Oct 7, 2022 | Editors' Blog, Advice for Writers, Non Fiction, Self Help, Women's
By Jamie Anderson, author of Someone to Kiss
Do you know all the steps a writer goes through to get a book published? I certainly didn't before it happened to me. If you're planning on going the traditional route, here is a good idea of what you can expect, based on my own experiences with Someone to Kiss:
- Write a book
This step can take anywhere from a few months to several decades, during which time you will stop and start and rewrite and cry and doubt both your skill and your worth, more times than you can count. But, guess what? You will finish. You can finish. If I can, anyone can.
- Edit your book
Yes, you do need to edit your book before you start sending it out to agents and publishers. I didn't know this part. Only after your book is perfect can you start the next step. I would suggest hiring an editor and getting some people to read and critique. I did both and it really helped. Except I didn't hire an editor, a friend edited mine for free, because I'm cheap.
- Query Agents and Publishers
This step is basically like applying for a job. You send your cover letter (query letter) and your resume (a synopsis, and a certain number of pages from your novel, depending on what is asked for), and wait several months until someone gets back to you. Or, in my case, doesn't get back to you. Just kidding, several agents and publishers did get back to me saying my book wasn't for them. Out of the over 100 queries I sent out, only one agent gave feedback on why she didn't think it was for her. From what I understand, this is pretty typical. Agents and publishers get thousands of queries a week and many say on their websites that they won't respond at all if they don't want to move forward. I'd say don't get discouraged if you don't hear back, but you will get discouraged because it's super discouraging. Almost every writer goes through it though, so know that you're not alone.
- Get accepted by an agent
I don't know much (anything) about this step because I skipped it. Most publishers don't accept queries unless they're through agents, but I found one who did. Normally, if an agent likes your query letter and pages, they will ask for either more pages or a full manuscript. If they like that, they'll contact you and make an offer. Then, from what I understand, you will work together on your manuscript until it's ready, they will pitch it to multiple publishers and you'll sit on your couch and drink until you hear back. Sometimes multiple publishers want your book so there is a bidding war (every author's dream). Sometimes there isn't.
- Find a publisher
Based on the fact that I sent out my manuscript to over 100 agents and publishers and didn't get it accepted, I knew there was definitely something wrong with it. But, because I never got feedback, I didn't know what it was. I am extremely grateful that an indie publisher in the UK decided to give my book a chance. She liked the idea enough that she was willing to go through it and tell me what was wrong so I could fix it.
Note: If your book gets sold to a larger publisher, you will get assigned to an editor who will work with you through these next few steps. I took a different route because my publisher is small (but mighty).
- Publisher Manuscript Assessment
After I signed the contract, my publisher went through my book, made some edits and sent me back a manuscript assessment that outlined the major things I had to change. These things were: make it more of a romance (I'd initially written it as women's fiction with sort of a romantic arc), tighten up the structure, change the tense, shorten it by 10,000 words and take out the creepy parts. After I had done all these things and addressed all her comments, I understood fully why no one else had wanted it. It became a much better book because of her feedback. Have I said how grateful I am for her taking a chance on me? I’m very, very grateful.
- Rewrite your manuscript
The biggest piece of advice I can probably give is to be wide open to feedback. You may think your book is perfect just the way it is because you’re an amazing writer, and I’m sure you are an amazing writer, but getting feedback from someone who is in the industry and, more importantly, someone who hasn’t lived inside your book for as long as you have, is extremely valuable. My book is so, so much better because of all the feedback I got. Rewrites sometimes suck, but they are often necessary.
- Developmental edit
Once your publisher is happy with your revisions, your manuscript is sent over to a Developmental Editor who will review it for theme, structure, character likability and other, big picture things. Here are the highlights of what mine came back with:
- Show more, tell less (let your reader make their own interpretations of things)
- Add more tension/conflict/raise the stakes (why do we care?)
- Your main character seems over-indulgent (she was)
- Don’t reveal everything all at once
- You need a better location in your novel than nowhere
This is a good article on different types of editing if you’re curious.
