End Of Year Sale!!

SMASHWORDS END OF YEAR SALE

ALL EBOOKS ARE 50% OFF WITH COUPON: SEY50

(excludes The Friendship Triangle)

HERE.

ENDS JANUARY 1ST 2019.

Pre-orders & Promotion - The After Process

PRE-ORDER & PROMOTION

It's coming around to that time of year for me, when I start pulling my soon to be release, editing it to pieces and slowly putting it back together. I'm still doing two book releases in one year, after the success I had this year with both Dying Thoughts - Fifth Secret and It's Not Always Rainbows being released. I thought though that I would do a piece about the build up to release and all that went with it. That means setting up pre-orders, and dealing with the promotional aspect of getting ready for the big day. I thought I could split this into two categories, and first I'll start with my tips about pre-orders.

PRE-ORDERS
Why? You might be asking if it's worth it to do pre-orders. There are several reasons why I personally think it is. In my experience, it's better to do pre-orders than to not. I can outline those reasons, and while it may seem like a lot of hassle, it can be used as a good tool to get the word out about your book, leading into promotion.

So the number one reason is, it helps to built hype. If, like me, you're doing cover reveals and ARC, then you realise that having a link for people to pre-order makes a lot of sense. Otherwise you're utilising a very powerful tool with the cover reveal, but not giving any follow through. This means that readers might look at your awesome cover and want to buy the book, but if it's not up for pre-order, then they're more likely to forget by the time release date rolls around. It makes so much sense to combine the two. Have your cover reveal be the day you release the pre-order link. That way when all the blogs taking part in the cover reveal post, they're also doing a heck of promotion for you.

Another reason is, if the book is part of a series, it can draw people to the earlier books. For example, with the Dying Thoughts series, I pushed the first four books on a promotion once the fifth one went live on pre-order. It made people suddenly more interested in both my newest release, but also the books that came before it. It's a great tool to use, and if done well, can help you jump up in the rankings when it comes to release day.

That's another big reason: release day. You've got all this hype to build, and if no one can do anything in advance, like when they see a teaser, or a cover reveal, to click and buy the book, then you're working against yourself when it comes to the actual release. Yes, promotion around that time matters, and I'll get to that in a moment, but so does the weeks and months leading up to that day. If you've got a handy pre-order link, people will get invested, and readers will be waiting to get their hands on your masterpiece. It all works for you, and that's why pre-orders should be something you do.

I know that with KDP it's possible to do pre-orders on ebooks, and the same applies to Smashwords if you choose to go wide from the start. Paperbacks are harder, and I personally, don't have a way to set up a pre-order for them. That said, I find the majority of my sales are in ebook format, so for me, it works to release the paperback as close to the live date as possible to give Createspace a chance to distribute it to Amazon and such in time for the big day.

PROMOTION
So, I've mentioned the other part of this piece a few times. Promotion is just as important during the after process as pre-orders. Both help build up hype for your book, and build an audience for your book. On top of that, it's a way to engage with your readers. If you're talking about the latest release and you're engaging with your audience, then they will be just as excited about it as you are. There are so many different ways to promote and I won't be able to cover them all in this piece. The obvious one, such as ads, seems like a no brainer. It's one I've used and will use again and again.

However, there are other ways to promote your book and previous works at the same time. A few of these you'll have seen around the social media sites, like taking part in Teaser Tuesday, sharing snippets on Instagram, quotes on Goodreads and all of that. You can do release day blitzes where you have a number of bloggers all plan to post something about your release on all their sites. It's all about getting the word out, but it doesn't start the day of release or even just before the cover reveal. It starts long before that.

I've got eleven books out, so I'm constantly promoting my previous works, while also promoting the works that will be released in 2018. On top of that, I'm sharing snippets on #1linewed from my current works in progress. Screenshots on Instagram and all of that will build the interest that you want, it also leads to engagement from your audience. It's not just blasting cyberspace with a link and a quick "buy my book" every day, it's about crafting an interest and spamming people with buy links doesn't do that.

A lot of people will say that you need to be reminding people that you've got something on offer, but the majority of people following you already know that. That's probably one of the reasons they follow you. So while it may take time, and it may seem liked a wasted tweet to start slowly and months in advance, it's the best path to take. The audience I have is small, but they also are very aware of what I'm writing at the moment, and what's coming out in 2018. So when it comes to promotion, yes, ads are a good thing, but also engaging, chatting, and make connections (and friends!) are also powerful tools.

What are you thoughts of pre-orders? Do you have that one author you one-click no matter what they write? Let me know in the comments below!

Follow Joey here on her blog, or on Facebook or Tumblr to be kept up to date with the latest news regarding Joey and her books. You can also sign up to her newsletter here.

