Hey, Did you ever meet a celebrity? A genuine celebrity, I mean – someone really, really famous; it's a weird experience. I was working in an exclusive restaurant many years ago, a former monastery in the French Alps which had been lovingly converted into a Michelin-star chasing fine-dining establishment at the outskirts of a swanky ski resort, run by a famous violinist's momager. As one does. The clientele was generally quite wealthy and some of the other staff would occasionally point out a French socialite (who I invariably didn't recognize). One day, though, in walked yer man: Bono from U2. They say that everyone from Dublin has a Bono story, which is probably true. Indeed, I have two – this was the second time I had met him! But neither is much of a tale, truth be told; I was equally tongue-tied both times. This is not uncommon. People often get flustered meeting very famous people – fans in particular. It's silly, in one sense, because even though you might live on different planets, you have an automatic icebreaker built in. You already have something in common. A shared interest in the work. Speaking With ReadersI am not Bono, and neither are you. (Unless you actually are Bono, in which case… hello again?) We don't have to deal with that level of fame. Which is lucky because we also tend to be much more introverted than musicians and probably wouldn't handle it very well. Writers can tie themselves into knots at the mere prospect of talking to readers. They don't know how to act, or what to say, and often NOPE out of there pretty quickly. I don't mean this in a literal sense. This reticence holds some authors back from communicating with their audience effectively – and can act as a drag on your newsletters, your social channels, your ads, even your sales copy on Amazon. I get a lot of emails from those interested in starting a more regular newsletter, for example – rather than just sending out the occasional new release announcement. All experiencing the same problem. I get similar responses when talking about how to use your Facebook Pages more effectively. And the exact same thing is holding them back. It's not just that they don't know what to say. They don't know what they could possibly speak about which would be of any interest to their readers. But I have a whole bunch of suggestions for you, after a quick word from our sponsor. (FYI: Interested in sponsoring? There's more info here.) March Sponsor: PlottrIn partnership with Plottr. Attention plotters AND pantsers! Are you looking for a better way to plan and organize your books? Look no further than Plottr, the popular book outlining and story bible software. Sign up for a FREE Plottr 101 webinar and Q&A on March 21st to learn how you can easily visualize your book and series arcs, track character and location details, avoid plot holes, revise existing projects, and more – no matter what or how you write. If you're ready to organize the story ideas rampaging through your head, then join the session, ask questions, and see why thousands of writers love Plottr. Common Ground Is A Safe SpaceWe were talking a moment ago about this feeling of not knowing what to say to your readers. I understand the reticence – and felt it myself in the past – but it is misplaced, when you analyze it. You already have one giant thing in common with your readers: a shared interest in the work. A common love of the genre. You both like the same kind of books – the type of books you also happen to write, by the way – so there should be no shortage of potential material. We know this deep down, but we often have a huge mental block around it. There's probably a few things going on in the soupy murk of our souls but we don't need decades of therapy to unwind this. It is possible to simply push through the awkward feeling by taking off our writer hats and speaking to them reader-to-reader, one fan of the genre to another. Indeed, I like to picture myself sitting on a barstool at a conference, simply chatting away to a fellow fan, a fellow reader – and then the words doth floweth. I also like sitting at barstools at conferences, but that's neither here nor there. This is something you must do with your own work and your own readership, no matter how silly you feel to begin with. Communicating effectively with readers is a critical part of running a sales-generating newsletter, of catching reader attention on social media, and of closing the sale with prospective purchasers and turning those browsers into buyers. Finding your voice when talking to readers can isn't as hard as finding your voice on the printed page. But we often go through a similar process of stumbling around in someone else's ill-fitting clothes before discovering our own. Or sometimes we adopt a persona to protect ourselves – which can be problematic, if we pump ourselves up only to talk down to readers. Or, worse again, talk down about our work. A little self-deprecation is fine – it's certainly better than coming across as arrogant. But you shouldn't demean your books when speaking to fans. You might think you are being self-deprecating, but you are potentially talking down something they care deeply about – and this can come across as offensive or uncaring or aloof. It can make your readers feel stupid for caring about you or your books. As an