MARKETING'S 4 P's AS IT RELATES TO BOOKS

An excerpt from my guest blog post for Midwest Writing Center's Blog:

In marketing, we talk about the 4 P’s: place, price, product, and promotion. This is just a simplified way to plan out how to promote any product, including a book. Place is where you will sell your book, more commonly known in the book-world as distribution. Price is how much you will charge for your book, but also encompasses determining if readers will pay that price. Product involves more than just your book’s title, but also includes, among other things, its genre, length, and ideal reader. Finally, promotion is figuring out how to tell people about your book.

To learn more about how to apply these 4 P’s to your book as well as other marketing tips, please attend my workshop from 10 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. at MWC’s March 22^nd Pen In Hand Mini Writing Conference (Yes, it's tomorrow - but if you're in the Davenport, Iowa, area - you're still welcome!). In this workshop, you will learn how to create a basic marketing plan so you can take focused action to try to get you book into readers’ – and buyers’ – hands. We’ll cover the four P’s (place, price, product, and promotion), the 5th P (people), holding giveaways, using social media, and setting up appearances.

Click here to learn about moreabout Pen In Hand. Call 563-324-1410 or email mwc@midwestwritingcenter.org to register. Or just show up on the 3rd floor of Bucktown at 225 E. 2nd Street in Downtown Davenport, Iowa.

To the 4 Ps!

-The Wordsy Woman

PREPARING TO HELP ANOTHER GROUP SAY WHAT THEY WANT TO SAY

Next week, I embark on a 6-session Beginning Creative Writing workshop series with the Midwest Writing Center. This morning, as I prepared my presentation, I wondered about the people who would courageously embark on the writing journey with me. We have sent information and offered discounts to senior centers and retirement community residents, so I hope there will be some grandparents who will be able to pass on their legacies. But, will they do it through fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction? I'm anxious to find out.

The goal of the first session on March 12th is just to encourage them and get them writing. We'll talk about getting into a writing routine and making time to write, even making writing appointments with ourselves. I plan a listing exercise so when they do sit down to write, they will never be at a loss for what to write about. We'll end by talking about free writing, doing a timed free write of our own so they can walk away, already, with words in print.

After that will depend on the group dynamics and what they want to write about. Whatever it ends up being, my goal is, at the end of the series when it wraps up in May, they will have at least started to say what they want to say, whatever that may be.

Happy Writing!
-the Wordsy Woman

MY OLD NEW PUBLISHED WORDS ARE FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME

For the first time in the history of the Wordsy Woman blog, I'm posting two days early to give you plenty of time to get The Midwest Writing Center's Creative Writing Primer FREE on Amazon.com from now until 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, June 29th (the days of MWC's David R. Collins 2013 Writers' Conference).

Here's my original post marking the release of the Primer a year ago:

The Midwest Writing Center and 918 Studio teamed up to publish MWC Press' first ebook. "The Creative Writing Primer" is a collaboration of essays about various aspects of creative writing, including by yours truly. I have two entries in the work: "Writing as Creative Practice" and "Techniques in Poetry."

Midwest Writing Center is a non-profit organization which is dear to my heart. Its sole mission is "fostering appreciation of the written word, supporting and educating its creators." MWC has helped me immensely as a writer from learning opportunities to helping other writers to organizing events to building my portfolio.


"The Creative Writing Primer" ebook is available in Kindle, iPad,and Nook formats for a steal at $1.99. The entire profit, which amounts to roughly $1.65 after PayPal fees, directly benefits MWC, allowing them to further their mission and provide all of their services and events for writers and readers.


Be sure to get your free copy before time runs out!
-The Wordsy Woman

CONFERENCE PREPARATIONS

Next week is the Midwest Writing Center's annual David R. Collins Writers' Conference held at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. Because of my involvement with MWC, I am intimately involved with this high quality, high value conference offering three-day workshops on a variety of writing topics.

This year, MWC is offering an unprecedented eight total workshops and I had a very hard time choosing which I wanted to take. I know each of them will have something valuable I can immediately apply to my writing; however, at this point in my writing life, I know, deep down, that what will help my writing the most is just sitting my butt down at my computer and doing it. So, what will I do? I'm compromising.

I've signed up for one of the last workshops of the day: The Novel as a Machine of Desire. It is being led by Amy Hassinger who has written several highly acclaimed and award winning novels. Plus, she's written a history textbook. The workshop promises a study of novels from the slant of character desire with work on novels-in-progress. In my current novel, I am having extreme trouble staying true to my characters' natures while also inserting elements of surprise. I'm hoping the workshop will help.

To satisfy my writing practice need, I'm planning to work on my novel at home in the mornings until ten or so. And then to help with the conference, I'm going to volunteer my time from about 11 a.m. until my workshop starts at 3:30 p.m. I'll be filling in at the registration table when MWC's Executive Director is at his workshop, introducing instructors, and just filling in where I'm needed.

It will be like a three-day writing vacation! I'm so excited. Three days of writing, learning, and interaction with some of my favorite types of people - WORD People.

Have you had any awesome writers' conference experiences or insights on how to make the most of one? Please feel free to comment below.

Happy conferencing!
The Wordsy Woman

ADVENTURES IN CREATIVE WRITING - WEEK SIX

The bulk of the Center for Active Seniors, Inc. and Midwest Writing Center series of creative writing classes is over. The first three weeks we covered creative writing basics: getting into a writing practice, types of creative writing, and creative writing elements such as energy, insight, etc.

This past few weeks I enjoyed a nice break while speakers took over for me. December 4th, Lilly Setterdahl, author of sixteen books including two historical novels talked about nonfiction. Lilly shared her fascinating life story of growing up in Sweden after World War II. We learned when writing a memoir, it's helpful to group stories by subject rather than chronologically, include everything you remember, and insert pictures wherever possible. We also learned all of us have interesting stories which can be learned from, even if they are just shared with family members and future generations.

On December 11th, Dick Stahl joined us to talk about poetry. Many of his poems are autobiographical and we were encouraged to look inside ourselves and our own memories for poetry. Dick made experiencing poetry accessible and writing poetry less mythical. He shared many insights into poetry through others' quotes, including Roald Tweet's telling, "What?    Of course." If someone says this after reading a poem, the work has done its job. Dick also used fortune cookies to do a fun poetry prompt with us; I am definitely stealing that idea.

This week, Jon Riplinger, retired English teacher and author of several young adult novels joined us to talk about fiction. Jon shared his journey through finding an agent, getting published, having the agent drop his genre, finding a new agent, finding a new publisher, having the publisher go bankrupt, and finding another publisher. And dozens of revisions. He showed us that novel writing is not an easy or quick process but if you love the process, as he does, it is still worthwhile.

After a holiday break, we'll meet again to talk about editing, revision, and the publication process. I've enjoyed leading the class even more than I thought I would. And along with the attendees, I've immensely enjoyed our guests. I'm looking forward to a new session starting in February and I'm hoping to tweak it enough with more in-class writing that the current participants will be back.

Happy Holidays!

From The Wordsy Woman