The Many Hats Of An Indie Author - The Creative Process

The Many Hats Of An Indie Author

One thing you'll learn if you're an indie author is that you don't just have to wear a hat that says "writer", you have to wear a lot of them. While certain things, like editing and graphics and such may not be within your own abilities, everything else has to be. You can, of course, hire people  to do your editing (which I highly recommend doing because it's hard to edit your own stuff) or designing your covers, but everything else will fall to you.

So, what are the hats that you as an indie author will have to wear? How many can be farmed out to friends or other people? This writing piece will give you an overview of them all.

Hat #1 - WRITER
This one is obvious. You're the writer, which means you have to actually do the writing! It's probably the one you'll feel most comfortable wearing, and the one where you don't even realise that it's an official hat as it were, but still it's the first and most important one in your collection.

Hat #2 - EDITOR
Now, as I said above, I highly recommend using someone else as an editor. I do, and I also know of other freelance editors who focus their work on mostly indie authors. They are all very good, but even when you send your work out to one of them, you're still going to need to keep hold of that hat because there is always some editing that needs to be done BEFORE you entrust your work into the hands of an editor. Not every writer feels that way, but personally, I like to make sure that what I send my editor is the end result. That it's what I want my story to say and although I've technically written the story and declared it finished, there are always tweaks you need to make to your first draft. The last thing you want to do is send off your completed manuscript and find that it had some part in it that you didn't even want in there. That's why I have kept this in as a hat to wear.

Hat #3 - GRAPHIC DESIGNER/COVER ARTIST
Some writers, like me, have no talent when it comes to designing or drawing graphics and/or cover art. For that reason, I personally, have someone who does it for me. I do a lot of the other graphics though. The majority of the graphics in my posts I have to make myself and I know that there are a lot of other writers who do have talent with art and they take on the job of making their covers and any promotional graphics. As with a lot of these hats, you can choose to have someone else do it but when you're just starting out as an indie author, unless you have access to serious funds and/or friends who will work for a pittance, then you need to wear this hat yourself.

Hat #4 - ADVERTISING/PROMOTIONS
Now, when you get signed with a traditional publishing house, one of the things they will take off your hands is promotion and advertising. They'll have a whole department whose job it is to get the word out about your book, get you likes on Facebook and everything to do with that. As an indie author, that falls to you. You need to be the one to tell the people your book is aimed at that it's out there. It's a lot of work and sometimes you don't even know where to start - at least I didn't in the beginning. Once you have got some following online such as through a blog or Facebook, you can start to rely on word of mouth.

Now, there are a lot of great indie author communities on Facebook - groups and pages alike - that will help you get noticed. You need to keep your ear to the ground as it were and make sure that you connect with other writers of your chosen genre as well as general groups who will be of some use when you need help with promotion. BUT it works both ways, you can't expect an author to spend their time promoting you if you're not willing to help them out as well. But you don't want to spend so much time promoting everyone else that you don't get the word out about your own works. So, with a lot of things in the indie author world, it's a balancing act. You need to work with the communities and other authors, do guest blogs, interviews and reciprocate when and where you can. While some of your fans on Facebook will be other writers who are all looking for the same thing, others will be people who have heard of you through these other writers. You need to strike a good balance of advertising yourself AND other writers if you want to keep a good working relationship with them. It's all about give and take and you'll get there in the end.

Hat #5 - DISTRIBUTION
This is more of a minor hat to wear because with the advent of e-books and places such as Amazon KDP and Smashwords, it's pretty easy for an indie author to publish their books through those platforms and have them feed into other online stores. Even when it's paperbacks, the great resource of CreateSpace allows you to have some control over distribution and selling your work. It takes time and cost will come into it, but as an indie author, it is down to you to get your book in the stores that you want it to be in.

Hat #6 - ACCOUNTANT
As an indie author who uses Amazon KDP and Smashwords, I have the final say - within reason - as to how much my books cost. If you use the same platforms, you'll find that you have that choice too. As an avid reader, I know that I would not try a book by a new author (or most authors to be honest) if it costs more than a paperback would. I also know that because the cost of producing e-books is minimal, that also has some impact on what I would be willing to pay. This is reflected in the prices I have chosen for all my books. However, you may decide differently.

Alongside choosing prices for your work, you also have to do things like work out income tax that needs paying. And you'll have to do that for other countries than your own if you live outside of the USA and use the Amazon KDP or Smashwords programs. They do have the option to pay 30% tax and will do that automatically, but should you wish to, you can get hold of a tax ID from the USA which will make sure you pay the correct amount of tax. It also applies to your home country too. Whether you hold another job or not, you have to declare what you earn from your books and pay taxes on that. A lot of writers, indie or otherwise, hire outside people who are better skilled at that then they are. I am one of them. If there's one thing you don't want, it's the tax man breathing down your neck because you didn't declare an income.

