10 Tips for New Authors
Image from Google
When I first started publishing in 2019, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I had heard about things like ‘marketing,’ ‘newsletters,’ ‘book launches,’ and ‘pen names’ etc, but naively, I thought it would be as simple as writing a book, clicking publish, and posting on social media about it, then sit back and watch royalise roll in.
And they did! For about five minutes, and then my book was buried under the weight of the virtual amazon bookshelf.
So, four years on, I have done a lot of learning. My newsletter is well into triple figures, my books are selling regularly, and my following has grown immensely.
Below are a few things that I have learned the hard way, so that you can get to where you want to be quicker.
1 – Pick a genre, or at least, use a pen name.
Does Stephen King write romance? Does JK Rowling write splatterpunk? You know exactly what you’re getting when you hear these names, and you want your readers to know the same when they hear yours.
I write very dark fiction, from crime thrillers, horror and dark fantasy. My readers will cross over into the other genres, because they enjoy the style of my writing, and the themes correlate to each other. Now imagine if I threw in a romantic comedy in there, or a children’s colouring book. My readers would be very confused, and so would the Amazon algorithm.
You must stick to a genre, and if you wish to deviate from that genre, use a pen name. It prevents your readers from getting confused, and also the meta data and voodoo witchcraft of Amazon from getting confused too. It will encourage read through, and you will attract those kinds of readers that enjoy the work you put out. Amazon will also push your books in front of the eyes of potential readers who enjoy the genre you’re writing in.
Remember, if everyone is your target audience, then no one is.
Image from Google
2 – Consume the genre you write in.
If you write horror, crime or romance, you should read it or at least consume it through other mediums. It will give you an idea of chapter lengths, feel, tone and language used in these kinds of books. It will allow you to write and create something that is familiar to the readers of that market, and not accidently throw in a unicorn in the middle of a steampunk dystopia.
3 – Writer’s block doesn’t exist.
I have spoken about this in a few of my blogs and videos. You do not need inspiration to write. You do not need the muse to appear to you. If you write only when you’re inspired, you will fail. You must make writing a part of your day and treat it like a job. You must give yourself targets, word counts and deadlines. You must write when you don’t want to. That is how books get written.
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4 – Writing is a business.
If you want to make a living writing and telling stories, then you must adopt a business mindset. This is why writing in a genre is so important, and why writing to a schedule is so paramount.
No, I don’t mean sleezy sales tactics or underhanded techniques. Marketing is basically putting your book in front of people that will want to read it. It’s that simple.
Learn about marketing. Learn about calls to action, mailing lists and how to engage with your readers and build relationships with them. Don’t be one of these annoying writers who scream in a crowded room for someone to buy their book.
Find a target market. Find where those people hang out. Engage first, then promote. Offer something for free. Encourage sign ups to your mailing list. Offer content, and then promote your work.
How to market as a writer
5 – Self-publishing is a viable option.
If you dream of being a traditionally published author, then that’s brilliant. All power to you, but don’t think that if you manage to land a publishing deal, you’re set for life. Far from it. I know plenty of writers that are still not making ends meet through trad publishing deals, and many independent self-published writers that are making bank each year through DIY publishing.
Decided what you want to do and focus on it. A proverb I love is ‘A man who chases two hares will catch neither,’ and you need to focus your energy on one path and get very good at it.
Focus is the key.
Image from Google
6 – You don’t have to be the best at everything.
You don’t have to be the best writer. The best marketer. The best at SEO, emails, social media etc. You just have to be good enough at a lot of it.
7 – Never stop learning.
The landscape of publishing and writing is always changing. Don’t think you will know everything. You will fall down rabbit holes and implement information, and then you will discover something new to try.
8 – You will need to write books. And then more books. And then more.
You will not get successful from one book wonder. Lightning strikes do happen (E.L James – 50 Shades of Grey), but do not build your career on the hope of a one book wonder success. If you’re in this for the long term, then you better be ready to write millions of words and keep publishing.
9 – People will laugh at you for being a writer.
Fuck them.
10 – You will get discouraged.
Everyone does. We all have slow days. We all hit mental blocks. We all have self-doubt. Be consistent, and outwork your self-doubt by writing good stories, and putting them in front of people that want to read them.
Jay Darkmoore is a writer and writing coach from the UK and author of over ten titles and counting.
How to Write a Psychopath
How to write a psychopath in your book, and why you should.
American Psycho
Psychopaths are incredibly fun to read in books and watch on the big screen and have been popularised by some very infamous and somewhat controversial films and books, from American Psycho written by Bret Easton Ellis, Hannibal Lecter by Thomas Harris and even James Bond by Ian Fleming.
But why is it that these characters have captured both love and fear in our hearts? What is it about them that makes us want to know more? Is it their propensity to violence? Their ability to be cunning and manipulative without feeling any remorse? Is it their self-confidence and being able to think under pressure? Whatever the reason, our hearts have a soft place in them for psychopaths in literature.
In this blog, I am going to tell you how to create your very own in your fiction, and it will maybe help you spot these same traits in other characters you enjoy.
Hannibal Lecter
Traits of a psychopath –
Most Psychopaths are male, with them making up approx. 1% of the population, and are estimated to make up 50 – 80% of the prison population. Women that show high traits of Psychopathy are more likely to be diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, which along with Psychopathy, is a ‘Cluster B’ personality disorder along with Narcissism and Histrionic Personality Disorder as outlined in the Diagnostical and Statistical Manual Version 5 (DSM – 5 for short) of the American Psychiatric Association.
Psychopathy lends itself to having many different traits, all of which are useful in certain situations, and can even benefit those in certain careers (below). Most people can dial these traits down as and when they need them, but a psychopath can’t and would always have these traits on the high setting in their brains.
