Me Write Funny Someday—how to add humor to your writing (part 2)

I have a surprise for you, and it’s a doozy. Are you ready? Here it is:
You’re a comic genius.

Okay, did I see some eyes rolling? Well, it's true. You ARE a comic genius, and that’s because you know how to create the kind of unique surprises that create laughs. Um . . . at least you will after you read this post.

In my last post, I told you that when I was a political cartoonist I invented a very simple formula for creating humor, and it is

Setup+Surprise+Sense=Humor

I call this formula the House of Funny, and the reason why is that it works like a house of fun.

Look in a house-of-fun mirror, and you will see things in a surprising new way. Likewise, the House of Funny creates surprise by changing your perspective and giving you a new way to look at things. And also like a house of fun, it does this with a variety of mirrors and lenses.

As I said in the previous post, your setup creates an expectation, and you create surprise by taking the setup in an unexpected direction. Which direction? That depends on the mirror or lens you decide to use.


The Mirrors and Lenses of the House of Funny

·        A regular mirror

·        A closed-circuit camera

·        A magnifying glass

·        A reverse magnifying glass

·        Blue, pink, yellow and other colored lenses

·        A wiggly mirror

The regular mirror

A regular, household mirror flips right to left and left to right. We don’t usually laugh at this, because we’re used to it. In fact, when we don’t see this--for example, in the monitor of a closed-circuit camera--we might actually find it funny. You move off to your left, and you see yourself move off to the right on the screen. It takes some getting used to.

The regular, household mirror in the House of Funny, though, goes against our expectations. It flips it. Right becomes left, and left becomes right. While we're used to this when we peer at ourselves over the bathroom sink, we're not used to it in the stories we read.

For example, in so many fairy tales, the handsome prince comes to the princess’s rescue. So what’s the flipside? Well, the flipside of a handsome prince is an ugly ogre, and that gives you the plot of Shrek.

In fact, that’s just one of many flips in Shrek. The charming prince who wants the princess is actually a less-than-charming lord. The princess is . . . . well, I wouldn’t want to give any spoilers. In the second movie, the Fairy Godmother is not the kindly lady from Cinderella. The Shrek series is all about flipping fairy tales from left to right. But that’s not the only possible flipside for the standard princess fairy tale. You could write a story about a brave princess who rescues a prince, or a prince who gets a princess in trouble instead of rescuing her, or a princess who prefers not to be rescued, or . . . the possibilities are endless.


A closed-circuit camera monitor

This shows us things exactly as they are, and this is surprising because we’re used to see things--particularly ourselves--differently. Like I said, every time you look in your bathroom mirror, you see yourself flipped from right to left. It's interesting to note that the only person incapable of seeing you the way the rest of the world does . . . is you.

I think that the humor that comes from exposing the truth behind false assumptions is the greatest humor of all. It shows us what we’ve been missing . . . or maybe something we once noticed but ignored because someone told us it was wrong. It's the little kid from the story of the Emperor's new clothes, the one who points out that the king is naked.

I also think that this is one of the hardest kinds of humor to create, because it requires that you first recognize that a generally held assumption is untrue. The other problem is that some people hold very tightly to their false beliefs. They need them. It gives them a steady footing on reality, and anything else throws them off balance. In medieval times, people were often ostracized or worse for exposing false assumptions. The sun turned around the earth, and people didn’t want to hear otherwise. The Dark Ages didn’t have a sense of humor.  

But there are those who think this is the only kind of standup comedy that’s worth something, the kind that tells the truth. It can also be a fun way to look at fairy tales. While we know they aren’t true, there are some things about them that are just plain out absurd. Like who wears glass slippers? And who has such a weird shoe size that her shoes won’t fit anyone else? And where did Cinderella get her shoes before her Fairy Godmother showed up with the only pair of shoes that precisely fit her very weird feet? And why was the prince so obsessed with her feet anyway?

Looking beyond assumptions can lead to some pretty funny results.  


