Giveaway Best Practices!

Mary E. Martin's Virtual Tour is Set to Launch 

Tuesday August 25, 2015!

As a highlight to her tour Mary is running an Amazon Boost Purchase Incentive. The campaign is offering a $200 Amazon gift card giveaway, with valid proof of purchase. Giveaway details, purchase carousels, and an entry form can be accessed from Mary's Virtual Tour page on her website. 

Did you know, more giveaway submissions are entered on Monday nights between 8:00 PM and Midnight EST than at any other time of the week; and that a quarter to a third of the total accumulated entries occur during the final 24 hours? ~ according to blogRafflecopter "5 Effective Promotion Tips For Your Ending Giveaway"

http://maryemartintrilogies.com/virtual-tour/

If you are investing in a promotional giveaway, that would be important information you will want to consider when selecting dates for your campaign. Ending your campaign with a count down to finish on a Monday night at Midnight EST, is the best practice for a successful giveaway.  According to Rafflecopter's Market research "Tuesdays and Wednesdays work as well. Thursdays are alright. But Friday, Saturday, & Sunday — are days to avoid."

Anyone self promoting these days needs to glean information about marketing best practices where they can find them. There are no absolute methods for marketing success.  Every audience is different. It may take multiple promotional campaigns, trial and error attempts, data collection, and  incentive offers for you to discover the best formula for engaging the audience you've attracted. 

Selling is never easy and the entertainment market is saturated with marvelous recreational outlets. Readers are also movie enthusiasts and video gamers. You have to give them an incentive to choose your book over a plethora of other pleasing diversions and entertainments. That is where knowing how to use behavioral patterns and human psychology, in regard to purchasing habits, can be of benefit. It is rare for someone investing in self promotion to have access to marketing information of this kind. So, when you run across it, make a mental note and pass the info on to your networks.

See you Tuesday August 25, 2015 for the @MartinTrilogies Virtual Tour Launch.

Entries in the $200 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway are being accepted through Midnight EST, Monday August 31, 2015. Click here to see details about the bonus reward package of free e-books and coupons from tour host sponsors.

Enter Below To Gain Access to the Rewards Package Without Entering The $200 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Creative Process and Marketing Innovation

Starting a marketing strategy before the book is written can benefit the creative process.

• Plan to meet your target audience's needs from the start.
• Build interest and plot themed hooks into your story or material, usable themes which will open up marketing angles in the future.
• Is your book of a self help nature, or does it have an element or theme that could be used to attract related interest groups? 
• Knowing your audience wants may lead you to write in or material suggestive of marketing venues and purchase incentive opportunities. 
• It allows you to bring your audience into the creative process, through blogging, "chat"-ter, forum activity, collaborative challenges and competitions.
• Having an interested reader base before you go to print can encourage creative output, and editorial excellence.

Write down marketing ideas as you go. They will feed your creative process and may help you develop new plot elements, as easily as creative marketing strategies.  

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When Should I Start Thinking About Marketing My Book?

Marketing anything can be hard and books are a static product. They have a lot of competition from TV, film, and other entertainment and information industries. If you want your book to compete well and attract readers, you will be thinking about marketing from the beginning of your writing process.

Ask Yourself Tough Questions

• Why am I writing this book? 
• Do I have something to say that is worth listening to?
• Why will/does my book deserve to be read?
• What will make my book idea different from other books of it's genre?
• What value will/does my book provide readers?

The best answers often have nothing to do with making money, but could be future selling points or lead to creative marketing strategies.

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"Watt's Up?" A Look at Wattpad and How it is Helping Authors Find Readers

What is Wattpad? 

If you haven't heard of Wattpad, you haven't yet fully joined the era of Internet and social media savvy readers and writers.

Wattpad is the Internet sensation and brain child of friends Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen; who each dreamed of using social media to revolutionize how we tell and share stories.

