Category Archives: Marketing

Marketing, promoting and selling your books, especially on the Internet

Introducing: Marketing Mondays!

This entry is part 1 of 8 in the series Marketing 101

I’ve mentioned it before, but in case you missed it, until about 18 months ago, I worked in marketing. To be honest, I fell into the career: there was an Internet marketing company hiring writers locally, and I applied. I did it well, but I always thought it was something I did mostly for the paycheck.

At my first writer’s conference, I had one book almost ready to submit. Nothing with a publisher, no queries out—no “real” professional interest in selling books yet. And yet the classes that interested me the most? Marketing.

This was when I realized I actually like marketing.

And, like I said, I wasn’t bad at it. In fact, I was considered an expert (admittedly low-level). I spoke at a conference. I even got recognized once.

What’s the point? I hope that I learned something in all those years and efforts. And those things? They seem basic to me, but really, the general author population doesn’t know this stuff. And I’m very happy to share!

So, this year, I’m devoting Mondays to Marketing! I have a lot of ideas: we’ll start off with Marketing 101, then look at various online marketing tactics for authors including Facebook, SEO and blogging. We’ll also look at offline marketing a bit. We’ll do some of the ever-popular website reviews. I have lots of ideas and I’m very excited to share.

And (I hope) it won’t be just me: I have some really great friends who know a lot about marketing because they’ve been in the trenches for their books. They’ve tried a lot of different things and we’ll have them there to tell us what worked for them.

What marketing topics do you want to see on Marketing Mondays?

Photo courtesy of Top Rank Online Marketing Blog

Interview on funding self-publishing with Derrick Hibbard

UPDATE: Derrick reached his Kickstarter goal and his book will be out soon!

I met Derrick Hibbard ten years ago at a week-long church camp. Naturally, we’re now Facebook friends. I don’t think he knows I have this photo from when we met:

😀

Derrick is a published author, but he’s going the self-publishing route for his latest novel, The Double Stroller Hand Grenade:

Peter, a bright-eyed and fluffy-tailed new attorney, witnesses the “hit” of the managing partner in his law firm. Because of this inadvertent run-in and supposed link with the mafia, Peter can’t find another job anywhere and is forced to tend his kids full-time while his wife, Alison, brings home the bacon. Peter hates the new job: His young kids are a whirlwind of destruction wherever they go, his daughter suffers from a crippling fear of an imaginary alligator, and he and Alison seem to be growing further and further apart as she works long hours. As it turns out, Alison is not an interior designer, as Peter was led to believe, but is the assassin who killed Peter’s boss—a fact that Peter is none-too-happy about—and things really get crazy when Alison’s peers decide that she is better off dead. What follows is a hilarious romp, as the emasculated Peter has to deal with a super-cool-femme-fatale of a wife, while he and his two kids are mercilessly thrust into a world of gangsters and professional hit men.

The Double Stroller Hand Grenade is mainstream fiction with an edge. It combines lighthearted romantic comedy with thrilling action and suspense.

Perhaps most unique about Derrick’s path to self-publishing is the way that he’s planning to pay for the costs: through fundraising on a social website, Kickstarter. Individuals can give as little as a dollar to help Derrick toward his goal (with various rewards at different pledge level, including copies of the book, dedications, etc.). Derrick’s hoping for $1500, and is nearly halfway to his goal in pledges—but if the other half isn’t pledged by midnight on July 31, Derrick doesn’t get the pledges.

This was actually the first time I’d heard about this type of funding for self-publishing, so I asked Derrick for an interview. Here’s Derrick in his own words, first in the video from his Kickstarter campaign, then the interview.


First of all, I’d like to thank Jordan for giving me the opportunity to do this interview on her blog.

Why did you decide to self-publish?

Well, that answer comes in different parts because it has been a very long process for me to get to this point. I think the main reason is because of the changing industry. Right now, the investment that inevitably comes with publishing novels by new authors is a risk that most publishers won’t take. Obviously, there are some first time novelists who are able to land the agent and get a publishing deal, but they’re few and far between. The industry is in a turbulent “change-mode” right now, with the advent of ebooks and the ease of printing books on demand. I’ve been working with traditional publishers for close to 4 years now, and in my opinion, self publishing high-quality books is a good way to gain experience in the industry and build a platform to use down the road. I figured that I might as well start building that platform and honing my craft instead of letting a pile of manuscripts gather dust on the shelves.

