Do This BEFORE You Write Your Book

Image by HeatherPaque from Pixabay

 I recently finished writing my latest book called Self Publish Worldwide. I also published it.

I’ve been working as a self published author for years. I even began long before self publishing was popular, and it wasn’t easy to do.

I’ve only had one book published by a publishing company and the rest I published myself.

And to be honest, I prefer self publishing because it gives me control over my books.

And its so much easier to self publish now once you understand how to do it.

But while it’s easy to self publish, selling is harder. You can’t sell a book if you don’t know who you’re selling it to.

What you need to do, before you even write one word is decide

1. Who is your audience?

2. What is the book’s category?

This may sound stupidly obvious and pointless, but it’s not and it isn’t

Audience. 

Say you’re going to write a romance novel. First, you need to know exactly who’ll read it. Obviously romance stories are aimed at women, but is yours suitable for a teenage girl, a 30 something, or a retiree? Your exact target audience will make a huge difference to how you write your book.

I recently read a book about how to write a book in a week. Obviously, it was aimed at someone who wanted to write a book quickly, but it was clear from the contents that it was aimed at someone who already was a writer and looking for a way to write quickly, not at someone who had no clue how to write a book. There’s a big difference between those two audiences. This book was perfect for me because I’m an experienced writer looking for productivity tips, not a complete newbie not knowing where to start.

So audience was critical.

Category. 

This is equally important, not only because bookstores need to know what category to list your book in, but you need to choose the category where your prospective readers will be searching.

So it’s not as simple as choosing Sci-fi or Romance categories, but to choose sub-categories like aliens or erotic romance. When you start looking at sub-categories, the list can go deep.

It’s the same with a book about writing, it can be book writing, article writing, or even productive writing.

Knowing who you’re writing to and where to find them (category) means you’ll improve your marketing by marketing directly to them, and a 10-point marketing plan makes it so simple to do and gets your book in front of the right audience quickly.

This is just one of the many things you’ll discover in Self Publish Worldwide

Download my free self publishing report at https://chertitonhousepublishing.com/free-ebooks.html

No sign up required

Stay On Topic

If you've been following me for a few years you'll know that I've been learning about marketing for quite a while now. 

And to this end, not long ago, I subscribed to a famous marketer's copywriting emails. But after a few weeks I unsubscribed because all the emails spoke too much about health and fitness, or at least what he thought that health and fitness was, and how he linked it all to copywriting was tenuous at the very least.

Not only was this a subject I have no interest in, but also all his information was incorrect so even if I wanted information about exercise and diet, following his advice would have led me to having health issues that I'd never had before, plus my health is fine and I don't suffer from anything (except maybe crazy monkey mind issues) so I never read articles about it.

I suffered through these emails for a short while and deleted them all within minutes of reading them, thinking that he was just on a current health obsession of some kind and that he'd soon get back to talking about copywriting.

Anyway, the last straw came when I received an email all about the typical US (he's American) fear of eating carbohydrates. He talked about a woman who improved her health and fitness by eating only cheese, soup and salad and how great her body looked. I laughed at that because no matter what someone's body looks like, you can't see their clogged arteries, diabetes or heart issues, and these are the things that are important.

And then he said how he himself always eats like a lion by eating lots of meat and not much of anything else. I thought this was a strange thing to do because he's not a lion so why would he want to eat like one? Also lions only eat about once every three days and I'm betting he didn't do that.

He likened his heavy meat-based diet to making his copywriting roar. Hmmm... Such a thin connection from one thing to the other. More like a 'Dad Joke.' He then provided links to his copywriting products. And that was it. No other mention of copywriting in his copywriting email.

It was this email that made me unsubscribe immediately.

You see, I didn't want dietary advice. I wanted advice about copywriting. But I didn't get anything except a a few links to his products that he wanted me to buy. So instead of being intrigued to take a look, I just thought that if his products were anything like his emails, they were of no use to me.

So how is telling you this helpful to you?

Because what I'm trying to show you is that if you're writing about something you need to stay on topic and not talk about unrelated things.

I mean, if you're talking about writing,  it's OK to talk about getting enough sleep so that you feel more awake to write, or how to keep up your motivation or productivity, or  talk about a great computer for writers, or a great book that can be helpful, but waffling on about how you stay fit isn't going to be interesting to people who want to find out about being a writer (or copywriter).

