Notes from Baltimore Comic Con 2013 by Cerece Rennie Murphy

The two second version: Definitely worth a try.

The Set-Up – The conference was 2 days this year, which was perfect. Next year, I hear they are planning to go to 3.)

– The fee was $200 for a table (not a booth) in the Artist Alley section. This comes with a 6’ table covered in a white table cloth with 2 plastic folding chairs. I got 2 badges with my booth with the option to buy an additional 2 badges for $10 each.

– The distinction between the table and the booth is significant because most of my presentation materials are designed for a booth (banners, poster boards with easels) and you can’t attach anything to the walls behind you. I improvised, but it was really tight and not ideal. This is a good space for one of those retractable banner stands. I got a good recommendation for a place that makes them if anyone is interested.

– I had one person with me at my table for both days.

The Results – I sold over 100 books in 2 days. That’s more than I sold in 4 days at Wizard Con in Philly.

– Being able to “package” more than one book made a big difference. On Saturday, which was the busiest day, I pitched the books as “$10 each” and sold out of almost 2 full cases of the first book in addition to selling more than half a case of the 2^nd book. On Sunday, which was significantly less crowded, my sister took over and pitched the books as 2 for $20. The difference in perceived value was dramatic. Not only did I sell more books on Sunday, despite the drop in traffic, I sold more sets. This difference may be obvious to veterans of this game, but I was shocked to see the impact of this small change in marketing.

– The new Order of the Seers poster went over REALLY well. So did the reusable bags. Both were free with purchase. I gave folks a choice between the 2 and many people chose the poster despite the utility of the bag. (Thanks Stanley Weaver!)

– $10 a book continues to be a good price point for me.

– Got over 50 new names for my mailing list. Yay permission marketing!

– I got to pitch several RIB author books while I was chatting folks up and signing copies. I had many of the RIB books I’ve read on hand and whenever I got the inevitable “You’re like the only black/ black female/female author of sci-fi I have ever heard of besides Octavia Butler,” I whipped out my book collection and started talking. It was quick and it was fun to talk about you guys! The lesson here is that physical copies of the book (or some representation of the book e.g. postcards, flyers, etc.) really help in introducing other authors. It also really helped that I had read the books so that I could talk about them as a reader, not just someone who has “heard of these people”. I also need to make a list of authors that I’ve read so that I can just hand it out. People were so excited to hear about you guys that I often just ended up ripping off a piece of paper from my sign-in book and writing your names/books down. There was significant interest in authors of color in the areas of horror, fantasy, general sci-fi and mystery.

– I was, once again, the only black female selling a novel she had written in any genre. Ella, please correct me if I am wrong here, but I didn’t see anyone.

Bottom-line: I will be there next year. The low table cost made it very easy to make a profit. I also live very close to Baltimore, so that helped tremendously. Next up NY Comic Con 2013 (October 10^th – 13^th).

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The Pros and Cons of Going with a Genre-Specific Publisher by Stacy-Deanne

I wanted to speak on a topic today that you rarely see spoken about. To many authors, genre-specific publishers are a blessing. Genre-specific are publishers that specialize in certain genres. For example, Harlequin specializes in romance. There are also publishers that specialize in mysteries, erotica, street lit, etc.

Genre-specific publishers most likely can help their authors sell books easier than the average publisher because they are quite knowledgeable in the genre they publish. They know the specific market and how to reach readers. They most likely have close relationships with genre-specific reviewers and publicity outlets that can deliver promotion for their authors.

While being with a publisher that has a built-in customer base for a certain genre can be rewarding for a lot of authors, it can also be a detriment if an author decides they would like to switch from one genre to another and their current publisher does not publish the other genre.

What sparked me writing about this was a friend of mine who recently decided to switch genres. In her current genre, she worked with genre-specific publishers. Well, she is proof that authors don’t always know where their hearts will be as time goes on. You might start your career writing in one genre, and a few years later you’re so sickened by the genre you never wanna write it again. Now, if you’re with a publisher that publishes all types of genres, it’s no big deal. But if you’ve been publishing with a genre-specific publisher for your entire career, your journey will have to start all over again. Not only will you have to find another publisher, but you’ll have to find new fans. Especially if the genre you switch to is not a genre your current fans tend to read.

Man it’s tough for an author isn’t it? Yep but that’s why I am here to help. Below I list the pros and cons of being with a genre-specific publisher. I hope this gives insight to those who are deciding what type of publisher to look into.

PROS:

Guaranteed Sales:

Now I’m not saying every book by a genre-specific publisher will be a bestseller, but authors with these types of houses have a better chance of guaranteed sales because if it’s one thing a genre-specific publisher can do, it’s sell books to the right audience.

Customer Auto-Buys:

Once again this ties into guaranteed sales. Most genre-specific publishers have the advantage of auto-buy customers. These are customers who buy or checkout almost every book the publisher publishes, not necessarily because of the author, but because of the customer’s familiarity with the publishing house. This is one of the main reasons that Harlequin has been the king of romance for decades, and still is. Harlequin has a huge, loyal fan base and this can cause a book to soar.

Author Branding:

Being with a genre-specific publisher makes it easier for a new author to build their brand. Why? Because associating with a publisher that only publishes certain genres makes it clear what the author’s personal brand stands for, and readers will not be confused.

Effective Promotion:

Genre-specific pubs know how to get the word out to the right readers. It’s not how you promote, but who you promote to. You can promote to one hundred people that will never read your books, or ten that will. Which would make more sense? Promotion is to get people who are sincerely interested in your books to buy them. Also, with a genre-specific publisher, authors have more effective cross promotion opportunities. They can promote with other authors from their house and since they have the same audience, it’s a win-win situation.

CONS:

Authors Can’t Stray:

When you’re with a publisher that only publishes a certain genre, you do not have freedom to write in other genres with that same house. You’d either have to find another publisher or self-publish. So if you decide to be with a genre-specific house, it’s best to know all expectations and weigh pros and cons ahead of time. As I explained about my friend above, a writer’s interests could do a one-eighty without warning.

Note: Most authors use a pen name when writing different genres and this is not an easy task. When you use a pen name you start from the bottom again to build up an audience. Most likely your existing fans will not come along for the ride. See more about reader loyalty below.

You Develop a One-Note Fan base:

There are many people that read different genres, but there are many who do not. If you’ve built a following of readers who are obsessed with your current genre, don’t expect those people to follow you if you switch. You might not even be able to get them to follow you if you stick with the same genre, yet leave your current publisher. This is the downside of the customer auto-buy. Many customers of genre-specific houses buy books because of the house, not the author.

For example, I love Historical romance and I’ve gotten many from Harlequin. Out of probably over a hundred I’ve read, I could probably tell you the names of three of the authors. Why? To be honest I didn’t care to know the names of the authors. Sorry but I didn’t pay a lick of attention. All I knew was they were Historicals and I am obsessed with Historicals, I trust Harlequin to give me quality, so I scooped up the books. No disrespect to the authors of course, but this is true for me. A lot of readers are like me. We trust a publisher for delivering quality so we’d check out almost anything it publishes. So while auto-buy customers might be an easy way to build a base, there is a huge chance that these “fans” were not really your fans at all.

You Run Out of Things to Write:

Many genre-specific publishers have content guidelines for what they accept. As time goes on this might stifle your creativity. Some authors work well when guided on how to write and what to write. There’s nothing wrong with that. But some authors require more freedom or they’ll develop a block. You should understand the type of writer you are. It doesn’t matter how much you love a genre, you might end up scrambling for ideas or become creatively dead because you’re tired of the genre.

