Andrew Lamb's Blog
April 5, 2014
Free Signed Book Giveaway
Hi all, been a while since my last blog.
I've just launched Serpent of the Tyche which mixes a couple of my favourite topics, namely Greek Mythology and Genetic Engineering.
With all the fuss and confusion these days over promotional tools, I decided on a different approach. Give a signed book away to the first review on Amazon (for each Amazon domain) and another to the best review overall.
It has picked up a fair amount of interest. It isn't a case of whoever can publish a review first wins, rules are in force to prevent flimsy reviews like "I like this book".
With Amazon countdown, I've dropped the price to 99p from £3.50.
I shall report back when the results come in.
tinyurl.com/sott-UK
I've just launched Serpent of the Tyche which mixes a couple of my favourite topics, namely Greek Mythology and Genetic Engineering.
With all the fuss and confusion these days over promotional tools, I decided on a different approach. Give a signed book away to the first review on Amazon (for each Amazon domain) and another to the best review overall.
It has picked up a fair amount of interest. It isn't a case of whoever can publish a review first wins, rules are in force to prevent flimsy reviews like "I like this book".
With Amazon countdown, I've dropped the price to 99p from £3.50.
I shall report back when the results come in.
tinyurl.com/sott-UK
September 18, 2013
The Structure of a Viral Tweet
Hi all,
My last blog was a little long (ironic considering it was about the benefits of twitter). This is a part of that blog which discusses the structure of an informative and potentially viral ad....
You can’t write your synopsis and publicise your novel in a single tweet, or can you? This is the structure I like to adopt.
Relevant Hashtag x3 / Novel Name / “by” / twitter name / Synopsis or tag / short url / additional info + relevant twitter names
Looks simple doesn’t it? But 140 characters? Okay, watch and learn
“#Paranormal #thriller #ebook. Dispatchers by @doc_lamb. Vengeance will be Unleashed. http://bookShow.me/B00BNJAW6E. Cover by @sandra_giles”
Now let’s just dissect this tweet.
1. The searchable hashtags - Paranormal thriller ebook – the category of the novel. Paranormal is a popular subject, thriller is descriptive of the type of novel and ebook is the availability.
2. Dispatchers by @doc_lamb. Pretty much self-explanatory although Dispatchers is only part of the title. Dispatchers – Vengeance of the Dark is a little long for most tweets. I could have used the full title but then I would have to sacrifice a portion of the tweet.
3. “Vengeance will be Unleashed” is one of the many tag lines I have come up with for Dispatchers. It also happens to be one of the twitter friendly short tag lines.
4. http://bookshow.me/B00BNJAW6E is my preferred short URL. This is notably longer than most short URLs, however, bookshow.me is a UNIVERSAL amazon book link. I’ve found most short URLs point to amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, etc. For me, this is a waste of time, I am about to tweet a link to a GLOBAL audience. The number of tweets I have seen for a book promotion leading to a novel I cannot download immediately because I have a Amazon.co.uk account (being UK) and not an Amazon.com (US). REMEMBER – GLOBAL AUDIENCE.
5. Cover by @Sandra_Giles. Sandra did my cover for me and she wants to create covers full-time. By acknowledging her, she is happy to retweet to her audience as an example of her work. This works other ways too, edited by @.. or 5 star review by @.. etc.
So we have a tweet which contains a searchable hashtag, a title, an author, a tagline, a UNIVERSAL Link and an acknowledgement. Plus we have 9 additional characters to spare. I could have additional hashtags in there with 9 characters spare… #kindle perhaps.
Be brief but eye-catching.
Have fun boys and girls.
Andy
--------------------------
Andrew Lamb is the author of the paranormal thriller series “Dispatchers” - http://bookshow.me/B00BNJAW6E and the comedy horror short, “Faulker Surprise” – http://Bookshow.me/B00BNK9ZY8 . Both available through Amazon.
