How to Use Author Central as a Marketing Tool #WWow

If you want to appear as a serious writer, there are several resources/tools you need to have. The most obvious is a website, perhaps a blog, but have you thought about the ever apparent Amazon? When you click your author name, what happens? Does it take you to your author page? If not, you're behind!

HOW TO USE AUTHOR CENTRAL for your benefit

You'll want to use Author Central to be visible to your readers, to market yourself and to appear as a serious writer. Author Central is the first thing you should use to start building your brand!

How can this be a marketing tool?

1. Promote your blog, twitter and videos by connecting them to your Author Central Page.
2. Track your sales.
3. Track your author ranking.

What is Author Central?

Author Central is an Amazon service that connects your books on Amazon to your author profile. If you click on an author's name on Amazon, it'll take you to your profile and you set up that profile on Author Central.

Here's an idea of what you can do:

How do you create your account? 

1. Go to https://authorcentral.amazon.com/
2. Sign in with your regular Amazon account. If you don't have an Amazon account, now's the time to start one!
3. Go to the PROFILE tab and add your picture and bio.
4. Other options in the PROFILE are to add your Twitter handle, your blog's RSS feed, videos of your trailers and events.
5. Next, claim your books. Search for your book under the BOOKS tab and click CLAIM IT.

USING AUTHOR CENTRAL TO MONITOR YOUR RANKINGS

You can track three key items on Author Central:  book sales,  author rankings and customer reviews.

BOOK SALES - Found under the SALES INFO. Keep an open mind as sales figures sometimes come in slowly and are not up-to-date. Also, this is obviously only Amazon numbers.

AUTHOR RANKINGS - I'm not sure what good this data is, but it's interesting to look at, nonetheless. From what I can tell, your ranking goes up with more sales. Makes sense. You can also see how you play out in your specific genres.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS- Find recent customer reviews in the REVIEWS TAB. 

What I ultimately suggest is that you take an hour or two (or twenty) to set up your account, play with the features and see what you can do. Also, promote your page and let others know you're out there!

How have you used Author Central? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.

Melinda Dozier is a contemporary romance author published by Crimson Romance and Swoon Romance. She is also Marketing and Art Director for a small publisher and spends way too much analyzing data for fun. Her current book is on sale TODAY for 99 cents! ONE LUCKY NIGHT can be found HERE and her Amazon page is HERE.

#WWoW: Tammy's Tidbits from #RomConU and Indie Publishing #MyWANA

Hello my friends! Welcome to Tammy's Tidbits here at Writer's Words of Wisdom. I know it's been a long time since my last post but I've a fabulous one for you today. I just returned from Denver, Colorado where I attended RomCon University and RomCon 2014. I had a great time connecting with fellow authors, readers, and friends—both old and new. If you've ever wondered whether or not you should attend conventions and conferences, stop right there. Do it. You need to interact with your peers, make connections, and overall enjoy yourself.

This year was the first time I attended RomCon University. This portion was aimed specifically for authors—published and aspiring. So many great topics were covered, but I filled my schedule with seminars aimed at marketing, publishing, and formatting. 

I'm what people call a hybrid. I have books published traditionally through a publisher (Siren Bookstrand), and I've self published the rest for FOUR pen names. I have the best of both worlds, but there's always room for improvement. That's why I looked forward to this conventions for months. Let me tell you, I wasn't disappointed at all. 

I attended two talks given by Smashwords' Marketing Director Jim Azevedo. He gave out a thumb drive with his presentations on it as well as the three free books put out by Smashwords founder Mark Coker: Smashwords Style Guide: How to Format Your EBook, Smashwords Book Marketing Guide - How to Market any Book for Free, and Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success. All of these books are FREE and can be found on Smashwords.com or Amazon. Go ahead and download your copies now. I'll wait.

Got them? Good! You'll need those later, but for now let me give you the highlights of Jim's talks. Self publishing no longer has the stigma it had as little as five years ago. Before, if you said you published your own books, people thought you weren't good enough for a traditional publisher to take you under their wing, so why should they read any of your work. It's a good question, but very misguided.

