Archive | August, 2013

Getting Ready for Virtual Book Tour

31 Aug
Tour dates Sept 16 to Oct 16.

Tour dates Sept 16 to Oct 16.

 

In just over two weeks I’ll be working with Roxanne Rhodes, creator of Bewitching Book Tours, for a month-long virtual book tour. Here is a blurb from her website: Bewitching Book Tours is the brainchild of Roxanne Rhoads– freelance writer, erotic romance author, book lover and paranormal aficionado.

What is a virtual book tour? It’s a wonderful opportunity to spread the word about your book from the comfort of your own office or living room by using bloggers and other promotional venues on the Internet. Being a guest blogger or answering a Q&A session or an interesting interview reaches out to the audience of that particular blogger who already has interest in reading your particular genre. It’s possible a copy of the book cover and buy links will be included in each blog.

A virtual tour is extremely important if your latest title is an eBook. It’s digital format does not lend to taking a box of copies to a coffee shop for a reading and making back of the room sales as you can with a printed edition.

Stay tuned for additional information as it becomes available of upcoming posts and guest blogs. I hope you’ll visit each blog and comment on the article to show support of this wonderful venue.

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Launch Day a Family-Fractured Fairy Tale

28 Aug

Sunday night at five hours until my latest title would go on sale an ominous feeling weighed heavy on my shoulders. The phone rang shortly thereafter and set in motion the wheels of another family crisis in an ongoing saga. Anyone who understands about putting the “fun” in dysfunctional family, you know you can almost guarantee that someone is going to break something, hurt someone or otherwise upset a perfectly decent day at any time.

If you’ve read my book “The Crowded Nest Syndrome,” a humorous look at the return of adult children, you’ll know the cast of characters, one of which deflated my launch day. I ended up on the highways, blood pressure soaring from 5 am until after 8:30 pm on my August 26th. Did I get a chance to send out tweets of joy? No. Did I get to relish in the congratulations of friends and family? No. I know the rule “Family before fame,” (I just made that up) but (ready to stomp my foot in a pout) I was really looking forward to this day with all of you. Isn’t that what social media is all about? Getting to shout and tweet and post the wonders of a new book?

I missed the birth of “Her Ghost Wears Kilts.” By the time I returned home to wi-fi and a computer in the dark of night, I was thoroughly drained of energy and personality. There are powerful people out there who can wring the life out of you if locked in a position of listening to them for hours at a time with no escape.

Launch Day-plus-one celebration.

Launch Day-plus-one celebration.

This morning I crawled to my day job knowing I’d face an inbox of customers needing help and a stack of finished books from calling in absent on a Monday. Not overwhelming, because I knew we all cover what we can for each other when someone’s out. But (get the Kleenex ready) Kate, from production, came in with a gorgeous bouquet she’d created herself and a delicious cookie pizza with “Best Author” across it. Oh, how the tears fell. And, yes, I Photoshopped some of the puffiness from under my eyes. Jeez, I’d been crying and she wants to take a picture!

Okay, so I missed the official Launch Day – doesn’t mean the party’s over, I’m just getting warmed up. My virtual blog tour doesn’t start until Sept. 16 and there is much to do and people to encourage to enjoy the perils of HGWK. And those who pre-ordered and are now able to jump into the story of Baillie will soon be telling their friends.  Right? Doesn’t mean HGWK can’t make the best-selling list of paranormal romances about ghosts.

Right??? You betcha.

 

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Book Trailer by Ami Blackwelder

22 Aug

Four days until “Her Ghost Wears Kilts” published by Crimson Romance is launched, Ami Blackwelder, Book Trailer Creations, sent me the finished product of the book trailer. A mini commercial of my latest novel – and it’s just fun. I uploaded it to YouTube.com and went about sprinkling the link throughout my social media.

Ami took an image of the cover and a short summary of the book to put together my commercial. Her talent of picking out short lines about the story, mixed with images and adding a soundtrack happened in a short blink of time. That which would have taken me weeks to even attempt with no assurance of a tangible product, she whipped together and only charges $50.00 – that’s right, fifty dollars. Fab-u-lous.

What a great way to reach more possible readers, something easily shared, that brings a “feel” to the story. What would your book trailer look like?

Her Ghost Wears Kilts Book Trailer

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Goodreads Ad

16 Aug

I’ve submitted an ad about pre-ordering “Her Ghost Wears Kilts” on Goodreads. Are you a goodreads_logo_140-5b3e47356388131c1699f0baca28a234member? It’s a great site of tens of thousands of readers and authors sharing books they’ve read, currently reading or want to read in the future. I know it was recently purchased by Amazon, but I don’t see any changes yet.

In setting up the ad, I could choose a daily budget and specifically target certain genres which is very important. Someone in love with literary fiction would probably not like HGWK. It would be as if the reader were expecting roast beef and got cotton candy instead. I know my audience is women, who’d love to have a subscription to People or already does, loves a happy ending and tends to shop at Target, Kohls, or JC Pennys.

It needs to be approved and they note this could take a day or two.

Advertising on Goodreads? Check!

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Available for Pre-Order Now

12 Aug

Magic Monday came at six this morning seeing “Her Ghost Wears Kilts” listed on Amazon.com. This starts the two-week pre-order window by Crimson Romance for the eBook edition. It is also available at iTunes and will soon be listed with Barnes & Noble for Nook readers.

How intense should marketing be for pre-orders versus waiting until the book releases for sales? This is an interesting question and one I’m finding with a variety of responses.

What are your feelings on the topic? I look forward to hearing your comments.

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Postcards by Ninth Moon

4 Aug

KS_PSTRCD_FT_1aI love the quality of my new postcards designed and printed by Ninth Moon for writers here in western Washington. I’ve already passed out quite a few and will keep at least a dozen in my purse and notebook. You never know who you may be talking to during the day. And for a romance book, I’m checking out the women in line with me at the grocery store or in mini groups during football practice.

I didn’t have my mailing list ready to go once they got here. Note to self and others: best thing to fill the time waiting for the cards is ordering or buying postcard rate stamps and revise your address list to included anyone and everyone you feel would be responsive to your title.

Her Ghost Wears Kilts come out in three weeks which is a great time to send out postcards. People can display them on their desks, tuck into their desk calendars and pin to their bulletin boards. Hopefully it’s in a public location where others will see it and comment on the bright cover design starting a word-of-mouth campaign.

For some of those I’ve chosen for my Street Team, I’ll send them ten postcards, pre-stamped, to address to their friends and send out. This will reach another level of readers I wouldn’t normally know.

It’s a warm Sunday morning, a load of laundry is running, the dishwasher is humming and I’ve exercised the pups. Now it’s time to start addressing the postcards to go out in tomorrow’s mail. Three weeks and counting.

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