Three years ago I received my 300th rejection letter.

It was from an agent who had now officially rejected both of my novels. I didn’t know this particular letter was lucky number 300 until I plugged it into my “Rejection Master Sheet” in Excel and ran a count.

That was a bad day. I was twenty-five years old with two unpublished novels and a collection of short stories no one wanted. I had no website, no agent, nothing but an Excel spreadsheet documenting, in excruciating detail, 300 failures. I had an MFA in Creative Writing, but how much is that worth when you can’t even get your foot in the door?

I needed a change in my life.

I was working for a law firm in the document editing department, doing two jobs (proofreading and managing intake) because we had laid off a sizeable portion of our workforce. Getting yelled at by lawyers was a normal part of my day. The American economy was in deep trouble, and it was only getting worse.

Rich's photo from Cartagena, Columbia

Then in April of 2009 I went on vacation in Cartagena, Colombia (my sister was living in Bogota at the time) and made a decision I have not regretted once. I decided to stay.

For two and a half years.

I taught English-as-a-second language at a small school as well as university composition courses (in English) to Spanish speakers. I also developed an unfortunate drinking habit that probably cost me hundreds of hours of writing (and millions of pesos) and resulted in me becoming estranged from my family. I managed to rewrite my second novel and complete a third, and I fell in love twice, so it wasn’t all gloomy.

Man, I learned a lot about life.

When I felt depressed about my lack of success as a writer I would go out with my friends and drink, or I would stay in and watch The Wire or Twin Peaks on my laptop (usually while drinking). I wrote between classes in the teachers’ lounge while my Colombian co-workers talked politics and played chess. The electricity and the water were constantly shutting off because the school was in a run-down neighborhood. Seasonal floods were common and caused massive transportation blockages. To save money I took motorcycle taxis despite how dangerous this is for gringos. At night I slept inside a mosquito net with two fans going to keep me cool. I missed home and my family.

I made a list of 50 new agents to query, then decided I was done querying for good, before ever sending a single letter. I lost heart. My life had taken a turn I never saw coming, and I felt lost.

Then, having stumbled on an article one day about indie authors (I think it was here, on Duolit), I was fortunate enough to read about three people: Amanda Hocking, JA Konrath and Barry Eisler. That was when I realized what kind of change my life really needed. These authors had found success self-publishing their novels, doing their own promotion, and blogging about their adventures. They were part of a new wave of indie authors, a wave that was slowly but surely eroding the foundations of Big Publishing.

I had to get in on this.

Two and a half years after leaving New York City, I quit my job in Cartagena and moved back in with my parents. I started working temp jobs, kicked my drinking habit, built a webpage, started a blog, published two books and have two more coming out over the next two months.

And you know what? I’ve never been happier. Self-publishing has given me back control of my career, and it has allowed me to join a community of fascinating people with do-it-yourself attitudes and optimistic outlooks. I no longer feel like I need to be selected by a “gatekeeper” or chosen by an industry player I’ve never met.

Most importantly, I’m writing for an audience of readers, not an audience of agents and editors.

If you’re thinking about going down this path, here’s some advice that I wish I had when I first started:

1. Hire a professional editor. This is one rule I hope I never have to break again. My first novel had a chapter taken out because I didn’t think it served the story. It was my call, and a good one. Only problem was, I forgot to remove references my characters made later in the book to events from that chapter. By then, ten people had already purchased the book. Your name is your brand. Don’t put it out there until it’s been polished.

2. Understand that in order to sell many books you must target a niche audience. This is a handy piece of advice I learned from John Locke. No book is “for everyone,” and no author should “write everything.” Readers have spent a lifetime refining their tastes in literature to minimize the amount of time they waste trying out stuff they won’t like. Not everyone will dig your books. Find out which kinds of readers do and connect with them. They’ll trust you more if you specialize in one genre or age group just like you would trust a cardiovascular surgeon more than a general practitioner if you were looking for someone to give you heart bypass surgery.

3. Don’t be embarrassed to ask for help. If you’re having a tough time financially, or you have a drinking problem, or you suffer from self-esteem issues or depression, ask your family and friends for help. Don’t be ashamed to move back in with Mom and Dad for a while. Ask your friends for blurbs on Amazon. If they leave a review of your book, make sure to thank them with a gift. Nurture your friendships with other writers and don’t be a loner.

They may call it self-publishing, but this is one journey you don’t want to do alone.

