Internet Marketing Freedom

The Deal, my new thriller written under the pen name I. C. Cosmos, just became #1 Hot New Release!
Marketing works 🙂

And this is only possible because of internet marketing! More about this in coming posts :-)

The Project, my second thriller, became #1 Hot New Release on Amazon and made several best sellers lists in the US and Canada :-)

The Project is written under the pen name I. C. Cosmos, and, if you like quick summer reads, click here and start reading: https://iccosmos.com/

*** 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲. 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝟭

Welcome back :-)

In the last post we parachuted into an empty page and filled it with words. Any words. It’s not only a great jumpstart to get your writing engine running, but also a good technique to get unstuck anytime words don’t flow…

Of course, best sellers aren’t made of pages filled with rambling paragraphs, sentences that don’t run, and words that are all over the place. You want content that grabs readers from the first page and makes them sit on the edge of their chair and turn pages until they reach The End, hungry for your next book…

Does this look like a too huge task to you? Threatening, maybe? No worries. Because we’ll break this mountain into tiny hills that can be scaled without losing breath. The first step is to figure out what you are selling. Because you are selling much more than merely a book.

Let’s start with non-fiction because it’s more straightforward than fiction (please note I didn’t say easier…). Non-fiction typically sells a solution to a problem. Or some kind of a journey, hopefully one that provides insight, wisdom, inspiration, whatever.

Any which way, to get non-fiction right, you need a sharp outline. Once you have that, chapters will write themselves (well, almost ;-)). One effective way to get there is to start with your sales letter.

If you aren’t familiar with sales letters, Google “great sales letters” and you’ll get up to speed in no time. In case you don’t want to write a sales letter (although you should have one, especially if your book leads to a funnel with more expensive products), go to amazon.com and read several book descriptions in your niche (you’ll have to write such a description sooner or later anyhow – the sooner the better).

As you’ll find out, sales letters and amazon descriptions are brimming with (irresistible) benefits readers get when (and only when) they buy the book. You’ll inevitably notice the variety of styles in these offerings - from subtly seductive to outright salesy. Please don’t let that distract you. The main point is that whatever you promise in your sales letter - tips, tricks, solutions, transformations... - MUST be featured in your book.

And that’s the reason why it’s a good idea to begin with the sales letter because it automatically generates the outline (and sub-outline) of your book. This is a circular process, you’ll have to go back and forth several times until your sales letter is sharp and your outline crystal clear.

Once you’ve reached this point, your book is ripe to be written. Don’t hesitate for a second and go! Start right in the middle if that’s where you get the writing juices flowing, and keep filling the outline with the best you have to offer.

To be continued… :-)

Wishing y’all happy writing...

*** 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗿 𝗮 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲

Fill the page with words! That was easy, no? I know, I know... easier said than done. Has it ever happened to you that a story lives in your mind for days, weeks, years even, but when you finally sit down to write it, nothing comes out? Or if something does come out, it’s dull, flat, a mere shadow of the amazing, vibrant story that lives in your mind? Well, it has happened to me quite a few times...

Why is that? Why the words don’t flow? Where is the barrier? Could it have something to do with our desire that our writing is magical, enchanting, page-turning, bestselling, prize-winning, [enter your wish here…]? In other words, if you are anything like me, you don’t want to merely fill a page, you want to write well… and that’s scary!

And there is more to it. Even if we find the courage to attack the empty page and fill it with our best writing, we are far from done. One page doesn’t make a bestseller. We have to do it over and over and over again. Writing a book is like running in a marathon – taking one step after another, and another…or, in our case, writing one word after another, after another….

Likening steps to words is fine, I think, but the metaphor ends there. Which is great news for us writers. Because we can’t rerun a marathon, but we can rewrite a book :-)

Once the race is finished, you can’t go back and scale again the pesky hill that reduced you to huffing and puffing, you can’t delete the crisis that almost made you quit in the middle of the run and replace it with a fresh new attempt…but when working on a book, you can rewrite as much as your heart desires.

No one ever sat down in front of a blank page and produced a bestseller in one go. The magic is in the rethinking, rewriting, polishing, and more polishing… So it’s perfectly OK that your first attempt sucks. The most important thing is to fill the page and keep going. Don’t worry about anything - especially not about spelling and grammar - just keep going. Because as you go on, better, sharper, clearer sentences will come to you, your story will shape itself and start to live on “paper” (and not only in your head). You’ll be on your way. But you have to start...

You can start anytime, and the best time is right now. So open your Word or Scrivener or what have you. Take ten minutes, twenty minutes - as much time as you like - and write whatever comes to your mind. It might but doesn’t have to be related to the book you want to write. For now, just fill the page. And tomorrow again, and then again. And in the in the next post we’ll put some order in the chaos and structure it so that it starts to look like a book. :-)

Happy writing...