Broken Trust Release Party is Over!

Whew! The month long release party is over. And boy has it been nuts! First of all I learned a lot about marketing a big release, and I wanted to share with you the things I learned. This way perhaps you can have a big start to your marketing project too!

1. Don’t waste your time with preorders!

I put a lot of work on setting up preorders, and I even had massive discounts. And not one person preordered the book.  Not one. Despite all the promotion of it, no one order one.  Not even my family. I don’t know why that is. I think it has to do with the fact that people would rather order from a trusted source. But I don’t know that for sure. And since Amazon won’t let me do preorders on there, I just was stuck with doing it through PayPal.  In any case, this is the third time I have offered preorders, and the first time I have offered it for an extended period of time (three weeks).  And I have never made a preorder sale. So I won’t be wasting the energy setting up that on Paypal and my website.

2. Plan your release early in the party.

My goal with this party had been to build a buzz, and create preorders. I think I did get the buzz going, but since my book didn’t release until the end of the party, I think I may  have lost out on some sales potential.  So for my next book, the release party will come either right after the book releases or maybe just a week into it.  That will be a better option.

3. Too many giveaways means too few entries.

There were so many giveaways in this party. Book a Day in May, Goodreads, Grand Prizes, Kindles. I just had so many.  I really liked the Book a Day in May.  I will do that again, but I don’t think I will do it the same way. Perhaps one entry form with a drawing each day.  This way entrants don’t have to fill out so many forms. That does get rather tedious.   I’ll be experimenting with Raffle Copter to see if that can be done. I also don’t think I will release a book in May while doing this giveaway.

I think the magic number for giveaways is 1 at a time. Yeah, just one.  Otherwise it is hard to focus on them and get a lot of people entering. Of course, GoodReads tends to always draw a lot of entries. But RaffleCopter is solely based on how much work you put into marketing it.  So I will limit myself to just one.

4. Hire a Blog Book Tour Company

I did a blog book tour with Dissolution of Peace, I hired OrangeBerry to do it. And while I wasn’t 100% satisfied, I did get a much better response from it. Putting on a book tour is harder than it looks. I tried to do it myself with Broken Trust. I wound up with four days unfilled out of ten total days. That is really bad for such short tour. With OrangeBerry I ordered 30 days and they gave me 30 days, with most of those 30 being within a 30 day period. So from now on I will pay a little bit of money and not have all the hassles of doing it myself. This includes all the scheduling, finding bloggers, and coordinating the releases.  It just wasn’t worth it to try and do it for free.

5. No one cares about the games.

I created Quizzes for the tour, two of them. And they were hardly touched. I had a trivia game, no one showed up to play. I did an answer this question and win a book, no one did it. I did a first five to share this link wins, and no one shared it. People just didn’t care about the games. They could enter to win without jumping through hoops. Do I think I would have better success with less giveaways? No. I’ve tried this time and time again and it never works.

6. Trivia Facts and Quotes from the book.

Now this I think I will do again.  This people seemed to like. One of the the things people liked most: These quotes and Trivia facts were not accompanied by any “buy me” links. People seemed to like that they could get a sneak peek at the book and not be followed with a “buy me” sales pitch. That’s just it, it wasn’t a direct sales pitch. It was a marketing tool, that is for sure. But, it is not direct and in your face.  The quotes on the graphic (picture) rather than in the body was also really successful for shares and re-tweets. But I think next time I will mix up the quotes with different graphics. I think after a bit, people see the same graphic and assume it is the same quote.  And to be fair, I didn’t think of this graphic idea myself, I saw S.M. Boyce doing it of her books. So naturally I borrowed the idea.

7. Scheduling your posts for various times works.

It is very tedious work.  I planned every promo post for the entire month. I planned them for different times through out the day.  Why did I do this? Because my followers probably check at different times. And I wanted to make sure no one group of followers always saw the same thing.  So I spread it out and it seems to have works. No one complained of post overload and I didn’t lose any followers during the release party.  Also, I never posted the same stuff at the same time on both Facebook and Twitter. I always spread it out. It is a pet peeve of mine when people post the exact same stuff at the exact same time on all their social media. Why follow all of them then?  Anyway, that seemed to work out too.

8. Hire someone to do your Book Trailer

I’ve always hired someone to do my cover art, but did the book trailers myself.  This time I hired someone, and it seems to get a better response from viewers. It is being shared more, that is for sure. So from now on I will hire someone to do them. It just makes sense. I’ll stick with writing and leave the graphic arts to those that know what they are doing.

9. Plan for things to not go as planned.

I got hired a started a new job right in the middle of all this. Had I planned to just do the tweets live, this never would have worked out.  Luckily I scheduled them and they could go on while I tried desperately to focus on my new job. There were also technical issues with the blog tour. So I had to handle those. There were broken links, and unexpected blog posts (which I welcome), and much more to deal with on the fly.  So you have to be prepared for things to not always go as you planned they would.

10. Did this work?

I don’t really know.  I sold 3 Kindle copies on release day.  Not exactly the flying off the shelves that I hoped for. But also there were still giveaways going on. And I secretly hope that people are just waiting to buy to see if they win the book. But experience tells me that isn’t the case. I hoped to create a buzz and the only way to measure that is in sales, though that isn’t a fair measurement. So hopefully the sales pick up now that word is getting out that the book has released. Perhaps releasing the book sooner in the party would have created more sales over the month.  Time will tell on that.

Creating buzz when you are a small time writer is not easy. Many of your “followers” are not paying much attention to you. And you don’t have any name made for yourself. You can’t expect instant results.  My only hope is that as each book comes out, more and more progress is being made in the that direction. Eventually I hope to be able to say that I slowly built a name for myself. And this was one step in that build.

 

I Call BullSh*t: Social Media Marketing is Easy

I’ve decided to start a new regular post call “I Call Bullshit”.  In these articles I will take  common themes, rules, myths, and legends about writing and publishing, and I will call out the bullshit behind all of them.  Call me the Mythbuster of the writing world. Unless that violates some copyright, then just call me Richard.

Anyway, one of my favorite sayings is, “I call bullshit.”  Why? It has so much more of a punch than, “I don’t think that is true. ”

This time around I tackle the myth that Social Media marketing is easy.  You wouldn’t believe how much I heard this starting out as a business owner, and now as a writer.  And on the surface it sounds easy.

Here are some of the things I have heard:

All you have to do is post a lot and people will follow you and buy your products.

Once you have followers, the word will get out about your projects.

If you write engaging articles, people will continue to read your blog.

Getting followers is easy.

Well, I call bullshit.

I am not a social media expert, and I think anyone who claims to be an expert better have some concrete evidence to this title.  But, I have used social media for my old security business.  And I currently use if for my writing, and for Plasma Frequency.  I am constantly on social media, not just for business but for personal use too.

First, simply posting doesn’t attract followers.  You have to post things that either engage your audience or entertains them.  And you have to get them to like it enough to share (or ReTweet or ReBlog) it to their followers.  And it has to be good enough that their followers than choose to follow you.  This can be excellent articles, a hilarious Tweet, information that your audience might enjoy, or anything like that.

Again, that sounds easy, but it isn’t. Lets look at my author account on Twitter.  I’ve been on Twitter for going on three years.  Not a long time, but I have almost 4,000 tweets in that time.  Or,  roughly four tweets a day.  That doesn’t sound like a lot and compared to others, I am a novice.  But, even still I can only think of maybe twenty tweets that actually gained mass popularity and directly resulted in adding one or two follower.  I know of only three tweets that directly brought on 10 or more followers.

Now, my blog on the other hand does tend to attract more followers with each post.  I usually get one follower for every three to four posts I make.  But, I have had some posts, such as my self publish one, that brought on a ton of followers.  And my articles on writing tend to draw more attention that my promotional posts (I’m getting to that).

I haven’t had a a follower of Facebook is ages.  Facebook is becoming the vast wasteland of social media marketing.  And I will get to that soon.

Now, posts resulting in purchases…. I hate to tell you this.  But I can not account a single sale on any product to Social Media posts.  Not one.  For one reason it is hard to measure that.  I am sure people see my book is out and go buy it.  But my guess is most of those people were going to buy it anyway because they know me, or know my work.  They just needed the reminder it was out now.  But, how many people have read this blog and decided they wanted to buy my book?  There is no way to really know that.

I will say, as a big time consumer of books, I have never seen a promotional post by an author I didn’t know and decided to buy it.  My promotional post I mean “Here is my book link.  Please go buy it.” Followed by a link.  Any why not?  Well that is a lot like a hard sale.  Imagine walking into the car dealership, which is already a hard sell location, and the first think the salesman said to you was, “Here is a car, please buy it.”  You probably would leave.  And I doubt you would buy the car, you know nothing about it.

The same is true in social media.  You need to get people to buy your books because they like what you have to say.  That means they like what you post on your blog, the Tweets you post, the Facebook things you share.  And then, only every now and then, you give them a reminder that you have a book out.  Or you integrate reminders through out your posts.  I often reference my books and my magazine in posts.  But not in a “Buy me now” way, but in an example or a causal reference.  Like product placement on TV.

And that takes a lot of work.  I go back through my blog posts to add these links you see.  I have to constantly update my website and blog to show relevant books.  And even still those only result on a few clicks.

Promotional posts are not outlawed.  There are several promotional rules out there.  Some say the one-in-three rule, or the one-in-five rule.  I personally use the one-in-ten rule.  That is that one in ten of my tweets or Facebook posts are promotional.  Now, that doesn’t mean that I count my tweets.  It is a general rule of thumb.

