Novelists, Meet Filmmakers. Filmmakers, Novelists

Anthologies, Business of writing, , , , , , ,

By R.S. Mellette

Right now, there seem to be two schools of production in Hollywood – those companies that make movies based on short stories or novels, and those that don’t. I haven’t run the numbers, but I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that the first group is doing a lot better than the second.

The companies making films based on published properties tend to be either major studios or mid- to upper-end independents. A few of these companies started as uber-indies and were smart enough to acquire published work, and are now playing in the big leagues. Temple Hill with the Twilight series comes to mind.

But most uber-indie production companies don’t mess with published works. I know this because I’ve been a screener and/or programmer for the Dances With Films Festival in Los Angeles since 2001. I can’t tell you the number of submissions I’ve screened where I think, why did the filmmakers decide to tell THIS story?

I’m also a novelist. I have novelist friends all over the world who have wonderful stories they’ve told on paper. They would love to see these works made into films, but they’re completely baffled by the filmmaking community.

This article is intended to help both sides bridge the gap, meet each other, and hopefully work together on mutually beneficial projects.

I’ll start with the filmmakers:

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like you to think long and hard about why you chose filmmaking as a career. Deep down in your soul, is the answer to that question, “I want to make movies,” or “I want to tell stories?”

Don’t cheat. If you had to choose between just making movies and just telling stories, which would it be?

Knowing thousands of filmmakers, I have a feeling that most would never give up the set. They love the sweat, pressure, art, camaraderie, adrenaline, thrill, and insanity of making movies. Creating the story on the blank page is secondary to making the story come to life, and that’s fine. That’s why you’re filmmakers.

Sure, some would rather gouge out their eyes than make someone else’s story, but most are just as happy to make any story – as long as it’s good, or the pay is high.

So, filmmakers, don’t feel like you must also be the story creator. You’re a storyteller, for sure. No doubt about it, but you don’t have to tell a story that you created. Better that you should find someone who has the same passion facing the blank page that you have facing an eager cast & crew.

That someone might be a screenwriter, sure, but many screenwriters have the same answer to the “why did you get into this business?” question as you do. So many of them – even some very good ones – want to make movies more than they want to tell stories. If you ever do take a meeting with a screenwriter, tell them you’re not going to make the movie, you’re just going to publish their story. See how they react.

Novelists, on the other hand, are 100 percent pure storytellers. Their passion is what they’ve put on the page. Your turning it into a living, breathing thing is wonderful, mostly because it means more people will be exposed to their story. And, let’s not lie, they’d also be into increased royalties, participation deals, etc.

But their passion is the page, not the stage.

Now to novelists:

Men and women of letters. There is no way around it, filmmaking – as both a business and an art – is a social endeavor. Film sets have been accurately compared to a royal court. Navigating them can be hazardous to your health.

Still, the best way to meet filmmakers is not when they are dressed nice, celebrating the premiere of their film at a festival, but when they are covered in blood, sweat, and tears while working as a Third Assistant Director on someone else’s project.

Why? The filmmaker who has just premiered has two years of trying to sell that movie to the public before they can even think about their next film.

They also have a slew of people who have been pitching them like crazy, and they’ve burned all their favors on that first film. The second one will be ten times more difficult to launch.

Meanwhile, the hardworking crew of that film are owed some favors. If they want to step up to the plate as a producer/director, their chance is next. You just have to hope they didn’t answer “to tell my stories,” to the question of why they got into this business.

But how do you get on the set? How do you get to meet filmmakers when all they do is work on each other’s projects and go to festivals?

That’s easy. Every film needs people. From extras to PAs (Production Assistants), filmmaking is social because it takes so many people make them. And there’s more good news.

Because of the availability of cheap, high-quality, digital cameras, you don’t have to live in Los Angeles or New York to find a filmmaking community. Chances are, there is a filmmaking group in whatever town you live in.

Hit the internet, find them, and join up. If you do live in a filmmaking hub, and you can afford to take a low-paying job, sign up to be an extra. The pay is terrible for non-union (and the work isn’t readily available for union), but you’re usually fed well and it’s a lot of fun.

But what do you do once you’re on the set, or in a meeting of filmmakers at a group? First, don’t try to be what you’re not! The industry is full of those people.

Don’t tell anyone you’re a screenwriter. Everyone is a screenwriter. They need another screenwriter like the Sahara needs more sand.

Just tell the truth. You’re a novelist. You don’t know anything about filmmaking, but you’d like to meet some filmmakers to maybe talk about some projects. I think you’ll find filmmakers think novelists are as mysterious as you think filmmakers are.

