Yesterday I went to one of my friends’ daughter’s funeral. (I know this is not a good place to start a newsletter but hear me out, please.)
This friend of mine had a terrible life. She is 86 years old, and yesterday she buried the last of her three children.
But that was not the only tragedy; her whole life is a tragedy. She was called a “failed abortion” by her own mother, who treated her with contempt; she was beaten by her alcoholic father, traumatized by her psycho husband, who tormented her and her three children with death threats. And yet, she is not bitter.
She wore a red dress and red shoes to send-off her daughter. She read a beautiful eulogy and a poem.
I came home and thought about all the snippets of her life that she shared with us in the past fifteen years of us writing together.
She has a different perspective on things that came from her life and the lessons she learned from it—her world-view.
Her world-view is different from mine, just like mine is different from yours.
Writing is about sharing our world-view. Our way of looking at things.
You don’t have to go looking for your world-view, because you already have it.
My friend chose to wear red at her daughter’s funeral to give her a proper send-off. How many of us would have done that? What we would have done would depend on our grief, beliefs, relationship, and way of saying goodbye.
Each one of us has a different perspective on things, and this is our world-view.
That is what sets a person’s voice apart from the others is how they see things.
How do you see the world differently? What would resonate with some and cause others to disagree? Write that.
Authorpreneur Journey Step 14
In one of my previous newsletters, Slow Down And Have Fun With Social Media, I talked about using a social media platform to connect with your readers regularly.
Today I will give a preview of the different platforms established authors use to help you choose one.
Facebook: Facebook is the largest of all the social media platforms. No matter what you write or what niche you’re in, you will definitely have your target market there. Some authors who are using Facebook well are:
1) Neil Gaiman, instead of just talking about his books he also talks about his interest and does a great job of branding himself as a person.
2) LitRPG Books This group was created by an author who is basically bringing in fans of LitRPG (Literary Role Playing Game) and other authors on his Facebook page, which is growing rapidly. This creates a great opportunity for authors to network with other authors and finds fans for their upcoming books or previous ones.
Twitter: Twitter is a great platform and was widely used by authors in the early days, but it could be a time waster if you don’t use it right. Using the right hashtags is important to get in front of the right audience. The biggest advantage of Twitter is getting engagement from people who are talking about certain subjects. J K Rowling is the queen of Twitter and uses it very effectively to initiate discussions with her witty comments. Anne Lamott not afraid to share either her life or her political views that attract a lot of engagement.
Instagram: Instagram is great for sharing pictures, and videos even live videos. Austin Kleon uses Instagram to share his daily art project as well as live videos about his kids and even the two owls who have made a home in a tree in his backyard. Morgan Harper Nichols is a poet and artist who creates beautiful collages with colors and writes her poems between the layers. She recently started making videos of her process. Kim Kircher, an adventure writer, focuses on her crazy cool behind-the-scenes life on Instagram. Elizabeth Gilbert does live videos talking to her readers and even runs live book club meetings.
Goodreads: Yes, Goodreads is a social media platform, too, owned by Amazon, and it’s a place where people come to find their next books and to tell their friends what they’re reading. Sounds like a perfect place to establish some communications with a writer. James Patterson is a favorite of Goodreads, he not only goes in there and answers the reader’s questions, but he actually makes it a point to pick up self-published books, read them, and leave a comment.
Pinterest: Pinterest is more of a search engine, but it is used as social media platform too. You can create a board, and it gets engaged. You don’t get connections like Twitter, nor you have to put your private life out there, but you can create picture boards for characters of your books, and they get interest. But with that, creating good pictures is a must. Jody Hedlund does a great job of creating great boards for each one of her books. Katies Maclister goes a step further, and she actually creates a board that shows her shorts stories. This is an opportunity for people to get quickly hooked to her writing style on what she does and then check out the books that she writes.
LinkedIn: Relatively new on the social media scene, LinkedIn is where the business of writing is done. Here you not only connect with other writers, publishers, and marketers, but it is the place where you build your brand. At the moment, LinkedIn is providing an unparalleled opportunity to grow your network organically.
