Fiction – Page 5 – Mystery, fantasy and romance at the dangerous ends of the earth

Building Allies: Working with Libraries

By Karen Abrahamson | August 13, 2011

In my last post I mentioned that libraries are an asset that can assist with promoting authors’ work if the books are in print. As libraries are also gathering electronic collections, this assistance may also help with building followers amongst e-book readers. I wondered how a writer or indie-publisher might build a relationship with their local library and contacted librarian (and indie author) Ryan Williams for his take on how writers might work with libraries. First of all, let me thank Ryan for giving us his time.

1. How should (or can) a writer approach a local library about carrying their book? Does this work for Indie Authors as well?

Talk to them, show that you can be a partner in helping the library. Many libraries will take books as donations, but reserve the right to add it to the collection or not depending on their selection policy. Some libraries do maintain local collections and will add local materials, but that might not include your novel if that doesn’t fit the selection policy for that library. If you haven’t made a connection with your local library then all they have to go on are reviews (or lack of reviews). Honestly, Indie authors may encounter resistance from some librarians, while others will think it’s just great. You really won’t know until you talk to them.

2. How can a local library help promote an author?

Standard disclaimer, libraries are going to vary quite a bit. The best idea is simply to go in and talk to the librarian. That might not be the person checking out the books, but it could be! On our library website for each location we list the library manager for each location, so sometimes with minimal research you’ll know who you want to talk to. Calling ahead, identifying yourself as an author and ask to set up a time to talk can’t hurt.

That said I don’t think I’d approach it as the library helping to promote the author. Instead I’d approach it as something you can do to help the library. Many performers, storytellers, jugglers, etc. work the library circuit and charge for their programs. Tell the librarian that you’d be happy to do a program and be prepared to pitch a couple ideas. It might be about your background or books, or that might be only a piece of what you’re talking about. It could also be about your trip to Burma and how that has influenced your writing, or a program for teen writers, or whatever you think about doing. You could charge or not, your decision, but by giving the library an exciting program they’re going to be more enthusiastic. Given library budgets, you could even say that you’ll waive the fee. Libraries may produce publicity for the program which includes your author bio/pic/covers, etc (that you’ve provided).

It also can’t hurt to partner with a local bookstore to sell copies of your book at the event.

And after all of that, it’s possible no one will come. But if you’ve got an interesting program that isn’t exclusively focused on self-promotion it’s far more likely that library staff and patrons will be interested in coming.

3. Aside from asking a library to carry their book, what can a writer do to work with local libraries to promote their books?

A book sitting on a library shelf isn’t necessarily any more noticeable than any other book online. But if your local librarian loves your book? Then she’s going to hand-sell that to anyone that she thinks might be interested. Librarians do book talks and reader’s advisory all the time. If you’ve presented an engaging program for your library, if you’ve been a helpful partner, and if the librarian actually likes your book? Well, then you’ve got one of the best possible advocates for your books.

4. What success have you had with working with local libraries?

Since I work in the local library I haven’t wanted to do anything that suggests I’m using my position to promote my business, so I haven’t asked for the library to add my indie books. There are a couple traditionally published books that have my shorter work in them, like the Star Trek anthology, but otherwise none of my work is listed in my library. If patrons independently suggested the library add copies that’d be one thing, but I’m not going to use my position to get my books into the library.

I have, however, used my knowledge to benefit our patrons and present programs. Sometimes that’s working with other authors. I’ve got a program coming up where I’m going to teach local folks how easy it is to publish their work on the Kindle and other platforms. I think it’ll be a lot of fun but it’s not going to be about my work beyond mentioning that I do have experience working with these sites.

5. For an Indie Publisher, how should they approach libraries? Is this different than for authors?

A publisher is a publisher. It’s a business. I could easily see Glittering Throng Press (my publishing business at www.glitteringthrongpress.com) sending out book catalogs to libraries just like I’ll send to book stores. I’m also interested in co-op displays in libraries. I don’t think many publishers are doing this right now with libraries, but as book store spaces shrinks I could see a publisher doing an co-op placement where they provide the books to the library at no cost in exchange for placement. Free books for the libraries, better exposure for authors, and a benefit for readers. I’d also like to approach Friends of the Library groups about selling e-book gift cards as a promotion tool for them, give them a deep discount on the cards, and have a little desk display or something with the cards for them to sell. There’s over 9,000 public libraries in the USA, that’s a lot of potential avenues to promote material. I think going forward into the future libraries are going to be more critical at generating buzz and interest in an author’s work.

So yes, I think there’s a difference in approach between publishers and authors. An individual author is making a one-on-one connection with librarians and library patrons, while a publisher is developing more of a business relationship with the library.

6. And beyond the libraries, how successful have you found the loss leader approach to selling your fiction? Are there other methods of promotion you’ve tried and how have they worked for you?

I strongly agree with folks like Dean Wesley Smith when they say that the best promotion is writing more. As a writer that should be our first priority. You’ve got to keep the material flowing so folks can find more material. Kristine Kathryn Rusch was just talking about this in her recent post on Comparisons (http://kriswrites.com/2011/08/10/the-business-rusch-comparisons/), any promotion you do creates a short-lived blip in sales. It can become very time consuming if you’re spending all your time trying to keep that ball up in the air.

For a year I released a new e-book each week. Most have been freely available online for a week at a time on my publisher site, while selling as e-books. One of the best things about that was simply getting out new material each week. I’d originally planned on continuing that all this year but I’ve recently decided to refocus my priorities. So now with short fiction I’m putting more of an emphasis on sending stories out to traditional professional markets, places like Analog Science Fiction or The New Yorker. If a story doesn’t sell after making the rounds to the major markets I’ll still release it as an e-book, because I believe in the stories I write. Just because a story doesn’t sell to a major market doesn’t say anything much about the quality of that story. I’d just rather get paid pro rates first, and gain the exposure of having the story out, and then put it up as an e-book afterward. The next story coming out is in On Spec Magazine, I believe in their Summer 2011 issue, so I’m looking forward to that, it’s a great magazine for speculative fiction.

