Networking With Other Authors
The best assets you can utilize are other authors. Not just for information or reviews, but for getting the word out about your books.There are quite a few ways to join together and reach a much greater audience. Here's just a few:
Reviews - Sounds easy. I read your book and post a review on Amazon. Big Deal, what does that get me?
Shares & Retweets If you share, they will share
A perfect example of this just happened tonight. I posted my book link in a promo group on Facebook. I admit it, I was going down the list of 100 promo groups with the "drop and run" mentality. But hey, they are promo groups, that is what they are for. I got a notification that someone shared my book post on his profile. I did not know him, but he shared my book because he liked the premise and cover-- with his 1700 friends. We only have 11 friends in common. That means I got FREE promotion to almost 1700 people I don't know, and probably never heard of me or my books. You know what happened almost immediately? Comments on his share-- "I'm so getting that!" THAT is consideration, that is team work. Keep in mind, if no one "shares" your Facebook posts, they are rarely seen from a public page. That is why the "like for like" does not work.
To reciprocate, I'm going to plug him right here, just to show how this kind of thing works.
Then keep scrolling down the page for more info....
- Reviews
- Shares/Retweets
- Widgets
- Anthologies/E magazines
- Blog Spotlights
- Kindle Unlimited
- Front/Back Matter Promotions
- Buy Swaps for 99 cents
Reviews - Sounds easy. I read your book and post a review on Amazon. Big Deal, what does that get me?
- Well, the first thing you do is change your Amazon reviewer profile. My Amazon profile says "Author Rhoda D'Ettore".
- The next thing you do is review for authors in your own genre. Why? Because their readers can easily become YOUR readers, with just a click of a button from a curious reader-- who reads the reviews-- and buys books in your genre.
- So be sure to put thought into your reviews. Use proper punctuation and grammar. Proof it. If someone sees it and thinks you are interesting, funny, and intelligent they are going to want to know more about your books.
- Post your review of the author's book on as many Amazon sites as possible, B&N, Goodreads, Twitter & Facebook. Not only does this get YOUR name in all these places, but author is going to appreciate and love your review and Retweet and Share it on their page to thousand of people you could never reach (unless the book really sucked-- in that case... well.. i write about that later). It sounds like a lot of work, but Goodreads has an option where it will post reviews you write to your Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads blog.
- If you review other authors, other authors will review for you. It is a common courtesy, we are all in the same boat. It is a total myth that Indie author's reviews are all by friends and family. LIE! I can honestly say I have sold hundreds of books to people I have known for years, most of my life even, and only ONE person offered to review the book for me. Not one member of my family has done so either. (And they haven't read my books, so it's not cause they suck).
Shares & Retweets If you share, they will share
A perfect example of this just happened tonight. I posted my book link in a promo group on Facebook. I admit it, I was going down the list of 100 promo groups with the "drop and run" mentality. But hey, they are promo groups, that is what they are for. I got a notification that someone shared my book post on his profile. I did not know him, but he shared my book because he liked the premise and cover-- with his 1700 friends. We only have 11 friends in common. That means I got FREE promotion to almost 1700 people I don't know, and probably never heard of me or my books. You know what happened almost immediately? Comments on his share-- "I'm so getting that!" THAT is consideration, that is team work. Keep in mind, if no one "shares" your Facebook posts, they are rarely seen from a public page. That is why the "like for like" does not work.
To reciprocate, I'm going to plug him right here, just to show how this kind of thing works.
Then keep scrolling down the page for more info....
Tweeting Hashtags for Authors
I wrote about this a bit, but got a few questions, so here goes..... Hashtags are basically a subject of interest. If you think it as a thread, and everyone using that thread then sees the all the messages with that hashtag, it is easier to understand. There are literally millions of hashtags and you can make them yourself. But unless someone is looking for that subject, they won't see it.
