Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Book Promotion

CAN YOUR BOOK SALES BENEFIT from SOCIAL MEDIA POSTINGS? by Kiffer Brown
Social Media takes time and effort to do effectively.

Social Media has a steep learning ramp.

Social Media is a moving target.

Social Media doesn’t get direct one-to-one results.

Social Media can be a pain in the neck and frustrating!

So WHY do it?

Because it does accelerate book sales—if done effectively!

Here are some statistics and opinions from Expert Book Marketers and Publicists regarding Social Media:
- Social Media builds Title and Author Brand Awareness
- 75 percent of Readers who are actively ‘online’ say that Social Media influences their reading habits.
  - Keep in mind that 80 percent of Americans are on-line. The higher the education and household income levels, the greater the chance that a person in the U.S.A. will be online. The younger the adult, the more likely that they are on-line and connect to the Internet on a regular basis.
  - Internationally, there are more than three billion Internet users (Internet Live Stats).
- Social Media is increasingly becoming one of the more effective methods of discovering new titles, book lists, and authors.
- Word of Mouth Buzz is still the largest influencing factor in Reader decisions. According to Nielson’s studies, 92 percent of all buying decisions are influenced by Word of Mouth Buzz.
- Social Media is increasingly becoming a new method of communicating “Word of Mouth Buzz.”
- Focus on connecting with Facebook Friends and Twitter Followers—not just collecting them! Huge numbers of “Likes” and “Followers” do not insure WORD OF MOUTH BUZZ. Instead use effective content to connect with your Readers’ minds, hearts, and passions.
- Four out of five marketing experts state that Social Media postings increase website traffic by driving new visitors and re-connecting previous visitors to their websites.
All these points add up to gaining and maintaining Top of Mind Association with Readers! Social Media is an effective way to achieve and maintain ToMA.

And ToMA creates Word of Mouth Buzz!
- ToMA is built steadily.
  - Your postings should be consistent.
  - Your postings should engage your targeted Readers.
  - Your postings should help your Readers have something to talk about, to buzz about.
  - Your postings should help your Readers with their social media postings. What type of information, visuals, statistics, and buzz is interesting to your targeted Readers that they will find compelling enough to share with others?
- Are you having to buy your FB Friends and Twitter Followers with prizes and free giveaways? Instead of that, give them gifts out of appreciation for being part of your “Street Team,” or a loyal fan, or an evangelist about your work. Let potential Readers know how much you value your Readers! Build a following by creating ToMA!
- Involve your Readers (and potential Readers) by asking them to share their opinions, and relevant experiences, and photos, etc. Connection is a two way street!
- Social Media will become more and more interactive. Word of Mouth is a real and natural conversation even if it using the latest in Internet technology.
  - Remember: To be interesting, be interested! Start a conversation, listen to what is being said, and then respond.
The bottom line is that WOM comes back to ToMA. Social Media postings can be an effective means to ToMA, thereby generating WOM. WOM is created by one person telling her friends about something (your book perchance?) and her friends telling their friends, and so on. In today’s digital world, the telling is also being done via the Internet and no longer just at the water cooler or over the backyard fence.

To answer the question: Can Your Book Sales Benefit from Social Media Postings? I’d say, a resounding YES!

Inform, Involve, Engage!

We invite you to read Kiffer Brown’s blog posts on:

Creating Shared Content to Engage Readers

Creating Identity and Branding for Authors

Establishing Credibility and Competence as an Author
August 1, 2015
COMMUNITY MARKETING for AUTHORS by James R. Wells – author of THE GREAT SYMMETRY, a science fiction novel
When you are getting ready to self-publish your book, two questions loom over your project and, in fact, your entire life:

– Who will read my book?

– How will I find them?

You’ll find lots of advice online about how to promote your book. Typical ideas may include setting bargain days (especially for the ebook version) and then paying promoters to send out thousands of emails about your opus to their subscribers. You are advised to set up your website and Facebook page, and flood the ether with tweets (doing your part to alleviate the serious shortage of tweets out there).

Some sites may advocate a kinder, gentler version of self-promotion, where you locate online groups who might be interested in things similar to your book and so you join, making a point of doing enough to be recognized as a contributor before you do much mentioning of your great work. Conducting the delicate dance of promoting while seeming not to. Flying casually past the imperial star destroyer of being perceived as selling or spamming.

There is another approach to consider: Community Marketing.

One of your best opportunities to get your book started is to bring it, directly and honestly, to the communities where you already are a contributor and a known friend. You’ll be surprised how many people are willing to give your book a chance, and, if it’s excellent (that part’s up to you), they will tell their friends about it or write a review.

This may seem to be in conflict with another piece of advice that you’ll see – to seek out people interested in the subject matter of your book, rather than people you simply know.

Here’s how that apparent conflict resolves:

The people you choose to spend time with probably think about similar themes as you, and hopefully what matters about your book is theme – those ideas that you care mostly deeply about – just as much as the overt subject matter.

