Barb Hendee's Blog: Barb Hendee, page 34
January 8, 2013
Noble Dead Raffle #2 — REMINDER
Just a heads up. The second raffle for a signed paperback first editions of Series 2 of The Noble Dead Saga… ends this coming Friday at Midnight, PST. So if you have not entered yet… Please see the “original post” and follow the instructions so your entry is confirmed in your first submission. This raffle is only open to participants in the USA.
Visit BarbHendee.org for complete article.
Visit BarbHendee.org for complete article.
January 4, 2013
Vampire Memories Raffle — NOW OPEN!
Time for a very special raffle from the official site of the Vampire Memories Series. The prize is a signed set of mass market paperback first editions for the completed series…
Blood Memories
Hunting Memories
Memories of Envy
In Memories We Fear
Ghosts of Memories
Please follow the instructions below so your entry is confirmed on the first submission. Any entries sent in before this notice have been deleted.
This raffle is open to only readers in the USA.
Deadline for receipt of all entries is Friday, January 11th, Midnight PST (via the timestamp on your emailed entry). The following Friday, one random winner will be notified via email and (once confirmed) will be announced (by name only) through BarbHendee.org, its newsfeed and social site pages. The the winner should receive the prize within 10 business days.
Go to the “Contact” page at BarbHendee.org and submit the following information correctly:
Name: [First and Last in full]
Email: [where winner will be notified]
Subject: VAMPIRE MEMORIES RAFFLE
Message: Street Address, City, State, Zip Code
ABOUT YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT:
Use an account that you check at least once every day. If you are screening for spam by rejecting HTML content, white-list the “barbhendee.org” domain in your email program and/or email server to be certain you receive notification if you win a raffle. [We do not send email spam—ever!] Barb has full control of all participant information; you will not be added to any form of mailing list. All entries are discarded/deleted once a raffle is complete. Winner Selection ProcessThe following is the process for the raffle and awarding of the prize.
Each entry received is checked for complete information. Correct entries are confirmed by email reply within 72 hours of receipt. Incomplete entries are discarded; if possible, the entrant is notified. After the raffle's closing date/time, all entries are checked for duplicates based on Name, Email, and Delivery Address. Clear duplicates are discarded. Indeterminate ones may receive an email query at our discretion . Verified single entries are ordered by date/time received. Total number of entries is entered into a pure random number generator to select the winner. [See Random.org] The winner is notified via email and with a request to reconfirm delivery information. The winner has 48 hours to respond. If no response is received, a new winner is selected by Step 4. Upon reconfirmation of delivery information, the winner is announced via BarbHendee.org and its news distribution systems, including linked social systems. The award prize is shipped and should arrive on the winner’s doorstep by standard USPS mail, usually within 10 business days.So get your entry in now!
Noble Dead Raffle #2 — NOW OPEN!
Time for the second in our six raffles for books from the Noble Dead Saga. This week the prize is a signed set of paperback first edition of the complet Series 2: In Shade and Shadow, Through Stone and Sea, and Of Truth and Beasts…
Watch for notice coming later this morning and you can join in on another raffle being run through BarbHendee.org!
Please follow the instructions below so your entry is confirmed on the first submission. Any entries sent in before this notice have been deleted.
This raffle is open to only readers in the USA.
Deadline for receipt of all entries is Friday, January 11th, Midnight PST (via the timestamp on your emailed entry). The following Friday, one random winner will be notified via email and (once confirmed) will be announced (by name only) through NobleDead.org, its newsfeed and social site pages. The the winner should receive the prize within 10 business days.
Go to the Contact page at NobleDead.org and submit the following information correctly:
Name: [First and Last in full]
Email: [where winners will be notified]
Subject: NOBLE DEAD RAFFLE
Message: Street Address, City, State, Zip Code
ABOUT YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT:
Use an account that you check at least once everyday (preferably twice). If you are screening for spam by rejecting HTML content, white-list the “nobledead.org” domain in your email program and/or email server to be certain you receive notification if you win a raffle. [We do not send email spam—ever!] Barb and J.C. have full control of all participant information; you will not be added to any form of mailing list. All entries are discarded/deleted once a raffle is complete. Winner Selection ProcessThe following is the process for the raffle and awarding of the prize.
