Con Preparation

After the release of Agents, Adepts, & Apprentices in time for FenCon and Archon the following weekend, I finally had time enough to get organized on the other things I feel I need for conventions: promotion material!

It feels odd to have to mention this, but often it isn't enough to have a book physically available at a convention. Yes, having a cupcake launch party will create interest (and some people did stop down to the Zumaya Publications table in the dealers room afterwards), but often you need to have some means of generating awareness. Just having signs posted around the convention (with pictures of the beautiful cover) before the party had people coming up to me later during the con saying things like "Oh, you're the cupcake lady! Is that the book?" "Sorry I missed the party, where can I check out the book?"

Fortunately, I had already prepared enough ahead of both conventions to have promo pens I could hand out for those times I wasn't at the table. Because I'm still a newbie with my smartphone and get easily frustrated with my fingers not hitting the right keys on the screen (how can people type so quickly on those things?), I decided to have stylus pens, which seemed to be popular. They've got my book title, my name and website on them just in case people decide to check out the book (and if people don't want to, they still have a good black ink pen with a useful stylus).

Unfortunately, I forgot to update my business cards with the new book title. And I didn't have time after approving the book cover to design and order cards for the new release. But I had time enough after Archon to fix that, and my new promo supplies have arrived. I'm trying VistaPrint this time for my paper promos, rather than the company I used in my previous blog post about promotion material. For some reason this year VistaPrint had a better selection of business card designs and an easier setup method for double-sided postcards. The stylus pens are from National Pen, which I've had good luck with over the years.

So now I'm all set for the next month's worth of conventions, library workshops and bookstore events. At some point I should probably add a banner, as a number of my other author friends have done, but that should wait until I see the new covers for the upcoming re-releases from Zumaya Publications. A banner would work for those conventions I drive to, but when I'm flying to a convention the weight limit for suitcases means I'd rather bring books than a banner. Maybe a custom designed tablecloth? Vistaprint immediately showed me what my postcard design would look like on a banner, a tablecloth, and a few other items. They all looked lovely and it was very tempting, but I don't know.

What are your go-to items for promotion? What attracts your attention?

Promotion items

Swag, promo, giveaways, freebies - most authors have some items they give away in order to promote their books. Science fiction and fantasy conventions often have freebie tables provided for this purpose as well as promoting conventions. When I first started thinking about promo items I took a long look at what was on freebie tables - and what quickly vanished off them. From what I could see, standard swag items from science fiction and fantasy authors were usually bookmarks, postcards, pens and pencils. What I heard from some science fiction authors was that promo was a waste of time - that one should only concentrate on writing good books because that was what would sell your books. Meanwhile I looked at the freebie tables and noticed what grabbed my attention, and what items made me follow up to look up a book. One thing I knew from my own experience was that promo items can remind you days later (when you're away from the convention and the dealers room) of a particular author or book that you wanted to track down.

Promo items differ from genre to genre. I heard a lot of suggestions from the romance authors at my publisher of promo items I never saw at a science fiction convention. When I started attending EPICon, which was a convention run by EPIC, an organization of electronically published authors of all genres, I saw a demonstration of what other genre considered great promo. Emery boards, balloons, fans, bags of candy, flashlights, rubber ducks, ribbons for convention badges, book cover buttons, notepads, stress balls and many more. Since these were advertising ebooks, there were also CDs and mini-cds with sample chapters and, in later years, free flashdrives in a variety of shapes. As an example of what is popular recently among romance authors, my friend J. Kathleen Cheney wrote a swag summary of her experience at Romantic Times in Dallas.

I've tried various items, but the ones I've stuck with over the years have been pens, bookmarks and postcards.

Not only do those work for freebie tables, but they also help fill up the space when I have an author table and they help draw people to the table. There seems to be something about free pens.

The pens are also useful when I'm not at a convention. My local bookstore isn't interested in bookmarks, but will take and give away my pens. My local post office is also happy to get pens. Black ink pens were the ones they preferred so that is what they all are.

