It's a publishing jungle out there!!! The Wa(rn)ing Writer!!

And by the title you have already figured out the topic of this weekly post.
If you are a first-time self-published author, and you know nothing about marketing strategies, you might find yourself struggling with the usual question.
Ok, I have published my book, how to make people buy it?
And that is a very important question, so the best thing that I can suggest is make an extensive search on the internet, about:

💥 Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ groups, where experienced indie authors are ready to share their tips and advice.
💥Blogs of indie authors who give hints about how to market your book.
💥Companies which offer free of charge or paid marketing/promotional services
💥Arrange giveaways of your book in exchange for an honest review.
💥Create a blog about your writings or about what inspires you to write
💥Organise book signing events
💥BE CREATIVE!

Social media groups for authors:

This is a very valuable source for any sort of advice, from how to market your book, to how to choose the right book cover and where to find cover artists, where to find a proofreader and many other forms of support.
Of course, be sure you open an author Facebook account, a Twitter account together with LinkedIn, Instagram and Google+ where to grow your audience and professional connections.

BLOGS:

There are many authors who constantly write in their blogs some important piece of advice on how to bring your book in front of the public. Many of them will share their experience, good and bad, to make sure that whoever reads will never find him/herself to the same problems, or will have the same success faster.

You might wonder why an author would give away his/her secret of success? Because we are not in competition, there are readers for everyone, and there is no reason to be mean to each other. Moreover, with your blog you can reach many other potential readers and fans, they might not be the ones who will buy your books, but you will increase your visibility, and after all, it is all fun, which is the best part of it!

Paid/free marketing services:

This one requires you a very careful look before you send money to whoever. There are many kinds of services, and as much as many offer a good service for a reasonable price (ranging monthly from 8-15$ to a yearly fee between 49-200$).
Most of them give exactly the same service, but they target different audiences, adding one or few extras. Therefore, you might easily believe that having two or three different subscriptions to those services can give you extra visibility without going bankrupt. Moreover, if you put into practice the advice you get from other authors you might easily have already a great starter package that takes you and your book out of the anonymity.
Then, of course, there are the free services, and those are totally risk free, as the biggest risk is that they won't much help, but on the other hand, you haven't invested anything right?

Reviews:

Those are crucial, because they give a reason to the buyer to stop and look at your book. It gives the message to other readers that someone bought that book, someone liked it and someone else didn't, The more the reviews, the more your book become interesting and visible. Be sure that the first action you take in your marketing strategy is getting those reviews. Ten is the minimum target you should aim at.

Organise book signing events:

You can ask one local independent bookstore, or library whether they could host your event. Generally they won't refuse, because you will attract potential buyers, not just for your books, but also for the books they are selling.

BE CREATIVE:

This means, of course, that you have the right to use your imagination to attract people to take a look at your book, to entice them with your writing skills, and ability to create original plots because nobody knows whether you will be their next super favourite author!!

One thing I warn you about:

BEWARE THE SHARKS!!!

Those are the people who ask for insane prices and offer nothing but fried air. How to recognise a shark from an honest service provider?

Generally, those are authors who found a miracle formula to attract readers and sell millions of copies of their book, they are going to promise you skyrocketing sales in just a few weeks or months. They show you how many millions of copies of their books they have been selling and since they are so kind, they are going to offer you the same success for crazy prices (600 to over 1000$ 💀💀💀).

The best thing is that they do not say "we are going to bring your book in front of 500K readers distributed into four different social media groups," they are just selling you an advice without even bothering to promote your book.

At that point my question is, if you made millions with your books, why would you need my money for a piece of advice? 

There are thousand of authors who give advices for free!!

Now being sure that what works for one book, not necessarily works for other books, and that nobody can promise you millions in sales, you can be sure that this person didn't sell much anything and all of his/her income comes from this kind of service he/she sells for a high price.

Many authors wrote already about this big threat at the expenses of inexperienced indie authors, but one more post (this one) is not going to harm, and perhaps will save the bank account of other indie authors, who feel depressed about the low sales of their books.

One thing always to remember is that success is not something that happen suddenly, besides some rare cases. With zillions of books in the market, the question is who is able to stubbornly continue something that resembles more a marathon? Remember that success might or might not come, it might come soon or it might take the publishing of other seven books, nobody has the answer.

The best advice I can give you is to never lose your hopes. If writing is your passion, treat it this way, and never give up. Always keep your passions alive, after all, Rome wasn't built in one day.

I am not a super bestselling author, but I would like every indie author to feel relaxed about their sales, and not to stress too much, we all want to succeed, but only time will teach us the best way to do it, which will be different for each of us. 

The night of the zombie book cover - The W(o)ndering Writer

"It was a calm evening; the sun was setting and she was working in her room.
A brief glance at the clock and she sighed, knowing that, for that day, her job could be considered over. She needed some rest for a whole day work in front of her computer.
She was a writer and her first novel, regardless was a good material and gather good reviews, didn't seem to attract the deserved, or hoped attention.
She switched on the lights and suddenly, from the living room, a strange noise attracted her attention. Her husband was supposed to return in about one hour, so it couldn't be him.
Her mind raced with the possibilities and without moving a single muscle, she remained listening if the noise repeated itself.
Again, that same noise, like someone or something was trying to open the door, or perhaps someone was searching for something on the shelves.
Her heart started to beat faster, yet she repeated to herself that it couldn't have been a thief, and perhaps the noise came from outside.
Trying to be very silent, and going against the voice that screamed inside herself, begging to go and hide somewhere, calling for help, she climbed down the stairs, stretching to have a better view.
The living room was in the semi darkness, but she could see the silhouette of something or someone near the bookshelf.
With trembling legs and shaking hands, she switched on the light as her heart pounded in her chest and the most horrifying creature turned itself looking straight in her eyes...
"AAAHHH" she screamed as she finally realised the horrifying truth behind the poor sales of her novel... A zombie book cover!"

Indeed, a poorly designed book cover can put down the best novel in the world, and I suppose that every now and then, there is a self-published author, who, just like me didn't give the right importance to that detail.
We all know that, we all have been walking along the shelves of a bookshop, looking for the next book to read, discarding those books whose cover didn't attract us.
Yet, we made the same old mistake, choosing the book cover that really didn't sell.
The problem is that we are all so much in love with our new born novel that we are confident that people will go beyond the cover to discover the great adventure inside it.
However, whether this is true to some extent, and perhaps it works better on non-fiction books, for fiction the first thing that sells is the cover, second the blurb (this short description on the back of the book), and then the novel itself.

I have to admit it, the original book cover, was absolutely a disaster, but I have learnt from that, and much probably I am not too late to fix that mistake. Oh well, since it has been ignored, I think it won't make any difference, and much probably, that bad cover is already forgotten by potential buyers who passed by discarding it. After all, they discarded the cover art, not the novel itself. To do that they will need to read it.

I hope that by sharing my mistakes, people who are going to self-publish will find my advice helpful, (of course, ignore this if you have a contract with a good publishing house that will take care of everything on your behalf) and summarizing the necessary steps for a winning fiction book:

1. Write a great story, but this nobody can help because you, the writer, have already in your mind the greatest story ever, and you will know how to put your heart in the paper.

2. Read it through to check for spelling, time frames, consistencies, missing parts, and changes you would like to have.

3. At this stage, you can also ask someone of your friends to be your beta reader, and he/she will go through your story, and give you an honest review on what she liked or not, or where there is something unclear that made following the story difficult.

4. Hire a professional proofreader for the proofread-copy editing of the manuscript. This is a very important stage and you should never miss. The duty of this professional figure is to take your manuscript and make it shine.

5. Hire also a professional to write the blurb. That is a very important presentation card and should be done by a professional who knows how to make sure that the reader, will be intrigued enough to buy your book.

6. Hire a cover artist, This is an extremely important step, as a potential buyer will be first impressed by that cover, and it will mark the difference between turning the book to read the blurb, and eventually buy the book or walk away.

7. Choose a catchy title for your book, ask friends, Facebook groups, other professionals to help you choose the right one.

8. Last, but not least, don't forget that the sales start before publishing. Start your marketing campaign way before the release date. Create a buzz and offer a pre-release sale. This will help your novel to stand out before being released.

9. After the release, market your book as much as possible, and remember that in self-publishing, reaching the success is not a sprint, is a marathon, which lasts forever.

Anything to add? You will tell me your experiences and every comment is more than welcome.

Oh... Are you curious to have a preview of my new cover? Of course, here is it:

Better, isn't it?

The wandering writer, turns (for one day) into the marketing writer!

Changing my hat for one day, after which I will be back telling new traveling adventures to more or less exotic destinations.

It has been already three months since my first novel has been published. The public (people like you and me) found it quite interesting, and I have to admit it, it pleased me to see that my story wasn't enjoyed only by me as I was writing it, but also by people who had nothing to do with me.

You know, I do believe that every first-time author, particularly when we talk about self-publishing and indie, are taken by thousands of doubts.

"Should I publish it?"

"Is it good enough?"

"Will anyone read it?"

There isn't a clear answer to any of those questions because the world (Thank God) is made by people with different tastes, cultural backgrounds, and preferences.

There will be definitely people interested in what you write, the only shrewdness is to make sure that there aren't any sort of errors, particularly obvious grammar error.

Those can turn the best plot in the world into something unpleasant to read, and difficult to follow, and of course, it will turn down every potential reader/follower.

The third question is a great mystery, because if you don't have any experience in distribution and marketing, you might end up with making fatal mistakes, which will cost you dearly slowing down any chance of a result.

Surely there are thousands of websites, promising visibility and great marketing strategy, but who’s to trust? Orienting in this labyrinth can become difficult, stressing and frustrating, as in the meanwhile you try to figure out a way to market your book, building an audience, time is passing by, and nobody has yet even noticed that your book was there.

My personal experience is that spending money on marketing getting the help of a professional is an investment, rather than a waste of money. And for this reason, I have been investing some money also in that direction.

In that meanwhile, somebody started to read and buy my e-book, and with that, the first review started to come on Amazon (different marketplaces) and also in Goodreads. Of course, the road is still long from where I am now, the small, almost unknown author to the Author with an established audience.

 

So if you are wondering about what I do write, I tell you that my first published novel is a crime story. However, what makes it different from all the common crime/thriller, is the introspective journey each of the characters is going through during the entire story.

Each character has his/her own personality and nature which meets the ones of all the others in an engaging plot.

Ok, I know what you are thinking, “well, of course, you as the author, you won't say negative things.”

That is undoubtedly true, but going to see all the feedbacks I received, this is also the impression of general readers. Some of them gave me 5 stars, others 4 or 3 stars, but I really value their opinion, as it is a way to grow up and improve.

At the side of this post you are reading, there is a link to BookViral, there you can find a more detailed feedback about my novel, or going to Amazon.com, you can find what readers say about it. 

I do not exclude that even you, who are reading my blog at this moment, might find it a compelling read as much as I do not exclude that you might find it nothing special. Everything is possible, but I dare you to give it a try.

If you are looking for crime, thriller, introspection, complexity, heartbreaking moments and revenge; my novel, A Tale of a Rough Diamond, is what you might be looking for.

I would be pleased to have also your opinion.

Another issue that had been bothered me for a long time is also concerning the cover of my book. It is clear that a cover is the business card of a book, and an uninteresting cover can push away a potential reader. Although a cover does not necessarily speak for the book itself, rather for the cover artist who has designed it, I would like some opinion about it, and whether would be a good idea to change it.

As I am approaching to say goodbye, and the sun is setting, I greet you with a cozy, freezing view of Helsinki:

 

 

A new beginning

I have waited a bit before writing again, and that was for a good reason. Just yesterday I received my author copy of my novel.

I have to be honest, it made me a bit proud of myself, but what mostly thrilled me, was today a great feedback I received from one of my first readers. As a first time writer, I do not have an audience waiting for my next novel, so I have to build my reputation; well let me tell you something, it is not easy.

I knew someone bought one kindle copy of my novel, and I wasn’t really expecting anything positive. You know, it was like I didn't want to believe too much on my work, so that I wouldn't be too disappointed if someone found it "not good enough."

I kept telling myself that this is how it goes and that I should not get discouraged by the fact that my book is not selling immediately. I knew from the beginning that with so many great writers in the business, I was not going to have an easy start.

However, today my very first reader sent me an extremely flattering feedback.

Nothing compares to the feeling of hearing someone say “Bravo!” I think this is one of the most powerful words. It means that the story you were writing with your heart, was able to touch other people's hearts with the same intensity. I really hope that my book can entertain other people like it entertained this first one.

Getting published

I do believe that all the people who decided to publish something for the first time found themselves in the same situation.

I finished to write my novel, and I was happy about it, then when I decided to publish it I realized that since there were many companies and private professionals offering services like proofreading, copy-edit, manuscript critique and so on, I should as well invest on polishing my manuscript. I gave the job to one proofreader who assured me that the turnaround time would have been 12 weeks.
Now, I do not know if there is a different way to count the time in different parts of the world, all I know is that I got the final version after 16 months. I cannot really express my frustration, but since my career didn't depend on that, I just kept waiting patiently.
In the end, I finally got my novel ready for the public, and since I was satisfied with the result, I felt like I couldn't complain.
What now? I had the novel, it was proofread, so what was left was to publish it; but how?
Should I have to ask for a literary agent? That is something I tried, but it was like a never ending list of rejections... again it was frustrating.
One suggestion for all the people who want to get published: Do not let anything stop you if you really believe in your manuscript.
I tried then to look for all the self-publishing possibilities, and they are many. However, only one seemed to give a real chance of visibility, offering at the same time the best royalties: CreateSpace of Amazon.
The decision was made!
So what now? I have my perfect novel, I have a place where to publish it, what is missing?
Oh God, yes! The blurb and the bio, not to mention the cover...
The cover???
Whether CreateSpace offers a very nice selection of customizable covers, I thought that I wanted something that was totally "me."
Hiring someone to make my cover would have been easy, but terribly expensive; I had to come out with another solution.
HEUREKA!
Did I or did I not graduated at the Art Institute? Yes, I did!
Therefore, I could easily do it by myself. At my side, my husband who worked for some years at an advertising company, and together we could reach the final solution for the cover.
I left the writing of the blurb to a professional, after all, that is the most important part; the text the potential readers are going to read before deciding to buy the book.
I could not fail that.

In the end, I had everything ready, and it was finally on sale (what a satisfaction!)

"What next?" I thought.
Promote, promote and promote.
Don't forget to promote :-)