A biz goal accomplished

This year, again, I have Leonie Dawson's Life and Biz books to write my goals down for what I want to achieve. One of the pages in the Biz book is about promotion and asks where do you want to be mentioned. One of my answers was ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors), and I have achieved this twice the last week.

A couple of months ago, I was asked to write a piece for their blog about writing about children with Asperger's by the blog's organiser, Debbie Young. She said that she would put it up when my book went live. The post went up last week and you can read it here http://selfpublishingadvice.org/children-asperger-syndrome-autism-books/

Then a couple of days ago Debbie asked on the FB group for ideas on out-of-the box marketing for our books. I posted about wanting do a library event during National Autism Awareness week. It was picked up and put on a blog post, which you can read here http://selfpublishingadvice.org/book-marketing-in-the-dark-wacky-ideas-that-really-work/

After this, I have realised that my biz is now going to be writing children's book about children with Asperger's, autism and other health issues, and raise awareness of them by doing events at libraries, if I can.

So, that is one of my Biz promo goals accomplished.

How are your biz goals going?

RNA Conference Day 1 - What I learnt

This time last week I was getting v excited about going to the RNA conference in Mile End Road. A week has gone by and I still have good and bad memories. (The bad ones will appear on my food blog). The first talk I went to was a Skype webinar with Jim Azevedo of Smashwords, where he talked about pre-orders, what they are and what they can do for authors.

Here is what I learnt:

Preorders are only for Apple, Kobo and B&N. They are advanced book orders. Readers can order the book before release but they won't be charged until the launch day.

1. Preorders area fast track to desirability, discoverability and visibility. You need to start promoting your ebook months in advance. You are already talking about your next book. Capture the sale, don't lose it. Have a preorder link.
2. Better buzz building. You get anticipation, excitement and fans and superfans, which can lead to
3. Better reviews. Fans are more likely to preorder. Be the first to read your book and to review them.
4. Fast track to a bestseller list. A bestseller is more visibility to readers. Sales lead to more sales.
5. Same day availability as launch day.
6. Increased merchandising option.  Eg Apple iBooks Oz have a special called 'Coming soon'.

Planning - Budget for a long runway into publishing timetable. More days = more time to get orders. 4-12 weeks is recommended.

Timing - Avoid Tuesdays on SW (even though I published my latest on a Tues and got a sale). The weekend is the biggest selling days. Holidays and after Xmas Day are good.

Marketing
1. Contests, chapter reveals, blog tours. Promote direct links to preorder pages.
2. Mobilize your fans as a street team. Spread the word
3. Author special pricing. You can have preorder price cheaper, then increase it on launch day.
4. Leverage other books to market preorder. Update back pages of all other books. Free sample of book. Series starter as free.

But what if your book isn't finished yet? There is now Assetless Preorders. You only need to know the title, the price, the description, release date and category. (Might do this myself for either 'Fire Angels' or Billy, or both). When you upload onto SW, and click 'publish' you can choose the option 'make it a preorder.'

Review publishing schedule in 12 months. Get all firm projects as preorders. Choose your on-sale date as far ahead as possible. Once preorder is listed, promote!

For normal preorders you have to have the book ready 10 days in advance so each retailer gets your book on the same day.

I asked if we could change metadata eg title of book from the preorder one to the launch day one. Yes, you can change any of the metadata.

Now thinking seriously about having one or two of my forthcoming ebooks as Assetless Preorders.

How to create a business plan - Step 1

I got this idea from the current issue of Writer's News magazine, and thought it was a good idea so am using it to create my plan for next year's writing. The first step is to write down what you have achieved this year. So here I am doing this here.

1. Ebooks - I published three ebooks (2 short books and one story). They were 'Life in the Old Dog', 'The Vanity Quest' and 'The Leaping Angels'.

2. I wrote a children's book, the second in the series about Asperkids finding confidence via a magical world at school.

3. I had published several letters in magazines this year, and got more rewards than I've done before doing this.

4. I started to give more talks at a local library, helping new authors get on the path to indie writing.

5. I created a new marketing website, to help other authors get discovered. This goes with a blog.

6. Finally, I wrote and sent off a story to Woman's Weekly magazine, after attending their workshops and realising what sort of stories they publish.

Despite all that I have achieved this year, there are things I haven't, and I will be mentioning those in the next post, and why I think this is.

So, what have you achieved this year that you are proud to have done? Let me know.

