Making the most of con connections

So you went to a conference and met so many amazing people. Maybe you reconnected with your tribe, came face to face to social media pals, or even discovered new voices you didn't realize you were missing. Making new friends and industry connections is one of the best parts of a conference and a big reason I think we all should attend live conferences.

Opening Ceremonies from UtopYA 2015

But now that you have a stack of business cards and phone full of blurry pictures, what do you do? Because connections don't mean anything unless you keep the conversation going after you've left bleary eyed and craving coffee. Here are a few tips for making the most out of your new connections.

1. Follow
Pull out that stack of business cards, bookmarks, and swag and start following all the new folks you met. The best way to stay connected these days is on social media, but that doesn't work if you aren't actually connected. You don't need to create new accounts to do this, just follow your new friends on whatever platforms you already belong.

2. Share content
Following isn't enough, if you aren't a part of the action. As authors we love it when people share our content and posts. So when your new friends post something great, share it with your tribe. That doesn't mean you want to fill your own feed with nothing but shared posts and retweets. Consider your own audience and then share content that you think they'd enjoy.

3. Engage
Social media is a place for wallflowers to dance in the middle of the room. That means you can't afford to stalk the feeds silently. Remember, social media is meant to be social. When you see your new pals out there chatting it up, say hello and join the conversation. Get to know each other outside of the tequila fueled convention nights.

4. Post about them
Did you read the book of your new pal? Show them a little love with an honest review. Then hit the airwaves with links to your review. Remember, your audience is full of readers who like to read books. That includes books that you didn't write, too. Book recommendations are a great way to provide your audience with a new read and show your connections some book love. Bonus points if you include a picture of yourself reading the book.

5. Make yourself available
You have a platform, now share it with your new friends. Obviously, this means keeping your own platform consistent. If you don't review books on your blog, you don't need to do a book review. But I'm sure there are other ways you can help. Maybe you can invite them to write a guest post or use their book/platform as an example in your own post. Whatever the platform, there are always ways to share.

6. Ask
Hopefully you talked about more than the quality of the hotel rooms and the latest season of OITNB at this convention. Just because the con is over doesn't mean those conversations have to end. Ask your new friends their thoughts on other bookish things. Don't have any questions right now? Ask them about other conferences they are planning to attend. Then you can go together and keep the party going.

You'll notice that none of these tips include asking your new buddies to pimp your own book. Because that is a surefire way to turn your new relationship sour. Focus instead on ways that you can help your new friends. But don't be surprised when they return the favor, because, authors, in general, are awesome.

The importance of book launches in the digital age

Authors, editors and other book-minded people talk a lot about the importance of book launches. There is a lot of pressure on authors to launch your book strong right out of the gate with lots of coverage, favorable reviews and word-of-mouth momentum.

But we don't really talk about why book launches are important. And the truth is, they aren't as important as they once were. Before eBooks came on the scene, books were sold almost exclusively on the shelves of book stores. And there are way more books than shelf space. So if you wanted your book to claim space for longer than a few years, you needed a strong launch to keep sales coming in and your book face out on the shelf.

Today eBooks make up a large part of the market and that share grows daily. So it would be easy to assume that launches aren't important. Afterall, virtual bookshelf space is unlimited. Your novel will never get pulled because the newest batch of releases are about to hit. With eBooks, some of the pressure of the big launch has been lifted.

Some, not all.

Because book launches are still hugely important and here's why:

Algorithms rule the world
Regardless of your opinion of Amazon, they are the biggest mover of books in the US. They have a recommendation system that hasn't been duplicated and can't pick out the next best seller like a blood hound on the the trail. And that means your Amazon rank matters. A book with lots of reviews right away does better in the ranking. A book with sustained sales that build over time is going to fair better than one that spikes suddenly and then falls off just as sharply.

While no one completely understands the algorithms (because Amazon doesn't share them), we have deduced a few things. We know that it takes fewer books sales to maintain a rank than it does to gain a rank. This means that even though my sales may dip down on occasion, it takes several days of reduced sales to show up in my rankings. This is because I was able to build up my sales and then keep them steady for the most part. Amazon rewards my sales stability with a stable ranking and that makes it easier for them to include me in their recommendation engine.

