Category: Indie book promotion

I took a chance on me

by Allie P., posted in Book Stuff and Publishing News, Indie book promotion

I’ve had ABBA’s Take a Chance on Me stuck in my head for the past two days thanks to a video sent to me in support of the local chapter of the SPCA. Luckily for me I enjoy the song and so found myself dancing to my own mental soundtrack as the song looped on endless repeat, particularly to the lines:

“Gonna do my very best, baby can’t you see
Gotta put me to the test, take a chance on me…”

I may also have been dancing because I received a message from Reader’s Favorite advising me that I had received a five star review for An Uncertain Faith.

5 star review

I often hear from friends and family that they didn’t know that I wanted to be a writer, and I don’t blame them. For the past several years I had dreamed about writing a novel, but you don’t exactly brag about the number of stories you start, but never make it past a page or two. It is extremely easy to hit the delete button on the keyboard. Each time I would tell myself this time is going to be different. This time I have a solid idea that is screaming to be written. Then life would happen. So no, writing didn’t exactly enter into my personal 30 second elevator speech.

But this year it was different. I decided to really take a chance on me. Could I force myself to have the discipline to keep writing even when I hit the wall? Yes. Could I actually hit the send button to submit a manuscript to a professional reviewer? Gulp yes… and could I actually risk my own ego by opening their response?

Yes, because the surest way not to get your book read is to never submit it at all. I did my best. I took a chance on me.

Oh – and because the only way to get rid of an ear worm is to get the song stuck in someone else’s head, here is the SPCA Lip Dub Video – ABBA Take a Chance on me.

 

On Art and Artists

by Allie P., posted in Indie book promotion

Every now and then I hear the comment from my friends and acquaintances that they read my book and while it wasn’t the genre they usually pick up they enjoyed it. I find this to be a rather odd compliment. I know that I have to maintain a thick skin in this business, but it occasionally sounds like they are saying something along the lines of you were great in spite of what you wrote. Because my book wasn’t in their preferred genre, if they did not know me personally, they might never have come across it, it definitely wasn’t due to its shelf placement.

I don’t know how to balance their feedback in future projects with feedback from readers who preferred genre. On one hand the genre reader is more familiar with comparable stories and so their feedback could make my work stronger in its category. On the other hand, the non-genre reader’s helps to support me as an author by expanding my market reach. So what is more important, the art or the artist?

In a World of Small TruthsLast week, I was lucky enough to meet with Ray Morrison, author of a short story collection, In a World of Small Truths. He made a point to state that he puts very little of himself into his stories, which is probably a good thing as his short stories tended to go a little dark. Had I never met him, I would never have guessed that he was an extremely funny and friendly man who also happens to be a vet. In short, he was completely different from what I would have expected.

He was very open about his process and gave those of us in the room some tips about how not to sound like a newbie. I knew about excessive use of adverbs, but apparently dialogue tags also give you away. For example you can’t gasp something and talk at the same time. Well I guess you could.. but not a long drawn out phrase.

I was also fascinated by the process in which he and his publisher selected the order in which the stories appeared. Hint – it’s all about variety. As a person who typically reads from one cover to cover, I was amused to learn that the majority of those in the room just pick a story to read based on its title and length rather than chronologic order rendering all that painstaking effort moot. All in all I was very happy to have been introduced to his work, but it was all I could do not to blurt out, I don’t typically read collections of short stories, but yours were great.

I guess in the long run it’s not important if you are inspired by the art or the artist. The important thing is finding a reason to expose yourself to new ideas or experiences. Oh – and don’t judge a book by its cover.

Standing out in the crowd

by Allie P., posted in Indie book promotion, Life as I know it

I am what some may call vertically challenged. For this reason standing out in a crowd has always been somewhat difficult for me.

My husband towers over a foot above me, which has proven helpful time and time again. He might have difficulty finding me, but at least I can see him. During the past few times we ventured out for New Years citywide celebrations, I’ve chosen to wear distinctive hats to help him better identify me in the masses. It is a strategy that may have helped us reduce the number of times we have to text our locations, if separated, like a grown up version of the Marco Polo, but I am still working on finding my ‘distinctive hat’ for the book crowd.