Why I'm pleased I set up my new marketing website

Last Saturday I went to a panel talk held by the RNA on genre writing. Janet Gover asked most of the questions to the panel who were: Alison Morton, author of the Roma Nova novels about alternate history; Christina Courtney who writes historical, time-slip and YA for Choc Lit, and Monica Fairview who self-publishes books inspired by Jane Austen. I enjoyed listening to how they write what they do and why, but a couple of things happened that made me smile a lot. Christina (real name Pia) said that she is now going to self-publish her YA books because her publisher is not going to publish that genre anymore. Also, another author said in her introduction that she is going to press the 'print' button shortly with her first self-published book. That was number one that made me smile. People are still wanting to self-publish their books.

The second thing happened after the talk. Pia wanted to ask me a question. Me? Yay. Unfortunately, I couldn't answer it because she wanted to know about formatting with headings, which I have yet to do. Alison suggested to hire someone to do it for her. The following morning I messaged Pia on Facebook with other suggestions, which she said she'd look in to.

The third thing was shortly before I was about to leave, the other author, Linda Chamberlain, who said she is going to become an indie author, asked me for the link to my new website. I wrote it on the back of a postcard she had picked up at the talk. I do hope that the website matches people's expectations. The website is all about helping new authors get discovered with blog posts about marketing tips and strategies and guides about marketing. It can be found at www.hopewithjulie.wordpress.com.

My new marketing website is now live

Yay, my new marketing website, which I've called 'Get discovered with Julie Day' is now live. I have blogged about why I have set up the website as its launch. You can find the website at www.hopewithjulie.wordpress.com. There are a few pages that have already been done and they are: About; Gift Shop; My Talks and Contact Form. In due course all the pages will have something on them, and that will be marketing guides for direct sale to you.

Now that I have let you know about its launch, the rest of the week I will be promoting it on social media platforms, and will be putting the finishing touches to my first guide about writing letters and tips to magazines.

Happy reading.

How to write letters and tips talk - how it went

Last Saturday I gave a talk at Sydenham Community Library on how to write letters and tips to magazines and get paid for them. As I have had numerous successes with these myself, I thought I'd teach others to do the same and pass on my knowledge. After getting there later than I planned due to a delayed mini-cab arriving 25 minutes later, I still had time to settle down before people arrived. It was raining, so I didn't expect many to come. I was right. I only had 2 people arrive, both of whom had come to my last talk. I gave the talk. Throughout the talk, I answered questions and we chatted about writing. One of the men said that it gave him a wake-up call as he didn't realise that people wrote to magazines and got paid for them. He was going to try a filler himself. We chatted about writing and ebooks after that for a while.

While that man was finding out about what else the library did, I chatted to the other man, his friend. I also found out when the library's Xmas fayre was going to be and booked myself to have a stall for that. I will be selling my books, badges and organic products there.

So, although the weather was bad and I only had 2 people turn up, I deem the talk a success because I got them thinking about having a go themselves at writing a letter to a magazine, and I taught them something they didn't know.

This talk I am planning to sell on my new marketing website soon to be launched. If you wish to be one of the first people to know when the website goes live and when these guides are available to buy, why not sign up for my newsletter at

http://forms.aweber.com/form/25/1466306025.htm

Coming soon from me....

A new marketing website with guides on how authors and marketers can get discovered. Here is what I have planned for it:

Writing magazine fillers - letters and tip to magazines, and how to get paid for them

How to get leads on-line; how to get reader lists for your books; autoresponders

Finding your brand

Planning and goal setting

Social media: blogs, websites, social network sites. What to do and not to do on Google

Publishing ebooks - my library talk series

My library talks

Gift shop - promoting a few items you can get from my Zazzle store

and more.

This is all that I have learnt from being an indie author and within the last year as being an affiliate marketer.

I have yet to set up the website, which will be a blog, too, so I can blog marketing tips for you all now and then.

To be one of the first to find out when it goes live, why not sign up for my newsletter at

http://forms.aweber.com/form/25/1466306025.htm

SCBWI Masterclass on School Visits

Last Saturday I went to Charing Cross for the workshop on School Visits by Jane Clarke. This is going to be a summary of what I learnt because I can't give away all of Jane's secrets. So here we go.

First it was the business side of visits.
Jane gave us handouts of sheets that showed what correspondence to schools were like, and what invoices should be like.
Get your promotional tools together. Have a pack to give to libraries and groups.
Jane makes her own bookmarks.
She ran free school workshops until she was felt confident and competent enough to do them for money.
She mentioned to belong to a few websites that specialise in school visits, such as Contact an Author.
You do need insurance for visits, esp if you are visiting little ones, in case you accidentally hit a child. But you don't need CRB for one-off visits. If you are a regular visitor, then the school will get it for you.
Do what is comfortable for you. Be yourself.
Take blue-tak.
Enthuse the children to write and draw. Get them to have ideas.
Be nice.
Have a back-up workshop in case they have already done a similar subject to yours.

