Jody Summers's Blog

When I began writing books years ago, I thought the hardest thing to do would be to get people to read them. Even friends and family were excited when I completed my first book, but were slow to actually read it. I understood, everyone is busy and reading isn’t something everyone makes time for these days. I wasn’t sure if the public would start reading my books either. Then something awesome happened, I started getting calls and emails from my friends and family and they said they loved the book.

That was shortly followed by customers personally contacting me to tell me that they enjoyed it as well and they wanted to know when my next one was coming out. I was in a complete state of euphoria, to have so many people tell me they loved something I worked on  so hard. It was amazing. Then I asked them to write a review online for me. That’s where things got interesting.

Online reviews are essential to the success of a writer, something I learned about a year or two into this new adventure. Established authors have thousands of reviews from fans on platforms like Amazon, GoodReads, Facebook and others. When an avid reader is looking for their next book, series or author, the first thing they look for are the reviews. Having a great rating is important, but it’s actually the number of responses that influence someone the most. People will actually prefer a book that has a good rating, but thousands of responses over one that has less than a hundred but has a great rating.

I went back to my friends, family and those who had read my work and asked them to write a response on these platforms, something that would take them less than five minutes to do. They spent hours reading the book, what’s an extra five minutes to tell everyone they enjoyed it? Out of the hundreds of people I asked, I got five people to actually write one. Thankfully, over the years that number has gone up considerably by others who have checked out my work and liked it.

What I’m getting at is that if you like a story, share it. An author can sell a thousand copies of something they wrote but if they do not get any feedback from it, it almost feels empty. I want to thank everyone who has already written their responses and I encourage anyone who hasn’t to do so, not just for me, but for any writer whose content you’ve enjoyed. It helps more than you realize.

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Who doesn’t love free stuff? While most books aren’t expensive, if you are an avid reader the cost can get up there. It’s always nice to get a discount but free is certainly something we can all appreciate. Whether it’s paperback, hardcover or on tablets and phones, there are so many chances throughout the day to unplug and start reading one of your favorites or the next in a series you love. Here are some of the best ways to save big and keep feeding your passion for reading:

Signup to book selling sites: Amazon, GoodReads and plenty of other sites want your business and the authors on those sites want you to follow them as well. The sites themselves will often have promotions to get you to sign up and those promotions will either be credits towards a new book or a free one to get you hooked. Authors on these sites will also offer a free promotion every once in a while, the goal being to introduce themselves to you, get you to follow them and check out other things they’ve written.
Follow authors: Almost every aspiring writer has a social media presence that they try to grow each and every day. A follower in many cases can be more valuable to them than a sale which is why they crave engagement. Follow these writers on their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and other social media platforms they are on and interact with them. More than likely they will post something every once in a while that shows you how to get one of their works at no cost. You can even signup with your email to get notifications about contests and other promotions they are having.
Check out the local library: It may seem a little old school, but local libraries have a great selection of work that you can find for free or even at ridiculously cheap prices. And this is not only paperbacks and hardbacks. These days Libraries have large digital and audio selections as well.
Start a local book trading club: It’s probably not that difficult to find people who love to read in your area. You can look for social media groups and ask them if they would be interested in swapping books. You can start by listing some of the options you have at home and see if anyone wants to trade.

While you may not get a brand new option at no cost, you can certainly find plenty of options for older editions as well as ways to either not pay, or get great deals on books. Follow these tips and you will see big savings while still having plenty of new works to read.

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Have a book or a series that you love reading? What about a specific author you love to follow? Readers get attached to books, or stories that they can follow, characters they can connect with and want to talk about with others who feel as passionate about it as they do. If you follow an author who is creating a new book or two every few years, then it’s an exciting time to be a reader. Unfortunately, you’ll notice that few of your friends read, they do not follow that author or they take too long to get through a book because of their schedule. It happens, but you’ve just read an exciting new story and want to talk about it with someone else.

Welcome to the digital age of being social, a place where you can go online and meet and interact with people who are as passionate about a subject as you. For example, many authors have a following on social media platforms like Facebook and there are groups where their fans talk about their works. But what if you follow a lesser-known author or someone who is just started building a following? How do you find people to converse with about their work?