The second reason comes from my experiences with a traditional publisher. I’ve published two nonfiction books, Law School Fast Track, and College Fast Track, and we’re talking about a couple more to add to the “Fast Track” series. First of all, I’ve loved working with a publishing company and I feel that I’ve learned a lot about the publishing process. The only problem that I’ve had is that it takes so long for each title to be released, which is understandable given the amount of time and energy, from so many different people, that goes into each book. Once the book is finished with all of its rewrites, revisions and polishing, I’m ready to start working on the next one, but the book still has a long way to go in the publishing process and the publisher is hesitant to start new projects. The problem is, again, the risk involved with investing in each title. A publishing company wants to wait and see how each title does before jumping in with a new book. I feel that self-publishing (with fiction anyway) will give me the chance to focus on writing. I’ll be able to write a book, do everything it takes to get it ready to publish, release it to the world, and move onto another project.

The last reason, and maybe the most important to me, is that I write because I’m compelled to write. I love everything about writing, creating, and storytelling. I’ve loved it since I was kid and I’m pretty sure that I’ll continue to love writing until I kick the bucket and keel over. The point is, I write because I like sharing stories.

How did you find out about Kickstarter?

From a friend who was trying to get his project kickstarted.

If your book gets funded, roughly what do you anticipate the cost breakdown looking like?

I’m asking for $1,500 for the Kickstarter campaign and the breakdown for the costs are as follows:

  • $35—Font licensing
  • $125—ISBN
  • $200-$400—Cover design
  • $200—Copy Editing
  • $200—Proofreading
  • $400—Interior layout and design
  • $75—Title setup fees with Ingram (a distributor who will make the book available in bookstores, magazine shops, airports, etc., in the US, UK, and Australia)
  • $400—for marketing

What are you least looking forward to with self-publishing this book?

I’m not a huge fan of the technical side to publishing a book. I really prefer the creative process, so I guess I’m least looking forward to making sure all the little details are taken care of in order to publish a high-quality book. Of course, this is all part of the process.

What are you most looking forward to with self-publishing this book?

I’ve been researching internet marketing and developing new strategies for reaching new audiences—so I’m probably most looking forward to finding new readers and ultimately sharing stories with more people.

In parting, here is a cool quote—something that I think is relevant to all aspiring authors, and its something that I try and keep in mind with each new project.

Certain writers do not live, think or write on the range of the moment. Novels, in the proper sense of the word, are not written to vanish in a month or a year. That most of them do, today, that they are written and published as if they were magazines, to fade as rapidly, is one of the sorriest aspects of today’s literature.
–Ayn Rand

Although the quote is a bit pessimistic about today’s literature, I like to use it as a positive motivation: write books to last. Write books that engage the mind long after the story is over.


Thanks for the interview, Derrick! I find this all really interesting, even if I’m not quite ready to look into self-publishing myself. I was glad to get to learn more about this option!

The collected wisdom of website design

I used to do website critiques fairly regularly, and fantastic web designer Kathleen MacIver gave wonderful in-depth critiques to our participants. We’ve fallen out of touch (but Kathleen, if you’re reading this, I’d love to change that!), but a lot of her wisdom from previous critiques is just as applicable to our victims volunteers from this round!

On defining your site through blog goals:

Is [your blog] primarily for you, as a method of self-expression? If so, then who cares what it looks like!

The fact that you asked for this review, however, makes me think that you ARE hoping this blog achieves something. It doesn’t appear that you’re trying to promote your own writing, since a skim down through the posts showed me nothing along those lines. Are you trying to build a small community? Just meet people online? Right now this blog is a pretty clear reflection of you, as a person, and your love of words. It’s not a reflection of your stories or books or poems, or of a particular genre. Do you want it to be?