Deciding on what types of publishers you wanna work with is never easy. Of course, they gotta accept you to, but you still need to know your expectations and how things work. Remember, no situation is absent of cons no matter what it is. But as long as you know the cons before going in, you should be just fine.

Happy Writing!

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Build Publishing Habits by Terry Whalin

If you are writing a novel or a nonfiction book or ??? What are you doing each day to succeed with this writing project?

Yes, it is important to craft an excellent work with terrific storytelling and craft. We learn these skills through our own reading and continual practice. Writing should be a habit which you continually cultivate and practice on a regular basis.

Yet what about other areas of publishing where you need to develop habits?

Recently I heard from an unpublished author who was getting rejected or no response from literary agents. She was sending out a children’s book and couldn’t understand why she could not succeed. I wrote this author that she needed to do more to understand the marketplace. Only a few literary agents that I know represent children’s books for several reasons. First, the advances are very low for children’s books.

Also it’s hard to get a children’s book published and much of the writing work is Work Made for Hire or something an agent wouldn’t be involved in. Finally agents are looking for writers who demonstrate that they have been published. You have to show this skill through writing for print magazines or other recognized forms. This unpublished author was floundering because she had not done the basics to understand the market. As a daily habit, she needed to be reading published authors and how-to books as well as connecting with someone to help her.

Reading in the field is another publishing habit that every author or would-be author should be developing. There are free newsletters and many ways to learn from others. Are you tapping into these resources?

Another publishing habit is to constantly build your connections to others. It doesn’t require tons of time but it does require consistent effort. For example, posting ontwitter and Facebook in your area of expertise is a publishing habit. You can use tools like Hootsuite so it does not have to consume much time but the consistency will pay off.

I spend the majority of my days working with authors as an acquisitions editor at Morgan James. My personal goal is to help as many authors as I can to achieve their dreams of getting published. As a result of these goals, I’m on the phone with authors or literary agents. Or I’m answering emails or interacting with my Morgan James colleagues about book projects. I have a series of habits that I execute each day related to my work at Morgan James.

What goals do you have for your publishing life? Have you written them down and are you looking at them on a regular basis? What habits do you need to develop in order to achieve these goals?

As you are consistent, it will pay off for you in the marketplace. I have a great deal of free information in my ebook, Platform-Building Ideas for Every Author. If you haven’t read this Ebook, I suggest you get it and study it, then apply the lessons to your writing life.

What new publishing habits are you developing?

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Facebook Advertising: What I’ve Learned by Lynn Emery

In July I decided to find out if Facebook ads would make a difference in my sales. So in the month of August I ran ads every weekend. I didn’t pay for any other ads for the first three weeks so I could attribute increases to FB. Here’s what happened:

I increased my sales by a tad over 50% from July, and I made back the $100 I spent (so far, I’m writing this on 8/31). Sales did go up and I saw the difference immediately. For me it was mostly KDP royalties. No movement on my Nook sales until the end of the month. So much for FB ads not selling books. Still, I’m not convinced it’s worth the money. Sales didn’t shoot up dramatically. But here’s why I may continue.

I know from my traditionally published days that promotion has a cumulative effect. My efforts at branding and getting my name out the first five years after I sold paid off. After a while I didn’t have to make those calls. The opportunities came to me. It just took time. In 2000 I got a better deal from HarperCollins and some sweet royalty checks. I attribute it to my early efforts at marketing.

Now in the days of Bookbub, Kindle Daily and other venues, authors want instant big numbers. My experience leads me to favor the long tail. I may extend my FB ad experiment until the end of the year. I’m not selling a ton of books, but I’m extending my brand. And I’m not losing money. In fact I would argue that I’m extending my brand globally in a way I never could have in traditional publishing. I get to reach FB users in as many countries as I choose who listed “reading” as an interest. In January 2014 I’ll see how long the bump lasts. I won’t keep doing FB ads indefinitely, because that wouldn’t make sense to me. Unless there is a lasting cumulative effect I mean.

Here are my tips if you decide to give it a try. Some of these I learned in researching the use of FB ads before I started my project.

Set your ads to run on weekends. I found that the advice I’d read is right. Weekday ads just don’t get the same amount of traffic. I experimented and found that Friday to early morning Monday were the best days.
FB offers ways to advertise that cost as little as $5 for three days, these are called “Promoted Posts”. There are ranges for created ads as well. The lower the price, the fewer people they’ll expose your ad to, so look at those numbers. The good thing is FB will show you the range of how many people will most likely see your ad.
Target your created ads by age and interests. When you go to the “Create an ad” page you’ll see what I mean. You can target your ads to people who are interested in reading/literature, and recently they’ve narrowed it down to genres such as “romance” or “mystery”. You can also target people interested in horror movies, romance, sports, etc. They might be interested in giving your book a try if it contains those elements. This is great because targeted advertising is the most effective.
Select which countries you want your ad shown to. I missed this feature the first go round of ads I did (not paying attention!). Now I typically select US, UK, Germany, Italy, Brazil, France, Japan, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico. I select others based on if the number of potential views increases. I go for any country that I know has a sizeable middle or upper-class with disposable income.
Set your budget realistically. If you can’t afford more, don’t go into debt. Try it and watch your sales numbers. But be patient. Unlike KDP select and other tools, don’t expect thousands of downloads in a few days.
Remember that people don’t visit FB to shop. They visit FB to be social. Which is another reason I say don’t go all in and spend big because you see won’t sales that match those huge numbers FB says will see your ad.
FB favors the visual, so use pictures! Just writing a pitch won’t be as effective. Facebook favors showing photos and graphics. You’ll get more views.
DON’T use book covers. FB will reject photos that have more than 20% text. That means book covers. I use the stock art used for my covers before the text was added or other stock photos that fit the book.
I found that trailers worked best for me. The ads with just photos and a link to a product buy page didn’t work nearly as well (the ads I did before this August experiment).
People on FB tend not to want to leave FB, so external links got very little love. Remember, people are on FB to be social. That means they want to keep hanging out to post and get updates from their pals. So make sure you give them a fun experience so later they’ll go buy (while they’re still online, but done socializing!).

A quick word about trailers – keep the length to less than two minutes. I’ve read advice that says they should only be a minute long. I’ve had a tough time doing that so far! But remember you’re not trying to tell huge chunks of the story. You should whittle your pitch down to main the conflict. Also add music. Trailers with good music are way more attractive in my experience.

About the audience – if you’re going global consider that Kindle is not the number one device in most other countries. In Canada and Japan Kobo is on top. This may explain why when I stopped doing Kindle or even Nook product page links click through rates and sales bumped up.

I suggest you have a “Page” that is just about your books. You can brand a page to match your website and customize the header. That way your book posts won’t be mixed in with posts to Aunt Millie and photos of your sister’s new kitty. Looks more professional. Besides does Aunt Millie really want people in Brazil knowing she’s had surgery? I don’t think so. Anyway, back to the page. Here is a big “BUT… Put fun and interesting content that isn’t about pitching your books. If people think it’s just a page full of ads you won’t get much traffic. The main reason I did ads is because people know they what they are and choose to read more. Once they’re on my page they tend to “like” posts unrelated to my books.

Finally, “Likes” don’t equal sales. Period. The advice and articles I read turned out to be so true for me. Before I did FB ads, I got lots of likes. I started my “Page” with just over 950 “Likes”. I posted, got a few more likes. Sales went nowhere. I did those inexpensive $5 promoted posts. Got more likes. Sales continued to be stagnant. I got up to over 2,000 “Likes” and… you guessed it. Zero sales increase. It’s nice to be liked, but don’t be surprised if the love doesn’t translate to dollars.

