Meet The Author - in a Coffee Shop

Both writers and readers tend to think of in-person author events taking place on a broad platform – library talks, the ubiquitous literary festival – but in East Yorkshire one man who can’t find time to complete his own debut novel has found the time to set up a bookshelf in a coffee shop.

Realising just how difficult it is for indie authors to get their books in front of prospective readers, Graham Smith of Bridlington teamed up with Rhapsody Coffee to host a book unit in its small rear lounge. Hornsea Writers was one local group he approached.

Was I sceptical? Yes, but I’ve been proved wrong.

Graham wanted one paperback to act as a reading copy with the idea that instead of doom-scrolling through their phones, customers would pick a title and relax into reading while enjoying their coffee. If they wanted to read on, either they bought a bucketful of coffee or a pristine paperback from the bookshelf to take home.

And they do, so much so that he’s initiated Meet The Author events on the first Saturday of the month. That’s where I’ll be on 1st March – at Rhapsody Coffee, High Street, Bridlington 2-4pm.

The image is my A4 info sheet which will stand… where else but on the coffee table.

#Free & Discounted Easter Ebook Reading Bonanza

Ever since the religious celebration of Easter became a four-day break in the UK, the long weekend has been earmarked for DIY, gardening, decorating, or just getting away from it all. In the last few years it has become a time for filling an e-reader with discounted goodies to be read during the lazy hours of nibbling at chocolate eggs. To add to the temptation I have news of two group promotions, both running until 16 April.

First is the 99c/99p SFF Book Bonanza joint author promotion for Kindle (only): Click the following link to be taken to its landing page: http://sffbookbonanza.com/99c-books/

My title in the promo is Torc of Moonlight, book 1 in a trilogy of British Mythic Fantasies set close to where I live. Only the characters are fictional; the historical research is accurate; every place is real and can be visited. 

Not that Nick Blaketon appreciates this, at least at the beginning. A student at Hull University, he’s more interested in playing rugby than studying... until the inexplicable brings obsession, alarm and murder to his door in the guise of Alice Linwood. And she's no idea she's funnelling it towards him.

Click HERE for further background info on the trilogy, and for links to all formats at 99c / 99p.

Second is a free SFF Mega Book promotion via Instafreebie running at the same time: http://sffbookbonanza.com/freebooks/  A chance to try out some new authors for free by signing up to receive their newsletters.

   

 

And yes, I have one in this promotion, too: Contribution to Mankind and other stories of the Dark – see HERE for further information on this collection of short stories. Or you can hit the blue Newsletter button, top right of this page, to jump to it direct. 

What better way to get out of DIY than to sit in the sunshine and read. Can’t be bettered. Okay, it can... by sipping a glass of something interesting alongside.

Enjoy your Easter break. And your reading.

#Marketing: Sowing The Seeds via #Instafreebie

A version of this post featured on the Hornsea Writers blog 01 April 2017

Pilgrim of the Pool, the final novel in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy is finished. Except it’s not. As anticipated last week, I am still working my way through the Line Edits, sorting the easy points on the hoof, listing those which need deliberation. But that's not all I'm doing. Alongside I've been keeping a weathered eye on associated topics, one of which is marketing. 

I've run a Newsletter for years. I try to make it chatty and relevant, with varying degrees of success. Despite having my Newsletter sign-up prominent on my website [eyes right >>>] and at the front and back of my digital and print books, new subscribers are few and far between. When Inboxes are brimming with content, how do you persuade readers to join your Newsletter? You offer something to whet their reading appetites.

I came across Instafreebie mentioned in a forum and after doing my own research - always do your own research - I decided to give it a go.

My page at https://instafreebie.com/free/siNsp

The premise is to offer a “freebie” – short story, novella or even a novel – as an inducement for readers to sign up It’s up to the writer to keep them from unsubscribing by sending a short series of welcoming Newsletters with carrots attached. Think: what’s in it for the reader? Once readers become used to receiving your Newsletter emails and you’ve proved you aren’t going to waste their time, they are more likely to stay with you when moved to your monthly/quarterly Newsletter routine.

Instafreebie.com is free for readers to join, or, if responding directly to a link to a particular book, they don’t have to join Instafreebie, just input their name and e-address into the linked book page: see the above image of the page for my own “freebie”. Once the choice of format is selected the ebook will be delivered via the reader’s email in very short order, complete with instructions on how to email or side-load the ebook to their e-reading device.

