Archive for Marketing
Selling your Books to Schools and Libraries – Part 2
Posted by: | Comments
Using Skype to sell more Books
Still another great MARKETING TIP … this one from Barbara Terchel, author of Class Act: Sell More Books Through School and Library Author Appearances (see my last post Part 1).
It appears that I have been so busy on whatever I am busy with that I have missed some of the great ways technology is helping authors sell their books today.
Barbara was interviewed regarding how she uses Skype to talk to schools assisted by her special dog, Frankie. It has cut her costs and increased her availability to such an extent that she has used Skype over 300 times for this type of visit. She gives you a detailed step-by-step description of everything you need to do and know, including setting up your studio in your home/office.
Listen to this fabulous presentation for yourself here on Blog Talk Radio.
Some interesting and useful websites they discussed.
http://skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com/
http://authorsspeaking.com
http://slide.com
http://teachertube.com
Selling your book to Schools and Libraries – Part 1
Posted by: | CommentsI almost took too long deciding to get one of these books but managed to get two instead. I have a feeling I will be thanking these two authors for not cutting off sales of their joint book sale on October 15 as they had planned. I’ve had a rather busy week and almost missed buying these at a $13 saving. They are pdf files thus sent to you immediately … NO shipping costs. Great deal!
If you hurry,
you might be lucky too! Barbara’s website is: joyfulpaws.com/promote/sell-more-books/
The books are:
Class Act: Sell More Books Through School and Library Appearance (117 pgs.) by Barbara Techel
Marketing Your Book to Libraries, An Insiders Guide for Authors (153 pgs.) by Nancy Humphries
I loved this quote so borrowed it from her website. It could be most appropriate if reading these books makes our books successful!
“When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue – you sell him a whole new life.” – Christopher Morley
Win a Contest – Accelerate your Success!
Posted by: | CommentsOriginally published on my ‘Of Books, Marketing and Self-Promotion’ blog in 2009
Self-publishers … I learned an important lesson in 2007 when, for the first time in 6 years I entered a contest with one of our books. In 1999, I discovered the Independent Publisher Book Awards and entered our first book, Lizzie: Lethal Innocence. In those days, it was a very new contest and didn’ t even offer a shor
tlist. At the time of the award, I spoke to one of the organizers and found out that we had done very well but because it was nothing official I could not use it in our promo.
So the years went by and usually by the time I had the time to think of entering a contest I was either too late or I didn’t think our book would fit the categories (partly because they were all series) or the contest was simply too expensive (cost of the copies they wanted + entry fees + shipping). Or, was it merely procrastination! Then, for some reason, I decided to enter the IPPYs again in 2007 after 6 long years. I think I was feeling a bit more flush and they weren’t asking for as many copies as they had previously or did I have a feeling … an experience which had paid off when my ‘feeling’ told me to publish our first book!! No matter what it was, it was another right decision …
When they announced the winners, we were informed we had won a FIRST PRIZE , actually it was a GOLD Medal for my husband, J. Robert Whittle’s novel, Loyalty’s Haven … wow and yippee! No, it wasn’t for the best novel of the year or anything quite that prestigious but it was for a Regional Award and a Gold Medal wins lots of attention, no matter what, especially when you can re-print with their sticker on your cover as we did a few years later (in the interim, we purchased stickers to use).
Loyalty’s Haven was our most recent book at the time being an unplanned 3rd title in the series. Because of its historical content (Spanish Flu Pandemic 1918) I believe this swayed me in my decision to enter it despite being in a series. The regional award was to recognize an author who either lived in the region or writes about the region. In our case, we covered both, so the Canada: West category was a perfect fit for us. [2011 update: We won this award again the following year (see below)].
The IPPYs are a very prestigious award for not only self-published authors but independent presses and university presses as well, giving us a bit more competition. This was the contest’s 11th year and it has helped further the careers of many hundreds of authors and indie publishers (indie publisher description is now replacing the ‘self publisher’ misnomer).
2011 update: Our 2007 novel won our 2nd Gold Medal IPPY and sales, which were already good, went wild!
