Nancy Drew Historical Fiction Giveaway!

Jun18

Since I am in the middle of this marketing stuff, trying to get my new book out there, I thought I’d share my next step in that direction – Goodreads Giveaway.

Having a book giveaway is a very simple way to promote your book and your name. If you aren’t an author on Goodreads, do it now. Goodreads is a wonderful site for authors and readers. It’s an easy way to connect with readers, bloggers, and fellow authors and is very user friendly.

Giveaways help in a few ways:
1) Get people to read (and hopefully) review your book.
The first giveaway I had I think I gave 5 books away. I got three nice reviews out of that (not guarantee you’ll get good reviews, mind you). I am going to giveaway 8 books this time and see if I can up my review rate.
2) You get people to put your book on their “to read” list.
This, of course, doesn’t mean they will actually read it, but you still have their contact information on Goodreads. You can then contact the folks who didn’t get a book and offer them a discounted book (Smashwords allows you to create coupons for ebook that you can discount to whatever percentage you desire.) Or just offer a free ebook in return for an honest review. I haven’t decided what direction I will go with that, myself.
3) It gets your name out there and any time you can do that and for only the cost of your time, do it!
4) It’s another way to reward your blog followers (if you have a blog) or website follows.
Followers are people you need to cultivate and thank.n Word of mouth is powerful! This is one easy way to do that.
5) A way to gain new followers.
If you’ve written a good book and someone reads it (via a book you send them) and they share that book or tell others about your book – Viola! New followers!
Yes, it costs you the price of how ever many books you’re giving away and shipping, but for all the reasons above and the ease of setting up the giveaway, it’s really a no-brainer launch, list must!

And, yes, if you want a chance at a free book, the link should work. Go ahead. Everyone likes free! And I’d love to hear from you! 😉

ckbooksblog

I don’t mean to inundate you with stuff about my Nancy Drew book, but I have to share this bit of news because it doesn’t cost a thing!

For those who would like a chance at a free, signed copy of my Nancy book, just click the Goodreads link below and sign up. I’m giving away 8 free copies between now and July 25th.
And if you’re not a Nancy fan, you might know someone who is, someone who would love to read about the inside (controversial) story being Nancy.

Retweet, face share or just tell your book friends about it too! Who doesn’t like free (no shipping cost or anything!)

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Will the Real Carolyn Keene Please Stand Up

by Christine Keleny

Giveaway ends July 25, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

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What is a galley, and why do you need one?

Jun10

from hansranum.blogspot.com

Thought I’d share this bit of information for those who aren’t sure what a galley or an ARC is and a link to some specifics. And I’m not talking about that kind of galley.

The post is written by Chris Robley, but I think Chris is a bit behind the times. I think a print galley is fine, but I’ve used ebook galleys a lot more often. It’s cheaper for the self-published author and most serious readers have ereaders anyway and like to use them.

Make sending out ebook galleys (and paper books if you like) part of your prelaunch list.

What is a galley, and why do you need one? – BookBaby Blog.

Smashwords: Hit the Ebook Bestseller Lists with Preorders – A Guide to Preorder Strategy

Jun4

If you are not planning on doing this for your next book launch, you need to add it to your do to list. It can be a wonderful way to push your book up in the sales list.

I am going to give it a go with my new book Will the Real Carolyn Keene Please Stand Up, which I plan to release June 30th. I’ll let you know how it goes. Amazon (and Smashwords, strangely enough) doesn’t allow people to order ahead but I created a work around using a Smashwords coupon code. It will require me to keep a running list of Kindle book requests, but I’m not worried about that, since I’ll have the posts on my blog to help me keep the names.

Just an FYI. I asked Amazon about presale for print books. They do do that, but it has to be 6 month from when the book is available. I’m not sure what indie author has a cover set over 6 months before launch. Not me!

Smashwords: Hit the Ebook Bestseller Lists with Preorders – A Guide to Preorder Strategy.

