Marketing for Fiction with Guest Barbara Custer

Let Your Characters Twitter for You

Getting your novel published was tough, but sometimes marketing can feel impossible. By nature of the job, writers are used to working solo, and embarking on salesmanship can feel like…well, uncharted territory. Traditional coaches will tell you to blog, blog, and blog again; set up book signings, network with other authors, go to the bookfests that specialize in your genre, etc.

And then I heard of a new concept – don’t try to sell the book – sell yourself as an author, and the sales of the book will start to flow naturally. I’ve done some of this by showcasing other authors on www.barbaracuster.wordpress.com. By interviewing people, you’re drawing Internet traffic to both your respective websites. Since most people are visual in nature, you’ll want include their book covers or photos. Stop by and check out some of the interviews on my blog. If you’re interested in an interview, contact me at barbaracuster@hotmail.com.

While you’re working on your next project, let your characters do the selling. Does your hero have a Twitter or MySpace account? This would work even better if your book was a serial. Give your character a Twitter, Facebook, or blog account, and then let him or her blog about the adventures or nightmares he or she is having. Perhaps there is a steamy romance, or a sad moment when the monster or enemy kills a beloved friend. That means adding photos of the setting and the character and their family. You’ll want to include photos of the villain and the setting. Dreamstime Images has plenty of illustrations for the science fiction / dark fantasy tale, and you can download these for a few dollars (http://www.dreamstime.com). Mind you, you will have to do a lot of searching to find the image that feels just right, but the effort is worth it. I have found some gems for the Night to Dawn book covers on the Dreamstime Images. You might also want to check you Getty Images too.  Be sure to keep a list of usernames and passwords when you set up accounts for these characters. I did start setting up a site on myspace for Harry McMullen of Dark Side of the Moon (http://www.myspace.com/491067061).

Synopsis:
Roswell wasn't the only place where aliens landed. The Kryszka build a city under Philadelphia's sewers where their leader Eigil secretly plots to show humanity the "dark side" of their moon. He will cannibalize them and kill them all.
Harry and his family become the main targets after his father shoots Eigil's mother. A recovering alcoholic, Harry learns about blood, death, plasma weapons, and stormy relationships during his torturous swim up from the bottom of a bottle. The disappearance of a close friend and his sister sparks a frantic search through the Kryszka compound where the inhabitants could eat him alive or teach him survival skills.
Harry, his family will come to realize what the dark side really means.

Read an excerpt of Dark Side of the Moon

Guest Blog with Aggie Villanueva: Marketing your fiction using electronic publishing

Marketing Your Fiction: Try Electronic Publishing

by Aggie Villanueva

I’m by no means an expert in marketing. I’m just like you, trying to get myself out there where the public knows my book exists. As both a fiction and nonfiction author, I can testify that fiction is harder to promote. And electronic sales are the most profitable sales today. I concentrate at least half of my marketing efforts on eBook sales. If you don’t retain the electronic rights to your books, you’re missing one of the richest sales mines today. Most publishers can only be counted on to publish your book to Kindle, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015T963C/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=4554209369&ref=pd_sl_17zseox7q7_e and that’s just the tip of the eBook iceberg.

After the basics of creating a dedicated blog for my historical novel/romance, Rightfully Mine: God’s Equal Rights Amendment http://www.aggiev.org/rightfullymine, I have several sites where I post, or “publish,” my novel. Publish is in quotes because the book is already officially published in trade paperback and Kindle e-format, but these eBook sites often have their own formatting requirements. And they generate thousands, or much more in some cases, visits per day on their own, with no help from me. I can just freely ride the coattails of their traffic-driving efforts.

 

Clickbank http://www.clickbank.com/index.html isn’t a publisher exactly, but it’s a highly effective eBook venue I publish to, along with a few million others. You upload the completed eBook, as with other e-publishers, but I publish to Clickbank  mostly for the marketing benefits. Millions use their site.

