Writers in the Storm

Who doesn't have fond memories of childhood summers? Sure, you may remember that time you got a blistering sunburn, but I bet you had fun getting it. 

I'm coming down to the last edits for my debut book. And I'm digging deep to make my characters memorable. I've discovered myself thinking a lot about the non-academic things I learned during those months away from school and, like any writer, my rumination ends up somewhere in my work.

I can tell you a character's favorite color, in narrative or in answer to a dialogue question. Fine, you've got that piece of information that's necessary at the end of the book. Or you can see the character discover her favorite color. 

True story: My favorite color is green. Okay, now you know. But here's what's several layers below that: Every year we bought a small box of fireworks, went out in the street with the neighbors, and the dads lit the fuses of the little cones, log cabins, and snakes. I really liked those fireworks. But when I was ten, we went to a real Fourth of July fireworks show. Out-of-state relatives were visiting, so we drove three cities away to have dinner in Chinatown and go to the big regional display.

We sat in a grandstand. Even though the adults were excited, I wasn't impressed until the first rocket shrieked skyward. After the big boom, gold and silver glitter formed a huge ball. I fell in love with fireworks that night. Red, white and blue flares turned night into day. Ohs and ahs punctuated each rocket burst. The fireworks went on much longer than our little boxes on the street at home. 

Toward the end of the show, two rockets criss-crossed above us. There was no kaboom, but when the chemicals ignited, pink and green chrysanthemum images shimmered then slid toward the ground. When I saw the green sparkles in that firework, I knew I'd never seen a more beautiful color. Now, when someone asked my favorite color, instead of saying I didn't have one, I would answer green.

See how much you learned about my family. About me? 

I could have told you this, also true, story: My college guy friends and I sat around the RISK board, building armies, rolling dice, and attacking each other. And talking about anything but the finals we'd start taking the next day. 

"What's your favorite color?" one of the guys asked me.

"Green."

Another guy, who'd gone to my high school said, "Nobody's favorite color is green. That's stupid."

I thought about how many times I'd been singled out for admitting green was my favorite color. After all, race cars were never painted green because green cars were unlucky.

The oldest friend, who'd served in the Army to pay for college, chimed in. "Actually, it's a great favorite color. It's the color of money."

I've never hesitated answering that question since.

You can see how easily those two stories could be incorporated into my WIP. 

Your past can be yesterday or an hour ago, it doesn't have to be some memory you've dredged from the depths of forgotten years. But it does need to have a hook into your life. Those small, subtle ways to share how your character grew up, how they learned to think and believe what they do, are what makes your characters memorable. They're what makes you memorable.

I've blown up a lot of space ships—remember, I write science fiction adventure romance. No matter how spectacular the destruction is, what counts is how it affects my character and why it affects them. You've read books that tell you all the information you need to know. Maybe you didn't finish them because they lacked that heart connection. 

Hooking into a significant small event in your past is a way to open your heart and connect with your readers. The subtle nuances of your character building can let the reader discover things organically. The actual event in my story doesn't have anything to do with the character's favorite color, but those memories served as the springboard for a moment in time that impacted my character.

I bet you've thought of at least one summer memory that you could use some form in your WIP. Come on, share it with us. 

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.

Punished, oh-no, that’s published as a co-author of a math textbook, she yearns to hear personal stories about finding love from those who read her books, rather than the horrors of calculus lessons gone wrong.  She is grateful for good friends who remind her to do the practical things in life like grocery shop, show up at the airport for a flight and pay bills.

A “hard” scientist who avoided writing classes like the plague, she now shares her brain with characters who demand that their stories be told.  Amazing, gifted critique partners keep her on the straight and narrow. Feedback from readers keeps her fingers on the keyboard.

Look for P.R.I.S.M., a young adult science fiction story of survival, betrayal, deceit, lies, and love, this summer.

When she’s not hanging out at Writers in the Storm, you can visit Fae at http://faerowen.com  or www.facebook.com/fae.rowen

Penny Sansevieri

The Amazon ad system (AMS), new to many authors, is creating quite a buzz in the community.  And though it’s a pretty easy set-up, the heart of the ads – and getting them right, can be tricky. This guide built out of many tests I’ve done with the ad system is pretty comprehensive and, I hope, helpful.

First things first – what kind of ads can you create? There are actually two types of ads that that the Amazon ad system offers for books – Sponsored Product Ads and Product Display ads.  

Creating Your Ads

Before you start

If you’re not sure which ad to choose, I can tell you that based on my research, I’m seeing better results in the Sponsored Ads. Why is this? Most likely due to the way they show up as readers search.

When it comes to creating your ads, before you get too far down the path let’s talk things to do versus things to avoid. If you’ve ever used the Google AdWords system you probably know that their keyword suggestions are generally pretty accurate. I also consider the Google system to be stronger than Amazon’s suggestions – enough so that you can ignore Amazon’s suggested keywords in their entirety. BUT, unlike Google’s ad system, where you can get by with having 50 or so keywords, you’ll need more to make the Amazon system work, a lot more. Generally, I recommend 300 to 400 keywords.

