Cindy Dees's Blog, page 13

3 Weeks to Hot Bayou SEAL!

The countdown begins to hot suspense, hotter sex, and smoking hot romance in Hot
Bayou SEAL. Ford Alambeaux is a busted up SEAL on his way out of the teams, and
Trina Zarkos  is being tossed out of SEAL training, just like every other woman
who has tried to complete the course. That is, until they sent on a WAY off-books mission to see if she can play with the big boys after all.

4 Weeks to Hot Intent!

And while we’re counting down, it’s 4 weeks until the release of my next single-title romantic suspense, HOT INTENT. Former spies, Alex and Katie, just want to settle down and raise their daughter. Forced out of retirement by a mission so hot no one else can handle it, they’re sent to Cuba in the aftermath of a major hurricane. But when both the FSB and CIA decide they’d be better off apart…or dead, the mission goes from hot to volcanic!

UNDERSTANDING ALGORITHMS

One of the hardest parts of being in the publishing industry is keeping up with the technologies. Words like propagation, impressions, metrics, or click-throughs were never part of the writer’s working vocabulary until very recently. Now we’re all having to be amateur marketers and computer geeks.



An area many authors are not aware of is understanding the algorithms big social media sites and retailing sites use. How do they decide who gets advertisements about your book, or even who sees your posts? It’s technical, it’s dry, and it’s hard to digest. But it’s also vitally important to you as a writer.

With millions of writers attempting to sell books, everyone is desperately trying to find ways to rise up above the seething masses and achieve…wait for it…another new writer word…discoverability. Which is to say, how will you be found by potential readers?

One of the MOST important ways for you to be seen is to figure out how to work the various algorithms to your advantage. I can’t promise to turn this into a series of articles, but as I run across interesting and useful information in my own study of the algorithms, I’ll be sure to share it with you.

An algorithm I’m making a concerted effort to work with is on Facebook. And here’s how I’m going about doing it:

As all of you area no doubt aware, Facebook now does not share all of your posts with all of your friends and followers (unless you pay to boost your post!). So, for example, if I write an article here about a writing topic, only about a quarter of all my writing colleagues on this page will actually receive it on their FB feed.

This puts the onus on each of you to stop by here periodically to see if I’ve posted anything new. Most of you have already figured out that I tend to post around once a week. Which means, you may stop by here every couple of weeks. Realistically, you’ll catch some of my posts some of the time.

Not ideal.

So how can I fix this, and how can you fix it for your friends, followers, and rabid fans?

I now copy every article I write on FB to my website, here. Then, on my website I have installed a very nifty widget. (oooh, another one of those modern geek words) If you go to my website just once and click on the little, red “read more” link to ANY article there, you will jump to that post and see a prominent spot where you can sign up to receive a very short email notification any time I make a new post to my website. You should be seeing a big box at the top of the page right now with a space for your email address and a big, green subscribe button.

This means you’ll know any time I post a new article and won’t have to remember to come back here or go to my FB author page to check and see if I’ve posted a new article. I’ll tell you when it’s time to come here or hop over to FB page to catch new content.

Stuff like this may seem trivial to you. But it is SUCH a competitive marketplace for writers these days that every little thing you do to make it easier for your friends/fans/readers to find you matters. A lot.

Oh, and here’s another thing that pesky Facebook algorithm means. It’s valuable to train your friends and followers to like every post of yours that they’re willing to. The more likes an individual post gets, the more people it gets shared with.

Take note of my last three FB posts, for example. I wrote an article on getting your electronic house in order before you break out into author stardom. A REALLY important topic where I shared some good advice. 16 people liked the original post and 651 people saw it. My duplicate post fed over from my website has 5 likes and 194 people saw it. My most recent post (hilarious if I do say so myself) has been liked by 176 people and 2826 people have seen it.

Algorithms matter. Like it or not, you have to drill down and wrap your brain around them.

I guess this is the part where I get down on one knee and beg you to consider subscribing at the top of this page to get notifications whenever I make a new post, then. And while you’re at  it, feel free to drop by my FB page www.facebookcom/cindydeesauthor and like this post!

GET YOUR E-HOUSE IN ORDER!

Have been on a crushing series of deadlines, in the midst of which I'm doing the biggest online promotional push of my career to date. I have been lucky to be invited into a 12-author mega-set of military romances about SEALs. (It goes on sale July 22nd, by the way.) Many of my fellow authors are bestsellers with a TON of publishing and marketing experience. Working with them has felt like drinking from a fire hose.

