3 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Paid Ad

By Patty Smith Hall, @pattywrites

Whether traditional or self-published, every author is looking for the best way to market his/her book. Specifically, how do we attract new readers? One way that has grown in popularity are websites like Bookbub, E-Reader Café and My Book Cave who send out email blast with information on sale books.

Here’s how it works: When a reader registers on one of these sites, they are sent to a page with a list of genres they like to read. This is no short list—every genre you can think of is listed, all the way down to sub-genres. The reader is given anywhere from one to five choices that they can follow. Then every day like clockwork, a selection of books on sale from their chosen genre is emailed to the reader with links to the sale sites.

Read More

The Power of Pinterest

By DiAnn Mills, @diannmills

Pinterest claims to have 100 million active monthly users while noting 176 million registered users. Those stats are amazing, especially when writers are geared up to market and promote a new book.

Using Pinterest for promoting novels allows writers to expand their creativity. An easy way to entice a reader to check out our work involves pulling out special sections of the novel that can be translated into a picture or meme.

Read More

Stacking Up the New Year by DiAnn Mills

Stacking up the New Year
By DiAnn Mills

Our family celebrations often involve a game of dominoes. Me? I like stacking them up and watching them fall one-by-one.

Unfortunately if storytellers don’t make a few plans for their writing career in January 2015, our publishing dreams may fall. Every writer is motivated by something, and when we lose track of why we embarked upon this journey, our goals aren’t met. In fact, they are flattened.

Looks like I forgot to plan.

So how can we avoid the domino effect? I’ve listed ten ways writers can take charge of their career in 2015.

1.   Understand priorities and stick by them. Life is filled with interruptions, and only we can
      decide what distractions are important and what ones are merely annoyances.
2.   Establish a budget for conferences, marketing, promotion, and other expenses.
3.   We writers need to know where we’re going. Calendar due dates of writing projects. If a
      manuscript is on spec, establish a deadline to finish and stick to it.
4.   List the writing projects that need research and calendar them.
5.   Establish goals for social media. Buffer and Hootsuite offer solutions to save time and
      energy.
6.   Analyze the many blogs available for the writer and the world of publishing. Select and
      follow those that are consistency professional.
7.   Evaluate current writing groups, online and live. Which one(s) allow the writer to learn
      and give back to others?
8.   Create an “Idea” folder. Writing ideas come from the world around us—from blogs to
      articles to book projects.
9.  An author bio needs updating at least yearly.
10.Take an honest look at your professional photo. Is it time for a retake?

Facing the New Year with writing goals and a plan means professionalism. If we write when we feel the muse, edit when the mood strikes, and submit when we have nothing better to do, our careers will fail. Develop a plan and stick to it. Watch how your dominoes stack up this year.

Oh, I need to get this on paper.

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers; the 2015 president of the Romance Writers of America’s Faith, Hope, & Love chapter; a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, and International Thriller Writers. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.

Read More

How Editors Make a Difference ~ Tess Gerritsen

Tess Gerritsen left a successful practice as an internist to raise her children and concentrate on her writing. She gained nationwide acclaim for her first novel of medical suspense, the New York Times bestseller Harvest. She is also the author of the bestsellers Life Support, Bloodstream, Gravity, and The Surgeon. Tess lives with her family in Maine. (PHOTO CREDIT: Paul D'Innocenzo)

How Editors Make a Difference

Tess Gerritsen (reprinted from Murderati)


It's called a death spiral, and I was in one. The year was 2000, and I had just turned in my fifth thriller, The Surgeon. In the U.S., my first four books had hit bestseller lists. In the UK my career was, if not dead, barely twitching. In publishing, "death spiral" describes the steady decline in an author's sales over time, a decline that's almost impossible to reverse. With each new release, the orders are smaller. With smaller orders there's less visibility and poorer distribution, leading inevitably to even poorer sales.


Eventually, no bookstores will order your books. And no publisher wants you as their author.


