Friday, January 28, 2011

Tips from the Black Hole

     I have learned my lesson!

     In my last post, I said that I needed to hop on the marketing train and get moving. I also said I wanted to assemble a list of e-spots to hit up and get the word out about my novel. So, I decided to kill two birds, so to speak, and assemble my list WHILE doing the items, so I could check them off as I went. Thus, I descended into the all-consuming BLACK HOLE that is e-marketing. I've spent the last two days hopping websites and blogs and also still trying to correctly format my cover for CreateSpace (that was a headache I don't even want to talk about.). I realize now how seriously I have to manage my time so as not to get sucked into the marketing hole - and so I can still set aside time to write! Because that was ridiculous. It would feel like twenty minutes of websurfing - on discussion boards and such - and I'd look at the clock and it had been two hours. Geez.

     At any rate, here is what I've found as good "first steps" to complete as soon as your story is available:
1. Announce your book in the Book Bazaar section of Kindleboards.com
2. Get added to the 'official kindle author list" on Kindleboards.com. All you have to do is PM the right guy with your info and he'll add you.
3. Facebook/email/Twitter (whatever you use) ALL of your friends and family and ask them to post links and share with everyone they know, the happy news.
4. Get it up on CreateSpace. This may fall into the 'publishing' aspect, which comes before this list, but if not, do it now - because all of my friends/family that don't have a Kindle yet (they don't know what they're missing, I know.) WILL buy the paperback version and that's guaranteed sales you're missing out on.
5. Sign up for Goodreads and upgrade to an 'author' page.
6. Do Book Reviews. On Amazon, Kindleboards, Goodreads - and anywhere else you can think of, in the genre you write, and always sign your name 'Name, Author of Book Name'.
7. Get some readers who will leave reviews on your book pages. Important: If they are family/friends, they need to state that in the review. Or if they got a free copy for doing so, state that too. From what I've already learned, the serious book reviewers on Amazon get pretty pissed off if you don't do that. If you don't, they consider it false advertising at worst, and manipulative, at best.
8. Write up a press release and send it to your local paper.... This one scared me, but the worst they can do is choose to not print it. Best case scenario, they'll want to support their own 'local' and they'll run it and give you exposure. It's worked for several self-pubbing Indie's and I got the idea from their testimonies, including Terri Reid, who just guest posted on JA Konrath's blog this week. Besides, a friend once told me that if you're goal/dream doesn't make you want to throw up, it's not big enough.
9. Find blogs that post reviews or book features regularly and ask to be included. I did this with Karly Kirkpatrick's BOOKADAY, and am already on the schedule to be featured in Feb. She has over 100 followers, not including FB and Twitter, so that's pretty good exposure for one site - and it's FREE. So I'm going to find more blogs like this and try to do more of these features.
    
     Okay, I'm sure I'll have more to add to the list but this is a good start for now. What I'd like to post next time is a compilation of different reviewer blogs like Karly's that you can go to, to get your title featured. If anyone knows of any, let me know, so we can throw it all into one big list. Because my only consolation for spending so much time on this lately, is that the first time is my learning curve. And hopefully the research I'm doing now will result in making this process much quicker every time from now on. Hopefully. Maybe. Ideally.
    
     Now, it's back to what I love best: writing. And I might have to disable my internet connection for awhile to do it. Otherwise, the addiction is too strong! Oh and as for numbers:

Across the Galaxy: 4
DreamKiller: 7

8 comments:

  1. Haha! I get sucked in too!!! I think you did a really good job with your do to list. One thing that will be incredibly helpful, so your not searching the web for hours trying to find blog reviewers, is this link. It shows blog reviewers by genre and some of what they will accept or not. This way you have a plethora of links to start from!

    http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net/book-reviewer-list.html

    Angeline Kace

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  2. woohoo thanks AK, that is exactly what i need. Hope this stuff will help you too when it comes time for you to get the word out.

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  3. Hey Heather, it's great to meet you!!! Thanks for stopping by my blog. I wanted to return the favor and I'm so glad I did. This post was filled with fantastic info. My first book should come out in February so I'll need the promo info you posted. :)

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  4. That's great Megg. It's really the whole point I'm doing it - for all of us. So, if you come across any great blogs/reviewer sites, etc when you get out there and start self promoting, let me know and I'll add them to the list. I'm hoping we can all contribute ideas and make one gigantic list to work from. Indies need to stick together!

    B sure to stop back by when your book comes out and let us know. I love YA as a reader, so I'll be sure to check it out.

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  5. Thanks for the list. I had to stop walking on the treadmill and grab a pen and paper. I've got a notebook that I've been putting all of this info in.

    To Heather: two more book review sites are spalding racket (spaldings-racket.blogspot) and cheapindieauthor.com

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  6. Thanks Sheila- I'll put them on the list.

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  7. Thanks for the information you have gathered here. I am currently doing research to see if I want to stick my big toe into the waters of self publishing for the books I have written.

    Gordon

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  8. go for it!!! why not? can't hurt. Even if you decide you want to tad. publish later, there's no rule that says you can't, if you've self-published already. so try it and let us know if you have any questions.

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