Want More Eyes on Your Book? Try Guest Posting!

If you're a regular reader here on The Literary Mercenary, then I'd like to inform you you're a member of a rather exclusive club. Which is my way of saying that I don't get anywhere near as much traffic on this blog as I'd like. Even so, just last week I got an email from the folks over at NFReads. They'd come across my blog, saw me talk about my novel Crier's Knife, and they invited me to write a guest post on their platform promoting it.

Which I did, and you can check out the article Pulp Fantasy: The Land We All Forgot if you're interested.

And that's our segue into today's topic...

For folks not in the know, writing an article like that for someone else's platform is called guest posting, and it is often the cornerstone of making sure you get a lot of eyes on your book, blog, or other writing project.

How Does Guest Posting Work?

Guest posting is, at its core, pretty simple. You find a website (or in a truly fortunate case, a website finds you), and you write a post for them. The post needs to fit with the site's themes and subject matter, but that post should also mention who you are, provide a link back to your site, and ensure that folks who read said post find out about you, and what you do.

But why would you post on someone ELSE'S page instead of your own?

There are a lot of reasons you should invest in guest posting, but the biggest ones are that they give you bonuses in the numbers game that is selling books. For example, when a search engine indexes your blog, or even your book's sales page, it examines how many reputable websites have links back to it. These off-page links are important in boosting your visibility, and the bigger or more important the site your guest blog appears on, the more heavily weighted the links on that page are going to be.

It's the same reason I mentioned my book as well as My Amazon Author Page when I wrote the post 3 Reasons "Bloat" is a Made-Up Problem for the RPG website High Level Games. Because the more reputable websites I have pointing back to my books and my blogs, the more likely I am to turn up on the first page of related search results.

In addition to jacking up your numbers, though, guest posts also allow you to tap into that other website's audience. For example, John Hartness is a writer and publisher who gets way more traffic than I do, even on my best days. So when he asked me to write a guest post to help boost the signal for the anthology The Big Bad II (a super fun collection where the bad guys are the protagonists), I wrote up the post Evolution of Evil to talk about the themes I was getting at with my modern fantasy story Little Gods.

While my post wasn't a viral sensation, it put my name and my story in front of a lot of people. Far more than the number of folks who would have found out about it if I'd put that same post here on my own blog. And while a lot of folks probably skimmed right past my information, even if they read the post itself, some folks may have clicked on my information. That would have brought them straight to my site, and given me a chance to suck them more permanently into my orbit.

Is that all it does?

Those are the two, major benefits of guest posting. However, providing guest posts can also endear you to the person(s) who run the website you're providing the content for, it can establish you as an expert in your field, and just generally make your name a lot more visible. If you're the sort of reader who prefers itemized lists, then 8 Reasons Why Guest Posting is an Advantage by Branding Personality lays it all out by the numbers.

Keep Your ROI in Mind

When I started this blog, one of my first posts was Professional Rule Number One: Never Work For Free. And I stand by the points I made in that post; if you are taking the time and effort to create something, then you need to be sure you're getting a return on the effort you're putting into that project.

Where my dividends at?

The thing I cautioned about then, and which I'd like to remind folks about now, is that returns can take a number of different forms. In their most basic form, it's you getting paid in some fashion. Maybe the individual agrees to pay you a fee, or to do a profit-share model with all the traffic your post produces. On the other hand, the site you're posting on might be so prestigious that the sheer amount of run-off traffic your post generates is worthwhile in and of itself. Alternatively, you might be writing your guest post as a kind of quid-pro-quo to improve (or even establish) your professional relationship with the site owner.

All of these are potential returns. Some of them might be in your hand as soon as the article goes up, others will take time to start paying dividends. But it's important to remember that just because something doesn't have a dollar sign attached to it, that doesn't mean you're working for nothing. Just take a minute to evaluate, and to see what benefits you get from this endeavor to make sure it's worth your while.

