Thursday Think Tank: Tara Lain's Take on Marketing

Hello everyone! Sorry about the late start to your Thursday Think Tank reading... I tripped over my lack of computer savvy again today. No, really. So I offer my abject apologies, and ask that you make sure to take a moment to enjoy the wisdom that Tara Lain brings us in this venture of gleaning wisdom about marketing. Next week I'll have a post from the other side, not an author but a marketing pro... and it's gonna be well worth the wait to hear the good stuff spilling from the lips of Lori Bell, one of the founders of the M/M Romance Group (now over 11,000 strong) on Goodreads. For now, please, pull up a cushion, place your order with the cabana boys for whatever your favorite beverage is, and learn at the dainty ankles of a brilliant marketeer. That's like a Musketeer, but championing great books rather than the Queen of France. :)

It’s Fun, dammit! 

Hi! Thank you, Cherie, for asking me to pop in and offer some marketing suggestions today. Some very terrific authors have preceded me with good advice, so I won’t repeat their tips, but will try to add a few footnotes and thoughts. You may know that my day job is in marketing, so when I was first published as a fiction writer in 2011, I had strong marketing instincts. Marketing books is different than marketing medical devices and industrial instrumentation like my clients, but underlying principles stay the same. Here are a few things to consider: 

·         Yes it is your job, so you might as well enjoy it. Even today, some new authors are in shock when they discover that their publishers aren’t going to promote them much at all. We all have to do it ourselves. In fact, publishers consider your marketing platform when they consider your book. Are you doing enough to get that first book out the gate and maintain momentum as other books come out? There’s a mountain of competition in romance today. More than there has ever has been. About one-third of your “author” time will likely be spent on marketing yourself, learning new techniques, and building a solid marketing platform. Could you write more books if you didn’t have to do this? Yes. Would more people buy them? No.

·         Writing another great book is NOT your best marketing strategy. When I started, a lot of great authors told me that writing a good book is your best marketing approach. I loved them, but I didn’t believe them. Even in 2011, my market situation was different from when they started a few years before. They had less noise in their market and less competition. It was easier for the cream to rise to the top. So I marketed my butt off. Not always effectively -- but consistently. The situation today is three times harder than when i started. Self-publishing and the rise of many small publishers have expanded the readers’ choices to infinity. YES, you must write a great book and then another one and another one. But marketing smart is absolutely essential or you’ll just write a lot of great books that no one reads.

·         Generosity is the best policy. Give stuff away. What better way to show readers how great you are than to give them samples. Share your ideas and your sparkling prose. Give away prizes and free books. I even think it’s smart for authors to consider a publisher’s support for giving things away when they decide to submit to them.

·         Consistency is the absolute bottom line. ZAM said this but I want to repeat it. Authors always come and ask me “What marketing works?” I tell them the marketing they do all the time. There is NO magic bullet. Find what you enjoy or at least what you can stand to do and keep doing it. In a branding exercise, I asked readers on my blog what they think of when they see my name or one of my books. One woman replied, “I think ‘I see her name everywhere and I need to check her out’.” That’s what you want. It takes six or more exposures to get someone to even notice you and many more to get them to take action. It’s water on the rock. Eventually, you have the Grand Canyon!

I want to reinforce that marketing is not about selling stuff. It’s creating an environment in which sales can take place. It’s you forming a relationship with potential readers and sharing your best with them.  As someone in some movie sometime said, “It’s FUN, dammit!”  LOL 

Places to find Tara on the Web:
E-mail

Website:
Blog http
Goodreads
Pinterest
Twitter
FB Page
Amazon
B&N
ARe 

Thursday Think Tank: A Zamtastic Take on Promotion with Z.A. Maxfield

Greetings and Salutations, sweet readers. In today's Think Tank, we've got Z. A. Maxfield wearing the thinking cap. Oh, I know you might think that looks a bit like this...

But really, the zamtastic truth is a bit more multifaceted. Zam the author does seem to have magical powers in both creating phenomenal stories and in creating an online community where not only her own work, but that of others can flourish. If you've never had a chance to visit her Yahoo Group (or rather, Cybercafe) then you really ought to go pay a visit. Some days are quiet, but when everyone shows up and hangs out? It's an amazing place not unlike Oz. No, really. I even met a wizard there. 

