Tears of Happiness - Enable Learning Mode; Plus a Question!
Published: Wed, 03/13/24
Ever have something you did that just makes you so happy you tear up? I FINALLY (after so long) published my clean contemporary romance fiction novel last night through one of my pen names. I have had to really struggle with running a business, dealing with health scares - and then trying to write on top of that but I pushed through! Better late than never.
The technical process is complete. I want to share something about this, though. I wanted it done right. So the last time I published (in a different pen name), I was not happy with the storyline really. I didn't have an edit on it. I hired a blah graphics person.
The end result was I never promoted it and I unpublished it. It's sitting there all sad now in limbo. I plan to refurbish it with corrections to the storyline, a nice edit, and a good top tier cover. I tried to shortcut it to rush it out and you can't do that because then you won't feel confident about what you're doing. I have another fully finished novel I never even uploaded because I disliked it - and it's a great idea! I just need to do the professional stuff and polish it up so I feel good when releasing it.
If clean romance is a genre you read (this is a "healing through love" slant where broken people find happiness with one another) and you want the link to the book, let me know and I'll send it to you. It IS enrolled in Kindle unlimited, and I have a paperback version, too that just went live. I'm so happy with the way the story turned out (I cried during one part I wrote that involved a horse and a kid) and the cover ended up just gorgeous. I am beyond proud and happy.
Now comes the hard part. I have to learn a proper book launch. I feel overwhelmed. This is a MARKETING business because anyone can upload a file. But that doesn't make sales. My goal with this book isn't money. It's learning. I learned a LOT by paying about $500 for an edit. I learned a LOT working with a really professional cover designer.
Now I have to learn a pre and post PROPER launch process. I'm unfamiliar with it. I am a complete newbie in that space. Writing, I'm decent at. I'm no literary genius, but some people like the work and that's a good starting point. I AM spending time learning craft, too - I'm reading comments to see what people like (and don't like). I'm reading to learn more ways of writing. I'm studying pacing and plotting and everything.
But I enjoy this. I also have to learn how to run ads on Amazon and FB. I have to figure out what types of marketing efforts are worth it (and which aren't). I know I have to learn from others then FrankenTiff it into my own process.
Now if I can keep up my momentum. I REALLY want to be able to do this full time. It's a dream. But it'll be a long time before that happens. In the meantime, I'll continue writing PLR and marketing. Keep pursuing whatever it is YOU want - because when I think of never doing it, it makes me sad.
Tomorrow, I'm working on a PLR about using AI to help you create your own fiction novel, in different ways. But I'm taking today off to make some chicken enchiladas and my son and daughter in law are on their way over - so yay!
QUESTION: For those in the marketing niche, I'm wondering if having some "scenario" stories would be useful. For example, if you're promoting an SEO product (or teaching SEO), I could have a story about a new entrepreneur named John. He had plenty of determination and drive, but had only been introduced to paid ads, and knew little about SEO. What he quickly learned, after losing a lot of money, is that he had to find a way to generate organic traffic. Then it would go into the best plan of action for him to get started. All of this is general, but I'd be more detailed, more rich emotion and picture painting of the situation.
Sometimes it helps to have some storyline like this to help your reader "see" themselves in the situation and understand how it works for people. You would introduce it as an example of what they might be going through, and they instantly connect to the advice.
Just wondering if these personalization storylines would be helpful - if you think they are, let me know.
Tiff ;)