As you may know, book marketing is a regular topic on my blog. I've been guerrilla marketing my books for almost a year now and have tried many strategies. To learn about other tips you can try part 1,  part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5 at each respective link. 


As an indie author I try to stay up on each and every fad in marketing and advertising books. When I first started to hear about Book Bub from J.A. Konrath I was skeptical. Was he getting a cut from mentioning this site? Was it really worth it? Did people really pay $1000 dollars on a site to list a book for free?!! It sound crazy. But, then I heard it from a few more sources (like this one from Joanna Penn) and I decided it was a legitimate strategy, one I knew I had to try. 

The premise of Book Bub is simple and not that different than many of the other free book subscription websites out there. Readers sign up to Book Bub and get notified of free and discounted ebooks. The nice thing about Book Bub is it's organized by category. Their mailing lists are huge (540,000 for Mysteries and 400,000 for Romance) and you can reach a ton of new readers in a very short amount of time. But, the price is a little steep. If your book is free, the price is more reasonable. I paid $40 dollars for a listing on the Teen and Young Adult list. However, if your book is 2.99 and you want to hit the mystery readers, get ready to shell out $1,200. That is a big chunk o' change no matter where you're sitting on a best sellers list. 

For me $40 buckaroos was a safe gable. The Breeders had taken a bit of a slump and I needed a boost since my amazing agent was going to be taking it around to editors at BEA. So, I set up a free promo with Book Bub at the end of May and waited to see. 

On the day of the promotion, the downloads started to roll in. At the last minute I decided to get on Author Marketing Club and try to list my book on several of those sites for free. I do not recommend waiting until the day of the promo to do this. Many sites will be booked up and will not list your book. Luckily, many made room for me on their free lists. I guess having some good reviews already listed under your book can help you get priority placement. 

The results were amazing. As I watched my book climb the free list, my jaw dropped. Soon I was in the top 100 free. Thousands of readers were downloading. By the end of day one I hit number 15 on the free list. The first page! How amazing. By the end of the four day promo I had given away approximately 16,000 books. Um, yeah. 

After the promo I waited to see the residual effects. So far, a week and a half out sales are good. My popularity rating on Amazon is higher. Sales are slightly better. And, now when you type "the breeders" into the general search engine on Amazon my book finally comes up first instead of the very awesome 1990s pop group with the same name. (Go ahead, try it. You'll see.) Overall, I think the $40 was totally worth it. Now, had I paid $1,000 I might have a different opinion. That return on investment would have to be much bigger to justify spending that kind of dough. 

So, what about you? Have you tried Book Bub? How well did it work?

Book Marketing Part Seven - NetGalley

A few weeks ago I discussed book marketing strategies I’ve tried in a few posts linked here (part 1, part 2 and part 3). Since that time I’ve had the pleasure of trying out a paid blog tour and I wanted to take a minute to blog about my experiences for anyone who’s interested in trying it.

I used Kismet tours, recommended to me by the fabulous A.G. Henley, but there are many book tour sites to choose from. A few things to note with Kismet. You need to schedule the tour two months in advance. This is difficult for many indie writers because once a book is ready, they want to release it, not wait two months for a special release. I ended up doing the tour long after my book had released, so that aspect didn’t matter much to me. Also, the price is not cheap. I paid $320 for a review tour, but prices go up from there into $530 for the full package. For my review tour I was told I would get up to 30 reviews. It ended up being about 20. I was a little let down. 30 reviews was what I was hoping for, but I understand they cannot guarantee a certain number of reviewers will sign on. As the tour commenced, two of the reviewers pulled out, which dropped my number to about 18. I guess the cut off for the price you pay for is 15, so in the end, I still paid the full amount with the promise that those missing reviewers would try to post their reviews as soon as possible. I have not yet heard if they have done so.

The reviews went on without a hitch though and I got some great feedback and a lot to tweet about and post on Facebook. However, I was disappointed to learn that most reviewers did not post their reviews to Amazon. 15 to 20 more reviews on my Amazon numbers would really be helpful, but even when I contacted the reviewers directly they did not respond, nor did they post to Amazon. Since posting to Amazon takes about ten seconds I was really disappointed in this aspect of the tour.

On to social media. The site also hosts a giveaway and I donated 10 free e-copies that readers could win. To enter they needed to follow me on Facebook or Twitter or tweet about the giveaway. This garnered me a huge following on both sites. Here are the numbers Kismet supplied to me.