So of course I had to invite this dear lady to the Writing Cave for a visit, hoping she could spread a little of her magic here. And low and behold, she agreed. Therefore it gives me tremendous pleasure to introduce the magnificent Z.A. Maxfield. 

Zam?

Zam? Helloooo? Sheesh, are you off playing with baby hedgehogs again? Or is it more of the cute men that live in your head? What? Both? Oooooh, do tell. No, really. Tell. *drat, she's all focused today and staying on topic* Okay, well, then, get to the bit about promotion and then afterwards get straight back to writing some more fabulous stories. 

When Cherie Noel invited me to talk a little about promotion and marketing, I was a little surprised. At the time, I didn’t consider that I did a lot of promo. In the last two weeks, though, much of that seems to have changed. I’ll tell you what I’ve been thinking and working on lately, because it represents the first time I’ve given my marketing practices structure.

Being in any community, the key is to be a good neighbor. So first and foremost, I’ve tried to make acquaintances in the writing and publishing community and I treat these people as friends.

I read extensively and I’m not afraid to praise where it’s due. I share the books I’m reading with my friends and readers. I often drop a line to an author after I’ve read something I’ve particularly enjoyed. Sometimes I do this in my author persona, but often I do it in my real-life persona, because I’m a fan like anyone else.

My enthusiasm for the work we do is part of how I market, it’s the very first thing I think about: what am I reading, and who can I thank for the ride? I’m forging relationships that I hope will last my lifetime and I’m cross promoting with people I care about deeply.

Lately, I’ve established a hard and fast blogging schedule. I do two blogs a week on my website under the NEWS heading, and I find that’s working rather well for me.

Offering entertainment is the cornerstone of marketing. We need to think like television programmers. Sure, it’s the commercials that pay the bills, but what would happen if we aired commercials all day?

Offering a weekly “Friday flash fiction” or a “guess the book from my backlist” type blog post every week lets people know they can tune in to my website for entertainment and rewards, and of course, that means they’ll be there when I have marketing news to share as well.

My thinking is this: I don’t want people coming to my website only when they want to buy something, although I don’t mind if they do. I want people to see my part of the Internet world as fun. I want them to wonder what I’m going to write in my flash fiction blog this Friday. I might even ask them to send images I can riff on. I want my readers to engage.

I see consistency is the key to this. If I have a Tuesday Teasers blog post, then I don’t let a Tuesday go by without one. I want readers to tune in expecting something fun! I want them to plan to spend a very small amount of time with me on Tuesdays, because it’s amusing, exciting, and rewarding.

The next thing is I want to drive reader traffic -- ALL traffic – towards a subscription of some kind. I use Mail Chimp to create newsletters. I want my readers to sign up for my newsletter, which means giving me both, their email address and permission to send them mail.

Social networking is lovely, but I’m competing with how many people on a reader’s twitter stream? What I want is someone who not only gives me permission to email them, I want a person who looks forward to receiving my mail.

That means I want to (again), amuse, excite, and entertain. I want to give the reader content they aren’t going to get anywhere else. Free stories. Edited scenes. The option to maybe name characters in my books.

I want them to have exclusive content -- something I’ve written just for newsletter subscribers. I want to give them something to look forward to. Some kind of reward for their loyalty.

If they’re giving me something, I need to give something in return, right?

Is this a pipe dream? I don’t think so.

There are authors whose newsletters I enjoy reading. They’re a fun extension of the books I enjoy. I recently signed up for a second weekly newsletter from a single author, and who does that? Who signs up for a second newsletter?

The better question is how can I write one like that!

That newsletter (which I really enjoy) is the perfect example of what I’m talking about. I will be looking to for more books and entertainment from this author for years to come. (If you want to know, it’s Jordan Castillo Price.)

Social media is hit and miss. My forays into social media should be like auditions. I try to put out the best, wittiest stuff. It’s a teaser. The goal is to drive traffic to my newsletter. I offer the opportunity to sign up for newsletters on my website, on Facebook, on Twitter. Then I produce entertaining, exclusive copy on a regular basis.

