I’ll say it right up front – I’m a promo-ho. Hey, successful authorship nowadays all about discoverability and I’m not afraid to fall on my face to get my name out there.
I wrote and sold a contemporary romance series, Sweet on a Cowboy, set in the world of Professional Bull riding to Grand Central (Hachette). It was a serendipitous match, since GC is very marketing oriented.
I’ve been a huge fan of the sport for years, and connected with a large network of PBR fans even before I wrote the books. They were my ‘peeps’, and I knew I could sell books if could reach them. But Twitter and Facebook will only take you so far.
The long season of Bull Riding culminates in week-long finals in Las Vegas every year. and in conjunction, there is a “PBR Fan Zone” and Marketplace, set up in the parking lot of the Mandalay Bay Resort. Fans flock there to pick up all things PBR.
I thought, why not sell books and sign there? So, with the support of Grand Central and Barnes and Noble , that’s what I did.
Now, I know that unless you’re JK Rowling, or Stephen King, book signings are dead. In fact, I spoke with a B&N employee who told me they had John FreakingGRISHAM come sign in their store, and you know how many people showed up?
Five. Seriously.
But I’d hoped this would be different. After all, I wasn’t asking people to come to me – fans would be walking by me all day!
I’ll share with you the good, the bad, and what I learned from this experience.
The Good:
I chose another contemporary western author to share a table with me – the amazing Melissa Cutler. This was good on many levels:
Melissa’s books are steamy; mine tend to be sweeter – there was something for everyone!
Melissa is an extrovert, and possibly a bigger promo ho than I – we worked the crowd!
I had someone to share the expense of the booth.
We discussed writing, the market, and even brainstormed in the few lulls we had.
I made a great new friend
I sold a lot more books than at a traditional book signing, though less than I’d hoped. I was surprised to find that fully half the readers I talked to only read books on an e-reader!
Great Swag pays off. I had refrigerator magnets that any female bull riding fan would love, with my website on it. Those who read only eBooks had a reminder to download my book when they got home, and hopefully it’ll serve as advertisement to their friends in their home!
I met a ton of people, shook hands, told them who I am, and what I write. Even if they didn’t buy my book right then, they may recognize my name later.
People were excited to meet the actual author of the books on sale, and to have their books autographed.
I attended the most amazing finals ever – and I got to write off the tickets!
The Bad:
Being ‘on’ all day is hard. Even when I got over the nerves, I fell into bed every night, exhausted.
I was stuck at the booth all day – no lunch breaks, no chance to visit the rest of the Fan Zone and catch the fun stuff. I was WORKING!
I’m still recovering from the last foot surgery, and standing most of the day was a real challenge.
This was a huge commitment – 5 days, 8 hours a day.
Conclusion:
Book signings CAN still work, if you’re creative, and can find the correct venue, and are willing to work hard.
I’m glad I did it. Would I do it again? Ask me after I recover!
Laura's next book in her Sweet on a Cowboy series, Nothing Sweeter, is due out in January, and available for preorder here.
It was reviewed by Publishers Weekly!
“The second entry in Drake’s Sweet on a Cowboy series (after The Sweet Spot) is another character-driven contemporary western with more heart than heat. Rancher Max Jameson, stunned by the unexpected death of his father, is determined to keep the family spread in Steamboat Springs, Colo., despite pressure to sell to a greedy neighbor. His brother, Wyatt, tries to help out, though the sibling relationship is strained due to Max’s discomfort with the fact that Wyatt is gay.
Bree Tanner is scarred physically and mentally after being wrongfully convicted of and imprisoned for her ex-boss’s shady financial dealings; now exonerated and free, she decides to start over by helping to raise rodeo bulls on the Jameson ranch.
Max’s tough exterior masks relatable fear, his relationship with Wyatt is handled gracefully, and Bree’s genuine shame about her past makes her sympathetic. While Max and Bree’s romantic relationship is secondary to their internal and interpersonal struggles, complex characters and some fun full-riding scenes balance out the seriousness.”
