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	<title>Tracey Writes</title>
	
	<link>http://traceywritesbooks.com</link>
	<description>An Author's Adventures in e-Publishing</description>
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		<title>Using Word’s Document Map for Outlining Your Book</title>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2013 04:33:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tracey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Writing Your Book]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://traceywritesbooks.com/?p=826</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>I still use Microsoft Word extensively for my writing projects. But first, I want to point out that this article is not about which writing software is better. I know some die-hard Scrivener fans, and some writers who like the simplicity of a no frills text editor. Writers tend to have strong opinions on their preferred writing [...]</p><p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/using-words-document-map-for-outlining-your-book/">Using Word&#8217;s Document Map for Outlining Your Book</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I still use Microsoft Word extensively for my writing projects.</p>
<p>But first, I want to point out that this article is <strong>not</strong> about which writing software is better. I know some die-hard Scrivener fans, and some writers who like the simplicity of a no frills text editor. Writers tend to have strong opinions on their preferred writing tool, but I gotta say, I&#8217;m a big believer in <em>just use what you like best</em>. There is no &#8216;best&#8217; software. I just happen to prefer Word.</p>
<p>If you like Word too, and want to get more out of it, then perhaps this article will be of use (or at least that was my goal for writing it).</p>
<p>Which brings me to main focus &#8211; <strong>using the Document Map feature in Word to quickly jump around the document</strong> from scene to scene or chapter to chapter.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t write linearly &#8211; I didn&#8217;t with my non-fiction books, and I don&#8217;t with my fiction books. I like jumping around and &#8216;layering&#8217; my books as the moods strikes.</p>
<p>For those that haven&#8217;t used this feature before, you can easily turn it on by going to the View tab, and clicking the checklist (<em>it won&#8217;t be pink &#8211; I just highlighted it here so you can see it more easily</em>).</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-827" alt="document map 1 Using Words Document Map for Outlining Your Book" src="http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/document-map-1.gif" width="314" height="116" title="Using Words Document Map for Outlining Your Book photo" /></p>
<p>This will open up a panel on the left hand side of your screen.</p>
<p>If you are in a new document, it will be probably be blank, but if you are in a current working document &#8211; depending on how you&#8217;ve set up your styles &#8211; you&#8217;ll see a whole bunch of headings and other notes here.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s what my current WIP&#8217;s document map looks like:</p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-829 alignleft" alt="document map 2 Using Words Document Map for Outlining Your Book" src="http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/document-map-2.gif" width="336" height="572" title="Using Words Document Map for Outlining Your Book photo" /></p>
<p>You can see fairly clearly that I&#8217;ve listed all my chapters sequentially and I&#8217;ve also got notes of what happens in the scene, and sometimes other notes including things I still need to do.</p>
<p>How do you get your document map to look like this?</p>
<p><em><strong>Heading Styles.</strong></em></p>
<p>As I&#8217;m writing the document, I attribute my chapters and notes to different headings.</p>
<p>Chapter 1 (for example) will get the Heading 1 style. Scene description will get heading 2 and sometimes I&#8217;ll write extra notes using heading 3.</p>
<p>This is a quick guide of which styles I personally use, although you should play around with it for what works best for you:</p>
<p>Heading 1 attribute: ACT #, Chapter #<br />
Heading 2 attribute: POV, Scene Description, Scene # (<em>if more than one scene per chapter</em>)<br />
Heading 3 attribute: Notes, Word Counts, To Do&#8217;s</p>
<p>The hierarchy of the Document Map shows Heading 1&#8242;s first, Heading 2&#8242;s indented under that, and Heading 3&#8242;s indented further again.</p>
<p>You can also open or close anything under the Heading styles using the tiny + or &#8211; box next to the main heading. This helps if you have a lot of notes, and just want to skip quickly around to each chapter.</p>
<p>I like using the Document Map so that I can quickly jump around my manuscript by clicking on the left which then brings me to the correct place on the right side of the screen, so I can continue writing.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s much better than scrolling through your document trying to navigate to earlier or later chapters which can be a pain for large books. It&#8217;s also a good method to see at a glance what&#8217;s going on &#8211; to see the big picture.</p>
<div id="attachment_836" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 404px"><img class="size-full wp-image-836" alt="heading styles Using Words Document Map for Outlining Your Book" src="http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/heading-styles.gif" width="394" height="84" title="Using Words Document Map for Outlining Your Book photo" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Heading Styles</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>You might be wondering by now, what happens to these notes once you&#8217;ve finished your manuscript. I delete them.</p>
<p>Using the document map like this is only useful in your drafts (and I keep a few draft versions), so you will need to delete anything that isn&#8217;t necessary in your final clean document before you upload to stores.</p>
<p>I do keep the notes in until the very last-minute though. They are even included when my editor goes through it. She likes that she can see a good overview of the book at a glance and says it makes her job easier, too.</p>
<p><em><strong>Using Commenting to keep track of details.</strong></em></p>
<p>Another small tip I do is write notes such as character hair color and so on, by using the commenting feature of Word.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-839" alt="commenting Using Words Document Map for Outlining Your Book" src="http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/commenting.gif" width="678" height="344" title="Using Words Document Map for Outlining Your Book photo" /></p>
