Free Author Marketing Conference July 14-15, 2012

Marketing Summer Camp July 14-15, 2012
 

Marketing Summer Camp is a two-day online conference designed to help authors learn the basics of marketing and promotion, and to fine tune skills already obtained. It will include guest speakers, pitch opportunities, prizes, top giveaways, and plenty of learning and fun. It will be held on the Yahoo group, Marketing for Romance Writers. Click here to join. Membership is open to published as well as non-published authors, editors, publishers, literary agents, author promotion services, cover artists, and all their virtual assistants.

Are you a member of the Marketing for Romance Writers Yahoo Group? Good. If not, quick! Go join. Why? Because MFRW members are automatically signed up for Marketing Summer Camp held July 14th-15th. If you want to take a particular course, read the messages posted with that title of the class. If you want to skip that class, don't read them. It's going to be that easy. Handouts and goody bags will be posted here on the website for you to nab once the conference begins.

PITCH APPOINTMENTS
There will be pitch appointments with multiple publishers for camp attendees. These will take place after camp so you don't have to miss classes. Karen Cote' and Karenne Lynn at CoffeeTime Romance are cooking up a deal to create these, so watch for more information.


WORKSHOPS (as of 7/06)
Marcia James:  Niche Marketing
Dawne Prochilo:  Where to Find Readers
Mary Caelsto:  Promos for Conferences
Rolyn Anderson:  QR Codes
Alison Knight:  Blogging 101
Janet Elizabeth Jones:  Role Playing Your Way to Good Scenes
Maryann Reid:  Romancing Your Audience
Kayelle Allen:  Preparing for Interviews / Dealing with Online Piracy
Rochelle Weber:  Using the MFRW Newsletter for Promotion
Tina Holland: Overcoming F.E.A.R.S.
Suzan Butler: Triberr
Julie Eberhart Painter: Multiple Submissions
Kay Dee Royal: Building the Paranormal Character
R. Ann Siracusa: Finding Your Audience

PROMO VOLUNTEERS
Official Tweet Maven: Delaney Diamond (Twitter link)
Dawne Prochilo, Cassandra Carr, Chris Redding, Juliette Springs, Suzanne Rock, Heaven O'Shey, R.J. Garside

CAMP MODERATORS
Dawne Prochilo, Chris Redding, R.J. Garside, Carly Carson

GOODY BAGS
We are gathering giveaways for all attendees. If you have an item you'd like to share with the crowd (such as a how-to handout), email us at MFRW Staff Please put "Donation" in the subject.

DOOR PRIZES
For attendees only - you can win some fabulous prizes provided by our Friends of Romance (CoffeeTime Romance, Romance Junkies, and The Romance Studio). Other items such as blog tours, and author services from various sites will be offered. List will be updated daily.

More information here: http://marketingforromancewriters.org/camp.htm

Have fun!

Thank you all,
Linda

Promotion is NOT a Four Letter Word…

So they say.

When I decided to write, I thought I would spend all my time typing deathless prose into computer files. Spending hours making every word perfect, researching locations and dress for gorgeous descriptions.

Well, yes, writing includes that. Writing also means convincing someone to buy said deathless prose, containing all those perfect words and beautiful descriptions. In a word, promotion.

Promotion involves blogs, yahoo loops, online chats, websites, book signings, social networking sites, book trailers, web radio and TV. And then there’s Amazon listmania, Google alerts and lots of other things I have no information about.

Only a year ago, except for the book signings and yahoo loops, I had no idea most of this stuff existed. Now, except for the book trailers, web radio/TV and book signings (kind of hard to sign a PDF file), I’ve done them all.

Would I prefer to promote or write deathless prose? Come now, do you really need to ask? Of course, the prose wins, hands down. Do I like promotion? Some is fun, but it takes a LOT of time, time I could spend writing more deathless prose.

But then, nothing in life is perfect, and I have to do some promotion. I just have to find what works and stick to that.

OK, now, since I’m an author with a book just out, here comes the Shameless Promotion.

