About Janice Cumberlidge:
Janice Cumberlidge is a web designer of 14+ years, specialising in WordPress and more recently, online marketing. She has turned her efforts to helping entrepreneurs get the most out of their websites, by teaching what you really need to know to get more sales, subscribers and loyal, repeat buyers.
Janice lives in Preston in the U.K. with her husband and seven furry feline friends.
What inspires you to write?
Writing serves a dual purpose for me. On one hand it allows me to get everything that’s ruminating in my mind down on the page, it’s a form of therapy. But on the other hand, sharing my knowledge, ideas and experiences with others can benefit so many people that it’s a fulfilling and worthwhile activity.
I’m usually inspired to write in the late evenings – they say you’re either a morning or an evening person, but I’m definitely the latter. The amount of words per minute I get down after 9pm astounds me sometimes.
Tell us about your writing process.
As I’m currently writing non-fiction, I usually start by jotting topic headings down as they come into my head. Those then form the basis for chapters and within those, I like to have 5-10 bullet points to talk about. By working in this manner, it’s never overwhelming as you’re only ever working on a small topic at a time.
I have to admit, though, when I first start getting ideas down, they’re very matter of fact, but when I come to create the final chapter titles, I try to base them on what questions or needs the reader has, and make them easy to understand, in terms of what content lies within.
My writing tool of choice is Scrivener. I love the logical layout of the folder and document structure, and the one-click compiler for the various output formats is a godsend.
What advice would you give other writers?
For any budding authors or authors stumbling through the process, I would say, “Write, learn, write, learn”.
I’ve found valuable content in books, podcasts (Story Grid is my absolute favourite, even though I haven’t yet attempted a novel) and author support groups on social media. You should never stop learning, but likewise, you should never stop writing. Learn, write, learn, write. Keep a dogged determination to reach your goal and you will get there.
One other piece of advice I would give to all authors, new or experienced, is to have something to give away inside your book, whether that’s a companion workbook as I have or a novella to compliment your current book. Getting readers onto your email list is crucial to your future success, as within that list lies a list of proven buyers, who (hopefully) love your work. Offering your future books (or courses if you go down that route) to existing readers will have a much better return rate than trying to get more new readers every time. You can also offer your email list the opportunity to become beta readers, killing two birds with one stone.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I originally wrote Cracking The Website Code as an authority piece – something to enhance my credibility in the world of web design and marketing – so I began thinking it would be the equivalent of my new business card, in print format.
However, as I got closer to publishing, I realised what I’d written really filled a gap in the market between web design and small business, so I wanted to reach as wide an audience as possible. The answer was to use CreateSpace and KDP Select.
KDP was the best thing I could’ve done for my first book – it brought 3,187 free downloads in 3 days and when my book went back to its full price, sales held steady and I reached number one in my two categories of Web Design and Small Business. It’s also nice to see how many pages are being read each day through Kindle Unlimited.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I hope the future of publishing holds steady for a few years because the ease with which you can write and publish a book means that the market could become saturated very quickly.
I hope that Amazon continues to find new ways to reward authors who put a real effort into their books, in an attempt to keep the get-rich-quick gang who release books by the dozen that they haven’t even written themselves at bay.
What do you use?: Professional Cover Designer, Beta Readers
What genres do you write?: Web Design, Small Business, Entrepreneurship, Marketing
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Janice Cumberlidge Home Page Link
Link To Janice Cumberlidge Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Instagram
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