<p><em> * No laughing at the story &#8211; it&#8217;s still very rough first draft <img src='http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt="icon wink Using Words Document Map for Outlining Your Book" class='wp-smiley' title="Using Words Document Map for Outlining Your Book photo" /> </em></p>
<p>Usually I do this for minor characters only (as I prefer to have a separate scene and character document for major characters and locations).</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a quick way to find out what hair or eye color you&#8217;ve made for one of your characters as you can view all of  your comments at once by opening the Reviewing Pane (from the Review tab). You can either open it in place of the Document Map or at the bottom of your working document.</p>
<p>I hope you&#8217;ve found these tips useful for using Word to write your next book.</p>
<p>Happy writing,</p>
<p>Tracey <img src='http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt="icon smile Using Words Document Map for Outlining Your Book" class='wp-smiley' title="Using Words Document Map for Outlining Your Book photo" /> </p>
<p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/using-words-document-map-for-outlining-your-book/">Using Word&#8217;s Document Map for Outlining Your Book</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~4/KdvOh2BcBvo" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Amazon bought Goodreads – What does this mean for Authors?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~3/8gfOgfUDK8M/</link>
		<comments>http://traceywritesbooks.com/amazon-bought-goodreads-what-does-this-mean-for-authors/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Mar 2013 02:08:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tracey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Becoming an Indie Author]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://traceywritesbooks.com/?p=813</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Lions and Tigers and Bears – Oh My! I received an email from Goodreads this morning, informing me that Amazon has just acquired them, and I knew immediately that this was going to create a huge stir in the indie author community. I was right – boards such as the newly renamed kboards.com are abuzz [...]</p><p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/amazon-bought-goodreads-what-does-this-mean-for-authors/">Amazon bought Goodreads – What does this mean for Authors?</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>Lions and Tigers and Bears – Oh My!</em></p>
<p>I received an email from Goodreads this morning, informing me that Amazon has just acquired them, and I knew immediately that this was going to create a huge stir in the indie author community. I was right – boards such as the newly renamed <a href="http://www.kboards.com/index.php?board=60.0">kboards.com</a> are abuzz with speculation – what does this mean for us? Oh woe, Amazon is going to screw us, oh doom.</p>
<p>Most people don’t like change, and this is extremely evident in the author world (we are a skittish bunch).</p>
<p>But since I like to look at things from all angles I wanted to have a think about this before I commented. I&#8217;ve read a few <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/28/amazon-acquires-goodreads_n_2974572.html">news reports</a>, a few <a href="http://www.hughhowey.com/amazon-and-goodreads/">blog posts</a>, a few <a href="https://plus.google.com/111157012715449223843/posts/4domAQ4dpEF">forum discussions</a>. Admittedly this is all second-hand information – I’m not privy to any of the inner workings of Amazon or Goodreads, but it’s good to get some initial impressions and opinions before I formed my own.</p>
<p>At the moment, my thoughts are this – <em>it’s a good thing</em> (as Martha would say).</p>
<p><strong>What does Amazon have, more than any other site? = Books</strong></p>
<p><strong>What does Goodreads have, more than any other site? = Readers</strong></p>
<p>Bringing the very thing that the readers want, to their fingertips, will make it easier to purchase their favorite books (you just know that Amazon is going to integrate an easy way for readers to buy books – many people are speculating already that they may introduce a buy button or at least a link directly to the Amz book page).</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-815" alt="goodreads amazon Amazon bought Goodreads – What does this mean for Authors?" src="http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/goodreads-amazon.jpg" width="648" height="383" title="Amazon bought Goodreads – What does this mean for Authors? photo" /></p>
<p>Many people currently complain that Goodreads can be clunky and hard to find your way around, if there is a tuck and tweak to the website to create a better user experience, and we all know that Amazon is well-known for tweaking their own site for maximum efficiency and (obviously) revenue, that can only help to improve the overall reader experience.</p>
<p>True, it does mean that the largest reader social site online right now will now promote Amz books, and not other stores. You already know that I’m against the exclusivity of Amazon’s Select program preferring wider distribution, however, a one click buy will make it much easier for readers.</p>
<p>So <em>for readers</em>, I can see this acquisition is a very good thing.</p>
<p><b>But what about authors?</b></p>
<p>Bringing books directly to readers is what Amazon has always been about from the moment they first introduced the Kindle.</p>
<p>Since they did so back in 2007 a new world opened up for authors. The rise of the independent author rose unlike any other time in history, and it created a way for authors to get their product directly into the hands of the consumer without having to go through a middleman.</p>
<p>That move was revolutionary and I for one am so thankful for the opportunities I have today because of it.</p>
<p>This latest move &#8211; Amazon acquiring Goodreads &#8211; was all about Amazon acquiring more customers for their business. Specifically – readers for their Kindle eBooks.</p>
<p><b>More readers for ebooks means more income for authors.</b></p>
<p>Let me repeat that &#8211; more readers buying ebooks, means more income for authors.</p>
<p>Yes, all the income will come from one store (although customers still do have a choice where to buy as they always have). But more readers and therefore buyers, has to be good for authors.</p>
<p>And don’t think that Apple (especially) and perhaps Kobo (although I think B&amp;N doesn&#8217;t have much fight left in them) will ignore this. They&#8217;ll be looking for new ways to acquire new customers. This news will fire them up to try to entice readers over to their stores to buy books, too. Again making it better for authors.</p>
<p>We’ll see some interesting moves from them in the future – if they are smart.</p>
<p><i>But won’t Amazon change Goodreads?</i></p>
<p>They didn’t change Shelfari when they acquired them. They just integrated Shelfari into the Amz site with extra metadata including character names, series info, etc.</p>
