Story Sensei

This is the eighth and last in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. Kickstarter: This is going to be weird that I put this here, but when I was looking through the worksheet “First Steps to Podcasting” in Writing Off Social—the Course Lite , a lot of the questions could apply when you’re setting up your Kickstarter. You have to craft your Kickstarter to appeal to the readers who will find your campaign, and the amount of time to set up a Kickstarter is probably on par with the amount of time to set up a podcast. The major difference is that with podcasting, you’re in it for a longer period of time, while Kickstarter is usually less than a month, although authors will often do a Kickstarter for every new book. I took Thomas Umstattd’s course, The Ultimate Crowdfunding Course for Authors and found it very helpful. I also read Russell Nohelty and Monica Leonelle’s book, Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter . Additionally, there...

This is the sixth in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. I will also mention two other things I blog about, which fall under Behind-the-Scenes but kind of have their own categories. I’ll often write food into my books. For my contemporary novels, they’re usually family recipes. For my Regency novels, they’re recipes that I find in antique cookbooks from the era. I’ll make the dish and post the recipe on my blog along with pictures. I recently polled my newsletter and Patreon and discovered my readers really liked the recipes, which surprised me. I will usually link to the blog post recipe in my newsletter and in a Patreon post. Here’s an example of a recipe. I also like to knit, so I write knitted objects into the books (like shawls, scarves, socks, mittens). Then I knit the object and post the knitting pattern on my blog with photos. I will link to the pattern in my newsletter and my Patreon, but I will also link to the p...

This is the fifth in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. SEO for blogs: Unlike with nonfiction authors, blogging about nonfiction topics doesn’t automatically garner more sales for fiction authors. Sometimes readers will do a Google search for something they read in a novel, but from my experience and from talking with lots of other indie authors, fiction readers don’t necessarily care that much about nonfiction blog posts. So for some fiction authors, nonfiction blog posts don’t do anything to help them get more readers. However, blogging in general is a great way to post evergreen long-form content on a space you own, if you host your blog on your domain. My blog platform is Blogspot, but my blog itself is at https://blog.camytang.com . I like the fact it’s on my domain. Evergreen long-form content is posts that continue to market for you for years to come. Some fiction authors will post nonfiction topics (Sarah Sundin post...

This is the fourth in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. Patreon: I have a Patreon that I modeled after several other fiction authors, especially Lit-RPG and fantasy authors. They post the rough draft chapters on their Patreon, 1-3 chapters each week, as they write/edit them. Patrons subscribe at various tiers and get extra stuff depending on their tier. For me, I have 4 tiers: Tier 1, $5/month which gets them early access to my chapters before the book is published, along with any bonus content. Tier 2, $15/month which gets them audiobook chapters as they’re available. Tier 3, $25/month which gets them a specially-curated book box once every 4 months. Tier 4, $100/month which gets them a custom short story written for them once a year (I don’t have anyone at this tier at the moment). Tiers 3 and 4 get to read the weekly chapters first, and then permission is given to Tier 2 the week after, and finally Tier 1 after that. Thi...

This is the third in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. SEO for websites: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all about helping people find your website or blog when they search online, like when someone Googles “Christian Regency romance” and your book pops up. By using the right keywords, writing helpful blog posts, and organizing your site well, you make it easier for search engines (like Google) to know what your site is about and show it to the right readers. It’s like leaving breadcrumbs for new fans to discover you. I will be the first person to say I am terrible at SEO, but I’ve been learning thanks to long conversations with ChatGPT and Grok. I’ve been trying to craft better blog titles and I just learned about putting meta descriptions for each blog post (When did that option appear? I hadn’t even noticed!). By using keywords, I’m hoping to get more traffic to my blog. I’ve also been listening to several free we...

This is the second in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. Collaboration: I loved this module in the Writing Off Social—the Course Lite because I fully believe this is one of the best ways for fiction authors to promote their brands and their books. For my marketing, collaboration takes several forms. 1) Group promos I use BookFunnel (other authors use StoryOrigin) to join group author promos set up by other authors. Each promo is usually a specific genre, and there are two types of promos: newsletter promos and sales promos.  All participating authors share the link to the promo’s landing page, which has every author’s book covers that readers can click on. Newsletter promos feature Funnel Books. Sales promos feature books for sale whether on Amazon, on direct websites, or other distributors. Promos usually only last a short amount of time, so I can’t give links to them. Instead, I’ll post screenshot images. H...

