Ins and Outs of Promoting Seldom Traveled by Marilyn Meredith

This is the last day of my blog tour and I'm at B.K. Stevens blog:
 http://http://www.bkstevensmysteries.com/category/the-first-two-pages/

For the most part, the tour has gone well. There have been a couple of glitches--I never get as many comments when they have to be moderated--people like instant gratification. And since I collect the names for a contest, I want to see the comments right away too. There is so much work to a tour that the more I can do right away, the better.

One host didn't put the post up until the afternoon of the day I appeared--that fouls up my schedule too because I like to do the promoting first things in the morning before things get crazy around here.

And of course, there was one who didn't put it up on the day we agreed on--that seems to happen at least once on a tour.

Of course that's  not all I've been doing for this book. I've sent out review copies--I'd love to see more reviews on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

I've busily set up places to go and sell books--gave a talk about creating memorable characters for a writers group, will be headed to the mountain community of Oakhurst to participate this Saturday at an author and book festival and giving a talk about keeping series characters fresh, And on Thursday, September 20, heading over to the coast to participate in a book fair from 3 to 8 at the Mission Plaza in San Luis Obispo.

I'm also working on a Kindle book give-away for an earlier book in the Tempe series--more about that later. The book will fit the Hallowe'en season.

It's a good thing I'm an early-riser because that's when I get most of my work done.

Yes, I've had a tad bit of Bouchercon envy--but it's truly a good thing I didn't go.

And I've even managed to squeeze in a bit of writing now and then.

Tell me what you've been up to.

Marilyn

Baptism of Fire

by Janis Patterson

It’s part of a writer’s life. Sooner or later you’re going to get a one-star review. Expect it, people say. Don’t let it get you down, people say. It’s part of the business, people say. You’re not a real writer until you get a one-star review, people say. All of which are very true.

But it still hurts, and it hurts worse when it’s on one of my very favorite books, one that has more five-star reviews than any other ranking.

It’s not even what I would call an honest review. The writer says she (assuming it is a she) gave it a chance, stuck it out through the first quarter of the book, then threw it down without giving any cogent reason. I know that she (?) is not expected to give a reason and probably should not be, but it does seem rather mean-spirited just to say ‘its’s bad’ and nothing more.

One thing she did say was that the heroine’s name changed once to a very similar name. Well…. to my shock that is true, and I have no idea how it happened. I went to the typescript I sent to my formatter – thinking to prove her wrong – and by gum, there it was. In that instance she was absolutely right, and I would like to know how that particular little bomb got by my many readings, two editors, half-a-dozen beta readers and a respectable number of buyers. Gremlins…. it has to be gremlins.

So – first thing tomorrow I must send all the electronic files and the print file to my formatter and hope he can squeeze in a quick correction so I can get the files reloaded. For that bit of information I thank her, as I like my files to be as pristine as possible. Or maybe I should say as pristine as the gremlins will allow.

At least having passed the one-star baptism of fire I can call myself a real writer now. But it still hurts.

How Do They Do That?

by Janis Patterson

Not long ago on one of my writers’ loops there was a discussion on how you couldn’t sell without reviews. Then some of the writers talked about how they only – only! – had six or seven hundred good reviews. Only six or seven hundred reviews? A goodly number of the writers I know would commit murder to have that many reviews, myself included.

It’s impossible to get on one of the best sales sites – such as Bookbub – without a set number of good reviews and those sites drive a lot of sales. Perhaps that is a good idea, as some of the books out there are pure rubbish, but in another way it is unfair to books which are good but have no reviews.

So how does one get reviews? If you want heavyweights, Publishers Weekly and Kirkus do reviews, but they are hard to get even if you’re with a legacy publisher and pretty much impossible if you’re an indie. Not too long ago Kirkus started offering a paid review with a very hefty pricetag and – if I remember correctly - no guarantee of whether it would be bad or good. There’s Netgalley review service, but it’s very expensive. There are those who sell lists of blogger reviewers, but there’s no guarantee that the book you send them will get reviewed at all, or even that the bloggers are still in existence.

There’s another risk in seeking reviewers, too. While there are very many good and honest people who review books – even if not all the books they receive – there is an unpleasant sub-species who get the books for free then either sell them on eBay or post them as free at pirate sites all over the internet, all probably without ever reviewing them.