In the meantime I’ll continue to feature various stories on my publisher site, and in the process I’m revisiting blurbs and sometimes covers, updating the e-books before the story gets featured. The first I’ve done is “Alley Cat” by Michael Burges, which is a fun story set in the same universe as my first Goblin Alley novel, Goblin Alley: the Bloodied Fang. I don’t know if I’ll get one up each week, but I plan to update fairly often.

I have tried other methods. One of my Filming Dead Things novelettes, Farm of the Dead Things by Tennessee Hicks, is available pretty much everywhere for free and includes sample chapters of the first novel in the Dead Things series. That’s been downloaded thousands of times and the sales of the series have increased since it went free. The second novel in the series, Dreaming Dead Things, is due to be released in the next few weeks and I think that’ll have an even bigger impact just because there’s going to be more available for the folks that enjoy the series. Next year I’ll follow up with the third novel, Killing Dead Things.

Beyond loss leader sorts of experiments I’ve maintained an active presence on Twitter (ryanmwilliams) and Facebook where I have public pages for each pen name. I don’t know if those lead to more sales, I think the writing has more to do with sales, but Twitter and Facebook do provide an opportunity to engage with readers. I enjoy that and enjoy following the feed from other folks. Lately I’ve been exploring Good Reads more and want to do more with that than I’ve been doing. Plus I have websites for each pen name and my publishing site. I look to the sites as avenues for readers to find out what’s available, and what they might want to read next. Particularly the series, I want it to be clear what’s next.

I don’t have any hard data to show whether or not social media, websites, or message board participation increases sales. And I don’t worry about it. I do those things because I enjoy it, not because it increases (or not) sales. I do know that they don’t help me get more written (having the opposite impact), so I have to watch that and make sure I get my words in.

Bottom-line on promotion: write more!

Thanks for asking the questions, I’ll stop now before I hit 2,000 words!

And thank you, Ryan, for this wealth of information.

Ryan Williams has worked for over twenty years in libraries, currently managing a small town library in Tenino, Washington. Like Dalton Hicks from his Goblin Alley series (written as Michael Burges), he runs long distances, working up to ultra-endurance events. He also hopes to ride the Tour Divide mountain bike race from Canada to Mexio. He writes a wide variety of fiction, including urban and contemporary fantasy, science fiction, horror, and mystery under several different pen names. He has sold stories to On Spec Magazine, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Alien Skin Magazine. He holds a master degree from Seton Hill University in writing popular fiction, and as a member of the Oregon Writers Network, Michael also graduated from the master class taught by bestselling authors Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Find him online at www.ryanmwilliams.com or on Twitter as ryanmwilliams.

Free Fiction

By Karen Abrahamson | August 10, 2011

A new, ongoing feature of my website is a free fiction page that will offer free short stories and/or novel chapters. For the first free fiction, here is my Short Story The Wife’s Tail.

The Miscellaneous File: What else you can do to get your books to market?

By Karen Abrahamson | August 6, 2011

To recap this series to date, I’ve talked about blogs and a little about reviews. We’ve heard about using social media with the caution that none of these should take time away from your writing, and we’ve also discussed books and branding and getting ready for the market. Sounds like we we’ve covered a lot, but there are still a few other things that an indie publisher can do to help get their books to market. That’s what this blog is about.

First of all, I’m going to say that although e-books seem the major way authors/indie publishers are going to get their books to readers, they should not forget the opportunity to create print publications. I refer you to my blog HERE, for options about Print on Demand (POD), and just to recap, it is not that difficult to create a print book if you are prepared to learn the software to do it.

So first let’s talk about some of the other no-cost/low-cost things you can do to encourage people to buy your e-books:

1. Write good books. I know this seems self-evident, but writing good books and writing lots of them is a critical way to become known. Think about it as in terms of the laws of chance. If you have one book up online there is far less chance that people will discover you, than if you have ten or fifteen. So focusing on writing good books for your market (under one name—for each pseudonym you need to do the same) is a critical piece of your marketing.

MUTABLE THINGS -a — This cover of a soon-to-be-released urban fantasy features the fantastic photography of an up-and-coming young photographer.

2. Create good covers. This means studying the covers of best sellers in your genre and picking out the things that you think will sell your book. It means finding strong images for your covers because these are the first things that prospective readers see.

3. Write good blurbs/back cover copy. This is the second thing that readers see about your book. Is it interesting? Is it active? Does it raise a question a potential reader might want answered?

4. Within your e-book whether short story or novel, include links to other writing you have for sale. This can be as simple as listing other stories/novels available for sale. It would be better if you included links in the story that will take the reader directly to the other story/novel, so that the reader has the fewest number of clicks necessary to purchase your other material.

5. Include excerpts. This is something I am just starting to do. This means including the first chapter or two of another, similar novel/story, so that the reader can sample it. Hopefully you have good openings and the reader will come to the end of the sample and want to read on. There’s where you insert the link(s) to where the reader can purchase the other book.

6. Loss leaders. If you have short stories that either include the characters in your novel , or are in a similar vein to your novel (e.g. same world, or genre), you can try putting the short story up for free with the free excerpt to the novel attached. A number of friends are finding good success with this. Similarly, if you are writing a series and have the second or third (or fourth etc.) novel coming out, you can sell the first novel in the series at a cheaper price for a limited time.

7. Free Fiction on your website. You can also put short stories like loss leaders up on your website to encourage people to come and read, and then purchase other writing through links on your website.