Okay, novelists have a way to meet filmmakers, but how do filmmakers meet novelists?
Filmmakers. Novelists write. They also read. If you’re going to reach out to a novelist, you’re going to need to read them.

But your buying all the best sellers and slogging your way through them until you find a writer you like is just like a novelist trying to network with a major filmmaker. The big novelists don’t need your uber-indie eager help with their major works.

So what’s the answer?

Short stories. Anthologies. You can get to know ten to fifteen authors reading an anthology in the time it takes to read one novel. And if you reach out to pretty much any author with, “I read your short story…” you will immediately have their attention.

Short stories are like short films. They are a labor of love. Sure, they might also be a way of testing out an idea, or just getting something done, but just like your short films, they are gems that you never forget.

I often call Elephant’s Bookshelf Press the Sun Records of publishing. Just the way Sam Phillips discovered Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, etc. Matt Sinclair has published Steven Carman, R.C. Lewis, Mindy McGinnis, and many more.

Are they as big in the writing world as Sam’s discoveries are in music? No. Not yet. If they were, you wouldn’t be able to work with them. But they are just as talented.

Filmmakers, if you’re looking for a story to tell, anthologies are a good place to start. Roller Ball, Running Man, Stand By Me, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Brokeback Mountain, Children of the Corn, and so many more feature films started life as short fiction. Fire up the Kindle app on your phone, download some anhologies, and get reading. EBP is a good place to start. When you find a writer you like, reach out. You never know what beautiful friendship might begin.

R.S. Mellette is the author of Billy Bobble Makes a Magic Wand and Billy Bobble and the Witch Hunt, both from Elephant’s Bookshelf Press. He also has written several short stories that have appeared in EBP anthologies.

A Different Take on Book Launches

Memoir, Nonfiction, Publishing, , ,

No two books are alike, and from what I can tell, book launches are often different.

The latest book from Elephant’s Bookshelf Press is unlike anything we’ve ever published before, and the launch is different, too. Which the Days Never Know: A year in Vietnam by the numbers is the first nonfiction book from EBP.

The name might imply that it’s a memoir, and in a sense that’s correct. But not quite. It contains memories from the author, Dr. Donald McNamara, who walked off his flight home from Vietnam on January 13, 1968; we published the paperback on the fiftieth anniversary of his return home. But the book conveys moments more than memories, impressions rather than intensity.

Which the Days Never Know does not set out to recount battles or delve deeply into personal matters – or even personnel matters. Instead, Don takes the approach of a workaday soldier.

Everything in the Army seemed to have a number, he said, so in his book Don marched through 365 days – the typical one-year term of service in Vietnam – number by number.

From a visual standpoint, he wanted the book to look like verse or poetry.

From a publishing standpoint, I knew right away that we were taking a risk. But I think it’s a risk worth taking.

In launching EBP’s nonfiction division, I wanted something that felt true to what the company has been aiming to accomplish – its mission, if you will. Unlike many EBP authors, Don is not unpublished; he has retired as a professor of literature and during his career wrote academic pieces on Irish language and literature in particular. He also has written countless journalistic pieces, which is how our paths crossed.

But EBP prides itself on helping authors share their voice and helping their stories find an audience.

As a bit of EBP trivia, Don helped me find the voice of my company, years before I knew I become a publisher. He taught me the phrase bionn gach tasu lag, which I used in the first paragraph of the introduction to Spring Fevers, EBP’s first book, back in 2012. For those who do not recall the intro – or might not be fluent in Irish – it means “every beginning is weak.”

And in a mirror image of Spring Fevers, I have decided to publish Which the Days Never Know first in paperback; Spring Fevers was originally planned as an ebook only.

Think of this as a soft launch.

In this age of electronic and independent publishing, we learn to stagger launches every few months – more often, if you’re able to write that quickly – and build up a team of eager early readers. These approaches can work. I haven’t done that with Which the Days Never Know.

As I said above, this is a very different book for EBP — and for me. I’m not sure he’s aware, but Don has been a helpful mentor to me as I’ve grown as a journalist and author. Many EBP authors are people I’ve met maybe once or twice. Most of them I’ve never even spoken to on the phone. Don and I worked together years ago. We even shared office space.

Without a doubt, I aim to build the audience for Don’s book, but I also want to share with this audience. I want to share the book with readers who might be able to use it best; veterans’ organizations, for example. I suspect the paperback version will be better appreciated for those groups, though I’m sure many of those readers also enjoy building their ebook collections.

