Tag: marketing your novel

What Comes Next After Revisions

Once you’ve finished the latest revisions on your novel and sent it to your editor, what then? Do you begin work on the next book? Not yet. This is the best time to write all the blogs for a blog tour. The story is fresh is your mind, so it’s prudent to write these articles while you’re close to the book.

After Revisions

A blog tour may include the following:

Guest Posts
Author Interviews
Excerpts
Character Interviews
Spotlights
Reviews
A Day in the Life

If you’re smart, you’ve been jotting down possible blog topics as you write the book. These can include research subjects, what inspired your story, how you selected this setting, the writing process, or bonus materials such as world-building details.

I start with the research topics and write three to five posts based on these ideas. For my upcoming mystery, STAR TANGLED MURDER, these articles include History and Mystery, Tea and Murder, Clues and Buttons, Ghost Stories and Lost Treasure, and Independence Day Celebrations. Whatever doesn’t get used on the blog tour can be applied to my personal blog.

Next, write A Day in the Life for your main character as another post. What’s her typical day like? How is it disrupted by a murder? How does she plan to deal with it? This is written from her viewpoint and meant to entice the reader with a sample of your writing and tone.

If you want to encourage comments, have each guest post end with a question. Consider offering a giveaway on these guest articles from among the commenters. You’ll also want to offer a grand prize for the entire book tour, perhaps a Rafflecopter for a gift basket, signed print copy, or other related items. If you do your own contest, you’ll need to supply the code to the tour organizer. I like to do it myself because then I get the mailing list.

At the bottom of each post, after the final question and giveaway, I give my story blurb with buy links and then add a section called About the Author with a short bio and social media contacts.

Once these pieces are written, choose two to four excerpts and save them as separate files. These may be requested by your blog tour organizer.

For the interviews, you’ll have to wait until the tour organizer sends you these from the individual hosts. In the meantime, you can draw up your own interview if so desired. Use it to answer questions ahead of time that you figure will be asked, such as How did you come up with this idea? Or What’s coming next for you? As an alternative, you can add your own author interview at the end of your book as bonus material. Or submit it to a podcaster as part of your marketing plan.

Once you have your blog tour pieces assembled, you’ll need the metadata to go along with them. This includes your book description with ISBN numbers and buy links. Regarding your book blurb, have long and short versions available. These will be used in any Spotlight-type posts with your author bio and social media links.

When you’ve completed your blog posts and any associated materials, you’re ready to move on. Now’s a good time to write your launch party posts and reader discussion guide. For more ideas, Go Here to learn what else to do. If you’re a writer, how do you spend the time while waiting for editorial feedback?

What comes next after revisions? #writingtip #writingcommunity Share on X

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RWA17 Workshop Recap – Attracting Readers

At the #RWA17 conference, I attended several sessions that told us how to attract more readers. See my post on building Mailing Lists below if you’ve missed that one. Again, these conference notes are subject to my interpretation. So let’s look at some of the suggestions.
Reader
Respond to readers by replying to their emails, tweets, and Facebook posts. Mention their name in your response. Tag them if you want to catch their attention. You want to turn “cold” leads into customers, then fans, then friends, and finally into ambassadors.
Use social media tools to get your message across several platforms. Check out https://meetedgar.com/ for managing social media posts. It allows you to schedule posts across several sites. For limited time posts, you can set expiration dates. Another site is https://www.socialjukebox.com/. This allows you to set automated tweets and also link to Facebook and LinkedIn. I use this one and it’s a great time-saver. Resharing your evergreen content keeps your social profiles active and gives your posts more exposure.
Post regularly and vary the content of your posts. Do #ThrowbackThursday (old photos) and #TGIFriday (plans for weekend). Always include hashtags on your tweets and Instagram posts.
Involve your readers. Bring them into the creative process. Ask for opinions on cover art or book titles. Ask which secondary character they’d like to see in your next book.
Video is popular on social media and so are photos. Try Facebook live video or adding photos to a post. It will have a higher organic reach. Boost your posts. Share to a page or group. Link your Instagram posts to show up on Facebook and Twitter. Establish your brand on Pinterest.
Upselling counts in the book market. Offer new mailing list subscribers a freebie then say that for only $X, they can get the next book. Utilize drip mailing campaigns to this purpose. At each step, you’re offering something new.
Maximize your social media channels. Facebook ads were discussed along with other ways to get newsletter signups using widgets and links to your opt-in form. Use pinned tweets when you want to advertise a new release or giveaway. Invite interactors to Like your page. Participate in Goodreads and join special interest groups on the different sites.
Pricing and Sales. Indie authors can run sales campaigns on more expensive books at other platforms like iBooks. Ninety-nine cents may be better than free in a campaign because you’ll rank in the sales charts, and readers are more likely to read a book they paid for than a freebie. Although, I have to say I’ve found new authors from free books offered on BookBub and at The Fussy Librarian. Then I’ve gone on to buy their entire series. Sales of your backlist titles can carry over to your frontlist (new) titles.
Cutting Edge Technologies like apps and Facebook Messenger ads could become more important. Offer a free book or chapters via Messenger as part of a drip campaign. Build your Messenger subscribers, but your newsletter mailing list should still come first.
Use Multiple Points of Entry. Offer readers full-length novels, short stories, novellas, spinoffs, mini-series within a series, sample chapters.
Diversify your Book Formats with ebooks, print, and audio. Do box sets with your own series. If you do a group promo with other authors, make sure the story you offer relates to your series.
Cross-Promote with other Authors using the sites mentioned in my Mailing List post or with your own “lifeboat” team. Newsletter swaps are becoming more popular. You mention each other’s new releases or sales in your respective newsletters.
Do what you can, and don’t stress over the guilt that you’re a slacker compared to others who are doing a gazillion more promotional activities than you are. Recognize your limits but strive to learn something new. Set business goals each year along with your writing objectives. Do one new thing at a time. Then it won’t seem so overwhelming.
What other techniques would you suggest to gain readers? As readers, how do you find new authors to read?
For my conference photos, Go Here. https://www.facebook.com/NancyJCohenAuthor
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