I ask again – how does one get reviews? There are lots of writers who have tremendous fan followings, fans who wait with anticipation for each new book and who lavish rave reviews on every one. That’s an enviable situation where we would all like to be, but how do you get those legions of fans in the first place? Without reviews your book sinks like a stone to the bottom of the byzantine Amazon algorhythms.

And speaking of Amazon… it would seem logical that the first place a writer should look for reviews is to family, friends, other writers and paid reviewers. Except that Amazon does not like and will pull reviews if they know they are written by family, friends, other writers and paid reviewers. I don’t know how Amazon justifies accepting paid reviews from Kirkus and other top-level sources, but the ways of Amazon have always been strange and inexplicable. Just recently there’s a rumor going around that if you use a certain kind of Amazon link (a ‘super’ link, whatever that is) in your social media publicity, Amazon automatically assumes that whoever buys from that link is a friend of yours and if they do a review, it will be pulled down. I don’t know if it’s true or not, and I really don’t know why Amazon makes it so hard for authors to get and keep reviews. Yes, I know all about the sock puppet meme, and that was inexcusable, but why punish all authors for the arrogant sins of a few? Sometimes it seems that Amazon is dead set against ordinary, non-best-selling writers earning money, but then I’ve always believed that Amazon is not our friend.

So what does that leave? Nothing that’s in the writer’s control. All that can be done is for the writer to ask readers to leave a review. Most writers do in the back of their books. Most readers don’t.

But it would be lovely if they did.

By the way, if you’re in the Bonham, Texas area on this coming Saturday, 6 February, thirteen wonderful romance authors and I will be featured at the Eighth Biennial “Romance in Bonham” panel discussion/reader event. It will be held from 11am to 1 pm at the Bonham Public Library, 305 E. 5^th Street. Please come by if you can – it’s free, of course.

Ten Ways to Use Reviews to Advantage

Reviews are a great help to an author. Yes, bad ones really smart, but if they're constructive, they can still lead us in the right direction.

And, the good ones, well, those not only make us feel good, encourage us to keep writing when the going gets tough, but are also great fodder for promotions.

Some ways to use a good review, or even part of a not-so-good review:

1. Pluck a short phrase from a review and place it on Twitter, along with your book link, and a copy of the book cover. Add a few hashtags where they may apply, such as #amwriting, or #mystery, or #thriller, #review, etc.

2. Place the review link on your Timeline at Facebook. If you're lucky, at least a few of your followers will see it. Facebook has become stingy about sharing links, but even if one or two people notice, the ball can still get rolling.

3. Share the review on any groups you belong to at Facebook. Again, if you're lucky, some of the others who are also posting promotions at the groups will notice yours.

4. Try not to be too pushy, but casually mention your new review with the link at one or two of your Yahoo groups, if you belong to any.

5. Post the review at Goodreads. I confess to not paying attention to Goodreads as much as I should. I really need to follow this advice.

6. Place the link and a teaser from the review on your website.

7. Make a Review Board on Pinterest and add our review links there, or use a different board for each of your books, and put the review link on the appropriate board. If you want, you could do both.

8. Include part of the review in a blog.

9. Remember, if you're doing a special promotion, many promotional sites require at least 4 stars or more. That's your goal.

10. Post a review of a book you liked. Maybe, later that author will reciprocate after reading one of your books. Since Amazon is a little strict about buddy authors doing reviews, I don't mention I'm an author in my review profile, and my reviews have so far not been taken down.

Can you think of any other ways to use reviews to advantage?

Find all of Morgan's books at
http://www.amazon.com/author/morganmandel

Excerpts are at:
http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/morgan.mandel

Twitter: @MorganMandel

Publicity is Where You Find It

Publicity is Where You Find It

Randy Rawls

I've been quite fortunate with the number of reviews and postings I've received on my THORNS ON ROSES. Some of the folks who read this will recognize the book as one they gave a nudge to. Thanks to each of you.

