News and Notes from the Writing Desk: March Edition

March is roaring in like the MGM lion. So here's what's up around here:

My February Experiment

February was dedicated to the fine art of marketing. I marketed myself, my online work, my works in print. Did I see a significant increase in any metric that would point to better conversions and more sales? Eh. Not really. I did all of these things on a small scale, but from what I see, there was little benefit from the time I spent. A few more views on articles, no new patrons, no jump in sales. At this point, if I want to see real results, I've got to throw a little cash at the problem. It's time to formulate a strategy so I can maximize my money and my effort in the next round.

NY09 Now on Smashwords

I've been trying to expand my reach with my last published work, so I've uploaded If It Was New York, Summer 2009 to Smashwords. It is currently available in their store. I was just notified that it didn't pass the expanded distribution tests (who wants to mess with a table of contents?), but I was only planning on distributing to other library systems that Draft2Digital didn't have. Otherwise, the book is still available at all major ebook retailers worldwide. (By the way, library borrows put the same or slightly more royalties in my pockets than individual sales, so check me out from your local branch's ebook system if they have one). 

If you want to download it from Smashwords for only $0.99, I do have a coupon code on one of my Patreon posts. The post is public, but you may have to have a free Patreon account to sign and see it. I know, I know--another username and password to remember, but I promise you, my public posts are worth the hassle.

The Plan for March

I'm just a girl, looking for that path to success, trying to get things done. I have a backlog of movie reviews I haven't finished editing, plus an essay I plan to write about writing because that seems to be the topic that gets views on Medium.

I also restarted the work on one of the 70s-inspired stories I had. But for this one, I think it would work much better to be split up into novellas because the story spans 25+ years. Each novella would be a key moment in the main character's life leading up to what I think is a satisfying ending. What I'm not sure about is where I want to put it. I could throw it up on Wattpad for free, though I think my time and effort is worth more than what that platform gives in return. I could try Channillo, but considering their application page hasn't been updating since September (of what year isn't quite clear), I'm going to pass for now. The other option (besides straight to KDP Select) is to offer it to higher tiers on my Patreon page. I'm still in the first draft of the first novella, so I have some time to consider these options.

I also have to consider what I will use as my Camp NaNo project for March. The obvious answer is poetry, since April is National Poetry Month. I started a new chapbook a few weeks ago, so I think I may want to use that--especially since one of the poems is already done and was published in my last collection.

I haven't finished writing out all of my lists. If I don't, critical steps often get lost in the shuffle. I still have to make a list for transferring the blog to its own site, plans for fun things to do with poetry in April, and other marketing options I want to try. Once that's out of the way, I'm going to pretend that the rest is smooth sailing.

The Realities of Launch Week

It is still the launch week for If It Was New York, Summer 2009 and I'm seeing all of the positives and the negatives of my marketing process.

The first place I always go when I want to get some traction is Reader's Favorite. All of my books (except the last Kindle Worlds novella) have bee reviewed by the service and it works well to get a review out there, even though most of the reviews are not posted directly to Amazon by the reviewer. I'm still waiting on this review--if I get one at all. Hopefully I do, but I will probably still be waiting a few weeks for it.

Next, I posted about it on Twitter which is always iffy--I can't post too many tweets about it because I'll get unfollowed, but not enough and no one sees it. Balance. It's a good thing.

Then there's BookBub. No, I'm not talking about getting into the email blast, I'm talking about on their website. I set up an author profile awhile ago because it was recommended for all authors, even if they are not intending to buy a BookBub email placement. So I did, and I set up this book before the release date so that BookBub would notify my followers about it on the day of release. And they did, because I got the lovely email that would have sold me on checking it out had I not written myself. The catch? I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who received that email blast.

New Release email.

Continuing with BookBub, I got curious and decided to check where I was on the New Releases page. In the poetry category, my book landed on page four.

Page Four.

I'm a bit disappointed by this, but I then I looked at page one. I was competing what a bunch of poets I read, including Laurie Halse Anderson (I thought it was a memoir, not a poetry book, but whatevs...) and two of those wildly popular Instagram poets, Tyler Knott Gregson and Amanda Lovelace. Occasionally I let myself believe I'm their poetic equals, then I have to remind myself they have publisher backing, which still counts to reach higher sales numbers in the publishing world, thought Lovelace did publish her first collection on Amazon before Andrews McMeel got a hold of it. The verdict? Not jealous, but inspired to make it to a better position next time.

The Top Dogs.

