Dale’s Comments (group member since Sep 15, 2017)

Dale’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

I've been using StoryOrigin regularly for the past year. When I started, my mailing list stood at a little over 100, most of whom regularly ignored any emails I sent. Today, largely because of StoryOrigin, I have over 520 subscribers, and between 40% and 50% of them are regularly engaged.

StoryOrigin used to be free. A free level still exists, but as of about a month ago, a paid level was introduced, and that's where most of the good tools are. The standard plan is $10/month, or $100 if paid annually (which saves you $20). To see the list of features you get with each plan, click here.

*Disclaimer: This is an affiliate link. If you sign up for a paid StoryOrigin account after clicking on it, I'll receive a commission. There is no additional cost to you. If you'd rather not use this link, go directly to storyoriginapp.com.

The real power of StoryOrigin lies in group promotions and newsletter swaps. In a group promotion, a number of authors add books to a promotion page, then they all share that page to their newsletters and on social media. Newsletter swaps are similar, but are arranged between two authors, who link directly to each other's books. In these promotions, you aren't only reaching your own audience, but audiences of other authors, some of which are extensive. It's possible to get your books to a few thousand inboxes this way.

StoryOrigin also provides good tracking tools so you can see what's happening. By regularly participating in swaps and group promotions, I'm getting at least one newsletter signup most every day, and often more. My books are also being viewed by at least one potential reader most every day. This hasn't translated into large sales volumes so far, but I'm at least being seen, and many of the people who have signed up for my newsletters are regularly opening them and clicking on links.

I should note that StoryOrigin is only a part of my overall strategy. Reader magnets, website design, newsletter design and content , and consistent delivery are also important. That said, I would not have grown my email list anywhere near as fast without StoryOrigin, and I suspect I've made at least a few sales through it.

This is part promotion, part opportunity for you if you've written a series. Author C. Phillip has created a promotional website called "First Reads" where authors can promote the first book in a series. He originally planned this as a StoryOrigin promotion, but he's in India and there were complications with his membership once it became a paid service. (Something to do with VAT, I think.) So he did this instead, until he can get that sorted out.

The Fibonacci Murders book 1 in my Howard County Mystery series, is now live on First Reads. You can see what the page looks like and share it around if you want, but also if you have a series, you can email C. Philip and ask to be included. His email address is below the First Reads banner near the bottom of the page, but above the labels list.

Thanks, folks!

I have my own page on Diabolic Shrimp now to celebrate the award.

On a related note, British book blogger Julia Wilson just gave me this nice review.

Thank you, Alex! I'll definitely be sharing it. ;-)

I uploaded a number of new videos last night, including several of a newcomer (we've named him Rufus) and a startling encounter between Reynard and Allie. I've also organized the videos into playlists named for each individual fox. The channel URL is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPeHKyt1ypo_B_BC9jRJktA

FYI, if you previously liked or commented on some of these, I lost those interactions. I realized the videos needed to be converted to MP4 to play correctly, which required deleting the old versions and uploading the new ones. So feel free to re-like or re-comment.

And if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, please consider doing so. If I can get up to 100 subscribers, I can get a more reasonable URL! Thanks!

Justin wrote: "Good luck Dale. I unfortunately don't wanna burn $50 but do let us know how it works out."

Yeah, I never do, either, but I've reached the point where I think I have to spend money to make money, at least now and again, so I'm giving a few things a try to see what works.

I've had fairly good luck with BargainBooksy. I don't usually make back everything I spend on it, but I do usually make back a reasonable portion, and the rest . . . well, it ends up being a tax deduction. ;-)

The link is bad. It has the "..." in the URL, which can't be right. Can you repost it?

Thanks Anna! (For everyone else, to watch the awards program, go here.