<p>They didn’t take away Createspace’s ability to distribute elsewhere. You can still get your print books into other online stores with extended distribution.</p>
<p>When they started KDP (before it was called that), over time they&#8217;ve made it better and easier for authors.</p>
<p>Everything they&#8217;ve acquired at this point has only made better opportunities for authors. And right now, I can only see that this acquisition is better for authors too, by making it better for readers.</p>
<p>Let’s hope I’m right <img src='http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt="icon wink Amazon bought Goodreads – What does this mean for Authors?" class='wp-smiley' title="Amazon bought Goodreads – What does this mean for Authors? photo" /> </p>
<p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/amazon-bought-goodreads-what-does-this-mean-for-authors/">Amazon bought Goodreads – What does this mean for Authors?</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~4/8gfOgfUDK8M" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Read an Ebook Week – My Results</title>
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		<comments>http://traceywritesbooks.com/read-an-ebook-week-my-results/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:38:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tracey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing Your Book]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://traceywritesbooks.com/?p=788</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Last week I participated in Read an Ebook Week. I got the email from Smashwords and figured it would be a good boost to my books that were having rather lackluster sales. If nothing else, at least I could get a few more eyeballs on them. So, I discounted four of my books by 50%, and four [...]</p><p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/read-an-ebook-week-my-results/">Read an Ebook Week &#8211; My Results</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-791" alt="ebookweeklogoweb Read an Ebook Week   My Results" src="http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ebookweeklogoweb.jpg" width="300" height="122" title="Read an Ebook Week   My Results photo" />Last week I participated in <em>Read an Ebook Week</em>.</p>
<p>I got the email from Smashwords and figured it would be a good boost to my books that were having rather lackluster sales. If nothing else, at least I could get a few more eyeballs on them.</p>
<p>So, I discounted four of my books by 50%, and four by 75% through the &#8216;Manage Site-Wide Promotions&#8217; on the Smashwords dashboard, and sat back feeling a smug (although really not expecting much).</p>
<p>For sake of comparison four books were non-fiction, four were fiction (two novels, and two &#8216;collections&#8217;).</p>
<p>The whole time I kept thinking what a good promotion it was, and how I wish Amazon would do something similar making it easy for publishers to discount books for a limited time.</p>
<p>And then it hit me. We can change the price at Amazon to whatever we like, whenever we like. Why don&#8217;t I just do my own &#8216;sale&#8217; over there at the same time?</p>
<p>I changed the price of all eight of my titles that were in the promotion to the equivalent discounts on Amazon and put a note on all my descriptions:</p>
<blockquote><p>** <em>Discounted by 75% for a Limited Time</em> **</p>
<p>In celebration of Read an Ebook Week, this title is on sale between March 3-9. After that it will return to the full list price of $3.99.</p></blockquote>
<h2>Results</h2>
<p>Nothing happened with the non-fiction. No sales on Smashwords and sales actually went down on Amazon. It seems that people are very wary when it comes to low priced nonfiction books.  As soon as I increased the prices again on Amazon, sales returned to normal.</p>
<p>The collections didn&#8217;t sell on Smashwords, but did well on Amazon. I had increased sales and my ranking improved quite a bit. Probably not enough that I want to leave them at the lower price though.</p>
<p>The novels DID sell on Smashwords. Sold a couple of each at the 75% discount. Sales on Amazon were marginally higher, but not enough to show any real significant changes with ranking. I&#8217;ve since returned them to normal price.</p>
<h2>Thoughts</h2>
<p>Overall I liked the promotion and would (will) do it again. <em>I think they have another similar type of promotion in June or July? </em> Obviously 75% discount is going to do much better than 50%, and full length novels/books will do better than short stories.</p>
<p>Next time I might try putting a few of them free to see what happens.</p>
<p>Tracey <img src='http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt="icon smile Read an Ebook Week   My Results" class='wp-smiley' title="Read an Ebook Week   My Results photo" /> </p>
<p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/read-an-ebook-week-my-results/">Read an Ebook Week &#8211; My Results</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~4/QPLAT0CG0n4" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Do You Have a Call-To-Action Inside Your Book?</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~3/QHsAtv9EZww/</link>
		<comments>http://traceywritesbooks.com/call-to-action-back-matter/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Feb 2013 05:17:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tracey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing Your Book]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://traceywritesbooks.com/?p=770</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>You&#8217;ve written a great story, had it edited, formatted, got a gorg cover and your book is ready to be published. Before you do &#8212; you might want to check your back matter. Do you have a call to action for what you want readers to do next? Well, you should. If a reader has [...]</p><p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/call-to-action-back-matter/">Do You Have a Call-To-Action Inside Your Book?</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You&#8217;ve written a great story, had it edited, formatted, got a gorg cover and your book is ready to be published.</p>
<p>Before you do &#8212; you might want to check your back matter.</p>
<p>Do you have a <em><strong>call to action</strong></em> for what you want readers to do next?</p>
<p>Well, you should.</p>
<p>If a reader has gotten to the end of your book, it means they probably loved it (of course), and may want to read more of what you&#8217;ve got.</p>
<p>So tell them what to do next.</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-773" alt="kindle linktonextbook Do You Have a Call To Action Inside Your Book? " src="http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/kindle-linktonextbook.jpg" width="324" height="332" title="Do You Have a Call To Action Inside Your Book?  photo" /></p>