Lynn

www.facebook.com/lynn.emery.author

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E-piracy…Oh my! by Kisha Green

E-piracy: The illegal uploading of digital copies of copyrighted works to a web site, or the illegal downloading of such material.

Ebook piracy isn’t new on the scene it just has different ways it is occurring. In recent weeks I’ve been talking to many literary professionals regarding the Ebook piracy issue as well as online book clubs giving books away without the author’s permission. These two topics aren’t ones that are great but after really thinking about it, I had to think about the bigger picture and these issues in their entirety.

Initially I was outraged and wanted answers and actions so that this type of thing could be stopped but the reality is that it was bigger than me and other authors/publishers making it a conversation piece.

As a publisher I too like many jumped on that Amazon KDP bandwagon and made some of my titles for free and doing that put me in a position for my books to be on any of those piracy websites at any given time.

Initially this KDP enrollment made perfect sense because it was believed that you could get new readers and this would lead to new sales. Well it didn’t quite happen like that, well at least not for me. For example if you saw 8000 downloads of your book as the equivalent to 8000 lost sales you are being REALY delusional. Let me say again they are NOT equal at all. The reality is that it’s more like 8000 people seeing your book in a bookstore flipping through the pages then after that walking out the store without purchasing.<–#RealTalk

Let’s face it a lot of us are not having downloads compared to 50 Shades of Grey or Harry Potter, although unfortunate what’s going on it’s nothing that can be really done to stop what’s already happened BUT moving forward self published authors can make better decisions in regards to the availability of their titles.

This industry is forever changing so your job as a publisher is to stay abreast, so ultimately we all are walking different literary paths and what might be good for myself may not be the case for someone else and at the end of the day that’s ok!

Good Luck Authors!

Kisha Green is a author who has a passion for writing and sharing her witty personality with many through social media. For more info about Kisha, visit her website www.divabooksinconline.com and you can also follow her on Twitter @KishaGreen

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Authors Beware. Misinformation Abounds! by Deatri King-Bey

Last month I attended two writer/reader events that had workshops and panel discussions pertaining to the publishing industry. When I go to these type of events, I’m usually very selective on which discussions I attend, but this time I decided to give others a try. Many of the presenters were very good, but others… All I can say is: Authors beware. Misinformation abounds!

I literally wanted to jump out of my seat numerous times, but I was good. I remained calm and kept my mouth shut. Below are just a few of the things I wanted to set the record straight on.

Copyright Misinformation: You have to copyright your book the moment you start writing it for protection.

Copyright Correction: Let’s think this through. You haven’t even written it yet and you can’t copyright a concept, so that doesn’t make sense. The moment you write/type your book, you have copyright protection. You file the work with the copyright office so that if someone infringes on your copyright, you can sue them. NOTE: Whoever files first DOES NOT necessarily get the copyright of the piece of work. Remember, the moment you’ve written your piece, YOU own the copyright. So if someone else gets your manuscript and submits the copyright, then you can still file a copyright and take them to court. So make your life easier and file your copyright. Visit the official copyright office website for information.

ISBN Misinformation: When you purchase an ISBN from a vendor such as Lightning Source or Create Space, it’s like those companies owning your social security number. They are listed as the real publisher of the piece. Therefore, they own the copyright to your book and can do whatever with it they please.

ISBN Correction: Not all vendors work the same, but many of them give options on assigning ISBN. With the “FREE” option, the ISBN assigned usually belongs to the vendor, for example Create Space, and thus Create Space would be listed as the publisher. BUT they do not own your copyright or get additional royalties.

Personally, I do not like this option because I want to brand my company. It’s the same as getting those free websites with WordPress or Wix, then their name is part your website address. I don’t want someone else listed as publisher of a book I published.

Another option some of the vendors offer is you purchase an ISBN from them that list your company as the publisher. This is usually cheaper than buying ISBNs directly from Bowker. This is the option that people think gives your rights away and removes you as publisher. No, you are not giving them your social security number to do what they want. A more accurate analogy would be renting the ISBN. Your company is listed as the publisher as long as you fulfill the obligations of the rental agreement. The vendors have brokered deals with Bowker to make this possible.

The obligation is usually you must create/sell the book using the vendor’s business. So if you purchased the $10 ISBN from CreateSpace, you are listed as the publisher and must use CreateSpace to publish and sell your book. You can also sell from other vendors, but the creation must be in CreateSpace. Let’s say you don’t like CreateSpace for whatever reason. You can stop using CreateSpace, but that is also the end of your rental agreement for that ISBN. You can not take the ISBN with you to Lightning Source and publish the book using the ISBN you rented from CreateSpace. You’ll need a new ISBN.

The final option vendors offer is a high priced ISBN that you can purchase from them that you can take with your if you leave their company. DO NOT DO THIS. They are just selling you an ISBN from Bowker. Go to Bowker yourself and purchase your ISBNs. If you purchase in bulk, they are cheaper.

Traditional Publishing Misinformation: You’ll make more money from self-publishing, so there is no need to even try to go the traditional publishing route.

Traditional Publishing Correction: This one drove me CRAZY. I make a lot more self-publishing than traditionally publishing, but I still tell authors who don’t already have a nice sized reader base to try to find a traditional publisher also. Why? Because traditional publishing gets your book to a sizable amount of readers in your target audience who wouldn’t have tried your titles otherwise. This is the FASTEST way to grow your loyal reader base.

Let’s say you write romance and Harlequin offers you a book deal for one of their lines. Each of their lines has thousands of readers who purchase every book within the line they enjoy. Play it smart. Write a few novels for the traditional publisher. Use them to build your reader base (while you’re still self-publishing). Once you are happy with the size of your reader base, don’t continue with the traditional publisher.

I think this one annoyed me so much because it was an author who traditionally published first, then self-published. She also gave examples of other authors who traditionally published first, then self-published. All the while, saying, people shouldn’t go the traditional route. Don’t get me wrong, there are authors out there who do great with only self-publishing, but in general, the fastest way to grow your large loyal reader base is through traditional publishing.

Lesson Learned: Do your research. I’m not saying ignore information people tell you, but you must also do your own research on whatever the topic is. Even if it’s me saying it. Believe it or not, I’ve been wrong a time or two. Break out those critical thinking skills and think through what they are telling you. Is the logic they are using making sense or just sounding good.

Deatri King-Bey

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Book Festivals: A Good Dose of Reality by J’son M. Lee

Book festivals can be so inviting—readers, book groups and industry professionals. With this conglomerate in one place, it stands to reason that an author would naturally fare well at an event like this. After all, if you have the readers, they will inevitably purchase your book, right? WRONG! Some authors are strategic when it comes to vending at these events. As a business owner, my decision usually comes down to economics; if it doesn’t make sound financial sense, I don’t participate. That’s my business model. Don’t get me wrong, if there is enough interest, I’ll attend an event, but for research, networking or the sheer enjoyment of reading. On the flip side, there are authors who are a bit more relaxed in their approach. Some will even allow their egos to get the best of them. In their quest for fame, they will rob Peter to pay Paul just to have a table at an event. Some folk just need a good dose of reality!

