Writers in the Storm

by Eldred "Bob" Bird

Most authors spend more time than they expected pondering their author platform. With the world slowly beginning to open up again it’s time to look at the other side of the coin—the Offline Platform. Take a look here for a refresher on what makes up your Online Author Platform in Part 1. If you are ready to reconnect in person there are plenty of opportunities to grow your brand.

 The Three Legs of Your Offline Platform

The offline author platform is supported by the same three legs as the online platform—visibility, authority, and reach. Let’s take a look at how each one plays out in the real world.

Visibility

Visibility relates to how easy you are to find. In this age of social media and the internet, it’s difficult to think in terms of our visibility in the physical world. How do we make ourselves stand out?

• Get in front of the readers.

Book launches and signings at your local bookstore are a great way to get in front of readers, but not the only way. Check out book fairs as well. If you can’t afford a table, talk to other writers and offer to share a table and split the fee.

• Get in front of other writers.

Writer’s conferences and workshops are not just for honing your craft, they’re a great place to network with other writers, editors, and sometimes agents as well. You never know who you might meet, or how they might help to boost your writing career (like asking you to guest post on an award-winning writer’s blog!).

Remember to always have business cards in your pocket, ready to hand out to your new contacts. If you don’t have cards, get some. They don’t cost much and will give you a good return on investment. Hand them out to everyone you engage with and remember to ask for their card as well. Check out this article about networking by John Peragine.

Do you belong to a local writer’s group? Talk to the organizer. I cut my teeth as a presenter by getting up and speaking to a group I’ve belonged to for several years. The familiar faces made it easier to dip my toes into the waters of public speaking.

Also consider presenting at conferences, both local and national. Chances are you’ve picked up some knowledge along your writing journey that others will benefit from. Write a proposal and submit it to the conference organizers. The worst that can happen is they say “no.”

• Talk to bookstore owners, managers, and employees.

Building a relationship with your local bookstore, be it an independent or chain, is always a good move. Remember to be kind, be a good listener, and above all, don’t be obnoxious. You’re selling yourself, not just your books. Visit the libraries in your area as well. Talk to the librarians about your work and offer to get involved in some of their events.

Authority

Authority asks the question, “What is it that gives you credibility in your space?” This is especially important if you write non-fiction. People want to know why they should read your book, rather than someone else’s.

• Are you published?

Whether traditional or self-published, having your work out and available in the real world makes a big difference. If your books are on the shelf in bookstores and/or libraries, so much the better! Publication in journals and magazines boost your authority as well.

• Have you attended or taught workshops?

Education, be it workshops, or college courses, carries big credibility. While a degree (especially for fiction writers) isn’t required, it can open a lot of doors. Having an MFA under your belt shows a major dedication to the craft.

Teaching classes and workshops raises your credibility even more. Make sure to mention your past teaching experiences when putting together a proposal for presentations.

• Do you have any awards?

If you’ve won awards for your writing it says you’re someone worth listening to. Make mention of them in proposals, bios, and any promotional materials you hand out at workshops and appearances. You worked hard for those awards, so flaunt them!

Reach

Reach is exactly what it sounds like. It’s about your ability to reach your target audience. Reach is not just about getting your name in front of people but getting it in front of the right people and getting them to respond.

• Have you done interviews in print media?

While circulation has dropped for the big newspapers, a lot of small local ones are still going strong. Community-focused papers are a great way to get exposure in your own city or town. Many are happy to feature local writers and artists. That leads us to the next question.

• Do you have a press kit?

When setting up an interview or sending a press release to the local media, it’s a good idea to include some information about yourself as a writer. Usually done in digital form these days, your press kit should at the very least include your bio, your headshot, a bibliography of your work (with cover images), and your contact information, including email, websites, and social media. You should also include other promotional images and logos if you have them.

• Always have promotional materials on hand.

We’re talking about business cards, postcards, bookmarks and other swag. When making an appearance, always have something you can put in people’s hands. Check out this WITS post by Sherry Ficklin to learn more about using swag to extend your reach.

• Do you use physical mailing lists?

It may sound “old school” to do physical mailings, but it can pay off. Get postcards printed and send them to libraries and bookstores. Emails are easy to bypass, delete, or lose to a spam filter, but a physical card in someone’s hand is going to catch some attention.

