Marketing - Steven R. Southard (Poseidon's Scribe)

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You’ll Never Sell Books in a Bakery, They Said

Thank you to Challyn Hartogh and her staff at Leaves Bakery and Tea Shop in Fort Worth, Texas. My book signing event there last Sunday went well.

The author at Leaves Bakery and Tea Shop

Located in an eclectic neighborhood of old buildings redone as trendy shops, Leaves Bakery and Tea Shop emphasizes muffins and tea, but caters to authors as well. After all, once you buy your scone and hot drink, you feel the urge to read a book, right?

And, yes, we all get the clever pun—leaves…books and tea. Nice.

Paired with Galen Steele, an up-and-coming poet, I set up my table and greeted everyone that came in. Accepting my prior invitation, some friends dropped by and chatted with me.

My new book, The Seastead Chronicles, received a prime spot near the center of my table, but I brought others to sell also.

As you can see by visiting the Appearances tab on this website, I’ll return to Leaves Bakery and Tea Shop later this month to conduct a Writers Workshop. I’ve titled it “Writing Drunk – Imbibing Passion for More Creative Binging.” If you’re in the area that day, please stop by.

Thanks to my appearance last Sunday, we now know the answer to how an author stays and Leaves at the same time! Thanks again to the staff there, from—

Poseidon’s Scribe

September 14, 2025Poseidon's ScribePermalink 2 Comments

Advice from a Writing Cowboy

If you’re an accomplished author, folks might ask you to speak to groups every now and then. I’ve heard plenty of such talks, but none like a recent one from Michael Johnson.

Bio

A true cowboy, Michael Johnson lives on a Texas horse farm. Unlike many cowboys, he earned a doctorate at East Texas State University. He’s authored several award-winning books, has performed hundreds of stage shows, writes a nationally syndicated magazine column, and hosts a weekly radio broadcast.

How to Give a Talk

I didn’t know him before listening to his talk. I just showed up and took a seat among the dozen attendees. While I chatted with others, waiting for the talk to begin, a guy walked up and waited for a gap in the conversation. He introduced himself as Michael Johnson and shook my hand.

Later, upon starting his talk, Mr. Johnson expressed how happy he was to be there, and nodded to each of us in turn and said our first names. He’d just met a dozen people who’d entered a room in haphazard order and sat where they pleased, and he’d memorized all our names in seated order. Wow.

Even if he’d said nothing of consequence after that, I still would have listened with complete attention. He’d memorized my name, and the names of everyone there. By contrast, I often forget a single person’s name a few seconds after an introduction. If I could learn to do what he did, I could command attention too.

How to Sell Books

Mr. Johnson went on to provide valuable information. He knew a group of writers might wish to know how to sell more books, and that’s what he talked about.

He used anecdotes from his life to illustrate his points. With humor to lighten things up, he offered advice from hard-earned experience. Mr. Johnson also recommended the book 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, by John Kremer. I haven’t read it, but am considering it.

Two of Mr. Johnson’s major points impressed me most of all.

Write what you want to write. Steer clear of the temptation to follow trends or copy favorite authors.
You’ll sell more books by making personal connections with potential readers. It’s not your book they’re buying—it’s you.

The Effect on Me

That second bit of advice ejected me way out of my comfort zone. I consider myself a writer, not a salesman. I lack a sales personality and the sales skills.

Still, I guess I’m not too old a dog to learn a new trick. Personal connections. Okay, I can give them a try.

Mr. Johnson signed a copy of his book, The Trials of Joe Ben Black—Confessions of a Rope Horse, for me. From what I gather about it so far, humans can learn a fair bit about positive thinking from horses. Talk about a personal connection!

Just think—all this time I’ve been working to sell my books, and I should’ve been working to sell—

Poseidon’s Scribe

August 17, 2025Poseidon's ScribePermalink 2 Comments

The Barbenheimer and Glickéd Approach to Novels

In 2023, the movies Barbie and Oppenheimer got released at the same time, and the simultaneity struck audiences as funny. A cultural meme exploded—”Barbenheimer.” Rather than competing for audiences, promoters of the films capitalized on the meme.

