Days 13, 14, and 15 - Catching up and Having Doubts

Now two weeks into this, I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of how Kindle Publishing works. Anyway, I feel confident enough to jump and build my net on the way down. 

I spent the last few days out of town with my husband. My first real vacation in three years. And what did I do? I sat in the hotel room and wrote, edited, wrote new scenes, worked on social media. To be fair, it was raining where we were, but I went out as much as I could. 

If you’re a writer, you know we must re-read our work almost a million times. By the time it’s ready, you’re practically sick of it. You know it inside and out. Yet, you still ask yourself, “What’s missing?” You might be in the shower and it hits you…More conflict! A funny line of dialog! Oh dang, the part where they kiss is cringeworthy - must re-write! When you have your story on your mind, you live in that world. I think about my characters all day. I dream about them at night. I wonder who they are. Does everyone do this?

I don’t think any writer ever has submitted a finished work and thought it’s perfect. Self-doubt is part of the game and I’m learning to live with it. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to a place where I love it, but I think I can accept it. It will never be perfect, but it will be done. All I can hope is that there aren’t any heinous grammar or spelling mistakes. Homophones are a weakness: Led, lead. Passed, past. Mail, male. See, sea. To, too. 

Which leads (leds?) me to my biggest mistake of this whole process: Not getting it edited in time and not doing any kind of beta reading at all. I’m a copy-editor. I should know better. The editing process takes time. Weeks at best. I have twenty-one days until I launch. Groan. Is that enough time to get it edited? I’ve put my feelers out and haven’t had a lot of success. A few editors have responded, but it’s going to cost a ton and I’m trying to keep costs down. Problem is, I don’t feel like the story is exactly ready for editing. I feel like I need to sit on it more, let is marinate, something’s missing. I’m going to try a last-ditch effort this week to get it beta read. I just kind of need to know if anything’s missing or if it’s good or what. If you’re a writer, you know what I’m feeling. I think it’s good, my husband thinks it good - but will the world? If you read this before October 4th, 2019 and would like to beta read the story, get in touch and let me know if you’ve ever beta read before - not a criteria, but helpful. 

I’ve joined a beta reading group on Facebook, but the odds of my getting fast results seems slim. I may also post on Twitter asking if anyone wants to beta for me. I don’t know why, but the beta reading process has me shook. I worry people won’t read it, will take too long, steal my ideas, who knows? Worst case scenario, responses will be bad and I’ll have to re-write the whole damn thing in two days. So yes, big mistake not doing all of this first. Had I started with a FINISHED and TESTED manuscript, I’d be less panicked. Big lesson here: Make sure your manuscript is ready! Duh. 

Ok, so live and learn. If I miss my deadline, I miss my deadline. I’m going to do everything in my power to smash that deadline and get this thing rolling, but I want to do it right. As I’m writing this, I feel like switching the season of my story to Autumn because the leaves on the trees are changing color. Oh man. I need to stop. 

In other news, my second giveaway has ended and I received exactly the same entrants as the first one. That seems uncanny. I’m ramping up the giveaways all the way until the release of Lessons in Love and starting a new one on Tuesday (October 1st). Romance fans, stay tuned because I think you’ll like this one. 

One thing I learned so far about these giveaways is that most people enter on the final days. I had almost no entries until Friday - I started on the previous Sunday - and them bam! Thirty entries. That’s why I’m starting this one on a Tuesday - to see if a shorter run makes a difference. 

Finally, I’ll be sending out the first chapter of my novella to the Readers Collective soon so get on there. I’ve found what looks like a great service called Book Funnel that helps indie authors distribute their books and chapters to mailing lists. It’s a bit more complicated than that, so I need to research more. Have you used Book Funnel? What do you primarily use it for and is it worth it? Answer in comments below. 

Day 12 - Organizing Twitter with List Management

Do you crave organization? Are your Twitter follows out of control? Do you want to use Twitter Lists but they’re a pain in the ass? If yes, keep reading. I’m going to save your life. 

I spent about an hour today searching for a Twitter list manager app. Something to help me organize and keep track of my lists on Twitter. If you’re not familiar with Lists, read this. I hate those so-called helpful articles that waste precious time by telling you what you already know.

I found LISATABIRD - I do not make money or affiliate bucks with this. I’ve been using it for about an hour now and it’s OK for getting the job done. All Listabird does is list your lists and allows you to organize the people and brands into lists on Twitter. That’s it. It’s literally just for organizing lists. 

1. You must create lists on Twitter. To learn how, read this. 

2. Download Listabird for iPhone on the app store

3. Authorize your Twitter account 

4. Once the people/brands you follow appear, you can then tap on a name and add it to a list. 

5. SIMPLE

Listabird seems pretty rudimentary. It’s already crashed once, but so far, it’s allowing me to put everyone and everything into place. I have many lists: Friends & Family, Celebs, TV & Film, Shops, Writers, and more. This way, when I just want to see what my friends and family are up to, I click the list and voila. It’s all there. Easy peasy. I’m not aware if this app exists for Android or other types of phones. 

CONS: 

• Crashed once

• Isn’t pretty to look at

• Doesn’t show Twitter profile information

• Doesn’t allow you to create new lists - you have to go into the Twitter app for that

• New lists created on Twitter don’t appear automatically. You have to drag the screen down (to update). 

