[Many readers of this blog are familiar with my unconventional and acerbic opinions about the writing business—see the posts archived in the “Writing” category of this blog.  I recently saw something about SkillShare, so I thought maybe it was time to distill some of those ideas into a short course on fiction writing for would-be authors.  You’re in luck.  A perusal of that site’s offerings about writing didn’t impress me at all.  So, here’s my short and unconventional course—and it’s free!

Actually, like any Irish whiskey, this little course is thrice distilled—a development over the years of my own ideas about writing, the afore-mentioned blog posts, and now this mini-course.  You might not like some of the things I say because I don’t sugarcoat my opinions.  That’s too bad.  They’re my honest opinions at this stage in my writing career.  BTW, while readers might enjoy my points of view, this is mostly for indie writers, but traditionally published authors who aren’t Patterson’s workers on his book-writing assembly line, or other Big Five old stallions, i.e. midlist authors, can benefit too. Without further comment, here’s lesson five.

Added note for this lesson: yeah, I know it’s long, but it’s time someone said something honest about PR and marketing, so I can summarize all that’s below by saying that nothing works!  Of course, I’ve done a few things in 10+ years in the business, so read on about things to try.]

An Iconoclast Examines Fiction Writing

Lesson Five: How to Market Your Book

Whether you’re an indie or midlist author, this is an absolute must.  There’s a lot of DIY that can be done, so watch how you spend your money—there are “gurus” just itching to take it (and they’ll sell you their books too—truth of the matter is, those are the only books most gurus write, so their “knowledge” is always suspect, and Sturgeon’s Law always applies).  Here’s a to-do list where every item is optional—at least, how much you do with each item is.  There are no guarantees here—don’t believe anyone who says they have a sure-fire method.  None exist.

You have two basic problems: letting the world know who you are (also called name recognition) and letting the world know what you write (recognition of your books).  Some things below work for one or the other; others work for both.  Much of this involves internet presence—it’s a connected world now.  That means you can reach out to many people all over the world.  It also means most other writers are doing the same thing, so the signal-to-noise level is bad (you’re the signal, they’re the noise, as far as you’re concerned).

Again, King ignores all this in On Writing (he has a website, though, so someone must maintain it for him—maybe multiple someones?).  Today most authors can’t do that.  It’s an important part of being a writer in today’s publishing environment.  To survive, you have to know enough about it to recognize your limitations and seek help if necessary.  And all authors can do a lot with DIY, but it takes time.  It can (but doesn’t guarantee) reaching your final goal: a successful book (whatever that means—develop your own definition, but be realistic).

Somehow you must put your books above that average sea level of other authors’ books so people notice you and your books.  No one says it’s easy, including me (in fact, as noted above, I’d say it’s well nigh impossible).  It’s often the last task you want to spend time on as a writer too, but grin and bear it.  You’ve had all your fun writing and publishing the book.  Now’s the time to get down to the nitty-gritty and sell it.  “Sell it” is loosely speaking, of course, and your first job is to write a great story.  Beware, though—there are many good stories and good authors and possibly great ones out there no one knows about.  Or, being modest, not so good or great but prolific, as in my case.  We’re all trying to find readers in a very competitive environment.

Review wars.  Here’s the skinny: Amazon treats books like every other product, even though they had their start selling books.  Therefore, they treat book reviews like product reviews.  They ask the reviewer to assign a star-ranking so their computers can calculate an average ranking—that’s all they really care about anymore.  A book can have over 1000 reviews—the more there are, the more Sturgeon’s Law applies to the overall set—but Amazon loves this.  1000+ reviews means they sold 1000+ books (with those numbers you can bet that each reviewer didn’t get a freebie in exchange for an honest review).  Your best bet are reviews where the reviewer takes more than two lines or so to say what s/he liked or disliked about the book and why.  Most of those 1000+ reviews fail miserably to meet this simple criterion.