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Here’s an example of community marketing from the launch of my science fiction novel The Great Symmetry. A reasonable person would think that it’s important to find science fiction enthusiasts – that’s the overt subject matter. But that posed a problem, because as much as I love science fiction, it happens I have not become part of scifi affinity groups.

Rather, my community is defined mostly by the groups shown in the Affinity (Avvenity) diagram below.

Luckily, there’s some alignment going – more than I would have thought. Out of each population, some people like science fiction. Others care about freedom of ideas and social equity, which are strong themes of the novel. Others just like an adventure story in any setting.

It’s really worth evaluating which of your communities may be interested in your book, even if you initially don’t see any alignment. For example, members of all six of the groups I list above have bought my novel.

Now you need to learn how to tell people about your book. It’s scary. Nobody wants to sell to their friends.

Here’s the key realization to help you through this stage: You are probably not going to make money on your first self-published book.

It’s not a commercial venture. Some day in the future? Okay, maybe. But not today, or next week, or next month. The selling price of your book isn’t income, not by a long shot – it’s cost recovery.

This is actually good news.

Your book is your art. It’s your labor of love. And that changes everything.

Instead of selling, you are sharing a part of yourself. People respect that. Once you embrace this idea, suddenly you can ask where you never could before. Go for it – tell people about your book. Ask them to come to your book launch. If they read it and liked it, ask them to post a review on Amazon or elsewhere.

You can ask because it matters. The ideas in your book matter. Sharing those ideas with your friends matters.

My friend Kurt told me this one day, as I was pondering how many Facebook posts about the book launch was too many:

“James, DO NOT apologize for promoting your book! Use any legitimate means at your disposal to get the word out!”

As the date of my first public reading and the official book launch date approached, I faced a level of social terror that I don’t think I have ever experienced before. I had spent years on this project. But – no matter what I might do to get the word out, what if nobody other than my mom showed up?

So I asked.

I wrote individually to friends to tell them about the event. I asked a local talk radio host for a radio interview. I asked the editor of our local paper, The Cascadia Weekly, to profile the book. I made a Facebook event and invited everyone in the known universe. The results were encouraging.

Attendee count: 123 people, the third highest in the history of the bookstore (Tom Robbins and Ivan Doig outdrew me). Mostly because I asked. And in case you were wondering, my mom did make it.

Community Marketing won’t work forever. After a while, you’ll run out of friends who don’t yet know about your book. In the long term, it can’t be your only plan. But I believe Community Marketing can be very effective in helping your book get started: getting some copies out into the world, having an encouraging first reading event, and accruing those all-important first few reviews.

Just remember – it’s okay to ask for something you think is important.

Helpful Notes:

All the community marketing in the world won’t help your book if it’s not good enough. See this post The Kübler-Ross Stages of Editing about the process of getting ready for publication.

Song Lyrics from “Paperback Writer” by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
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CBR Editor's Note about James R. Wells, the author of this post:
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James R. Wells is the author of The Great Symmetry, a science fiction novel set 300 years in the future, but is definitely about the world we live in here and now.

“In an asteroid in the Aurora star system, exoarcheologist Evan McElroy has made a discovery about the Versari, a long-departed alien race. He doesn’t realize that his findings will reawaken the long-buried struggle of the Infoterrorists, who believe that all knowledge screams to be free, against those who maintain the True Story that holds all of civilization together.”
With its Kafka-esque view of an escalating, dominant corporate presence, James R. Wells’ The Great Symmetry echoes the timeless social messages of truth, freedom and sacrifice embraced by science fiction greats like Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and the author’s own great grandfather —H. G. Wells. You may find out more about this stunning debut sci-fi novel and its author at www.TheGreatSymmetry.com.

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July 23, 2015
New Facebook Tool for Engaging Readers: “See First” Feature

Take Control of Your Facebook News Feed with this new feature from Facebook

You’ve spent countless hours collecting readers and having them “Like” your Facebook page only to notice that only about 5 percent of your fans actually see anything you post.

If you were extremely lucky, Facebook’s EdgeRank will allow 13 percent of your followers to see your posts. This is amazing considering that the social media site has an average of 1,500 posts for each user per Facebook status updates on news feed. Approximately one hundred of those posts are seen by a “Friend.” Currently, there are more than 1.4 billion users on Facebook.

It was bound to happen. As Facebook users kept on liking more and more pages, Facebook started restricting the amount of data that would come over their news feed.

But now, Facebook has added new controls so that users can have more control over what posts that they want to see. Facebook calls this their Prioritize Who To See First feature. However, you the user, must install and apply this feature to your Facebook page.

You can access this feature from via a browser on a computer or through Facebook’s mobile application

Adjusting the News Feed Preferences from a Browser Window.

HERE is HOW to Install the Facebook “See First Feature” with Step by Step Directions

Adding a Single Page to “See First”

The quick and dirty method of adding a page to a “See First” list is just to click the “Liked” button on the page’s home page. A “See First” option will pop-up that can be clicked. Go ahead and try it out by clicking here.

