Entry Level Jobs and Internships

Young writers are often focused on getting their script to an agent, high-level writer or producer, but that’s not the best strategy for landing a writing job. The best strategy is to get a job as an assistant. Work your way up. Make connections (both high-level and low-level ones). Don’t expect to become Lena Dunham. Click here for advice on how to find entry-level jobs.

Submit Your Scripts to Writing Programs and Contests

This is the best option for those of you still in school or living outside Hollywood.  Here is my post on reputable writing programs and contests.

Query Your Connections

Take advantage of the connections you do have.  Reach out to alumni, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends…  Click here to read more about making and utilizing connections.

And remember, SUBMIT YOUR SCRIPT IN PDF FORMAT!

]]> http://storycirclenetwork.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/a-good-editor-can-get-you-readplus-take-our-word-quiz/ Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:22:32 +0000 kendrabonnett http://storycirclenetwork.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/a-good-editor-can-get-you-readplus-take-our-word-quiz/ Kendra Bonnett–Getting Read #12

Getting read…it’s what most writers want. Oh there are a few
who write only for themselves. But most of us want someone—even if it’s just
family—to read our stories, our thoughts, our legacy. In my columns I
generally focus on what it takes to get published and how to market and sell
one’s book going forward.

Writers in the 21^st century have a useful tool in
the Internet. But today I want to suggest something a little more traditional and low tech. It's editing, and good editing can make a big difference in your ability to get read.

If you like words and good writing–even simple sentences–you may be acutely aware of the sloppy writing, incorrect word usage and nonexistent grammar that passes for communication on the Internet. I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t
see someone confuse then/than, their/there, and your/you’re. Most of it
carelessness, but not entirely. The mistakes are repeated too often to be simply silly mistakes.

I thought it would be fun to include a little quiz. It's just for fun, and your challenge is to determine what (if anything) is wrong with each example. At least one is correct. You'll find the answers at the bottom of this post.

1. Black gold brings effluence.
2. All three of my children work in the emergency room. This
   winter, I worry that anyone of my children may be the first person in Reno to get
   swine flu.
3. Sludge from the broken sewer pipe contaminats the city
   beach.
4. Tom is a voracious reader.
5. Whenever Jane didn’t get her way, she skulked around the
   house for hours, hoping her parents would give in.
6. Some would say that the town was suffering from a general
   decline in morales.
7. Anthony yearned to be Acme’s vice president of marketing; he
   purposely set the wheels in motion to achieve his dream.

So how did you do? Pretty well, I expect. But before you check your answers, I'd like to direct you to our first Author Conversation for 2010 over on Women's Memoirs. Matilda Butler and I had the pleasure recently to talk with Jid Lee. Jid is the author of To Kill a Tiger: A Memoir of Korea. It's a fascinating memoir–well written and interesting for its technique. Jid is most effective for the way she entwines her history and memories with those of her family and homeland.

Jid tells us that she used three editors before she was finished. She wasn't so much in need of a grammarian as someone to help her with structure…someone who could help her turn 230,000 words into a marketable book of just 130,000 words. I think you'll enjoy our conversation.

And while we're on the subject of editing…When you're ready, I hope you will consider the talented editors we have assembled for the Story Circle Network Editorial Service. These women represent a diverse range of editing skills. This year, we'll begin showcasing their talents by having them take turns blogging here on Telling HerStories. So you'll want to watch for that.

Now, why don't you check your answers to the quiz above.

Sometimes I send notes via email and sometimes I discuss them over the phone, depending on my schedule. I’ve been lucky to give notes to very gracious young writers. It’s important to be gracious. Readers are giving you their time and it’s important for you to say thank you, no matter how helpful (or not helpful) their notes are and how long it took them to get back to you. (I’m the worst about sitting on a script. It is my New Years Resolution to respond in a more timely manner. And to check my voicemail more than once every two weeks. Sorry, Mother.)