This is why it's important to stay on topic when you're writing, and whenever you talk about something else, explain how it ties into what you're saying and how it can help.

This is writing and marketing 101.

How to Write An Article in 15 Minutes or Less
- Including Research, Writing and Proof Reading

https://ruthiswriting.com/books/15.html

Make Money Writing a Book...But How?

"You can't achieve anything unless you know what your goal is" ~ Jay Abraham

I've begun with this quote because Jay Abraham if you don't already know, is one of the worlds top copywriters and his marketing and sales letters have earned millions of dollars.

He really knows what he's talking about. And if he gives advice, I take it.

And so should you.

I was engrossed in watching a DVD recording of Jay when he was part of the Titans of Direct Response Copywriting seminar.

In it, he said that marketing is more important than writing a book, and I'm sure you've heard this before.

He also went on to say that the most important thing about making money from writing a book is to know why you're writing it and who you want to sell it to.

This means that you need to know the reason why you want to write a book in the first place before you even write a word of it and also know who is the person (people) who will want to read it.

If you first know your 'why' before you write a book you'll know what your goal is and then everything you do will be working towards it.

I talk about finding your 'why' in my free ebook, 'How to Write a Book in 6 Days' which you can find (as well as other free ebooks) at http://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/free-ebooks.html.

So go and find your 'why' and then get to work writing your next book.

-----------------

Goodbye Writer's Block
How to Be a Creative Genius and Have an Abundance of Ideas Plus the Inspiration and Motivation to Write
http://www.cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/WB.html

The 'Secret' To Selling More Books

So you've written a book.

So what?

Who cares?

No one if you don't tell them about it.

But it's not enough to tell people that you've written a book.

You have to make them want to buy it.

But how do you do that?

It's not enough to just advertise your book and say "come and get it."

The 'secret' is to use emotion.

No one buys things they don't need without emotion.

You need to make them lust after your book.

So first you need to know who your market is.

And then you have to market directly to them.

Use the words in your sales page that they want to hear so that they "just have to buy it."

A good sales page can convince someone to buy your book even though they didn't even know they wanted to. But once they read your sales copy, they can't NOT buy your book.

The best way to learn how to do this is from the masters. The great copywriters.

And they learn everything they know from copywriters who've gone before them and they study marketing and learn everything they can to make their customers buy their products, even if they didn't want to buy them before.

They say that you can sell a mediocre product with great marketing, but you can't sell a great product with mediocre marketing.

So learn all you can about marketing with emotion.

Done correctly, it can rapidly multiply your sales.

Wouldn't you rather sell thousands of copies of every book you write instead of just a few dozen?

---------------------

Jeff Gardner Multi-Million-Dollar Copywriter
Sharing his swipe file with the world.
Right now, you can save $60 and get it now for only $17.77.
Includes a detailed template for you to fill in the blanks.
http://ruthiswriting.com/links/swipefile.html

The Mind Of A Great Copywriter

I've been talking a lot lately about swipefiles and how useful they can be.

But, if you do it right, you can use a swipefile to get inside the mind of great copywriters to not only see how they put their million-dollar ads together, but to understand the psychology of what they're doing.

You see, swipefiles aren't meant to be for actually swiping (stealing) the work of copywriters.

The way to get the most out of them is to take a really deep look into how they construct a sales page.

If you look deeply enough you can see how well they know their market and what emotion they're targeting.

They could be targeting jealousy, greed, lust, guilt, pride, or perhaps they're targeting self-esteem or trying to elicit joy or excitement.

Whatever it is, if you study the ads in a swipefile, you'll not only see the emotion they're aiming for, but you'll be able to see how they use it to manipulate the reader to make them want to buy.

Once you really see what they're doing it can be a real "Aha!" moment.

All ads manipulate. That's their job.

Copywriters know this and they look at all the features in the product they're writing about and turn them into desirable benefits that their target market can't resist.

And if you're writing a sales page for a book you've written, it should be easier for you because you know your own product better than any copywriter.

---------------------

Jeff Gardner Multi-Million-Dollar Copywriter
Sharing his swipe file with the world.
Right now, you can save $60 and get it now for only $17.77.
Includes a detailed template for you to fill in the blanks.
http://ruthiswriting.com/links/swipefile.html

How to Use a Swipe File

Swipe files can really help to take a sales letter from good to a money-making machine.