Lets say you are lucky to have a vast amount of followers.  I certainly don’t.  But maybe you are lucky.  You may actually be unlucky.  Here is why:

Facebook has stacked the deck against authors, especially broke ones.  It is a game of percentages. Not all those people will see your posts.  Not even half of them will.  Not even a quarter of them, unless of course you pay for that.  Promote your post and it will pop up everywhere and to everyone, even people not following you. But it comes at a price.  Of my last few posts on my Author Page, only 2.5% to 8% of my followers saw the posts I made.  On Plasma Frequency’s page it was a bit better, 9% to 41%.  Note, the 41% was on those posts that were shared by others (like when an new issue releases and all the authors share).

So here lies the problem with Facebook:  Getting Followers, and getting those followers to see what you post.  The solution, and the only one I know of, is to pay Facebook.

But I am a small press that doesn’t make a profit.  My books are not making a profit yet either.  I am unemployed, trying to make a living off of writing.  I don’t have “extra” money to pitch into a Facebook campaign.  And even if I did, a little research will show you that there are plenty of people who didn’t get much for their money.  And what would I have to pay to get all my posts seen all the time? My wallet just started crying at the thought of it.

You may be thinking Twitter is the way to go.  Sorry, to tell you that simply being free has not solved the problem.  Getting followers can be easy.  Follow a shit-load of people and so many will follow you back.  Then, I know people who go back and unfollow all the people who don’ follow back… I call bullshit on that too, but that is another topic.

Anyway, I see people with 5k followers and following 5k people.  I follow 400 people on my account.  When I go on Facebook, I can go back for an entire day and read all the post from a day.  Maybe it would take an hour, or two tops.  Go on Twitter, I can read Tweets for four hours, and only get about 3 hours down my timeline.  There are so many people out there shouting on Twitter that things get lost.  Some of my favorite Tweeters are constantly missed by me.  I find myself skimming over my timeline and bypassing any tweet with a link in it.  Anything that sounds like “buy me”.

And that got me thinking. If I am doing that with 400 people, what is the person who follows me with 5k other people they are following.  I can guarantee they are not reading Tweets by a small time author with sarcastic humor.  So while Facebook will tell you that they are not showing your posts to everyone.  Twitter is showing it to everyone, but I contend that just as few are actually reading what you Tweet.

And, WordPress tells me how many views I get on each article I write.  None of them add up to all of the followers I have.  In fact of the last ten posts, the readers number worked out to about 25%, on average, of my follower count.  And that is just the ones that clicked the link.  Not that actually read the article.

And if that is the case, simply having followers does not mean they are hearing about your projects.

Write engaging articles, Tweets and posts, and people will read what you write.  Well, what the hell is engaging? You can answer that for yourself, but not for other people.  It sounds easy.  Just write about writing.  Sorry, but every independent author and writer out there is putting out self help articles on their blog.

So what makes yours stand out from the crowd?  Your personality.  Certainly the fact that this feature has “bullshit” in it will mean some readers won’t read it.  But, it is also giving this article a bit of my own style.  Regular readers know that I tend to have a rambling, sarcastic, and sometime crass humor in the topics I write about.  Every single one of my blogs oozes with my opinion, and that gives it my own flair.  You can get my information anywhere, but my opinions and humor you can only find from me.

All that still doesn’t mean new followers.  They have to find your blog, Twitter, or Facebook before they even decide if they want to read what you say.  And while WordPress does well to attract new people to my articles, the rest is up to me.  It isn’t easy.  And, I can write one really good article, but not everyone is going to read it.

Finally, getting followers is easy.  Three years I have been fighting my way up to getting good quality followers.  And you see, that is the real trick here folks.  Getting followers is easy.  You can get thousands of egg avatar followers on Twitter, but those bots aren’t reading shit you write.  You can use programs to gain more followers, or be part of “Team Follow Back” and get thousands of followers quickly.  But they are not reading what you say, and that defeats the entire point of everything you’ve been working for.  Why write at two thousand word blog, such as this one, if no one reads it?  Why keep tweeting away when no one is reading them?  That is not an effective social media marketing strategy.  That is a scam of trying to make yourself look popular in the hopes that you might get more followers based on your perceived popularity.  It won’t work.

There is only one way to get quality followers on any social media platform.  Time.  Develop a strategy and stick with it.  Modify it as you find out what works, and keep plugging away.  I certainly get more hits to my blog now than I did three years ago.  My interactions on Twitter have gone up.  But it takes a lot of hard work.  Why do think major companies hire social media team members to manage their pages?  Because it takes a full time marketing team to really work on it.  And let’s face it you are only doing it part time around all the other jobs of being a writer, publisher, and/or editor.

To say social media marketing is easy is complete bullshit.  Like all marketing, it takes time, strategy, know how, and hard work.  It also takes the added step of being social and being yourself.  There is nothing easy about it.

Getting Back on the Horse.

Last week I wrote a rather depressing blog post about the ups and down (mostly the downs) of being an independent author.  It was nasty, dark, and true. But is also awoke something in me. Something that I hadn’t really had in a long time.

The writing muse.

Muses are funny is the way they come and go.  They also have a weird way of being awoken at the most interesting of times. But this little muse snuck right in and wacked me over the head with a frying pan.  I’m not sure why a writing muse has a frying pan, but it worked at getting my attention.

My writing days started way back. But the real passionate writing that I enjoyed started in 2003.  I was finding myself stressed out beyond belief.  And escaping to the world I had created, the world that Dissolution of Peace is set in, relaxed me.  It relaxed me to a point that I could sleep well and face the next day ready for those challenges.  I’d put down 2,000 to 4,000 words a day and I loved doing it.  And when I did it, I had a small hope that someone else would read it and find themselves escaping into my world to relax.  But that was never the point, the point was a lot simpler.

I wrote for me.

There was that damn frying pan to the back the head again. That was what the muse had came to lecture me about. I wrote to relax, and now here I was stressing about how to get more book sales.  I’m stressing about the very thing I used to do for fun. And if I was no longer doing it for fun, what’s the point?

Every story teller just wants to be heard (or read in this case).  And I still very much want readers to escape into my worlds and relax.  But I have always written for me first.  And fortunately this muse, and the frying pan, reminded me of that.

So I started a new novel project the next day. I’m sorry to say that it isn’t the next book in the Dissolution of Peace series.  Though I think that will be my first ever NaNoWriMo project.  I digress.

This new project has spoken to me for a while and it touches very deep on some of my own life trials and tribulations.  And, it has had me writing 2,000 or more words a day.  Yesterday alone I put down over 6,000 words. And you know what, it feels good to be writing to relax again.  It feels good to be telling a story that makes me happy, and it feels great to get back on the horse.  If I keep my focus on what I love, my books will eventually sell themselves.  And, eventually readers will find relaxation in the pages of my worlds.

The best part is, I feel better.  I feel like I can take on the world with my keyboard and computer.  And the muse has finally put the frying pan away.

And with my new positive outlook, something did come my way.  Samantha LaFantasie, another author is going to do an Author interview with me in October.  And she got me thinking.  Why can’t I post things on my blog to help out other authors?  So I will. Starting in August.  I will be posting some things for other authors.  If you want to join in, you can contact me here.  Just fill out the form and we will be in touch.

Here is what I am thinking:

1st Friday of every month: Author Interview

2nd Friday of every month: Guest Post

3rd Friday of every month: Book Review/Feature

4th Friday of every month: Author Spotlight (Brief Bio, List of Titles and upcoming releases)

This is free.  I won’t charge anyone for doing this, I just want to help promote others because that is what we should be doing.  So Please sign up to participate.  I’ll do my best to accommodate everyone.  It will likely have to be on a first come, first serve basis.  But we will see how it all goes.  So head on over and contact me.  Won’t cost you anything. It just might be what gets you back on your own horse.

Dissolution of Peace Blog Tour

Dissolution of Peace Spring Blog Tour is official!

I am going on a blog book tour with Dissolution of Peace.  The book and I will be traveling through the virtual world to attend various blogs to spread the word about my book.  I’m excited about this since it will allow me to share a little bit about me and the book with a new audience.  You can visit these blogs and see interviews, guest posts, and book reviews.  I will be on tour from April 8th until May 13th this year!

Dates:

As I mentioned above I will be traveling blog to blog from April 8th until May 13th.  There are still a number of dates available so if you would like to get in on the tour, it isn’t too late.  There are still several open dates available.  If you want one, just go here (link) and pick a date.  Then scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see “Would you like to host this author on your blog?”  Click the link and sign up.

The folks over at Orangeberry Book Tours are hosting this tour for me.  They’ve taken a ton of the work out of it so I just get to hang out at various blogs.  While I will try to keep the listed dates below updated, for the most current dates and locations visit my Tour page.

While I hope you will go check out each blog host before and after my posts, I will be posting links to blog tour posts throughout the tour on my Facebook and Twitter pages.  So if you don’t follow me there, please do.

Terms:

Book Feature: A quick feature just announcing the basics about Dissolution of Peace

Twitter View: A interview with me over Twitter.  I’ll be off work so I am going to do my best to answer these questions live.

Twitter Blast: A collection of book quotes sent out via Twitter.  Please RT the heck out of those. 🙂

Book Review:  Just that, a review of Dissolution of Peace

Author Interview: An interview with me, posted on their blog.

Guest Post: This is a post I write for their blog, as a guest.

