Category: writing

How to Market Yourself & Maintain your Sanity

Posted on by Katie Ganshert

In his book titled Sell Your Book like Wildfire, Rob Eager writes:

Authors who write books as an avocation just to have fun or tell people they’re published rarely succeed. Authors who write books as a vocation and take their work seriously usually achieve their goals.

Let me start with a confession:

Balance is not my forte.

All too often, when it comes to success in the publishing world, I find myself migrating toward the teeter-totter.

On one side sits Thing One.

Thing One is all frantic energy. Do, do, do. Go, go, go. Try harder. Try more. Don’t stop. She obsesses over missed opportunities and Amazon rank and how in the world can she improve her sales?

On the other side sits Thing Two.

Thing Two is chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool (Fresh Prince of Bel Air style) while humming the melody of Que Sera, Sera. Because God will multiply what He plans to multiply. Thing Two wants to give up on the rat race altogether.

Some days, Thing One owns the teeter totter.

Other days, Thing Two is in control.

But here’s the thing.

Neither are correct. Both are extremes.

God calls us to work hard AND trust Him with the harvest of that work.

Jesus asks us to bring our five loaves and two fish before He does the multiplying.

The key is figuring out which is which. What constitutes our part (bringing the loaves and fish) and what constitutes God’s (multiplying)? And how can we do our part and let the rest go?

I’m not entirely sure, but I do have some tips.

1. Write down 1-2 monthly goals

Examples of helpful goals:

  • Spread the word locally
  • Add (insert number here) subscriptions to my email list

Examples of an unhelpful goal:

  • Improve my Amazon rank (unless you plan to buy a bunch of your own books off Amazon)

2. Write down the steps you need to take in order to accomplish your goals

For example, here are some steps that would help me reach the two goals above:

  • To spread the word locally, I will donate a copy of my book to every retirement center in the area. I will also visit local bookstores and see if the manager would like me to sign copies in stock.
  • To build my email list, I will include a “call to action” at the end of each blog post inviting readers to sign up. I will also create a freebie to send to each subscriber.

3. Evaluate at the month’s end and write 1-2 more goals.

Don’t try to do everything. Don’t overwhelm yourself with ten goals that each encompass five action steps. Remember that for the vast majority of authors, building a readership is a marathon, not a sprint. So pace yourself.

Hard work doesn’t guarantee results, but results are rarely seen without hard work.

So work hard. Write down a couple goals. Follow through with your action plan. And let go of the rest.

Let’s ban Thing One and Thing Two from teeter-totters everywhere.

Let’s Talk: Which Thing do you tend to gravitate toward? How do you stay balanced? 

Hey! Now that I’m at it, I’d love to send you a welcome packet if I haven’t already. To sign-up, just click on the sign-up button at the top of the page. 

If you’re looking for a story that will help restore the hope you have lost in the midst of hardship, please check out the first three chapters of my debut novel, Wildflowers from Winter. 

A Secret & A Giveaway from Jody Hedlund

Posted on by Katie Ganshert

I’m excited to have award-winning, best-selling author, Jody Hedlund, on my blog today.

Her latest release, Unending Devotion, hit shelves this past Saturday. I’m reading it right now and absolutely loving it. In fact, I was so desperate to read it yesterday, I gave my son some books to look at in his stroller and read Jody’s book while I walked the dog. Multi-tasking at it’s finest. 

If you are a fan of historical romance, don’t miss Jody’s books. She’s one of the best!

Secret #4: My Hardest Life Experience so Far
By Jody Hedlund, @JodyHedlund

Life has a way of throwing some hard things our ways sometimes, doesn’t it? 

I’ve had a number of hard things come my way, including the death of my dad when I was twenty-two years old. He died of a heart-attack when he was only 50. It happened so suddenly and unexpectedly that I never had the chance to tell him goodbye.

And while that was hard, even more difficult was when I gave birth to my twin babies.

At that time, we’d just moved to Michigan. I was busy unpacking boxes, had a two year old son, and was hugely pregnant. I thought I had two months to finish getting ready for the new babies.

But boy was I mistaken.

During a routine doctor’s visit at thirty weeks gestation, I discovered I was in labor. I hadn’t felt any contractions and my water hadn’t broken, but I was well on my way to having the babies. So the doctor ordered an ambulance to take me to the closest hospital with a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) so that after the babies were born they could receive the best possible care.

Fortunately that hospital was only thirty minutes from my home. But unfortunately I was going to have to be in the hospital for the duration of my pregnancy. Having a husband with a brand new job, a toddler who needed constant care, and knowing very few people in the community, complicated the situation immensely.

Family rallied to our support. Both Moms offered to come and stay with us during the difficult days ahead.

