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August 28, 2020 by Melissa Jolly

2020 Programming

NINC 2020 Full Workshop Schedule

Updated 9/20/20

 

Wednesday At a Glance

2-6:30 PM: Registration Open (Lobby)

5-6:00 PM: VIP Guest Reception (South Lawn)

6:30-7:00 PM: NINC 2020 Orientation for ALL attendees (Tarpon Key)

7:00 PM: Welcome Reception (Courtyard)

8:15-10 PM: NINC After Dark - Genre Roundtables (Courtyard)

 

Wednesday, 6:30 - 7:00 PM

All Attendees Orientation
Location: Tarpon Key

Get up to speed on the changes to this conference with respect to policies, procedures, social distancing and more.

 

Wednesday, 7:00 PM

Welcome Reception
Location: Courtyard

Join us for networking and heavy appetizers.

Sponsored by BookBub

***

 

Wednesday, 8:15 - 10:00 PM

NINC After Dark

Come to the courtyard to exchange ideas over a cocktail (or two)!

(formerly Night Owls and Night Club)

Location: Courtyard
Bar Open: 8:15-10pm

Network with authors who write in the same genre as you.

 


Thursday at a Glance

10:00 AM-12:00 PM: Workshops (Tarpon, Sawyer and Long)

12:00-1:30 PM: Lunch

1:30-5:30 PM: Workshops (Tarpon, Sawyer and Long)

7:00-10:00 PM: NINC After Dark (Courtyard)

Thursday, 10:00 – 11:00 AM

 

Sponsor Workshop: Vellum (Presented Virtually)

vellum

 

***

What’s New in Vellum
Speaker: Brad West

Hear about new features introduced in Vellum! Learn how to create internal links to direct readers through your ebook, how to credit chapter authors in an anthology, and how to take artwork to the edge of the page. We’ll discuss how Vellum will adapt to coming changes on the Mac, and will include time for Q & A.

 

 

Thursday, 10:00 AM – Noon

 

The Psychology of Fandom: 2-Hour Masterclass (Presented Virtually)
Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Barnes

Building a strong fanbase is an important element of a successful author career. In this special Master Class Session, Dr. Jennifer Barnes, one of the world's leading experts on the cognitive science of fiction and the imagination, will offer a 360-view of how writers can use the psychology of fandom to write fandom-enabling books, attract and energize fans, and cultivate a creative culture around their works.

 

Thursday, Noon - 1:30 PM

Lunch Sponsored by Kobo Writing Life

***

 

Thursday, 1:30 - 2:30 PM

 

Market, Data, and Trends Update (Presented Virtually)
Does the book market need a vaccine or not?

Speaker: Alex Newton, K-lytics

Imagine you could cut through the results of hundreds of thousands of books to see what is happening in the market and what marketing strategies seem to work better than others. This session explores how the 2020 pandemic has impacted book markets, its various genres, and what authors and publishers can learn from it. Alex will also provide an update on longer-term market developments and trend spotting. Don't worry if you are not a numbers person. Alex has a unique talent to convey seemingly complex matters in an easy-to-understand and fun manner that lets you walk home with actionable insights.

 

 

Sponsor Workshop: Amazon KDP (Presented Virtually)

***

Expand your Readership with Kindle Direct Publishing
Speaker: Tricia Gallagher 

During this presentation, a member of the Kindle Direct Publishing team will discuss best practices on how to identify categories and keywords to increase traffic and use metadata to create a strong detail page that impacts conversion to sales.

 

 

Thursday, 3:00 - 4:00 PM

 

Decoding the Secrets of a Bestseller
Speaker: Alessandra Torre

A bestseller isn’t born, it’s carefully created through sharp plotting, strong and varied characters, perfect pacing and intelligent edits. In this live event, New York Times bestselling author and Authors AI president Alessandra Torre will dissect 4 blockbuster novels and reveal the common elements that made them successful - and how you can find and cultivate those same traits in your next book.

 

 

Sponsor Workshop: Kobo (Presented Virtually)

***

Look. Listen. Subscribe. How to take your Kobo Sales to the Next Level
Speaker: Tara Cremin
2020 has been a big year in publishing and we’re here to tell you behind-the-scenes stats from the most globally focused retailer, Kobo. Learn the latest strategies for growing your wide independent publishing business. Are you still hesitant to delve into subscriptions?  Well we don’t think you should be. With the expansion of Kobo’s subscription programs in both eBooks and audiobooks, we’ll outline the reasons why you might be missing readers by opting out of these non-exclusive opportunities.

 

Thursday, 4:30 - 5:30 PM

 

Book Brush Tutorial: Popular Features & Hidden Gems
Speaker: Corey Alderin

Whether you have never used Book Brush or have been a user for many years, you can learn something from this workshop. We will cover how to best use the most popular features and some "hidden gem" features that you can use to start creating more unique and attention-grabbing images. We will also cover the newest features and answer questions from the audience. Bring your laptop and walk away with a graphic you can use!