Tour Dates and Locations:

8th April – Book Feature at Peace from Pieces

9th April – Twitter View with OB Book Tours

10th April – Twitter Blast with OB Book Tours

11th April – Author Interview at Mommy Adventures

12th April – Guest Post at The Bunny’s Review

13th April – Twitter Blast with OB Book Tours

14th April – Book Feature & Author Interview at The Reading Cat

15th April – Guest Post at Blog-A-Licious Authors 

16th April – Book Feature & Author Interview at Author’s Friend

17th April – Guest Post at Kindle Nook Books

18th April – Book Feature at Paws on Books

19th April – Guest Post & Book Feature at Anya Breton‘s blog

20th April – Book Feature at Book Professor

21st April – Author Interview & Book Feature at Michael R McDuffee‘s blog

22nd April – Guest Post at Books Are Magic

23rd April – Author Interview & Book Review at Pages 2 Pages

24th April – Guest Post  at Disincentive Reviews

25th April – Book Feature at Book Professor

26th April – Guest Post at Quality Reads

27th April – Author Interview at Fantasy Books

28th April – Book Feature at eInk Reviews

29th April – Book Feature at My Love for Books

30th April -Book Feature at Brainy Reads

1st May – Book Feature at Pages to Chapters

2nd May – Book Feature at Living for Books

3rd May – Orangeberry Pick of the Week & Sidebar

3rd May – Guest Post, Author Interview & Book Feature at Talisman Book Publishing

4th May – Book Feature at Gentleman Reads

5th May – Book Feature at Working For Books

6th May – Book Feature at My Love for Books

7th May – Book Feature at Aspiring Book Reviews

8th May – Book Feature at Reading My Addiction

9th May – Book Feature at Imagination in Books

10th May – Orangeberry Book of the Day – Gentleman Reads – Excerpt /

11th May – Author Interview at Up In Smoke

12th May – Guest Post at Richard Stephenson‘s blog

13th May – End of Tour Celebration post! at Flores Factor.

Blog Tour Giveaway!

This book tour will include the largest giveaway I’ve done to date.  There will be some great prizes including: Signed Paperbacks, Free Paperbacks, Free eBooks, and an Amazon Gift card.  This is hosted by Rafflecopter and there are multiple ways to enter.  The giveaway will end on May 19th.  Check back with the giveaway often because as more blogs post, more entries will be possible.  In fact, you get five entries just by entering this GIVEAWAY CODE: “E.S.S. Australia”

You can find the Giveaway on my Facebook page: CLICK HERE FOR A DIRECT LINK

I can’t wait to see you all on the tour!

Novel Announcement: Volition Agent

If you follow me on Facebook and Twitter, you’ve undoubtedly seen a few teasing posts about my next novel project.  I’ve teased with a few hints, surprises, and more.  Well the teasing can come to an end, I have decided to finally let the cat out of the bag.

My next novel, titled Volition Agent, is a fast paced SciFi Thriller set in the near future.  The highly secretive Agency has a Volition program.  They take everyday people who are physically fit and recruit them as Volition Agents.  They are implanted with a control chip so that a highly trained “handler” can control their every action.  If a Agent is captured the loss to the Agency in minimal.  Agents are sent on missions from intelligence gatherings to assassinations.  Volition Agent followed Lexia, one of the agents.

Here is a tentative blurb:

Lexia Santarelli is part of a top secret group of Volition Agents.  These untrained, unremarkable, everyday people are recruited by the agency to be literally controlled by their “handler” through a device implanted in their necks.  It is an exciting life, and despite some of the annoyances, Lexia enjoys it.

That is until the Agency decides to let Lexia take the fall for a mission gone wrong.  Her link with her handler, Lance is severed.  Suddenly Lexia finds herself alone, unprepared, and hunted by the very people she trusted.

With few clues, minimal training, and an unlikely ally Lexia sets out to discover what really happened on that botched assignment.  Determined to set right the wrong she created, nothing can stand in her way.  Not even the Agency itself.

I have some great cover art for this novel, and I can’t wait to share it with you all.  So here it is:

Copyright 2013 Kristin Irons Photography

The cover art is shot and designed by Kristin Irons (website).  I’ve worked with Kristin before, she designed the logo for Plasma Spyglass Press. Kristin is a very talented photographer and when I explained what I was looking for she said she had an idea.  The next week was a bit of a whirlwind.  Kristin found a model, the very beautiful and talented Joy Anna, to play Lexia in a photo shoot.  She then teased me relentlessly with images from that photo shoot before showing me the image she had in mind for the cover art.  I am a very picky and hard to work with person when it comes to cover art, but she kept taking my ideas and reworking them until we came up with the cover above.  And I couldn’t be more thrilled by it.

Let me tell you why this cover is so special to me.  This is the first time I’ve had anyone “play” one of my character in any way.  Joy Anna, whose modeling pictures I had only seen briefly before this, jumped into this project head first.  I understand they captured a ton of images and I’ve only seen a few of them. As a writer, I was excited to see what might come from this.  I’ve never met, or even talked to Joy Anna but I thank her for her time because the results are absolutely amazing.

A big heartfelt thanks to Joy Anna, Kristin, and her assistant William Harris.  So many folks use stock art, or stock photos to make custom cover art.  But I have a real custom cover for this novel.  Please take a moment to check out the people that helped with this cover, give them a like, follow, or whatever else to show them some support.  Kristin Irons: Facebook, Twitter, Website  Joy Anna: Facebook William Harris: Flickr

This is the first story I have written where it had a title before I ever wrote it.  The whole idea came from hearing the word volition and it’s meaning; the ability to make a choice or decision.  So Volition Agent was an easy enough title for me to come up with.  I think it works well given the themes in this novel.

So when is the release date for Volition Agent?  One hasn’t been set just yet.  But I have a deadline of the first week of June 2013.  So expect to see it no later than this.  I hope to have it out a little sooner, but you can’t rush these things.  I’ll be sending it out for Beta Readers in the first two weeks of April.  Then my editor will get this.  I’ll be working with a new editor this time, since Robert is booked up for the foreseeable future.  As always, watch this blog, my Twitter and Facebook for updates.

I’ll leave you with a few other images from the photo shoot:

Copyright 2013 Kristin Irons

Copyright 2013 Kristin Irons

Copyright 2013 Kristin Irons

Spotlight on Dissolution of Peace

The folks over at Celebrating Authors have done a Spotlight on Dissolution of Peace.  You can check it out here: LINK.  As you usual please show your support by letting them know you saw my spotlight, what you thought of it, and any other comments.

Celebrating Authors is a great website dedicated to spotlighting authors and trying to unite them with readers.  I think they are a great site, and I follow them on Twitter and Facebook.  Check out their Facebook Page, Facebook Group, and Twitter page too.

 

Spreading the Word

So I have been trying to sell copies of Dissolution of Peace now for almost two weeks.  And I am discovering a few things that I didn’t expect to discover along the way.  I know I have touched on some of this before when I wrote “Is Anybody Out There?” but that was more about making a plan for marketing.  This is more about what I am learning that may surprise some of you.

I’ll go ahead and start with common questions about marketing books and give you my answer two weeks in.

Do giveaways work?

The short answer is that I don’t know yet.  I’ve done a giveaway on Goodreads for Daddy is Tired.  I did it at the recommendation of another who told me it really worked for him.  So far, I’ve not seen any boost in sales.  In fact I think I’ve sold one copy total since that give away ended at the end of September.  So I am not sure how it “works” but it didn’t for a children’s picture book.

I’m running two giveaways for Dissolution of Peace.  One ends at the end of October, the other ends at the end of November.  Surprisingly the one on Goodreads seems to be getting a lot less reaction than the one on my Facebook page.  There is one advantage to the Facebook Page give away.  Both my Twitter and Facebook followers have gone up significantly.  Though that hasn’t translated into sales.  We will see what happens come the end of the giveaways.

I did two other giveaways.  I gave away fifteen free copies of Dissolution of Peace for Kindle on Twitter, of which only one was ever claimed.  I did the same on Facebook, giving away ten copies.  Two were claimed.  Not exactly a very strong presence there.  My hope was to get twenty-five copies of my book out there and hopefully get ten reviews on Amazon and/or Goodreads.  I’ve not had any reviews (from the giveaway) on either one.

Based on these numbers, you might think that giveaways don’t work.  To be honest no one has ever really told me how they work to get sales.  They just tell me it works.  So Perhaps by the end of the year I will see an increase in sales.  The giveaways don’t cost me anything.  The eBooks are free.  And the signed paperbacks will cost me less than $20 when I factor in the shipping charges.  So when you consider how little it costs, it is worth a shot.  But if you try something, like my eBook social media give away, and it doesn’t work.  Don’t repeat failure.  Even if it cost you nothing monetarily, it will cost you your time.

The good thing about Raffle Copter (which I am using to give away one signed paperback) and Goodreads giveaways, is that it doesn’t cost you but a few minutes of time.  And, like I said, I am getting new followers as result.  That may be of significant value later.

Does Posting to Facebook or Twitter work?

I suppose this is the new form of word of mouth.  Word of mouth advertising does work.  But only if it is done correctly.  But I will clue you in on some surprises I learned.

First, don’t count on people to share it.  All the people I thought were certain to share it, some who were even instrumental in helping create it, have not shared it once.  Many of these people are fellow authors, whom I have promoted heavily myself.  Of course, I didn’t promote them expecting them to do the same.  Though I did kind of hope they might.  Most of them I promoted well before my novel came out.  There are some I have even promoted their business (they are not authors) and they haven’t shared my book either.

