Saffron and Seaweed and other crazy ideas...really?

If writing quickly and getting another book out in a series in a couple of months is a good thing then I'm doing great! I just completed Saffron and Seaweed, book 2 in the Summer McCloud paranormal series. AND I've got the title and the first chapter of the next book at the end of this one. Marketing is like a bad word now, a bug in my ear that I can't ignore. I don't even want to think about it. When I ask questions in my author groups I hear answers that frazzle my brain cells and make me feel like I'm living on another planet. And then I become utterly discouraged, because, how is it that I'm so far behind?  I know I will never catch up. Is it my age, my idiocy or is everyone living in another reality?

These people use acronyms and other language that I don't know the meaning of, and ask what  I've done about this or that. What? What is it and how do I access it? Is it my imagination or is this too complicated for mere mortals to handle? And yet these people are selling hundreds if not thousands of books a month. I won't even mention the paltry number of book sales I had last month.  I have to admit I'm a failure.

But despite the knowledge that I'm an idiot I keep marching ahead, starting another book and feeling like this one may change everything. I've been doing this since I finished my first trilogy and now I'm working on book eleven. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting another outcome. Hellooo... I would dearly love to sell hundreds of books, but right now I'm settling for what I can get and trying as hard as I can to find SIMPLE ways to raise sales. I appreciate so much all the help I've been given--if only I understood what they were talking about!! Maybe one of these days I'll figure it out, but until then I'm writing.

The 3rd book in my mystery series is called Black and White and Red all over--catchy title that I have to google to make sure it isn't out there a million times. My first book, The Moonstone, competed with several other books of the same name and it didn't do me much good, but in the scheme of things who really cares? It still doesn't come up first when I google it but at least it's there. And so I'm marching ahead despite poor sales and the feeling that I'll never figure it out. But I have to tell myself that it's the writing I care about. And the writing keeps me going because I absolutely love it! I just hope that readers will find my books and decide they like them and come back for more....

Thanks for reading!

marketing and book trailers

First of all, here's our Arizona tree! (still need to add red bulbs.) I'll light the candles on the winter solstice!

Back to book topics: I'm still struggling with marketing--I guess it's an endless uphill battle. Facebook has suddenly decided...what? I'm not sure, but all I know is that they've changed things again. I read that it was bad for entrepeneurs. and I guess I fit into that category. I am now spending entirely too much money 'boosting' posts. I don't send these posts to friends and family anymore--now I'm targeting women from late 20's to 60 years of age. Men have enjoyed my books but they seem more geared to women. Does boosting work? I have no idea! I get a lot more 'likes', but that isn't a click and a buy, now is it? (or maybe it is!) I don't know.

 I'm also spending money in other area's regarding my books--I've combined the three books of my trilogies and am selling them CHEAP. But when I went to check on other's prices for their kindle 'boxed sets' I was horrified to find they were practically giving them away! For me these cheaper prices make me turn away. And so I'm asking less than the three and more than one. I'm doing a lot of promoting right now before Christmas. I have an ad in the local paper here in Tucson, but so far people only seem to buy my paperbacks from the metaphysical store, not the bookstores.

Something fun I discovered yesterday on FB was a site where you can make your own video trailer! It's called Animoto and you can do this for free! Unfortunately mine got a bit involved and ended up having their logo spread across the images. And if I wanted it removed I had to upgrade to Pro--same old same old. I did so but before I did I found a coupon on line to lower the cost. I'm posting the link to You Tube here for anyone who hasn't seen it on FB or Twitter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUTpbycdSzk--it's barely 30 seconds long. I plan to make more of these but they will all be pretty short. And if you upgrade to Pro they have lots of music and images to choose from! It's a fun way to market and since I like to watch short videos (emphasis on short) I figure others will too.

With all this fooling around and doing fiverr, (do you know about fiverr?) I've barely had time to do any writing! I found a woman on fiverr to tweet my new trailer with a very short blurb about Gypsy's Secret. I don't know how to link to her but if you're searching, her name is Melrock and she'll tweet your book to god knows how many people for five bucks. There's tons of stuff to choose from on the site.

I seriously need reviews for Gypsy's Secret so if you've read the first two, or even it you haven't, I would really appreciate it! The kindle is .99 for the next couple of days. And if you're part of kindle unlimited it's FREE!

