Blog to Book Project — Blog Tours

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A traditional book tour is when an author takes his or her book on the road stopping at bookstores, coffee shops, and libraries to do presentations or book signings.  A blog tour involves your book being featured on different blogs and websites over a specific time period. The dates are set in advance like a book tour, and each article or post is unique to the site or blog hosting it.  A related idea is the blog blitz. This is when your book is featured on different blogs or websites, but on the same day.

Book bloggers are an excellent choice to include in your blog tour. Reedsy has a large list of book bloggers you can find here. Other places you might consider are websites that are in your niche. For instance, if you write about health topics, perhaps a health blogger would be interested in featuring your book.

You can provide an ARC (advanced review copy) to bloggers and website owners that would like to review your book. You also could provide promotional information or an exclusive excerpt for those that don’t have time to read it before your launch date. Don’t forget about podcasts, giveaways, or author interviews as potential promotional material for your blog tour.

You should organize your blog tour about six weeks before your book launch so that bloggers and web site owners have time to schedule your feature post during the time immediately before and after your launch.  Make sure to include how readers can purchase your book as well as sharing the post on your social media channels. Take the time to visit and comment on the blog or website that is hosting your blog tour that day.

Assignment: Plan a blog tour.

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Blog to Book Project — Improving Your Chances of Becoming an Amazon Best Seller

resized_bestsellerEveryone wants to be the author of a best seller. Once you have that moniker, chances are you’ll sell more books because people are drawn to success. You might also have more opportunities to promote your business, speak as an authority at functions, and make more money. It’s a status thing. 

Becoming a best-selling author on Amazon isn’t always easy, but there are a few things you can do to increase the odds in your favor.

Bestseller status is calculated by Amazon with actual book sales. A book that successfully reaches #1 has recently sold more than any other book in that category. Sales aren’t consistent across Amazon sites. Therefore, if your book is selling well in the U.K., it might not meet the count to become a U.S. bestseller. 

Amazon’s bestseller algorithm has a predictive component. So a sudden spike in sales might not be enough to launch your book among the stars. You’ll have more success with a sustained period of high sales. 

You can increase your chances of hitting that bestseller mark by taking a serious look at your:

  • Categories
  • Keywords
  • Cover
  • Title and subtitle
  • Blurb
  • Reviews
  • Introduction

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Categories

When you uploaded your book, you had the option to choose two categories that you felt best represented the theme of your work. What you might not know is that you can request up to eight more categories, as long as you can justify your book being classified in that way. All you need to do is contact the KDP people (http://www.kdp.amazon.com/contact-us) with that request.

You should research your category choices carefully. Sometimes, the same categories are not available for print books as they are for Kindle books. Ideally, to improve your chances of best-seller status, you should look for categories that don’t have a lot of competition but still fit your book’s theme.

You can see all the current categories for Kindle books here and for print books here.

Keywords

If you want the right readers to find your book, keywords are another important aspect. You’ll have the option to include up to seven keywords when you upload your manuscript. Don’t be afraid to use phrases instead of single words here. For example, “How to retire in Mexico” is probably more searchable then just “retirement.”

Make sure your keywords don’t violate Amazon’s policies. The key is to think like a reader. If you were searching for your book, what phrases would you use? Do some searching on Amazon and see what results you get.  

Cover

A picture is worth a thousand words. Make sure your cover is eye-catching and representative of your book. 

Title and Subtitle

An interesting title and subtitle that hints at what readers will find inside, or outright tell them, will improve sales.

Book Blurb

The book description is key to convincing readers who are on the fence about your book. Make sure your book blurb shines.

Book Reviews

Readers give often quite a bit of credence to the opinion of others when it comes to their book selections. Work on getting quality book reviews.

Attention-Grabbing Introduction

With the Look Inside option, you have the chance to dazzle your potential reader with your prose. Don’t waste this opportunity with acknowledgments or other items that can be moved to the back matter.

Once you’ve tweaked these factors to optimize your chances, then the best thing you can do to reach bestseller stardom is to write a great book and market the heck out of it. 

Assignment: Optimize your book for bestseller status.

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Blog to Book Project –Author Newsletter

An author newsletter is also an excellent way to market your book. However, don’t be book self-promoting every single time. So if you aren’t selling, what are you writing about in your newsletter?

You should write content that would be interesting to your readers. Providing useful, informative, or entertaining particulars increase the chance that your readers will peruse, read, and maybe even look forward to your periodic missives.

If you are a middle-ages romance novelist, perhaps you could share some historical tidbits you discovered while researching your soon to be released Scottish highland book. If you write about homesteading, how-to articles are always well-received.

Get your readers involved with polls or surveys. What do they want to read about? Which cover is more appealing? What would they do if….?

Share your upcoming promotions. If you had a book signing recently, write about it. Include pictures and links to where newsletter subscribers can get a signed copy for themselves. If you do a podcast, include a link. If you have a Q&A session on Facebook Live coming up, invite them to join you.

