Category Archives: Marketing

When Life Gives You Lemons

Posted on April 18, 2012 | 4 comments

You’ve heard the old saying, but reactions come in all shapes and sizes. Lately, my reaction has been…

When life gives you lemons, find the guy who planted the tree and kick his ass.

Many years ago I decided I wanted to be an author. I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember knowing how to form words. I love words and stories. I love the way they make me feel. I love the way other people’s words can make me feel. I have written many books and stories, and for the most part, I feel good about them. Sometimes writing is difficult, but I can’t imagine not doing it.

Several years ago, I became a bookstore owner. It was the most glorious day in my life. I remember always wanting to own a bookstore. I love books. I adore books. I think they are among the most blessed things in existence. I loved my bookstore and I loved each and every book in its tiny little space. I did not like the day to day business of it. But I was good at it, for the most part.

Then I became a publisher. The idea of going out and being able to pick the stories that other people got to read, without the stress of having to write them, or sell them enchanted me. Seeing a pattern here? I have been running Echelon Press for more than a decade. Now, like the above activities, being a publisher is quite difficult. The days are long, the stress level is high, and the payoff is very low. But in this case, I cannot imagine not doing it.

Being a publisher is much like being on a roller coaster that dips and curves and rolls upside down, only you don’t get to wear a safety harness. You do get a rope with a loop on the end to hold onto so you can climb back into your seat when the car goes right side up again.

There are those people out there who are asking themselves, “What the hell can be so hard about being a publisher? You get to read books all day.”

Yeah, that”s it. We just read all day. ::snort:: There are so many things involved in being a publisher.

My top five favorite things about being a publisher are:

IRS Audits.
Authors who accuse you of cheating them out of royalties.
Large numbers of bookstores going out of business.
Authors who think their only job is to write, and the rest is up to the publisher.
Retailers who don’t pay for the books they order and sell.

Okay, hopefully you got the sarcasm at the beginning of the list. There are so many other reasons I love publishing. The above list brings to mind the saying I started this post with. But I would be lying if I left it at that. Another saying comes to mind.

Thank God for:

Authors who never stop trying to learn about the industry.
Readers who aren’t afraid to try new authors.
Bookstores that support ALL authors and publishers.
Authors who write the stories from their hearts.
Every person who ever took a chance on something unfamiliar to them.

I meant what I said about the guy who planted the lemon tree, but after you are done kicking his ass, try the lemonade, it’s almost perfect!

4 Comments

Posted in Blatherings, Business, Just for Fun, Marketing, Writing

Facing the Facts of Social Networking

Posted on April 13, 2012 | 5 comments

Hello again. Let’s revisit what we were talking about earlier. I’ve given you my thoughts on GoodReads and Pinterest. You don’t have to agree with everything I say; I do hope that you are at least giving some consideration to my points.

Today I want to talk about Facebook. This is one of those networks that seem to offend the most people with regard to social networking time sucks. Let me start again by saying that it is only a time suck if you allow it to control you. We all make choices and that goes for online activities as well.

As a person, I enjoy the hell out of Facebook. I get up every morning and look forward to turning on my computer. I go straight to Facebook. Have I lost my mind? No, I am just anxious for a few smiles and a friendly word or two. I have a lot of friends on Facebook, and not just people who friend me randomly. I mean real friends. Friends who, despite having never met them face to face, have helped me through some very bad times in my life. I have some others who just make me laugh on a daily basis. The best part of my Facebook account is that I have reconnected with members of my family I had lost touch with, and found others I did not know. It is extraordinary fun.

Now, let’s talk about Facebook for authors. Facebook has one of the largest groups of viewers and a good portion of them are readers. They also have a wonderful advertising venue that isn’t horribly expensive. Just like in any other situation, there are certain rules, unwritten, but important, that should be followed by authors when marketing their books to their Facebook friends.

First and foremost, you must know how important common courtesy is on any social networking site. I encourage you to pay careful attention to the “do unto others” rule. Don’t say or do anything that you don’t want to be remembered for forever.

Pay careful attention to what you post. The Internet is overflowing with religious and political opinions. We all have them, but make certain that if you decide to voice yours on your page that you are prepared for the responses. As an author, you must also carefully consider how your opinions will affect your potential readers. It is not unreasonable to think that you might lose conservative readers when you express liberal views.

This can also work to your advantage. If you take the time to know the people you are friends with (just like in real life), you can use that knowledge to share information with them that they will find useful or amusing. You can use your newfound knowledge to engage fellow knitters, quilters, beaders, singers, hockey fans, dog lovers, etc. Even if these things have nothing to do with your book, it is common ground. It is a way for you to get to know people and make them want to support you. It’s not about manipulating, it is about genuinely communicating with like-minded people.

