When We Self Sabotage #MFRWAuthor

I met her in the Sprout's parking lot, the Summer sun blasting down on me. Intense heat and I are not the best of friends but I would face even worse for what she was bringing me. My heart beat harder as

 I took the package, covered in a plain brown bag, end stapled shut. At last, I could satisfy the craving she had created in me.
Mushrooms, folks...what the heck did you think I was blathering on about? Oyster mushrooms, to be precise. So much flavor, with such an amazing texture. This was the second bag she'd delivered, and this time she said the grower was happy to keep me supplied if I would just blog about them, get the word out among my various contacts.
Well...yeah of course I would! Share recipes? You betcha. Just send me the contact information...address of the farm, the website, the Facebook page. In preparation I took pictures of my bounty, and of some of the ways I used it (did you know good mushrooms make amazing hash browns? Seriously!)
My friend gave me a business name, and I turned to my good friend Google. To find...nothing.
Not one thing about this person, this farm. Heck I couldn't even bring up the farm address. I knew they had to exist, I had the proof in my fridge. Well what was left of the proof, anyway, after my 'shroom binge. Mmmmm.
Eventually my friend did get in touch with the farm owner, who said she'd have something up soon and was I able to get the word out? Well, not really since, except for the fungilicous 'shrooms there was no word to get out. When that information is available I will definitely swing into action. I've already primed my friends to descend up her for their own oyster mushrooms.
These people had a fabulous product but they were sabotaging their business.

Pretty picture to break up the text

How often do we do that to ourselves? How often do we have a fairly successful book release, or, heck, any book release, and we're caught flat footed without sufficient information about us, our other books (current or future) or any information about us which might attract potential readers. Yeah I know, we writers are a solitary sort. If we wanted to interact with people we wouldn't have selected such a solitary occupation.
When we find out people want to KNOW us we get that deer in the headlights feeling. However, unless we want to write books for giveaway, we need to get ourselves OUT THERE. That means a website, a blog, a Facebook or Twitter or whatever presence. We don't want to be winking in the dark, do we?
Confession time, I have my ups and downs about doing this for myself but I'm trying to overcome that problem. Resistance is, after all, futile! And with MFRW's own guru (AKA Kayelle Allen) we have no excuse, do we?

So I'll stick in a bit of promo for myself. The second Stormhaven book, A Question of Faith, is out and the third, A Questions of Trust, is well underway.
Stormhaven is a ranch in northern New Mexico that welcomes veterans not quite ready to move back into society. My heroes have put others first for so long, they've begun to think they don't deserve their own happiness.
Silly guys, they're actually just waiting for their perfect mate!
I'm available through Black Opal Books , on Amazon, and at Mona's Blog

When not clandestinely acquiring mushrooms or pounding the keyboard, Mona helps monitor the MFRW discussion group. Yeah, she's the one who begs you to PLEASE trim and remember to promote your fellow writers, not yourselves. Which makes for a stronger writing community, don't you think?

Do The Retweet Day with #MFRWauthor and #MFRWorg

Retweet Day for #MFRWauthor - Join the fun

For this month's Retweet Day on Twitter, we'd like to invite all Marketing for Romance Writers to set up tweets for their books.

Go into Twitter and create a tweet. Make sure to use #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg

Once the tweet has been posted, click the ... (three dots) in the right hand corner.

This will give you the option to (copy link to tweet). Copy the link and put it in the comment section of this post.

Remember to visit the blog on Second Monday of the month. You can post your tweet until the second Wednesday of the month.

Retweet Day is on the second Wednesday of the month and retweet everyone on the list.

Also in an effort to help people find tweets to share of yours, click the ... (three dots) again and pin your tweet to your profile page. This will give you an easy way to find and count how many people retweeted your post.

Don't forget the Rules

1. Have #MFRWauthor or #MFRWorg in the tweet. (This retweet day is to promote each other and our group.)

2. Do not use profanity or sexual explicit graphics. Keep it for all age groups.

3. Return on Retweet Day and click each link and share everyone's post on Twitter.

4. Click the G+ symbol on the tweet so you can see where you left off, and to add a little more visibility to the post.

5. No more than 3 hashtags in a post. Any more than this and Twitter might believe it is spam.

Here's to a great day of retweets,

Tina Gayle

Writing contemporary romance, Tina Gayle enjoys wring stories that has strong women fiction elements as well as touch the heart. Her writing started at a young age when she created storied to help put herself to sleep. Now, she spends her days living her dreams. 
Find her at www.tinagayle.net  or pick up her free read at https://www.instafreebie.com/free/EwL6x

Difference Between KDP and KDP Select by Kayelle Allen @kayelleallen #writerslife #MFRWauthor

Have you ever wondered what the difference between KDP and KDP Select is? Authors who self publish on Amazon use Kindle Direct Publishing. Once you upload, you're asked if you also want to join Kindle Select. This is an exclusive contract with Amazon and will place your book into Kindle Unlimited (KU). The contract runs 90 days from signing and auto renews unless you cancel prior to that date. It will put your book in Kindle Unlimited for readers. Members pay $9.99 a month and can read as much as they want of all books in KU system. In addition, you will get paid by the page count of pages read.

Breaking it down

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) - all self-pub authors on Amazon

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) + Kindle Select (also called KDP Select) - exclusive contract, no sales outside Amazon (except print), includes Kindle Unlimited

I sell my books on my own site but only the print books for the ones on Select. It's exclusively exclusive. No ebook sales anywhere else.

My recommendation is to go with "wide distribution" for your first book Sign up at these sites:

Amazon
Smashwords
CreateSpace

Here's what you'll get with each.

Amazon - total reach across all of Amazon

Smashwords - reach across all venues (you can publish from here to Amazon but why would you? You'd be cutting out your own royalty base b/c you'd share it with Smashwords.) You will get Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple iTunes (iBooks), plus many others.

CreateSpace - you'll be in print on any and all sites where you want to share it. You can go exclusive on Amazon and still sell the print on Smashwords.

If, after six months, you don't see awesome sales at non-Amazon distributors, consider going KDP Select and advertise as "free on Kindle Unlimited" (KU). You will get paid for purchases as well as pages read by those who only "borrow" the books.

What I Do

I have a number of books in that system. I make more in one month on Amazon than I do in a year on the other venues combined. It's different for every person. Be sure to advertise and include places where readers can buy your books. Don't say "I'm on Amazon" when you have an opportunity to write the actual URL to the book's page. Notice the banner above shows the icons for Amazon and CreateSpace, plus the hashtags #ScifiRom and #KindleUnlimited. These are cues to the reader what your book is about and when shared, gives them a way to know what hashtags to use on Twitter or Facebook.

Try everything with your books. They're yours. What works for others might not work for you. Whatever you decide, good luck with sales!

If you've used KDP Select, please share your opinions and tips in the comments.

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Kayelle Allen is a best-selling American author. Her unstoppable heroes and heroines include contemporary every day folk, role-playing immortal gamers, futuristic covert agents, and warriors who purr.

Homeworld/Blog https://kayelleallen.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/kayelleallen

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