But, there is an upside to this.  I have had complete strangers share my book, mostly on Twitter.  These are people who recently jumped on and followed me.  In fact, one person who follows me retweeted it and then five or six people who don’t follow me also retweeted it.  Facebook on the other hand has been all shares from family or friends.  I appreciate everyone who shares it, and I try to help them out when I can.  But remember, just because you help someone else out, don’t expect it in return.  The deal here is that you should share what you want and other will share what they want.  Even though it is disappointing when family and friends don’t.

Facebook groups are another way of spreading the word.  Two things to remember.  First, don’t break the groups rules.  Your post will just get deleted.  Two, don’t expect much from it.  I belong to several writing Facebook groups.  The problem is, all of them are so flooded with self promotional posts, that mine rarely stay within a readable number of posts for more than an hour.  Also, I’m not sure how many people are actually reading what others post there, versus just posting themselves.  Some even seem to post every hour or so.  Which is bullshit if you ask me.  They are spamming the feeds just to keep their book on top.  I’ll get more on spamming later.

Okay, I’ll talk about spamming now.  If all you post on Twitter or Facebook is your novel.  You won’t get anywhere.  It doesn’t take long before people tune you out and/or unfollow you.  Personally I only post about my book a few times a day.  And lately it has been cut back to just once.  I post about other topics: Jokes only I think are funny, blog posts that helped me, Plasma Frequency, the NHL lockout, and more.  I also comment on other people’s posts, try to answer comments on mine, reply to tweets, and retweet things that I liked.  All of these things make me a human being.  Not a constantly tweeting about my book robot.  I think that is equally important as getting the word out about your books.  After all, if you lose followers, what is the point of tweeting to an empty room.

Think of it this way.  If every time one of your coworkers, friends, or even family members saw you, all you said was “Buy my book.  It is on Amazon.com and it is great.”  How long before you wouldn’t see them again?  Of course you will tell your friends about your book, but I am sure you talk about other things.  The same should be the case on Facebook or Twitter.  Be a real person and you might wind up with more results and more help for your followers.

What to you thing about Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising?

First of all, PPC advertising works on a the principle that a site puts up an advertisement and when someone clicks on it you pay a per click fee.  Many places let you bid on the per click rate.  Lower bids mean you are not shown as often as larger bids.  You can usually choose who you target and even set up limits per month.

Right now I am using Goodreads.  From all the research I have done, Goodreads is supposed to be better at targeting readers than Facebook or Google PPC ads.  I have three ads.  One for the Paperback targeting US readers of Science Fiction 16 or older.  One for the Kindle Version targeting US readers of eBooks and Science Fiction 16 or older.  Last, I have a Paperback/Kindle ad targeting UK readers of science fiction 16 or older.  All three ads are in one campaign.  I pay 20 cents a click  for one, the other two I pay 10 cents per click.  I started the ad on the 16th in the evening.  So in about four days I have had 3,500 views.  Views just mean it came up on the page, it doesn’t mean anyone actually saw it.  Of all those views I have had two (2) clicks, both in the UK.  And both UK clicks resulted in zero new UK sales.

The good news is you can change your ads any way you want until you find one that gets you more clicks.  I recommend you send the clicks to Amazon or Barnes and Noble for sales.  This is because it eliminates extra steps to get your book sold.  The real trick if making an ad that really catches readers attentions.  Though part of this falls on Goodreads.  Frankly they put the ads in a terrible spot.  That even on my large screen, I have to scroll down to see them.

The bad news is, I dumped $90 into this PPC campaign based on recommendations from others that Goodreads PPC ads really jump started their book sales for the first 30 days.  At this rate, it will take me a long time to burn up $90.  So learn from my mistake and start with a smaller number.  Then once you find an ad that gets you a lot of clicks, you can increase.  Another tip:  Keep in mind how much you make in profit on each sale.  If you make $0.30 per eBook sale and you bid $0.30 cents per click.  Someone would have to buy on every click just to break even.  $0.10 is the lowest you can bid on good reads.  So if you book is less than $1.99 you’re expecting a lot for the ad.

Here is the thing, I think PPC can work.  But you have to stay on top of it.  You have to find an ad that works, and that means watching the numbers and changing the ad until you get clicks.  And then hopefully clicks will turn into sales.

What about website advertising?

I don’t know.  I haven’t tried it yet.  I contacted one site that had a really good deal with a few questions.  That was a week ago and they never answered me.  So I’ll continue to look around.  The think on website advertising is you want to find a site that attracts readers of your genre.

What about print/magazine advertising?

Although I have not tried it.  I know this works.  If you put your book in a fiction magazine for your genre you will get the word out there about your book.  The readership numbers matter.  This is why if you want to advertise in some of the bigger science fiction magazines, you will pay a lot for it.  Smaller presses charge less, but you get less readers.

Book Reviews / Author Interviews?

I’m in the process of getting a few book reviews.  But finding sites to do it is a lot harder than I ever thought.  Many have “closed” because of overload.  Many more have lengthy lead times.  One who has accepted my book has already told me it could be 8-12 weeks.  Another is reading it now, and two more have put me on “the list”.  But these book review sites have readers.  I don’t agree with paying for a review.  The most I am willing to do is provide a free book.

Author Interviews.  I have not done any of these yet.  And it seems that the only places I have found that do them, charge for them.  So I don’t know.

It the end, blog reviews and author interviews are another form of word of mouth.  Word of mouth works, it is proven in multiple industries.

Amazon or Goodreads reviews.  The thing with these is to be prepared to have to beg for them.  Just getting people to like the book or add it to a shelf has been nearly impossible.  Then asking people to do the Tags thing on Amazon has been impossible.  Over all it has been a nightmare.  But the truth is, people don’t buy things on Amazon that haven’t been reviewed.  And the more reviews you can get the better people will feel about paying for your book.  But it takes time.  People have to read your book.  And after they read the book they have to feel the need to go back to Amazon (or Goodreads) and rate it.  Many readers aren’t that motivated to do all that.  If they are active on Goodreads, that site does a good job of integrating at least a star rating into the experience of the reading progress.  But there is nothing to encourage someone to go to Amazon.com and review your item.  The encouragement could be that the book was so good they have to say something or it could be it was so bad they had to say something.  More often they have to be encouraged by someone to do it.  That someone being you.

So does marketing work?

Many authors will tell you that they have seen no benefit in marketing.  This is because, like me, they have a preconceived notion that buying an ad automatically equals sales.  Or that all their friends and family will share their book.  Or that giving a few books away will mean that everyone who didn’t win will go buy it.  The truth is far less.  Advertising takes a tone of work and it takes a lot of time before it really takes off.  The truth is most of us are not marketing geniuses and advertising becomes a trial and error.  And since books vary as much as their authors, it is also possible that what you try won’t work for you but will work for me.

The best thing to do is to keep at it.  Spend just a little money until you know what works.  Invest your money wisely.  As I learn more about what works for me, I’ll share it with you all.

Is Anybody Out There?

Marketing for Writers

Over this last week, Plasma Frequency announced a 50% off sale on all advertising.  For as little as $9.50, anyone could have advertised in a magazine with a worldwide audience.  Exactly zero people took the offer.  An offer that was presented to many self published and traditional published authors.  It was also presented to several independent publishers.  I was truly stunned by it.  I couldn’t believe that not one person took this offer.  But, as I thought about it.  I am not so sure it is really that shocking of a thing.

Many authors think that they can put their novel on Amazon.com, and it will simply fly right off the shelves.  Maybe a few hundred Twitter and Facebook posts, and BAM!  Instant success.  Who knows maybe that has even worked for a few authors.  But if it has, I’ve not heard of it.  I’m down playing the value of Social Media in your marketing strategy.  It is an important part of it.  But it is just a part of it.  And the only plan many authors have, is to continue to shout out on Facebook, “Buy my book!  Buy it!”  But I speak from experience when I say that soon you will be wondering, Is anybody out there?  Is anyone paying attention to these posts.

Marketing strategy is the key words of the paragraph above.  You need to lay out a plan to get your book noticed.  It should be a detailed plan starting with “pre-promotion”, moving next to “release promotion”, and moving along with “continued promotion.”  You need a balance of promotional strategies in order to make your book successful.

Many of you may be stopping here.  You might be thinking that you don’t need to market your book because you plan to go through a traditional publisher.  You expect that they will handle all the promotional problems for you.  You’d be wrong.  Most of these places have a limited marketing budget.  They will use that money on promoting the books most likely to bring them the most money.  And even if they will be promoting your book, that should only be another part of your own promotional strategy.  You should be doing some marketing of your own.

Marketing Plan, some easy tips.

First, you should start making a marketing plan as soon as you are sure you are ready to see this book published.   For me, as a self publisher, that was as soon as I sent the manuscript to my editor.  Notice I didn’t wait until I had a release date in mind to start planning.  Some may even start thinking of marketing strategies right after they write “The End.”  If you are going the more traditional publishing route, you may wait until you get accepted.  Or you may wait until you know the marketing and promotional ideas of the publisher.  Either way, find a time that is right for you and start planning.  You can always modify the plan, change it, and work to start it later.

Pre-premotion

I’ll start with the first thing.  It is also the most over looked in my opinion.  That is “pre-promotion.”  This is your plan to promote your book before it is released, to create a “buzz” so to speak.  This is likely one of the best ways to get a title to stick in potential readers heads.  You want to get people thinking about, talking about, and perhaps even to preorder (see below).  Here are some things you might put on your Pre-promotion plan:

Mention your book whenever you can.  You may have noticed that I mention, and use as an example, my novel Dissolution of Peace when needed around this blog.  See, I just did it again there.  Most of the time I don’t even realize I did it.  Of course you can over do it.  I like to think that I only mention it when it is applicable to the situation.  I’ve seen some that simply drop the name everywhere all the time, or every blog post they write is about the book in some way.  It just doesn’t work for me.  I tend to stop reading those blogs that are solely devoted to ramming a particular product down my throat.  But I certainly don’t mind, or even notice in most cases, a little self promotion when I am reading a post that has meaning to me.  So if, like me, you blog about writing tips, daily muses, and other topics of interest to people, don’t be afraid to mention it where it applies.