For example: Hello! I'm #RhodaDettore and I want you to buy my book
Because the hashtag is my name, no one is going to see it.... (I'm really depressed now at my lack of popularity lol).
But... If I write: Tower of Tears is a #histfic #novel on #nook and #kindle on #FREE on #kindleunlimied (insert amazon link) then guess what? literally thousands of people are going to see it.. because the message is going into the thread/conversation for EACH of those hashtags. So the more Hashtags you use, the more people you reach. Discover the hashtags for your genre.
Also, check out the "Trending" hashtags cause millions of people are using them at the moment.
Then people viewing those tags will see you and follow you.. and even Retweet you.
Popular Hashtags for authors:
#IARTG - Everyone who uses the next few tags retweets any message with this tag
#EARTG - Erotic Author Retweet Group
#IAN1 - Independent Author Network -
#ASMSG - Author Social Media Support Group
#BYNR - Be Your Next Read - to get readers
#amreading - This is where reader hang out and talk about books
#amwriting - This is an author thread, but authors are readers too!
#histfic - Historical fiction
#romance or #romancenovel
#novel, #shortstory, #nook, #kindle, #kindleunlimited, #kindlecountdown
#audiobook, #ebook, #suspense
#blog, #blogging, #sundayblogshare, #giveaway
You get the picture. On the search bar, type # and a subject that pertains to you/your books.
Widgets or Gadgets - These are inserts you use to add to your blog.
Goodreads, Amazon, Twitter all have HTML codes you copy/paste and it links your page to theirs.
Example: Log into Goodreads then EDIT PROFILE
on the top of their will be tabs, hit WIDGET and it will give you a bunch to choose from.
These widgets are from Goodreads, and they will update as I keep reviewing books. If you look in my blog page, you will see I have one for my products from Amazon and one for Twitter as well as the Goodreads. Because they are HTML, they are customizable with regard to width and height.
But.. think about this. MY widget on MY site is promoting author's whose books I read... you can see the reviews and covers. If you click on the covers/reviews, it takes you to the book on Goodreads. Soooooo... don't you think you want to befriend an author who does this? Puts YOUR book on their site?
I wrote about this a bit, but got a few questions, so here goes..... Hashtags are basically a subject of interest. If you think it as a thread, and everyone using that thread then sees the all the messages with that hashtag, it is easier to understand. There are literally millions of hashtags and you can make them yourself. But unless someone is looking for that subject, they won't see it.
For example: Hello! I'm #RhodaDettore and I want you to buy my book
Because the hashtag is my name, no one is going to see it.... (I'm really depressed now at my lack of popularity lol).
But... If I write: Tower of Tears is a #histfic #novel on #nook and #kindle on #FREE on #kindleunlimied (insert amazon link) then guess what? literally thousands of people are going to see it.. because the message is going into the thread/conversation for EACH of those hashtags. So the more Hashtags you use, the more people you reach. Discover the hashtags for your genre.
Also, check out the "Trending" hashtags cause millions of people are using them at the moment.
Then people viewing those tags will see you and follow you.. and even Retweet you.
Popular Hashtags for authors:
#IARTG - Everyone who uses the next few tags retweets any message with this tag
#EARTG - Erotic Author Retweet Group
#IAN1 - Independent Author Network -
#ASMSG - Author Social Media Support Group
#BYNR - Be Your Next Read - to get readers
#amreading - This is where reader hang out and talk about books
#amwriting - This is an author thread, but authors are readers too!
#histfic - Historical fiction
#romance or #romancenovel
#novel, #shortstory, #nook, #kindle, #kindleunlimited, #kindlecountdown
#audiobook, #ebook, #suspense
#blog, #blogging, #sundayblogshare, #giveaway
You get the picture. On the search bar, type # and a subject that pertains to you/your books.
Widgets or Gadgets - These are inserts you use to add to your blog.
Goodreads, Amazon, Twitter all have HTML codes you copy/paste and it links your page to theirs.
