September 20: the twentieth  day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to create business cards.

My first business cards had everything on them - my twitter handle, FB address, LinkedIn, my blog URL, website URL and my street address, and a cute free stock photo line-drawing of a girl reading a book.

Too cluttered. Well, it was something to hand out.

Here is what should be on your business cards: your name &/or pen name; your professional photo (the one you use everywhere); the genre you write (Science Fiction Author); your website URL; your Amazon Author page URL; your email address. That's it.

On the other side (yes, it's worth paying for a two-sided business card) you have a choice. Either put your book covers and their titles, possibly a few delectable quotes from each one, or a one-sentence blurb if you only have a couple books. The other option is to list your book titles on the front, if you only have one or two, and on the back put something useful. I have kept calendar-business cards, and one that has a list for tipping - 10%, 15% & 18% of various amounts of money increasing by $5.

OTHER PARAPHERNALIA

Here's where you use that list you wrote of your target readers' other interests and hobbies. What would appeal to them? Book marks are a staple, but avoid those with book covers and titles and URLs. No one keeps those. If you're going to make them at all, take a little more time and make something people will keep. A cool picture or a great quote on one side, your books on the flip side. (Quotes - from your own book or from before 1923. Anything quoted before 1923 is in the public domain).

Use your readers' emotional/intellectual triggers in designing these. Are they sentimental? Love a good laugh? Interested in self-help? Like a mystery or puzzle? (What about a crossword puzzle that, when solved, is the title of your book?) Try to link your giveaway item to your book - ie, fridge magnets for culinary books, with one of the recipes printed on it. (These are good ideas for the back of your business cards, too. Anything unique to make you memorable.)

What ideas do you have for inexpensive take-aways?
Pick one and go design it!

September 19: the nineteenth day of InSeMaMo  Today's challenge is to write a first and last page that will help sell your books.

Even though you may be publishing an e-book, on the first page don't forget to add a list of "Books by the Same Author", followed by your Amazon author URL.

The last page is even more important. It's said the ending of your novel sells your next book. As long as the opening gets them to read it, and the middle keeps them reading it, this is true. :-) 

There's a sense of satisfaction and even exhilaration in a good ending to an interesting story. If you've done your job well, the reader wants to read more. So don't stop after "The End".

If you're writing a series, and you've already written the next book in the series, put the first chapter here and end it on a dramatic scene so they can't wait to read the next book, and include where they can buy it. (make sure you've clearly indicated where this book ends, and that the following pages are the beginning of the next book, and give its title. Otherwise your readers may feel like the book they've have reading doesn't have an ending.)

But this still isn't the end. The last page of your book/e-book is a note to the reader.

What's in this note? A call-to-action, of course. One call-to-action. Don't confuse your reader with multiple requests. You've already listed your other books at the front, with the URL where to find them. What you want to ask for now, is a book review! Most readers have no idea how important these are to an author. They just need to be asked, and the best time to ask is when they're in that warm afterglow of finishing your book.

As an example, here's my last page for Walls of Wind:

Hello,

Thank you for joining me in the world of the Ghen and Bria on their planet, Wind.

If you have enjoyed Walls of Wind, please consider posting a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Your review will help others  find this story. Every review matters and is valuable to me, no matter how short or long it is. I would love to hear what you thought of my book –  I read every one.

To write a review on Amazon.com, go to http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HO1IOWE    where all my books are listed. Click on Walls of Wind and scroll down to the button marked “Write a customer review”

I really appreciate it!

J. A. McLachlan
http://www.janeannmclachlan.com


However you write it, that final page will increase your number of reader reviews.

September 18: the  eighteenth day of InSeMaMo  Today's challenge is to set a goal of 25 book reviews for your book/e-book. You don't have to get them all today, of course, but start working toward them today and don't stop till you meet that goal. They can be on Amazon, Goodreads, B&N, wherever your readers will see them.

Reviews won't move your book up Amazon's charts - only sales will do that - but reviews do sell books, especially if you're an unknown author. And Amazon is more likely to show your book to people searching for one in that genre/topic if you have 20-25 good reviews.

The only way to get book reviews is to ask. (Unless you want to buy them, in which case I recommend bookbub, as I've heard the most positive things about them.) For free reviews, start with people you know, then people in your FB groups, LI groups, etc., and move up to book reviewers.