I find writing sales letters hard. I'm not that savvy when it comes to writing sales copy.

So I use swipe files.

It's like opening up a file and finding millions of dollars of the best copy to look through and borrow ideas from.

Sometimes I don't have a clue what to write.

So I just open up one of my swipe files and before I know it I've gone from writer's block to idea overload.

I only use swipefiles from the best copywriters so that I know they really know how to sell. And having their swipefile to read through is like finding gold.

I can look through ideas for headings, openings, bullets, stories and closes. Plus there are plenty of ideas for guarantees and huge lists of the right words to use.

Writing a book is one thing, but knowing how to sell it is what makes the difference between hundreds/thousands of sales and no sales.

That's why I'm a regular student of marketing. To make sure that once I write a book, I can sell thousands of copies.

And my collection of swipefiles are all I need to get me started.

I just take out the files and start working my way through them and before I know it I'm inundated with ideas.

If you don't already own a swipefile, it's worth looking into.

But only buy one from a top copywriter who knows how to make money writing sales pages.

-------------------

Jeff Gardner Multi-Million-Dollar Copywriter
Sharing his swipe file with the world.
Right now, you can save $60 and get it now for only $17.77.
Includes a detailed template for you to fill in the blanks.
http://ruthiswriting.com/links/swipefile.html

The Real Reason People Aren't Buying What You're Selling

There are so many ways to earn money from writing that I talk about often like writing ebooks, print books, affiliate marketing, blogging and more.

The question though is are you making enough money from it all?

If not, it's because people aren't interested in what you're selling.

And it all comes down to good marketing.

If you want to make more sales, then you need to elicit emotion from your readers.

We are all emotionally driven and we buy things because they appeal to our emotions, like the thing you read about and you "just have to have it!"

But what brings on this sudden impulse to click the 'buy now' button?

It's emotion. You feel excited or elated and you just want to have the product or book being offered.

And that's what you want to do if you want to sell more.

Get people excited to buy.

Use words that will illicit emotion.

One way to do this (and there are many ways) is to look at reviews for what you're selling and see what people liked about the product or book and use that to help sell it. Find out what it was about it that got people excited and use that to make more sales.

Alternatively look at questions that people are asking before they buy the product. What are the main features/benefits they're looking for?

Once you have all this information, use it to really sell the product by appealling to their emotions.

As an example, I recenty bought the DVD and CD set of Titans of Direct Response copywriting seminar. And their sales page begins with:

"Two days' worth of the most powerful, profitable direct marketing principles, strategies, and immediately useful tactics — this will change your business and your life..."

See how they appealed to their readers' emotions by using words like, powerful, profitable, stragegies, immediatley useful tactics, will change your business and your life."

They do this because without emotions there is no sale.

If something doesn't appeal to us (ie, we don't feel emotional about it) we won't feel compelled to buy it.

No emotion means no action.

So give them emotional reasons to buy what you're selling.



Crypto Copywriting Secrets - How to create profitable sales letters fast - even if you can't write your way out of a paper bag now.
If you want to double (even triple) the money you make from your sales letters... even if you're brand new to copywriting, and struggle with it now... then this short book will show you exactly how.
http://viewbook.at/cryptocopy

The Most Important Thing To Know Before You Write Your Next Book

There's a saying that writing is easy. Marketing is hard.

And it's true.

It's easy to write a book (even though it doesn't seem so at the time).

Getting it in front of the right customers is hard.

That's why the most important thing to know before you even start writing your book is to know your market.

In other words, who would be interested in the book you want to write?

You see, you don't write a book and then try and find people who might want to read it.

Instead, you find out who and where is your market, and then lead them to your book. Not the other way around. You don't lead your book to your market.

Here are three things to help you write a book and sell more copies:

1. Know you your market are. If you could see them, what would they look like? Also find out where they are and find a way to reach them.

2. Write to them using their jargon and terms of phrase. Look at books they're already reading to get a better idea of the language they use and to see what interests them.

3. How will they benefit from owning a copy of your book? You need to know this because it's how you're going to market your book to them by telling them how much better their life will be once they've read your book.

