Hello, MB4 friends and fans!
Please help me welcome Leslie Ann Sartor to the blog today. She's got some great tips and observations, below. See what you think? And please, comment. We love comments, and this topic should generate plenty!
Have a wonderful Labor Day,
Aaron Lazar
www.lazarbooks.com
copyright 2014, Leslie Ann Sartor
Thank you, Aaron, for hosting
me on your blog, it's an honor to be here.
Today I'm talking about being
the Jackie-of-all-trades…that's what you become when you publish Indie.
Now, this isn't a bad thing,
honest. It's just very exhausting and I wish there were thirty-six hours to the
day, twenty-four simply aren't enough.
And I have to sheepishly
admit I mess up sometimes, and that's horrible for a person who has recently
found out they are an alpha and near perfectionist.
Whatever "type" of
person you are, I'm offering a few things I've learned that make an Indie life
work in the 24 hours we're given..
1) You cannot do
it all. I finally found a great virtual assistant and she does some of the
work like mailing lists and promo's, scheduling tweets I just can't manage to
do. We've worked together enough so she knows me, what I like and don't. What a relief she's been for me.
2) Try everything promotion-wise that sounds like it's up your alley. Then find out what works and what doesn't work. I put my Christmas book
on Amazon's KDP Select last
winter/spring and I was pleased with the response it received. And even more so
when it hit best seller.
I took it off KDP until just recently when I heard about Kindle
Unlimited. And after looking at the sales stats from Amazon vs the stats on the
other booksellers sites, I pulled all my books from everyone but Amazon, put
them in KDP Select with automatically puts me in Kindle Unlimited.
KDP sign up is in basically
for 90 day increments, so trying KDP is a short term experiment … or you can
leave your book on full time. I know plenty of authors that do. Luckily it's up
to you.
3) Then narrow
your choices to those that work best, or feel right. Notice I said feel
right? All the sites you're on, be it for
promotion, for publishing for blogging, have to hit the right chords inside of
you. I have about 5 promotional sites
I'm pushing to build my presence on. That's down from maybe 15-20.
KDP feels right for me at the
moment, but after the release of my next two books this fall and winter, who
knows?
Indie means I have choices
and I'll use them.
4) But that
doesn't mean you shouldn't try more new things. Do numbers 3 and 4 sound
contradictory? They're not. You can't remain static. Neither can you become
complacent with what may have worked before, but may not now. So how do you find out what is working?
That's hard. For me it's not
just numbers and stats, though I use those. It's reading posts about a seller
or a trend, like Kindle Unlimited. Sometimes it's as simple as it feels right
or wrong. Not scientific, but …..
If you have a better way to
tell or chart what's working for you, I
want to hear it. Please let me know in comments. After all we are a community
of writers.
One other major change I'm
going to be making is working on Stone of Heaven's cover and blurb.
It's my second book and I admit it, sales are lagging.
So I need to look at the
cover, which I like, but have to take a step back and see if I can make it stronger. And the blurb, I need to and can fix it. I
don't think it says how much romance is in the story. Read it and tell me what you think. Really,
I'm all ears.
As an Indie Author, I can
make the changes necessary to fix what I determine isn't working. How cool and
scary is that?
Stone of Heaven:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/12pl02k
Two things when I started
this journey I swore I would never do,
FREE and CHEAP.
But now I have a new title,
Best Selling Author, and I have a following of great readers so why not
repackage myself and offer free and cheap when it's right, like when I'm
releasing a new book? No reason. See #4 on the list.
So I did just that and it was
amazing what it did for sales. I didn't keep the free book free, I did slightly
lower the prices on all my books, but not to .99 as they were then they were
"bargain."
I have a blog, www.anindieadventure.blogspot.com
and I have room for guests (contact me on my blog if you want to be a guest),
but I've had to rethink just how much time I can put into the blog, so I've
changed what I can offer my guests. Numbers
1&3 on the list. But guests on blogs are a win/win situation.
You can't be static.
You can be a perfectionist, but you can't dwell on things when they're
not. And as writers, we still have to find time to write. After all that's what all the rest of this is
about isn't it?
What about trying all the
different social media you ask? HA!! That's another post entirely.
Bio:
Leslie Ann Sartor (aka L.A. Sartor) began telling
stories around the age of 4 when her mother, at Leslie’s insistence, wrote them
down and Leslie illustrated them. As an
adult she writes suspense and action adventure novels with a dash of romance,
and screenplays—she's had a contracted adaptation! She lives in Colorado with her husband whom
she met on a blind date. Leslie loves to
travel and thinks life is an adventure and we should embrace the journey. She has a blog: www.anindieadventure.blogspot.com.
She is also one of the Five Scribes at www.fivescribes.blogspot.com. Check out her website, www.lesliesartor.com.
Leslie
is releasing Forever Yours This New
Year's Night, the second book in the Star Light ~ Star Bright Series (Be Mine This Christmas Night is book 1)
in early November.
And
Viking Gold, the second book in the
Carswell Adventure Series (Stone of
Heaven is book 1) in early 2015.
Social Links
L.A.
Sartor's website: http://bit.ly/Msu6J8
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/lesann415/boards/
5 comments:
Thanks Aaron and Murder By 4 for hosting me on your blog today. Wow Top Blogger by Writer's Digest for a lot of years. I'm honored.
Hugs
LA
How did you find your virtual assistant? I've considered something similar myself but won't proceed until I have a better idea what I want them to do. Specifics.
Barbara Barrett
Thanks for coming and being our guest. Your points are very good ones and your journey sounds exciting. Much luck in the future!!
LA, you've given really great information. Even as one of those who holds on to publishers shirt-tales, it's given me vigor. Cheers.
Sorry to be weighing in so late, but all I can say is: You're my heroine, Leslie Ann!!! You aren't afraid to try anything, and you really have a wonderful grasp of the marketing aspects of authorship. Keep up the great work and thanks sooooooo much for your generosity in sharing these tips with us....
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