INTERVIEW WITH C.A.N. CROWN AWARD WINNER Carla Hoch

The Christian Authors Network’s innovative Crown Awards celebrate excellence in Christian Media and Marketing.

Purpose: To recognize, educate, and encourage excellence in marketing and promotion skills of all Christian authors. The awards are given in three categories:

• Visual Media
• Broadcasting
• Web Presence

Carla Hoch is the CAN Marketing Web Presence Media Gold Award Winner for her promotion of her online brand, FightWrite™.

Carla past led to her studying self-defense and training women speaking on emotional abuse, precursors to physical violence, personal and emotional boundaries and tips for staying safe and escaping abusive scenarios. For example, if you are in danger in your home, did you know that you can call 911 and “order a pizza”? You speak to the 911 operator as if they are a pizza place. They will ask if you are in danger and yes/no questions to help the police come to your aid without people in the room with you knowing you are calling for help. 

Carla started a blog after teaching about writing fight scenes at conferences. She went from a few views to several thousand, and then one post took off to 100,000 hits when Writer’s Digest featured Carla and her blog in their magazine.

FightWrite™.net is now trademarked and features blog posts with video and photo references, detailed information about the biology, psychology, weaponry techniques of combat as well as coaching on the craft of writing great fight scenes. In addition, Carla has a successful Etsy store featuring FightWrite™ products further establishing her popular brand. Her honest desire to teach and expert skills make her fascinating to viewers.

Tell us about your blog.

 FightWrite.net is a writer’s reason for fight scenes, action and violence at every stage from one character’s decision to another’s decomposition. It goes hand-in-hand with my Writer’s Digest book: Fight Write: How to Write Believable Fight Scenes and my FightWrite podcast. The podcast is available all over the place.

What led you to begin blogging?

I am a trained fighter and writer. I had been using those two skillsets to teach writers how to write fight scenes. The interest from writers was so great that I thought, hmmm, I wonder if anyone would read a blog about this…

How does your passion motivate you to promote your blog? What keeps you motivated?

First and foremost, I completely enjoy it. If I didn’t I wouldn’t have stuck with it since 2016. Now I also have the motivation to promote my book and myself as an instructor.

Where did you start in the planning of your marketing and did you focus on one main component or area?

 For years my blog was my only product so the decision on what to promote was easy! The blog is still my greatest marketing tool. It drives people to my book and to me.

Your past led to your interest in self-defense. Can you share a little of that past and how it led to your writing?

 Sure! About ten years ago I was writing a book with fight scenes and had no idea how to fight. For some fighting reference, I enrolled in a self-defense class. To my surprise, the class had a visceral impact on me. After the first few I cried pretty hard. I had been raised in an unsafe environment and the effects were still with me.

 Kay Arthur once said that if something brings the worst out of you, the worst probably needs to be brought out of you. That’s the approach I took with self-defense. I stayed with it until my fear of attending class became excitement. That class gave me the confidence I needed to go on to many other martial arts.

Sometimes God reaches down and plucks you out of the ocean. Sometimes He makes you swim to shore. Whatever way He chooses is not only for you but for those still swimming who need reassurance that He hasn’t removed the shoreline. I’m proof of that.

You also have a passion to reach out to women coping with and recovering from abuse. How do you reach that audience?

 It’s word of mouth. I don’t advertise it.  

How do you continue to generate new content for your blog that will interest your followers?

Oh, that is a tough one. I often send out a call to writers asking what they’d like me to write about. I also get questions on Twitter. Or, sometimes something comes up in the news and I get to thinking. The recent rush on toilet paper inspired my Judo for the Pandemic post. I have video showing judokas defending their toilet paper with judo throws. It was a lot of fun to make.

What grabbed the attention of Writer’s Digest? Had you pitched to them?

That is quite a story. I have a friend that writes for WD. When I had the idea for the book, I told him about it. He liked it and gave me the name of an editor at Writer’s Digest who might be interested. I sent that acquisitions editor a summary. He got back to me and said he had done the “comps” and there wasn’t a place for the book with WD. Well, I knew that wasn’t true. I had done some looking around for comparable books before I started the project. There were zero like mine! I emailed him back and asked him to reserve judgement and said I would send him the finished product. I think I also promised him donuts. No joke.

 Months later, I sent him the finished work. I got a kick-back email saying he was no longer with the company and that all further business should be sent to… And there it was. Another email address. I sent the new person the MS with a message saying that I had been talking to the previous editor about the book and he was expecting it. None of that was a lie. He wasn’t interested in the book. But he was expecting it again! I also told her that I had offered the other guy donuts and that offer was still valid!

 After I sent the MS, I called my friend Steve Laube, owner of the Steve Laube Literary Agency. He has been in the book industry almost as long as I’ve been alive which is a LONG time! I met him at a conference where I had pitched a book to him – the one that made me get into to self-defense and put me on the path of fight training. Despite not liking the book I had pitched to him, Steve liked me just fine. For nine years he and I had stayed in touch at conferences. We always were happy to see each other and took time out to catch up. I would always ask him when he was going to be my agent. He always replied when I had a book for him.