You don’t need a critique like you might receive in an MFA course, of course—readers don’t have to know about story elements to write an intelligent review or the Freudian hang-ups of certain of your characters (where MFA students get that crap is beyond me, but I once assured an A+ in N. Scott Momaday’s English course by putting Freud into every damn essay).  They can write quality reviews that wouldn’t even pass muster in a high school English class (where many probably acquired their anathema to writing reviews).  On the flip side, you don’t want reviews that reduce to something like “atta girl,” “atta boy,” or “this sucks!” either.

A general rule for an author to follow is to never comment on a review, whether it’s positive or negative.  If you like the review, try to find some way to thank the reviewer privately (email, for example).  And, if you don’t like the review, shrug it off.  Learn to accept that reading tastes vary, reviewers are doing both authors and readers a favor by reviewing, and there are some reviewers out there who have an agenda.  That’s life.  (If you could please people all the time, Barnum and Bailey would still have elephants and NYC’s Mayor De Blasio would allow carriage horses in Central Park.)

Reviews can either be solicited or unsolicited.  For the former, you need to learn how to write a query.  It’s a bit like trying to find an agent, only easier in regards to time spent and the personalities you have to deal with.  You need to provide all the information the reviewer or reviewing website asks for as a minimum.  The query usually includes a blurb, but try to provide a bit more information than what you use in marketing the book.  You shouldn’t say that your book is like other books.  “My book is like X” doesn’t do it—there’s too much of a chance that the reviewer hated X!  (That goes for agent queries as well, of course.)

Many reviews are unsolicited—for example, most reviews on Amazon.  I recently received a two-star review on Amazon.  I broke the general rule indicated above and started an interesting e-conversation with the reviewer.  Why would I do that?  Because his review, although negative, went above and beyond the usual Amazon review in both length and content, and I wanted to thank him for that.  That e-conversation will probably help both of us, I imagine, so there are always exceptions to the rules.  But be careful—don’t be confrontational.

Never pay for a review.  Stay away from the Kirkus circus if you’re indie, for example, because they expect you to pay—that’s because they and their ilk are spoiled by traditional publishers who pay them to review.  Many online sites want you to pay too (Self-Publishing Review is an example).  If you like to think your freebie in return for an honest review is pay, OK, but reviewers and reviewing sites who offer to speed up your review for $X are the scum of the Earth—boycott them.  Those who tell you that you need N Amazon four- or five-star reviews before they consider your book also deserve a special place in hell (anyone can see that Catch-22).

Book bloggers used to be safer and timelier, but they’re generally swamped now.  Their business model is wrong, you see.  They decided to review books to get freebies to read; they let anyone submit; so many of them never learned to discriminate—and there are too many good books out there to do that effectively now.  Some of your best review sites are selective up front—you query them, they offer your book to their reviewers, and, if you’re lucky, your book gets chosen for a review.  Some reviewers weasel out of a commitment, though, by not accepting or responding to queries and receiving all freebies, and then only reviewing if they read and like the book.  I never received more than a 10% return even after receiving a positive response to a query and then sending the freebie, so don’t set your expectations too high.

As reader numbers diminish, so do reviewer numbers.  Good reviewers are avid readers.  If you’re traditionally minded, not indie, finding a reviewer is a bit like finding an agent.  Midlist authors won’t be helped here by their publishers either.  Indie writers have to be completely DIY.  It’s a slog.  You could just make your offer of a free book in exchange for an honest review on Goodreads and leave it at that—you’ll probably remain saner that way and better off in the long run.  Net Galley might help things along.  Having a new book available there for a month and advertising that can lead to reviews.

The other side of the coin is questionable too.  I still think that authors should give back to the community of writers and readers by reviewing books.  But it’s often a thankless task.  A recent unsolicited review I offered in good faith (it was a positive one, by the way) was received negatively by the author (by the way, I had purchased two of this author’s books—I didn’t ask for freebies).  The reasons were obscure, and I still don’t understand the reaction; the author clearly went beyond the event horizon into some mental black hole.  I don’t need that kind of angst, but many authors are more receptive than this one author.  I’ve had more than one author thank me for my careful review; that thanks is good karma trumping all the bad karma received from disgruntled writers.  And, if you review books you read, it’s bound to help your own writing!

