Tag: advertising

Saturday Self Promotion

Well it’s Saturday and I do hope everyone is making the most of it. I’ve got a morning of cleaning ahead of me, then an afternoon of writing which I’m looking forward to. Today’s post is going to be a little bit of self promotion so forgive me ahead of time. I haven’t done this in a while so here goes.

ImageFriends since early childhood, Lilly and Zane have always been inseparable. After four years apart, will their relationship change? Upon seeing Lilly again after such a long absence he realizes his heart belongs to her. When a wealthy ranch owner from Texas offers Lilly the job of a lifetime, will she leave knowing the effect it will have on Zane and their relationship? Will her new boss expect more than just an employer/employee relationship? Just how far will he go to win her over? Will Zane be able to pull her from the ties of the ranch or will it be A Love Never Lost?

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This is a collection of Cowboy romances from author Stephanie Payne Hurt. All three have a Cowboy hero and a heroine that can’t resist her cowboy. Each book is full of heart filled romance and suspense mingled in. 
Ghost Lover 
The dying words of Jess’s mother are for her to find the love of her life. But with an overbearing father, will she have that chance? When he gives her a horse and riding lessons for her 21st birthday, her life changes. Is the cowboy behind the Black Stetson her soul mate? When her father’s partner decides to stake claim on her, who will win the fight? Suspense, tragedy, romance and a stranger in the shadows lead to a dramatic final showdown. 
Moonbeam and Roses 
Sara is an artist with a passion for horses. Wes is a cowboy with a passion for Sara, but he knows she’s out of his league. Pushing her away he leaves for Montana, leaving her lost and heartbroken. Will she heal her heart with another man? He rushes home when she’s almost killed, but is he too late? Will he lose her forever? 
A Love Never Lost 
Lilly has her life planned. Go to college, meet a wonderful man, and have children. Zane has a plan too and it includes Lilly, but he only realized that when he went off to college. Frustration fills him as he watches a new man in her life sweeping her away. One kiss tells him she feels the same way, but the new man has other plans. Will she choose the right man or go down the wrong path?

 ImageFind the magic of Christmas Love inside the pages of this sweet romance about two broken hearts that need a little nudge… 

When Lacey Dannon gets left at the altar she’s stunned. Her best friend acts quickly and puts her on a plane to the destination of her dreams, Switzerland at Christmas time. The destination also includes staying in a chalet with a grieving Cowboy, Drake Tyler. He has his reasons for staying in the Alps alone. When their eyes meet for the first time, they know it’s something special, but will their past pull them apart or will the love of Christmas Open the Heart…

 

Well, I didn’t want to overdo this so I only listed 3 of my books that are out. I hope everyone has a great Saturday and get some writing in 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

3 Ways Indie Authors Can Improve Self Publishing

As you know I’m a self published author. When I decided to publish my manuscripts I studied the market. I’m an Accountant and I have a strong analytical background so that pushed me to make a study into this. I looked into both the traditional market and the self publishing market. One thing I realized was that more and more traditionally published authors are going to the self publishing market. But let me tell you this, in order to do it right you’ve got to keep up the traditional publishing standards strictly enforced.

Here are 3 of the ways Authors can improve Self Publishing:

1: Editing: This is a very important part of publishing and this is where several self published authors fail at. It’s also part of why some people will not pick up a self published book because they’ve been burned before. You’ve got to read your manuscript and read it again. Also you need to either get Beta Readers or someone that will be critical and unbiased to read your work. When you read your manuscript pull yourself away. Read it as though you’re a reader and are you inspired to read it again. If it falls flat, then how can you expect anyone else to get into. Have you corrected all the spelling errors, grammatical errors, and just plain out story line disasters?

2: Covers: I can’t stress this enough. Covers can sell even a badly written book. This is the first thing that a reader sees. This is the first line of selling rank. If you don’t spend money on anything else, please spend a little on this. There are so many talented cover designers out there. I’ve been so fortunate to have a awesome cover designer. I’ve seen some really cool covers and then some really horrible attempts. Your cover needs to tell something about what’s inside. It need to pull the reader in. I’ve purchased so many books just from the cover.

