Ten Crazy Ways to Improve Your Writing

There are a gazillion books on how to improve your prose, but I bet you haven't seen my list before. Well it's Monday and I felt like being silly, so I thought I'd throw in a few of my favorite one-liners on how to improve your writing. I hope they bring a smile to your face, and help motivate you to not only write good well, but to enjoy life.

Ten  Crazy ways to improve your writing:

1. Talk to strangers
2. Travel more.
3. Do something that you've always been afraid of. 
4. Ask for forgiveness when you don't feel like it. Study your feelings and the receiver's response.
5. Sit in the mall and study everyone you see.
6. Go to the Library and spend an afternoon reading travel books.
7. Spend an afternoon visiting a retirement home and ask the residents to tell their story.
8. Read a chapter of your favorite book, and hand copy a few pages.
9. Walk through your town or city and study the streets and alleyways and sounds.
10. Sit in Starbucks and create character sketches of everyone who walks in!

Well I hope that was a fun list. No rules. No time constrains. Just simple and creative methods to help you understand people, visualize details, and to spark some ideas. 

Oh, and by the way, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe is NOW available in print. In fact it is so hot off the press that the product description isn't posted yet. I hope you get a copy because it is so pretty and I worked really hard on the interior layout. I even used really cool boxes for you to check whenever you follow a step.

And guess what? You do not have to be an indie author to glean its wisdom. The Indie Author's Guide is for any writer, published, indie or not.


PS~ How do you like my new SEXY Twisted Vengeance cover? If you like it, will you tweet it for me?  If you do, I'll send you a free copy of Creepy. Just contact me via my email box and let me know, or DM me on Twitter @TweetTheBook. Thank you!

Jeff Bennington is the author of Twisted Vengeance, Reunion, and Creepy and now...
The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe is only $3.99 in the Kindle Store.

 

An Authors Guide to the Almighty 3% Rule

If you've been in business for an extended period of time, you've probably heard about the 3% Rule. If you're an author, you'll definitely want to get a handle on this treasured tool that businesses of all kinds have used as a measuring stick of their success.

As an author I have a bad habit of reading my reviews. I probably shouldn't, but it is what it is. I take my words very seriously and personally, so when I read a review that is singing my praises I feel good. Knowing that my work had struck a chord with a reader means everything to me. Conversely, when I read a review that more or less bashes my work, I take it personally. Yeah, yeah, I know, literature is subjective, to each his own, blah blah blah. I've heard it before and have probably written it even more. But bad reviews are still a bit cutting to me. I didn't work that hard on a book that hundreds loved, just to be told that it wasn't worth $1 by a few. Really? A buck? Who says that? What kind of person---?

Anyway, Back to The 3% Rule.

As an author, indie or otherwise, you need to understand statistics. There's a rule that has rolled into common business practices called the three percent rule. This rule says that out of 100 customers, there will always be an average of 3% who are never happy, never satisfied, inconsiderate, lawsuit happy, etc.

Businesses use the 3% rule to determine when it's okay to let customers go, as in drop them from their mailing list, or to determine if they are doing something wrong. In other words, the closer their customer satisfaction rate is to 97%, the better they are doing. The further away they are from 97% satisfaction, there is a greater chance that they need to make some changes.

How does this apply to authors? Simple. Authors can use this rule to determine if their book is actually a quality product, or if it needs another round of edits, re-write, etc. Also, if you have a quality product, you don't have to take your bad reviews as personally, because you can trust that 3% of your reviews are trash worthy.

This is a statistical fact. Look it up. Good to know, huh? I thought so anyway.

So here's the deal. I took a look at Reunion, did the math, and discovered that out of 79 reviews, 70 were good to great, and nine were okay to bad. Now here's how the math works. To determine the TRUE level of customer satisfaction, you automatically throw out 3% of the bad reviews. That's right. Pitch 'em. Lose 'em. Get 'em out of your head forever. They don't count. They are the same people who live miserable lives, make everyone around them miserable and wouldn't have it any other way. Their bad review is simply a reflection of themselves.

I bet you're feeling good about yourself now, huh? Good. You should.

Anyway, Once you know the true level of dissatisfied customers, you can discover the actual quality of your product or service.

I can feel fairly confident that some of those reviewers simply picked a genre that doesn't fit their interest or got something different then what they expected. In fact, those stats are a pretty good indicator that I did a damn good job.

On a side note, I will mention that of that half of the bad reviews came after I hit The Amazon Top 100, thereby getting a much higher level of exposure. After doing a little investigation, I found that most of the reviewers who gave Reunion bad marks did not have any other reviews to their credit. Not one. They talked about how many books they've read, but they didn't have a single review, except mine.

