VIP with Dominique; Always Leave a Calling Card

Here’s the last VIP with Dominique that follows a snippet of Your Daily Literary Talk. It’s good to get all around inspiration for your literary career. Sign up for our newsletters today!

When a professional comes to your home or office to do a job, they always leave a business card in case you need to contact them again. This is something all authors should do themselves.

Leaving a calling is anything that reminds the person you are talking to about you. A calling card could be an actual business card. It could be a flyer or even your signature in an email with a link back to you. It can also be something you said, something memorable. Some people walk away from conventions with ten business cards but only one stands out because it was simply something that person said.

Always leave a calling card.

Have business cards available wherever you go. Have a signature on all of your email address with links back to you and how to purchase your books. Sign things a certain way so that your signature stands out. This calling card will follow you. Make it something people will remember.

Today, find ways that you can create a calling card. Not just one, but many. What ways can you get the attention of people you come in contact with? In a decent way of course J

This is part of marketing. Marketing can be creative. So get creative in the way you promote yourself.

Signing Off,

Dominique

 

VIP with Dominique; Know your Publishing Path before your decide to Publish

I hope that you all are enjoying the VIP with Dominique Segments I have going on this month. Be sure to sign up for our newsletters if you are not getting the daily inspiration. Here is another article that will mirror my little inspirations in “Your Daily Literary Talk”

Most of us know when we are writing the book that we are going to publish…eventually. It is at this point that we should know exactly how we plan to publish.

If you are familiar with my Publishing Season articles, you know about determining your publishing path, and yes there are several ways to publish such as self publishing, traditional publishing, and ebook publishing. Before you are ready to publish, you should know which way you are going to go.

Remember that what one author did may not work for you. So you are going to have to get down and research. Know what target market you will be targeting. Then find out how they are buying. Do they mostly buy paperbacks? Do they prefer ebooks? Is this genre filled with people who want perfection? Find out all of this information before you are ready to publish.

Once you know your publishing path, push forward with it.

One mistake that many authors make is that they jump around. They start with finding an editor, then they build a website then they think about how they want to publish the book. Take the necessary steps in order before you start planting seeds.

Start by building a website, build your name. By now you should already be writing the book. In the middle of writing the book, look for an editor and determine your publishing path. Once you know your publishing path and believe you are ready, it is now time to find a publishing company to meet your needs.

Know your Publishing Path before you decide to publish

Signing Off,

Dominique

 

VIP with Dominique; Business Sense

For the next few Friday’s I will be talking about topics you will probably have heard of before. I’ve given snippets of them in “Your Daily Literary Talk” newsletters that come out Monday-Friday. These newsletters help authors and writers with the many questions they have. They give advice and tips on various topics around the literary field. Sign up for the newsletters here!

It is important to have a business sense. Not every writer knows how to edit. Many authors simply write the book and pass it off to the editor. But if you are going to be a successful author, you must have business sense. You must know how to do all of the “business” things that come with being an author.

One thing you must know is you must know how to edit. I don’t mean be a professional editor. I mean being able to read over your work once or twice and find minor mistakes.

You must also know about publishing. Whichever way you decide to publish your book, you must know the ends and outs for publishing. You should know what publishers expect, how to submit queries, how to handle distribution and packaging. Even if you don’t do it yourself, you should still know how to do it.

You should also know how to market your work. You may not be a professional promoter but you still need to know how to do it. We do it every day on facebook and twitter. You have to have some kind of sense on how to promote, right?

If you have a team that editors for you, promotes for you, publishers for you, you still need to have some type of sense on what they are doing. Do not depend on a team to make you successful. They see dollar signs, not you or your work. They may have the expertise to get the job done but the heart and soul of the project lies with you. Only you can make your book as successful as it will be. So have business sense. Know every area there is to know about your work.

Signing Off,

Dominique

 

VIP with Dominique; Plan for Delays

I am currently promoting the pre release of my next book Love’s Deception. The book does not come out until January 4^th, 2013 but I have been promoting it since October. A lot of people think this is way too far out but I think this amount of time to promote is perfect.

I sent my book to my editor at the end of September. He told me it would take him four weeks to edit my book. Well it’s now December and I still haven’t gotten it back. Am I worried? Not at all. Things happen. People actually live lives that do get complicated at times. It’s important to plan for delays.

A reader does not want to anticipate a book to come on a specific date to only have the book pushed back several times. Anything can happen in between the time you are ready to promote the book and the time the book is supposed to drop. Plan for delays. Plan for the cover to have to be redone. Plan for you to do a re-write which could take weeks. Plan for these things.

When you start promoting keep in mind that your audience is waiting and expecting. On November 26^th, 2012 Michael Connelly released his book The Black Box. I’ve been waiting on this book for months. If November 26^th, 2012 came and he said I’m sorry people but the book won’t be out until a little later, I’d be upset.

We aim to please our readers. Deliver them a good read…on time. Plan for delays!

Straight from the DIVA

 

VIP with Dominique; Having a plan when releasing a book

Releasing a new book is always fun. I love getting the cover made, getting it edited, promoting it. I love when my readers see the information about an upcoming book. It excites me when they get excited. But authors, all authors should know that excitement is not what gets us through publishing a book. It’s money.

Whether you self publish or publish through a publishing company publishing a book costs money especially if you self publish. You are doing all the work. When publishing through a company promoting your book still costs money because most publishing companies don’t pay for everything and if you are a big time author, you have to pay your team (publicist, road manager etc) Releasing a book costs money.

In order to get through these tough times, right before you are ready to publish the book, start saving. Put aside a certain amount of money that is for your book release and promotion only and don’t exceed that amount. Discipline yourself. One thing I always tell authors is that when you write and publish a book you want to make money. Don’t invest more than what you will get back. You always want to make a profit. If it’s not going to make you a profit then it’s not worth it. Your book could land in the right hands for free. Things happen! Have a plan and stick to it!

Signing Off,

Dominique

 

 

VIP with Dominique; Profiling your Character

Character profiling has become very…electronic. Many people when doing character profiles get out a pen and notebook, create names and people filling up the pages with information about the people in their book. I too have been guilty of this way of creating a book. But as of lately, I’ve become very fond of the electronic way.

On my iPad, I’ve found apps that allow me to create my novel. I don’t have to get out a pen and paper. I can simply pull up my app and the app asks questions pertaining to my story and before you know it my book is coming alive. All I have to do is write it.

I call myself the old school reader and I still even like to write the old school way. But for an organized personal like me having these apps help.

There are not too many people who don’t have smart phones. I have not come across a person recently that didn’t have a smart phone or some smart electronic device that allows them to download things. If you are looking for a new and exciting way to do your character profiling, checkout the apps your phone or device provides. When building your next best seller it can be a lot of fun. Some authors never change up how they create a book…but as I always say…there’s nothing wrong with change.

Signing Off,

Dominique

 

VIP with Dominique; What is Character Profiling?

The dictionary says that profiling is the use of specific characteristics, as race or age, to make generalizations about a person, as whether he or she may be engaged in illegal activity.

Character profiling is the same thing. We watch these crime shows that profile serial killers. In order to know the killers next move, the detectives  must know them inside and out. So they profile the killers. Same thing with creating a character; one must know who are they writing about before they write the story. A detective could not go out looking for a killer just because he killed someone. He must know his background. He needs somewhere to start.  So they bring in an expert to profile this killer.

Profiling your character is all the same. Sometimes we place people (characters) in situations that don’t suit them. If the character isn’t right, it will show. Dissect your character, profile them and build them into who they need to be for your book.

Let me help you profile your character. Now taking clients: www.literarycareermoves.com

Signing Off,

Dominique