Writers, connect with your readers already!

Please pardon me for shouting, but I will shout it here once more. WRITERS, CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS ALREADY!!! It's easier than ever, with the million gazillion social media networks out there. Still not convinced to get on Twitter, and Pinterest, and Google+? (I'm assuming you're on Facebook already). Why not? The benefits are huge. Let's use me as a sorry lab rabbit here. A year ago, I started out by quitting my career to write full time. Who am I? A nobody. What do I do? I write fantasy books, but sorta twisted sick dark fantasy, a little over the top with descriptions fantasy, and fantasy that is very green, meaning, I'm a young writer, a newbie, and I don't yet know how to properly write novels or fantasy, still learning. So who in the world would read my stuff? Why? Who cares about it, when there are big names out there like J.K. Rowling, and George R. R. Martin, and Neil Gaiman, and, oh my God, a million others? But people do, which still makes me look like this: O__O I had a little over 300 beta readers plunge into Siren Suicides, and people are actually buying it now that it's published (have yet to make a report on sales numbers) and reading it, and liking it. I was honestly astounded at first, wondering, why on earth would they do that? Then it hit me, sometime this spring. They do it because of me. I have yet to get to the level of my stories speaking for themselves (not there yet), but people are reading my books because of the interactions we had on Twitter, on Facebook, on Google+, or on whatever other place on the Internetz, or in person. You can do it too, and you should do it. In fact, I insist, it's very important for you to connect with your readers any way you can. Why? Because...

...listen to readers' feedback, it's golden. I hear a lot of negativity around the feedback the readers give you, especially if it's bad, or bad reviews. It goes like this... oh God, how could they? They have no idea what I was trying to say, and they just want to bite me, they are just these people that like writing bad reviews just for the fun of it, just because they can, etc, etc. I find this strange. Nowadays, with the book market flooded with indie books the way it is, any review, bad or good, is golden. I mean, somebody actually spent time reading your shit? You know this is amazing, right? You've been competing for someone's time and you won a whole 8 hours or however long it took that person to read your book. They took their time away from their significant other (if there is one), or kids, or dogs, or kittens, or knitting an orange sweater for their cousin Bob, or whatever, for YOUR BOOK? That alone is huge. Wow. And then they took out the time to give you feedback, too? That's beyond amazing. I always thank everyone personally (well, I try, because so far I don't have that many reviews, so I can do it), for their time and effort, and I read everything. There is always something that rings true for me, and while I can't change things in the published books, I can pick up things that can help me write better books in the future. By now I know that my weaknesses are excessive descriptions and my dialogue is a bit stiff, and I don't yet know how to engage secondary characters fully, and a bunch of other stuff. If not for my readers, I would've never known that.

Talk to your readers about anything and everything. People will read your books, when you just start out, not because you have a reputation or a name (cause you haven't yet), but because they know who you are, know your personal story. For example, many people bought Siren Suicides not because they wanted to read the actual story, but because they were curious what I came up with, how I battled my depression and suicidal tendencies through writing a novel, well, a trilogy (yeah, it expanded into 3 books over 5 drafts), and for a slew of other reasons. I know because those people told me so, writing me letters and private messages and emails and whatnot. This, again, is awesome. If they did happen to like my first book, there is a chance they might come back for more of my work. How cool is that? I think it's beyond cool. I'm still pinching myself every time someone orders signed copies of my books or I get Amazon emails telling me I got paid. I mean, I give out all my books for FREE on my site, and still people buy them. Because, again, as they told me, they want to help, to support a writer. But why would anyone want to support me? For the same reason I listed above. Because they know my history, my daily moods, my failures, my successes, I don't hide anything at all, and this is a true connection between me and my readers, it's like we have a blood vessel between us, sharing everything. It's a very scary thing to do, but I can tell you that I've connected with people on a deeper level than I ever imagined, on a deeper level than even in some of my past real-life friendships.

