Archive for November, 2006

Have You Googled Your Name, Lately?

Wednesday, November 29th, 2006

How many times does your name come up in a Google Search? 20,000? 10,000, 75 or just a handful? If you are an author promoting one or more books or if you are in the process of pitching a manuscript to publishers, you’d better get those numbers up! How? Exposure, exposure, exposure.

I recommend to my clients that they start, even before writing their book proposal, taking the action steps necessary to get their Google numbers up. Why?

• Before a publisher invests in you, he wants to know that you have a following—that you are known and that you can and do promote yourself and your products or services.
• In the process of gaining that exposure, you will stumble across new promotional opportunities and ideas to use when your book is published (and to include in the marketing section of your book proposal).

So how does one go about getting that revered exposure? Let me count the ways. Actually, the numbers are too high for me to list in this article, but here are some ideas to get you started:

1: Write articles and/or short stories related to your nonfiction topic or the setting or theme of your novel. Submit them to appropriate print and online publications and Web sites.

2: Participate in appropriate online forums and become known at key Websites. Locate forums related to your subject through a search engine by typing in “forum tattoo art” “organic gardening forum” or “pet disease forum,” for example. Spend time each week searching out new Websites.

3: Build a Website reflecting your topic. To get noticed, make sure you’re listed on several search engines and add information and resources to your site often.

4: Start a blog on this subject and post interesting, informative, inspirational, educational and/or entertaining articles to it regularly.

5: Leave comments at similar blogs—always linking back to your blog and/or Website.

6: Write letters-to-the-editor of newsletters, newspapers and magazines on your topic. If you see an interesting article published in a magazine related to your topic, comment to the editor and be sure to sign your name and give whatever contact information is allowed.

7: Make news. Do something newsworthy related to your book topic and send out press releases. I send press releases to newsletters, magazines and Web sites world-wide when I come out with a new book, plan to speak internationally, etc.

8: Run a contest or start a charity and advertise it widely for free in relating magazines, newsletters and Web sites. I know a teen writer who collects books for less fortunate kids around the holidays. Editors of publications or sites focusing on books and writing are always eager to mention her project.

9: Locate the sites of high profile people in your field (for fiction—other authors in your genre) and find out where they’re getting publicity. Most of them will have a publicity or promotions page. What radio/TV stations/talk show hosts/magazines are interested in this person? Perhaps you can get a gig on the same shows once your book is produced. Also include these possibilities in the promotions section of your book proposal.

10: Get out and speak. Public speaking experience looks good on any resume and it’s an excellent opportunity to gain exposure and credibility in your field or interest. Speak to large groups and small ones. Speak locally and travel to speak.

11: Participate in conferences related to your topic. Get to know the organizers even before your book is a book. If you can impress them with your knowledge and expertise—they may ask you to speak at their next event. And this is another great opportunity for exposure. It will look good on your book proposal, too. Be sure to provide a sign-up sheet so you can notify conference attendees about your book once it’s published.

12: Whenever you do any speaking, teaching or writing, always submit announcements to newspapers and appropriate newsletters for additional exposure.

Seriously consider all twelve of these activities and just watch your Google numbers rise. Not only could this ultimately increase your bottom line, but it will surely help in landing a publisher for your latest book.

FYI, test your exposure level by doing a Google search. Use quotation marks around your name for a targeted search. When I do a targeted search using “Patricia Fry” I come up with 17,500 listings. If I type in “Patricia L. Fry” it is 11,800. Play around with your name and your topic to see how you rate.

Why am I listed so often? Because I’ve had hundreds of articles published in around 200 different magazines over the years. I have a Web site and a blog. I have 25 published books and they are listed on numerous sites. I solicit many book reviews for each book. I am affiliated with SPAWN, so my name comes up in association with this organization. I speak publicly many times each year. And, because I want to be known in the writing/publishing community, I frequently submit articles to writing-related newsletters, magazines and Web sites; I participate in writers’ forums, solicit interviews at writing sites, leave blog comments and place announcements whenever I plan to speak someplace.

For more great ideas about how to promote your book and how to gain exposure, read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book . http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

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My New Book on Dubai

Saturday, November 18th, 2006

Just in time for Christmas giving:

Once in a Lifetime, Adventures in Dubai by Patricia L. Fry.