<p>Here is what I do (<em>ymmv</em>):</p>
<p><strong>1.</strong> Add a link to your next book (either the next in the series, or a similar book in that genre). Not a link to <em>every</em> book you have though, this will make customers overwhelmed. Just one or two links is enough.</p>
<p><em>It may mean, if you haven&#8217;t written the next in the series, or have no other books, that you will need to come and update your back matter when you have more written. </em></p>
<p>AND</p>
<p><strong>2.</strong> A link to your mailing list. <strong>This one is important</strong>. I neglected this for my first year as an indie, and wish I hadn&#8217;t. The key to every successful indie author I&#8217;ve <del>stalked</del> researched is that they have a list of people who&#8217;ve signed up to hear about their new releases. This not only helps get sales from those people when you write new books (yah for fans), but those initial sales will boost your rank and push you higher on new releases lists and other genre lists on Amazon (and other retailers).</p>
<p><em>I&#8217;ve also noted that successful authors ONLY send emails to their lists when they have a new book, or a special sale. Don&#8217;t waste your readers time with random newsletters about the writing process or your cat) . </em></p>
<p>AND</p>
<p><strong>3.</strong> A thank-you for reading your book. Your reader will appreciate it. (And it&#8217;s always good to leave on a positive note).</p>
<p>OPTIONAL</p>
<p><strong>4.</strong> A request for reviews. I don&#8217;t do this, however it can be very effective. Asking for their time to write an honest review on Amazon (or other retailer) does help boost the amount of reviews that you will get. Keep your request polite and to the point.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s it!</p>
<p>Just adding these to your back matter will help build your sales and platform.</p>
<p>Happy writing &amp; selling!</p>
<p>Tracey <img src='http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt="icon smile Do You Have a Call To Action Inside Your Book? " class='wp-smiley' title="Do You Have a Call To Action Inside Your Book?  photo" /> </p>
<p><em>P.S. I was asked why you wouldn&#8217;t put links to all your books and let customers choose. My answer: By all means have a list of all the books you&#8217;ve written if you want at the end. I wouldn&#8217;t put links on them all though. </em></p>
<p><em>What I do is as soon as the story hits THE END, I say a quick thank you for reading, then a link to the next book (or another book) and then my mailing list link.</em></p>
<p><em>On the next page is a very brief &#8216;about the author&#8217; section with a sentence or two about me (or my pen name) and the bibliography of all the books I&#8217;ve written under that name. My bibliography doesn&#8217;t have links &#8212; only the one or two books I&#8217;ve linked after the story does. </em></p>
<p><em>I hope that makes it more clear <img src='http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt="icon smile Do You Have a Call To Action Inside Your Book? " class='wp-smiley' title="Do You Have a Call To Action Inside Your Book?  photo" /> </em></p>
<p><em>P.S.S. January was my best sales month so far! Income is slowly creeping up &#8211; yah! Also I&#8217;ve just finished my second novel which should be published at the end of this month. Fingers crossed readers like sexy men with wings <img src='http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt="icon wink Do You Have a Call To Action Inside Your Book? " class='wp-smiley' title="Do You Have a Call To Action Inside Your Book?  photo" />  What am I saying? &#8211; of course they do &#8211; duh.</em></p>
<p><em>P.S.S.S. I&#8217;m also doing a self-editing course this month &#8211; it&#8217;s going well so far. I&#8217;m hoping it helps me write even </em>betterer<em>. <img src='http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt="icon wink Do You Have a Call To Action Inside Your Book? " class='wp-smiley' title="Do You Have a Call To Action Inside Your Book?  photo" /> </em></p>
<p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/call-to-action-back-matter/">Do You Have a Call-To-Action Inside Your Book?</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~4/QHsAtv9EZww" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Finished Your First Novel? What to Do Now.</title>
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		<comments>http://traceywritesbooks.com/finished-your-first-novel-what-to-do-now/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:52:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tracey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing Your Book]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://traceywritesbooks.com/?p=748</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>I just finished writing my very first EVER novel. No, not the Nano novel (that would be my second novel which is still in unfinished first draft stage which I’ll probably get to next year). I started this novel back in July, so it’s taken nearly six months to get from first word to live, [...]</p><p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/finished-your-first-novel-what-to-do-now/">Finished Your First Novel? What to Do Now.</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I just finished writing my very first EVER novel. No, not the Nano novel (<em>that would be my second novel which is still in unfinished first draft stage which I’ll probably get to next year</em>).</p>
<p>I started this novel back in July, so it’s taken nearly six months to get from first word to live, but today it’s now available on Amazon (more retailers coming in the next few weeks).</p>
<p>Of course that begs the question – what now? Now that it’s available for sale, what are the next steps?</p>
<p>I’ve written my plan of what I am going to do to help increase visibility and (hopefully) sales, in case it might help any of you.</p>
<h2>Step 1: Celebrate your achievement.</h2>
<div id="attachment_749" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><img class="size-medium wp-image-749" alt="yellow bowls 300x300 Finished Your First Novel? What to Do Now." src="http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/yellow-bowls-300x300.jpg" width="300" height="300" title="Finished Your First Novel? What to Do Now. photo" /><p class="wp-caption-text">My &#8216;I Just Wrote a Novel&#8217; yellow bowls.</p></div>
<p>Writing a novel is hard work. It’s certainly a labor of love, but at the end I don’t think enough writers celebrate their achievements.</p>
<p>So you have my full permission to shout out the window, throw an impromptu disco party with your kids, and go shopping for some beautiful yellow bowls that will sit in your open shelves and make you smile. Or at least that’s what I did, your celebrations might involve something else entirely – like blue bowls for instance.</p>