The magnifying glass

Take anything small and blow it up way out of proportion. In fiction, don’t write small when you can write big. Characters shouldn’t like each other but be madly in love. A nemesis shouldn’t be mildly annoying but outright evil. It makes readers care more, love more, worry more, hate more, feel more, and laugh more. Of course, if you want it to be funny, it has to be surprising, too, not something that has been magnified in that way many times before. And it can’t be viewed as too painful to the audience.

The obvious example from a children’s book of a magnifying glass being used to create humor? Clifford the Big Red Dog, of course!

The reverse magnifying glass

British humor is often about understatement. It’s Monty Python calling a severed leg, “just a scratch.” Take something huge and treat it as if it’s something tiny. This is the reverse magnifying glass, and it’s great for satire. When something huge and outrageous—like nuclear war—is treated as no big deal, you have all the ingredients for satire or black comedy.


Blue, pink, yellow, and other colored lenses

 

My all-time favorite humorous fiction series is The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and one of my favorite characters in it is Marvin the paranoid android. Marvin’s comedy comes from the blue lens in the House of Funny. For him, everything is depressing. Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh is another funny, blue-lens character.

In my stories, Amber from Why My Love Life Sucks: The Legend of Gilbert the Fixer generally dances through life (and un-death) with rose-colored glasses. That’s the pink lens of the House of Funny, and it works because it contrasts nicely with Amber’s less-than-rosy circumstance.

Colored lenses are all about seeing the world with one very specific attitude, one that’s often at odds with the setup or the character’s situation.  Many standup comedians use colored lenses to give their onstage personas a focused, unified character. Steven Wright, for example, is deadpan. He’s the Eeyore of stand up, and his lens would be blue. Kate Micucci is always perky. Her onstage persona definitely wears rose-colored glasses.  The next time you see a great standup act, ask yourself, “Does the persona the comedian plays see things through a colored lens? And if so, which color?”

The wiggly mirror

As I wrote in an article on my website, the wiggly mirror is great for writing fiction, because the humor in it comes from conflict. Look in a wiggly house-of-fun mirror, and you’ll see a too long neck with too short legs, or a too thin body with a too wide head. This mirror is all about putting together things that don’t belong together--and that’s what conflict is all about. Since conflict is a necessary element in fiction, this mirror is the perfect mirror for creating fiction.  Put a character with another character who doesn't fit him, in a place or situation that doesn't fit him, or have him want or be or believe two things that are mutually exclusive, and you have both a story and the potential for humor. (Click here to read more.) 

One thing I didn’t mention in that article is that the wiggly mirror can be used in another--almost opposite--in the House of Funny. While this mirror puts unlikely things together, it also shows us how something is like something else. People who look in these mirrors in a house of fun often say, “I look like a giraffe!” or “I look like a penguin!” By changing certain parts of your appearance, you end up looking like something else.

This aspect of the wiggly mirror is great for adapting stories, whether in funny or dramatic ways. I could use it to adapt the news of the day when I was a political cartoonist. If someone reminded me of a captain of a sinking ship, I could draw him as a captain of a sinking ship. This aspect is also the one used for creating puns, because puns are based on things that are different but sound alike. It can also be used in parodies, like the movie Airplane!

And when it comes to writing fiction, this aspect of the wiggly mirror can let you use anything--from your life, to the news, to old classics--as a springboard for creating new stories.

For example, when I wrote Dan Quixote: Boy of Nuevo Jersey, I looked at the classic story of Don Quixote and asked myself what it might be like in today’s world. Don Quixote, with his love of reading and his desire to become a storybook hero, reminded me of a kid who wants to be Harry Potter or Prince Charming. Don Quixote’s trusty servant, Sancho Panza, reminded me of a faithful friend. So I turned Don Quixote into 13-year-old Dan Tyler; and I turned Sancho Panza into his best friend Sandy.  I went through the rest of Don Quixote asking what in Dan and Sandy’s lives could be like the elements of Don Quixote’s story. And that's how Dan Quixote: Boy of Nuevo Jersey came about. 

In conclusion

If you want to write something funny or add humor to something you’ve already written, try to look at your setup through the various House of Funny mirrors and lenses.


