Category authors

Oct 14 2013

The Importance of Feedback on Marketability, Pre-Marketing, and Marketing

Feedback is important for both marketability and marketing.

Let me illustrate this with Read Tuesday.

There are four reasons that I’ve been seeking feedback on many stages of the development of Read Tuesday:

  • Marketability. Feedback from members of the target audience helps you assess your product’s marketability in addition to possibly giving you useful ideas or pointing out the need for revisions. This is something that every author should do with every book.
  • Pre-marketing. As you’re putting your next book together, if you seek input for the title, cover reveal, draft of a blurb, draft of the Look Inside portion, and so on before you publish, this helps to build buzz for your book.
  • Marketing: If your interactions involve other authors, publishers, editors, publicists, etc., in the process of receiving feedback, you may also establish useful leads and connections. This may lead to blog interviews, reblogs, and many other forms of help, especially if they like your idea or feel that they have become involved in the process.
  • Content: In my case, it provides some examples of things that authors can do with their own marketing. Many of the ideas you see going into Read Tuesday are things you might consider for your own marketing.

So keep these things in mind with your own books, and when you see me request feedback, consider how it might relate to your marketing.

I actually have a fifth reason. We’re all in Read Tuesday together. I want this to be inclusive, rather than exclusive. While I can’t use every idea, I do consider every idea, and I have tried to incorporate most of the ideas I’ve received. I value everybody’s input. This fifth reason doesn’t apply to writing books. Most good stories weren’t written democratically like this. So you probably don’t want to borrow my fifth reason, at least in regards to authorship.

I’m working on a press release kit for Read Tuesday, and I’m also thinking of other ways to show the Read Tuesday catalog. So this post offers another chance for anybody to provide feedback, ideas, suggestions, etc.

The main thing I’m looking for with the press release (however, feel free to share ideas for any part of it) is a sample of participation. I don’t want to leak pricing information early, but it may be helpful to show samples of authors or books that will be participating. The big problem is which books or authors to feature.

Naturally, every author should want to be featured. I could feature a different set of authors in different press releases, but I can’t include every author. So how do I choose? There are many ways this could be done. If you have ideas, I’ll consider them.

You can use the Contact Us form on Read Tuesday (or just click on my Gravatar on the sidebar and email me) if you’d like me to consider using your book. So far, very few authors have used the Contact Us forms, so if this continues as usual, your chances would be very good this way. 🙂

Also, do you have suggestions for the Read Tuesday catalog? You can check it out on the Read Tuesday website. I’ve only posted the very preliminary book catalog of the first books to sign up. I need to update it, and I also haven’t added the author catalog yet.

What I see on my end is a spreadsheet. I can sort it by genre or other information that was entered into the catalog. I didn’t include every column on the preliminary catalog, so there are a couple of things that I can add to it. If you have ideas for how the catalog could be better and it turns out to be fairly easy to implement it, please let me know.

Once the catalog grows large enough, I will probably post subcatalogs on different pages—e.g. one page for children’s fiction, or even one page for mystery if the list is long enough. I think this will help with organization (along with a menu).

If you haven’t already filled out the Google Docs forms to add yourself and books to the catalog, it’s not too late to do it. Remember, you don’t have to worry about price at this stage. Just click on the Author link on the Read Tuesday website to find the forms. It’s easy. (But if you have any issues, please let me know.)

Chris McMullen, author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers, Vol. 1 (formatting/publishing) and Vol. 2 (packaging/marketing)

Oct 13 2013

Readers and Authors, What Constitutes Self-Promotion?

Self Promo

This is an important issue for both readers and authors. Authors know they need to be discovered through marketing, and so readers come across countless attempts by authors to get their books discovered by them.

At the same time, it isn’t easy for readers to navigate through hundreds of thousands of books to discover those few that most interest them. Authors want to be discovered, and readers want to discover books they will enjoy. Successful marketing helps readers find books that are likely to be a good fit for them. This helps readers. In contrast, ineffective marketing can be quite a nuisance, and distracts readers from the opportunity to discover books that are likely to interest them.

The most obvious attempts by authors to get discovered by readers come in the form of spam, where an author repeatedly posts about the book with high frequency. Many authors realize that this is more likely to develop a bad reputation or simply be ignored than it is to succeed. It’s also prohibited on most forums and online platforms if done too frequently.