3: Book Blurbs: I stress about this with all my books. This is the hardest part of writing to me, no kidding. Make sure you don’t give away too much in the blurb. Too many authors tell the story on the back of the book. This is not good. Be very descriptive and use complimentary words that will draw in the reader. I’ve done a study on this with my very own books. I put out a blurb on a couple of my books that I was somewhat happy with, but I noticed a lag in sales. Then I sat down and poured over the blurbs changing some of the key words and adding some small elements. This helped the sales dramatically. Try it and see if your sales go up.

It’s hard to be an author, period! When I say I’m an author, people come back with yeah, I could write a book. Well, yeah, anyone can write a book, but can they write a book that will go anywhere? Do they have the drive to publish that book and do all the marketing? Being an author is not as easy as it looks and being self published is brutal at times.

But let me tell you the rewards far outweigh the difficulties. The first time a fan comes up to you at the grocery store and says, “Oh my goodness you’re that author.” The first time this happened to me I was so embarassed and excited at the same time. When you get emails from fans excited about your work it makes you smile all day. I’ve gained so many new friends from all over the world that some days I’m just amazed. Yes it’s a lot of work, but it’s so worth it. 

Have I thought about traditionally publishing? Yes. I sent Ghost Lover to a traditional publisher and never heard a word. Then I decided to self publish it and it was all uphill from there. It was my introduction into the publishing world and the response to that book has been really great. I’ve had a couple of big publishers call me about coming on board with them, but they couldn’t offer my anything different from what I do now, so not now. I do have a work in progress at the moment that it’s been in my heart to send to a publisher that I contribute to as a blogger. We’ll see how that goes. 

So, my advice to you is to go for it, but be prepared to do it right. This is your name you’re putting out there, so make it shine. If you need any help with it, I’m in partnership with my editor/cover designer in a publishing service, Horseshoe Publishing. We’ll help you iron out those wrinkles and make your work shine like a new penny.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Time to recharge for new year!

Ok, the holidays are over so it’s time to buckle down. As an Accountant it’s time to close out the year on all my clients, do W-2’s and 1099″s. Not to mention the start of Tax Season… But as a writer it’s time to buckle down and get out more manuscripts, clean out my work to be done file (It’s rather large 🙂 ) and get all my writing expenses together.

You may be saying oh nooooo… But if you have a method of doing this it helps. I’m here to help. The first thing you need to do is sit down at your work area and declutter. Clutter clouds the mind, or so they say. Funny thing is I know my clutter well and can tell you where anything and everything is in my clutter. 

Ok, once the clutter is somewhat organized make sure all your invoices, papers and such are filed in their correct files. This makes tax time so much easier. What if you didn’t print all your invoices off your email, well now’s time to declutter your email. I always forget to print those pesky things off email, because once they get to the bottom of the list they’re forgotten. So, print all your invoices and remove them from the email. It will make your system run smoother too…

I like to sit down and get all my royalty reports off the many sites I’m on. This takes a moment, but well worth it. You need to know what you can expect in 1099’s. Yes, people, royalties are considered income. I’ve been asked this question multiple times, but writing is a business, so run it as such.

Then sit down and separate all your miscellaneous files such as donations, medical, and office expenses. So many people miss out on tax deductions because they just simply don’t want to take the time to get the paperwork out, but I consider it money in my pocket and who doesn’t like that. Just plan an afternoon in front of the fire sorting paperwork. That’s how I do my own paperwork. I can spread out and have multiple piles. 

Don’t forget any equipment you might have purchased during 2013. Did you get a new laptop, printer, keyboard, mouse, well you know where I’m going with that. Also subscriptions, yep that subscription to the writers magazine is deductible to a writer 🙂 Then of course you have royalties paid to photo sites, yep bet you forgot about those didn’t you?

Then you have all those little expenses that we often forget such as postage, advertising, long distance calls to editors, agents or such as that. Don’t forget any programs you bought that help your writing. They can be costly and are deductible.

These are just a couple of things. Once you’ve cleaned out those packed files or drawers, start the new year off right by setting up a filing system and keep it straight. When you pay bills, or order something online, print that invoice right then and file it, deleting the email. This helps next January be a little less stressful.

I do hope everyone had a great 2013 and look forward to a blessed 2014. 