Example: Log into Goodreads then EDIT PROFILE
on the top of their will be tabs, hit WIDGET and it will give you a bunch to choose from.
These widgets are from Goodreads, and they will update as I keep reviewing books. If you look in my blog page, you will see I have one for my products from Amazon and one for Twitter as well as the Goodreads. Because they are HTML, they are customizable with regard to width and height.
But.. think about this. MY widget on MY site is promoting author's whose books I read... you can see the reviews and covers. If you click on the covers/reviews, it takes you to the book on Goodreads. Soooooo... don't you think you want to befriend an author who does this? Puts YOUR book on their site?
Rhoda's books
This is the first work by P. A. Ruddock I have read. It's a great collection of short stories, some only a couple pages. I was so pleasantly surprised that before I finished the first story, I was already posting on Facebook about how a ...
This book was recommended to me by a friend, but I put it off because of the post apocalyptic genre. When I think of those kinds of stories, I think zombies eating people or Mad Max/Waterworld type of extreme futuristic elements that bar...
Friendship: How to Make Friends Easily, An Introvert's Guide to Building Strong Lifelong Friendships
This book interested me because as an extrovert, I often forget how hard it might be for some people to socialize. Some people are nervous or reserved and therefore find it more difficult to interact or make true connections. Some of the...
The first line of the books says "There are millions of fitness books out there so what makes this one so different?" This is an excellent first line as the author then begins to explain that you do not need pricey health club membership...
This is a great book about our changing values of societal acceptance. When Bebe is first asked "what is a family" the immediate response was "Mother, Father, kids".. but the book explores many different familial situations including ado...
If you want to read some great advice from a terrific author, click the button above. He talks about traditional vs self publishing, the writing process, writing great blurbs. He also has some inspirational tales to tell.
His marketing is a little controversial with some readers. He splits a book in half or thirds, then gives the first part away for free on Amazon. Some readers love it because they would rather get to try out the author/story before buying. Others hate it and think it is a cheap marketing tactic to force higher sales. Either way, his "perma-free" (permanently free) books are at the top of the Free download lists, which gives him great exposure. Then the reader gets hooked on the freebie and must buy the second half of the story to get the ending. |
Author Central
on Amazon Author Central on Amazon is an author profile page where you can post a bio, your picture, your Twitter widget, your blog. all your books.. and get this... Readers can "follow" you. So when your next book comes out, Amazon alerts them. Readers you did not even know you had. So keeping that up to date is important. You can also post Youtube videos and book trailers!
Author Mike WellsHere's a perfect example of why you need to communicate and not just do the "buy my book" strategy. I kept seeing this guy Mike Wells all over. Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads. After a few months, we started chatting on Twitter and he gave me SO much great info. Even has a terrific story about how his first book wound up in the garbage, then became a best seller--without him even knowing it!
Anyway, I saw a blog post on twitter about him one day and saw he was on the "Top 50 Best Forensics/Crime Writers of 2014" with Patricia Cornwell. WHAT?? This guy was talking to me? Who is he? I wanted to die. He was an Oxford Professor of Creative Writing, had 100,000 followers, wrote 30 some odd books... and was chatting with me and my 300 followers. Then I realized, "Hey, HE found me. That means I'm getting out there." I downloaded his books, and wrote a couple reviews..and he started Tweeting me to his 100,000 followers! |
Anthologies & E- Magazines
Collaborating with a group of authors on an anthology or E Magazine can be awesome. The Facebook group I admin put together an anthology and two issues of a magazine. Between over 5,000 people have viewed then from December and January, and the numbers are still climbing. The magazine is FREE - and with all the authors promoting it, I think we did a great job getting out to people.
Collaborating with a group of authors on an anthology or E Magazine can be awesome. The Facebook group I admin put together an anthology and two issues of a magazine. Between over 5,000 people have viewed then from December and January, and the numbers are still climbing. The magazine is FREE - and with all the authors promoting it, I think we did a great job getting out to people.
