Blog - Page 2 of 68

July 20, 2021 by Melissa Jolly

2021 Programming

Estate Planning
Speaker: Attorney Sara Wells

Join attorney Sara Wells, partner at Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius LLP, for this informative session on protecting your work and wealth even after you're not around to take care of it. This workshop will cover basic estate planning and then dive deeper into the specifics of what published authors need to do to prepare to transfer their business to heirs and protect their intellectual property. This workshop is not a substitute for speaking with an attorney familiar with your state’s inheritance laws, but it will give you an overview of the elements that you need to anticipate when creating your estate plan.

Adaptation: How to transform your novel for the screen (big or small!)
Speaker: Ines Johnson

In this practical workshop, veteran television writer and former screenwriting professor Ines Johnson will guide novelists through a series of steps designed to take a manuscript from the written word to the visual world of the screen and teleplay. Using a number of books that have been adapted successfully, and some not so successfully, into movies and television series, Ines will show authors how to break their novels down to their story core of the word and logline and translate their plot points into the beat sheet of the screen.

Using Universal Fantasies to Sell Your Books
Speaker: Theodora Taylor

Weaving universal fantasy themes into your stories creates unputdownable books. In this workshop, Theodora Taylor will teach you how to use these fantasies to make even niche genres more appealing to a wider audience. You will also learn how to use universal fantasies to write selling synopses, compelling back cover copy, and irresistible ads to promote and sell your books both within and outside your target readership!

How To Create A Stunning Book Trailer Video In Just Minutes
Speakers: Kathleen Sweeney, Anthony Ricker

Video ad creation is vital to any 2021 book marketing campaign. In this workshop, the Book Brush team will lead you step by step in creating a stunning Book Trailer to help your book attract more readers. The easily repeatable instruction will come with hidden tricks to make your trailer stand out above the rest. Even the “tech challenged” author will come out of this workshop ready to tackle trailer creation for their books.

Amazon is Changing . . . Again
Speakers: Dave Chesson

If there’s one thing certain about Amazon, it’s that they’re constantly changing elements of their business. The KDP team uses analytics and key research to tweak, add and remove features. Recently, we’ve seen new programs even as some capabilities and options have gone away. So what does this mean for authors? What can we expect and where will all this lead? In this workshop, Dave Chesson will unpack his observations and insights on what’s new—and vanishing—at Amazon.

Level Up Your Author Business with Data Tracking
Speakers: Pete Fu

Most authors are used to the constant stream of data flowing from sales channels and ads platforms. The struggle, though, is how to interpret and utilize that information in order to be more be strategic and successful.

Publishwide simplifies this process so authors can focus on maintaining their competitive advantage. In this workshop, you'll learn how to understand raw data and use that knowledge to test new tactics, track performances, identify trends, and determine when to double down and when to cut losses.

The Myth of Intention
Speakers: Becca Syme

"Fail to Plan and You Plan to Fail" is a piece of advice that gets bandied about when we discuss success, but do we ever really question the premise? No, because the symmetrical construction slips the logic past our inner skeptic. But is it really true? What if I feel like I don't know what I'm doing? Does that mean I'm doing something wrong or I can't succeed? Join author success coach, Becca Syme, to unpack the expectations of planning, intention, and choice as it relates to our success, and answer the question: "Is setting an intention a guarantee that I will succeed?"

Books to Film and TV: What Every Author Wants to Know
Speakers: Maggie Marr

The most common question I get from clients and friends is: How can I get my book made into a film or TV show? There are a million different answers to that one question. After 20+ years in entertainment, it seems as though I've negotiated every possible type of deal. Join me as I walk through the likely scenarios of how a book transitions into film and TV, exploring how all the pieces interact in entertainment; writer, author, producer, studio, distributor, financier, streamer. We’ll talk about the most common elements of a contract and deal and which are negotiable and which are not. While the path from book to screen is often a strange trip, it's also an exciting journey.

Build Better Facebook Audiences and Reach More Readers with your Ads
Speaker: Malorie Cooper

Audience building is one of the most difficult parts of creating ads on Facebook. I’m sure everyone reading this has typed in dozens of perfect target authors only to find that they’re not available as interests on Facebook! Not only is targeting authors difficult, but many genres aren’t even available or their audience sizes are far smaller than you’d expect them to be.

Worry not! After spending the last year grappling with this issue, Mal has worked out ways to improve your existing audiences as well as take control of how to select the readers you wish to reach.

After her session, building a five-million-reader audience is going to be the work of minutes, not hours.

Constructing the Perfect Amazon Book Sales Page - Using proven data to increase conversions
Speakers: Dave Chesson

When book shoppers land on your Amazon sales page, there are key things they look at when deciding whether or not to purchase. Luckily, thanks to an extensive experiment and user-generated heatmaps, we can now decipher what those key components are. Through this workshop, you will learn the key steps to refine page structure and improve conversion on your Amazon book page, maximizing the overall effectiveness of every marketing tactic used to drive buyers to your book.