<h2>Step 2: Blog about it.</h2>
<p>I’ve come to the conclusion that for fiction books, marketing is too hit and miss to be done effectively (works awesome for nonfiction, but not so much for fiction). But that doesn’t mean that you can’t inadvertently promote your new book. In fact the more eyeballs you can get to your book, the more chances you have.</p>
<p>I’m not, however, one for tweeting my link every hour or spamming my friends and family.</p>
<p>What *I* do is blog. Generally about seemingly unrelated random things that have nothing to do with my book. But things I think people would be interested in. And if they get curious about me, then all they have to do is click the ‘my books’ tab and see what I’ve written. Or sometimes (depending on the blogs traffic or subject matter), I’ll put a link in the blog’s sidebar with a picture of the book cover.</p>
<p>Apart from my pen name authors actual blog (I have one for each pen name) I rarely write much about that book at all.</p>
<p><em>For example</em>: On this blog, I’ll write about writing, and my experiences in self publishing. On my personal blog, I’ll talk about my life. And so on. But somewhere, often subtly, I’ll put a link to my book. Like it was added there as an afterthought and not the main reason I want people to visit and enjoy my blogs. People are curious. You don’t have to shove the book in their face – if they are interested in you, they’ll find out more about what you do.</p>
<p>I have lots of blogs out there. Too many to keep up with, really. Plus lots of squidoo lenses, hubpages and articles. Loads of places to get eyeballs on my book.</p>
<p><strong>(Having said all that – generally I do blog because I enjoy it and the topics I write about, not because I’m trying to sell books). I’m always a writer first.</strong></p>
<h2>Step 3: Get on with things</h2>
<p>Whether that’s writing your next book, or catching up on the washing. Now it’s time to sit back and let luck find you. Because despite your very best efforts, if you&#8217;ve written a great book, got a professional looking cover, and written an enticing blurb, its luck that will propel you to sales beyond what you could ever imagine.</p>
<p>Luck that your story will resonate with readers, luck that people talk about you to their friends, and luck that you become a success. You definitely can increase your luck with the magic three (book, cover, blurb), but even the greatest marketing campaign isn&#8217;t going to make you a success like 50 Shades, Harry Potter, or Hunger Games.</p>
<p>So celebrate your achievements, do a small amount of marketing if you want (something you enjoy – I like blogging, I don’t like twitter much), and cross your fingers.</p>
<p>And get writing your next novel. If this one isn&#8217;t a bestseller, then perhaps the next one will be, or the next one. Keep writing and keep improving!</p>
<p><em><strong>To your success,<br />
Tracey <img src='http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt="icon smile Finished Your First Novel? What to Do Now." class='wp-smiley' title="Finished Your First Novel? What to Do Now. photo" /> </strong></em></p>
<p>P.S. What, you&#8217;ve read this whole blog post and noticed I didn&#8217;t mention the name of my novel?  Well that&#8217;s awfully cheeky of me isn&#8217;t it.  Oh, go on then &#8211; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00APLQKX0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B00APLQKX0&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=blogte-20" target="_blank">satisfy your curiosity</a> ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/finished-your-first-novel-what-to-do-now/">Finished Your First Novel? What to Do Now.</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~4/rI3BnYQwnfI" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Confessions of a NaNoWriMo Virgin #3 – And I Am Spent</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~3/R2UzRyiEpCs/</link>
		<comments>http://traceywritesbooks.com/confessions-of-a-nanowrimo-virgin-3/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Nov 2012 01:47:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tracey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Nanowrimo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nanowrimo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://traceywritesbooks.com/?p=733</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>As NaNoWriMo looks over at me, cigarette curled lazily on its lip and whispers &#8220;We made it baby, how was it for you?&#8221;  I can only stare up at the ceiling, counting the flecks of paint, and say &#8220;Meh, it was okay I guess.&#8221; Yes, I completed, finished, came, saw and conquered my 50,000 words. [...]</p><p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/confessions-of-a-nanowrimo-virgin-3/">Confessions of a NaNoWriMo Virgin #3 &#8211; And I Am Spent</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_736" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><img class="size-medium wp-image-736" title="my-laptop" src="http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/my-laptop-300x300.jpg" alt="my laptop 300x300 Confessions of a NaNoWriMo Virgin #3   And I Am Spent" width="300" height="300" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Type, type, tippity type.</p></div>
<p>As NaNoWriMo looks over at me, cigarette curled lazily on its lip and whispers &#8220;We made it baby, how was it for you?&#8221;  I can only stare up at the ceiling, counting the flecks of paint, and say &#8220;Meh, it was okay I guess.&#8221;</p>
<p>Yes, I completed, finished, came, saw and conquered my 50,000 words.  But the experience itself has left me with a rather bland and bored taste in my mouth.  The kind you get after eating Bran for breakfast every morning.  Sure it&#8217;s good for you, but it ain&#8217;t Crunchy Nut Cornflakes if you know what I mean.</p>
<p>Why?  Because I feel like I haven&#8217;t really completed anything substantial.  I don&#8217;t have that sense of satisfaction of holding a 50k word manuscript in my back pocket like I thought I would.  As I hold it up, it looks rather underfed and soggy.  It&#8217;s not all that pretty.  It looks like something I have to put through the wash because the cat&#8217;s peed all over it again.  (Don&#8217;t talk to me about cats right now).</p>
<p>Where are the fireworks?  The happy dance that I do when I complete a first draft?  The sense of warmth and tingly excitement that washes over me when I reach the end?</p>
<p>I haven&#8217;t got there yet.  I need more time.  More massaging, caressing, and some hardcore cut and paste.</p>
<p>This could take a while.</p>
<p>Tracey xx</p>
<p><em>P.S. Congratulations to everyone that made it to the end (and those with good intentions at the start).</em></p>
<p>&#8211;</p>
