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.

NEVER SAY NEVER

by Lois Winston

When I was younger, I saw life in black and white. Everything was either good or bad, right or wrong. With age came experience, and I learned that there are an endless number of shades of gray between the black and white. I learned never to say never. You just don’t know where life will take you.




Recently, I set out on a new journey in my writing career, something I never expected ever to do because of the stigma once associated with it -- I decided to indie publish.




I began my writing life as a romance writer. For ten years I toiled away at love stories. Most of these manuscripts never sold, although many collected numerous awards in contests for unpublished authors. Some almost sold, but at the last minute the deal would fall through because the editor who loved the book left the publishing house or the publisher folded the line for which the book was intended.




Eventually, I sold two of my romances, but then a certain glue gun wielding amateur sleuth hijacked my romance career, and I found myself writing the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. Don’t get me wrong; I’m very happy telling Anastasia’s stories, and I hope to continue doing so for quite some time. 

However, the publishing world has gone through a dramatic change in the last few years. All around me I started seeing friends indie publishing not only their backlists but manuscripts that had never sold to New York. After hearing success story after success story, I began to think about all those manuscripts lolling around in my Dead Manuscripts File, those books that had won awards and almost sold but never did through no fault of either the writing or the stories. 



So after much mulling, I decided to create Emma Carlyle, my alter ego romance self, and begin indie publishing all those romances under her name. The first book launched on Kindle three and a half weeks ago. Hooking Mr. Right was my most successful, never published manuscript, a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist and winner of a slew of awards. Editors loved it, but for various reasons (see above,) no contract was ever offered. 

A week later I launched Finding Hope. That book was also a Golden Heart finalist, but because it fell somewhere between romance and chick lit, it was never quite right for any traditional publisher's lines. And this past weekend, I launched Four Uncles and a Wedding, a chick lit book.

Now I’m off on a grand experiment, offering these books and more directly to readers for less than the price of a Starbucks cappuccino. Never say never is my new motto.



Hooking Mr. Right blurb:

After writing a doctoral thesis that exposed fraud in the pop-psychology genre, thirty-two year old professor Althea Chandler has to sacrifice her professional integrity to save her family from financial disaster. She secretly becomes bestselling romance guru Dr. Trulee Lovejoy, a self-proclaimed expert on how to catch a man, even though Thea’s a miserable failure when it comes to relationships -- especially those with the opposite sex.

Burned by a failed marriage, Luke Bennett finds himself pursued by Dr. Lovejoy toting women after a gossip columnist dubs him New York’s most eligible bachelor. When he at first mistakes Thea for one of the women out to snare him, sparks fly, but the two soon find themselves battling sparks of a less hostile nature, thanks in part to an alley cat named Cupid.

Hooking Mr. Right link: 

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Hooking-Mr-Right-ebook/dp/B008E95NPG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340584627&sr=1-1&keywords=hooking+mr.+right

Finding Hope blurb:

Being offered a position at a prestigious architectural firm is a dream-come-true for thirty-four year old widow Hope Morgan. For twelve years she’s attended college while working full-time and fending off family efforts to find her a new husband. Hope’s long-exiled libido escapes confinement the moment she sets eyes on Ben Schaffer, her married boss. When Ben’s wife walks out on him and their young sons, Hope steps in as temporary nanny, a bad move, considering all those traitorous hormones.

Ben finds himself developing feelings for Hope, feelings he knows better than to act on, given the mistakes of his past. But Hope refuses to take no for an answer, and her three-year-old accomplices are a triple threat of determination when it comes to finding everyone a happy ending.

Finding Hope links: 

Barnes & Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/finding-hope-emma-carlyle/1111938500?ean=2940014654494

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/FINDING-HOPE-ebook/dp/B008GN66JW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1341369237&sr=8-3&keywords=emma+carlyle

Four Uncles and a Wedding blurb:

My Big Fat Greet Wedding  morphs into My Big Fat Multi-Ecumenical Wedding.

Back when thirty-one year old Polly Faith Harmony's feminist mother burned her bra, she wasn't thinking ahead to the day she'd want grandchildren. Behind Polly's back, her mother enlists the help of her four great-uncles -- the Catholic priest, the Episcopalian priest, the Jewish rabbi, and the gay Unitarian minister. The five relatives embark on an all out campaign to find Polly a mate in time to beat her biological clock. Like all loving relatives on a mission, they play dirty.

Four Uncles and a Wedding links:

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=aps&keywords=B008L2HRAK&linkCode=as2&tag=loiswins-20

Barnes & Noble:

Want to read more about Emma and her other books? Check out her website.