That's all for this Business of Writing installment. Hopefully it gives folks out there something to chew over! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and make sure to stop by My Amazon Author Page.

To stay on top of all my releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and even Pinterest! To help support me directly, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or going to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a monthly patron. Even a little bit can go a long way!

Amazon Expects Readers To Pay If They Want To Leave Book Reviews

Online customer reviews are a way of life. Whether you're going out to eat, buying a car, getting your gutters cleaned, or buying a book, you always check to see what previous users have had to say before you put your hard-earned money on the line. In fact, as Invesp points out, as many as 90 percent of people will do a quick check on a local business's online reviews before trying them out. Of those folks, roughly 88 percent said they trusted online reviews just as much as they would a personal recommendation from someone they know.

This one looks good... let's give it a try!

If you're an author, then you already know how important good reviews for your book can be. Especially when it comes to the Internet's biggest marketplace, as I mentioned back in How Many Book Reviews Do You Need Before Amazon Promotes You? However, if you're hoping to get your readers to leave you a whole bunch of 5-star reviews on Amazon, prepare to run face-first into an unexpected hurdle.

You Want To Leave Feedback, Make Sure You're Paid Up!

Ideally, the book review process is a simple one. If someone reads your book and likes it, they can sign onto their Amazon account, call up your title, click how many stars they think you deserve, and maybe leave a little blurb about what they liked. Or hated, if that's the case. The more reviews you have, the more likely your book is to be seen, and the more sales you're likely to make. After all, if more than 50 people thought this book was great, then this is clearly something you need to check out for yourself!

In case you were looking for your next recommendation, you should check this one out!

It's already hard enough to get readers to go and leave reviews on your book, but as I've found with my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, Amazon recently enacted a policy change that makes it even harder.

These days it isn't enough to have an Amazon account if you want to leave reviews. It's not even enough to buy your book through Amazon. In order to leave a review on it, the account holder needs to have spent at least $50 through that website in the past year. Otherwise they're not allowed to leave reviews. Even if they discovered your book through Amazon in the first place, and that's where they bought your book to read it. Unless they've spent that money (gift cards don't count according to the Amazon policy), then they can't share their thoughts with the community at large.

That's a kick in the teeth no matter who you are. Because whether your fans came across your book during a free giveaway, or they simply don't have a lot of spare dosh to throw around, leaving a review is one of the best ways to help the authors that you love without spending any money in the process. Unless, that is, you're trying to leave that review on Amazon.

So Go To Goodreads Instead!

If this is a problem you've ever run into (I've had three readers message me personally to inform me they ran into this wall, so I can only guess the number who had this problem and didn't tell me about it), then I have a workaround for you! You can still help the authors whose work you want to promote, share your opinion, and do it all for free.

Head over to Goodreads, and leave your review there.

Seriously, everyone is welcome over there!

While Amazon's algorithm is seriously powerful, Goodreads is no slouch at getting the word out about your work either. It even has buy links right on the page (as you can see on the page for Crier's Knife), in case someone sees it, thinks it looks good, and wants to pick up a copy. It also shows how many people are currently reading your book, and how many people have marked it to-read, which can be helpful.

This is not an either-or proposition, of course. If you're a reader who really wants to help an author you like reach a bigger audience, then leave reviews in as many locations as you can! But if you find yourself standing on the other side of Amazon's velvet rope because you don't order enough stuff from them to share your opinion, well, you're more than welcome on my Goodreads page!

We Can't Do It Without You!

Authors might be the ones writing the books, but it's the vocal readers who boost our signal that really drive our careers. Remember that, without you, there's no way we could afford to do this sort of thing for a living! Also, if you want to know some more ways you can help the authors you love without spending green to do it, check out 10 Concrete Ways You Can Help Authors You Like!

That's all for this Business of Writing installment. If you're an author, make sure you have a place all your thrifty fans can go so that Amazon doesn't silence their voices (and cost you money).

