Social Networking

Book Trailers

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Ruth Ann Nordin

I don’t think book trailers are a huge way to promote your books to potential readers.  I mean, they can, but I’ve found they are more popular with people who are already fans of my books.  So I consider them to be for my fans.

As a quick off-topic moment:

In a writing group I’m a part of, there was recently a discussion along the lines of promotion, and someone mentioned Goodreads.  I haven’t done a Goodreads giveaway, but I’ve heard this helps get reviews and can be a great promotional tool because people who sign up to win a copy of your book also has the opportunity to check your book out (so even if they don’t win the copy, they might want to read it).

Another possible marketing strategy for reaching new readers could be being featured on book reviewer blog sites.  I know, this one is tricky.  I’ve been turned down by every book reviewer I contacted (except for one back in 2008 who knew another book reviewer who happened to like my book–so I had an “in” on that one).  But yep, ever since then, it’s been “We’re sorry but the answer is no.”  So I understand how hard it can be to get on these blogs.  I have been featured on blogs, but it’s been pure luck, and sometimes the reviewer hates my book.  But I still consider a negative review a win as long as the reviewer is objective.  They will at least state why they hated the book, and who knows if what that person hates, another person will like?

Another thing that works great for a friend is a blog hop.  She does a lot of these, and her sales seems to have benefited from this.  But the key to the blog hop where you’re doing a giveaway with other authors is to make sure all the authors in the blog hop are targeting the same audience.   This is another great way to reach new readers.

I mention the three above methods because I was reading through a discussion in my writer’s group and wondered what are some methods to reach new readers?  Of course, I still think free has been the biggest benefit (at least for me).

Now that I got that out of my system, let me get to book trailers.

Back to topic:

I use Animoto (thanks to Bill Quain for pointing me in their direction) because it eliminates the time I had to go through with Windows to make one.  My husband likes to work with Apple’s iMovie program, but I still prefer Animoto because they do the bulk of the work for you.  Since I don’t see any huge benefit to making book trailers, I try to minimize the time and effort in making them.

I buy royalty-free stock photos off of http://www.dreamstime.com (my favorite place to get pictures, but there are other sites out there to choose from).  I log into Animoto and click on create a new video.  I do pay for a subscription because I don’t want “Animoto” to show up at the end of the video, but you don’t have to pay for it.  You get more perks if you pay for it, but it’s not necessary.  Then I upload those pictures to the site, type in the words I want to use for the trailer, and select the music I want.  I organize the text and pictures in the order I want them and hit publish.  It’s pretty much a program that does it all for you and is easy to use (which is what I like).

There are other ways you can make trailers.  Whichever one you use is up to you.  :D

So what kind of trailers can you do?

There is no right or wrong answer.  I’ll toss out some ideas.

1. A shortened version of your book description.

You tell the reader what your book is about.  This can be from the third person point of view or from one of the characters in the book.  I wouldn’t make this any longer than two minutes.  Ideally, it’s one minute, but I have a tendency to go over one minute, so I know how easy that is to do.  I try to keep the words brief and rely more on the pictures to state any details that show key points in the plot.

2.  A prelude to the book.

I recently did this.  The main character in one of my books has a backstory that I thought would be a good lead-in to the book, so I told the trailer in first person (her point of view) and used pictures to get across things that happened in her past.  I then add the trailer with the pivotal moment in her life (which is actually at chapter 2 in the book so it connects to the book) that changes everything (a hook).

3. A documentary to go along with the book.

I did this for my Native American Romance Series featuring the Mandan Indians of North Dakota.  I went to North Dakota last year, took a ton of pictures to see the earthen lodges and items they used and went on a couple of guided tours to better learn about the Mandans (and I learned more from those tours than I did from the books I read because it helps to have things you can see and touch, and there question and answer part of the tours were immensely valuable).  I went back home and made a couple of videos about what I learned, keeping it short and adding the pictures I took.  These trailers will hopefully help my readers visualize the Mandan world in my books.

4.  A scene from the book

I used Xtranormal to do this.  I picked a scene with two characters and did what I thought was a “hook” part of the book.  You pick the ‘actors’ available on Xtranormal to play the part of two characters in the book.  At last check, you could only use two, and it was hard to do a historical scene due to lack of ‘actors’.  I haven’t used this in a while, so things might have changed since then.

5.  A teaser.

This is done mostly through pictures or video, but the idea is to use very few words to pique someone’s interest.  You basically pick a main question (or theme) that runs through your book and let that be the focal point of the trailer.  Off the top of my head, I’m thinking of pictures of a viral outbreak, some violence (guns, etc), and the words “How far would you go to save yourself?” Obviously, the music and picture/video you use would have to carry the weight of the book’s description.

6. Read a small portion of your book.

Usually, I’ve only seen this with a book cover, but you could add background music and some pictures to go along with the scene.  The key here is to have a great reading voice.