That's the position I was in back in 2000. My sales had all but crashed and burned in the UK. I'd already failed with two different publishers, and now no one there wanted to touch me. The Surgeon, it appeared, would not be released in the UK at all.


Then a plucky new editor at Transworld Publishers picked up The Surgeon and decided she had to acquire the book. The author's track record was dreadful, getting the book into stores would be a battle, but she was damn well going to do it. She forced (that's the description I heard!) all her colleagues to read the manuscript, and now they were getting excited too. She was the cheerleader, the taskmaster, the evangelist for The Surgeon. I was only vaguely aware of her efforts at the time; after all, I'd failed miserably in the UK before, and my hopes were no higher this time. She sent me the cover design that she was so excited about: a sink drain with splashes of blood.


I just didn't get it. She assured me it would work in the UK market. Anyway, what did I know about the UK market? I was already deemed a failure there, and I was sure to be a failure again. When the book was released in hardcover in the UK, I paid little attention because it was just too depressing to think about.


But this editor wouldn't leave me alone. She kept sending me cheery emails and sales figures. While The Surgeon wasn't hitting any bestseller lists, it wasn't a complete flop. The corpse of my UK career actually took a breath -- if only a shallow one.


The following year, with the publication of The Apprentice in hardcover and The Surgeon in paperback, Transworld invited me for a UK book tour. It was the first time I'd been asked overseas, and I still have one vividly depressing memory of a group booksigning I did in London.


I was sitting next to a bestselling crime author who had a line of fans to buy her book. One man came with a whole box of books for that author to sign. Then he looked at me, shrugged, and said: "I have no idea who you are." He bought one of my paperbacks, but I could see it was only out of sheer pity.


The Surgeon, in paperback, miraculously made it to the top-ten bestseller list.


In the years that followed, as my UK sales continued to climb, this editor and the entire Transworld team never stopped flogging my books. They continually re-packaged the series. They brought me over again and again for tours. They invested in publicity and promotions.


In 2006, I finally hit #1 on the London Times paperback bestseller list with Vanish. And last year, I hit #1 on the hardcover list with The Killing Place.


Transworld not only breathed life back into this old corpse, they got it up and walking and then sprinting ahead of the pack. It demonstrates that even a career that looks dead can be reanimated -- given the right team with the right book. It's a lesson that authors and publishers need to take to heart. If an author writes great books, even if his sales are moribund, he deserves a second look, a second chance. Because he just might be your next #1 bestseller.


Lately, there's been a lot of talk about how authors don't really need publishers anymore because we can self-publish with e-books. Hey, we can do it all ourselves, make more money in the long run, and have complete control over our destinies. To some extent it's true; we can publish our own books. The question is, can we publish our own books well?


(Even in the world of self-publishing, publishers will still play a vital role as gatekeepers. Spam now clogs online booksellers with 99 cent e-books that are either junk or blatantly plagiarized. A publisher's seal of approval can help separate the worthwhile books from the fake ones.)


Over my twenty-five career, I've worked with some truly gifted editors. Every single one has been a pleasure to work with, and my books are all the better because of their input. True, a self-published author could hire a private editor to help polish a manuscript, but the fact is, editors do a lot more than edit. They advocate. They strategize. They even harangue, all on your behalf.


And sometimes, they become your dear friends. This is something we don't talk enough about: how important friendships are in the publishing business. It's not all about sales figures and bean counting. Long after our business associations end, long after we stop needing each other for deals, the friendships remain.


Last month, it was announced that my wonderful UK editor, Selina Walker, is leaving Transworld to take an impressive new job as publisher for Century and Arrow Books. I guess that's what happens when you do a smashing job -- you get promoted. I'm thrilled for her, of course, but I'm also sad that she's leaving. She was the one who pulled me out of my UK death spiral. And that, I will never forget.

Read More

Author Interview ~ Aggie Villaneuva

Aggie Villanueva is the owner of Visual Arts Junction, a bestselling novelist, non-fiction author, and critically acclaimed photographic artistXanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ. represented by galleries nationwide, including

She was a twice-published author at Thomas Nelson before she was 30, and commenced to found local writers’ groups, the Mid-America Fellowship of Christian Writers three–day conference, taught at nationwide writing conferences, and published numerous writing newsletters for various organizations.