- Align with all the developmental edit feedback, because it was excellent, and get to work on making your book better
This is what this step included for me:
- Edit and rewrite one quarter of my book
- Hate it, and myself
- Get talked off the ledge by my publisher
- Go back to the start and edit/rewrite half
- Love life again
- Finish the second half in the next two weeks
- View book cover design brief
For those who don’t know, (me, several months ago) a design brief is a document outlining your novel and then describing what you want the cover to look like (with examples) and what you don’t want it to look like (with examples). My publisher somehow read my mind and knew exactly what I wanted and didn’t.
- View book cover design proof
After the book cover has been designed, your publisher will send it to you and you will cry because it is so perfect and send it to all your friends.
Note: This is about the time when your friends really start getting tired of you talking about your book. But will you care? No.
- Copy edit
This is actually going on while you’re crying over your book cover design. The copy editor will edit and provide feedback on grammar, spelling, etc. but also for tone and consistency. The person who did the copy edit of Someone To Kiss gave some great feedback, specifically the suggestion to tone down one of the secondary characters, which I (eventually) happily agreed with.
- More rewrites
Now your book is even BETTER if you can believe it.
- Beta readers
Your book will then get sent to beta readers, some of whom you will find, and some of whom will be found by your publisher. My beta readers were a group of amazing men and women, from Canada and the UK, who generously took time out of their busy days to read my book and give their well-thought-out feedback. And, while the feedback led to another overhaul and extensive rewrites, it all contributed to making the book a LOT better and I'm very grateful to the group.
- More rewrites
A couple of key things I learned from the beta reader feedback were that my main character was not a very good cat mom (very fair) and she was also not super likable and maybe there should be a more defined character arc so at the end people don't want to punch her in the face (also fair). I hope that the rewrites do the feedback justice.
- Proofreader
Next your book will go to a proofreader who will read it specifically looking for grammar, spelling errors, etc., and also gave some suggestions on word choices.
- Final revision
This revision basically consists of accepting or rejecting the proofreader’s changes. This was my favourite part because I’m a giant nerd and love grammar. It was almost like a party as I gleefully went through the word document and excitedly exclaimed things out loud like “Great choice!” or “Nice catch” or “I didn't know that!” And this, my friends, is why I will be single forever.
- Layout
Finally, your manuscript is off to layout where it will be made to look like a real book! This is very exciting, mostly because you are DONE WITH THE WRITING PART! You’re done! You can now just sit back and never read it again because you know if you do you will find something wrong and it will be too late and you will never let it go for the rest of your life.
- Promotion
Except you’re really not done with the writing part because you will be writing newsletters and social posts and guest blogs and emails like it is your full-time job until your book launches, and well after it has launched, until everyone in the world has read it and Reece Witherspoon makes it into a movie and you’re rich and famous and you quit your actual full-time job and move to an island with all of your books.
You’ll also probably have to learn how to use TikTok, if you’re in your forties like me, because that’s where it’s at for books nowadays. If you’re skeptical of this advice, just ask Colleen Hoover.
- Launch your book!
This is very exciting, or at least I assume it is, as of writing this, my book has not launched yet.
- Start your second book
Ideally this is done while everything above is happening when you have some “down time.” I’ve yet to experience this magical concept but I have faith that someday it will happen.
- Go back to step one
Good luck!
Want to read my finished product? Check out my debut novel Someone to Kiss on Amazon. Not quite ready to commit? Download my free Christmas romance novel, Running from Christmas.
About Jamie
Jamie Anderson is based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. A proud Canadian and Saskatchewanian, she wanted to set her first two novels in the place she was born and raised.
She works in content marketing, has a certificate in professional writing and has done a smattering of freelance writing, character development and copyediting over the past several years.
She’s been writing for as long as she can remember, and has been reading for longer than that. She lives happily with her mountain of books, her TV and her two plants.
Oct 7, 2021 | Advice, Advice for Writers, Featured
Golden keywords are keywords used in an Amazon ad to get profitable sales, preferably highly profitable sales.
One example of a highly profitable keyword is a spend of $6.19 making $185.50 in sales, as shown below:
At BookGoSocial we have created over 12,500 Amazon ads campaigns for authors over the past few years. What became clear from the data as we managed the ads was that small numbers of keywords, like in the above example, were producing most of the sales.
Our process of ad creation changed to focus our member's ad campaigns on Amazon onto the small number of keywords that were highly likely to get a high number of profitable sales for them.