Some Final Thoughts

In the current technology-driven landscape, it’s difficult to separate your online and offline efforts. The simple truth is you can’t. Each effort supports the other, creating a much stronger overall author platform. Your online presence is going to help you get those real-world bookings. Likewise, your offline efforts help you make connections, build credibility, and may even give you fodder for your online content.

You may not be ready to step back out in public quite yet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start planning and booking those appearances now. Be cautious, be confident, and be bold. Potential readers are out there waiting to hear from you!

What in-person efforts have worked well for you, or someone you know? What do you wish you'd done differently? Feel free to ask questions down in the comments - we have a great community of platform-builders here!

About Eldred:

Eldred Bird writes contemporary fiction, short stories, and personal essays. He has spent a great deal of time exploring the deserts, forests, and deep canyons inside his home state of Arizona. His James McCarthy adventures, Killing Karma, Catching Karma, and the soon to be released Cold Karma, reflect this love of the Grand Canyon State even as his character solves mysteries amidst danger. Eldred explores the boundaries of short fiction in his stories, The Waking Room, Treble in Paradise: A Tale of Sax and Violins, and The Smell of Fear.

When he’s not writing, Eldred spends time cycling, hiking and juggling (yes, juggling…bowling balls and 21-inch knives). His passion for photography allows him to record his travels. He can be found on Twitter or Facebook, or at his website.

Top Image by Nattanan Kanchanaprat from Pixabay

by Sherry Ficklin

SWAG is one of those places where authors can go very right, or completely wrong and so, while I've talked about this before, it is worth repeating. As the industry evolves, so does the art of book SWAG. Plus, it's the first question I get from new authors about to dive into publishing.

What is SWAG, and why do you need it?

SWAG is the general term we use for promotional materials. There are two kinds I see at events: free swag and sale swag. Both have merits, but some work better at certain types of events than others.

The goal of SWAG is simple, you want to build brand awareness and recognition. While it is often collected by fans and readers, it's also vital to have at your event so that even if people do not purchase a book right then, they will remember you and your novel at a later date.

Paper SWAG

Paper swag comes in many forms:

• Business cards
• Book marks
• Postcards
• Flyers (if you have a large catalog of work)

It can also include more out-of-the-box things like door hangers, stickers, character trading cards, posters, and tattoos.

Paper SWAG is usually fairly inexpensive to produce and easy to brand with your vital information. Every piece of paper SWAG should have your name and website address but can also include your book cover(s), a brief blurb, a short review snippet, or the image of a character/scene from your story.

The reason this is the most necessary SWAG to have at every single event is: it's easy to hand out and doesn't cost you a fortune. Plus, it gives you the best kind of brand recognition, image recognition.

They say consumers have to see a product 3-5 times before they will decide whether or not to purchase it. So this kind of SWAG, combined with online images, bulk up those sightings.

Pro Tip: For an even better paper SWAG experience, consider placing a QR code or link on your promotional items that take the receiver to a free sample of your work. This can be a chapter or an entire free book. I have a 6 book series where I keep the first book free, so I use it as a loss leader to draw people into buying the other 5 novels. It not only adds value to the SWAG, but draws them into your sales funnel.

Every person who sees you at an event should leave your table with something.

As much as it pains some people, publishing has become a digitally driven industry. More and more, e-book sales are king, which means people often use store events as a sort of showroom where they check out new titles but then go home and order online.

If a browser leaves and five minutes later forgets the title or your name, you have just lost a sale.

Plus, while it may sound odd to us, people can be really intimidated by authors. It may be hard for some people to approach you cold, as they are either too nervous to talk or are afraid of being hit by what I call the 'tough sell' that some authors put out.

When you can smile and offer them a bookmark or other freebie, it is a great tension breaker and they will be more likely to approach and connect with you.

Non-Paper SWAG

There are as many kinds of SWAG as there are authors, and everyone has their favorite kinds. My only word of caution going in is this; be really aware of what you are spending and what kind of brand recognition you're hoping to see in return.

If you have a book that is digital only, bookmarks may not be the way to go, but large print cover postcards might be a great option. If you have a children's book, stickers might get you more attention than tattoos or door hangers.

