Facebook Advertising: The Second Wave
Take two on my Facebook advertising efforts. Closer, but still no cigar. Read my strategy, results, and lessons learned when advertising a free novella serial on Facebook.
marketing
DIYDay Lesson 23: Facebook Advertising – A Case Study
Marketing, marketing, marketing: the life of an author when not writing, writing, writing. Like it or not, if you want your books to sell, you have to tell people it’s out there. Sometimes, Lady Luck smiles down on you and you strike gold. Most of the time, however, you just keep trying different things, repeating what works, dropping what doesn’t. This cycle has recently led me to try out the Facebook advertising option, and I decided I might as well share the results with all my lovely author friends. This will be a brief walk-through of how to create a Website click Facebook ad campaign, and an overview of the results I got from mine. Be warned: lots of text and numbers follow. Hopefully, it helps someone, since it didn’t do all that much for me… (spoiler alert)
DIYDay Lesson 21: Graphics Editing – The Evolution Of A Book Cover
There are gifted individuals out there who can sit down at a brand new task and instantly excel at it. The rest of us learn by trial and error. And if we (yes, I’m mostly speaking about myself here) insist on going it alone, there is a lot of trial and error. What I’m sharing today is the evolution one of my self-made covers has gone through. It wasn’t the only one, by any means, but it was the one with the most revision. I do this to show you that sometimes stubbornness, perseverance, and versatility pay off. Most of the time, actually. Sit back, relax, and watch me screw up. A lot. And then finally get it right. I give you…
Author-y Stuff
Happy Friday to all! I write to you today for a couple of reasons. The first is to give you an update on Wolfen. Which is that I am about ten chapters away from finishing my first self-edit. And that means after a final read-through to smooth rough edges (hopefully next week), the manuscript will be ready to be sent to my editor! I know it’s stretching long, but I take edits very seriously, as evidenced by a sea of red notes over my manuscript and the wide-eyed look of confused panic people give me when they see it. It’ll get there, I promise 🙂 And it’ll be worth the wait. The second is to continue my quest to help indie and self-marketing authors out there make a proper splash with their new releases. I want to introduce you all to a new source of background music–with a caveat. Jamendo is […]
DIYDay Lesson 20: Author Websites
And we’re back! This time I thought I’d get into a little more detail of things like style, layout and content. Things every author should know and wield with impunity. First thing’s first. DISCLAIMER: Everything that follows is totally subjective opinion content based on a few years experience trying to sort my own website into some kind of order, and browsing other authors’ websites and (more often than I care to say) cringing at what I found. Take everything you read here with a grain of salt.
DIYDay Lesson 19: Excerpt Graphics
Yet another feather in your self-promoting hat. This is a short guide on how to make good use of it.
DIY Resources Every Author Should Know About
Greetings and salutations! I come to you a few days late with my DIY post. I apologize for the delay. If you follow me on Facebook, you already know about the miserable plague that has taken hold of my respiratory system. Thank you to all for your well wishes and prayers. I am slowly getting back to myself and the only thing that now bothers me is how behind schedule I’ve gotten because of it. To make up for my absence, I have decided to do some spring cleaning on my Links and Resources page. If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do! All the info on it is for your benefit, whether you’re an indie author, traditionally published, or just looking for some help in marketing yourself or your business.
On The Topic Of Reviews And Conspiracies
I meant this to be a Facebook post, but it got away from me and turned into a bit of a rant, so I am sharing here instead.
DIYDay Lesson 15: Public Relations and the art of “Be cool, Hunny Bunny”
People have written oodles of books on the subject and I won’t bore you with too much detail. Just a short bullet point list of tips to help you navigate the shark infested waters of the Internet:
(Mis)Adventures in Marketing the Me
I didn’t have a DIYDay post in me this week. I don’t feel qualified to “teach” on this subject since I suck at it. But I am learning. For example, I have learned that a well-made graphic will draw thousands of eager eyes. A graphic is like the three-second window into YOU, which has massive appeal in today’s world of overstimulation, information overload and short attention spans. We can’t help it. We’re all busy people! We no longer have 30 seconds for the elevator pitch, there are too many of them vying for our attention. Give us something worth looking at, do a double take, and then come back to find out more. An invaluable lesson learned: A site banner will signal what kind of site you are running. A graphic advertisement will decide whether people click on it or not. An author picture will have you judged from appearances […]