Category Archives: Writing & Promotion Tips

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Events: Book Fairs, Festivals and Conventions

By:  Shawn Lamb

For an author, nothing is scarier than striking out on one’s own when it comes to promotion.  When a publicist or agent is involved, they usually take care of arranging books signings or readings. Some even do online blog tours. All of these are good, to a point. Perhaps the best method I’ve discovered for promotion are events, whether a local street fair, book festival or convention.

Since I write YA fantasy from a Christian perspective and just branch out to Christian historical fiction for adults, I primarily concentrate on home school conventions.  I have four conventions, 1 international book show, a national convention and twice attended the Decatur Book Festival in Decatur, Georgia in the past 2 years, totaling 8 events.  Decatur is entirely dedicated to authors– established, traditionally published, as well as indie authors. Almost 80,000 people attend and it’s quite an experience to speak and sign books at so large a venue.

We deck out our booth with posters and have our book trailers playing in a 12-minute loop on a 19” television along with Briana dressed in costume as Shannan, the heroine of the Allon series.  We just started with 2 events last year and this year expanded to 6 events, each concentrating on different demographics. For example: MTHEA drew from Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky.  In Memphis, I gained readers from Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Iowa and Illinois along with West Tennessee. Decatur brought in new readers from George and South Carolina. Next year, I plan to go north to Cincinnati and draw readers from the upper Midwest. Events give authors something online can’t – face-to-face interaction that make personal connections. By returning to these annual events, I’m building a fan loyal fan base.

Costs for booth vary greatly but generally run around $150 to $500. However, other factors should be considered such as gas for travel, food and hotel if it is out of town.  For me, this is an investment since I can’t afford an advertising campaign, but I get back so much more than a nameless, faceless online media blitz, blog tour or press release.

Tips for a good, safe and successful event:

PLAN!!! Yes, plan down to the last detail. Leave nothing off the list, including scotch tape, paperclips and Tylenol. You may laugh at the last one, but when you are on your feet for up to 13 hours on concrete floor, you will NEED Tylenol!

Pack wisely – what you haul in is what you will need to break down. Books are your first priority, but bring good chairs.  The chairs provided are used time and time and time again. Do your back and feet a favor and bring good chairs and those interlocking mats you see at gyms or day-care centers under kid’s play sets.

Pay attention to the does and don’ts at each venue and what they provide and don’t provide. We need electricity to run our T.V., DVD player and computer for transactions. Many places charge outrageous fees for these, so if you need electricity, plan for an alternative source. We have a power station that is all-inclusive – the type one carries in their car for emergency jumps starts.

Bring your own food and drinks – this not only helps to keep costs down, but also you won’t have much time. It never failed – even just going to the bathroom someone would stop by the booth looking for me. When we travel to an event, we get a hotel room with a refrigerator to store our food, which we transport in the cooler we’ll use for the events. We make sandwiches, wraps, easy finger food and water!

ENGAGE!  Don’t bombard people with handouts and hawking, that can be a big turn-off, but don’t sit back either. Freebies are good and so are prizes.

The latter is probably the hardest since there isn’t a technique or 12-step method to closing a sale. However, overbearing hawking is a turn off.

The best example of overbearing was a woman who paid for 3,000 four-color postcards – well done and professionally printed.  She gave them to whoever passed her booth and even canvassed the event – which was against policy for solicitation. By the second day of the three-day festival she ran out of postcards. When taking breaks, we saw piles of her postcards lying on top of trashcans. The result of her aggressive hawking only generated a couple of dozen book sales.

In contrast, we printed out 200 ½ sheet flyers from our home computer on cheap parchment paper with black ink and targeted our audience within the confines of the festival area. One-day of ALLON book sales equaled her total.

As for attire, we dress in casual professional and Briana wore her costume. With social media you can sit at your computer in your skivvies and no one would know. But not at events, your appearance, speech and mannerism are important parts of the presentation.

Figuring out what to say is hit and miss at first. Yet, I soon discovered the best approach was talking about the inspiration for Allon – the fact my daughter asked me for a story and I did it. From there the conversations took off in various directions depending upon questions from the parents or kids.  This is where genuineness comes into play. If your book is personal, don’t be afraid to speak about it. Personal stories resonate with people.

Don’t pressure people into buying a book.  When someone hesitated with uncertainty if their kid would like Allon, we told them to go on the website and read an excerpt, watch the videos.  Quite a few people returned the next day having done as we suggested and bought books. You need to have the mindset of not just ‘selling books’, but of gaining readers and generating long-term interest.