8. Book cards. (okay, this involves some upfront money, but I still thought I’d include it.) This is a relatively new idea that hasn’t been put in place too much yet, but it involves having gift cards printed for your book and packaged in such a way that they can be sold in book stores. A Canadian company is experimenting with this as are a couple of professional writers I know. These cards can also serve as loss leaders that could be sent to book bloggers or reviewers, or they could be given for free at conferences, or they could be marketed in books stores.

So those are some of the things you can do to market e-books. For POD there are another few options, but these options generally require you to have more than a few books available.

1. Create advertisements for books. If any of you have been at Science Fiction conventions, you’ll recall how there are tables with fliers about upcoming or available books. You can do this too, by emulating book advertisements in magazines or publisher’s catalogues. If you have mastered the process of creating a book for POD, you can certainly create a book flier. These can be distributed at conferences or other book fair events you attend.

Brochure — An example of a brochure for the novel Afterburn

2. Use your local libraries. Often libraries like to support local writers. Approach them about ordering your books. Alternatively offer to donate some.

3. Take advantage of opportunities at conferences etc. to sell your books and promote yourself. If there are opportunities to sell your books then make copies available for sale. Have fliers of your soon-to-be-available books to pique people’s interest. Get on speaker’s lists to talk about your books or related topics and be gracious and interesting when you talk.

4. Approach local bookstores to determine their interest in local authors. I know of at least one local chain that has a policy of supporting local writers and carrying their books. Make sure they know about your work. Take them samples. Which brings to me the biggy:

5. Create a publisher’s catalogue of work available. This includes all the books available from your indie publishing company. Usually this should be at least ten different novels and anthologies. (Remember, you can create anthologies from your short stories, including the freebies.) This means that you create a full color booklet that can be distributed to bookstores locally or even farther afield either through hand delivery or mail out. The big thing here, like with covers, is to ensure your catalogue is professional looking and clearly spells out how and where to find your in-print books.

So those are some options for indie publishers to market their books, whether e-books or print. I haven’t tried them all, but I’m working on it. So what other strategies have you tried and how have they worked for you?

Book Blog Tours and Review Sites with Adrian Phoenix

By Karen Abrahamson | July 24, 2011

The few last weeks I’ve written about building a social network and its use in marketing. It was interesting that Joshua Graham couldn’t directly relate his Facebook and twitter followers to his writing, but that John Locke, could. Hard on the heels of writing those posts I attended a Publisher’s Workshop on the Oregon Coast where we discussed marketing strategies for e-books. One of the items clearly not at the top of the facilitators list of marketing tools was social marketing a la Facebook and twitter.

Following on that workshop I was referred to a an article on the Science Fiction Writers of America website regarding the author’s 100 day Social Media Blackout and the results of that experiment regarding social media and marketing. The author basically removed herself from social media for 100 days and talks about what she learned from this experience. Basically, her view of the value of social media shifted from a belief that social media connected her with readers and industry professionals as well as connecting her with family and friends, to one of social media’s value being its ability to connect her with community.

Not marketing. Community building. She goes so far as to point out that having a person as a follower (something that takes only the click of a mouse), does not necessarily mean they are going to take the time to buy and read your books.

So how do you build a fan base? Urban Fantasy Author and friend, Adrian Phoenix, has done extremely well at building a fan base over three years of publishing her Maker’s Song and Hoodoo novels. She kindly agreed to an interview about how book blog tours have contributed to her following.

1. For those of us just starting down this road, can you please explain what a guest blog is?

Adrian: You bet! A guest blog is a post you write for another person’s blog, usually by invitation, on any number of topics. I’ve written on topics ranging from vampire dating tips, my first crush, writing from the male POV, on the nature of ghosts, my love of paranormal, the top ten shows on my DVR, etc. Anything that readers might find interesting. I try to gear it toward the blog that I’ll be guesting on—paranormal, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, etc. But I’ve found that most blogs are happy with any interesting, reader-hooking subject. And humor seems to be really appreciated.

Here’s the links to a few examples.

On Paranormal Haven, I did a guest post on the nature of ghosts.

On the Strange Candy blogsite, I did I guest post on vampire dating tips.

On All Things Urban Fantasy, my post was about the top ten shows on my DVR. (Including pictures for each show, plus who I thought was the hottest character.)

On the Vampire Book Club, my post was on writing from the male POV.

2. How do you get invited to provide a guest blog?

Adrian: I usually get invited by bloggers who’ve either read my books or have received copies from my publisher. So it never hurts to check the blogs reviewing books in your genre and offering to do a giveaway or offer to send them a copy to review. Sometimes they are overloaded with books to review, so my advice at this point would be to contact them about doing a guest blog or interview along with a giveaway.

Once you’ve been a guest on a blog site, keep in touch about your next release. You should get an invitation to come back. If you don’t (and they do have a ton of authors to deal with), politely let them know—in advance— that you have a new release coming out and schedule a giveaway and guest blog or interview. Always be polite and friendly. Most bloggers will be happy to work with you and promote your books if you treat them with warm professionalism and courtesy.

3. You have conducted guest blogs as both yourself and your characters. Why have you done this and how is blogging as a character different from regular blogging? Why do it?

Adrian: I really enjoy letting the characters do guest blogs and/or giving interviews. I can play and have fun and don’t need to worry about how I’m perceived. Readers in general and fans of a series absolutely love interacting with the characters they read about, the characters that feel so real to them. Some even get to flirt. Sometimes I’ll offer to do a character gig just for a change of pace, but more often, the bloggers will ask for one—especially if they are fans of the books themselves.

Every time I’ve done a character interview or post, I always see a comment along the lines of “I haven’t read these books yet, but I loved this interview and the way the characters chatted that I’m going to get the first book right now.”