Blog Tours & Author Spotlights
Authors always get excited about blog tour companies who are offer these great packages. "For only $99 we will Blitz your Book on 10 blogs for 1 day. Or "$300 for 4 weeks, 20 blogs"
That all sounds great to a new author. Instant fame and glory, targeted to your genre audience, right? No. I've done some real research into some of these tour companies. Many of them do not do any sort of research into a blog that applies for them. Bloggers sign up, thinking the tour company would be sending them traffic. The tour company wants the bloggers because they want the customer's money. The tour company does not check the Alexa rating to see if the blog even gets traffic! I kid you not. When I first started blogging, I applied to FIVE tour companies. Some of them were not even my genre. Four of the five approved me. I got less than 20 visitors a day at the time. I did not go through with it, it was a test to see what kind of companies they were. And they were the kind of company that would take the author's $300 and not care if the author got any exposure at all. I did a 4 week blog tour at a company whose blogs were rated very high. My sales did not improve at all. :(
So what do you do then? Create your own FREE blog tour. As authors you know if they will promote you during a particular week. Send them your bio, cover, author pic, blurbs, sample chapter.. whatever they allow. Look on the Goodreads & Facebook blog groups. Check ou the blog hashtags. Blogging authors would rather have you email them with stuff they can copy/paste, than to take time away from writing/promoting. BUT... we need to blog.. to build traffic... to get readers.
Kindle Unlimited - Take advantage of it!!
All those great things I just said earlier about reviewing for authors? Here's an even better one. Kindle Unlimited (US only) offers a FREE 30 day trial. You can "borrow" up to 10 books at a time, and once you read 10%, it counts as a sale for the author.But why should I care? Because if you use the KU to review other authors, they get paid. If they use it to review, you get paid-- but you have to have a book in KU to do it.
The breakdown - My $2.99 book was steady. I got $2.00 per sale. It does best at 99 cents, but at 35% royalties instead of 70%. So I was making 35 cents per sale. The book moved up the ranks, but I made nothing. So I put it on KU. I'm getting the same amount of downloads as the 99 cent price, but with KU, I can expect to get paid between $1.20 - $1.90 per download. The borrows still push the book up the rank, and KU users do not feel uneasy about trying a new author. I only did one 90 day period on Kindle Select in the past, and hated it. But things are looking up. AND.. my book is climbing the charts again.
Front & Back Matter
I suggested before that you put your links, free chapters to other books and a request for reviews in your back matter of your book. However, something I stumbled upon was the front matter. I wanted to look all professional and have reviews of my other book in the front of my new book. I figured I would promote a couple of the authors who reviews me. When I uploaded my book to KDP, my book not only showed up on the search for Rhoda D'Ettore, but also showed up on the search for the other author! So under all of his books was mine. It said "author Rhoda D'Ettore front matter John Reinhard Dizon". When I saw that, I thought.. WOW.. this Dizon guy has written 20 some odd books (great author btw).. and now my book is linked ot him. But my readers were seeing him in my book (and I linked his name in my book to his Facebook & Twitter). Win/Win!!!
My suggestion? Find authors in your genre who are willing to do this type of thing. At the end of your books write "If you enjoyed this book.. you may also enjoy... this author".
99 Cent Buy Swaps
There are groups out there who will do a "Swap". The authors all put their books at 99 cents, then all buy each other's books. So in a group of 25 authors, I will spend $24, get 24 sales, get 35% back in royalties. What is the advantage? Big deal! Well, The advantage is that it sends your book up the ranks of Amazon and makes you more visible. Plus, if any of the authors review your book, it is now a verified purchase on the review-- it looks more credible.
BUT... you need to know something about Kindle ranking to understand the effectiveness of this.
