Writing How-To's 

I returned home from Scriptoria 2024 traumatized.

Oh, I loved what I learned about writing as I rubbed elbows with fellow writers and writing experts and dancing in the tents of language with people who love words and stories as much as I do.

But what I learned from editors and agents crushed me. My book concept fell short. Its potential readers—conservative Christians grieving the death of a loved one who didn’t fit the standard criteria for entering heaven—was a small and difficult-to-reach market.

I also concluded I did not qualify for a traditional book contract. For that I needed either fame or thousands of social media followers.
I could boast neither.

I especially grieved the need for preexisting fame. I didn’t blame publishing companies. They contracted my earlier books during their golden years with less competition and easier sales. In a now-crowded world of fewer sales, online competition, and self-published books, many conventional publishers can no longer gamble on a nobody. Their writers must carry much of the marketing load. Since those golden years, I have self-published several books to local acclaim but limited sales. This time I had a greater goal — reach more readers. But I didn’t know how to market in the electronic age. Could I actually learn that skill?

Despite my slough of despond, I doggedly continued a weekly Substack column, “Notes from the Prairie.” I began freewriting 1,000 words each morning as both therapy and writing discipline. I resisted learning to grow my platform or researching online marketing. 

One fall morning, a Facebook ad for a free PDF about book marketing sparked my interest. For the first time, I acknowledged that regardless of how I eventually publish my next book, I need to learn online marketing skills. I clicked, provided my email address, and received the free guide. I didn’t immediately take action, but I tucked it in an electronic folder, “Free Facebook Author Help.”

Facebook’s algorithms instantly clicked in, and soon I was inundated dozens of offers for free PDFs about online book marketing and for free online seminars. I attended a dozen free seminars, and my author-help folder is now stuffed with 70+ freebies.

So far, I have heeded some of the advice by:

• Creating an author website using a template from an online company

• Launching a private Facebook group, “Growing After 50”

• Researching the felt needs of 50-year-olds as they face the coming decades

• Creating a Free PDF “Strengthen Your Memory” for people over 50 who provide me their email address

• Shifting the focus of my weekly Substack column toward aging

• Trading guest posts with other writers who have older readers

Still waiting in that folder are 60 additional PDFs which include instructions for:

• Creating reader demand before launching a book

• Writing a book title, subtitle, description, and author biography

• Building a launch team to click into action on publication day

• Snagging podcast bookings—and more

My brain and folder overflowing, I have now returned to my first love: research, organizing, interviewing, and writing, but for each stage I am better prepared to attract readers.

If that’s your writing goal, perhaps my experience can provide a first step for you.

Carol Van Klompenburg has played and worked with words ever since her first-grade poem won a blue ribbon. In adulthood she has published nonfiction books, articles, and a few poems. Her attempt at writing sparkling fiction fizzled to death in its first chapter.