I'm in the process of fixing "Train of Clues" up and decided to publish it as an ebook until I can get printed copies available. I think it turned out pretty good for an ebook for an illustrated story. My paging is a bit off but it's okay. The illustrations being with the clues or on separate pages isn't as important in this story as it is in the state series. I've put it up on amazon for now and will work on getting it up on smashwords and nook later this week.
You can pick up your copy of "Train of Clues" for the low price of $1.49 (I think it's longer than my short stories and it's illustrated so that should be a fair price). Hope you all enjoy it. See you in the postings - E :)
Showing posts with label self publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self publishing. Show all posts
Friday, September 28, 2012
Train of Clues ebook
I'm in the process of fixing "Train of Clues" up and decided to publish it as an ebook until I can get printed copies available. I think it turned out pretty good for an ebook for an illustrated story. My paging is a bit off but it's okay. The illustrations being with the clues or on separate pages isn't as important in this story as it is in the state series. I've put it up on amazon for now and will work on getting it up on smashwords and nook later this week.
You can pick up your copy of "Train of Clues" for the low price of $1.49 (I think it's longer than my short stories and it's illustrated so that should be a fair price). Hope you all enjoy it. See you in the postings - E :)
Monday, February 13, 2012
Promoting your book: A 10-step marketing plan Part 3
Steps 8 through 10 are featured in today's posting. Reading through these, I already will fail since these require being outside the home job wise, et cetera and having access to places that would possibly carry your book.
8. Business Tie-Ins. The summary of this is that if you have an existing business and your book ties in with the business that you can use your business to sell your books. The other way to do a tie-in is requiring customers to purchase your book when they register for whatever service you offer (the example the book gives is white water rafting and if you offer classes on white water rafting, you could have the book tied in to the course or you could raise the cost of the course and give a copy of book for "free" (that is the hidden fee of the cost of the course)).
For me, this step isn't very doable because I work at home and the business I'm associated with, medical transcription, has nothing to do with my books. I would love for someone like NatGeo Kids to pick up my state books either as a sponsor fund wise (to cover expenses associated with publishing the books) or by ordering several hundred copies (okay thousands would be super great) to place in schools around the United States. I don't see either of these happening. So, yes, if you can tie your book into your business or if you are an instructor, then this would be something to help boost sales.
9. Sell to local bookstores, gift shops, and other local vendors. Easier said than done when you live in a small town.
I did have my books in the local bookstore for a time but after a while with no sales and with me running out of certain titles and having to take them out of the bookstore to sell at whatever event I was doing at the moment, the bookstore owner and I decided it wasn't worth it for me to put books in the store, keep taking them back and replacing them after the fact. So I no longer have my books sitting in a bookstore. Getting to other stores and places that would possibly carry my books is not doable either since I basically don't go to many towns or cities unless I'm doing an event. I also don't feel my state stories have much use in the bookstores since they really were written as a supplement to a social studies curriculum in upper elementary schools. So, this is a fail for me - something that doesn't work for or fit my books or something that I can't really do as part of the marketing plan.
10. Advertising. Recommended to start with on-line advertising, specialized print publications, and book trade catalogs.
This is the most costly of the marketing plan, but then again, no one said everything would be free or inexpensive in the book business. Again, that old adage "you've got to spend money to make money" comes to mind in that I totally agree that advertising has huge advantages. I've been contemplating a FB ad and may do a trial run when I have some funds, but for now most of my money has to go to cover upcoming events - the SCASL conference, the SC Book Festival, the Decatur Book Festival and several others along the way.
Do I think this is the only marketing plan available? Of course not. Do I believe these steps are tried and true methods and results are readily apparent? In a way, yes. Not every step will work for everyone and from my previous postings, you can see that I've been trying several of these steps and haven't seen mega results yet. But that is the name of the game, perseverance. I'll keep trying different methods and see what is working and what isn't. When I hit a decent monthly sales, I'll definitely be doing the happy dance and posting about it. I reposted J.A. Konrath's posting about him doing $100,000 in earnings in a 3-week period of time not too long ago. I would be very happy to see between $1000 and $2500 earnings a month every month. That would be a turn around for me.
