Some Brief Advice for Indie Authors docx

Some Brief Advice for Indie Authors
By Sharon E. Cathcart
Published by Sharon E. Cathcart at Smashwords
Copyright 2012, Sharon E. Cathcart
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Contents
About This Book
The Devil is in the Details
The Work of Being a Writer
Thoughts on Being a Writer
Readership and Worldview
Writing as an Income Stream
“There’s Enough Success for Everyone!”
Never Underestimate the Value of Networking
Things That Authors Should Know
Goal Setting
Formulas in Writing: A Chicken/Egg Problem
The Fans Who Count on You
Building Relationships with Fans
You Are a Brand
On The Concept of Creative License
More Work on Branding
Thanking Your Mentors
The Business of Writing
Recommended Resources
About the Author
Other Titles by the Author
About This Book

Shortly before my first book was published, I started an author blog. I know, I know.
You’re thinking “You and everyone else.” It didn’t take me long to notice that my most popular
posts were the ones in which I wrote about either the craft or the business of writing. Some Brief
Advice for Indie Authors is a compendium of those posts; they appear in approximately
chronological order, from the earliest days of my blog until now. Read it, skip around from
essay to essay, enjoy it; most importantly, though, take the advice that works for you and discard
the rest. Everyone’s business is a little different, and that’s just splendid.
I’ve included a list of recommended resources at the very end. These are books and websites
that I have personally found helpful.
Thanks, as always, for reading.
The Devil is In the Details
How much research should you do before you start writing?
That's a hard question to answer, to be honest. However, you need to make sure you have the
details correct. Your audience may know a lot about your subject matter, even if it's something
that happens in the realm of fiction. For example, in In The Eye of The Beholder: A Novel of the
Phantom of the Opera, the majority of the action takes place in 1889 Paris. That's the year that
Gustav Eiffel's famous tower opened; if I hadn't mentioned the Eiffel Tower at all, it would have
looked rather peculiar to those who know their French history.
Perhaps you're writing something about combat, maybe sword-fighting? Be sure that the
weaponry you describe is doing what it should. I read an otherwise nice short story a while back
that had a fellow using a sabre (a cutting/slicing weapon designed for use on horseback) as a
thrust-and-parry weapon in ground combat. The blade is not designed for thrust-and-parry; it's
curved, and only sharpened on one edge.
That's what I mean when I say the devil is in the details. If your reader keeps pausing in your
story to say "Wait a minute, that's not how this works at all," you'll distract them and maybe even
lose their attention.
I'm researching and writing simultaneously for In The Eye of The Storm, as well as
researching for the final book in the trilogy (title as yet undetermined). The only way to make
fiction believable is to know the little details of your setting, so get to know your librarian, the
internet and any other sources of information that you have available.

Attention to detail will bring your manuscript alive. I promise.
The Work of Being a Writer
Hi, everyone. The following post comes from my personal blog of 6/10/09. I share it here to
let people know some of my experiences as I publicized the eBook edition of In The Eye of The
Beholder. I will share similar articles from time to time.
~~~
I should be drying my hair, but I just need to get this out.
Being a writer is hard work. Sure, there's the actual writing but then what?
I was thinking about so many things this morning, and trying not to be overwhelmed.
Every submission requirement is different. I'm in the midst of prepping yet another
version of In The Eye of The Beholder, this time for a UK publisher who is interested in
receiving my manuscript for consideration. After that, yet another submission version to prep for
Authonomy.
Publicity is hard, and sometimes you make a mis-step. I did already. I submitted my book
to a reviewer who belatedly (and I mean belatedly; this had never been stated previously)
announced that he expects authors to query him before sending him works. I sent a note of
apology; there's nothing more I could do.
I am sometimes frustrated by the publicity process, to tell you the truth. We are all
taught not to be boastful and self-serving. I used to work in public affairs for the Army, and I
wrote press releases and promotional news information all the time. Marketing myself, though, is
a challenge. My new marketing postcards have arrived; the next step is getting them out to
people.
I have the additional burden of dealing with medically resistant depression. That makes
getting out of the house to go to my day job (and every author of my acquaintance has a day job)
difficult, so adding this additional "shift," if you will, makes things just a little tougher. Thrown
in that my house is a disaster which just feeds the depression. I'm working on the house, but
sometimes it's all I can do to pitch out the recycling. Those who cope with depression will
understand; those who have never been through it cannot possibly relate it's not something you
can just "snap out of."
At the same time, I theorize that my depression may be a gift. Many artists and authors

throughout history have been prone to bouts of melancholia. I even gave my main character,
Claire, a tendency toward melancholia in an attempt to get across what it's like to live in that
state. I don't know how well I succeeded in that regard only a reader could tell me.
I really needed to get this off of my chest. I am trying not to get frustrated or depressed this
early in the game some minutes are better than others.
Thoughts on Being a Writer
This is another re-post from my personal blog, dated May 24, 2009.
~~~
I did a little more editing work on In The Eye of the Beholder today, both before I went to
church and a little bit this afternoon after I re-watched PS I Love You. After services, Rev. Mike
gave me my chocolate bar (a prize for correctly identifying the language into which one of
MCC's weekly reflections had been translated Polish) and the reprint of my first entry in the
Weekly Reflection series. My article was picked up by another MCC for their newsletter.
So, I'm watching PS I Love You this afternoon, and one of the letters Gerry sends to Holly
talks about how he remembers her talking about creating something. Holly talks about how
creating things shows the world something about you: something that you didn't even perhaps
know about yourself.
It seemed like all of these experiences today conspired to make me realize something: I had
stopped thinking about myself as a writer. I guess I felt as though I no longer had that right after
getting that rejection letter last year from the publisher. I thought I was deluding myself, you
know? I had a novel 55K plus words, with a plot and everything but I had stopped thinking
of myself as a writer.
I don't know quite why. I started the book four years ago, during an especially dark time in
my life. It took me three years to finish it. I am so proud of it, even as I go through this final
batch of edits and tighten things up once and for all so that it can go up on the eBook site. But
other than this blog, I had pretty much stopped writing until Rev. Mike asked me to write a
weekly reflection. I used to write for a living, folks. But I stopped thinking about myself as an
artist of words I wasn't kind enough to myself to think I had any business doing so.
The overarching theme of In The Eye of the Beholder is the importance of compassion. I also
realize that it's the overarching theme of my two favorite books of all time (The Man Who Fell to