Richard Denoncourt runs a blog, Self Land Stories. He is the author of Trainland, a dark urban-fantasy thriller about a father who goes to Hell to save his daughter’s soul. His YA fantasy, Milo Banks and the Tower of Light, about a boy and his twin sister who discover their family is descended from ancient gods, will be released this summer.

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success (noun): 1. the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors. 2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.

Fact #1: We all have a speech prepared in the event that Oprah selects us for her book club.

Fact #2: Oprah will probably never call.

Fact #3: We will go on writing anyway.

photo by rubendn

Every one of us has an ultimate, higher-than-the-summit-of-Everest dream for our writing career. Something that would mark us as eternally successful in the eyes of all our believers and doubters alike. There’s nothing wrong with that — it just shows how much we believe in ourselves and our talents — as long as we don’t base our entire definition of success around that one lifetime achievement.

Don’t take my word for it, ask Dan Marino. For all the non-sports fans, Marino is considered one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time (that’s the guy who throws the ball to the other guys). In his 17 NFL seasons, he set a lot of records, was named NFL MVP & NFL Offensive Player of the Year, got selected to the Pro-Bowl nine times and took his team to the post season 10 times.

But he never won a Super Bowl.

Yet, when considering the scope of his career including all 31 of the Dolphins’ franchise records he set that still stand today, no one would consider Dan Marino a failure. He’s a sports commentator, multi-millionaire, NASCAR owner and he gets to make appearances in movies like Ace Ventura and Bad Boys. Dan Marino has had an amazing life and career, even if he didn’t reach the pinnacle achievement of the NFL.

That’s because the best and worst thing about success is its total subjectivity. What you count as a success might be considered a failure to me. It’s all about the criteria by which we judge ourselves and the goals we aim to reach, which is why we have to be so careful when sculpting our definition of success. We don’t want to set the bar so low as to give ourselves a fall sense of ego, but we don’t want to set it so high that we get depressed and have to eat a lot of Oreos to feel good about ourselves again.

So how do you set your expectations at a level that will allow you to feel super accomplished at the high points, but not overly discouraged at the low points? We have a few tips that can help you carve out the perfect definition of success for your unique talents, skills and dreams as a writer.

3 Tips to Defining Your Success

1. It’s not all about the benjamins.

Everybody wants to make money doing what they love. But defining your success by dollar signs is a quick way to lose faith in yourself. There are other, bigger dreams out there that will probably make you feel better than earning an income from your book. The pride that comes from sharing your work with others is incredible, especially when they respond positively to what you’ve worked so hard to do. Making your family proud is even better (and sometimes easier) than pleasing yourself. Set your focus on the intangibles, the good feelings that come from doing something you love, and you might find that it brings financial gains along with it anyway.

2. Do your research.

Find out what other self-published authors in your genre have achieved in terms of sales, fan following, reviews, etc. This will help you set realistic expectations for what you can do, but also to push yourself to take things one step beyond what other authors have been able to achieve.

3. Keep making adjustments.

As several of you mentioned in the comments of our discussion post on Monday, the key to defining success is to write your definition in pencil. With every achievement you reach, add something new to your definition. Start with finishing your manuscript and then update it to cover the publishing of your book and then update it again to reflect a new sales goal. Keep growing as you go and your definition of success will grow along with you.

Any other advice for your fellow authors?

What other ways do you define success in self-publishing? What helps you stay motivated and keep pushing even when things aren’t going your way? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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I’m not talking about Internet research — forget Google, Wikipedia, and MapQuest. — I’m talking about real, down deep, get your hands dirty research. The kind of exploration that really helps you get into the mindset of your characters or the surroundings of your book’s location. Research that can lead to discoveries both exciting and dangerous.

That’s the kind of in-depth digging that author Jesse Grillo is doing to research his upcoming novel Gold Lined Storms. The book follows Joshua Blackwood, a man on a journey to find himself before his schizophrenia can take away all that he is. To get as accurate a viewpoint as possible for a character with so much depth and complex emotion, Jesse took a road trip of his own last December, living out of his car and at times completely without a home to get the full experience that his character would endure.

Jesse’s first trip was a powerful experience, but to finish his project he’s planning a second research excursion from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon, later this month. Before departing, Jesse took time out to do an interview with Duolit about his writing project and his experience using kickstarter and indigogo to fund his in-depth research.

