7 fool-proof marketing tips to promote your blog

So, you want to promote your blog? Here are some blog marketing tips on how to do so.

1. Have good content, posted regularly. It’s best if this has a narrow scope. Since I write mostly genre fiction – fantasy and sci-fi – I post things of interest to fans and fellow authors. Use a catchy title for your posts.
2. Don’t be afraid to reblog. Be nice about it, though. Summarize the post you liked, adding a “to read more about this, visit…” link, with the original address. Mention the original blogger by name. They will be grateful, and your visitors will think of you as a portal that links to interesting information.
3. In the same manner, encourage people to reblog your posts and link back to you, ideally using your post’s title. Google loves external links, and the title contains your keywords.
4. Respond to comments on your blog and thank your readers for taking the time to comment.
5. Follow other blogs and comment on their posts. 
6. Be real, be yourself. You should only be doing this if it appeals to you; not as a chore. Neil Gaiman says it best: “I’m not sure if any [of what I do online] is networking. I mean, if it is, I never did it to Network. I did it because it was fun, and because writing can be a very lonely profession. It’s fun to have people to talk to, fun to have people who talk to you, and great to have people who will answer your questions (even if they’re wrong). I also feel that it levels the playing field, which I like.”
7. Publicize your posts across your social media platforms. I do this automatically; having connected my blog to my Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc accounts, every time I post something my followers are informed, leading them back to the blog.

You may wonder if the above is enough. Yes, if you are the patient kind, looking to develop a loyal fan base. This kind of growth, called organic growth, does not require that you pay anything for ads, but it is slow.

So, although content is king, there are  still a couple of things you can do to speed things along. These have to do with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and deserve some in-depth analysis.

7. Search Engine Optimization

You want to choose a keyword or short keyphrase (“long-tail-keyword” in the jargon) and use that throughout your post, ideally starting with the very title. Make sure it’s repeated a few times (say 2-5) in your text, including in the first paragraph, and add it to the post tags (in some platforms, “SEO Title” or “Meta Description”).

Your keyword/keyphrase has to be something a prospective reader will type into Google when they are looking for just the kind of thing you have written about. The more competitive it is, the less likely your blog post will make it to the top ten or twenty on the SERPs (search engine results pages). The prevailing wisdom regarding SERPs is, if your page does not make it into the top 20, it will likely never be discovered via the search engines, because the vast majority of searchers stop browsing after the second page of results. In this case, your best way to be discovered and read is probably by regular old word of mouth.

Remember that all this is a long term plan for your blogs, aiming at appearing in searches that people make. The traffic you then get is free, and consistent, however it can take months to really take effect.

The above information was gleamed, in part, from a conversation on LinkedIn.

Read more about Nicholas Rossis here.

5 Writing Tips from JK Rowling

Who doesn't want writing advice from this chick?

I think that most writers admire J.K. Rowling.  We’ve heard how she spent hours writing her books in an Edinburgh café (I vote for Nicholson’s, but Edinburgh café owners seem entangled in a heated debate regarding which one she actually preferred, and I have heard a number of possible options, never quite sure as to which one is the true one. Could it be she frequented more than one??). We know how her manuscripts were declined by an astounding number of publishers (something that most writers experience), how she was broke but still wrote and how eventually she managed to turn things around for herself.  The rest is history, and I guess that most authors, whether self-published or trad-pub, pray night and day that they will have her good fortune (I know I do).

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that anything she suggests in terms of writing tips, this time on E-books India, is taken pretty seriously.  As you know, I am not one to follow rules but I think that in this case, she makes some good points:

• Write strategically: don’t advertise or disclose details that are tell-tale regarding the rest of the plot. Make your story mysterious, leave tips but do not reveal how you are planning to end the book.  Especially if you are writing a series of books, you really want your readers to be anxious to see what happens next, so telling them the plot from the first book misses the point.  Yesterday night, a very good friend called me and said –after having read books 1 and 2 of my series- that I was despicable for killing a hero (whom I had not killed, but my friend assumed I had) and that he hadn’t slept all night, wondering what happens next?  Naturally, I felt very proud of myself and offered to send him book 3 so that he could read the next installment – and let his wife sleep.

