Independent author and outright character Trish George has an author website up, and it is quite well done. An inveterate traveler, Trish has been all over Australia and promoted her work along the way. Along with her works of fiction, she has also written several travel books and is quite a raconteur.
Authors Who Blog
Authors Cathy A and Cathy T Wilson maintain an informative blog (related to their book series “Lions and Lilies” set in medieval England and France). They post about the historical background to their books. A good resource for their readers and a useful promotional tool.
A Promotional Strategy for "Summer at Urchin's Bluff" by author Eliza Bennetts
On writing a series:
Writing in series is considered the way-to-go when it comes to romance. Romance readers are voracious! I attend the yearly RWA conferences and they often talk about the fact that some romance readers read 7-10 books a week! This means that when they find a set of characters or a world they enjoy, they want to keep reading.
As an author, it pays to have more books down the line to service this need. I was lucky to latch on to this pearl of wisdom while writing the first draft of Summer at Urchin's Bluff, so that allowed me to ensure there was scope to have a supporting character who will feature as the main character the next book, and so on for the following two books. I guess, in a way, writing in series is it's own form of promotion. Each book works to promote the next. Well, that's the plan anyhow!
My writing life:
I think like most of us, for me writing was always a hobby - something to get me out of my head when I was stressing about work or family or whatever. I've recently found myself with a little more time to write, and I'm loving it, but I'm yet to establish a routine around my writing. I've listened to podcasts and read books that say you should blank out some time each day to write (eg. 9 - noon). I should probably do that, but I'm loathe to, in case it sucks the fun out of it! I don't want it to feel like a chore, but I guess if I want to do this as a career, I might need to consider it. At the moment I write every day, but not at a specific time, or for a specified length of time.
Marketing and Promotion:
So, my plan with marketing is really to take it slow. I do plan to look at Facebook ads and Amazon ads (I have purchased the KDP Rocket software) for the promotion of Summer at Urchin's Bluff, but not in an extensive way. I figure once I have more books on my shelf, any money I invest in advertising will be that much more effective. I do plan to look at BookBub, but not for book one, or two for that matter. I know they're hard to get, so I might wait to start trying (maybe once all four books in the Seasons series are released). As far as social media goes, I'm only active on Facebook. I know it's better to be everywhere, but with kids and work, and the whole writing-the-books thing, I don't have the time to service a ton of social accounts. This is an area I need to become more confident in. Every time I'm about to post (even just on that one platform) I'm always thinking, 'is anyone going to care about this? Is it spamy?' (not a word, but you know what I mean). I do know that building a mailing list is super important, so I'm working on that but it's slow going. I'm okay with things taking a while to build. I want to be doing this in 20 years time, so being number 1 from day 1, with book 1 is not really my goal (I mean, I wouldn't be upset if it happened!). I guess what I'm saying is that everything I do around marketing and promotion, for me, needs to be about steadily building a readership.
Summer at Urchin's Bluff is a contemporary seasoned romance (seasoned is the term we use in the romance world for a heroine over 40). It is available for pre order now across most platforms.
Available from these outlets.
Sailor to Radio Lineman to CEO to Author — Jim Pratt and His Books
Scottish born James Pratt, the son of a coal miner, is a man from humble beginnings who rose to the top of his chosen profession. At the age of 15 he, (as he describes it), ran away to sea and joined the British Merchant Navy before settling in Australia at the young age of 18.
He worked as a radio lineman in outback Queensland for several years then moved into sales and marketing, then General Management. By the time of his retirement, he had reached the very top of his profession as a Telecommunications Executive.
He held several senior positions, including, Chairman of the globally renowned GSM Association, was the founding CEO of Peoples Telephone Company Limited, a substantial mobile telephone network operator in Hong Kong, (now China Mobile Hong Kong), a former Managing Director with Telstra and the President & CEO of GlobeTrac Inc. He served as a non-executive director on several boards until his retirement.
He honed his writing and communication skills on business reports and strategy papers and had numerous articles published in various global Telecommunications magazines.