So I ask my readers who are authors, what is working for you? What kind of marketing plan do you have and are you staying pretty close to what you laid out? Have you seen a spike in sales from one method or another or have sales been pretty even regardless of which method you use? Leave a comment and let us know what's working for you. - E :)
8. Business Tie-Ins. The summary of this is that if you have an existing business and your book ties in with the business that you can use your business to sell your books. The other way to do a tie-in is requiring customers to purchase your book when they register for whatever service you offer (the example the book gives is white water rafting and if you offer classes on white water rafting, you could have the book tied in to the course or you could raise the cost of the course and give a copy of book for "free" (that is the hidden fee of the cost of the course)).
For me, this step isn't very doable because I work at home and the business I'm associated with, medical transcription, has nothing to do with my books. I would love for someone like NatGeo Kids to pick up my state books either as a sponsor fund wise (to cover expenses associated with publishing the books) or by ordering several hundred copies (okay thousands would be super great) to place in schools around the United States. I don't see either of these happening. So, yes, if you can tie your book into your business or if you are an instructor, then this would be something to help boost sales.
9. Sell to local bookstores, gift shops, and other local vendors. Easier said than done when you live in a small town.
I did have my books in the local bookstore for a time but after a while with no sales and with me running out of certain titles and having to take them out of the bookstore to sell at whatever event I was doing at the moment, the bookstore owner and I decided it wasn't worth it for me to put books in the store, keep taking them back and replacing them after the fact. So I no longer have my books sitting in a bookstore. Getting to other stores and places that would possibly carry my books is not doable either since I basically don't go to many towns or cities unless I'm doing an event. I also don't feel my state stories have much use in the bookstores since they really were written as a supplement to a social studies curriculum in upper elementary schools. So, this is a fail for me - something that doesn't work for or fit my books or something that I can't really do as part of the marketing plan.
10. Advertising. Recommended to start with on-line advertising, specialized print publications, and book trade catalogs.
This is the most costly of the marketing plan, but then again, no one said everything would be free or inexpensive in the book business. Again, that old adage "you've got to spend money to make money" comes to mind in that I totally agree that advertising has huge advantages. I've been contemplating a FB ad and may do a trial run when I have some funds, but for now most of my money has to go to cover upcoming events - the SCASL conference, the SC Book Festival, the Decatur Book Festival and several others along the way.
Do I think this is the only marketing plan available? Of course not. Do I believe these steps are tried and true methods and results are readily apparent? In a way, yes. Not every step will work for everyone and from my previous postings, you can see that I've been trying several of these steps and haven't seen mega results yet. But that is the name of the game, perseverance. I'll keep trying different methods and see what is working and what isn't. When I hit a decent monthly sales, I'll definitely be doing the happy dance and posting about it. I reposted J.A. Konrath's posting about him doing $100,000 in earnings in a 3-week period of time not too long ago. I would be very happy to see between $1000 and $2500 earnings a month every month. That would be a turn around for me.
So I ask my readers who are authors, what is working for you? What kind of marketing plan do you have and are you staying pretty close to what you laid out? Have you seen a spike in sales from one method or another or have sales been pretty even regardless of which method you use? Leave a comment and let us know what's working for you. - E :)
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Promoting your book: A 10-step marketing plan Part 2
As previously noted, these steps are from "The Self-Publishing Checklist" book that I received after clicking a link on a website I was visiting a few weeks ago. This book is published by bookstandpublishing and a lot of the information is geared toward using them as your publisher. The promotion of your book should be pretty straight forward and work for any book regardless of who is publishing it. I use createspace to print my books and have been very satisfied with them, especially since I don't have the several hundred dollars requiredto publish through another company. Createspace is free and the expanded distribution package cost has been reduced now, so I'm better off sticking with using createspace until I've completely published all my books.
Part 2: Steps 4 through 7
4. On-line promotion. This is what it says - using online sites to drive traffic to your books.
This is a given for me since I publish using createspace as my printer. I have a "store" or page for each title I publish through createspace and all my books are listed with amazon and B&N, even though createspace is affiliated with amazon. They suggest creating a "listmania" which would list books similar to yours plus your book or creating a "Find Similar Books" list. This may be an area I need to look into, but with my state stories, I'm not really sure there are any books out there that are similar. I'll have to do some searching.
