Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Author NL Greene shares some writing tips with us



Hi everyone! I'm Nichole ~Author N.L. Greene~.

I have a series (The Deadly Flower Series) through a small press publisher and I am also an Indie Author who has self-published 3 books so far (Twisted, Illusions Begin, and Magic Unfolds).
I've been writing for over 3 years now and my writing style has probably changed over a 100 times! I went from co-writing, to writing solo, then I went from outlining and planning meticulously to just sitting down to a blank screen and writing what I feel. What I've found works best for me is the solo writing and letting the story write itself. I usually start with an idea, maybe a few paragraphs of basic outline, but that’s it. Then I sit down and let my mind run with the idea and wait to see what happens. This writing style works for me because then I don’t feel like I have rules to follow or guidelines I need to stick too. Sometimes when we first come up with an idea, we have this plan of where it should go but as we write, it starts to veer off in another direction. I like the freedom to follow that path and see what happens. Because I'm an Indie Author I've also done all the marketing and promo for those books. I'll be honest, when I first started writing, I didn't realize all the work AFTER the book was published that I'd have to do. Thankfully, the Indie world is full of some amazing people that are willing to help out and give tips. 

So, here are my marketing tips…
1- Get to know other authors and be supportive of them. Promoting and supporting others in the author world is not only a really nice thing to do but it actually helps with your own marketing. We like to help each other out so when we see someone willing to go that extra step for us, we tend to return the favor.
2- Find good promo sites, like BookBub, to advertise your book on. These sites reach tens of thousands of readers in one day which can be priceless. It's more than worth the investment!
3- Spend hours on social media! My husband always teases me and says "Are you Facebooking again?" and the answer is always "Yes!" If you have a good cover and blurb for your book, it'll probably sell. But in order to make fans, people that will not only buy your book but that will also tell all their friends to buy your book, are fans. In order to have them, you need to talk to them, build a relationship with them, and let them know how much you appreciate them by taking the time to read and share your book.
4- Share photos, quotes, passages, or whatever little snippets of your book with your fans. It builds the anticipation of new books coming out and makes new readers curious about already published books.
5- Never stop doing any of the above! As long as you want to sell books, you have to do marketing. There are so many people in the world; it takes a long and a lot of work to reach them all!
Thanks so much for taking the time to read my tips, I hope some of them are helpful!! Feel free to follow me on FB or friend request me and check out my Amazon Author page!! XOXO





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