<p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/confessions-of-a-nanowrimo-virgin-3/">Confessions of a NaNoWriMo Virgin #3 &#8211; And I Am Spent</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~4/R2UzRyiEpCs" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Confessions of a NaNoWriMo Virgin #2 – Where’s My Writing Mojo Gone?</title>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:36:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tracey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Nanowrimo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://traceywritesbooks.com/?p=725</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>It had to happen.  Like all good plans I tend to have, I rush in all eager and full of grandiose dreams of how I&#8217;m going to smash it. I do the same with new diets.  Yeah, THIS TIME, I&#8217;m gonna commit and stick to the plan, man. It lasts about two weeks.  And then [...]</p><p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/confessions-of-a-nanowrimo-virgin-2-wheres-my-writing-mojo-gone/">Confessions of a NaNoWriMo Virgin #2 &#8211; Where&#8217;s My Writing Mojo Gone?</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_728" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><img class="size-medium wp-image-728" title="wall-reflection" src="http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/wall-reflection-300x292.jpg" alt="wall reflection 300x292 Confessions of a NaNoWriMo Virgin #2   Wheres My Writing Mojo Gone?" width="300" height="292" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Staring up at the way the light creates shapes on my wall instead of writing. Normal right?</p></div>
<p>It had to happen.  Like all good plans I tend to have, I rush in all eager and full of grandiose dreams of how I&#8217;m going to smash it.</p>
<p>I do the same with new diets.  Yeah, THIS TIME, I&#8217;m gonna commit and stick to the plan, man.</p>
<p>It lasts about two weeks.  And then I&#8217;m all, yeah whatever, I&#8217;ll just take one day off.  I DESERVE IT FOR ALL THE GOOD WORK I&#8217;M DOING.  It won&#8217;t mess anything up.  And before you know it I&#8217;m gorging myself on a whole box of chocolate eclairs (<em>what? &#8211; don&#8217;t you judge me!</em>).</p>
<p>So my NaNo willpower muscle has about the same juice as my dieting one.  Full steam ahead and then CRASH.</p>
<p>Before you ask, no I&#8217;m not giving up.  (<em>I&#8217;m not giving up, I&#8217;m not giving up.</em>)  I&#8217;m just a little behind the word count I would have liked by now.  I&#8217;m easily distracted.  I&#8217;m at the end of watching Breaking Bad Season Two (no spoilers please!!!) and must see what Walt does next, and strangely I have got a sudden enthusiasm with cleaning my house more.  That&#8217;s normal right?</p>
<p>Anything except sit down and pound the keyboard with more words.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not like I don&#8217;t know what I&#8217;m writing, or even think the story&#8217;s bad, it&#8217;s just I&#8217;m in that middle writing slump, which normally doesn&#8217;t bother me, but this time I have a DEADLINE.  Yeah, me and pressure &#8211; not so good.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll finish &#8211; I have to &#8211; for my peace of mind and sanity.  It just may mean a few late nights.  (<em>I think I can, I think I can, just do it, rah rah and all that jazz.)</em></p>
<p>Or I won&#8217;t.  (<em>No don&#8217;t say that, don&#8217;t give up now, Zan [probably his name] is dying from a bullet wound and needs your help, and what will Ruby do now that the Farmer has seen the creature?  And is her father going to get out of jail in time? And just where does her mother think she is anyway?</em>)</p>
<p>So yeah, I have to finish.</p>
<p>Within two weeks.</p>
<p>And I&#8217;ll start back up as soon as I hang these clothes on the line, and read this article in this magazine, and show my daughter how to dance Gangham style and &#8230; oh crap.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/confessions-of-a-nanowrimo-virgin-2-wheres-my-writing-mojo-gone/">Confessions of a NaNoWriMo Virgin #2 &#8211; Where&#8217;s My Writing Mojo Gone?</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~4/59rhnFTDjlE" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Confessions of a NaNoWriMo Virgin (and October’s Sales)</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~3/jzAPCX-kg_Q/</link>
		<comments>http://traceywritesbooks.com/confessions-of-a-nanowrimo-virgin-and-octobers-sales/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Nov 2012 06:08:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tracey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Sales Reports]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Writing Your Book]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nanowrimo]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://traceywritesbooks.com/?p=714</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>NaNoWriMo It seems rather weird that I&#8217;d be giving advice about how to tackle National Novel Writing Month seeing as I&#8217;ve only just started it and it&#8217;s my first time, but hey I&#8217;ve written one novel already &#8211; I&#8217;m like a professional novelist now right? Yeah okay then &#8211; I see your point, but I [...]</p><p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/confessions-of-a-nanowrimo-virgin-and-octobers-sales/">Confessions of a NaNoWriMo Virgin (and October&#8217;s Sales)</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_719" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 292px"><img class="size-full wp-image-719" title="coffee" src="http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/coffee.jpg" alt="coffee Confessions of a NaNoWriMo Virgin (and Octobers Sales)" width="282" height="282" /><p class="wp-caption-text">I will be drinking lots of this, this month.</p></div>
<h2>NaNoWriMo</h2>
<p>It seems rather weird that I&#8217;d be giving advice about how to tackle National Novel Writing Month seeing as I&#8217;ve only just started it and it&#8217;s my first time, but hey I&#8217;ve written one novel already &#8211; I&#8217;m like a professional novelist now right?</p>
<p>Yeah okay then &#8211; I see your point, but I still think it might be good to compare notes at any rate in the hope it might help someone else.</p>
<p>My plan of attack with Nano is not to think about the 50,000 words (which actually doesn&#8217;t scare me that much anyway), but to think of what scenes I need to write each day.</p>
<p>It makes it much more manageable (to me) to think about writing one or two small scene&#8217;s, rather than write a whole book.</p>
<p>To make it easy on myself, most of the chapters in the book will be between 2500 &#8211; 5000 words each, containing a few scenes of around 1,000 words (<em>or thereabouts &#8211; some are shorter some are longer)</em>.</p>
