As writers, it can be extremely difficult to keep ourselves inspired in our writing every day. There are, however, tools you can utilize in your day to day life that can add to your level of inspiration and perhaps even improve your writing:

Pinterest

One way to help inspire your writing is to create a Pinterest board for your book. You can pin images that encompass certain settings that you’re working on writing, images of people or fan art that look like your characters, or even mood boards that capture the overall aesthetic of your book. These will not only help you be more descriptive with your scene-writing but combing through your Pinterest board or adding new pins is a great way to feel inspired and get new ideas for your story.

Instagram

As we’ve discussed previously, the author/book-loving Instagram community lovingly titled ‘bookstagram’ is a great resource for book promotion as well as promoting yourself as an author. In addition, it can be an awesome source for writing inspiration. Rather than opening your Instagram in the morning and combing through photos of friends/relatives, following bookstagram accounts allows you to see cozy and gorgeous book photos first thing. These accounts will even post long captions describing either what they’re reading or writing with advice and questions you can participate in. There are also stunning book fan art accounts on Instagram as well, where you may either find a drawing that looks exactly like a character your writing or the art may inspire you to pick up a new book.

Aesthetic Household Items

In addition to items based on your favorite book series, there are also aesthetic items you can add to your home to inspire your writing. For example, the literary shop Leaf & Lore came out with a line of candles specifically for writers which include scents meant to inspire you to write certain settings/characters. Some scents include Haunted Library, The Magician, The Enchantress, The Lonely Tower, and many more. Lighting a candle and filling your room with the scent of a haunted library as your character walks among the ancient stacks of books will provide an extremely immersive experience for both you and, in turn, your readers.

Web-based Writing Challenges

Participating in collective writing challenges held through digital platforms is another excellent way of engaging with other writers and helping to inspire each other. The most prominent example of this taking place is through Nanowrimo, the writing challenge held for National Novel Writing Month in November which challenges writers to complete a novel in a month. The program allows you to engage with the community, talk about challenges and triumphs that you face along the way to completing your manuscript. The program itself will also send you daily inspiration to help you keep your progress going and keep you inspired.

Tracking Your Reading Progress

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: reading is crucial for your writing. When you’re a writer, it’s important to keep up with your reading- especially in the genre you’re working within. You can use tools such as Goodreads to keep you on track with your writing. Goal-oriented people will love Goodreads because it allows you to set a writing goal for the year and track your progress book by book. You can also rate and write a review on books you’ve read and engage with other readers in the community. If you sign up for their emails, Goodreads will send you additional suggestions on reads you may like based on books you’re currently reading. Who knows, they may help you find your new favorite book (besides your own, of course).

Create a Book Playlist

Similarly to creating Pinterest boards, curating a playlist for your book can be another way to help immerse you in a sensory experience that will get you excited for your writing. There are a few different ways you can do this as well. You could create one all-encompassing playlist for the entirety of your book and build it in order based on the feel of each scene. Or you can make specific playlists for specific scenes in the book as you’re writing them. Maybe your character is having an important or emotional conversation with a friend or there’s a really romantic scene between your character and their love interest or even a character’s death scene. Having a playlist of songs curated for these moments/scenes can set the mood for you when you’re going to write them or even make it easier to get back into the writing if you stopped part of the way through creating them.

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1) Set a Reading Goal

One of the most important parts of writing is reading. It’s one of the best ways to learn about technique, style, and the ins and outs of your specific book genre. So, this year, set yourself a reading goal! Make it official by setting up a Goodreads account (if you don’t already have one). Goodreads allows you to set a reading goal and track your progress. It even gives you suggestions based on your previous reads and books you’ve marked as ‘read’. Make sure you plan ahead too. You don’t want to finish a book and sit around for a few days twiddling your thumbs over what to read next. Try to plan your reads two or three books ahead of yourself so that you’re never left idle.

2) Make time for writing/Finishing your book

Just as important as setting a reading goal, you’ll also need set a writing goal. Whether you’re currently writing a novel, between books, or even an active blog writer, you need to stay active with your craft. Start by setting yourself a goal for the year. For example, your goal could be to finish your book by the end of the year. Or your goal could be to write a certain number of short stories or blog posts. Next, make yourself a calendar. Set aside specific nights to write and jot down your goal for each session. Make yourself weekly plans and monthly plans. What do you want to have finished by the end of week one? By the end of the first month? Ultimately, if you stay strict to your plan, you’ll have your yearly writing goal accomplished.

3) Find an agent/publisher

If you’re someone who has already finished your book and is starting to look for an agent or publisher, make that your New Year’s Resolution. Keep writing, but also set aside time each week to devote to searching for a literary agent or a publisher. Make a weekly or monthly goal of how many agents you’d like to contact in that period.

