Writers in the Storm

Julie Glover

My father had his own set of proverbs that he dispensed like wisdom from the mountaintop. Even though it’s been decades since I lived in his house, I can still hear his voice in my head sharing such tenets as:

“A thing worth doing is worth doing well.”

“Leave a place as good as or better than you found it.”

“Stupid is as stupid does.” – Oh wait, that one’s not his.

But the adage I’ve been thinking about lately is “Sail into port with all your flags flying.” My dad was reminding me to follow a project all the way through, so that I could stand proud at the end—knowing I’d given it all I had.

 

Yet here I sit in November looking at my progress for the year and thinking my flags look a little sagging and tattered. Maybe you feel the same.

I haven’t followed through on all the projects I had intended to get done, and the countdown to the end of the year has begun! Not to mention that we all know how time-sucking the holidays can be, so good intentions about writing a novel in the week leading up to Christmas are probably just that—good intentions.

How can I possibly get my flags back up the pole and sail into the end-of-year port with my head held high, feeling great about my writing in 2018? Here are some tips for me, and for you:

1. Aim a little higher than do-able. It’s hard to say where your aim should be, because some of you are optimists, some are pessimists, and some are realists. (And no, you pessimists do not get to claim that you’re realists.)

Consider your own tendencies and set a goal that makes you stand on your tiptoes and reach, not one that you can grab while prone on your couch or one that requires stilts and a reaching hook. You want something that you can accomplish, but only with some extra effort.

2. Off-load the less important stuff. What are you currently doing that you really don’t have to do? There’s something you could put on the back burner or toss out with tomorrow’s garage. It might be an obligation someone else put on you that you struggle to pass up. But your writing career hereby gives you permission to say no.

Think of life this way: What am I doing that must be done or leaves the legacy I want to leave? Sure, I have to launder clothes or I will nothing to wear (and I am not becoming a nudist—you’re welcome), but outside the must-dos, which tasks meet your life’s mission and which are time-fillers? Ditch the latter. Or at least move them down the priority list. Clearing that space can give you more time and energy for writing.

3. Plan your days. Whether you’re the type to keep a color-coded calendar or a to-do list floating around in your head, you need a plan. Think about which personality you are, and then decide what will work for you.

You could plan out the rest of the year, or just wake up each day and plan out that particular day alone. But as another man who loved proverbs said: “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” (That was Zig Ziglar.) No matter how detailed or general, whether it’s the whole novel or just the next scene, have a plan.

4. Invite accountability. You know when I got the most done? When I reported to my children. Seriously, there’s nothing quite like disappointing your own kids. “I know I said we’d all do our homework, but I found this Netflix show that was totally binge-worthy, and then I spent an hour trying on dresses to see which ones covered up my midsection best.” Yeah, I never wanted to say anything like that to my own kids! What kind of horrible example would I be setting?

They’re grown and gone now, but I can find others to keep me accountable. And so can you. Tell someone else what you’re working on and then report periodically how it’s going. Then you’ll have someone to share your successes or give you the stink-eye when you need to get back on track.

5. Celebrate progress. Speaking of successes, celebrate your own. I once rewarded myself for completing a novel edit with a roller coaster ride. Given how much I love roller coasters, that was a great motivator. I also have a friend who keeps a tiara in her house to put on when she meets a big goal.

Others celebrate with dinners out, small or big purchases, or a mini-vacation. Make the celebration whatever you want, but reward yourself for keeping your flags up as you sail into port.

What project are you trying to finish before the end of the year? And what tips do you have for sailing into port with all your flags flying?

ABOUT JULIE

Although she grew up in Corpus Christi, Julie Glover has never sailed a boat. She did, however, recently come off a cruise ship where she enjoyed the gorgeous ocean and a wonderful conference/retreat with Cruising Writers.

When not at sea, Julie writes mysteries and young adult fiction. Her YA contemporary novel, SHARING HUNTER, finaled in the 2015 RWA® Golden Heart®. She is represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency.

You can visit her website here and also follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Fae Rowen

It's been almost ten years  since I hosted my first writers' retreat. It was a low-key get together for my five-person critique group, which had been meeting for just a few months. 

We already met weekly for face-to-face chapter critiques, but we wanted time to discuss writing, trade ideas and things we'd learned from books, conferences, and hard work. I volunteered my house and the food (breakfast and lunch).

I made sure all the food was prepared—a quiche and fruit salad for breakfast and a salad bar for lunch, with chocolate goodies for dessert. I wouldn't have to spend any time "in the kitchen" other than to set out our meals, and I knew everyone would help.

It turned out that life interrupted and only two of us ended up spending our writers' retreat day together. That turned out to be a really good thing. At that time, Laura Drake and I didn't know each other that well.

I'd gone through my library and pulled out the craft books that I had duplicates of. I also had a Goal-Motivation-Conflict poster board, gridded off for placing sticky notes for plotting. I piled up my stack of RWA chapter newsletters, a couple of thesauruses, a dictionary and notes with craft and industry tips. Laura brought craft books she no longer needed and magazines, along with books she really liked. 

