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“Fast Fingers” by Katie Kreuger via Flickr. (Creative Commons licensed image)

BY AMANDA L. BARBARA

The Internet has brought about a new age of experimentation in publishing, and stepping into the literary laboratory is the prolific storytelling duo, Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant.

The authors’ recent project, “Fiction Unboxed,” was a crowdfunded experiment in writing and publishing a book live in 30 days. Platt’s and Truant’s goal was to give aspiring authors and fans of their popular podcast a look behind the curtain at their writing process.

Platt and Truant are no strangers to writing quickly. They wrote more than 1.5 million words in a year and continue to publish fiction at a breakneck pace.

For “Fiction Unboxed,” they started without any characters, a plot, or even a genre in mind and careened into publishing a book in front of a live audience. This project had nearly 1,000 backers and overfunded at $65,535. Backers got to see the authors’ story meetings, watch them hammer out the plot, write, and edit the final draft.

It’s easy to see the appeal in writing a book quickly. Platt’s and Truant’s method meant they could start earning revenue from their published book right away and get to work on their next project.

But what about the average writer who isn’t used to cranking out a story at such a fast pace? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of rapid writing.

The Benefits of Writing Fast

There are a number of potential rewards to producing and publishing quickly, including:

• Reader engagement. “Fiction Unboxed” generated an enormous amount of engagement among indie authors, the duo’s nonfiction audience. But even for fiction writers, publishing quickly can help maintain readers’ interest in your work. The New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout has cultivated an enormous fan base due to her ability to quickly produce more of the books her readers love on an accelerated timeline.
• Exposure. Doing something out of the ordinary is a great way to get noticed as an author. Platt and Truant used their writing process to create a highly shareable and marketable product that gained a lot of attention simply because it had never been done before.
• Momentum. Writing quickly obviously helps you produce more work, but it also helps you gain traction from a publishing and marketing perspective. The more you publish, the more chances readers have to discover your work, and a new title can provide a boost to your entire catalogue.

Potential Drawbacks of Rapid Production

While there are a number of benefits to writing and publishing quickly, Platt and Truant are experienced writers who understand the publishing process. They know what they can reasonably accomplish, and they have a team in place to help with other aspects of book production, such as audio and cover design. 

Producing a book in 30 days probably wouldn’t work for a less experienced writer. If you’re thinking of giving yourself an ambitious deadline, proceed with caution to avoid these pitfalls:

• Lower quality: The duo’s final product, a YA Steampunk novel called “The Dream Engine,” has a 4.8 rating on Amazon. But for new authors, a tight deadline may not leave enough time for professional editing and cover design, which could result in a lackluster book.
• Public failure: “Fiction Unboxed” was a risky endeavor. What if they hadn’t completed the project? What if the book flopped?

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While you shouldn’t let fear hold you back as a writer, always consider how readers will receive your book.

“Fiction Unboxed” was a fun experiment, but the underlying message isn’t that you should try to write a book in 30 days. Platt and Truant wanted to show writers that storytelling doesn’t have to be a painful process and that with practice, good stories can be written quickly.

Most importantly, you have to do the work. Platt and Truant haven’t produced so many books by sitting around waiting for inspiration to strike — they’ve done it by hitting their word count day after day. Hard work is something they stressed in the book that inspired the project and in “Fiction Unboxed” itself.

There’s no one process that works for every author, but you shouldn’t be afraid to try new things. Just keep writing, and the words will come.  

Amanda L. Barbara is vice president of Pubslush, a global crowdfunding publishing platform for the literary world. This platform is bridging the gap between writers, readers, publishers and industry leaders. Follow Amanda on Twitter and Google+.

Image by Beliroz, deviantART, courtesy of a Creative Commons License: http://beliroz.deviantart.com/art/Keyboard-in-the-night-183881657

While I’ll be cheering on NaNoWriMo participants from the sidelines this year rather than joining the race, I am forever looking for ways to expand my own daily word count—not just in November, but all 12 months of the year. My goals may be more modest (while they fluctuate depending on my work-in-progress and what stage it’s in, I currently aim for an average of 1,000 words a day, six days a week), but with a full-time job and a family, they’re not easy to meet.

When people find out I’ve got a novel in progress, they inevitably stop to take in my energetic 3-year-old boy, already-almost-walking 9-month-old girl, and full-time job overseeing Writer’s Digest magazine and say the same thing: Wow, you have your hands full.

I do. Literally. If I’m not in the office, you can often find me with a giggling, hair-pulling baby in my arms, a pot on the stove (or, um, the pizza guy on the phone), and a little boy dressed as a superhero tugging on my pant leg.

So for me, pushing my daily word count is about finding ways to write in between the times when I can actually sit uninterrupted at my laptop. Here are three methods that work for me—and may just work for you, too.