Share what your readers say about you with others. The good and the bad and everything. In the end, it's not what you tell people about yourself, it's what people say about you. You can say you are smart and sassy and whatever, but people will form their own opinion about you, whether you want to or not, and it's a good thing. It will actually show you sides of yourself you didn't know. Well then, be humble, and share it. You're a writer, your life is no longer private by definition. As much as you will try to camouflage it with stories, every single book you write is rooted in your life experiences, and there will be repeating events from your life, repeating themes. Essentially, by writing a book, you not only invite people into your life, you invite them into your very brain. How much more un-private can that be? Imagine now that you're trying to come off as standoffish. Too late. People already know your secrets. Well, let them have fun! Let them muse, let them talk, let them bitch and moan, or adore and praise. Whatever they do, it's about them, not about you, but it will help others discover you. It will make your readers happy and open up a dialogue, be it on a social media network or in person. You can even jokingly introduce yourself with some word or phrase people call you or your work, like: Hi, I'm Jill Nill, and my readers call me Yellow Jello because all of my book covers have a canary tone to them, and I mention canaries in my books a lot. Or whatever. You get the point. By letting your readers do with you what they want to do, you essentially letting them own you, letting them call you their own, and truly own your books, so that they become theirs. That is the most brilliant thing any writer can ask for, for each reader to feel like the book was written for them and them alone. That's how you get readers for life.

What else? Let's see here, beyond those big philosophical points, interacting with your readers is simply fun. These people know so much about you, and yet nothing about you, and yet they do, on some other level. I'm an addict, personally. I love talking to my readers to death (gosh, I hope I don't bore them to death and they love talking to me too!). Anyway, there is nothing else to say, except, CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS. GET ON WITH IT ALREADY! 

Generating buzz around your book publication

People tell me that I have generated quite a buzz around publishing (well, self-publishing) Siren Suicides, my first trilogy novel thingy. To be honest with you, I had no idea I did, I didn't even specifically plan to generate any kind of buzz, I just blabbed about it on every corner, not to promote it, but to share everything that happened around it, because it was such a deep topic for me to talk about, to write about, to share. Now that it happened, now that I wrote it and published it, I decided to take a look back and analyze what is it that I did that generated this whole buzz around it, so I can share with you some tricks, hopefully (if there are any, okay?).  I'll just tell you what I did, and let's see together if there is anything worth stealing here, for future buzz applications. 

Real time updates generate excitement. So, let's be real here. If you're J.K. Rowling or Stephen King, you can create a big storm of publicity and interest simply by announcing a certain date for a new book release. Unfortunately, you're not Stephen King and I'm not J.K. Rowling, which means that most people don't know anything about you or me or our books. I say, most, because I'm sure at least someone in your family or some of your friends know that you've written a book. That's not enough, though, right? You want the whole world to know, right? Right. I do too. But the trick to it is, now that I look back at what I did, not to promote your book and shove it under everyone's face, demanding them to read it, but to share your journey with people. When you're a nobody, when you're just starting out as a writer, people won't buy your books because your books are awesome (let's face it, they're not, not until you have written a bunch of them), but because they know you as a person, they want to help you out, they are rooting for you. So that's what I did, I simply posted real time updates on what I did, every day, all of it, the pretty and the ugly, and inadvertently I have generated interested around my book, not so much for the book itself, but simply because people were curious to see what will happen. I did crazy things, like shared my drafts publicly, even provided them for download; I gave my books away for free, forever, stuff like that. Whatever you do with your books is your choice, but I suggest you update people on your progress every day, that alone will generate buzz, guaranteed.

Your constant presence tells people you have your shit together. I did this sorta unconsciously, as it turns out. See, I can't function unless I have a very rigid schedule. My ADD brain simply refuses to focus. And that's what I have been tweeting, and Facebooking, and whatever. I would say things like, "Oh, shit, I'm 15 minutes late!", when it would be 10:15am and I was supposed to start writing, but have slid off the schedule for some reason. Funny enough, although people made fun of me for these posts, it also told them that I'm there, every day, writing, and that meant that I will deliver on my promises. This generated a level of trust between me and my readers, and followers, and simply friends who would check in on my progress. Because they saw these updates, they believed the rest of them too. Meaning, I'm never making anything pretty just to make it look pretty. For example, I got some 5 star reviews of Siren Suicides, but I also got some very critical 3 star ones. I shared both. I was excited for both. I haven't gotten a 1 star review yet, but if I do, I will share it! Because it's amazing that people spent their time reading and critiquing my work, that's worth gold. This again made people curious to check out my work, to come up with their own opinion. See, without really meaning to, I made people buy my book, or download it, to see what all the talk is about (a few folks told me they got my books because there is all this talk about them). The takeaway here is, be there, be present, talk about your process and share everything. People will gravitate toward you because you're simply always there, like an anchor.

