Maria Murnane » Announcement

When you cut a scene you like, save it

Maria Murnane — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:06:32 +0000

As you begin a novel, you may have an idea where you’re going, but you probably don’t know the exact route you’ll take to get there. I’ve now written four complete novels, and in only one of them did I (loosely) adhere to an outline. I’ve found that plot lines often take on a life of their own, and when that happens it’s best to follow them to see what happens.

This freewheeling approach can work well, but not always, and sometimes it can lead you to a dead end. If that happens, you may end up with entire scenes that you need to cut. Ouch. No author likes to cut precious words, much less entire scenes, but if they don’t fit, they don’t fit.

My advice is this: if you like a scene but don’t see a place for it now, cut and paste it into a new document. You never know where part or even that entire scene may come in handy, either later in the book or in a separate book entirely.

Save it for later- you never know!

This happened in Honey on Your Mind, which comes out July 24. I wanted to write a scene where a character visits a particular city, and I remembered that I’d once started a novel (never got very far) in which a character did just that. I looked the old scene up on my computer and was able to plop it right into my new book. Of course I had to massage it a bit to fit the new characters and storyline, but the visual descriptions saved me a lot of time. Plus, using the older material made me feel like that abandoned novel wasn’t a complete waste of time after all!

-Maria

Always protect your personal brand

Maria Murnane — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:43:26 +0000

There are more than 1,500 books published every day. That is a LOT of competition, especially if you’re an indie author in control of your own marketing efforts. With all that noise, it’s important to give your personal brand the best chance of making a positive impression on readers.

What do I mean by “personal brand”? Let me give you an example:

For the past few months, I’ve been hanging out in a handful of LinkedIn groups for aspiring authors and self-published authors. I’m always interested in seeing what people are chatting about, and it’s a good way for me to stay current for my consulting business. While the e-conversations are usually congenial, sometimes the comments take a negative turn. And when that happens, it can be disturbing to watch. Disagreements escalate into back-and-forth arguments that are ugly and unnecessary. Witnessing it unfold on my computer screen makes my skin crawl, because no good can come from it.

Let me repeat that: NO GOOD CAN COME FROM IT.

When people attack each other in an online discussion forum, all they are doing is making themselves look unprofessional – and damaging their personal brands. No matter what your day job is, it’s never good, and if you’re an aspiring author, it is ALWAYS BAD. After all, you may be an aspiring author now, but once you have a book out, potential readers are going to look you up online and make judgments about you based on what they read in these forums. And if you already have a book out, negative comments can come back to haunt you even sooner.

More and more people are using new search engines such as socialmention.com, which track social media and blog comments that Google doesn’t always catch. If a potential reader comes across mean things you’ve written to other people, what is she going to think?

Remember back when an angry Faith Hill was caught on camera after she lost out to Carrie Underwood for female vocalist of the year at the CMAs? Yikes.

Who can forget this unfortunate outburst?

Better quiet than sorry, right? So take a deep breath and keep your cool.

-Maria

Don’t cook your family, Rachael!

Maria Murnane — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:35:59 +0000

The other day, a friend who shares my passion for good grammar posted the following picture on Facebook:

See how important a comma can be?

While this example may be a bit extreme (yet hilarious), it shows that punctuation is important! Too often writers are lazy about using commas correctly, but as demonstrated above, one or more missing ones can completely change the meaning of a sentence.

A missing hyphen can also have the same effect. Consider the following:

A) My book is a financial guide for small business owners.

B) My book is a financial guide for small-business owners.

Is your book a guide for owners of small businesses, or is it a guide for business owners who happen to be small people? One hyphen. Two very different meanings.

The above is an example of omitting a hyphen where one is needed, but I often see hyphens where they shouldn’t be: after adverbs. Adverbs don’t require hyphens. If you’re not sure what adverbs are, they usually end in “ly,” and they are often used to modify adjectives. For example, “extremely” and “highly” are adverbs. Here are examples of correct and incorrect usages of a hyphen:

CORRECT: He wrote an extremely funny novel that became a huge hit.

INCORRECT: She wrote an extremely-humorous query letter but didn’t get a reply.

CORRECT: She was a highly paid attorney before becoming an author.

INCORRECT: He turned down a highly-lucrative job offer to be here.

Commas and hyphens may be little, but they matter, just like small business owners do. And Rachael Ray’s family.

-Maria

Three grassroots marketing tips to put in place today

Maria Murnane — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:06:47 +0000

For many authors, both traditional and self-published, marketing a book is harder than writing one. If you don’t have a background in marketing, you may feel confused, overwhelmed, and even a little freaked out by the idea of it. Plus you may equate marketing with advertising and immediately think, Marketing is expensive, there’s no way I can do it! But the truth is you can. You just need to be clever about how you go about it.

