Howdy partners. It’s been a while since I last stopped in to visit here on WITS. Time flies when you’re having fun writing and promoting books, which brings me to today’s topic. As the title implies, Amazon forums offer authors an opportunity to promote their books, but only with caution and proper etiquette.
When I self-published my first book, Darlin’ Druid, in late 2010, I had no idea how to use Big A’s customer forums. In fact, I didn’t even know they existed, but I soon learned about them – the hard way.
I discovered the forums by accident, from chance comments by authors on other sites. My first thought was “Oh boy! Now I can tell readers about my new baby.” Certain all the historical romance fans would be eager to buy it, I dipped my toe in the Romance Forum pool, letting readers know about my book.
One of the “forum police,” a reader who shall go nameless, immediately snapped off a sharp reply, something about needing to “bump” an earlier warning to authors not to promote their books on the forum. That made me scratch my head. If I couldn’t tell romance readers about my book, how was I supposed to reach them?
Eventually, I found a few author friendly threads where I met readers, authors and ebook reviewers who kindly welcomed me into their midst. There, authors were able to talk about general writing topics and promote their projects. I connected with some wonderful folks on those threads, was invited for interviews on blog sites and even received terrific book reviews from a few readers.
However, my sales were slow, driving me to become reckless and post promo messages on two or three romance forum threads, where readers were looking for book suggestions. Big mistake!
One of the above mentioned self-styled forum cops proceeded to add four nasty tags on my book’s retail page. She didn’t call me out about my posts, just did her best – her worst, I should say – to drive customers away from my book.
When I discovered what she’d done, I was horrified. I screamed about it on the friendly threads, and a number of my new friends hit the disagree button for those tags. Believe me, I learned my lesson.
I never again posted on the Romance Forum.
A few months later, Amazon introduced the Meet Our Authors Forum, where authors are encouraged to exchange advice about writing and promoting their books. A lot of authors complained that we were being corralled in a sort of prison where we’d have no contact with readers. To some extent that’s true, but not entirely. Some readers do visit the MOA threads looking for new authors to try.
Introduce yourself on a few MOA threads, ones that suit your genre.
Be friendly, offer advice if you can help fellow authors, visit their blogs and Facebook pages, and ask them to visit yours. If you’re lucky, as I have been, you may form lasting relationships that will lead you in unexpected, fruitful directions.
As for those reader forums, look at them, lurk in the background, learn what customers are looking for, but NEVER promote your books there.
Instead, look for friendly readers on the MOA Forum. Offer them a free copy of your newest book. If they like it, ask if they’re willing to post a review on the book’s retail page. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll drop a good word for you on the reader forums.
I hope I 've given you a good idea of how to navigate Amazon forums and make them work for you. Have you self published? How has your experience been? What areas of promotion have provided you with the best results for your books?
If you’ve followed our blogs here at WITS very long, you’ve seen that there’s a lot more to us than the stories we write. We all have other interests; Sharla has her dolls, Fae has cats and cards, and Jenny has Baby Girl and underwear (we'll wait - we know you're going to check out the underwear!)
I’ve got other interests as well. Yeah, there’s motorcycling, bicycle riding, and fly fishing, but today, I want to put forth a case for my biggest obsession. No, not food.
Pro Bull Riding!
Why? I’m not a country girl; I grew up in Detroit. I don’t much like country music; to me, a steel guitar sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard. So how could I have gotten so wrapped up in a sport that I wrote a three book series set in that world?
I’m fascinated by young men who, through courage, craziness, or under the influence of large quantities of testosterone, get on the back of two thousand pounds of attitude that wants to throw them in the dirt and dance on their dangly parts.
The athleticism. Bull riders have more in common with gymnasts than wrestlers. The mechanics require more balance than brute strength.
These aren’t media savvy, spoiled athletes. They’re mostly kids off farms, and ranches. Watching their wide-eyed interviews on camera, and talking to them in person, gives me hope for the future of America. They remind me with their gentlemanly “Ma’am’s” and “Sir’s” that mothers somewhere are still raising kids right.
I’ve watched this sport grow over the past ten years, and have enjoyed watching events that are real -- not slickly orchestrated and Hollywood perfect.