I hired the talented Ruth Kitchin Tillman http://blogcrafted.com/ to set up my Clickbank  account to sell Rightfully Mine because I can’t figure that place out at all. It is beyond my computer skills, but it’s one of the best places to sell your electronic versions. Ruth has extremely reasonable prices, and she is really there for you throughout the process. See my sales page at Clickbank.

Once your page and account are set up, Clickbank can generate the most traffic to your book of any buy-and-download site, and anyone grab your code to affiliate-sell your book for you.

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/  is just as easy with affiliations; they just don’t get the massive traffic, yet. They are growing daily. I prefer using both for additional publication; Smashwords and Clickbank.

I always publish through Smashwords because, once you’ve uploaded your eBook, formatted to their specs, they offer it automatically for you in ten different e-reader formats to fit almost all e-readers. And if you publish through their free Premium Status, (also free, but more rigid formatting requirements) they automatically send it to Kindle http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015T963C/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=4554209369&ref=pd_sl_17zseox7q7_e and Sony Reader http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002MWYUFU?tag=visuartsjunc-20 sites, and many more.  Smashwords provides the best exposure of any eBook publisher I know of, after Clickbank. And like Clickbank, anyone can grab the code to affiliate-sell your books. And affiliate sales are where it’s at for making money online to subsidize our own book sales.

Another free eBook venue I always make use of is BookBuzzr.com http://www.bookbuzzr.com/BookBuzzrStory.php because of those wonderful widgets that attract so much traffic. Posting BookBuzzr.com widgets everywhere you can is a traffic-attracting technique that really works, but just having your book on their site is a great benefit too. I posted  Rightfully Mine as a BookBuzzr widget http://www.freado.com/book/4277/Rightfully-Mine-Gods-Equal-Rights-Amendment on their site last September, and spread their widget code on a few of my own sites, and then forgot about it. BookBuzzr.com recently interviewed me http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/author-interviews/bookbuzzr-interviews-author-aggie-villanueva/ because my novel made the top ten lists for views in November and December 2009, at that time over 10,000 views in just two months; 13,446 at this post, after four months. Don’t overlook the vast traffic they attract.

There are hundreds of other electronic-publishing/marketing, and related, sites that, I’m sure, are equally as good, but these are my tried and trues.

This book is not published yet, but contributor to my blog, Visual Arts Junction, http://www.visualartsjunction.com Carolyn Howard-Johnson is co-authoring with Phyllis Zimbler Miller
The 12-Step Program for Marketing Your Fiction (Frugally): Effective Ways to Promote Even the Hard-to-Sell Genres http://www.fictionmarketing.com/

What they’ve learned from working in the book marketing field is that “there’s a whole lot more marketing help for nonfiction authors than there is for authors of fiction,” You can download a free sample chapter here. http://www.fictionmarketing.com/blogging-chapter-excerpt/

I’d love to hear your questions, and which publishing methods work the best for your books. 

 

Stepping Stone by Aggie Villanueva

Subscribe to Visual Arts Junction for Writers & Photographers http://www.visualartsjunction.com

Rightfully Mine blog http://www.aggiev.org/rightfullymine

Aggie’s Media Room for Writing http://www.aggiev.org/rightfullymine/rightfullyminereviews.html

Aggie’s Media Room for Photography http://www.aggiev.org/aggielogic/media-room.html

The Best of 2009 Awards are up and running and my Demon Hunter novels are in the running for Best Series. I could really use your votes. It will only take a minute.

Email dawn_roberto@yahoo.com with "LRC's Best of 2009 Awards" in subject line. (this is important b/c anything else will get deleted. ) And let her know you are voting for DEMON HUNTER for best series!

Voting ends on 22nd with the 23rd as a deadline for those in other time zones/countries to get their votes in. Anything after the 23rd is thrown out unopened so make sure the votes are in before the 23rd of February.

Award winners will be announced on 2/25 at NOON EST on the LRC's yahoo loop from noon-2 PM EST.