So, a recap on contests, if you can find the time, enter as many as you can, but make sure what you enter is perfectly edited. That means you have to get someone else to edit or proofread it for you (we hire a professional proofreader). When you can say you won, were short-listed, received an Honourable Mention etc., people sit up and pay attention. It’s like getting several critics to positively rate your book all in one fell swoop 
It also rewards YOU, because you suddenly feel it was all worthwhile. So go for it!
Until next time, happy writing and editing.
Part 3: Can a self-published author (of fiction) succeed?
Posted by: | Comments
Yes, we made mistakes …
I have only just begun this new blog format on my own website which has been around for many years. I seem to feel a need to share with you my 13+ years worth of experiences, yes, including our mistakes! If this introduces more people to our books in the process then I am doing a good job. The bonus for readers (and us) it that with our books in ebook format, they are now more readily and cheaply available.
I have never joined author’s groups, although I have attended a few. Time has always seemed unavailable and they weren’t really my bag. People wanted to know what we had done to be so successful and although we did talk to groups in the early days, we found it took too much of our time. Besides, my husband was the only author in those early days, even though I had been a ‘writer’ since a teenager. I preferred to work alone and became the home-office workhorse. I end up sitting here day and night filling my time with ‘work’ of one sort or another and love it! A publisher’s life is filled with many things especially when they wear ALL the hats in the company!! So now, through this blog, I am trying to give back more than I have been able to in past years. Now, I trust you will pick up something useful …
Our 1st mistake was the title of our first book. Lizzie: Lethal Innocence … we didn’t think of all the connotations … who would have known so many people would think it was about Lizzie Borden. People make snap judgements without even thinking. It says on the cover the book is set in England and most people know Lizzie Borden lived in the USA. This made us realize we had to ‘talk up’ our books like crazy if we were to get the correct info out there. We even considered changing the title before the next printing but the cover and title were already well known and we still felt it was a good title! Lizzie was ‘lethal’ because she was so smart, as they would find out soon enough, and she was ‘innocence’ because she was so young.
Yes, the word ‘lethal’ compounded this misconception and made people think the book was about violence. How wrong they were and we knew we had to try to explain it quickly to people or we wouldn’t sell many more books beyond the first 500. It worked … but it was very time consuming being at markets, taking Robert away from his writing and me away from editing and office work. So after a few seasons we got into a rhythm and simply made it work for us.
Our 2nd mistake was getting too confident and ordering too many copies!!! Sales were going along so great in those first years that we ordered another print run in 2004. The second and third books, Lizzie’s Secret Angels and Streets of Hope, were doing well and I was editing the fourth and final book.
The problem began when we started writing about local history and readers now had a choice. Now the majority of readers were opting for the Victoria Chronicles’ book, Bound by Loyalty, instead of Lizzie. We still have many boxes of the first three books in our basement. I didn’t order as many for book four, thankfully. Lizzie sales have actually been picking up again in 2011/11 as readers discover how much they like Robert’s style.
Check out our Book SPECIALS Page and get the whole set of 4 Lizzie books for the price of 3!! You could also do what many people are now doing … order the ebooks. At least we do get a commission although it is somewhat smaller than with the paper copy. However, they are more desirous to order all 4 books once they have started the series!
So be very careful how many copies you order if you are doing POD (Print on Demand) or ordering large runs from a traditional printer (Friesens) like we did.
As self or indie publishing becomes even more popular due to ebooks, everyone seems to want to or is told they should ‘write a book’ so the competition has grown fierce. We continue as in the past with no plan to now stop in the near future. We now tell people of our exciting new option of ebooks at Amazon.kindle, Kobo.com, Sony.com, Smashwords.com (all formats) etc. If you want to help us out … especially if you are NOT a USA citizen, we actually get double the commission if Kindle books are purchased through Smashwords! Thanks.
We’re hoping Kindle will make some changes to their format (so other ereaders (kobos, ipods, ipads etc.) can ‘read’ kindle ebooks) and also to their payment standards for international authors, in the near future.
