Celebrating Independent Authors
At BookDoggy, we often receive submissions from authors that are missing important items which could totally help them connect with more readers. We’ve put together a rant, I mean a list of things that drive us crazy, I mean things that will help you. Anyway, here it is.
1. Do you write books in a series? Continue reading “9 Things Authors Aren’t Doing (And Should Be Doing)”
The tip of the iceberg is an idiom for the part that is seen, with the implication that there’s much more that is hidden. In novel writing, the tip of the iceberg is the part of the story that makes it into print. The rest of the iceberg is all the material the author didn’t include in the final manuscript.
The amount of material that isn’t included is generally much greater than what’s contained in the novel itself. It can consist of research the author did for the story, scenes that were cut, plot lines which were abandoned, and those “extras” that R.J. Crayton identified as the “director’s cut” of the work. Continue reading “The Rest of the Novel-Writing Iceberg”
Facebook is fini, right? Since they began “monetizing” the site several years ago, charging businesses to reach our own fans, authors have been peering at the social media giant with a jaundiced eye. Why should I have to pay to reach my own fans? is a familiar refrain. No one sees my posts anymore anyway is another. In fact, a lot of authors I know have decided to just let their Facebook page lie fallow.
I believe that is a mistake. For me, my most valuable promotional tools are my mailing list and my Facebook page. I don’t have a huge number of Facebook fans – just under 2,200, but they are all organic and the involvement rate is high. Would you believe me if I told you that I had a single post generate more than 150,000 impressions without paying a penny? Admittedly, that post was unusual, but I manage to get at least a few posts that are seen by 25,000+ each week. And that’s with only 2,200 fans.
The question is, how? Continue reading “Do Facebook Author Pages Still Work?”
Once you’re got your excellent kick-ass book cover, what do you do with it beside plaster it all over your blog and Facebook page? Believe me, there are plenty of fun ways to use it for promotion, marketing, and just plain getting attention.
Magnets
Make business card-sized magnets and give them away at your next function. You can buy sticky-backed magnets from Amazon or any office store, print your book covers on card stock and stick them on. (Or Avery makes printable pre-scored business card sized magnets.) You can also buy full-sized sheets of thin magnet “paper” (available from Avery, Staples, and other manufacturers) that will go through your printer. You can make the magnets any size you wish, then just cut them out with scissors. The strength of this magnet paper is not as strong as the business card model, but it will definitely stick to a refrigerator. In the picture at left, the larger ones are business card-sized while the smaller ones are cut from the full sheet.
If you’re not into DIY, you can also have custom magnets made up by many online companies like Vistaprint. (See our Book Cover Resource page for links to all these items.) Continue reading “Marketing Uses for Book Covers”