Tag Archives | marketing

The power of FREE – does it work?

By on June 21, 2012 in publishing industry, social media

For years, businesses have always offered freebies to lure you in, sample their product, and hopefully buy more. But does it work for authors? Or are we undervaluing our work and our art?

The Indelible authors have proven over and over again that going free works. Some of us have seen tremendous benefits and other just fantastic benefits. But either way, the power of free brought more visibility to our books, which then resulted in more sales for the paid books. And often, going free with the first book in a series, not only brought short term results but long term results too.

And I’m not talking about using Kindle Select but the authors working to go free on Amazon long term.

My short story The Almost Assassin finally went free a couple days ago! Yay! Click through the below picture for Amazon or click on the link to Smashwords on the sidebar.

A teen attempts to follow in the family business but a beautiful “spy” may be be his downfall making him The Almost Assassin.

In this short story, you’ll experience Malcolm’s point of view leading up to his first date with Savvy – the date that ended in disaster! You’ll also find a longer sample of A Spy Like Me.

If you’re looking for some great reads here are some freebies from the Indelible authors:

Short Stories:

Mind Games by Susan Kaye Quinn
Before by Jessie Harrell
Unspeakable by S.R. Johannes

Novellas:

Day Of Sacrifice by S.W. Benefiel (First of a six part series)
Blood and Snow by Rashelle Workman (free for a limited time)

Novels:

Ethereal by Addison Moore
Bound by C.K. Bryant
Clockwise by Elle Strauss
Anathema by Megg Jensen
Sleepers by Megg Jensen
Into the Shadows by Karly Kirkpatrick
Running Wide Open by Lisa Nowak
Beautiful Demons by Sarra Cannon
Watched by Cindy M. Hogan
Glimpse by Stacey Wallace Benefiel
The Soulkeepers by G.P. Ching
Exiled by Rashelle Workman
How To Date An Alien by Magan Vernon
Loramendi’s Story by Angela Carlie

Grasping at Eternity (Karen Hooper is offering her book free in exchange for honest reviews!)

I’ve seen lots of debate about FREE books. Of course, going free doesn’t always work. It helps to have a network in place to help spread the word through Twitter and Facebook. It helps to have the series completed or near completed. And it helps if you start with a professional product and well written story.

So what do you think about all the free books? 

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Results of the reverse blog tour.

By on May 31, 2012 in publishing industry, social media

Publishing is changing fast and so is the way we market books! I chose to do a reverse blog tour.

Many writers who choose to publish independently are faced with choosing marketing strategies. Do you do the blog tour or not do the blog tour? Because there are a lot of opinions out there.

It’s a given that if you publish traditionally and are starting out that a blog tour is a must because sales in the first few weeks are crucial. A burst of sales is terrific for any book but with self publishing we have time for a story to build and spread. Blog tours are optional. Marketing is even optional – if you want to risk it.

Here are the different scenarios I’ve seen:

  1. Author rarely blogs or promotes. Book takes off.
  2. Author works her butt off to market and promote and it pays off with decent sales but as soon as the marketing stops, the sales decrease dramatically. It never took off.
  3. Author completes every marketing act known to mankind and never reaches the desired sales count. (Not to say that it won’t happen later.)

These factors got me thinking while I looked at my goals. I wanted to complete the first draft of the sequel to A Spy Like Me before summer vacation started. I realized that blog tours were a lot of work and it was all about me and my book. AND a blog tour and all the work involved don’t always translate over to sales.

But I really wanted to do something to celebrate my debut release.

So I decided on the reverse blog tour. I wanted to celebrate my genre, promote my brand and build awareness of A Spy Like Me. So I asked a mix of authors and bloggers to guest post for three weeks.

Results?

  1. I had fun because I wanted to do it.
  2. My blog hits definitely went up.
  3. I helped celebrate and promote authors and bloggers I like.
  4. I introduced new authors and books to readers.
  5. I introduced readers to A Spy Like Me.

Goals accomplished.

Not to say I won’t do a traditional blog tour in the future. In fact, this fall when How To Survive Ancient Spells and Crazy Kings releases, I plan on organizing one.

What marketing strategies do you see that work or don’t work? How might you change it up?

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An Indelible’s Beach Bash with lots of books!

By on May 20, 2012 in murder and mystery, social media

So I was chatting with my Indelible buddies one chilly afternoon and we realized that a bunch of us had new releases of novels, novelettes and short stories. So it didn’t take long for a promotional event to spring up.

Starting tomorrow (Monday), we’re holding a giveaway where you can win an ereader of your choice: Nook or Kindle.

But guess what? It will be loaded with the Indelible’s new releases! Woo hoo!

  1. Visit the Indelibles Website between May 21st-May25th. (Starts Monday)
  2. Follow the chain of links to each of the blogs on the hop.
  3. Collect the secret word from each blog.
  4. Submit the secret sentence for your chance to win.

I’m also announcing the re-release of The Almost Assassin: the short story prequel to my novel. It includes an excerpt of A Spy Like Me.

