Writing--Are you ready to release your first book?

If you're getting ready to release your first book--first, I'll say congratulations. You've reached milestone that many before you have reached, and many after you desire to reach. I hope to share some things below that I wish someone had shared with me. Following just a few of these can give you a better chance of success.

1) Create your platform NOW. Get involved in social media. Learn to write short, interesting tweets. Set up a blog and WRITE. You don't have to blog every day. In fact, you're probably going to bore a lot of people if you do. I mean, seriously, do you have something truly worthwhile to say every day? Something significant to share? Get a facebook page and invite your friends, family and others that are interested in the genre you're writing.

2) Now, to the really hard soul searching issues. Ask yourself the following questions:
1) Have you written the very best story you can write?
2) Are your characters well defined and easily identifiable even if you don't use their name?
3) Are your descriptions overly wordy, or easy for the reader to use their own imagination along with well placed descriptive words?
4) Has your book been professionally edited?
5) Have you sent out review copies to major review sites and/or review bloggers?
6) If self-publishing, have you studied the formatting for properly formatted books so that your book is attractive and easy to follow?
7) Are you ready to commit at least one hour or more a day to doing something to promote yourself and your book?
8) Is your cover professional looking and complimentary to your book? Put it up for your social media contacts to review and comment on. Run two or three potential covers and let people choose the best. The benefit here is you'll get an eye-catching cover as well as pre-release publicity for your book.
9) Do you have a marketing budget?

I'm sure there are a lot of things I've missed, so if you're reading this and you can think of something to add, then please do. These are just a few of the ones I wish I had known about four years ago. I've always followed the professional editing route, but I was totally unaware of author platforms, and yes, there are times when I look back now that I wish I could start over. I think my books are the best story I could write, but perhaps I would written the series differently. I would have started at the beginning and plotted exactly where the series was going, and how long it would continue.

Reviews are essential to your success. Getting reviews can be difficult, and take weeks or months before they're posted, so it's important that you look for those most beneficial to your genre prior to publication. Seek out good reviewers or bloggers that have a consistent following in your genre. There are many out there just waiting for a book just like yours, however, they may have an overload and a good review takes time.

It's said only the strong survive. And that is essentially true if you're an author. You're going to come up against some rough winds and choppy waters. Unless you're extremely rich already, or win the lottery, odds are you're not going to be an overnight success. The competition is vast and getting your book into the hands of people wanting to read it isn't as easy as it sounds. And even bestselling authors occasionally get a bad review. So face it, you're probably going to get a bad review at some point during your career. It isn't necessarily the bad review that will hurt you--it's your response to it. If it's an honest review, then pay attention to what the reviewer is saying. Learn from it. Thank the person for taking the time to read and review your book. Bad reviews don't necessarily hurt you. In fact in some instances they actually increase sales. But you've got to be tough. And you have to above all believe in yourself and your product. It's impossible to sell something you wouldn't buy yourself. So ask yourself why would I buy this book? What's appealing to me about it? The answers to those questions are the basis for your promotional platform. Good luck.

Promotional Tips From The Professionals

I’m not sure why I never watch the book shows on TV, but Sunday I found myself listening to David Shanks of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.; Skip Prichard of Ingram Content Group, Inc., Bob Miller of Workman Publisher Group and a couple of other individuals as they discussed the future of publishing, books and the digital revolution on 2010 Book Expo America.

I was a little shocked and somewhat amazed at some of the comments. They’re advising their authors to take up the same promotional tools as Indie authors. Facebook pages, online forums and other online marketing networks. The bottom line I saw was the publishers were expecting more in the way of marketing from their authors in the future to keep up with the changing world of marketing online.

They were also suggesting that authors make an effort to know book editors at local papers or large news carriers such as the Washington Post and contact them for interviews. Of course, a bestselling author will probably have more luck in this endeavor than an unknown Indie author.

They did offer one new idea for promotion that I found intriguing, both for traditionally published authors and Indie authors. Video promotion of the content of your book. Many authors, myself included, take a road trip when writing certain parts of a book. Why not film your road trip and show your readers what they’re looking at? This would be wonderful for books set in other countries. I, as reader, would find it fascinating to see the places that are described in my favorite fiction. Especially if those places were set in Ireland, Scotland, England or just any place that I haven’t been.

Another suggestion was more beautiful books in terms of layout, paper and book covers. The general idea being that consumers would pay more for a prettier book. As a consumer I have problems with that comment. I have several authors that I collect, and I usually buy the hardback copy. So far I’ve had no problem with the way the books look. However, every author should be concerned with the look of their book, regardless of whether it’s paper or EBook. Formatting is extremely important. I spent weeks working on the format of my first EBook, ensuring that it looked good and was free of html errors. Formatting for Smashwords was also a several day project. EBook publishers are concerned with formatting errors, but an author should be even more concerned. Your name is on that book. If you’re proud of your work, then you need to make sure your product is something you can be proud of.

With the number of books being published daily, readers have more and more of a selection to choose from. Authors have to give the readers a reason to sample or buy their book. Promotional tools such as video, contests, fan pages and free gifts will only take you so far. Word of mouth about a great book will take you all the way to the top. And a great book is properly formatted without typos.