When you know something—like truly understand it—you just do it. With little effort or thought, it just happens.
This is why some people suck at teaching others how to do what they specialize in. Because in order to teach you have to start at the beginning.
Not the beginning for you. The beginning for someone who doesn’t know squat about what you are awesome at.
It’s the above reason that I think so many authors get all twisted around when looking for how to publish their fiction online. There are millions—and I do mean millions—of resources in Internetlandia about writing, publishing, and marketing your books.
But too many of them start at step five.
Even the oh-so-simple advice of Write a good book and market it to your ideal reader is stress inducing because WTF is a good book, how do I write one, who is this ideal reader person, and what in the frickin hell is the best way to market to them?
Here at Waypoint, our goal is to help you understand writing, publishing, and marketing by starting you at STEP ONE. We believe that a good solid foundation is the only way to grow a sucessful career in fiction writing. But we also believe that it doesn’t have to be so dang complicated either!
So if you’re ready to rip up all that bad advice and relay a proper foundation to your career, read on…
What’s your point?
Before a marketing plan, before the ideal reader search, before keywords and categories, heck, even before you write the first word of your first story I want you to answer this question: What’s my point?
The answer to this question will clear the path to your writing career from story to market.
Fiction is about observation. Fiction says something about life. Even the fluffiest of fluff romance still makes a statement about what it means to be a human in this world searching for love and acceptance.
And I promise you that if you spend some good quality time pondering this question every single thing you do afterward will be easier. Miniscually, maybe, but you will have a clear understanding of what you’re saying and why you feel compelled to share this with the world.
Once you know the point you are making—or the observations about humanity you have—your stories will breath deeper, your readers will understand you more clearly, and your marketing plan will have natural direction.
By picking up that pen—or opening that word processer—you are claiming you have something important to share with the world no matter what genre you write.
What is it?
Waypoint Authors 