#MFRWorg Newbie's World: Is Fear Holding You Back? @AuthorErinMoore

Is Fear Holding You Back from Your Marketing Goals?

Do you have a marketing plan, but have been unable to follow through with it? Do you feel like there are things you should be doing to market your books, but you can’t seem to get a grasp on any of them?  Do you feel as if it’s all just too much of a bother?

What might be at the heart of all of these excuses is fear. Most people think of fear as the “I just saw the girl from The Grudge in my backyard” feeling, but for most of us, fear is really that constant little voice in our heads, whispering “you’re not good enough”.

That voice also tells us things like:

• No one will want to read my newsletter, so why bother writing it? 
• The first two people didn’t reply to my request for a review, so I really don’t want to write a third request (or twentieth).
• I got a bad review, so I’m not really willing to put myself out there and ask for more. 
• If I do a Facebook party, no one will show up, and it will be horrible. 
• I don’t write great blogs, and no one will read them. 

If your little voice speaks that clearly to you, congratulations! If you are already connecting the cause with the effect, then that’s half the battle. So many times, though, we don’t even realize that something is holding us back or that the little voice is even speaking to us. We just simply never follow through on our marketing plans. That marketing thing that sounded like a good idea when we first wrote it down – asking to blog on someone else’s site, or sending out a request for newsletter subscribers, or a Facebook party – whatever it is, we just don’t seem to make the time to do it.

But as Freud once said, the lover always makes his appointment.

What he meant was, that if marketing was something that we yearned to do, something that we enjoyed doing and looked forward to, it would never fall off of our to-do list or get pushed to the side by things like television or Facebook. We would meet our lover, damn it.  

So how do we start to love marketing (and possibly ourselves, in the process)?
One great trick is to write down a mantra. Or a few mantras. 

Here are the mantra rules:
1. They must be stated in the positive (i.e. not  “Don’t waste time” but instead “I only spend my time engaged in revenue-generating or name recognition activities.”)
2. They must resonate with you and make you feel joyful as you say them. So if you feel like something like “I am a best-selling author” is too much of a stretch to write and speak, try “I am doing everything I can today to be a best-selling author”. 
3. They must be written in present tense and reflect where we want to be. Even if you don’t feel as if you are where you want to be right now (and who ever does?!) then speak as if you already are. As Mary Kay said, Fake it till you make it. 
4. After you write them down, put them somewhere you can see them every day – next to your computer or on your mirror, perhaps. 

Here are some examples – feel free to steal them:
1. I engage in fulfilling and exciting marketing opportunities on a regular basis.
2. I am filled with joy when writing blogs (or newsletters, or Facebook posts). 
3. My life flows with ease and expansiveness, and I always find time for things that are important to me. 
4. I allow for fun and creativity in my marketing. 
5. Marketing is fun, easy, and I enjoy it. 

Do any of those help you? What are some of your tricks for getting motivated to stay positive about marketing? How do you know when you’ve gone off track? 

Posted by Author Erin Moore.
Erin writes sensuous paranormal romances set in exotic locales. Her latest book is a sexy minotaur shifter story set in Crete, Erin is a regular blogger for Marketing for Romance Writers as well as Heroes and Heartbreakers-which means she is sadly neglectful of her own blog.

She lives in Atlanta with her two little paranormal beings and one unruly husband. She’s also (way too frequently) on Twitter and Facebook. Find her free short story,To Love a Shaman, at her website. 

She's also giving away a critique of a first chapter with a subscription to her newsletter!

MFRW Monthly Quote - September 2014 #MFRWauthor

“Don’t be afraid of yourself when you write. Don’t check-rein yourself. If you are afraid of being sentimental, say, for heaven’s sake be as sentimental as you can or feel like being! Then you will probably pass through to the other side and slough off sentimentality because you understand it at last and really don’t care about it.”
-Brenda Ueland






Emerald
Emerald is an erotic fiction author whose short stories have been featured in anthologies published by Cleis Press, Mischief, and Logical-Lust. She serves as an assistant newsletter editor and Facebook group moderator for Marketing for Romance Writers (MFRW), and she selects and posts the monthly inspirational quote on the MFRW Marketing Blog. Her first solo book, If... Then: a collection of erotic romance stories, is out now from 1001 Nights Press. Find her online at her website, The Green Light District.

