Alternative Marketing Methods, elizabeth speaks, Holiday Marketing Alchemy, Holidays, in your corner, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Uncategorized

The Alchemy of Holiday Marketing (Introduction)

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Now that it’s the beginning of October, we are well and truly into the holiday season. Sure, Halloween may still be almost a full month away, but the real pleasure of the last three months of the year only a very little to do with the big days themselves–Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day–and a great deal to do with anticipation, and what we choose to do with ourselves in the intervening days as we build excitement–or design costumes, or plan reunions, or negotiate for a few extra vacation days–throughout the home stretch of the year.

What are you, as a self-publishing author, going to do with that time?

For many self-publishing authors, the holidays are the most profitable time of year. These are the authors who have figured out the best way to ring in the holidays using their skills and their published works. We’ve written extensively about holiday marketing in the past, and we may hit some of the high points again this year, but we also wanted to do something new. Not quite “6 weird tricks to spook your friends this Halloween” but something which honors the magic of the holidays, and seeks to marry together your best skills and the season’s best opportunities to create … a kind of marketing alchemy.

Over the months to come, I’ll be asking the questions: What do you have or bring to the table as an author that’s special? And what do the final months of each year have or bring to the table so far as marketing goes? How we answer these questions, together, may just provide a new way forward as you seek to plan your upcoming marketing strategy for your latest or your next self-published book!

Do you have ideas to share? Please don’t hesitate to drop us a line in the comments section, and I’ll make sure to feature your thoughts and respond to them in my next post!

You are not alone. ♣︎

Elizabeth

ABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 20 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Director of Sales and Marketing for Outskirts Press. The Sales and Marketing departments are composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.

 

Book Reviews, Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week, Uncategorized, weekly self published book review

Tuesday Book Review: “Classroom Boredom Busters”

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.
When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review:

classroom boredom busters donna malone

cipa evvy 3rd place

Classroom Boredom Busters

by Donna Malone

ISBN: 9781478785323

Synopsis*:

Spark student curiosity and increase student participation with classroom activities that won’t add to your busy workload. In Classroom Boredom Busters, veteran educator Donna Malone shares her proven ideas for exciting kids about learning.

Teachers of all content and subject areas in grades four through twelve can encourage active learning using movement (for example, role-playing being in a press conference); word games (such as writing messages in bottles); and friendly competitions (including game shows).

Educators who have attended Malone’s professional learning workshops have received these ideas enthusiastically, and students of theirs still fondly recall, “I remember when…” because these teachers used activities from this book. With Classroom Boredom Busters, every lesson comes alive and becomes more memorable.

 * courtesy of Amazon.com

Featured Reviews

Entertaining Learning: A Win-Win Combination

This is the best book available on the market for all teachers who want to make learning fun again! Students will be entertained while they learn, a win-win situation for teachers and students alike. Award-winning author Donna Malone presents 50 clever games to captivate and energize students in the classroom, especially middle school where attention spans are short. The book includes eight categories of games, five in each. One section includes learning games that get children out of their seats, up and moving, to play games such as “Wall Slap,” “Snowball Fight,” and “Vocabulary Relay.” Other games are based on everything from popular game shows to celebrity glamour. Malone has almost 30 years of teaching experience and is a popular presenter at conferences. Currently, she serves as School Improvement Specialist at an agency for the Georgia Department of Education.

– reviewed by S. Mclaughlin on Amazon

Attention Educators

Educators will find Classroom Boredom Busters refreshingly effective for today’s youth. The author delivers some uniquely fun and simple approaches to stir up the stagnant climates in many of today’s classrooms. Donna’s box of strategies are delightful as well as practical for all involved parties. As a classroom teacher, I’m looking forward to adding many of her ideas to my repertoire!

– reviewed by Laurel on Amazon

 

Book Trailer

tuesday book review

Thanks for reading!  Keep up with the latest in the world of indie and self-published books by watching this space!

Self Publishing Advisor

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news from the self publishing world, self publishing news, Uncategorized

Self-Publishing News: 10.1.2018 – The Company Files!

october month

And now for the news!

Some highlights from this month in the world of self-publishing, specifically news from or regarding self-publishing companies!