When asking for notes, it’s important to specify whether you’re looking for overall story notes or page notes. Story notes are notes about the story, concept, structure, etc. Page notes refer to specific moments, dialogue, jokes, etc. If you’re sending out your first draft, you’re most likely in need of story notes. Once you’ve revised your script, you may want people’s opinions on specific scenes or jokes (especially if you’re writing a comedy). Asking for page notes from readers is essentially saying “Please don’t send me notes about how to radically change my story but rather, specific suggestions on how to make my script better.” It’s important to let your reader know what you want. It will save you both a lot of time.

Lastly, if you’re receiving notes over the phone, remember your reader is not your writing partner and a notes session isn’t a brainstorming session. It’s absolutely fine to clarify a note you don’t understand, but it’s not a pitching session. Write down the note and move on to the next one. Don’t say, “Oh, that’s a good idea, what if I do this…” Many writers will pitch a suggestion along with their note. And many times, it’s a suggestion you already thought of and ruled out. A notes call isn’t the time to say, “Well, I thought of that but it doesn’t work because of this…” Just say, “Thank you,” and brainstorm after you hang up.

And unless your mother is a screenwriter, don’t bother asking for her opinion. She’s going to love it no matter what. Or, in the case of my mother, she’ll hate you for always creating a main character whose mother is dead.

For any other questions regarding notes, feel free to leave a comment on this post.

This month’s post is a bit of a megillah. Sunday started
innocently enough as I spent some time browsing several of the LinkedIn groups
where I like to hang. But as I began reading and thinking…well one thing led to
another. As is often the case among LinkedIn’s writing, marketing and blogging
groups, I found several threads dealing with the challenges of getting
published and using social media for book promotion. The discussion usually
goes something like this:

Question: Do free social media sites really help you sell
books? Or, Is Twitter a godsend or a waste of time? And sometimes, Who’s
selling books thanks to Facebook?

And then the comments start. Respondents run the gamut: The
Touters (as I like to call them) extol the benefits of Facebook, Twitter, blogs
and more. Each has his or her pet tool or resource. The Deniers (I see fewer of
these all the time) either claim they are happily living in a pre-WordPress
world of publishing (or, if they’re bona fide Luddites or honest-to-god
curmudgeons, they must reside in a pre-Internet, alternate universe). Then
sooner or later the Dupes show up, those who have suffered loss and mischief at
the hands of Internet cons, crooks and scammers. And don’t doubt it, they are
out there.

This Sunday was no different…although perhaps a bit more
extreme.

The Touters Led Off the Discussion…

…with their praise for Facebook, Twitter, blogs, social
networks, Ning, to name just a few of the tools—everyone has their own personal
favorite. I read their words, agreed with most, but didn’t add a comment of my
own. I noticed, however, that even the Touters had their caveats and cautions.
Social networking is their religion, and yet almost universally they admit to
making near Homeric commitments of time and energy, replete with the
challenges, setbacks and strange encounters worthy of a modern-day Ulysses.

As I said, I didn’t comment on any of this. I know their
journey all too well. It is true that the challenge of building a following
exclusively via social networking is daunting. You must work at it every day
and not expect any significant returns for a year. Yes, results in six months
are possible but not the norm; you need to budget a year, which is why Matilda
Butler and I always counsel clients to start their blog the same day they start
writing their book.

As to which tool or tools to build your strategy around…I
believe it depends on your personal preference. If you like Twitter’s
microblogging approach, go for it. I recommend you commit to Tweeting a minimum
of nine times a day: three in the morning, three in the early afternoon and
three in the evening. And your Tweets must have teeth: solid content, links to
your blog or links to interesting (related) content you found on the Internet.

If you like Facebook and if you haven’t yet set up a Fan
Page, what are you waiting for? I can’t say that Fan Pages are the future of
Facebook, but they are most definitely the present. Your posts are seen on
Facebook feeds (Groups do not appear on the feed) so if you post aggressively you’ll gain considerable visibility.
And with more than 300 million people on Facebook, you can draw on a large
universe. Fan pages also allow you to be more commercial in your posting. You
won’t get “slapped” or worse, thrown off Facebook, for promoting your book and
posting a link to your sales page.

