RSS‘No Thank You’ Cards
Aug 12
A Writer's Blog Comments Off
To celebrate the release of Thank You is Implied, we asked illustrator Jennifer Cosentino to design two “Thank You” cards inspired by the book. See the images below.
Thank You is Implied Available Now!
Aug 03
A Writer's Blog Comments Off
Smart ReMarx blogger Andrew Marx’s new collection of essays, Thank You is Implied the Annotated Smart ReMarx, is out now! Read the description below.
Order your copy from amazon.com
Thank You is Implied, a new collection of essays by Andrew Marx, takes on wide-ranging themes from legalizing trips to the bathroom, gambling in third-rate casinos and what it takes to make the list of the sexiest songs ever written! In his own inestimable and entertaining style, Marx skewers his sex life (been there, done that), tackles celebrity culture (et tu Brett Favre?) and even devours all-you-can-eat USDA Canner grade prime rib and lives to tell about it!
Culled from a 17-year writing career and his Smart ReMarx blog, the book frames the author’s humorous and unrepentant take on pop culture, sports, relationships and everything else. If you are wondering who predicted the decline of Pluto, the collapse of the economy, and the end of the All American Football League, the answers are all here. Blending news reports with reviews and opinions, each article is annotated with additional commentary, anecdotes, and explanations (and a couple of apologies) from the author.
Thank You is Implied will delight long time fans and newcomers alike. Featuring one of the most unique voices to come along in the last ten years, this collection will make you laugh and leave you thinking. Every article is peppered with the sharp wit and smart remarks that have made Marx’s writing completely original and thoroughly satisfying.
How to Write Your Bio
Jun 21
A Writer's Blog Comments Off
Here’s a secret. I’m a writer but I hate writing my professional bio. It reads too much like a grocery list. Technically, your bio doesn’t have to include much of a punch. Depending on where it is being published, it’s not always useful as a sales tool (though it can lead new fans to your other projects). A bio can be a passive entry; it doesn’t have to do much more than state the facts of your professional career.
Yet leaving it to just a list of accomplishments is not much more useful than a Wikipedia entry. It serves a purpose, true, but it can act as more than just a roll call for your accolades.
So if you reach the point where you have to draft your bio, consider this:
It should be reflective of your voice
Your bio should match the narrative voice of your work. For a comedian, it should be humorous, maybe even upbeat. For a fiction writer, a sense of creativity should be evident. Give the reader a little taste of your style. It will help them know what to expect when they look at your works.
It should be factual
Fans like to know the skinny. Unless it’s explicitly satirical, don’t make things up. Even if you’re joking, make sure the reader is in on the joke. Nothing scares off a fan faster than a betrayal, or misinformation, even if you think it’s all in good fun.
It should include a call to action
For a writer, the call to action can be as simple as including links to the books’ sales pages, links to amazon or both. A call to action typically is an explicit message that says “buy now” and directs the reader how to do so. If you think that’s too forward for a bio, you still need to give the reader some direction on where to navigate next. Don’t assume they will poke around your website. Lead them to the pertinent pages with links. Make the message clear enough to express this is the next step.
It should include a way to contact you
If you do anything in the public eye, you need to include contact information. In this day and age, it’s not necessary that it be a physical address or a phone number. Maybe an online contact form or an e-mail address is sufficient to contact you. (It depends on your fanbase and why you think they might need or want to contact you). And don’t make them hunt for it. A lot of companies create websites designed to discourage you from contacting them. But these are your fans, not just your customers, and you want to be reached.
It should be enticing
Your overall message, including your bio, needs to be appealing. How you appeal to your fans and what you do to make that connection stronger depends on your message and your product. But don’t lose the opportunity to turn your bio into a point of interest. Does it need to be a sales pitch? No, but it also doesn’t need to be so dry and so straightforward that it becomes instantly obsolete.
It should be up to date
Do I really need to harp on this point?
