Writer Wednesday: Trial and Error

One thing I've learned in this industry is that most things we do are done by trial and error. We try different POVs or tenses. We test new methods for promoting books. Trying different things and seeing what works can be brutal at times. Especially when those efforts require spending money, and let's be honest, they usually do.

I've mentioned before that 2017 is about trying new things for me. I'm taking part in two ventures (I can't really tell you about either just yet) that are completely new to me, and I'm nervous. Very nervous. Excited too. I feel like I'm walking into a dark room, waiting for someone to turn on the lights so I can see if my new efforts will pan out or not. But here's the thing. Even if they don't work out the way I hoped, I'm glad I'm testing the waters. I'm glad I'm doing different things, because I know what doing the same things looks like. I know what the results are. So in order to make changes in my writing income, I have to make changes to the way I put out books. 

I'll keep you posted on what exactly I'm doing as I'm able to speak more about the projects. Until then, what have you done differently this year?

*If you have a question you'd like me to answer from the other side of the editor's desk, feel free to leave it in the comments and I'll schedule it for a future post.

Writer Wednesday: Building a New Platform

Last Wednesday, the lovely Kai Strand asked me about building a new platform for a genre or age group you are branching out into writing. When I started writing romance as Ashelyn Drake, I did so without telling anyone I was Ashelyn. The reason is that I wanted to make sure Ashelyn could stand on her own two feet. To be honest, Ashelyn blew Kelly out of the water in sales! Romance is like that, though.

I set up accounts on social media for Ashelyn and started following romance authors I loved, interacting when them as often as possible. I also looked at their followers because those people could potentially be Ashelyn's fans. I followed those readers and tried to interact with them, too. I joined Facebook groups for romance authors and readers as well. I also promoted Ashelyn on my Kelly accounts (still not telling anyone I was both authors).

Well, last year I decided it was too much to have two separate platforms, and after seeing so many other authors who use pen names joining their accounts, I made the decision to do the same. This is tricky, though. I have one street team for both names, which means some members are only there for my Ashelyn titles or only there for my Kelly titles. The same goes for my newsletter.

You have to decide if you want to keep your names separate, join them completely, or link them but have separate accounts. Whatever you decide to do, check out what your favorite authors in those genres/age levels are doing and who they're following. Don't be a copycat, but learn from them.

I hope that answers your question, Kai. If anyone else has some helpful advice, please feel free to leave it in the comments.

*If you have a question you'd like me to answer from the other side of the editor's desk, feel free to leave it in the comments and I'll schedule it for a future post.

Writer Wednesday: Making Smarter Choices

No, I'm not talking about things like what you eat or how often you exercise. I'm talking about marketing yourself. 2017 did not start off on the right foot for me. I didn't make the best choices as far as marketing my YA title, Fading Into the Shadows. What I did was follow my marketing efforts for my previous release. My previous release went really well. The problem is that my previous release was an Ashelyn Drake new adult romance. That's quite a difference from a Kelly Hashway young adult paranormal.

You can go ahead and ask, "What were you thinking?" I asked the same thing of myself. You can't market a YA paranormal the same way you market an NA romance. You just can't. I mean, you can try, but you will fail. So from now on, I plan to spend 2017 analyzing the best ways to market for specific age groups and genres. No more being lazy and repeating what I've done in the past with the hope that it will work again. Most of us hate marketing, but we shouldn't make it that much harder by not putting in the time and research to figure out what works best for each book.

How about you? Are you looking closely at how you promote and market yourself?

*If you have a question you'd like me to answer from the other side of the editor's desk, feel free to leave it in the comments and I'll schedule it for a future post.

Writer Wednesday: Making the Most of Your Book Launch

Today's topic comes courtesy of Rick Starkey, who happens to have a middle grade book coming out next month, so his question is quite timely. Rick wants to know what mistakes a debut author should avoid and what are some tips for success.

Let's start with the mistakes because those are easier to identify. 

• Don't claim your book is better than *Insert Best-Selling Title Here.*  Nothing makes a reader or buyer cringe more than someone who thinks they are better than everyone else and, therefore, wrote the best book ever. 
• Don't talk about nothing but your book.  Spamming people is guaranteed to make people tune you out, unfriend you on FB, unfollow you on other sites, and not buy your book.
• Don't badmouth other authors.  Again, this goes with the first tip. Putting other people down does NOT build you up. It brings your own reputation down. Don't do it.
• Don't sit there doing nothing and expect readers to magically come to you.  Marketing is tough, but we have to do it or readers will never find our work.

Okay, let's move on to things you should do, and notice I didn't say things that will ensure your book's success. The reason for that is because really nothing will ensure the book's success. What works well for one author may not work at all for another author, so there is no real answer to what will make your book sell. What you need to do is make sure you are putting yourself and your book before readers in the best possible light. After that, you're kind of hoping for the best. So how do you do that?

