Advertising Hype

I attended a writer's conference this weekend. It had been billed as an A to Z of self-publishing, and since I'd just regained the rights to two of my books, I thought it a timely discussion. So, despite the prediction of rain all day, off I went, on a 3-hour round trip in the pouring rain to have the speaker impart her words of wisdom. Come hell or high water, I wasn't about to miss this talk.

When I arrived at my location, it wasn't just raining–it was pouring. Sheets of rain slammed down on the hood of my car.

My in-car umbrella decided to play hide and seek with me, so I sat for a few minutes in the downpour, hoping for a break–which didn't happen. I wasn't about to sit in the parking lot and miss the meeting, so I took off at a brisk walk toward the door.

Brisk pace or not, by the time I got inside the building I was drenched. My t-shirt clung to my back in a cold, icy grip and I could feel my muscles begin to seize up. My shoes made little squishy noises as I walked across the marble floor. My hair, never known for putting on a good show, gave up completely and dribbled onto my cheeks. A quick check in the ladies' room proved what I'd already guessed. I looked like something the cat had drug in, after she tossed me in a few puddles.

I wiped the mascara off my face, propped my wet locks behind my ears, and proceeded to the meeting. I am nothing if not motivated and persistent. But, alas, here's where the problem began. (I  know what you're thinking...)

Either I'd read the wrong meeting blurb or the speaker had, but the talk wasn't about self-publishing at all. Rather, it was how to write and market a book. The speaker had come prepared with a slide show and handouts. Which she then proceeded to read.

This type of speaker has always bothered me. I'm a writer, as is everyone else in this meeting. Which means we know how to read. Words are our business. I don't need someone to read for me what I can read on the screen myself. I want embellishment on the points being flashed on the screen. So I got grumpy. Not only was I not getting the talk I'd driven here for, it was being read from a screen to me, as if I couldn't make out the words on my own.

Or maybe I was just cold and damp. The puddle under my seat kept growing.

After spending most of my professional life in the advertising business, you'd think I'd have learned not to trust the advertising hype. I sat quietly, damp and cold, and kicked myself for not double checking the agenda. Then, the speaker told me something new. Something I'd never thought of before. Eureka!

As I drove home, I realized hell hadn't come to North Carolina, but some of the rivers were running out of their banks. And while I didn't learn anything about self-publishing, I learned something. Time well spent.

Wanting More

If you're an author, you can be inundated with people who will tell you the best way to spend your marketing budget to guarantee you'll make boatloads of money in royalties.

The problem is, everyone offers different advice, and, if you send them money and buy their how-to books or videos, chances are the only ones who will see those boatloads of money are the ones giving the advice. The rest of us will continue to throw darts and hope for the best.

Most every author, after the initial euphoria of seeing their name in print, wants to make enough money to be able to quit the day job and spend their days in their heads, creating new, awesome stories for their readers' voracious appetites. But the hard truth of being a writer is this is a very hard business to figure out. And the odds of making the big time are long. A Huffington Post article stated recently that barely 2 percent of the total books published sold more than 5,000 copies. The average is less than 500 copies.

So why do we do it? Continue to bang our foreheads on the wall, trying to figure out how to get folks to find your precious book and read it? And after they read it, leave a positive review of it in the hopes it may catch the attention of another reader?

The reason is very simple. The voices in our heads need to have a mouthpiece. If we didn't have the creative outlet that publishing a book provides, we'd probably all end up in the loony bin with multiple personality disorder. Marketing of those precious books will continue to be a mystery, a moving target. Some of us will figure it out, but most of us will be in that less than 500 copies area.

We may want more, but we'll continue to do what we do best. Write the next story. Maybe it will be the one that has the magic juice and makes it to the big time.

The Waiting Game

As most of you know, I'm in transition on the home front. Buying a house is not as simple as it used to be. After the collapse of the market as we all knew it, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. My lender tells me things have gotten a whole lot tighter than they used to be. So, as a consequence, I've been running to banks in West Virginia to get the necessary forms. I don't normally bank in West Virginia, but the bank I had my money in while in Ohio only extends south a little ways. So the choice was either Pittsburgh or Morgantown. These new regulations seem to have left logic at the door, but until the pendulum swings back, I'm stuck with them.

All these different regulations got me to thinking about the state of our industry today. Publishing a book is more simple than it used to be. No longer do you need to print out your manuscript, bundle it up and mail it off to a publisher or agent, who may or may not get back to you in six months to a year.  Now, if you want to go the traditional route, all you need do is attach a file and hit the 'send' button on your email. And if you wish to skip the traditional route altogether, publishing a book on your own has become so simple, almost anyone can do it. The publishing pendulum has swung in favor of the author, finally.