Twitter @doc_lamb www.facebook.com/dispatchersspectral
Dispatchers Vengeance of the Dark
My last blog was a little long (ironic considering it was about the benefits of twitter). This is a part of that blog which discusses the structure of an informative and potentially viral ad....
You can’t write your synopsis and publicise your novel in a single tweet, or can you? This is the structure I like to adopt.
Relevant Hashtag x3 / Novel Name / “by” / twitter name / Synopsis or tag / short url / additional info + relevant twitter names
Looks simple doesn’t it? But 140 characters? Okay, watch and learn
“#Paranormal #thriller #ebook. Dispatchers by @doc_lamb. Vengeance will be Unleashed. http://bookShow.me/B00BNJAW6E. Cover by @sandra_giles”
Now let’s just dissect this tweet.
1. The searchable hashtags - Paranormal thriller ebook – the category of the novel. Paranormal is a popular subject, thriller is descriptive of the type of novel and ebook is the availability.
2. Dispatchers by @doc_lamb. Pretty much self-explanatory although Dispatchers is only part of the title. Dispatchers – Vengeance of the Dark is a little long for most tweets. I could have used the full title but then I would have to sacrifice a portion of the tweet.
3. “Vengeance will be Unleashed” is one of the many tag lines I have come up with for Dispatchers. It also happens to be one of the twitter friendly short tag lines.
4. http://bookshow.me/B00BNJAW6E is my preferred short URL. This is notably longer than most short URLs, however, bookshow.me is a UNIVERSAL amazon book link. I’ve found most short URLs point to amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, etc. For me, this is a waste of time, I am about to tweet a link to a GLOBAL audience. The number of tweets I have seen for a book promotion leading to a novel I cannot download immediately because I have a Amazon.co.uk account (being UK) and not an Amazon.com (US). REMEMBER – GLOBAL AUDIENCE.
5. Cover by @Sandra_Giles. Sandra did my cover for me and she wants to create covers full-time. By acknowledging her, she is happy to retweet to her audience as an example of her work. This works other ways too, edited by @.. or 5 star review by @.. etc.
So we have a tweet which contains a searchable hashtag, a title, an author, a tagline, a UNIVERSAL Link and an acknowledgement. Plus we have 9 additional characters to spare. I could have additional hashtags in there with 9 characters spare… #kindle perhaps.
Be brief but eye-catching.
Have fun boys and girls.
Andy
--------------------------
Andrew Lamb is the author of the paranormal thriller series “Dispatchers” - http://bookshow.me/B00BNJAW6E and the comedy horror short, “Faulker Surprise” – http://Bookshow.me/B00BNK9ZY8 . Both available through Amazon.
Twitter @doc_lamb www.facebook.com/dispatchersspectral
Dispatchers Vengeance of the Dark
September 16, 2013
The Short ‘n’ Sweet Tweet – How to get twitter to work in your favour
Hi all,
Hope all is well on your end. I thought I might spend a few moments to present my recent experience and experiments with Twitter.
Twitter is something which has been discussed a lot recently; you can’t find a website these days which doesn’t have a twitter link. At 140 characters, there isn’t much space to chat about anything in any real detail. Using Twitter requires the ability to be brief, something most people – including myself – find very difficult. As Mark Twain once wrote, “I don’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote you a long one instead”
But this is a good thing. Look at it this way, advertising boards and TV commercials have to deliver a powerful, attention grabbing and convincing appeal within the space of just a few moments. Even Powerpoint presentations, of which I have presented many, have to be concise. Too wordy and you lose your audience.
Amongst the Indie Author community, twitter is a quick and simple way of telling the world about their latest novels. On average, I would say that I tweet a direct link to my novel once every 3-4 days (more if I have promotion running), some Indies fire a tweet about their work 3-4 times per day. This is far too many, even once every 3-4 days is too many if you say nothing between adverts. So how do we fill the gaps?
Answer: BE HUMAN.
Personally, I enjoy hunting the Fortean news, Youtube and even online newspapers for funny, spooky, bizarre and mysterious news and videos. For instance, the NSA director had a Star Trek style war room built – ohhh that was an instant tweet along with a very simple line. “#NSA #SCIFI #STARTREK If you had the cash you would too!”