Read about my impressions and my experiences in the amazing Dubai emirate in the Middle East as well as benefit of my research into the culture, the history and the people.

34 pages–over 30 color photographs.
Only $10.

Order at:
http://www.matilijapress.com/dubai.html

Posted in New Books | No Comments »

Writing for Fun and Money

Saturday, November 18th, 2006

There aren’t many careers that allow you to follow your passion while earning a living. And there aren’t many people who can establish the balance one needs in order to create a business around their passion.

Would you like to establish a career as a freelance writer? Do you dream of writing full-time? Follow the suggestions below and your dream could become a reality.

1: Spend time writing whether it is convenient to do so or not. Perhaps you have a full life—you work eight or ten hours a day outside the home, you do a lot of charity work and/or you enjoy an active social life. We each establish lifestyles that suit our needs and desires. Our routines are important to us. In fact, it represents our comfort zone. To step outside of this zone, even to pursue something we think we want to do, often causes some discomfort. What to do? You have choices. You can give up your dream of writing or try easing into the writing realm. When people say, “I want to write, but I just don’t have time,” what they mean is, “Writing is not one of my priorities right now.”

Make writing a priority and you will find the time.

2: Make time to write. Usually this means making some sacrifices. What are you willing to give up in order to write? Sleep, TV, Internet surfing or perhaps overtime at work? If your life is filled during all of your waking hours with specific activities and rituals, then something will have to change in order to accommodate your desire to write. And the change won’t occur just by wishing or hoping. It will take your concerted effort.

Get up an hour earlier or stay up an hour later and spend this time writing. Turn off the TV more often—much more often. Say “no” to every other social invitation. What may feel like a sacrifice at first, will become part of your new writing routine. If writing is your passion, you will soon feel blessed to have the time to write rather than feeling deprived of time in front of the TV.

3: Be realistic about your writing choices. Perhaps your true dream is to support yourself by writing stories for your favorite romance magazines. Or maybe you’d like to become a novelist. It is extremely difficult to break in as a career writer of fiction. If fiction is your writing bag, I strongly urge you to set that dream aside for now and pursue a mode of writing that is more likely to produce the monetary results you are seeking. If you’re planning to earn a living through writing, nonfiction is easier to sell and a more reasonable medium to engage in. Establish yourself as a nonfiction writer, first—start the flow of work and the flow of money. Then, add to your writing repertoire in order to facilitate your love of fiction.

Here’s what I suggest: start writing articles for magazines, seek freelance writing work in corporate offices or on the Internet or produce some how-to booklets on topics related to your expertise, for example.

Now there’s a creative and viable idea. Whether you give horseback riding lessons, make beaded jewelry, are a whiz at finances, raise poodles, do nails or grow herbs, create booklets on various aspects of your knowledge and distribute them for sale to clients, appropriate specialty stores, from your Web site and so forth.

Let’s take the subject of manicures as an example. You could write booklets on the care of your nails, cuticle health, how to give yourself and others a professional quality pedicure, manicure styles over the years, what your nail color choice reveals about your personality, how to decorate your nails for the holidays, recommended products, old-wives tales about nails and so forth. And you can submit articles on these topics to magazines at the same time.

Here are a few good books to help you get started as a freelance writer or author:
The Successful Writer’s Handbook by Patricia Fry
A Writer’s Guide to Magazine Articles by Patricia Fry
The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book by Patricia Fry
Six-Figure Freelancing by Kelly James-Enger
The Self-Publishing Manual by Dan Poynter

4: Use your time wisely. Becoming a successful freelance writer takes discipline and realistic scheduling. Failure comes to those who procrastinate, who have trouble prioritizing tasks and who are easily distracted. Those who succeed in this business have found a way to organize and discipline themselves.

While some freelance writers schedule certain hours each day to work no matter what, others work around family and professional obligations. The important thing is that you spend enough time in work mode and that you work smart enough to actually accomplish something each and every day. I work best with a schedule. Each evening, I evaluate that day’s work. I consider upcoming deadlines and the volume of work that needs my attention. Then I create a schedule by prioritizing tasks.