Everyone's a braggart on launch day
There is a limit to how much you can talk about your own book on social media. Except the week of your launch. Everyone is pretty much given a pass to be borderline obnoxious in talking about their book in the week it comes out.

But that's it. You've got one week to squawk all you want before people start tuning you out, or worse, un-following you. While your marketing plan is going to last much longer than a week, those first seven days will be your best opportunity to share your work with the most people. There is no redo on that one. If you don't use it appropriately, you don't get a redo after a few months. So don't waste those precious release week passes.

Hard core marketing isn't sustainable
I love marketing. It gets my heart pumping and my creative juices flowing. But even I get burn-out. Launching a book is exhausting. There are so many moving pieces of getting a book out on the market and then you add marketing on top of that. It's a lot of work, and not something you can keep doing forever. Eventually you have to level out, get back to writing and get ready to launch the next book. Ideally, we'll all have long happy careers with lots of books out there for people to read. But that means more books to market and more readers to find and interact with. We can't keep marketing the same books over and over.

You can always run promotions, create ads or other marketing strategies, but time won't allow you to market all your books all the time. You'll need a strong launch to build momentum that will carry your novel through times when it isn't getting much of your marketing attention.

A huge launch doesn't guarantee your book's success and you aren't doomed if your launch was less than thrilling (more on this later). But a successful launch has rewards that still make it worth your time and effort.

Content marketing puppies to sell your novel

This video has been splash all over social media lately. Have you seen it yet? If not, take a minute to watch, because this right here is content marketing at its best.

So let's digest this video for just a minute. On the surface, this is a super cute little video about a guy adopting an adorable puppy. In case you were unaware, puppies and kittens rule the internet. So videos about them are generally a hit.

What turns this from just another video into brilliant content marketing is the subtle product placement. I say subtle, though if you know what to look for, it doesn't really look subtle. New dog owner looks up what to feed a puppy and is surprised to learn that there is dog food just for puppies. And then there's a bag in full display mode.

So what makes this different than a commercial? For one, the video is about the puppy. It isn't a little vignette with a message about the importance of finding the right food or a helpful voice over. The focus is the puppy, not the food. Also, the food makes sense in the context of the video. The video is about a guy discovering how to take care of his dog. Feeding a dog is a big part of that. Most dog food commercials show an active dog playing outside and then cut to them eating a healthy bowl of whatever. The connection is loose. 

The key difference between this and a typical commercial is that the visible goal is entertainment. When we watch this, it is really easy to ignore the product placement completely and just enjoy the story being told. It's funny and probably hits home for a lot of new dog owners. 

Of course, that's just the visible goal. The one intended to draw you in, hook you into watching the whole thing and get you to share it with others through social media. The layered goal is to introduce you to a product. There is no hard sell here. This is about exposure and it's working. This video was posted on May 29th. In less than two weeks it's been viewed almost 4 million times.

That's a lot of impressions. And with a neutral follow-up URL of puppyhood.com, I'm guessing they've probably managed to draw in a good portion of those viewers into additional  impressions on the website. 

So, what can we take away from this as authors? First, keep in mind that while content marketing can be amazing, you don't have to convert all of your marketing efforts into content marketing. Even the thought of that makes me exhausted. 

For the time when you would like to try this, your first step is to think of what your customers (your readers) are looking for. People who buy puppy food love puppies and will probably enjoy a video featuring puppies. That's not a hard stretch. What do your readers enjoy? What passion do you share that you can give them more of?

Videos are great for this method. My book trailer for Rite of Rejection is a content marketing video. But you don't have to do a video. A great content marketing option is a free prequel novella for your book series. If that seems like a lot of work for marketing, it is. Another option would be creating a shareable "what to read next" infographic. Start with some big sellers and suggest some lesser known novels readers would also enjoy. Of course, your book would be a choice for one of the next reads. Then be sure to share it with the authors of the other books you recommend and you have the start of a nice content marketing campaign. 

