#Wwow - Creative Online Promotion Tools #2 #promotion

Creative Online Promotion Tools

Last week I shared Online Promotion Tool #1 (Powtoon). This week, I have another three favorite tools to create original, fun promotion for your books.

Tool #2: Animoto (www.animoto.com)

Animoto is a fun tool to create videos of photos and/or videos. The best part is you can create a 30 second video FREE. You can pay for the more advanced version. Tammy posted about that HERE.

Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Just to show you what you can do in 30 seconds, here’s a video I created for release day of my debut novel, Time Changes Everything.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Tool #3: Jib Jab Freebies (www.jibjab.com)

Creative tool to create hilarious videos/ecards/minimovies. You add in your photos to people’s bodies and it makes for a great laugh. Here is a video to promote ST Bende’s Elsker and my books, Time Changes Everything, Breaking the Rules and Trouble with Gold. Our heroes become Chippendales!

Tool #4: Face in the Hole

This is another funny way to promote your characters or book. Face in the Hole allows you to place your “character” photo onto any photo you want. Here are a few ways I’ve used this:

This is ME with Jake (aka Matt Bomer) from Time Changes Everything.

As you can see, I have a rather strange sense of humor, yet I’ve found these tools to be different than the regular blog post or FB post. Something different catches attention.

I’d love to see what you’ve put together! Share your links 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! 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! Editors: The Good, Bad and The Ugly

Congratulations on having your work accepted by a publisher! 

I'll let that set in for a few more minutes before I bring you back down to reality...where the real work begins. That's right, even though you've poured your heart and soul out into writing every single word, paragraph and page, you have to prepare yourself to rip it apart.

We've all been there—afraid to open the file attached to the email from the publisher. Of course the instructions will vary, but in general we're told to make sure the Track Changes feature is ON after opening the Word document, make any changes you agree to do, and make any comments you feel necessary before sending the whole thing back by the deadline.  Whew!

Why are we all scared to open the file? I think it's different for everyone but mainly we're afraid of rejection. What if the editor assigned to your work doesn't like it...any of it?  It's really not the end of the world, but that fear always comes up front and center when you open that file to find an EXPLOSION of colored balloons and comments throughout every single page. *GULP*

DON'T PANIC!!

Take a deep breath and briefly read through some of the balloon messages to get a feel for what you have to do. Look for any repeat messages, glaring grammatical mistakes, and just the overall impression of the work you have ahead of you.  Now put it aside for a day or two if you can.

Why? You'll want to go through it with fresh eyes and when you've had a chance to get over the shock of the myriad of colors that used to be your "baby."  Trust me. Giving yourself a day away from it will help you keep an open mind. Many of the suggestions listed in the comments will improve your story. Some of them you won't agree with at all. That's okay.

Grammar and punctuation rules will vary from publisher to publisher depending on what style guide each prefers. For example, one of my publishers hates the use of semi colons. Others don't mind it at all as long as it's used sparingly. Some comma use and placement will also be dependent on the style book preferred by the publisher.  Don't be freaked out by some of these changes. You may have been taught one way in high school or college English courses, but your current publisher prefers another style. These are not the areas you'll need to "fight over" later. They're pretty much non-negotiable if you wish to continue to be with this particular publisher.

Now go through each part of your manuscript line by line, carefully read any notes or suggestions. Note any and all corrections your editor has made. If you feel strongly your version is best, don't accept the editor's changes. Talk to them about it if you're able. If not, use the track changes feature and leave a comment balloon yourself with your reasons why you don't accept what has been suggested.

Don't be stubborn and refuse to consider the editor's ideas. Often they come up with points you may not have even thought of before and which actually make your story flow more naturally.  THIS is the editing relationship of your dreams.

All Editors Are NOT Created Equal

Just like all writer's are not created equal, editors come in all shapes, sizes and levels of experience and expertise. Not every editor will understand you or your vision. That doesn't mean they're wrong, it just means they're wrong for YOU.

What makes a good editor?

• They read through your material from start to finish and try to see your vision and help you bring out the best story from YOU.
• They correct grammar and punctuation using specific style rules agreed upon ahead of time, usually those set up by the publisher both of you work for.
• A good editor points out areas where your story is lacking details or has too much (info dumps).
• SUGGESTS alternatives to eliminate repeated words and phrases to make your work flow smoothly.
• Never tries to rewrite or rework your book into their own voice or writing style.

What makes a bad editor?

