Social Media: What’s it good for?
Posted: September 3, 2018 Filed under: Books, marketing, Promotion | Tags: author platform, book marketing, Book Promotion, promotion, Reader Platform, Social media Leave a comment
I posted a link in my Writing to be Read Facebook group a couple of weeks ago. The article discussed the new changes made by Facebook which do not allow us to post promotional materials on personal Timelines. Under the new guidelines promotional posts are only allowed to be made on our Facebook Pages, which are designed to be set up for businesses. If you break the rules and make promotional posts on your Timeline, Facebook can ban you. This information caused quite a stir in my group, and I admit it caused me quite a bit of concern, as well. I came to the conclusion that, as with everything in life, we must learn to be flexible and accoodate change. I changed the title of my Kaye Lynne Booth Screenwriter page to Kaye Lynne Booth Author and Screenwriter and set my automatic posts from WordPress to post there instead of on my Timeline and hoped for the best.
One of the comments I received was a question toward one of the group members who was upset, viewing this as a ploy to force us to purchase paid advertising. The second member asked how using Facebook’s free advertising was going and asked if she had sold many books from it. While I don’t think this change prohibits making promotional posts as long as you make them through allowable channels, the conversation made me stop and think about what we authors are expecting to achieve through such posts.
Free promotion through social media is great. It offers us, as authors, an avenue to get the word out about our writing, without putting a dent on our wallets. For aspiring authors, who haven’t made it to fame and fortune yet, like myself, that’s great. But what results are we expecting?
If you’re thinking your book will rise to the top of the best seller lists, you’re dreaming. That’s not the way it works. The best seller lists, at least those on Amazon, work on algorithms, and if you’re only one of a smattering of books in a category, it may not take many book sales to place your book at the top of the list. Authors who write romance have it a lot tougher, because there are a whole slew of romances out there, a lot of competition, so even if your book is making sales, it may not be enough to launch you to the top because it’s based on the books which sell the most in that particular category.
Likewise, most of the folks who those promotional posts reach are other authors, not the people in your target audience. Authors may buy books, but basically they want the the same thing you do. They are out there to promote their own work. Social media isn’t designed to sell books, although their paid promotions may be quite effective, and anyone who is using free promotions to try and sell books, or anything else, may be sorely disappointed. Social media, my friends, is designed to promote connections, some of which may be quite valuable, but it’s not designed to sell merchandise, hence the word ‘social’. And that is what I get from my promotional efforts on Facebook and any other social media site I use. I grow my blog following and my email list. I find a few people who are willing to review my book. I meet people who can include me in their author services as an editor. I connect with artists who can create the book covers I need. While many are fellow authors, I tap into that as well, offering them interviews or reviews here on Writing to be Read. They get some free exposure and I great content for my blog. It works out great.
That being said, I’ve come to the sobering realization that nothing is free, and I’m going to have to invest some of my hard earned money if I want to boost my book sales. While I can’t afford paid promotion on Facebook or Amazon right now, there are affordable promotions out there.
- There are some affordable avenues of promotion out there. Most recently, I found a promotional site called I Like E Books, which has promotional packeages which range from free up to twenty dollars, which seems promising. They provide promotion on social media channels and other cool stuff, depending on which level od promotion you pay for.
- Although not a promotional site, per se, Book Bub is great for featuring your books under your favorites, so folks can see that they are available. You can follow your favorite authors and hopefully gain some followers of your own. It doesn’t cost anything to join.
- On All Author, you can have your book featured on their site for six months, with twitter promos, weekly mock-up banners, and review posting for a flat fee of $24.
- It’s also free to sign up for PromoCave, which is a site for ongoing promotion via social media sites. It helps on this site to post content fairly regularly, since it will bring readers to your profile.
- BMI Books is a global book marketing site where you can place and manage a book ad for free, although I’m unsure how this one works as yet.
- You may also sign up for free on Write Globe, which has a nice book promotion platform as well as supporting other types of creativity. This site was listed as number one in a list of “Top 7 Websites for Book and Author Promotion” by Alwin Gnanaraj on LinkedIn.
- Creative Designers & Writers is a free international classified site, where you can create and post an ad. It is supportive of other creatives as well and can serve as a platform for collaborative works with graphic designers and artists.
- Books Online Best also allows you to post a free ad in addition to other author services, such as book trailers and author interviews. You can also create a freelance site here.
One day, I’ll be able to afford to play with the big boys. For now, I will be grateful for the benefits I can get from social media, but I will approach it with reasonable expectations, being grateful for every follower I gain and counting any book sales that comes from it as an extra added bonus.
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The Impacts of Digital Publishing
Posted: July 9, 2018 Filed under: Books, Promotion, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing | Tags: Digital Publishing, promotion, Reader Platform, Writing Leave a comment
Everyone talks about how the rise of digital publishing has impacted the book industry and the effects it may have on authors. Some think these effects are good, while others view them as having a negative impact. It is true that digital publishing opened up opportunities for would be writers, making it so just about anyone can write and publish a book with no need to be discovered by an agent or publisher.
But, it is equally true that many brick and mortar bookstores have had to close their doors due to the competition from eBooks and the rapid growth and expansion of Amazon. And, it’s also true that because it is now so easy to publish a book and authors who publish independently are able to circumvent the traditional publishing gatekeepers, there are no gauruntees that the books we purchase will be of good quality writing. There is nothing in place to be sure the books we put out have been edited. So, it would seem that digital publishing had had both positive and negative effects, depending on which area of the business you work in.
One area of impact that many authors don’t realize or appreciate, is the fantastic promotional opportunities the digital era has supplied for us. Due to social media promotion and email, we are able to access direct communication with fans and followers that via means which weren’t available in the pre-digital era, and this is a great plus for us. We need to take advantage of these great opportunities and listen to our readers, when we’re fortunate enough to get a comment or a review. I try to respond back to every comment readers leave me, and check my reviews for new ones frequently. And yes, these days posted reviews can make or break a book’s success, influencing potential readers, so reviews do matter.
Today’s author doesn’t have a fan base of faceless readers. Today’s authors have the opportunity to make connections with their readers. Some authors have found ways to take advantage of this by gathering their followers together in Facebook groups or put together street teams who actively promote their writing or go out and get reviews for them.
I can see how beneficial these practices are, because I know how much time and energy I have to put into marketing and promotion. But even though I don’t harness my fanbase as a promotional asset, I still appreciate the chance to reach out and chat with my readers to find out what works for them and what doesn’t. And while I don’t have a gazillion reviews on Amazon or Goodreads, the ones I do have are good ones, making Delilah a four and a half star read. It’s all because of you, my readers. So, I can appreciate the impact that digital publishing has had in this area.
The negative impacts, the fading of brick and mortar bookstores, the increase in the number of poor quality books put out. They are still there and likely will be for time to come, although I’ve heard the trend for print books is rising again. Unless digital publishers implement some type of quality control system, or all authors act professionally and create quality writing that’s been edited before publication, a poorly written or unedited book is liable to pop-up here and there, being generally unavoidable.
I don’t have all the answers, and I can’t change trends that I feel are negatives on the industry, but I can appreciate the positives that digital publishing has brought with it. I like getting to know my readers. So, before I sign off on this post, I’d like to urge you to reach out and let me know who you are and what you like, or don’t like, about my writing. It only takes a moment to leave a comment, and I promise to respond to each and every one.
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The Perils Of A Writer’s Career: Guest Post by Art Rosch
Posted: May 7, 2018 Filed under: Author Profile, Books, marketing, Promotion, Self-Publishing, Writing | Tags: Art Rosch, author's journey, book marketing, Confessions of an Honest Man, promotion, The Gods of Gift, The Road Has Eyes, Writing Leave a commentI’ve known Art Rosch since 2009, when he became a member of a writing site I was administiring called Writers’ World. Although I’ve never met him in person, we’ve been online friends, supporting one another like only authors can ever since. Art is a great guya da, and a fine photographer, and a damn good writer. You can feel the honesty in his words as you read them, and that’s not something all authors can do. I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing Art’s books, Confessions of an Honest Man, and The Road Has Eyes. I’ve also had the privilage of featuring an interview with Art in my 2016 series on publishing, as well as having him as a member on my more recent Ask the Authors series in March and April.