• Make your characters flawed: we all like to read about people that are amazing – but not too much so. We still need to be able to relate to them, even if we find them incredible.  Part of our relation to them includes their flaws.  Characters cannot be perfect because that is unrealistic.  I think there is an important balance to be maintained, with a realistic character that borders on the boring on one end and a character that is absolutely astounding, but practically impossible to identify with on the other.  So, make your characters interesting, stimulating, capable of doing admirable things, but also flawed.  Characters with a twist!
  

• Background characters have to remain in the background: choose which characters are vital to the story and develop their background – as long as it’s relevant to the story. Writing pages upon pages of background stories about secondary characters will exhaust most readers, especially if they don’t see the significance to the general plot.  I know that my previous post was about how long books sell better than shorter ones, but let’s not abuse this rule guideline!

• Be fearless: Let’s face it: if we write about what we know, we will write about ourselves. And most of us are common, normal, boring, ordinary characters. The trick is to use our imagination to give this conventional character the wings to fly with. Have them do something incredible without making this act appear out of place.  Complexity being part of our life, two-dimensional characters are uninteresting.  Three-dimensional ones are the ones people like to read about.

• Write for yourself. I know that you have probably heard this one about a thousand times and are raising your eyebrows going, “oh, not again!”, but it’s true.  If you write for yourself, readers will see the authenticity of your writing and will love it.  If it has worked for J. K. Rowling, I guess that it’s bound to work for other people too.  Hence, write about what you feel comfortable with. For example, I would probably be lousy at romance or historic novels, as I’m not comfortable with the genres. I would probably be better at mystery, but I love writing children’s stories and fantasy/sci-fi.  Having defined the writing area within which I feel secure and confident, writing anything else would appear false.  Therefore, I plan to follow J.K. Rowling’s tip on that one – at least for now!

Photos by Debra Hurford Brown and from these websites here and here.

Read more about Nicholas Rossis here.

SECRETS TO MARKETING THAT REALLY WORK

My marketing strategy is really very simple. So simple, in fact, that it can be summed up in three bullets: 

• Be real,
• Be fun,
• Be helpful.

If you do that, people will buy your books simply because they will like you and will want to support you. In other words, “If people like what you’re saying, they’ll buy what you’re selling.”

I have read many marketing guides, but have come to realize that it all boils down to how people perceive you. In marketing speech, your brand.

Having a consistent author brand is liberating. It allows you to publish pretty much anything you like, irrespective of genre. People will read your books because you have written them – and they trust you to offer them a good time.

That's Great.  How about some real tips now?

The other day, a visitor to my blog asked me for some marketing advice. She has published dozens of work, but they encompassed anything from poetry to Bible studies. She had had little luck promoting these, as her marketing efforts spread too thin to be effective.

After taking a look at her social media and her work, I suggested she used her blog as her main point of reference. She has a lot working for her there:

• She has an engaging, fun style of writing that makes people leave comments.
• She promptly responds to said comments, which is the best way to be real.
• She offers interesting and helpful information.
• Finally, she offer freebies, and uses those to get people’s email addresses. So, she can keep in touch with visitors.

In other words, she is already following my real-fun-helpful advice and has built what is, effectively, a great shop front. Now, all she needs is bring more people in.

The first thing I noticed working against her, is post frequency. Her latest post was last week, but before that she had posted in late October. And before that? In August.

One needs to post at least once a week for a blog to be an effective means of brand-building. Even simple reblogs help, although fresh material always carries more punch.

Second, she needed to connect her posts to the rest of her social presence. The first step is to announce her posts across her social media whenever she publishes something. This can be set up to happen automatically. But that’s just the beginning.

One also needs to repost your posts on a regular basis. For example, post on Google+ backlinks to your blog every week – heck, every day if you can! Choose a different post each time, and backlink to it. Google will immediately push your blog up in searches, thus generating easy (and free) visibility.

I’m stressing Google+ here because of the way Google allows its content to influence its search results. I’ve noticed that I might need to post a link on Facebook ten times to achieve the increase in visibility a single time on G+ guarantees.

You can also schedule automatic tweets to do the same thing, using a service like SocialOomph.

Whenever I promote an older post, I immediately notice the uptick in visits. Posts that nobody would read, suddenly receive comments and reblogs – and bring in new visitors. This is an easy way to make your content work for you.

