Now WHAT????

[Meredith Cagen]

Any suggestions on how to successfully promote my novel?  I am a first time author, my book, "Size Eight in a Size Zero World" is POD.  Realistic suggestions will be sincerely appreciated.

Book is NYC - Lit.
Imagine "Sex and the City" for real women.  Women who don't wear stilettos..........Women who do their own cooking and cleaning.

www.sizezeroworld.com


Size Eight in a Size Zero World

[Mystee]

I'd say get out and promote wherever you can...
make guest blog posts....do author interviews...
have some bloggers review it....etc

[Dr. Bill (William L.) Smith]

That is the thing to do. Do each and all you can. Share interesting information about yourself and the novel so that people you contact will like you and recognize that you are a sharing person, From time to time, some of them will buy the book. Best wishes,
Happy Birthday - have another good year! Enjoy it!

Bill ;-)

http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/
Author of "Back to the Homeplace"
and "13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories"
http://www.examiner.com/x-53135-Springfield-Genealogy-Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/x-58285-Ozarks-Cultural-Heritage-Examiner

[Gary Val Tenuta]

Hi Meredith,

I like the cover of your book but why is your name not it?

Anyway, to address your question:

Publishing an ebook edition of your book (especially on Kindle) is a great way to get readers. One of the big draws when it comes to Kindle is the low retail cost of the books. And with Kindle now offering a 70% royalty it's a real win/win situation. Readers get books at great prices and authors make really good money per sale.

The cost of getting a Kindle edition of your book published can be nothing or next to nothing if you format it yourself.

There is a book that is quickly becoming a "must have" for writers who are thinking about self-publishing both in paperback and in ebook format (Kindle, Smashwords, etc.). It's called "Are You Still Submitting Your Work To A Traditional Publisher?" by Ed Patterson.

While I have yet to get this book myself, it is definitely on my "to buy" list. I've known Ed for a couple of years via the amazon forum called "Shameless Self-Promotion by Authors"

(http://www.amazon.com/tag/thriller/forum/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg237?_encodi......).

That forum, by the way, is a great place to hang out. Super friendly folks all promoting their books and enthusiastically sharing what they've learned about self-publishing, ebooks, promotion, marketing and anything else related to these issues.

Here's what one writer (Scott B. Williams)said about Patterson's book in a recent review:

With his extensive experience using Amazon's tools to publish for Kindle and through CreateSpace, [Patterson] has distilled his knowledge of how to do this quickly and efficiently into this excellent guide. Using this book I saved myself hours of frustration and research that could be better spent writing something else, and was able to quickly get my files formatted and uploaded into the Digital Text Platform.

Patterson's book would be worth the money if it only covered these technical aspects of self-publishing. But that is only a small part of the information packed in this little manual for authors. He also goes into great detail about the whys of publishing a book and provides insight into how to determine if your work is even worth the bother. And beyond that, the latter part of the book provides extensive information on the writing and revision process. I especially liked the advice on writing endings for novels. I find so many novels that catch my interest in the beginning, but leave me greatly disappointed with the ending. I will certainly refer back to the advice given in this book when crafting my own works of fiction in the future. I think any author can benefit from this book and I hope they will give it a look even though it is not published by a "traditional publisher."

Here's the Product Description from amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1441407383/ref=cm_cd_asin_lnk

Product Description:

With the new and exciting world of Kindles and Print-on-Demand (POD), Independent Publishing is becoming an enticing choice and a viable alternative to traditional publishing. The old days of "self-publishing and vanity presses" are over. Indie Authors are giving readers a wide variety of quality reads in all genres. Are you unsure of how to go about it? Do you crave to know the best options? What are the pitfalls? "Are You Still Submitting Your Work to a Traditional Publisher?" provides tips and ideas, set-by-steps and coaching on quality control. In addition to the title article, this work includes three other craft discussions: "Writing Good Stories", "The Novelization Process", and "Revision vs. Re-Vision," an extensive guide to revising a novel. Whether you are new to publishing or an established author, the opinions expressed and experiences shared in this book should stimulate your curiosity and provide answers to questions you might not have asked.

