Hopefully you haven’t given up on your New Year resolutions already! During this month of resolving to do certain things you haven’t gotten to, or have been wanting to get to, we’ll get you started with resolutions tailored to the ambitious writer.
- Business cards. You don’t have to wait to be published to start marketing yourself. Print professional business cards, and use them to self-promote as you progress through your writing.
- Make yourself accessible. Make sure there are plenty of ways for people to reach out to you – phone, snail mail, email, social media, etc. This will prove vital, even long before your book is finished.
- Find your platform. If you don’t already have a writer “identity” on social media, get going on that. This should be separate from your regular social media pages. It’s a great space for you to poll potential readers, gauge interest in your project and pre-promote it.
- Research your market. Resolve to learn all you can about your chosen genre. Now, while you’re still developing your project, is the perfect time to find out what’s big and what’s burgeoning on the book market so your work will be timely when it’s finally done.
- Explore other writing formats. Resolve to get out of your writing ruts. If you’re only writing book chapters, break away once in a while to write a blog. Post creatively on Twitter. Write your spouse a juicy love letter. These all round you out as a creative force.
- Do advance promotion. Social media is the perfect place to get people excited about your progress. Resolve to post something daily: excerpts, reader polls, opinion on plotlines and insight into your process.
- Go NaNo. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), is a writing challenge that takes place throughout the month of November each year. The contest challenges writers to produce 50,000 words in 30 days. Many a novel has come to fruition only because of NaNoWriMo. Sign-ups start in October, so resolve to get on board this year.
- Connect with beta readers. Resolve to enlist the help of beta readers to help you polish your book. Beta readers are avid bookworms who review your work and give you valuable feedback from a book buyer’s perspective. You can get help with individual chapters or your entire book.
- Go “ghost” hunting. If you’ve come to the conclusion that a book is too big of a project for you, resolve to get help. A ghostwriter can write everything from small edits to entire passages and chapters to a full book from scratch.
- Get advice. If you’re unsure of your path, Outskirts Press has a staff of experienced book gurus who can advise you on how to proceed. Even if you’re not done writing, an assistant may be able to offer you advice or services that you didn’t know were available to you – assistance that could get your book to market much sooner and with much greater success.
- Learn new things. Resolve to expand your horizons with new hobbies and interests. You learn from everything you try – and that makes for a well-rounded individual and writer.
- Find inspiration. Something as simple as a short walk, your favorite rock album or a trip to a museum can be just the spark you need to get creative juices flowing. Resolve to build in little inspirations once a week to ignite that spark.
- Back up often. Don’t lose valuable data that could set you back. Resolve to back up important files to a cloud service or external hard drive so you’ll never lose data – and you’ll sleep better at night.
- Enter contests. Short story contests, essay contests, poetry contests – they all validate us as writers. Resolve to enter a competition at least several times a year to keep you writing and maybe even win some money!
- Get more shut-eye. Yeah, it’s that simple. And get more exercise too. Taking care of your health has a way of bringing you confidence and making you sharper – both traits that will help you achieve your goals and keep your resolutions.
- Be yourself. Resolve to make your writing personal to you. Sure, you may love how Poe words things, but you have a unique voice too. Remind yourself before each writing session that you’re special and unique. And then write what comes naturally.
- Relax! Building in time for decompression. You’ve earned it!
It’s time to either start or finish that writing project and get published! Not sure how to get this completed? Let Outskirts Press help you!
| START PUBLISHING & GET 3 TIMES MORE FREE AUTHOR COPIES! |
For a limited time, receive THREE TIMES the author copies for FREE! Outskirts Press self-publishing authors are eligible to receive three times as many free author copies with their respective self-publishing package.
To receive the promotion, simply enter the promotion code 3XJAN15 when checking out of your shopping cart while purchasing the Diamond or Pearl publishing package by January 31, 2015. Each of the eligible publishing packages includes a unique ISBN, standard interior formatting, a variety of professional cover styles, and distribution which includes availability through major online retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
For authors choosing the most popular “Diamond” publishing package, this promotion delivers 30 free paperback author copies when the book is published. Authors publishing full-color books with the popular “Pearl” package can receive 15 free paperback copies.
In addition to receiving a 3 times the author copies, you’ll also receive the following with your Diamond package:
- Standard Press Release. $99 value included free when you order your Diamond publishing service today.
- Audio Excerpt. $99 value included free with your Diamond order today and a great way to share your voice with your readers, literally!
- E-Book Edition (pdf). $99 value included free with your Diamond publishing service.
- Cover Image. $99 value included free and a great way to enhance your cover.
- Spring Arbor additional distribution. $99 value to complement the Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Ingram availability already included with your Diamond publishing service.
All in all, you’re looking at over $500 of free stuff in January!
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| TOP 5 PUBLISHING HEADLINES |
- Enter the new year with three times as many free author copies for author’s self-publishing with Outskirts Press
- Resolutions for 2015 that every author should make
- Top 10 best-selling in self-publishing for November 2014
- Top 5 marketing options for self-publishing authors in 2014
- Get your book started – or finished – in 2015 with help from a professional ghostwriter
| AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT & SUCCESS STORY |
“I was overwhelmed with how quickly the process went. The support has been simply amazing! Developing an understanding of the requirements to be a successful author are daunting, but through every step their guidance has kept my focus sharp. They really want to see their authors succeed! My experience with Outskirts Press has been both friendly and efficient. Kudos!”
Eric A. Disney is a Recovery and Personal Growth pastor in Southern California, where he has served for two decades. He is a counseling psychology graduate from California Baptist University in Riverside, California. His ministry offers a broad range of marriage, family, and relationship counseling classes and seminars.
Marriage by Design serves as a healing salve to wounded marriages-as well as a warning to those beginning their matrimonial journey, and couples anywhere in the spectrum-offering hope and encouragement to those who want to revitalize, refine, or completely restore their relationships. Marriage by Design is loaded with practical tools and exercises designed to shed light on unhealthy modes of behavior and their motivations; it also challenges some of the beliefs we carry from childhood that can impact our current relationships. Marriage by Design begins by establishing God’s foundation in marriage and moving through a systematic building process, enabling couples to apply scriptural-based techniques and concepts to their own marriages.
– Eric A. Disney, author of Marriage By Design
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