Archive for category Promotion
Old Friends – 13 Coffee Break Stories
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Books, Promotion, Self-publishing, Successes on February 24, 2013
Coffee, cake and a chance to unwind for a few minutes with an absorbing story – who can say no?
So choose your favourite caffeine fix – latte, cappuccino, mocha ….
And which cake do you fancy? Lemon drizzle, chocolate fudge or fruit cake?
If you’re sitting comfortably, then I’ll begin.
Or I would if this was a ‘real’ instead of a virtual book launch. Then I could have the pleasure of meeting you all in the flesh and thanking you for all the support and positive comments about my first e-anthology. Plus I could read you one or two stories from the newly released Old Friends.
Instead I’ll just tell you about my second book and then you can visit Amazon and ‘Look Inside’ or download the sample to get a real flavour of it…
Old Friends contains 13 short stories that have previously appeared in My Weekly, People’s Friend and The Weekly News. I’ve included tales with a twist, stories about the ups and downs of family life plus, of course, a little romance.
I hope this collection will bring a little escapism to your coffee break!
It’s available from Amazon.UK and Amazon.COM at the introductory price of 77p/$1.19.
Or find it on all other Amazon sites by searching for ASIN B00BJIKIBI.
I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.
One Day For Me – Book Launch Party
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Books, Events, Promotion, Self-publishing, Successes on January 27, 2013
Welcome!
Please grab a glass of Champagne and a smoked salmon canape from the waiter. You’re just in time for my launch speech.
It’s great to see so many of you here today – thank you for sparing the time to come along. There will be chocolate profiteroles and cream when I’ve finished speaking – so I’ll keep it short!
One Day For Me contains some of my writing successes from recent years – eight stories that have either won or been shortlisted in UK national writing competitions. The subject matter and characters are varied and include Wallis Simpson, an abused wife, a young girl making money from lost property and a pro-athlete struggling with the demands of her career.
I’m proud of these stories and I’d like to share them with you.
Of course, I didn’t work in isolation. I want to say a big thank you to my writing buddy, Helen Yendall , who read many of these stories when they were still a work in progress.
I also want to thank Marilyn Rodwell of the Birmingham RNA and our anonymous erotic writer member, who between them organised an inspiring workshop on e-publishing – without which I would never have got this project off the ground.
Finally, I would like to say a huge thank you to all the followers of this blog who took the time to comment on my original cover design. I learned a lot from you all (which I will summarise in another post) – and I hope you agree with me that the finished cover is a vast improvement!
I now declare One Day For Me launched!
It is available on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. Look out for it on Smashwords and other platforms later in the year.
Now the waiters will circulate with the profiteroles – enjoy!
Sell Your Books! Part 2
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Books, Promotion, Resources, Self-publishing on October 24, 2012
In my last post I introduced you to Debbie Young – book promotion guru. And this post concludes her sage advice:
Many writers worry about the time-consuming nature of maintaining a presence on social media. What is the best platform (blog, Twitter, Facebook etc.) to concentrate on?
On Radio 4 alone there are plenty of magazine shows that need topical, expert material for their programmes – Woman’s Hour, Money Box, the Today Programme, PM. Your book and the knowledge or experience that enabled you to write it might give you viable ideas for an article, or an engaging comment to follow up a programme.
Approach your target programme’s production office with a well-thought out idea, backed up by your credentials as the author of a book on the subject, and you may get lucky. (Other national outlets can also be approached in this spirit – the nature of your book will dictate what should be your priority, e.g. a special interest national magazine in your field.)
Sell Your Books! Part 1
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Books, Promotion, Resources, Self-publishing on October 19, 2012
Here in the blogosphere you trip over lots of very knowledgable people and they’re all very generous with their support and 
advice.
Debbie Young is one such person. Debbie is an absolute expert on book promotion and marketing. She has 30 years experience in the industry and runs Off The Shelf Book Promotions which offers a bespoke marketing and promotion service to self-published authors (she also maintains a very useful blog of book promotion tips here.)
Debbie’s book Sell Your Books! has just been published (I’ve read it and it’s excellent – well worth buying if you want to give your book the push it deserves). I asked her a few questions about selling books and her answers were so comprehensive that I’ve split them into two blog posts. Here we go with number 1:
It’s often said that a writer needs to build a potential readership before their book is published. Do you agree and if so, how would you recommend doing this?
Try to define your potential readership, so that you can bear them in mind whilst writing the book. But don’t let it distract or divert you from actually getting the writing done nor from writing the book you want to write. Be true to yourself.
Always be on the look out for practical ways of reaching your target audience. Keep a note of useful websites, interest groups etc that you can come back to when you are ready. Watch out for what others in your field are doing to promote their books.
By all means engage with your potential readership but don’t show them your hand before you are ready – your book may evolve into something quite different to what you expected!
