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Six Ways to Promote Your Book Online

by | July 6, 2019 | | 2 Comments

By Ashley Lister

As writers in the twenty-first century, we are not just expected to write. We’re expected to write, edit, proofread and promote. The goal, I suppose, is to introduce our work to more potential readers, and secure a place at the top of their ‘To Be Read’ (TBR) pile. Below are a handful of tips that might help with achieving such a goal.

1: Use Social Media: FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, GoodReads and LinkedIn – and whatever other social media platform is currently in vogue at your time of going to press. Make sure your book is visible on that medium.

FaceBook allows you to have a cover photo and a profile picture. Use both of those opportunities to make sure potential readers know that your book is available.
Twitter has similar things, as well as an option to pin a tweet to the top of your page. Personally, I’ve pinned an image of the cover of my forthcoming title, as well as a link to its Amazon page. In the past I’ve pinned copies of 5* reviews.

I’m aware that some social media platforms treat erotica as though it’s the most leprous of genres. This means being canny in the way you approach promotion for different venues. For example, whilst we all know that FaceBook don’t like nipples, it makes more sense to avoid putting a nipple on FaceBook rather than railing against their arbitrary policies. As a rule of thumb, simply ask yourself which course of action is going to get you the most sales.

Keep in mind that Social Media, aside from being a useful way to stay in touch with friends and business contacts, is an essential marketing tool nowadays. Missing out on using promotion through any area of Social Media means you’re running the risk of missing out on sales.

2. Always include links to potential sales points. Have them as part of your email signature. Have them as part of the signature you use after commenting on a blog post. Have links to captions on images that show readers enjoying your book, or cats sitting on your book, or dogs eating your book. The modern audience has the attention span of a goldfish with a sore head. Rather than hoping they will remember how to Google your name, or fully recall the title of your work, give them a link so there’s no excuse for them missing a chance to buy your work.https://www.amazon.com/Write-Short-Stories-Them-Published-ebook/dp/B07T2MHQT9/

3. Enlist Reviewers. Reviews work with algorithms to increase visibility. If you can get friends and family to leave positive reviews then you’re going to be in a good place to become more visible to potential readers. Some people ask me if this is ethical and my response is: if friends and family have read your work and believe it merits a five star review, then it’s completely ethical. I’ve heard some people say they don’t give five star reviews because they’ve never read anything of that superlative quality. To those people I say, get over yourself.
Get reviews. Share the reviews when they arrive so that all your contacts can see what other people are saying about your work. Once the buzz has started, you’ll be inching closer to the top of a potential reader’s TBR pile.

4. Blog. If you have a blog, tell everyone about your book through the platform that is your blog. Do a virtual blog tour. Get people talking about your book. Get reviewers to blog. Send content to fellow bloggers. Exchange links.

5. Write articles. This ties in with the aforementioned idea of blogging. Write articles for anyone who will take them. If the content relates to your area of expertise (and, as the author a recently published book you have several areas of expertise) then it’s not inappropriate to mention the title of your work or maybe include a direct link.

6. Use Amazon. I’m aware that some people believe Amazon is an evil monopoly that has crippled competition within the publishing industry. There are arguments about Amazon benefitting from taxpayer handouts. There are arguments about exploitation and the absence of ethical capitalism. However, whilst all of these arguments are interesting, do you want to argue about the injustice of a large corporation, or do you want book sales? There is likely a very strong ethical argument for eschewing Amazon but it’s not an argument that is going to get your writing into the hands of readers. As I mentioned before: simply ask yourself which course of action is going to get you the most sales – is it complaining about Amazon, or using their market dominance to your advantage?

Use KDP Select if it’s appropriate for your title. Use an Amazon Book Widget if you can. Make sure you have updated your Amazon Author Page. These features on Amazon are there to help you become noticed in the ever-growing ocean of competitors.

It might sound mercenary, and it’s almost certainly going to take you away from the important work of your writing, but marketing and publicity remain an essential part of the modern writer’s workload. Remember: if we don’t do everything we can to get readers, we’re cheating a large portion of our potential readers from experiencing the genius of what we’ve written – and that would be unforgivable.

Five Realities Of Being A Writer

by | September 28, 2017 | | 0 Comments

Let’s say you’ve been bitten by the Writing Bug and you want to be the next J. K. Rowling or Stephen King. You bought a writing program, took a couple of classes – or even majored in English or Creative Writing – and you’ve attended a writer’s conference or two. Or three. Those things can be addictive. You’ve joined a writers group. Your mom loves your stories although she wishes they were less violent or didn’t have so much smut in them. So now you are ready to take the literary world by storm. You are on a high like you’ve never experienced before.

I’m about to burst your bubble. Are you ready for the facts about your chosen career?

Rather than take the literary world by storm, you’re more likely to run into a very unpleasant drought. Here are five realities of being a writer.

  1. Book publishing is about sales, not about how great a writer you are. Getting a publisher or agent won’t guarantee you a best seller.

I read a depressing article about actress Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark on the hit HBO series Game Of Thrones. She was auditioning for a new role and it was between her and a woman she described as a much better actress. Turner got the part, not because she was a better fit for the role but because she had a much stronger social media presence. She has thousands of followers on Twitter whereas this unknown woman couldn’t match that. Turner’s fame could help bring in an audience – and that translates to sales and big box office. So although she was not the better actress – and the other woman likely would have been a much better fit – the studio went with Turner because she had pull.