In fact, for readers who buy a copy of the paperback, I’ll provide them a free ebook version.

So, if you’d like to get a free copy of the ebook, send an email to matt@elephantsbookshelfpress and we’ll make that happen.

Setting attainable goals: Writing 500 words a day

Blogging, writing, ,

I was shocked. My brother, who isn’t really a writer, sent me an email inviting me to join him in a writing assignment. It was the 500-words-a-day group that Jeff Goins leads through his blog.

To be honest, even though I’m on Goins’ mailing list, I hadn’t noticed that email invitation. So, when it came from my brother, it carried more weight. And when Goins indicated his commitment included blogging, I realized it was just the kick in the pants I needed to start the year right. By writing!

Now, truth be told, I write 500 words a day nearly every day anyway. It’s what I do for a living, after all. But while I could use those words to weasel my way through to the finish line, the personal goal of writing that much was what really mattered most to my ambitions.

So, in addition to a blog and an article for work, on my way home I popped open one of the works-in-progress that I began last year and refreshed myself. I added a scene. Added some tension. Introduced a character. There’s still a lot of flesh to go on this skeleton, but there is more to the spine than there was twenty-four hours ago.

Then, some ideas came to me while I was in the shower this morning. More tension. And the story’s resolution came into view. It’s a children’s story – kind of a late birthday present for my daughters – but it’s also the beginning of a series. The inspiration to write was gelling into a marketable product!

You might say that an unexpected email from a trusted source resurrected the manuscript. But it’s more than that, really. What made it worth pursuing was that the goal was tangible and attainable. Five hundred words is essentially two pages. I know of writers who write thousands of pages a day. I’ve just hit 300 and I’ve only been typing about 20 minutes.

Of course, doing it day after day takes discipline. In my opinion, that’s a crucial ingredient to the recipe of a full-fledged writer and author. Call it discipline, call it consistency. Whatever you call it, it boils down to this: Writers write.

So, my writerly friends, it’s January 3rd. What have you written today? I’m not going to criticize you if you haven’t written anything. I don’t know your schedule. But if you aim to reach your writing goals in 2018, there’s no time like the present to get into gear.

If my brother can do it, you can too.

Happy New Year! Story sharing in 2018

Blogging, , , , , ,

Happy New Year!

I will share with you that, aside from the Eastern chill (another polar vortex?!), I do enjoy January. It brings out that sense of renewal in me and jump-starts my creativity, which can languish in the fall.

When you’re a writer, especially an independent writer, there’s always something that needs to be done. Update the website, post a blog, create a newsletter, test new ways of building your audience. And if you’re lucky (or better yet, disciplined) you work on a book or story.

I resolved in 2017 to write more. It worked. Sort of. I started two completely new books. You’ll notice, however, that neither of them were published. That’s because they’re not finished. And neither of them will be full-length novels.

What was I doing with my time all year? Well, mostly learning more about publishing. The business side of things. And I’ll apply more of what I learned in 2018. Indeed, I already have begun.

One of the things I resolve to do much more of in 2018 is communicate with you. After all, what are we writers if not communicators? From the time our bardic ancestors told tales around the campfire to today, when we offer up something more delectable than photos of our lunch on social media, we storytellers share our thoughts for consumption and pleasure.

Stories are nutritious. They feed our mind and our soul.

Audiences are nourishing. They provide feedback, which enables the storyteller to gain a better understanding of what the listener or reader expects.

And a good storyteller knows when to provide that and when to hold it back. We can be such teases!

So, let’s share a little. My little publishing company is five years old and, frankly, it needs to grow. So, this year I’m aiming to publish in ways we haven’t before. It will start with Which the Days Never Know, which is coming out soon. It’s a verse memoir by Vietnam veteran Don McNamara.

After that, I’m looking to box up the seasons series that were the inspiration of EBP. I’m in the works on an omnibus edition of short stories, which will be an electronic-only publication. Of course, if you’ve got Spring Fevers, The Fall, Summer’s Edge, Summer’s Double Edge, and Winter’s Regret already, then you’ll have no need for the omnibus edition. But there are some terrific stories in those collections that deserve to find a wider audience.

The next bit of newness on tap for 2018 is about voice. Not simply a writing voice, though that’s in the works, too, but the spoken voice. I’m beginning to record audio books and expect to roll out the first EBP audio book later this year. I’m very excited about it, but it’s a lot of work.