"Their realization: that user generated content, social networking and mobile phones were all that was needed to enable the future of storytelling." ~ Two minds: Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen. One idea: to use social media and mobile phones to build a network of readers and writers.

You can learn all about how they got together in 2006, to take advantage of the changes in technology, and the building of Wattpad in the article, Two minds/One Idea, through the link above.

The end result, or should I say the beginning, of their collaboration became Wattpad, an online community using social networking and mobile smart phone technology to advance, share and enjoy the written word.

Wattpad is a writing community in which users are able to post articles, stories, and poems about anything either online or through the Wattpad app. The content includes work by undiscovered and published writers. Users are able to comment and like stories or join groups associated with the website.  ~ Wikipedia 

Authors are always searching new methods of reaching a reading audience and Readers are always in search of new and exciting books. The idea of bringing the two together and of harnessing technology to facilitate their joining is brilliant.
All this started 7 years ago before social networking and media took over our telephones. Today, Wattpad is one of the largest social networks going and they are entirely devoted to sharing and discovering literature! That’s right, a whole forum of interaction devoted to writing and reading.

How many times have you as a reader chewed your finger wishing you had something to read; and how many times have you authors agonized about getting your book under the nose of a reader?

Today's readers aren't just looking for a good read, they are looking to engage, contribute, and connect in ways that readers of yesteryear did not. Some of the best and most well known writers of this century are those who have embraced a two way conversation with their fans. Social media is not only a marketing tool it is a creative tool allowing writers and readers to interact, communicate and grow together.  Writers are able to test ideas, and improve their work using fan based feedback and comments. Readers become personally attached to their favorite books and authors, they share with their friends at the click of a link button those authors and books they enjoy.  A match made in heaven, or in this case, Toronto Canada, the home base of Wattpad.

In the words of Wattpad . .

• All You Need are Words: You don't need a publisher, editor, or finished manuscript to write on Wattpad. Anyone can share their writing. Anything you post on Wattpad can be published in as many other places as you like. We don't demand any rights to your work, or any control over where you share it.
• Writing Socially and Serially: One of the greatest benefits of Wattpad is a direct connection between writers and 30 million readers, all over the world. Readers receive notifications whenever a new chapter of a story is posted. Many writers share their work serially: posting stories one chapter at a time, so readers keep coming back. 
• Amplifying Authors: Published authors use Wattpad to amplify their online presence. They post short stories and drafts, or attract new readers by sharing the first part of a series. Our readers are socially engaged, and the writers who prosper on Wattpad are the ones who embrace this direct social connection with their fans.

According to Wikipedia, as of April 2014

• 85 percent of Wattpad's traffic and usage comes from mobile devices [13]
• 25 million unique visitors per month [13]
• over 1,000 story uploads per day [14]

Friends of Ink Slinger's Whimsey found on Wattpad . . .

• Author of the paranormal fiction, Spirian Saga, Rowena Portch 
• Author of the Osgoode and Remembrance Trilogies, Mary E. Martin
• Reviewer and author Fran Lewis
• Author of 27 Things to Feng Shui Your Home, Tisha Morris

An Invitation from Author Mary E. Martin

Author Mary Martin is using some wonderfully creative online promotion tactics and you will want to see what she is doing. This is one example of putting the available technology and social media to work for you.
Here is the invitation she has sent inviting us join her for the upcoming launch of The Fate of Pryde.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you remember that childhood fantasy of toys coming alive and jumping out of the box to play at night when children are sleeping? What’s happening on my blog in November will remind you of that fantasy.

You may already know that the second novel in the Trilogy of Remembrance, The Fate of Pryde will be published soon—in fact by the beginning of December 2011.


In celebration of the launch, I’m handing my blog http://remembrancetrilogy.com/blog over to my protagonist, Alexander Wainwright, Britain’s finest landscape painter, where he will tell short stories and give his version of events from The Drawing Lesson and The Fate of Pryde. I’m sure some other characters such as Rinaldo and Jonathan Pryde will show up too.