But this new found freedom comes at a price. There are more books hitting the market than ever before. In 2015, more than 700,000 books were self-published, and new books published for that year crept over the one million mark for the first time. What that means for an author is the threat of being buried under an avalanche of other books is greater than ever. Some of the finest voices of our generation will never be heard, while others who aren't accomplished writers achieve head-scratching success. It's a constant battle to get books reviewed by legitimate sites, and every author I know struggles daily with the best way to market their books.

The pendulum will swing back sooner or later, on both fronts. But until it does, we've got to deal with the situation the best way we can. As my lender says, "If you haven't applied for a mortgage in the last three years, you're in for an awakening." The same holds true for publishing. If you haven't been in the market for the past three years, the old ways no longer apply. I've heard a lot of established authors, when talking about how they got started in the business, quantify their remarks by saying things are different now. Not better, necessarily, but different.

This is our new normal, and as I've learned from going through the mortgage process, you adjust your thinking accordingly. The house will happen, my next book will be released, I'll make my deadline for the WIP, and life will go on. I'll still struggle with marketing, but at least I'll do so with a golf course view out my back window.

If you can spare a minute to follow me on BookBub, I'd greatly appreciate you clicking over and following me. My goal is 1,000 followers and I've got a ways to go. Here's the link: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/becky-lower

Back To Normal

One of the best things about being an author (at least in my opinion) is the multitude of types of work involved. Right now, I'm involved in the following:

1)  final edits for A Widow's Salvation–lots of tedious reading of line by line to catch typos, lost quote marks, and the like. It's scheduled for release on September 7.

2) I try to add 1,000 words a day to my WIP, the last book in the Cotillion Ball Series–the creative part of my day. The Forgotten Debutante, about Saffron Fitzpatrick, will be released in the Spring of 2016.

3) I check emails and collect my number of visitors to my website and blog–the strategic part of the day.

4) And I am lining up guest blog appearances, finding reviewers for my book, and deciding on which ad campaign, if any, will work best–the marketing part. I really love to answer the questions other bloggers pose to me. I never thought I'd enjoy that part of the business as much as I do. A pleasant surprise.

In my spare time, I am searching for a new house to live in, and we go out two or three times a week on a scouting mission.

And, there's always the other WIP, which I desperately want to finish by the end of the year. I found a model last year who is my inspiration for Raoul, or Lone Wolf. Maybe I don't want to finish the book because I'd have to remove the image?

If I run out of things to do, I have another workshop queued up and ready to go so I can become a better writer.

It's always something.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

What are you doing this week?

Two Weeks And Counting

When I started my journey toward publication several years ago, I already knew my sales background  had groomed me for becoming a published writer. After all, when you're out on the streets all day, every day, attempting to convince people to buy an advertisement in your magazine, newspaper, phone book, whatever, you expect rejection. In fact, nine out of ten of my calls ended up with me walking away empty-handed. A good sales person has to shrug off the rejection, go back out into the jungle again, and try a different tactic to make that sale.

The same holds true for an author. Rejection upon rejection is a way of life for us. Even the biggies, like Nora Roberts and J. K. Rowling, were initially rejected. Christie Craig carries her rejection letters with her, to make a point not to ever give up. Eventually, if you hone your craft, keep putting your work out there, and get lucky, some wise person is going to give you a chance. Then, it's up to you to make yourself a success.

Yes, that's the harsh reality of the publishing world today. Some of the larger houses still have active PR departments who take fledgling authors under their wings and figure out a marketing plan. But those are the exceptions, not the rule, anymore. Regardless of whether you're traditionally published, small press published, or self-published, it's up to you, the author, to build your following. You do that by finding review sites to read your book, by being a guest on blogs that people who read your kind of book are looking at, by trying new things. Right now, I'm trying to get as many people as possible to sign onto my Thunderclap campaign. This is something new for me, and unless I get 100 people to agree to have my tweet appear on their sites, it won't run and I won't be able to judge whether it's worth doing again. So, please if you haven't already signed up, click on the right side of the page. Let's see if this thing works.

I'm also busy writing guest blogs for my September 1 release. I have a few more ideas up my sleeve to try, and I'll post my schedule on this page as I get the information. The Duplicitous Debutante was so much fun to write, since I got to write a dime novel along with my book. It was so over-the-top, and who hasn't yearned at some point in their career, to write a potboiler?

Anyway, it's only two weeks until release day for the latest book in my Cotillion Ball Series. In addition to the dime novel, there's a genealogical chart of the Fitzpatrick family, so you can keep up with all those babies being born! The book is available for pre-orders now. Click on the cover and you'll be redirected to the Amazon page where you can order your kindle copy.