A bio does not have to be your strongest sales pitch; it does not need to include a muscular call to action. But it can be more than just a means of providing information about who you are and what you do. Don’t discount the value of a good bio by treating it as afterthought. Take the time to write it right and treat it as a vital part of your overall message. Because no matter how much I hate writing and editing my own bio, I know having a good one can only be better for me in the long run.
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Andrew Marx is the author of the upcoming essay collection Thank You Is Implied The Annotated Smart ReMarx featuring some of the best articles from his 17-year career. The book will be available to pre-order in August at annotatedsmartremarx.com.
Smart ReMarx Hits the Bookshelves!
Jun 16
A Writer's Blog Comments Off
A collection of Smart ReMarx articles compiled from this blog (and in some cases, articles published long before the blog) is being published on August 10, 2010. Thank You is Implied The Annotated Smart ReMarx takes the best articles written by Andrew Marx and annotates them! Preorder information will be posted to andrewmarx.com in another week.
From the back cover
“Thank You is Implied, a new collection of essays by Andrew Marx, takes on wide-ranging themes from legalizing trips to the bathroom, gambling in third-rate casinos and what it takes to make the list of the sexiest songs ever written! In his own inestimable and entertaining style, Marx skewers his sex life (been there, done that), tackles celebrity culture (et tu Brett Favre?) and even devours all-you-can-eat USDA Canner grade prime rib and lives to tell about it!
Culled from a 17-year writing career and his Smart ReMarx blog, Thank You is Implied highlights the author’s humorous and unrepentant take on pop culture, sports, relationships and everything else. If you are wondering who predicted the decline of Pluto, the collapse of the economy, and the end of the All American Football League, the answers are all here. Each article is annotated with additional commentary, anecdotes, and explanations (and a couple of apologies) from the author. Every article is peppered with the sharp wit and smart remarks that have made Marx’s writing completely original and thoroughly satisfying.”
Friday B.S.: Scratch that Niche
Jun 11
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In my last article, I talked about the benefits of niche market writing, something I believe in firmly. But you may have noticed that I am not a niche market writer myself. I have one niche website, concert-central.com which focuses exclusively on concert reviews, tour dates and setlists. But the Smart ReMarx blog is, and always has been, all over the map when it comes to its focus.
I just want to reiterate my point about niche marketing: if it’s something you can pull off, it is unequivocally a successful business plan for writers. If you host any type of advertising, your potential for ad revenue soars with niche targeting, whether you publish on a website or in print. Niche market writing absolutely can encourage return traffic and increase subscribership in a way that few other strategies will.
If you think about it, the internet is built around niche market strategies. You go to different websites to accomplish a different set of goals. The disparate objectives of each website determines where you go, how long you spend there, and whether you come back. That’s niche targeting a nutshell. You want your writing to be seen as an authority on a particular topic.
So knowing that, why don’t I do it?
In my experience, having attempted a few niche market websites, I simply lack the passion when I’m so narrowly focused on one niche. My blog writing is more prolific because I allow myself to write about anything that’s on my mind. Is it a successful business model? No, between my two blogs, I make about 2 cents of advertising revenue per day, not even enough to pay for the sites themselves. (Another thing that contributes to the low revenue is the infrequency of updates). But it’s worth pointing out that I don’t maintain either site for the purpose of generating revenue.
How would I do it if I did want to make money? Well, for one, I would only maintain one blog overall. If I settled on the concert blog, for instance, I would more readily advertise the fact that you can contribute your own reviews, in order to get more contributions from visitors. (Ticketmaster is pushing user reviews now for the same reason). I would also go to more free, or extremely cheap, local shows in order to be able to add more content to my site overall. I would post tour itineraries for every band I could find instead of just doing it periodically. I might even throw album reviews up there for additional content, as well as music industry news. In doing all of that, I would have more content on the site, increase traffic through search results and gain better targeted advertising which would ultimately improve my ad revenue potential.
All of this already happens, of course, but in very small doses. Not enough to generate significant revenue of any kind. So there is the dilemma for me: do I want sustainable revenue or am I satisfied maintaining the site for its own merits? I chose the latter. As a writer, you face a similar choice. And I’m here to tell you it is much easier if you make the choice from the beginning. Then you can channel your time and energy into whichever goal you choose.
