I received the best email this morning: the previews for the promotional materials for my book! They look great, and it’s lit a new fire under me to get my revisions done ASAP.
Unfortunately, I’m still mid-move, so that throws a bit of a wrench into things. I can’t just wake up early and open the laptop and get cracking. I have to pack boxes and get those things ready. That’s in the mornings; the evenings (after work) are for unpacking said boxes in the house. We’ve gotten maybe half of the apartment moved over, but the remaining half is the tough stuff. Clothes, dishes, electronics, deep freeze, food, bed, TV, and all the little piddly stuff that’s been left. I don’t know where I’m going to get the time. Well, I suppose I could cut back on what little sleep I get….
I’ll get it done by the deadline. I have to. I’m not giving myself any other option.
It’ll be nice to finally be in our house… But I can’t let my guard down. I’ve got to remember that I’ve still got work to do.
Category: Marketing
Debut Askew
So I’ll admit, I haven’t been super vocal about the publisher I signed with. I’m new, they’re new, and I wasn’t sure how much “Oh-My-God-check-out-these-guys” they’d want on the radar yet. Now, though, with their debut author’s debut novel, they’re ready to, well, debut–and they’ve asked a little help from little ol’ Askewian me.
Okay, I’m throwing made-up words at you and you’re probably a bit confused. “Askewian” just means someone associated with the publishing company, which is named Rhetoric Askew. They’ve been around for a while with editing and critiquing and cover art services and a Facebook group that offers writers assitance, but publishing Askew is new to them, and I’m quite proud to be getting in on the ground floor. I can say I knew them when, they can say they knew me when, and we can all laugh about it on Oprah.
This post isn’t about me, though, or my book. (Surprise! Yes, I do know how to write about others. 😉 ) I’m here to tell you about a book debuting today called Whisper of an Angel, written by author Lorah Jaiyn. I don’t know her well, but I had the change to get a sneaky peeky of Whisper of an Angel, complete with a nifty press kit. (Haven’t seen one of those since my Talk Nerdy With Us days lol) Lemme give you a peek of my peek:
First, let’s tell you about the author. That’s always important, because it helps to know a little about the mind behind the world you’re about to enter. Here’s Lorah’s bio:
“Whisper of an Angel” is Lorah Jaiyn’s debut novel. Her short stories have been featured in several anthologies, and she has much more in the works. Her mood dictates genre blend from magic to vigilante justice. She lives in Central Florida and credits her Jack Russell as both her muse and biggest distraction. Lorah enjoys creating with polymer clay and volunteers with a wildlife rescue. She loves exploring the great outdoors and is also totally addicted to the Hallmark Channel. She can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lorahjaiyn.
Hey, Lorah, I totally like polymer clay too! (If only I could find the time for it anymore…) Still not sure? Well, I also have a convenient author interview! (I love press kits…so cool!)
Q: Lorah Jaiyn. Thank you for sitting down with us today in the Askew News Update room. Why don’t we start off with a little introduction. Tell us a little about yourself and what you’ve got to share with the world, today.
Thanks for having me. I am so excited about this book. I started out in western New York before moving to Florida right out of school. I was the quintessential rebellious teen who thought she knew everything, so I struck out on my own adventure. After a few months of stretching my new independence boundaries, I planted roots right smack in the middle of the state. I’ve been married forever, and our daughter and toddler grandson currently live in Japan where our son-in-law is stationed with the Air Force. Due to a severe case of empty nest syndrome, I’ve finally settled down and started to put all the stories hoarded in my imagination to paper, to hopefully entertain others.
Q: What was the pivotal moment where you said “You know what? I’m going to be an author?”
I remember telling my parents when I was a young teen that I’d have my first novel published by the time I was eighteen – romance, of course. Creative writing classes in high school were my favorite. My big plan was to spend a Christmas in NYCity, because that’s where all the big publishers were. Then, by the time I turned eighteen, life had taken over so it took ‘slightly’ longer than originally planned.
Q: What inspires you to create your fictional worlds and characters?
In a word, reality. I grew up reading Harlequin romances and I’m not ashamed to admit that real life is disappointing when you’re expecting perfect relationships and fireworks. Sometimes my stories contain scenes that are therapeutic and the only outlet I have that is legal.
Q: Every author has their own method to the madness, so-to-speak, what’s your writing process look like?
Get close to the deadline and panic. I’m such a pantser, always waiting til the last minute. I’ve tried outlining, but figured out that I fare better if I just blurt the story out of head and get it typed, then outline afterwards to make sure it makes sense. I also tend to handwrite first so I have something to follow when I type. I have enough partially used notebooks to stock Staples for a year. Or two. Each story needs a special notebook. Back-to-school time is better shopping than Christmas.