Here are three things you can do today – for free – to generate some buzz for your book:

1. Put the entire first chapter of your book on your website and include a link to it in your email signature. If you don’t have a website yet, build one tonight! GoDaddy.com has free templates with very inexpensive hosting packages. (Appropriately, it’s called Website Tonight.)

2. Add your book to your own “reading list” on LinkedIn so it will show up anytime someone views your profile. (You can do this under the “more” tab along the top.) If you’re not on LinkedIn, setting up an account is free and super easy.

3. Sign up for a free Square account so you can take credit card payments with your phone. Then start bringing a book with you everywhere you go. You never know who your next customer-and future fan-might be! I’ve sold books in some pretty random places, including on a plane, because I was able to accept payment via credit card.

You can do these three things today!

Grassroots marketing is about being creative, not about spending a lot of money. If you’re willing to put in the effort, you can do it!

-Maria

How to throw a launch party for free

Maria Murnane — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:27:42 +0000

No matter who is publishing your book, you should have a launch party! In fact, most traditional publishers don’t throw launch parties unless the author is famous. For the rest of us, that means we’re on our own.

Many authors think that book launch parties need to be elaborate, which translates into expensive. But that’s not true! All you need to do is find a local watering hole with a friendly manager who is willing to give you a little space to sell books in exchange for bringing paying customers with you.

For my most recent book launch, I wanted to have parties in New York City, where I currently live, and San Francisco, where I lived until two years ago. To find a venue I went online (yelp.com is a good place to start) and searched for bars and pubs in fun neighborhoods. Then I started making phone calls. The response I got ran the gamut. In Manhattan, the first place I called wanted $2,500 to let me sit in a corner and sign books for two hours! I tried not to laugh, then politely declined and kept calling others. Soon I found a great bar in the West Village that was more than happy to have me come in for no fee at all.

A launch party doesn't have to break the bank!

I had the same experience in San Francisco. It took a few calls, but I found a great pub that not only provided me with plenty of space to sell and sign books, but also helped promote the event through social media.

Smart bar owners won’t turn down potential business, so take the time to do a little digging – you’ll be glad you did!

-Maria

When it comes to marketing, always follow up

Maria Murnane — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:16:40 +0000

People can be flakey. It’s unfortunate, but true. Professionally and personally, not everyone has the ability to stay on top of everything. That’s why, when it comes to marketing your book, following up often and multiple times is crucial.

As you promote your book, you’re going to reach out to a lot of people, and while many of them may have the best of intentions, life will often get in the way. You might have a great conversation with someone about arranging a review or an event, but at some point he or she might forget to e-mail or call you back – even if it’s technically his or her turn. In ninety-nine percent of those cases, if you don’t get the ball rolling again, that will be the end of it. Believe me.

In a previous post I discussed the importance of keeping a marketing spreadsheet to track your efforts. If you can be diligent enough to make a note each time you send someone an e-mail or leave a voicemail, it will pay off in the long run by reminding you to get back in touch with those you haven’t heard from. It’s easy to send an e-mail or leave a message and expect a reply, but unfortunately that’s not always the way it works. Another good trick is to keep a “waiting to hear from” list with dates indicating the last time you reached out to different individuals.

Following up is a critical part of book marketing

Someone else’s job and family are always going to come before your book, and that’s completely understandable. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you’ll stop feeling neglected and start being more proactive.

-Maria

Between you and ME

Maria Murnane — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:06:34 +0000

In my last post, I discussed the importance of using pronouns. This week, I’d like to address the importance of using the correct pronouns. One particular – and extremely common – pronoun error that drives me crazy is the misuse of I.

At some point, most children get chastised for using the pronoun “me” instead of “I.” For example, a little kid might announce, “Me and Lisa are going to the park!” and in response, a horrified mother will shout “You wouldn’t say ME am going to the park!” Getting kids to think about pronoun use this way drills into their heads that the format of “Lisa and I are going to the park” is correct.

However, it’s not always correct to use “I.”

When a pronoun is the object of a verb (e.g. I saw him) or comes after a preposition (e.g. I gave the ball to him), it’s called an object pronoun. If the pronoun is the subject of the verb (e.g. He saw the movie), it’s called a subject pronoun. “I,” “he,” “she,” “we,” and “they” are subject pronouns. “Me,” “him,” “her,” “us,” and “them” are object pronouns.