You may be the most talented writer in the world, but if you don’t have a following, it will be harder for you to make your way in the writing world than it is for George R. R. Martin to not kill his characters. Agents and especially big publishers are reluctant today to take on unknown talent. They are in the business of making money and they don’t like to take risks. That’s why you see so many Harry Potter knock offs. That’s why 50 Shades of Grey became so famous. Yes, that should piss you off. The writing in 50 Shades is atrocious, but E. L. James had a built-in following when she wrote her Twilight fanfic Master of the Universe. That alone made an agent’s job easier. In order to make it big-time as a writer you already need to have made the big-time as a writer. It’s the ultimate Catch-22. An agent and big publisher will help such a writer make bigger time. That said, there is no guarantee landing an agent will result in a best seller. The average U.S. book is now selling less than 250 copies per year and less than 3,000 copies over its lifetime.

  1. You need a good editor and a good cover artist.

There is an old saying that goes, “you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

Whoever said that has never published a book. The cover matters. The cover is the first thing a potential reader sees when looking for a new book to read. If it looks like a 3 year old pasted clip art all over your dust jacket, that will sink your book. If you are not a master of Photoshop, it is vital you pay an expert to create a kick-ass cover for your book. No, you are not an exception. Put up the cash for a good book cover artist. Look at the covers that person has designed. Choose someone who has won awards. Know your book inside-out so you know what to stress to the artist when creating your book cover. Look at book covers in your chosen genre to see what they may have in common. Common styles, common themes. You don’t want heaving bosoms or oiled male bodies on a horror novel cover. You don’t want blood and guts on a romance novel cover. Know your readers, and give them what they want. Catch your reader’s attention and make him or her grab your book. That’s what the cover does. It catches the reader’s attention and leads to a sale. Make that cover count.

One big mistake many self-published writers make is that they do not hire an editor to edit their works. They think since they aced English 101 they don’t need to spend roughly one hundred (or more) dollars for a professional editor. Take my word for it – you do. One of the biggest gripes readers have outside ugly covers is poorly edited books. If your book is full of misspellings and grammatical errors, you won’t sell another book. Pony up the cash for a good editor. Get referrals from writer friends online or talk to people in a local writers group for recommendations. A good editor will save your life and that person will come in handy for future books. Look into asking writer friends to be a beta reader for your book. Beta readers are not substitutes for good editors, but it’s a great idea to have a second or third pair of eyes look at your work. Do an exchange – you’ll beta read a book for them if they beta read yours. The key is to get outside opinions to improve your book. After a long period of time you could write entire passages in Greek and you wouldn’t notice since you’re too close to your own book. Get an editor. It’s an investment in your future.

  1. Promotions don’t guarantee sales. In fact, most of your promo work is for naught. Sell your persona, not your book.

Face it. You must engage your audience to promote your books. That sentence probably scared the piss out of you because if you are like many writers you are a social klutz. Writers are often insecure, awkward and anti-social – and that’s on a good day. You must carry on conversations with potential readers on social media like Facebook and Twitter. And by “engage your audience” I do not mean spam everyone within earshot with book promo. That is a huge way to turn off people. No one will buy your books if you dup book spam in their mail boxes. Instead, talk to them like they are right there in the room with you. Treat them like people and not potential sales. Give people something worth seeing and reading. Keep in mind that due to Facebook’s algorithm, you are really reaching about only 1 or 2% of the people on your friend’s list. Make your posts clever and worthwhile so people will talk to you.

  1. Your friends and family may not support your endeavors and when they do they may expect free books from you.

Your Catholic family may take umbrage to you writing erotic dinosaur porn. Don’t look for praise and acceptance there. Look to other writers who write erotic dinosaur porn. Even if you write something as innocuous as romance, there will be critics and those critics may be your friends and family. They may expect you to give it up and get a “real” job. They may treat your writing work as a hobby and not take you seriously. Let them. Find others in writers groups and online in places like Facebook and Twitter who support your chosen field. Do you write fantasy? Find other fantasy writers and make connections. The same applies to all other genres. If you do have support from your friends and family, more power to you and consider yourself fortunate.

On the other hand, when you do get support, some friends and relatives may expect you to give your books to them for free. Don’t do it no matter how much pressure you feel. They are not entitled to a freebie just because you share the cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving every year. A truly supportive friend or family member will buy your book from you. Now, if you want to give your book away for free, be my guest. I’m talking about those who expect a freebie from you and have a hissy fit if you refuse. Don’t feel guilty for wanting to make money from your books. Grandma likely can afford a couple of bucks for a paperback or Kindle version. Just don’t tell her about the dino porn.

  1. You probably won’t make much money.

Chances are, you won’t make millions. You may have already accepted that realistic scenario but also realize you likely won’t make enough money in quarterly royalties to buy gas for your beat up old Honda. Most publishers, especially indie publishers, do not offer an advance against royalties. For the most part, you are on your own. According to an article at Publishing Perspectives, “a survey [of over 9,000 writers in the 2014 Digital Book World and Writer’s Digest Author Survey] revealed that 54% of “traditionally-published” authors (and nearly 80% of self-published authors) earn less than $1,000 a year.” Let that sink in.

Now that I have thoroughly depressed you, here is some good news.

While according to that survey most traditionally-published writers barely break even, nearly half are able to earn enough money to satisfy themselves and even live off their earnings. Self-publishing is a much harder route to take, but a 20% success rate is rather high considering the hurdles you must pass in order to publish your own books.