Ask yourself the following questions:

1.       What is the expectation your set up creates?

2.       What is the opposite of that expectation?

3.       Is your setup about an assumption, and is that assumption false or plain out absurd? If so, what’s the unrevealed truth about that assumption?

4.        If your setup is something small, what happens when you magnify it?

5.       If your setup is something huge, what happens when you understate it?

6.       What is the expected attitude people have about your setup, and which colored lens might create a surprisingly different perspective?

7.       What conflicting thing can you put together with your setup in a surprising way that makes sense? (In fiction, this can be a conflicting character, a conflicting external situation, or a conflict a character has with himself or herself.)

8.       If your setup is something that’s been done to death (variations on Cinderella, for example), what does the setup remind you of? Is there something similar but very different that’s never been done before?  

Brainstorm this out on paper. In the center, write down the setup you intend to use. Put a circle around it. Now write or draw (when I was a political cartoonist, I often drew) the answers to these questions. Sometimes one question will have several promising answers, and sometimes a question will not lead to any answers at all. When you find an answer you like, put a circle around it. If you like, you can even rewrite your answer at the center of another piece of paper and use that to brainstorm the next part of your story.
                                                               
Not only will this method help you add humor to your writing, it can help you come up with an infinite number of story ideas, or brainstorm solutions to all sorts of problems by giving you new ways to look at them. After all, anything can be a setup.

So now you know how to add humor to your writing in ways no one else has thought of before. See, I told you you were a comic genius!

~~*~~

I hope this was helpful, and if so I hope you'll use it to create humor wherever and whenever you find a need for it. As always, I welcome your questions and comments.  As the tagline for Dan Quixote goes, life and laughter are better with friends.

Me Write Funny Someday—how to add humor to your writing (part 1)

Would you like to add humor to your writing? I'm guessing the answer is yes. Humor adds so much, whether your aim is to write something altogether funny, pique a reader's interest with humor, create a comic interlude to give readers a break between more dramatic scenes, or use humor to contrast with dark and perhaps scary scenes in a way that brings the darkness in your story out even more.

I've used humor to do all of these, as a political cartoonist, arts-and-entertainment writer, consumer columnist, and a writer of a variety of books for kids and teens: everything from funny picture books and illustrated novels for middle graders to an epic fantasy about a magical storyteller, a romantic YA ghost story, and a novel about a super geek turned into a reluctant vampire.

To do this, I used a formula that I invented during the seven years I was a political cartoonist. Back then, I had to come up with four to eight cartoons a week--usually written on the same day, so my cartoons would be timely. Since then, this formula has not only helped me add humor to my writing; it's helped me come up with an endless supply of story ideas.

So how does it work?
 

Shevi’s House of Funny formula for creating humor


The House of Funny formula is comprised of three Ss:

Setup+Surprise+Sense=Humor

The setup can be anything you want to be. In this case, it's whatever you want to make funny or add humor to. The setup creates an expectation, and the surprise comes from taking the setup in a completely unexpected direction.

Therefore, if you want to add humor to your writing, you have to work out what the reader will expect--and then you have to take your story in a completely different, unexpected direction. Not only will this add humor to your writing--it will let you create something that stands out from the crowd, something unexpected and new, something readers haven’t seen before. It will give your writing the "Wow" factor everyone is looking for.


Will any kind of surprise do?
 
Well, no. To fit the House of Funny formula, the surprise has to make sense on some level. Otherwise, it's just funny weird, not funny ha ha. We laugh at a joke because we "get it"--and we can't get it if it doesn't make sense!

Also, as I mentioned in my first video on the topic, while other comedy experts see pain as an essential element in comedy, I see it as a comedy killer.

Of course, some audiences have a much higher pain threshold than others, so you have to know your audience. Will they be surprised by your surprise, able to make sense of your logic, and accept any pain that may be a part of your joke? If so, you have all the ingredients for humor.

So how do I creates that surprise?

Great question! I'm glad you asked. (Okay, technically I'm the one who asked. But it's still a great question.)  The answer is rather complicated, so we’ll be looking at that in my next blog post. 