Earth, by Walter Tevis, and Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux). And yet I did not have
enough compassion toward myself to recognize that I was shutting down the most creative part
of me: the part of me that has, more times than I care to admit, shown me something that I didn't
know about myself.
So, here it is: I am a writer. I am an artist of words. My greatest gift is my pen (or, in this
case, my keyboard) and what I make come from it. I am so very proud of myself for what I have
written already, and I am grateful for finding my way back to that place.
Readership and Worldview
I read a fascinating book last week: All Marketers are Liars, by Seth Godin. Now, Godin
doesn't really think marketers are liars; what he maintains is that they tell a story about a product
that we believe, whether or not it is so, because it fits into our particular worldview.
A worldview, according to Godin, is not something that you can change with facts, or a
better product than some other guy. So, he says, you need to figure out how to pitch your product
to people who share your worldview. In other words, you need to figure out how to tell the story
to people who will believe it.
I share all of this because lately I have been spending some time in an on-line forum focused
on historical romance novels. As you know, In The Eye of The Beholder is exactly that.
Let me tell you something, friends: this group has been an education to me.
One of the reasons I wrote In The Eye of The Beholder is that I was tired of reading the same
book with a different cover. I found romance novels to be formulaic and had really grown tired
of them. The heroine would inevitably be a 20-something virginal bluestocking, and the hero
would inevitably be a handsome man with a dark secret in his past. They would hate each other
at first (or they would love each other but some horrible circumstance would keep them apart for
a good portion of the book), but eventually they would come together and live Happily Ever
After.
Every. Single. Time. It was like the publishers handed out a template to authors or
something.
So, anyway, there was a question posted on the group about whether people expected or
wanted a Happily Ever After in their romance novels. With few exceptions, the answer was a
resounding "yes" that they bought these books expecting certain things, and Happily Ever

After was one of them.
That's when I grasped something I hadn't thought about before: people buy books because
they fit into a particular worldview, too. People who really like the romance genre want to know
that those elements of the story that I describe will be there.
What I figured out, as a result, is that I needed to figure out how to pitch my book
differently. Claire, my heroine, is in her 30s during most of its action, and she's no virginal
bluestocking, as those of you who have read the book have reason to know. She's not a typical
romance heroine, and Erik is not a typical romance hero.
I think that there is a definite historical romance audience out there for this book, and I think
that there are some other audiences for whom it would be a good "pitch."
How does your worldview help you decide which books you buy? I'm curious to know your
thoughts.
Writing as an Income Stream
Hi, everyone. I have good news to report, and that brings me to the concept of writing as an
income stream.
I've been chosen by Examiner.com as their museum correspondent in my area. It's a paying
gig that allows me to incorporate my journalistic skills and life-long love of museums into some
additional money for our household. It's hard to say how much that will be; payment is based on
traffic to my page, and I need to generate some interest in museums. My plan is to include the
big traveling exhibits that come through, of course, but I also want to generate some interest in
the smaller, less-traveled establishments. It doesn't hurt that I've been a volunteer docent at two
different area museums and have some insider knowledge, either.
I have been fortunate enough, in the past, to have a full-time job as a newspaper journalist
and editor: I got to write for a living. It was my sole income stream. Those jobs are few and far
between nowadays; many newspapers seek freelance contributors and pay accordingly. No
novelist of my personal acquaintance writes full-time; we all have day jobs (even if that day job
is being a homemaker).
As with many people, my book is not my sole source of income. I'm not going to get rich
just because my name is on the cover. I think that's a big misnomer. In a GoodReads discussion
group, we talked about how many of our friends think we must be rolling in wealth because our