 

 

Sponsor Workshop: D2D (Presented Virtually)

Draft2Digital

***

Self-Publishing: The Evolution will be Digital
Speaker: Kevin Tumlinson

The industry-leading team from Draft2Digital looks back at the impact 2020 has had on self-publishing, and offers some strategies for authors to seize new opportunities emerging from the evolution of the industry.

 

 

Thursday, 7:00 - 10:00 PM
NINC After Dark

Come to the courtyard to exchange ideas over a cocktail (or two)!

(formerly Night Owls and Night Club)

Location: Courtyard
Bar Open: 7-10pm
Roundtable Discussions: 7:30 - 9pm

  • Building a Brand
  • Creating and Launching a New Genre
  • Teasers and Promo Graphics
  • Choose Your Own Topic: General Discussion of Marketing or Craft

Sponsored by Vellum

vellum

***


 

Friday at a Glance

10:00 AM-12:30 PM: Workshops (Tarpon, Sawyer and Long)

12:30-2:00 PM: Lunch

2:00-5:00 PM: Workshops (Tarpon, Sawyer and Long)

7:00-10:00 PM: NINC After Dark (Courtyard)

 

 

 

Friday, 10:00 – 11:00 AM

 

Advanced Email Marketing

Speaker: Alessandra Torre

Make your emails work harder and smarter. This advanced workshop will teach how to increase open rates, clicks, conversions, and book sales.

 

 

Sponsor Workshop: LaLa Projects (Presented Virtually)

***

Optimizing your author website for search engines and users (Presented Virtually)

Speaker: Debra Lanning, LaLa Projects

In this presentation, Optimizing your author website for search engines and users, Debra Lanning, founder and creative director of LaLa Projects will review a few professional author websites that she has had the privilege of working on.

She will share fundamental SEO terms, what they mean, how they were applied to client websites, and how they can be applied to your website.  She will also touch on the concept of schema markup and how it is applied to websites.  Lastly, she will discuss a strategic approach to page building, review more website terms, and look at some real life examples of how this is achieved.

This will be a great workshop for authors looking for ways to improve their website.

 

 

Friday, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

 

The Popularity Effect

Speaker: Dave Chesson

What’s the difference between a book that sells 3000 copies in one day (and none for the rest of the month), and a book that sells 100 copies a day for a month? Hint: the answer involves Amazon’s ABSR, its structure and the popularity effect of sales. Dave Chesson will discuss this phenomenon to help authors understand what it means and how to make it happen for their books.

 

Friday, 12:30 - 2:00 PM

Lunch Sponsored by Draft2Digital (D2D)

Draft2Digital

***

 

Friday, 2:00 – 3:00 PM

 

How to Launch a Bestseller (Presented Virtually)

Speaker: Skye Warren

Are your new releases reaching more readers than your last one? Visibility and marketing in the book world are constantly evolving. Find out what’s working now to make the most of your time and money. This workshop includes specific launch strategies for a real book release including advertising, packaging, and viral marketing strategies to make a book launch bigger. This workshop is designed for authors with an established platform who are looking to grow in 2021.

 

Sponsor Workshop: BookBub (Presented Virtually)

***

BookBub Q&A
Speakers: Carlyn Robertson, Audrey Derobert
Come to this Q&A session with BookBub to get all your questions answered!

 

Friday, 3:30 – 4:30 PM

 

Stuck, Blocked, and Burned Out: A Writer's Guide to 2020 (Presented Virtually)

Speaker: Becca Syme

Writing less than you had planned in 2020? Wondering why the words aren't coming? Stuck or stalled in big decisions right now? You need to come to this hour-long workshop on the impact of stress on the writer's brain. Success coach and author Becca Syme will tackle the difference between blocks and burnout, the influence of stress and struggle on the writing psyche, and how to get things done when it feels like you just can't.

 

Sponsor Workshop: Amazon (Presented Virtually)

***

Amazon Advertising For Authors
Speaker: Eli Brewer

During this presentation, a member of the Amazon Advertising publishing team will delve into the advertising products that authors can leverage to expand their readership on Amazon. By correctly utilizing Sponsored Ads or Managed Display products, participants will leave with a better understanding of how Amazon Advertising operates.

Friday, 7:00 - 10:00 pm
NINC After Dark

Come to the courtyard to exchange ideas over a cocktail (or two)!

