Just Pin It! #MFRWauthors Use @Pinterest for Book Promotion

Let's talk about Pinterest.

It's not just for fun. It can be another FREE social networking tool for authors. MFRW grabbed onto this tool and has successfully been sharing pins with potential readers for awhile now. We provide MFRW authors the chance to be highlighted on our boards but wouldn't it be even better to have your own Pinterest account?

This post is intended to walk you through the process of getting started. Try it. Then leave a comment and tell us how you did. Or if you already have a Pinterest account, comment and share how you use it.

Start with the basics... go to www.pinterest.com.

1. Open an account and set up your profile (being sure to add your links). Your profile will look similar to twitter - you have a limited amount of space to identify yourself so be mindful of your words. BONUS: You can even use your facebook account to set up your account and make it even simpler!

2. Install the PIN IT button onto your browser toolbar. This little button makes it a one-step process to put your pins onto boards while you're on-line. To install it, click the + button on the top of the pinterest screen, then click on Pin It button and it will take you through the process.

That's it for set up and now you're ready!

It's that easy? Yes, yes it is.

Now you get to have some fun but we're going to call it work so... time to get to work!

3. Create some Boards.

Just CLICK on the + button along the top again. Choose Create a Board. Name it. Categorize it. CLICK Create Board. Some good choices are things that interest you (check mine out for ideas) and that can tell readers more about you as an author and as a person. NOTE that you can always add more boards at any time. Some ideas include a Books Board, Guest Post Board, Features Board and a Review Board. You can even create a board for each of your books or series, published or WIPs. Add a board for important quotes and potential character ideas.

4. Add Pins.

There are lots of ways to do this. First, you can use that same + button along the top to add pins from the web or to upload some from your computer. You can use your Pin It button to add any photos from any website. You can also browse the general Pinterest site by clicking on the word Pinterest in the top center of the screen, browse and re-pin. Put some fun pins on your boards - don't worry right away about perfection.

Be cautious of copyright in regards to photos you pin! It's best to use photos you own or, if not, be sure the original source is listed in the pin's description. You can verify the source link is there by clicking on the pin and viewing the pin's details. 

Pinning Your Books?

This is where you definitely want to use the Pin It button. By pinning from a buy link -i.e. pin your book from Amazon- when others click on it, they'll be linked automatically to a place to purchase your book. If the pin came directly from a particular site, clicking the pin once it's opened will take you to the place from where it was pinned.

How does this help your business?

You will advertise to a wider audience. People who may not have otherwise find you will see you here. Check out this pin with more information on the benefits of Pinterest.

AUTHORS who use Pinterest well (& each a bit differently):

Karen Cote   |   Lisa Carlisle   |   Rayne Hall   |   Vicki Batman   |  Kayelle Allen   |    Cara Bristol

Want to do just enough? Here's a Checklist for the BASICS:

1. Pin all your blog posts and books with links back to your blog or purchase location.

2. Click that little "tweet" button every time you add an important pin. These pins will get shared -through a vast network- and should bring people back to you.

3. Include the link to your Pinterest Profile wherever you include all other social networking links. It's another outlet for you to get recognition.

Here's a Unique Board -Writer's Resources- with lots of good pins for authors. You can create engaging boards like this too.

So, what are you waiting for? Pin It!

And Keep Writing!

Paloma
Paloma Beck is a Romance Author living a life of contradiction... she's a happily married carpooling mom writing erotic romance. It's almost naughty! Paloma writes full-time and has three series in the works with others on the fringes. Her books span both the contemporary and paranormal romance genres.

CONNECT WITH PALOMA ON PINTEREST.

Newbie's World: Most Efficient & Most Effective Author Marketing

A Newbie's World with Erin...

What is the best use of my marketing time and will bring me the most sales?

Starting out as a new author, I had little idea how much time I would be expected to devote to marketing my book. And it all seemed overwhelming: Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, Pinterest, blog posts… But do any of these really generate new sales? It is my belief, backed up by some marketing experts, that most of our social media is merely an avenue for fans to find authors they already like and admire, not necessarily a place to generate new sales[i].

Social media is all about engagement, i.e. after that fan/reader has already bought your product, then they will want to know more about you and your other works. But not necessarily before. If you have to go looking for followers or likes, or use give-aways to get more people there, then you are probably not generating sales via social media. Yet.  

So what will bring a reader to you? REVIEWS. 

Reviews help Amazon to promote your book for you. I read somewhere (though of course I can no longer find the source!) that after 30 reviews, Amazon starts to list your book in its recommendations.  In addition, the more reviews, the more likely a potential reader is to buy your book. Think about it – we want a trusted source – other consumers – to tell us that this book is great!

So how do you get them? Unfortunately, it involves EFFORT.

There is no easy way to get more reviews. Here are the ones I have discovered:

1.  Friends and family: your network is always your best shot. Ask people who you know have read your books in a personalized email (not a mass email), and explain why reviews are important to you. I also include some tips – ask them to talk about why they liked a specific character, setting, or theme in your book.