Get some marketing materials together and share them with your followers.  I’ve noticed many of my blog, Twitter, and Facebook followers enjoy a little sneak peak before something goes live.  Marketing materials include cover art, after all that is how readers will recognize you book, it is the brand of your book.  But there are other marketing materials that can come in handy.  For example, my Facebook page has a new cover photo.  That photo pops up every time someone hovers their over my name.  You may make a few different photos to use around the different media platforms.  Another great thing is a book trailer.  There are also book plates, bookmarks, and other items you can get at a low cost and hand out free.

Many of you may be thinking: I’m not good at graphic design or video editing.  You may have already dropped a pretty penny on the cover art.  Book trailers can cost a lot of money.  One self publishing company charges over $1,000 minimum just for a thirty second book trailer.  Bookmarks, post card ads, ect all will cost.  But I challenge you to look around.  First, you might have a friend that will do it for you.  Plasma Spyglass Press’s logo was designed by a friend of mine.  I love it, and it cost me nothing.  Even if you don’t have a friends that can do it, they may know someone who can give you a deal.  A friend of mine recommended my cover artist, and I only paid $35 for it.  I got lucky with the other art, I did it myself.  I even did the book trailer myself.  But, if all else fails you can shop around for businesses that can help you.  Plasma Spyglass Press is thinking of revamping our business plan to include services for the self published author.  One last tip, don’t spend a lot of money on promotional materials or over do it.  Order just what you need.

Book reviews are great.  There are some places that you can pay to have a book review written.  I won’t waste my time or money on those.  You can if you wish, but I won’t.  There are a lot of free review sites out there.  Sites that will only ask for a free copy of your book.  In return they will provide you with an honest review.  Sure, you take the risk of a bad review.  And you may get some even if you don’t ask for reviews.  I put this under pre-marketing because you often have to start setting these things up in advance.  Whether it be through a blog, or a magazine, or through another outlet.  Most are very cooperative and will agree to wait a reasonable amount of time if your release date is coming soon.  ALWAYS send a finished product for review.

Offer a preorder special.  Unfortunately Createspace still won’t allow you the chance to pick a future release date, thus creating a preorder page on Amazon.  There are ways around this though.  First, have people preorder through you.  They can go to your website and preorder.  Offer a better price than the list price.  Perhaps even offer signed copies if you preorder through you.  Then when you release your book you can order that number of copies and ship them out to your new readers.  If you already have an Amazon Partner Store site (or whatever it is called), I understand that there is a way to do a preorder with that.  I am not familiar with it.

Don’t take out advertising before your book has been released.  Unless of course you have preorder information.  Many people will see an ad and click to buy at that moment, making an impulse purchase.  So paying for a advertisement on Facebook, in a magazine, or on any other platform is wasted money unless people can buy.  But, keep in mind a magazine’s production time.  That ad may not be live until after your book is released.  So you may have advertising paid for and drawn up, but it won’t be seen until after your novel is released.

Release Promotion

Release day has come.  Your book is now available to purchase.  The common practice here is to kick it into overdrive.  Either blowing a lot of time and money into marketing the book for a week, or by trying to schedule events around the clock.  I think this comes from the common practice in the typical business world.  Grand Opening sales, Hurry while supplies last, and so on down the line.  Even most traditional publishers will kick in to high gear for a big release and then when that is over, they will kick into high gear for the next author’s release.

I say slow down a second.  First, have a plan in place before release day.  Once again, ramming your book down everyone’s throats will not increase sales.  Does that mean you shouldn’t come out of the gate hard and fast?  No, you still want to have a “grand opening” celebration.  Tell the world your book is out now.  Spend the whole day telling them if wish.  But what will you do once you have posted to Facebook, Twitter, and your blog only to find you sold four copies?  This is where you need to expand your marketing plan.  Release Promotion should last several months or more.

Continue to try to find those book review outlets.  Talk to fellow writers and check out the magazines for your genre.  Contact them and still arrange for reviews.  The more you get the more potential readers you reach.

Look around for those local book stores.  They often love to have local writers come out and have a book signing.  They may even wish to carry your book on their shelves.  Some may want a small portion of sales.  Others may buy a bulk amount of your books for a near wholesale price and just keep whatever they sell them for.  Others may just like the idea of bringing customers into their store and won’t care that you sell your books there.  But either way, you need to work that out with them.  Believe it or not the local book store isn’t dead.  And these type of events are what keeps them going strong.

Book signings don’t have to just take place at book stores either.  Maybe you get a table at the local street fair.  Or maybe your local library would be interested.  Be creative, readers attend a lot of different events.  If you do think about renting tables at a fair or event, consider sharing the table with other local writers and splitting the cost.  For one, a fan of one local writer may see your book on the same table and check it out.  It will allow you to draw a bigger crowd while reducing your cost.  Plus you fill a table with different books, rather than a big table with just a stack of your one book.

Write a press release.  Local newspapers, magazines, and even local blogs love a story about a local resident doing well.  You can even tie a press release with a book signing event you are having.  Writing an engaging press release is a whole different ball game than writing a novel.  So I strongly suggest you read up on how to write a good release.  There are a lot of sites that will help you with a simple Google search.  Once you have a good press release, send it out to every newspaper, magazine, and blog in or about your local area.  Of course if you are in a smaller town you stand a better chance of being in that paper rather than the paper of a large metropolitan area.  But it doesn’t hurt to try.

Make yourself available for interviews and other engagements.  But also don’t be afraid to ask people either.  If your local library is having a local writers event, don’t be afraid to ask somebody if you can join.  You never know when the newspaper, local TV stations, or magazines might call and ask you if you would mind discussing your new book.  But rather than just waiting for them to call, be proactive and find them.  Press releases is one way.  But there are plenty of other ways to reach out.  Don’t be afraid to ask friends of friends to help.

Advertising.  It doesn’t have to cost as much as you think.  As I mentioned above, my magazine charges very little.  We even offer a discount for multiple issues and a discount for self published authors.  We design the ad at no extra charge too.  You will find that this is common with many markets.  Of course if you want to put an advertisement in Fantasy & Science Fiction, expect to pay a good price.  But there are a lot of markets out there that survive solely on advertising and don’t expect a lot for it.  You can even use social media ads to help you out.  These are effective at targeting an audience suited for your book.  The price is often adjustable based on your monthly budget.  Talk to your friends too.  See if they will put an advertisement on their website or blog.

The key with advertising is knowing your target audience.  An ad for my novel in Better Homes and Gardens probably won’t bring me a lot of sales.  But an advertisement in a science fiction publication will likely attract readers.  But, I might not want to put an ad in a hard science fiction magazine because that is not my target audience either.  The best thing you can do is find out the publication’s (or website’s) target audience.  If it matches yours then go for it.

Promotional offers.  Have special offers where you can.  You may have a discount or you may put two of your novels together for a package price.  I understand there are limits to this.  Clearly you want to make money of the sale, to some degree.  But everyone likes to feel like they got a deal too.

Continued Promotion

Your book has been out now for a little while now.  You may have had a huge influx of sales, or you may have had a steady stream of sales.  But after the first few months, we authors have a habit of moving on to our next project.  After all we didn’t stop writing because our latest novel was released.  But you can’t stop promotions now.  You may have scaled back, but don’t stop.

You may have ran a number of ads for your novel on release, but now you may want to scale it back to one ad.  But remember to figure out what ad worked the best for you.  Maybe change up the artwork to get a fresh look.  But keep something running to get peoples attention.  Unless everyone has bought your book, there are still potential readers out there that may not have heard of your book yet.

Still schedule those book signings.  Maybe even spend one day on your next vacation (assuming you get vacations) signing books at the local bookstore of your vacation destination.  You may not do an event every weekend but still keep the options open.

Cross promotion is excellent.  When you are out promoting the next newest book, don’t forget to bring some copies of your other works.  I’m surprised how often I see writers with six novels out, but they only have the one novel with them when they buy that table at the fair.  Tell people about all your books when you are out promoting the newest one.  Don’t forget to mention your other books in your newest book.  You see this all the time in novels: Other works by..

Selling your books is the same as a business

If you are selling your books you are in business, your business is writing and selling your books.  You will not make money by approving the proof and then sitting on you butt and waiting for the cash to roll in.  You have to get out there and let people know about your book.  You don’t have to spend a lot.  But expect to spend something.  Even a free book review will cost you a copy of your book.  The more you spend advertising won’t necessarily bring you more sales.  But spending your money wisely will get you more readers.  You can spend $50 a month wisely and get 20 times more readers than the person that throws away $1,000.

The point is simple.  You need a plan in place.  Every good business has a marketing plan and budget.  Your book needs to have the same thing.  The plan is fluid and you change it as you find out what works and what doesn’t.  But you must have a road map.  Hopefully I’ve provided you with some powerful tips.  Now go make your plan and get that book sold.

The Different Publishers

It is funny that most people ask me the question:  Should I self publish or should I try the traditional publisher?  There are other options for publishing your book that just those two options.  We’ll explore some of those with this post.  I’ll give you my thoughts on each of these, and you can give me your thoughts in the comments.

