Guest Post by Raimey Gallant: Never too early to start building your author platform

Whether you aspire to self publish or traditionally publish, make no mistake, you will be responsible for the lion share of the marketing efforts to sell your books. And if you aim to get in the traditional game, I have heard two, count them TWO horror stories of fiction authors being rejected because of their lack of a presence and following online. One of these stories was about an author being passed over by an agent, and the other was about a publishing company that passed on an agented manuscript.

That’s right, as it relates to becoming traditionally published, despite all the current rhetoric across countless blogs that high social media numbers are only a prerequisite for non-fiction authors, the times, they are a changin’.

I can’t predict how quickly this will become the norm, but now that you’ve been forewarned from a new author who has her ear to the ground, the question is, what are you going to do about it?
Because I happen to be a brilliant marketer *polishes nails on shoulder*, I can tell you what you’re going to do. First, there’s no need to stress. Rather, a take-it-in-stride approach is most effective.

Whether you’re new to social media and blogging or slightly further along your journey toward building an author platform, the key to avoiding that I-wanna-run-my-smartphone-through-the-microwave moment is to take it slow. My experience is that every social media platform is overwhelming until it isn’t, meaning sign up one at a time, take some time to learn how it works, and all of a sudden, it’s built into your routine, and you don’t even need to think about it.

But why would I take advice from you, Raimey? You’re not even published yet. Good point. But by the time I hit send on that first query letter, my social media numbers will be added incentive for agents and publishers to sign me, I can tell you that.

Good. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, the next step is creating engagement. It’s one thing to create social media profiles, but if you want people to like/heart/interact with you online, you have to encourage them to do so by engaging with them first.

That sounds like a lot of work, Raimey. Are you sure you know what you’re talking about? Let’s put it this way: 1) I am in the middle of hosting a 400-participant author blog and social media hop, which is, in it’s essence, a follow-back campaign of engaged authors across all social media platforms, and the hop blog post received 5,000 page views in the first week; 2) In the past two months, I received two requests to guest post on other author’s blogs (including the wonderful host of this blog Mr. Tony Riches); and 3) I have increased my Twitter following by 5,000 in the past eight months.

Fiction authors need to be aware that in addition to the quality of their manuscript, agents and publishers are starting more and more to judge candidates on the size of their online following. Don’t wait until you finish writing the book to get your social media profiles together. Start slow but start now, and like me, you’ll see dividends soon enough.

Raimey Gallant

# # #

About the Author

Raimey Gallant is a marketing and fundraising consultant who is currently writing a top secret, twisty crime thriller that is freaking awesome, if she does say so herself. If you want more advice from Raimey on building your author platform, it’s probably a good idea to follow her Wordpress blog, as well as her Twitter and Facebook pages post haste. Like, immediately.

How to Produce a YouTube Book Trailer

Fred Barnard, an enterprising advertising executive in the early 1920s, is credited with the phrase "a picture is worth ten thousand words"  in a headline selling advertising in trams. Fred knew he was on to something - and I wonder what he would have made of the power of a one-minute YouTube video?

With over a billion users, the number of people watching on YouTube each month is up 50% year on year. The problem is that over three hundred hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, so how can you expect your modest book trailer to ever be seen?

The answer is to use it across your author platform. My new video has had under a hundred views on YouTube – but has been widely shared on Twitter and Facebook, as well as uploaded to my Amazon and Goodreads author pages, as well as adding interest to my website. Here then, are the (relatively) simple steps to produce your book trailer:

Invest in simple Video production software

There are plenty of low cost packages on the market, so I chose Cyberlink’s PowerDirector, which has an intuitive ‘drag-and-drop’ visual timeline. As well as being easy to use, PowerDirector optimises your video for YouTube upload. PowerDirector also includes a wealth of free templates and effects, although I recommend keeping things simple.

