THINKING OUTSIDE THE PROMOTIONAL BOX

by Lois Winston

As authors, along with writing the next book, we have to promote our current books, but promotion often feels like we’re shouting into a tsunami. Does anyone really hear us? How many people who see our social media postings will run out and buy our books? How many people show up at book signings and talks we give, let alone purchase a copy of our latest baby? How many people run out to buy a copy of our latest release as soon as it comes out? Sadly, very few. Whether an author is traditionally published, indie published, or both, competition for consumer dollars is stiff. And if your name isn’t King, Patterson, Rowling, or Roberts, it’s even stiffer. So we’re always on the lookout for new ways to get readers to learn about us and our books—and hopefully entice them to pull out their wallets and take a chance on us.

One of the newest promotional tools many authors are taking advantage of is the boxed set. Publishers have been producing boxed sets of a single author’s work for many years, especially if the books are part of a series. However, they’ve never done so with multiple authors. Recently some enterprising authors have begun to think outside the traditional promotional box. They’ve banded together to produce themed boxed sets rather than single author boxed sets. The price is set low enough to make the set an incredible bargain, which hopefully will entice readers to take a chance on authors they may not already know. If they like what they read, they might then buy more books by those authors.

Because this has proven to be such an effective marketing tool, I recently joined with nine other authors for a boxed set. Along with writing mysteries, I also write romance and romantic suspense. Because the other authors invited to participate are all romance and romantic suspense authors, I contributed Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception, one of my previously traditionally published romance suspense novels that had gone out of print. I had received the rights back to the book and several months ago published it myself as an ebook.

Our boxed set is titled Romance Super Bundle and is a collection of 10 full-length contemporary romance, historical romance, and romantic suspense novels. Along on the ride with me are authors Dale Mayer, Donna Marie Rogers, Edie Ramer, Amy Gamet, Linda McLaughlin, Kate Kelly, Pamela Fryer, Barbara Phinney, and Wendy Ely. Many of these authors are award-winners and bestsellers.

We priced the Romance Super Bundle at $5.99. That’s less than .60 cents per novel. However for a limited time the collection is on sale for only .99 cents. That’s mere pennies per book! Hopefully, it will entice readers to take a chance on us. Time will tell.

Buy Links:

Amazon 

Nook

Kobo

Award-winning author Lois Winston writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series featuring magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Kirkus Reviews dubbed it, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” Other books in the series includes Death By Killer Mop Doll, Revenge of the Crafty Corpse and the ebook only mini-mysteries Crewel Intentions and Mosaic Mayhem. Lois is also published in women’s fiction, romance, romantic suspense, and non-fiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Visit Lois at www.loiswinston.com, visit Emma at www.emmacarlyle.com, and visit Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog, www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. Follow everyone on Twitter @anasleuth.

Whew, I'm glad that's done! (Virtual book touring)

This is the last week of my virtual book tour to promote the March 8th release of Deadly Currents, the first book in my new RM Outdoor Adventures mystery series from Midnight Ink. And the title of this post says it all. I'm soooo glad I'm nearing the end! My last blogtalkradio interview was yesterday, and my last blog visit was the day before. For the rest of this week, I'm just chatting with the Barnes & Noble Booksellers Mystery Book Club on-line and giving them "reports from the field" about the Left Coast Crime conference that I'll be attending next week.

To see my virtual book tour schedule, go here. And to see the schedule of the virtual book tour I did two years ago in 2009, go here. I made 21 stops during my tour in 2009, and I vowed to make this year's tour shorter. Well, that didn't quite turn out as planned. I had 20 stops on this year's schedule. Late in the planning process, I added some on-line reviewers and two blogs that are related to my sleuth's current profession as a river ranger (the River Ranger blog) and past profession as a whitewater rafting guide (the O.A.R.S. Waterblogged blog). Important additions, in my mind.

I started planning the tour in December and finished writing my articles and answering interview questions by the end of February. I did all that up-front work so I could focus in March on juggling logistics, responding to comments, and promoting the virtual book tour stops. Also in March, I've had to do radio and print interviews, design and order bookmarks, update my website, send out an email newsletter, conduct two launch signings in Colorado Springs and Denver, and attend the Left Coast Crime conference, with two signings in Los Alamos, NM and Pueblo, CO on either end of that trip. There's no way I could be writing my guest posts while all that was going on!

Other authors have asked me whether a virtual book tour is worth all the work that goes into it. After doing two virtual book tours, my answer is I don't know. Yes, my Amazon and Barnes & Noble ranks decreased (which is a good thing). Yes, reviews started popping up on reader forums and groups. Yes, the number of libraries stocking Deadly Currents went up in WorldCat. But were those positive signs due to the virtual book tour or something else? Who knows?