If your family and friends don’t support you, find people who do. Join a local writers group. Not only will you gain much needed valuable support and criticism, you will make new friends. Turn yourself into a social butterfly on Facebook, Twitter, and the like. Engage your audience. Post items designed to get a response such as asking people what they are reading at the moment or ask what books influenced them the most when they were children. Ask their opinions of current movies, TV, and music. Are you a fan of Game Of Thrones or Preacher? Let everyone know and find other fans. Just don’t bring up spoilers without warning (don’t do it at all) or you will make enemies. Talk about stuff other than your books. Nothing turns off potential readers more than a Facebook page full of nothing but book promo. Screaming “Buy My Book!” guarantees no one will touch it.

While many of your books may bomb, you may be surprised to find one or two you didn’t expected to be a hit take off. Take full advantage of that. Write another book in the same genre (or write a series) and get the new book out there as soon as possible. Then, offer the hit book for a sale price temporarily as a promotion for the new book. You’ll draw in new readers that way. Try to write one or two books per year if you can. The more works you have out there, the more you’ll be in the minds of readers and authors alike.

Create a newsletter and send it out no more than once per month. Get to the point in it and keep it brief. Readers like updates from their favorite writers.

While you will likely not be the next George R. R. Martin, there are ways to be happy as a writer. Relish the positive reviews and fan letters. Don’t respond to negative comments or reviews. That’s unprofessional. Don’t let rejections get you down. Everyone gets them. Even J. K. Rowling was rejected numerous times before her Harry Potter series found a home. Have a realistic view of the writing world and you won’t let yourself down.

Alternative Media – Using Radio and Podcasts To Gain Fans

by | April 28, 2016 | | 3 Comments

Elizabeth Black
writes in a wide variety of genres including erotica, erotic romance, horror,
and dark fiction. She lives on the Massachusetts coast with her husband, son, and
her three cats. Visit her web site, her Facebook
page, and her Amazon Author Page. 

Her new m/m erotic medical thriller Roughing
It is out! This book is a sexy cross between The X Files and The Andromeda
Strain. Buy it at Amazon!

Ten months ago, I
began my new job as one of four hosts of a radio show called The Women Show. It doesn’t seem that long ago. This is an internet
radio show – a podcast. My first guest was Gina
Kinkade, the owner of Naughty Nights Press. I was scared to death! I had written
down far too many questions for the half hour show, but I like to be prepared.
I had a glass of champagne before the show and one during so I could stay calm.
Gina was more scared than I was since I don’t think she’d been on the radio
before. Now, she’s a regular on Marsha Casper Cook’s A Good Story Is A Good Story, with others in the Naughty Nights
Press crew. My most recent show on The
Women Show was with some writers from Broad Universe, a networking group
for women who write speculative fiction. I’m a member.

I got my start with
Marsha as co-host, and I enjoyed myself. Her shows last an hour or more, and
she has multiple guests talking under a common theme. Those themes include
romance, erotica, horror, writing in general, screenplay writing, young adult,
and numerous other writing-related topics. Marsha was and still is a great
influence and teacher. I learned how to chat up guests to keep them talking. I
ask questions that require detailed answers rather than a simple
“yes” or “no”. I’ve never had a guest clam up on me, even
the ones who were nervous. Most of my guests have been on the radio before,
including well-known and talented horror writer Jack Ketchum and fantastic mojo
storyteller Joe R. Lansdale. I’ve also had Trent Zelazny as a guest several
times. For the fantasy lovers reading, he is the son of award-winning fantasy
writer Roger Zelazny, of the Chronicles
of Amber fame.

I also talk about my
own writings on theses shows. Sometimes we do readings, which is great since I
get to introduce my listeners to my own work. I’ve read both horror and erotic
fiction live on the air. These readings are great practice for longer readings
in public places like bookstores and conventions. Radio is an unusual way to
get writing exposure. As I gain listeners, more people hear about my books and
buy them. I do need to talk about my own works more often so that my listeners
know I’m more than a radio host. I need them to know I also write and they may
buy my books. My problem is I focus so much on my guests I forget to hawk
myself.

How did I become
interested in radio? Well, it fell in my lap when I met Marsha, and she asked
me to co-host. I was delighted. A bit scared, but delighted. I had also read an
erotic memoir years ago called Wetlands,
by Charlotte Roche. The book received the usual type of criticism an erotic
memoir gets. From Wikipedia: “For supporters
it is an erotic literary novel; for critics it is cleverly marketed shock
fiction bordering on pornography with a previously exhibited habit of the
author of offense for the sake of offense.” Roche was a presenter
on Viva (a German equivalent of MTV) in the mid-’90s, and she had developed
quite a following. So when her book came out, it sold well. It was picked up by
a U. S. publisher and it did well in the States. Now, I understand a movie
based on the book is coming out soon. I will definitely see it. So, using other
forms of media aside of the Internet can help you develop a following in order
to sell books. Being a guest gives you exposure. Being a host does the same
thing.

I appear on The Women Show once per month. I appear
pretty much at will on Blog Talk Radio when I have a show idea to pitch to
Marsha. I am indebted to her and to Bennet Pomerantz, the producer of The Women Show.

Want to listen to
some shows? Pick any one of mine from Blog Talk Radio. Here is an archive of my
past shows – Elizabeth
Black on Blog Talk Radio.

Below is a list of some
of my favorite shows.