Facebook is a great place to share the news of your books, your reviews, your Blog tours, etc. The good news is that a lot of people will want to know what you have to say. But be careful how you say it and how often you say it. There are some things you simply do not do.

Do NOT post your promo notes and reviews on other people’s pages or sites. This is kinda like parking your truck in someone else’s front yard.

Do NOT send auto responders with your buy links and web page links to people who ask to be your friend.

And for the love of Pete and Mike, if you set up a Facebook group. Do NOT, I repeat do NOT add people to your group without asking them first. When you set up a group, you will get a link for that group. You can copy that link into a public invite in your feed that will tell people what you want them to know and then let them make their own choice.

One of the most important things to understand about Facebook as it differs from other networking sites is the amount of information that can be shared on it. Twitter has 140 characters, Good Reads is all books, and Pinterest is an image with a link. Facebook can combine all of those things together and so much more. You have more character to use, images, links, and videos. If you abuse these things it will turn around and bit you in the butt.

Social networking is a wonderful thing, and it can be an exceptional marketing tool. Just don’t let it control you and your time. A social networking schedule is not a bad thing.

5 Comments

Posted in Blatherings, eBooks, Just for Fun, Marketing

It’s All Good!

Posted on March 25, 2012 | 4 comments

I said I would work my way through, what I consider to be, the most popular of social networking sites. Today I am going to focus on Good Reads.

Because I know there are so many authors out there who abuse social networking sites for book promotion, I am going to remind you all that these are first, and foremost SOCIAL NETWORKING sites. They were designed to get like-minded people together and socializing–see the connection? In this instance, the topic of conversation is books. Woohoo!

So, with that in mind, Good Reads is the perfect place for us to talk about our books. Notice I did not say promote our books. So what the hell is the point? I know that’s most of you are thinking. The point is to promote our books. Whoa baby, confused? Your head spinning? Promote your books; don’t promote your books. ACK!

This is where you get to show how creative you are. Like any social networking site you should be developing those ever-popular relationships with readers on Good Reads. Don’t just sign up and blast all your new friends with snippets and excerpts on your books.

Here are a few suggestions on how to let readers know about your books.

Talk to them.
See what they are reading and discuss those books
Find readers who read in your genre.
Find readers who share your interest in topics.
Set up a discussion group for yourself and your books.
Set up an author page.

All of these things are quite simple, but totally useless if you don’t follow through on them. Do NOT ask a public question and then never respond to those who answer it. You need to converse with them. Interact. I promise it won’t kill you, despite what the media says to the contrary.

Before I go into the direct options for authors, please note how IMPORTANT the interaction with readers is. Don’t just blast people with your books. Let the programs do the work for you while you talk about books with the other readers.

Post the books you are reading.
Post your reviews when you finish a book.
Add books you’d like to read.
Randomly look at other peoples pages and comment on their reviews.

The key to interacting is to communicate with others. I know, we are often solitary creatures, but we alone will not make our books best sellers. We need readers to buy our books.

Good Reads Author Program http://www.goodreads.com/author/program

The first thing you should do if you plan to promote your book is to set up your Good Reads Author page. After you have done that, then you can look into all these other things.

Good Reads eBooks http://www.goodreads.com/ebooks

For those of you who only have eBooks, there is a section where you can upload books for giveaway (use your freebies). You can also use this section to put up excerpts for people to read and get a taste of your style.

Good Reads Giveaways http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway

You can also do giveaways on Good Reads. You decide for how many copies and for how long people can sign up. I don’t suggest giving away large quantities, but it is a GREAT way to get attention.

Good Reads Events http://www.goodreads.com/event

This is a good one. I am a HUGE fan of events and I think more authors should find ways and places to do them. We don’t need no steenking bookstores to do events. The more unique, the better. But my point here is that Good Reads has a section specifically for posting your events. How cool is that?

Good Reads Self-Serve Advertising http://www.goodreads.com/advertisers/ad_home

Advertising a book has never been so easy, or inexpensive. I am on my second ad and while it was a not a huge success, I know of four books I sold because of the ad and I spent less than $10.00.

MOST IMPORTANT TIP!

Don’t be an asshat on the social networking sites. Don’t go blasting in with your book promotion and expect everyone to give a hoot. They won’t. Subtly goes a long way and since Good Reads gives us so many opportunities to promote our work, the only thing we really need to do is to get to know the readers so they know to go look for our stuff.

You can set up your account to post an update when you post a article on your Blog. You can also make sure that when you post a review it goes up on Facebook and/or Twitter. This gives you a little extra exposure without having to actually go to Facebook and get sucked into the cute kitty pictures.

Promoting through social networking doesn’t have to be hard and certainly doesn’t need to be a time suck. But like anything in life, you will only get back what you put in. Of this you can be sure.