Why? I hear you ask. The majority of my work is about the supernatural and science fiction. The people I want to connect with love scouring the net for #UFO, #GHOST, #SCIFI to name but a few. The number of retweets and additional followers I have had, especially after finding a UFO video, is actually impressive. Significant more than if I had spent all that time tweeting “Buy my book”.
Then, there is what you have to say. Again, harping on about your book is not likely to get you many sales. Directing your audience to your own blog/articles, actually tells your followers that you are a person and have something more to say than “Buy my book”.
Okay, so now you are telling people about you, your interests and developing a rapport with your followers and we haven’t even discussed using Twitter to promote your book directly. How about this for a radical thought, perhaps you could retweet things other people have written which you find relevant, funny or creepy. Why? Because you are telling people that you listen and find them interesting.
Anyway, now we are onto publicising your novel. You can’t write your synopsis and publicise your novel in a single tweet, or can you? This is the structure I like to adopt.
Relevant Hashtag x3 / Novel Name / “by” / twitter name / Synopsis or tag / short url / additional info + relevant twitter names
Looks simple doesn’t it? But 140 characters? Okay, watch and learn
“#Paranormal #thriller #ebook. Dispatchers by @doc_lamb. Vengeance will be Unleashed. http://bookShow.me/B00BNJAW6E. Cover by @sandra_giles”
Now let’s just dissect this tweet.
1. The searchable hashtags - Paranormal thriller ebook – the category of the novel. Paranormal is a popular subject, thriller is descriptive of the type of novel and ebook is the availability.
2. Dispatchers by @doc_lamb. Pretty much self-explanatory although Dispatchers is only part of the title. Dispatchers – Vengeance of the Dark is a little long for most tweets. I could have used the full title but then I would have to sacrifice a portion of the tweet.
3. “Vengeance will be Unleashed” is one of the many tag lines I have come up with for Dispatchers. It also happens to be one of the twitter friendly short tag lines.
4. http://bookshow.me/B00BNJAW6E is my preferred short URL. This is notably longer than most short URLs, however, bookshow.me is a UNIVERSAL amazon book link. I’ve found most short URLs point to amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, etc. For me, this is a waste of time, I am about to tweet a link to a GLOBAL audience. The number of tweets I have seen for a book promotion leading to a novel I cannot download immediately because I have a Amazon.co.uk account (being UK) and not an Amazon.com (US). REMEMBER – GLOBAL AUDIENCE.
5. Cover by @Sandra_Giles. Sandra did my cover for me and she wants to create covers full-time. By acknowledging her, she is happy to retweet to her audience as an example of her work. This works other ways too, edited by @.. or 5 star review by @.. etc.
So we have a tweet which contains a searchable hashtag, a title, an author, a tagline, a UNIVERSAL Link and an acknowledgement. Plus we have 9 additional characters to spare. I could have additional hashtags in there with 9 characters spare… #kindle perhaps.
All in all, my followers have increased significantly my reach has improved vastly from when I started. I have also noticed an increase in downloads thanks to social media presence.
Experiment with your tweets and remember twitter is there to connect not to bark at people. In my various blogs and forum entries, I perpetually point out that you cannot sell a book by barking at people. You have to find an audience and converse with them about things which they find relevant. An audience must be earned.
Twitter is a powerful tool, but only if you use it right!
Andrew Lamb is the author of the paranormal thriller series “Dispatchers” - http://bookshow.me/B00BNJAW6E and the comedy horror short, “Faulker Surprise” – http://Bookshow.me/B00BNK9ZY8 . Both available through Amazon.
Twitter @doc_lamb www.facebook.com/dispatchersspectral
Dispatchers Vengeance of the Dark
Hope all is well on your end. I thought I might spend a few moments to present my recent experience and experiments with Twitter.
