Planning My Novels, Part II - by Misty M. Beller

By Misty M Beller @MistyMBeller

Hi Friends!

On the SC Writers ACFW chapter blog last week, I shared the first step of my planning for a new novel: The Brainstorming Document. If you missed it, you can find that post here. 

This week, I'll share step two, the Chapter Outline. As I mentioned before, I'm a plotter, but not to the extreme. When I hear some seat-of-the-pants writers talk about a bare-bones rough draft, I often think my chapter outline must be similar to that first draft. Regardless, this helps me plan out my story and get a feel for the way the motivations and character arcs (from the Brainstorming document) will play out in the plot. 

So without further ado, let's talk details about:  

*** The Chapter Outline ***

    This is a scene by scene document, written in third-person, present tense. I include dates, and tentative POVs for each scene. Here’s an example from my book, The Lady and the Mountain Doctor. (Please don't judge the story from this behind-the-scenes snippet. :) The creative process takes strange forms!)

Chapter One - Oct 28, 1876, Miriam’s POV: Miriam is bleeding a deer when she's attacked by a mountain lion. She fights the cougar, and then loses consciousness from blood loss.

Alex’s POV: He's grinding Echinacea root when Gideon comes crashing in saying his sister Miriam is hurt badly. Alex helps him carry her to the exam room, then sends Gideon to find his brother to help with surgery. By the time Bryan arrives, Alex has examined her and given the prognosis. The lateral collateral ligament has a second degree tear, but the worst seems to be a large tear in the patellar tendon. Bryan tells him to take the lead on the surgery.

I usually use this document to keep up with my timeline, except there was one novel where I had to resort to an actual calendar (because I needed to track Pony Express runs that changed every week).

Even though I call this a chapter outline, it’s really a scene outline. When I’m writing the first draft of the story, I usually tweak the planned chapter starting places based on word count and what feels right for the story (making sure I end each chapter with a good hook).

This entire Chapter Outline is very fluid and usually does change some when I’m writing the manuscript (MS), but it gives me a good skeleton to start from. I copy and paste the next section from my Chapter Outline into the end of the MS so I can always see what’s coming next.  Not to say I don’t veer if the story needs it, but this saves me a lot of time getting myself back in the story when I sit down to write each day.

I allow myself at least two to three weeks to write the Chapter Outline, working on it an hour or two daily. I find that the more I put into this document, the quicker my writing goes when I’m working on the manuscript. 

As we said before, everyone must find their own process for inspiration and creativity, but we discover it by trying methods from other successful writers. When you find something that works for you, make it your own!

Misty M. Beller writes Christian historical romance, and is author of the bestselling Mountain Dreams Series and the Texas Rancher Trilogy. Her upcoming book, The Lady and the Mountain Call, will release April 5th, 2016.

Misty was raised on a farm in South Carolina, so her Southern roots run deep. About eleven years ago, she made a career change from farm life into the business world, where she worked as a Senior Manager and Director of Process & Training. She's now loving the life of a writer, wife, and mother.

Planning My Novels, Part I - by Misty M. Beller

By Misty M Beller @MistyMBeller

Hi Friends!

On the SC Writers ACFW chapter blog this week, we're continuing our series on how published authors plan their novels. In case you missed it, MaryLu Tyndall shared her method last week. 

I'm a firm believer that everyone must find their own process for inspiration and creativity, but we discover it by trying methods from other successful writers. When you find something that works for you, make it your own!

I'm a plotter, but not to an extreme. I've used the method I'll outline below to write my last nine books, fine-tuning it as I go. I'm able to write a 55K - 60K story in about three months, spending 2-3 hours a day doing heads-down writing. Some days I spend less time, depending on how the muse strikes and focused I am. 

Before I begin writing the actual manuscript, I always spend 2-3 weeks (or more) creating two different documents. The first document, I call:  

*** Brainstorming ***

To begin, I spend several days (or sometimes weeks) detailing my characters and developing a rough synopsis. I’m typically more character-driven, so I start with the characters, and use them to develop the plot synopsis, but you could do it either way. 