But some of the other sources have been quite surprising. The latest is a chuckle and a source of pride(?). I have to admit I'm not a reader of this paper and have mixed feelings about it, based on reputation and rumor. However, I believe publicity is where you find it. And I've found some here. So, this month when you check out at the cash register of your favorite supermarket, I give you permission to scan the tabloids. Pick up the February 6 edition of National Examiner and flip the pages. Yep, that's my THORNS ON ROSES you'll see blurbed. Now, lest you think it's no big deal, consider that I share the page with Richard Gere, Gregory Peck, and Dean Cain. Heck, I feel like I fit right in. :-)

Another one popped up this week that I'm even more proud of. About a thousand years ago, I was the key person in founding a youth travel soccer league in Northern Virginia, then served as its president for several years. We named it the Old Dominion Soccer League. One of the driving provisions that I insisted on was sportsmanship, players and parents. We were the first that I'm aware of to give a Sportsmanship Award each season. We made a big to-do about it, making it equal to the championship award. When I left the area, the membership honored me by naming it the Randy Rawls Sportsmanship ODSL Award. Twice a year when the awards are handed out, my ego swells. And it doesn't hurt that there is usually a plug for my writing attached. The latest
I've seen is at www.staffordsoccer.com/home/592340.html. Enough to make an old man feel like he's done something good for the world.

While I'm on my feel-good platform, there's another that gave me a buzz. It ran in the blog,
BLOGCRITICS.org, and in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. If you're so inclined, the link is at http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Book-Review-Thorns-on-Roses-by-Randy-Rawls-2659670.php The thing about this one that I love is the reviewer, Leslie Granier, really nailed the story. Not just the one I wrote, but the one that did not blatantly appear in words.

And there are many more, each of them presenting my story and me in a favorable light. I'd love to claim this happened because of my sheer talent, but that would be an outright lie. For THORNS ON ROSES, I took a chance and hired a publicist. She did the ground pounding that produced the reviews. Of course, I'm still going to claim it was my book that caused the reviewers to write the reviews as they did.

Does that answer my question as to whether spending a lot of money on a publicist is worth it? No, it doesn't. I won't even have a small clue until the royalty statements begin to come in.
I'm not optimistic.

Just Randy being Randy.

Reviews—are they worth the trouble?

As authors and/or publishers, we often struggle to get reviews for books—especially positive, glowing reviews. Each author that gets a positive review basks in its warmth for a while, and we usually share them with others like pictures of a new baby… or perhaps a new boat or motorcycle.

As readers, we seek out reviewers whose judgement we trust, whose taste runs at least roughly parallel to our own, so we can be guided by their opinions.

A few months ago, I started a review site strictly dedicated to genre fiction, The GenReView. Thus far, I have published quite a few reviews of books in a variety of genres: fantasy, sci-fi, romantic suspense, mystery, suspense, GLBT. It’s been fun, although finding reviewers I can rely upon to turn out at least one review each month has been a bit of a trial.

But, as I read some of the online discussion group postings and listservs to which I belong, I’m wondering about the importance of reviews. (Yeah, yeah, I know—why am I stabbing myself in the back?) Seriously, folks. An uncommonly large number of people say that reviews mean little to nothing to them. I was really surprised at this, especially given the amount of time and money publishers and authors devote to gaining reviews.

Personally, I like to read reviews of books before I commit to buying and/or checking them out at the library. My time is valuable, and I don’t like to waste any of it. I figure, once I find a couple of reviewers whose views and taste are close enough to my own, I can use them as bellwethers for at least some of my reading forays.

Reviews in print are highly prized, yet are the hardest to obtain for most authors and publishers. Many newspapers have cut back on “frills” and reviews are often viewed as that sort of luxury. Plus, the sheer number of books being published each year makes getting the few review slots a very competitive process. Online review venues are becoming more and more important to those who want reviews, as fewer and fewer print reviews are available.

Here are some things other than reviews that people said influenced what they pick up to read, in no particular order:

• Friends’ recommendations. If a friend whose reading tastes are similar to your own says, “Hey, you gotta read this book! It’s awesome!” then chances are you will be influenced to at least give the book a shot.
• Recommendations from other readers on [insert name of appropriate listerv] list. Whether you regard someone as a particular friend or not, if they read the same sort of fiction you read, and you’ve heard them say other positive things about books where you shared the same opinion, you are often likely to trust their opinion.
• Advertisements in “target” magazines. If you read Ladies Home Journal, and trust it, and see an ad for a new romance novel there, you may be influenced to see what it’s all about.
• Past satisfaction. The fact that you have read past titles by the author and enjoyed those books, is usually an indicator that you will like the newest title. But as authors get long in the tooth, or perhaps long in the pen, there is a general consensus that often authors begin to run out of new ideas, or become too predictable. (Just how many times can notorious ex-IRA-enforcer Sean Dillon tell someone that he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and performed Ibsen there?)
• The amount of advertising about the new book that they saw on television or heard on the radio… or now, on the Internet. Radio, TV and Internet ads for books are popping up more and more often. As with most ads, some people view these as intrusive and annoying, but they still get the name of the new book in front of potential readers… and that often works.