Well travelled, he has been to almost 100 countries, meeting some of the most famous and influential people around the globe.
His first stop inside a departures lounge at any airport was always the bookstore where he would purchase a novel, usually an action thriller. He read almost everything by Le Carre, Ludlum, Forsyth, Cussler, Clancy, Harris and many more, most with enjoyment. However, over time, he concluded that he could write more entertaining stories than those he was now buying to read on those long flights and was finding it increasingly hard to find a book he could relax with and enjoy. So, upon retiring, he turned his hand to writing his first novel, Telekom, which he released several years ago with quite some success. He has just released his second novel, The Sleeper Project and had started work on his third, to be called, “Cassidy’s Conflict.”
Author Pat Kelly and her books
Pat Kelly writes well-plotted and thoroughly engaging historical novels populated by believable characters. Although her characters often face great challenges, she maintains a touch of humour and optimism. She is skilled at evoking lost eras and the way people saw the world.
Pat Kelly was born in Glasgow in 1938. When she was just over a year old her father was called up to serve his country and she barely saw him until she was about eight years old.
Perhaps as an escape, in early primary school Pat took to writing stories, which her teacher used to read out to the class.
In her teens and early twenties Pat wrote several books, sent them to publishers with a stamped return envelope, but never received any of them back, so had to retype them to send them to the next publisher. None were ever acknowledged or published.
Eventually, Pat married and was too involved with raising children to have time to write. In 1968 she arrived in SouthAustralia, with four children, as a £10 Pom. After divorcing after over twenty-five years of marriage Pat was contacted by a Manxman, Mike, she had known in her teens. They married and returned to the Isle of Man to live.
After Mike retired, in 1993, they followed the summers with six months in each country. While in the Isle of Man they ran a daffodil farm and were well known on the Island for their roadside stall, with an honesty box, selling daffodils and plants.
In 2014, the travel was becoming too much, so they moved to Australia permanently to live in Lakes Entrance, a beautiful, peaceful little town in Victoria.
When she moved to the Isle of Man, Pat left all her family in Australia. Mikes mother Lou, a wonderful lady took her new daughter in law under her wing and they had great conversations.
Lou had grown up in a tiny village in the West of the Isle of Man. The population of this village was around 20, but when the great war started an internment camp was built which eventually housed around 25,000 ‘enemy aliens’. As Lou told Pat about her childhood and this huge camp looming over her tiny village, Pat realised she was listening to history, a lot of which no one else alive could tell – and that if Lou died, all that history would be lost forever. So she wrote it's all down and turned it into a book called ‘Hedge of Thorns’ that was a great success on the island.
The research for this sparked Pat's interest in Manx history And she then went on to write a second book, ‘Smugglers Urchins’, set in the smuggling era on the island.
Her next foray into Manx history was the famous Laxey water wheel, resulting in ‘Shadow of the Wheel’.
Pat is currently working on a story which finds 14-year-old Manx girl being transported for 7 years for stealing a loaf of bread. She sails with the second fleet in a ship that was nicknamed ‘the floating brothel’.
Ellen Hansa and her novel, Esther's Violin
Cover note: The background image is Ellen’s father’s ex libris, flipped to make the letters semi-abstract forms. Typeface is Mostra Nuova. Body text is Arno Pro.
May it be a camera, a lump of clay or a sheet of paper, Ellen Hansa manages to create a story. At the age of fifteen she tried to start a career as a photo journalist, an impossible task for a young woman in the late 1950’is in war-torn Vienna. She studied photography and with her masters’ degree under her collar, tried again. Having been rejected once more, Ellen spends the next years in photographic studios both in Vienna, Oslo and later in Melbourne.
After her marriage and three children, Ellen tried her luck turning clay into pots. A few years later Stanyers’ Pottery was born and for many years the business flourished.
After her husband’s death Ellen withdrew to her bush block. A writing group in the local Neighbourhood House drew her back into society. She started telling stories again and compiled a number of short stories called “Stories around the Table”. Then she gave herself the big challenge to write and publish a fictional novel, Esther’s Violin.