Part 2: Can a self-published author (of fiction) succeed?
Posted by: | Comments
Publishing our first book, Lizzie: Lethal Innocence
Our first book was ‘Lizzie‘ and the print run was 500 copies (Dec 1998). This was the recommended ‘test’ print run in those days and was the only printing we have ever had to borrow money for … and it was our own!! “Part 1″ explained the difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing via a large publisher, today referred to as ‘professional publishers.’ I don’t give them capitals because I, myself, am also a ‘professional publisher and feel I have earned the title too!’
The loan lasted only 3 months … the time it took Robert to gain the confidence to sell 500 copies of our first novel at coffee shops, grocery store lineups, the recycling depot etc.. We even had money in the bank at this point and printed our next run of 1,500 copies of the same book! The following year we printed a further 4,000 copies (they were selling like hotcakes as word-of-mouth spread!).
The sequel to ‘Lizzie,’ Lizzie’s Secret Angels was launched on April 1st with a big party at the Victoria Art Gallery. 
This was the only ‘book launch’ we ever planned – there simply was never enough time. Besides which, one of the things we did for marketing was to collect their contact information and this was before the Internet! We began by phoning and sending snail mail to our customers and then later, used email. Our launches happened regularly after that, each year at a market or Christmas Show. It worked well enough for us.
I was early on to receive the math lesson from my husband that graduating to larger print runs meant less money paid up front and more in our pockets with each book sold. We began selling from our booth at markets (1999), craft fairs (1999), and the ferry terminal (2000). We have never looked back!!! Of course, the icing on the cake was when we reached 5,000 copies in the first 2 years (Canadian standards for a bestseller).
I hear there are not many indie-publishers that can boast about this kind of success and it has continued for us for 13 years. Oh yes, it has been hard work for both of us, especially with the economic upheavals of recent years.
As an aside here, I should admit that we made a few mistakes along the way. If you are a new writer and ‘wannabee’ an author, you can learn from these mistakes. That would prove that I am doing a good job with this blog! Read about our Mistakes in Part 3.
Note: In case you happened on it, I had an earlier blog called: Of Books, Marketing and Self-Publishing … but it’s now closed and some of the posts will eventually show up here, along with a couple blogs on my hobbies.
Articles about J. Robert Whittle books seen in New York media
Posted by: | CommentsAmazing news from a visitor to Victoria, BC today … she stopped to talk to Robert at his Bastion Square Market stand and said she had just moved here recently from New York (now that is an interesting move!). He started to tell her about the books and she said there was no need because she had seen so many articles about him in New York newspapers that she knew exactly what she wanted to purchase.
She bought the Victoria Chronicles Trilogy in hardcover and his biographical CD, Laughing Through Life. She actually bought our last copy of the CD so we will be getting a new run made very soon. Robert has sold an amazing number of copies of the CD this summer!
It was lovely to hear New York hadn’t forgotten us because some years ago (about 6 or 7) another customer told Robert the same thing. Quite amazing how one gets known in the publishing industry, especially when you are an independent!
Who says authors get rich?
Posted by: | Comments(from Sept 4, 2005 but even more pertinent today)
It’s been another good week at the Bastion Square Market in Downtown Victoria, BC Canada where my husband, J. Robert Whittle, sells his historical novels – 3 of them now bestsellers. Amazing because many of the American tourists have gone home and I can’t blame them one little bit, with all the heartbreaking news of Hurricane Katrina filling the airwaves. This has made business substantially slower but then that does happen this time of year with kids going back to school.
