Writing 101: Targeting Your Marketing

They say that being successful as an indie author requires spending a lot more time on promotion than on actual writing. But if you're just throwing stuff out there at random, you're not doing a whole lot of good. First, you've got to figure out where your target audience is. Then, you've got to actually target them. 

Ready, Aim, Fire

It's a lot like playing basketball. If you close your eyes and start chucking balls in the general direction of the basket, sure a few of them will go in. But if you open your eyes and actually aim at the center of the target, it's likely that you'll land even more of them. Targeted marketing just makes sense, and it will save you time that you can spend on actual writing.

• Define your age group. The first step in targeted marketing is defining the age group that would be most interested in your books. This is really easy for some genres, like children's and YA. You already know who you're writing for. When you write other types of books, however, it gets tricky. Romance novels can appeal to people of all ages, but women in their thirties and forties buy the bulk of romance novels. Scifi novels are largely read by people in their teens, twenties and thirties. Look at demographics and data specific to your genre, and get a better idea about who's most likely to purchase your books. 
• Define your gender. Both men and women read books, but they're largely drawn to different genres. Women overwhelmingly buy romance novels, as compared to men, for example. When you start thinking about gender, you can start getting really specific and figure out that teenaged girls are likely to be the most interested in your YA paranormal romance, for instance.
• Find your market. So now you know more about who your audience is. The next big step in targeting your marketing? Finding them. Where are these people? If you're spitting a bunch of links out on Twitter all day and your books are most appealing to college-educated divorcees, you're wasting a ton of time because Twitter is largely populated by teens and twenty-somethings. Facebook is more appropriate if you're looking for people who are a little bit older. Look up information about your target demographic. Find out which websites they like, what activities interest them and what sort of blogs they read. Once you figure this out, you'll know where to spend the bulk of your promotional efforts. 

Targeting your marketing is the best way to connect directly with your audience. Focus your promotional efforts, and you'll see much bigger results from your hard work.

Writing 101: When Fiction Writers Use Brackets

The Internet has totally blurred, if not altogether obliterated, the lines of good punctuation. Now, people are using punctuation to make little faces at the end of the sentences. This is not the use for which punctuation was originally intended, and it's darn confusing. Maybe that's why it's so difficult to know when to use brackets in fiction writing. It's almost never okay for authors to do so...even when you're writing about what happens on the Internet. 

Thou Shalt Not Use Brackets

Brackets are not a parenthesis...they're the more twisted cousin. While parentheses have gently curving lines, brackets have hard edges. That's to remind you that they're used only in the most extreme of circumstances. In fiction, they're used almost ever.

In other types of writing, brackets can be used for a handful of different reasons. 

• Math: In some complicated mathematical problems, brackets are used to show specific number groups or functions or what-have-you.
• HTML: Look at an HTML how-to anything online, and you're likely to see brackets. They're commonly used to show how the code is written.
• Quotations: Brackets are found in online articles and other pieces that contain quotes. When a word needs to be added or a pronoun needs to be changed to a proper noun, the word is put inside brackets.
• Direct address: The direct address is the only time you're likely to see brackets in fiction writing. As the name would suggest, this is when the author directly addresses the reader with the words inside the brackets. This by no means requires that you have an entire conversation with the reader. It's usually one to three words at most. It's always done to clarify or emphasize. Example: "Bob and Hugo stared on in shock. He [Hugo] decided to open the umbrella."

Fiction writing doesn't necessarily need brackets, because there are much better ways to clarify what you mean. Using them can help streamline and save time where otherwise a long explanation may be required. Brackets definitely have their place, but like any good punctuation they have to be used sparingly and correctly. Use too many, and it will just become disruptive.

Turning Pages in the Tower

"Really sucks you in and keeps you turning the pages as more and more twists arise."

"Such a great follow up to the first book in the series!"

Eastern Sunset Reads recently reviewed The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2). Read the whole thing to find out what the reviewer liked (and didn't like) about the book.

Writing 101: The Red Herring

Pick out the criminal in this lineup:

Which one do you think is the guilty party? Maybe this long-haired guy in the center? How about this Amish-looking fellow in the end? Maybe the guy with the short hair is trying to fool everyone, and he's the real perpetrator. From where I'm sitting, they all look like wrongdoers to me. 

But I'm actually the one who's wrong. 

This is a photo of the Beatles, not potential criminals. But when you look at the picture the right way, they look like they're up to no good. This is how a red herring works. 

Gone Fishing

It's not a fish when it's used in fiction. In fiction, a red herring is a person who looks absolutely guilty. You know they're the one who committed the murder, or stole the painting, or cheated on so-and-so, or whatever. But what you don't know is that you're seeing the character through a distorted lens, and a clever author is actually fooling you into thinking that person is guilty.

They're totally innocent when they're a red herring - that's what it's designed to do. You're busy suspecting this person and the real killer (or whatever) is hiding right there in plain sight on the page, probably charming you. Probably wooing you. And perhaps making you their next victim (not literally...just literarily).

