Doing It Right by Sharon Hamilton

I was listening to an excellent podcast yesterday while cleaning my desk. She was speaking about voice and how a writer has to find hers. (By the way, I love listening to podcasts or audio books when I do something like that. Keeps me on task!) And, as often happens, the subject matter made me think about the things that are unique to each of us, as writers.

Every writer loves the feel of finding their own voice. We love it when readers find it and get us. It feels like a home run when you get those heart-felt letters.

But finding the right way to market yourself as a writer is a more difficult path. Once we have our voice, our subject matter and our story arc down, we go with that until it no longer calls to us. When that happens, we change up, alter our genres, do things to stimulate the muse back into position. Sort of like training a wild horse, I guess.

There are hundreds of ways to set up your business and get your name, your book out there. We are pitched things every day. We join loops with authors who give good advice. Sometimes that works for us, sometimes it doesn't. The bottom line is, just like an author's voice, there is no One Size Fits All when it comes to marketing and promotion. What one person says is a must do, is a non-starter for others.

What does an author do? Well, interestingly, when I thought about how I found my author voice, I just wrote until I found it. I listened to myself, to things I'd written. Set them down and looked at them later. And then I began to find my footing by trusting my own instinct. I could go by what judges and reviewers and editors said. All that information is valuable. But it didn't get my voice. I had to find that on my own. And yes, all that feedback helped me to discover that, but the major lifting was done on my end, not theirs.

So, when it comes to doing the activities we need to do to be successful, we have to find our own way. Like Michael Gerber said in e-Myth. How We Do It Here. That means, we take the advice of others, search what's available, and then MAKE OUR OWN DECISIONS. What a concept! Some of us don't think spending $5000 a month on ads to make $6000 in income is smart. Some of us don't think hiring expensive gurus who claim to have the secrets of success is smart. Some of us don't think we should listen to every author who has the magic pill. There are promotional sites, VAs and PAs - everyone has an opinion and a reason for those opinions. And sometimes they can be just dead wrong.

Notice I said we don't have to listen to everyone? We don't. Somehow we feel we have to try and listen and work our tails off or we're "doing it wrong" if our sales don't soar.

So who do we listen to? OURSELVES. We learn to trust ourselves, be our authentic selves, tell the truth, and give up worry. We just keep moving. We may not be the best-selling author out there, but we can be the hardest working author: hardest working for our fans, investing in our craft, understanding and being aware of trends and marketing, knowing who to reach out to and who to listen to.

AND WHEN TO SHUT IT ALL OUT. I'm telling you, the best thing I've done this year is TUNE OUT more than I've tuned in. Weeding and culling, triming down, and just writing and promoting. Those are my two jobs.

Success is a daily mindset, and only we control that one.

BOX SETS ARE GREAT FOR BUSINESS

There has been a trend steadily growing in the industry, which began with the Indie Girls who hit the market by storm some two years ago, to come out with box sets, where a group of authors put together an anthology, pool their resources. I mean, someone would have to be on another planet not to notice how popular this has become. But, is it profitable? Next week will mark the 5th boxed set I've done this year alone. Hot Alpha SEALS comes out next Tuesday.

The answer to this question is: it depends. In this day and age where adding more value for minimal cost is important, anthologies can be a way for a reader, especially a new reader in a particular genre (for instance, Military Romance), to try out a few author's voices, before deciding they want to return to this genre. Conveniently located in the back of each selection, are links to the author's other books. A reader doesn't have to like them all. But for a discounted price of say .99, all the reader has to like is two or three and it's worth it. However, most of the anthologies I've been in get 4 and 5 star ratings for the whole thing, not just one or two books. Having good reviews and links to the other authors' books does increase sales. And let's just all agree, you have to start with good authors and good books.

There is a chance that the anthology, like the SEALs Of Summer anthology did earlier this year, could hit a Times or USA list, which should lead to more sales of each of the author's books. Having that label means that you have sold a lot of books, like more than 25-28k copies, which is a huge number to hit. Very few authors hit these lists, especially the New York Times top sellers list with just a single book. Anthologies again pool resources to help make this happen for an author. And as in the example previously given, this is also very good for a reader to discover new authors.

Cross-pollination happens. We found this to be the case with the SEALed With A Kiss Anthology released during Valentine's Day week this year. A good reader for one author becomes a good reader for another. Let's face it, we can't write a book every month, but I do like the idea that my readers are being entertained, through the website, by other great authors. It is important to find other authors who play fair, who have similar values as far as work ethic. Remember, we're all about the playing fair. Just as in our SEAL Teams: Together Everyone Accomplishes More.

It also gave me courage to launch my own superbundle. It was great to hit lists in a collaboration with other authors, but I wanted to do it with my own works, and did so with The Ultimate SEAL Collection, putting the first 4 books and the 2 prequels in my SEAL Brotherhood Series together and sellling them for five days at a discounted price. At the current pricing, it still is a better deal to buy this package than to buy the individual books. But when it was discounted, and afterwards, has sold over 50,000 copies.

In between releases, I did Boxed Set #1 and Boxed Set #2 in my SEAL Brotherhood series, so I had something new to bring to the market. It helped me become discoverable and stay discoverable. Since these contributed to more sales, it's enabled me to stay in the Amazon top 100 for Romantic Suspense for nearly 18 months in a row.

Another added benefit is that I took these novellas, and turned them later into full length novels. The storyline had already been read and accepted, and now I asked readers to go on an additional journey with me for the full length book. Every book in an anthology I've done has become a full length novel later. The stories are usually altered slightly as well, so the full length book can be slightly different than the novella that inspired it.

I'm about to release these novellas in a package later this fall, which will be called my SEAL Shorts, for a branding I've seen other authors do. This will help readers find the full length books they want to invest in, as well as additional bonus material I'm working on: additional character sketches, discussions and ideas about the series.

My journey has been that yes, you have to write good books, but how you market and brand yourself is so important. What kind of support you ask from your Street Team, your fellow authors and the market in general, determines your ultimate success, not the writing alone.

NYT and USA/Today and Amazon Top 100 Bestselling Author Sharon Hamilton’s SEAL Brotherhood series have earned her Amazon author rankings of #1 in Romantic Suspense, Military Romance and Contemporary Romance. Her characters follow a sometimes rocky road to redemption through passion and true love. Her Golden Vampires of Tuscany earned her a #1 Amazon author ranking in Gothic Romance.

A lifelong organic vegetable and flower gardener, Sharon and her husband live in the Wine Country of Northern California, where most of her stories take place.

Sharon Hamilton

Life is one fool thing after another.

Love is two fool things after each other.

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