My next avenue is all of those things are never seen, such as approaching book bloggers and trying to get people in one of the Goodreads groups to request a free copy, which I've had some mild success with in the past. But book bloggers usually require free paperbacks (of which I'm not satisfied... but that's a complaint for another day) and/or payment, so we'll see. I've decided to skip trying a NetGalley listing this time around, mostly due to the cost, but also because the places where I can buy a listing from don't actually list poetry as one of their genres. I thought about trying the Reedsy Discovery site as well, but again there's a fee and it's new, so I would need to see some positive outcomes before I take a $50 chance.

If you haven't picked up your copy of If It Was New York, Summer 2009 yet, please check it out on Amazon and other retailers.

Getting to Know You, Twitter Audience Edition

To figure out what any audience wants, you have to get to know that audience. Thankfully, Twitter analytics collects a lot of data. For the longest time I didn't pay attention to anything other than the first page, which contains information on how many views, follows, and clicks I get across the platform. However, I did start looking at the audiences tab to see just who my audience is.

When I posted this last week, I may have been making light of my analytics, but the information is all true.

Finally took a deep dive into Twitter analytics. My audience is mostly California women who like to read about science news while eating cheese and yogurt and watching their favorite TV drama.

I can totally work with that. 😏 pic.twitter.com/3dX3yKmwkj

— Terri Deno (@TerriDeno) September 19, 2018

I've gotten some good insight on who might possibly be paying attention to my tweets. Here's the breakdown:

• 60% of my audience is women (no surprise there)
• 67% reside in the USA (mostly in California)
• Their buying habits consist of fresh, healthy products and premium brands
• They like cheese and yogurt (who doesn't?)
• They are AT&T customers using desktops, laptops, and iOS devices
• They read about science news
• They like TV drama (sports came in a close second--really?)
• Most make 75k-99k with home values ranging 100k-199k (lucky ducks!)

These audience insights are interesting, but I'm not sure how much they are helpful when it comes to crafting my marketing or getting more to sign up for my Patreon page (which is why I looked into this in the first place). Clearly this audience can afford a few bucks for a Patreon subscription, so the key question is what can I do, using this information, to convince them it would be worth it?

There's no single clue that points to any pivot I can make. I scrolled through all this information and there was really nothing that popped out. The things I like and talk about (books, writing, music, photography) didn't even register on the list of interests. This is mostly likely because it's not clear how this information is obtained. If it's all from those quick Twitter surveys that pop up, I might be getting a tiny fragment of information from my entire audience.

The other issue I have with these analytics is that all the people I'm actively engaged in conversations with on Twitter don't fall into most of these categories, except the bigger ones like gender and location. It's as fascinating as it is frustrating.

Melody of Love: Year One (And What Comes Next)

It takes a great amount of courage to come up with a story, to play with fictional lives like they were plastic dolls. And it takes a mountain of confidence on top of that to think you can pick up someone else's pile of dolls and put them into your own little world.

This is the one-year anniversary of publishing my novella, The Callaways: Melody of Love. I took it upon myself to sneak into someone's toy chest and start playing with their fictional characters because this novella was based on The Callaways series by Baraba Freethy. I was able to do this through Kindle Worlds, a pretty fantastic place (though not really well known) where authors of popular series offer up their worlds and their characters for some of us to experiment with. I did this because I was in the middle of reading the series when I found out that it was available on Kindle Worlds. And when life smacks you in the face with a sign like that, you've got to take your chance.

Diving Right In

I think the reason I didn't find this project as daunting as I should have was because I wanted to be immersed in the world, not necessarily with the lives of the specific characters. One of my favorite novels in the series was the one about Sean Callaway--the black sheep of the family because he was into playing music and not being a firefighter, doctor or other public servant like the rest of the big Callaway brood. His novel led to finding his love, Jessica, and helped her reignite a desire to dance like she used to before she was widowed. The novel ends with Sean and Jessica opening a recording/dance studio in San Francisco. And that's where I found the perfect place to create a love story of my own.

I used original characters to create Melody of Love, but without Sean and Jessica in the picture, the story couldn't have taken place. This was my first attempt at romance, so I had to navigate the waters of what type of romance it would be. There's a huge sliding scale in this genre where from one end the goal is the story ending with the couple holding hands for the first time all the way to full-on smut that you only read on an e-reader so no one can see the cover. I decided to stick with a more middle-of-the-road approach because that's where this series falls, and it can be hard to please romance fans, especially when they are coming from an established romantic world.

