Content Tweet VS Spam Tweet

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about spam tweeting and how people need to stop or they are bad. Regardless of your feelings, spam and content tweeting have a place in the twittersphere.

In fact, most of us are on tweet teams or Triberr to help promote each other. And most of those tweets are what we would consider spam. You do it. I do it. Do we mean to spam people? No! It is a marketing tool. A marketing tool that works GREAT!

BUT. . . you also have to have content tweets.

If you don't, you will lose follwers. Followers that actually get on twitter to find things, to connect, to find an author!

Do you know the difference between a spam tweet and content tweet?

EASY: a content tweet does NOT have a link.

Yep...you read that right. NO LINK!

"But Tonya, how are they going to find my website? How are they going to find my book?"

I know. . .I know. . .we have been so conditioned to use twitter as a middle man to get our name out there. In doing so, have you lost followers?

Content tweeting doesn't mean that you have to be there in person either, although I highly recommend that you get on twitter and physically interact with your followers.

Content tweeting should interest anyone that follows you or your core group of tweeps that interact with you.

A few examples:

Support #indieauthors Great novels at great prices
A wastebasket is the #writers best friend #amwriting #amediting
One random act of kindness is all it takes.....make today the day and #PayItForward!

OR interact with them and expect a tweeterastion (live tweet conversation):

Good morning. What are you doing today? #amwriting #indieauthor

You get the idea? Yes, you do.

You don't have to limit it to writing. You can tweet book quotes, inspiration etc....

The KEY is to interact with your followers, NOT spam them.

Like I said, spam does have a place in the twittersphere and it does work to find new readers. I have found hundreds of readers through attaching reviews to my tweets. BUT you have to interact. Just because you don't put a link in the content tweet does NOT mean you still can't promote your book.

"Wait! What? Tonya, you just said not to spam, which you meant promote your book...NOW you are confusing me!"

I'm sorry. I'm not trying to confuse here. Here is an example of what I mean....
Hanging out with June Heal, #cozymystery #psychic "A Charming Crime" #mustread #bestseller

OR

#ACHARMINGCRIME a @tonyakappes11 #mustread Fun, mystery, and humor all in one!

Remember to keep all your tweets in the 120 character guideline, g-rated, and free from political views.
Go ahead and try to make a few content tweets and see how many responses you get. I'm sure you are going to be surprised with how many true connections you make.

The more connections you make, the more THEY will promote you and your books! Go on! Try it!!

Tips to Promote Your Book

When I was a kid, Phil Donohue came on every morning at 9 AM. He always had on one or two guests. If it was one guest, that guest got the full hour. If he had two guests, the hours was split up into thirty minutes each.

Have you seen interviews today? Or even just the weather on your local news? Everything is under three minutes. Even interviews on the most popular shows like Ellen. She has multiple guests and games during her one hour show. Her guests only get three-four minutes until she takes a commercial break. 

Why is this? And what can we learn?

Attention spans have really decreased over the last thirty years, and our lives have gotten busier. Just think about it. If you go to look at a car, you don't want to sit there for hours as the car dealer tells you how the car was made, the history of the car, etc...

You want to know what's in it for you! Why should you buy that car?

Same thing when you release your novel or when you talk about your novel.

Most readers aren't going to say to you: "Why should I buy your novel?" "What's in it for me?"

They are going to say: "Tell me about your book."

Then. . .you vomit! You go on and on about the hero/heroine/villain or the meticulous assassination plot that took you months to research and write perfectly.

Well. . .READERS DON'T WANT TO HEAR THAT! Let me repeat READERS DON'T WANT TO HEAR THAT!

You need to give them something that will make them think that your book is worth their investment, their time, and how people are going to react when they tell someone that they are reading your book. 

I know! I never said the reader was fair, but these are what they are really thinking!

Every reader is looking for something different when they pick up your book. But the emotional reason is still the same. What's in it for me?

Sooo. . .how do you do this?

You are going to give them Tasty Tips. Tasty Tips is my term that I use to get my reader hooked. 

I don' tell readers what my book is about, I tell them little things to wet their mouths. 

First off my covers are appealing to my target readers. That is one of the greatest emotions in everyday life. You know it and I know it. When we see someone, we judge them before we talk to them. Right or wrong, we do it.

Same with books.