Surprisingly, back-cover blurbs seem to have the least influence of all. Well… maybe not so surprisingly. I know that I have been too often disappointed by what the blurb on the back said, compared to the reality of the book inside the covers, and I think many people have had that same experience.

What do you think, as reader, publisher or author? Are “formal” reviews of books losing their importance to you? If you are an author or publisher, is it worth the trouble it now seems to be, to get those elusive reviews? Do you trust online review sites, or do you only rely upon NYT Bestseller lists? What’s important to you when considering whether or not to read a new title?

I’d like to know what you think!

Review Sites Anyone? by Christine Duncan

I know it always sounds like such BS to any unpubbed author but learning how to promote your book when it is published is almost as time consuming and difficult as it was to learn to write the books. There are so many different aspects of promotion out there to keep in mind from arranging in-person talks and booksignings to doing blog tours. Blogging, twittering, talking on Facebook and Goodreads are familiar to me now, and I think I'm getting a little more efficient about my time on the net. (I can say that because I have touched Instant Messenger or personal email yet today. Catch me after I have and the update might be different.) Getting a buzz going about your mystery can be downright difficult

I thought I had promo down pat this time. I put together a media kit to email to bookstores so I could have that in front of them when I called to ask about a signing. I designed a press release customized several different ways so that one emphasized the local author aspect, one emphasized a news aspect and still another talked about the underlying theme of the book.
I arranged a virtual tour, printed up ARCS and sent them for review and talked up the book everywhere.

But I got my print copies of Safe House today and although I'm so excited, I'm also worried! Things have changed in the time since the first book came out. Review sites have disappeared. I have a couple of reviews for the e-book and I tried to send ARCS to anyone remotely interested late last year. And now, I need to send print copies out to the review sites who wanted to have books upon publication. I know to send to Mid-West book review but who else is there?
Sigh
And I need to learn about making a book trailer. Fast. I guess what I really need is to figure out how to go without sleep for a couple of months. Too bad I don't like any of those energy shot things they have out now.
Do they still make No-doze?


Christine Duncan is the author of the Kaye Berreano mystery series. Book two, Safe House is available now.

How Many Are Too Many? What Do I Do With Them? By Morgan Mandel

I've sent out for reviews for Killer Career like crazy. Now, I have to stop and think. How many are too many?

So far, one is out, a very nice one, at
Unbound.

I've told lots of people about it online and will use snippets on my website, in my postcards, etc., but what else can I do with it and any other nice ones that come?

If I get ten more, will people get tired about hearing of my reviews, or should I keep telling everyone?

How many reviews do you try to get? What do you do with them?

Please share.

Morgan Mandel
Killer Career Now Released at Amazon.Com

Trying a New Author

What does it take for you to try out a new writer? Does the cover catch your eye, or are you a book jacket reader? Does a starred review grab your attention right away, or would you pick up a book because you’d seen the author online or in the media? Or is it because the writer won an award?

When I’m searching the shelves for a new read, be it in a bricks-and-mortar bookstore or on the virtual shelves of my favorite online store, I do it the old-fashioned way, even in a new-fashioned world. First of all, the title has to appeal to me, then I like to read a summary or the jacket copy and a couple of reviews by reviewers whose opinions I respect. This system works for me—has for years—and I’ve found many a new author to take pleasure in reading from cover to cover, including the writers’ backlists. I’ve also found a couple of lemons, but hey, that happens!

Right now, I’m test driving Peter Turnbull’s No Stone Unturned and it’s a neat mystery so far. I’ll see if he can keep me from figuring it out until the end, though! Then I have another new author to check out – Julie Carobini.

It’s fun to read a new novelist, especially a mystery writer. The mystery writer must engage you, challenge you to solve the whodunit and have a style that appeals to you, in addition to telling a good story with fully developed characters, just like authors in any other fiction genre.

So, if you find yourself sticking to the tried and true all the time, explore and give a new-to-you author a chance. You might just find you’ve discovered a new must-read, and if you’re lucky, s/he has a nice deep backlist for you to enjoy.

Libby McKinmer
Romance with an edge
www.libbymckinmer.com
http://www.twitter.com/LibbyMcKinmer
libby@libbymckinmer.com