Jenny Hansen here, popping in to share some topics we've been buzzing about behind the scenes at Writers In The Storm.
First of all, this is our 500th post. That is so unbelievable to me. Four years ago, when we started this blog, we had no idea where it would go, or that we'd find nearly this much to post about. THANK YOU for taking the journey with us!
This milestone brings up a second one on our list of goals:
Write To Done's yearly contest, the8th Annual Top 10 Blogs For Writers Contest 2013 is happening right now! They're soliciting nominations for the Top 10 Blogs for Writers of 2013 and I’ve had Laura breathing down my neck about it.
(She’s that way, you know…why do you think she has 3 books out in a year?)
I’ll tell y’all what I told her:We’re not in charge here. Our readers are.
So, what do you think? Do you love WITS? Do you remotely have a yen to stampede over to Write To Done and gush in the comments about Writers In The Storm? We’d be tickled, and grateful, and thrilled beyond belief.
It’s okay if you don’t. We’ll still tell everyone we have the best readers around. But what if you DID. *jumps up and down…knocks the other gals over with excitement* That would be incredibly cool.
And one more thing, since we’re talking about dreams…
What about the Big Kahuna of shiny bloggy dreams?The Writer’s Digest annual list of 101 Best Websites for Writers. We’re dying to get on it and it’s pretty easy to get started, but again, we’re not in charge.
To nominate WITS for the site, you’d need to send an email with your comments and nomination for next year’s list to writersdigest@fwmedia.com with “101 Websites” in the subject line between now and Dec. 1, 2013.
p.s. y’all…I made one more deal with Laura. If she’d stop nagging me about chasing these Big Kahuna dreams, I’d not only put up this post, I also give away TWO copies of her book, The Sweet Spot, in the comments section. It’s on sale today for $1.99, so if you’ve been waiting to buy it, NOW is the time!
That’s really all I popped in to chat about, here on an off day at WITS. We love you guys and have so much fun digging up cool posts for you. We’ll keep at it through the holidays and into 2014.
By day, Jenny provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. By night she writes humor, memoir, women’s fiction and short stories. After 18 years as a corporate software trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.
Goodreads – with its 18 million rabid readers – is one of the most powerful places for an author to be discovered.
Goodreads is where folks converge to discuss novels, offer recommendations, write reviews, and keep compilations of the books they’ve read and want to read. Etailers like Kobo and Google feed Goodreads reviews directly into their websites.
Even if you’re not a member, your books are still listed and attracting reviews. Take advantage of the opportunity to control your own profile and book data and provide information that’ll bring the reader directly to you.
Here's how, in ten easy steps:
1. Become a Member of Goodreads!
In order to join the Goodreads Author program—where all the perks are—first you have to join Goodreads as a reader. If you are joining for the first time, I strongly recommend that you use your author name in its exact spelling to make the approval process much easier.
2. One Name, One Profile.
Do you write under multiple pen names? Unfortunately, Goodreads doesn’t allow multiple pseudonyms under one profile. Most authors work around this quirk by creating multiple Goodreads accounts using different emails.
3. Connect with Friends and Fans.
In the process of joining, Goodreads will ask if you’d like to connect to people through Facebook, Twitter, or email. Saying ‘yes’ helps build your Goodreads community of friends and fans. With your permission, Goodreads will then share any updates (like reviews) on your choice of social media, letting the world know what you’re reading.
4. Join the Goodreads Author Program!
Type the title of one of your books in the search bar. Then click on your hot-linked author name, which will bring up your author profile. Fans may have filled out some of this information for you—I found a cheesy old publicity shot on mine!
Now, look around for a hot-linked query that asks “Is This You? Let Us Know.” It may be at the bottom of the page or under the photo. Clicking on this link will bring you to a short application. Make sure to include your website and other info to convince them of your true identity. Within a few days they’ll verify the information and then allow you access to your books and Author Profile.