Changing Multiple Pages or People to the “See First”

This setting is accessed by clicking the small arrow on the right side of any Facebook page and then selecting “News Feed Preferences”.

A new window will pop up displaying a list of all news items. It’s categorized by People, Pages, Groups, and More. For example, if you never wanted to miss another Chanticleer announcement about contest winners, then you would select “Pages” and modify Chanticleer Book Reviews & Media from “Following” to “See First”.

Adjust the News Feed Preference on a iPhone

From Facebook’s Page:

“To get to News Feed Preferences, tap More in the bottom right hand corner of your mobile app. News Feed Preferences are located under Settings. You can come back at any time to update your choices.”

This feature isn’t available yet on Android devices.

After you click “News Feed Preferences”, the following fun window will pop up.

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News Preferences Home

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News Preferences See First

Pressing the Prioritize Who To See First button will bring up a list of all of the people and pages that you follow. Unfortunately, there isn’t a search feature so a user has to scroll through all of their friends before they get to the pages.

So next time you ask a reader to follow you on Facebook, remind them to add your page to the “See First” list so they won’t miss any of your posts.

What do you think about Facebook’s Prioritize Who To See First option? Join the discussion and let us know![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

July 21, 2015
Book Expo of America 2015 Tidbits Part 1 by Kiffer Brown

After returning from Book Expo of America 2015, I received many emails and texts from friends and colleagues asking me: “How was BEA?” or “Did you discover anything useful?” or “What was the buzz at BEA this year?”

Book Expo of America is the number one event in the publishing industry for North America. It alternates between New York City and Chicago. This year’s was in NYC; next year’s will be held in Chicago, May 11 – 13, 2016.

The publishing industry giants are out in full force with huge pavilions. Notice that I did not say “booths”. The banners in the photo on the right are at least fifty feet long and twenty-five feet wide if not larger. The installation of these megalithic banners must have utilized a crane and a professional crew to hang them from the rafters of the Jacob Javitz Convention Center, which is about the size of an airport terminal. These banners were every where and they definitely highlight the importance of book covers. But more on that later.

Everything at BEA is Done in a Big Way!

Top authors, celebrities, agents, industry captains, distributors, selling platforms (Kobo, Bublish, etc.) and huge publishing houses are vying for attention to create big buzz. Thousands and thousands of books are given away to attendees. Author signings are going on non-stop. See the photo below of A-list actress Julianne Moore.

Chanticleer Reviews did not have a booth or a table at BEA. And it was a good thing that we didn’t because we would have been lost in the crowd and probably relegated to the hinterlands. However, we were given an official BEA 2015 PRESS pass that allowed me to wander the entire show. The press pass gave me access to just about everything going on. It was a huge exposition/convention, with multiple presentations going on at all times, but I did manage to get some scoops that I want to share with the Chanticleer Community of Authors and Readers. Also, it is always a delight to meet and connect with Chanticleer Community members as well as to make new connections and friends!

The BEA Startup Challenge and the IDPF Innovation Awards at BEA 2015

The most exciting events that I covered were the BEA Startup Challenge and IDPF Innovation Award (International Digital Publishing Forum) which held competitions to recognize the best up and coming digital publishing start-up companies. I am honored to report that two of Chanticleer Reviews affiliates made the cut for the top contenders for the BEA Startup Challenge prize and Bublish made it to the shortlist for IDPF Innovation Awards.

Bublish with their Authorpreneur Dashboard and Powerful Book Marketing Tools.

The photo at the left is of Kathy Meis, CEO of Bublish presenting to the venture capitalists judging the contest.

Bublish has established and proven that using their digital marketing platform increases book sales substantially for independent authors and small presses.

The Books I Love mobile phone app is a brand new way of sharing the books that you love with friends.

The photo at the left is of Elizabeth DiMarco, CEO of Books I Love presenting to the venture capitalists and judges of the IDPF Innovation Awards.

The Books I Love App will be instrumental in helping books go viral. The app is a social media tool for book lovers and readers!

I am pleased to say that both businesses placed very well in the BEA Startup Challenge’s fierce competition. The photo shown was taken of the announcement of which businesses made the short list of the BEA Startup Challenge. (Think Shark Tank.)

BEA 2015 TAKEAWAY: Tools for DIGITAL DISCOVERABILITY of BOOKS are at the forefront of the BEA 2015 Expo.

Authors and Indie publishers should not underestimate the importance of the Internet in today’s new era of publishing. Utilizing the latest in digital technology tools to reach out to readers will help level the playing field between the industry’s Goliaths and the small presses’ and independent authors’ Davids.

Both of these organizations have generously donated to the Chanticleer Writing Competitions prize packages for the First In Category Awards Winners and the Genre Grand Prize Award Winners. I encourage all authors and aspiring authors to visit these two companies’ websites. Take advantage of their services to give your books a competitive advantage in today’s digital publishing era when two million new titles are launching annually.

