Alyce Wilson's Blog: Dispatches from Wonderland - Posts Tagged "promotion"

Spring is almost here, and I'm kicking off my "blog tour." Just like a book tour, that means making appearances in other people's blogs. As an extra incentive, I'm going to hold a contest. Anyone who includes a mention of my book, "The Art of Life," (with the links below) in his or her blog will be entered into a contest to win a free, autographed copy of my book.

Alyce's bookstore: http://www.alycewilson.com/books/

Excerpt from the book: http://www.alycewilson.com/2010/11/th...

Those who make a simple mention will receive one contest entry. Those who do a more extensive entry (such as an interview with me, a longer piece that relates to my book, or a "guest blog entry" written by me) will receive two contest entries. Those who mention me in multiple entries will receive one contest entry per blog entry. I will, of course, give entries to the few people who have interviewed me already.

To enter, post your entry and then share the link with me, either through posting a comment or by sending me a private message.

The contest runs until April 30, after which point a winner will be selected randomly. Feel free to also share information about this contest with friends, family, coworkers, or random people you meet on the street.

Thanks and good luck!

Because I have not yet had time to write some of the requested guest blog entries, I'm extending the deadline for my Blog Tour Contest.

To find out how to win a copy of my book, view the original link in my personal blog.

As many who know me are aware, I have competed three times in an online writing contest called The Real LJ Idol. The first year I competed, I placed fifth out of about 200. The second year I competed, I placed in the Top 25 out of about 250. This past season, I finished six out of more than 300.

Whereas LJ Idol is a grueling competition with twists and turns and weekly votes over a period of more than six months, I'm currently participating in another contest, America's Next Author, with relatively simple requirements. Roughly 220 writers are competing at the moment for a top prize of $5,000, and I'm ranked 83 (up from 131 early yesterday). Still, I've got a long hill to climb if I want to place in the top three.

This is a very different contest than LJ Idol in many ways. Rather than write a different piece every week, which can be in any genre, contestants are only allowed to submit one fiction piece, 2,500 to 5,000 words. Whereas LJ Idol results always came from voting (although the groups who were allowed to vote varied from an open vote to community-only vote, to a contestants-only vote, to a jury-only vote), America's Next Author also incorporates social media mentions. This means that in addition to convincing friends and associates to vote for you, you need to convince them to share the link to your author page, as well.

In actuality, this might be a more realistic real-world model than the voting required from LJ Idol. People may like your writing, but unless you can motivate people to share their interest in your work, you stand little chance of finding new readers. And, as many writers will attest, it's sometimes harder to make a sale to friends and associates than it is to strangers. Friends often take for granted the fact that they can pick up your book sometime in the future. Strangers, however, are more likely to pick up a book the minute it strikes their interest.

As someone who had trouble selling Girl Scout cookies as a girl, this contest is proving to offer valuable lessons in the real-world marketing techniques I need to further my success.

Here's a short video with more information on how to support me in the contest: How to Vote for America's Next Author.

You can read my story, "Dating Safari," at my official page: Alyce Wilson author page

A little more than a year and a half ago (I think), I did a promotional giveaway of my book, The Art of Life, on Goodreads. Sadly, the two people who won the book never wrote reviews. Perhaps they have as extensive a shelf of "books to read" as I do -- gathering dust in the combined office/toddler bedroom.

But recently, I've been reading information about marketing self-published books and, again and again, I've seen people testifying to the power of the freebie. Not only can free copies help introduce readers to your work (possibly convincing them to buy other books), but they can also lead to sales. Some authors talk about how free promotions led to sales, but that the most important part of that equation is to do a lot of footwork prior to the event in order to get the word out about the freebie. So this time, I'm going to try to do that.

I created a Goodreads event so that I could invite my friends and created a similar event on Facebook. Other friends of mine who are authors have created similar events, which was how I got the idea.

I've also been following through on some excellent advice from writer Karina Gioertz, who said she saw a spike in sales after doing her all to promote a free promotion. I've submitted my promotion to the freebie sites she suggested (although some of them no longer exist), and I've scheduled tweets to the Twitter handles she recommends notifying about the giveaway.

In addition, I made up rack cards via Vistaprint, which I will be distributing at Philcon. I also timed the giveaway to coincide with that weekend (Friday through Tuesday, to give people time to get home from the convention and follow through).

Before November 8, I'll be scheduling a number of other tweets promoting the book, including quotes, subject matter and other interesting tidbits that could attract readers.

I'm going to continue to brainstorm for other ways to get the promotion out there as widely as possible. My goal is to give away thousands of books, in hopes that it will lead to both sales and a higher profile for me as an author.

What about you? As an author, have you held a free promotion? If so, how did it go? As a reader, what makes you want to grab a free book?

This weekend I'm trying out the countdown deal option at Kindle Direct Publishing through Amazon.

So today and tomorrow until 6 PM (EST)/3 PM (PST) you can get my book Dedicated Idiocy for just 99 cents. Following that, it will be available for $1.99 and then $2.99 before stepping back up to the usual cover price of $3.99 on December 3. Just head to the book's Amazon.com page.

The earlier you click, the better deal you'll get!

Don't have a Kindle device? Don't worry. Just type "Free Kindle Reading Apps" into Google and select one of Amazon's free apps for smartphones and PCs.

I've never tried one of these promotions before, so I don't know what to expect, but I figured it was worth a shot. Please stop by and get your copy of this fun, colorful look at fandom, friendship and spam.

In the month of December, I tried out Kindle promotions for my two most recent books. Now I have some data and can reflect on the results.

First, I did a free promotion of The Art of Life, my essays and columns book, over Philcon weekend. This involved distributing rack cards at Philcon, sharing the link across various social networks, and engaging in an intense Twitter campaign, with tweets scheduled periodically across all five days.

The end result: I gave away 136 free Kindle versions of the book and, the following week, sold 1 copy at regular price. I also rose to #2 in one of the categories my book is listed in, during the duration of the last few days of the promotion.

Then, over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday/Tuesday weekend, I held a Countdown Promotion of my Kindle-only book, Dedicated Idiocy, a non-fiction/humor book about my time in the Penn State Monty Python Society. A Countdown Promotion offers the book at a reduced price, starting with the lowest price and stepping up incrementally to the standard price. Except for the rack cards, I engaged in exactly the same promotional tactics.

The end result: I sold 1 copy of the book, at a reduced price. Thanks to the way the Countdown Promotions are set up, I still earned 70% royalties on the sale.

This experiment doesn't answer all my questions, of course. After all, it is an apples-to-oranges comparison. The two books are very different, with the essays book potentially having a much broader appeal. (I'm thinking of changing the subtitle of Dedicated Idiocy to "How Monty Python Fandom Changed My Life" since the current title is a bit too esoteric.)

I'll have to wait 90 days before swapping the promotions and doing a free giveaway of "Dedicated Idiocy" and a Countdown Promotion of "Art of Life." When I do that, I'll be able to say which is more effective as a promotional tool.

I'm hopeful that all the free copies of "The Art of Life" will generate my first Amazon.com reviews of the book, since that could drive further sales. Hopefully, getting these two books into the hands of readers will make them more interested in my current work in progress, "Now with Kung Fu Action Grip," a collection of essays, writings and poetry about my son.

Have any other authors tried these promotions via Kindle? If so, what have your results been?