by Mysti S. Milwee
Please welcome Mysti S, Milwee to the Writers Journey Blog this week with some helpful marketing tips and advice.
MARKETING IN WRITING: HOW TO EFFECTIVELY MARKET YOURSELF
By Mysti S. Milwee
When you think about marketing, some people tend to improperly market themselves. It’s not always that we don’t know how to, but it’s the ability to know yourself, and not be someone that you’re not. To effectively market yourself, what I found out that helps me a lot in marketing are even in the simplest steps to success.
Some simple steps include:
1. Knowing what you are good at. (Your niche)
2. Developing and expanding on your stronger points (what you feel natural at).
3. Studying your market areas that are in alignment with your strengths
4. Staying organized (Spreadsheets; Color Coding Subject matter; Notebooks with Tabs) Staying organized is a #1 priority in marketing effectively, efficiently, precisely, and to stay focused on your subjects, deadlines, keeping up with client files, sales reports, etc.
YOUR NICHE(S)-- Knowing what you are good at is a great start to breaking into the market (s). When I say, knowing what you are good that, it means “What do you like writing about? Is it nature? People? Everyday life? Art? Etc. the list goes on here. What are your favorite subjects to write about? What genre fits your style? Are you a fantasy type? Or are you a crime writer? A historical writer? You can get the jest of where I’m going with this. YOU develop your niche and what you like and what interests you the most. This defines who you are and where you need to market. These are your strengths.
What doesn’t interest you, don’t force yourself to like it because everyone else is doing it. Focus on your interests and go with the flow of what you like and love and want to accomplish. Not everyone has the same journey. We are all put on different paths for a reason. You can’t force yourself to love something that you don’t like, much less write about it.
Knowing your niche(s) is the best way to get to know yourself. You know what you like, love and what makes you happy. You enjoy writing about them because you may have a certain goal that you are wishing to achieve, or it is a particular creative fuel of words that is itching to be told whether in written form or through your own voice, unsilence the silenced. You have a reason to write about a particular subject or one that you feel so connected to or strong about because you’ve dealt with challenging things in your life, and you want people to hear your message and your words for a reason. So, you may want the challenge to achieve that. Perhaps it is your way to heal yourself or to help others heal.
If you are a spiritual person, you may want to help others by writing self-help books or devotionals.
Perhaps you are writing about Suicide, Drug Prevention, or Domestic Violence either through your experiences or just to make others aware of situational awareness. Certain subjects that you feel that you want others to hear about through your words or your message through your own voice.
DEVELOPING AND EXPANDING
Once you have your niche(s), you know what you are good at. Write down everything that you are good at and keep this handy, whether on your computer or in a notebook. Next, start writing about your niche(s) (Genres: poetry, fantasy, novel writing, etc., or Subjects such as People, history, art, animals, etc.). Write about what feels natural to you. If you are just getting started in writing and don’t know a whole lot, start small such as quotes, or if you are good at rhyming, try simple lines that would be of interest to a greeting card company.
Even the smallest lines or words can be a huge development in your writing career. Once you’ve learned to start developing your own style and starting small as you work your way up, you are developing your own strengths. You are building. If you have an obstacle challenge yourself to face that and work through it even if you have to write about it in order to break through with word chains. Word chains are something I developed, and I will be presenting to writers in a future Secrets to Success -Word Chains Workshop of mine at a later date (TBA).
Stay tuned for this workshop, you won’t want to miss it. There will be handouts(printable) or I can email them to you. Stay tuned. If you want to go ahead and sign up for the workshop email me with your name, email, state your profession (writer, artist, etc.) and note that it is for the Secrets to Success – Word Chains Workshop, it’s FREE.
You must first learn to develop your style in order to expand on what you want to achieve. Of course, that is my opinion and what I have found to be effective, efficient, and to achieve a healthy writing strategy. When you are ready to expand, you want to acknowledge and accept that you may step on someone's toes, not meaning to but you are now effectively marketing yourself and putting yourself in the position to receive as you expand and adjust to who you are and what you want to achieve. Remember this is your journey, your choice, your chance to succeed in successful writing and getting your work published career.
We all have choices to make. You have a path, but are you listening to the right voice?
STUDYING YOUR MARKET
Do not get misled by the wrong posy. Your voice is your own, no one can take that away from you. Stick to it. That is how you authenticate yourself and how you market yourself in an authenticated way. It is a process of expanding on the knowledge you have. Study your market, make wise decisions, develop and expand on your voice and set goals to expand in the areas you want to expand on. If you are heavily into nature, then focus on just that and look for calls to submit that focus on nature. Expanding in a particular market, for example on nature can reap rewards, you may even start your own blog on nature, within time. Patience is key to growing and expanding in a market that you love. Own it! Everyone has to start somewhere.
Once you’ve studied your market, jot down where you want to send your work (writings, poetry, prose, short stories, art, photography, sculpture, etc.). Some presses accept multiple submissions, so make a column for multiple submissions and checkmark which ones accept that. Do they accept poetry? You want to check their specs because if you don’t check they will reject your work if you send your poetry to a short story press. Adhere to their guidelines.
If you write about nature and you send your article about deep-sea fishing to a nature magazine, well, that is definitely an automatic rejection. CHECK YOUR GUIDELINES AND SPECS.
