Secrets to Planning a Rockin' Twitter Party

I know consider myself a Twitter Party Addict. I have managed three of my own and hopped on the bandwagon of over twenty of them.

It's a great way to spread the word about your book and to play as an 'appetizer' to a larger launch party.
 
THE LAUNCH

Who says you can only have one book launch party? Well I say, have many. This is the main event for your book. You've been building up to this for months. Doing it on multiple platforms will afford your book a lot of visibility. But even though Twitter is always hopping, you need to promo it a bit.

THE BUILDUP

I usually start my book launches that include a Twitter Party, Blog Party and Facebook Party with a mini-blog tour which includes all the authors who will be part of my Facebook Virtual Launch Party. We do this to build up the buzz.

About 6 weeks before the party all of the authors involved in the big Facebook Party event tweet about the Twitter Party coming (using a hashtag for the book title & a link to our Party Map Page).

The mini blog party kicks off 1 week before the Twitter Party. It's used to build awareness of all of the book release events coming. The Twitter Appetizer Party (which runs the Friday before the Facebook Party) is used to drive even more traffic to the book sales pages for participating authors.

The Giveaway announcement. We run a giveaway announcement on twitter (a daily tweet from each participating author) with link to Party Map Page which has the schedule of the mini-blog tour, the Twitter Party, Facebook Party, links to all books, and rafflecopter.


THE TWITTER APPETIZER PARTY

We call it an appetizer because it's the night before the big Facebook Party event (which usually last for 8 hours on a Saturday and is run by a number of authors not limited to the launch guest of honor).

These usually last 3 hours. Three hours is enough time to run 3 trivia games, intro the book, shout out for prize winners and share links to big party coming the following day on Facebook.


The trick though is to have about 3 other people who you KNOW will be there to help you keep the party going, promo the party, and invite others.

A neat way to make sure you know who's coming is to use the mini-blog tour to build an invite list and later tweet a reminder to participants.

PARTY MUST DO LIST

For a twitter party to work, you need to have the Trivia Questions, links, etc preset (you can use hootsuite or socialoomph to do this in advance). This makes things much easier and allows facilitator to just do promo, invite tweets, and personal interaction with crowd.

Announcing the party should be done 60 to 30 minutes before by the 3 party facilitators. Invites to fans who are on twitter at the time & share a party favor if they show up is a great kickoff. Have a main prize of about $25 gift card that you will give out at end of night.
 
Kick off party with party jargon, a swag giveaway like bookmarks, introduction of participating authors, book, book trailer. Then start the games. Try to stick with games that are themes of the book. In between shout out a reminder about follow-on Facebook party, shout out winners and 'thank you' to participants before running next game. Sticking to 10 questions for each trivia works.
 

Trivia ideas. Movie lines, guess that tune, caption picture contest and many more depending how creative you are.

WOULD YOU GO TO A TWITTER RELEASE PARTY?


by LM Preston, YA & MG Author, http://www.lmpreston.com/

Do Page Counts Matter with Ebooks?

Boy is this a moving target now with the rise of the ebook revolution.

Let's take a peek at what the standard word count range is for Print Books - especially if you are trying to pursue a Literary Agent then a publisher.

However, its best to break it down by genre - in PRINT Books:


Overall for Adult books:
80,000 – 89,999 words

Chick lit
70,000-75,000 words


SCI-FI AND FANTASY
90,000-100,000 words

MIDDLE GRADE
32,000 – 40,000 words

YOUNG ADULT
55,000 – 69,999 words

MEMOIR
80,000-89,999 words

PICTURE BOOKS
500-600 words

NOW with the rise of the ebook all of the above is different if you DON'T PLAN ON PRINTING the book.

Short Stories: 
25,500-45,000

With short story formats in ebooks rising many authors don't need to hit the higher word counts above for adult books in order to make the reader happy.

WHY THE STRINGENT cap on word count?

Well as authors we love to get lost in the story, but for a publisher to PRINT a book and EDIT a book the cost to benefit rises by page/word count. Therefore the Publisher has to pay more to print the books which means the PROFIT hurts with the larger word novels if the publishers wants to COMPETITIVELY PRICE the book for sale with other books in the genre.

As a SELF-PUBLISHER or SMALL PRESS does this matter?

Yep, it does, because you still want your print release prices to be competitive and the lost in prices as the page count rises isn't worth it for a small press just starting out. HOWEVER, if you only plan on releasing a book in ebook you have much more flexibility.

by: LM PRESTON
www.lmpreston.com

Making Your Readers put you in the Re-Read Pile

I want it. I would absolutely love it if my readers would treasure my book and place it in their re-read pile. But the question is, what books to you keep? Buy in paperback so you will never lose them. Or do you purchase in ebook and keep it for reading on the fly?

