These words author and artist are not as similar as they sound. Some gifted individuals can be both, but in actuality, most people are one or the other.
In the writing world, these terms are often mutually exclusive of each other. They don’t have to be, but the majority of writer’s fall in one category or another. The rise of independent and self-publishing has widened the gap between the two considerably. Neither is better than the other. It is important for writers to understand in which category they fall, so the ever-changing and always difficult market does not disappoint or devastate them.
So what’s the difference? Here’s a breakdown.
An Artist is a person who crafts a masterpiece.
Is a writer of an elegant masterpiece or two.
Struggles to let go of control of project (book cover, edits, title, etc.)
Spends months, or years, writing the perfect book.
Edits and rewrites multiple times.
Spends countless hours learning “the craft”
Takes years to publish a book.
Aims for perfection.
Desires positive reviews.
Will gain recognition for quality and win awards.
May never make any money.
Wants to see their name on the cover.
An Author is a person who sells books.
Is a writer of many works.
Does not care about control of project.
Spends days, or weeks, writing a product that sells.
Edits once, maybe twice.
Spends countless hours crafting “the sell”.
Takes weeks to publish a book.
Not concerned with perfection.
Desires reviews that lead to sells or boost marketability.
May never gain recognition or win awards.
Will sell books and make money.
Is willing to ghost write, with no recognition.
These are only some of the many differences between authors and artists. What is important to understand that there is a huge difference, and you need to recognize whether you are an author or artist.
The artist spends a lifetime crafting the perfect novel—their masterpiece. They study, attend conferences, rewrite, and edit until the book is worthy of perceived greatness. An artist’s work is high quality and unique. The book contains the blood, sweat, and tears of the artist. It embodies their soul.
The author treats writing as a business. It’s about the almighty dollar. More books published offer more opportunities for sales. The author writes with ludicrous speed and can publish a book in as little as four weeks. An author creates books that harness current market trends of rides the waves of consumerism.
In some instances, a writer may exhibit characteristics of both an author and artist, but this is rare. It is usually the result of years of writing practice and experience in the writing world. Beginning writers will lean one way or the other.
It is important to determine in which category you want to be in, and then make adequate changes to your workflow, production, and mindset to allow you to become the author or artist you want to be.
An artist who wants to have the sales of an artist, will often find themselves frustrated, because they have not invested the time and energy to learn how to sell their book.
An author who wants to be respected and win awards, will often find themselves frustrated, because they have not invested enough time learning how to write high-quality works.
A writer’s life isn’t supposed to be frustrating, it should be filled with wonder, discovery, and passion for putting words and stories on paper. Embracing who you are, or who you want to be, will allow you to find your niche in the writing world and help you enjoy an amazing life as an author or artist.
Cyle Young is a Hartline Agent who is thankful God blessed him with the uniqueness of being an ADD-riddled…SQUIRREL!…binge writer. Not much unlike the classic video game Frogger, Cyle darts back and forth between various writing genres. He crafts princess children’s stories, how-to advice for parents, epic fantasy tales, and easy readers.
Do you want to write 30K-40K+ words in a weekend? Do you want to write faster?
You can. Become a binge writer.
Binge writing is an impassioned writing session during an elongated time period. It can last from five hours to fifty hours. A binge writing session is uninterrupted—apart from limited sleep.
Many writers spend years attempting to finish their stories, but they never do. Not for lack of desire, but for lack of follow-through. I know from first hand experience that if I tried to write 2,000 words every day I’d fail. I already have, multiple times. But, if I set aside time to binge write, I can complete project after project.
It’s time for you to become a binge writer.
The results will astound you. I bet an extra 40K words might help you finish the final few chapters or your novel, or help you create an entire series of chapter books. The uses are endless.
But if you never embark on your binge writing journey, you may never accomplish your writing goals in a realistic timeframe.
Here are some binge writing tips:
Cram your brain.
Fill your mind with pictures, ideas, and research on the topic you are writing about. If you are writing a novel set in Paris, inundate yourself with French music in your car, watch French foreign movies or documentaries, and visualize the world around you as Paris itself.
If you are writing a non-fiction about training dogs, spend time with dogs. Train them, observe them, and watch movies with dogs as characters.
Let your mind absorb the images, actions, and ideas that you want to flow effortlessly out of you and into your story or book.
Schedule your binge session.
Pick your time and place. Don’t let anyone infringe upon your session and don’t make plans close to the start and finish of your time. You’ll only be able to binge write, if you hold fast and firm to your timetable. So when your brother-in-law calls to invite you to dinner and board games, you say NO even though you really want to go. You make a date with yourself.
Set the mood.
Before your session download music that will stimulate the proper mood for your writing. Epic soundtracks for fantasy, love songs for romance, etc. Have them preloaded and ready to go.
If you like the lighting low for romance or suspense. Get your candles ready.
If you are writing a story in a bakery, plan to have fresh bread baking in your house. Or, if your story is set in a field of flowers have scented candles or oils to help create the right aroma and atmosphere.
Prepare your meals.
Nothing can ruin your session like a rumbly tummy. The moment you stop to fix a meal, you lose thirty minutes minimum. If you go out to get something, you lose an hour. That is if you can get back into the swing of things when you return. Hunger pangs are the enemy of the binge writer.
If you have an amazing spouse who will cook for you, recruit them to make and deliver your food. I know this sounds like they are your servant, but if you want to be a serious writer… you have to write. And if your spouse wants you to be a serious writer and actually finish a book… you have to write, and they have to support you.
