New book release #AtoZChallenge

New book release -- this goes along with the marketing post from yesterday.

A great way to boost sales is to have a launch party. Depending on your connections, this can be in real life. For most authors who self-publish, it means a book tour on various blogs or social media. Readers who see something about the same book five times in one week are more likely to view the sales site of that book. "It feels like everyone is talking about it." 

Of course, if a writer does a tour stop on a blog that doesn't reach their audience, that's unlikely to help sales. This is why "blog tour" sites that sell packages rarely result in sales that equal the cost of the tour. It's important to cater to the audience if possible. 

Some authors swear an author newsletter is the best way to move New Release books. Others believe giving out ARCs to get reviews before the release is the best way. Contests for free copies are very popular, however, it brings up the question of why a reader would buy a book if they might win it. 

What drives you to buy a newly released book?

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Marketing and Memory #AtoZChallenge

Today's post was just going to be about marketing a self-published book. However, I found out last night that a fellow author, a friend of a friend, passed away. So I am going to include a note about memory.

A dedication could be made to someone who passed away. Or something could be included at the end of the book, along with the "about the author" section. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/391014962198368/

https://amzn.to/3Q3kGXA (J.E.Mueller is a pen name of Reya Pellaguin Mueller) 

Marketing-- See how I included an Amazon link to the author's books? That's marketing (and also the best way to honor an author's memory-- buy their book and write a review!). 

Some people suggest that books are difficult to market. They rarely use the popular forms of ads (commercials, billboards, etc). Some publishers market with ads on social media. A growing number of authors use Instagram (Bookstagram) or TicToc. There are people who highly frown on using any social media platform to sell anything. Reviews by authors are still a popular selling tool, though any less than 25 reviews are considered nearly useless. 

How do YOU like to see books marketed? What gets you to consider buying a book—especially from a self-published author with whom you aren't familiar? 

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Lines, leads, and other formatting #AtoZChallenge

Do you know the difference between pressing enter and pressing shift+enter? Do you ever use the TAB key? 

How a self-publishing author formats a manuscript depends on what platform they'll use to publish. There's a Smashwords guide which advocates for pasting everything into a txt file and starting formatting from scratch. There are instructions to turn options on in MS Word that show every space and line break. 

Do not underestimate how much time and knowledge will be required to format a document to the required specifications. And if you use the tab key, you'll break that habit once you learn how much work it takes to undo all of that. 

 

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Kindle or more #AtoZchallenge #IWSG

Where will you self publish? Kindle has a program where an author can get higher royalties for being exclusivive with Amazon. Not everyone uses Amazon, nor does every country have access to Kindle books. This automatically puts a limit on distribution. 

Here's a Facebook post from the IWSG about this topic.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/NTgEVGY825Z7Mgj7 IWSG on Facebook

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Just check again #AtoZChallenge

Never underestimate your ability to make a mistake. Did a lot of editing? Check everything again. Too many adverbs? End a sentence with a prepositional phrase? Homophones all right? Does the dialog match each character? 

Check and recheck and check again. Get help from friends / beta readers if possible.

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Inspire page turning #AtoZchallenge

Another important aspect of self-publishing is to ensure that the manuscript inspires page-turning. End scenes and chapters in such a way that the reader feels compelled to know what will happen next. Will the characters be okay? What's the solution to a puzzle? What is going to happen next? The reader should want to know. 

In this story, there is a big plot twist in the third act. The foreshadowing is very limited. The antagonist is hidden until the third act. It seems like a person-vs-nature up until that moment. Like getting to the place will be the hardest part. Everything seems clear-cut until that moment. But one character is not at all what they seem to be. 

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Holes in plot #AtoZChallenge

Yesterday I posted about grammar. Another reason to review a manuscript is to check for holes in the plot. If a character has a broken mobile phone in chapter three, they better not use that phone in chapter five without a trip to the repair shop or phone store! Anything that might cause a reader to pause and flip back, "wait, I thought this other truth was established..." is a hole. Writers sometimes write so fast that we don't notice such flaws. Readers do. Especially mystery readers, who love to find something out of place, that little clue to help solve the who-done-it. This is also a great reason to get a beta reader, or a few, who can point such flaws out.

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Please check out the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge
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