The other suggestions include creating a blog, email, social networking, cross linking, YouTube, all free or fairly inexpensive.
As for the blog, that is a given. You want to keep your blog active but not "in your face" forcing folks to buy. You definitely shouldn't intimidate others into buying your book either. Again, I think this should be done before you are even published simply because you are building up your name and your book and can post anything and everything related to your book, especially if you know you are going to self-publish and use a site like createspace to print the copies up. This is a rather quick process from the time you submit your print-ready files to ordering the proof copy and approving for sale. Barring any errors found on the interior reviewer that need fixing (but nobody is perfect and it seems there will always be catches that createspace's reviewer finds that you don't see), the process is a matter of days to a week from submitting files to being reviewed to ordering proof copy and accepting proof copy as printed and releasing your book. For me, everything is about 3 or so week cycle unless there are many fixes needed secondary to my paydays. I am still using my hard-earned funds from my day job to cover expenses on my books. This is par for the course unless you are already rich when you pursue writing as a career. The old adage "You've got to spend money to make money" is very true in this business. What I like about using createspace is that their print facility is based in South Carolina and I've not once had a reason to pay for expedited shipping. Unless there is a holiday between the time I place an order for one or 15 or however many books I'm ordering, I usually get the books within two days. I've even had orders ship the same day and received the next but two or three days is pretty standard for me to receive them. I also know others who are not in South Carolina and have used createspace and have commented on how quickly they receive their orders.
As far as the other suggestions, the email one is basically creating a newsletter and to always reference your book in your signature (yep, that's a given for me). I used to do my own newsletter and had started a yahoo group for posting the newsletters but let that go due to the fact that I wasn't generating enough interest on the site; fifteen members may be reading my newsletters did not really seem worth the effort. I've been thinking of starting my newsletter again (I would use a site like constantcontact or one of the others but I like the look of my newsletter and am pretty sure I can't use my layout on those sites and I'm not good at creating such things) and posting on my website or on the side bar on my JGDS blog, since I haven't created a newsletter for my other writing stuff yet. This may take a while to show up if I decide to go that route again.
5. Book signings. Another Duh!
Yes, you need to do book signings but getting the right place interested in having you is the tricky part. I've done regular bookstore book signings. I also do book signings at what I call "events" that I participate in as either an exhibitor/vendor or a presenter.
6. Special events. This covers things like Topic Related events and book fairs or conferences.
Have participated in several book fairs along the way starting with my first in Decatur when State of Wilderness was first published in 2008. This book fair led me to homeschool conferences and other events along the way. So check. I'm doing something right but the sales are still not being generated that I really need to see a change in me spending my job earnings on my books to the royalties from the books covering expenses of my books.
7. Speaking engagements. The most coveted part of the marketing plan.
These are harder to come by than this book really lets on. When doing speaking engagements, you need to be paid whether it be an actual honorarium or taking pre-orders and having the place purchase a set amount of books prior to the engagement. Schools used to be the biggest place to get speaking engagements but with all the budget cuts and the terrible economy we live in right now, schools aren't able to bring in guest speakers too often or pay big bucks to have them there. This is also dependent on the area and the schools themselves. Sometimes you can get library engagements but selling your books at a library event is trickier still. If you decide to have a workshop using the facilities at your local library, you will not be able to sell your books. If you are invited to participate in a library-sponsored event, then you can sell your books. Or at least that is how it is here in our counties and several others in close proximity.
In part 3 of the 10-step plan, steps 8 through 10 will be covered and most of these tend to be geared toward specific types of books or require large investments.
Part 2: Steps 4 through 7
4. On-line promotion. This is what it says - using online sites to drive traffic to your books.
This is a given for me since I publish using createspace as my printer. I have a "store" or page for each title I publish through createspace and all my books are listed with amazon and B&N, even though createspace is affiliated with amazon. They suggest creating a "listmania" which would list books similar to yours plus your book or creating a "Find Similar Books" list. This may be an area I need to look into, but with my state stories, I'm not really sure there are any books out there that are similar. I'll have to do some searching.
The other suggestions include creating a blog, email, social networking, cross linking, YouTube, all free or fairly inexpensive.
