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Why Create a Fan Base?

June 4, 2013

A Loyal Fan Base is an Indie Author’s Best Friend

Indie Authors Need to Build a Fan Base
If you’ve visited here before, you know I’ve spent a lot of time lately talking to, for and about indie-authors. It’s hard for me not to, since I’m smack in the middle of the indie revolution myself with a Readers Favorite Gold Medal-Winning novel – Reichold Street.

But I’m not here today to promote my book. I wanted to follow-up on some of my earlier posts, like I promised I would. “Yeah, right,” I can almost hear you saying, “who does he think he’s kidding, an indie author always needs to promote himself.”

Duly noted.

A Dedicated Media Page
However, as I mentioned in my post “I Need a What?” back on March 14, 2013, one of the most important things an indie author can do for himself (or herself; there’ll be no chauvinism here) is to create a dedicated media page.

At the same time, I confessed to you that I didn’t have one myself (bummer).

Well, that little faux pas has been corrected. A few days ago I launched the media page dedicated to my novel, REICHOLD STREET. Now all I have to do is simply sit back and wait for the media inquiries to come in, right?

No … although I certainly wish it was so (sigh). Wishing, after all, is so much easier than doing.

But it isn’t going to happen without some rigorous promotional effort (ain’t nothin’ comes easy, my grandmammy used to say) … no, wait, that wasn’t Granny … that was an old Lynyrd Skynyrd lyric.

Doesn’t matter. You get what I mean. I still gotta work at it.

———-
You have my permission to take a moment to actually listen to “Nothing Comes Easy” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. It’s a great song.
———-

Collect Email Addresses
The following month, on April 24, 2013, in “Six Indie Author Mistakes”, I talked about how a great many indie authors avoid collecting e-mail addresses because they think having readers and followers on their social media is enough … and I confessed to being guilty of THAT avoidance, too.

Well, I still think not collecting e-mail addresses is one of the biggest mistakes an indie author can make. I won’t reiterate the reasons (I assume you’ve gone back to re-read the post link, right?). Suffice it to say I’ve done something about that, too.

I’ve decided to use Mailchimp for my first foray into email address collection. When it came to decision time, I picked them over some other equally interesting providers.

You want to know why, of course. They are an excellent service and I could give you a lot of mumbo-jumbo reasoning about it now but, quite honestly, I picked them because MailChimp is free for lists of up to 2,000 subscribers.

Being an indie author, and not an über-rich John Grisholm, J.K. Rowling or Stephen King, free works really well for me.

Giveaways
I don’t have the first email to send to followers just yet … I thought it might be a good idea to wait until I had something specific to promote or, better yet, to give away.

“Giveaway? What will you give away?” I just heard you ask. Part of myself, actually. No, not in a literal sense, as in arms or legs or spleens (although I am in the National Bone Marrow Registry), but in an intellectual property sense.

I’ve received some fascinating reviews for REICHOLD STREET. Just take a look at a few:

———-

Five Stars!

… a master of the art of character development. You can hear each voice clearly in this extremely moving account during the turbulent 1960’s. Some walk away with fame; a few never survive the haunting essence of this place.

Five Stars!
~ Reviewed by Anne B. for Readers Favorite
Herron’s characters come to life on the pages and march straight into the hearts of readers in this character-driven plot. It’s easy to recommend this book.

Five Stars!
~ Reviewed by Jean Brickell for Readers Favorite
I was fascinated by this enthralling book. The boys of Reichold Street each have story to tell….

Five Stars!
~ Reviewed by Top Book Reviewers.com
… a must-read for people of all ages. Herron has created an intense depth of emotion that connects all the characters. Reichold Street is an indie novel you want everyone to hear about … truly amazing.

———-

What does all that have to do with any of this? Try to overlook the brash (again) self-promotion, and notice the common thread.

See it?

Character Development
Since so many reviewers seem to think it’s something I’m good at, I thought I might share my thoughts on how I achieve it.

To that end, I’m writing a CREATING BELIEVABLE CHARACTERS document to share my not-so-secret secrets (20+ pages, so far, and growing) that I will share with you, absolutely free, in my next post. When you see it next time, you’ll just list your email address to receive your copy.

Hope you enjoy it!

As always, comments are welcome (and appreciated).

Tags:award-winning writing, book marketing, character development, indie writers, self-publishing, using social media
Posted in Award-Winning Fiction, Book Promotion, Free Stuff, Market Your Book, Self-Published | 6 Comments »

I Need a What?

March 14, 2013

Getting the marketing message out about your book is not always easy. In fact, it’s probably the hardest thing an indie author will do.

A Media What?
I’ve been seeing a lot of talk lately about independent writers setting up their own media page. My first reaction was – “What? I’m supposed to have a media page too? Why? Isn’t it enough I have to promote my books by myself?”

Like writing and editing them and trying to get known through social media wasn’t hard enough.

“Aren’t media pages for authors who have already made a name for themselves, not newbies like me?”

WELCOME TO PUBLISHING 101
The importance of a media page finally dawned on me, and I’m right in the middle of constructing my own. I already have all the information for one scattered thoughout my web page.