1. Ms. Phone, please take a letter …

On TV commercials, people talk to their phones to find out where the nearest Chinese restaurant is or to remind themselves to buy flowers for their anniversary. I talk to my phone to record ideas for fictional scenes that pop into my head at random moments of the day. Snippets of dialogue, emotional descriptions and plot notes all get recorded to be sure they don’t evaporate before I can get to my keyboard.

On my drive home from work, I have about 15 minutes of quiet time alone in the car until I pull into the daycare. Sure, sometimes I listen to music, or NPR news. But especially if I don’t yet know what scene I’m going to tackle after the kids are in bed that night, I like to use this time to brainstorm. Hands-free, I’ll dictate what comes to me into my phone. I once “wrote” 650 words between quitting time at work and pickup time at daycare. Sure, there were lots of misunderstood words and typos to correct—no voice command app is perfect—but when I do get to the computer, cleaning up the copy is far easier than starting from scratch.

2. Go go Gadget keyboard …

There are other times—say, if a baby is napping on my shoulder—that I can get my hands free but not balance a full-sized laptop on my lap. And we’ve all had those moments when we don’t have our computers in reach when inspiration strikes—but we do happen to have a tablet or smartphone with us, so we try to peck out the words on our touch screens as fast as we can, all the while grumbling that our fingers can’t catch up to our brains.

That’s where my Bluetooth keyboard comes in. I got one for my birthday back in August, and my husband is still pretty proud of himself for how much I rave about it. For only about $30, it came with a slim case and slips easily into my purse. No matter where you are, simply pair it with whatever device you have on hand, and voila! You can actually type out a scene or notes at full speed. When I have my Bluetooth keyboard along, I no longer mind if a friend is late to meet me for lunch, or if my dentist leaves me in the waiting room. In fact, sometimes I’m secretly glad.

3. Note to self …

It is one of the stranger side effects of the writing life that I email myself perhaps more than I send messages to anyone else. But every day, no matter how busy I am, whether I’m using one of the methods above or another, I try to at the very least send myself the briefest of notes regarding what my next scene will be.

At worst, when I sit down at my keyboard later, I’ll have some kind of starting point, rather than a blank screen (and a blank brain). At best, if I’ve gotten a little carried away with my note taking, my scene might already be half-written.

What I’ve found is this: Whether you’re a “pantser” or a plotter (or, in my case, a little of both), when you sit down to write with SOME kind of notes in front of you, you’ll spend less time getting in the groove and more time churning out words.

The November/December Writer’s Digest magazine is filled with Tips and Inspiration to Write a Book in a Month, including advice for developing a write-a-thon strategy and keeping the words coming. If you’re looking to increase your productivity or planning for NaNoWriMo, check out a preview in the Writer’s Digest Shop, download it instantly, or find it on a newsstand near you.

What about you? How do you increase your daily word count? From one hands-full writer to another, I invite you to leave your own tips in a comment below—we can all use all the help we can get!

Happy Writing,
Jessica Strawser
Editor, Writer’s Digest Magazine
Follow me on Twitter: @jessicastrawser

Self-publishing used to be a last resort for aspiring authors unable to break through the traditional publishing fortress. With the help of vanity presses, those writers took matters into their own hands and brought their books to market, for a fee.

These days, self-publishing has a newfound respect. The “guilt by association” connection to vanity publishing has largely disappeared, and even bestselling authors are opting to self-publish. Today’s e-book and print on demand (POD) technology enables authors to control the publishing process on their own terms, and based on the proliferation of self-publishing success stories, it’s safe to say the trend toward self-publishing is here to stay.

One of the most appealing aspects of self-publishing is that it isn’t one-size-fits-all. As your book’s publisher, you can choose just how many services and technologies you’ll utilize. Supported Self Publishing (SSP) provides you with nearly all services and resources in the publishing process, whereas with Do-It-Yourself Publishing (DIY), you are responsible for all aspects of publishing and marketing your book. (For a helpful breakdown of SSP and DIY publishing models, visit Abbott Press, a division of Writer’s Digest.)

Regardless of which model you choose, there are quantifiable benefits to self-publishing, as Marilyn Ross and Sue Collier illustrate in The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing. Following is some key advice for writers from the book:

7 Reasons to Self-Publish Your Book

 1. You Just Might Strike It Rich

Self-publishing offers the potential for huge profits. No longer do you have to be satisfied with the meager 5 to 15 percent royalty that commercial publishers dole out. For those who use creativity, persistence, and sound business sense, money is there to be made.

 2. You Can Be Your Own Boss

Self-publishing can be the road to independence. What motivates entrepreneurs to launch their own businesses? Most want to be their own bosses. More personal freedom is the second most important reason. Some do it out of necessity in tough economic times. But most dream of becoming self-employed. You can turn that dream into reality. Here is a dynamic, proven way to shape your own destiny. It is an answer not only for city folks but also for urban escapees seeking to prosper in paradise. (Does Marilyn ever know about prospering in paradise, living and working in a lovely Colorado mountain town of only two thousand …)

 3. You Can Create a Tax Haven

Becoming a self-publisher also provides a helpful tax shelter. After forming your own company and meeting certain requirements, you can write off a portion of your home and deduct some expenses related to writing and to marketing, such as automobile, travel, and entertainment costs. Always check current tax regulations and restrictions.