The Conglomerate Publisher

We like to say “Traditional Publisher” but truthfully traditions are changing and the term doesn’t really fit anymore.  And, truth be told, traditional publishing can be divided up.  So we’ll talk about the conglomerate publisher.  These are the big guys in publishing.  Orbit Books, Tor, Del Rey, Bantam, Baen, and Scholastic are just a few examples.  And, if you look most of those up you will find a parent corporation they are under.  The parent corporation often has a number of press names they use depending on the genre.  They employe a ton of editors, copywriters, printers, and basically just a lot of employees that work to publish books.

Advantage: Well they are the big guys.  Land a deal with them and you are likely to get exposure in a wide market area.  They will handle most of your book’s marketing.  They have the ability to print out mass copies.  They may offer you a higher advance and royalties too (maybe).

Disadvantage:  Getting accepted is hard.  Many talented authors spend a lot of time just to get rejected from these guys.  Nearly everybody submits to them.  You often have to sell off a lot more copies to pay off your advance (they have a higher overhead then any other option).  Even if you do get published you tend to find that it takes a long time to get anything going.  And, I see a lot of people published by these conglomerates that are still marketing the heck out of their own works.  The other HUGE disadvantage is that authors often think getting published by these guys guarantee a hit novel, it doesn’t.  Plain and simple these guys can do little to make you any better of a writer and story teller.

The Mid-level Publisher

A lot of sites go straight from Conglomerate to Independent when they talk about types of publishers.  But there are a few mid-level publishing companies.  These companies may be only big in one genre, or maybe are big in one country.  The main difference here is that they tend to publish more books then the independent publisher, but not as many as the conglomerates.

Advantage: They handle the major marketing.  They can produce a moderate amount of books at one time.  They offer you a good advance and royalties.  They tend to have a smaller overhead which means more profit margin and hopefully more money in your pocket.

Disadvantage: Acceptance is still hard.  Exposure is not as big, but in the days of the internet and Amazon it is getting much better.  There can still be lengthy delays from acceptance to publish date.

The Independent Press

This is often confused with someone who sits in their basement printing books.  That is not the case.  These are simply smaller companies working to publish books.  They tend to specialize is a genre or two.  They often only have one or two editors (sometimes more).  They often don’t work to make huge profits.  Sometimes they are Sole Proprietorships (one owner) or Partnerships.  But many are now LLC, LLP, or even incorporating.

Advantages:  Acceptance times are often faster.  They are far more approachable.  They will market your book as well.  And, with the internet as big as it is.  They are often on the virtual shelves of Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and their own private stores.  They often pay lower advances but higher royalties (though not always).  It often takes less sales to “burn off” the advance and start earning royalties.  They are in the business of getting good writers out to the readers that other presses are simply over looking.  But, you will find more and more authors are going with smaller presses to get their voice heard.  First, you still have to market your book no matter what way you go about this.  Here you get a little help.  Plus, even if your Novel is rejected.  The smaller presses are far more likely to tell you why.  Giving you a chance to fix the mistake and try again.

Disadvantage: They simply aren’t the big guys.  Most don’t stock book shelves of brick and mortar book stores.  But, some do.  But with how many books are purchased on Amazon and Barnes and Noble online.  It is starting to be irrelevant.  Last, many authors worry about using a Independent press simply due to brand recognition factors.  But, I frankly never looked at who published a book until I started writing.  Most readers don’t care who published it, only how the story is written.

Vanity Press

A vanity press is often confused with a Independent Press.  But they are vastly different.  A vanity press publishes almost every thing they are sent, provided you cut them a check.  That’s right.  You pay them to publish your book.  They offer many of the services other presses offer, editors, marketing, ect.  But you have to pay for it.  They slap a publishers name on it and sell it.  They came is to play when self publishing was hard, and carried a much more negative image then it does today.

Advantages:  Frankly it is hard for me to think of any.  Money should always flow in the direction of the author.  I suppose if you wanted to self publish, but didn’t want to let people know you did it.  This is the way.  But why?

Disadvantages:  It’s a rip off.  Frankly they over charge for just about everything.  You may as well hire a good independent editor, and publish it yourself.  Or better yet, give a few of these Independent Publishers a shot and not have to pay a dime.

Self Publishing

This is just as it sounds you self publish your works.  You pay for the cover art (or make it yourself), you solely market, you format it on Createspace, KDP, or where ever.  You are the publisher of your own book.

Advantages:  No middleman to work with.  You get final say on everything.  You do it all.  You are guaranteed to get published.

Disadvantages:  You do it all.  Self publishing is the most underestimated form of publishing.  It is by far the most work.  You have to pay for an editor (and you really need to do that if you plan to self publish and maybe even if you plan to use a different method).  Sure you could just take your story, look it over and then throw it together on KDP and tell you friends to go buy it.  But, is that really getting published?  Or just perpetuating the stereo type that nothing good is ever self published?  Of everything I mentioned here, self publishing is the hardest.

 

You can see there are a lot of options, you can choose what works for you.  I strongly recommend that you look at them all.  I think Independent Presses give you the best balance between self publishing and “traditional” publishing.  That is just my opinion though.  Perhaps in another post I’ll highlight a few independent presses that specialize in certain genres.  If you know of one, visit the contact page and let me know.

Self Publishing

Should I Self Publish?

I get at least one email a week asking me about self publishing.  Some are frustrated with the submit and reject cycle.  Others feel it might bring them more money.  And others think it may bring in more readers.  Most of all everyone wants to know if they will be successful if they self publish.

I don’t know much about self publishing because I have never done it.  So I have asked other writers to completed a survey on the matter.  I think a survey offers the best advise on whether or not you will be successful.  Success is a self defined quality.  You can look at these survey results and view them with your own view on success.  For example if selling 10 copies is successful to you, then look at the percentage of people who have sold more then 10 copes.  Hopefully this helps.

My friend and talented Author, Robert S. Wilson (@EmpireOfBloodRW) will be helping me as I write this.  Robert has self published a number of works, and was already kind enough to point out a forgotten company in this survey (more on that later).  I feel he has been successful in his endeavors to self publish, and he certainly has worked hard to get the success he has had.

In this blog, I will give you the results on the survey.  The survey results are separated into several categories.  At the end, I will provide my thoughts on the results.  I will give you my insights as an author who hasn’t self published, but is considering the idea.  Then, Robert will give you his thoughts.  He can give you some insights as an author who has self published.

The Respondents:

Two hundred and fifty nine (259) people completed this survey.  This does not count all the people who started the survey, but where unable to qualify based on their answers.  I posted links on my Google+, the Hatrack Writers Group, My Twitter, and My Facebook.  From there it was circulated by fellow authors.  Here is some information about the people who responded to the survey:

94% write fiction, the other 6% did not.  Those 6% did not finish the rest of the survey, as my concern was with fiction Authors.

51% where Male and 49% were female

78% where from the US, 6% Canada, 9% UK, and 7% where from someplace else.  Those places include: New Zealand, Australia, The Netherlands, Slovenia, and Bosnia

One person was under 13 years old and did not continue in the survey.  The rest breakdown in the following age groups:  2% were 18-20, 18% 21-29, 24% 30-39, 25% 40-49, 25% 50-59, and 6% where over 60.

89% write in English, 4% in Spanish, 2% French, 1% German

100% write primarily in English

84% spoke English, 4% Spanish 2% French, 3%German, 1% Japanese

94% spoke primarily in English

About the Writers:

Please note this was not exclusive to Self Published but rather information for both self published and “traditional” published authors.

The Genres broke down as followed (survey takers could select multiple selections):

Horror – 16%

Science Fiction – 18%

Thrillers – 11%

Fantasy – 21%

Romance -8%

Children’s Picture Books – 3%

Young Adult – 10%

Literary Fiction – 5%

Westerns – 1%

Other – 8%

68% had works published, 26% have not, and 6% were accepted but waiting publication

10% had 1 work published, 25% had2-3 published, 11% had 4-5, 4% had 6-7, 2% had 8-9 and 14% had 10+

10% had flash works published, 31% had short works published, 13% had Novella works published, 4% novelette length, and 24% Novels

How were your works published:

Short stories, including Novelette, Novella, Short, and Flash broke down as follows:

26% None published

7% Pro Rate Markets (6+ cents per word)

11% Semi Pro Rate (1-5 cents per word)

12% Token Markets (less then 1 cent per word)

23% Non Paying Markets (no monetary payement)

20% Self Published

Novels broke down as follows:

55% None published

5% Professional Publishing Houses (Random House, Orbit Books, and other big publishers)

11% Independent Publishing Houses (Regional or “small” publishers)

30% Self Published

My Thoughts:

I was surprised at how high the Self Publishing number where.  This was publicized as a “Survey on Self Publishing”  but I think it still shows a trend that moves towards self publishing.  Only those who marked self published in either of the last two questions continued with the survey.  Roughly 48% of the people who started this survey were Self Published (126 people).  That’s nearly half, which is surprising.

Robert’s Thoughts:

I’m not at all surprised by the percentage of people who have self-published. More and more people are self-publishing all the time. Writers are finding that they can find an audience by self-publishing whereas before they were spending so much time submitting their stories/novels and getting rejected and not reaching an audience at all. Now, whether this is a good or bad thing depends on many factors. I will be posting a blog post of my own for a more indepth look at that.