Twitter is something which has been discussed a lot recently; you can’t find a website these days which doesn’t have a twitter link. At 140 characters, there isn’t much space to chat about anything in any real detail. Using Twitter requires the ability to be brief, something most people – including myself – find very difficult. As Mark Twain once wrote, “I don’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote you a long one instead”
But this is a good thing. Look at it this way, advertising boards and TV commercials have to deliver a powerful, attention grabbing and convincing appeal within the space of just a few moments. Even Powerpoint presentations, of which I have presented many, have to be concise. Too wordy and you lose your audience.
Amongst the Indie Author community, twitter is a quick and simple way of telling the world about their latest novels. On average, I would say that I tweet a direct link to my novel once every 3-4 days (more if I have promotion running), some Indies fire a tweet about their work 3-4 times per day. This is far too many, even once every 3-4 days is too many if you say nothing between adverts. So how do we fill the gaps?
Answer: BE HUMAN.
Personally, I enjoy hunting the Fortean news, Youtube and even online newspapers for funny, spooky, bizarre and mysterious news and videos. For instance, the NSA director had a Star Trek style war room built – ohhh that was an instant tweet along with a very simple line. “#NSA #SCIFI #STARTREK If you had the cash you would too!”
Why? I hear you ask. The majority of my work is about the supernatural and science fiction. The people I want to connect with love scouring the net for #UFO, #GHOST, #SCIFI to name but a few. The number of retweets and additional followers I have had, especially after finding a UFO video, is actually impressive. Significant more than if I had spent all that time tweeting “Buy my book”.
Then, there is what you have to say. Again, harping on about your book is not likely to get you many sales. Directing your audience to your own blog/articles, actually tells your followers that you are a person and have something more to say than “Buy my book”.
Okay, so now you are telling people about you, your interests and developing a rapport with your followers and we haven’t even discussed using Twitter to promote your book directly. How about this for a radical thought, perhaps you could retweet things other people have written which you find relevant, funny or creepy. Why? Because you are telling people that you listen and find them interesting.
Anyway, now we are onto publicising your novel. You can’t write your synopsis and publicise your novel in a single tweet, or can you? This is the structure I like to adopt.
Relevant Hashtag x3 / Novel Name / “by” / twitter name / Synopsis or tag / short url / additional info + relevant twitter names
Looks simple doesn’t it? But 140 characters? Okay, watch and learn
“#Paranormal #thriller #ebook. Dispatchers by @doc_lamb. Vengeance will be Unleashed. http://bookShow.me/B00BNJAW6E. Cover by @sandra_giles”
Now let’s just dissect this tweet.
1. The searchable hashtags - Paranormal thriller ebook – the category of the novel. Paranormal is a popular subject, thriller is descriptive of the type of novel and ebook is the availability.
2. Dispatchers by @doc_lamb. Pretty much self-explanatory although Dispatchers is only part of the title. Dispatchers – Vengeance of the Dark is a little long for most tweets. I could have used the full title but then I would have to sacrifice a portion of the tweet.
3. “Vengeance will be Unleashed” is one of the many tag lines I have come up with for Dispatchers. It also happens to be one of the twitter friendly short tag lines.
4. http://bookshow.me/B00BNJAW6E is my preferred short URL. This is notably longer than most short URLs, however, bookshow.me is a UNIVERSAL amazon book link. I’ve found most short URLs point to amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, etc. For me, this is a waste of time, I am about to tweet a link to a GLOBAL audience. The number of tweets I have seen for a book promotion leading to a novel I cannot download immediately because I have a Amazon.co.uk account (being UK) and not an Amazon.com (US). REMEMBER – GLOBAL AUDIENCE.
5. Cover by @Sandra_Giles. Sandra did my cover for me and she wants to create covers full-time. By acknowledging her, she is happy to retweet to her audience as an example of her work. This works other ways too, edited by @.. or 5 star review by @.. etc.
So we have a tweet which contains a searchable hashtag, a title, an author, a tagline, a UNIVERSAL Link and an acknowledgement. Plus we have 9 additional characters to spare. I could have additional hashtags in there with 9 characters spare… #kindle perhaps.