The single biggest lesson I've learned so far is to get my electronic house in order BEFORE my career really shifts into high gear. I was partially there, but from these REALLY organized authors, I've realized just how much more I needed to do. By the way, all of the suggestions I'm about to make apply equally to print authors, e-authors, and self-published authors.

What exactly does getting your e-house in order mean, you ask?

It means having your website completely up to date, with a fresh look, a steady flow of new material populating it, all the links working, current bio, complete booklist with ISBN's--number one reason people visit author websites is to find their books--so make that easy, and active buy links on the site.

It means having chosen how you're going to do your newsletter. I use a website that generates newsletters and manages mailing lists. There are many excellent ones. Find one you like. Email is the number one way people communicate these days. You'd be crazy not to develop a e-mailing list for sending out news, information, and marketing material to your readers and fans.

Oh, you have no reader/fan list yet? Start building one! Now! This is an area I've been sadly lacking in, so I've signed up with an online contest manager to give away prizes for me for the next several months in return for the entrants to the contests signing up for my email list. The contest site is genre specific to the books I write and generates thousands of names over several months.(It's not cheap, but I'm paying to make up for my lack of knowing to do this earlier.)
You don't have to give away books on these contest sites. You can give away gift cards or electronics or something else relating to your books.

Even at the very beginning of your career, there's no reason not to start aggressively building your newsletter list. Every time you make a public appearance, at a book signing or a speaking engagement, set out a sign up sheet for your newsletter. Collect business cards and throw those people onto your mailing list. Collect names and email addresses EVERYWHERE.

Everywhere you have an online presence, you should have an active link to sign up for your newsletter. It should be on your website, author pages at book retailers, in the back matter of your ebooks, on your blog, etc.

Become one with a URL shortening website. I use www.bitly.com and customize the names of each short link to show what it is. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, visit bitly and poke around. You need to know about sites like these.They make putting newsletter lists and buy links easy and manageable.

Whether you like them or not, and whether or not you use them, you should have an account in your author name on every major social media site. If nothing else, block out your name so a Ukranian porn site doesn't grab it and use it once you get famous! You may not use a particular platform now but may find you use it later in your career, or that your publicist/publisher wants to use it in your behalf.

Regardless of whether or not you use each social media platform, your bio should stay current on that platform, along with a complete booklist, buy links to your books (if they're allowed), and a link to your newsletter.

Set up your various electronic platforms to cross-pollinate one another. When I make a blog post to my website, it automatically propagates onto several other sites, which saves me time and increases my exposure. You'll see a double posting of this article on this page, in fact. I find that on FB, my fellow writers prefer to read the original article and not link through to my website to see the full article, so I do both. I actually compose the article here, then copy it to my website and let it propagate from there to a half-dozen other locations.

Guest blog now. You should develop a list of friendly bloggers who like you, your books, and your genre and who are happy to have you guest blog on their sties whenever you've got a new book coming out. These relationships take time and effort to develop. Do not wait until you're in a promotion panic to find these people and cultivate relationships. Help them out now; they'll help you out later.

Meet and schmooze reviewers now. Same as with bloggers, meet the important ones to your genre and make friends with them. Do anything you can to help them out now. They'll be worth their weight in gold later.

Develop a list of your rabid fans right now. Ask them down the road to read and review your books on the big book retailer sites. Reviews are VITAL in increasing your sales. You may as well stack them in your favor and make sure you're actually getting reviews. Even if this list starts at five or six people who are your friends and neighbors, EVERY REVIEW COUNTS. Build this list aggressively over time.

Start developing a list of free and paid sites that promote the kind of book you write. These can be review sites, promotion sites like BookBub, paid advertising sites, or free lists that send out freebie book deals. Try to find out the size of their distribution list, what they cost, and what it takes to get onto their site.

These are by no means the only things necessary to get your e-house in order, but they're a start. The bottom line is, do EVERYTHING you can to be ready to hit the ground running when it's time for your next book to come out and for you to promote the heck out of it.

http://bit.ly/HotAlphaSEALs

GET YOUR E-HOUSE IN ORDER!

Have been on a crushing series of deadlines, in the midst of which I’m doing the biggest online promotional push of my career to date. I have been lucky to be invited into a 12-author mega-set of military romances about SEALs. (It goes on sale July 22nd, by the way.) Many of my fellow authors are bestsellers with a TON of publishing and marketing experience. Working with them has felt like drinking from a fire hose.