If you are single, pre-make the food. I eat a lot of leftovers when I binge write. You can also use frozen meals. The microwave is a binge writer’s best friend.
And don’t forget about cereal. It’s easy and quick, and you can eat it for three meals a day if you have to.
It doesn’t matter if you are slow at typing or fast at typing—just write. I only get about 25 words per minute, but I can still churn out around 12K-15K words a day. Just imagine what I could accomplish if I could double my speed.
Forget about editing, forget about grammar, forget about punctuation, and forget about ensuring details are accurate. That’s what the editing process is for. It’s not called binge editing—It’s binge writing, so write.
BONUS: Exercise
If you don’t move—you die. No, seriously, this is true. You should always try to move around for five minutes once every hour. I like to do air squats, lunges, jumping jacks, planks, knee lifts, and pace around the room.
I use this time to think about what I am working on, and then create a game plan for how I am going to write it all over the next hour.
If you follow these 5 easy steps, you’ll be binge writing in no time. And, you’ll be well on your way to new projects and new stories.
Do you have any more tips from your binge writing sessions? Share in the comments below.
Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) allows you to advertise your book utilizing a targeted keyword strategy.
But first, you must answer two important questions.
What type of ads do I run?
Where do I find the keywords to use?
What type of ads do I run?
There are two types of ads:
Sponsored Product Ads
Product Display Ads
I recommend running “Sponsored Product” ads. These types of ads allow you to specify up to 1000 unique keywords for your ad. When a person types keywords in the amazon search bar, your ad will be displayed in the “sponsored products” under any books you view.
The ads are displayed on an auction basis, so you must choose a high enough cost per ad ration to allow your ad to be displayed over any competition. I use $0.25 for all of my ads, and I rarely pay anything close to that amount.
In the example below, I searched the word “romance”. The keyword planner found 701 keywords associated with the word romance. Conveniently located on the page is a “download” link so that you can export the keywords to a .csv file.
The keyword planner also tells me the average monthly searches associated with that keyword on Google, and it shares the amount of competition in the market for those keywords.
Once I have my keywords .csv file, I can import my list of keywords into my “sponsored products” ad and within minutes my ads will begin running on Amazon. Be careful to set low spending limits. With 1,000 keywords you can spend a lot of money very quickly if you are not careful.
It is also wise to insert the title of books and the names of authors on the bestselling lists in the categories, which your book is listed.
Bonus: Make sure to not overlook books and/or authors who have published with Amazon imprints, those books seem to get favorable search ratings.
Once your ad is up and running you can examine how effective each keyword is at bringing in sales and clicks.
If my keywords are not brining in at least one click per 1,000 impressions, I pause the keyword so that I don’t get charged for underperforming keywords.
How has your Amazon Marketing Services experience been? Are you getting any sales?
Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) is the newest marketing opportunity that you can utilize as an author. You must have an Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) account to participate. The best benefit of AMS is that your advertisements will be seen by buyers who are kindle readers.
Unlike Facebook Ads, which can cost you hundreds of dollars in advertisements to people who do not own a kindle, AMS offers you the opportunity to define your audience to a very specific group of people—readers who use kindle apps or platforms, and readers who buy books on Amazon.
You can be assured that by using AMS you will have the best opportunity to acquire sales from kindle readers. No other advertising platform can offer such a defined market—not even the infamous, Bookbub!
One of the great benefits to AMS, is that it allows you to customize the keywords that you are targeting. For one of my recent adds, I imported a list of over 1000 keywords and phrases that covered every conceivable and searchable term or chain of words related to my topic.
AMS reports specifically on the success of each keyword, showing you how many impressions the keyword delivered, how many clicks came as a result of the keyword, and how many sell throughs were associated with that keyword. No other marketing platform can give those kind of specific details.
Every promotion and marketing service has its strengths and weaknesses, but for an author with books listed on Amazon, AMS is currently providing excellent results. I highly suggest it at this time.
Be forewarned, as with any marketing opportunity, overtime as more people begin to use AMS it will become less effective at delivering results, but for now it is still providing a wonderful return on your investment.
Should an author begin using Amazon Marketing Services?
Yes, Immediately.
Comment below with any questions about AMS, and/or comment about your results with AMS if you have used it so far.
For the average writer, sight, is typically the easiest of the five senses to describe. Our world is filled with a menagerie of colors, people, plants, animals, buildings, and things. Each of those objects are finite and can be described visually, making sight easy to relate on paper.
But describing the sense of sight doesn’t have to be bland. Take for instance, the picture below.
What do you see?
Most people see a whitewashed glacial landscape void of personality and excitement. Some would describe this as, “snow and ice covered the ground and tall snow-capped peaks stood far off in the distance”.
In fairness, that is an adequate description, but it lacks pizazz. It lacks personality. And more than anything else, it lacks a developed sense of sight.
Take sixty-seconds and write what you see in the scene shown in the aforementioned picture. What do you see now?
How would you describe the shallow turquoise lake as its color darkens to a chilly cerulean blue before disappearing into the midnight depths of the central crevice?
What about the mountains? Are they snow-capped? Or does the snow creep down the mountainside in wispy white fingers before being swallowed by the soulless shadow mountains?
Is it a snowy white glacier? Or do you see the pockmarks, the spashes of dirt and sediment, and the areas smoothed by the run-off?
Take a deeper look. Imagine you are standing on this glacier. See the lake. Peer at the mountain. Watch the wind blow across the landscape.
Now what do you see?
Leave your unique description of what you “see” in the comments below. And make sure to take the time to always peer into your scene, setting, or storyworld and describe and your characters in an exceptionally engaging way.