Track down suitable music

It is important to remember the average span of attention you should expect from browsing book buyers is one minute. This means your soundtrack needs to make effective use of such a short time. You need to make sure it is copyright free or obtain consent – and it is easier to make the video fit the soundtrack than the other way around. My brother kindly composed and produced the music to accompany my previous video for The Secret Diary of Eleanor Cobham. The new one has an extract from Cantiga 166 by Vox Vulgaris and the Swedish composer Rasmus Fleischer was happy to give permission for its use.

Decide on the text

I find it best to use the book description as a starting point – and this can sometimes highlight ways to improve your wording. Six or seven key points in short sentences are all you should try for in one minute. Try it out on a slow reader before uploading the video, to make sure you’ve allowed enough time.

Select images and video clips

I like to start and end the trailer with a cover shot, although it can be tricky to find copyright free pictures and video clips, Fred Barnard will tell you the effort is definitely worthwhile. There are some useful free images listed in Dana Fox’s post, 30 Free Stock Photo Resources, which also has some useful guidance on image licences.

Apply some effects

The most impressive book trailers are surprisingly sparing with special effects. I try to limit it to simple fades, with one or two effects to grab attention where appropriate.

Produce the video for upload

Most video production packages offer a bewildering range of options. I’ve been using an aspect ratio of 16:9 to encode MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video format in high definition. (MPEG-4 AVC uses better compression than MPEG-2, using less space to produce a video of similar quality with faster uploading.) Make sure you keep all your source files in a folder and back them up, as you’ll need them if you want to update the video later.

Upload to YouTube

If you don’t already have a YouTube account they are free and easy to create and there are instructions here.  You can add the full cover ‘blurb’ for your book as well as purchase links in the video description. I usually create a special ‘thumbnail’ image if I don’t like any of the choices offered by the YouTube uploader.

And finally…

Share with your social networks and upload to your website, as well as your author pages.  When appropriate, you can also add the link to emails - most email systems now allow the recipient to view it within the message.

Good luck!

Tony Riches

      

Connecting with readers on Goodreads

Goodreads is for readers, so is not the place for authors to engage in self-promotion but there are over 25 Million registered users, looking at 750 Million books, who have created 29 Million reviews.  So how should you build this into your author platform? I've been on Goodreads for over four years and offer some thoughts on some things to consider:

1. Create your Goodreads author page

Your author page is separate from your member profile page, which lists your bookshelves friends and reviews. It doesn't take long and it’s free, so search for yourself and click on your published author name, then send a request to join the Goodreads Author Program. If you haven’t set up your page, Goodreads offers readers a disappointing silhouette, so switch that for your favourite photo. You can also add a bio, links to your blog and Twitter user name. I sometimes see authors who put the wrong links, so test them to make sure they work properly. (My Goodreads author page is HERE if you’d like to see what they look like.)

2. Make sure your books are listed

Your books don’t just appear on Goodreads, someone has to list them in the first place. The best person to do that is you, as soon as your book is launched. You can make sure the details are all correct, with the best cover image. If you added the book it is also much easier to update it in the future. Check before adding a book by searching by author and title – and read the guidelines. If your books need to be added, you will be given access to the online form.  You can also upload eBooks in epub or pdf and allow readers access to the whole book or an extract.

3. Start adding and reviewing books you read

The whole point of Goodreads is for readers to share thoughts about books they read, so please join in. I sometimes forget but am trying to make time to write a short paragraph and cross post on Amazon as well as Goodreads, so you have double value from your time and, depending on your review, may be helping other authors and readers.

4. Join and interact with Goodreads groups that match your genre(s)

There is a discussion group for everyone on Goodreads, including many led by Goodreads Authors so start exploring – just go to http://www.goodreads.com/group and type some keywords into the search box. Some groups offer book useful book promotion advice and are a great place to link up to other indie authors and find new ideas. (I recently formed a useful group of 'beta readers' for my new novel on a special interest group.)

5. Link to your writing blog with RSS

I have a lot of visitors to my writing blog via Goodreads, so it is definitely worth hooking up the RSS feed. (If you don’t know how to do it, here is step-by-step guidance) 

6. Post your promotional videos

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a one and half minute video worth? I’ll be posting later in this series on my experience with YouTube, but if you have a promotional video it makes sense to add it to your Goodreads author page.