Keep in mind:

1. Any review of 3 or more stars is a good review. Sure, it would be nice to have all 5-star reviews, but is that realistic? A 3-star review is fine. You might ask people if they don't think they can honestly give you 3 stars or better, to give you a brief critique, instead. This can help you improve your book without lowering your ratings.

2. Amazon likes reviewers who receive a free copy of a book for review, to indicate that they received a free copy. Don't be surprised or upset if a reviewer says that in their review.

3. Amazon puts a little "Verified Purchase" tag at the top of a review of a book that was purchased by the reviewer on Amazon. Fair or not, reviews with these tags are more valuable than reviews without.

Where do you find book reviewers?

Check out sites like Choosey Bookworm, Book Pleasures, and Readers Favourite.
Check Amazon's lists of frequent reviewers. Click on http://www.amazon.com/review/top-reviewers for their top reviewers. Click on a name, and you'll see all their reviews plus the reviewer's e-mail address in the lower left corner of the page. Make sure they review books in your genre before sending them a personal email request to review your book.
You can also use keywords on Amazon.com to find books like yours and see who reviewed them.

September 17: the seventeenth day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to design a cover that will sell your book.

Your book should be designed to market itself. I'm not an artist, so all I'll say about the cover art is that it has to appeal to your target market. It has to intrigue them without giving away too much of the story, and it should identify the genre. I have mine professionally done by Expert Subjects, then I ask readers who haven't read the book yet, which cover appeals most to them. If your book will be an e-book, the cover has to be a clear image, not too dark or too busy, and the title be readable in thumbnail size.

Leave the cover front uncluttered - your name, the title, the intriguing art. The back cover should include, in order of importance, the blurb about the book, positive comments from a professional review if you have one, testimonials from readers, your photo and brief bio, website URL and "author of---" (your previous books, if they're in the same genre or a close one), the genre, and if they are e-books, your amazon author URL so they can find your other books. If it's non-fiction, indicate the reader benefits of the information inside (Learn to lead a healthier life, be a better---, etc.)

If someone types in the key words for your genre, will your e-book come up? Make sure you have used those keywords in your blurb, bio, and the testimonials you've chosen, as well as in your title. Don't necessarily compromise a great title for keywords, however; that's what your subtitle is for!

Your challenge is to check your book cover(s) to see if all these things are there. If it's too late to alter existing books, consider what you need to add to future book covers.

September 15: the fifteenth day of InSeMaMo
We're halfway through this challenge already! How are you doing?

Today's challenge is to plan what you will include in your newsletter and how you will send it.

For those of you who haven't heard of email newsletters, they are short, one-page information sheets that you email regularly to a group of people who want to receive them. To do this, you have to get their email addresses and PERMISSION FROM THEM TO SEND YOUR NEWSLETTER TO THEM. Never assume because they have given you their email address for some other reason, that they've also agreed to receive your newsletter, and ALWAYS include at the bottom of the newsletter a way they can unsubscribe to it.(Most newsletter services will do this for you.) Otherwise you run the risk of them declaring you are spam, and believe me, you DON'T want that. Once your email URL is labeled spam, filters will begin blocking your emails. I've never had it happen to me, but have heard it's a nightmare.

What will you put in your newsletter? News about upcoming books, e-books and events you'll be at. Maybe show them an excerpt from, or the cover of a book, before it goes public. Non-fiction authors can add interesting tidbits of info from their research. It's really up to you, but if you want them to want to continue receiving your newsletter, you must include content that is of value to them. Since I have writers on my list, I include a writing tip in each newsletter; and since I have readers, I include a recommendation for a book I've enjoyed. I add pictures, and I don't annoy them by sending too many - I send 3-4 per year. That's actually on the low side, up to once a month would be okay, But it's time-consuming to provide quality content, so 3-4 a year is what I can manage.

The point is to keep in touch with people, to build community. I love it when people get my newsletter and email me back to comment on something in it, or share some of their news with me. I even have a spot where I include some of their news in my newsletter, if it's about books and I think my newsletter community would be interested.

Not only do you have to start planning what you'll put in your newsletter while you gather your list of names and email addresses (and their permission); you also have to consider HOW you're going to manage your newsletter.

You can manually write an email and copy it to everyone. (If you do this, be sure you put the recipients' names in the BCC (blind copy) box, so you aren't giving out everyone's email address.) There's a personal feel to this that is appealing, but when your list gets to a certain size, it becomes unwieldy. And you can't insert photos.