For authors, Instafreebie is also free to join. Once signed up I received a dashboard to which I uploaded my chosen title – it has to be in ePub format – which is used as a master for delivering the ebook in all or any formats: mobi, ePub, or pdf. Rather like uploading an ebook to a distributor, genre and keywords are chosen to make it easier for readers searching the site to find your title.

The site collects the e-addresses of all readers who download the ebook, and these can be manually copied or downloaded via a csv file, the usual method of collecting lists. Instafreebie allots a link for each title to be used by the author for publicity. For instance, mine is sitting as a pinned Tweet in my Twitter feed.

As I already have a Newsletter I decided to sign up for the $20 a month Plus Account on a 30-day trial (there is no request for payment facilities on sign-up). This enables the e-addresses of readers to be sent directly into my account at Mailchimp, my Newsletter distributor. Beware: not using a verified Newsletter distributor, and instead using your own email client, is considered spamming and your email client could close your account to protect itself from falling foul of international laws.

Instafreebie has its own author forum where authors connect via genre for cross-promotion opportunities for more visibility of offered titles. There are also similar groups on Facebook, and on Kboards.com (Kindle forum boards).

Is this only suitable for indie authors? No. Unless an author has signed a particularly draconian contract with a publisher there will be leeway to produce a standalone novella or short story which can be used. Just ensure the short standalone is in the same genre as the published novels, and if possible using the same characters or setting. The title does not have to be available on any selling site; it does need to look professional.

Is it worth it? I don’t know yet. I signed up ten days ago and have since had 82 people join my Newsletter mailing list. Another 14 have downloaded the collection of short SF/F stories without joining, and one has decided to unsubscribe. I find that first figure astounding as I've done very little to publicise the free title. During 16-20 April I take part in my first Instafreebie cross promotion. I’ll see what happens and update this post afterwards. Wish me luck.

Author Interview: My Heritage Books

Today I’m in conversation with Rhoda Baxter on her website HERE. We’re talking Heritage Books: which book gifted to me in my early years made such an impression it stayed with me for life, and which I’d like to pass on and why.

Guess which I chose... the clue isn't necessarily in this image.

Discussing which books make an impression in our early years is an interesting concept for an interview, and when a website offers interview spots something out of the norm is needed to draw in readers. It is part of a writer’s marketing strategy and comes under the umbrella of author cross-promotion. It’s the reason Hornsea Writers set up a group website.

Do you read author interviews? What sort of questions do you prefer to see answered? Have you, in fact, a Heritage Book?

If you’re interested, I’ve also been interviewed at Library of Erana and quizzed on a very different set of questions.

Discounted Historicals - Final Weekend

There's nothing like stocking up your e-reader with titles from authors new-to-you, and discounted promotions are a simple way to widen your reading horizon in the genre or genres you prefer. Last weekend it was Science Fiction & Fantasy - see HERE.

This weekend the chosen genre is Historical Fiction, the promotion being run by Ryn Shell, and my offered novel is Beneath The Shining Mountains. 

The book has an interesting history. It's an indie-published re-issue of a novel that was never meant to be written. You know how it goes, the given wisdom is "write at least three books in a given world". 

My writing world at the time was Medieval Historical. I'd won a minor national award for my sweet romance Hostage of the Heart, the sales had been very reasonable, and my publishers invited me down to London to discuss my follow-up over lunch. Oh, the heady days of being taken out to lunch by a London publisher!

I travelled prepared, with a synopsis and what I thought was a good line in chat to enthuse the editor. We ate lunch, wine flowed, the small-talk moved to business, I proposed my coming project. 'We've enough Medieval,' she said. 'Write me a Regency.' 

I couldn't have been more taken aback if I'd been slapped across the face with a wet haddock. How did writing Medieval equate to writing Regency? Had the editor no concept of the amount of research I'd undertaken, would have to undertake to move into a new time period? Besides, I'd been force-fed "Mr Darcy" et al when a teenager at school. I didn't like the period, or the strata of society it focused on.

