Website Announcement And Holiday Gift

Greetings and Happy Holidays.

I just wanted to take a little bit to make a few announcements that I'm very excited about. The make money writing in the 21st century blog started a few months ago as a place for me to share tips and tricks of the trade that I learned over the course of my own time as a writer/editor/publisher with those seeking to make more money with their writing because I became tired of seeing so many authors who were discouraged and roadblocked and wanted to see more writers use their talents to make money doing what they loved.

Since this blogs start a few months ago THOUSANDS of readers have visited here and many have sent me emails with additional questions and comments and mostly thank yous from authors who had started to implement the tips and advice they read here in the blog. It became apparent to me just how much of a need there was for this kind of information out there because of the sheer volume of responses and personal messages I received and so I'm proud to announce that I am taking the make money writing brand one step further with the make money writing in the 21st century website.
www.makemoneywriting21.com

The blog will still be going of course, but the website will help me post audio answers to questions that authors send in, showcase the best of the blog and offer more content and more information to help as many authors as possible make more money with their writing.

And as a special bonus for the holidays, I put together a 30 minute audio course entitled "The Writer's ReEducation." The course basically works to get rid of the old author mindset that making money with their writing is impossible and goes into exactly how the publishing world has changes in the last 15 years, why right now is actually a GOLDEN age for authors to be writing and making money with their work and how NOW is the time to get started.

 

Everyone can go to the homepage of the website where they can download the course for free through the holidays as a special gift from me to you.

Of course this gift is also a slight bribe because although I normally update the blog every week, I'm actually going to be taking a slight hiatus for the holiday season so I can spend time with my family and loved ones. So your gift is the free audio course, and my gift is a little time off!

But don't worry, the blog will resume in the new year and still be updated each week with free content. In fact there will be more free content because with the new website comes the additional feature of a new mini-podcast will be happening once a week as well., the purpose of which is to answer some of the emails I get with questions. So keep checking back for exciting things from the make money writing in the 21st century website.

Take care, enjoy your holidays and keep writing when you can!

~James P. Wagner

Readers Want To Know The Author

We've talked in the blog before about how the major difference between those who sell two copies of a book and those who sell two million copies of a book is that the person who sells two million copies has a perceived relationship with more people. Even if that person has never met his or her two million fans, the fans feel like they are familiar with the person and nothing sells more than familiarity.

To read that blog post, go here:

http://www.makemoneywriting21.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-some-authors-sell-2-copies-of-their.html

In the 21st century, there are more ways than ever before to let your potential readers get to know a little bit about you. Social networking and website design tools make it very possible to put your own creative spin on a website, blog, or profile. And it also brings an interesting twists to the things people consider when deciding to make purchases.

For a long time people expected a certain level of pure professionalism--no goofing around, no sense of creative self, just a product and a proposal and a price. And then the customer or potential buyer made their decision. It was simple, it was direct, it was business as usual...and it was boring. It became so boring that in recent years the average customer/buyer/reader has been trained to ignore all sorts of advertisements that companies pay thousands and millions of dollars for. While maintaining professional standards is more important than ever--the customers, the readers, the people want more. They want to know the who behind the people who are doing things. They want to know what drives a person, what motivates them and how they can relate to them. This is why DVDs are often loaded with behind the scenes specials and extras. This is why since Game Of Thrones became big on HBO interviews of George R.R. Martin have been surfacing everywhere. And this is a great opportunity for authors writing in the 21st century.

Author Commentary: Sometimes what an author has to say about his or her own work can be just as interesting to a potential reader as the work itself. Sharing a little bit about what motivated the author to write the material and what the author was trying to do can be the insight readers need to want to find out more about the work.

Personal Q and A's: I would stress this as being different from interviews because the questions would come from the readers rather than a commentator, magazine or host. Readers love these because they feel very connected to the author--after all, the author is taking time out of their day to answer questions from the readers and if you happen to answer a question from a particular reader odds are that reader will be a fan for life.

Interviews: A more rigid questions and answers where the person doing the questioning is a host, another author, a publisher or even the author themselves who put forth questions that they chose to answer.

And in the 21st century, there are more means than ever at our disposal to show that personal touch and get our readers to know us:

YouTube: Youtube and other video websites allow us to post our own videos without permission from anyone. Why not take advantage of this to the fullest extent possible? Video interviews go over quite well.


 

Audio Files: Some authors aren't comfortable on video. That's fine, because podcasts, radio segments and audio interviews with the author's voice answering questions and talking to the reader can be almost if not quite as powerful. They take less time than videos and can still show readers how much you care about them.

Pictures: This works particularly well if you have live events for your work. Potential readers online love to see pictures of author readings/book signings, and even the author hard at work. Text on a wall is boring, pictures say thousands of works.

Of course the benefit to all these methods is that they help the author greatly in handling the job of connecting to their audience while leaving the author with time to do their writing. After all, if an author has to spend 24/7 connecting with people it becomes exhausting and they will never have time to actually be an author and give the fans the material they love. The great thing about utilizing all these means in the 21st century is that you do the work once, and they do the work for you indefinitely.

How Giving Things Away For FREE Can Make You MONEY

It might seem counter-productive to give things away for free if you are looking to make any kind of money--but business can be a lot like a game of chess, you have to look a few moves ahead. As writers, our skills and productivity vary greatly, but for the sake of this scenario let us assume that a person has the GREATEST possible CONTENT imaginable. That would be wonderful, right? Yes...but how do people get ahold of it? We have to remember that so often writing is an art form that isn't judged until after the reader possesses it. So the question becomes how do you get the reader to possess it?