As for the blog, that is a given. You want to keep your blog active but not "in your face" forcing folks to buy. You definitely shouldn't intimidate others into buying your book either. Again, I think this should be done before you are even published simply because you are building up your name and your book and can post anything and everything related to your book, especially if you know you are going to self-publish and use a site like createspace to print the copies up. This is a rather quick process from the time you submit your print-ready files to ordering the proof copy and approving for sale. Barring any errors found on the interior reviewer that need fixing (but nobody is perfect and it seems there will always be catches that createspace's reviewer finds that you don't see), the process is a matter of days to a week from submitting files to being reviewed to ordering proof copy and accepting proof copy as printed and releasing your book. For me, everything is about 3 or so week cycle unless there are many fixes needed secondary to my paydays. I am still using my hard-earned funds from my day job to cover expenses on my books. This is par for the course unless you are already rich when you pursue writing as a career. The old adage "You've got to spend money to make money" is very true in this business. What I like about using createspace is that their print facility is based in South Carolina and I've not once had a reason to pay for expedited shipping. Unless there is a holiday between the time I place an order for one or 15 or however many books I'm ordering, I usually get the books within two days. I've even had orders ship the same day and received the next but two or three days is pretty standard for me to receive them. I also know others who are not in South Carolina and have used createspace and have commented on how quickly they receive their orders.
As far as the other suggestions, the email one is basically creating a newsletter and to always reference your book in your signature (yep, that's a given for me). I used to do my own newsletter and had started a yahoo group for posting the newsletters but let that go due to the fact that I wasn't generating enough interest on the site; fifteen members may be reading my newsletters did not really seem worth the effort. I've been thinking of starting my newsletter again (I would use a site like constantcontact or one of the others but I like the look of my newsletter and am pretty sure I can't use my layout on those sites and I'm not good at creating such things) and posting on my website or on the side bar on my JGDS blog, since I haven't created a newsletter for my other writing stuff yet. This may take a while to show up if I decide to go that route again.
5. Book signings. Another Duh!
Yes, you need to do book signings but getting the right place interested in having you is the tricky part. I've done regular bookstore book signings. I also do book signings at what I call "events" that I participate in as either an exhibitor/vendor or a presenter.
6. Special events. This covers things like Topic Related events and book fairs or conferences.
Have participated in several book fairs along the way starting with my first in Decatur when State of Wilderness was first published in 2008. This book fair led me to homeschool conferences and other events along the way. So check. I'm doing something right but the sales are still not being generated that I really need to see a change in me spending my job earnings on my books to the royalties from the books covering expenses of my books.
7. Speaking engagements. The most coveted part of the marketing plan.
These are harder to come by than this book really lets on. When doing speaking engagements, you need to be paid whether it be an actual honorarium or taking pre-orders and having the place purchase a set amount of books prior to the engagement. Schools used to be the biggest place to get speaking engagements but with all the budget cuts and the terrible economy we live in right now, schools aren't able to bring in guest speakers too often or pay big bucks to have them there. This is also dependent on the area and the schools themselves. Sometimes you can get library engagements but selling your books at a library event is trickier still. If you decide to have a workshop using the facilities at your local library, you will not be able to sell your books. If you are invited to participate in a library-sponsored event, then you can sell your books. Or at least that is how it is here in our counties and several others in close proximity.
In part 3 of the 10-step plan, steps 8 through 10 will be covered and most of these tend to be geared toward specific types of books or require large investments.
Monday, February 06, 2012
Promoting your book: A 10-step marketing plan Part !
A few weeks ago I was on a website and there were some ads there. One of them said get this free "Self-publishing checklist" book. I clicked on the link and was taken to Bookstand Publishings's site but decided it can't hurt to request the free book.
Although I have now been self-publishing for almost two years now, it doesn't hurt to make sure I'm really doing all I can to get the most benefit from self-publishing, especially if some new ideas are there to market and promote my books.
A quick preview of the chapter contents made me realize that they advice they are offering seems to be pretty much where I am in my self-publishing endeavor. There is one chapter dedicated strictly to promoting your book, the 10-step marketing plan. So a glance through and I'm trying to figure out where I'm going totally wrong or took the left turn when I should have taken the right turn, because it seems everything suggested here is where I seem to be promotion wise. The problem with some of these suggestions is getting the readers' responses to some of them in order to make sales.
