Tag: book marketing

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GKP Writing News

Entering Writing Contests

Entering writing contests is not my favorite thing to do. That doesn’t keep me from looking at them.

There are lots of these contests. Many have nice prizes. I know writers who do enter them and get to put “Award Winning” on their book.

Reasons For Contests

There seems to be lots of different reasons for writing contests. Publishers use them as a way to find books they might like to publish. These usually want a complete manuscript.

Writer sites are expensive to operate. They can hold contests as a way to raise funds.

Writer’s Digest magazine holds numerous contests. They seem to both promote writers and raise interest in subscribing to the magazine. Attending their writers’ conference is one of the big prizes.

Tempting Prizes

My writing budget always seems to be slim. That makes cash prizes very tempting.

Attending a conference isn’t possible for me. I self publish and, although being traditionally published is tempting, don’t really expect to go that route.

Choosing Contests

Entering writing contests can be a way for me to support a writing group. That is the main reason I do enter a contest.

My only two at this time are NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) and Arts Rolla. The first is mostly a way to write my way through a draft and isn’t a formal contest. There are supporting sponsors who offer prizes for those who meet their goals.

The latter is a local fine arts group. When I was part of a local writer’s group, now disbanded, I met many of the people involved with the group. It is an important local group.

Now I’m considering another contest. It’s put on as a money raiser for an online group. I’m new to the group and want to become more a part of it.

Facing Reality

Entering writing contests is not something I do expecting to win. When Arts Rolla awarded the first chapter of The Carduan Chronicles second place, I was shocked.

This new contest is for the first page of an unpublished novel. I have three to choose from. I would like to help support this group Great Gutsy Novelists. Are any of them good enough?

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GKP Writing News

Writing Book Reviews

Writing book reviews is becoming big business. There are numerous websites and people who do reviews professionally.

As an author, I see lots of advice for authors. One mainstay is finding people to review your book so you can use the reviews, if they are favorable, in your book promotions.

Review Guidelines

Supposedly the author is not to pay for book reviews. This might be considered as a way to buy good reviews, deserved or not.

Amazon wants a reviewer to first purchase the book from them in order to leave a review. Since the company makes money from selling books, not reviews, this is understandable. It also makes it hard for anyone else to leave a review.

cover for "Capri Capers" by Karen GoatKeeper
Capri Capers is being offered as a free eBook this month at Smashwords with code H2X8G. This is my gift to you. Is it worth a review from you?

Review Considerations

I write book reviews. However, there are genres I am not qualified for writing book reviews as I rarely to never read those genres.

People who read only one genre might be considered good book reviewers for that genre. It also makes it harder for a new author as their book will be compared to all the other books in that genre.

Giving copies of a book to a reviewer can taint the view of a resulting review. As I don’t buy books, but borrow them from the library or pull them off my own shelves, I am limited in which books I can review. My personal stash is old, some going back fifty years and difficult to obtain any more.

Doing Ratings

Goodreads, where I post my reviews, has a five star system for rating a book. It usually suffices.

The biggest drawback in this system for me is that five stars says a book is amazing. Even three stars which should be a so so rating says I liked the book. That leaves me writing book reviews with ratings of mostly four stars.

Another drawback is that it asks for a single rating. A book can be very well written and still be one you did not enjoy, maybe even loathed. My work around is to give a second rating in the comment section.

Review Tyranny

Another big drawback to the rating/review requirement for books is how people are coerced into thinking a book with a lower rating or few reviews isn’t worth their reading time. Any book, no matter how good, has readers who don’t like the book and can lower the rating for the book.

Then there are those who read a book and leave no reviews. The author and the book are at their mercy in today’s marketplace. And the reader let them down.

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GKP Writing News

eBook Changes

I have published eBooks through Smashwords for many years. Their automated system did create problems at times, but these were often my mistakes, not theirs. But now eBook changes are coming.

Smashwords has been absorbed into Draft2Digital. My account just switched over and I am still looking it over. My main page is definitely different and I’m having trouble finding things like how to create coupons for free copies.

Now What?

These eBook changes will affect my books. I’m not really sure how much yet. According to the information, those books I have already published will stay the same.

However, new books may be different. Smashwords created many different formats. Draft2Digital may only do epub. I like having the many formats including pdf available. A number of my books look best in pdf.

cover for "Edwina" by Karen GoatKeeper
Only Aleta can see this big black, red-eyed dog, but that doesn’t keep them from getting into trouble. This upper middle grade novel will be the next one with digital copies offered for a month for free.

“Edwina”

I had intended to offer free digital copies of “Edwina” this month. It is another of my upper middle grade novels.

Due to these eBook changes, the offer is put on hold for now. I will find out more about this in the next couple of weeks and hope to make this offer available next month.

