Jessica Russell's Blog - Posts Tagged "readers"

There is an amazing number of posts everywhere you look concerning all sorts of "critical" do's and don'ts that will supposedly make or break a new author. Here is the actual truth: SOME things literally only matter to editors. I have nothing against editors, they're doing their job. However, the Oxford comma, opening a chapter with weather, using "smiling" words or sneaking in a split infinitive are not things that any reader anywhere, to the best of my knowledge, has EVER cared about. Proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation are important. Beyond that, there's no reason to drive yourself crazy with all kinds of nitpicky nonsense because you're convinced that the "experts" will find flaws in your writing. All books need editing and proofreading, but ultimately, you are not selling your book to editors, you're selling it to READERS. And readers don't care about the Oxford comma. Readers care whether or not the darn story is any good. Focus on weaving a good tale and when it comes to whether or not to use a semicolon, take a nice deep breath, flip a coin, and keep writing. :)

Many newly published writers often focus on networking with other authors once they are selling books. This is definitely a worthwhile endeavor, but it's essential to remember that you have to also connect with READERS, or all this networking will not do much to boost sales and get you reviews.

I am connected with a lot of other writers, and I would NEVER want to lose those associations, because we understand each other in a way that other people cannot. Nevertheless, if we lose sight of attracting READERS to our sites and pages, we're missing out on potential new fans.

Make sure to strike a balance. Never stop networking with other authors and novelists, but also join groups and pages of bookworms, book club fans, and other people who you know are interested in reading. This will yield a bigger return than you think!

The term that means everything and nothing. Networking. It's important for sure. We all know THAT. But what does it mean exactly? Hmmm. Nobody really knows. Here's why. Networking, in reality, probably means something different to every person and no two "networks" are the same.

One BROAD definition of networking is "the action or process of interacting with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts."

So... Some people network to climb socially, some network to get clients, some network to sell something. However, there are what you might call "subdivisions." For example, for networking to sell something, you want to make sure you’re hitting the right demographic for the product you want to move. If, like me, you network at times to promote your novel, you want to network with the people who (drumroll) might enjoy that type of book. Not just book lovers in general. If you get too general, you waste a lot of time.)

Figure out the demographic, and half the battle is won.

The rest is just being a sociable person and being able to talk to people, be likable–even on those days you don’t feel like it–and subtly bring up your book (or the reason you are networking) WITHOUT OVERDOING IT. That way, if the person is interested, you may get a new reader, client etc., and if not, you may at least have a new business associate or even a friend–can always use another of THOSE. But either way it’s a win-win as long as you know who to target.

So be careful if you are just following a "they say you should" formula that might not be what you need. I wrote historical fiction, murder-mystery/romance. The fan base I want to build isn't going to be the same as that of a 25 year old who released a fantasy novel set in 2066. My demographic is primarily women–even though my book isn't a fluffy romance–but overall, I target women between 28-70, because stats show that's the primary demo for my novel.

Well, the moral of the story is...network in a way that will get you in touch, in any way, with the people most likely to be interested in what you want to share. It sounds simple, but when you sit down and work it out, you may find that you’ve been wasting a lot of time on “connecting” with people who don’t really share any interest in what you are promoting. Really scrutinize it, fine tune your market and you will get a lot more yield for a lot less blood, sweat and tears.

It sounds like a great idea. “I’ll follow you if you follow me.” Now before anyone misunderstands me, I didn’t say there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, it can be a lot of fun. Where it goes wrong is when writers start thinking that getting a lot of followers will automatically propel them into the limelight. Of course it’s important to have people follow you and your page, but you are not accomplishing all that much unless the person is truly interested in what your page is all about. This is particularly true if you’re a writer who is primarily targeting other authors. They will do it to get a follow themselves, just like you, but if neither one of you ever looks at the other person’s page it didn’t really accomplish anything. It’s just an artificial inflation of numbers.

Taking the long road is not as easy, but it will definitely yield better results. Target a market of READERS as opposed to other authors–or both–and make sure you are targeting people who are interested in your genre. Someone who is into sci-fi and comic books is not necessarily going to be interested in historical fiction or romance. If someone’s main thing is true crime, it’s doubtful they’ll be reading children’s books anytime soon. It just depends on what you’re selling and who’s interested in it. If you keep those things in mind, it will be easier than you think to pinpoint your market and then people will follow because they’re actually interested in what’s on your page, as opposed to a simple swap. Admit it, it makes sense. Rock on!

For decades mailing lists have been touted as a top way to sell anything. Not surprisingly, many people say this is also true concerning books. If you’re an author who released a novel in the last year or so, you probably have some kind of reader mailing list built up, and I’m sure you used it to advertise your book. I also have a hunch you might’ve been a little bit surprised with the lackluster results. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that mailing lists are useless. A contact is a contact is a contact. However, don’t delude yourself into thinking that building a massive mailing list is the solution to every advertising/sales problem you have. It’s not.

