Writers in the Storm

I took one acting class in college. In addition to discovering I didn't want to pursue drama, but simply storytelling, I learned some of the challenges of portraying a character's persona to an audience just beyond the stage.

One tidbit was my takeaway that you need something to do with your feet, your hands, your body. Enter props.

When a partner and I performed a scene in class from Extremities (yes, the one made into a film that Farrah Fawcett starred in), I started the scene with a cigarette in hand. Looking back, I now realize that cigarette had zero to do with what was happening. It was merely a crutch to keep my hands busy so I didn't look like an idiot standing there with no movement or gesturing wildly.

This happens to us authors with the page too.

For example, we need to write a scene with two characters talking, but something should be happening besides dialogue, right? Enter props. We put them at a kitchen table and give them tea to pour into cups. We put them in a car where they can fiddle with the radio dial and glance in the rear-view mirror. We get them to fiddle with their clothes, their jewelry, their wristwatch.

But is that action actually related to what else is happening in the scene? Does the action reveal something about the characters or the plot? Or is simply to keep our characters busy? 

Let me lay out two examples below. The dialogue and setting will be the same for both. But contrast how the action doesn't really matter in the first scene, but pulls its weight much better in the second.

Example 1

Mary grabbed coffee cups from the cupboard and turned on the pot. "My sister's arriving at noon. Or so she says."

John leaned against the counter and watched the coffee. "When she gets here, you need to explain what's happened."

Mary had no idea how to have that conversation. How could she explain to her sister what she didn't understand herself?

The coffee hadn't finished percolating, but Mary shoved a cup under the stream anyway. Once it was full, she handed it to John and returned the pot to its place. She could wait for her own cup.

"Why don't you tell her?" Mary asked. "You're more diplomatic than I am."

John added sugar to his coffee, three packets. "I don't think diplomacy is your best bet. More like pulling off the Band-Aid, one quick yank and be ready for the scream."

Example 2

Mary pushed aside the family crest coffee cups and grabbed a nondescript one from the back of the cupboard, then turned on the pot. It was barely eight a.m., and she was headed toward a third cup. "My sister's arriving at noon. Or so she says."

John leaned against the counter and watched the coffee, as if it was a focal point to avoid eye contact. "When she gets here, you need to explain what's happened."

Mary had no idea how to have that conversation. How could she explain to her sister what she didn't understand herself?

The coffee hadn't finished percolating, but Mary shoved a cup under the stream anyway. Impatient with the coffee, impatient with the situation, impatient with her life.

Once the cup had filled, she handed it to John. "Why don't you tell her? You're more diplomatic than I am."

The hot plate sizzled, and she returned the coffee pot to its place. She could wait for her own cup. By now, she should be used to standing in line for what she wanted.

John added sugar to his coffee, three packets. If only Mary could add that kind of sweetener to bad news. "I don't think diplomacy is your best bet," he said. "More like pulling off the Band-Aid, one quick yank and be ready for the scream."

# # #

In the first example, there's action in that they're drinking coffee. But who cares! It doesn't say anything about the two of them or the story. In the second example, that action is used to illuminate more about the characters and what's going on.

Sure, you still don't know what's going on, because I purposefully kept it vague, but you have a much better feel for the characters and the mood. Even Mary pushing past her family crest coffee cups to get a different cup tells you something.

Because the action in your novel should matter. If it doesn't, you need to either take it out or give it meaning.

Here are some places where you might find non-meaningful action in your work-in-progress:

1. During a scene focused on dialogue, where you have to put your characters somewhere doing something. The above examples above show what that looks like.
2. When your characters need to get from one place to another, and you end up describing every detail of the journey. But readers don't need to see people walking to the car, opening the car door, turning on the engine, shifting into gear, etc.
3. When your POV character is alone in a scene sorting through something that happened or what to do next, and they're fiddling with papers or getting dressed or the like.
4. When a character is anticipating something, and you need something for them to do while they wait.

Of course, you need actions in your novel that show the character moving about and going from place to place. And yes, sometimes the character wipes lint off his pants just because. So please don't go hacking out every instance of "she walked to the door." In an effort to compel the reader, don't confuse the reader. Instead, maintain the continuity of a scene.