books are available for sale. The days when you could make a decent living as a writer are in the
past, and likely to stay that way (unless you're Stephen King, but that's a whole other story). I
often say that you should write because you love it, not because you expect to become a
household name.
There are paying gigs out there for writers, but you need to keep your expectations realistic.
Look at what is available to you and consider how you can use your skills to bring in a little extra
money. You never know where it will take you.
"There's Enough Success for Everyone!"
I took advantage of a wonderful and unexpected opportunity this past Sunday. I attended a
Vision Binder Playdate workshop by life coach Molly Burke, Queen of Confidence.
The theme was "Success," and we all worked on maps to show what success was like for us
in various parts of our lives (health, relationships, etc). We then worked on collages that showed
images that related to our concepts of success. We used lots of colors, magazine ads, words:
whatever seemed right. The idea was to appeal to the childlike subconscious that resides in all of
us.
There was a great deal of synergy in the room once we broke our silence. Everyone had been
diligently working away on their maps when Molly said "It's okay to talk about it." That's when
we started sharing our dreams, and discovered that people in the room with us had sources and
ideas that would help on our dreams! It was splendid.
I am afraid that Molly will, at some point, begin to think I've turned into a sycophant.
Instead, I feel more like an evangelist. I just can't say enough about her work. The blog on her
website is chock full of great ideas for making your life better, and that's just out there for
anyone to read and use.
Me? I can't wait to take another class. I'm planning for Molly's course on maximizing
Facebook fan pages.
Never Underestimate the Value of Networking
Hi, everyone. I am practically jumping up and down in my seat with excitement: I have a US
publisher for In The Eye of The Beholder: A Novel of The Phantom of the Opera. As all of you
know, I have an eBook publisher, as well as a regular publisher in the UK. However, lots of
people in the US are (understandably) reluctant to order a book from Amazon UK or a publisher

abroad given the current exchange rate, and many people are not keen on eBooks for whatever
reason.
So, here's what happened. I wound up joining a boatload of author websites and starting to
poke around here and there, post where I felt led to do so, and got to know some people.
One of those people is Linda Boulanger, who runs TreasureLine Books. We started getting
to know one another and, after a while, she sent me a pretty interesting proposal about publishing
my novel in the US.
I won't lie; I wasn't sure what to think. I asked a lot of questions and boy, am I grateful for
Linda's level of patience with me. She clarified everything I wanted to know, and I am confident
that this will be a very good working relationship as a result. So, I took a deep breath and said
"Let's do this thing."
I'll be retaining James Courtney's beautiful artwork for the US edition; it's practically part of
the branding for the book at this point. Of course, we need to get the manuscript ready to go and
then the issues with US Amazon that I have lamented so many times (they continue to insist the
book is out of print, despite my UK publisher's protestations to the contrary) will be at an end.
People in the US will be readily able to obtain what I am confident will be a nice-looking book,
and at a reasonable price.
I'll keep you all updated as we progress.
Things That Authors Should Know
My first book, Born of War Dedicated to Peace, was published in 1995. I was a
newspaper editor at the time, having already worked my way up the ladder as a reporter. Since
then, I've sold a novel in two different markets (US and UK), self-published two volumes of
essays, and have a publisher waiting for a memoir. Frankly, I've been writing for as long as I can
remember.
I have never forgotten some advice given to my first journalism class by the professor: "I
cannot make you a good writer; you either are one, or you aren't." Half of the class dropped out
after that.
I'm not kidding.
Here are some of the things I learned along the way that have helped me as an author. I share
these to help my fellow writers along the way.

Grammar matters. If you aren't sure about a word, look it up in the dictionary. If you aren't
sure about grammar, get a good primer. There are a lot of them out there. Get a good
proofreader, too; don't rely on your spell checking software. Book publishers don't have time to
clean up after you. If your story is good, but your grammar is horrible, you're going to get a nice,
generic rejection letter and that's about it.
Detailed rejection letters are worth their weight in gold. If you get a rejection letter that
tells you exactly what's wrong with your manuscript, take it to heart. It means that someone took
the time to tell you something besides "thanks, but no thanks." Chances are just about 100
percent that the advice will make your manuscript stronger.
Facts matter, too. Someone in your audience will know if you got it wrong. Trust me.
Not everyone will like your story. If we all liked the same things, there would only be one
book, one painting, one symphony, etc., in all of the world. Grow a thick skin. Write because you
love it, not because you expect universal praise, laud and honor. Readers' tastes are subjective;
there are plenty of people out there who like books that make me groan in agony. I'd be willing
to bet that some of my favorite books do the same to others.
If you want to be a good writer, become a voracious reader. You will start to see what
works, and why. After you finish a particular book, or even as you are reading, ask yourself what
is working for you. Do you believe what the author is telling you about a particular character or
situation? How are they drawing you into the story? How is language used to create an
impression? To show you what is going on? Read with a critical eye so that you can understand
how to make your own writing better.
Take a writing workshop or course. Not only will you make contacts, but you will learn
from others. People will critique your manuscript and help you improve it. Again, don't get into
this looking for universal praise, laud and honor; you want people to show you where the plot
holes, continuity problems and yes, grammatical issues lie.
Publishing is a business. As my co-author on Born of War said to me a while back, it's not
about whether your writing is brilliant or not. It's about what the average person will buy at the
store. If an acquisitions editor has one or two "dogs," they're looking at a pink slip. So, no, the
acquisitions person is not going to "give you a break" because you're a teenager, have a disability
of some kind, couldn't afford a proofreader, or anything else. They care about whether your book

