I am trying to capitalize on the Black Friday crowds this weekend for my titles by running a sale on my books on both CreateSpace and my website.
I am also going to give away all my currently published e-books on Cyber Monday.
And I currently have a Goodreads Giveaway and will run another one in December.
I admit, I have not put as much effort into advertising these as I should have, but if I get any response from them, I will let you know.
Friday, November 28, 2014
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Goodreads Giveaways
So this week in honor of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, I will be giving away several of my books on Goodreads.
I have found Goodreads giveaways to be a great way to get reviews for your books (expect about a 50% return - 4 books given away should give you about 2 reviews).
With these reviews, I am going to try a new tactic I learned from participating in other people's reviews - the nudge. I will include a "packing slip" that has technical information and a note to please provide the book with a review.
There are dangers in Goodreads giveaways. On person, upon not being selected by Goodreads to win immediately gave me a 1 star review of my book - I hadn't even sold one copy so I protested - there was no way this person could have read the book to have reviewed it.
Also, the reviews you get are usually only posted on Goodreads.
Limit your reviews to the United States. The first two giveaways I had were international - I opened them up to all English speaking countries. For one, this is very expensive. It cost more than $10 each to send the books to most of the people who won (not sending prizes will get you banned from future giveaways). I was giving away 10 books, so I spent a lot of money (not including the cost of the books). Second, people in other countries do not always "get" American literature. I have had my children's book reviewed by several teachers and child educators - all of them thought it was great for the 5 - 7 year old age target. Those from the international community felt it was too difficult for small children to read. My inspirational, historical romance (set in 1739 U.K.) received bad reviews because it was "Christian." One British person gave me 3-stars because I accidentally left one Americanism in the last chapter of the book. I received great reviews from the American community and ho hum to bad reviews internationally. In fact, several people did not seem to understand that "inspirational" MEANS "Christian," which brings me to my final point:
Be sure to spell everything out in your Giveaway (and in your book blurb for that matter). Not everyone knows what inspirational means in the romance community. If you have written a book that could even remotely be skewed as "Christian" be sure to spell it out. If your book contains offensive material - add that to your description. Even if you don't find it offensive - if someone, somewhere could find it offensive, let people know. In general, people are squeamish about violence, foul language, sex, drug and alcohol use, etc. Basically, go to a movie store and see why movies are rated above "G" and that will give you a good list of things to check for in your book.
As a final note - If you give away 10 books and only have 20 people sign up, you really haven't lost anything. All you needed was 10 people. The number of people who signed up for some of mine were 700 - 900, but I am having far fewer people signup for my latest ones because I am trying to use my description to weed out those who won't like the book's subject matter or writing style. Really, you do not want reviews from people who hate reading fantasy books if that is what you have written.
I have found Goodreads giveaways to be a great way to get reviews for your books (expect about a 50% return - 4 books given away should give you about 2 reviews).
With these reviews, I am going to try a new tactic I learned from participating in other people's reviews - the nudge. I will include a "packing slip" that has technical information and a note to please provide the book with a review.
There are dangers in Goodreads giveaways. On person, upon not being selected by Goodreads to win immediately gave me a 1 star review of my book - I hadn't even sold one copy so I protested - there was no way this person could have read the book to have reviewed it.
Also, the reviews you get are usually only posted on Goodreads.
Limit your reviews to the United States. The first two giveaways I had were international - I opened them up to all English speaking countries. For one, this is very expensive. It cost more than $10 each to send the books to most of the people who won (not sending prizes will get you banned from future giveaways). I was giving away 10 books, so I spent a lot of money (not including the cost of the books). Second, people in other countries do not always "get" American literature. I have had my children's book reviewed by several teachers and child educators - all of them thought it was great for the 5 - 7 year old age target. Those from the international community felt it was too difficult for small children to read. My inspirational, historical romance (set in 1739 U.K.) received bad reviews because it was "Christian." One British person gave me 3-stars because I accidentally left one Americanism in the last chapter of the book. I received great reviews from the American community and ho hum to bad reviews internationally. In fact, several people did not seem to understand that "inspirational" MEANS "Christian," which brings me to my final point:
Be sure to spell everything out in your Giveaway (and in your book blurb for that matter). Not everyone knows what inspirational means in the romance community. If you have written a book that could even remotely be skewed as "Christian" be sure to spell it out. If your book contains offensive material - add that to your description. Even if you don't find it offensive - if someone, somewhere could find it offensive, let people know. In general, people are squeamish about violence, foul language, sex, drug and alcohol use, etc. Basically, go to a movie store and see why movies are rated above "G" and that will give you a good list of things to check for in your book.