All in all, my followers have increased significantly my reach has improved vastly from when I started. I have also noticed an increase in downloads thanks to social media presence.
Experiment with your tweets and remember twitter is there to connect not to bark at people. In my various blogs and forum entries, I perpetually point out that you cannot sell a book by barking at people. You have to find an audience and converse with them about things which they find relevant. An audience must be earned.
Twitter is a powerful tool, but only if you use it right!
Andrew Lamb is the author of the paranormal thriller series “Dispatchers” - http://bookshow.me/B00BNJAW6E and the comedy horror short, “Faulker Surprise” – http://Bookshow.me/B00BNK9ZY8 . Both available through Amazon.
Twitter @doc_lamb www.facebook.com/dispatchersspectral
Dispatchers Vengeance of the Dark
September 3, 2013
Andy’s thoughts on… Expectations
Hi all,
It has been ages since I last wrote a blog. I’ve been squirrelling away on a couple of secret projects along with the follow up to Dispatchers.
I’d like to take a moment and have a short rant about something which really riles me, namely expectations and the unbelievable misuse of the “Meet the Authors” forum in Amazon. There is a forum in which the subject of promotions is debated. Now I occasionally enjoy adding to the debate and discussing various promotional strategies with other like-minded indie authors and we occasionally have a laugh.
There is, however, a growing population of indie authors with unbelievably high expectations who seem to believe that because they have written a book that they are automatically entitled to instant success (some I would even suggest are even rather hostile). The “Meet the Authors” forum is filled with people ranting about their books. I hate to be a killjoy but they are ranting to other authors who are also trying to get established.
I raised the debate in the Promotional Strategies forum that the best approach for a new author, who is trying to get noticed, is offer their work FREE to bloggers and reviewers. Some bloggers have a fantastic following and if they read your work then positively review it, hey great times! Yet I was shouted down on this rather simple concept. Some authors found the concept of giving away their work, even for a day, to be abhorred. “What? Give my work away? Are you mad? Do you know how many hours I have slaved over this 200 page masterpiece?”
Wake up people. That 200 page masterpiece isn’t even going to get a look in unless you either;
(a) Bite the bullet and give copies away. If this means signing a copy and sending it to a blogger or running a week of free promotions then so be it.
(b) Have such a grand following of friends/family that are prepared to spread the word on your behalf. This does happen but one should never rely, or worse pressure, their friends/family network to promote.
It seems that there is an expectation amongst some that simply because they mention their work that they will suddenly amass a grand following. Lunacy!
But what about “Wool” I hear you cry? Interviews with Hugh Howey suggest that he didn’t work particularly hard to promote Wool, which is true. Wool was on the market for a long period of time before it amassed a following. How? Hugh Howey was writing novellas and short stories for years and had already amassed a small following. He didn’t need to push Wool too hard as he was busy writing the follow-up. In the background, Wool had gathered momentum and it went viral. In short, Hugh Howey did not just show up in a forum and declare his work, he had worked for years and the foundations paid off. Some Indie authors ignore this.
“Meet the Authors” is about networking and sharing ideas. In some cases, the forum can be used to amass a fantastic network of proof readers, editors, bloggers and cover artists. Use this tool wisely.
Consider this; would you part with your hard earned cash if presented with a novel written by a total unknown, especially if the only person saying that the novel was any good was the author? No, thought you wouldn’t.
I’ve recently launched a new facebook site designed purely to network (http://www.facebook.com/the.new.novel...) where I am hoping to amass a directory of proof readers, artists, editors and authors. No self-promotion, just a useful and free network. The new novelist directory also has a twitter feed (@new_novelist)
My personal twitter is @doc_lamb, please feel free to follow and be exposed to my various rants.
It has been ages since I last wrote a blog. I’ve been squirrelling away on a couple of secret projects along with the follow up to Dispatchers.