Currently it seems to be paying off, so I suggest giving a three-fold marketing plan a try:

1.      Create entertaining content on all social networking fronts and use that to drive traffic to newsletter signups.

2.      Make entertainment the lynchpin of a newsletter system – one where you’ve gained permission to email readers with exclusive content and contests. Offer value, and make your little corner of the reader’s inbox a place worth investigating Every single time you send them anything.

3.      Be consistent.

Some things to remember: Even if a writer is limited to fewer marketing hours, it pays to make a plan.

Whether you choose to do your newsletter weekly (I don’t recommend this, if you plan on doing anything else) or quarterly, make a schedule and stick to it. Post your blog posts regularly so your readers get used to looking for them.

Blog in a central place and use something like SNAP – a wordpress social networking auto-poster to update other services like Tumblr, Twitter, Amazon, Goodreads, and Facebook.

And Most IMPORTANT: Have fun. You’re the pied piper. You’re leading your readers into the world of your imagination. It’s time to be the most enthusiastic kid on the block and share your love of books, of reading, and of networking with other authors, and with your fans. 

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Thanks for spending a little time with Zam and I here at the Cave. You can find more of the indomitable, real deal Zam a nearly any etailer out there, but I will provide a few linkys!

Social Media for Zam:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

or Best Idea Yet, Sign up for ZAM's News, Free Reads and Exclusive contests HERE!! 

Buy Links for any of her books- Necessary, trust me on this. You are going to want to read everything the woman has ever turned her brilliant hand to.

Allromanceebooks

Amazon

or at any of the publishers she's with... I'll check on those and update this blog later today. Toodles!

Okay, I'm running my feet off, and Zam is published all over the place, so go to the link above that says BEST IDEA YET... click on the word HERE and hop on over to ZAM's site for fun, games, free reads and links to all her book buying locals! 

Get these two books if you've never read them. They rock!

Sunday Sweet Thang

Today for me? The sweetest thing is time with my kidlet and recognizing that in order to stay true to my author voice I need to revise a manuscript. I love knowing what direction I'm heading in, don't you? What's your Sweet Thing today? I'd like a sweet boy to share my sleepy Sunday with, and Bono definitely qualifies for me. :)

Enjoy, babies!

Saturday Surprise: Thursday's Time-delayed Think Tank with Vicktor Alexander

Marketing & The Author: Just Be Yourself

I get asked a lot by different authors what I did, or what I do, to market myself and make myself so successful.

Well, after I stop laughing because they called me successful, I’m completely honest with them.

I. Have. No. Idea.

No seriously. I don’t.

I’ve taken some marketing classes and I can tell you all about how the books say to promote your brand. Make sure your brand looks good. Treat your brand like a favored child.

Blah.

Blah.

Blah.

The fact of the matter is, what works for me, may not work for you. My marketing strategies, nonexistent as they are, are geared and created for me. I don’t think I’ve ever run into someone with a story like mine, who is a Messianic black Jew, with an uber religious family, who has suffered abuse, trauma, rape, been on drugs, been an alcoholic, who is also transgender, gay and a single father. My story is unique.

But so is yours.

My bio mother used to tell me all the time that we are all Designer Originals. There is no one else out there who writes like you. No one else can breathe life into YOUR characters, but YOU. No one else knows your characters’ worlds, their quirks, their likes and dislikes. To you they are alive. Living, breathing organisms that laugh, cry, get angry, have sex, fight, survive and triumph over all of the obstacles you toss in their path.

So use that.

Make your characters as real to your audience as you can. Not just in your books, but outside of them. Every so often, Tommy, one of my most popular characters from the Tate Pack series, will pop up on my blog and completely take over. The readers love that and I love being able to share more of Tommy with them.

I share with my readers,, and other authors, certain aspects of my life. I don’t share everything, I’m still a pretty private person, and I probably won’t even share the same thing with everyone, but I share enough so that my readers (and other authors) don’t think that I sit in the Purple Fantasy Den, writing books upon books and sitting on piles of money. I make myself real to my readers. I make myself personable. They know they can share with me and I’ll share back. I let them know when I cried while writing a book and they let me know that they cried reading it. I know that while I may be an author, I’m only a writer without my readers, and that’s something that’s very important to understand.