Link to purchase Ed's book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1441407383/ref=cm_cd_asin_lnk

My Kindle experience:

I tried formatting my novel, The Ezekiel Code, for the Kindle according to Kindle's instructions but I found it a bit difficult. One of the problems was that my book contains a few interior graphics. I heard that this can make the formatting somewhat challenging in order to get the graphic illustrations to appear in just the right place. Many people have little or no problem at all with the formatting. I'm not the most "techie" oriented kind of guy so that might have been part of my problem (and I didn't have Ed's book!). I finally opted to pay my POD publisher (Outskirts Press) $99.00 to do it for me. That way I knew it would be done right and I wouldn't have to worry about how it appeared on people's Kindles when they downloaded it.

I hear you thinking, "Wait. What??? $99.00???" Yup, that was my reaction too. I wondered if I'd ever sell enough copies of the Kindle edition to make up for that cost. After all, I don't have money to burn and if I'd have done the formatting myself it would have cost me nothing, nada, zero to get the book up and running on Kindle. Well, It took a while (a couple of months) but I finally broke even on the cost. That was about a year ago and every sale since then has been pure profit.

I priced the Kindle edition of my book at $4.95.

How are my sales doing? The Kindle edition is far outselling the paperback about 10 to 1. This month, alone, I've already sold nearly 250 copies of the Kindle edition. The average number of sales has reached about 400 copies per month. The royalty checks come like clockwork every 60 days.

Here's one more tip:

After your book is up and running on Kindle be sure to visit the Kindleboard forum called The Book Bazaar:

http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/board,42.0.html

That website is dedicated to all things Kindle. The people who run the board know just about all there is to know about the entire Kindle world. The forum called Book Bazaar is a place where you can plug your book and, if it gets noticed by a reviewer who goes by the name of "Red Adept" you might get a very detailed review from her. Her reviews are highly respected by many Kindle readers.

Also, if you haven't already discovered it, you might want to sign up with Beth Anderson's "Chic Galleria" at http://chicgalleria.com. I think she has a pretty good following and it looks like the kind of place where your book would be welcomed.

Good luck to you!

[Gary Val Tenuta]

Hmmm.... I just noticed your POD is iUniverse. Man, I hate to see that. iUniverse and Publish America don't have the best of reputations, or so I gather from all the complaints I've seen from current and past customers. I hope you didn't get locked into some sort of a contract with them. I'm not even sure if they'll let you publish a Kindle edition of your book. :-(

[Jason Coleman]

Meredith,

My wife and I released our book "Discovering Your Amazing Marriage" June 1st. www.youramazingmarriage.com

So far we have had two book signings and have 5 more signings scheduled with 4 pending. We've also had four local radio interviews and are scheduled for our first national show (out of Ventura, CA) next week. As for the book signings, one came as a result of our contact to a local radio station. They were already scheduled to do a live broadcast from a bookstore across the border in Canada and invited us to come along. The other signings are at Borders Books. I have found them to be very open and inviting to local authors. We are in the Seattle vicinity and have contacted every Puget Sound area Borders. Today I called the store mgr. of a Portland, OR Borders and after our call I e-mailed him our press release and sell sheet. My plan is to be represented in all Seattle Borders and branch out to the next closest large cities.

We are in the midst of a 60-day media blitz that we are paying about 3K for, but I've been the one to secure the Borders signings and half the radio shows. I'm sure our publicist's efforts will pay off, but I've been able to open some doors just by stopping by book stores or calling them.

I'm a first-time author too, and I'm not sure if I'm going about it right, but my focus right now is to schedule as many book signings as possible. This gets our book on the book shelves and increases our chances to get in other stores. If you can mention to a book store owner that you've had book signings and radio interviews, they are more apt to listen to you and take a chance on your book. Last Saturday we were in the Tacoma Borders. They ordered 15 books and we were able to sell 7 in the 2 hours we were there. We signed the other 8 copies, which guarantees that they will not be able to return them! ;)

The Portland store mgr. asked me today if we're on CraigsList. That's something I haven't thought of yet...

If you don't have a publicist you are working with, draft a press release and a sell sheet and e-mail it yourself to local media. We have a book signing this Saturday in our hometown Borders, and our local paper ran a small notice in the paper today.

If we can get the local stores to do book signings, we sell books in the several stores in the area and we can generate some media coverage, that will help us get the attention of the national book buyers. So far it seems as if we've given away almost as many books as we've sold (not including the books Borders has ordered), but it's sowing seeds. I know that if we get it in enough hands, someone will run a story, write a blog, do a review, interview us, etc. and the exposure will grow from there.

I'm just starting to do author blogs, and I'm open to any ideas you or others have.

Best of luck! Hand out business cards with your book cover and website info everywhere you go!

~ Jason