Lesson 48

 
Lesson 48
Hats
 
Welcome back to another class. It is December and the air is changing. You have worked all year and hopefully have your book ready for the Christmas sales. Or maybe you’re already on your second, or third book, and can sell a box set. If not, there is always next year. Today I want to give you some food for thought. So, let’s just jump right into it.
What hat do you wear? As an author, we can wear many different types of hats during our career. Let’s make a list.

1. Your first hat may be a father, a mother, or just a person. This hat just means that you are alive, and in other peoples lives.
2. Your real job: It is the hat that you wear every day in order to make the money that you need to live.
3. Author: You are a writer, a thinker of books, stories, or conveying intelligent thoughts to share with other fellow human beings to give them wisdom, or enjoyment.
4. Editor: You write as an author, and read through your books for mistakes, polishing, and correcting everything that you have written. You want your book to shine.
5. Book designer: After writing your masterpiece you design your book with chapters, headers, everything you need to make your book look professional and worth reading.
6. Cover designer: With your book completed you want to catch the eye of everybody by having the best picture concept on your cover. You know your story, and know what you want for the cover.
7. Artist: If you designed your own cover you may have even drawn a stick figure for someone else to view in order to get your point across. Stick figure is an art.
8. Publisher: Having the Internet now a days, it is so easy to publish on your own instead of waiting for rejection letters, or paying thousands to a vanity publisher, when all you need is a little knowledge about how the computer works. It is simple, and free if you know where to look.
9. Keywords specialist: With your book published you need a lot of keywords in order to draw attention to your book, or books. This is an ongoing thing that you change weekly or monthly to promote your book.
10. Marketeer: You could say marketing specialist. You and only you need to market your book. You have to think of ways to engage other people and even to get their help to spread the good news that your book is on the market.
11. Ad specialist: You have to create ads, and come up with clever blurbs that will entice people to your site, or your book. This is an ongoing, ever-changing battle.
12. Ad designer: You searched the Internet and compare other people’s ads to see how to design your ad, and make it special in order to draw attention to your book, and market. You need to change it periodically so people are intrigued by a new and fresh ad.
13. Computer geek specialist: After all the writing, the learning, the set-up, layout, and designing your book on your computer, you then learn how to publish, market, and advertise all over the Internet.
14. CEO: You are the president of your own little utopia.
15. Accountant: You made a sale, and now you have to keep track of how much you spent, spend, and how much you receive throughout the year.
16. Price setter: During the years of sales, you may change the price, placing your books on sale to entice people to buy.
17. Blog writer: In order to reach more people, you set up a blog to get people interested in you as an author. This will draw more attention to your books.
18. Columnist or interviewer: Being that you are using the Internet you can post self-made interviews that will help get you noticed, and give people insight on who you are, and why they should read your books.
19. Web designer: Some websites are free to set up, and they help you along so you can do it yourself. After a while, you may want to help somebody else set up their website.
20. Researcher: I should’ve put this one at the top under author, because even if you have a fiction book based somewhere in this world, you do a lot of research on climate, people, and anything else that pertains to your book. This makes it more interesting, and believable.
21. Publicist: You market your book, and push for sales. You get out into the public talk to people, looking for potential buyers. You write up, and think up ads, blogs, and blurbs to share in order to entice them to buy.
22. Video producer: Using the Internet, and YouTube, Tick Tock, and other video methods, you think of ways to advertise your book and yourself as an author by using the sites.
23. Actor: Showing up on a video, you become an actor, dramatizing the scene to make a commercial.
24. Audio voice actor: If you delve into audio books you may hire an actor to read your book, because audio books are on the rise. If it becomes too expensive and you know how to split and splice by using voice software, you could make your own audio book to help increase your sales.
    

 
There are so many more hats that you could wear. Can you think of any? So, whatever hat you wear today, be the boss in that hat, and do your best to further your own career. Until next week, happy writing, or whichever hat you are wearing.
 
Bye from rickkurtisbooks.com