Writers in the Storm

Writers In The Storm welcomes back literary lawyer, Susan Spann with her next installment of her blog series on the author's business plan.

By Susan Spann

Thank you for joining me again on our trek through writing an author business plan!

Last month’s installment looked at The Three Stages of Author Marketing. Now, as 2012 draws to a close, we’re moving on to Competitive Analysis - the fourth section of the author business plan.

“Competitive Analysis” means examining your work and comparing it to similar books in the marketplace.

When comparing, look for your strengths and weaknesses. Once you’ve identified them (and all books do have both), brainstorm ways to enhance your strong points and minimize the reasons a buyer would bypass your book in favor of another.

Let’s talk about how to do it.

Step 1: Identify similar works.

As an author, you need to read widely, both within your genre and outside it. By the time you finish your book, you should know (and have read) many books by authors in your category or genre. Think about how your book compares to the others. Take notes.

Go to a bookstore. Where will your book be shelved? Look at the other books on and around that shelf (and in that section of the bookstore). Who wrote them? Do you know those works and their authors’ styles? If not, get a sampling and read. (Take a list to the library if you don’t want to buy.)

Look up those books on Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/) and other review sites. Learn what readers are saying about them – and why.

Step 2: Compare your book to comparable works.

Ask yourself: Why will (or should) readers want your book instead of or in addition to similar works? What might keep a reader from choosing your book instead of another one in the genre? Why might fans of a certain author like your books too?

You can see that it helps to be widely read. If you don’t know that James Rollins writes thrillers with a historical and/or supernatural twist, or that Laura Joh Rowland’s mystery novels feature a samurai policeman who solves crimes in medieval Edo (Tokyo), you won’t know how your work compares, or whether their fans might also enjoy your book.

Step 3: Analyze similar works to learn how and why they sell.

Word of mouth sells more novels than any other advertising method. Your fans are your greatest (and most important) resource. Never underestimate the importance – or the value and honor – of someone shelling out hard-earned money to read your work. That is a gift, and smart authors never forget it.

But you have to get the word out for readers to find you – and research helps here too. How do authors of similar works advertise their books and spread the word? Some may have advertising budgets and publisher support that you don’t have, but that’s no reason to despair. Pay attention to the ways effective authors use Twitter, Facebook, and public appearances. Go to their signings. See how they interact with people, and evaluate the effectiveness of those interactions.

Remember: Imitate only good behaviors, never nasty ones.

Step 4: Brainstorm strategies to maximize your advantages and minimize your weaknesses.

Some Ideas:

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  Interact on social media with other authors, industry professionals, bloggers and fans. This means real interaction – not automated tweets telling people to buy or advertising your book. Some advertising is OK, but taking an active part in conversations is FAR more effective. Stuck for ideas? Check the #amwriting hashtag and start encouraging other authors – you may be surprised how quickly friendships form!
  
  
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  Partner with other authors for signings, blogging, and other events. We are stronger in numbers than alone, and for many authors “nobody knows me” is the book’s biggest weakness.
  
  
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  Stay positive and encouraging – always – and don’t treat other people (or their efforts) with negativity or scorn. Everyone loves an encourager, but people shy away from criticism. A positive nature is an enormous strength!
  
  

Step 5: Keep track of your notes – and act on them!

Collect your notes in a binder or other place where you can find them for reference purposes. Cross-reference your ideas and analysis with your marketing plan. Remember: the best ideas only become effective when you use them!

Do you have other ideas about successfully overcoming weaknesses and using your strengths? Please let me know in the comments – it’s great to hear your thoughts!

About Susan

Susan Spann is a publishing attorney and author from Sacramento, California. Her debut mystery novel, CLAWS OF THE CAT (Thomas Dunne Books, July 2013), is the first in a series featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori. Susan blogs about writing, publishing law and seahorses at http://www.SusanSpann.com. Find her on Twitter @SusanSpann or on Facebook.

By Laura Drake

I heard today that a distant relative, after enduring brutal treatment for lung cancer, is in remission!  I’m so very happy for him, and his family. He’s such a sweet, giving man.

The horror in Connecticut this month made most people I know stop and think.

These things, as well as staring down another tailing out year, reminded me of something I learned back in 1990, when I lost my sister to cancer. She was 32.

DON’T WASTE A SECOND

Back then, I thought I had a busy life already; I was married, had two kids, and worked full time. But I could no longer afford to let the years flow by, thinking I’d do things later. The gaping hole in my life was a constant reminder that ‘later’ isn’t a given.

I realized a basic truth:
Wherever I am at any given time is a result of what I’m focusing on.