That alone makes it worthwhile. It gives new readers a taste of the books through getting to know the characters, and it gives fans a chance to play with them. And my turnouts for character posts and interviews are often better attended than my own interviews. I’m okay with that. After so many interviews, there isn’t much new to say that your readers don’t already know from previous interviews. Another reason for guest blogs—myriad subject possibilities beyond yourself and your writing techniques. LOL.

Here’s a couple of examples of character post and interviews.

On Paranormal Haven, the Maker’s Song gang posted likes and dislikes dossiers, including their thoughts on Twilight.

On Paranormal Romance Addict, Dante and Heather did an interview together.

And on WereVampsRomance, Dante discusses sex, lies, and the mofos who tell them.

4. Personally, the thought of being interviewed in a blog makes me nervous. How do you make sure you haven’t made a fool of yourself in the blog or that your characters don’t make a comment that could impact readership in the future?

Adrian: Interview questions aren’t all that difficult, really. The readers want to know more about you—do you have pets, children? What do you like to read? Who do you like to read? What is your writing routine? If you avoid religion and politics, you’ll be fine. Readers want to know the person behind the book. That’s all.

As for the characters, I let them say whatever they would normally say and don’t censor them. Fans want them to be themselves and, trust me, Dante doesn’t hold back. They love him all the more for it. And he’s gained me new readers as well. I don’t think you need to worry and your characters chasing away readers. If anything, they will win them over.

5. What kind of time commitment is involved in guest blogging?

Adrian: Unfortunately, it can be a lot. It depends on how long your guest blog is (and shorter is generally better) and how much you interact with the readers after it is posted. It’s a good idea to read the comments, leave comments of your own thanking them for joining you, for their support, and answering any follow-up questions.

On my previous release, I did a huge blog tour. I had so many requests and I wanted to do them all and I did. I’ll be more careful with this next release, spread them out more. Not only do you use up too much writing time, but you run the risk of people seeing too much of you. Spread it out. Instead of a guest blog or interview every time, offer to do a straight giveaway instead. I’ve never had a blogger say no to that.

7. On a topic other than blogging, do you have a promotions/marketing plan beyond whatever your publisher identifies? I also note that you have a posse of fans who do a lot of promotion of your books. How did that come about and what do they do for you? How did you go about promoting your book as an author once you had your book deal?

Adrian: I don’t have a specific promotions/marketing plan other than getting the word out via blogsites, giveaways, sample chapters, etc. Having an active website is part of that. That’s a necessity so readers, new and continuing, can find you, learn more about your books (where to find them, for one thing) and contact you.

Through my website, people can also join the street team, request free book plates, or go to the forum (or my official Yahoo fan club) to chat with other fans about my books. I also have chats with characters on the forum.

I have a street team of 160 people worldwide right now (that number keeps going up) and two street team managers (both who are fans that I got to know and who volunteered for the job) who handle the details. The street team receive bookmarks to hand out to book stores, libraries, and to other readers. They post about my releases and events on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, MySpace and spread the word about my books in a ton of different ways (including my titles and website link in their email signatures). Quite a few make sure their local bookstore keeps my books on the shelves and chat the books up in book clubs and reading groups.

I give signed copies of each release to the top 25-30 people on the team and every few months, award prizes to members with the highest points. (Points are earned in a number of different ways.) I also make sure they know I want it to be fun and that they are not obligated to do anything.

As for promoting my books after landing each of my contracts, I don’t do much—aside from putting info and news up on my website. Not until it gets closer to the book’s release date. A couple of months prior, I start contacting blogs about doing appearances and giveaways. And I always have something happening on my website.

Thanks so much to Adrian for her time and her insight. (Her most recent book, Black Heart Loa is receiving stellar reviews.) Blog tours sound like work, but they also sound like a lot of fun —but then so does most of social marketing when you focus on the social aspect. The one caution I would add to Adrian’s information after a follow-up discussion with her, is remember that social marketing and guest blogging should not take over your writing time. If it does, then you have a problem.

Building a Social Network and Following

By Karen Abrahamson | July 16, 2011

Last blog Joshua Graham discussed how he built his novel’s readership from first self-published manuscript to best selling Thriller. Joshua talked about building his social network and that this was the key to having his book sell.

So how does someone build their network from their few friends to the broader network needed to sell your book widely?

Best selling novelist, John Locke, talked about conducting searches on Twitter and Facebook for people who might be interested in your types of books. These types of searches might be as simple as searching #mystery, or #romance, or #thriller, or they might be as complex as conducting a search of a topic area, such as #postapocalypticfiction, or #Bahamas (the location of your novel).

It may also involve areas you are passionate about. For me travel and culture were two areas I searched and followed people who seemed to have similar interests to me, or to post information that was interesting to me, e.g. National Geographic Traveler.

A next step is to look at these individual’s twitter pages and identify those people who follow that site who might also be interested in following you. This might be based on their profile, but it might also be based on what they post. Are the people avid readers, or reviewers, or are they passionate about the topic you are writing about such as #afghanistan or #animalrights? When you find people who are interesting to you, then follow them. Chances are they will also follow you, if you also look interesting to them. So how do you do this?

First of all, have an interesting profile on your twitter account. This doesn’t mean make things up, it means telling people what you are passionate about that show who you are. This might include your book, or your hobby, or your family, your pet, or your humor, but show them. This makes you human and they can see things that you might have in common.

Second of all, have a website linked to your facebook and twitter page. Make sure your website is interesting. Have a blog that is also interesting. Make sure your website and your blog are constantly changing (new material) to bring people back again and again.

Offer something to people who come to your website. This might mean value-added material about the characters or the world in which your book is set, or it might include offering contests or something free, like a story, to readers.