Jesse Grillo: There is a lot of me in the story so that made it easier. Back in December I was working on a film and there came a point where I felt like I was over the film business. At the time, I never wanted to work on a film again. The movie I was on finished in mid-December. I had Christmas with my family and I went on the road a few days later. 

I knew I was going to do a lot of writing and self-reflecting, but I didn’t just want to write a journal of my trip. I had a rough idea of what I wanted the story to be, but it wasn’t completely formed. I didn’t bring much with me. About four changes of clothes, a few books, and three notebooks with pens. That was about it. I didn’t want anything to distract me.

My mother was bipolar and right before the trip I was talking to a friend about my childhood. He was telling me that children of parents with mental disorders have a higher risk of getting the same type of illnesses. He also said that signs generally show in the teens and late 20s so for many of them, so 30 is the magic number because if you make it to 30, you’re safe.

I thought about that for a while. About what it would be like to have a parent with a mental condition and then wonder your whole life if you were going to develop the same type of issues. And then one day you’re 30 and you can relax. But then you start to show signs that the condition is affecting you. How would someone react? How would I react? 

Between that idea and what I was going through with my career, the story formed about a writer that finds out he has schizophrenia so he goes on the road to find himself.

JG: I always attack my writing from as many different angles as I can. When I was a teen I wrote short stories and in college I got into screen writing. When I started working in film I always tried to keep writing in different pose. I might work on a screenplay for most of the day and then switch and write a poem or a comic. I knew that writing a novel would be a different kind of beast to tackle, but I wanted to try it. I’m really glad I did. 

JG: Very much so. Both of those styles of writing are so visual and when I read drafts from my book those visual details come across. What was different about the novel is that I went in with no layouts or character breakdowns. Something I NEVER do for screenplays or comics. They weren’t really needed though because it was a story that I was living.

DL: How does taking this road trip help you dive into character?

JG: Well, I’m very method. I think part of that comes from working with actors for so long. A few years ago, I had an idea for a comic that took place in the desert so I went out to Desert Hot Springs for a week and hacked it out. A short film I wrote had a main character that was manic depressive so I researched that subject then got into character. I listened to depressing music. I didn’t clean my place as much. I had pictures of my wall of what a manic person and their homes would look like. I’m glad I’m done with that script. It was really depressing to work on. 

For my road trip, I really tried to keep the mindset of the main character the whole time, and for the most part I did. There were a few times when it got a little scary and I had to tell myself that it wasn’t real but for the most part I kept in character. I think method writing makes the actual writing part much easier but the lengths you have to go through to become that character can be really taxing on the psyche. 

DL: How long will your trip take and where all are you planning to go?

JG: The first trip was two months but for this one I would like to just do a month. I would go to a lot of the same places I went to while on my first trip but would dig deeper and develope the book more. For this trip, I would stay in Portland for a few weeks because that’s where the love interest happens and I would like to develop those chapters of the book.

DL: During your last trip you spent some time living homeless in Oregon, what was that like? What lessons did you take away from that experience?

JG: Yes, that was something. The idea came to me after I volunteered at a homeless shelter in Oakland for a few days. The character in the book does the same type of volunteering and is disgusted by the people he has to help. Later in the story as his condition becomes worse, he becomes homeless. 

I drove into Eugene, Oregon, and figured it was a good of place as any to be homeless. By this time it was about a month into my trip so I had a decent beard going and I looked shaggy. I went into a second hand store and bought an old warn out pauncho and torn jeans. I parked my car on the outskirts of town where I knew it wouldn’t get ticketed. I changed in my car and brought nothing but a notebook and pen with me. After seeing my reflection I knew I still looked too clean cut. I got a little bit of mud and ran it though my beard and hair then threw a glob on my notebook. Nothing excessive, just enough to get the look down. 

I spent the day wandering around Eugene. There isn’t a lot to the place and most of the people hang out on the main boulevard. While walking around I saw a drum circle and went to watch that for a bit. I met a few homeless people and explained I was just passing through town. They told me a little bit about Eugene and where the local shelter was. I walked with a few to a liquor store and joined them near a river as they drank. That night I slept on a park bench in a rose garden. 

Between the volunteer work and pretending to be homeless for a few days I gained great insight into what it was like to be homeless. I found, at least in my experience, that no one wants to be homeless. None of the people I met were lazy or didn’t want to work. Most of them had serious mental issues, abusive childhoods that they ran away from or issues with drug addiction. They’re not bad people, they’re just trying to survive in a world that dealt them a very bad hand. 

