Five Marketing Tips For Authors

I've been asked several times recently how to market a book, so today I thought I'd give some ideas of things that I've done.  The thing is, though, is that there is no one way to market a book.  Each book and each author is different so what works for one, might not work for another.  It's good to try out a lot of different things and see what works for you.

The one thing, though, that I KNOW works is this.

Write another book.

When you find an audience for your work, they will no doubt look for another book from you. Write one. My sales were fine for my first eight books, but they really took off after my ninth book, so don't get discouraged if you have two or three and your sales aren't quite what you expect.  Keep writing, keep producing and honing your craft, and you'll get there, even if it takes nine books to do it.

Some other ideas that you can consider are:

Be visible on social media.

This sounds so basic, but honestly I'm surprised at how many authors don't have a Facebook fan page, a Twitter, or even a webpage.  When your readers want to find you, make it easy for them.  Having a basic webpage is a great start, where you list all your books and where people can buy them, an about you page, reviews, maybe some fun things like deleted scenes, stuff for book clubs or whatever.  Also make sure there's a way for them to sign up for your author newsletter.  Personalize the page to you and give your readers that behind the scenes glance at what you're about and what books you have.  Same with Facebook and Twitter or Google + or Pinterest, or whatever social media you choose to focus on---be yourself.  Don't talk about your books all the time or you will be unfriended quickly.  Build relationships and a community and the side benefit to making great new friends is that people will generally want to know more about your books.

Do a Book Launch/Tour/Blast

It gives you visibility and you usually can get a jumpstart on reviews on Amazon and Goodreads if you do a book tour or launch.  There are several sites that will set up a book tour for you, or you can do it yourself with bloggers and reviewers.  But as someone who gets tons of requests to review books, please be courteous and know what kind of books are reviewed on the blog.  For example, if the blog reviews romance and you write horror, then you probably won't be a good fit.

When you are setting up a blog tour, you should do it at least a month in advance of your book release. Give the reviewers a choice of dates and then help advertise them when the post is live.  Some say ten stops on a blog tour is a good number, some go much higher, I think that's a personal decision.

With a book launch there are so many ways to do one.  Author friends used to do a physical one in a bookstore with prizes and a party atmosphere, but lately I've mostly seen online ones where there are prizes offered every hour or something on Facebook or Twitter, like the one I recently did with Jordan McCollum. Decide what works best for you.

Have an Author Central page

This is a way for authors to track their sales and rankings, and to do a professional looking page for their work on Amazon etc.

Engage with Readers and Groups on Goodreads

I've enjoyed the people I've met on Goodreads and love to talk about books so it's a perfect fit.  I don't talk about my own books unless asked, but word of mouth marketing is the best marketing out there.  When someone knows you and your reading tastes, they are likely to ask about your own books because they know you. Does that make sense?  Just be yourself. I can't stress that enough.  And make your presence known on the web.


There are tons of ways to "market" your book, but it all comes down to letting people know you and when they do, they will want to know your books, too.  Raise your visibility, build a fanbase, have fun doing it, and above all, keep writing!

Word Count Wednesday & I Need Your Opinion

Well, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and have been puttering around since then.  I hate sleep issues, you know?

But I thought I'd report in.  It's a really good thing I'm not doing NaNo because my word count was once again zero.  I am having a dilemma, though, and want your opinion.

I started the novella of Colby and Sophia, but it's sort of turning into a full-fledged novel.  And then I was talking to some of my readers about possibly doing a full-fledged novel of it and they said they'd rather get the Captain's story (the last book in the Hostage Negotiation series) first before I did another Colby and Sophia story.

So that puts me in a hard place.  What do you think? Do I do a full-fledged novel of Sophia and Colby or keep it as a novella? If I did do it as a novel, would you rather read the Captain's story first?

How did you do at word count this week? And can you come to a sprint tonight at 8 PM?

Review of Castle "Ghosts"

That was probably the creepiest and most well done Castle episode of the season. Holy cow!

When we start off, it's on a creepy dock and the security guard scares off a homeless guy.  The fog is rolling in and he turns to see a woman standing a ways off. He tells her to move along, but as he approaches her he sees her feet are just off the ground and she's hung there.  Ew.

Cut to Castle and Beckett who are trying to decide where to go on a honeymoon, but he's been everywhere with other wives, except for Finland and Albania.  Poor Beckett.  Then the call comes that they've caught a murder.

They head to the scene and it's Lainey's doppelganger that's been murdered.  Lainey is shaken up about it, but she doggedly does her job.  They dig into the case and nothing is really making sense.  The victim is a former hooker, but recently was set up with a sugar daddy who bought her furs and an expensive apartment. The team tracks down her plastic surgeon, (played by Annie Wersching.  I miss 24!)  She is totally creepy on this episode, telling Beckett she's near perfect and Castle that he has potential.  Haha!

Ryan and Esposito track the suspect to a boat and when they board it, there is a guy standing there. Only when the flashlights go down to his feet they realize he's HANGING there.  Ryan goes around to face him and tells Esposito to go outside. Espo refuses and comes around to see that the guy hanging there is HIS doppelganger.  And the eyes were so creepy.  I had to turn away.