Be consistent in your postings to your website and on twitter and/or Facebook become a presence with something interesting to say and people will follow you.

Don’t think you have something interesting to say today? Then find the people with the tweets that are interesting to you and retweet them, because if you found them interesting, chances are others will too. If we’re talking about Facebook, make coments about posts that interest you. Facebook also allows pages for your book, so here is another place to show what you are writing about. With regards to blogs, if you have posted your blogs regularly, people will come to expect that you will keep that regularity up. That consistency allows people to follow you.

A note here. Many social media pundits say you should post a new blog at least once a week. Others have postulated that a quality post could be written less frequently to allow people to be guided to it again and again.

It’s my belief that this will depend on the nature of the post and its intended readers. So think about whether your blog’s readers are people with time to check posts regularly, or are they people who may need a month just to find the time to check your blog? Finally, a challenge for a lot of writers is that they target their blog to other writers instead of their readers. So think about what you are doing with your blog and your social media posts, and make sure it is targeted to who you are really writing for—your readers.

Beyond your own blog and website, you can also build your social media connections a couple of other ways:

1. Identify writers or books that you believe attract a similar audience to that your book should attract. Find fan pages and groups for these writers and books and engage with them.

2. Find other blog sites, like review sites, forums or well-trafficked sites and participate regularly. Share what you know. Share yourself and DON”T USE THOSE CONNECTIONS TO ONLY PUSH YOUR WARES.

3. Join Goodreads and become involved with reader groups. Participate in book discussions. When you introduce yourself to a new group, feel free to introduce yourself as a writer, but don’t push your book. There are other ways established on Goodreads to do this.

Most of all, relax and enjoy the people you meet. The open conversations that occur, make you human and are more likely to cause a person to think that given they like you, they might like your book.

Next week we’re going to talk about book reviews and blog tours.

Social Media and Marketing your e-Published Book

By Karen Abrahamson | July 9, 2011

Which social media do you prefer and what success have you experienced with it? Last Post I said that we’d start to explore social media and how to make it work for you. When I consider social media and on-line marketing there are four basic areas to discuss:

Twitter
Facebook/Google+
Websites and blogs
Author opportunities on Amazon.com, Pubit and Goodreads amidst others.

In addition there are other opportunities such as interviews/blog tours and UTube, however I recently saw an amazing graphic that shows the immense possibilities available for social marketing (click here). All of these are built on a key concept we discussed last week, namely the importance of social networking.

Marketing on social networks requires you to first of all to focus on also being social. To help with introducing this subject, successful self-publisher, Joshua Graham, provided these insights about his experience building from a newly published book to a best seller. He provides a good introduction to what social marketing requires.

1. You’ve talked about using social media for promoting yourself and your books. Can you tell me what social media you’ve used and what have you used them for? E.g. do you only use social media for your writing, or are you involved with the various forms for other social purposes?

I have Facebook accounts, fan pages for my pen names and books, as well as twitter accounts. I mostly use them for marketing my work.

Do you have those for each of your pseudonyms and each book?

That is correct. For now, with only 2 novels and 2 pen names, it’s manageable.

2. How have you used each type of social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon book groups, etc.) to promote your writing? E.g. announcing new publications, pushing your books (if so, how?)

Twitter is still a bit of a mystery to me, but I’m learning. I’ve used Facebook to find readers and let them know about my books, reviews, interviews, awards, and honors. All of these help build my internet presence and create a platform. As this platform grows, there will be more of an audience for future releases.

To find readers, I basically went to various special interest pages on Facebook such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., engaged in discussions and “friended” anyone who seemed like they might be interested in my books. Also, based on the reactions (comments, “likes”) to my book posts, I “friended” those people as well.

3. Did you have a social media presence before you began promoting your books?

Not really. I had a personal Facebook page, but I really began marketing under my pen name when my ebooks first became available.

4. How often are you on the various social media sites? What time commitment does social media involve a week? (What did you devote to it?)

Probably a bit more than I should be. I spend several hours each week on Facebook, and often when I’m feeling a bit unfocused in my writing, I hang out there more doing marketing and communicating with my fans.

5. Have you tracked which social media sites have had the greatest impact on your sales? If so, which ones have you found most effective?

It’s hard to draw a direct correlation (esp. with Twitter) but I have definitely found Facebook the most effective way for now. Even that is reaching a limit, so I’ll need to explore other venues for marketing too.

6. Are there actions you would recommend for writers venturing into marketing on social media and, conversely, are there actions that you would recommend writers avoid?

There’s no one way that works for everyone. Definitely, write the best book you can. Get some good reviews and use them to talk about your book. I find that if you start giving away a lot of free ebooks (short stories, or even novels) on a regular basis, you’ll develop an appreciative and loyal following.

Then when you release a new book, they as your fans will be very enthusiastic and hopefully talk about it on their social networks as well. I would avoid over-saturating certain fan pages with ads. Be aware of the culture and rules of each fan page or message board. If you fall out of favor, it will harm rather than help your marketing efforts.

7. What would you recommend to the writer who has little to no previous experience with social media?

Get started! Learn your way around and find your own social media voice. Have a personality online that people can identify with. And most of all, be a giver. Give your readers and fan something of value. If they perceive you as a taker–someone who just wants them to buy your book, they will be turned off and you will become noise to them.

A big thanks to Joshua for sharing his insights. And just to reinforce what he has said, as an author he has focused on his marketing, but he has done so through becoming involved with communities within the social media.

A similar story can be found if you look at the process John Locke used to become a best seller, however his preferred social media was Twitter. So it seems that both social media can be successful; you just need to decide which you prefer and determine how to make it work for you. That’s what we’ll talk about next time out.

So I’ll repeat my question here: which social media do you prefer and what success have you experienced with it?

I look forward to hearing from you!