We looked through each other's offerings and pulled out things we wanted to keep. Actually I think I took all her stuff and she took all mine. It was like an exciting yard sale, because we got to share what we loved and convince each other of the value of our reference books. We talked about plotting—we're both still pantsers—and GMC. We shared our dreams of getting agents and publishing lots of books.

Then we wrote, working on our WIPs for the next critique group. Laura took her laptop outside to one of my lounge chairs. I wrote on my "big" computer in the house. After lunch, we printed and read each other's work. 

We had more time to dig into word choice, GMC, setting, dialogue and emotions then we did in our regular critique group meetings. By the end of the day, we agreed that we'd had a productive day, with lots of takeaway to be discovered in the weeks and months ahead with our "new" books and magazine articles.

Not only did I get to learn more about Laura as a person, I was energized by her enthusiasm, our sharing, and the hope of more DIY Writers' Retreats to come. 

We still "do" writers' retreats at conferences, classes, and at her house and my house. We share what we've learned since we last saw each other. I remember how excited she was after reading Lisa Cron's first book! I look forward to her excitement and enthusiasm when I'm feeling stuck. I enjoy the challenge of working together on sticky plot elements of her stories. But most of all, I enjoy spending time with a friend who really gets what it means to be a writer. Who doesn't look shocked when I talk about my characters as if they are real.

Looking back, we were very much beginners, even though we'd both finished three books. We knew some things, others not so much.

Why did our DIY Writers' Retreat turn out so well?

• We had no expectations of what the takeaway would be
• We were open to learn and share
• We were excited about our writing
• We were committed to our writing
• We were open to building a friendship
• We had gone through our own resources to pick out the best to share
• We weren't afraid of what the other would think since we'd been in a critique group together for a few months 
• After our retreat, we continued to talk about what we learned, from each other's materials to new ideas that entered our larger writing community

I bet you have materials in a closet or a box in your garage that you could share with a small group of other writers. If you're in a critique group and haven't tried a day or afternoon/evening writers' retreat, think about putting one together. You might be pleasantly surprised at how it can energize your group. 

If you're not in a critique group, try to find one to three writers who are in your same general skill area. Genre doesn't matter. Invite three or four people to your home. Schedule at least four hours. Six is better, depending on the number of attendees. I think a good rule of thumb would be to plan for two hours per person, so everyone has time to share and feel heard without rushing. The fewer distractions at your meeting place, the better. You don't have to supply all the food, everyone could bring something for a potluck lunch for a retreat that starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m.

Good luck!

Have you hosted or participated in a do-it-yourself Writers' Retreat? What suggestions do you have? Do you have questions?

ABOUT FAE:

Fae Rowen discovered the romance genre after years as a science fiction freak. Writing futuristics and medieval paranormals, she jokes that she can live anywhere but the present. As a mathematician, she knows life’s a lot more fun when you get to define your world and its rules.

P.R.I.S.M., Fae's debut book, a young adult science fiction romance story of survival, betrayal, resolve, deceit, and love is now available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

by Penny Sansevieri

Especially around the holidays, take a moment and tweak your keywords/keyword strings in Amazon. Maybe you can’t incorporate any holiday - or Christmas-specific keywords, but tweak the keywords during the holidays and find the strongest ones for your market. Oftentimes searches that include “gifts for…” ramp up in popularity around this time.                                              

Amazon Keyword Strings That Pull in More Buyers

You might be surprised by how often Amazon keywords associated with a particular book are weak, or at least lack the strength for optimal performance. Using keyword strings correctly, you can draw potential readers to your topic and ultimately sell more books.

As with all tools, you must know how to use keyword strings correctly and effectively. And the trick is understanding how you pull in buyers.

Have you heard of frankincense oil? No, this isn’t a Christmas quiz. Frankincense is an essential oil that’s popping up in studies as an effective alternative cancer treatment. Frankincense reportedly actually kills cancer cells. And more than 35 percent of all adults will be diagnosed with cancer at some point. Are you interested in learning more?

See what I did there? I likely got you to go from, “Did she forget the topic of this post?” to, “I need to look this up.”

The concept of bringing together two ideas that aren’t obviously related and then using them to generate sales is known as alignment. Granted, the example I’m using touches on a serious health topic, but use the same concept across the board. This is what your keywords can do for you when you use them properly.

First, you need to figure out the problem that needs to be solved. The problem might not be what you think!

Alignment in Book Marketing

Case study: Lyme disease

I recently performed an Amazon optimization for a book about managing Lyme disease. Lyme disease is a tough market, because it’s not a big one. Despite an increase in Lyme awareness, there aren’t a ton of Lyme disease books on Amazon. Reduced competition might sound great. In reality, especially Amazon reality, reduced competition isn’t all that great. You can tell because all the books related to Lyme disease have a high-numbered sales rank. And the bigger the number, the smaller the number of books sold.