These are only a few examples, but the options are limitless. Just be sure your visible goal is entertainment or education. Then add in the layered goal of creating impressions for your novel. Last, tag your content with a link back to your home page and you're set. 

Being an author is more than just writing

Yesterday was a good day for me. I finished the first draft of Rite of Revelation. This one was a doozy to get out and much harder to write than the first book. But I know I've only just started. There is still editing, getting peer feedback and even more editing from the pros. And that's just the work that goes into the writing of the book.

This is me today

For many, that's the easy part. There are still marketing plans to nail down, reviews to solicit and press releases to write. And that goes for every author, not just the self publisher. While I can say from experience that most decent publishers do provide their authors with marketing support, the majority of the work is going to fall to the author.

Being an author is a career choice. It's not just sitting in a coffee shop or cabin in the woods pumping out words and sending them off to future fame and fortune. And that how every career works. NFL players love to play football. But they don't just show up every Monday, play a game, and go home. They put in countless hours on the practice field and in the gym. Many of them turn to other activities outside of football, such as dance and yoga, to help improve their performance. And they practice giving interviews and answer questions at press conferences. And they go out to team events and sign footballs, and talk to kids about sports and staying healthy. Lot of players take advantage of other opportunities such as making commercials or being part of a video game, because they know they can't play the game forever. They are football players, but the game only takes up a few hours of their time that is otherwise filled with activities off the field.

There are always going to be parts of a career that are less than fun. I did not enjoy filing my taxes this year. But we do things we don't want to do so we can keep doing the parts we love.

I hear from authors all the time. "I just want to write." And that's lovely. You should write. Write as much as you want for as long as you want. But to make this a career, like any other career, you have to do more than just write.

If the idea of doing anything but writing makes you want to weep, then (hard truth coming at you here) being an author may not be the right career path for you. That doesn't mean you have to stop writing, or even stop publishing. But it does mean you need to recognize that writing is going to be more of hobby than a career. Hobbies are done for fun and pure enjoyment. You can write and publish as a hobby, but understand the limitations of writing as a hobby versus a career.

Neither one of those are bad choices. I know people who just like to pick up a pen as a way to vent out creative energy. They have no desire to see their book published. It's just something they do for fun. And that is A-Okay.

But if you are serious about making writing your career, about hitting best-sellers lists, winning awards and living off your royalties, you have to do more than write.

Marketing with passion

A quick heads up before we jump into the post. I did an interview withe Eve over at Functioning Insanity this week and she asked some killer questions. If you want to find out how I'd fare against the Machine and enter to win a signed paperback, you should stop by.

So...on Wednesday I talked about marketing your book, even when you don't feel like. Especially when you don't feel like it. And I know what you're saying. Sure, Sarah, easy for you to say. You're the one weirdo author out there who actually likes marketing.

And that's true, both that I enjoy marketing and that I'm a weirdo. But even if you don't go gaga fro spreadsheets like I do, you don't have to despise marketing your book. The trick is in finding your passion and and creating a marketing mash-up. Because marketing your book is easier when you don't want to scoop your eyeballs out with a dull spoon.

The first step is identifying your passions outside of writing. Of course, writing is number one. But I'm jumping out on a limb here and guessing you enjoy other activities as well. So make a list. Really, do it right now. It should only take a minute. Jot down all the activities, organizations and what not that you enjoy when you aren't slinging words like a rock star.

Got it? Great. Now you need to find ways that you can incorporate those passions into marketing opportunities for your work. Let's grab a few examples.

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Do you love teaching? Perfect. Propose a course about your genre to a national organization. Write a teacher's guide for your book. Offer to lead a workshop at your local library. Create a course on Udemy. So many options for teaching and each of them creates built in exposure for you and your book.

Are you a workout junkie? Use your audio book to create chapter distance challenges to encourage runners to listen to your book as they run. Create individualized workout plans based on your characters' personality types. Submit an article on ways that authors can stay fit while spending so much time behind a desk.