Thank You!

Marketing Your Fiction Returns with Guest Author Mike Angley

Marketing Your Work of Fiction

By

Mike Angley

Award-Winning Author of the Child Finder Trilogy

Unless you are among the top three or four best-selling authors at a major publishing house, your publisher and agent will expect you to play a significant role in marketing your work.  This is true for many of the well-known authors, the mid-listers, and pretty much everyone else.  The writing industry has always been competitive, and today it is much more so.  Fewer people buy books in a recession, resulting in decreased revenue for publishers.  This translates into smaller marketing budgets all around.  The top horses in the stable will get the biggest slices of a shrinking pie, leaving almost nothing for the rest of us to graze upon!

But all is not without hope.  There are several things an author can do to promote and market that treasured work of fiction.  In this article, I focus on a variety of “virtual world” techniques for creating and maintaining a robust Internet presence to increase your visibility and help you sell more books.

Website.  You have to have one, and this should be the first step you take before considering anything else I suggest in this post.  Think of your website as your base camp.  You want everything else you do to drive web traffic to your website where you have rich content about you and your stories.  I recommend breaking away from a traditional HTML-based website and use a blog platform.  I use Wordpress (www.wordpress.org) because it is easy to use, has thousands of options for things like themes, plugins, and widgets (I’ll explain in a moment), and it is free.  What I really like about Wordpress is that the “control panel” sits on a server, and not on my home computer.  This means I can log-in from anywhere in the world, on any computer, and make changes, post new articles, make comments, interact with people, and so on.

With a variety of themes (visual styles), plugins (applications that perform functions…like search engine optimization (SEO)), and widgets (stuff the reader can see and use, like my contact forms), I have created a site that looks like a traditional website, but has a rolling blog and hidden functions that integrate my content with the major search engines.  What this means is that the search engines crawl my blog every day and pluck new content, resulting in moving my search ranking up on a real-time basis.  As an author, this means I am more “discoverable” when people search certain key words.

Let’s face it, anyone can find you easily enough if they search for you by name.  What you really want is to land among the top ten results when people search more generic terms, like mystery, thriller, author.  The only way to get there is to establish a significant presence in cyber space.  Your website is the most important first step you must make toward this goal.

Social Media.  If you are not on sites like FaceBook or MySpace, create an account soonest and make sure you put your author website on your profile.  Cross-referencing like this enables the search engines to make critical links.  I also recommend you place links to your social media sites on your website so that your fans can find you there and “friend” you later.  Another advantage to having a presence on social media sites is that it gives you an additional platform to market your books.  Some sites like FaceBook even allow you to create a fan page…it may be best to have someone else start this for you so as not to appear vain, but a fan page is definitely something to consider.

Groups.  Many sites like LinkedIn and Yahoo have “groups” you can join where you can post information about you and your work.  Of course, look for groups that have something to do with writing!  Be sure to read the rules for posting to these groups since they are all moderated to a certain extent, and some things may be considered inappropriate.  Generally speaking, announcements like new book releases, a superb book review, or an award you won are great things to mention…and be sure to put your website URL in the post!

Author Profile Sites.  There are many such sites out there, and the following is just a partial list: GoodReads, Authors Den, Book Blips, shelfari, and so on.  Consider creating an author profile on these sites since they are well-indexed in the SEO community.  One you are there, your “presence” will get picked up by search engines, and thereby increase your visibility.  As with the groups, make sure you place a link back to your website.  On my website, I maintain a list of links to my author profiles on every page on my site for additional cross-referencing.

Guest-Blogging.  Seek opportunities to guest-blog on other authors’ websites, and offer to reciprocate (if you have a blog platform site).  When you guest-blog, you will add more grist to the SEO mill that will enhance your visibility.  Your name will be linked in the mysterious virtual world with other authors, so there will be a pathway that connects you with them.  The more visible another author is in the search engines, the more visible you will be as a result of these connections.