In a typical week, I might respond to writers’/authors’ questions via email, revise an article for a magazine, write a few articles to promote my latest book, submit several reprints, spend a few hours promoting one of my books online, package and ship anywhere from one to four dozen books, deliver books locally, catch up on bookwork tasks, rehearse a speech for a conference, be interviewed on the radio, write a book review for SPAWNews, conduct a little research for the monthly SPAWN Market Update and spend time on the clock editing a manuscript for a client, for example. I put in full days. In order to pay the bills, I must be productive and in order to be productive, I must be organized. Yes, I typically put in more than the usual 8-hours each day. (Note, SPAWN is Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) http://www.spawn.org

5: Just start. It isn’t easy to transition from full-time office worker to full-time writer. Most of us don’t have the funds to support us while we build a new business. I didn’t always have 12 or even 8 hours each day to spend working my freelance writing business. I built it over time. For any of you who are interested, here is my story:

I started writing articles for magazines from a corner of my bedroom using a manual typewriter in 1973. I was selling quite a few articles and I even had a book published through a traditional royalty publisher during those first several years. I was fortunate to be a homemaker and stay home mom. I waited to start my career until my three daughters were in junior high and high school, so my transition into the world of writing was fairly easy. Frankly, while I was serious about my writing, I was under no pressure to earn a certain amount of money.

In 1986, however, it became necessary for me to take a full-time job. I’d just spent 5 years researching and writing a comprehensive local history book and self-publishing it. So funds were low and my lifestyle was in transition.

How I missed writing. While I had a good job with lovely people around me, I hated working for someone else—on someone else’s agenda. And it looked as if this would be my future. I became despondent. That’s when I realized that I had to find a way to write no matter what else was going on in my life.

I started getting up at 4 every morning and writing before I went to work. Then I would write on weekends. I wrote my book, Quest For Truth, a true metaphysical adventure, in 8 months on that schedule. I can’t even begin to describe how happy and fulfilled I was. But I wanted more. I wanted to come home and establish a writing business that supported me spiritually as well as financially. So I began using that time in the wee hours of the morning to submit articles to magazines—remember, this was before the ease of the Internet. Within a year, I was able to quit my job and come home to write. And I’ve never looked back.

6: Write what they want. You have to go where the paying work is and accept the jobs that are available. While I never compromised my values in order to get paying work, I have certainly had to take some challenging and sometimes not very interesting jobs in order to keep the flow of money coming my way.

I prefer writing books, editing interesting manuscripts for clients and presenting workshops. But, in order to pay the bills, I’ve also written copy for local water companies, I’ve written articles on boring topics and I once wrote a 16-chapter book in 3 weeks for a client.

I’ve seen too many writers so bent on making their own personal statement or doing things their way that they get nowhere in this business. If you want to make a living or even earn some part-time money as a writer, you have to go where the work is and write what is needed/wanted. Write about things that are current, popular or even a bit provocative or controversial. My book, A Writer’s Guide to Magazine Articles is an excellent guide to article writing and includes numerous ideas for finding appropriate topics and outlets for those topics.

It takes more to become a full-time writer than just dreaming about it. If writing full-time is your dream, read and reread the above six points and use them to finally fulfill your passion. And purchase these books to help you get started and offer support along the way.

A Writer’s Guide to Magzine Articles
The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Books
The Successful Writer’s Handbook
By Patricia Fry. Available at: http://www.matilijapress.com

Bonus: Some of you have enjoyed my blog entries related to my Dubai trip. You may be interested to know that I have produced a 34-page, plastic comb-bound book about my experiences, my impressions and other for $10 each at http://www.matilijapress.com/dubai.html

Posted in New Books, Writing | No Comments »

So You Want to Write a Book…

Tuesday, November 7th, 2006

Thousands of people each year stop what they’re doing and sit down to write a book. Many of them believe that they have something new and important to say and they focus only on getting their message down on paper. But many of these hopeful authors fail in their attempt to spread their words. Why? Because they don’t take their audience or their competition into account.

You wouldn’t open a store in your community without knowing something about the residents—do they need or want the type of products you sell? Who are your primary customers and how will you reach them? Who are your competitors and what products or services can you offer that they don’t?

These are just some of the questions you must answer before you open a business. And let me say it again, publishing is a business and your book is a product.