This Brainstorming document usually has three parts:

1.      Characters: This is for my protagonists (hero and heroine since I write romance), not necessarily minor characters. I develop my character motivations in detail, including free-writing their backstory. 

    For motivations, I make sure I have these things worked through for both the hero & heroine:

Backstory:

Physical Characteristics:

External Motivation: 

Internal Motivation: 

Conflicting goals:

Spiritual arc:

Black moment and lie:

Tension that separates from heroine/hero:

Happy moment and want (dream):

2.      Plot synopsis: This is for my eyes only, and hits the high points of the plot. It usually takes 1-2 pages, and I make sure I identify all of the major plot points:

Act 1:

1st Doorway:

Act 2:

Midpoint:

2nd Doorway:

Act 3:

I’m a big fan of James Scott Bell, and for a while I would re-read Plot and Structure before starting every new novel. It’s a fantastic book, whether you’re a plotter or a pantster. Now, I read sections of it (at least) for inspiration before starting a new story. His book, Write Your Novel from the Middle, is also very good.

Depending on the story and how comfortable I’m feeling with the plot, I may also do a one-sentence plot and identify the pinch-points. Generally, if it feels like something’s missing or the plot is not strong enough, I keep pushing until I find the missing piece. 

3.      Research: This Brainstorming document is also where I keep track of my research and websites I use. Since I write Historical Romance, research usually plays a huge part in developing my plot, so every time I find a new website to help with part of the story, I go ahead and copy/paste that link into the research section. 

Those are the main parts of the Brainstorming document, although I often add in other tidbits: Possibilities for a title, Possible opening lines, and anything that I might need to pull from later. 

Next week, I'll be back to talk about the next step in my process: the Chapter Outline. Until then, I'd love to hear your comments! Do you create a brainstorming file for each novel? Is there anything in it I haven't mentioned here? 

Misty M. Beller writes Christian historical romance, and is author of the bestselling Mountain Dreams Series and the Texas Rancher Trilogy. Her upcoming book, The Lady and the Mountain Call, will release April 5th, 2016.

Misty was raised on a farm in South Carolina, so her Southern roots run deep. About eleven years ago, she made a career change from farm life into the business world, where she worked as a Senior Manager and Director of Process & Training. She's now loving the life of a writer, wife, and mother.

How to Create Your Best Book Marketing Strategy

By Misty M Beller @MistyMBeller

Free Workshop in Progress: This summer on our ACFW-SC chapter blog we are happy to welcome one of our members, Misty M. Beller, for a special 12-week workshop on Marketing. Misty has experienced great success marketing her first novel and later ones, consistently selling 10,000 books a month. Join this free workshop and be blessed. Be sure to leave a comment and tweet the blogs to your friends. 

Elva Cobb Martin, President, ACFW-SC Chapter  www.elvamartin.com

"I hate marketing!" 

If I had a nickel for every time a writer said that, I would be living debt-free on a 2000 acre ranch in the Montana mountains. :) 

The fact is...book marketing doesn't have to be hard. Yet many writers hate it for one (or both) of two reasons. 

1. They don't know exactly what to do. I'm hoping to help you take the sting out of this obstacle as we proceed through this 12-week workshop. You may not be an expert when we're done, but I want you to at least have an understanding of the options available to you.
2. They try to force an uncomfortable marketing strategy to fit them and their book. There is not a single marketing approach that's right for every book. 

Coming from the corporate world, I'm an avid proponent of the "low-hanging fruit" strategy. 

The Scoop on Advertising: Part 3 ~ Pay-per-click Ads?

By Misty M Beller @MistyMBeller

Free Workshop in Progress: This summer on our ACFW-SC chapter blog we are happy to welcome one of our members, Misty M. Beller, for a special 12-week workshop on Marketing. Misty has experienced great success marketing her first novel and later ones, consistently selling 10,000 books a month. Join this free workshop and be blessed. Be sure to leave a comment and tweet the blogs to your friends. 

Elva Cobb Martin, President, ACFW-SC Chapter  www.elvamartin.com

As we talk through book advertising options, this week we’ll move into paid advertising. In my opinion, one of the most under-utilized options out there are Pay-Per-Click campaigns!

