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I have long been a fan of email lists. I think I started mine in ... 2010? Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. That's how it feels, anyway. Mostly because I was growing a newsletter as a blogger.  Now? I'm growing one (or several, actually) as an AUTHOR.  Some principles are the same. Some are different. Let's dive in and take out some of the intimidating factor of what I still believe should be the cornerstone of your author platform.  CREATING AN AUTHOR NEWSLETTER  Why am I still harping on email all these years after starting Create If Writing? (Because, if you've been around the whole time, email has always been my recommendation.)  After growing email lists for nonfiction and for fiction, it is STILL king. It's still more effective to sell books than social media platforms. It also is the only real DIRECT connection with your readers. Any time, Instagram could yank you, or your Facebook account could get hacked and shut down. And then... you're done.  With email, you have that list of emails. You can hit up their inbox because they've given you permission, inviting you in. Sure, inboxes are crowded. But readers still get excited hearing from their favorite authors personally. And if they hit reply to an email you send out to everyone, it then becomes a one on one conversation.  Email is YOURS. It's a direct line. It's personal, and there's no algorithm to an inbox.  Get the full shownotes here: http://createifwriting.com/198

Let's get real-- what do you need for an author platform in 2021? After a few years of selling fiction, I can tell you that it's less than you might think. Let's dive in!  Author platform. Did you shudder when you read that? For some authors and creatives, the idea of building a platform to connect with an audience is daunting. Others might like it, but almost all would agree that it's easy to lose focus worrying about follower counts and other stats. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, HEAD TO HTTP://CREATEIFWRITING.COM/197 Join the free community! http://createifwriting.com/community 

Two book launches, one month apart. Both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene. Oh, enough Shakespeare. Let's dive into the nitty gritty of two different launches I had this fall.  Book launches don't just come in one size. That's something I've found in my own experience. AND in listening to other authors and watching launches. I'm always testing, always trying, and never think launches should go JUST one way. The takeaway from this post should NOT be: follow my launch plan that worked better. But I DO want to lay out the differences between these two launches a month apart and break down some things for you to consider when making your launch plan.  Links Mentioned in the Show: Ads Extravaganza (my new course on ads strategy)  The Free Facebook Group The Quick Fix-- My Weekly Email Find the full show notes at: http://createifwriting.com/196 

Facebook Facebook SEEMS to have emerged from its crazy banning ad accounts time period. But maybe not. If your ads or account got banned, you weren't alone! Try to get through to their chat or on the phone with someone to get this fixed.  They are finally shoving all people into the new Facebook look, which I hate, along with most other people. We'll forget old Facebook by next year. For now, we mourn.  Amazon's KDP Publishing Series pages can now be managed right from your KDP dashboard. This is great! You can reorder them, create a blurb that talks about the series as a whole, or add related content (which isn't showing up on the page yet).  You can now nominate your books for Kindle Deal or Prime Reading (I can't speak to whether those work well, but the monthly deals I got didn't do a thing for my sales). The place to do this is under the marketing tab. (It's in beta so you might not have it.)  You can no longer change the titles of your ebooks without republishing them. This stinks, because if you change the title and republish, someone might actually RE-BUY the book and get mad. (I've had this happen.) I'm hoping this change goes back. Author Center is now connected right in the marketing tab, and they've done some updating of their own. I almost never go into Author Central, but it's very shiny and new. You can also more easily handle the other countries with Author Central, right from the KDP dashboard.  Amazon Advertising Recently, Amazon advertising added a few metrics you can now track in your dashboard. First, the pages read (KENP read) and more importantly, the royalties for those pages read (KENP royalties). That's the difference between these two outcomes:  You can also now try Sponsored Brand posts if you're approved. These were formerly just for Amazon Ad Advantage members, which is hard for authors to get. It will show as an ad with up to three books. I haven't heard much about how these are working... yet.  A Few Others Draft2Digital is now ​allowing for authors to split royalties for co-authored works. Read more HERE.  I've talked before about the issues with Audible Returns and I think that some big things (aka: lawsuits) will be lining up soon. Read more on the whole thing HERE.   