'So what can you write?' she asked, and the look I was given left me in no doubt that my writing career hung in the balance. And what period could I write that wasn't Medieval? '19th century Native North American,' I said. 'I belong to a living history group. We make costume and holiday in a tipi and I've over 200 research--'

It was the sneer and the dismissive wave of the hand that did it, that and too much wine. I can recall leaning across the table and the editor backing off as my voice shot across the space between us stating rather forcefully If I can't make a six foot, sun-tanned man with raven-black hair sexy...

The upshot was that I could write it and they'd see. I did write it. The publisher took it, and it sold over 30,000 copies. When my rights to it reverted I ditched the crass title it had been hobbled with and reverted to my original. It might not have sold another 30,000 copies, yet, but it is still my best-seller. Enjoy.

Discounted eBooks Extravaganza!

Readers of this blog will realise that I'm dipping my toes into the world of author cross-promotions. I won't say that it is highly lucrative, at least for me, but it is an exceptionally worthwhile learning curve where marketing my books is concerned. This month I am engaged in two: 7-8th and 14-15th.

The first, with 100+ SciFi & Fantasy titles, kicks off today at http://pattyjansen.com/promo

My offered ebook is The Bull At The Gate being offered for 99p / 99c on all major e-retailers. Click the above link, choose your preferred e-retailer, and a host of ebook covers opens itching to be checked out.

It will seem strange that the second in a trilogy is offered at 99p/c when the first is full price - well it did to me - so I'm discounting Torc of Moonlight by a third from its normal price to £1.99 / $2.99 or equivalent. Direct links are below:

Amazon  ¦  iBooks  ¦  Kobo  ¦  Nook  ¦  Smashwords

More to the point, these discounted prices will be held until Sunday 15th.

Out of the blue I was offered a place on a Historical cross-promotion that runs 14-15th January, and I decided to enter Beneath The Shining Mountains into the Histfiction.com 99p / 99c promotion alongside other authors' titles. 

However, how many emails and notifications do I want to send? It seemed far simpler to put these three novels on promotion at the same time. So here are the direct links for Beneath The Shining Mountains:

Amazon  ¦  iBooks  ¦  Kobo  ¦  Nook  ¦  Smashwords

Enjoy! Me? I think I need to lie down in a darkened room. Or perhaps just get on with the final in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy. Now there's a novel idea...

Smashwords - July Promotions

July is the summer promotion month for one of my ebook distributors, Smashwords.com, and a number of my titles are offered at discounts from 50% to Free. Don't delay, now is the time to try them. Enjoy!

25% discount: Beneath The Shining Mountains - Historical novel

1830s Northern Plains, among the Apsaroke/Crow people. Moon Hawk yearns for Winter Man, but why would a man with so many lovers want to take a wife? Her wry challenge to his virility captures Winter Man's attention and starts a game of tease and spar that leads to devastating consequences. A story of honour among rival warrior societies, and one woman's determination to wed the man of her dreams. 

25% discount: Hostage of the Heart - Historical novel

1066: the Welsh Marches. Rhodri ap Hywel sweeps down the valley to reclaim stolen lands, taking the Saxon Lady Dena as his battle hostage.

But who is more barbaric: a man who protects his people by the strength of his sword-arm, or Dena’s kin who swear fealty to a canon of lies and refuse to pay her ransom? Dare she place her life in the hands of a warrior-knight shielding dark secrets of his own?

25% discount: Reading A Writer's Mind: Exploring Short Fiction - First Thought to Finished Story

This non-fiction/fiction hybrid shows the detailed thinking behind the writing of ten stories across a range of genres using different modes of delivery. From the initial idea through the story itself, to a commentary explaining the decisions made during the writing, this book offers a unique insight into one writer’s creative process, laying a path to follow and showing the tools to use.

50% discount: Torc of Moonlight - Book 1 - Mythic Fantasy novel

When student Nick becomes obsessed with Alice and her determination to find the shrine of a forgotten Celtic water goddess, he comes to realise that history isn’t as quietly buried beneath his feet as he’d believed - and it always repeats itself. Denying coincidences could get them both killed. A multi-layered story of passion, betrayal and Celtic revenge. 

FREE! Scent of the Böggel-Mann - Horror short

 

Elaine haunts auctions held in crumbling country mansions, dreaming of a find that will make her and Gary rich. A plain wooden shipping trunk has no key to its iron-banded locks but is far heavier than it should be. What might it contain? 

‘Bricks,’ laughs a suave competitor. 

‘A body,’ retorts Elaine. 

Both are wrong. Both are right. 

