Paper or Plastic (Computer)?

 Hello creatives,

I hope the week is going well and you are finding joyful pursuits every day. Am I old, stubborn, or just low-tech? I wonder, because it feels like I'm CONSTANTLY being sent to an "app." I remember when a teaching colleague whipped out a USB thumb drive, and I thought he was about to light a cigarette on school property. I thought he had a lighter, and I was light years behind.

I'm heading to New York City tomorrow to visit my cousin Annie. She's quite the world traveler and tech-whiz, so she TEXTED me an APP to use to CHECK IN ONLINE and BUY a ticket for rail passage from Newark, New Jersey, to Penn Station in Manhattan. Geez, that plus the whole Allegiant app check-in process on my phone's tiny screen took an hour. I do believe all these convenient tools take longer than a plain old paper ticket. Right? I think I'm one of those old-fashioned ladies who needs a younger traveling companion.

Speaking of paper, I often joke that I'm a tree killer. Meh. I plant trees and water plants. I'm good. I do use a whole heck of a lot of paper, though. Sometimes, being outside or in a different room, holding a pen and not tapping a keyboard, and physically writing can be freeing! Try it. When I brainstorm and work on projects, each one has it's own stack of paper. REAL paper. When school supplies rear their neon heads at department stores in early August, I snatch up 100 or more 15 cent spiral bound notebooks. They serve me well.

caption for image

If you are weary of the screen and need a new outlook on your project, try paper and pen. Try using paper and pen OUTSIDE. Take your writing on the road. You can always type whatever you create on paper into Word. I'm all packed for New York with walking shoes, cash, a mugger whistle (my mother insisted), and, you guessed it, a notebook and pen.

Happy writing!

Jody

FOUR QUESTIONS to Help You Sell More Books

 Good morning,

As I may have told you (I talk about this a lot right now), I am designing an online course to help authors with marketing. Most cannot/will not pay for a publicist (overpriced and overpromising, anyway), and I want something that YOU can absolutely use, enjoy, and profit from! My top goal is for you to produce books that impact the world and make YOU proud of your work. My second goal is for you to make a profit. Thus, the course. It's an affordable and reasonable solution for authors who know they need to market their books but don't really know how or are overwhelmed by all the different parts and pieces.

My plan is to create a 12-week course with weekly modules that teach authors WHAT is important, WHY it's important, and a realistic amount of HOW. I am also launching a monthly membership that follows the course. Through that monthly membership, I will expand each of those modules into entire months of lessons via emails, videos, printable documents, etc. That way, in a year's time, authors have REAL FOUNDATIONS for marketing their books online and in-person. They can take their time working through the modules on weekdays and even revisit them any time they like because I'll archive everything.

The 12-week course --- Each topic will be self-contained, meaning you don't have to do everything (though I will make it easy to do everything over time!).

1. author brand kit
2. planning book releases (launches)
3. the business (financial parts and pieces) of being an author
4. list building to grow your audience
5. platform development (content delivery to build audience)
6. event planning
7. SOCIAL MEDIA (you name it)
8. website stuff
9. marketing to organizations (schools, retailers, etc.)
10. scheduling everything ever (all the parts and pieces in a calendar)
11. reviews (who, what, when, where, how, why)
12. value-added pieces to enhance book sales (stuff you can do inside your book)

The open-ended membership will include expanded teaching and the following:

• Expanded lessons for everything listed above and MORE.

• I will guide you (slowly and steadily) through weekly lessons for each module so you aren't overwhelmed and can easily fit the work into your schedule.

• 1 basic, realistic assignment every week. In other words, you'll have results!

• Pdf resources, of course, that you can print out and follow.

• 1 group Q&A Zoom meeting per month that I will record and archive/email to you. In other words, you don't have to be there to benefit.• ALL lessons will be archived so you have plenty of time to learn and implement what I teach.

• Up to 4 questions per month via email to me. I will answer via a spreadsheet to which everyone has access.

• A database (the spreadsheet) of the questions and answers. You'll be able to search for all kinds of answers. NOTHING fancy. I keep everything as simple as possible.

• Any new support materials I create (cheat sheets, social media frames, tech tips, good articles, tech tips, etc.) MORE will be added. This is the list thus far.

caption for image

QUESTIONS FOR YOU:

1. WHAT do you think is a reasonable price for the 12-week course? What would carefully and methodically going through these lessons, one by one, with my total and consistent support, be worth to you?

2. What do you think I should charge for the ongoing membership? The membership lasts indefinitely, as I will teach new content every month.

3. What do you want to learn?

4. What is the biggest struggle for you when it comes to marketing your books? Thanks for your input. I am doing this for YOU, so I want to know what YOU think and what would work for you:)

EMAIL ME AT dyer.cbpublishing@gmail.com. You can reply here but you can always email me directly. 

THANKS AGAIN and happy weekend!

xoxoxo Jody