During my Ask the Authors series, I did a segment on Building an Author Platform. As a member of the author panel, Art expressed his frustration with the whole author platform/marketing and promotion thing and wasn’t sure how he could respond to my questions in a useful manner. Art had tried many paths to marketing and promotion, at times investing much money with little returns. He didn’t understand the problem and explained, “I can’t even give away books.”
This is one of the pitfals for today’s authors. We’re writers, not marketers. I think we all have gone through it at one time or another, (or will for new and upcoming authors). It’s easy for writers to become disheartened with the whole promotion process, especially if they’re not seeing results from their efforts. I told him to give me whatever he had. If he couldn’t tell me what had worked, he should tell me what hadn’t worked for him and why. I would take whatever he could offer. His response was a wonderfully told author’s journey that was too lengthy to be included in that segment of Ask the Author, but was worthy to appear on Writing to be Read, none-the-less. So, with that in mind, I give you this Guest Post by Art Rosch:
I’m the last person to ask about marketing and publishing. Perhaps my experiences might be cautionary, might enable other writers to consider how they proceed. I can only offer my history as a writer. You can call me disillusioned, but that’s actually a positive state. It’s good to dream but it’s important to temper the dream with reality. You can get swept down some terrible false paths by unskilled dreaming. I believe that this mantra, “dreams can come true if you persist” is a shibboleth. A lot of bullshit. It takes skill to dream the right dream. It takes skill and practice to execute a dream and bring it to fruition. Everything else is about karma. Destiny.
In 1978 I took a chance and sent the manuscript of a short story to agent Scott Meredith. At the time, Meredith had a branch of his prestigious agency that read unsolicited works for a fee. We’ve been warned countless times about this flaky practice, but it was, after all, Scott Meredith. He represented Norman Mailer and Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke and James Michener. I scratched together my fifty bucks and mailed the 3600 words of my comic science fiction tale about a planet where there are six distinct genders. It was called Sex And The Triple Znar-Fichi.
Eight weeks after mailing my story I received two envelopes. One was small and one was large. The small envelope contained a check for $1800. The large one contained a two year contract to be represented by Scott Meredith. The agency had sold my story to Playboy Magazine.
I was thrilled and motivated to write. I was young, ambitious, and not a little fucked up. There were problems in my life but everyone has problems. A writer without problems is hamstrung. Embrace your problems! They’re your fuel!
A few months passed. I was sending my works in progress to my editor at Meredith Agency. He was doing his job. He made it clear that my first science fiction novel was a bust and that I should focus on the book that has become The Gods Of The Gift. Then I received a package from New York. It contained a clear lucite brick featuring an etched Playboy logo. It carried the news that my story had won Playboy’s Best Short Story Award. There was another check for $500 and permission to use Playboy’s expense account to bring myself to New York City to attend the Playboy 25th Anniversary banquet and awards ceremony.
The Playboy Banquet was an amazing experience. I met Playboy’s fiction editor, I got business cards from the editors at The New Yorker, Penthouse, Esquire. I was a celebrity for the requisite fifteen minutes. I was hanging with the big hitters. My table mates at the dinner were Alex Haley, Saul Bellow and their wives. I was in! I had made it!
I brought The Gods Of The Gift to a sort of completion and it went on the market. And didn’t sell. The agency kept batting for me but I wasn’t turning out viable material. I wasn’t writing long form books that would sell. But I was learning. Two years went by without a sale, and the agency did not renew my contract. I went into my personal Dark Night Of The Soul, a period that lasted a long time. In spite of all the obstacles, I continued to play music and write.
In 1976 I had started work on my autobiographical novel, Confessions Of An Honest Man. I was dealing with a paradox: how does one write an autobiographical novel at the age of thirty? The answer isn’t complicated. One starts. And one lives. Here I am, now, at the age of seventy, sitting on a huge body of work. When I was contracted to an agent, I couldn’t write to sell. Now that I can write to sell, I can’t find an agent. The ground has shifted. We live in a new era. Even with a publisher and an agent, we’re still on our own with regards to marketing. Unfortunately, I’m not much of a marketer. It takes money to market, and I’m not rich enough to front a sustained advertising effort. I’ve been online for fifteen years. I have eight hundred ninety Twitter followers. My Facebook stats aren’t much better. I have an excellent blog that features all my media work. It’s gotten so that I’m shocked when I receive a comment. I’m all over the web. I’m on Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat, you name the social medium, I’m there.
It’s my photography that gets the attention. I suppose that’s natural. Images are so much more accessible than literature. We live in a tough time for writers of quality. There are so many writers, yet it seems as if there are fewer readers. The sales figures for my books are shocking. I can’t even give them away. In three years I’ve sold twenty five copies of my e-books. I’ve given away about eleven hundred. Those figures are spread over three books. In spite of this epic failure I persist. I figure I’m somewhere near my peak with regards to my writing skills. I’m a late bloomer. I’m also a writer who works a long time on each project. Like decades. Confessions Of An Honest Man only reached its completion when I switched from past to present tense. It changed everything. I finished that work last year. Begun in 1976, finished in 2017. Same with The Gods Of The Gift. It didn’t totally gel until I had revised it countless times and solved a thorny structural problem. Begun in 1978, finished in 2016. I can at least regard my non-fiction memoir, The Road Has Eyes with some affection. It took a year to write.
I again made contact with the Meredith Agency in 2001. They didn’t give me a contract but one of their editors was interested in me. Barry N. Malzberg is/was a science fiction author, critic and NYC literary personality. His editorial approach (with me, anyway) was brutal, confrontational, maybe even abusive. The cumulative effect on me was positive, but the experience gave me a two year bout of writer’s block. He helped me with Confessions Of An Honest Man. I’m considering making contact again. With some trepidation. He was a rough editor.
My plan? I’m going to invest in Confessions Of An Honest Man and produce paperbacks. There’s something about a physical manifestation that enlivens a book. My intuition tells me that this is the right step. I’ll follow with my other books. I have an as-yet-unpublished fantasy book, The Shadow Storm (about fifteen years in the writing). I’ll bring it out. I expect nothing. It’s not that I don’t care. I’m just too f’ing old to have an attachment to results. It’s about the process of writing and publishing. It’s obedience to my inner voice.
I’m a very flawed person. I’ve lived at the extremes of life. I’ve experienced the horrors of addiction and homelessness. I’ve been a yogi/junkie. How’s that for a paradox? But I survive and have found a niche in the world. A place to write. I live in an RV with my partner and two obnoxious teacup poodles. That’s good enough.
Thank you for sharing with us, Art. Watch for my review of The Gods of Gift in the near future. You can learn more about Art and his work at:
Arthur Rosch Books
Blogger
Write Out Of My Head
Confessions Of An Honest Man
The Gods Of The Gift, science fantasy
The Road Has Eyes: A Memoir of travel in an RV
If you’d like to have a guest post you’d you’d like to have featured on Writing to be Read, contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com. I wish I could, but at this time, I am unable to compensate you for your words. This blog is a labor of love, and so must be all guest posts.
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Book Marketing – What Works? (Part 7): Interview with author DeAnna Knippling
Posted: October 16, 2017 Filed under: Books, Branding, Interview, marketing, Promotion, Writing | Tags: Author Interview, book marketing, DeAnna Knippling, promotion Leave a comment
Welcome to the final interview in my Book Marketing – What Works? series, here on Writing to be Read. So far, we’ve heard from independent authors Cynthia Vespia on face-to-face marketing vs. digital marketing, Tim Baker on branding, Amy Cecil on street teams and social media marketing, and traditionally published YA author Jordan Elizabeth with an altogether different approach to street teams. We’ve also heard from authors who have published both independently and traditionally, Mark Todd and Kym O’Connell Todd on blogging as a marketing strategy, and Chris Barili weighed in on social media marketing and Amazon KDP. It seems no matter which way an author goes in today’s publishing arena, they are going to be responsible for the majority of marketing and promotion for their book.