Blog Talk: Creating Good Guest Posts for #MFRWauthors

Let's talk about writing Guest Posts for other blogs.

There are benefits to being a guest on another blog. The exposure you gain magnifies because you are able to reach out to more readers. Since most bloggers have guest spots, its not too difficult to find blogs you fit with. Writing a guest post puts you in front of a whole new audience and can increase your own blog's following. Blog readers that haven't yet heard of you now get their first impression and may then follow you... and maybe even buy your books!

When guest blogging, it's important to do more than simply promotion. Here are some GENERAL GUIDELINES to follow:

Be Relevant to the Host Blog. Know before you sign on that your genre is a fit for this blog's followers. You don't want to post erotic romance on a sweet romance blog. You also likely won't want to post paranormal on a contemporary blog.

Be Polite. Follow all the guidelines the Host Blog provides. They are hosting you so its the least you can do. Most will tell you when they need your post and how they want it provided.

Be Aware. Know what the format of your host blog is. You will want to submit the correct things the host blog regularly includes. For example, know if they include a book cover or a banner. Can you include an excerpt? What length?

Be Knowledgeable. It's about more than self-promotion. We all need to promote our books but most blogs are looking for more content in a blog post. Unless agreed upon otherwise, your post should have a topic for discussion. Write about something you have knowledge on - maybe a topic that fits with your latest book.

Be Connected. Include links back to your own website or blog when relevant to your post. Back links will connect your blog to the host blog and benefit both. Use these links to reference prior posts on similar subjects.

Be Loud. Follow up on you guest post by promoting it on your own social media outlets. Visit the host blog on the day of your post to respond to comments and interact with followers. One idea I use sometimes when guest blogging is to write a brief post on my own blog that drives traffic to my guest post. This sends my followers to a new blog they might enjoy.

Keep Writing!

Paloma

Paloma Beck is a Romance Author living a life of contradiction... she's a happily married carpooling mom writing sexy romance. It's almost naughty! Paloma writes full-time and has three series in the works with others on the fringes. Her books span both the contemporary and paranormal romance genres.

Paloma serves as MFRW's Blog Director.

Interviews for Newsletters

Back again.  This month I’m talking about how to do interviews for your newsletters.  Interviewing an author for your newsletter is basically the same as doing so for a blog.  However, if you’re printing your newsletters and mailing them out or if you want to keep them to a format that looks like a page, you have space issues that differ from those involved in posting a blog.

As far as the questions go, they’re pretty much the same.  “How did you start writing?”  “What inspires you?”  “What is your ‘process’?”  And the fun ones—“Long, hot, sudsy bath or steamy shower?”  “Steak or lobster?”  “Chocolate or Cheesecake?”  “If you were stranded on a desert island…”

Or, you can interview a character.  “Why do you think someone would write a story about you?”  “Tell me about your hero. How did you meet him?”  “Why don’t you think your relationship with him will work?”

What other material do you plan to use?  A blurb from your guest's book?  An excerpt?  Buy links?  Contact info? It helps to figure out in advance how much space you have in your newsletter and how much space you can give to each item.  Back in the days of electric typewriters, one page of pica type double-spaced equaled three-hundred words.  Using Garamond 11 point type, justified with 1.15 line spacing, I can fit about 200 words in a text box that measures 5.5 inches wide by 4 inches tall.

How long your interviews, blurbs, or excerpts run will depend on whether you want to start them on one page and finish on another.  If you do so, don’t forget to add (To be continued) at the bottom of the first page, and (Continued from Page *) at the beginning of the piece when you pick it up on another page.  I suggest you present intros to both your guest and a taste of what you’re doing on you’re doing on your front page, and then get to the meat of your interview, blurb, excerpt, etc., on the inside.