(formerly Night Owls and Night Club)

Location: Courtyard
Bar Open: 7-10pm
Roundtable Discussions: 7:30 - 9pm

  • The Business of Authoring
  • Newsletters (content and innovations)
  • Research
  • Choose Your Own Topic: General Discussion of Marketing or Craft

 


 

Saturday at a Glance

10:00 AM-12:00 PM: Workshops (Tarpon, Sawyer and Long)

12:00-2:00 PM: Lunch on your own

2:00-3:00 PM: Workshops (Tarpon, Sawyer and Long)

3:30 - 4:00 PM: Annual General Meeting (NINC Members Only)

7:00-9:00 PM: Beachside Blowout Buffet

 

 

Saturday, 10:00 – Noon

 

Success Metrics and the Elusive Why: 2-Hour Masterclass (Presented Virtually)

Speaker: Becca Syme

There is more than one path to success, and knowing which path you should take is the question we’re all asking. In this presentation, success coach and author Becca Syme will unpack common success metrics for authors based on real results of real successful authors. {This is a two-hour long session with one five-minute break.}

 

 

Saturday, 2:00 – 3:00 PM

 

Mastering Amazon's A9 Algorithm and Your Book's Rankings in the Market

Speaker: Dave Chesson

Ever wonder why Amazon shows someone else's book over yours in the search results? Or why you can't seem to be found for a keyword you've targeted? In this session, we'll take a deep dive into Amazon's A9 algorithm, how it functions, and how you can make simple changes to control your book's discoverability...and no, this isn't about keyword stuffing or hacking the system.

 

 

Saturday, 3:30 – 4:30 PM

 

Annual General Meeting (NINC Members Only)

 

Saturday, 7:00 PM - Beachside Blowout Buffet (You don’t want to miss it!)

Location: Breckenridge Deck North

Filed Under: News

August 20, 2020 by Laura Resnick

Nink: Journaling & Creating A Benevolent Self

This article, written by Denise Agnew is from the August 2020 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. 

Being a creative person, you may have found that the pandemic has enhanced negative self-talk or perhaps created issues with completing deadlines or writing at all. We can forgive ourselves for feeling rocky when our world is downright crazy.

That being said, creative people tend to be hard on themselves all the time. We dredge up perceived faults we have against our creative abilities one after the other and beat ourselves bloody.

What if you could call on a benevolent and confident self (call it future self if you like) to get you through any negative self-talk? What if you could journal your way from negative thinking that tanks your creativity toward an encouraging and confident self that uplifts your creativity?

If you’ve journaled before, take a quick peek at it. Did you fill it with a plethora of negative highlights, such as  what didn’t go right, your judgements and grievances with yourself and others? Journaling like this might relieve the pressure, and in many cases it can free up your creativity. In Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way, she encourages writers to start their morning with stream of consciousness writing. The idea is to get down all of your gunk, good or otherwise and without censoring or holding back. Many writers have gained perspective and benefit from this technique. The process of letting it all out can open our eyes.

For some writers,  journaling what isn’t working for them is enough. Often the barriers we place on our writing abilities come from childhood experiences or other situations through life where something went wrong. Getting it out helps, as we assume that the same type of negative thing will occur again and sometimes it does, but we can be better prepared.

However, beyond that is our own internal thought process where, if we focus on the negatives, we often then only see the negatives in our writing, and we repeat negative patterns and belief systems in an endless cycle. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. We say we can’t. So we don’t.

To reverse this, we should step into our power and create a benevolent self that can flip the negative thinking. One way to do this is journaling.

If you don’t already have a journal, now is the time to grab one specific for this assignment. Don’t reuse one. Go find one that appeals to you in color/fabric/material and paper. Use a favorite pen or buy a new one to use just for this journal. This can pump up your enthusiasm to stick with it.

Journal Prompts

Below are journal prompts designed to open your mind to new creative possibilities. Take as much time and pages needed to thoroughly explore each of these possibilities and questions.

  • What negative things do you tell yourself most frequently about your writing abilities? This can apply to other things that have nothing to do with writing, but for the purposes of clarity, let’s stick with writing for the moment.
  • Are there similarities between each negative thing?
  • Where and when did you get these ideas about your writing abilities? Don’t be shy. Lay it all out here. You may not have taken much time to think about these things before, so don’t be surprised if it takes a while to pinpoint them.
  • What are the patterns you see between each? Are they things someone else told you about your writing or things you assumed entirely on your own?

Clearing Things Up

Now that you have some idea of the negative beliefs about your writing that bother you, let’s work on the one that bothers you the most. Of the negative things you’ve listed, is there one that sticks out to you as the most painful? Highlight that. Then you will ask, is it actually true? How do you know it isn’t true? Would you say this to a close friend?

Now that you’ve highlighted the one negative, let’s analyze the truth of it. Let’s work through the process using this example: I can’t write at all.

With the highlighted negative thing you’ve told yourself, answer the following question:

Is it actually true?

No it isn’t true that I can’t write.

How do you know it isn’t true?

Because I have written and published 10 books.

(Don’t start ruminating on how many reviews you don’t have or how much money you aren’t making right now. Neither of these things is a reflection on the quality of your writing.)

Would you say these things to a close friend?

No, I wouldn’t. In fact, I think it is horrible to say to my friend that she can’t write, because it isn’t true. I’d be angry at anyone for saying this to my friend.

When it is apparent that your negative belief is most likely not true and why, it can help you attack each negative belief you have with regard to your creativity.

Go back through each negative you wrote and ask/answer the questions for each one. Is it actually true? How do you know it isn’t true? Would you say these things to a friend?

Discover Your Benevolent Self

Now there is one more step to take, which is to take the negative things that bothered you and shift this thinking. What would a benevolent, loving self say to you? Basically, turn that negative into a positive.