In my final interview today, I’ll be talking with independent author, DeAnna Knippling, who has created her own brand and press to publish her books under. DeAnna is a talented lady and multigenre author, who not only publishes her own books, but freelances as a ghostwriter, as well. I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing three of her wonderful books, How Smoke Got Out of the Chimneys, Clockwork Alice, and Something Borrowed, Something Blue. DeAnna also shared with my readers in an earlier interview how she came about creating her own press to publish her books under. Today she shares with us a little about her book marketing experiences and talks about free promotions.
Kaye: How do you measure which marketing strategies are effective?
DeAnna: The ultimate proof is whether sales go up and stay better than they were before for a while. I tried a bunch of things that did well for a brief burst but left me no better off than I was before; I’m starting to be choosier about what strategies I stick with because of it.
Kaye: These days, reviews are a valuable marketing tool. What is the most effective way you’ve found to bring in reviews for your books? How much effect have reviews had for you?
DeAnna: Right now, I have an Advanced Readers’ Copy list that works better than other things that I’ve tried. That is, if you’re willing to be a guinea pig, I’m willing to send you free books.
I started looking at who was reviewing my books on Goodreads earlier in the year and went, “Holy crap, I have readers who read 50+ different books a week and review all of them.” I’m not joking. I call them super-readers…I started thinking about what I could do to attract more of those super-readers, and this is one of the techniques that I’m trying. We’ll see if the others work; most of my ideas have to happen down the road a bit.
As far as the effect reviews have had for me, I had the good luck a while back to be riding near the top of a couple of the Amazon lists I was in while reviews were actually coming in (and while I was obsessively hitting the refresh button on Kindle Direct Publishing and the Amazon sales page). Overall rankings went up by like 50 points an hour after the first review went live, even though only like one or two additional sales rolled in. Reviews don’t always have such a measurable effect, but it was a blast to see at the time. Also, when someone emails you off an ARC and tells you that you’re becoming one of their favorite writers ever and their review is up now, it really encourages you to keep going.
Kaye: You have used Instafreebie to promote your work. How does that work? How effective is it?
DeAnna: I think there are other resources about how to use Instafreebie that would work better than me trying to explain the basics in any kind of useful depth. For the sake of the rest of the answer, though, I’ll sum up: Instafreebie is a site where, for $20 a month, they host your ebooks and collect potential readers’ emails (for which the readers receive a free copy of the ebook). You can boost the number of eyes on your book by joining group emails/group promotions, separate from Instafreebie.
It worked well for me, but I got in at exactly the right moment: enough writers were participating in group promotions that the book giveaways hit a lot of new readers, and readers weren’t burned out with ereaders full of free books yet. I added more emails than I knew what to do with and ended up costing myself a lot of money on MailChimp. I actually had to cut some emails off the list–people who weren’t opening my newsletters. (I even got some responses back from MailChimp saying I had been reported as spam a couple of times and that the person hadn’t signed up for the list–not true; they had just signed up for so many lists that they had no memory of mine whatsoever).
Instafreebie allowed me to build up enough readers that I was able to put together an ARC list and to connect with some amazing readers that I wouldn’t have otherwise reached. However, I’m not paying for Instafreebie any longer. I don’t know how it’s going now; I just know that the flood of new newsletter readers who may or may not ever read my book was more than I could deal with. Maybe when I get a better sense of how to market via my newsletter, I’ll try it again.
Sometimes you pounce on marketing opportunities. The cost/benefit analysis on marketing shifts constantly. “What works today won’t work six months from now” is kind of an ebook marketing truism.
That being said, no quick-response marketing strategy will work if you don’t have the basics covered, like having an updated website and a newsletter and a way for your readers to find your books and to contact you or connect with you. There’s a lot of passive marketing stuff that supports the big, quick-turnaround experiments like Instafreebie. Otherwise the readers fall through the cracks and disappear after they get their free ebook or whatever.
Kaye: A lot of authors today offer their work for free, or do limited free promotions. I’ve never really understood this. How does giving away your work pay off?
DeAnna: I think it depends on how you see readers, which is not to say that one way is better than another. I mean, I know people who swear that giving away books for free will be the death of a career. But I just can’t see giving away free ebooks as dooming me to failure per se, any more than you can see it the other way.
I see obtaining a loyal reader as an investment. I want them to read my work and love it so much that they pass it on to someone else. I’m willing to invest a free ebook or ten to see whether I can flip them to loyal readers. If yes, YAY. If not, it’s a sign that I need to work harder and keep learning. I don’t write irresistibly good fiction yet. I’m working on it. Oftentimes, the people who are buying my books are people who are on my ARC list, who already have the free ebook in hand, and want to help support me. I know, because they care enough to email me about it. I tear up every time.
Maybe when I write fiction that I know people can’t resist, I’ll restrict my opportunities for free stuff. I have already done that a bit. For example, I no longer give away books for free per se. I want an opportunity to keep reminding the reader I exist via newsletters or whatever–I want the opportunity to try to win them over.
Kaye: What other marketing strategies have you employed? Which ones worked for you?
DeAnna: I’ve tried a lot of things, and most of them are irrelevant at this point–we’re past the six-month mark. What it comes back to: your readers are your boss. Write a lot. Write better every time. Stay in contact. Don’t work for the jerky boss, work for the one who appreciates your work. Keep your information updated. Be a person, not a marketing machine. Say please and thank you. When you reach out to new readers, treat it like a job interview. Keep your eye open for ways to go a little bit above and beyond. Keep your eye open for ways to team up with bloggers, reviewers, other writers, and readers. When you’re selling a book, sell the book–describe your book in a way that makes somebody drool, instead of saying things like, “I have a new release, check it out LOL.” Investigate why people like what you write, how you make them feel when you’re at the top of your game, and sell that. Be ready to pounce on opportunities, and learn from train wrecks so you can pounce on fewer train wrecks.
Marketing is hard. It takes time and respect.
Kaye: What works best to sell books for you, as far as marketing goes?
DeAnna: Staying honest with myself and writing the books that are in me, and not the books I think should be in me. I had to look at myself and go, “I write hipster pulp. I write trope-filled popular fiction stories with quality ingredients, decent technique, a few original weird touches here and there (the equivalent of sriracha mayo on a juicy burger, I guess), and with a bit of ironic perspective and humor.” Suddenly, voila, I had more sales.
More seriously, though, knowing yourself and your work on this level is sometimes known as “branding.” The description is a bit facetious, but…well, it’s not exactly wrong, either.
I know what writers are looking for is a magic button to make their books take off in the market, but there isn’t one. What you want to be able to do is repeat success and learn from failure. Don’t be the person who writes one book (or one trilogy) that takes off and who then cannot repeat that success or in fact finish another book at all, ever. Don’t be the person who burns out on writing because of all the marketing you have to do. Do what it takes to stay in love with writing first and foremost, experiment with different techniques, and be prepared to fail on a regular basis. Try to fail in a different way each time.
Also, if you can write porn, do that. It sells really well.
Kaye: What’s your favorite social media site for promotion? Why?
DeAnna: Purely for promotion, as opposed to staying in contact with people? Probably Goodreads. Highest proportion of dedicated readers and super-readers. Lots of great data, too, if you poke around a bit and make a few inferences.
Kaye: What advice do you have for authors who are trying to get their work out there?
DeAnna: Don’t blame the readers. If your ads don’t work, if nobody shares your posts, if nobody wants to review your book, if nobody gushes over your cover, etc., etc. Don’t blame the readers.
I want to thank DeAnna for taking the time to answer all my questions. It’s evident by her answers that she’s put in the time, both in writing and marketing, and it’s wonderful that she is willing to share with us here on Writing to be Read. You can learn more about DeAnna’s books at Wonderland Press.
This is the last of my interviews for this series, but be sure to drop by next week to take a look at my conclusions in the last post for Book Marketing – What Works?.
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Book Marketing – What Works? (Part 5): Interview with Romance Author Amy Cecil
Posted: October 2, 2017 Filed under: Author Profile, Books, Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Historical Romance, Interview, marketing, Promotion, romance, Writing | Tags: Amy Cecil, book marketing, Interview, promotion 1 Comment
So far in this Book Marketing – What Works? series we’ve heard about: social media marketing vs. face-to-face marketing methods form dark fantasy author, Cynthia Vespia in Part 1; digital marketing strategies from co-authors Mark Todd and Kym O’Connell Todd in Part 2; social media marketing and street teams for reviews from YA author Jordan Elizabeth in Part 3; and branding and free promotions from author Tim Baker in Part 4.