Each entry received is checked for complete information. Correct entries are confirmed by email reply within 72 hours of receipt. Incomplete entries are discarded; if possible, the entrant is notified. After the raffle's closing date/time, all entries are checked for duplicates based on Name, Email, and Delivery Address. Clear duplicates are discarded. Indeterminate ones may receive an email query at our discretion . Verified single entries are ordered by date/time received. Total number of entries is entered into a pure random number generator to select the winner. [See Random.org] The winner is notified via email and with a request to reconfirm delivery information. The winner has 48 hours to respond. If no response is received, a new winner is selected by Step 4. Upon reconfirmation of delivery information, the winner is announced via NobleDead.org and its news distribution systems, including linked social systems. The award prize is shipped and should arrive on the winner’s doorstep by standard USPS mail, usually within 10 business days.So get your entry in now!
January 3, 2013
Book Release Week!
Yesterday, JC and I drove to our nearest Barnes & Noble to sign some copies of the newly released hardcover of The Dog in the Dark. For me, seeing the new book on the shelf never gets old (smiles).
While we were there, I picked up a copy of the mass market edition of Between Their Worlds . . .
And I was excited to see that at the end of the new mass market, our publisher put in a "teaser" for The Mist-Torn Witches, and they included the prologue. So . . . if you want a sneak peak at the The Mist-Torn Witches, just glance at the end of the mass market paperback for Between Their Worlds.
While we were there, I picked up a copy of the mass market edition of Between Their Worlds . . .
And I was excited to see that at the end of the new mass market, our publisher put in a "teaser" for The Mist-Torn Witches, and they included the prologue. So . . . if you want a sneak peak at the The Mist-Torn Witches, just glance at the end of the mass market paperback for Between Their Worlds.
January 1, 2013
Correction Note
I had to delete and then re-post my "Myth Busters" post tonight. Apparently, there was a script error, and a number of people were just seeing a mass of garbled script.
Since I've had to re-post, any comments made this morning were lost. I do apologize. Please feel free to resend the comments, and I will be glad to let them through.
Since I've had to re-post, any comments made this morning were lost. I do apologize. Please feel free to resend the comments, and I will be glad to let them through.
Myth Busters: Marketing
Myth Busters: Anyone Can
Market a Self-published E-Novel with Wild Success
There
are actually two myths I want to cover in this post, but the first one is
short. Here is one of the most common questions that hopeful new writers
ask of the loudly vocal gurus touting the miracle of self-publishing:
“If
I am a totally unknown writer, how do I market my self-published e-novel?”
The
answer these poor folks receive from the vocal gurus always makes me bang my
head slowly on the desk. Here is the very helpful answer that is always given:
“Marketing?
You don’t need to worry about marketing. Just write the best, most
fabulous novel you can and put it out there. It will find an audience.”
Ugh.
Horse poop. Piles and piles of horse poop.
This answer is so absurd that it barely warrants a response. If you are a
completely unknown writer, no matter how fabulous your novel might be, how is
anyone going to know it exists? Any writer with two brain cells that can
actually fire at the same time should be able to reason that much.
Moving
on to the topic of marketing . . . There are a number of online sources that
claim anyone can market a self-published e-novel with great success. JC
and I are in a “better than most” position as we have a pretty well established
readership built up over the last decade plus. Our official NobleDead.org
website had 10,500 hits in the past thirty days and has been climbing steadily
over the last 5 years.
JC
markets the pants off of our “Tales from the World of the Noble Dead” over
there, and he has built us an automated social networking system; everything we
post on that site goes out to some twelve different social system satellite
pages/sites that he has set up. This of course includes Facebook
(#TheNobleDeadSaga) and Twitter (#NobleDeadOrg), as well as Google+, Squidoo,
Pinterest, Delicious, and more. And all of those satellites are linked on our
site along with automated share systems for visitors to help us out.