All this will bring more people in. It’s is then up to you to provide them with fun and helpful content, and to interact in a real manner. This will help boost your brand, and, indirectly, sell your books.

And that will work?  

You’re probably wondering just how effective this can possibly be. Well, let me offer an example. The other day, I hosted a Facebook party for an hour. The organizer had told me to use that hour to promote my books. Instead, I invited my friends and asked them to talk about theirbooks.

It took some convincing, as they did not want to steal my moment on the spotlight, but they did. This was followed by a fascinating discussion on the present and future of publishing. The hour flew by, and I still had not uttered a single word about me. The poor organizer kept sending me private messages: “You now have 45′ to discuss your books.” “30 minutes left!” “Ten minutes!”

Five minutes before my hour was up, I posted a couple of links with a simple “if you want to find out about me or my work, here’s the links” kind of message.

The next morning I saw that I had sold eight copies, without even trying!

So, my marketing secret is simple: don’t sell your books – sell yourself. And the best way to do that is (repeat after me):

• Be real,
• Be fun,
• Be helpful.

Fine Print 

There is just one caveat with all that: I start with being real because humans have a remarkably sensitive bull#$ meter, honed to perfection by eons of practice. So, don’t pretend to want to help, then ignore people who ask you for your advice. Don’t even bother if you don’t like the idea of connecting with people.

Being fun and helpful is great even if you don’t sell books. They will make you new friends, and that’s even more precious. Plus, it does wonders for your karma! :)

Read more about Nicholas Rossis here.

What Do People Like to Read on Blogs?

My day job being internet promotions, social media, SEO and web development, I fully understand the importance of content marketing: rather than selling something directly (for instance, ‘buy my book’) it’s much better to create content that people enjoy. Through this connection, they will get to know you and eventually may buy your book. Again, though, it’s quite tough to find out what makes followers want to come back to your blog.

Inevitably, to understand what people might enjoy on my blog, I refer to what I seek on other people’s blogs. First of all, I like to get a feel about the blogger. I enjoy informative posts, but also like to discover the experience a blogger has, an event in their life or a new knowledge acquired.

As always, the universe answered my prayers and provided me with the infographic below, found on Red Website Design. It presents what people like reading about. Going through the list, I nodded to myself, thinking “Oh, I like reading that’ and “Of course, that makes sense” (incidentally, the Red Website Design Blog has a lot of lovely material, so be sure to check it out).

So, what’s my takeaway from it? I tend to focus on the following:

• Content that takes us along a journey: writing being a journey, I like reading how other people have managed through their travel, what they’ve learnt and how they overcame difficulties. I particularly like series of blog posts that narrate a whole event in small episodes. It makes me impatient to read more on the next post.

• Content that reveals secrets: I check out most posts whose titles have something along the lines “Where to advertise your book”, “How to sell copies of your book” and “Secrets to marketing and promoting your book”.

• Content that confirms our assumptions: I was on Scoop.it the other day (useful tool, by the way – thank you MMJaye!) and I was going through the suggestions they had for me. I checked out every single one that claimed that self-publishing is the way to go, rather than traditional publishing. I did check the supporters of traditional publishing just out of curiosity and to play devil’s advocate. It felt safe and pleasant to feel that what I am doing is the right thing to do.

• Content that encourages us to never give up: Being a writer means that you take a leap of faith and pray that you will grow wings as you fall. I haven’t (yet) given up my day job, but there is hope that someday I will manage to live a comfortable life by selling my books. Reading about other authors or entrepreneurs who, after years of efforts, reached their dreams, encourages me. It makes me want to read more about how they did it.

• Content that has unexpected twists: life is unpredictable (cliché, but real!). Also, there is nothing safe or secure in life: it took me a long time to realize that nothing lasts forever. No matter how much we want it, there is ultimately no security in our lives: things change, we grow older, jobs are lost, people die, crises happen, new people are born, new friendships are made… things rise and fall, come and go. During all this chaos, things and events bring in unexpected twists. Now, twists can be challenging and humbling. But they can also be constructive and favourable. In any case, it’s good to read how a twist led to something new because it gives a new perspective for our own twists in life.