Amazon is not only genre based but sub-genre based. Therefore, you can have a book that is ranked #104,000 in paid Kindle sales, yet in its sub genre it is in the top 100. My Newborn Nazi is listed hit #56 in the Thrillers catergory... only 5 away from James Patterson's Alex Cross' Trial. So anyone scanning the top books saw mine.. in the thrillers. :)
The video below discusses the genre and sub-genres. Something interesting is that the KDP Calculator has been removed from the internet... I used it in February for one of my promotions, so I know it was there.
Paid Advertising / Promotions
Where to go? and for how much?
There are two places that truly make a difference, one is extremely expensive the other is really cheap, considering. Both target your genre, and have to "approve" of your book. Tower of Tears was accepted, Newborn Nazi was rejected. They require you have a certain number of reviews of a certain rating. Someone told me I probably got rejected due to the title and cover. Oh well.. my one book did great lol.
The less expensive one is Ereader News Today
I paid $25 for a one day ad for December 22. I normally had about 5-10 sales a day. Between Dec 22 - Dec 25 I had over 400 downloads, and a nice bump for about a month over normal. The down side? They want your book to be Free or 99 cents. The upside, I got tons of exposure and a book that had gone downhill went rocking back up the charts. It hit #4 in in its sub genre and #9000 in the top paid sales. A long way from the big 100.. but hey.. I was told I would never sell more than 50 books. Some told me I would never sell even ONE! ERNT has a couple different promotions... one is $60 and one is $25 ish (price determined by genre). You get downloads because they are targeting your audience by genre.
Authors always get excited about blog tour companies who are offer these great packages. "For only $99 we will Blitz your Book on 10 blogs for 1 day. Or "$300 for 4 weeks, 20 blogs"
That all sounds great to a new author. Instant fame and glory, targeted to your genre audience, right? No. I've done some real research into some of these tour companies. Many of them do not do any sort of research into a blog that applies for them. Bloggers sign up, thinking the tour company would be sending them traffic. The tour company wants the bloggers because they want the customer's money. The tour company does not check the Alexa rating to see if the blog even gets traffic! I kid you not. When I first started blogging, I applied to FIVE tour companies. Some of them were not even my genre. Four of the five approved me. I got less than 20 visitors a day at the time. I did not go through with it, it was a test to see what kind of companies they were. And they were the kind of company that would take the author's $300 and not care if the author got any exposure at all. I did a 4 week blog tour at a company whose blogs were rated very high. My sales did not improve at all. :(
So what do you do then? Create your own FREE blog tour. As authors you know if they will promote you during a particular week. Send them your bio, cover, author pic, blurbs, sample chapter.. whatever they allow. Look on the Goodreads & Facebook blog groups. Check ou the blog hashtags. Blogging authors would rather have you email them with stuff they can copy/paste, than to take time away from writing/promoting. BUT... we need to blog.. to build traffic... to get readers.
Kindle Unlimited - Take advantage of it!!
All those great things I just said earlier about reviewing for authors? Here's an even better one. Kindle Unlimited (US only) offers a FREE 30 day trial. You can "borrow" up to 10 books at a time, and once you read 10%, it counts as a sale for the author.But why should I care? Because if you use the KU to review other authors, they get paid. If they use it to review, you get paid-- but you have to have a book in KU to do it.
The breakdown - My $2.99 book was steady. I got $2.00 per sale. It does best at 99 cents, but at 35% royalties instead of 70%. So I was making 35 cents per sale. The book moved up the ranks, but I made nothing. So I put it on KU. I'm getting the same amount of downloads as the 99 cent price, but with KU, I can expect to get paid between $1.20 - $1.90 per download. The borrows still push the book up the rank, and KU users do not feel uneasy about trying a new author. I only did one 90 day period on Kindle Select in the past, and hated it. But things are looking up. AND.. my book is climbing the charts again.