The single biggest lesson I’ve learned so far is to get my electronic house in order BEFORE my career really shifts into high gear. I was partially there, but from these REALLY organized authors, I’ve realized just how much more I needed to do. By the way, all of the suggestions I’m about to make apply equally to print authors, e-authors, and self-published authors.

What exactly does getting your e-house in order mean, you ask?

It means having your website completely up to date, with a fresh look, a steady flow of new material populating it, all the links working, current bio, complete booklist with ISBN’s–number one reason people visit author websites is to find their books–so make that easy, and active buy links on the site.

It means having chosen how you’re going to do your newsletter. I use a website that generates newsletters and manages mailing lists. There are many excellent ones. Find one you like. Email is the number one way people communicate these days. You’d be crazy not to develop an e-mailing list for sending out news, information, and marketing material to your readers and fans.

Oh, you have no reader/fan list yet? Start building one! Now! This is an area I’ve been sadly lacking in, so I’ve signed up with an online contest manager to give away prizes for me for the next several months in return for the entrants to the contests signing up for my email list. The contest site is genre specific to the books I write and generates thousands of names over several months.(It’s not cheap, but I’m paying to make up for my lack of knowing to do this earlier.)

You don’t have to give away books on these contest sites. You can give away gift cards or electronics or something else relating to your books.

Even at the very beginning of your career, there’s no reason not to start aggressively building your newsletter list. Every time you make a public appearance, at a book signing or a speaking engagement, set out a sign up sheet for your newsletter. Collect business cards and throw those people onto your mailing list. Collect names and email addresses EVERYWHERE.

Everywhere you have an online presence, you should have an active link to sign up for your newsletter. It should be on your website, author pages at book retailers, in the back matter of your ebooks, on your blog, etc.

Become one with a URL shortening website. I use www.bitly.com and customize the names of each short link to show what it is. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, visit bitly and poke around. You need to know about sites like these.They make putting newsletter list sign-up and buy links easy and manageable.

Whether you like them or not, and whether or not you use them, you should have an account in your author name on every major social media site. If nothing else, block out your name so a Ukranian porn site doesn’t grab it and use it once you get famous! You may not use a particular platform now but may find you use it later in your career, or that your publicist/publisher wants to use it in your behalf.

Regardless of whether or not you use each social media platform, your bio should stay current on that platform, along with a complete booklist, buy links to your books (if they’re allowed), and a link to your newsletter.

Set up your various electronic platforms to cross-pollinate one another. When I make a blog post to my website, it automatically propagates onto several other sites, which saves me time and increases my exposure. You’ll see a double posting of this article on this page, in fact. I find that on FB, my fellow writers prefer to read the original article and not link through to my website to see the full article, so I do both. I actually compose the article here, then copy it to my website and let it propagate from there to a half-dozen other locations.

Guest blog now. You should develop a list of friendly bloggers who like you, your books, and your genre and who are happy to have you guest blog on their sties whenever you’ve got a new book coming out. These relationships take time and effort to develop. Do not wait until you’re in a promotion panic to find these people and cultivate relationships. Help them out now; they’ll help you out later.

Meet and schmooze reviewers now. Same as with bloggers, meet the important ones to your genre and make friends with them. Do anything you can to help them out now. They’ll be worth their weight in gold later.

Develop a list of your rabid fans right now. Ask them down the road to read and review your books on the big book retailer sites. Reviews are VITAL in increasing your sales. You may as well stack them in your favor and make sure you’re actually getting reviews. Even if this list starts at five or six people who are your friends and neighbors, EVERY REVIEW COUNTS. Build this list aggressively over time.

Start developing a list of free and paid sites that promote the kind of book you write. These can be review sites, promotion sites like BookBub, paid advertising sites, or free lists that send out freebie book deals. Try to find out the size of their distribution list, what they cost, and what it takes to get onto their site.

These are by no means the only things necessary to get your e-house in order, but they’re a start. The bottom line is, do EVERYTHING you can to be ready to hit the ground running when it’s time for your next book to come out and for you to promote the heck out of it.

http://bit.ly/HotAlphaSEALs

 

ORGANIZING YOUR WRITING BUSINESS

It's not enough just to write books in today's publishing industry. Like it or not, you will be running a small business if you pursue publishing books.