Beware the Böggel-Mann.

Unaccustomed as I am – Talking About Our Books

On Thursday I’m being interviewed on a local radio station, West Hull FM. Except it is less an interview and more a chat – for an entire hour, including music. The proposed questions have just come through and, of course, top of the list is Tell listeners about your books.

Oh... gosh.

I have nine titles out as ebooks, four of which are also in paperback, these across five genres ranging from Horror to Historical. This doesn’t include the short fiction or non-fiction articles. How to can that into a soundbite?

In truth it’s impossible, but I have to make a stab at it. If you find yourself struggling in similar circumstances, this is how I’ve tackled it.

1) Consider the audience, not just the interviewer. Most of my audience will be within a tight graphical area, so some of my answers need to chime with their local knowledge to help create a rapport. If any know who I am I’ll be highly surprised, so I have to come across as a human being they’d like to share a coffee with.

2) Consider the time of broadcast. Mine is 11am-noon, so most listeners will have the radio on as background to a more important task. I am under no illusion: people will not be hanging on my every word. It’s up to me to intrigue them to listen.

3) Despite the wide-ranging genres, what links the fiction? Being so close, I couldn’t see the wood for the trees, yet there has to be a common denominator, apart from my single brain (cell). Finally I nailed it: in various guises my fiction deals with relationships. Result – I had my over-arcing soundbite.

4) Choose the titles to mention. No listener is going to stay tuned to hear nine book pitches, even less their blurbs. I chose three, crafting them with care and making each longer than the previous so as to lead the listener deeper:

a) an intriguing and easy-to-digest intro which flags a common knowledge

b) a volte-face to catch attention, with touches of a storyline, of what’s at stake, the thinking behind the writing

c) the immediacy of what I’m currently working on, but encompassing a much more complex set of storylines, and finishing on a smile.

Q: Tell listeners about your books

I have nine titles published as ebooks, four of which are also in paperback, straddling five genres ranging from Horror to Historical. What links them is that in various guises my fiction deals with relationships.

My highest selling novel is a Native American Historical, Beneath The Shining Mountains. It has a romance at its heart, but its theme is about taking responsibility for one’s actions. And as we all know, true love never runs smooth.

My latest is a Horror short – Scent of the Böggel-Mann – about a woman who enjoys buying Lots from auctions and re-selling them on Ebay and car boots. Her life unravels when she bids for a locked chest and what it contains puts her husband at risk. Does she disintegrate into tears or fight for her husband’s life? It’s about how strong we truly are, how ruthless can we be, when faced with circumstances out of our norm.

The work-in-progress is the last book of a trilogy of contemporary fantasies – Torc of Moonlight – that begin in Hull, move to York, and this final book has a base in Durham. It’s also my most technically complicated, with three storylines in each book, one of which is fantasy, one straight contemporary, and one historical. Hull is Celtic, York is Roman, and Durham is monastic medieval. So you can imagine the research that goes into these. And my biggest problem is that I write slowly so all this takes forever. 

And there you have it, my sectioned soundbite/s. I can go into more detail about any of the novels, or others, later in the interview. I realise I might cover only the first two paragraphs, but it will be a start. Once this groundwork is laid, other questions I can answer on the hoof. Hopefully.

Update: I've done the deed, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. See if I followed my own instructions HERE (60 mins - but you can fiddle).

Book Buying Links - Be Wise

I was reminded this week that not every author, mainstream or indie published, has a grasp of the basics. The discussion was about handling long buying links.

For instance, if I use the Amazon search facility for one of my own novels I arrive at the page but find this as its given URL (Uniform Resource Locator)...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beneath-Shining-Mountains-Linda-Acaster-ebook/dp/B003VTZZNO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1455653958&sr=1-1&keywords=Beneath+The+Shining+Mountains

...and who would want to put that in a Tweet, or a Facebook post, or even in a blog article?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003VTZZNO looks so much better and does exactly the same job. I can use .com instead of .co.uk for the USA link. This works for print-only books as well as ebooks. Just ensure you leave no spaces and add on the correct ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number).

Using https://bitly.com/ will create an even shorter URL, with the added benefit that you'll be able to see how many times it is clicked, and these aren’t restricted for use with Amazon. More than that, the default URLs created can be changed manually. How about http://bit.ly/amusBSM for Amazon.com? Or http://bit.ly/bnBSMountains for Barnes & Noble's Nookbooks? Notice what I did there? No need to go hunting for my crib sheet, the destination is integral with the link: bn [Barnes&Noble] amus [Amazon USA].