To prove my point, think about how many things you willingly signed up for and then take note of how many times you actually read what you receive from that particular merchant. More to the point, how many times do you ever actually make a purchase on impulse from an email solicitation? And these are typically vendors that you signed up with.

After all, most people don’t get unsolicited emails. Usually at some point you had signed up for SOMETHING in order to get on that person’s list. But how interested were you? Maybe you signed up because you couldn’t advance further on the website without giving an email. Maybe you couldn’t make a comment on something unless you created an account, and then bingo, your name was sold to other merchants. There’s a million reasons you might be on a mailing list, but when you look at the volume of inbox pieces you get every day, versus the ones you actually read, and even fewer, the ones you actually make a purchase from, I bet it’s a minuscule minority.

Unfortunately, that’s the same way it works with reader lists. You may have hundreds or even thousands of email addresses from people who read books, but when you did your big email blast after your book launch, how many sales actually tracked back to that list? If you got a lot, then stick with it, it’s working for you! But if you didn’t, focus on a different type of advertising.

The bottom line is, growing a list just to say you have a big list doesn’t do anything to advance your career unless the people on the list are buying your book. So go look at your email stats and see if it’s worth it to continue frantically collecting emails or if it would be better to move on to a different type of advertising. Just food for thought. Write on!

If you are an unknown author and spending money on advertising, here is some invaluable advice. When you're shopping for companies that offer legitimate reviews by readers who are genuinely interested in your book, ask these questions:

• Where are they located
• What is the members’ average age, and which genre are they interested in

It may not seem like these things have anything to do with the quality of the service, but they do. First of all, if your book is going to be offered to people worldwide, you must make sure that there are enough members of the community who speak fluent English (or whatever language your book is written in) so that you can be sure of getting accurate reviews.

Age is also important, because depending on your genre, the company may not be able to get anyone interested in reading your book. That recently happened to me when I did a secret shop: my book is historical fiction. It’s a murder mystery/romance set in 1600s England, and it is definitely not a Beach Read. Rather than being heavy on sex and weak on plot, it’s the exact opposite. It’s heavy on the plot and character development and it’s full of historical facts.

For this reason, my demographic is typically people 35 years of age or older who live in the UK or America. This ensures that they are mature enough to be interested in the book and can fluently read it in the language it is written in. Naturally, there are people all over the world who speak English, but if your book is written in English, you’re better off marketing to America and the UK simply because there will be a greater number of English speakers in those areas.

The Independent Author market has been flooded with fantasy and science fiction over the past 10 years. For this reason, many “review services” have communities made up of young adults who are interested in this type of book. That’s fantastic if that’s what you’ve written. For someone like me, it equates to spending a lot of money to get very little interest and not many reviews. So always check with the company to determine if they have members who are interested in your genre, whatever it may be.

I recently had a disastrous experience with the review service that I did the secret shop on. I found out to my dismay that the company was located in Egypt. Well, it was no small wonder that they couldn’t get much interest in my book. I wouldn’t choose a book either if it was in a language I didn’t speak! That’s not the members’ fault, that’s the person’s fault who signed me up for not disclosing that the company was located overseas. So asking those two simple questions can help immensely when you’re searching for legitimate review services. Find out if your book will be offered to the appropriate demographic and find out the location of the company before you dive in! Write on.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back to life. Curiosity is the biggest thing new authors have going for them. If you can get someone curious about your novel, chances are you can get them to read it. Summaries are extremely important, as well, because they tell potential readers the primary storyline, which usually tells them whether or not it’s the type of book in which they would be interested. However, the summary won’t help you much if nobody reads it.

It’s important to understand how you GET them to the summary. The two things that make people stop and read a summary are the book’s title and the book’s cover. Yes. After all that hard work, blood, sweat and tears, it comes down to those two things.

They are also the two things that most new writers make mistakes with.

Covers and titles are an art form. No matter how many different approaches there are, both the title and the cover need to do two things: make the book stand out, and make potential readers say “I wonder what THAT means?” If those two things happen, they’ll likely move on to the summary, and if the summary is written well, they’re far more likely to buy the book.

Especially for authors who are not yet well known, covers have to be eye-catching. Not eye-catching in a garish, overly busy way, but eye-catching in a way that makes you want to keep looking.

Bland covers subconsciously tell readers that the book will also be bland. Many times, bland covers fail to catch the reader’s eye at all, and their eyes simply land on a book that DOES have a striking cover. This is also true with titles. The latter should peak readers' curiosity and put a question mark in their mind. Boring titles are the kiss of death.

One of my favorite books, “A Perfect Evil” by E.C. Sheedy got my attention because of the cover and the title, and the rest was history. The cover depicted a girl pulling the curtains back to look through a window, but all that appeared to be on the other side was a blinding white light. At least that was my perception. Guess what I said? “I wonder what THAT means?” The title, of course, speaks for itself.