Sure one can advertise it both through free and paid methods (although most authors starting out want to avoid paying a lot of money for advertising, especially since most don't have a good deal of cash to burn.) If you have been reading this blog up until now you probably already see the value of putting up blog posts, content on a website, audio files on places like podcast alley or itunes, or videos up on YouTube as a way to draw people in by giving them some content for free. There is nothing like giving a little bit of free content to getting people enticed enough to want to see more of what you have. However, sometimes going one step further can be a great benefit.

Companies often run contests or giveaway sweepstakes to acquire new customers. Authors in the 21st century using tools like social networking, YouTube and other popular websites have had similar success with this type of strategy. This goes beyond posting free poems or short stories or essays because the idea of these giveaways is to give away a product for free that the winners otherwise would have had to PAY for. Something like a book, a CD, or other such media that would normally cost a few dollars or more.

Take Betty as an example, a fiction writer I have seen who promotes her work predominantly by herself through the use of her website. She writes romance stories which obviously have a big appeal. She is a short story writer for the most part who puts new stories on her website/blog every week and two or three times a year comes out with a new short story collection containing some of the stories that the readers have seen as well as some material exclusive to the books. The catch is that many of the characters that the audience has become familiar with through the free media are featured in these books and so a good number of her readers buy the books either in print form or digital form to read more about the characters they love.

Every time Betty is about to come out with a new book she takes the opportunity to advertise a giveaway of a few signed print copies that she mails to the winners. She posts the news of the giveaway on her blog, to her email list and in social networking groups, on Goodreads and other places with traffic including YouTube. The prospective entries give their email in exchange for a shot at the prize. At the end of the contest she does a random drawing using a free online randomizer and picks the winners. An email is sent to everyone who entered whether they won or lost listing the winners and thanking them for entering.

There are two major benefits to this email she sends out after the contest,

One: people who lost are given a link to where they can buy the book if they are interested. Two: She gives the entrants a chance to join her regular email list. Most of them want to.

A typical contest of this type yields Betty 100-200 new emails for her list each time she does it. It generates hype for her new book by making it seem desirable, it grows her list and it gets other people talking about it. Sure she takes a small bite of a few dollars for each book she is giving away--but the back end of these types of free giveaways yields gains of several times the loss on a bad day. For the 5 copies she normally gives away she generates an additional 40-50 sales she wouldn't have gotten before. Now you might wonder if an additional 40 or 50 sales is worth the effort of the giveaway (which isn't really that much effort at all) but look at the long term math.

Say Betty comes out with 3 books a year--she does a giveaway each time and generates roughly 150 new emails and 40 new sales each giveaway. In a year that is 450 new emails and 120 sales. However, lets say that of those 120, half of them really like what they bought and want to stay on as customers. If you figure 20 of the new customers from the first giveaway buy the next two books that year and 20 of the 40 new sales from the second give away buy the third book that's another 60 sales on top of the 120. So 180 new sales generated in just the first year. This isn't including the 450 new email sign-ups that she can advertise her new books to. If only 1 in 4 or so wants to buy any of her books, that would still be another 113 people on top of the 180. That's 293 new sales generated this year by the giveaways--just three of them. Sound worth it yet?

If not, remember that this is all just in the FIRST YEAR. Those customers that got hooked will keep coming back, year after year after year to get her new material. And this is just from ONE PROMOTIONAL EFFORT. This could be why Betty has been in business since 2007 and sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 19,000 copies of her romance fiction series last I heard, possibly more. (This is her full time living now, and she just started the website in her free time while in college.)

When properly positioned, a few dollars loss for giveaway copies is like an investment--it yields much better results later on. In addition, it has another wonderful side-effect.

Betty gives personalized notes to all the winners and when the winners receive her books, they feel a personal connection to this author. It makes them far more likely to keep checking back with her and take interest in her past books and any books she has coming out in the future.

Giveaways; they cost you once, but can benefit you for a lifetime.

Mixing Genres and Mediums To Make More Money (Partnerships)

What do you think of when you think of comic books? Do you think of it as good writing, or good artwork? The truth of the matter is that (depending on the comic of course!) it's both. On rare occasions a comic creator is both the artist and the writer but in most cases you have different people doing the writing and the artwork--they are pooling their talents together to make something better than either one could make on their own. Some people have called this the 1 plus 1 equals 3 concept--I call it good teamwork, smart business and an overall good idea.

It's true that the creative process and the business process are very different things, but I never understood why people can't be creative when it comes to business--so long as it proves fruitful and delivers something of value. Some people appreciate writing, others appreciate art. Others appreciate poetry, others music. I've worked with a lot of poets in my line of work and one in particular comes to mind. I'll call him Mike. Sally was a musician who never wrote lyrics. She was very instrumental and could make some very catchy tunes. What happens when you mix poetry with instrumentals? You get songs. And that's what these two did. They put up a website that both of their already established fan bases could go to and the partnership did very well as both sides of the coin gained momentum from a fan base that they otherwise wouldn't have had exposure to.