The Breeders Goodreads Community Reviews 
Start of blog tour (3/24/13) - 391 Reviews/To-Reads
End of blog tour (4/16/13) - 476 Reviews/To-Reads
Percentage change - 22%

Twitter followers:
Start of blog tour (3/24/13) - 479 followers
End of blog tour (4/16/13) - 1,013 followers
Percentage change - 111%

Facebook Author page:
Start of blog tour (3/24/13) - 902 Likes
End of blog tour (4/16/13) - 1,533 Likes
Percentage change - 70%

The bottom line was how did this translate to sales? Well, I check my numbers pretty regularly and I have to say I did not see a change in sales. In fact, sales actually dropped a little during the tour. This is all just anecdotal evidence, but when you do a tour, you are hoping for a sales boost to offset your cost. I did not see that happen. 

Overall, the people at Kismet were very nice, very easy to reach and helpful. The reviewers for the most part posted their reviews, but most did not contact me and there was no relationship built, which is a detriment, especially if you want that reviewer to read your later works. The social media piece was good, but where it really counted -- sales -- I did not see the bump I was hoping for.

My conclusion: Next time, I’ll save the money and contact reviewers and bloggers myself. It may be a lot more work, but the price is too steep for the pay out.

So, what about you? What are your experiences with Blog Tours?

Book Marketing Part Five

To put it mildly, rejection sucks worse than a vampire w/ emphysema. If you are like me, you hate the sting of someone putting you down, of knowing you didn’t meet expectations. I think writers in general are sensitive souls, the kind who can read eighty glowing reviews with a shrug, but if one bad one comes rolling in, they fold like card tables after Bingo night. The bad review has to be the only honest review, right? The rest of those reviewers were being nice or smoking the happy crack when they wrote them. Cue the soul-crushing, chocolate-bingeing depression.

I am a special kind of sensitive. I am what you might call a people pleaser. When I was a child if I did something bad, I often put myself in my bedroom before my parents could. All my caring father had to do was raise his voice in anger and I would burst into uncontrollable sobbing. And I never once received a detention or suspension. I cannot stand if I displease someone or they are unhappy with me. It makes my stomach churn, my pits sweat (thank you extra-strength deodorant) and my mind lock up. I’ll do anything I can to make it right.

So, when I read bad reviews, a kind of self-loathing blackness descends. Let’s look at a few, just for self-torture’s sake. These are for The Breeders and Nessa: A Breeders Story. (Not that you’ll likely want to buy them after reading these.)

“I wish I could give this zero stars. I just could not get into this book. I wanted to, but it was just not well written.”

“...as I get about 40% in I see some almost racist typecasting and it makes me disgusted that the author felt the need to do such a thing. It almost appears as though mexicans, native americans or even arabic muslims* are being depicted as barbaric and evil people. The use of language that the author uses for the Riders is blatant and I am almost regretting that I paid her money for this.”

“What a worthless story. Usually I find these stories add or clarify something from the main book. This did not. I'm not sure what the point of it was. And it was RIFE with errors. It's only 39 pages! Give me a break.”

Yeah. Bring on the chocolate and sweatpants. I’m going to bed.

In all seriousness, we all need to learn to adapt to rejection. Writing, like other creative pursuits, invites critics. We ASK people to review and openly critique our work on view for the world. So, what do we do to handle it? Here are some of my unproductive rejection-fighting techniques.

1) Curl up into a ball, curse my life and decide I’m a brainless dolt who’d do better writing copy for laundry detergent bottles.

2) Imagine slow, painful torture to those who oppose me. Search through their reviews for spelling errors and laugh heartily when I find them.

3) Watch a lot of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Drink.  

Then, when I want to come out of my funk, I try these.

1) Hit the gym. Pump some butt-kicking music (i.e. Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne and the like). Run until I feel like a person again. Punch something, hopefully a bag.

2) Reread the good reviews. Force myself to believe that all these people were not all drinking the same hallucinatorily upbeat Kool-aid.

3) Watch more It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Drink.

Either way, my motto is never give up. Write until those critics have nothing to say. Write until they have to admit that your next book wasn’t so “eh” after all. Just write. In the end, it’s all about how fulfilled I, not my critics, feel at the end of the day.

So, what about you? What do you do to kick rejection in the hiney?