Yes, I run contests, yes I do blog hops and host other authors on my blog (Ask Author every Monday and Friday is Blog Pimpage/Flash Friday), but for the most part my marketing strategy is just being myself. I don’t let arrogance that I am an author contaminate my being so that way it doesn’t bleed over into my writing. I’m honest with my readers when I tell them I don’t do reviews and I don’t usually read my own unless I’m feeling particularly emotionally strong.

My readers appreciate knowing that I have never forgotten the fact that while I may be an author to them, I’m still just a reader to authors like Amy Lane, Mary Calmes, Andrew Grey, Stormy Glenn, Gabrielle Evans, Jana Downs, Toni Griffin, Cherie Noel, N.J. Nielsen, AKM Miles, and a host of other authors that I won’t take the time to name because we’d be here all day.

I usually try to have something special every day on my blog and/or website. Mondays are Ask Author or Man-oh-Man Monday (flash pieces inspired by photo prompts/descriptions). Tuesdays are Tantalizing Teaser Tuesdays where I share some bit of sexy from either a new release, a coming-soon, or a WIP. Wednesdays are WIP Wednesday where I let the readers know what I’m working on and share an excerpt. Thursday is Tate Pack/Character Thursday where a character from one of my books (usually from the Tate Pack) shows up and just lets loose. Friday is Blog Pimpage/Flash Fiction Friday. I either talk about the blog/website of an author/reader/reviewer/blogger/etc that I like and talk about it or I write a quick 1-5k word short just for the readers.

Maybe it’s the fact that they have something new every day (when I have the time to devote to setting up a week), maybe it’s me being real, talking about my bio family, disappointments, hurts, failures, triumphs, etc. Maybe it’s how much I’m on social media like Facebook or Twitter. Maybe it’s my Yahoo Group.

Or maybe it’s just the stories that I write.

I have no idea what I do to market myself. I’m just myself and I put Vic on display, not completely, there are parts of me still in the shadows, but there’s enough of me out there that readers know who I am, know they can come talk to me and know that my personality spills over into my writing. I don’t trash other author’s work, or other author’s in general, I don’t trash reviewers, bloggers, I donate money to charities and encourage my readers to do the same. I’m a philanthropist and an advocate for change and encourage them to do the same. I sign petitions, I used to march, I write posts about serious topics on my personal blog and I share them with my readers so that they know that I am a real person with real morals, ideals, values and substance.

Maybe that’s what appeals to them. So my best advice to someone about being an author and marketing?

Be yourself. Because yourself is fabulous and the readers will see it and flock to you.

-Vicktor Alexander

Technical Difficulties: BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPP!

Due to technical difficulties, yesterday's Thursday Think Tank has been rescheduled for Saturday. Please forgive us technoprotozoans here at the cave... we are evolving as rapidly as possible, but occasionally something above our level of expertise causes an unavoidable delay! The Think Tank post on promotion from Vicktor Alexander will be up tomorrow!

Fantastic Friday... because Jambrea Jo Jones loves him so!

There he is, in all his angry sexiness. Muah, Jambie. Have a great weekend.

Thursday Think Tank: It's all about Community

Before you start, they comments function isn't working. I'm trying to get  it fixed, but in the mean-time, you can leave comments on FaceBook either at AmyLaneAnonymous or at AmyLane by clicking on those words. :) Sorry about the difficulty!

Good morning my beautiful babies, and welcome to Thurday's Think Tank. For the next little while we are going to concentrate on an issue I've stumbled over and seen other authors freeze, flee, or begin to flail about in confusion when confronted with the boogey-monster of promotion.

In fact, my friend Linda, who is a newly minted Officially Published through a verra important Publishing House Author, expressed bafflement over the whole do I/don't I promotion dealio. Was it, she wondered, the same as when you self-publish? What if anything changes when under the auspices of a publishing house? I could completely understand why, because there seems to be this pervasive myth that each newly published author stumbles over. For some reason, many of us (yes, please do include me here) mistakenly believe that once we get picked up by a reputable publishing house, our days of beating our hearts against the jagged rocks of promotion will become a thing of the past.