Secondly, I use my social media and STREET TEAM to post little tidbits about the plot I'm writing. Or I may do something humorous that my heroine did because my readers expect funny in my writing. Or I might just let them know fun facts about ways to kill people. . .after all I am a mystery writer. 

Did you know that you can die if you eat too much nutmeg? OR you can die from an over dose of nicotine if someone puts liquid nicotine in your shampoo bottle and you massage it into your scalp?

Thirdly, I hold reader contests for the books I'm writing now. Currently I'm working on the second Olivia Davis novel, and in the first novel, Splitsville.com, Olivia owns a breakup service. I needed some new material for reasons why people breakup with their girlfriend/boyfriend, so I went to my STREET TEAM. 

I asked them to tell me funny and ridiculous reasons why they have broken up with someone. The breakups flooded in! I never once told them the plot for the second book! But I got them interested and the buzz going about the second Olivia Davis novel. They can't wait to buy it! I appealed to two emotions: love and humor.

All in all, you don't need to SELL YOUR BOOK, you need to focus on the experience of how the reader is going to feel when they are reading your book. 

These Tasty Tips you are going to give your reader will help them invest in the emotional of the question they really want to ask, "What's in it for me."

Are YOU a Bestselling Author?

Is your book buzz worthy? Do you aspire to be a bestselling author?
Are you doing the same marketing and promoting of each book the same way? Doing the same ole things hoping that it will work with each book you put out?

Well. . .it won't!

In order to be a bestselling author you have to evaluate what works and what doesn't. You have to have a plan.

Your writing career does not afford you to keep trying things that don't work.

Let's discuss the bestseller's status. Most traditional authors turn their heads at any other bestsellers status other than the big ones like New York Times, USA Today, etc....BUT they are missing the boat on creating more buzz for their novels!

It's so important to make those Amazon and Barnes and Noble bestsellers lists. Once you make the lists, your novel gets put into those algorithms and make you more visible to the readers. Amazon will even promote you when you get high enough on the lists, which again. . .makes you more visible to your target audience. So CLAIM your bestseller status when you make one of those lists!!!

Still. . .you have to get there. Is your marketing and promoting plan doing it for you? Are YOU a bestselling author?

Now, I'm assuming that you have written a really great book. A book with an amazing cover, no editing issues, perfect formatting~NO ISSUES!

Before that book is uploaded or goes to print, you should already have your marketing plan put in place!
I'm not talking about setting up a blog tour, giving our ARCs of your novels to reviewers, making swag for your author brand. These are things that I hope you are already doing without me telling you.
I'm talking about entering major awards, do free audio podcasts for your blog site, plan reader events by using your Kindle or google plus chat. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!!!

A few months ago the eFestival of Words announced the finalist in all their book categories. I was pleasantly surprised when I was alerted that Carpe Bead 'em was a finalist in the women's fiction/chick-lit category. I have no idea who nominated me to thank them, so I knew if I won, I was going to have to give back even more than I already do to my readers.

My readers got so involved with voting me to the WINNER status! I looked at all the winners. ONLY 8 of the winners had over 20 reviews and 4.5 ratings. Guess what we did. . .WE THOUGHT OUTSIDE OF THE BOX!!

We wanted to offer our award winning novels at a crazy price. Not to mention that we could PR BUDDY each other. My readers would LOVE my co-winners books. We all lowered our price to .99 for two days. We came up with a graphic and blog post to help get the word out.

We dubbed ourselves the GREAT EIGHT and reached out to all our blogger friends, put together a banner, contacted Amazon, contacted all REAL heavy hitters at Ereader News Today, Kindle Fire Daily, Pixel Of Ink, Digital Book Today , Indie Ereader, as well as Amazon giving us a page to ourselves!

But we didn't stop there! We each had an award winning book and we wanted to make those bestsellers lists so we could get into more reader's hands. So....we each had a call out to all our social media groups asking for people to post a blog that we had come up with. The blog had all the links and pictures they needed. There was no work on the blog owners part! We did it for them.

We have over 100 bloggers post the blog, not to mention all the Facebook and twitter status our followers had posted.

Now....a year ago when I released Carpe Bead 'em, Ereader News Today featured my Carpe on their own. I didn't pay for a thing! The owner had written me to tell me that he had heard my book was good and he was going to help me sale a few copies. FEW COPIES???

Last year I sold over 7k copies from just Ereader News Today! It was amazing. I didn't pay for an ad or even knew who Ereader News Today was. BUT Carpe went straight to #1 on Amazon's Movers and Shakers list and stayed there for THREE DAYS!!!