4) Improve weak spot(s)

We all have our weaknesses as writers. Some of us are bad at dialogue, others struggle to set a scene. This is the year to work on your writing problem-area. For part of your writing time, do some exercises that target those problem areas. And when you’re reading, notice what other writers do that you don’t. If you’re mindful of your problem-area throughout the year and actively doing research and exercises to improve, by the end of the year you’ll have improved drastically.

5) Meet other Authors/Join a Writing Workshop

This is the year to push yourself out of your comfort zone, so set a goal of joining a workshop class. They’re easy to find in your local area with a little Google magic, and it’s a fantastic way to meet people with similar interests, get some fresh insight on your writing, and learn new techniques.

6) Start a blog

Even if you’re not necessarily a blogger, starting a blog is such a helpful tool for up-and-coming writers. Write about your day, things you’re passionate about, or even books you’re reading. Create social media platforms and link it to your blog to build a following. The combination of these tools shows potential publishers that you’re a marketable client.

7) Learn on the daily

Writing is partly about knowledge. The more you know, the more you can write about. You never know when the opportunity will come to sprinkle in a juicy factoid. So set yourself a goal to learn something new every single day. Not only will it make you a better writer, but it will also make you a better person.

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As we’ve stated previously, using a website like Netgalley is a great way to find reviewers with influence. However, you should always do some additional digging and find bloggers, reviewers, readers, and press outlets to reach out to. The first step to doing this successfully: do your research. You need to make sure you’re reaching out to blogs, readers, and press outlets that relate to your book and/or genre in some way. You likely won’t have much luck if you’ve written a romance and you’re reaching out to bloggers who primarily review suspense novels.

You also want to have either a digital file of your book or some physical copies handy that you can send to these outlets if they’re interested. Offering them a complimentary copy of your book is a great incentive to obtain a review and a great marketing strategy to engage directly with their following. As we’ve said before, though, we’re writers, not PR experts. So for those unsure of how to make contact with these platforms, here are some templates to get you started:

Bloggers or Amazon/Goodreads reviewers

Dear [INSERT REVIEWER NAME],

I discovered your work at [where you found them] and thoroughly enjoyed your review of [name of book]. I recently wrote a book that appeals to a similar audience, [name of my book]. If you think you might be interested in reading it and perhaps reviewing it, I’ll gladly send you complimentary copy. Thank you so much for your time.

Best Regards,
[Author Name]
[Your website]
[Your social media links]

Readers (to put at the end of your book)

Thank you for joining me in telling the story of [x and y characters]. I hope they touched your soul the way they touched mine.

If you loved the book and have a minute to spare, I would really appreciate a short review on the page or site where you bought the book. Your help in spreading the word is greatly appreciated. Reviews from readers like you make a huge difference.

Thank you!
[Author Name]
[Your website]
[Your social media links]

Press Outlets

Dear [INSERT JOURNALIST NAME],

I really enjoyed the piece you did on [date] in [name of publication]. I think that [cause] is very important.

I recently published [name of book], which is very relevant to [name of cause] [link to Amazon or major retailer].

[List your qualifications, i.e. why you are an expert on a given topic.] I would be happy to send you a review copy to possibly include in your next [piece name].

Best,
[Author Name]
[Your website]
[Your social media links]

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For example, if you simply have a dream to be published and you don’t necessarily have ambitions for success- you could do that virtually for free. Indie publishing tools like Amazon, Goodreads, and Kindle Direct Publishing will publish your book instantly and they do have large audiences. However, if you want your book to attain some level of success, you have a few different options.

The first option is to do it all the work yourself. As we previously stated, you’ll want to publish through Amazon, Goodreads, and Kindle Direct Publishing. However, if you do this and want to attain some level of success, you’ll need a team behind you. First, you’ll need to find a qualified editor to read over your manuscript and check for grammar and content errors. If your readers are noticing grammatical errors throughout your book or there are major plot holes, you may end up with bad reviews that will kill your sales.

If you have a friend willing to do the work for you in exchange for a pizza night, that’s great- just make sure they’re fully qualified. However, for those not lucky enough to have an editor friend, you’ll have to seek one out yourself. According to The Write Life, for a 70,000-word book, you could expect to pay around $5,600 ($.08 per word) for quality developmental editing (or $1,260 if you simply need grammatical editing).