• Cockiness. Claiming you need them in order to sell more books or you'll not find anyone out there who edits like they do. (There may be a reason for that! Just sayin...)
• Turns off the tracking in order to delete and/or rewrite portions of your story with their own ideas of how the characters should act.
• They treat you as if you're a moron with comments such as "have you learned nothing at all from the previous editing rounds?"
• They can't refrain from making snide comments about editors with other publishing houses, calling them "overworked" and "lazy" when they "allow" things to slip through the cracks.

What makes up "the ugly" editor?

• This group sets themselves up as editors but actually have no real experience doing it and no formal training.
• Some are just glorified proof readers, catching glaring grammatical errors, but charge you as if they've edited for content and flow.
• These are the people who take credit for your finished product in promotions. They make it known far and wide they were the one who edited your book.
• Editors in this group not only turn off tracking to rewrite your novel, they'll actually convince you it's a great idea NOT to use it in the first place. This is a HUGE red flag.
• These folks promise you the moon and stars, specifically you'll have huge sales simply because they're your editor...not because of your writing.
• The "ugly" editor won't have a set pricing schedule nor will they have a basic contract. They'll just wing it and quote something different with each client. This is another red flag. 

How do you tell the good from the bad and avoid the ugly?

If you're with a traditional publisher, you may have very little say in who is assigned to edit your work. If you do find you don't get along with the person or you just don't click, you can request a change. What's the worse they can say?

If you're self publishing, you have many more choices out there. Just like with most things in life, you look for recommendations from other authors. This is a great place to start. It doesn't guarantee you'll find a gem. That may take some investigation.

• Ask for their qualifications. Are they professional editors, meaning they've worked for publishing houses in the past? 
• Have they edited in your genre before? If they've never edited a historical romance, they may not catch the specific details needed for that genre. Don't get me started on "vanilla" editors attempting to edit erotic romances! The two just don't blend. NOT. AT. ALL.
• Give them a try. They may meet all your criteria and you don't click with them. That's okay. Don't be discouraged.

The only way to know if you and your editor will get along is to work with them. Take the plunge! If you feel they've helped you and truly worked WITH you to keep your vision on track, then you found the right partner.

If not, and you feel as if the editor doesn't understand you, your characters or your story as a whole, they're not a good match for you.  You don't want a "yes" man. You want someone honest, straight forward and helpful without tearing you down every time you work together.

Compare different editors and their styles. Yes, this could cost you a pretty penny at first, but it can be so worth it. It's something I did with my current WIP in editing. I put both edits up on a split screen in Scrivener and compared each, line by line.  The combination of their suggestions help make my work shine. There were a few instances where both of them said "WTF?? Did you really mean this?"  LOL!  Talk about a good red flag. This is something to change and do it pronto. hehehe

Editors are not meant to be the enemy. They really are there to help you improve your skills and put forth the best book possible. It takes time to find the right match for you, but when you do...

The sky's the limit!

Learn More About Tammy

Tammy Dennings Maggy is a 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 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 iTunesSassy 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

#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

Prepping For A Convention

I recently went to my first convention. Author After Dark in Savannah, Ga. It was a blast. Tons of fun. But I must admit, when I first arrived, and even when I left, I was like a dear in headlights. There was so many people, so much to do, so many things I didn't think of.

All these great swag ideas I'd never though of. Authors made cell phone screen cleans, lint brushes, hand sanitizer, even tissues. So many awesome things. Some simple too. Such as having stickers made and simply placing it on the item. I left there thinking, why didn't I think of that? Well, I didn't because I had never been.

I did have pens made to give out, and a few special business cards that lead readers to a special site to get a free book.

I recommend when you go to one of these things to have a friend. Whether it's an author you chat with online and you two agree to be buddies for it, or you bring someone along, just don't do it alone. So many authors and readers, you have to break out of your shell and talk to them. A friend by your side will help. Tell them who you are and hope maybe they've heard of you. But don't get your feelings hurt if they haven't. Because going to that convention is your first step to having a face to your work.

By the time you leave that first convention, you'll be ready for the next. You'll know what to expect. You won't look like a sixth grader on the first day of school.

But the best advice I can give, is to have fun. Enjoy the new experience, take mental notes, and have fun.

Here I am at the signing. 

Signing Books! Gotta love that!

