JR Rain – Writing Good Books is the Best Marketing Tool
JR rain has had amazing success with his writing. He has written numerous books with many of them ending up on the Amazon Bestseller list. He is the author of the Vampire For Hire series, The Jim Knighthorse series and The Spinoza series just to name a few. Today he speaks to us about the process of writing and how he connects with readers.
Darrell - Can you describe a typical day of writing?
JR - I generally write throughout the day, often wrapping things up around 7:00 p.m., but I have also been known to write well into the night. One of the reasons I moved up to a little island in the northwest was to spend the majority of my time writing in solitude. For the most part, I’ve been able to do that. My day usually starts at 6:30. I make coffee, feed the dog, read and meditate...and then start writing at 8:00 a.m. I love getting an early start to the day. I will then write until about 7:00 p.m., taking time during the day to walk my dog, go to Starbucks, eat and nap. I’m in bed by midnight every night.
Darrell - You've had some ups and downs in your personal life over the years. Do you think the good and the bad times have contributed to your success as a writer?
JR - I certainly appreciate the good times because I’ve known the bad times. I think most writers have known the bad times. For me, I call those the “bleak years”. I think struggling through the down times helps create focus. Personally, I prefer the good times. ;)
Darrell - Other members of your family are also writers. In what way have they influenced you as a writer?
JR - My mother encouraged me at a young age. She had so much confidence in me. God bless mothers. Also at a young age, I watched with interest my father’s early forays into writing. I was just enthralled to witness the whole writing/selling/publishing process. My father, sadly, never broke into major print, but his efforts left an indelible mark on me. My mother had success writing non-fiction, especially articles for magazines. She was also a journalist for a small newspaper. Just watching the two most important people in my life making an effort to write and publish was really all I needed to see. I was bitten by the writing bug at a young age and I’ve never looked back.
Darrell - You've had several bestselling books on Kindle. A lot of them are priced at $2.99. To what degree do you attribute pricing to your success?
JR - Early on, when I first started on Kindle in 2009, I actually priced my books at $9.99. I believed in my books and felt they were worth the price. I would go on to play with pricing for the next 6 months before I settled on $3.99, which I think is a fair price. But in general I charge $3.99 for novels, and $2.99 for short story collections and novellas. I would suggest play with the prices until you find your comfort zone.
Darrell - What do you think are the best ways to market yourself in this modern era as a writer?
JR - Good question. There’s no easy answer to this and things are changing so rapidly that it’s all some people can do to keep up. In general, though, you always want a web page and Facebook page. I also have a Myspace page and Twitter account. Having an email list for monthly newsletters helps, too, but you want to make sure this list only includes readers who have voluntarily opted in. Otherwise you’re going to irritate a lot of people. Having a running blog helps, too, although I no longer have one. (Why not? I decided I would rather spend my time writing books than blogs...One running blog, updated weekly for a year, is about one completed novel.) Anyway, those are the basics.
Now, your goal as a writer is to get your books in front of as many people as possible. So that’s your challenge: how to find the greatest amount of readers? I would even suggest take it a step further: how to easily find the greatest amount of readers? There’s no right or wrong way to do this. There are hundreds of ideas to do this, but I would suggest finding ways that take the least amount of time and yet still generate the greatest possible results. You don’t want to spend all your time marketing, and in the end, a good book goes a long way to selling itself.
Darrell - If you had one piece of advice to give to someone trying to make it as a writer, what would it be?
JR - Write what you know. Your home town is more interesting than you might think. Unless you really are an ex-CIA operative, writing about what you know makes your books unique and stand out. Many of my characters are insurance claims investigators or private eyes (both jobs I’ve had). Almost all my books are set in cities I’ve lived in. And almost all my characters have my own traits and quirks, good or bad. For instance, Jim Knighthorse suffers from severe color blindness. So do I.
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