You can use a newsletter provider like MailChimp or AWeber. I use MailChimp - it was pretty easy to learn, I like the options it offers me, and you can send up to 12,000 emails to 2,000 subscribers a month for free.(www.mailchimp.com) AWeber is also recommended by reliable publicists, but it charges a monthly fee.

So today's challenge is, while you're growing your list, plan out what you'll put in your newsletter, and how you'll send it out. If you choose Mailchimp or Aweber, sign up and send out a practice email newsletter to your family. They will love you and never tell anyone all the mistakes you made while you were learning. I wish I'd done this. Instead, I sent my first try out to everyone on my list, and then had to send them all an apology and my second try, which turned out okay because I practiced on my family before sending my second attempt!

September 14: the  fourteenth day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to begin (or accelerate) collecting subscribers to your email newsletter.

Most experts in marketing agree that you need a base of 1000 followers. How do you accomplish that? You have to provide content that draws them. A sample of your writing (an excerpt from your book, a short story, a poem, or if you write non-fiction, an article about your subject will interest them. Your first impressions post or article on your site is another example of that content. 

Even with great content, they might not find you unless you have a means of contacting them - your email newsletter. Even if you don't have a newsletter yet, begin collecting the names and email addresses that you will send it to. Reassure them that you'll only send out 3-6 a year (there is no magic number, you decide how often) and tell them a little about what you intend to put in it.

Building an email list is one of the two most important tasks your website should accomplish. (The other, of course, is selling your books). The reason building an email  newsletter list is as important as selling your books on your website, is because a link on your website to where your book can be purchased is tied to your website. People have to come to your website to use it. An email newsletter, on the other hand, lets you reach out and take the link to them, whenever you have a new book out. It also lets you keep in touch with and build a relationship with them, so when you have a new book, or you're speaking somewhere, they'll want to know.

To build your email list:

1. Every page on your website should have a clear, highly visible and easy (one-click) method of signing up to receive your email newsletter. Seth Godin calls this The Big Red Fez .
2. Consider including a landing page on your website. A landing page is a separate page on your website that motivates your reader to do one thing only. Most pages have multiple calls-to-action (buy this book here or that book there, comment on this blog, plus sign up for my email newsletter.)
3. Take a sign-up sheet with you whenever you give a talk, a workshop or a book signing, on which members of your audience can write their name and email address.
4. Offer valuable incentives to encourage people to do so, such as the PowerPoints for the talk or workshop; a background story about your characters that's not in the novel; additional tips or worksheets not included in the non-fiction book; a book giveaway, etc.

What ideas do you have for increasing your email newsletter list?

September 13: the thirteenth day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to use twitter more effectively.

Apparently, writing a 'first impressions' post isn't popular.  :-)  That's okay. I have researched for years the "how I did it" stories of successful self-marketing authors and the "how you can do it" advice of paid publicists. There are plenty of overlaps, and those are the suggestions I think worthy of passing on. But not everything works for everyone.

A sound piece of advice for using social media is, be a presence in many, an expert in few. Some authors become known through their remarkable blog posts, others through twitter (which I dislike, but it has worked very well for many authors); some through U-tube, others through GoodReads; some through FaceBook, others through Google +. The point is, not to be a presence in everything, an expert in nothing. Invariably, I have found, those who succeed have focused their energies on one or two channels as their method to build relationships and become known.

However, even if you don't intend to use Twitter as your main squeeze, each social media channel is useful in its own way to supplement the one or two you want to focus on. So, if you're not on Twitter, get set up on it. If you already are, review your profile for the following 4 things:

1. Are you using your professional photo as your avatar?
2. Does your bio describe the kind of writing you do and include SEO key words for that genre?
3. Have you included your website URL? (do this by putting the URL in the "website" field of your profile.)
4. Make sure your tweets are set to public (just don't check 'protect my tweets') (And BTW, make sure your FB posts are also set to public, not just to your friends.)

Next, you should be following readers, not writers and authors (it's okay to follow both, it's just that you particularly want reader followers.)

To find readers, do a search in Twitter's search panel, using keywords that readers of your genre might use in their tweets, such as the names of successful authors, the titles of books, or well-known characters in that genre. Read the tweets and follow those who appear to be readers of your genre, or subject for non-fiction.

In order to increase your following, instead of thanking those who follow you, re-tweet or favorite one of their tweets. When you tweet, remember to use hashtags for your books and genre (#ebook, #science fiction, etc.)