Finding Your Perfect Match: How to Hire (or be your own!) Assistant
Speakers: Traci Olsen

An author's first job is to write. However, there are plenty of tasks in publishing that aren't as fun as writing, and somebody’s gotta do them. Traci Olsen, brand manager, will outline the basics of an author's administrative needs and talk about how to have an assistant, whether you hire someone or become your own. Topics include sprints, timers, pre-writing, literary estates, and maximizing administrative efficiency so that writers can write and assistants can assist.

Tips and Tricks for Creating a Serialized Story
Speakers: Ines Johnson

Traditional episodic television writers are skilled at crafting stories that keep viewers in their seats during commercial breaks--and that leave them guessing in the seven days between each episode. Learn the tips and tricks showrunners use to hold tension and attention so that you can keep readers in their seats as you serialize your prose! Let veteran television writer Ines Johnson teach you her twelve-point method to structure each episode of your serial, as well as techniques to tease, lead, and hook readers from episode to episode.

Leverage the Power of Barnes & Noble and NOOK with B&N Press

Speakers: Julie Braunschweiger

Please join Julie Braunschweiger, B&N Press Manager, to learn about Barnes & Noble’s self-publishing platform for eBook and print-on-demand. Closely aligned with our national retail stores and NOOK digital, B&N Press is a fast, free, and easy way to publish your books to reach millions of B&N readers. This in-depth talk will present authors with best practices, new opportunities, and an overview of features designed to help you get the most out of publishing direct with B&N Press.

Domestic Violence in Fiction: Write the Story Survivors Deserve
Speaker: Adriana Herrera

This workshop will teach basic concepts about trauma (specifically PTSD) and how it can impact survivors of interpersonal violence as well as impart an understanding of intimate partner violence and some inaccurate (and potentially harmful) myths about IPV for all couples. Attendees will come away with a better grasp of how to responsibly write informed, respectful survivor stories that foster hope; they will also understand how tools used by domestic violence advocates can help authors craft stories with an accurate and informed representation of a survivor’s journey.

Copyright & Trademark What Every Author Needs to Know
Speakers: Maggie Marr

You are an author with a growing body of work, and you've spent years developing your author voice, your backlist, your readership--building your author business and your author brand. But how do you protect all that you've built? What happens if you find chunks of your book in a book you didn't write? How does copyright and trademark protect you? What do you as an author need to do to avail yourself to the protections of copyright and trademark?

Treat Your Writing Like a Business
Speakers: Joe Solari

This is an exclusive workshop for people who don't hate money.

In this presentation, you'll learn about the distribution of earnings for published authors, and what practices you can adopt to have a more profitable business.

The workshop will include a live case study of an author who is published wide and how she was able to structure her publishing business to limit liability and improve cash flow and credit.

You’ll come away knowing how to maximize your income (regardless of your current level), and you'll learn how to build a business that works for you, not the other way around.

Ace Your Blurbs and Ad Copy
Speakers: Malorie Cooper

Sifting through your novel to identify the story’s most salient points is hard enough, but once you complete that task, you have to get those points across to potential readers while being both succinct and compelling.

If you’re like most authors, the prior sentence is probably enough to have you doing breathing exercises. Take a moment to calm down, because there’s still one more thing: you also need to write your blurbs to market.

Have no fear! In this class, you’ll learn a simple system that will allow you to dissect your book, nail your blurb, and write killer ad copy while still crafting awesome prose that reflects your skill as an author.

Writing The Diaspora: Create Diverse Characters with History and Depth
Speakers: Adriana Herrera

In this workshop, participants will learn to recognize their own blind spots and gain useful insights on writing characters outside of their own lived experiences. This session will also discuss what to consider when thinking of writing about immigrant communities and what steps to take to execute this with sensitivity and in a manner that is respectful of the characters they aim to bring to life in their stories.

How to Craft Better Stories with Plottr
Speakers: Plottr

Can software help you craft better stories faster?

In this hands-on session with the founders of Plottr, the popular visual book planning app, you'll discover how the program's suite of highly visual tools can accelerate your writing process. You’ll learn how the software can help you visualize your book and series arcs; identify and avoid plot holes; keep characters and settings consistent; outline with proven templates; and quickly transition to completing your manuscript.

You'll also have the opportunity to ask questions... and enjoy a sneak peek of Plottr's biggest release of the year, shown publicly for the first time.