There is a danger in being branded as an annoying insect if posting too frequently on social media platforms. Borderline spamming might get the title or author name out there for possible branding—“I recognize this book,” or, “This must be a big-name author because I see that name all over the place”—but it’s also likely to be tuned out or to brand a negative image—“I hate that author for spamming the boards all the time,” or, “I think I’ll click that Unfollow button so I can find the posts I like.”

One step down from spamming the board is explicit self-promotion. For example, “Hello, I just wrote a book called Best Book Ever by Self Promoter. Please buy it.”

Some community forums—like the Amazon customer discussions (which attract some authors because they expect to find customers there, but may not be the ideal place to get a book discovered)—don’t allow explicit self-promotion like this. Even where explicit self-promotion is permitted, it’s often frowned upon by various (and sometimes outspoken) community members.

Aside from this, explicit self-promotion has the problems of overt advertising. Most people prefer to avoid commercials. We put up with commercials on television, radio, and magazines for lack of a free alternative (though you can pay for commercial-free alternatives). Except when you need a bathroom break in the middle of a movie, you usually aren’t pleased to have your show interrupted. (If you want to shout “Infomercial,” I’ll grant you a point.)

On the other hand, some level of self-promotion is what authors need to do. Spam and explicit self-promotion to the point that it seems that your post served no other purpose may not be in your best interest even where they are allowed. However, if you want to be discovered, you do need to promote yourself in some way.

Effective marketing requires visibility among your target audience. You need your target audience to see your book cover and read or hear your book’s title and your name for branding to do its work.

Essentially, this is self-promotion. You’re trying to get discovered. You have to tell people about your book for this to happen. Yet spam and too much self-promotion can backfire.

The trick is to get discovered in a way that doesn’t come across as self-promotion.

This begs the question: Exactly what do people perceive as self-promotion? Part of the problem is that everybody doesn’t agree on the answer.

Following are a few suggestions to help judge this:

  • Does it seem like you are present mainly just to promote your book? Or are you providing relevant and meaningful contributions?
  • Does the mention of your book seem out of place? Or are you mentioning your book at your own site, or to establish your expertise or experience as an author, or to provide a reference to relevant content?
  • Does it look like you’re trying to grab everyone’s attention? Or does it seem like you’re just hoping to get discovered by those who enjoy interacting with you. (For example, it could be the distinction between coming right out and telling anyone about your book versus mentioning this when asked or only offering this information in your profile.)
  • Is your book irrelevant for much of the audience? Or does your audience closely coincide with the target audience for your book?

Context is important, too. If you’re running a special one-day sale, you want to get the word out, and people in your target audience may be grateful for the discount. Also, more self-promotion is to be expected on your own turf than otherwise (but posting too much about yourself isn’t as likely to attract an audience as providing meaningful content for your target audience).

Self-promotion isn’t just an issue online. It’s also important when interacting in person.

How do you feel about self-promotion as a reader or as an author? How do you define the line between what’s acceptable and what’s not? Do you think there is a type of self-promotion that needs to be done, but another type of self-promotion that should be avoided? What kinds of marketing do you consider not to be self-promotion?

Well, we’ve reached the end of this post so I better mention my book now. I might as well promote Read Tuesday while I’m at it. 🙂

Chris McMullen, author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers, Vol. 1 (formatting/publishing) and Vol. 2 (packaging/marketing)

Read Tuesday: It’s going to be HUGE!

Oct 13 2013

Need Help with Read Tuesday News Story

I wrote a news story about Read Tuesday, with hopes to get the article some visibility.

I don’t want to post the draft here, for the benefit of whatever news agency or site may be willing to publish it—i.e. they can be the first to reveal it. However, I will try to briefly describe what this story does. If and when it gets posted somewhere, I’ll provide a link so you can check it out. (Maybe there will be more than one kind of story.)

First, it explains what Read Tuesday is. I emphasized how it will help to spread literacy and reading, which I believe is a good cause. Next, I describe how it’s a coordinated effort among indie authors, made possible by the fact that indies control their prices. I think the fact that it’s not driven by big business, but is unity among indies from around the world, is newsworthy. Finally, I briefly outlined the problem with Black Friday and Cyber Monday in regards to books, explaining how Read Tuesday creates a special sale for book lovers.

I could use a little help. For example, it would be nice to have a few quotes about the event. Some of you have expressed your sentiments about Read Tuesday on your blog, as comments here, and elsewhere. If there is a remark that you wouldn’t mind being included in the news story (and I’ll mention your name and briefly your qualifications, e.g. indie author of Your Book—I’ll let you decide how you’d like this to appear), please let me know. I think the news will be better if it reflects more than just one person’s opinion (i.e. mine).

