You’re An Author, Good For You!

Originally posted 2019-12-22 17:18:20.

jackmac34 / Pixabay

Let’s face it everyone’s an author nowadays. Your neighbor next door has just written a Thriller, your friend at work has just published an adult coloring book, and your grandmother has just published a children’s picture Book.

I know I’m exaggerating a little bit,  but that’s what’s happening. Everybody has the ability to publish a book and put it  up for sale nowadays. Because of that you’re going to have to think of ways to make yourself stand out from the crowd.

If you’re doing the exact same thing as everybody else, how are you any different from them?  “But you don’t understand,” you say, “my new Thriller is so amazing people are just going to buy it.”

That may be true, but  the Amazon Kindle store, the Barnes and Noble store, and the iTunes store is full of great Thrillers. So what makes you different from anybody else selling their books there?

I’ll be honest, I know this blog post is a little sarcastic today. But I’m just trying to make you aware of the situation that you’re in. You need to think about this, how are you going to make yourself different from everyone else in those stores?

In a world with everyone can get their book professionally edited,  a fantastic looking book cover created,  and a copywriter to write their book blurb and description, you’re back on a level playing field again.

Sure, in the early days of self publishing having those things would have put your book far ahead of the other self published books,  but that’s not the case anymore. Anyone, anywhere in the world, can outsource all that work and get it done for them. And because of that, you’re going to have to be creative and come up with ways to make yourself  stand out from the crowd.

I’ll give you a few simple suggestions to get started,  but it’s something you’re going to need to give to give some consideration to. – How can you show that you’re different from everyone else? –  While you’re letting that stew over in your mind, here are a few ideas to get the ball rolling….

Email List – If you haven’t been trying to collect email addresses from your readers, you’re falling way behind in the game.  As Zig Ziglar once said, “ Poor salesman raise skinny kids.”   If you’ve been putting it off because it’s too hard to do or you don’t know how to do it, start right now. Read the articles, and watch the videos on how to do it. Believe me, there are other authors out there sending emails on a regular basis and staying in the forefront of their readers minds.

Podcast – What’s stopping you creating and uploading a daily or weekly podcast to iTunes? Nothing.  With so many apps out there that you can record on your iPhone, and with so many videos on YouTube that can show you how to upload and create your own podcast, you’ve no excuse. If you’re a non fiction writer, what’s stopping you from writing a weekly article and then creating a podcast from it? If you’re a fiction writer, what’s stopping you from creating a short story this week, reading it into a microphone, and then offering it as a podcast episode?

YouTube – Like the podcast idea, what’s stopping you taking the same article creating a slideshow from it and then posting that video on YouTube? If you’re a non fiction writer,  what’s stopping you from creating a tips article from content in your book and turning it into a video? For the fiction writer, what’s stopping you creating a video with that short story you’ve created and making it into a video?  You can either read it to camera? Or pick suitable background images and narrate your story in the background.

Book App – If everybody’s zigging, then you should be zagging? Why not offer your free book as a free app rather than a free book? It’s very easy to do nowadays, and it also allows you  the ability to advertise and  sell your books through the app. Once the reader is in your app your competition has dropped is zero.

I could go on and explain that you need to create a blog,  write daily articles, send out press releases, etc, but I won’t.  I’m sure you’ve got an idea of you can do from the few points that I’ve given to you.

So go grab a pen and paper right now, and write down all the things that can do to make yourself stand out from everyone else that’s selling in your genre. Is it going to be extra work? Yes. Is it worth doing? Yes. Will you do it? That’s something you’ll have to answer.  But it’s that extra work that’s going to make you stand head and shoulders over the other authors in your genre.

Or maybe you could rely on your Thriller being as good as you say it is. I’ll leave it up to you .

The post You’re An Author, Good For You! first appeared on WriteCome.com.