I recently attended the Baltimore Urban Book Festival (BUBF) with my good friend and client, Michelle “Big Body” Cuttino. The Festival was held at the Douglass-Myers Maritime Park. This venue, with its breathtaking views, is steeped in African American history. Set against the backdrop of the marina, being there was a one-of-a-kind experience in itself. The Festival was advertised to begin at 12:00 p.m. and end at 6:00 p.m. Michelle and I arrived promptly at noon. As we walked through the front doors we noticed bags, literature, etc. Although there were people in the immediate vicinity, no one greeted us or asked if we needed help. We inquired as to the location of the author tables and were told to proceed to the third floor via the elevators in the rear of the reception area. A young lady then escorted us back and gave us a brief overview, if you will. Once we arrived onto the floor, we walked into the room where the authors were set up. The room was chilly, but not in the traditional sense of the word. We didn’t feel welcome in the space. The authors seemed preoccupied, for lack of a better word. We deduced we were too early and decided to give the authors more time. We took the elevator back down to the lobby as there was a panel scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. Well, the panel didn’t begin at 12:30. We overheard someone saying the author was late. So we waited…and waited. The author never showed. Finally, it was time for Sadeqa Johnson’s (Love in a Carry-On Bag) panel discussion. Sadeqa was poised, professional, articulate and charismatic. That thirty-minute interview was the highlight of my day. After her panel discussion, we decided to return to the room with the authors. Certainly, they were ready for us by now! Again, we had the same experience as earlier. Only one woman greeted us and smiled. Everyone else seemed preoccupied with their team and/or table. Given the fact that the turnout was extremely low (I’d say there were twenty readers there at best at the time we were there), I would have thought the authors would have been excited to have guests walk in. Again, only one person stood and greeted us. Sadly, that’s all she did—she didn’t mention her work, engage us in conversation or anything like that. So we continued our walk of shame. Needless to say, we didn’t support any of the authors (which was our intent). Neither of us were there in the capacity of authors; we were there as readers. After a few minutes, we realized we’d had enough and walked out. As we were leaving, we ran into Sadeqa again. She humbly stopped and allowed us to take photographs with her and thanked us for our support. I told her I would download her book to my Kindle as soon as I got home (which I did). Beyond my experience with Sadeqa, the event was a disappointment.

This event had so much potential, but fell short on so many levels for me. Since Deatri King-Bey’s platform is Successful Authors, I’ll concentrate on my experience with the authors. Unless you have a line of people waiting to buy your books or get your autograph, you need to be personable, approachable and engaging. For God’s sake, SMILE people! I’ve been to signings where the author remained seated the entire time. I remember meeting Zane for the first time at a Barnes and Noble in Washington, DC. The line was wrapped around the store. Someone on her team was walking around with post it notes and a pen and asked us to print our name on the post it and adhere it to the book, presumably so she could refer to us by name and ensure she spelled our names correctly. Long lines of fans are not the reality for most of us, and it certainly wasn’t the reality for the authors who were vending at the BUBF event. If the majority of us would get over our egos, we’d realize that attracting readers takes great effort on our part. No one is just going to walk up to you and give you money simply because you have a book out. So how dare you treat me (or any reader) like an unwelcome guest! It takes hosts, authors and readers alike to make a festival successful. That said, get off your ass and make it happen! Otherwise, you’ll arrive with your books…AND leave with them. That ain’t hardly what I call success!

Disclaimer: My experience is not meant to disparage anyone. I merely want to use my experience to help other authors have a successful event.

J’son M. Lee
President and Owner

Sweet Georgia Press

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How to Improve Your Twitter Followers by W. Terry Whalin

While it’s great to have a lot of followers on twitter, how can you improve the quality of your followers?

As the twitter community grows, there are all sorts of fake profiles, profiles with no photo (which in general shows that the person doesn’t care about their twitter account), and twitter accounts which are not in English (I don’t like all of the non-English material in my twitter feed).

In the last few days, I went over 64,000 followers. In this post, I’m going to show you a free tool that I’m using to improve my twitter followers. For the last several weeks, I’ve been using a FREE tool called Manage Flitter. There is a paid portion of this tool but I’m only using the free version.

When I log on to this tool, it takes several minutes for it to load all of my follower and check them out. Then in a matter of seconds, it shows me some key aspects:

*People who aren’t following me but I’m following

*People who don’t have a photo in their profile (indicates they don’t use twitter much in the majority of cases)

*Fake or Spam twitter accounts

*Non-English Twitter accounts that I’m following

The program is easy to use and in a matter of a few minutes I can select these different groups and unfollow them quickly.

If you use Manage Flitter on a regular basis, you will improve the quality of your twitter followers. I hope it will become a good resource for you.

Tell me about your experience with Manage Flitter or other twitter tools. I’m always looking for ways to improve my Twitter account without spending loads of time on it.

W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, lives in Irvine, California. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com.

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Wanted: A Good Book by Kisha Green

Before I decided to become a published author, I was an avid reader and I have attended several literary events. Being on both sides of the table I have experienced as well as witnessed some errors that placed both the readers and authors in the wrong.

Authors have the perfect table set up that has candy, pens, bookmarks and of course…books. This is the perfect arrangement used to approach the table.

The reader picks up a book and instantly turns the book to the back to read the synopsis. Upon completion they will begin to flip through the pages of the book. The author is usually standing there patiently waiting for the reader to ask some questions about the novel including the favorite question “How much is your book?”

Many times I hear book club members ask authors questions and while they are getting the answer, the reader is often preoccupied with something else. After a few moments of an awkward silence the reader usually smiles and walks away.

Both are feeling some kind of way. How can this be resolved? Authors need to open their mouths to effectively communicate because being shy will not get you anywhere, because the book is not going to sell itself. The readers should ask questions while practicing simple courtesies. Please and thank you go a long way.

Authors have two roles at these events; they are a salesman and a author, if both are done correctly the end result is a book being sold.

There is nothing more annoying than asking a author about their book and they can’t seem to find the words to describe it or they compare their writing to a famous writer. Neither will result in a book sale.

Readers also attend these events but often come with a closed mind meaning they are not interested in the new author because they are a dedicated fan to another. The whole purpose of attending these literary events is to expose readers to new authors and vice versa.

Bottom line is as an author I need readers but also as a reader, I need good books. One hand washes the other.

Happy Reading & Book Sales!!!!!

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Reasons Why It Might Be Your Fault that Your Blog Tour Sucked by Stacy-Deanne

I see many authors complaining about the results of their blog tours. The common complaint is that they didn’t sell any books. Of course there are two sides to every story. Most of the authors I see complaining about a failed tour turn out to be the main reason the tour failed in the first place. Almost every author (lately) I’ve heard saying their tour failed, didn’t do a darn thing to help it have a chance to be successful. A blog tour is not some magic pill that will turn your book into an overnight success. They can and have done this for many books, but that’s not the norm. A blog tour is not something you set then ignore and expect things to fall into your lap. A blog tour takes hard work just like anything else. It takes dedication, making contacts, research, and patience.

At the time I’m writing this, I am about to start a blog tour in August to celebrate my upcoming book, The Wild Life. I am very excited and anxious to do the tour. I know it will be fun because with a blog tour you only get back what you put in. If your blog tour fails and you don’t sell books, it’s so easy to blame the blogger or to say that blog tours just don’t work. I know it’s hard to look at yourself and see that you might’ve done something wrong, but once you do this, you will have more success down the line.

We all make mistakes. We all screw up but how we deal with it is the key. I just don’t want people to cave to the negativity they might hear concerning blog tours. Blog tours are a blessing that authors should take advantage of. There are pros and cons to everything but if you take the steps to ensure your tour will be successful, the good will outweigh the bad.

So for those who’ve had a sucky tour or for those who might wanna try having a tour, I’ve outlined reasons why it could be your fault that your blog tour wasn’t successful. Now I’m not doing this to make you feel bad or to poke fun. I’m doing this to help. Most times when something does not work out, it’s our own faults. Maybe my reasons will help authors to approach blog tours in a more productive way.