WELL....

I’ve been doing some downsizing lately since we moved. And I had to make some hard decisions when it came to keeping my paperback books that have to be crammed into my measly two bookcases.

So, I decided to only keep the books that I knew that I would read again. And they are quite a few that I decided I would read again. Books that I read once, had a good ride, but didn’t think I would stick with it another round, they were donated to the library.

PAPER BACK BOOKS I was least likely to take off my shelf were:

Non-Fiction: There is a difference here because my paperback books do take up space. The books that survived and kept their space on my bookshelf were the non-fiction ‘how to’ books and the cookbooks. They didn’t even have to compete.

Poetry: As for my fiction titles, I held on to my books of poetry, which came in 2nd place because I love reading poetry and my family does have a poetry speak talk once in awhile where we recite our favorite pieces of poetry outloud.

Hard to Find Again Books: Yep, those Conan books, and comic books turned full length novels, I held on to them.

Fiction Series Titles: Series that I enjoyed each book in the series (which meant I wanted to re-read every book in the series). If there was a series where there was even one of the books I didn’t want to re-read, I donated the series.

Picture Books and Middle Grade Fiction: I kept these since my younger kids still prefer to read with a book in their hand.

EBOOKs I was least likely to take off my shelf:

Series: Here is where I don’t mind keeping a series in which I didn’t like as much.

Fiction: All of my fiction books that I liked or thought my daughter would like, I keep on my device so I can share the book with her.

MY CONCLUSIONs

I’m more likely to hold thousands of ‘only read once’ books on my ebook device since it doesn’t cost me to keep them and I can archive them. Also, I figure if I’m bored and run out of books to read, I can always find time to read that ‘okay’ book that I haven’t read in 5 yrs.

However, I’m less likely to want to keep non-fiction books like cook books or How To’s on my reading device because I like to write in those books.

As for genre’s I’m more likely to keep my picture books and Middle Grade books on the shelf since my younger kids still prefer to have the book (only because I refuse to buy them an ereader though).

SO…WHAT STAYS ON YOUR READING SHELF? Paperback or Ebook?

by LM Preston, www.lmpreston.com 

Bookfest! Expos! Trade Shows...And More to Explore

Just a few years ago I had my first book signing at a Book Expo. The African American Book Expo had tons of authors, and vendors selling their products. Since that was my first stop in a full year of book promotions, I added this to my experimental list of things to do.

FINDING THE RIGHT VENUE
I researched the trade shows I would attend by searching other authors that had similar work as I did. However, I did the African American Book Expo in MD simply because it was the first time they’d had one and I could share a table with another author, Maggie Mei Lewis, that I respected. I also signed up for the Capital Bookfest, because it was close to my hometown and I liked some of the other authors that were attending. The Baltimore Book Festival, I’m attending because it’s free to Maryland Writer’s Association members. They were local, I planned to network with other authors there and meet readers that were part of my audience.

SET REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
The reason I go to these events (Book Expos) is truly not to sell books, it’s for networking. If you go to these events hoping to sell a ton a books – you will be disappointed.

When you are seeking out the promotional opportunities for your writing career (you can also do this when you are even unpublished) set your goals, research the venue and what other’s have gotten out of the endeavor and plan in opportunities that will get you the exposure you desire. I did this by doing a Google alert on authors that were new, and doing things that I wanted to do with my career. Then I fashioned the events that fit within my budget and goals for my own career.

LEAVE ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
Always reinvent yourself and your promotional goals. Some events I’ve participated in were the wrong venue, didn’t meet my ‘realistic’ expectations or were too costly compared to the benefits. So I revamped my plans for the next year to fit my budget, highlight the things that worked, and I always add something new for discovery of better ways to promote myself and my books.

REMEMBER – CARE AND FEEDING
Be realistic when pursuing promotion of your books. It takes 3 years for any business to confirm growth, so set a 3-year plan/investment in yourself and your promotional goals. Gage your growth each year with a chart and if you see improvement, pat yourself on the back and research ways to further improve.

by LM Preston, www.lmpreston.com

Selling Beyond the Reader

So now you figured out you are a publisher? Well figure out ways to sell your stuff beyond just to the end reader.

YES, making money selling your books to readers is great. But the big returns also come when you sell your Subsidiary Rights! That means all the other ways to sell your book. Large publishers have been doing it for years. It's one of the main reasons having a Literary Agent and a Traditional Publisher seems appealing even to an Indie Publisher because entry into the untapped markets of Subsidiary Rights sales isn't easy at all.