If you have any ideas that I might consider regarding this news story, please feel free to share them.

Feel free to write your own news story. If you get it published somewhere, this could be nice exposure for you (with your name, Author of Your Book, at the bottom).

Chris McMullen, author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers, Vol. 1 (formatting/publishing) and Vol. 2 (packaging/marketing)

Oct 8 2013

Preliminary Read Tuesday Catalogs Coming Soon

It's going to be HUGE!

It’s going to be HUGE!

Misha Burnett wrote a nice article about the importance and ease of gifting in relation to Read Tuesday. We’ll be posting this article tomorrow. The article mentions the Read Tuesday catalog of books, so I’ll be posting a preliminary catalog on the Read Tuesday catalog tomorrow.

If you’d like to get listed in the preliminary catalogs (it’s free!) before I put them up, you still have a window of opportunity.

Link to enroll books in the catalog:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LlEzgrnBWsU0FMsEezTvlvczexv9o2nRN_93i0pJAh8/viewform

Link to enroll authors in the catalog:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13nXp9yRxtC-PUrV_D7zMqmlThUJSKGobKcCRNEtnEG8/viewform

If you encounter any issues with the forms, please let me know.

(There are also additional forms for any small publishers or booksellers who want to show their participation.)

The official Read Tuesday website: www.ReadTuesday.com

Read Tuesday: It’s going to be HUGE!

Give the gift of reading this holiday season.

Chris McMullen

Oct 7 2013

Better Readability at the Read Tuesday Website?

It's going to be HUGE!

It’s going to be HUGE!

For those of you who expressed opinions of the color scheme at the Read Tuesday website, thank you. A common concern was readability. I have tried to improve this without making any drastic changes.

I changed the background to white and the body text to black. I believe it’s more readable now. Please let me know what you think.

Read Tuesday: It’s going to be HUGE!

Give the gift of reading this holiday season.

The official Read Tuesday website: www.ReadTuesday.com

Chris McMullen

Oct 6 2013

Sign-Up Forms for the Read Tuesday Catalog—Now Available

It's going to be HUGE!

It’s going to be HUGE!

Enrollment forms are now available to add books or authors to the Read Tuesday catalogs. If you are an author or small publisher who would like to participate in the event, click on the links below to open and complete the sign-up forms. The first form is to enroll books, while the second is to enroll authors. You don’t need to sign up to participate in Read Tuesday, but you do need to enroll to get into the catalogs. Signing up also helps to show your support for the event.

These are Google Docs forms. Simply click on the link, complete the form (a few questions are optional), and press the submit button. It’s that easy.

If you have more than one book, after you complete the form for one participating book, you’re welcome to reopen the form and submit other books that will be participating on Read Tuesday. (But, of course, only add books that you have the rights to include in the catalog.)

Link to enroll books in the catalog:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LlEzgrnBWsU0FMsEezTvlvczexv9o2nRN_93i0pJAh8/viewform

Link to enroll authors in the catalog:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13nXp9yRxtC-PUrV_D7zMqmlThUJSKGobKcCRNEtnEG8/viewform

If you encounter any issues with the forms, please let me know.

Learn more about Read Tuesday by clicking the link below:

http://readtuesday.com/2013/10/05/read-tuesday-like-black-friday-except-for-book-sales/

Read Tuesday: It’s going to be HUGE!

Give the gift of reading this holiday season.

The official Read Tuesday website: http://www.ReadTuesday.com

Chris McMullen, author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers, Vol. 1 (formatting/publishing) and Vol. 2 (packaging/marketing)

Oct 6 2013

Idea for Big Read Tuesday Publicity—Need Your Help

It's going to be HUGE!

It’s going to be HUGE!

We’re building buzz for a huge Read Tuesday event like Black Friday, but for buying and gifting books, on Tuesday, December 10, 2013.

We have an idea for helping to publicize this event, but we need your help. (You can learn how in a moment.)

There is already much interest and anticipation, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Read Tuesday event has a huge audience:

  • Readers are preparing for the big sale.
  • Gift-givers are looking forward to sharing the gift of reading.
  • Authors see a golden opportunity to promote their own book sales while waving the Read Tuesday flag.
  • It’s also an avenue for small publishers and booksellers to generate more fourth-quarter revenue.

Since indie authors control their own prices and therefore can easily participate, the event should be of great general interest with e-book companies like Kindle Direct Publishing, Smashwords, Apple iBooks, Kobo, Nook, and much more.

