What Works – Online Marketing Symposium

What Works – Online Marketing Symposium

Hosted by Arlee Bird, Yolanda Renee, Jeremy Hawkins, and Alex J. Cavanaugh.

As an author, we want people to find and enjoy our books. That means placing our books where people can find them. Not just any people, either – our target audience. And there are a lot of ways you can do that!

Blog tours – Visit blogs with large followings that cater to your genre’s readers. Also look for new blogs outside of your circle of blogging friends.

Websites – Write an article or ask if they would be interested in reviewing your book.

Goodreads – Do a giveaway.

Twitter parties – A set time with a specific hashtag where you talk about your book in conversation/interview style. You can get someone to host one or be featured on a regular chat.

Word of mouth – Have friends announce your book’s release. Ask and encourage those who like your book to post a review or let others know they enjoyed it.

Newsletter – Let your fans know you have a new book or that one is coming.

Conventions and conferences – This is an offline thing, but you can announce these events online and promote them. You can make an appearance, either selling your book or as a speaker, or the convention can give away promotional materials for you. (Many have freebie tables or giveaway bags.)

Get involved – When you’re involved in the online community, more people will find your site and your books. (So make sure they are in your sidebar and featured on a separate page of your blog.)

These are just a few suggestions – I know there are many more cool ways to get your book in front of your target audience. Please share your ideas in the comments or sign up and join the Online Marketing Symposium today.

Be sure to visit others for some awesome marketing ideas!

Best Practices for Self-Publishers

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Digital self-publishing has been an exciting development for writers. We’re able to connect with readers without worrying about the cost or logistics of distribution. We have complete control over our pricing and product. This is an industry that’s changing quickly, but the best practices for self-publishers remain the same:

Take our time. Strong writing will be our book’s best advertisement. Beta readers can help us determine any weak spots. If you need more information on a writing-craft topic, the free Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine can help you learn more about plotting, characterization, pacing, and more.

Have our book professionally edited. Beta readers are helpful, but nothing beats a good editor.

Consider getting a professional cover designer. Unless we have talent, time, and a good image manipulation software, a designer is worth the money and will help attract readers to our books. The free Ebook Services Directory is a good place to start, if you’re looking for a professional to help you with your book.

Upload the ebook to every format available (and, later, print and audio, if the book enjoys good sales). Although Amazon’s Kindle remains the most popular, don’t forget to upload your files to Barnes & Noble. Uploading a file to Smashwords ensures that your ebook is distributed to multiple types of e-readers. If your book connects with readers and shows strong sales, consider moving into print, using a service like CreateSpace. Now audio is also available to self-publishers, through the distributor ACX.

Find a social media platform that we enjoy most and build a community there. It’s important not to spam potential readers…instead, we should develop relationships online and support others.

Play with pricing. Opinions on the “right” price for ebooks changes frequently, but running our own experiments can help us sell books and increase our visibility on online retailer sites.

Write the next book. Ultimately, moving on to our next book is the most helpful thing to do. Not only does having more books ensure more visibility and help promote discoverability by readers, but it helps us improve.

What tips for self-publishers can you add to the list?

Elizabeth S. Craig writes two mystery series for Penguin Random House and self-publishes another. She shares writing links on Twitter as @elizabethscraig.

A Creative Ramble

You are wrapped in the golden silence of a ceiling-to-floor booklined study, hunched over the oak desk on which 50-odd pages of your latest manuscript are spread out...

A cool pine-scented breeze wafts gently through the open window. From the third-floor level, you can soak in the green landscape and distant mountain peaks.

Pen poised in mid-air, you and your muse in perfect harmony, as your mind collects a myriad of images, all restless and impatient, waiting and hoping to be chosen as “the one”, the next popular idea for the epic story unfolding. You examine the next idea...

SCREECH!

Your eyes pop open. The rancid smell from your neighbours overfried lunch assaults your senses, while the brat screaming at the top of his lungs eliminates every trace of the verdant pastures!

POOF! 

                                                              

Creativity gone – in a puff of smoke (and that’s from the jalopy that has backfired in its tenth attempt to get going!)

Goodbye exotic writing location!

Hello blank Wordpress document...

The myriad of images scatter, scared away by the string of vocabulary which has been unleashed by Brat Mama, who appears determined to compete with the toddler, in the Who-Can-Scream-The-Loudest category. New images pop up. They flood the creative well. This includes the mouthful that may be delivered to Brat Mama, censored words that are far removed from the epic world of the booklined study moment. But wait. Some of these thoughts are good. Mmmm, can’t rule them out completely. There could be some gems hidden amongst that batch. Great ideas for that scene on conflict.

Okay, back to the Word document. Type a few sentences. And then... blank. Meanwhile, the screeching contest has subsided. Desperate for a few more writerly ideas, you entertain a fleeting moment of madness... maybe the screeching contest should continue... there’s a need to wrap up the conflict scenes. Ha! The muse refuses to budge!

So what next?

I think that the essence of creativity doesn’t really take place in front of the computer, or hovering over a blank sheet of paper at the oak desk. It’s all around you, every day. It takes place in the totality of your day-to-day life, everything that has happened before you actually sit down and face that blank page.

All life experiences contain numerous creative moments, story possibilities which are waiting to be shaped into workable ideas and then put down onto paper. You have to be aware of your surroundings – all the time! It’s in the snippet of dialogue at the supermarket checkout point, that billboard image you pass everyday, a classified newspaper advert, that obituary that brings your character to life. And you need to explore different ways of doing things - for example, make contact with somebody you’ve never met before, interview a journalist, street artist, video game designer...

There are hundreds of places where characters are lurking, waiting to be found. For example, you need never be stuck with character ideas again. Find inspiration by checking out 365 encounters with strangers HERE. And remember, that’s only one example.

So watch the world go by.

Look around you.

Connect with people.

And listen.

The story ideas are there, all waiting to be snatched up.