Front & Back Matter
I suggested before that you put your links, free chapters to other books and a request for reviews in your back matter of your book. However, something I stumbled upon was the front matter. I wanted to look all professional and have reviews of my other book in the front of my new book. I figured I would promote a couple of the authors who reviews me. When I uploaded my book to KDP, my book not only showed up on the search for Rhoda D'Ettore, but also showed up on the search for the other author! So under all of his books was mine. It said "author Rhoda D'Ettore front matter John Reinhard Dizon". When I saw that, I thought.. WOW.. this Dizon guy has written 20 some odd books (great author btw).. and now my book is linked ot him. But my readers were seeing him in my book (and I linked his name in my book to his Facebook & Twitter). Win/Win!!!
My suggestion? Find authors in your genre who are willing to do this type of thing. At the end of your books write "If you enjoyed this book.. you may also enjoy... this author".
99 Cent Buy Swaps
There are groups out there who will do a "Swap". The authors all put their books at 99 cents, then all buy each other's books. So in a group of 25 authors, I will spend $24, get 24 sales, get 35% back in royalties. What is the advantage? Big deal! Well, The advantage is that it sends your book up the ranks of Amazon and makes you more visible. Plus, if any of the authors review your book, it is now a verified purchase on the review-- it looks more credible.
BUT... you need to know something about Kindle ranking to understand the effectiveness of this.
Amazon is not only genre based but sub-genre based. Therefore, you can have a book that is ranked #104,000 in paid Kindle sales, yet in its sub genre it is in the top 100. My Newborn Nazi is listed hit #56 in the Thrillers catergory... only 5 away from James Patterson's Alex Cross' Trial. So anyone scanning the top books saw mine.. in the thrillers. :)
The video below discusses the genre and sub-genres. Something interesting is that the KDP Calculator has been removed from the internet... I used it in February for one of my promotions, so I know it was there.
Paid Advertising / Promotions
Where to go? and for how much?
There are two places that truly make a difference, one is extremely expensive the other is really cheap, considering. Both target your genre, and have to "approve" of your book. Tower of Tears was accepted, Newborn Nazi was rejected. They require you have a certain number of reviews of a certain rating. Someone told me I probably got rejected due to the title and cover. Oh well.. my one book did great lol.
The less expensive one is Ereader News Today
I paid $25 for a one day ad for December 22. I normally had about 5-10 sales a day. Between Dec 22 - Dec 25 I had over 400 downloads, and a nice bump for about a month over normal. The down side? They want your book to be Free or 99 cents. The upside, I got tons of exposure and a book that had gone downhill went rocking back up the charts. It hit #4 in in its sub genre and #9000 in the top paid sales. A long way from the big 100.. but hey.. I was told I would never sell more than 50 books. Some told me I would never sell even ONE! ERNT has a couple different promotions... one is $60 and one is $25 ish (price determined by genre). You get downloads because they are targeting your audience by genre.
Bookbub is the creme de la creme. For my category, one day of advertising would be $800. But I'm told by authors they usually make back three to four times what they put out, then they get reviews from it. So again, win/win.
Something else I have learned is that the more you need to keep writing. one site said that authors who first publish at least five books at one time do best. Why? Because if they hook a reader in, that reader will buy the other four books. If you only publish one, and I love your book.. how long will it take for me to get your next one? What about those people who only write one book? Publish as many as you can at once, then by the time your "hooked" readers get through your books, you can have your next one ready for them. :)
Hang in there.. I have only been doing this for a year, but I'm happy where I am.
Please share my site with others, and check out my blog for a good laugh with my "Short & Silly" posts.
Something else I have learned is that the more you need to keep writing. one site said that authors who first publish at least five books at one time do best. Why? Because if they hook a reader in, that reader will buy the other four books. If you only publish one, and I love your book.. how long will it take for me to get your next one? What about those people who only write one book? Publish as many as you can at once, then by the time your "hooked" readers get through your books, you can have your next one ready for them. :)
Hang in there.. I have only been doing this for a year, but I'm happy where I am.
Please share my site with others, and check out my blog for a good laugh with my "Short & Silly" posts.