Of course this isn't the only example that comes to mind. I knew a young lady who wrote science fiction stories who had a brother who was a very good science fiction artist. They toyed with the idea of creating a graphic novel series but found that they couldn't work together properly on a joint creative effort--but they did find a great middle ground--her brother started to illustrate her short stories. A few science fiction pictures inside the text can make a world of difference for the more visually inclined--and how many times do you hear that people would like to know the story behind a piece of art? The combination did very well.

In marketing it is very important to be specific in what you are offering--like we've talked about previously--if your market is everyone, your market is no one. You have to have what you are doing very clearly defined. But it is also a very good strategy to mix fan bases of different kinds by creating a product that several different groups could appreciate.

There is always something to be gained with a good partnership. People are finding out now perhaps more than ever that we can all go much farther forward together than separately. And good team work means that everyone brings something valuable to the table. When trying to add value to the lives of your readers by putting out a good product--exploring different means of giving them content is very important. And mixing genres of delivery has the potential to yield rewards that might be impossible to achieve through a single medium.

In the early 1900's the ice cream man and the waffle man at a fair mixed their products together to create the ice cream cone--think of how working together benefited all of us in that situation.

In the world of the 21st century, the equilibrium is much easier to attain. With the right combination everyone benefits--the audience, and the creators. And when done properly, there is no downside at all.

The Writer's Reputation: More Valuable Than Money

Unless you have lived under a rock, you probably have known some people who have said some things that they were intending to do that they didn't do. Some people might have promised things they never delivered, and some might have made committments that they never upheld. I'm sure that if you knew those people over a long period of time, after awhile, you stopped listening to what they said they were going to do and eventually their words or promises became meaningless.

At the same time, there are probably people in your life that who say they are going to do things...and then actually do them. People who keep their promises, people whose words are often or always backed up with actions to go with them. Odds are, these are the people in your life that you depend on, rely on, keep going back to and trust.

The simple word for both of these concepts is reputation. Reputation is probably the single most important thing when it comes to someone making their way through the world--and a writer's reputation is VERY essential to his or her success and it is a point that is far too often overlooked.

There is an old beleif that creative types and business don't coexist very well. There is a reason for that--a large number of creative types have proven to hold erratic schedules, show up late for appointments and back out of things last minute. Couple this in a world of the instant gratification culture and it becomes epidemic. I'm sure all of you have seen writers who were talking about a book they were going to write for 5 years that never got written. Writers who started blogs they only posted on once, websites they never updated, went to only one open-mic reading and never went back, started untold numbers of projects that never got finished...but then wondered why it was so hard to "make" it as a writer.

                                                           
                 

In the fast paced world it makes a great deal of sense that people do not want to spend a lot of time on what they consider to be a project that is dead in the water. Afterall, most people have very busy schedules with the average work-week being well over 40 hours plus family committments, and more. But an unfortunate side effect of starting things that are given up on quickly is that the writer does the exact opposite of what they should be doing while cultivating a reputation. Instead of making a reputatoin for being consistent and reliable with their writing--they inadvertantly give themselves a reptuation for being flakey, inconsistent and all talk with no walk. This can be DEVESTATING to a potential writer's career.

Rule number 1 that all writers should follow: (truthfully everyone should follow this) never announce or say you are going to do something you don't actually do. Actions should always back up your words. It's that simple--words are our greatest resource--our greatest tool. And those tools become rusty when we don't take care with them.

Rule number 2 that all writers should follow: be patient. Nothing yeilds results immediatly (or almost nothing does) and anything worth having is worth fighting for. If things came easy we wouldn't celebrate the hard earned success.

Rule number 3 that all writers should follow: be consistent. Write a lot about your topic, write a lot of poetry, write a lot of essays or stories. Whatever it is you do, do it consitently, and let your audience get used to seeing and expecting a lot from you. (That is what keeps them coming back.

Thousands and thousands of new publicatins, magazines, anthologies open up for submissions ever year. Close to 90% of the announced projects never see publication. So it's no wonder that it takes people a little bit of time to start to trust new blogs, websites, authors to be reliable and as something worth their time to keep coming back to. But once you have broken through the trust barrier and proven to be something they can keep coming back to--then you have build up a good reputation in the eyes of your readers. And once the reputation is established, selling products, books, eBooks, CD's and more becomes much, much easier. People will book you for interviews, performances, readings and more if they know they can depend on you. No one wants to shell out money to what they can't depend on--but they will give money for something they can trust.

A reputation is more valuable than money--because a good reputation can LEAD to money. Sometimes, a great deal of it.

Brendon Burchard: $10,000,000 Case Study in Writing

I am very pleased to say that I am posting this blog post with special permission from Brendon Burchard himself, author of "The Millionaire Messenger" "Life's Golden Ticket" and "The Charge."

I have been drawn to Brendon's work for a number of years now and was exceedingly pleased when I saw him write a case study specifically related to author's making money. Considering the fact that this guy has not only made #1 on the best-seller lists multiple times, but is in fact a multi-millionaire...he knows what he is talking about.

                                           

I messaged Brendon and told him of my blog and all you wonderful followers asking him if it would be ok to share his content here--and he graciously replied in the positive. So here is his case study:

http://thechargedlife.tumblr.com/post/33095358519/why-authors-dont-have-to-be-broke-a-10-000-000-case

Although his principles deal more with the how-to industry and writing than the fiction or poetry fields and writing I can tell you from experience (having used some of his business strategies from his books and read the same thing from authors such as Tim Ferriss and Chris Guillebeau) that many of the tactics he uses for product creation and sale are transferable

Be sure to take a look!