Example: I can’t write at all.

Benevolent self: I am a talented writer with many stories to tell. I’m particularly good at telling XYZ type of stories.

Example: I can’t write historical fiction because it is hard to write and I was never any good at research.

Benevolent self: I love reading historical non-fiction. It fascinates me. Knowing that, I’d find reading research on the time period I want to write extremely interesting. I can research the time period(s) and facts I find intriguing with ease.

If you have difficulty getting to an uplifting statement, go for a middle ground that is neutral such as, “I enjoy writing stories. XYZ stories intrigue me the most.” This neutral ground points out to you that you enjoy writing and what you want to write, which is more encouraging and not a negative.

________________________

Denise A. Agnew is the award-winning author of over 69 novels and screenplays. Denise’s novels Love from The Ashes and Blackout were optioned for film/TV by Where’s Lucy? Productions, Bright Frontier Films and MDR Entertainment.  Denise is a Writer/Producer (Where’s Lucy? Productions, Happy Catastrophe Productions, Bright Frontier Films), a paranormal investigator, Reiki Master, and Certified Creativity Coach. As a creativity coach, Denise assists anyone in the creative arts to maintain lifelong creativity. You can find her at www.deniseagnew.com and www.creativepencoaching.com.

Filed Under: Nink Tagged With: coaching, creativity, habits, journaliing, productivity, writer psychology, writer's block, Writing

August 5, 2020 by Laura Resnick

Nink: Social Media Promotion, Part 1 ~ Best Practices for 2020

This article, written by Mindy Klasky  is from the August 2020 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. 

Author Note: Social media remain a linchpin for many authors’ promotional efforts. This article outlines five current best practices for five of the oldest, best-established social media networks: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube. Next month, we’ll look at some newer players in the field, including LinkedIn, Snapchat, Tik-tok, Tumblr, WeChat, and What's App. Please note, paid advertising on social media platforms is beyond the scope of this article.

No author can possibly interact with readers on all social media channels; there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. Successful promoters pick and choose among platforms, selecting the ones that play to their strengths (e.g., long and detailed essays, short and witty observations, photos, or video.)

While many services allow authors to create one post and disseminate it across multiple platforms, those distributed posts might not put the author in the best promotional light, because each platform’s users expect interactions consistent with the platform’s design. (For example, Twitter’s 280-character limit means that a long, insightful observation about the publishing industry will be reduced to a hyperlink or Twitter thread many users will never follow.)

The following best practices should help authors identify the social media networks most in line with their skill sets. All facts and figures on social media usage cited below come from the Pew Research Center’s Social Media Fact Sheet, which was last updated June 12, 2019.

Facebook

Facebook, the second-most-popular social media platform in the United States (after YouTube), counts approximately 69% of US adults as users. Among all Facebook users, 74% visit the site daily, and an additional 17% visit the site weekly.

Facebook applies complicated often-changing algorithms to determine which posts to show to which accounts. While the precise nature of those algorithms is secret, the system favors posts that generate a great deal of interaction (likes, shares, and comments) from users. In recent months, the algorithms seem to favor the distribution of posts from the profiles of family and friends over those of commercial pages.

  1. Polish your cover photo. (“Cover photo” is Facebook’s term for the banner at the top of a profile, page, or group; it is not the “profile picture,” which is often a user’s portrait.) Your cover photo, which is your first chance to snag a passing user and make them a fan, should reflect your brand, instantly conveying your genre and your specific books. View your cover photo on multiple devices; the entire photo is not visible on mobile devices. As there are still millions of users who access Facebook via computer make sure your cover is optimized for that platform. The new desktop interface places a user’s profile picture in the bottom center of their cover photo (a change from past placement, to the lower left.)
  2. Engage your followers. Facebook’s algorithms promote posts that receive a lot of engagement. Therefore, authors should post with the specific goal of creating interaction. Consider asking direct questions (especially ones with easy, straightforward answers). Acknowledge responses to your posts by clicking “like,” adding stickers, or making a comment. (Those acknowledgments build a personal bond with your followers. At the same time, they increase your points of contact with your followers for future Facebook algorithms.)
  3. Use videos and images. According to Social Media Today, more than 8 billion videos are viewed on Facebook every day. Still photos, memes, and other images also catch readers’ eyes as Facebook posts scroll by. Similarly, short text-based posts stand out when accompanied by one of Facebook’s prepared background designs.
  4. Create groups. While Facebook notoriously limits the visibility of posts to profiles and pages, they give far greater visibility to posts made in groups. Rumors abound that Facebook will start to charge for group; however, no charges are yet in effect. Your groups can be relatively small (e.g., a street team or an ARC team) or quite expansive (e.g., a book club for your genre.) Many authors foster the appearance of exclusivity by making their groups private.
  5. Avoid hashtags. While Facebook supports hashtags, they are not commonly used on the site. If you do use hashtags, never use more than two in a single post. Multiple hashtags may send a message to Facebook’s algorithms that your post originated on another social media network.

