David Neth's Blog, page 10

Getting Eyeballs in 2016

My main objection for 2016, at least the first half of 2016, is to get more attention. Nobody knows I exist, and with really only one book out, I can’t really blame them. This year will be focused on telling people to pay attention to me and why they should. Here are a few ways I plan on doing it:

Giveaways – I plan on running a giveaway to coincide with the release of my second book, The Full Moon . Depending how that goes, I’ll do the same with The Harvest Moon in August when it comes out. In November, I’ll do another one for my holiday short story that I released this past year.
Select – I played with Kindle Select a bit with my holiday short story, but this is the first time I’m launching a full-length novel in select. I may only try it for one term (three months) or I might do it for a second and go wide once The Harvest Moon comes out in August. We’ll see how it plays out.
Audio – The response to my first two audiobooks has been great. Now that I have the hang of it and know the process, I’ll continue putting all of my books in audio. It offers a fuller-looking product page and gets my name in more places online for different readers. Plus, I can continue offering giveaways for audiobooks for reviews.
Local – There are a lot of people locally that have shown interest in my books. If I can hook them now, they may continue buying my books for my career. Selling face-to-face doesn’t help my Amazon ranking, but it makes me more money.
Ads – Online and in print (locally). My previous experience with online ads hasn’t blown me away but I didn’t use any paid ads and I only had one book out, so that was likely the issue. This year will be different because my catalog will continue to expand and my options will as well. Hopefully my wallet will follow suit!

The Full Moon is available for preorder. Reserve your copy on Amazon!

Kathy and her sister, Samantha, have always been a team. Throughout their time as witches, they’ve taken out more than their share of bad guys. But after Kathy meets Will, who she learns is a demonic Dark Knight, her loyalties begin to change.

Meanwhile, Samantha doesn’t trust Will or his intentions. Still, Kathy can’t help but feel tempted by the dark side as she falls deeper in love with Will. Crossing over would give Kathy the freedom to do whatever she wanted with her magic. No rules. No limitations. It would also mean breaking the bond she has always shared with her sister, who has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with the dark side.

When Will proposes they take over the underworld, Kathy loves the idea of having power. But it also leaves her with a choice that will change her life: abandon her family and the life she has always known, or give up the love of her life forever.

Year in Review: 2015

It’s very hard to believe that by this time next week, 2015 will be over and it’ll be 2016. I guess it really is true that time goes faster the older you get.

I’ve been waiting for 2015 since I first decided to self-publish at the beginning of 2013 and now it’s come and gone. I wanted to post about the things I’ve accomplished in the year and share my goals for next year. I encourage you to share yours in the comments, publishing or otherwise.

Accomplishments:

Finished  The Full Moon
Wrote The Harvest Moon
Wrote six short stories
Registered as a business
Released  The Blood Moon
Released  Snow After Christmas
Ventured into audio

Most of the first draft of The Full Moon was written in 2014, but I officially finished the first draft on January 2nd. I spent the rest of the spring and the early part of the summer editing it. I now have it up for preorder, with the release date a little over a month away!

A few things came up personally this year that prevented me from being as productive as I would’ve liked in some months, but besides that, I wrote the first draft of The Harvest Moon almost completely in August. I spent the fall working on the second draft and I’m now in the midst of the third draft. Hopefully this whole book will be wrapped by early spring 2016.

Short stories are new territory for me. Before I began publishing, I intended to release a short story between each novel release to up my titles and keep me relevant on the charts…that’s all different now that I’m in the game. I’ve written two in that format (and released one, with little promo and, therefore, little fanfare) before I considered rethinking my release schedule.

The last two books in my Under the Moon Series will take place ten years after the events of the first three books, so I wanted to write short stories to catch readers up on where the characters had been in that time. Four stories for each main character. I was planning on waiting six months to a year to release them slowly, but now I have them releasing monthly at the end of next year, which will hopefully keep me afloat on Amazon’s charts while giving me more time to write the fourth book.

This past year was the year I officially debuted as an indie author. On August 1, 2015, I released my first novel, The Blood Moon. Initially, the response was great: lots of sales, lots of Facebook likes, and even some mailing list sign-ups. I was lucky enough to be interviewed by my local newspaper which spurred even more sales. The downside was that most of these people were friends and family (which is great!) which meant the sales fell off a cliff and flatlined after that. Both a buzzkill and motivation to get the next book out!