I’d like to take a moment and have a short rant about something which really riles me, namely expectations and the unbelievable misuse of the “Meet the Authors” forum in Amazon. There is a forum in which the subject of promotions is debated. Now I occasionally enjoy adding to the debate and discussing various promotional strategies with other like-minded indie authors and we occasionally have a laugh.
There is, however, a growing population of indie authors with unbelievably high expectations who seem to believe that because they have written a book that they are automatically entitled to instant success (some I would even suggest are even rather hostile). The “Meet the Authors” forum is filled with people ranting about their books. I hate to be a killjoy but they are ranting to other authors who are also trying to get established.
I raised the debate in the Promotional Strategies forum that the best approach for a new author, who is trying to get noticed, is offer their work FREE to bloggers and reviewers. Some bloggers have a fantastic following and if they read your work then positively review it, hey great times! Yet I was shouted down on this rather simple concept. Some authors found the concept of giving away their work, even for a day, to be abhorred. “What? Give my work away? Are you mad? Do you know how many hours I have slaved over this 200 page masterpiece?”
Wake up people. That 200 page masterpiece isn’t even going to get a look in unless you either;
(a) Bite the bullet and give copies away. If this means signing a copy and sending it to a blogger or running a week of free promotions then so be it.
(b) Have such a grand following of friends/family that are prepared to spread the word on your behalf. This does happen but one should never rely, or worse pressure, their friends/family network to promote.
It seems that there is an expectation amongst some that simply because they mention their work that they will suddenly amass a grand following. Lunacy!
But what about “Wool” I hear you cry? Interviews with Hugh Howey suggest that he didn’t work particularly hard to promote Wool, which is true. Wool was on the market for a long period of time before it amassed a following. How? Hugh Howey was writing novellas and short stories for years and had already amassed a small following. He didn’t need to push Wool too hard as he was busy writing the follow-up. In the background, Wool had gathered momentum and it went viral. In short, Hugh Howey did not just show up in a forum and declare his work, he had worked for years and the foundations paid off. Some Indie authors ignore this.
“Meet the Authors” is about networking and sharing ideas. In some cases, the forum can be used to amass a fantastic network of proof readers, editors, bloggers and cover artists. Use this tool wisely.
Consider this; would you part with your hard earned cash if presented with a novel written by a total unknown, especially if the only person saying that the novel was any good was the author? No, thought you wouldn’t.
I’ve recently launched a new facebook site designed purely to network (http://www.facebook.com/the.new.novel...) where I am hoping to amass a directory of proof readers, artists, editors and authors. No self-promotion, just a useful and free network. The new novelist directory also has a twitter feed (@new_novelist)
My personal twitter is @doc_lamb, please feel free to follow and be exposed to my various rants.
June 4, 2013
The Big push part 2. Dispatchers Kindle Edition = Free until Thursday
Hi all,
To celebrate the launch of the printed edition of Dispatchers Vengeance of the Dark, the Kindle edition is FREE until Thursday the 6th June. Be sure get your free copy from your local Amazon or use one of the links below....
Amazon.com = http://tinyurl.com/cwrwnuj
Amazon.co.uk = http://tinyurl.com/dy7lvmg
Amazon.de = http://tinyurl.com/cyuclqp
Amazon.es = http://tinyurl.com/ce73q7q
Amazon.it = http://tinyurl.com/c9jjzg2
Amazon.co.jp = http://tinyurl.com/czs9u4q
Amazon.com.br = http://tinyurl.com/cmhxdq5
To celebrate the launch of the printed edition of Dispatchers Vengeance of the Dark, the Kindle edition is FREE until Thursday the 6th June. Be sure get your free copy from your local Amazon or use one of the links below....
Amazon.com = http://tinyurl.com/cwrwnuj
Amazon.co.uk = http://tinyurl.com/dy7lvmg
Amazon.de = http://tinyurl.com/cyuclqp
Amazon.es = http://tinyurl.com/ce73q7q
Amazon.it = http://tinyurl.com/c9jjzg2
Amazon.co.jp = http://tinyurl.com/czs9u4q
Amazon.com.br = http://tinyurl.com/cmhxdq5
June 1, 2013
The Big Push - Part 1... Dispatchers VOTD Printed Launch
Hi all,
Just a quick note. (From www.facebook.com/dispatchersspectral)
Dispatchers Printed Edition.... Official Launch! Please share link.
