Swag

Ok, so I've decided to go to my first romance conference and everyone tells me that I need to invest in some swag.

What is swag and why do I need it?

I spent an hour last night reading about what authors bring to their conferences and like so many other promotional techniques I wonder -- How the hell does that help you?

I get how a business card would help you.  I even get how giving pens with you information could help.  And the list of what people give is as extensive as it is fascinating:  lipgloss, mirrors, can openers, bag clips.  And then the more general swag that has the picture of your book on it.

I met a few authors recently who handed me what I now know was their "swag."  I stuffed it in my purse.  I believe some fell to the floor of my car.  I hate to throw it away since they spent money making it, but seriously...with kids....where do I put these half-naked pictures of people?

If I had more money I'd get everyone a flash drive with my info on it.  Who doesn't love those?

Maybe I'll settle for pens.

Help me out here, does swag really work?  Wouldn't just a few nice business cards handed out to those who seem to want to know  more be just as effective?

Is this like men who think more cologne is sexier?  Is less more?

I'd love to hear what you think. 

The more you know -- Week 2 --- $6,000 sales (total)

My book was for sale for 12 days in August.  Total sales?  Close to $6000.  I'm not sure exactly what my itunes sales were, but I'm counting the reviews and I'm counting foreign sales in there.


What have a learned?  -

• Hurricane Irene knocked out my internet access...making it impossible for me to promote and my ranking fell.  I'm still in the 200s on Kindle, but my goal for being in the top 100 just got further away.  Promotion helps.
• Domain names are worth purchasing.  We all think we won't need them, but if you book does take off you'll want your name.
• There are wonderful people out there who want to see you succeed.  Be careful not to be taken for a ride, but trust that sometimes they are just enjoying the ride with you.
• Wix does not work on iphones and ipads.  Darn it, I just made my website on Wix.  I didn't know that using flash would limit who could see it.
• Shelfari and Goodreads is worth getting involved in.  I'm exploring both myself.
• Romance Novel Junkies...AKA Monique....is a wonderful supporter of new writers.  If you don't know her and her website, you're missing out.
• Shaina Richmond is a romance marketing genius.  If she ever writes a book on how to market your book, buy it.  I still can't believe she takes the time to help me out.  I feel like I'm taking a college course every time I speak to her.
• Sometimes you have to follow your gut as far as when and how to release your book.  I've turned down opportunities now that didn't have the potential to pay off the way self-pubbing could.  Will it work out?  I don't know, but I'm going to try like hell.
• Readers are amazing!  One woman stayed up all night looking for editing issues on my new book because she knew I couldn't yet afford an editor.  I fixed everything she found and my book is better because of it.  Now that is a nice person!
• People will assume that any success you get is luck -- it is if your definition of luck is hard work, determination, and a dogged search for how to improve your chances of making it.
• Husbands don't mind doing the dishes for you once your writing starts to pay off...lol
• Write! Write! Write!  There is money in magnitude of material. 
• Formatting gets easier.  I'm beginning to know how to fix the issues I see in other ebooks that have "real" publishers.
• 70% royalties is always nicer than 20%
• mailing lists are as mysterious to me as the global economy...but it looks like I'm going to have to learn about them 
• Book bloggers are good....but busy.  I don't know where to find them or how...but it has been suggested that I learn.  So, learn along with me.
• Oh, yes, and what you label your website is HUGE.  Searches are huge.  I'm still learning about this.  Really, if Shaina writes the book....I'm first in line to buy it.
• 
  

Week 1 of Book Sales

I suppose I should wait till the end of the week to report....so maybe I'll come back and adjust these numbers on Sunday.

For Love or Legacy went up on Amazon and Smashwords on Saturday night - how did it do?

• On Amazon it went from (Sunday #767 on Kindle Store to Friday #181)  (Contemporary Romance #16)  I'm a numbers nut...so I'll share them .....at #767 I had 141 downloads.  Today at #181 I have 1,344 sales.  I've been averaging 200-250 sales per day.   What does that mean in terms of money?  Since the book is $2.99...and the profit at that price is 70%... get about $2 per book.  At this rate, my book should pull in $3,000 for its first week out.  

•  My first contest was tiny, but I think it was successful.  I only had 2 entrants in the actual contest but many people wrote to me and said that although they did not want to be in the contest they would promote my book.  Interesting.  Trust me, I'm grateful, but I'm not sure what it means.  Was my contest too complicated?  I going to host another next week and simplify it.  I'll tell you how it goes.

