Jonra Springs's Blog, page 3

Pre-Launch Book Marketing

Your release date, or launch should be proceeded by some publicity to entice sales. The experts recommend getting involved in guest blogging, interviews and any media appearances possible in addition to securing reviews and producing videos and a book trailer. This is more than I planned while executing all that's necessary to publish the book. It will, however, make the rewards of publishing even sweeter. I'm relying on the wealth of information available to authors in this wonderful age of electronic marketing as this is a learning experience for me.
Jennifer Mattern offers a Book Marketing Timeline post on her All Indie Writers blog. She actually has advice starting before you even begin to write your manuscript. For now I'll be concentrating on the promotional activities much closer to the actual launch. My hope is to spring the pilot episode of Eusta Diddoo – Runaway Pony by June 10th to commemorate my parents anniversary. At this point I have less than 3 months.
Mattern suggests first making a calendar to keep track of all your pre-launch activities such as scheduled appearances, interviews, guest posts and such. Then make a list of potential outlets to contact for obtaining these promotions.
This will be a research project on my part as I do not have a clue as to who might be out there looking for new indie authors to interview and who would be open to having one do a guest post on their famous blog. The author community strikes me as being a friendly and open one- as social network contacts go. As a newcomer, it's difficult to think of myself as being noteworthy enough to be the subject of interviews and guest posts. Although promotions are the centerpiece of marketing for this business, and we all need them. Everyone is well aware of that.
Joanna Penn of thecreativepenn.com suggests making friends with contacts by pitching in on promotions in social media for other writers along the way to create social karma. Post a review of a book you enjoy, re-tweet a link to a post or mention someone favorably in one of your own posts. Then you can hope for others to aid your cause in return. This interaction should begin long before your launch.
As I covered in the last post, you should research and submit to book reviewers before the release. This will help your numbers and set off the free promotions your receive from Amazon once the book is published.
In today's electronically supported market, videos are a widely accepted form of advertising. An entertaining video will get shared among friends even if they do not have an interest in the product. I'm going to try my hand at this with the humble means available for starters. That will include a You Tube account with homemade videos using a cell phone recorder. Hmm, hopefully I can pull up such things and laugh at them 10 years from now instead of blaming them for being the demise of my career.
With such video making skills and experience, I believe I'll hire a professional to create a book trailer. Apparently a good trailer can help create interest in a book. The trailer should be tagged with a link to a sale page for those interested in immediate purchase.
Another suggestion is to pre-sell copies at a discounted price. This is where an email list can really come in handy. Send a newsletter announcing a pre-release special price to those on your list to boost launch sales. You may have to rely on paid advertising in the absence of a fan list. Building that list will be easier with a product out.
Another important fact Joanna Penn points out is that the pressure to make launch sales ultra significant is not something an indie author has to be terribly concerned over. The launch is critical for traditional publishing where planned promotions are only lined up for about six weeks after the book's release. It's a make it or break it period that relies heavily on pre-launch marketing. As an indie you can always find new markets and sell more books to groups who never got wind of your initial launch. That's comforting if you happen to be as far behind on these outlined marketing strategies as I am. Good luck!

