Tag Archive | book marketing

Book Awards (and Reviews!) – Readers’ Favorite

There is still time to enter the 2018
Readers’ Favorite Book Award Contest

Only 3 days left to enter your book – FINAL DEADLINE

Enter your manuscript, published or unpublished book, eBook, audiobook, comic book, poetry book or short story. We offer 4 award levels in each of our 140+ categories, allowing you to only compete against books in your particular genre for a more fair and accurate contest, giving you the greatest chance of becoming an award-winning author!

Chance to win one of $50,000 in free prizes just for entering.
Chance to have your book made into a movie or TV show.
Chance to be published by an award winning traditional publisher.
Chance to be represented by a leading author marketing and PR firm.
Chance to be represented by a leading literary management company.
More features including a book review, award ceremony, and publicity.

When you enter, you automatically get a free review that they post for you on facebook, twitter, google+, Barnes & Nobel, Instagram and Pinterest. They also ask the reviewer to put it on their personal Goodreads account (if they have an account there) and you are able to put excerpts on your Amazon author central page (Amazon won’t let them post a review).

I entered my second Agnes Kelly Series book “Narrow Escape in Norway” this year and already received a 5 Star review! I won’t know if I’ve won anything until September.

“…This story is for all those readers who enjoy suspense, mystery, and adventure. I like the way the author creates secrecy and intrigue around the disappearance of Agnes’ father and pulls readers in to learn what exactly has happened to him. The fluidity in writing gives a good pace and movement to the story and the adventure, suspense, and laughs make the book fascinating to young readers. There is a sense of excitement and curiosity that builds up while trying to find out about Agnes’ father, which will keep readers glued to the book till the very last page. I am sure that, like me, young readers will be waiting for the next book.”

~ Mamta Madhavan

Giving Away Your Ebook – Yes or No

Apr19

The ongoing debate goes on – and for good reason. Like everything in life, the book market changes and so do the companies that service that market.

In the post link below, David Kudler explains various reason to go the free route and various reasons not to. As with most things, it really depends on what works for you at this moment in time. He also explains how to get Amazon to set your book for free, even though they don’t want to. But I wouldn’t go to that effort unless you’re going with perma-free. If you want free on Amazon and you’re not part of their Select program – just do an Amazon giveaway.

Personally, I think the perma-free thing only works if you have A LOT of good reviews for the first book in a book series before you even set it at FREE. (How much is A LOT? – not sure there is a magic number. How many reviews would it take you to pick up a book from an author you didn’t know?)

There are so many ways for readers to get books for free now a days, a free book from a completely unknown (and unread – if you don’t have many reviews) does very little to make a shopper click that button and pick up your book.

That is not to say free for a week or free for a day or book giveaways aren’t a good thing. I think short-term giveaways associated with some other promotion you might be doing aimed at readers you know is a good idea. You do want to get more reviews. But keep in mind, just because you give a book away doesn’t mean you’ll get a review. I’ve given away a lot of books on Amazon and Goodreads and the Fussy Librarian but gotten very few reviews from those. Hopefully I’ve gotten a new reader or two. And it only takes one or two people who read your book to decide they like you and will tell others about you and your book to help get your name out there.

What you can do is set the price for the first book in a series (or a first book in a collection of books you have) at a lower price than the rest. If someone really wants to try your book, $.99 or $1.99 or maybe $2.99 isn’t going to stop them.

And remember, pricing also depends on the length of the book and the genre your book is in. So check out what other unknown authors are charging in your genre to help you decide what to do.

Source: To Free or Not to Free: Giving Away Your Ebook – The Book Designer

Want To Be Interviewed

Mar29

how-to-get-interviewed-blog-header

Writers tend to be shy people (not all, of course), but being interviewed for a broadcast of some kind might be just the things for a shy person.

Getting on a local radio station, podcast, association website… There are various places to get yourself and your writing in front of others. Tom Corson-Knowles offers writers a step-by-step process to getting interviewed.

I was interviewed once on a local radio program and had a great time doing it. Did I see any change in sales after? It was quite a while ago but I don’t remember any changes in my sales, but then the station broadcast reach was quite small. I still enjoyed it and would do it again.

CKBooks Publishing
Where Publishing Dreams Become Reality

Amazon is Cutting Services For Authors

Jan26

Prime Day dents sales at smaller retailers, local firm finds (copy) (copy) (copy)

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Amazon is cutting it’s editing, design and marketing services.

“After a thorough review of our service offerings, we’ve made the decision to discontinue Createspace’s paid professional editing, design and marketing services,” Amazon said in a statement. “We will work closely with impacted employees through this transition to help them find new roles within the company or assist them with pursuing opportunities outside the company.”

Here is a post by Thad Moore on The Post and Courior.

But never fear!!

