Do your research when necessary—Taking literary or creative license is one thing, but make sure you do some research if you’re writing about something where specialized knowledge is required. If you’re writing a police mystery and an important element is the autopsy, make sure you know about real life autopsies. You don’t need to go back to school, but you do need to do your research, read about it, and get any questions you may have answered so that you can convey an understanding of the subject matter.  If you’re writing a story set during the Civil War, make sure you know the dates of the Civil War.  If you’re writing a work of fiction, you can create characters and mend circumstances to fit your needs, but you can’t alter the dates of the Civil War or the outcome (unless it’s a science fiction book).  Writers can and often do alter or tweak some historical elements to fit their needs, particularly if you’re inserting fictional characters into actual historical events.  Don’t go over the top with it.  If your story is set in a particular place that you have never visited, do your research to learn about that place then you can weave what you’ve learned into your story.  It may even change things dramatically for you and force you to change elements of the plot or change scenes, etc.

Murder at the Ocean Forest is set at the Ocean Forest Hotel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina back in the early 1940s.  Unfortunately, the hotel was demolished in the 1970s and there is little left about it today.  So, I had to research the hotel and find out what information was available.  I researched books and articles.  I had conversations with people who had been there.  I looked at photographs.  I did my best to recreate that place in my mind then convey that to the readers.  Of course, I did take some creative license in certain aspects of the hotel, but it didn’t involve anything egregious.  Those who remember the Ocean Forest and who have read my book said that it they felt like they were there and that it was just how they remembered it.

Get a good marketing team—You might have the greatest novel in the world but if you don’t have a good marketing plan and marketing team in place no one will ever know about your great work. Unless you’re an expert in marketing and social media, you’re going to need help. That doesn’t mean you have to go get some Madison Avenue advertising consultancy to do the marketing for you.  There are plenty of advertising services available online, and social media is probably the number one vehicle used by indie authors to market their books.  Get a good social media manager and let them run with it.  If you try to do all the tweets and posts yourself, you’ll never have time for writing another book.  Plus, a social media manager knows the ins and outs; they know what works, what doesn’t, what gets people to engage and so on.

I like to experiment with marketing from time to time.  Consider getting a group of college marketing majors together for an afternoon of brainstorming.  Have them come up with some real wacky ideas.  Anything goes and nothing is too bold.  You never know what may work and turn you into an overnight success.  Take their ideas and work with the rest of your marketing team to figure out a strategy for employing some, all, or none of the ideas.