You can get organized on paper or you can build elaborate computer spread sheets. But I'm here to tell you a shoebox of receipts and notes on sticky pads ain't gonna cut it.

I recommend highly that you get organized NOW before all hell breaks loose in your career. It's murder being as busy as heck and trying to develop a system for tracking everything...and writing and doing promotion and self-publicity...and learning the business...and sleeping.

Here are a few organizational tools that I could not survive without in no particular order:

1) Book Production Tracking Spreadsheets. I have one for my print published books with traditional publishers, and another one for tracking production of my self-published books. They are VERY different animals--the things authors need to do in each type of publishing stream are completely different.

2) An expense tracking sheet for self-publishing. I do one for each book I work on during a year. Makes taxes easier.

3)A bookkeeping program for recording all writing-related income and expenses and automatically generating a Profit and Loss Statement for tax purposes.

4) A reviewer list: These are long-time, loyal fans who love my books and have volunteered to get advance reading copies of my books and post reviews within a day or two of their release on various websites.

5) A Vendor List: This has contact info for all the various contractors I use to produce a book--cover artists, developmental and copy editors, business card guy, book mark printer, promotion firms, t-shirt guy, you name it. When I see a great piece of work or get a glowing recommendation from someone I trust, I add that vendor to my list. If my usual person can't do what I need, I have a quick back-up without having to do a ton of research.

6) A file with all my official author photos, all my covers, cover flats, banners, and thumbnail images in it and clearly labeled. I keep my most current bio with this stuff, too, because if I need my bio, I probably need some pictures, too.

7) A spreadsheet with the name, hair, and eye color, and general description of all the main characters of my books. You'll be shocked how often you refer to this after you've written a few novels, particularly if you write series.

8) A spreadsheet with all my titles, publication dates, and ISBN's, sorted by series. Another list I go to all the time.

9) A list of all my self-published ISBN numbers, Bowker numbers, and BISAC codes for each self-published book.

10) A list of media outlets (i.e. radio stations), bloggers, review sites, magazine editors, etc. to contact when I have a book coming out.

11) A back-up copy of my Mail Chimp mailing lists. I keep these because I'm paranoid that I'll lose these lists someday. They're worth more than gold to me.

12) A PAPER list of all my user names and passwords related to my writing.

13) Contact List of writers: I keep emails and phone numbers of all my writing friends and acquaintances. I use it to ask quick research questions, get advice, or just vent.

14) A calendar/appointment book/app. Write down every deadline or due date the moment you learn of it. You won't believe how many little details will come along that are SO easy to let slip through the cracks. The devil's truly in the details in keeping airborne all the balls you will have to juggle.

I'm emphatically not a natural list maker, but my life is a hundred times easier if I have a place to drop pieces of information as I get them, and to retrieve pieces of information as I need them. It's also vital to step back now and then and look at the big picture. What deadlines are coming up, where are the converging crises down the road that you need to start minimizing now? Spreadsheets are a great visual snapshot of what's racing toward you.

Whatever organizational tools you use, the key is to use them from the very start, tweak them to fit you perfectly, get comfortable with them, and use them faithfully. The day will come when you're so busy you can't see straight, and only these lists will keep you on track when your career gets hot and heavy.

And yes, that's a great problem to have. But make no mistake: successful writers pretty much without exception work their TAILS off. And they HAVE to work efficiently. You might as well develop that efficiency now since huge success is just around the corner for you!

ORGANIZING YOUR WRITING BUSINESS

It’s not enough just to write books in today’s publishing industry. Like it or not, you will be running a small business if you pursue publishing books.

You can get organized on paper or you can build elaborate computer spread sheets. But I’m here to tell you a shoebox of receipts and notes on sticky pads ain’t gonna cut it.

I recommend highly that you get organized NOW before all hell breaks loose in your career. It’s murder being as busy as heck and trying to develop a system for tracking everything…and writing and doing promotion and self-publicity…and learning the business…and sleeping.

Here are a few organizational tools that I could not survive without in no particular order:

1) Book Production Tracking Spreadsheets. I have one for my print published books with traditional publishers, and another one for tracking production of my self-published books. They are VERY different animals–the things authors need to do in each type of publishing stream are completely different.

2) An expense tracking sheet for self-publishing. I do one for each book I work on during a year. Makes taxes easier.

3)A bookkeeping program for recording all writing-related income and expenses and automatically generating a Profit and Loss Statement for tax purposes.