Publishing Through Kindle Worlds

Once the story was written, the work had to go through more steps than I had before with previous independently published work. The formatting had to be correct, sticking to a few specific rules like not including a photo on the author bio page, which I happened to forget when I first submitted it. After all of the little things were taken care of, I submitted it and still got it rejected. I was totally and completely disheartened. What could I have done wrong when I spent weeks getting it just right? Turns out, it was something very simple and something I should have been aware of before submitting my work.

The problem was in my book's description. I can't believe I would overlook it, but I didn't mention a Callaway family member. Not once. And because the book is based on a specific series, something needed to be mentioned, not just the two original characters I created. After taking care of that problem, it was smooth sailing. This probably gave me a better idea of how traditional publishing could go--lots of back and forth, getting everything just right before it's finally published.

I must also address this point to any authors looking to publish something through Kindle Worlds: just like any other major publisher, there is a lot of fine print and not a lot you have control over once you submit your work (heads-up for authors: you don't get to set your own prices). Be sure to read all of the fine print before you publish so that you are aware of what rights you hold and what rights the original author or the publisher holds.

A Built-In Audience

Writing a book doesn't guarantee you'll find an audience. Writing a book based on someone else's popular romance series doesn't guarantee you'll find an audience either. This discovery surprised me. I thought that super fans of this series would be all over my novella, even if it did veer off to another, non-Callaway couple.

Guess again.

Like anything you create, you have to get the word out about it yourself. I know I have a few fans out there (okay, maybe just two), but nothing like the the fan base of the original series. I was banking on bringing a few of them over to read my work, but as of writing this post, none of the readers who read and reviewed Melody of Love were actually readers of The Callaways series. I can't tell you whether that's a good or a bad thing. Maybe it doesn't matter at all since I put a lot of effort into making it a standalone story while still honoring the atmosphere of The Callaways. 

My biggest setback in the marketing game is that I'm reluctant to use the original author's name in the way I advertise the book. For some reason, it feels wrong to bring up her name just to make a sale, even though she clearly gave permission for authors to come in and write. (Just to be clear, I also feel the same way about books advertised as Stephen King-meets-Judy Blume or whatever big-name authors they choose to compare themselves with.) I've also purposely not approached Facebook fans of hers or posting about my work on her fan group pages (of which I am, of course, a fellow fan) because it seems like it would be in bad taste. So I haven't yet found out what her fans think of my work--and readers coming in as non-fans all have the same issue: it's too short.

That is a problem I can remedy. I wouldn't mess with Melody of Love to make it longer, but I would provide more novellas featuring my original characters. In fact, the novella I was working on last fall was a continuation of this story. So this October I'm going to be releasing a second novella called Haunting Melody (you heard it here first, folks). There is also a third novella in the very early planning stages, which would take my Kindle Worlds experiment from a good little story to a mini-trilogy within the world of The Callaways.

It was a thrill to work with someone else's characters with permission, especially since I spent some of my high school years honing my writing skills on unpublished fan fiction. It was also a great learning experience to publish work through Kindle Worlds. Even though Amazon is a giant in the world of all things written and published, it's nice to see that they have programs to help provide the space for independent authors to grow.

Publishing Year One: Launching the Haiku Rocket

If there is ever a single moment in the publishing process that strikes fear into an author, it’s the thought of launching the project. This is where you put everything you have in front of the world and you can’t be shy about it (even if you want to be). I knew that Unfolding Life was ready—it my eyes, it was the absolute best I could do. It was ready to be out in the world. 

Launching a book though is more about marketing than it is about feeling accomplished. Without a strong marketing presence behind the work, who will know about what you’ve done? I tried to start the marketing buzz early with this book. I posted on my Facebook page regularly even though I had an audience of less than a dozen people. I tweeted to my heart’s content with all those relevant hashtags. I also started participating in daily haiku writing on Twitter to help boost my presence with the haiku crowd. But I didn’t beat anyone over the head with it. I restricted myself to three promo posts a day because when you are trying to launch a book, it’s not advantageous to lose followers by being spammy. 

Once the week came where launch was imminent, I braced myself. I secretly wanted to be overwhelmed with book sales, reviews coming in on Amazon and on Goodreads, and let’s be honest, my ego wanted bloggers and those in the literary media to be requesting interviews. I have a very healthy imagination, don’t I? 

To get more word-of-mouth advertising, I also ran a giveaway contest for the ebook version (at this point, there was no physical book version). Things were going stellar—and then March 17^th came.