PROS: 

• Easy to use

• Easy to set up

• Unfollow accounts with a swipe

• Organization times ten

Overall, I tried at least three different apps for this simple task. Listabird is the only one that’s getting the job done and it’s free. 

Do you know a better way? Post in the comments below.

Day 11 - Looking Back on the Last Ten Days

Now that I’m a little under half-way to the finish line, I’d like to tell you what I think is the hardest part of selling a book online: The first five days. 

Setting up the website, making it look nice, getting all the right pages in, writing the copy for the site, setting up social media, posting, deciding on a brand-look, reading, researching, figuring out what everything means. Just wading through the swamp. It’s a bit overwhelming when you don’t know what you don’t know. 

By now, I have a pretty good idea how it all works. Which leads me to the second hardest part of selling a book online: Being seen. Although, now I think about it, this is actually harder than setting up your online universe. 

The internet is the great democratizer. Everyone can publish a book and sometimes it feels like they are. A good chunk of these writers will experience sales-fatigue in the first year or two. They’ll disappear, but other hopefuls will arise in their place. It’s a bit like a Hydra. Cut off one head, another one sprouts. That’s a hydra, right? What’s something that grows new appendages after you cut it off? You get my meaning. There is no shortage of wannabe writers and there never will be. All you have to do is last longer. I’m being dramatic. There’s more to it than that. Not quitting after you see abysmal sales on your first novel is one battle of many - even if you are the greatest living writer. 

In the 1920s and ‘30s, they had “dance marathons” - whichever couple danced the longest won. Dance till you drop! People would literally be falling down, trying to stay on their feet, clinging to each other just to win a contest. What is it with humans and endurance challenges? Well, self-publishing (and anything you want to succeed at) is an endurance challenge. All you have to do is keep dancing, keep holding on. Don’t stop, don’t let go. Eventually the weak ones will fall. Only difference here is, in dance marathons, new contestants weren’t allowed in. The point is: Hang in there. 

Nothing happens overnight, no matter how badly you want it to. If you’re planning on quitting your day job, don’t write your two-week notice just yet. All success demands blood, sweat, tears, and the passing of many trine. Whether it’s worth it remains to be discovered. Only you can define what success means to you. 

Being noticed in the over-crowded world of self-publishing is no easy task. It’s why many writers become consultants and sell online courses. It’s easier than pouring your bleeding heart into a story and not seeing results. We writers put everything into our work. We’re selling out souls for 99 cents on the Buy n’ Large of bookseller sites. No offense to Amazon, but it’s not The Shop Around the Corner. Come on, our books are worth at least $2.99. The market dictates what the market will bear. On top of that, there are as many books and short stories on the internet as grains of sand on the beach. And that’s why so many writers drop out. We’re not sales people. We’re solitary creatures who like being hunched over our typewriters by candlelight. Most of us weren’t the popular kids in school. Our friends are books and we’re pretty happy that way. Except, sales means you have to be good with people. Make no mistake: Self-publishing is sales. 

To make it, you have to sharpen your teeth and it’s easier said than done. I believe most people are honest and sales borders on the dishonest. You may have to polish your persona, lie a little on Instagram, make yourself seem better than you are - or feel you are. There is so much rejection in the writing world that writers are now celebrating their failures. “My 500th rejection! Time to party!” OK honey. Good for you. Well, if you have to celebrate something, might as well be that you’re trying. Better than nothing, eh? Still, selling our own books means we have to be the marketing person Random House would have hired for us. The person who went to school for this. 

“Making it” is a mind fuck. You’re going to make tons of mistakes, and it’s going to take way longer than you thought it would. Don’t believe any jerk who says they made it in three months. They’re lying - or omitting the prior years of slaving or the marketing degree hanging on their wall. The sad truth is, even if you out-dance all the other contestants, you still might not become one of Amazon’s top ten. That’s why it’s important to enjoy the journey. You already know that. Enjoy the late nights reading about Kindle Publishing. Enjoy learning how to sell. Enjoy the process, because you’re not flying to The Emerald City, you’re taking a steamer ship. Most of all, enjoy writing because otherwise you’re in the wrong business and should go back to that terrible accounting job you hate like your mother wanted you to. Of course, there is a fast track to Oz, but it’s very expensive. You decide if it’s worth it. I’ll talk about the fast track in another post. 

If you’ve been reading my blog these past eleven days, you might have guessed I know a little something about sales. It’s because I ran a decently (up and coming anyway) wedding photography business before this. I went to all the conferences, took all the workshops, attended all the webinars, read heaps of books. It’s a hustle and everything I learned over in the photo world applies to self-publishing. I did that for almost a decade and it’s prepared me for this. At least, mentally. My dad was also in sales. He sold gasoline to truckers. Tell me that’s not a challenge. But he was damn good at it and I grew up watching him; picking up skills I never wanted and didn’t know I’d need some day. When I started this blog and said I didn’t know anything about self-publishing, that’s true. But I do know a little about sales and dealing with people. Enough that I’m not deterred by the gauntlet ahead. 