As a final note - If you give away 10 books and only have 20 people sign up, you really haven't lost anything. All you needed was 10 people. The number of people who signed up for some of mine were 700 - 900, but I am having far fewer people signup for my latest ones because I am trying to use my description to weed out those who won't like the book's subject matter or writing style. Really, you do not want reviews from people who hate reading fantasy books if that is what you have written.
Friday, November 21, 2014
Should I publish my writing on Amazon or on a blog?
In order to answer this question, you need to answer another: Why are you writing?
If you are writing because you want to build a writing career through self-publishing where you are planning on marketing your own books and constantly developing new books and promoting them, you should edit the book as best you can afford and self-publish it on Amazon.
If you are writing because you enjoy it, or somebody told you that you should write a book about your life and you don't care if you have to give it away for free, you just want it to be available to other people, you should blog your writing.
Here is the problem- when authors who want to make their living from their writing are at a disadvantage because of those who just want to write. These authors will still probably need to give away their books for free in limited supply, but instead of reaching a target audience, they will reach many people who are addicted to collecting free books. These people will never pay a penny for another book no matter how good it is because there are so many free ones. Yes, I have actually met these people in real life. Publishing a book just to give it away free indefinitely is counterproductive. For one, a lot of time, effort, and money go into publishing a book - even if you do if for free on Kindle or CreateSpace. Maintaining a blog does not require as much work.
Some people are interested in making money off their writing, but instead put in on a free blog. If you post your material on a blog, you will not be able to sell it. If people are getting it for free, they will not then pay for it. (Unless you only post part of it, such as a first chapter that grabs their attention.)
Blogs are a great place to start writing, though. The most frequently posted Guru jobs are along the lines of "finish my book." If you are not in the habit of writing, a blog will make you or break you. Blogs also get people interested in your writing before you publish - which is what you want. If you are not sure what category you fit into, you should start with a blog.
What if you have been writing a blog and now you want to turn it into a book? Save all your blog posts in a Word file and remove them from you blog. Removing or reducing the access works just as if you never published it. The posts could still be accessed (probably) by computer savvy individuals, but the number of people going to that trouble would not be great. You should leave a teaser of your work to attract others, and by all means keep blogging - just adjust your theme or focus.
If you are writing because you want to build a writing career through self-publishing where you are planning on marketing your own books and constantly developing new books and promoting them, you should edit the book as best you can afford and self-publish it on Amazon.
If you are writing because you enjoy it, or somebody told you that you should write a book about your life and you don't care if you have to give it away for free, you just want it to be available to other people, you should blog your writing.
Here is the problem- when authors who want to make their living from their writing are at a disadvantage because of those who just want to write. These authors will still probably need to give away their books for free in limited supply, but instead of reaching a target audience, they will reach many people who are addicted to collecting free books. These people will never pay a penny for another book no matter how good it is because there are so many free ones. Yes, I have actually met these people in real life. Publishing a book just to give it away free indefinitely is counterproductive. For one, a lot of time, effort, and money go into publishing a book - even if you do if for free on Kindle or CreateSpace. Maintaining a blog does not require as much work.
Some people are interested in making money off their writing, but instead put in on a free blog. If you post your material on a blog, you will not be able to sell it. If people are getting it for free, they will not then pay for it. (Unless you only post part of it, such as a first chapter that grabs their attention.)
Blogs are a great place to start writing, though. The most frequently posted Guru jobs are along the lines of "finish my book." If you are not in the habit of writing, a blog will make you or break you. Blogs also get people interested in your writing before you publish - which is what you want. If you are not sure what category you fit into, you should start with a blog.
What if you have been writing a blog and now you want to turn it into a book? Save all your blog posts in a Word file and remove them from you blog. Removing or reducing the access works just as if you never published it. The posts could still be accessed (probably) by computer savvy individuals, but the number of people going to that trouble would not be great. You should leave a teaser of your work to attract others, and by all means keep blogging - just adjust your theme or focus.
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