We identified the keywords and the best methods of developing lists of these keywords for each book.
From the chart below you can see our Click Through Rate – the percentage of people who click after seeing an ad – rising this year as we developed our Golden Keywords program with the tactics you will find in our Golden Keywords guide available on Amazon here.
The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80:20 rule, states that on average, 80% of profits are achieved from 20% of clients. This 20% are also known as the vital few, which gives another name to this rule—the law of the vital few.
The Pareto Rule has been widely used in business and marketing applications. One of the commonly seen applications of the Pareto Rule in marketing includes:
80 percent of buyers come from 20 percent of people who click my ad.
This is a common observation based on the Pareto Principle in marketing. It is often seen that majority of the sales come from a small number of clicks. The Pareto Rule suggests that the author should focus on attracting more of the same type as the 20%.
This rule applies to all businesses, and authors are generally small businesses, to help identify the customer persona (type) that is really interested in your books.
But more importantly, when 80% of your royalties come from a small number of keywords, not the hundreds that some suggest are needed, it is a good idea to test and retest a Golden Keyword campaign for your book or books because of the potential impact on your royalties.
From a long tail (list) of keywords, the clicks with no sales can impact the overall performance of the ad negatively, turning a potentially profitable campaign into a loss-maker.
This type of result happens regularly. So regularly we decided to identify the likely best performing keywords early, to avoid losses on long tail keywords.
The Pareto Principle applies for Amazon Ads and is the principle we use for creating Golden Keyword campaigns.
If you want our Amazon ads Done For You Service, where we do the ad setup and management work, please click this link.
Oct 3, 2021 | Advice, Advice for Writers
Matthew Doggett is a full-time freelance writer, marketer, and indie author. He writes for Kindlepreneur and is always on the lookout for great nonfiction books about the craft of writing. You can find out more at www.matthewdoggettauthor.com
There's been a lot of talk lately about writing to market. Some authors feel that doing so is sacrificing their artistic vision as an author. Others feel that writing to market is their best chance at success. Some authors confuse writing to market with chasing a trend. Whether you’re a fiction writer or a nonfiction author, read on to find out if you should write to market.
What is Writing to Market?
If you’re not familiar with the term, writing to market means writing a book for an existing market — preferably one that you already know is hungry. Chris Fox is often credited with espousing the write-to-market mentality, and his success is perhaps one of the best pieces of evidence for such a tactic.
Writing to Market: Nonfiction
Most nonfiction authors write their books for a particular market. Some of these markets are tiny and niche, which is not a bad thing at all. In fact, if you can find an underserved niche and write a book that serves them, you can sell books.
In the nonfiction sphere, authors are usually writing books to answer specific questions or address the needs of their audience. These are the “How To” books that range from cooking to computer programming to finding peace through meditation. Though they can also cover nonfiction targets like biographies, philosophy, history and mythology, etc.
If you’re writing nonfiction, I think the answer to whether to write to market is a resounding “Yes!” If you don’t write to market in nonfiction, you are unlikely to sell many books. And making a living doing it becomes more difficult, even with the help of the nifty book marketing tools out there.
Writing to Market: Fiction
In the fiction space, things are a little different. There are cases of authors seemingly creating their own market (50 Shades of Gray and the Billionaire Romance Genre, anyone?) and being incredibly successful, but this is certainly not the rule. And for most indie authors trying to make a living off their book sales, finding this success is possible but not probable.
Instead, writing to market in fiction means doing some research on a certain genre, sub-genre, or sub-sub-genre, and determining if that market is underserved. If it is, it could be a good market to write for.
However, you may have noticed I’m missing a very important factor here: What if you don’t like that genre/market?
This is where people get tripped up. Some authors simply want to write what they want to write, never mind the genre or the market. If they never sell a book, so be it!
But the thing about being an author is that you are probably an avid reader, too. This means your influences are probably wide and eclectic, sure — but it also means that they’re likely based in existing markets.
The trick to writing to market is finding a hungry one that you’ll enjoy writing for! But more on that later. First, let’s talk about chasing trends.