We had lunch. I had burger and chips (no bun).

Then it was more about the visits and sharing our ideas.
Put props on floor.
I shared my idea of what I do for my mermaid workshop for 9-12 year olds (Year 5&6). Jane later told me that she liked my idea.
We asked questions. I asked about indie authors. Jane said to just ask, esp if local. I also asked about special needs. Jane said that she has come across special needs children. They are guided by their teaching assistants. To ask the teacher to represent pupil if they want to talk.

So, what did I learn? Basically, I feel that I need to work more with children in libraries before I think about wanting to visit schools. I got a couple of ideas for mermaid workshops I could try out at different libraries. Oh, and to get a promo pack in place for libraries and other groups.

If you wish to find out more about marketing yourself as an author, why not sign up for my newsletter here

http://forms.aweber.com/form/25/1466306025.htm

Don't put all your (marketing) eggs in one basket

I recently put this post on my marketing blog (http://elitemarketingpro.net/julieaday) to warn others in marketing what is happening on YouTube. But because I know that some authors also use YouTube to promote their books with videos, I thought I'd post it here, too. So here it is.

After all that's been happening the last few weeks on YouTube #youtubefail I want to now say, don't put all your marketing eggs in one basket eg Google. What has been happening is that some saddo has found a loophole in YouTube's policy on flagging videos and been abusing it, resulting in lots of videos done by entrepreneurs (inc me) being flagged for some reason or even closed down. Poor Ray Higdon had his channel suspended with millions of viewers and hundreds of marketing down the drain. Because they didn't try to do anything to help, he decided to leave them. This is why Rebecca Woodhead wrote her column for What's Working Now called 'Why Google hates us'. You can read the first instalment here http://julieaday.getwwn.com/try. So, if one channel goes up the creek for you, ie YouTube, you should have a plan b or an alternative route to put your marketing material. I am in the process of uploading my videos to LinkedIn, so you can see them there as well.
Facebook is currently up and running well, so you can upload videos there for the short term, but you have to embed them, and I don't know how to do that. Or like me you can put them all on LinkedIn, which is a business network. Ideal for marketing materials. There are other video channels you can use such as Vimeo.

Meantime, I am going to concentrate on building my email lists and my marketing blog, as they are the two things I know I am good at and can do. And they aren't part of Google.

PS. If you want to get tips on how to write magazine fillers and get paid for them, I will be putting the ebook up on my marketing blog by next week. Why not become one of my leads to get access to more marketing ideas, by emailing me at awlist3493948@aweber.com or looking at http://julieaday.elitemarketingpro.com/letter-new.php

Elite Marketing Pro - a fantastic opportunity to learn about marketing

Some of you have probably found out that I have been messaging you personally on Facebook about Elite Marketing Pro, wanting you to join. If you have any sort of internet business, be it publishing ebooks (like me) or selling items as a company then you need to read this.

Why Internet Marketing is a Pipe Dream

It makes me mad to say it...

But for most people, internet marketing and creating multiple streams of income is nothing but a pipe dream.

Why?

Because the "system" is rigged and the odds are stacked way against you when you follow the conventional "guru" advice.

It's designed to keep you stuck, struggling and dependent on THEIR next bright shiny object like a heroine addict in need of a fix.

Feels good for a moment, but it's slowly killing you.

UNLESS...

You know how to AVOID these landmines that can go off anytime.

It's all outlined in the report I told you about the other day.

Did you read it?

If not, then stop what you're doing.

Go download this and read right now.>>>http://julieaday.elitemarketingpro.com<<<

Your business life and the size of your bank account depend on it.

Here's the link again. >>>http://julieaday.elitemarketingpro.com<<<

 

My best,

   

Julie

 

I am still learning different ways to market myself from this. You can too.

Elite Marketing Pro - What it has done for me.

A couple of months ago I entered a new business venture: attraction marketing called Magnetic Sponsoring, Elite Marketing Pro being one of their products. I first went into it on their 10 day trial for $10 (about £8). As from a previous post, you can read that I got three leads from that period, which amazed me. I was then going to exit it out of it, but read that you can get results if you stay in it. So I stayed for another month. Then I took a gamble and decided to stay for a whole year paying a lot more money. I am pleased that I did, because not only have I learnt a lot, but things are just hotting up there, with EMP about to go into real business - it has only been in beta mode until now. If you have seen any of my posts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc (I've been getting about), you will have seen me promote it. If you have and still not sure what to do about it, here is my take on what I have learnt from being an affiliate of EMP.