I also expect to publish at least one of those books I started writing in 2017.

Whew! It’s a workout just thinking about 2018, but I feel great. Like ending a morning jog in bracing January air.

So, what do you have in store for yourself? Will you be writing more? Publishing more? Reading more? All of the above, more?

Please share. And let’s keep sharing. Remember, we’re in this together.

And speaking about sharing, I want to share your accomplishments through my channels, too. That means interview opportunities, guest posting opportunities, and cover reveals. I’ll be happy to help you promote your books and help you find other books to read.

And products! Wow, has my publishing business been enhanced lately by certain products and tools!

So, let’s get started. I believe 2018 is going to be exciting, and stressful, and whimsical, and romantic. All the qualities we want in a book and in a year.

Welcome, 2018. Let’s see what we can do together!

 

 

3 things I’ve learned about book marketing

Business of writing, Marketing, Publishing, Uncategorized, , , ,

In the nearly six years since I created Elephant’s Bookshelf Press, one of the things I’ve had to work on the most has been my book marketing skills. Mind you, since part of what I’d reported on in my day job as a journalist was nonprofit marketing and fundraising, I thought I was starting my company with a solid knowledge base.

Perhaps I was, but it wasn’t enough.

When I was reporting on nonprofit marketing, Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist. The World Wide Web was still in its first decade. Email marketing was in its infancy. Direct mail was king.

Oh my, how the marketing and advertising world has changed!

These days, if you’ve launched an ebook and/or a paperback, you need to be able to boost the book’s visibility all the time. Building awareness requires a well-stocked toolkit. If you’re like me, with a spouse and young kids and a full-time job that keeps me away from them for several hours every day, that toolkit needs to have everything handy and charged up.

I want to share a few ideas about tools I’m using now that are either relatively new or new to me.

To be honest and open, I don’t have any affiliate relationships with these groups (well, I just created my Amazon affiliate relationship this week, but I don’t exactly know how to use that tool yet and I don’t think my mere mentioning of it will do anything that puts money into my account). But down the road, I might do that kind of thing. Again, building affiliate relationships is a potential tool, but I’ll discuss that sometime down the road when I have a better idea what I’m talking about.

Anyway, to the tools: One: Advertising. This may seem obvious, but a lot of authors don’t advertise, and at least as many don’t advertise enough. Honestly, I’m not advertising enough either.

But where to advertise? Sometimes the choice is made for you. For the latest EBP book, Lost Wings, we just launched a countdown campaign, and with it, an ad through Free Kindle Books and Tips. I’ve advertised through that side before, but part of the reason I chose it this time is because it allows books with few reviews to be advertised there. At the time I scheduled the ad, we only had two. I really appreciate that, since so many EBP books are anthologies, which often don’t receive many reviews. And while Lost Wings has nine reviews as I type this, and I have additional ads scheduled for later, I’m sure I’ll use FKBT again in the future.

Two: AMS ads. Yes, this is another type of ad, but it’s inherently different from a book blog ad. It targets different people (people searching for books, rather than readers who signed up for a list to get book ideas pushed to them). I’ve been playing around with these a lot in 2017 and have had some spectacular successes and some total failures. So far, most of the ads have been related to keywords. But I’m experimenting now with the product display ads. Again, I’ll talk more about those down the road once I have some experienced to speak from. But if your books are being sold on Amazon, AMS ads are a must in my opinion. Let’s face it, Amazon is the biggest online bookstore in the world. But if no one can find your book when they’re looking for something, then you owe it to your audience to bring it to their attention.

Three: KDP Rocket. I’ll probably sound like a paid shill, but I’m not. My approach to advertising changed as soon as I bought this product earlier this year. It has simplified my searching for keywords and enabled me to hone my selection process. I’ve learned how to improve the keywords I select for my books through Kindle — and the keywords I chose anywhere, for that matter — and I’ve started to rethink some of my book marketing overall. Once again, I’ll talk about that more down the road, but to give you a sense of why I’m so pleased with KDP Rocket, let me share this:

Our anthology Tales from the Bully Box was released in 2014, and it did ok when we launched, and then it quickly languished. I tried various things to bring it back to life, but they didn’t work.

One of the authors of a story there, Sarah Tregay (who also did the beautiful cover for Bully Box — and Lost Wings, too!) told me she’d been told good things about the book by a friend of hers who was using it in a school setting — which was what it was made for.