However, to do it right these days, you apparently need to collect it all in one place … and make it easy for reporters, reviewers and critics (and bloggers) to access and download.

I will soon have that dedicated media page, with all the pertinent information in one spot.

WHY DIDN’T I DO IT RIGHT AWAY?
I was involved with lots of press releases while I was working (I spent 16 years in public relations). Most, if not all, of those releases were picked-up by major papers and national magazines.

But why not? … they were for a major Fortune 10 company whose announcements and decisions could affect tens of thousands.

I procrastinated on creating a media page for myself, and I think part of the reason is my own self-perception. Who would be interested enough in my books to want to do an interview with me? Sales are not exactly through the roof.

The few press releases I’ve created and sent out for myself have generated almost no interest. It took a long time to figure out why.

I was sending them to the wrong places. What I really lacked was a good understanding of what was right in front of me … the growing role of bloggers in publicity.

When bloggers see you’ve posted an interesting article, they re-post it. They do it because it brings followers to their own site, sure. But your ideas, your thoughts and, most importantly, the fact you write fiction at all becomes more widely known at the same time.

I’ve seen it happen often now with blogs I follow and it’s a neat thing. It’s even happened to me several times, and I need to do it for other authors, too (I’ll start soon, I promise).

SO WHAT DO YOU NEED FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD?
If you create a media page, make sure you populate it with all the information folks who just might talk about you will need. By doing so, you’ve just made their life easier … because your material and contact information is available and ready to go.

Things like a good headshot, cover images (high resolution preferred), your author bio, excerpts, book trailers (if you have them) and contact information. Awards, reviews and quotable blurbs you’ve already received are a plus. In fact, the best ones are those that showcase how other readers have already judged your work.

If you can’t host all the images and information on your own site (some host sites don’t allow it), create an account somewhere that will. One of the best sites I’ve stumbled across (and that’s actually how it happened) for free cloud storage is Media Fire. It can host images, documents, audio and video files.

HOW DO I KNOW THIS IS RELEVANT?
I worked in public relations and marketing for over thirty years and I know such updated information helps keep people aware of your products and services (even if the media to accomplish it these days is a bit different than it used to be just five short years ago).

If this is more than a hobby to you, the commitment to promoting your work must rank (almost) as high as creating it. Building a media page and keeping it updated may be the most important part of your marketing strategy.

Just in case the media does come calling…

Tags:award-winning writing, indie writers, self-publishing, using social media
Posted in Award-Winning Fiction, Book Promotion, Branding, Market Your Book, Self-Published | 6 Comments »

Now, Back to Business …

November 30, 2012

Lots of Questions
One of the things I’ve noticed since I won that pesky Gold Medal for my debut novel, Reichold Street: I’m now asked (usually by other writers, when they find out about the award) how I went about creating the book.

Did you do anything unique or special when you wrote? How, exactly, did you go about it? Did you create extensive review notes for all your characters? Did you make an outline? Did you follow any particular plot style?

The answer to all these questions is … no.

Oh, for a long time I tried to follow all the language rigors most teachers (who, by the way, were quite often not writers themselves) tried so hard to drum into me while I was in school all those years ago. Start with notes. Decide on a plot line. Make an outline.

The trouble is, it didn’t work (sorry, Mrs. Bliss).

My prose was always stilted and quite unbelievable. For a while, I tried making extensive Excel spreadsheets for each character. I would make detailed lists of their traits, physical descriptions, even notes about siblings and significant others.

I was doing this for every character in every story. It was far too tedious and the result was awful.

I finally found a Word-compatible piece of software called Scrivener – which, as recently as a few months ago I touted at the meeting of a local writers group I attend.

In truth, it was just another form of boring spreadsheet.

In Miami a few weeks ago I was asked once again by other writers: “Your characters are very well-developed … how do you go about writing?” and it occurred to me I had actually employed none of those approaches in crafting Reichold Street.

Oh, I admit I toyed with them … sort of. I plugged information into spreadsheets and also tried to coax software to help develop my storyline, instead of just letting the story happen.

But it was (as it has always seemed to be) a tedious, cumbersome and unwieldy process – one that always left me with, as you might imagine, predictably shitty results.

I realized it wasn’t until I let all that go and started relying on my intuition to tell me what was working in the story that Reichold Street started to come together.

Creative Spontaneity
Stephen King mentions in his fabulous book “On Writing” that “plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible.” I’ve come to believe that’s true.

My writing style is really quite simple. I start with what I think is an intriguing (at least to me) what-if? question. Then I try to visualize what begins to happen.

Rather than going to the story, I let the story come to me. I see the surroundings; I hear the characters.

Then I try to translate what I see and hear in my mind into words on the page, and go forward from there.

Does it work? Some people seem to think so, but I guess reviews are one thing and people making purchases are quite another. From the proceeds so far I can afford lunch out once in a while. Not exactly world changing.

The months spent writing the book have started to seem like a breeze. Even the hard part of editing now seems easier in hindsight. I’ve discovered getting the word out is the hard part.

If you have the time, please check out the book trailer for “Reichold Street”