Glyn Williams, Author

From Derbyshire, United Kingdom, Glyn Williams is the author of over 20 published books.  

A former radio Disc Jockey, his current book release Oh Shit, I'm Dead!: A journey into the afterlife is receiving rave reviews!  It is a paranormal/metaphysical fictional scenario of life and death.

Every writer will want to read Glyn’s advice for writing, marketing, and much more….

Welcome Glyn!

What was it like being a radio personality?

That’s a loooong story.  I started my own radio station back in 1994 before ending up presenter and sales director for a local station. Entertaining has always been in my blood since working as a DJ in my teens.  The jump to radio was a natural progression from that.

I have presented mainstream shows such as breakfast and drive time, and also had a specialist show based on old soul music.  Radio is fantastic, you get to connect with people that you’ve never met on a very personal level and have fun with them.  Presenting on the radio is the most fun you can have without taking your clothes off... oh hang on, I did that once too.

Radio was the great love of my life, I’d have been happy to do that forever, but circumstances forced a change in my life when I developed High Grade Dysphonia.

What is High Grade Dysphonia?

Dysphonia is a disorder of the voice – something causing a problem with your vocal chords.  It comes in several grades relating to how bad the problem is.

High Grade is the closest you can get to cancer of the throat.  It’s a stage where it’s not quite cancer... yet. With high grade, surgery is the recommended route.  In my case the problem was on my right vocal chord so I had laser surgery twice to remove the offending tissue.

For the next six months my voice was very hoarse, but eventually settled down.  I do still have a voice, but it’s no longer strong enough for constant professional use.  I could just about present show once a week, but my sales career was an impossibility following the surgery. Thankfully, I’m all clear now.

What books have you written?

I began by writing business books based on my marketing knowledge. The 7 Deadly Sins of Advertising was my first book, closely followed by 21st Century Tactics.  I also co-wrote a book with a former colleague Simon Bozeat called Working The Net – it’s all about business networking.

I also have many other books available in different business related genres.  I do those under pen names. Recently I wrote my first ever fiction book. I never thought I could write fiction but have since been told that I have a natural flair for storytelling.  It probably comes from the radio creativity.  It has a rather controversial title – Oh Shit, I’m Dead sold more copies in its first month that my non-fiction put together!

I’ve a feeling that the Bestseller Tactics series which is due to be released soon may well be my last foray into non-fiction.  But then you should never say never again according to James Bond!

Describe your daily routine….

My day actually starts the night before.  I don’t consider my work day complete until I have planned at least part of tomorrow.  I create a list of the five most important things I have to do tomorrow. And I’m an organized workaholic.

I get up at 7am sharp, shower so that I feel fresh, and then make my way down to the home office.  Usually I’m sat there by 7:30 with a fresh cup of tea.  I like to get the distractions out of the way first, so check and respond to email, and social media messages, adding anything to my list that comes from that.

Then I simply start going through the list.  My day consists of around 30% writing time, 35% marketing time and the remaining 35% is taken up with everything else such as getting a book ready for launch, creating book covers, doing experiments, working with my peer group, and learning new stuff.  I think continuous self education is very important.

I also run several other passive income businesses.  I have a twitter management service (see www.marketingformugs.com) and various other methods of generating income too.  Most of them run on autopilot.  My whole work focus is on building passive income. I’ll have some lunch somewhere along the way and call it a day at 6pm.

What is the key to marketing?

Working smart.  That sounds flippant but it’s not meant to.

Smart marketing means leveraging any marketing that you do to maximum effect, and it also means being highly targeted on who that marketing is aimed at. The third part of smart marketing is making it passive marketing.

Let me explain each part of that...

Leverage, is using a single piece of marketing time and time again. Let’s take this interview for example.  Once this is published on the internet I will link to it from several webpages.  I will also put it into my automated social media posts so that every couple of days or so it will appear on twitter. I will put links on Facebook to the article, and I will include a link to it on my mailing list autoresponder.  I will often find other places to put links to the article and other people will also share it – it could even be picked up by someone like Hubspot for example and could well lead to other interviews.  

Leverage is taking one thing that promotes you, and spreading it far and wide. Being Highly Targeted means finding the right place for your marketing.  If for example I wrote a horror book then I would single out the kind of people that like Horror.  There’s no point in wasting time pitching your marketing at romance fans if your book is about a serial killer that eats people.  I’d find places that horror fans hang out.  Forums where they discuss horror movies for example.

Passive marketing is where you put something in place that lasts for a long time, or that automates much of the work.  This interview will be passive marketing for as long as your website is here for example.

Another is my automatic social media marketing where I send out literally thousands of direct messages a month on Facebook and Twitter. Another is my email signature.  I send lots of email, every message has a signature link to my author page on Amazon or my website. Passive marketing is marketing that you do once – and gives you a return forever.

The last piece of advice I’d offer is my golden rule: Do something to market your books every single day.  Even if it’s just one social media post, even if it’s just making one more passive message

Who is your favorite author?

I don’t have one to be honest, it changes very often.  I loved James Herbert’s books and also like Graham Masterton.  I enjoyed Dan Brown until Inferno, which I simply cannot get inspired with.

In non-Fiction, I like sales psychology books.  Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Ariely, stuff like that. I love to learn how the human mind ticks.

What are you currently writing?

Non-fiction wise, I’m just finishing the third book in the Bestseller Tactics series.  I’m planning to release all three on the same day to test the theory that Amazon gives you extra exposure when releasing multiple titles.

Fiction wise I have began work on a new series of books that surround a Medium / Clairvoyant called Melissa Collins. She’s a bit of a quirky woman in her late 30’s that solves ghost problems.  I’m having fun with that one.  I’m aiming for a series of 9 books in the next 12 months.

Do you have advice for novice writers?

Yes, write series books.  Don’t hop from subject to subject building a catalogue of unrelated titles.  If you write fiction, then build a single character and write many stories based around that character.  Think Hercule Poirot, Kay Scarpetta, Jack Reacher or Miss Marple. If you write non-fiction, then write on one subject for as many books as you can – become an authority in that niche.

Why?

Because the biggest seller of your books – are your other books.

List 10 things that people may not know about you….

I’m a Northern Soul music fan and dancer.

I write in several pen names and have over 20 books published.

I’m a part-time currency trader.

I’ve been married 30 years to the love of my life.

I have a cat called Feebie.

My office computer has 9 screens.

I love Javea in Spain.

I collect rare 1960’s American soul records.

I’m a hoarder – My loft and garage are full of stuff!

I love buying the latest gadgets (see above).

Connect with Glyn...

http://www.amazon.com/Glyn-Williams/e/B00BVBDQZI

https://www.facebook.com/radioglyn?fref=ts

www.marketingformugs.com

http://bestsellertactics.com/