Wednesday 3 December 2014

Best Advice I Have Received

Hi Guys,

I've been a bit lost at how to continue with my blog and as a newbie author I would imagine this has crossed your minds several times.

Have you been confused as to how to promote your works, especially if they are in different genres?

I have that issue especially, writing both fiction and non-fiction. Because my books are all quite different in genres, I was really lost at how to get started-hence this blog is my avenue for me to post my journey, frustrations and any advice I have learnt along the way.

But I have come through a breakthrough, and have received the most helpful advice from this amazing blog that I stumbled across when I was desperate for advice, and Googled for help.

The blog is http://www.yourwriterplatform.com/ and Kim is the brains behind it all. If you are a up and coming author, please check out this site (I don't know Kim personally and I have no affiliate with her at all).

I wrote to her the other day, having been ignored by several other bloggers and marketing experts and was astounded at how promptly she responded.

My question was:

Hi Kim,

Firstly I just wanted to say thank you for all the wonderful
information you have posted on this site, I am so glad I found this
and its on my bookmarks!

I am a newbie writer, who writes in my spare time. I do want to take
writing seriously so I want to focus on building my platform/brand
first before releasing anything.

My question is: I am currently working on several different projects,
all in different genres. For instance I'm writing a self help book
witha friend, I've written a book about natural remedies, and I'm
working on a fiction novel. I would presume its easiest to just
promote them all on the one site, but how do I balance promoting such
different genre books?

Should I blog about their updates at different times? Do I need to
establish a prescence for one of the books before launching?

Happy Thanksgiving by the way!
Best regards,
Maggie


Her response blew me away: it was detailed yet simple and to the point and gave me direction that I was severely lacking.

Hi Maggie,

Thanks for the positive feedback! :)

Your question is a tricky one, but you're not the only writer to be wondering how to handle the promotion of multiple genres.

Creative people's creativity is hard to corral! :)

Ideally, you would want different sites for each genre, with a content, promotional and marketing strategy to fit the needs of your various target markets.

BUT, realistically, this would be very difficult for you to maintain on your own.

Therefore, option B is to create a site under your name as author (or some close variation) and organize your site based on themes, topics or genres that fit your work. (And remember to think long term; what will you be writing about over the next 2-5 years?)

So, given what you're currently writing (and assuming your next several books will fall into these areas), you could consider breaking down your site as follows:

A. Nonfiction works
    a) Lifestyle
         i) Self help
              - Book #1
        ii) Natural Remedies
              - Book #1
B. Fiction works
    a) Novels
         i) Novel #1

OR

A. Self help
     a) Book #1
B. Natural Remedies
     a) Book #1
C. Novels
     a) Book #1

You will also have to determine how you would like to structure your content, what topics/categories you will write about, and possibly a schedule for your post topics.

For example, Monday's could be self help related topics, Wednesday's could be natural remedy related topics, and Friday's topics will relate to your fiction.

Or, you may determine that your target audience for all your books are women, ages 25 - 45 years. Then you could focus your content on lifestyle related topics that appeal to the needs/interests of these women (which may include crossover interest in your novels).

One you've clearly determined what you have to offer, and who it is EXACTLY you're trying to reach, you can more easily determine your marketing plan from there.

If you haven't already, take a look through these posts on branding and determining your ideal reader:

http://www.yourwriterplatform.com/build-your-author-brand/

http://www.yourwriterplatform.com/how-to-target-an-audience/

As you can see, there is no one "right way" to accomplish this. The key will be to find a way to structure your site (and your marketing) to answer your reader's question: "What's in it for me?"

Warmly,
Kimberley


I don't know how to repay you other than linking her to my blog, but this has helped so much and I wanted to share this with you too.

I will now use this to update my website: I will finalise a name for my website and transfer all the content I have created so far to this new website, hopefully it will look spick and span!

Have a nice day!

2 comments:

  1. Great advice! As an aspiring writer myself, it is certainly good to know there are people out there willing to help :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks glad to know it helped :) I'm still working my way around this website, but I aim to put all nuggets of advice into a separate section, filled with posts and links I have found useful, hope you can visit again!

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