I really want to bring these characters to life by giving them a voice [and soap-box] of their own. You just never know what a real character will say when given half a  chance. 




Throughout November, there will be readings from the novels, some video and photos and maybe some music. Unfortunately, current technology does not permit me to serve you a glass of champagne but if it did, of course, I would.

This launch is different from the usual because the characters will be in charge making it fun for everyone—especially me. It’s a party, so everyone can join in with their comments and questions.

November will be the lead-up to the Twitter Party on December 3rd in the afternoon and Facebook Event where there will be great prizes, such as a new Kindle—preloaded with my five novels—three from The Osgoode Trilogy and two from the Trilogy of Remembrance.

Alexander is already holding forth on my blog and so, you need to listen up!  To follow the fun throughout November just click here
http://remembrancetrilogy.com/feed/rss/  and you won’t miss a thing.

Thanks everyone. See you soon!



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Blog, Blog, Blog

A blog by any other name is, Free Publicity.

Why aren’t you blogging?

I have heard a lot of excuses for why authors don’t want to blog.

    "I am not good with computers."
    "It is too technical, I don’t know how to set up a blog."
    "It is too much work to maintain."
    "I can’t think of anything to blog about."
    "No one will know how to find my blog."

These are the most common excuses, but none of them need to be a deterrent.  Blog hosting providers like Google and Wordpress are developing more user friendly tools every day.  Gone are the days when you had to know a programming language to create a good looking website to promote your work.  These days blog domains are creating templates that allow inexperienced bloggers to create attractive and exciting multimedia pages.  An author can create what amounts to a decent webpage through their blog.

Take for example Blogspot.com, Google’s blog domain.

When you set up your account you not only get a front blog page, but you can also create additional pages for information  such as, About the author, a page specifically about your Books, Reviews, Virtual Touring and more.

Take a look at my blog.  I have additional pages that allow me to give focus to information I think is of value to my followers. At the bottom of my page I have a YouTube playlists of book trailers showcasing book trailers, for authors whose books I have reviewed.  I can add audio files, and link to sites that have posted my reviews.

Through investing time in creating a blog, I have gained access to all the great features that used to belong exclusively to companies and people with the cash needed to hire a web designer and techno geeks.  I have had fun finding and adding gadgets, personalizing my site to promote my work and I didn’t need to pay a site administrator to get it done. I have even posted attractive links to books on Amazon.com where followers can make purchases.  [See, look left]

Granted I like computers, but I did all of this without knowing a computer programming language, or html code, because Blogspot.com has designed it’s tools with beginner to average computer users in mind.  The same is true for most blog hosting domains.  It serves them to make it easy for users to . . . well, use.

Even if you aren't super with computers, you should be able to create an account, a basic site, and learn how to post. You can afford to play around creating a site because it doesn't cost anything to set up a blog and because you don't have to start posting until you have things the way you like them. You could, if you wanted to, but there is no pressure to start posting immediately.  Also, until you start connecting your social networking accounts to each other no one has to see your blog under construction.

The number one way to promote yourself and your book is through blogging.  Blogging allows you to communicate with fans, to answer their questions  and tell them what you want them to know. 

Many social networking sites have programs or applications which allow you to syndicate your blog, redirecting traffic to flow into your blog through links that announce automatically when you publish a post. That means once you post to your blog, an announcement rolls over to Facebook, or Linked-in, and even Twitter, letting your followers know they have something new to read. 

Subscribe buttons allow followers to receive your blog like a morning paper on their iPads, pcs, smart phones and other media devices. Where have all the newspaper subscribers gone?  Why—to  the internet, where they are reading their favorite morning blogs over a cup of Joe.

So what is really stopping any of us from capitalizing on this obviously a great promotional opportunity? Yup . . .

Fear

"It is unfamiliar territory and it sounds like hard work. I told you I hate computers!"

Let’s do it!