Kate Micucci from Garfunkel and Oates makes me smile

How I learned to stop worrying and love the e-book

I know my friends mean well when they tell me that an agent and a book deal are right around the corner. Every writer wants to be traditionally published, right? Every writer wants to see his or her book with a Random House or Simon & Schuster logo on the spine, right? And that’s what I’ve been working toward these last nine years. That’s the reason I’ve written seven middle-grade and YA novels, the reason I attended all those writers conferences, the reason I’ve entered contests, and the reason I’ve submitted my manuscripts to agents. I’m getting so close. Why would I want to give up all I’ve worked so hard for when I’m so close to getting it?  

The assumption is that traditional publishing is the real deal and self-publishing is for writers who couldn’t make it any other way. But I’m not a big fan of assumptions. I like to examine things more closely and from different perspectives. So let’s take a closer look at how traditional publishing stacks up against indie publishing today.

	Traditional Publishing	Indie E-Publishing
How long does it take?	According to a survey conducted by SF writer Jim C. Hines, it takes the average writer ten years to get a first novel published. http://www.jimchines.com/2010/03/survey-results/	This works according to Parkinson’s Law, which states that work expands to fill the amount of time allotted to it. Three months to a year is about right.
How much does it cost?	That depends on how much you want to invest. There are the basic expenses of mailing dozens of query packages over ten years, but most successful writers also invest in conferences, which cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. Some writers also take MFAs, which generally cost over $10,000.	Again, it depends on how much an author wants to invest. Basic expenses include books on writing and publishing, copyright registration, an editor, and a professionally designed cover. Total expenses usually run $200-$1,000.
How big of an advance can a writer expect to get?	According to a survey conducted by SF writer Tobias S. Buckell, the median first-time author advance is about $5,000. Combine that with the above survey, and that means the average writer earns $500 a year for the first ten years of his career: http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2005/10/05/author-advance-survey-version-20/	Indie Publishers don’t get an advance, and they do have to spend money to publish their books.
What about royalties?	A traditionally published author earns royalties once his or her book has earned out its advance. That doesn't sound too bad...except when one considers the majority of books by first-time authors don't earn back their advance. What's even more alarming, is that, according to research conducted by writer Kris Rusch, publishers--including some of the big six--are under-reporting ebook sales. So even if your book is selling enough to earn back your advance, you might never know it: http://kriswrites.com/2011/04/20/the-business-rusch-royalty-statements-update/	This depends on the writer’s abilities as a writer and as a marketer, but consider this: in ten years, an indie publisher can easily produce five ebooks, and if he sells them at $2.99 each (which would earn $2 for every copy sold), he only needs to sell 500 copies on average per book over a ten year period to make up the money he didn’t get from an advance.
What about a second book?	According to editor Alan Rinzler, 80-90% of books don’t earn out their advance, which means that’s all an author gets--and it means an author will have a doubly hard time finding a publisher for a second book: http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2011/06/05/good-day-sunshine-for-writers/	Indie publishers usually build an audience, which means they generally make more money the more books they have out. One unsuccessful book doesn’t put an end to an indie publisher’s career. He can always try, try again--with a different book or even the same book.
What about editing?	According to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Renni Browne and Dave King, “first-time authors are being printed rather than published—assuming they’re fortunate enough to get a publishing contract in the first place.... An acquisitions editor who signs up fifteen or twenty books a year couldn’t possibly edit them all...”	Most smart indie publishers hire editors. This costs money, but at least indies can shop around. They choose who they’re going to work with, and they have the final say. You can’t fire your editor at a traditional publishing house, but you can fire a freelance editor who works for you.
What about cover and interior design?	The publishing house chooses your cover based on their knowledge of the market and sometimes other factors (including a cheaper royalty-free cover). Authors may or may not be happy with the results, but they have no say. Brunettes have been turned into blondes. African-American protagonists have been portrayed on covers as white. Sometimes writers have had to rewrite scenes to fit cover images.	The cover is perhaps the most important thing an indie publisher can invest in. Some designers sell halfway decent covers for under $50, but most good ones go for $300 and up. It’s a good idea to start with something cheaper and then change it when you’ve made enough to justify the expense. Again, if you’re self-publishing, the choice is yours.
What about marketing?	Most publishers today expect most first-time novelists to do their own publicity. Those big advertising budgets are for writers who have already made the bestseller lists. You get a book launch, maybe a book signing or two, and a dozen or so review copies to mail out. Otherwise you’re basically on your own.	Like a traditionally published writer, this is mostly in your own hands. Your one advantage here is that you know it.
What about getting your book into brick-and-mortar bookstores? And what about Amazon?	A big publisher does have an easier time getting your book into brick-and-mortar stores, however...You might not have noticed, but brick-and-mortar bookstores are closing at an alarming rate. In addition, new books usually only stay on the shelf for a few months before they’re remaindered. After that, your book is the same boat as one that was self-published---unless your book goes out-of-print, in which case, it’s at a disadvantage. Your access to Amazon is pretty much the same, except that the publisher will probably act on your behalf. Again, it’s not in your hands.	For a small additional fee (about $50), most POD printers can make your book available to brick-and-mortar bookstores that ask for them, whenever they ask for them. It can never go out-of-print. You can sell your book through Amazon, and what goes on your book’s page (with the exception of reviews and comments) is in your hands.
What about reviews?	Big publishers usually have access to more print reviewers than indie publishers do, but that doesn’t guarantee your book will be reviewed in the New York Times. And even if it is, that doesn’t guarantee the review will be positive or that it will lead to sales. Print newspapers are fading even faster than brick-and-mortar bookstores. They still matter, but not as much as word of mouth and social media marketing.	When it comes to marketing, indie publishers usually focus on social media. A dozen glowing reviews from real people with real names on Amazon--or people saying nice things about your book on Twitter--will probably boost your book sales more than a great review from a print newspaper.
What about ebooks?	Traditional publishers usually charge $9.99 (the maximum Amazon allows in the 70% royalty range) for ebooks, because they don’t want ebooks to undercut their hardcover sales. Authors, however, usually only make about 15% of that. There is a very slim chance your publisher will invest heavily in marketing your ebook (they do that for bestsellers), so your $9.99 ebook will probably have to compete with similar indie-published books that cost a lot less than yours. In some categories, the indies are winning hands down. Recently, only one of the top ten Science-Fiction novels on Kindle was traditionally published--and it was a decades-old classic, Ender’s Game. In short, the competition is fierce, and this is one you're very unlikely to win. Amazon claims to sell more ebooks than books in any other format, so this is a major loss for the traditionally published writer who isn't a bestseller.	Indie publishers can charge less for ebooks and still make money, not only because their expenses are low and they can put out as many books as they can write in any given length of time, but because ebooks--when done right--should be their primary money maker. They can make $2 of pure profit for every ebook copy sold at $2.99. That’s 25% more than a traditionally published author whose ebook sells for $9.99.