Since my second book wasn’t quite ready to launch by the time my sales had completely died (and because I want a consistent release schedule), I released Snow After Christmas, a holiday short story, in November. Christmas material is something that I’ve been eyeing up since I first started researching self-publishing and I think it’s an evergreen way to keep sales up over the holidays. What I wanted to do with Snow After Christmas, though, was to see just how powerful simple marketing was. I didn’t announce it to my personal Facebook page and didn’t book any ads. I just released it. Sales were…basically nonexistent. I had about six preorders and maybe only a handful of sales after that. Nothing too major. Marketing is certainly required and I won’t make that mistake again.

Audio was something I was planning on exploring once I was more established and had a bigger catalog. But other indies on KBoards told me that I should do audio as soon as I can, so I started the process on the release day of The Blood Moon. A process it certainly was! The completed audiobook was released on November 30th, nearly four months after I first initiated the process. Within a week I already had three sales before I even did any kind of promotion. Audio is definitely worth it!

Goals:

Expand my catalog
Focus on getting more eyeballs
Increase my number of formatting jobs
Get my book in physical bookstores
Participate in local events

The first is obvious and something that is certainly going to happen in 2016. I will be releasing six titles next year! All but one will be within my series, so hopefully I can really hook readers and get them to buy all the titles within my series which, of course, will increase overall sales.

One of the biggest surprises I had in 2015 when I first started publishing was how bad obscurity is. Besides my friends and family, basically no one knows I have a book out. My sales graph is certainly reflecting that. So 2016 will be focused on getting eyeballs with more books, more promos, more posts on social media, and finally, ads.

In October I decided to offer my formatting services to authors looking to get their books in print. My rates are actually pretty cheap and I like to think I’m pretty quick with each job. But I’ve really only had one client (who has asked me to do his entire catalog) and I’d like to see that grow. I haven’t discovered a way to implement this, but it’s one of the things I’m going to focus on in the new year.

I know a lot of indies claim that physical books don’t make up a majority of their sales, but mine actually have (dollar-wise). I’ve also had a lot of people ask me where they can get my book. So one of the things I’m going to explore is getting my book into physical bookstores in my area. This might not happen until I have a couple more books out (maybe once The Harvest Moon is out in August), but eventually I’ll get there.

This year I’ve thought of so many places I could’ve been part of an event to promote my books to my community. What held me back was the size of my catalog and my lack of stock. By next year, my catalog will be bigger and I’ll hopefully have enough money to pay for stock in advance. In the end, I’ll actually be making more money selling face-to-face and that’s what really matters. By meeting people directly, I can pass along business cards and explain to them why signing up for my mailing list is a good idea and maybe even convincing them to leave me a review. Again, something to explore.

So those are my goals for the new year. What are some of yours? I’d love to hear them!

The Full Moon is available for preorder and will be released February 6, 2016.

Kathy and her sister, Samantha, have always been a team. Throughout their time as witches, they’ve taken out more than their share of bad guys. But after Kathy meets Will, who she learns is a demonic Dark Knight, her loyalties begin to change.

Meanwhile, Samantha doesn’t trust Will or his intentions. Still, Kathy can’t help but feel tempted by the dark side as she falls deeper in love with Will. Crossing over would give Kathy the freedom to do whatever she wanted with her magic. No rules. No limitations. It would also mean breaking the bond she has always shared with her sister, who has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with the dark side.

When Will proposes they take over the underworld, Kathy loves the idea of having power. But it also leaves her with a choice that will change her life: abandon her family and the life she has always known, or give up the love of her life forever.

 

Snow After Christmas is free for a limited time!

Merry Christmas! As a Christmas gift to you all, my holiday short story, Snow After Christmas, is free for a limited time on Amazon! Pick up your comment and leave a review to let me know how you like it!

A chance moment. A snow storm. And the gift of a new beginning.

Tristan is ready to party and ring in the New Year by kissing his soon-to-be girlfriend, Julie. The only bad note in his rocking night is the growing snow storm. Outside his apartment, he’s almost hit by Grace, the most beautiful woman with haunting green eyes. She’s on her own mission to get home to her grandfather.

In a selfless act reminiscent of the age of knights and chivalry, Tristan vows to get her home…never realizing they are both on a date with destiny and their lives will be forever changed by the SNOW AFTER CHRISTMAS…

Book Review: Bird by Bird

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anna Lamott

It was funny and full of useful tips. My only thing is that sometimes she went on tangents reiterating the same point over and over again when it was very clear the first time. Maybe it’s just me, but those moments made her seem like she was trying too hard to squeeze in a few more jokes or to show off her impressive writing.