Before I had children, I watched A LOT of Dr.Phil. "Now Katie," you are likely thinking, "this blog is usually about writing and not about your most embarrassing personal escapades."  Yes, dear reader, you are right. I state this point about my previous love for Dr. Phil not just to embarrass myself, but to use it as an illustration  One thing I love about Dr. Phil (besides his folksy sayings and shiny head) is that he helps audiences identify hidden negative thoughts they are thinking about themselves. Then he helps to squash them like a Texas chigger. As a school counselor I use this a lot with my students, but I also use it a lot in my writing. There is no other activity where I have more negative thoughts than when I am conjuring up new worlds. I think I am not alone, though if I am solo in this cold and lonely place at least Dr. Phil is with me. (Imagine his thick mustache for a moment. Ah, yes.)

Here are some of the most common negative thoughts in no particular order.

Lie One - "I have to be inspired to write." 

The Fear - "I will sit down to the computer and realize I have nothing to say. Furthermore, I will realize I actually am a dolt with a Twizzlers for a brain. I should probably give up and focus on my Words with Friends game." 

The Solution - Begin by telling yourself that it is okay not to feel inspired to write, but make yourself do it anyway. Tell yourself it is okay if everything you write sounds terrible. I'd say it's okay if all you write is "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." (However, if you have any inklings towards buying an ax, seek professional help.) The very act of sitting down in front of a computer can kick your brain into writer mode. You'll be surprised at how the inspiration finds you right there on the page. 

Lie Two - "If I write, it will be terrible and there will be no fixing it." 

The Fear - "Any material that I produce will be drivel. My writing will be crap and no matter how many times you sculpt a cow pattie it'll never be Michelangelo's David (tiny pee pee and all). 

The Solution - Pounding out a crummy first draft is the only way to start. No one writes a perfect first draft, not even the greats. As Raymond Chandler once said, "“Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon.” And as Ernest Hemingway so eloquently put it, "The first draft of anything is shit." So, either way you've got a lot of puking or pooping to do before you lay a golden egg. 


Lie Three - "I'll focus on building my platform first. I need to have lots of followers so that when I actually write my book, I'll have people to buy it."

The Fear - Sitting down to do the hard work. What's more fun: dredging your soul or chatting on Twitter?

The Solution - Forget about platform, at least for now. You'll need to connect with readers at some point and you'll want a landing spot where readers can find you, but the work. THE WORK, is what will sustain you and keep those readers coming back for more. Don't let your brain fool you into taking the easy way out. Write first, platform second. 

There you have it, little Phil-inites, three big lies we writers tell ourselves. The sooner you can squash them, the sooner you'll be on your merry, writing way. What about you? What are some lies you tell yourself when you sit down to write? 

One of the big tenets of Indie writing guru J.A. Konrath is a professional book cover is worth its weight in gold. I couldn’t agree more. Besides the book being recommended by a friend, a stunning cover is one of the top reasons someone buys your title over the rest. Readers need to see your cover (sometimes only in a thumbnail size) and feel drawn to it. They need to look at a slew of books and pick yours above the rest. Otherwise your book, no matter how brilliant it is, will be passed over time and time again.

Let’s take a look at a few examples. To preface, I hold no ill-will toward any books presented here. Nor am I affiliated with either author. I am only using the covers as examples. 

To the right you will see exhibit A. This is a book available for sale currently on Amazon. When you look at this cover, what strikes you? Would you think that this author spent a lot of time designing a cover trying to get the aspect ratio correct? Would you assume that this author might have spent the same amount of time trying to correct plot holes in her manuscript? 

Exhibit B is a self-published title hailing at a steep $6.99 price tag on Amazon. At first look, I would think this book is about a giant on the swim team. It again has some of the same issues as above in that it conveys a cheeply put together product. This is not the message you want to send, people. You've toiled for months, maybe years on your book. Don't blow it by slapping some stock photo into a Word document and calling it a day. Lazy cover art makes readers think you are selling a  lazily written book. First impressions matter. 

Now to exhibit C. The book below is also for sale on Amazon and it is the same price as the book A and half the cost of book B. Now, if you were interesting in buying a book and these three were sitting side by side, which do you think you'd drop $2.99 on?  This cover is compelling. It draws me in. I know instantly what genre the book is and I 

have an idea of what it will be about. It also tells me its author has spent considerable time and probably some money on making this the best quality cover it can be, which leads me to assume she did the same with her content.  

So, if you are pondering your own book cover, here are some elements to consider. 

1. Does it look professional? Would someone immediately categorize it as "self-published" just by looking at it?
2. Will the image hold up when shrunken down to a thumbnail?
3. Does the picture convey the genre, age group and tone you are going for?
4. Is there a gut reaction to the image? Will your readers be drawn toward the book because of it?
5. Is it legible? Does the title and author stand out from the image? 