is going to make them money. Period.
No one gets rich as an author. It takes a long time to cash out an advance (meaning that the
amount of royalties coming into the publisher have now paid off the company's initial investment
in you and you get a royalty check). Most new authors sell fewer than 100 copies of their books,
and publishers know this.
Self-publishing is no guarantee of success. Again, most new authors sell fewer than 100
copies of their books.
You need a platform. How are you marketing your books? Where are you pitching them?
Even mainstream publishers seldom put money into promoting new authors nowadays; they
expect you to do it. Be prepared to use social media (e.g., GoodReads, Facebook, etc.) to pitch
your work.
There is enough success out there for everyone. I think that says it all.
Goal Setting
I discovered something very interesting last year: I didn't get as much done as I wanted to.
Oh, I talked about how I hoped to have In The Eye of The Storm ready for publication at the
end of the year. (It didn't happen.) But I didn't make an actual plan.
This year, I decided to do better. Preparation is not lost time, right? So, I got a pocket
calendar and started putting in what life coach and author Stacia Pierce calls "faith dates" on it. I
put in the months in which I anticipated royalty checks for each quarter. I put in the dates of a
seminar I'm attending. I put in my next dental appointment
Today. I put in the months in which I will have my next two eBooks available to the public.
I don't have a faith date yet for In The Eye of The Storm’s completion, but what came out of
this preparation process and goal setting was a recognition that I need to go into that manuscript
for a major re-write and I'm only at about the halfway point. Unless and until I get that re-write
done, I can't project how long it will take to finish. So, I set goals for the projects that I know I
can have done soon, and will put the next bunch of faith dates together when I have a better idea
of how much I'm biting off.
What goals have you set to advance your dreams?
Formulas in Writing: A Chicken/Egg Problem
"I got a story ain't got no moral, let the bad guy win every once in a while." "Will It Go

Round in Circles," Billy Preston
A discussion on another forum where I participate went a little afield when someone brought
up formulaic books. I responded by citing romance novels (which, I have admitted time and
again, I have pretty much stopped reading, with the exception of those by Jaimey Grant, because
I like her community of characters who cross over among the stories). I even cited what I saw as
the formula.
A romance author told me that I was wrong; that my "perception" (her term) did not match
reality.
What's kind of interesting is that it's no secret that there are formulas for all genres of novels.
I see it as a kind of chicken/egg problem, and I'll get to that in a moment.
First, let's look at some sources that show my point.
The Romance Writers of America lays out their requirements for what constitutes the
romance genre in fairly broad terms. Then, they lay out the formula for the many subgenres. That
seems pretty straightforward to me.
There's a great blog post by romance author Brenda Coulter, in which she compares the
romance novel formula to making chicken soup.
Author Stephanie Mittman has a slightly different take on the secret formula, but she also
admits that it's there.
How about some other genres? Elements that make a novel steampunk versus other types of
science fiction are pretty clear. Likewise mystery novels.
You see my point, so I'll not belabor it further.
Now we come to the chicken/egg part of the question: how did we get here?
When I first sought a publisher for In The Eye of The Beholder: A Novel of The Phantom of
the Opera, I got a long and detailed rejection letter from the first house to which I submitted it.
(Now, those letters really are a treasure; they're an opportunity to make your story better because
they give you information. My manuscript was much better for taking advice from that note.)
My co-author on Born of War Dedicated to Peace talked me down off the ledge by
explaining that book publishing really was about what sells (as he put it, "what Mrs. Average
will buy at Wal-mart"). One or two "dogs," and an acquisitions editor is looking at a pink slip.
My book is deliberately written against formula in many ways. The heroine is not an early-