What I Found Most Helpful: She emphasized how important simply writing was. Among everything else that comes with the publishing industry, writing is the most important thing to do. Not only that, but she told how a lot of her stories took a while to flesh out. She taught me not to be afraid to spend more time on a story if it requires it.

The Full Moon is available for preorder and will be released February 6, 2016.

Kathy and her sister, Samantha, have always been a team. Throughout their time as witches, they’ve taken out more than their share of bad guys. But after Kathy meets Will, who she learns is a demonic Dark Knight, her loyalties begin to change.

Meanwhile, Samantha doesn’t trust Will or his intentions. Still, Kathy can’t help but feel tempted by the dark side as she falls deeper in love with Will. Crossing over would give Kathy the freedom to do whatever she wanted with her magic. No rules. No limitations. It would also mean breaking the bond she has always shared with her sister, who has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with the dark side.

When Will proposes they take over the underworld, Kathy loves the idea of having power. But it also leaves her with a choice that will change her life: abandon her family and the life she has always known, or give up the love of her life forever.

Snow After Christmas is now available in audio!

My holiday short story is now available as an ebook, print book, and audiobook! The audio is only about 45 minutes long, so if you’re looking for something extra to listen to on your drive to work or as you pedal away at the gym, pick up a copy and let me know what you think about it by leaving me a review (or contacting me directly).

For audible users, please comment or message me if you’re interested in getting yourself a copy. I have 25 free codes to giveaway for this book! The only thing I ask, though, is if you get a free code that you leave an honest review (even if you hate it, write a review). Reviews help future readers decide whether a book is worth their time and gives an extra layer of credibility to a book, so please review!

I hope you enjoy!

Writing Your Back Cover Blurb

Think about your book-buying habits. Whether you’re in a physical bookstore or browsing through Amazon, the first thing that draws you in is an attractive cover. After that, you usually click on the cover or flip the book over to read the back cover blurb that tells you what the book is about. If it’s good, you’re hooked. You add the book to your pile and make your way to the register (or complete your order online and plug in your credit card information — technology, right?).

The problem (as all writers know when they’re asked the dreaded question: “So what is your story about?”) is that these buggers are really hard to write. You need to give a general description while keeping it interesting with details, but not too many details that your readers gets bombarded with information. You need to make your book sound similar enough to another book that your readers will likely have read and liked but still make your book sound unique and different than any other book.

Truthfully, I’m not very good at these. When I first sat down to write the blurb for The Blood Moon (Under the Moon Book 1)[image error]for only 99¢ on Amazon! It’s ebook only, though, but if you prefer to have a written version, go right ahead and pick it up. Gotta%20Read It! - Five Simple Steps to a Fiction Pitch That Sells[image error]The Full Moon is available for preorder and will be released February 6, 2016.

Kathy and her sister, Samantha, have always been a team. Throughout their time as witches, they’ve taken out more than their share of bad guys. But after Kathy meets Will, who she learns is a demonic Dark Knight, her loyalties begin to change.

Meanwhile, Samantha doesn’t trust Will or his intentions. Still, Kathy can’t help but feel tempted by the dark side as she falls deeper in love with Will. Crossing over would give Kathy the freedom to do whatever she wanted with her magic. No rules. No limitations. It would also mean breaking the bond she has always shared with her sister, who has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with the dark side.

When Will proposes they take over the underworld, Kathy loves the idea of having power. But it also leaves her with a choice that will change her life: abandon her family and the life she has always known, or give up the love of her life forever.

The Blood Moon is now available in audio!

The Blood Moon is now available in audio! Pick it up on Audible, iTunes, or Amazon today!

Brother witches Josh and Chris have sacrificed a great deal for their magical responsibilities. Their Aunt Kathy is the only family they have left, and together they must face their enemies to keep them from targeting any more victims. But when Kathy is put in the hospital after an attack, the boys are a witch short.

With the brothers at their weakest, they uncover a growing new power trying to organize the demonic hierarchy. Josh and Chris are left alone to battle an evil stronger than anything they’ve ever faced. An evil so strong it might cost them their lives.

Behind the Book: The Full Moon

Since the “Behind the Book: The Blood Moon” post was so popular, I decided to continue the series for the rest of my books. So here is the story of The Full Moon.

Like The Blood Moon, the ideas for The Full Moon have been with me since I was a teenager. I can’t remember when exactly I got the idea to tell Kathy and Will’s story; it might’ve been while I was writing The Blood Moon (originally titled The Lewis Brothers) or it might’ve been when I was writing one of the former sequels to that first manuscript. Either way, Kathy and Will’s story needed to be told.