***

Those are some different trailers I can think of off the top of my head.  Anyone else got any ideas for book trailers?

Categories: Book Promotion, Marketing & Promoting, Social Networking | Tags:

Saying No is Hard to Do (But Sometimes You Have To)

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Ruth Ann Nordin

We want to please others.  It’s natural.  You don’t want to rock the boat.  You want to be liked by everyone.  But the reality is that as a writer, your first concern is…well…writing.  But too many times other people come to us with a request, and we feel obligated to say yes.  One person asks us to do something, we think, “Well, it’s not too much time.  I’ll do it.”  Except, it doesn’t end there.  There’s always someone else and another request.  It keeps going, and before we know it, we’re running around to do things for everyone else but ourselves.

Then we look at our writing progress, or rather lack thereof, and wonder, “Where did the time go?  Why am I so far behind?  Why didn’t I reach my goals?”

This is where we have to figure out what matters and what doesn’t.  Our first goal as a writer is to write.  If we aren’t doing that, we’ll have nothing to publish.  And if we have nothing to publish, we won’t get to write the next book and publish it.  Then what?  Our readers have nothing new to read, no reason to keep checking our website or blog to see when a new book will be released.  We’ve lost our ability to share our story with people who want to read it.  And isn’t that why we wanted to publish our books in the first place?  While sales are nice, the real joy comes from reaching that special reader who falls in love with our book and reads it over and over.

So this is why we have to figure out how to say no.  Saying no can be hard.  I feel guilty when I say it.  But if I don’t, I’ll never write anything.  While I struggle with this problem, I felt the need to write this post because it’s something I need to hear (and maybe someone else reading it needs to hear it, too).

It’s okay to say no.  No is not a dirty word.  You can’t do everything.  There are only so many hours in the day, and you have obligations to your family and friends.  You have an obligation to give yourself time to enjoy life, and some of that time should be away from writing because if you aren’t away from it, you don’t have time to relax and experience life so you can write.  A well-rested mind is a creative mind.  Then it’s time to write.

I think it might be a good idea to set aside so much time in a day, a week, or even in a month where you do nothing but write.  After you do this, then you need to tend to your fans (fans should come before other writers because fans are the ones who have invested their time and money in your books).  After you finish emailing or answering blog comments from your fans, then you should do your social networking (blog posts, Facebook updates, Twitter updates, update your blog/website, etc).

After that is all done, if you have time to spare and energy, then you might want to do a favor for someone who asks for a favor.  But I want to add a disclaimer here.  Some people will take and take but never give anything back.  These are the types you should never say “yes” to.  You don’t need to be used.  Your time is important.  Time spent doing a favor is time you’re not with a loved one, writing, or building relationships with your fans.  It’s also time you’re not taking to recharge.  I’m an introvert, so I need time to myself to get energy back, and this time can’t be spent answering emails or doing favors or even be with family and friends.  I need to be alone and unwind with music, a book, or even writing.  Extroverts might get the energy from being with people they enjoy being with.  I’m not an extrovert, so I don’t know what they need most to recharge.

So think of it this way: when you say no to things you don’t have time for, you’re really saying “yes” to things that are a priority in your life.  People might not like it if you say no to them and you might get hit with a 1-star review for it, but you owe it to  yourself and your readers to write so you can publish the next book.

And for some inspiration, I thought Stephanie Meyer offered an interesting look into why writing should be the focus of what we do:

Categories: General Writing, Psychology of Writing & Publishing, Social Networking, The Writer & Author

Ways to NOT Market Your Book

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Ruth Ann Nordin

Quick disclaimer: I don’t know any indie authors who do this, so I am not thinking of anyone in particular when I wrote this post.  These are some things I’ve seen while browsing some booksites.

Ways to NOT market your book:

1.  Using a title that tells the reader it’s a short story, a collection of stories, or a certain novel. 

When I say this, I mean this is the actual title of the book.  It’s one thing to use these terms as a subtitle, but it shouldn’t be the title.  For example, these are titles that aren’t likely to pique someone’s interest:

A Short Story I Wrote
A Romance Novel
Six Stories

These are variations of actual titles I found while browsing books. How would any of those titles grab a reader’s attention?  How would it specify the type of story or romance the reader would be getting?  How would your target audience know this is the right book for them?  If someone is looking at a list of books without seeing a (potentially) attractive cover, they would skip right over this because it does nothing to pique their interest.

If you’re having trouble coming up with book titles, I suggest skimming titles in your genre and writing down the words that make you go “Love it!”  Then mix and match different words until something grabs you.  You can then make a poll or have an informal discussion with others to see what they find appealing and go with the title they pick, unless you like the title you came up with and don’t need feedback.  :D

2.  Using a description that doesn’t say what the book is actually about.

Some examples of what I found are as follows:

“This short story is 2,300 words long.”

