafted by Thomas & Jim to be step by step guide through the first five years of your writing career. Learn each quarter what to do to succeed and avoid the mistakes that hijack the success of most authors. Learn more at NovelMarketing.com/courses.

In this episode, we talk about why Facebook is overrated! Background When I joined Facebook, it was only for college students. When I purchased my first Facebook ad, they were called “Campus Fliers.” I was the marketing coordinator for one of the first political campaigns to use Facebook for statewide political advertisements in Texas. I have run marketing companies, purchased tens of thousands of dollars of Facebook ads and done dozens of hours of Facebook Live. I have taught at conferences on how Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm works. In short, I know what I am talking about when I say Facebook is nearly useless as a marketing platform for authors. It is overrated for the following reasons: Reason #1 Sharecropping The fundamental problem with building your platform on Facebook is that it is digital sharecropping. Sharecropping is when a wealthy landlord allows a poor person to farm his field in exchange for a share of the crops. The problem with sharecropping is that the poor farmer can be kicked off at any time from “his farm” since he doesn’t technically own it. Most of the economic advantages go to the landlord and most of the risk goes to the tenant. Sharecropping is a technique the rich have used to exploit the poor for millennia. There is nothing new under the sun. You don’t own Facebook. You sharecrop on Facebook’s digital land. Facebook gets nearly all of the economic advantages of your activity and if you find something that does advantage you, they will adjust their algotherm to stop you. I remember when Facebook groups were transcendent. Then when groups got too powerful they destroyed them in favor of pages. Now pages are de-optimized in favor of groups, but only new groups, not the legacy groups. So the cycle continues. Reason #2 State of Mind Facebook is a party where people talk about politics and show off photos of their grandchildren. Trying to sell something on Facebook is like selling Amway at a party. Now let’s say you throw your own party, a Tupperware party lets say, in this setting people are in the mood for hearing from you about your product. The medium is the message. Trying to break into someone’s political conversation with a commercial is very hard to do successfully. Throw your own party instead. Reason #3 EdgeRank Facebook has an algorithm called EdgeRank. I explain how EdgeRank works in this post. As we talked about in Novle Marketing Episode 123 the algorithm has been tweaked in many ways that hurt authors. Currently, any post about something not on Facebook (like a book for instance) will be hidden from about 96% of followers give or take depending on various EdgeRank factors. Let’s say that 1% of people who see a post about a book will go on to buy it (not an unrealistic conversion rate expectation). So, you have 1,000 fans on Facebook, only 4% will see the post or 40 people. Of those 40 people only 1% will buy it so 0.4 people. That rounds down to zero. To sell a single book through a Facebook page with the current EdgeRank algorithm you need 2,500 fans. Do you have 10,000 fans? Congratulations! You can expect to sell 4 books. Now some authors work long and hard to improve their EdgeRank score so they can sell maybe one book per 1000 fans but in reality most sales come from some other channel. Anyone who tells you otherwise is most likely looking at pre-2018 data. Anyone notice the difference between posting on their Page and their Profile? Jim’s example when he posted on winning the Christy Award a few weeks ago.

Last episode we talked about how to find book clubs, and how to get them to choose you, so if you haven’t listed to episode 164, you might want to listen to it first. In this episode, we’re going to talk about how to make a great impression on a book club, so they’ll invite you back … which means another batch of books sold in bulk. Did you like that alliteration, Thomas? Show Notes Add a Reading Group Resources Section to Your Book * Include discussion questions after each chapter (nonfiction) * Include discussion questions at the end of the book. (fiction) * At the end of your book, mention that you have Reading Club Resources on your website. Add a Reading Group Resources section to your website. * Include discussion questions on your website. * Record short “discussion kickstarter” videos and upload them to YouTube. * Add a bulk book ordering feature to your website. * Add slides for a powerpoint introducing the themes of the book Create a Leader’s Guide Things to consider including: * All the discussion questions from the book. * Bonus discussion questions * Meeting outline with timing suggestions. Assume the meeting will be 1 hour. It is easier for leaders to let segments go long rather than cut them short. * Icebreakers related to the topic. * If your book is inspirational, include prayer points/topics. * Related group activities * Food ideas for the snack/meal. Recipes for meals served in the story. Especially good for period stories. * Action steps that the leader can suggest to the group at the end, especially powerful for non-fiction books Participate * Offer to Skype in, or call in during one of the meetings * Put together a one sheet for your book with trivia and/or easter eggs * Share photos that inspired your book or real life locations * Cut a short video specific to that group * Get questions from the leader of the club and answer them on video ahead of time * Offer a freebie to the book club for signing up for your newsletter Follow Up * Send a thank you note to the organizer a few days later * Ask the organizer if they know of any other book clubs that might be interested in reading one of your books * Ask for a photo of the group holding your book and post it on social media, and remind folks that you love taking part in book clubs Sponsor: 5 Year Plan to Become a Bestselling Author This plan was crafted by Thomas & Jim to be step by step guide through the first five years of your writing career. Learn each quarter what to do to succeed and avoid the mistakes that hijack the success of most authors. Learn more at NovelMarketing.com/courses.   New Price: $199

