Share the Love and Pay it Forward

I owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to my fellow Sisters in Crime authors who are so generous with their time and advice. This is an incredible gift (especially when I first started my writing journey). They offered great advice on anything from where to get a great headshot to which book events were best for mystery authors.

Here are some thoughts on how you can give or receive help from other authors.

1. If you read someone’s book, leave a review. It doesn’t have to be a dissertation. You can just say something brief like, “I liked this book.” Review numbers do matter in marketing.

2. Recommend your favorite author to your library. Many take book suggestions and add new books to their collection.

3. Like, share, or comment on authors’ social media posts. This helps with marketing and search results.

4. If you’re an author, look for other authors or bloggers who will let you be a guest in their newsletter or on their blog. This spreads your information to a whole new group of readers.

   I have a blog, Pens, Paws, and Claws, and I do #WriterWednesday author interviews about writers and their pets. If you’re interested in a slot, message me.

5. Buy a book for yourself or as a gift. One of my author friends goes to book signings, and she gives the signed book away on her site. There’s a sale involved and some social media publicity. When I buy a book, I usually take a picture of it and post it on social media and tag the author and/or the book store. Indie bookstores need your love and support too!

6. Tell your friends and family about books and authors you like. Word of mouth recommendations are great.

7. Recommend an author’s book to your book club. Many authors will visit or Skype if you ask. I love talking to book groups.

8. Start a “what are you reading today” post on Facebook or Twitter. Tag the author. You’ll be surprised how many people will comment. You’ll get good recommendations, and a lot of social media action.

What else would you add to my list? Happy reading (and don’t forget to leave a review).

Getting Yourself Out There - Where Do I Start?

Not only do you write, but you have a lot to say. How do you find opportunities for author panels, workshops, and other speaking engagements? Note these are often an investment of your time, energy, and money, and you may not get to sell books at every event. But you are meeting people and talking about your work. A lot of times, I see my ebook sales spike after an event. People may not have bought a book at the event, but they did later. Here is what has worked for me.

1. Join a writers’ group. I’m a member of two groups that keep a database of volunteers who will speak to schools, colleges, libraries, and other groups.

2. Offer to speak at book clubs. Get the word out on your website and newsletter that you’ll visit or Skype with book groups. Tell all your reader friends. Contact your library and local book stores to see if they have book groups that would be interested in writer visits.

3. Get to know your librarians. Many are looking for programming ideas, and they need speakers or people to lead workshops. Our mystery group writes a murder script each year for our local library’s fundraiser. They have an event where the audience tries to solve the mystery, and the authors discuss and sign their books.

4. I speak to school groups and English classes because I want to encourage young writers. Usually, this isn’t an opportunity to sell books, but I always have bookmarks, pencils, or swag for each kid.

5. Connect with other writers in your area to see where they do appearances. See what they recommend. This gives you insight into venues, how the events do publicity, and the audience that you can expect.

6. Connect with other writing groups. They often need speakers or instructors for workshops and conferences.

7. If you attend a conference that has panelist opportunities, sign up. I love meeting fellow authors and talking about books. These usually have book signing opportunities too.

8. Google writing events or conferences to see what is offered in your area.

9. Be creative. I’m in several themed anthologies, and we did signings at wineries and wine shows or the book that was wine-themed. We have some pet expo signings lined up for our dog-themed anthology this year.

10. Talk to your friends who are in clubs and organizations. Many of these are looking for speakers for their monthly programming.

If there is a fee to register or a cost to rent a table, you need to weigh the cost and your investment of time. Think about sharing a table with another author to keep the cost down. Also, when I do handouts for workshops and speaking engagements, I always make sure my website, newsletter, and social media links are listed.

13 Things You Should (or Shouldn't) Do on Social Media

I’m doing a workshop next spring on social media, and I’ve been thinking about things that authors should and shouldn’t do on the different platforms. Here’s my list so far.

