For young adult authors one of the ways to connect with readers is through school visits. I asked Author Marie Sontag for her advice on the topic and she passed along her three top tips.
Props and Prizes
I’ve purchased authenticated artifacts such as a bronze dagger, an alabaster jar, and an ancient Phoenician coin and made these part of my presentation. This adds value to my author visit, apart from giving listeners a chance to hear from a writer and purchase my books. I also bring bookmarks with QR codes, pencils with one of my book’s names on it, and polished rocks I’ve collected (legally!) from places where some of my stories take place. I use these as prizes when someone answers one of the questions I sprinkle throughout the talk. Sometimes, I tape a ticket to the bottom of a chair (unknown to the audience) and give away a book at the end.
Keep It Interesting and Personal
I always create a PowerPoint for my talks, including visuals that illustrate my points. I also plan questions as part of my presentation, being sure to include these on the PowerPoint. When someone raises a hand to answer, I always ask his or her name. I jot it down or quickly associate it with something so I can remember it. I work to see my listeners as individuals, not just customers that I hope will buy my books. I want them to know I value them and the time we spend together.
It’s My Passion, but It’s Also a Business
I love writing and never tire of speaking with readers. For me, however, it’s also a business, and I need to treat it as such. Before speaking at a school or event, I’ve found it best to have a librarian, teacher, or volunteer distribute and collect order forms and money for my books before I come. This leaves me time to sign and interact with students. If that isn’t possible, I bring someone with me to handle the selling so I can focus on book-signing and connecting with my readers.
What great tips! Thank you, Marie.
What about you? Have any additional tips to share about school visits? Please comment below.
Marie Sontag writes historical fiction for young adult and middle grade, and was a teacher in California for over fifteen years. She has a BA in social science and a PhD. in education and presents author talks to various age groups. “Bringing the Past to Life—One Adventure at a Time,” epitomizes the passion and writing career of Marie Sontag.
Her newest release, Underground Scouts, furthers her tradition of crafting adventurous historical novels for middle grade and young adult readers, bringing her number of published books to six. To learn more about Marie and her books visit www.mariesontag.com .
Donna Jo Stone writes YA contemporary novels about tough issues but always ends the stories with a note of hope. She blogs at donnajostone.com.
“Many books for children feature children. Your writing will be more natural if you are aware of the rhythms and patterns that youngsters adopt when they interact with each other. Children often say the first things that come to mind. They repeat phrases – and rework their sentences as they speak. Try writing short, staccato sentences or long rambling ones just to get a feel for pacing. Reflecting on your childhood memories can also help draw out an authentic voice.”
Author Alan Dapré A former TV scriptwriter who now spends his time writing zany story books, usually about a Tartan Cat.
When I came across Dapré’s quote while doing some research on the Internet one afternoon, I loved it! I actually said out loud, “Yes!” You see, to write for children, we need to be where they are and listen to how they talk. We need to watch how they move and interact with the world around them.
This was much easier to do when my daughters were at home because we were “that house”—the house where all of the neighborhood kiddos gathered. I never had to work at being around children. Today, as an empty nester, I find myself having to work a little harder when I want to interact with my readers.
If you find yourself in that same situation, or if you write for the picture book market and you only have teens in your house, you’ll also have to get a little more creative to observe and interact with your readers. So, here are four tips to help you in that quest.
Volunteer: Offer to babysit for your friend’s children or take your turn in the nursery at church. Work with Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, or other children’s groups. Be a coach. (I was a cheerleading coach for a stint, and out of that experience, I was inspired to write my YA devotional, “Get Your Spirit On! Devotions for Cheerleaders” (SonRise Devotions, 2018). You could also volunteer to read to children in your public library. Those are all win/win scenarios. You get to feel good about volunteering, and you will get quality time with your readership.
Strategically Observe: You will want to observe children at play. Watch how they interact. Listen to how they talk—their pacing, their word choice, their voice inflection. Observe how they move and engage with one another. Good places to do this? Go to the park. (Walk your dog there so you don’t look like a creeper—ha!) Hang out in the toy section at Wal-Mart. Go to the zoo and do double duty. You can observe kids and animals and take notes for future books.
Research: fill in the gaps with online research. When you can’t be with kiddos in real time, watch YouTube videos of kids just being kids. And while you’re at it, find out what kids are reading, watching, and listening to, and then do the same! Get in their world so that you’ll understand it and them better.