These are just two examples, but I hope it helps you to get an idea of what I'm talking about here. There is no one right way to market your book. So why not do it in the way that feels the most fun to you. Not only will marketing this way feel like less of a chore, you'll also see better results since readers will be able to tell you aren't just phoning it in.

What are your passions? What makes you tick. Share your crossover marketing ideas in the comments. If you aren't sure how to apply your passion to your marketing, comment with your areas of interest and we can all brainstorm to help you generate some ideas. Because 100 minds is usually better than one.

The definitive guide* on paying for reviews

On Wednesday I shared my tips for finding book reviewers. For most of you, I'm hoping that information was helpful. For some of you, it was overwhelming.

Maybe you're just barely eeking out an hour a day to write and the idea of spending all that time finding, researching and contacting reviewers makes you want to cry onto your blank pages. I don't personally relate since I'm one of those weird people that finds marketing fun. But I can understand.

If that all feels like too much, it's okay. You can hire a reputable and respectable blog tour company to organize your tour for you. Be aware that you will probably end up with fewer reviewers or pay heavily for them. I'm personally not a fan of this route, but it is absolutely an option and one that I support if this is what you need.

But I want to be clear that there is a big difference between paying someone to organize your blog tour and buying reviews. One of these is perfectly acceptable and above the bar and the other is a quick way to become a schwarmy author.

Buying reviews is, in my book, a seriously bad decision. It goes against everything I love about being an author and a reader. It taints the process of finding new books and makes the author look like a huckster instead of an artist.

Just in case there is any confusion when it comes to what exactly is a paid review. I've made this definitive guide* to steer you on the path of the straight and narrow.

*Or maybe not so much definitive as just the list of things I could think of. So...yeah.

DO give your book to reviewers in exchange for an honest review.
Some might feel that this is paying for a review. Trust me when I say that if reviewers were going to get paid, their time would be worth way more than the cost of my $2.99 eBook. Giving your book to someone who wants to review it is not paying them. On the reverse, I've seen folks ask for reviews and then provide a purchase link.This is not asking for reviews. This is begging for people to buy your book. Reviewers dedicate many (MANY) hours to reviewing books simply because they love them and want to share their passion with others. Understand that asking them to pay for your book is going to net you zero reviews.

DO NOT give someone the money to buy your book so their review shows up as a "verified purchase".
I've seen this listed as a viable method on various group sites and handed out as advice from people who brand themselves as book marketing professionals. Here's why this is a no-no. First, it is intentionally deceitful. The verified purchase identifier on Amazon is there so that a review is given more credence, since theoretically, the reviewer bought the book in question on their own and chose to review it. By giving someone the money so they get the verified purchase identifier, you are gaming the system. Bad. Also, I cannot recall a single time when I bothered to see if a review was from a verified purchase. I don't care and I'm guessing the average reader doesn't either. So your deception is pretty pointless.

DO understand that not everyone will finish/review your book.
Even when you've given your book to a reviewer for free, they may not finish it. And if they do, they might not review it. Understand that sometimes a reviewer chooses not to leave a review. Maybe because they honestly didn't like your book and don't want to give you a one star. So no review is actually a good thing. Regardless of the reason, a reviewer doesn't owe you anything. Remember when I said they are worth more than $2.99. That book was not a payment for service. It was a gift in the hopes of a review.

DO NOT pay someone in exchange for a review.
This is pretty clear cut, but you should never, ever give someone money as payment for their review. First, this goes against the terms of service for Amazon and is grounds for getting you and your books kicked off the website. Second, it is just so dirty. Seriously, it's wrong and gives me the heebie jeebies. Third, the people who write reviews for a living punch those things out by the dozen. They probably didn't read your book and you'll end up with a generic review that will most likely be worthless. Just saying.


DO expect that you will get negative reviews.
When someone agrees to read and review your book, they are not making a promise that they will like your book and give it a good review. Reviews are so powerful because readers put faith in their honestly. There will be people who don't like your book (shocker, I know) and they will leave negative reviews. The good news here is that you actually want a few of these on your book page. All 5-star reviews for a book makes them look fake or as if all your reviews came from your relatives. A few negative reviews gives more credit to the positive ones.

