by James Meservy | Mar 13, 2020 | Guest Post, Marketing Madness, Monthly Discussions |
Guest Post from Sam’s Teen Reads Corner, presented by Thrice Read Books
Guest Post from Sam’s Teen Reads Corner, presented by Thrice Read Books
Mornin!
The monthly theme for March is Marketing Madness. One of my favorite things about being an author, is connecting with other authors. Reviews are important to some marketing strategies, so I asked Sam from Thrice Read Books to join me on my blog.
FIRST, LET’S GET TO KNOW YOU A BIT. TELL US SOMETHING UNIQUE ABOUT YOURSELF:
I love books so much that as a child, I used to eat them. Like, literally. I would eat little samples of the pages. Did you know that different kinds of paper have different flavors? My parents are quite happy that I’ve outgrown that habit. Plus, ebooks! When was the last time you tried taking a bite out of your Kindle or Nook? That’s what I thought.
WHAT IS THE GENRE AND AUDIENCE FOR YOUR REVIEW VLOG?
My review vlog focuses primarily on Young Adult and Teen fiction. Occasionally, I’ll read and review something middle grade or new adult. I particularly love fantasy, paranormal, and horror fiction.
WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO REVIEW BOOKS ON A VLOG?
Sam’s Teen Reads Corner started out as a homeschool assignment when I was in junior high, as an alternative to writing book reports for all the books I read. The format has changed over the years, but I still love the variety of books I get asked to review, and I enjoy the interaction of the live stream format.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR WRITING EXPERIENCES:
I’ve drafted three books of my own, though I haven’t gotten around to publishing any of them. (Because editing. And computer crashes. And high school.) I’ve completed one National Novel Writing Month. And I’ve met so many awesome authors as the daughter of bookstore owners. Truly, it’s kind of a bookworm’s dream – living downstairs from our bookstore inventory (I never have to complain that I have nothing to read!). Plus, inventory shopping trips usually result in me getting at least a few books that I get to read before they get listed.
WHERE CAN WE VIEW YOUR VLOG?
You can check out our review blog at www.thricereadbooks.com and tune into my live stream vlog most Saturdays at 11 a.m. Pacific time: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtxPt-TTPnO-IfJesKSq0g
by James Meservy | Mar 10, 2020 | Daily Discussions, Guest Post, Marketing Madness, Monthly Discussions |
Guest Post From Amanda Lindsey, PA
This month’s theme is Marketing Madness, as you already know.
And Personal Assistants are great resources to help authors with marketing and promotions.
I have very limited experiences working with a PA myself, so I asked my friend, Amanda Lindsey, PA, to share with you what PAs do.
PA’s are personal assistants to authors. We are also known as VA’s which are virtual assistants. Each person has different qualities and qualifications to offer an author. Services may depend on training and knowledge. We are self taught or gain knowledge from the PA community.
Pricing also depends on what the PA can offer and what the author may need. Each client is always different as are PA’s. We strive to be the right hand person to the author.
Some of the things that may be offered are support, friendship, reading and reviewing on a variety of levels, form creation, blog contact, group activity and maintenance, arc team support, social media marketing, running author social media and pages, calendar management, takeover posting, takeover and party setup, graphics and teasers, transcription and so much more.
We try to take up things that will give the author more time to focus on what they do best….writing.
by James Meservy | Mar 5, 2020 | Daily Discussions, Marketing Madness |
Mornin!
So as part of my refocusing my blog, I am going to start posting about myself more often, and I am going to post about the monthly themes that are being used in the Burning Embers blog. And the theme for March is Marketing Madness.
I will tell you what, as an author my favorite thing to do is get to know other authors, and make new friends. My least favorite thing to do is marketing and promotion.
I don’t have much experience in marketing and promotion outside of posting about my books on Facebook (which ever since the updated community standards came into effect, I am in FB jail more often than not for spamming book groups), Instagram (which I do so sporadically, I might be better off to drop it), Twitter (here again I am so rarely on Twitter, and don’t really like it for my own use that my postings there are often ineffective), and other platforms where I have a presence.
I have got The United, The Realm of the Light Book 1, included in a few different book promotional emails before, and getting would like to get into higher quality promotions with a more active reach, but at only 27 Amazon reviews, my options are limited to the 25 or more promotional opportunities.
My biggest limitation is money. I do not have the means just start paying out a $300/month on ads or promotions right now. So everything I am able to do, I do without paying for ads and promotions. In fact what has been my experience is that I drop $500 on a promotional run for The United, or a new release, and I make back like $20 in royalties. I know that sounds upside down, and I agree, it is. This drives home my point that I am still learning how to effectively use my limited marketing budget.
My point?
Marketing is struggle for me. I have not found my niche market, I have a platform that is effective for me, and I have not been able to successfully sell my books on a consistent basis.
My challenge for March?
Learn about any new platforms to try and market my books, reword some of my self published book descriptions, and update my blog. As the month goes on, I will keep you posted on how that is working for me.
And you experienced authors out there, feel free to comment with any suggestions and recommendations you have that has worked for you, and that you think may be beneficial to me, or to other authors who follow my blog.
by Alicia S. | Mar 2, 2020 | Marketing Madness, Monthly Discussions |
Marketing madness is the theme for the month of March.
What kind of marketing madness will we be talking about?
Hmmm. Good question.
My answer to you would be free vs paid strategies which would involve social all the way to paid advertisement.
Knowing that your budget for advertising might be rather slim we can discuss ways of fattening up that purse so that you can get a better advantage in the market.
Sure, there are plenty of free ways to advertise your book but that’s only half the battle.
Now a days you need to use paid advertising to ensure your books don’t get sunk into the unknown.
In my opinion… needing to pay to get your book noticed sucks. However, if you want to get unstuck then you need to heavily consider setting up a paid advertising plan.
OMG! But there are so many platforms… which one is right for me??
Yeah, I hear ya…
Let me let you in on a secret.
You’ll want to focus your advertising dollars where your ideal audience hangs out the most.
So, don’t spend those dollars on all the platforms. Instead choose one and stick to it.
For instance…
If you know your audience spends the majority of their time on Facebook then your dollars are well spent there.
I know, I know… what if your audience splits their time between Instagram and Facebook? Then go with Instagram… or at least that’s what I would do…
We’ll talk more on setting advertising budget next week as well as a glimpse at BookBub, Goodreads and a few other sites to promote your book.
For now, go ahead and make a list of places and sites that your audience may or may not hang out. It’ll help when we do the planning next week.
Until next time…
Keep on rising above the ashes of obscurity!