Books I Love and Bublish are both sponsors of the Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Gala 2015.

BEA 2015 Tidbits Part 2

Stay tuned for BEA 2015 Part 2 when Nely Cab, Vanessa Hoffman, Christine Benedict, Julie Gilbert, Janet Oakley, Millie West, Reanne Hemingway Douglass, Shari Stauch, Bruce T. Jones, BQB Press, and others will be featured. I will also have more tidbits on what is trending in the publishing biz.

June 4, 2015
Connect at BEA15 and BookCon NYC with Chanticleer Review’s Kiffer Brown

IF you are attending Book Expo America 2015 or BookCon NYC and would like to connect with Kiffer Brown, she will be in attendance from Wed. May 27 – Sat. May 30.

If you are exhibiting or attending the shows and would like to connect with Chanticleer Reviews or Kiffer Brown, you can reach her at by direct messaging her at @KifferBrown or @ChantiReviews via Twitter or email her at: KBrown@ChantiReviews.com

#BEA15

Kiffer has been given a press badge/pass courtesy of BEA15 and BookCon. She will be covering both expos (including Digital World) to post to social media and Chanticleer Reviews E-News. She would love to promote Chanticleer Community Authors and Readers in attendance.

May 26, 2015
Spring Events and Updates from Chanticleer Reviews

CBR to Attend BEA and BookCon, May 27, 28, 29, & 30!

Book Expo of America NYC – It’s the leading book and author event in the North American publishing industry.

It is the largest gathering of booksellers, publishers, librarians, retailers, and book industry professionals of the year—making it the best place to learn about the latest trends and technologies in the biz.

BookCon is an immersive experience that features interactive, forward thinking content including Q+A’s with the hottest talent, autographing sessions, storytelling podcasts, special screenings, literary quiz shows and so much more.

Kiffer Brown, publisher of Chanticleer Reviews, has been given a BEA press pass and a BookCon Editorial Media Badge. She will report back to the Chanticleer Community of Authors and Writers. Look for her blog posts and tweets! @ChantiReviews and @KifferBrown.

The BEA Expo takes place on May 27, 28, & 29th at the Jacob Javitz Center, NYC. Click on the link for more information about BEA.
BookCon takes place on Saturday and Sunday, May 30 & 31, at the Jacob Javitz Center, NYC. Click on the link for more information about BookCon NYC.

Historical Novel Society Affiliation

It’s OFFICIAL — The Historical Novel Society is a sponsor of the Chanticleer Authors Conference 2015 and Chanticleer Reviews is a sponsor of the HNS 2015 North American conference in Denver, Colorado.

The Historical Novel Society conference will take place on June 26, 27, & 28, Denver Colorado. If you are attending HNS, please stop by our exhibit table and say hello.

UPDATED INFORMATION as of May 14th — this just in!

The Chaucer Awards winners and The Laramie Awards winners will be recognized at the HNS Saturday Awards and Costume Banquet that will feature Special Guest Diana Gabaldon–the author of the acclaimed Outlander book series as well as the TV series on Starz. Janet Oakley, who won the Chanticleer Grand Prize for her historical novel Tree Soldier and Sean Curley, the Chaucer Awards grand prize winner for his novel Propositum will be recognized along with other First In Category award winners for these two Chanticleer Writing Competitions divisions.

If you are attending HNS and are a First in Category Award Winner or Finalist in the Chaucer or Laramie Awards, please contact Kiffer Brown immediately at KBrown@Chanticleer Reviews.com. Thank you!

We are excited to have the Historical Novel Society as an affiliate of Chanticleer Reviews and Writing Competitions. And we are proud to be an affiliate of the venerable HNS!

Chanticleer Reviews is a Supporter Chuckanut Writers Conference.

We are proud to support this local pacific northwest writers conference for four years in a row.

The conference takes place on June 26 & 27 at the Whatcom Community College located in Bellingham, Washington. Chanticleer Reviews will have a table at the Syre Student Center, so please stop by and say hi to Paulina! We will have candy!

Don’t Forget to Register for Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Gala 2015!

Take advantage of the Early Bird Special! The conference will take place over four days: attend all four days or select the days that fit your schedule.

Saturday, Sept. 26: CAC15 sessions and master workshops will take place at Bellingham Yacht Club. That evening we will kick things off with a BBQ and dancing to live music at the BYC.

Sunday, Monday, & Tuesday, Sept. 27, 28, & 29 will feature sessions, presentations, and panels during the day with daily featured keynote luncheons, “Appy Hours” sponsored by Books I Love, a staffed Book Room open to the public, and evening dinners. The conference culminates on Tuesday evening with the Chanticleer Awards Banquet and Gala.

Be sure to visit www.ChanticleerReviews.com for the latest information and the growing list of presenters.

PREMIUM ONLINE SECURITY on the Chanticleer Reviews website

You asked for it! You got it!

Chanticleer’s online website store now has been verified a “Premium EV SSL Secure Site.”