So enjoy the darker days, make soup and tea and READ!

Too many words???

I ran into a nice woman the other day who had written a very small book on how to eliminate words from your writing. She was 'presenting' at a meet-up writing group. I thought to myself, why would I want to do that? Granted I have not read her book nor seen her presentation but I've already witnessed this trend. And it reminds me of so many other things going on in this culture that I disagree with!

It seems to go along with the three-second-attention-span mentality that's taking over. Instagram, twitter etc...are examples of this. I agree that older prose is more wordy than necessary but  I do think there's a middle ground. I happen to love words and because of that have not given in to the 'throw all adverbs out' club. I also use adjectives. When I'm looking for a  book to read I don't go for the skinny ones. I figure if I'm going to spend that much I want more words for my buck!

Will we eventually get all our communication down to one clipped sentence? Maybe we'll just go back to grunting. When I read a book I like to be taken into another world, a place that I can see, smell and almost taste, people who are multi-faceted and sometimes verbose. And when I write I try to bring the reader into what I see. How can I talk about a field full of lavender, moving gracefully in a light breeze, the smell permeating my nostrils and almost making me dizzy with its heady sweetness without using extra words? Maybe this pared down writing appeals to the non-visual readers. Perhaps for them it's the action that they're interested in, not the setting.

I find myself in a narrowing group as I struggle to connect with my tribe. Take the recent discontinuation of Longmire by A&E. Despite millions of watchers, the producers decided that they wanted to appeal to a younger demographic. It's as though anyone over fifty no longer counts in this society. According to them older people are more stuck in their ways and don't necessarily buy the products being advertised. (I want to say something rude here but I'll hold it in.) I've also noticed that nearly every show/series I've liked has been taken off just when they were getting into the true meat of it. It seems that people prefer Duck Dynasty to Defying Gravity or Touch with Keifer Sutherland, or Camelot with Joseph Fiennes as Merlin. Fabulous series. I've gotten a bit off topic here but I think the underlying message is the same.

Do you like words? And who out there enjoys a really thick book to read?

Would love to hear your thoughts on this!

Thanks for reading.

changing tunes, or taking a different trail, or shaking it up--Marketing

Just to be honest at the outset, I'm tackling a subject here that I don't know much about--the dreaded m word that every self-published author fears.  I'm working on book seven now and have been hoping that sales will pick up because of so many books in the marketplace, but alas, I still have not found my tribe. This year I've spent more money on this, doing newspaper ads here in Tucson and paying for ads online. I've also found two or three places that for a nominal fee will tweet an ad for your book. http://masqueradecrew.blogspot.com/ is one of them. BooksGoSocial.com, a site based in Dublin, does reviews and features books for a nominal fee. Also has an awesome blog with many tips for writers.

A problem that I have which may not be your problem at all, is that I sign up on these sites, pay with paypal and then forget about them--apparently my mind has no follow-up ability. And following up is VERY important! (especially if money changes hands)

When posting on FB, blogging or tweeting, try and be consistent. By that I mean do it often, not do it the same. I've heard that posting early in the morning or late in the evening is the best time to reach readers. And don't just advertise yourself, try and expose who you are aside from being an author. And interact if you can with whatever subjects interest you.

 I'm still struggling with Twitter when it comes to this. I guess it's the hashtag thingy that I find somewhat confusing. Maybe you can start a sort of thread by adding # whatever? and then see who responds...just putting a tweet out there doesn't seem to do much since I've posted questions that get no answers. For some reason I'm getting more and more followers and I'm not sure why. I'm muddling along with it and trying day by day to figure it out and respond in kind.

Facebook is an entire other world. I haven't been posting on my author page and have been told that I should. And according to my source, this should happen five to eight times a week! Doesn't always have to be about the books, in fact it's better if it isn't. (confusing, right?) I see people filling up the page with automatic posts. I do not want to do that no matter how entertaining they might be. If I personally do not have time to look something up and then post about it, forget it.

All in all be yourself.

Thank you for reading and I appreciate any and all comments!

for your eyes only

How do we draw people to our blogs, or to any of our writing, for that matter? I've tried over the years to pick things of interest to other authors starting with interviews with self-pubbed authors and ending with my own unfolding process. I hoped to help others avoid the pitfalls I've gone through. I don't know if something has changed in the internet world but any comments on my blog have been dwindling down to, well...nothing. Maybe it has to do with not enough time in a day to go on several FB groups, Goodreads and Twitter as well as write. ( and there are so many other places to waste time on the internet!)