• Content that gives us faith in bigger things: when I first sold 10 books, I was ecstatic. But then, I realized that I had only earnt some $3. I had to believe that more would come (build it and they will come, sort of thing). I started going through blogs where the blogger would explain how the 10 books became 100 in 12 months and how progress was geometric after that. I liked reading something reassuring me that if I tried and persevered, bigger things would come.

As I write these lines, I realize that these 21 types of content are not confined merely to blog content. They actually work in life. People like to hear about things that make them laugh or cry; they want to be reminded that life should be enjoyed; they want to be educated and entertained. They seek validation and a pleasant experience.

So, although I started this blog post with 21 ideas about improving your blog posts, I end it with just a single one: use your blog to bond with people and make new friends!

Read more about Nicholas Rossis here.

I Just Published my Book. Now What?

First of all, congratulations! You’re now a published author – and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Second, you’d be amazed how often I hear that question in LinkedIn’s author groups. With some 3,000 new books published every day, I have serious doubts that you can just sit back and wait for readers to stumble on your book, or for word of mouth to work its magic. The chances of that happening are probably similar to that of winning the lottery, in which case you don’t even need the long hours and hard work that goes hand-in-hand with a career as an author (if you don’t believe me, you may want to check out this post by Pedro Barrento on Indies Unlimited).

So, what are the next steps after publication? Before I can answer that, I need to ask one question of my own first: is this your first book? You see, until you’ve written at least three books, the simple answer is, “get started on the next one.” Once you have a minimum of three books, promoting them gets so much easier.

Before you begin: take a deep breath.  You can't do everything all at once.  Bookmark this page, work on one step at a time (start off with either the one that seems most appealing or most do-able).  Once you're feeling comfortable with that, come back here and start on something else.

1. Platform Building:  When are posts about your books interesting to readers/followers? When they are engaging. For example, in the meantime, you should do what you’ve hopefully been doing since the day you decided to become an author: expand your platform. This refers to the social media you visit. Don’t make the mistake of tweeting incessantly about your book. Instead, be yourself, be helpful and courteous and have fun. Make new friends, exchange ideas and view the whole thing as an experience authors would kill a dozen years ago to have. The ability to share manuscripts, beta-read and network with people across the globe is a thing of beauty. Be sure to take full advantage of it by offering people what they need.

§  When the posts are about them, not about you, as when you’re running a discount/free day, and want them to have the best possible deal;

§  When you want to share something really wonderful and you’re genuinely enthusiastic;

§  When you’re asking for their help/opinion on something;

§  When they’re helpful to your audience.

§  Find a cool/inspirational/chilling quote from one of your books and tweet that

The golden rule is, don’t think of people as buyers, but as friends. And the test here is, would you want to read the post you’ve just written if it had just arrived to your timeline? If not, chances are that few others will.

So, what can you do to expand your platform? Write engaging, helpful and unique content. The idea here is that people will think, “Here’s someone with something interesting to say. Perhaps their book will be equally interesting.” There is no silver bullet for building one’s platform. I often see people agonize over metrics: ratings, number of followers/tweets etc. These are only useful as an indication of whether you’re moving in the right direction, and little else. If, for example, you notice that a specific topic is of interest to your new friends, write more posts on that topic. Other topics that bore them, can safely be dropped. We are authors; by definition this means that we can research and write up posts on a number of subjects. Take advantage of our chosen profession’s strengths to help people.

When should you start working on your platform? Ideally, a few years before you publish. If it’s too late for that, you can start right away; just remember that you’re an author, not a social media expert: first and foremost, you need time to work on your writing.

How to use FREE to sell books

I've had lots of experience giving away my books for FREE: both with amazing and horrible results.  When I gave away one book of my Pearseus Series for free, it pushed my other books to the #1 slot on Amazon.  (To see a more detailed description of how I did this, click here.)     On the other hand, I’ve been giving away my Greek translation of the Tao Te Ching for 4 years. I set up a virtual tip jar and 7,000 downloads later, only one person had tipped – 10 bucks.

Giving away your book for free does work as part of an overall strategy, and it can do wonders to put a new author on the map. However, it can be ineffective or even counterproductive if not used properly.

Penny Sansevieri teaches us that unless you’re a charity, free content should be offered to make sales down the line.  