We have been audited, notarized, sanctified, and encrypted by Starfield SSL certification, the highest level of protection that is available for internet transfer of data.

How SSL works: Secure Socket Layer certificates encrypt all the information going to and coming from Chanticleer Reviews, L.L.C. website, securing it from unauthorized interception and making sure that your information remains private.

You can have peace of mind when you see that the URL address bar turns green with the padlock symbol on the left. There is also a blue Verified and Secured badge with a pop out window for further information about Chanticleer’s SSL blue certification on the left hand side of the menu bar–just under the Chanticleer logo. This premium (EV) SSL certificate assurance comes with a $1,000,000 warranty.

Thank you for your continued support of Chanticleer Reviews and Writing Competitions!

May 13, 2015
Top Snippets Overheard at the Winter Conferences by Kiffer Brown
I am always jotting down little snippets of interesting information that I come across while attending writing conferences. Friends and colleagues often ask me when I return home did I learn any interesting tidbits that I could share. And I do. This last time, my friend and fellow WWP & Upstart Crows board member, Amanda Hagarty suggested that I should share my take-aways with the Chanticleer Community in a post. So, here we are!

I truly wish that I could give specific attribution to each snippet, but please know that this collection comes from Cevin Bryerman (CB), publisher of Publisher’s Weekly, Shari Stauch of Where Writers Win, Porter Anderson of Porter Anderson Media, Claire McKinney, NYC book publicist; and best selling authors: Robert Dugoni, Mike Lawson, Joanna Penn; along with assorted literary agents and publishers. As anyone who has attended a writers conference knows, it isn’t easy trying to stay on top of all the great information garnered.

So, without further ado, here are some of the “soundbites” that I picked up and would like to share with you, the Chanticleer Community.

These snippets are not listed in order of importance or in any order for that matter.
- “The mass paperback has gone the way of E-book.”
- “Eighty-percent of the readers of Young Adult novels are older adults (who are definitely not young adults).”
- “Audio is a new format that is gaining popularity with older and younger audiences.”
- “Remember that in the Digital Age of Publishing, an author’s back list never disappears.”
- “One-off books are a hard sale. Series are what book sellers want.”
- “Deconstruct what was popular to predict what will be popular in upcoming trends. Look for the core elements.”
- “Take a trending trope and add it to your genre.”
- “What is considered to be doing ‘extremely well’ in Amazon sales for Indie self-published authors? The top 100 Amazon books sell 5,000 to 10,000 books a month for six months straight. Top ten sub-categories have the potential to bump up to the top 100 to top 1,000 best-selling titles.”
- “Build Your Platform, Build Your Author Career.”
- “The first thing I do when considering an author is to check out his author platform. Does he have website? Does he have an online presence? Does he participate in social media? If not, I usually pass.”
- “All roads should lead to an author’s website.”
- “Each and every reader counts!”
- “Book reviews are the foundation of every author’s promotional platform.”
- “Eighty percent of the U.S. population say that they do not ‘read.’ Reading is associated with reading boring school texts. Authors must find a way that their books appeal to people’s interests and hobbies, and never forget that “publishing for the trade” is about entertainment.”
- “Dialogue is considered the white space on the page.”
- “Dialogue is action. Action is dialogue.”
- “Only put in back-story info when the reader needs it and only what is specifically needed at that time.”
- “The first and last sentences in a chapter are the most important.”
- “Publishers Weekly receives more than 50,000 books a year to review–only about fifteen percent are reviewed.”
- “The only thing certain in today’s publishing world is continuing change.” CB
- “Understand who your reader is.” CB
- “Act quickly. Stay relevant with your communications and promotions.” CB
These snippets were overheard at the PubSense Summit in Charleston, S.C. and the Left Coast Crime Conference in Portland, Oregon that took place in March 2015.

I invite you to attend the Chanticleer Authors Conference that will take place late September at the Hotel Bellwether located on Bellingham Bay, Wash. Find out more info here. New speakers and sessions along with more information will be added weekly!

Up-to-date practical, effective marketing and promotional skills for today’s golden age of publishing are Kiffer Brown’s forte.

Honed business experience and an entrepreneurial spirit, along with a true understanding “that nothing happens until something is sold” is what Kiffer Brown brings to the table. Kiffer presents at numerous writers conferences and publishing conventions. She is a media scout for executive film producers, literary agents, and publishing houses. She searches for today’s sparkling gems that will become tomorrow’s best sellers. She truly loves what she does and her passion shows.

