I’ve had a great week, not because it was super productive, but because I learned a great deal and took action to correct course on several goals that have languished.
The first of those goals is my word count. I listened to three entire, albeit short, books this week: 5,000 Words Per Hour, Write to Market, and Six-Figure Author all by Chris Fox. I listed to Write to Market three times and the other two twice. The books challenged some of my preexisting beliefs about marketing and called me out a few bad habits and poor marketing decisions I’ve made.
The first one is that I need to write more, and I need to write more everyday. To that end, I’ve taken Chris Fox’s advice and added daily writing sprints. I’ve attached each sprint to my three daily routines, each for five minutes. So far, so good.
The other change is that I need to focus on the reader and clearly define my niche, both within my writing as well as the way I market my list. He also explains the pitfalls of using a blast the world approach in book launches and marketing to your friends and family. The problem with doing so is that it confuses Amazon’s algorithm, so they are less likely to show your book to customers who are interested, which lowers your conversions when the book is shown, which results in Amazon not showing your book as frequently resulting in fewer sales.
Instead, Chris suggests strategic Amazon advertising focused on highly focused niche serial readers combined with high author engagement organically within niche communities. That means not selling your book but developing street cred within the community to drive genuine interest when books become available. It’s more time intensive and requires a greater commitment, but I believe it is doable.
There was more great advice focused on studying the tropes within one's genre and how to improve writing through speed and iteration as opposed to perfection, which makes a lot of sense. He also suggests reading more, which I’ve also struggled doing.
Great advice is useless if you don't implement it, so I’ve taken care to take action immediately. I’ve already seen a marked improvement in consistency, and have made additional progress with both the quantity of reading and writing. I’ll be setting the foundation for studying genre tropes and niche engagement this week.
I’ve also made progress on other fronts. I received two replies from publishers, both no’s. The good news is that it’s some of the best feedback I’ve received. It’s reassuring to get responses like these, “The book is well-written and has a good message and goal, but it suffers from the fact that there are a lot of books like it, which makes for a slightly unexciting read.” The advice includes some proprietary things I’ll exclude but then goes on to say, “The best and most unique part of the book is your backstory. It's interesting, and I like how you bring your experiences into the book to exemplify some of your points. However, you don't do it very often. If you focused even more on your life and gave a more personal spin to the entire book ... I think it would be even better.”
I’ve received a lot of feedback from people who want to read more about my life. I’ve tried to be restrained on that front based on the numerous suggestions of people who say the exact opposite about most authors who write themselves into their books, but I do have a unique, and I believe, inspiring story. I’ll do more in future writing to heed those suggestions. The advice also echoes much of what Chris Fox, John Lee Dumas, and others have said. It’s better to niche down then be a generalist. That's been a challenge for me, as I have many interests.
This week, I’ve also started designing my website using a great platform, Clickfunnels. There is a bit of a learning curve, but there are tons of tutorials. I already have my landing page set up, which you can view here, but I need to build out the rest of the site, then migrate my blog over. I’m please so far with the results, and it will supercharge my ability to monetize the site once it’s fully functional.
On other fronts, I received contacts from my 19th author. I went to several new places, including a few new restaurants. I have a fabulous New Year’s day, and while I didn’t get nearly as far with my time travel book as I’d hoped, I took time to focus on the foundation of my habits and platform, which will set me up for success in the coming weeks as months.
I successfully completed all my listed goals below for another week and completed my daily routines for 42 consecutive days. I’ve added additional items to my routine, which acts as an anchor. It’s working! Next week, I’m going to give a rundown of my word count over the last three years. It’s all about tracking!
This week, I wrote a combined 3,776 words. Not great, but not terrible. I want to at least triple that count during work weeks. I've done it it the past, but I wanted a sustained bottom up foundation without burnout. I'm looking forward to next week, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Don't forget to leave a comment in the comments section.
Audiobook/s completed
5,000 Words Per Hour by Chris Fox
Write to Market by Chris Fox
Six-Figure Author by Chris Fox
Book in progress
Invasion by Sean Platt and Johnny B Truant
In Times Like These by Nathan Van Coops
Podcasts
MWF Motivation episodes 116-121, 123.
Goals For the week of 1/08/17
Morning Routine
Record dreams
State positive affirmations
Check body weight
Floss, Brush, & mouthwash
Drink water
5-minute meditation
25-minute fiction reading
Write in my daily goals journal
Clean up one thing on computer desk
Read daily/weekly goals
Review daily calendar
Workout set A
Add to master document
Add one Japanese word to list
Workout set B and stretch
Eat breakfast & drink coffee
5 minute writing sprint
After Work Routine
Look at routine & daily goals
Look at today’s calendar
Floss, Brush, MW
Review show notes.
Review and/or add Japanese word/s
Meditate 5-15 min (depending on time)
Nap 15-25 min (depending on time)
Additional Ab exercises (M,W,F)
5 minute writing sprint
Evening Routine
5 minute writing sprint
Track word count
Read Japanese book in Kanji (1 paragraph)
Review calendar
Review daily goals
Daily reflection & checklist
Review tomorrow’s goals
Review tomorrow’s calendar
Review Life document (Sunday’s only)
Read fiction 2 pages
Say affirmations
Additional daily mini goals
Write fiction 1 sentence
Write nonfiction/blog 1 sentence
Read article on improving writing
Contact 1 publisher or write 1 sentence of a marketing plan
Take 1 action towards creating/improving a business
Track word count
Additional weekly goals
Contact one author/business person
Visit one new location
Try one new app or software
The first of those goals is my word count. I listened to three entire, albeit short, books this week: 5,000 Words Per Hour, Write to Market, and Six-Figure Author all by Chris Fox. I listed to Write to Market three times and the other two twice. The books challenged some of my preexisting beliefs about marketing and called me out a few bad habits and poor marketing decisions I’ve made.