Madeleine Shade –
Erotic Fairy Tales

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bennetpomerantz2/2015/08/13/the-women-show-with-your-host-elizabeth-black

Madeleine Shade,
Dellani Oakes, Melissa Kier – Erotic Romance (with host Marsha Casper Cook and
me a co-host)

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/worldofinknetwork/2015/08/06/sexy-hot-romance–world-of-ink-network-hosts–marsha-cook–elizabeth-black

Valentine’s Day –
Elizabeth Black (me), Melissa Keir, Lindsay Downs, Bernard Foong, Walter J.
Bissett, and William Maltese. (with host Marsha Casper Cook and me as co-host)

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/worldofinknetwork/2016/02/10/hot-sexy-romance–happy-valentines-day-a-good-story-is-a-good-story

Broad Universe –
Terri Bruce, Morven Westfield, and Trisha Wooldridge. BU is a networking group
for women who write speculative fiction. I’m a member.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bennetpomerantz2/2016/04/14/the-women-show-with-your-host-elizabeth-black

Trent Zelazny – noir, crime, horror, and dark fiction writer

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bennetpomerantz2/2015/05/14/the-women-show-with-your-host-elizabeth-black

Joe R. Lansdale –
mojo storyteller and author of the Hap and Leonard books. These books were
recently turned into a TV series on Sundance.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bennetpomerantz2/2015/12/17/the-women-show-with-your-host-elizabeth-black

Jack Ketchum –
horror writer, author of The Girl Next
Door.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bennetpomerantz2/2016/03/24/the-womens-show-with-your-host-elizabeth-black-guest-jack-ketchum

Preparing For The Publication Of A New Novel

by | November 28, 2015 | | 5 Comments

Elizabeth Black
writes in a wide variety of genres including erotica, erotic romance, horror, and
dark fiction. She lives on the Massachusetts coast with her husband, son, and
her tuxedo cat, Lucky. Lucky needs playmates, so two kittens are in her near future. Visit her web site, her Facebook page, and her Amazon Author Page.

This picture above is of me, doing the Happy Dance.

After two years of submitting, one of my erotic romance
novels has finally been accepted by an excellent small press. This press has
already published four of my short stories in four anthologies, so we weren’t
strangers to each other. I don’t feel comfortable naming the publisher or the
title of the book yet since the deal isn’t finalized. I need to get my
contract, sign it, and return it. I will say that I’m over the moon about this
acceptance. I sent this book to over 70 agents and all the good erotic romance
publishers. Everyone rejected it. If this particular publisher hadn’t accepted
the book, I was going to shelve it. I had nowhere else to send it, and I loathe
self-publishing. So to say I’m very thrilled is an understatement.

Now for the real work – preparing the book for publication
and preparing myself for publicizing it. I know the title has to change. Any
book with the word “Threesome” in the title will be slapped with the
“Adult” label by Amazon and other distributors and relegated to the
“Erotica” category where it will die a quick and lonely death. If any
of that sort of censorship happens, my book won’t sell because the publishers
would have hidden it from searches. My current and potential readers won’t be
able to find it.  So I need a new title.

I want my cover to be sexy but not tacky. I’m not sure I want
any oiled male torsos on the cover. I like the cover of “Fifty Shades of
Grey”. It’s subtle and hot. I’ll talk to the publisher, but I’ll trust the
pub’s suggestions as to what kind of cover will sell the book.

I’ve already decided who I’d like to write the forward for
my book, but I need to ask her first. I hope she accepts. She’s an excellent,
award-winning erotic fiction writer who’s a great seller. She’d be perfect. I
also have a list of writers I’d like to contact to write blurbs for my book.
I’ll send an ARC of the book if they need it, or I could send a PDF of several
short stories in the likely event they want to read my works first but want
something shorter.

I’ll write a press release to send out to the local
newspapers. I’ve done this before for a charity anthology, so I know how to write
it. Now to get newspapers to write about me and/or the book.

I need to set up a list of reviewers to review the book.
I’ll send it to Night Owl Romance, Manic Readers, Dawn’s Reading Nook, and The
Romance Reviews, to start. I’m not sure where else to send it at this point,
but I do have a list of review sites buried on my computer somewhere. I’m also
going to get the book set up with NetGalley. I’m a member of Broad Universe, a
networking group for women writers. Broad Universe has a very good deal set up
where I can submit my book to NetGalley for a reduced price. I’m definitely
taking advantage of that. I’ll submit the book to Publisher’s Daily anyway. You
never know. I may get a review.

I also need to set up a newsletter. I plan on sending
newsletters out monthly and at times when something unique is going on, like
the release or special sales. I need to create or pay someone to create a
newsletter header. If I can’t do it myself, I’ll ask the woman who made my
excellent covers for my two erotic fairy tales, Trouble In Thigh High Boots (erotic Puss In Boots) and Climbing Her Tower (erotic Rapunzel). I’ve
subscribed to MailChimp awhile ago, but I’m not comfortable using it yet. Then
I need to get subscribers. How do I create a “sign up for my
newsletter” link on my web site and on my Facebook timeline? I need to
figure that out. If there are easier and better newsletter programs out there,
please let me know!

I need to plan live readings. I can go to Broad Universe for
this, since that group does group readings. I need to find the local erotic
fiction audiences and give readings to them. I could go to conventions like I
do every year, but the ones I go to are for science fiction, fantasy, and
horror. Smut wouldn’t fit in, although some local SF/F cons do include erotic
works. I need to find the romance and erotica conventions. Hopefully some of
them will be nearby.

