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Little Actions Can Make A Big Difference
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| June 21, 2016
Oakland, California
Hi Friend,
Happy Solstice!
This time of year is a good time to acknowledge all the steps you've taken so far these past five-plus months and a good time to plan/vision for the second half of the year.
It's a personal new year time for me as well as my birthday was Friday.
I spent Solstice morning planning my next steps for my fiction business and for my writing coaching/teaching business. My tools were my journal and my calendar.
I spent an hour brainstorming, feeling into what I wanted, and jumping between jotting notes in my journal and adding events to my calendar. To help with overwhelm, I only booked fiction writing and editing activities through July 4th. I know I'll have time that weekend to re-examine my progress and set new goals for the following 3-4 weeks.
In this way, I take small steps toward my goals and get realistic about what I can accomplish.
I find when I actually block off time on the calendar for my writing, editing, and marketing projects I am so much more likely to get them done.
How about you? What helps you get your projects done?
Your turn: As you look into the next two to three months, what would you like to accomplish?
Place these appointments with yourself on the calendar.
What do you discover about yourself as you go through this activity?
Hit reply and let me know your thoughts. Thanks!
♥
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| NEWS
Registration is now open for the Emerald City Writer's Conference this October 14-16, Seattle, Washington.
I'll be teaching the Master Class on "Rapport and Specificity: Enrich and Enliven Your Writing and Your Career" the day before the conference (requires separate registration).
I'll also be doing a workshop "7 Essential Keys to Planning Your Novel For Pantsers" during the conference.
Hit reply and let me know if you'll be attending the conference and/or the readers' event. I'd love to say "Hi!" in person. |
| | | Book Marketing Tip of the Week: Little Steps Can Have a Big Impact
In line with this week's theme, I want to share with you some examples from my book marketing that show that even with a small budget and small steps, you can have an impact on the end results and create opportunity to connect with new readers.
Advertising You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on a BookBub ad or Facebook ads to have an impact in your sales. In the past, I was scared to advertise, thinking it was complicated or worked on luck, like the two above examples.
But I recently realized through research that I could afford to spend a little money and could reach avid readers I couldn't normally reach.
While my campaign is still going on, I can share some results from it.
I spent $155 on 7 ads, totaling an estimated reach of 119,000 people.
I advertised in targeted lists where possible for Young Adult and/or Science Fiction/Fantasy.
So far I've sold over 50 books and the two books advertised, Books 1 and 2 in my YA fantasy series, are on several bestsellers lists. Book 3 has also sold, without any direct ads.
All of these three books are on sale: $0.99 each for the first two books, and $2.99 for the third.
Cross-Promotion I also cross promoted with another young adult fantasy author, Andrea Buginsky. We both pointed our readers to the other's newsletter sign up page. (You can see her newsletter sign up page here. And mine is here.)
I have seen a few new newsletter subscribers come in.
My goal is to introduce my series to new people and I can see that I'm doing that. I'm happy with the results so far.
Your Turn: What small step can you take to market your book or your author self today? |
| | | Upcoming Classes at Barany School of Fiction
July/August Class: How-to Self-Publish Registration will be opening soon for our first Indie Author Self-Publishing Class. We'll be teaching you how to actually upload to the vendors: Kindle, Nook, iBook, Kobo, Smashwords, and Draft2Digital.
This class is great for those who are a little nervous about the technology. We'll also discuss the importance of choosing the right keywords, categories, and cover the basics of how to write a good book description and author bio.
Lastly, we will cover the pros and cons of indie publishing so authors can take this path with their eyes open.
Dates: July 27-August 16, 2016 (3 weeks) Delivery method: 3 live classes, 90-120 minutes each; lots of short lessons, video tutorials, templates, and worksheets; and a private Facebook group. (All live course calls are Tuesdays 5pm PT/8pm ET.) Cost: $129
**Click here if you'd like to be notified when registration open.
♥
Annual Plan Your Novel: 30-Day Writing Challenge course Join us for our Third Annual Plan Your Novel Course!
This course is designed for the writer with a life.
In our 30-Day Writing Challenge, we will help you think and write through the steps to create your novel — from character development to plot structure to story themes and world building — so that you can start NaNoWriMo prepared.
This class is good for you:
-- If you have never written a novel, and have always wanted to, and still feel lost on how to go from brilliant idea to The End, then you will be stretched in new and different ways.
-- If you’re an experienced novelist, with 1 or 2 completed or partially completed novels under your bed. You may find this course structured in a way that’s new to you and yet familiar.
-- If you have 5 or more unfinished novels sitting in a drawer, and always hit that sagging middle and lose focus or lose interest, this course will help you dream up exciting ways to torture, I mean challenge, your characters all the way to the resolution of the story.
This course is structured this way:
Week 1: Elevator Pitch & Short Synopsis
Week 2: Get to Know Your Main Characters
Week 3: Story Plot & World Building
Week 4: Scene-by-Scene Outline & Plotting
Dates: Oct. 1-31, 2016 Delivery method: 4 live classes, 90 minutes each; 30+ lessons; lots of video tutorials, templates, and worksheets; and a private Facebook group. (All live course calls are Tuesdays 5pm PT/8pm ET. Option for 1-1 support. Cost: $199
**Click here if you'd like to be notified when registration open.**
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Have a Happy and Creative Week!
And thanks for showing up for yourself and doing your creative work!
All our best,
Beth & Ezra
beth@bethbarany.com
PS. If you found this newsletter useful, please forward it to your friends,
writing buddies, and people who you know want to write a novel, but
gosh darn it, haven't yet.
♥
ABOUT US
Beth and Ezra Barany
are award-winning, best-selling novelists, with 18 books and 5 awards to their name. They are teachers who have worked
with over 100 authors to help them get their books written and
published and into the hands of their readers.
♥ Happily married for over 15 years, we’re passionate about writing, storytelling, and guiding authors to achieve their dreams.
♥ We
offer coaching, change work sessions, book marketing coaching (Beth)
and cover design (Ezra), all for genre novelists. More at bethbarany.com.
WHAT I DO + WHY
I support writers and aspiring authors through classes and workshops, articles, books, group programs, and consultations with private clients.
I also help authors because I walk my talk; everything I or my teachers teach is based in real experience and matured through the school of hard knocks.
I believe that the creative life works better with play and love, so with playful joy, I offer you goodies to support you in your writer's adventure.
ABOUT BETH BARANY
An
award-winning novelist, certified creativity coach and Master NLP
Practitioner, Beth runs Writer's Fun Zone, a blog for and by writers,
and her recently launched school for novelists, the Barany School of
Fiction.
In
her downtime, Beth reads, colors, watches movies with her sweetie,
travels, and has coffee with friends and family. And plays with her cat, gardens, and walks. And sleeps. She loves sleep.
Photo Credit: by c. 2014 Vivienne McMaster
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| | | | On my way from San Francisco --where I celebrated my birthday with my parents -- to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. |
| | | | In connection with the operation of this newsletter and business, Creativity Sparks features in the Newsletter affiliate links, including links to Amazon.com (“Affiliate Links”). Barany Consulting earns a commission from the Affiliate Links which commission is based on the number of sales that are made as a result of users of the Newsletter clicking over to the Affiliate Link and purchasing from the Affiliate Link a product and/or service. |
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