Marketing your books - BookBot

Hi

There are exciting things happening with Facebook. Recently, they've launched a new product called a Chatbot. It's eary days yet, but the results people are getting are very positive.

What Is a Bot?

"Bot" is a generalized term used to describe any software that automates a task. Chatbots, which anyone can now build into Facebook Messenger, automate conversation -- at least the beginning stages of it."  

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-bots-guide

Authors are getting great results from BookBot Bob.

Enter Bookbot Bob and Bookbot Bill.

How does it work?

Bob is a new promo tool with a difference. It does not ask subscribers for an email address. Bob sends readers info about free blurbs + links, and Bookbot Bill sends info about discounted book blurbs + links, both right in Facebook Messenger. Readers decide which genres they want and the boys send them a book in each category. As simple as that. To sign up and check out Bob and Bill’s titles, go to the Bookbot Bob home page and click on the red rectangle that says “Hi Bob!”

FYI, Bob just added an email function for readers who wish to receive discounted pre-order books.

https://www.bookbotbob.com/bobpromo

You fill in the form and pay the small amount to book your slot or alternatively, you can support the crowdfunding campaign and get free promos forever.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-book-bots#/

BOOK BOT IS NOW CLOSED.

Pacing makes or breaks a story.

PACING

This is essential for every story whether it be a full length novel or a short story. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing romance, thriller, horror, fantasy, sci fi, or YA. You must ensure your readers will turn the page to see what happens next. Your TASK is to make the readers want to keep reading no matter what is happing around them.

• a.     Something must happen in every scene.
• b.     A question must remain unanswered at the end of ever chapter except the very last one.
• c.      Ensure your Main Character propels that action. The reader wants to emphasize with the MC and intimately share experiences and the MC’s journey. Don’t give the reader a reason to stop turning the pages.
• d.     DON’T tell the reader everything that’s going to happen before it happens as that can destroy the suspense and deprive the reader the enjoyment of surprise.
• e.     Give your MC bigger challenges to overcome as your story progresses. These should be compelling and the MC must overcome these to move on. The MC’s character should be revealed and grow as the MC moves through these challenges.
• f.       Throw your MC into a pressure cooker so they must do such and such by a certain time otherwise e.g. the world will end, the MC’s mother will make the biggest mistake of her life, the MC’s father will miss his flight, etc.
• g.     Lee Child, says: “Write the slow parts fast and the fast parts slow.”
• h.     DON’T load the first chapter with back story and descriptions as this will slow the pacing from the get go. See how much you can cut that isn’t missed. No need to tell the reader that the MC’s parents were church goers, loved a good steak, had to shop on Thursdays or the world would end, did not do the washing on a Sunday, etc. Let the reader find this out as they progress through the story and only if it moves the story forward.
• i.        Dialogue is great but shouldn’t replace action. If you have no dialogue on any page in your story then it better be compelling otherwise the reader will stop reading.
• j.       Aim for clarity. Less is more.
• k.     DON’T use a longer word when a short word will do the task.
• l.        Ensure that all unanswered questions are answered by the end of the story. If you don’t do this, then the reader will be frustrated that you left them hanging. Nothing spoils a good tale than one with an incomplete ending.
•  

Why is my book not selling?

What You Are Selling is Never as Important as THE REASON SOMEONE IS BUYING IT.

Let's look at how people choose a book?
a) Cover
b) blurb
c) reviews
d) Preview
e) Sympathy & friendship
f) Cheap/free



a) Cover:
Is your cover enticing?
Does it whisper at what's inside?
Does it create a feeling for the prospective reader?
Is your title easy to read?
Unless you're a graphic designer, book designer, I would suggest that you don't spend your time doing what will take time away from editing your book. Let an expert do what they do best. Give them a brief of what you like in covers which will cut down their time and cost you less.