You see, some of the most talented authors out there are self publishing/going "indie". Of course, there are some books published way too soon, without formal editing and publishing. There are some with covers that will make you cringe...but so many more with professional looking covers that draw you in. This is the group we choose to be in and Smashwords is one of the ways we can get there.

One thing many of us struggle with is how to price our books. Should we go for a freebie to draw in readers? Should it be 99 cents? What price is too much for an eBook? Jim shared a lot of research with us. It's a good marketing strategy to set the first book in a series for free in order to get the readers invested in the characters and the story lines. If they love them, they'll come back for the next books and pay for them.

He shared that 99 cent price point pays out quite well, but the $1.99 spot is a dead zone. Very few if any books sell at that number. Best to move it up to $2.99 and get the sales. For the larger books over 60k words or so, $3.99 is a good price point. Much higher than $5.50 and the sales numbers go down, but of course you make more per book than you would at the 99 cent price point.

Why did I share that? Well, for those of us still building up our following, it's valuable information. The lower prices do help get your name out there and new readers feel they aren't breaking the bank taking a risk on a new author. Once they're hooked, if you price your work fairly, they'll keep coming back again and again.

Smashwords of course isn't the only name in the Indie publishing game. If you want your work to get into the brick and mortar book stores, you need to have it distributed through Ingram. Now I know what some of you are saying. If you have the expanded distribution through Createspace, you do get distributed through Ingram, but buyers see that Createspace is the publisher (by the ISBN number) and they don't want the books. You can't do the expanded distribution through Createspace if you have your own ISBN number, so what are you to do?

Go directly to Ingram and have them distribute for you through their Ingram Spark program. With Ingram Spark, you can publish an eBook, paperback and hard cover all in one spot. Hopefully by the end of the year, they'll have reworked their process so you can use a Word.doc file for all your needs. For now, you need to upload a clean EPUB file for your eBook, and a clean PDF for the print versions. 

Robin Cutler from Ingram gave the presentation on using Ingram's services. For minimal fees, you can have it all at your fingertips. For only $49 per title, you can distribute both print and eBook versions. It's the same cost for print alone so might as well do both. If you only wish to go the eBook route, it's only $25 per title. There is a $12 annual marketing access fee per title as well. 

For these prices, you get included in the Ingram catalogs distributed to libraries and book stores. There are many other tools on their site to help you market each title and you have all the benefits of print on demand without the hassle of having to be responsible for books in a warehouse or for the cost of returns.

As the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Sassy Vixen Publishing, all of this was fabulous news. I came away from those lectures with a renewed outlook on the publishing industry and my part in it. Sure SVP only represents me and my other three pen names, but one day we will take on additional authors. At that time, I want to give them the best options out there for their books, just like Siren gave me when I first started out.

Still not sure going Indie is for you? Check out Ingram Spark and read the Smashwords guides for yourself. It's not the secret world that some make it out to be. If you have your manuscript edited, re-edited and polished until it shines, and you have a professional looking cover, get yourself to these sites and upload your work. Join the world of the published authors and have fun!

Until next time,
~Tammy

Learn More About Tammy

Tammy Dennings Maggy is a best selling, multi-published poet and erotic romance author with Siren and Sassy Vixen Publishing. Her writing explores many facets of romance from ultimate betrayal to finding your soul mate. Her poetry serves as a companion to her novels and has inspired entire series all on their own. Tammy and her alter egos Lia Michaels and Stephanie Ryan and Tawny Savage make up the core authors at Sassy Vixen Publishing and together they've created the shared world series Temptations Resort. Look for the first books in that series to come out later this year.

Now happily married to her own Muse and soul mate, she continues to live her dream and act as secretary to all her characters demanding to have their stories told.

Check out:

Tammy's Website

Tammy's Blog

Tammy's Books on Bookstrand, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords,  and iTunes 

Sassy Vixen Publishing

Friend Tammy on Facebook

Like Tammy's Facebook Author Page

Friend Tammy on Goodreads

Friend Tammy on Pinterest

Follow Tammy on Twitter

Find Tammy's Videos on Youtube

If you'd like to share your experiences in the publishing world, please contact us about setting up a guest appearance. We'd love to hear from you!