But make sure the overall action of a scene reveals character, advances plot, and/or provides tension.

Have you struggled with writing meaningful action? (I have -- especially the driving thing!) How have you learned to add better reveal character, advance plot, and provide tension with seemingly unimportant action?

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About Julie

Julie Glover writes cozy mysteries and young adult fiction. Her YA contemporary novel, SHARING HUNTER, finaled in the 2015 RWA® Golden Heart®. When not writing, she collects boots, practices rampant sarcasm, and advocates for good grammar and the addition of the interrobang as a much-needed punctuation mark.

Julie is represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency. You can visit her website here and also follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Tasha Seegmiller

When we have clarity with our writing, we know where we are going, whether that is genre or the project. Having clarity in our writing is like going on a hike — there may still be some unexpected things, but there is path, and we know where the path will lead.

Variety in writing is what keeps us sane, er, what allows us to avoid boredom. Whether this is working on two projects at the same time or manipulating the genre, etc. for a bit, we are excited by the chance to do something a little different, to play in a different world, to get to know a different character.

One of the things that we must keep in mind, when exploring the ideas of clarity and variety in our writing, is that we need to be in balance. Having lots of clarity when writing, but no variety makes a project trudge along. It can feel more like work than work feels, and it often ends up with us longing to abandon the project. The caveat to this is that by edit 5+ we probably ALL feel like we are trudging. That doesn’t count.

If there is too much variety, it can be difficult for us and our readers to really have a sense of who we are, what our stories are about, why they should try AT ALL to follow us along our career. And too little variety leaves our books predictable, makes them seem the same, coerces our writing into the land of the formulaic.

Clarity and Variety in the Writer’s Life

There is another part of clarity and variety that we need to understand as well. This is how the life we have influences not only our stories, but our abilities to write as well. Let me explain.

When I first started writing, like many of you, I was invigorated by the idea that I could create a world and characters, that I could transform ideas into story. I dove into craft books, took notes on what I was reading, analyzed movies. It was exciting and became even more so when I discovered that my genre had a name (women’s fiction) and that there was a group forming to provide support to writers of this genre. I had a writing group, and we shared pages and lessons learned, and writing nourished me.

It continued this way for a while and even increased for a couple of years. And then, for the last two years, everything I have written has felt like folding laundry (because that’s the worst chore and is NEVER done). My WIPs sat there, like wrinkled clothes, taunting my inability to just finished the bleepin’ job. I was going through some mental health issues, but as I started to heal and understand, the ability to write didn’t get better. It was just this weekend I finally figured out why.

When I started writing, the stressors with my then day job were high. Add to it the undiagnosed depression, and writing became a way for me to escape, to pretend everything was okay and just create. But I’ve gotten well, my job now both satisfies and fulfills me, and the thing that used to drive me into my WIPs faded to non-existence.

I didn’t know how to create when I didn’t need to escape. I imagine that it is similar to how people who learn to create through leaning on drugs or alcohol might feel. I had to see if I could trust myself to enjoy life and writing.

A very wise friend suggested the initial reframing may be best transitioning from escaping to expanding the joy that I now experience in my life to something broader through writing, that striving toward joy in several capacities was something that I was worthy of, was something that could help me transition back into the creativity I’d come to miss. That exploring ways to add variety through story and character and world could become my new clarity.

The balance of variety and clarity in the writer is just as important as the balance in the writing. Writers who have a chaotic life, bounce from one thing to another phase in their lives, may benefit from a steady, consistent genre, world, kind of story to provide a bit of clarity. And those who are in a very clear, relatively reliable place in their lives may long for a bit a variety, which they can add into their writing.

Are you balanced or imbalanced with the writing you are doing? How do you strive for well-adjusted harmony between you and your writing?