Do you see me scratching my head? I've chatted with other bestselling indie authors and they had a similar experience. We call those reviewers "The One Hit Wonders" because they hit and run. This happens all too often.

Not sure about you, but that seemed a bit questionable to me. Made me wonder if there are peeps out there seeking indie authors, spying out free, 99¢, and $2.99 books by no name authors and targeting them, to squash the indie movement. Just a thought. But I'm moving on.

WARNING: Never, ever, ever, comment on a bad review that you receive. That is bad form. Remain silent, bite your tongue, and then smile and wave. My #1 rule of author PR:  Stay as far away from drama and negativity as possible. Learn it. Live it. If you get a bad review, bite your tongue; it's comes with the territory.

All to say, the 3% rule is a great tool to help you take an honest look at your work and the value it brings to the ebook market place. If your average customer satisfaction is bordering on the 80% and under, you might want to take a good hard look at what you're doing wrong. And I'll be honest, I do listen to my reviewers, because they can have valid complaints as well as compliments.

No matter which way the wind blows your reader response, I hope the 3% rule helps you get a handle on your quality. And I wish you the very best of success in 2012. If you need any help with your books, check out my author services page. I do a few things that can make your life a bit easier. Also, watch for my soon to be released book, The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe.

~Jeff Bennington best selling author of Reunion, Twisted Vengeance & Creepy

What does it take to be a REAL Writer?

Are you a writer? A real writer?
Most scribes, both literary and poetic ask that very question of themselves and often come to the same conclusion. They say to themselves...

• I'm a real writer if... I'm published by a real publisher. 
• I'm a real writer if... I have an established platform. 
• I'm a real writer if... I've written a bestseller.
• I'm a real writer if... I'm a celebrity.
• I'm a real writer if... I dress nice - professional attire. 
• I'm a real writer if... JA Konrath mentions me in his blog. 

Do you believe that garbage? Are you trapped in a world of literary falsehoods and "real writer" misnomers that have defeated and squeezed the creative juices out of you? If you are, you're not alone. Writers everywhere have this false belief that something magical has to happen before they consider themself a real writer, one that ranks up there on cloud ninety-nine with Koontz and King or Rowling.

King and Koontz are exceptional at what they do, but that doesn't mean you're not a real writer!

I've written 4 novels, 1 short story, and another awesome work in progress. Yet on more than one occasion, I've asked myself if I have what it takes. Am I the real deal? And yes, at different stages of my writing journey, I thought all of the above statements were true. I have now come to believe something very different.

Here's what I think...
I think the expectations we've put on ourselves have come from a bunch of crusty old arrogant literary professionals who are more concerned about the almighty dollar and have forgotten what writing is all about. Therefore, like all things, the definition of a real writer is changing, and should change.

Here's my List of 10 Qualities That Define a Real Writer

1. A real writer is someone who writes because he has a love for words. 
2. A real writer has an innate appreciation for what it takes to create a story and put it down on paper.
3. A real writer loves books. 
4. A real writer loves creating with his right brain.
5. A real writer enjoys constructing a new story that no one has ever read and then puts his mind to it and sees the project through. 
6. A real writer sits quietly in his bed or chair or couch late at night or early in the morning or during his lunch hour penciling in the tedious details that breathe life into his or her story or poem. 
7. A real writer writes because he loves it.  
8. A real writer writes just to read his own words. 
9. A real writer jots down silly phrases or jokes or poems in a notepad. 
10. A real writer smiles when she hands her teacher or professor her paper, while the others walk away sad and gloomy, overcome by the intricacies of indenting and completing a full sentence

Without over spiritualizing, I further believe that a real writer writes because he was created to write and hears his calling. Sometimes a real writer hears the call when he or she is very young. Sometimes, a real writer doesn't hear the calling until he's older - like me. Sometimes, a real writer never paints with her #2 graphite brush, afraid of rejection. Sometimes a real writer never writes, because the message he or she hears is so unbearably oppressive, he believes that he does not have what it takes to be a real writer.

You see... real writers are the ones who love writing because they can't help it. If you don't love it - you will never be a real writer. You may have a lot to learn. You might improve with each effort, and never feel like your last work was your best. You might get bad reviews at first. But don't we all?

Writing is a journey, and in it, writers find themselves. They discover who they are and they tell the world what they know. Writers should not be judged by book sales, or who their agent or publisher is. They should be judged by their passion for the pen. And that passion, over time, will generate sweet sounding prose. Yet one does not have to be a master craftsmen to be a writer. He need only be an artful practitioner, who at the end of the day, looks at what he has created and smiles.

Do you know anyone struggling with their writorical self-image? Are you? Please comment vigorously, share your story, and share this post with all your reading and writing friends. They might appreciate the truth and learn to differentiate between real writers and those who are cherry picked by the Big 6. BOOM!