So to all my friends, thank you for your kind words, but I didn’t give up my goal of finding an agent and a publisher because I lost faith in myself; I did it because I lost faith in the traditional publishing industry and because I truly believe in my work and my vision for it.

Thank you for believing in it too.

How to Blog Like a Funny, Children’s Book, YA, Fantasy, Science Fiction Writer

If anyone should have a blog, it’s a writer. Words are our livelihood, and a blog is like free advertising for what we do. Who wouldn’t want to advertise his or her business to possible clients all over the world for free? And, from the point of view of a reader, I'd much rather read a blog written by someone who can write than by someone who can't. Wouldn't you agree?

But it seems that many writers don’t blog, and those that do rarely blog effectively.

I get it. Making up stories about made up people is fun. But blogging can seem kind of scary. What do you write about? How will you make it interesting? Will people read it? And sometimes it feels as if you’ve been blogging for what seems like forever, you’ve spent hours writing dozens of posts, and no one cares.  Isn't blogging a waste of time that you could be spending writing your next book?

Well, no. It’s hard work, and it can take several years to see results, but it does eventually pay off if you do it right. If you're unpublished, blogging can impress agents and editors by showing you have a platform, as in thousands of people who are interested in what you have to say. And if you're published--whether traditionally or as an indie publisher--it can help you connect with readers, which can help you sell books. So how exactly do you do it right?