Author Branding and Merchandising: Broaden Your Reach
Speakers: Traci Olsen

Branding and merchandising can sound very “corporate,” yet they are an extension of your writing. You create a world in your books. Traci Olsen, brand manager, will show you how to extend your world creation into your overall brand. We’ll talk about creating a look and feel to your in-person and online imagery, taglines, and social media presence (large or small!). That branding can roll into merchandise and other income streams to draw potential and returning readers into your books.

July 5, 2021 by Laura Resnick

Nink: The Care & Feeding of Your Newsletter

This article by Tara Wyatt is from the July 2021 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc. (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership.

Newsletters, while an incredibly useful author tool, can be frustrating. What do you send? How do you find subscribers? Most importantly, how can you get the most out of your newsletter?

How to get started
If you’ve never set up a mailing list before, the first thing you’ll need to do is to pick a provider. There are dozens of mailing list services available, and the options can be overwhelming. Let’s look at the three most popular platforms:

MailChimp is one of the biggest and best-known email marketing platforms. If you have fewer than 2,000 subscribers, the platform is free to use, but pricing quickly jumps to $31 per month for 2,500 subscribers and $79 a month for 10,000 subscribers, making it one of the more expensive platforms.
- Pros: MailChimp’s reporting and the metrics available to users are thorough and extensive, and they have several beautifully designed templates, making it easy to send eye-catching emails to your subscribers.
- Cons: Automations are difficult to set up (we’ll talk more about automations shortly), and affiliate links are not allowed.

MailerLite is a newer service, but is very similar to MailChimp in terms of its design and ease of use. The biggest difference is that they are significantly cheaper than MailChimp, as 2,500 subscribers will only cost you $15 a month, or $50 a month for 10,000 subscribers. However, only the first 1,000 subscribers are free, as opposed to the first 2,000 with MailChimp.
- Pros: Extremely user friendly with an easy-to-use interface and helpful customer service, and features such as integrated automation and a landing page editor.
- Cons: The reporting isn’t as comprehensive as what you get with MailChimp.

Aweber has been around for nearly 20 years and is a giant in the email marketing industry. The first 500 subscribers are free, which means they have the smallest free plan of the three services, but the pricing is reasonable: 2,500 subscribers, $29 a month; 10,000 subscribers, $69.
- Pros: Aweber offers A/B split testing, analytics, and a highly functional mobile app for stats. They also offer user-friendly templates, and automation and list management tools. Their customer service is top notch.
- Cons: If you’re not into the reams of data available on Aweber, there are cheaper options. Users have also reported deliverability issues with Aweber.

If you build it, will they come?
Now that you’ve chosen your email list service and set up your account, the next step is to get readers onto your list. Sadly, it’s not as simple as creating a newsletter sign-up form on your website and hoping readers will find it and subscribe. However, enticing readers to join doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are a few strategies that will help you start growing your list.

(Note: Integrating the sign-up on your website with the back-end of your newsletter is sometimes seamless and sometimes complex, depending on what platforms you’re using. You may need some technical assistance to get that set up).

Reader magnets
A reader magnet is something you’ve written that you offer to your readers for free in exchange for signing up for your mailing list. Your reader magnet can be anything, from a short story to a full-length book. If you’re just starting out, you could write a prequel novella to your first novel. If you’re uncomfortable giving away entire stories for free, you could create detailed character profiles for readers to download, or put together a sampler that contains the first chapter of each of your books. The idea is that the reader magnet will entice readers to give you their email address in exchange for this bonus goodie, so make it relevant and interesting to your target readers.

Another example of a reader magnet is a bonus epilogue. Include information about this at the back of the book, giving readers the link to sign up to download their copy. This is a highly effective strategy and attracts the readers you want—the ones who read and enjoyed your book—onto your list.

Once you have your reader magnet chosen (and you can have more than one, especially if you have reader magnets specific to certain books), advertise it not just on your website, but also in the back matter of all of your books. A reader who’s just finished your book is more likely to be “warm” and willing to hear from you on a regular basis.

As long as what you’re offering is enticing, reader magnets are a fantastic way to grow your list.

Onboarding automation
Once someone signs up for your list, what happens next? They need to hear from you right away, especially if they’re expecting the delivery of their reader magnet. This is where onboarding automation comes in. When you set up your mailing list account, you’ll also want to set up a welcome sequence containing anywhere from one to several emails that are sent automatically. (The process for setting this up will vary from platform to platform, but there is technical support available on all of the major platforms.)

The first email should welcome them to the list and thank them for signing up while providing them access to their free content. Follow up with a second email a few days later—here, you could highlight a permafree book (or offer them links to other free books if you don’t have any freebies of your own to offer), or give them more information they would find interesting and relevant. A third email could once again thank them for signing up while letting them know what to expect going forward (how often you send, what type of content you include, for example).