Instagram

Approximately 37% of US adults use Instagram, with 63% visiting the site daily and another 21% visiting the site weekly.

  1. Deliver quality posts. Of course, all social media require quality posts—but quality photos really matter for Instagram. Learn your camera’s settings. Consider creating a uniform feel by using the same filter on all your posts or by adopting a color scheme for specific periods of time.
  2. Use hashtags. Instagram followers respond well to two types of hashtags: A) Long, witty, and entertaining hashtags that may be unique within the Instagram world and B) Precise, common hashtags that link communities of users. Study the hashtags commonly used by authors in your genre and plug into their networks.
  3. Use stories. Stories are built from images and video, with added text, GIFs, stickers, filters, and polls. They last for 24 hours before disappearing from your feed.
  4. Run a contest. The best contests are simple ones—ask your followers to comment on one of your posts, then select a winner. You don’t have to give away expensive new technology like a Kindle or an iPad; instead, you can award your own ebooks. If you run a contest, make sure you follow Instagram’s rules.
  5. Remain social. Perhaps because of the relatively sparse textual interaction on Instagram, many users forget to engage with their followers. Respond to comments, answer questions, and thank people who compliment your posts.

Pinterest

Approximately 28% of US adults use Pinterest. Statistics about daily and weekly visits are not readily available.

  1. Pin fresh content. Fresh content goes beyond merely adding new pins. Rather, Pinterest wants to encourage the addition of pins that aren’t available anywhere else on its site. If your pin isn’t unique, consider adding unique (but relevant) titles, using a different font in the text overlay, and using different graphics, patterns, or colors. (Generally, it’s not sufficient to use only one of those methods to create content considered “fresh” by the Pinterest algorithms.)
  2. Pin the most important items first. The first five pins you post each day will get more engagement than the rest of your board, no matter what time of day you make those pins. Consider which items are most important and pin them first.
  3. Emphasize quality over volume. Pinterest finds more value in quality pins (fresh content, quality images, etc.) than in the number of pins you make. Use your limited social media time to create consistently good pins, rather than a multitude of mediocre ones.
  4. Use keywords. Keywords increase the value of your pins to Pinterest users. Use keywords in descriptions, focusing on the terms a user is most likely to type when trying to find content like yours. When possible, include relevant keywords in your profile and board descriptions.
  5. Limit use of group boards. Pinterest created group boards to allow communication about specific, limited content. Over time, those group boards became ways for authors and others to cross promote. Pinterest has now indicated that it will provide greater distribution of relevant individual boards, rather than group boards.

Twitter

Approximately 22% of US adults use Twitter, with 42% visiting the site daily and another 29% visiting the site weekly.

  1. Optimize your profile. Make sure your handle is short and simple, without extra characters. (Consider creating a new account if your handle is hard to use and remember.) Review your bio, the first thing on your profile that most people will see when they consider following you. Don’t forget to use relevant hashtags to integrate your profile into existing Twitter communities.
  2. Pin a tweet. Create your very best content, and then pin it to the top of your feed. Along with your bio, a pinned tweet is your “first impression” to newcomers. Consistently put your best foot forward, including when you change your pinned tweet when launching a new book or series.
  3. Build relevant followers. Early marketing efforts on Twitter emphasized increasing the number of followers and harvesting contacts without regard to how relevant those accounts were to yours. Contemporary best practices emphasize building relevant followers—authors, readers, agents, editors, etc. Consider trimming your list of followers so that you’re only broadcasting to people who are interested in you, your books, and your genre.
  4. Engage your followers. As with most forms of social media, followers want to communicate with the genuine “you” (or, at least, your genuine author persona); they aren’t looking for sales pitches and endless promotion. The oft-cited 80/20 rule remains a useful guideline—spend 80% of your time engaging with your followers and only 20% selling to them. (Engagement includes responding to your followers’ tweets, retweeting, and @mentioning others. You might also ask relevant questions, conduct polls, and tweet about trending news. Humorous accounts tend to thrive on Twitter—possibly as an antidote to the flamewars that tend to rage on the platform.)
  5. Use visuals. As with other social media, visuals are increasingly important. Followers engage more with photos, videos, and other media than they do with long strings of hashtags.

YouTube

YouTube, unlike other social media, functions as a search engine, allowing users to initiate research queries. Arguably, this “search engine” function exists separately from the site’s “social media” function. Nevertheless, approximately 51% of US adults visit YouTube daily and another 32% visit weekly, making YouTube the most popular social media site in the country.

