Confession time; I haven’t gotten any writing done this week. I’ve been busy on the promotion front, and several things with this blog have kept me busy. This is by choice, because October has always been my best sales month. There are some big things coming up in October. There are a couple of group tours involving books with a paranormal theme. (Halloween, and all that.)
If you’re in the mood for some seasonal reading, I have three novels that might fit the bill. There are also two Notebooks with spooky stories in them.
Aside from supporting all the things I already have in motion, I want to do some individual promotions. There are a lot to choose from, but none of them seem to be a magical portal to author success. There are Kindle Countdown Deals, Amazon giveaways that are like a Rafflecopter, Kindle free days, Amazon advertisements, and even Facebook boosts. I’ll probably run all of them at one time or another.
Part of the problem I’m seeing is when the “deal” expires. Most of my heavy promotion is going to be for Will O’ the Wisp. If I run a discount during the tour, eventually the discount ends. I can’t quite see how that will influence the rest of the tour. Feel free to let me know your thoughts.
Any promotion I do for The Playground or Panama doesn’t have that problem. I’ve kind of decided to set up some free days for Panama in the first week of October. This is before the blog tours all start, and might prime the pump a bit. I may even do a small Facebook boost to go along with it. The Rave Reviews Book Club is big on supporting free and 99 cent deals, so I can leverage them a bit too.
Rumor has it that if you do a FB boost, your subsequent postings get squeezed out. Does anyone have any insight on this? I don’t want to hurt my guests for Lisa Burton Radio, or perhaps my own Halloween themed micro-fiction.
Somewhere along the way, I’ll probably do a 99 cent sale for The Playground. It absolutely has some paranormal themes, and I’m not ready to give it away yet. It’s a new book for cryin’ out loud. Maybe I could run an Amazon ad to support it while the deal is running??? Do any of you have any cautions or experience with doing both things at once?
That leaves Will O’ the Wisp as my Amazon Giveaway candidate. I could set up five free books as prizes and maybe, by then, could support it with another FB boost. The question here is if I should require following my Amazon Author page as the price of entry. It’s always been an option, but I don’t know of anyone who’s done it. In fact I’ve never seen anyone write about getting followers of their Amazon page at all. This blog feeds directly into mine, so it’s not a stagnant page. (I smell an experiment brewing. You know how I get with experiments.)
There isn’t any sense getting crazy with either Notebook. They are permanently 99 cents already. If you might like some Halloween themed short fiction, both books have some. Speaking of themed micro-fiction, Macabre Macaroni will post on Tuesdays this year. Those are free on my blog. Question for you guys: Would it be acceptable to mention whatever I currently have going on at the end of those posts? I know it’s my blog and all that, but should I just leave the stories for what they are?
I have three guest posts already scheduled, but two of them are this week. (Friday & Saturday.) I’ll reblog those and support the heck out of them. Obviously, I’ll accept all the help I can get during all these gyrations. If you have things going on, let me know and I’ll try to support back. Tuesdays and Thursdays are kind of committed on the blog though. Other forms of social media are like Jello, there’s always room for them.
In other news, I’ve been accepted into an anthology that will be coming out in October. I haven’t gotten the word to release much more than that, but I’ll be promoting it too. They were willing to accept something I’ve used before, so my inclusion is one of last year’s Macabre Macaroni stories called There’s a Cat on my Grave.
Part of the deal is that I’m supposed to do kind of a beta read before this weekend. Hahahahahahaha. (Sorry) The fact is that my wife and her sister have plans tonight. I’ll probably tackle the reading, to whatever degree I can, tonight. At least I don’t have to read my own entry. I’ll bet the other stories are good too, judging from the author names.
I’m nearly at deer-in -the-headlights mode, but not quite. All I have to do is schedule the Panama free days, and it will all break loose. Let me hear from you. Do you have insight on my questions? Have an opinion on my plans? Have a better idea that I haven’t thought of? Know any dirty jokes?
All sounds like it should produce something. I have no answers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll count on you for the dirty joke then.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I couldn’t even think one up. Must be slipping.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think it should be all right to mention what you’ve got going on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Traci.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree, I don’t see any problem with that.
I don’t know if I’d go as far as having a character hold up one of your books and smile at the camera…
Maybe for Halloween it would be OK for a character to use your thickest book as a murder weapon, or a defense against a horde of spiders.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Actually, that would be awesome, but I have to pay for the artwork. I’ll probably include some tiny blurbage at the end.
LikeLike
That sounds pretty busy and I like your promo plan. As for Facebook ads, I’ve heard the same thing. This was a year or two ago, so I don’t know if it still rings true. A few authors I knew back then had done the ad for a post or whatever and then saw the numbers plummet once it was done. Not sure if this was a squeeze or simply an effect of going back to ‘normal’ after the promo period. I can’t find any info on this, but I don’t know what I’m looking for besides ‘Facebook ads’. Honestly, I see them now and mistake them for regular posts, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.
No dirty jokes in mind. Sorry.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve never done the ad, but the boost I experimented with worked pretty well. It’s up to me to make a good post and find out.
LikeLike
Most of my posts are carried over from here. Never bothered to test it because of the stories. That and I never got much help from doing anything on FB.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It does seem a little whacky to shell out money so I can give a book away.