BookFunnel
Now that you’ve chosen your reader magnet, you might be wondering how to deliver it to your readers. While it’s possible to simply host the bonus content on your website (or on a site like Google Drive or Dropbox), you could also use a service like BookFunnel. The main drawback is that BookFunnel isn’t a free service, but it offers numerous benefits you should consider.

If you’re using BookFunnel, you simply upload any reader magnets to the site and use the generated link they provide in your onboarding sequence, directing readers to the BookFunnel site to download their content. Any technical glitches or requests for help will go through BookFunnel and not to you.

Another advantage to using BookFunnel is that they offer monthly promotions where you can team up with other authors in your genre to offer readers a free book in exchange for signing up for your list. If you’re focused on building your list, this is an excellent way to find new readers.

However, if you’re on a budget, BookFunnel isn’t a necessity, and you can deliver your reader magnets by providing a link to a shared Google Drive folder, for example. You could also team up with other authors on your own to do newsletter building cross-promo. This is more time intensive, but a good option if you’re on a budget.

The care and feeding
Now that you have a mailing list and are starting to attract readers through your reader magnets, joint promotions, website, and back matter, the next step is to start sending on a regular basis. Whether you’re sending weekly, on the 1st and 15th, or monthly (and this will vary from one author to the next), be consistent. Sending regularly trains your readers to expect to hear from you and allows you to develop a relationship with them as opposed to simply showing up in their inbox when you’ve got a new book or a sale. Finding out how often your readers want to hear from you will take some trial and error. One way to fast-track this process is to survey your readers about their email marketing preferences and incorporate what you learn.

The content you include will be up to you and dependent on your readers and your brand. However, it’s a good idea to keep a list of content ideas so that you’re not stumped for what to send. Make sure that your content is relevant and engaging for your readers. If every single email is nothing more than a sales pitch, readers will lose interest and your open rates will drop. Some non-sales content ideas include a behind-the-scenes look at your work in progress, character profiles, book recommendations, a personal story, memes, news stories relevant to your books, recipes, updates on what past characters are up to now, and things that have inspired you, such as songs or places.

Another key to success is to pay attention. Subscribe to newsletters from authors who would have the same target readers as you, and look at what they include in their emails. What resonates with you? What gets clicked or elicits a response in your newsletters? Make a note of what type of content works best.

In addition, include a link to the reader magnets at the bottom of every email, as some readers may have missed content and will appreciate the link. It’s also a good idea to include a link to your most recent book and/or the first book in your series at the bottom of the email.

Hit send
A successful, fruitful mailing list is one of the most powerful marketing tools in your author arsenal. Focus on growing your list, sending regularly and giving readers interesting, click-worthy content, and you’ll reap the rewards.

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Tara Wyatt is a contemporary romance author who lives near Toronto, Ontario. Known for her heat and her humor, her books have won several awards. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing with her daughter, reading, or binging Netflix with her husband.

June 18, 2021 by Laura Resnick

Nink: Fact-Checking Your Nonfiction

This article by Nicole Evelina is from the June 2021 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc. (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership.

Fact-checking is perhaps more important today than ever before. Our readers have access to the same information we do and a handful of them like to point out errors. While this is embarrassing, it can also have serious negative effects on a career, even for the most seasoned pros. Look at Jill Abramson, a former executive editor of The New York Times. She was lambasted for errors in her book Merchants of Truth, for which she was accused of plagiarism and improper attribution of sources.

In most cases, publishing houses consider fact-checking the author’s responsibility, as it is part of your final product. However, many nonfiction books are never fact-checked, according to multiple online sources and an informal poll of members of the Biographers International Organization.

Publishing a book or article without fact-checking is dangerous for both the author and publisher, so going through the process is highly recommended. You can hire a fact-checker, but you can also do it yourself. There are pros and cons to the DIY approach.

Pros:

You are the expert in your subject, so you know it better than most strangers would.
If you do it yourself you’ll know for sure it was done to your satisfaction.
Should anyone question your accuracy, you can speak to how it was verified.
It saves you money—anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000+ depending on the rate and the length of your book.

Cons:

You must learn how to fact-check, whereas if you hire someone, they are (hopefully) already an expert.
After spending years researching and writing a book, you may be too close to the subject to check it objectively.
Fact-checking takes a fair amount of time and determination.
If something slips through, you are 100 percent accountable.

If you choose to do it yourself, I recommend reading The Fact Checker’s Bible by Sarah Harrison Smith. It’s an older book meant for fact-checkers who work with authors but is applicable when checking your own work as well. For a more recent book that covers fact-checking in the digital age, check out The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking by Brooke Borel, which breaks fact-checking down by type (book, article, etc.) and by type of fact (basic facts, numbers, quotes, analogies, descriptions, etc.)