1. It is a great time saver to link your social media accounts, so that you only have to post once. However, the audiences and their interactions are different on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. For example, some encourage lots of hashtags. If you post a meme to Facebook and it autoposts to Twitter, it shows your comment and a link. Your Twitter followers have no idea what it is unless the open the link. If possible, I think you should tailor the post to the social media platform.

2. Unless you have a REALLY good reason to do so, don’t use the automated direct messaging on social media sites. It’s a quick way to annoy followers. I can’t tell you how many automated DMs I get a week with a link to buy someone’s book.

3. If you’re an author, make sure you follow the 80/20 rule. No more than 20% of your posts (maybe less) should be “buy my book.” People are interested in conversations, building relationships, and interesting content. They’ll tune you out if you blast buy my book messages constantly.

4. Try to be timely with your social media responses. It’s odd when someone responds to a post or comment from months ago.

5. Avoid posting things that aren’t meaningful or interesting. Some cleanup applications will post after you clean up non-followers. The post will read something like, “I deleted 115 followers and added 38 today.” These are only advertisements for the cleanup app.

6. Do not respond to negative reviews. Don’t get into a social media battle. It’s public, and once it’s out there, it’s hard to clean up. You are your brand. Be careful not to damage it.

7. Think before you post something. Don’t respond to someone in anger. You can delete it, but it may not be gone forever. Old tweets and posts can come back to haunt you.

8. If someone posts something negative on your site, you need to monitor it and decide whether to delete it. I facilitate several group sites, and we have to review posts from time to time to make sure they represent the views of the group.

9. Don’t be a leech. Authors will often post something about their book on their sites or blog, and another author will comment with links to his/her book. Only include your information if there is an invitation to share links. Don’t hijack someone else’s post.

10. Help others celebrate. If there is a cover reveal or a new book, share it.

11. If you’re struggling to find things to share, post a picture or information about interesting places or events you’ve attended. If you’re at another author’s event, post a picture of him/her and the book. Make sure to tag others. If you have pets, include them.

12. People love to see that you’ve tagged them, and often they will comment or share the post. This helps both of you with your social media reach.

13. If you’re using a picture of others, make sure that it’s flattering. I have one friend who never looks at the picture closely. No one wants to be the one with his/her eyes closed in the group picture.

What else would you add to my list? Any social media pet peeves?

Swag for Book Promotions

Everybody loves free stuff! What do you give away at events or as prizes? There are so many items out there that you can personalize. Here’s what I’ve learned along the way.

Shipping - If you are mailing your swag, be careful that what you buy is easy (and cheap) to ship. My author friend bought cute mugs with her book cover on them. But the cost to wrap and ship was outrageous.

And if you’re mailing prizes, make sure that you specify the mailing area. It’s costly if you have to mail items overseas and complete custom forms.

My author friend, Tina Glasneck, said to make sure that your prizes always fit in a standard envelope.

Themes - I try to theme by give aways to match something in the book. I’m part of a dog-themed cozy mystery collection (To Fetch a Thief), and I try to have things that will appeal to dog lovers.

Candy - Candy (the good stuff) is always a hit at events. Just be careful of the temperature. I took chocolate to a summer event, and it was squishy.

Personalized Swag - I had pencils made for my private eye’s company. They also had the book title, my name, and my website. People like pens and pencils. My author friends, Mary Behre and Kristin Kisska, always give away pens with purple ink. People tend to keep them because who doesn’t love purple ink?

I always have bookmarks made for each of my books and short stories. After many events, I’ve seen my ebook sales spike. Some folks prefer ebooks. I always include the cover, my picture, the ISBNs, and my contact information for each book. And don’t forget the back of the bookmark. You can include your other books that the reader may like. Keep a stack with you always. You never know when you’ll run into a reader.

I had notecards made with my book covers on them. The back side is blank. I use these to write notes for just about anything.

I use Vista Print and Next Day Flyers for business cards, note cards, and bookmarks.