Well finally the time is here, after 5 years of development and 3 months of tinkering using the selfpub tools on Amazon Kindle + Createspace, Dispatchers - Vengeance of the Dark is officially GO!
For our American friends, please help us support Createspace by purchasing directly from them at https://www.createspace.com/4196518 (however, please feel free to compare delivery costs with your local Amazon.com site). For all other international fans, please check out your local amazon store.
Amazon.co.uk - http://tinyurl.com/kcn2est
Amazon.com - http://tinyurl.com/ls545r6
Amazon.de - http://tinyurl.com/kfgu582
Amazon.it - http://tinyurl.com/n33uvhl
Amazon.fr - http://tinyurl.com/kgpqfm4
Note: there will be a special promotion on kindle editions starting on the 2nd of June (I believe this is based on Pacific time so if it isn't immediately on promo just keep checking back until it is)
Just a quick note. (From www.facebook.com/dispatchersspectral)
Dispatchers Printed Edition.... Official Launch! Please share link.
Well finally the time is here, after 5 years of development and 3 months of tinkering using the selfpub tools on Amazon Kindle + Createspace, Dispatchers - Vengeance of the Dark is officially GO!
For our American friends, please help us support Createspace by purchasing directly from them at https://www.createspace.com/4196518 (however, please feel free to compare delivery costs with your local Amazon.com site). For all other international fans, please check out your local amazon store.
Amazon.co.uk - http://tinyurl.com/kcn2est
Amazon.com - http://tinyurl.com/ls545r6
Amazon.de - http://tinyurl.com/kfgu582
Amazon.it - http://tinyurl.com/n33uvhl
Amazon.fr - http://tinyurl.com/kgpqfm4
Note: there will be a special promotion on kindle editions starting on the 2nd of June (I believe this is based on Pacific time so if it isn't immediately on promo just keep checking back until it is)
May 21, 2013
Andy's thoughts on..... Promotions
Hi all,
This may be cheating but I found an old blog of mine which I hope you'll find amusing. Be sure to check out www.facebook.com/dispatchersspectral. My thoughts on Promotions....
Having just undergone the whole uploading of my first novel, I am now on the hard part – telling people about it. Sure, the last five years of writing, rewriting, delete the whole thing and start again, was the easy bit but now I have found myself in a world I had never considered – how to shout louder than the million or so other people who have come up with novel.
I’ve gotten involved with the various twitter groups on Kindle promotions but wonder how many actual readers are also signed up to the same groups? Not many I suspect as they are all populated with authors trying to promote. Ok they can still read and can download your work but ultimately they are less likely to care about anyone else’s work than the thought of promoting.
So my attention has turned to listening to the professionals. These people are paid to promote…. great I thought.
I question their sanity when I read… Start your promotion before you start writing your novel. Erm ok. How does that work? I mean seriously? When I started Dispatchers, it was a one off Horror, now it is part of a series and a supernatural thriller. Ok so let’s assume I am mega fast at writing and can crack a full finalised version of a story in less than a year – doable but difficult. At the start of the project, I launch websites claiming that a horror is coming, then half way through writing I realise that horror isn’t a horror anymore but rather a supernatural thriller – what we want from our work is not necessarily what we get. So what do I say on all of the promotions?
“Sorry guys, that horror I promised is no longer a horror. Actually it’s now a supernatural thriller. Come to think about it, the only reason you showed any interest in it was because you prefer horror. In that case you may now be a bit disappointed in the thriller seeing that your hearts were set on horror. Erm ok, if you know anyone interested in Supernatural Thrillers please send them my way.”
My brain hurts.