Fast forward to last week when my book was lumped with the rest of the GREAT EIGHT! Only on Ereader News Today, the second time around, Carpe Bead 'em found an audience of over 1200 new readers! Before the promo, Carpe was at 30k rank, after the Ereader News Today hit Carpe ended in the ranks at #375 in the paid store. WOW WOW WOW!!

Amazing! Right?!

It wouldn't have happened if we didn't think outside the box. The entire GREAT EIGHT became bestselling authors, again, that day!

Do you think that you can think outside the box and become the bestselling author you deserve to be??

Togather Brings Readers and Authors TOGETHER?

A very different type of connecting with readers has been brought to my attention.

Last week I received an email from TOGATHER.

As you know from the tabs on top of my blog, I teach workshops as well as book clubs. I travel to do both, and these are set up through the writer's groups or book clubs directly contacting me.

Togather is a global site that will put the author in front of a larger group of readers.

"

Togather is a free, online fansourcing platform that brings authors and audiences together.

We created Togather because giving a talk to an empty room is no fun.

You know how difficult and time-consuming it is to book and promote your own speaking engagements. So why not get some help directly from the people who really want to hear you talk? Using an on-demand fansourcing platform, Togather transforms the way authors organize book tours and bring audiences to events.

With Togather, every talk, book signing or lecture is sold out before you even leave your home. We use a group-buying mechanism to make sure that your fans commit to attending. It only takes a few clicks to show some author love. And with this commitment from fans, a whole new world of possible events opens to you and your audience. We think that's exciting.

Togather was created by authors. We understand the challenges of connecting with your audience. Dear writer, this tool is for you. Now go pack all your belongings in a gingham handkerchief tied to the end of a stick and start touring.

Togather was incubated by Huge Labs with financial backing from Interpublic Group. Togather was founded in April 2011 by authors Andrew Kessler and Aaron Shapiro and is based out of Brooklyn, New York." (Taken from the website.)

Instead of jumping on board, I did a little research to see what it is all about.

Check out the video:



I thought I'd go ahead and sign up just to see what it's all about.

When I signed up it sent me to a screen where I had to pick only one book. I put a price on my presences at three different events: Local Showings, Remote Showings, and Skype Showings.

Togather, along with the author, will help promote the site to their social media sites. This helps my reader in tin-buck-two see that I will come to their hometown for a fee. The reader or reader group will see what my fee is and will pay me the fee to get me to come there.

This is really no different than what I do now. Most of the time I hold a book signing in the location I'm doing a workshop in. Kind of like killing two birds with one stone, only I get paid to do one of those by the organization that is hosting me.

Togather is great because it guarantees that every single person signed up through their site, is someone who is going to show up for the book signing or workshop, not just a poster in a store or a message on a writer loop.

Anyways, there is nothing to lose. I already go around the country and get paid to do workshops. This is just another way to reach the target audience....THE READER!

What do you think about Togather? Here to stay or will go away?

OH!! By the way. . .CARPE BEAD 'EM won ebook of the year in Women's Fiction and Chick-lit for eFestival of Words!! Thank you for voting for me and who ever nominated me! I'm so thrilled!!

Tips To Make Your Guest Blog Shine

"I'm going to make this post ROCK!"

"I'm going to be the best guest blogger this blog has ever seen!"

When you guest blog, you want to HIT IT OUT OF THE PARK!

Here are some tips to help reach that AMAZING status:

1) AUDIENCE

Know the blog's audience. I hope that you have been following the blog you want to guest on. If not, see my etiquette blog. 

If the blog is geared toward readers, make sure that you write your post that will interest readers. If you guest blog and your post has NO interest to the reader, you will have an EPIC FAIL. 

2) PERSONALITY

You always want to add a little personality to your blog. There is nothing more boring than going to my favorite blogs and read a guest blog that reads blah, blah, blah to me. A little personality goes a long way. The more personable you are, the more the audience is going to follow you other place. 

...which brings me to...

3) WIIFM (what's in it for me)

We guest blog because we want to connect to readers in one way or another. I do it! When I guest blog on reader centric blogs, I'm aiming for at least ONE new reader to like me, follow me, and eventually by my novels. AND don't just ask what's in it for me, ask what's in it for the reader. They want to walk away from your blog with something....

