How much is too much promotion for your book?

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Recently I read a blog post by culture watcher and writer Mike Duran. In summary he speaks on how there are ways writers turn off their readers by doing such things as “overtweeting”, “Over Facebooking”, mentioning their own books, recommending their own books and doing giveaways…

Of course I plugged in my two cents, but will expand it more. How much is too much shameless promotion and should this bother most writers and readers?

Let’s look at one aspect of marketing: Social Media. Social Media encompasses those communications involving platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Emails, MySpace, and other avenues that allow you to send links, photos, one line comments, feedback and chat. Now Google+ has jumped on the bandwagon with Hangout, chats, free phone calls from emails, hashtagging(such as on Twitter using the # sign).

Remember traditional methods of marketing? Flyers, business cards, newspapers, word of mouth, radio, and other functions that have not died out are still really good to use.

How does the author factor in all of this?As an author(doesn’t matter what kind), you want your book, your baby to be out there, make it known to the world. This is the least you can do for your work and its fun playing promoter-some days I suppose. But it teaches you the business and new ways to bring in readers interested in your genre.

For example, I published Mark of Fortune this Spring and although I would have loved to market it in a huge way using radio promotion, web promotion and videos- I think it would have been too much for just a free short story. My hope is that I can just tweet about it once in a  while and perhaps mention it here or on Google+ as way to talk about it. Oftentimes, people crawling the net will eventually find eBooks anyway if its listed on the web. So in this case, my goal is for readers to know what they want and seek it out, I am only to help steer them to my book, not bombard them with it.

Could that be what people mean when they say “Don’t spam others or “Don’t over promote your book”? For my two book of poems also listed on Smashwords, I would like to do heavy promotion for those and even locally just so people can see it and make a choice if that is their thing. Poetry isn’t dead but it’ll be harder to promote than genre fiction like, say, witches, vamps, and wolves, or Steampunk.

So should Tweeting and Facebooking, etc. be a turn off for readers? My answer is no. I think the only ones complaining are those writers who probably have a good, decent following of fans already and are just very picky. I mean, let’s be honest- It’s marketing. Advertising using social media. Why keep it a secret? James Patterson(an awesome writer by the way) had a commercial on every month I think and I think that was great, although he is pretty much known to many as a commercial mystery author.

Is there a well-balanced solution? I am not you and you are not me, so your way of thinking and of promoting your work is a unique adventure, but here is what I am learning as I go about promoting my own works:

• Tweet, Facebook, or +1 your book every so often. This means maybe once or twice a week post your book, share a link, the photos, or other things dealing with your book.  However you choose to do this is fine. For those who go about the traditional way, try going to places you haven’t been before to market so you won’t bother the same people/establishments. Try parks, retail stores, carnivals, church. the only time you go to the same places is if you have interested customers.
• There is nothing wrong with giveaways. As a book reviewer, this is the time readers can give a book outside of their liking a chance- for free. Or to win a book in the genre they do like and you as the author/blogger gain a following. For those who have a problem giving away items- don’t do it. I believe in sharing.
• Cheap pricing for books are not turnoffs. They are keen turn ons because no one in this economy wants to spend $25.99 for a hardcover book when they can get it for $9.99 as an eBook or cheaply priced print book  found on publishers’ website. Some readers actually would purchase high priced books if they truly are believers in the author and their words and there is nothing wrong with that.

I know that with everything there is a catch, so of course you don’t want to spam folks, over tweet, or do nothing but giveaways. That is why I am offering the well-balanced way to do things that doesn’t “hurt feelings” or cause you to want to go overboard.

You’re welcome

Book Review: ‘Sweeter Than Birdsong’

Sweeter than Birdsong by Rosslyn Elliott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This historical fiction was well-written as the journey takes us from Otterbein College where Kate Hanby attends and 50 Grove Street where Ben Hanby lives.

Kate Wintry is incredibly shy, too shy to give a speech during her orations, but Ben Hanby see more in her. She is intelligent and have fierce passions for justice. Ben is a musician and teacher and he is astounded and amazed when Kate let’s her voice carry a tune so wonderful he wants to her more from this mysterious lady.

To be near Kate, Ben has some obstacles, including her mother, his family background and another gentleman who wants Kate’s hand in marriage.

What is a guy to do?

What I really like about this story was the history of the free blacks in America and the history of the Hanby’s. I also hoped for more romance because I am a romantic and I kept waiting for the interactions between Ben and Kate and when I finally got it- was not disappointed.

This book could be classified more as historical fiction than Historical/Romantic Fiction.

View all my reviews

Book Review: ‘Departures’-Teenage Years Are Such a Hurdle Sometimes…

Received for unbiased review by Multnomah

I just reviewed Robin Jones Gunn novel, Departures, which is actually two short books in one and I had such a blast reading it because I appreciated her reprinting this book and the characters remind me of how me and my friends were at 16 and up, it stirred up quite a nostalgic piece in my mind, and I loved how she made the girls have real thoughts.

Although I must say, some teens these days may pick up a bible just to help them in a crisis, I did, but not many woudl do that. Her characters believed in God and he was their source of strength, I thought that was quite cool.