Elemental Ball. Lots of fun with Ella Jade and Jaye Shields

#WWoW!: Creating Your Own Video Trailers Without Breaking The Bank #royaltyfree #stockphotos

It's Wednesday once again and you know what that means. Time for Tammy's Tidbits here at Writer's Words of Wisdom. Each week the four of us post some tips, insights, or  share our experiences with writing, editing, publishing and promoting. You may have already experienced these things yourself, or find something new. Either way, we would love to get your comments on our posts and perhaps you will join us each week posting some of your own experiences. It's authors helping authors at its finest. We've opened up Fridays for guest authors so if you're interested, let us know!

The following is an updated post of one I did in October 2012. I had just started making my own video trailers and now have a few more under my belt. I have to say I've learned a lot along the way and I hope the information below is helpful to you.


This week I thought I would share my experiences making video trailers for my books. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I first looked into the idea. I asked a lot of questions of one author in particular, Rose Anderson. I loved the video she did for her book Dreamscape. 

First question I had was "who did the video for you?" I was surprised to find out she did it herself and she said it wasn't hard. Now, if you're like me, you're not all that tech savvy and when someone says it's not hard, for me it would be a disaster. 

I was on a very tight budget. Well, I had no extra funds for a budget so I needed to figure out how to do this for myself and CHEAP! LOL  

First of all, I looked for a program that would be rather user friendly and let me set up my own movie/video using the images I had in mind.  I didn't need to look far. I already had one on my computer. Windows Movie Maker. There's currently a newer version Windows Live Movie Maker which you can download for free if you use Vista or Windows 7. What I like about this program is it will automatically format the end product to be able to upload to YouTube, Facebook or for emails. No need to get another program to convert the file. Movie Maker did it all for me with just a click of a button.

A more recent site I've become very fond of is Animoto.com. With this site, you can create fabulous video trailers. If you wish to use the free version, your clips will be very short—thirty seconds to be exact but it can be a great benefit for teasers.  

If you wish to make longer trailers, I suggest you invest the $30 for the PLUS plan. With this, you can make ten minute trailers—more than enough time for an eye catching piece. There is another package for businesses if you wish to go that route, but I stuck to the $30/year plan.

No matter which program you choose to use, it's time to put together the images and music to bring your creation to life. You can't just use any image or music you wish. There are some issues with copyright that will most likely come up so it's best to use royalty free images and music. There are many sites out there to help you with both of these.  Some sites will allow you to use their images and music FOR FREE if you give them credit for it (attribution) and in some way link back to their site. Others will allow you to use the materials without giving any credit to the artists/creators as long as you PAY a FEE.  

With my shoestring budget, I used  FreeDigitalPhotos.net and Photobucket for most of my images. I made sure with each one I was able to use the images in my video and followed the directions on the site to give the proper attribution.  For music, I really wanted to use the tunes I listened to while writing, but I didn't want to get into some fight with a record company so I found a site with great instrumentals. 

Incompetech is the brainchild of Kevin MacLeod. Not only does he have many pieces you can download for free, he will also do original scores for projects. His website has all the specifics and even shows you how to give the proper attribution for YouTube. Mr. MacLeod takes all the guesswork out of it. All you have to do is insert the title of the piece you are using. A no brainer...I loved it!

Animoto has a large selection of music you can use or you can upload your own from Incompetech. Once again, think long and hard about using copyrighted music for your videos. You may get away with it for a bit on Youtube, but if the record company objects, you could be faced with more than just a slap on the wrist.

Here's the video trailer I did for my poetry book Follow Me: Poetry from the Heart and Soul. The music is from the Incompetech site and the images I purchased in a package. Art Explosion contained over 500,000 images I could use for any project. The scenic images were perfect for this trailer.  

There are so many other ways to get images. There's Dreamstime, Shutterstock, iStockphoto, and Fotolia just to name a few. For fairly reasonable rates, you can purchase packages that include a number of images to use as you see fit. This is how many of us found the images for our self-published book covers. 

For even more music choices, you can purchase royalty free compositions on iTunes. Some video trailers also use popular music by well known artists. YouTube automatically lists the title of the song and where to purchase it when the video is uploaded. (I asked a few of my friends how they put the information below their videos and they told me it was YouTube). I'm still a bit leery using my favorite Pink song for one of my trailers. One day I may cross that bridge, but until then, I'll stick to the royalty free stuff! 

Here's the last video trailer I made using Windows Movie Maker.

Here's the first Animoto video trailer I made for us here at Writer's Words of Wisdom.

Are you ready to make your own video trailer? Go on. Give it a try. What have you got to lose? 

Until next week

~Tammy

Learn More About Tammy

Tammy Dennings Maggy is a 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 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 iTunesSassy 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