To get an idea if an event is good for your books or not, attend some in your local area. Speak to the vendors and look for clues of what works and what doesn’t.  Also, consider events more pertinent to your books such as cooking conventions or home and garden shows. Also, don’t overlook local street fairs or celebrations to get your name known among your friends, neighbors and local businesses.

Shawn Lamb is the author of the epic Christian YA fantasy series Allon along with The Huguenot Sword. She once wrote for the animated series BraveStarr, produced by the same studio that did He-Man and She-Ra. She has won several screenwriting awards including a Certificate of Merit from the American Screenwriters Association.

 Find Shawn on the ‘Net at:

Website: http://www.allonbooks.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Shawn-Lamb/e/B002LPYXF0/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Blog: http://allonbooks-thekingdomofallon.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000208991898&ref=name

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Express Yourself… On Twitter!

By: Wendy Young

So you’re on Twitter.

If you’re like me, you barely get a greeting out in 140 characters, much less a coherent thought. The limits can be daunting, and that’s not all – how do you get yourself heard (and repeated) in all that noise?

Let’s look at a few simple steps that help take a conversation and turn it into a Tweet.

You start with an idea:

My editor friend, Suzi Quinnones, wrote a great review of my novel, The Great Debut, and she posted it on her blog at http://www.herblog.com/review-of-the-greatest-debut.htm

Right off, you think ‘whoa, that’s too long’ but let’s focus on a few other things first and you will see length take care of itself.

The first problem is that this is in the first person voice. The point of Twitter is to share and be shared and if I see this tweet I’m not likely to Re-Tweet it. Suzy is not my friend, after all.

Let’s generalize the thought:

Editor Suzi Quinnones wrote a great review of The Great Debut and she posted it on her blog at http://www.herblog.com/review-of-the-greatest-debut.htm

That’s better, but we’re not done yet. The address takes up a TON of space. Twitter will shorten it a little and a program like Tweetdeck or SocialOomph or Hootsuite will do it fully but for the purposes instruction, we’ll use the url shortening website ow.ly: http://ow.ly/url/shorten-url.

Editor Suzi Quinnones wrote a great review of The Great Debut and she posted it on her blog at http://ow.ly/7lAjc

We’ve got this nice and short, only 115 characters, but we’re not done yet. Short is a requirement of Twitter, but just sticking to that limit doesn’t help you use Twitter properly. Remember that we want people to read and share the tweet so you need to get it noticed too.

One way to do this is by using the @ symbol to get someone’s attention or to draw attention to yourself.

Editor Suzi Quinnones wrote a great review of The Great Debut and she posted it on her blog at http://ow.ly/7lAjc via @jclarkewrites

If you’re sharing with a private group and asking people to Tweet about you, you’ve included yourself and when anyone reads it they will have a link to your profile. Additionally, you can use the @ to get the notice of someone you really want to have read this tweet but be careful with that. If you do it too often you’re spamming and you’ll either be tuned out, unfollowed, or even blocked.

Hash Tags are another great way to punch up a tweet.

Editor Suzi Quinnones wrote a great review of The Great Debut and she posted it on her blog at http://ow.ly/7lAjc via @jclarkewrites #review #amreading #christian #romance

People can click those extra, like #amreading, and see who else is using the same Hash Tag. That gives you another way to get noticed, even by people who are not following you. There are MANY Hash Tags in use and you can even make up your own.

You’ve got a basic post thee but it’s bland (and now I’ve made it over 30 characters too long). Take your statements to the next level and make them engaging and eye-catching to the reader.

An editor just gave THE GREAT DEBUT 5 stars! http://ow.ly/7lAjc #review #amreading #christian #romance via @jclarkewrites

Now we’ve covered the bases – it’s only 123 characters, it’s written so anyone can ‘say it’ and not feel out of place, the url is short, your twitter name is linked, it’s hash-tagged, and you’ve ‘buzzed’ it up. You’re ready to get noticed!

I hope this introductory course to writing great Tweets has been helpful. Twitter is an amazing tool for connecting with both readers and writers, building your platform, and building your fan base. It pays to be tweet-savvy and make it work for you!

Wendy L. Young has been writing for more than twenty years – everything from poetry to scripts and non-fiction. She now focuses on writing mystery/suspense stories with a heart-pounding dose of thrills. Her first mystery novel, Come the Shadows, is out now and the sequel, Red Sky Warning, will be published November 29th, 2011.

Connect with her online on Twitter, her blog, Facebook, and Goodreads.

