Marketing for Self-Published Authors: Give-Aways?

Give-aways! Should we self-published writers truly give our books away? An accountant would say, check the cost of goods sold first.

But how do we get our books out to a wider audience?

One strategy is to use a sponsored give-away, like that through GoodReads.

If you already have your Author Dashboard set up on GoodReads, you simply add your book cover, set the time for the give-away, decide how many copies to give away, and follow up at the end of the give-away to send your copy to the winner.

I set my give-away for two weeks, ending February 28. During that time, 334 people entered the give-away and 178 added Standing Stones to their "to read" list. I could have added a widget to my blogs, alerting blog readers they could enter the give-away. Next time.

Another plus: GoodReads encourages those who win the book to write a review.

Have I seen a bump in sales? Not yet. Will I offer another give-away? Perhaps. Some of the research suggests that giving away our books is not the first or best marketing choice.

Other marketing strategies I'm working on this week:

• Bookmarks to give away at a book signing at a local book store.
• Lining up readings/visits with local book clubs (and drafting book club questions/handouts).
• Preparing materials for guest posts (Self-Published Sundays coming up in March). 
• Working on final edits on Book 2 for another launch later this year.

If you are a self-published author, what has been your most effective marketing strategy?

Writer Unboxed offers this post on "The Year Long Book Launch" which intrigues me. The links follow the journey a writer of literary fiction undertook to find an agent, a publishing house, and the launch. Her concerns mirror the concerns of any writer. We may find useful gems here, even for the self-published writer.

May your writing go well.

Detail, stained glass window at
St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh (Camp 2009)
Inspiration for Lord Gordon in Standing Stones

Writing . . . and that other thing . . . e-publishing!

I haven't been writing so much these last two weeks.

But I have been busy working on the more technical side to get Standing Stones ready for publication. Hah! First real hurdle was the cover. Bless CreateSpace for encouraging me to jump right into the arms of an unknown graphic designer, Angie at pro_ebookcovers through a site that several self-publishing writers have recommended -- fiverr.

I'm thrilled with the result (see left) AND my new cover is happily uploaded to CreateSpace.

Now for the next, even more exacting phase. To use the words of Create Space, the next step is to prepare the "interior" of the book for publication. So I've spent the last three years researching, writing, and revising -- to create an "interior"!

I'm going to publish through CreateSpace for the paperback and Kindle and Smashwords for the e-book.

The first step to getting the paperback ready involved downloading the appropriate template for fiction (5.25" x 8"), and then squishing my historical fiction saga into the template.

As my mother would say, "Ooofta!"

Did I realize that every time I changed the gutter (after reviewing the file online), that the page numbers would change, necessitating a revision of the table of contents? Every time? And when I adjusted the headings so they were consistent throughout, that also changed the page numbers? And the table of contents again?

CreateSpace kindly encourages would-be self-publishers to review their books three times. First for format (headers, page numbers, footers, and margins). Second for images (I'm guessing overall clarity and placement, perhaps descriptors). And third for the inevitable typos and possible grammatical errors.

I kid you not. Three times. Seems more like 300. So I did use the 'free' online review file to check and edit format and images, but I'll order a review copy for a final, final, final read through before launching Standing Stones.

And that's my New Year's Whoopee!  May your 2014 writing and reading go well.

X is for Xerox . . .

As I glance around my home office, the printer/scanner blinks at me. I can remember when making a photocopy seemed close to a miracle. One of my first jobs involved loading paper into the massive Xerox printer that took up its own room. I had to fan the paper just so to avoid a jam, and God help me if I made a mistake and printed too many copies. That paper was expensive! And back-to-back copying? Binding?

Now I can tap dance my way over to any number of PODs or e-readers or even behemoth amazon.com and wearing the proverbial robe and bunny slippers, use my computer to order books, essays, articles, delivered by paper or paperless. The death of libraries is predicted. Not by me. I have far too many books (and several library cards) to believe one day the brick-and-mortar library will disappear. At least, not before I do.

But the real issue for writers (and for me) is understanding how this fabulous technology affects the publishing industry. Over the last several years, we've gone from raised eyebrows and sniffs over self-publishing to a rapidly growing market that big names now enter.

As Rick Bylina says, we have to do it all. Draft, write, edit, polish, edit, and then, if that were not daunting enough, find an agent. Or, today, maybe not. The brass ring calls. Does it mean I can write the book and then design the cover, proofread the bloody thing at least two or three more times, (by this time, wouldn't I hate nearly every word?), and evaluate which company could best 'publish' my book? And then, as if the next book were not calling me back to my computer, then, wouldn't I need to worry about distribution, marketing, and perhaps the most difficult of all -- self-promotion? And not just worry but actually (sigh) treat my writing as a business? When most days I'm thrilled to just keep writing?

Forgive the rant. I know that these various computer-driven technologies will continue to transform writers and how we write. I can't just say it's all the fault of Xerox. Or was that Xerxes?

This letter in cuneiform was sent to the King of Lagash, to tell him his son died in battle (about 2400  BCE) (source Wikipedia). A librarian at the Philadelphia Library Rare Books Department once brought out such a tablet carefully preserved in a tiny box. Parts of this tablet had crumbled to dust, for people once touched the tablet. Perhaps paper books will be like that one day, preserved in museums, accessible only online.