Blog | girltaken

Jun 1
3 min

“Cold Email is Spam!” I Have to Disagree.

Part II. Check older blog posts here. “Cold email is SPAM!” “It’s dead with no chance of resurrection." I have heard this many times. I have to disagree. Everything I have achieved on the book promotion journey - I have accomplished through cold emailing. I reached out to journalists, reporters, and radio show producers. It went very successfully although I had to use different strategies to receive responses. Almost every reply led me to amazing results. Cold emails and an a

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Turn Your Book into a Movie: A Pipe Dream or Reality?

Author Elena Nikitina

May 24
2 min

Turn Your Book into a Movie: A Pipe Dream or Reality?

What writer wouldn’t like to see her book turned into a movie or a TV show series? Which of us hasn’t fantasized about seeing characters that we’ve created and described, portrayed on the big screen? Even just imagining this brings an exciting rush under the skin. For the most self-published authors, this will remain a pipe dream, but for only a few – the most courageous and the most persistent – sooner or later, the dream will come true. I would like to relate myself to thos

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Cold Email Strategy in Book Marketing? Yes, Please!

Author Elena Nikitina

May 16
3 min

Cold Email Strategy in Book Marketing? Yes, Please!

You already know that my road to success started on Monday. Even though the first day of the week is usually considered the most undesirable day for everyone, it turned into one of the most wanted and waited for me. My Mondays were committed to my work towards book promotion. Every week brought several new contacts. They were coming from different public and free sources on the Internet and represented a variety of medias. The longer the list became, the more time I needed to

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Author Elena Nikitina

Apr 25
2 min

Are Mondays Really That Bad?

My American Dream started on Monday. (If you haven’t read the previous blog posts yet, please click here and check them out now). I dedicated the first day of the week to my “new” job: I had to work on my book success. In my student years, as part of a school program, we studied ancient myths about origins of the universe. One of the legends expressed that our ancestors believed our planet was flat and motionless, and therefore, it needed some kind of support. They imagined t

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Author Elena Nikitina

Apr 18
3 min

Small Victories Win the War

The timing could not be more perfect to start realizing that sweet American Dream. (Please read the previous blog post – this is a continuation). The United States is a legendary country. People either love it or hate it, but no one is indifferent. I belong to those who love America endlessly and sincerely. I think it’s the best place in the world to live, to implement ideas, to realize dreams, to raise children. America gives a chance to everyone who wants to take it. If you

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How Often Do You Start from Scratch in Life?

Author Elena Nikitina

Apr 11
2 min

How Often Do You Start from Scratch in Life?

To be honest with you, I was enjoying my newly acquired image of a famous and successful author (previous blog posts read here). I did not have a wish to dissuade my acquaintances. I’d rather prefer to turn their assumptions into accomplished facts. I wanted my book to be successful, as they all assumed. Even though I was still receiving a great number of messages with words of support and encouragement, the book sales plunged to a pitiful minimum. From December 2017 to Febru

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Author Elena Nikitina

Apr 4
2 min

The End of Dreams?

Once all of the buzz caused by my new book, Girl, Taken, calmed down and another handful of my friends on social media and in real life bought their copy, my book stopped showing any signs of sales whatsoever, neither on Amazon nor in any other online stores. Girl, Taken started to gradually disappear from the world, chewed up by a thousand other books with big-name representatives behind them. Beautiful castles built from daydreams and empty fantasies were inexorably collaps

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Author Elena Nikitina

Mar 28
2 min

Expectations vs Reality?

When I was in the process of writing the book, I hoped that expressing my experiences on paper would be my healing therapy. I looked at that as a kind of cure, even though I had to go through pain while recalling my memories and putting them into words. It was only after publishing that I realized I was wrong: the feedback I was receiving from people was my true healing therapy... My Facebook’s wall had never been that busy before – full of beautiful comments, thoughtful shar

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What Happens When You Finally Reach Your Goals?

Author Elena Nikitina

Mar 21
2 min

What Happens When You Finally Reach Your Goals?

Do you remember why I became extremely fearful before the publication day? That’s right! I was devastated because I wasn’t sure how people would take my revelation. I had to bare my soul in front of complete strangers. There was another terrifying moment: the criminals were never caught. What could that bring? I stepped forward anyways… That remarkable morning in September of 2017 will always be stored on a special shelf in my memory library. I considered it extraordinary, no

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Author Elena Nikitina

Mar 14
2 min

Is Fear the Mind-killer?

Hi there! It's great to have you back ❤️ If you are new here, please check older posts to read the beginning of the story. Back then, it took me about three weeks to wrap up the project – from the day I left the contract till the time I chose for publication. The release day was set up on September 21st, 2017. Just a few hours before that moment, realizing the closeness of the event, I became fearful. The dual feeling was tearing me apart, as I started worrying about the thin

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Can We Really Do Anything If We Believe We Can?