300 to 400? Yes, but it’s not as hard as you might think. One of the biggest issues authors face, when finding keywords to market their book, is that they pick words that really have very little search momentum or, conversely, are far too competitive (for example –  “contemporary romance”). Also, it’s worth considering your potential reader’s point of view – it may be worthwhile to use “wheat allergies” as a keyword for your book on gluten intolerance because your readers will often search based on their pain points, instead of your expertise.

Finding the right keywords

Before you even log into AMS, you’ll first want to start with your preliminary list of search terms (things that immediately come to mind when you think about your book). Two tips before you start: first, remember to use the Kindle store in Amazon; second, use a private search mode (on Chrome it’s called going “incognito”) so that your prior purchases/searches don’t affect your results. 

So first, start by typing in one of your keywords – and although you’ll ultimately want to use search strings rather than single words, you can start with a single word. In the example below, you can see what pops up when you type “paranormal.” Jot down these phrases to add to your list of keywords, but only use terms that are relevant to your book.

Once you’ve exhausted these search terms, you can start using your terms plus the word “and” or start digging through the alphabet, one letter at a time. So, “romance a”, “romance b”, “romance c” and so on.  The terms that pop up are actual searches people have done, so it’s a great way to expand your reach and find new keywords for both fiction and non-fiction.

Keep in mind that readers looking for fiction typically search based on book type, so “mystery thriller” “sci-fi fantasy” or “paranormal romance,” but for non-fiction, consumers will always search on their specific need, like “small business.”

Related book titles and author Names

Although I mentioned you’ll want to consider 300 to 400 search terms, once you have a good 25-50, it’s time to put the plan into action and actually search on them. Plug them up and see what comes up in the first page (and even second page) of Amazon’s search results, taking note of the author, book title and series title, if any. Also note that you can’t use special characters in AMS ads, so save yourself some time by not using hyphens, colons, or quotes because the ads system won’t accept it.

From this list, you can go down further into the funnel by checking out “also bought” lists for each book; it might take you a few hours, but it’s most likely a one-time effort, and well worth your time. Ultimately, you want to find books in your genre that are selling well and use that author and book title as part of your keywords. Note: while the KDP dashboard doesn’t allow this, it’s permissible in the AMS ads system.

Additionally, you can use the Amazon Bestsellers list, but it’s not always an accurate representation of where you want your book to be. For example, I was setting up ads for a contemporary, fairy tale romance and the books I found were often sitting in bestseller sections that were listed as “Christian,” or “mythology,” which didn’t suit the book. Bottom line, be cognizant of any categories listed in book details.

Don’t forget to look at Kindle books too – this gives you the opportunity to find any titles that didn’t come up in your original keyword search. I will sometimes go as deep as the top 60 books, because that’s some pretty good momentum. Next, take a look at the sidebar that reads “best sellers” and click on that list, too, since you may find some in the new release list that haven’t otherwise appeared yet.

Current Topics

Is there anything new or up-and-coming in the news or popular culture? Use these as keywords to tie into your book, too! Whether movies, things in the news, celebrities, politicians, or world events these all can have a long (or short) term effect on performance depending on how they trend.

Writing a Great Book Ad

Like many ads, your Amazon ad should be short and sweet. And consider grouping the ad by keywords if at all possible (that is, if you were able to get more than 200-300 keywords). What this means is that you can customize ads to specific topics, specialties, or areas of focus, especially if your book fits into a few areas. For example, you might have a book on growing a new business, or gluten intolerance, food allergies, or even a genre fiction book. Each of these titles has a subset of interests that you probably found in your book research, which in turn have their own strings of keywords, book titles and authors

Setting up Your Ads

To get started on AMS ads, head on over to the AMS dashboard here: https://ams.amazon.com/. You’ll log in with your Amazon account details and it’ll take you through the Amazon ad set up.  Select new campaign, and the type of campaign you want (in this case Sponsored Products).

Once there, it’ll give you the option to grab one of your books, then you can set a campaign name, daily budget and whether you want to end the ad campaign at a certain date, or within a date range. And here is where you select manual targeting, again, because Amazon’s selections aren’t going to be as strong as what you’ve come up with in your research. Enter your keywords in the system, hit save, and start writing your ad!

If you’re doing ads based on keyword segments, you’ll want to use those keywords in the ad itself. If not and need a starting point, search your genre on Amazon to see what kinds of Sponsored Posts are getting your attention. You can also do A/B testing (that is set up two otherwise identical campaigns with different ad copy) to see what nets you more impressions.

Boosting your AMS campaigns

In testing I’ve done, I’ve found that doing ads on books that aren’t included in the Kindle Unlimited program don’t do as well as those books that are KDP Select and therefore, part of this program. Why? Because a lot of readers in Kindle Unlimited are getting book recommendations from these ads and, though you may not see it in direct book sales, you’ll definitely see it in page reads in Kindle Unlimited.

