I’m an author who loves to geek out with other authors or wannabe authors on webinars and anywhere else. We have our own book gobbledegeek language, like “go on Goodreads because everybody’s mind is in “book mode” on there.” We all nod in agreement and say “yeah!” We love talking about books almost as much as writing them. We network our way to success.
We also love working on our blurbs. We love talking about our blurbs and comparing them. Blurbs, blurbs, blurbs. The main rule is to “stop talking!” Nobody cares what you have to say and how much detail you are saying it in. Keep it concise and to the point or you won’t even sell one book. Amazon only shows the first or second line. Get to the point and front load that thing. One girl summarized her entire novel in one line and her sales instantly jumped. She got the gold star!
We get a lot of bad reviews when you put your book on Goodreads, and webinar hosters tell you to not read the bad reviews. Like anybody is listening to that advice.
But we get a lot of good advice at webinars. You gotta have a newsletter to send out to your list, and tell your audience all about your recent vacation, all the problems you are having trying to write your book, and then tell them you are going to be putting out a book in six months because it is “10X more effective” to make it personal and foreshadow a book that isn’t yet for sale. This marketing strategy does work, and even if you have to pay to send out newsletters with no planned book release date at all, and simply talk about a book that you recently read, you will keep your list interested in reading the book when it does come out.
One of the webinar hostesses ”lost control” of her book when Harlequin Romance bought the rights and asked for her opinion on the cover they designed. She said “absolutely not!” because it had a “crazy sexy” cover design. We all perked up our eyes to our screens then. She said they printed the nude cover anyways because “her” opinion didn’t count on what was now “their” book!. Loud “uuuuhhhh” sound all around.
As much as we love novels, “novellas” make our hearts flutter. Such a pretty, fancy word rrrrrolling off our tongues. And they are so quick to write, and even quicker to sell for 99 cents! Then the compounding effect of combining all of them into a series which sells for $3.99, and there’s more!! You can re-brand, re-do, and re-publish them. Re re re, to infinity and beyond!!
Today’s webinar hostess was a “hy-brid/”, no, not a car, but a self-published author AND a traditionally published author. A brand new publishing term is coined. The apex!
The End.
photo ~ Unsplash
This post has been modified from my original post today on http://annhoy.com/