Home » 2016 (Page 7)
Yearly Archives: 2016
How to market your books & attract new readers with a blog #repost
From Matt Banner.
As writers, all we want to do is practice our craft in peace, but there’s more to being an author than simply pumping out new books left and right. We need to engage with our readers and produce content for them to read between major releases. A blog is the perfect place to do just that.
Today I’ll show you how to start a website you can use for your promotion and for engaging your readers. Then we’ll take a look at an infographic designed to give you new and exciting information and tools to help elevate your writing to new heights!
Read more:
http://katetilton.com/market-books-attract-new-readers-blog/
Why free is still a smart marketing strategy @storyrally #repost
by Jason Kong, @storyrally
If you’re wondering whether not charging for selected stories is benefiting your promotional campaign, you’re not alone.
With all the free writing flooding the internet, it’s harder to stand out. Even if someone downloads your free eBook, your fiction is competing with all the other stories on that person’s digital reader.
Given the ubiquity of free, it’s reasonable to question whether the market is saturated, thus reducing the effectiveness. I, on the other hand, believe free still works.
Let’s take a closer look on why that is.
http://elizabethspanncraig.com/4541/why-free-is-still-smart/
The power of your email list #repost
Imagine the feeling of sitting back and watching the sales flood in for a book you’ve only just launched – and all you did was send a quick email.
Sound too good to be true?
Not a bit of it. This is what thousands of best-selling authors do all the time. The secret is their author mailing list.
Continue reading at:
Use Calibre to Create EPUB & MOBI Versions of Your Book #repost
It’s difficult to pack a library on a motorcycle, even with a sidecar.
Though I love print books I’m so often on the road that it’s more efficient to use my Kindle Paperwhite as a personal portable library for work and for pleasure. Authors send me advance reader copies (ARCs) for blurbs or review and books for possible publication with Misadventures Media. I wish they’d send me a MOBI file but, though it’s easy enough to do, they don’t even know where to start. So I ask for a Word doc and create it myself in about 15 minutes. Sometimes I put it off, though, and forget. So, no blurb. Sorry!
Please don’t put your potential reviewers in that position. It’s actually pretty easy to make your own EPUB and MOBI files using the free Calibre eBook conversion and management tool. It should take you about an h
– See more at: https://www.bookworks.com/2016/06/use-calibre-to-create-epub-mobi-versions-of-your-book/#sthash.xJjZQxbR.dpuf
https://www.bookworks.com/2016/06/use-calibre-to-create-epub-mobi-versions-of-your-book/
#BookPromotion on #Wattpad
Good reading 📚
Last November, I was finally convinced to try Wattpad. 
Then, later in the same month, I wrote about Wattpad being a special “social media” platform for writers.
That was early in the game…
I had a relatively small number of folks I followed and there were some following me…
I have four books there; and, will soon have a fifth—one of my books, my novel, was getting reads and comments and all was productive and fun…
Then, last month, my novel jumped from 1,ooo to 2,000 reads and my followers jumped from about 300 to over 1,200.
Today, I have 3,200 reads on the novel and nearly 2,000 followers…
What happened was Wattpad decided to Feature my book.
Suddenly, being on Wattpad is “work” yet very welcome and productive work.
Back in November, my novel was being read in…
View original post 173 more words
[@IndiesUnlimited] Mailing Lists and Advanced Readers and Bookfunnel, Oh My! #repost
 |
|
In my years as an Indie publisher, there have been a number of schools of thought as to what it took to be successful. In the salad days of 2012, the advice was, “Do a free run, then sit down and wait for the Brinks truck to back up with your money.” Those were good days, almost certainly too good to last. Since then, the advice has ranged from “write in a series and make the first book free” to “drive sales through Facebook ads,” to “use keywords and sharpened metadata to drive traffic.” Through it all, though, one thing has been constant: you need a mailing list.
What do you need to be prepared on #SocialMedia? #Hardware #Documents #Authors #BookSellingTechnique #Video
It’s Friday and It’s that time again! Periscope!
Check me out live at 4pm EST.
What do you need to be prepared on social media? #Hardware and #Documents
A phone
Most of us get caught up on this. We think we need the latest and greatest phone in order to make it on social media. That’s not true. I’ve done miraculous things with that old Nokia brick phone. I do suggest you have at least an Apple5 or Samsung5 to make it. If you haven’t connected to the cloud for storage do so. Try to save as little as possible on your phone in order to keep the operating system running smoothly.
