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Archive for the ‘Book Promotion’ Category

I Need a What?

March 14, 2013

Getting the marketing message out about your book is not always easy. In fact, it’s probably the hardest thing an indie author will do.

A Media What?
I’ve been seeing a lot of talk lately about independent writers setting up their own media page. My first reaction was – “What? I’m supposed to have a media page too? Why? Isn’t it enough I have to promote my books by myself?”

Like writing and editing them and trying to get known through social media wasn’t hard enough.

“Aren’t media pages for authors who have already made a name for themselves, not newbies like me?”

WELCOME TO PUBLISHING 101
The importance of a media page finally dawned on me, and I’m right in the middle of constructing my own. I already have all the information for one scattered thoughout my web page.

However, to do it right these days, you apparently need to collect it all in one place … and make it easy for reporters, reviewers and critics (and bloggers) to access and download.

I will soon have that dedicated media page, with all the pertinent information in one spot.

WHY DIDN’T I DO IT RIGHT AWAY?
I was involved with lots of press releases while I was working (I spent 16 years in public relations). Most, if not all, of those releases were picked-up by major papers and national magazines.

But why not? … they were for a major Fortune 10 company whose announcements and decisions could affect tens of thousands.

I procrastinated on creating a media page for myself, and I think part of the reason is my own self-perception. Who would be interested enough in my books to want to do an interview with me? Sales are not exactly through the roof.

The few press releases I’ve created and sent out for myself have generated almost no interest. It took a long time to figure out why.

I was sending them to the wrong places. What I really lacked was a good understanding of what was right in front of me … the growing role of bloggers in publicity.

When bloggers see you’ve posted an interesting article, they re-post it. They do it because it brings followers to their own site, sure. But your ideas, your thoughts and, most importantly, the fact you write fiction at all becomes more widely known at the same time.

I’ve seen it happen often now with blogs I follow and it’s a neat thing. It’s even happened to me several times, and I need to do it for other authors, too (I’ll start soon, I promise).

SO WHAT DO YOU NEED FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD?
If you create a media page, make sure you populate it with all the information folks who just might talk about you will need. By doing so, you’ve just made their life easier … because your material and contact information is available and ready to go.

Things like a good headshot, cover images (high resolution preferred), your author bio, excerpts, book trailers (if you have them) and contact information. Awards, reviews and quotable blurbs you’ve already received are a plus. In fact, the best ones are those that showcase how other readers have already judged your work.

If you can’t host all the images and information on your own site (some host sites don’t allow it), create an account somewhere that will. One of the best sites I’ve stumbled across (and that’s actually how it happened) for free cloud storage is Media Fire. It can host images, documents, audio and video files.

HOW DO I KNOW THIS IS RELEVANT?
I worked in public relations and marketing for over thirty years and I know such updated information helps keep people aware of your products and services (even if the media to accomplish it these days is a bit different than it used to be just five short years ago).

If this is more than a hobby to you, the commitment to promoting your work must rank (almost) as high as creating it. Building a media page and keeping it updated may be the most important part of your marketing strategy.

Just in case the media does come calling…

Tags:award-winning writing, indie writers, self-publishing, using social media
Posted in Award-Winning Fiction, Book Promotion, Branding, Market Your Book, Self-Published | 6 Comments »

Pursuit of the Dreamcatcher

March 11, 2013

Dreamcatchers are a fascinating Native American tradition. Intended to protect sleeping individuals, positive dreams slip through, while negative dreams get caught in the web to expire with the first rays of the sun.
~ Photo courtesy Nicolas Moulin

Positive or Negative Dreams
One of the comments I came across not too long ago in my indie-publishing research really stuck with me. I believe it was Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, who said it:

“In the self-publishing gold rush, more money will be made in author services than in book sales.”

What does that mean?

Well, put quite simply, it means the folks that are selling services to help you indie-publish are probably going to make a helluva lot more money than you are.

