On Writing:

July 28, 2015

Marketing and Promotion (Part 2)

Marketing and promoting your book(s) and yourself can be very expensive. I’ve spent hundreds (probably thousands) of dollars on:

1. traveling expenses related to speaking engagements and kids’ events
2. vendors’ fees
3. buying a cowgirl outfit and “horsie” gifts to give away at book signings
4. giving away free books.

However, there are a few simple, inexpensive ways to market books that have proved somewhat successful for me. I must have done something right because the first book in my juvenile fiction Keystone Stables Series, A HORSE TO LOVE, is a best seller with about 40,000 copies in print (if you add the first and second editions together). In juvenile fiction, 20,000 copies is the goal to attain if you want to be a best seller. In adult fiction, the magic number is 100,000.

Counting all eight Keystone Stables books, there are well over 100,000 sold. To all my fans, I say a heartfelt thank you.

But how did this all happen? Well, besides Zondervan doing some marketing in catalogs and online and my own marketing online with a blog and other social media like Facebook and Twitter, let’s discuss just one marketing technique I use that really doesn’t require much legwork nor the Internet:

Buy some desktop publishing supplies like business card stock and a graphics program like The Print Shop. (Your computer might already have a program installed).

Design your own business card. Make sure you put your website AND your blog site on that card as well as your phone number. Add an attractive graphic, like the cover of your book or your own portrait shot, and print your own business cards.

Now, what do you do with all these dozens and dozens of business cards besides handing them out to everyone you know in church or at the club?

1. Christmas is a great time of the year to start this marketing plan. Christmas means Christmas cards! Put a business card in every Christmas card you send.
2. Put a business card in all the bills you pay through the mail (All the time, not just at Christmas).
3. Put a business card with every tip you leave at a restaurant.
4. If your books are sold in any stores, ask the store manager if you can place some business cards at the check-out counter, or sometimes the store will have a community bulletin board where you can post some cards.
5. Of course, when you are selling your books at book signings or at vending affairs, a nice pile of cards should be on your table for folks to take at will.

Short of dropping thousands of these little advertisements out of a plane flying over a football stadium, you can explore other ways to get your name out there using business cards. It’s an inexpensive but effective way to let folks know that you’ve arrived as an author. And it really doesn’t cost that much. So plan some strategy and get started.

Look for more marketing tips to come in future blogs. Maybe I can help you with that dreaded part of writing/publishing that most of us authors hate as much as an abscessed tooth.

(And now a word from our sponsor: shameless promotion straight ahead!)

Christian foster girl Skye Nicholson has her hands full when wild Tanya Bell, another foster girl at Keystone Stables, wants nothing to do with her or the horses.

But then, a mare dies giving birth to a filly, and Tanya’s perspective on life starts to change.

http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Belles-Special-Keystone-Stables-ebook/dp/B003SE765M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438095205&sr=1-1&keywords=Southern+belle%27s+special+gift+by++Marsha+Hubler

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July 20, 2015

A Word about Marketing and Promotion

If you’ve gotten a book published, then you’ve probably experienced the ins and outs, and ups and downs, of marketing your own work.

Book signings? I hate them. In another blog, I’ll tell you why.

Most writers hate all kinds of promotion and marketing because they take us away from valuable writing time; yet, they are a necessary evil to get our names out there in the public eye.

If you haven’t a big name that might pop up on a talk show or on syndicated radio programs (which WILL sell thousands of books), then you have to devise a plan to promote your work and yourself.

We’re going to post a few blogs about this topic because there’s SO much to know about marketing a book. Even if you are just in the process of writing your manuscript, you need to promote yourself, and one of the biggies these days is social media online.

So, today’s writing tip is a short one: start a website and a blog site. That’s one way to start getting the exposure you need to sell books. Then post on your blog regularly, at least once or twice a week to build up your following.

“But my book isn’t even out yet,” you might say.

Nevertheless, you can start drawing a fan base by writing either short excerpts of your book or writing about topics or themes similar to that of your book. I have two active blogs at the moment. The one, www.horsefactsbymarshahubler.wordpress.com is all about horses and is targeted at kids who are horse fans and would want to read my Keystone Stables books. My other blog, www.marshahubler.wordpress.com, targets writers and is primarily a service blog to help other writers with all facets of the writing/publishing business.

It takes years to build up a fan base, so devise a plan and get to it. Choose a theme or topics of interest that will draw folks to your sites. Get your name floating out there in cyberspace so when your book comes out, folks will, first of all, know who you are and will know about you and your book through your social media. Secondly, they’ll be eager to buy a book with an author with whom they’ve had direct contact.

Whether you’re planning to be published, have the contract in your hand, or already have your book out, get started today!

KEYSTONE STABLES BOOK ONE

A HORSE TO LOVE

Skye Nicholson is a hateful foster kid, but when she meets Christian foster parents and a gorgeous horse named Champ, her life is changed.

 

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On Writing: Passive vs. Active Verbs

July 13, 2015

Passive vs. Active Verbs

“Am, are, is, was, were, be, been!”