artist who cares about improving her craft, your books will surely improve as time passes, your career progresses, and your skills develop. However, this can sometimes result in looking back at your earliest stuff and cringing a little. But that's fine, it just shows you are developing! (This is a good thing BTW.) Just don't translate that into being overly critical, in public, of something which readers might have found meaning or joy in – that doesn't come across very well. Walking that tightrope might be difficult for some, especially to begin with. But the good news is that you don't need to speak about your books non-stop, like some kind of demented salesbot. Indeed, talking about someone else's work can be an even better way of creating and deepening engagement with your fans – and should make up most of your newsletter output and the majority of your social posts. Even superfans don't want to hear someone speaking about themselves the entire time. So what do you talk about specifically? Embrace Your Inner NerdThis is easy when you know how do it – a statement which happens to be true… but useless. However, the mindset to adopt here should be within reach. I talk about this in great detail in Chapters 4 & 5 of my free guide Following – which you got when signing up to this newsletter. (You can download your copy here if you missed it – and can even read it right there in your browser, a handy new BookFunnel feature.) The final two chapters of Following deal with running a Facebook Page and content marketing respectively. In my opinion, content marketing should be a central to everything for non-fiction authors, but fiction authors can get a lot out of it too – even from just applying the techniques to write better emails and Facebook posts, rather than adopting a more full-on content marketing strategy. Of course, it's relatively easy for non-fiction authors to gin up topics to talk about – that goes with the territory. Fiction authors can struggle. But the short version is this: you must embrace your inner nerd. Tap into the fan side of your brain again. What books are you passionate about right now? Which movies and shows? One fan of the genre talking excitedly about the work he loves is rarely boring to another fan of the same genre. As a reader, hearing your favorite authors talk about movies they love or books they devoured is a joy – and you should give that gift to your own audience. Talk about the things you are passionate about – the genre-flavored things, I mean. Once you keep in your genre lane, for the most part, the chances are that your audience will be engaged by these topics also. Here are some examples I give in Following of the kind of content you could share: 1. If I wrote funny time travel romance with a strong historical flavor, and my Ideal Reader also enjoys the work of Diana Gabaldon, I might post a humorous recap of an episode of Outlander, or a deal I spotted in BookBub on one of her books, or a meme about the show, or a joke I heard her tell at a conference about the true attraction of a man in a kilt. 2. Authors of non-fiction books on how to play the guitar might post a YouTube video of Led Zeppelin's live BBC sessions where you can really see the fingerwork on Going to California. 3. A writer of thrillers might post a movie review of Zodiac or Monster or Gone Girl, or share news about the new season of Serial, or a feature article from a magazine about the differences between a real CSI team and what you see on television, or a historical piece on DB Cooper, as well as any deals going in the genre at the time. 4. Space opera readers will most likely enjoy thinkpieces on the relative merits of the new Star Trek series, photos from NASA satellites, speculative articles about future missions to Mars, videos of the latest Space-X launch, or imaginary cityscapes for the Earth of your books. And that's not all. Take It To The Next LevelSharing stuff of mutual interest is good – a great start, at least. The next step is to take this content and craft it into a story – which should be right up your alleyway. We are storytellers. Your emails and Facebook posts can be stories sometimes too, which makes them more engaging than someone just typing out a laundry list of things they like. This is the hottest trend in content marketing right now – storytelling. And for once authors have a headstart; don't throw away that competitive advantage by not using storytelling in your emails. You don't need to shoehorn your stories into some awkward structure where you pivot to selling something at the end, like the cheesiest internet marketers. Not every email needs to be selling something – indeed, I'd argue the balance should be tilted in the other direction. This has the handy side effect of making you less uncomfortable when talking to your own readers. And in case you're curious, Bono drank a lychee-based vodka cocktail – which might have been my fault. He didn't finish it – which was certainly my fault! If I had known my audience, I would have poured him a bourbon… Dave P.S. Writing music this week is the Original Salty Dogs with a lovely version of Careless Love.
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Friday, March 3, 2023
Did you ever meet a celebrity like this? 🤩
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