Promoting Book 2

Ok, so not every idea I've had so far is golden...lol

The B&B...I thought it was genius.....well, maybe when I make enough money to pay for my own rooms.
This is what I'm thinking about the twitter contest:
Goals:

• increase my # of twitter followers  
• get the word out about my book 2 being available
• go "viral"...not totally sure what that even means, but I know I want it...lol

What I've learned:

• Keep it simple
• Make it fair...either visible or with a 3rd party raffle
• Keep it short...better to have smaller prizes more frequently than one large prize

My idea:

• use my author website page to host the contest
• Use twitter to guide people to the website to read the directions of the contest
• Have people list what they have done off a list of promotional ideas and post what they did on my website.  For this part I would run the contest for one day and simply award to the person who had done the most.  I could run this contest once a week.
• I was thinking about making a page on my website....favorite quotes from the book...where you post your favorite quote and why.  This contest could be done like a raffle.  This one would run for a week.

Prizes:  I'm thinking about $25 gift certificates to Amazon.

Thoughts?

140,000 downloads- What is working?

Two weeks ago I looked up from furiously writing Book 2 in my Legacy series and I noticed that my ranking on the FREE Amazon Bestseller list was sinking.  Suddenly I wasn't in the top 20 in the main Romance category and I had slid from a pretty stable #5 to #15 in the Contemporary Romance category. 


I don't want people to forget about Book 1 before I put out Book 2....on the other hand I won't move up my release date because the revision part is as important as the creation.  Book 2 has to be as strong as Book 1 or forget about anyone wanting to read Book 3.


So, I put aside about 30 minutes a day to promote my book again.  Doesn't sound like much?  I have a wonderful husband and 3 kids who miss me when I'm writing.  30 minutes on top of writing time is big. ...so whatever I do has to count.

What I did:

• A wonderful woman, Calista Taylor, designed a new cover for my book.  She is just starting to make a name for herself in the cover creation business.  Check her out.  You won't regret it. http://www.calistataylor.com/    She is also designing a website for me. 
• I aggressively sought out people on twitter who love the romance genre and started to follow them.  Making connections.  (Hey, Twitter capped me off at following 2,000.  Who knew? They have a whole process that is worth reading about.  As I get more followers I can follow more people.  I have about 880.  I guess this is to stop spamming.)
• I sought out authors who needed a little boost and retweeted their reviews or sent them a few kind words.  Trust me, this is the easiest part because you start to recognize people at Twitter and start to care about how they are doing.  We're all in this together.  I can't help everyone in my 30 minutes...but I'll help whoever I can.  
• I reaped the benefit of a good review from a place I had submitted my book 2 over two months ago.  Five Stars!  I spread the word.  I might keep spreading the word for a little bit.  Yes, it's self-promotion, but it's also going to help the reviewer.  Plus, really, how many of the tweets do you miss everyday?  Unless you're only following me, it's often a hit or miss.  Maybe I'll discover this is a bad idea, but I'm going to share the review a couple more times.  Not overkill.  I shared it twice.  Maybe two more over the course of the week.
• I always repost my comments here onto my FB and tweet them.
• I found conversations on  twitter about how to blog better, but I don't know that I have the time.
• I also tried to go on a fantastic blog tour...which even had a great prize...and got lost on my second blog and quit the trip.  I was thinking that they should make it easier to navigate once you're on the tour.  Maybe most people do.  Just sharing a thought I had on why that particular tour sounded fantastic but might not show the results they want.  I WANTED to go to all the sites, but gave up when it got frustrating.  That was probably common.

So, which of the list above was most effective? There is really no way to know.   All you can do is keep plugging.  I have a mental list of promotion I'd like to do when I take a break from writing.  Keep trying.

This morning I'm back on the top 20 in the FREE Romance  main and I'm #8 in the FREE Contemporary Romance list.

A little bit of promotion, a little bit of help from some wonderful people and my book is back where I need it to be for the release of Book 2.

Self-pubbing is work and it's scary...but if it is the way you choose to go, it can also be an incredible adventure during which you will meet amazing people from around the world. 

Now, stop reading this and get back to your own writing!

New Cover -- Thank you Cali!

http://www.calistataylor.com/
Artwork by:
Miramare__s_Castle___Balcony_5_by_brunilde_stock

premade_background__974_by_ashensorrow-d31nqpl


A very talented friend of mine designed a new cover for Maid for the Billionaire.

Thank you Cali! That was so generous of you!

Check out her website to see how talented she is with webpage design, also.

(Little does she know that if you make one cover for me...you're committed to doing the series...lol)

 

My rebuttal to romance genre bias

http://www.bloggingauthors.com/blogging_authors/2011/6/19/ebook-sales-the-emerging-readership-of-lusty-titles.html

Sometimes you just can't keep your thoughts to yourself. Read my comments if you're interested.  I encourage you to add a comment if you're moved to.


Writing a good romance is about so much more than adding sex to a story.

As the author of "Maid for the Billionaire", I thought I should chime in on this discussion.