 Steve laughed when I told him that I had sent the MS to the new editor. He told me I had chutzpah and to stay positive and patient. It would likely take WD six weeks to get back to me. He also said that along with being positive and patient, I should also be realistic. The book had been rejected by a smaller press and Writer’s Digest was the largest publisher of craft books in the world. Me reaching out to them was a shot in the dark. I told him I was ok with that. People get shot in the dark all the time. 

 It didn’t take Writer’s Digest six weeks. They got back to me in six days. After a phone call with them I emailed Steve and asked if he would be interested in agenting a Writer’s Digest author. He was. Steve and I met by virtue of the book that got me into fighting. He is now my agent for a book about writing fight scenes. Now, you tell me miracles aren’t real!

At what point did you start to develop your Etsy products to enlarge your brand?

The Etsy store started last year but I’ve had FightWrite shirts for a while. I had them just for me to wear when I taught but then got requests for them. I sold them or gave them out personally.

You won the CAN Crown Award for outstanding web presence. What elements of a web do you think are the most important for authors to develop?

 Do what you are passionate about first. If you want to do a podcast, do it with all your might. Then, set up other avenues of web presence that point to that podcast. Or, if you are great on IG or Twitter, let that be your jumping off point and go from there. I don’t think you have to have a website immediately.

But, when it comes to web sites, I am a huge fan of Thomas Umstattd and have learned a great deal from him. He says to have three highly visible call out buttons: product, contact info and subscribe. My three are my book, my blog and my contact form. I have smaller buttons at the top of the site for my podcast and Etsy shop. Don’t make your visitors look for what they want. Have it right out in front. He also suggests having a great pic of yourself on the site. It will give people a connection to you and it makes publicity easier since folks have a pic to grab.

Also, years back I learned that if people have to hit more than two buttons to get to what they are looking for, they will leave.

Whatever you want to be great at reach out to somebody who is already great at it. I was hesitant about the Etsy shop then reached out to a jiu-jitsu guy in Canada. I had bought some of his jiu-jitsu gear, followed him on IG and it was clear he knew his stuff. I sent him a message asking him a few business questions and he came back with incredibly helpful advice.

What do you include in a pitch to various media outlets?

 When my agent, Steve Laube, looked over my Writer’s Digest contract he said that I would be poor in money but rich in street cred. He was right on both fronts. Being able to say I am a Writer’s Digest author is a huge blessing. It gets my foot in the door of a lot of places. After that I tell about my training, sends pics if need be. People tend to believe I am a writer before they do a fighter and I am both. At 47, I still compete in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and will for as long as I can.

Any suggestions that might help authors find potential media outlets?

 Well, being a member of CAN helps. That I know for sure. After that, ask around! Explore hashtags on social media. Look for podcasts. We are living in a time when resources are aplenty. Problem with that is it can be overwhelming.

 If you aren’t tech or social media savvy, which I’m truly not, a great place to get your feet wet are guest blog posts and newsletters. Ask to contribute for free and maybe offer to give away a book or whatever product you might have to a reader.

Did you try marketing strategies that did not work for you? What did you learn from them?

None of them worked at first. Seriously. I’m just not good at giving up on whatever it is I want. The blog had very few readers at first. I just kept going with it until I had a following and one particular post went crazy, 5K in a month which is a lot for a brand new blog from an unknown author. Then another on escaping handcuffs went crazy. That post alone gets about 100 views a day. 

How do you craft your pitch and message to each audience?

When I have an audience I’m teaching. That is pretty much my pitch. On my podcast I always tell how to find me on social media.

What do you include in your press release that you send to media?

I’ve never done one. (she looks away in shame)

Can you recommend marketing resources that you have found helpful?

The blog at the Steve Laube Agency

Writer’s Digest Magazine and site

Thomas Umstattd’s podcast: Novel Marketing Podcast.

Which aspects of marketing do you enjoy the most?

I love teaching which I don’t even think of as marketing but it is. 

Which aspects do you find most challenging?

 Social media is a struggle for me. I forget to do hashtags and tag myself. I forget to do posts! Also Google Analytics. Mercy! The info on that thing! I just launched a new site and registered with Google Analytics. I’m drowning in stats!

What marketing advice can you give writers that you wished you had gotten, or that you wish you would have heeded?

I think first and foremost you have to love what you’re doing. Love it enough that you want the world to know about it. That will make what can sometimes be an awkward process – letting the world know about it – less awkward.

Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers about your marketing or writing journey?

If you don’t have what it takes to do something, just keep at it until you do! Seriously. If you are going to let every failure, mistake or rejection get you off course, you will never be on course. Get stubborn today. Embrace what doesn’t work because it will help you figure out the things that do.

Writing can be a brutal business. Sometimes it feels like you are a piñata with a keyboard. But, you know what, people love piñatas! When’s the last time you heard anybody say, “I was having fun until they brought out that piñata”? Never. You’ve never heard that. So, just embrace it. It’s all part of the process. A writer who expects to write without rejection is like boxer who expects to never get punched.

To learn more about Carla and her helpful advice for writers, visit her FightWrite™ website or FightWrite™ podcast.