So before you write any book, whether it's fiction or non-fiction, you first need to know who your market is, what type of things they're interested in and how your book can benefit them more than any other book they've ever read.

Also, make sure that your intended target will actually buy a book. For instance, online gamers are really active online, but they don't usually read books. They just want to play games. And broke pensioners probably can't afford to buy an ebook, let alone know how to download one.

So choose your market carefully. Make sure they buy books. And make sure that they'll want to buy yours.

Desperate Buyers Only: An Information Product Creators Guide to Writing and Marketing So That People with Problems Will Buy
http://amzn.to/2FBXyd0

Think Carefully Before You Write Your Book Blurb

A book blurb can be found in two places - on the back cover of a printed book and in the book's description on the sales page of an online bookstore.

Blurbs are written by the author and are incredibly important because what you write in your book blurb affects a customer's buying decision.

We all do it. Before we buy a book we turn it over and read the blurb on the back cover, flick through a few pages for a brief glimpse of what's inside and that's all it takes to decide whether to buy a book or not.

And it's the same with online bookstores like Amazon.

You go to the site, read the book description (the blurb), click on the "look inside" feature to read a few pages, and then decide whether to buy the book or not.

That's why book blurbs need to be thought about carefully before they're written.

First, you need to make sure it's the correct length. This means being concise, and a blurb is usually only 200 to 300 words on a back cover, more on an online description.

What you write needs to be compelling enough to make the reader buy the book.

So don't just tell them what's in the book, tell them why they should read it. Make what you write so irresistible that they feel they HAVE to buy your book to find out more.

Sometimes, if you have them, you can put customer testimonials as the blurb, especially those that talk about how the book helped them or how great it made them feel.

But whatever you write, just remember that your book blurb is just as important as any other marketing you do because it is the difference between a sale and no sale.



The 10 Day Ebook
How to write an ebook in 10 days and earn $1,000 a month from it.
http://ruthiswriting.com/links/10dayebook.html

A Funny Marketing Email

A few weeks ago I received an email from someone, offering me their marketing services.

And it was hilarious because the person who sent it obviously knew nothing about marketing and it was one of the worst pieces of marketing I've ever seen.

I actually read it through several times and each time it seemed even funnier as I noticed more things that were wrong with it.

Below is the email --

"Hi Ruth Barringham,

This is Jerry I hope you are doing well.

I am checking in to see if you are looking for Digital Marketing, Web Development, Content Marketing and Application Development business partners for your company branding and new business development.

We also expertise in:

Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, Application Development, Website Redesigning, Web Development, CRM, Ecommerce, Portal Development, B2B and B2C Email Data Leads, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), ORM (Online Reputation Management), SMO (Social Media Optimization), LinkedIn Marketing, Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Branding, Graphic Design, Logo Design, Image Editing, YouTube Marketing etc.

Our clients include top brands who swear by our services.

Please let me know if you need more information and we can discuss further steps.

Regards,
Jerry
Web Marketing Executive [INDIA]"

-------------------------

My usual response is to move emails like this to my junk folder and block the sender.

But this time I just couldn't resist giving some constructive criticism.

So below is the response that I sent --

"Ha ha.

This is hilarious.

A marketing person who can't even market themselves.

What do I mean by that?

No mention of your company name. No website to direct me to.

Your opening sentence should have been two sentences (very poor start), as in "This is Jerry. I hope you are doing well." See. Two sentences. And that also tells me absolutely nothing about who you are or what you are offering me, not even a surname, which immediately makes people very suspicious right from the start.

You say "We also expertise in..." without first explaining what else you think you're an expert in.

You claim you have big name clients, but don't name them.

You claim they "swear by our services" but offer no testimonials.

And at the end of the email, there is no "call to action."

Nothing.

Just a tepid "let me know" and that's it.

Clearly I know more about marketing than you do.

This is possibly one of the WORST marketing emails I've ever received.

And I get a lot.

I think I'll use this email as a teaching aid of how NOT to construct a marketing email.


P.S. Also your ending of telling me what to do if I want to stop receiving emails from you, tells me immediately that this email is spam because I never signed up to receive emails from you so why do I need to unsubscribe? Always a dead giveaway of a mass commercial mailing, which is really insulting to the person receiving it."

-------------------------------

Naturally, I didn't hear from them again. Afterall, what could they say? That I was wrong and their marketing email was first class?