Now in 2024, the movies Gladiator II and Wicked spawned their own portmanteau—Glickéd.

What if this weird cultural phenomenon had happened with novels? What if the two best-selling novels for each of the last ten years got combined the same way and were promoted together?

My Method, With Caveats

Before I unveil my zany title combinations, a couple of quick explanations. Publishers don’t reveal hard data on book sales, so I used the number of weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List as my measure. This includes print and ebook sales. Best-selling books in any given year might have been published in a previous year. Sometimes I ran into ties for second place. In those instances, I picked one from among the tying books. Here’s my list:

2014

“Gone Goldfinch,” from The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

2015

“GreyGirl,” from The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and Grey by E.L. James. Others that tied for second with Grey were Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee and Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham.

2016

“Me Girl, You Train,” from The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

2017

“CamShack,” from Camino Island by John Grisham and The Shack by William P. Young.

2018

“Great President is Alone,” from The President is Missing by James Patterson and Bill Clinton, and The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

2019

“Sing, Guardians!” from Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and The Guardians by John Grisham. Others that tied for second with The Guardians were Blue Moon by Lee Child and The Institute by Stephen King.

2020

“CrawDirt,” from Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. Others that tied with American Dirt were Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, Camino Winds by John Grisham, The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, and Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline.

2021

“Four Windy Dukes,” from The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah and The Duke and I by Julia Quinn.

2022

“Where Crawdads End,” from Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover.

2023

“It Starts Fourth,” from It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover and Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.

Lessons

Maybe the publishing industry could learn something about promotion from Hollywood. Use the portmanteau idea in media blitzes for novels. Send the two authors out to book signings together. Bundle the books for sale in one package.

I’m no marketing genius, but perhaps there’s merit in this. If some advertiser wants to run with it, just remember to credit me with the idea. And get my name right. It’s spelled—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 8, 2024Poseidon's ScribePermalink

8 Valuable Tips for Writer Elevator Pitches

You’ve just met someone new. Once they find out you’re a fiction writer, they might ask, “What do you write?” You have thirty seconds to answer. Go.

These interactions can happen anywhere—at a writers’ conference, at the store, at a bus stop, at a party, and, yes, even in an elevator. Every interaction is a chance to entice a new reader. Or a chance to flub it.

Let’s not flub this. Here are my tips for creating and delivering a masterful elevator pitch.

Plan the pitch. Visualize the interaction. The person will ask you what you write about, but they’re really wondering if you write what they like to read. You’d like them to be a new reader, to buy your books. This is a chance to find out if those different goals intersect. Write down a four or five sentence answer you can deliver in thirty seconds. Rewrite these until they’re interesting, upbeat, and compelling. Remember, you’re answering a question about what you write, not selling a used car.
Rehearse the pitch. Speak your sentences aloud, as if to a new acquaintance. Do this in the mirror. Smile. Make eye contact. Exude confidence and enthusiasm.
Wait for the invitation. When the meeting occurs, don’t launch into your pitch. Let them ask the question, which may occur when they find out you’re a writer. They may not ask, which is a sign they’re not a potential reader.
Speak naturally. Yes, you rehearsed, but don’t let your pitch sound rehearsed. Let your voice tone rise and fall normally, and avoid speaking in monotone. Don’t talk too fast.
Smile and make eye contact. Just like you rehearsed it. The first reason for this is to make your pitch more compelling. There’s a second reason…
Watch for signs of interest. As you’re speaking, watch the person’s eyes for signs of increased interest. If that occurs, alter your pitch to follow up on what you just said that perked their interest.
Be ready for follow-up questions. The person might well ask, “What else have you written?” or “What are you writing now?” or “I like stories about [whatever]. Have you written anything like that?” Of course, the best follow-up question is, “Where can I find out more about your books?”
Make the connection. If they ask for more information, be ready to provide it. You can offer to send an email. You can trade contact information using smartphones. You can mention your author website. You can even provide an author business card.