<p>I seem to write much better when I have a strong outline and sense of how long I think each scene will run for.  It helps me stay focused and on track.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve just completed Chapter One (which is probably the shortest chapter in the book) and includes three scenes for a total first draft word count of 2,618.  The main characters have been introduced, Ruby (the protag) has spied her love interest (who is now currently in chains &#8211; poor fella), and we get a good sense of the story.</p>
<p>All in all a good tension-driven start!</p>
<p>And can I just mention that I&#8217;m already totally in love with this novel.  I haven&#8217;t even written the good stuff yet (yes there will be s.e.x.) and I already love it.  This job rocks.</p>
<h2>October Sales</h2>
<p>I think that my last month sales were an anomaly since October&#8217;s sales were significantly lower than usual.</p>
<p>I attribute that to a few factors.</p>
<ul>
<li>Apple didn&#8217;t update on Smashwords during October (Apple represents a good 35-40% of my overall sales).</li>
<li>I hardly did any blogging or promotion (catching up on real life stuff).</li>
<li>I haven&#8217;t had a new release for some time now (that will change soon once the zombie novel is out of editing, and I kick my hubby&#8217;s butt into doing my cover).</li>
</ul>
<p>There is also the fact that October represents a big publishing time for trad publishers (they release lots of new stuff just prior to Christmas) so there are a lot more new books in October and November to compete with.</p>
<p>But you know I&#8217;m still super pumped anyway.  How could I not be &#8211; this job (writing) is amazing fun, and I&#8217;ve only just started writing novels so it can only get better once they start being released into the wild.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s hoping that your October sales were better than mine, and if you are doing Nano that your word count is coming along swimmingly.  As Dory would say (if fish could write) &#8211; just keep writing, just keep writing.</p>
<p>Tracey xx</p>
<p><em>P.S. Thinking of all my US readers who were affected by Sandy.  Hopefully you all stayed safe.</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/confessions-of-a-nanowrimo-virgin-and-octobers-sales/">Confessions of a NaNoWriMo Virgin (and October&#8217;s Sales)</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~4/jzAPCX-kg_Q" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>I’m a NaNoWriMo Virgin</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:33:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tracey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Writing Your Book]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://traceywritesbooks.com/?p=707</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>It&#8217;s true.  I&#8217;ve never done NaNoWriMo before and this year I&#8217;ve signed up and I&#8217;m super excited about it.  The reason I decided to do it was for one reason, and one reason only &#8211; it sounded like fun. What could be more exhilarating than sitting down every day to write a story? Now I have no [...]</p><p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/im-a-nanowrimo-virgin/">I&#8217;m a NaNoWriMo Virgin</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_708" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 268px"><img class="size-full wp-image-708" title="1943" src="http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/1943.jpg" alt="1943 Im a NaNoWriMo Virgin" width="258" height="227" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Yes, I&#8217;m about to write a love story set in 1943, no it won&#8217;t have a dog in it (I don&#8217;t think).</p></div>
<p>It&#8217;s true.  I&#8217;ve never done NaNoWriMo before and this year I&#8217;ve signed up and I&#8217;m super excited about it.  The reason I decided to do it was for one reason, and one reason only &#8211; it sounded like fun.</p>
<p>What could be more exhilarating than sitting down <strong>every day</strong> to write a story?</p>
<p>Now I have no illusions that whatever I write during next month will be any good (<em>but perhaps I&#8217;ll surprise myself anyway</em>), but who cares.  It will be FUN.</p>
<p>I think I&#8217;ve prepared adequately, I&#8217;ve done my outline (I even purchased a brand new pretty notepad to do so) and have written the basic plot points I want to cover and a rough guide to where everything goes in the story.  I know most of the characters names (except the male love interest whose name I can&#8217;t seem to figure out yet), and how they relate to each other.</p>
<p>It&#8217;ll be set in 1943 so I&#8217;ve done some research on music, food, clothing etc of that era.</p>
<p>I even purchased Chris Baty&#8217;s &#8216;No Plot No Problem&#8217; (<em>he&#8217;s the founder of NaNo</em>) which I&#8217;ll be reading alongside the challenge each day.</p>
<p>So I&#8217;m as prepared as I can be.  Or at least I think I am.  I&#8217;m a  NaNo newbie remember?</p>
<p>And of course if it&#8217;s anything like the novel I&#8217;ve just finished (<em>yes I really did finish my zombie novel &#8211; yah me &#8211; it&#8217;s currently with my editor</em>) I know that nothing ever goes to plan and characters seem to have a mind of their own.  So really how prepared can you be?</p>
<p>There&#8217;s only a week to go and I can&#8217;t wait!</p>
<p>Who&#8217;s with me?</p>
<p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/im-a-nanowrimo-virgin/">I&#8217;m a NaNoWriMo Virgin</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~4/A-qysYVzh9A" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Discoverability and Why “Just Write More” Doesn’t Work</title>
		<link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~3/zkFo8PMhY7c/</link>
		<comments>http://traceywritesbooks.com/discoverability-and-why-just-write-more-doesnt-work/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Oct 2012 01:55:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tracey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing Your Book]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://traceywritesbooks.com/?p=698</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>My friend RJ from eBooksHabit contacted me offering to write a guest post, which I thought was a great idea (because clearly I don&#8217;t post enough here and could definitely use some great content for you all). And since he&#8217;s a genius when it comes to marketing his own books, I was very interested to [...]</p><p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/discoverability-and-why-just-write-more-doesnt-work/">Discoverability and Why &#8220;Just Write More&#8221; Doesn&#8217;t Work</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>My friend RJ from <a href="http://eBooksHabit.com/" target="_blank">eBooksHabit</a> contacted me offering to write a guest post, which I thought was a great idea (because clearly I don&#8217;t post enough here and could definitely use some great content for you all).</em></p>