Step One: Take good notes
Fact-checking begins while you’re doing research. Anyone who has had to write a thesis or is trained in research knows the importance of documenting your sources. But this is not only true for the final book, article, etc.; it also applies to your notes. If you use footnotes or parenthetical documentation—which is (author last name, page number), for example (Evelina, 153)—with each one of your notes, it will make it easier for you to go back during your fact-checking process and make sure you are correct. And it is important to put that information with each fact you note down because you will likely move your notes around as you learn more. If you always keep the source citation with the note, you won’t run the risk of not remembering where it came from.

When working in archives, if they allow you to take non-flash photos of source material, do so. You will thank yourself not only when writing the book, but even more so when you fact-check. If the archive doesn’t allow photography, ask to photocopy the source or scan into a PDF. There is usually a method available, though you may wish to ask if there are restrictions on use (i.e. can you use the photo in your book/article? Are you allowed to post it online?)

Also, don’t discount the value of a bibliography. I keep a running list of every source I consult while researching. Then once I’ve written the book, I copy that list to another file and delete the sources that didn’t make it into the final book. That way, if I realize I failed to cite something or need to go back, I still have a full list of sources in addition to the bibliography that will appear in the back of the book or on my website (if the book has only a list of major sources.)

Step Two: Identify the facts
Hopefully you’ll have time away from your manuscript before fact-checking so you can look at it with fresh eyes. Read through and underline every statement of fact you will need to check. Borel advises to read your work from the perspective of someone who is skeptical of your approach or wants to find errors. Highlight what they might question.

Step Three: Double-check your sources
The first thing you should do to check a fact is look back at your notes and confirm they match. Then if you have the source material at hand, do a second check. If it is archival material that you can’t easily access, you have two choices: you can email the archive and see if they will either fact check it for you or send you an electronic copy of what you need or hope your notes are accurate. Obviously, the first is preferable, but sometimes you don’t have that option.

Step Four: Look for generalizations and exaggerations
It’s very easy to write in sweeping generalizations and nearly everyone does at least once in a draft. (See what I did there? Even that sentence contains both.) Hopefully your editor caught most of them but go back and mark any that you see. Is there a way you can hone what you mean to be more accurate? These types of statements aren’t as serious as plagiarism, but they can annoy readers, make you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about, and will bring out the ire of scholars.

Step Five: Check every single quote
Be especially careful with quotes because you run the risk of being accused of defamation in the form of libel if they are inaccurate, especially if they create a negative impression of the source. If you have recordings of your interviews, listen to them again or review your handwritten notes. If feasible, run quotes you are unsure of by the source and get their approval in writing, especially if you don’t have a recording to back you up.

With academic writing, this is less of a worry because those types of quotes are more informational than opinion, but make sure the facts in them are accurate. If you are quoting from unpublished source material (such as a letter, diary or other private correspondence held in an archive or personal collection) your quotes must be verbatim, misspellings, weird punctuation and all. Also, be sure you have permission from the estate or archival institution to quote from the source. (That is usually taken care of when you research at an archive, but if you are unsure, ask again.)

Step Six: Check for plagiarism
We would all like to believe that we aren’t guilty of plagiarism, but it can be easy to do inadvertently, especially when you are summarizing someone else’s thoughts in your own words. Cite your source whether or not you are quoting them or paraphrasing them. Compare the words in your book/article to your source. Be on the lookout for any wording or phrases you wouldn’t ordinarily use or that are overly formal. Those are good indicators that you need to double-check. Also, watch out for quotation marks that were accidentally removed in editing or citations that were lost when information was moved around.

If you doubt a quote or phrase, run it through Google with quotation marks around it. You’d be surprised how quickly it can find a source. That shouldn’t be your only method of verification, but it is a place to start. As always, check your notes and the source.

Also, be aware that it is possible to plagiarize yourself. That can happen if you use your own writing in more than one place with the exact same (or really close) wording.

Supplemental help
There is software that detects plagiarism, but many are only available to teachers/professors and educational institutions. However, several companies like Grammarly ($11.66-$12.50/month) and Quetext ($9.99/month) offer low-cost online options where you copy/paste your text in. For a fee of $19.95-$39.95 you can use Scribbr, which is considered by some as the most accurate and useful. Scribbr also has an add-on called Own Sources Checker that allows you to check unpublished sources. As of this writing, Own Sources is free if you use the regular Scribbr program. These types of programs can be useful in showing you potential errors, but they cannot and should not replace the steps outlined above.

Fact-checking can be one of the more arduous parts of writing nonfiction, but it is essential. You are better off double-checking everything now, instead of after someone questions or sues you. After all, you are an expert and your reputation—as well as your scholarship—can only benefit from extra due diligence.

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Nicole Evelina is a USA Today bestselling author of nonfiction, historical fiction, and historical fantasy. She feels anyone’s pain who follows the advice in this article, as she recently fact-checked her first biography. It wasn’t fun, but now she can sleep better at night.