So, if you send your poetry to a poetry journal, you are in good shape and you will be considered for publication. Note: Sometimes editors leave notes about what they like to see (brownie points if you get them). Know your market, study the guidelines and adhere to the specs given by magazines, journals, e-mags, e-journals, etc. whether they are in an online format or a book format, knowing and studying your market is very important.
The same goes for writers that are ready to get their first book published. Study your market, and the Press that you are inquiring about for consideration in having your book published. Whether you are trying to get your first book out in the market, or you just want your works out there for the world to see, you want them to want your work, making an impression with your work and targeting your marketing takes time, dedication, practice, and skill to achieve success. I’m not saying it’s easy, everything has its pros and cons. But you can achieve it and succeed. Don’t give up on something you want just because you didn’t get in on the first try. You have to want something if you want to succeed in something you love.
And remember not everyone will like the subjects you like or what you write about. Don’t get offended easily. Writing for different genres that some people don’t understand or get can happen in the writer’s world.
Networking with others in your areas of expertise is the best way to stay positively focused on your genre and subject matter, in my opinion. Stay strong in your words that you write and keep the faith to keep writing. Don’t get discouraged when others don’t get your mojo. Learn to recognize what works for you. Everyone has their own way of networking. Studying your market and how to effectively market yourself is an important tool to accessibly achieve success.
STAYING ORGANIZED
Just these simple steps can make a difference in management, marketing, and monetizing your career moves and learning to adjust to multiple income streams by staying organized. If you don’t use a computer much you can make a table with rows and columns in a ruled notebook. Folders also help separate projects, documents, etc. You can also use sorters or folders to divide your works in progress, for (i.e.: Label one folder, DONE; the second folder SUBMITTED; the third folder NOT SUBMITTED) If you are Google (Gmail) user, using your calendar is a highly effective way to stay on target by organizing deadlines; keeping up with writing conferences; workshops, and events; and keeping notes on new websites and new writing venues. All together in one place.
Another effective method is to keep your poetry or writings is in a logbook, or on a spreadsheet. You can use Excel to track your publishing; rejections; writings submitted; response or no response; date submitted; awards; online or in book format; links to your work; etc. (Note: If you need help on this I can help for a small Marketing Assistant fee, email me at: sequoyahcherokeeriverjournal@gmail.com)
If you are an author, keep track of sales, and growth income (weekly, monthly, yearly), record all your books by year (most current first) and work your way down to the oldest book you’ve published or had published. Again, here you can use a spreadsheet to keep track of your books, year published, how many were sold, name of publisher, name of the agent, costs, your budget, etc. Also, if you sell your books and use PayPal, keep a notebook or use a spreadsheet to keep up with sales and to whom you sold. This will help in tax preparation as you can use it on your income tax (online tax), and you have your records of proof of purchases. Cover yourself.
Keep track of everything you do. It can make a difference in what you get back on your income tax. Staying on top of it, keeping records, and having a bookkeeping system to keep track of your side hustle business or small business is a great way to effectively achieve results and income.
CLICK THE COVER
Biography and Links: Mysti S. Milwee is an Internationally known, published, and award-winning writer, poet, translator, synesthesia artist, book cover illustrator, illustrator, lyricist, screenwriter, and is the Author of her poetry book “Human Reaction” (available on amazon). Her poetry, writings, literature, art, illustrations, short stories, and lyrics have been published in over 6,000 publications globally. She is the Editor in Chief and founder of Sequoyah Cherokee River Journal, S.L.A.T. Magazine, and is the Poet Laureate of Fire Eagle Ministries. She is an advocate for Domestic Violence Awareness and helps others find peace and healing with her Voice of Justice. She is an advocate for helping the Missing & Endangered Persons groups. She is listed as a Poet & Editor in the Poets & Writers Directory. She is a member of the International Association of Professional Writers & Editors. She is a certified Data Analyst & Translator.
She is an Art Instructor at Udemy, and is currently a student at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Film & TV Industry Essentials Program. Her YouTube channel (Mysti Milwee), will include: Short Clips; Short Films; Awareness Videos; Music Videos; and Spoken Word Performances. Her upcoming film is an Awareness Video on Domestic Violence, her student short film will also include photographs, statistics, and a spoken word performance within the awareness video. Stay tuned for more details on her Facebook,
Instagram, & Twitter social media handles.
You can visit her YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCidf82XuTzeMiF6_n10rCNw
Follow me on: Facebook: (Mysti Milwee)
Twitter: @mystiartpro
Instagram: @mystimilwee
You can visit her website at: https://www.mystismilwee.wordpress.com
If you need help on Marketing Your Writing, or need a Marketing Assistant, I charge a small fee. Please contact me at: sequoyahcherokeeriverjournal@gmail.com
To submit your work to Sequoyah Cherokee River Journal read the submission guidelines on the website below: https://www.sequoyahcherokeeriverjournal.wordpress.com (Follow the Journal on Instagram) If you would like to have your work translated into Cherokee Syllabary for $0.08 cents per word contact her at: sequoyahcherokeeriverjournal@gmail.com
If you would like to submit your work or links to your works to S.L.A.T. Magazine,
you may go ahead and send them to her email at: slatmagazine@gmail.com
Please see the submission guidelines at https://www.slatmagazine.wordpress.com
If you would like customized artwork or poetry please contact me at: mystiart21@gmail.com
(Please note in subject line: Customized Art Inquiry or Customized Poetry Inquiry) If you would like to book a private art instruction classes please email me at: mystiart21@gmail.com
(Please note in subject line: Inquiry on Private Art Instructor Classes)