Remember: think back to when you were a kid. When you just can’t find a way to be around little ones, you can still make this work. All you have to do is…remember. Slang words and clothing fads may come and go, but the raw emotion of a story never goes out of style. Use your own childhood experiences or those of your children and draw from them. Tap into memories of your proudest, saddest, most embarrassing, or disappointing moments. Feelings are universal and timeless. Childhood memories may be the story buds for numerous future articles and books. The key is to remember with all of your senses—what you saw, how it felt, how it smelled, etc. Become that child again!
Yes, this will take some time, but it’ll be time well-spent. Get to know your audience and watch your writing become more raw, more real, and more relevant.
Michelle Medlock Adams is a best-selling author and an award-winning journalist, earning top honors from the Associated Press, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Hoosier State Press Association. Author of over 100 books with more than 4 million books sold, Michelle is also a New York Times Bestselling ghostwriter and has won more than 70 industry awards for her own journalistic endeavors, including the prestigious Golden Scroll for Best Children’s Book in 2020, 2019 and 2018 for “How Much Does God Love You?” “Dinosaur Devotions” and “My First Day of School”. And, over the past three years, she has added several first-place honors from the Christian Market Book Awards, the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, and the Illumination Awards in multiple categories.
Since graduating with a journalism degree from Indiana University, Michelle has written more than 1,500 articles for newspapers, magazines, and websites; and served as an adjunct professor at Taylor University. Today, she is President of Platinum Literary Services, Chairman of the Board of Advisors for Serious Writer, Inc.; and a much sought-after speaker at writers conferences and women’s retreats all over the United States. When not working on her own assignments, Michelle ghostwrites articles, blog posts, and books for celebrities, politicians, and some of today’s most effective and popular ministers.
Michelle is celebrating the recent release of her books, Cuddle-up Prayers; I Love You Bigger Than the Sky and Writing & Selling Children’s Books in the Christian Market: From Board Books to YA coauthored with her agent Cyle Young.
Michelle is married to her high school sweetheart, Jeff, and they have two daughters, Abby and Allyson, two sons-in-law, two granddaughters and two grandsons. She and Jeff share their home in Southern Indiana with a miniature dachshund, a rescue Greyhound/Lab mix, and two cats. When not writing or teaching writing, Michelle enjoys bass fishing, cheering on Indiana University sports teams and the Chicago Cubbies, and all things leopard print.
Every year around this time, I take a moment to reflect on the progress I have made as a writer within the past twelve months. I reflect on whether or not I have reached my writerly goals for that year. I evaluate the areas that I could have improved and what I could have approached differently. Then, based on this, I establish new goals for the upcoming year.
But these goals are not chosen at random; instead, they are created in accordance with my author mission statement.
This mission statement captures and distills the vision of my writing career. It keeps me on track when I start to wander too far from my writerly purpose. And since I have reaped the rewards of crafting this statement, I now encourage writers—especially new writers—to craft their own statement as well.
Here are just a few reasons why you should consider crafting your own writerly mission statement for the New Year:
This mission statement may help you…
Specify your author brand.
Define your core audience.
Brainstorm new content for your author newsletter and social media posts.
Reinforce why you have chosen to take this journey, which will keep you motivated for the long haul.
Make publishing decisions (for example: if you should write for the Christian market or the general market, whether you should pursue traditional publishing or self-publishing, etc.).
Enable you to see the “big picture,” especially when the going gets tough.
Navigate the maze of marketing.
Stay focused on what matters in your journey.
Avoid the trap of comparing yourself to other authors.
How can you craft this mission statement?
Here is the template that I have personally used to create mine, but feel free to modify this however you wish!
Your mission statement should answer the following questions…
What kind of books do I hope to write (e.g. inspirational, adventurous, issue-driven, historical, etc.)?
What is my purpose behind writing?
Who is my audience? (Be specific here!)
What do I hope to accomplish through the books that I write?
Is there a specific message that I want to portray through my books?
Need an example of how this may be crafted? Below is the mission statement I have created for my personal writing career:
“In all that I write—both fiction and non-fiction—I hope to minister the healing power of God’s love, show readers that hope is always available, and leave them with an appetite to pursue a relationship with Christ. In the books that I write, it is my desire to show teen girls that they are not alone in whatever it is that they are walking through. I want to encourage them to make the most of their youth by embracing their unique potential to further God’s Kingdom.”
This mission statement distills my heart behind my writing career. It reflects how I want to impact my readers. It focuses on what I believe is the message I am called to share to my target audience.
So if you need a little extra motivation for your own writing career—if you have been struggling with comparison, finding your author brand, staying focused, etc.—I challenge you to create this mission statement. Return to the why and the how: why you have chosen to write and how you would like to impact your readers.