Her work can be viewed here.
Seedpod, ceramic sculpture by Ellen Hansa
Cover Designs — Irradiated White House and the Secret Life of Words
A sinister mushroom cloud, the White House gently glowing in the radioactive light, a menacing submarine — what more could a reader want?
Another radioactive cloud, skippy, Sanuel Johnson and a medieval scholar — the first time they have all appeared on one cover…
Covering the Grim Reaper...
Our client’s author wished to use an existing artwork. so we worked in two panels of text with the art just showing through, keeping it clean and letting the rather odd couple speak/rattle for themselves… Typefaces used include basic sans and Taberna Serif.
Fatal Path Cover — More Iterations
An update on an earlier post — two more iterations on this cover. Sometimes it is a long and winding road to a final cover…
Authors, Don't Forget Libraries
Independent authors sometimes forget the library market. Libraries have made a largely successful transition to the era of the Internet, becoming multi-use spaces, offering ebooks and audio books and maintaining their print collections. Many libraries are quite supportive of independent authors. Joanne Penn has posted about getting books into American libraries, but similar principles also apply in Australia. Apart from contacting individual library corporations, try reading this kindle book on the Australian market. URLs for Australian library distributors below. And don’t forget to register for Public Lending Rights!
James Bennet
https://www.bennett.com.au/
Peter Pal
www.peterpal.com.au
Bookbub Speaks, Advises
An author client recently got in touch with ebook promotional giant Bookbub to discuss the disappointing performance of a paid ad posted on that platform. He received the following interesting response, worth reading in full for anyone considering using the service or applying for the oly grail of a featured deal (as with so many areas of the Internet, Bookbub is overwhelmingly dominant in its space):
Thanks for reaching out! I'm sorry to hear your recent ad campaign didn't produce the results you were hoping for. I'll note that it does require quite a bit of testing and tweaking to develop ad campaigns that get the results you're looking for. When getting started with ads, we recommend that partners spend some time committed to testing ads with small budgets of $5-$10. Generally, you're unlikely to see a positive return immediately out of the gate with no testing.
I'd encourage you to read through some of our blog posts to get more familiar with BookBub Ads. I've gone ahead and listed a few that I think you'll find helpful below:
- First, you can find a blog post on increasing your click-through rate here: https://insights.bookbub.com/increase-click-through-rate-bookbub-ads-campaign/
- Next, you can read about how marketing goals affect BookBub ad campaigns here: https://insights.bookbub.com/how-marketing-goals-affect-bookbub-ad-campaigns-infographic/
- Finally, you can view our ultimate guide to BookBub Ads here: https://insights.bookbub.com/ultimate-guide-bookbub-ads/#getting-started
If you want to learn more about BookBub Ads, I'd suggest that you read through some other posts in the BookBub Ads section of our blog here for more tutorials, campaign ideas, and best practices.
I'm happy to answer any questions your have around Featured Deals:
1.) Currently, we rarely feature new releases in our daily emails. We’ve found that books that have had a chance to build up their platform perform best and, therefore, make for the most successful promotions for our partners.
2.) Your promotion's length is completely up to you and your marketing goals. You're welcome to discount your book for just a day, or a whole week or more if you'd like. We happen to have a blog post that discusses what promotion lengths work best for different marketing goals here. I hope you find that post helpful!
3.) Critical reviews play a role in our editor's selection process, so it would certainly be helpful for your title to have some reviews associated with it. You're absolutely welcome to submit this book for consideration, but please note that, as mentioned above, we tend to feature books that have built up their platform. If you're interested, you can learn more about the editorial team's selection process here.
Amazon Reviews and the $50 Purchase Requirement
Reviews are important in the Amazon ecosystem — a clear signal to their search algorithms. Unfortunately, this also means that they are constantly being gamed, and without strict controls on the part of Amazon, quickly become meaningless. Equally unfortunately, Amazon has decreed that one of those controls is a $50 purchasing threshold — ie. if you have not purchased at least $50 worth of products or books from Amazon in the last 12 months from the e-commerce giant, you are not allowed to post. Here is the Amazon page describing the policy.