20s virgin; the hero is not handsome and perfect. That was part of the issue, and one on which I
was unwilling to compromise.
But I digress.
So, here's the question: if all that's available to Mrs. Average at Wal-Mart is what the
acquisitions editor thinks she wants, how do we know where the formulae originated? Do they
really come from Mrs. Average's buying patterns, or do they come because that's the only choice
she's got thanks to acquisitions editors who believe that's the choice she wants?
You see the dilemma, I'm sure.
And the truth is, no one really knows the answer to that question.
What we do know is that formulae for certain genres have developed over time and that, as a
result, readers have come to expect certain things from those books. Some people like the "sure
thing," and there's nothing wrong with that.
The Fans Who Count on You
"Don't focus on counting the number of fans you have; focus on the number of fans who
count on you." From the Facebook fan page of Puerto Rican a cappella group NOTA
In the past 24 hours, I've had cause to think about this quote from a couple of different
perspectives.
I am occasionally guilt of trying very hard to "grow" my fan page over on Facebook. I had a
contest for the person who brought in the most new members: the prize was having a character
named after the winner in my novel, In The Eye of The Storm (it was a three-way tie, so there are
three new characters). I share the page on my personal profile now and then, inviting new people
to join.
None of this is bad, really.
I also spend relatively little time on "billboarding": promoting my work. Instead, I have
regular, weekly features to engage my readers, specifically because I want to focus on the fans
who count on me.
Unfortunately, there are a number of examples out there where businesses don't get it.
For instance, my husband moonlights a couple of evenings a week at a hobby store where he
once worked full time. It's a mom-and-pop place which, like many small businesses, is struggling
in today's economy.

For many years, the shop has had arrangements with local school districts; the students get a
discount on materials they need for certain projects.
The original owner's son is now running the shop and his roommate buddy is now the
manager. The manager decided it would be a great idea to tear out many shelves to install an
indoor remote control car track (he and the owner's son are big into this hobby).
And where did the shelves come from?
You guessed it: the part of the store where the project supplies were housed. All of those
supplies were literally thrown into a storage area, with no organization whatsoever unless, of
course, the manager threw them into the Dumpster, from which my husband rescued several
perfectly good, unblemished items.
So, now the students come, looking for the things they need for their projects. They are
counting on this store. When my husband proceeded to root through the storage area to find
things for the kids, he was chastised. He was told to lie and say that Item X was no longer
available, and to say that (more costly) Item Y could be obtained in the model trains department.
The manager doesn't care about the people who are counting on that store, in other words; he just
cares about forcing them to spend more money.
My husband refuses to lie to people.
Another example is much bigger: the Borders bankruptcy.
I remember when Borders was a bookstore. Now they sell movies, music, t-shirts, stationery:
you name it. They lost track of the fans who were counting on them in their rush to get more
fans.
The Borders near my office was added the list of stores to be closed under the company's
bankruptcy proceedings. I wasn't even surprised, given how far they've gone from their
bookselling mission. For crying out loud, when I asked an employee there whether they carried
bookplates, he responded that they didn't sell dishes!
In the mean while, the tiny Books, Inc., store across from another Borders location (also
slated to close) is thriving. Why? Because their business is selling books. The shop owner said in
a recent television news interview that his focus was on his customers, knowing what they like,
being able to make recommendations for other titles accordingly and so on.
In other words, Books, Inc., is focused on the fans who count on them.

Focus like that is way different from figuring out ways to part your customers from their
discretionary income and earns customer satisfaction that no amount of money can buy.
Building Relationships with Fans
If I had a subtitle, it would be: Or, Some Things I Learned Along the Way.
The other day, I dropped someone from my personal Facebook page. She's a professional
author whom I knew casually from another website, and she sent me a friend request which I
accepted.
Given the way that authors tend to network, I'm sure you're wondering why I dropped her.
One hundred percent of her posts were billboarding about where to buy her books, sent via
Tweetdeck. I started to feel as though the only reason she'd invited me to be her Facebook friend
was so that she would make a sale!
There are lots of ways to rock on Facebook (in fact, I took a class by that name from Molly
Burke, Queen of Confidence). The main thing comes down to building relationships. So, I'm
going to share some things I learned from Molly and some I learned from trial and error
when it comes to developing relationships with your fans/readers.
Keep your personal Facebook and your fan page separate and don't post identical
material in both places. Invite all of your personal friends to join your fan page, sure but make
certain you aren't spamming folks with duplicate information. The same thing goes for your
personal blog and your professional blog.
The audience for Twitter is different from the audience for Facebook or your blog.
The good thing about Twitter is that each tweet has its own searchable URL. I admit that I was a
reluctant adopter, but I have found Twitter to be a useful plank in my platform.
Keep things engaging. Readers already know that you'd like them to buy your book; they
don't need constant commercials. The theory goes that the ratio of content:billboarding should be
approximately 9:1. So, what can you do?
I developed regular features for my fan page. In 2010, I had Facts From My Fiction
(information about historical people, places or events that were discussed in my novel), Food
From My Fiction (documented period recipes) and Saturday Night Musicale (a video or
recording, usually a classical piece, pertinent to a writing project).
This year, I switched it up. I have Location, Location, Location, where I share information