Then return to this post and leave your mission statement in the comments below! =)
Tessa Emily Hall is an award-winning author who wrote her debut novel when she was sixteen. She is now a multi-published author of both fiction and non-fiction inspirational yet authentic books for teens, including her upcoming release, LOVE YOUR SELFIE (October 2020, Ellie Claire). Her passion for shedding light on clean entertainment and media for teens led her to a career as a Literary Agent at Cyle Young Literary Elite, YA Acquisitions Editor for Illuminate YA (LPC Imprint), and Founder/Editor of PursueMagazine.net. Tessa is guilty of making way too many lattes and never finishing her to-read list. When her fingers aren’t flying 128 WPM across the keyboard, she can be found speaking to teens, teaching at writing conferences, coaching young writers, and acting in Christian films. Her favorite way to procrastinate is to connect with readers is on her mailing list, social media (@tessaemilyhall), and website: www.tessaemilyhall.com.
We think of writing a book as an act of creative inspiration. The muse strikes and we strive to get the story down, get it right, and out to an audience.
If only it was that easy. Writing a good book is challenging. Most successful writers will tell you that selling a good book is even harder.
On-line bookstores have opened the doors. The market is filled with diverse books from unique voices, offering a cornucopia of great writing to readers. The time has never been better to get your work out.
Getting your book out there requires know-how. While self-publishing authors have boundless opportunities, they undertake the journey alone. Back in traditional publishing days, it was a guided tour, aided by an agent and publisher. Without professionals in your corner, what is a self-publishing author to do? The answer is deceptively simple. The savvy self-publishing author gets informed and uses that knowledge to navigate the strange seas of on-line publishing.
“Writing to market” is a concept self-publishing authors need to understand. What does it mean? Finding out what books readers want to read and focusing on writing those.
The idea might restrain an author’s freedom. It sounds like focusing on writing books that sell. Writing to market translates to increased sales. But there is more to it than that.
These are five writing to market realities you need to understand before embarking on your self-publishing journey.
Do Your Homework
Have you been on Amazon lately?
Do you know what book covers in your genre look like? Do you know how to price a novel? Have you read the book descriptions? This is a baseline of writing to market. You have to know the genre your books are competing in.
If you write science-fiction, you probably read a lot of that genre. The conventions should be familiar. Most authors don’t scrutinize deep enough. Just because you read in a genre doesn’t mean you understand what readers are looking for. Your reading habits can be deceptive. Perhaps you read more classic science-fiction. Perhaps your taste focuses primarily in one sub-genre.
Sampling a range of books in your genre is critical. Don’t rely on your reading habits. Discover the nuanced reading habits of your readers.
It’s About Reaching Readers
Forget sales or a moment. Translate a sale and positive review into what they really mean: signs of a satisfied reader.
I had a hard time understanding this. I believed a sale was the end goal. It’s not though. A sale and a positive review tells you the complete story. It says that the reader liked your cover and description enough to buy it. The review says they were happy.
Authors need fans. I don’t just mean to boost ego, either. Authors need fans because when you do your job right, they go to bat for you. They like your posts, talk about your books to their friends.
You want that.
Wait… I stand corrected. You need that.
Ignoring Market Signals Leads To Frustration
Jumping into a publishing market that you know little about leads to a cycle of frustration.
I thought of my first series, The Strange Air, as “paranormal mystery”. I liked to say it was a small town X-Files with a little horror thrown in for good measure.
But as I began marketing, I realized something. While “paranormal” and “mystery” were the accurate descriptions in my head they were ar from what the market thought. I ended up marketing my books with others that were not similar in any way. I promoted mine with books resembling Twilight with covers featuring naughty witches.
While these are great books, they were nothing like mine. It took me a year (and a gigantic dent in my advertising budget) to figure out two things I could have learned earlier: my genre was limited and I didn’t know what to call it.
Writing To Market Saves Authors Money and Time
Marketing a book is expensive. If an author isn’t careful, they can spend thousands of dollars on the wrong cover, counter-intuitive marketing, and worthless reviews.
Once your book is out, you have crossed the first sea. Congratulations. Now comes the second, more dangerous stretch of water. Selling it.
In today’s book market, in order to make money you need to spend money. These require investments of time and, of course, capital. Yes, you can sell books without a huge advertising budget. If that’s the case, however, you need a lot of time.
Advertising without knowing your book’s market like throwing darts… blindfolded… on the deck of a ship… in a storm. Your odds of hitting your target are slim.
