Why aren't you growing your newsletter sign ups?

A newsletter is a great way to get readers to your books, especially new releases. There are many newsletter providers available, and it is easy to find a free one.

I use MailChimp as I find it very easy to set up and run, and since adding a link to the back of my books I have seen it gradually grow. I currently have 31 genuine newsletter sign ups. It doesn't sound much, I know, but it is a start and it is heading upwards!

To encourage more people to sign up, I've decided to offer a free, exclusive ebook to people on my list. Once this is written, I will send it to those good people and set it up to auto-send to new sign ups as a thank you.

I hope to see the rate of sign up increase with this exclusive offer! I'll keep you posted...

(and just in case you are interested, here's mine ->>> Newsletter)

Foundation Monitoring

As I prepare for the release of book three of The Rozzers series, I like to keep an eye on what's happening with the previous two books.

Passive Marketing

As you may know, End of the Road is permanently free, and links through to the second book in the series, Cops Don't Run (0.99c). That is all the marketing I do, nothing more. This I call passive marketing (it is visible on my FB page, blog etc). I don't do active marketing (or very little, and only occasionally). If only I had the time!

So, how are the books doing?

Downloads

End of the Road has been downloaded nearly 7,000 times in the last 16 months, and has never been off the #1 spot in various categories (that's over 100 copies per week). Success? I think so, although obviously I don't earn anything from it, but then that is not my intention with this book.

End of the Road on Amazon UK (today)

Sales

Since Cops Don't Run was published in Nov 2013, it has sold 250 copies (approx 10 per week). Again, it is not actively promoted. For the first few months I was selling one copy per day. The last few months that has doubled to two copies per day. The majority of these sales are conversions from book one readers (they liked what they read in the free book and decided to go on and buy book 2) - this was my marketing plan all along.

Conversion rate

The interesting thing is that as downloads for book one show a slight decline over the last few months, purchases of book two seem to be increasing. In January, the conversion rate was 13.2 copies of EotR for every one copy of CdR bought. That rate has steadily improved, and is currently at 6.1 free copies downloaded for every one copy purchased.

 

 

Publishing

My mum, and #1 fan

As actual sales have steadily increased since January (now selling 2.2 copies per day, up from 1.2 in Jan), it would seem to be a good time to publish the third part, as I believe that the 250 buyers of book 2 will want to buy book 3 as well. If I can get them all to buy it on the release date, the book should get pushed high up the charts.

To achieve this, I plan to use the preorder option with Amazon and Smashwords, and of course announce its availability on my ever-increasing newsletter, Twitter, FB and blog.

I will also tell my mum, as she tells everybody and anybody back in my home town!

Writing & publishing was the easy part

So you've just hit the publish button for that book you've been labouring over for the last God-knows how many years. Now you can sit back, smile and relax, and just wait for the money to flow in.

Well, I certainly recommend relaxing and smiling, you have jolly-well earned it. Writing a quality book, having it edited and proof-read, and finally formatting it for Amazon and Smashwords is no easy task and you deserve a rest. But now the work really begins.

Invisible

Firstly, your book is sitting amongst 1.5 million other books. It's most probably completely invisible, only findable by people you send its way through active or passive marketing. What you need to do is ensure that book and the information presented with it is not only up-to-date, but grabs the reader's attention before they click on another book presented below yours. I am amazed just how many books are sitting on Amazon without these basic requirements. Here are a few ideas of things that you should be doing after you have published your book.

Additional images

Me at 24yrs of age

Amazon displays an image of your book. Did you know you can add additional images to sit alongside your book cover? Images grab attention, and somebody glancing at your book image might be about to move on from it until they see a second, smaller image with it. Then they'll click on it. This may lead to further clicks and keep the reader on your book page. That is what you want - the longer they stay, the more likely they are to buy your book. To give you an idea of what I am talking about, my first book (End of the Road) has an image of me as a 24yr old soldier with it. Why? Because it is a true account of a particular day when I was that young military man. What better way is there to read it than with an image of the man in your mind. Take a look here. Can you see, just below the main book image, two smaller images? Go on, I know you want to click on it. Stay on that page, because I'm going to talk about the text underneath the additional picture next.

