Does Anyone Know How to Market?

by Kaye George (also w.a. Janet Cantrell)

I was asked for tips today from a writer who is newly published. I gave her what I could think of at the moment: Goodreads giveaway, read Jeffrey Marks’ INTENT TO SELL, watch what Rebecca Dalhke does.

But, really, besides those, how does one market a new mystery? How do YOU market your mysteries?

Here are some things I do (never knowing what works and what doesn’t).

I guest blog when a new book or short story anthology comes out, wherever I can. I’ve accumulated a list of places where I seem welcome and am always looking for new ones, usually mentioned on one of the writers’ lists I belong to.

I put the news in my newsletter. I put it on my blogs. I cross-reference these as best I can for increased visibility.

If I’m in an area with cool bookstores, I get signings. I now have a signing lined up here in Knoxville at Books A Million for my second Fat Cat book.

I try to appear on panels at conferences, also to increase visibility.

For every brand new story and book, I post the releases on the discussion lists and Facebook groups I belong to.

I try to build up hype before publication with the above-mentioned Goodreads giveaways, plus giveaways on guest blogs and my own blogs. I give away ARCs as well as actual books.

When a conference accepts auction baskets for charity, I put one together with some themed items for the new release. I already have a few cute cat things for Malice in May to promote my Fat Cat series.

I had mugs made for DEATH IN THE TIME OF ICE and for EINE KLEINE MURDER and have done giveaways of them.

When a conference lets me take bids on a name in one of my upcoming novels, I do that. It’s amazing how much attention those get! Some day I hope to be coordinated enough to offer a pet name in an upcoming book.

If a book takes place in a real town, I contact someone official there to let them know.

I have no idea if any of this does any good. But I do know that if I don’t do anything, I won’t sell much.

Any great ideas?

Don't Discount the Freebie

By Chester Campbell

Some of my colleagues here have been discussing the vagaries of book promotion. It is a subject that strikes the center of what we do, write books we hope others will read. Experience has shown that if we don't promote our works, people will not learn about them and, therefore, not buy. One of the sticking points of late is the subject of free books. Should we give some away in hopes of attracting more sales?

Being a midlist (or maybe sub-midlist) author who has never sold a ton of books, I am acutely aware of this problem. Well, I did sell some eighty-plus books at the Kentucky Book Fair several years ago, though I haven't managed to equal that since. At any rate, I decided a year ago that tales my colleagues were telling about freebies sounded like the way to go.

As it turned out, I got in on the tail end of the boom days. The first few I tried on Amazon's KDP Select program (about one a month) did decently well, then toward the end of the year tapered off as more and more writers jumped into the water. As others have noted, things continued to slip during the first half of this year.

When I first read of BookBub, I checked it out and said no thanks at the sight of that $240 price tag. Then I read experiences of people like Jinx Schwartz and Rebecca Dahlke and decided to give it a try. I put my second Greg McKenzie mystery, Designed to Kill, up free for three days the middle of September. It had over 49,000 downloads, far better than anything I'd done before. In the two-plus weeks since it went back to $2.99, I've had more sales than normal, though nothing outstanding. But the other four books in the series have done quite well, bringing total sales of around 400 ebooks.

I should make at least double what I paid BookBub, and my name has gotten out to thousands of new downloaders. Most of them probably aren't readers, but enough have been to make them come back to buy more of the series. Also the number of reviews on Amazon for Designed to Kill has more than doubled to 44, the latest four hours ago with five stars titled "Great read. Page turner."

BookBub doesn't accept every book, but I'll try another in a couple of weeks and see how it goes. My experience tells me don't discount the value of the freebie.

Visit me at ChesterDCambell,com

Please Welcome Mystery Author and E-Newsletter Publisher, Rebecca Dahlke



Rebecca Dahlke


I'll let Rebecca Tell You About Herself and What She's Been Up To:

I sort of fell into the job of running a crop-dusting business when my dad decided he'd rather go on a cruise than take another season of lazy pilots, missing flaggers, testy farmers and horrific hours.

After two years at the helm, I handed him back the keys and fled to a city without any of the above. And no, I was never a crop-duster.

I write about a tall, blond and beautiful ex-model turned crop-duster who, to quote Lalla Bains, has "been married so many times they oughta revoke my license."

In A DEAD RED CADILLAC she's about to turn forty, and in

A DEAD RED HEART, another birthday is staring her in the face. Lalla is no Danielle Steele character & she's not afraid of chipping her manicure. Scratch that, the girl doesn't have time for a manicure what with herding a bunch of recalcitrant pilots and juggling work orders just to keep her father's flagging business alive.

I enjoy writing my mysteries with humor and if you enjoy my books, I'd love to hear from you! e-mail me: rp@rpdahlke.com

My Amazon page: http://tinyurl.com/6hdg3bf

Both books are available on kindle for 99 cents.
Also both are in trade paperback.
Contact me at my website & blog : http://www.rpdahlke.com/
Or http://www.facebook.com/rebeccadahlke.com
Or http://www.Facebook/RPDAHLKE.com


Memberships:
Sisters in Crime, National and Desert Sleuths, AZ.
Past Chapter Pres .Cochise County Chapter of, AZ chapter of Sisters in Crime 2003-2005.
Arizona Mystery Writers
Society of Southwestern Authors, Tucson, AZ.

Next UP:
A DEAD RED OLEANDER, 3rd Lalla Bains mystery.
A DANGEROUS HARBOR, a contemporary romantic mystery set in Ensenada, Mexico will be out in the fall of 2011.

REBECCA'S ALL MYSTERY! ENEWSLETTER -

I stopped writing for exactly five years to the day of my son’s death and awoke to the lightning fast and newest form of internet communication: Blogs! Facebook! Twitter! I knew that if I expected to re-enter the mainstream of mystery readers I was going to have to find a novel way to get their attention. So, how to “brand” my name and upcoming books to readers? Since I already had experience creating an e-newsletter for an art group I belong to, I saw the possibilities for something could potentially reach hundreds, and eventually, thousands of readers who BUY mystery and suspense. Mystery Scene Magazine uses the same template, Constant Contact, to promote their print magazine. They, however, charge for the subscription and they picked only a few authors for their issues…mostly best sellers. I soon realized that most authors, newbies as well as the NY bestseller list, can use as much publicity as they can get, and FREE is better yet. Needless to say my goal is to take All Mystery e-newsletter into the in-boxes of every mystery and suspense reader in America.
Back issues & author submittal info can all be found at my website: http://www.allmysteryenewsletter.com/

I also have the following platforms to promote authors of All Mystery e-newsletter:
http://www.facebook.com/allmysteryenewsletter
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/allmysteryenewsletter/?yguid=185161871
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/42847.All_Mystery_e_newsletter

Rebecca Phillips Dahlke

aka RP Dahlke

Please leave a comment to welcome Rebecca to Make Mine Mystery.