Tag Archives: marketing

The Importance of Reviews

Guest Post by Petra Klarbrunn

 

“Please, sir, I want some more,” said little Oliver Twist.

It’s one of the best-known lines from Charles Dicken’s novel partly because it was shocking to the other characters. Nobody does that…nobody asks for something from Mr. Bumble.

Unfortunately, that thinking has spilled over to how authors something think. Honest, it’s perfectly fine if you ask for something from your readers, understanding that what you end up with might not be what you expected.

Books with lots of reviews act as a psychological influence on your potential readers. While they might be skeptical about 100 perfect 5-star reviews, it still makes them wonder what all of the fuss is about. If so many people loved a particular book, it must be good. Right?

Therefore, you should consider asking your readers to post an honest review. Here are a couple of suggestions for doing so.

  1. Ask for an honest review, not a 5-star review.
    Demanding a top review score is not only pretentious, but it’s rather gauche. What you’re looking for is someone’s opinion, no matter what rating they assign. If they absolutely hated your book, that’s fine. Having a low-rated review gives the rest of the reviews a bit more authority and makes it appear as though the rest of the reviews are a tad more trustworthy. Asking your readers to post a review on Amazon, Goodreads, B&N, etc. is perfectly acceptable behavior.
  1. At the end of your books, place a standardized blurb asking for a review.
    The reader just finished reading your book, so there’s no time like the present to ask for an honest review. E-books should have a link to places the reader can post reviews. You can combine the links to a single page on your blog for print books. In fact, you can add in some bonus material for folks who want to visit your website, such as signing up for your newsletter or posting additional story material that didn’t make it into the final published work.
  1. Give suggestions for reviews.
    Some folks are hesitant to post reviews because they don’t know what to say. Give them some leading questions to assist them. How did the book make them feel as they were reading it? Did the characters seem “real”, and were you concerned for the protagonist? If there was something they didn’t like, ask them to be specific. Ask them not to include spoilers, particularly the ending twist.
  1. Explain why you are asking for honest reviews.
    Most readers do not know how important reviews are for authors. Explain to them that it helps your novel ranking, it helps to sell more books (so you can continue writing), and it assists with the search engine ranking when browsing.

So, how does getting reviews help you get discovered? Glad you asked.

Books that have higher review rankings are rated higher with Amazon’s sooper-secret algorithms. The current estimates are that if a book has over 26 reviews, and those reviews are above 4.0 on average, you have a far better chance of getting your book in front of browsing readers. If your book is highly rated, you can easily get your book into some of the promotional websites such as BookBub.com.

Books with excellent reviews can provide you with blurbs for marketing and, if the reviewer is well-respected, allow you to update your cover with the quote. Having a blurb from Stephen King helped Jack Ketchum become a household name in the horror field. Getting a blurb from someone like George R. R. Martin would certainly help your fantasy novel take off. Review quotes can be gold for your marketing efforts.

Above all, don’t be a pushy author. Ask politely once. If your best friend doesn’t want to leave a review, respect that decision. If Mom says she’s too busy to review your latest erotica story, that’s certainly her prerogative. Hopefully, you’ll have enough readers who, on reading your request and why it’s important to you as an author, will post something after they’ve read your work.

Goodreads Giveaway

Goodreads logoThere are lots of pros and cons to Goodreads, and everyone who uses it has an opinion.  If you’ve never used Goodreads, it’s explained as a facebook-like social media for readers.  You can track books you want to read, you’re currently reading, and those you’ve read.  You can rate books, leave reviews, join chats, and browse many lists.  There are a lot of good features.

The cons to Goodreads usually tie back to bad behaviors of other Goodreads users.  I won’t go into that since I’ve been lucky enough not to run afoul of any of the Goodreads trolls I’ve heard so much about.  I’ll just say, it can be a useful site but, as with everything, tread with caution and don’t allow others to dictate how you feel about yourself.

For me, Goodreads has been a good thing.  I enjoy seeing what friends are reading and following other authors I enjoy.  One of the features of Goodreads I was slow to take advantage of is the Goodreads Giveaways, but they can be great for readers and for authors.

For readers, it’s easy to sign up for many giveaways, entering for chances to win free physical copies of books that look interesting.  It’s a no-risk way to perhaps explore a new author’s work.

For authors, setting up a giveaway is a very inexpensive way to reach hundreds or even thousands of potential readers.  How do they work?

First, you have to decide how many copies of your book (ARC copies or final, published copies) you plan to give away, and to which countries you’re willing to ship to.  The cost of the books and the shipping is all yours to swallow.

Next, design your giveaway.

The simplest approach is to add your cover, title, and a brief blurb.  That’s all you need and you can launch the giveaway.  You specify the start and end dates of the giveaway, and let it rip.  This works, but there are tons of giveaways running, and the downside is it’s hard to find a specific book among the long lists of giveaways.  So it’s easy to get lost in the flood.  I’ve found that most of the readers you snag to sign-up for your giveaway are won in the first days and in the final days of the giveaway, when it’s near one end of the list or the other.  It’s easier for people to find them.