Let's move past our fear response and let’s familiarize ourselves with the tools.  Let’s talk about it as we go. We don’t have to go it alone. If we have a question, let’s look for answers together. 

Over the next few weeks, we will explore blogging, the best blogging practices and we will familiarize ourselves by using Blogspot.com’s tools and gadgets in creating an author blog. 

Just think about it . . .  Free Publicity.

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Limelight Book Review to Launch April 2011

Ink Slinger's Whimsey [ISW] is always seeking new and innovative ways to assist our clients with their online promotions. The Limelight Book Review is our most recent project directed toward assisting our clients in capitalizing on and utilizing the social media phenomenon created by YouTube. 

Limelight Book Review Launches April, 2011

About the Show

The Limelight Book Review is a weekly, video book review produced by and presented through the Ink Slinger’s Whimsey author promotions blog and is being promoted with a monthly online media release, in our newsletter, to our mailing list and through our blogs.

Audiences will be introduced to new authors, learn additional and interesting facts about authors they have met before, and enjoy insightful reviews about the latest books on the market.

The focus of the show is to bring positive attention to up and coming or established authors by . . .

• Sharing author bios and Internet URLs

• Featuring video book reviews with 4 and 5 star ratings

• Placement of video book reviews at http://inkslingerswhimsey.blogspot.com/, Amazon.com, YouTube, on Videojug.com and other video related social media outlets

• Announcing author promotional and virtual tour campaigns

• Providing authors with video book reviews that can be used for online self promotion through social media

Promotional Offer

Presently, the Limelight Book Review is in the production stages while we build a season of reviews and will launch right here, April 2011. 

As part of the promotional build up and preparation for the show's launch, the Limelight Book Review video reviews are being offered free with the purchase of ISW's standard book review and the WITS Podcast interview combined services. For service details visit http://www.ink-slingers-whimsey.com/services.php.

Start building your video presence on the Internet by having our video review of your book featured on The Limelight Book Review. Submit your book for a free assessment now as the promotional offer won't last forever.

How Does My Book Become a Featured Review?

Books coming to ISW for written or video review services are assessed for entertainment value or social and cultural significance and literary quality, with grammatical and mechanical consideration. The review services are reserved for books receiving our four to five star rating. There is no charge for the assessment or if a book does not receive a high enough rating to be featured as a written review on our blog or through the Limelight Book Review show.

Authors interested being featured through this promotional opportunity please contact . . .

Vonnie Faroqui
Ink Slinger's Whimsey
http://www.ink-slingers-whimsey.com/

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Using PR and Social Media

Obtaining coverage in media publications (TV, radio, podcasts, online video, newspapers, magazines, online news sites, blogs, etc.) is every author's goal for spread the word about their book. PR coverage is free, third-party validation, which often results in more credibility for you and your book. So how does one secure coverage in these publications and media, and how can social media help?

If you have been reluctant to launch yourself into the Tweet-o-sphere, here is another reason to get yourself out there.

Social media is not just a way for you to spread the word about your activities or book release. It is a way to connect with what the social media gurus call "influencers."

An influencer:  is someone who is connected with and able to influence the public through the media, such as a journalist, reporter or blogger.

Many journalists, reporters, and bloggers make themselves available on Twitter. Oh, it's true, I promise, and using Twitter is a great way to introduce yourself to them.

First you have to find them and one way to do this is to look for influential blogs (use blog search engines like Technorati), subscribe to them, and start following their authors on Twitter. Another way is to start following journalists who target our industry. Then start tweeting with them, but don't oversell yourself or your book.  Get to know their work and site themes first and make sure that you have something to offer them before making your approach. Develop relationships by tweeting about an article of theirs that you enjoyed or by asking a question. (You can also use the comment section on a blog in much the same way.)

The web and social media give access to a whole slew of influencers with which you can easily interact and develop relationships. Building relationships and networking through social media connects you with these influencers who have the ability to place stories about you and your book in front of the reading public.