For myself, I can’t complain about putting in the time and
effort necessary for building social traffic, given that I’m not having to
spend money on Google AdWords or banner ads. Time is money, and it all costs
one way or another, but I personally don’t want to invest in buying traffic…at
least not until I know I have a winning formula for converting visitors to
paying customers.

And one more consideration: If you want to take advantage of
the any of the many free social networking tools, don’t wait. These may not
remain free forever. Investors want profits, and if advertising and corporate
deals don’t bring in revenue, I think we can expect many tools to disappear,
consolidate and/or become fee-based. My advice is put in the time now while the
only cost is time and energy. To make social networking part of my day, I get
up an hour or two earlier to do my blogging, Tweeting and posting so that it
doesn’t cut into the rest of my day.

There’s Always a Denier…

This week only one joined into the discussion. Actually she
didn’t discuss; it was more of a “drive by” comment. She made her
pronouncement, gained the ire the Touters and disappeared into the night. In
the midst of the cacophony of Touters talking up Fan Pages and Twitter Lists, Ms.
Denier announced with all the tact of a Sherman tank that she has no use for book
marketing (of any sort). She prefers to simply write her proposal, cash her
advance, hand her book over to the publisher and wait for the royalty checks to
arrive, and then begin the whole process over again.

I admit it. I had to comment, and I wasn’t alone. In
addition to wishing her good luck with that, I pointed out that almost 75
percent of books never sell more than 100 copies. In other words, most authors
will never see a royalty check if they put their fate exclusively in the hands
of their publisher. Furthermore, if an author sells only a couple 100 books and
doesn’t appear to be developing a reader base, I can’t believe that future book
deals are waiting in the wings. This brings us back to marketing and social
networking.

But Beware the Fate of the Dupes…

For all its benefits, the Internet is not without risks, and
this week’s Dupes reminded us by alerting us to some new scams. Some authors
have been using ezines to promote their work. But rather than submitting press
releases or posting their articles on an established ezine aggregator such as
EzineArticles.com, they have been hoping to get paid for their content. The
results have not been universally positive. There are reports of what appear to
be fraudulent (nonexistent) ezines that send authors forms to fill out with
their name, address and Social Security number. But the payments never arrive.
Now these authors are afraid they may become the victims of identity theft and
have put a watch on their credit. Don’t give your Social Security number to any
stranger online (or off, for that matter). And while I’m on the subject, if you
list your birthday on your Facebook page and it’s visible to anyone other than
you, go into your settings and fix this right now. An email address and your
birthday may be all someone needs to steal your identity. Enjoy social media,
but be careful with your personal information.

This is how I spent part of my Sunday…reading. As for the
thinking and what I believe all of this means to authors, please follow this
link to my post on Women’s Memoirs.

I’ve finished my spec.  How do I get it read by important people?

First of all, thank you for referring to those of us in the industry as “important people.”  We’re not, but we’ll take the compliment.

Do you have any connections?  If so, ask them if they are willing to read your spec.  You can also ask if they are willing to pass it along to their connections (agents and managers) but be prepared for them to say no.  And don’t take it personally.  It doesn’t mean that they think your script is bad.  Perhaps they’re uncomfortable asking for favors or perhaps they’ve already asked their agent to read a number of scripts this year and simply aren’t comfortable asking them to read more.  It’s also possible that their agent, like many agents these days, isn’t reading new writers.  The current economy is taking its toll on the industry.  Experienced writers have quotes, meaning that when they are hired, a show must pay them a minimum amount per episode.  If a show can’t afford that amount, the job goes to a less experienced writer whose quote is lower.  But right now, jobs are so hard to come by that experienced writers are lowering their quotes, leaving fewer jobs for less experienced writers.  Many agents are refusing to sign or even read new writers right now because they are impossible to staff.  Agents don’t want to sign you when they know they can’t get you a job.

So if I don’t have any connections and agents are refusing to read new writers, how do I get people to read my script?