Today, I’m pleased to bring you a chat with contemporary and historical romance author Amy Cecil, who is a self-published author, who uses book blog tours and street teams to promote her work. I met Amy when I interviewed her for her book blog tour through Full Moon Bites Promotions for the release of the second book in her Knights of Silence MC series, Ice on Fire. So, without further ado, please welcome Amy Cecil.
Kaye: In addition to your Knights of Silence MC contemporary romance series, you write historical romance. Would you like to talk about those books a little?
Amy: Of course I would! I have two historical romance novels published that are variations of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. You know, the kind of stories that you always wonder, “what if?” Well I did and I decided to create my own “what if” story in Jane Austen’s world. I am currently working on a third historical romance, also a Jane Austen variation, titled On Stranger Prides.
Kaye: What made you decide self-publish?
Amy: At first, I really didn’t have a choice. The publishing companies that I originally contacted were not interested or were not taking new authors at that time. I didn’t know that self-publishing was an option until I did some research. Self-publishing was the only chance I had to get my stories out there. I have no complaints with the self-publishing world, but I do believe it requires a lot more work on the part of the author.
Kaye: How much non-writing work, (marketing & promotion, illustrations & book covers, etc…), do you do yourself for your books?
Amy: Originally, I did everything myself. But as I got savvier, I have since hired a professional editor and cover designer both with Creative Digital Studios. And marketing, well, I never did anything in the early days. I never realized how important it was until I decided to hire a PA.
Kaye: How much work do you contract out? Book Covers? Editing? Marketing? Etc…?
Amy: Creative Digital Studios does all my promotional materials, however I may do a teaser or two myself. My two PA’s Alicia Freeman and Monica Diane do all my marketing and promoting. I do a little myself when I am not trying to meet writing deadlines.
Kaye: How do you feel about the marketing tasks you have to do? Do you embrace them or loath them? Why?
Amy: That’s a trick question. LOL… I’m just kidding. Sometimes I am all excited about doing some marketing of my books, other times not so much. It really all depends on my mood and what else I have to do.
Kaye: You and I met through Full Moon Bites Promotions, when they hosted your book blog tour for Ice on Fire. For that tour I did a review of your book and we did an author interview. Is that the first book blog tour you’ve done? What kind of results did you see from it? Was there a rise in sales? Do you feel it was a successful marketing venture?
Amy: It was the first blog tour I have ever done – and I assure you, I will not release another book again without one. I really can’t say that I saw a rise in sales, but what I did see was my new release ALL OVER SOCIAL MEDIA! And if I saw it, then I am sure millions of others saw it. So, yes, I feel it was completely successful.
Kaye: You recently did your first book signing at Barnes & Noble. How did that go? How successful do you feel that was, as a marketing strategy?
Amy: That was freaking awesome! For an indie author like myself to actually get into a major bookstore is huge! I met a lot of great people that day, including the B&N staff. On the marketing end, I believe it was very successful. It’s definitely opened up a lot of doors for me.
Kaye: You have a street team who help you promote your work, Amy’s Amazing Street Girls. Can you talk a little about what your street team does and how you build a street team?
Amy: I can definitely talk about my street team, but a little – not so much! My street team is amazing!! I didn’t realize when we named it Amy’s Amazing Street Girls, that I would continually use the word “amazing” to describe them.
This team is my safe zone. I go to my team when I need someone to bounce ideas off or to get me through a rough writing patch. When I need something shared or a contest voted on I can always count on my team. I host several giveaways in my team and we even have a weekly SWAG giveaway that we do. They help me promote my books everyday.
In return, we (my PA’s and I) entertain them. There is activity in this group every single day. Some days are themed others are not, but we have a lot of fun with whatever we happen to be doing on that particular day. We currently have over 470 members and we add new members every day. Just to show how much I love my street team, my latest release, Ice on Fire is dedicated to them.
Kaye: You have a P.A. who helps promote your work, too. How much of a help in your marketing is this?
Amy: No, I don’t have a PA – I have two, Alicia Freeman and Monica Diane. These ladies are my biggest support in all aspects of writing. They promote my stuff, they run my street team, they do Author Takeover Events – they do everything. I would be lost with them and still don’t know how I survived as an author before them.
Kaye: Do you pay your P.A.s or your street team?
Amy: I do pay my pa’s, but not members of the street team.
Kaye: So what is involved in building a street team?
Amy: I believe that you need to constantly be recruiting new members – keep them engaged daily and offer lots of perks for them to be a member of the team. My PA’s have worked really hard in building the team and I am just along for the ride. LOL.
Kaye: You promote a lot on social media, including book release parties and the like. How effective do you find social media marketing to be? Do you feel they increase your sales or are the biggest benefits in gaining new followers?
Amy: I’m not really sure if social media has increased my sales, as I believe people are buying books like they used to. Indie authors have got them self in rut by giving away free books that I believe a lot of people on social media are looking for the freebie. But on the flip side of that, social media has definitely given me exposure. To me, the exposure outweighs the sales because I am a firm believer that eventually that exposure will lead to more sales.
Kaye: What other marketing strategies have you used?
Amy: I have done Facebook, Goodreads and Amazon ads and giveaways. I have also done advertising in Inks and Scratches magazine and have attended several signing events.
Kaye: What would you say works best to sell books, as far as marketing goes?
Amy: Me. I know that sounds odd, but I find that I sell more books if I am physically in front of the person telling them about my book. I have done a lot of signings this year and that face-to-face contact between me and the reader makes a huge difference.
Kaye: What advice would you give to new authors trying to get their work out there?
Amy: Don’t be afraid to spend some money. First and foremost hire a good cover designer and editor. It is so worth it in the end. And definitely hire a PA! Their rates are reasonable and their value is priceless!
Thank you so much Kaye Lynne!
No thank you Amy, for joining us on Writing to be Read, not once, but twice. And thanks for sharing some of your marketing experiences with us. If you’d like to learn more about Amy or her books, visit her Amazon Author Page, her Goodreads Author Page, or her website.
Don’t miss next week, when my guest will be hybrid author, Chris Barili in Part 6 of the Book Marketing – What Works? series. If you don’t know what a hybrid author is, you’ll have to check back in to find out.
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Book Marketing – What Works? (Part 4): Interview with author Tim Baker
Posted: September 25, 2017 Filed under: Books, Branding, Fiction, Interview, marketing, Promotion, Self-Publishing, Writing | Tags: Author Interview, Blind Dog Books, blindoggbooks, book marketing, Branding, marketing, promotion, Tim Baker 4 Comments
So far, in this Book Marketing – What Works? series, we’ve heard from speculative fiction author Cynthia Vespia in Part 1, who does all of her own marketing; taken a look at Mark Todd and Kym O’Connell Todd’s online marketing strategies in Part 2; and glimpsed the value of paid advertising with YA author Jordan Elizabeth in Part 3, whose street team was pivotal in getting reviews for her books. This week, we’ll take a look at branding with an author who has developed a brand of his own for his books, Tim Baker.
Tim and I have been acquainted for several years now. He’s a talented writer, whose books are fun and entertaining. I’ve reviewed most of his books at one time or another: Water Hazard, No Good Deed, Backseat to Justice, Full Circle, Pump It Up, Living the Dream, Eyewitness Blues, and Unfinished Business. Tim also weighed in on my Pros and Cons of Traditional vs. Independent vs. Self-Publishing series, where he heralded the advantages of self-publishing. Today he’ll talk a little about branding and about the effectiveness of free promotions.
Kaye: How long have you been writing and publishing your own books?
Tim: My first seven books were published by small press publishers. I decided to publish under my own brand (Blindogg Books) with the release of Full Circle in 2015. Since then I have released one other novel (Blood in the Water) and a collection of short stories (Path of a Bullet).
Kaye: You talk about creating your own brand. Of course, I knew about BlindoggBooks, but we hear about brands all the time. Can you elaborate and explain what it takes to create a brand, and what the advantages are with having your own brand?