Many authors reject LinkedIn because it is not reader-facing. But they forget what LinkedIn presence can do for them. You can reach the four kinds of audiences on LinkedIn: booksellers and librarians, reviewers, event organizers (book fairs, etc.), and other authors. The best thing about LinkedIn is its Groups. There are groups for almost everything on there, including a wide range of Groups for authors and publishers.
Your homework this week:
Choose one.
Any one.
The one you are most comfortable with and enjoy the most.
When you are really comfortable with it, then choose another one. Two are more than enough. Otherwise, you will be spending all your time on social media, and no writing will get done.
Writing Industry News
Joanna Penn, a fiction and non-fiction writer, podcaster, international speaker, and award-winning creative entrepreneur, just shared the results of the Author Streams of Income survey.
738 writers responded to her survey. Out of which 94% make income from multiple streams, while 6% of respondents had only one stream of writing income — either freelance writing, traditional publishing, or self-publishing ebooks only.
Here is the summary of the main income streams for writers. (Respondents could select multiple options on the list or add their own. This is the percentage of the total who selected each option.)
84% — Self-publishing ebook sales
77% — Self-publishing print sales
36% — Selling books direct
27% — Self-publishing audiobook sales
26% — Teaching or speaking live or online
26% — Freelance writing and/or ghostwriting
23% — Traditional publishing advance and royalties
22% — Affiliate income
19% — Consulting and/or coaching
19% — Author services
12% — Online course sales
10% — Patronage e.g., Patreon
9% — Merchandise
6% — Licensing foreign rights
6% — Advertising revenue e.g., podcast or YouTube
3% — Licensing subsidiary rights e.g. film/TV options
2% — Crowdfunding e.g., Kickstarter
Source: Author Survey Results: Multiple Streams Of Income 2021 first appeared on The Creative Penn.
For more ideas and quotes from authors who responded to the survey, check out Joanna Penn’s recently rewritten book How to Make a Living With Your Writing, Third Edition: Turn Your Words Into Multiple Streams of Income.
What Am I Up to?
This week I have been writing a lot about social media and list building. Here are free links to the articles I wrote this week.
Should Social Media Be A Part of Your Authorpreneur Strategy?
Social Media Is A Double-Edged Sword
Why Building An Email List Is So Hard (Until It Is Easy)
I am inviting the right-minded people to build their network on LinkedIn along with me. It is such an exciting thing I am doing that I can’t keep the knowledge to myself. I created LinkedIn For Writers to teach you how you can build your business base in less than an hour.
What Intrigued Me This Week?
Michael La Ronn, a prolific writer of fiction, non-fiction, and several YouTube videos on writing, revealed his productivity secret.
He wrote…
“Every day, I write 2000-3000 words towards a novel.
When I hit 10,000 words, I stop and write a short story (usually 3500 words), a week or two's worth of scripts for Author Level Up (his YouTube video series), about 3000 words, and then I knock something off my business to-do list.
Then I jump back into the novel.
So...if I produce a 50,000-word novel, I also produce:
A novel
5 short stories
15 videos
Progress toward my business
When I followed this production schedule, I wrote 10-12 books a year...only writing 2-3 hours PER DAY ON A GOOD DAY.”
That intrigued me.
What a brilliant schedule. What I like about it that it has room to focus on one thing at a time, reach a certain point with it, and then move on to the next one.
My production schedule is based on doing something in four areas of my focus every day. I usually fit only two to three, and I have to get in and out of projects. That means switching my attention from one thing to another.
What I find attractive about Michael's schedule is that it has productivity goals built into it. Write 10,000 words towards the novel, and you can write a short story; write the short story, and you can spend the whole chunk of time on article writing.
I am going to follow Michael’s schedule for a while to see if it works for me.
I believe in Michael when he says, “Even if it takes you several years...you WILL get there because of Michael La Ronn's Law: every author who gives publishing their all will keep leveling up. If they keep at it for the long-term, they'll level-up exponentially.”
That’s it from me this week.
Take care.
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#17: What Is Your World-view?
Always a pleasure reading your News Letter. Reading your friend's story reminds me of how grateful we should be. When we think we have it hard.. others life is worst. No parent should have to bury their child. I will join your LinkedIn group to see how it works for me.