She has presented at Writer’s Digest National Conferences in NYC, RWA National Conferences, Emerald City Writers Conferences, PubSense Summits, PNWA conferences, and others. She is the founder and president of Chanticleer Book Reviews and International Writing Competitions, L.L.C. and the publisher of Chanticleer Reviews. She is active in her community’s local writing as organizations and is currently serving as the president of Whatcom Writers and Publishers, a board member and co-founder of the Upstart Crows Writers Association, an is active in the Salish Sea Writers Consortium. She is the organizer of the Chanticleer Authors Conference, which focuses on the business and marketing side of being an author in today’s world of publishing. You may reach her at KBrown@ChanticleerReviews.com
April 25, 2015
Creating Shared Content to Engage Readers and Build a Fan Base
Welcome to Chanticleer Reviews Part Three of a Four Part Series on How to Market Your Books in Today’s Publishing World with Leadership Communication Skills

Writing craft is the key to being an author, but engaging people is the key to building a readership and a fan base.

As an author, lead the way to creating the digital paths that will help people discover your books. And today, that means communicating via the Internet.

Author Leadership Communication has Four Cornerstones
1. Creating an Author Identity & Branding
2. Establishing Author Credibility and Competence
3. Creating Shared Content
4. Committing to Action and Making a Plan (forthcoming)
We have discussed the first two cornerstones: 1) Creating Author Identity and Branding, and 2) Establishing Credibility and Competence as an Author. Links are above.

Part 3. Creating Shared Content

Authors must engage with their readers to maintain TOMA (Top of Mind Association) with them or another author definitely will.

Authors can share the experiences of their works (novel) with their readers with the following Interverse platforms:
- Blog posts, website
- Facebook
- Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Reddit, KBoards, Wattpad
  Find the social media platform that appeals to your target audience of readers
- Google+ Community posts & G+ Pages & G+ postings
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Keeping Engaged with Readers

What Types of Content should Authors Create to Keep Readers Engaged?
- Photos & Visual Graphics
  - Inspiration for the novel: Do not underestimate how interesting it is to readers to have a sneak peek into what inspired you to create a work. Was it an historical source, an experience, a landscape, a person, a piece of clothing? Are there photos or graphics that communicate these ideas. One of my favorite authors, Joannah Miley, has a Pinterest Board with photographs of clothing and accessories that the goddesses in her novel, The Immortal Game, wear. Her readers love it! When Joannah launches her second in the series, her readers will be ready to read it because she has kept them engaged!
- Tweet out (about one in ten tweets) intriguing passages of your book with a Bitly.link to your website – not Amazon! This is about building and maintaining reader relationships–not selling your book.
- Create posts about how you write:
  - Do you write first thing in the morning? Late at night?
  - Can you only write in coffee shops?
  - Does your cat sit on your lap? Your dog by your side?
  - Are you a pantzer or an outliner?
  - Did you research a particular area or geography?
  - What kind of music do you listen to while you write?
  - Be sure to put this kind of information in a context to make it an emotional, personal connection, but not too much personal information–only the information that moves your author branding forward.
- Are you thinking of your next work? If so, let your the people who connect with you in the Interverse know. Better yet, ask your followers what their thoughts are about specifics of your work.
- Make your posts relevant and meaningful according to what is appropriate for the social media platform.
- Tag others in your social media posts if the post is flattering, fun, or inspirational.
- What activities do your characters engage in: cooking, photography, selling real estate, making pottery, tattoo artistry, working in a coffee shop? Seek out social media communities who can relate to your characters’ traits, occupations, and hobbies.
- Reference other authors who write in your genre. Readers are always searching for other authors to read while their favs are in between book launches (which is why you need to maintain your connection with them). Authors, even NY Times best selling authors are more apt to give your book a quote or a blurb when they see that the request is coming from a strong social media connection and not just out of the blue.
- Make sure that your followers know that it is okay with you that share your content, create links, and tag you in social media and blog posts. Better yet, thank them profusely when they do and then reciprocate when possible.
- Acknowledge who inspires you, where you learned a particular writing craft skill, personal relationships that have impacted your own life, public figures whom you admire, and other authors and their works that have inspired you. This type of leadership communication will help you build trustworthiness with potential readers whom you may never meet in person, so you must show and share strong credentials along with what motivates you to write.
Most Importantly > START THE CONVERSATION

Be the first one to make the move to say ‘Hi!’ Make the “friend request,” follow on Twitter, circle on Google+. Remember that the Interverse is one big cocktail party. You don’t want to be the wallflower, nor the gal wearing the lampshade, nor the obnoxious relative selling whatever. What you do want is to make new connections and expand your network of potential readers.

Please do not be the bore who dominates and hijacks social media conversations. You can be selective about which posts to interact with, but do stay on topic.

Be sure to reciprocate by LIKING, COMMENTING, RE-TWEETING, INTERACTING, and SHARING with potential readers.

Communication is a two-way street. You can’t expect people (readers) to interact with you in social media if you don’t interact with them–that is unless you are a celebrity with hundreds of thousands of fans.

As an author, lead the way to creating the digital paths that will help people discover your books. And today, that means communicating via the Internet.

Be courageous in creating the digital pathways that will lead your targeted audience of readers to your books. Let your passion for writing and storytelling shine! Then allow evidence of your competence and credibility of being an outstanding author encourage engagement. The evidence should come from others: editorial reviews, notable authors, experts in the field/genre, writing award competitions, and quotes from readers. Be sure to post on your website, in your social media posts, and on the platforms where you books are sell. Make sure that your accolades give credit, attribution, and links to their sources.