If you decide Twitter is going to be one of the main supports of your marketing plan, you will probably have to sign up with Socialoomph to pre-schedule tweets in bulk and Justunfollow to grow your list of active followers.

Here is a great link to more advice on using Twitter, by author C.S. Lakin.

September 12: the twelth day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to WRITE that blog post for your target audience that you planned out yesterday.

Yesterday's challenge was huge, so I've broken it into 2 steps, to give you more time over it. Otherwise you'll be tempted to simply read these posts and not do them ;-)

After you've written this signature post, I want you to review the last two challenges on blogging, and then edit and improve it. You might consider having others read and critique it before the final editing, as you do your books. Would it move them to buy your books?

Once, when our children were teenagers, my husband and I went away overnight. We arrived back late the next evening, when the girls were all in bed. Walking from the garage into the kitchen, I steeled myself for the mess I expected to see. Instead, the kitchen was sparkling clean, the dishes all washed and put away, not a thing out of place. I was thrilled. We tiptoed down the hall to our bedroom, smiling - and what a shock! Passing the living and family rooms we saw books and shoes, newspapers and hair combs, throw pillows on the floor, empty glasses on the coffee tables...

The next morning I asked my daughters why they tidied the kitchen so beautifully and left the rest of the house so messy. "Well, mom," my eldest said, "we knew you'd be coming in through the kitchen, and you've always told us,first impressions count!"

Consider this blog post you're writing to be your "first impression" post. Put it on your website and leave it in a prominent position for at least a month. If you feel you must blog regularly, don't put it on your blog, but on another page of your website where it will stay front and center. Tweet it and FB it, Google+ it, put it on your Goodreads blog. Then step back, do other things, let people find it. (Respond to comments on it, of course.)

A good resource for ways of promoting your blog posts, which gives another point of view of blogging, can be found at: http://onehourprofessor.com/how-to-get-your-content-seen/

September 11: the eleventh day of InSeMaMo
Today's challenge is to PLAN a blog post for your target audience. If you don't have a blog, you can just as easily write it for a page on your website. This is a long challenge. Just plan it out today. You may get a first draft done, but don't post it. In fact, some of you might consider the challenge to be NOT posting it.

Before you start, get out the list you made on day one, about the attributes of your target market. (If you missed that post, go here.) These are the people you're writing this post to. What kind of post would they love to read?

This post you're going to write is for them, and it's also going to serve as a showcase of your writing. After they've read it, they'll know what they're going to get in your books. So consider what ties your books together, even if they're in different genres. Are they all romantic? edgy & nouveau? inspiring? family-oriented? fast-paced adventures? If you write non-fiction, consider your style of writing. Is it analytical? anecdotal? Whatever it is that is uniquely you that you put into all your books, that's your brand. You want to write a blog post that features that. Edgy posts, or family-oriented posts, inspirational posts or informative posts. That's your brand. And if you've described your target market correctly, they're people who like that kind of writing. That's what moves or interests or attracts them in a book.

This sounds complicated. Let me give you an example. John Locke is a high-selling self-published author on Amazon. He attributes much of his success to his blog posts, and he only writes 4-6 posts a year! But he works at them, he gears them to his target audience and at the end of the post, he subtly ties it to his books. He takes his time writing each post, and then he leaves it up to be read, instead of burying it under subsequent posts. It's another way of looking at blogging, for those who struggle with writing regular blog posts.

Locke describes his readers as "compassionate people...who have a sense of humor". "More than 70% are women" and most are "above age 50". "They mostly read to relax with a fast-paced, breezy read that makes them laugh out loud." He also describes the things about his writing style that they like.  (From "How I Sold 1 Million e-Books in 5 Months," by John Locke)

Here is one of his posts. While you read it, notice the tone - sincere and personal. Notice how he's written it to appeal to the emotional triggers of his target readers, as I've listed them above. Notice that the content is timeless, so he can leave it up as long as he wants. Notice how he subtly ties in his book at the end so it seems a natural part of the post, not a tagged-on advertizement.  Here's John Locke's blog post:
http://www.donovancreed.com/Blog/tabid/105/ID/40/Fathers-and-Daughters.aspx

I don't suggest you write the same kind of post Locke has written, because your target readers might be completely different from his. (And you don't have to like his books to learn from him.)

But I do challenge you to take time over one post, to plan it out with the age, gender, intellectual/emotional triggers and interests of your target readers in mind, and maybe even to write a first rough draft.