The Daily Journal, Sunday, February 10

In today’s Journal

▪ Barely caught a gotcha
▪ Topic: Marketing
▪ The daily diary
▪ Of Interest
▪ The numbers

Special thanks to Mike Rom, one of my new first readers. Mike is a pure reader. He reads avidly, and as he does, things pop out at him. He notes those things and tells me about them. Perfect.

Topic: A Marketing Thought That Many Miss

We’ve all seen the pros and cons re marketing our work:

▪ Use social media
▪ Don’t use social media
▪ Be aggressive in your marketing
▪ Be passive in your marketing
▪ Have bookmarks printed
▪ Don’t have bookmarks printed
▪ Give away your books
▪ Don’t give away your books

And so on.

But one marketing thought I seldom see or hear anyone talking about anymore is (to me) the most important of all.

Market Yourself.

By that I don’t mean “do your own marketing,” though of course we do.

But I mean literally, market yourself. Sell yourself. If readers like You and feel a kinship with you or that they can at least relate to you, there’s a greater chance they’ll buy more of your books.

So how do you go about marketing yourself?

There are several ways.

If you are so inclined, use social media. But…

▪ Instead of talking constantly about your books, talk about things that interest you (um, other than your books).

▪ Engage with others as if they are your friends, or at least as if you are their friend.

▪ Smile as you type updates or replies in social media, even though nobody can see you. The smile will come through in your update or reply. (Caution: So will a smirk or an angry frown. Stay away from those.)

▪ If you have a strong opinion on a hot-button topic (for example, national politics), keep it to yourself. Your job is to sell yourself, not convince others they don’t like you and therefore will certainly not like anything you write.

Besides, your political opinion doesn’t matter. All that matters is what the potential reader believes is your political opinion. So keep it to yourself.

(Years back, I was guilty of this one. The only opinions I changed were the opinions of those who started out thinking my books might be worth reading.)

▪ When you talk with others (on social media or otherwise) make it all about them.

▪ Give others something of value, but don’t wrap it in the guise of advice. Intead, offer it as something that has worked for you.

▪ Never “should” on people. That alone will set you apart in others’ minds from 99% of the people with whom they interact.

▪ And leave comments on posts you enjoy. Me commenting on others’ posts have led to others finding my website (and my books) as well as me being invited to write guest posts, etc.

Obviously, there’s a lot more to this idea of selling yourself, but maybe these few notes will get you started thinking in that direction.
***

Rolled out at 2:30 this morning, then spent the first two hours on various pursuits.

I quickly corrected a few things Mike Rom found in a novel I have up for release in 5 days. (Thank you, Mike!) They truly were egregious errors (typos all) that I was amazed I’d missed.

Then I looked for items for “Of Interest,” left a couple of comments, etc. (My comments on the posts I follow might help others, but they’re also part of my overall marketing strategy. See the topic above.)

To the novel, finally, at a little after 5.

With a few breaks in between writing sessions, I knocked out a little over 3000 more words on the story. More than enough for a Sunday morning and my bride at home.

Talk with you again tomorrow.

Of Interest

See “Reading as an Editor” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/reading-as-an-editor/. Some real gems here for short-story and novel writers. You might want to read it a couple of times.

See “What Bryan Cranston Can Teach Writers” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/02/what-bryan-cranston-can-teach-writers.html.

Some good comments on “Fighting Off the Fog” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/02/fighting-off-the-fog.html#comments.

Fiction Words: 3093
Nonfiction Words: 690 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 3783

Writing of Blackwell Ops 3: Marie Arceneaux (novel)

Day 1…… 1699 words. Total words to date…… 1699
Day 2…… 3766 words. Total words to date…… 5465
Day 3…… 4601 words. Total words to date…… 10066
Day 4…… 3535 words. Total words to date…… 13601
Day 5…… 3415 words. Total words to date…… 17016
Day 6…… 1845 words. Total words to date…… 18861
Day 7…… 3093 words. Total words to date…… 21954

Total fiction words for the month……… 25076
Total fiction words for the year………… 108470
Total nonfiction words for the month… 8960
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 34370
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 142849

Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date………………………… 2
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date…………………… X
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date……… X
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 39
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 193
Short story collections…………………………………………………… 31