Sharing #1 Advice Tips for New Authors

Alessandra Torre, Inkers Con co-founder and contributor

Some of our most brilliant knowledge comes in hindsight. It’s so much easier to look back and see mistakes than look forward and make the right decision.

In hopes of capturing some of that wisdom, we asked a group of bestselling Inkers Con authors an important question:

What is your best piece of advice for new authors?

Click below to see their responses – and keep reading for the transcripts.

Alessandra: Thank you. Okay. The next question is what is the most important piece of advice that you have for new authors? And we’re going to start with Sarah.

Sarah: Okay. I’ve been doing this for about nine years and I would say that for me, it’s about being specific. And I tell my daughter that your words – she’s 10 years old and I tell her your words are magic and you give it your instructions to the universe. So, when you’re starting, there’s lots of great things. Like I was saying, like invest in yourself, you know, editors, but there’s a mentality to it. And it’s about telling the universe exactly what you want. Whenever I first started this, I said, I want to sell some books, so the universe said, sure, you sold two books. I want to make some money. Well, here’s 50 bucks. No, get very specific, say I want to sell a hundred books in a month. I want to sell whatever it is. And then I got really specific about how I visualized and focused on that, so I printed off a New York Times bestseller tag and I pasted on my first book on the front. And I looked at it every single day and I said, that’s me because specifically I wanted to become a New York Times bestseller.

I didn’t do that, but I became a USA Today Bestseller, that’s good enough – that worked. And then I printed off book report. And at the time I was making about a hundred $200 a month. And I whited out that total. My friend at the time said, who owns white out? Can you please, you know, use Photoshop? And I was like, no, I can’t learn new things. So I then put in the number I wanted and I was a new author. And so I was $500. That’s what I want. And then I got there and then I whited it out again because I can’t learn new things. And I put it in a thousand dollars and I still do it. And the whiteout is like this thick. But my point is, as a new author, get very specific about what you want. Don’t tell the universe, you want to sell some books, tell it exactly what you want in what timeline and how much you want to make.

Alessandra: Thank you. Kyla.

Kyla: I would say you need to read in your genre, read a lot, read every single day, read outside of your genre. Write, create a specific schedule and stick to it. Especially for your new authors, you probably already have another full-time job, you have kids, you are volunteering at your kid’s school, you’re volunteering at church, you have a whole load of responsibilities already, now you’re going to fit writing into it. Yes, you are because you’re worth it and you’re investing in yourself, and that’s not just money, that’s also time. So you’re going to be like, okay, I’m going to write from five to 7:00 PM, five days a week, or I’m going to write from one to five on Fridays and nine to 12 on Sundays. And that’s not just for you. That’s also for your family. So they are going to get on board. This is mom time. So for those five hours on Sunday, the kids don’t come to you, they come to dad and they learn that. This is your time, you respect that time, and that’s part of investing in yourself and that’s really going to help you get your butt in the chair and the words on the page. You’ve got to make time for writing and make time for the career to make it a career. So definitely believing in yourself and respecting that time from the beginning.

Alessandra: That’s great. Ines.

Ines: So, for those of you that were just in Becca Syme’s class about intuitive authors, remember that experiment that she talked about with the speed readers? That stuck in my head when she said that, but another reason why it stuck in the head of doing what you’re already good at and 10-Xing that. So I like the idea of doing what I find joy in and 10-Xing that, because if I… you know you don’t like doing something when you’re like, well, you have to do it. When we reach a certain age and I am at that age, I’m just like, nah, bra, I’m not doing that anymore. I look at what makes me happy, what I get excited to do. And I do more of that and leave a little bit of time for the stuff that I don’t want to do, but have to do. But focusing on those things that bring me joy and getting better and better and better at them, that’s raising my mental health and it’s raising my income as well. So that’s the first thing. I particularly stop doing things that I hate. I don’t have to anymore. I’ve earned my way just because I’ve aged. But the second thing; I have a little saying on my wall, keep trying until it works. And I really believe in that because there are books that I wrote seven years ago that didn’t sell, but now I know how to find my audience. Now I know how to really advertise it. Now I know how to talk to people to say, this is exactly what you want. This is your catnip, and it works now.

So just because it didn’t work five years ago or on release day, I make all of my money off of my back list. Sometimes I forget when I have a new release. I was looking at my phone and Amazon’s like, have you uploaded this manuscript for the new release? And I was like, huh, I don’t know. I mean, it’s a foreign translation, but I’m honestly not sure, but I’m not thinking about it too much because I’m looking at that backlist over there; the stuff that I already did, the stuff that brought me joy, the stuff that I keep figuring out different ways to sell. So see if it has joy and see if it and keep doing it until it works.

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