Red herrings are, most often, characters. Sometimes they're objects, however, such as an item that appears to be the murder weapon but something else is actually the murder weapon. Red herrings are most commonly used in mysteries in order to lead you away from the real killer, but they can be found in many different types of fiction. 

A really good red herring won't start to stink until the end of the book, when the real truth is revealed. In the best-case scenario, the distorted lens is swept away and the red herring can now be viewed clearly. That sinister maid with the ulterior motive becomes a hard-working single mother. The professor who knows perhaps a little too much is simply a well-read, socially awkward man with a secret crush on one of the other characters. You get the idea. The point is, readers shouldn't suspect that something is fishy...until you want them to. 

Start sprinkling red herrings into your books, and see if you can misdirect and divert your readers long enough to keep them guessing until the very last page.

Writing 101: The MacGuffin, Good or Bad?

Many advice-givers, like me, will tell writers that every single word you put on the page should drive the plot forward, or otherwise give the reader important information. But that's not entirely true. When it comes to the MacGuffin and writing...well, anything goes. 

The MacGuffin remains a very controversial plot device, and some writers hate it. So today we settle the argument: is the MacGuffin good or bad?

Good Enough for Me

At this point, you may be wondering what the heck a MacGuffin is, anyway. This is a plot device that moves the story and gets characters where they need to be, but actually has nothing to do with the eventual outcome. MacGuffins usually appear, serve their purpose and promptly fade away.

You see the MacGuffin more in movies than in books, but a plot device like this can always span mediums. One of the most famous storytellers of all time is notorious for using MacGuffins in his plots. Looking for a few good examples of this technique in action? Turn to Alfred Hitchcock. 

His movies are riddled with the MacGuffin, and once you start looking you'll find it everywhere. For instance in Psycho, the missing $40,000 gets Marion Crane in position but then becomes utterly meaningless. Hitch emphasized the uselessness of the money by letting Norman Bates sink it in the lake. By the time the end of the movie comes, no one cares about that money anymore. That's a MacGuffin.

And it's a plot device that has served many noble writers very well. Sometimes, characters need to be in a certain place or meet a certain person before the rest of the story can unfold. If you use a MacGuffin to put them in that place, is it really a big deal?

Some critics will say that it is, and there are some who are very much opposed to the use of a MacGuffin. But I say what was good enough for Hitch can work for anyone (and haven't film students been trying to copy his work for decades?). When a book is well-written, a MacGuffin (or several) really doesn't matter. Readers aren't going to care as long as the story is interesting and feels complete, but you don't want to throw too many useless distractions into any narrative because that just makes it feel cluttered. 

So is the MacGuffin good or bad? Like any plot device, it's both. In the hands of a master, like Hitchcock, it works perfectly to create an intricate story. In the wrong hands, it just feels like sloppy writing. Choose your MacGuffin wisely, write it believably, and you won't go wrong.

Writing 101: Are You Writing for You?

Be honest: how often do you look at the Amazon bestseller list? How many times have you wished you were the one who wrote The Hunger Games? It's not a problem...unless you let it dictate what you're going to write next.

Being Popular

Everybody wants to be popular in whatever situation they happen to be in. You want to a lot of friends at school, at work, on Facebook...popularity contests pretty much never end. For authors, they're a way of living. If you're a self-published author, it's a full-time job. You have to work to gain readers, you need to hustle to sell books and you've got to constantly promote. 

And while you're working your typing fingers to the bone, another Stephenie Meyer or Susanne Collins is cranking out an uber-successful series that absolutely everyone is talking about. It's only natural for thoughts to begin to creep into your head. It's only natural to start thinking that maybe you ought to alter your own writing style. Adapt it a little. Make it a little bit more like a Stephenie Meyer...or a Susanne Collins.

No! Do not do this. It seems like a primrose path to surefire literary success, but it's actually a trap. Once you start trying to write like someone else and attempt to make your material more palatable to a mass audience, you're no longer writing like you. 

Are you writing for you? Ask yourself this question when you're writing your books and envisioning your plots. As long as the answer is yes, you're in good shape. Keep on writing like you and writing exactly what you want to write. That authenticity will show through in the page; readers will pick up on the fact that you're being true to yourself and to your talents. When you try to write for someone else, or like someone else, you aren't being authentic...and it's going to show in your writing. So write for you, and eventually the world will follow.

Unravel the Deck of Lies FREE

Visit one of my favorite blogs, Reading...Dreaming, and find out how to get Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) free. The sooner you start exploring the lies, the sooner you'll discover all the dirty little secrets. 

Get Judged

"The perfect finale for one of the best YA series I ever read."

"A story about friendship, family, love, life changing decisions, the consequences of our actions and mostly about Life and all its comings and goings."

Friend of the blog and avid reader Ruty, the blogger behind Reading...Dreaming recently reviewed Judgment (Deck of Lies, #4). Visit her blog to read the review and find out how you can get started on the series for free!