Consider also: other influential writers who you might ask to review your book; book reviewers; book bloggers; local booksellers; interest groups for your genre or topic. Follow their blogs and comment on their blog posts. Follow them on Twitter, befriend them on Facebook and GoodReads. Write reviews of their books. Comment on their book reviews on Amazon and GoodReads. Post worthwhile comments on their websites. Go to their public events. When commenting online anywhere, include a link to all your contact details (website, Twitter, email etc) so they can track back to you and the relationship can be a two-way thing. Then, when your book is published, you will be a familiar (and hopefully respected!) name to them and they will be well-disposed towards your new book.
Secure your own website address (URL) in advance so that it can be printed on your book jacket. But don’t be tempted to promote the book before it exists. This can be counter-productive. You’ll have much more impact on a bookshop, for example, if you can go in with actual samples of your book, a fully functional website and a few reviews, than with nothing physical to show. These things give you much more credibility as an author whose books are going to make a profit for the store.
There’s a lull between finishing your manuscript, proofing it and it being on sale as a finished product – that’s a really good time to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in. But don’t rush things. In this digital age of e-books and on-demand printing, there’s no rush to start marketing your book, because it’s never actually too late. Your book doesn’t come with a sell-by date, and it won’t be remaindered or de-listed by your publisher (i.e. you!). There’s more about this on my blog here.
On the other hand, don’t err on the side of sloth! You do HAVE to put in the effort sooner or later if your book is going to be successful, because no matter how good it is, it won’t sell itself if you don’t promote it at some time.
Unbound Live!
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Authors, Books, Events, Promotion on June 25, 2012
Here’s a new way of getting your book published. Pitch your idea to a group of readers and ask them to stump up the cash to get it into print. The Unbound website goes into more detail saying:
“If you back a project before it reaches its funding target, you get your name printed in the back of every copy and immediate behind-the-scenes access to the author’s shed. If any project fails to hit its funding target, you get refunded in full.”
The ‘author’s shed’ includes access to interviews, draft chapters and progress reports on the book, amongst other things.
Readers can pledge differing amounts from £10 to £250 and earn similarly varying rewards from an e-book edition of the book to lunch with the author, invites to the launch party and goodie bags. Details are here.
The website has details of the authors and books currently looking for publication funding.
But the pitching is not all virtual. Unbound Live! events allow the authors to stand up and pitch directly to an audience (I can’t imagine anything more nerve-wracking than trying to explain my idea for a book to a room full of people!). Birmingham is to host the first library Unbound Live! event. It’s on July 10th 7pm at the Library Theatre. I’m disappointed that I can’t make it but for anybody that can, the details are here. (And thanks to Frances for alerting me to this event).
Publishing is a gamble so it makes sense to ensure that there is an audience willing to pay for your work in advance.
What do you think? Could you be tempted to fund a book in this way? Would you like to pitch in this way?
Related articles
- Unbound Live: Readers decide which books get written (theculturecut.wordpress.com)
World Book Night 2012 Part 2
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Authors, Books, Events, Promotion on April 23, 2012
I went to the local hospital today to distribute 24 World Book Night copies of Sophie Kinsella‘s book The Secret Dreamworld of a 
Shopaholic.
The aim of World Book Night is to encourage people who don’t usually read to pick up a book and get into the reading habit. As writers this is something that we should support – because if there are no readers what’s the point of writing?
I started in the A & E department of the hospital. I explained to the receptionist what I was doing and gave her a book. She was delighted and promised to pass it around her colleagues, adding that they often swapped books. So that was one book given away but unfortunately not to a non-reader. This was a trend that continued for the rest of my ‘giving’ session.
I only approached women (because Sophie Kinsella writes chick-lit) and I avoided people who were actually reading a book as they waited to see a doctor but it is very difficult to tell by a person’s appearance whether or not they are a reader. So inevitably I unknowingly spoke to keen readers and they almost bit my hand off at the offer of a free book. The non-readers I came across were simply not interested in giving the book a try – no matter how much I tried to sell it as a ‘light, easy read’. The exception to this was a lovely, chatty cleaner who was very grateful for the book and said she didn’t normally read but once bought a 48 hardback book set of Agatha Christie novels – they look lovely on her shelf but she’s never opened one of them!
One person turned down the book because she didn’t like Sophie Kinsella and another because she had already read the book. Three people knew about World Book Night and a paramedic told me she’d recently seen a book left on a park bench in a polythene bag, labelled ‘Read Me’.
I enjoyed being a ‘giver’ and intend to apply again next year but I’m not sure that World Book Night is achieving its aims. I’m sure that most of the books must end up with people who are already hooked on reading. It’s very difficult to persuade a complete stranger, who says they’re not interested in reading, to take a book. I got the feeling that some of them thought there was some ulterior motive or catch to it. Similarly, once you discover someone is a reader, it’s awkward to withdraw the offer of a book – plus if I’d restricted myself to non-readers I would have been at the hospital all day trying to find enough of them willing to give reading a try.
How did anyone else get on?