One of my favorite old Victoria Holt novels “The Witch from the Sea” depicted a girl in what appeared to be the 1600s racing down a rocky shoreline in the midst of a thunderstorm, and there was a ship crashing onto the rocks not far from her. It made me very curious, so I got the book, and she became one of my favorite authors of all times.

Sounds oversimplified, but it’s a proven fact. After all that effort to create a great novel, if you miss on the title and the cover, readers just might miss you! Write on!

A common mistake made by many writers is allowing characters to step OUT of character. Whether it’s a book, a film, a play, or any other creative work, if it involves characters, they need to be consistent.

A well-known author who wrote many good books in the past has recently begun irritating her readers by turning out novels in which the characters start out one way, but along the line morph into something completely different.

I won’t say the author’s name, but the pattern has been quite repetitive of late: the leading character starts out as a strong, independent, intelligent woman who knows her own mind, but after meeting a man– a man who is not even all that likable – she becomes…well…a ditz. She becomes a woman who has no self-confidence, who is emotionally lost and unable to make up her mind about the smallest things and does not seem to realize that if a man is abusive, she should probably leave the relationship. WHAT?

In real life, people don’t suddenly lose IQ points or undergo a complete metamorphosis of personality after a few dates with a new man. When you change characters that radically, you greatly annoy your readers, and your book is at risk for the dreaded DNF. (Did Not Finish…as in did not finish the book.)

Character development is one of the most important aspects of writing a good novel, so pay very close attention to exactly who your character is and what is in line with his or her personality. It’s not that you can’t make someone in your novel do something that’s uncharacteristic for him or her, but you need to explain why it happened in some kind of way.

However, if you confuse your readers with too much uncharacteristic behavior, and they don’t know who the person is anymore, they probably won’t care what happens to him or her, and that is the kiss of death when you want them to continue with the story.

Ask yourself this as you go along: “is that what (fill in your character’s name) would really say or do?” If it seems out of line with the personality you've given him or her, scrap that part and start over. Consistency is key where characters are concerned! Write on!

I know that I’m going to get a lot of flak for this post. Therefore, if you’re the type of person who cannot read something you disagree with without getting enraged, then I humbly request that you stop reading now.
I see so many people on Twitter and other social media sites declaring that they are doing a “writers lift” or a “shameless self promo” and they call for authors to drop the links to their books, which they do by the score. I appreciate what these people are trying to do, but mentally I am screaming “what’s the point?”

That’s because, unfortunately, the primary people who are going to see those links are other unknown authors. Well, I’m not including myself, because I buy, read and review a lot of work by unknown writers, but most of us don’t. In fact, unknown authors are the absolute worst when it comes to turning up their noses at works by other unknown writers.

Most do the very thing they don’t want done to them. They say to themselves “how good could it be? it’s an unknown author.”

With regard to promotions, it’s just as important to find out what DOESN’T work as it is to figure out what DOES. Advertising your book to other writers who are struggling to become known is probably, in my humble opinion, a major waste of time. You need to get your book in front of readers who are willing to take a chance on a new author.

It’s far better to join groups and network with book lovers in general, or groups of readers who enjoy your specific genre. Those are great places to drop your link for a bit of exposure.

Of course, to get serious traction, you do have to spend money on advertising. Where you do the advertising depends on various factors, such as your personal budget, and the demographic you hope to reach. However, advertising your book to other writers who are focused on advertising THEIR books is not really the best place for your time and effort. It’s not about how many people you reach, it’s about reaching the ones who will actually buy, read and hopefully review your book. Write on!

One of the first things people tell newly published authors is to get their book on every social media site on the planet. Well, I’m not saying this is bad advice, but something that, in my humble opinion, gets overlooked significantly, is pinpointing your demographic and focusing on the social media sites where that demographic is likely to be on a regular basis.


In other words, instead of spreading yourself so thin over every social media site in existence– and wearing yourself out keeping up with it all– it might be better to research where the demographic for your book actually hangs out. If you’re writing fantasy and sci-fi, you have a broad audience, but those genres are extremely popular with younger people right now. Therefore, if you want to target readers in their late teens and early 20s, Instagram, Pinterest, MeWe, Tumblr, Tiktok, etc, are great options.


If you write historical fiction, suspense, crime dramas, self-help manuals, business related works, you may find more of your demographic on Facebook, Twitter or even LinkedIn.


Naturally, before anyone feels the need to make the point, readers do not always fit neatly into profiles and there is no way to know exactly where you might find a new fan. However, there is a lot to be said for patterns, and statistically, the patterns show that certain age groups gravitate more to some social media platforms than others.

If you have the time and energy to advertise in ALL of them, then go for it! However, if you have limited time or you plan to spend money on ads, it is a good idea to research and hone in on a handful of your best choices, rather than spread yourself too thin! Write on!