 

It helps to set up a template to work from and a submission page you can send to your guests so you don’t have to type the same thing over and over.  You could maybe come up with twenty questions and ask them to chose five to answer, and then provide space for their blurb and excerpt, letting them know the word count you can accommodate.

 

In journalism, there are two major principles:  the six Ws—Who, What, Where, When, Why and How, and the Inverted Pyramid.  Always give the meat of the story first, and then go into details later.  The smaller the detail, the farther down the page it belongs.  That’s why journalists fight for headlines and stories on Page 1 “above the fold.”  The six Ws are in a specific order, which should not be tampered with.  People want to know who did what to whom.  Next they want to know where and then when. They’re less interested in why or how.  That info can go on page three below the fold.

Now, I’d like you to meet my next Assistant Editor, Barbara Donlon Bradley.

Writing for Barbara Donlon Bradley started innocently enough. Like most she kept diaries, journals, and wrote an occasional letter, but she also had a vivid imagination and wrote scenes and short stories adding characters to her favorite shows and comic books. As time went on she found the passion for writing to be a strong drive for her. Humor is also very strong in her life. No matter how hard she tries to write something deep and dark, it will never happen. That humor bleeds into her writing. Since she can’t beat it she has learned to use it to her advantage. Now she lives in Tidewater Virginia with two cats, one mother in law—she’s 85 now—her husband, and teenage son.

MFRW Facebook Group: Facilitating Guest Blogging @Emerald_theGLD #MFRWauthor

Greetings all! Before I get started, I’d like to again give a shout out of thanks to Kayelle Allen, MFRW’s founder, for covering for me here on the fifth of last month while I was on vacation. Because that’s what kind of an awesome leader Kayelle is. :)

Thus far in this series, I’ve talked about my responsibilities as the moderator of the MFRW Facebook group. Starting with this post, I’ll be branching out and covering aspects of Facebook more generally, given that I feel as though I’ve covered now much of what’s involved in moderating a group (though if you do have questions about moderation, by all means please feel free to mention them in a comment, and I’ll be happy to address them!).

This month’s topic comes to us courtesy of Paloma Beck, MFRW’s Blog Director, who mentioned to me that some members might be wondering about this particular Facebook function.

The MFRW Facebook group houses a document that allows members who host guest authors on their blogs to enter their blog information into said document for other members’ reference. In other words, the file is a centrally-kept source of places that offer cover reveals, spotlight features, etc., that is updated in real time whenever anyone edits it and is available for any group member to see or edit.

So, if you have a blog and are open to posting guest posts and would like other members to know that, feel free to enter your information into the sheet! Here’s how:

1) From the MFRW Facebook group page, go to the horizontal menu bar just below the header photo across the top of the page. Click the last entry, which is “Files.”

2) Locate the file titled “GUEST OPPORTUNITIES on Member Blogs” and click on it.

3) After you click, find the “Edit” button (with the little pencil icon next to the word on the button itself) in the upper-right corner of the document. Click that.

4) Enter your information in the format previous listers have used. An easy way to do this is to highlight the most recent entry, copy it, and paste it a line or two above that entry. Then delete that member’s information (leaving the category labels) and fill in your own.

If you have a new release and are seeking blogs where you could guest post or do a cover reveal, etc., this document is a great resource. To find it, simply follow steps one and two above! 

Before I go (I saved the announcement for last this time :)), I do want to say that the MFRW Facebook group reached—and quickly surpassed—the 4,000 member landmark since my last Facebook-related post here! Thanks to all the members for making it such a growing, active group.

Until next time!


Emerald
Emerald is an erotic fiction author whose short stories have been featured in anthologies published by Cleis Press, Mischief, and Logical-Lust. She serves as an assistant newsletter editor and Facebook group moderator for Marketing for Romance Writers (MFRW), and she selects and posts the monthly inspirational quote on the MFRW Marketing Blog. Find out more about her at her website, The Green Light District.