Please visit Robin Jones Gunn via the web @ http://www.robingunn.com/

A Book Reviewer’s Confession & How to Properly Review Fiction

© Ingvald Kaldhussater | Dreamstime.com.

Recently I had the opporuntiy to read some ebooks on my PC. It was a fun experience and a challenging one, but I appreciate the opportunity to do so at a cheap or free rate.

For those who don’t know already, I review books for many companies such as Thomas Nelson Publishers, WaterBrook Press, and Bethany House Publishers. On occasion I get a humble, savvy writer who asks me to read their book and I willingly do so.

But this isn’t the problem. Nope. The problem I had began a couple of months agoa when I accepted a book as a referral from someone on a professional social network. I accept Inspirational, Christian, Historical Romance, and speculative works, so this person wrote something along the lines of supernatural and speculative. It was dark, it was real, it was an exciting read-however two things were wrong from the very beginning and perhaps it was my fault:

First of all, one of my rules is that  “I do not want to read ebooks for book reviews, it clearly puts out my eyes”. Secondly I accepted the book gratefully while also mentioning to both author and their “agent” I have more than five books in queue and will get to the the book in due time. It was not even a three hundred page ebook(almost).

PC failed, eyesight became sore, emails came in wondering when I was going to finish up the book and on it went.

Then I did something I never done before or would not ever consider doing again…I read quickly through the last fifty pages once I got the fuzzy file back. I did however read it at a good pace and found it to be an okay book. Suffice to say I sent an email giving my honest review of the overall appeal and feel of the book and added a few tidbits here and there-they were not happy with me.

I can say that afterwards I had the grand opportunity to read one of my FAVORITE author’s book on Calibris and darn it I enjoyed every bit of it! What a smooth experience.

Why am I saying all of this?

I made a mistake but in order not make it again, I have posted an article on Examiner on the  6 Ways to Review Fiction(fairly). One rule of thumb to remember: Never rush a  book review for an author. They need to give YOU time to write a clear review.

Writing and Reviewing- Do it Write on the Write Web!

If You’re An Online Teacher, You Should Read This…

A compassionate teacher is a good teacher for mind and soul

As someone who is familiar with distance learning since (roughly) 2005, I have begun to notice the good, the bad and the downright ugly. These terrible things have not kept me from learning online, however it could prove to do a working student in, especially when the culprit is a bad online teacher.

Before I begin, I must say I will try to refrain from being too harsh because distance learning teachers have a life too including spouses, children, and some tend to be on travel, so of course that much is understandable.  I will discuss this topic by topic. They are: Online teachers, communications, and technical know-how.

Online Teachers

• A good online teacher logs in just as regularly as a student. Some students who are working(or not) log in at least three to four times a week or more. An online teacher should log in around those same times too because students may have questions that need an immediate answer. Solution: As a teacher, set up a time you will be online. What seemed to work well for one of my instructor’s classes was being online in the morning, checking online in the afternoon while out(if you have a high tech phone), and then once at night.
• A good online teacher has tons of patience. I ventured online and found a post where someone said a math teacher helped them out for two hours over the phone! That is an amazing picture of patience. I’ve come across teachers who sounded impatient in their emails and discussion posts. Not good.  Solution: If you find you have no patience to teach, especially when the subject is difficult, perhaps you need to re-evaluate why you took on this job and find out the true source of your stress.
• A good online teacher knows how to direct discussions in an online environment. True story: My husband was taking a perspectives class online and the teacher literally said “I want the students to lead discussions, and you have to post in this manner. This is what I found to work for ME”; during his time in class was hell because the instructor graded more harsh on the student feedback than the initial posting and art work! Huh?!…..This was not good at all. Solution: As a teacher YOU should direct all traffic in posts, the students are depending on you for your help and expertise. Even if other students are doing better than others, conversations should not be graded harder than the actual assignment.* What works for you just doesn’t count. Sorry.
• A good online teacher does not let personal favortism get in the way. This is another NO NO if you are an online teacher or a teacher who works in a physical building. This isn’t a good morale booster when a student makes a bad first start with a low grade and you continue to downgrade him/her and not really looking deep into their work anymore because you assume it isn’t worth checking into. I’ve witness this happen as well. It is not a way to keep a student there. Solution: Treat every student the same. Everyone is different and unique and deserve a chance. If the student is literally having trouble with assignments, make a phone call or send an email asking what is going on. This shows a more human, mature side of you.

*When it comes to distance learning, it has been said that discussion boards are there to make a classroom seem more real. A discussion board is accessed through a virtual classroom and is similar to a forum or chat room. The idea is to keep communication lines open. However, along the way, higher education forgot what goes on in an actual classroom. In an actual classroom, the teacher is the director and all assignments are turned into him/her. Class discussions work best with peer editing in a writing course or something like that, but you are not graded down because of your “conversation”, you are graded for particpation.

My husband’s perspective teacher at the Arts Institute wanted “conversations” to weigh more heavily than her difficult assignments and main assignments/main posts. This is not real or ideal. Students don’t wish to be graded heavily on feedback, they want the higher grade to be the one they busted their tails for. I will venture back to this problem in another post.

I hope you enjoyed this post because there will be more. I am trying to figure out much needed changes in the online school environment.