Although pens themselves aren't something featured in my books (as a flashlight was when I tried using that as promo), I do try to have the colors reflect something in my books. The Crystal Throne pens are the colors of magic in that universe, while the silver pen for Agents and Adepts reflects a magic wand in one story. The stripes on the Michael and the Elf pen is similar to the stripes in the elf's cap on the cover of the book and the colors on the Talking to Trees pen call to mind those of a fall forest (well, they do to me).

Where does an author find promo material? You can often make and print out your own bookmarks, but after a while you'll start to want more professional looking material. There are several companies - all with varying price ranges and quality. Once you get on one company's mailing list, you'll start getting catalogs and samples from many more. I use Overnight Prints for my bookmarks and postcards and National Pen for my pens. I also have labels (book title and URL) that I get from Colorful Images that I put on the back of all my paper correspondence (especially my bills). Ask any group of authors and you'll get several more recommendations (feel free to add in the comments).

There is as well the more expensive form of promo. Tee shirts, mugs, messenger bags, baseball caps, etc. A few years ago, these were often freebie items. More often now these are considered a reward for your fans or patrons.

What type of promo do you give away? What types of swag do you pick up at conventions?

New Experience - Vlogging!

As authors, it's part of our job to keep up with the latest and greatest new ways to do promotion and connect with readers. The time of the publishers doing that for us is long gone. But that's okay. I may not be the biggest extrovert out there, but I do love to play with gadgets and software.

The latest trend I've decided to dip my toes into is video blogs or vlogs for short.

I've owned a webcam for a while and it was just sitting there collecting dust, so I decided it was time to use it! Version 1 was done with the webcam and Microsoft's Movie Maker. It's pretty laughable, but I was experimenting. Realized after the fact that Movie Maker can't handle editing video, so that was a major fail. But what little I could do yielded the following:

As you can see, focusing your attention on the webcam and talking to the audience and putting stuff up takes a lot of coordination! Something I am sorely lacking in. lol.

So, dissatisfied with my first run, I went out in search of better editing software and ran across TrakAx. (This software is especially good for music peeps! And it was cheap!) Hours of tutorials later and I mutated my original offering.

I did run into trouble as one of my two original webcam files was messed up, so I ended up having to use vlog 1 instead and I mutated it. Biggest hassle was getting the final cover and final piece of the video to play nice. Had to use a slow fade to make them behave, but it wasn't as good as if they'd done it! Bad, bad segment - for shame. You'll note the issue at the end. Never did figure out why it was mean to me. But improvement is improvement. So here's version 1.1.

I even now have an idea for vlog #2. I've also chosen the novel I'll try to do short segments with. It also occurred to me that my camera and my phone will both do video. Think of the possibilities! No one will be safe!

Now I truly need a clone. :P

2012 Writing and Marketing eBook Extravaganza

2012 Writing and Marketing eBook Extravaganza

To start the New Year with a BANG, from January 1^st through February 28, 2012, Karen Cioffi is offering all her writing and marketing e-books (purchased directly from her site/s using the Paypal SHOPPING CART) for a $1.19 each. And, this will include new titles added within that time period.

Yep, that’s right, only $1.19 for each of these titles:

How to Write Books for Children: Writing, Publishing, and Marketing Children’s Books (nominated in the 2011 Global eBooks Awards – over 100 pages)

http://www.karencioffi.com/how-to-write-books-for-children/

Editing Books Like a Pro: Self-Editing for Books and Articles

http://www.karencioffi.com/editing-books-like-a-pro/

How to Create an eBook and Its Many Uses

http://www.karencioffi.com/create-and-sell-your-own-ebooks/

Writing, Publishing, and Marketing – You Can Do It!

http://www.karencioffi.com/writing-publishing-and-marketing/

How to Start a Freelance Writing Business

http://www.karencioffi.com/how-to-start-a-freelance-writing-business/

How to Attract Customers With Informational Marketing

http://www.karencioffi.com/how-to-attract-customers-with-informational-marketing/

Learn How to Create and Sell Information Products From Your Own Site

http://www.karencioffi.com/create-and-sell-information-products-from-your-own-site/

New titles to be coming some time in 2012 include:

Webinar Marketing: Create and Present Your Own Webinars

Book Marketing: DIY Virtual Book Tours From Start to Finish

Book Marketing: Soup to Nuts

Marketing Information Products

If you’re reading this you’re probably an author or writer, and it’s no doubt you how important it is to stay on top of your writing and marketing game, the above e-books will help you do just that.