Other Hardware:
A nice size bag that can fit your laptop, tablet and tripod. I bought a tripod that’s works magnificently and fit my budget. CLICK HERE. If you shoot with your phone, you want to get a cell phone holder for the charger. CLICK HERE. And if you shoot with your tablet, CLICK HERE to get a charger.
Documents
Speaking of the cloud, in the 21st Century every social media prepared author and writer needs to have an account in the cloud. Whether it’s iTunes or Google Cloud, having a way to store files, photos, videos and audio clips is very important. Since you do a lot of social media from your phone, being able to store files, retrieve repeated texts and post regular pictures you want to add to your social media all the time is very handy and time saving.
Software:
100 word bio – There’ve been many times I’m in a group or on Facebook and I see someone needing to feature an author today. Someone canceled, they forgot to schedule and the world is coming to an end, BUT if you can send your bio and picture with social media links you could be featured for free in the next hour. Bam! In my 100 word bio, I have ONLY A HUNDRED WORDS THAT WORKS GREAT! I also have all my social media links and related links as well. One file is awesome.
Pictures – On my phone I have a SD card that saves up to 64Gigs of space. The phone itself saves up to 36Gigs, so I’m very good on space, but I do have a file on my SD card named promopics. I add pictures of myself, video thumbnails, book covers and even backgrounds I can work with when I’m doing quotes or making video on my phone.
Book files – If you only have one to three books, you can actually add this information to your 100 word bio file. Since I have over 37 books, I needed a book file. I created this file on my computer and then uploaded it to Google docs. In the file contains all my books in order, a quick subtitle and a link to where the book is sold on my website and where the book is sold on Amazon (I try to use my affiliate links in the file to shorten the URL.)
Promo File – This file is used to copy short status messages I can schedule on a monthly basis to my social media schedule software. I go through monthly and clean out expired posts, while adding more. I usually range abut thirty to fifty status messages that can fit in all the accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram.) This files saves me so much time when I’m just sitting around waiting for a child.
Hashtag document – This is so no matter what you post, you should have at leave 10 blocks of hashtags with that post.
Two words I can say that makes me absolutely adore these files – Time Saving. I implore you to please make these files up these weekends and have them on you.
Happy 21st Century marketing!
To see more 21st Century marketing, check out two videos that will help you.
21st Century Marketing –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vLTQBpK6CQ
Ways to market your book to double your sales –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYCXGt6u1X8
What could you add to the list?
What other ways are you technically challenged?
What is your literary challenge for the month? #marketing #writing #reading #publishing #July
I’m always available to answer questions for you because it may be the questions millions of other authors are trying to get answer and the answer we come up with could help not only you, but others as well.
If you’d like just a private consultation, click here.
Now, HOW CAN I HELP YOU? (Leave your response in the comments)
Creating a Universal Amazon Book Link – A quick tip
This is an awesome marketing tool for the Superstar author!
I recently ran a free book promotion weekend for one of my books. I experimented with placing a Facebook ad that reached out to multiple countries, not just the U.S. My dilemma with doing this is that I didn’t have a way to post all of the links for the various Amazon sites in other countries on my ad without it looking clumsy.
I searched for a way to create a universal link for my book. A universal link, when clicked by a potential reader, is designed to take them to my book on the appropriate Amazon page for their country.
I couldn’t believe how easy it was to do this at absolutely no cost. The site I used is called Booklinker. You can find it HERE. It’s very easy to use. Just paste the URL for your book from any country’s Amazon site in the field as shown:
View original post 91 more words
[Indies Unlimited] Maximum Effort, Minimum Profits for an Author Event
Maximum Effort, Minimum Profits for an Author Eventby Kathy Rowe |
Sometimes, despite the best planning and execution, stuff doesn’t go right. As an indie author, you should always keep this in mind. It’s especially true when doing book events. In March, I attended a large local comic con. Deciding that wasn’t enough punishment (we minions are hard-headed!), I signed up for one in Louisville, the Derby City Comic Con, which is three hours from my home.
Comic Cons are a longshot for authors because most folks are there to see celebrities and get comics. Not many are looking for their next great novel. But it’s a good venue to meet and greet thousands of people and hopefully get your name out there. Despite the March con being financially painful, I thought I’d take lessons learned and see if I could shave $$s off this one. The price for the booth was $100 less than Lexington, which made me happy. I already had bookmarks, business cards, a banner, and a good stock of books. My illustrator invited me to crash on his sofa (he lives in Lexington and Louisville is roughly 1hr 20min away), so I’d be driving more, but not having to pay for a pricey hotel. And I’d stocked up on munchies so I didn’t have to buy expensive concession foods. I thought all was going to be good. Read more of this post
How To Ebook 