How (And Why) I’m Promoting My New Book

July 26, 2016 by Sally

This is going to be a quick post, so I’m going to skip straight to the why. I have a new book out, Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape, and I’ve been busy promoting it online and in person. I am doing this because although my publisher is doing their best to promote it too – particularly through setting up a website dedicated to the series – they have lots of books to promote each month, while I have only one new book at a time, and so can give this one my special attention, at the same time promoting my back list.

So, on to some of the things I am doing to promote Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape:

Blogging (with posts like this one) about the book, about writing and about the writing life.
Tweeting – directly about the book, and on subjects connected to the book, as well as about seemingly unconnected things, which hopefully keeps my followers engaged.
Instagramming – photos with the book in, photos of things related to the book and, again, photos of seemingly unconnected things.
Pinning – to my Sage Cookson Pinterest board and other boards, related and unrelated.
Facebooking – adding content to my Facebook author page, again either related or unrelated to the book.
The 5 Minute Promo Challenge – a challenge I set myself and invited other authors to play along with, whereby I set a five minute promotional task each day for myself to do, then blog, tweet, Instagram and facebook about it, as appropriate.
Engaging with my followers on the above mentioned platforms, replying to tweets and comments, and checking out what they are doing, too.
Providing content for the Sage Cookson website, which New Frontier have set up.
Visiting schools, festivals and bookstores and talking about the book, or signing copies, or even (shhh don’t tell the booksellers) making sure the book is face out wherever possible.
Word of mouth. Telling people about the book – friends and strangers. But only where appropriate and not overdoing it.
Playing with my doll. A doll purchased from Kmart has been used to pose as Sage in social media photos, particularly on Instagram. Other props I’ve bought include a chef’s hat which I can wear for promotional appearances.
Ending every email with a signature line which includes the book’s cover and a link to my website.

If you have a new book to promote, there are lots of things in this list you can try, too – though tailor them to the topic or theme of your own book. Good luck.

Writing a Series Vs Writing a Stand Alone Story

July 8, 2016 by Sally

Cover Sage Cookson 1 I’ve written over 40 books (actually, hundreds if you count the ones I’ve written that haven’t been published) and the writing of each one has been different. But Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape is the first book in my first ever series and, as such, I was keenly aware as I wrote it of how different writing the first book in a series is from writing a stand alone story.

Firstly, before I could write story number one I had to have a strong premise for the whole series: strong enough to cover at least four distinct stories (since that was the number specified in the initial contract). I needed a premise that would give my characters opportunity to experience conflicts (problems) which would be varied but revolve around the same characters. I came up with the idea of a girl whose parents were television chefs, since that would allow me to use varied locations and scenarios.
Secondly, I had to plan my characters. Every story needs characters, but again, in a series, I had to plan not just the main characters – Sage, her parents, and her best friend Lucy – but also minor characters. In the first book I decided there would be two ‘baddies’ and I had to decide if they would be recurrent characters and whether they would be bumbling baddies or really nasty. This would set the tone for the rest of the series and was really important. In the end I decided my baddies would be not comic-book bumbling, but still a bit silly rather than horribly bad.
Sage Cookson, the title character, is a girl who has lots of adventures.
Thirdly, I needed to consider the level of self-containment. Some series must be read in the order of release to make sense, with each title leaving the reader on a cliff-hanger so that they want to read the next book to find out what happens next. Others are so self-contained that each book stands completely alone, and there is no need to read one to understand the others. I decided I wanted to sit somewhere between those two extremes: I want each story to be resolved so that a reader is left satisfied, and I also want a reader who picks up book 2 or 3 or 4 not to feel lost. But, at the same time, I want my characters to develop over the series. So, the books are sequential, but after Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape, each book will include enough mention of back-story that a reader isn’t left confused, without those earlier stories being ruined for a reader who wants to go back and read them out of order.

I am still working on the series, and the exciting news is that there will be at least six books in all. And, as I write each book I think back over these three points, and continue to learn more and more about series writing. I hope Sage Cookson won’t be the only series I write in my career.