7. Make time to update your status

This is one of the under-used areas of Goodreads, which means if you have time to bother your input stands out. All you need to do is go to http://www.goodreads.com/update_status and you’ll be presented with any books you’ve marked as currently reading, but you don’t have to limit your updates to that.

8. Send friend requests to like-minded reviewers and authors

Goodreads recommends that you only add someone as a ‘friend’ after you’ve interacted with them in a group or in a book discussion thread. I rarely bother sending friend requests to readers unless I have a really good reason, but it’s a useful way to keep tabs on other authors who share your interests.

9. Accept friend requests

Unlike Twitter, where you need to be a bit careful about who you follow back, I’m happy to accept any ‘friend requests’ on Goodreads. If I have the time I usually check out their blog and add them on Twitter if they have a Twitter username you can be fairly sure they’ll follow back.

10. Help other authors

One of the Goodreads groups I like is Authors Helping Authors described as is a place where authors and bloggers can come together and help one another out. If you have a writing blog this is a great place to find authors interested in guest posting.

# # #

Do you have more ideas and suggestions on how to get the best from Goodreads? If so, please feel free to add a comment below

Authors: How to create a free smartphone optimised 'showcase' for your books

"Our behaviour as consumers is evolving." This comes from a recent report on the exponential rise in smartphone use, which predicts over six billion users by 2020. Research in the US also concludes, 'nearly two-thirds of Americans are now smartphone owners, and for many these devices are a key entry point to the online world.' 

I've been aware of the significant rise in smartphone use by book buyers for some time, (and I've even heard of people reading books on smartphones!) so was interested to experiment with the free facilities in WiX to see what was possible. In particular, I wanted to see how quick and easy it was to set up - and how well my promotional YouTube videos would run.

If you're not familiar with WiX, they are have grown to over 60 million users in 190 countries and claim to offer the only 'drag and drop' website building platform with HTML5 capabilities - and guarantee that your experience is simple, fun and code-free. Although you can pay for premium services, their business model allows WiX to provide full websites free of charge.

You can see what I created here:

http://tonyriches.wix.com/historical-fiction

There are seven simple steps as follows:

1. Sign up for a free WiX account at WiX.com and choose a free layout template and background. (You don't need to pay as long as you don't mind having a small WiX advert in the corner)

2. Add your book cover images, with a short 'blurb' in a text box. (You can link the images to Amazon.)

3. Add alternative purchasing sites and your promotional videos from YouTube, if you have them:

4. Switch to the WiX Mobile Editor:

5. Now you can arrange your book layout by simply 'dragging and dropping' the elements:

(Purple guidelines appear as you move things, to make alignment easy)

6. Preview the results and test all the links to make sure they work.

7. Publish the new site and test on a smartphone.

You don't need any coding or technical skills, as it is all really intuitive and I didn't need to refer to the help files. Once you have the basic page working properly, you can add pages for an author bio etc. I also spent a few minutes improving the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) by adding keywords and put some social media links in the footer.

The whole thing didn't take long - and like me, you would probably copy and paste the contents from your main website. Most importantly, this approach enables you to extend your author platform at no cost, which is always worth considering. I can't see myself switching from blogger to the still rather 'clunky' blogging features of WiX - but my new 'experiment' has already replaced my Wordpress author site as the main showcase for my books. 

http://tonyriches.wix.com/historical-fiction

Setting Up Amazon Author pages

Your Amazon page should be an important part of your ‘author platform’ – yet many authors don’t bother. It may be they are so busy writing they really don’t have the time but it's easy to do and here are my ten top tips:

1. Create your own Amazon author page

This only takes a moment to do. Once you have an Amazon Author account and at least one book published on Amazon, simply visit https://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk/ or https://authorcentral.amazon.com/ (US) and follow the instructions. You probably have short author ‘bio’ and a suitable picture somewhere already. (I’ve seen research suggesting that readers like to see a picture of the author, so try to resist using a book cover, as I have seen some people do!) Readers can click on any of your books and be directed to the Kindle store where they can download the book in less than a minute. Also, any time you update your biography or claim a new book through Author Central, About the Author will update on Kindle giving your readers access to the most recent information.