Tim: I doubt that the way I created my brand is textbook, but here it is…
At some point between my first and second novel I thought it would be a good idea to have a website. My first attempt was rudimentary at best, but it served the purpose.
While creating it I decided I didn’t want to use my name as the headline. Several years earlier I had doodled an image of a dog wearing dark glasses (a blind dog – more on that story can be found here – https://blindoggbooks.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/is-your-dog-really-blind/ ). So from that point forward Blindogg Books became my brand name…the next step was getting it out there.
I put the doodle on everything…my website, my facebook page all of my social media accounts, book marks, and all sorts of paraphernalia which I would give away at signings and anywhere else I could.
Before long my blind dog was very popular and people recognized it – which I think is the desired result – right?!
As far as advantages, I guess I subconsciously followed the lead of many big name companies who have a recognizable logo. People may not always remember my name, but they always remember the blind dog!
As I’ve said before, my marketing tactics are strictly “learn as I go” – and so far it’s working for me, so I’ll just keep plugging along. I tweek things here and there, but I don’t see myself getting rid of my brand name.
Kaye: What made you decide to go with self-publishing?
Tim: There were two main reasons: Cost and Control.
Using a small press publisher is not free…and it’s usually not cheap. The cost of buying a batch of ISBNs and paying somebody to format the book for kindle and paperback saves me hundreds of dollars with each release.
Self publishing (I actually prefer the term independent publishing) also allows me to have much more control over when my book is released, etc.
Kaye: How many books have you published to date?
Tim: Nobody told me there would be math in this interview!!
So far I have published nine novels, one collection of short stories and two novellas. My tenth novel (24 Minutes) is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2017.
Kaye: What is the biggest challenge of being a writer today?
Tim: This is a tricky question, because it will vary from writer to writer…JK Rowlings’ biggest challenge is probably how to spend her money, while mine is trying to find enough time to write, publish and market my books while working a full time job and trying to have a social life.
Kaye: You’ve come up with some great titles. How do you decide the titles for your books? Where does the title come in the process for you?
Tim: I try to pick a title that does a few things at once…I want it to intrigue the potential reader (very important), I want it to fit the story without giving too much away, and I want it to be catchy. It isn’t always easy, and I usually go through more than one idea. The final title will usually come to me when I’m nearly done with the first draft – although there have been a couple of books where I had the title before I started writing (Full Circle and Backseat to Justice).
Kaye: Do you do any kind of free promotions, where you offer your books for free? If so, how does that work for you?
Tim: Yes. I often offer titles for free download (usually around the release of a new title in order to stimulate a little buzz for the new one) and they always work extremely well. I do giveaways on Goodreads, which also helps to get my name out there. I also give away paperbacks quite frequently. For the amount of money a paperback costs me (usually around $4) I find it’s highly effective to give one to a new reader…it almost always leads them to purchase other titles. We all know the value of word-of-mouth advertising, and giving somebody a free book (which, hopefully, they will enjoy) is a great way to get some. Of course it is much easier for me to give books away now that I have 13 titles under my belt. Back in the day, when I only had two or three, I didn’t feel as though it was as beneficial since I had to give away one book in order to get people to (possibly) buy the other two.
Kaye: Do you participate in KDP Select on Amazon? Do you feel this program is conducive to selling books?
Tim: Yes, I do. As to whether it is conducive to selling books, I really don’t know. KDP allows you to do giveaways, so in that respect the answer would be yes. However, once you sign on to KDP you agree not to sell your books on any other venues (other than live book signings and such) which is somewhat counterproductive as far as selling a larger quantity of books. In all honesty, even though I’ve been selling books for nearly ten years, I still don’t know what works best. If I did I’d have a yacht by now!
Kaye: What works best to sell books for you, as far as marketing goes?
Tim: I don’t think there is one method or specific act that works best…I believe the best marketing tactic is to be consistent, relentless and tenacious. Marketing (to me) isn’t a part time job – it’s a non-stop effort. I often tell people that for every hour I spend writing, I usually put in three or four marketing. This could involve anything from social media posts to handing out bookmarks. I’ve tried a thousand different things and it isn’t one or two of them that made a difference, it was the continual act of doing it.
Kaye: How much work do you contract out? Book Covers? Editing? Marketing? Etc…?
Tim: I contract editing, formatting and cover art. Marketing I do myself, because I have yet to find a so-called marketing expert who will either charge me based on the level of success of their campaign (e.g. work on commission) or give me some sort of a guarantee before I pay them. If you send me an email stating you are the latest and greatest book marketer – I think you ought to back it up, rather than back-pedal with inane statements like “Well, there are no guarantees in marketing.”
Kaye: What do you do for cover art? DIY, or hired out, or cookie cutter prefab?
Tim: I always contract it out, and for the most part I use one particular artist (I call her my cover girl!) I will gladly give her contact info to anybody interested.
Kaye: If writing suddenly made you rich and famous, what would you do?
Tim: I would;
- Quit my day job
- Buy a yacht
- Write more books
- Donate large sums of money to organizations that support human rights and animal rights
- Hire the surviving members of Led Zeppelin to play at my next birthday party.
(in that order!)
Kaye: What is the one thing in your writing career that is the most unusual or unique thing you’ve done so far?
Tim: Interesting question…After careful consideration I’d have to say that the most unusual thing I’ve done as a writer happened when I was writing my sixth novel, Unfinished Business. Research is part of an author’s life, to varying degrees, and my research for Unfinished Business was a bit unusual. The book is about a woman named Meg, a mortician who somehow inherits the task of carrying out the last thoughts of the bodies she embalms. In order to make the book as true to life as possible I interviewed a mortician friend of mine (whose name also happens to be Meg – coincidence? You decide!). So for over three hours I asked questions and learned more than I ever thought I would want to know about the preparation of corpses for funerals, and the life of a mortician.
I’d call that unusual and unique!
I want to thank Tim for joining us today to share his experiences and marketing advice. If you’d like to know more about Tim Baker or his books, check out his blindoggbooks blog, or visit his website, or his Goodreads author page. You can also find him on his Facebook Fan Page or Twitter: @blindoggbooks. Watch for my review of Tim’s latest book, 24 Minutes, which will be out the end of October or early November.
I hope you’ll join us next week, when we talk with romance author Amy Cecil, who launches her marketing strategies on social media and uses a P.A. and a street team in Part 5 of Book Marketing – What Works?.
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Book Marketing – What Works? (Part 3): Interview with YA author Jordan Elizabeth
Posted: September 18, 2017 Filed under: Author Profile, Book Review, Books, Fiction, Interview, marketing, Promotion, Writing, Young Adult | Tags: Author Interview, book marketing, Jordan Elizabeth, promotion 1 Comment
In Part 1 of Book Marketing – What Works? we heard from self-published author, Cynthia Vespia, and in Part 2, we met traditionally published co-authors Mark Todd and Kym O’Connell Todd, to get a glimpse into their marketing strategies. While Vespia preferred face-to-face marketing strategies such as conferences and book signings, the Todds use Internet marketing such as websites, blogging and social media. Today, we’ll talk with an author who utilizes paid advertising via the Internet.
Small presses may take some of the publishing duties away from the author, such as cover art, and of course, the actual publication of your book, but even then, a lot of the marketing and promotion may fall upon the author. Therefore, traditionally published authors are faced with the same challenges of getting their books out there where readers can find them as independently published authors are.
I’m pleased to welcome Jordan Elizabeth to Writing to be Read today. Jordan is a talented young adult author, who is published with a smaller independent press. I have reviewed many of her books and anthologies where her short fiction has appeared, and she’s weighed on publishing, with an interview in my ten part series, Pros and Cons of Traditional vs. Independent vs. Self-Publishing. Although she may not have as much control over the publishing details, she maintains the brunt of the responsibility for the marketing of her books.
Kaye: Would you share the story of your own publishing journey?
Jordan: I always knew I wanted to write. I had written a ton of stories by high school (none of which will ever see the light of day). I finally wrote my first “real” manuscript sometimes around 12th grade and started sending it to publishers. They rejected me right away. After some research, I understood you need an agent to get your foot in the door. I queried over 4,000 agents before I landed mine with COGLING.
Kaye: What is the strangest inspiration for a story you’ve ever had?