5. Believe in the Power of the Profile.
Here’s your opportunity to insert a compelling bio, your website and social media info, upload your video trailers, book excerpts, and automatically feed in your blog, Twitter, or Facebook posts. You can post your future events and even invite friends.
Here people will “friend” you and “fan” you. Fans will get a weekly email with all your Goodreads posts (including your blog/Facebook/Twitter feeds, if you’ve linked them.) As you get established in Goodreads, folks will soon be posting book quotes and putting you on lists (“People Who Write Like Jody Picoult.”)
If you do nothing else with the Goodreads program but maximize this Author Profile, you’ve already increased your discoverability tremendously.
6. But Wait, There’s More!
The more reviews your book has, the higher that book rises in the algorithms. A year ago, a Goodreads representative said that when a book gets “a couple of hundred reviews,” it increases your chances of being included in the direct emails sent to folks who read in that genre. The best way to take advantage of this perk is to aim to increase the number of reviews and the number of people who put your book on their “To-Be-Read” list.
7. How do I Get my Book on Everyone’s To-Be-Read list?
Ah, grasshopper, that’s the One True Question. Goodreads offers several tools:
Widgets. Goodreads will create for you html strings for a variety of widgets that you can insert directly into your website. Some are simple buttons that, with one-click, adds a book to a TBR list. Other widgets are more elaborate and include a scroll of the highest-rated reviews for your book.
Advertise. The last time did this, it was a beta system, and I ran an ad to support a giveaway I was running on one of my books. I didn’t think it was particularly effective, but the metrics may change now that they’re working with Amazon.
The Almighty Giveaway: This is Goodreads most powerful offering, and but for the cost of books and postage, it’s FREE. Currently, Goodreads only allows giveaways of PRINT books, but that may soon change. The point of a giveaway is to increase the number of folks who put your book on their TBR list, and to (hopefully) generate pre-publication reviews from the readers who win. The control is all in your hands: You get to choose how many books to offer, the geographical limits, and the time length of the giveaway. When the giveaway is over, Goodreads will send you the names and addresses of the winners which you must pinky-swear to burn after you’ve shipped the books.
Goodreads’ Greatest Perk for Book Launches. If you’re launching a book, it’s strongly suggested that you run a giveaway three months and then three weeks before the release date. Why? On your lay-down date, Goodreads will send out a targeted email to announce your book’s arrival to everyone who has your book on their TBR list. That’s pinpoint-targeted publicity, and it costs absolutely nothing.
8. Engage.
Like any social media website, you get more out of Goodreads if you engage socially. We’re all readers, right? By writing reviews of books, I’m showing those readers out there that I’m a reader, too! By joining a number of “Groups,” I’ve developed relationships with folks who love women’s fiction and chick lit. But be warned: Some authors have been flamed for being pushy marketers or complaining about ugly reviews. So if you’re inclined, join groups to engage, not to market, and let the readers discover your books on their own.
9. Stay Positive.
Yeah, you’ve heard the horror stories, but don’t let the recent dust-ups between readers and authors deter you from joining Goodreads. Goodreads has already taken steps to calm the turbulent waters. And those bad reviews? Ignore them. They often mean that you’re expanding your reach outside of your usual audience . . . and that’s what Goodreads is all about.
How do you discover new books? Do you take into account Goodreads, Riffle, Shelfari, and/or vendor reviews? Have you used Goodreads to promote your books? What worked for you?
About Lisa
Lisa Ann Verge is the RITA-nominated author of sixteen novels that have been translated into fifteen languages—quite a switch for this former chemist. She’s is a five-time finalist in Romantic Times’ book awards, her women’s fiction has won the Golden Leaf and the Bean Pot, and twice she has cracked Barnes & Noble’s General Fiction Forum’s top twenty books of the year. She currently lives in New Jersey with her husband and their three daughters, who never fail to make life interesting. Check her out at www.lisavergehiggins.com.