There’s a simple way to increase your discovery rate and boost the number of readers who sign up for the giveaway.  To do so, you must make a secondary giveaway image.

Set in Stone giveaway promo updated

 

As you can see, it’s a pretty simple thing to put together.  But this image displays larger than the basic cover and helps pop out from the long lists of plain giveaways when readers are scanning the page, helping to draw their gaze.  If you have a great cover and an enticing one-liner, you can get them to add the book.

For Set in Stone, my first giveaway, over 1000 people signed up for the giveaway – 2 signed hardcover copies.  Even better, over 500 people added Set in Stone to their “To Read” queue!  Not everyone is going to eventually buy the book, but by clicking that they want to read it, the chances are higher.  That’s five hundred potential sales by investing a few minutes in setting up the giveaway, plus the cost of a couple of hardcovers plus shipping.  If I hadn’t listed Set in Stone in the giveaway, none of those people would have known anything about it and none of them would have even considered reading it.

I did a local book launch for Set in Stone and did everything I could to let folks in my circles know about it, but the Goodreads giveaway allowed me to reach beyond my normal circles.  The book has sold pretty well in its first month since being released, and I believe that at least part of that success is due to the Goodreads giveaway helping me reach a wider audience.

Here’s the image we just designed for the giveaway of Memory Hunter, an alternate history novel I’m releasing July 24th.  It’s an awesome book with an incredible cover, and is available already for pre-order here.  I’m hoping it will catch a lot of readers’ attention.

Memory Hunter Goodreads promo image

Anyone interested in checking out a currently live giveaway, or even signing up for the free hardcovers, here’s the link to my giveaway.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Memory Hunter by Frank Morin

Memory Hunter

by Frank Morin

Giveaway ends July 17, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to Win

Viral Marketing – Starting the Buzz with ReaderZero

We’ve all seen the contagion movies—a hideous, killing plague threatens to wipe out humanity unless the tireless doctors discover a cure before it’s too late. In order to develop the miracle serum, they have to trace the source of the disease. They have to find PatientZero, find out what he did, where he went, where he came from, who he met, what he ate, what brand of underwear he preferred, and what he read before contracting the virus.

Alright, so maybe I stretched that a little. They never checked his drawers. But the concept of a single spark igniting a fire that spreads from person to person through contact is extremely interesting. Word of mouth is still the best promotion out there. Readers talk, and not just to the world through their formal reviews on Amazon or their blog posts, but to their co-workers, their family members, and their friends. Each person they talk to is a potential reader. And each person they talk to is a potential reader. It’s an expanding universe of potentiality that could start with a single spark, a conversation with a person in your own neighborhood, igniting a viral explosion that doesn’t kill the chain, but introduces them to a great new story that captivates hearts.

Readers are everywhere. They don’t just cluster together wherever books are sold, or in coffee shops. No. They are everywhere. Supermarkets, hair salons, doctor’s offices, etc. Find them. Talk to them. Spread the word. Find ReaderZero.

Before you open your front door and step outside, make sure you have your business cards in your pocket. Business cards are not only for corporate drones. They are a branding tool, an informational souvenir of your meeting. If you want people to take you seriously and also have something to remember you by, hand them a business card. They are cheap and simple. Here’s mine:

business_card

It’s got my symbol, title, and contact information. Neat, attractive, and uncluttered. You can make them yourself or order 250 online for less than $20. Do it.

Like I said, readers are everywhere. So when I say take your cards with you when you step outside your door, I mean it. Take them everywhere. Here are three recent, personal examples to illustrate why this is important.

I went to the dentist yesterday. Yuck, right? Damn straight. It wasn’t a six month cleaning, either. It was crowning/filling nastiness totally devoid of Awesome…until the end of the procedure. The dentist was cool. The Licensed Dental Assistant was super nice. The numbing, drilling, and molding sucked, but wasn’t horrific. As I got ready to leave, the Licensed Dental Assistant picked up the book I’m currently reading, Wool, by Hugh Howey, and checked it out. She asked if it was any good. Of course I told her it was. She skimmed the back cover and said she was looking for something new to read.

This, my friends, is what’s called a perfect setup.

I told her Wool was good (Actually it’s really, really good), but she should try my book.

That’s when I got the wide-eyed stare. “You’re book!?” Yep. I whipped out a card, and gave her the elevator pitch. By the time we reached the payment desk, she assured me she’d buy my book. What started out as a mundane trip to the house of horrors ended on a wonderful note.

Something similar happened at the Veterinarian’s office (the doghouse of horror?) I took my dog in for her semi-annual exam. In between the “She’s so cute”s and the “You’re such a good girl”s, the Vet asked if I had been doing anything fun. Well, yeah, kinda. Now that you ask…boom! I whipped out a card, and gave her my elevator speech. As it turned out she was also writing a book. We talked about the craft for a few minutes then she said she’d buy a copy for all the people working in the office. Not too bad for a trip to the vet.

While the prior examples had direct setups, sometimes you have to give Fate a swift kick in the butt to make things happen. Develop your own opportunities.