Here are a few common types of non-paper SWAG:

• Buttons*
• Magnets*
• Chapstick
• Rubber Bracelets
• Charm Cord Bookmarks
• Matchbooks
• Can Coozies
• Keychains
• Lotion/Sanitizer
• Pens
• Notepads
• Tote Bags*
• Condoms (yes, I've seen these at romance author events)
• Mouse Pads

Any and all of these are moderately priced items and make for great SWAG, but be careful that you don't break the budget.

I highly suggest starting with one paper SWAG item and one more expensive item to give as a gift with purchase.

You may have noticed an * beside a few of those items. This is because not only are they very popular with readers, they tend to offer what I like to call passive visibility. This means, many other people besides the initial receiver see them so they offer much broader visibility. A tote bag used for several months during library trips, for example, may catch the attention of other readers who weren’t even at your event.

There are also much more expensive to produce items like:

• T-shirts
• Mugs
• Hats
• Flasks
• Glasses

These items are excellent if you are doing a vendor fair type of event and you want to sell items in conjunction with your book, or if you want to use them as special promotional giveaways. However, if you give everyone who buys a book a free t-shirt, you're actively losing money. The items above get you some brand visibility (as they are worn and used), but often not enough to recoup costs.

It's also important to note that most bookstore events don't want you selling anything besides books, so you should definitely check with them first to get clarification. Also, for newer, lesser known authors without a long series, these items lose value. They are best employed for long series, or once you have a thriving base of readers.

Other Thoughts on SWAG

As with so many things in this industry, SWAG can help you or hurt you.

Low quality items can make you look unprofessional, but too many expensive items can turn people off as well (not to mention breaking the piggy bank). Your best bet is always to consider your brand, your audience, and your budget. Then decide what SWAG you want.

Example: If you’re handing out water bottles with your business card taped to the front, this devalues you as an author and people who receive it aren’t likely to trust that your books are high quality.

If you want to have SWAG, you should invest in it. The perception of quality is key to building trust with new readers.

I'd like to take a quick moment to talk about another important kind of SWAG that I've not mentioned before

Digital SWAG

I'm seeing more and more digital SWAG offerings and it's great for people who can't get to an event in real life. Digital SWAG is great for authors.

Authors are offering free downloadable SWAG via their websites. Everything from desktop and smartphone backgrounds, to Spotify playlists, to printable goodies like wall art and calendars. These are great offerings for online fans and great for drawing traffic to your website.

Pro Tip: As with any SWAG, be sure you have the rights to everything you use.)

For my recent release, The Canary Club (a prohibition era gangster romance), I used traditional paper SWAG with door hangers and mini posters. For my special events, I had matchbooks and drink coasters made with my website and tag line. They are easy to travel to events with, functional, unique, and perfectly on brand for this series. BUT in addition to that, I created a special area of my website that acted as a virtual speakeasy, which included period cocktail recipes, historical information, and other free downloadables.

The best part? To get the password, people had to pre-order the book.

Final Word

Don't be afraid to think outside the box of the items I've listed above, but remember, any SWAG you use should have at least one piece of your branding on it. For example, foam fingers are great for your sports romance, but if they don't also serve as a promotional billboard for your book or website, it's not doing you, or your brand, any good.

What sort of SWAG do you love getting from authors? Do you need good SWAG resources? Let me know in the comments below!

About Sherry

Sherry is a full-time writer from Colorado and the author of over a dozen novels for teens and young adults including the best-selling Stolen Empire series. She can often be found browsing her local bookstore with a large white hot chocolate in one hand and a towering stack of books in the other. That is, unless she’s on deadline at which time she, like the Loch Ness monster, is only seen in blurry photographs.

Sherry also appears as a guest speaker at several conventions annually. You can find her at her official website, www.sherryficklin.com, or stalk her on her Facebook page www.facebook.com/sherry.ficklin.

By Lisa Hall-Wilson

So, you’ve got a first (or second or third) draft, but you’re still trying to get at the heart of what motivates your character. You’re still trying to unearth the variety of emotions, the intensity, the complexities of the emotions your character experiences at different points in the story.

But you’re stuck.

Those generic characterization quizzes and questionnaires only seem to hit surface level stuff for me. It’s too easy to skim those answers just to get it done.

I have a character like that right now. I KNOW this character. I’ve been working on this story for far longer than I care to admit, but she’s a tough nut. She doesn’t want to talk about it. She clams up. It’s beyond frustrating!

Do you know what I’m talking about?

