Archive for December, 2015
Book Tour Week 3 – Writer’s Retreat
Posted in book tours, Time to write, writing fiction, writing life, Writing retreats, tagged Australian fiction, buladelha, indie publishing, inspiration, writing retreats on December 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Family Matters – Balancing Work and Play
Posted in book tours, indie publishing, simply writing, writing life, tagged australian writers, Forster-Tuncurry, The writing life, Work life balance on December 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Writing Inspiation
Posted in book tours, imagination, Inspiration, location free living, middle grade fiction, simply writing, Time to write, writing life, tagged living the writing dream, the writing habit, The writing life on December 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Ready and waiting at Coffs
Posted in Book stalls, book tours, indie publishing, tagged Australian literature, book marketing, book tours, Coffs Harbour on December 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »
On Tour – join us tomorrow at our book stall
Posted in author signings, Book stalls, book tours, indie publishing, marketing books, marketing fiction, middle grade fiction, writing life, tagged book tours, Coffs Harbour, indie publishing, market stalls on December 9, 2015| Leave a Comment »
10 Steps to Running a Successful Book Stall
Posted in Book stalls, indie publishing, marketing books, print books, tagged book tours, indie publishing, marketing books, Markets & Fairs, The writing life on December 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »
- Choose your market wisely – is the market popular with locals and visitors? Will the market have a large through traffic?
- Does it sell artisan products and crafts that will attract the kind of customer who may be interested in your books?
- Does the market have room for you? Make sure you ring ahead and check out the requirements and responsibilities – these vary, depending on rules set out of each market
- Be aware of the costs involved – each markets has a different fee structure
- Do you need to fill out forms and pay in advance or can you just turn up on the day?
- Do you have Public Liability Insuance? Is it a requirement of the market you are attending? The minimum seems to be $20 million and costs around $200 a year here in Australia
- Do you have the right equipment? Do you need a marquis (is the market outdoors?)? Do you have table, chairs, banners, and an enticing layout for your books?
- Do you have bookmarks, business cards and prices for your books clearly displayed?
- Reviews – have you laminated a good review of your book so potential buyers can see what others are saying about your writing?
- What else can you add to your display to maket it visually appealing (remember to maintain a professional image)? Think about taking your computer and showing a youtube clip if you have one – or make a simple interactive slideshow
Living in Abundace
Posted in imagination, Inspiration, location free living, Simple living, Time to write, writing budget, writing inspiration, tagged a writer's life, Coffs Harbour, Lisa Messenger, living the writing dream on December 7, 2015| 1 Comment »
Found ‘Money + Mindfulness, Living in Abundance’ by Lisa Messenger in a newsagency at Coffs Harbour. Now all I have to do is wrestle it off my daughter.
Inspiration: The Art of Fiction
Posted in Choosing the writing life, creativity, fiction writing rules, Inspiration, location free living, simply writing, writing life, tagged John Casey, the writer within, the writing habit, The writing life on December 6, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Marketing Fiction: Pre-orders and Perma-free
Posted in ebooks, indie publishing, marketing books, middle grade fiction, Series fiction, tagged Dan Blank, Jason Matthews, Marketing Series Fiction, Perma-free Fiction, Pre-orders for fiction, Smashwords on December 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Part of our marketing plan is to focus on increasing sales of our ebooks. Forbidden will be our perma-free ebook and Merinda’s Gold will be our pre-order until we launch early in 2016. And the good, good news is that Cracker has agreed to a fourth book in 2016. It’s yet to be named but I know it will be about Cracker and his team blowing things up with firecrackers.
Jason Matthews over at How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks talks about the success of such a strategy in Mark Coker’s 2015 Smashwords Survey Key Findings:
https://ebooksuccess4free.wordpress.com/2015/12/04/2015-smashwords-survey-key-findings/
Also of interest is a post by Dan Blank who has a series of blog posts and podcasts about the creative process and dabblers versus doers. Dan has made all his posts and podcasts available for the rest of us as he charts his progress in writing a book of the same title. Dan talks about his choice to publish with a traditional publisher for his book and his reasons why.
http://wegrowmedia.com/dabblers-vs-doers/
The interesting thing that both Jason and Dan stress is the importance of how, as writers, we should be focusing on building up loyal readers for our work.
Only then do all the other parts of marketing come into play. Without readers who love our work and can’t wait for the next book it doesn’t matter whether we choose the Indie or Traditional publishing path, what price point we set for our books or what methods we use to promote our work.
My next job is work on growing our email list but I’ll save that for another post. But just in case you’re more organised than me and can’t wait, here’s our contact details (soon to be plastered all over our car and caravan:)):
On Tour – Week 1 – Coffs Harbour
Posted in book tours, Choosing the writing life, indie publishing, marketing books, middle grade fiction, writing life, tagged book marketing, Coffs Harbour, indie publishing on December 4, 2015| 3 Comments »
growing up writing 