Tag Archives: Renee Daniel Flagler

Marketing the Write Way by Renee Flagler

Marketing is a monster, a science and a very broad concept. The good news is that it can be tamed, understood and reined in with a little understanding. Over the years, I’ve also learned that marketing, for many writers, can sound like a four letter word. I’m here to tell you it’s not so bad. Now, granted, my perspective can be a little biased since I’ve spent over 15 years working as a marketing professional in the lovely corporate arena. However, I want to help you understand this beast just enough to make it work for you.

First I’ll start with basic definitions. Marketing is:

1. The process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service

2. An aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer

3. Activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers

Marketing activities include: advertising (print, broadcast & online), PR/Publicity, printed materials (aka collateral), events, sponsorship, direct mail, brand management & strategic partnerships. The different forms of marketing include, traditional marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, and search engine marketing to name a few.

Here are a few of my recommended strategies for writers. For the sake of keeping this post at a reasonable length, I’ll share more strategies in upcoming posts.

Advertising:

It’s great when it’s cost effective. It can also be costly. Before doing any kind of advertising be sure that you are using the right source to reach your targeted audience. I wouldn’t make sense for a Christian fiction author to advertise in a magazine or on a website that is geared towards avid readers of mystery or sci-fi books.

PR/Publicity:

This is focused totally on gaining access to your readership by use of the media. Contrary to what many believe, this form of marketing is not free! Effective PR, when it’s done well, takes time and time equals money. However, adding PR strategies to your marketing campaign can prove to be very effective and can often give you a great return on your investment. If you can create a dynamic press kit on your own, go for it. If not, hire someone do it for you. At the very lease your press kit should start with a professional sounding bio, a press release, contact information, a photo, and any media clippings that you may have been able to acquire. Find reasons to reach out to the media. If your book wins is nominated for an award, generate a press release and send it out to the media. If you are asked to participate in a noteworthy event, generate a press release and circulate it. Start with you hometown media outlets and pan out from there.

Events:

Even in this digital age, it’s extremely important to get out in front of your audience. Your presence sells books. At the end of the day, you are your brand and your brand needs as much exposure as possible. Plan promotional events around the launch or content of your book. Attend and/or participate in conferences, book festivals & fairs, workshops and seminars. It’s great for meeting readers, networking and getting yourself exposed throughout the marketplace. When readers get to know you, they buy based on you. You are selling yourself with every book. Be wise when determining what events to attend or plan. Make sure your decision is cost effective and strategic.

Social Media Marketing:

The first thing you must understand is that simply having a Facebook, Twitter or Goodreads profile is not marketing. Marketing is much more strategic than posting updates about how cold it is outside. Use your social media platforms to be social. Engage your audience and focus on audience building strategies. To see effective social media marketing in action friend, like or follow a few of your favorite brands and see how they interact with their audience. You can run contests, offer giveaways, build your email database and much more using your social media profile. Let me warn you…do not, and I repeat, do not, get on Facebook and Twitter and just post, “Buy my book.” Do not, post your link on everyone page as they friend you. You must first engage your audience in a genuine manner otherwise you will only succeed in annoying them and causing them to unfriend or unfollow you!

I hope these quick tips have helped to guide you in starting to build a great, integrated marketing plan. Remember the best campaign is an integrated campaign—one that incorporates several strategies at once. You must always engage in more than one method to reach your audience so that you can make as many impressions as possible. The more people are exposed to you, the more familiar they are with you and your brand and the more likely they are to move towards making that purchase.

Renee Flagler

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Conquering Writer’s Block by Renee Flagler

I’ll start off by saying, “There’s no such thing as writer’s block.” Come on, say it with me, “There’s no such thing as writer’s block.” Now you’re wondering that the heck was the issue you encountered when you thought you hit a wall in that story you were working on. There are several things you can call it, but don’t call it writer’s block. It doesn’t exist! Read on and I’ll make you a believer.

You’ve been working on a story and have come to a point where you just can’t seem to move forward or you’re not sure what your character is going to do next. You put the manuscript aside and then came back to it and…still nothing! Several things can happen when you’re working on a story. You lose motivation. You get distracted. You find that a story has gone into a direction other than what you intended. You’ve decided that you want to shift gears. Whatever the problem is, it’s an indication that it’s time to exercise and expand you writing muscle. Here are few tactics that get past that thing that you think is writer’s block.