Q: When you develop your stories and characters, do you let them grow in front of you or do you have everything all planned out?
Both grow as I write. Trying to plan is just a waste of time for me.
Q: Tell us about some of your favorite authors and books and why you love them.
There are so many – after working in a used bookstore for years, I became very eclectic with my reading. I don’t stick to any one genre (although I avoid nonfiction, history, and biographies), but here are a few of my favorites:
Cecelia Ahern – her stories are always emotional and heartfelt, without being overwhelming.
Nicholas Sparks & Mitch Albom – oh, the feels. Guaranteed to make you cry.
Raymond Feist – Faery Tale – all time favorite horror – the only book I’ve read that actually gave me the heebie jeebies.
Rosalind James – her New Zealand series. New Zealand is my dream location and her books are very vivid with her locales.
I’m also a huge local author person. Connie Mann and Dylan Newton are two of my favorites – they are both multi-successful and have both been huge supports for me.
Q: You chose to publish your work through RhetAskew (a division of Rhetoric Askew, LLC), why did you choose them and do you feel it was the right decision?
I’ve been in several Askew Anthologies and loved the time, devotion, and detail they put into their products. This is my debut novel, and I’m their debut novel, so it was a win-win right from the start. I love the staff and powers-that-be and it has been a very rewarding process. I totally made the right decision.
Q: What did you enjoy about the Askew process?
Communication! This book thing is not easy – parts of the process are very daunting. But using Rhetoric Askew made me feel less overwhelmed, there was always someone right there to ‘hold my hand’ so to speak. I’ve never had to wonder what was going on.
Q: What do you hope your readers will take away from reading Whisper of an Angel?
I want people to close the book with the sense that no matter how bad things are, it doesn’t mean that something good won’t come along. Keep your heart open to opportunities. And because I’m a big animal person, with a special love for dogs, I want people to realize that a dog can provide a special kind of love that you may not even know you need.
Q: Where can all your Askew fans find you when you aren’t writing?
facebook.com/lorahjaiyn
And if I’m not writing, I’m probably sitting behind a table making something out of polymer clay, so www.facebook.com/peekemboos
So now you know a little something-something about the author. Groovy. But you probably want to know about the book, seeing as how that’s what all the hubbub’s about. The genre’s romantic suspense, but that doesn’t tell you much. Maybe the cover art will give you a hint:
Adorbs, right? And don’t worry, I’m prepared if you don’t think adorbs is enough to get you to go buy this book: I’ve got the jacket blurb as ammunition!
Sometimes second chances start with four paws.
In the small town of Marshall Glen, Sofia retreats from life following the death of her husband. Six-year-old Kady lives in foster care and hasn’t spoken since a house fire stole her family. After she saves Kady’s dog from drowning, Sofia attempts to stay locked away, but learns that—
…even though she’s given up, her heart wants to—try again.
When Kady runs away from her foster home, Sofia meets the cop in charge of the search, Brandon—her first love. Sparks fly even as she struggles with her conscience. Is she being unfair to her husband’s memory?
When random acts of vandalism turn to attempted kidnapping, Brandon helps keep Kady safe. As the danger deepens, how far will Sofia go to save a child?
Hooked yet? I have to admit, this wasn’t my usual genre, but Whisper of an Angel was definitely an interesting read. I was hooked from the start, and it made for a quick, fulfilling evening’s read. And don’t let the Table of Contents intimidate you; the chapters, though many, are short enough that you don’t get bored. I could go on, but I’m one of those who will give away the whole plot in an attempt to summarize. That’s why I haven’t gone into details of the plot of my WIPs…I’ll end up basically writing the whole story here and have nothing left to surprise you with when Rhetoric Askew gets my own work on the shelves. You don’t want that–you want to read it for yourself! I totally get that, and that’s why I’m using my handy dandy press kit to give you links, links galore!
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lorahjaiyn.
Twitter: @writerlorahj
Website: www.marshallglen.com
Amazon Author: https://www.amazon.com/Lorah-Jaiyn/e/B01MQTN0X4
Amazon Book:
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16150584.Lorah_Jaiyn?from_search=true
But wait, there’s more! This fantastic book is available today! That’s right, today, January 19th, is the debut date, and I just happened to schedule this post to pop up on your feed/email on the 19th (I’m sneaky like that).
Now, this isn’t just some “I’m-pushing-another-Askew-author-because-I-want-my-stuff-pushed-when-the-time-comes” gig; I really want to support another author in her publishing journey, and I want word to get out there about this book. Yeah, at the time I’m writing this I have 180-something followers here on this blog, and yeah, my average views (according to WordPress, which I think is a bit off–sometimes I have more people talk to me in person about a blog post than the stats say have viewed it) aren’t the highest…still, it’s another voice in the din, and maybe, just maybe, I got you at least a teeny bit interested.