But you may be wondering why I'm telling you this.

It's because there's an old saying, that in order to be successful, you have to act as though it's already happened.

In other words, "Fake It Till You Make It."

But that doesn't mean to send out substandard work like this hopeless and hapless marketing "expert" did.

It means to feel the feeling of your goals already being achieved.

To act as though you've already made it and those thoughts and emotions will help you to see opportunities that you might otherwise have missed if you weren't thinking about your success.

And now is a great time to start working on your goals of being an online writer and self publisher.

So that you can begin Living The Laptop Lifestyle.

http://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/LLS.html

You’ve Written a Book. Now Comes The Hard Part

Every time I write a book I know it’s good and how much it will help people.

But the hard part is letting them know that.

It’s true that selling a book is a lot harder than writing it, and anyone who’s ever written a book knows that.

This is why copywriters are highly paid.

They know how to get people’s interest and to write a vision so great, that customers are dying to buy whatever product they’re trying to sell.

But most people, like us, can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars to a copywriter.

This is why copywriting is important to learn.

It doesn’t matter if you’re selling your own books or working as an affiliate marketer. You need to be able to write sales pages, blog posts, and emails that emote good feelings of wanting to buy what you’re selling.

Luckily, there are plenty great books about copywriting that can show you how to do it.

One copywriter whose books I always recommend (and use myself) are those written by Ben Settle.

And here are a couple of them.

I can personally guarantee that they’re good.


Crypto Copywriting Secrets - 
How to create profitable sales letters fast - even if you can't write your way out of a paper bag now.
http://viewbook.at/cryptocopy

The Affiliate Trump Card
http://viewbook.at/affiliatetrumpcard

Make More Money With Visual Writing

Visual writing is something that is used mostly in fiction writing.

But it can just as easily be used for non-fiction writing including blog posts, emails, articles and sales pages.

But what is visual writing?

Simply put, visual writing means telling a story so vividly that the reader feels like they're right there in the middle of the action.

And it doesn't matter if the action is physical or emotional, the reader needs to feel that they're part of it.

So it's easy to see how this can carry over into articles or sales pages, by using visual writing to draw the reader into what you're selling by making them feel all the benefits of owning your product or book.

There are two different types of customers online: those with a problem and those with a passion (crafts, sports, pets, etc).

So when you're writing to try and sell something, use story-telling to draw them in.


Talk about their problem and how bad it is. Then tell them about your product/book/course and how much they'll benefit by using it.

Or if you're writing to indulge their passion, write to get them really excited and eager to buy what you're selling.

Use Who, What, How, Why and Then What, in your writing and use the "then what" as a call to action to make them take the next step and make purchase.

Evoking emotion will always help you to increase your sales.

Sales people do it all the time.

So talk about their problems or desires and then weave a visual story that draws them in.

If it helps, pretend that you're talking face to face.

What would you tell them about the benefits of owning your book or product?

Then write it down.

You are a writer, so get creative.

Article Marketing With EzineArticles.com

We all know that article marketing can bring a lot of new traffic to your website, or bring back returning visitors that haven't' been to your site for a while.

Years ago one of the best and easiest ways to use article marketing was to write articles and submit them to article directories so that others could read them and publish them on their own website or blog along with your author resource box.

But then a few years ago Google really slapped the article directories harshly by refusing to index them anymore. This meant that none of their pages of articles would show up in search results anymore.

This caused many article directories to fold and only one held fast and still did well, although, not as well as they did before.

And that was EzineArticles.com.

I think that the only reason they survived so well is that they are choosy about the types of articles that are published on their site and so they don't allow spammy articles.

But is using them still worthwhile?

I still use EzineArticles.com because they still generate a significant amount of traffic back to my site.

And although my articles can't be found through the search engines anymore directly from EzineArticles.com, my articles get linked to my social media accounts so that when an article is approved and published on EzineArticles.com, a link to it shows up immediately on Google+, Twitter and Facebook.

And that is even better in a way because anyone who follows me on social media is already interested in what I have to say and so I still get plenty of page views of my articles and get click-throughs to my sites.

I also find that the longer articles get more attention than the shorter ones.

To submit a marketing article it has to be at least 400 words. But I often write articles that are up to 1,000 words and they are really popular. Even years after I've written them, they're still getting traffic to my site.