At some point after I had written two of the sequels for The Lewis Brothers (I think I was around 17), I started writing Kathy and Will’s story, then titled The Dark Knight. The problem I soon found was that I couldn’t differentiate between Kathy’s story and Josh and Chris’s story. The focus was split too much. I also soon learned that Kathy’s story was an adult story, which I wasn’t yet. Still, I wrote about 80 pages before giving up on that project for six years.

Fast forward to spring of 2014 when I was 22 and had spent many many many years editing The Blood Moon. I was ready to move on to a new project. Frankly, I was pretty sick of hearing Josh and Chris’s story. They needed to be put on the back-burner for a bit while I explored other interests.

Well, the other interest happened to be their aunt. In July 2014 I plotted most of Kathy’s story, basically ignoring the first manuscript, which was flawed, boring, and didn’t represent the new direction The Blood Moon had taken after several years’ worth of editing.

With the new book plotted, Kathy’s story was exciting and had great potential. Still, it needed to be written. It also needed a new title. I had played around with different ideas: The Dark Knight, The Knight Before, or simply Kathy’s Story and none of them represented the body of work I was writing.

After a conversation with my brothers, I decided on continuing the lunar theme that I decided on for the first book. I reworked some details (highlighting the full moon more throughout the book, especially at Kathy and Will’s wedding) and retitled it The Full Moon, which fit perfectly.

With the new title, everything fell into place. I had the idea for the cover in my head as I continued to write and I had a complete vision to Kathy’s story. After reworking the ending a bit to add in more excitement and keep the story consistent, I wrapped up the first draft on January 2, 2015.

The funny thing about writing, at least for me, is that while writing the first draft, you have a lot of negative thoughts in your head:

“This sucks.”

“Have I lost the ability to write good fiction?”

“Should I even continue?”

“This is going to take A LOT of editing! I’m never going to meet my deadline.”

What was surprising to me when I started editing was that the first draft was really good. Of course there were inconsistencies and plot holes, but compared to The Blood Moon, this book read really well. Not only that, but as I got deeper in the edits, I fell in love with all of the characters and the dynamic I created. I kept asking myself, “I wrote this? Damn!”

With newfound confidence, I contacted my copy editor and sent the book to her after I had slaved away on the details (hundreds of scrap pieces of paper included). I was delighted when she returned The Full Moon to me saying, “This was a fun book!”

Yet another sign that I had written a great novel was the number of comments and changes my editor suggested were significantly lower than they were for The Blood Moon.

I went through another few rounds of edits myself, polishing even more details, and continued to appreciate the story. Apparently there is such a thing as the “sophomore slump,” so to speak, for authors too. I didn’t experience that with The Full Moon (maybe because there were eight years between the first draft of Blood and the first draft of Full), but I was definitely intimidated when I started the first draft of my third book! I suppose that’s a good thing and a feeling I hope I continue to have with each book.

The cover process was simple. I used the same designers, asked them to keep the same theme, font, and styling to preserve the series brand. I gave a short description of what I wanted, knew what to include up front, and within a few days they had the design put together exactly the way I asked for it. By the end of that week I was ordering my first printed proof of the book—further cementing the fact that I had written another book.

I could ramble on and on about The Full Moon because I love it so much, but I hope the book speaks for itself. It will be available February 6, 2016. I hope you love it just as much as I do!

Kathy and her sister, Samantha, have always been a team. Throughout their time as witches, they’ve taken out more than their share of bad guys. But after Kathy meets Will, who she learns is a demonic Dark Knight, her loyalties begin to change.

Meanwhile, Samantha doesn’t trust Will or his intentions. Still, Kathy can’t help but feel tempted by the dark side as she falls deeper in love with Will. Crossing over would give Kathy the freedom to do whatever she wanted with her magic. No rules. No limitations. It would also mean breaking the bond she has always shared with her sister, who has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with the dark side.

When Will proposes they take over the underworld, Kathy loves the idea of having power. But it also leaves her with a choice that will change her life: abandon her family and the life she has always known, or give up the love of her life forever.

 

Tips to Build Your Mailing List

Ask any experienced author, self-published or traditionally published, and they’ll tell you that their mailing list is the best way to communicate with their readers. While having a strong social media presence is also important, getting people to willingly give you their email in exchange for updates from you and your writing is the best tool in an author’s pocket.

