Showing posts with label ebooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ebooks. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Using Blogs to Promote E-books, Part Two by Pauline Creeden

Today Pauline Creeden returns with the second part of her post about using blogs for promotions. Read Part One for information on blog hops. -- Sandy




Blog Tour 


Most of us already know about virtual blog tours. And they can run the gambit of expensive from $400 for 10 stops to as cheap as $50 for 20 stops. Or you can even organize your own blog tour. The goal is to be featured on as many blogs as possible during the time period - usually one week to one month. And you do not have to limit this to new releases, any undiscovered book is a new release to new readers.


Benefits 


Blog Tours can contain promo posts (where the book is just featured), reviews, guest posts, and interviews. Again, this can be tiresome if you have a 20 stop tour and 15 of the stops are guest posts and interviews, but if you request a tour made up of reviews only - or reviews and promo posts, you can use this opportunity to give your book more credibility on Amazon and Goodreads through increased reviews. Additionally, if you add a giveaway, you can increase Facebook Fans and Twitter Follows as well.

Suggested Blog Tour Hosts

Promotional Book Tours Itching for Books

Tips for a Successful Tour 


  • Always find a host who is well organized and follows up with you and bloggers. 
  • Comment on each blog of the tour with a thank you - even if they leave a mediocre review. 
  • Do not give away eBook copies of your book - this discourages sales. Giving away money will double your entrants. Even a $5 gift card will increase the number of entrants you have. 



Blog Blitz


As an alternative to a full blog tour, you can do a blog blitz. This can be the perfect way to get the word out about your new release, as the host will place your book's synopsis, buy links, and excerpt on as many blogs as possible. Usually these last only one or two days rather than the week of a tour and for half the cost. Another option is to use a Blitz to get the word out about a sale on your eBook.


Suggested Blog Tour Hosts



Crossreads YA Bound Book Tours



Tips for a Successful Tour


Consider putting your book on sale for the blast - 99¢ sales get you noticed!
Adding a creative giveaway will draw in more people to take a look at the blast.


Blog Mentions


Just as a last note, getting a mention on a big "book themed" blog will typically give you a rise in sales. Specifically one of the bigger sales blogs such as BookBub or Ereader News Today -- or for Christian books -- SFK Books or Christian Book Finds. Some of these charge a fee for the feature, and some do not. If you search out the best book blogs to feature your book when you have a sale, you can see a significant spike. As a blogger and social media specialist, I have concentrated on eBook sales for the books we publish at AltWit Press. So far, we have found success in using blogs to get the word out, so that we've had several titles hit #1 Amazon Bestseller in Christian Fantasy and Science Fiction, as well as get noticed well enough to gain nomination for readers' choice awards - winning one so far. Every year, eBooks gain momentum in the general book market, and many readers find their next book through blogs they follow. Gain your piece of that share by learning how to utilize blogs to get the word out about your book.


Have you had success with promotion through blogs? Do you have experience that would add to our knowledge? 


~~~



In simple language, Pauline Creeden creates worlds that are both familiar and strange, often pulling the veil
between dimensions. She becomes the main character in each of her stories, and because she has ADD, she will get bored if she pretends to be one person for too long. Pauline is a horse trainer from Virginia, but writing is her therapy.


Her debut novel, Sanctuary, won 1st Place Christian YA Title 2013 Dante Rosetti Award and is now available as an audiobook. #1 Bestseller on Amazon in Christian Sci/Fi and Fantasy (October 2013)


Connect with Pauline at www.paulinecreeden.com.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

This-n-That Thursday Launch

Husband Material, e-book Dollar Download, by Annette M. Irby

Hey readers! It’s our first This-n-That Thursday here on Seriously Write. Along with other changes we’re making this month, we’ve added a rotating day where each of your hostesses share whatever we like. I wanted to launch by sharing what I’m writing. Ready for a story?

Last February, I went to writers’ conference where e-book discussions were all the buzz. And I learned a lot more about this trend. So, I came home and felt led to jump deeper into the e-book waters.

Let’s stop there and chat. What are you impression on e-books? Love 'em? Hate 'em? Here to stay? Or not? Do you enjoy reading them? Do you prefer reading them? Have you ever read one?

It’s probably the Lord’s timing, but just before heading off to that conference, I had purchased a Kindle, so reading e-books was more enjoyable than ever. (Prior to that I had only read them via Amazon’s free Kindle for PC downloadable app.—highly recommended by the way, but raise your hand if you too spend far too much time in front of your computer and would rather read using another mode. Yeah, that's where I'm at as well.) Now that I’ve made the switch, it’s difficult for me to go back to reading anything else. (i.e. paperbacks or hardcovers)

For example, the other day I picked up a small trade paperback. Ugh! Just opening that little book enough to read near the binding was giving me fits! I couldn’t fold back the sides because it’s too small, my hands were aching from working so hard to bend it out of my way. I’d much prefer to prop my Kindle up at a good angle and click to turn the easy-to-read screens (pages). Love it!

Back to my story, so I came home from that conference and got to plotting what White Rose Publishing calls a Dollar Download. First, I read one to get the feel. With an upper word count limit of 6,000 – 8,000 words, this is one short romance! ;) So I wanted to make sure I could get the “formula” down.

Then, I set aside two hours a day, three days a week to write it. By the end of 30 days, I had written my first Dollar Download. Then, I polished it and sent it off to the same place that published my first e-book/paperback (Love Letters)—White Rose. My editor loved it. (Thank You, God.) Husband Material releases tomorrow, July 22, 2011!! Visit White Rose Publishing for more details.

So what am I working on now? Another Dollar Download, plus a couple of projects for the upcoming ACFW conference.

Let's chat: What are you working on? And feel free to chime in on the e-book discussion!

Love you guys!
Annette