So someone has practically cloned Lainey and Esposito.  They take Lainey's statement and she realizes that an incident at a club may have been how they were able to clone her right down to her new tattoo.  They track down Espo's double and it all leads back to the plastic surgeon.  Beckett questions her, but nothing comes of it. Everyone seems to know she has something to do with it, but can't figure out what.  Until Castle starts putting some things together.

He thinks it's the 3XK killer.  Beckett isn't sure so they go to find his records which have all been removed. Every last one.  By Espo and Lainey clones.  And then they find out that the plastic surgeon was also the prison doctor when 3XK was there.  They also realize the security guard was in on it and when they go to the motel room where 3XK nearly killed Castle and escaped police custody, they catch him and we get a nice little Caskett moment of stay here and be careful.  I love the looks between them.  Sigh. But the questioning of the security guard gave me chills.  When he describes how their feet scraped on the ground as they slowly choked to death I seriously felt sick inside. Very well acted.

Anyway, they go back to the plastic surgeon's office, but it's cleared out except for a note that says better luck next time.  Castle and Beckett go home and discuss the case, and Castle is playing with the pen the surgeon offered to him at her office.  He realizes it has a thumb drive inside and he plugs it into his computer and a creepy song starts playing of I'll see you again.

Yikes.  The look on Beckett's face was pretty much how I felt about the episode.  So very creepy and so good.  Kudos to the writers on this one!

Book Review: The Rent Collector

I apologize for posting so late.  I guess I had a little too much fun celebrating my birthday weekend.

Today's review is The Rent Collector by Camron Wright.  I'd heard about this book before and was excited to read it because everyone said how good it was and they were not lying.  The way this book presents the human condition vs. the human spirit is incredible and thought-provoking.  I feel so grateful for the blessings I have, for basic necessities, and for my family.  This book really reminds me that home isn't always where you live, but who you're with, and many other life lessons that are easy to overlook in the daily grind of life.  I thought it would be depressing, but it is full of hope and a story I will think about for a long time to come.

If you haven't read this book, then put it on your Christmas list.  It's a must-read.

Here is the back copy:

Survival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash. Life would be hard enough without the worry for their chronically ill child, Nisay, and the added expense of medicines that are not working. Just when things seem worst, Sang Ly learns a secret about the ill-tempered rent collector who comes demanding money--a secret that sets in motion a tide that will change the life of everyone it sweeps past. The Rent Collector is a story of hope, of one woman’s journey to save her son and another woman’s chance at redemption. It demonstrates that even in a dump in Cambodia--perhaps especially in a dump in Cambodia--everyone deserves a second chance.

Hawaii Five-O Review: McGarrett vs. Grover

Well, we started off with the team kidnapping Sato, the guy who supposedly has Adam.  I felt really gypped during the scene, not because of Sato, (because, yeah, who cares about him), but because I didn't get to see the team's reunion!  I wanted to see them reunite with Kono, hugs all around, that sort of thing.  And it was so abrupt.  One second Sato is being interrogated (and he gives up the info pretty fast that Adam has faked his death) then the next minute it's Kono and Chin and she's telling him once again she's going to go find Adam.  I just shook my head.  It's starting to sound like a broken record, find Adam, find Adam, and I'm losing interest.  But it was nice for a second to see the team together again.

We then head back to Hawaii and Steve is talking on the phone to Danny. That's another thing becoming glaringly obvious is the lack of Scott Caan.  Is he doing another project or something? His appearances on Hawaii Five-O seem to be less and less.  He's not in this episode.  But we still get tension and arguments from Steve's partner-of-the-episode---Captain Grover.

There are some hints that Grover has come to Hawaii for reasons other than the climate.  His daughter had to pick up and leave and Steve hints at another reason as well when they're together.  Which was the best part of the whole episode---when they were together.  The governor calls them to his home to discuss the complaint Grover filed against McGarrett.  That doesn't make McGarrett too happy and he makes that known.  The governor says he doesn't have time to play principal so they need to get along in their "small sandbox" island.  Then he tasks them to go serve a warrant on a kid (played by Nick Jonas) named Ian Wright who has a bunch of unpaid parking tickets.  Neither of them are too thrilled, but they go do it anyway.

They take Ian into custody (and even let him put a stinky shirt on before they take him away) but before they can get him out the front door, shots are fired and McGarrett is hit in the arm.  A bunch of guys are out there with machine guns shooting holes in the house until it looks like swiss cheese.  McGarrett, Grover, and Ian are sitting ducks and even after they take out a few, the kid is still taken and driven off.  Of course the trucks McGarrett and Grover drove up there (because neither of them will ride shotgun) have flat tires and they start walking down the road.  Grover is cranky because he also realizes that the kidnappers stole his daughter's computer that was in his car.  But the funniest exchange of the entire episode was when he's cursing because of the missing computer and McGarrett tells him he has an angry disposition.  Grover gets this corny, insincere smile on his face and says, "Maybe it's because I'm with you."  HAHA! Oh man, that was funny.

