Tuesday, December 31, 2013

8 things you can do for your favourite authors in 2014

On New Years Eve I was writing, and tweeting, and watching a movie because my four-year-old niece was asleep downstairs and everyone else in the house had racked off to see the midnight fireworks. In my cherry-bourbon celebrations I came up with a list of eight things you can do to help your favourite author in 2014. And here they are:


  1. Leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads: There are SO many books released every year via traditional press, small press and self-publishing that it's not only hard for authors to get to readers, but for readers to find reads they are going to fall in love with. A lot of people therefore rely on the reviews left on Goodreads and Amazon to help them determine if a book is worth reading. They will never know that you loved that book if you don't rate it and leave a review (even if it's a small one). It's a way to promote your favourite authors with a few mouse clicks and a couple of sentences. 
  2. Recommend your favourite reads to family and friends: Word of mouth is one of the best ways to share your love of a book. If you have friends and family who you know enjoy a certain genre/category that is the same as your favourite authors.
  3. Buy books by your favourite authors as presents: If you're confident your friends/family will love a book as much as you do, buy it for them as a present. You're also giving the author a present too - a sale.
  4. Retweet your favourite author's tweets: You don't have to retweet the fact that they've gone away without underwear (winks at Wendy) but you can retweet their bookish news to your followers such as release dates, launches, sales, competitions, buy links and anything that is promoting their awesomeness.
  5. Share or comment on your favourite authors' bookish Facebook updates: Did you know that sharing and commenting on Facebook has a bigger impact than liking? The more attention their posts get via comments and sharing, the more news feeds it will appear in. Sharing takes a couple of clicks and commenting not much more than that. 
  6. Like your favourite authors' bookish Facebook updates: You can still give your favourite authors some like love. It shows them that you are all for their latest news. 
  7. Tell them how much you love their writing: Not in a creepy stalker way by hovering outside their window and whispering it in the night. Go through appropriate channels like tweeting it, writing it on their Facebook wall or emailing their official author contact. But don't direct message them on Twitter or Facebook… that's boarding on window whispering creepy. 
  8. Nominate/vote for your favourite authors in competitions: All year round there are competition polls for best book, best author, best MC, best cover and much more. Nominating your favourite author not only makes them squee when they see someone's loved their writing enough to nominate them, but it also promotes them to everyone else viewing the poll.
Authors love fans, and this is a way you can give back to them because writing a book is a lot harder than reading one. 

Let me know if there's any other ways you know of to help authors and I'll add it to the list. 

And what's been your favourite author response to when you've done one of the above?



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Saturday, December 28, 2013

The strength of an amazing cover

People say you should never judge a book by a cover, but the fact is an amazing cover can entice readers to want to know more about a book.

Book covers also become part of an author's brand, which is why covers are often themed for a series, such as The Selection series and The Sweet Trilogy. But even for standalone books, or the initial book in a series, having a instantly recognisable book helps an author.

With so books released each year, resulting in thousands of covers so it is really had to have them stand out.

I was really fortunate with mine. It's unique and memorable. And that was reinforced today when I
got a tweet showing me my cover had ended up in a UK writing magazine with an article promoting my publisher.


What was so cool about it is that she immediately knew that it was my book cover. A great book cover does more than compliment the story inside the pages. It gives the author the opportunity to add to the branding recognition and connect with potential readers.

It's good for an author to use their book cover image for more than just their stories artwork. Use it for profile pics, banners and on all social media platforms to fully connect yourself with the visual marketing of your story.

So what's your favourite book cover that gives you lots of feels?


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Tuesday, December 17, 2013

#PitchMAS Twitter Party Pitch Post Feedback

I love helping people hone their pitching so I'm jumping on for the PitchMAS twitter party to help people hone their pitches. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to help if your twitter pitch is already awesome, but I'll do my best.

In the comments post your book blurb and any twitter pitches you have already. You're all welcome to reply to other Twitter Pitches to help other people with their's, or to tell them how awesome their pitches are.

So Pitch me baby! And I'll see what I can do.



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Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Think outside the square for digital releases PR

Having a digital release impacts on the way you market your work. There is the standard blog tour, Twitter campaigns,  Facebook promotion and Rafflecopter giveaways you can do (look at the bottom of this post for my giveaway). But just because you are publishing on a digital stage, doesn't mean your whole promotion has to be online. 