Is there so much out there now that people don't have time to read blogs? Or possibly my audience knows everything I've been sharing and is thus bored with what I have to say. Or maybe I just don't know how many people are actually reading it! I've noticed that I don't read as many blogs as I once did. When I first started this one I read a ton of them every day and made sure to leave a comment on each one. Now I read no more than 3 or 4--

With Instagram, something I know NOTHING about, things seem to be speeding up even more. I can't go that fast nor do I want to. I use adverbs and adjectives when I write, anathema in this current time of pared down writing. I feel that adverbs can be necessary to convey meaning. For instance 'he folded his jacket and placed it on the back seat' versus, 'he folded his jacket carefully and placed it on the back seat'--I grew up in a slower world. I agree with many of the new rules and try my best to not go overboard with descriptives, but if we have none it's like building a utilitarian bridge--the writing has no grace. I never did like Hemingway's writing style.

How did I get on this subject? I'm not really sure--maybe it's my ongoing search for my tribe. I know they're out there but how do I find them? I sincerely believe I am not alone.

Marketing Genre Fiction

Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful comments on my last post! It's interesting how people handle this issue...I no longer feel as I did when I first began Wolfmoon Trilogy six (could it really be that long?) years ago. I feel as Mike mentioned (last post) that my own voice does now shine through. But at the beginning I was very nervous about writing in such a narrow genre. Which brings me to the topic of this post.

Is it easier to market genre fiction? When I was still banging my head against the wall trying to get an agent, I was told that it is. At the time YA fiction was HOT, especially fantasy. I tried to market my books in that niche but then realized that it wouldn't work--according to the agents I spoke with my protagonist was too old. For a while I thought about changing her age but for the purposes of the story it just wouldn't work. Being older and wiser now I've determined that there can be several niches for a book to fall into. Mine is suitable for young adults, just not VERY young adults. When my ten year old granddaughter wanted a copy of The Moonstone my answer to her was, 'you won't like it'. And she wouldn't. My books could be categorized as part fantasy, part myth, part romance, part adventure and part mystery with a sprinkling of Celtic spirituality mixed in for good measure. Trying to go too narrow can be a problem as well.

Logically it would seem that as authors we would want our book to have as wide an appeal as possible, but a Celtic fantasy should not be pitted against a work of literature, such as, (first one that came to mind) 'The Great Fire' by Shirley Hazard. And so we try to find our readers in various ways, targeting different groups on Facebook, tweeting to #___ and/or placing them in bookstores, Celtic stores or metaphysical stores--places our readers tend to frequent. We roam the internet searching for blogs and other places where we might collaborate or interest a blogger in our books--we exchange blog urls, we do interviews and ask strangers to review our books. All of this seems pretty obvious but there seems to be a lot of flailing around out there in the cyber world, and I'm one of the flailers!

So how do we narrow our focus without turning our niche into a knife edge? I know there are search engines that can help with this--I've done the searches, but haven't gotten much out of it. Blog tours are the big thing that everyone does, but do these tours work? I was told by a well-respected editor/marketing consultant, (Christine Myers), that I would need to find 100 blogs and contact them all.  If anyone has an answer, please write a comment below.

We all get stuck in trying everything when we first bring out a book, but in order to have time to write we need to cut out the chaff.  The trouble with social media is that everyone is in the same boat! Well, maybe not everyone, but enough to fill the thing to capacity so that it might be in danger of sinking. I guess the best idea would be to interview all the successful self-published authors and find out what worked for them--I'm sure there's lots of information on this topic floating around out there. Which brings me to another subject that I plan to explore very soon--gatekeepers for self-published books. Any thoughts?

Thanks for reading and I appreciate any and ALL comments!

mostly marketing

I have several things on my mind today so bear with me if I meander...since mercury is now out of retrograde I feel an edginess that I need to explore even if I've talked about these subjects in previous blogs...

1. Hashtags on twitter: Just yesterday I realized that I've been posting links to twitter without sending it to the places where my readers might be hanging out...I'm sure most of you know this already but for me it was an epiphany...