I’ll never forget when I worked one Christmas season at the mall. I got my first real sales lesson: Don’t let anyone walk out of here without socks. They had this massive wall of socks for sale. First off, the socks were heinous. Second, it felt sleazy saying, “You know, these socks would go great with those pants!” I hated it, which is why I didn’t last there. I was also seventeen at the time. The truth is, *upselling works. It’s gross, but it brings in money. Just like the candy display at the cash register always tempts us. Just like you can buy a perfectly good base model of a car, but the salesman will convince you that you deserve leather interior. I can go into how upselling applies to self-publishing later, but BOGO (buy one, get one) is one way. So are book collections and even to some extent, guest bloggers. 

No matter how good you are selling, you must have something to sell, right? I talk a lot about sales here, but the writing is equally important. At least, I think so. I know plenty of bad writers (poor grammarians) making decent livings because they’re good at sales. 

TLDR: I learned that self-publishing is an endurance challenge. It’s less about writing and more about selling. 

*Upselling: To upsell means to encourage customers to purchase additional, complementary, larger or more expensive products and services than they had originally intended to buy. By doing so, the business can improve sales revenues, profits and profit margins.

DAY 10 - Joining a Book Release Launch Team and What I Learned

I’m fascinated by the concept of Launch Teams. The following article comes from the point of a reader/fan, not a marketing guru.

Launch Team

Melanie’s Definition: A group of devoted fans who love you so much they review your book (pre-release) on multiple platforms in exchange for a free book and other goodies.

Everyone (and I mean everyone) who is releasing a book is hitting up people for their launch teams. Or are they? I typed in “Join Launch Team“ in Google and received tons of pages - most of which use the same written text and ideas for their teams. Most of the posts were several years old, but have common threads:

1. Ask potential LT member to pre-order book (they pay)

2. Tell your potential LT members to apply for the honor to work for you for free

3. Tell them how amazing being on a launch team is going be

4. Ask them to write reviews on various book review sites

5. Ask them to tweet, blog, and post extensively everywhere they can (because they love you so much)

6. Offer them a free copy of the ebook (and unnamed other free things). Wait. Didn’t I already buy it?

7. Allow them to join an exclusive Facebook group just for LT members. Wow! Unless you’re J.K. Rowling, who cares?

8. Rare: Offer one on one calls with the author. Again, are you J.K. Rowling?

Launch Teams are trade. The concept of trade is as old as humans. You have a thing I want, I have a thing you want. Let’s trade! Trade is commonly a mutually beneficial exchange. But here’s the thing: Do people really get so excited about receiving a free ebook they’ll help you promote your release? Let alone from an unknown author? I put my high school newspaper journalism skills to the test (I was kicked off the school newspaper for writing an article that offended the booster club FYI).

What I found in my Google search was a bunch of old posts for books that were released years ago. Nothing new. I then switched to Twitter and searched “Join my launch team“ and a few posts appeared. I clicked the links, signed up, and waited. I received one automatic reply very quickly. I have not been choosy. I’m surprised that It’s so hard to find new release launch teams when you want one, so I’ll take what I can get. I also posted on Twitter to #WritingCommunity asking if anyone’s looking. So far no replies.

When I woke up the next morning, I had an automatic email from the first team I joined. 300+ words telling me what I could expect next. He used the words “much appreciated“ and “thanks” only once. For privacy sake, I will not be using the author’s name.

---

Greetings, reader!

Thanks for joining my launch team. As you likely know by now, joining my team means you'll receive a free copy of my future books in return for your agreement to publish a book review on Amazon the day of each book's official launch.

My next novel is REDACTED, the latest installment in the REDACTED series. It is scheduled to publish in early 2019. I'll let you know as soon as I'm sure what the actual launch date will be.

Here's what you can expect to happen next.

1. Three weeks before REDACTED launches in a digital format to the public, I will email you a copy of the book to download in three different file formats; .MOBI, .EPUB and PDF. At that point, you can begin reading the book in whichever format you prefer!

2. Over the following weeks, I'll send no more than two check-in reminders asking that you get ready to write a book review for REDACTED and publish it on the book's page on Amazon on the launch date.

3. On the book's launch date, I will email you one final time to ask that you please post your review on Amazon.

Because Amazon recommends books to other readers based on several factors including the number of reviews each book has, your contribution is very important. Book reviews published on a novel's launch day are particularly helpful since they help Amazon determine the book's overall sales rank (a high rank, as you might expect, increases the likelihood Amazon will recommend the book to other readers).

So your timely response will be much appreciated!

Thanks so much for agreeing to serve as a member of my launch team. I'll be in touch soon with details about the book's official launch day and if you have any questions in the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact me at EMAIL REDACTED.

---

First off, this is too long. The only reason I read it all the way through was because I’m writing this article. Second, he’s not near grateful enough for the time investment I’m about to give. It feels a bit mansplainy overall. He places an exclamation point after “much appreciated” to let you know he really means it. He explains in boring detail what’s expected of you and even uses the word “serve“ as a member. He doesn’t have a release date. Am I expected to wait around? He also says it’s coming out early 2019. It is now Fall 2019. Why is it taking so long? Already, he doesn’t sound reliable, so why should I be? I’m sure I’ll forget about this by the time I get the book. I wish I was doing a video of this so I could post my line by line responses, but in a nutshell: This is all wrong. For starters, you lost me at the length of the email. Don’t waste my time.