Using Niche Marketing for Your Book @KayelleAllen #MFRWorg

REPOSTED FROM MFRW - Marketing for Romance Writers: Using Niche Marketing for Your Book @kayelleallen ...

DEFINITIONS

Let's start with two definitions for the term niche marketing. Niche -- A position particularly well suited to the person who occupies it; the status of an organism within its environment and community (affecting its survival as a species). Marketing -- The exchange of goods for an agreed sum of money; the commercial processes involved in promoting and selling and distributing a product or service; engaging in commercial promotion, sale, or distribution.

Niche marketing is networking. It is not selling. It is not carrying around your books or even bookmarks or business cards. Niche marketing is finding out who likes what you write, and finding ways to be seen by them. Let me explain.

Most marketing efforts are overt. Television commercials show a product and explain why you need it. Car commercials focus on the vehicle's aesthetic appeal, economy, dependability, affordability, and the prestige of ownership. An ad for a new product explains how it's used, why you need to try it, and often offers a bargain for ordering now. Who hasn't heard "But wait! Order now and get..."

IT'S NOT SELLING 

The point of niche marketing is not to sell. It's to rub elbows with people who like "what" you sell and letting them discover your product organically. Your signature on forums, emails, and groups should always have links to your website. Never send anyone anything -- even other writers -- without including your professional signature and a link to something relating to your brand. A book, your website, your blog, social media, etc. You can't have niche marketing if no one knows how to find you. By all means, if you have a tagline (and you should get one asap if not), display it in banners and buttons. Mine is below.

I'm not talking about an in-your-face "DOWNLOAD NOW!" approach, but a simple and direct one. Set up your profile so that every message ends with your name, your writing tag, and your website. If you don't have a tag and website, create them. These are gems! You can use these everywhere you go. A website gives people a central location to learn more about you and your books, and a tag simply tells people what kinds of books you write. Mine is "Unstoppable heroes, Uncompromising love, Unforgettable passion." Anyone who reads my books is going get these things. It's a few words that say everything about my writing. Using your tag in your signature is a form of passive marketing. By combining passive marketing with niche marketing, you can get a double opportunity to tell people about your books, without hitting them over the head with a "BUY NOW!" message.

Go where people who read your type of book can be found. If you write books about horses, you associate with horse people. If it's cats, then you go where cat folks meet. If it's vampires, maybe you hang out with people who watch vampire movies. Niche marketing means you are part of a group that likes the things you write about. It's not selling or talking about your book. You're just there, being one of the gang. Finding the right niche means being with like-minded people. A guy who sells tractors should find out where farmers hang out. His niche is people who need what a tractor can do. Figuring out what the tractor does and what problems it solves will help him figure out who will buy his product.

Think "what problem does my book solve?" If you write fiction, don't assume your book solves no problems. It likely solves many, including boredom and not knowing what to read. One of the first things to consider is that fiction creates a fantasy for someone. If you can fulfill a fantasy, people will pay you for it. A fiction book entertains. People who want to escape and relax with a good story will pay for the privilege. What prompted you to write the book? Think about that and make notes about your thoughts and needs regarding your decision to write, other than "to make money from a book." We all want that as an outcome, but it's not why we write, is it?

Jot down fantasies your book fulfills. You might be surprised. Then look at who is buying similar books (and movies/TV) that fulfill those. It's not necessarily what you thought at first. Be open to new ideas. Where can you go to reach that crowd? Be prepared to spend some time in research, and in getting to know the fans of the genre or series.

READ MORE by following this link.

===
Post by author Kayelle Allen, multi-published, award-winning Science Fiction Romance author of unstoppable heroes, uncompromising love, and unforgettable passion.

Homeworld http://kayelleallen.com
Unstoppable Heroes Blog http://kayelleallen.com/blog
Twitter http://twitter.com/kayelleallen

The Author's Secret https://theauthorssecret.com
(post also shared with Savvy Authors)

#WWoW! Street Teams make an Impact!

Let's Talk About Street Teams.

Likely, you've heard this term before. They're popping up all over the place as authors take advantage of their most valuable resource - their readers. Readers -especially bloggers/ reviewers- are vital to a book's success because their opinion goes a long way. Some have an established reputation as being a person to turn to for book recommendations. Why not partner with them if they love your books/ series?