That made me smile, but I wasn’t quite sure how to take advantage of it. Then I learned about KDP Rocket, looked into it, and ended up buying it. The first book I tried it on was Bully Box. Within weeks, my AMS keyword ad campaign resulted in doubling the sales of the previous year in a single month.

I realize we weren’t talking about major sales of Bully Box in 2016, but I continued with the AMS ads and using KDP Rocket to craft the keyword selection further. And now Bully Box is the most successful paperback book in the relatively short history of EBP! We’re also paying more for advertising than we ever have, but when they result in success, they’re clearly worth it.

What are you using to boost sales of your books and finding success with? Please share!

What to write next? What is your passion?

writing, , , ,

When I’m underground, taking a subway between New Jersey and New York, I often find myself passing the time not by reading but with a puzzle. Usually it’s a crossword or a Sudoku. Ten minutes or so is often just enough time, to solve a puzzle or two but not quite enough to delve too deeply into a book.

If I had my druthers, I’d prefer to work on a crossword than a Sudoku, however. I was just working on a hard Sudoku a moment ago and discovered late in the game that I’d made a mistake somewhere. I suppose I could have spent the time to find my mistake and correct it and eventually complete the puzzle. I’d fix a crossword, but it’s just not as satisfying for me on a Sudoku. It’s not my passion.

Satisfaction in the work and knowing it’s worth doing are important motivators to finishing a piece, whether it’s a short story, novel, poem, song lyric, magazine article, or anything on your writing docket. For me, a crossword puzzle is simply more entertaining than a Sudoku, even though I enjoy both. With fiction or nonfiction, it helps immensely that I care about the characters or the subject of what I’m writing or editing.

In the same light, when it comes to selecting what to write next, I find that passion for the subject tends to be the deciding factor. Having the knowledge about and experience in a subject certainly matter, and knowing how and where to do the research does too. I don’t know about you, but I think I’ll get more done when I have a passion for the story, a passion for the characters.

It helps the reader, too. That passion comes through in the writing. Write with passion (and well), and your readers will feel the life in your characters, smell what they smell, discover what they discover. It will affect your readers’ experience of the story.

Like me with a Sudoku, a story that doesn’t quite have the same passion is still enjoyable and worth reading. It might make you think. But I can tell you stories about favorite crossword puzzles; I couldn’t do the same for a Sudoku. And I can tell you about my favorite authors and the passion that comes through in their stories; then there are stories that are…fine.

Buzz vs Word-of-Mouth: What Hollywood Could Learn From Publishing

Business of writing, Guest posts, Marketing, , , ,

This post appeared originally on From the Write Angle in February, 2013. Gaining at least a basic understanding of marketing will help you identify and target work to your audience. In this post, R.S. Mellette offers a snapshot of his experience with buzz and word of mouth from the film industry. Shared with permission of the author, whose two novels, Billy Bobble Makes a Magic Wand (2014) and Billy Bobble and the Witch Hunt (2016) were published by Elephant’s Bookshelf Press.

Buzz vs Word-of-Mouth: What Hollywood Could Learn From Publishing
by R.S. Mellette

I moderated a conference of film industry professors a while back, and when one of them said that Hollywood relies heavily on word-of-mouth marketing, I laughed.

I couldn’t help myself. Here is an industry that considers a 20% or 30% drop in sales a success! That’s not word-of-mouth. Or if it is, good words are not being spoken.

Interestingly, the Hollywood insiders on the panel thought I was the crazy one for doing a spit-take with the Kool Aid they were serving. But of course, none of them had theatre or publishing experience.

In those disciplines, word-of-mouth marketing means sales INCREASE with time, not drop. A play that is worth the time, money, and effort of going to see will build an audience. A book worth the read will see an increase in sales.

In Hollywood, my filmmaking brothers and sisters have forgotten the difference between Buzz and Word-of-Mouth. So, let’s take a look at them side-by-side.

Buzz: “I want to see that movie,” says one friend to another before it premieres. “Yes,” says the friend, “I’ve heard it’s good.”

Word-Of-Mouth: “I saw the best movie this weekend, you should see it.”

In writing, we call that passive vs. active voice. In court, it’s called a firsthand account vs. hearsay.

Marketing generates buzz. The product itself creates word-of-mouth.

Why is that a distinction worth discussing? Because buzz owes only a passing fealty to the quality of the product. Producers in Hollywood will actually judge a script on “trailer beats,” meaning juicy stuff they can put in the preview to create buzz. A script that tells a good story but has no trailer beats will be passed over in favor of another script that is more easily marketable.