 4. You Get to Move at Your Own Pace

Another advantage is that you can begin your business on a part-time basis while keeping your day job. Why risk your livelihood until you’ve refined your publishing activities and worked out any bugs?

 5. You Maintain Control of Your Work

In self-publishing, you guide every step. You’ll have the cover you like, the typeface you choose, the title you want, and the ads you decide to place. You

By Rob Eagar

In my work as a marketing consultant, I’ve met numerous authors who work in academic circles, such as counselors, professors, pastors, and specialty book publishers. A common problem among these scholastic groups is the tendency to believe that their marketing should be exempt from the need to answer the consumers’ primary question, “What’s in it for me?” Appealing to a person’s felt need is viewed as stooping to a lower level of commerce.

They maintain that focusing on logic, displaying didactic descriptions of their content, and listing pedantic endorsements should rule a promotional campaign. I would agree that this attitude makes sense if you only want to preach to the choir. But, if you want to expand sales beyond just a small restricted club, that type of narrow-minded approach will limit your growth.

Some academic leaders forget that everything is a felt need. People aren’t robots. Logic might make us think, but it is emotion that makes us act. Every decision, no matter how academic, is still infused with the desire to protect and achieve our self-interests. Ironically, the most studious people in the world still buy fancy food because it tastes good, nice clothes because they look good, fine wine and fast cars because it makes them feel good.

Marketing efforts are rarely effective when you treat people like robots who should ignore their self-interests. Robots don’t run our economy. People do. People who buy things according to a desire that says, “What’s in it for me?” Therefore, when it comes to marketing, no matter how academic the product, everything is a felt need.

About the Author

Rob Eagar is the founder of WildFire Marketing, a consulting practice that helps authors and publishers sell more books and spread their message like wildfire. He has assisted numerous New York Times bestselling authors and his new book, Sell Your Book Like Wildfire, will be published by Writer’s Digest in June, 2012. Find out more about Rob’s advice, products, and coaching services for authors at: www.startawildfire.com

By Rob Eagar, author of Sell Your Book Like Wildfire

Did you know that Amazon lets authors see who is highlighting notes in their books and tweeting content to friends? When someone reads a book using a Kindle device or app, Amazon stores the information they highlight. Plus, Amazon displays who used Twitter to spread word of mouth to their friends. How does it work?

1. Go to: https://kindle.amazon.com

2. Type in the title of your book in the “Search” box at the top right-hand corner.

3. Click on your title when it appears in the search listing.

4. You will see a picture of your book cover, a list that says “Posts from this book,” and a section called “Highlights,” which shows content that people notated while reading your book on their Kindle.

It may seem a little creepy that Amazon tracks all of this reader information. But, keep in mind that Amazon only displays information that readers agree to make public. There’s no blatant invasion of privacy. Kindle readers can turn off this sharing feature if they desire.

Amazon’s slogan for their Kindle service is “Read. Review. Remember.” I like that tagline, and I think their new service offers some innovative promotional opportunities for authors. Here’s why:

1. Authors get an unprecedented opportunity to peek into the minds of their readers. You can see what parts of a book resonate with readers the most, because you can literally see the passages that people highlighted. This ability allows the author to focus future blog posts, free resources, interview topics, or social media conversations on content that they know people already find intriguing.

2. Authors can identify and thank readers who share word of mouth via Twitter. By seeing who tweets your material, you can leave a message at that individual’s Twitter account to show your appreciation for telling their friends. How cool is that?

3. If your book doesn’t have many highlighted portions or shared posts, it could indicate that your book isn’t being discovered or the content isn’t capturing reader interest. Knowing that information can serve as a wake-up call to improve your marketing or strengthen the manuscript for your next book.

Even though this service from Amazon is unique, I would urge you to take it with a grain of salt. Don’t base your book’s marketing plan or primary promotional activities on the comments you see posted or the passages highlighted. Those comments listed only represent a small fraction of your total reader base. Instead, stay focused on marketing your book based on its overall value. Use the benefit of this service to gauge what kind of conversation is happening around your books.

I’m excited to see Amazon offer another ground-breaking service that brings readers and authors closer together. At times, they seem like one of the few organizations dedicated to helping authors break the down the walls of publishing.

About the Author

Rob Eagar is the founder of WildFire Marketing, a consulting practice that helps authors and publishers sell more books and spread their message like wildfire. He has assisted numerous New York Times bestselling authors and his new book, Sell Your Book Like Wildfire, will be published by Writer’s Digest in June, 2012. Find out more about Rob’s advice, products, and coaching services for authors at: www.startawildfire.com

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