This is the first in a series of blog posts about marketing for fiction authors without using social media. Lead Magnets One thing I focus on is building up my email newsletter. One way I do this is through Lead Magnets. I don’t know if this is true for non-fiction writers, but I’ve heard of two different kinds of fiction lead magnets—one for a cold audience who has never heard of you (called a Funnel Book), and one for a warm audience (Reader Magnet). The Funnel Book is for things like BookFunnel group promos or newsletter swaps. BookFunnel group promos (you can also do the same on StoryOrigin ) are where you join a promo event with other authors in your genre or niche. Everyone shares the link to the promo in their newsletter. The link goes to a landing page with everyone’s book covers that readers can click on. That goes to the individual book’s landing page with a blurb and a link to either buy the book (if it’s sales promo) or to sign up for your newsletter to get th...

I have been a big fan of the podcast Writing Off Social for a while now, and I met the podcast hosts, Sandy and Mary K., at the 2025 Novel Marketing Conference. I had taken their Writing Off Social—the Course Lite , and while I was very, very good, I felt it didn’t have as many insights for fiction authors as opposed to nonfiction authors. Which makes sense since Sandy and Mary K. both write nonfiction. When I talked to them about it at the conference, I spouted off some feedback I had come up with while listening to their course, and they asked me to write it down in an email and send it to them. Well, I had time to wait at the airport and it turned into a huge long email missive with lots of information. They were very gracious and invited me to join them for an interview on their podcast, which was totally exciting! It was my first podcast interview! I was a complete dork! But we didn’t talk about everything in the email I’d written to them since we didn’t have time. I thou...

It's been a while, but I finally did another evaluation of the various things I've been trying in order to improve my productivity. I feel like I’m getting closer to optimizing a schedule that makes me most productive despite my health issues. Click here to read Evaluation 7.

Maybe I’m just weird, but I like to know how different writers do their writing. I like knowing how they spend each day. I like knowing their process when they write a book, from idea to outlining to drafting to editing. Every writer is different in subtle ways, and I’ve discovered that a writer can discover what works best for them by seeing what works for other people, and then experimenting and trying it for themselves. Sometimes a process works, sometimes it doesn’t, but at least you’ve tried it to see. I spent a lot of time trying out methods to improve my productivity and enable me to write the best book I can. I thought it might be interesting to list what my book creation process is. Not all my methods will work for all writers, but I might do some things in a way you haven’t tried before, and it might be a process that ends up working for you. Stage 1) I usually start with the characters. I write the backstory and family first, and I jot notes in a file in Scrivener as ...

I'm over at Routines for Writers today talking about Promotion! And before you click away, I want to stress that it's never too early to think about promotion! Hi there! My name is Camy Tang, and I'm thrilled to be guest blogging today! Now, before you look at the title and think it doesn't apply to you, let me tell you—I firmly believe that it's never too early to start promotion, especially if you are a serious writer, seriously pursuing publication. Your book contract might come next week or next year or in a few years, but if you already have your promotion and marketing set up, you're a leg ahead of all the other writers submitting to agents and editors. Yes, they look to see what you already have set up in terms of marketing! Click here for the rest of the article

An old article of mine is on WannaBePublished.blogspot.com today! The Gallup Poll website is fascinating. Okay, I admit, I’m a geek. However, it’s also useful in gathering information about the book business, which is important for a writer. Click here to read the rest of the article.

This article originally appeared as a series of blog posts in November and December 2008 . Here are all the posts collected together. Building a blog These days, blogging is a great way to express yourself and/or to market a product you might have. Blogging is cheap, easy, and can be a lot of fun. But while anyone can blog, how do you create an effective blog? Here are a few tips, broken down into Blogging Logistics and Blog Content. (Before I begin, I also want to mention that blogging isn’t for everyone. Not everyone likes to blog, and that’s perfectly fine. I think that no one should feel forced to blog—if you don’t like blogging, then don’t blog. But if you do enjoy blogging, this is a series of articles to help you make a better blog.) Blogging Logistics: Blog consistently. Good blogs have bloggers who post consistently and often. Most of these bloggers post five days a week, taking Saturday and Sunday off since blogs usually have lower traffic on weekends. Ideally, a blogger who ...