Tell an entertaining or embarrassing personal story. Talk about how your cat Fluffy has been helping or hindering you as you write your soon-to-be-released book. Give readers your writing playlist, favorite inspirational quotes, or writer’s block brownie recipe. Bonus points if you can tie in your next book.

You could include articles written from the perspective of your book characters. Or tie in the holidays to an upcoming or past book. Remember when Janie broke Paul’s heart right before Christmas in Jingle Bells, Chrismas Sucks–A Holiday Romance? Well, this Christmas, here’s how you can avoid family drama…

A newsletter helps you make a personal connection with your readers. Those that sign up are already interested in your books, so why not capitalize on it? Unlike Facebook or Twitter, you own the newsletter. You don’t have to worry about changing algorithms affecting the visibility of your posts or having the platform disappear completely. Remember Google +?

Mailchimp has free plans, pay-as-you-go plans, as well as several other monthly plans. With any plan, you can use ready-made templates to drag and drop your content, links, and images. The free plan allows you to contact up to 2,000 subscribers and send up to 12,000 emails per month. Because Mailchimp integrates with Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress, readers can sign up for your newsletter through these platforms as well.

Another email option is Mailerlite. The free plan will let you contact up to 1,000 subscribers and send 12,000 emails per month.

Remember not to spam your subscribers and to include an unsubscribe option at the bottom of the newsletter.

Post a link to your newsletter sign-up page on your Twitter, Facebook, and website. Offer a freebie in exchange for their opt-in. You could offer sample chapters, novellas, checklists, writing tips and tricks, or something else that you think your readers might enjoy.

The key to a successful newsletter is offering content that has value, such as useful information, personal connection, free/bargain books, and so on. If you don’t think you are up to the task, then don’t try to force yourself to create a newsletter. Focus on other methods of social media publicity instead.

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June 2020 Book Releases

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FREE today! Book Weaving: How to Create a Story Tapestry From Your Blog Threads is designed for bloggers who want to make something tangible from their blog posts. 

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The eBook version of Exploring Traditional Herbal Remedies in Mexico is now available for download for those of you that purchased it as a pre-order. The eBook version is a fraction of the price of the paperback version, so you’re getting quite a deal!

I’m working on a three-book series about self-publishing this month, so look for that announcement in the (hopefully) near future.

Blog to Book Project — Discussion Questions

If you think your book would be something a class or book club would enjoy discussing, consider adding a section with open-ended questions in the back matter.  This part might be called Discussion Questions or Book Club Guide or any number of imaginative monikers.

The questions might talk about the theme, historical significance, character development or symbology. Don’t be hesitant to pose questions about controversial themes. The idea is to provoke further thought and meaningful conversation. 

Make sure the questions you include can be answered either through something the reader can find in the text or with a bit of research. Other questions can be expressed opinions. 

Try to include a good mix of the following:

  • Why…..?
  • How would you explain….?
  • What is the importance of ….?
  • What is the meaning of …?
  • Compare….
  • Contrast …
  • What is the difference between…?
  • What is the similarity between…?
  • What are the causes of …? 
  • What are the results of …?
  • What connection is there between…?

You can divide the questions by chapter however try to keep them in the same order as the topics appear in the text. You can choose to number the questions if you like.

Designing discussion questions is a great way to put yourself into your reader’s shoes. Is there something that should be explained more or is unclear in your book? Now’s the time to go back and edit it.

Assignment: Even if you don’t plan on including this section, take the time to create at least 20 questions that would be useful in leading a thought-provoking discussion about your book. Are there things you need to change? 

Blog to Book Project — Genealogy or List of Characters

Although most often found in fiction books, you may also want to include a List of Characters in your blog to book project if it would be hard for the reader to keep track of the people and relationships in your story without a guide. You can organize the list by order of appearance or family groups or overlapping relationships, whichever would be most useful for the reader.

You can eliminate some of the confusion in your book by using the same nicknames or given names throughout the story. Don’t call the neighbor Fred in one chapter and Mr. Miller in the next. Be consistent. 

It might be useful to include a genealogy in some situations especially if there is something unique about the family tree that pertains to the story. For instance, the main characters might be cousins twice removed that had met at a family reunion as children and reconnected as adults. Instead of going through the intricacies in the text, a mere mention with reference to the genealogy at the beginning of the book might suffice. 

There are many free templates available online to help you create an attractive genealogy to include in your book. 

Assignment: Create a List of Characters or Geneology for your book. Review your book to make sure you are consistent in name-use.

Blog to Book Project — Your author page

Since you have a blog, you may already have a good start on the About the Author page, provided you have an About page on your blog. You do, don’t you? The About the Author page is generally at the end of a book, as one of the back matter sections.

Your About the Author page is about you but not exactly a biography. It’s more about making a connection with the reader. Once you’ve established a relationship with a reader, he or she is more apt to become a loyal follower.

To make that connection, you want to tailor your story to fit your book. You already know that the reader is interested in the topic your book covers, so try to make YOU as interesting and relevant as that topic.

For example, if you write about living in the rolling hills of Ireland, talk about how you came to be there. Maybe you had an Irish grandmother or you visited once and fell in love with a leprechuan. If your blog to book project is about investing in bitcoins, include your credentials and experience. If you wrote about how yoga transformed your quality of life in your book, talk about your personal philosophy.

