Category: Promo Tips

Checklist for a New Release

Business of Writing, Promo Tips

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by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Releases are always a lot more work than I think they are.  That’s because of all the little things I have to do to prepare.  It’s a lot.  It would be more if I did a lot of promo work (blog tours, ads, etc.)  for the release, but I usually just like to start working on the next book.

I thought I’d share a checklist of the types of tasks I do when a book is ready to release. Some of the things I can do while my editor has the book and I’m waiting to make corrections.  Some of the things must be done when the book is ready to publish.

Checklist

Set up my newsletter to announce the new release when it’s time.  I use MailChimp.

Write a personal author’s note for the back-matter section of the book and for that section on the Amazon product page that we access through Author Central  (From the Author).Continue reading

Pre-orders: An Update

Business of Writing, Promo Tips, Uncategorized

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by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

As I wrote in this post in April 2015 (a post which landed me immediately on a couple of different podcasts to elaborate), I have not been much of a fan of pre-orders.

Why I originally set-up a pre-order

I started a pre-order experiment last October.  At the time, I had every reason to expect that the experiment would be a success.  I’d heard good things about setting up pre-orders on podcasts and from distributors like Mark Coker at Smashwords and Draft2Digital.Continue reading

Long-Term Blogging, Part II

Promo Tips

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by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

In part one  of this series, I covered setting up a blog and maintaining a blogging schedule.  But that’s only part of the process. Today I’ve got ideas for post content (since our writing is the most important part of our blog) and finding/connecting with an audience (since no one wants to blog to thin air).

Tips for content:

Comments on your blog posts can inspire other posts.  Many times my blog commenters have either asked questions or suggested future posts.

Expand on topics other bloggers have covered (giving credit to the original source). Sometimes I’ll run across interesting posts that inspire me to experiment with a writing or promo approach.  I post on my results and how they might have differed from the original writer’s.

Update older posts (with an eye to not wrecking your SEO).  For those of us with years of posted content on our blogs, there’s always the option of updating older posts with fresh content.  Since it’s not a good idea to repost blogs from an SEO standpoint, it’s probably best to use the older content as the basis for a mostly-new post.

Break longer content into shorter posts.  This approach certainly helps fill up a blog’s editorial calendar. I’ve gone back and forth on this through the years, but now my posts are usually pretty short.  If there’s a complex topic, breaking it down into a couple of different parts can help.  I keep reading that most blog readers prefer short posts since they’re skimming on their phones. I don’t mind long posts, myself … what’s your own preference?Continue reading

Long-Term Blogging, Part I

Promo Tips

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by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

My first post on this blog (which started out at Blogger) was on August 9, 2008.  Tomorrow marks 8 years of blogging.

When I first started blogging, I don’t think I really had in mind how long I would be blogging.  Mostly, blogging was something that my publisher had indicated that I should be doing.

At the beginning, I was blogging with my readers in mind.  That almost immediately shifted since I felt more comfortable writing to writers.  Also, I was trying to work out my writing process as I worked on book three, and talking it out was helpful to me.

In the last eight years, I’ve seen a lot of blogs come and go.  I’ve missed bloggers who have passed away and I’ve missed the ones who stopped blogging.

I’ve picked up  tips along the way…practices that were helpful to me, mistakes I made that I needed to correct, and tips from other bloggers.  Today I’ll share tips for setting up a blog or making a blog serve its purpose better, and tips for maintaining a blogging schedule.  On Friday, I’m covering tips for content and engagement and benefits to blogging.Continue reading

Newsletter Signup Tactics

Business of Writing, Promo Tips, Uncategorized

 

facebook_df4bedecf1-compressorby Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Writers read a lot about the importance of our author newsletter.  Industry expert Jane Friedman explains it well in her post “Email Newsletters for Authors: Get Started Guide“:

“Emails can’t be missed like a social media post that disappears in readers’ feeds as more posts follow it. You truly own your email list, unlike Facebook or Twitter accounts. And if you use people’s email addresses with respect (more on that in a minute), those addresses can become resources that grow more valuable over time.”

I was a slow adopter to email newsletters, unfortunately.  I couldn’t believe that readers really wanted to hear from me in their email inboxes.  Once I finally realized the value of newsletters and that readers were volunteering to hear from me, I had a good deal of catching up to do.Continue reading

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