In this episode we are going to talk about book clubs and how to get them choose your book. Intro * Book clubs buy more than one book * They have influence, they talk! And they post! * They’re often repeat customers (if you thrill them) Show Notes   Understand The Life of a Book Club Organizer * Super Busy * Big Reader * GoodReads power user * Frustrated that her book club members don’t always read the book and that people are hit and miss * She doesn’t pick books she hasn’t already read and loved. (or had recommended by a trusted friend).   Different Kinds of Groups * Formal Reading Groups * Informal Reading Groups * Bible Studies * Classes/Workshops * Meetup Groups (Mops, Austin Dog Owners, etc) * Online book clubs/groups   How to Attract Book Clubs * Write a good book that would be interesting to discuss. * Add discussion questions to each chapter (or at the end of the book). * Put an invite in the back of your book! * Email your list about your resources and willingness to Skype in * Watch social media and when your book is mentioned, comment about your willingness to participate * Share stories of participating in past book clubs. Share photos! Tag the book club leader and others if you can. * Prepare a one sheet to give to librarians. * Search for book clubs on meetup.com. * Have your launch team recommend your book in the clubs they are apart of. * Have a page on your website where reading group resources. Sponsor: 5 Year Plan to Become a Bestselling Author This plan was crafted by Thomas & Jim to be step by step guide through the first five years of your writing career. Learn quarter by quarter what to do to succeed and avoid the mistakes that hijack the success of most authors. Learn more at NovelMarketing.com/courses.

In this episode we are going to talk about how to overcome the fear of technology … And to help us tackle this subject … is Tara Wilder … Show Notes Tara Wilder is founder of Envivo an online marketer obsessed with the power of the web and how it can impact lives. She hates it when entrepreneurs and authors are not utilizing the power of the web because they’re stuck with tech or marketing. Her goal is to get them from stuck to unstoppable online. Questions: * Why is technology fear so toxic to marketing? * Why are so many people afraid of technology? * What are some of the first steps to getting more comfortable with new technology? * Where is the best place to learn technology? * What should people do when they get stuck? * Tara any final? Where to find Tera: * http://envivoweb.com * www.facebook.com/iamtarawilder * http://instagram.com/iamtarawilder Sponsor: MyBookTable is a way to quickly and easily build an online bookstore on your WordPress website. Use it to rank #1 on Google for your book and to boost your book sales on sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Get it free at MyBookTable.com. Novel Marketing Patrons save 25% on MyBookTable Pro. www.mybooktable.com.

