On Writing by Julie Mulhern

In January of this year, I made the heart-stoppingly terrifying decision to quit my day job and write full-time.

For years, I’d been one of those writers who rose before the chickens. I got so I didn’t need the alarm at five in the morning. I was already up, fingers poised over the keyboard, writing. At seven, I’d switch gears and go to work. My series, The Country Club Murders, had a home with a publisher I adored. The books were selling well. But I wanted more.

I dreamed of making a living writing.

Therein lies one of the myths of publishing and one of my first lessons. Before I was published, I was certain writers made buckets of money. Granted, not everyone could earn like James Patterson or Janet Evanovich, but I was certain that mid-listers were making a comfortable living. After I was published, I grasped the math.

When an author sells an e-book on Amazon or Kobo or iBooks or Barnes & Noble, the store takes a cut. Percentages vary based on pricing, but the store makes its money first.

I have a publisher who collects the royalties from my Country Club Murders book sales. The publisher gets a cut.

I also have an agent. She too gets a percentage of my earnings.

The percentages are worse for print.

At the end of the day, I make less money than the bookseller or publisher.

My options seemed clear. If wanted to make a living writing, I had two choices. Either I figured out how to be James Patterson or I kept more of the royalties generated by my books.

Which is why I dipped my toe into self-publishing.

Starting a new series is tough. Tougher than the first time because now I know the pitfalls. The world is set in the first book. The characters are created. Their backstories are revealed. There’s a lot to think about.

The first book in the Country Club Murders takes place in June, 1974. The second book is set in September of that year. Without thinking, I gave away a whole season. If I wanted the Country Club Murders to stay firmly rooted in the 70s, I had to slow time. Now, Ellison finds bodies on a near weekly basis and time inches by rather than leaps.

Those first few days of being a full-time writer, I sat in front of the computer and stared at the screen. World? Characters? Plot? What had I done? I’d left the security of a job I’d had for ten years to create, and I couldn’t create. Maybe my creativity was limited to the hours of five to seven in the morning. Maybe, I’d write something so terrible not only would it bomb, but it would take the County Club Murders with it in a fiery explosion of awfulness.

I’d dreamed of effortless creativity. The reality was a butt-in-chair job that required serious thought. And slowly—too slowly—the words came. A character came into focus. A world was created. A plot took shape.

Not that everything was harder. Somewhere in the first few years of writing, I found my voice. That didn’t change. Nor did the nuts and bolts of building a story need to be relearned. Those hard-won lessons about active writing, point of view, and specificity still applied.

So, two months late (according to the ridiculously over-optimistic schedule I set for myself), I self-published my first book, Fields’ Guide to Abduction. It didn’t bomb.

Here’s a second publishing lesson, no one can make a living off of one book. But—but—I can see the roadmap for the future and chasing a dream is a risk worth taking.

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Julie Mulhern is the USA Today bestselling author of The Country Club Murders and the Poppy Fields Adventures.

A Kansas City native, she grew up on a steady diet of Agatha Christie. She spends her spare time whipping up gourmet meals for her family, working out at the gym and finding new ways to keep her house spotlessly clean--and she's got an active imagination. Truth is--she's an expert at calling for take-out, she grumbles about walking the dog, and the dust bunnies under the bed have grown into dust lions.

Six Rules of Author Self-Promotion

Deep down in the core of my being I hated self-promotion. That loathing was the fruit of lessons learned from my parents long ago. I cannot claim to recall their exact words, and it is certainly possible that I misapplied what they actually said. What matters, of course, is what I believe I heard; what became my core values. I “know” it to be true that I should “stand on my own two feet,” but “not get too big for my britches.” I should “think of other people first” and “work hard and the rest will come.”

I applied this knowledge throughout my life in many ways. When I was an athlete, I preferred team sports because it wasn’t all about me. Even when I ran track I was willing to do events other than my specialty (sprints) if that helped the team.

About now you are probably wondering why you should listen to a guy trapped by his childhood into counter-productive thinking. Why not take lessons from a sales guru or someone who is always out there grabbing attention? Well, if you are like them, you aren’t reading this blog. That means you are more like me: someone for whom self-promotion does not come easy.