Join us next week for TIPS on . . .  How to Pitch Yourself .

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Social Media: Using LinkedIn's Blog Link application to broaden your promotional reach

If you have a LinkedIn account or are considering using LinkedIn as part of your social media plan, don't miss adding the Blog Link application, powered by TypePad, when you set up your profile.

Blog Link is a free application that pulls your author blog, or blogs you write for clients, onto your LinkedIn home page. All you have to do is list your blog as one of the live links allowed in your profile, and when you choose the Blog Link tool it pulls your blog into LinkedIn.  Not only will this application display your blog entries, it will display the blog entries made by any of your LinkedIn connections who also use the blogroll feature.

For those of you seeking to expand the reach of your blog or sell books outside of a regional location, using the Blog Link application in LinkedIn is a powerful easy way to attract new readers, and to build stronger relations with your connections.

To sign up for LinkedIn visit http://www.linkedin.com/

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Social Media: Having a Plan

Thinking of using social media to market your book?

It isn’t enough to simply use social media in an attempt to attract followers and redirect traffic to your website. If you are posting sales tweets or blogging sales promotional material all of the time you are not going to attract an audience, the followers you do have won’t be clicking through your links and you will develop a reputation as a walking advertisement. You have to be strategic about your use of social media and you have to be friendly. A lot of time is wasted by dropping link bombs or book promo sales tweets. Social media only works well for online promotions when you have a strong-engaged-return-following, a level of trust established with your audience, and when the communication and interest flows both ways. In order to build that loyal following and trust you have to offer the reader something they are interested in, you have to do it regularly and be open to comments by responding where you are able.

The people who are making and saving money using online promotions all employ a strategic plan when using social media. Here are some tips for making a social media plan that have been shared with me or that I have discovered working with WITS.

TIPS:

1. Write out your objectives: Know what you want your social media to do. Write out a bullet point list of objectives such as: “attract readers who are interested in my themes,” “excite readers into purchasing my book,” “inform readers about issues that interest me or have influenced my writing,” “introduce readers to my writing style,” or “Show readers how interesting and creative my writing is.”

2. List out all the social media sites you will be using: Pick your Favorites. The main four are: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn, plus having a blog. You don’t have to know how you’re going to use them, just list out the possibilities. Familiarity or popularity may be a consideration in the sites you select.

3. Develop a vision: Take each site and write the outcome you want. For example, “Attracting people who are both entertained and want to do business with me,” or “Sharing information that my clients want to know,” or “Creating a group that people are excited to join.”

4. List out possible places you can get material: This will be your resource guide of reliable websites that offer interesting news stories relating to your business or book themes. These sites are the places where you can return time and again for a new post or blog idea. If you aren’t familiar with or already searching the web for theme related sites try looking at the Top 100 Blogs on Technorati for examples.

5. Create a strategy: This might be posting updates three times a week or writing out a list of Tweets at the start of each month. It might also just mean spending time every day familiarizing yourself with the social media site and how to use it.

6. Write out your goals: Maybe your goal is to post a video book trailer, or get to 100 followers, to expand into a new sales area, or to simply generate more sales. Start with small, possible, measurable goals and update the results as you go.

7. Keep your blog friendly but professional: If you want to share pictures of your cat or update the babysitter on your current location and plans for returning home, use a separate Twitter account. Don’t use your professional blog to talk about Aunt Sally’s lumbago.

8. Give it time: It takes a certain amount of time to establish a following or return audience. Give yourself two or three months to know if your social media efforts are paying off before considering a change of direction.

9. Keep your advertisements to a minimum: You need to establish a returning audience, before you try to sell a product. Your audience will return to your site because you have peaked their interest by offering them news or insight, given them advice or passed on information they find useful. The fastest way to turn them off or away is by continually dropping sales posts or advertisements for your book. Out of every 100 posts, one should be advertising your services or product information.