Prizes - I use Etsy to find cool give aways that my readers would like. I’ve found wine glass charms, stickers, magnets, pins, and jewelry. (My Delanie Fitzgerald series has an 80s theme in the first book, so I often give away 80s pins instead of candy.) I also give away gift cards because they are easy to mail and fit in a standard envelope. Amazon and other sites have egift cards that you can email to winners.

What kind of swag do you like to give or get? Let me know what you’d add to my list.

Book Launch Ideas - Tips for Authors

Launching a book and planning your book birthday events are fun, exciting, and often overwhelming. These are suggestions that I’ve learned over the years:

Organization

1. Get organized. Create a four-month calendar (2 months before the date and 2 months after). Record all of your tasks and promotional events.

2. Make a list of all the places (physical and online) where you’d like to promote your book.

3. Be creative. Look at your list above and think of other options to add. For example, we had wine-themed anthology, so we looked for wineries, wine festivals, and wine shops that would host of us for book signings.

Tasks

1. Make a list of all the places you need to update with your book information (e.g. social media biographies, webpages, blog, Amazon author page, BookBub page, etc.).

2. Update your blog and website with your book information.

3. Order swag for events and give-aways. Make sure that what you order is easy to mail.

4. Send out press releases to your local media outlets. Don’t forget the weekly publications and the shopper give-aways.

5. Create a book information sheet with your synopsis, updated biography, social media links, and book links. Make sure you include this with all blog tours and interviews.

6. Create a page on your website for all of your books. Include a short summary and buy links for multiple outlets.

7. Look at your task list and add “tell everyone you know.” Don’t forget to submit your announcement to the member news sections of groups you belong to. Many groups have newsletters where they recognize accomplishments. I send all my releases to all my alumni newsletters.

Promotion

1. Contact all your writer friends who will help you promote your book on their blogs or newsletters. Schedule those on your calendar.

2. Decide how much and what you’re going to spend your marketing dollars on. What are you going to spend on pre-sales, launch events, and after-launch? Are you going to pay for blog tours, email blasts, or Facebook boosts?

3. Decide if you plan to host Facebook parties, Facebook takeovers, newsletter takeovers, or Twitter parties. You’ll need to schedule, plan, and recruit other authors to help with the promotion and give-aways. (Check out my past posts on Hosting Twitter and Facebook parties and Facebook Hops. They are fun, but they take a little bit of work to organize.)

4. I also look for volunteer or charity events for causes that I support. I often donate a prize and book basket for raffles or give-aways. And these are always stocked with book swag.

What else would you add to my list? It’s a time to celebrate your accomplishment!

Why Writers Need a Facebook Author Page

I’ve heard from several writer friends that they don’t want to maintain another social media site. That’s valid. To do a good job, it takes time, but I’d argue that as a writer, you need this platform to promote your work. And here are my reasons for having a site (separate from your personal page).

1. There is a 5,000 connection limit on Facebook accounts. You could reach a ceiling and be limited.

2. Based on your number of followers on an author page, you have access to analytics that you don’t get on a personal page. I can see all kinds of demographic information such as visitor numbers, time visited, gender, age, country of origin, etc. These help you get a better picture of your followers. And you can target ads to your biggest audience at the day/time when they are most likely to visit.

3. Facebook lets you schedule posts on author pages.

4. You can boost posts or run ads on a Facebook author page.

5. These pages allow you to see the number of people who viewed or interacted with your posts. This gives you information about what is most popular and what your fans are interested in.

6. Make sure that you check Facebook’s terms of service regularly. There are limitations on selling items on your personal page. (Facebook’s terms change frequently. I check them before I do each promotion.)

7. My friends and family post on my personal page or tag me in photos. I have security settings on this site for what I share with the public. If you have these settings in place, you have to remember to loosen them if you are doing some kind of book or event promotion, or people are not able to share your post.

8. On an author page, you can add “buy my book” links. There are also plug-ins and apps that you can add to the page.

What would you add to the list?