Self Publishing Results

Now I am sure you want to know what people had to say about Self Publishing.  There were a 126 people who continued to this section of the survey.  Here are the survey results:

How many works have you self Published:

26% – 1, 10% -2, 23% – 3, 6% – 4, 3%- 5, 6% – 6, 10% – 7, 6% – 8, 3%- 9, and 6%- 10 or more

Novelette or Shorter Break down.

26% had not self published any short works

29% said 1, 16% 2, 6%-3, 13% – 4, 3% – 6, and 3% said 10 or more.  5, 8, and 9 had 0%

Novel Break Down:

29% said they had not self published any novels

39% said one, 13% said 2, 6% said 3, 10% said 7, and 3% said 10 or more.  The others had 0% (4, 5, 6, 8, 9)

How they self published:

On a website, PDF or other electronic means 6%

Paperback and/or Hardcover 3%

Anthologies 3%

E-Reader Formats (all types) 26%

Both Paperback and/or Hardcover 38%

Multiple formats listed above: 23%

And which of these resulted in the most readers?

10% only used one format

13% Paperback

3% Hardcover

74% E-Reader

My Thoughts:

Clearly e-Readers have opened the door to new Authors and the ability for them to self publish their works.  From what I have seen, getting your works out in an e-reader format is easy, fast, and relatively cheap.  This means you can list your work for a better price and attract more readers that way (more on that later).  Perhaps I am the only one who doesn’t own an e-reader.

Robert’s Thoughts:

I agree with you on this one, Richard. Not to mention this data is completely consistent with what I’ve already seen with my own work and with other self-published authors I know. I have sold very little paper copies of my books. Even with setting them at low prices for print books. It really comes down to the fact that you really can price really low with ebooks and readers are much more likely to take a chance on an unknown if they don’t have to pay much for their work.

But how many works are selling when you self publish?

On Combined Total copies (or downloads) for all works was:

6% said under 10

6% said 11-50

13% said 50-99

6% said 100-199

3% said 200-299

3% said 300-399

6% said 400-499

3% said 500-749

6% said 750-999

13% said 1000-1999

3% said 2000 –  2999

0% said 3000-3999

0% said 4000-4999

13% said 5000-9999

16% said 10000+

The work that gave them the most copies sold (downloads or prints):

6% said under 10

10% said 11-50

13% said 50-99

10% said 100-199

10% said 200-299

6% said 300-399

3% said 400-499

0% said 500-749

6% said 750-999

13% said 1000-1999

0% said 2000 –  2999

3% said 3000-3999

0% said 4000-4999

6% said 5000-9999

13% said 10000+

My Thoughts:

Well really it means that the range is vast.  There is no clear dominate number of copies you can expect when you self publish.  It could very depending on how the work was promoted (more on that later).  I don’t think this is a far cry from Traditional Publishing.  They don’t really know how many copies they will sell of your book.  This is why they can be so touchy about what they publish.  You might get an advance if you go with traditional publishing, that would be the big difference.  Of course, that is if you even get accepted.

Robert’s Thoughts:

This data really does come 100% down to good promotion. But don’t let that statement fool you. Good promotion isn’t just getting the word out to readers who will like your work. Having a good product is a large part of promotion in and of itself. If you have a story that no one likes that can be the worst promotion you could ever have. The more the right market(s) for your work finds it, the more likely that work is to sell. Simple as that. The cover, description, title, story, and how you present all these things to your market are all factors that can make or break a self-published work just the same as a traditionally published work. Difference is, you’re SELF-publishing. You have to learn and execute the promotion yourSELF!

Self Publishing Companies

I forgot to to list Kindle Direct Publishing, however my survey responders didn’t forget.  They listed it in Other so many times.  I blame ignorance, I thought Createspace and KDP were the same thing.  Oops, consider me educated.

Published themselves (on their own website or printer) 11%

Createspace 21%

lulu 6%

Smashwords 40%

Kindle Direct Publishing (write in) 20%

Pubit (Write in) 1%

Other write ins 1%

Which Company did they like best:

19% said doing it themselves

23% said Createspace

3% said Lulu

22% said Smashwords

22% said Kindle Direct Publishing (Write in)

2% said Pubit (Write in)

9% listed other companies (write in)

My Thoughts

Clearly I am living under a rock to have not heard of KDP for one.  But, it seems Smashwords is very popular with 40% of survey takers using it.  I think the results would have shown a higher KDP rating had it been included, especially with how well Amazon does in the company ratings (see Rating Below).  I suppose that it is because it offers a diverse set of formats, but Createspace and KDP are also very popular among the survey takers.  When it comes to a favorite choice all three are nearly equal in popularity.  You may want to take a look at the company rating before choosing one.  Of course, it will also depend on you needs too.

Robert’s Thoughts

Honestly, Richard, when I took the survey, I didn’t know that you had made it. I thought you were just passing it along. If I had known, I would have contacted you asap and said, “Woah, you’re forgetting the biggest chunk of the market!” Because in my experience KDP really does have the self-publishing ereader market cornered. More authors may be using Smashwords, though I highly doubt those results would be the same if you were to manage to get a larger study pool, but more books are sold to a staggering degree through KDP than on Smashwords. Every self-published author I’ve spoken with and my own results both reflect that. We’re talking something like a 96/4 or higher ratio. That’s a significant difference. It’s as simple as this: MORE READERS BUY FROM AMAZON.

Promotions:

Yea, that’s right.  One of the biggest differences I see between using a Publishing House and Self Publishing is promotion.  You are in charge of getting your work out to the people.  Here are some of what the Survey Takers used:

1% had other works published traditionally

9% used promotional pricing (temporary discount prices)

8% low pricing (pricing the book low permanently)

3% said making the book free (permanently)

11% said they promoted on their Facebook Site

4% said they promoted on their Google+

10% said they promoted on their Twitter

10% said they promoted on their website

12% provided free copies for reviewers (6% for professional reviews and 6% for amateur reviews)

6% provided free copies to try and generate word of mouth

8% posted on sites designed to promote independent authors

5% did giveaways or contests

3% did paid advertising on Social Meda

0% (1 taker) did paid advertising in literary magazines

1% uses other online advertising (paid)

3% did book signing events

1% did booths at fairs or events

3% created a book trailer

3% used Youtube videos

2% listed other means

What way worked the best for them?

32% didn’t keep track

3% had other works published traditionally

3% used promotional pricing (temporary discount prices)

3% low pricing (pricing the book low permanently)

0% said making the book free (permanently)

13% said they promoted on their Facebook Site

6% said they promoted on their Twitter

6% said they promoted on their website

6% posted on sites designed to promote independent authors

6% said book signing events

6% listed other means

I removed the answers that got no votes.

How much did you pay for advertising?

45% said $0

48% said $1-$100

6% said up to $500

No 0ne said more.

Will paying more get you more?

3% said yes

35% said no

61% said they were not sure.

Will promoting one work get more readers for all your works?

13% said Yes and they wouldn’t have to promote the other works

58% said Yes but they should still promote the other works too.

3% said No

26% said they were not sure.

My Thoughts:

First of all, KEEP TRACK OF WHAT WORKS!  If you are not keeping track of what advertising worked, you are doomed to repeat the same mistakes.  This can mean wasted money and wasted time.  I was really surprised how little use social media had.  It is 100% free and takes little or no time.  The same goes for your website.  Sure, websites can take some time, but they are worth the effort.  I get anywhere from 10-100 new visitors to this site a day.  That’s new visitors that have not ever been here before.  That’s a lot of people I can promote my new writings with.

I think Authors forget that writing is a business too (I know I do).  And, for better and worse,  when you self publish you take the whole business aspect on alone.  Business is tough work, I owned one.  Keep track of what is working.  Use different codes for certain coupons so you can track what worked.  Offer 10% off if they mention a certain ad.  For example you might post exclusively on Facebook a coupon code that gives 10% off to Facebook Followers.  Then a little later cancel that coupon and post another one for 10% off to Twitter Followers.  Perhaps you make signed copies only available direct from your site.  Perhaps all your Giveaway contestants get a code for a discount.  This way you can track who heard about you from where.  If the Giveaway didn’t work, you won’t waste the time next time.  But if the Facebook ad was a huge success you may want to run one once a month.

Advertising is hard work.  I had a hell of a time with it in my business.  I learned a lot.  Perhaps when I get done with my first novel, I will blog about what advertising I used and how well it is working.

Robert’s Thoughts

Unfortunately, Richard, it’s just not that simple. You can’t give away coupons on Amazon. The only site you can really do that with is Smashwords and unfortunately, MOST READERS DON’T BUY FROM SMASHWORDS. Now, I wish that weren’t true. Smashwords is a great company for authors and publishers. But it just doesn’t get the commercial traffic that Amazon does. And any little thing you do can make a difference in sales. Things other people or things that the different distributors like Amazon, Lulu, Smashwords do can make a difference and you won’t even know it. There’s no real clear way to find out for sure as far as I know. It’s like blind voodoo. So, your best bet is to just do everything you can. If you’re doing something and sales go up, keep it up. If after a while of doing that sales go back down try something new. It’s a crazy game of cat and mouse, but if you want to sell more books, it’s what you have to do.

One thing that does work tried and true is to have an online presence and be in touch with possible readers. They will respond to you and you will meet new friends and everyone wins all around. They find new books to read, meet a new friend, you sell books, and also meet some great people as well. You don’t have to be terribly charismatic, just be yourself. Treat your readers as your friends because frankly. The people who like your work are more likely to be the kind of people you can be real friends with.

My Reply:

It is unfortunate that there is not better tracking for these self publishing solutions.  But what Robert describes is still tracking of some sort.  It is certainly better then guessing.  When I launch my first advertising campaign for my son’s Children’s Book (which will be self published this year).  I will post a blog on how I tracked what was working and what wasn’t.  Advertising and publicity is something I have worked with for some time, so I am a bit excited to see how I can apply it to this industry.

