Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

I’m guest blogging at Manic Readers today about the changes of going from an aspiring writer to a published one. Here’s the link to The Other Side of The Fence.

I’ve had an author page at Manic Readers for some time. They’re free and easy for any author to set up. I certainly found the entire process very painless when I set up my page. Recently Manic Readers contacted me because they’re now offering a Plus Membership where authors can pay a small monthly fee and receive extra benefits.

In the interests of full disclosure, they offered me a free trial membership in exchange for telling other authors about the new services they provide. I accepted and I’ve tried out the new additions. Once again it was very easy, and now I wait with interest to see what readers and other authors think of the new services.

About the Plus Membership

1. The Plus Membership allows authors to host live chats with their readers right from their Author Page.

2. The Plus Membership allows authors to post news and contests directly to the Manic Readers website.

3. The Plus Membership is only $3.99/month which is an inexpensive way to attract and interact with readers.

4. The Plus Membership integrates with Twitter so your MR book and page updates post to your Twitter page.

The Site:
1. Authors can create free Author Pages quickly and easily without any HTML code.
2. Readers can enjoy thousands of books, authors, and publishers.
3. Easy navigation and great search capabilities.

For further details visit the links below:

Manic Readers main website
Plus Membership page

Promo is something that always weighs heavy on my mind. Am I doing enough? Am I doing the right thing or am I making prospective readers run in the opposite direction? That’s the difficulty with promo. It’s hard to quantify and decide what actually works.

I have a few promo rules I adhere to:

1. I never spend more than I earn or think I’m going to earn.

2. When I do promo I tend to promote my brand as a whole rather than focusing on a particular book. (there are a few exceptions to this rule but now that I have a backlist I tend to promo me)

3. When it comes to a choice of promo or writing, the writing wins every time. I figure if I don’t have the product then there isn’t any need for promo.

4. I have a rule I call the rule of three where I try to do three things every day to promote my name or books. This makes the whole promo beast seem more manageable because I’m breaking it down. Today I answered the questions for an interview, I posted two excerpts on the Romance Excerpts Only loop and requested a book review.

My promo consists of:

I like to blog hop as much as I can. Some days I have more time than others, but I think this is a way of getting my name out. I tend to steer clear of contentious blogs because I don’t believe anyone wins in an online war. When I blog hop I also find books to add to my to-read list and it helps me keep up on market info.

I like forums. I belong to the Romance Divas forum and the Coffee Time forum. I don’t manage to get there every day but I enjoy the contact with other writers and readers. Both places are extremely friendly and make newbies welcome.

I take advantage of guest blogging and interviews whenever possible. I join my publisher loops and post as often as I can.

I joined The Romance Studio when I was first published and have kept up my membership. It’s very reasonable and offers many opportunities for advertising and promotion.

I’m not sure that print advertising is good value for money. It can be very expensive and it’s difficult to quantify the results. If I have a print book I always consider print advertising since this makes sense, but once again I think it’s very expensive.

Take advantage of free offers. Manic Readers (see the button in my sidebar) has free author pages. It doesn’t take long to set up a page. Author’s Den also has free author pages. (A fee is charged for the Featured Author pages)

Bookmarks – I don’t believe it’s necessary to have bookmarks. Yes, it’s nice to have them. Yes, I have bookmarks at the moment, but I don’t think you’ll lose sales because you don’t have them.

Online Banner advertising – I’m not convinced banner ads work as a method of advertising. Others might disagree, but they haven’t worked for me.

A good website, kept up-to-date, is the best thing you can do to promote yourself. Look at other authors’ websites. Features and designs that attract your eye will probably attract the attention of readers as well.

Bottom Line: I think any promotion you do should be enjoyable. It shouldn’t stress you out or make you crabby because it’s taking you away from family or your writing. If you get to this stage, concentrate on your writing because that’s the most important thing.

If you’re a writer, how do you approach promotion? What do you do? What are your favorite methods of promotion? What things do you enjoy? If you’re a reader, what sort of things make you pay attention to a writer? What makes you pick up a book or order a book online from a new author or an author unfamiliar to you?

I have a new interview up at Manic Readers. BTW, if you’re an author you can sign up for a free page at Manic Readers. Here’s mine.

Yay! I have a new sale to report. I’ve sold a Quickie to Ellora’s Cave. It’s called Fringe Benefits and is a friends with benefits story as well as a threesome. It’s a hot little number.

Finally, we had a fine day today, and I went for a long cycle ride. Unfortunately all that fresh air was a bit too stimulating for my brain, because I had two ideas for stories and one in particular is screaming, “Write. Me. Now.” Not gonna happen. I’ve done a note to jog my memory at a later date, and I’m ploughing ahead with my sci-fi story.

We went out for lunch with friends yesterday and had both great food and company. I take my camera with me everywhere and decided I needed a photo of my cherry beer. I’d taken a couple of sips. A passing waiter asked if I’d like some froth on top for my photo. “Yes, please!” I said and he took away my drink, returning seconds later with some nice froth on top. Wasn’t he nice?

Did you have a fun weekend?