About Tasha

Tasha Seegmiller believes in the magic of love and hope, which she weaves into every story she creates. She is passionate about helping women nourish their creativity and is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. The former high school English teacher now assists in managing the award-winning project-based learning program (EDGE) at Southern Utah University. Tasha married a guy she’s known since she was seven and is the mom of three teens. She is represented by Annelise Robey of Jane Rotrosen Agency.

Penny Sansevieri

By now most authors know the importance of choosing great keywords on Amazon, but Amazon’s categories are equally important. Choosing the right categories can boost your exposure. And exposure drives book sales.

So, while it’s good to spend a lot of time focusing on keywords, you should also focus on finding narrow categories on Amazon. The reason to look narrow is this: categories with fewer books have lower competition for the #1 spot. And the top ten is a great place to hit, not only because it creates more visibility for your book, but Amazon’s algorithms kick in as you start to spike within categories.

The BIG Secret about Amazon Categories

When speaking to a contact at Amazon recently, she told me they had rolled out ten categories for each book. Which means that instead of just two categories, you can have up to ten for each of your titles. Why is this good? Well the more categories your book has, the more places it will show up. And because you have more flexibility now, you can pick some super niche categories, along with less niche ones. This is especially good in markets where there aren’t a ton of niches. Business books often sit in this segment. Having more categories levels the playing field a bit more.

How to Choose the Right Categories

First, when I talk about Amazon categories (and in previous posts I’ve done for this blog), you’ve probably noticed that I always refer to the eBook side of Amazon. This is because the categories on the eBook side are more creative because there are more of them.

When you posted your book on Amazon (or via your publisher), you were probably asked for your BISAC category. These categories do exist on Amazon, but only on the print book side. The Kindle Store has an almost limitless series of categories to choose from. If your print book and eBook are connected on the Amazon platform, then changing the categories on your eBook should be sufficient to optimize both versions of your book.

To get started, head to the Kindle Store on the Amazon site. You get there by highlighting the Kindle Store in your Amazon search bar and clicking go:

Once you’re there, you should see this down the left-hand side of the screen:

Each of these main categories have drop downs when you click on them. You can really find some great smaller niche categories — even for some of the biggest, most cluttered genres. That’s where, with some great strategy, you’ll find your sweet spot, boost your exposure and ultimately, grow your book sales.

Two busy markets are business and health, and I’m going to give you an example of each below.

If you look down the left-hand side of the first screen shot, you’ll see that I clicked down from: Business > Management > Communication in Management.

For many of you who write in the business genre, “communication in management” may not seem like a correct category. That is, until you look at some of the books that are in there. They cover topics like communicating, business communication, and team building.

Next, take a look at the number of books in this genre. See the orange box below:

721 books. Compared with the seven million books on Amazon, that’s a pretty great number, and it’s narrow enough that you could really gain some great visibility! It’s possible to find categories that are even more narrow -- in some cases I’ve found articles with less than 100 books in them. Which again is why having 10 categories is great. Not all of them will be this niche-specific, but having at least 5 of these categories be very narrow will greatly help your exposure.

The health market is another really busy one. So let’s look at the Women’s Health category specifically.  See how many books are sitting in that particular segment?

That’s a lot of competition! But if you dig deeper and experiment with some other categories, you can really whittle this number down:

Competing with 1,000 books gives you much better opportunity than trying to wrestle to the top of a list of forty or fifty thousand titles.

But remember, these are two extreme examples to illustrate how to get creative with your searches. In almost every case, there are other elements or aspects of a book that can be highlighted using the categories.

“Difficult” Categories

On the flip side, there are those difficult categories where it’s hard to get traction no matter what you do. Especially if your book deals with topics that Americans don’t like to talk about, namely whether they’ve saved enough for retirement (because most people haven’t) and death, for obvious reasons.

If this is the case for you, or if you maybe have a book that is tough to categorize, start looking at the features and benefits. Find out what problems your book can solve for readers, and then guide them down that path so that they see it as a solution that will help them.

We once worked with a book on Lyme Disease, and the searches for Lyme disease were really bad on Amazon. The books all had terrible sales rank, and though there wasn’t a ton of competition, there wasn’t a lot of activity in terms of sales.