When guesting, be sure that you answer the WIIFM. 

With time, effort, and a lot of consideration on what you want out of your guest blog posts, you will SHINE!

Do you have some more tips and tricks to share with our fellow writers??

Get into the FLOW of writing

Seriously, look at this! Doesn't this look divine? Heavenly?
Let me tell you, IT IS!

This week I'm lucky enough to be able to pry myself away from my group of guys (3 teenage boys, hubby, and two four-legged fury friends) at home and go to this exact cabin, in the woods, with two of my writer buddies (Heather Webber/Blake and Wendy Lyn Watson).

We are all on deadline for our next novels.

Heather is traditionally and indie-published with a book due to her editor at NAL (Penguin  Group) on October 1st, and a deadline for her seventh book in her Nina Quinn series, that she's self-publishing, somewhere close to December.

Wendy is traditionally published, and her deadline to her NAL editor is September 1st.

I'm self-published and my deadline is August 15th.

Each of us are at different stages of the writing process, but we are ALL on deadline. Since our deadlines are so close, we thought it was a great idea to have a writer's retreat where we only sit and write all day. (THANK GOD someone's internet is not secure b/c the cabin does not have wifi. )

Anyways, one thing was for sure, no matter what, I had to get into my writing mojo. And by mojo, I mean flow. In order to justify leaving my husband at one of our families busiest time (all three teenagers are heavily into sports and AAU sports, and this weekend two of them have tournaments), I promised him that I would get at least 20,000 words written from the time the rented Chevy rolled up to the cabin, until the rented Chevy drove away from the cabin. (Four days)

This meant that I had a lot of preparation to make to get into the FLOW of writing. I came up with some easy tips to help (which also work on a daily basis, not just a very cool cabin treat with some great writer friends)

1) Set a goal.
I know some of you aren't goal oriented. But when you are on deadline, or wanting to get the next book out,  and whether you make a tangible goal or not, you have made a goal. You got that book completed and ready for publication.

My goal at this retreat is to write 20k words. (blog post NOT included) Plus I know a little bit about where I need my story to go. I'm a panster, but about 100 pages into my novels I have a pretty good sense where the story needs to go until the end. That is when I make a list of scenes that I know have to go into the book.
And you don't have to write those scenes in order! This is a great way to get the flow going. If you are more motivated about the murder scene or one of your conflict scenes, write it. You can stick it in the story later, or go back and beef it up during your edits. This will also get your flow going and lead to more writing.

When you set a goal, it puts a concrete idea in your head and forces your brain to wrap around the idea that you have to get this done. So why not go ahead and set a concrete goal.

2) Keep a journal handy.
Don't roll your eyes! We all know that I'm old school and love to write long hand. When you sit down to write, try to write a few sentences long hand to get your brain warmed up.

3) Set a timer for ten minutes.
Sit down and write, ten minutes straight. Get up and walk around, and then set the timer again. Most times than not, you have begun your flow. You hit the timer just to write one more sentence or finish the scene, and before you know it ten more minutes or thirty minutes have gone by and you are in the writing flow.

4) Create a writing work space.
Here at the retreat, we each have our own bedroom if we want to go in there and just be alone with our laptops. We also have a nice deck outside with a few tables and chairs to plant ourselves and get the muse of nature on our side. Or we have the amazing section, comfy, big pillow couch where we have decided that is where we want to spend our time writing.

The TV is OFF, the batteries are out of the ticking clocks (because I'm crazy and the tick makes me crazier) and the coffee is brewed in the pot.

The three of us are here to write and keep us accountable. We aren't going to lounge around and flip on the TV (okay, I did last night for Big Brother and Project Runway), but we are setting our environment to get into the writing flow and get some words on the page.

Now....go get in the mood to write! Let the words FLOW!

Do you have any tips for our writer friends on how to help them GET INTO THE FLOW OF WRITING?

Tiberr in 5 Easy Steps

For the last few months I have been a member of Triberr. I became a member when my friend, Rachelle Ayala, invited me. To tell the truth, I had NO CLUE what Tribber was and what it was about. Heck...you know I'm up for anything, so of course I JOINED!!

And....I had no clue what I was doing until last week. Soooo....I asked, begged Rachelle to do a guest post on Tribber.

Triberr in 5 Easy Steps (Guest Post by Rachelle Ayala)

What is Triberr? Simply put, Triberr is semi-automated retweeting of blog posts by a group of people working together.