The thing that’s so powerful about mailing lists is that you control it. You can take it with you if you decide to switch email providers and you don’t have to comply to the social media website’s changes to their posting guidelines or post visibility. You don’t have to worry if a social media site is going to fade out and then you’ll lose touch with your readers (imagine all the marketing dollars spent on gaining Myspace followers…).

But one of the biggest questions asked by newbie authors, myself included, is how do you build a list from nothing? Nobody knows who you are so why would they give you their email? I’ve read several books, blog posts, and forums on the topic and I think I may have found the key to slowly, but successfully, build my mailing list.

The first person on my mailing list (besides me) was a friend of mine from college. From there, I mostly got friends and family to sign up after a few rounds of hounding them. But what about the strangers that are going to sustain your publishing career? How do you get them to sign up?

The truth is, you’re not going to really get anyone before you have at least one book out. That’s a pill you’ll have to swallow, no matter how hard that is. The thing to remember is this is going to take a long time. At least to build a meaningful list. You don’t want to buy subscribers, you don’t want to entice freeloaders to sign up for freebies. You want people who will buy your books when you announce them. Follow the points below to find the right people:

Put a call to action in the back of your book. – The first thing your readers should see when they finish you book is a statement asking them to sign up for your mailing list. With your ebook, make sure this is a clickable link. The more steps a reader has to make to sign up for your mailing list, the less likely they are to complete the process. Make it simple for them and put a hyperlink in your ebook.
Every so often, post the mailing list sign-up on your social media pages. – Don’t bombard your followers with marketing, but keep in mind the reason you created an account to begin with. You should be posting about things in your life other than your books sometimes to remind readers that you’re a real person, but a marketing plug every once in a while doesn’t hurt. This method is admittedly not the most effective way to gain subscribers, but it certainly won’t hurt. Especially if you time it with an upcoming release.
Make it easy for your readers to find the sign-up page. – Put it on your website, in your email signature, on your blog, on your social media pages, use SumoMe to put a sign-up banner at the top of your website and a pop-up asking visitors to sign-up. Draw attention to the sign-up. Make sure it’s “above the fold” of the website. If it’s in your footer, people are going to ignore it.

The same rules apply for your mailing list on your website as they do for marketing on social media: don’t be spammy. If you include a pop-up, set a delay so folks can actually see your page before being asked to sign up. Change your settings so the people who did sign up won’t see the pop-up again. Or at least not for a long time.

Remember to make your pitch enticing. Just saying “Receive my updates” is not enough (although that’s more or less what I do, but I’m working on coming up with more creative language). If you decide to offer a freebie, keep in mind that you may be getting freeloaders signing up and not actual paying customers. Offer a Smashwords coupon or set up a giveaway. They’re still freebies, but subscribers go into it knowing they might not win so you’re less likely to get as many freeloaders.

Follow through with your promise. If you tell people to sign up to receive weekly writing advice, make sure you deliver weekly writing advice. Even if it’s to a subscriber list of two people. Those two people don’t know how many people are on your list, so make it as professional as if your list had two million people.

Don’t entice readers with a promise you can’t keep. I straight-up tell my readers that they’ll get infrequent updates about me and my writing. Some authors would probably argue that’s not the best way to do it, that I should have more frequent emails, but I don’t want to bombard their inboxes with crap. Not only that, but I’m far too lazy to have weekly emails. If I have something to announce, I send an email. But that’s just me. Find your comfort zone and commit to that. Tell your readers what to expect and then deliver it.

This process won’t guarantee an immediate influx of reader sign-ups, but it will ensure that you’ll draw the types of readers you want. With each new release you’ll get a few more readers and then a few more. That means with each release, when you announce to your slowly-growing mailing list that you have a new book out, you’re going to sell more copies the first day and will shoot further up the charts each time, which will bring even more readers. It’s certainly a process, but it’s also certainly worth doing.

Book Review: On Writing

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Straight from the King himself. Reading this book made me feel like a novice, not because he was condescending throughout (although he did have a few rough edges that might rub some people the wrong way), but because his experience showed through loud and clear. Recognizing my inexperience compared to him only pushes me further to learn from him and this book was just the ticket.

Great notes on writing combined with a terrific memoir. A must-read for any aspiring writer. Stephen King proves through this funny and inspiring book why he’s the best around.

What I Found Most Helpful: While other books I’ve read and reviewed discussed the business side of publishing or how to find your style, King offers a more general guide on writing, specifically in the second half of the book. “The road to hell is paved with adverbs” is a common theme throughout. After reading this book, I’ve picked up on the weakness of adverbs in writing.