Thanks for stopping in

- Jonra Springs

Get Your Book Reviewed

One author tells me that selling more books is a matter of getting them in front of more people. Reviews are an important part of that. They not only give your book's description to prospective readers, but also tell them how enjoyable it is. A good review from a trusted source can be what makes a reader decide to buy. I only touched upon this in my last post, so I want to explore it a little further.
The first thing you'll have to do is determine what books on the market are like yours. Check in the genre and read some of the titles until you find a few that are somewhat similar.
Next you have to discover who reviews books like these. It also helps to find good reviews. Someone who loved a book that's like yours may have good things to say about your book as well. You can search similar book titles followed by the word review to find the write-ups and see who wrote them.
There is also a tool available for premium members of the Author Marketing Club to help find them called the review grabber. The premium membership is $149 per year. Some authors claim the review grabber tool alone is worth the fee.
Then go to the websites of these reviewers and read their submission guidelines. Please note that some reviewers do not accept unsolicited contacts. Follow all guidelines to the letter and wait for a reply. Understand that reviewers are busy people so it may take several weeks.
Amazon lists book reviewers for authors. They suggest contacting 300 reviewers with requests in order to get 50 or less responses. They predict about 35 reviews after sending book copies to these 50, and consider that adequate. Note that Amazon does not allow reviews from anyone personally associated with an author for authenticity sake.
Goodreads has a reviewer group for connecting authors to reviewers. Authors can post a description of books and instructions on how to get review copies through a moderator. If your book is sold in the US, then send a copy to the American Library Association for a review. There are separate reviewers for each genre. Read the guidelines and send yours to the appropriate staff member. If your book is accepted, the review will be published in the ALA periodical Booklist, or Booklist Online.There are also paid promotions that send out press releases to reviewers. Book Buzz and Word Slinger Publicity include reviewer notifications in their paid services. These both offer reasonably priced press releases and various other types of advertising.
Another trusted reviewing agency is Kirkus, who promises an honest review that's industry respected. You can receive your review in 7 to 9 weeks for $429. Then you have the option of sharing it with the world, or keeping it a secret.
It is never advised to pay for a favorable review. This amounts to bribery. It's considered cheating the consumer out of an honest representation of your product. Paid reviews are often exposed as such, which discredits the reviewer and sheds a negative light on the author.
Doing a review of your own material is also not advised. Sock puppet reviews, or authors posing as reviewers under an alias, will leave readers with the wrong impression when they are exposed. It's best to accept what you get. Enjoy the good ones and learn from the bad. You would appear immature by responding to a bad review. Not everyone will like what you've written. Expect to get a few dissatisfied customers.

Thanks for stopping in
- Jonra Springs

Promote Your Book

Promotions for your book begin long before you come close to hitting that "Publish" button. In fact it should get rolling before the writing is finished. It starts with blogging and using social networks. There are also many worthwhile organizations for authors. Then there are a few good practices for pre-launch.
Open a blog, if you haven't already. You can put a free site together on Blogger, or use Word Press on a hosted website. Word Press offers more features for writers, but many of us are okay with Blogger- including me.
Your entries will help establish your brand or essentially tell people who you are and what it's like to read something you've written. Use your persona as a humorist, sports nut, evangelist, conspiracy theorist or whatever kind of writer you happen to be.
You can make entries about the steps you take toward publishing, as I have. You can highlight some of your research. You can also use posts to promote and tease your material. Just be sure to give those you learn from due credit with links and references.
Join social networks. Set up a profile on every major network. My current list of must-do networks includes Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, Google Plus, Pinterest, Tumrblr and Instagram for your mobile devices. It's important to have a web presence anywhere someone may look for you. As other network sites become more popular, I'll join them as well. Mind you, I don't expect to be active on all sites. I favor Twitter, but I've listed Goodreads first due to it's importance to authors. This is an exclusive hub for readers and writers. You can use it to discuss the books you like with fellow readers and promote fellow authors in the process. You also have the option of promoting your own books directly to readers and get their reviews. Goodreads helps show off your events, such as new book releases, and gives you options for contests and other advertising.
Despite the fact that you are always marketing in one way or another, I believe it's a mistake to use networking sites purely for advertising your blog and books. They're called social because people use them to communicate. Take time to go through your messages and answer them. Look over other people's posts and chime in with the discussions. Make some friends. It never hurts to pass along something that someone else is promoting.
Join the appropriate author organizations. Select those that educate, provide resources and help promote your type of writing. This may involve more than one genre or condition. I keep active memberships in the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, the American Christian Fiction Writers and the Alliance of Independent Authors. The icons on the right provide links to these. Note that some organizations are not open to self published authors. That may change over time. Meanwhile many such publish their educational information for everyone.
Send your book to the appropriate review sites and review blogs in advance of the release date. Follow the posted outlines for submitting and put your best professional foot forward. Please realize that it is not considered ethical to pay for favorable reviews, or to review your own works.
You have a multitude of options in paid advertising for releases, but don't overlook the free ones. Use Goodreads promotions for new books and make mentions on all your other social networks. Check into the promotional opportunities for members of your author organizations. Alli does international promotions for its members. The Awesomegang website is dedicated to free advertising platforms for authors. In addition to running their own ad pages on facebook and Google Plus, they also list all known free advertising sites and ask visitors to include any they haven't listed. Some of the sites are genre specific.
I wish you the best of results with your promotions. See you on the social sites.

Thanks for stopping in
 - Jonra Springs