As the year winds down, inevitably we begin to assess the old year and make our resolutions for the new. This pause for reflection is -- as Martha would say -- a good thing. At least I think it is. As someone who gets asked a lot for writing and publishing advice I thought I would direct my post today to the writers among us.
I was going to say to the "frustrated writers" among us, but that's a given.
So here they are. Five little things you can do right now with guaranteed results to boost your career and slim your wais--er. Sorry. I got carried away. Five little things you can do that will serve you well in the remaining years of your career. (Now that sounds like the Ghost of Christmas Future pointing a skeletal finger at the headstone...)
Five little things you ca -- never mind. Just read them.
1 - Stop bitching about your writing career.
In public. Key word is public. Knock. It. Off. Stop the kvetching about the bad reviews, the incompetent publishers, the indifferent readers, your selfish and overrated fellow writers. Turn off the faucet, you're wasting water.
What happens when you post these moans on the lists, blogs, and discussion groups you belong to? Ten other equally frustrated writers jump in with their own moans and horror stories. Does anyone EVER have a practical fix for the problem? Any problem? No. Of course not. These things are a fact of publishing life. They are the downside to what is a pretty cool job, after all.
I'm not suggesting you keep a stiff upper lip about the slings and arrows and outrageous misfortune of your publishing career. I'm suggesting you save it for your writer friends. Why? Because a lot of success -- any success in any field -- is about image. If you announce to the world that you're not very successful or not as successful as you want to be...what image do you think you're projecting?
2 - Analyze the data.
You've got data. You've got your royalty schedules, you've got your Amazon sales figures, you've got your website tracking, Facebook and Twitter algorithms...you've probably got more data than you know what to do with.
Well, here's what you do with it. Sit down and study it. You want to see steady incremental growth everywhere. In most businesses, three to five percent annual growth is pretty good. Maybe it's not as fast as you'd like, but it's solid, real growth.
Next, start figuring out what the variables are. What did you do differently on the weak months? Try and narrow it down. It's not just as simple as I wrote BDSM that month and BDSM always kicks ass. Consider titles, covers, who else had a book release that month, your promo efforts, whether you had multiple titles releasing, how close you were to holidays, etc.
Really look at those figures. Make a note of what worked and what didn't seem to work as well. And moving forward, track it. All of it.
3 - Update your website.
I'm as guilty of this as anyone. If you don't offer fresh content, readers won't continue to return, and if they don't return on a regular basis, it could be weeks, even months before they notice you've got a new release out.
Make sure your website is up to date and easy to navigate.
What kind of content should you have on your website? Cover art and excerpts -- and the preorder link as soon as you get it. Review snippets -- and don't forget to reward the better reviewers with name mentions and/or links. If you've got a blog, link it. If you belong to Twitter, put that up on your news page like so. (Actually, it's too far down on that page -- I need to talk to my weblord).
Have a news page where you post where you're appearing and what you're doing -- and update it often.
4 - Stop directing your promo efforts toward other writers.
Yes, we do buy and read and review each other's work, but we are NOT our target audience. Why? Because as much as I love your books -- and I do love many of your books -- in my hardscrabble struggle to survive in this jungle, I don't have the time to read that I once did. I read maybe a book a month. Your average ebook reader (the human kind) reads a book or two or three a week.
Quit talking to the other writers and start seeking out that rarest commodity -- the reader who has no desire to become a writer. This leads us back to 5TYCDtBYWCN #1. Whinging in public. Readers don't like it. They don't understand half of what you're talking about (nor should they) but they do get that you sound negative and angry and frustrated.
Now, lest I be misread, I'm not saying ignore other writers -- thank God for other writers and their friendship as they help keep us sane -- but look at the composition of your Twitter followers and Facebook followers and etc. If they are largely other writers, then those numbers are misleading.
Also misleading (painfully misleading, apparently) are those gigantic lists of strangers that some people "friend." Puhleaze.
You want quality not quantity. I know when I see a lame-ass writer with 3000+ friends that 3000+ people are not buying his books. (Which is why he whines in public about poor sales!) You want to build a focused fan base of folks who really do love your work and really will buy everything you write as quickly as they can afford to do so. Three hundred people who buy everything you write is waaaay better than 3000+ people who are talking at the same time and didn't even notice you had a new book out.
A key way to appeal to readers? Talk to readers about things of interest to readers. Quit showing off for other writers. Quit talking about stuff readers don't care about. And don't...how can I say this kindly. Censor the personal information. I'm sorry you have toenail fungus. I'm sorry your husband left you. I'm sorry your employer fired you for writing porn on company time. But this is not information to share with your reading public. When you're a venerable publishing icon of eighty, do you really want some of these posts dug up? It's like getting a tattoo. Sure, it's cool right now, but once your butt is sagging and your breasts are down to your knees, do you really want that misshapen butterfly as a reminder you were twenty once?
I don't know. Maybe you do. I don't.
5 - Say please and thank you.
Not a week goes by that someone isn't asking for my advice on...you name it. Everything from a definiton of cozy mysteries to my experiences with a particular publisher. And with the exception of the guy who recently asked how I first got published (seriously?!) I always answer to the best of my ability. And do you know how many people bother to thank me for taking time out of my schedule to answer their questions? A handful. What am I? The Encyclopedia Britannica? I've got my own problems, folks. I expect at least a polite, Thanks, Josh!
Manners count in this business as in everywhere else in the world. Yes, I know. We've become a society that blabs our most personal, private business on the phone in public, but manners are all part of networking, and part of how you get ahead in this business is networking. I don't forget slights and I am loyal to my friends.
And I am not unique in any respect.
Don't make enemies where you don't have to. Be polite -- treat others as you would wish to be treated -- and do the obvious basics. Don't demand, ask nicely -- say please. Say thank you. Be patient. Be fair-minded. And when someone wrongs you, destroy them. Wait! That just slipped out. Don't destroy them. Walk a mile in their fuzzy slippers. Cut them slack. We're all busy, overworked and underpaid, we're all worried that we're not where we need to be, we're all...human.
Don't forget the human element in all this. We're none of us perfect, we're all of us learning as we go along. We're all doing the best we can with the tools that we've got. That's probably the number one lesson.
Happy Holidays! Health and happiness to you and yours. May 2011 be a productive and successful year for you.
