You know you want to write a book. I can help.
[image: i-cant-see-you-la-la-la-la-la]Ignore them.
When they leave a comment on the blog, read it, maybe, but don’t respond.
If they ask a question on social media or by email, ignore it.
Don’t offer new information, say, by posting to your blog or updating your website.
Instead, disappear for weeks at a time.
If you want to compete in the business of being an author in 2016 you had better be approachable and responsive.
Or someone who is will take your readers.
And their money.
I am not using “machine” in the cool and/or hip sense, as in, your website will magically cause magic to magically happen.
I am using it the sense of a mechanism which does a thing. Because your website is probably an online brochure, limiting, perhaps even repelling, connection. Do these things well, and your site will have the mechanics to allow, even foster, connection. (These are mechanical steps, not social engineering, which is a subject for a different marketing-based post.)
Quick and dirty, not necessarily in order of importance unless otherwise stated.
[image: front-cover-perspective300x420]Just fine, thank you very much.
Best Beloved finally had time to put on her accountant hat this week and gave me numbers about book sales this year.
The numbers themselves are small. It’s sad, but I’ll get over it.
Here’s the wildly unexpected part: sales of Through the Fog, which I give away free just for signing up for my fiction newsletter, are the highest of all my books, and higher than they’ve ever been for this book.
Prepare for a long rambling rant with overtones of self-analysis.
I have written before about using free as a strategy, not a price.
Please, make business decisions based on evidence, a plan, not hoping and wishing.
I’ve read mention of people giving away tens of thousands of digital downloads of their book, and receiving a few dozen reviews and the equivalent of $700 in related sales.
If the effort involved is minimal and the reward is $700, I guess I can see that. I suppose I have to reserve judgment until I have more data.
Yes, I want lots of people to read my books.
What I don’t want is for lots of people to just line up and download my books. It’s not the same thing.
… more … “Free is Not a Price and Hope is Not a Business Plan”
[image: selling-sold-sold-paid]Fiction authors might want to find something else to read. Today we’re all business.
Selling books is no way to make money. But you’re a business person and you know that some things that don’t directly earn money are still vital to the sales process.
Does a book fit into that picture?
Let’s talk numbers.
… more … “ROI: Is Writing a Book a Good Investment in Your Business?”
[image: quotes]Picture the scene:
You and a friend are having lunch by the water. Their phone rings. They chat for a moment, hang up, and turn to you and tell you it was Bob.
If you’re nosy, you ask a question.
“What did he . . . ” What?
Aver? Shout? Insist? Snarl?
… more … ““There are only two possible dialog tags,” he said.”
[image: 400]Post #400.
That’s 400 articles.
144,849 words about writing, indie publishing, and commonsense zero-cost DIY marketing for authors.
Thanks for showing up every week and reading them.
By a wide margin, the most popular post yet has been a list of a bunch of other posts. Seems y’all like things packaged neatly, and I respect that.
What else do you like? What’s been missing? What would make this place so valuable you’d stand in line to pay for my help?
[image: little-boxes]As I approach post #400 (this is #398) I thought it time for a few changes.
As I focus more and more on writing fiction, I’m doing less and less free coaching and publishing support. Gone, sad to say, are the days of everything I know is free, all you have to do is ask. Busier writing means I need to make every minute count.
Here are a few of the changes, with a great big ask down below.
[image: dreaming]Seth writes about Harper Lee’s double miracle at The Domino Project. You should read it. I’ll wait.
# # #
I hope you read it or what I write here will make less sense.
Dreaming is wonderful. It’s vital to an artist. No dreams, no art.
Dreaming is not a business plan.
[image: the-best-part-of-waking-up]My finger hovered over the mouse button, ready to click “Send” and turn That She is Made of Truth over to Tom for editing.
But wait; there’s more!
Rather than tossing a soiled manuscript over the transom and letting Tom wipe it down before he even begins work, why not tidy it up myself, and let him spend his time doing what he does best?
I always run my manuscripts through AutoCrit before asking anyone else to work with them. It’s the least I can do (and sometimes, the least is exactly what I do.)
… more … “How Not to Throw a Mess Over the Transom; or, Who Cares More, You or Your Editor?”
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