In this episode we are going to talk about ghostwriting … how it works, and how you can apply that to your career and help make you money. To help us with that, we’ve invited Arlene Gale onto the show. Arlene is a writing coach, and a multi award winning, number one bestselling author. She’s ghost written hundreds of books and thousands of articles. And she’s just released her own 8th book, Book Business Blueprint: Build Credibility, Stand Out from the Competition, and Skyrocket Sales by Writing Your Book, which became a  bestseller in September. Show Notes Questions * Most people are familiar with ghost writing, but I’ve heard a lot of writers describe it incorrectly… can you set the record straight? * Talk to us about the issue of not having your name on the book. I have a quite a few friends who refuse to ghost write a book unless some acknowledgement is given that the “author” had help. They don’t feel it’s right for someone to pretend they wrote the book when they didn’t. * Give us a few pros about ghostwriting, then a few cons * How to Ghost writers get paid, is it a royalty or one time payment? * Do you ever take a lower fixed cost and a percentage of sales? * Can ghostwriting be a way to supplement your income? * https://www.upwork.com/ * https://www.upwork.com/cat/writing/ * What skills do you need to be a successful ghost writer? * What is there about ghostwriting that novelists can apply to their career? * “He who gets the credit gets the blame.” (Thomas’ fortune cookie.) Where can we find out more about you and what you do, Arlene? * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BookWritingBusiness/ * Twitter: @arlene_gale * Website: bookwritingbusiness.com Featured Patron: * Mary DeMuth and her book, The 7 Deadly Friendships * Do you have a friendship where there’s there’s something wrong but you can’t put your finger on it? Toxic friendships happen to everyone, but we seldom identify the underlying issues. * Maybe you’re bewildered, paralyzed to move forward. * In The 7 Deadly Friendships, Mary DeMuth reveals the seven different types of toxic relationships and empowers you to identify the messiest relationships, find out what went wrong, determine whether it’s time to let the friendship go, and ultimately find healing. Sponsor: 5 Year Plan to Become a Bestselling Novelist * We created this plan to make you a bestselling author. Guaranteed. It’s a step by step guide that teaches you the exercises you need to do, the books you need to read, and the writing you need to be accomplishing quarter by quarter. Even if you’re a published author, this course will show you the areas you need to get stronger in to hit that bestseller status. And as we mentioned, it’s guaranteed. In two ways. If you don’t become a bestselling author after you finish the course, we give you your money back. And if you get 30 days into the course and you find out it’s not for you, we give you your money back. Is this course for everyone? No. You have to work hard. But you knew that already, didn’t you?

In this episode we are going to talk about how to get 10,000 readers and then keep them happy. To assist us with that, we have a very special guest, a great friend of Thomas’ and mine, Susan May Warren … or Susie to her friends. Susie is a USA Today bestselling, multi-award winning novelist of more than 65 books, she’s an outstanding teacher, speaker, wife, mother, scuba diver, dancer, skydiver, and a simply outstanding person. Show Notes * This is a show about marketing, but one of the things I loved hearing about, especially when I was getting started, was how other authors got started. Can you tell how you got into publishing in the first place? * You have two audiences. Your readers, and your students. How do you keep those separate from a marketing standpoint? * 30k followers … how did you go about getting your first 10,000 followers? *     They’re not your customers, they’re your friends. They want to know your life, what you’re working on. They want to hear about the products, but we want to know about the person behind the stories. So Susie shares aspects of her life … readers feel like they know her. She’s a friend exchanging emails … * People meet authors through a bookstore … back of the book, a pop up on a website, would you like a free book? A slider … picture, short message … make that tempting. * Everything goes to one source. Whenever interacting … if there’s numerous places, no central hub … there’s a problem. What post? About life. Football. Watching football. Travel … put things on FB that are real. That is life. Both FB personal and author page. ·      How are you continuing to build your list? * One of the things you do extremely well is stay in touch with those followers. How do you do it? * People that encounter you, rave about you … what’s your secret? * How do people find out more about you? * For novels: SusanMayWarren.com * For books and teaching: LearnHowToWriteANovel.com and NovelAcademy.com Featured Patron * Jenny Lamont Leo … the author of, You’re the Cream in My Coffee * In 1928, small-town woman Marjorie Corrigan travels to Chicago and thinks she sees her first love–believed killed in the Great War–alive and well in a Chicago train station. Suddenly everything in her life is up for grabs. * https://www.amazon.com/Youre-Cream-Coffee-Roaring-Twenties-ebook/dp/B01JD9XJ3S