Summary: A teen attempts to follow in the family business but a beautiful “spy” may be his downfall making him The Almost Assassin.

This is my gift to all of you! Download any version from Smashwords for FREE!

(The story will be 99 cents on Amazon and Barnes and Noble until they price match.)

Good luck winning the ereader! And return here all this week for guest posts and giveaways from S.R. Johannes, Jennifer Hoffine, Becca Puglisi, and Gina Robinson!

My secret word is “on”. And the next stop is Lisa Nowak!

Party on! It’s almost summer!

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How do you use Facebook? And is it effective?

By on February 8, 2012 in social media

Thoughts about social media have been rumbling through my head lately. How much is necessary? Which ones are most effective? Do we do them just because we’re told we should? There’s a list now of what? Like 50?

Here’s Sierra Godfrey and a bit about what she thinks.

But of all the social media outlets I use, Facebook has been the most troubling.

Facebook’s main problems, in my opinion, are two things: privacy and accounts. Facebook forces anyone who wants to have a public face (by public I mean published author, celebrity, or anyone else in the public, accessible domain) and still interact with people on a personal level to have Fan pages, which are clunky to use and administrate. Worse, if you want to interact with a certain set of people, like say colleagues and coworkers, and also keep a separate set of people like your drinking buddies, you can’t.

Facebook will probably be the first to tell you that they aren’t built for people with public and private lives–like authors–and yet authors and businesses use it. They have to. Well, MySpace certainly isn’t doing anyone any favors! It’s against Facebook’s user policy to have two accounts, so you can’t even try to keep separate circles through accounts. It’s a huge failing in my opinion, and why I no longer use Facebook for my writing social media.

Recently I read this article by Andrew Keen about Facebook’s “creepy” mode of revenue, which consists of sharing our personal data to advertisers. Keen argues passionately that “the impact of Facebook on our privacy is deeply worrying…Many other people are now worrying about Facebook’s cult of radical transparency and its willful disregard for privacy.”

Later, she goes on to say:

This is certainly something to think about–and if I’m honest, it’s been simmering at the back of my mind for some time. It’s why I refuse to “allow” any apps to access my private information for any reason on Facebook, ever. It’s why I no longer use  Facebook as part of my public online footprint–Sierra Godfrey the writer. It just doesn’t afford me the kind of inner and outer sharing I’d prefer. For my private use of Facebook, I don’t engage in any apps that access my info, and I have delisted myself from public view. But is Facebook ever really private?

Read the full article at her blog.

How do you use Facebook? It seems if you want be an author on FB then you have to let it all hang out. No privacy. Or do fan pages solve that problem?

How effective are FB fan pages?

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Non traditional ways to market.

By on February 3, 2012 in social media

On Wednesday, we talked about how I stumbled upon the realization of what marketing means to a traditional publisher.

Money. (I’m sure that maybe there is more to it. This is what I see.)

Money goes a long way when it pays for television and social media adds, arcs, floor displays, book tours…etc. But there is also the back money or money the publisher has invested in their brand. They have FB fans, email subscriptions, author and reader sites for teens…etc.

Most indie and self-publishers don’t have that kind of access to such immediate broad exposure.

So what are we to do?

Traditional ways

Yes there is blogging and all other social media networks you choose to participate in like FB, Google+, Triberr, Goodreads, LibraryThing, forums, and newsletters. And don’t forget blog tours.

Branding. (Such a huge topic that I’m not going to get into it here. I’m still learning.)

SEO Optimization.

Please just Google it. All I know is that it has to do with incorporating your keywords in social media so your site shows up on the first page with Google searches.

Networking and forming your tribe to help you get the word out.

Short stories and novellas that help promote your novel.

Anthologies.

Blurbs. (Not sure how effective this is.)

Arcs/reviews.

As a self-published author this is a huge advantage. Use the coupons at Smashwords to garner reviews and exposure before your release.

Querying book bloggers. (Those that accept self published novels.)

Non-traditional ways

Wattpad.

A place where anyone can post their work, chapter by chapter. (It might gain you fans but I’m not sure if this actually translates to sales.)

Tagging and meta-data.

This is all about choosing smart tags to describe your novel, choosing narrow categories on Amazon so your novel gets seen.

Pixel of Ink and paid advertising sites.

Expensive but has lots of potential, for these sites have lots of followers.

What some authors might not think about.

If you only have one book out, it seems smarter to write more and promote less. Wait until your whole trilogy is out to pay for the ads or go free or do the 2 month blog tour.

The only proven effective marketing:

  • An excellent story and good writing. Your story has to have a market and readers.
  • Writing and getting the next story out there.

All the other items are icing on the cake.

(This is info I’ve decided upon after reading many blogs by more experienced authors. I’m sure after I publish and market and promote my first novel, I’ll have a better understanding of what works for me and how to do these things! Writers are creative and need to tap that to find ways to market and promote. And ask fellow authors what they did!)

Have you seen any cool marketing ideas?

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