I’d like to pay for some advertising, but I’d like the
advertising to give me results. I don’t want to throw away my money. I may buy
a spot on Night Owl Reviews’ web site and magazine. The Romance Reviews has
reasonable rates for advertising. I’ve had good results there when I advertised
my two erotic fairy tales. Is GoodReads advertising a good idea? What about
Facebook sponsored ads? Any other suggestions for good places for book
advertisements?

I need to set up one or two blog tours. I’ve done these in
the past on my own and while they’re a lot of work, I liked the results. I have
my old list of contacts and I’ll contact those people again for my blog tours.

Any other suggestions of promotions I left out? I don’t want
to miss anything!

I’m very excited about this acceptance. It comes on the
heels of one of my publishers closing its doors. That pub was supposed to
publish my first family saga/thriller novel in 2016, and now I have to start
from scratch again to find it a new home. More agent queries and small press
submissions. Sigh. That closing really discouraged me as have the usual
rejections I’ve received during this period. I haven’t written a novel in over
two years. I’ve had a handful of short stories published in anthologies though,
in both erotic fiction and horror categories. So my work is out there. Just not
my long work. I have several unfinished erotic novels sitting on my computer
that I haven’t felt like touching in all this time. I was very discouraged with
my writing career, so I haven’t had the desire to write much.  Now, my mojo is back. I have a m/m erotic
werewolf novel to finish. That one is loads of fun. A food porn erotic novel
needs me.  That one has a touch of magic
in it. Then there is the m/m erotic romance set in an exotic location. It also
has a touch of food porn. The novel I sold has food porn in it. I like food
porn.  🙂

So my writing career is looking up for 2016. Here’s hoping
the publisher treats the book well (I don’t doubt it will), and my promotions
give me lots of sales. That’s what I want and need – readers to buy and read
the book. I don’t want to lose my mojo. Not now, when everything looks so good.
What a great present for the holiday season. I’m psyched!

Taking Your Book on Tour

by | October 21, 2015 | | 6 Comments

ByLisabet Sarai

In the (good?) old days, before ebooks and social media, publishers
would organize book tours for their authors. The author would travel
to various cities for readings and signings. She’d give interviews
and appear on local TV and radio. The goals of this expensive (and
exhausting) activity were to sell books, of course, and to generally
make potential readers aware of the writer’s existence and her body
of work, in addition to her new release. (Please excuse my exclusive
use of the female pronoun. It’s just a convenience. I don’t
intend to ignore all the male authors out there.)

These days, for all but the most famous authors, the physical book tour has
been mostly replaced by a “virtual tour”, also known as a blog
tour. What’s a blog tour? It’s a marketing activity that
involves making arrangements with multiple blog owners—often though
not always other authors in your genre—to feature a post about your
book. Usually, like a real world tour, a blog tour will take place
during a set period of time. One or two weeks is typical. Each day
during that period, your book will appear in different places in the
cybersphere. The schedule, arranged beforehand, will be included with
each post (along with links to the tour stops), so that readers can
surf to earlier appearances if they want.

Many tours (at least in the erotic romance genre, the one most familiar to
me) offer prizes or other goodies to entice readers to follow the
tour blogs. Most commonly these days, the grand prize will be a
bookstore gift certificate, in amounts ranging from $15 to $50. I’ve
seen tours that really go over the top to offer a Kindle or Nook.
Free books and swag (pens, notebooks, coffee mugs, and so on with the
author’s logo or cover) are also prevalent. Tours are usually set
up so that readers can enter the giveaway at each stop. Thus, the
more posts they read (or at least, the more sites they visit), the
higher the chances that they’ll win. In my blog tours, I sometimes
give away a small gift at each stop, in addition to the grand prize.

What sort of material appears in the tour posts? This varies quite a bit
depending on the author, the book and who’s arranging the tour. At
a minimum, the post will include the book cover, book blurb, buy
links, author bio, and author website and social media links. Often
an excerpt will be added. Some blog tours (the ones I enjoy most)
have additional material written by the author prefacing the book
information. This can be anything from an essay on the background of
the book to an interview with either the author or one of the book’s
characters. If there are prizes on offer, the post will also explain
how readers can enter the giveaway.

There are two popular methods for handling blog tour contests. One simply
asks readers to leave a comment on the blog. While this is easy for
readers, it has the problem that it may be difficult to locate
winners if they don’t include an email address in their comment.
You have to repeat this instruction multiple times in your post. The
other method uses third-party services like Rafflecopter.
While this is convenient, I personally don’t like it because it
exposes readers to potential privacy risks. (Don’t try to convince
me that Rafflecopter isn’t using all the emails and FB logins it
accumulates, from the thousands of contests it manages.)

Some authors require visitors to sign up for their mailing lists, “like”
their pages on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter in order to enter
the drawing. In my experience, this results in fewer entries. Readers
are busy, and to some extent lazy. You’ve got to make things really
simple for them.

Of course, just getting your content on someone else’s blog isn’t
enough to pull in readers. It’s critical that you promote the tour
using other methods: via your mailing list, Facebook, Twitter, your
own blog, Yahoo groups, whatever you can do. I don’t mean just one
announcement, either. You need to remind people, at least every few
days, that the tour is going on and that they could win wonderful
prizes and read great excerpts. Your promotional material should
include active links, so that recipients can simply click to view a
post.

Finally, if at all possible, the author should drop by each stop, thank the
host, and respond to comments—if
not individually, then at least with a summary comment that refers to
some of the more cogent separate comments.