The problem is that some people who don’t understand grammatical rules think they should always use “I” or “he” or “she,” etc. This is why, for example, we have public figures who occasionally say things in their speeches such as “This is a great year for you and I,” or “Thank you for giving my wife and I this opportunity.”

This is wrong.

You would never say “This is a great plan for I” or “Thank you for giving I this opportunity,” would you? Of course not. So if you find the rules confusing and still aren’t sure which pronoun to use, follow your mom’s advice and cut out the extra person or people in the sentence. Then you’ll know what’s right!

-Maria

Don’t be afraid to use pronouns

Maria Murnane — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:13:58 +0000

Imagine you’re having coffee with a friend (we’ll call her Julie), and she says “Oh my gosh, I have the funniest story to tell you about that guy John I’ve been seeing!”

You smile and sip your pumpkin spice latte, ready to listen.

Then imagine that Julie begins her story like this (read aloud for full effect):

“I knocked on John’s door, and when John opened it, he smiled and gave me a hug. Then John asked me to come in, so I did. John and I sat down on his couch, and then John asked me if I’d like anything to drink. I said sure, so John poured us each a glass of red wine. Then John took my hand and said he had something important to tell me.”

If you were Julie’s friend, by this point you’d probably be wondering less about the story and more about what was wrong with her, because NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT. We already know that her date’s name is John, so after the first reference we expect her to use the pronouns “he” and “him” to refer to him.

Unfortunately, many first-time authors act like Julie, i.e., they don’t use enough pronouns in their writing. Instead they use a character’s name over and over, both in dialogue and narrative, often multiple times in the same paragraph.

Don't be afraid to use pronouns!

Using a character’s name when a pronoun would be better distracting and annoying, and it’s not good writing. Readers are smart, so respect them!

-Maria

Want to be a speaker? Plan ahead!

Maria Murnane — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:04:31 +0000

Public speaking is a wonderful way to get the word out about your book. However, you’d be surprised at how much advanced planning is involved in setting up even the smallest of events. Coordinating with a local book club or business group could take months, and major conferences select their speakers up to a year in advance!

If you want to secure speaking engagements, you need to start way ahead of time. Before you start your outreach, you should create brief yet compelling descriptions about yourself, your book, and the topic(s) on which you can speak. Include a professional headshot and cover art of your book. If you have any testimonials from individuals or organizations that have heard you speak, include those as well. Save this document as your “speaking bio” and update it regularly with anything impressive about you or your book, e.g. awards, press mentions, or other organizations to which you have spoken.

Next up is outreach. In last week’s post, I stressed the importance of tracking your marketing efforts, so if you took my advice and have already created a marketing spreadsheet, that’s one less thing on your to-do list. As you begin your research and outreach, keep track of each organization you contact (or plan to contact) with enough detail to refresh your memory the next time you visit the document. The purpose of the tracking document is to keep you from reinventing the wheel, so be sure to note relevant information, which can vary for each organization.

You've got to plan way ahead!

As you go, you’ll probably receive multiple replies along the lines of “We’d love to have you speak at [insert name of conference/event/club/etc. here], but we’re all booked,” so you’ll quickly learn the importance of starting early. But that’s okay! There’s always next time, and you’ve already done the research for that particular organization. Plus, each time you reach out, you’re not only networking, but also making contact with a potential reader – and that never hurts.

-Maria

Stay organized in your marketing efforts

Maria Murnane — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:45:19 +0000

Book marketing is a lot like sales, and as any successful salesperson will tell you, it’s often a numbers game. In other words, the more people you contact, the better chance you have of getting a response. However, before you fire off a bunch of emails, I strongly recommend creating a system to track your efforts. It will keep you organized, and it will also keep you from inadvertently pitching the same person more than once, which can be embarrassing.

I have a spreadsheet on my laptop called “Marketing” that includes several tabs, e.g. media, conferences, book clubs, etc. Each tab (or worksheet) includes a list of organizations, sorted alphabetically and by state. For each organization, I have columns listing a contact person’s name and email address, the most recent date, nature and status of the interaction, and a website address.

I also use color codes. If the organization says no to whatever I’m proposing, I put it in red. If there is potential, I put it in yellow to remind myself to follow up. If we get something scheduled, I put it in green. I add to my marketing spreadsheet nearly every day and review it regularly to see which leads need following up.

You don't want to end up like this!

What I’m proposing may sound like a lot of work, but believe me, it’s much better than the alternative, which is complete chaos! If you’re diligent in your marketing efforts, soon you may have dozens, if not hundreds, of interactions with various organizations, so relying on memory to keep track of everything is impossible, not to mention extremely inefficient. Taking the time up front to create a spreadsheet or table will make your life much easier and lead to better results.

-Maria