“This is a Alien Space 2011 Award Winning book.  Reviewer X says, ‘This explores avenues not often pursued in science fiction.’ Reviewer Y says, ‘I couldn’t put it down.  Definitely worth a read.’”

“A story I wrote in college.”

A reader wants to know what the book is about.  Want to mention it won an award?  Fine, but be sure to include what the book is about.  Want to add the word count?  Fine, but tell the reader what’s on those pages.  However, no one needs to know when or where you wrote the book (ex. “in college”) because the potential reader doesn’t care.

As for what reviewers are saying, let the reviews on the book speak for you.  Readers interested in reviews will scroll to the reviews to read them.  They are reading your description to find out what is in the book.  Now if the reviewer is a well-known name to your target audience (say JK Rowlings, Stephen King, or Nora Roberts), then this would go well in the description.  But a person who no one knows?  I don’t think it works.

3.  No cover or a cover that looks like you didn’t care about the final product.

Look at traditionally published books. How many do you see without a cover?  How many covers do you see that look like a kid drew it?  You don’t need a complicated design.  You can choose something simple.  Sometimes simple is better.  As long as the colors work together and the image doesn’t interfere with your title and author name, you can get something to appeal to people.  But think of your target audience when you’re doing this.

Okay.  I am thinking of someone (not from this blog but from a discussion forum) who didn’t have a cover for their book because they didn’t feel like going through the trouble.  Someone commented that they needed some kind of cover and did one up for this author in five minutes.  And you can slap something together in five minutes.  Using BookCoverPro or GiMP or Paint.net, you can insert a royalty-free stock photo and put your name and title on it.  So I don’t think there’s any excuse not to have a cover.  GIMP and Paint.net are free, and a picture can be bought for $5-$10.  You want cheap?  That’s cheap.  And cheap doesn’t have to be cheesy.

For example, this cover cost me $10 (I got it from www.shutterstock.com with their $49 for five pictures deal):

It took me five minutes to make.  I did it in BookCoverPro, but I could have done it in GIMP or Paint.net.

As for drawing covers, I suggest you don’t do this unless you have the talent for it.  I can’t draw to save my life, so I don’t draw my covers.  If you don’t have the talent for it and you do this, don’t expect people to buy the book.  People do judge a book by its cover, and when they see someone slapping up a cover that looks like a grade school student’s art project, they are going to question the professionalism of the author.

4.  Telling everyone on this planet about your book.

This is the most annoying thing I’ve come across when it comes to marketing a book.  You have to pick where you pitch your book, and more importantly, you have to be careful on how you pitch it.  Sometimes I want to slap people who tell new authors to do things that annoy the crap out of people.  How many of you guys love it when a salesman comes to your door to sell a product?  How many of you guys jump for joy when a telemarketer calls?  How many of you guys would love to be putting gas in your car when someone comes up to you and tells you all about their new music album and want you to buy it.  I’m betting most of you just shuddered in revulsion.

But isn’t this what the “experts” tell authors to do all the time?  Get reviews any way you can.  Email people you don’t know about your book.  Post your book on someone’s Facebook wall or blog in the comments section.  Go up to someone on the street, pull out your book, and tell them all about it.  Mention your book everywhere and over and over again.  Never mind that after a while, all you’ll sound like is white noise and lose your effectiveness.  People can filter out posts, status updates, etc that go on and on about a book, whether it’s reminding them you have a book or your book got (yet another) glowing review or made a certain ranking.  I don’t believe these tactics work.  They might earn you a review or a sale short-term, but in the long run, I don’t see this playing out for success because people are more interested in what their friends recommend or in what they come across by searching for books at their leisure.  I think most people resist the “in your face” sales pitch.

When marketing a book, you need to think (1) who is my target audience and (2) what can I offer them?  Yes, this takes time.  Yes, it can be hard to wait.  Yes, I realize people like Amanda Hocking and John Locke became superstars in a short period of time, and in our culture of instant gratification, it’s easy to get impatient.  But the norm is not instant success.  The norm is a slow climb up the hill.  People all talk about JA Konrath, but do they even think of how long it took him to get to where he is today?  Do they ever consider the time and hard work he put into it?

I do believe it’s very possible to make more money today in self-publishing than in traditional publishing because we get to keep a bigger part of the royalties.  But in our fast-food world, it’s easy to forget that certain things must be in place before you can hope to have some nice vacation money, pay some bills, or even make a living off your writing.  You need to write a story you’re passionate about that your target audience can’t put down, a great title, a great cover, a catchy description, patience, offering something to your target audience that they want or need, and writing and publishing more books.  Most of us can’t take short cuts.  Those who aren’t serious about this business will bail because they want those short cuts.  But you know, babies don’t become adults overnight.  They need to be toddlers, preschoolers, grade-age students, junior high students, and high school students first.  It’s a process.

Categories: Book Covers, Book Promotion, Marketing & Promoting, Social Networking

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