2. Make sure all your books are linked to the page

Amazon leave this to you as they can’t always be sure which are your books. Simply click on the ‘Add More Books’ button and search for books you've written by title, author, or ISBN and add them. While you’re there you can also click on any of your books to check and add information about them.

3. Copy and paste your details to the other Amazon countries

Unfortunately, updates you make to any Amazon site don’t automatically find their way to the other twelve countries – but all you need to do is copy and paste the bio and update your list of books and add videos when you have the time. (I use Google translate to understand the prompts on the non-English sites – but would appreciate help from anyone who can help translate my German and French pages.)

4. Add your promotional videos

Promotional videos can bring your author platform to life and your Amazon pages are a great place to showcase them. Unlike some sites, you actually need to upload the video, rather than just add the YouTube embed code or link. You can ‘manage’ the order they are displayed and easily update them. I have had feedback from readers that they made the decision to buy my book after seeing the video, so they definitely work!

5. Link to your blog

Your writing blog can be linked to your Amazon US page with an RSS feed. This isn’t currently available on the other country sites and sounds more complicated than it is but really makes your page more dynamic, as well as bringing more readers to your blog. There are plenty of tutorials of how to do it – Amazon’s guidance is HERE.

6. Link to your Twitter feed

Assuming you are using Twitter as an author, this is a great way to engage with your readers. All you have to do is add your Twitter name and your most recent tweet will be displayed on your author page.

7. Create your personal Author Page URL

Your Author Page URL is an easy to share link to your Author Page on Amazon.com. You can use your Author Page URL in blog posts tweets. On your Profile, click add link next to Author Page URL. You can add any text up to 30 characters but it’s good to secure your author name before anyone else does. Check out my author page at this easy to remember url: Amazon.com/author/tonyriches

8. Update with forthcoming events

If you have any events such as book signings or talks you can share them on your Amazon page under ‘Events’. (Try to remember to keep them up to date though.)

9. Start a ‘Customer Discussion’ in your author forum

Readers can also visit your Amazon Author page to post questions in a dedicated ‘forum’ section at the bottom of the page. This doesn’t seem to be a well-used feature and I’ve only recently started experimenting with it but anything that helps you to engage with readers has to be a good idea.

10. See 'Customers Also Bought Items By...'

And finally… under your bio you can see a list of other authors your readers are interested in. I find it helpful to see who these are and what I can learn by looking at their books.

If you have any more ideas on how to improve Amazon Author Pages please comment below :)

See Also:

Twitter for Authors ~ Ten Top Tips

Tracking Amazon Ranking with AuthorRise

Have you ever wondered what triggered a book to suddenly 'leap' up (or drop down) Amazon rankings?  I often do, so it was partly through curiosity that I've been trialling an interesting new concept called AuthorRise. I asked founder and CEO Chris Weber to explain how it all came about:

It all started with a brainstorm between myself, Co-Founder/CEO, David Goldenberg, and  CTO/technical Co-founder Keith Woody. David was a long-time journalist and I was a literature major in college. Our mutual love of books led to us talking to dozens of authors - and we found the problem of growing a readership and putting books into their hands was universal and deeply felt.

Out of that need came AuthorRise. There are lots of promotion sites that offer authors a quick burst of marketing but we wanted to build something that supports sustainable, everyday actions that any author can take and go from zero readers to a successful business. If someone is serious about becoming a full-time author, it takes time, patience and perseverance.

