We’ve been busy designing new covers for lovely author and publisher clients, with a very broad range of subjects. Here are a few of them.
Promote Your Book with Persistence and the Power of Networking
We asked author Pat Kelly to describe her successful efforts to market her two books set on the Isle of Man (Shadow of the Wheel and Hedge of Thorns). There’s quite a bit of detail, but it is a testament to persistence and networking (and having two excellent books to sell)
When my book, Shadow of the Wheel was accepted for publication I was not a member of Facebook but joined at my publisher's suggestion.
I happily admit to being a complete computer nerd and had no knowledge about Facebook other than that people seemed to send each other photographs of what they were about to eat. However, I dutifully joined and asked one or two people I knew to be my friends. Most of these were family, but a few were people I had known when I lived in the Isle of Man. So after a few days, I had a whole twelve 'friends'. I looked amongst their friends and put in a 'friend' request to quite a few. Some accepted, some didn't and some asked 'who are you?' From the ones who accepted I put in requests to some of their contacts. So it mushroomed until I now have over 100 contacts.
The important thing was, who some of these new friends were and the actions they took for someone who was almost, and in many instances, a complete stranger.
As the book started in the Isle of Man and I know the Manxies love their island and its history, I joined a couple of groups on the Island and saw one or two names I knew, so put in 'friend' requests to them. Several of them, on hearing about Shadow of the Wheel' got on to Amazon straight away and actually bought a copy while we were still on Facebook chatting. They enjoyed the book and some of them shared a picture of the book along with some very flattering words with all their friends. One actually said 'It is a terrific book DOWNLOAD IT NOW!' Others who had read it invited me to join another Isle of Man group they were members of. So I am now in five Manx groups and the good thing about this is that there are Manx societies all over the world, who are also members of the Isle of Man groups. So this got the word out to the world about my book.
It was a bit like throwing a pebble into a pool and watching the ripples spreead and grow.
One lady who is the secretary of the Isle of Man Family History Society, got in touch with me because she wishes to do a write up about me in the society's journal which will be out November, after which she is going to organize a write up in the local papers about me and my books and also a piece on the local radio.
Since launching Shadow of the Wheel, I have done a huge edit on a book I had published on the Isle of Man in 1993. It is a true story, as told to me by my late mother in law, telling about her childhood during the 1st World War, in a village of about 20 residents, when a huge internment camp was built in the village to house 'alien internees'. It was made rather a mess of when it was originally published, but with a lot of patient help from Luke Harris I undid all the wrongs that were done to it originally and Luke designed a beautiful new cover for it.
I re-launched it in the middle of September and put a picture of it, with a few words of explanation, out to my Manx groups. Within two hours I had enquiries from South Africa, Zimbabwe, USA and Canada asking where they could buy the book. Presumably they are Manx expats now living in these countries.
I also friended (only because she bore the same name as my beloved sister) a young girl - sixty years my junior who lives nearby and is studying journalism and history at university. She has similar interests to me and we got on like a house on fire from the moment we met. We are now close friends, she has bought and read both my books. She wrote my life story and,said a lot of flattering things about my books and took a very nice photo of me sitting on my front steps with a copy of Shadow of the Wheel as one of her assignments for university, then shared this assignment with her almost 2000 Facebook friends, including links for buying my books. Ending with a comment that they were terrific books and advising her friends to buy them.
This, to me, shows the value of choosing carefully on Facebook, then putting in requests to likely looking 'friends, contacts of theirs - and so ad infinitum.
I addition to this my friends in the Lakes Entrance senior citizens club put of a little launching morning tea for me a the club and invited a reporter from the local paper to come and take a photo. She duly did this, then called out to my house twice to interview me and did a great article about my life's history and how I came into writing. Now that Hedge of Thorns has also been launched, she is going to gake some more photos and do another little write-up.
Update #1
I had an email on Friday from one of my friends in IOM who told me that her friend, Carol Tomlinson, had just sent her a message (tongue in cheek) telling her she had just finished reading her wonderful book and didn't know she had it in her. So Pat and I exchanged a few messages about it and I told her about Hedge of Thorns, etc and she said she was going to buy them both. The following day I had a friend request from Carol Tomlinson, who had seen Pat's and my exchange. Carol and I had some long chats about my books. She had bought Shadow to read on holiday in Italy and couldn't put it down, so now she'll have to buy another book for the rest of her holiday. She said she was enjoying it so much she was very sad when it ended and asked if I would be doing a sequel.
