The Motivational Editor

Helping Writers Go from Unpublished to Published

Marketing Tips

Improve Your Writing and Marketing Through These 11 Blogs

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Platform, audience, tribe, fans, followers. Call it what you will, today’s writers must market themselves much more than in years past. In fact, there are many aspects of the writing world we must learn—unless you have a budget that allows you to hire someone to handle it.

In no special order, here are 11 blogs I follow that offer a tremendous amount of valuable free advice. (Like all businesses, several of these sites also offer their products for sale.)

Do you have blogs you follow that have been particularly helpful? Tell us about them in the comments.

How to Track Your Article Submissions

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Whether you submit with regularity or not, it’s important to track your submissions. How else will you follow up if you have no record of the magazines and editors (or agents/publishing houses) to whom you have submitted your work?

I keep a simple Excel file with the following info:

  • Date submitted
  • Magazine name
  • Editor’s name
  • Editor’s email
  • Editor’s phone number
  • Name of article submitted
  • Date to follow up. Most publications state a period of time to allow for review of your submission. Follow up with an email to the editor only after the stated time for review has passed.
  • Status (accepted or rejected)
  • Payment due. If accepted you need to know when your payment is due because some publications pay on acceptance and some on publication.
  • Payment rec’d date.  If you record this date as soon as the payment comes in, you won’t be left wondering later on if you got paid.

Not all of us are uber organized. I take advantage of the tools someone else has designed to help me. I just adjust them to suit my needs and circumstances.

Design whatever works for you, and be diligent to use it.

Build Your Platform with Your Free Products

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Congratulations go to Amy Bovaird, our contest winner. She’ll receive a copy of Jeff Goins’ brand new book The In-Between. Email me at Deb@DebraLButterfield.com with your address and I’ll get it sent right out.

As you can see, I spent my weekend, redesigning, and I hope, making improvements to my website. I still have some work to do, but I’m learning CSS code as I go. We are all on this journey together, learning our craft and the tidbits of everything else that go with being a freelance writer.

Now, let’s move on to today’s marketing tip.

Market Yourself with Free Products

Whether it’s a tight economy or not, people like to get free stuff.

While you build your publishing credits and platform, you can market yourself (and any products you may have) by offering your readers a free eBook you’ve written, or a simple pdf document that focuses on your niche area of expertise (generally in exchange for their email address). Createspace has an eBook option, and I’ve done some research on Smashwords.com as well.

(I’m accepting guest blogs. Do you know about creating eBooks.)

A pdf is easily created on your computer and can be distributed to your readers directly via email, as a download on your website, or even through a mail service such as MailChimp.

Offering these items will build your mailing list, get your name out there, and give your readers a taste of your work (and ready for more). So make sure whatever you offer is the best you have to offer at that time.

Debra L. Butterfield © 2013

Marketing with Purpose

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Today I host author Angela D. Meyer who shares about marketing.

Welcome, Angela. Thank you for joining us and for sharing what you’ve learned along the way.

Marketing with Purpose, by Angela D. Meyer

I started on this publishing journey with a lot of passion. It is just a matter of writing a good story, isn’t it?

Author Angela D. Meyer

That would be nice, but there’s a lot more to it. Marketing is high on the list of extra items.

I’ve learned a lot about marketing over the past year and a half. A lot of the “what” about the process. Now, I’m learning the importance of how marketing is done. How to do it with purpose. Not all over the board, wasting time and energy. Purpose that gains an audience and doesn’t burn me out in the process.

Here are a few things to help you apply your marketing plan with purpose.

Make it sustainable.

Something you can continue doing over the long haul. Once your book is out, you have to keep working to grow your audience. But you can’t keep up the pace of a two week blog tour indefinitely. Find an approach that fits with your life and pace yourself.

Make it fit you and your audience.

When it comes to social media sites, there is no end. It’s tempting to jump in to the next popular thing. But what worked for someone else, may not work for you. Spend your time, money and energy resources where your audience is, not where someone else’s audience hangs out – no matter how cool it is or how many go there. It might be nice for a one time book blast just to see what you pull in, but it will drag you down in the long run.

Give the same thing you would like to receive.

Every marketer out there wants his audience to engage with them. Leaving comments, sharing what they found. The golden rule has a nice application here. If you want people to leave comments, leave your own on the places you visit. People really do read through the comments, and if they like your answer, they will often follow the link…right to you. If you want people to invest in you, show yourself a wise investor in people, as well. It all will return to you at some point.

Make it about connections.

It’s not just about convincing someone to buy a book. It’s about providing something of value to help the one person in front of you. That’s where relationship happens and you make a difference in someone’s life. I think that’s what most writers want in the long run. And ironically, focusing on the one is what brings the many down the road.

It may take some trial and error, but when your practiced craft meets with purposeful marketing, you’ll have a plan that can be sustained over the long haul.

Where do you best like to meet your audience?

For more from Angela read my interview with her. Connect with Angela at www.facebook.com/AuthorAngelaDMeyer or www.angeladmeyer.com

 

Writer Website a Must

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Tuesday tip from writer editor Debra L. ButterfieldGet past your fears, your doubts, your lack of expertise, your (you fill in the blank), about creating a writer/author website for yourself.

As a writer you want to give readers and potential publishers and magazine editors a place to go and find out more about yourself. In fact, it’s a must.

Your website is the answer. Here you can let them know who you are, what you have to offer, and list your publication credits. No credits yet, then wow visitors with your sparkling web copy.

What’s keeping you from starting a website? 

The Benefits of Belonging to a Writer’s Organization

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writingThe benefits of membership in a writer’s organization are numerous. The benefits vary from organization to organization, but here are just a few:

  • Submission call-outs (markets accepting stories such as Chicken Soup for the Soul)
  • Networking with other writers
  • Print or e-newsletters of industry news and writing techniques
  • Discounts on organizational contests and conferences
  • Webinars, free or at discounted rates

I presently belong to two writer’s groups. The free webinars I get from Christian Writer’s Guild far outweigh the $99/yearly membership fee. The networking and camaraderie I receive from fellow writers in Heart of America Christian Writers Network keeps me encouraged and connected to the writing world, and I get regular notifications of markets wanting stories.

A Google search on “writers organizations” will yield a plethora of pages that offer a listing of organizations. While the listings aren’t exhaustive, they are worth the visit. You can dig deeper by searching on specific genres. Both the Writer’s Digest Market Guide and The Christian Writer’s Market Guide give information on writer’s organizations.

Here are a few direct links:

Being connected to an organization within your field/genre will yield marketing opportunities and allow you to develop relationships that will both encourage you as a writer and push you forward in your writing career.

What value have you found from the writers’ group you belong to?

Debra L. Butterfield © 2013