This is where you can create your own group and start inviting people to join and interact. But how do you find them if you do not already know a bunch of people who are reading the same books for following the same author? For starters, once you’ve created the group you can contact the author directly on social media. Let them know about the new group and ask them to put up a post notifying their followers about it and encouraging them to join. You can also respond to people who are commenting on posts made by the writer. Give them feedback on their comments and invite them to join the discussion on your forum.

Another option is to search for hashtags or keywords. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms allow you to search based on what other people are talking about, even if you are not friends with them. Once you run a search you can invite those people to join your group. You can even share your posts in other groups where people are discussing other writers. Invite them to check out the books you are reading and see if any of them are interested. There are plenty of ways to build up interaction and these are just a few that will help you to get started.

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We all wish we had more time to do stuff we love. We want to spend more time at the park or beach on weekends, but Saturday comes and we have errands to run, a house to clean and other responsibilities we need to take care of. We always say that next year things will be different, things are going to change, but it rarely does. Whether reading is a passion of yours or not, you need to be sure that you give it enough time throughout the week.  I live my life trying to save precious moments and fill in what I call The cracks of time, with something useful.

There are too many benefits of reading to ignore. It can help calm you and relieve stress, it keeps your mind sharp and you have a sense of accomplishment when you finish a book, helping boost your self-esteem. Furthermore, it creates a new area to interact with people who love the same books that you do. So in between work, errands, shopping for food, cooking food, paying bills, trying to get some exercise, seeing friends, watching movies and TV and more, where are you supposed to find the time to start reading? These are the best options throughout the day. Naturally, you will have a good excuse for why a couple of these times won’t work, but it’s worth trying some of the others.

In the morning: Waking up 20-30 minutes earlier is never a bad idea. You actually are not missing out on as much sleep as you think and you will not be in a rush when you wake up and get ready for work. The mornings are a great time for reading because it’s quiet and relaxing. Also, for a lot of people it is a time of mental clarity and creativity(at least after the first cup of coffee) and therefore a great time to read…or write.
On your lunch break: How many times a week do you eat lunch in the break area or go to a noisy, crowded restaurant? Instead, pack your lunch and find a quiet place to eat while reading. It can be a bench outside of the building, an empty room in the office or even your car. The white noise of the people coming and going actually makes a better than you’d expect environment to tune out of the real world and into the one a book can open up for you.
Right after work: Between work and your commute home it’s normal to feel a little stressed out when you get home. This is a great time to start reading because it will relax you and help you forget about the challenges of the day. Or even during your drive home if you are into audio books.
Always have a book with you during those times when you know you will have to wait, the doctor’s office, an airplane, the beach or pool, the tag office, basically any government office you have to interact with personally is almost guaranteed to produce an unwanted interim that could be filled with the pages of your favorite read.
Right before bed: Rather than watching television until you fall asleep, try giving yourself a half hour to jump into one of your favorite stories. Reading will lower your stress level and help you to get more comfortable before bed. It is also a wonderful tool to turn off the concerns of the day that tend to keep us awake. What better than another world?

Obviously everyone has different schedules and challenges each day. If you cannot find the time to read for a day or two that’s fine, but don’t give up on it. If you make reading a priority and keep a book with you, you will start to get back in the swing of it and get through books faster than you ever have before.

The post How To Make More Time For Reading appeared first on Jody Summers.

Writing a book is a fun experience. However, people sometimes forget the amount of work that goes into it. You have some characters, a story line and how to get from point A to point B. However, that’s not enough as you need to fill the story in with details and facts. This is where the real work is going to come in as you have to do your homework and research things that can be used in your content. If you are writing about a cowboy in Texas, you need to know what he would do throughout the day, what the terrain is like and so forth.

If you are writing about a young lady visiting Paris for the first time the same needs to be done. You need to know what sites she would see, what kind of experiences she would have and then work on incorporating all of that into your story. Here are a few things that have helped me improve my research habits before I put together a storyline:

Take lots of notes: If your book is 300 pages then your notes for writing it needs to be just as long or longer. You should have notes for every scene of your book, notes on each character including how they look, their motivation, what they think and more.
Don’t just use Google: Google is a great place to go for information but it’s not the only place to go. Just because you can search for information and pictures about a place doesn’t mean you know exactly what it’s like to be there. Find other sources of information to help pad your facts.
Be specific: Imagine if you were writing about a scene that occurs in the Eiffel You will want to know everything about the room the person is in, what they can see from a certain area, what the air smells like and so forth. You want the reader to feel like they are right there with the character and the more specific you are, the easier that will be for them.