DO NOT pay a service to find reviewers for you
This one sounds tricky, but it's not. This is different than a service organizing your blog tour. A tour coordinator is in constant communication with you and the bloggers to ensure everyone has the information they need, your tour dates are covered and the tour is promoted. It's a lot of work and should be a paid gig. A service that is simply finding reviews for you is not doing any of that. They are hiring people who will give your book a glowing review for a fiver. There are probably a few sites out there that are simply coordinating reviewers with authors and keeps it all on the up and up. But for everyone company that is staying true to the nature of reviews, there are dozens who are churning reviews out like a puppy farm. I realize it's tempting, but just don't.

So there you have it. Reviews are super valuable to you and a major part of promoting your book. Getting them doesn't have to be torture. But if that sounds like less fun than having all your fingernails pulled off, don't turn to the easy answer of paying for reviews. It might help you in the short term, but eventually those fake reviews will come back to bite you and you'll wish you hadn't.

Finding book reviewers in 5 simple steps

I may have mentioned one or two thousand times here on the blog how important getting reviews are to a book's success. So it's not any wonder that I often get emails asking how I was able to find so many reviewers, especially from indie authors.

The good news is that there are thousands of book reviewers out there. The bad news is that you'll need to find a way to sort through thousands of book reviewers to find the ones that will be most interested in your work. To help with the process, here are five simple ways to find the right reviewers for your book.

1. Identify your comp book
You want to find one or two books that you believe would have a similar audience to your own book. Your comp book can focus on a similar topic, be in the same genre or have a similar writing style to your own. Your not looking for a replica of your work, just something that will appeal to the same readers. When deciding the type of book to use, you'll want to focus on books that have a high number of reviews. Even if a book is the perfect comp for yours, if they don't  have at least 50 reviews, it'll make the next steps harder to complete.

2. Stalk their tour
Most books have a blog tour these days and that is going to help us out a bunch. Check the author website for your comp book and search for a list of all the bloggers that participated in that book's tour. If you can't find it on their website, a quick Google search should bring up the info either on the host blogger's site or with the tour company. Add all the participating bloggers to your list.

3. Sources from the source
No matter how you feel about Amazon, they are the ultimate source when it comes to reviews. On the Amazon page for your comp book, you'll want to review all the 4 and 5 star reviews. Click on the name of the reviewer and check out their profile. Not everyone will list an email or website, but some will. For all of them that provide a contact method, add them to your blogger list.

4. Don't over think it
Pull up our friend Google and do the most basic search you can. Start with "Readers who loved COMP BOOK". I plugged Rite of Rejection into that scenario and came back with millions of search results. Obviously, not all of those are reviews, but the first several pages were filled with them. Another great Google search is to set your comp book aside and search for reviewers for your genre. For example: "YA dystopian reviewers". That particular search brought back 897K results. I'm thinking that should provide plenty of reviewers. Go through as many of those results as you can stomach and add the reviewers to your list.

5. Evaluation
If you've got a good comp book, you should have a significant list of potential reviewers for your book. Resist the urge to send a form request to all of them. This will almost certainly gain you next to no takers. Before contacting anyone, you'll need to go through your list and find out who is open to new reviews, taking your genre, still active, etc. This step will most likely significantly reduce the number of bloggers on your list. This is why you'll want to collect as many potential reviewers as you can.

My positive response rate to review requests was 35%, but that is pretty high. 25% is probably a realistic expectation. If you reach step five and don't have four times as many bloggers on your list as your target number of reviews, go back and repeat the process with another comp book.

Getting enough reviews for your book isn't an issue of not enough reviewers out there. The roadblock is in finding the ones who are most likely to enjoy your book. Using a targeted search can make the process easier on you and help you find your next biggest fans.

For more information on how to find and contact reviewers, be sure to sign up for my mailing list to get a free copy of my DIY Blog Tour eBook.