Soon you’ll be, as they say in the elevator biz, going up. But that’s only if you follow the wise advice of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

July 18, 2021Poseidon's ScribePermalink

10 Traits Writers Need Most

What traits do you need to become a successful fiction writer? Of those, which are most important?

Author Anne R. Allen wrote a blogpost some years ago that inspired this line of thinking for me. She had encountered people who thought talent was necessary, and sufficient. They’d send her their written excerpts and ask, “Do you think I’ve got the talent?”

Anne Allen argued, persuasively, that natural talent might aim you in your life’s direction, but is far less important than skill, or several other traits she cited.

I decided to carry the argument in a different direction. Given the traits she mentioned, could I come up with an ordered list from most important to least important?

Using a technique called pair-wise comparison, I used a matrix to compare each trait against each of the others and added up the scores.

First, let’s define each one in alphabetical order:

Creativity, or Imagination. This wasn’t on Anne R. Allen’s list, but I consider it important. Basically, it’s the ability to come up with new ideas, to invent characters, plots, scene descriptions, etc.

Drive. This is the inner motivation or impulse to write. It’s that determination, that self-discipline, that pushes you to create fictional worlds.

Gratitude. By this, Anne meant the willingness to accept help in the form of negative criticism, particularly comments on your manuscript from beta readers and editors. I would have called it Toughness, or Thick Skin, but we’ll keep with Anne’s term.

Learning. This is the willingness to acquire new writing skills by educating yourself. There are numerous methods, including studying the classics, taking classes, participating in critique groups, and reading books about writing. Choose the method that works for you.

Marketing. This trait measures how well you understand what your readership wants and how well you expose potential readers to your writing. These days, you have to know the market and be willing to advertise yourself.

Observation. Anne called this trait “Listening Skills,” but I sought a one-word description. Writers must watch and listen to people, how they behave, what they say, what facial expressions and gestures they use, what verbal expressions and dialect they employ, etc. Such knowledge will make your characters seem more realistic.

Passion. This describes your love of writing. Although related to Drive, this is more about the pleasure you derive from the act of writing itself.

Persistence. It’s a measure of your willingness and ability to overcome setbacks, to solve problems and move forward, to rise after falling.

Skill. This trait describes the quality of your writing. Anne had much to say about skill, but didn’t include it specifically in her list of traits. She defined ‘talent’ as inborn skill, but believed few people had talent, but most could develop skill. Her post suggested that ‘skill’ was an umbrella term that included all the other traits. I believe skill is independent of all of them, and merely addresses how well you write.

Solitude. Anne called this ‘The Ability to be Alone’ and made it clear that writing is not just for introverts. It’s just that extroverts must leave their comfort zone for a while, since writing is an individual effort.

Obviously, there are inter-relationships and overlaps among these traits. Still, they’re distinct enough that I was able to rate each one in importance against all the others. Below is my subjective list from most important to least:

Creativity
Drive
Passion
Observation
Learning
Skill
Persistence
Gratitude
Marketing
Solitude

As a general pattern, you can see my most important ones are traits that get you started, and the least important (with the exception of Solitude) are traits you develop as a result of having written and submitted your work.

That list may not seem right to you, but it works for—

Poseidon’s Scribe

August 2, 2020Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Telling Readers All About You

How much should your readers know about you? In this age of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, when everything private is public, is it necessary to reveal every detail?

Before social media and even before the internet, authors were mysterious. Each one seemed like a magical wizard living in some unknown and hidden cave. A publisher would release a book, but readers wouldn’t know anything about the wizard, and publishers wouldn’t tell what they knew.

In those days, you could read the ‘About the Author’ section on the book jacket or an occasional magazine interview, but that was all you knew. The wizards stayed in their caves, typing away.

Times have changed. If you like a particular author, you can find out home town, number of cats owned, shoe size, political leanings, and a description of that writer’s most recent meal. No more wizards; no more mysteries; it turns out authors are just everyday people with an odd tendency to sling words around.