The Difference Between Writing to Market and Chasing a Trend
To clarify, chasing the latest trend and writing to market are two different things. You may see that a book about Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Kitten Werewolves recently hit number one on the Amazon charts. Everyone is talking about it. Should you write a book about these freaky felines? Probably not. That said, the Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi market is an actual market — and one to which you can absolutely write.
Now, that’s not to say that, if a great Kitten Werewolf story strikes you and you just need to write it, or you think you’ll really enjoy it, then go for it. Just don’t count on the trend still going strong when you get the book out there.
Trends come in waves. They spike, get incredibly popular, and then fade away. Markets are strong. There may be spikes within an overall market, but the baseline is still there, and there are readers constantly searching for books in that market.
How do you tell a trend from a market? Research. Checking the Amazon top sellers in categories you’re interested in is a start. You can also pay attention to the New York Times Bestseller lists, Goodreads categories, or a simple Google search to see what comes up.
You Can Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too
Writing to market is all about having your cake and eating it, too. This means that you find a market that interests you and has a sea of readers hungry for more content. And when you consider that there are over 14,000 book categories and sub-categories on Amazon, you should have no problem finding one you’re comfortable in.
Tip: If you’re not sure what category a certain book fits into, use this handy book category finder to help you out. You can also use it to search in a particular market to see the lay of the land.
Conversely, if you have an idea for a story you’d like to write (or have already written) you can try to match it up with an existing market. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s always worth a shot.
How to Write to Market
If you decide to write to market, there are a few things you need to pay attention to for optimal success. Each genre has its own tropes — things that the readers expect from the books. With romance, a big trope is the “Happily Ever After” ending. If you market a book to the romance genre that ends without the two protagonists getting together, you’ll have some disappointed readers on your hands.
Get the Tropes Down
Make sure you get to know the market before you decide to write a book in it. Luckily, most authors find markets with which they’re already familiar, so they can spot the tropes. Read and read some more in the market. See what the bestselling authors are doing and let it inspire you.
Keep Length In Mind
Take book-length into account, as well. The epic fantasy genre is known for its long, sprawling stories — upwards of 125,000 words. If you write a 40,000-word fantasy book and sell it at a similar price point, you may not do too well in that genre.
Mind the Details
You also want to pay close attention to covers, blurbs, and titles, as well. You want your book to stand out to potential readers, but not too much. It needs to be unique and enticing but it also needs to fit with the conventions of the market.
Should You Write to Market: Conclusion
If you’re hoping to make a living as an author, your best bet is absolutely writing to market. However, if you have stories you want to write that don’t fit into a hungry market, you shouldn’t lose hope. Every book you write helps you become a better writer. Write the stories that make you happy. If you can get them in front of readers who will like them, all the better. If not, take what you’ve learned and try again — this time with some research into a market that is likely to buy your books and, hopefully, keep buying them.
Apr 22, 2020 | Advice, Advice for Writers, Horror
Character design is a way to understand who your characters are. The more you know about your character, the easier it will be to render them on the page. Good fiction (not just horror) is, after all, written in much the same way a mystery is solved: by looking at motive.
As horror writers, our characters often get a bad rap. Too many people judge horror based on B-rate movies filled with one-dimensional characters who exist only to be slaughtered around the next corner. Good horror fiction is SO much more than that.
You need to ask yourself, what are your characters’ motives? What do they want and how will they react in any given situation? When you know that, you can write fiction that rings true on the page.
That being said, you might find your characters are not doing what you want them to and that they have entirely derailed your meticulous plotting and outlining. However, a good writer knows when this is okay and when it’s not. If you’re like me, this is the exciting part, when true writing begins.
5 Methods for Better Character Design
The problem is when you start writing and you don’t know your characters, you’re likely to end up with a lot of prose you can’t use. No matter how much plotting you do (if any) beforehand, if you don’t know your characters, you will only be bullying them to do what you want them to do. Simply put, this kind of writing is not very good.
1. Visualize Your Character
One of the first things I like to do is visualize the character. You can often tell a lot about someone based on how they choose to dress and how they hold themselves. I’m not much of an artist, but I will sometimes sketch certain visual details, such as a hat or a unique item that a character may keep on them.
You don’t have to know everything. It often doesn’t matter what colored eyes a character has, and you certainly don’t want to describe every little detail to your readers. In fact, it’s often best to let your readers fill in the blanks from their own imaginations, which can help them to connect with your characters.