2. Review groups: reviewing other authors’ books for a review in turn. These should never be reciprocal reviews, however, as Amazon frowns on this practice. And, it might give a bit of dishonesty to your review. MFRW often offers up new review groups starting up.

3. Bloggers: check out bloggers who review your type of books. Simply Google your genre and reviews and you should get a bunch. Also try the same search on Facebook. Personally, I have not had as much luck with bloggers, however one good trick is to include a few pieces of personal information on the specific blogger in your request. For instance, “I read your review on…and thought you might be interested in my novel___ because of its themes of ____.” Also be sure to always find and use the blogger’s name and some other piece of information about them (likes, personal preferences, hometown, whatever).

4. Regular people: search on Amazon for books like yours, and then find reviews that don’t seem to be from a friend or family member. If the reviewer has an email address listed, send them an email and ask if they would be interested in your book in return for a review. No obligation.

5. If possible, in your next release, include a note to your readers about how much you appreciate their feedback (listing all of your contact information), and then make a request for reviews. Note how important they are for you.

---

[i] recent Verso survey estimated that barely 12% of books are discovered from social networks whereas 50% are passed on via personal recommendations. (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jun/06/become-an-ebook-superstar)

Sources:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/RNCWTLEMV71VM  (great information here!!)

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/352865-you-want-your-book-tagged-on-amazon

http://thefutureofpublishing.com/2012/04/what-have-we-learned-about-amazon-book-reviews/

Think Twitter is better for generating sales? Leave your thoughts!

Erin
Erin writes paranormal romances as Erin Moore and has only just begun to learn all about marketing them! She contributes to the MFRW Marketing Blog with her monthly column, A Newbie's World.

She is usually found on Twitter, but may soon be on an Amazon binge, so look out! She manages two monsters and one unruly husband in Atlanta, main-lining chocolate and tea. Look her up on www.AuthorErinMoore.com or, of course, on Twitter: @AuthorErinMoore.

What's HOT?? What's NOT???

We hear the question, ask the question, participate in discussions about the question. What is hot in books today? What are readers poring over when they should be sleeping, cleaning, cooking (writing!) or mingling with live people instead of characters in a book? And when we hear or read the question, don't we all just lean forward just a bit to hear the answer? Maybe click on that link to read someone the words from on high, if it's a hot agent or editor?

And don't we sigh a bit when we learn that shape shifters/vampires/elven lords are out, gone, passe, never to be sold or read again? Especially since we're just polishing our unique take on shape shifters/vampires/elven lords.

How many of us put that book away and force ourselves to start something that's up with the times? Only to read a few months later about the sale of an innovative shape shifter/vampire/elven lord series? I'm hoping I don't see a show of hands out there. Anyone who has been in the writing business for more than five years should have learned by now, there is no way to predict what people will be reading six months from now.

Every time we think we understand market trends, they take a sharp turn to the left and leave us in the dust.
The new and exciting and innovative books we see on the shelves NOW were bought up to two years ago, often presented by agents who believed in the work. Especially the 'Big Six' published books. Anyone who scrambles to emulate those books is already months or years behind the trend. If you follow the publishing news, you might learn when those books are bought, so you're not as far behind the starting line. Of course we won't know how the books fare until they are on the shelves and/or in our e-reader.

Remember when Western movies, or television shows, were dead? Or Space Opera, or Relationship or...? Until along came something so exiting, so well done, it grabbed the viewing audience by the the throat and made massive amounts of lovely cash for all participating?

What's hot? A well written book. A book with characters who grab our hearts, put into situations where we cringe for them and stay up late to read their success. For romances, what's hot is the HEA in spite of all odds.

What's hot is what people want to read, written by people passionate about their words. Okay, dino porn is also hot right now, but so were Pet Rocks (for anyone here old enough to remember them!) Rather than writing to trend, think about writing to last. What makes those keeper books stay on the shelves? Which sounds like a great topic for next month.

Monica

When Opportunity Strikes, Attend EPICon2014 @EPICorg

When Opportunity Strikes

Sometimes writers become conditioned to writing just one genre—one area—it’s safe because they know what to do—how to go about it. However, sometimes being safe is not always the best course of action.

Workshop Presenter, John Foxjohn, is a perfect example of a writer leaving the “safe” mode, and it paying off. Killer nurse fell in John’s lap. John Foxjohn's true crime book, Killer Nurse, was the result of seizing an opportunity. What will you do if something falls into yours?

EPIC, the Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition™ (www.epicorg.com) was established in 1998 and is a global organization of published authors and industry-related professionals who actively advocate continuing education and further enlightenment of electronic publications.

EPIC’s annual conference, EPICon™, invites industry professionals to share the latest eIndustry information, hone writing and editing skills, and explore new markets and promotional ideas. Keynote luncheon speakers range from world-renowned authors to established publishing houses to eBook and print agents. For more information, please visit http://www.epicorg.com.