For more work by yours truly, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by My Amazon Author Page! To stay on top of all my releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest where I'm building boards to keep track of both my books and RPG supplements. Lastly, to help support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi or going to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a patron today!

Does Your Book Have A Trailer? Here's 5 Reasons It Should

In this day and age, we're all familiar with trailers. However, a lot of us forget that they aren't just for movies. From short infomercials about unbreakable pans, to sneak previews of plays, concerts, and festivals, it's possible to make a trailer for damn near anything. All you need to do is put together a video appetizer, and throw it out there to get people interested in what you're trying to sell.

As an example, thanks to Dungeon Keeper Radio, my novel Crier's Knife now has its very own book trailer!

If you have a book on the market, but you don't have a trailer for it yet, let me list some of the reasons why you should.

#1: Something Different

Everyone has a buy link for their book, or a link to a free preview of the first few chapters... but how many of them have a book trailer? Whether you go full-out with video production, or you stick to audio like I did, the point is that by changing up the formula you can catch people off-guard. So folks who might ignore a buy link, or just a picture of the cover, might click-through to see what a trailer is all about.

Once they've done that, you've got 'em.

#2: It's Good For Your Algorithm

As we all know, where your book turns up in search results is directly dependent on a search algorithm. However, while there are hundreds of factors that go into these digital number crunchers, one of those factors is how many sites link to your book. If your book trailer does absolutely nothing else, it can boost your signal and get you better results as long as you have it available online somewhere, and you make sure that buy link is front-and-center.

Of course, it helps if people are watching your trailer.

#3: People Pay Attention To Video

As technology has increased, more businesses than ever before are making use of video content. The reason is that, psychologically, people respond more to video than to any other form of communication. While images might capture someone's attention for a moment, video grabs them in a way that is much harder to ignore. By making video content, you're grabbing viewers hard, and giving them a pitch that will stay with them a lot longer than all but the catchiest of tag lines.

#4: More People Can Watch Them Than Ever Before

Accessibility is the name of the game, and the bigger your potential reach, the better your chances of finding new readers become. Given that huge swaths of the population have mobile devices where they will watch videos all day, it's quite likely that a trailer will capture their attention in ways that other, static ads never would. And as we all know, all it takes is getting someone to open that door for them to start eyeing your entire body of work... even if that trailer was only for your latest book.

#5: It's One More Thing For You To Talk About

The law of diminishing returns is never clearer than when it comes to you trying to drum up interest in your latest release. The first time you post about it, you'll get a small ocean of likes, shares, and most of your initial purchases. But the second time you post, you'll only get a fraction of that initial response. The third time you post, you're pretty much just down to your diehard fans.

However, whenever there is something new about your book (you were reviewed by someone in an online magazine, your were interviewed on a TV or radio show, etc.), that puts fresh life into your posts. You get more attention when you share fresh news than when you remind folks of something that's already happened, and a book trailer is just one more example of a fresh spin that can get a lot of eyes focused on your work.

Best of All, Getting a Trailer Isn't That Hard

Whether you have a YouTube or Vimeo channel already, or your trailer is being crafted by someone else, they tend to be relatively low-cost additions to your marketing plan. Especially if you have some basic editing skills, and you know where you can find royalty-free sound effects. Best of all, a trailer has the potential to earn you back what you spend on it several times over if it catches on and gets some real power behind it.

There are no guarantees when it comes to selling books, but as far as risky investments go, a book trailer is a pretty safe bet.

That's all for this Business of Writing post! Hopefully it helps some folks out there, and you enjoyed giving my book trailer a listen. For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and be sure to follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. If you'd like to support me, then you can leave me a one-time tip by Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or you can become a regular patron at The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. And, of course, if you'd like to get your hands on Crier's Knife, or any of my other books, just head over to My Amazon Author Page!