So don't dismiss this article marketing opportunity.

If you write good articles, EzineArticles.com will automatically distribute links through social media and then your social media links will show up in search engine results, even if they won't link to the EzineArticles.com directly.

And if people like your article, it will get published on other websites and bring you even more traffic.

Try it for yourself and see.

You can see my articles at http://ezinearticles.com/expert/Ruth_Barringham/38265

How NOT to Approach a Publisher

Today, out of the blue, I received an email from someone I don't know.

It was from a person who wanted me to publish their manuscript. The following is what their email said:

Dear Publisher


I am writing to you about a manuscript I have finished about my mothers time in a Nursing Home..They destroyed my mother and many others. It was one of the hardest I have ever had to witness. I needed to put it into a manuscript for other's in my position to read and learn by 

my mistakes.( It is a true story),. 


It has been some time since I wrote this manuscript. Now I want to try and get my story out there after what I have just learnt of the treatment to my brother.

My sister in-Law has just put my brother into a brand new Nursing Home paying huge amounts of money. One week and my brother is having the same terrible treatment my mother received, so so bad.


  If I can't get this published then I will do it myself, but hoping you might  just  be interested.

I spent 2 years visiting my aged mother in a Nursing Home, three weeks at a time, from morning until 11am to 8pm.

Staying all day in a Nursing Home is a real eye opener, it is just horrific. Something that wont leave my mind.

 The treatment my mother received was appalling, also what I witnessed happening to another residents was just so bad. I reported it all to the  of the Dept. Health and Aging .They had a board meeting and agreed that I had a case to do a accreditation.

I have had an editor working with me on the manuscript. She also thinks there is need for it to be published.

 I also had a 19 page report on my manuscript checked by Dr. Joseph M Fernandez ( the reviewer) from Curtin University Western Australia.

Would you be interested in taking a look at the manuscript? . My manuscript is called  N***** H*** D******* (name of manuscript removed for privacy)  If you are interested I would like to send a copy of my manuscript

If I had read this story I would have known exactly what type of Nursing Home would suit for my mother.


Now, there were four things wrong with this attempt at a manuscript submission.

Firstly it was not addressed to me personally but to "Dear Publisher." So this was an obvious clue that this same email was probably being sent to several different publishers.

Secondly, it was abundantly clear that their manuscript was going to be nothing more than a rant about the aged care home the sender put their mother in. Also the grammar and typos were numerous, so I naturally thought that if they're this bad at writing an email I don't hold out much hope for their manuscript.

Side Note:  I had a fit of laughter over their use of the word "accreditation" which means that something is of a high or acceptable standard while the emailer was actually trying to say that they were complaining of poor standards. "I reported it all to the  of the Dept. Health and Aging .They had a board meeting and agreed that I had a case to do a accreditation."

Thirdly, they didn't attach any part of the manuscript. It's standard practice to at least send the first three chapters, but this person was offering nothing upfront but wanted a response before sending the whole manuscript. This was a strange way to submit a manuscript to a prospective publisher.

Fourthly, and most importantly, I don't accept unsolicited manuscripts anyway. All the sender had to do was visit my submissions page (to which there is a link on EVERY SINGLE PAGE of my website) which clearly states

"DO NOT, under any circumstances, submit a manuscript to Cheriton House Publishing Pty Ltd."

And also:

"Any manuscripts received by mail will not be read and will not be returned."

AND:

"Also please note: we have not, and never will, accept manuscript submissions by email. So please do not email a submission query or email your manuscript."

Now you would have thought that offering this much straight forward information would stop anyone with a modicum of intelligence emailing me an unsolicited manuscript (or the offer of one).

My submission page also states:

"Below is some information which you may find useful in helping you to successfully submit your manuscript to another publishing company:" and I go on for several paragraphs with helpful information about how to submit a manuscript correctly.

So in response to the email, even though I usually just delete them, I responded with a short sentence:

"Please read submission requirements at http://cheritonhousepublishing.com/submissions.html."

I thought this would help them because the page contains the information about how to correctly submit a book manuscript.

But obviously anything short of a request to read and publish their manuscript wasn't acceptable because in just a few minutes I received the following curt response:

"Thank you for your reply. I would never want to do business with you as your requirements read quite   rude.