1. I first went into it as a possible way to earn residual money to support my writing. I haven't earned any yet but it's early days since I started my new campaign (another post). But I have learned something else - how to brand myself using FB and PInterest (another post) from an idea from Rebecca Woodhead (fantastic coach). This will be a special document for anyone who joins my team.

2. The other thing I have learned is that it is a great team of marketers I belong to, and they are always inspiring and encouraging us newbies that we can do it if we try. I have made a few online friends there, and really like being on the FB group. You can too, if you join now.

3. It has given me the courage to possibly try new ways to market myself and my brand. Eg FB ads and videos (yet to do that but will soon). As someone with Asperger's Syndrome, I find it hard to communicate with people inc on the phone, but last week on a coaching phone session with Rebecca Woodhead, I spoke lots about marketing. My mum said to me afterward that she's not heard me talk so much. I replied I can if it's something to do with what I like doing eg writing.

So, if you have heard all the buzz about EMP on the net and not sure about it, go for it. I did, and have made friends, learnt more about myself and marketing and how I can help others. This is the main reason I am staying in EMP because I want to help others with marketing, esp online being an indie author of ebooks I know some about it. So, come and join a great team. Have fun, make friends, learn about marketing. See you at

http://julieaday.elitemarketingpro.com.

Another new business venture

As someone with Asperger's Syndrome I don't normally take risks, but I had to do with a new business venture, thanks to Rebecca Woodhouse who referred me. It is all about selling and promoting different courses that appeal to online businesses and home business owners, and that can include writers like myself. I was referred by Rebecca (I always like reading her articles in Writing Magazine) when this business was going for a special offer trial for 10 days. You have to pay the full amount for each month after that, but if you get commissions, it pays off and you can break even. So what are these courses you are asking. Well, here are the links.

The first one is about how to build a home business on a small budget, and shows you videos on how to do this in 7 steps.

http://julieaday.buildingonabudget.com

If you like these videos, it gives you a chance to buy the ebook, which I am going to read this afternoon. I think this is a great idea because in these economic climes anyone wants to know how to do something on a small budget with things costing so much.

The other course I have been promoting to others is

http://julieaday.magneticsponsoringonline.com

Again, if you like the videos you can buy the course, and if you buy it having read my link, I will get commissions.

 

There is another course called Elite Marketing Pro, which this is all about. We all want to be a pro at marketing and be good at it. So do check these all out and let me know what you think. That was a call for action. If you want to know about building a home business, even if you are a writer, contact me on here. I am going to mention this on FB and Twitter today so you can find me there, too. So, let's build a home business on a budget. Let's all make some money to support ourselves.

 

The London Book Fair 2013 - What I Learned

On Monday this week I travelled by myself to the London Book Fair at Earl's Court. I was aiming to get there for a talk at 10am but the trains were so slow I ended up arriving a couple of mins late. Thankfully I didn't miss much and heard most of the talk. The talk was by the Alliance of Independent Authors about self-publishing and what you have to be to be one. Here is what I learnt.

It was by the owner, Orna Ross. The first thing she asked us to do (yes, we had to do some writing), was to write down what you have risked in your life. I wrote learning to drive. Then 3 things we have done that we felt were risky: I wrote, going to new places, meeting new people and volunteering. They are risky for me having Asperger's Syndrome. Then we had to write down a current project we were working on and list risks for that. Mine was for my current Geraldine ebook, and the risks I put were self-publishing it, putting it out into the world. I also wrote about writing about autism, and the risks for that were putting it out there for people to see who I am and what I am like. Going freelance and being rejected.

Then we had to list things we felt we had been proactive with and I wrote: joining organisations/societies, going to their talks etc, going on line with FB etc, going indie, having a website and blog. Then we had to write down 3 things that would move forward our project. I wrote to find a cover, write more, edit it.

Then it was about the stages of writing which are: first draft, final draft, edit, design, production, marketing and sales.

Then it was all about reaching readers for whom your book is written. You have to work hard and smart. Be entrepreneurial and share and cooperate.  There has to be a team. You can't do it all yourself as you don't have all the skills at that level. (I know I don't). Then you had to write what skills you do have and at what stage of the process of writing. Mine were writing at stage 1 and 2. Production and marketing. I hire a professional editor and a cover designer for all my ebooks as I know I can't do those two things properly.  Then it was about budgeting. You have to budget for what you are going to spend, got to spend and the cost. We had to work out the cost of all our current work.

I think I shall leave the post there and finish it tomorrow so it won't be too long to read here.