It gives Robert more time to talk to his adoring fans and today was no exception. A lady and her friend came along this morning. The lady raved about his (Victoria Srs.) books saying she had loaned them all over her block and town!! … and everyone loved them (thank goodness for that!). They were now all waiting for the next book in the series to come out. It seems her friend didn’t realize she had been doing this and now decided she wanted to read them, so right in front of the author, she asked if she could borrow them! Some people have no conscience. Happily, the owner of the books told her friend she wasn’t going to loan them out anymore and she was going to re-read them anyway. Then she purchased another set of the books for a gift. This forced the other woman to purchase her own copies!!! Our fans are truly amazing
Now you might think this is very flattering and think that we are ungracious or worse. Yes, it is VERY flattering but although Robert would never complain about his fans, I am the pessimist of our family and I feel I must make a comment. I need to explain that these same people who loan books are always very vocal about asking us to publish books faster. With what I ask? If you don’t buy the books from the author or a bookstore, these used books just keep going around and around and we’ll need many lifetimes to become millionaires (which is what people say we must be by now)!!!
On the other hand, I’m also sure there are some authors reading this that are nodding their heads vigorously in agreement – please comment if you are. There are so many of us authors out there these days (but big publishers only want a sure thing you know, so they choose the Ludlums, Clancys, Clintons et al) and just keep making them richer.
We have never taken the time to even write a submission to a publisher — we’re far too busy producing and selling our popular books and trying to keep our readers happy – a joyous problem I admit but sometimes I yearn for a regularly paying job … and a holiday would be nice (we took a cruise in 2009). (2011 note: we did seek a publisher, an agent and talked to several movie producers in following years but no luck for various reasons. So we continue as we have done in the past.)
Happy reading whether it be a used book or not (and yes, even I have been known to buy a used book, or read a loaner from time to time!) If you haven’t already, you should try one of our fabulous and very popular books. Come on, be brave, countless thousands of readers can’t be wrong. Sure, these books might have no sex or graphic violence but they are real pageturners nonetheless … and another 2011 update … now they’re all on ebooks (see the tab above). Check out: our webpage
Marketing Tips for the Frugal Self-Publisher
Posted by: | CommentsOriginally posted on our company website which is now a blog.
The role of a writer/author in this 21st century is one of hard work and fabulous rewards–not necessarily monetary rewards unless you are exceedingly fortunate, but your life will change as you attend meetings, readings, conferences etc., and meet hundreds, perhaps thousands of people who are in awe of you for even completing a book. Of course, you will also meet those who laugh with scorn (perhaps thinking why you bother because they don’t even read and can’t understand) or envy (believing you are now rich!). But trust me, your journey will be fascinating and anything but dull, for if you face the challenge squarely, it will enrich your life and also that of your readers … and best of all, they will tell you about it!
1. Decide what YOU can do to market your own book and do it well. No matter how you choose to market your book, you have to do something … so you might as well do a good job of it. You will have a major investment in this book through time, and eventually, money. Don’t allow your book to stagnate on a shelf/ a website or in your basement.
2. Learn the “3 Foot” Rule – talk to everyone who comes within 3 feet of you. Always carry a book, bookmark, business card or info. sheet. If they don’t buy a book, don’t be disappointed, you will be surprised how else they might help you. Don’t expect anything. Be yourself.
3. Buy, or at the very least, read a few well-known marketing books … visit your local library or download an ebook copy to always have with you! I’m a huge fan of ebooks (2011) and all our books are available in all formats at Smashwords.com Here are a few of the classics to start you off:
Marketing Without Megabucks by Shel Horowitz www.frugalfun.com
How To Promote Your Book by Dan Poynter www.PARApublishing.com
The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Marilyn and Tom Ross www.about-books.com
4. On the internet, you’ll be deluged by thousands of sites with marketing tips. A small selection are on our links page found to the right (in category list). Facebook has many groups and joining Twitter has been known to be a great way to get free promotion, just don’t overdo it or your friends will untweet you
5. Join a ‘useful’ Internet Email List (Yahoo group, etc) and subscribe to topical newsletters but be careful not to get sucked into their own marketing endeavours to sell you the BEST marketing plan ever!! Most of what they sell can be found free if you search the web.
6. Networking with local groups is a great way to advertise for little money but membership fees need to be assessed first. Make sure the group is suitable to your needs.
7. Trade books with other willing self-published authors.
A good way to pick up gifts and get your books out there.
Now get out there yourself, write, plan and then, if you decide ‘to go for it’, market that book you’ve dreamed about.
Good luck and all the best.