2. The goddess principle: This is connected to the hashtags--my book is filled with goddesses and at the risk of sounding weird, a goddess wrote my book using my computer and my fingers to type it out...so how do I employ the goddess (feminine) principle to my marketing plan?
   
3. Twitter: I need to have a theme for each week and places to go--for instance, #mythology or #druid/pagan  etc...tweet once a day on the theme of the week--fifteen minutes max. (good luck)

3. How to organize the social media marketing in general: Advice to myself: get on Facebook and Goodreads at certain times of day--spend a half hour or less at those times--and then, step away! Hard to do since now I'm on 'indie authors', 'fantasy authors', 'bookjunkies', 'authors pitch for readers' and a few others--getting caught up in the threads is not only time-consuming, it takes energy from my writing, draining me before I've begun.

4. Reading blogs: This one is unbelievably time consuming and yet it's vitally important. If I expect others to read mine I have to make the effort...and many bloggers have kindly taken time to read my book and review on their blogs...many thanks to all of them!

5. Writing blogs: I have two blogs on blogspot as well as one on my website...I love the exercise of writing and I love the disparate subjects I'm writing about--so time spent doing this is good.

6. Website: My extremely expensive website is languishing. I don't know how to get people there--I've put links on this blog but have no way of knowing if anyone uses them. Wordpress is unfamiliar to me and more complicated..plus I don't like the black with white type--but it's part of the template and can't be changed.

With my second book about to come out I need to think about a blog tour--contest/giveaways, all things I'm unfamiliar with...luckily all the author pages I'm on will be a tremendous source of information...

Sorry if I've repeated myself here...and thanks for reading! Comments are greatly appreciated.

And last but not least: The Moonstone will be free on Kindle from August 10-12th

http://www.amazon.com/The-Moonstone-ebook/dp/B007DXI9SM

Market-write--write-market

The past couple of days have been a learning experience in marketing. Discovering that I have sold NO books for the entire month of July had me scurrying for solutions. I'd thought I was doing enough being on Goodreads, Facebook (3 different sites) Twitter (okay, only occasionally), keeping up with three blogs and reading and commenting on many more. NOT.

I contacted two internet acquaintances who are indie authors and have a presence on these same sites and ran my question by them--what should I do? I wailed via type. It is amazing how generous and supportive other writers can be.

Valerie Douglas had several very good suggestions:

1. join as many sites as possible and create a presence--not to talk about my book but more to connect with others and be recognized.

2. join another FB site called Book Junkies. http://www.facebook.com/groups/ginniefrancesreadingroup/

3. join the blog http://wistfulskimmiesbookreviews.blogspot.com/

4. Try not to be impatient--it all takes TIME.

5. The more books you have out there the better.

My friend Sarah, on Goodreads, suggested googling book blogs in my genre. She also mentioned reading and commenting on as many as ten to twenty blogs that I feel personally connected with. Another suggestion was to go to Technorati.com, a website with info on top blogs in different subjects.

From someone (can't remember who) I found http://www.efictionmag.com/, a site where you can submit writing, among other things.

And so my entire day has been taken up with posting on Goodreads sites, posting on FB, googling blogs that I might be interested in and sending off a short story to eFiction. Oh, and I did send out at least one tweet!

Trying to keep track of what I've done and what I need to do, and the blogs I'm now following needs to be written out on a spread-sheet--

My question is: When do I work on my writing?

and on to marketing...

I should be getting the (second) physical proof any day now--what am I doing to promote it? To myself I say, nothing, but that is not true. So here's the list so far:
1. I have a beautiful website where people can read about the book(s) and connect with Amazon to purchase--getting people to go there is an unanswered question, however...
2. I have a twitter acct. and I respond to others tweets as well as tweeting on various topics, NOT having to do with the book although I do link my blog to them-- a personal Facebook acct. as well as a page for "The Moonstone", two blogs and I belong to Goodreads where I will have an author page, and several other less known websites such as Women's Literary Cafe--http://womensliterarycafe.com/blog--where you can advertise your book and get reviews and/or read others work. Haven't perused all my options there yet.
3. I am in the process of getting a few reviews to post on Amazon once the book is up.
4. I am now talking to someone about doing two short video clips to put on Facebook, my blog etc...one would be a voiceover excerpt from the book with wolves running in the background and music. The second would be me talking about how I came to write the book and what it's about...not sure yet of all the possibilities for placing these...
5. My husband has ordered "52 ways to sell more books", recommended by a friend of his who has self-published, which should be arriving any day.
6. No launch party planned and I'm thinking of waiting until Book 2 is released in mid-June...
7. Once the book is up on Amazon I plan to contact everyone I know by e-mail, Facebook or phone--"be shameless!" a friend told me, and that's what I plan to be!
8. I have not contacted local book stores as yet but I plan to as soon as I have the book in hand.
9. I'm trying to stay focused on how I want to proceed--I know I have to push myself but I also need to listen to my inner voice.