'Book description'

Once the viewer has clocked your additional pictures their eye will glance down at what you have to offer. This is another chance to seize them or lose them. The Book Description field as a place where you can add some impact to your page. The first thing you see on my page is a review, in bold, yelling out the qualities of my book. This is immediately followed by About the Book, where I mention that the book hit #1 in its category. Getting the picture now? My book is growing in value. I've also added a warning about the content, as some people are offended by strong language and may paste a negative review. I have given them fair warning.

Beneath the warning is a teaser for the book, followed by a handful of other reviews. All you need to do to add such details is log into your Amazon Author Central account, select your book page followed by your book. The Product Description page is where I added the above details. Scrolling down the page gives you additional fields, such as From the Author and About the Author. Again, add some detail to these sections as they will appear on the page and give you more chance to trap the viewer. Back to the books sales page, you'll see mine appear beneath Customers who Bought this Item also Bought... Hopefully, I have created sufficient interest in the viewer that they won't click on one of these other books, choosing instead to skip over them to read more about me.

Below these are the book details (including any category it is in). Again, if you can be top of a category this will help the viewer to become a buyer. Below this are the all-important reviews, creating another prompt for the viewer to buy (get some reviews if you don't have any!!).

Shelfari

Beneath the reviews is a section called Book Extras from the Shelfari Community. More selling space! To add this, you need to visit Shelfari, claim the book and add the details. Others can also add to this information if they so wish. Shelfari is now owned by Amazon and will come into use more and more.

'More about the Author' page

The final space for you to keep the viewers attention is a link to your Amazon author's page. Make sure you have updated this with links to your Twitter, blog, newsletter etc. Click on the link and note the additional photos included here too.

Once you've done all of that, you'll need to do the same for the other Author Central's you have (I do it for AuthorCentral.com and AuthorCentral.co.uk, my two main markets.)

Finally

It's not over yet. You still need to update the book on any other sites that you have listed you and your book, eg Authors Database, Goodreads, Pinterest, Facebook page and your blog and or website. If you don't have them, I suggest getting on with it right now!

When Amazon picks your book up for promotion.

I received a routine email from Amazon.com today, promoting five books I might be interested in for some reason or other. Nothing unusual in that, except of the five books displayed, MY OWN book was sitting at the top of the pile, winking back at me.

Irony

Initially I laughed. The irony of Amazon promoting my own book to me! I took a screen shot and punted it out on Twitter, Ha-ha, look at this! Then I started to think about the reasons for it. Why had Amazon picked up my book to promote? And why did it get put at the top of the email? Later, a friend over in the UK replied that she had also received the same email.

Copy of the email, with my book at top

Questions

So I asked myself how many emails had gone out? There is no way of knowing, of course, but mine came from the US and I am presuming my friend's came from the UK (I'm waiting for confirmation). If these emails went out from both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, then presumably they have gone out to a fair amount of people, especially considering I know somebody else who received one. What will this do to my figures? Will my sales increase as a result of this?

Monitoring

Like most ebook authors, I monitor my book sales almost hourly. I have been paying close attention to my sales since January 1, since the day my book went gratis. I know exactly how many books have been downloaded each day for the last two months. I am due to post an update regarding the end of month figures for February this weekend.

Meanwhile, I will monitor any increase in sales which might be down to the Amazon promo.

Fingers crossed!

A Very British Blog Tour (#VBBT2013)

I'm British, definitely. Very British? Probably, despite having lived abroad for the last 10 years. And I'm a writer, one who has just started out on the road to fame and fortune and everything that goes with it, I thank you all. Sorry, his lyrics were so good that they have a way of intruding on my thoughts.