These are low empathy, impulsivity, calm under pressure, manipulative, charming, ruthlessness and emotionally detached and show a lack of remorse for their actions.
James Bond
This list can make for some fantastic characters and even make for some fantastic story arcs. Maybe a character is charming and loving, and then later down the line, we see that it was all manipulation to convince someone to give up their life savings, and then abandon them. Tinder Swindler, anyone?
Or maybe we have a character that is a military soldier, a warrior, who is ruthless and can cut through the enemy without a shred of remorse? A police officer who will do anything to crack the case, or a surgeon who has the steadiest hand to make that vital, life-saving cut with everything on the line?
Psychopaths make for excellent characters. They make incredibly fun heroes to write about, and add a lot more depth to the ‘bad guy.’ We can look into their childhood, in that a psychopathic person would have normally come from some kind of abusive childhood, and uses psychopathy as a way to navigate the world based off of that. It gives the character more back story. More depth.
Professor Kevin Dutton
According to psychologist Professor Kevin Dutton, most psychopaths are split into two categories. Those with high traits and a low propensity to commit violence, and those with high psychopathic traits and a higher propensity to violence.
Those that are of lower violent tendencies are more likely to be characterised by high-pressure positions, such as politicians, CEOs, police officers, lawyers and high-end athletes. These could make for some great characters and some side characters, and maybe even a villain or two in there? Maybe the villain is a top businessman of a rival company that is trying to sabotage the hero’s chances at getting their foot on the corporate ladder? Or even a detective that drinks too much and is emotionally vacant when around other people, but is ruthless and driven to catch the bad guy?
Jack Torrance - The Shining
The psychopaths that are high in psychopathic traits with a higher level of predisposition to violence would be our classical villains such as serial killers, a criminal mob boss and even a soldier that has gone rogue.
Psychopaths make for great foreshadowing opportunities too, as they can be very manipulative. In your story, you can have the psychopath dropping hints and leaving clues for the rest of the characters to find, and then when the big reveal comes later in the book, the reader can connect the dots and have the ‘Oh my god!’ moment that we all love to create when they figure it all out.
Lorna - By Jay Darkmoore
In my dark romance ‘Lorna,’ the main character in the story ‘Christian’ is a psychopath, and he will stop at nothing to not only win the heart of Lorna, his new infatuation but also kill and destroy the lives of anyone that dares stand in his way.
Order it here on kindle unlimited today.
Psychopaths are so much fun to write and can offer a lot of depth to your characters and the story. Even just highlighting certain traits outlined above and giving them to your characters can make a lot of difference to your writing.
Have fun with it and thank you for reading.
But what about other writing ideas? What about being able to break through writer’s block?
What it’s really like being an independently published author
What it’s really like being an Indie Author
You have been lied to.
Forget the ‘Make $1000 a day’ or ‘How to get RICH quick with KDP’ videos on YouTube. I am telling you now. They are complete bullshit.
Think about it; why would anybody do anything other than sell books on KDP if it was that easy to make money? And not only that, if you discovered a secret money pile, would you really tell everyone about it? It’s clickbait. And I feel that you, like me, have been on that hook many times.
I have been selling books independently using Amazon KDP for around two years now. Let me save you a lot of pain in the long run and allow me to break your heart quickly.
It is not easy. It is not a get-rich-quick scheme. I have been a delivery driver, a carer for disabled children, and even a police officer. And running a business as an independent author is by far the hardest job I have ever had to do.
And yet, I and thousands of others still do it. Not because I want to get rich quickly (even though I wouldn’t mind having a few more zeros in my bank account generated from book sales), but because I must write stories. I must get them out of my head. I must see what the characters get up to and I am their guide, as they too guide me through the narrative.
So that said, is KDP a fool’s game? Far from it. Is it possible to make a living, even a great living from selling books online? Absolutely. But is it easy? Not a cat in hell’s chance.
The Three Questions
Firstly, if you want to sell books on KDP, you have to ask yourself are you prepared to invest money into book covers and editors.
Are you willing to spend money on adverts, keywords and marketing?
Are you willing to spend hours and hours not only writing a book, but editing it, sending it out to beta readers, Advanced Copy Readers, build a network of other writers and readers in the hope that with enough time, effort and tears you will eventually be able to make a living out of doing this?
If you answered No to a single one of those questions, then give up now and don’t bother. But if you answered Yes to all of them, then you are about to embark on an amazing journey.
Like the heroes in the stories we write, being an independent author is filled with a roller coaster of emotions. I remember the first time I was able to buy a meal with the royalties I got from my debut novel The Space Between Heaven and Hell. I remember my first bad review on The Everlife Chronicles. I remember the amazing interviews I have had with writers on my Instagram, and the first YouTube video I uploaded that got comments.
Self-publishing is an incredible thing to make a living from if you have a realistic mindset about it all. It won’t be overnight, and if you can’t defer gratification then this is not the career for you.
When I first started self-publishing, I devoured everything I could about the subject. Some things stuck, and others didn’t. I made mistakes. I wasted money. I bought courses that promised a quick fix. I bought budget book covers that still give me nightmares. I skipped out on the editing. I overpaid for ads. All to chase the dream.
But there is something that comes from fucking up. You get experience. You lick your wounds, and you get back up and get back in front of the keyboard and you crunch away. You will always make mistakes. You will always have more to learn, and you will pick yourself up more times than you can count and get back to it.
So for the budding author reading this. I thank you. Not only for reading my blog, but for chasing your dream in the pursuit of writing stories.
If you are looking to embark on this journey, then I implore you to read on to my next blog, ‘How to Market as an Indie Author.’