In this episode, we’re going to talk about how the Snowflake Method of writing a novel can significantly improve your stories and writing process. And to do that, I’m going to play an interview I did with Randy Ingermanson, the inventor of the Snowflake Method. Randy Intro: Randy Ingermanson, along with Tricia Goyer, discovered me way back in 2006 and we’ve been fast friends ever since. He’s brilliant … you know that phrase, “Well it’s not like he’s a rocket scientist?” Randy could be. He has his Phd in physics, so he is a seriously intelligent gentleman. He’s also a brilliant novelist, non-fiction writer, teacher and one of the finest men I know. A number of years ago he designed a way of writing novels called the Snowflake Method and it’s been downloaded around the world more than six million times. I interviewed Randy a few days ago, so you’re going to hear where the Snowflake Method came from, and how you can use it to improve your writing and your marketing. Interview: * The Snowflake Method has made you known all over the world, can you give us the brief story of how it came to be? * Can you take us through the 10 Steps of the Snowflake Method? * Step 1: One hour to write one sentence that tells what your novel is about. Summarize at a high level. * Randy’s first novel: “A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul.” * Twelve words! Step 2: Write a one paragraph summary of your story. An expansion of your one sentence summary. Five sentences … the three act structure. Editors and agents will know Step 3: Characters, high level, spell out who the hero is, his goal, conflict, values. Step 4: One page summary/synopsis Step 5: A page for each character. Step 6: Take each paragraph from Step 4 and expand to six page synopsis Step 7: Fill out a character Bible for each of them Step 8: Break your six page synopsis into scenes (say 100 scenes) Step 9: For each scene, drill down further. Step 10: Write the novel * Talk to us a bit about how the Snowflake Method became, and is, a powerful marketing tool for your own products and teaching … * Talk to us about how the Snowflake Method can work for plotters, and how it can work for pantsers. * What is the most common thing people say about the Snowflake Method after using it? * What are the three or four primary advantages to using the Snowflake Method? * Who doesn’t the Snowflake Method work for? * You started with the doc, now you have software and a book and an audio book … tell us about why you developed those and how different learning styles fit better with one or the other. * Where can people find out more about you, Randy? Both your novels and your teaching. * Ingermanson.com * AdvancedFictionWriting.com And again, you can find out more about Randy at: * Ingermanson.com * Advanced Fiction Writing.com Our Featured Patron this week is: Benjamin Ellefson What If You Were Transported to a Land Without Color? And the Only One Who Could Restore it Was You? When Alvin gets a mysterious pack of gum for his birthday, he of course blows a bubble as large as he can. But when that bubble carries him away to a far-off land where everything is gray, he’s in for the adventure of his life, and more than a little danger. In the multi award winning, The Land without Color,

In this episode we are going to talk about how to take charge of your career in ways that will make it fly higher, faster, and for longer … And to help us figure all that out are two special guests, Megan Haskell, and Greta Boris. Megan and Greta are bestselling, award winning authors that co-own Orange County Writers, a network of published and aspiring authors. Welcome to the program, ladies! Show Notes Questions * We know we should take charge of our career, but many of us aren’t even sure what that means? Can you explain that a bit? * Guide for helping you overcome the overwhelm. * Figuring out which pathway to take. Which thing do I need to know more about? * How patient are you? * How willing are you to give up the reins? * Are you organized enough to be a project manager? Set deadlines and MEET them? Can you do that? * What are the areas that, if we changed them, can make the most immediate impact? * Finding time to write seems to be an evergreen issue … what counsel do you give writers? * You have to establish habits. Start small. Then build on them. * Triggers. Put yourself in the right mind set. For example, opening up the doc, and re-reading, listening to Brain FM. That’s the trigger. * Prep time. Plan. Schedule it. And knowing what you’re going to right before you sit down. * Spend the first few minutes before each writing session Brain Dumping * How can we use the “Brain Dump” technique in order to write faster? * No delete, no backspace, no editing at all. This uses a different part of your brain, you’re seeing snapshots, you can get into a creative flow easier. If you have to think about periods … you eliminate all those distractions. * Include sensory detail … 2 minutes before you start writing the scene. Puts you in the mind set to starting writing. * Can help you untangle things … brain is freed up to find an answer. * We know you have some killer productivity hacks that will help authors, what are some of the most powerful? * Write in sprints, Pomodoro * Be mobile as possible. Scrivner is on every device. Can work whenever there’s five or ten minutes. Fifty or a hundred words on mobile devices. It all adds up! * Don’t waste time on social media. * Use the Enneagram personality test to see who your characters are * There’s been a lot of great ideas you’ve talked about … but if there was only one thing you could suggest our listeners do, what would it be? * Schedule the writing time, and * Brain Dump- turn off the inner editor Where can we find out more about Orange County Writers and about each of you? * OC Writers: http://ocwriters.network/ * Greta: http://gretaboris.com/ * Megan: http://www.meganhaskell.com/ Featured Patron: * Carrie Daws and her story, The Embers Series * Inspector Cassandra McCarthy never thought she’d be raising her two daughters alone, but her husband’s unexpected death forced her to find a career. Now working beside a retired Special Operations soldier and veteran fireman, she serves her small North Carolina town, protecting them from hazards they don’t understand. She loves what she does and trusts God to provide—until a hurricane and a series of unexplained fires hits too close to home. What will it cost Cassandra to protect the citizens of Silver Heights? Sponsor: * 5 Year Plan to Become a Bestselling Author