We were lucky to catch up with Traci Wooden recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Traci thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I began writing poetry and short stories at eight years old. I was a voracious reader and when I got grounded I couldn’t go to the library for more books. In those instances, I would create my own stories. Writing was a passion that became a hobby then a rare treat as life got busier and busier. I even set writing for pleasure aside during my college years as I pursued a degree in journalism because I was told that Journalism was a profession and creative writing was not. Fast forward a decade and a half, past a short career in journalism as a graphic artist and an office manager and I was gifted with the time and inspiration to write again but this time to publish. I had no plan but to write and hope that a publisher would pick up my work. I had favor. The same small publishing house that published my boss’s book took a look at the first few chapters of my manuscript and loved it. I finished my first novel, “My Beauty For Your Ashes” and handed it over to be published.

Success…for a while. I sold it to all of my friends, family members and close contacts then sat down and waited for the masses to come.

Meanwhile, I began writing my next book with the corner of one eye still focused on how poorly the first one was selling. When I was ready to release the next book, “My Oil of Joy For Your Mourning,” the small publishing house was no longer in business but I was able to get the rights to my first book back. I figured I would have to do it myself, so I self-published the second book and came out with a new edition for the first. Then the work began.

I had to figure out how to market my books. I went in blind with only Google to point the way and I went down a proverbial rabbit hole.

Lesson #1 – Know your target audience. You can’t sell a book successfully if you don’t know who you are selling to.
I joined discussion groups and group author promotions on social media sites and received a trickle of sales but I didn’t understand that my Christian Women’s Fiction books were a different genre than the ones in the groups. It took a great deal of trial and error but I finally figured it out by finding books somewhat similar to mine; heavy topics, Christian and biblical messages, highly developed characters, and a lot of dialogue. If you don’t know the genre you have written your book in, get beta readers. They will help you.

Lesson #2 – One size does not fit all. Different genres call for different types of covers, fonts, and summary styles. Studying other books in your genre is not cheating, it is learning what your particular audience looks for when they want to buy books similar to yours. This is important. You don’t want to have a crime thriller cover on a sci-fi novel. The reader will get confused, disappointed, and feel misled.

Lesson #3- In order to reach people outside of your core, close, and warm contact lists you will need to venture into ads. Amazon ads, Facebook ads, Bookbub ads, and sometimes Google ads. In order to have them run efficiently, you need to make sure that you have learned lessons #1 and #2. Also, group promotions are effective if you share the same genre.

It took 7 books and seven years of research, plotting, winning, and failing before I had a successful formula from writing to launching that gave me the freedom to write full-time.

Implementing the right book launch plan over a few months using beta readers, review teams, newsletter subscribers, free group promotions, paid promotions and ads led to book sale numbers I wished for when I first began.

A few years later, I finally gave in to the small voice in my head and started my own publishing company. I guide writers through the process of self-publishing or offer a full publishing service from editing their manuscripts to sending their books to distributors. Then we talk marketing.

I never want questions to get in the way of the completion of a good story or a book that will help others but I will strongly encourage the author to take an interest in learning more about their audience.

I am excited about this phase even as I continue to write for myself. Sure, the business aspect is hectic, but the connections with editors, book cover designers, and promoters I have made along the way are invaluable.

I could have sped up the process of selling more books knowing what I know now but I wouldn’t have the relationships with other service minded professionals.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

First, I am a Christian fiction writer. For me, that means that whether I am writing a story in the Christian women’s fiction genre, the romantic suspense genre, the contemporary romance genre, or the speculative fiction genre there is a message God would like me to deliver within the story. This may be delivered through the overall storyline or in how the characters interact with one another. Forgiveness, loving oneself, and the importance of communication seem to be reoccurring, underlying topics in my stories though none of them are similar to the other. I love getting into my character’s heads and sharing their thoughts with the reader. Some of my books should be read with tissue nearby and others are lighter witty banter and a fun-filled ride to happily ever after. Either way, my goal is to create complex characters that you would want to have as friends. I admit that I am proud of the fact that readers have stated that they have lost sleep because they couldn’t put my books down.

Second, I am the owner and CEO of TAWCarlisle Publishing. I serve my clients by making sure I understand their desire for their books. I help them come to a decision regarding how they want their book packaged and sold, whether that is to a small intimate group or mass-marketed. I provide the following services with a team of professionals. Comprehensive, line or copy editing, cover design, formatting (interior design), provide the back cover summary, choose optimal categories, copyright registration, provide an ISBN, offer e-books as well as prints in paperback and hardcover, if requested, and global book distribution. The marketing plan we offer can start from author branding and go all the way to ad creation and maintenance. We also offer ghostwriting, character development and character mapping if the author wants to familiarize themself with books in their backlist before they begin writing the next book in the series. One service that I enjoy is a one-hour call that allows me to provide authors with all they wish to know about publishing and marketing. I love sharing information so for a small percentage of the full publishing service you can come with your questions in hand and find out how to do it yourself. Just take really good notes.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

In some ways, building your social media audience is like gaining votes to be a community leader. The foundation is the same, but the vehicle by which people are communicating is different. For me, there were two important aspects to building an audience. Show support and respect for their time. I started with branding by getting a signature logo, something easy to read and that if seen enough would be recognizable in a blink. People’s eyes stray to color so even though you may be drawn to a font style or shape, people tend to focus on colors.

I created an author group page so that I could interact with followers and they could feel free to ask me questions. I gained followers slowly at first but when I started holding giveaway events on my page and encouraged people to share the site with their friends, it grew faster.

I created a Twitter profile and for the first few weeks, I mostly followed, retweeted, and commented on other people’s tweets. It grew pretty quickly. People like following people who support them.

I also created an Instagram page and began sharing not only pictures of my books but pictures of excerpts inside of my books as well as reviews. Once again, I supported other authors on Instagram by loving their posts and commenting.

I built my author website right before I joined a genre-specific author list builder. A list build is a promotion -of any amount of time- with a giveaway (prize). Readers are asked to follow, like, or share the social media sites of the participating authors for points. At the end of the promotion, the winner is announced, prizes are distributed and the participating authors receive the list of readers who entered. There is an agreement the readers must sign before they can enter the promotion so there is no misunderstanding. They usually yield between 500 and 1,000 names and emails of readers. Some list builders are targeted toward building specific social media audiences such as Instagram and Pinterest.

I would then email them through my newsletter inviting them to subscribe so they could receive exclusive information about my books and receive free books at different times of the year.

The #1 key when growing an audience is consistency. If you post once a week or once a month, keep it consistent. Deliver the information you promised at the beginning and the more organic your list is the more sustainable they are, so support others by following and commenting and they will follow you back.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative?

As a writer, the most rewarding aspect of my creative process is being used to share inspiration, love and perspectives that I believe heal and give readers options for their own lives. Once my books are published, my most rewarding moments are when readers reach out to me and express how they were touched by a particular storyline or character.

As a publisher, the most rewarding aspect is helping my client create something tangible from their thoughts. Holding a newly printed book in my hand never gets old.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tawcarlisle.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tawcarlisle/
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/traciwoodencarlisle
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traci-wooden-carlisle-06919934/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TraciWCarlisle
• Other: www.tawcpublishing.com https://www.pinterest.com/tawcarlisle/