1. Picked Blogs with Low Traffic

I know it might be hard for a new author especially to get placement on high-traffic, or middle-traffic blogs but low-traffic blogs will not help you on a blog tour. You’re just wasting your time. In order to have a decent blog tour, you have to pick the right blogs. These should be blogs that cater to your genre, and blogs that have decent viewership. You don’t wanna have a blog tour with a bunch of blogs that lack traffic. If they don’t get traffic anyway, why do you think that would change just because you stop by there? No. You want a blog to help maximize your exposure. If it can’t do that then there’s no point. Your best bet is to reach out to blogs that can get your book in front of readers.

2. Didn’t Have a Giveaway

Why do you think some bloggers require authors do giveaways with blog visits these days? It’s because authors who do giveaways get the most traffic and viewership on their tours. Readers want some reason to pop in and even though you might be as adorable as the Pillsbury Doughboy, you are not enough. You want to give your tour the best shot it can get at being successful so you need to have some type of giveaway. I think giving free copies of your book to people who pop into the tour is good enough, but some authors give out gift certificates, and even e-readers! Bottom line is you gotta make readers wanna come in and check you out. All of this will lead to exposure for your book. So you should at least consider giving away a copy of your book.

3. You Were Disorganized

It’s your responsibility, not the bloggers’ to make sure you get all your materials and anything else you need to the bloggers in time. If you work with a tour organizer, you should be proactive and keep up with them to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing. If things become chaotic it’s gonna be you who looks bad and no one else.

4. Did Not Promote The Event

If you’re setting up your own blog tour it’s your responsibility to promote your blog tour. Bloggers will likely promote too, but don’t count on it. Every blogger is different and assuming a blogger will promote your tour is Blog Tour Mistake 101. This is your responsibility as the author. Sure you can ask the blogger to help promote just to make sure it’s not just you, but sitting back and assuming a blogger is gonna promote your event is irresponsible. They’re being kind enough letting you be on their blog so promoting you would be a bonus.

Tips: Ways to promote include getting with your publisher if you have one. Publishers should be willing to help you promote your tour and even make promotional materials for your blog tour. Don’t be afraid to ask your publisher for help. If you are self-published, you might benefit from working with a blog tour organizer or cross promoting with other authors. Also you should start spreading the word long before the blog tour begins.

5. Did Not Participate in the Event

The main authors I see complaining about having an “unsuccessful” blog tour are the ones who sat back and didn’t participate. You must show yourself on the day of your event and you should come through more than once. This is your day. You are the one that should be initiating the conversations and keeping people interested. There’s nothing worse than checking out a guest blog post and seeing the author never bothered to show up. That’s rude. It’s like throwing a party then never coming through to greet your guests. Not only does this rub visitors the wrong way, it will kill your chances of bloggers inviting you back to their blogs. If you’re not interested enough to participate in your own promotional event, why should others be?

6. Boring Content

Most bloggers let authors choose the type of content they wish to post. You should mix things up. You can do interviews and book spotlights here and there but not for your entire tour. That gets boring fast. It’s best to do guest posts and this way you can talk about different things. Don’t forget to showcase your book. This is not just about you, but the book. Make the book the star on every blog you go to. Whatever happens, it’s a sin to be boring on a blog tour. This is also why it’s important for an author to participate in the event so they can keep the conversation going.

7. Provided the Wrong Content

Once again the book should be the star. Your posts should be of interests to readers. If you are promoting your new mystery or New Adult book, don’t post about how to write a book or how to sell a book. These are not posts readers wanna see. They wanna know more about your new book and why they should get it. Posting writing tips when you are trying to promote your novel is the kiss of death and readers won’t stick around.

8. Skipping Blogs that Can’t Promise Reviews

This is a big mistake. I see many authors skipping bloggers who say they can’t review. You know what? You’ll be skipping many bloggers because many bloggers are full when it comes to reviews. That’s the way of the world now. But this is no reason to cross the blog off as a potential blog tour stop. You can still get exposure by doing guest posts. You don’t have to have reviews done on a blog tour. All you want is to get the word out and to get people engaged. Just appearing on the blog will give you good exposure. Also, this is why giveaways are good. If you give away free copies of your books to people, you most likely will end up with some reviews down the line. But don’t ignore the exposure that being on a blog can give your book whether they review it or not.

9. You were an A** and Treated the Blogger Like Crap Because They Made a Mistake

The blogger is not your slave or minion. Don’t bark orders to the blogger. Don’t make demands. Remember a blogger who allows you to come to their blog is doing you a favor. It’s free promotion that they don’t have to give you so you should respect that. Also, if the blogger makes a mistake, don’t get upset with the blogger. Everyone makes mistakes. I’ve worked with many bloggers and a few have made mistakes when it came to my blog visits. Sometimes a blogger will have you down for the wrong date, or they will forget to even put you down. They might forget to give you materials to be featured on their blog. Remember that bloggers are humans too. Sometimes authors are so selfish we act like our books are the most important things in the world. A blogger making a mistake is not the end of the world, but you treating a blogger like crap could be the end of you ever getting promotional opportunities again. I don’t mean just from that blogger, but from many because bloggers travel in packs if you haven’t noticed. They make sure word gets around. If you’re rude and arrogant, that blogger is gonna tell her blogger-friends and they won’t want anything to do with you.

10. Not Contacting Author-Bloggers

Don’t skip out on contacting other authors who have blogs for your tour. Author-bloggers love to host other authors. Many authors are also reviewers. Authors are the most supportive of the blogging community so this is why they most likely will roll out the red carpet for another author on their blog. It’s a beautiful thing. Cross promotion is the ticket so it’s important to guest post on blogs of authors in the same genre. Their audience can potentially become your audience. The more popular the authors the better for your tour so especially reach out to your popular author friends. While it’s great to score a visit on a big review blog, don’t underestimate the level of exposure you can get from a fellow author’s blog.

11. Tour Too Short

I see authors arranging blog tours for a week or two. You should give yourself the best chance of exposure and unless you’re hitting the biggest blogs on the net in two weeks, or are a famous author, two weeks is not enough to get things rolling for your book. Your tour should be a month at least. You should be visiting blogs at least two times a week. Some authors visit a different blog every day. You should go with what’s best for you but I’d try for two blogs a week and a tour that’s at least a month. You want your book to saturate the blogosphere. The longer the tour, the wider your reach will be. If you do a week-long tour people will forget about you the minute your tour is over. Remember, exposure is the whole daggone point of the tour!

I hope my post helped those who might’ve had bad experiences but didn’t know why. If you did everything you could for your tour to be successful and it fell flat, you can’t control that. Nothing is guaranteed but you need to take planning a blog tour seriously. Stop measuring the success of your tour by how many books you sell. Blog tours don’t sell books directly. The main purpose of a blog tour is for exposure, not sales. If you present your book to your target audience, you should get some sales in the end.

Meanwhile join me on my tour! Check out my site for details: http://www.stacy-deanne.net

Be sure to check out Setting Up Virtual Book Tours by Deatri King-Bey

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Setting Up Virtual Tours by Deatri King-Bey

Outside of writing a downright excellent book, two keys to expanding your loyal reader base are mingling with your current readers and being introduced to potential new readers. Back in the day, authors would go on tours to bookstores, conferences, reader events… to accomplish both of these tasks. Thanks to the electronic age, authors have additional options to accomplish this goal. One of my favorite ways is the virtual tour.

In essence, virtual tours work the same way as traditional tours, except your stops are online. You may visit blogs, participate in chats and online conferences, organize a sale with other authors… Anything to expose you to readers via the web.