The savvy self-publisher knows their market. They possess key data like who their readers are, where they gather, and how to give them what they want.
Translation: they have a shortcut to effective book marketing.
Writing To Market Can Be Easy
Looking back on my first foray into self-publishing, I can see the forest for the trees. Success in any market will be as easy (or as difficult) as you choose to make it.
Spend time in the Kindle Store. Consider a wide range of successful, recently published books that look like yours. Look at what those authors did and emulate it. Yes, it’s OK. Really. Especially when it comes to marketing. Save breaking new ground for the page. Otherwise, do what works.
Read blogs and articles. Network with writers. Keep up with your genre on social media. Readers gather in tribes. They love talking about what they love. Meet them where they are.
Writing is hard enough on its own. Don’t make the business of writing any more frustrating or expensive than necessary. Before writing your book, or perhaps before publishing it, look at the market. Find out what readers want in your genre and be sure your book gives it to them.
Eric Mertz, writer
Erick Mertz is a ghostwriter and editor from Portland, Oregon. You can read more of his thoughts about the craft and business of writing at www.erickmertzwriting.com/. In addition to his role as a professional ghostwriter, he is also an author, self-publishing The Strange Air series of paranormal mysteries, a story world that blends elements of the X-Files and Unsolved Mysteries. When he is not writing, he enjoys a nice cold craft beer and a baseball game, a bit of travel, dungeon crawling with his board game group, and spending quality time with his wife and son.
When I tell people that I make my living writing, they
don’t typically think of web content for lawyers and landscaping companies as
actual writing. I have worked as a freelance writer and internet marketer since
2011, and I recently began working at a marketing agency as a digital content
strategist. That means I get to do a lot of writing.
It’s not the same kind of writing I do in my spare time:
writing novels, plays, poems, or songs. However, in addition to paying the
bills, working as a digital content strategist for a marketing agency has
improved my creative writing as well. Here’s how:
1. It’s good to have a day job.
There are the J.K Rowlings and Stephen Kings out there,
sure, and there is a whole batch of new independent authors making a great living
publishing their books, but many of us authors also have to have a day job. There
is something freeing, though, about having a day job that doesn’t depend on
your creative writing.
While there are plenty of authors who write novels full
time, I am grateful that I don’t have to rely on my novels to make all my
income right now. This would create a tremendous amount of pressure on me and
my novels, and it could potentially lead to writer’s block.
So I’m happy to have a day job that’s not related to me
creating novels, plays, songs, or poems. And yet, I do still get to write and
create content in my job, which is great.
2. I am constantly creating content.
I create so much content on a daily basis. Sometimes it’s
blog posts, sometimes it’s copy for one of our client’s websites, sometimes
it’s a social media post. Sometimes I create graphics and quote pictures to
share. Sometimes I comb through stock photos, trying to find the perfect one to
attach to a social media update for one of our clients.
Regardless of what kind of content I am creating, I
constantly have to stretch my creative muscles. This is helpful when it comes
to the novels and plays I work on when I get home.
3. Brand storytelling has helped me with storytelling
in general.
One of the latest marketing trends that everyone is
talking about is brand storytelling. I constantly have to reframe our clients’
brands as stories. Focusing on brand storytelling has helped me to create more
honest, open, and personal stories that connect emotionally with my readers.
When telling the story of your brand, there are a few
questions that must be answered. Who are you? What is the narrative of your
brand? How did you originate? What obstacles have you overcome? Thinking about
these questions before I work on my fiction has helped me. Not only has it made
me think about my author brand, but telling any story gives a writer valuable
practice for future stories.
4. Creating targeted content has made me consider my
audience more.
In any sort of marketing, targeting your content to a
particular audience is important. I also think it’s important to keep your
target reader in mind as you write fiction. You have to think about reader
expectations, especially if you are writing in a genre like romance or mystery.
You also want to make sure your story will entertain the reader.
In my job, we regularly create “buyer personas” to target our blog posts or web content towards. A great exercise for a fiction writer is to create a “reader persona” and keep that person in mind as you write.
5. Writing for different clients means learning about
new things.
With our various clients, I’m constantly researching
information I never would have learned before. Since I’ve been here, I’ve
written about everything from bioidentical hormone replacement therapy to metal
roofing to personal injury cases.
Working for a marketing agency has forced me to learn new
things in areas I would never have explored on my own. I may not write a novel
about a metal roofer any time soon, but you never know when I will need to use
information I have learned through writing for our clients.
One of the best things about my day job, though, is that
I learn something and use my creativity every day. And that’s something I can
definitely be grateful for.