Interviews.  Writing is a solitary activity, so it’s not surprising that many writers are introverts.  If you have no trouble speaking in public, live interviews might work for you—radio, TV, and blog radio appearances could let a large audience get to know you.  Of course, it’s a crap shoot how many in that audience are readers and not just curious—rubberneckers interested in the collision, as we say in the NYC area.  Guest non-live interviews on websites and book blogs might have some resonance too, and they’re easier for the introvert.  Don’t limit what you say only to your books in either case—people are also interested in you.  They want to know, who is this guy or gal who writes all this stuff?

Videos.  The introvert factor can do you in here, so be careful, but if you’re focusing on the book by enacting a scene or flipping through a few of the book’s scenes with a great cover shown at beginning and end, it might work for you, and you don’t even need to look like a fool like James Patterson on TV (he’s not a fool, of course—he’s just trying to get kids to read his kiddie books, and their parents to buy them, when he has no business writing kiddie books).  A professionally produced commercial for your book isn’t cheap, though, but no pro PR and marketing campaign ever is.

Book signings, book clubs, etc.  Club visits are probably the best for getting acquainted with readers.  Most clubs are small groups rotating book choices among member readers, so getting on the docket might not be easy, and the members might not want to talk to you either.  Signings can be an ego trip or cause depression, and they’re usually a waste of time, especially for indie writers—most bookstores won’t even carry your books!  Book fairs are something in between, but if their focus is on traditionally published books (always the case if traditional publishers organize them!), forget about the fairs too.  And these are other activities introverts aren’t very good at!

Contests.  Most are just ways for the organizers to make money.  Reading fees are often added to the entry cost.  You might buy an ego trip and a gold seal to slap on your paper versions by paying what’s required and somehow winning (the lottery is more likely and it pays a lot more), but does anyone care?  Five good reviews are better than winning a WD contest (that’s Writers’ Digest contest), for example.  Even the freebie contests are probably not worth your time.

Paid online PR and marketing.  Don’t believe the adage, “You get what you pay for.”  Pricey PR and marketing campaigns just enrich the PR firms, and they don’t do anything special.  There are good values to be had here, though, so be a smart consumer and watch out for the bad ones.  BookBub, for example, charged $400+ to list your mystery or thriller book last time I looked, and all they do is add it to a mailing list for a newsletter that spams the world—you’re paying a lot of money for maybe ten minutes of their time.  Yeah, I know, they invested in accumulating that mailing list, but readers sign onto it for free, so they’re doing no real work to accumulate that list and making a lot of money off it.

If you have that kind of money, go ahead and waste it.  That doesn’t get you onto Net Galley or send press releases about your new book.  And every book appearing on BookBub has to be discounted in some way.  You’re spending money to lose money.  Huh?  What if you think your book’s price is already reasonable—you’re already offering good entertainment at a reasonable price?  BookBub and its ilk are the last places to use, sites appropriate for those who have money to throw away.

Choose carefully with all services, though.  There are many people out there ready to take your money but provide little benefit to you in finding readership.  Beware especially of those marketing services offered by POD publishers, for example.  They can lead to negative results because their “marketing gurus” (usually people in India or the Philippines) spam the entire world, making sure readers will be so annoyed they never will buy your book.

Social media.  This can be completely DIY so generally zero cost to you, except for time.  Go where the readers are.  Other writers want you to buy their books; they’re not interested in selling or buying yours.  You can discuss PR and marketing ideas and other book business topics with other authors, but participating in a community of readers as a reader (you’re not a reader?  you should be!) can reap more rewards.  Goodreads is the best social media site for this, Facebook and Twitter probably the worst.  Your Goodreads and Amazon author pages are far more important than your Facebook author page.  And none of the latter should be a replacement for your author’s website.

Author website.  You need one.  Even King has one.  It will be and should be the center of your writing universe.  (This should actually be the first item on this list!)  Some gurus say to have one site for each book.  That’s nonsense!  Your website is about you, the author.  Talking about your books is secondary.  (And, if you have an extensive catalog, even having one webpage per book is out of the question.)  Be sure and have new content every week, either via a blog or posting short stories, book reviews, interviews, and articles about the writing business.  Fresh material brings visitors.