Nevertheless, a racial background can be useful. For instance, a Mexican-American is likely to have ties to a specific cultural background that influences how they see the world. It may also play a part in how others respond to them.
2. Write Until You Know Your Character
Personally, I used to do this a lot. When we’re just starting out, a lot of us writers are told: JUST WRITE. It’s not bad advice, by any means, because the only way to learn how to write is to write. However, when you write before you know who your characters are, you’re likely to end up with a lot of prose that you’ll need to cut from the final piece in editing.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can be time-consuming. Stephen King sometimes uses this method, and if you’re having trouble getting started, then just do it. Start writing! As you put words to paper, things will begin to open up. The plot may reveal itself and, hopefully, characters will begin to take on their own voices. From there, you can start again, now writing with your characters’ POVs in mind.
3. Write a Short Story From Your Character’s Point of View (POV)
One good way to ‘write until you know your characters’ is to pen a short story from a character's POV. This story should be separate from your larger work and put a lot of its focus (if not all) on a single character. In this way, you’ll be able to flesh out your character before returning to your novel or whatever it is you’re writing.
If all goes well, you’ll then have a short story you can submit around to anthology publishers or use as a freebie for promotional purposes. If not, it doesn’t matter. The point of the exercise was to get to know the character.
4. Give Your Character a Personality Test
One way a lot of us try to get to know ourselves is by taking personality tests. It’s a fun exercise and can be useful if you know how to use the information. With that in mind, why not give your character one?
Yeah, I realize these types of tests are pseudoscience, but it doesn’t matter. All you’re trying to figure out is if your character is an introvert or an extrovert, and other things like that. A good test to use is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which recognizes 16 distinct personalities that will give you a better understanding of your character.
5. Figure Out Your Character’s Alignment
Another good way to summarize the basics of your characters is to figure out their alignments. For those who don’t know, alignment is a Dungeons and Dragons RPG term used to help establish a player character’s motives. It’s determined by establishing the character’s morality and ethical understandings.
The ethical axis is split into Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic, while the morality axis is Good, Neutral, and Evil. Therefore, characters range from Lawful/Good to Chaotic/Evil and everything between. Using alignment is a solid way to define the basics of even minor characters in your stories.
Creating Compelling Characters
Although this column is about horror fiction, the advice here is for everyone. Characters are, perhaps, the single most important factor in writing effective fiction. The plot is the plot, and it’s okay, but don’t rely on it. If you are able to use better character design, it will be your characters who carry the story forward.
Keith Deininger is the award-winning and #1 Amazon bestselling author of horror and fantasy, including titles such as WITHIN, THE FEVER TRILOGY, and THE GODGAME series. He has been called “one of the finest writers of imaginative fiction” and “Ray Bradbury on acid.” His latest novel, VIOLENT HEARTS, has been compared to Stephen King’s fantasy-based work. He lives in Albuquerque, NM with his wife and kids. Although he loves a good nightmare, in person he’s a really nice guy. Promise.
Keith’s personal site: www.KeithDeininger.com
Keith’s SEO content writing and editing company: www.MeridianPublications.com
Keith Deininger
Jan 23, 2020 | Advice for Writers, Expert, Horror
As horror writers, we’re used to killing characters. After all, what’s more horrific than being killed? However, the trick with writing horror, and all fiction for that matter, is knowing when NOT to kill a character.
1. It Distracts from Your Narrative
Time-honored advice tells us to “kill our darlings.” While this advice is used typically to highlight those moments when it’s best for the narrative to remove a scene, plot device, or (as is often the case with my own writing) lovingly crafted descriptions (Purple prose? Bah. I’ll show you purple…), it’s also important to realize this fact applies to characters as well.
As such, it’s often best not to go on a killing spree. Well, unless that’s the type of fiction you’re writing. But, even then, it’s best to wait for the right moment.
In fact, as a horror writer, it may be that the act of killing a character is your “darling,” but since the best thing for the narrative is to not kill, you should NOT do it. Resist your writerly bloodlust and focus on the story. Your narrative will thank you, not to mention your characters.
2. Killing Them Serves No Purpose
Similar to distracting from your narrative, you should never kill a character if it doesn’t serve a purpose. Pointless death is just that…pointless.