Break the Mold

It may be time to do something different. If your writing ritual is to wake up, get a cup of tea, and write for two hours every morning, then try writing at night. Perhaps writing at a different time of day will allow your experiences for that day to impact your writing. It’s possible that you could be in a different mental space depending on the time of day. Break out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself by doing something new. Change your scenery. If you write at home most of the time, try going taking your laptop to the park, the beach or your local Starbucks. Use the scenery, people, or other external influences to add a different spin to your story. Perhaps your character takes a trip to one of these places. What can happen next? Who can they run into?

Re-Enter the Room from a Different Angle

More than likely, you’ve been viewing your story from a certain perspective. When this happens, think of your story as a room. If you’ve been getting to the story through the front door, why not sneak in through the back window. For example, try a new angle. Allow your character to experience a change of perspective and see things differently for once—even if it’s temporary. Think about how their change in perspective can spark new life into the story.

External Inspiration

This is one of my favorite tactics and one that I find works very well when I conduct workshops on this subject. Cut out interesting words, headlines, and titles from newspapers, ads and magazines. Store them in a box or envelop and when you find that you’ve hit a wall or feel like you’ve run out of ideas, pull one out of these headlines to help ignite a little fire under your story. For example, you’ve clipped the words “moving sale,” perhaps it’s time for one of your characters to make a move, either literally or figuratively. In one of my sessions, an attendee used a clipping that read “house calls.” She used that to move her story along by having the antagonist show up at other character’s houses.

There are more ideas where this came from. However, for the sake of keeping this post from turning into a short story, I’ll provide those additional tactics in the next issue. In the meantime, if you find yourself dealing with the thing you call ‘writer’s block’ put some of these tactics to the test. I’d love to hear how they work out for you.

Happy writing!

Renee Daniel Flagler

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Renee Daniel Flagler is an award-winning freelance writer, marketing professional and the author of four novels, including the newly released title, Raging Blue. Connect with Renee via Twitter or Facebook, or visit her website at www.ReneeDanielFlagler.com.

The Learning Never Stops

Honing your skills as a writer is vital to the pursuit of a successful writing career. Like editing, the learning never really stops. One of the best ways to hone your writing skills is to constantly challenge yourself. Continuous learning is the key to perfecting any skill. When it comes to writing, no matter how seasoned you are, there’s always room for improvement. Many prolific writers use writing prompts to fine tune their skills.

Allow the first draft of every story to flow naturally. Do not try to disrupt the creative flow by being overly concerned about grammar, sentence structure and other technical issues. Initially, keep your focus on getting your story out. Once you’ve gotten the story out of your head and onto paper (or into your laptop) then go back and begin to shape the story into a crafty, well-written tale. This is where you first begin to challenge yourself. Examine your first draft and determine all the ways you can improve upon your story. How can you make the second version better than the first?

Read, read and then read some more. As a writer, reading is imperative. I can’t stand it when a writer says, “I don’t read.” I know that I’m won’t be interested in anything that they write since I doubt I’ll learn anything them. Even when a writer reads for entertainment, learning inadvertently happens. Staying in the realm of the written word helps to massage your writing muscles. Chose books from various genres and authors of all walks of life. Pay attention to all of the techniques other author’s use to pull you into a story. Study these elements and try to perfect them in your own work.

Writing workshops and classes are available at libraries, schools and conference centers across the country. You may even consider enrolling into an MFA program. You will be amazed by how much you can learn about yourself as a writer. Take advantage of these courses to help you hone your skill, get started on that next novel or simply find out more about the world of writing. Take a variety of courses to help you develop your skill. Whether you are a seasoned writer or just starting out, you’re bound to learn something new.

Now sit down and write something fabulous!

Renee Daniel Flagler
www.reneedanielflagler.com
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ANNOUNCEMENT: Hello All, Dee here. I’ll be conducting a FREE eBook formatting workshop for people who are signed up for my monthly newsletter.
Topic: eBook Formatting Basics for Fiction Titles Cost: Free Date: March, 24, 2012 Time: 3-4 p.m. Central Location: Become A Successful Author Website (link and password will be given the day before the event)

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for? Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author (eBook) for only $4.99 from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble or print copies for only $7.99 by using the Contact page of this website and tell Dee know how many copies you’d like and shipping address. She’ll email the ordering information. Or you can purchase the print version from any book store for $9.99.