Month: January 2021

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Reaching Best Seller Status

January 29, 2021– Thank you to everyone who enrolled in our Best Seller Bootcamp! I had such a fantastic time teaching all of you and I can’t wait to see your books at the top of  the best seller lists!  Thank you for the outstanding reviews and for all the positive texts, emails, and notes. You’ve all been so amazing and I’m so glad that you’ve enjoyed the course. Let’s dig into the final day of Best Seller Bootcamp.

What does it mean for your writing career when you finally reach best-seller status? It means that you get to use that status in your marketing and then perform the entire process all over again to reach best seller status for your next book! You can add it to your writing credits and writing resume, plus the status of best seller can never be taken away from you.

Becoming a best selling author is something that you should be proud of. Take the time to enjoy all of the hard work you’ve put in to reach your goal! But then, get back to work:)

Here are some of the reviews from Our Best Seller Bootcamp students:

“I thoroughly enjoyed the class material and Lacey was one of the best teacher’s I’ve had. I learned more from this one course than I have in any other course I’ve taken to date. A fabulous formula for best seller status.” -Maggie K.

“This course was so much fun! I had a blast and learned a ton. I’m confident that I have the winning recipe to reach best seller status. Five stars, I highly recommend Lacey and her courses! She’s a hoot!”– Joseph R.

“A ton of well thought out information from one of the best.”– Rachael M.

“Listen to Lacey. She knows what she’s talking about! She’s a fantastic teacher, speaker, and educator. The best in the business.”-Stephanie C.

“Best seller bootcamp was awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed how we explored each section in depth. Lacey answered all of my questions in detail and was so fantastic to work with. I would follow her off the edge of a cliff.” -Taryn W.

Thank you so much! It’s so humbling to help others and have them succeed. Wishing each one of you the very best now and always. X LLB  (Join us in February for Taking Risks!)

 

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Descriptions Matter

January 28, 2021- What’s the first thing we do when we pick up a book? We flip it over to read the back cover. Why do we do this? Because we want to know what’s inside! Hopefully the description of the story  intrigues us and helps us make a buying decision. How you write your book description can make or break your best selling author status! Think of your book description as a teaser for a movie. Here’s how to write a great description that can entice people to buy your book:

  1. Ask a question-Asking a question to your reader on the back cover, immediately engages your audience. For example, for my book Obsessed with Her, I posed the question, What would you do if your child was missing? How far would you go to find out what happened to her? The reader will personally and internally answer these questions on the spot! If my child was missing, I would go out of my mind, I would be beside myself. I would do whatever it takes to find her. What happened to the child? What if they never find her? I need to know and I need to read this book! See how that worked? A question posed will never go unanswered.  Obsessed with Her: Amazon.ca: Colling, L. L.: Books
  2. Leave them hanging-Give your potential reader a tiny taste of what’s in the book. My biggest pet peeve is when movie trailers give up all their best parts in the trailer; it’s so disappointing when we’ve already seen the ‘meat’ of the movie this way. Don’t make the same mistake with your book description, give your audience just enough to leave them wanting more. Here’s a great example from the book Machinia-Cybersecurity officer Damon Maxwell wakes from cryogenic sleep expecting to be ten years into his future but instead finds himself in the robot ruled empire of Machinia, 2156! Welcomed by Machinia’s omnipotent leader, the Universal, Damon learns that his extraordinary journey is part of a complex plan by the Universal to bait Machinia’s deadly enemy, the Underground into action. But the Universal’s brilliant robot aide, Nepcar, fears his leader’s dangerous scheme and pairs Damon with the beautiful and mysterious Cynthia Lhan hoping their union can prevent a catastrophe. Yet, even as the Universal’s plans fall into place an enigmatic figure appears in Damon’s life that even the mighty Universal is powerless to control. Will Damon ultimately be the destroyer of the robot race or its saviour? Machinia: Amazon.ca: Moscarella, Paul A., Goubar, Alex: Books
  3. Brief Synopsis– Could you imagine reading a book with no description? That would certainly be an odd experience! A brief synopsis of the book let’s your reader decide if they are interested enough about what’s inside to buy the book. Here’s my book Becoming James Cass as an example: It’s business as usual for James Cass, who is a doctor, a father, a husband, and a murderer. With a penchant for prostitutes and an appetite for alcohol, his life spirals out of control, one terrifying event at a time. Will he ever be able to atone for his sins? Or will his demons drag him to his grave? Becoming James Cass: Amazon.ca: Colling, L.L., Goubar, Alex: Books

The methods above work for every genre from kids books to thrillers and everything in between. When describing you book ensure that it’s intriguing to you too; always read the description from your reader’s perspective-you’ll instantly know if it works or not. We’re wrapping up Best-Seller Bootcamp January 4th-31st – Pandamonium Publishing House tomorrow, thanks to everyone who joined us during this exciting course, we hope you enjoyed it!