<p><em>And since he&#8217;s a genius when it comes to marketing his own books, I was very interested to hear what he had to say regarding helping us to sell more books.</em></p>
<p><em>I hope you find it really useful!</em></p>
<p><em>Take it away, RJ &#8230;</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">~~~</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-700" title="just-write-more" src="http://traceywritesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/just-write-more.gif" alt="just write more Discoverability and Why Just Write More Doesnt Work" width="226" height="189" />You&#8217;ve written a book and you&#8217;ve published it online.</p>
<p>You may have written several books and self-published them all.</p>
<p>Your books are not selling, yet some guru is telling you to &#8220;Just write more.&#8221;</p>
<p>The problem is, if no one can find your current books, what makes you think that by just writing more, people will start finding your books? Yes, by having more books out there you slightly increase the chances of readers finding your book. But, without the proper promotion of your books, your books will not be discovered.</p>
<p><strong>Discoverability</strong><br />
The Internet has revolutionized many industries. The publishing industry has also been revolutionized, thanks to the Internet. Anyone can publish an ebook or even a print-on-demand paperback, for free or for very little up front costs.</p>
<p>In years past, self-publishing was an extremely expensive endeavor just to get the actual content published, yet many of these self-published books suffered the same fate that many self-published ebook authors are now facing&#8230; no one could find their book.</p>
<p>With an ever-increasing amount of ebooks on the market, the ability to simply be discovered lessens each day, especially for the person who does nothing about it. If you want people to find your books, then you need to make it happen.</p>
<p><strong>Marketing Doesn&#8217;t Just Happen</strong></p>
<p>Writers: What if I told you that I want to write a book (you know, since everyone has a book in &#8216;em). My first step will be to sit down at the computer. Then, I will open Word&#8230; &#8230; &#8230; &#8230; &#8230; &#8230; Why hasn&#8217;t my book been written? I opened Word. Should I open another instance of Word? Let&#8217;s try that&#8230; &#8230; &#8230; Hmmm, this book isn&#8217;t being written. Maybe I should try to open Scrivener&#8230; &#8230; &#8230; &#8230; Why isn&#8217;t this book being written?! I keep opening my writing software and nothing is happening.</p>
<p>Wouldn&#8217;t you think I was nuts for thinking that by just opening the software, the book would somehow write itself?</p>
<p>That&#8217;s just crazy talk!</p>
<p>Why do you think by just hitting &#8220;Publish&#8221;, your book will somehow sell itself?</p>
<p>That&#8217;s just crazy talk!</p>
<p><strong>The Need To Promote Your Books</strong></p>
<p>My friend Frasier Cain once said, &#8220;The key to being successful is to make a product and to tell people about it.&#8221; (A paraphrase, but that&#8217;s the gist of it.) If you&#8217;re an author, you have done the first step and that is to create the product. Now, you need to tell people about your product.</p>
<p>You need to find your future fans and tell them about your books.</p>
<p>Who are your fans? Who would want to read your book?</p>
<p>Once you have figured that out, you need to find out where they hang out online.</p>
<p>What blogs do they read? What forums do they chat on? What social media pages, hashtags, networks, etc. do they use?</p>
<p>Once you have figured that out, then you need to go to those places and you need to tell them about your book.</p>
<p>Just like writing a good story or a solid informational book is hard work, marketing your book is hard work as well.</p>
<p>Simply writing a book or writing more and more books, won&#8217;t help people to find your books. You need to find your fans and introduce them to your books. That is the essence of marketing.</p>
<p><strong>But, (Insert Guru) Said I Should Just Keep Writing</strong></p>
<p>The problem with gurus is that they can often become jaded and they do not always remember the work they had to put in, in the beginning of their careers, that got them to where they are today.</p>
<p>Their marketing plans are different these days, and once you build up a solid fan base like they have, you can begin marketing more like the gurus and less like I have described in this article. Until then, you&#8217;re going to have to do a different kind of marketing and promotion.</p>
<p>Once you have that strong fan base built up, they will do a lot of the work for you! They will be excited to tell people about your newest book. At that point, simply writing more is a good, solid part of an overall marketing strategy. People will already know you and want your books. These gurus are still doing marketing, they are just doing it in a different way, which requires less work than it takes in the beginning. They utilize their mailing lists, their Facebook fans, their Twitter followers, other author&#8217;s blogs (because those other authors actually know who the guru is, and they don&#8217;t mind promoting them). They are still doing marketing for their books, even if they subscribe to a &#8220;Just write more.&#8221; philosophy, they are just doing it in a different way.</p>
<p>No one starts at this level. If no one knows who you are, then sending out Facebook messages, some tweets or emailing your 10 fans (well, 11 if you count your Mom) just won&#8217;t cut it. People need to discover you and your books, and if your books are good then people will want more. That is the time when you &#8220;just write more&#8221;.</p>
<p>Until you get to that point, just writing more books will not help you to build a fan base.</p>
<p>You need your books to be discovered and you need to take an active role in making that happen.</p>
<p>That role is as a marketer.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s time you step into that role, so that when you do write more, your new books can enjoy much more success than they would if you kept using &#8220;just write more&#8221; as your marketing strategy.</p>
<p><em>R.J. Adams runs <a href="http://eBooksHabit.com/">eBooksHabit.com</a>, a website dedicated to helping authors promote their ebooks. If your book is going to be free or at a reduced price, please let us know and we will try to feature your book to help with your promotion.</em></p>
<p>Thanks for reading <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com/discoverability-and-why-just-write-more-doesnt-work/">Discoverability and Why &#8220;Just Write More&#8221; Doesn&#8217;t Work</a> from <a href="http://traceywritesbooks.com">Tracey Writes</a>. </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TraceyWrites/~4/zkFo8PMhY7c" height="1" width="1"/>]]></content:encoded>
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