Category Archives: Work From Home Dad

Writing Professionally: Six Ways to Generate Buzz

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The truth is that print publishing has been taken a beating. In 2010, eBook sales at Barnes & Noble and Amazon exceeded sales of any other kind of book (though admittedly not sales of all other kinds put together). It may not be long before the model of being a published author promoted by your book company is a thing of the past.

In the mean while, the best way to attract the attention of a publisher or an agent — aside from excellent writing — is to come to the negotiation table with an aura of buzz already surrounding your book. Celebrities and the new wave of “ce-web-rities” can still ink good deals because they bring fans with them when they sign a contract.

The rest of us have to generate buzz the hard way. Fortunately, the same factors that are killing the traditional book deal also make it easy for us to generate that buzz with inexpensive and convenient tools.

1. Set up and maintain a social media account such as Facebook or Twitter. Post frequently with the juiciest morsels from your book. “&%$# My Dad Says” started as a Twitter game and now it’s a book with a TV show.

2. Blog about it. For fiction, trickle out a few early chapters or especially beautiful scenes. For nonfiction, write a set of actionable advice posts that establish you as an expert and keep people coming back. Track the statistics to use as evidence when you go to sell your book.

3. Start a Webcast. Video and audio podcasts are growing in popularity every day. If you make it interesting or funny, it may go viral at any moment. Although you can cast about anything you want, you should always end the show by telling your fans about the book that’s coming up.

4. Employ your loyal army of ninja warriors. Okay. Since I came to this from a career as a martial arts teacher, I may be the only one with a loyal army of actual  ninja warriors. But you have your own loyal army of friends, family and acquaintances. If half of them get three friends to check you out, and half of them get three more friends…well, you can see where that leads.

5. Publish excerpts. This is sort of like the blog idea, but with more generally respected sources. Maybe you can take a chapter of your novel and sell it to Escape Pod as a short story. Or you can write about essential aspects of your nonfiction book in an article for a trade magazine. Not only will this increase your audience, you might even get paid.

6. Self-publish an ebook or limited print run. Nothing succeeds like success. If you can sell 2,000 to 5,000 copies of a first printing of your book all by yourself, you will get the attention of publishers as you look for a second run. Even if you don’t want to print more of that particular book, having a successful personal run will give you more credibility with agents and publishers.

There are dozens, hundreds, an infinitude of other possibilities out there. The main point is to use your imagination and beat the “new media” at its own game.

Thanks for listening.

Accountability, Week Three

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This was a rough week for accountability. I had a minor surgery that took me out of the action for three days. I made my goals with a combination of three actions:

  • I worked extra early in the week to get ahead.
  • I scheduled my weekend to include some blocks of family-free time so I could play catchup.
  • I held back a paycheck from some March work to apply to this week.
Planning is vital if you want to succeed as a freelancer, and especially vital when life conspires to make it difficult.
This week’s statistics:
  • Total Earnings Goal: $2250
  • Total Earnings This Week: $2,255
  • Earning Compared to Benchmark: 100%
  • Total Earnings So Far: $6,890
  • Progress Toward Long-Term Goal: 35%
Thank you all for providing some of the encouragement I need to stay on track. And, as always, thanks for listening.

Writing Professionally: Entrepreneurship

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All freelance writers are serial entrepreneurs, whether we like it or not. An entrepreneur is somebody who comes up with an idea, tries to sell that idea, works with people to make that idea happen and finally makes or loses money based on the quality of that idea.

The cycle of selling an article follows that exact process. As freelance writers, we come up with an idea for an article, we try to sell that idea to a magazine, we work with experts as we research the article, and we get paid based on whether or not the magazine accepts the final product.

There’s just one difference between an entrepreneur and a freelance writer. The typical entrepreneur will go through this cycle less than ten times in his entire career. A productive freelance writer will go through this cycle more than ten times every single month.

With the increased availability of self-publication and self-promotion on the internet, freelance writers become even more entrepreneurial as we release actual products such as blogs, newsletters and ebooks.

Bottom line: to make it as a writer, we shouldn’t just study the tools of writing. We must also understand entrepreneurship, small business management, sales and marketing.  Bottom line: if you’re writing well enough to sell even a few articles, you’re better off getting an MBA than an MFA.

I’m fortunate enough to have come to this career after nearly a decade in small business management and ownership. I’ve read the key texts on the important subjects, and I’ve experimented in the laboratory of a working brick-and-mortar business.

For those who are coming from a less business-oriented background, I’d like to take the liberty of suggesting a few books to start your education:

Remember: if you don’t make your writing a business, you have no business trying to write for a living. There’s nothing wrong with just writing for the pure joy of it. Just don’t try to support your family by treating your writing business like it’s a hobby.

Thanks for listening.

PS: On the subject of entrepreneurship, I’ve just launched a side project based on a simple, fun idea. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Accountability, Week Two

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Here we are at the end of the second week of my accelerated productivity cycle. Had a little trouble mid-week, but crunched through yesterday to bring things back up to speed. This wasn’t optimal,  because I still had to do a little work today. This means no day off before starting next week’s push. That’s the price of not living up to your planned schedule — working extra hard later on, when you’d rather be playing.

Stats for this week:

  • Total Earnings Goal: $2250
  • Total Earnings This Week: $2,250 (this exact match isn’t as unusual as it looks – my goals are based on my usual rates)
  • Earning Compared to Benchmark: 100%
  • Total Earnings So Far: $4,635
  • Progress Toward Long-Term Goal: 23%

Again, thanks all for being my unwitting accountability coaches. Knowing I had to post this today helped me stay on task last night.

Thanks for listening.