Both negative or positive feedback are awesome. I see a lot of writers online getting pissed about negative reviews, or people talking negatively about their books. But the thing is, people ARE talking about their books, and that's all that matters! Somebody on Twitter told me, that somebody told them, that it's not the review itself that matters, it's the amount of ink. The more people talk about your stuff, the better! That means, you have to answer everyone, everywhere, about everything, be it negative or positive or neutral. I try to answer as many tweets as I possibly physically can, I try to always comment on all Facebook comments, all Google+ comments, all my blog comments, I even answer Instagram comments, even if it's just a few here and there. People simply want to express their opinion on your writing, that's all. There is no perfect book for everyone, so don't expect everyone to like your work. That's not why you're writing it. You're writing it to be heard, right? Well, if someone trashed you, that means they heard you, didn't they? Therefore, it's awesome. It will create a wave and more people will want to check out your book. I would suggest to take all feedback and all responses with glee, just for the fact that people ARE talking about your stuff. You never know, you might turn a disgruntled troll into a loyal fan, who will talk to 10 friends about your stuff.

Let others generate buzz for you. I see many writers being wary of other people approaching them and offering them all kinds of deals. It could be anything, maybe someone is interested in blogging about you, or posting a link to your book on their site, or whatever. If you have gotten any offers like that, or some others, you're always suspicious, right? Why? What will happen if you agree? The worst that can happen, they will trash your book for some reason or will demand some favor back (happened to me), the best case - they will add to the buzz! Here, I will illustrate to you this point on my example. I have one fan who loves taking my pics (I post a ton of selfies on Instagram) and altering them to pictures of horrible zombies (turning my eyes red and skin green) and then posting them on my Facebook wall, tagging me in it. The first time I saw it, I will be honest, I was like, OMG, this is me, so horrible looking, I want to take it down! The second thought was, no, this is awesome, someone is making art from my face, how cool is this? He was very sweet and asked my permission to alter my pics, I said, go for it, do whatever you want. Recently I joined a project where my book cover will be added to a bottle of wine (like a label) and allowed my videos to be distributed on FeedMyReads channel. Hell, I don't care what you do with my stuff, as long as you spread the word about my books, do anything you want! If I may be so bold, I suggest the same to you. While you spend your time writing, other people will gleefully spread the word for you. One shoe artist painted me shoes, inspired by Siren Suicides. That is so cool! I can't wait to get them and will of course blast pictures of me in them everywhere.

There. I guess there are a few tricks in here, yeah? The overall impression I get, after rereading my own post, is this notion of being open to people, letting them participate in your creative process, and they will love you for it and talk about you to everyone. That's all there is to it.

Adapt your novel drafts to Beta Readers' feedback. IT RULES.

Photo by Joel Robison

How do you adapt your novel drafts to beta readers' feedback? I get asked this question a lot, because I send out my drafts to Beta Readers to read and give me feedback. A lot. Namely - and I just calculated this - as of today I sent out my drafts to a total of 141 Beta Readers. That's about 40 for Drafts 1, 2, and 3, about 70 for Draft 4, and about 30 so far for Draft 5. Draft 5 is not done yet, so I only sent out a preview of the first 18 Chapters. Now, some people call me crazy, some are outright angry with me and tell me it's a very very bad idea to show your work to strangers when it's not done yet. I disagree. My readers rule. Anything they say rules, because I'm writing my story for them. Without them, my story doesn't exist. It has to be read, to become a story, otherwise it's a sad monologue in my own head, nothing more. This may go against everything you ever heard or read about, so let me illustrate for you how it helped me to write better and you decide for yourself.