June 5, 2021 by Laura Resnick

Nink ~ The Official Record: Me, In My Own Words

This article is from the June 2021 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc. (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership. This month, NINC has invited Sandra Kitt to share her story as a pioneer in the publishing industry.

Yes, it’s true that I am the first African American to publish with Harlequin, the Canadian publishing mammoth known worldwide for the most enduring and creative line of romance novels in publishing history. I didn’t make this discovery until after I’d published my third book with Harlequin and realized through simple research (I’m a former librarian) that I was the only African American writer consistently published in the burgeoning romance genre of the early 1980s. To admit to this longevity doesn’t make me feel as much ancient as it does experienced. Those early years put me on an important and necessary path to learning how publishing worked. Learning quickly helped to keep me in the game. And, to be honest, I can’t recall if Harlequin ever publicly acknowledged that I am their first Black writer.

I’d made my entry into the industry with two of my first manuscripts being chosen for the then American Romance imprint from Harlequin. It was a new line of stories set in America, written by American writers. It was an immediate and remarkable beginning for me, made more so by my gradual discovery that no one in publishing was prepared for a Black writer to break in, and stay for decades. I slowly began to experience a little pushback as I advanced within the genre with stories that were not the norm for romances. At the time, the industry seemed to have a fixed belief that only white men and women fell in love. I entered their space with a wider worldview that romance novels prior to my entry had not realistically explored.

I was told I didn’t really write “romance.” I already knew that. I didn’t write what I sometimes read as formulaic linear stories. Women’s fiction as a category didn’t exist at the time and, since my stories did have romantic relationships, by default I was whack-a-moled into the box marked romance. My stories were big, complex, sub-plotted, and interjected with social and familial issues never covered before in romance novels. I wrote interracial romances (for sure a first) and included the male point of view (another first), but editors couldn’t deny the strong romantic element that tied the stories together, and which found a following among readers. Penguin Putnam helped me climb higher for a while, when it published The Color of Love, a controversial interracial story, in 1995 simply as mainstream fiction.

The book never made any bestseller list, but was critically acclaimed by USA Today, was optioned by HBO and Lifetime, and is still available more than 25 years later. Obviously, outside the periphery of romance, other sources saw creative merit in my work. The late director Jonathan Demme passed on an early suspense my agent pitched to him, but with the caveat “…tell her to keep writing.” I went on to publish with nearly every traditional publisher from the ‘80s through the early aughts of this century. Until my latest book, Winner Takes All, my last book was published in 2010 from Kimani, another Harlequin imprint. It would seem that I had, unbelievably, come full circle.

On the surface my publishing trajectory appears charmed. And it was. I was being interviewed, profiled, and invited to national book festivals that were then popping up all over the country, sponsored by such publications as the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. For a time, I was sent on yearly book tours and lectured at universities, local libraries, and special-interest groups and organizations. I met an incredible array of writers both inside and outside of romance, many who’ve become long-standing friends. I’ve been championed by editors and publishers, who seemed to admire what I’d accomplished in my first 10 years as a published author. They all saw that I had longevity and possible staying power.

But, as one powerful industry executive said to me, “They don’t know what to do with you.” I was, apparently, an anomaly. Different. This, along the way, led to a series of unfortunate and terrible incidents that, while I was enjoying undeniable success, also made me aware of subtle and not-so-subtle ways I was being sabotaged and held back. Some support seemed slipshod, haphazard, indifferent. And yet…was it really racial, or just instances of trusting and expecting too much from professionals who were not always competent or up to the demands of their own positions? Had I contributed by too often giving in, going against my own better and sometimes more reliable instincts? But yes, some of it was racial.

Editorial changes were made randomly without consideration of consequences; promises were broken that often worked against actually helping my work succeed. Despite saying that I would be published in hardcover, publishers broke that contract promise without a word of excuse or explanation. I was scammed outright on one contract after bailing out a publisher on a project for which they couldn’t find a writer. The end result was not only humiliating but dispiriting.

I waited for the larger industry acceptance that I had a contribution to make, that I was breaking new ground that publishers could have benefited from if they’d been able to see beyond the obvious—that I was a Black romance author—and were willing to develop a “wider and newer worldview” of their own. I believe even now it was a missed opportunity.

Adam and Eva unexpectedly became an early classic for Harlequin, reissued and printed several times. But when it was picked up by the Italian affiliate of Harlequin for sale in Europe, the cover art was a painting of a white couple, instead of the Black characters the book was about. I understood perfectly why that decision was made. Nevertheless, I charged the editorial decision with being disrespectful and bigoted, perpetrating a lie on book buyers.

