Consistency has been a consistent factor in this writing project from the beginning. I have had a consistent attitude as to how I approached each phase of it.
In the writing phase I always began my days ensuring nutrition was the first part of any writing day. I made a drinks tray of decaf tea with goats milk and some honey to sweeten it, a large glass of a vegetable and fruit juice (I buy mine from Marks and Spencer's rather than make my own but the quality is superb and they taste delicious) and I drink between 9-12 bottles a week, a glass of lemon and hot water and a large container of cold filtered water (I used a Brita fridge jug) and carried that to my desk. I had a large glass cookie jar filled with health bars such as oat, fruit and nut varieties and I also had another jar on my desk with dried banana's and cranberries for snacking. Breakfast at my desk often included a porridge dish with pears or banana's with a drizzle of honey or maybe sour dough toast with avocado and a poached egg (long before it was a trendy menu item!) and was a great way for me to start my day at my desk, which began with checking the previous days writing to ensure the continuation and flow of the plot. As each chapter was finished it was sent off to my team of reviewers and to my Editor James, who was so efficient, that it was usually fired back to me the same day with his suggested amendments and his sarcastic comments about my mistakes (all in good fun - of course). I also considered any comments made by reviewers as they came through to me via email but mainly they were just requests for the next chapter with the exception of Kate who by default became my second editor given that she added valuable advice that complimented James' work as my editor. I tended to re-write as I went along and adjusted chapters when editorial advice was offered for consideration or plot changes came into my head. The final aspect of the writing project was a line edit by me which I repeated twice, before each chapter was then once again sent off to James and Kate for their final edits.
The second phase was the publishing phase and I had already decided via my research that I would be using the publishing company Completelynovel.com. This phase consisted of hours of typesetting conversations, as I wanted my book to be set out in an unusual way and for those of you who have read the book, you will understand why. This phase was a nightmare as I had written my book on my Macbook Pro in ipages and had sent it over to Completelynovel.com in the format requested. They then tried to put it into their editing/typesetting software, which proved so problematic with the pages often coming back to me as pictured below. My draft copy arrived and I made my red pen alterations before sending them page by page to Completelynovel.com. Every time the company tried to re-typeset my amendments it would throw the whole sequence out and any pages 'behind' my amendments would then need reformatting again, which as you can imagine was costly for me in terms of hourly rate typesetting fees and costly for them as a company in terms of time. Eventually after frustrations, tears, re-scheduled book launch dates, fallouts and the near breakdown in my working relationship with Completelynovel.com, I made a decision that although there were still the odd minor issues with the typesetting etc, I could not keep throwing money at the project and I had to be satisfied with where it was at and roll with it. That is hard to do when you are a perfectionist in your work. The lesson for me here is that I will purchase compatible writing software when I send book two to them.
The final phase is the marketing phase which of course I am still in. This phase is very much a work in progress. From a consistency stance my daily routine is to do a social media trawl and or new event posting at the beginning of each day (7 days a week). I use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest regularly and I have recently started to experiment with reddit and Wattpad apps too, although the jury is out at the moment on the effectiveness of these latter two as marketing tools. I trawl the accounts I follow for any opportunity to link my book to a statement or image and do so at the start of each day. I consistently ask friends and followers to share and re-tweet my social media events, as using your friends and followers helps to spread the message of the day you are posting and also could encourage people to friend request, follow, enquire about your work and even buy your book. This is known as building your author platform and a strong platform makes for a solid building (i.e.: my readership fan base). I have also consistently handed out business cards, posted signed post cards and my most recent strategy is to send signed copies to high profile media people and influential women. The marketing phase is fascinating and during my everyday trawl of the internet I am blown away by the myriad of new ways that I can try to get my work noticed. I am truly loving the marketing phase just as I loved the writing phase.
I am consistent in my belief in my book and in my gift for writing as a whole and I am consistent in my gratitude for that gift. Consistency in my gratitude to my readers and for their encouraging messages is also a big aspect of this project and I always reply to any messages that people take the time to send me. Consistency in the content of their messages is also very humbling to me and I really do appreciate every one of them. People are consistently telling me they like my book and THAT makes it all so worthwhile. The women love this book which is dedicated to them and the fact that the men write and tell me they love it to is fantastic. It is after all a very relatable book about relationships, betrayal and online dating, which is making people cry and laugh out loud.
This is the latest review from a male: Started 'Exactly 23 days' at work last night. Read 173 pages. It's a fantastic read. Can't wait to get to work tonight!
When I wake up to messages like that from a new reader it really is such a wonderful start to my day. Somebody loves my book and took the time to tell me they did. Wow. I am consistent in my gratitude. Thank you all.
Update:
This is the remainder of the review above:
Well finished Exactly 23 days. You asked me to let you know what I thought. Well here goes! Absofuckinglutelylovedit! Not my usual sort of read but it had me gripped. The ending OMG! Seriously, I read it every spare minute I had over my last 2 shifts. I couldn't put it down. Bit bloody clever you are! When's the next one out. Jayne I loved it. Seriously. Brilliant. It put a smile on my face and a lump in my throat, on several occasions. I've put a review on Amazon and told some of lads at work to tell their Mrs's about it. Well done you. Get back to that desk and pen a new one. NOW. xxx
Exactly 23 days is available from: https://completelynovel.com/books/exactly-23-days Barnes & Noble, Waterstones online, Blackwells, apple iBooks and Amazon
Unfortunately scamming and ripping people off are very much the way of the world nowadays as Fi the main character in my debut novel Exactly 23 days knows only too well. It would appear that I too as the writer of the book have to be wary of being conned. It was purely by chance whilst I was at a blogging event today that I discovered that a site in Germany (Bol.com) selling my book had 5,400 views and a score of 8.1/10 for my book. Of course, I was excited at the huge increase in the spread of my words and also at the potential to increase the sale of my book too. It was only on completing a google search when I got home and doing some research on Bol.com that I discovered that they appear to be a rather dubious website with an awful lot of 'one star' negative reviews and not just for book sales. It would appear that books and other items are not being delivered and the authors and artists from music sales on the site will almost certainly never see any of their rightful earnings!
