https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-e85rz-f8aa17
You need to read in order to have the tools to write. Plain and simple.
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
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.
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/
Tag ’em to bag ’em
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How tagging your posts can help you find new readers!
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
Reviews (They Matter)
January 20, 2021-All this month we’re dishing out tips during our Best Seller Bootcamp, and today, we’ll be talking about reviews. Let’s find out why they matter, how to get them, and how they contribute to your Best Seller Success!
You know how much I LOVE statistics, so here are a couple that you should know. 1) 84% of people trust online reviews as much as friends. 2) 91% of people regularly read online reviews before making a purchase. Readers trust what others are saying about your book! So, what does this mean for you? It means you need to get as many reviews as possible BEFORE your book hits the marketplace.
Reviews can be done before your book officially launches by getting pre-release copies to reviewers. They receive a free copy of your book in exchange for an honest review and reviewers will disclose this. I am not a fan of paying for reviews and that’s something that we’ve never done at Pandamonium Publishing House. We believe that reviews should be honest, organic, and from real readers.
Reviews give you credibility, plain and simple. They let readers know what others thought of your book, and why they should take a chance on buying themselves a copy!
You can get reviews by doing the following things:
- Ask your beta readers to review your book. These are the people who you’ve been asking for feedback during the entire writing process. They will tell you the truth about what works and what doesn’t while you’re working on your drafts and tweaking your manuscript and they’ll also be honest about their reviews.
- Give out 10 free pre-release copies in exchange for a review. You can post this offer on social media, at your book club, your local library, on Goodreads, on your website, press releases, and in your newsletter.
Also, you need to ensure that you’re getting authentic reviews from readers in your genre. Romance readers may not enjoy your supernatural crime thriller or mystery lovers may not enjoy your historical romance novel, so be sure to match the right reader with your book. Remember that reviews matter, but also that art is subjective and not everyone is going to love what you write. That’s ok! If your book is for everyone, it’s for no one.
The entire point of getting reviews is allowing your readers to find out what other readers thought about your book and what they liked about it/didn’t like about it so that they can make an informed decision in purchasing your work.
To dig deeper into this subject, and many others, consider joining our Best Seller Bootcamp here: https://pandamoniumpublishing.com/product/best-seller-bootcamp-january-4th-31st/
Self-Sabotage
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-c75jj-f80578
Why do we do this? Well, for a number of reasons, let’s talk about it.
Failure to Launch
January 19, 2021-Do you know how to launch your book? There are a number of factors that go into a successful book launch, but not having a plan is a recipe for disaster and will completely ruin your best seller chances. You will never have a best selling book if people don’t know about it. Here’s how you can have a successful launch.
- Start early. About 6 weeks before the launch of your book, start inviting people! Create an event on Facebook, send out invites in the mail, and put the event details in your newsletter that goes out to your readers. Keep in contact and send out reminders 2 more times (6 weeks before, 3 weeks before, and the week before). This gives your guests enough time to put your event on their calendar. Remember to post the details on your social media and also think about having an online book launch event.
- Use your resources. Marketing materials such as postcards, save the date, business cards, brochures, and whatever other forms of print media you’re using should be in supply and ready to hand out.
- Find a high-traffic venue. You want as many people to come to your event as possible. We suggest a high traffic area so that people can see you and walk in. Think outside of the box, your venue shouldn’t be a book store if possible, there are high commission fees and percentages of sales taken off the top for a book store to host you in their brick and mortar. We’ve had book launches at indoor playgrounds, fabric stores, pubs, and parks and have had much success with chatting to people who were just passing through.
- Get help. Hire someone if you have the means to organize your event or to help you hand out literature/marketing materials. There is a lot to do and you’re only one person, so delegate tasks to someone you trust. You can also look for volunteers or students who may need community hours to graduate that would be willing to help out.
- Enjoy yourself. Your book launch should be fun! It’s an event to remember and celebrate your success. Have a good time and be sure to genuinely connect with your readers.
There are many, many more steps to have a successful book launch and while we can’t possibly cover all of them in this post, we would love to have you sign up for our Best Seller Bootcamp where we dive in to all of the topics we’ve covered in depth. Check it out here: https://pandamoniumpublishing.com/product/best-seller-bootcamp-january-4th-31st/
We Want Your Pet Stories! Official Story Call-Out
January 18, 2021- We’re looking for YOUR pet stories! We’re doing another collaborative book with authors who want to tell us how their pet has made a difference in their life. This book will come out in July/August 2021 and the proceeds will be donated to animals in need. All you have to do to participate is:
- Write your story. Please keep it to 1200 words or less.
- Send it to pandapublishing8@gmail.com and in the subject line write Pet Story Submission.
- We will contact you to let you know if your story has been chosen.
You will receive a free copy of the book, with the opportunity to purchase additional copies at a discounted rate, and the proceeds will be donated to animals in need. Here’s your chance to become a published author and see your name in print! Submissions will be closed on June 1st.
Possible topics include:
-Service/guide animals
-Fostering animals
-How your pet has made a difference in your life
-Therapy animals
-Animal Heroes
-A funny story about your pet (make us laugh out loud!)
-A heartwarming story about your pet
-The joy your pet brings you
-Pet Bereavement and keeping their memory/signs from above that they still watch over us
-Quirky personality traits or habits that your pet has
All pets are welcome! Tell us your story, we can’t wait to read it.