Additionally, having a print version can increase your visibility, and even if you don’t sell many print books, your ads will do better. I’ve tested both fiction and non-fiction books with and without print and, hands down, print always helps boost your ad exposure. And if you have multiple books in a theme or genre (or even a series), can increase your exposure and overall sales.  Even if you only run an ad on one of them, by having more options, you increase visibility of all of your books on Amazon and drive potential readers to your offerings.

Finally, you can add the keywords from your ad to your book page, either via your book description, or any enhanced content you can include via Amazon Author Central. If you can include a keyword or two in your subtitle, even better. Keep in mind that your Amazon page is spidered, much like your website, so having ad keywords there is not only a great idea, but mandatory to get good bounce from your ads.

Ultimately, Amazon’s ad system is filled with great potential for your book sales, if you do it right! I’d love to hear about any successes you have!

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 @2017 Penny C. Sansevieri

Susan Donovan

Do you think I’m sexy?

Well? Do you? This is not some rhetorical Rod Stewart question. I’m totally serious.

Do you think I’m sexy?

Perhaps not. So let’s move on to the next question.

Do you think I’m funny?

See where I’m going with this? The truth is, “funny” is a lot like “sexy.” Both are in the eye of the beholder.  This is depressing news for those of us who attempt to write fiction with a comedic twist, because it means that despite our skill and effort, the reader gets to make the call (Yet another part of this business beyond the author’s control…). Of course, there are things we can do to increase our chances of hitting a reader’s funny bone, and I’ll mention a few of them, but humor writing is never a sure thing.

Here's what I mean: meet Woman A and Woman B. Both want as much “sexy” in their lives as possible. Woman A thinks nothing’s hotter than when her lover laves her earlobe – she can’t get enough of that oral-aural action!

The exact same move sends Woman B racing to the bathroom for Q-Tips and isopropyl alcohol.

That's humor writing.

In addition to being an author, I’m a writing coach.  Clients often ask me to help them understand the nuances of writing humor, but before I share what I’ve learned over my long career, I tell them this true story.

My second novel – Take A Chance on Me – was released in 2003. The romantic comedy/suspense was about a pitiful, hairless dog who witnesses a murder and the cop and animal behaviorist who must solve the case. Since this was before Goodreads became the go-to outlet for snarky, soul-crushing reader commentary, I got a lot of emails from people who’d purchased my book. 

One day, a reader wrote, "I laughed so hard I tinkled myself. You're the funniest author I've ever read." Later that day, another reader had this to say about the very same novel: "I feel embarrassed for you. There's nothing that makes me cringe more than a joke that misses the mark. I know some people think you're funny. I'm not one of them."

And that, right there, is why humor writing ain’t for sissies. We authors can study the art form and hone our skills, but what makes one reader laugh until she wets herself is simply cringe-inducing for another. Same book. Same day. Opposite reactions – and it’s all out of our control.

If you’d like to incorporate comedy in your women's fiction, I recommend you writing for yourself – write what makes you laugh.  Read the your WIP  and circle anything YOU find funny. Even better, if you find yourself chortling while you’re writing, you’ve got something. Mark it. Later, go back and analyze why, exactly, you find it funny. It could be because the writing veered off in a surprising direction. It could be because you used exaggeration, or a joltingly unexpected descriptive phrase. Or maybe you wrote a line of inner dialogue that perfectly encapsulated a character’s eccentricities.

This might be obvious, but keep in mind that women’s fiction readers tend to enjoy gentle humor  -- such as the self-deprecating inner dialogue of the main character – instead of stinging Don Rickles stuff. All forms of humor share a common structure, however. For a great roundup of humor principles, see the decidedly NSFW http://theweek.com/articles/449236/how-funny-6-essential-ingredients-humor.)

 In my experience, a funny novels do two things:

1. Provide a mix of physical comedy (action), humorous dialogue, and funny character-specific POV narrative;
2. Elicit a wide range of reactions, such as a quick chuckle, the wry smile, the silent “okay-now-that's-funny" nod, and, if you’re lucky, one put-down-the-book and howl moment. 

Remember, if you can laugh at your own writing, then your work has the potential to be funny to someone else – not everyone else, mind you, but someone out there will enjoy it. So take heart. Listen to beta-reader feedback, but stay true to your own compass. And rewrite and rewrite until you’ve made that humorous bit as shiny and perfect as possible.

Thanks for taking the time to read my little blog post. I know some of you may not find me funny. That’s okay.

Because I’m sexy, right?

Hello?

What do you think, WITS readers? Do you have any tips to add to Susan's? What author do YOU think is funny?

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Susan Donovan is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of twenty-seven novels and novellas published by St. Martin’s Press, Penguin USA/Berkeley Books, HQN, Amazon, and Hachette. She’s a former newspaper reporter with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Northwestern University. Susan provides one-on-one author coaching via phone, Skype, or FaceTime. She and New York Times bestselling author Darynda Jones are coaches-in-residence at the Adobe Cottage Writer’s Retreat in Placitas, New Mexico, a private space for peace, beauty, and word count.

For information about the writer’s cottage and personalized coaching, please visit www.adobecottageretreat.com and www.susandonovan.com.