A first

Back to this Very British Blog Tour. It's my first blog tour and probably the first of many many more to come. I don't really have the time for it (I should be writing my 15 books!) and I'm not really at the stage of my new career to really need it (I have but one humble offering out there). However, I've joined it because I need the experience of blog tours and I really like the sound of the Britishness of it.

Origin

It was all started by Paul Anthony. The idea was that a British author has to answer six specific questions which are then posted on his/her blog, although the amount seems to have double since then! This author then invites other British authors to do the same, and as they answer the same questions their responses are linked to at the bottom of the original post. Thanks to Rosie Amber for her invite which is the reason for this post. Got it all? Good, neither do I, but keep reading and it'll all fall into place.

The questions

1. Where were you born and where do you live at the moment?

I was born in the city of Derby, England and bought up in the small market town of Uttoxeter. I now live in Spain.

2.  Have you always lived and worked in Britain or are you based elsewhere at the moment?

I left Uttoxeter when I was eighteen, suffering from claustrophobia. I joined the military and spent the next six years based in Tidworth, a military garrison in Hampshire. From there I was sent to Belize, Mexico, Germany, the Falkland Islands and Cyprus. My posting there achieved its goal - for me to see a bit of the world.

Shakespeare's school, Stratford

After the army I moved to Cambridge, a beautiful university town in the East of England. I spent the next twelve years there as a police officer, before walking away to become an English teacher in Spain. (I also happened to buy a house in Brazil).

3. Which is your favourite part of Britain?

Ooh, that is such a difficult question. Despite being such a small island, the UK has so many places of outstanding natural beauty along with towns and cities steeped in history. I particularly love Cornwall, with its tiny fishing villages beautifully preserved (not to mention their delicious Cornish Pasties and Creamed Teas!).

London is a place I can never tire of. Now that I live abroad I really miss my weekends in London - there is always something new to discover or stumble upon. It has to be one of the greatest cities in the world.

But quite possibly - if pushed - I'd have to say the Lake District, a national park in the north west of England (just above Liverpool). It's where I spent my second honeymoon and is one of the most beautiful places in the UK. Not only is it likely that any visitor will be blown away by its beauty, but one can always visit the Poet Laureate William Wordsworth's house, along with Hill Top Farm, the home of Beatrix Potter (who loved the place so much that she bought up most of the land to protect it from development, bequeathing it to the nation in her will).

"... and then my heart with pleasure fills,
and dances with the daffodils."

William Wordsworth

4. Have you highlighted or showcased any particular part of Britain in your books? For example, a town or city; a county, a monument or some well-known place or event?

My series The Rozzers is a true-life memoir of my time in the police based in Cambridge (although in the books the town is called Oxbridge). I don't really identify the city to help protect myself from possible libel!

London City, where tiredness takes a backseat

Another series I have started to write (working title Dover Lord) is based on Dover Castle (the key to England), as a group of survivors meet there following the demise of civilisation as we know it. Interestingly, I have yet to visit the castle!

The Humptybackcrocodillopig lives in East Anglia, and can be found at the bottom of my old home just outside of Cambridge (childrens' series), along with the Owlbatross and other strange animals.

My magnus opus, The Dream Makers (a six-book serious of high fantasy) sees the protagonist make his way to a stone circle in Wiltshire - not the current Stonehenge. He sees what was constructed there 25,000 years earlier, and why it was constructed.

5. There is an illusion - or myth if you wish - about British people that I'd like you to discuss. Many see the Brits as 'stiff-upper lipped'. Do you think that is correct?

View from London Eye;
I didn't see the 'people' at the time of photo

One of the greatest things about leaving Britain is that you get a greater perspective on the country and its people, as well as learning what other nationalities have to say about us.

For some reason, the British carry a lot of stereotypes and garner a lot of opinions from other cultures, most of which is utter twaddle. Unfortunately, we are responsible for much of it. No, British food is not terrible: it was - 40 years ago - but life moves on. (Trust me, the British food revolution is coming to a town near you.)