DL: What made you decide to use indiegogo and kickstarter to try and raise funds for your second trip?

JG: I recently tried it with a comic book project and had some success. The world of marketing and trying to get funding for your work is new to me. I just made a Facebook for my comic book work back in March and the feedback has been amazing. I’m not at a point where selling comic books is going to support me so I have to try any avenue that is available to me. 

DL: Do you think other authors could benefit from using these grassroots fundraising techniques?

JG: That’s a tough one. It’s REALLY hard to get funded if you don’t have a fan base and running a crowd funding campaign is like a second job. You need to give your work to anyone that is willing to read it, give interviews, pay a little for marketing, grow your fan base. You need to get on every social network you can, gain fans then let them know every day about your campaign. 

It’s a lot of work but it can pay off and if nothing else, it’s a good way to get more people to see your work.

DL: What are the different perk levels available for your supporters?

I have over a dozen ranging from a PDF of my poetry book to being drawn into one of my comics as a super hero. You can also pre-order my book in paperback cover or PDF format. 

DL: Where can people find more information about all of your books?

JG: I’m getting a website made but right now I’m still using Facebook for where I post information about my writings.  

More from Jesse Grillo and Gold Lined Storms:

• Find Jesse on Facebook
• Find Jesse on Twitter
• Find Jesse on kickstarter
• Find Jesse on indiegogo

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But, what about you as an indie author? How do you measure success, both for yourself and your book? While most of us don’t expect careers or sales along the lines of those richie-riches on top of the New York Times’ Bestseller List, we would like to feel as if the time, effort and money spent publishing our work were worthwhile.

We’ve talked a little about this before on the blog, that setting reasonable expectations and planning ahead can make that road to success easier. After all, if success is selling 100 copies of your book, that’s a heck of an easier goal to achieve than selling 10,000.

Success, however, isn’t always a sales goal (or even a number). So, we want to know:

• What has to happen for you to consider your book and/or writing career a success? Do you have more than one measure of success?
• What obstacles to success have you come across so far? Has anything made the path easier?
• How did you settle on your definition of success? Has it evolved over time?
• Does your definition of success differ from that of your author friends?
• What advice would you give to other authors struggling for that sweet moment of success?

We can’t wait to hear your responses! To join the discussion, please leave a comment below addressing any (or all) of the above questions. Also, mention the discussion to your indie author friends — we’d love to hear from everyone!

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It might interest you to know that even though I consider myself a writer and an author, I’ve never submitted a manuscript to a legacy publisher. Neither have I ever attempted to get an agent for representation. This might seem like a strange approach for a so-called writer and author, but this is the way of the world now. It’s not just the state of the publishing industry, but the state of most mass media outlets.

Over a decade ago, Napster was forced to close down by a U.S. District court, and was only truly active for about two years in its original form. By then, the damage was done. Napster exposed an unfair pricing model for the music industry. People wanted music, single songs most of the time, but were always forced to purchase entire albums (usually with sub-par content) for anywhere between $13 and $20, depending on the chain store (most of which are now out of business, after having put many small, independent record stores out of business themselves). Napster showed the true power of the Internet — sharing information and media content between a host and thousands of users. And it was all free.

This all seems like ancient history now — a mere reality of a zeitgeist that’s been in upheaval since the start of the new millennium. Music was just the beginning. With increased networking capabilities and the availability of high-speed, broadband internet in the years since, enormous files are downloaded in mere seconds — where megabytes in the old Napster days used to possibly take hours. Music, movies, radio, television shows, podcasts, books — they’re all available from anyone who wants to give them away.

Then there’s the legacy distributors: music labels, movie studios, and book publishers. It started with music, which already had a nice free component in radio and television distribution (at least when MTV played music). Movie studios and television networks got scared (rightly) that it would soon be as viable to pirate movies and shows as it had been to pirate music. The RIAA and MPAA began to go after these pirates pretty hard. What they really did was show the contempt they had for people who were fans of their products, and here’s why: they were prosecuting people for being fans.

All of this changed the way people looked at consuming mass media. Whether they wanted to admit it or not, the model for marketing any kind of media product to consumers had changed. Book publishers were unphased to start — the first generation Kindle e-reader didn’t hit the market until 2008. And Amazon and the Kindle are really the reason most of us are so ready to dive into the self-publishing pool instead of going through the tedious process of legacy publishing.