Make connections.  Internships and entry level jobs are the best way to do that.  If you work as an assistant on a show, you’ll get to know the writers and producers and once you establish a relationship with them, you can ask them to read your script.  While agents are vital in getting writers their second job (and almost every job after that), new writers often land their first jobs themselves.  It seems backwards, but it happens all the time.  An aspiring writer will serve as a writer’s assistant or a showrunner’s assistant and the showrunner will hire that person as a staff writer for the following season.  For instance, my boss hired me as a writer on In Plain Sight after I served as his assistant for a season.  So I got a job before I got an agent.  Luckily, I had connections to an agent who agreed to represent me.  If you don’t have a connection, your bosses and coworkers will refer you to their agents, who will jump at the chance to meet any writer who already has a job.

People are often frustrated or discouraged when I tell them they should break in as an assistant.  Please understand that I’m not recommending this path because I think everyone needs to “pay their dues” or because it’s a rite of passage or because I was an assistant and that means everyone should be an assistant.  I recommend it because these days, it’s the most direct path to being hired as a writer.

]]> http://storycirclenetwork.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/what-would-rip-van-winkle-say/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:20:17 +0000 kendrabonnett http://storycirclenetwork.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/what-would-rip-van-winkle-say/ Kendra Bonnett–Getting Read #10

See that little tree growing out of the tiniest crack in an otherwise solid rock surface. We marvel. What enables that sole plant to succeed? We can't help but anthropomorphize it and admire its tenacity when, in fact, it's just doing what nature has always done…persevering. A seed finds an opening and takes full advantage.

See that successful painter, photographer, playwright, novelist, poet…author. Again we marvel. Those of us in the arts know just how rarified is the air the great ones breathe. There are awards, great reviews, lucrative book deals, bestseller bragging rights up for grabs. We aspire. We dream. But what does it really take for us to succeed?

“If you build it they will
come…” may work if you’re Kevin Costner, but the rest of us better have a
back-up plan. This is something I tell authors and business owners alike who
are trying to put the Internet to work. Creating a website or even a blog site,
is only one step and no guarantee you’ll ever be found online. Pretty graphics
and good content aren’t enough when you are just one out of more than 220
million websites (about the best estimate according to the Netcraft Web Server
Survey, September 2009). 

I read the other day that blogging was dead. Wow, I thought, I'm glad someone told me. I might have gone along blogging completely oblivious to the fact that my platform was dead, at least in terms of influence and relevance. Don't you believe it for a minute.

Actually, I read such a headline every few months, and it doesn't even phase me. You see, I've been through this before. In fact, it might interest you to know that Facebook is dying–now that young people are supposedly leaving because adults are joining in record numbers. Twitter is pronounced dead every other week for reasons ranging from too rapid a growth rate (at one point 1382 percent) to the fact that Google has yet to buy them. Podcasting is another technology tossed into the dead pool regularly because…well just because.

It's true that the rate of growth of blog posting has slowed. According to Technorati (the world's largest aggregator and networker of blogs) bloggers were posting at a rate of 1.5 million per day in March 2007; a year later the rate was between 900,000 and 1 million posts a day, and we don't yet know what 2009 will show. I don't know about you, but since I can only read between 10 and 20 posts on any given day–and still be productive–blogging will have to all but disappear for me to feel any of the tightening.

The truth is I can't think of a single technology that hasn't slowed after enjoying several years of growth at rates that few industries can imagine, let alone boast. And looking at the carnage and debris scattered about the current economic battlefield, bloggers should be pleased that slower posting rates are all they endure. No, I think the reports of the demise of blogging are not only greatly exaggerated they miss the real story.

But first, let's ground ourselves in a few stats so we know just what we're talking about. According to Technorati, the blogosphere In 2008 (2009 numbers are not yet released) looked something like this:

• 184 million people worldwide (26.4 million US) started blogs
• 346 million people worldwide read blogs
• 77 percent of active web users read blogs 
• 95 percent of the top 100 newspapers have reporter blogs 
• Roughly 1 million posts are made to blogs every day 

With numbers like these, you're probably wondering why anyone in their right mind would suggest that blogging has even a fever, let alone is in ICU or dead. I suspect much of the doomsaying comes from 1) technophiles who only have eyes for the next new thing, 2) some percentage of traditional journalists who feel threatened by the "citizen journalist," and 3) naysayers that love to decry the end and death of anything and everything.