  1. Create quality content. YouTube’s primary goal is keeping viewers watching. Therefore, the site’s algorithms heavily favor “sticky” videos, so create your videos with that goal. Eliminate fluff from your introductions, and get to the meat quickly. Script your videos so you don’t have dull moments where a viewer might exit.  Provide interesting visuals, like graphics, animations, and changing backgrounds to break up your speaking.
  2. Optimize your title. You want viewers to choose your video over all the others reported following a search. To maintain energy, keep your titles short, use relevant keywords, and keep in mind the words and phrases people are likely to use when searching for videos like yours
  3. Use compelling thumbnails. Most of your viewers are going to see your thumbnail at a tiny size. Therefore, use bright, contrasting colors (ideally not red, white, or black, because those are the colors YouTube uses for its own design.)
  4. Create playlists. Remember—YouTube wants to keep people on its platform. Playlists make that easy, by presenting viewers with jumping off points for their next video. Create playlists for your videos and display them on your channel page.
  5. Recruit subscribers. Once you’ve invested time and energy in getting people to watch a video, you want them to watch all your future videos. Encourage them to subscribe to your channel. Add a Subscribe button to every end screen, to capture people before they leave the “territory” that you control.

________________________

USA Today bestselling author Mindy Klasky learned to read when her parents shoved a book in her hands and told her she could travel anywhere through stories. As a writer, Mindy has traveled through various genres, including romantic comedy, hot contemporary romance, and traditional fantasy. In her spare time, Mindy knits, quilts, and tries to tame her to-be-read shelf.

Filed Under: Nink Tagged With: brand, branding, career, Discovery, hashtags, marketing, PR, promotion, social media

July 20, 2020 by Laura Resnick

Nink: Lifestyle Brands ~ Next Level Trademarks

This article, written by Mindy Klasky  is from the July 2020 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. 

Hey! Author! What’s your brand?

In general, authors are increasingly sophisticated about branding. Many of us use slogans, taglines for our websites and emails. We have logos—general ones for our websites and specific ones for our series. We use trademarks such as series names to convey the source of our books. We use color schemes and fonts and designs of book covers and websites to make ourselves recognizable to our readers.

But few authors have conquered the next frontier in branding: becoming a lifestyle brand for their readers.

What is a lifestyle brand?

A lifestyle brand embodies the values of a specific culture or community for marketing purposes. While a simple trademark indicates the source, sponsorship, or origin of a product, a lifestyle brand goes further, inspiring and motivating consumers.

Nike is a classic lifestyle brand. Its familiar “swoosh” logo and its slogan Just Do It do more than connote the manufacturer of a T-shirt or a pair of shoes. Instead, Nike inspires its customers to compete, to rise above ordinary limitations and to achieve the impossible every day.

Similarly, Southwest Airlines embodies the notion of a lifestyle brand. Expanding on its start at Dallas’s Love Field airport, the low-cost, no-frills airline incorporates “love” into its marketing, from a heart logo on its planes to heart-shaped swizzle sticks for drinks. That “love” is further conveyed for customers through the airline’s forgiving cancellation fees and luggage checking fees. Even the in-flight magazine is filled with empathetic stories advancing the notion of Southwest as an airline that cares for its customers.

As a result of their extreme enthusiasm, lifestyle brand consumers are more likely to remain loyal, regardless of the price of their beloved goods. Therefore, most lifestyle brands convey a sense of luxury—or a thrifty aversion to luxury. In addition to Nike and Southwest, popular lifestyle brands include Apple, Lululemon, and Mrs. Meyer’s.

Lifestyle brands create such an emotional connection that their consumers are often described as members of a “cult.” For example, one of the most popular blogs about Apple products is online at cultofmac.com, and thousands of articles reference Apple products, Apple founder Steve Jobs, and cultish behavior.

Can people be a lifestyle?

Individual people can successfully market themselves as lifestyle brands. For example, Oprah Winfrey has a cult following, willing to follow her from television to movies and from magazines to bookstores. Similarly, Gwyneth Paltrow has crafted a lifestyle brand that transcends her career in film.

As with Nike and Southwest Airlines, these individuals promote a way of life. Oprah inspires her followers to realize their potential, repeatedly asking her viewers, readers, and followers to define their own dreams and develop plans for achieving them. Gwyneth fosters a more introspective inquiry, urging her followers to explore the mind-body connection. Both of these women guide their followers to a more complete, more satisfying life, with the not-so-incidental endorsing of products along the way.

Neil Gaiman is one of the few authors who has achieved this status. Gaiman writes in a wide range of genres, inspiring his dedicated followers to follow him from graphic novels to adult novels to middle-grade books to children’s picture books to retellings of Norse myth. His public appearances are mobbed by faithful readers who wait in line for up to ten hours for his signature. Avid fans permanently tattoo themselves with references to Gaiman’s books. For several years, he has sold out events styled as “An Evening with Neil Gaiman,” where entertainment takes the form of whatever interests him at the moment—songs, dramatic readings from his books for adults or children, or simply answering pre-submitted questions from the audience. Gaiman isn’t promoting a specific book; rather, he’s promoting himself.

Arguably, authors’ characters can become lifestyle brands as well. Ian Fleming’s MI6 agent, James Bond, has been portrayed by six different actors in two dozen movies. Regardless of the specific image on the screen, the suave character’s luxury tuxedo, martini, and high-end cars become aspirational for avid fans. That enthusiasm persists even though Bond himself does not exist.

Can a lifestyle brand be crafted?