Aggie founded Visual Arts Junction blog February 2009 and now, under the Visual Arts Junction umbrella, has launched the VAJ Buzz Club – a club where, guided by her experience and organizational/marketing savvy, members combine their individual marketing power (which many don’t realize they have), and much more, to create the ultimate BUZZ to launch each other’s books, products, seminars, contests, etc. A division of the club is Promotion a la Carte where you purchase your services only as you need them.

NJ: There has been a lot of hype lately about self-publishing. I have my own thoughts on the subject, as do most people. Why did you choose self-publishing over traditional?

Been there done that! Seriously, I would never go back to traditional publishing unless my health forced to let someone else handle everything, although I have nothing at all against traditional publishing. Ha, some of my best friends are traditionally published! Okay, I’ll be serious now.

While there are junk Indie novels out there, there are great ones, like the one written by teenager Cayla Kluver, and picked up by AmazonEncore!

We can’t trust that a book is great just because its publisher says so. With self-published as well as traditional fiction, we have to find those authors worth paying for. And we do that through friend recommendation, reviews, etc. In other words, though we may not all publish the traditional way anymore; we all still judge an author’s worth the traditional way.

Lastly, most of the upcoming generations have never purchased a print book. They download all their reading material, and they are reading more than any young generation in 60 years because they can do it on the run, and it’s mostly fiction.

They wouldn’t even know how to check to see if it’s Indie or traditionally published. They don’t care. Indie publishing lends itself perfectly to electronic publishing because we can place it anywhere and everywhere without our publisher’s permission. My novel is for sale in the iPad bookstore, Barnes & Noble’s electronic bookstore, and of course Kindle, plus so many more electronic book sites I don’t even remember them all.

NJ: Once you made your choice, were there any pitfalls you had to watch for?

I guess I would say spending too much promoting it. That’s probably most authors’ complaint. Personally, I love every minute of my publicity work. This is why I started the Buzz Club and Promotion á la Carte, promotional services for authors. My services save them time, fit their budget, and they can purchase it one step at a time, and then come back a year later and use just one or two needed services to boost sales.

NJ: Did you have your manuscript professionally edited?

Absolutely and actually ended up using two editors. And I went to a professional book cover designer, and hired an illustrator for my book trailer, which was then created by Blazing Trailers. There is no excuse for second-rate quality in a self-published book.

And this is an area of the Indie publishing control I enjoy most, and that greatly benefits my books. This is control you don’t get even if you hire a vanity press (which I don’t recommend). They are professional, but you have to use their cover designers, trailer companies, promotional agencies etc. And you pay much, much, much more than if you chose those services yourself, based on recommendations from other professionals.

NJ: What are some advantages in self-publishing? What about disadvantages?

Advantages: I like the control I have. I don’t have to get permission every time I hand out electronic promo copies. I don’t have to pile my home with print copies to give as promos, because I’m free to send a pdf file to reviewers, give as contest prizes, etc. More and more reviewers are starting to accept nothing but electronic books.

I have total say over sales, promotion, the cover, the trailer, not to mention keeping most of the money. I’ve already made more money self-publishing Rightfully Mine (June 2009) than I made from Thomas Nelson. And it was published at that time to rave reviews in metropolitan magazines and newspapers. Don’t get me wrong. I loved every moment of working with Thomas Nelson on my two Biblical novels. They are an outstanding publisher. I just didn’t make any money.

The list of advantages to Indie publishing is too long to list here. I did a series on self-publishing at Visual Arts Junction. Those interested might like to check them out. You can also find a rousing discussion on the topic at one of our SpeakEasy pages, “What’s Your Opinion About Self-Publishing?"

Disadvantages: The biggie is the time investment. And actually that investment isn’t that much more now than with traditional publishers, who now expect authors to work for their own platform. And that is exactly what consumes so much time.