Chris Weber

On the personal side, I attribute so much of what is good in my life to books, especially reading voraciously as a kid. My parents supported my reading habit without hesitation, even encouraging me to study literature in college despite it's lack of "real world practicality." My goal now is to support the environment that has helped me so much. I think bringing great work into the world is one of the noblest pursuits anyone can undertake, and I just hope to be a part of helping as many authors as possible find the success they're looking for.

Chris Weber

Co-Founder/CEO

www.AuthorRise.com

Book Launch ~ The Blind King, by Lana Axe @LanaAxe

New on Amazon US and Amazon UK

Two kingdoms at war. One possesses an elite force of fire mages, the other has only remnants of an army.

Passed over for the throne in favor of his younger brother, Prince Efren never expected to become king. Efren’s only wish was for a peaceful life in the country where he might raise a family of his own. Peace, however, was not to be found.

A neighboring kingdom declares war, throwing the land into chaos. His brother is slain in battle, and Efren is forced to ascend the throne. Threatened by an army of mages, his kingdom is quickly being invaded, and his people are fleeing for their lives. With little hope of victory, he seeks a solution that can turn the tide of war in his favor before all is lost. 

# # #

   About the Author

Lana Axe lives in Missouri near the edge of the woods. She is inspired by her love of nature to write about elves, magic, and adventure. Growing up in Mark Twain’s backyard inspired her love of fiction from an early age. She grew up an avid reader and went on to study literature in college. Find out more at Lana's website lana-axe.com and follow her on Twitter @LanaAxe

Four Time-Saving Social Media Tips Every Writer Needs to Know, by Frances Caballo

"...this book is a must for every writer who wants to sell books!" 

What is time suck? It’s the hours of time you can unintentionally spend in front of your computer reviewing Facebook posts, retweeting your Tweeps, and uploading photos while your writing and maybe even your family await your undivided attention.

We've all lost time while using Facebook. Perhaps our only intention was to post an update and an image, but then … look what happens instead? You see a post from a friend who is feeling down, so you stop to write an encouraging note. Then you notice that a colleague posted a great article about self-publishing, and you can't resist the temptation to read it. You navigate to the website with the article and you find a book for sale there. You've got to have it. So you go to Amazon, read the reviews, and decide whether you want a new or used version or an eBook.

You eventually return to Facebook, upload your image, and write the update. How much time have you lost? Thirty minutes? Maybe an hour?

Who has the time for that?  Getting lost in the vortex of time suck is easy, and it’s the greatest fear among writers who are new to social media. But there are remedies.

Four-Step Cure to Social Media Time Suck

There are four basic principles to social media that you can follow:

1.    Curation – Set a timer and spend five to 10 minutes each morning scouring the Internet, websites such as Alltop for the best information to share in your niche. Or use a curation application such as Scoop.it, Paper.li or Google Trends. 

2.    Schedule – No one has the time to spend all day – or long chunks of time – at their computers posting content to their social media profiles. Use an application such as Hootsuite, TweetDeck (for Twitter only), or Buffer schedule your posts, tweets and updates throughout the day. With Buffer and Hootsuite, you can schedule your Facebook posts; however, Facebook has its own scheduling feature right within the status update box on your Facebook author page.

3.    Socialize – Use your mobile device in the evening while you relax to check your social media accounts. Spend 15 minutes commenting, sharing posts, retweeting and re-pinning on Pinterest. Consciously schedule this time into your day and enjoy it – virtually. If you’re concerned about the clock, set your timer again so that you don't lose track of time.

4.    ROI – Once a week schedule some time to review your statistics to analyze your return on investment (ROI). Indicators will include statistics on engagement, influence, and demographics, and enumerate the number of new likes you received on your Facebook page, retweets, new followers and other measurements. Use this information to gauge your success and understand which messages work best with your audience.

Social Media vs. Broadcast Media

Television and radio programs are considered broadcast media. They tell us what their messages are. In the case of TV, with few exceptions, there isn’t any room for viewer feedback or conversation unless you consider what happens on the Maury Povich Show conversation. Talk radio includes listener views but the environment is still controlled by the producer and the host.

