On May 1st, an exciting new website launched called 1^st Turning Point. It’s a place where authors, artists, musicians, crafters–people who create, can teach learn and share All About Promotion. Ann Charles and I came up with this idea a few months ago, and here we are now!

Any sane, reasonable person would wonder why two authors who should be writing set up a site to share promotional and marketing tips and strategies. Ann Charles has her story, and here’s mine:

A Pitiful Year for Me

2004 wasn’t my best year. I started it with pneumonia, then had an accident and spent the rest of the year recovering (translation: wearing a neck brace and sitting in a recliner, all while under the influence of some really good pain killers). The best part about that year was my daughter stayed with us for a while, and in November, my husband and I moved to a new (to us) house.

A Glorious but Busy Year for Judith

But Judith Laik had a completely different 2004–she sold two books to Kensington! And that’s quite a tale in itself. She has agreed to tell her story on 1^st Turning Point in June, so you’ll have to wait for that. Here’s where her experience affected me–she worked long hours every day, seven days a week, right down to the wire to get her books written, and did meet her deadline. Only then did she have the time to plunge into research for setting up a website and the uncharted waters of book promotion. Trouble is, even with working all those hours and through the night for weeks on end, her website wasn’t live until a month after her first book was released.

An Awakening

That’s when I realized that Gerri Russell, who had been proactive in building name recognition for ten years before her “overnight” success, was on the right track (even though she hadn’t sold her first book yet). We’ll hear from Gerri in a few weeks, too, at 1^st Turning Point.

But Gerri and I are very different people. She’s much better in groups and establishes rapport with nearly everyone in a heartbeat. As for me, I’m a whole lot more comfortable on the internet, and I have never been all that comfortable at parties or social gatherings. And, like me, many writers have this affliction.

Step One

So I decided to get a website. I had no idea how to go about this–yes, I’d been a software consultant in my past life, but I didn’t deal with websites. The person who designed Judith’s website charged reasonable rates and I liked her results, so I asked her to get me going. It’s the second best money I ever spent (first best was a professional head shot–more about that in another post).

But I had no content! What’s a lowly unpublished writer to do? So there’s where I strayed from Ann Charles’ course. We were both targeting NY publishers, but a great opportunity landed in my lap–I could get a story published in a trade paperback book, and it would benefit breast cancer research besides. Heckuva deal! The drawback was that the publisher was small press, but the benefits were just what I needed to get me going. I had something on Amazon and BN.com to purchase, I had a cause to promote, and it turns out I contributed two stories, not one.

This anthology, No Law Against Love, and my two short stories, Faery Good Advice and Single Girls Can’t Jump, gave me a platform–something to hang my hat on. Deborah Macgillivray encouraged (translation: relentlessly prodding, explaining and re-explaining how to do it all) the anthology authors to get our websites in shape and to get our author pages set up on Amazon. I’m hoping she’ll do a guest spot for us in the near future.

But then I got involved in social networking sites. With small press, I won’t ever sell a single book on impulse buy–every book sold will be because a reader sees my name, sees the book blurb or excerpt, and wants it badly enough to hunt it down. In baseball terms, I get no in-field hits or even base hits, only home runs. It’s hard to play the game that way, but at least I get to play.

I’ll be writing more about my experiences as the weeks go by–things that worked, things that didn’t work, and a few what-was-I-thinking? moments.

My partner in 1^st Turning Point, Ann Charles, has a completely different path to the website, including the decision to do this gig and dragging me into it. You can read her post here. Her original idea was to have a blog, but frankly, if I want to know something in particular, I go to a website where I can find the expertise I need.

Ann’s idea was broad enough and important enough that, in my opinion, we could create an entire website, gather some experts, and share information in a way that hasn’t been done up until now. Then, of course, she came up with even more bright ideas, and together, we raised it up a notch–or ten. Ann and I are very grateful for the columnists, reviewers, instructors, and PR consultants who have agreed to be part of 1^st Turning Point.

We hope you’ll come for a visit and are pleased with what you see. We’re very serious about the pay-it-forward concept. We learn, and we share.

Oh, and did I mention, there are prizes???

Jacquie

Down Home Ever Lovin’ Mule Blues (See the Book Video featuring Justin Saragueta)
Jacquie Rogers *** Myspace *** Twitter *** Facebook

Faery Special Romances * Book Video * Royalties go to Children’s Tumor Foundation, ending Neurofibromatosis through Research

Authors are responsible for most of their own promotion now, moreso than any other time, from what I’ve been told. I doubt that will ease up any time soon. The successful authors of my personal acquaintance have spent considerable time and effort on publicity. These authors are on or near the NYT Bestsellers list, so don’t think self-promo is for small press authors only.

Bottom line is, I believe every author should learn as much about promotion and marketing as she can, and be willing to do whatever it takes to sell books and earn name recognition. There are many avenues–blogs, social networks, online classes, postcard mailings, spamming your friends (no, I didn’t really say that!), and of course, contests. Most of us choose a variety of these in our marketing plans (you do have a plan, right?), including contests. Today, we’ll discuss what makes a successful contest and how to go about conducting one.