Compare this to the world of self-publishing today. Sure, sure, there is a sub-culture of writers trying to get good reviews—or spam their competition with bad ones—to increase buzz. There is nothing wrong with an honest pursuit of good buzz, but the runaway hits in the self-publishing world come almost exclusively from word-of-mouth marketing.

And word-of-mouth marketing is entirely dependent on the quality of the work. It is first-person, active, marketing. One friend telling another, “I enjoyed that, and I think you’ll like it, too.”

What does this product-oriented marketing technique look like on the sales charts, graphs, and tables? That’s easy. No drop off. Sales go up the longer the product is available. And when the same people create a new product, their sales start higher because they have become a trusted brand. As long as they keep up the quality, then their work will generate its own buzz.

The opposite is also true. How many of us have been fooled so many times by a great preview for a lousy film that we no longer trust the studios? Like so much of the rest of American Industry, studios have lost sight of long term success in favor of instant gratification. They have confused buzz with word-of-mouth.

So the work suffers. We, as consumers, suffer. And worst of all, we artists who must try to make a living in this environment suffer.

R.S. Mellette is an author and filmmaker. Prior to the Billy Bobble series of novels, Mellette had Sci-Fi short stories published by Elephant’s Bookshelf Press in the anthologies: The Fall: Tales from the Apocalypse, Spring Fevers and Summer’s Edge. Mellette is an Associate Director of Dances With Films (one of MovieMaker Magazine’s top 25 coolest film festivals in the world). He wrote and directed the multi-festival winner, Jacks or Better. He also wrote the first web-to-television intellectual property, “The Xena Scrolls,” for Universal Studio’s Xena: Warrior Princess. On Blue Crush and Nutty Professor II he served as script coordinator. He’s acted in Looney Tunes: Back In Action, Star Trek: Enterprise, Days of Our Lives, Too Young The Hero, and countless stage productions across the U.S.

The business of being a writer

Business of writing, Publishing, writing

Not long after I’d graduated from college, I had a phone conversation with a longtime friend. He was heading to med school and was on a path that would lead to his becoming a prominent surgeon. Ever since we were kids, he talked about how he intended to become a doctor. Even as he earned an engineering degree in college, he knew his destiny lay in medicine, and he really believed he would become a surgeon. It’s what he always wanted to do.

I was also certain I wanted to become a writer, and I really believed I would be a novelist. My friend was amazed at my goals of becoming an author. To him, it would be more sensible for me to pursue a career that would be more lucrative and enable me to write on the side. And sometimes when I look at my bank statements and bills, I wonder if perhaps he was right. But that night, after he asked how long it would take to write a novel, I said, “Well, if I just write a page a day, by the end of the year, I’d have a novel.”

The logic of the statement — which was just off the top of my head — surprised me then, and to a degree it still does. The answer encapsulated much of what would lead me to become the writer I am today; it’s my job. I write most every day. You can say it’s a discipline, but I just look at it as what I do. And when I’m not physically writing or typing, I’m often thinking about characters and story arcs.

Frankly, it took me a long time to finish my first novel, which I trunked years ago (though trunks can be opened…) In the years out of college, I spent most of my writing time on short stories, and the novels I began quickly died on the vine. Back then, I spent more time writing songs than novels.

I’m not working on a novel at the moment, either. And if I’m honest with myself, I would say I haven’t worked on one of my own seriously since I created Elephant’s Bookshelf Press. I have only so much time away from work, and I spend what I can with my wife and children. Anyone who’s seen me on the train heading home knows I’m always on my laptop. That’s where the bulk of EBP takes shape: reading stories, editing novels, putting together media packages, recording and analyzing data, and all the other administrative responsibilities I need to address to maintain and build my little publishing house.

To me, being a professional writer starts with those two things: dedicating yourself to your craft – writing every day – and taking a business approach to your craft. It’s your job, after all.
Over the years, I’ve also learned the power of planning. I’m a believer in setting goals – even New Year’s resolutions – and reviewing the progress I make regularly. It may seem like a simple thing, but I’d be lost without a calendar. Yet, even though I write my plans down and review them, I’m still shocked when the fourth quarter of the year begins and I’m still scrambling to finish things that are weeks behind.

Recently, my friend Mindy McGinnis posted a blog about her schedule and all the work that goes into a typical day in her writing career. And this is someone who has a half-dozen novels published, including the recently released This Darkness Mine. It just goes to show that, no matter how much “success” we experience in our writing careers, life is still packed with a lot of unexciting but necessary busy work.