There are many people out there like me, who work on a freelance basis and can help you edit and design and market your story. I’ve been a member and the Southcentral Wisconsin Chapter Coordinator of the Editoral Freelancers Association for many years now and they are a great group of professionals from across the US (and I think a few in other countries as well) that aim to provide quality services and have the authors interest at heart.

If you need any kind of editing, design or marketing services, walk, don’t run –

to their site and submit a job listing. You’ll get more responses then you’ll know what to do with. And I may just be one of them 😉 Or just contact me directly at christinekeleny@yahoo.com for a quote.

my-image1 CKBooks Publishing
Where Publishing Dreams Become Reality

Everything You Wanted to Know about Self-Publishing But Were Afraid to Ask

Oct27

Mark Coker of Smashwords fame has come out with FREE, yes, FREE apple podcasts on self-publishing. I’ve had a sneak peek at the first 5 (he’s going to have new ones each month) and they are helpful to all authors, whether you have yet to publish or you already have a few books out there.

And who can’t argue with FREE education!

Mark has been working in the ebook publishing world for many years and he sincerely has the author’s interest in mind. This is just such an example of what he’s done to promote indie publishing. So click on this link: Apple Podcast, or the image above and take a listen. It is well worth your time.

my image CKBooks Publishing
Were Publishing Dreams Become Reality

15 Book Publicity Commandments

Aug5

Some good advice from Carolyn Howard- Johnson

If you can’t really afford to spend a lot on a book publicity campaign, carve out some time to do it yourself and apply these 15 commandments.

Source: 15 Book Publicity Commandments | BookBaby Blog

NetGalley Book Review Program: A Case Study

Feb15

I thought this was an interesting and helpful post about the NetGalley Review Program. If you’ve ever considered using NetGalley, this is a post worth reading. I’ve heard many people say “Never pay for reviews.” I’m not sure “never” is always accurate but before you pay for a review from anyone, do your homework to try and find out if it’s worth the money you will be spending.

There are many companies out there willing to take advantage of the struggle authors have with getting their name and books out there. That’s why there are so many different things (and people or companies offering those things) out there telling you their thing is THE thing you need to do, or one of the most important things to do.

I do agree that increasing the number of reviews you have is one of the first things you need to do as an author, but do you need to pay for those reviews. Maybe or maybe not.

See what David Kudler did with his book.

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Most publishers (large and small) struggle with making their titles visible. In the trackless jungle that is the modern book-buying world (the Amazon?), getting your book reviewed is an essential part

Source: NetGalley Book Review Program: A Case Study – The Book Designer

How to Write a Press Release for a Book – The Happy Self-Publisher

Nov27

“You’ve just published or are about to publish a book and you want the world to know about it, right? A press release is an effective way to capture the attention of the media and other organization…” Lois Hoffman

“An effective way to capture media attention”? I’m not so sure. I’ve written and sent out many press releases and have garnered little media attention, and I know I’ve done a decent job with the release.

Are they still a good idea? Yes, mostly because it’s not that hard to do and it is something you want on hand, in case an opportunity comes up for you to use it – like if you have a book launch at a local bookstore or library; and it is another marketing tool that media are used to seeing, so it doesn’t hurt to send it out – especially to smaller, local papers, radio and TV stations. You might get on the morning news program, who knows. I have had to create one at the last minute for one of my books because I didn’t do it initially and I needed it for a book contest I was entering or some such thing.

And the shorter the better. Everyone is busy so keep it simple and concise. Also know that the media may even use parts of the release verbatim (to save them time), so keep that in mind when writing it, along with the idea that the more “news worthy” it is, the more likely the media will pay attention, so change it depending on who you’re sending it to. You might want to say something different to your local paper than to a larger organization you have no particular ties to.

The link below is to Lois’ full article on press release specifics. Check it out!

Source: How to Write a Press Release for a Book – The Happy Self-Publisher

CKBooks Publishing
Where Publishing Dreams Become Reality

Promoting Your Mystery Book on Social Media: A Newbie’s Guide

Apr29

So as you may know, I have a new book out. (Intrigue in Istanbul: An Agnes Kelly Mystery Adventure) What I call and Mystery Adventure. It was written for middle grade (MG) but I tried to write it so adults enjoy it to – many adults tell me they do so I’m hopeful that will continue.

So, of course, I am looking at marketing options for a MG mystery. I have written adult novels up to his point and mostly historical fiction (my published book list is at christinekelenybooks.com, if your curious).

I came across this when checking out blueink for a possible review. The $395 price tag stopped my idea of getting them to review it, but I came across this article on their site and thought other mystery writers out there might like to read it as well. There are a few good links that might be helpful.

Cheery-O!

Source: Promoting Your Mystery Book on Social Media: A Newbie’s Guide | BlueInk Review