Friday, January 24, 2014

A change of direction

The quest to market my latest novel, "Dylan's Prize" continues.  But so far I've been met with limited success.  So, a couple of days ago I decided that maybe it was time to change gears and try something a little different.  It was time to consult one of the most extensive lists of helpful tools for the aspiring writer that I know of. 

Popular fantasy author, Piers Anthony, is emphatic in his support for new writers, and as such has devoted a large segment of his personal website to that end.  He has personally gone through the trouble of posting a vast array of resources and makes sure the lists stay updated and current (last update was Jan. 14th of this year).  It's a site that I go to and scan for anything I can find that might be useful to me.  And believe me, there's plenty there.  It was while sifting through the massive list of publishers available, that I decided that it might be time to try a new approach to my marketing. 

I've signed up for a CreateSpace account, which is a POD service.  They are an Amazon company (big surprise there) who specializes in putting print versions of books onto store shelves as well as offering those same books on various websites.  The basic service is free of charge, although they do have "professional" services that can cost several hundred dollars or more.  Based on what I've read about CreateSpace, it seems like a good way to go.  My book will be exposed to a broader audience and there will also be physical copies in bookstores all over the world.  They split the royalties with me for their service, which seems fair, and my book can be available in as little as 2-3 days.  Hopefully this will spark some much-needed sales.  We'll see how it goes.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Just another day

It's been a couple of weeks now since I embarked on my latest literary journey with the release of my novel, "Dylan's Prize", and I have to say that so far, it's been a learning experience.  I've said it before and it still rings true: Marketing my book has been at least as hard as it was to write it. 

Any author pours hours into their works.  They're labors of love that we richly enjoy and hope that those who read get to experience the passion we authors put into our craft.  But at the same time, we all want to be successful at it, as well.  That's easier said than done.  There are literally hundreds of thousands of aspiring writers in the U.S. alone, myself being one, but as far as who gets to rise to the top is a matter of great debate.  So far, what I've noticed is that is takes a great deal of marketing savvy, the ability to kiss the right amount of ass at just the right time, and some luck.

As of yet, my efforts have met with limited success.  I'm driving traffic to my books, but that's about all at this point.  Whether those who stop by and take a look are simply disinterested in what they see, or if it's something else entirely, I just don't know at this point.  I need to find a way to transfer that traffic into sales. I put over a year of effort in writing my novel and have already started the framework for the next book in the series.  I'll be damned if I'm going to see all that work go to waste.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

And the quest continues...

I've spent the last week or so doing almost nothing but trying to market my new novel, "Dylan's Prize", in one fashion or another.  While I've been able to gain a good bit of followers on Twitter each day, not many of them seem to be driven to my Amazon profile.  From what I can tell, Twitter seems to be just a bunch of other authors advertising their works and a bunch of motivational messages.  The Facebook profile is still not getting much traction, either.  I'm certain that people are aware of the books at this point, but just aren't interested in clicking on the links.  I still plan on doing the best I can with it.  But if that still doesn't work, I might have to adjust my tactics a bit.  We'll see what happens.

On the plus side (sort of), I also ran a free book promotion with another of my stories, "The Auction", which did fairly well.  A good number of people downloaded it, but so far only two people have posted reviews as a direct result of the promo.  I've noticed that people flock to books that have a lot of good reviews, or a lot of reviews in general.  The idea was to use the free book to help promote my new novel.  I guess it's too early to tell anything yet, but so far it doesn't look like that happened much.

And so the quest continues.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

And so it goes

A couple days in on the promotion now and things seem to be going good.  So far I've set up a Twitter account, a Facebook profile, Google+, LinkedIn, and used promotional tools on places like BookDaily, and Goodreads and a few others, and of course this blog.  The stream of new followers on Twitter is encouraging, whether that translates into more sales still is yet to be seen, however.  The Facebook profile hasn't garnered much attention yet, but it's still very early in the game.  I don't expect things to happen overnight.  It's going to take a good bit of work and sticktoitivevness for things to progress.  Hopefully all the effort pays off.

One of the other things I've been doing to try to gain exposure is to put my other story, "The Auction", on a special whereby it can be downloaded for free for a few days.  I'm hoping that this generates interest in "Dylan's Prize" as well.  The two stories aren't really of the same genres at all, but with any luck, those who enjoy one will enjoy the other.

Anyway, the quest continues.  More as it becomes available.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Time to promote!

Now that my newest book is out, it's time to promote, promote, promote!  It seems it's going to take more effort to market the novel than it took to write it!  I'm just in the very first phases of marketing and am trying several venues.  Hopefully these will yield positive results.  When I get all the numbers back, I'll post here about what worked for me and what didn't work so well.  But in the meantime, I have plenty to keep me busy.  Oh, and before I forget, I still have to get started on the next book!

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Dylan's Prize

If you haven't had a chance to do so, check out my new novel, "Dylan's Prize", which is the first book in the Harbinger series.  If you like character driven stories with plenty of action, adventure, and romance thrown in, you'll love this.  You can read the first chapter and a half for free at Amazon.com!

You can find it here: Dylan's Prize

And so it begins!

Welcome to my new blog!  Hopefully this will be a place that contains my thoughts, updates on my stories, and possibly a bit of humor.  Stay tuned and keep posted.  You never know what random thoughts I'll be babbling about.