As I begin to research a story, I remind myself that the more detail I put into it, the more enjoyable it will be for the reader. If I can put more facts into my content, it will mean more to the person reading it whether it’s about a specific place or the look and character of an individual. It’s the extra work that goes unnoticed but makes a story come alive.

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I don’t care if you’re writing a book, a blog or an email, writers block is real and it’s something that everyone goes through. I think writers block is worse now because we have so many distractions in our lives. Every time I try to sit down and write it seems like I have a phone call or text message. There’s always something to distract you and that’s just when you’re ready to write. Between work, family, responsibilities and other tasks that need to be completed, things can get overwhelming and the last thing you want to do is sit down at a computer and start typing. But if you want to get the pages done, you have to work at it. Here are the top 5 ways I’ve found to beat writers block:

Set goals: You have to be realistic when you get started. You are not going to write the entire draft in a day or even a week. It’s going to be a process and you are going to go back and make changes. Make sure you set realistic goals. I try to write 500 words a day every day. It’s a small goal but can translate to a new novel every ten months. And it’s not so large as to be intimidating. That’s fair and it will keep you motivated.
Walk and talk: Take a walk around your house, go outside and walk around the neighborhood, talk on the phone with a friend or even talk to yourself about the storyline. Talking it out is a great way to help add flow to the story and give yourself fresh ideas for when you return to the computer.
Distract yourself: Sometimes you focus too much on the story and it’s not a good thing. You need a mental break so sit down away from the computer and watch 30 min or an hour of your favorite TV show, something that makes you laugh and will distract you for a little bit.
Don’t eat or drink: Now to be clear, I’m not telling you to starve yourself. If you get home from work and you can choose between writing before or after dinner, always write before. When you eat, it immediately lowers your energy and ability to focus. So try to get some writing in before you eat.

Remember if you get stuck, avoid frustration and just give yourself a break. Sometimes that’s when the best ideas come up and you will be back to writing in no time.

The post 5 Ways To Beat Writers Block appeared first on Jody Summers.

To be clear, if you have an idea for a single book that you are passionate about, then write it. Don’t worry about stretching it out into a series if it doesn’t work. Put your best work out there because that’s the only way you will ever know if you can build up an audience with your work. However, if you have several ideas and you aren’t sure where to go with them, then a series is always the way to go.

As you start to jot down some ideas, remember what makes us all fall in love with longer stories:

People are more interested in series: If you have a great character or group, people want to learn more about them than you can tell in a single edition. They want to know what their experiences were, what made them the way they are now and what will happen to them in the future.
Gives you more ways to promote: When you have multiple stories, you have a unique way of promoting them because you can promote the first book as much as the 3rd or 4th. This allows you to increase your audience, even years after the first draft was completed. You also can offer deals like getting the third book free when you purchase the first and second ones.
They can develop a following: Again, people get attached to series because they can follow a character around from story to story. This gives your books time to build an audience as people hear about them from their friends or social media and have an interest in reading.
Easier to write: Writing any book has its challenges. However, when you are writing a series you already have one main character, as well as others, already figured out. Your story becomes more of their experiences and reconnecting them with the audience.

You should never write something with the expectations of it becoming a best-seller, a TV show or movie. Just writing it out is an accomplishment of which you can be proud. Don’t be afraid to bounce your ideas off friends, their input can help you develop the story even more and come up with something that people will love to read and follow. It’s not just about the story; it’s about the characters you are developing. Create ones that people can connect with and want to learn more about.

The post Why Writing A Series Is The Way To Go appeared first on Jody Summers.

If there’s one thing everyone can agree on about the digital age, it’s that it allows us to get information faster than ever. Whether that’s good or bad is up for debate but it certainly has its pros and cons. If you are trying to become a professional writer the good news is that you have so many channels to share your content with the public. The downside is that so does everyone else and you now have more competition than ever. It’s not just books, writers are able to share short stories, poems, blogs, articles and more, all with the goal of grabbing someone’s attention and to be noticed.

