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Posts Tagged ‘book marketing’

The Good, Bad and Damned Good Fun of Book Tours

Posted in book tours, Choosing the writing life, indie publishing, marketing fiction, middle grade fiction, Stories, writing life, tagged , , , , on December 18, 2015| 1 Comment »

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  1. Today, I had someone special to share a selfie with, the owner of Coffee Club, Kotara, who also happens to be my favourite niece
  2. I chatted with Coffee Club patrons about all sorts of things that reminded this writer there’s a world of stories out there to source
  3. I people watched and, being only a week till Christmas, there sure was plenty to watch…since when did store shopping bags get so fancy?
  4. The very old and very young still share a cuppa together
  5. People still give books as gifts
  6. it’s easier to say what my books are about with practice
  7. I need to get my next novel finished
  8. Kids still read
  9. Kids write
  10. The new Star Wars movie rocks (so my daughters tell me)
  11. My graphic artist is a whizz because people stopped because of his cover design
  12. i don’t look like my author pic…big mistake
  13. Never play the matching game with a six year old and expect to win…if she doesn’t beat you honestly, she’ll beguile you with her smile
  14. Make sure you have a paddock and horses to escape to when the day is done…our horse was chest high in the dam munching on water-lilies when we got home and there’s no better reminder as to why I’m a country girl at heart (and in this heat, it was tempting to join the horse in his play)
  15. Book tours remind us of our humanity…we may sell more books online but we don’t get near as much tactile pleasure out of the experience.

Thank you to Naomi, Shane and the Coffee Club gang for hosting our book signing. Your hospitality, generosity and love are much appreciated by me and my entourage (and the burger was great:))

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Ready and waiting at Coffs

Posted in Book stalls, book tours, indie publishing, tagged , , , on December 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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On Tour – Week 1 – Coffs Harbour

Posted in book tours, Choosing the writing life, indie publishing, marketing books, middle grade fiction, writing life, tagged , , on December 4, 2015| 3 Comments »

 

imageFirst, the hard work…logos, shirts, signage and business plan.

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Then the fun…

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WW1 Aboriginal Soldier Inspires Middle Grade Mystery Novel

Posted in collaboration, ebooks, indie publishing, Inspiration, marketing books, middle grade fiction, platform, Teen Fiction, voice, Writing, writingReading writing fiction, tagged , , , on August 2, 2014| 1 Comment »

soldier for web
 soldier for web

Ideas for stories are all around us. In my local newspaper today is a story about a little known role of Australian soldiers in WW1.

It made me think about our recently released middle grade novel, Dirt Busters, and where our inspiration came from – although my co-author and I disagree about whose idea it actually was – to save fights I’ll use the words ‘we’ and ‘ours’ – but the more I think about it the more I realise our idea grew – as ideas do – like topsy.

 

medal for web

We found an article and we liked the idea of an old medal and we already had the setting – a development site – and an old professor turned up and we found him a shack to live in and we started to ask questions like what was the professor doing down the coast in an old shack and – boys being boys – our characters, Cracker, Trann and Bone had to follow him to see what he was up to…and our girl character, Gilly, being Gilly, had to have plans of her own and so a billy cart race was born with the race taking place – yep, you guessed it – at the development site.

As ideas go, it’s turned out to be a good one as so far the response to our novel has been great and we keep getting asked when is our next book being released.

And here’s the article that inspired it:

Moruya Examiner, 23 August, 1919:

On Friday night last Pte, Frank Stewart was the recipient of the usual Shire address and a presentation from the Bay to honor him as a returned Australian soldier. The occasion was rather unique, in as much as the ceremony too place during the interval of a picture show. To this entertainment about 50 of Private Stewart’s friends and relatives from the Aboriginal Reserve had been invited. The presentation was made y Mr D F Mackay and was received by much acclamation and to the accompaniment of the indispensable leaf strains of music…

(Please note, the aborigine pictured in this blog post is not Frank Stewart…)

 

 

 

 

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Do Author Signings Work?

Posted in author signings, book tours, Fiction, indie publishing, marketing books, middle grade fiction, platform, Writing, tagged , , , on July 27, 2014| 3 Comments »

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Marketing is time consuming, there’s no doubt about it, but the benefits are about far more than selling a few books.

From two signings I have sold books, sure, but what I didn’t expect were the associated benefits.

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Here’s the list:

1.  I met Nick who works in the bookshop where my signings took place. His day job is as a journalist with a local radio station. I donated half a dozen books and he promoted Dirt Busters in prime time. His promotions manager also contacted me.

2.  I met Steve who is also an Indie Author. We met later for coffee and it turns out he is a motivational coach in his spare time. His day job is with local schools where he runs Outdoors Programs. He is going to help me set up and run Writers Retreats for students.

3.  I met Janet who bought Dirt Busters fir her grandson. Her hometown is co-ordinating their inaugural Writers Festival and she gave me the details of the organiser. Janet also works at the local library and she suggested I contact the Head Librarian. I did and I’m now in discussions  about literacy workshops.

4.  A elderly lady didn’t want to buy a book but we chatted for awhile anyway. Two of her daughters are local primary school teachers who are keen to invite writers into their classrooms and the third works for Education Queensland and travels to over three hundred primary schools.

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Virtual Book Tours

Posted in book tours, collaboration, Fiction, indie publishing, marketing books, middle grade fiction, platform, social media, Teen Fiction, virtual book tours, Writing, tagged , , , , , , on February 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

on the road

Your book is finished and it’s time for the fun part, right? Time to hit the road and do the big tour. And, of course, if you’re anything like me, thinking big is the easy part. It’s what we writers do, isn’t it?

I was ready to hook up the Kimberly Kamper and head around Oz, stopping in at schools and libraries, selling books with gay abandon…I was a tad worried about being locked in a moving vehicle with my co-author for the several months this tour was going to take but, hey, I could always sit him in the back with the child locks on if he misbehaved.

But then I had to go and get this email from The Book Designer (www.thebookdesigner.com) with the title, 7 Top eBook Blog Tour Sites, written by Greg Strandberg at http://www.bigskywords.com.

Researching the marketing game has seen me write and discard several marketing plans in the last months as I’ve talked to editors, publishers, distributors, bookshops, school librarians and book fair co-ordinators. And I was ready to hit the road, even with my brother, actually he’d come in handy for flat tyres and such…

I mean, let’s face it, we writers spend all our lives cooped up in attics tapping away at our keyboards so can we be blamed for  dreaming of a few champagne celebratory drinks after the hard work is done, followed by a road trip to make us if not rich then at least famous…

celebration

But it’s not how it’s done anymore…well, at least not exclusively…marketing nowadays means more time at the keyboard, blogging, tweeting and…err…touring virtually. Strandberg lists his top seven virtual tour sites in his blog but he’s written a book that lists fifty sites, Tour Your Book, 50 eBook Blog Tour Sites That Increase Amazon Sales, and it’s those last couple of words that has me unpacking the trailer before I’ve even begun…because if there’s one thing I’ve learnt from my marketing research it’s that ebook sales are what drive sales nowadays and, according to the gurus who run sites like http://www.thebookdesigner.com and http://www.digitalbookworld.com there’s only one way forward for we wanna be marketers of our words…and it doesn’t involve sunsets on deserted beaches with fishing rods and celebratory drinks…

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Cheers…

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