It's way too soon after the release to have any kind of hard sales data. And, even if I did, there's no way to know if a book purchase is due to the buyer having heard about the book or me from my virtual book tour, or if they found out some other way. A virtual book tour is just one part of the whole mix to create buzz.

In sales, they say a consumer has to hear about a product 5 - 7 times before they make the buy decision. My hope is that readers seeing some of the articles, reviews, or interviews with me or my characters during the course of my virtual book tour took care of 1 - 3 of those "product views." And, that once they see it again in a bookstore or on-line retailer, they'll make that buy decision. Or, that once they see me in person at a signing or mystery conference, they'll make the buy decision. Those in-person events are where I can glean some anecdotal evidence about the effectiveness of the virtual book tour. Do people mention that's where they first heard about the book, or were intrigued by the setting or main character?

Another question I get from authors is, would I do it again? You know, I equate it to having a baby. Right after the birth, when all the pain and hard work of labor is fresh in a mother's mind, the answer is "Heck, no!" But about two years later, those vivid bad memories have faded and are replaced by the sweet smiles of the baby in your arms. And mom is ready for another one.

It's the same with a virtual book tour. In about two years, I hope the memories of the hard work I put into the tour will be replaced by the sweet smiles of readers telling me how much they enjoyed reading Deadly Currents. Until then, my answer to the question of would I do it again is "Heck no!" ;-)

I'd love to hear your feedback on my tour, or virtual book tours in general, especially if you conducted or followed one recently. What do you think of them?

The Worst Promotional Ideas Ever, by Jess Lourey

There are roughly 200,000 books published in the United States each year, and if you’re the author of one or more of those, you know what it’s like to be a dust mote. Those of you who are savvy take promotion into your own hands—setting up interviews and signings, buying trinkets to remind people of your book. I did that with May Day when it came out in 2006. I made a $1500 advance for that book and spent $3500 on t-shirts and book bags with the May Day book cover on them, color-changing pens with my name, ISBN, and my web address on them, postcards that I mailed to every library and independent mystery bookstore in the U.S., and, of course, bookmarks.

I’ve never read a book because I liked the bookmark or received a pen with the author’s name on it, but that didn’t stop me from salting the world with my paraphernalia. As new authors, we’re told we need to do that, in addition to starting a blog, setting up a blog tour, arranging booksignings, writing articles for publications, appearing on panels at conferences, etc. All this got me to thinking, what’s the most outrageous thing you’ve ever heard of an author doing to promote her/his novel?

I’ve seen authors give away homemade cookies next to the ballot box at a conference for which their book was up for an award, and I understand why they do it. You either draw attention to yourself or get drawn into the literary undertow. I committed my BSP faux pas in 2007. I was registered for Left Coast Crime, the conference at which the Lefty for best humorous novel is awarded. I considered which promotional items to bring but decided that instead of spending $1 apiece on a pen/bookmark/flashy candy combo, I’d cut to the chase and send any interested registered participant whose email I could easily track down a copy of my latest book. They were my target audience, so why mess around?

Because it’s tacky to send copies of your books to the people who are the judges for the awards for books (every LCC registrant gets to vote for the Lefty recipient). It looked like a bribe, and I got emails from two people who were deeply offended by my offer, and there were likely others who didn’t bother to tell me. I also got very kind emails and was nominated for a Lefty that year, but I’d never go that route again. I hate the feeling of offending others, accidentally or not.

My good friend, Chuck Zito, assured me that within a year my move would be christened the Half Lourey (the Full Lourey if you managed to get your book to everyone at the conference) and everybody would be doing it. I don’t think anyone is. Most authors I’ve met are decent people who don’t want to trod on other’s toes. But there’s always the few out there, and so, I ask you, what’s the worst promotional idea you’ve ever seen? No need to use names, but you can if you want. Oh, and any amazing effective promotional ideas that really work (no changing your name to Stephen Kink)? Our readers wouldn’t mind hearing about those, either.

MY FIRST INKSPOT BLOG POST

Hello, readers of the InkSpot blog! My name is Lois Winston, and I’m one of the newest Midnight Ink authors. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, will debut in January, but I’m not a debut author. I’ve previously published two other novels, and although one is a humorous women’s fiction and the other a romantic suspense, all of my books have a common thread -- crafts.

This wasn’t a conscious effort on my part to "brand" myself but stemmed from that old adage, write what you know. I know crafts. So when the writing bug bit and I needed to give my characters professions, it was a lot easier to give them professions I knew inside-out than do a ton of research about rocket scientists, belly dancers, or entomologists.