Jordan: I get most of my ideas from dreams, but I would say the strangest inspiration was for VICTORIAN. I volunteered at Fort Stanwix and worked for the Victorian Leisure Fair, both in Rome, NY. The positions involved dressing in costumes and explaining history to visitors, while having fun. I had the best adventures in Rome!
Kaye: Have you ever had places that you travel to end up in your books?
Jordan: Yes! I love to travel, and we used to do 3-4 vacations a year before I had my baby. The places I go to especially come out in my fantasy novels. The homes in COGLING were based on a lot of historic sites and tour houses, such as President Buchannan’s house in Pennsylvania.
Kaye: Do you participate in KDP Select on Amazon? Do you feel this program is conducive to selling books?
Jordan: All of my published novels except for one are on Kindle Unlimited. It depends on the publisher’s rules, so I don’t have a say if they are or aren’t. I do find it conducive, as someone who might not want to buy my ebook has the freedom to borrow it for “free.” I’ve heard from quite a few people that they used Kindle Unlimited to read something I wrote.
Kaye: Do you use social media to promote your books? Which social media is your favorite for promotion and why?
Jordan: I use Facebook and Twitter. In the past, I’ve found Facebook to be the best, but the world seems to be moving away from that. I’ve had bad luck with my past few Facebook ads. I’m going to try to utilize Twitter more and see how that goes.
Kaye: What type of marketing strategies have you tried with your books? What worked and what didn’t?
Jordan: I post on Facebook and Twitter, aim for one book signing a month, and take out ads. The ad in BookBub was amazing. I’ve also had good luck taking an ad out in Fussy Librarian. The more reviews you have, the more people are excited to read your book, so I am always open to giving a blogger a book in exchange for an honest review. That hasn’t always worked out in the past, as some bloggers will take a book and never read it. Book review tours have never worked for me. I’ve paid for multiple companies to send out my books to x-amount of reviewers. Each time, I’ve only gotten a handful of reviews. It hasn’t been worth the price.
Kaye: You have publishers for your books. How much non-writing work, (marketing & promotion, illustrations & book covers, etc…), do you do yourself?
Jordan: The publishers all take care of editing and book covers. I do about 85% of my own marketing. It takes a lot of time and effort, but I enjoy it. It gets my face out there and helps me connect with my readers.
Kaye: You and I made a connection through a member of your street team, when I reviewed Escape From Witchwood Hollow, and I’ve been reviewing your books ever since. Could you explain what your street team does for you? How do you go about building a street team?
Jordan: My street team has actually disbanded, but I did have a street team for many years. It started when a few girls told me they loved my books and asked me about the process. When I told them how I’d gotten published and all the time spent on marketing, they asked if they could help out. Of course! They contacted reviewers for me to see if anyone would like to read one of my books in exchange for an honest review. I had an awesome group of supporters and we had fun brainstorming new marketing ideas.
One girl dropped out of the street team to concentrate on going back to college and the other two started getting hate mail from reviewers because they felt that I should be the one contacting, not them. I personally don’t see anything wrong with having someone else contact a blogger on your behalf, but I also see where it can become tricky. You don’t always know if the personal contacting you is legitimate.
Kaye: What works best to sell books for you, as far as marketing goes?
Jordan: Taking out ads and book signings. In those cases, I know how many I sell. I don’t know why people who buy my books on a day-to-day basis bought them. Did someone tell them about the book? Did they see it on Facebook? At least when I see a jump in sales on the day an ad runs, I know it is because of the ad.
Kaye: How much work do you contract out? Book Covers? Editing? Marketing? Etc…?
Jordan: I don’t contract anything out. Ah, if only I had that luxury!
Kaye: What kind of Chinese food do you order all the time?
Jordan: Peanut noodles are my favorite. Oh, and Chinese donuts. I eat the entire container in one sitting unless my husband grabs on first.
Kaye: What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
Jordan: Don’t give up, because you need to write for yourself. Even if publishers aren’t biting, write because you love it. Also, make sure to understand marketing is going to fall on you. I was surprised and a little taken aback at first. Authors need to realize that publishers have 100s of books out there. They can’t donate 100% of their time on marketing your book. You need to do your share of the legwork too.
I want to thank Jordan for joining us today and sharing her marketing experience with us. You can check out my reviews of Jordan’s books and anthologies in which her work appears by following the links below.
Reviews of Jordan Elizabeth Books:
Reviews of Short Story Collections from Curiosity Quills Press Featuring Jordan Elizabeth’s Short Fiction:
Be sure to check back next week for Part 4 of Book Marketing – What Works?, where I’ll interview a veteran author that has traveled both the traditional and self-publishing routes and will share what his learned about marketing after writing books for ten years, author Tim Baker. Don’t miss it!
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Book Marketing – What Works? (Part 1): Interview with fantasy author Cynthia Vespia
Posted: September 4, 2017 Filed under: Books, Cover Art, Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, Interview, marketing, Promotion, Speculative Fiction, Super Hero | Tags: book marketing, Cover Art, Cover Design, Cynthia Vespia, marketing, promotion, Social Media Marketing 4 Comments
Frequently I rant about the time I have to spend marketing and promoting my writing instead of actually writing. It’s no secret that marketing is not my favorite author hat to wear, and I know a lot of other authors who feel exactly the same way. But the fact is, in today’s writing industry, the author must carry most, if not all, of the load when it comes to promoting their work and marketing their masterpieces.
Now, I’m a struggling author, just as many of you are, so I don’t have a big marketing budget and I can’t afford to hire someone to do my marketing for me. My promotions are limited mainly to social media marketing, usually the kind that’s free. Even when I have a little money to put into marketing, I don’t really know what avenues would be effective enough to be worth it.
A lot of the information about book marketing that is out there on the Internet today is geared toward marketing your non-fiction book, whether it be self-help, or how-to, or even a cookbook. These articles tell you how to show potential readers why they need your book, how your book can help them, which is great, except most of their strategies do not apply to marketing fiction.
As a result of this discovery, I’ve been doing some research of my own into the matter, but I’ve found that the effectiveness of any marketing strategy depends on many factors, and results vary from author to author. In this eight part series, we’ll take a look at my findings and interview seven different authors to learn what they’ve found to be effective in marketing their own work. All work and no play makes us all very dull writers, so we’ll get to know a little about each one of them and their books just for fun.
It’s my pleasure today to interview speculative fiction author, Cynthia Vespia. I have review several of her books, including her Demon Hunter saga: The Chosen One & Seek and Destroy and Hero’s Call, Lucky Sevens, and Life, Death and Back. In addition to her great storytelling, Cynthia is also a talented cover artist, designing most of her own covers, as well as working freelance.
Kaye: Would you share the story of your own publishing journey?
Cynthia: Once upon a time I was a young mind hungry for books. I’d read Piers Anthony; C.S. Lewis; and comic books (my favorite being The Punisher). Then one day I stumbled upon a book by Dean Koontz called Intensity. To make a long story short it got me hooked and I knew then I wanted to write. My first novel, The Crescent, was written after seeing a documentary about female gladiators narrated by Lucy Lawless. I self-published it back when self-publishing wasn’t cool. It was fun to see my book in print. Flash forward to today and that same story is in pre-production as a feature film.
Along the road I’ve written several more books and short stories, each of which I’m very proud of. I received a Best Series nomination in 2009 for Demon Hunter.
Kaye: What made you decide to go with self-publishing?
Cynthia: I was published by small publishing houses but I never really saw any benefit when I could do the same things they were doing and they weren’t even really promoting me much. So much like a lot of other authors I’ve gone the indie route.
Kaye: As a fantasy writer, what kind of research do you find yourself doing for your stories?
Cynthia: Honestly, the majority of my work is completely created in my head. Recently the type of research I’ve been doing is for superpowers, modeling, and locations for the Silke Butters Superhero Series. And for my upcoming apocalypse trilogy there was a lot of research regarding weapons and safe-houses.
Kaye: What’s the most fun part of writing a novel or short story/screenplay? What’s the least fun part?
Cynthia: The most fun part of writing for me is in the initial creation of the characters and their backstory. It’s like a sculptor molding clay. You breathe life into your subjects.