about a place discussed in one of my books. Every Friday, I ask what people are reading over the
weekend. Saturday Night Musicale occasionally turns into Saturday Night Sing-Along when I
provide music and lyrics.
In between, I provide quotes of the day, links to blog posts like this one and sometimes I
let people know where to get my books.
Give things away. Yep: give it away. I have two free eBooks and I give the others away
periodically. I participate in a couple of annual promotions, like "Read an eBook Week," and I
also give eBooks to deployed service members via Operation eBook Drop. When it comes to the
promotions, I've learned by trial and error that it's best to give books for free. It drives your work
up the bestseller list, which gets it more attention from new readers.
I've also given away paperbacks in contests, donated them to charity auctions and more. It's
definitely worth the goodwill to have freebies out there.
One of Molly's excellent suggestions is to have a freebie that people get in exchange for
joining your mailing list. Well worth considering.
I say all of that to say this: you need to develop a relationship with your readers that is about
more than their pocketbooks. Keep them engaged and interested, and they'll keep coming back.
You Are a Brand
Can I let you in on a secret? I've been experimenting.
Since mid-December 2010, I've been trying to think of myself as a brand. It's easy to think of
our books and stories as a brand, but sometimes I think we authors lose track of where we fit into
the picture.
Some of this experiment was an outgrowth of the work I talked about in 2010 Hindsight: A
Year of Personal Growth, In Spite of Myself. I focused on sharing positive, philosophical quotes
and affirmations on my Facebook page. I kept my eye on my mission statement ("I intend to
write truthfully and powerfully"). I worked on associating with purpose even when it was very
difficult to make those choices.
Then I looked at the packaging part.
People come in all shapes and sizes, and I heartily embrace that. You won't find me
dispensing diet or exercise advice; I try not to be a hypocrite.
What did I do about packaging, you're wondering? When I dress for the day, I try to present

an image that says "successful author."
I dressed for my (business casual) day job as though I had a book signing right after work. I
didn't buy many new items: three tops and a pair of earrings were it. Instead, I combined pieces
in new ways, started wearing accessories I hadn't touched in ages you get the idea.
In other words, I stepped up my game.
I'm not flawless; I had a horrible 'flu during this time and didn't wear anything snazzier than
yoga pants and a clean t-shirt when I made brain-addled visits to the pharmacy. My hair was
combed and I'd bathed even though the effort seemed enormous. (I'd be awfully happy if the
cough I developed at the time would go away already, but that's a tale for another occasion).
People (your potential customers) like to know that you look like the product you represent.
You don't have to be on the cutting (and expensive) edge of fashion to look crisp and put
together. (If you're in the fashion industry, this advice is out the window.)
Maybe you can pick a signature piece that you love and look for reasons to wear it. I
swanned around town during the cold months in a much-loved cloak woven from black Welsh
wool. I'd kept it "for special" for far too long. The grey-brown color went with everything and it
looked great. I got compliments about that cloak every time I wore it which made it even more
fun.
I also wore a lot of my hats, which spend far too much time languishing in their boxes.
(Quick note about hats: if you wear them for your author photo, make sure they don't shadow
your eyes. Avoid wearing ball caps for this reason.)
How would your life change if you tried this experiment for thirty days? Treat yourself as a
brand as part of your marketing plan.
I suspect you'll feel better about yourself and sell more books.
On The Concept of Creative License
Thanks to a number of conversations lately, I feel inspired to write a bit about the idea of
creative license, specifically where it applies to historical fiction.
For the sake of this discussion, let us say that you are going to set your novel during the
reign of Elizabeth I. You create an imaginary nobleman (let's call him the Earl of Burblesnurble).
The Earl of Burblesnurble is an example of creative license; he doesn't exist in the pages of
history, but he can certainly exist in the pages of this imaginary book.

Now, let's imagine that you take him from Burblesnurble Hall (also imaginary, and thus
another example of creative license) to the court. Here he will interact with, let's say, Lord
Burleigh (creative license involving an actual historical person). We're still in the realm of
historical fiction here, and we're doing fine. Heck, we can even have Burleigh recommend him
for the Privy Council and still be on the right track.
Now, the good Earl sees one of the queen's fetching ladies in waiting, Mistress
Flibbertigibbet (also imaginary and another example of creative license). He is infatuated with
her, but Mistress Flibbertigibbet cannot see him for dust because she is dallying with the Earl of
Leicester (another actual historical personage). We're still in the realm of historical fiction here,
and doing quite well with the creative license. Considering Leicester's reputation with the ladies,
such a dalliance is well within the realm of possibility.
Here, however, are some places in our imaginary tale where creative license stops dead in its
tracks and you are in the realm of alternative history:
Maybe you want Mistress Flibbertigibbett and the Earl of Leicester marry. Hmm. What will
you do about Amy Robsart and Lettice Knollys (Leicester's wives) to say nothing of incurring
the Queen's wrath as her favorite marries a lady in waiting? (By the way, that's treason; if you're
not sure, look up the marriage of the Earl of Leicester to Lettice Knollys and see!) You're well
into the realm of alternate history that requires an explanation. Why? Because people likely to
read a novel set at Elizabeth I's court know what happened to people who married without the
Queen's consent and about Leicester's two wives.
How about this example? You have the Earl of Burblesnurble marry Queen Elizabeth who
was well-known to have remained unmarried until her death. Again, alternative history requires
an explanation for every single thing that results from this decision. You can't just say "Well, it
makes a great story if Burblesnurble and the queen marry" and leave it at that; it raises far too
many questions, to say nothing of making it look as though you didn't do your homework. (Can
Burblesnurble and the queen have a fling? Oh, most definitely. That's back in the realm of
creative license but the queen has to initiate the fling. It's a protocol thing.)
In other words, once you make these sorts of plot decisions, you need to be prepared to
explain your reasoning in the context of the story (not just in conversation with friends).
I read a book earlier this year that did alternate history very well. Lord Protector got three