Social Media, Pulling Teeth and Getting Started

By Karen Abrahamson | July 3, 2011

I remember it well—the day my writing mentor said I had to be on Twitter. First came the panic.

‘No’, I said. ‘No way. E-mail eats enough time as it is.”

Another kindly pair of friends took me aside and explained that really, Twitter wasn’t so bad, and you needed it to market you books (no mention of how). So they helped me get an account and TweetDeck, and set me loose in the Twitter world.

And I never used it.

The few times I logged on, it was like going to the dentist and I HATED the fact that my darn computer dinged and disturbed my train of thought every time a new tweet came through. Now I know I could turn my speakers down, but I needed the volume to tell me when business e-mails came through. The trouble was twitter kept dinging and dinging. So this post is about Twitter and Facebook and social media in general and how to make it manageable for you. Next post will be on how to make it WORK for you.

The thing with Twitter and Facebook is that you have to understand that they have tremendous potential, but you also have to understand that there are downsides:

Social media can be frustrating as heck until you understand them and how they work.
Social media can feel like floundering in deep water until you decide the parameters of how you are going to participate.
Twitter and Facebook can become veritable time sinks.
Social media can begin to take over your social life.

DSC_0038 - revised la saucet river — Winter river near La Saucet, France (2005) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

Like anything new, understanding Twitter and Facebook requires purposeful learning. Yes, it is possible to simply open an account and begin tweeting or sending messages, but why, and what do you send messages about? One reason may be to simply keep in touch with existing friends. Once you’ve connected with your friends, it’s easy to fulfill this purpose. You can use Facebook and Twitter to send out urls for blogs, which is also useful, and if that is all you want, then the social media is working for you.

So to make social media work for you, this is a first decision point: what do you want from Twitter or Facebook?

If you want to leverage social media to help with marketing your books, this requires you to become more involved in the social media family. It requires you to become more comfortable with working with social media. A good place to pick up pointers is through Lynda.com, which contains video tutorials on the basics, but also sessions on marketing.

Marketing your book requires building your connections to others in the Twitterverse, or Facebook Universe. This involves building connections to friends, which means that you need to do more than marketing. You need to give people something of yourself and your interests, something that both you and other people find of value. This involves reaching out to others to become their friends, either by identifying common interests, or through their connections to people you friend or follow. This is easy enough to do, by simply clicking on a person’s profile and friending or following them. Hopefully they will reciprocate and follow you, too. But the trouble is this can become an obsession. You can spend hours identifying friends and follows, and you have to ask yourself what is most important—this social media work, or time spent writing (and time having a life).

This is a second decision point: Are you a writer first and a social media savant second, or is it the other way around? If you are a writer, then you may need to set parameters around your time spent on social media. For an example, I try to put in thirty minutes to an hour in the morning and the same in the evening.

Street scene, Montmartre, Paris (2005) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

But at the same time you need to understand that social media is social. This means that even if your original intention in joining the Twitterverse and Facebook was to market your book, you need to do more than that. You need to have something to add to the Twitterverse. This was initially where I stalled. I didn’t know what I could add to all the comments out there. Well we all have things to add, whether it be book recommendations, reporting on your latest accomplishments, or links to blogs that you found important, these are the things that will build your followers and your social connections, and when you get your first message from a follower it starts to feel fun that you are building connections to people—people who might eventually become your friends.

And not your dentist.

Holding a Book in Your Hand: Print on Demand

By Karen Abrahamson | May 29, 2011

The chance to hold your book in your hand in published, bound format is a treat each would-be author dreams of. I know published authors, with reputable e-publishers, who struggle to accept themselves as published authors because the book isn’t available in hard copy. For those authors who are either venturing into publication on their own, or who have started their own publishing company, there are avenues to satisfy this craving. They are known as Print on Demand (POD).

POD generally comes in two forms, one which I am going to call Traditional POD and the other I’ll call True POD. In Traditional POD, the author works with a printer and orders a print run of so many hundred or thousand copies of the book. The printer prints the books (at a cost to the author) and then either warehouses the books (also at a cost to the author) or ships the books to the author so that the author can warehouse them. Downsides of this model are the high, upfront, printing costs, and the ongoing cost of warehousing and shipping books when (if) they are ordered. Also a downside is the fact that, unless the author has a means (a platform) to sell these books, the author might end up holding onto them forever. So downsides of traditional POD include high up front costs, ongoing costs and/or the storage space the author must pay for.

On the other hand, I know of motivational speakers with platform who have used this printing method with complete satisfaction. They know when they are going to give a series of lectures, can have the right number of books printed to meet their expected demand, and store the books for a short period of time while they sell them at their lectures. It works for them.

For the rest of us, however, having to either store or pay for the storage of books, and the upfront costs make this rather prohibitive.

Enter True POD. In a nutshell, this model of self publishing allows you to have the book ready for sale through a distributor and, when someone wants to purchase the book, that individual book is printed. It does away with the need for storage, but allows quality books to be printed.

There are three main companies for True POD:

1. Lightning Source

2. Lulu

3. Createspace

Lightning Source differs from the other two because it is basically a printing company, while the other two could be called ‘author service companies’ with mostly-free options. Lightning Source focuses on providing printing services, and printing services alone. They expects you to know how to format your book both inside and the cover. The company does provide templates and instructions, but does not expect to deal with author/publishers who don’t know their business.

To Lightning Source’s credit, it offers extensive book formats, including hard cover and full color. The company also has the most extensive distribution in both the US and UK and allows the author to control discounts to distribution points (stores).

Costs, however, are higher, with Lightning Source charging between $117 and $150 per title, depending on whether you are doing hard or soft cover. Other downsides include the requirement that you have your own ISBNs and that their website is not the most easy to use. I’m told, however, that once you figure it out, it’s no more difficult to use than the two author service companies.