They start walking and Grover keeps holding up his cell phone hoping for service.  McGarrett tells him to stop doing that since he looks like a blind giraffe (ha!) They track down the people, find evidence of tear gas and a dye pack and start to wonder if the kidnappers are bank robbers, too.  They both use their resources to start tracking down bank robbers and Ian.  (Even chasing the kidnappers down on horseback!) They go to the bank, which doesn't realize it's been robbed, and they also track down the lawyer that connected the bank robbers with Ian. Cut to one of the grossest scenes---a lone foot in the shower because the lawyer that was under house arrest had an ankle bracelet and CUT OFF HIS FOOT. Yeah. Gross.

But that's also where the case stopped making sense to me.  The team figures out that Ian is the mastermind behind it all with his hacking skills and he hired the bank robbers etc.  But why were they shooting up his house then? And what was the point of the lawyer cutting his foot off?  I didn't get that.

The team tracks down Ian at the airport using Grover's daughter's computer. (And mad props for them using Radioactive from Imagine Dragons. Love that band!) Ian has taken over a plane's GPS and it will run out of gas and land in the ocean if the team doesn't put him on a plane, which they do, hoping that Catherine's Navy intel people will come through with a block on the plane hack. Catherine gets the block to work, but not in time to catch Ian and he gets away.  He does come back in the end by sending a message to McGarrett through an ATM, though, and that was cool.  "Should have paid those parking tickets."  Haha. Yeah.   (I do love that Catherine brings her own contacts and expertise to the team.)

I also liked the grudging respect that McGarrett and Grover seem to have for each other in the end.  I hope we see more of them in the future and find out why Grover really came to Hawaii.  So, for me, a good episode for the relationship development with Grover and McGarrett, not a great case since it was hard to follow, but the laughs in the episode covered some of that up.

Next week's episode stars Carol Burnett at McGarrett's aunt who has come for Thanksgiving. I am excited to see her on my screen again!

Friday Freebie

Today's Friday Freebie is one I can whole-heartedly recommend.  I loved this story, I loved the stories that followed it, and I know if you like snarky spy stories with a Canadian setting (which was really well done) then this is the book for you!  It's Mr. Nice Spy by Jordan McCollum.

Here is the back copy:

Canada is probably the last place you’d expect to find an American spy. CIA operative Elliott Monteith has made it work, just like he’s made things work with his longtime fiancée Shanna. Until Shanna lays out an ultimatum: move forward or move on. Meanwhile, Elliott and his best friend and fellow operative, Talia Reynolds, try to track an elusive leak at the American embassy.

But something changes between Elliott and Talia as they close in on the man selling out his country. Professional and personal lines blur and Elliott has to choose—his fiancée or his best friend.
Click here to download the novella

The best news is that the first full length novel in the series is only 99 cents and it is well worth your time and for such a great price, how can you pass it up?

Here is the back copy:

Canada is probably the last place you’d expect to find an American spy. But even idyllic Ottawa has its deadly secrets—and so does CIA operative Talia Reynolds. She can climb through ventilation shafts, blend in at the occasional diplomatic function, even scale buildings (small ones). But there’s one thing she can’t do: tell her aerospace engineer boyfriend Danny about her Top Secret occupation.

It worked for a year, keeping Danny in the dark, keeping him away from danger, keeping her secrets. And then Talia finally catches a hot case: Fyodor Timofeyev. Russian. Aerospace executive. Possible spy?

She can make this work, too—until Danny needs her at the same time her country does. And when Fyodor targets Danny? Suddenly her schedule isn’t the only thing suffering. Now to save her secrets and her country, Talia must sacrifice the man she loves.

Click here to download the first book in the series for only 99 cents!

A Thank You & the Grand Prize Winners!

The Facebook and Twitter launch party on Tuesday was quite the success! Jordan and I had a lot of fun commenting and giving away our generously donated prizes. We want to thank our friends who donated:

Cindy Hogan
Emily Gray Clawson
Ilyan Lavanway
Stephanie Fowers
Monique Bucheger
Christy Dorrity
Cami Checketts
Rachael Anderson
Ranee` S. Clark
Heather Moore
Stacy Carroll
Lynn Hubbard
Jaleta Clegg
Konstanz Silverbow
Anna del C. Dye
Rebecca Shelley
Christy Hayes
Joyce DiPastena
Taunya Butler
THANK YOU!!

And I'm happy to announce the GRAND PRIZE WINNERS!

We had almost 400 entries on our Rafflecopter giveaway, and our winners, chosen at random, are:

Alison Rogers Spelman: Spy Another Day books 1 and 2
Necia Monroe: Spy-on-the-fly kit
Cohlina Mae: Book lover’s basket
Thomas Edward Ticknor: Hostage Negotation Series books 1-3

Congratulations! Cohlina and Thomas please send me your mailing address to juliecoulterbellon (at) gmail.com

Thanks to everyone who entered, commented, tweeted and played along! And thanks once again to all our sponsors, and especially to Jordan McCollum who had the great idea to do a joint book launch in the first place. I definitely couldn't have done it without you!