Social media is the first form of media that emphasizes and rewards conversations. You now have the opportunity to talk with your readers, learn about them, and empathize with them. Writers who don’t schedule time to be social on Facebook or Twitter are turning a social platform into broadcast media. If you simply broadcast your messages – “Buy my book!” – you won’t be rewarded in website visits or book purchases. However, if you allot time for talking with your readers via social media, you will gain loyal followers who, in many cases, will help to market your books.

You can schedule 15 minutes at the end of your day for thanking your retweeters (Twitter followers who re-post your messages), commenting on your friends and fans’ posts, and interacting with your growing body of contacts. Use this time to engage with other writers, colleagues, editors, agents, readers and friends. Thank people for finding and posting a great blog you enjoyed reading. Share a stunning image of a dahlia that a reader pinned on Pinterest. If you interact with your contacts, your following will grow.

Measure Your Return on Investment (ROI)

Social media platforms are free, but our time isn’t. In this 24/7 culture that we live in, there never seems to be sufficient time to check all of our email, read our Facebook friends’ posts, and finish all the books we hope to write. So we want to be certain that our time on social media is well spent.

We also want to analyze what works and what doesn’t. Do more of your friends and fans on Facebook comment when you include an image with your post? If you’re testing blog post titles, was there a certain title that your Tweeps retweeted more often? Are you losing followers on Twitter as fast as you’re gaining them? Do you know why your Facebook page likes soared by 300 last month?

You need to know the answers to these questions so that you will know what to post in the future. Discovering the messages that resonate with your audience is critical to your marketing efforts. To know what these metrics are, subscribe to an application that will analyze your performance and help you to learn from the data that it culls. Here are a few:

•    LikeAlyzer

All you need to do is type in the web address to your Facebook author page (not your personal profile) and this free program will analyze your engagement. Your score will be somewhere between 1 and 100. The higher your score, the better you are doing. It will rate your growth in likes, rank your score against similar pages, measure your response time to comments left by fans, determine whether you are asking questions often enough, and remind you to denote more milestones. Basically, it provides an at-a-glance look at the areas you excel in and the areas that need improvement. Everyone with a Facebook tool should take advantage of this free analytics program.

•    SproutSocial

For $39/month, SproutSocial will analyze your Facebook and Twitter accounts. The analytics are comprehensive and in addition to a PDF report, you can download an Excel spreadsheet that examines your click-through-rates on a day-by-day basis. It provides in-depth demographics and measures tweets, retweets, follows, mentions, replies and direct messages. It will also measure how social you are and determine your influence. You can also use this application to schedule your posts, unfollow users, and at the premium level, it will determine your best posting times.

•    Measureful

For $49/month, this application will analyze your data every week, build your reports, and send them to you. Measureful automatically distills your Google Analytics data into weekly insights and reports. You can connect your accounts in five minutes or less and wait for the reports to arrive.

•    Curalate

Curalate bills itself as the only analytics program for Instagram and Pinterest. It will analyze social media conversations and provide insights into your Pinterest and Instagram profiles. Use it to measure, monitor and grow your influence. In today's increasingly visual world of applications, Curalate can combine sophisticated image recognition algorithms with technologies to provide you with an analysis of your images. If you're a writer and photographer, this is an analytic tool you’ll likely need.

Social media needn’t force you to spend hours at your computer every day, sucking the hours out of your day when you have other pressing needs, responsibilities and desires to write. By spending fifteen minutes every morning curating and scheduling and fifteen minutes every evening socializing online, you will benefit from the power of social media in today’s world and find readers who will be happy to find you and read your books.

About the Author

Frances Caballo is a social media strategist, manager, and author of Social Media Just for Writers: The Best Online Marketing Tips for Selling Your Books and Blogging Just for Writers. Her new book Avoid Social Media Time Suck:  A blueprint for writers who want to create online buzz for their books and still have time to write will be available in February 2014. Her ebook, Pinterest Just for Writers, is available for free on her website. Follow Frances on Twitter @CaballoFrances