So Where Does The Money Come From?

It's very obvious that the biggest question on most writer's minds is how can they turn their writing into more money. But one thing I am constantly surprised at is how authors tend to not be aware of all the different ways that they can manipulate their writing to be able to monetize it. So many tend to rely heavily on one method--and if that method doesn't produce the results they like, they get discourage--or worse, give up.

There is of course, no reason to give up because the possibilities are literally endless. So, where does the money come from? I'll get right to the point. Quite simply put, here are 6 primary ways that authors of all kinds and all genres make money from their writing.

Sales:

Everyone knows this one. You put your writing into some kind of product--most famously a book, a booklet, a novella, a chapbook, or even audio files, CD's, comic books or more. But the idea is some physical medium (or even a digital equivalent) that can be actively sold.

Donations:

In some cases one of the best things an author can do is give away their writing for free. It's a lot harder to sell something people have no idea of than to get people to buy things that they are already familiar with. There are plenty of people out there who have quarterly e-mags, publications, serializations of novels and post writing on blogs and free websites. It's a good way to build up a large audience. However, some of these authors also put a paypal donation button the website--and people donate. They like the free material and want to support the authors who are generous enough to give their work away for free. They also feel less pressure.

Fundraisers:

Being creative can cost money. People know this--in fact it is common knowledge that creative types are always broke. But creative types still produce so much worthwhile material that people like. And sometimes, if you have a reputation for good work, people are willing to help you out with your expenses. Thanks to platforms like indiegogo, authors can entice money for projects by offering incentives in return.

Affiliate Marketing:

This is another way to make money while making all your content to your readers absolutely free. If web traffic is high enough, or your following is large--you can become an affiliate to product producers related to your topics. I have seen travel writers become affiliates with airlines selling tickets through their blog or website. They get a cut of all sales--the airlines are happy, the customers are happy and the author is happy. This also works for book reviewers, dvd and cd reviewers, and much, much more.

Events:

So many writers overlook the lucrative value of live events. Think of music concerts and how much they can pull in for bands. Authors of all kinds can set up events that result in monetary gain either from sales of books and products or ticket prices to hear readings--or both! (Especially if one offers food at the events!) There are ways to get spots for events for free or set up deals with local businesses who are aiming to fatten their clientele by bringing in interesting events. Coffee shops to local books stores, to restaurants to bars. (Ive even seen poetry readings at Tattoo Parlors!)

Advertising:

Like affiliate marketing this works well when your following is large. People pay you advertising money for you to talk bout their products or put banner ads on your website, in your book/magazine, etc etc. Instead of your share being based on sales like with affiliate marketing--this is based simply on the sale of advertising space to individuals or companies.

Not all of these methods will work well for every author type--as there are some such as affiliate marketing that work better for how-to authors and ticket sales tend to work better for entertainment authors/poets/songwriters/etc. But the best authors in the 21st century (by best I mean those who have the most business savvy, not necessarily the best in quality) tend to use a combination of these six methods to produce maximum value for their work. I have found in my experience that once authors tend to see these six ways clearly, their creative energies take a giant boost and they come up with all sorts of ideas never thought of before. Writers are typically creative, right? Well then take solace in the fact that making money in the 21st century with writing is all about being creative.

Questions and Answers: With So Many Authors, Why Would Anyone Want To Read My Work?

I had the pleasure of skyping in to give a literary workshop at a wonderful convention in British Columbia this weekend. (Although I had to do it in the 2 hours between a wedding and a reception, which was also fun!)

All of the writers at this convention were productive authors who produced a good deal of content but were looking for some new ways to get the work out there. One question in particular stood out to me, because it is a question I hear a lot.

"With so many writers out there and so much writing, how can an author make his or her work stand out amongst the masses?"

I understand that there is a good deal that authors can and do get overwhelmed about when they start down this line of thought--with the millions and millions of authors out there why would anyone pay attention to my work?

So in these situations I like to turn around and ask another simple question.

Why with the 7 billion other people out there would anyone want to be your friend? Why would anyone want to be in a relationship with you? Why would anyone want to spend their time with you when they have 7 billion other people to do so?

This tends to make people think about it--we all have friends (or I at least hope we do!) some of us are fortunate enough to have quite a few. Most of us have relationships--or at least have had relationships if we aren't currently in one. And the average person has people who enjoy spending time in their company. There are far more other people out there than there are writers--but somehow we make this happen. And we don't tend to think (at least not most of us) "why oh why would anyone of my friends want to spend time with me when there are so many others to do that with?"

I would imagine that you gathered your friends in this fashion: you came into proximity with them, you had an exchange of some kind--they liked what you had to offer, so they kept coming back.

This simple concept also applies to how writers build up a relationship with their audience. The audience comes into proximity with them--they like what they see and they keep coming back.

And although I didn't hear this question at the workshop a question I hear after I give this answer I always give it something like this:

"But the readers who like my genre already follow so much good writing! Why would they look at mine?"

Do you have just one friend? Did you meet someone somewhere you really liked but decided "sorry, already have a friend, no room for this one!" and more to the point--do you see good books/comics/movies that you think you will like but then decide "sorry, already filled my quota of watching 2 movies, reading 2 books, looking at 2 comics this week?" Probably not. There is no limit to the number of different authors writers can enjoy! They just have to have the opportunity to come across it.