What is it? This concept has been around for a while, and Google AdWords is probably the most well-known venue. Basically, you create an ad and attach keywords to the ad. When a user types one of your keywords in a search field, your ad competes in a bidding war with other ads that have the same keyword. The ads that are the highest bidder(s) are shown to the user, but you are only charged your bidded price if the user clicks on your ad. Basically, you only pay if they click.

So far, I’ve tried PPC campaigns on Goodreads, Amazon, and Google AdWords, so here’s a quick recap of my experiences:

Amazon pay-per-click options are only available for independent authors who use the kdp.com program for ebooks. If you fall in that category, the program is nice because it shows you how many actual book sales were generated from clicks on your ad. My ratio on Amazon for my first campaign was approximately 1000 impressions (meaning my ad was shown 1000 times) to one click. That’s fairly close to the industry standard, I’ve been told.

It’s extremely easy to create a campaign! Just go into your KDP dashboard, select your book, and it walks you through the process. You’ll need to set a maximum bid amount and a total budget for the campaign, then decide whether you want it to spread the bids over the course of the campaign or use the budget as quickly as possible. Last but not least, you create a headline, then submit! Here’s a glance at a recent campaign I’ve created:

Goodreads has a similar set-up process. My results for my Goodreads PPC campaign has been thousands and thousands of impressions, but very few clicks. That tells me either my ad is not very attractive, or my keywords aren’t hitting my target reader. I need to work on that one! The good news is, it’s getting my book out there in front of a lot of potential readers. Good visibility! However that visibility won’t be as helpful if I’m not hitting my target reader.

One other nice benefit Goodreads offers is a daily email showing the progress of the campaign. The email tells how many views the ad has received, how many clicks, how much money spent, how many people have added the book to one of their Goodreads shelves, and more!

Google AdWords: I tend to have a much higher success rate on clicks per impression with AdWords, so I use this Pay-Per-Click method the most! There is a bit more set-up required, you’ll list keywords that determine when the ads show. The site helps by suggesting a lot of keywords similar to your product, and you can select as many as you want! It also gives great feedback on estimated number of views based on the keywords you choose.

Here’s a quick glance at the results from the last AdWords campaign I ran:

A couple of nice benefits to AdWords:

• They have people available you can call to help with set-up, strategy, keywords, etc. This is available at no extra charge.
• Many website providers provide a $100 AdWords credit (after you spend $25). If your web provider offers this, you ABSOLUTELY should take them up on it!

So now it’s your turn! Have you used a Pay-Per-Click campaign? Did you find it successful? Any best practices you can share? 

Or if you have questions on any of the info I’ve mentioned here, let’s hear ’em!

Misty M. Beller writes Christian historical romance, and is author of the bestselling novels The Lady and the Mountain Man and The Lady and the Mountain Doctor.

Misty was raised on a farm in South Carolina, so her Southern roots run deep. About ten years ago, she made a career change from farm life into the business world, where she now works as a Senior Manager and Director of Process & Training. Her husband and two daughters are gifts from God, keeping her both grounded and crazy.

The Scoop on Advertising: Part 2 - Giveaways!

By Misty M Beller @MistyMBeller

Free Workshop in Progress: This summer on our ACFW-SC chapter blog we are happy to welcome one of our members, Misty M. Beller, for a special 12-week workshop on Marketing. Misty has experienced great success marketing her first novel and later ones, consistently selling 10,000 books a month. Join this free workshop and be blessed. Be sure to leave a comment and tweet the blogs to your friends. 

Elva Cobb Martin, President, ACFW-SC Chapter  www.elvamartin.com

We’re talking through other options for unpaid advertising this week, specifically…giveaways!

Offering free books as a prize can have several different benefits. Let’s talk through several different options:

The Scoop on Marketing, Part 1

By Misty M Beller @MistyMBeller

Free Workshop in Progress: This summer on our ACFW-SC chapter blog we are happy to welcome one of our members, Misty M. Beller, for a special 12-week workshop on Marketing. Misty has experienced great success marketing her first novel and later ones, consistently selling 10,000 books a month. Join this free workshop and be blessed. Be sure to leave a comment and tweet the blogs to your friends. 