• Let readers know you have a book out.  Readers can't buy what they don't know exists. On release day, tell the world your story is now an actual book.
• Post genuine content and make an effort to connect with readers.  Again, it can't all be about your book. Talk about other things too. Let people see you're a real person.
• Offer bonus incentives for people who review your book.  Everyone loves free stuff. So offering bonus scenes, deleted scenes, signed copies, SWAG, etc. for people who review the book is great. Now, you may have to hold an exclusive giveaway if the items you're offering cost money because you don't want to spend your lifesavings. ;)
• Support other authors.  In the midst of sharing the news about your book, promote the works of others. Writers need to stick together.
• Utilize Joint Promo.  This is similar to the last one, but a little different. Banding together with a bunch of other authors means you can offer big rewards to readers and also drastically increase your online reach. Think of this. If you get together with 9 other authors and all pitch in $10, you have a $100 prize to giveaway. That will attract a lot more people than doing a $10 giveaway on your own. Also, you now have the audiences of 10 authors seeing your book. That's great exposure.
• Let readers try before they buy.  One of my favorite features on Amazon is the Look Inside feature, because I want to read page one to see if I like the author's voice before I buy. So jump on Wattpad (and your website) and post a few pages of your book to let people test it out. Then create some teaser images to post all over social media. Why go through the effort to do this if Amazon let's readers Look Inside? Simple. If readers don't see your book on Amazon, they'll never use that feature to try out your writing. But posting a teaser on your social media accounts might just draw them in and get them to read more.

Okay, I could keep going but this post would get really long. I think that's a good start. If you have any tips you'd like to share, please leave them in the comments so we can all learn from each other.

*If you have a question you'd like me to answer from the other side of the editor's desk, feel free to leave it in the comments and I'll schedule it for a future post.

Writer Wednesday: Email Marketing

Today I thought I'd share something I learned about marketing recently. I've heard in the past that email marketing is so important. I thought that just meant expanding your mailing list. While that's very important, it's not ALL email marketing is. Think about this. When your book is chosen for the Kindle Daily Deal, Amazon emails LOADS of people to tell them about your book being on sale. And from that, your ranking gets amazingly good. Why? Email marketing.

So I took that theory and started focusing my efforts on sites that have huge email newsletter lists. I'm talking 70,000+ people. You can advertise your sales in their newsletters for very small fees, which I've found are totally worth it. Why? Because so many people are hearing about your book when they open their email. And these are people who sign up for these emails because they are looking for good sales on books. They are your target audience.

So research some sites that have newsletters like this and consider trying this marketing technique. I'd love to hear if your experience is as good as mine.

Writer Wednesday: Marketing Highs and Lows

Last week on my Monday Mishmash I mentioned that I've been committing to doing at least one marketing effort per day. I also mentioned that I've seen some positive results from this. So I thought today I'd share a little more about what I'm doing.

I tried something new, which is to use sites to advertise my books. I'm not one to spend a lot of money on advertising though, so I found some sites that are free and others that are under $10. My results were mixed. Some of the promo days wants really well, ranking my book in the 200s on Amazon. One book was ranked there twice in the span of a few weeks and is still going strong. This book is free though. Now you may be thinking, Kelly, why would you pay to advertise a free book? Well, here's why. When you put a book out for free, you're doing it to allow readers to sample your work and hopefully become fans. If you succeed, you'll get readers who then go buy your other books. When you market a free book, you're reaching more potential readers. Will I make that money I spent back with my free book? No. But I hopefully will with the next book in the series.

Now I mentioned mixed results. This happened when I promoted a book that wasn't free. I saw no change in sales. None. Same tactic, different book, very different results. Does that mean I'll never try it again with a paid book? No. I think everything with marketing is hit or miss. It could have been the day of the week, the price of the book, the fact that this followed another promotion that was free and readers didn't have enough time to read my previous book they downloaded, etc. There are so many factors that could have contributed to it.

So what does all this mean? I think the promotions helped get my name out there. Right now it's too soon to tell how many new fans I was able to hook, but hopefully that will become apparent soon. In the meantime, I'll continue with my one marketing effort a day.

Writer Wednesday: The Dreaded M-Word

No, I'm not talking about money—although I'll gladly take some if you're offering. ;) I'm talking about marketing. I'm not one of those authors who loves to market. It's actually my least favorite part of being an author. I'd much rather write more books, which is why I have a backlog of manuscripts in various stages of revision. (Don't tell my agent, who is already handling plenty for me at the moment. I don't want to scare her away.)

Recently I realized I need to step up my marketing game. Yes, even though I don't really enjoy it. Sure, I love in-person events. Give me plenty of those! But the other marketing stuff…not so much. So I promised myself to do at least one thing a day to market my work. And you know what? I've found that one thing usually leads to another and sometimes another. Yes, I've been averaging about three marketing efforts a day. Here comes the really surprising part. The more I market, the more I enjoy marketing.

I know! It's crazy! But here's the thing. I marketed my free book Campus Crush, and I saw results. That's motivating. So now I'm stepping up my game with my other titles and hoping that I'll get results for those too. The tricky thing is that what works as far as marketing one book may not work for the next, so I'm constantly trying new things and keeping track of what works and what doesn't.

How about you? Do you force yourself to market even when you don't feel like it?