Here is a list of some questions many writers have about blogging and some answers to these questions:

How do I attract readers to my blog?

Start by writing 10-15 pillar articles. According to ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chriss Garrett, a pillar article is an article that attracts readers to your blog by giving them something they’re looking for. Pillar articles need to be focused on the core topic of your blog. They need to be useful or entertaining. The best pillar articles are 500-1,000-words long, have short paragraphs, headers, sub-headers, and at least one graphic. Lists and step-by-step guides make great pillar articles.

So how does this work for a writer?

 

According to We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Mediaby Kristen Lamb, if you’re writing nonfiction, your pillar articles should be authoritative. Readers will come to you looking for answers, and your blog will give them those answers.

If you’re a fiction writer, though, readers will probably look to you more for entertainment than information. A fiction writer’s best pillar articles should encourage comments and discussion. They should offer readers a way to connect with the writer, because that connection sells books. One of the best ways to encourage feedback is by starting with a title that asks a question. For example, “Who has the last word when it comes to children’s books: writers, publishers, parents or kids?” Of course, a writer should be prepared for some lively debate, because not everyone will agree with what the writer has to say.

How do pillar articles attract readers?

Search engines look for keywords in your tags (or labels), title, and your content. That’s why it’s important to have a list of keywords that fit the topic of your blog and to use them in these areas, particularly in your titles and in the first few words of your articles.

How do I get readers to come back to my blog?

Entertaining or useful content keeps readers coming back, so make sure there’s always fresh, entertaining or useful content. Try to blog between once a day and once a week (three to five times a week is good), but don’t say something just to say something. Good content once a week is better than good content once a week along with bad content three times a week.  Be consistent, and stay on topic, so readers know what to expect. For example, I regularly check out Dave Barry's blog, because I know it's going to be funny.

It usually takes years for a good blog to get up to speed, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away. Stick with it. Stay positive, and be nice to your readers. People usually like to hang around other people who make them feel good. Don’t polarize your readers, unless that’s a part of your brand and your marketing strategy.

How do I choose the general topic for my blog?

That depends on the image you want to create. Fill in the blank, “I want to be the writer readers turn to when they’re looking for________________.”

What would you put at the end of that sentence? Excitement? Something to make them laugh? Romance? Fantasy? Science Fiction? Inspiration? A best friend who understands them? A story they can share with their kids? All of the above?

Use your posts to give visitor a taste of what you have to offer. If you write humor (like I do), your blog posts should have some humor. If you write romance, you might want to spice things up a bit. It couldn’t hurt. Write about your books, but not just your books. Always write in a way that serves your visitor first, not your own ends.

How do I come up with specific topics?

Keywords help search engines find articles on a certain topic, so start by making a list. You want 20 core keywords that you’ll use over and over in your blog posts, words a reader might type into a search engine to look for a writer like you, words that define who you are as a writer. Start by writing down as many as you can think of, and then highlight the top 20. Why 20? This is the maximum number of keywords that Blogger (or Blogspot) allows on a blog post. While you might use a different platform, it’s still a good number to stick to, because it will keep your blog more focused.

Here’s my list of keywords to give you an idea of what yours might look like:

Shevi Arnold, novelist, writer, author, teen, YA fiction, children’s books, funny, humor, comedy, geek, ebooks, fantasy, science fiction, stories, storyteller, magic, dreamer, publisher, imagination.

This doesn’t mean that all my blog posts will have all these tags or they won’t sometimes have very different tags, but these are the tags I want to use most often to help search engines (and potential readers) find my blog. Combine these keywords, and you’ll get an idea of who I am (writer, author, storyteller), what I write (children’s books, YA fiction, humor, fantasy and science fiction), and my general style and attitude (funny, geek, dreamer).

How do I turn my keywords into 10-15 pillar articles?