This is a question I hear and get a lot: Why isn't my book selling? In this post, we'll dive into a simple checklist to help you look at why your book isn't selling and how you can get those sales moving. Maybe you've been there.  You put in the hard work and wrote a book. You carefully picked a cover and wrote a blurb and did all the things to push your baby book into the world.  And... crickets. Or, at least, not the sales you hoped for.  Let's look at some very simple reasons your book might not be selling by way of a checklist. Ready?  Get the full show notes here: http://createifwriting.com/194

When you're publishing your books, you have a big choice to make: Should you publish your book exclusively with Amazon or put your book up on all the retailers? We'll break down the options in this post to help you make the right choice for yourself.  Are you wide? Or exclusive?  Uh, I'm ... unsure?  These terms (wide and exclusive) are often thrown about in author groups, and I get asked about them a lot. Since I have books published that are exclusive to Amazon and ones that are available on wide retailers, I thought I could give an inside look at what these two choices mean, and why you might choose one over the other.  READ THE FULL POST AT http://createifwriting.com/193

I've talked before about book launches and share a simple book launch framework. But I wanted to focus here on the tale of two launches: the big, splashy book launch and the low-key, chill book launch. But wait, isn't there just one way to launch a book? Go big or go home? No. I'm not really into one-size-fits-all for most things, and book launching is one of them. I'm going to go over some reasons why you might choose one over the other and end with some encouragement no matter which launch plan you choose. Read more at http://createifwriting.com/192

We all have different ways of writing and planning. Learn to embrace what works for you! Pick up a free guide to help you plan: http://createifwriting.com/novelplanning

In a recent post, Nate Hoffelder shared four mistakes you might be making with your book covers. Because book covers are so important, I wanted to create a companion post on how to choose the right cover and give some recommendations.  Why do we need to are about book covers? We're writers! Right. But if you want people to READ your words, you need to get them in the door. The book is the MAIN way to get them in the door. The blurb, cover, ads, and other things factor in, BUT the cover is the very first thing.  Did you know that humans process visual information in thirteen milliseconds? That's less than a blink of an eye.  So, as we dive deeper into book covers, I want you to be thinking of your book cover in a blink.  Read the full episode: http://createifwriting.com/190

This post is going to dive into how to get the most out of free book promotions or 99-cent sales (which will include KDP countdown deals). You'll walk away with a better idea of the strategy behind these kinds of promotions. Two of the tools used frequently by authors are free book promotions or 99-cent sales. If you're exclusive to Kindle by being in their Kindle Select program, you'll have a free book promotion or a Kindle Countdown deal per each enrollment period. (The enrollment period is 90 days.) If you're NOT inside KDP Select, you can manually change prices or use a promotion tool from within your dashboard.  But just making a book free or running a sale is NOT ENOUGH. There are so many free books and books on sale in the various retailers that you really need to have a strategy behind making this choice and a promotional plan in place.  For the full episode's show notes, go to: http://createifwriting.com/189

In this post I'm going to talk about how to keep consistent book sales over time. You might also want to look at my post, Sustaining Your Book Sales... and Yourself, as well as my latest episode about getting a Bookbub ad, which will tie into this information.  So ... you've written a book. Congratulations! For real. It's a big undertaking, and you should be proud of yourself.  Then you launch the book--time for more celebration! (And if you need a simple launch plan, check out my post on a Simple Launch Framework.) Launching really is hard work. Definitely something to feel good about.  And then comes the sales slump.  Or maybe your launch didn't go BOOM. It just quietly happened ... with a handful of sales to show for it.  How in the world do you sell books and then keep sustaining those book sales over time? Because the reality is this: if you don't promote, your books will continue to fall in the rankings until they're just lost in the Amazon (or whatever retailer) store. Let's talk about how to combat that.  For the full episode show notes, visit: http://createifwriting.com/188 Join the free community! http://createifwriting.com/community

Formatting your book -- sounds boring, right? Turns out there are a lot of things to know when it comes to formatting your ebook and print book. This post will break down what you need to know! Formatting doesn't have to be scary, complicated, or expensive! So, let's find out what you need to know.  Formatting might sound boring. But it's super important and can be very simple. Let's dive into the whys and hows.  First of all, formatting is usually the last thing you're doing, after your book has been edited or proofread. If you're sending ARC copies to a team of reviewers, you might need to format before this stage in order to send to them in a format they can read on an ereader. (Read more on beta and ARC readers.) Formatting stresses us out, but it doesn't have to. So... what really matters? Ultimately, reader experience is king. Your main goal with formatting is to keep your readers centered in the story. The end. Readers want simple. Not distracting. Not fancy. Don't think it has to be more than simple. Our goal should be to keep our readers in the story. Weird formatting or mistakes can pull the readers out and distract them from being lost in the fictional dream. Or, in the case of nonfiction, it might pull them out and undermine your authority. Wherever you write your book (Word, Scrivener, Google Docs), you need to be able to export it into a mobi file for amazon and an epub file for the other retailers. There are lots of ways to get a finished product.  If you WANT to get fancy (for some genres, like epic fantasy, this might be more fitting), I'd recommend Bookly Style for custom images for chapter headings and more.  Read the whole show notes at http://createifwriting.com/186 