INFORM, INVOLVE, ENGAGE

As an author, lead the way to creating the communication paths that will help people discover your books.

My next post in this Leadership Communication Series will be about Committing to Action by Developing a Communication Strategy to Engage Readers.

Up-to-date practical, effective marketing and promotional skills are Kiffer Brown’s forte.

Honed business experience and an entrepreneurial spirit, along with a true understanding “that nothing happens until something is sold” is what Kiffer Brown brings to the table. Kiffer presents at numerous writers conferences and publishing conventions. She is a media scout for executive film producers, literary agents, and publishing houses. She searches for today’s sparkling gems that will become tomorrow’s best sellers. She truly loves what she does and her passion shows.

She has presented at Writer’s Digest National Conferences in NYC, RWA National Conferences, Emerald City Writers Conferences, PubSense Summits, PNWA conferences, and others. She is the founder and president of Chanticleer Book Reviews and International Writing Competitions, L.L.C. and the publisher of Chanticleer Reviews. She is the organizer of the Chanticleer Authors Conference, which focuses on the business and marketing side of being an author in today’s world of publishing. You reach her at KBrown@ChanticleerReviews.com

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April 18, 2015
HOW to INCREASE BOOKS SALES: Tips from Joanna Penn
I had the pleasure and the good fortune to attend the PubSense 2015 Summit in Charleston, South Carolina. Attending the sessions and presentations was like drinking in information from a publishing fire hose!

Information was emanating from some of the brightest stars in today’s publishing world: Stars like Joanna Penn.

Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, voted one

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Joanna Penn
Photo credit: Mim Saxl, Oxford photographer

of The Guardian UK Top 100 Creative Professionals. Also voted one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers and one of the Top 10 Blogs for Self-Publishers.

The following is my blog post recap of the highlights of Joanna’s keynote luncheon presentation at the PubSense Summit. Please keep in mind that I was taking notes as fast as I could at her dynamic presentation.

Joanna Penn opened with this concept:

Create Value from Ideas > Create Once, Sell Forever

“Create assets that put income in your pocket for years to come.” JP

JP: THINK SCALE-ABLE, THINK COPYRIGHT

She reminds us to remember the life of an author’s works is her lifetime plus 70 years thus making an author’s intellectual property a potentially valuable part of his/her estate. This is the length of time granted by the U.S. Copyright law.

Create works and then make your back list work for you for years to come.

KB’s Note: Remember that in today’s digital age of the Interverse that an author’s back list never disappears.

JP: Authors need to THINK INCOME STREAMS

Increase Book Sales by Reaching More Customers

Joanna’s Action Items:

Reach different customers by exploiting all formats
1. Kobo, Smashwords, Apple, Amazon, Nook, Google Play, OutBound Words….
2. Audio> ACX
3. Printed Books
4. Plus subsidiary rights
  1. Country markets
  2. Territories
5. Always be on the lookout for new avenues of distribution and publishing
6. Reach different customers by language > Start in English, then expand to German, then Spanish, and so on.
KB: Remember that all the little streams of income flow into a river of revenue.

JP: Authors need to THINK GLOBALLY

Joanna’s Action Items:

Reach customers globally by using multiple retailers
1. Kobo platform is available in 65 countries
2. iBooks are available in 51 countries
3. Amazon Kindle is available in 171 countries
  1. Use print-on-demand for global reach with print books
4. Be on the lookout for new retail platforms and distributors
JP: Authors need to THINK about the MOBILE and DIGITAL MARKETS

“Between 2013 and 2017, mobile phone penetration will rise from 61.1 percent to 69.4% of the global population. eMarketeer

KB: Notes, Background Information, and Definitions:

Demographic shift into cities and smaller living spaces with trends towards less stuff is predicted. The rise of the “digital native” means more digital purchases and more digital products.

“Digital Native” is one who was born after smart phones, the Internet, Social Media, and the advent digital publishing. The Digital Native is totally comfortable with digital technology and tends to absorb new technology tools and applications with the ease of one how one learns one’s native language. A digital immigrant is one who is exposed to digital technology later in life.

Aging population is a big potential market for digital e-books and audio books. It will do nothing but increase.

JP: Apple Carplay and Google Auto will be adopted and come standard by mainstream car manufacturers before 2017.

KB: Notes, Background Information, and Definitions:
- Reading and Writing is now Listening and Dictating.
- Podcasts and Audio books will be instantly available to automobile drivers, mobile smart phones, and tablets.
Joanna’s Action Items:
1. Make sure your website is mobile optimized with responsive design and your books can be purchased via mobile devices.
2. Consider offering your works in audio format to reach a larger audience.
3. Begin podcasting for marketing. Start immediately including pod-casting into your outbound marketing strategy to take advantage of this major shift.
JP: AUTHORS NEED TO THINK AHEAD

The Virtual Reality Market is expected to grow to $407 million dollars and reach more than 25 million users by 2018. Report by Markets and Markets.