Sound like a lot of work? It is. However, it’s probably less exhausting
than a physical tour. At least you don’t have to worry about hotel
bed bugs and jet lag! However, it’s probably worth doing only for
relatively major releases. To me, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to
invest this sort of energy and time to promote a $0.99 short story.

Suppose you want to do a blog tour. Where do you start? There are two main
options: organize it yourself, or hire a service. I’ve
used both alternatives. Either way, you’re looking at significant
work. (Your publisher may organize a tour, as well. That’s always nice, though
in my limited experience, the services have done a better job.)

The advantage of organizing everything on your own is that you have total
control. You can pick blog hosts who you know are reliable, who have
attractive blogs, and whose blogs are compatible with the theme and
genre of the book you’re promoting. Of course, you save money too
(see below).

There are two disadvantages to organizing your own tour. First, it’s more
work, because in addition to writing the posts, you have to “wrangle”
the hosts: get them on the schedule, send them the post material,
follow up to make sure they’ve got it, make sure you’ve got their
links right, etc. It takes a lot of organization.

The second disadvantage is that your tour may have a more limited reach.
You’ll probably be contacting bloggers you already know. Chances
are their readerships overlap with yours. You want your tour to reach
as many new people as possible, but that impact might be reduced if
you have your friends act as hosts.

On the other hand, using a service can be pricey. The services I’ve
worked with charge anywhere from $50 up depending on the type and
length of the tour. Generally, the longer the tour and the more
stops, the higher the price. In addition, although you might think it
would be a lot less work, using a service doesn’t reduce the effort
much, at least if you’re writing individual posts for each stop, as
I prefer to do. (If you want readers to stop at multiple sites, I
believe that you really should give them new content at each site.)

The biggest advantage of a service (potentially at least) is greater
exposure. Established promotion companies have a large pool of blog
hosts, often in many different genres. Chances are that you’re not
personally familiar with many of these blogs. Usually that’s good
(though I’ve had my posts appear at blogs that made me really
cringe due to their poor graphic design or their cheesy
advertisements). Readers who may have never heard of you will learn
about your book and perhaps be tempted to buy it.

Once you’ve created the blog content and sent it to your service, they
handle the host wrangling. The one I’ve used most does a really
good job of follow-up with blog hosts. You still need to visit each
stop, though, and promote your tour. However, the service should be
doing this in parallel, so ultimately more people should get the
word. Some services will create tour-specific graphics for you
(buttons or banners) as an added benefit. Most include Facebook and
Twitter promo as part of their package.

I should mention that some services offer “review-only” tours. This
means that the hosts agree to read and post a review of your book on
their blogs. I’ve never done this—it
tends to be more expensive, plus I know from experience that the
quality of many reviews tends to be poor—but
this is one possible way to get your book read.

Remember when you’re considering a blog tour, you should factor in the cost
of the prizes (if any) and your time, as well as the fees for any
promotional services. I’d say that on average, a tour organized by
a service will cost at least $100.

So, is it worth it? Do blog tours sell books? Alas, we’d like to know
the answer to that question for every marketing activity, but it’s
damnably difficult to get reliable information.

Personally, I use blog tours as a way to expand my email list. (I will personally
invite people who comment whose names I don’t recognize to join;
you should never add people without permission.) Also, it gets my
work in front of new readers. I usually give away a free book at each
stop (a short story formatted in PDF, with a cover), not just as an
inducement, but also to increase the number of people who have
actually read something by me. My hope is that they’ll like my
writing, and want more.

 

At
this point you may shrug and say to yourself, “What’s the point?
You can’t tell if the tour is actually increasing sales. It’s a
huge amount of work. It’s expensive. Why bother?”

Well, you can say the same thing about every kind of marketing. The hard
truth, though, is that if you don’t market your books, nobody will
read them. This has nothing to do with quality. It’s a matter of
visibility. You have to make your audience aware that you, and your
books, exist. That doesn’t guarantee sales by any means, but it’s
a necessary precondition for sales.

You don’t have to market. You’re free to choose. However, you
can’t complain about obscurity if you never try to shine the light
of publicity on your writing.

As for me, I enjoy doing blog tours, despite the work. I know that I’m
skilled at writing engaging posts, so this activity draws on my
talents. I like meeting new authors (hosts) and new readers. I find
the sort of interaction that occurs during a blog tour far more
meaningful that “Likes” on Facebook or snippets shared on
Twitter.

I’ve probably done at least ten tours over the years. I’m nowhere near a
best seller. Perhaps you shouldn’t listen to my advice at all.
However, if you have questions about the process, I’m more than
happy to share my experience.

Query Letters – They Don't Have To Be Scary

by | May 28, 2015 | | 3 Comments

Elizabeth Black writes in a wide variety of genres including erotica,
erotic romance, and dark fiction. She lives on the Massachusetts coast with her
husband, son, and three cats. Visit her web
site, her Facebook page, and her Amazon
Author Page.

I’m currently searching for an agent for my erotic romance
novel Alex Craig Has A Threesome, and
I have battled with the dreaded query letter. I thought I had done my research,
but after attending the Boston writer’s conference The Muse And The
Marketplace, I discovered I had not written the damned thing correctly. I had
written my introduction, named the book, gave the blurb, the word count, genre,
and then my publishing history and a little information about my prior movie
and TV work.

Turns out I left out an important item – why I am the best
person to write this book. The Muse taught me the proper way to write a query
letter, and thanks to the conference I did get my first request for a partial.
Sadly, that resulted in another rejection, but at least she requested a
partial.

