Nicki Elson's Not-So-Deep Thoughts

Okay, so, last month I said I'd get into more detail on marketing successes and failures with my latest release. I feel kind of strange doing this because I am no marketing expert (as my current Amazon ranking can attest), so please understand that I'm simply sharing my experience in case there's some tidbit you can pick up that helps you. This is NOT hard and fast advice.  Release Week Strategy In this month's post, I share the strategy that worked well for me for my book's release week. Bear in mind that my goals are far from lofty. But my strategy was simple and fairly stress free.  1. Set Release Week Pricing at 99cents & Advertise  The purpose of 99cent pricing was so that I could advertise the book through cheap reads e-newsletters. Here are links to the six sites I advertised with from August 4-6 (one day per each newsletter spread across the three days). Through past trial and error, I found these six to have good cost/benefit ratios for my genre—chick l...

Hello, fellow IWSGers! I hope October finds you doing well - er, at least as well as one can expect to be in the year 2020. Aren't we all so lucky to have our writing to distract us? After writing this post (on Sunday), I'm heading out for summa dis on this fine autumn day in the Midwest: October Optional Question When you think of the term working writer, what does that look like to you? What do you think it is supposed to look like? Do you see yourself as a working writer or aspiring or hobbyist, and if latter two, what does that look like?  To me, a "working writer" is someone who consistently earns a decent chunk of change through writing. They don't necessarily have to make a living at it, but it should at least be a substantial supplement to their regular income.  I guess technically I could be considered a working writer since my day job involves a lot of writing, though it's mostly in blurb form for social media, marketing emails, catalogs, etc. I occa...

Hola, insecure writers! I'm skating in here at the last minute, so let's get right to that Optional Question:  Have you ever written a piece that became a form, or even a genre, you hadn't planned on writing in?  Up until now, no, not really. I did have a short story idea grow into a novella , and an idea for one book grew into a series of three , but I'm not sure if those really count. I'm letting both the form and genre find me on my current story idea, though. Right now, I'm thinking it'll be outside my typical chick litty romance genre...but somehow you know elements of my comfort zone are going to find ways to work themselves in. It could be a whole novel or just a novella. Maybe even a short story...or a series of short stories?? In other writerly news, my latest chick litty novel, MOLLY UNPLANNED , released yesterday!  I've found that a strategy of pricing at 99 cents for release and then advertising in a bunch of discount book e-newsletters is a...

I knew that if I was here for the June Insecure Writer's Support Group, I'd be sad. Don't take it personally. If I have to be sitting here, I'm glad it's with you. But I wish I wasn't sitting here. You see, I was supposed to be jetting to Peru today (and by jetting, I mean crammed into the cheapest economy seat). A few months ago, when we were daydreaming, I posted a picture of some ruins in the Andes Mountains surrounding Ollantaytambo. I WAS GOING TO CLIMB TO THOSE RUINS and spend a day with local women, learning how to weave and do a hundred other super cool things. But it's not just the heartbreak of a cancelled trip that has me so down. I'm concerned for all the wonderful people I'd hoped to meet and spend my soles with: the independent hostel owners and staff, the restaurateurs, the street vendors, the craftswomen, the waiters, the cab drivers, the colectivo drivers, the boot polishers, the tour guides. In an attempt to control the spre...

Hi guys! I hope May is finding you all a bit more combobulated than we were at the beginning of April 2020. Not that the future's looking any more certain or anything, but at least we've all had another month to adjust to...er, the weirdness of it all, right? During April, I received edits back from my amazing expat editor who's quarantining across the pond in London. Working my day job for only limited hours these days allowed me time to make the recommended changes and format the manuscript for eBooks. Soooo...I'm targeting a release date or August 4, 2020 for MOLLY UNPLANNED. Now to get my butt in gear for promo. Step One: get the ARC into reviewers' hands. If you're interested in reading a free eBook copy of this Chick Lit/Romance (About 90K words. Heat level: hot), in exchange for posting a review at Goodreads and/or Amazon, please send an email to author@nickielson.com and let me know if you'd prefer EPUB, MOBI, or PDF. You can read this post ...

So, heeey, This is weird, right? All of us, no matter what part of the world we're in, living in fear of the same exact enemy? If that's not uniting, I don't know if anything ever will be. I believe we writers are uniquely equipped to deal with the quarantine portion of this pandemic. I mean, we sort of live for shutting out the rest of the world so we can be alone with our characters, right? I have zero fear of getting bored if this thing goes on for several weeks...or more. The financial part's a bit different. I'm among those whose employment status is in the darkest of gray areas. Oh well, it's not like I made much money, anyway, and my husband, who works for a big telecommunications company, is busier than ever keeping people connected, so it could be worse. I'm going to enjoy my time of "disconnecting" from daily duties to refocus on things I want to do. I've come up w/ a list of 10 Clever Things to Do from Home - for FREE , and the...

Happy February, everyone! Where the flip did January go? It's a little bit scary to me that we're already a full month into the new decade. But then, sometimes it's difficult for me to accept that we ever left the 1980s in the first place, so perhaps the passage of time has always been a problem for me. ANYWHO! Let's get onto this month's optional question: Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? Yes! What was it and did you finish it? It was my short story "Impressionism 101". And yes, I finished it, but it's only 2,000 words, so that's not a huge brag. BUT I am very proud of it. The way it came about was that I took a shower. Okay, there's a little bit more to the story than that... I was active on a fanfiction site that was holding original fiction contests. I'd recently competed in one and didn't get so much as a stinking Honorable Mention. So I was a tad bitter when the next contest theme was ...

Optional Question: What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just "know" suddenly you wanted to write? I love that this question came right now. I was just reminded of the very first novel-length story I ever wrote and why I wrote it. But first---how did I come to write it? My journey to writerhood was the result of 3 major factors: 1. I've always been a daydreamer. As a small child I'd spend hours rocking in the La-Z-Boy with my parents' easy-listening radio station playing in the background, just thinking and imagining to the likes of Olivia Newton-John and Barry Manilow. The clouds are still my favorite place to put my head...but I listen to better music now. 2. I dig words. I'd always thought of myself as more of a numbers person, but as I forged a career as an investment analyst and my (tor)mentor beat me down until I finally mastered the wr...