Triberr is a website that collects blog posts and Tweeps into a group called the Tribe. Tribes are groups of bloggers who post on similar topics and are happy to share the posts of other bloggers.

As you can see from the graph (found at the Triberr site), using Triberr extends your blog tweets beyond your followers, but into the streams of all their followers too. And this is a big thing! Because, guess what? Blogging in isolation is about as interesting and productive as navel gazing.

Okay, I'm going to show you how to join and work with Triberr in 5 easy steps.

1. Get a Twitter account. Go to Twitter.com and register for an account. Connect your Twitter account to your tribe. You may have more than one twitter account, but you may only connect a single Twitter account to a single tribe. Here I have chosen to connect my one twitter account to all my tribes.

2. Start Blogging and find the RSS Feed for your blog. RSS Feed is an xml document that tags blog content so that a computer program can read it and figure out the URL, tags, content, date, etc. All you need to do is find your blog's RSS Feed. For Blogger, or Blogspot users, it is: http://[blogspot-url]/feeds/posts/default 

Wordpress users can download and install a plug-in that sends their posts to their Triberr account  http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/triberr-wordpress-plugin/ 

Connect your blog to a tribe. You can be a member of different tribes and connect different blogs to different tribes, but you may only connect a single blog to a single tribe.

I chose not connect my Facebook account, because I did not want to flood my Facebook page with tweets.

3. Join a Tribe. You can start your own tribe or find a thriving tribe to join. The best tribes consist of members in the same interest are who are willing to retweet each other's content. So for example, if you are blogging about ancient civilizations, it might not work to be in a tribe of science fiction enthusiasts. My tribe is "Indie Authors"

4. Login and Tweet. Once you're in a tribe, log in every day that you posted to your blog (if not more often). You will see your Tribemate's posts come into your "Home" screen. Click the "thumbs up" and then the Orange button that says "Approve?". Once Approved, it will change colors and be queued into your Twitter feed

You can set your posting interval to make sure you don't flood your tweet stream.

5. Stay in the Tribe. As of June 28th, Triberr is now limiting tribes to be no more than 30. I have recently had to ruthlessly remove nonparticipating members, even when they were my personal friends, to make room for better teammates.

Your tribemates can easily see if you've been sharing or not. You can also remove yourself from a tribe if you find they are not a fit. There are no hard feelings either way. So what are you waiting for? Jump into Triberr and watch your blog grow. I started in April (see intro post) and watched my blog traffic go from 10-20 a day to 200-300 a day.

So that's it! I hope this blog post has been helpful! You can visit me at my blog, Rachelle's Window. 

Rachelle Ayala is the author of Michal's Window, a provocative love story involving King David. Available at Amazon, Barnes &Noble, and Google Play

READERS are the new gatekeepers in publishing

As we all know, publishing houses have always been the gatekeeper of the author. They were the ones who stood at the GATE OF WHAT READERS WANTED TO READ with their spears pointed to the outside world and only let you in if and ONLY IF they thought the reader was going to read you.

Obviously the game has changed. Writers complain. Plain and simple. They complain about their muse. They complain about the plot of their story. They complain about Amazon. They complain about the GATEKEEPER...whoa....

The days are over where the publishing house GATEKEEPER stopped your book from reaching the hands of the reader. If those GATEKEEPERS don't like your novel, you have options to self-publish your novel and get it in the hands of the real GATEKEEPER. . .THE READER!

And if you can't reach the new GATEKEEPER, then you have no one to blame but YOU. You are now responsible for getting pass the GATEKEEPER.

Here are a few ways to connect with your readers:

1) Be sure to know your target reader.
If you write about assassin soccer moms, your tweets and facebook groups should be centered around soccer moms. Gently nudge them toward your facebook page and how you offer giveaways. With Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble having a "gift this item" program, it's easier than ever to gift your novel to a potential reader.

2) Connect with readers on targeted reader blogs. Send a quick request to targeted blog owners and offer a giveaway of your novel.

3) Start a STREET TEAM! I can not stress this enough. I have connected in a way that most authors never dreamed possible! Once a month I will pick random STREET TEAM members and send them a small note or postcard in the mail thanking them that I appreciate them.
Having my STREET TEAM has helped me connect with readers that I never knew possible.

PAINLESS EDITING!