As always, great writing and May God Bless You…

Picking the right cover photo

I know I’ve harped on this before but I can’t stress enough the importance of a great cover. I was looking at some of the new books on Amazon and to tell you the truth a couple of the covers were non imaginative. They were just bland and didn’t exactly go with the book description. But of course there were some that I was just stunned at the creativity and dare I say ‘beauty’. 

Your book cover is the first thing potential readers see. If you go the extra mile it will help you tremendously. Like right now I’m scanning photos for my newest work in progress. I have in my mind what I want and it has to be perfect. I’ve looked at thousands of photos and let me tell you, it’s a lot of work, but the payoff makes it worth it.

If your cover doesn’t fit the book, why even go there. If you write a Christmas romance and put a Easter bunny on it, well you get the picture. Don’t give away too much with your cover either. This means don’t put a picture of the ending on the cover. If all the way through the book you keep the reader in the dark about if the couple is going to marry or get pregnant, you might not want to put them in a wedding dress or looking pregnant. But then again that could increase sales. Sometimes it’s a catch 22, you just have to know how to make it work.

Also, one last thing that’s a huge, big piece of advice. For next to nothing you can purchase a picture from a reputable site and make it really pop. Don’t just pull something from the family photos and make it work, unless it really goes with the book. I use several sites, but my favs are bigstockphoto.com and istockphoto.com. There are several, but these are the two I use.

As always, good writing and may God Bless You…

By the way, don’t forget that my publishing service designs great covers. Check out the tab above for Horseshoe Publishing…

Advertising and Promotions?

Well I forgot to turn the heater on in my office this morning. It’s a balmy 25 outside and inside my office it’s real close to that. My fingers are numb, but I ran into the house and warmed up my sweater by the fire. I’m sure my neighbors think I’ve gone nuts running back and forth between the office and the house, but it’s too cold to merely walk.

On to this morning’s writing topic. How do you advertise or promote? Well you may be saying, what’s the difference? I’m going to give you my view of the differences and then a few pieces of advice. To me advertising is something you pay for and promoting is getting your book out there via any channel you can get your two cents in.

Advertising

Advertising is a hot topic among authors. Do you pay a hefty fee and hope that someone will see the ad and buy your book? It’s a catch 22 really. I believe that you need some paid advertising to get your book in front of a different audience than just Facebook, Twitter and various other places. But choose wisely. I’ve heard of too many authors that paid for advertising and never saw the ad or much less found it on the site. Don’t choose too quickly from an exciting email you get from a “advertising firm”. 

Take for instance, yesterday I received an email from a company that said they’d put my book on many sites for a fee. They went on to paint a pretty impressive picture of their company. Funny thing is when I Googled their firms name I didn’t find anything, nada, nothing! That was a major red flag for me. They then went into their fees. WHOA!!! Let’s just say, I’d have to sell hundreds of books to even make it back. Needless to say I deleted said email and went on my merry way.

If you find a reputable place to advertise and it’s fairly reasonable for what you’re getting, then by all means go for it. If they say their service tweets and facebooks your ad, go to Twitter and Facebook to see the traffic they garner. If they only have 10 followers and no responses or few retweets you’d best move on. ‘Nough said.

Promotions

Now this can be fun and tedious at the same time. Don’t over promote in a day. The reason I say this is, I’ve tried to analyze the results from a study I did. I tested this theory on Twitter and was amazed. I spent two days just blowing up Twitter with nothing but promotional stuff from my books. I tweeted from every book site I had and yada yada. Then I watched as my Twitter followers started dropping off like wasps in a nest after they met Raid. Well, it’s obvious that this wasn’t a good plan. Then I did this in a more laid back way and gained several new followers. I only tweeted a couple of times during high traffic times and added in books from other authors and funny sayings or just daily writing tips. Amazing the difference. Even had several nice retweets, especially thankful ones from the authors I tweeted. Yes, the first test garnered a couple of retweets, but only from my most dedicated Twitter followers. 

A lot of sites say they’ll do the tweeting and posting for you, but let’s get real, we can do that ourselves for free. Well, that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.