4) A reviewer list: These are long-time, loyal fans who love my books and have volunteered to get advance reading copies of my books and post reviews within a day or two of their release on various websites.

5) A Vendor List: This has contact info for all the various contractors I use to produce a book–cover artists, developmental and copy editors, business card guy, book mark printer, promotion firms, t-shirt guy, you name it. When I see a great piece of work or get a glowing recommendation from someone I trust, I add that vendor to my list. If my usual person can’t do what I need, I have a quick back-up without having to do a ton of research.

6) A file with all my official author photos, all my covers, cover flats, banners, and thumbnail images in it and clearly labeled. I keep my most current bio with this stuff, too, because if I need my bio, I probably need some pictures, too.

7) A spreadsheet with the name, hair, and eye color, and general description of all the main characters of my books. You’ll be shocked how often you refer to this after you’ve written a few novels, particularly if you write series.

8) A spreadsheet with all my titles, publication dates, and ISBN’s, sorted by series. Another list I go to all the time.

9) A list of all my self-published ISBN numbers, Bowker numbers, and BISAC codes for each self-published book.

10) A list of media outlets (i.e. radio stations), bloggers, review sites, magazine editors, etc. to contact when I have a book coming out.

11) A back-up copy of my Mail Chimp mailing lists. I keep these because I’m paranoid that I’ll lose these lists someday. They’re worth more than gold to me.

12) A PAPER list of all my user names and passwords related to my writing.

13) Contact List of writers: I keep emails and phone numbers of all my writing friends and acquaintances. I use it to ask quick research questions, get advice, or just vent.

14) A calendar/appointment book/app. Write down every deadline or due date the moment you learn of it. You won’t believe how many little details will come along that are SO easy to let slip through the cracks. The devil’s truly in the details in keeping airborne all the balls you will have to juggle.

I’m emphatically not a natural list maker, but my life is a hundred times easier if I have a place to drop pieces of information as I get them, and to retrieve pieces of information as I need them. It’s also vital to step back now and then and look at the big picture. What deadlines are coming up, where are the converging crises down the road that you need to start minimizing now? Spreadsheets are a great visual snapshot of what’s racing toward you.

Whatever organizational tools you use, the key is to use them from the very start, tweak them to fit you perfectly, get comfortable with them, and use them faithfully. The day will come when you’re so busy you can’t see straight, and only these lists will keep you on track when your career gets hot and heavy.

And yes, that’s a great problem to have. But make no mistake: successful writers pretty much without exception work their TAILS off. And they HAVE to work efficiently. You might as well develop that efficiency now since huge success is just around the corner for you!

Win HOT INTENT before its release!

Howdy gang!

My publisher started a contest yesterday to give away 25 copies of my August book, HOT INTENT. You’ll get the book several weeks before its release date, and by the way, it’s a sexy romantic thriller and a heck of a fun read!

Two spies, now retired and raising their young daughter, are sent together on a covert mission to Cuba…each with a secret mission: spy on the other person. Sex and danger, suspicion and betrayal, explode onto the page in a life-and-death struggle of love and war.

You know you want to win it. It’s just a few clicks and bits of information to enter and have a great chance to win! Here’s the link:

http://bit.ly/1l5GIEP

Goodreads Giveaway--25 books!

Howdy gang!

My publisher started a contest yesterday to give away 25 copies of my August book, HOT INTENT, here on Goodreads. You'll get the book several weeks before its release date, and by the way, it's a sexy romantic thriller and a heck of a fun read!

Two spies, now retired and raising their young daughter, are sent together on a covert mission to Cuba...each with a secret mission: spy on the other person. Sex and danger, suspicion and betrayal, explode onto the page in a life-and-death struggle of love and war.

You know you want to win it. It's just a few clicks and bits of information to enter and have a great chance to win! Here's the link:

http://bit.ly/1l5GIEP

Hot Alpha SEALs? What’s THIS?

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m finally writing a new military series, and it’s about the first female SEALs! That’s right. The Medusas’ Navy counterparts are about to hit the street. Coming July 21st in a big, exciting bundled e-book edition with 8 New York Times Bestsellers contributing stories. And yours truly will be writing the first in my new series about Female SEALs. Color me stoked!

The 12-book, 12-author anthology is called Hot Alpha SEALs, and my series is called the MisFITS. Book #1 is titled Hot Bayou SEAL, and it lives up to the name. It’s hot, there’s a bayou, and there are two SEALs, not just one!