As a writer, you may still choose to remain a digital hermit, invisible to Facebook, a wizard in your cave. But you’d be going against the trend, and against the current guidance.

The web is filled with advice blogs for new authors. You must have a social media presence. Your readers are curious about you, so you must connect with them. Be authentic; show your audience you’re a real person. A few hours spent on social media will help grow your book sales.

Not all authors follow this advice. One of them, Tom Corson-Knowles, recommends writers shun social media entirely. He argues you’ll achieve better sales by writing better books; staying off Twitter will give you more free time to write; and social media is cramping your creativity.

Each writer must take the path that seems right, and be willing to change if that’s not working. As for me, I write these weekly blogposts, post on Twitter and Facebook once a week or so, and sometimes post book reviews on Goodreads. I rarely talk about personal stuff on those platforms.

Although I’d be more comfortable as a mysterious, cave-dwelling wizard, I’m willing to admit things are changing. Almost everyone shares personal details these days, and if I knew I could increase sales by posting a few things, I’d do it.

For now, I’ll reveal one spicy secret. Though I like dogs and (sometimes) cats, there are currently no pets in the home of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

February 2, 2020Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Tailoring Your Author Bio for Success

Among most writers’ least favorite tasks is marketing, and among the least favorite marketing tasks is crafting an author biography. There’s really no avoiding it, so you might as well craft a bio that serves your purposes.

There are various uses for your bio, and I’ll discuss four of them here. Unfortunately, they are different enough to require separate, tailored bios, but time spent crafting good ones can pay off for you.

For simplicity, let’s call the four types the Website bio, the Submission bio, the Anthology bio, and the Convention bio. That is the rough order in which you’ll encounter them as you develop. Let’s delve into each.

Website Bio

This is the bio you’ll use on your own website, and on your author page on various other sites like Amazon, Goodreads, or others. The purpose of this bio is to entice site visitors to buy your books.

Of all the bio types, this can be the longest, but don’t create one so long that nobody wants to read it. Break it up into bite-sized paragraphs. It can include your background, your education (if relevant), and (most important) information about the stories you write. The tone of the bio should match the tone of your stories.

As your writing credentials change, you’ll want to update this bio periodically on all the sites at which it appears.

Submission Bio

On occasion, you’ll be sending a story to a market where the submission guidelines state they need your bio along with your story. Sometimes the editor wants to use that bio in the anthology they’re editing (see Anthology Bio below), and sometimes it’s just so the editor can learn about you.

If it’s the latter, the purpose of this submission bio is to convey a professional and engaging persona to that editor, one that won’t detract from the story you’re sending. The only audience is that editor, and the only thing the editor cares about are your writing credentials. These can include a listing of the last three stories you’ve gotten published in the relevant genre, and any facts about your background that relate to the story you’re sending.

Brevity, along with correct grammar and spelling are keys in this bio. A poorly written bio might dissuade the editor from even looking at the story you submitted.

Anthology Bio

If your story appears in an antho, the book’s editor often includes bios of each author, sometimes just before or after each story, or sometimes collected in a listing at the end of the book.

The purpose here is to entice readers to read your story, and to buy your other books. Be succinct, interesting, fun, and different.

I try to tailor my bios to the theme of the anthology. For a Poe-related antho, I crafted a dark bio. For a wing-related antho, I worked in flight words like “soaring,” “uplifting,” and “gliding.” For a cat-related antho, my bio contained cat idioms.

Convention Bio

If you end up speaking at a con, the organizers will likely ask you to submit a bio. Yours will appear in a long list along with bios of other speakers. The purpose is to catch the eye of readers and stimulate them toward attending your panel, session, or signing, and toward buying your books.

Your goal, therefore, is to have the shortest, most impactful bio in the list. Make it irresistible and unique. If the con limits you to 100 words, use half that number, but use 50 enticing words.