Hat #7 - GENERAL GO-FER
When you make it as a big name author - a dream of many writers, myself included, you'll probably find that you don't have time to do everything that needs to be done. Your life will revolve around word counts, writer's block and other appearances necessary to keeping your book sales up, which means that you'll probably have an assistant. If you're an indie author, unless you know someone or have the means to pay someone, that job falls to you. Even before you've made it big, you're still going to have some jobs that need doing that interfere with your writing time. That means that another hat you have to wear is being your own personal assistant or general dogsbody. Basically, you're gonna have to do the jobs that no one else will. That includes things like answering emails, making calls, drumming up interest, posting to Facebook, organising promotions and other such things. Some of these jobs overlap with the other hats you will wear as an indie author, but some of them are just basic admin work that has to be done to keep your books selling and your career moving forward.

So, those are the seven big hats that you will have to juggle as an indie author, all of which (except the first) can be assigned to other people if you have the funds and/or the friends willing to work for free or minimal wages. As with a lot of things to do with writing and the creative process, it is a big juggling act. You have to strive to find the balance so that things don't fall by the wayside, so that you don't drop one ball whilst trying to keep the others in the air because if you're not careful, they'll all come crashing down around you. As someone who has been a writer for the past twelve years, and has been an indie author for the past eight, I can tell you that it does get easier. You will learn a pattern, fall into a schedule and things will become second nature. I have been blessed with helpful friends like my cover artist, B and my editor, Kim, who both have worked for me for a number of years.

When you're just starting out, learn to recognise the importance of triage, as I spoke about in another piece (found here). Working yourself to death is not going to help anyone and will only lead to the need for time away from doing what you love - writing. After all, if you don't love writing, or at least have a passion for what you write, then it may seem like you're in the wrong profession. Good Luck, and happy juggling!

Follow Joey on Facebook or here on her blog to be kept up to date with the latest news about Joey and her books.

Tracking Sales - The After Process

It's something some writers do, in fact I'd go as far to say as a lot of writers do it. Both those who are self-published and those who went the more conventional route. You want to know how your book is doing, you want to know if it's selling and if it is, how many. The trick is to not fall into the trap of checking your sales every few minutes. Something those who are self-published have the ability to do.

As someone who has been there and done the refreshing and checking, it's hard to break the habit. Of course it's best that you never start in the first place but I think that's a rather unreal demand. If you're a writer, and you've published in some way, you're going to want to know that people are actually reading your works. And checking every few days for sales and possibly your rank on Amazon or other places is okay, it's when it starts to affect the work you're doing or your life that it becomes a problem.

So, you've decided that you're going to write a book and you get it published by some means or another. You then decide that you kinda like this writing stuff and so you'll write another. However, you want to be sure that your audience is captivated with your new work. For those of us who have decided to go the self-publishing route (for one reason or another) the big problem with tracking sales religiously is that unless you've done some self-promoting (a piece about this can be found here) then people aren't necessarily going to *know* that you even have a book out. After Blackout was first released as an e-book, I didn't do much promoting. People knew it was there, but they were usually my friends or family and there are only so many sales that are going to come from that. It wasn't until my third and fourth books were released that I realised I had to do some serious self-promotion. I'll admit it, I was an amateur and made a mistake.

Once I got the self-promotion started, it became a thing where I would check every morning to see if there were sales. In the beginning there weren't many, or any really. Then I did a promotion and my sales went through the roof (for me at least, maybe not for someone like Harlan Coben or Sue Grafton.) Suddenly I was seeing sales double by the minute and I realised that I needed to carry on with the promotion, which I did. However, I then fell into the trap of putting too much stock into how many sales I made that day.

As with all things, the huge surge in sales trickled down, people knew I was there but until I released book five and got some reviews that would convince others to try me out (I was, after all a very new writer on the scene) I wasn't going to be able to do anything myself. I started to think that it wasn't worth finishing the books I was working on, I got too fixated on sales rather than doing the thing I loved - writing. And there's the problem. If you're a writer, an author or whatever you want to call yourself, then it's obvious that you probably don't do it for the money, but because you like to create from nothing a story about characters you thought up. If tracking your sales becomes something you base your day's work on, you can lose that love of your work. And nobody should have to do a job that isn't fun. They do because the world works like that, but they shouldn't have to.

Anyway, I digress. Tracking sales is something you should check because you want to know that your book(s) are selling, but alongside that you should be tracking reviews, doing self promotion, interviews and interaction with the audience for your genre. It shouldn't control everything you do, it should just be something that is part of the job. Something that you do, but that doesn't have an effect on your general overview of your work. Some great books don't make that many sales, and others make so many you wonder how people can read them. It's all down to the audience.

So, by all means track your sales and your rank on stores and websites, but remember that writing is a joy and don't make it something that takes away part of that joy. Now I have to go read my piece on Distractions to remind myself that I do actually have a job to do :D