I wanted to do a quick post talking about the two big ads platforms most authors use: Facebook and Amazon ads. There are some major differences between them, and it takes some work to figure them out. This is by no means a big overview, but a few key differences as well as some things they have in common.  A lot of people will debate the merits between one and the other. Usually people don't champion both, but find one that works for them and then use that. For me, that's mostly Facebook ads, though I'm starting to see some traction with both. Key Differences Between Facebook Ads and Amazon Ads Facebook will spend your money. Amazon MIGHT.  If you give Facebook a budget of $100 a day, Facebook will spend that. If you give Amazon a budget of $100 a day, your ad may or may not get served at all.  On Facebook, when you say you want them to spend an amount per day, they believe you. Amazon ads are really different in how they're set up and what that budget means. If you're setting a higher cost per click on Amazon ads, you might spend that. I know people who set up ads and accidentally put a decimal in the wrong place, spending a LOT of money very quickly.  Be really careful when you're setting up BOTH kinds of ads, knowing that you could be really losing a lot of money if you're treating those daily budgets the same on both platforms.  Read the rest of the show notes here- http://createifwriting.com/185

Author collaborations can be fantastic ... except when they aren't. In this post, we'll look at how to avoid bad author collaborations and the questions you should answer before you dive in! It's no secret that I'm into collaborations. I wrote a whole book on working with others called Creative Collaborations. And yet ... I've had some bad ones. I still recommend working with others, but I've learned a lot and am way better at choosing good projects and good partners. I hope this helps you avoid those bad author collaborations! KINDS OF COLLABORATIONS First of all, if you haven't worked with other authors, you might be wondering about the kinds of collaborations you can have. Really, the sky is the limit as far as ways you could partner up and support other authors or work together. But here are some of the common ways authors work together all the time. newsletter swaps (sharing other authors' books in exchange for sharing yours) joint author box sets or anthologies series or shared, connected worlds co-writing a book group promotions through Bookfunnel, Story Origin, etc running a giveaway together joint Facebook groups co-hosting a podcast interviews (on blogs, Youtube, etc) and so many more! Authors work together in all kinds of ways and it can really benefit everyone involved to work together and expand reach or share readers. But ... you can also end up getting burned. You might lose time, money, or relationships. Or, you might just derail your forward trajectory and momentum when you make a group project your focus. Read the full post HERE!

Everyone's saying go audio: should you? The buzz is all about audiobooks. The audio boom. Audio is the future. But are audiobooks for everyone? Let's find out by diving deep into the reality of audiobooks in 2020.  SHOULD YOU AUDIO? THE SKINNY ON AUDIOBOOKS IN 2020.  Why is everyone talking about audiobooks? Simple. Audio is growing. People are consuming more things by audio, from podcasts to audiobooks.  Even if YOU DON'T, other people ARE.  I'm going to link to more articles with data, but suffice to say that the US market alone has been increasing in audiobook consumption 25% per year, with a 40% increase in 2018. It's alive, and it's growing. (Those numbers come from the first link below.)  Data on podcast and audiobook consumption.  Check out this report on audio from all of 2019, collected by Findaway Voices. It seems like a no-brainer answer to say that YES, you should be putting your books into audio form.  Not so fast. Let's look at the current landscape and some of the struggles for indie authors wanting to get their books into audio.  Get the full show notes: http://createifwriting.com/183

