Learn New Things

One of the cool things about being a writer is that you're always learning really neat stuff. That expansion of your knowledge base is part of being a writer; it seems that you are always researching something for something. Those little bits of trivia help to add a little bit depth to the character and story.  Of course, it gets weird when you update that info, but that's the price of being a writer. But delving into new spheres is something all writers should be doing; sometimes looking into a subject matter you would never try will give you some great story ideas, but at the very least you'll have some great background information for a group or a character.

Every artist should be looking into new things. Painters should look up new techniques or try to make their own paint. An inker should try replicating some 1800s drawings or something medieval just to see what happens. If you're normally doing straight machinery trying something Kirbyesque. 

And this applies  to any kind of artist; you need to be looking for something new to try just to mess around with. I mean, you should always be trying to figure out exactly what it's going to take to get you to the next level. You can't do that if you're not doing anything to expand your knowledge; sometimes you need to play in a different sandbox than the one that you're used to. You can't really hit that next level if you're always checking boxes the same way; you need something to propel you to the next level.

When you start looking at a lot of artists, especially the really influential ones, you notice they go through periods when they tried new stuff just to see what happened. Picasso is the obvious king here where he had his blue period, his cubist period, his realistic period, and so on and so forth. You've got writers who tried plays, poems, even prose, just to see what they could do. If you want to advance in your craft, then you need to learn new things if you want to level up. 

So learn new things and have some fun with it. Even if you don't do so well, at least you tried, and that's the only way to get better. 

Expand Your Limits

One of the things we played with as kids was trying to figure out where our limits are. Once we figured out where those limits are, we tried to push them. By doing so we were able to expand what we could do, physically and mentally. By continuously pushing our limits we got better, we got stronger, and we got better skilled. Heck, we even got later bedtimes by continuously pushing the issue.

We need to constantly be doing this even as an adult. We can't do that if we constantly play within our limits. You need to figure out where your limits are and then push past them. If you can only do so much detail occasionally try a little bit more. If you can only create in one kind of medium, try a different one. If you can only do painting it may be interesting to see how you can do in ink.

You as an artist should always be trying to figure out how to do new and interesting things. You should be trying to push yourself. You should not be a static individual; you should always be a little bit more on the dynamic side. You should always be trying to figure out new skills. The only way you're going to learn is if you push yourself and you try something new. I don't care if it's doing something as simple as doing, say, two paintings day instead of just one; trying that extra challenge, doubling your output just to see if you can do it with the same quality, can help establish a limit or help show you that you gotten better can be fun to do every so often. 

You need to challenge yourself just to see what you can do, and then push through it. Once you determine what your limits you can then move past them. Don't let difficult challenges throw you; harder challenges just mean that you need to push yourself harder.

You're going to find out what you can pull ioff or you're going to find out that there are just things that you can't do. Either way, you're going to find out something new about yourself. Don't be embarrassed if you find a limit you can't cross; it just means you should try harder in other directions. You're only human; you will find that you have limits. Nonetheless, don't let them stop you; you should always be pushing yourself to find those limits and then push past them. 

That's the only way you will get better and find out just what you can do. So don't see limits as absolute; see them as challenges instead and see what happens.

Don't Be Afraid To Mess Up

Too many artists are scared to make a mistake; this a fear that they need to get over. Most people are nervous about making a mistake in public; there's a reason "public speaking" is one of our biggest fears. It's simply because we as humans are competitive and making a mistake shows a flaw; no competitor worth his salt likes to show a flaw because it can be a way for our competition to take advantage of and thus win. 

It doesn't matter if we are in combat, in sports, or in our studios, we don't want our competition to have an edge over us. 

However, making mistake can also give us a chance to make amazing discoveries. Consider the CUBE computer: Computer scientists use chess to tell how smart their machines are; the better it does against a human competitor the smarter it is. Well, someone decided to turn off the move check system; the reasoning was that the computer wouldn't make a mistake and the human was too good to make a mistake, and so all it was doing was wasting memory. So of course the computer started cheating. 

Yeah, you read that right: CUBE started cheating because one of the human players made a mistake and moved a piece wrong. And won. 

CUBE saw it and went, "Whoa. Wait a sec. I can do THAT?" 

After that CUBE would occasionally move its pieces wrong on purpose. And the human players noticed. They told the programmers, and so the programmers checked the game history. And they were amused. They also re-instituted the move checker almost immediately. 

But the key here is that a mistake was made (the move-check was turned off) and we made an amazing discovery (computers can cheat). Scientists do this all the time; it's well-known that we owe the vulcanization of rubber due to an engineer falling asleep, and that's a major innovation. We see the same in ever endeavor which humans are involved, from science to art to cooking. 

So don't be afraid to make mistakes. Sure, you will make some major mistakes that are going to be embarrassing; but that's just part of the process. You need to make mistakes in order to learn; only be figuring out where the mistake happened can you learn to not make the same mistake again. But...you can also make some amazing discoveries along the way. So don't be afraid to mess up; you need to mess up to get better.

Facebook Groups Are A Great First Step For Marketing

When you start trying to promote your book, you're going to want to find people that would be interested in the kind of book is you're trying to market. It would be really cool if you could find people that happen to be into that kind of thing, right? 

Well, you're going to want to find people who are going to be interested in you're going to be trying to sell, and that means figuring out ways to find these people. Facebook has already done all this for you. All you have to do is tell Facebook what you're looking for and all of a sudden you're going to find hundreds, if not thousands, of different groups on Facebook that are interested in that very topic. 

What's really cool is that you can usually promote your stuff to those people, even if the days are limited in each group, and therefore optimize your marketing. First off, make sure that whatever group you join has no problem with you promoting your stuff. A lot of groups happen to be non-promotional or because of the very nature to hate promotional materials within the group. Go ahead and join those groups for fun, just keep in mind that they won't be part of your marketing plan. For example, as writer you can always find tips and tricks to actually help your writing. 

At the same time, keep in mind that some groups can be a little over promotional; these groups are pretty much nothing but promotion. For comics, this actually works out well because people actually track those groups down; people are always looking for new comics and so finding groups that are ultra-promotional are actually a godsend. 

However, you do need to debate the size of the group: You want people to see your books, and if the group is too big then people may not see your promo. Conversely, if the group is too small then maybe not enough eyes are seeing your materials. As such, I'd suggest a group between 1000 and 10,000; any smaller and not enough people will see your book and more than that and it's likely no one is seeing your book. 

Lastly, try to run your promotions no more than once a week per product; if you have a new page every day then post the new page, but otherwise you may be accused of spamming and bounced from the group; that can put a serious crimp in your promotion plans. So figure out what the Facebook groups are out there that work for your book, make sure that you follow its rules, and don't spam, and you should be able to use the Facebook group for your promotions.  

The bottom line is that Facebook users have organized themselves into groups and you can tap into that to promote your books. Take advantage of that when you promote and it can only help your book become a success.