Lumping the romance genre into one "sex sells" clump is a mistake. People read romances for as many different reasons as they read other fiction. As in with any other genre, it would be better to suggest that the writer has a firm understanding of their targeted readers rather than suggesting that the trend is asking for authors to spice it up.

I love category romances. I've been reading them since I was in my mid teens. Presents. Desire. Sheiks. Secret babies. To dismiss my love for the genre as a love of "soft porn" reveals a genre bias. Don't get me wrong, reading soft porn is delicious, but it's not what draws me to these books.

There is an unspoken promise made between a category romance author and the readers. It sounds something like this: I will take you on a fun, emotionally charged adventure with a hero you will enjoy being with and a heroine you can imagine yourself in the place of. You will laugh and probably cry, but nothing too awful will happen. We will escape into a place so wonderful that the stress of your day will dissolve. The background will be exotic. The dialogue will be captivating. There will be sexual tension. All you have to do is let go and enjoy. Does it have to be realistic? Hell no. This is escapism. Bubble bath, glass of wine, relaxation after a tough day at work brain candy.

Erotic writers make different -- and just as legitimate -- promises to their readers.

So, please don't jump on the "sex sells" simplistic train. Not if you want to discuss the romance genre intelligently. Not all romance novels are the same. Not all romance writers are the same.

Keep an open mind and engage some of us in craft discourse. You might be surprised to discover that it's not as easy as it looks.

Increasing Twitter Followers

Maid for the Billionaire has done well so far.  Since April 21, 2011 I've had just over 130,000 downloads.  I've averaged 1 - 2,000 downloads a day.  This past week I only had 6,500 downloads so I'm starting to think about promotion again.

What have I been doing instead?  Writing, writing, writing.  Which is what people say is the best place to put my energy, but I do want Maid for the Billionaire to be visible until the end of August when Book 2 comes out.

So I'm off to find more online connections.  First goal, 2,000 twitter friends. I have a little over 800. How am I going to do it?  I'm going to seek out people who are interested in the type of romance I write...either to write it or reading it....and I'll follow them.

I try to retweet whenever I come across a tweet from an author who is promoting via a review or a contest.

I've also started answering tweets.  Making the connection more personal.

Will it work? Let's see.

Either way, I have met so many amazing people from all over the country via this experiment....actually from all over the world.  Expanding my twitter base is actually exciting.  I don't know which new readers or fellow authors those connections will introduce me to.

I've been very, very lucky so far and I am savoring and remembering to be grateful for each stage of this ride.

I'm also working my butt off on Book 2.  Whether people love it or hate it, I'll put it up onto Amazon knowing that it was the best story I know how to write....and that's all any author can really do. 

This is why I love his blog -- Are you writing

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/07/are-you-writing.html

When I start to drag or I get confused I head over to Joe Konrath's blog and he sets me straight with some good old fashioned tough love.

This post was an example of exactly the kick in the butt I sometimes need. 

So, I guess I'll be the bad friend and send you there.  But stay only for the length of one post and then get back to writing!

Promotion

Ok, my book dipped to # 13 on the FREE list last week so I decided to ramp up the promotion a bit.  I think it worked.  I started tweeting more and going onto facebook more.  Within a few days I was back at # 6.  It works.  I don't know why it works, but it does.  Don't underestimate it.  Don't fear it.  Just jump in and do it.  I have no idea if my method is the most effect but I try to 1) retweet 5-10 things one of my followers wrote about -- I figure this helps them get the word out about their projects  2) I try to find 20 or so people a day to follow 3) I try to find topics that writers or romance readers would be interested in.


I was talking to a writer this weekend who said that she finds that facebook is the most effective promotional tool for her, but she has 5,000 friends.  I don't even know how you find 5,000 people but I can imagine that if you do....Facebook seems more personal than tweeting.  Anyone know how to get 5,000 friends? lol

The word people keep tossing around lately is audio.  Everyone is asking if I have an audio book version.  Not sure how to get one, but I suppose I should try.

My next personal goal, outside of writing, is to figure out Create Space and design a cover that will work well on it.  I'd love a hard copy of my book.  One more way to make it feel real to me.

100 reviews on Amazon.com

I don't know why I'm so excited (maybe I like milestone numbers), but I just reached 100 reviews on Amazon.com (and the book is still a 4+)

I am dancing tonight with glee.  Every little step of this journey makes it feel more real and is worth celebrating.  After beginning to think that my book would never be read by anyone outside of my family and a handfull of editors...it's out there being read.

What is more incredible for any writer than knowing that your story is being read and enjoyed?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

Ok, my first royalty check will be pretty amazing, too.  But for now it's enough just knowing that I can write the type of story I've always enjoyed reading.