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As the Turkey is Basting…

Since this time of the year is more about family and fun, here is something to give you writers a few giggles!

Submitted By:  Peggy Blann Phifer

Was’s and commas and adverbs . . . Oh, my!

Doing my final edits on my debut novel, I’ve become quite conscious of grammar usage, the overuse of adverbs, the all-too-frequent use of “was” and a dozen other things most of us do that we really know NOT to do. I even had some POV (point of view) problems. Oh, and the proper insertion of commas (some included where they didn’t belong, and others omitted.)

Now that the manuscript is in the hands of the publisher, I thought I’d share a little something that ties right in with this subject. I think you’ll enjoy it as much as I did when I found it.

Here we go: Rules for Editing

1.  Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects.

2.  Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

3.  And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction.

4.  It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

5.  Avoid clichés like the plague.  (They’re old hat)

6.  Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.

7.  Be more or less specific.

8.  Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.

9.  Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.

10.  No sentence fragments.

11.  Contractions aren’t necessary and shouldn’t be used.

12.  Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

13.  Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.

14.  One should NEVER generalize.

15.  Comparisons are as bad as clichés.

16.  Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

17.  One-word sentences?  Eliminate.

18.  Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

19.  The passive voice is to be ignored.

20.  Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary.  Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.

21.  Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.

22.  Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.

23.  Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth-shaking ideas.

24.  Eliminate quotations.  As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”

25.  If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.

26.  Puns are for children, not groan readers.

27.  Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

28.  Even IF a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

29.  Who needs rhetorical questions?

30.  Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

And the last one…

31. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

Peggy Blann Phifer is the editor of Whispers in Purple http://www.whispersinpurple.com and features authors books on her Friday feature, Book Bites.  Peggy’s first book will come out in 2012.


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Are you PUSHING and PULLING?

By:  Staci Stallings

Have you ever tried to move a wagon with two people pushing in opposite directions, or pulling in opposite directions?  What happens?  It doesn’t move, right.  Or maybe worse, it tips over.

In marketing the same is true.  If all you’re doing is pushing or all you’re doing is pulling, either your sales will not move or you will tip the strategy over completely.

When you think of marketing and promotions, you have to think in dual terms:  pulling AND pushing.  That’s how you create a strategy that works.

Pulling

Most people, when they begin to market, miss this step completely.  All they do is push, push, push.  Ever heard of a “pushy” salesman?  Why do we call him that?  Because all he does is PUSH his product on us, and if you’re like me, you will be figuring out a way to LEAVE as quickly as possible–or to get him out of your living room if that’s the case.  The same is true of pushy online people.

Further, pushing alone doesn’t work because you can’t sell to people who aren’t there, and you don’t want to be the one everyone runs from when they see coming.

That’s where the concept of “pulling” comes in.  Pulling put simply is anything you do to reel readers in to you.  Then give them a reason to read more by putting out something they enjoy reading as a sample.  Now you can do this many ways.

You can give away Free Previews of your book, or you can write a blog that has great content.  On Twitter, you can use quotes, sayings, Bible quotes, etc. to accomplish this. On your blog, you can host guest bloggers who will hopefully send their audience to you to read the post.  You can also host interviews and do reviews on that same premise.

Think of things that PULL you in.  What gets you to RT something from someone you don’t know? Why do you want to send it on?  The plain truth is we very rarely RT anything from people we don’t know if it PUSHES anything.  So tailor some of your tweets and Facebook posts to simply giving great information–books you’ve read that you loved, articles that you read, sayings that touched you.  All of these have the potential of reeling new readers to you.

Pushing

Once you have potential readers coming to you, now you can do some pushing.  Notice I said SOME.  If all you do is push, they will leave.  So remember to keep up pulling even after you’ve gotten readers. The real secret to pushing is actually pulling. Pulling attracts people like a magnet.

Have you ever been on Twitter and figured out that someone only posts Push-type tweets? After awhile, do you even read those anymore, or do you just skim right by them even if you don’t delete them as a follow?  Me too.  There are several that try to work their title into every post and it gets annoying!  After awhile, I just skim right past them.

The other thing to remember in marketing is to not talk about yourself even in your push marketing.  Talk about what the reader will get out of it.  Talk about how your writing will help them.  Talk about what they will learn or why this story is so fascinating they can’t possibly pass it up. This is sometimes easier said than done, but it works.  Which would you be more apt to click on:

 

Check out my new book, FIELD OF DAISIES.

OR…

What secrets does the past hold?  FIELD OF DAISIES.  When you go in, can you ever get back out?