If you’ve no interest in checking numbers of clicks, sign up for Hootsuite, or Tweetdeck, or a similar social media manager which can take a long URL and shrink it to something meaningless -  http://ow.ly/Yrj7g - but it will reach the desired target, nonetheless. Social media managers are a one-stop portal for use with Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram and more.

The problem with buying links is that there can be so many of them, so where possible it helps to condense the number. http://www.booklinker.net/ does just that by creating a universal link to all Amazon stores.

http://viewBook.at/BSMountains will reach the correct Amazon store for your region no matter where in the world you click the link. There’s a choice of initial domains: myBook.to/ viewBook.at/ getBook.at/ viewAuthor.at/ and Author.to/ How you decide to complete the link is up to you. Again, there’s a dashboard which shows the number of times each has been clicked.

Best of all? None of these facilities will cost you a penny. Or a cent.

Catch me at http://Author.to/LindaAcaster

Launching: Scent of the Böggel-Mann

Is the heating on? Are you cosy? Good - you're going to need to be.

Scent of the Böggel-Mann is a supernatural short-read determined to prompt the shudders.

Elaine haunts auctions held in crumbling country mansions, dreaming of a find that will make her and Gary rich. A plain wooden shipping trunk has no key to its iron-banded locks but is far heavier than it should be. What might it contain? Bricks laughs a suave competitor. A body retorts Elaine.

Both are wrong. Both are right. Beware the Böggel-Mann. 

Kindle ¦ Kobo ¦ iBooks ¦ Nook ¦ Smashwords all formats


Enjoy the read.

Update for those following my previous E-Book Marketing Doldrums? posts:

• two days ago (late, I admit) my newsletter went out with advance notice, buying links, and additional info.
• yesterday (launch day) I hit Facebook and Twitter and shall continue to do so across this weekend.

E-Book Marketing Doldrums? 2: Using Twitter

Twitter doesn’t sell books. Well, in the week since I’ve started this marketing upgrade it’s sold two of mine I wasn’t expecting and, more to the point, has added three people to my Newsletter list – this in the face of the previous eight months’ desert. Twitter can help build your platform. This is my ongoing goal.

I’d better mention that I don’t own a smartphone and haven’t come to grips with my Hudl tablet, so on-the-hoof interacting via social media of any description is anathema to me. I work on my laptop and the distraction of social media streams flitting past my eyes or pinging in my ears is beyond the pale. This means that scheduling is required, manual and automatic.

Twitter itself lives in the moment; applications such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite enable scheduling, and also ‘quoting’ which allows more than the bog-standard 140 characters. Whereas it used to be a text-only medium, it is now, as are all social media streams, image heavy.

I use Hootsuite, mainly because it was the first application I tried many moons ago. However, until this week I’d not taken the time (a morning) to learn how to use it properly (‘quoting’) or to discover via Googling the problem why my images only showed up as a link (change Hootsuite’s preference from ‘ow.ly’ to ‘pic.Twitter.com’). 

A first try. I'll sort the text, honest.

Most of my images are, naturally, portrait-shaped book covers, whereas Twitter arranges images as a landscape at a 2:1 ratio (1024pixels x 512px optimum) and cuts oddly those not adhering to this ratio. By viewing the Home feed I’ve found that other authors tackle this by creating suitably shaped billboards which can take a variety of interchangeable text. This is now an ongoing project for all my titles.

An adjusted Facebook header, so not quite 2:1. Needs work.

Of course, even clueless me realises that a deluge of book promotions will endear me to no one. Tweets should engage, inform and entertain with advertising one’s wares way behind. For me, this is where automated scheduling comes into its own. Hootsuite offers a dashboard of streams populated with Tweeters of my choosing.

Some time ago I set up a stream to include writers I know. This has been expanded to include people and organisations who Tweet information complementing the subjects and locales used in my novels, from @Medievalists and @BLMedieval - British Library Medieval Manuscripts (Hostage of the Heart), @Roman_Britain (The Bull At The Gate) to @NorthYorkMoors (Torc of Moonlight). Each evening I go through this handy stream and schedule RTs (reTweets) scattered across the following day.

