Sin By Royal Command discussion

http://www.independentauthornetwork.c...

I suppose the first question would be, what is the paradigm for a good advert? Is it judged good due to resulting sales, or based on how it's crafted?

The advert in question is well-crafted, with a blend of author background along with the work being offered. By this metric I'd say it's good, and should capture the interest of readers looking for a bit of intrigue and romance. If Wife gave me an allowance, I'd look for a print.

On to the question of paying to have a similar page -- I currently have no budget for advertising / promotion. Were the situation different, I'd probably go for it, if the price is reasonable enough (to placate the Scot in me).

I hope this has helped.

** Edit 04/01 @ 15:14 **
As it happens, I looked and took a peak at the print version. Once we get into a house on our property I'll hopefully remember an addition to our library stock.

All about the figures, most book adverts follow the same template of excerpts, blurb, reccy, images etc but some combinations get amazing results.
The trick is to keep changing them up and banging them out and see what goes boom.
Also, automate your advertising and write more books, Direct Related Content trumps any hand. Your third book is also your fourth as you can release the first three again as a three in one.
Facebook is dead, pinterest is hot and Linkedin is on fire.

Here I've included a link to the software I use to automate mine, it wipes the floor with any other social media software out there, oh yeah, it also tells you how to sell a million books and in part two I'll be covering Goodreads and Linkedin too!

http://www.marknpablo.dreamhosters.co...

I am in no way an advertising guru. I have absolutely no experience with selling anything. I am willing, however, to offer opinions on just about anything, regardless of my knowledge of the subject :)

It sounds like you want some honest feedback. I'll give that below. Just please keep in mind that it's solely my opinion based on absolutely no expertise.

I saw two things on the website: an author profile and a book description.

I didn't particularly care for either.

Regarding the author profile:

As for technical merit, I found nothing wrong with it. The problem is - what's the point? What were you trying to achieve with it?

You started with a resume of your writing. Since that resume appears limited, you might want to avoid that subject. If it were me, I definitely wouldn't want to highlight it by putting it first.

Next is a pretty dry account of your major interests. I'm not sure, however, if that account is going to connect with anyone other than people who happen to share the same interest.

It seems to me that the best author bios I've read are the ones that helped me connect to the writer on a human level. Maybe more casual anecdote and less polished resume?

Regarding the book description:

The overwhelming sensation that enveloped me? Dry!

It reads like a recitation of the facts of the story without conveying any emotion. Maybe try to rewrite it really getting inside Lizzie's head and focusing on what she feels instead of the plot?

Also, shouldn't the queen's quote be in quotation marks?

Regarding the advertisement itself:

These days, 90+% of my buying decision is made based on the book preview. I didn't see an easy way to read the preview on the advertisement page. I'd have to click the link to Amazon, wait for that to load, then click the sample there, and wait for that to load.

Hope this helps.

Sorry I didn't like it more.

Brian

Sarah wrote: "http://www.independentauthornetwork.c..."

Hi, Sarah!!

I like the format of having an image of the book cover next to a quote or other piece of promotional text. I had a little bit of trouble, though, reading some of the text because of the bright rainbow color behind it. Maybe you could change (or lighten) the background color so that it's easier to read the text.

April