Now, not everyone can be everywhere. And admittedly there is more great writing out there than one could ever read. I'm sure there are amazing pieces of fiction that I would really really love to read in china right now that I may never get to in my lifetime. An author can't be everywhere at once--even with the internet. (Although the internet makes this far easier.)

So the important thing is just to make sure that when you come into proximity with people--or when potential fans come into proximity with your work the way that you might meet a new friend, that your work is likable. You can increase the number of people who come into proximity with your work through various marketing techniques. But before one can get to the practical positioning, one first has to rid themselves of the mindset that their work is valueless--that somehow writing is only the province of the super lucky and that one needs millions of dollars in marketing plans to see any success with it. All one needs is writing that is entertaining, or adds value--a place to put it, and a way to get fans to read it. The rest takes care of itself.

Questions and Answers: Driving Traffic To Your Writing Blog

This is a message I received from a reader of the blog on my facebook page.

(If you haven't liked the page yet, please click the link below!)

http://www.facebook.com/#!/MakeMoneyWriting21

Dear James,

I really like what you're doing here! I have been in several writer's groups and was a writing major in college and I feel like I know so many poor writers!

I have been writing for over 18 years now. Because of the Internet being so popular, I decided to start a blog for my writing about a year ago where I post my essays, short stories and poetry. I update the blog at least once, sometimes twice a week so it is very filled with content. By problem? Each post still, after a full year only gets 10-25 views! I feel like the blog hasn't grown and doesn't grow no matter how much content I put on it. Everyone always tells me that content will make a blog grow its audience, but that doesn't seem to be the case here, I tried. What do I do?

~Janice.

I had to write her back after reading this to find out some more information. This is more or less my reply.

Hey Janice,

Thank you for your kind words! I have a couple of questions, what is the title of your blog? How do you organize the content and what is the general theme?

Her reply confirmed my suspicions--because many, many authors make this very easy to make marketing mistake. It turns out her blog title was something clever and catchy with her name in it. However, the title of the blog made no mention of the type of content produced. In addition, her response to the theme question told me that she, like many authors, felt she didn't write about any specific theme and that her writing took on a much wider scope of topics. While this shows serious talent and breadth of knowledge--it is also the worst possible thing an author can do when trying to get new readers for their material. (Unless of course they already have an audience of thousands--in this reader's situation, that was not the case.)



This was my second reply:

Janice,

I have a couple of quick suggestions for you. I would reccomend starting a new blog--or three. One for your essays, one for your short stories and one for your poetry. Then I would examine the themes you write about most often--even the most diverse authors have specific things they come back to, even if they don't realize it. You might have a favorite character your short stories revolve around--you might be a fan of love poetry, or uplifting poetry (the themes can be lose) and you might write essays about politics, sociological issues or more. Just because they are not solidly defined into one genre doesn't mean there isn't a theme. For the next few weeks I'd try to focus on one of these blogs specifically, make the title of the blog clear and tag it with lots of things that will bring in readers interested in the theme of your content--online this is how our blogs generate new readers. Also--once you have a theme to pick from you can go to social media groups that have interest in your topic and let them know about your specific postings. An autism blog for example is more likly to generate more readers of autistic matters than a blog entitled "inset any catchy author name blog here" that happens to post about autistic issues--at least on a first glance (which is unforotnatly sometimes all anyone has to look at these days.) Also, link all three of these other blogs to your main blog--that will keep people who went to you for the topics coming back to you for the content so when you come out with books or audio files for sale your audience is much larger.



Best Wishes!

James.

Her response came about 3 days later.

James!

I just wanted to tell you that you were right. I had a favorite character that I based most of my short stories around so I focused on my fiction blog first. I posted 4 stories I had already written and then posted it around in facebook groups that were interested in my genre. I got nearly 100 views in my first day, and more than 100 on my second day posting. That's more than 2 weeks worth of views on my first blog! I'm also starting to get followers. Thank you so much!

These basic principles are the true core of gathering fans in the online universe:

Lead with your CONTENT not your name. (In the beginning, no one knows who anyone else is. They learn who writers are by their content...name recognition comes later.)

DEFINE what it is you are writing about (if you can't sum up your subject-matter, how is anyone else supposed to? You also can't properly promote what you can't define.)

I expect that Janice's writing are finally going to get the recognition they deserve. Your writing deserves the same recognition. So go out there and get the fans you have worked so hard for.

The $7500 Dollar-A-Month Poetry Blog

              You are probably wondering if you read this right. 7500 dollars in one month for poetry? Poetry? The art that no one pays for? Well, I've seen it happen personally. It's real, it works, it just takes a little bit of creativity. The prime example that comes to mind is someone we shall call Julie.

                Julie was a poet--she mostly wrote love poetry. True it might be sappy, love poetry certainly isn't original, and maybe people won't go out to the book store to buy volumes of it. But on the Internet? You wouldn't BELIEVE how many people search for them when they are in this mood or that mood--same reason why so many love songs on the radio become greatest hits. At first, Julie just started a simple free blog to post her poetry. She tagged it properly so it would show up in search engines and after only a month or two she had thousands of people viewing her work.