The confusion on your Beta Reader's face is priceless. Let's face it, at the very beginning, before anyone else in the wide scary world knows you're writing a book, there is only a handful of people who do. Your family (unless you write at night by flashlight under a blankie) and your closest friends, at least the ones whom you were brave enough to tell and who didn't roll their eyes at the idea. Those are the first people who are willing to suffer through your first crappy drafts, not necessarily because they love your story, but because they love you. And, after having read your story, they might fall in love with it too. Here comes the beautiful part. When you meet them, after they've read your stuff, the questions they ask make no sense to you, and that look of confusion on their face? Yeah, you got it. Now, write down every single thing they say, then don't change it the way they asked you to, but rather go back to those spots where they were confused. All of them. Every single thing they mentioned, and then in your next Draft simply explain what you meant. We writers are so terrified of over explaining things, that we forget our readers can't read our minds. It took me 10 dear faces to see like that to get it.

No feedback is ever bad, all feedback is awesome. Here comes the bomb, and I'm already ducking because I know you will throw something heavy at me right now, but here is the thing. Every single piece of feedback you get is brilliant. You know why? Because every single piece of feedback comes from someone who spent their time on your story, and they want to help. If they didn't care, they wouldn't have wasted their time. So, even if they hated it, it's great. Don't drill them on why they hated, you'll never see eye to eye on this, instead, ask for one simple question - what page did you stop on? THAT is the page you have to fix. It might be a little thing, it might be a big thing, but there was something there that stopped them, so go back and see what it is. I especialy love negative feedback because the person who is angry is very passionate, so they usually send you this huge e-mail, or, instead, just two quick lines. That is gold. Try to pretend that your story is not your story and see what angered that person so much. I can guarantee you that after a few of these you will start seeing a pattern, people repeating certain things. Once you have that jolt of recognition in your gut, that's it, you need to fix it. Your gut will tell you what and your gut is always right.

The more feedback, the better. This is now truly irritating you, isn't it? I mean, it's hard to deal with 10 people, how the hell are you supposed to deal with 100 people? And write at the same time? It's madness! Well, here is the deal, the more people read your story, the more feedback you will be able to see to sift through the 80-20 rule, you know, the one where if 8 people out of 10 tell you the same thing, it means you really need to do it? Yeah, that's the one. If you only send your draft to 6 people, it's hard to judge by their individual responses, plus, you will waste a lot of your personal time going over their feedback in detail. Don't. Quickly read it, absord it, don't take any notes, read the next piece of feedback, and so on. Soon the important things, the theme, so to say, will emerge. For example, for me, especially for Draft 4, it was the immaturity of the main character that was attributed to her being 16 yet calling her mother Mommy and her father Daddy. I changed it in Draft 5. And another thing was me going into these poetic side notes that had nothing to do with the story and slowed it down. I cut most of them out from Draft 5 (well, still in the process of cutting). See, only 2 major things! You can compare Draft 4 and Draft 5 excerpts as an example. You should've seen how many different ways people told me the same information, over and over and over. 

Beta Reader's feedback is just that, Beta Reader's feedback. Never forget that it's all there is to it, it's simply people who have their own opinions. Don't take it seriously, don't get all wounded and upset, simply try feeling it, try noting commonality in people's opinions. They are not attacking you, they want to help. Sometimes they don't know how to do it right, so it might come across as trashing. It's not. It's simply an opinion. At the end of the day, if someone's feedback made absolutely no sense to you, don't get stuck on it, let it go and move on to the next. Because if you don't, you will never be able to use these opinions effectively. It's like with writing, you have to keep writing every day, keep moving forward every day, without looking back, without rewriting what you wrote yesterday, because otherwise you might never finish your Draft at all. 

There you have it. Have fun. Post an excerpt to your novel on your blog, not more than 1,000 words so people have enough time to read it while they sip their cup of coffee, and then ask anyone who would be interested if they'd beta read the whole thing. Forget about copyright, send it out to anyone who will read it. Not only will you get great feedback, you will potentially meet your future readers who will shell out their hard-earned cash for your book when it's done. BECAUSE YOU LISTENED TO THEM. Because they feel like they've taken a part in creating your story. Because, even though you're the one writing your novel, in the end, it takes a village. So go ahead, share, and make your story better!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, you may kill me in comments. Go on. Don't be shy.