Getting Ready to Publish Your Book by Betsy Ashton

I've given a dozen or more classes this year on what it takes to be ready to publish, self or traditionally. I give the attendees my actual release plan, so that they can do as much or as little as they wish. Everyone leaves my class with a game plan and a boggled brain.

Those of us who self publish have to do everything ourselves. Everything. Right now, I'm working with my cover designer. We have a good idea, an image that is close, and  a plan to modify said image. Spooky cover. Hoodie with a pair of eyes following you around. The cover is the fun part. Getting the ISBN, back matter, blurbs all have to be done around the same time. So does asking people to read the ARC, get more blurbs back, and review on Amazon. I think two of the three of the latter points are easy. Getting that darned review up on Amazon, well, a whole different matter.

I talk to the class about housekeeping issues. If they don't have a website, they need a professional-looking site before the book is available. Where else will readers be able to buy a signed copy if they don't live near the author? Goodreads? Wait, I have to be on Goodreads? Sure do, sister. That's where readers hang out. Author Central from Amazon? I thought Amazon did that. Nooo, you, dear author, set it up. How else will you track e-book sales on Amazon and book sales on all other distribution sites?

What about newspaper interviews? Well, you can hire a publicist, or you can develop a press kit with your press release, a brief summary of the book, interview questions, and a list of places where you can be contacted. You do the legwork. No one else will.

What about social media, you ask? Don't sit there and tell me all you have to do is put the book out, and it will sell. That worked in Field of Dreams, but I'm not Kevin Costner and I don't have a multi-million ad budget. How the heck will people other than friends and family know you have a book out if you don't use the tools at hand to spread the word? If you don't want to use all the current apps, pick one or two where you feel comfortable. Also, pick ones where your readers come to share information and play. For example, if you write YA, hang out in Snapchat, Instagram, and several others whose names I can't remember. I don't write YA, but I'm trying to learn how to use Instagram. Pinterest is fun, but it doesn't really drive traffic to my website or Amazon where my books are available.

Did I hear you say you don't want to do all of the work yourself? If you have a kid whose interested, use said kid. If you don't, consider hiring a virtual assistant who can set up posts on your chosen apps.That will cost money, and you might not see a return on your investment immediately. But if you don't want to do the work and you can't afford to hire someone, you should set you mind to selling a few books to friends, colleagues, and family. It will be harder to attract strangers if you hide.

Writing the book is the easy part. Even working with a professional editor is the easy part. Sucking it up and shoving yourself out there in front of readers is not for the faint of heart. We all have to do it. We need to learn to do it well.

Next time, we'll talk about giving a book talk...

Reaching Readers Through Telepathy by Betsy Ashton

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The

important thing is to not stop questioning. ~ Albert Einstein

On January 22, Leah St. Thomas had a great post in this blog about overcoming the fear of public speaking. After she completed and published her book, she was faced with the Now What moment. Now what do I do to tell people what the book is about? Do I have to do it in public? Or will osmosis sell my book.

Source: Wikipedia

I'm here to tell you neither osmosis nor telepathy will sell your books. Unless you are a David Baldacci or a James Patterson, your book is going to "get found" only when you get down and dirty with marketing and promotions. In today's book environment, most publishers are not going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising, television interviews and book tours. The return on their investments for most newbie or relative newbie writers is non-existent. Not that most of us wouldn't want our lives to be managed for the first six months after our book launches. But, it so doesn't happen.

For us to have hope for tomorrow, we have to set up a plan to get our messages out without spamming our readership. That line between sensible marketing and spamming is so fine that a mistaken step will send a writer sliding down the razor blade of life. (OMG, that's a cliche! I'm damned proud of it.)

My first book launch taught me many lessons, some of which I plan to apply to my next launch, which is coming up in June or slightly before.

Lesson one: Don't listen to people who say you have to be active on every social media site. You don't. If your readers don't use Pinterest, you don't have to have a presence there. If they are active on Facebook and post reviews on Goodreads, you'll want to be more active there. Twitter? It never hurts, although 1800 followers must find some reason for following me, even though I still don't know what I'm doing. I also find LinkedIn groups very helpful. I spend about an hour a week there commenting on the forums where I have the best likelihood of finding readers. Total amount of time a week setting up my multiple feeds: 2 hours. Most of that is on Sunday afternoon when life is quiet.

Lesson two: After Mad Max 1 launched, more of my readers bought my e-book than my trade paper book. Like ten to one. So, when my publisher asked how I felt about launching Mad Max 2 as an e-book first, it made sense. And it made life a lot easier because I could set up my marketing campaign in advance. I now need to execute it.

Lesson three: There is NOTHING like meeting readers face to face. Book clubs have been very kind to me. Seriously, with 25 around the lake where I live, I've reached hundreds of readers. Local libraries have helped. Book clubs out of my region often have Skype options, so I don't have to spend a day traveling to a group of 20 women. I will tell you from experience, libraries out of my immediate region have been a waste of time. I'm not going to pound on them again.

Lesson four: I look at Mad Max 2 as a whole new beginning. I am so enthusiastic about it. I can't wait for people to read it. I hope they will be as excited as I am. I won't know until I track online sales promotions.

In looking back at the Einstein quote, I want to amend it. The important thing is not about questioning. It's about the quest itself. May those of us who write because we are inspired by words and driven to reach readers accept the quest and go for the Holy Grail, whatever it might be. Onward.

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Betsy Ashton is the author of Mad Max Unintended Consequences available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The second book in the series, Uncharted Territory comes out in e-book in June 2015.