I think the Brits vary just as much as any country of 90 million people do, and generalising does not work. What I mean is: whilst the older generation are generally 'keep-your-distance-or-I-might-catch-something', the youngsters are very continental kissy-cheeky. Brits apparently don't learn other languages, yet most of my work colleagues speak two or three other languages (I can get by in Spanish and understand Portuguese fairly well). The list goes on.

Windsor Castle, along the avenue

What the Brits do have in common is: a love of alcohol (we can't have fun without it); a love of varied food; a love of pets over their own children and an incredible ability to produce great music (do you know that in 2012, British artists accounted for 12.5% of ALL world music sales?).

Stiff-upper-lip? I think we are tough, having lived through the depravity of the 2nd world war when we stood alone against Hitler, and we don't like whingers or weaklings. It's tough, but I'd rather you didn't make a fuss, there's a good chap.

6. Do any of your characters carry the 'stiff-upper-lip', or are they all 'British Bulldog' and unique in their own way?

Absolutely not! My characters are based on real people I have had the good fortune to meet in my life - real people with real feelings and issues, both British and foreign. James Bond has moved on from that, so must we!

Changing of the Guard, Windsor Castle

7. Tell us about one of your recent books.

I am writing (somewhere in the region of) fifteen books in total, but have only epublished one so far. End of the Road is a short story (15,000 words) and part one of The Rozzers, a five-part series based on my life as a UK cop. I have been amazed with the success of my humble offering so far; it spent 18 days at #1 on Amazon.com (Law Enforcement) and hit #8 in the UK for memoirs. It is currently free but you'll be expected to pay out for the next book (Cops Don't Run) which will be released in the next few months!

8. What are you currently working on?

Cops Don't Run is my focus at the moment. After the success of part one, I really want to get this one out there and earning some pennies! It's on its 2nd draft and will shortly be sent out to beta-readers for their opinions. Then I must turn my attentions to book 3 in the series as well as my first stand-alone novel, Filthy.  
Filthy tells the story of an English teacher out here in Spain who gets a job listening into phone-tappings of British gangsters on the Costa del Sol on behalf of the Spanish police. It all goes wrong when he heads down to the coast to where the operation's targets live.

9. How do you spend your leisure time?

That's an easy one to answer - I don't have any! My wife and I have been running our own business out here in Spain for the last year and a half. It is growing and we are very pleased with it but it takes up all of our spare time! For example, in the next few months we are moving into newer, bigger premises. It's great to see it doing so well but spare time? If I do get any, I write and try to stay off the Twitter and everything else that indie-authors need to progress, which is difficult.

The Lake District

10. Do you write for a local audience or a global audience?

I write for anybody who can read English! We're living in exciting times, there has never been a better time than now to be an author. My books will appeal to any British person, no matter where they might live. Filthy will appeal to English teachers around the globe, as much of it will hold true to the experience of those intrepid ex-pats in various, far-flung places as they try and teach students our much loved English language.

The Dream Makers will appeal to fantasy fans everywhere, or anybody who has a passing interest in our dreams and why we have them.

My audience is global, you can be sure of that.

11. Can you provide links to your work?

I wouldn't be much of an author if I couldn't! Here goes (deep breath) ...

• Amazon.com (#1 Law Enforcement)
• Amazon.co.uk (#8 Memoirs)
• Smashwords
• Apple Itunes
• Sony
• Kobo (#1 Law Enforcement)
• Nook
• Shriven Books (my publishing company - under construction)
• Follow my Facebook Author's page
• or my Twitter account
• Finally, why not join my Newsletter? Be the first to know. 

Now, from what I understand I need to invite other British authors to do the same as me (I've invited three so far - as soon as they respond, I'll link to them below). If you are a Britauth and would like an invite, please leave your details and request in the comments section below.