In the Meantime

I am deep into a rewrite for Ship Nineteen in “The Carduan Chronicles”. So far I’m on the easy part with mostly editing needed and not a lot of that. Things will change in another fifty pages or less.

There is Life’s Rules to finish. The crazy thing about this is that I know where the plot is going, but can’t seem to get there.

And I do have to consider opening my own book store on my website to offer pdf versions of my books, expecially the science books. That is not something I want to do, having tried that years ago and found it was a real mess to keep up with.

There are so many times lately when I wish the world would stop changing. It ignores me. The eBook changes are coming, indeed, they are here. Like it or not.

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GKP Writing News

My Book Signing

Scheduling a book signing in the fall is difficult. So many other things are going on. My book signing had a lot of competition.

Our Ozark Natural and Cultural Center has recently been painted with beautiful natural and people scenes. It’s grand opening was that day along with an arts and crafts affair behind it, the Pumpkin Days sale by the Ozark Arts and Craft Guild.

Why That Saturday?

I had thought about having my book signing the Saturday before. But I wasn’t sure the books would arrive on time.

There was the next Saturday. But that is up against all kinds of Halloween and other fall events.

Salem Public Library children's section with book display
My book reading was held in the children’s section of the Salem Public Library shown behind the book display.

Measuring Success

The easy way would be counting how many people came. For most people my book signing would be a flop as fewer than a dozen people came.

I look at it as a success. The three little girls had a good time listening to me read the story and show the pictures of “The Little Spider”.

Several people came by to purchase a copy of the book. And some copies of “Waiting for Fairies” sold as well.

What Would I Change?

Nothing. Well, some things. I could do a better flyer. And getting the book done sooner would help a lot as I would have more leeway in scheduling my book signing date.

The type of book makes a difference too. Picture books lend themselves to doing book readings. Parents enjoy bringing their children to such an event.

Novels are different. Unless I become much better known, I doubt a book reading event for a novel would draw many people.

My book signing display
A little goat graces one end of my book display to call attention to the five books by Karen GoatKeeper involving goats.

Next Year?

Yes, I’m making plans for next year. They may not happen, but they just might.

My book signing success was because of the book reading. So, I want another book reading. That means another picture book of some kind.

Opal and Agate: Partners In Adventure is coming up.

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GKP Writing News

Writing Press Releases

Having a book signing/reading is no fun, if no one comes. Since this is a smaller town, I put up flyers. And I practiced writing press releases for the local paper.

What Is in a Press Release?

Having never really written a press release before, I wasn’t sure. I have read a few in the local paper and in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sunday edition.

They seemed mostly to say what was happening and something about the author. So I tried writing a short piece with those things in it.

How Long?

When I called the local paper, the person on the phone said they would fit something in, trimming what I wrote to fit. That sounded like a short piece which is 300 to 400 words to me.

So I wrote a 400 word piece. It was hard to do as I was talking about me. And I sent it in.

Authors write books. Readers read them, if they know about them. Writing press releases is one way to let readers know about the books an author writes.

What Happened?

The paper wanted only 300 words. So someone cut out 100 words.

I expected that. What I didn’t expect is how they were cut off. The person did not read the piece, just hacked things out so some parts of it didn’t make sense.

What I Learned

Writing press releases is not easy for several reasons. One is writing about myself. I can get past that by pretending to write about someone else.

Another is making sure all of the important information is given right at the beginning. That part is not cut out.

The third thing I learned is to edit the piece myself down to 300 words. That way the printed piece will look more like what I wrote, not what someone else left when they hacked it off. Hacking is not the same thing as editing.

Writing press releases is an important skill for any self published author to have. It is one way to let potential readers know about any book events the author has planned.

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GKP Writing News

Announcing The Little Spider

Book marketing is not easy for me. It takes time and knowledge I don’t have. But I am announcing The Little Spider with a combination book launch party and signing.

This wasn’t really my idea. The Salem Public Library Head Librarian asked me to set up a table in the library. She’s seen the book file, is a picture book enthusiast and really likes it.

I’ve seen these author tables in the library before. It is a lonely vigil. Unless the author has lots of friends or readers or both, few people notice or stop at the table.

Finding an Audience

Sitting around waiting is not my favorite occupation. It doesn’t send the best message to get deeply involved in reading a book or typing away on a laptop.

Therefore, I need company, potential readers to stop by. And the library has such an audience available through their preschool reading program.

My author table will sit by itself. I will have a book reading. And the potential audience will be my target age group for my book.

On the Table

My author table needs to be large as there will be sixteen books on it. This includes my new novel “Hopes, Dreams and Reality”. Even though I will be announcing The Little Spider, I can possibly interest people in some of my other books.