Elva Cobb Martin, President, ACFW-SC Chapter  www.elvamartin.com

Advertising has been a sweet spot for me, both paid and unpaid. There are so many great opportunities. So over the next few weeks, let’s talk through the possibilities! 

Before we jump in, I’m reminded of two critical things to consider when deciding which advertising routes to use. 

What makes an Amazon Bestselling Novel?

By Misty M Beller @MistyMBeller

Doesn't it seem crazy how some books leap to the top of Amazon's bestseller ranking and others stay somewhere around 75,000? I've studied hundreds (maybe thousands) of books on Amazon.com, and have come to the same conclusion as many other great authors and publishers. There are four basic ingredients to success in the cyber world of the Amazon Bookstore.

1. Good cover that sparks interest and/or emotion.

The cover is your hook. Before title, before craft, before all those weeks, months and years you’ve spent perfecting the story. Your cover art will most often determine whether a potential readers skims past, or clicks your book thumbnail to read more.

So what makes a good cover? I won’t list everything here, but in my opinion one of the most important jobs of a successful book cover is to spark interest or emotion. Skim the top books in your favorite categories on Amazon.com and you’ll see what I mean.

A successful book cover must spark interest or emotion with @mistymbeller #amwriting 

(Click to Tweet)

As you can imagine, developing an amazing book cover is not easy. If you’re traditionally published, you may have little say in the outcome. But I would encourage you to make every effort possible to ensure your cover will stir the emotion that draws your target reader.

2. Good product description (back cover blurb) that shows interesting characters, a great story, and plenty of tension.

We’re all writers, correct? Crafters of words. So putting together fifty words to share the opening highlights of story should be a piece of cake. I’m sure you’re chuckling with me. J

If you were successful in drawing a potential reader with your emotion-generating cover art, this is the place to hook them with your “Product Description.” (Such a bland name for a powerful text box.)

Spend focused time on this blurb. Run it through your critique group. Seek feedback from a variety of people, especially those in your target reader demographic. Tweak it until it shines!

(Note to authors who publish independently or through small publishers: You are most likely writing the final draft of the Product Description, so you’ll want to include as many of your keywords as you can.)

3. High number of reviews and average rating.

Here's where we talk about craft and producing a well-written novel. You were afraid I wouldn't mention it, weren't you?

We all hear word of mouth is what sells books. The Amazon review is one of the most powerful word-of-mouth tools you'll ever encounter. Is your book well-researched? Your readers will appreciate that and mention it in their reviews. Did you forget to tie up loose ends in your story line? You'll be called out on it, I guarantee. Potential readers often look at the reviews to see if they're willing to spend precious money and time to read your story. Hone your craft and write the best story possible, and your reviews will reflect it.

How many reviews do you need? Many writers say it seems there's something "magical" about reaching twenty-five. After that, they seem to come so much easier and quicker. The more reviews you have with a four- or five-star rating, the more comfortable a potential reader will be taking a chance on your book.

4. Visibility (discoverability) - readers can't buy the book unless they know about it.

Now we hit the meat of it. You need a good cover, good blurb, and lots of positive reviews to help the reader make the decision to buy. But how does the reader actually find your book among the millions available on Amazon?

Great question! I'm going to mention the highlights here, but I encourage you to attend the ACFW-SC class I'll be teaching in Anderson, SC on May 23. I'll talk through these in detail and answer any questions.

In a nutshell, the ways to increase discoverability are:

• Advertising (both paid and unpaid)
• Social media (blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• "Personal" appearances (online and in-person)

There's so much more I'd like to mention about tips and tricks for book-selling success on Amazon, but I'll have to save them for another blog post. In the meantime, I'd love to hear your thoughts on anything I've shared!

Misty M. Beller was raised on a farm in South Carolina, so her Southern roots run deep. Her family has always been close-knit, and her husband and two daughters now add another dimension to her life, keeping her both grounded and crazy.

God has placed a desire in Misty’s heart to combine her love for Christian fiction and the simpler ranch life, writing historical novels that display God’s abundant love through the twists and turns in the lives of her characters.

You can find Misty on her website, blog, Goodreads, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest, and see her latest release, The Lady and the Mountain Doctor.