Who is Your Target Audience? Analytics Tips for Authors

Who is your target audience? When I started writing my answer was, "Everyone who likes mysteries." That is a broad category. To be effective and to know your audience, you need to narrow that down a bit. You need data to see who your primary readers/followers are. And you can glean that information from your social media platforms. All of these bits of information will help you put together a picture of your readers and their likes. 

How do you know who's interested in your type of book? You can use analytics and demographics from your followers.

Facebook - The amount of analytics you have access to on Facebook depends on the number of followers you have. Every time you reach a follower milestone, you'll be able to see more details. On your author page, click Insights. You will see information about page views and page likes. You can click on any of the information for more details like age, gender, and city/country of origin. This information helps you to target readers in certain age or gender groups.

Click on the Posts link to see how well your posts do. You can see the number of interactions, time of day when people visit your site, and which posts get the most/least attention. This will help you if you decide to do Facebook ads or boosts. This information helps you target the right groups and times for posts/ads.

Twitter - Twitter also has an Analytics link. There is a dashboard that will show you your top followers, top tweet, and number of follower mentions. If you click on the Follower Dashboard, you can see high level interests, occupations, buying styles, gender, and household income of your followers. It will also show you the top language. This gives you insight into who is following you and what type of tweets get the most attention.

Your Blog/Website - Check the analytics on your website. I get numbers on visits and comments. I also get yearly, monthly, weekly, or daily data about popular posts, who's visiting, what browser they use, and what country they are in. If you know when people visit your site, you can target posts on other platforms to drive traffic to your site. I get a lot of overnight visits when I'm sleeping. I use an app to schedule tweets in the early morning hours.

Goodreads - Use the information on your Goodreads author dashboard to view your followers. Each of your books has a wealth of statistics on the page. Also there is a link (far right) for See Top Shelves. This shows you who has saved your book and what keywords they used to find you. This is helpful if you're trying to build your keyword lists or to see how others view your book.

This is like an Easter egg hunt. Each site gives you different information that is often platform specific. But if you look at it holistically, you will get a better picture of your average reader. Mine is female between the ages of 35 and 65 from the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. It can also help when planning your marketing campaigns. 

Best wishes with your writing and book marketing efforts. There are no hard and fast methods that work every single time, but your data will help you make decisions and provide you information on who's visiting your social media platforms.

Book Promotion Tips for Authors - What I Learned at JRW's The Writing Show

l-r Karen Chase, Sarah Lapallo Beck, Angela Dominguez, and Ellen Whitfield - James River Writers' "The Writing Show"

Recently, I attended James River Writer's "The Writing Show." The topic was Discoverability: Beyond Social Media with Sarah Lapallo Beck, Angela Dominguez, and Ellen Whitfield. Here are some of the things I learned about book and author promotion.

1. Being an author is a job, and you need to be professional.
2. You need a unified presence (e.g. website, give-aways, blog, social media sites, etc.)
3. Always do your research on agents, publishing firms, and those you hire to assist you with your book.
4. Networking is key for authors. Go to conferences, book events, and join writers' groups.
5. Newsletter swaps are a great (low cost) way to expand your audience. Find another author who does a newsletter, and be a guest or do a take-over of his/her newsletter. When you share, you introduce your book to new readers.
6. We almost always think about editing and proofreading our work. Sometimes, we forget about our marketing materials and website. Make sure that your materials are as polished as they can be.
7. As an author, you need a press or media kit.
8. Make sure that you have a professional author photo (no selfies).
9. Blog tours are a great way to get the word out about your book and you as an author.
10. Make sure you have an elevator pitch for your book. Write it out and practice it. It needs to be a few sentences with a hook. Your goal is to create a connection and for people to want to buy your book. Practice delivering your pitch and find others who will critique it for you. 
11. Look at your promotional materials and social media sites.Find ways you can improve.
12. If you're sending out advance reader copies (ARCs) for reviews, and they're ebooks, you may want to explore companies like NetGalley and BookFunnel.