“Expect the transformation of online environment to an immersive virtual reality for shopping, gaming, education, community building, and books.” Joanna Penn

JP: Background Information (paraphrased by KB)

For example: Most of the population of Africa had basically no technology at all available to them, but they quickly and fully embraced cell phone technology because it demanded a reduced amount of infrastructure as compared to the old land-lines technology and was more affordable. This shift in technology opens up an entire new market to authors because books are no longer dependent upon brick and mortar stores and transportation highways for potential new readers to access their digital books.

Joanna Penn’s Bottom Line to Authors:

CREATORS of CONTENT will be at the TOP of this HUGE Economic and Societal Shift.

Authors who embrace the digital age will be poised to increase the income potential.

To wrap up: Create Value from Ideas > Create Once, Sell Forever in as many formats and platforms as possible!

Thank you, Joanna Penn, for sharing your marketing and publishing experiences with us.

This is the first post in Kiffer Brown’s Takeaways from the PubSense Summit 2015. I do hope that you find these tidbits tantalizing and informative.

Closing remarks from Kiffer Brown:

I would advise authors to visit The Creative Penn website for more valuable information and resources from Joanna Penn, author, entrepreneur, and professional speaker.

For more information on how to increase book sales, build an effective author platform, and the business side of writing, please consider attending the Chanticleer Authors Conference in September that will be held in the Bellingham, Wash. of the great Pacific Northwest.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
April 11, 2015
Usability; Part 5 of 5 Things Every Author’s Website Needs

The Fifth Post on the Five Pillars of Effective Website Design will Focus on Usability by Readers

Formatting:
Break your textual information into bite-sized chunks. Keeping your content in short paragraphs works best for the web – up to four sentences. Longer blocks of text are more likely to be glossed over.

It is better that your text doesn’t run all the way across the page. Eye tracking studies conclude that it’s easy to lose which line you were reading when jumping to the next line, if the width is more than 500 pixels (a normal sized smartphone is 480 pixels wide horizontally). Ideally, a column width for reading only contains between 45 and 65 characters. Adding small graphics with your content will make the page even more palatable – and if presented to the side, will shorten that column width.

Just make sure your images are sourced correctly; it’s a violation of copyright to just grab an image off another site and reuse it without permission. Shutterstock and Dreamstime are inexpensive resources for royalty free images. AllTheFreeStock.com has free images you can use commercially.

Text size:
Text should be at least 12 pixels. Smaller text will be difficult for your older audience to read, plus Google will consider your site not mobile friendly if the mobile version’s text is not 12 pixels or better.

Infographics:
Consider creating a pie graph or other kind of chart to communicate complex data. Especially if you have a large table with a lot of text, translating that data into colors and bars with appropriate labels gets the message across quickly. Here is an article on creating effective information graphics.

Colors and Contrast:
Using white text against a colored or black background can emphasize headings, but should be avoided for the rest of the site. Dark grey text on a white background is pleasing to the eye, but the reverse can be more difficult to read. Also consider that some readers have colorblindness. You can see how your site looks to a colorblind person at vischeck.com.

Of course there are always exceptions; you should research your audience and see what other successful authors in similar genres are doing.

Navigability:
Just like you have a proofreader read your work, you need to have someone else look at your website. You’re probably too close to it to see any mistakes or issues. Can your audience find what they’re looking for? How about a screen reader that blind people use? Click here for more details on usability.

Your links should look different from the rest of your text. The color can be different and/or they can be underlined, or underlined when the user hovers their mouse over the link. The main navigation should be obvious and toward the top of your site. Drop-down menus can allow more links in that area.

Mobile Friendly:
More and more users are browsing websites on their mobile devices, and if your site isn’t mobile friendly, you could be losing half your audience. Plus, Google will not rank your site as highly. How do you get a site to look good on a full sized cinema screen AND a tiny cell phone? The answer is responsive design. The backend code will allow your content to either change or flow with various screen sizes. If using WordPress, it helps to choose a theme that is responsive to begin with. If your site is not responsive and you don’t want to redo it, it’s possible to add some code and make it responsive, although it’s best to hire a professional than try it yourself. There are also companies that will create a mobile version of your site for a monthly fee.[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible” margin_top=”40px” margin_bottom=”10px” background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_separator style_type=”single|dotted” sep_color=”#e0f5ff” icon=”fa-bookmark” width=”” class=”” id=””/].

We hope that this series has shed some light on areas where your website can be improved to help you interact with Readers and Media Professionals. The best part is most of these improvements are free if you know how to do it yourself. If not, Chanticleer Reviews offers website assistance and creation as part of their book marketing services targeted specifically for authors.

Rochelle Parry, Chanticleer Reviews’ Creative Director You are welcome to email me at: RParry@ChantiReviews.com

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March 21, 2015