The first one is that I need to write more, and I need to write more everyday. To that end, I’ve taken Chris Fox’s advice and added daily writing sprints. I’ve attached each sprint to my three daily routines, each for five minutes. So far, so good.
The other change is that I need to focus on the reader and clearly define my niche, both within my writing as well as the way I market my list. He also explains the pitfalls of using a blast the world approach in book launches and marketing to your friends and family. The problem with doing so is that it confuses Amazon’s algorithm, so they are less likely to show your book to customers who are interested, which lowers your conversions when the book is shown, which results in Amazon not showing your book as frequently resulting in fewer sales.
Instead, Chris suggests strategic Amazon advertising focused on highly focused niche serial readers combined with high author engagement organically within niche communities. That means not selling your book but developing street cred within the community to drive genuine interest when books become available. It’s more time intensive and requires a greater commitment, but I believe it is doable.
There was more great advice focused on studying the tropes within one's genre and how to improve writing through speed and iteration as opposed to perfection, which makes a lot of sense. He also suggests reading more, which I’ve also struggled doing.
Great advice is useless if you don't implement it, so I’ve taken care to take action immediately. I’ve already seen a marked improvement in consistency, and have made additional progress with both the quantity of reading and writing. I’ll be setting the foundation for studying genre tropes and niche engagement this week.
I’ve also made progress on other fronts. I received two replies from publishers, both no’s. The good news is that it’s some of the best feedback I’ve received. It’s reassuring to get responses like these, “The book is well-written and has a good message and goal, but it suffers from the fact that there are a lot of books like it, which makes for a slightly unexciting read.” The advice includes some proprietary things I’ll exclude but then goes on to say, “The best and most unique part of the book is your backstory. It's interesting, and I like how you bring your experiences into the book to exemplify some of your points. However, you don't do it very often. If you focused even more on your life and gave a more personal spin to the entire book ... I think it would be even better.”
I’ve received a lot of feedback from people who want to read more about my life. I’ve tried to be restrained on that front based on the numerous suggestions of people who say the exact opposite about most authors who write themselves into their books, but I do have a unique, and I believe, inspiring story. I’ll do more in future writing to heed those suggestions. The advice also echoes much of what Chris Fox, John Lee Dumas, and others have said. It’s better to niche down then be a generalist. That's been a challenge for me, as I have many interests.
This week, I’ve also started designing my website using a great platform, Clickfunnels. There is a bit of a learning curve, but there are tons of tutorials. I already have my landing page set up, which you can view here, but I need to build out the rest of the site, then migrate my blog over. I’m please so far with the results, and it will supercharge my ability to monetize the site once it’s fully functional.
On other fronts, I received contacts from my 19th author. I went to several new places, including a few new restaurants. I have a fabulous New Year’s day, and while I didn’t get nearly as far with my time travel book as I’d hoped, I took time to focus on the foundation of my habits and platform, which will set me up for success in the coming weeks as months.
I successfully completed all my listed goals below for another week and completed my daily routines for 42 consecutive days. I’ve added additional items to my routine, which acts as an anchor. It’s working! Next week, I’m going to give a rundown of my word count over the last three years. It’s all about tracking!
This week, I wrote a combined 3,776 words. Not great, but not terrible. I want to at least triple that count during work weeks. I've done it it the past, but I wanted a sustained bottom up foundation without burnout. I'm looking forward to next week, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Don't forget to leave a comment in the comments section.
Audiobook/s completed
5,000 Words Per Hour by Chris Fox
Write to Market by Chris Fox
Six-Figure Author by Chris Fox
Book in progress
Invasion by Sean Platt and Johnny B Truant
In Times Like These by Nathan Van Coops
Podcasts
MWF Motivation episodes 116-121, 123.
Goals For the week of 1/08/17
Morning Routine
Record dreams
State positive affirmations
Check body weight
Floss, Brush, & mouthwash
Drink water
5-minute meditation
25-minute fiction reading
Write in my daily goals journal
Clean up one thing on computer desk
Read daily/weekly goals
Review daily calendar
Workout set A
Add to master document
Add one Japanese word to list
Workout set B and stretch
Eat breakfast & drink coffee
5 minute writing sprint
After Work Routine
Look at routine & daily goals
Look at today’s calendar
Floss, Brush, MW
Review show notes.
Review and/or add Japanese word/s
Meditate 5-15 min (depending on time)
Nap 15-25 min (depending on time)
Additional Ab exercises (M,W,F)
5 minute writing sprint
Evening Routine
5 minute writing sprint
Track word count
Read Japanese book in Kanji (1 paragraph)
Review calendar
Review daily goals
Daily reflection & checklist
Review tomorrow’s goals
Review tomorrow’s calendar
Review Life document (Sunday’s only)
Read fiction 2 pages
Say affirmations
Additional daily mini goals
Write fiction 1 sentence
Write nonfiction/blog 1 sentence
Read article on improving writing
Contact 1 publisher or write 1 sentence of a marketing plan
Take 1 action towards creating/improving a business
Track word count
Additional weekly goals
Contact one author/business person
Visit one new location
Try one new app or software
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This post first appeared on OwenSage.com - Roy Huff, MS, MAEd Owen Sage, please read the originial post: here