I remember researching the world of legacy publishing after I’d completed my first manuscript, which thankfully I’ve never taken it upon myself to publish. No, it wasn’t a good manuscript, and would’ve been rejected outright by pretty much any legitimate legacy publisher, probably while laughing. The process of submitting my work to both publishers and agents seemed overly daunting and humiliating. How many rejection letters would I have to endure before I’d get the answer I was looking for? Truth is, with the work I had, I’d never get an agent, or a publisher… and if I did, how long before the book actually went on sale? After signing a contract, it still usually takes an ungodly amount of time until you’re published. That manuscript sits on my shelf still.

But I’m not the only one. Far more talented people than me had manuscripts sitting on their shelves when Amazon asked for people to publish books independently with them. Put it on sale in our Kindle store! they said. I also remember reading about Amanda Hocking when her e-books were blowing up. She’d never attracted legacy attention — then she self-published through Amazon and various other outlets and became a pretty big success. I follow her on Twitter because she’s hilarious and I want her to be my best friend, but that’s beside the point. Beyond that, she’s the golden example we all look to – - the model we aspire to: the successful, self-published nobody.

Around 2009, I read a post in a forum that really changed my vision of what I wanted to accomplish in a career as a writer. That post is here – and it’s from one of the most forward thinking musicians of the past three decades, of whom I am an enormous fan. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails (okay, he IS Nine Inch Nails, not just OF Nine Inch Nails) had already experimented with a few models of new marketing. Before leaving his label, he partnered with 42 Entertainment out of his own pocket to create the Year Zero experience, an alternate reality game centered around his 2007 album of the same name. After jettisoning from his label and going the indie route, he made a collection of instrumental music called Ghosts that he put out for $5 – about 2 hours of music. Only about a month or two after that release, he gave away an album called The Slip for free, as a thank you to fans who supported him throughout his career.

The publishing world has similar stories from names like Barry Eisler and J.A. Konrath. These two are fascinating to follow — they both turned away from the legacy publishers to make fortunes on their own. Now they constantly berate the legacy publishing industry with good reason. Barry Eisler recently tweeted about the crux of the problem with the industry: “It’s not just the general falsity of legacy publishing’s perseverated claim to ‘nurture’ authors that baffles me. It’s the implicit notion that authors are infants or children in need of ‘nurturing’ in the first place. We nurture children. We support adults. Authors, you know how legacy publishers view you. How do you view yourselves?”

The reason I bring up the Reznor post is to really get you to think about your goals as a self-published author. He puts it this way for independent musicians just starting out: “If you are looking for mainstream super-success (think Lady GaGa, Coldplay, U2, Justin Timberlake) – your best bet in my opinion is to look at major labels and prepare to share all revenue streams / creative control / music ownership. To reach that kind of critical mass these days you need old-school marketing muscle and that only comes from major labels. Good luck with that one. If you’re forging your own path… Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters.”

Reading that, almost a year before Amanda Hocking even published her first novel, before Eisler turned down half a mil advance, and around the time Konrath went the self-publishing route himself, Trent Reznor told me what I needed to hear. So I spent several years painstakingly crafting another story I wanted to tell, followed every self-publishing blog, and tried to make the best piece of art that I could. Because honestly, the money, the success doesn’t matter.

Late last year, Amazon, the same company who revolutionized e-books with the release of the Kindle, started helping self-published authors give their books away using a program called Kindle Direct Select. Thanks to this program, my piece of art is in the hands of far more people than I myself could’ve marketed to, and probably more than I could’ve sold to had I gone the legacy route — waiting another two years to be published. But that comes with its own set of problems.

Publishing a book now is just a drop in the sea. So many people have seen the model work for Hocking, Konrath, et al that it’s difficult to get noticed. Even using the Direct Select promotional days that help you give your book away for free doesn’t do much unless you’ve had some kind of exposure elsewhere. That’s where blog tours and book reviewers come into the mix. Don’t just think that giving your book away for free for a few days will be enough to help you get noticed. Remember what Reznor said — “As an artist, you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters.”

It’s difficult as an artist to think of your work as a product, but that’s what you’ve got to start doing, and you’ve got to make that product as polished as possible. Distinguish it somehow. What makes your story unique? Focus on your craft, but also focus on what’s going to make people click through the download link. But most of all, do this for you. Forget thinking you’re going to make any real money on book sales. Some people are going to be opposed to just giving their art away for free, thinking they’re entitled to profits from sharing their work.But remember also that the people who get your book for free probably were not people that you were going to sell to anyway.