Sara Crawford is a digital content
strategist for WT Digital Agency
and an author from Atlanta, Georgia. She has written novels, produced her own
plays, and performed as a singer/songwriter. She is passionate about the act of
creation, and she adores the written word.
“Slant” is
a commonly used, every day word. You can slant things to the left or the right
or walk up a steep slant in the terrain.
In the
writing world, slant means you write your article or book to a specific
audience. Being aware of those audiences provides keys to multiple markets for
your work. You have done your homework by reading the guidelines and several
issues of the magazine or several books by the same publishing house. You have
an understanding of what they are looking for, what their worldview is, whether
or not the perspective is more conservative or liberal. Determining your slant
also involves understanding the readers of the particular publication or
publishing house.
For
example, if you wanted to write an article on some aspect of parenting you
might start out with a serious slant such as “The ABC’s of Parenting.”
A different
slant might be “Parenting Teens – Life’s Biggest Challenge.”
You could
use a variation on that slant such as “Create Boundaries to Keep Your Teens
Safe.”
A humorous
slant might be “When People Think Your Daughter is Your Little Sister.”
“Daddy
Daughter Relationships” could be a good slant for men.
A women’s
slant could be instructions on “How to Get Along with Your Mini-Me.”
You might
consider a children’s slant like “Parenting the Early Years Well” or Six Fun
Games for Painless Toddler Learning.”
Each of these slants could be targeted to a different magazine, giving you multiple opportunities for publication.
The same
process can apply to books. In fact, for books, this is a good way to
brainstorm your subject and find the focus that works best for you. You might
find that as you list possible slants, you may be creating an outline for your
book.
Another
word you might hear used interchangeably with slant is the word “angle.” The
slant, or angle, of your article or book could affect your chances of having
your article or book accepted. Knowing the way information is presented to an
editor’s specific audience is sure to catch his or her eye.
Why not
give it a try? Pick a subject and see how many slants you can come up with. You
may find you have lots of articles to write from one subject you are familiar
with. Or perhaps thoughts of book slants will yield chapter focus and clarity.
Linda Gilden is a wife, mother, and grandmother. She loves to take one subject and create multiple articles from her research. Linda finds great joy (and lots of writing material) in time spent with her family. www.lindagilden.com
A similar article first appeared on
thewriteconversation.com in June, 2016.
When I first started pursuing a career as a writer of the screenplays and began learning the craft, I learned that the first rule is to know your audience. And this isn’t just for screenwriting; it’s across the board for all writers, because, ultimately that is who we are writing for.
Knowing our audience helps us determine what we want to say and how we’re going to say it. We may not know the details of the narrative or how it will play out, but we can determine what we want to say.
Your theme or takeaway will be your message to your target audience. To help decide who you want to write to, look around at the world and pay attention to what is going on. There are so many possibilities with the new year; people are looking for fresh starts and new adventures.
People are looking for different things; our job as writers is to provide new adventures and new messages. In film different messages and narratives are divided into many genres. For the sake of this post, I will briefly discuss the top seven of 2018.
The general rule in screenwriting is for the writer to establish the genre of the film of the screenplay in the first 10 pages. That way the reader, studio, execs or whoever the first audience is will understand the kind of film or genre it is.
GENRES?
The word genre comes from a 19th-century French word that means, “a kind.” It’s also where we get our word gender from. The idea here is rather simple. Genres are different kinds of films that contain similar structures, themes, and characteristics.
There are endless possibilities when it comes to genres, subgenres, and hybrid genres. Robert McKee wisely notes, “You must not only respect but master your genre and its conventions. Never assume that because you’ve seen the films in your genre you know it. “[ii]
McKee notes six primary genres not necessarily in this order. [iii]
There are always multiple combinations or subgenres of each of these and it’s common for them to overlap. For instance, the last movie listed above is a romantic story set in war times. But the romantic theme of love never gives up is the ultimate theme of the film.
By the end of the film, it is clear that undying love is the heart of director and screenwriter Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s message. It is a love story from the first scene until the end.
The Heart of it All!
Throughout this year we’ll explore a few of these different genres from time to time. But we must never forget that regardless of the genre, what we want to say to our audience through the basics I discussed last year:
Action
Character
Setting
Plot
That is the heart of our narrative and will determine our genre.
[ii] McKee R. (1997). Story: Substance, Structure, Style, And The Principle of Screenwriting (Kindle edition) pg 89.
[iii] McKee R. (1997). Story: Substance, Structure, Style, And The Principle of Screenwriting (Kindle edition) pg 80-81.
Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Truamatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.