As I'm sitting on the beach this week....YES! I'm at the beach!

But I'm in my most least favorite part of the publishing book process. . . EDITING! It's the second book in A Magical Cure Series, A Charming Cure. And if you don't write mystery, you should know that I write my mystery novels backwards.


And my editor would be more happy to tell you that she has to go over my work at least twice!

I have come up with some great tips to help me and YOU get us through the editing process with a little more with ease.

1) Take your time.

I know that we have our muse and want to start writing on the next project, but if you don't slow down and take your time, your novel will suffer by not becoming the best novel it can be.

An easy way to do this, and what I have done while I'm at the beach, is to break my finished novel into four parts. Literally, I take the page count and divide it by four.

This helps me work on one section at a time and not temp myself to work ahead. I'm a tad bit lazy in this editing department and anything I can do to get through it I do. Breaking it up doesn't seem so daunting.

2) Don't worry with the meat of the bones on your first round of edits. Make sure that you have the story down. Make sure the story is going exactly where you wanted it to go. Don't worry about the dialogue tags, or the description at this point. I'm sure you have most of that in there, but we are just looking at the story structure of the novel.

3) If you are further into your editing process, change the font on your computer. We have a tendency to know our novel so well that we can skip through it as if you were skipping through a meadow of flowers on the most perfect day. Nothing jumps out. BUT if you edit in a different font than you are use to, things have a tendency to stick out a little more.

4) When you are in your final draft of editing, send it to one of your readers! I have two GREAT readers that I trust with my novels. I have met only one of them in person and the other I have not. I trust them completely with my genre. They are avid readers. When they tell me something is off, or a character hasn't developed enough for them, I listen.

Do you have any editing tips that will help us like the process a little more?

Effectively # Your Way To A New Reader!

The one and most important thing on TWITTER is the # (hashtag). If it weren't for the idea of the #, Twitter would be a nothing!

But you have to # effectively or you will never reach the target audience you want to reach.
There are certain hashtags I use to get to my target audience. For instance, when I want to tweet my blog, I hashtag my tweet with keywords that will help me reach blog readers. Today I tweeted Effectively # To Gain  #reader #marketing #indieauthor #amwriting (url here) or use #amediting #writertip #promoting #writer.
These hashtags help me reach you, my target blog audience.

When I tweet my book, I use #mystery #ebook #2.99 #bestseller #womansleuth #beadedjewelry #streetteam. PLUS too many more to type here, but you get the point. Those hashtags help me reach my target reading audience.

Here are some tips to help # your way to success:

1) Pick KEY hashtags. Like I said earlier, pick hashtags that are already out there. Don't make up your hashtag that NO ONE will see. If you aren't sure what hashtags to use, go to the search box on Twitter and start typing in key words that will help you find your target audience.

2) Keep your tweet short. Sometimes you can do too many hashtags and the reader gets lost in the tweet. Even though you are limited to 140 characters, that too can be too many sometimes.

Here are some popular hashtags for writers:
#amediting  posts from people who are editing
#amwriting  posts from people who are writing
#askagent  agent questions and answers
#author
#authors
#editing
#fictionfriday
#fridayflash  flash fiction on a Friday
#nanowrimo  national novel writing month
#novels
#novelists
#poem
#poet
#poets
#poetry
#pubtip  publication tips
#publishing
#scifi
#selfpublishing
#vss   very short story
#webfic  web fiction
#weblit   web literature
#wip   work in progress
#wordcount
#writegoal
#writequote
#writer
#writers
#writetip  writing advice
#writing
#writingtips  writing advice
#wrotetoday 
 
Some hashtags are specifically “chats” – which means they work in the same way as all tags, but are mainly used at certain agreed times : 
 
#journchat
#kidlitchat
#litchat
#scifichat
#scribechat
#storycraft
#writechat
#yalitchat   young adult literature chat 
 


So get your tweet on and # effectively to reach your target audience.


Do you tweet effectively?

Keep the Numbers Coming in After the Release Party

This blog has been a little wonky this week! I'm not on my normal Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule. This is due to the fact that it started off as release week for my latest novel, A Charming Crime!

And what a week it has been!! AND it's still going.....

Many of us promote the first day or two and then let the book fly alone. THAT ISN'T GOING TO CUT THE MUSTARD!!

I know I'm always throwing marketing and promoting ideas and the post on HOW TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL RELEASE PARTY ON LINE was a big success in the blog world. BUT I'm here to tell you that it doesn't stop there.