So you want to do a virtual tour. The first thing you need to decide is if you will pay a service to organize the tour and/or organize it yourself. Whether you hire a service and/or organize the tour yourself, you’ll still have to write the blog posts, participate in the chats and such.

Paid Virtual Tour Appearances

Personally, I’m against paying a service to organize virtual tours, but what works for me may not work for you. Find what works for you and go for it. Here are a few advantages of paying a service to organize your virtual tour:

Many authors are shy and/or don’t know who or how to ask to make an appearance on someone’s site (a stop on the tour). The service does this for you.
The service sets up the appearance dates (stops).
Often times stops also include a review
The stops are varied. For example a reader who likes to blog about books is different than an author who has guest authors visit, is different than a website that caters to readers….

Again, just because paying for a virtual tour is not my cup of tea, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t indulge. If you are interested in paid virtual tour appearances:

Be sure to look at the virtual tour company’s clients. Do they write your genre? Will this company have the connections to get your book in front of readers in your genre?
- Don’t pay companies to expose you to ANY reader. You want to be exposed to readers who actually enjoy your genre. For example, if you write horror, ensure the service is setting you up to visit virtual locations that specialize in horror. Not romance. Not historicals. You want to get the most bang for your buck, so you need to be where the most people who read your genre will be.
- Many companies will not tell you the places they will be booking you until after you’ve paid (Understandable. They don’t want you to organize the tour on your own). No problem. Ask the company exactly how many of the stops they are planning for you focus mainly on your genre. If it isn’t at least 70% of the stops, then I say skip this company. Don’t get me wrong. There are sites out there that attract a wide array of different types of readers. Those are great places for the other 30% of the tour.
Be sure to look at the virtual tour company’s current clients’ sells. Hop on over to Amazon and see how are they doing. Are they getting their monies worth?
Be sure to look at the current clients’ appearance schedules. Do these locations specialize in your genre?
Some virtual tour companies own numerous blogs/social media type locations for virtual tour stops. There is no problem with this, but be sure to ask the service how many of the stops they are planning for you are in locations they maintain. This number should be low.
- One of the great things about virtual tours is the exposure to new readers you get from the host announcing your appearance. So if you are appearing on platforms maintained by the virtual tour company, then they are announcing the appearances to the same audience.

Setting Up Your Own Virtual Tour

The first time you set up a virtual tour for your genre, it’s a pain in the butt. The good thing is, once you get your research, you can adjust and reuse it for future tours.

If you don’t have a blog, why not. Get one started and host virtual tours. I know it’s all about you, but by having authors from your genre visit your blog, they are bringing new readers to visit you just as you are introducing your readers to them. Cross promotion is your friend. Check out Bling: Can You Pimp My Website for starts. Creating a blog is optional, but I highly suggest it.
Here comes the hard part. Research blogs, websites, online conferences, chat opportunities in your genre. I’m addicted to reading and regularly visit numerous blogs and websites to see what’s new and meet new authors (new to me). In my ventures, I take note of the main genre(s) hosted on the sites. Another way to locate sites in your genre is to do a Google search. You can list authors in your genre and find their websites. If they host guest appearances, take note. You can go to Amazon and search for authors in your genre, then look at their web pages to see if they have guest appearances. Some websites contain a list of links to other websites. Start clicking and find those sites. The more contacts you have, the better.
A month or two (two is better) before you are ready to start your tour, contact the people on your list and ask to do a guest posts or be interviewed. Nothing complicated. I use:

Email Subject: Virtual Tour Stop Request

Hello All,

My upcoming GENRE OF BOOK, TITLE OF BOOK, is due for release GIVE A GENERAL TIME IE: LAST WEEK OF JULY, thus I’m requesting the opportunity to write a guest post or be interviewed on your website in the coming months. If you are interested in hosting a stop on my virtual tour, please let me know what you’d need from me and the date.

My website is located at YOUR WEB URL and, as always, I welcome you to visit my page in the future.

BOOK TITLE:

BOOK BLURB

BOOK SAMPLE Make it short and sweet.

Thank you for your time,

YOUR NAME

YOUR EMAIL

At least half of the people I contact usually reply that they’d love to have me. I guess the others ignore me.

While you are waiting on people to reply, go ahead and begin writing guest posts. Remember, you want to attract readers, so write something interesting to them, not how to query an agent. Your posts should relate to your book and also include the back cover blurb, purchase links, links to your website, and a thank you to the host. I like to include a short sample of the book.
As you begin receiving replies, some will give you a date they want you to appear. Others will allow you to select your date. I like Thursdays because it’s the day before payday for many and people aren’t as distracted by the weekend yet so you get more views.
Send in your blog posts and interviews. Set up your chat dates. Send out your edited book for reviews…
Once your tour begins, be sure to promote each site you appear on the day you appear on it. Visit the site a few times during the day and reply to readers’ comments. Don’t be discouraged by the low comment number. When I have guest appear on my fiction blog, the entries average a few hundred hits, yet people rarely comment. When I look at my stats, I can see people are clicking the purchase links and links to the authors’ pages, so that’s the important thing.

Virtual tours are a lot of work whether you pay a service to set up your dates or you do it yourself, but they are excellent ways to stay in touch with your readers and meet new ones in your genre.

Be sure to check out Why It Might Be Your Fault That Your Blog Tour Sucked by Stacy-Deanne.

Deatri King-Bey

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Goodreads: Get Your Piece of the Pie! by J’son M. Lee

I am convinced that Amazon will eventually rule the literary world. In an effort to take this place, they have strategically acquired Goodreads, an online book-sharing site with 16 million members. Yes, you read that right —16 million! Not only does Goodreads afford Amazon a dominant social presence, it also affords authors an amazing platform—if they use it to its full potential. Whether you’re a new or established author, you can use Goodreads to introduce yourself to a vast community of potential readers. By fostering that community, you strengthen the link between your work and the people who read it.

Now, here’s the interesting part. Amazon, in its infinite wisdom, has broken the site up—readers versus writers. Readers can organize their collection of books, find book recommendations and even join in on discussions about their favorite authors and novels. Authors have their own special place, too, and need to take advantage of this paradigm. The Goodreads Author Program is FREE (did I mention there are 16 million members?), and has a host of features designed to help you reach your target audience. Here are a few:

Add a picture and bio
Write a blog
Publicize upcoming book signings, workshops or speaking engagements
Share book excerpts, quotes and other writing
Write a quiz about your book
Post videos

It is important to note that the Author Program isn’t automatic when you sign up for Goodreads. That’s where I made my mistake. I had no idea there was an Author Program until I was featured on the Literary Conservation. The administrator sent me an inbox which read, “Dude, I’m going to put your Goodreads profile up with the links, but man, get on there actively! That’s a free resource even the Big Names can’t afford to ignore.” Doc Shamrock was right! As a self-published author, I couldn’t afford to ignore this resource. I put off updating my page because it seemed daunting. I won’t sugarcoat it. Even after I dug in, it was a bit confusing. But I pushed my way through, and now my page is up and running. I still have a lot of updates to make, but I’m no longer ashamed of my online presence.

Have no idea how to begin? Start by signing up for a Goodreads account. After that, send a request to join the Author Program. It may take a few days to process your request. You will receive email confirmation (I received mine the same day) when they successfully upgrade your user account to an author account, thus merging your author page with your member page. That’s the easy part.

Now comes the more challenging part. The confirmation email will contain instructions for managing your author profile. You’ll have access to a special Author Dashboard that contains useful links and statistics about your books. Once I logged in, it took me a few hours to set up my page. It may not take you that long. I updated my profile, added a few trailers, loaded all of my books…there’s so much to do! I had some trouble adding an updated version of my book, and reached out to the Goodreads Librarians Group. They were extremely helpful with directly making changes to my book records or assisting me with making changes.