We authors tend to get caught up in our own musings, and I think we need to remember to support each other and read others’ works. Lorah has a real hit on her hands here, and we all need to band together and make that hit happen. I know there are other writers here; surely you can spare a bit of time and energy to wrench yourself away from your own works to appreciate the works of a fellow wordsmith? I did, and it was well worth it.
A page in the life
So I manage a cosplay page on Facebook (that has stalled at the wayside as SCA overruns cosplay on the priority scale), a “fan” page for our cat, Rory, a page for my oft-forgotten Etsy shop, and of course the work I do for the Barony. So why did I add another page to keep track of?
Oh yeah, author Facebook pages are a thing. That’s why I did it.
You see, it goes something like this: I was typing up a scheduled post for Friday (keep your eyes peeled, folks!), and I realized that I haven’t had a proper page for my writing in years. I just keep losing track of what I’m doing and forgetting to post and then I ditch the page in favor of just using Twitter and this blog to promote moi.
Can’t keep doing that. People like having “fanpages” they can use to get updates on their favorite authors’ comings and goings. Granted, I don’t come or go much, but I do write, and I can write about writing. So off to Facebook I went to create a page.
Except I can’t get the damn URL to be custom. I guess not enough people like the page yet? Maybe that’s why…anywho, for now this is the URL: https://www.facebook.com/AJ-Mullican-143311953045804/
Yeah, you see why I want a custom one. I think if enough people like the page I can pop in and create that custom URL in a jiffy, but right now it’s the middle of the night and no one’s up to add it.
It should be interesting to see how the viewership of this blog changes with the new Facebook page. You see, I changed my Twitter settings so my tweets go to the author page, not my personal Facebook feed. Say what? Yeah, WordPress is cool like that; it lets you share to different social media platforms when you publish. So why does changing my Twitter settings change my WordPress posting? Okay, so Twitter does a cool thing, too: it lets you share your tweets to different social media platforms as well. So WordPress –> Twitter –> Facebook. Easy peasy. Or something. It’s worked so far; guess we’ll see how well it works now that the settings are tweaked. If worse comes to worse (or is it worst comes to worst? Damnit), I can just share from the page to my personal feed if I want my blog read by more friends and family. A P.I.T.A. to be sure, but eventually people will see that the author page is the original poster of the blog posts and thus go to the author page and like it and then everything will be swell. Or not.
Facebook, you see, is tricksy.
More tricksy than nots. What they have are these silly metrics things, which are apparently arbitrary and only to Facebook’s benefit. To make a long story short, if you don’t pay them monies to get your posts seen, even people who “follow” your page won’t see your posts. Lame.
So, again, why make the author page?
Because it gives my publisher a link to show people, that’s why. Yeah, it’s a new page and doesn’t have much content (yet)….it’s still something. And the more links they can give, the more exposure I can get once it’s time for Book 1 to get released.
Credit to the Oatmeal. Because that guy fucking rocks, and he deserves both exposure and monies for the work he does.
Seriously, though, as an author a little exposure can go a long way. I mean, if people don’t know I’m there or that my work is there, how can they be interested? Yeah, exposure itself doesn’t pay, but if people see the thing and want to read the thing, then (in theory) if they want it enough they’ll pay to read the thing.
Or maybe I’m just nucking futs at 1:30 in the morning, having very little sleep and being unable to either get to sleep naturally or take more sleeping medicine. (I already took my prescriptions hours ago…they worked to get me to sleep initially, but not to keep me there or get me back there.)
We’ll see how the page goes once people wake up and start liking the page and once I can update the URL and all that fun happy stuff.
Until then…to the writing board!
Experiment, Day 4
Well, this is somewhat interesting. My day 4 numbers as far as free book downloads were more than double the day 3 numbers. Could it be that people are trying to get the book while it’s still free?
Today will be the final day of the free book promo for my novel and my two anthologies (my poetry anthology and my short story/flash fiction anthology). The horror short anthology has been doing relatively well, considering I haven’t really advertised it specifically on social media. Not nearly as well as the novel, but decent numbers for not having been talked about.
This experiment has been interesting, given that I haven’t done anything different besides putting my novel on a temporary free promotion. Does this mean that people aren’t willing to pay the price I’ve set for my novel? If so, does it mean that the price is too high, that the blurb isn’t catchy enough for them to want to pay for it, or does it just mean that people like free stuff?
Since I’m not a scientific person by nature, I’ll probably never know the answer. Still, this has been a new experience that I will probably experiment with more later on.