World Book Night 2012 Part 1
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Authors, Books, Events, Promotion on April 19, 2012
I’ve just collected my World Book Night 2012 books from the library. I have 24 copies of The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic
by Sophie Kinsella to distribute on Monday 23rd April. In my application to be a ‘giver’ I said that I would distribute them in the casualty department of my local hospital – so that’s where I’ll be on Monday.
The purpose of World Book Night is to give away books to those who don’t regularly read, and thus spread the love of reading. According to the World Book Night website, “the aim is to reach and inspire those who have never discovered the value of reading”.
So I’m hoping to find lots of bored ladies waiting in casualty who might be persuaded to give reading a try. I need females because Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic series is essentially a chick-lit novel that I can’t see many men enjoying – but maybe they’ll take a copy home for their wife or girlfriend.
But before I can get stuck into the giving I have to write in the front of each book – my name, where I collected the books from and the book’s unique identifying number (this is logged via the World Book Night website each time the book is passed on so that its journey can be traced). I’ve written in 8 books so far and its becoming a bit of a chore – but maybe I should look upon it as practice for that book-signing that I might do one day far in the future!
Next week I’ll let you know how I got on with the giving – and if there are any other ‘givers’ (or ‘receivers’) out there, do let me know how you get on.
5minutefiction First Birthday Competition & Book Launch!
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Promotion, Short Story, Successes on April 5, 2012
5minutefiction has launched a short story competition to celebrate its first birthday.
Entries can be on any theme and any length between 100 and 1500 words. Closing date is June 1st 2012 and the entry fee is £2.
First prize is £100, second prize £50 and third prize £25. In addition, the winners will be published as part of an e-book short story anthology, along with up to 20 other additional entries. These stories will receive royalties from the sale of the book.
All entrants will also receive feedback.
Judging will be slightly out of the ordinary with 10 shortlisted stories being put to the public vote. Voters will be charged 10p to vote to help ensure only 1 vote per person.
Full competition details are here.
Also, I am pleased to announce that the e-anthology of selected stories from the last competition organised by 5minutefiction is now available. Time for Love contains 18 of the best entries from the Valentine short story competition – including mine (this could be the nearest I ever get to a book launch so I have to make the most of it)! Someone else you might have heard of, Simon Whaley, also has a story in there. 
Time for Love is available to purchase from Amazon here. At only £1.54 it’s cheaper than the Kindle version of Woman’s Weekly Fiction Special – and might just help you win this competition!
If you don’t have a Kindle, download free software here to allow you to read Kindle books on your laptop.
The Writers’ Toolkit 2011
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Events, Promotion on November 28, 2011
Image by Lancashire County Council via Flickr
‘Write often, to a deadline and with an audience in mind. Have something of the marketer about you.’
This was the advice of writer and broadcaster, Stuart Maconie (pictured), in his keynote address at The Writers’ Toolkit 2011, held in Birmingham last week. He went on to tell us that the mastery of words is power and we should be proud to say ‘I am a writer’.
It was a full day of panel discussions and chances to chat to other writers. I found the session on ‘Networking as a Writer’ the most interesting and I came away with several scribbled notes about how to do this (both on-line and in real life):
- Be generous – help those who can’t possibly help you. It will be remembered and what goes around comes around. Share things that might benefit others – don’t see them as your rivals.
- If it feels like networking then you’re doing it wrong or trying too hard. It should feel like a conversation, not a sales pitch.
- Don’t vent your feelings online no matter how badly you feel you’ve been treated – cyberspace is a big place and you never know who might be reading.
- Become part of the real and virtual community. Join or start reading/writing groups and classes. Do book reviews on your blog & approach other writers to ask if they’d like you to review their book.
- Don’t limit yourself to writing events – attend other types of conferences and look at different types of blogs.
- Leave intelligent comments on the blogs of others to make people curious enough to have a look at you.
- Listen to what others have to say – don’t just sell yourself all the time.
- Be genuine and approachable
The event was organised by Writing West Midlands.
World Book Night 2012 – Be a Giver
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Books, Events, Promotion on October 31, 2011
Do you fancy enticing people who don’t read for pleasure to open a novel and give it a try?
Applications are now open for those who would like to be a ‘giver’ on World Book Night 2012.
This entails distributing 24 copies of your chosen book (selected from a list of 25) to people who read very little. 20,000 givers are needed on April 23rd 2012. Givers must be over 16 and able to collect the 24 books from their local library/bookshop. The closing date for applications is December 31st 2011.
To apply click here. You must state where, to whom and why you want to give the books away.
A wide range of books are available to give, including Pride and Prejudice, The Book Thief and The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic. The full list is here.
I would choose to give The Book Thief but I’m still thinking about where I would hand them out. I’d want to be sure of finding people who don’t currently read much but who would appreciate the book and at least give it a proper try.
Encouraging more people to read books has to be a good thing for the publishing industry and thus, in turn, a good thing for all us writers who would like to see our work in print.
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