So how exactly do I do that?

First of all:

• Make sure it’s really free and worthwhile: A lot of people have content that is purported to be free when it’s not really free. For example, they will give away only a portion of their book, but you have to pay to read the juicy parts. If you give something away, make sure it’s something really valuable. Virtually any electronic product is easy to create and deliver, so put your best foot forward. After all, this is what you will judged by.
• Make it easy to download: Don’t make free difficult. It should be easy to get your free stuff. If people have to jump through hoops, they won’t do it and the free stuff won’t matter. For example – put your free stuff on your home page. Add links to it on the sidebar. Remind people at the end of your posts. Accordingly, when you ask for people’s email, make it easy. A simple click or two is all it should take. Don’t ask for too much information. If you ask me for my address, birthday, and whatnot I doubt I will want your free stuff that badly. Shorten the staircase. If you make it complicated, it’s not really free, it’s bait. And people will call you out for it.

THEN...

1. Take names: One thing I learned from my Tao Te Ching experience: You should never give free away without asking for something in return, even if it’s just a review or an email address. I see people do this all the time; they have a ton of free stuff but never collect emails. If that’s the case, the freebies you are offering may be of great value to your end user, but they won’t matter to your marketing. Get emails. Ask for reviews. It’s called an ethical bribe. You get something (a review or their email) and give them something (the free stuff).   Plus, if you ask them for something in return first, you'll less likely attract trolls.
   After 4 years of giving away my book for free, I decided to ask for people’s emails before they could download my book. The book is still free, but I also link to a print version on Createspace. Downloads have plummeted from thirty a day to just a couple, but last month I made more from selling the print copy that I had from tips during the past four years. I also have collected hundreds of emails from people who are genuinely interested in my message. In my book (pun intended), that’s a win. :)
2. Make the free stuff work for you: If you give away something, make sure that it works for you. Add links to your other books. Ask for a review at the end. Encourage people to follow your blog, Facebook or twitterfeed. Every giveaway should include a call to action. You are collecting names and email addresses and building your list, and that’s great. But what do you really want people to do? Define what you want them to do, and then include your call to action in the free stuff. You can also offer specials and change these periodically in the giveaway.
3. Follow up! The best kind of free stuff is, as Penny points out, the gift that keeps giving. If you are collecting names and then never contacting your prospects again, what’s the point? People need to be reminded, and reminded again.The real key here is that free stuff can work well for you in so many ways, but free stuff without a goal is just free. Great to get free stuff, right? But then how is all of this hard work going to pay off for you?

The most common question I’m asked on the subject is, "Will it slow down my sales?"  On my blog, I link to the free copy of Pearseus: Schism on Goodreads. Surprisingly enough, sales of the book on Amazon have increased since doing this. So, in my experience, free does not necessarily slow down sales.  If you still aren’t a believer of free, try it for 90 days and see what happens. If you do it right, free can monetize your audience like nothing else will. 

Speaking of free, read my children’s book, Runaway Smile, online for free!

Read more about Nicholas Rossis here.

Six Things That Will Sell Your Book

I had the opportunity to work with Tara Sparling, who interviewed readers and writers and asked them what makes them buy a self-published book.  These interviews gave us invaluable insight into how to better market and promote ourselves.  Here are the top 6 things that can make or break your book:

1. Cover, blurb and sample: I will not go into the known cliché, since we DO judge a book by its cover. From my day job as web developer / web promoter, I know for example that certain colours work better than others (blues, oranges) and that people like seeing faces in ads, for instance.  The sample is a good way for a to-be reader to see the writing style of the author; it’s also an easy method to detect if there are any spelling or other off-putting mistakes, hence revealing the author as a rookie, whose writing is still unpolished.
2. Reviews matter, but not as we expect them: Negative reviews are what prospective readers want to read.  They want to see what annoyed people or what was wrong and made them give it a one or two stars.  I can identify with this point.  Be it for hotels on Tripadvisor or reviews of a car, I want to read what’s wrong with it.  A hotel might be perfect for some, but I want to see what irritated others.  A car can be very sexy, but I want to read about what exasperated a professional driver.  Same goes for a book:  unless a negative review is completely off and written out of spite from someone who has a grudge against you (aka a troll), you should study what people didn’t like about your book and see whether their points make sense.
3. Having the right platform can work: (if in an unexpected way)  Readers might hear of a book first. Then, they will check out the author and see his/her presence on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and how he/she presents him/her self.  People like to feel a connection with the author, therefore being engaging on Twitter will work much better than bombarding people with ads to buy your book.  A point that I have already realized: Facebook doesn’t work if you want to introduce a new book of yours to readers.  Prospective readers will go into Facebook once they already know the author –which obviously misses the point of introducing a new book on Facebook alone.  As I have said in the past, Facebook has not really worked for me, but it’s a good way to discuss and share book-oriented info (and a few funny cat pictures and dog videos). Also, it means that “buy my book” ads won’t work, but “free book” ones may do much better.
4. Genre: People know what they like and they generally stick with it. Preaching to your choir is a good way to sell your book.  I have found that out the hard way: doing promotions on non-fantasy oriented blogs and book-reading clubs simply brought no results.  People who like historic or romantic novels will probably not take a look at my book.  Advertising to them simply means spending money on the wrong type of audience (think of advertising Pampers to an under-20 clientele, pretty much misses the point.).  So, learn who your readers are and focus on them. If in the process you sell to a few other readers that are not part of your standard audience, it’s bonus points for you (or cookie points, as my wife calls them!)
5. Recommended: Potential readers will read your book if it has been recommended to them (either by friends or, for instance, by Amazon through its recommended list of books based on your preferences and wish list). Again, this means that going up on Amazon’s list is good because you will eventually climb up to reach the coveted ‘recommended’ status.  A cousin of mine –who had already read my book- called me one day and said that she was browsing through Amazon and my book was recommended to her, based on her wish list.  Needless to say, I was thrilled!  Also, selling books (or giving them away during give away promotional days) means that some of the people who read them will hopefully recommend them to friends and relatives.
6. Price: People are divided in 2 categories: ones that will not buy a book over a price or who have a specific price range within which they want to stay; and ones that will not buy a book below a price. The second category thinks that books that are too cheap are bound to disappoint them (I guess in terms of mistakes, lack of editing, lack of plot or generally work that seems amateur rather than professional).  The first category has set a price and will buy even out of impulse books that are within that range.  A few years ago, I had a conversation (which had absolutely nothing to do with books, by the way) regarding wine with a friend, who is a food engineer.  He said that there is no real point in buying wine that is extremely expensive, because wine is basically wine.  At the same time, he would not shop below a certain price either –considering cheap wines unpalatable.  I guess that many people think the same way when it comes to books.

  To read more about this, you can visit the original blog here. 

Read more about Nicholas Rossis here.

Do you hate that Amazon doesn't let you track your marketing?

I'm hoping that one day (in Fairyland) Amazon will let us track where our sales come from.  It seems like a logical step for everyone, don't you think?  The only disadvantage would be that it puts zombie marketing out of business.  Oh wait…
Anyhow, I've come up with a little work-around in the meantime.  It still isn't a perfect solution, but at least it's something.
Become an Amazon affiliate for your own books.

When you provide links to buy your book with XXX blogger, marketer, etc, provide your affiliate link and then you can track how many sales you obtain.  Of course, this works only if they allow you to provide your own link.  And if you're using more than one company at a time then give the link to the one you want to experiment with the most.

It's completely legit from Amazon's POV, which is always a bonus that you don't have Amazon working against you.  Plus you are paid a little extra for your book, which is just frosting on the cake.

Does Amazon's Hot List help out?

So, as many of you may know, I released the pre-order of my (amazing!) debut novel, The Last Seeker.  That is the day I became a pusher.  I pushed my friends, I pushed my family, I pushed the people who read this blog, I pushed any one and everyone to purchase my book.  I priced it low ($1) so I wouldn't feel bad about asking them ("even if you don't like my genre - just buy it!!") so that I could get on one of Amazon's list.  This is supposed to be the magic list that, once you're on it, it will bring you book to height-dom and everyone will see it and will be compelled to buy it because it's on that list.

Well, guess what?? I made the list.  I mean, I couldn't believe it.  I didn't think I would, honestly, and didn't check until a few days after I released it, and to my surprise, there it was.  (Did I mention that everyone else on the list has more than one book out, i.e. an already established fan base)

See, there I am at #7

Isn't that soo cool!!?? I'm way excited.