This is how my release went.
Monday: I posted on my street team a Facebook status and a tweet. I asked my STREET TEAM members to kindly post these into their accounts during the day because Tuesday was party day on the STREET TEAM Facebook page!

A Charming Crime made it to #8k in the Amazon store and #61 on the mystery best seller list.

Tuesday: I had over 50 authors lined up to donate a book to STREET TEAM members only. This way I was able to host a give away on my STREET TEAM every 20 minutes. This was my way of giving back to the writing world (authors to find new readers) and my STREET TEAM for promoting their hineys off on Monday.

I had virtual characters from A CHARMING CRIME making appearances, virtual parties through out the day, virtual drinks, party crashers, and tons more give aways other than books! It was a HUGE success.

That didn't end it for me. I knew that I had to continue to reach those readers who aren't on my STREET TEAM.

Wednesday: Just because the first two days are over, you still have to promote! Take it to the boards! Get on Kindle or Nook forums and be sure to pimp out your novel! There are so many readers there! They are looking for great books just like yours!!

Don't stop there! Go to your on line groups! Tell the world that your book is available!!

Thursday: Get on Facebook (YES! You really need to be on Facebook!)!

Be sure that you LIKE the Amazon, Kindle, Nook, Sony, Kobo pages! Don't just say "BUY MY BOOK," put your blurb out there and a new release along with 'THE FIRST THREE COMMENTS WILL WIN A FREE EBOOK OF A CHARMING CRIME!"
This really does work! BUT you have to gift them the copy...which a win for everyone. You gain a new reader and it's out there for the others to check out. AND if you are in the giving spirit, you can surprise gift a few more comments!

Friday: Visit all your sites! This might take a few more minutes, but hopefully you will have a lot more comments. Interact with your people!!! This makes the reader/author relationship so strong!

The following week:
Make sure you have set up a blog tour for TWO weeks after the launch. Don't just target other writer's blogs, you need to target the audience of your book. For instance....My first novel, Carpe Bead 'em, has a beading theme. I set up blog tours on beading blogs! They love to bead, and love to read about beading! That book became #1 on Amazon's Movers and Shakers!

Blog on genre blogs! Readers flock to them, looking for new books/authors, AND offer a free book! They like it, guess what? They go back and buy your entire back list! See where this is going?

Third week out: You will go back and ask the people who read your book to post a review of your book. Good or bad! You need reviews!!  

Also this week, see what streams your novel is in. I mean "who bought your book, bought this book." Check out those authors. See if they have blogs, visit their blogs, become their friends, PR BUDDY each other!

Fourth week: Continue to connect with people and start the next book if you haven't already!!!

What do you do to make your online book launch continue to sell  more of your book?

TIPS to a SUCCESSFUL BOOK RELEASE ON-LINE PARTY!

We spend months writing our novel, editing our novel, talking to everyone we know about our novel, even go as far as a tweet or two or a couple Facebook status' about how many words you completed that day on your novel.

And the time comes. . .

Either you have a publisher that publishes your novel OR you are the publisher. You put a tweet out and make your status on Facebook "happy book birthday" or "it's launch day of my novel." Then. . .silence. You are on to the next one.

What happened? For MONTHS you talked about this book, you boosted about the word count you achieved or we cried with you when your muse wouldn't cooperate. Those were the fun times of saying you had a novel, but when it came time for it to be published and purchased, how did you exactly get it out into the public??

It doesn't matter what journey of publication you find yourself on, you still have to market your novel. Most publishing companies don't even have a marketing department anymore that will set up  book signings, send you your author swag, or pat you on the back anymore. All self published authors have to do their own marketing during a book launch.

So put on your marketing hat and use these sure-fire tips to help launch the best on-line book release party!!

1) When you start writing your novel, start talking about it all over. I mean ALL OVER. Post pictures on Pinterest of your characters, or things that remind you of your story. Talk about your progress on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, the bus stop, anywhere someone will listen.

2) Set your release date in stone! If you are with a traditional publisher, they set your date for you. But self published authors have the option to decide when to release their novels. I suggest you release your book baby on Tuesday. Tuesday is when  all traditional novels are released and you want the same respect for your novel as a traditionally published novel.

With that said, you want your self published novel available in all ebook stores that you can. This means that you have to upload your novel days before your release date to make sure your novel is available the day you say it's going to be available.