Points you need to get across:

1. What book? Remind me with a brief synopsis.

2. When it’s coming

3. What I’m getting in return for my hard work

4. How much you appreciate me working to sell your book for you.

That’s all. I don’t think you have to gush, but a little ass kissing might be nice. Assume your readers aren’t idiots and don’t act like you’re doing ME a favor. Even if you are J.K. Rowling. I’m essentially working for free because I’m a nice person and I like you. If you feel you must explain how ebooks work, do it at the END of the email in a separate section and don’t waste the time of seasoned readers like myself. If I’m going to SPAM my network for you, you should be grateful as hell. No really. This might sound greedy, and I’m not asking for a free car, but a little gratitude goes a long way. Just saying “thanks” isn’t enough. Obviously, I’m doing you a favor and the free book is a given. You have to give me the book if you want me to review it.

Think of it like a band passing out demos to radio stations. The stations that will play (or listen) to your demo are doing YOU a favor. Act like it. Assume your launch team is made of fine silk and treat it as such. Assume they read the sign up page and don’t repeat yourself too much. You don’t necessarily have to bribe them.

Here’s the thing, I went searching for launch teams, actively posted on social media that I wanted to join and got no responses. I even posted on Reddit asking if anyone actually had a launch team. No response. Don’t y’all need help? Anyone? Or maybe it’s just people don’t trust some rando on Twitter raising their hand and offering to help because humans don’t trust each other. We have lots of reasons not to. No one knows I really want to help, that I’m a decent person. OK, I believe I’m a decent person and I really try. No one knows me. Makes sense. I wouldn’t just contact some dork on Twitter who posted, “Hey! Let me help sell your book for free!“ Does genuine help sound scammy? It must. I did join a few groups on Facebook so we’ll see where it goes. If this goes any further, I’ll post an update, but it feels like a lost cause. I’m a little baffled that it’s this hard to join a launch team. I feel like I’m begging.

If I’m missing the point? Email me and let me know. Got tips? Share ‘em.

Day 9 - A (Sort of) Day Off

School was cancelled today which meant I had the first free day I’ve had in a weeks. Maybe more than that. I actually can’t recall when the last day was I had a WHOLE day to myself. Sadly, I wasn’t feeling too great, but I rested, watched Christian Mingle (it’s not as bad as you’d think), and worked on hammering out some issues with the novella. I re-read, edited some, added a bit, and re-wrote some scenes. It’s really coming together nicely. The more I work on it, the more I love it. I’ll be honest, when I first started this journey, I felt the story wasn’t my best work - but it’s really come together. I’m super proud of it. 

I’ve crossed over a hundred followers on Twitter - which is amazing. I almost can’t believe it. Thank you to everyone that’s followed me. You’re the coolest! That’s the good news. I’ve had almost no traction on my second giveaway. It’s been up for over 24 hours and I only have one entry. The first giveaway was online for three days and got thirty-three entries. What’s the deal with this one? Started on a Sunday? Everyone hates Mondays? It ends on Sunday the 29th, so you’ve got plenty of time if you’d like to win a $10 Starbucks card. Why not. It’s free to enter. 

I’ll be going out of town this week so I won’t be able to do much of anything while I’m on the road. I will keep up with social media and I might be able to work on the story editing, but otherwise this is a lost week for the book biz. It’ll be interesting to see how much I get done, but I don’t expect much. This is basically a mini-vacation - I haven’t had a vacation in three years. But, I’m still on a deadline. 

As for Christian Mingle, let me preface by saying I’m not Christian. I was raised a Catholic, but I don’t practice. I believe in being a good person and doing the right thing. I do like Lacey Chabert. She’s grown on me. I didn’t used to like her. The movie is basically one long ad for the Christian dating site, but it’s was actually cuter than I expected it to be. It’s got some funny moments and Lacey really puts on her big girl acting pants. I was surprised, to say the least. It’s no secret, I love The Hallmark Channel. I love sweet romances and when you read Lessons in Love, you’ll see that. I think I’ve always loved romance. When I was a little girl, I used to play Barbies and the story lines were always about love and relationships. My Barbies had story lines. I would play for hours and then pick up where I Ieft-off the next day. Long arcs too. Marriage, death, drama. 

Almost every story I write has some element of romance - even the apocalyptic ones. I just love love. I also love a good cheesy chick flick. If you like Hallmark movies and can handle the two-hour advertisement for Christian Mingle, it’s a cute movie. The message about finding Jesus is obviously heavy handed, but in the end, I felt it was mostly tolerant. At least, the overall message was about being true to yourself - which I liked. It’s on Netflix if you have nothing better to watch. Did you see Dark Crystal yet? 

 What I did today: 

• Installed a countdown timer (elfapps) to Books page

• Edited and rewrote several scenes in Lessons in Love

Day 8 - Building an Audience (The Numbers)

My second week is underway. You know how in old movies, doctors have a nurse to wipe the sweat away? I need one of those. Any takers? It’s not paid, but you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’re saving lives. 

Don’t let anyone tell you building an audience is easy. There are no tens steps, no shortcuts, and no magic wands.

OK, there are ten steps: 

1. Set up your accounts

2. Find a cool pic that represents who you are as a person - your soul in photographic form

3. Post like crazy - just kidding. No more than 3x per day

4. Provide interesting content - WTH does that mean? 

5. Connect with your audience. Talk. Be a real person. 

6. Watch your follow count like an obsessed ex-girlfriend who was dumped on her birthday

7. Participate in follow threads

8. Use gifs to express your inner most thoughts

9. Wait

10. Make sure you tell everyone (just kidding) you reached 1000 followers like it’s the greatest accomplishment in the world. 

