writing advice

“Marketing Shmarketing!” I always used to say. For most writers this promotional aspect of our writing careers is the hardest to navigate. We’d much rather just hide out in our little dreamworlds, creating stories and playing with words. Oh yes, even now that sounds much more appealing than tooting my own horn. But, over the past twenty years of writing, publishing and attempting to get my work seen and read, I’ve learnt that marketing is actually a VITAL part of the work I need to do. You too! Even if we magically score a publishing contract with one of the major trade publishing houses, their efforts promoting our book will only last a month or two at most. It’s time to bite the bullet folks!

I’ve recently started a marketing course, the only marketing course I could stomach because it was aimed at Spiritual Businesses. Although I am primarily a writer and teacher of writing, I am also a yogini and have always been a seeker. Most writers are highly sensitive people who are exploring what it is to be human, which leads us to explore realms other than the physical world we inhabit. My writing has a deeper undercurrent touching on the mystic, so it was natural for me to be drawn to the course run by Radleigh Valentine and Muni Syed of the Muniverse (he’s a marketing guru who’s worked with lots of big name spiritual authors).

And it’s helping. So much of what was stopping me, and you too I’m guessing, from really getting out there and putting time and effort into promoting or marketing our books, is mindset. It all felt a bit dirty really. To use an Australian term, it made me feel like a “wanker”. But a few ideas I’ve picked up from the course are already helping to change my attitude.

Number 1: We deserve to be paid well for what we do – the energy and effort and skills that go into crafting books of high quality are valuable.

Number 2: It’s not that dirty word “selling” it’s SHARING – sharing our stories with those who would enjoy them or be helped in some way by them. How will they find our books if we don’t let them know about them?

Number 3: It’s not yucky old “Marketing” it’s magical MANIFESTING! Yes! Most writers have dreams of best-selling success, but how do we manifest this miracle? By getting behind our books and marketing them.

Those three simple ideas have really helped change my attitude. But the most powerful exercise we’ve done so far was a meditation where we were asked to sit down with our inner Monk and Marketer. I call them my Mystic and my Businesswoman. We all sat down at the table, me, my mystic and that sassily suited up businesswoman. At first, I was right on the mystic’s side – I am happy just hiding out and quietly doing my thing, sending out good energy, doing things for free or cheaply, making sure everyone has access to my teachings and all of this still rings true. But then the mystic and I looked at the businesswoman and she was crying. Exhausted from working so hard to keep a roof over our heads, bills paid and food on the table. She’s been doing her best, and the mystic and I have been ignoring her as much as we could. She’d have an idea and we wouldn’t follow through. We’d write the book, we’d even publish it, but would we tell anyone about it? Maybe once. But, you know, you don’t want to nag!

Suddenly I was filled with gratitude for all my inner businesswoman has done. All she needs is a little bit more effort from me. The mystic needs to embrace the businesswoman’s ideas. We ALL want the books read. We ALL want them to reach people who would enjoy or benefit from them. And we all need to make a living.

So sit down with your inner Mystic and Businessperson – or you may call them your hermit and your salesperson, or your writer and your promotor – whatever terms resonate with you. But sit down, have a chat and work out how you can bring more balance into your career. Find ways to toot your own horn that sound harmonious not harsh.

Remember, it’s not selling, it’s sharing. It’s not marketing, it’s manifesting the careers we want as successful writers.

You can do it!

Let me know how you go. Who sat down at that meeting with you?

Lots of love

Edwina xx

“Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start,” sang Julie Andrews in the sound of music. Now, while this may be a very good place to start learning your ABCs and Do Re Mi’s, it’s really not the best place to start your story.

These days we have the very short attention spans of those addicted to scrolling through social media or flicking through Netflix shows, to deal with. We can’t afford a meandering beginning to our novel, memoir or, most of all, our short stories. We need to hook the reader IMMEDIATELY! Yes, right away we have to establish a quest, question or character who is so compelling and complex that our reader wants to keep turning those pages as quickly as she can.

The best way to do this is to start with ACTION: A scene where your character is doing something that demonstrates their unique, intriguing personality and establishes, or at least gives us a giant clue as to what is at stake.

WHAT IS AT STAKE?

What does your character have to lose? Will the world end if Jack Reacher or James Bond doesn’t defeat the evil overlord? Will a family become destitute if at least one of the sisters doesn’t marry a rich man? Will a teenager die of mortification if she doesn’t get a date to the school dance?

What is at stake may be something as seemingly insignificant as that date, but it must feel vital to your protagonist. The reader has to care whether the character will achieve their goal or not. Remember: SUSPENSE = HOPE + FEAR!

SET UP YOUR CENTRAL QUEST OR QUESTION

Using what is at stake, establish within your first few pages the central challenge for your character. Will James Bond defeat Goldfinger and save the world? Will one of those sisters marry a rich man and save her family from poverty? Will our teen get a date?

Make sure your opening pages are setting up this question as it drives the narrative forward and compels your reader to turn pages. Remember that your first readers are your potential agent or publisher.

BEWARE OF BACKSTORY

A common error made by new writers is the, what I like to call, “Charles Dickens Opening”. Eg: I was born… It’s important for writers to know in detail the backgrounds and upbringings of their characters, but the most important elements of this can be woven into your story later, once you’ve established forward momentum by your central quest or question. So if your opening is full of wonderful detail about your protagonists early childhood, and perhaps even the history of their family; if you say to potential readers, “But just wait till chapter 4, that’s when it gets really exciting,” then it’s time to create another file called, “Bits I love and may need later” and CUT CUT CUT!

CUT TO THE CHASE

A wonderful rule to follow, whatever you’re writing is:

GET IN LATE AND GET OUT FAST!

Start as close to the central action of any scene as you can (with it still making sense) and get out before you write too much and bring closure where none is needed. Leave that scene ending open, so your reader is left wondering what happened next. Leave gaps for the reader to fill in themselves. This is the joy of reading.

Wonder Woman scissors to make cutting fun 🙂

By all means, write that backstory. Write it all down, but then go back and find where the action really starts and cold heartedly cut that backstory. Remember you can always weave it back in as flashbacks or just one liners here and there that give us clues about a character’s past. Reveal that past slowly. And most importantly CUT ANYTHING THAT DOESN’T EITHER DEVELOP CHARACTER OR FURTHER YOUR PLOT!