Today is the first day of Luke's Tale KDP promo! Click the picture to get your download! And while I love Amazon and the Indie tools they provide, I can't help but feel that this type of promo is getting more difficult for new authors to use successfully. In January, I was still confident in the KDP Select program. I still felt it was a good deal being exclusive and having a promotion to plan. I believe the KDP program still works, but for relatively known authors. Somewhere between January and now, the KDP Select program seems to have shifted to give better known authors a chance to gain more readers. When I signed on, KDP Select still gave new authors the edge to get known. But here's what I've noticed. ~ I can't find the FREE eBooks section on Amazon even when I search. ~ Free ebook lists have cut down on the number of free books they'll feature. ~ There are tons of books going free and uploaded to Amazon every day. ~ There are more books that are free than one can read in a lifetime. ~ Free seekers aren't necessarily your market. ~ It takes about 20,000 downloads to make a bump in sales. (And that's not easy anymore.) I know you're thinking I'm getting down on KDP Select, but what I'm saying is, this type of promo has changed. I see free as a viable marketing promotion because I know it works. It's how I got hooked on Sylvia Day, Michelle West and a few others. But, the free thing needs to be done wisely. I'm still in. I'm still experimenting and I'm still waiting to see what this promo retrieves. I'll find out! For now, click on the picture and get your copy!
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I am so proud of my author! She'll call herself "technically challenged", but I believe it is the self-doubt and "perfect" worry that gets the better of her. In fact I know that's the only thing holding her back. She created this video below. It's simply an excerpt of her first book with images I provided her. All she did was play with Windows Movie Maker. That's all. Simple. Beautiful. Easy. Now we have something to show off! Which is exactly what I'm doing! ACTION ITEM: If you don't have a You tube Book Trailer, try making one in windows Movie Maker. If you have a mac, you know you want another excuse to use those editing features! Go for it!
You Tube! I thought I'd never find you!
Over the weekend, me and my author had a conversation that went much like this: My Author: Do book trailers help sell books? Me: (long pause) stoic stare. My Author: oh, I guess that's a no. Me: Correct. My Author: Okay, skip it then. Me: Correct. BUT WAIT! YOU TUBE! YOU LOVE ME! YOU REALLY LOVE ME! How do I know You Tube loves me? Because it declared it's love with this article...http://mashable.com/2013/05/15/youtube-tresemme-shoppable-video/ In short: "To shorten the path to purchase and translate video views to sales, today we’re introducing a new channel gadget on YouTube that will enable consumer goods brands to connect consumers directly with retailers throughout the entire YouTube experience. This new channel gadget will enable shoppers to seamlessly move from browsing how-to videos and featured products to finding which retailers carry them, check availability, compare prices and make a purchase, all with fewer clicks than today." That means Luke's Tale video is not just an all for the fun of it! Imagine clicking the video and buying the book! Awesome! That is more useful than anything! Yes, book trailers have now become a viable funnel! Action Item: Let's explore this click-able You Tube link thing together! After scrapping two pennies together and handing them over to Titan InKorp for a very special deal, I received a banner, a mobile phone site, a QR code for Luke's Tale and...the reason why I bought the package...a book trailer! Researched showed me that book trailers are somewhere in the $200 - $500 range. There was.. Just. No. Way. Book trailers are a part of marketing but I wasn't going to pay for it when I could do it in my copious amounts of spare time. (Notice how I jumped at the chance to get it outsourced) The secret to book trailers is...do them yourself. You're a writer, your creative, you can do it--I believe in you! And here's what I was going to do for Luke's Tale before one of my lovely connections offered this special: 1. Pick out photo's of Luke, the actual (dog) inspiration for the book. 2. Write a script. Carol and I did and that's what you'll see in the trailer. 3. Plug everything into a video manager (I had flip in mind but their no longer in business) including music, photos and script. 4. Voila--book trailer! Now, I was hoping for something a little more homey, but when you're paying 50 cents for a video, you can't beat what I got! Will book trailers sell books? Probably not. But, it's a good promo piece and people love videos! With no further ado, may I present to you, Luke's Tale the book trailer! The package I purchase also included a banner... A QR Code... And a mobile phone link complete with Amazon link to but the book!
www.lukestale.mobilefriendlysite.co.uk I will admit, I'm not sure where to put this or how to use it other than maybe on here so ya'll can search your phones for it...but I have one! Also, just so you know, you can get a free QR code at http://www.visualead.com so don't feel like you have to pay for something like that. So what's a book trailer's role in marketing? To remind people about your book without you having to scream buy, buy, buy! This is a wonderful reminder and if you make a trailer more on how to solve a problem, or as entertainment than people will watch and enjoy! What's your Action Item today? 1. Decide how a book trailer will help you promote your book. 2. Ponder if you want to spend the time to make a book trailer. 3. Ask me questions on what kind of trailer you might want to do and we'll brainstorm on your project! Check me out on Book Daily! This is a post on how to get reviews! Action Item: follow this link-- http://www.bookdaily.com/authorresource/blog/post/1318663 Our first attempt at Amazon's KDP Free Days will begin with Luke's Tale on 06/03/13 - 06/07/13! Let me tell you the process was...arduous. I'm in praise of Author Marketing Club for the Submission tool! Click that link to save time! You'll find links on other sites, but you'll have to find the submission forms to offer your books free days for kindle. Author Marketing Club gives you links straight to the submission forms. What a relief. Now that I've gone through the process, here's what you need to know. 1. Be prepared to submit your dates to these sites early. 2. Be prepared to submit your dates to these sites on the day OF your free promotion. 3. Be prepared to submit your dates to these sites every day of your free promotion. 4. Save about $100 to promote on these sites for a guaranteed exposure of your free eBook. 5. Go to the Author Marketing Club tool HERE to save time on submitting your free eBook. It took me about 90 minutes to go through all the links and submit the info. I went with totally free because I have plans to promote it on Facebook. Every promotion is different and we'll find out what works. But having the links ready for me saved so much frustration. Read the guidelines for each site because some don't let you promote without four star reviews or/and a certain amount of reviews. You might want to think about paying for guaranteed exposure too. We'll see if we can conquer KDP Free days! I'm not here to tell you guys what your marketing plan should or should not be. I'm here to help you with what you decide your marketing is. Remember that you can take or leave these tips and only you can tell you how much time, effort and money you want to place in each forum. Today's Book Planning is for the Twitter users. Below is a link to an article I found very comprehensive. And, comprehensive is what we need! I agree with everything the article says except about sitting down and planning the tweets. For me, when I say something it's sporadic, unpredictable, but that's also a part of me. You can count I'll be there, but you can't count on what I'll say. If you want to make twitter work...this is the plan--give or take a few minutes! If you call yourself a social media expert (not just a Facebook expert), you really need to know what that means. Below is the no bullshit guide. Action item: Read this link then take it or leave it. http://www.socialmediatorch.com/daily-twitter-plan/ |
Dear Reader,
My efforts are to make this a learning blog where writers can see the flip side of publishing. If you have comments that will improve your experience or have a certain topic you'd like discussed, please contact me through email - HERE. ~ Sincerley, Your Editor Stephanie McKibben Head Troll Troll River Publications Books on Kindle
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