 And there are shortcuts: 

1. Buy followers on Fiverr, eBay, Craigslist, or other unscrupulous sites…you faker.

Just so you know, about a year ago, I purchased a hundred Twitter followers (for another account) for $3.00 on eBay - just to see what would happen. Within minutes, I had a hundred followers. By the next day, they were all gone. Worst $3.00 I ever spent. It’s also frowned upon by Twitter and can get you banned. 

There are magic wands. They sell them at Harry Potter Land at Universal Studios - but they don’t work. At least, not for me. Still working on my spellcasting. When I figure it out, I’ll let you know. 

 I’ve been hustling all week to get new (organic) followers and likes and here are my results: 

• Twitter: 75

• Facebook: 1

• Instagram: 84

• Readers Collective: 33

Twitter is a bit easier to gain followers, if you know how. A little trick I discovered is getting involved with people who do Follow Fridays and follow threads. Or start your own. This might be why you see some authors with thousands of followers - even though they haven’t released anything yet. We all know having followers makes us look popular, even if we really aren’t. There are lots of amazingly helpful Tweeters who do follow threads, so get involved. This is a give and take situation. If you want followers, you have to follow back. Be kind, reciprocate. The Twitter writer community is filled with wonderfully supportive people. To all the kind and lovely people who followed me this week, I know this is sudden...but will you marry me?

Facebook is a tough nut to crack. Last week I boosted a post about my first giveaway. I spent $10. While I got over forty likes on the post itself, I only managed to grab one new follower. To that one follower…I know this is sudden…but will you marry me? 

Let’s see how I do this week. I don’t just want empty followers. I want people who really like my work. Of course, they have no idea what my writing is like yet. If you’re in the Readers Collective, you’ll be getting the first chapter soon. 

On Instagram, I’d already built a small following with a book selling business I had. Many haven’t bothered to unfollow now that the content has changed. When I post, I get a few likes, but it’s not overwhelming. It’s harder to post on Instagram. I’m not exactly sure about what content (exactly) I should be posting. Many pictures of my laptop? It’s where I live right now. My cat? She’s pretty cute. 

In the Readers Collective are the thirty-three entrants to my first giveaway. None organic. Over time, I expect the numbers to fluctuate. Thirty-three isn’t how many people are reading or getting excited about my project. It’s people who are there for now. I sent out my first email this morning and have one unsubscribe, zero link clicks, and a 21% open rate - that means only 21% of the thirty-three actually opened the email. Seven people, for those of you keeping score. I’ll be interested to see what the open rate is at the end of the week. 21% isn’t bad. That’s almost 1/4 of the people. Math!

Am I discouraged by these numbers? Not really. The fact that I have any followers after one week is amazing. In fact, I’m wowed anyone is sticking around at all. If I sell one book, you know what that means? It means someone I didn’t pay (who paid me) is reading my work. I know I’ve written a cute story. If people like it, I’m thrilled. I’ve said this many times before: I’m not here for the money. Writing is my passion and I want to share my stories with others. 

What now? Just keep swimming. I’m curious to see how long it actually takes to get a decent, participatory audience. Many of the day to day functions of my website and social media are now set up and ready to go. I often schedule posts ahead of time and let it ride. The blog is the only thing that isn’t pre-scheduled. I write the blog post, do a quick edit, and try to have it up the same night. Most days I’m finishing it up before school at 6am. Right now, I’m doing a daily blog - how my day went - for the first thirty days. Once I release the book, I’ll probably set up some automated posts, once a week or something. I know…it sounds robotic. But it’s not. It’s how it works and it’s what everyone does. You have to. You want to get your business to a place where it’s basically running itself so you can concentrate on what really matters: WRITING.

 GIVEAWAY #2 IS NOW UNDERWAY: Enter here. 

 What I did today: 

•  Wrote and scheduled social media posts about Day 7 blog post and the start and 2nd giveaway

• Decided to write all my blog posts in Word first and then copy/paste into Squarespace

• Spent the day with my family. Bit of a day off. 

• Wrote this blog post

• Emailed my copy editing teacher asking about editors. If you can recommend anyone good, let me know. Looking for a medium edit for 15k words. Would appreciate someone who can comment on the story itself. Thanks!

• I’m looking to join a launch team. Do you (or someone you know) need help? Email me. I’d love to help out. 

Day 7 - End of the First Giveaway

Congratulations Cyndi Butler for winning a $10 Starbucks gift card. You rule!

My first giveaway ended today and although it wasn’t the massive influx in potentials I’d hoped (dreamed about), I’d call it a success. It ran for three days and I picked up 33 new future fans for the Readers Collective, learned how to run a contest and boost a post on Facebook. I don’t know what percentage of people will STAY ON or READ the mailing list, but I’ve scheduled my first email to go out on Sunday. 

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not in this for the money. If I make a couple of bucks or break even, I’m happy. As of today, I’ve spent about $50 total for this experiment. 

The weekends are proving to be difficult to get much done. I have LESS time to work on this than during the week. With my husband being home and our families wanting to go out, I’m having to squeeze in a little time here and a little time there. Still, I managed to get a lot done today. 