Cover these points and you have passed the first hurdle.

b) Blurb:
Next hurdle:
Have your told your story in a nutshell without giving away the ending?
Have you made it sound thrilling?
Its a good idea to ask your writing friends to read your blurb and suggest any changes to make it better.
Also, look at key words in your blurb. This helps when readers are searching certain key words such as #thriller, #crime, #fantasy, #romance #ScienceFiction.

c) Reviews:
Gaining reviews is the bane of every author.
Gift your book to people and ask for an honest review (and I mean honest).
If you get an honest review from someone you gifted your book to. Take note and make any changes to make your book better.
There is no limit to the number of times you can tweek your book on Amazon.
If it's a substantial edit, then you can notify Amazon and they'll notify all customers who have previously purchased your book about an update.
If you have no reviews, then buyers are hesitant to take a risk on your book unless it's on sale. Therefore, do not price it too high. Usually, $2.99 is a good price point.

d) Preview:
I took out the Table of Contents in my book because it meant that in my book preview on Amazon I got a couple of extra pages when a reader clicked on the preview of my book. However, for non-fiction you will need that TOC so this won't work for you.
Post a longer preview on your blog or web site. Tweet that they can find the longer preview there.

e) Sympathy & friendship.
Now some people may wonder about this point.
Put simply, it means that someone you know will buy your book because they don't like to offend you or feel sorry for you.
But a sale is a sale and helps lift your rating on Amazon.

Those of you who constantly post buy my book in the writers Facebook groups? Does it really work? For the most part, this only gets annoying and turns people away. So initially these authors gain sales, then people turn off every time they see the post or start deleting it.

f) Cheap/free
Your book is on sale or free your rating goes up.
Some readers buy a cheap book because it's on sale but they don't read it and don't leave a review. Amazon knows if said book has been read and what percentage it's read with is reflected in its rating.
This works for the short term but long term you want reviews and word of mouth recommendations.

How do you get these?
Writing the best book you can.
Having said book edited and getting a great cover made. If you're unsure about your blurb, ask your writing friends to look it over and suggest what you can do to make it better.

Some authors will say that cheap/free works or free for them. However, you can't put money in the bank with free.

Once you have a small amount of reviews (say 10), you can experiment with pricing and put you book at a higher price and see if your sales fall. If they do, you can lower the price. Or you can lower your price on certain days and see what happens. Make it fun and make it work for you.


Promote your book on as many sites you can. No one knows of your book and your book is but a drop in the ocean of books.
Use social media to do this.
If you don't know how to do this. Just start with twitter and start following people.
Remember, your twitter profile is your public face. Likewise your web page, blog, etc.
Have pictures of your book there. Include links to your book on twitter,  your website and anywhere else readers can buy your book.
P.S. Don't forget to tweet regularly. Also, follow those that follow you. You ignore followers at your peril. 

The Game of Thrones - A song of fire and ice REVIEW

REVIEW

The Game of Thrones – A Song of Ice and Fire

If you love fantasy that is not formulatic then this is the book for you with the sheer brilliance of a multi layered plot that weaves so many seemingly unrelated stories together to form a plausible alternate universe in which not only politics, intrigue, war, adventure and romance can coexist plausibly, but magic as well. However, the magic is low key so it’s not an easy out for the characters in a jam. 

In the story we follow the lives of a number of characters via allocated point of view chapters through the story. The characters are interesting with some totally good or totally evil and others are shades of both. 

For the MEDIEVAL HISTORY BUFFS: this story was influenced by the WARS OF THE ROSES and THE HUNDRED YEARS WAR.

Once you start reading this epic, don’t expect to be able to tear yourself away. It will have you in its grip ‘till the end. Then you just have to buy, borrow or steal the following book in the series to find out what happens next.

One negative I could find was that if you don’t like to read about gore and blood, then this is not the book for you. 

Review by: O. N. Stefan Author of The Deadly Caress on Kindle:www.getBook.at/B00I0DI0MY

Editing your story with text to speech

Hi

I'm doing another edit of a mystery/thriller I wrote years ago. A dear friend of mine, Victoria, has read and made comments on the entire manuscript. Thank you Victoria for being soo nice for not telling me to bury the mss in the garden.

The story is full of adjectives and bad punctuation...but I still believe it's a good story.

I guess when you first start off writing you try so hard to explain everything and describe everything. Why stop at one adjective when two or three will be better, or so you think. I know that we are told to choose one, but what if you can't decide? Well, that comes with time and practice. How many years it takes you, is up to you. Also, you are so close to the story you can't see the flaws.

How do I explain away the bad punctuation...I was never that good at English at school. I was dyslexic and was never diagnosed as in those days no one knew about this problem. Maybe this is a cop out but it's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. I wasn't writing full time for many years. Now I try to sit down and write for about four hours a day. It does make a difference.

