Marketing Plan of Action - how to start simple and build to great!

Tim Grahl, author of Your First 1000 Copies and founder of booklaunch.com
believes that Marketing doesn't need to be a 'eew' prospect.

So, I've read over a few of his techniques and decided to break-it down into a Plan of Action.
New Year . . . New Goals . . . and all that.
More importantly, it's about finding a way to market that doesn't make the author in me cringe at the idea.

READ ALONG & SEE IF YOU AGREE

According to Tim, MARKETING is about creating long-lasting connections. I'd say this is sound business whether you're selling books, artwork or cars off the used lot. None of us want just the ONE-AND-DONE customer. We want repeat business. We want to develop long-lasting connections/relationships that will keep folks coming back because they're pleased with their purchase.

Tim breaks it down into three categories for connection.

1) Outreach – The act of moving people from not knowing I exist to knowing that I DO exist.

Here are my ideas:

a. Facebook
b. Twitter
c. Pinterest
d. Blog
e. Book-signings
f. Public readings
g. Carrying a business card with my books/blog listed AND handed those out.

i. Where can I leave these?
1. With every receipt/tip I leave on a table
2. Any bulletin board
3. Any clerk that I speak with and mention I'm a writer
ii. Order from Vista-Print

h. Get some print copies of books and carry them on vacation –

i. Look for independent book stores and ask if I can donate a few copies.
ii. Libraries

i. Interview on Podcast
j. Book reviews
k. Post a lot on Reddit

2) Content: Providing a way for people to get to know me and my writing.

Again, here are my immediate thoughts:

a. Blog writing
b. Book teasers
c. Samples listed on Amazon
d. Samples listed on my blog.

3) Permission: A way to stay in contact with people long-term.

a. Build an email list – remember that I'm looking for a way to stay in long-term contact with these folks so that every time I release a book they’ll know about it.
b. Gain readers for the blog – this is interactive: if readers come back to the blog and see the new releases, they'll be more likely to purchase. Readers can't buy what they don't know about.

i. Building readership to the blog is a way to not only introduce my writing, but to encourage folks to experience my voice, my style of writing. Ultimately, I want readers to be pleased with their purchase and feel like their funds were well-spent.

So a huge Thank You to Tim Grahl and his insight.

To me these are more than goals for 2019 -- this is a Plan of Action.

Do you have other ideas????? Other plans that have worked for you?????

Please feel free to comment, or send me a Twitter reply.


K.M.Saint James
@LoneStarMeander

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Oxymoron 2.1 version

Oxymoron 2.1 version

In updating my blog labels, I ran across this old blog.

Folks - it's worth revisiting.

Truisms never go out of style. So, relive the truth from 2009.

"We are a people who spend money we don't have on things we don't want to impress people we don't like."

Okay, that is a seriously great line . . . especially with the ring of truism in it.

I'd like to take credit, goodness knows, I like good writing. I'd even like to give credit where it's due; however, this piece of wisdom belongs to the man who wrote, Why is God laughing?. Sorry, I didn't catch the gentleman's name during his Good Morning, America interview. The gentleman who did remind me quite a bit of Mahatma Gandhi, sans the big nose, spoke eloquently about the oxymora (or our common plural version - oxymorons) in our lives.

For those who need the dictionary lesson: Oxymoron
a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in “cruel kindness” or “to make haste slowly."

Sometimes, an oxymoron is more than a figure of speech. Sometimes, it's life in action.

Case in point . . .

My husband, smart guy that he is, related another just a few days after I'd been turned on to this thought. While walking our dog -- sometimes it's more the dog walks us than we walk the dog -- but dog and hubby were getting along down the bike trail when my hubby dearest noted a guy out tilling his garden for spring planting. The oxymoron was the hacking and coughing up one lung this old boy was doing while puffing away on a ciggy for the other lung. Even more of an oxymoron is that this guy will be planting a garden, fruits and veggies one must assume -- as in the healthy stuff -- yet he's polluting his lungs at a rate far faster than the fruits and veggies can save. Yep, Gardener Man was definitely a life in action oxymoron.

Okay, don't get on the collective soap boxes and lecture me about smoking and the rights of smokers everywhere. I'm a reformed smoker so I get to point and laugh. However, the point is the oxymoron.

But there's more . . .

What about the folks who crave children, and then leave them to be raised by daycare and nannies? Okay, I understand that sometimes both parents have to work to make all the ends meet and right now the ends might not be meeting at all. But if honesty won out, many folks could live in a smaller house, drive less expensive cars, take less grand vacations and make the budget balance on one salary.