• Played around on Twitter, met some cool people. I’m falling in love with the writing community there. 

• Purchased an adorable gift for the mega big giveaway that will coincide with the launch day. It’s a surprise. Stay tuned. 

• Ended first giveaway - temporarily disabled website pages that refer to it

• Chose and contacted winner

• Heard back from winner with their address and permission to use their name on this site. See Winner’s Circle on the Giveaways page. 

• Unpinned all the pinned giveaway posts on social media

• Wrote and tested first email to Readers Collective. Time: About an hour

• Wrote and scheduled 2nd giveaway to start Sunday

• Updated giveaways page and links

• Wrote and schedule Facebook post about 2nd giveaway

• And then it was bedtime for all hardworking babies. 

 I still need to do a final edit on Lessons in Love - I’m hoping to outsource this. I also need to design the cover and format the book pages. I imagine these will all take time. I’m fairly skilled at Photoshop and Word, so I don’t expect too much trouble here. We’ll see. All in all, this experiment is going well and I’m feeling extremely positive about it. 

 My second giveaway should be running now, so go enter! It’s fun and if you really hate being on the mailing list (which I hope you won’t) you can unsubscribe very easily. My hope is to cultivate a group of people who want to be on the list and I’ll do everything in my power not to annoy you. 

Day 6 - Digging into Kindle Direct Publishing, Formatting, and Templates

Another busy day. Got organized a bit and started delving into the dark pits of Kindle Publishing.

What I did today:

• Made a to-do list. Not at all exhaustive, but some important things to get finished. Or start

• Searched and found some romance novel podcasts - contacted for interviews. Fingers crossed

a) All the Kissing

b) Journeys of Romance

• Started working on a blog post for future publication. Jotted down some ideas.

• Created Melanie Brodie Facebook Page. Come say hello.

• Created FB post for current giveaway.

• Boosted post for $10 and one day. I’ll post “reach” when it finishes. Target: Females age 18-65+, United States, Romance novels fans (about 4 categories). Took about an hour for Facebook to approve my boost.

• Driving myself crazy watching the Facebook page for new likes. Focus, Melanie!

• Participated in #WritersLift on Twitter. Whoever started that is a genius. I’ve gained 40 new followers today. Thank you everyone! I hope you stick around for the fun.

• Learning about ISBNs. Read: ISBN for Self-Publishers: Answers to 20 of your Questions

• Here’s is Kindle Direct Publishing’s (KDP) page on ISBN. It looks like they provide one free of charge for both eBook and paperback. I don’t understand the benefit of buying your own, unless you plan to market your book with other booksellers. At the moment, I’ll only be using KDP for both print and eBook. I think.

• Looking up trim sizes for paperback books. Found Picking a Popular Trim Size for Your Book - It looks like I’ll be going with a 5.25x8 trim size.

• Read: Kindle Direct Publishing Paperback Cover Templates - as I will be designing my own cover.

• I want to do it all, so I’ll be formatting the manuscript myself. I feel very comfortable using Word. I don’t expect any issues. Here are Kindle’s eBook Manuscript Formatting Guide.

• As for PAPERBACK, I read through the instructions for self-formatting and thought: Someone has to have a template online somewhere. Yes, Kindle does. Totally cool. You get a zip file filled with ALL the manusript sizes. Pick the one you want to use and it’s all ready to go. At this point, I can change the fonts and elements myself. Easy.

Day 5 - The First 24 Hours of my Giveaway

Using King Sumo, at the recommendation of a pre-recorded webinar by Nick Stephanson, I started my first giveaway. Twenty-four hours later, I have eight contestants. I posted notices on Reddit, various giveaway groups on Facebook, I got my husband and sister to share it, and I’ve mentioned it on Twitter twice now. Eight. Not to sound like an ingrate, but I kind of expected hundreds. I mean, come on. It’s a free Starbucks card!

So why don’t people enter free giveaways from a writer they’ve never heard of and have never seen a writing sample from? Good question and the answer is self explanatory. I know from my experience; I join as little as possible. I know that once they’ve got my email, they’ll sell it to the highest bidder and they’ll re-sell it again. I’m not selling emails (ever), but random people who find my contest don’t know I’m honest. In fact, using a giveaway to get people onto my mailing list feels shady. Is it? Or is that how it works and everyone understands that? To do this, must you turn a blind eye to the blatant and unrepentant sales techniques? One of Nick Stephanson’s selling tips is “don’t be sleazy” - yet, to get people on his list, he started out by giving away a Kindle loaded with his books.  I mean, come on. This is bribery, right? Or am I being too much of a Pollyanna? 

Saying, “Come on. Everyone knows when they enter a contest, they’re getting added to the mailing list” doesn’t seem to make me feel better. Yet, in order to sell my novella (or even give it away) I need people to find it. It’s not practical to SPAM every message board or post a hundred and fifty times on every social media platform every day. The quickest method to get the word out is a mailing list. How you get people on your mailing list is by offering something of value. The idea here is sort of a “gift with purchase” concept. You give me your email address, I give you free things (chapters, e-books, goodies). Is Yves Saint Laurent bribing me when I buy a perfume and they give me a pretty make-up bag along with it? Yeah. Technically. 

Let’s look at the definition of a bribe: 

Persuade (someone) to act in one's favor, typically illegally or dishonestly, by a gift of money or other inducement.