Press Kit and Media Events.  Maintain an up-to-date press kit on your website that a reader can view and download.  There’s no prescription for what must be in a press kit, but on my website I have the following items at the ready: Press Release, Biography, Sample Interview Q&A, Praise/Reviews, Media Coverage, and various image files (face and book covers).  I’ve been approached by various media outlets to do stories about me in their publications as a result, thereby increasing my exposure.

Media Pitches.  Cold pitches rarely work, so I would avoid them.  There are some free services that reporters and journalists use that I do recommend.  You simply sign up for the service, create a profile, and on a periodic basis you will receive emails containing lists of queries that reporters are looking for “experts” to interview.  I use three: “Help a Reporter Out” (HARO.com), reporterconnection.com, and pitchrate.com.  If you are able to establish yourself as an authority on a subject the journalist wants to write about, make a pitch and use it as a platform to plug your book during the interview.  I’ve been successful on several occasions with print, traditional radio, and internet radio venues in marketing my book this way.

Good luck and happy-marketing!

MICHAEL “Mike” ANGLEY is the award-winning author of the mystery/suspense thriller series, the Child Finder Trilogy, which features USAF Special Agent protagonist, Major Patrick S. O’Donnell.

His debut novel, Child Finder, received the Silver Medal for fiction in the 2009 Military Writers Society of America’s Annual Awards program, and when the book launched in June 2009, the Library Journal placed it on its Summer Reads list and called it a “compelling debut novel” and “a real find.”

Mike retired from the U.S. Air Force in September 2007 in the rank of Colonel, following an exciting and dangerous 25-year career as a Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI).  He held thirteen different assignments throughout the world, among which were five tours as a Commander of different units, to include two Air Force Squadrons and a Wing.  Michael Angley is a seasoned criminal investigator and a counterintelligence and counterterrorism specialist.  In his last assignment as the Commander of OSI Region 8 at Air Force Space Command, he was fond of saying, “If it entered or exited the Earth’s atmosphere, I had a dog in the fight!”

Visit Mike Angley’s website for more information about him and his stories: http://www.childfinder.us

Daring Love

CUPID DRESSED IN BLACK
by
Cynthia Vespia


They say it's better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all.
Bullshit!
You get your heart broken enough times and "losing" really starts to ache.
So with each "loss" you start building up your wall, brick by brick, until you stomp that hurt right our of you and you have enough defenses set up to never allow that pain inside again.
"I'm set," you say. "Nothing can penetrate this fortress."
And that's when that chubby little bugger sneaks up behind you, bow drawn, and fires – not a warning shot either – a full on assault that shatters your wall deep in the mortar until it crashes all around you. Now you're vulnerable again thanks to that fat bugger, that Cupid dressed all in black.
"Hey baby, I'm bringing you the greatest gift of all," he says through lips parted around a thick cigar, making him look more like a member of Hell's Angels than the deity of love.
"You brought me chocolate?" you reply, without the slightest twinge of humor inflected in your statement.
"LOVE, baby," Cupid says as he blows a puff of smoke from his stogie and the ringlet transitions itself into a large heart whisping over the top of your head and leaving you to feel all giddy.
Cupid's trance leaves you seeing things through the perpetual rose colored glasses but it doesn't last long. You've been through this trickery before.
With a wave of your hand you clear the smoke ring from the air and your thoughts return to being the cynical majesty that you're accustomed to.
"Love is hardly a gift...and stop calling me baby, you're the baby!"
"I may look the part but you've got the role down to a tee," he tells you. "Whining, complaining, throwing a fit when things don't go your way. No one said love comes easily, you've got to work at it a little bit everyday...starting with that blockade you had covering your heart. I've started you off but the rest is up to you now."