Helvetica cattle
Helvetica cattle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is a fairly well known book on marketing called The Purple Cow which deals with the importance of finding some way to separate your product from the dozens others like it in a way that is unexpected or otherwise remarkable. By its logic, I might be able to bring attention to my book in the brick and mortar store if I had the pages printed in orange or had the book printed and bound in the shape of a triangle. Better yet, I could replace the cover altogether with an OLED and animate the thing! Can you even imagine how awful the bookstore experience would be if the shelves were turned into a tiny climate controlled version of Times Square? It is going to happen. Start shopping for sunglasses now.

English: Broadway show billboards at the corne...

Unfortunately the same tactics won’t work for the e-book – unless retail websites and eReaders start allowing animated gifs as cover art. But until then, what can be done to better distinguish an e-book from the thousands of others when they all will be displayed on nearly the same medium? Yes, I could manipulate the price as an attention – for example drop it from $3.99 to something oddly specific like $3.76, but that might impact long term brand value.

One I saw is to bundle your e-book. As I only have a single published novel to my name, that would be some feat to pull off. I guess I could do that by forming some partnership with another equally new author in a symbiotic alliance. Debut Authors Assemble!

Until then, I’ll keep working on trying to find the neglected market and growing my reviews.

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Getting on the Shelf

by Allie P., posted in Book Stuff and Publishing News, Indie book promotion, Life as I know it

Image

Up until now, my strategy with regards to book sales had been nearly completely focused on electronic sales. I had heard so many stories about how difficult it was for the self-published author to get shelf space within the traditional brick and mortar store that it just wasn’t an avenue that I thought would be worth my time to pursue. Besides, I positively adore my e-reader, it is the wave of the future right???

Well e-readers may still be the wave of the future, but the feedback I received from the working mothers I met at the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce (or other online poll results) is anything to go on, I did need to give brick and mortar a second chance.

Luckily my neck of the woods boasts one of state’s, if not nation’s top independent book stores, Quail Ridge Books and Music.

Rather than being blown off, I was invited to sit by the fireplace and pitch my story while I was told about their impressive history, and their fierce independent spirit. As a result I am thrilled to report that by the end of the week, my novel, An Uncertain Faith, will be rubbing bookends with other local authors in their Southern Fiction section.

This store is also known for their numerous author events, so getting on their packed calendar is going to be a goal for 2014.

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Supporting other indie authors!

by Allie P., posted in Indie book promotion

The Zombie AxiomGoodreads has a number of groups which are free to join, and I happened upon a group called Pure Indie Promotion. The rules are simple: A group member’s work is selected for promotion, then all group members do what they can to help improve the visibility of this work in the hopes that their work might be selected next. I am more than happy to do my part as it is very difficult to get noticed when there are so many other books out there with larger marketing budgets than available to most indie authors.

This week the group is featuring a book called The Zombie Axiom by David Monette (http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Axiom-Time-Dead-ebook/dp/B00FJDF2DS/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1381484812). Halloween might be over, but I still enjoy the occasional zombie fix (unfortunately I missed The Walking Dead this week) and this book has alien’s to boot! I am adding this book to my rapidly expanding “to read” shelf, and may review it at a later date.

Did you know that there is a real risk of a zombie epidemic rooted in science? It seems that there is a bacteria that infects and takes over the bodily functions of a caterpillar, causing them to climb high up into the tree top where their bodies dissolve until they ultimately plummet back down to the ground in a pile of goo, repeating the process by infecting healthy hosts. For the other comic book nerds out there, think of Venon from Spiderman. You get the idea.

Could you have gone your entire life without knowing this? Probably.

Should we be worried that the bacteria could evolve and impact more developed organisms? Maybe.

Want to think about something else now? Should you pick up a book by an indie author to read? Definitely.

If you are an indie author, and if you help promote my book, I’ll help promote yours.

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