So what's going on? And what does it mean to authors blogging (or planning to blog) to boost interest in their books? You'll find my answer over on the Women's Memoirs blog under the post entitled "Is Blogging Dead…and Should I Care?"

Men and women often run in different directions. With this sentence, we were that much closer to
cracking the case.

My detectives, armed with notepads, scoured the house
looking for key evidence. They flipped through worn telephone books, ignoring
the fact that more than one page had apparently been ripped out. They studied
the ads in popular magazines; yes there were clues to be collected there. They
scanned the shelves of cookbooks before selecting one that looked promising.
Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Mexican, Vietnamese cookbooks, no classic
French—suspicious but not germane to the case. The detectives were after the
words, phrases and sentences that would solve the mystery.

I worked at
headquarters. My job was to make sense of it all. I unlocked the secrets by
creating sentences from the random word clues. Today I might have called myself
a forensic editor. But back then, the detectives were my little sister and
brother. Too young to read, they could copy letters and words, which was good practice for their handwriting. They loved playing sleuth. For me, the fun was
in solving puzzles by trying to make sentences out of the random words and phrases
they collected. It was a great game.

With few children in our neighborhood, we invented a lot of
our own entertainment. Now as I look back on the variety of word games, play
schools, and community newsletters I created, I wonder if these were the
telltale clues to my future career as a writer and editor.

Did you ever stop to consider your own creativity? And what
it says about you? If you're curious, I've found a way for you to measure your own creativity. CREAX has a
free test. It’s fun and takes no more than 10 minutes to complete. The average
score, according to CREAX, is 62.44; I tested at 92.15. You can follow this link
to the test. How do you stack up?

I wake to a blustery Sunday morning in Maine. One look at
the skylights in my bedroom tells me all I need to know. It’s snowing hard, and
I should just roll over and go back to sleep. But my three cats have other
plans. Each morning they spend the hour between five and six on bedside
vigil—watching for the slightest sign of life on my side of the bed. They catch
my furtive glimpse at the skylight, and that is all the invitation they need.
On cue they sing and mew in harmony. Snow or not, it is time to eat.

I descend the stairs only to get a view—a full, frontal
assault—of the mischief our weather has been up to overnight. Snow is flying in
wispy dervishes; the air is crisp; there is already a good foot of light powder
drifting against the side of my barn; and the radio report calls for the snow
to continue falling all day and late into the evening.

I feed the cats and quickly pad back to the bedroom. I can't
go back to sleep, but I can check email while propped up and surrounded by
pillows and the quilted counterpane my sister hand made.

Every family has its idiosyncrasies. Snow brings out one of
mine. I despise, no I loathe, shoveling. There could be eight inches in the
driveway, and I’d rather plow through it in my Jeep than shovel even a single
flake. My sister and brother feel the same way. You see our father armed us
with snow shovels from an early age. Every hour on the hour he sent us out to
clean our driveways. On the off chance that the snow would suddenly stop and the
sun would come out, he wanted its rays to work their magic on our drive
immediately. “Black asphalt absorbs the sun and heats up,” he’d lecture. “If
we’re prepared, our driveway will be the first in the neighborhood to be
completely cleared of snow.” Yes Daddy.

He was such a perfectionist about snow removal that he
refused ever to hire a plow. He just didn’t like where they pushed the snow. My
sister tells everyone we had to shovel the drive with teaspoons. She
exaggerates, but not by much…they were tablespoons.

So when it snows, I immediately set out to spoil myself.
Yes, it’s a good day to stay inside. Caught up with email, I go down stairs and
start a large fire. Soon it’s crackling cheerfully, inviting me to get a book
and come sit close. I set the teakettle to boiling. This way I can enjoy my
favorite lemon-ginger tea while trying to introduce some humidity into the air.
It’s so dry I get a shock just walking across the living room, and the cats’
fur stands at attention. They spark when they touch noses. As the water heats I
survey my bookshelves looking for the perfect book—I favor classics on snowy
days and mysteries in the heat of summer. While reading the spines, my eye
falls on a shelf of childhood treasures.