Twitter itself offers a list facility, and I use private lists for authors grouped by genre as this is how I started, pre-Hootsuite. Any RTing has to be done manually, so I might check a list as I close for lunch and RT a couple of Tweets that draw my eye. If I RT’d ten my feed would look as if a bot was operating it, which is how I would be acting.

I also have posts from a few blogs coming direct to my Inbox, notably English Historical Fiction Authors whose posts could grace many an academic forum. Those within my time periods, or those I just find fascinating, I jump back to the blog and Tweet from the base of the post.

This is the time to ‘Like’ Tweets in which I’ve been ‘Mentioned’. People who take the time to RT my Tweets I Like and/or thank. A bit of appreciation goes a long way. Often I RT one of their Tweets as a thank you. However, I find it surprising how often a Tweeter does not use a Pinned Tweet, basically a flag indicating which of their Tweets they would appreciate being RT’d. Make it easy and keep it changing. I’m not going to RT a Tweet that has been sitting at the top of a stream for four months. As soon as this post is uploaded a Tweet to it will replace the Pinned Tweet from the first post in this series. Find it at https://twitter.com/LindaAcaster

As to promoting my own titles, for ease of counting characters I dedicate a Word.doc to hold previously used Tweets. I’ll copy & paste a couple into the scheduled mix ensuring the timing is right for the title. For instance, Beneath The Shining Mountains has sold reasonably well in the USA but hardly made a mark in the UK, therefore there isn’t much point Tweeting the title at 8am GMT; the USA is 5-8 hours behind London time. Anyway, who buys books straight after breakfast?

I use #hashtags, not very well I have to admit. During the week I came upon #CleanRomance (and later #CR4U) and I am certain that one attached to a Tweet for Hostage of the Heart sold me a copy in the USA. The novel is what I term a ‘sweet romance’ but there is no hashtag for that description.

I'm finding that Twitter need not be a distraction, it can be tamed and become a useful tool. I treat people as I want to be treated and my Follower numbers are steadily increasing. None of this is a one-week job. To think of it in fiction-writing terms, it’s a sub-plot that reflects and bolsters the main storyline.

Three links I found particularly useful this week:
http://louisem.com/50053/how-to-make-blog-graphics + resources list
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ultimate-guide-social-media-image-dimensions-infographic

It does what it says in its title.
http://thestoryreadingapeblog.com/2015/03/24/what-you-need-to-know-about-twitter-hashtags-infographic-and-list/
A comprehensive infographic and list of Twitter hashtags.

Ongoing: study hashtag use in other people’s Twitter streams [obvious - doh!] and check who uses them. Would these people be good to Follow?

Launch Update: On Friday I announced on Facebook a tease, ie no title or cover image:
     “A week today I'm launching a new Supernatural Short for the dark nights of winter - the type of story where the sucking of the wind could be a disembodied voice, twigs scratch at the window, and doors creak where they've never creaked before. This story stars a shed.
     I'd like to say it is a paranormal, but unfortunately that word has become a euphemism for... obviously I'm writing in the wrong genre :-) ”

My Facebook account is linked to Twitter, so it was Tweeted automatically, though obviously not in that depth.

Finally, in this blogpost I’ve gone into more detail than I intended because I was contacted during the week by a writer who found the Make a Plan post useful. If you’ve found this one useful, please Tweet it – LOL! Thanks.

E-Book Marketing Doldrums? 1: Make a Plan

I look at my web presence, and particularly my e-book sales, and I cringe. But it can happen to us all – life overwhelm, health issues, burnout – for whatever reason, we blink and our business enterprise falters. Or in my case falls off a cliff.

This summer I had routine, if major, surgery. I thought I’d planned my writing life reasonably well around it. Alas, the rehabilitation has extended far beyond what I expected. Moreover, it is liable to impact my life until the New Year. If you are one of my readers awaiting Pilgrims of the Pool, the final novel in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy, I can only apologise for its delay. Life happens.

However, I do have a short Supernatural Suspense ready to upload. And this leaves me in a quandary. To do so at the moment would be to upload the title into a vacuum. Linda who? Not only will it need to be promoted, but a signposted path needs to be cleared to ease its launch, and that means marketing both my name and my current titles so as to ring a few bells in the ears of prospective e-book buyers. How to go about this?