I did have a editor d my manuscript.  I will make sure I wont ever buy one of  your novels as you are very cold."

Again, look at how badly written even this short email is with "a editor" and "d my manuscript" and "wont."

I also have no idea what difference having an editor makes when I don't want to publish the manuscript, or even look at it.

And threatening me by saying that they've never bought one of my books before and now they never will? It's not much of a threat is it?

Clearly this person has anger issues if they have a knee-jerk reaction to something so mundane as someone not wanting to publish their manuscript. Authors get rejections more then they get acceptances. It simply goes with the job. There's a well known saying that to be a writer you need to have a thick skin.

What this all comes down to is that this was a really REALLY bad way to try submit a book manuscript to a publisher.

The correct way is to research the publishing company first to see what types of books they publish and look at their website to see if they are currently looking for unsolicited manuscripts and what genres they want.

Most publishing companies will also have strict guidelines to follow for submissions. These guidelines are usually also a test to see if a prospective author can follow simple instructions. Because if you can't then they probably won't want to work with you anyway.

So if you're thinking of submitting a manuscript to a publisher (or to an agent) make sure you do your research first so that you don't waste their time or yours.

And also make sure your covering letter (if submitting by mail) or your email reads coherently and doesn't contain typos.

The one I received was full of red flags right from the start so even if I was looking for manuscript submissions I would have deleted this one immediately.

The Yearbook is packed with advice, inspiration and practical guidance on who to contact and how to get published.

New articles in the 2017 edition on:

Stronger together: writers united by Maggie Gee

Life writing: telling other people's stories by Duncan Barrett (co-author of the Sunday Times bestseller GI Brides)

The how-to of writing 'how-to' books by Kate Harrison (author of the 5:2 Diet titles)

Self-publishing Dos and Dont's by Alison Baverstock

The Path to a bestseller by Clare Mackintosh (author of the 2015 Let Me Go)

Getting your lucky break by Claire McGowan 

Getting your poetry out there by Neil Astley (MD and Editor at Bloodaxe Books)

Selling yourself and your work online by Fig Taylor

Then and now: becoming a science fiction and fantasy writer - Aliette de Bodard

Writing (spy) fiction - Mick Herron

Making waves online - Simon Appleby

All articles are reviewed and updated every year. Key articles on Copyright Law, Tax, Publishing Agreements, E-publishing, Publishing news and trends are fully updated every year.

Plus over 4,000 listings entries on who to contact and how across the media and publishing worlds

Writers' & Artists' Year Book 2017

New Website Layout Increased Sales

Two weeks ago I decided to redesign my website homepage over at RuthIsWriting.com.

For quite some time the homepage has contained links to a few useful items from other websites, like gifts for writers (mugs, hats, T-shirts, etc) and a writing magazine subscription.

And I decided that it was time to use my homepage for my own books and ebooks.

What prompted this is because I recently set up three of my ebooks as print books too.

So I changed all the links to my books over at Cheriton House Publishing so that they included links to the newly available print editions, and I also decided to put links to them on the home page of my writing website too.

So I moved all the homepage links and ads for other products to inner webpages and listed some of my own books on the homepage instead.

Did it make a difference?

Absolutely. And it was much better than I thought it would be.

First of all I received quite a few new signups for my emails AND I sold more books and ebooks than usual.

How many more? It's hard to say in exact numbers or percentages (without doing a lot of counting and math) but I have definitely sold more books in this past fortnight than usual.

This could be partly because it's getting near Christmas (it's currently Christmas Eve, Eve) but I'm sure it has something more to do with my new webpage design and placing more book links on my own homepage.

Which just goes to show that marketing does work, even some that I didn't even tell anyone about. I just put up the new ads and left them to do their own thing.

So if you have somewhere that you want to put more links to your books, but you haven't done it yet, maybe now would be a good time, because it may increase your books sales more than you think it will.

And below is a link to one of my books that can help you start your New Year off with a much bigger online writing income.

(Gotta get my sales pitches in wherever I can) :)

Living The Laptop Lifestyle: How to Start & Grow a Profitable Online Business So You Can Quit Your Job

Click Here to learn more.

A Fast Way to Market Your Ebook

Being an ebook writer is a great way to earn income from writing.

For me, writing ebooks also provides me with the kind of writing I want to do.