Here’s a story to warm the cockles of your heart: Zoë Howard of The Daily Texan reports that a group of students from the University of Texas have launched their very own community for writers interested in self-publishing–Prolitfic. First of all, that is an excellent pun. Secondly, what a great idea! This platform allows UT students of all majors to be heard, and in that sense it pushes back against the prevalent idea in college that English majors are the ones who write, and everybody else is just getting by. Thirdly, the website was designed to feel a bit like Wattpad, only “with quality control” and a suite of analytics tools. Prolitfic is currently in the beta testing stage, with a “hard launch” scheduled for the coming weeks. If you’re interested in experimenting with short-form self-publishing, Wattpad-style, signing up once it goes live to the public may just be the Christmas present to yourself you always needed.

If you believe in equity and diversity in the publishing industry, then here’s a hero for you: Crystal Swain-Bates, an Atlanta-based self-publishing author who has not only written 100 children’s books featuring diverse characters, but who has also created her own self-publishing company to do so when the traditional publishing industry wouldn’t give her the platform she needed. This article, which comes to us from Tanasia Kenney of the Atlanta Black Star, gives us the run-down on both the state of the industry in terms of diverse characters as well as Swain-Bates’ own remarkable story–all by way of a great interview. Check it out at the link, above!

Damon Brown, self-described entrepreneur and author of The Bite-Sized Entrepreneur, wrote this excellent retrospective for Inc.com, a news website for those interested in entrepreneurship and business more generally. And boy, does he bring the wisdom! If you’ve been struggling with your decision to self-publish, or even just to write the book you’re writing, Brown reminds us that “Publishers don’t know your audience as well as you do. That’s why you’re writing the book, not them. Therefore, it is up to you to figure out the best way to reach them.” He writes about “bootstrapping” around the country in those early years while he attempted to raise the money to publish his books, and about building momentum even once those early years were over. His step-by-step process of moving from unknown to best-seller is not just inspiring; it’s written in such a way as to help readers figure it out for themselves. A must-read!

spa-news

As a self-publishing author, you may find it helpful to stay up-to-date on the trends and news related to the self-publishing industry.This will help you make informed decisions before, during and after the self-publishing process, which will lead to a greater self-publishing experience. To help you stay current on self-publishing topics, simply visit our blog every Monday to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.

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Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week, Uncategorized, weekly self published book review

Tuesday Book Review: “Emma and the Dragon Tooth Sword”

Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.
When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review:

emma and the dragon tooth sword gabriel koch

cipa evvy merit

Emma and the Dragon Tooth Sword

by Gabriel F.W. Koch

ISBN: 9781478782711

Synopsis*:

Thirteen-year-old Emma Walker has a plan. She must find a buried antique sword she learned about from an old map she found tucked in the back of an ancient book, sell the sword, and use the money to get herself and her mother out of poverty. The sword, crafted from a dragon’s tooth and a scale from the center of the beast’s breast, controlled the pirate Dragon Sanglant, living hundreds of years in the past, has a different plan for her. It draws Emma back in time where she learns that on the night of her father’s fatal accident her fate became tangled with the sword, elves, a dragon and other creatures associated with the enchanted blade. On the reverse side of the map, Emma reads a notation about the sword’s location, that it lay buried between yesterday and tomorrow. The obverse side shows a diagram of an ornamental sculpture garden, but not its name or location. However, Emma is not the only person interested in the sword.

 * courtesy of Amazon.com

Featured Review

In Emma and the Dragon Tooth Sword, a fantasy geared toward readers aged 10 to 12, author Gabriel F.W. Koch dives right into the action and keeps the rapid narrative pace running throughout.

Koch begins with a description of a grisly car accident. Ten-year-old Emma mysteriously survives the brutal wreck that claims her father’s life. She is inexplicably extricated from the car before it explodes, and has visions of a “huge, indescribable creature” who speaks to her in comforting tones before she passes out.

Four years later, the weight of that vision returns when Emma finds a weathered book from the 16th century in her local library detailing the exploits of Dragon Sanglant, a pirate who ruled the seas for a dozen years and wielded a magical sword made from a dragon’s tooth. Emma becomes obsessed with finding the sword to help extricate her family from poverty.