As I built recommendations for this author to improve her Amazon performance, I found it simply wasn’t as worthwhile to use “Lyme disease” as a target keyword. Instead, I dug deeper into the illness itself and discovered that Lyme disease often mimics other issues. The laundry list of other issues includes thyroid problems, arthritis, and other ailments that are more frequent search terms. What is the solution? We presented the author with a set of Amazon keywords tying her book to those issues. Ultimately, adding the more frequently used search terms gets the book in front of readers looking for new ideas for managing their illnesses and symptoms.

Following this practice for just about any nonfiction book, we can boost the overall bounce of the book on Amazon.

This particular strategy is specific to nonfiction. To make your keyword strings effective, it’s critical that your book description also matches this train of thought. In the Lyme disease author’s case, I suggested she update the book description to include these other ailments. The idea readers from a new audience see the book and think, “Oh, I hadn’t considered that!” Ultimately, they purchase the book.

Case study: Teen suicide

There are two things we Americans never like to talk about: Death and money, especially whether we’ve saved enough money for retirement. I followed the same keyword process with a book about teen bullying relating the subject to teen suicide. For obvious reasons, this author put her book in the death/suicide category and used those keywords. Her book wasn’t selling well. My suggestions to turn things around included switching the book to the teen health category, which had few competing titles with great sales ranks.

Note: That’s the difference between low numbers in a category or keyword search. If you have low competition and a low sales rank (low means you’re selling a ton of books), that’s golden!

Additionally, I suggested that she remove all references to “death” and “suicide” from her Amazon keywords. Instead, we focused on how parents might be interested in her message. New terms like “bullying” and “helping my teen” continue to prove far more popular.

Alignment and Fiction

Follow a similar path for your works of fiction, too. While it’s a tad less obvious, you can achieve alignment by tying your book to ideas that interest your readers, like paranormal elements, specific settings, or complex family relationships they can relate to.

Understanding Amazon’s Search

We’ve learned about alignment. Now it’s time to learn more about Amazon’s search function and how it has changed.

One of the first things you should do is find keywords to use on your Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) dashboard.

Start with a keyword search on the Kindle side of the Amazon website. Not every search is created equal. Searching “mystery and suspense” on the main Amazon site instead of digging down into the Kindle area specifically nets you very different (and largely inaccurate) results. Additionally, searching on the Kindle side of Amazon offers a much more accurate assessment of Amazon keywords. Searching the Kindle side also provides better data, because so many books are available in an e-book-only format.

First, select Kindle Store from the dropdown, leaving the search bar blank, and click the orange Search button.

Next, click “Kindle books.”

Next, select your book’s genre. For this test, use “Mystery, Thriller & Suspense.”

When you’re there, you see this screen:

Under your genre, you see more drop-downs. Pick one from this list. If appropriate, pick an option that isn’t too packed with books. In this case, chose Crime Fiction or Suspense. Again, make sure your book fits into this segment of your genre.

When you enter the genre, start typing your keywords strings into the search bar. As you enter keywords, Amazon’s intuitive search begins to drop down suggestions. You won’t want to use every suggestion, but the list gives you a place to start.

Amazon Keyword Guidelines

As you refine your keyword strings, you want them to follow these guidelines:

Use multiple words, called a “keyword string.” Consumers don’t search using single keywords. Think about how you might Google your book. You don’t search with just the word “suspense” there either.

Don’t assume Amazon’s recommendations, such as those from the above screenshot, are the perfect keywords for your book. We’ll go over that in a minute.

• As you review Amazon’s suggestions, visit those pages to see what kind of books are in the results, AND check their sales rank. If you use a keyword string with a very high sales rank, few people actually search that particular string. Again, the lower the number, the better on Amazon. A book ranking 15,000 performs much better than a book ranking 1,500,000.
• The other thing to be careful about is when a lot of free books clutter the first page of this keyword string search. When you look at “suspense mystery books,” you see lots of books on free promotion. Free books always top the list. Ignore free books’ ranks, because the free books don’t give you an accurate idea of how this string of Amazon keywords actually performs. Instead, keep going down the list until you find a book that isn’t on a pricing promo.
• Kindle Unlimited books don’t matter; they don’t affect your results.

I know this is a lot of information to consider, but think of this project as a fun challenge. Strike that—it’s a challenge that can make you more money! Sounds better by the second, right? The best part is, there’s no limit on how often you can update your Amazon keywords.

If you’re still confused, check out my latest edition of How to Sell Books by the Truckload on Amazon.

Additionally, if you’re looking for more great ideas on ramping up your holiday book sales, I have a great book with 50 tips that show you the way. You can get it here.

Have you tried changing Keywords? Did it help your sales?

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Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. (AME) and Adjunct Professor at NYU, is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. To learn more, visit www.amarketingexpert.com