I’ve had a very modest success with indie publishing, which I hope is due more to book quality (see the press release containing my latest book review) than any marketing effort on my part or, for that matter, which service platform I used.

I’m locally known for doing my own e-Book conversions and for researching the tsunami of new services that promise to help indie authors self-publish. I was even asked to give a presentation on self-publishing options at the Rochester Writers Conference at Oakland University last fall.

The Dreamcatcher Mystique
What did I discover? It’s sad but true, Mark Coker was right. The vast majority of even traditionally published authors rarely sell more than five thousand copies of a book.

While there are exceptions (there are always exceptions) the odds of an indie writer-publisher selling even that meager amount of fiction is a significant longshot.

Still, we keep trying, don’t we?

I attribute that to the dreamcatcher mystique of publishing. We all want to be the next fabulous discovery. The next Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. Or even better, one of the indie-famous … like Amanda Hocking, John Locke (the self-published author, not the “Lost” TV-series character) or J.A. Konrath.

Who wouldn’t want to live that positive dream? But given the new multitude of services that promise to help an indie writer get to that Nirvana, where do you go for help?

The Results of All That Research
There are good single-channel, retailer-driven services, like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, CreateSpace or Barnes & Noble PubIt!

You will also find (presuming you’re looking) good multiple-channel distribution services like Smashwords or BookBaby that often include some kind of formatting and conversion service. Along with the newer Apple iBooks Author (which I am just now researching) these are some of the best services.

If you’re like me and determined to do most of it, if not all of it yourself, these are the ebook conversion services I have used to date:

J-Edit, a free, open source program to convert my Word manuscript to an HTML file; and Calibre, another open source (free) program to convert that HTML file to the proper MOBI and EPUB files required for Amazon and other e-Book uploads.

Sigil is another multi-platform EPUB ebook editor that I’ve heard tons of good things about, but have not tried yet myself.

That’s it. Are these all of the services that are available? Not by a long shot. But they work for me.

When all is said and done, however, the hardest part … the very hardest part … is getting someone to notice your book. I’m talking about that most dreaded of “M” words … Marketing.

Now that spring is around the corner, I’m getting ready to launch a serious word-of-mouth campaign, starting with schools, book clubs, book fairs and possibly book stores. I’ll let you know some of the details as they come together, and will report on the success (or failure) of each of them.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, my lovely bride is asking me to get off the computer again. As much as I want to stay and see what the dreamcatcher has snared, I think she’s found a shorter pier for me to take my long walks on.

Or maybe she’s just calling me to breakfast.

Tags:award-winning writing, indie writers, press release, self-publishing
Posted in Award-Winning Fiction, Awards, Book Promotion, Book Review, Market Your Book, Storytelling | 4 Comments »

Universal Balance, Indie Publishing and a Tease

March 7, 2013

“Winter Beach” – blog and story © R.L. Herron

UNIVERSAL BALANCE
I read a lot. I guess I’ve said that about myself before and it sounds like self aggrandizement, even to me. But it’s true.

My reading speed with excellent comprehension is well over 1200 words a minute (sorry, Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics, I don’t need you).

There isn’t a day that goes by I don’t read my share of things. Newspapers (plural), magazines, books, letters, websites, email and blogs. Probably more than my share.

I’m sure there’s someone, somewhere, who didn’t have enough time to read today because I spent so much time doing it (I do apologize … I just can’t help it).

Why am certain? Call it karma, or providence, but I have this idea it’s somehow all about universal balance.

Well, all this reading leads to thinking, which leads me to ideas … and since my ideas often get hopelessly entangled in the emotional side of relatively mundane, often impractical things, I occasionally rant … or at least mutter about them under my breath.

My long-suffering wife has learned to deal with it by telling me to take a long walk. She often includes a comment about a short pier, but in the end I’m usually still muttering.