For only a $1.19 each, get all seven titles for under $10.

Click on the links above to review what each book has to offer – each landing page will have a shopping cart on January 1^st, for your convenience. Be sure to use the Shopping Cart Paypal Buy Button, otherwise you’ll pay full price.

For a complete list (with brief descriptions of each ebook) go to:

http://www.karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com/p/karens-books.html

AND

Want to create your own press releases? Join us for a Free webinar Jan18

http://tinyurl.com/79nh7qv

TV Tie-ins

How does a book get noticed? I am up to my eyeballs generating word-of-mouse as I promote my new middle grade novel, Letters to Juniper.

Natalie Collins and I often discuss marketing techniques and run promotion ideas by each other. Book reviews. Interviews. Booksignings. School visits. Advertising. Blog tours. You name it. What works? What doesn’t work? Okay, some days we agonize over book promotion.

“If there was some magic bullet, we’d all be doing it,” I always tell her.

When it comes to Natalie Collins’ books there does seem to be a magic bullet that definitely has an impact on sales. Her books get noticed.

Ever since the reality show Sister Wives gained national attention, Natalie’s book Sister Wife has been selling remarkably well. It’s the most amazing thing. Sister Wife is a great story, solidly written by the master of behind-the-Mormon-veil mysteries. But the book has been around a few years.

We had seen this life-imitates-art thing with her book Wives and Sisters. Natalie signed the contract with St. Martin’s after Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped. Wives & Sisters, which was penned long before the famous abduction in Utah, just so happens to be about the disappearance of a young Mormon girl after an encounter with a stranger [cue Twilight Zone theme].

So you see, it was no great leap to make the connection between Sister Wives and Sister Wife. Natalie and I agreed it’s definitely the popularity of the TV show that has captured readers’ interest in Sister Wife – the book.

So what does it mean?

It means I need a TV tie-in for Letters to Juniper. That’s what it means!

One day I pitched Natalie these reality show concepts to tie in with my book:

%*$@ My Fundamentalist Extremist Gun-Dealing Dad Says
I Don’t Know I’ve Got a Secret
My Crib is Surrounded by Big Brother

She ROTFLMAO’d back.

Alas, those reality shows – however clever – do not exist. So my next option is to tie Letters to Juniper to a show that’s already on TV. I decided to build on Natalie’s theme and started with the obvious:

Brothers & Sisters – A show about a dysfunctional family with a lot of dirty secrets. That explains the Smith family in Letters to Juniper all right. Except the kids in my book are a little young to be so cutthroat – and they don’t drink.

Sons of Anarchy – The title is perfect! A tight-knit gun-dealing clan with dark secrets. Now that describes the Smith family to a T. But this show is about a biker club. No motorcycles in my book.

No Ordinary Family – Again, the title says it all. The Smith family is anything but ordinary. However this is a show about a family with super powers. No super powers in my book either.

Fringe – This is my favorite show! FBI agents investigate unexplainable phenomena and an alternate universe. Alas, as much as I’d like to tie in my book with this awesome show, it’s too much of a stretch. The closest I can come is the Smith family as a target of a Fringe Division investigation.

Gossip Girl – Another apt title. Gossip plays a big role in Sarah’s story. Problem is, she’s not a rich Manhattan teen.

The Secret Life of an American Teenager – Even though Sarah’s not quite a teen yet, she is definitely living a secret life. Same glitch as the above though, Sarah’s not a teen living life in the fast lane. She’s a tween living life in the slow lane.

Lie to Me – Adventures of Dr. Lie Detector? Don’t think so.

Smallville – Clark Kent’s boyhood? No way.

Justified – A western? Nope.

Fear not. There are dozens – maybe even hundreds – more TV shows. Like Dog the Bounty Hunter. What a great title – that has absolutely nothing to do with my book. But it’s okay. I am undaunted in my search. I know the secret. The magic bullet. I’ll stumble onto it eventually …

Peggy Tibbetts

Letters to Juniper now available at Amazon.

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