Pumpkinnapper is my Regency Halloween comedy-- Pumpkin thieves, a youthful love rekindled and a jealous goose. Oh my! Available from The Wild Rose Press. As I post this entry, Pumpkinnapper is on The Wild Rose Press's site bestseller list.

Two reviews so far, from Penelope's Reviews (rating A-) and Night Owl Reviews (3 1/2 hearts, contains spoilers)

Pumpkinnapper Buy link here.

I also have a Regency time travel, Lady of the Stars--A legend spanning time, and the man and woman caught in it--also available from The Wild Rose Press.

Reviews are here.
Lady of the Stars Buy link here.

So, send me a friend request. Visit my website, my social network pages, and all my group blogs. And buy my books. Please.

Thank you all
Linda

Release Day - Lady of the Stars, Regency time travel

The day has finally arrived. Here's my book page on The Wild Rose Press site. The page was up last night, with a note that the book would be available on January 7.

Well, January 7 it is, and I even got my first sale. Author Lindsay Townsend bought what must have been the first copy. Thank you, Lindsay.

Today has been more than a year and a half coming. In May, 2007, I saw the notice for The Wild Rose Press's "Through The Garden Gate" contest. I entered with "Lady of the Stars" and lost. All the gory details are here on my August 3 post. But in losing, I won. The story is now published, and I learned an awful lot in the process. Thank you, Wild Rose Press, for your time and effort.

Today is a day of Shameless Promotion. I'm at Brenda Williamson's Romance Party all day, and the Wild Rose Press loop from 9-10AM Eastern.

And take a look at Kaye Manro's blog. Thank you, Kaye.

Thank you all,
Linda

A Good Year

Now, as 2008 ends, it’s time to reflect on the past year.

Looking back:

I entered four RWA contests. I neither won nor finaled. Mainly because my heroine doesn't appear in the first twenty pages. Maybe this book won't sell as it stands, but I'll have to see what an editor or agent says.

The Wild Rose Press gave me my first contract for my novella, Lady of the Stars. Lady started life as an entry in TWRP's Through the Garden Gate time travel contest. I lost. But they saw enough to ask me to resubmit, and I resubmitted twice before they accepted the story. For all the gory details, see my blog post And How Did You Become An Author?

Before and after submitting, I learned a lot from the Wild Rose Press. Their suggestions made my story better and helped me with my next submission. Thank you, Wild Rose Press, for giving me a chance.

I started promotion. Oh, my. Talk about culture shock. I had no idea what promotion involved. Writing is very hard work, but promotion is even harder, maybe because I'm not the outgoing type. Luckily for me, with online promotion, I can still hide to some extent. I now have a blog, a website, accounts on myspace, facebook, goodreads, and I will start a twitter account. And I belong to forty-five yahoo loops.

In between all that time-consuming promotion, I finished NaNoWriMo (52,084 words) and I wrote my second novella, Pumpkinnapper. TWRP gave me a contract for Pumpkinnapper without asking for a resubmission.

Looking forward:

2009 starts with the release of Lady of the Stars on January 7. I hope it fares well.

Happy New Year.

Thank you all,

Linda

More Shameless Promotion (Does She Ever Stop?)

Do I have a choice?
From what I can see, authors have to promote all the time. But it does take a toll on your writing.
Just this past week, historical romance superstar Loretta Chase left the Word Wenches blog so she could have more time for writing. As sorry as I am to see her go, I understand her dilemma. Although she is a wildly popular author, she has to keep writing books people want to buy. Good writing takes time. Writing blog entries can suck up a lot of that time, and you're not getting paid for it.
Lest we forget, the purpose of a writer's blog is to sell books. In my August 10, 2008 post I talked about how saturated the web is with blogs. They may not be as effective now as they once were, and an author could hurt herself if she lets her book suffer because she spends her time blogging.
But I'm a newbie, and I have to learn about promotion. Six months ago I knew next to nothing about it. Then I had this blog, but hadn't yet written a post. I didn't have a website, or know what myspace was, or how to upload a picture. I still have to work on the pictures, but I'm a whole lot farther than I was.
I'm trying. I certainly hope some of this stuff works.