The purpose of your pillar articles is to give your visitors something that will make them happy they came to your blog—and a reason to come back again. Pillar articles also help visitors create an image of you, something they think of when they see your name. Look at your keywords, and ask yourself what you can give visitors. Is there something you know that visitors might not know but would love to? Are there questions you used to have that you’ve since discovered the answers to? What matters to you, and how does that relate to your readers? Do your readers feel deeply about the same things, and could that shared feeling connect you and your readers? These are the kinds of things that would make great pillar topics for your blog.

As an example, here’s a list of some of the ideas I’ve had for pillar articles, ones that fit my expertise and the image I’m trying to create:

1.       Where do you get your ideas? How you, too, can have more stories concepts than you know what to do with

2.       Me Write Funny Someday—how to add humor to your writing

3.       Let ‘em read comics! If you want to turn kids into readers, let them read what they want to read.

4.       Who let the grownups in here? Why adults are falling in love with YA and books for kids.

5.       Let the meek inherit the earth. The geeks will inherit the stars! How geeks are taking over the world (and why that’s a good thing)

6.       Ten great fantasy novels for girls

7.       If you can’t beat ‘em, study ‘em! What writers can learn from movies and other forms of storytelling

8.       The ten biggest mistakes aspiring YA novelists make (and how to avoid them)

9.       The five best books to read if you want to write fiction

10.   The one most important thing every aspiring children’s book or YA writer should know…

11.   Why fantasy is the most honest genre of all

12.   Why are there so few funny books for teens?

13.   Stories within stories: from Scheherazade to Toren

14.   Is the magic in Harry Potter real after all?

15.   The power of belief, and what this means to fiction writers

 

Is there anything else I can do to attract readers to my blog?

Lots! You can include your blog’s URL in the signature of your emails, post on other blogs or in forums and use your avatar link back to your blog, give your blog an easy to remember name and a great description, guest blog for others, link to other blogs, and so much more. We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media has a great list of ways writers can make social media work for them.

I haven't always done this blogging thing right, but I'm learning, and I'm trying to put what I've learned into practice.  It's never too late to change.

So will your blog give your readers?

Writers, how to make social media work for you

So after reading Author 101: Bestselling Secrets from Top Agents, I came to the conclusion I needed to work on my blog if I wanted to sell my books. Easier said than done.

Not knowing how to go about it, I picked up Zoe Winter's wonderfully informative Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author. While the book deals mostly with indie publishing--including publishing to Kindle, working with Smashwords, creating both a production and marketing schedule, and much more--it did include a brief overview of social media for writers, including the importance of having a blog to connect with readers. Zoe Winters also recommends starting a newsletter, because someone might subscribe to your blog and never look at it again, but people who subscribe to your newsletter genuinely want to read what you have to say (particularly if it involves freebies and contests, like her newsletter does).

So that led me to another wonderful book, ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, which has a ton of helpful information about successful blogging in general.

But I still didn't know how to apply what I had learned to my blog. I mean, I'm a fiction writer. I write books for kids and teens. Wasn't there a book that could tell me step-by-step how a fiction writer could use social media to increase his or her platform? Fortunately, there is.


The Best Social Media Guide Specifically for Writers

We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media by Kristen Lamb is like having a smart, funny friend who will take you by the hand and show you exactly what you need to succeed and how to do it.

For example, about halfway through, the book has a recap with a list of the first things you will need:

• A brand name (the name that will appear on your book)
• A list of your goals divided into three categories:

1. Strategic Career Goals (where you want to be in five years) 
2. Strategic Marketing Goals (to create the image you want associated with your brand)
3. Ten Tactical Goals (the things you plan to do to achieve your publishing goals, like creating a blog and following the blogs of potential readers.)

• A collection of content material--like pictures and videos--to help support your brand
• 10-15 posts (500-1,000 words each) related to your topic to serve as strategic content
• Three bios of different lengths
• A detailed profile of your reader and consumer demographic

What each of these things are, why you need them, and how to make them work for you are covered in great detail, as is so much more.

For example, when it comes to your brand name, the author explains how important it is for it to be the same name as the one that will appear on your books--because even if you do all the right things when it comes to social media, no one will be able to find your book when they're looking for one written by @LemurLady27.