Now that we’re in the home stretch of 2017, what are you doing to prepare your writing business for 2018? Have you found any answers or solutions to the problems that have plagued you this year? What do you need in the new year to accomplish your goals? Maybe we can find a way to help each other. One of my goals in 2018 is to share more. (A goal my daughters have suggested.)

I’m looking forward to sharing with you.

A few minutes with Jean Oram, author of The Wedding Plan

Audience, Author interviews, Blogging, Marketing, , , , , , , , ,

One of the many wonderful writers I have met at AgentQuery Connect is Jean Oram, who is described as the “super moderator” of that writers’ community. In the fiction realm, she tends to write romance, and in the nonfiction area, she focuses on child’s play, with sites like It’s All Kid’s Play.

Jean’s latest new release, The Wedding Plan, is about a secret marriage between ex-lovers. But with their past and being stuck in a cabin out in the small, nosy little town of Blueberry Springs you can be sure their secrets will be difficult to keep! The Wedding Plan is from her new Veils and Vows series and can be found on all major online bookstores.

She also has been an important supporter of Elephant’s Bookshelf Press since its beginning and served as copy editor of our best-selling anthology, The Fall. For this interview, we talked about marketing and her approach to building her audience.

Do you have a mailing list and newsletter?

I sure do!

How often do you send anything to your mailing list?

It depends on a lot of different things, but typically I try to reach out to my subscribers every 4-6 weeks so they don’t forget who I am. 😉 It has to be meaningful though—I never want to annoy my subscribers.

Do you have a blog?

Yes.

How often do you post on your blog?

That, like my newsletter, depends on what’s going on. My blog is a place for my readers to find updated news, items of interest, giveaway entry forms, and the like. Sometimes there will be four posts in a week, sometimes nothing for 6-8 weeks.

What else do you do to market yourself as an author?

I try everything and an answer to this question could fill an entire book.

Basically, you never know what’s going to work for you, so you’ve got to experiment. Some things that haven’t worked for others work for me. Some things that work for others don’t work for me. Things that worked two years ago no longer have the same effect now. For example, doing a basic signed paperback giveaway used to create avid fans—like a 90 percent conversion rate. Now it’s more like 25 percent which makes it less financially feasible to use those kinds of giveaways in that manner. So, now I use few signed paperback giveaways and use them for different purposes. Why has it changed? Who knows, but if you’re going to keep selling your books, you have to stay hungry, stay smart ,and keep rolling with the punches.

Do you offer services like editing, query review, etc.?

I do not.

What do you consider success for your marketing efforts?

It really depends on what the purpose/goal on a particular marketing effort was. Recently, I wanted to increase the number of people in my reader group (on Facebook), and so I gave it a push from several different angles and met my numerical goal for new members. My next goal is to get them active, make friends with those members. After that will be to find rewarding ways for them to help me share the word about my books—that’s going to be a more difficult thing to measure. Because what are my goals? Visibility? Then having a few members share a post can help. If it’s getting sales directly from posts being shared…well, that’s more difficult to measure directly.

Thanks, Jean!

Jean Oram is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author who loves making opposites attract in tear-jerking, laugh-out-loud romances set in small towns. She grew up in a town of 100 (cats and dogs not included) and owns one pair of high heels, which she has worn approximately three times in the past twenty years.

Her life contains an ongoing school theme, having grown up in an old school house, then becoming a ski instructor in the Canadian Rockies, then going on to marry a teacher and becoming a high school librarian. She now runs a fundraising committee for her daughter’s school.

Jean lives in Canada with her husband and two kids. She can often be found outdoors hiking up mountains, playing with kids on the soccer field, racing her dog on her bicycle–sometimes the dog lets her win–or inside writing her next novel.

Subscribe to Jean’s newsletter and get a taste of her small-town comedies that will have you laughing while falling in love. Get your FREE ebook by signing up here: www.JeanOram.com/FREEBOOK.

Why I Didn’t Pay for the Most Important Lesson in College

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Did you learn a lot when you were in college? I know I did. But the most important lesson I learned when I was in college wasn’t during a classroom experience. It didn’t happen while I was doing research in the library. It wasn’t even a boozy revelation during a game of beer pong. It was a far more basic moment than any of those.

I was crossing a street with two blind curves. Most of the drivers were my age, which meant they weren’t really thinking about pedestrian safety. I don’t remember exactly why I felt I needed to cross at that spot, but I’m sure it wasn’t necessary. So, I looked both ways, hoped I wasn’t doing something stupid, and ran.