There are some free programs on the net which will read your text back to you. They are mechanical voices and may irritate some people but it is helpful as it will pick up the 'and' or 'the' that you failed to see because you mentally insert it every time you read your work. I know that I do.
Here are a few:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Other-Office-Tools/Speakonia.shtml
(You need to copy and past the text into the dialogue box)
There is a free plug in from Microsoft so you can enable text to speech in MS Word. When you load Word it doesn't automatically install the text to speech part. You will have to go to Add remove programs and install it that way. Here is the link:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/word-help/using-the-speak-text-to-speech-feature-HA102066711.aspx
http://www.ivona.com/us/ - this one is used online.

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Creating a map for my fantasy story

Hi

I've spent a few days creating a map for my fantasy story 'The Girl In The Mirror.' I needed to get clear in my mind where the location of each place was in my story and I was slowing down and needed something that would get the creative juices flowing again.

I will be posting it when I'm happy with it in a separate blog for the story: 'The Girl In The Mirror.

This map I have created in Microsoft Inspiration. A great little program. Some of it is freeware and the latest versions are not.  http://downloads.phpnuke.org/en/download-item-view-g-g-n-y-l/Inspiration.htm
I guess you could use MS Publisher,
or there is Gimp http://www.gimp.org/ which is freeware and lastly,
Adobe Photoshop.

Olga

The writing process

Hi

I'm still enjoying the process of writing 'The Girl In The Mirror.' I've just realised that I am in my seventh month of writing this story. So much for the six months target I set to finish first draft. At least I can console myself that I'm nearlythere with only about 20 pages to go.

Those of you that think writing is easy and anyone can do it haven't tried to write a novel length story. If you have and you still think it's easy, I want to hear your story.

I love to write and it amazes me after a writing session that I have actually got something down. When I read what I have written, I wonder where all this stuff has come from.

For this current story I haven't tried to make each chapter perfect but rather kept going forward. I know that if I start rereading what I have written, I will get bogged down with polishing it. In the second draft some chapters might be cut or have the focus changed so I know now that I will be probably wasting my time if I do this.

The thing with being a writer is that you learn as you write. Yes, a university course in English will help with grammar, tenses, etc but not with ideas, creating and the stuff that you pluck from thin air as if its channeled from the universe. The more you do it the better you get and the more that little voice tells you that the stuff you have written is rubbish and no one will want to read it. You have to turn off the voice as much as you can and believe in yourself.

I came across a blog that I thought was worth passing on and it's called 'Not for Robots.' http://notforrobots.blogspot.com.au/

Cheers.
Happy writing.

REDRAFTING

Hi

I'm up to page 148 of my fantasy story The Girl In The Mirror. Still loving it. I can't wait to finish it and do the next draft.

I found some great tips in the Writer's News regarding drafts and editing.

Summary of Stewart Ferris's article.

1) First sweep: Look at improving story structure.

2) Next sweep: Focus on characters

3) Focus on dialogue

4) Look at the descriptive language, etc. Ensure your descriptions do not look like large blocks on the page. If you must have the description then filter it in a little at a time.

5) Lastly, do a simple proof read.

I want to add to these and put point 5 last.

6) Look at chapter conflict which is different from the plot conflict. Each chapter must have its own nutshell of conflict (which enhances the plot). This is like the spokes of a wheel. The wheel being the plot.

7) In each scene ensure you have at least 3 of these...colour, dialogue, sounds, smells, conflict. Conflict being the most important one.

8) Look at adjectives. Always use only the best one to describe something. Get rid of the rest.

9) Repeated words on the same page. If it is intentional, then it's okay, but only then.

10) Overuse of descriptions or words.

11) Look for plot holes.

12) Check that main character's voice is consistent.

13)Look at back story as well. Too much and the story stands still.

14) Don't forget to enjoy the process.

Don't forget to make the first chapter as good as possible. A poor first chapter will sink you.

Leave me some comments if you found this useful.

Bye for now.

get the bum glue on the seat

Hi

I've been having trouble logging on but am here now. I've recently started a new fantasy story which is based on a short story I wrote some time ago. I'm having fun writing it. In the interview in Writer's News UK, John Locke tells us that you have to have fun writing whatever you write. I am.

I've got to get my bum glue (to keep me at the computer) organised to get it finished within the 6 month target I set.

Cheers for now.