I always upload to Createspace a week earlier because you have to get a proof copy of the print or check it out on-line. I also upload to PubIt four days before my release date because it takes them a few days to get it published. I publish on Smashwords the day before the release day and publish on KDP (Amazon) three days before.

I want to make sure my book is available in all forms on the day I say it's going to be.

3) Two months before your release day, set up a blog tour. If your book has a theme, google blogs with that theme. You will be surprised how many blogs are out there. They might not be book blogs, but who cares! You want to reach readers and if you target the market (what better way then hitting the theme of your novel) those blog followers will want to purchase your book! They are invested in the theme of your book and will want to read your book.

My novel, Carpe Bead 'em, has a beading theme. I looked up blogs that had anything to do with beading. It was GREAT! I had a blog tour just for beading enthusiasts. Carpe Bead 'em hit Amazon's Movers and Shakers list in the first couple of weeks of release and made it to number one! I know it was due to blogging on those targeted blogs because they emailed me. They celebrated with me.

You also want to hit reader centric blogs. Those can also be googled. I always ask Melissa at Melissa's Mochas, Mysteries, and More or Dru's Book Musings because both of these sites target mystery readers. I also hit a few reader centric blogs that aren't mystery, but some of the followers could be mystery readers or willing to read a mystery. And I hit a few writer blogs. I make sure I have at least ten guest blogs during the first two weeks of my release day. If you need more help finding someone to host you, ask your groups on Facebook. There are so many authors/readers willing to host you, but you have to ask!

I suggest putting together a press kit that has your author photo, short bio, book list, and all your links in a PDF, as well as a nicely written note about how much you would love to do a guest interview, guest post, or what ever. Offer a ARC (advanced reading copy) of your book, even if it's in the last stages of editing. Be sure to let them know that it's in the final stages of editing, but they will get the point of the novel.

Be sure to keep a list of blogs you queried and mark on your calendar the date of your guest post. GET YOUR GUEST BLOG TO THEM A WEEK EARLY!!

4) Make a STREET TEAM!! I have been promoting this street team idea for a couple months ago and I'm telling you that it's so much fun!! I invited a few readers and it's expanded to over 250 members. It's a place where my readers love to gather and we talk about everything from books to the weather.

Just like you, I post when I have good writing days or bad writing days. My readers are there for me. They see what it takes for an author to get a novel completed and all the hard work that we do to get a book into their hands. On the flip side, I'm still in awe how they spend a second of their day invested in one of my books. My STREET TEAM is where I give back to them!

Now that Amazon and Barnes and Noble have made it so easy to gift a book, I hold a give away of other author's books, my swag, gift cards, or even a kind word. Recently I hosted a contest where I asked my Street Team to help me name a character. I gave the characteristics and told them I would mention them in my next novel. Simple. Free. Easy! I had over 47 comments! And got some great names!!!

On release day, I will politely ask my STREET TEAM members to post a link to my book and where their friends can buy it. That is all I ask of them.

5) Have a virtual release day party!!! It doesn't matter if you are an introvert or extrovert PR PERSONALITY~it's an on-line party and you get to hide behind your computer!

I made a Facebook event page on my STREET TEAM page for an all day event of fun! I went to all the Facebook writer groups that I belong to and asked them if any of them want to donate one of your ebooks to my release day. The response was unbelievable!!! I had over fifty authors donate an ebook to my release day!

(This is one of my STREET TEAM TOTES. EASY and FUN! I got the bags at the Family Dollar for $1!!! I made my STREET TEAM LOGO and printed it on iron on paper! Easy! And fun!! These are going to be given away on release day!!)

Not only is it a win for my readers, it's a win for authors for new readers to discover them! I'm able to give a book away every twenty minutes on release day! PLUS I'm going to be giving away a few copies of my own novel as well.

And I've talked it up all over Facebook and Twitter! I belong to a tweet team and the only tweet I have been using is JUNE 12 the release of A CHARMING CRIME (add facebook link) prizes every twenty minutes!! And I have a couple others that are being tweeted, but you get the idea.

These are just a few things that I do and that have been successful for me. What about you? Do you have any great tips to a successful release day?

BTW. . . my new release is next Tuesday, June 12 for A CHARMING CRIME!! Come on over and join my STREET TEAM if you'd like to participate in winning some GREAT novels!!