As you write your Author Bio, think about who you had in mind when writing the information in the book, who do you want to buy and read the book, and what sort of credibility would that ideal reader look for in an author.

Other things you should include: your professional background, education, current business, achievements, awards, general personal details about your family, pets, residence, interests but only as they relate to the topic of the book.

If you are writing about how you traveled the globe you might include information on how you developed wanderlust rather than the 6 soul-sucking years you spent in a cubicle after earning your MBA. Then again, maybe that’s all part of the story that led up to the book.

Tone is yet another important consideration. If your blog to book project chronicles your spiritual awakening, maybe you won’t want to be smarmy or sarcastic in your bio. Just saying.

Do include contact information with a link back to your website and maybe some links to your social media networks as well. Don’t overdo it though, no more than 3.

You should also have an author photo. It can be casual or formal, however best you’d like to be remembered. If you are like me, adding a photo might make you just a tiny bit uncomfortable. Go ahead and do it anyway.

Another section you might wish to include is a call to action. This is something you should already be doing at the end of your blog posts. You are, aren’t you?

A call to action is something you want the reader to do. You could request that the reader leave a review at Amazon or Goodreads. You could mention you have an ecourse available on the topic your book addresses. You could talk about your personal coaching program.  You could highlight a book you’ve written that relates to the topic of the current one and prompt the reader to go and check it out.

Just pick one though. You don’t want to overwhelm anyone. The odds of a completed action are greater when there is only one thing as well. Instead of highlighting every single book you’ve written, why not suggest the reader go to a particular page and browse through your other books.  Doing so means you don’t have to update this page when you publish something new, just the page on your blog.

About the Author should be written in the third person. Yes, I know, corny. But that’s what readers expect, so that’s what you’ll give them.

Keep it short and sweet. Think of this as sort of a letter of introduction to your readers. You don’t have to list your whole life story here, just the most relevant parts. Aim for about 200-250 words.

Your Author Bio is not a static document, but an ever-changing one. When you have new experiences, obtain new credentials, maybe even change location, you will need to update your About the Author section accordingly.

Assignment: Write your About the Author page. Include a picture.

Blog to Book Project — X-ray

Kindle ebooks have this neat little feature called X-ray. When you press and hold a highlighted word or phrase, the x-ray will pop up with more information about characters, topics, events or places.

Amazon has already taken the liberty of making the connection between certain phrases, events and names and Wikipedia.  All you have to do is approved the ones you want or replace the ones you don’t with your own juicy morsels.

In order to enable X-ray, you need to choose it from the options hidden in the ellipses on your bookshelf.

Then you’ll get a message asking if you want to enable x-ray for that particular book.

When the Wikipedia links are ready for review, you’ll receive an email.

Now the ellipses will list Launch x-ray as an option.

From there, you’ll be sent to the online reviewer. There’s even a tutorial to help you out.

When I added it to A to Z Reasons Why La Yacata is the Place to Be in Any Disaster: A Prepper’s Guide to Mexico, the terms apocalypse, Prepper, and zombie were chosen along with a slew of place names and historical personages as well as any references to ancient indigenous gods.

For the most part, I linked up to the appropriate entry at Wikipedia. However, for places like La Yacata that have no wiki page, I added my own definition.

After you review and submit the terms, you’ll get an email letting you know that the feature was enabled for that book. It’sthat easy and it adds value to the reader’s experience.

Assignment: X-ray your book!

Blog to Book Project — When you know better, do better

Today we are going to take a break from the technical stuff and talk about motivation. Believe me, we all need a bit of a boost in that department every so often.

Take that time when KDP rejected my upload for image formatting issues for the 5th time. Or when my first Amazon review of my latest book was only 2 stars. Man, that was a sad moment.

There’s definitely a learning curve to turning your blog into a book. You will make mistakes. A lot of mistakes. And then you’ll figure out how to do it right and make fewer mistakes. Let’s look at my two examples above and see what I learned.

I like to include images in my books. I think it adds to the content. I didn’t know, but I do now, that it works best when I insert the picture I want to use into a template Canva has available, then upload that image to the book. It gives me a standard size image that is consistent throughout my book and guess what? No more formatting errors! In fact, my latest book was image formatting error-free the very first upload.

Now let’s look at the 2-star review. The reviewer mentioned 3 points, that my ebook had links that made reading difficult, that it did not have an index and that there were many typos. Two of those three points were completely valid. I had rushed publishing so that it would be ready for the new year and well, didn’t think some things through.

Currently, I am in the process of hyperlinking the text rather than including the full link in the ebook. Then I am also adding an index. I honestly hadn’t thought to include one, but I think it will be valuable for this particular book. Thirdly, no there were no typos. See, the reviewer was from the UK and as I write in American English, well, yes there are some differences in spelling, but they weren’t typos.

Once my hyperlinking and indexing are done, I’ll be able to upload a new manuscript to Amazon and everyone who has purchased it already will get the new version. So now that I know better, I’ll do better. And so will you.