LeAnn’s Comments (group member since Jun 02, 2011)

LeAnn’s comments from the ROBUST group.

"Giveaways" are listed under the "Explore" pull-down menu on the upper right. Select that. As an author, you should see "list a giveaway" in the upper right once you get to the main Giveaway page. There are instructions there.

I gave away 10 books in the U.S. and Canada.

Congrats, Kat!

Once I figured things out, I started planning ahead. If you can set up the pre-orders and get some advance reviews, that can only help get the ball rolling.

Andre Jute wrote: "Dakota has a personal page with "friends", limited to 5000. She didn't see the point of a professional page and now it is probably too late."

That probably depends on her, Andre. I added a professional author page last fall, but I didn't have 5,000 followers. I think with a little work that she could invite her current followers to "like" her new Author page (I also have book pages, but I don't think that it makes sense to have separate book pages due to the workload). She might not bring all of them over to the new one, but she can administer both pretty easily from the same account and "share" items between them.

J.A. wrote: "While we're discussing things, LeAnn have you considered changing the cover of The Last Stratiote. I haven't looked into any research regarding it, but I have three personal experiences (one with one of my books and two with my wife's) where I found that monochromatic ebook covers tend to murder sales (in all three cases, replacing with a less monochromatic cover of similar basic design but no other changes to the books resulted in significant increases in sales)."

I hadn't yet considered changing the cover ... your personal experience is helpful, but I tend to ask around to readers I like to attract (some of which have design experience, though not of book covers). I'll certainly quiz them, maybe even iterate a few changes to see what they think (because it's easier to respond to iterations of visuals than simply describing them).

Andre Jute wrote: "lso, Dakota has 5000 Facebook fans (Facebook won't let her have have any more) ..."

Does she have a personal Facebook page that's public or does she have a Facebook Author page? I ask because I know that trad authors have in the 10s of thousands of fans but personal pages are limited to 5,000 followers (different term used here, I think).

Last fall, I was asked to list a title with a book club that I really didn't think matched my readership, but I'm paid by who "checks" out my titles, so I decided not to ignore this opportunity. Anyway, the guy running the site has been creating videos and online seminars in how to market and sell books for the club's authors. It might be worth a look, Kat, since you've got a paranormal romance.

Here's the latest email for a "webinar" to be held tomorrow:

This coming Tuesday I'm going to be breaking down
how I'm able to reach up to 3 million people per week in a niche basically nobody has heard of...

This live webinar is called "7 steps to creating a successful audience driven business...

This event is totally free and you can register here:
http://webinarjam.net/webinar/go/2795...

This is for For Speakers, Authors, Coaches & Entrepreneurs Who Needs An Audience To Thrive...

---> How To Easily Locate And Then "Attract" Your Ideal Audience...
---> How I'm Able To Reach Up To 3 MILLION People Each Week & Engage Them...
---> How To Get Major Celebrities, Bestselling Authors And More To Endorse YOU To Their Raving Fanbase...
---> How To Avoid The #1 Deadliest Mistake Nearly Every Entrepreneur Is Making Right Now...
---> How To Use Simple "Leverage" To Automate The Majority Of Your Business...
---> And Much, MUCH More...

This will be a "Google Hangout" based good time so make sure you are on live as I'll be taking questions and really digging into the "behind the scenes" of how I'm able to reach up to 3 million people per week...

Register now:
http://webinarjam.net/webinar/go/2795...


To WORLD Domination,

Jonny Andrews

If you try it out, let me know if he's got any "surefire" tips.

K. A. wrote: "Oh...pre-orders...that might be very good once I've got Part 2 in the can.

I must admit that I've never understood blog tours. How does that work?

I was doing well on Sony...until they closed. Ap..."

Well, I only did blog tours with my first book, but I think they were extremely helpful for getting a lot of steady reviews that left me with a solid base of reviews (the Amazon free promotion with the second book, however, didn't do this as well).

At that time, I contacted two "tour" companies, TLC and Pump Up Your Books. They charge big bucks, however ($400-$600 dollars for a couple dozen book bloggers, supposedly vetted for size of following, reliability, and taste).

Unfortunately, I don't think that TLC works with indie authors any more, which is too bad given Andre's advice about professional promotion. The bloggers and readers for TLC take their work very seriously and tend to be highly educated and well spoken.

Pump Up Your Books ... I think they probably still take indie authors. You can find the "operator" here on Goodreads. Her name is Dorothy Thompson. I found the many, though not all, reviewers there to be good.

So you probably would prefer to do this on the cheap. If you have the time and know bloggers, I'm told that you can set these up yourself. You'd need to contact a couple dozen bloggers about three months before your release. Most probably take digital ARCs now, so there's no printing and mailing costs (I had to send out books four years ago).

If you have the pre-order mechanism online while the bloggers are posting reviews (and interviews of you or possibly posts you write), then readers can order even if the book isn't yet available.

Given what I've learned now, I'd probably combine pre-orders with a blog tour in the future. I'm just not sure how to line up the bloggers since the ones I've come across who seem ideal don't typically accept indie books.

K. A. wrote: "Branding! It's all about branding.

Target your market with subtle visual clues...which I've found is easier said than done...just like everything else.

Maybe I can get a few more hits now."

Yeah, it's the subtle thing I'm failing at.

Andre Jute wrote: "You can control who reads your books by where you market them, say Apple rather than Amazon, by the cover design, by the quality and aim of promotional material, by your public associations, etc. Doesn't work infallibly but the effects aren't negligible either."

This is probably where I could use help. Although I've studied some of the factors that go into cover design, I'm still amazed at the number of readers who read my books who shouldn't.