That's exactly what creating a street team is... partnering with readers who like your books so much, they want to share them with other readers. A Street Team is a group of readers/bloggers that are fans of a particular author and want to spread the word about books they love. They're just doing what they already do - reading what they like and telling their friends. There's no recipe as to how many members per street team, benefits to offer or rules to follow. Each author has their own style.

Here's a list of links to some author's street teams for ideas on how to begin your own:

Cat Johnson  |  J. Kenner/ JK Beck  |  Heather Hildenbrand  |  Donna Grant

A Street Team is an indie author's secret weapon. In this article at Kobo Writing Life, an in-depth description of one author's experience puts it all into perspective. Read it here.

You might already have bloggers sharing your books with other readers. A Street Team just makes it all more official with “target tasks” such as hosting a blog stop, liking books at on-line sites, placing reviews on goodreads, sharing cover reveals, pinning on Pinterest, posting updates on facebook or tweeting about new releases. Most authors design a street team that works best for them. Typical perks to being part of a street team include an exclusive facebook page, yahoo or google+ group, swag, earliest available ARCs, blog badge, link back to blog, sneak peeks at WIPs, and "personal" on-line access to the author. Some authors even choose to have incentives and/ or prizes for participation.

.

It's Your Team - You Make It What You Want!

There are a lot of books in the world and authors need help to spread the word. A street team is a fun way to interact with fans while asking them to do what many already do … and it has added perks (for you both).

CLICK on the ROMANCE BECKONS STREET TEAM BADGE to the left to read about my Street Team.
Check It Out... and then... Keep Writing!
Paloma

#WWoW! Just Link It.

Let's talk about LINKING. My rule of thumb is when in doubt, just LINK IT! What am I talking about? Really, everything. All of your social networking accounts, blog, website, tumblr - literally everything - should be linked.  Because then you are doing the work once while your impact is huge. It's that easy.

Are there accounts you shouldn't link? Nope but there may be some more geared towards different types of posts. It's still okay to link them because there is always overlap and as long as you aren't spamming out oodles and oodles of promo, your goal should be to extend your reach (and sell more books).

Now time to get to work!

First and foremost, have your blog connected into your social media sites, particularly facebook and twitter. This means each time a post goes up on your blog, it automatically goes to these programs for you. Here's promo without anymore work than setting up your single post. You can set up these links in the SETTINGS account of your blog. Blogger allows you to link with Google+ also and I recommend you do it even if you do nothing else with Google+ (yet).

Link your blog to Networked Blogs on facebook. You can search for the app on facebook and select SYNDICATE to connect your blog. Here is another way for potential readers to find your blog and follow you. It is becoming more and more popular so jump on it! Doing this also means your blog posts are automatically sent out via facebook. If you have an author's page, you can even choose to have them sent there instead of your profile.

Other TOP TWO places to link your blog (that have a bit more to it than just linking):

Triberr - Build your reach exponentially. See my previous post with specifics on this site. This is a bit more involved than just linking though completely worth it.

Goodreads - Thousands of readers use this site. If you don't create an author's page and utilize it by linking, you are missing a big opportunity for networking regardless of the horror stories we see with reviews on goodreads. Check in about twice a week to see if you have any messages, reviews, etc. Most importantly, link your blog to post to your author page! See mine here.

Another place to link your blog is in search engines that give potential readers more places to find you. Most have widgets for you to add to your blog but some just simply place you into a database to be more searchable. My favorites are: BlogNation - BlogTrain - Blog Lovin' - Writing Blogs - Linky - AuthorsDb. Be sure to set up all your links in each of these - most require your blog rss feed so have that handy - so each time you post in one place, your information spreads out across the web.

Finally, make a list of all social networking sites you belong to or any on-line accounts.

Here are some of the most common: facebook - twitter - google+ - LinkedIn - tumblr - stumbleupon - YouTube - Picasa. Go into the SETTINGS options in each of these and be sure you have linked as many of them together (and with your blog!) as possible. There are other sites you might choose to use and regardless of which ones you choose, just be sure to link them.

Remember every time you link it, you reduce your work in half while doubling your reach.

I don't suggest you spend hours a day on these sites.