I much prefer to sit and write one ebook after another than to do short freelance projects that I have to send to editors in the hope that they'll publish it.

Don't get me wrong though, freelance writing, if done correctly, can provide a lucrative income.

But I prefer to sit and do longer projects, like ebooks , and enjoy the passive income they bring that can go on for years.

But ebooks need to be marketed in order to get them in front of as many people as possible.

Online marketing is a huge topic because there are so many ways to do it.

I find that the fastest way to do it is through article marketing.

This is one of the marketing methods that I've used for years and even though it's not as effective as it used to be before the Google Slap, it still works. And because I'm a writer, writing articles is easy to do.

What I do is, once my ebook is written, I write 3 to 5 short directory articles that relate to the subject of my ebook.

Then I publish them on EzineArticles.com one at a time, every 2 or 3 days.

And there are 3 things I do to make sure that my articles get read and re-published.

How to Increase Book Sales More Than You Ever Have Before

Writing a book is a lot easier than selling it.

And it's disappointing when you write a book but no one wants to buy it, or if your sales are abysmally small.

So what can you do about it if you've written a great book but you just can't get anyone to buy a copy?

Well all is not lost and there is something you can do that is almost guaranteed to help you get more book sales.

It's a well known and well researched fact that you can instantly increase the amount of books you sell if you use the "psychology of persuasion."

What is the psychology of persuasion?

It's as simple as it sounds. It's getting into the psychology of your prospective readers and persuading them to buy your book.

What you need is a reason that they should buy your book.

So what is it that they'll gain by reading your book?

Will they learn something?

Will they be able to do something they haven't be able to do before?

Will it stop pain or suffering?

Will it affect them emotionally making them happy, sad, scared or thrilled?

What exactly is it that your readers will get if they buy your book?

In other words, what's in it for them?

It might even be a temporary discount so that they can save money for a limited time.

You see when someone buys a product, they're not buying the product, but they're buying the benefit of having the product.

So if you've written a non-fiction book, don't just tell your readers what they'll learn, tell them what they'll be able to do.

And if it's a fiction book, tell them how it will make them feel or how much they'll enjoy curling up in a comfy chair with your book and a hot cup of chocolate, or if it's a horror story, how not to read it alone at night.

Just make sure you "lay it on thick" and then get your message out to your audience through social media, email, blog posts and any other way you can. Do audio or video interviews or guest blog posts or other ways to reach a whole new audience.

And if you do it right, your book sales will increase more than they ever have before.

This Type of Writing Will Significantly Increase Sales

Working as a writer means you need to earn a consistent income from your writing which means doing  marketing, because people won't buy your books or visit your websites if they don't know they're there.

So no matter what kind of writer  you are - novelist, blogger, freelancer, online writer, etc, - you also must be a copywriter.

Copywriting is described as salesmanship in print.

And it's imperative that you know how to do it if you want to make more sales.

Copywriting is all about persuasion. It's persuading people to buy your book even if they didn't know they wanted it.

Learning copywriting can also help you in all your writing.

Imagine how great it would be if you could use persuasion in all your writing. Even in writing fiction you'd know how to keep your readers glued to your story, eager to read more.

Just try it and see the difference it can make.

Are You Doing Social Media Backwards?

I see it all the time. People with links on their blogs, websites and emails with the words "Follow Me on Twitter" or "Like Me On Facebook."

But is that the correct way to use social media?

Are you supposed to use it to drive people to your social media pages?

Until recently I used to be the same.

I had links to my social media accounts on all my websites and emails.

Now they're gone.

Why?

Because you should be driving people TO your website FROM your social media pages, not the other way around.

I was listening to a podcast recently and the person being interviewed said sending your website visitors over to your social media pages is like having customers in your store and sending them to someone else's cash register.

It was a light bulb moment for me.

So now my website don't have links to my social media accounts, but my social media accounts have links to my websites.

I've finally stopped using social media backwards.

And it's working.

Know Thy Market

If you want to sell more books and make more money from your writing, then you need to know your market.

• Who are you writing for?


• What are you giving them?


• How will it help them?

Do you even know who you’re readers are?

Having a hungry market is more important than the work that you produce.

If you’re writing a book that no one wants to read, then you’ll never sell any copies, not matter what.

But if you write a book that you already know people want to read, then you’ll have a hungry market.