I told her about my other books - Beyond the Seas and that at some time I am possibly going to re-launch Smugglers. She says she is going to buy Hedge of Thorns when she gets home, so I suggested she should buy it from the Knockaloe Trust rather than Amazon. She also said she is going to buy another copy of Shadow to give to her friend — who lives in Laxey — for Christmas. When I opened up her page there was huge picture of Shadow of the Wheel and a very glowing report. One of her friends thanked her for the tip and said she had just bought it and another two said they were going to.
Then yesterday I had a message from a lady who bought it not long after it was launched, but at the time said she had a few in a queue in from of it waiting to be read. She had just finished it and said she cried at the end when Jos got off the train along with the rest of the family. She also put a big picture and write up about it and sent it to all her friends.
So it still seems to be moving well over there. In addition I sold two copies of Hedge and one of Shadow to two friend in my carer support group on Friday. It's all quite exciting.
UPDATE # 2
I just thought I would bring you up to date with my latest exploits. I decided to make today a day of running around all the little businesses I could think of to see if I could make any sales.
I started with the General Store in Swan Reach. The fellow there was very happy to take some of my books and have a go, though he did say he didn't really think they would sell there. But when I came to discuss money and how much his share would be, he just flapped his hand and said they didn't do that there. Any he sells he will just give me all the dough — to quote him. So let's hope he sells some.
Then I got to Bairnsdale and my first call was to a 'cafe' I just discovered a couple of weeks ago when a friend suggested we should meet there for a cuppa. It was only afterwards that I realised that they sold school supplies, stationery etc. there. So I decided to give them a try today. The first thing I saw when I walked in the door was a little stand of books and above it said 'LOCAL AUTHORS'. When I went in, books in hand and told the lady what I was there for I thought she was going to jump over the counter and hug me. No hesitation in saying she would have some of my books. She said she takes 20 per cent, which is $2 less than I was going to offer her, so I didj't argue. She then asked if I did events, which I haven't but would be willing to. She is very involved with the Bairnsdale Show and says they have a stand there which they invite local authors to bring their books to, and they get about 60,000 visitors to the show. She says there are also other events they invite authors to.
As you know, it was a stinking hot day, so I decided to have an iced coffee while I was there and there was a lady at another table. As Charlotte (the shop lady) was putting my books on the shelf this other lady said something to her and she took one of each over to her. Then she came back to me, told me the other lady was also an author and gave me her book to look at. The lady, Leanne, was actually a poet and photographer and her pictures were absolutely stunning - all local pictures.
When I'd finished my coffee I stopped to chat to her and we spent about half an hour discussing our masterpieces. She told me the secretary of the Bairnsdale Historical Society is Manx and she thought she would probably be very interested in Hedge of Thorns. When I got up to leave she told me she was going to buy Shadow of the Wheel herself and as I went out the door I looked around and sure enough, she was at the counter buying the book.
Charlotte asked to take a photo of me with the books to put on social media. In actual fact, she stood on one side of the 'local author' stand and I stood on the other side with a book each showing the sign between us. It looked good.
When I got home I found both ladies on facebook and requested to 'friend' them. They could both prove very useful contacts.
When I left there I went to the newsagent in the main street, but the boss was out and wouldn't be back for about an hour.and it was too hot to hang around. I had also been going to try two places in Paynesvile and the general stor in Metung, but again the heat was getting to me. I'll do them and the Newsagent another day.
A New Series for Peter Ralph
Writer of financial thrillers Peter Ralph is embarking on a new series featuring Josh Kennelly, a character first introduced in Fog City Fraud. The first book, Deadly Bequests is “set in New Orleans and is a scam about the elderly getting fleeced via their wills.”. The second book is The Guardians . Josh “receives a crazy call from a veteran of the Afghanistan war claiming that his father has been kidnapped by a guardian. Reluctantly, Josh gets involved and discovers the guardianship industry where judges, guardians, lawyers, and doctors, look after themselves, but not their wards. The forces that he’s trying to expose are all-powerful. Has he bitten off more than he can chew?”
We designed all three books to have a consistent identity and repeated elements.