                That's not even remotely close to where it ends though. People started writing to her in response to her poetry--some people started showing her poetry of their own. So she decided to open submissions for some poetry that she would post on her blog--the submissions came pouring in. It was around this time that she signed up for google adsense--in case you haven't heard of it yet, it's a program that bloggers and website owners can use to place advertisements on the sidebars of their websites--for every click a reader gives on one of the ads, the owner of the blog/website makes a few cents. And google adsense is just one of many that can do this. For the first couple months, the adsense only came out to be a little bit--but it was still some extra money.

                It was around this time that Julie noticed Feb was only a short period away--we all know whats in Feb--Valentine's day--the time when love poetry is most desired. Julie went to a free printing service called lulu--put together a collection of her own poetry that she poised to set up for sale during valentines day. Beyond that--she set up a contest offering a modest prize in the form of a gift card to the winner for those who would send poems for her blog and she used a free polling service to post the finalist poems she selected and have her readers vote on it--the voting would only be open the week before valentines day and the winner would be announced on Feb 14th itself. She also assembled an anthology of love poetry based on the poetry she had published on her blog from other writers (with their permission of course) and posted dozens of her own poems and their poems on the blog as free samples.

                It gets even better. Flowers are very popular during valentines day--arrangements, stuffed bears, etc are all the rave and people want to send them to their loved ones. Julie found out that some websites that offer delivery service also offer affiliate marketing--that is, she signs up for their program and posts direct links to specific packages on her blog in the sidebars--and if anyone who orders the products through her site she gets a portion of the proceeds. Knowing just how many people would be coming to her blog, and knowing that the poetry would put people into lovey dovey moods, she set it up so that it would only take one or two clicks for them to purchase her book, the anthology and any of a number of arrangements.

                The bottom line? Her website had over 35,000 hits in the two weeks before Valentine's day and the combination of sales from the two books and the affiliate marketing from the flowering websites brought her in over 7500 dollars. Not bad for one month's work. Now I know one could argue that it took her at least 6 months to set up the blog in a position in which it could drive this home--but the key to remember here is that it was only the month leading up to Valentine's day that Julie even put all that much work into what she was doing. The rest of the time she was just doing what she always did best--writing her poetry and sharing it via a well positioned blog with the rest of the world.

                And here is the point to remember--lots and lots of people have similar set-ups like this. It's far more common than one would think. There’s no giant hidden mystery for the formula—in fact it’s very straight forward. I’m not going to say that anyone can do it—because we all have different levels of dedication, time, ability, etc etc. But anyone SHOULD be able to do it—if they are motivated enough, write enough and are dedicated enough to getting their work out there—then there are literally no walls up that should prevent them from doing so—and making a profit from it at the same time.

Make A Bundle With A Bundle

This practice admittedly works far better for authors who have produced quite a bit of writing, maybe a few products and have a decent fan base already built up. It won't work so well if you don't have much content. But if you have a good amount of content--even if you do not have a major fan base already built in, this can still earn you more than you would expect--and increase your fan base by making your old readers and a few (maybe more) new ones happy. 

Everyone loves a bargain--especially in these tough economic times. And you can score some serious points with existing and new fans by giving them what they want--a good deal. Say that you have a new book coming out for example (I use book because it is the most common form of product with writing but it could be a single story, a booklet, ebook, just about anything.) If you're been doing the right thing with it, you would have a blog or a website up where your fans would know well in advance of its near approach. Assuming you have any sort of already existing merchandise (and if you don't you can plan on this for the future) a good way to drive up some sales would be to throw a few books, ebooks, booklets, stories, audio books, etc together into a limited time bargain bundle. It works for Stephen King Novels online, it's worked in brick and mortar book stores (buy 2 get the 3rd free!) it can work for you as well. The advantage we all have today is that in the digital age--nothing spreads faster than the news of a bargain. 

There is also the possibility here of working with other authors in your field. There is a common saying that when it comes to partnerships, 1 plus 1 equals 3. The idea simply meaning that together you can be worth more than either of you can separately. If you have author friends in your field--(or even across field, genre, medium lines) what is to stop you from combining your books, audio books, comics, or whatever it is you have into bundles together? Especially digitally--you can reach both your audiences and sell maybe double what you would sell normally. But the greatest things about bundles is that word of them spread like wildfire--word of mouth, link sharing etc. This admittedly works better if both of you (or heck all of you--you could have a bundle of 5-10 authors--the sky is the limit) have your own audiences and therefore can spread it to more people inherently. But even if your audiences are only a few each--it's still extra exposure. And the few in your existing audiences are far more to spread word of mouth about a deal--especially a limited time deal . (I have found that bundles that last 2-3 weeks tend to work the best--remember, customers are lazy, there has to be a call to action without looking like you are overly trying to sell something. The most successful bundle producers I have seen are those who offer each specific bundle option only once for a period of 2 weeks--sure they will have other bundles in the future, but never exactly THIS bundle again--the urgency shakes the apathy out of most potential buyers.) 

Now before you start to worry that all this would be nearly impossible to set up--it is actually quite easy. Assuming you or any one of your partners in this bundle has a website that is up and running--you can easily put together a digital release using a quick, cheap and easy resource like e-junkie.com along with a shopping cart button from Paypal.com to receive payment. And the great advantage of a digital bundle is the fact that you can give serious discounts on your prices without feeling the burn yourself--other than paying transaction and hosting fees, the only thing a digital bundle costs you is the labor you put forth to create it. 