I’m not really sure what to suggest, since I don’t know what that goal is. But think about it. This is where every website should start . . . with a careful assessment of what the goal of the website (or blog) is, what you hope it will achieve, and who you hope to reach with it. Everything else needs to follow that.

On matching your design to your theme, and the purpose of design:

A website made from a basic, generic template (99% of the time) is like finding a hardcover book that’s missing its dust jacket (the old kind that had nothing more than a solid color and gold lettering on the edge). There’s nothing to turn you off to the book/site, but you really had to have a compelling reason from somewhere else in the universe to open up that book and start reading, because the book cover itself is offering you nothing.

You do have that little paragraph that explains a little. Now you need to find a design that is the visual interpretation of your concept. . . .

Basic layouts for blogs are often best, since people are there to read content (once they know they’re interested, of course).

So all-in-all . . . you don’t have anything wrong here, but you haven’t really taken any steps toward the two main goals of a website’s design, which are:

  1. Instantly portray what your website is about, and what the visitor will receive if they hang around. (In your case, interesting information that they’re not likely to find anywhere else on the Internet, since the number of brain scientists blogging about writing has got to be extremely small)
  2. Make the site stick in their mind, thereby upping their chances of wanting to come back, coming back, and remembering why they bookmarked it when they do come back.

And this one is actually from me, on the purpose of a website:

Also, make your website somewhere that people will want to come back to—do something for them, reach out to them (see building a community), be accessible. Even if they’ve already bought your book, they’re still your customers, your readers, your fans, and striving to build a relationship with them (individually and collectively) can help sustain you, both emotionally and financially. . . .

Always remember: your website will be the major way you’ll interact with most of your readers and potential business associates. Use it wisely!

free website guideI’d forgotten how much good advice has already passed through here, and I know many readers weren’t here two years ago when we were doing these. Luckily, I’ve already collected the generally-applicable advice from several of the critiques and put them together into a handy, free PDF: a Guide to Aspiring Author Websites!

What do you think? What did you take away from these critiques that will help with your site?

Photo credits: heart in a book—Piotr Bizior; book without cover—Marcos Ojeda

Website critique: Ronda Hinrichsen (RondaHinrichsen.com): help from search engines

The last of our site critiques is for Ronda Gibb Hinrichsen, author of Missing and Trapped. Hi, Ronda!

Content and navigation
The site layout is simple and easy-to-use. There’s a hint of mystery in the mist around the trees, which relates back to your theme.

Your bio is informative, but it could also be fun! If people are coming to your site, they want to know more about you, so you can write a heck of a lot more than you might on a bio in a book. The trivia in the sidebar is a good start, as is the FAQ (though questions about the individual books could be on the book pages). You could also mention your family.

I think I’ve made it clear how I feel about contact info buried at the bottom of the about page! On the other hand, I don’t mind putting your awards on the About page, and I think it’s fantastic that you’re using a link and anchor to jump down to them.

You have separate pages for each of your books. This is okay right now, but as you write more books, will your website be able to grow with that? I’d suggest keeping pages for your individual books to 1-2: One page for all your books, with possible the second page for your most recent release. I’m assuming GoDaddy gives you five pages for your site, so this would free up a separate page for your Events, which might be more useful than the FAQ, for example.

I like that you have the covers of your books prominently displayed on the home page and each of their pages—along with purchase links! Always a good idea!

However, each tab on your navigation opens in a separate page. After reading the home page, I clicked on the about page, etc. After reading through each page of your site, I realized it had opened each page in a separate tab:

I’m hoping there’s a check box or something you can check somewhere to change this setting. Otherwise, you’ll want to take target=”_blank” out of each link on each page.

I love the background color on your site, but light text on a dark background is harder for people to read. Maybe you could find a way to add a lighter background behind the content area of your pages and switch to darker text (maybe even matching your background!).

Search engine presence:
I have some great news for you: I misspelled your name when I Googled you, and Google corrected me:


Google knows you!

And you totally dominate Google for your name. The first three results are your site, and it also lists your Facebook, blog, Twitter, your book on Amazon as well as some reviews.