Thank you 100 reviewers!  I'm so happy I could laugh and cry at the same time!

Numbers Numbers Numbers

I recently spoke to an author who said her favorite part of my blog was that I share my numbers.   So, here are the most recent download averages.  

Amazon US...I average between 1 -2,000 downloads a day.  As time goes on, it's closer to 1,000.  But that seems to be the number that it required to stay on top of the FREE Bestsellers list.  When I was at #1....I had more than 2,000 a day.  When I sit around #5....it's at about 1,300 a day.  When I'm in the low teens I'm usually at 1,000.  Mondays and Tuesdays the numbers dip.  Wednesday - Sunday they fluctuate.  You'd think that the best day would be the weekends but sometimes it's actually Thursday night.  I've been fortunate to have not left the top 20 since my book went FREE at the end of May.  Staying visible is a huge help in promotion.

Amazon UK ..... I have 100 - 500 downloads a day.  Usually closer to 100.  I'm off of page one of their ranking. I'm #14 in the contemporary.   When I was higher in the UK, my numbers were never that amazing.  They never compared to the # in the US.  What that tells me is that the books sitting at the top of the FREE UK list might not be pulling in huge numbers either.

Smashwords....  my total is close to 8,000 since April 21 of this year.  I think I average between 50 - 75 a day.  They aren't huge numbers anymore.  However, the exposure I've gotten I credit Smashwords.  They put my book in a large number of places and on all sorts of lists.  When I put my second book up for money I'm definitely using Smashwords again.  They have been very good to me.

Barnes and Nobel ....never put my book FREE....and my numbers have always been very low there.  At .99 cents a download, I average 1 book every two days.  Compare that to the 100 I had downloading a day at the same  price on Amazon before they made my book FREE.  At last check, my count for the month was 14 sales for July. 

Maid for the Billionaire continues to rank high on Amazon

Just a quick note.  Maid for the Billionaire has been on the top 20 on Amaazon's Free list for almost two months now.  Ever since it went FREE.  It hit #1....went down to 6 for a long time....dipped to 13 recently...and now seems to be headed back up to 5-6.  I am thrilled.  I hope it stays there until I can get book 2 out.  Thank you to everyone who downloade it and gave this new author a chance.  I am so grateful for this experience.

Oh, the things I know and don't know

I met some incredible people at a writer's tea today and learned so many things.  

• Create space on Amazon is worth looking into.  You can get a hard copy of your book in trade book size.  Apparently people don't mind spending more for this.  I thought it would be weird if I have Book 1 up for FREE and then charge for the hard copy, but a publisher said it wasn't odd at all.
• I learned that even though I went through Smashwords, I don't have an ISBN....or learning about ISBNs is definitely something I need to look into further.  It doesn't matter so much for what I've done so far, but it will matter as I move forward.
• I learned that you can sell different rights to your book.  For example, I can sell just the audio rights to Maid for the Billionaire.  I had no idea.  I can sell international rights.  
• I learned that you can talk to a publisher for a long time before anyone clues you in that you're not talking to a fellow writer....lol
• I learned more about Twitter....the mysterious world of Twitter.
• I heard about this site  http://www.romancenovelcovers.com/....where you can buy ready made covers for reasonable prices...

It's late so I'll share more tomorrow....but great day full of helpful self-publishing information.

120,000 downloads and writing

I haven't been updating my blog as frequently because I'm furiously working on book 2.  Thank God I have family to help with my one year old.  I write on the weekdays from 8-3.  At 3:00, regardless of how great the writing is going -- I stop.  It has been working out well.  I get a nice chunk of uninterrupted time and still have plenty of time to play outside with my family afterwards.  The weekends are all about family and friends.   I could probably finish faster if I made sacrifices, but balance is important to me. I have three children who need as much as I need to write.

Although I love my job, I'm not looking forward to going back to it in September because my writing time will drop to an hour or two a day....and become 5-7am out of necessity.  Hard to feel the romance at those hours...lol

Amazon downloads are still over 1,000 a day.  I'm at about 120,000 downloads total (B&N, Amazon, Smashwords)  since April 21, 2011.

The scariest part of self-pubbing is also one of the best parts....Book 2 is being designed entirely by me.  I don't have an editor telling me to add here or take away that.

Sometimes that is frightening...lol

Then I remind myself that all I can do is write the best book I know how to, to write a story that I would like to read, and to pray it finds readers who enjoy the same type of over the top romances I do.
So, I'm still doing some promotion, but not as much.  I'll start it up again when I finish Book 2.

I am, however, helping to promote other writers I come across.  I have a new appreciation for how much a little boost helps.

So, if you're reading this and would like me to mention you, send me an email at Minouri@aol.com and I'll do my best to get to it in a timely manner :)