I’m lucky to own an early edition of J.M. Barrie’s Peter
Pan, illustrated by Arthur Rackham. It was
my mother’s. I open it and see her name carefully scribed inside. I also have
her copy of Robin Hood as edited
by George Cockburn Harvey and illustrated by Edwin John Prittie and her personal
favorite, Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates. As a child and even before I could read, I poured over these books
for hours, searching the illustrations for details and day-dreaming about what
might be happening behind a tree or sand dune, wondering if the pirate lived or
died, who ended up with the treasure and if Robin Hood was ever captured.

Sitting next to these treasures are my own special books.
You know the kind; the ones you call friends that you read over and over again
as much for the comfort they gave as for their stories. This formative
experience, after all, marks when our love affair with books, reading and words
began. Here’s a list of my top 10 favorite books:

• Johnny Tremain (1943)
  Esther Forbes
• Mr. Revere and I
  (1953) Robert Lawson
• Curious George (1941)
  H.A. Rey
• Madeline (1939)
  Ludwig Bemelmans
• Eloise (1955) Kay
  Thompson
• Make Way for Ducklings
  (1941) Robert McCloskey
• The Cricket in Times Square (1960) George Selden
• Maple Sugar for Windy Foot (1950) Frances Frost
• Raggedy Ann Stories
  (1920s-40s) Johnny Gruelle
• The Oz Books (early 1900s) L. Frank Baum

 What’s most interesting about this list to me today is that
with the exception of The Cricket in Times Square, Mr. Revere and I and Eloise, these books were written years, even decades, before I was born. I
find this particularly interesting because I owned every one of these books as
a new edition. They were (and are) classics. Parents can still buy new editions
of most of these books today; furthermore sequels are available that I never
read.

We’re lucky that every one of these books was given a chance
and that they were published at a time when book lovers and extraordinarily
insightful editors ran the publishing houses. They recognized talent, even in
first-time authors, and they gave both the writers and their books a chance to
find their markets. Good books were given the chance to become classics. So
much is different today: Taste, expectations and the pace of change are moving
fast. The large publishers are businesses first and foremost. And the cost of
everything makes patience a lost virtue.

The state of publishing in 2009 makes it hard for new
authors to succeed, but not impossible. This is where the smaller, independent
publishers play an important role. You can get picked up without an agent. You
have a chance to stay in print longer and develop your sales stream. Most
important, you’ll have the opportunity to work with people that love books and
publishing. And if your book takes off, you can always resell it to a major
publisher.

I could go on singing the praises of
independent publishers. But in the interest of time and space, I’m going to
refer you to a list of resources I’ve compiled. It will help you learn more
about independent publishers. As for me, the kettle is whistling…I’m going back
to the fire and my book.

Since this is my first post to the Telling HerStories blog, I might as well start off with something a
little controversial. I hope I don’t upset too many of you; at the same time
I’ll be delighted if I can get you to start thinking about fresh, innovative
ways to promote your books and, in the process, sell more books. That’s why I
call my topic “Getting Read.”

The fact is, it’s going to take all your tenacity,
innovation and receptivity to new marketing strategies and online tools to
succeed today. The good news, I believe, is that your use of the Internet,
joint sales ventures and guerilla marketing tactics can actually increase your
sales far beyond anything you’ve ever imagined.

So why is this so controversial? My perspective on the
publishing industry: I feel that writers who hang their hopes of success on
getting their books picked up by a major publisher actually keep themselves
from realizing their greatest success. Therefore it concerns me when I hear
good writers say things like, “I just got an agent! I’m set now.” Or, “Wow, can
you believe it? BLANK-BLANK [major publisher] is going to publish my book. How
great is that?”