I can't pull my books from Amazon because that's where most of my sales are, but I certainly agree that Amazon isn't the place for my ideal reader. If there are specific places to promote my books for Apple/B&N customers, please share them because I do have significant sales in those channels.

Beyond a media kit and occasional online posts, what other promotional materials do you use? I know some genre authors hand out "swag," but I don't see the point (even for them). Bookmarks? I don't think so. I fear that I don't have the networking associations for the readers I want to attract -- probably not typical book club readers, but definitely not the typical Amazon low-price reader either.

Andre Jute wrote: "It's not fashionable to have morals these days, LeAnn.

Not every book is suitable for every reader. There are also readers a writer, if he is smart, won't want, because they can damage the image o..."

I don't think it's ever fashionable to have morals. In this case, I'm going to pretend that it's a murky issue and that I'm not immoral. (My books are just about everywhere online.)

As for avoiding the wrong readers, if you have a way to control who reads my books, I'd love to hear it.

There is no guarantee that once Google has the image of your book on disk they won't at some other time do something equally arrogant and thuggish and dishonest.

I suspect they're all slimy thieves. I'm just not in a position to take the moral high ground. Then again, I think the idea of being available everywhere might not really make sense. If your typical reader buys from Apple and B&N, then there's no reason to be available everywhere.

Apparently, not very well. But I'll offer the usual suggestions anyway.

If you've got a paperback version, I'd suggest a Goodreads giveaway. If you can line up some bloggers for a tour that runs just after you release your book, that could get you some initial buzz.

Were Cool Main Press books previously available in all those channels? Have you considered Google Books as well or is that not a good distribution channel in your opinion?

I just read the Wikipedia article on it. "Strange" doesn't begin to cover this brave new world we inhabit.

K. A. wrote: "What baffles us (I think) all is the number of people who make a living writing porn. (scratches head) I'm willing to try anything once...except that."

I'm not baffled. Not willing to write that genre (no matter what euphemisms are applied to it) or read it though.

We can only hope that it's a trend that won't hold. Even the most titillating subjects lose their effect when they're commonplace.

Andre, I admit to a desire to earn some money from the fruits of my labors, but that's never defined my reason for writing. As a young adult, I consciously rejected the idea that I should take what I felt was the easy way out and write genre books, despite having a few genre favorites (and now I believe the best genre books are not as easy to write as I once thought).

Your comment about professionals believing that attempts to tailor books for sales will guarantee insulting sales reminds me of a conversation I had as an aspiring novelist with my father-in-law, an MBA who reads only NY Times bestsellers like John Grisham. He very "helpfully" suggested that I adopt Grisham's approach to getting published. He said that Grisham had met with publishers to determine what they wanted to publish. Whether his story was actually true or not never occurred to me. I didn't believe that approach guaranteed anything on its own merits, nor was I willing to become a hack to call myself an author. (If truth be told, I didn't think at the time that I could write to a publisher's specification because I didn't want to turn the creative part over to someone else.)

When I finished The Last Stratiote, I told my husband that it is a good book that no one would want to read because of what you have called its upmarket flavor. I'm fine with that. The literary merits take precedence.

K.A., yes, indie publishing pays better per book, but obviously the number of books sold matter as well. If a writer can feel certain that her book wouldn't even be published traditionally for whatever reason, then indie publishing makes sense. The odds favor that choice in general, but maybe not specifically.

I agree that writing and publishing isn't an easy business. It's definitely one largely outside the control of writers. My question was more about evaluating my own decision-making and trying to understand various consequences now that I have more experience and knowledge.

A few years ago, while I was still reading agents' blogs, I read a post by Nathan Bransford, an agent whose posts I always found generous and compassionate, if still pragmatic. I think his advice about trying to get an agent applies to indie publishing, maybe publishing in general. Those of us not in Andre's top one percent must paradoxically pursue writing in all seriousness while not letting it take over our lives to the exclusion of other crucial, and more certain, priorities, such as family.

Andre Jute wrote: "I wouldn't warn off aspirants, LeAnn. It's amazingly difficult to tell who will cut it and who won't: vide the numbers of MSS trad publishers chose that didn't earn their advances. The profession is more open now than at any time in history."

I guess that's fair, Andre. It's just that there's not a lot of pragmatism floating about when it comes to publishing, especially indie publishing. Right after Hugh Howey released his "report," I read Michael Bunker's blog post titled "Is Traditional Publishing A Choice? Not Really." Despite agreeing with his basic premise, I think that indie publishing isn't clearly the right path for hardworking writers who write excellent books and present them (and themselves) professionally. Plus, for all the touted control that indie publishing offers aspiring authors, the reality is much less positive if they must write prolifically to feed whatever the current reading tastes demand. Since it's a readers' (that is, buyers') market out there, writers who want to succeed at the indie game will have to convince more than a few gatekeepers to be successful.

So which route should an aspiring author commit herself to? I mean, the given here is that the aspirant can't really know from her limited perspective that her book is or isn't commercially viable under a trad publishing model. She might believe that it's worthy of publishing and that a trad publisher would want to publish it should she be able to connect her MSS to the right agent at the right time, etc. How long should she wait before taking illusory control over her publishing career? Because once a writer has taken that step down the seductive indie road, I believe she's less likely to find a trad publisher. That's my own personal leap, based on another assumption: that indie publishing might be another path to landing an agent and trad publisher (for those so inclined) as a kind of proof of concept. Should an indie not sell well, then that can be taken as a proof, just not the one the indie believes in her heart of hearts.

I will never be as prolific as your analysis suggests is necessary to earn a living. Even if I get back on track and continue to write steadily for the next three decades, I will just about reach the magic 17 titles that you cited up-thread. Of course, I would never identify a target number for myself because writing novels isn't about turning out widgets for me.