I wanted to launch the book on the 18^th, but with Amazon’s review period and this being my first work published with them, I was afraid that it would take longer than 24 hours to approve. So I jumped the gun a bit and it was available about 12 hours earlier than expected—which didn’t make one miniscule bit of difference, but I certainly fretted over it for awhile. 

The giveaway ended and I awarded the book. I celebrated the launch all day long on social media. I easily sold books to a few friends. The ball was finally rolling. 

Tomorrow, it’s all about the money—and how I didn’t spend a dime on marketing.

Changing Directions

The work load from daily freelance jobs has not changed much over the week, however, I have been looking into a number of new writing opportunities. Only one of them seems to be a possibility right now, but it could be a great one-time gig that gives me something amazing for my portfolio. Let's hope I get it.

I have been trying to come up with articles on my own that I can sell to various outlets, but whenever I match a great idea to a publication where I would love to see my byline, I start researching only to find a very similar article already published by them. Then it's back to the writer's equivalent of a drawing board.

Speaking of drawing, I finally had the time to draw another comic this weekend. After months of not touching a sketchpad or pen, I was definitely out of practice, so I will not be posting my efforts until I can redraw it two or three times to get it right.

The novel is still going well. I'm not quite half done, but I'm very close to the halfway point. I'm hoping Camp Nanowrimo can get me over the edge. As far as the marketing goes, I'm a little behind on that stuff, but I'm hoping to catch up this week while I'm waiting for all that sweet sweet freelance work to come rolling in (I'm not holding my breath on that one).

Where did you go?

It's a startling thing to wake up on a Monday morning and find a freelancing landscape drier than the Sahara. Usually, the work droughts come in around December and last until the middle of January. When it comes to freelance work, I don't want to have a Christmas in July special. No thanks. Bring the work back.

Hoping that this only lasts a couple of days, but whether its a couple of days or more, I do have the novel and its marketing to work on. At least I'm not sitting around with idle hands. I'm just not getting the instant gratification of payment. And of course, I'm still spending way more time than I need to playing around on my new phone. But, that can come in handy when I'm ready to launch some more of my advertising and other good stuff for the novel. 

Summer Is Upon Us

Summer is (un)officially here, which makes it a great time to start something new or to put plans into action. That's exactly what I'm doing with In Another Life. June has a full marketing schedule where primary publicity for the novel is the main focus. Then, in July it will be a writing marathon. I plan to write during all of my waking hours so that the novel can be completed and sent off to an editor on time. I'll probably sign up for camp Nanowrimo just to keep myself accountable. It's going to be a roller coaster, but I'm looking forward to every minute of it.

Busy Month for Big Rewards

If only I was paid overtime. I have been taking on nearly double the amount of work lately not only put a bigger cushion on the bottom line, but to also fund some of the marketing expenses I will be seeing in the coming months. While I have found a lot of free advertising and marketing avenues to look into, there are still some really great opps that only money can buy: like well-placed ads, contest prizes, etc.

Although it seems daunting, I'm still excited about it. I'm finally seeing a project through to the end and I'm grateful that I finally found an idea that has kept me interested at every turn. Hopefully, I'll sell enough copies to fund my next project -- or at least enough to let me take a full weekend off one of these days. Although, when you love what you do, it's very hard to walk away. Even for a weekend.

Always learning

Today has finally been a good day on the front of freelance writing. Not only have I met my daily article goal, but I also worked ahead. If I keep working this hard for the rest of the week, I will have the weekend all to myself. Of course I won’t stop writing – it just means that I will finally be able to work on stories, poems, and some other article topics I find especially enjoyable to write.

Unfortunately, I have noticed a significant drop in some opportunities. I’m wondering if this is an end-of-the-month thing. Before I was so engaged in a single job that I didn’t realize how the number of opportunities drops around this time. I’m not dependent on these other jobs, but they do offer an easy way to pad the check – and they pay quicker than the 60 days I have to wait for my main job!

I also have plans to improve the blog in my free time this weekend. I still have a page rank of 0, and I’m slowly building backlinks. Very slowly. I didn’t know really how important they were until now. It’s crazy how something as simple as that can give you a pass or fail on writing opportunities. I’m in a good mood at the moment, so I’m determined to strive for improvement on both the writing and marketing fronts. I never thought of myself as an internet marketer until I realized that I have to sell my skills to get better jobs. Finally, I’m learning!