Let’s do the math…

• We might as well start with the news that came out earlier
  this month. News Corp, parent of HarperCollins, reported that their first
  quarter operating income plummeted from $36 million a year ago to just $3
  million. They point to softening sales of their backlist titles and rising
  overhead costs. Apparently even reorders of their bestsellers is down. No
  wonder HarperCollins is seriously considering eliminating advances to all
  new authors.
• And while we’re on the subject of advances, Marilyn Ross of
  SelfPublishingResources.com told the American Society of Journalists and
  Authors that a major publishing executive admitted to her that 90 percent of
  books fail to make back their advance. A 90 percent failure rate can’t help but
  ultimately doom any industry.

But I don’t like wallowing in the failures. I prefer to look
for the way up and out. And surveys like these reinforce my belief that the
success lies with me (and other authors) rather than with publishers:

• More readers go to an author’s site (23 percent) for
  information than go to the publisher’s website (18 percent). The difference may
  not appear huge, but it certainly suggests that it is the author, not the
  publisher, who sells books. (Spier New York poll, 2006)
• Seventy-five percent of
  booksellers surveyed reported that the most important element of a book’s
  success is the look and design of the cover. In other words, readers don’t
  check to see who published the book. They buy because of the title, design, and
  compelling sales copy and testimonials on the back cover. 

So what can you do to take control into your own hands? Open
your mind to new resources. Be creative in your marketing strategies. And above
all, innovate in all things. I look forward to sharing tips, techniques and
strategies you can put to use.

I’d like to leave you with an introduction
to Podiobooks.com. Here you can give away
free, serialized audio downloads of your writing. Readers who like your work
are encouraged to make a small donation to you. It’s definitely a different
approach. I’ve been following this site for more than a year now, and I’m
impressed with its growth. It just may be one way to put yourself on the map.
For more on Podiobooks.com, please follow this link to Matilda Butler’s and my
website Two Women Business. 

If
you’re writing for an audience larger than yourself or your family, you
need to know how to build readership. While the specific tactics
available are limited only by your own creativity, there are
strategies, tools, events, and places that will help you build your
following. And the sooner you begin marketing, promoting and building
your Web presence, the better. Create a platform for yourself and your
writing and agents will be more interested in representing you,
publishers will be more receptive to your book and you may just decide
to sell your books directly. I show you how.

“Why bother to publish?” asks author, editor and marketing executive
Kendra Bonnett. “The average US author spends months, even years,
writing a book only to sell fewer than 100 copies.” Of the 1.2 million
books Nielsen Bookscan follows, 950,000 titles have sold fewer than 99
copies.

Kendra
often asks her audiences: “Which of these statements is true? (1) My
publisher will ensure that I have a well-marketed book. (2) All I need
to do is get my book listed on Amazon and my sales will take off. (3) I
don’t need to worry; I’m just using my book as a glorified business
card to build creds and win new business.  The answer? None of the
above.” Most authors believe at least one of these statements, and
that’s their fatal mistake. Using her marketing experience, writing
talent and Internet know-how, Kendra guides authors in search of book
sales or new business.

The bottom line is this: The day an
author decides to write a book, the process begins. She must define her
audience, create innovative sales tactics, and build readership (a
list). “Quite simply,” says Kendra, “the day you start writing your
book you also must start selling yourself…and what better first step
than to start blogging?”

Most recently, Kendra is co-author of
Rosie’s Daughters: The “First Woman To” Generation Tells Its Story.
This collective memoir of women born during WWII is a 2008 IPPY Book
Award winner and compelling for the many ways it engages
readers–through the inclusion of memoir vignettes from more than 100
women, quotes from famous Rosie’s Daughters, iconic images of the 20th
century, interpretive narrative and a timeline. After all, why
shouldn’t a reader’s experience be as entertaining, as effortless, as
worthwhile as possible? Reading a book should be as enjoyable as
picking up a magazine. And it’s an important aspect to marketing and
selling one’s book.

Learn more about Kendra at her web sites:

• http://www.twowomenbusiness.com
• http://womensmemoirs.com
• http://www.rosiesdaughters.com