stars from me due to some other issues, but make no mistake author Clayton Spann not only
did his homework, but figured out how exactly to break the rules in order to tell his story. The
book begins with the disappearance of the princes in the Tower of London during Ricardian
times (a true incident). We have all of the usual players involved, including Margaret Beaufort,
and a non-historical character who is there to figure the whole damned thing out. Alternate
history ensues once we learn that Beaufort has figured out how to smuggle the princes into
modern times (thus tying alternate history to an actual event creative license, aha! via an
explanation) and when next we see Ricardian England, it is entirely different from what we
know from our history books, because Beaufort keeps bringing back information about modern
technology and it affects everything.
I say all of that to say this: You can't just play fast and loose with facts (or ignore them
entirely because you think it makes a better story of Burblesnurble is King of England) and still
call it historical fiction. It just looks like you didn't do your homework.
If you want Burlblesnurble to be king, that's wonderful. Just remember that you've left the
realm of historical fiction at that point and should probably rethink your genre selection.
Readers of historical fiction pick up books about time periods that interest them and are
likely to be very well-informed readers of related non-fiction. The wise fiction author will take
that into account when developing plot points and proceed accordingly.
More Work on Branding
I've been listening to Stacia Pierce's Get Relevant, Get Rich workshop CDs for the past
couple of days, learning new techniques for branding and business development.
One of the things she talks about is developing a brand statement, or "elevator speech," that
gets across who you are and what clients can expect from you.
In a nutshell, the formula is something like this:
Who you are/what your product is + who your clients are + your claim (in other words, what
clients get from your product or services) = brand statement.
So, here's what I've developed for myself:
Books by internationally published author Sharon E. Cathcart provide discerning readers of
essays, fiction and non-fiction with a powerful, truthful literary experience.
I've been adding this branding statement to my various websites/resources today. The more I

read it and write it, the more real it becomes for me.
Thanking Your Mentors
Hi, everyone. I wanted to take a moment to talk about thanking our mentors. Now, a mentor
does not have to be someone you have met personally (at least, not in my opinion), although
being in their personal space is actually the best thing. You can be mentored by someone's
books, CDs, DVDs, etc.
I am fortunate enough to have three women whom I think of as my mentors, one of whom I
am around in real life: Molly Burke, Martha Beck and Stacia Pierce. It was thanks to Stacia
Pierce that I had an enormous breakthrough just yesterday. In fact, it was so big that I sent her a
thank-you note to express my appreciation. I would like to believe that our mentors like to know
when they've made a difference, and I think it's important to put that appreciation in writing.
You may recall a blog post where I talked about developing a brand statement. I used a
formula explained by Dr. Pierce in one of her workshops to create something meaningful and
accurate. I thought it would help in terms of marketing my work, but it helped in a way I didn't
expect.
The easiest way for me to explain it is to share a paragraph from the thank-you note that I
sent:
"Which brings me to the second thing for which I wish to thank you. I listened to your Get
Relevant, Get Rich workshop for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and I developed a brand
statement because of the formula you explained. I had never done that before. This turned out to
be more helpful than I imagined it would be. You see, yesterday I received a review of my novel
that was so devastating that in past days it might have had me in tears. Now, with all of those
copies sold, you'd think I'd cease taking it personally by now but I hadn't, up until yesterday. I
read that review in light of my branding statement and thought, ‘Well, I guess this person wasn't
really the audience for this book.’ It was such a radical mental shift that I spent a lot of time
thinking about that instead of the review. That's when I realized that I needed to write to you. It
may seem like a small thing, but believe me it was huge."
Yes, it was huge. I know it's illogical to expect that everyone will love my books. After all, I
don't love everything I read. Yet, it was not until I formulated a brand statement that said who
my audience was that I could really stop taking those reviews so personally and move on to the

