Tag Archive | marketing

What’s Transmedia?

Good question! I had never heard of it, but it makes sense, even more so with the upcoming generation who are used to multimedia interactions.

So what is it?!
From what I gathered from Tom Denver’s interview with Houston Howard (and I’d encourage any storyteller to read it – not just screenwriters), it’s using different ways – different forms of media – to engage your audience in your story. Some of the engagement is to make money and some is to engage your audience. And which forms of media or interaction you use depends on what works best for the story. The skies the limit!!

Houston Howard

Source: Interview with Houston Howard, Transmedia Instructor at The Los Angeles Film School – The Script Lab

Book Promotion: Do This, Not That – October 2016

Oct19

Amy Collins gives us some good advice about planning ahead related to book marketing and sales, not something I am particularly good at. I also want to add, it has been my experience that libraries also tend to budget quite a bit ahead, so if you want to offer a writing program, or “How I Self-Published My First Book” workshop, or a book reading/sale, you would want to contact libraries now. Many will be planning for next year about now.

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Amy’s post:

October already? How the heck did THAT happen? Another month of great marketing and sales successes to be had. Let’s get started with this month’s three tidbits of book promotion experience:

Source: Book Promotion: Do This, Not That – October 2016 – The Book Designer

How To Write Fascinating Amazon Book Listings

Feb4

Karon Thackston gives some good advice about how to better describe/list your book for any site, really. I particularly like the power words. But all her examples are of non-fiction books and

non-fiction authors. I wish she had picked fiction examples. That’s a harder book to sell.

How To Write Fascinating Amazon Book Listings.

Christine Keleny – CKBooks Publishing
Where publishing dreams become reality

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.

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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!)

How To Market Your Book To The Locals – Four Secrets

Apr18

Kristen Eckstein wrote this post on the Future of ink website and I think she made some very good points. I’ve done some of these very things, and I’m always coming across different local and state events (not necessarily just for books) that support local artists. I find that many artist events are willing to let self-published authors participate. Why not, we’re local, we are in on every aspect of the books creation (we don’t have to be the illustrator or editor to claim these things) and I personally think writing is an art. Ask anyone who loves to read but can’t write a good grocery list!

How To Market Your Book To The Locals – Four Secrets.

40+ Smart Strategies To Grow Your Blog With Pinterest

Mar19

I saw this post and was intrigued. I’ve heard about using Pinterest for your business but hadn’t gone any further than that. Pauline Cabrera of Twelveskip lays it all out, so if you want to give it a try, now’s the time to do it!

40+ Smart Strategies To Grow Your Blog With Pinterest.

Online Conference Around Self-publishing – IndieReCon

Feb18

It is the second (and I would guess, annual) IndieReCon Feb 25 – 27, starting at 10 a.m. EST. If you are an self-published author or you’re looking to go that route, I would recommend tuning in – besides, it’s Free! Here is a description from their website:

What is it? IndieReCon is a FREE, ONLINE conference designed to help any writer or author who is curious about the ins and outs of Indie publishing. Are you curious about Indie publishing, but don’t know where to start? Or are you already a published Indie author looking to boost your sales or expand your reach?

They have lots of good speakers (Berry Eisler, JA Konrath, Rachel Aaron, Chelsea Fine and Chelsea Cameron…) and giveaways including a Grandprize giveaway for your ebook submission. Here is the schedule if you want to check it out. And the link for the home page: http://www.indierecon.org/

Who knows, you might learn a thing or two!

Terry Cordingley: Day 15: Selling Books at Fairs and Festivals

Sep4

Now is about the time to start signing up for those fairs and festivals that frequently occur in the fall. Terry Cordingley has some ideas about the subject that I thought you might like. I have found that craft fairs can be fairly profitable affair for a book seller. You are frequently the only person selling books so it’s a nice place to stand out.

I think it’s handy to have a smart phone with a credit card swiper at these sales – the folks at these sales have only have so much cash and they are much more likely to buy your book(s) if they can use credit. I use the free paypal swiper. Make sure it works for your smart phone before you got to the sale. I had to change phones to get mine to work. I should have had the swiper with me when I bought the phone but I didn’t. Live and learn.

Anyway, sign up and go to any fair or festival you can get to. It’s a great way to get your name out locally.

Terry Cordingley: Day 15: Selling Books at Fairs and Festivals. Thanks for the reminder, Terry!

Top Book Marketing Strategies (?)

Aug3

Kathleen Page says Endorsements, Guest blogging and email marketing are the three best strategies. I’m not sure this is a very helpful list for indie authors.

Endorsements – How easy is it to get other – well known – book endorsements? Not very. First, you have to be able to contact a well known author or publication, then you have to have them read your work, or at least part of it. Not an easy, if impossible, task if you don’t work with a agent or publishing house that has a reputation. I was actually able to contact a fairly famous author once because she lived by my in-laws. She gave up doing endorsements, so I was out of luck.

Guest Blogging – I have done guest blogs on quite a few sites and it might have given me a sale or two but that’s about it. I haven’t been impressed by this mode of marketing. I will continue to do them because I think they are an OK way to get your name out there, but not a great way to get sales, in my opinion.

Email marketing – I’ve read this numerous times, that this is the best way to market, but I really don’t like sending out “Buy my new Book!” email to people. I have and I will continue to do this because it might help my sales a bit, and I only do it every years or so when I come out with a new book, but I don’t like doing it because I personally don’t like getting these types of emails. People say that newsletters are the best way to market via email which is better than just a Buy my Book email, but takes A LOT more time, time that I don’t have. With a newsletter, you have to come up with content not related to selling you stuff 97% of the time and 3% of the time you can actually tell your subscribers about what you’re selling. (the percentages are made up, by the way). This, to me, is not a good investment in my time.

Anyway, those are just my opinions. Read what Kathleen has to say and decide for yourself.

The Savvy Book Marketer.