Linda, sweets, I am not great at promoting. But I know some folks who are, and who are sweethearts about sharing their knowledge with the new kids on the block. So pull up a seat here in my little cave… no, don’t worry about getting a beverage. We’ll send the cabana boys out for something once the show gets started.



Righty-O then. Without further ado, let me introduce our first “subject matter expert”. You know her I’m sure, and if you don’t then get thee to the nearest bookseller and buy anything with her name on it. There’s not a single bad apple in Amy Lane’s book-barrel, honest.



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The sound of thousands of joyfully screaming minions is heard as Amy creeps quietly into the writing

Amy Lane and feline friend.

cave, knitting in hand. She flashes a sweet, wicked and somehow shy smile. The cabana boys fight over the honor of getting her beverage, but her loyal and awesome MATE quells them all with a single look. He has brought her favorite things, and a big swatter in case there are any stray cave-spiders that might threaten his smishable Twu-Wuv… Amy settles into her spot, setting aside her kitten and beginning to knit as she speaks.

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Okay-- so Cherie asked me for tips I'd give beginners if they're trying to promo a book, and while I've got a list that I sort of rock out whenever someone asks me, I thought I'd start with the most obvious thing, and the thing that's helped me the absolute most when it comes to promotion:



Be a part of your community.



Now, it's easy in this community-- we tend to write what we read, and the m/m romance community is small enough that most of the writers know their most ardent fans. But even if you're writing m/f or PNR or whatever, be a part of your community. Be a positive part-- if you go on forums, be known as an advocate, not a troll. Be a voice of enthusiasm, or of thoughtfulness, but be a part of your network. I've been

Amy Lane and Ariel Tachna at GayRomLit 2012

approached by random writer, asking to post on my blog. Now I have let people post on my blog--but only if they've read it before and know me, and know my family and know what I was going for. I'm not going to let random person intrude on my personal space--this person didn't know me, not even my public persona, so the answer was no. But the person I did allow to guest post (and I messed it up--sorry Daisy!) knew me from Twitter, and was really respectful about the approach. It all comes to being respectful, and being known. If your comments or your support or your enthusiasm or your respect has made you a positive part of your community in the first place, when it's time to ask people for their help getting the word out, they are much more likely to give you a hand aboard the promo train.



That being said, here's a handy list I made for fellow authors on the verge of a first release:

Author Devon Rhodes and  the famous Chris of Stumbling Over Chaos. Yes, yes, Chris is exactly the kind of contact that will be invaluable in promoting, but as Devon knows, the best part is that Chris is wry and witty and just plain fun to spend an evening with... she's got a zillion fascinating stories. If you find yourself next to her at GRL, for goodness sake, just chat. You'll be glad you got to know her.

A. Tap any book bloggers you know (remember that community part!) and ask if you can do a guest host

B. If you belong to any FB or forum groups, ask permission and follow user guidelines to post that the book is out.

C. When you do that, there may be some people who offer to review your book. Take them up on it.

D. Post on your own social media sites-- Twitter, FB, etc.

E. Have a blog or a regularly updated website with all of your contact and buy information there for easy use.

F. When the book comes out on amazon.com and GoodReads.com, get yourself an author page. Make sure your Twitter and/or blog and/or website feed are tapped into your author page.

G. Ask your publisher if they have a web page or something-- most of the publishers I know have a publicity

...and always carry your emergency knitting.

person who wants to help you, and at least three media outlets through which to do it. Twitter chats, FB chats, blog chats-- all a possibility. Be prepared to be very busy writing things that are not fiction-- guest blog posts, chat posts, little mini press releases-- have them all ready.

H. Be prepared to answer any responses made to Twitter, FB, guest blogs and media posts-- don't just post and run, follow up and chat.

Amy loves Mary Calmes books.

I. Talk to other authors about their books. You don't need to mention your own unless it comes up, but your enthusiasm for their work will come around and translate into enthusiasm for yours.



J. Enjoy. It took me a long time before I realized that promoting my book was actually work. For a while, it just felt like celebrating with my friends.

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Places to find Amy Lane: 

FaceBook

Twitter

Green's Hill

Yarning to Write

Goodreads