My initial step has been to take stock. I listed available titles, indicating which could be aligned to the Supernatural Suspense. I then listed all titles in development, where each stands in its schedule, and sub-headed the sequence necessary to bring each to fruition. It was a bit of an eye-opener, to put it mildly, but the sub-headed sequences will help to break projects into manageable chunks. At the very least it gives me something to tick as and when completed.

My second step has been to check my current marketing plan. Ah... not so much a marketing plan as a badly corroded colander. Time for a rethink.

Nearly all e-book marketing gurus and would-be gurus emphasise the need to identify a target market – difficult, as I don’t write in a single genre – and to make personal connections across the spectrum of social media in order to hand-sell titles. The main problem with this is that it takes time and an awful lot of energy. The secondary problem is that Christmas is rushing up at speed.

So where and how to expend my limited time and effort?

I’m sure manufacturers of cars or laundry detergent have dedicated teams to hand-sell their products to their target markets, but they also use passive marketing. You’ve never passed a billboard or read an advertisement on the side of a bus? It is derided as a scatter-gun approach, renowned for its hit & miss effect; mostly miss. But the odds can be altered a little by targeting where, for instance, the billboard is placed.

Back to taking stock, this time of where I have, or have had, a digital presence: this website, other blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Yahoogroups... and that will have to do for the amount of time available. I again sub-headed possible To Do strategies for each along the lines of research promotional pages and add myself in; be active & helpful on... A bit airy-fairy? Of course it is, but even an airy-fairy plan is a plan of sorts.

How long to run with this before uploading the Supernatural Suspense? Good question.

I offer my titles for all the main e-reader portals: Kindle, and Nook, Kobo and iBooks via Smashwords distribution. Therefore, despite Amazon being my most profitable portal, I have no titles in its KDP Select. I can, however, offer Pre-Order to all. I’ve done this once and it wasn’t particularly successful. This time around I doubt I have enough wiggle space: both Kindle and Smashwords require a minimum of 10 days Pre-Order, so on this occasion I am counting that one out.

To give the title its best chance on launch I’ll pick a Friday to go live ready for weekend e-book buyers, which means 27th November or 4th December. As I type I realise that 27th is Black Friday sales day on the internet, and even an idiot with hardly a plan (ie me) knows that any squeak I can make will be drowned before its first breath. On the other hand, launching 4th December means that the title will still be listed in Amazon’s Last 30 days New Releases across the Christmas and New Year period.

Decision: 4th December will be Launch Day.

So when will I start to put the new marketing plan into action? You’re reading this . If you’re interested in seeing what and how I do, I’ll be posting regularly about my forays into segments of social media, so do call back or ‘Follow By Email’ to have the posts drop into your Inbox.

If you have made it all the way to the end of this post, many thanks for hanging in there. Like me, I'm sure you're gagging for a coffee. I both appreciate your patience and promise that following posts won’t be as lengthy. Have you been in e-book sales doldrums? Are you in them now? What are you doing to counter it? Please share your experiences, good or bad. They will be most useful.

Finally, may I ask a favour? If you found the post useful, quirky, or just plain laughable, please consider giving it a Tweet, or copy & paste the following handy RT. Y’see, every little helps, and so does saying... Thanks!

RT @LindaAcaster #Ebook Marketing Doldrums? How to Plan for a Christmas Launch http://ow.ly/UW4n7 #indieauthor

Launching a Novel: How it *should* be done!

Today, good friend Stuart Aken launches Book 1 of a trilogy of epic fantasies, A Seared Sky: Joinings. Cracking, luminescent cover, isn't it? And this is just the tip of a gigantic launch iceberg propelled by his publisher.

Fantastic Books Publishing is from Yorkshire UK, whose sights are set on a global market and whose thinking is very much author and reader centric. Social media is not an after-thought; it permeates every thought, yet FBP's products are not digital-only; the paperback launches today, too. Readers in the UK can purchase a signed copy with a personalised message for the same price as offered by Amazon, including p&p. [Other publishers please take note.]

Supported by Twitter, the launch event is taking place on Facebook with both publisher and author at the keyboard chatting to people who drop by. There is a spectacular book trailer, supported by video interviews with the author, and the main characters, and regular give-aways. It's all listed, and being added to, under the pinned Welcome at the top of the page.

Indie authors such as myself can learn lessons here.