It’s become a fad in recent years to introduce a main character and then kill them off purely for shock value. Thing is, this technique can often backfire and blow up in your face, killing any chance you have of your readers finishing your book.
When you do kill a character, it needs to be for a significant reason. It can still be shocking, but it also should drive the story, such as to show an antagonist's power or to serve as motivation for revenge.
For instance, George R. R. Martin (shoutout to a fellow New Mexico author!) is famous for brutally killing a number of main characters in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. However, each death progresses the plot, either as villainy or consequence.
3. They’re Not Going to Stay Dead
I mean, as horror writers, we all know necromancy is a thing. Sometimes they come back, and all that jazz. However, if you build a world where your main characters can be raised from the dead, their deaths become meaningless.
In fantasy fiction, writers go to great lengths to create magic systems with very specific rules and consequences, and bringing people back from the dead is a messy business. It can make a magic system seem too powerful and strip your narrative of tension, and without tension, what do you have? Well, it’s not a good story, I can tell you that much.
What’s more, if you suddenly raise a character from the dead without having first set up the possibility, you’re diving deep into the realm of deus ex machina. That is, wrapping up a story through a randomly convenient device.
With this in mind, it’s recommended you only play with such dark, necromantic forces when it’s important to your plot, such as the zombie apocalypse. Although, it can also be used thematically, such as the Christian symbolism of Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia, or as a selective force that generally does not benefit characters, such as in A Song of Ice and Fire (the books, not the show. Don’t get me started on the show… I… Mm, will stop right there…).
4. They’re An Insignificant Character
Look, I understand we’re largely talking about horror here, but when somehow your main character finds themselves wandering a dark hallway with another character we hardly know, while the killer lurks in the shadows, it’s pretty obvious what you’re setting up. Inevitably, when the killer jumps out and stabs the random character through his eye, allowing your main character to escape to fight another day, it doesn’t mean very much. We all saw it coming from across the stratosphere.
This is often called the ‘Red Shirt’ trope, referring to the insignificant officers in Star Trek that are introduced on away missions only to serve as cannon fodder later on in the episode. While this may serve to show us the threat our main characters are facing, we really don’t give a flying flapjack whether or not the red shirt lives or dies.
When tempted, it’s important to remember that death doesn’t just happen to minor officers or tertiary characters. Use this trope too much and your readers will begin to think your main characters are safe, maybe even immortal. This, just like raising people from the dead, has a decidedly adverse effect on a story’s tension.
Nevertheless, this does not mean you can’t kill minor characters, only that they should not be the only ones who die. Again, think about Martin’s work, no one is safe and his storytelling is brilliant for it.
However, there is one caveat I’d like to mention while we’re here. That is, don’t go overboard either. How many of us stopped watching The Walking Dead after so-and-so was killed? If you wipe out all of your good characters, there’s really no point in continuing the story, is there?
5. The Character is a Minority
Finally, we come to this one. Although this could be considered a controversial subject, let’s dive in anyway…
Diversity in fiction is a hot topic (in fact, it deserves its own post, which could be my next article). After all, a large majority of writers are white and straight. Mostly, this is due to cultural availability, as being an author is one of those paths that is encouraged mostly for middle-class white people (I know it was for me, although my parents were clear it was supposed to be a hobby and not a career). However, there is a dangerous precedent that has been set where the minority character is always killed, often early in the narrative.
It may be the token black character (a trope that’s even become a joke at this point), someone from the LGBTQIA+ community, or even a stereotypical female character, but whoever it is, resist the urge to kill them unless you are absolutely sure it serves the story.
Many authors introduce minority characters in order to give them some sort of background as quickly as possible. Then, they can elicit a larger emotional response when they are killed off. The problem with this is that it adds to an insidious pattern of prejudice, whether sexism, racism, or the Bury Your Gays trope.
My point is, while minority characters should certainly be more prevalent in fiction, as they are, after all, a big part of the real world, they should not be used as a cheap plot device. Take note and be aware of this fact. That is all.
Death is a Part of Life, But…
Remember, you are an indentured servant to your story. Whenever your story (not you!) kills a character, it should leave an emotional impact and move the plot forward. Death is a part of life, but take the time to think about the implications of your murderous ways and be sure to always spill blood with class and purpose.