Author Elena Nikitina

Mar 1
3 min

Can We Really Do Anything If We Believe We Can?

From the previous blog post you know that my goal was to learn how to become a published author in no time. It took me a number of days to get everything ready for self-publishing. First and foremost were the manuscripts. I needed to invest in enough time for final editing, proof-reading and checking, in case anything else needed to be polished or perfected. Luckily, I did not need much work. There was nothing major to change. I already had two fully written manuscripts in tw

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Author Elena Nikitina

Feb 22
2 min

Do You Fight Your Inner Demons?

If I take a look at my whole life from the past, excluding the first few years of a happy childhood and the following decade of my delighted adolescent ages, I can say that the rest of my existence – starting at about 20 years old till now – was woven with either obstacles or their aftermaths. My wholesome, endlessly pleasant contentment ended in 1994. Since then, black and white stripes consistently superimposed over each other. After almost a whole year that I spent in capt

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Author Elena Nikitina

Feb 15
3 min

Light at the End of the Tunnel?

The more I thought about self-publishing, the more I was tempted by it. The best thing I could get from it was the possibility of publishing both books - Girl, Taken and Неволя - at the same time. The appeal was very abundant and that was what I really wanted. What I definitely didn’t want was to waste another month or six. (Have you read the beginning of the story? Check out older blog posts here) I decided to terminate the contract with my agent on August 27th, 2017. We mut

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Author Elena Nikitina

Feb 8
2 min

Is Patience Always a Virtue?

The Summer of 2017 was about to pass the baton over to the upcoming Autumn. It was already August, signifying six months since I signed the contract and started working with the agent. The remaining eight publishers never responded at all. Unfortunately, the perception of time is not an absolute measure, it’s always being relative. To me, a period of a half a year without any progress seemed insurmountably long. I was losing my recently acquired philosophical patience. I bega

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Author Elena Nikitina

Feb 1
2 min

Being Patient in an Impatient World?

After the contract was signed, I impatiently awaited the next step. I could barely refrain from the desire to keep emailing my agent every day to remind her about myself and my literary work’s existence. Only four weeks later – and to my long-awaited bliss – my agent finally submitted my manuscript to thirteen publishing companies – all great names in the industry. Now, I had to wait and email my agent every six-to-eight weeks in regard to inquiring about possible rejections.

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Do You Rely on Someone Else to Make Your Dreams Come True?

Author Elena Nikitina

Jan 25
2 min

Do You Rely on Someone Else to Make Your Dreams Come True?

I hope you remember how hard it was for me to find a literary agent for my manuscript. (If not, please check my previous blog posts). My new literary agent’s plan was to pitch and submit my book, Girl, Taken, to publishing companies and negotiate a great deal. I imagined her as the middle person, as the bridge between myself with my literary work and a successful publication. During our initial and following phone conversations, she presented a pretty adequate and promising p

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Author Elena Nikitina

Jan 18
3 min

Why Losing is Winning?

"I was extremely interested in this as the premise is aw-inspiring and captivating. Unfortunately, I will have to pass on your manuscript..." "This does not suit our needs at this time…" "This doesn't feel like a match for me, but thank you..." I received another painful rejection after rejection, after rejection. But what does not kill us… (you know the rest). I was still going forward despite any hard feelings I experienced, and it was paying off. With each day on my path,

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Author Elena Nikitina

Jan 11
3 min

Rejection: How Do You Deal?

Painful rejections, placed in a few horrible words “I will have to pass on your work at this time…”, rained down on me. Rejection hurt. (We started conversation about rejections in the previous blog post, so please read it first.) The matter of my narration was so delicate and dear to me, that the agents’ rejections or showed indifferences felt twice as painful. I saw myself totally naked on a pedestal in the center of a large and busy square, in the middle of a high traffic

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Author Elena Nikitina

Jan 4
2 min

What Do Rejections Mean to You?

Wise people say that rejections are inalienable parts of success. Back in 2017, I willingly and voluntarily chose to believe in such a theory in order to not lose my good spirit. As you can remember from my previous blog post, I sent that first pitch letter to twenty literary agencies across the country hoping to find an agent for my manuscript Girl, Taken. Four weeks later I started receiving responses that were all rejections. What do rejections really mean to people? Espec

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How Long Are You Willing to Wait in Order to Win?

Author Elena Nikitina

Dec 28, 2020
3 min

How Long Are You Willing to Wait in Order to Win?

As you can remember from the previous blog posts, my only desire at that time was to find a literary agent. I spent days creating a successful pitch letter - an enticing bait that could attract agents’ attention. (By the way, if you want to find a literary agent for your own book, you can write an effective pitch letter using the templates presented in my guide, located in Chapter 11 of this book: “From Zero to Self-published Hero”.) Let’s get back to the story. On that promi

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Girl,Taken