Here's some tips from John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book


SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS

The sale of subsidiary rights is a major source of money for traditional book publishers.


John Kremer states the reasons why publishers should pursue these:

Rights Income will help pay for printing and promos
Make money on your books even before they are released
The sales of these rights increase buzz about your books
The sales of these rights give credibility to your book
More sales create additional sales for other titles
The more sales in this area makes it easier to get booksellers to pick up the book
Movie and TV rights will increase sale of your released book and subsequent books from the author


John Kremer gives tips on selling these rights:

Create a contact list to include buyers for, serial, audio/video, reprints, book club rights and more by category.
Cold call, email, postcard mail these sources to let them know of your upcoming book
Send out review copies with marketing plans, media kits to these prospects
Approach more than one lead at a time
Follow-up with call or face to face visit
Take your time and prepare for the unexpected
Feature rights for sell on your publishing focused website
Get a rights agent that works with publishers


When an author signs a contract with a publishing house, they generally grant the publisher ‘volume rights’ within certain territories. This gives the publisher the right to publish the book in certain formats. The royalties relating to hardback, paperback and sometimes trade paperback (a larger paperback format) editions will be spelled out.

There will be clauses in the contract covering all the other rights. These are the ‘subsidiary’ rights granted to publishers and can also be referred to as sub-leases.

DO YOUR RESEARCH - THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX - and pursue other ways to sell your books.

By: LM Preston, YA and MG author, www.phenomenalonepress.com

Valentine's Day Present for Indelibles Followers!

HAPPY VALENTINE's DAY from Peter Saints, main character of PURGATORY REIGN!

FOR Today Febuary 14th-15th you can download a free copy of PURGATORY REIGN, all that I ask is that you leave an honest review everywhere you see it.

Also, I want you to know that somebody - we, the Indelibles & LM Preston Loves You!!!

Purgatory Reign (Free Valentine Day Pre-Release Link)
Coupon Code: (Good for 2/14-2/15) VA66Z

Today, share this gift, and tell somebody that they are loved!

Being An Author Opens Doors You Can't Imagine

WRITING IS A DOOR THAT OPENS TO…

Meeting others. In my desire to do my best to write that one novel that will expose me to a larger audience I searched around my city for a writers group. I found a few and I joined them all. Maryland Writers Association, The Romance Writers (I just hang out a few of their meetings), The Columbia writers group (I found them off of www.meetup.com) , the Black Writer’s Guild, Mid-Atlantic Book Publishers, and Independent Book Publishers Association, Critique Circle, AbsoluteWrite.com/forum and YaLitchat.org. All of which I joined not to meet people but to learn about writing. But throughout the years I’ve met tons of amazing and best-selling authors who’ve further inspired the best from me.

Speaking Platforms. Did you know you don’t have to be a bestselling author to get speaking gigs? Well you don’t. Matter of fact, sometimes you don’t necessarily even have to have anything published. You can support others to becoming published and be able to speak about this. I never knew this before I started speaking and touring for my books. I have met people who have spoken at events (maybe for free or even sometimes paid) that support the art of writing by being a long standing board member of writerly organizations, being a freelance editor who edit books of other authors, or someone that organizes and promotes authors and such. Sometimes just starting to write something and exposing yourself to people in the business gains you knowledge that you can share on the speaking circuit.

Gives you something to talk about. I’ve met quite a few writers that have been writing their novel for over 5yrs or even more. They sometimes admit that they may never finish but love to just write. They often share their challenges with their writing and their triumphs and from one author to another I totally understand that writing is like putting together a puzzle. Some people like to finish it, others like to widdle at it. But in both cases, it is pleasurable and freeing.

Can Support Other Goals. There are many people in my day time career and some of my peers that love their career areas in medicine, engineering and social services. They’ve found it a necessity to have a published work to support their speaking or to give to peers on their subject matter. Many of them don’t like to write. But they’ve worked with writing coaches to help them write books, pamphlets, support documents and white papers to share. Sometimes this has turned into a profitable venture for them. Believe it or not, many of these folks self-publish their materials and make a pretty penny on speaking and selling these items to their guest.

SO….

With all I’ve shared about writing and being an author, what has just putting pen to paper have exposed you to? Or grown in you? Are you a Blogger who has a following or a writer who’ve met great friends in your journey or a student who wrote a story that moved your class. Please share.

by: LM Preston, www.lmpreston.com author of Purgatory Reign, Thundering Luv, The Pack series, Bandits series and Explorer X series.