Part 1: Steps 1 through 3 in the marketing plan as outlined in "The Self-Publishing Checklist":
1. Always be selling: In a nutshell, you should be talking your book up, displaying your book and offering free copies in exchange for reviews. Common sense. There are some mini steps suggested in #1 to include creating or getting business cards and/or bookmarks, tell everyone you know that you have a published a book, create excitement (see above statement about giving books out in exchange for reviews), and creating an effective sell sheet. I've done all this except creating sell sheets. I did have sell sheets when I was first published for the first two books in my series which were part of the media kit put together. Not much came from the sell sheets at all.
In January, I offered 100 ebook copies to anyone who would request them from me in exchange for reviews. Did I receive 100 requests for any of the nine titles available at the time? No. I received two requests, one person in England whom I met in an online class and who is familiar with my state stories requested a copy of Finally Home, "The Proposal" and "The Tulip Kiss". I know he is busy and as of this posting, I have not heard back from him regarding reviews on any of the titles. I did have another lady who requested a copy of "The Proposal"; she has posted her review on her blog and amazon, B&N, and Goodreads. She also does reviews for children's books on another blog and so I asked her if she would take a copy of one of my state stories and do a review on it. She agreed to do so. She also informed me that it would take a bit longer to read and review that story since she had a few books in front of me. No problem. At least, as far as I'm aware, she will post a review when she gets a chance.
Maybe I need to go back to the drawing board on coming up with creative ways to "sell" my books since apparently no one wants free ebooks to read in exchange for reviews.
2. Get Book Reviews. The book says that Reviews sells books. Duh!
I can't afford to pay people to post reviews and was hoping by offering free ebook copies of the titles available ("The Proposal" and "The Tulip Kiss" are only available as an ebook, and all the state books are only available in print but I do have PDF files for them that can be used for review copies) that I would gain a handful of reviews. Two, in my opinion, does not equal a handful of reviews and thereby does not sell books. Although looking through the list, it may be a good idea for me to consider sending print copies to several of the review places that are not a fee-based entity.
3. Your website.
In my opinion, this actually should be something created long before your book is published whether you get a "website" from the publisher like bookstandpublishing offers or not. There are several free or low cost sites out there. Yolasite.com is one of them; weebly.com is another. I advise upgrading to the pro side since this will allow you to do more with your website. With weebly.com, by paying the yearly fee (I think I'm paying like $42 and some change a year - or maybe less; I think it works out to about $2.95/month when I renew my upgrade), you can add videos and have more the ability to upload more files on a page. This is a big advantage for me since I've got a whole page dedicated to the accompanying study guides for my books and I'll have 50 when the series is completed. I think before I upgraded to pro I could only upload like 10 files on the page, which would have been 1/5 of my study guides being on the page. Now, I can upload all 50 and not have to decide which few I'll keep up or how to switch them out. I also think with the pro upgrade you get more pages; with the freebie side on weebly.com I think you are limited to only five pages, but if you don't have a lot going on, five pages may be just right for you.
You can create your website and add, take away, change as you progress in your publishing endeavor, but I highly suggest you start a website before you are even published.
I have two websites, both through weebly.com and both have been upgraded. You can find all my non-state related book information here and my JGDS, 50-state series here. I try to make them look as professional as possibly and have included buy now buttons on the book pages as well as the necessary information. I created my JGDS site first and then created my non-JGDS site but didn't really publish it until last year when I started thinking of my other stories that had won contests and could be republished and about the time I finished Finally Home.
Heather, my illustrator uses yolasite.com for her graphic design business. You can check her out here.
Tune in Thursday for part 2 where I'll cover steps 4 through 7, which all seem to be related to in-person or online promotion. See you in the postings - E :)
Although I have now been self-publishing for almost two years now, it doesn't hurt to make sure I'm really doing all I can to get the most benefit from self-publishing, especially if some new ideas are there to market and promote my books.