Keith Deininger is the award-winning and #1 Amazon bestselling author of many horror and fantasy titles, including WITHIN, THE FEVER TRILOGY, and THE GODGAME series. He has been called “one of the finest writers of imaginative fiction” and “Ray Bradbury on acid.” His latest novel, VIOLENT HEARTS, has been compared to Stephen King’s fantasy-based work. He lives in Albuquerque, NM with his wife and kids. Although he loves a good nightmare, in person he’s a really nice guy. Promise.
Keith’s personal site: www.KeithDeininger.com
Keith’s SEO content and editing company: www.MeridianPublications.com
May 23, 2019 | Advice, Advice for Writers, Editor, Editors' Blog, Expert, Fantasy, Horror, Literary, Paranormal, Sci-fi, Thriller, Uncategorized
When it comes to marketing a horror movie, the trailer is everything. A good trailer can be shared all over social media and attract just the right audience to go and see it. Promoting a horror novel is much the same. Here are 5 marketing tactics horror movies use that you can also use to promote your horror novel.
5 – Show Audience Testimonials and Ratings
A lot of movie trailers show quotes from critics praising the movie. This technique is commonly used to sell books as well.
One technique that has become a best practice is to start your book description on Amazon with a quote praising the book or your work. You can also put additional quotes on your book cover and at the bottom of your book description.
You can get quotes by pulling from favorable reviews or by reaching out to other authors. Many authors will be happy to blurb your book in exchange for a free copy.
4 – Creativity Can Be More Effective than Money
There's a reason a lot of up and coming directors start with a horror movie: small budgets. With a little creativity, there are ways to make a good horror movie without spending a lot of money. Look at movies like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. Both had tiny budgets and both found humongous success.
There are a lot of great promotional sites for authors, including BooksGoSocial, but there's also something to be said for being creative. You may be able to find a fun and creative way to promote your book on social media without spending a lot of money.
I photoshopped this image to help promote my horror novel, Violent Hearts, and it drew a lot more traffic, likes and comments, then a regular book cover post.
“Bradbury on acid.” Greg Gifune, author of The Bleeding Season
3 – Show Your Characters
Horror movie trailers often revolve around their characters. If they can make you care about what happens to these characters, you are much more likely to go and see the movie.
Same is true for books. Be sure to include details about your characters in your book description and promotions that will make your audience sympathetic to your characters.
2 – Use Mystery to Entice Readers to Buy
Horror movie trailers often hit us with something unexpected and mysterious. Where did that come from? What is causing that? These questions draw us into the story and make us want to go and see the movie.
You can offer excerpts and short cliffhanger teasers on your social media feeds to build an audience and entice readers to buy your book.
Here's one I've used to promote my horror novel, Violent Hearts:
It started that cold night spent in the woods, all those years ago. Owen and Chloe wakened something, something inside them both. But, for a while at least, they thought they could live normal lives…
Click here.
1 – Give Readers What They Want
Same is true for promoting your book. Give your readers characters they care about, with sympathetic backgrounds you can sum up in a few words you can use in your book description. This helps to put a “face” to your characters and give them life for your readers.
We've all seen movie trailers that give away too much of the plot. Don't be that person. Instead, tell them what the blood and guts are in your book.
When someone picks up your book, what's in it for them? Tell them! Be explicit. If your book is an exciting adventure, then tell them it's an exciting adventure. If your book has uncanny hauntings or violent gore, don't be afraid to share this fact. Not only will you keep away readers who don't like such things and might leave bad reviews, but you will get the right readers interested in your book.
Keith Deininger is the award-winning and #1 Amazon bestselling author of many horror and fantasy titles, including WITHIN, THE FEVER TRILOGY and THE GODGAME series. He has been called “one of the finest writers of imaginative fiction” and “Ray Bradbury on acid.” His latest novel, VIOLENT HEARTS, has been compared to Stephen King’s fantasy-based work. He lives in Albuquerque, NM with his wife and kids. Although he loves a good nightmare, in person he’s a really nice guy. Promise.
Keith’s personal site: www.KeithDeininger.com
Keith’s SEO content and editing company: www.MeridianPublications.com