Why? Because most people weren’t searching under Lyme disease. Instead they were searching under the symptoms (the problem the book ultimately solved), and that’s where we put the book. When we did, the performance changed quickly.

Another example of this was a book about teen suicide as it relates to bullying. For obvious reasons, the author had originally categorized the book under “suicide,” but it did really poorly. I asked her to move it under "teen health," and again, it did a lot better!

Categories That Will Help You Achieve Bestseller Status

Everyone wants to hit bestseller status. Even if you recognize it as a big dream, you’d love to be a bestselling author, right? Guess what? Narrow categories can do that for you.

And while you may not become a #1 bestseller across Amazon, you could still surf to the top of your category and really dominate it. And when you start to do really well within a category, you’ll trigger Amazon’s algorithm and really surge your book’s performance.

Fiction Versus Nonfiction

Fiction authors often get a chance to expand their categories even further with options to “refine by” themes, heroes, and settings.

Here’s what it looks like, this screen grab was taken from the Inspirational Romance section of Amazon:

As you can see, “Romantic Heroes” offers quite a few different hero profiles as additional options for categorizing your fiction book. They don’t appear under all fiction genres, however, so keep that in mind if you write something other than romance.

Also important, these are keyword-driven rather than categories you typically get to choose. So to put your book in them, you’ll need to add keywords to the back end.

How many should you use?

Realistically, I would recommend starting with two. That’s probably a realistic number for your fiction book anyway since most books don’t have four different heroes and six different settings. So, while these category keywords are great to have, you still have the option of adding ten more categories. Meaning that you really can look at these as bonuses that you can add by using keywords on the back end of your KDP dashboard.

You’ll add these “keyword categories” via your keywords on the Amazon dashboard. Just make sure to turn them into strings as I’ve discussed in previous articles.

So How Do You Add All These Categories?

This is probably the easiest aspect. All you have to do is log in to your Amazon Author Central page and click on “help.” Then email them with the ten categories you’ve chosen.

My recommendation is to email them the link, like this: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=lp_156563011_nr_n_5?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A%21133141011%2Cn%3A154606011%2Cn%3A156563011%2Cn%3A156569011&bbn=156563011&ie=UTF8&qid=1518735862&rnid=156563011

And then be sure to also include the category string from the page: Kindle eBooks : Self-Help : Memory Improvement

So your submission for each category will look like this:

Kindle eBooks : Self-Help : Memory Improvement

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=lp_156563011_nr_n_5?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A%21133141011%2Cn%3A154606011%2Cn%3A156563011%2Cn%3A156569011&bbn=156563011&ie=UTF8&qid=1518735862&rnid=156563011

Why should you do this? Well, it makes it simple for the Author Central person to help with what you’re asking for, which is definitely a good thing. And you’ll find that your categories are added quickly, often within 24 hours!

Setting the Book Categories Record Straight

If you’ve ever wondered how Amazon chooses the categories that show up in your details section under the Amazon Best Sellers Rank, you’re not alone.

These come from the algorithm. If you aren’t managing your categories correctly, then this area might look like a mishmash of categories that don’t even belong with your book. So to set the record straight, these aren’t necessarily your categories. But it illustrates the importance of managing your own categories. When you don’t put a little time and effort into this, you may start showing up in random places. Needless to say, this won’t help your book sales at all.

In the example above, these are categories we placed the book in, and since they are the right categories, this section aligns with what we selected.

If you’re working with a publisher who has the control of your eBook, you’ll want to reach out to them to ask if they are willing and able to change these categories. I can almost guarantee that your publisher doesn’t know that it’s an option to select ten eBook categories, making it very worth your time and effort to talk with them.

Experimenting with Amazon categories can really be a lot of fun, especially when you see it start to pay off in terms of exposure and book sales. So start digging into the available categories, and watch how quickly changes start to happen!

ABOUT PENNY

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert and an Adjunct Professor with NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of fourteen books, including How to Sell Books by the Truckload. AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through online promotion and their signature program called: The Virtual Author Tour™

To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free newsletter, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@amarketingexpert.com

Copyright @2018 Penny C. Sansevieri