Another disadvantage is others not accepting you as a “real” writer. But I think time will erase those arguments. Indie publishing is still comparatively new, but, as I show in my series it’s growing by leaps and bounds. And an author’s work proves its worth in both types of publishing. That’s the bottom line.

NJ: What have been a few of the obstacles you've faced self-publishing and how did you manage to clear those hurdles?

Coming up with the budget to pay for professional services is probably the biggest hurdle. Across the Net, it costs from about five thousand (which gets you almost nothing) to tens of thousands.

I personally don’t know anyone who could afford that. But as I took each step toward publication I’d need to spend $100 here, $500 there, $300 over there. So I had to save up the money in between each step.

NJ: You're an amazing and natural promoter. What two things promotion-wise have you found to be most effective in selling books?

Twitter. I personally prefer connecting on Facebook, but I haven’t made a penny through Facebook. I have through twitter.

Persistence. Like the tortoise you must spend an hour or so per workday on marketing. May not seem like much, but it will win you the race.

Contact Amazon and B&N for instructions, and list your books in the small categories also, all of them that pertain. You have a much better chance of becoming a best seller (top 100) in a smaller category than you do in, say, fiction, in which there are millions of books

NJ: How did you market your book? Do you have a marketing background?

Without knowing it, I was in promotion most of my adult life but never got paid for it. I did several newsletters for various organizations, founded and directed a three-day writer’s conference, headed writers groups, was assistant director of writer’s conferences, lots of charity work, etc. And I have this habit of hooking up businesses and people who can mutually benefit one another.

Social Media is the only way I can afford to market my book. It’s an amazing vehicle if you stay with it. You must be yourself, and you must care about those who follow you, giving them great value in your posts. People can spot a fake in a New York minute.

Interviews and reviews are like marketing gold. But it takes a lot of time, and the outcome from all that time invested, I’ve only landed seven reviews, and eight interviews. Since most of them publish the review to several places, it’s actually about 3 times this number when you consider site exposure.

NJ: You were very successful on Amazon, and now you're starting your VAJ Buzz Club. Tell us about that.

The VAJ Buzz Club is for group promotion. All who join commit to helping launch each other’s book/product/event. With just the handful of members we have now, we can launch to over 44,000 on twitter, Facebook, and other social media.

Promotion á la Carte is a separate entity, and is, as the name implies, getting your promotional services as you need them.

NJ: Why do you feel there's a need for the VAJ Buzz Club?

Blitzing social media with your book launch. Social media is THE marketing arena. “Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé. In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen.”

Generation Y outnumbers Baby Boomers, and 96% of them have joined a social network, with FB and Twitter still leading the pack. Social media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest.

The goal is faithful followers because you offer them value. With my 8,300 twitter followers, 99.7% of my tweets are retweeted. One reason is because if you added all my tweets that offer writing and related tips, you’d have a couple of books.

Social media made mass marketing available and free. The VAJ Buzz Club combines our reach. But it’s still a numbers game. Not for number’s sake, but numbers within the exact niche you want to reach; writing and writing related social media contacts. So, we join forces to combine our faithful followers.

NJ: What will the members receive for their money?

All of the above and so much more. Nanci Arvizu, my assistant, and host of the hit BTR show, Page Readers, donated a free 30-minute interview to all members at the time of their launch. Members are required to sign up to interview on their own blog one member per year. There is so much more you can see on the summary page, and at the bottom there are several links to detailed info and requirements. MAKE SURE you read them before you pay. Plus I’m here to question at any time, myaggie2[at]gmail[dot]com.

For those not interested in group promotion, but want to hire just the promotions they need now, there is Promotion á la Carte.

NJ: How do people find you?

Email me at the cabin: myaggie2[at]gmail[dot]com. If you feel the need to talk about your promotion needs instead, we’ll set up a Skype talk.

Aggie's book, Rightfully Mine: God’s Equal Rights Amendment, is available in paperback or Kindle.

You can find Aggie on Twitter and Facebook

Read More