A quick preview of the chapter contents made me realize that they advice they are offering seems to be pretty much where I am in my self-publishing endeavor. There is one chapter dedicated strictly to promoting your book, the 10-step marketing plan. So a glance through and I'm trying to figure out where I'm going totally wrong or took the left turn when I should have taken the right turn, because it seems everything suggested here is where I seem to be promotion wise. The problem with some of these suggestions is getting the readers' responses to some of them in order to make sales.
Part 1: Steps 1 through 3 in the marketing plan as outlined in "The Self-Publishing Checklist":
1. Always be selling: In a nutshell, you should be talking your book up, displaying your book and offering free copies in exchange for reviews. Common sense. There are some mini steps suggested in #1 to include creating or getting business cards and/or bookmarks, tell everyone you know that you have a published a book, create excitement (see above statement about giving books out in exchange for reviews), and creating an effective sell sheet. I've done all this except creating sell sheets. I did have sell sheets when I was first published for the first two books in my series which were part of the media kit put together. Not much came from the sell sheets at all.
In January, I offered 100 ebook copies to anyone who would request them from me in exchange for reviews. Did I receive 100 requests for any of the nine titles available at the time? No. I received two requests, one person in England whom I met in an online class and who is familiar with my state stories requested a copy of Finally Home, "The Proposal" and "The Tulip Kiss". I know he is busy and as of this posting, I have not heard back from him regarding reviews on any of the titles. I did have another lady who requested a copy of "The Proposal"; she has posted her review on her blog and amazon, B&N, and Goodreads. She also does reviews for children's books on another blog and so I asked her if she would take a copy of one of my state stories and do a review on it. She agreed to do so. She also informed me that it would take a bit longer to read and review that story since she had a few books in front of me. No problem. At least, as far as I'm aware, she will post a review when she gets a chance.
Maybe I need to go back to the drawing board on coming up with creative ways to "sell" my books since apparently no one wants free ebooks to read in exchange for reviews.
2. Get Book Reviews. The book says that Reviews sells books. Duh!
I can't afford to pay people to post reviews and was hoping by offering free ebook copies of the titles available ("The Proposal" and "The Tulip Kiss" are only available as an ebook, and all the state books are only available in print but I do have PDF files for them that can be used for review copies) that I would gain a handful of reviews. Two, in my opinion, does not equal a handful of reviews and thereby does not sell books. Although looking through the list, it may be a good idea for me to consider sending print copies to several of the review places that are not a fee-based entity.
3. Your website.
In my opinion, this actually should be something created long before your book is published whether you get a "website" from the publisher like bookstandpublishing offers or not. There are several free or low cost sites out there. Yolasite.com is one of them; weebly.com is another. I advise upgrading to the pro side since this will allow you to do more with your website. With weebly.com, by paying the yearly fee (I think I'm paying like $42 and some change a year - or maybe less; I think it works out to about $2.95/month when I renew my upgrade), you can add videos and have more the ability to upload more files on a page. This is a big advantage for me since I've got a whole page dedicated to the accompanying study guides for my books and I'll have 50 when the series is completed. I think before I upgraded to pro I could only upload like 10 files on the page, which would have been 1/5 of my study guides being on the page. Now, I can upload all 50 and not have to decide which few I'll keep up or how to switch them out. I also think with the pro upgrade you get more pages; with the freebie side on weebly.com I think you are limited to only five pages, but if you don't have a lot going on, five pages may be just right for you.
You can create your website and add, take away, change as you progress in your publishing endeavor, but I highly suggest you start a website before you are even published.
I have two websites, both through weebly.com and both have been upgraded. You can find all my non-state related book information here and my JGDS, 50-state series here. I try to make them look as professional as possibly and have included buy now buttons on the book pages as well as the necessary information. I created my JGDS site first and then created my non-JGDS site but didn't really publish it until last year when I started thinking of my other stories that had won contests and could be republished and about the time I finished Finally Home.
Heather, my illustrator uses yolasite.com for her graphic design business. You can check her out here.
Tune in Thursday for part 2 where I'll cover steps 4 through 7, which all seem to be related to in-person or online promotion. See you in the postings - E :)
Sunday, December 04, 2011
Finally Home review
My first review for Finally Home - check it out here. Thank you Ms. Faye for the great review. Anyone else who has done a review and would like me to share, please let me know. Thanks - E :)
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