 

So remember, in all marketing:  Pull constantly and consistently, and pull even when you push!

Staci Stallings is the founder of Grace & Faith Author Connection.  To join the group, send your Name, Email Address, Twitter handle (if you have one), and/or Facebook page to staci_stallings at hotmail dot com (altogether!) with the subject:   G&F New Member, and Staci will let you know what your next step is.  I hope you will join us for this new and exciting marketing adventure!

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How To Double Your Sales

By:  Karen Baney

Okay.  So, I don’t really know the sure-fire way to double your sales as an author.  But, I can share with you what has been working well for me over the past three months—months where I’ve double my sales each month.

First, and most importantly, none of the following suggestions will be successful if you haven’t written a great novel and you don’t have a good cover.  Those two things are absolutely critical for your success as an author.

That little disclaimer aside, here are the three things that have helped me the most in the past three months.

Twitter

After much nagging from my hubby, “Are you on Twitter yet?  You need to be on Twitter.” I finally broke down and got on Twitter.  The first month I was on it, I could hardly figure out what to do with the thing.  I mean 140 characters is frightening to a word smith.  How was I going to say anything in that short space?

So, I started reading other people’s blogs about Twitter.  I learned about hash tags, how to schedule tweets, what kinds of things to tweet, and how to engage with others.  The first month I was on Twitter, my Amazon sales ranking went from somewhere around 108,000 to hovering around 35,000. Pretty good, say you?  I thought so.  And I doubled my sales from the previous month.

(Yes, my hubby was right – just don’t tell him I said so.)

But that wasn’t the only front of my marketing efforts.

Blogging

Yes.  I just said the dreaded “b” word.  But, let’s get real.  Blogging does help.

I’ve finally gotten into a routine with blogging.  I started a series highlighting the main characters from my Prescott Pioneers Series.  This blog series runs every Wednesday.  I include a photo (purchased for less than $5 at iStockPhoto), the character’s stats, and a few insider secrets that only I as the author know about the character.  My fans love it.  It also gives me a chance to promote my books in an interesting way.

The other blog series I started was a Friday post just for authors about various writing topics.  This is a great way to network with other authors and some of them may even buy my books too.  If nothing else, they will have learned something from my posts.

I’ve also recently added an author spotlight series on Mondays, where I feature interviews with other indie authors.

During this time frame, my Amazon ranking went from 35,000 to about 11,000.  Oh—you guessed it—I doubled my sales from the previous month getting very close to that 1,000 book a month barrier.

Then, the next big thing hit…

Cross Promotion

I finally had enough money coming in from my sales that I could spend a little extra on marketing.  So, I started snooping around to find some cheap ways of marketing.  Well, in that process, I connected with Melissa Foster, best-selling author on Amazon.  I was invited to participate in a big promotion.

This promotion hadn’t even launched yet, and I saw tremendous benefit.  I’ve connected with 36 new author friends.  We’ve been helping cross promote for each other over the past month.  I’ve also learned from them ways to work smarter and not harder (like scheduling tweets, getting my book on various websites, etc.)

Since meeting this great group of people, my Amazon sales rankings have jumped from 11,000 to hovering around 2,500.  Wow!  I call that a success.  And… I doubled my sales from the previous month, finally breaking the 1,000 books a month barrier by a significant amount.

While I can’t guarantee you’ll see the same results, I hope I’ve given you a few ideas on how you, as an author, can market your books and reach out to new readers.

The Revolution – A Footnote

In the two weeks since this post appeared on another blog, I’ve experienced something I never thought I would:  an explosion of interest in transparency.  People have been emailing me with questions.  Authors are banding together to form cross promotion groups.  I’ve completely lost track of how many times this article has been tweeted about (and even if I don’t personally thank each of you, please know I sincerely appreciate your help in getting the word out).

One of the best outcomes of this article is that I am now a part of Grace and Faith 4 U.  This brand new author community is quickly becoming a great place for Christian authors of all genres to meet, get to know each other, and help promote each other’s work.  My heart is overflowing – I have wanted this type of support from the day I typed my first word of my first novel.

Will you join me in this revolution?  Become a part of Grace and Faith 4 U (FB Page: Grace & Faith Author Connection)or start your own group!

Self-published author, Karen Baney, enjoys sharing information to help authors learn about the Business of Writing.  She holds a Masters of Business Administration from Arizona State University and has worked in various business related career fields for the past 20 years.  She writes Christian Historical Fiction and Contemporary Romance novels.  For more information about Karen or her books, visit http://www.karenbaney.com.