In fact, linking your accounts means your time spent on marketing decreases even though you are visible in more places. Once these accounts are established (& LINKED!!), you will need to do little more than your regular blog posts. A few of these places I mentioned take extra maintenance but it's minimal and worth it.

How does this help your business?

You will advertise to a wider audience as you increase your reach. You will write more because your time spent marketing will decrease. It's a simple case of Win-Win.

So, what are you waiting for? Just Link It!

And Keep Writing!

Paloma

#Wwow - Creative Online Promotion Tools #1 #writingtip

Creative Online Promotion Tools!

It's the moment you've been waiting for ... book release day! Now what? Hopefully you've planned a blog tour, tweeted and facebooked information. But you've got to promote your book in creative ways to get your book out there! Here are a few online promotion tools I've found to help you.

PowToon Cartoons: PowToon helps you create animated videos or presentations for FREE. Once you create the cartoon, you can upload it to Youtube and ... BAM! You have a fun promotional video that's different. Here are a few examples I've made to give you an idea of what you can do:

5 Reasons to Read Breaking the Rules

I used this as a guest blog post during my book blog tour.

Ull Chats with Colin

I helped a friend promote her book at my blog with this creative character interview.

I hope you try it out! What other ways can you use Powtoons? If you create something, share the link below!

Melinda Dozier is a contemporary romance writer. Her three debut novels were released in 2013: The Boy Next Door and Time Changes Everything from Entranced Publishing, and Breaking the Rules from Crimson Romance. Her next release, Love and Other Games: Trouble With Gold will be released in October from Swoon Romance. You can find more information at her website:www.melindadozier.com

#WWoW! AUTHORSdB is the Place To Be.

A Place for Readers to find Authors. 

Ever heard of the Authors Database?

The fact is every author is looking for a way to reach more readers. Here is a simple way to make that happen with a very small amount of effort. Authors and businesses that offers services to authors can be listed 100% FREE on AUTHORSdB. It is currently the only FREE database of authors that includes social media, book listings and so much more. AUTHORSdB is a place where information is available on authors and is fast becoming the place readers can learn about up-and-coming authors. Get in on this opportunity now as it continues to grow even larger. 

• AUTHORSdB uses software that engages search engines. Once you're listed in AUTHORSdB, you get these benefits: 

1. Organic (non-paid) Google backlinks. These are sorely underutilized but critical to Social Media Marketing.  I received a tweet notifying me, after only 48 hours of registering, that I was now indexed in Google search!
2. Tweets. AUTHORSdB tweets Google alerts when authors get indexed in Google.Whenever an author is listed, they tweet "@[author name] #gotlisted NEW AUTHORSdB Pls RT [link back to author details]"

• AUTHORSdB likes the author's facebook page(s) and when liked back, they share something from the authors Facebook page.  (NOTE: You need a Twitter and Facebook page to qualify)
• AUTHORSdB adds their authors to Google+, LinkedIn & Pinterest.
• Author Awards acknowledge authors in a variety of ways for many different types of interaction. After posting about AUTHORSdB with a back link on my author blog, I was given this banner for my blog.
  

GET LISTED. For FREE and through a quick registration process, you can have your name included in the Authors Database at AUTHORSdB.com. You will be able to 1. Create an account, 2. Add your bio, photos and book images, 3. Add all your social media contact information, 4. Add your 'Buy Here' links to Amazon, B&N, etc, and then they share for you.

It takes just a few minutes to extend your reach exponentially. List yourself as an Author 100% FREE and then reap the benefits the exposure from their automated promotions. What are you waiting for? Get registered and then get back to writing!

Paloma

#WWoW! FREE BOOK Listings!

I feel like I hit on a jackpot in the marketing realm and couldn't wait to share it with everyone! As a reader, I

subscribed to free/ cheap books emails that would come out daily with a listing of either free or inexpensive books in the genre I selected. As an author, I began wondering just how those books were selected. Guess what? You can pay to have your book advertised on these services. OK, so maybe you already knew that but maybe not...