Writing books is a similar decision, particularly if publish independently. It’s difficult to switch constantly between genres, particularly if you write in both nonfiction and fiction. You might find loyalty in both styles, but does that loyalty overlap? Are you actually cutting into your revenue potential by working on disparate projects at the same time?
So what does my list look like? Take a gander at the books I’ve written:
What Do You Say to the DJ? (nonfiction, memoir) http://saytothedj.com/
Accidents Happen (fiction, action/adventure) http://accidentshappennovel.com/
Whisper in the Walls (fiction, fantasy) http://whispernovella.com/
On 21: Philosophy of Blackjack (nonfiction, entertainment) http://philosophyofbj.com/
Thank You Is Implied (nonfiction, current events) http://annotatedsmartremarx.com/
…and my next three projects are a full-length fiction novel, a collection of short fiction and a one-act play. Am I looking to make money? Yes. So why do I bounce back and forth between genres?
The answer is the same. It keeps me passionate about my writing that focusing on one genre would not. Whether fiction or nonfiction will ultimately be more successful for me (whether it’s profit or fame as the measurement), I don’t think I can stick to just one niche. My focus is all over the map, but I just tell myself, “Hey, what a journey!” I do what works best for me, and you should do what works best for you.
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Andrew Marx is the author of the upcoming essay collection Thank You Is Implied The Annotated Smart ReMarx featuring some of the best articles from his 17-year career. The book will be available to pre-order in August at annotatedsmartremarx.com.
Digging Yourself a Niche Market
Jun 10
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Any businessperson will tell you one way to have success as a writer is to find a niche market and dominate it. For some, that means getting hired by a newspaper or magazine to cover a specific beat (though for the record, it helps if you’re covering a topic that interests you to begin with). For blog writers, it means having a narrowly focused website. For authors, it means sticking to a genre. And for every writer, you need to be dedicated to your niche market strategy and stick with it.
The potential downside with a niche market strategy is the same as the upside; it requires a beeline focus on one industry. It is an excellent tactic for success, particularly if you’re knowledgeable in the field, genuinely interested in the subject matter, and committed to maintaining the quality of your writing over time. The reason it works is because you can establish yourself as an authority in the field. Sticking to one niche market is more likely to garner loyalty among your fans based on your expertise of the topic and your devotion to the topic. If you are involved in hosting ad space, niche targeting allows your ads to be more relevant to your readers and increases your potential for ad revenue. Plus, as you generate new content, you are continually adding to your prestige within the field.
This strategy works no matter what type of writing you are doing. A beat writer for a sports team becomes an expert on that sport and that team, becoming intimately knowledgeable about the roster, the coaches, and the history of the team. A blog writer who focuses on one topic is much more likely to see relevant traffic on the site, which is important for gaining repeat visitors and increasing subscribership. The same holds true for an author who identifies a genre to concentrate on.
Niche targeting is a good business decision if you are trying to make money as a writer. For some it’s a natural fit. Others, however, have a difficulty sticking to one focus for extended periods. If your interests are varied, it’s inevitable that your writing will reflect that. Does that make you less marketable? It can. A blog about everything will have a harder time earning repeat traffic and devoted fans because different topics will appeal to different people. Does it make you less successful? It can, but any writer offsets the potential for failure with consistency, persistence and quality. If you embrace those key aims in your writing career, you can be successful even without a niche market.
As you write, think about whether a niche market would work for you. Will you see more traffic to your website? Will you have greater subscribership or increase your authority on a specific topic? Those might be reasons to identify a niche and stick with it, particularly if you are writing to meet specific income goals. Your passion for a topic can drive your success in your writing career, and that is what a niche market can do for you.
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Andrew Marx is the author of the upcoming essay collection Thank You Is Implied The Annotated Smart ReMarx featuring some of the best articles from his 17-year career. The book will be available to pre-order in August at annotatedsmartremarx.com.