Fiction writers are often in a quandary about what to write in their blogs.  My website’s creators suggested I have one.  I was at a loss, so I checked some of them out.  There are too many dedicated to the book business—book reviews, writing lessons, PR and marketing ideas, and so forth.  While you might bring something new to the table along those lines, it’s unlikely.  And I knew that wouldn’t stand out.

So I decided to comment on current events.  That fits under op-ed, and I started having fun with it.  I now consider it just part of my writing life—by my opinions you shall know me.  I realize not everyone will agree with those opinions, and allowing comments can certainly generate some lively discussions, but if you don’t read an author because of his opinions, you’re missing out on a lot of good fiction—a good writer just tells a good story and doesn’t pontificate (my Detective Chen is conservative and my Detective Castilblanco is progressive, but they’re still a great crime-fighting team, for example).

Lots of real visitors to your site means it’s successful.  That won’t happen if you yourself only visit it once per month—you have to be active on your own site, more so than anywhere else.  A Field-of-Dreams attitude isn’t good policy here.  The average time between landing and leaving a site is often measured in seconds—you need stuff there that captures the visitor’s attention so s/he loiters.

On the business end, though, money spent on creating and maintaining your website is often worth it.  And the situation is similar to the one with book covers: DIY website design is certainly possible but not advisable.  Spending up front can allow you to tell all those optimization and other gurus to fly a kite later on when they email you with the promise of making your site the best in the world (I receive a couple of those promises every week).

The little things.  All of the above are things you can do either for name recognition or recognition for your books, or both.  There are many little things too.  By all means, buy a good supply of business cards and hand them out anytime asks what you do.  Your answer?  “I write books.  Here’s my card.”  Stuff a card in every bill you pay via snail mail—it might fall on the floor, but someone might pick it up too.  Hand cards out to service providers.  A doctor or nurse might be an avid reader.  (I’ve seen both reading a Kindle on breaks.)

Press kits are out-of-style these days but often provided by a PR and marketing service on your behalf to those interested.  More important might be a single sheet with your bio, pic, one or two thumbnails of book covers, and a list of your books.  You can use that to introduce yourself in a book club, book signing, book fair, and other events.

Being available can’t be overemphasized.  Check your emails for correspondence from readers, reviewers, and other authors.  Answer those emails.  And check your spam folder.  (Don’t forget that most blogs have spam folders too.)  And make sure your own emails have a signature like “XYZ, author of…,” followed by your list of books and website’s URL.

There are many little things you can do.  Be inventive. Read the free PR and marketing hints available on many book marketing sites and author blogs, and then try some.  It’s almost impossible to predict what will resonate these days.

Necessary conditions v. sufficient conditions.  All of the above might be called necessary conditions.  In other words, they are things you can do to receive name recognition or sell books, but they do NOT guarantee that you will.  Don’t delude yourself.  There are no sufficient conditions.  There’s NOTHING you can do that will guarantee success.  Anyone who tells you, “I have a surefire way for you to become famous and sell books” is a snake-oil salesperson who probably has a hand open ready to take your money in exchange for a truckload of BS.  There are no silver bullets.

Pros have their place, though, because (1) they can help you do these things because they have expertise and experience you don’t (don’t take their word for it, of course), and (2) they can spend time where you can’t (you pay for their expertise, experience, and time).  Your most effective strategy is DIY as much as time permits and hire some professional help if you don’t have the time.  You can spend as much money as you want for the latter, but it might not be well spent.  Same goes for the time you put into DIY.  Reset and try new things when old ones don’t work.

King was probably right in avoiding all this discussion in On Writing (not that he has to worry about any of it).  I’ve reset and tried new things many times.  Nothing seems to work.  I’m one of those authors King mentions, a person who knew I could tell stories as well as the authors I was reading, maybe even better, and I still think that.  That might seem immodest and optimistic, and, if anyone judges me by book sales, probably not justified.  But I write my lack of success off to the stat that gobsmacks me every time I finish a good book—there are many good books and many good authors to read, whether indie or traditional.  It’s like heaven for the reader, but hell for the author!