I once had an editor confess that the publisher would never inform me that I was among their top 25 bestselling writers (Were they afraid to admit that a Black writer was able to compete creatively?), and I was left out of any and all promotions that noted those writers. One publisher kept a “milestone” list for writers based on how many books they’d published. When I knew I’d made that milestone, the criteria was suddenly changed and I no longer qualified.

I eventually came to learn that I could not depend on all publishers to market me with any kind of insight or real knowledge of me. Being easy to work with might have been a mistake on my part. But when you’re the “first” you step quietly, you watch and listen, and trust that your publisher and editors want what you want—for the book to do well so that everyone benefits. I was disappointed that the industry as a whole, and some of my publishers in particular, never saw the importance of sharing or exploiting my value as a writer of color, or making an effort to capitalize on me being “the first” in their midst. The publishers could have been seen as progressive. Instead, I saw the situation, in part, as a loss of energy, time, and talent from everyone.

But, here’s the thing. I have done more as a published writer, a second career I hadn’t really anticipated, than I could have imagined. I came into the industry, into a specific genre, that was growing exponentially and earning more money than any other segment of the publishing industry ever. It is not a stretch to say everyone knew my name, knew who I was. I found genuine support in publishers who sought me to write for them even though sometimes just getting into print was not enough, and their efforts fell flat.

I absolutely love writing, creating, pulling together my themes and premises with a host of characters that I believe in…adore…and root for. I loved working with editors who got my voice and didn’t try to force me onto paths ill suited to me, or to satisfy a misplaced and always-changing expectation, or a target audience. I love the editors who fought for me in their meetings, trying to convince their team that what I’d written, that I, was worth fighting for. I loved the bookstore owners and sales staff who championed my books by chatting up the stories with their customers. The librarians and teachers, the readers I’ve met who validated what I’d written with their praise and support. Yes, it fed my ego. All of which forces me to remain true to me and my stories, and my view of the world that is only getting wider, to explore, to include…and to write about how we love.

To learn more about my journey, watch my interview with Jayne Ann Krentz on Facebook. I’m still here.

________________________

Sandra Kitt’s The Color of Love was issued in 1995 to critical acclaim. Girlfriends, an anthology from HarperCollins, was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Fiction in 1999. The first Black writer to publish with Harlequin, she launched Arabesque, the first African American romance imprint in 1994. She has designed cards for UNICEF and illustrated books for the late Dr. Isaac Asimov. Her most recent project is a trilogy, The Millionaires Club. The first book in the series is Winner Takes All. She is represented by Lisa Erbach Vance with the Aaron Priest Agency in New York.

May 20, 2021 by Laura Resnick

Nink ~ Do Facebook Ads Still Work?

This article, written by Michelle Fox is from the May 2021 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc. (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership.

There’s a lot of noise about Facebook this year. Are authors losing one of their best advertising outlets? Do ads still work? What is IOS14? Should we delete our profiles and go somewhere else? Or, is there more to the story?

The backstory
Facebook is under fire from all sides. They’re mired in politics and anti-trust lawsuits, and are embroiled in a dispute with Apple over how consumer data is used.

Why is this happening now? Is it because “the public” has “woken up” and “demanded” privacy? No. That’s just the PR spin corporations use to make themselves look good and consumers feel like they have power.

This conflict is actually the convergence of several changes happening in technology, society, and commerce. The big tech giants have entered a new phase of competition, where their business interests overlap, creating friction and triggering turf wars.

As billionaire Kevin Plank says, data is the new oil, and in this next phase of the Data Revolution we'll see increasing competition for who controls what data as more human activity and commerce goes digital.

If you think Apple truly cares about privacy, consider this: 20 percent of their profits last year came from a payoff from Google to make Google the default search engine on Apple devices.

Apple cared so much about consumer privacy … they sold it to Google and let Google track users to their heart’s content. This deal is now the subject of legal scrutiny.

(Three guesses on the one thing Facebook didn’t pay for…)

Furthermore, Apple doesn’t apply any of their new limits on user tracking to their own network. They have no issue tracking their users.

Let’s discard this notion that Apple is somehow a noble knight who has come to save us from the Big Bad Tech Wolf. The reality is they want to monetize their data and their user base just as much as Facebook or Google do.

From this background emerges the first big turf war to hit authors in 2021: the IOS14 update. This is Facebook’s attempt to meet Apple’s new standards for consumer tracking and privacy, and authors using Facebook ads in 2021 will need to make some adjustments. Here’s the actual playbook for the little guy trying to run a publishing empire.

Verification is key
Verification is Facebook’s favorite word in 2021. They want to know who they are working with, and to do that, they now require two-factor authentication on accounts running ads. Here are their instructions on how to set it up.

Facebook also wants additional levels of verification. All authors who use Facebook’s Business Manager will need to verify their domain. Some authors may also have to verify their business, and personal identity, too.