OK, so I’m not doing anything illegal here. Doing a contest and adding contestant emails to the list isn’t illegal, but it’s not charity work either. 

Someone help. 

As an unknown and only five days into this experiment, I have nine followers on Twitter. Thank you all. Honestly. I mean it. From a business standpoint, that’s not so good. From a “Yay nine people followed me!” standpoint. It’s pretty awesome. This means it will take longer than I thought. I really thought the contest would be a major success and the emails would start rolling in. There is no fast track to a following - unless you buy fake followers on eBay; which you can do, but that’s more unscrupulous than a gift with purchase. And there’s a marketing word for keeping those email address and turning them into fans: Conversion. Now, to convert my nine followers and eight contestants into fans. I’ll probably lose a bunch on the way. Not everyone is going to love a sweet romance about a small town school teacher. Hopefully, over time, I’ll find my niche. I know you’re out there and I believe in my work. Now to get the rest of the world to think so. 

Or…is a gift with purchase a thank you gift? Thank you for buying this perfume. Here’s a cute make-up bag as thanks for your patronage. If I look at it like that, I feel better. If I give my mailing list cool things they want, it’s a win/win. Right? So - how well does this work? I’m not J.K. Rowling. I’m Melanie Brodie and no one knows me. No one cares what I write, because no one’s seen my stuff. For all you know, Lessons in Love is a dud. My husband thinks it’s pretty cute, but you’ll tell me when it’s released. BY THE WAY, members of the Melanie Squad will get a free copy of the e-book in exchange for writing an honest review. Your idea of a good time? Send me your email address and I’ll add you to the exclusive list. 

I have not studied marketing, but I’ve read a few books and watched some videos on the subject. I’m not an expert, but I do know that marketing can look altruistic even when it isn’t. Like when a company donates portions of a sale to a charitable cause. It’s their niceness that attracts you. You’re happy to give your money to this company. This might fall under the category of the Dale Carnegie method: Give the customer what they want (a nice, charitable feeling, a product they feel proud owning), and you get what you want (money, sales, good reputation). Think car commercials that sell adventure, sex, throbbing engines, freedom. Or beer commercials that show cool looking people hanging out on the beach. I want friends, I should buy that beer. 

Emotionally, it’s complicated. I believe in honesty, but honesty doesn’t sell very much. So what then? Hope my content is so amazing, hordes of fans will accidentally find me, love my work, and buy everything I write? No. It doesn’t work that way. If J. K. Rowling hadn’t had a kick ass agent and marketing team, she’d be where I’m at right now. Unknown and pondering. She’s also extremely talented and persistent. Think about it - if you were alive when the first Harry Potter book came out - how many times did you hear the story about a single mother writing her story on a napkin? A lot, right? That’s marketing. It might be true, but it also makes a good sales pitch. A hardworking mother? Raise your hand if you’re a hardworking mother. Broke? Raise your hand if you’re broke. You get the picture. J.K. is just like you. She’s a normal mom who just happened to have a great idea and hit the lottery. Maybe you’ll be lucky too. It’s that “maybe I’ll be lucky too” mentality that keeps self-publishing thriving. 

Here’s the god’s honest truth about self publishing: If you want to quit your day job, you’re gonna have to be a shark. You’re gonna have to shelve some of your morals and sell like a mo-fo. Some people, like Nick Stephanson, are really good at it. Others like me (and probably you) range from so-so to terrible. We’re not sales people. We’re writers! We actually like sitting in a dark room falling in love with our characters. Talk to people? OK, if I have to. Sales is not necessarily a skill you learn or a set of ten steps. It’s a mentality. It’s a way of thinking. Can I think like a shark? I’m going to try.

What I did today:

• Rough day at school. I cleaned my house and organized my furniture.

• Wrote this blog post

Day 4 - Fear, Failure, and How to Build Your Audience

If you see the links below under “what I did today,” you’ll see that I watch a lot of videos. I don’t want you thinking I sit on my butt all day watching YouTube. I have a rather long train commute to and from school. Watching videos passes the time. 

Today was a big day. It didn’t start out that way. In fact, this morning I was feeling frustrated and ready to take a permanent break. Is it all that bad? No. There’s just a lot going on in my personal and family life. Between school and real life, it’s getting hairy out there. I’m learning to do for me. See, I have spent most of my life doing things for everyone else. Helping my friends and families, being available, and not following my dreams. It’s taken me a long time to realize I was just scared. Scared of what? I have no idea. Failure is (actually) no big deal. My whole life, I’ve been terrified of failing and come to find out, it’s nothing. Everyone tells you that failure is part of the deal. It’s what they told me when I was a kid. I’m now trying to think why I was so afraid of failure. I guess I didn’t want to look ignorant. I was poor growing up. I didn’t want to be stupid AND poor. I also wasn’t the hot chick. I didn’t want to be mediocre. Who does? Fear is a powerful decelerator. It keeps us stagnant. Keeps us from growing. I made myself the family kick-stand because I feared failing. I can waste time blaming myself or get on with things. 