I was very confused to see your site listed twice in the results, until I realized one was RondaHinrichsen.com and the other is RondaGibbHinrichsen.com. I worry that this might be confusing for readers, too, when they visit the Gibb version, which happens to be a blog. They wouldn’t realize this isn’t your site, only your blog—I definitely think you should include a prominent link to your full site on the Gibb version.

Bing, which serves results for Yahoo as well, knows you well enough to make your name a suggestion:

Bing’s results aren’t quite as impressive as Google’s. They include the “plain” and “Gibb” sites, and one page inside your site. The results also include Facebook, LinkedIn, Goodreads and a couple more personal sites: MyLife and Manta, which lists your address, phone number and income. (You might want to see about having that removed from Manta!) The last results include reviews.

Probably the best thing about Google and Bing knowing you is that it helps to eliminate (or at least minimize) the need to optimize for misspellings of your name.

Thanks for volunteering, Ronda!

What do you think? How else can Ronda get the most out of her website?

Website Critique: Trisha (thefarseas.blogspot.com): a blog about you

We’re continuing our website critique series today with Trisha’s blog, WORD+STUFF. Hi, Trisha!

Content & Navigation
One of your strong points is your topic and content. I like that you have your blog as a place to talk about writing, but you’re free to do more than that. You’re more than just a writer, and your various topics show that.

I like how you have social media links in sidebar. You could highlight them just a touch more with a header for that section that’s a call to action—Connect with me or something similar.

However, those shouldn’t be the only way a visitor can contact you. I always advise a contact form on your website!

On your Projects page, I like the way you let us know the story behind the projects, but a little more info about the projects themselves might help to hook us better. (This may not be a big issue if you’re not pursuing publication on some of your older works.) Also, the link to the excerpts doesn’t work (you need to capitalize Excerpts in the link). If any of the excerpts correlate with the projects you list here, consider linking directly to those excerpts in the description of your book.

Design
The eclectic design seems to reflect your tastes, but you might consider something that relates a little more directly to your blog’s topic and theme—and that of your writing, if you have a genre or subject area that interests you most. I’m not clear whether the art in the background is yours. Maybe you could explain this on your about page, and talk a little about your art. Your Art page could explore this further, talking about your training, media, inspirations, etc.

Search Engine Presence
As far as your search engine presence goes . . . well, it’s really hard to say, since you don’t use your last name on your site. I understand concern for your privacy, but if you’re selling your brand (and you are your brand), it helps to actually have that on your site. You’re not Google-able without it. (I did try searching for Trisha, just in case you’re actually a super-famous one-named artist in Australia, but no luck yet.) If you’re going to use a pen name, you might think about branding that now, too.

Good luck!

What do you think? Is your blog topic broad enough?

Website review: Sierra Gardner (sgardn.blogspot.com)–highlighting blog content

All right! A little behind schedule, we’re digging into the website reviews. Ted will get to the visual side of the reviews ASAP, but I want to get these reviews up even sooner than possible (ESTP?). And we’re starting with one of my fellow crusaders, Sierra Gardner!

Hi, Sierra! Since I’ve subscribed to your blog for almost four months now, I’m familiar with some of your great content already. Highlighting that content can be a challenge for all bloggers, but I can see you’re working very hard to do just that. We’ll also look at your future marketing efforts, since you’re not pursuing an agent or a book deal yet.

Content and navigation
I’m always happy to find an About page quickly and easily on a new blog. Your bio is cute and personable. You might consider using the sidebar widget version of “About Me” in addition to the page, so we get some idea of the face behind the blog without having to dig deeper.

Also, you might consider breaking contact me into a separate page. If I came to your blog to contact you, I might not think to look on the about page for that info—and if I did, I’d still have to scroll down to find it.

You’re working hard to highlight several types of content on your blog, and that’s great. You’ve got a page that lists writing samples you’ve shared as well as one for your favorite posts. Both of these are great ideas. You might be able to make these pages work even harder for you by sharing a short summary or synopsis of the post or sample to encourage clickthroughs. On your writing samples page, at the very least an indicator of the genre could help entice readers to click. The favorite posts page might also benefit from a sentence or two of description to hook your readers.