10. Stick to your themes: Part of developing trust with your audience is being consistent in your choice of themes. The only way to woo your audience into returning to your site time and again is by offering them more of what they came to you for in the first place. Pick four or five themes and use those themes as a guideline when creating a post or blog entry. Follow your posting strategy religiously. Pre-program your posts and blog entries using a schedule. People respond well when they have expectations that are being met and random, irregular posting practices kill audiences. If you are offering quality content consistently and on a regular posting schedule, you will build the loyal following you want and sell books.

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St. John of the Midfield Virtual Tour Announcement

Writers in the Sky authors' assistant, Vonnie Faroqui, invites readers to join WITS for a virtual tour celebrating Garasamo Maccagnone's release of St. John of the Midfield.

Tour Schedule


St. John of the Midfield, virtual tour begins on December 16, 2010, and runs through Christmas day, December 25, 2010, with every stop offering unique content.

December 16, 2010, Day one of the tour will be hosted by Irene Watson, of Blogging Authors, at www.bloggingauthors.com. Blogging Authors will host an author written article, "Prodigy Syndrome." Follow this blogger on Twitter: @bloggingauthors.

December 17, 2010, Day two, host Karen Pierce Gonzalez of Folkheart Press, http://folkheartpressblog.blogspot.com hosts a Q&A written interview. Follow this blogger on Twitter: @folkheartpress

December 18, 2010, Day three,  Dallas Woodburn of http://dallaswoodburn.blogspot.com hosts an article about using YouTube for promotions and the book trailer for St. John of the Midfield. Follow this blogger on Twitter: @DallasWoodburn.

December 19, 2010, Day four, Vonnie Faroqui will post a review of St. John of the Midfield, at her blog  http://inkslingerswhimsey.blogspot.com/. Follow this blogger on Twitter: @inkslngrswhmz

December 20, 2010, Day five, Garasamo Maccagnone will be joining Suzanne Lieurance, of The Working Writer's Coach, for a podcast interview you won't want to miss. Follow this blogger on Twitter: @WritersCoach

December 21, 2010, Day six, Carolyn Howard-Johnson of The New Book Review will host a Midfield review written by Irfan Faroqui. Follow this blog on Twitter: @frugalbookpromo

December 22, 2010, Day seven, Lisa Jackson hosts a Q&A written interview with Garasamo Maccagnone at http://lisahaseltonsreviewsandinterviews.blogspot.com. Follow this blogger on Twitter: @lisajjackson

December 23, 2010, Day eight, Penny Lockwood Ehrenkranz will host an excerpt from the book and a Q&A written interview at http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.blogspot.com. Follow this blogger on Twitter: @pennyehrenkranz

December 24, 2010, Day nine of the tour visits Writers In The Sky Podcast , for an author interview between Garasamo Maccagnone and virtual tour manager Vonnie Faroqui. Follow this blogger on Twitter: @writersinthesky

December 25,2010, Merry Christmas! We have a special bonus stop for everyone who has followed Garasamo’s tour.
Vonnie Faroqui, http://inkslingerswhimsey.blogspot.com,
offers an excerpt from, For the Love of St. Nick, a Christmas short story written by Garasamo Maccagnone. Follow this blogger on Twitter: @inkslngrswhmz

Promoting Your Book

I wrote this article for the WITS Fabulous Friday Newsletter several weeks back and am only now getting around to publishing it here on my blog. I hope you find it useful.

Promoting Your Book Using YouTube

The era of publishers marketing books for authors is gone. Traditional publishing houses are no longer flush with funds and are not willing or able to promote the majority of the books they publish. If you are a self-published author you have always been responsible for marketing your books. Publishers, both independent and conventional, are increasingly advising authors to promote themselves online using virtual blog tours, podcast interviews, book trailers, and through the popular Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube social networking sites. The difficulty arises in knowing how to use these tools. Unless you are a teenager or surfing the Internet has become a major part of your life, you may not see all the marketing opportunities. You probably don’t know what to do, where to go, or understand how to integrate social networking into your marketing strategy as a means of redirecting internet traffic to your author home page, where readers can buy your book.

Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services [WITS] offers authors assistance with promotions, including consultation and management for a growing number of social network marketing strategies. This week we would like to highlight one aspect of social networking that will help you bring your book to the world market of YouTube.

YouTube was founded in February 2005 and has risen to become the world's most popular online video community. YouTube allows “. . . millions of people to discover, watch, and share originally-created videos.” It does this by allowing “. . . people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through Web sites, mobile devices, blogs, and e-mail.”

If you are not familiar with the Internet jargon . . .

YouTubing: is surfing the wave of Internet video posting.
YouTuber: is one who surfs the YouTube wave.

There are an estimated 30 million new video posts uploaded to YouTube every day from across the globe, in every language, with YouTube currently reporting “. . . 2 billion videos viewed a day [and a] . . . user base age range of 18-55, evenly divided between males and females, and spanning all geographies. Fifty-one percent . . . of users go to YouTube weekly or more often, and 52 percent of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues.” ~ http://www.youtube.com/t/about

This is important to authors because the reading audience is hanging out and being entertained on YouTube and we want them to find, buy, and read our books.

What Can I do as an author to benefit from YouTube?

The first thing you need to do as an author is to have fun! Go exploring. Familiarize yourself with what YouTube has to offer. In the beginning you probably won’t have any videos of your own created or you will need to have a way of attracting YouTubers to your video clips. If you are going to attract attention you need to understand what YouTubers are looking for, to be where they are and to do what they are doing.

• Search for videos related to your own interests, e.g. video clips that share your book’s genre or major themes
• Create your own YouTube login account and channel (see WITS’ channel http://www.youtube.com/Writersinthesky)
• Keep your personal YouTube channel separate from your author channel
• Decide on a focus of interest for your author channel, choosing a genre, topics, or themes that relate to your book or that are in harmony with your book’s message
• Create playlists by theme on your channel
• Surf YouTube, using key words to find video clips you like, and begin adding videos to the playlists you’ve created under your chosen themes. By creating a playlist using other people’s videos, you are tapping into and harnessing pre-established searches. This saves time spent building a following and it places your author interview or book trailers where they can be seen.
• Post your author site URL and information through your YouTube channel to redirect traffic where your book is available.
• Use the subscription functions of YouTube to allow others to become a fan of your channel
• Allow followers to make comments. Even negative comments attract viewers and sell books. Google recommends, for increased search engine ratings and site traffic, that you do not monitor or block commenting.
• Become someone else’s fan and make comments on your favorite video posts. Leaving comments will create a back trail or back-link that allows others to find your playlists and video material
• Begin creating your own video vignettes, between 1-3 minutes in length is ideal.
• Have a trailer created for your book.
• Seek out video interview opportunities like those offered by WITS.
• Use video blogging on YouTube to talk about your book or current projects
• Key word tags are used to assist searching for and finding videos. Don’t forget to set up key word tags to any playlists and video clips you create

In this way you can begin to use YouTube to redirect traffic to an author site where your book is available. YouTube is a key component to integrating social networking into a marketing strategy and it isn’t necessary to have videos of your own created in order to begin benefiting.

Article Marketing: Promoting Your Book

By Vonnie Faroqui

Daily we at WITS are consulted by authors about book promotion and how to drive traffic to an author homepage. One powerful and non intrusive tactic for marketing your book and driving web traffic is through the intelligent use of article marketing. 

Bloggers and other online or print publications use sites like EzineArticles.com, ABC Article Directory and Etopic.com, to obtain free content that is available for republication.  These article database sites specialize in collecting the most up to date articles, on a variety of different topics and making those articles available for reprint.  Articles on these sites are available for use, free of charge and may be reprinted any number of times by multiple publications. 