Following the clues from a map found in the book, she eventually locates the sword and discovers that it’s a gateway to a “New World” that hosts elves, marauding pirates and the dragon who saved her from death. There, Emma must make a stand against the pirate Dragon Sanglant to restore balance to the New World and find a route home.

Koch’s straightforward adventure relies on fast-paced action and dynamic descriptions. For example, Emma’s trial as the new Swordbearer after she arrives in the New World features vivid monsters and moving tests of her strength and will. Koch’s direct, engaging writing style makes up for the occasional sense that the characters are underdeveloped (the adults, for example, seem mere one-dimensional background figures, and Dragon Sanglant is a broad villain, rather than multi-dimensional), and the background and context are somewhat vague.

Such shortcomings aren’t likely to deter the book’s target audience, however. Overall, Emma and the Dragon Tooth Sword is a fun and breezy outing for young readers just starting their journey into the genre.

– reviewed by on Blue Ink Review

Book Trailer

 

tuesday book review

Thanks for reading!  Keep up with the latest in the world of indie and self-published books by watching this space!

Self Publishing Advisor

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news from the self publishing world, Publishing Trends, self publishing news, Uncategorized

Self-Publishing News: 9.24.2018 – Publishing Trends Roundup

Blue september paper banner with colorful brush strokes.

And now for the news!

Some highlights from this month in the world of self-publishing, specifically regarding publishing trends within the publishing industry, and their implications for all authors!

September has been a busy month in publishing trends! For one thing, there has been the annual trend toward gatherings, trainings, workshops, and conferences for writers becoming more friendly toward and inclusive of self-publishing authors. Take this article, from Tripp Crouse of KNBA, on the 2018 Conference for Writers and Illustrators, recently held in Anchorage, Alaska. Didn’t know that Anchorage was a hot-spot for literature? Well, now it most definitely is, and Crouse’s interview with Writer’s Guild President Brooke Hartman breaks down what, exactly, the conference was about–and in part, it was about “vet[ting] your different options,” including self-publishing (and how to go about it). If you happen to have a writing conference taking place near you, it’s worth checking out the lineup to see if they have a session on self-publishing; chance are good that it will.

Another trend this year, and this month, has been the leveling of the playing field. Self-publishing is no longer just a viable alternative to regular publishing as a means to an income; it’s a viable addition to business plans everywhere–and it’s making headlines on Forbes, among other business-savvy publications. In this article, Forbes contributor Abdullahi Muhammed puts self-publishing into a pantheon of four freelancing options which create what he calls “passive income,” or “sources of regular income that require little or no effort after the initial work has been completed and can generate consistent revenues over time.” Now, we know on this blog that when it comes to writing, one’s work is never over, but it’s worth hearing him out.

It’s not just regular conferences happening around the country this month: there are conferences specific to self-publishing authors now! This one, the 2018 Independent Authors Conference (#indieauthorcon), was presented by BookBaby, self-proclaimed as “the nation’s leading self-publishing service company” (metrics unknown, but everyone has to write sales copy). Despite its affiliation with one specific self-publishing company, the conference, which is upcoming in November, is broader than that: the Broadway World News Desk writes that “Rhe Independent Authors Conference features workshops, panels, and presentations from over 25 publishing experts, covering all aspects of self-publishing, from editing and production to book marketing and promotion.” Whether you go to this conference or another, that lineup sounds impressive enough to inspire some good work, indeed.

Last but not least, here’s a press release from self-publishing company Blurb, now partnering with Adobe (of photo and PDF editing software fame) to allow users of its Lightroom platform to make the best of both worlds. It’s only one among many in terms of new additions to a growing collection of companies enabling creative services in self-publishing, but it’s worth keeping an eye on; Adobe has quite the portfolio, and a great deal of influence over international visual aesthetics.

spa-news

As a self-publishing author, you may find it helpful to stay up-to-date on the trends and news related to the self-publishing industry.This will help you make informed decisions before, during and after the self-publishing process, which will lead to a greater self-publishing experience. To help you stay current on self-publishing topics, simply visit our blog every Monday to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.

selfpubicon1