And that’s really the main point. Getting people to click through that download link is a lot harder even if you’re charging only 99 cents for your book. If it’s free, it’s free. They may never read it, or they may see it on their Kindle and decide, “Hey, I might as well give it a try.” Whether or not we want to admit it, there is a stigma to being a self-published author — that’s why I bring up the fact that I’ve never submitted to a major publisher. The stigma is that we’re somehow not good enough for the legacy publisher, so are we even considered good enough to read? Because we’re cheap?

But who are they to dictate that anymore? They overcharge for e-books anyway. There’s so little overhead that even a 9.99 e-book is absurd to me. I think the Justice Department might agree with me — Apple and the Big 6 legacy publishers are in trouble for keeping e-book prices high to fight Amazon’s “stranglehold” over the publishing industry. Another great response from Eisler, via Twitter: “Cracks me up when legacy publishers complain about Amazon ‘bullying’ them. Ever seen the contents of a publishing contract?”

No. And I hope I never do.

Grant Piercy recently published his debut science fiction novel, The Erased, about a wrongfully detained prisoner tasked with repairing a broken android. It’s currently available as an e-book through Amazon’s Kindle store. He grew up in north central Illinois, but currently lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and two dogs. He also enjoys discussing topics related to his writing on his blog. 

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He turns toward you and catches your eye, prompting him to ask, jokingly, if you’re an author. Your heart leaps! This is your moment, your chance to make it big!

You clear your throat and say, “Actually, I am an author.”

“Really?!” he exclaims. “What’s the name of your book? What’s it about?”

Crap. Your mind goes blank. How can you possibly condense the merits of an 80,000 word novel into a few sentences? How can you convince him to learn more? Before you know it, 20 seconds of silence have elapsed and your floor is rapidly approaching. You rush to get the words out.

“Well, ahem, see, there’s this, well, girl — and, um, she –” *ding*

The elevator arrives at your floor.

Matt gives you a wary look as you step out, sheepishly. Your moment, your golden opportunity, is gone.

What’s My Book About? Excellent Question!

How would you react when faced with such a situation? Or, maybe you’ve been there already — have you struggled to find the words when asked to describe your book? You’re not alone! Many authors don’t know how to describe their book in a way that not only keeps the listener’s attention, but makes them want to learn more.

Being asked what your book is about can make you feel like you’re under those Law and Order-type interrogation lights. It’s totally understandable — it’s an overwhelming and pressure-filled situation, for sure. But it’s imperative not only that you have an answer, but a stellar one. This is THE #1 question authors are asked. So, how do you prepare?

Mind Blanking Be GONE — Craft Your Elevator Pitch

You may or may not realize this, but when you’re asked to describe your book, the answer you give is called an “elevator pitch.” This is the formal name for any quick, catchy pitch you can deliver in the time it takes for an elevator to reach its destination (like in the example with Matt). By preparing your elevator pitch in advance, you’re ready for whenever (and wherever) this question comes up! The best part? We can craft that winning pitch in just ten minutes.

Minute 1

Decide on the goal of your pitch. Do you want the listener to visit your website? Follow you on Twitter? Send you an e-mail? Google your book? Choose what your pitch will convince the listener to do. Remember, you’re probably not going to make a book sale right there in the elevator. Focus on what you want the listener’s next step to be!

Minutes 2-4

Brainstorm 3 potential opening lines. If one of your opening lines is “It’s about this (girl/boy/man/woman) named ____…” cross it out and try again. Similar to the beginning of a blog post (or your novel), you want something attention-grabbing that will grant you the listener’s attention for the rest of your pitch.

Minutes 5-7

Write a 20-30 second pitch. Any shorter and you’ll sound like an advertisement, longer and you’ll lose your listener. Keep your goal in mind! Use your skill as a writer and passion for your book to craft your pitch in such a way that piques the listener’s interest, encouraging them to learn more. Focus on being compelling and intriguing but DON’T overthink it!

As for your pitch’s content, every pitch is unique, but some of the questions your pitch can answer include:

• What is your book about?
• Who is your book for?
• Is there a particular genre or author you can compare or contrast your work to?
• Have you received any awards or glowing reviews from famous reviewers?