The least fun part is in the aftermath which is marketing and promotion. It’s so difficult to posture yourself out in front of a very large crowd of other writers all clamoring for attention.
Kaye: What is the strangest inspiration for a story you’ve ever had?
Cynthia: Probably Sins and Virtues. I was at Alcatraz in SF and I went inside one of the prison cells for a photo. Afterwards, I felt a heavy cloak of energy from what I could only feel was a former prisoner’s spirit.
While writing Sins and Virtues I started to see visions of prison escapes that I had no business knowing about. If you read the first chapter you’ll get a taste of what I mean. That feeling stayed with me throughout the entire novel. It only left when I was done writing.
Kaye: What’s the best piece of advice you were ever given?
Cynthia: I’ve heard quite a bit of good advice over the years. I seek it out, and write it down in my journal. Lately, I’ve been falling back on one from Arnold Schwarzenegger where he said “earn it so nobody can say they gave you shit.”
Kaye: What do you see as the pros and cons of independent/traditional publishing?
Cynthia: Sadly, the pros and cons are one in the same in that everyone can publish a book. There’s a lot of good work being published that would probably never see the light of day due to the politics of traditional publishing, but at the same time I’ve seen a lot of awful books out there too.
The other things I’ve been noticing is that it’s no longer about the writing. It’s become a numbers game. How many FB followers or Twitter followers do you have? How many likes did you get? How many reviews did the novel receive? How large is your fan base?
I struggle with that because I don’t have the time to spend all day on social media when I have other things that take up my time like earning a living. There’s people now who are even cheating the system with paid “likes” etc. to bump themselves up into the top spot. To me, that’s not what writing should be about. It’s about the story, not how much attention you can get for yourself. Sorry if I’m coming off very negative but I’ve been doing this for a very long time and the business model has changed so much now that I hardly recognize why I started writing in the first place.
Kaye: What do you do for cover art? DIY, or hired out, or cookie cutter prefab?
Cynthia: I always do my own cover art. That is one of the beauties of going indie, you can have complete control over your cover. Although, I do have to point out that the comic book look of the Karma character in my Silke Butters series was done by an artist named Ka Rolding, whom you can find on Deviantart.
I also create covers for other authors too, so if you’re in need of a custom cover please look me up at http://www.cyncreativeservices.com/authorstudio
Kaye: What’s your favorite social media site for promotion? Why?
Cynthia: None…lol. I’d rather do a face-to-face event than spend time on social media promoting. But if I have to choose I like Twitter because it makes you think and be clever with your 140 characters. BTW, you’re all using hashtags wrong!
Kaye: How much non-writing work, (marketing & promotion, illustrations & book covers, etc…), do you do yourself for your books?
Cynthia: All of it! I’m a one woman show. It’s honestly extremely exhausting. Like I said, I just don’t have the time needed to put in to make a dent. I even bit the bullet and hired a couple people this year and it still didn’t make a difference. But I’m trying every day. That’s all you can do is try, right?
Kaye: You participate in book events on social media often. How effective do you see Facebook release parties and cover reveals, etc… being?
Cynthia: It depends on the crowd and your time slot. I’ve had some that were very active (including my launch party for Karma) and then others where nobody interacted at all, or not until later on. I find them effective for exposure. I’ve actually gained quite a few new FB friends from events so I’ll continue to do them. But I will suggest going in with a game plan and do some interactive posts, don’t just ramble on about how your book is for sale.
Kaye: What works best to sell books for you, as far as marketing goes?
Cynthia: For me, I like face-to-face conventions. Because of the genre I write in I can easily blend into comic cons. I liken it to an actor doing a stage play over doing a movie. In that regard, they get immediate audience reaction when they are doing a play, rather than waiting for box office receipts from a movie. The same can be said about conventions. I get an immediate reaction from readers (some have even come back the next day to compliment my work) where as stuff online I don’t really see what is working and what isn’t. Also, during conventions I keep a tally on how many books are selling and my 2009 Best Series nominee Demon Hunter is still the biggest seller.
Kaye: Why do you think some authors sell well and others don’t?
Cynthia: Again, it’s all who you know. And a lot of that comes from great networking. There’s something to be said for word-of-mouth. I also believe some genres sell better than others, that’s just the way it goes.
Kaye: Which author, dead or alive, would you love to have lunch with?
Cynthia: J.K. Rowling or George RR Martin. I’m fascinated by the amount of detail they’ve both put into their respective worlds of Harry Potter and Game of Thrones.
Kaye: What kind of Chinese food do you order all the time?
Cynthia: I don’t always eat Chinese food but when I do I prefer orange chicken and lo mein.
I want to thank Cynthia Vespia for joining us and for sharing her marketing strategies with us. If you’d like to learn more about Cynthia, check out her author profile, here on Writing to be Read, or check out her website.
Be sure to catch Writing to be Read next Monday, for Part 2 of Book Marketing – What Works?, where I will interview the co-authors of the Silverville Saga books and Wild West Ghosts, Mark Todd and Kym O’Connell Todd, who will share their experiences in marketing and clue us in to which ones have been most effective.
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A Writer’s Eye View of Social Media Promotion
Posted: May 29, 2017 Filed under: Books, marketing, Opinion, Promotion, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing | Tags: marketing, promotion, Time, Writing 2 Comments
Social media is great. Or is it? From a writer’s perspective, maybe a little of both. On the one hand, promotion on social media can and often does bring readers to your blog, or book, or article, or whatever you are promoting. Some sites are more helpful than others in this regard. There is no doubt that social media promotion draws attention, but then you have to figure out the other side of the equation.
Promotion on social media takes a lot of time. And I mean a lot of time. Think about it. First you have to share a link on your timeline, or page, or wall, or whatever. That doesn’t take long. But then you have to share it in groups, and for me, there are a lot of groups to share in. Okay, so after you’ve spent between thirty to forty-five minutes or even up to two hours, (depending on how fast your internet connection is operating, how fast the site you’re sharing on is operating, and how many groups you are sharing the post with), and the post is shared everywhere you wish to share it, you’re still not done.
No. Because you see, social media is set up for social networking. You don’t want to drop into each group and post your promotion, then go about your business. No. When you join a group, you are expected to participate, rather than just promote. If you want people to like, comment, or share your posts, you’ve got to do the same for them. That’s how social networking works. And let me tell you, it is easy to get caught up thanking folks for liking or sharing your posts, responding to comments on your posts and liking, commenting on and sharing the posts of others, and before you know it, several hours have elapsed. This part of networking needs to be done each day, even when you don’t have any promotional posts to make.
So, now consider that I spend up to two hours promotion, two or three times a week, which is what I do for Writing to be Read. You need to socialize daily. I try limiting myself to one hour of socializing online on days I’m not promoting, so I can promote my work, but not appear to be a self-absorbed spammer. Just doing that adds up to ten hours a week.
Most recently, I participated in a Book Release Event on Facebook for the promotion of my recently released western, Delilah. I was one of many authors who did either half-hour or hour long takeover slots in a two night event. In a takeover slot, the author makes posts aimed at both promotion of their own book and entertainment in the form of silly, but fun, party games and giveaways. My investment was several hours in planning and preparation, plus one evening and a partial, and another afternoon responding to comments and contest wrap-up, and it’s yet to be seen if there will be a significant rise in sales which might be attributed to the event.
Of course, it isn’t just Delilah I must promote. I also promote my short story that I have on Amazon, Last Call, and writing that I have in online publications such as Across the Margin and Zetetic: A Record of Unusual Inquiry. And of course, I spend a good deal of time promoting this blog, Writing to be Read. It’s not that I don’t like social media promotion. It allows me to interact with my readers others in the business, and I truly do enjoy that, but it takes a lot of time. That’s time that is not spent writing.
Promotion is a necessary evil to me, and it must be done on top of writing queries and cover letters and submitting completed novels to publishers or agents, and articles, stories and poetry to the publications they might appear in, checking and responding to emails, searching the web and applying for freelance jobs, in addition to holding’s down a full-time day job. And then, I have to find time to live some resemblance of a life. Oh yeah, and somewhere in there, I have to actually sit down and write, both for my freelance jobs and my own stuff, for blog and for sale. And I must find time to read the books I review. So, you see than ten hours a week can be tough.