next thing.
Thanks to my mentors, and also to my readers and fans. You are all appreciated more than
you know.
The Business of Writing
Hi, everyone. I know that I still owe you all a metrics report on the Summer/Winter
promotion I did. However, I've been feeling led (thanks to discussions in various on-line groups)
to talk a little bit about the business side of what we do as independent authors, whether we are
self-published, with a small press or even just getting our ducks in a row to finish that book and
get it out into the world.
As independent authors, we need to remember that we are entrepreneurs. That means that
much of the business falls on our shoulders: accounting, marketing and so on. It's easy to think
about what our responsibilities might be as an author, but not so much as a businessperson.
What are some things you can do to prepare yourself if you're just getting started, or to get
up to speed if you're already out there and wondering what to do next? Well, you can start with
developing a brand statement. Some people call this an "elevator speech." It's something you
should have ready to share when people ask you about your work. It's also something that should
be on your website (yes, you need one), your Facebook fan page (yes, you need one of these,
too), your GoodReads profile you get the picture.
Branding doesn't just apply to your writing: you are a brand yourself. You never know when
you'll run into a potential customer/reader, so look the part of a professional author.
Build relationships with your readers and potential readers. Don't treat people as walking
wallets; let them get to know some things about you, and vice versa. They'll be much more
interested in your product as a result. It's "pull" marketing instead of push marketing.
At the same time, don't be hung up on the number of fans you have. It's an easy trap to fall
into: "So-and-so has eleventy-bajillion FB fans and I have 100." Continue to work on building
relationships and your fan base will grow.
And now for the "not so much fun" part: actual business. Maybe you don't know too much
about running a business and that's absolutely fine. The good news is that other people do, and
write wonderful books about how you can do the same. One I highly recommend is The Good
Life Guide to Entrepreneurship. It's an easy-to-read, plain language guide to running a small

business. Now, it doesn't get into super-duper detail. For that, I suggest Small Business for
Dummies. The "For Dummies" series is outstanding in its non-nonsense approach and I cannot
say enough good about them.
Which brings me to the next point: do read books about business and do so regularly. Some I
particularly enjoy are Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun, Lead with Luv: A Different Way to
Create Real Success, and Inspired to Succeed.
It's important that you read up on business and stay abreast of trends and ideas. The authors
of these books can become mentors to you, without you ever meeting them. I'm honored to call
authors like Stacia Pierce, Martha Beck and Molly Burke my mentors even though Molly's the
only one I know in person!
And when you find a mentor? Be sure to thank that person. It only takes a moment to let
someone know that you appreciate their help. Little things like this matter far more than you
might imagine.
Well, I've gassed on for far longer than I planned to do. I'll probably write more about the
business side of things from time to time. Thanks, as always, for being such great fans. I
appreciate each and every one of you.
Recommended Resources
Books on Success:
The Success Secrets of a Reader: How Ordinary People Can Live an Extraordinary Life -
Dr. Stacia Pierce
Inspired to Succeed - Dr. Stacia Pierce
Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming The Life You Were Meant To Live - Martha Beck,
PhD
Acres of Diamonds - Russell H. Conwell
Books on Self-Improvement:
The Little Book of Confidence - Molly Burke
Pursue Your Purpose and Live Your Dreams - Dr. Stacia Pierce
Books on Business & Marketing:
Own Your Niche: Hype-Free Internet Marketing Tactics to Establish Authority in Your Field
and Promote Your Service-Based Business - Stephanie Chandler

The Good Life Guide to Entrepreneurship - Dr. Stacia Pierce
Lead with Luv: A Different Way to Create Real Success - Ken Blanchard and Colleen Barrett
The Disney Way: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company – Bill
Capodagli and Lynn Jackson
All Marketers are Liars - Seth Godin
Books on Writing & Publishing:
The Successful Author's Handbook - Patricia L. Fry
Are You Still Submitting Your Work to a Traditional Publisher? - Edward C. Patterson
The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success - Mark Coker
Be the Monkey - Ebooks and Self-Publishing: A Dialog Between Authors Barry Eisler and
Joe Konrath - J.A. Konrath
Websites:
Molly Burke, Queen of Confidence:
Dr. Stacia Pierce:
Martha Beck:
Business Information Guide:
Organizations:
Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network -
Bestseller Bound Authors Community -
About the Author
Books by internationally published author Sharon E. Cathcart provide discerning readers of
essays, fiction and non-fiction with a powerful, truthful literary experience.
Sharon lives in the Silicon Valley, California, with her husband and an assortment of pets.
She’s been writing for as long as she can remember and always has at least one work in progress.
To learn more about Sharon’s work, visit her website at .
You can also find her on Facebook, />Other Titles by the Author
Full-length Fiction
In The Eye of The Beholder: A Novel of the Phantom of the Opera
Short Fiction
Around the World in 80 Pages

Bestseller Bound Anthology, Vols. 1 and 3 (Contributor)
Whispered Beginnings (Contributor)
Live Life: A Daydreamer’s Journal (Contributor)
Essays and Non-Fiction
Born of War … Dedicated to Peace: A History of Sixth US Army
Les Pensees Dangereuses
Sui Generis
You Had to Be There: Three Years of Mayhem and Bad Decisions in the Portland Music
Scene
2010 Hindsight: A Year of Personal Growth, In Spite of Myself