So here is the big idea: We need to contact these companies (and more), describe how wonderful this event is shaping up to be, and ask if they can mention Read Tuesday in a newsletter (like the monthly KDP newsletter) or on their websites (it would be a nice fit for Smashwords and many others).

Kathy Steinemann has already contacted Smashwords and suggested that I and others do the same. So give Kathy the credit for this great idea. 🙂

I will be contacting several companies from this list. You can help by also contacting one or more of these companies and placing a request. The more people who contact them, the greater will be their perceived interest in this huge event. There is much interest brewing, and it will be huge. We just need your help to show them.

In addition to describing what Read Tuesday is, why it will interest millions of authors and readers, and why it will benefit these businesses to help spread the word, you can provide a link to the official Read Tuesday website, www.ReadTuesday.com, Twitter site (@ReadTuesday), and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ReadTuesday).

The audience for Read Tuesday is also large enough to interest the media. The more we try to recruit the request of media coverage, the more the media will take notice.

There is also an opportunity here for anyone to write an article about Read Tuesday and get it published. Just imagine the bottom of your article, where it says Your Name, Author of Your Book. It could be a high traffic area relevant to your target audience. (In the absolute worst-case scenario, you can still post the article on your blog or website, so no matter what, your effort won’t be wasted.)

If you get any positive responses from businesses, please share the information here. We can help to spread the word about your success.

If you publish an article or post a video about Read Tuesday (even if it’s on your blog), let us know. We can find a place to post a link, may reblog your post, etc.

If you convince anyone with a big reputation (or have one yourself) to participate on Read Tuesday, please let spread the word. This would help to draw even more interest.

If you persuade any bookstores or small publishers to participate on Read Tuesday, tell them to let us know and we’ll be happy to advertise their participation the Read Tuesday website.

There will also be catalogs to show your participation and to enroll your books. The forms for these are coming soon.

Read Tuesday: It’s going to be HUGE!

Give the gift of reading this holiday season.

The official Read Tuesday website: www.ReadTuesday.com

Learn more about Read Tuesday here: About Read Tuesday

Follow Read Tuesday on Twitter @ReadTuesday

The Read Tuesday FaceBook page: www.facebook.com/ReadTuesday

Authors who would like to participate can learn more about Read Tuesday at Chris McMullen‘s blog: https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/red_tuesday_idea_for_boosting_book_sales/

Chris McMullen, author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers, Vol. 1 (formatting/publishing) and Vol. 2 (packaging/marketing)

Oct 5 2013

The Read Tuesday Website, Twitter, and FaceBook

It's going to be HUGE!

It’s going to be HUGE!

We’ve made some progress with the Read Tuesday website, Twitter (@ReadTuesday), and Facebook page. Although these sites aren’t perfect yet, we need your help with some BIG ideas to help publicize the event (see below).

We want to create buzz for Read Tuesday to help make the event a success. Although December 10 is still two months away, there is significant marketing potential if we can get the ball rolling quickly.

For example, imagine if Smashwords or Kindle took an interest in Read Tuesday, and considered mentioning us somewhere (like in a newsletter or on a website). Or if we want to get media coverage or publish an article somewhere visible. There is a large audience for this material and Read Tuesday will be a HUGE event, so there is much potential here. However, these big ideas require time for big companies to implement. That’s why we want to get the ball rolling quickly.

Suppose we contact these businesses to tell them about Read Tuesday, hoping to earn a little support from them. If they show any interest, the first thing they will do is try to learn a little more about the program.

So the greater the initial support for the event, the better this will look to them.

Here is how you can help:

  • Visit the Read Tuesday website at www.readtuesday.com. I’ll add the counter if at some point there are enough views to generate a little interest.
  • Show your support as a reader, gift-giver, or author. Choose one (or more) of these pages at the Read Tuesday website. Post a brief comment to show what you’re looking forward to.
  • As usual, you can show support via Likes or Follows at the website, Twitter, or FaceBook. There aren’t any posts at any of these sites yet, but that’s because we haven’t built up a following yet. Now that the sites are live, we can build up support.
  • Help spread the word about Read Tuesday. It’s going to be HUGE! (Feel free to use this HUGE line.) You’re welcome to use the images (you can find the full set on the Read Tuesday website). Add one to your sidebar to show support, for example. If you make a post about Read Tuesday, feel free to include one of the images with it.
  • I’ll announce when the participation and catalog forms are available (soon; I’m working on it). Then you can use these forms to show your support and enroll your books. (I’ll also be describing ways that you can participate in a coming post.)