Register today at EPIC.org!

Presenter Biography
JOHN FOXJOHN
The Pineywoods of East Texas have produced many things, including international best-selling author John Foxjohn. A country boy at heart, Foxjohn often says, “I was born and raised so far back in the woods they had to pump sunshine to us.” With little to do but hunt and fish, Foxjohn’s environment created an atmosphere that fostered imagination and dreams, something Foxjohn would excel at.

At the tender age of seventeen, he quit high school and joined the army. Foxjohn’s six years would see him graduate from jump school, ranger school, and become the youngest sergeant in the peacetime army. A tour in Viet Nam and Germany highlighted an extremely successful stint for Foxjohn. After an honorable discharge, Foxjohn followed that with ten years in law enforcement, including a long tour as a homicide detective. Fulfilling a promise to his dying mother, Foxjohn graduated from college and began a new adventure of teaching and coaching football.

Foxjohn had one of his childhood dreams left to accomplish. When he was twelve, he’d read a book about Crazy Horse. He said then that one day he would write a book about the fabled Lakota war chief. After retiring, Foxjohn became a writer, and the first book he wrote was a historical fiction titled, The People’s Warrior: a book about Crazy Horse.

Now considered one of the rising stars in publishing, Foxjohn has published in six different genres, and readers worldwide clamor for his books. And yes, Foxjohn says he’s still dreaming.

Moderating the MFRW Facebook Group - Contacting Potential Members #MFRWorg

In my inaugural post about moderating the MFRW Facebook group last month, I talked about screening requests. This month I’m going to pick up where I left off and discuss what I do with join requests that require a little more attention.

When I’ve done my run-through of things I look at in a profile and determined the account is probably not spam but also have not found what I’m looking for, I send the requestor a Facebook message. I keep it fairly short and simply introduce myself, thank the individual for the request to join, and ask about her/his/their connection to the literary community. Originally, my note said only that; as more responders seemed to wonder why I was asking, I expanded and tweaked my original message to explain the nature of MFRW and why it isn’t best-suited to those who are purely readers. This saves the time it was taking to explain that to people when they wrote back asking why I was asking. Kayelle also recently came up with the idea of putting a "deadline" date in my message, explaining that I will delete the request on a certain date if I have not heard back by then. That’s worked out very well in keeping the queue manageable, as it is not unheard of for the group to receive up to 15+ requests per day at times.

I’d estimate at this point that I receive a reply about half the time, and the response almost always supplies the information I’m seeking and results in a new MFRW Facebook group member. In a few cases, people have responded months later and explained that they just discovered my message (generally in their "Other" box—see next paragraph), at which time I reply with a link to the group and ask them to send another request, which I approve as soon as I see.

One way Facebook has made this kind of communication a bit challenging is by sending messages from people who are not one’s Facebook friends to the individual’s “Other” messages folder. I'm pretty sure some people don't even know they have an "Other" folder, much less how to find it. If, incidentally, you’re not familiar with your "Other" folder, you can locate it thusly: Click on the "Messages" icon on the top of your Facebook profile. When the box opens, look right next to the word "Inbox" on the top left, and you’ll see the word "Other" in gray, followed by a number in parentheses (the number of messages you have in your "Other" box). This folder usually contains messages from people you don't know/with whom you aren’t connected on Facebook or mass messages from FB Pages with which you may be associated.

Over the last few months, I have noticed Facebook doesn’t seem to be sending my messages to "Other" folders so automatically. I suspect that having messages from non-friends go to the “Other” folder perhaps used to be a default setting and was recently made to be one we had to go in and set manually. (Note: To view or change these settings, go to your privacy settings and see the questions "Who can contact me?" and "Whose messages do I want filtered into my Inbox?") In any case, Facebook now tells me at the bottom of a message box that a message will go to someone's "Other" folder (conveniently offering me the option of paying $1.00 to have it go to the individual's regular message queue...), and this hasn't been showing up on nearly as many message boxes in recent months.

My overall aim with the request approval (or rejection) process is to strike a balance between letting in members—MFRW is an open group, and we want members, of course!—making sure members are well-suited for the group (i.e., have some connection to the professional literary community), and keeping out spam or other malicious profiles. Because of Facebook’s "Other" folder system, I do suspect we've lost legitimate potential members sometimes because they simply didn't see my message. At some point, though, it seems there’s only so much I can do…I admittedly tend to err on the side of caution in wanting to keep spam profiles out, which is something I’ll talk a little more about next month.

Thanks for reading!


Emerald
Emerald is an erotic fiction author whose short stories have been featured in anthologies published by Cleis Press, Mischief, and Logical-Lust. She serves as an assistant newsletter editor and Facebook group moderator for Marketing for Romance Writers (MFRW). Find out more about her at her website, The Green Light District, and follow her on Twitter @Emerald_theGLD.