How My Job as a Book Marketer Turned into Another Way to Help and Support Authors

Photo credit HtcHnm via Pixabay

 

One of the things I love about being a book reviewer is that it is a great way to support other authors. The same goes for my monthly newsletter; I get to not only learn about other authors and their books through interviews, but I also have a chance to share all about their work and books. 

 

I am not one of those authors who view other authors as competition. Heck, no! We are all in this thing together and I believe it is important to support other authors.

 

We need to lift each other up, not tear each other down!

 

That said, I will always jump at the opportunity to do something that will support another author.

 

So imagine my delight when I was offered the position of Marketing Manager by PsychoToxin Press last year, in December. This position enables me to not only help support other authors but also to get the word out about some amazing books! (It helps that I’m a booklover and love to read a lot!)

 

While I have worked in book marketing, I have been using any and all available resource to promote authors and share about forthcoming books. Recently, I started to think about how I could also use this blog for that purpose.

 

In the past, I did post about other authors on this blog when they had books coming out. I featured guest posts, did a series for both Read An E-Book Week and Youth Art Month, and included my blog in blog tours.

 

Then for the longest time, this blog went quiet. There weren’t that many posts and authors didn’t use it for promotional purposes anymore.

 

That is about to change.

 

It was not too long ago that I started regularly posting on this blog again. I mostly used it to promote my own books and talk about the writing life.

 

Now, however, I will be including other authors on here and promoting their books. I will also be posting about forthcoming books as well as any guest posts the authors wish to share. I plan to interview authors on this blog as well.

 

I will continue to post about my own stuff as well – in fact, I’m posting a cover reveal for my forthcoming novella, All the Beautiful Things, tomorrow – and there will also be posts related to writing.

 

But for the most part, I will be posting about other authors on here and providing them with just one more place on the Internet where they can share about their books, or anything else they want to share. Who knows? My blog just may be a part of an author's blog tour again!

 

It’s just one more way to help and support other authors, and I’m happy to be able to offer this to them through my blog.

From Blog to Ebook: Write Like the Wind Gives Writers Inspiration, Resources and Tips for their Writing Journey

 

In September of last year, I ran a series on this blog in which I posted something about writing every day for one month. While I was able to accomplish this challenge, the series didn’t really take off among readers, so I moved on to other things.

 

However, while I was recently trying to figure out what next free ebook to make available from my newsletter, The SPARREW Newsletter, I was struck with an idea: Why not turn that series into a free ebook? After all, those blog posts were on the subject of writing, something which I knew subscribers of my newsletter would be interested in.

 

I liked this idea and ran with it! The result is Write Like the Wind! Inspirational Notes for Writers.

 

That title is different than the one I advertised in the June issue of the newsletter. I ended up changing it! That’s not all I changed, though. Since I wanted to give the posts a new look, I added some extra material, which I included in quote boxes. I also expanded the list of books I recommend to writers, with 52 titles in all. I also changed some of the posts so they weren’t outdated or so that they had newer information.

 

One thing I noticed as I worked on revising these posts is that there were a lot of typos. Yikes! I can’t believe I missed them last time around. So I proofread the whole manuscript to get rid of those typos.

 

The result is an ebook which I hope every writer can enjoy reading, no matter how new or experienced they are to the writing world. I tried to make this ebook something which all kinds of writers may find useful, at every level of their writing career. I also shared some of my own personal lessons learned thus far in my own journey, as well as some tips that have worked for me.

 

I am thrilled to be able to impart more wisdom on to other writers out there and I hope they find the resources to be useful.

 

Here is the blurb:

 

The writing life can be hard sometimes. We can all use a little encouragement and support along the way. Write like the Wind gives writers of all ages and stages that support and encouragement. From tips on how to cope when you can't get the words on the page to reminders to keep going despite rejections, these notes will shine a light for the writers struggling in the dark and provide motivation to keep that desire to write going strong. Includes a list of 52 recommended books for writers.

 

And here’s the buy link

Make Your Words Count

 

One goal I had when I started this monthly writing challenge was to make all of the blog posts short. I have noticed that, with online content, shorter is better.

 

In order to bypass this demand for shorter content, a lot of companies and website owners started using this trick: Making each block of paragraphs shorter. These short paragraphs normally contained 2 or 3 sentences.

 

This visual trick enabled the content to appear “short.” A fast read.

 

Unfortunately, most of my posts ended up being longer than I wanted them to be. A lot of them were over 500 words. I guess I just had too much to say or there was a lot of information to share.

 

With blogs, you really have a lot of wiggle room with how short or long your posts can be. It’s entirely your choice.

 

Many blog writers have found, however, that shorter is usually better. Shorter gets more clicks. Shorter gets more reads. Shorter gets more shares.

 

And, in some cases, shorter is all you get.

 

With both freelance writing and content writing, I have been assigned a certain word count on assignments. Some had to be under 1000 words while others could be as long as 2000 words.

 

But in other cases, I have had to write shorter content. Some of them with as low as 300 words.

 

When you are in a situation like this, you have to make your words count. You have to be selective in your word choice.

 

Your writing must engage your reader. So if you only have a low amount of words available to use, you have to use active language. Avoid passive writing and writing that rambles. Delete the fluff. Omit irrelevant words.

 

Another thing to keep in mind for writing short content is to make sure you stick only to the facts. Don’t add opinions or suggestions. Get right to the point straight out the gate.

 

Additionally, for short content, you need to get creative with words. Instead of “a lot of” you can use “many” instead. Use “some” instead of “a handful.” Think of other, shorter ways to rephrase your writing.

 

While most readers may not have a problem with reading lengthy content, editors know what their readers want – and how long they want it. Therefore, most will assign a shorter word count to writers.

 

As far as blog posts and social media posts are concerned, the shorter, the better. Grab your readers’ attention and take them to your content, where they’ll see that a short piece awaits their reading pleasure. And for shorter content, especially for online content, it will be a pleasure for them to read.