Here’s my big secret. Once I learned to do it correctly, I no longer had doubts that it was proper and good to self-promote. I’ve developed six rules.

Rule One: It’s not all about YOU

Self-promotion should be about building relationships. As an author your goal is to build long-term relationships with your readers. Naturally, your writing is what ultimately makes the difference, and you need to make it as compelling as you can. That does not mean you start building relationships once you have something about to be published. That would be all about you. Your relationship building should be an extension of you, your interests, and how they can be useful to others.

Relationships are two-way streets. If self-promotion is you force-feeding your promotions, you will not be effective for long.

Rule Two: Add Value to the Relationship

You have experiences and expertise that you can share with others to make their life [fill in your adjectives here.] If you forget Rule One and all your promotional activities are about you and your needs, why should anyone care?

Instead, within any promotion try to provide value. Entertain, provide new insights into your writing, your work, your life—help others improve their writing, their work, their lives. Let people know what didn’t work and why so they can learn from your mistakes.

Help them along their paths without asking for a return favor. I will be forever grateful to Hank Phillipi Ryan and Steve Hamilton, two high-powered authors who took the time from their busy schedules to write blurbs for my books. Don’t you think I let people know about their helpfulness? (You bet. I just did, didn’t I?) On the other hand, this helping others is self-promotion because people remember who helped them.

Rule Three: Be Yourself

I am a math guy; always was; always will be. I know that’s not everyone’s cup-o-tea, but it is mine. And I enjoy being out in nature and watching birds and sometimes taking pictures. That’s what I share. With my math background and ability to translate complicated concepts into English, I can help people understand the world in a different way. That’s my niche. And I write financial crime novels, so there is a practical tie-in.

Show your sense of humor. Some won’t get it—they never do, do they?—but those who are tuned to your sensibilities will form a stronger link with you.

Rule Four: Have Permission

How do you feel when a robocall interrupts your family dinner? For me, that’s a perfect reason to never buy the product, vote for the politician or do whatever they had in mind for me to do. All because they did not have my permission to interrupt what I was doing.

I receive unsolicited author newsletters and email promotions all the time. The first time it happens, I chalk it up to inexperience. But when it keeps happening, I employ email junk filters to toss them into the spam pile that is deleted without delay. How likely am I to buy their books or retweet that their latest is on sale? You guessed it, not likely.

Make sure you have permission before sending newsletters. If you make it clear that people entering a contest will be enrolled in your newsletter, that is implied permission, which is fine. But, (not that I’m giving legal advice, because I’m not) you need to have an easy unsubscribe link on every promotional-type newsletter or email you send. There be laws about them things, you know?

When someone asks you to write a guest blog, follow their rules regarding content and promotion. It’s a courtesy both to the blog’s owners and its readers will be more apt to appreciate what you have to say.

Be sensitive to the context you are in. I had an author attempt to hijack a book event I was doing. In the middle of the question and answers this person proceeded to promote his book. I could see the faces of the entire audience—I guarantee no one in that crowd would buy his book no matter how good it was. It was poor manners and everyone except that individual knew it.

Rule Five: If you don’t ask for assistance, you won’t get it.

If there is something you would like people to do, you need to make a direct, clear ask. Here’s my current situation. On the day this blog is published, my novel Ant Farm will have 11 days remaining for people to nominate it for selection by Amazon. If Amazon accepts it into their Kindle Scout program, I will receive a publishing contract from them, which I want. You can read all about my reasons for choosing to follow this route in an earlier Writers Who Kill blog.

If you haven’t already, I would very much appreciate your checking out the Ant Farm sample chapters, and if you like them, please nominate the book. Here is the link.

Instead of asking, I could have wished and hoped for you to figure all that out by having read previous posts or seen my ask on Facebook or received a tweet, but nothing works as well as a direct ask.

If you can, ask in person, but remember, only if you have permission to interrupt whatever the person is doing.

Rule Six: Thank People When They Help You

Strangers, friends, and family do not owe us their support. So when someone offers it, tell the individual or community that you appreciate the time and effort they took to help you out. This common courtesy goes a long way when people know you mean it.

That’s it: six rules that make self-promotion acceptable to my sensibilities. What do you think?

~ Jim