All but “Goat Games” are in the library. They do get checked out now and then. However, I am still a relatively unknown author.

Looking To the Future

One of the best ways to encourage people to read my books is to get some people to read them and recommend them to others. So many people only try out books with lots of reviews which my books don’t have. I know people do read my books, but they don’t leave reviews.

Announcing The Little Spider in the midst of spider themed Halloween decorations with a book reading may encourage people to look my books over, maybe check a few out.

And, as a bonus, there may be time to read some of the stories and tongue twisters from “For Love of Goats” too.

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GKP Writing News

Social Media

“Hopes, Dreams and Reality” will be available to readers by next week. That leaves me looking at more ways to let people know about my new book. The suggestion so many have is to be on social media.

Irritatingly, people and businesses assume everyone is on these various platforms. The only two I am on are Pinterest and Goodreads. There are no plans to be on any of the others.

Hopes, Dreams and Reality cover
As I launch this new novel, my dream is for people to notice and read it. But people won’t notice it unless I can let them know it exists.

Why Not be on Social Media?

Time is a big reason I am not on these platforms. Since I am not online at home, my internet time is very limited, usually about five hours a week. This does not go very far.

Perhaps I could be online at home, but the service stinks. There is good service up on top of the hill because a teacher lives there and it was put in for virtual teaching. Those lines do not come down to me and won’t any time soon.

That leaves me with slow, unrealiable service be it through the phone company or satellite. It’s much cheaper and better to use the internet at the library, so that is what I do.

Nor can I use a cell phone to access the internet. Well, I suppose I could, if I wanted to go hiking across the creek, down two pastures and up on a hill to find service.

Privacy

Another big reason for me to not be on social media is privacy. The companies behind these platforms only want to sell me things I have no use for or sell my information to others who want to sell me things I do not want. It’s bad enough using Yahoo.

Yes, I do know privacy is a thing of the past. However, I enjoy the illusion.

Even more chilling for me is the amount of misinformation found on these platforms. I am not interested in sifting through the lies, the political rhetoric, the deceptions, the frauds and more.

When you do seek information, how do you know it’s for real? I’m reminded of a cartoon from some magazine of a dog at a computer saying “Online, no one knows you’re a dog.”

Where does this leave me?

It leaves me a website few people visit. It leaves me a network of people I know through Goodreads and NaNo (National Novel Writing Month).

My first promotion of Hopes, Dreams and Reality” will be free downloads through Smashwords for two weeks. If you are reading this and wish to take advantage of this offer, I would really appreciate it if you would leave a positive review of the book on its Smashwords or Amazon book page.

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GKP Writing News

Marketing My Books

As a self-published author, part of my writing task is marketing my books. That is a challenge for any author trying to get their book noticed among the thousands of books published every year.

Those who claim to know how to do this tout social media, getting book reviews, paid advertising and taking part in various book promotions. All of these take time and a different mind set than writing.

Marketing my books takes me not only wanting, but actively doing promotions about my books. This is very hard for me.

marketing my books includes "Asclepias: A Study of the Living Plants of the United States" by Dr. Richard E. Rintz
Milkweeds are popular now because of the monarch butterflies. Some are. Most are not as they are small and little known. They can be hard to find. Dr. Rintz found them all and included them in this three-volume set.

When I was young, girls had very few options in life. All of them were subservient to men. Promoting any of your own endeavors was frowned upon, even actively despised and discouraged.

Times have changed, supposedly. My mind set has not. I can easily promote someone else’s book, but not mine. I do try by putting on an act and talking about my books, but inside I cringe at such unseemly behavior.

People are starting to think about buying things for gifts. Marketing my books as gifts is so tempting. Which of my books will I focus on? There isn’t time to promote my fourteen and Dr. Rintz’ five.

Perhaps I can focus on three of mine and one of Dr. Rintz’. “Asclepias: A Study of the Living Plants of the United States” is an easy choice. Even though the botanical world has either not noticed or ignored this work, it is an important one.

cover of "For Love of Goats" by Karen GoatKeeper
I dare you. I double dare you to read these tongue twisters and alliterative stories aloud.

Which of mine will I choose? Picture books are popular. That would be “Waiting For Fairies”.

Among all my books, I do have two favorites. “Capri Capers” was such fun to write and is a romp of a book, a crazy blending of 1930s movie serial and melodrama. Thinking up all of those cliff hangers and goat antics was challenging and sometimes made me laugh.

The sounds of words, the cadence of spoken words as in Poe’s poem “The Bells” or Noyes’ “The Highwayman” delight me. Tongue twisters and alliteration abound in “For Love of Goats”.

Marketing my books is difficult both in time and determination, but I will try.