On Saturday, May 1 at 2:00 PM U.S. Mountain Time, (4:00 PM US Eastern time) author Josh Grant, owner of Diabolic Shrimp (one of the best-named sites on the Internet!) will host the first annual Golden Shrimpy Awards. My novel "Space Operatic" is one of 22 contestants. The awards show will be broadcast on the Diabolic Shrimp YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp5f.... (You can also find a bunch of author interviews there.) I'll be attending and invite you to join in the fun. Josh will read from the various entries and award the first-ever Golden Shrimpy. You may even hear some of his famous (or infamous) shrimp jokes. I know I'm late in posting this, but stop by if you can!

I saw it there but haven't had time to watch it yet. I'll try to get to it soon.

Nancy wrote: "Hi Dale,
I have a YouTube Channel. It's a lot of work, but I really enjoy sharing my work and our lifestyle in the west. Here is the link if you care to look it over. Nancy Quinn -The Art of Wester..."

Thanks., I'll have a look.

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Thank you for the info, Dale. Wishing you the best of success with this greatly enjoyable book. Hugs!"

You're welcome, and thank you!

Trana wrote: Awesome! Thank you, Dale. I hope to travel to Ohio this summer for more research. The historical society has an archive of papers that were found within the walls of an old house. They're in the process of renovating the building which will house the archives. "

Got it on my FB page now.

My family (which isn't quite so prominent as yours) has a "family story" written by one of my distant uncles of some degree or another about the great westward migration of our ancestor Adam Lehman (yes, I can trace my family back to Adam!) from Perry County to Mercer County. The story has some fictional elements. My father arranged to have it typed and later put into electronic format. Copies have been liberally distributed through the family, but it was never published.

Anna wrote: "Just looked at yours Trana - very professional!

Subscribed and liked yours, Dale, and I see that the number of views is increasing all the time."

Thanks, Anna!

I've decided to give Reedsy Discovery a try. This is a service that lets you (hopefully) get reviews for your book in addition to promotion in the Reedsy Discovery email. It's designed to be used for new books, from pre-publication to 6 months after publication. The cost is $50, which might make it a bit much for some people, but I figure it's worth giving it a shot.

You can see the page for Weasel Words here. It will go live on Discovery at the end of May. At that time, I'll come back begging for upvotes so it has a shot at being featured.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd show this off in case anyone else was interested in checking out their service.

Trana wrote: "I made a book trailer but really not sure how to promote it! LOL Good luck with your channel!"

Thanks! I may have to get a copy of your book, too. I'm not much of an historian, but my family is from Ohio. I'll share your trailer on my FB when I get a spare moment.

Thanks, everyone! I never did much with YouTube because I don't know much about producing videos, book trailers, etc. and never had time to learn it.

I put this together because I recently acquired a trail camera specifically to see how often foxes were coming to our yard. We knew they were around because we'd seen a couple in the daytime every great once in a while. I suspected they might be more frequent nighttime visitors. Turns out they come by pretty much every night. So we started putting out some small treats to get them close to the camera.

Having gotten that far, I wanted to share the videos with family members, but it proved hard to email or text them, so I hit upon the idea of putting them on YouTube. And while setting up the channel, I thought . . . well . . . author. Maybe eventually I'll morph it into something for that purpose. So I started doing the branding to match my website, etc.

The default URL is ugly, though. So I looked into getting a custom one. Turns out you have to meet certain conditions, the hardest one being to have 100 followers. So I floated it out to FB, Twitter, and here to ask for followers.

And that's my story. Back to enjoying the foxes. ;-)

Does anyone here have a YouTube channel? I've finally started one. Eventually I might use it for something related to my writing, but right now it's all about . . .

. . . foxes in my backyard!

Plus a few raccoons and rabbits. And maybe the occasional stray cat. But mostly foxes.

Right now, I have 19 videos of the wildlife. You can find them here .

I hope you enjoy them. If you do, please do me a favor and subscribe. I have to get 100 subscribers before I can create a custom (i.e., less ugly) URL. Feel free to comment on the videos, too.

Thanks!