Social Media and Selling Your Book

Thank You PNWA for yet another informative and free class to members. pnwa.org I learn so much from your organization, and I notice that these classes are attended by an assortment of writers. Some are beginners, but many are well-established, successfully published authors as well.


This recent class I attended was conducted by Sean McVeigh of 425 media. 425media.com This company builds websites for authors, also does planning and consulting for an author's social media and search engine, etc.  Sean was certainly knowledgeable on this topic.

Here are some highlights of his discussion.  After reading these ideas you'll want to contact them for more personalized consulting. -

Online -
Focus on mobile phones, and at the least make sure your media messages are easily viewable and links usable on mobile phones because that is what is used most now, and that trend will only grow.

Google search is valuable.  Keep in mind that Google focuses on the person as a subject matter expert (SME), not necessarily the content at the link.  You need to establish yourself as a SME.

You need to create a website and drive all traffic back to the website, because that is where you actually own your content.  You don't own your content on guest pages etc.  You should blog from your website and link out to other platforms like blogspot and tumblr, etc

Determine your 10-20 keywords that describe your message.  This is what Amazon and others will pick up on when people do searches.

Yahoo, Google, Bing, Pinterest, Flickr all like it when you use back links.

You Tube is excellent, creative content, or a tutorial.

Facebook for likes, links, news, author page

Twitter for Follows, mentions, and event information. Here you can build relationships and settings allow for auto posts.

Google Plus for follows.  This is Googles Facebook and Google integrates this information into its Google searches.  Google analytics for your website provide a valuable monthly report identifying where your traffic is from.

Pinterest is primarily a female audience.

Linked In is where people need to see you as an author and SME.  Google searches on Linked In content

Amazon and Goodreads are great places to have a presence.


Marketing -
Organize all your contacts in a spreadsheet for who you're marketing to.  Include Friends/Family, Book Stores, Blogs, Sites, etc. with all their information including number of likes.  Number of likes is powerful.

Reciprocate mentions, such as putting the bookstore on your contact list on your website.  You'll also want to put a link to your website in reviewsw that people write.

Get lots of book reviews!


Your Website -
Musts for your website include:

• book cover and information
• contact form
• about me, the author
• social media icons, for example Amazon
• blog
• excerpts
• testimonials, reviews, awards - great if these include some of those key words of yours!  Ask for book reviews, you want lots of these.  Make it easy for others to review your work.
• how to purchase your book
• newsletter sign up form
• book releases for yourself and for others
• book signings
• book reviews

You can rss email your newsletter, that pulls information from your blogs and other of your writings.

Remember, your website needs to be responsive to the mobile audience -

• Android (Google)
• iphones
• windows phone 

Thank You Sean McVeigh http://425media.com/
Thank You PNWA pnwa.org

Pick a Letter in the Alphabet Mysteries

B is for Burglar, by Sue Grafton

I’m drawn to red herrings in an entertaining mystery novel — are you? I’ve just stumbled onto Sue Grafton’s “alphabet mysteries”, and in B Is for Burglar I happily feasted on a red herring served up by the author with all the trimmings. At the novel’s end, the surprise was on me.

 

Kinsey Millhone is the single, female, 32-year-old, self-employed private investigator who lives and works in fictional Santa Teresa, Calif. She is a former police officer. We’re given hints of a bad experience in that past that is still haunting her, and in part provided the spark behind her moving out of the force and into PI work.

 

In this book, the author grabs your interest right away with the mysterious and glamorous new client Beverly Danziger, who breezes into Kinsey’s office. She has an apparently benign request to find her missing sister, who appears to be dodging signing some legal papers. It doesn’t take long for Kinsey to discover that there is more to this story. Her investigation takes her back and forth from California to Florida. The stakes are raised when a burglary turns into murder.

 

Sue Grafton is an accomplished novelist, and celebrated screenplay writer. Her experience as a screenwriter taught her the basics of structuring a story, writing dialogue, and creating action sequences. It’s said that while going through a bitter divorce and custody battle that lasted six long years, Grafton imagined ways to kill or maim her ex-husband. Her fantasies were so vivid that she decided to write them down. That took her back to writing novels and she began this series. This installment in the series is an exciting, cozy mystery. Her writing is very descriptive. She includes effective details that allow the reader to really see the scenes, yet don’t bog down the action at all. The characters are all very believable, and some very cunning as I came to find out.

 

I’m looking forward to indulging in more entertainment as I work my way through this author’s alphabet, and undoubtedly feast on some more red herrings.

 

Thereby hangs a tale . . . .

It's a Night Circus

‘The Night Circus’ by Erin Morgenstern, a magical tale that delivers

“The circus arrives without warning. . . It is simply there when yesterday it was not.” It’s a mystical Victorian circus and as it travels its fame grows. The appeal is to all ages, and a group of fans form with mysterious ways to predict where the circus may appear next. Open only from sunset to sunrise, the night hours are filled with magic, caramel popcorn, chocolate mice, tents with acts to astound you, a blazing bonfire, the most intricate grandfather clock ever, an intense competition to the death, and an eternal love. This may seem like more than a circus can offer, but “The Night Circus” is a novel that delivers all that.

Two magicians, too young to know what is happening, are tricked into a mortal competition . . . . . Link to my recommendation