Lulu – The first of the author service companies presented here, Lulu offers a full range of services including author packages like “The best selling publishing package”. While this package comes at a charge of $629.00, it doesn’t offer anymore than an author/self publisher can do themselves. Lulu offers pre-publishing, marketing and publicity packages, but again, the author can do most of this themselves.

On the plus side, Lulu publishes in the US and UK and offers many more trim sizes including everything from pocket books to hard covers with dust jackets, similar to Lightning Source. Distribution through Lulu on a free basis is through Lulu.com, and, if you choose Lulu as publisher, through Amazon. If you want yourself listed as publisher it will cost you $99.00. Lulu also offers a good template for cover creation.

Createspace (my current choice) also offers author publishing packages, but the author creation of a book on Createspace is relatively intuitive. Packages include the $758.00 Total Design Freedom Standard that has ‘professionals’ work with you to get your book ready to publish. Again, you don’t need this unless you have money to throw at the project.

Createspace basically has two ‘plans’ for publication, basic and pro-plan. The basic plan allows your book to sell at the Createspace e-store and Amazon for only a share of the royalties, while the pro-plan (at a charge of $39.00) makes you eligible for the Expanded Distribution Channels that can get your book into libraries and bookstores (theoretically). In the pro-plan, you also pay less per copy when you order your own book. Royalty rates are also higher in the Pro-plan in comparison to Lulu.

So for my money, Createspace seems to win as a low-cost option for POD.

While these three companies seem to be the front runners for POD, there are any number of other author service companies who will, for a price, provide book formatting, editorial services, cover production, and marketing advice and services. Let me emphasize this: FOR A PRICE.

These companies aren’t cheap and for the most part any author can learn to produce reasonable POD books on their own or through finding freelance services, or friends (to trade services with).

That said, however, there is a significant learning curve required for POD. Assuming your cover design is reasonable enough to be used in POD, there is still the matter of being able to write suitable back cover copy, and to format an entire cover (front, back and spine). You also have to be able to produce a print ready interior of the book. This requires the author to develop other skills in self-publishing, and to learn new programs like Adobe Photoshop and In Design, or Microsoft Publisher—something that took a lot of hours for me to accomplish. But if you are determined to have a print copy of your book, and if you are prepared to do the work, there is nothing like the mailman delivering your first proof.

Electronic Market Options for the New Writer/Publisher

By Karen Abrahamson | May 22, 2011

I recently self-published a short story called The Wife’s Tail. Like with a novel, the first decision I had to make once the story was completed was what to do with the manuscript to get it out into the world. While this isn’t marketing to readers, it will determine some of the marketing steps you take afterwards.

In the old days (like a two years ago), the first choice (for me) would have always to been to send the manuscript to traditional New York publishing houses appropriate for a short Fantasy story. Now, however, the world has changed—not the 2012 Mayan calendar change, but just about. Over the last twelve months the world seems to have shifted and more long-time published authors are saying that self publishing may be the way to go.

Why?

Primarily for financial reasons and the personal control a self-publishing author retains. For example, for novels a writer can earn a higher percentage royalty for self publishing, retain all copyright, and can maintain the book (or short story) in print far longer than a manuscript published through New York. (For more information on the e-book revolution see Here and Here, and for information on the current massive changes in publishing see Here.) Self publishing allows authors to get books into print without going through the convoluted games of agents and publishers. So if you have a good product, and if you are prepared to work with your manuscript beyond packaging it up and mailing it, self publishing may be the option for you.

Having made the decision to self-publish there are basically two options to consider:

1. Electronic (e-book) format, and

2. Print of demand (POD).

A third option of audio books is also out there, but for this post I am going to focus on electronic publication options.

With the overwhelming acceptance of e-readers as an alternative to hardcopy books, we are truly entering the heyday of self-publishing. Amazon Kindle, the Nook, the i-Pad, and a profusion of mobile reading platforms have all contributed to this revolution, and all provide the author with avenues for self-publishing and marketing. A March 2011 article in FutureBook quoted Bertelsmann’s executives as saying that e-book sales were up 250% and that, for some US titles published by their New York branch, as much as 50% of the first two week sales are in e-book format. Other on-line resources state that E-book readership is expected to top 30 million globally by 2013. That’s a lot of potential readers.

For the self publisher to take advantage of this phenomena, there are self-publishing platforms available, most notably:

1. Amazon KDP

2. Pubit (Barnes and Noble), and

3. Smashwords.

Amazon KDP is the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, and allows you to easily upload a formatted manuscript to be sold to Kindle users on Amazon.com. Preparing a manuscript for KDP publishing is relatively painless (less than an hour), but involves removing typical manuscript formatting like headers and page numbers and any tabs, and changing underlined words to italics, etc. so your manuscript is formatted for electronic publication. Table of contents are also added so that readers have a chance to return to places in the manuscript. Amazon provides instructions on formatting on their website. Along with the manuscript formatting, you will also need a cover for the book or story. I’ll talk more about covers in a later post.

The fortunate thing about Kindle is that this publishing avenue is available to writers all over the world. As a writer from outside the US, it allows me to get paid for novel sales into the US market as long as I have sorted out the Income Tax issues with US Internal Revenue Service. Canadian and other english readers can access the books through their Kindle and now, with the advent of Kindle UK and Kindle DE, readers in the United Kingdom and Germany can also access these books.

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing pays the writer either 35% or 70% royalties (depending on the book price) which is a far cry above the standard 25% offered by New York publishing for e-rights.

Pubit is the in-house program for Barnes and Noble and apparently is an excellent publishing option. It pays 65% royalties on Pubit purchases, which again is far better than the traditional publishing option. The one problem with the program is that it is only user friendly for authors having addresses in the United States. Frankly, their website is misleading as, when they first opened, they contacted me to offer publication, but then threw up enough road blocks I haven’t used them to this day.