First to respond is Deborah C Foulkes, a Yorkshire-based writer (click name to see her answers).

Thank you for reading this far!

Diem. 

(not yet proof-read)

Why you should be building your on-line presence, even before publishing your books.

To date I have but one, short story published. There are others coming, but it is a slow process. There are many days when I don't have time, or when I feel too tired to write (like today). It is at moments like these that I turn my attention to other matters.

On-line presence.

What's that all about then? Is it just having 8,000+ followers on Twitter and an author's page on Facebook? Well, yes and no. There is no point in having 8,000 followers if you don't do anything with them. I need to interact with them and sell them me - the writer.

Screen shot of discussion thread mentioning Diem Burden

Pen name

Having a unique pen-name helps me enormously. I have set up a weekly, automated Google search. Each week,  a search is carried out on the www for any new mentions of 'Diem Burden.' I then receive an email with details. In one such email I was happy to discover that Diem Burden had been mentioned on a Publishing Discussion Thread as a useful source of 'great publishing tips of self publishing or getting published.' (see picture, above).


No, it hasn't helped sell my book. No, I didn't do it myself! What this person did was to provide my name to other people in a positive, glowing light! My name, my unique name. That's what it is all about, building your name, building your brand.

Brand Diem: helpful, knowledgeable, a person to follow and listen to. A publisher and writer worth mentioning.

What greater reason is there for an author to be building his on-line presence?

(Oh, and thanks, Veritas.)

Why you should have a Facebook Author's Page

If you haven't got yourself a Facebook Author's page then you are losing out as a writer. We spend a lot of time on Twitter and writing blog posts to build up a following, in the hope that these people might just buy our books and spread the word about us. I know I do, my Twitter account currently has just under 6000 followers. Big numbers, eh? But that's nothing compared to my Facebook page, which was a lot easier to do and is far less time consuming.

Maybe you hate Facebook and refuse even to contemplate opening a profile? Maybe you are an addict? As an author, whatever your views, you must get yourself a Facebook page for promotion purposes. I'll tell you why in a minute.

What is a Facebook page? A page is nothing to do with a profile. To get on FB, you need a personal profile page, which is what most people have. If you don't want a FB personal profile, you can open it and then choose to forget about if you wish, using it as a platform to open your author's page. A FB page is completely separate from your profile. Think of it as a business site, a free platform to promote yourself as an author. It takes seconds to set up and can be modified/individualised to your needs. Keep it branded! By this I mean it should be instantly recognisable as you in your Twitter account etc. If you want to take a look at one, take a peek at mine > Diem Burden's Facebook Page. (For branding purposes, compare it to my Twitter page > https://twitter.com/DiemBurden. See how instantly recognisable they both are as my pages?)

Screenshot 1 (Diem's Facebook Author's page)

Give it a url name associated with you. For example mine is https://www.facebook.com/DiemBurden. Easy to remember, easy to promote. Once you have set up your page invite your Facebook/Twitter friends to visit the page and 'like' it. They will need a FB account to do this. You don't have to be friends with them on FB for them to like your page, and you cannot access their profile unless you become 'friends'. You will soon see the numbers begin to grow.

Once you have 30 likers, you will be able to access the stats (called insights on FB), and this is where it really begins to get interesting. My numbers have risen steadily, and the first thing I did to get going was to invite my personal FB friends to like the page (I have 167 personal friends). 69 of them obliged, and 55 others from Twitter etc came across and liked it too. So now I have a total of 124 people who have liked my page since I opened it 11 months ago. I know what you are thinking, 124? That's not impressive. It is, believe me. I'll tell you why but before I do let me tell you what this liking of the page achieves.

Whenever I post something on my page, it appears in the timeline of all of the 124 people who have liked the page. For this reason I don't duplicate it by posting it on my personal page too, as my friends and likers won't appreciate it twice! Usually I post something that 'encourages' them to either comment on my post or to like the post. If they do, this does two things for me. First, that post then appears on their own timeline, and is instantly visible to everybody who is friends with them too, ie people who are nothing to do with me or my page (a bit like a retweet).