However, the question begs, is it helping me sell more books.  And the answer is
… it's hard to tell.

My numbers have not gone up exponentially.  And Amazon doesn't tell you who  bought your book (I'm sure that's a huge privacy issue) so I don't know if it's just my friends, etc buying it, or if I've made some sales from being on the list.

So here are some things to think about.  This list is: Hot New Releases in new and future Teen & YA Historical Fiction.  Why haven't my sales jumped by being on the list:

1. No one actually looks at this list.  

2.  No one scans through the 'historical fiction'.  They're all too busy looking at the romance, paranormal or lit sections.

3.  My book cover isn't good enough compared to all the others.  (I wish there was a way I could see how many people click on my book vs how many buy it)

4.  My blurb isn't interesting enough to get people to buy it.

5. People are impulsive.  They want to read now, not in the future.  If they've never heard of me before, they don't want to pre-order and wait.  They think, they'll remember to come back later.  

It could be any one of these things or a combination of these things, who knows.  I'd have to experiment to actually find out, any many of these things I can't experiment with (don't think Amazon would release any numbers based on my simple, "I would like some more, please." :D).

One point that I'm trying to say is that, if you don't make it to the 'list' then it's okay.  We don't always need to have everything off the "I'm doing a perfect job promoting my book" list in order to be successful.   

In any rate, I'm just happy to be on it.  I am thankful for what I have right now and that's good enough for me.

This is Tristen.  Hero in my novel.

Should you use a newsletter to reach your fans?

Newsletters can be tricky. As a rule, people avoid subscribing to a mailing list because it eats up their time, and they don’t know how frequently you will email them. A second but equally big concern is that you will share their addresses with spammers.

Correspondingly, starting a newsletter is a potential minefield. Which addresses should you use? Are you allowed to contact people who have contacted you first? Or should you make people jump through hoops to prove that they wish to enroll to your newsletter?

How can one get around these problems? For me, the best answers have proved to be a two-step process. First of all, I decided that I do have a right to contact people who have already contacted me, but will never email people first: I only email people who have interacted with me in some way. Second, I am very careful as to what I send out. In effect, I use my mailing list to send out freebies and holiday wishes. My main aim is to build loyalty, not make a quick sale.

How I do it:

I send out up to half a dozen emails annually. Most of the recipients are people who have commented on my blog. My emails contain freebies, and are meant to thank people for engaging with me. That’s probably why they seem to be quite popular. Engagement rate is around 60%, or twice the average, and usually no more than one person unsubscribes each time – if any at all.

Another group of people I engage is those who have friended me on Goodreads. When you get a request to connect, the member’s email is shown. This is the only time you have access to it, so be sure to copy it into your mailing list, as you don’t get another chance!

In the future, I plan to run a Rafflecopter campaign. People use these all the time to gain followers and readers, but a side-benefit that often gets ignored is the ability to extract the email addresses of all participants.

Are you sure I won't annoy anyone?

Well, to be honest, no. All I have is the positive feedback I’ve received so far from recipients of my mail, and the fact that only three people have unsubscribed so far, out of over some 1,500 emails sent. 

I do try my best to avoid annoying people, though. First of all, I use Mailchimp for the emails. That way, anyone not wishing to receive my emails for whatever reason finds it easy to unsubscribe.

Second, I only send the kind of information I would enjoy reading myself. No hard sales are allowed on my emails. I struggle to give people information that is either of interest to them, or just plain entertaining.

Do you think a newsletter is worth the effort?

Yes. I believe a newsletter is a valuable tool in one’s marketing toolbox, but one that has been abused so much in the past, that it should be used sparingly and with special care. Don’t ask people to buy something – remember, the “Show, don’t Tell” rule applies in marketing as well. Show them why they’d be entertained by your work. Give them reasons to love it.

Remember the cardinal rule of marketing; if people like what you’re saying, they’ll buy what you’re selling. And above anything else, use newsletters to interact with people in a genuine way and to make new friends!

To read 10 things that Nicholas learned when he hit the top seller list, click here.

Read more about Nicholas Rossis here.