First it was the requirement for a US bank account. Then, after I had obtained the bank account, they required a mailing address in the United States. While it would have been possible for me to accomplish this by renting a mailbox, from a business perspective, the potential revenue wasn’t worth the outlay and the only advantage to me would have been slightly faster payment. A last negative comment on Pubit is that they required more personal information than any of the other e-publishing sites. As a result, I have reached Pubit readers through Smashwords.

Smashwords offers another entry point for e-books, but unlike Kindle and Pubit, it is not limited to one digital platform. Smashwords-published books can be read on a variety of devices including, Kindle, Sony Reader, Nook, Kobo, and IPad, and are also available as HTML, RTF and PDF. Smashwords pays between 38% and 85% royalty depending upon the book price, whether Smashwords or an affiliate (Kobo, Sony etc.) sold the book, and what currency the book was purchased in (and taxes in the Purchaser’s country). Again, this rate is significantly higher than New York publishing’s.

While initially self-publishing on Smashwords seemed daunting because of the fairly rigorous formatting requirements, Smashwords provides a complete instruction manual that, when followed, usually leads to a successful upload. Instructions include such details as requirements for front-matter (copyright statements) and instructions about adding in table of contents. Having completed preparation of a manuscript for one digital platform (whether you do Amazon Kindle or Smashwords first), it really takes very little time to prepare the manuscript for the other platform.

I’m sure you’re asking, then why bother with Kindle and Pubit at all, if Smashwords publication will reach those platforms, too. The answer is in the royalty rates. Selling on Kindle or Pubit directly will usually reap you the 65% or 70% for a novel. Selling via a Smashwords affiliate will reap you less, depending on where the novel is purchased. So if you have decided to sell your e-book on Smashwords and Kindle/Pubit, it is important for the self-published writer to TURN OFF the Smashwords sales to those two channels.

To do this, the writer/self-publisher should go to their Smashwords ‘Dashboard’ and click on Distribution Channel Manager in the left hand column. Then you should scroll down to the specific novel/story title and check ‘opt out’ for the Kindle or Pubit channel. Again, this should only be done for books you have already published on the other platform and is done to avoid having two listings on Amazon and Pubit that pay you different royalty rates.

And that is all it takes. Be prepared for some frustrations the first time through, but for the next book you’ll know what to do and the time commitment will be shorter.

Next post I’ll talk about POD, because let’s face it: e-books might be nice, but we authors like to hold something physical with a cover.

Peruvian time

By Karen Abrahamson | May 7, 2011

Women in the moment of Cusco Parade(2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

Coming home from another continent affords lots of time to sit in airports and to reflect (as you cross time zones) on the nature of time, and timing, and how we experience it. Coming from North America we are so driven by the clock – to be punctual, to punch the clock, and to resent those who don’t bow to the ticking moments in the same way the rest of us do. I speak from experience. I lost a very good friend because she refused to honor my time as I honored hers. She always kept me waiting for at least an hour every time I was to meet her for a social engagement and when I pressed her on the issue she decided my friendship wasn’t worth trying to change her time sense. So we parted ways.

In Peru I ran into a similar phenomena. There I was, sitting in the train station at Aguas Caliente, going home from Machu Picchu, and the train before mine arrived. They called the train’s arrival. They called boarding and the foreign tourists crowded around to load. They called last call and a few Peruvians came running. They called last call again (I guess they didn’t mean it the first time). More Peruvians came running. They called last call again and an entire tour group (Peruvian) came trotting up. They closed the gate and announced the train was leaving.

Time worn ripples in the stone of Sacsaywaman (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

About 5 minutes later another entire Peruvian tour group arrived and were a tad put out that the train had left without them.

I watched this and put the phenomena down to this being a tourist train and Peruvian tourists, but then I had to catch a plane to get from Cusco to Lima. There, I was, sitting in the departure lounge as LAN airlines boarded a flight. They announce last call. A couple of people come running. They announce last call again, and a few more people come. They announce that they were closing the gate and a western tourist who had been guarding the belongings of a Peruvian friend, finally tossed the friend’s belongings to the gate crew and boarded. His friend eventually showed up and was choked that the plane wasn’t waiting for her. They announced last call again and at that point – after Airport staff had been walking around for at least ten minutes paging missing passengers (by name) – someone pointed out to a group of businessmen in the waiting area that they were supposed to be on that plane. They dashed off, madly. So after about 4 last calls, personal pages and various and sundry announcements the gate was finally locked and the plane took off, but the whole thing got me thinking.

Village near Ollantaytambo (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

What was it about Peruvians? Did they just not pay attention? Was the whole world to wait for them? Did they just not care that they were holding up an entire airport? Was there something called ‘Peruvian time’?

While waiting for another flight (this time in Canada), I had the chance to chat with a Peruvian woman who has lived in North America a long time. I ran my story past her and she laughed and said that the Peruvian psyche is not so Machiavellian. Instead the reason those passengers missed their trains and almost their planes was more likely because Peruvians are more ‘in the moment’. When they engage with friends they are totally ‘present’, and so they miss little things like the announcement for a train or last call for a plane. She told me that when friends get together for dinner they had best plan for people to arrive two hours late.

Which is interesting for a writer, because, from personal experience, our sense of timing is such a rich source of conflict.

Peruvian mountain woman (2011) Photo (c) Karen Abrahamson

And now I’ve come home to Canada to find my mother in the hospital from a stroke and my family playing a waiting game. No longer is our focus on punctuality. Now we live in the moment and keep hoping for a few moments more – Peruvian time. Let the world pass us by for a long, long time.