Understanding The Flat Arc (Because Sometimes Your Characters Don't HAVE To Change)

I'd like to start this entry off with a bit of good news. I recently put out my first novel! Crier's Knife is a sword and sorcery tale, with all the flashing blades and fell magic you'd expect from something in the genre. Our protagonist is Dirk Crier, a mountain boy from a witchbred clan, and one day his grandmother sets him the task of fetching his cousin Teller. Teller has a knack for getting into trouble, but this time he's up to his neck in real darkness; the kind you don't walk out of without leaving a little blood behind you. So Dirk rides out to either bring Teller home, or to make sure his kin has plenty of company on the long road to hell.

Seriously, the first few chapters are free, go read them!

One of the questions people keep asking me about this book is who is my protagonist, and what's his arc? Well, Dirk is a member of the Crier clan who, left to his own devices, would be happy building himself a cabin on the slopes of Ben Morgh to live a fairly quiet life. But when trouble rears its head, it's his job to put it back down again. In short, he's the family's enforcer, and the nasty work tends to end up in his lap.

As to his arc, that got me wondering. Because, you see, most folks only know about the two major types of character arcs; positive character arcs (where a character confronts and overcomes a flaw or fear to succeed and become better) and negative arcs (where a character fails to overcome a flaw or fear, and hurts themselves or others in the process).

There is a third kind of character arc, though, according to Well-Storied; the flat arc. In a flat arc a character's morals and beliefs are challenged, but they hold true to who they are and overcome.

That is a perfect description of Dirk, and the arc he has in Crier's Knife.

"Flat" Is Not Synonymous With "Bad"

Now, there's a big difference between a character being flat, and that character having a flat arc. Because flat characters are dull, boring, and one-dimensional. Characters with flat arcs, on the other hand, are some of the most famous and lauded personas in literature.

Like this guy, for example.

At his core, Batman is a character with hundreds (if not thousands) of flat arc stories. Sherlock Holmes is another character with a lot of flat arcs (this condition is particularly common among detectives and serialized characters, if you keep track). The same can be said of characters like Conan, or Solomon Kane. Sam Spade, Hawk, and even Captain America find themselves with a lot of flat arcs, as well.

Because, you see, these characters already have The Truth figured out, when it comes to their worlds and stories. They don't need to climb a mountain to talk to a sensei, to uncover their inner strength, or to learn lessons to overcome a challenge. They know what to do, and they do it. So, as readers, we get the satisfaction of fast-forwarding to what many consider the "good part" of a positive story arc. The part when the protagonist has learned their lesson, overcome their flaw, and is ready to rock and roll.

(Also, to head off any quibbles here, characters who are serialized will have different arcs in different stories. It's true that character like Batman have had positive arcs and negative arcs throughout their runs, and those story lines tend to be the memorable ones. By and large, though, the bulk of their story lines are flat arcs, with the exceptions sort of proving the rule.)

There's Nothing Wrong With Holding Steady

I will admit that flat arcs tend to be some of my favorite stories. While I understand the appeal of a positive arc (because personal growth and change to overcome obstacles is motivating and engaging) as well as a negative arc (because, as I've stated in the past, I'm a great lover of the "fuck you" ending), I find that a flat arc is often the most useful for when you already want your character to know who they are, and to have their world figured out. And since flat arc stories tend to create conflicts that fall into the No, You Move category, they can be fun and compelling without the need to do a lot of navel gazing that may not be necessary for your story.

This quote is basically a summation of the flat arc conflict.

So the next time you're writing, remember that it isn't either self-discovery and success, or crashing and burning because you didn't overcome. Sometimes your character just looks at the world, plants their feet, and says, "Bring it on."

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing post! Hopefully it engaged some folks out there, and if you're curious what an engaging flat arc would look like stop on in and read the first few chapters of Crier's Knife for free!

If you want to stay on top of all my releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. If you'd like to see more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, as well as my Amazon Author Page. Lastly, if you'd like to help support me and my work, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi as a tip, or going to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron!