Memoir/Biography Promotion

Tags

#BookFunnel, autobiography, biography, memoir

I’ve organised a promotion for memoirs, biographies and inspirational books on Book Funnel:

https://dashboard.bookfunnel.com/bundles/board/jlb8i40ryg

If you are a member of Book Funnel and would like to take part and add your book, you’d be very welcome (just as long as it’s memoir or biography/autobiography or inspirational non-fiction).  If you’re not part of Book Funnel, then to add 5 books of your own for promotions would cost you $20 per year.

The promotion runs for the whole of March, and so towards the end of February you would need to reduce the price of your book or make it free.  At the moment there are 5 of us taking part, but hopefully more will join as time goes on.  Each member chooses a date in which to share the links in March that Book Funnel provide.  You build up your reputation through sharing the links on your social media, and this reputation is given to organisers of promotions you take part in.

If you upgrade to the mid-list plan, you can add any number of books and also collect email addresses when you give out free book samples to readers.  The most expensive plan will add these email addresses to your Mailchimp account.

It’s a good way of promoting books, and you get to meet lots of new authors!

 

Does Goodreads Have a Troll Problem?

Interesting blog from Nicholas C. Rossis on Goodreads’ trolls. I think that yes, trolls sadly do seem to visit Goodreads with more frequency than other sites. I have heard of authors being targeted with one-star reviews by groups of trolls, which are very difficult to get taken off their ratings afterwards. I’m still on Goodreads and about 3 or 4 years ago was targeted by a group of trolls who all left one-star reviews for ‘No Sex Please, I’m Menopausal!’ even though some said they hadn’t even read it. I asked for them to be taken off, but … no luck. However, since then thankfully I have been troll-free.

Nicholas C. Rossis

I’ve heard from several authors who have stopped using Goodreads over the years. As Camestros Felapton reports, they may have a point, as Goodreads seems to suffer from a chronic troll problem. Matters reached crisis proportions way back in 2012. But recently, it looks like things have got worse.

Author Patrick S Tomlinson is currently being targetted by a sustained cyberstalking attack on Goodreads. Multiple fake accounts are leaving insulting reviews of a book of his that has not yet been published (not even as an ARC).

The fake accounts have been quite blatantly using fake names and identities, including a fake account pretending to be Otis Chandler, one of the founders of Goodreads:

@otown Hello Mr. Chandler. It may interest you to know criminal cyberstalkers have stolen your identity as part of a fake review bombing campaign against my next book, which is still in editing. They're…

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Friday Click & Run – 17 January

On Fridays I do my bit to promote Indie authors/bloggers by posting either Click & Run, Streets Ahead, or Book Share.  This week it’s the turn of ‘Click & Run’:

You know what to do by now… just leave a link to whichever blog post you’d like to share this week.  You only need to read and comment on other blog posts if you want to – there are no mandatory rules here.  Live and let live, that’s my philosophy…

Please keep the blogs reasonably family friendly though.  If I see any nasties I will have to delete them!

Thanks to the 6 bloggers who left links last time.

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I’ll share one of my more popular posts: Am I a Writer or an Author?

https://steviet3.wordpress.com/2018/06/06/am-i-a-writer-or-an-author/

A Successful Book Promotion Platform

Tags

#BookFunnel

I’m rather pleased with the BookFunnel promotion that I decided to take part in this week.  It’s the last day of the ‘Mystery, thriller and romantic suspense’ promotion today, and as of yesterday I’ve had 317 readers download a free copy of ‘A House Without Windows’ on Amazon.  The book’s ranking soared to number 4 on the free Kindle list on AmazonUK, and number 7 on the Romantic Suspense list.

 

It’s difficult for authors to find the best platform to promote books on.  Personally I haven’t found Facebook or LinkedIn helped at all, and so deleted them.  As far as I could tell, Facebook was full of authors spamming their own books, and LinkedIn was full of people desperate to sell me their services.

BookFunnel has many promotions running during the month, and you can join the one that most fits your book.  You can discount your book to $0.99/£0.99, or make it free for the duration of the promotion.  All you need usually is a sales landing page (which you can make on BookFunnel) or a newsletter.  With some of the promotions you need a certain number of subscribers on your mailing list.  You’re allowed to promote 5 books for $20 per year; any more than that (and if you want to collect email subscribers) you will have to upgrade to a more expensive service (next one up is $100 per year).  Here’s links to the landing page and promotion page for Lily: A Short Story, which will be part of the ‘Short Month, Short Fiction‘ promotion next month:

Landing page:  https://buy.bookfunnel.com/tsodgzpkzn

February promotion link:  https://books.bookfunnel.com/februaryshorts/earmee7kj8

Once you take part in promotions and you share the given link from the promotion organiser on your social media sites on a specific day, then BookFunnel tracks how many times you share the link and how many clicks you generate to the promotion page (in this way you build up your BookFunnel reputation).  It’s not too difficult to get your head around, even for me!  BookFunnel tells me that for January’s promotion (as of yesterday) there were 38 shares and 140 clicks on the book.

If you have a short story and would like to take part in February’s promotion, you can join in by clicking on the link below.  You just have to make a landing page on BookFunnel first:

https://dashboard.bookfunnel.com/bundles/board/6jhrk21bcw

I’ve decided to take part in one BookFunnel promotion each month; the next one for Lily: A Short Story will not be a free promotion.  I’ll update you all in a few months’ time and let you know how it’s going.  It seems to me to be a better way of promoting books. Okay you have to pay for the service, but sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate.  Currently I’m on the $20 plan, but may upgrade in the future.

 

 

Streets Ahead Street Team – Colleen Chesebro

This week on Streets Ahead we’re promoting Colleen Chesebro’s  ‘Fairies, Myths and Magic:  A Summer Celebration’, which is a collection of poems and short stories.

Step into a world where fairies, dragons, and other magical beings converge in a collection of poetry and short stories inspired by the celebration of Litha, the Summer Solstice.

Meet Drac, a dragon cursed by his own poisonous deeds, and two pixies who help an old man remember a lost love. You’ll meet a pair of fairies with a sense of humor, and a young girl who fulfills her destiny after being struck by lightning. Learn what happens when a modern witch’s spell goes terribly wrong. Meet the Sisters of the Fey, a group of Slavic Witches who sign a pact with the Rusalki Fey to preserve their magic for the good of all.

Atmospheric and haunting, the prose and poetry, will rewrite the mythologies of the past bringing them into the future.

5 star review by D.W Peach:

The tagline on this book is A Summer Celebration, and what better day to read it than on the summer solstice. Chesebro’s book is a collection of poetry and short stories that celebrates not only the presence of summer, but the connection of spirit to the Earth that is ancient, new, and eternal.

Some of the selections are playful like the mermaid bedtime story “A Fish Tale,” or endearing like “Just What the Doctor Ordered,” in which two pixies get soused in a pitcher of mojitos. Others like “The Healer” take on mythic proportions and read like ancient legends.

But most delve into the mysterious and magical nature of the world around us and our journey through it. The theme of rebirth and self-discovery appear in both story and poem form, and these were perhaps my favorites because they felt both personal and universal. “The Rebirth” is a gorgeous haibun/tanka poem. “The Fairy Spider’s Lair” is full of Earth magic, and “The Pond” is a story that spoke to my soul. Just gorgeous.
I could go on and on, but you’ll have to pick up this book and read them yourself.

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Promotion

Today I’m taking part in a BookFunnel promotion for the following genres:

Mystery & Suspense / Suspense, Mystery & Suspense / Thriller, and Romance / Suspense

You can visit the promotion by clicking on the link below:

https://books.bookfunnel.com/series_starter_mysteries/sn5e5yrlvb

I’ve added my psychological thriller ‘A House Without Windows’ to the promotion.  It is now FREE until the promotion ends on January 16th.  All 29 books in the promotion are either free or at a reduced price from 14th – 16th January:

 

Re-Post Authors Reviewing Authors (It’s a Minefield) #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #AmReading

This is so true to life. I once read a book that I can only class as terrible, and I mean … terrible! I didn’t say I liked it to the author and I didn’t leave a review, but I did try to give constructive criticism instead. Not sure it was well received though. Turning the tables, some authors have declined to leave a review of one or two books I have written, and that’s fine by me. Others have left 5 star reviews of the same book, so it just goes to show that you cannot please everybody.

Rosie Amber

Authors reviewing authors

(it’s a minefield…) Guest post by Terry Tyler

The scenario: you’re a self-published/indie press published writer who tweets, blogs and is a generally active member of the online writer community. You like to read and review the work of writer friends, if in a genre that appeals. One of these friends (who I will call Friendly Writer and refer to as ‘he’, for convenience), asks you to review his new book, via an ARC. The blurb piques your interest; you say yes. You start to read, with enthusiasm—but there’s a problem. Several of them. The dialogue is unrealistic, the characters are one-dimensional, or tired stereotypes. Maybe the plot is unconvincing, or it’s a bit slow/long-winded/badly researched. If it was a random book by a stranger, you’d abandon it.

If you’ve been active in the online writer community for a while, this might be a situation you’ve…

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Free Codes Available for my New Audio Book

Tags

#audio book, free code, Women's Fiction

I have a new audio book out today, ‘A Marriage of Convenience‘, and therefore have 25 free US and UK codes to give away.

Gerrie Hermann, aspiring rock star from a rich South African family, has an unusual proposal for Sophie Woods when he meets her for the first time in their university canteen. Strait-laced Sophie has never done anything out of the ordinary in the whole of her 19 years. When she decides to take Gerrie up on his offer she has no idea that her decision is going to affect the rest of her life in ways that she could never have foreseen, even in her wildest dreams.

Thanks to Jade McKinnon for the narration.  Jade has dual British/South African nationality, and so her accents are true!  Leave a comment if you would like a free Audible code.

 

 

Sunday Stills – 12th January

Tags

#SundayStills

This week on Sunday Stills, the topic is ‘Old’.

I decided to add a photo of something that is quite old.  It’s my wedding dress from 1980, when wedding dresses had tops to them and brides were dressed more modestly to walk down the aisle.  Goodness knows what vicars these days must think to the sight of the wobbling, heaving cleavages they’re now forced to look at!

I tried it on the other day.  The top is too big and the waist is too small.  To add to that I also looked like the bride of Frankenstein…

Here I am wearing it nearly 40 years ago aged 22 .  After looking at this I’ve come to the conclusion it’s ME that is old!

 

A Tribute

I was saddened today to hear of the death of Neil Peart, who had been the drummer with the Canadian progressive rock band Rush for 45 years before retiring in 2015.  He was 67 and had been suffering with brain cancer, and in my opinion was the best rock drummer of all time.

We have been to several Rush concerts over the years, and I thought I’d share a couple of links of my favourite drummer playing his part in two of the best Rush songs ever written – the atmospheric ‘Witch Hunt‘ and ‘Subdivisions‘.  I’ve added a photo that we took from our vantage point in the Hallam Arena back in 2002, so that you can see the awesome drum kit that he played, and another one to prove we’d been there and got the t-shirts (I’m with my son and daughter-in-law in 2002)!

 

 

Rest in peace, Neil.  He was only 5 years older than I am now.  Neil’s early demise tells me that life is short, and that we must make the most of it while we’re able to.