So heed my warning: Don’t have any preconceptions.  Readers don’t owe you anything, and, in this market, they rule.  It’s better to be a pessimist than an optimist here because you could then be pleasantly surprised.  Having a successful book is like winning the lottery—it’s not likely, but you can’t win if you don’t play.  And playing, i.e. telling your stories, is fun, right?  That’s what it’s all about.  (At least, it’s what keeps me going.)  Your credo should be: if I can entertain just one reader with my book (besides a relative or friend, of course), it’s a success.  Declare success and write the next book!

***

My list of reference works. I’ve already mentioned King’s On Writing often.  You can forget the memoir-like drivel at the beginning and the end.  You can also forget his list of books.  They’re all fiction with next to no science fiction, even though he claims an author must read what s/he writes!  (Did he ever read Asimov or Heinlein?)

The book is outdated too.  There’s no mention of indie (he’d probably just call it vanity press—he mentions that).  The only non-paper publishing option he mentions is the audiobook.  (I’m sure I’ve seen some ebooks by him, though.)  Some of his advice is spot on; some of it’s BS, especially in today’s marketplace.  Read it for what it is, take what works for you, and read what other authors say (again, there’s a lot of BS).

Here are some other books I’ve found useful:  Card’s Characters and Viewpoint; Bryson’s Dictionary for Writers and Editors; and Knight’s Creating Short Fiction.  (Note that, besides King’s book, which is just about writing fiction in general, like these lessons, I don’t have a book about novel writing in my list.  There are no good ones!)  I probably should add the Bible and the Koran.  Knowing the three major religious reference books is a good idea, even if you’re an atheist.  I haven’t found one on Buddhism, so pick up a copy of Alan Watts’ The Way of Zen.  Some kind reader can recommend one about Hinduism.

I have several posts archived in the “Writing” category of this blog that you might find useful because they offer more extensive discussions of points made in this course.  Here are some just from 2015: “Letting the Bandwagon Pass By”; “The ‘Research’ Conundrum”; “Ethics in Writing”; and “Rogue Waves in Calm Seas.”  Several essays have been reposted several times; “The Goldilocks Principle” and “The Eightfold Way” are examples.  (The latter tells you about eight things NOT to do when writing a novel and enjoyed some resonance across the internet.)

I’m not adding any links to these articles because I think it’s best that the reader peruse the posts in that blog category and cherry pick those of interest for her/his own writing.  Fair warning: none of them are PC, and they often express acerbic, non-standard opinions about this writing business.  I might not sell many books, but I’m one opinionated SOB when it comes to writing.  King is a cute Vermont teddy bear compared to me.  (There’s a factory in Vermont that makes teddy bears.  It’s called the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory—surprise!  I wonder if King is a shareholder.)

For different themes, start with some non-fiction works on the topics…or documentaries.  And, if you want a list of fiction books I think are fine examples on how to write, check out “Steve’s Bookshelf.”  These aren’t all the fine books I’ve read, maybe not even the best, but a complete list isn’t possible because I read a lot.

There are no good books on marketing, primarily because there are too many outrageous claims and heaps of cow pies.  You’re better off just reading about some ideas online and trying them out.  I have.  Nothing works for me very well, but you might have better luck.  Remember: book success starts with a fine story up front, but it ends with winning a lottery: nothing guarantees that anyone will read your story!  I know.  I’ve written a lot of them and still have only a few readers…sigh….

***

That’s the course.  It’s so distilled that it’s just an outline of what must be done to write a fiction novel and sell it.  As such, it’s a start.  I hope it helps you, but it doesn’t end here.  You should read more on these topics, but take everything with a grain of salt—even what I say above—and map out your own book-business strategies.  Don’t spend too much time on this crap, though.  It’s better to read fiction and write your own, over and over again.  But no one knows what’s right.  It’s all a crap shoot.  That’s part of the fun!

***

In libris libertas….

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