But the bigger picture is that these men represent the American Cowboy; a rare breed in today’s society of political correctness and metrosexuals. They still live by the belief that their handshake is a scared promise, and integrity isn’t what you talk about, it’s what you live. They live by a code that they’re willing to die by. How many people do you know like that?
Do yourself a favor. Check out their website. Tune in to a PBR event some weekend (TV schedule is here.) I dare you not to get sucked into the drama. Maybe I’ll see you at the finals in Las Vegas some November!
Let ‘er buck!
How about you? What you do, when you’re not pounding a keyboard? WITS readers want to know!
Laura has written three books set in the world of Pro Bull Riding. The first, The Sweet Spot, is due out next May, from Grand Central.
Writers In The Storm is delighted to welcome Kristen Lamb today. She's a treasure trove of writing, author and social media know-how so strap in for a great post!
************
Star Trek 2009 ~ Photo from IMDB
I love the 2009 J.J. Abrams rendition of Star Trek. As a writer, stories are my business, so I study them in all forms. Film is a favorite in that it takes far less time and allows me to study the written form in a visual way (a tactic I learned from great writing teacher and NY Times BSA Bob Mayer).
Anyway, I don’t watch movies like most people, much to my husband’s chagrin (he would put tape over my mouth if he could get away with it). This 2009 version of Star Trek did very well at the box office and resonated with audiences in a way that other high-budget fast-paced sci-fi movies had failed. Why?
I believe Star Trek was a wild success because Abrams adhered to some very fundamental storytelling basics too often forgotten in Hollywood and even in writing.
Yes, movies and novels have more in common than you might think. Today’s blog especially applies to sci-fi and fantasy, but I believe all genres can benefit from these lessons I’ve plucked from the silver screen. Today I will address some of my favorite points, because this movie is such a fantastic tool for understanding great storytelling that I couldn’t possibly address all the lessons in one sitting.
Star Trek proved thatimperfect characters resonate with audiences.
Audiences LOVE flawed characters. James T. Kirk was deliciously flawed at the beginning. He was on a road to self-destruction believing he could never stand in the shadow of his father’s greatness. He demonstrated how character strengths of a great leader, when not harnessed properly, are tools of great mischief and mayhem. Did the plot really serve to change Kirk? Not really. His attributes were very similar, just refocused in a productive way. The inciting incident really just put Kirk on a path that would make better use of his buccaneer ways.
Time and time again I see new writers become far too fascinated with the too-perfect protagonist (been there and got the T-shirt, myself). The problem with the too-perfect protagonist is that audiences find it difficult to relate. While it might seem counterintuitive, flawed is often better.
Want an illustration from the fiction world? I believe that Twilight is a great example. Bella was deeply flawed and thus readers could easily slip into her shoes. They, too, could look at Edward and long to know what it would be like to be one of the beautiful people.
I think that is why a lot of movies flop. Who can relate to Angelina Jolie? In Tomb Raider she was fun to watch, but we have absolutely no way of connecting with Lara Croft. She is beautiful, insanely rich and lives a life of adventure. The movies would have done better had the writers/directors done something to make Lara Croft real. The first movie did well simply because fans of the video game. Yet, audiences couldn’t connect to this super perfect (and not really likable) character, so the second movie bombed big time. And I am not alone in this assessment. Read Save the Catby the late screenwriting genius Blake Snyder, which is a great book for all writers to read anyway.
Writers. Can we cast über perfect characters? Sure. But we do so at a risk. Perfect characters easily become one-dimensional and boring. As in movies, we need to connect with a reader, and most of us didn’t sit at that table in high school.
Star Trek perfected showing, not telling.
Star Trek did an unsurpassed job of showing, not telling. Yes, they can info-dump in movies. I gutted through Deadline with the late Brittany Murphy and there were convenient camcorder tapes along the way to info dump back story. There were all kinds of scenes dedicated for the sole purpose of characters discussing a third-party. No, no, no, no, no! Bad writer! Had the screenwriter been in my workshop, he would have gotten zinged.
Virtually everything in Star Trek happened real time. The director didn’t dedicate entire scenes to Spock and Uhura explaining how Kirk was a reckless pain in the tush. Abrams employed scenes that showed Kirk crashing through their lives like a bull in a china shop. There was ONE flashback and it was information critical to understanding the plot.
