authorpreneur – Almost An Author

Supercharge Your Reach, Part Three

Throughout this series I’ve emphasized one main point—increasing your reach is vital to your writing career. I’ve also shared two ways to grow your reach. In this post, I’d like to proffer a third approach: creating a quality product.

As an authorpreneur, increasing revenue through writing is the driving force behind your efforts. Boost your sales by creating a quality product.

Milton Hershey once famously remarked, “Give them quality. That’s the best kind of advertising.” Since most of us have probably eaten, or at least heard about Hershey chocolate, I think it’s safe to assume that he knew what he was talking about.

As Hershey said, a quality product gets people talking. This is true for any product on the market, including books.

Time and again, I encounter clients who may have an exceptional story, but didn’t put enough time and effort into the typesetting, editing, cover design, or other features that subtly appeal to a reader. In the end, their book doesn’t have the impact they expected.

Why this matters

Like it or not, quality sells. And it should. You’re asking people to part with their money and, as such, you should be prepared to give them something that really shines.

On a more practical side, if the product doesn’t look good, consumers are less likely to realize its true value.

Your story may be a real winner, but have you taken the time to verify the accents/dialects of your characters? Are the descriptions of buildings true-to-life for the time period? Is there an appropriately sized gutter and is the text appropriately spaced? Expand your reach by creating a book so good that people want to talk about it.

For example, I recently was tagged on an Instagram post made by a reader who loved In the Shadow of Your Wings (story and cover). She made up a gift basket that featured the book and some other products, then shared it with her followers. Getting people talking about your product is a free way to expand your reach.

How to boost your book’s quality

If you’re an indie author, you want to create a product so good that no one can tell you’ve indie published it. I’m not saying it’ll be perfect. According to an article carried by the University of California Press, a 95% error-free manuscript is the best a human can do. But the mistakes should be minimal and not hinder your opportunity to expand your reach through retail.

Hire a quality editor. If you’re self-editing, use quality control measures such as listening to the audio using Microsoft’s Read Aloud feature, and working backwards through your text. None of these are absolutely foolproof, but they should minimize the number of typos that can easily slip by if you’re already familiar with the text before you begin the editing process.

Invest in a cover-design professional. You can engage the services of a freelancer or contract out with a full-service publisher such as my house, Logos Publications, LLC.

From a production standpoint, it helps to make a publishing checklist if you’re an indie author. Include a section for such as proofreading, checking for homophones, punctuation checks etc. and another for the actual production (typesetting, formatting and the like).

Creating a quality product takes a lot of effort. It isn’t the quick-and-easy “write a book and sell it on Amazon” approach that many think. But in the end you’ll have a book that people will want to talk about, and one that you’ll be proud to call your own. Believe me, nothing in this business is more gratifying than that.

Takeaway: Invest time and effort into creating a solid plot and producing a quality product. That is still the best kind of advertising.

If you’d like an in-depth look at how this can apply to your manuscript, book a call with me online.

JP Robinson gained experience in the marketing field doing promotional work for multi-million dollar medical facilities and non-profit groups over the past decade. He is an international speaker, educator, and prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction.

JP also conducts writing seminars in various parts of the country and heads Logos Publications, LLC, an emerging publishing and book marketing team.

When he isn’t writing or teaching, JP loves spending time with his wonderful wife and children.

Build a Brand 3: Define Your brand’s Personality

In my last article, I introduced the idea of an author creating a brand personality and outlined three ways an author can create a solid personality. Simply put, your book’s personality is the way it makes readers feel when they pick it up or read it. This article will focus on how you, as an author, can decide what you want your brand’s personality to be.

Here are three steps to keep in mind as you decide how to define your brand’s personality.

First, keep it simple. Try to define your own human personality in 2-3 words. That can be tough, and it might be helpful to ask someone else to define you. The same is true with branding a product. It can be a challenge to describe your books in 2-3 adjectives. But that’s what you want to do.

Simple messages are more likely to get through to readers because we are bombarded by complex issues daily. Think, what do you want readers to think of as soon as they hear your name? Do some introspective analysis until you can answer this question in two or three words.

Are you a Victorian romance writer? You can probably describe your books as passionate and elegant. If you’re a mystery writer, three adjectives that could easily describe your book are intriguing, suspenseful, and dark. You may want to consider keeping those adjectives in mind as you work on your next book cover, plan your book launch, or your next market campaigns. Reach out if you’d like personalized help planning your next campaign.

Also, be sure to consider your interests. A writer has the most impact when writing from the heart. Your unique passions and experience will combine to making your product memorable.

A good tip is to ask friends who have read your books how they would describe them in a few words. Make their feedback a key part of developing your brand’s personality. And that’s a perfect segue to where I want to go next.

Listen to readers. Readers will define you. Whether a business lives or dies depends, in large part, on its ability to listen to consumers. Sometimes we’re surprised by the kind of people that respond to our writing. Maybe you were writing a story for a YA audience and it ended up resonating with adults!

That’s great, but the feedback you hear from readers (positive or negative) can provide critical information about how they see your work. Once you know how readers see your work, you can better target your marketing campaigns and even let that information guide your future writing projects.

I once ran an online marketing campaign for a historical romantic suspense novel I’d written called Bride Tree. When analyzing the demographics of the people that responded to my campaign, I realized that the bulk of them were, not surprisingly, women. What I did find noteworthy was the fact that the ad appealed to mostly women between the ages of 18 and 35. Why?

Because the brilliant pop of red on Bride Tree’s cover, and the aura of mystery and intrigue created by the masked face of Queen Marie-Antoinette, appealed to the “exciting” and “sophisticated” personalities in the market. When I am a marketing campaign for Bride Tree, it makes sense for me to make sure that the wording of my ads and the audiences that I try to reach already show a penchant for that kind of product such as women in that age range who shop products lines such as Chanel or Coach.

Finally, don’t stress. While figuring out how you as an author want to be perceived by readers, remember that you are not locked into a “set” brand personality. Just as each of us grows and changes but remains the same person, so your brand can grow and change as you write more books while retaining the same core aspects that make you unique as an author.

When I think of C.S. Lewis for example, the first thought that enters my mind is fantasy or science fiction. However Lewis was also known for his non-fiction titles that shared common themes with his fiction. My point is, while you do want some consistency between books, don’t be afraid to launch out into something new as it will collectively work together to develop your brand’s personality.

It’s important to realize that, while each of your books contributes to your overall brand personality, each book also has a personality of its own that will be determined by its genre, cover, plot etc. . .

For example, Bride Tree was a bit of a maverick. I don’t typically write historical romantic suspense and, as such, Bride Tree has its own personality. Yet it brings in elements that are common to all my books—espionage, political intrigue, and action laced with romance.

Many authors write in multiple genres at least once in their careers. There are several solid benefits to doing so, including diversifying your portfolio, reaching new readers, seeing which personality type resonates best with your target audience, and helping you grow as a writer. Varying up your brand’s personality can also entice readers to move from one series you’ve written to others that might be of a different genre.

Once you’ve identified what you want your overall brand personality to look like, use that as a basis for creating your social media presence, your website and, of course, your books.
Write with confidence,
JPR

JP also conducts writing seminars in various parts of the country and heads Logos Publications, LLC, an emerging publishing and book marketing team.

When he isn’t writing or teaching, JP loves spending time with his wonderful wife and children.