Whew! I’m tired just writing about this, but do it! It’s worth it. Don’t miss out on your piece of the pie. Can’t you taste your success?

J’son M. Lee
President and Owner
Sweet Georgia Press

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It’s Not That You Shouldn’t Promote to Other Authors. It’s How You Should Promote to Other Authors by Stacy-Deanne

Note: So no one is confused as to what I am saying, I am not saying you should promote ONLY to authors or nonsense like that. I’m saying that you should remember that authors are readers too and to completely cut someone out of your audience because they are an author is a mistake.

Read on.

This subject has always been debatable depending on who you ask. People have different opinions about it. But let me tell you why you would not wanna cut out authors as your audience. Do you realize that no one, NO ONE on earth reads more than writers? Writers read constantly. We have to, plus we enjoy it. Writers became writers because of their obsession with reading. Writers and authors are a huge part of the literary audience. To ignore them would be insane. Now I understand when folks say you shouldn’t promote only to authors. Yes, that’s true and I agree, but for those who say not to promote to authors at all, sorry but I don’t agree. You won’t find many people who read as much as authors.

I know many authors and readers and in comparison, the authors read way more on a regular basis than the readers who are not also authors. I am a member of many online book groups and book club groups and let me tell you, most of the “readers” in there are authors, aspiring authors, book bloggers (reviewers), or reviewers. Some of the book groups I’m in have over 800 members, I’d say around 200-300 are active on a regular basis. Out of that active group, over half are authors. And they are not authors pitching their books or writing tips. No. They are authors buying books and looking for new books to read. Oh trust me. Authors are a part of your audience. I can vouch for that because many authors buy my books, and they are authors I don’t even know personally.

The trick is how you should promote to other authors. Most authors don’t do this correctly. In order for an author to become engaged in your book and your writing, you need to treat them like a reader. See what I’m saying? But most authors don’t look at it that way. You can’t just pop up and hock your book to other authors who are doing the same thing. Nope. You have to capture the reader inside that author and that’s by reminding the author that when you’re around, they wear the reader’s cap only. You have to switch your mind frame and stop looking at other authors just as authors but as readers because that’s what they are.

One way to do this is to make up your mind, are you gonna appeal to READERS or WRITERS? If you’re gonna do both then you need to be very creative because many people cannot do both effectively. They end up promoting to one side more and alienating the other. I would think that most fiction authors want to appeal to readers. I know I do. Because readers (even if they are also authors), are the ones who will buy your books.

So how do you appeal to readers only? Better yet, how do you remind other authors that they are readers when it comes to you? You’ve got to stop appealing to their writer side. You do this by making your promo reader-friendly. Let’s start with your website. Do you have writing tips on there or do you have stuff that advertise your books and tells visitors who you are? If you wanna capture readers (and the reader inside the author), then get rid of the writing tips, writing guidelines, etc. that’s on your site. You need to have stuff about your books, your work in progress, your news, and your events. Any and everything a reader would want to know. Readers don’t wanna know about your writing process. Writers wanna know about your writing process. I know when I’m searching for books to read and I go to an author’s site to learn more about them, I could not care less about their writing rituals or them telling me how to publish a book. Why? Because when I check out your site, I’m in reader mode. I don’t wanna get tips on writing. If I want that I know where to go. I want your site to show me stuff about you as a published author. I want it to persuade me to checkout your work. I wanna see excerpts, book covers, reviews, anything that appeals to the reader inside of me. That is how you remind writers that they are readers when they step in your domain. Once you remind them, they will remember and they flick on that reader cap and they become interested in you and your work.

The same thing goes with the mailing list. Your mailing list should appeal to readers unless you are writing nonfiction writing guides. I have seen author lists where it was 20% about them and their books, and the rest was all on writing tips yet the author was a romance author. You couldn’t tell that by her newsletter. I dropped her list because I got confused. When I signed up for her list, I expected her to send me some news about her books. I wanted her to share some blurbs, let me know when the next book was coming out. Except for her spending one tiny paragraph on her books, she spent most of her newsletter on writing tips and that was not fulfilling to me at all. So imagine how a reader who is not even a writer would be turned off by that type of newsletter. You need to appeal to readers. If you have a site or mailing list geared toward writers then readers are not gonna be interested. Some people might argue this point, but let me tell you that Sally Williams who is a school teacher who loves to read romantic suspense and has no interest whatsoever in being a writer does not wanna see How to Format Your Manuscript for Kindle or How to Make that Book Proposal shine when she comes to your site. Sally wants to see when your next book is coming out and why the heck she should buy it. If your site doesn’t appeal to Sally, she’s gonna get confused, pissed, and go to another writer who treats her like a reader.

Check out my site: http://www.stacy-deanne.net. I practice what I preach. Now I’m known for writing articles for writers and giving writing tips. Well if you notice, you don’t see any of my writing articles or writing tips on my site. My site is geared toward readers. If I wanted a site for writers, I’d create one. I’m trying to sell books and gain fans through my site. My writing tips and writing articles belong on the sites I write them for, not my author site.

Get the picture?

So let’s go over my points. Now I am not saying you can’t promote to writers and readers at the same time. Some authors do and do it well, but many don’t do it well. There’s a risk of confusing your audience if you can’t pull this off. If you’re gonna have your sites or lists geared toward both it should be done where most of the content is geared toward readers (and the reader inside the author). The 20% percent geared toward readers and the remaining 80% geared toward writers is not gonna work unless you’re selling writing guides. If you’re writing fiction, your site and your list have to reel readers in. You need to promote to anyone who reads your genre. That’s your audience. Once again, I’m not saying promote only to other authors, no. Heck no. I am saying promote to anyone who is your audience and that includes authors. Authors who write in your genre are your audience so remember that.

The Wild Life by Stacy-Deanne (Coming July 2013)!

Sign up for my mailing list (where you won’t get any writing tips whatsoever): http://www.stacy-deanne.net/newsletter.htm?newsletter=

Ciao!

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The Constant Hunt for Excellent Writing by W. Terry Whalin

Last weekend I was in beautiful Seattle at the Northwest Writers Association Conference. I’ve been privileged to speak at this conference several times over the years. I always find it invigorating to get away from my computer and phone for a bit to meet face to face with writers and talk about books and publishing.

In today’s connected world, we seem to rarely get away from our computer and phone but at least we can grab the face to face time. Several years ago at this conference, I met retired surgeon Lloyd Johnson. In recent years, Lloyd has been writing fiction. We’ve kept in touch and when I joined Morgan James, I reached out to him to him and discovered he had a great novel called Living Stones. I championed his novel to my colleagues at Koehler Books, the fiction imprint of Morgan James. If you click this link, you can read a sample of the book and see the attractive book cover.

Lloyd’s passion is about telling stories about the Middle East and he has taken that passion into his storytelling and novel. Lloyd and I had dinner at beautiful Lake Washington (see my photo) and talked about book publishing. He is excited about the forthcoming publication of his first book and has connections to some great nonprofit organizations in this part of the world. I was encouraging him to include in his launch plans some ideas to sell his books large numbers.

Most writers are thinking of selling books one book at a time. What if you could sell boxes of books with one connection? It can happen with the right mindset and planning. To learn more listen to this free teleseminar. It’s an interview that I hosted with Ted Rogers and Vickie Mullins (use this link). Lloyd has an excellent novel and now needs to reach as many people as possible with his new book. If you have a book, I encourage you to spend some time in strategic thinking about how to reach new audiences.