She also explains that your readers aren't your fellow writers (although you should still network with them) or people who read books like they're chewing gum. "Yup, that one's finished, now I think I'll try fruit flavored." Your readers are the people who generally don't read that much, but will read your book because you wrote it just for them. It's like the way Harry Potter made readers out of non-readers. That's your ultimate goal.

All of this is just the tip of the iceberg, so if you're a writer who's been frustrated by social media because you don't know where to start or why it's not going as you hoped, this is the book for you.

And now it's time for me to start working on those 10-15 articles for my strategic content. I have so many ideas I can't wait. Thanks, Kristen Lamb!

A writer's step-by-step plan for using social media

Social media is so confusing. Writers know it's important, but where do you start? Twitter? A blog? Facebook? What do you post? How often? And how does it help you sell your book?

I've read several wonderful books on the topic. Here's a rundown of their top tips:

Author 101: Bestselling Secrets from Top Agents by Rick Frishman and Robyn Freedman Spizman

The main thing I learned from Author 101: Bestselling Secrets from Top Agents is that a writer needs a platform. It doesn't matter if you write nonfiction or fiction, it's all about your platform. So what's a platform? There are actually two kinds (three if you consider that Facebook or Twitter are also platforms, but this refers to a writer's platform).

The first kind of platform is how readers think of you when they think of you. For example, Isaac Asimov will always be known as a science fiction writer, even though he wrote many books that weren't science fiction. J.K. Rowling will forever be identified with Harry Potter. J.R.R. Tolkien will always be remembered for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Maybe in the future, I'll be known as the writer of Toren the Teller or Gilbert the Fixer. But for now, my platform is that I'm a funny writer, a Geek Goddess, and the author of humorous fiction, fantasy and science fiction for kids and teens. I also have a reputation for helping other writers out.

The second kind of platform is made up of the number of Twitter followers, Facebook fans, blog subscribers, and so on that you have. If you want an agent in today's publishing environment, you're going to need this kind of platform--but how do you get it? That part wasn't so clear, so I kept looking.

Smart Self--Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author by Zoe Winters

Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author is chock full of information and useful advice, both for self-publishers and traditionally published authors. While the author writes about the things that worked for her, she does acknowledge that other authors have succeeded with things that didn't, and you may succeed with them too. This sets this book apart from almost every other book I've read on self-publishing, which have gone on and on about why you should e-publish and how much success the author had as an indie publisher.

You'll learn why you need a newsletter, where you can create one, and what you should and shouldn't put in yours; working out a marketing schedule and a marketing plat; why you need to set both short-term and long-term goals, and what those goals can be; self-editing, critique groups, and hiring a freelance editor; what kind of prizes lead to more sales (and what kind don't); and all aspects of marketing, from social networking, blogs and blog hopping to marketing with video and paid advertising when you've earned enough to afford it.

This is one of the most helpful books I've read on self-publishing, and I highly recommend it.

Still, even though it talked a lot about the importance of blogging for writers, I still didn't feel I had enough of a grasp on the details. Yes, it mentioned that it's a good idea to post several times a week, but what good is that if no one is checking out your blog? How do you get people to give your blog a glance? And then a second glance? And then maybe subscribe? So I went looking for another book on the details, and I found a great one.

ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garret

Although it's not writer specific, I found ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income invaluable for the depth of information it contains about successful blogging.

There are two ways to make money blogging: either by selling advertising space, or by using your blog to promote your work, for example, as a freelance writer or editor. I went through the book with a highlighter, and I ended up highlighting something on every other page.

I even put stars near some things I found particular helpful. For example, there's a list of question to ask yourself to help you better understand your target audience. There's also a section on useful blog properties, and another wish suggestions for how you can create useful blog content. It was great.

We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media by Kristen Lamb

 Of course, at this point, I had learned so much I felt like my head might explode. I needed one book to help me tie it all together, and luckily I found it in We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media.

This book is awesome! And in my next blog post, I'll tell you why.

Meanwhile, if you have any questions about social media for writers, please feel free to ask them in the comments section below. I'll do my best to answer them if I can.       

You think it's just an innocent social network, but is Facebook really...?

This is the funniest thing I've seen yet from The Onion. Great job!