Sadly, there’s no exact formula for developing a lifestyle brand. (If there were, of course, every trademark owner in the world would apply it, basking in the power and prestige of cultishly devoted fans.) There are, however, some marketing methods that make “lifestyle” status more likely:

  • Focus on the reader. How can you, the author, make your readers’ lives better? Can your books or your online presence answer questions, meet their emotional needs, or otherwise solve their problems? What community can you build for your readers? Can you give them an online home, such as a Facebook group? What about a forum to communicate with you and with each other? What unique aspects of culture can you offer your reader? Can you develop a catch-phrase or slogan and offer it on merchandise? Can you foster inside jokes with a unique vocabulary in the places you share with your readers? Can you create merchandise for them to identify themselves and each other in public spaces?
  • Keep it simple. At the same time that you’re building solutions for your readers, remember to keep your presence simple. Use a logo, but keep that design as straightforward as possible. (Think of Nike’s “swoosh” or Apple’s line-drawing of a bitten piece of fruit!) Use a distinctive font, but be certain it’s legible. You never want your fledgling community of fanatics to need to work hard to join you.
  • Maintain consistency. Once you’ve identified your simple logos, fonts, and other trademarks, use them consistently. Maintain a uniform color scheme. Apply similar designs to all of your social media. Communicate frequently with your readers on a regular timetable—releasing books, sending newsletters, posting to social media, and reaching out in other regulated, predictable ways.
  • Reach out to influencers. Every community has powerhouse members, people who enjoy an out-size effect on others. Some influencers can be courted with honest communication. Others are swayed by the offer of free books. Still others offer their influence for purchase, especially in the high-powered world of YouTube influencers. A high-powered influencer can be the difference between a merely successful brand and a powerhouse lifestyle brand.

Dangers of lifestyle branding

Building a lifestyle brand requires a substantial investment of time, to study readers’ behaviors and to develop solutions for their problems. It also requires a substantial investment in energy, to become consistently present in your readers’ lives. Most lifestyle brands also invest substantial money in reaching their audience, purchasing advertisements wherever their followers are likely to be found.

In interviewing authors for this article, I uncovered another potential danger to lifestyle branding: alienating readers who perceive authors as being too wealthy. Multiple authors reported a negative response among their readers when the authors displayed cars, shoes, or other purchases that were perceived as luxury goods. The authors were chastised for charging too much for their books or for wasting time playing when they could be writing. The affected authors noted that upset readers did not have a similar reaction to actors, athletes, or musicians sharing similar high-end acquisitions; there seemed to be a negative reaction unique to authors’ sharing.

(Of course, not all lifestyle brands connote wealth or luxury, and sharing one’s high-end purchases is only one way to build a devoted community. Anecdotes from a subset of authors are not hard data. Older authors such as Danielle Steel and Jackie Collins certainly built careers as “glitzy” authors, with a flamboyant style. But contemporary authors might choose caution if they’re building a luxury lifestyle brand.)

Building a lifestyle brand isn’t easy. But with a focus on existing readers, a simple, consistent message, and the amplifier of community influencers, authors can build communities of dedicated readers that might make the leap to true “lifestyle” status.

________________________

USA Today bestselling author Mindy Klasky learned to read when her parents shoved a book in her hands and told her she could travel anywhere through stories. As a writer, Mindy has traveled through various genres, including romantic comedy, hot contemporary romance, and traditional fantasy. In her spare time, Mindy knits, quilts, and tries to tame her to-be-read shelf.

Filed Under: Nink Tagged With: brand, branding, career, marketing, PR, promotion

July 5, 2020 by Laura Resnick

Nink: Maintaining Momentum ~ How To Avoid the Dreaded Saggy Middle!

This article by Joanne Grant is from the July 2020 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. 

An impactful opening will hook your reader and quite rightly, there is a lot of emphasis placed on writers to get those first chapters right. And then there’s your ending. If you’ve done a great job, your ending will leave your reader feeling great about the time they’ve spent with your characters and are more likely to come back for more of your stories.

But what about everything in-between?

Whatever genre you’re writing, whatever the word count, there’s a lot of “in-between” that has to be just as engaging and memorable. After all, what’s the point of that fantastic finale if few readers make it there! But I know that writers can struggle to maintain momentum through the mid-section and are in danger of developing a saggy middle.

In this article I will focus on the often-overlooked middle by highlighting common symptoms and causes, and then suggest some toning exercises.

What does a saggy middle look like?

As a reader, you know when you’re in saggy territory because you find yourself losing interest, skimming the pages, in short – you’re bored! This could be because:

  • There’s nothing really happening – it’s all a bit dull
  • Or there’s lots happening! It’s all action and excitement, yet … it leaves you feeling flat
  • The narrative is confused, repetitious or waffley

What is going on? The chances are — not a lot. And there sits the problem. You’re wading through a sludge of filler because nothing significant is happening to move the story forward in an engaging, meaningful way. This is key:

  • Every scene, within every chapter, should be moving the story forward. Whether through plot, character motivation, emotions, conflicts, character development — something should be shifting, moving, propelling the reader through.