With that Cupid leads you by the hand back out into the world of dating. It seems much like a field with cows grazing. Cows of all shapes and sizes. Some branded (meaning they're taken), some listless and lazy, some more fat than substance, and some wandering around just as confused and scared as you are.
So with your new exposed heart slamming in your chest you decide to approach a cow you fancy. But wait! That's your usual M.O....go after the cow, knock it over the head, and take it back home to become a juicy burger or steak.
These cows may be dumber than a box of rocks but they can see that bloodlust in your eye and they scatter before you can even break out the A-1 sauce.
So a change of pace is in order. Let the cow come to you. They say there is one out there for everybody. But you can't chase it because you'll never catch it that way. Stand still, unassuming, looking content, and then do something to make that cow notice you. Hold out some hay, or an apple, and here comes one now.
"Mooo!"
Wait, what? Ok enough with the cow references. So you've attracted your man. He approaches and says "hi" and you reply "Duh?"
Ya, that's right, all tongue-tied, all full of worry and self doubt because of that hurt from the past creeping up again – brick by brick.
"Don't do that," he says. "You don't have to have your guard up with me."
"Ya sure," you think. "And the minute I open my heart to you, you'll find a way to stab me in it, bleeding the ground red with my trust."
So you shun him.
"No thank you," you say, your reservations creeping back in. "I'm better off alone."
"If you honestly believed that you wouldn't keep venturing out here looking," the man tells you, and now as you observe him closer you see that he is a handsome man – "handsome devil" perhaps with malice in mind. But the twinkle in his eye insists that you stay and hear him out.
"When a fisherman goes out to the lake he has to cast his line again and again before he lands a good catch. Sometimes the catch is no good and he has to throw it back. Sometimes he waits all day and goes home with nothing. But y'know what?"
"What?" you ask breathlessly as the fish analogy seems to resonate with you (what with your fascination with barn animals).
"The fisherman will come back the next day, and the next, and the day after that. And he'll wait patiently with his line cast and eventually, after days of bad fish, no fish, and so-so fish, the fisherman will land his prize fish and he'll pull it from the water and proclaim that it is the most beautiful sight he's ever laid his eyes on. Then he'll hang up his pole, satisfied with his catch, and return home never to fish again."
"That's a lovely story," you speak truthfully from your open heart now and the man, his own heart pounding open and free, is equally as truthful in his reply.
"And you are the most beautiful sight I've ever laid my eyes on."
An involuntary smile spreads your lips wide and your open heart accepts love in for the first time in years.
"So you're going to hang up your fishing pole now?" you ask.
"Never did like fishing much." he replies.
There you have it. All grown up and ready to take the plunge...again. Still seeking that "happily ever after" and all thanks to that Cupid dressed in black.

The Hits Keep Coming

I'm happy to announce DEMON HUNTER has been nominated as best series for 2009 from LRC Cafe.

 

Do you have a question about writing a series? Ask me now!

I'm out there Jerry and I'm loving every minute of it!

Ok, what does a Seinfeld quote have to do with anything? Lighten up...have some fun...and self promotion of course :D

Rest assured the Marketing for Fiction series will be back next week. In the meantime I have had quite a bit of exposure lately starting with one of the best reviews to date for DEMON HUNTER: THE CHOSEN ONE
The fact that the reviewer Nick Cato compared my work to Conan is something that tickles me. I grew up on Robert E Howard's work. Conan is the reason I am drawn back into worlds of fantasy time and time again. (which while I'm on the subject...how could they cast a skinny guy to play Conan in the film remake? Are you kidding me!)
But I digress...read the review here and find out what DEMON HUNTER is really all about: http://nickcato.blogspot.com/2010/02/sword-and-sandal-is-alive-and-well.html

Part II in the Demon Hunter series, Seek & Destroy, has received a 3-star review as well at The Pen and Muse Blog


The rest of the news begins with giveaways of my earlier work THE CRESCENT and THEATER of PAIN. I am the featured author here: http://www.ibookdb.net/adult/author/11728

And finally my trailer for DEMON HUNTER: SEEK & DESTROY is competing once again. Votes begin counting on Feb 21: http://yougottareadvideos.blogspot.com/