I coach bowling. I’m there for the kids, but when I see someone reading, I have to know what it is. At practice the other day, one of the bowling moms sat by herself reading a book. I asked her a simple question, “So…whatcha readin’?” The answer led to a conversation where I could, without sounding pompous or overbearing, pitch my book and win over another reader, several readers as it turns out. Other parents listened in and participated in the conversation.

Anyone of these readers could turn into ReaderZero, the one who spreads the word, the one who ignites the fire, the one who starts the viral chain.

Be open. Be ready. Be bold.

Business Plans for Writers

A business plan for writers – what an absurd idea! That may be your first reaction, but chances are that you already know how you want to your writing career to evolve. A business plan is the road map to launching and growing your career in a strategic, efficient manner. Everything you’re doing now – networking, writing, learning craft, blogging – it’s all part of a plan but let’s face it, we’re writers first and the less time we spend floundering or making mistakes with the business part of our career, the more time we’ll have for writing.

Here are the key elements for a writer’s business plan:

1. Company Description
Yup, you’re a company with accompanying tax write offs but let’s be more specific than that. Does your business include writing, editing, holding workshops, attending trade fairs, or other activities related to writing and promotion? As a writer, do you write short stories, novellas, novels, magazine articles, or some combination? What is your genre? Who is the target audience?

2. Operations Plan
This is a one person company, right? Wrong. For tax purposes you may be a sole proprietor or an incorporated entity but your company is bigger than one person. For example, who are your support groups – writers’ groups, critique groups, book clubs, blog group? Do you belong to interest groups locally or on-line such as science, knitting, bird watching, Sherlock Holmes fan club? These are important to note because they not only inspire you and provide valuable input they may also be part of your readership. Who are your mentors, critiquers and editors?

Bestselling authors have an organization. Take a look at the Acknowledgements page of their books. Most Acknowledgement pages list editors, research contacts, readers – anyone who helped them. For ease of organization, you can divide your support network into four categories: craft, business (contracts, taxes, editors, finances, etc), networking (conferences, on-line, writers groups, readers groups), and market access. Note any deficiencies you have in these areas and develop a strategic plan to deal with that aspect. For example, I need to know more about marketing strategies and so I’ve chosen to attend a seminar on marketing rather than a critique workshop to fill this gap. Finding the experts I need fills a gap in my organization and allows me to use my use my limited budget wisely.

Remember – it takes one person to have the idea and write the story, but it takes a community to support a writer and make the work available to the reader. Who is in your community?

3. Products and Services
We touched briefly on this in the Company Description, but now we need to get specific. You may be writing in one genre or several writing poetry, short stories or novels and writing for the children’s, young adult or adult markets. In the market you’re writing for, who exactly is the audience? For example, not all people who read mysteries love the same type of mystery or the same degree of graphic language. Those loving cozy mysteries (think Stephanie Plum series) may not like Ian Rankin’s gritty detective or James Patterson’s thrillers. What type of mystery/fantasy/romance do you write? Who will it appeal to? What are the sensibilities of the genre and does your writing reflect that? Where will your work be placed on the bookshelf?

If you’re editing or involved in some other aspect of writing (volunteer or paid), note that too. Depending on the level of your involvement, you may need to create separate business plans. However, having them listed in one spot will help you manage your time better when setting goals.

4. Marketing
It’s so easy to want to stay at home and only write or at most, to go to a writing meeting where we chat with like minded people. Marketing means getting out of our comfort zone and reaching out. The easiest way to do this is to have a plan and to follow it. A haphazard approach erodes confidence and the ability to present things in a comfortable confident manner.

For every product you need to have your elevator pitch, synopsis, chapter by chapter plot line, a great manuscript before you promote. Having these will help you understand your product so you can differentiate it and create a unique selling proposition. In other words, what distinguishes your story from others it the market? Why will your target market (children, young adults, mystery/romance/horror fans) like it?

Describe how your stories will be sold – book stores (which ones?), on-line, book clubs, and how you intend to get the books there. Even if you have a traditional publisher, you still have to market and sell, so be prepared to do that.

What are your promotional tactics? In other words, how will you reach your audience? Some examples are: tradeshows, school appearances, readings, book tour, social media marketing (Twitter, Facebook, etc,), reading clubs (local, Goodreads, etc), on-line advertising, conventions, local advertising and book trailers. Your website should appeal to the book buyer. One writer I know designed her site for teachers because they’re the ones who will be buying her books and will be allowing her to make school presentations. Who is your website designed for – readers, teachers, technical users (how to books), other writers?

There have been many good posts on marketing at Fictorians so just click on the Marketing category and you’ll receive a ton of information. Just remember to choose a few things to do (for example you can’t belong to every book club and effectively utilize all social media) and do them well.

5. Finances
Having a budget will focus your marketing strategy and allow you to develop and manage your business more effectively by allowing you to prioritize. Which convention/workshop can I afford to go to? Do I purchase business cards or have a professional design my website? What can I do for free?

After all the work we do to write our wonderful books, we can’t afford to fail now because we failed to plan the business part of our passion.