This may be cheating but I found an old blog of mine which I hope you'll find amusing. Be sure to check out www.facebook.com/dispatchersspectral. My thoughts on Promotions....
Having just undergone the whole uploading of my first novel, I am now on the hard part – telling people about it. Sure, the last five years of writing, rewriting, delete the whole thing and start again, was the easy bit but now I have found myself in a world I had never considered – how to shout louder than the million or so other people who have come up with novel.
I’ve gotten involved with the various twitter groups on Kindle promotions but wonder how many actual readers are also signed up to the same groups? Not many I suspect as they are all populated with authors trying to promote. Ok they can still read and can download your work but ultimately they are less likely to care about anyone else’s work than the thought of promoting.
So my attention has turned to listening to the professionals. These people are paid to promote…. great I thought.
I question their sanity when I read… Start your promotion before you start writing your novel. Erm ok. How does that work? I mean seriously? When I started Dispatchers, it was a one off Horror, now it is part of a series and a supernatural thriller. Ok so let’s assume I am mega fast at writing and can crack a full finalised version of a story in less than a year – doable but difficult. At the start of the project, I launch websites claiming that a horror is coming, then half way through writing I realise that horror isn’t a horror anymore but rather a supernatural thriller – what we want from our work is not necessarily what we get. So what do I say on all of the promotions?
“Sorry guys, that horror I promised is no longer a horror. Actually it’s now a supernatural thriller. Come to think about it, the only reason you showed any interest in it was because you prefer horror. In that case you may now be a bit disappointed in the thriller seeing that your hearts were set on horror. Erm ok, if you know anyone interested in Supernatural Thrillers please send them my way.”
My brain hurts.
May 20, 2013
Hello World and welcome to all!
Hi all,
So this is my first blog on here, probably best to introduce myself. My name is Andy, I live in the Derbyshire UK with my fab wife and for a living, I crash cars in a computer simulation in the hope that I can make them safer. On the surface seems ok. Alas I missed out one thing, I am possibly the maddest person this side of the funny farm.
In the evenings, I enjoy writing supernatural and science fiction thrillers. I consider myself an Imaginaut, no it isn't some new age thing, I like to just let my imagination run wild and create. I have to admit that I don't really write for a particular crowd, I just write the stories I would like to read and if anyone else likes them then bonus.
I am particularly fascinated by social networking, I think that it is a poorly underused tool by the majority of indie authors. I think it is a powerful tool to discover resources - I found the artist who did my cover on Amazon Forums and a whole group of Indies who just chat about their work and guide each other.
Anyway, that's me. Please do check back on my occasional blogs, I do like a bit of a rant (nothing offensive at all). Also check out my debut novel, Dispatchers Vengeance of the Dark - be sure to check it on the 2nd of June (promo period starts). If anyone could let me know how you get the book cover to appear...
Right, first cuppa of the night and the write!Dispatchers Vengeance of the Dark
So this is my first blog on here, probably best to introduce myself. My name is Andy, I live in the Derbyshire UK with my fab wife and for a living, I crash cars in a computer simulation in the hope that I can make them safer. On the surface seems ok. Alas I missed out one thing, I am possibly the maddest person this side of the funny farm.
In the evenings, I enjoy writing supernatural and science fiction thrillers. I consider myself an Imaginaut, no it isn't some new age thing, I like to just let my imagination run wild and create. I have to admit that I don't really write for a particular crowd, I just write the stories I would like to read and if anyone else likes them then bonus.
I am particularly fascinated by social networking, I think that it is a poorly underused tool by the majority of indie authors. I think it is a powerful tool to discover resources - I found the artist who did my cover on Amazon Forums and a whole group of Indies who just chat about their work and guide each other.
Anyway, that's me. Please do check back on my occasional blogs, I do like a bit of a rant (nothing offensive at all). Also check out my debut novel, Dispatchers Vengeance of the Dark - be sure to check it on the 2nd of June (promo period starts). If anyone could let me know how you get the book cover to appear...
Right, first cuppa of the night and the write!Dispatchers Vengeance of the Dark