I’m not giving up.

According to book
developer and principle of The Scribe’s Window Cherise Fisher, who gave the
talk “The Perfect Pitch” at The Muse And The Marketplace, a pitch is
“the transfer of enthusiasm from one person to the next. It’s like a
virus. You infect with your pitch.” Books are meant to entertain, educate,
and inspire/provoke. A pitch is the foundation for your proposal. It’s your
contact with an agent or editor. It’s also about being as clear and concise as
possible to the person you’re pitching to.

Multi-published, Rita Award winning author Shelley
Adina wrote in her article Writing A
Pitch Perfect Query Letter that there are four parts to a successful
query letter:

The intro

The story (i.e., the back-cover blurb

Your credentials

Call to action

My mistake was leaving out my backstory – why a have a passion
for this particular story. I left out my call to action. I needed to
personalize my pitch. The perfect book is the book only you can write. This
includes your life experiences and your perspective, Reveal what is behind you
for writing this book. Why are you so driven to do it? What’s the story, and
why is it yours to tell?

This article will discuss those four parts of a successful
query letter so that when you write yours, it will be more likely to attract
the attention of an agent if you are searching for one. Your goal, of course,
is representation. Not everyone is on the look-out for an agent, but this
article about writing queries should be helpful to anyone.

The Intro – This
is where you introduce yourself to the agent and any ties you may have. If
you’ve met the agent at a conference, listened to a lecture, or attended a
workshop, this is the time to mention it. 
Familiarize yourself with the agent. If the agent has a blog, read it.
Read any articles or interviews the agent is involved in. If you’re a fan of
the books and authors the agent represents, tell them.

Make sure you write your query in your natural voice since
you want to be approachable. Adina was right when she said, “Your voice is
your brand, so your business letter should reflect it.”

Also make sure you’ve spelled the agent’s name and the
agency’s name correctly. You don’t want to get off to a bad start with a
misspelling.  Your intro should show
you’ve done your homework, you’re familiar with the agent, and your letter
isn’t boilerplate.

The Story –
Condense your novel into a concise and attention-getting paragraph or two. No
more than that. This takes some work. Focus on the characters, what drives
them, any archetypes you’re using, the conflict, and what gets the ball rolling
for the characters in the first place. Do not skimp on your condensed story.
This is the meat of your query letter. Your story has to grab the agent’s
attention immediately. Don’t waste words and use words wisely.

Your Credentials
– This is where you talk about why you are the best person to write your story.
You also list any previously published works or awards you’ve received. If
you’ve written a book that showcases the beauty of New England and the Atlantic
Ocean and you’ve lived on the Massachusetts coast for twenty years, mention
that. Is your heroine an art lover and you majored in Fine Arts? Is your hero a
stage lighting technician and you’ve worked as a union gaffer for several
years? All three of these examples are true for me regarding two of my
unpublished novels, my thriller Secrets
and Lies (which may have found a publisher) and my erotic romance work in
progress Full Moon Fever.

Now, what if you’re a mom teaching part-time at an
elementary school, but your book is about a sleazy but sexy successful con
artist in love with his mark? Let’s assume you’ve done your homework for this
book and you are a romance fan. Mention that you consume romance novels the way
normal people eat meals, for instance. It’s definitely worth a mention if you’ve
done research on famous con artists and their techniques. Has your manuscript
won any contests? That’s a must-mention. Are you a member of RWA or Broad
Universe? Definitely mention both.

A Call To Action
– Your closing should be inviting and it should offer a call to action. Why do
you think your novel is a good fit for this agent and publisher? What is the
goal of your book? To entertain? To teach? What is the goal of your main
characters? Close your query with ease.

If you want to see examples of successful query letters,
check out Writer’s
Digest’s Successful Queries page. Not only does the page include scads of
very good queries, there are explanations from agents following each query as
to why it was a good one. I’ve learned a great deal from reading those
examples. Hopefully, this learning experience will someday (maybe soon) result
in representation.

What Is Thunderclap and Why Use It?

by | October 23, 2014 | | 1 Comment

by Lucy Felthouse

This post was originally featured on the Writer Marketing Services blog.

I’m sure some of you have seen messages and notes about Thunderclap floating around the web and wondered what it is. I know I’ve had several clients ask me about it, which is why I’m writing this post.

Basically, it is a free promotional tool (though there are paid options you can explore) to help you get the word out about something. For the purposes of this post, I’ll use books as an example, as it’s what I deal with.

You sign up for a free account at Thunderclap.it, and follow the simple instructions to set up your campaign. Use graphics from your book if you can, as that way you’re increasing visibility of your book to those that click through to support your campaign. Spend some time crafting your message, adding some relevant hashtags if you’ve got room – bear in mind that this message will go out once and hopefully to an awful lot of people, so you want it to have punch, something to really make people want to click on the link you’ve provided. I’d also recommend only opting for 100 supporters the first time around – it sounds like a small number, especially if you have lots of social media savvy friends, but it’s tougher than you think to get people to click that link.

Once you’re happy with what you’ve done, submit your campaign and wait for Thunderclap to approve it (you can speed this process up by paying, but I’ve never done this). Then, when approval arrives, the really hard work begins. You have to get supporters.