The bundle idea, like so many other options we can consider in the age we currently live is represents something more--both sides of the equation are winning. Equilibrium: the customer gets something of extended value and the author gets to sell more. And in the case of partnerships, more people benefit. This is just one example of the way in which the creative world of writing has changed quite a bit. One product one sale might not do nearly as well anymore--especially with the overwhelming amount of competition out there. But with the infinite amount of tools available to all of us today--there is no shortage of creative solutions to reaching more people, and creativity is something that authors, when they put their mind to it, do very, very well.

Websites: The 21st Century Author's Best Friend

This would seem like an obvious statement--that a website would be essential to an author's campaign to get their work noticed and ultimately purchased. But you would be surprised at the percent of authors who maintain almost no online presence at all. The truth of the matter is that in the 21st century--even brick and mortar retail businesses need to have a website in order to stay competitive. For entrepreneurs--which is essentially what start-up authors aiming to sell their writing are, websites are essential to their success.

The most common responses I get to this statement from authors who have yet to have a major web presence in the form of a website is something akin to this:

"Isn't it enough to have my book on the lulu marketplace store, or amazon.com?"

"I post about my writing on facebook, isn't that enough?"

"I'm active on a forum and have a link to buy my book in my signature when I post, wouldn't that work?"

While all of these practices might help to increase awareness, a blurb, mention or article promoting something--even something of extreme value and worth, is rarely enough to hold attention these days if there isn't somewhere else to refer the readers to. Part of the procedure of building up a relationship with the readers like I discussed in the previous post:


http://makemoneywriting21.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-some-authors-sell-2-copies-of-their.html

is to have enough content for your readers to get an idea of what your project, book, blog, newsletter, posts and writing in general is all about. A website of some kind is the best and most efficient way to do this for several reasons. First and foremost, when people consider the idea of making any kind of purchase--and we are assuming here that you are aiming to make a little money off of your writing, they often want to find out more about it and it is very hard to sell anything to anyone if they can't do further research about it online.

Something that keeps a lot of authors away from putting up websites is the illusion of the complexity required for web building. The truth of the matter is it is easier than ever to put up a a website. Blogs that function almost as well as websites are literally a dime a dozen and can usually be gotten for free. A fully functioning website can be put up for free as well--and going one step further to buy a domain name is very cheap. And with the ease of building that most of the leading websites now allow--you don't need to be fluent in any kind of coding or HTML for what you really need to put up the website. (If you need bits of HTML most things you need for widgets and buttons come pre-made and there are forums where you can post what you need in HTML and people online will provide it for you for free.)

Remember this simple motto for the 21st century: you can find a way to do ANYTHING on the internet. Don't let fear of the unknown hold you back from researching and pushing forward because a website is absolutley essential to author success in 99% of cases in the times we live in.

One you have a website up that has your writing on it, driving traffic to your writing becomes increasingly easy. The website serves as your online headquarters and you want to get as many people there as you possibly can. The more traffic you get, the more readers you aquire, the more readers you aquire, the better the chance of you selling your products, newsletters, subscriptions, and other products that have to do with your writing.

You can use the common approach of business cards to get people to your website as you meet them in person. (For a way to get your hands on some free business cards see my post on it here: http://makemoneywriting21.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-sneaky-way-to-sell-few-more-of-your.html ) And once the website is up, post it in your email signature, in your signature on forums you to go, on any social networks you are a part of and in your bios for any publications you achieve at magazines or anywhere with a readership. As long as your content is genuine, catchy and consistent, you should start to see the traffic flow, your readership growing and the beginnings of a steady place for you to begin to kick off your projects and products from.

Some resources below for websites or blogs:


www.weebly.com


www.wordpress.com


www.godaddy.com


www.inmotionhosting.com


www.blogger.com

Why Some Authors Sell 2 Copies of Their Book and Others Sell 2 Million.

Have you ever wondered why so many authors who dare to put out their books for sale to the public tap out at 2 sales (the average number for a self-published title) and others can sell 2 million or more? Ok--stupid question. Of course you've wondered that. Is it just fancy promotional material or a good sales campaign? To some degree--but the marketing is really just a means to an end.

The truth of the matter is--knowing what sells and what doesn't sell is as simple as knowing the hidden truth about the human condition. Alright--on the surface that sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. But the truth of the matter is when we think for a few minutes it becomes very obvious what the base human condition is in relevance to this: humans like what is familiar to them. Humans NEED what is familiar to them. Humans seek out the familiar even if the familiar is harmful to them. Think about all the people who end up in toxic relationships over and over again--thin kabout all the people who buy the brand name loaf of bread or cereal even if the store bought brand is exactly the same thing and three dollars cheaper. Humans have a weakness for the familiar--and the same thing applies in marketing.

The reason that marketing campaigns spend so much money on blasting their names on the radio, on television commercials on busses, at football stadiums and in papers is to get you to be FAMILIAR with their product or brand. For example--when sitting at a football game--you might have no need to look at the plastic surgery sign on the wall there. But two weeks later after a car accident--and plastic surgery seems ideal...the one you will seek out first most likely will be the one advertised at the stadium--why? Because the name was stuck in your head and it was FAMILIAR to you.