Minute 8

Decide on a closing line. Make it an active call to action, perhaps a question. It can be something as simple as, “Does it sound like something you’d be interested in?” This is the final step in guiding the listener toward your goal.

Minute 9

Edit your pitch. Focus on removing unnecessary words and making it sound natural. Read it out loud and be sure it’s in your natural speaking voice, not your writing voice! Ensure it is clearly directed toward your goal.

Minute 10

Make your pitch work even harder by including any of the following (if you can do it in a way that doesn’t sound forced): your website address, Twitter username, email address, etc. Alternately, consider carrying a business card or bookmark with information about you and your book. Make it easy to hand out at a moment’s notice!

Pitch, Rinse, Repeat

Remember, your pitch won’t be perfect the first time. Every time you give it, however, you can refine your pitch and make it even more effective. I definitely recommend practicing on friends and family first! They’ll give you feedback you hadn’t thought of and help you work out any jitters BEFORE you meet Matt in that elevator.

Talk Back!

Now that you have a pitch in hand, we want to know: have you ever had an opportunity to espouse about your book? How did it go? Or, if you’ve been using an elevator pitch for years, tell us: how has it evolved? Has it helped you sell books? Share your experience in the comments below!

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I’m always involved in one book or another — often one or two on my kindle, two or three in paperback and then suddenly I’ll shove all five of those aside to indulge in something else. It’s not my fault! These books just seem to find me!

Between recommendations from you guys, my aunt (a volunteer librarian), my mom (from whom I get my insatiable reading habit) and those tempting covers sitting on the shelves at the grocery store, the library, the used bookstore, etc. I can’t help but dive in!

I’ve been on an Elmore Leonard kick since January (thanks to Justified), but as the weather has turned warm my interests changed and I became desperate for a great summer read (currently being satisfied by Elin Hilderbrand’s The Island). In the midst of that book, however, I started planning a trip to Yellowstone next month and became consumed by travel guides. I can’t keep anything straight!

So I want to know — am I alone here?

What are you guys currently reading and how did you find it) (Or did it find you?) More specifically, I’d like to hear your thoughts on any of these questions:

• Do you read more than one book at a time?
• Where do you go to seek out new things to read?
• What makes you decide to start reading a new book — especially if you’re already in the middle of something else?
• Do you read the same genre that you write in or something entirely different?
• Who gives you recommendations for new books to read?
• Have you read something lately that you loved and would recommend to someone else?

Shout out in the comments below so I’ll know I’m not the only crazy person who gets wrapped up in a million books at once!

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Do you see the common thread? It’s all about the first three words: When executed properly. A great book trailer can really set you apart from the competition, but a bad book trailer can set you back from the competition. That’s why it’s so important to be honest with yourself in deciding whether or not you can create a good a book trailer. Specifically, you need to ask yourself three questions:

photo by katerha

1. Do I have the time to create a book trailer?

Odds are, you’re already up to your eyeballs in writing, managing your social media, soliciting reviews and performing other marketing tasks. Making a (good) book trailer takes some serious time and focus, if you don’t have much of either to allocate for the project it might be wise to hire someone who does have the time.

2. Am I skilled enough to create a book trailer?

Look, there’s no nice way to say this so I’m just gonna say it: Some people don’t have the skillz to make a book trailer. You know who you are, don’t try to pretend like I’m talking about someone else. Whether you don’t know your way around the computer, you don’t have a knack for visual creativity or you struggle learning new things, it’s okay to acknowledge that your forte lies in other areas and leave your book trailer up to a professional.

3. What is my book trailer budget?

Even if you’re making your own book trailer, there are still costs involved. From stock photos and video to visual equipment and editing software, depending on how involved your book trailer is you could easily be looking at an investment of several hundred dollars.

The bottom line is this: If you don’t have the time, ability or budget to create a good book trailer, you should consider using a professional or not using one at all. But if you DO have the time, ability and budget to create your own book trailer, by all means dive in and create something spectacular!

Example book trailer from one of my favorites, Chris Bohjalian:

How to Make Your Own Book Trailer

Step One: Write the script

Just like a regular movie, a good book trailer starts with a script. Your trailer should be no more than three minutes long and have a beginning, middle and an end. Begin with something engaging — text, music, video, etc. — that will grab viewers’ attention (usually a question or quote from the book works best). Bring their interest to a boiling point with a climax (the main problem addressed in your book) and then wrap up with a call to action. Do NOT give away all the details of your story, but put enough bait on the line to catch some fish.