And the text:
Eligibility
To contribute to Customer features (for example, Customer Reviews, Customer Answers, Idea Lists) or to follow other contributors, you must have spent at least $50 on Amazon.com using a valid credit or debit card in the past 12 months. Promotional discounts don't qualify towards the $50 minimum. You do not need to meet this requirement to read content posted by other contributors or post Customer Questions, or create or modify Profile pages, Shopping Lists, Wish Lists or Registries.
Some interesting posts on Amazon reviews, with different takes.
Amazing Science Graphics from Eleanor Lutz
For beautiful, jaw-dropping science graphics, the quirkily named TableTop Whale is an essential destination. Maintained by Phd student Eleanor Lutz, the work is astonishingly good. Hopefully she will produce something in print so I can read it to my children…
Writing Blog with Solid Tips
Inkitt, the “The World’s #1 Reader-Powered Book Publisher” has quite decent blog on the writer’s life and craft. Well worth a visit. And perhaps you could upload one of your pieces and generate some constructive reader feedback…
Go Go Logos
Logos continue to evolve apace in the mainly digital design world. Some attractive trends, some pretty ugly, as showcased here.
“Modern culture continues to shift the ways we interpret symbols and how we visually prioritize in context, setting topsy-turvy the relationship between identity and application. Greater credence has been given the attending visual vocabulary as texture, pattern, typography, photography and illustrative elements have shifted seats in the visual brand hierarchy. It’s becoming more common to see a brand driven by the supporting visual aesthetics, occasionally leaving the logo to call shotgun if it’s invited along for the ride at all.”
Troubled Times in East Timor — Cover Design
Michael Pert has written a taut, intelligent thriller based on Australia’s role in the troubled birth of East Timor. In the above draft cover, we blended images of Timor and a stark colour palette, and used the striking Franchise for the title typeface.
Social Proof Sells Books
Author advice guru David Gaughran has posted a very interesting column on the most powerful selling tool for books — personal recommendations and reviews, or “social proof”. If a potential reader receives a strong social signal via reviews or a personal recommendation from a friend, they are much more likely to purchase. It therefore follows that independent authors need to do all they can to foster and amplify such signalling for their own work.
“The phenomenon is only different today in the surface details: that trusted source can be an algorithm at Amazon or Goodreads, a book blogger who taste maps your own, bestseller charts at various online retailers, daily emails from BookBub, or a million other things in today’s fragmented recommendation ecosystem.”
Independent Publishing Tips and Very Useful Resources
An interesting view from 30,000 feet of the challlenges confronting and opportunities available to independent authors, as posted at The Verge. They have spoken to a few successful authors and author advocates and provide several useful links. One of the best is here with a real trove of resources and advice, especially regarding predatory vanity publisher outfits.
“You are accountable for the success of the publishing process. By taking on the kind of freedom and flexibility of self-publishing, you’re also taking on the accountability.”
The Tip of the Tip of the Tip of the Iceberg
An excellent explanation from the consistently great Veritasium channel examining the way algorithms shape content and vice versa. The sheer volume of posted YouTube videos requires algorithm settings that encourage sensational/clickbait content, and make it difficult for serious content providers to maintain their audience. Some of the principles at play here also show up in surfacing material on other algorithm driven services such as Amazon, Audible, Google and Facebook. A balanced and fascinating examination of a key online issue, presented by Canadian Australian Derek Muller.
Local Audio Book Producing
Audio books are a fast growing part of the publishing landscape, driven by the ubiquity of smart phones. Recording an audio edition of a book can be extremely expensive and not a little technically challenging. So we were very interested to hear of a local audio book recording service charging reasonable rates. Check out their site here. An explanation of the service to authors here. Check out this book produced by author2audible on Audible, and the author page.