Whether you’re just getting to know this character, or it’s a character you’ve known for a while and need to make fresh again, this post offers some ideas to kickstart those creative juices.

The point of these exercises isn’t necessarily to use any of the writing (although, if you do that’s a happy side-benefit). The point is to open up your creativity and to let the character take you in a direction you hadn’t thought of, to point out a thread you hadn’t noticed, to surprise yourself with where this story and this character could go.

Swing For The Fences

I’ve watched and re-watched multiple times this interview Johnny Depp did with Graham Norton. Graham asks where do these giant characters (Jack Sparrow, Willy Wonka, Mad Hatter, etc) come from and Depp gives this vague they’re born out of ideas answer. He just shows up and starts swinging and hopes it’ll be alright.

Note: It's the first 60-90 seconds of the linked interview that I'm talking about.

Probably there’s more to Depp's process, but the idea of "no-holds-barred, nothing is too big or too weird or too fantastic" is one writers can use. Just see where this idea, this character, this problem, takes you. How would this character (not you) react?

I’ve seen so many writers hold back on the emotions in their fiction.

Can you overwrite and have your drama turn into melodrama? Of course. But, many writers – out of fear of that outcome – pull up far too short of where they need to be. Go big or go home, baby! :D

Just the practice of really letting loose with the emotion frees up your creativeness in a way that has always surprised me. The first draft is for you, it’s not for anyone else. No one can read anything until you give it to them. Swing for the fences!

Get In Touch With Your Own Emotions

Those who are more analytical in their thinking, I’ve found, seem to struggle with capturing emotions in their fiction. The temptation to label emotions, to tell, to summarize is very strong because that’s their natural tendency in real life.

For those who use intellectualization of emotion as a coping mechanism (like me), there’s a long and dedicated practice of ignoring how emotions feel and analyzing why I should or shouldn’t feel something.

You need to put that aside when writing.

This is sometimes helpful in real life, and it’s fine if that’s how your character handles things too initially – but the reader still wants to know how it feels, they want to be in the scene with the character. You’ll need to do a lot of research into how different emotions feel, or become more self-aware of your own emotions.

Some exercises to dive deeper

Write A Letter To/From Your Character

I’ve not tried this, but many writers like to write a letter either to or from their character. It may take a bit of back and forth to delve deep enough into the emotions going on, it requires some honesty and a willingness to let the character surprise you. To share a secret that seems “out there” or unreasonable. Don’t settle for the first idea that comes to mind.

Write A Journal

I’m currently experimenting with writing a journal for one character whose thoughts and emotions continue to elude me. Maybe because this character’s emotions continue to elude her?

I’m writing a journal for her as she goes through the story. The behind-the-scenes stuff you don’t tell your siblings or mom and dad. It’s a very personal no-one-else-will-see-this journal.

It’s fun digging deeper into what she wants, what she thinks she wants, what she doesn’t want others to know. What is she afraid of – and why? What she should have done? What she wished someone had said to her? What she wishes for but doesn’t think she deserves. These are all good places to start.

Have Shocking Coffee With Your Main Character

James Scott Bell shared an exercise he uses where he has writers sit down to have a conversation over coffee with their main character. He writes on The Killzone Blog: “I do an exercise called ‘Shocking Coffee.’ You, the author, imagine you are seated with your main character over a cup of coffee. She tells you she doesn’t think you’ve quite captured her. That surprises you a bit. I mean, after all, you created her.

“So you ask, ‘In what way?’ And your character tells you something that shocks you.”

Manage Your Expectations

These exercises probably won’t be a one-and-done thing. This is a process. You have to keep digging to find the gold, it likely won’t be sitting there partly exposed to the sun.

Each journal entry, each sip of coffee – it’s the back and forth that gets the creative juices flowing. You’re looking for new connections, new directions, to see new threads or possibilities that you missed before.

What about you? What’s your process for getting unstuck, or for diving deeper into a character’s emotions?

About Lisa

Lisa Hall-Wilson is a national award-winning freelance journalist and author who loves mentoring writers. Fascinated by history, fantasy, romance, and faith, Lisa blends those passions into historical and historical-fantasy novels. Find Lisa’s blog, Beyond Basics for intermediate writers,  at www.lisahallwilson.com.

Top Image by DanaTentis from Pixabay / Other images purchased from DepositPhotos.