There are my two favorites:http://sweetfreebooks.com and http://bookbub.com

With my first FREE READ now available, I decided to list it (It's in today's edition of Sweet Free Reads/ New Authors) and see if it generates sales. The stats they showed looked promising. Since my free read is part of my Seven Sin Sisters PNR series, my ultimate hope is that it generates sales for the series. As inexpensive as it was to advertise with Sweet Free Books and the friendly customer service I received, I didn't feel like I had anything to lose. They even post on their blog, facebook page and tweet for me in addition to the email.

FOLLOW their blog.
LIKE their facebook page.
FOLLOW their tweets.

If you'd like to subscribe to the email and check out the service, sign up here: http://sweetfreebooks.com/join/. Honestly, as a reader, I picked up a lot of my books this way... you know, back when I had more time to read!

- Paloma

My FREE READ is Holding Hope. You can read it as a stand alone, an intro to the series or as

book #4.5 in the series. Go grab it FREE TODAY... it's available on Barnes& Noble and Secret Cravings... hopefully soon on Amazon.

BLURB
The seven Sinster sisters are entwined in a legacy originating back from the time of the Italian Wars in the 1500s. One by one, they’ll find their mates from the immortal Valendite Breeds and secure their place in history.


Lucas believed he was fated to live out a solitary existence. He devoted himself to the sole mission of protecting his family and his breed when the woman he thought to be his mate died right in front of his eyes. With only one fated mate, Lucas understood his life would be lived alone.

Until he held hope in his arms… Ella was a captive of his sworn enemy when he found her and immediately felt the connection. Lucas rescued her, nursed her back to health and cared for her. Now can he convince her to embrace her identity as one of the women of the Magdalena Circle? This might prove to me his most difficult mission yet.

WWoW! Marketing Summer Camp for Writers!

One of the best things to happen to me as an author was MFRW.

When I published my first book, I felt like a tiny guppy dumped into an enormous, dark and scary ocean where everyone else knew what was going on... but me. The #1 best piece of advice I received was when someone in my publishing house recommended I join Marketing for Romance Writers.

MFRW MOTTO: Seek, teach, share, learn, succeed.

"MFRW is open to the literary community. We focus on marketing and publicity efforts. We brainstorm ideas, get feedback, and find others for mutual promotion. If you seek advice on how to promote you're welcome here. We enforce our simple group rules. Keep it business-only. No promos, excerpts, contests, newsletters, or flaming. We respect those on digest by trimming our posts. Questions, promo ideas, requests for help are welcome."

I joined. I read everything. I participated or lurked in everything they offered and I learned so much from the other authors. The networking grew my reach. When I had trouble with twitter early on, the group rose up and helped me as a whole (my follow ratio was skewed and by them following me, my twitter account was restored!) - the founder, author Kayelle Allen, actually did a shout out to support little guppy me. All of a sudden, I felt like all those other rainbow fish swimming around me in the ocean. Everyone was so supportive.

My confidence rose as I participated in their member services... MFRW Authors blog is open to authors to post to, MFRW Pinterest boards bring added book exposure, MFRW pitch camp and other social marketing trainings throughout the year are added bonuses. There's a monthly MFRW newsletter - see a copy of the latest edition on my right sidebar. There's also a monthly banner advertising project and for those authors on twitter, MFRW publishes a weekly Paper.li where you may be featured base on tweets. You can also follow MFRW twitter account. MFRW is just beginning to organize their own blog hops with the most updated hop software available. We even have a facebook group which is less formal than the Yahoo group.

AND, *insert drum roll here*, the VERY BEST PART is... MFRW's Summer Camp! 

Camp starts this Friday, July 12th and ends on Sunday, July 14th. It's packed with a variety of topics and top-notch instructors. No sleeping bags or camping equipment required for this camp - it's all on-line. Plus, it's free. Sign up for camp by joining the CoffeeTime Romance Forum. ALL classes will be held there. Here are the instructions to follow. The official camp hashtag is #MFRWcamp if you want to follow on twitter.

Now, what are you waiting for? 

Go ahead and join!

Don't miss out on this opportunity to network and grow

as an author. There's no question that marketing ourselves is a huge part of what we do in this ocean of ebook publishing. Let MFRW guide your way. 

I'd love to hear if something I said in my post convinced you to join! COMMENT below and let me know...

Paloma