In my next post, I’ll outline ways that we can try to get support for Read Tuesday, such as contacting Smashwords or KDP, the media, or trying to publish articles. The more initial support we can get quickly, the bigger Read Tuesday will look to anyone who checks it out.

In case you haven’t heard, Read Tuesday will be a big day for selling and gifting books, like Black Friday, except for books. You can learn more about Read Tuesday (but note that the name has changed) through the link below:

https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/red_tuesday_idea_for_boosting_book_sales/

I can’t wait for Read Tuesday to get here. It’s going to be HUGE! 🙂

Chris McMullen

Oct 5 2013

Read Tuesday Images Are Here :-)

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In case you haven’t heard, Read Tuesday will be a big day for selling and gifting books, like Black Friday, except for books. You can learn more about Read Tuesday (but note that the name has changed) through the link below:

https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/red_tuesday_idea_for_boosting_book_sales/

Anyone who wishes to participate in the Read Tuesday event, or to help promote it, in a positive way is welcome to use the image above or the images below. 🙂

Melissa Stevens, www.theillustratedauthor.net, artist and cover designer, created these images and has granted us permission to use them in support of Read Tuesday.

You’re welcome to show your support, for example, by adding one of the images below to the sidebar of your blog. You might include a caption like, “It’s going to be HUGE,” or something else you might prefer to help promote the event. Feel free to include a link to the website, www.ReadTuesday.com. It has a picture, but won’t be quite ready for a day or two. We’re working on it.

If you post or write anything about the coming Read Tuesday event, you’re welcome to use one of these images with it. There is an opportunity here for you to promote your own books while simultaneously helping to create buzz for the Read Tuesday event.

The more we use the Read Tuesday images, the more this will help to visually brand the event. If we have any consistency with a phrase like, “It’s going to be HUGE,” it will help to brand that, too.

In coming posts, I will share some suggestions about different ways that authors can participate in the event, ideas for how to help create buzz for Read Tuesday, and other ideas (maybe a couple of big ones—I’ll need your help to pull them off). When the forms become live (for the various catalogs), I will announce this, too.

I also added a Read Tuesday page to my blog here. As you can see, it’s not quite ready yet, either. I’ll post links for Read Tuesday social media pages once they’re ready.

If you check out the Read Tuesday website, www.ReadTuesday.com, please feel free to share comments or suggestions about color, structure, style, theme, etc. (Of course, the text hasn’t yet been adjusted from the default text.)

I included “gold” (yellow) confetti stars on the sides, but I can change that to color stars (and you might find color there when you visit…). Feel free to express your opinions.

You can use the images on some websites by right-clicking the image and copying the link to the image location. If you need the jpeg (including the confetti), please let me know—I can send it by request.

If you make any posts related to Read Tuesday, I encourage you to let me know. We might be able to help spread the word about your post.

I’m looking forward to Read Tuesday. I hope you are, too. 🙂

Chris McMullen

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Oct 4 2013

Read Tuesday Pictures—Last Call for Opinions

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A variety of opinions have been expressed on the possible Read Tuesday images that we can use for the website banner, headers for anyone to use on posts about Read Tuesday, and a logo that anyone can use to show support for Read Tuesday. Hopefully, we can make our final selection after this post. If so, then we will make the image in a few different aspect ratios and let you know as soon as they are ready to be used. Then we’ll launch Read Tuesday (culminating in the actual Read Tuesday on December 10).

I wonder if the picture above might be a fair compromise of the variety of opinions that we received. One big issue that was expressed was not to obscure the date. Of those with stars, these stars seem to be less obtrusive. A couple of comments suggested going with a cleaner look. While not as clean as having no stars, perhaps this is a fair compromise. There was a vote or two for a red bow, but it seemed that there were more votes for gold bows. It’s a challenge to please everyone, but my hope with the Read Tuesday concept is that it would reflect us a whole more than one individual—after all, Read Tuesday is intended to help many authors and readers, not just one person or small group.

What do you think? Will this image work for you?

The Read Tuesday image was designed by Melissa Stevens (www.theillustratedauthor.net).

You can see the alternatives by clicking on the links below:

https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/read-tuesday-pictures-second-try/

https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/read-tuesday-pictures-need-suggestions/

In case you haven’t heard, Read Tuesday will be a big day for selling and gifting books, like Black Friday, except for books. You can learn more about Read Tuesday (but note that the name has changed) through the link below:

https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/09/21/red_tuesday_idea_for_boosting_book_sales/

Chris McMullen