Step Two: Put together your content.

Photos, video, text and music are the meat of your book trailer. You can choose to take your own photos and film some video yourself, or you can opt for stock images. iStock has a good variety of video and photos to choose from, as does Fotolia, but they’re not cheap. You can get away with the web quality video (no need for HD) but even so, a 30 second clip can cost $100. When you’re trying to fill 2 – 3 minutes, that adds up in a hurry. Still, it lends a professional quality to your trailer that might be worth the investment. As an alternative, you can also check out Flickr’s Creative Commons for some free photos (but many do require attribution so be sure to check).

Your music choice is also a critical element. Copyright is a big (BIG!) issue when it comes to using someone else’s songs in your trailer (as you’ve probably noticed when trying to view a YouTube video only to find out it was pulled for a copyright violation). You can choose to download some public domain music or visit iStock to purchase music clips or if you are musically inclined (or have generous friends who are musically inclined) you can compose your own music.

Keep your text to a minimum and for Pete’s sake make sure it’s legible! Unless your intention to create a subliminal message, don’t use a fancy font or blow up your text so its pixelated and unreadable. Most importantly, leave the text on the screen long enough for an average person to read it. Nothing’s more frustrating than text that blinks off the screen before you’ve had a chance to read it all.

photo by Racum

Step Three: Add effects and transitions

Here’s where your movie editing software of choice comes into play. If you’re fortunate enough to have a Mac with iMovie you can probably skip this section because your computer will probably automatically add the perfect professional transitions and effects to your video with the touch of a button. But for us PC folks, we have a little more work to do. You don’t have to get over the top editing software to create a decent book trailer. Windows Movie Maker (included on most PCs with Windows) will suffice.

Available effects range from a standard zoom in/zoom out (perfect for adding movement to photos) to more advanced effects like film grain and adjustable speeds (slow mo or fast forward). Effects can enhance video and photos while transitions will smooth the flow of your trailer as it moves from pictures to videos and title screens. Transitions include simple fade ins/outs, page turns, breaking glass, and page insets.

Play around with your effects and transitions, but never make them the central focus of your trailer. When done right, they should accentuate your content, not become your content.

Step Four: Upload to YouTube and share!

When you’ve got your video done, open up a YouTube account and upload that piece of art! YouTube is the best place to both store and share your video, but you should also embed it on your website, share the link on your social media accounts, and add it to your media kit.

What’s your experience with book trailers?

• Have you made a book trailer before?
• Do you have a favorite book trailer you could share?
• Have you ever worked with a professional to create a book trailer?

Leave your tips, links and recommendations in the comments below, we want to hear from you!

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Book trailers come in all shapes and sizes, from professionally-edited in Premiere to a slideshow in Windows Movie Maker. We want to know: what do you think about these prolific promotional tools? Tell us:

• Have you created (or do you plan to create) a book trailer for your book? If so, what tools did you use? How long did it take you?
• Has a book trailer motivated you to check out a book? Has one ever turned you off of a book?
• Are book trailers an effective promotional tool? Are certain genres better suited for book trailers?
• Why are book trailers growing in popularity?
• Are the most effective book trailers those professionally made? Can you tell the difference between professional and amateur trailers?

We can’t wait to hear your responses! To join the discussion, please leave a comment below addressing any (or all) of the above questions. Also, mention the discussion to your indie author friends — we’d love to hear from everyone!

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• Wise, Ink offers up 11 Powerful Networking Groups for Authors. I know, we authorly types tend to gravitate toward solitude, but we really encourage you to give these a try. Your fellow authors can be powerful allies in the self-publishing game!
• Catherine from Catherine, Caffeinated dives into the amusing world of Amazon customer reviews which, as she says, have been bringing the HUH? since 1995!
• Jeff from The Writing Bomb has put together an awesome list of reasons that Indie Publishing is All That (and a bag of chips). We added the “bag of chips” part.
• Are you responsible for what your characters say? Guest blogger Mike Duran examines this issue over at Rachelle Gardener’s blog.
• A year after he made the decision, David Gaughran discusses whether self-publishing was the right move for him.

Now, it’s your turn! I know you guys have also come across some awesome posts/resources in the past couple of weeks — won’t you please share with your fellow authors (and this n00b mom)? Take a few moments to leave the link in the comments so we can all have some lovely weekend reading!

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