If you are thinking about writing a book or even if you have already started writing it, and if you dream of distributing it far and wide, this could be your lucky year. You found my blog just in time to stop the forward motion in, possibly, the wrong direction. Why do I and other professionals keep harping at you to make the right decisions related to your publishing project and ragging on you when you don’t? Let me count the reasons. Following are three real-life, slightly camouflaged, case scenarios revealing what happens when an author takes the wrong path:

Case Study #1: Cecilia spent her life dieting and binging, dieting and binging. She kept two closets—one with clothes to accommodate her size 16 frame and the other holding outfits for when she was her slimmest self. Around age 47, she came to terms with her bizarre eating habits and discovered a way to maintain a size 12 body. A much happier Cecilia decided, about five years later, that she wanted to tell the world how to achieve dieting success. And she wrote a book.

Unfortunately, there was really nothing special or different about her weight-loss plan. While her story was unique to her, it was simply a rehash of many of the other diet books on the market. If Cecilia had written a book proposal, which requires that she take a close look at the competition, she may have changed the focus of her book and she may have actually experienced some publishing success.

Case study #2: Reginald was a reformed gambler. Gambling had seriously damaged his marriage and his relationship with his grown children before he got help and finally stopped. It was during his recovery period that he decided to write a book aimed at deterring other gamblers. Like Cecilia, he just sat down and started writing. His desire was to reach hardcore gamblers who really couldn’t afford to play the game and those who were on their way to becoming addicted. And he attempted to do so by preaching and teaching. In fact, he called his book, Stop Betting and Start Living.

This hopeful author had checked to find out if there were other books like his. The fact that there were a few and that none of those he found were written by a reformed gambler, encouraged him to continue. What Reginald didn’t take into consideration was his audience. Sure there are a lot of gamblers out there, but how many of them are actually trying to quit gambling? How many of them would buy a book telling them how to quit doing something they don’t want to stop?

If Reginald had truly considered his audience when he planned his book, he may have approached his subject from an angle that would entice the readers he wanted rather than turning them off.

I meet a lot of authors each year who are attempting to promote self-help or how-to books to a virtually blind and deaf audience. They’re trying to force their beliefs on others in a way that actually repels the very audience they hope to attract. I suggest getting that book out of your system. Go ahead and write it and then trash it and write a book that your audience will accept.

Case study #3: Suzanne loved to write. She dreamed of penning a best selling novel and she worked hard at it. When she couldn’t land a publisher after the first few attempts, she opted for the fee-based POD publishing service that she’d seen advertised most often. She even saw their ads on reputable writing Web sites, so she was convinced that they were reputable, as well.

This writer, too, had dreams. Hers was to spend as much time writing as possible—to produce novels one right after another while collecting payment for the novels that were being circulated. What she didn’t understand was that no one would buy books that they didn’t know about and that no one would know about them unless she got the word out.

The concept of build it and they will come does not work in the world of publishing. What you must build is a platform and a marketing plan in order to attract your particular audience. You can also build promotion into your nonfiction book or novel, but this has to be considered BEFORE you write the book, not as an afterthought.

For example, if Suzanne had turned her romance novels into historical romance novels, she would be adding another dimension that would intrigue another segment of novel readers. She could also give a character Parkinson’s disease, MS or diabetes, for example, and, perhaps, involve a major health organization in the distribution and sales of the book. Add a horse, newborn twins, or a character who restores old cars, collects vintage clothes or designs skyscrapers in the Middle East and you have expanded your audience base.

If Suzanne had studied the publishing industry before getting involved, she would have understood her options and her responsibilites as an author. And if she had considered her audience and how to reach them before writing the book, she might have written a book with greater marketing potential.

If you plan to write a book, STOP. There’s much to be done BEFORE you ever start writing that book. Here’s your homework:

1: Order and read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. Amazon.com or http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

2: Study the publishing industry. (The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book includes over 60 pages to help you to better understand the publishing industry.)

3: Write a book proposal. (There are four chapters in The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book devoted to how to write a successful book proposal. For additional help, order How to Write a Successful Book Proposal in 8 Days or Less.)

4: Start writing.

And be sure to order your copy of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. This is your complete guide to authorship and beyond. Order through Amazon.com or http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

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