———————————————————————————–

I have attached my presale page so you can see what I came up with for additions to the sale to my new book.

Cover by Earl Keleny and selfpubbookcovers.com

Have you every wondered who came up with the clever, handy, intelligent and fashionable Nancy Drew?

Well now you can find out by reading “Will the Real Carolyn Keene Please Stand Up.”

It actually wasn’t one person who created Nancy, it was three, but there is some debate about even that.

The ebook is on pre-SALE for $2.99 now through June 30th! Come July 1 it will sell for $4.99

Barnes and Noble Apple ibookstore (and soon to be on Kobo presale!)

Note for Kindle Users: Amazon doesn’t do presales for ebooks, so if you have a Kindle and want to take advantage of this sale, leave me a comment to that effect on this post and I’ll give you a code for a discounted ebook come July 1 with the same extras as below depending on when you post your message.

But more than that!

IF YOU BUY THE EBOOK IN
Week 1: between June 1 – 7, and you sign up to get email notices from this blog
(or if you are already a fan of this blog and you tell me in a post that you referred a friend to this blog),
I will give you the paper version of the book for $10! (That’s 40% off the normal cover price of $16- shipping not included)

Week 2: between June 8th and 14th, if you write a review for this book on your favor book site and you send me a link to your review,
I will give you the paper version of the book for $10 and a free ebook of your choice! (That’s 40% off the normal cover price of $16- shipping not included)

Week 3: between June 15th and 21st, and you like my book facebook page (www.facebook.com/ckbooks), I will give you any one of my other ebooks absolutely FREE!

Week 4: between June 22nd and June 30th, if you tweet or share this book or this blog post on facebook, I will give you any one of my other ebooks absolutely FREE!

So tell your friends and pick up “Will the Real Carolyn Keene Please Stand Up” and find the true story behind the Nancy that everyone knows and loves.

Barnes and Noble Kobo Apple ibookstore

(note: the Kobo link is not up as of today, but I’ll add it as soon as it becomes live!)

Amazon’s Hachette Dispute Foreshadows What’s Next for Indie Authors

May27

If you haven’t read about the Amazon vs Hachette (a Book Publisher) dispute, you should take a look at the Mark Coker’s post below.

It seems to me that the agency model of publishing is on it’s way out, but only time will tell what will replace it. We (authors, indie-publishers) do work in a ever-changing field, and that’s going to be the status quo for some time, I’m sure of it.

Smashwords: Amazon’s Hachet te Dispute Foreshadows What’s Next for Indie Authors.

Writer Joke

May22

Saw this and had to share it.

Work

May16

ckbooksblog

from lucian.uchicago.edu

“Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.”
― Studs Terkel

(Hear! Hear!)

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How To Increase Piracy

May12

More good information from David Gaughran. This time he’s commenting about the piracy issue. Take a look.

Six Degrees Of Education

May8

I’m all about education and reading. I donate a share of each book that I sell to an organization that helps impoverished children go to school. so when I saw this, I had to share it.

Six Degrees Of Education.

The Basics of a Book Cover

May6

I gave a presentation recently at the Wisconsin Writers Association Author’s Showcase in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. It was on “The Basics of Book Covers.” I told the participants that I’d share the powerpoint with them so I am sharing it with them and with you, because I like you all so much. Really, I do!

So if you want to learn the basics of what makes a good or not-so-good book cover, click this The Basics of a Book Cover and take a look.

If you are a Wisconsin author, I’d encourage you to join the WWA at their fall conference Oct 3-5. This is the first conference I went to and I met many wonderful authors who were all willing to share and support each other in the work we all love.

(Full disclosure here, and to give those who know more than I do about cover art their due, I gleaned some of my information from my brother, Earl Keleny, who is a professional illustrator and from Dave Bricker of the website: theworldsgreatestbook.com. Earl has worked on 4 of my 5 book covers and always does a wonderful job.)