Star Trek employed parsimony.
One element of showing and not telling is to make the most of your story. Employ setting, symbol and action economy. If a scene can do more than one thing…let it. In the beginning (prologue) Kirk’s mother is pregnant (with him). Bad guys appear, and Dad is left on board as acting captain of the ship. He must sacrifice to save them all.
It is no accident that the director did two things. First, all the battle noises fade away and symphony music rises. Then, the scenes cut from Mom giving birth to Dad giving his life. Birth and death, hope and sacrifice are suddenly in perfect harmony. That was done for a reason. In your novel, do all things on purpose.
Look at your scenes. Can they do more than one task? For some ideas, read my blog Setting—More than Just a Backdrop. Setting can be used for more reasons than to give readers a weather report. Lehane proves my point in Shutter Island(discussed in blog), which is a tremendous example of narrative parsimony.
Star Trek showed character via relativity.
In the beginning we see Kirk as this crazy guy power drinking and zooming around on a crotch rocket. Yet, the director knew he could have a problem. He needed Kirk to be a maverick risk-taker…but he also needed to prove to the audience that his protagonist wasn’t a foolhardy idiot. No one wants to follow a raging moron with a death wish into battle. The director needed to show us someone who cared deeply about others and who was willing to risk everything for his men.
How did he do this?
There is an early scene where they have to do a space jump (think HALO jump). Kirk and Sulu go with a Red Shirt—which means Red Shirt dude is going to die for those who are not Trekkies. Red Shirt guys always bite it. The interesting thing is that the Red Shirt guy is hooping and hollering all the way down like some idiot out of a Mountain Dew commercial. Kirk pulls his chute and begs the guy to open his. Red Shirt is too busy being a thrill-seeking idiot and ends up vaporized. Now we the audience can see Kirk takes huge risks, but we also understand that he cares about others and is not stupid.
Star Trekrelied on character and story.
This is the single most important lesson for those writing sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal or horror. Tell us a story about people first. Relying on gadgets and gimmicks is not storytelling (if you ever need a reminder, just go check out this post about the Star Wars prequels).
There are all kinds of space movies that had far better special effects than the original Star Wars (the GOOD ones), yet Star Wars endures and will endure to future generations. Why? Because it told a story about people first. I believe this Star Trek did the same and that is why it is a movie that will endure for generations.
I never could get through the newest Star Wars prequels. Why? Because there was so much CGI (computer generated imagery) that I felt like I was trapped at Chuck E. Cheese's and having a bad LSD trip. I felt the computer images were far too distracting. From the comments on on my Star Wars Prequels post, I finally realize I am not alone.
Star Trek, on the other hand, used CGI, but not at the expense of the real focus . . . the stories about the people.
I edit a lot of writers who want to write YA, fantasy, paranormal, etc. and too often they allow world-building to take over. The reader is so bogged down in gimmick that she cannot see the characters or the story. Frequently there isn’t a story.
World-building is something a writer must employ to assist or accentuate the core conflict.
Our goal as writers must be to get a reader to relate and connect. People connect with people, not worlds. Conflict drives stories, not gizmos. Thus, all the magic and myth must be ancillary to the root story. If you have done a good job of plotting, that root story will be very simple and timeless and could take place in Kansas or on Planet Doom.
For those of you who haven’t watched J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek, I highly recommend it (duh ) even if you aren’t a fan of sci-fi.
What are some of your favorite movies and why? How did the story capture you? Why does it resonate? What are your thoughts on the new Star Trek? What did you like? What fell short?
Kristen worked in international sales before transitioning into a career as an author, freelance editor and speaker. She takes her years of experience in sales & promotion and merges it with almost a decade as a writer and editor to create a program designed to help authors construct a platform in the new paradigm of publishing. Kristen has helped hundreds of writers find success using social media. Her methods are responsible for selling hundreds of thousands of books. She has helped all levels of writers from mega authors to self-published unknowns attain amazing results.
Kristen is the founder of the WANA movement, the co-founder and CEO of WANA International a company dedicated to empowering artists of the Digital Age. She’s also the co-creator of WANATribe, the social network for creatives. Kristen has dedicated her life to helping writers and artists reach their dreams and achieve the impossible.
) even if you aren’t a fan of sci-fi.