 I am open to any and all suggestions and would love to hear about your experiences in this area!

social media marketing

I went to a talk on social media marketing the other evening. It was given at the local bookstore here in Vancouver, Cover to Cover. Ron Gompertz, author of No Roads Lead to Rome, was the speaker and had a lot of useful information to impart.

He spoke about the building blocks needed to market online: e-mail, blogs, website, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook, going through each one in some detail. But with only an hour and a half there was not enough time to delve into each one and I can tell you right now that for me they need major delving!

Take Twitter, for instance. Apparently there are all kinds of things you can do there. I'm sure many of you if not all of you already know this but I was taken by surprise when Ron spoke of organizing groups on his Twitter account. I'm just barely understanding hash tags at this point! (# is a hash tag for those of you who aren't familiar with it) And the following thing gives me a strange sense of responsibility, as though I either need to entertain or at least keep up with what everyone is doing as well as find some interesting articles to link to my tweets. Did I mention feeling overwhelmed?

 I have upped my time on Twitter now and have retweeted, replied and favorited as well as gone to sites listed (in strange heiroglyphic sorts of letters and numbers that I haven't quite figured out, by the way) and read numerous blogs and commented. If I let it, this could become my entire day!

How does one get the most out of this without drowning? I have gotten a few more followers because of Twitter and I must say I enjoy learning about it but I do have two books to edit and another one that needs to be written, so tell me, how do you manage your time? Do you check into Twitter every day or once a week? What do you tweet about?

The Moonstone

I uploaded the manuscript to Createspace yesterday. My nerves are frazzled. What now? I'm madly trying to find out about reviews--how to get some on the back cover. Apparently the book needs to be on Amazon before this can happen? The person on "my projects team" explained it to me twice but for some reason I have not retained the information.  Last night I slept a total of four hours. In the middle of the night I found myself going over scenes in the book, wondering if they were okay. A little late for that, isn't it? I asked myself. Thank goodness I will have eighty corrections for free once I get the mock-up--(is that what you even call it?)...I am sooo glad I have Steph Wilder whom I will be leaning on heavily in the next months.

I have made myself a facebook page to advertise or something...Can I link it to Amazon? I know nothing...NOTHING! So far I put up the cover art and a little teaser about the book...is that what people do? tried to link it to twitter but don't know if it's linked or not...After I finish this I'm going to try to put the cover art up on my blog--we'll see how well that goes...

Anyone familiar with any of this? I live in dread of doing something and then not being able to undo it--like having two sets of the same thing on facebook and can't edit or get rid of one of them ( that little scenario just happened but I think I fixed it) So onward, I say, into the freakish cyber world...help.

jumping into the abyss

Okay, now I've made the plunge--I'm officially going for self-publishing. This latest round of rejections put me over the edge. If anyone can tell me why I shouldn't do this, speak up now or forever...well, you know.

I plan to use social media for promotion--still learning about all of it but I'm going to a phone class with 'WriteNowCoach', Rochelle Melander on Sept. 28th, who will be talking about facebook, twitter, blogging and websites. Oh yes, a website is my next endeavor. Anyone know anyone who knows anything about how to set up an interactive site where I can advertise my books? and maybe also sell from the website?  I'm learning about hash tags, social oomph, auto follow and so on...and so on...

A small part of me still regrets this decision. Mainly I'm so terrible disappointed in the publishing industry right now. So many good books, mine included, are being shut out. After the forty-fifth rejection it's really hard to stay positive! Do I continue sending submission after submission with hope in my heart like a naive idiot or do I take the situation in hand?  But this book is holding me back from other projects. It needs to get launched, stand on its own two feet, move out and live on its own, man-up and any other apt cliche I can come up with.

Anyone with any suggestions, advice, or observations about their own experiences please weigh in. I appreciate any and all comments.