I do think contests are an effective way to build your mailing list and garner name recognition. I’m not so sure it sells books, but as the saying goes, we’re using our current release to sell our next book. Is that true? Don’t know. But I do know if your goal is to build your mailing list, a contest is a jimdandy way of doing it.

(Question: Is it still okay to say “jimdandy”? Or is offensive to someone or something? If so, forget I wrote that, please.)

One thing I learned early on was not to get in over my head. Lesson 1: I have a super hard time getting things mailed–don’t know why, but I’m missing that gene. Luckily, my sister is good at it and agreed to take over that part. I bought business cards with her name and the title “Contest Coordinator” before she could change her mind.

So get the practical, physical aspects of conducting the contest under control.
Who will design and code the web pages?
Who will code the messages for online promotion?
And what is the plan for online promotion of the contest?
(You do have a plan, right?)
What are the prizes?
Who will package and mail the prizes?
How will the contest be conducted?
What timeframe? In conjunction with book release? Or a holiday?

Yes, it’s a lot to think about, but all these considerations and more go into the decision to run a contest. There isn’t enough space to go into all the items in detail, but I’ll touch on each of them.

Contests are nearly always run from the author’s website, and for good reason–to bring traffic so the contestant might be lured to buy a book. A website is the best bang for the marketing dollar, and to make the most of it, we need a dynamic site, not static. Contests are a good way to draw readers. But who’s going to code that page? If the author codes it herself, then that project has to be coordinated with deadlines, copy edits, and all that. If not, she has to be prepared to pay. Either way, website changes don’t happen magically or for free.

Same with online promotion. I’m on over 100 yahoogroups, and of those, probably half are readers loops or promo loops. There’s even a yahoogroup that tracks romance promo groups and sends you an announcement each day of what you can post and where called Promotion Loop Schedule. Again, this takes coding (because you don’t want to send amateurish promos), and it takes time to post all those messages–so again you have to weigh the time involved with your writing schedule.

The plan? Yes, before you even start, you have to decide what kind of contest to run, how long it will take, who’s going to do what and when, and what is a reasonable budget. This is a business, and good business requires planning. Write it down and record the schedule on your calendar.

What are the prizes? More is better–either more expensive, or more prizes. Either will get you more entrants than giving away one download. The prizes do need to be commensurate with the scope of the contest; e.g., if your marketing is limited to emailing, most people will never know about the vacation in French Polynesia you’re offering. Save the vacation for a nation-wide print campaign. Download of your most recent ebook? That’s also iffy, because the people who want it are probably the same ones who would buy your book anyway, so you may have just lost a sale. I like to offer my friends’ books. This gives me a chance to give them a little free publicity because they’ve helped me so much, and it also gives me good publicity, so a win-win situation. And I offer my book to them for contests, also.

Okay, one more paragraph about prizes. I recently ran a pet pictures contest and I was amazed at the really awesome pet pictures people sent in. So I told everyone that “we” would mail them something, whether they won or not. Except I sort of forgot to mention it to my sister. This is not a good thing, I learned, unless one enjoys having knots thumped upon one’s head. So don’t change the rules in the middle of the game. Make sure everyone knows what’s going to happen and when, and make sure they have the money and supplies to get the job done.

I’ve conducted three kinds of contests: scavenger hunts with other authors, two different types of voting contests, and then the join-my-mailing-list contest where the winner is chosen from the mailing list. By the way, if you want to join mine, you have to put up with Princess Keely, who runs Keely’s Contest and News Group. (Hint: she rather likes being called “Princess Keely” and has her own myspace page as well.)

Scavenger hunts have resulted in lots of hits to my website and lots of subscriptions to Keely’s group. (Caveat: too many authors and too complicated searches will put off entrants.) Pet pictures voting resulted in the most website hits and the most inquiries about my latest release. The join-my-mailing-list contests didn’t give me a lot of website hits, but quadrupled the number of members on the mailing list in one month.

The last thing we’ll discuss is the timing of the contest. Every romance author has a Valentine’s Day contest, it seems (including me). Do you want to plan your contest then? Or sit it out? I’m thinking this year I might sit it out and have a St. Patrick’s Day contest instead, just because there won’t be so much competition for PR. If you’re having a winter holiday contest, you’re best planning it to be over by mid-December, if not earlier. People are too busy after that to pay much attention. Make sure you schedule your contest to get the most attention to your books and your website.

Hmmm, we haven’t had a contest on Keely’s Contest and News Group lately, so at 11:59pm Pacific Time a week from today, I’ll draw one name at random from the group. All you have to do is be a member, or join if you’re not currently a member.

That said, I’ve already broken a rule because my sister doesn’t know about this. Oh boy, I’m in trouble now!

The winner will receive a signed copy of Down Home Ever Lovin’ Mule Blues. Sorry, but USA shipping only.

Good Luck!

Jacquie
Down Home Ever Lovin’ Mule Blues (See the Book Video featuring Justin Saragueta)
Jacquie Rogers *** Myspace *** Twitter *** Facebook
Faery Special Romances *** Book Video
Royalties go to Children’s Tumor Foundation,
ending Neurofibromatosis through Research