Now, anyone with enough money can get the blast attention of all these people through advertising however--we are going to assume here that the writers reading this do not have bucket loads of money to burn through on an advertising campaign. And that's perfectly alright--because familiarity more than any singular method has to do with forming a RELATIONSHIP between you and your readers. Think about it--the teenager who throws their novel together in two weeks and self-publishes it quickly with no previous writing experience and no existing fan base might still sell a handful of copies to their family and friends. And by the same token--the best-selling novelist could presell 100,000 copies of their book thanks to an email before it is even finished yet. The only difference between these two people--or at least the only difference that ultimately matters when it comes to sales--is that the group with which each author has a RELATIONSHIP with is vastly different in size. The best-selling author might not be family or personal friends with the 100,000 people who pre-ordered their book. But they already have an existing relationship with them thanks to interviews, previous publications, mailing lists and book tours. The first author simply doesn't have a RELATIONSHIP with a large enough group of people to sell their work widely.

Now here is the good news. Thanks to the age we live in ANYONE can developed a RELATIONSHIP with thousands or even millions of people via the internet. We might not all go viral and get millions of readers--but it is definitely possible to get a few thousand people to follow whatever you are doing if you are consistent enough. The key is to position your writing in a way so that it develops a relationship with people that will eventually lead to them being interested enough to go through with a sale.

The best way to get people FAMILIAR with your work to the extent they develop a RELATIONSHIP with you and your writing is to put as much of it out there as you can. If you are a fiction writer or a poet--a blog that you frequently post on would be a good idea. Eventually a website where you post free content for people to read. Consistent content is the key thing to remember because it is through this method that readers will keep on coming back. Plus, the way online marketing works, the more your blog or website has, the easier it is to pick up in search engines and to generate traffic. As people become familiar with your work, you might start to consider having them join an email newsletter or subscription service--they give you their email in exchange for free content. If they trust you enough to give you their email--they must like your content. You can use the newsletter to send the some more free work and then eventually offer products for sale--a self-published book, an audio book, a paid subscription to a section of your website that offers exclusive material to do with a favorite character, or an e-version of a story or poetry collection.

The trick here is that whatever it is you are offering for sale--by the time you offer it, your readers have already developed familiarity with what it is you are writing and a relationship with you--the author. Having both of these things formed--and having enjoyed the free content you have provided for the period up until this, they might just be willing to part with a few dollars to see more.

 

 

Of course, these methods work quite a bit better if the writing you are posting is quality--adds value to their lives through entertainment, information or emotion. And it helps when you post your writing consistently and are generous with the readers--in which case not only will traffic flow to your site through search-engines, but also through word of mouth. In which case you can expect the number of readers with which you have a relationship to continue to grow--and grow steadily.

Raising Money For Your Writing Before You Write It.

One of the perceived down-sides of being a writer during the 20th century has been the fact that in the overwhelming majority of cases the author has to spend a long period of time working on the craft of their writing without seeing any money for their work. And then after they are done with the writing they had to go through a long period of finding a place to sell it--sometimes the second task taking even longer than the first. For hundreds of years there have been a select group of writers who were fortunate enough to get commissions to write, have contracts--get paid in advance before they even finished their work. However, in the 21st century--the playing field has leveled. Now, thanks to convenient places on the Internet ANYONE can get funded before they even finish their project.

Now when I say anyone, I don't literally mean ANYYONE. As in, a high school kid who never wrote before can't just go online and get thousands of dollars funding for his highly speculative project. But those who are serious and preferably have even the slightest reputation for working in the field they are in--poets, bloggers, essayists, fantasy authors, don't have to seek permission to get advanced funding--they can get it directly from people interested in their work!

Take the fiction writer who is working on a novel. Say this fiction writer has already been writing for a couple of years--has a website dedicated to his own work or at least a blog. Maybe he's published a few short stories in various places so he has a little bit of a fan base already built up. Say that a few short stories he had been writing deal with a character that people tend to like--and he wanted to write a novel about this character, maybe explaining more of the back story. So say this author decides to put up a fundraising campaign for this project on indiegogo to cover his printing costs.

He sets the amounts for donation to the funding campaign at 25 dollars, 50 dollars and 100 dollars. For the 25 dollar doners he offers them a free autographed copy plus their name listed as a patron in the back of the book. For 50 dollars, a free signed copy of the book, their name listed plus a painting of the character portrait of the main character, autographed by his artist friend who designed him. For 100 dollars, say he offered a free limited edition hard cover copy of the book upon completion. The author is happy because he is raising money for his project and the fans are happy because they are not only contributing to the development of a project they are eager to see--they get cool rewards relevant to the project as well!

If the author can manage to convince a few dozen or a few hundred people to contribute to this campaign--he can raise quite a bit of money to start the print run--which gives the entire book tour an edge with the added satisfaction of already selling copies to fans before the writing is even done!

Now of course this strategy won't work if the author happens to be flaky and if they never deliver what is promised--they can end up in legal troubles, and at the very least, earn a horrible reputation that keeps them from ever doing something of this nature again. But if they take their writing seriously, people trust them, like the work and are dedicated--this is a valid option to give many authors who are stuck in that limbo stage between above amateur, but not quite professional, the kick they need to give their projects life.

www.indiegogo.com


www.kickstarter.com


www.gofundme.com

are just three examples of websites that offer this type of service (for a small fee out of what you collect from the fundraiser.) Thousands of creative projects have already gotten funding through this method (me and my co-editor for Perspectives, Poetry Concerning Autism and Other disabilities used this tool to raise our printing goal and not only met our goal, but we exceeded it once word got around!) If you are an author who takes writing seriously, but is looking for that extra push for a project you have in mind, this method might just work for you.