First of all, my tenth book for HM&B Historical was titled yesterday --
Impoverished Miss, Convenient Wife. It is the second part of my Regency duo and has a very hooky title. My editors has concentrated on the heroine -- she is on the edge of her family and she eventually makes a marriage of
convenience. Apparently the cover is going to be more female
focused. The hero is battle scarred from events in
A Question of Impropriety. I like hooky titles and think this one is lovely. It does what it says on the tin.
Anyway, I discovered the
AuthorMBA blog several weeks ago. It is a weekly dedicated towards giving writers a bit of
business savvy. Anyway, this week, there is a piece on four questions writers should think about when setting goals --
productivity goals, marketing goals, work to life balance and refilling the well. Fairly straight forward, but the interesting bit was in the comments when the author of the blog explained that people tend to be motivated by either incentives or accountability.
In other words, some people do better when they give themselves treats for
completing a goal, and other people do better when they have shared that goal and others know about the goal. What are the consequences of failure v the rewards of success? And which motivates more.
I think this is true up to a point. Now I tend to be more productive when I am writing down the number of words and pages I have done per day. I tend to set a per week goal. I do not make charts. I simply write it down in my
day timer. It can be helpful to go back and look when I am feeling stuck. It is then that I realise -- that I tend to go slower at certain points and I can still finish.
What I do not find helpful is telling other people/groups. National Write a Novel month tends to make me freeze.
Actually the high I get from finishing is an important incentive. I love the feeling of putting a story to bed as well as doing the revisions. So that is the payoff for me. And I can not get them any other way except by
completing a book.
With marketing goals, I think Donald
Maass said it best -- it is nearly impossible to determine how much or how little book marketing will do to further your career. It takes a very long time and the things you do today may not make an impact until much further down the road. Much of marketing success is anecdotal. But thinking local and building on past success is always good. Equally, the publisher's role in marketing should not be underestimated -- good distribution, excellent covers, enticing titles and cover copy are all elements in why people buy a book. And the most important thing in book marketing for an author is to remember to keep your shop window full of new quality items. The feelings of satisfaction a reader gets when she finishes your book goes a long way to determining whether or not your next book is an auto-buy for her. It is not all about the marketing, but ultimately all about the content. And this
feed backs into the satisfaction I get from reader's letters, and from being able to talk about books.
So am I more of a consequence or reward type person? I suspect I am both. But the payoffs are so great when I create something that I am proud of.
Suddenly this seems to be coming as frequently as number ten buses!