In the meantime, Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape is now available online and in good bookstores.

Five Minute Promo: Day 7

July 7, 2016 by Sally

Day seven of the five minute promo challenge means we are more than a quarter of of the way through. Thanks for coming back – and, if you’re new here, thanks for dropping by.

Today’s task is one which could be done in as little as five minutes, or could take a whole lot longer. But, because I promised that each task would be five minutes (or less), I did a test run to make sure it was possible. So, here goes:

5 Minute Promo #7: Make a Book Trailer

A book trailer is a short ‘film’ adverting your book – like a movie trailer, though usually much shorter. It can be as simple or as complex as you, your talents and/or your budget will allow, including sound effects, acting, voice overs, visuals and more. If you are going to do all that, it will likely take you much, much longer than five minutes, but, if you use a simple tool such as Photo Story, and images you already have on hand, it can take as little as five minutes. Here’s my five minute effort:

I like using Photostory because it’s free, very simple to use, and creates it’s own music, so there are no copyright issues. I use my own pictures or ones from my books, so that again there are no copyright issues – and, in this case, because I already had them, it only took me five minutes to arrange them, add text and music, and create the video. The end slide I created in Paint. If I had more time I would have made it longer and probably included a voice-over, which is simple to do in Photostory. There is a good explanation of how to use Photostory here.

As I said earlier, if you want to take longer than five minutes, there is no end to what you can do. Here is a longer trailer I made several years ago (in fact, the very first book trailer I ever made):

And here is much cleverer Booktrailer made by a wonderful teacher:

( created by Julie Hembree and shared here with permission.)

Anyway, the timer is ticking, so off you go and make your own booktrailer. When you’re done, upload it to Youtube, then post it on your website, your Facebook page and Tweet the link. As always, if you leave a comment here, I will check out what you’ve done. Have fun!

5 Minute Promo: Day 1

July 1, 2016 by Sally

If you a regular follower of this blog, you might know that today is release day for my new book: Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape. If you are not a regular follower, firstly, welcome and secondly, you know that it’s the release date etc. And, by the way, isn’t the front cover amazing?

Anyway, back to the purpose of this post: 5 Minute Promo.

As an author, I’ve long been aware just how important it is to promote my own books. Sure, my wonderful publishers do their bit, but they have lots of books by lots of authors to promote. Wheras me, I only have my own books to focus on, and generally one at a time. But I’m busy – sometimes frantically so – writing new books, working my way through a PhD project, visiting schools, festivals and conferences, not to mention running a household. So, my promotion can’t take hours and hours every day.

Ont op of that, the most important time for me to be promoting my new book is in the first month of its release. Bookshops get new stock in every month. That means my book is only new for a month. If I want it to sell well, it’s important that I promote heavily during that month, in the hopes that it will sell well the booksellers will continue to stock it, and stock my subsequent books.

So, putting those two things together: the need for quick promotion ideas, and the need to do them especially in that first month, I sat down and brainstormed 31 things (one for each day of the month) that could be done in five minutes or less.

And, because I like sharing, I’m going to share those 31 things, one each day. So, if you have a book to promote, or have one coming out soon, you can play along at home. Every day I will post a new five minute tip, and give examples. If you join in, let me know how you are going, either by commenting here, or on twitter (feel free to follow me).

So, enough about what I’m going to do. Let’s get on with it. Here is the first idea.

5 Minute Promo #1

Write a blog post announcing your new book . Make sure you include the cover image, and a link to where the book can bought. Give some details about the book. (If you don’t yet have a blog, then use the five minutes to head over to a free blog platform such as wordpress or blogger and set up a simple blog).

Here’s my post (or you can just scroll down) which I combined with a post about Poetry Friday, because that’s my usual Friday post, and because it will spread the word to my poetry network.

Playing along? Set your timer for five minutes and head off and write and post that blogpost, then leave a comment below with a link and I will check it out.

5 Minute Promo #29

5 Minute Promo #7: Make a Book Trailer

5 Minute Promo #3

5 Minute Promo #1