LikeLike
True. You have to spend money to make money, but it’s tough to do with a free thing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Best laid plans… My daughter just walked in, so any beta reading just flew out the window. One day I will have no company, and I’ll be so worn out I won’t feel like doing anything.
LikeLike
We really gotta keep our windows closed if we want to get any work done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m beginning to think you’re right. I need to find a nice culvert with wifi to sneak off to.
LikeLike
Jack goes to his friend Mike and says …”I’m sleeping with the minister’s wife. Can you keep him back in church for an hour after service for me?”
Mike doesn’t like it, but being a friend, he agrees.
After the service, Mike starts talking to the minister, asking him all sorts of stupid questions, just to keep him occupied.
Finally the minister gets annoyed and asks Mike what he’s really up to.
Mike, feeling guilty, finally confesses to the minister…
“My friend is sleeping with your wife right now, so he asked me to keep you occupied.”
The minister thinks for a minute, smiles, puts a brotherly hand on Mike’s shoulder and says…
“You better hurry home now. My wife died a year ago.”
Hey, you asked for it. I’ve got reams of this stuff. Stole most of it off FB.
The FB promos never have resulted in sales for me, but it is exposure. Sometime people say to me, “What the hell are you doing in my feed? Do I know you?” I explain that FB promotes to people who like to read and I have no control over who the promo goes out. They come back with “Okey Dokey.” After a boost, I have found that the next three posts I make on my FB author page (blog post feed mostly) get boosted out to a larger number of people than usual. Then FB asks me if I want to boost another post. I say no. Then it all stops and I’m good to be seen by twenty people…if I’m lucky.
I’m making a new mint flavored birth control pill that you take right before sex. I am calling them ‘Predickamints’. I’m going to market an injectable form with the tag-line, “You’re going to feel a little prick.” (An original.)
LikeLiked by 3 people
I love it. I needed a good joke, and you provided two… and a half. It’s nice to hear what others have accomplished on FB. Gives me a small idea what to expect.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am not good with jokes. I’m one of those people who cannot tell a good joke but for a rare occasion when the planets align just so.
I’ve never boosted a post. In fact, I find myself using my author page on FB less and less.
Congrats on your anthology selection! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, the anthology thing is kind of cool. Sue has us covered in the comments, she provided a couple of jokes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your marketing plan sounds good. My advice: spread it around to get the most exposure.
Now, here’s a dirty joke for you:
Want to hear a dirty joke? A man fell in the mud.
Want to hear a clean joke? He took a bath with bubbles.
Want to hear another dirty joke? Bubbles was his neighbor.
😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
Alright!!! And yay for Bubbles.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks for sharing your plans Craig, it’s interesting. I’ve tried FB ads and boosting posts and absolutely nothing has come of them, and yes, interaction afterwards has dipped considerably. I’ve always maintained for me that where I get the interest and support is Instagram, the blog, my newsletter and face-to-face. This was born out by my crowdfunder too. Good luck with all your plans. Looking forward to Macabre Macaroni 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve considered adding one of either Pinterest or Instagram. It gets to be a matter of how much time I want to dedicate to various media. They can all be fun, but writing is fun too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly! It’s hard to keep up and know what’s for the best 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m curious — what kind of content do authors put on instagram? My wife has an account, but she seems to look at pictures of other runners and their race courses/times, and cute photos of dogs.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Count me in too, I have no idea.
LikeLike
The same as facebook. There’s a lot of book bloggers on there. I out anything from books I’m reading, creative projects, screen shots of writing oh and the occasional obligatory shot of my dinner ha ha! I get a lot more interaction over there, can link it to my Facebook where pics get far more interaction than anything else and there’s a great community of creatives over there all cheering each other on – a bit like blogging.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Appreciate the info.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome, anytime Craig, you send enough my way just hope I’m not boring you 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not boring me in the slightest. I may have to consider some of the additional sites in my 2017 plan.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My 2017 plan is getting bigger by the minute *sigh*.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like to do a large evaluation, then I post about what I want to do going forward.
LikeLiked by 1 person
PS here’s my feed http://www.instagram.com/writerdsnelson
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi,
Congratulations on being accepted in the anthology! I know how you feel about not having time to write, but I do think your promotion work is right now more important. So hang in there. Writing will come back sooner than you think.
Shalom aleichem,
Pat
LikeLiked by 1 person
That always seems to be the case, but it’s nice to hear it from others. I may wind up using some vacation for writing purposes, like I’ve done in the past.
LikeLike
I absolutely LURVED There’s a Cat on my Grave! 😀 Good to hear it’s getting some more exposure! 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Jan. I hope the recipients feel the same way about it.
LikeLike
I admire your ability to get all of that done! I’m having difficulty just finding time to finish my novel by my self-imposed deadline. lol! I suck at promos, so I will be no help nor do I have any jokes to share, but I’m here and I’m reading and sharing, so it’s all good. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, I never said I was going to get it all done. I’m going to try. Sharing is great, thank you for sharing and commenting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course you should add a note about books on sale. I don’t find that at all sales-y. Looking forward to Macabre Macaroni. Which anthology? Congratulations!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s called Macabre Sanctuary. Thanks. There are some amazing contributors, so it’s kind of exciting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, is this Staci’s anthology? She invited me, but I was juggling too many projects. Looking forward it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is, thanks.
LikeLiked by 1 person