Now as an adult, I realize failure IS part of the deal, but here’s what that means: Think of it like a video game. Every time your avatar dies in the game, that’s failure. What do you do? You re-start. You keep going. I don’t know how many times I’ve played the same level of Left 4 Dead, died a million times, and kept playing for hours. Eventually, I beat the game. Yep, that’s it. If you keep playing, you’ll beat the game. After a while, you learn there is always a zombie horde at the end of the park. Either a Tank or the Witch will spawn in the middle of the cornfield. You learn and you figure out the patterns. Once you get that down, you learn how to defeat the bosses. At the beginning of the level, I picked up a chainsaw because I knew I’d need it at the end. Simple huh? I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to figure this out. I try not to chastise myself, but it sucks. If I knew then what I know now - said every human being on earth. I’m teaching myself to accept the present for what it is. Life will continue to barge into my plans. I can’t let it. Not anymore. Even so, stress is real. It must be dealt with and life doesn’t stop because you want to write a book. 

As I said, today was a big day. I’ve been exploring Nick Stephanson’s Your First 10,000 Readers mostly out of curiosity. I heard him on a podcast yesterday and wanted to see what he’s all about. Nick has written six books, but it’s likely most of his money comes from selling a $600 course in e-book publishing on Amazon. I watched an hour long webinar (he provides for free). Here’s his plan in a nutshell: 

Get people on your mailing list. 

It’s the fundamental rule to ALL marketing. No matter what you’re selling, it’s a numbers game. If you have a hundred subscribers to your list, it’s just math that at least a few will buy your product. Turn that hundred into a thousand, your sales go up. One thousand into ten thousand. You get the picture. You’re not playing to the whole mailing list. You’re playing to a few willing buyers. And there will always be a few willing buyers if your product is good and you’re not acting like a used car salesman.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, you must have something to offer your subscribers. There are only so many behind-the-scenes emails you can send. I know some authors who email pics of their cats to their mailing list. That’s just fun. You must offer your readers something in exchange for their personal and private email addresses. What, exactly? That’s where it gets tricky - which is why some authors go into teaching. Others give away free books, chapters, and scenes. But it’s not just good content. At its most rudimentary level, it’s bribery. Hence, giveaways. Giveaways bring in the people, some of them will stay, some of those will buy your books. Math!

Tonight I’ve started my fist giveaway. I was cleaning the house and found a grip of $10 and $20 Starbucks cards. Why not try those? Here’s the plan as I understand it: 

• Bribe readers with free goodies and get those email addresses

• The readers you keep are your future customers. Be nice to them. 

• Market to your new fan base with cool content your readers will love

• Collect riches like Scrooge McDuck

Nick has lots of other complicated tips to keep, entertain, and retain your mailing list subscribers. His method is by selling courses. He’s no longer a fiction writer. He’s an educator. There are obviously more steps in between the “market to your new fan base” and “collect riches” parts. I don’t know those yet. We’ll see how this giveaway pans out. I’ll be running more all month long so I suggest you enter. Why not? I figure, readers love their coffee. I love coffee. Let’s do coffee! I can promise you this: If you trust me with your email address, I will do my very best to make it worth your while. How do you feel about cat pics?

I’m also in the process of putting together the Melanie Squad - a private group for fans who want to help spread the gospel of Melanie - and write reviews - but will also get a free copy of the e-book. Want in? Send me your email and I’ll add you to the list. Remember, this is a transaction. That’s how this all works. Get it? I give you something for free, you give me something for free. And that’s Marketing 101. Remember economics class? This is trade and every online entrepreneur guru will emphasize mailing lists. Nick Stephanson puts it in a nicer way, but I’m laying it down for you true and trying not to waste your time. Math! You really can’t get something for nothing. I give away a Starbucks card, I get people on my list. Simple trade. You have to come up with your own giveaways, but I hope this has made it simple to understand. Get people on your mailing list. Keep providing good content and freebies. Keep them on your list by being awesome. Sell books. The key here is having good books to sell. If you’re just writing knock offs, forget what you just read. Now, let’s see if it works.

Here’s what I did today:

• WENT to Starbucks to determine the value of some Starbucks cards for an upcoming promotion. I have a grip of cards. Stay tuned. Soon as I figure out how to use Sumo King (giveaway app site), I’ll get it online.

• WATCHED: Pre-recorded webinar from Nick Stephanson. Some OK information in there. Nick does provide some good info, but he’s also selling a $600 course. You’ll get some decent resources if you can handle the hard sell.

• WATCHED: What Does It Really Mean to be A Best Selling Author. VERY informative. If you read yesterday’s blog post about wannabe teachers, this is good to know. It doesn’t take much to be a bestselling aurhor and many authors use the term deceptively. Although technically true, it’s like if you give your mom a “World’s Greatest Mom“ mug, it doesn’t actually means she’s the greatest mom in the world…just you think so.

• WATCHED: How to Publish a Book on Kindle Direct Publishing 2019 - Amazon - Full Tutorial Chad Tennant has a voice that might lull you to sleep, but there this is important information. ⭐️ MUST WATCH.

• WATCHED: Three different videos from Self Publishing School. It’s OK. Chad Tennant is better. See link above.

• SET UP my first giveaway - $10 Starbucks card. It’s running now. Go enter!

• Posted about the giveaway on Twitter and a few giveaway groups on Facebook.

• DISCOVERED Calibre. Still trying to figure out what it’s for. It looks like you can store and edit books with it. This was one of the apps Nick Stephanson recommended and there are a few tutorials online. Needs more research.