Here’s a couple of the places that I’ve done paid advertising and seen results:

http://www.rwa.org/ Romance Writer’s Of America – I put an ad in their monthly magazine and had some great results. It’s not very expensive and it reaches many readers that actually read my genre. They’re really easy to work with and totally worth it. Also join their organization to get the monthly magazine and all their wonderful help on their website.

http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/about-ian.html The Independent Author Network. This is a great site also to promote and advertise. The authors here work as a team to tweet and retweet each other’s books. I always notice a big upswing in views and sales when I go in and help other authors. Very reasonable to join.

http://bookclubreading.com Book Club Reading is a new one I’m using for both areas. They help you to get your name and books out to book clubs. Their advertising is fairly reasonable and it’s helped with sales of my Christmas book.

Promotional sites I worked with that are free and easy:

http://www.prlog.org This is a press release site. I use the free option and they produce great looking press releases that you can send out to all your social sites and they put them into several channels. It’s fairly easy to use and set up is easy.

Goodread.com Goodreads is a great promotional area. Set up events for upcoming promotions and join groups that are in your genre. It promotes your name and get’s you some great advice to boot. 

Shelfari.com Shelfari is a great place to put your books and gained followers. You can download your books directly from Amazon and even your reading list. I’ve made some great friends on this site.

http://worldliterarycafe.com/ This site is a wonderful promotional tool and I’ve learned a lot from them. Join their group on Facebook and ask what you need to know or just read what others have asked. Of course on the Facebook group don’t promote your books. That part of their site is only for Q & A or helpful hints. 

Now these are just a couple. There’s so many great sites out there and I know I didn’t mention even half of them.

As always good writing and May God Bless You…

 

 

Foggy Fall Morning

When I woke this morning it was foggy outside. To me a foggy fall morning is beautiful. The fall colors become a soft emerging color through the fog. It’s as though you’re alone in the world as the fog closes in around the house. As I sit here looking out the window I can only see a little ways and then you meet a gray wall. For some reason when it’s foggy as when it snows everything is quiet. It’s as though the creatures outside are afraid to make a sound or maybe they’re just in awe of natures shadowy appearance.

Hopefully the foggy morning will not seep into my brain. I plan on doing some writing today. I need to get Open The Heart out and ready to go. Also, I need to do some promoting for Monday. I will be featured on Southern Writer’s Magazine’s Blog page called Suite T. This is so exciting. They’ve been so wonderful to me and my writing. If you’re a writer you need to subscribe to their magazine. It’s very inspirational and informative.

I’d also like to recommend a website that’s very good for a writer and a reader. If you’re like me and grew up reading Avon Romance books, then you need to visit http://www.avonromance.com. It’s a great site to catch up with other romance readers and get to know their editors and authors. I’m proud to be able to contribute to their wonderful website. I recently went through some of my old romance books in the attic and was surprised at how many of them are Avon Books. When I was young I would look for the Avon logo on the spine and that always told me what was inside would be great. 

Avon Books carry some big author names. If you haven’t checked them out, then you’ve been missing out. I’ve found several new authors to read and recently was excited when I saw an older author of romance write a post on there. It’s funny how much I enjoy the posts on this site. Some of the posts even give you interesting insights into their world.

As for me, I’m feeling pretty good this morning. I was able to spend a couple of hours last night with my nieces. One of them is my editor and cover designer. She’d been away at University of Georgia. I was so glad to get to talk with her and catch up. I was able to surprise her with a paperback copy of Victoria which was the last book she designed for me before she left for college. 

Wishing everyone great writing, and May God Bless You…

 

Self Publishing?

Have you written a book? Are you unsure what the next step is? Well, for me it was a choice to self publish. I really struggled with this decision at first. Then I started to research all the points of self publishing versus traditional publishing. What I found was interesting and scary at the same time.

I’m going to list the good points of self publishing and then some bad points:

Good Points:

1. You the writer are in control. You make the decisions.

2. Royalties. This is a big selling point. You claim a good chunk of the royalties. I researched several sites for both types or publishing and it was a no brainer on the self publishing royalty sides. 

3. You decide what’s kept in your book after editing. You get to keep your story as it is. A lot of times in traditional publishing I’ve heard authors talk of having to totally change the vibe of their hard work to suit the agent or publisher. You’ve worked really hard to get your story written, you need to keep that story alive. Of course the editing needs to be done, but the vibe should stay as you see it in your mind.