Screenshot 2

On average, my 124 likers have 344 friends each. So if just one person acts on my post, it gets punted out to about 124 strangers, who all get to see my post/name/brand. Some then visit my page and end up hitting the like button too. That's another 124 friends of a liker, thank you very much. The more people who comment/like the post, the longer it stays at the top of the timelines (FB timeline defaults to 'top stories', so those with the most comments/likes appear at the top of the timeline for longer, so more people get to see it. Feel free to open up a conversation in your post!).

OK, I'm in danger of losing you here, so here's the dessert. My 124 likers have, in total, a staggering 42,617 friends between them! (See screenshot 2) And that figure is growing each day as they add more friends to their FB account, with no extra work on my part. (See screenshot 2. The number of 'friends of fans' has increased 2.36% in the last week alone.)

Let me repeat that, one hundred and forty-two thousand potential customers. Makes my Twitter account seem like chicken-feed! And remember, each new liker brings with them all of their friends. It is down to you what you do with them.

The numbers are potentially so big I've decided to use FB page as my principle page. By that I mean I want as many likers as possible on here, just so that I get to reach their friends too. So I use it by rewarding these people with promotional copies, news first etc and I ONLY write about me and my books. I don't want people to get bored with my mundane life - that's what FB personal pages are for!

I am not overly-promoting my page yet, and when I do I expect to see the amount of likers grow considerably, and with it, the amount of 'friends of fans' exponentially.

There are various other advantages to FB pages which I won't go into here. The stats are amazing, and if you want to know more about how to read that info I recommend visiting this really useful post by John Haydon.

I did an experiment with FB advertising too. I set the maximum fee to $30 and designed my advert. I arranged for the advert to appear to Facebookers who had a friend who had liked my author's page. It was an interesting experiment and something that I will post about once the figures have been analysed. You can see an example on the right-hand side of screenshot 1 above.

So, you're probably slaving away on Twitter to build up a following, whilst ignoring the simple - yet priceless - Facebook page. Come on, what are you waiting for..?

Are you using those old photos to boost your blog visits?

Lone tree

My artistic abilities started with painting and drawing. Over the years this has migrated, and now I apply these talents to the written word, although whether or not my writing is as good as my other art is yet to be judged!

One constant in my life has been photography. I have always enjoyed capturing something special on camera, especially since I bought my first - huge - digital camera. In fact, I have built up an enormous mountain of photos over the years, some of which I sadly lost when the old disk-drive they were stored on crashed and burned.

So I've been looking at ways of using these pictures to help me promote myself as a writer. Some of them are quite eye-catching, as you may agree. I thought that maybe if I can get them out there for others to see, with a link back to my blog - here - then I might drive traffic and links to this site.

Vineyards and sky

Traffic drives interaction, brand awareness and eventually sales of my books. Links boost the site's position within the search engines.

One method I have been contemplating is Google Maps. I often scour the map for places I am about to explore, clicking on the photos posted there to try and identify places worth a visit.

So I've just uploaded some pictures to Google Maps which allows me to add a website link within my photo account. Anybody who likes my pictures might look at my profile, see the link to my blog and come here to discover more about me. Certainly the ability to geo-tag these photos means that I can put them in high-profile places and just about anybody can find my lovely pics!

Oviedo cathedral

The photos remain under my copyright and should anyone wish to use them they can do so, provided of course they quote my name (brand-awareness) and provide a link back to here (links in = higher search results and more visitors).

So, my experiment has begun. As I upload more photos I will monitor to see if it does indeed drive traffic this way. I'll keep you posted.

What do you think? Is this experiment likely to do as I hope, or am I wasting my time?

Visit my profile and photos> http://www.panoramio.com/user/6727400