In the winter I think she takes pity on me. To get rid of me for a while she doesn’t send me out in the cold, she suggests I write some more on one of my stories or my blog.

Just last evening she suggested I write another book.

Since this would be in addition to the one I’m already working on, she obviously wasn’t satisified my mumbling had been sufficiently muffled by the bitterly cold walk I already took (or maybe she was upset the pier was too long).

In any event, I took her advice, gravitated again to the keyboard and now it’s you, Dear Reader, who has to deal with my thoughts.

That could be a good thing. It all depends on how you look at it.

INDIE PUBLISHING
As you know if you’ve been here before, I’ve been thinking about indie publishing a lot lately, because I’ve done so much of it this past year.

I brought out three books and had one of them become an award winner (you can’t see my broad grin but, trust me, it’s there).

I’m also working on book Number Four while trying to figure out how to market the ones I’ve already written, so I research incessantly. When I’m doing that, my wife wishes I would get off the computer.

If that sounds in direct opposition to her admonition to ‘go write’ you’ll understand why I’ve come to the conclusion I’ll never really figure her out, even though I’ve been trying for almost 43 years.

SAMPLE
That leaves only the “tease” I promised (an excerpt from the sequel to Reichold Street – unnamed as yet – that I hope to have out later this summer).

To set the stage: Randy and Donnie are brothers who grew up on Reichold Street. They are only secondary characters in this book, but will intereact with the main protagonist.

Both were wounded in a drive-by shooting (in the first book) and Donnie, a promising, talented writer, lost his wonderful ability with words. Shortly after that, they lost their mother to cancer … and now, fifteen years later, they’ve also lost their father.

This is written from the perspective of Randy, the oldest brother:

We made the ride out to Cloverlawn in silence. The cortège was a great long one; one of the longest I’ve ever seen. I failed to understand how Dad seemed so beloved by so many people in Brickdale. I had met most of his friends. There weren’t many.

My brother and I rode alone in the car behind the hearse, silent for the journey’s duration because Donnie made it clear he didn’t want to talk. So we sat there in black suits looking like two dressed statues made of stone. We didn’t even speak to the driver.

We made the long, slow turn near the woods Mom loved. As we entered the cemetery, I spied the first of the apple trees near her plot. It was far too early for Mom’s favorite blue Caryopteris to be in bloom, or for there to be ripe apples on the ground under the trees, but the twisted, gnarled old trunks showed plenty of promise with their blooms.

I stepped out of the car and the apple blossom scent, mingled with the damp musk from the woods, reminded me again how much my parents had enjoyed the area. They’d spent a lot of time looking for homes there. Years. It was, by itself, a good memory. They had always been happy in that patient search, although it had been fruitless. They never left behind the rusty, diesel smell of Brickdale.

For a moment I watched the long string of cars queue up behind us. Then I caught sight of the tent that stood over the dark maw in the earth next to my mother’s grave. Seeing the hole where we would bury Dad darkened my already somber mood.

Donnie was crying.

I honestly don’t remember the words the pastor said at the gravesite. I do recall saying the Lord’s Prayer aloud with the other mourners, but even that memory is vague. I felt faraway and detached as I watched Donnie throw a handful of dirt into the grave while the coffin was lowered into its concrete vault.

People started to leave, but Donnie and I sat on a pair of folding chairs and watched until the workmen had filled the hole completely. We were alone then, except for the driver from the funeral parlor, who kept looking at his watch as if we were keeping him from an appointment.

When I finally stood to go, the driver’s sigh was an audible, palpable thing. “C’mon, Donnie,” I said, “there’s nothing left to do here.”

Silence filled the back seat of the limo again until we were almost home. That was when Donnie quit staring out the side window and looked across the seat at me. “I should write about this someday,” he said.

Donnie turned back and stared out the window, while his hand held an imaginary pen and drew tiny figures in the air.

Then it was my turn to cry.

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Read this AMAZING review for my novel “REICHOLD STREET”
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