This isn’t the first time I’ve brought this subject up. In Today’s Authors Wear Many Hats, which I posted back in October, I wrote about the different roles an author must play and how they’ve expanded because of the digital age and the rising trends in self-publishing. Promotion and marketing are just two of those hats, but they’re important ones. Most of us are among the starving artists, and can’t afford to hire someone to do it for us, or spend a lot of money boosting posts to reach more people, and social media is an avenue of promotion which is free, or at least fairly inexpensive.
Bottom line – Promotion and marketing do require that we spend at least a minimal amount of time on them, but as writers, it’s a necessary part of the job. Like the artist, who must sell her own paintings, or convince a gallery owner to display her wares, we must peddle our creations, whether we publish them ourselves, or are picked up by a small press or traditional publisher. And social media is a big part of that in today’s market. Social media drives traffic, and we need traffic, because traffic leads to sales, at least theoretically.
Writing to be Read 
Book Marketing – What Works?: Conclusions
Posted: October 23, 2017 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Book Review, Books, Branding, Commentary, Cover Art, Full Moon Bites, Interview, marketing, Promotion, Writing | Tags: Advertising, Book Blog Tours, book marketing, Books, Branding, PAs, promotion, Social Media Promotion, Street teams | Leave a commentWhether an independent author or traditionally published, it seems most of the marketing and promotion falls to the author in today’s literary arena. Even if we love marketing and don’t find it to be an absolutely harrowing task, we are writers, and time spent marketing is time not doing what we love: writing. We don’t want to waste our time and money on ineffective marketing methods. We want to make our marketing techniques pay off big in as little time and expense as possible, so we can spend more time putting words to page.
In this series, we’ve talked to seven authors to learn what methods of book promotion works for them. In Part 1, I talked with Cynthia Vespia, who chose to go independent after having minimal results with small publishers. She does her own cover art and all of her own marketing. She prefers face-to-face marketing events to social media marketing. While she does do social media release parties and book events, she finds them most effective to increase fanbase, rather than book sales. She says it is more difficult to gauge the effectiveness of social media marketing than it is to see the imediate results of conventions and book signings.
Something which I’ve tried which has been somewhat effective, at least in building my platform, if not in actual sales, are the book releases and book events on Facebook. Even though obtaining a spot in one of these events is free, they do require a lot of preparation for a short little spurt (1/2 hour to 1 hour) for your spot. And I think you’ll get better results if you hang out for at least a while, commenting and playing the games to support your fellow authors and creating visibility. If you’d like to check one out, I’m participating in a special Cyber-Monday event, hosted by Sonora Dawn Studios and DL Mullen, and they are still looking for author particiapnts.
In Part 2, Mark Todd and Kym O’Connell Todd , who are small press and independent authors. Kym does their covers and Mark copyedits their books, and they do all of their own marketing. They promote through blogging and have a YouTube channel, where visitors could watch recordings of their research and ghost investigations. They also have a website and author pages on Amazon and Goodreads. They have found blogging, and social media promotion effective ways to get the word out about their books, but they found in person book readings to be less effective and unpredictable. They advocate free promotions and KDP Select.
On the issue of KDP select, I have my doubts, and author Chris Barili is in agreement with me in Part 6. It doesn’t make sense to limit the venues on which you can sell your book. With KDP select, you must sell only on Amazon, exclusively, which excludes many other venues, such as Smashwords, Lulu, Book Baby, etc… And while I say it makes no sense, both of my books are with KDP select right now. I’ve left Last Call there for now, because I have an idea to do something else with that story, and it doesn’t make sense to pull it off KDP select until then. And with Delilah, it’s really up to my publisher, so for now, I don’t have a choice.
Part 3 featured an interview with Jordan Elizabeth, a small press author. Her publisher handles editing and book covers, but she handles the major portion of her marketing. She’s an advocate of social media promotion. She reports good results advertising with BookBub and Fussy Librarian, and also says book signings are effective.
In 2016, author Nicholas C. Rossis in his post, Call to Arms: Year-long survey reveals which book advertiser offers best value for money, says that at the end of 2016, the best buy for your buck as far as advertising discounted books goes, was Amazon Marketing Services, Book Barbarian, and ENT. But he also notes that these trends fluctuate and advertisers that were rated higher in 2015, may have rated lower or not made his list in 2016. And he notes that Amazon Marketing Service rising from the ranks with unfortold speed.
According to Writer’s News’ list of useful book promotion websites , Write Globe, which claims to be the perfect platform for creative individuals, ranked number one. Also mentioned are Writers.Support, BooksOnline.Best, Noble Authors, 79ads.in, Creative Designers and Writers, ShareNews.live, Earn.Promo, in that order. The last one on their list stuck out for me, because it’s free. As a starving writer, free always has a certain appeal. Another site for free advertising that I found was Authors Talk About It. They run your ad for your book in their newsletter for free and also free book cover contests, and featured author interviews. They ran my interview and made me sound good.
Independent author Tim Baker joined us in Part 4. He started out with small press publishers, but switched over to independent, creating his own brand. He does free promotions and giveaways and finds them to be effective in creating buzz, resulting in future sales. He contracts out editing, formating and cover art, but handles all his own marketing, believing there is no magic formula for selling books but hard work and persistance.
If you are fortunate enough to be able to hire out your non-writing tasks, so you can spend your time tending to the business of writing, there are plenty of sites out there where you can find free-lance service providers. My editing services are offered through The Author Market, and they also offer cover design and book trailers, proofreading, ghostwriting and PA services.
In Part 5, independent author Amy Cecil shared her thoughts on marketing and social media promotion. She hires out her marketing tasks so she has more time to spend on the business of writing. She hires for editing and cover design, has a marketing firm and two PAs. She’s a new found believer in book blog tours, has done a book signing at B&N, and has a street team for creating social media buzz aboout her books. She’s not in favor of free promotions, but loves the exposure that social media has given her.
While Jordan didn’t find review tours to be worth the money it costs of the promotional agencies as her results were minimal. I know a little about them, and I know authors who swear by them, like Amy Cecil. Many of my author interviews are part of the Full Moon Bites Promotions book blog tours. And I know there are plenty of other promotional services which set up book blog tours out there, but it appears the verdict is still up in the air on this book marketing method.
Part 6 features author Chris Barili, who has published both traditionally and independently. While his traditionally published book requires only minimal marketing from him, the independently published books require him to do it all. He has found social media marketing, free promotions and KDP select to be ineffective. What works for him is hard work and persistance.
In Part 7, I interviewed DeAnna Knippling, an independent author who has also developed her own brand and publishing label. She uses an Advance Reader Copy list and newsletters, free promotions, and tries to attract super-readers on Goodreads, testifying to the power of reviews. (Of free promos Knippling says that if it doesn’t generate new sales, it at least generates new readers and that’s worth the cost.)
There is no doubt that in today’s book market, in the world of digital marketing, book reviews are where it’s at. But, honest reviews aren’t always easy to come by. YA author Jordan Elizabeth used her street team for the task of finding reviewers, with mixed results, and DeAnna Knippling has done free promotions on sites like Instafreebie. Free ARCs don’t always garauntee the review. That’s one of the reasons I do honest book reviews here on Writing to be Read, to help promote other authors and their work.
Everybody talks about branding and how you have to have a brand, but it looks to me like branding is something that just sort of happens in many cases, such as my red quill and ink, which began as a social media avatar and has become my logo. In others cases, like DeAnna Knippling and Tim Baker, it’s a purposeful, but still comes almost naturally.
Overall, it seems that different methods are effective for different authors, and in different ways. While social media and free promotions may or may not produce new book sales, it does create buzz, which results in future sales, at least in theory. Although Mark and Kym don’t place a lot of value on social media promotion, Cynthia Vespia, Jordan Elizabeth, Amy Cecil and DeAnna Knippling find it an effective way to build a fan base and get reviews. It seems like face-to-face promotional encounters such as book signings and conferences are a pretty effective way to get your book out there, and free promos pay off if you look at other measures of effectiveness besides book sales. Tim Baker and Chris Barili both put their faith in hard work and persistance, regardless of the marketing methods you chose.
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