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Best Sellers Read A Lot

January 27, 2021– You can’t expect to be a best selling author if you don’t make time to read each day. It’s just not going to happen. Lack of reading leads to lack of writing skills, plain and simple, but let’s back up for a second-sometimes authors tell me that they don’t read because they don’t want their work to be influenced. Puh-leese, get over yourself (insert eye roll here) this is such a flawed way of thinking and the height of arrogance and ignorance. Here’s how reading makes you a better writer:

  1. Other Styles- Reading exposes us to other styles of writing. We may read a flowery prose or a stunning haiku that will make an impact on us and our future writing without even realizing where the inspiration came from until years later.
  2. Other Voices-When we read, not only do we get to experience other types of narrative, but we also get to enjoy a myriad of author voices. This allows us to develop our own sense of voice, and experiment with different narratives that maybe we wouldn’t have done if we hadn’t read any books.
  3. Other Forms-Reading lets us see different types of formatting, style, stylistic elements of speech, how paragraphs are formed, what’s old, what’s new, and what stands the test of time.
  4. Other Genres- When we read other genres of writing that are different than our own, we expand our creativity and improve our work. If you usually write romance, pick up a psych thriller or a mystery. If you usually write thrillers, pick up a cozy romance or a non-fiction biography. Anything outside of your scope is excellent for creating new ideas and can help your writing improve immensely.
  5. Other Emotions- Reading creates deep connections to our own experiences and emotions. It lets us know that we are not alone when we read about characters facing the same challenges that we have. Reading makes us better writers and a better communicators.

Stephen King said it best when he said,  ” If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write. Simple as that.”  If you have reading goals, we’d love to help you reach them! Check out our Pandamonium Publishing House International Book Club or our Subscription Book Box: Book Box! Yearly Membership (1 Book Box/month for 12 months) – Pandamonium Publishing House 

 

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And Still She Persisted

January 26, 2021– Did you hear about the Tweeter who sent Elon Musk the same message 154 times before the Tesla founder responded? The Tweeter set a goal of getting Elon to respond to his request to turn Musk’s space exploration into a video game and vowed to tweet him every day for a year. 154 days in, Elon responded with, “Yeah, we probably won’t sue you.” And there was the answer. The video game developer went ahead and got started on their project.

The point of this story is, most people will give up a lot sooner than 154 days in-just look at anyone who makes new year resolutions! Think of it this way, what if the Tweeter had given up after 153 days? They were SO close to having their dream come true, but they gave up too soon. Sometimes we’re months, weeks, or even days away from accomplishing our goals, but we’ve been at them so long with no progress that we start to get discouraged. I’m here to tell you, DO NOT GIVE UP. You must persist and keep going no matter how long it takes. The time will pass anyway, whether you give up or stick to it, so why not continue to try?

How long will it be before you give up on yourself and your dreams? How long will it be before you throw in the towel on your best-seller goals? I hope you won’t give up. I hope that you will persist even when it’s hard and you feel like you’re not making progress. Becoming anything, including a best selling author, takes time, persistence, hard work, and a number of steps that need to be done in order. If you commit and promise yourself to do the things that you need to do, and take action daily, you’ll be unstoppable! Check out our Best-Seller Bootcamp here: Best-Seller Bootcamp January 4th-31st – Pandamonium Publishing House

 

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Enemies

January 25, 2021-This week we’ll be wrapping up Best Seller Bootcamp! It’s been a total blast and I’m so thankful to everyone who signed up. We can’t talk about success without challenges, so today we’ll be talking about the enemies that will derail your chances at becoming a best selling author. They’re what I like to call the 4 p’s. No, not the 4 p’s of marketing, and if you’re still using marketing in that manner, you need to brush up on your skills! But that’s another blog post for another day. The four p’s that make up your best-seller enemies are as follows:

1) Procrastination-Not sitting down to write, not taking the time to do your marketing plan, not showing up to do the work. How can you have a best-seller if you haven’t written the book? You can’t.
2)Perfection-Too many rewrites or edits, redoing things and end up making a huge mess. Yes, there needs to be around 4 edits of the final draft, but the truth is, when our book is published, most authors go back and say, hmmm I should have changed that or I could have added that. Perfection doesn’t exist so stop looking for it and stop using it as an excuse not to finish your book! You can’t become a best seller if you don’t finish the book.
3)Pollution-Noise from outside sources, people telling you that you can’t  possibly become a best seller because your work isn’t good enough, friends saying that you should change this or add that or take this away, people telling you that you shouldn’t try because you’ll never make it. Stay away from those people. And ensure that you have a handle on your own noise pollution, the voice in your head that is negative and tells you that you should quit. Tell it to shut up, and keep writing. Believe in yourself and your ability to reach your goals.
4)Procedure-You didn’t tag your work or categorize it properly. You didn’t take the time to brainstorm all of the proper categories where your book could fit. You didn’t format your book properly or convert it into an e-book. You ignored all of the proper procedures that go into writing and selling your work. You didn’t ask for help where you needed it. Procedures matter and building a best-seller is like baking a cake; one ingredient missing or out of order will bake up a disaster!