Obviously, I lived to write about it. Nothing happened. Well, nothing bad happened. But at that moment, I realized that I was the only person holding myself back from accomplishing the things I wanted to accomplish.

I might have remembered something and needed to change direction. I might have seen a pretty girl who I briefly chatted with and privately mused about what might have been if I’d ever asked her out. It’s all fuzzy now. What mattered is that, at that very moment, I realized what the biggest obstacle to my success in life was: me.

That was the lesson: I’m the one getting in my way.

Speaking as a middle-aged guy with young children, I know now that the lesson I learned is not the one I’d get today if I were standing at that same spot. Today, I’d encourage my daughter to find a safer spot.

But playing it safe can be an obstacle too.

I still strive to overcome myself. Sometimes I succeed, like when I decided to create Elephant’s Bookshelf Press. I was already deep into the process of creating Spring Fevers, the first anthology from EBP. I had created the Elephant’s Bookshelf blog years before ever thinking about creating a publishing company. From there, it was an easy step to naming Elephant’s Bookshelf Press. Soon after, I was applying for an LLC. It seemed like a no-brainer.

But there are still lots of moments where I discover the speed bumps that my intellect constructs, and I suspect the same is true for you. How do you overcome your fears and your own nay-saying? Are you filled with self-doubt? Most writers I know still would admit to harboring that bugaboo.

Here’s what works for me:

Read and write voraciously. I’m lucky to work as a journalist, so I’m paid to read and write every day. But I also read as much as I can. And as widely as I can. This helps me to:

Think elastically. A creative mind is one that can stretch an old idea into something new or connect seemingly disparate concepts into something that feels altogether different. It may be the most important element of:

Innovation. Take what has worked in the past and break it down into its vital elephants… er, elements. Can any of those pieces be upgraded? If so, what happens?

Ask questions. Do you know how your favorite author got started? …

“Write” every day: Though I physically write at least five or six days a week, I keep a loose definition of writing here. To me, writing includes imagining. Many of my best ideas come when I’m not able to jot them down or expand on them. I often come up with ideas while watching my daughters in their swimming lessons. Perhaps I should, but I don’t take notebooks with me to the pool. But I love musing on where some characters or settings might go, even if it’s just 15-20 minutes to mentally play that day. Write every day and you’ll see your writing flourish.

Plan and schedule. I used to write on the fly and see where a story took me. I read an article by an author who broke down her routine on her blog and later built a book on how she turned her writing routine into a 10,000 word a day habit. The key was starting with a light outline of what she wanted to accomplish that day. It helped her organize her thoughts and focus her mind. I’ve tried to apply that not only to my personal writing but also the day of writing and editing in my day job. In many ways, I still write by my pants, but I know when I’m going to write now and have goals for words or tasks. Which leads to the next item …

Create – and stick to – deadlines: I apply deadlines to all goals: daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, quarterly goals, and annual goals. When I know I have a busy Saturday ahead with family stuff, I usually list all the things I need to accomplish and scratch them off when they’re done. Sometimes I even write down things I’ve already done before starting the list – run 3 miles, feed the cats – to mess with my own mind and convince myself I’m getting things done. Sometimes it also helps my wife know where I am and what I’m hoping to do; she’s been known to add to the list, too.

Establish some sort of accountability system. This is the tough one for me. The truth is, keeping accountable is very difficult for a lot of writers. It’s too easy to say, “Oh, I just don’t feel it today. I’ll write twice as long tomorrow.” Or to be distracted by any of the myriad legitimate interruptions that occur from day to day. Sick kid? Sick parent? Got to take the car to the shop? Any of these things can ruin a day or drag on to several. Having a good friend or a touchy acquaintance whose job is to harass you when you’re trying to blow off your writing time is a good idea in theory, but I’ve learned that it doesn’t work every time.

Reward yourself for your accomplishments. In contrast to the accountability issue, this can be too easy sometimes. It’s important to recognize your accomplishments, but celebrate worthy goals and with supportive techniques. You obviously don’t want to say, “if I finish 100 words today, I’ll celebrate by not writing at all tomorrow.” It’s not only too few words and likely to have accomplished little, but you’d be taking a step back by not writing the next day. But if your goal was 50,000 words for a month and you reached your goal, take your significant other out to dinner, or for some ice cream, or something else pleasant and festive. You deserve it.

Of course, you may have different issues that get in your way of your writing. I can only imagine. But maybe you have found ways to overcome them too. I’d love to hear from you. Please share!