Writing 101: What's the Big Secret to Book Sales?

For obvious reasons, I go in search of writing and self-publishing tips all the time. I need all the help I can get, for starters, and it's always useful to see what others are writing about. What I've found is this: everyone seems to know exactly what it takes to be successful at self-publishing. They all know the big secret.

Big Book Sales

Yes, it's out there! The big secret to book sales...and it's everywhere. Buy this book, click that link, read this thing and you'll discover the secret. The trouble is, everyone has a different answer -- and often, a complex series of steps you need to follow to go with it. 

But it really isn't a secret that to sell any product, you have to market it. And the very best form of marketing is, and always has been, word of mouth. So here's the real secret to selling books: getting someone who loves that book to talk about it. If you can do that, you're going to sell books.

Writing 101: Writing with Expletives

Jon Stewart, who happens to be the most popular late night host, drops F-bombs on his TV show nightly. It gets beeped out of course, but the audience loves it and he's very good at it. Lots of people use expletives regularly when speaking. Doesn't that mean they should also be appearing in your books?

Four Little Letters

Gone With the Wind was controversial because it contained the word "damn." When the movie was made in 1939, "damn" was taken out of the script. Clark Gable insisted upon using the original dialogue, so the word made it into the film. Hollywood, and authors, have been pushing the envelope on what's considered acceptable in language ever since. I guess we have Margaret Mitchell to blame for our loss of literary innocence.

Or from another point of view, we have her to thank. Writing with expletives is so widely-done now, many people don't even think about it while they're reading those words. But others do notice, and that's why you always have to think about it when you're using them in your books.

Indie News: Indies Are Fighting Back

So, maybe self-pubishers and traditional publishers really can't get along after all. It seems that indies really are at war with traditional publishing...so I guess it's time for you to get out your battle paint and keyboards.

Deep Inside the Literary World

Indie authors are starting to speak out against the publishing industry and, apparently, the Authors Guild. It started with an article written about author Jennifer Weiner, and then more authors began to chime in from their personal blogs and other available platforms.

The gist of the argument is that traditional publishers and even their authors are shunning the self-published, and indies don't care for the treatment they're getting. One writer even accused traditionally published authors of being self-serving, and turning a cold shoulder to the indie community for personal gain (what he actually said is that authors and publishers are in bed together, but that's a pretty graphic metaphor). 

Free Love, Free Words: Februray Event

I wrote a blog post recently about the importance of books and reading, and making these things more widely available. So I'm putting my money where my keyboard is, and I'm going to spend February spreading my love of reading. Around here, Valentine's Day lasts all month long. So all month long, you can get my newest book for free!

It's the Free Love, Free Words event, and it ends on February 28. My newest book, Hope's Rebellion, is the Book of the Month over at Goodreads so now is the perfect time for a month-long giveaway. To get your copy, download the book in any format at Smashwords. Use the code WQ47M to get the book at a 100% discount (FREE!). 

Books on Film: Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day is a film that doesn't really fit this category, though it is a movie based on a story...and perhaps it's based on more then one story. Either way, this movie tells a good story. Even if it is the same story over and over and over...

The Film

If you haven't seen Groundhog Day, I don't even want you to read this post. Go and watch it and then crawl out of that cave you're living in because how? This movie is a true cult classic and it's earned every single cable broadcast it's ever been given.

The amazing Bill Murray stars as weatherman Phil Connors, whose unfortunate duty it is to cover the famed Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Yes it's a real place and yes, they have a huge festival every year (at Gobbler's Knob) in order to watch a groundhog climb out of his hole. The movie does a fair job of showing this event (despite the fact that the movie was not filmed in Pennsylvania anywhere).

Writing 101: Finding Your Patron

I imagine that being a writer was a much more romantic occupation centuries ago. Once upon a time, wealthy nobles gave writers and other artists food, clothing, shelter and even money to help them master their craft. So it got me to wondering...is there anybody willing to do that today?

A Wealthy Patron

Storytelling bards used to travel between castles and keeps, sharing their tales for a warm meal, a nice bed and much welcome. The good ones even got to visit Kings and Queens. Pretty good stuff, right? Like, who wouldn't want to travel around just telling stories and visiting fabulous places? 

Writing 101: How Do You Know You've 'Made It'?

Success is not an easy thing to define or measure. So how can you tell when you've "made it" as an author? 

Being Successful

By conventional standards, success equals money. People who are known for wealth are considered to be very successful, even elite, and they're admired and envied for all that spare cash. Television shows like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and (much newer) Cribs prove that people are fascinated by wealth. 

But the truth is, the majority of authors don't make a lot of money. Being an author is often equated with being an artist, and that profession is synonymous with starving. So all the beach houses and big mansions and Bentleys are, sadly, probably well out of your reach. 

However, you can make some money with writing. And if you write a lot for lots of different companies, it's even possible to make a living as a writer. If you're living the dream of writing full-time, maybe that means you've made it...even if it feels like you can't always make ends meet financially.

If you have time to write and you're writing something that someone is reading or that someone is paying for and you like what you've written, then you've "made it." Don't measure your success in dollars and cents, because it won't ever add up no matter how much you make. Don't measure your success against someone else, or what anyone in your family says, or even by the statistics you find on blogs like mine. Measure your success by your own standards and ideals. When you dreamed of being an author, you probably weren't dreaming of being awash in riches. You were probably dreaming of being read. Achieve that, and you've achieved great success.

Writing 101: Don't Get Lost in the Writing

Punctuation. Grammar. Sentence structure. Prepositions. Proper spellings. It's overwhelming to write a book, and frankly that's far too mild a word. But don't get lost in the writing while you're writing...because you may forget about the storytelling.

Technical Difficulties

I'm the first person to point to a misplaced comma or improperly capitalized word when it comes to published books. In fact, I've been known to go on full-scale rants when it comes to the mechanics of writing. I'm very interested in putting articles in the right place and avoiding the abuse of adverbs. I've gone 20 rounds with my very own employers about the existence of the word "alot" and I'll fixate on even the smallest mistakes when I find them. But I don't allow myself to get too bogged down in all that when I'm actually writing my own books. If I did, I wouldn't ever get past the first page.

The mechanics of writing are very important...but I've seen firsthand that it's not at all the most important thing about a book. I've read a half-dozen authors -- and I'm talking about well-known folks, here -- who in my opinion really can't write. Their structure is all off, their disregard for full sentences frightening and their propensity to avoid dialogue tags is way beyond unsettling. There are a lot of famous authors who don't pay a lot of attention to the mechanics of writing...but they're amazing storytellers, so I'm just about the only person who even cares. 

When it come to storytelling vs. mechanics, it's always storytelling that wins out. So yes, edit your books. Try to use good grammar, and attempt to grasp the basics of punctuation. But don't get so bogged down in the details of the writing that the writing is all you think about. You need to keep your mind free to tell the story. In other words, you need to loosen up. Tell the story. Then go back and edit, and fix all those weird mistakes you made.