Pricing:

How much is your writing worth?  Well, I would say mine is worth a lot more then I would probably realistically sell it for.  Here is what the Survey takers had to say:

What prices have you priced your e-books at?

2% didn’t have any ebooks

19% said Free

27% said $1 or less

37% said $1.01-$2.99

14% said $3.00-$4.99

2% said $5.99-$9.99

What they thought was the best price of an e-book:

2% didn’t have any ebooks

0% said Free

10% said $1 or less

68% said $1.01-$2.99

19% said $3.00-$4.99

3% said $5.99-$9.99

What prices have you priced your Paper Copy Books?

28% didn’t have any paper copies

3% said $3-$4.99

23% said $5-9.99

28% said $10-$14.99

10% said $15-$19.99

10% said $20+

What did they think the best price was for paper copy books?

28% didn’t have any paper copies

3% said $3-$4.99

46% said $5-9.99

23% said $10-$14.99

0% said $15-$19.99

0% said $20+

How important is pricing to the self published Author?

Very Important – 71%

Somewhat Important – 28%

Neutral – 3%

Both Unimportant Categories received no votes.

My Thoughts

I have to say I agree with what I see here.  I have a huge problem with Kindle e-book pricing even from the big name Authors.  I will save that for another time.  The prices Self Published Authors are setting seems to be reasonable.  I don’t agree with making your book free to all forever.  A limited discount maybe, but give yourself some credit.  Surely your work is worth more then $0.  Don’t go crazy either, you are a new author and a self published author.  Consider how much you would be willing to pay for a work put out by an author you don’t know?  For me, I like taking a chance on new authors both self published and published by the Publishing Houses.  I have rarely been disappointed.  But I put little value on an e-book, therefore I am not likely to spend more then $3 on an author I haven’t hear of.  That’s me.

Robert’s Thoughts

Most self-publishers and independent publishers are competitive enough to price reasonably if not all out low. Most of the ebooks you find online for outrageous prices are the big publishers trying to push people into buying paper copies. You see they win either way: People want to read the authors they’ve come to know and love and now they either have to continue reading paper copies and not move on to an ereader or they have to start paying more for ecopies. That’s what these larger publishers are trying to do. So, either way, they win as long as people are willing to pay these outrageous prices. The best way to stop it is to NOT PAY SUCH RIDICULOUS PRICES. And one free work can be a great promotion for your other works. It’s all in how you do it. If you have a series, I could be great to have the first work free and then when the readers are done and want to read more in the series they are likely to buy your second and third and so on in your series. Of course there’s also a nice simple short story that just shows your skills. It may seem like a big loss to give one of your best works away for free, but when someone reads one of your best works and is impressed by it, they’re more likely to buy other works by you.

Companies to Use:

The last part of the survey was designed to give people an idea what companies work well with self published Authors.  Not just for publishing but for the all around needs of the author.  I have ranked them based on the survey responses.  For each vote in a certain catagory I assigned them points.  Then I divided the points by total survey takers, and I ranked them Highest to Lowest:

Companies in terms of Ease of Use (out of 4):

1. Twitter (3.46)

2. Facebook (3.39)

3. Amazon (3.22)

4. Blogspot (3.14)

5. WordPress (2.94)

6. Smashwords (2.88)

7. Google+ (2.87)

8. Barnes and Noble (2.7)

9. Lulu (2.67)

10. Createspace (2.63)

11. Goodreads (2.35)

12. Live Journal (2.29)

Companies rated on their ability to promote Self Published Authors (out of 4):

1. Twitter (3.17)

2. Facebook (3.08)

3. Goodreads (2.7)

4. Amazon (2.65)

5. Google+ (2.57)

6. Createspace (2.54)

7. Blogspot (2.5)

8. Smashwords (2.44)

9. WordPress (2.38)

10. Barnes and Noble (2.05)

11. Live Journal (1.76)

12. Lulu (1.71)

Companies Rates on Ability to Generate readers (out of 4)

1. Facebook (2.92)

2. Amazon (2.89)

3. Twitter (2.88)

4. Goodreads (2.55)

5. Google+ (2.5)

7. Blogspot (2.43)

8. Tied Smashwords and WordPress (2.29 each)

10. Barnes and Noble (2.19)

11. Live Journal (1.71)

12. Lulu (1.14)

How likely are you to recommend these companies to other Self Publishers (out of 5)

1. Amazon (4.63)

2. Facebook (4.26)

3. Tied Smashwords and Twitter (4.19 each)

5. Goodreads (3.82)

6. Barnes and Noble (3.37)

7. Createspace (3.22)

8. Google+ (2.96)

9. WordPress (2.74)

10. Blogspot (2.26)

11. Lulu (2.15)

12. Live Journal (2)

Companies rated based on ability in the e-reader market (out of 3)

1. Amazon (2.85)

2. Smashwords (2.28)

3. Barnes and Noble (2.27)

4. Tied Createspace and Lulu (1 each)

Companies rated based on ability in the paper market (out of 3)

1. Createspace (2.64)

2. Amazon (2.31)

3. Barnes and Noble (2.1)

4. Lulu (1.88)

5. Smashwords (0.57)

My Thoughts

These are people’s opinions on these companies from the perspective of being a self published Author.  Take it as that.  You may find you like one of these companies that was low rated here.  But, this might give you a starting point if you are not sure where to check out first.  I was surprised, as I expected Createspace and/or Lulu to dominate these numbers.   Clearly I was mistaken.  If print is what you want you might consider Createspace, but when it comes to the e-reader market Amazon and Smashwords seem to rate the highest.

When it comes to social media, Twitter seems to be the preference.  I can’t say I am surprised.  I have a lot more followers on Twitter then any where else.  I have seen a lot of writers say how much they like Google+, though I will be the first to admit I think it is useless.  Facebook is popular seems to rank well too.

If you like to blog, clearly Live Journal is not a good choice.  However WordPress and Blogspot seem to be equally popular.  It seems to be true of the Authors I know.  I would guess that about 50% of them use either site.  I picked WordPress.  It works for what I need and I find it really easy to use.  It allows the custom content I want, and in the future I can import/merge this blog with my own website.

In the end, the company you use depends on what you need and want.  Read all the Terms of Service/Use.  I hope this information will at least shorten your trial and error routine.  Check them all out.  Otherwise you might miss Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.

Robert’s Thoughts

I self-published my first work in July of 2011. In the not even six months since then, I’ve gathered a great deal of my own sales data. And I’m here to tell you Ereaders are the future of books. Especially for self-published books. There are thousands if not millions of readers out there looking for their next favorite indie author.

I do find myself surprised on the social media front. I’ve found Facebook to be much more helpful for me. Or it could be that I’m still new to Twitter and haven’t put enough into using it to my advantage.

I use blogspot myself and have enjoyed that it is already connected with my Google account and is very easy to use and maintain. And with being free and having almost all the options you would have with a standard website, it works great for most everything I need in a website. Now, if only I could get it to make blog posts for me as I seem to neglect it all too often.

Overall as Richard has said already, your mileage may vary. It’s best to cover all the avenues you can. Clearly, you’re not likely to have multiple blogs but if you’re planning on self-publishing definitely cover all your distribution options and all the social media and free promotional options you can make time for. Because in the end what works best for one person may differ proportionately to another. So, in order to reach the most possible readers you should highly consider putting your work out at in all possible venues and in all possible formats and of course have an online presence in all the different social media sites. These thing can only add to your chance of becoming a successful self-published author.

What does this all mean?

Well it’s the results of a survey on self publishing, with the thoughts of two authors.  I hope you find this a helpful insight if you are planning to start, or even continue, in self publishing.  It has certainly shined some light on my own ideas in self publishing.  It is a viable means, and slowly the negative perception of self published works has dissolved away.

I am a paper book lover, but you can’t deny that e-readers have opened the door to the self published author.  The ability to reach readers worldwide, at a low cost, has allowed talented authors to emerge.  These are talented authors who have made the choice to control the process of their writing from creation to sale.  Perhaps that is more difficult when compared to waiting for an editor at a publishing house.  At the least I would say it is equally challenging.

If you found this helpful feel free to share it, re-blog it, or post it on your social media site of choice.  Thank you to all the survey takers and thank you to Robert Wilson for sharing his insights.

About the Authors:

Richard Flores IV

Richard is an author of Speculative Fiction who lives in California.  He fits his writing time around being a father of three young boys and a husband to his beautiful wife.  He has been published in Cygnus Journal of Speculative Fiction and Liquid Imagination.  He has a Children’s Picture Book, that he wrote with his oldest son, set to be released in early 2012.  For more information on Richard Flores IV, you can find him online at https://floresfactor.wordpress.com/.  You can also find him on Twitter @Richard_Flores4

Robert S. Wilson

Robert S. Wilson is the author of the Kindle bestseller The Quiet: A Novella and the critically acclaimed Shining in Crimson: Empire of Blood Book One as well as co-editor for Horror For Good: A Charitable Anthology, an anthology which includes stories by international bestselling authors and horror legends. All proceeds from Horror For Good will go toward amfAR, an international AIDS research foundation.  For more information on Robert S. Wilson, you can find him online at http://shiningincrimson.blogspot.com/.  You can also find him on Twitter @EmpireOfBloodRW

Robert lives in Smyrna, Tennessee with his wife and two children while he attempts to make time for everything and utterly fails constantly.