4. You get to design the cover or put in your two cents on what that cover looks like. As for me I always have a vision of what the cover needs to be like.

5. You get to keep the rights to your work. It’s yours.

 

Some bad points:

1. You are in charge of getting people to edit your book and review it. Editing is a very important part and sometimes the hardest thing to do. But it is essential to the success of your book. If your book is full of spelling and grammar errors then more than likely the reader will not read your next book.

2. Advertising. This is sometimes the authors nemesis, but guess what, even with traditional publishers you have to do this too. 

3. Cover design. You will see this on both sides of the spectrum of good and bad points. Sometimes you’d just like to turn this over to someone else and not deal with it.

4. You can’t get your foot in some book stores as a self publisher. 

5. Self publishers can be frowned upon by some. It’s sad but true. Why should we be looked down on? We’ve followed our dreams of being writers and that should be enough for some people, but we have to look at reality. There are some self published books out there that make self publishing look shabby. 

 

These are only a couple of points both ways. Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against traditional publishing. This is just how I weighed the options for myself. You may have a different view and that’s your right. 

I’ve been asked before if I was approached by a publisher. Yes, I’ve had the excitement of being approached by two publishers. One was a large, well known publisher and the other was a fairly well known small publisher. The small publisher wanted my to pay them for the honor of publishing. Well of course I laughed and respectfully declined. If they wanted me to write for them it wouldn’t be pay us first and then we’ll publish you. I don’t think so. The large well known publisher didn’t want any money. They wanted me to write for them. The only thing was, when I asked them what they’d do for my book as far as advertising and distribution, well let’s just say it made me frown. I was already doing everything they were going to do and in some areas I took the bar a little higher. Also the royalties were going to be cut over 1/2 from what I already get and I’d still be doing the same thing. So why not stay where I’m at for now.

Yep, I said for now. I’d love to get a traditional publisher to take one of my books or maybe more. But it will have to feel like the right thing to do at the time. As a writer I treat each book like a special child and I don’t want just anybody taking my child to the park. I will have to check out that publisher and weigh the options.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

Pumpkin Pie Spice and everything nice…

It’s Halloween and I love it. I don’t get into all the scary stuff, but I do love to dress up. Last year I was Noah in the Ark. What will I be this year? Hummmmm…… I have several ideas but no reveal until tonight at Church. We’re having our annual Truck or Treat and I always go all out with my costumes for the kids. I’m a big kid at heart so why not show it to the world. I’ll be posting a picture of me tonight.

As for the Pumpkin Pie Spice, I purchased my first seasonal coffee creamer of the season. It was heavenly this morning as I took the first sip of the creamy concoction. It made my day seem so exciting and mysterious. As the clouds roll in setting up for the rain to come later tonight, I’m working on my second cup of deliciously flavored coffee and thinking about a third. Why not? 

As for everything nice, my book sale is up on most of my sites, but not on Barnes and Noble yet. Hopefully by the end of the week. I’m excited about my upcoming blog post in the Southern Writer’s Magazine Suite T blog which will appear November 18th. Things have moved along pretty quickly with my writing and I’m just riding on this wave of awesomeness. 

Looking into a couple of advertising areas that have been recommended to me. Let me know your thoughts on these two sites: BookBub and Blodads.com. Have any of you used these sites and how did it go? Do you have another recommendation?

Hope all is well on this spookiest day of the year. Happy Halloween and stay safe, but have a marvelous time being someone or something else today.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Social Media and writing…

I was a little leary about starting a lot of social media accounts. Then when I started publishing my books it was a must. My editor/assistant got me started with a blog, then came Twitter and after much anxiousness Facebook. I’ve never been one to push myself in anywhere. 

Of course now I get up, drink a cup of coffee and look at all my many sites. It’s funny how many I have now. What’s really funny is when I tweet or send out my book links on any of my sites, the sales go up. What would happen if you didn’t do social media in today’s world? Would you sell a book? If you’re in book stores and various chain stores you would do alright, but people rely on social media and the internet to find books. It’s just part of life.

Make sure you keep your sites updated. Keep the posts going and don’t do anything that you don’t want the whole world to see. So go by and check out my sites. I have links on this page…

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…