The purpose of todays post is to warn you about purchasing from a site other than if directed to it by myself as the writer of Exactly 23 days. That way I can make sure that it is a site authorised by me to sell my work. I enclose information for all the sites where you can buy my book and I look forward to your reviews as and when you happen to read it.
Exactly 23 days is available from https://completelynovel.com/books/exactly-23-days
and from the following online outlets: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, apple iBooks app (for iPad and iPhone), Waterstones, Blackwells and Google Books.
At the beginning of this blog you may recall that I said I was fully prepared to focus on the final third of this self publishing project just as I had focussed upon the writing and the publishing of my book Exactly 23 days. The final third of the project is the marketing aspect. I received my first copy of the book on the 25/9/2015 and since then I have devoted a part of every day marketing it, however small that may be.
How have I marketed it and what have I learnt along the way?
I created this blog and have attempted to create new and relevant posts regularly in order to connect with my fans, keep them interested in my work and also to increase awareness of my book.
I have built my social media platforms: Twitter: @jaynelhiggins61, Facebook: Jayne Higgins, Instagram: jaynelhiggins and Pinterest: Jayne Higgins bombarding each of these with any conceivable link to my book in order to increase awareness, connect with other peoples work and hopefully increase my followers and sales.
I have done mail shots of postcards to 100 influential women in the UK.
I have left business cards all over the country whenever I can in cafe's, bars, library shelves, buses, trains including overground, underground and trams and even in ladies loos!
I have chatted to complete strangers and left them with signed postcards.
I have emailed women's magazines, bookstores, newspaper editors, agents, publishing houses, film producers, tv executives and fellow bloggers.
I have researched how to query or pitch my work to agents and publishing houses.
I have emailed libraries, bookstores, supermarkets and online stores to generate an interest in stocking my book.
I have sent signed copies of my book to agents, publishers, newspaper editors, film producers and celebrities.
I have gifted signed copies as prizes for competitions.
I have spent 100's of hours researching how to do all of the above effectively and I discover a new direction of where to send my book on this marketing journey every day! It certainly makes for a very interesting days work.
So what have I learnt?
Always respond to any query or comment from your social media platforms, texts or emails. I feel humbled that complete strangers take the time to comment on a post, or about my book if they have read it and I always thank them for contacting me, buying my book and reviewing it. My fans/readers/followers are the reason I wrote the book. I want to help other people to overcome the emotional and physical pain of betrayal. I want to inspire people to heal. I want to inspire people to move on and I want to encourage women to help each other to heal. Responding to people who take the time to contact me is showing gratitude and also being respectful of their opinion and their time.
Respect people's opinions be it a follower who trolls you or an agent who rejects your work. I hear in their words what they have to say and I reply accordingly, be it a polite thank you for their time and their opinion, or as in the case of one of my recent troll comments, I gave her an honest and respectful but also assertive response to her unnecessary and negative comments. It seemed to have the desired effect of silencing her. However, I hasten to add here, that I would NEVER enter into a battle of words with somebody who chooses to want a 'written' argument with me. People are absolutely entitled to dislike my work and comment accordingly, but if I feel justified in giving a balanced counter argument to any misjudgments they make then I will but only if I feel there is a valid reason for doing so and always in a polite and respectful way.
Be committed to linking each opportunity to your book, after all it could be another sale. Follow book clubs, follow book reviewers, follow agents, editors, readers, fans, and use any connecting links to shout about your own work. Use is as a 'copy and paste' option to your web link, amazon link, blog link, publisher link, any link that will lead them to your own work. Your book is your 'saleable goods', social media is your shop window and your followers are your word of mouth. Don't be afraid to ASK for help, ask them to share the link for you, then ASK them again and then ASK them some more. It will either involve the click of a button or a few minutes of their time to leave an Amazon review. ASK them. What have you got to loose?
Be committed to the continuance of marketing your book yourself. When I wrote my book I knew when I had come to the end of writing and after edit upon edit, (there are many different types of editing!) I knew I had no more to give that aspect of the job and I know that I will suddenly feel like that about the marketing aspect of the job too but at the moment I am really enjoying getting my words out into the world.
Be prepared to invest time, effort and undoubtedly money into building a workable website with links to newsletters and to purchase your books and other merchandise. Dedicate the bulk of your website to your work as a writer and possibly hints of your daily life. A great example of such a website for me is, The Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond.. An award winning blog and website, she is tv celebrity cook, wife, mother, photographer and writer. It's a great blog/website and I aspire to build one of that quality and interest. My website is however very much a work in progress.
I've absolutely learnt that every day is a learning curve and that what I am doing is exactly what I have discovered other famous authors doing as they too release new books. I've learnt too, that I get to high five some of my peers, albeit imaginary, in accomplishing both a published piece of work and for going in the right direction along this marketing highway.
Which direction? Oh yes, straight ahead. For now anyway!
https://completelynovel.com/books/exactly-23-days