Supporters are the whole point of Thunderclap – they’re the ones that are signing up to send out your message on the date and time you’ve selected. I think, since Thunderclap is fairly new, that people may be shying away from supporting Thunderclaps as they don’t fully understand what it means. So, in a nutshell, here goes: supporters are pledging to help you, by donating a Tweet, a Facebook status or a Tumblr post (or indeed, any combination of those three). That’s all. They’ll see the message they’re pledging to send out, hit those support buttons, and, providing you get enough supporters to “tip” the campaign, their social media account/s will automatically send out the message on the date and time you’ve selected.

The point of all this? Well, since we’re talking books – it’s to drive sales. If you have an upcoming book, you can set something up in advance to go out on your release date – then you’ve got a while to promote the Thunderclap, get your supporters and then you’ll get a big boost on social media on the day, which will hopefully get people clicking those buy buttons and pushing you up the respective retailer charts. Cool, huh?

There is more to it than just getting the supporters, though. Sorry to complicate matters 🙂 Ideally you need supporters that Tweet/share/Tumble about books in your genre – so in turn their followers/friends/etc are more likely to be interested in your book. Also, it goes without saying that the more followers/friends/readers your supporters have, the more people are likely to see your message once it goes out. So if you can attract people with a large reach on social media, all the better.

But to keep things simple, maybe start out small, and once you’ve dipped your toe in the Thunderclap water and seen how it all works – you can be more adventurous next time.

Bottom line: make sure you’ve crafted a powerful message to go out, that will catch people’s eyes and make them want to click. Then sit back and (hopefully) watch your sales increase.

Want to see how it works from a supporter’s angle? Here are three Thunderclaps you can sign up for (and I’d be grateful of your help):

Timeless Desire – M/F erotic romance story
Little Boxes – contemporary romance novel
To Rome with Lust – erotic romance novel

I hope this has helped you. Feel free to share far and wide on the web, to help people gain an understanding of how it works. If I get lots of questions and queries, I may do another article at a later date with more specifics.

Happy Promoting!

Lucy

*****

Author Bio:

Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and
erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100
publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several
editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic
Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and
co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house.
She owns Erotica For All, is book
editor for Cliterati, and is one eighth
of The Brit Babes. Find out more
at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk.
Join her on Facebook
and Twitter, and subscribe to her
newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9

Why Use Triberr?

by | March 23, 2014 | | 2 Comments

By Lucy Felthouse

This post has been reblogged from Writer Marketing Services.

*

Hi everyone,

I’m writing this post due to popular demand. I’ve had several clients ask me about Triberr, what it is, why they should be using it and how much time it will take up. I’ll do my best to answer these questions, and probably more, without writing a blog post that will be the same length as my latest novel 😉

Here goes…

1. What is Triberr?

Triberr is a type of social sharing site where a user will join “tribes” that are relevant to the content they create on their blogs. So, for example, I’m in several writing, erotica, erotic romance and romance-type tribes. Once a user’s account is set up correctly, their blog’s RSS feed will automatically add each new post into the streams of people who are in the same tribes as them. The idea of this is that because people in tribes share similar interests, the posts they will see in their streams are things they will want to share with their own followers. Which brings me neatly onto point #2.

2. Why should you be using it?

Because it increases your reach. Massively. At the time of writing this post, I have 5,653 Twitter followers. So when I go into Triberr and approve other people’s relevant posts (this is key for me. I don’t want to alienate my followers by Tweeting stuff about children’s books or young adult), they will automatically be Tweeted onto my account. Not all at once, but at intervals set by me, which are half an hour.

Imagine this reversed. Because each of my blog posts are fed into Triberr, they’ll appear on my tribemates’ feeds and they’ll share them. So without Triberr, my Tweets would be seen by 5,653 people and probably then by others because my followers have Retweeted me. But with Triberr, my blog posts are automatically fed to the Twitter feed of every tribemate that approved my post – and because I’m in tribes that are relevant to my work, this is most of them. So, depending on how many Twitter followers each of my tribemates has, you can see how much my reach increases. The biggest reach of the tribes that I’m in is 452,533 people! That’s HUGE!

3. How much time will it take up?

Not much is the short answer. If you simply join us as a member and don’t have a tribe of your own (there are currently enough tribes out there that you don’t need to worry about setting up your own), it’s a quick and easy thing. Now I have everything set up correctly, I probably spend ten minutes per day approving relevant posts. I know we’re all busy people, but this is a tiny portion of time compared to the potential benefits. Because if you’re seen to be active, to be approving other people’s posts, then they’ll approve yours, too. So where your blog posts might have only reached 6,000 followers beforehand, with Triberr this is multiplied many fold with a small amount of time on your part.

I realise this is a really, really short piece which doesn’t go into the nitty-gritty of setting up Triberr, finding tribes and so on, but as I said I didn’t want to write a novel in a blog post 😉 . Ultimately, even if you’re not technically-minded, once Triberr is set up, it’s just a matter of going in once a day, going to your stream and hovering over that share button for each post you want to share. Technology does the rest for you. If you don’t want to share a post, then click the hide link. You’ll soon get into a rhythm. Once your stream is empty, give yourself a pat on the back and move onto the next item on your to-do list. But don’t forget to watch traffic to your site increase, especially if you’ve taken the time to write engaging blog post titles – something I personally am working on improving, and am already seeing results.

So, there’s Triberr in brief. If I end up with lots more questions and feedback on this post, then I may well write another article in a couple of weeks about the more nitty-gritty side of things.

P.S. If you’re an erotica or erotic romance author and want to get started – come check out my tribe.

Hot Chilli Erotica

Hot Chilli Erotica

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