Solving Writing Problems with Euan Mitchell
Euan Mitchell is a highly experienced editor and independent publishing expert who teaches at Swinburne University and also takes on private editing projects. His website provides further background information. He was interviewed on writing and editing for the Garret podcast. He specialises in Story design (all genres of novel and memoir), Young adult fiction (contemporary realism focus), Novel (commercial adult fiction), Memoir, Non-fiction (educational focus) and Short story (all genres). He has written a detailed guide for creating and marketing print and ebooks, available from Amazon. Here are some of his thoughts on authors and editing:
How does a writer know when their manuscript is ready to show publishers or readers?
This is a tough question to answer precisely, but new and emerging writers should not make the classic mistake of submitting unedited work to publishers. Too many new writers think a spellcheck is sufficient because a publisher will want to edit their manuscript anyway. But publishers want to spend as little money as possible on editing. Even though publishers know that a good edit can be the best way to add value to a book, editing takes time and editors typically work for an hourly rate. If you are self-publishing, then you don’t want your readers deriding your editorial efforts as substandard all over social media. There is a world of vocal armchair pedants out there!
Over the two decades I have been helping new and emerging writers to edit or rewrite their work to a publishable standard, I have found that a free sample edit of about 1,500 words from an extended manuscript is a good way to gauge how much editorial work is needed in total. Writers can then make an informed decision about whether or not to engage my services. Writers are usually pleased when I point out specifics that can be improved. This will typically include fixing some spelling, grammar and punctuation; however, often the sample edit will reveal other aspects to address, such as: lack of clarity, awkward transitions, ‘head-hopping’ points of view, weak dialogue, tautologies, clichés, and too much use of summary or stock character descriptions. The good news is that all these problems can be fixed. A careful edit or rewrite will ensure your ideas have the best chance of connecting successfully with publishers and readers. You can email Euan to discuss your writing project via euan@euanmitchell.com
Good News with Mal Walden — Book cover
Right in the middle of the Carlton Readings shop window, Mal and his book (Good News) do leap out at one somewhat… stand aside Walter Isaacson and Carole King. Published by Brolga Publishing, cover design by WorkingType.
The Legacy of Douglas Grant — Book Cover
John Ramsland often writes about eminent Aboriginal Australians, and in Douglas Grant he has found a fascinating subject. Survivor of an appalling massacre as a baby, raised by Scottish immigrants, then a volunteer for the Western Front, Grant’s life deserves attention and respect. We let his photograph speak for itself, with a faint background of a World War I battle scene. Published by Brolga Publishing.
Italian Bel Canto — Book Cover
Joseph Talia writes about great singers and their teachers, and the science of singing. We populated the cover of his latest book with luminaries from that world. from Dame Joan Sutherland back to Rossini and Farinelli. And in the background, an amazing piece of art from Rococo master Giovanni Tiepolo. Published by Australian Academic Press.
Thrill of the Chase — books by Ray Scott
Ray Scott was born in England, and for many years lived near Birmingham. Ray and his wife Mary emigrated to Australia in 1970. Ray worked in the insurance industry, in England and Australia, over 35 years and after retirement devoted his time to fiction writing.
In 2012 he released his first novel, an e-book originally entitled “The Man Who Had Five Lives”, later re-issued as “The Fifth Identity”. In 2014, a paperback “Cut to the Chase” was published, followed in 2017 by “The Wimmera Shoot”, another e-book. In 2019, a fourth e-book and paperback “Double Dutch” was released.Ray maintains a website here.
Ray’s writing style is similar to top writers such as Desmond Bagley, Geoffrey Household and Eric Ambler. The books are racy and about ordinary people caught up in international or political intrigue by accident or design, who go on the run to avoid being arrested, or murdered to ensure their silence.
“Double Dutch” includes an exciting chase through country Victoria and New South Wales. The leading character accidentally learns of an impending coup d’état in a nearby Pacific island nation, is kidnapped to ensure his silence, but escapes. Penniless and without transport, he endeavours to reach Canberra to warn ASIO of the coup.
Running a Facebook Ad Campaign to Market Your Book
Author promotional guru David Gaughran conducts a detailed run through of Facebook advertising when used for book promotion. Gaughran’s writing on the topic is always realistic and accessible, without some of the hard sell and rah rah on comparable American sites.
Author Trish George and her website
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.