Final Bio Thoughts

I know, all you want to do is write stories, not labor over all these bios. But you can simplify the chore by keeping a ‘bio file.’ That makes it easier to tailor an existing one to fit your current needs. Remember to add any new bio you write to your bio file. Also, peruse other author’s bios for inspiration, but don’t copy them.

This needn’t be difficult. You’re a creative writer. Think of a bio as a short, true story about yourself. Surely you can craft a better bio than those of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

September 8, 2019Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Your Author Photo

These days, if you’re going to be an author, you need an author photo. When you get yours taken, it needs to be better than mine in several ways.

First, why do you need an author photo? Maybe you’d prefer not to have one, believing your image will turn readers away. If so, ask yourself if you’ve ever refused to buy a book because of the picture of the author. Nobody does that. For the real people who will buy your book, it’s comforting for them to see what kind of real person wrote it.

Mary Robinette Kowal listed the four functions of an author photo, but those functions boil down to one idea: it’s a selling tool.

If we analyze my author photo, we can identify several things I did wrong:

I didn’t hire a professional photographer. Hannah Collins emphasized that in her post on author photos. Instead, I asked my wife, who is not a photographer, “Honey, would you take a picture of me?” Ever helpful and supportive, she replied, “Do I have to?”
We didn’t take many shots from which to choose. Vicki Lesage had hundreds of shots taken. My wife snapped one and my session was over.
The setting isn’t indicative of my genre. Kat said the mood of the pic should match the mood of your books. My outdoor photo shows green foliage behind me as I wear a red shirt. Can you tell anything about my genre from that?
It’s oriented as a portrait, not landscape. Thomas Umstattd stressed that point, since a photographer can do a lot with the side space, and a publisher can crop the photo to a portrait if necessary. My wife and I gave no thought to that.
The photo lacks props. Both Ms. Collins and Ms. Lesage suggested using minimal props, the latter saying it’s an author photo, not a garage sale. However, I used no props at all.
I didn’t use lighting to the best effect. Chris Robley advised you to play around with lighting to bring out the best image of you. My wife and I didn’t consider that for a moment.
I didn’t bring several outfit changes to the photo shoot. Randy Susan Meyers said that’s important because you may not know in advance what clothes will look best in the photo. I showed up with one shirt…way too few.
I didn’t wear makeup. Ms. Kowal believed even guys can benefit from makeup. Maybe so, but I didn’t use it for my photo, and wouldn’t know where to begin.

Even though I did many things ‘wrong,’ I think my wife took a good photo, considering whom she had to work with as a subject. It works reasonably well as a selling tool. Look at the picture again. It’s clearly the image of a guy whose books you’d like to read. Those eyes and that smile mesmerize you; you feel compelled by irresistible forces to drop what you’re doing and buy books written by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 21, 2018Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Author Mission Statements and Strategic Plans

Businesses have mission statements and strategic plans. As a writer, shouldn’t you have them also? After all, writing is your business. Let’s see if these tools are right for you.

First, what are they? A mission statement is different from a strategic plan. A mission statement is a written declaration of what your business is striving to be, a vision of its intended future. It embodies the goal and vision of what the business seeks to become. It is bold, imaginative, and inspiring.

author-mission-statement A strategic plan is a detailed blueprint of how to achieve that mission. It assigns intermediate actions to complete, and dates when each action is to be done. It is a logical progression of steps toward the goal. It is achievable and actionable.

Why are these things useful to businesses? Sometimes, in the rush of things, it’s possible for someone in a company to make a decision or take an action contrary to what the company is all about. A mission statement focuses everyone in the company on the single goal. In the moment of decision, a glance at the mission statement might keep an employee from taking the wrong path.

The strategic plan takes employees out of the lofty, pretty world of grand visions and gives them a practical, measurable way to work toward the goal. It breaks down the seemingly impossible vision into concrete tasks they can accomplish.