If you've gotten my drift sufficiently, I think you'll conclude that it is worth spending some money on a cover. It doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg, however. You can purchase a quality cover for around $300. The amount of sales your cover will bring you should make up that much and more. 

What about you? What do you think makes a good cover? 

Ah, time, one of the most precious commodities on earth. If you are like me, you protect it like Smeagol and his ring (Imagine me repeating "my precious" in a creepy voice while wearing a loin cloth). I literally have less than 60 minutes in the day to write. Don't believe me? Here's my work day schedule. 

5:50 am - Wake to Alarm. Hate life. Hit snooze. 
6:00 am - Get ready for work. Pet Cat. Tell children it is too early and try to convince them to go back to bed. Fail. 
7:00 am - Work. Change lives ... or class schedules. Give free pep talks. Change more class schedules. 
3:30 pm - Pick up daughter. Pick up son. Mediate fight over who gets to use the Ipad in the car. 
4:30 pm - Arrive home. Feed Herpes Cat and Over-weight Dog. Pick up mess. Change into what the hubs calls my "comfy (i.e. awful) clothes" 
5:30 pm - Make and eat dinner. Drive kids to gymnastics or swimming or underwater basket weaving. Facilitate baths, homework, Herpes Cat. Spend a moment to tell a story to the hubs, get interrupted by a kid and never finish telling the story. 
8:30 pm - Put kids to bed. Read stories. Turn on night lights. 
9:00 pm - Slap my face and pry open eyelids. Write. 
10:00 pm - Fall into bed and pray the kids sleep through the night. Repeat. 

So, if you are like me and life is always trying to get you down, I want to give you five things you can adjust so that you have 60 minutes a day to write. It isn't easy, but it is worth it. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Cut Out Three TV Shows a Week   Stephen King tells writers in his book On Writing to throw their TVs away. Now, not only is that bad for the environment (recycle, people), it is also very hard. Watching zero TV sounds like a death sentence to many. I am not suggesting anything that drastic. I suggest looking at your viewing list and cutting out your bottom three shows. Do you really need to know who won Cupcake Wars? Will life go on if you watch Parks and Rec in reruns later in life? Keep a few of your favorite shows. After all  this is your only life and you deserve to enjoy it, right? But, I'm certain you can live without a lot of what you watch. Try it for a week. I've found I don't even miss Oprah anymore. 

2. Say No I am a self-diagnosed people pleaser. That means whenever someone asks me to attend a PTA meeting or bake cookies or volunteer in the church nursery, I want to say yes. It is hard-wired in me to please others. But, the more I do those things, the less time I have. Are any of those things bad? No. Are they time consuming? Yes. One person cannot do it all. And by saying no, you are really saying yes to other possibilities. 

3. Limit Social Media Social media is a time suck. There are no ifs, ands or butts about it. I know you use it to promote your book. I know you need to build a fan base, get more Twitter follows and Pintress your character pages. But, it can also eat up your time faster than my kid with a box of Gogurts. You may need social media, but I encourage you to take a long hard look at the minutes per day you are using it. More than thirty minutes total for someone as busy as I am can be killer. If you have more time in your day, then by all means, indulge. However, you still need to pay attention to the time. Facebook and Twitter can be a black hole vortex where time goes to die. Set a kitchen timer for thirty minutes. When it beeps, leave your Farmville game and move on with your life. 

4. Socializing This is the point where you realize how lame I really am. I rarely go out. Like as in almost never. This is probably not a good thing. I have a handful of close friends that I see fortnightly. The rest of my free time is spent with my family, managing my house or writing. Will I regret not going out more or hanging with my peeps (do people say peeps anymore? Word.)? Maybe. Will I regret never making my dream a reality? For sure. It is all about priorities. You need to find yours and stick to them no matter what. 

5. Be a Crummy Housekeeper At this point Martha Stewart would revoke my lady card if she knew what a crummy house keeper I am. Now, Child Protective Services doesn't need to be called or anything. My kids are clean. My house is neat, but you certainly wouldn't want to eat off my floor. Also, I think the dust bunnies are scheduling a revolt. The sad part is I really like a clean house. I love my home to be tidy and smelling fresh. But with children and two weird pets, I'd have to devote hours a day to keeping it that way. So I don't. I let go. I even hired a cleaning lady twice a month. Am I less of a woman? Maybe. Do I care? Not when I'm making my word count every day. Dust bunnies be damned!

There you have it. Five relatively painless steps to add time into your day. What about you? How do you find time when there is none?