Archive for April, 2010

Car Magnet and General Marketing

I’m driving around with my car magnets, and they look pretty good.

I would upload a picture of it, but it came out pretty dark from my cell phone. And why I haven’t taken one with my camera? Too lazy right now. I still haven’t downloaded what’s in the camera now…lots of baby pictures!

I got the car magnets done at Whole Magnet Signs

After realizing that my car magnets just has two of my books, I asked my Book Cover Designer to make a general “logo” so to speak. I’ll be writing more books than just that (and I actually have three self-published). So, I gave her my idea of what I would like. Not sure if I already posted this, but oh well, my mind seems to not hold as much memory as it use to. But anyway, I told her I wanted a Mad Hatter image, a fairy, a space ship and my Wendh Prince guy from my very first book on the cover. And it came out just like I liked it. She added all three books that I currently have self-published in the picture as well, which is okay with me because it just gives a sense that I have more than one book. So here it is…

poster_final_forWeb

The next thing I want to do is get this on my business cards. I had created business cards before, LOTS OF THEM, from Vista Print, but they all have just my first book on them. Now, I’ll have a general image to put on posters and business cards to hand out, and that’s much better.

Wow, I’ve posted quite a few things in April. That’s because I’m finally getting some sleep and more time for myself as my daughter gets older. She is now 8 months and counting. A routine definitely helps everyone out. The Hubby gets to get his bike riding in, and I’ll soon be getting back to my 3rd book of the Calling Series.

Until next time. Tootles!

So what’s a Feedburner? Twitter, Facebook and such…

Okay, so I’m still learning more about websites and blogging, and I got a comment about “feedburner”. Huh? So what’s that?

Off to my favorite pal…google.

So I found out it the word “feed” was a way to provide “subscription” to a website so that people can keep up on the updates. I saw those types of things on website before, little buttons or links for Twitter, Facebook, RSS and you click on it to subscribe to the site so that you’ll know when there’s updates. I’ve never played around with that. And since I randomly post (trying my darnest to post at least once a month) that would be a very good feature so that people would know when I’ve added something new.

So I went to WordPress to find a Widget. I found “Fixed Social buttons”. Not sure if that’s going to do what I would like it to do, but it looked neat.
I selected RSS, Facebook and Twitter, since I know those sites. I also wanted to find out more on “feedburner” so google had something where I entered my site. I had to sign in with my gmail account, of course. So I created a Feedburner.

After all that, then I realized that I might just need a Facebook, Twitter and MySpace account. I already have a personal account with Facebook, but Unfortunately, DARN IT, facebook/zhollis is already taken! So I create a page off of my personal account. And then went back to Google Feedburner and clicked the “Publicize’ and then “Socialize” thingy on the side and added a Twitter account so that I can have Feedburner updated my Twitter with my blogs and then have Twitter update my Page on Facebook (using the “Smart Twitter for Pages” App in Facebook). Round Robin kind of thing.

Twitter Setup Issue
I was needing to get the confirmation email from Twitter…and that took a very long time! And, of course, I got like four (4) confirmation emails because I kept resending it. And in the mean time, my password for Twitter didn’t work! I tell ya! Trying to make a STRONG password and I messed up on something. Twitter didn’t have me retype my password to make sure I was typing it correctly. So, I tried to have Twitter send me an email, clicking the “forgot” link. I pressed it a couple of times and looked in my email. Hmmm. Of course, I should have waited the same long-time-period that it took to send me the confirmation email. Duh. So then, of course, I got four (4) password reset emails. But when I got the first one, I was able to reset my password and then I had to go back and pick one the confirmation emails to get the account up and running with all the access. Whew!

The things you do and learn.

And so now I’m officially on Twitter and have a Facebook Page to help with Marketing. Unfortunately, now I’ll have to remember to type just 140 characters of interesting first liners in my Word Press so that it will good in Twitter.

And once I submit and Publish this post, I’ll look at both sites and see if it gets updated (Feedburner only begin working on new posts). And so the testing begins…. And I had to make some adjustments. I had Feedburner send “Title and Body” to Twitter. I just need the body sent to meet my 140 character limit correctly. Unfortunately, when I did an update on the same post, it didn’t re-do my Twitter. Oh well. But my Facebook Page got updated! KEWL!!!! IT WORKED!

IT”S ALIVE!!! IT LIVES!! HURRAY!!! HURRAY!!!

Hours of work and got something accomplished. I think I deserve some popcorn….

Took the Plunge…Book Reviews

So, I took the plunge and submitted emails inquiring for books reviews. I dug around and did some research on possible places to submit, and also followed steps from Michael R. Hicks (Author of In Her Name, whose book I really, really enjoyed) as well, on where he was reviewed.

Emailed: Editor@bookloons.com at there BookLoons site
Went to The Book Smugglers and Submitted on their contact page
Emailed: fantasybookcriticblog@gmail.com from their website Fantasy Book Critic without being able to find the Review Policy, gulp, so I hoped they don’t get offended

And I got one response back from BookLoons who politely stated “I don’t have a reviewer for these but do wish you every success.” I thought that was very nice. Especially to take the time to write back and wish me the best. I love those types of rejection. It keeps me encouraged that I can at least get someones time to respond back, and that good enough for me.

I’ll continue on with researching on how to market my book. Maybe look into how to make a online book tour. 🙂

Until next time…

Marketing on PrLog–Whatcha Think?

Marketing!
My PRLog Review….
So, I made the mistake on PRLog of marketing my books before I was really ready. I thought I could just update and resend out another marketing post later, but I didn’t read the rules. You can only market something ONE TIME. Which makes sense. I mean, you don’t want to see the same-ole-news-day-after-day now do you? So, what I’ve decided to do is that my next marketing on the site, I’ll be ready and refer to my previous books in my new “News” announcement.

You can see my PRLog marketing on my books here:

PrLog on Irid
PRlog on Ruby, Flesh & Heart
PrLog on The Calling Series: The Made

PRLog has an okay reporting system. It gives you Hits and the top 10 websites viewers came from to see the news, and Searched Words and Phrases (Ruby, Flesh and Heart got keywords: Cinderelaa, story, and kazakhstan??. The other two books didn’t display anything), and a chart that shows the activity for each day for last 40 days (The height of the bars corresponds to number of visitors).

So, I’m gonna definitely use PrLog again. And Hey! It’s free!!

And yes, of course, I’m procrastinating on my Marketing. Just like I was procrastinating on whether I wanted to use Lightning Source or not, and sending my book out for book reviews. Now the Marketing…I just need to do more research. The book reviews…I’m just plain terrified of those! I know it has to be done, but…you know..it’s just PLAIN SCARY! I mean, what if they think it’s horrible! Can I take it? I mean, I’ve been in critique groups, but that was different. I knew I needed to make some updates and wanted the thoughts, feelings and ideas. Plus, I’ve built relationships with those who critiqued my work. But just sending it out and seeing what others have to say? Just too creepy and scary!

So, I guess you wondering about my confidence in my work. Well, I think it’s entertaining and pretty good, but for the masses, I just have to wait and see. You know you have your typical friends and family that tell you they like what you wrote (and my editor enjoyed them), and then there’s the ABSOLUTE STRANGER’S OPINION. Now THAT’S what I’m actually waiting for…and terrified of.

Yeah. Yeah. It has to be done, and I’ll do it, really. I just need to sucker myself up to it. LOL!

Until next time!