Fine so far. It’s easy to see why businesses find mission statements and strategic plans useful. For one thing, most businesses have more than one person in them, often hundreds or thousands, and sometimes millions of employees. A mission statement helps to keep all these people focused on a single goal, and the strategic plan helps them all achieve it.

Still, one person can have a mission statement. Dr. Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, advocated personal mission statements for individuals.

But, as a writer, do you need these tools? Authors such as Shannon from Duolit, Allen Watson, and Joanne Phillips cite good reasons why you do.

I don’t know.

If we were to ask the most successful authors today (use whatever definition of ‘successful’ you like), I bet few of them bother with mission statements or strategic plans. They might tell you their credo from memory or come up with one on the spot, but they haven’t written it down, let alone tacked it to the wall above their computer.

Still, just because they achieved success without these tools doesn’t mean you will. Perhaps you’d find them useful, even necessary.

Particularly if you’re the kind of writer who just wants to write, and detests the messy business side of it. Perhaps you don’t even like the word, ‘business.’ Sorry, but if you want to sell your work to readers, then your writing is a business.

Realizing that still doesn’t mean you like the idea, though. For you, a well-crafted mission statement could connect the fun writing side of it to the imagined best-seller/movie-deal/mansion-and-sports-car side of things, and remind you that dealing with the business part is your path to achieving that future.

For you, a strategic plan might be just the thing to break down all that intimidating business stuff into manageable chunks. Even though you have no staff, no other employees, a list of small tasks to accomplish can make those unpleasant business goals more achievable.

Depending on your attitude toward business, marketing, and sales, a mission statement and strategic plan could be beneficial to you. Just a couple more items in your writer toolbox, courtesy of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

September 18, 2016Poseidon's ScribePermalink

Of Brands and Platforms

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned ‘author branding’ a few times in passing, and wrote a post on ‘author platforms.’ But what’s the difference between the two, and is one more important than the other?

First, let’s define both terms. In Brian Niemeier’s post on the subject, he quotes Jane Friedman’s definition:

Author Platform = the proven ability to reach a target audience with visibility and authority

Niemeier then cites Joe Konrath’s definition of brand:

Author Brand = the reader’s linkage of author name with a positive reading experience

To understand branding, think of the effort major corporations put into getting customers to associate the corporations’ products and logo with a happy experience.

Philip Martin has listed the ways author branding is akin to religious faith, though I wouldn’t go that far, and the analogy with religions quickly breaks down. In my view, it’s better to think of branding in the context of corporations, such as those marketing fast food or soft drinks.

Even better, think of your favorite authors. Just the act of recalling each of their names evokes the linked memories of your satisfaction with their books. For each author, you form the mental gestalt of their genre, writing style, typical settings, and common character types. The whole pleasurable reading experience comes flooding back to you upon the mere mention of a name.

That’s the effect you want to create in your readers. How do you do that? First, write great fiction. Ensure some commonality between your stories, in genre, style, settings, or character types. The more of these that are in common between your books, the more effective your branding will be, since readers will better know what to expect. You’ll achieve the consistency necessary for closer linkage of your name with your body of work. Lastly, you’ll have to do the marketing necessary to keep reinforcing that mental connection of name to experience.

Once you achieve effective branding, where a tribe of loyal readers associates your name with a great reading experience, then they will spread the word about you, and through them you’ll reach new readers. It’s that ability to reach new readers that is your platform.

Having defined and described platform and branding, what is the relationship between the two? Obviously, they’re related and intertwined. If you have a recognizable brand, you’ll have constructed a platform, which further establishes and cements your brand.

Think of platform as being from the point of view of a major publisher. Traditional publishers don’t often risk publishing works by authors who don’t already have a platform. Think of brand as being from the point of view of the reader. It’s in the reader’s mind where the desired linkage of name and experience occurs.

In my view, brand comes first, then it builds your platform, which then reinforces your brand and they snowball together after that.

That’s it, pardner. I reckon you better stop readin’ this an’ start heatin’ up your brandin’ iron. You got a heap o’ work to do, and so does—

Poseidon’s Scribe