I've covered Facebook groups before to the point that I wasn't sure what else there was to say. But, right now, many of us are turning to the internet and online communities, so learning to foster that is more important than EVER.  The thing is? Fostering community can be HARD. It's tricky. And sometimes we miss the line we need to walk. I've covered much about Facebook groups before. If you haven't checked out these posts first, you might want to. Or, circle back after you finish this one.  How to Create a Facebook Group How to Not Be Smarmy in a Facebook Group Join my free Community! HOW TO FOSTER COMMUNITY IN FACEBOOK GROUPS SET THE TONE First, you have to realize that YOU set the tone. And you definitely WANT to set a tone. Your group shouldn't be for everyone. If you're doing this right, some people might join and then want to leave.  SHOW UP When you first start a group, it will feel like talking to yourself. It's hard, sometimes embarrassing work. Because you post and ... crickets. But that's when you NEED to press in and keep showing up. Don't give up when no one talks. Just keep posting. Post what, you might ask? Great question.  POST ENGAGING CONTENT Start easy. Post content that is easily engaged with. Viral memes related to your topic? Yes. Gifs? Yes. Questions that may not relate but will spark discussion? Yes. Especially when you start a group, you have to make things low-risk. People are more likely to answer "what show are you bingeing?" than a more serious question. Even better, give them a graphic like this one I made in canva. Easy. Once people start talking, the algorithm shows your group more in their feed. And it trains them to talk. They're more likely to start talking on ALL things, not just the easy, low-risk ones.  SET EXPECTATIONS Use the option in the settings to create questions. Maybe give people a heads-up about your group vibe. I also let people add their email address and tell them they CAN opt into my list, but don't have to. I have a short, one-email welcome email that they get when I manually add them. But this place is a great way to weed out people who change their mind about joining, or to make sure they see the expectations before they jump in.  CREATE BOUNDARIES Though my kids wouldn't say they like the rules in our house, they NEED them. Kids need healthy boundaries. So do your FB group members. State them in the rules section in the settings of FB. Pin them as an announcement. Put them in the header image. People will still break the rules. But set the guidelines and stick to them.  BUT DON'T CREATE SO MANY THAT IT'S STIFLING Some larger groups have to go WAYYYY overboard with the rules. I've found that the bigger my group gets, I still don't really have tons of icky spam or bad behavior. I think that's because the group overall has a sense of community and identity. When someone steps over, people report it. But if your rules make it so that no one can post EVER, it's hard.  Ex: only questions on one day of the week Ex: no links of any kind - so much easier in a reader group to have links  REMEMBER THAT YOU SET THE TONE If you don't set one, the members will. Consider how you want the group to function, then you keep showing up with content, questions, and comments that stay in that lane. Don't worry too much about growth. If you're super small, you can ask members to invite friends if they love it. I ask every week in my email for people to join, even though many are already there. Show up. Be clear. Have a voice, like a writing voice. You'll draw your ideal reader, and it's okay to send people away. 

I've already covered writing to market in episode 174 and this post, but this is a big topic! In this post, I want to look at the concept of writing to market backwards. This post will be all about how to position a book you've already written into the market for better sales. Reminder: What is writing to market? As I've talked about, writing to market is not a way of selling out just to make money. Writing to market simply means writing and marketing a book in a way that meets reader expectations for a particular genre. There are really two parts to writing to market: the writing and craft of the book itself and the marketing and sales piece. The second part is where we're going to focus. So, You've Written a Book. NOW WHAT? Ideally, you'll be thinking about the market before you write and as you write. But that's not always the case! If you find yourself in the position where you've written a book, you can still use the principles of writing to market to help sell your book better. It's all about positioning. READ THE FULL POST HERE!- http://createifwriting.com/181 Or join the community- http://createifwriting.com/community

Even--maybe especially--in times of chaos and crisis, people need your voice. Your story. Your message.  But you can't give if you're empty. Feed yourself, then feed others with your words and your creative work.    Join the community: http://createifwriting.com/community

Does launching a book sound stressful to you? You're not alone. Here's the thing: a book launch has a lot of moving parts, but it doesn't have to be INSANE! And it all starts with me telling you to stop wasting time on your book launches. Specifically? On things that DON'T SELL BOOKS. A HUGE CAVEAT ON DEFINING "WHAT WORKS" I need to give a big caveat before I dive into things that people waste time on with their book launches. Why? Because things an vary widely depending on genre. What might work for a nonfiction book doesn't necessarily work well for fiction. Or, even within fiction, what works for me with romance and what works for me with YA aren't always exactly the same. Also? Even within subgenres of romance, what works might be different. Also? Some people might have one experience and another person might have the complete opposite experience. I'm sure I'll get some comments saying, "But that worked really well for me!!" And I'm sure they're right. Get the full show notes here: http://createifwriting.com/179 Or join the FB community: http://createifwriting.com/community  

I have avoided this topic for ... as long as I've been writing and podcasting. I do not like teaching productivity. I do not think that I should be doing it. That said, I've consistently written at least one novel a month for the past two years, while also running this site and podcast (with some podcast breaks here and there), and being a full-time mom to kids who are ages three to eleven. So, fine. I'm productive. I guess I'll talk about it. But the reason I've been hesitant is that I feel like productivity is really relative and it's incredibly specific to individuals. What I'll cover is not a one-size-fits-all approach to productivity. Instead, I'm going to share tips for finding your OWN productivity, starting with another thing I hate talking about: mindset. ***FOR FULL SHOW NOTES, HEAD HERE: http://createifwriting.com/178