WITS utilizes these sites to promote our authors and their books through article placement and marketing. We create content rich, key word optimized articles on topics that either introduce readers to a book and author or refer to an author’s work as a reference guide of unique knowledge and experience on a theme.

Articles we have written are reprinted across the internet and through conventional print media, giving our authors a broad range of exposure but the benefit of article marketing doesn’t stop there.  It is not necessary for an article to be republished in order to be found and read online by your audience. Simply being placed in one of these databases opens an  opportunity for your book and your name to enter the online stream of communication. These articles and database sites are also available to internet users surfing the web using key word search engines like Google.com. This makes article placement and marketing even more effective. 

To learn more about article marketing visit our author promotions page at Writers in the Sky.

He Blew Her a Kiss: Update from Author Angie Pechak Printup

From the Author:


I just wanted to share with our family and friends that we are "finalists" in the USA Book News Awards for 2010.

We also just received an email today that our book has been nominated for the 17th Annual EVVY Awards which recognizes the highest quality self-published books!

And . . . we received an email earlier this week that one of our local news stations wants to interview us next Thursday morning, (11/18) on Channel 3, Live @ 9 with Alex Coleman and Marybeth Conley.

Thank you for everyone's love and support. This has been a wonderful, healing journey and just keeps getting better.


Angie Pechak Printup
Founder and Co-Author, He Blew Her a Kiss
www.heblewherakiss.com


Live today because tomorrow is not promised

Social Media - Why?

There are a lot of people that don't understand how or why using social media is an important business strategy. When you mention Twitter or Facebook their faces screw up and they look at you like you have just laid an egg.

"Isn't Twitter that site where people text about what they are doing? . . . I'm in the car on the way to grandma's house . . . just checking out that new movie . . ." they say.

Well, yes and no. Twitter is much more than that. And Facebook? Facebook is more than just a site to connect with your old school chums. They are networking tools that if used well can help you generate traffic to your Web page, attract readers and generate book sales.

What about YouTube? Oh boy, get me started please!

Businesses use social networking to drive traffic to their sites and to interest people in their products and so can you, using many of the same techniques.

Authors that are looking to self promote can't afford to neglect any opportunity to get their name and their titles in front of potential readers. Having a Twitter account, using Facebook to network and using You Tube to post videos, and audio clips, sharing content and information is vitally important in promoting your work.
Why? Because people, that read books are using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Your readers are surfing these sites and you want your presence and your book to be where they can find you.
If they can't find you, they aren't going to read your book.

If you aren't already sold on social media or don't know how to use it to promote your book there are some quick tips that you need to know.

To promote yourself and your book you need to master utilization of several avenues of social media:
Facebook
Twitter
You Tube and
BlogSpot or one of the other blogging tools available free on the web.

Social media integration is KEY to making money using social media networking for marketing your book.
If you don’t have time to master the use of these tools yourself, hire someone to do it for you. The cost of hiring it out is less than the expense of not doing it at all or of doing it poorly.

Tips when using social media to promote your book:

- Keep your personal and business accounts separate.
Create Twitter, Facebook, and You Tube accounts that are devoted to your work, your book and related activities. Do not post personal details and pictures of the family in these accounts.
- Create an Author site that gives information about you, your book, and your public speaking and signing events. Make sure that this site includes a blog or links to a blog; where you can post information, articles and excerpts of written work such as poetry or share intriguing new character and story development details for current projects.
- When blogging, don't crowd your readers. Make your book available but don't burden visitors with aggressive sales tactics. Win their interest and their trust.
- Give your blogs visitors something that will engage their interest. If they like your blog they will seek out your book.
- Be a host for Author Virtual Tours; network with other others. By hosting and promoting others you create relationships and expand your visibility.


Use Twitter, Facebook and You Tube to drive traffic to your blog and your main "author" site.
Visit other authors' sites and leave comments or become a fan, doing this creates back links to your site and accounts, potentially attracting visitors who may then buy your book.

For more about using video and audio clips to promote your book through YouTube come back next week!