But my twins were determined to enter the world early. And after only a week in the hospital, my labor continued to progress against the best efforts to stop it.

My twin daughters were born NINE weeks early. They weighed 3.0 lbs. each. One of them had to be on a ventilator to help her breathe. And both of them were hooked up to numerous machines in an incubator.

When I was finally allowed to hold one of my daughters, I could fit her in my hand.

The first time I walked into my new home after being released, I cried of a broken heart. I was so distraught to return home empty-handed and leave my babies at the hospital.

But somehow I managed to survive the month of half-living at the hospital and half at home with my toddler (who wasn’t allowed in the NICU). 

Now my daughters are 13 years old, healthy, and beautiful young ladies.

The hardship still haunts me. But I’ve learned that difficulties come into our lives to help us become more grateful for our blessings.

How about you? What’s the most difficult experience you’ve faced in your life?

Publisher’s Weekly calls Unending Devotion “A meaty tale of life amid the debauchery of the lumber camps of 1880s Michigan . . . exciting and unpredictable to the very end.” 

To celebrate the release of Unending Devotion, Jody is giving away a signed copy. Leave a comment to enter the drawing. Valid only with US or Canadian addresses. Giveaway ends:

For more secrets about Jody and additional chances to win her newest release, visit her Events Page to see where she’ll be next in her “Fun Secrets About Author Jody Hedlund” blog tour.

Also join in the Pinterest Photo Contest she’s hosting. Find more information about it on her Contest Page.

Jody would love to connect with you! Find her in one of these places:

Website: http://jodyhedlund.com/

Blog: http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/

Facebook: Author Jody Hedlund

Twitter: http://twitter.com/JodyHedlund

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/jodyhedlund

If this is your first time visiting my cyber home, I would LOVE to send you a welcome packet. You can find a sign up button at the top and at the bottom of this page. So go whichever way you choose. 🙂

Does Your Novel Have a Measuring Stick?

Posted on by Katie Ganshert

It’s been awhile since I’ve found a craft book that has energized my writing.

That’s not to say I’m an expert (ha, ha!) and have nothing new to learn (ha, ha, HA!). Very far from it. It’s just that many of the craft books I’ve picked up lately seem to say the same thing, only in a different way.

Until I picked up Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence, by Lisa Cron. I highly recommend this one, writers.

I love how throughout the book, the author busts a lot of myths.

One such myth she busts?

Writing a successful story is a matter of learning to “write well”.

Um….no.

“What hooks us and keeps us reading,” Cron says, “is the dopamine-fueled desire to know what happens next. Without that, nothing else matters.”

She uses The Da Vinci Code as an example. Dan Brown has received a lot of flack about his flat prose and his two-dimensional characters and their unrealistic dialogue. Yet The Da Vinci Code was one of the best-selling novels of all time.

Why?

Because, from the very first page, readers are dying to know what will happen next.

And all I could think, as I read Lisa’s words, was Twilight. 

Hello!

How much criticism has Stephanie Meyer endured over her writing?

Just read a few of her more scathing reviews and you’ll see what I mean. 

Yet amidst all the complaints, Twilight is a fiction phenom. It’s read and loved by millions.

Why is that?

Because Stephanie Meyer tells a story that makes millions of readers NEED to know what will happen next. From the very first page. From the very first line.

All because of a little thing Lisa Cron calls The Measuring Stick.

Feast your eyes on the brilliant first line of Twilight:

I’d never given much thought to how I would die–though I’d had reason enough in the last few months–but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.

Right away, the reader is….

1. Intrigued. Because how is this character going to die?

2. Motivated to find out the answer.

3. Given something so many of us writers fail to give our readers–context.

For the rest of the novel, this line is stuck in our heads. We use it to measure the significance and meaning of everything that comes next, before this moment when Bella faces death.

Without that first sentence, we don’t know what we’re building toward. We don’t know what’s at stake.

If you have a copy of Twilight at home, read the Preface. Now imagine the Preface isn’t there. Imagine the story starts with Chapter One. We wouldn’t be nearly as invested or forgiving.

Stephanie Meyer gives her readers a context, a yardstick, a small glimpse into the bigger picture (call it whatever you’d like) and we can’t help but wonder….

Will this plot point or this character or this particular thought catapult Bella toward her inevitable demise? How is she going to die and who is she going to die for and please, will somebody save her?

It’s this driving need to know that keeps us turning pages.

It’s this driving need to know that makes a book unputdownable.

By giving the first page–preferably the first line–of your novel a measuring stick, you increase your odds of planting that need inside your reader.

Let’s Talk: Did you like Twilight? Do you think you would have turned pages as quickly without the Preface? Does your novel have a measuring stick?

I’m guest posting about faith and the writing journey on Alexis’s blog, God is Love, today!