My debut novel launched on 2 December and I was a bit bummed that I would't have a book store
launch like I did for an anthology I was in as there's no physical book at this point. However, I decided to still hold a local media event and local television and newspaper media outlets turned up. 

My home town of Mackay is small enough that an author being published by a US publisher like Entranced is news. 

Daily Mercury also releases web news and they got me to do a reading of the opening of SLEEPER, which was a lot of fun. You can watch it here and laugh at my Aussie accent (one of my friends said I sounded more British than Aussie). 

Other options you can include for in-person publicity include:
  • Readings at local libraries and schools (especially if they loan out eBooks).
  • Presenting at literary festivals and conferences.
  • Themed scavenger hunts.
  • Swag giveaways at markets
If you have a in-person promo tip for a digitally only release, please share!

And don't forget to enter my giveaway below for you chance to win a $100 book voucher of your choice. 
a Rafflecopter giveaway





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Sunday, December 1, 2013

SLEEPER has awakened - Release Day Celebrations & Blog Tour schedule.

Huzzah! SLEEPER is here for your reading pleasure. I'm so excited that I just might do a little interpretative dance via cats. AND I'm giving away a $100 book voucher to celebrate! Read more after watching cats for details.







Here's what you need to know

Title: Sleeper (Book I in the Toy Soldiers series)
Author: S. M. Johnston
Release Date: December 2, 2013
Publisher: Entranced Publishing, Rush
Genre: Upper YA/NA speculative fiction




Blurb: A new heart should mean new life, not a living nightmare.

Mishca Richardson’s life is at an all-time high after her heart transplant. With new boyfriend, Ryder, the two of them have the perfect summer romance. Even the nightmares that have been plaguing her sleep since her operation can’t dull the high she’s on.

Things start to unravel as Mishca develops superhuman abilities. She does her best to hide them so as not to end up a science experiment in a lab. But she can’t ignore the instant attraction she experiences when she meets her university professor, Colin Reed.

Torn between the blossoming love and the obsession, Mishca must decide if she wants Ryder or Colin. But the organization responsible for her changes and her connection to Colin, is moving to secure Mishca for himself so that she can be the weapon he always intended her to be. If Mishca can’t resist her programming she’ll have a lot more to worry about than romance.

Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17837453-sleeper?from_search=true

Buy Links:

Amazon: Buy here

Kobo: Coming soon


B&N: Coming soon

And the beautiful blog tour participants. Make sure you stop buy each day to maximise your entry as commenting on the blog tour posts gets you entries into the draw for $100 book voucher of your choice.


Release Day - December 2
Tuesday Dec 3Book Passion for Lifehttp://bookpassionforlife.blogspot.fi/
Wednesday Dec 4Crystal Collierhttp://www.crystalcollier.blogspot.com.au
Thursday Dec 5Literary Confessions...http://literaryhair.blogspot.fi/
Friday Dec 6Bookish Treasureshttp://bookishtreasures.blogspot.fi/
Saturday Dec 7Cassandra Pagehttp://cassandrapage.com
Sunday Dec 8Eclipse Reviewshttp://totaleclipsereviews.blogspot.fi/
Monday Dec 9Aria Kanewww.ariakane.com
Tuesday Dec 10Craving YA Readshttp://cravingyareads.com/
Wednesday Dec 11Raven Paramourhttp://ravenparamour.blogspot.fi/2013/12/sleeper-blog-tour.html
Thursday Dec 12Aimee Salterwww.aimeelsalter.com
Friday Dec 13Rori Shayrorishay.com
Saturday Dec 14Inside the Pages of a Bookhttp://insidethepagesofabook.com/
Sunday Dec 15Katie's Storieshttp://kjhstories.blogspot.com/
Monday Dec 16YAtopiahttp://yatopia.com
Tuesday Dec 17Nik Vukojahttp://nikvukoja.wordpress.com/
Wednesday Dec 18Stacey Leehttp://www.staceyhlee.com/blog/
Thursday Dec 19K. A. Lasthttp://www.kalastbooks.com.au/
Friday Dec 20You are what you writehttp://www.rachelhorwitz.com/blog/
Saturday Dec 21s. m. nystoriak's writer's blockhttp://smnystoriak.wordpress.com/
Sunday Dec 22Entranced tumblrhttp://entrancedpublishing.tumblr.com/
Sunday Dec 22Stacey Nashhttp://www.staceynash.com

And you can enter today, right here on my blog!


a Rafflecopter giveaway
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