Next, and this one is non-optional, you’ll need to hire a cover artist and/or cover designer. When it comes to online indie publishing, the old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” couldn’t be further from the reality. The truth is, you’re far more likely to get your book noticed on these websites with a really great cover. One Author who has found success through online publishing, Chandler Bolt, states in regard to book cover importance, “When it comes to self-publishing, a high-quality book cover is one of the most important elements that will get your book to convert into sales! The reason is because your cover design is what readers see first and will immediately determine whether they want to read your book or not.”

The importance of Cover Design is further emphasized by the Huffington Post. They use an ebook Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, as a reference stating, “As Coker documents in his free ebook, The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success, R.L. Mathewson, a romance writer, went from selling five or six copies a day of her novel, Playing for Keeps, to over 1,000 a day simply by updating her cover image.”

So it’s absolutely essential to choose a good cover artist. You can use websites such as 99designs to find a quality cover artist, but it won’t be cheap. Expect to spend around $500 for a custom cover design, but it can be more or less depending on what you’re looking for and the artist’s level of experience. This is really worth investing in, though, since its the most important part of getting your book noticed outside of marketing.

You’ll also want to make sure your back ad description is alluring enough that readers will want to purchase the book. That’s something you should work on together with your editor until you have both a cover and a back ad that will make it impossible for readers to not to purchase your book. And, finally, you’ll want your page design to be correctly formatted so that your readers don’t struggle reading your material online. If you’d like to attempt to do your own page design, KDP can give you tips on how to do it. However, you can also hire a page designer through websites like Liber Writer so that it’s done professionally.

Now, when it comes to publishing, all of the people you’d need to enlist are people you’ll need to find, hire, and negotiate prices with. However, if you’d prefer not to have all of this responsibility on your shoulders there is a second option. An Author Services company will be able to work with you to get you to this point in the process. There are self-publishing companies who have already done the work for you in terms of finding trusted editors, page designers, cover designers, cover artists, and even marketing experts. Some of these companies will have a set price based on page count, while others (like Dorrance) will create a customized package based on what your specific needs and goals are for your book.

So it’s really up to you, as an author, how you’d like to go about hiring the people necessary to make book success a possibility. At the end of the day, you will need each of these people on your team if you want to attain commercial success. All it really comes down to is how you’d prefer to go about finding them. Ultimately, make sure you trust the people who you decide to work with- whether they be a company or contracted individuals.

From this point on, the focus of your book should be marketing. Now, with some self-publishing companies, you’re given a marketing head start. Companies, like Dorrance, have media contacts to which they’ll send your book info, they’ll start a Google AdWords campaign, and they’ll contact bookstores on your behalf. Not all self-publishing companies will help you with marketing so, if this is something you’re interested, make sure you ask them upfront. However, whether you’re using a self-publishing company or not, the majority of the marketing legwork will be on you.

Because you’ll be the backbone of your own marketing, you’ll really need to learn how to advocate for yourself. We suggest setting up an Author website or Blog as well as various social media accounts such as a Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram account. But that’s just the beginning. The best way to get your book noticed is through various blogs and social media accounts that have already gained a following. There are several literary and reading blogs that have gained traction and success. These will prove to be helpful contacts when your book is up for sale.

One way to start to build relationships with these blogs is to make your book available on websites like NetGalley. NetGalley is a platform where Author’s who are about to or who have just published their books can make them available to prominent readers (or readers who have proven to be successful and have influence). If a reader requests your book and is approved, you would send that reader a free ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of your book with the agreement that the reader would then be required to write a review of the book and post it on their blog, Amazon, and/or Goodreads.

This is definitely one of the most helpful tools when it comes to getting your book out there. You’re communicating directly and getting your material directly in the hands of people who already have a large following. Of course, this opens you up to negative critiques and criticisms as well, but as long as you’re confident in the merit of your material that shouldn’t be an issue. NetGalley also has promotional packages where you can pay to be featured or pay to be part of their newsletter or email blast. These can be pricey but may be worth investing in given how many influential readers you’d be able to reach. One Self-Published Author who used NetGalley’s promotional email blast, Luke Gracias, stated that the email blast for his book was sent to 19,300 US members.

You’ll also want to focus heavily on your Amazon promotion as that is an area where you can achieve great success. So, if you end up using NetGalley or finding ARC reviewers through another platform- make sure you’re having them post their reviews on Amazon and Goodreads as well. In addition to using NetGalley, do your research on successful blogs, social media accounts, and even successful self-published Authors. Reach out to every influential account you can to see if they’re willing to promote your book or if they’d like a free copy. It would even be helpful to develop a press kit and reach out to journalists- especially on a local level. Sure, you’ll get a lot of people who say no. But eventually, you’ll get some who say yes. The road to self-publishing success will be a lot of work and it certainly isn’t free, but having a good team behind you to help get you there is truly priceless.

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