The problem for authors is that we set up LLCs or S Corporations as small presses and then publish, promote, and operate publicly as our author name, which doesn’t match our legal or business names. This creates a disconnect between website, Facebook page, profile, and business documents that complicate business and identity verification.

Facebook also won’t tell you what verification they want, but has no qualms about shutting down or freezing accounts without notice. If you’re locked out of your account or can’t run ads or find your page access revoked, set up two-step authentication and domain verification. Contact chat support if that doesn’t restore access.

Start with the basics now: two-factor authentication and domain verification. Long term, reconcile names between your profile and pages and business documents and be ready to verify your business if necessary. I don’t recommend volunteering for business verification because Facebook is picky about the documents, but it’s time to be prepared.

Pixel changes
The pixel (a piece of tracking code advertisers use and the main bone of contention with Apple) will see new limits on functionality with the IOS14 update. While most authors don’t use the pixel, that doesn’t necessarily insulate us because all the changes are being rolled out globally.

If you do rely on the pixel in your ad strategy, you’ll have to recalibrate and adjust. Workarounds are already emerging, and it looks like Facebook will soon have them in place.

However, even with workarounds, things won’t function quite like they used to. Pixel users may notice a marked drop in ad performance. This appears to be related to IOS14 and it can happen even if your ad isn’t actively using the pixel.

The solution is to update the pixel for IOS14 until Facebook is happy or turn it off, especially if you’re not using it for that ad. When you’re setting up new ads, turn off the pixel in the ad creation phase (when it’s not relevant to the ad).

IOS14 and ad performance
The IOS14 update also impacts ad performance, data reporting, and the functionality of the ads interface. Authors are going to see some wild stuff! Here’s what’s what.

The big change is there can now be a three-day lag in ad results reporting. You may set up ads and see nothing happen in your interface.

Zero reach. Zero clicks. Zero spend.

For days.

It’s not a glitch and there’s probably nothing wrong with your ad. The lag is the new normal. It doesn’t appear to have rolled out universally yet. I’m hopeful they’ll create a modeling method to compensate for the gap so some authors may never see it.

Facebook has changed the ad metrics columns defaults in the ads interface as well, making them pixel-centric. You’ll need to customize them again to show metrics that are useful to your ads.

As IOS14 rolls out, authors may see long-running ads falter. One, it appears they are no longer supporting older ad formats. Two, they may have eliminated interest targets in your long-running ads. Three, older ads often have the pixel turned on even if it’s not in use. You can try editing an ad to turn off the pixel (if it’s on), but otherwise the answer is to start a new ad.

If the issue is that interests have been eliminated, you can edit saved audiences to remove them, or if the audience wasn’t saved, you’ll have to start a new ad. New ads using previously saved audiences where targets have been eliminated may not run and you won’t always see a flag unless you go in to edit the ad.

Another new pattern is an initial high cost per click. Big spikes in ad costs will make you think you should turn off an ad. Don’t. Wait and see. This typically resolves on its own.

Time is the real name of the game for Facebook ads in 2021. It takes longer to get ad data and for ads to find a performance groove. Ads may need more than the usual five-day learning period to sort themselves out.

IOS14 impact on audiences and ad costs
Another possible fallout from the IOS14 update is a decrease in audience sizes. Apple users are 14 percent of Facebook’s user base, and Facebook will lose a lot of app-based tracking data.

I suspect the impact will be temporary, though. Facebook is rapidly recalibrating how they collect data and improving data capture on their wholly owned app properties. Any decrease may resolve as they adjust their data model and algorithms.

Ad costs may increase as well. With the pixel losing functionality, businesses that relied on it may come in and take up more space in interest targeting, making ads more competitive. This could be the new status quo or it may be temporary as Facebook rolls out different workarounds for IOS14.

What should authors do?
Aside from the advice above, periodically search for articles about IOS14 and Facebook ads and see what’s new. As an example of how important this is, this article has already been updated four times with new information in less than a month. It’s possible parts of this article will be obsolete in the next five minutes. Things are moving fast.

However, my testing shows that long-term performance with low costs is still possible. As a data point, I’m on month three running the same ad with the same return. Ads work, but you’ll need to fiddle to figure out what makes Facebook tick now.

During the first quarter of 2021, I analyzed several hundred Facebook ads for books and cross-referenced them with sales rank. Ninety percent of those ads have books that are ranking higher than 50,000.

Ads are working. Don’t get scared off by big changes.

The book business landscape is never the same for long. With digital marketing, change is the only constant. The key is to do your due diligence, keep marketing skills sharp, and write more books.

________________________

USA Today and NY Times bestselling author Michelle Fox lives in the Midwest with her husband, kids, the occasional exchange student and an ancient black lab. She loves fantasy and romance, which makes writing paranormal romance a natural fit.

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