After I sold my first book, I started hearing about platform. It’s a buzz word that’s been around in non-fiction forever but has also crept into fiction over the last few years. Authors are told they need a platform for marketing purposes. Kind of reminds me of that song from the musical Gypsy where the strippers sing about how you’ve got to have a gimmick. We all need some platform or gimmick to make our books stand out from all the other books vying for shelf space and sales. So I thought quite a bit about platform -- or gimmick -- after I sold Talk Gertie To Me.

My background is in design -- crafts design to be specific. You know those needlework and craft projects you see in magazines and in kit form at chain stores such as Wal-Mart, Michael’s and Hobby Lobby? I’ve designed many of them. My books often draw upon my design experience. In Talk Gertie To Me one of the two main characters is a kinder, gentler version of Martha Stewart. In Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception my heroine is a needle artist and doll maker.

So when I was thinking in terms of publicity for my books, I thought about my connections in the crafts industry. Was there some way I could use those connections to promote my books? So as each book came out, I sent press releases and copies of the books to industry people I’ve worked with over the years.

The response was overwhelming. My books have been profiled in an industry newsletter that goes out to thousands of retailers, manufacturers, and buyers. One magazine ran a review, along with the cover of Talk Gertie To Me, in their New Products column. My books were used as props at an international trade show and in a manufacturer’s catalog distributed to tens of thousands of retailers, buyers, and consumers worldwide. That catalog page resulted in one book going into a second printing.

Few of us will ever have a book that becomes an Oprah pick or winds up featured in People or excerpted in Cosmo. However, through niche marketing we can generate a good deal of publicity and sales if we learn to think outside the box.

And that brings me back to the series I’ve sold to Midnight Ink. I stuck with what I know best. Anastasia, my amateur sleuth, is the crafts editor at a women’s magazine. As you can imagine from the title, a glue gun -- Anastasia’s glue gun, to be exact -- plays a pivotal role in the first book.

Later this spring, I’ll be ramping up my crafts platform by launching a blog, but it won’t be “my” blog; it will be Anastasia’s blog. Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers will feature “posts” by Anastasia and the other “editors” at American Woman magazine, as well as guest mystery authors every Friday. I’ll have simple craft and decorating projects, travel and fashion tips, recipes, and much more. Anastasia, the other “editors,” and I are all very excited about this blog. I hope it will be a fun place where you’ll enjoy hanging out. Look for the launch announcement here at InkSpot later this spring.

Cover Up! You're Naked

By Deborah Sharp

Here's my latest worry in a long list of worries: Am I over-exposed?

Not in the naked sense. More in the Paris Hilton sense . . . well, considering the sex tape, maybe Paris isn't the best example of the distinction. What I mean is am I too out-there? Between Facebook and Book Tour, my website and blogging, have I already mined even the most mundane details about me?

In the old days, authors used to keep a modicum of mystery. Look to J.D. Salinger for the extreme: No published work and nary an interview in a half-century or so, and they're still talking about him.

I started thinking about this when a small arts & culture magazine in my home state of Fla. assigned a writer to do a profile of me. Great, right? Publicity! I was suitably thrilled.


Until the writer asked me to share ''some details no one has heard ... something new.''

I'm only on Book 2. But already my back-story --- Former USA Today reporter, burned out on the news biz, started writing funny mysteries blah, blah, blah --- has become a bore.

So, either I dig really, really deep for something more interesting; or I start making things up. I'm leaning toward the latter:

Me: ''Did you know I was launched into orbit as part of NASA's Journalist in Space program?''
Reporter: "Really?? Wow!''
Me: ''Yep, the earth looks like a blue marble from way up there.''

As members of the Florida media for many years, my TV reporter hubby and I know journalists around the state. I've been lucky to get some stories out there on my funny, Fla-set Mace Bauer Mysteries. But in the process, have I become eye-rollingly predictable? Oh, please. Not her again!

When I was a cub reporter in Fort Myers, Fla., one local artist (nameless here) was a relentless self-promoter. He managed to get the News-Press to write about him even in the absence of anything newsy: "Artist X has begun to think about a new project . . . ''

Finally, the editor enacted an X-ban: ''Unless X is shot during a crack deal gone bad while he's dressed in drag, we're not writing another word about him.''

Which gives me an idea of ''something new'' to share with that writer for the art mag:
''Did you know I used to be a crack dealer?''
''Wow! Really?''
''Yep. I shot a man in Fort Myers once. I was dressed in drag . . . ''

What about you? Are you out there promoting, Paris Hilton-like? Or are you holding on to your mystery, Salinger-style?