I don’t know how many times throughout my teaching career I had kids in my English classes recite those “BEING VERBS” so they would know NOT to use them in their writing assignments so often. I dare say thousands of times. So, the list has been ingrained in my thick brain as much as I hoped it was ingrained in my students’ mushy minds.

But, you know, after all the years I’ve taught English and all the years I’ve been writing for publication, I still catch myself overusing these words when I’m expounding. Using these words seems to come as natural as breathing, not only for beginning writers but for seasoned vets as well.

These nasty little three-and-four-letter words are like pesky little gnats in your eyes and the foundation to what we call the “passive voice,” a voice you should try to avoid 90% of the time. Why?

The passive voice makes your writing dull, lifeless, and uninteresting. These little nasties take the punch right out of any really good story you’re trying to write.

Let’s look at a few examples of passive voice verbs vs. active voice:

Passive: Joe was walking his dog Barney last night. (Ho hum.)

Active: Joe walked his dog Barney last night.

 

Passive: Martha was listening to her brother’s phone conversation.

Active: Martha listened to her brother’s phone conversation.

 

Passive: Trigger, a handsome Palomino, was ridden by Roy Rogers.

Active: Roy Rogers rode Trigger, a handsome Palomino.

 

Passive: Sally’s baby boy is loving his new toy.

Active: Sally’s baby boy loves his new toy.

 

Passive: The Jones’ kids have been going to camp every summer for years.

Active: The Jones’ kids have gone to camp every summer for years.

So, in a nutshell, there you have a quick survey of one aspect of the passive versus active voice. Take the time to evaluate some of your latest writings. Use a highlighter and see how many times these little nasties pop up. You’ll probably be surprised.

Just working on this one facet of your writing will improve your manuscripts far beyond what you can imagine. Work on sentence structure. Throw out the little nasties and make stronger sentences with more of a punch. Your readers will be glad you did, and they’ll be eager to turn the page in your book to see what’s coming next.

 

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IT’S NOT TOO LATE  TO REGISTER FOR THE

MONTROSE CHRISTIAN WRITERS CONFERENCE!

July 19^th-24^th

http://www.montrosebible.org/OurEvents/tabid/113/page_550/1/eventid_550/58/Default.aspx

Four Major Morning Continuing Classes

40 Afternoon Workshops

Fellowship with Other Authors, Agents, and Editors

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On Writing: Telling, Not Showing is Okay?

July 6, 2015

You Should Tell, Not Show?

In my last blog, I focused on “showing,” not “telling” in narration, and I gave you an example of lousy narration versus that which will catch the eye of the beholder.

Let’s continue with the premise that good narration can be “telling,” not “showing” if handled properly. If you do need to “expound” about details that you simply can’t include in dialogue, then I suggest following the next few steps to good “telling:”

1. “Paint” a picture with your words that includes as many of the senses as you can. (Remember my waterfall scene in the last blog?) Think of your reader as one of the characters so he/she experiences the same thing your characters are experiencing.
2. If you are going to open your book (or each chapter, for that matter) with narration and not dialogue, hook your reader. That all important first paragraph of your novel will either inspire your reader to go on or cause him to yawn and put your book down. Check the opening paragraphs of best-selling authors and analyze how they grab your attention in that first paragraph.
3. Even though you’re probably writing your novel in one predominant character’s voice, good narration often establishes an omniscient voice, one that is authoritative and sets the general mood of the novel. The earlier you accomplish this, the better. (Again, study the beginning chapters of some great novels. What voice does the writer present in the narration?)
4. Do not expound for pages and pages of narration. That’s a sure-way to lose your reader. Condense and summarize if nothing exciting is happening to your character. Remember our literature AND our readers today in our fast-moving society are both a far cry from the novels or fans of that style or writing from decades ago.
5. Dialogue is not always the way to go with back story. If details are not that important in a character’s past life, you can work it in to the manuscript so that your character is reflecting into the past. Don’t bore your reader with unimportant details!
6. Shorten your narration to a few sentences if you’re describing secondary characters. You can’t always show every single action, dialogue, or mood of all your characters. It isn’t necessary. There are times when you will want to economize your method and just plain “tell” the reader what happened. But as a skillful storyTELLER, you can refine your writing style and keep your reader on the edge of his seat, even if you are “telling,” not “showing.”

So there you have it. Telling is not always bad. It depends entirely on the skill you incorporate to hook that reader and keep his attention through your spurts of narration.

 

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TIME TO REGISTER FOR THE

MONTROSE CHRISTIAN WRITERS CONFERENCE!

Becky and Jim Fahringer

(Directors of the Montrose Bible Conference Center)

July 19^th-24^th

http://www.montrosebible.org/OurEvents/tabid/113/page_550/1/eventid_550/58/Default.aspx

Four Major Morning Continuing Classes

40 Afternoon Workshops

Paid Professional Critiques with Award-Winning Authors and Editors

Fellowship with Other Authors, Agents, and Editors

Award-winning Eva Marie Everson

will present Foundations of Fiction through Film

(6 sessions)

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