Watch that soap box . . . I'm simply pointing out the oxymoron. If raising kids was the the most important thing, why would it be left to strangers?

That same tangent could be eloquently stated for our current educational system. How can we, collectively, claim that education is the most important thing when we, collectively, don't lobby -- forget lobbying, how about storming the capitol -- and demand that teachers' salaries match the job we lay on them? Our oxymoron, collectively, is that we'll pay exorbitant prices to go watch athletes run around a field, high-powered cars drive in circles, etc. Point should be made, collectively speaking.

So perhaps Oxymora are a way of life.

For a 2017 update: Is your life filled with an oxymoron or two? A negative that needs to be turned into a positive? Chaos that reigns over focus of life? Are you spending money/time/energy on minutiae that you can ill afford/don't need/won't use to impress people who in the long run should never have the opportunity to 'run' your life? That's a weighty thought for Motivational Monday. Give it the serious attention that it deserves.

Do drop by the porch again.

Lure The Muse

Creativity is simultaneously a writer's best friend and most dreaded enemy. But why? Are we, as writers, challenged of casual creativity? Are we blind to the bare bones of original brilliance? Do we glue our eyes closed to simple genius?

Finding a writer's muse can often involve gritting teeth, severing of limbs (metaphorically, folks) or jumping off the proverbial cliff and hoping for wings of inspiration. But why must it be so difficult when often hidden wells of creativity lurk inside each of us?

What is the secret?

Lure the muse.

How?

I have discovered that most writers have a number of passions. Seldom does our creativity sequester itself in a solitary cell. Instead, creativity bubbles in many areas of our lives.

Do you garden? Maybe your home is surrounded by flowering perfection, filled with the whispering wings of butterflies or the gentle rush of hummingbirds. Is your garden pots of brightly colored vegetables and lush succulent herbs.

Do you paint? Not necessarily easel canvases. Perhaps, the color on your brush covers bare, boring, beige walls. Perhaps, the tint of walnut, or cherry, or maple fills your brush, sponge or cloth as you breathe new life into old furniture.

Do you cook? Not Iron Chef level, but do you tease your family and friends' taste-buds? Is your house the one with simmering spaghetti sauce that the neighbors always manage to visit?

Are you more than a shower Sinatra? A musical diva - maybe not The Voice quality - but no basement Betty either. Is there music in your soul that finds expression in the piano, the flute, the tuba? Drums with a real beat?

A car/antique/art aficionado? Devotion to beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Others may not pant over a '66 Fastback Corvette, or understand the glories of abstract art . . . but that doesn't make it less a form of creativity that begs for expression.

The final solution?

Free your muse. No reigning in budding brilliance. Use those areas of creativity as the bridge to your writing muse.

Never fear folding in aspects of your creative passions into your characters. Protagonist or secondary - all can benefit from the snippets of those passionate endeavors that fill your home and your hobby time.

Want to follow a new creative dream? Let your character take the ride with you.

From photograph to pottery
From aerial skydiving to aqua-farming
From calligraphy to cave-diving
From Frisbee-golf to foreign languages

Your life is the richer for every extension of your energy and talent.

So, too, will your character benefit from the magical journey.

Free your muse and the writing will follow.

Be brave, be bold, be yourself!

An important phone conversation today led me down a particular path of thought.

Someone near and dear to me is changing jobs - not careers - but jobs. However, this individual's professional world is highly stressful, intensely competitive, and filled with too many work hours for any given day. Bottom line: the right job selection is pretty darn important.

At times when choices seem so critical, it's easy to become handicapped, stifled, and fearful. Standing in place seems better than moving any direction. At least, feet are grounded and solid beneath, if you stand still, right?

The problem: it's impossible to get anywhere standing still.

So, I sympathized, empathized, and was the total strong shoulder for this individual with the momentous decision. Then I said, -- come on, you knew I'd say something -- "Be brave, be bold, and be yourself. Go for it all. Interview as exactly who you are. No gimmicks. No facades. No holding back. If the interviewer, the new boss, the HR specialist can handle you full steam, then it's more likely to be the right fit in the long haul. And what's the worst that can happen? They won't hire you; it's not the right placement; they'll envy your great looking power shoes after you leave their office. But, you, my interviewing friend, will walk out with a sense of accomplishment, of knowing that you didn't leave anything on the table. No regrets."