Experiment, Day 3
My experiment is more than halfway over, and I have come to the conclusion that perhaps a full five days of freeness might be too much.
I wanted to reach the largest audience I could, so I figured the longest available free promotion would be best. It’s looking to be an error in judgment right now. Though the book did quite well the first day and somewhat well the second day, yesterday (day 3) was something of a bomb in comparison:
The first day saw 227 copies sold, the second 144, but yesterday only 42 copies were sold. Granted, 413 copies is vastly more than any number I had reached prior (I think my previous record was six in one day, just after the launch), but how many will read it? I myself have gotten free books before and not read them. I have probably at least a dozen on my Kindle app waiting to be read, maybe even two dozen.
I’m not drawing any definitive conclusions until the five-day promotional period is done, but I’m thinking that five days is too long. Free for a weekend? Yeah, that’s a possibility. But free for five days? It’s not looking like there’s much interest anymore.
Today (day 4) there has only been one copy sold, but given that it’s only 1:15 in the morning we’ll just ignore that little tidbit and wait for more solid results later in the day.
As far as predictions for tomorrow go, it’s hard to say. Have all the people who were interested in the book gotten it already? Will some people see that “last day to get it free” tweet and scramble to pick it up while the deal is still going on? Who knows.
Experiment, Day 1
So the final tally for the first day of my novel being free on Amazon Kindle is 227 copies sold (well, given away…details, details).
I don’t even know 227 people. Given that when I initially published this book I was afraid that no one other than friends and family would ever read it, I’m extremely proud. Yeah, I know, the vast majority only picked up the book because it is free, but with that many people downloading it there must be some interest in the book itself. Maybe they won’t get around to reading for a month or a year (like I have with some of the free eBooks I’ve downloaded in the past), but they’ll have the book to read.
I’m interested to see how today and the following three days go. Will most of the people who are going to see the tweets and such that I’ve posted have already gotten it? Did I peak already? Will there be more downloads? The same? Who knows.
There have been about 19 sales since midnight and it’s 4am here now. Yesterday it took roughly the same amount of time to get 7 sales. No new reviews yet, but let’s give people time to read the book. There might be some crappy reviews, but there also could be some good ones.
I could become known for being a terrible writer…but you know what that means?
Will the Grass Be Greener?
I’ve been given a great opportunity, and I wonder if/how it will pay off in the coming weeks.
A publication for the Phoenix, AZ, area is interviewing me about my book this weekend. I’m pretty excited, even though I got the interview because I work with the editor-in-chief at my day job, and I talk about my book all the time there (because fuck yeah! I wrote a book!).
I’m wondering if this will help increase sales any. They’ve been dismal for quite some time now that the die-hard fans (translation: some of my friends and coworkers) have already purchased their copies. I’ve gotten only a couple of reviews, but I am proud to say they were both five stars. I’ll stick that in the “win” column.
This also gives me hope for the next book. I don’t know what the interview questions will be, so I don’t know if I’ll even have the opportunity to talk about my work-in-progress, but if the first book sells a few more copies then maybe I have hope for the second book.
It feels weird to be on this side of an interview. I wonder if any of the bands or actors that I’ve interviewed have felt this way. Probably not the more well-known ones; they already have careers and don’t care if they get interviewed by me. But the indie bands, the actors just starting out? They just might have a inkling of what I’m feeling like right now. The excitement, the anticipation…it’s pretty cool.
I can’t let this get to my head, though. I wouldn’t have this opportunity if I didn’t have a “connection in the biz.” Still, it’ll be interesting to see what things are like on this side of the fence.
Looking up
Things have changed a bit since yesterday. I came across an opportunity to have some promotional material for my book made up, which is fantastic. I don’t know how much help it will be, but it is looking to be a great way to garner more interest in the novel.
The planning is still kind of iffy, but I’ll do my best to wrangle it together. I really am excited for this. Serendipity, as it were. It just kind of fell into my lap, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
I will post updates as things solidify, but for now I’m going to keep mum until I’m ready for the “big reveal.” 😉
Slow Going
Sold a couple more books this weekend–to friends, of course.
I wish I could figure out the marketing better. I need to start researching that. I mean, tweets and Facebook posts can only do so much. Facebook is only going to reach the people I know, and though Twitter can reach more it’s not enough.
I have to keep telling myself that no one starts out on their own like I did and sells hundreds or even dozens of copies overnight. Well, very few people do. It’s a learning process.
Word of mouth would help, but I have no control over that. If people want to tell their friends who like the genre I wrote in, they will. If they don’t, they won’t. And I can’t rely on random searches bringing in readers.
I’ll figure it out. Somehow. Eventually.