Award-winning novelist Jeffrey Marks is the newest instructor at WritersWeekly University. His class, Intent To Sell – Marketing Genre Fiction Works In Today’s Marketplace, helps first-time novelists create the materials they need to start marketing their works. In today’s article, Jeffrey details his introduction to marketing genre fiction.
I have a question for Ask the Expert. For the past six months or so I have done a few book reviews for a particular website. I understood when I signed on that there was no monetary compensation. I now realize that this is more time consuming and harder than I expected.
I assume the company running the website must get some compensation for their work. How do these types of businesses work? Do you think I am being taken advantage of doing reviews for free?
Leafing through Jane Magazine at my local Barnes & Noble one afternoon, I came across a column entitled, It Happened to Me. It’s a column in which readers are given the opportunity to submit a true story, approximately a thousand words in length, and, if printed, are paid $1000. (However, according to the magazine’s website, https://www.janemag.com, writers are encouraged to “do it for the love.”)
Last week, I purchased bathtub finger paint, window paint, red spray paint and glow-in-the-dark plastic stars. On Monday morning, while Richard had his head buried in his email, I wrote drew an A, a heart, and an R (A Loves R) in the bathtubs, on the bathroom mirrors, and on the windows in the house. When Richard was later on the phone, I wrote the same thing on the ceiling of our bedroom, right over his pillow, with the glow-in-the-dark stars. My last mission was to paint A Loves R in the snow out front and back with the red spray paint. Problem is…it was so cold that each time I tried to use the spray can, it would freeze up. I tried shaking it vigorously, but that just caused drops of red to splatter in the snow…
I’d like to share some advice on how not to ruin your chances of writing for a publication…
This Week:
One day last year, I had an hour left of writing time but wasn’t getting anywhere. Instead, I spent about 20 minutes jotting down a ‘reader tip’ I’d had inside my head. Without further thought, I mailed it to a magazine I frequently read, and called it a day.
Several months later, I was surprised by a call from the magazine saying they’d like to print it, and soon received a check for $75. Not bad for 20 minutes of work on a dry day.
Although it was eight years ago I remember vividly my decision NOT to give away any more of my books. Restless from the Start, my first baby, had recently been accepted for availability at one Barnes & Noble store in Sarasota, Florida because I would be doing a lecture on publishing and promotion there. The head office would put the book into their computer system and five copies would be ordered for Sarasota.
Warning: Don’t read today’s column if runny noses gross you out.
The piece about organizing by Julie Hood (Files, Piles and Stacks…Get Organized for 2005) you featured in WritersWeekly was so great, I printed it, then went to her website and printed some more.