All day Friday, the Seattle conference had a series of group pitching sessions. Each one had five or six or seven writers. Often these conferences have individual meetings so it was different to hear the pitches in a group. I am actively looking for excellent writing. Morgan James publishes nonfiction, fiction and even children’s books (a challenging area for any new writer these days).

In this group setting, I focused on one writer at a time and heard their pitch. Yet everyone else in the group also heard the pitch and could learn from what worked or didn’t work. It was a different dynamic than one on one pitching but the participants seemed to enjoy the interaction and learning experience.

Since meeting these new people, I’ve been writing emails and encouraging these writers to send me their material. Morgan James receives about 5,000 submissions a year and only publishes about 150 books. Yet you can’t have your material considered if you don’t send it. During the conference, I participated in a panel discussion with all of the faculty (several other editors and literary agents). We agreed that often we encourage writers to submit their material. It was confirmed that many times, we ask for the submission at a conference and the writer never sends it. Talk about a missed opportunity! Yes no one likes to be rejected—but you can’t get into the consideration process if you never submit it.

As editors and agents, we are on a constant hunt for excellent writing. Yes we are looking for authors who are connected to the marketplace. Yet good writing is always important. Are you a good communicator? How do you become a good communicator? Practice. Good writing will result in more good writing.

Several weeks ago, I attended an excellent workshop at the American Society of Journalists and Author Conference in New York City called Book Publishing: Making It in the New Frontier. Unfortunately this session was not recorded. The panelists included Jon Fine, the director of Author & Publisher Relations at Amazon.com, Amy Grace Loyd, the executive editor of Byliner, and Jofie Ferrari-Adler, a Senior Editor at Simon and Schuster. Moderator John Rosengren organized this excellent event.

While this workshop had a lot of information about the future of publishing, at one point, each of the experienced panelists talked about the importance of excellent writing. Whether you are writing for Byliner or magazines or books, your storytelling and writing has to be excellent.

How do you learn to be an excellent writer? I believe it comes from constant practice and working in the publishing industry. So many authors want to publish a book so they work for hours and hours on a long 40,000 to 100,000 piece of writing—yet they ignore the magazine market. It is much better to learn to write with shorter articles than to “practice” with a longer work like a book. You are better to start a blog and begin writing short articles or to learn to write query letters to magazines and then write the articles than to work years on a longer book which finds limited readers. Thousands of people will read your magazine work so don’t ignore those possibilities.

I continue to write for magazines on a regular basis—and have done so for over 20 years. It’s where I can practice my storytelling craft on a regular basis—and you can do the same.

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Reviewer and Reader No Nos by Deatri King-Bey

In previous posts, I’ve discussed authors’ marketing techniques that turn readers off and authors’ bad reactions to negative reviews. This month I decided to flip the script and discuss readers and reviewers who are, shall we say, not displaying the best behavior. As an author, you’ll often hear, “You need to have a tough skin.” But there are times when readers and reviewers cross an invisible line that should never be crossed. Hopefully, this article will help you prepare for what is out there.

For the first question, I received input from fifty-three people, mostly review team members and readers. The interesting thing was reviewers, readers and authors all mentioned the same things. Below are the main themes I saw repeated.

What should NOT be included in a book review?

Spoilers! – Giving away the climax, important plot points or the ending of a story was the number one item that the sample I took did not like.
Personal attacks and moral judgments– This ranked up there close with spoilers. Here is a reply that summed this up nicely: A review, while a personal opinion, should not be personal. You are reviewing the book, not the author. Talk about the writing. Talk about the characters. Talk about the plot. There should be no name calling or accusation throwing in a review.
Mean spirited – There was also mention that reviews were becoming mean spirited and written in a tone to tear down and disrespect instead of giving constructive criticism.
Reviews that attack an aspect of what the title is. For example if you don’t like short stories, don’t read short stories then rate them poorly for being a short story.
No useful information – Reviews that only say I liked or didn’t like this book are useless. People who base their book buying partially on reviews want to know what you did and/or didn’t like and why.
Ordering experience – Reviews that give a 1 star because the reader didn’t like the price of a book, format, or how it was shipped.
Unprofessional/disrespectful behavior – Some review groups write reviews, then going online and proceed to blast the author for writing a bad book or attack other review groups for liking the book. I’ll admit, I was shocked by this one but it came up a few times.
Not reading the book but giving a review – Need I say more
Promoting other books in a review – For example, Don’t waste your money on this book. If you are looking for a five star read, try 123 by #$%
This isn’t a part of the review but at times reviewers agree to review a book, then they don’t.

The next question was for authors only. To protect the authors, I’m not giving names and will paraphrase.

What behaviors do readers display that are a turn off?

Obsessed Fans – Authors need readers and vice versa. Most authors love to hear from their readers and to connect with them. There are some readers who take being the author’s fan too far and attack others on behalf of the author. For example, let’s say you are in a group and someone doesn’t like author A’s book or if the author receives a bad review, the reader attacks other readers and the reviewer.
- Follow up question: What did you do to combat this? I’ve only had this happen to me twice that I know of. The first time I found out about it by a reader contacting me saying she’d never read my work again because I’d had one of my “minions” attacked her. I wasn’t aware that I had minions. I went to the review she was referring to and knew by the comment of the obsessed fan who it was. She’d written to me several times. I didn’t have “proof” it was her, so without mentioning the review, I replied to her next email and explained that I was going to have to pull away from having so much contact with readers because there was someone out there attacking readers on my behalf and turning readers off from my work. I let her know that this person thought they were helping, but in reality they were hurting my reputation. She didn’t email me again, but I continued looking at my reviews and saw she stopped attacking people. If you know one of your readers is attacking people, then you need to stand up to that reader. They can do a lot of damage.
- Stalkers. Taking reader input is one thing and authors need the feedback and appreciate it, but some readers go overboard. I had one following me from Facebook page to Facebook page posting that I needed to be writing instead of on Facebook.
  - Follow up question: What did you do to combat this? I blocked her so I couldn’t see her comments. She’s probably talking about me like a dog now.
- Readers who think you owe them something. I am grateful when anyone purchases one of my books, and I hope you enjoy it and want my future titles. You purchased my book, not me. I’m amazed at things readers demand because they bought one of your books.
- Writing is Business – Some readers don’t understand/care that writing is a business. We release our work to the public to make a living. Books only cost a few dollars, but there are readers who want to read the books without purchasing them. I don’t mind loaning a book to someone who hasn’t read an author’s work before, but to continually borrow books is stealing money out of authors’ pockets. And don’t get me started on those pirate websites. Why shouldn’t I be allowed to make a living?
- Writing is Business – I had a contest and the winner would receive XYZ, which fit the theme of the book. The winner contacted me and said she didn’t want XYZ, instead she wanted 123. Why did she enter if she didn’t want the prize?
- Poor Book signing etiquette – Some readers have the bad habit of coming to your table to speak about everything except your books. They block the way from people who may actually want to buy your book or they come to eat the treats at your table and move on.
- Poor Group etiquette – Immature behavior and lack of respect for members and/or moderator runs many from groups. Also if the majority of the groups content veers too far away than the groups purpose can cause authors to leave.

Well, that’s it for this go around. I don’t think anything discussed is a surprise, but sometimes we do need to be called out on our behaviors. As a reader or reviewer, be honest with yourself. Are you displaying some of the behaviors listed above? Is that what you want to be known for? Thank you to everyone who contributed to this article. You guys are the best.

Much Joy, Peace and Love

Deatri King-Bey

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