There are a lot more enemies that stand between you and best-seller status. Don’t let them distract you from your goal! Send us an email pandapublishing8@gmail.com for more info on how to overcome all of your writing challenges.

 

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I’ll Take Categories for $400, Alex

January 22, 2021-Yesterday we talked about the importance of using hashtags and how they can increase views of your posts and reach new readers. Today, we’ll be talking about categories and how they’re equally important in your best seller success plan! Check out our Best Seller Bootcamp here: https://pandamoniumpublishing.com/product/best-seller-bootcamp-january-4th-31st/

What are categories? Simply put, categories are how your book is grouped in it’s genre. For example, fantasy, historical fiction, horror, romance, science fiction, and psych thrillers all have their own categories. The point of properly categorizing your book cannot be understated especially with how much it helps your book climb to the top of the best seller list. We could put all of the genres listed above under an umbrella category of fiction, but this doesn’t help readers find your book! When we categorize under such a large umbrella, our work gets lost in the noise, that’s why we have to find our niche!

So, let’s use one of my books as an example; Becoming James Cass is a psychological thriller about a doctor who gets in deep with the mob and makes a lot of terrible choices. He’s also a father, a husband, and murderer. Looking at this description, how could we categorize this book to give it the most impact? Well, we would think outside of the box and perhaps put it under Medical Thriller and Organized Crime. The point is to be creative when choosing your categories while ensuring that they are properly and truthfully categorized. The reader looking for a Crime Thriller, or Medical Mystery is very specific in their choice, so your book had better live up to it’s advertisement as belonging in this group!

To dive deeper into this subject and everything that we’ve talked about, check out our Best Seller Bootcamp here: https://pandamoniumpublishing.com/product/best-seller-bootcamp-january-4th-31st/

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Tag (You’re It)

January 21, 2021-As we enter the final week of our Best Seller Bootcamp, here: https://pandamoniumpublishing.com/product/best-seller-bootcamp-january-4th-31st/  we have a number of things to still cover! As an author with a platform . are you using your social media to connect ideas with readers? Did you know that there is a specific way to do that? With hashtags! Hashtags are still an effective way to get more people to see your posts when using platforms such as Instagram, and using relevant, targeted hashtags is one of the best ways to get discovered by new audiences.

Hashtags # work by organizing and categorizing videos and photos. A post with at least one Instagram hashtag averages 13% more audience engagement than posts without a hashtag. If you add a hashtag to a post on your Instagram account, the post will be visible on the matching hashtag page that acts as a directory of all the photos and videos that were tagged with the same hashtag e.g., #writersofinstagram.  Hashtags are most effectively used on Instagram although we do see them on Facebook sometimes, but not as often because people are less likely to read/care about them. Quick tips:

  1. Use a minimum of 10 hashtags on your post. This will ensure that you cover your bases and include tags that are relevant to the audience you’re trying to reach. Use a mixture of very popular tags and less popular tags to make sure that your post gets traction e.g. #authorsofinstagram (4.7 million posts) and #authorscommunity (156,000 posts). You can use up to 30 hashtags on a regular post and 10 on your Instastory.
  2. Think outside the (hashtag) box. It’s important to use relevant tags, but most people don’t get overly thoughtful when hashtagging. They use the common, most popular tags, but they’re missing out on a potential segment that could see their post by not being creative. Let’s say that you wrote a science fiction novel, some of the less obvious hashtags could include #manvsmachine, #robothero, #riseofthemachines, #machinesvsman, #newrelease, #dystopianuniverse etc.
  3. Hashtag in the comments. Don’t put hashtags directly in your post, put them into the comments section of Instagram and be sure to include your company or book hashtag e.g. #pandamoniumpublishinghouse.

There is so much more to talk about when it comes to hashtags and using them most effectively to promote your work and your posts and to connect with your audience, so check out our Best Seller Bootcamp where we dive deeper into this subject: https://pandamoniumpublishing.com/product/best-seller-bootcamp-january-4th-31st/ and more!