Thank you all,
Linda

Shameless Promotion, Again

And I thought a website and a blog plus a million loops was enough promotion.

No. Now everyone also needs an account on a networking site. Some examples of networking sites are Myspace and Facebook.

Other networking sites I've heard suggested are Twitter, Red Room, and Booktour. I've never heard of the last two, but they are supposed to be ones that authors and readers frequent.

So, OK, I now have a page on myspace--http://www.myspace.com/lindabanche

There isn't much on it yet, but I'll add to it as I go along.

I also have an account on goodreads. goodreads is all about books. I can put up the books I like, and there are other people with the same tastes as mine. It's also hooked up to Facebook, so when I get my Facebook account, I'll have less setup to do.

I will probably also get an account on shelfari.com, another readers' and authors' loop. I've heard that publishers come to shelfari looking for people who read their authors' books. They might send you an ARC (advance reading copy) in hopes of getting a review.

OK, so here's the shameless promotion. Please go to my myspace and goodreads accounts and send me a friend request, or ask me to send you one.

I'm on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/lindabanche

and goodreads at http://www.goodreads.com/profile/lindabanche

And when I set up other accounts I'll ask again.

Thank you all,

Linda

Shameless Promotion II

Last Wednesday, August 27, I participated in a promotion event "Fall Into A Good Book" with fourteen other authors in the Latte Lounge at Coffee Time Romance. We posted excerpts, had contests and answered posts. And there was lots of activity, right up until the end.

It was a lot of fun, but also exhausting. Whoever thinks you're not
working when you're sitting down is dead wrong.

Still, I wonder if all the activity helped sell any books. Were lots of
lurkers watching? I hope so, because it appeared we fifteen authors
were talking to each other.

I base my observation on our contests. After I had sat for a while with
only two entries, I entered as many contests as I could, just so the
others would have some participation. All told, I received five contest
entries, each one from a participating author. Did the others receive so few?

I think so. I won six contests. Six out of fifteen?

One problem may have been access to the Latte Lounge. One author
told me several of her friends tried to get in, but couldn't.

The Latte Lounge is a forum, which is similar to a Yahoo group, but
haslots of graphics available to enhance your posts. All in all, a very
nice place to post. But it's not a Yahoo group and using it may require
a little practice.

Or maybe no one was interested. I grant you, there are lots of books
out there, and everyone wants a piece of your time.

So, I'll have to wait and see if posting on loops and forums helps to drive sales.

But if you're interested in reading some great excerpts from our Fall Into a Good Book event, click on this link. You don't need to login to read.

Thank you all,
Linda

To Blog Or Not To Blog, That Is The Question (My Apologies to the Bard)

We authors have to blog, right?

Maybe, maybe not.

Published authors say you have to blog. It's part of promotion.

It's also part of getting an agent's or publisher's attention. When you send out that query letter, the first thing she (I'm assuming romance agents and editors, and most of them are female) will do is click over to your blog to see how you write. Forget that she has your letter if front of her. A letter is formal, on-your-best-behavior writing, and it should be. First impressions are important. Even if you live in jeans, you wouldn't go to a wedding wearing them. A blog is, or may be, a better indicator of how you really write.

But here's another take on blogging, as a form of online promotion, on Romancing The Blog

http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/2008/07/25/the-bottom-line-on-online-promo

According to this article (written on a blog, natch), blogs now saturate the web. How will anyone find mine? Either I spend all my time flitting from blog to blog, or I write a book.

I grant you, I don't spend too much time on my blog, only about an hour or so week. It probably shows. And even with that minimal effort, I spend half the time cajoling it past Blogger's html, which doesn't like the header information Word puts into the master file. Ah, the wonders of technology. This week I'm trying OpenOffice. Let's see if it helps.

So, to blog or not to blog? I think I'll keep it up for a while.

And for us newbie authors out there, lose the "that" as the subject of a sentence. I'll remind Shakespeare the next time I see him.

Thank you all,

Linda