Without this forward-moving momentum, the pace will stall, your middle will sag, and readers will start to lose interest.

You know what sagging middles feel like as a reader, but how can you recognize it as a writer? Or when you feel like it might be sagging but aren’t sure? First, let’s identify whether your mid-section is in trouble.

Signs you’re developing a saggy middle

  • You’ve lost interest in writing your current story. In fact, your head may be half-way into a different story. If you’re bored, your reader will be too!
  • Your writing feels mechanical, you’re losing your natural voice and spark, and everything you write seems to lack the energy you created in the opening.
  • You find yourself checking your word count every half an hour (or more!), willing it to have magically shot up a few thousand so you can move on to the next exciting part of the story.
  • Your characters are repeating themselves — in actions, thoughts or conversations. In fact, they have run out of new things to say to each other!
  • You find yourself describing the mundane. It may be real life, but it probably isn’t that interesting to read.
  • You throw in some action — another sex scene, another fight — because, it’s exciting … isn’t it?

Does any of this sound familiar? If so, your writing is displaying some of the symptoms of a saggy middle, but the good news is that there are ways you can tone it up!

Two exercises to tone up the middle

Scene by scene analysis

We’ve established that every scene should be moving something along, so a good place to start is by looking scene by scene and asking: what purpose does this scene serve? Here are some elements to focus on:

  • Characters: What have you learned about them? Have you revealed anything new to the reader, to another character or even to themselves? What has changed within them, or is the aim to show that they haven’t/can’t change?
  • Emotion: Have the emotional stakes shifted? Have emotions changed in the scene — from hopeful to anxious; from insecure to content; from in love to feeling betrayed?
  • Conflicts: Check your conflicts. If you haven’t noted a change in the above two points, it is likely your characters have stalled in their development and character arc: perhaps conflicts have been resolved too soon. This could also signal that the conflicts are simply not strong enough to sustain the story.
  • Plot: What is happening in the external action of the story — has the plot progressed?
  • Repetition: Is there any repetition of information, action, behavior from what has come before? Question whether the repetition is necessary — to emphasize a point, flag it as important to the reader — or is it just repetition with no purpose?

If you consider each of these elements and nothing has shifted from the beginning of the scene to the end of the scene in a meaningful way – then your scene is contributing to the sag, it is just filler dragging down the pace. However, just a note on some of those calmer scenes.

You may have a scene where everything is seemingly static and you can’t decide if it should stay. A moment of calm in the story can be a welcome moment of relief – it provides a sense that everything is going to be fine after all. Such scenes have much more impact if the scene that follows has high drama, this becomes the purpose of the calm scene. The trick is not to linger too long in the calm otherwise the pace will drop. And it never hurts to plant a seed of doubt that all is not well to propel the reader on.

Identifying where the sag began

It is often not the middle’s fault that it lacks tone – it really does get a bad reputation! Instead, the problem likely originated elsewhere so it’s important to detect exactly where:

  • Look at the chapters that came before. It may be that your opening doesn’t have such strong foundations after all. What threads did you start that need continuing, what has been resolved too soon, or even forgotten about? Revisit your early chapters and check that your scenes have purpose here too.
  • Think about your ending. You might find that you are meandering through the middle of the story because you’re not quite sure where you’re going, or how you are going to get to the end. This may be the time to focus on your story outline and synopsis to make sure you are heading forward with purpose.

Now on to the painful point…

Sharpen those editing tools!

You’ve identified which scenes have purpose and which don’t and where the problem originates from, so it’s time to get editing, and you may need to get brutal! No one said this was going to be easy…

  • Work on your saggy scenes to ensure there is purpose: that it links to the what has gone before and pushes forward to what is about to happen.
  • Once you’ve made sure that your scene has purpose, check it for any unnecessary description, exposition, repetition — basically cut the waffle! We’re trying to tone that middle, not hide all that great work under layers of padding.
  • Adding purpose is not the same as an information dump! If you have a lot of information that needs to be shared by the mid-point, make sure those crumbs are dropping in sparingly before you get there.
  • Sometimes a saggy scene can’t be toned up. You need to be objective and honest. Even if you like the scene, if it isn’t doing your story justice, it’s time to let it go. This could be mean losing a whole scene — it’s time for the chop!

And now breathe… How are you feeling after your workout? I hope you are feeling much more confident about how to tone up the middle of your story and have recognized that it deserves to be lavished with the same love and attention as the opening and ending.

Now, someone pass the cookies – I think I’ve earned one!

________________________

Joanne Grant is an editorial coach with over 16 years of editorial expertise working for the global bestselling publisher Harlequin. Joanne has edited hundreds of romance novels over the years and understands how to coach authors of all genres to deliver their best work. If you’re interested in finding out how she can help you achieve your writing goals, get in touch – Joanne loves to chat! You can find Joanne on Twitter @JoanneMGrant and Facebook at JoanneGrantEditorialCoach.

Filed Under: Nink Tagged With: craft, self-editing, Writing

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