Writing for Teens But Pleasing Adult YA Readers Too?

This is a struggle that many writers of Middle Grade and Young Adult literature must have. We see it in the movies all the time. You take your kid to see a Disney Movie like, TANGLED or SNOW WHITE and find that there is entertainment value for both adults and kids.

Is YOUNG ADULT and MIDDLE GRADE WRITING FOR KIDS?

Considering that most authors have to go through a vetting process of getting their manuscript to a Literary Agent who then reads and re-pitches it to an editor at a Publishing house. The editor at the publishing house reads it and then re-pitches it to the publisher to purchase.

All of these adults are reading your book that you meant for a Young Adult or Middle Grade kid to enjoy. And trust me kids and adults have very different reading perspectives.

KIDS like it but ADULTS don't

There are many cases where my kids love a book or a movie that I dislike because doesn't have the same type of substance that I'd want. There are also certain types of things I enjoy in which they read because it has a little something in it for my adult self also. Whether it's the adventure, the action, the young romance or the intelligence of the character.

THE TRUE MARKET of YA and MG

In order to meet that TRANSITION status of super love from both your audiences - because as a YA and MG author I've realized now that I have two audiences - I have the adult audience that reads YA and MG. Then there is the actual audience of Middle graders (11yrs-14yrs) and Young Adult (14yrs-17yrs) to focus on.

How does one author find that same mix?

DO IT LIKE DISNEY?

Should we? Put a lot for our kid audience in there -and consider a bit for our adult gatekeepers? Adult readers that want to relive their youth in books? What is the proper mix?

Honestly, I can't say I've figured it out yet. My teen beta readers (of which I'm lucky to have a good number) want action, adventure, a smudge of romance and more action. My adult readers want a slower pace in order to catch on to the story, figure out where they are and to savor the moments.

WHAT ARE YOUR ADULT EXPECTATIONS OF MG? or YA? and HOW DOES YOUR TASTE DIFFER from the intended audience of the genre of books you read?

Just remember while writing you will never make every reader happy, but as an artist of words we authors do try :-D

by: LM Preston, Young Adult & Middle Grade author, www.phenomenalonepress.com

http://www.amazon.com/Flutter-Of-Luv-ebook/dp/B0088ELXE2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356245413&sr=8-1&keywords=flutter+of+luv

Speed Writing That NanoWrimo Novel

Nano (National Novel Writing Month) from November 1st-30th. It’s the writing frenzy where you kick out a large number of words to hopefully finish a novel in record time. Many people start the challenge and end up with a sizable number of pages by the end. Some are inspired to start writing for the first time. Others are inspired to finish something for the first time. Some, like me, find that writing at breakneck speed produces a lower quality of work that doesn’t reflect what is normally produced when writing within your own timing. Truth is, my natural timing is four months from start to finish. I tried to increase my speed and did it without much trouble. It increased by 3 weeks, and for me, that cooking time for a novel fits just right.

There are ways to make speed writing more effective. The overall goal, is to produce more in a shorter period of time. If you keep this up, who knows, speed writing may become a habit.

Prepare for it

When you set out to write a novel in a short period of time, outlining is your friend. Take a week to write a detailed outline of the story. It will help to work out most of the kinks before you even sit down to write. Create character profiles of the main characters and review outline before the start of your writing marathon.

Plan it

If you are going to focus on spitting out as many words as possible a day, then plan it. Block out your writing time for the month. Figure out when you are most productive. Is it in the morning, at night or midday? Make a rule – no sleep unless you have kicked out a minimum of a certain amount of words. Make sure you schedule extra time for working out of corners or temporary writer’s blocks. Make your schedule somewhat flexible so that you don’t get burned out and give up.

Write it

With a printout of your outline next to you and a bullet list of your character profile – start the race. Follow your outline. If you want to go rogue, go ahead, write until the roadblock. If you reach a road block – write anything, take some time off to think on it, then re-work your outline and get back to it. Whatever you do – don’t stop writing. Remember, you will always have to edit it.

Don’t look back

Whatever you do, don’t read over what you’ve written until you are finished. That is an easy way to get distracted. Remember, you’ll have to edit the thing many times before your piece of art is perfected. Just write forward, don’t make corrections, don’t read over it, just push forward and write.

Introducing LM Preston, new Indelibles.
by LM Preston, www.phenomenalonepress.com

A new Indelibles member and author of Middle Grade and Young Adult books. Vice President of Mid Atlantic Book Publishers Association, Co-Chair of Maryland Writers Conference 2012, YA Lit Chat Moderator and co-owner of Phenomenal One Press.

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