The Submissions page is a little bit confusing, especially on a writing blog since we’re used to seeing submissions on only agent and publisher sites. While the name is appropriate, a title like maybe Guest Posts & Questions might help, too. If you have any examples of either type of submissions, maybe list & link to them underneath.

You might also consider moving the followers widget higher to highlight that feature of your site and encourage people to follow your blog. Generally, the archive isn’t the best thing to have first in your sidebar—it doesn’t ask your readers to engage or take further action as effectively as subscribe buttons, a Followers widget, social media buttons or even your bio. Show your readers how to

Search engine visibility
On Google, your blog comes up third for your name. Your LinkedIn profile is fourth. There are a couple Facebook profiles, but they’re not yours. In Bing/Yahoo, your LinkedIn is first, but your blog doesn’t show up in the top 10 results—although your Blogger User Profile does. When you’re ready to begin the agent search, be sure to include your name prominently on your site, and get links using your name as the link back at your site (such as from guest posts). If possible, it might be good to move your blog to sierragardner.blogspot.com (or better yet use Blogger’s Custom Domain feature to put it at sierragardner.com, sierragardnerauthor.com or blog.sierragardnerauthor.com).

Optimizing for your name does post some challenges. There are a lot of people out there named Sierra Gardner or Sierra Gardener, and there’s even some competition from the Riverside, CA, community of Sierra Gardens. However, it doesn’t look like anyone is actively trying to rank in search engines for your name, so a little bit of effort could pay off quickly and well.

I’m sure you come across this pretty often, but it might be difficult for readers to remember how to spell your name. (NO, I’ve never had that problem. Sigh.) You might think about also optimizing for Sierra Gardener so your site ranks high when people search for your name spelled incorrectly.

Sierra, thanks for sharing your site with us and good luck in all your writing and blogging efforts!

What do you think? How can you highlight the content in your blog better?

Authors Websites Critiqued

In case you missed it, Monday I did a guest post at Romance University about seven things an author’s website must be. I drew three lucky websites from the comments that day and today RU has posted my critiques on their content, navigation, networking, promotion, design, and search engine presence.

There is a lot of information over there, including quick tips on what to put on your site, how to increase our search engine rankings, and how to promote (or prepare to promote) your books on your site. Check it out!
free website guide
I used to do author website critiques here from time to time, and it’s been almost a year and a half since our last round. And because I seem to need a little extra motivation these days, I’ll do it as a challenge to myself: if I finish my rewrites by May 25, we’ll do a quick series of (aspiring) author website critiques here!

In the meantime, check out my series on aspiring author websites (also available in PDF)!

A little about me
I do actually know what I’m talking about. I worked in Internet marketing for five years, specializing in organic search engine marketing and industry news. Until I left to have baby #3, I was the editor of the prominent Internet marketing news blog Marketing Pilgrim, one of Advertising Age’s Top 10 Internet Marketing Blogs. I’ve spoken at (and otherwise attended) several industry conferences and might even be called an “expert.” But I’m way too modest for that 😉 .

What do you think? What kind of feedback would you want on your website?

Good news for me—and for you!

Over the weekend, I had the privilege of attending the LDStorymakers writers’ conference for the third time. And for the second time, I pretty much panicked whenever I thought about the results of the first chapter contest.

In fact, I even told people (like, I don’t know, my own husband) that I hadn’t entered at all. (I told him to view this as evidence of only my own insecurities and the fragile state of my ego, not any reflection on him. Plus, I’d told him I entered months ago and he just forgot.)

But, as you may have guessed from the title of the post, I had the honor of receiving an award in their first chapter contest:

Mystery/Suspense Category: First Place for Façade!

And you can read that chapter here!

Thank you to everyone who helped me get my first chapter in shape—and thank you for all the feedback I’ve received on the chapter since then.

(And yes, if you’ve been here a while, I actually won the same award last year.)

Okay, so, obviously, that news isn’t “good” for you so much—but this next one is. Today I’m guest blogging at Romance University. It’s the fourth installment on a series on author websites:

And if that’s not good news for you, maybe this will be—three lucky commenters on Romance University will have their websites critiqued (critiques to be posted on Thursday)!! So head on over!