1. You are on deadline and your book is really giving you fits.
2. You have no idea where to begin and no idea who to ask for help to begin.
3. You haven’t articulated your audience (even if you’ve written many books).
4. You’re really bad at project management. It’s a miracle you’ll get the book finished.
5. You feel that promotion and marketing are beneath you and that “real writers” shouldn’t have to shill unless there’s a new book coming out.
Can anyone point out the only valid reason for hiring help with your content?
Yep. You’re right. I’m glad to be in a company of such smart folks like you.
Now for my 5 reasons:
1. You are busy and your deadline is so tight. Your neighbor gal just graduated from college with a BA in English and can do research and write blogs for you for a hourly fee. You can hire someone to do the research, filing, typing, proofreading, scheduling. There are many options. Find someone you trust.
2. You get help finding out where to begin (Attend a Writer’s Digest University boot camp on social media strategy, for instance!). You can do this by signing up for my biweekly eZine. (Sign up form is to the right of this post. See it? There you go!) You get a game plan, you plan ahead. You begin.
3. You go find all your reader fan mail and email and you read it. What are the questions they are asking you? What are they sharing with you? There’s a major clue about what to talk about. If you’re not blessed with fan mail or email yet, you go do research. What do other novelists with similar novels to yours do for a blog? What do they talk about? Can you think of something you could talk about that would be like setting up shop next door (not plagiarism and certainly not to steal the audience away, but something complementary)?
4. You go find someone to help you with project management. Take a course. For novelists and memoir writers, use your advance to hire a publicist. (Heck, even non-fiction writers, think about getting some help, someone to line you out. For information on how real/brilliant can help with this, go here.)
5. You get over yourself. Ask the tough questions. Why am I writing FOR OTHERS if I have no interest IN OTHERS unless they are buying my book? Am I that arrogant to think I can be a writer without readers?
Action Tip: What can you (as a published author or a hopeful author) do today to prepare for your published author life promoting and caring about your audience aka readers?
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