Storyboard: How Your Website Can Get You a Book Deal
My zackaryrichards.blogspot.com website just passed the 30,000 visitor mark. It receives a little over 100 visitors a day. Thank you all for stopping by. I know you’re busy so let’s get right down to it. I’m a writer so I automatically have an unfair advantage. I know how to write and how to engage my audience. But there’s also a trick to that and I’ll show you what it is. As a book publisher I am constantly asked what type of books am I looking to publish?
Simple.Books that will sell.
How do you find a topic that will sell?
Start a blog. That’s what I did.
At first I wrote engaging stories, funny incidents and just about anything that I hoped would entertain my readers. I did this for over a year then one day noticed that when I wrote about certain topics the amount of visitors skyrocketed. Usually it was about writing tips, contacting agents, finding a publisher and all matters regarding writing. When I saw the increasing traffic I realized that if I wrote a book on how to write, how to get published and how to get that book out before the buying public it would likely do well. So I stopped writing my usual fiction and wrote The Best Book on How to Write, Publish and Market your Novel into a Best Seller. And sure enough it began selling immediately and received excellent reviews.
Another topic that brought a lot of traffic was how to start your own business and make money online. I felt this would benefit my readers because I had been downsized and had started my own business http://aripublishing.com so I knew what I was talking about. So I wrote The Best Book on How to Make Money Online. It too, took off right after being published.
The next blog topic that garnered a lot of readers was How to Sell Products Online. BUT, these business oriented topics were annoying my readers who were interested in writing info.
And they had a point. The site is actually named The Author Zackary Richards.
But here is where many of my writing friends make a MASSIVE MISTAKE. They truly believe that if they write a great book and submit it to an agent or publisher, it will immediately be accepted and published, and rocket them to the top of the literary world. They believe this because they have read of incidents where people who submitted a rough draft of their first novel to an agent, were immediately signed, received a huge advance and their book became a best seller.
Does this actually happen?
On a very, very rare occasion, yes.
And when it does the media jumps all over it giving the impression that this can happen to anyone! However the odds of this actually happening are about the same as you becoming the next Powerball winner. But unfortunately, writers, because they deal in fantasy for the better part of their day, often fall victim into believing the fantasy, and delude themselves into thinking that all they have to do is write that one special book and all their dreams will come true.
And so they fritter away their lives, spending every waking moment working on that super-duper novel that will solve all their problems and while doing so, alienate their spouses, ignore their children, do a half-assed job at work and miss out on all the good and fun things life has to offer.
Why? Because that fantasy has become their religion, their belief system and any attempt to dissuade them from it will make you that person’s enemy!
However, if you will instead kindly step out of the coo-coo for cocoa puffs train for a moment, he’s an alternative method that will very likely succeed.
- You start a blog.
- Go to amazon and find out what books are selling well and have been selling for a while in a genre that you think you could do well in.
- Then start posting snippets of your story on your blog.
- Use keyword tags that will attract the type of reader who is interested in what you’re writing.
- Ask them to comment, offer suggestions, give critique. Develop a following.
Don’t worry about someone stealing your ideas or your story. Like Jay Leno once said, “Simply write faster than they can steal.”
Keep in touch with your followers by getting their email addresses with an auto responder. Offer autographed copies to the one who gives the most valuable critique and advice. Do a google hangout and develop a report with your followers. Write a book a month, charge $0.99 and ask for reviews. Read paperback books like The Best Book on How to Write, Publish and Market Your Novel into a Best Seller so you’ll actually know how to write and get great reviews instead of getting blasted for being a no-talented amateur.
Learn everything you can about marketing, reach the biggest audience possible, establish yourself as an authority, get your name out there and… like Steve Martin once said, “It’s easy to become famous. Just become so good they can’t ignore you.”
Here’s one VERY important fact about marketing. Cold calling (meaning contacting agents and publishers to see if they would be interested in your book) has a horrifically poor rate of success. On the other hand when customers contact you (meaning agents and publishers have heard of you and see that you have 30,000 visitors to your blog, 5000 Facebook “Likes” 1000 Google+ followers and e book sales in the thousands,) will make getting a book deal damn near guaranteed.
One last little trick. 30,000 visitors has given this website a PR of 2 and bordering on 3 So if you were to leave a comment along with your website URL then copy and paste my link http://zackaryrichards.blogspot.com/ on your blog post you would get link juice from my site that would increase your ranking and popularity.
I’m so surprised that so few people do that.Check out our site at http://aripublishing.com