Regrets have always seemed like wasted effort, clutter that takes up emotional space. Regrets can't change or alter a dismissal past. Regrets can't and won't erase harsh words already spilled. Regrets won't eradicate that last awful job. Or terrible boss. Or sorry ex.

Don't misunderstand. Learning from life's teachable moments should be at the top of the priority list. Anyone can learn from the detours with enough effort to recognize and contemplate. But life is and always should be about the journey. Who we are today is a direct result of all of our yesterdays. Bad stuff serves a purpose, too. Even if it's to toddler-teach us to NOT put our finger in the fire again.

Our writing needs to come with the mantra: Be brave, be bold and be true to the writing.

Don't regret a badly penned paragraph. That's one sentence at a time of your story.
Don't regret a character that refuses to stay nicely in their story role. That's a dynamic secondary character that's on their way to becoming a sequel.
Don't regret plot holes. Fill them -- one story stone at a time until a solid plot wall exist.
Don't regret a story line that turns and bends. Think about driving down a monotonous road. Boring, and desperately hard to stay awake. No, the interesting road is the one with twist and dips, even a bump or two.

No standing still. Put pen to pad, stylus to tablet, fingers to keyboard, butt to chair. Be bold, be brave, be true to the writing . . . and that will take you and your writing forward.

Work-Outs For All Types

For the past 11 months, I've trained my body. To become something better than it's been in a long time. Then it hit me. Why stop at that limit? Why not train to be better than I've ever been?

So, I hit the NRH Centre gym three to four times a week. I started at thirty to forty-five minutes and, by the end of each session, my face beamed such a splendid cherry red that folks stop to stare at the tomato (that would be me) using the work-out equipment.

Looking for actual muscles seemed to be an exercise in futility, but I kept going: three to four times a week. Week after week, I persevered because I had a secret weapon.

Experience: When I'd turned 40, I had learned to jog, a pretty fast jog (13 minute mile) for an older dame. Even ran in a 5K one year.

Now, I'm not 40 anymore. As matter of fact, I haven't been 40 in a number of years, but that experience (I ran for three years -- straight -- didn't miss a single day) taught me that I could keep working out at the gym and perhaps find that jogger again.

Being obsessed with the written word, it seemed most apropos (and necessary for my motivation) that I seek out and enlist solid words of wisdom. Strong medicine was essential if I planned to stay true to the goal and be better than ever.

The bottom line, to me, has always been: if I talk loud enough and long enough and use enough logic -- in my head -- then I can make myself believe anything.

Who brought me inspiration?

“If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” Eubie Blake, age 100 (who was Eubie Blake? James Hubert Blake, better known as Eubie Blake, was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music.) Simply put -- the man rocked the music world.

Who else inspired me?

"How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?” Satchel Paige, often considered one of the greatest baseball pitchers to ever take the mound.

Now, it's 11 months later and have I accomplished my goal?

1) I've found that jogger again.
2) I have muscles, which I promise, I did NOT have when I was 18.
3) Each of my work-out routines is now 90 minutes in length.
3) Perhaps best of all. My daughter (the 19-year-old) and I were at the gym a month or so ago and working on the Roman Chair together. After I left for the next piece of equipment, a woman on a nearby exercise bike asked my daughter if I was one of the trainers. Okay, that was good. Then she ask if I'd turned 40. That was better.

So how old would I be if I didn't know how old I actually was? Pretty darn young.

To all those who whip the beast of age with exercise, balanced eating, and a healthy sense of humor: May you find that inner youth again and enjoy all those years one more time.

As always, thanks for stopping by the back porch.

Romance With A Texas Twist. Romantic ebooks!

Inspiration . . . what inspires you?

Do you need to fill up the well? Jolt that creative side of your muse? What are the things that make your soul sing with joy? What inspires you? Makes you smile when the world is dark and gloomy?
For me . . .

Family!

My dad's 80th birthday party -- and my son getting a royal ribbing for being the red-haired grandson.
My dad.

Christmas is more fun in a cowboy hat.
Vacations really inspire me.

Dogs are family, too!

Friends!

Critique partners -- The Flip-Flop Sisters

Success!

The first book cover.
My daughter's college ring.
My son building his own super-sized, mega computer.

Great Scenery!

The Vitamin String Quartet.

Great Music!

What else?

White chocolate, Macadamin Nut cookies. A tall, frosty glass of . . . orange juice. (Gotcha!) My favorite restaurant (Bob's Chop & Steak House). Spring sunrises. Walks with hubby. The perfect sentence.

What inspires you? Do share.
Drop by the porch again, anytime.
Until then,
~Sandra