Author: Carol Wyer

Carol E Wyer is a Contributing Author for Indies Unlimited and an award-winning and best-selling author of humorous novels including MINI SKIRTS AND LAUGHTER LINES, SURFING IN STILETTOS, and HOW NOT TO MURDER YOUR GRUMPY. Carol has been featured on NBC News, BBC Radio, and in The Huffington Post. For more about Carol, go to her website or her Amazon author page.

Codebreaking for Beginners

Last month I was busy making new business cards to distribute to unsuspecting tourists (see my post “Stop me and Buy One”.) I checked out what information should be on my card and having established that I needed to put some of my book covers on the back, and an eye catching simple design on the front, I discovered that I should really add a QR code. Yes, those foxed me too, but wait a minute and you too will find out that QR codes are utterly brilliant.

The QR code was invented in Japan by a subsidiary of Toyota to track vehicles during manufacture. It was designed to allow high-speed component scanning and has since become one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes. QR codes then became common in consumer advertising. Smartphone users or iPad owners can install a free app with a QR-code scanner that is able to read a displayed code and convert it to a URL, which in turns directs the smartphone’s browser to the website of the company, store, product. Continue reading “Codebreaking for Beginners”

Think Big

Last month, I posted about how to use your vacation time wisely and sell books. This month, I have some incredible opportunities for you. You need to get your name out there. So let’s look at how the big PR companies market stuff, and see how we can do it on a shoestring budget:

You might have seen those Double Decker buses with huge posters of the latest film slapped on their sides. Apparently, buses are seen by millions of people a week, so advertising on them seems sensible. I ascertained that it costs about £50 a week (minimum 4 weeks advertising) to advertise on the little space at the back of ordinary single deck buses. With my super scrimper method, you can advertise for a fraction of that cost. Continue reading “Think Big”

Stop Me and Buy One!

Coming up with innovative ways to sell your books is a full-time job. I often resolve to give up my ludicrous marketing attempts and just get on with writing more books, but when my brain is having a day off from working on the latest WIP, I find it helps to give it something useful to do. Trying out new, and quite frankly ridiculous, ventures seems to do the trick.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to go on holiday. Hubby and I were celebrating an important event – I forget what it was now – which involved a trip to the Canary Islands. If ever there was an opportunity to sell some books, it’s going on a trip somewhere, where people are going to be looking out for something to read. So, I had a plan of action of what to do before I travelled abroad. Here is my madcap advice if you are bold enough, brazen enough and probably stupid enough, along with my results. Before you leave, you will need: Continue reading “Stop Me and Buy One!”

Tutorial: NovelRank

Do you often wonder how many books you are actually selling? Of course, you’ll get your report from Amazon each month and maybe even a report from your publisher once a year or quarter, but what if you could find out how many sales you were making on a daily basis, or even on an hourly basis? Even better, what if you could spy on your rivals and see how their books are selling? Well, gather round everyone, you can!

Now, don’t spread this about, but I am going to give away a secret I have hung onto all year. It’s allowed me to check out other authors’ books and compare my sales then go off and cry in a dark room. I discovered a site that can tell you what sales you have made. It’s called NovelRank. Here’s all you need to know. Continue reading “Tutorial: NovelRank”