As you look to carve out a place for yourself in this digital world, here are some tips I have found useful that may help you along the way:

Keep writing: Promoting, researching, talking with fans and other responsibilities may take up the majority of your time but you have to keep writing. Whether you have a blog, want to just post something on your Facebook page or anything else, just keep pumping out content.
Old content is good content: Do you have a book or article you wrote 5 years ago? Share it, promote it, get more eyes on it. Just because it’s older doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value. It will be new to someone and it shows you’ve been doing this for a long time.
Be social: It’s understandable if you are not a fan of social media but you need to be on there. There are far too many benefits to it, especially as you try to build your name. However, make sure that you go the extra mile, there are tons of groups out there of readers who have a passion for your genre. Join those groups and interact with them. Their loyalty can make or break your success as an author.
Promote the competition: I once looked at other writers as competition until I realized that working together introduced me to a new audience. Every once in a while, if I am reading someone else’s book or article, I like to share it on social media. If someone has written something great, it doesn’t hurt to share it and they usually appreciate it enough that they recommend my content to their audience.

The digital age is evolving very quickly and everyday it seems like there’s something new that we have to learn about. Don’t look at it as a burden, look at it as an opportunity to expand your horizons and build your audience.

The post Writing In The Digital Age appeared first on Jody Summers.

One of the biggest challenges I faced when I got started as a writer was understanding the advantages that different tools gave me. For example, I wasn’t a big fan of social media but when I saw the way readers were interacting with me, I knew it was a platform I needed to be on. I wasn’t a big fan of blogging but it was recommended to me as another platform to connect with an audience and I decided to give it a try.

What I found was that it was more than just a way to connect with the audience, it was a way for me to take a though, an idea, a concept and share it with people. One of the things about writing a book I am not a fan of, and I’m sure I’m not the only one, is that there is no instant gratification. Patience is a virtue but we all want fast results. Blogging gives you that because it allows you to create something that quickly gets people talking. This is why I recommend it to new writers and once you get started, you will find that it:

Keeps you in touch with the audience: Your blog section can be a fun way to keep in communication with your audience. For example, you can write a blog about your experiences at certain book signings and let your readers know when you are having another one. It’s also a great tool to give you more content to share on social media, keeping your followers interested in your accounts.
Keeps you writing: One of the biggest problems I face is what to do in between the time I am writing books. I want to keep writing but I cannot jump from one book to the next. I need time to research, create storylines and promote my other work. A blog gives me the opportunity to keep writing without having to wait months or years for a response.
Allows you to branch out: It can be difficult to write different styles or genres. Once you find an audience that loves your work you want to keep sending them stuff they will want to read. Blogging gives you an outlet to try something new. You can write about politics, write a short story under a different genre or try something else out without having to devote too much time to it.

Keep something else in mind, it’s hard to get someone to actually buy and read an entire book. If you are routinely blogging, it’s easier for them to come across one of your blogs, read it and then take interest in your work. Writers have to produce consistent content if they want to build an audience. This is a great way to do it.

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One of the mistakes I made when my first book was published was that I focused too much on the masses. I wanted millions of people to see my work and because I focused on the many, I left myself little time for the few. It seems like a simple mistake but it’s one that can have a major impact on the success of your first book and your career as a writer.

Here’s the harsh reality when you complete your first work, you are not going to instantly get millions of downloads and purchases. It’s not going to happen because people are busy and they like recommendations. The majority of people who buy books now are ones who are recommended a book, either from a friend, a family member or a club they are in. That’s something that few young authors realize as they get started in this business and it’s a mistake I hope to spare you from.

Find time for your fans

It’s not that I was neglecting anyone. When someone who had read my book would message me, I would respond as quickly as I could. The mistake I made was that I wasn’t being more proactive in communicating with them. For a while, the only way I would speak to a reader would be if they contacted me directly. Later on I realized that you have to engage them, via social media, email and other avenues.

Be social

Without a doubt, social media is the easiest platform to keep in touch with your readers. You can inform them of a sale, show them an update on your new work, get feedback from them and so much more. I personally prefer Facebook over Twitter and Instagram but that’s because I find it easier to use and communicate with people. However, I’ve found advantages to each platform and that’s why I utilize each of them.

At the end of the day, all the efforts I worked on and money I put into marketing got me a lot of traffic and helped me build my brand. But what really got people to buy my books was the time I spent talking with them, telling them a little about the story and then their personal recommendation to friends, family and clubs they were in.

To any aspiring or new authors out there, my best advice is, no matter how challenging it may be for you, to be social and to be friendly when someone wants to talk about your work. No matter how busy you are, they can make or break you.

To the readers, thank you for your support, thank you for your time and thank you for your dedication!

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