If I’m not where I want to be, all I need do is make changes in what I’m focusing on to change it. Sounds too simple, doesn’t it?

It’s not. The following is a quick list of my major goals and accomplishments since then:

• Finished my degree. Since I kept working full time, it took 4 years, and my kids and I doing homework together, but I got it done.
• Learned to ride my own motorcycle. I’ve since logged 100,000 miles.
• Learned to fly fish.
• Learned to write – In this year I sold a three book deal to Grand Central, and another book to Harlequin

Along the way, life happened. Kids got married, and produced the most beautiful grandkids (don’t make me pull out photos!) My husband and I will celebrated our 25^th anniversary in March. In the coming year, we hope to move to Texas and start building our retirement home.

People always are amazed when I tell them I get up at 3 am to write. I’m down to about 6 hours sleep a night. Hey, I’m getting older – I have less time to waste!

Would I have completed these things if I wouldn’t have focused on my ‘bucket list?’  I don’t think so.

But the best part wasn’t ticking off the items on the list. It’s the fun I had along the way to achieving them. The challenge of trying to do something I’d never done – and not sure I could do.

So? What about you? What would you attempt if you realized there wasn’t a second to waste? None of us know what will happen next – why wait for next year to start on your dreams?

By Jenny Hansen

From our earliest moments, most writers are avid readers. We devour books – for story, for Craft, for new worlds and new ideas.

We have To Be Read piles (TBR for short) that are taller than small children. Our favorite authors and characters become our friends.

I don’t know if we become students of the written word because we love to read or if we read because we were born to love the written word. All that chicken and egg Zen is well beyond me.

I just flat out love books and every writer I know does too. You might even describe us as “obsessed with the printed word.” It takes a lot of love to go through what we must do to yank our stories from our hearts onto the page.

If you are a writer, there are things that I know about you that I don’t know about the other readers I meet:

1. I know you read odd things in odd places.
If you are stuck somewhere without a book, you will begin reading any words available – shampoo bottles, food labels, billboard signs. Whatever. Books and magazines are preferred, but in a pinch, any words will smooth your soul.

2. You read by flashlight in bed at night when you were a child.
When your person-in-charge confiscated it, you waited 5 minutes before pulling the back-up light from its crafty hidey-hole. If they were on to you and confiscated the back-up, you tilted the pages to try to read by the light from the hall.

3. When a book touches you, it is a safe bet that you will not only remember the details of that story, characters, etc…you will also remember where you were the first time you read it and what you were doing that day.

4. I am certain that if you named 10 best friends from the various periods of your life (and were being honest), at least half of them would be book characters, authors or titles.

5. You have different books for different moods. These are your go-to books when you’re in the grip of overwhelming emotion. You keep reading through that stash of books until the feeling gets a little more manageable.

6. Piles of free books by your most cherished authors gives you that same zing of attraction that you felt the first time you saw your true love.

7. When you go to a writing conference or a book event attended by your favorite author(s), your tongue gets tied in knots and the idea of speaking to them gives you an extreme physical reaction. (I blush, nearly every time.)

8. You have rituals associated with your books.
Whether it’s the way you clean them, sort them, store them or lend them, there is something particular you do with your books. And it makes you feel happy and peaceful when you look at your books after you’ve done it.

(For me, it’s the way I order them and which shelf or room they’re in. My husband knows: don’t be moving my books without telling me. It morphs me into the Devil Wife.)

9. On the touchy subject of lending…writers are quite particular about loaning their books.

I know that when someone borrows a treasured book from you and doesn’t return it – or worse, passes it on to someone else without asking you first – your friendship with them changes. You’re probably  still their friend, but you’ll either “forget” to loan them books in the future or you buy a copy from the used bookstore as a back-up and loan them that.

There is an A-List of book-borrowers in your life and you love to have coffee with these people.

10. When a book touches your spirit and transports you to a place you’ve never been, it’s not uncommon for you to read the last page, turn the book over and start at Page 1 to figure out how the author did that.

There are more things that I know about writers and their reading habits but I want to hear from all of you. What are your book rituals? Do you non-writers have book rituals too?? Which of the ten “habits” made you laugh?

Jenny

About Jenny Hansen

Jenny fills her nights with humor: writing memoir, women’s fiction, chick lit, short stories (and chasing after her toddler Baby Girl). By day, she provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. After 15 years as a corporate software trainer, she’s digging this sit down and write thing.

When she’s not at her blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Twitter at JennyHansenCA and here at Writers In The Storm. Jenny also writes the Risky Baby Business posts at More Cowbell, a series that focuses on babies, new parents and high-risk pregnancy.