However
. . . our entire marketing base consists of built-in Noble Dead fans. This has
created both a driving force and some limitations on what we write for our
indie titles. We would LOVE to find a way to break out of marketing to
only our built in-fans (even though we are extremely thankful to them).
So, lately, we’ve been doing a lot of research in this regard, but I’ve seen
the same advice everywhere . . . and much of it offers a total avoidance of
reality.
From
this point on, I’m going to switch gears and approach this from the viewpoint
of a brand new novelist with no fan base at all. Here is the advice given
over and over and over in every book and every online site I’ve read:
Anyone Can Market a Self-Published
E-book with Wild Success! Here’s How . . .
1) Create your own blog and begin
building an email list from that blog.
2) Write "guest posts" on
other people’s related blogs to tap into their existing audiences. This
will allow you to rapidly build a fan base.
3) Use the email list you’re
constructing to begin marketing your book before it is even published.
4) Use social media like Facebook
and Twitter to let everyone know about your self-published, e-book.
By following these steps, your book
will have a built-in audience before it is even released!
Okay
. . . this is Barb chatting again. Can anyone point out a few problems
with this glistening advice?
Regarding
#1: First, if you are a complete unknown, how do you get people to visit
your blog and express interest in signing up for your email list?
Regarding
#2: If you are a complete unknown (novelist), how do you convince others to let
you write a guest post on their blog?
Now
. . . I can see this working if you have knowledge or a skill that is a strong
running thread in your novel. For example, if you’re well versed in
martial arts, and your novel contains a good deal of martial arts, you might
know some folks running blogs on various martial art practices who would allow
you to come in and talk about the novel (fiction) that you’ve written. I
don’t know if this will get you any sales, but you can see what I mean.
If you’ve included any skill (or knowledge) that you possess in your novel, you
might be able to tap into #2 above.
But
what if you’ve just written a basic dynamite fantasy novel—and you’re otherwise
unpublished? How do you convince people running blogs to let you be a
guest? I’m not sure. I think it’s certainly possible (if you can
come up with an angle), but it’s not as easy as these “how to” people seem to
suggest.
#3
can be somewhat perilous, so do be careful. At first, that list is
probably going to consist of your Grandma Bea, your brother, Henry, three of
your first cousins, and a few friends from high school.
Most
people don’t like spam. It takes ten times as much work in the long run
(according to J.C.) versus building a functional, automated social connections
system off of that same blog. Any blog worth its weight should have an RSS feed
that your readers can subscribe to, so they don’t need you loading up their
inbox.
#4
though makes a good deal of sense, and it probably should be the first thing
you do. Work smarter, not harder, especially if your work isn’t quite yet
making you enough money to pay for all that extra time in which you should be
writing your next great novel.
Please
don’t misunderstand me. With this post, I am NOT discouraging anyone from
self-publishing. I’m rapidly becoming a huge fan of self-publishing.
I’m just asserting that marketing may be a tad more complicated and elusive
than what you might be told going in . . . and please ignore any hogwash from
the gurus telling you that you don’t need to worry about marketing at all.
Again . . . ugh.
Market a Self-published E-Novel with Wild Success
There
are actually two myths I want to cover in this post, but the first one is
short. Here is one of the most common questions that hopeful new writers
ask of the loudly vocal gurus touting the miracle of self-publishing:
“If
I am a totally unknown writer, how do I market my self-published e-novel?”
The
answer these poor folks receive from the vocal gurus always makes me bang my
head slowly on the desk. Here is the very helpful answer that is always given:
“Marketing?
You don’t need to worry about marketing. Just write the best, most
fabulous novel you can and put it out there. It will find an audience.”
Ugh.
Horse poop. Piles and piles of horse poop.
This answer is so absurd that it barely warrants a response. If you are a
completely unknown writer, no matter how fabulous your novel might be, how is
anyone going to know it exists? Any writer with two brain cells that can
actually fire at the same time should be able to reason that much.
Moving
on to the topic of marketing . . . There are a number of online sources that
claim anyone can market a self-published e-novel with great success. JC
and I are in a “better than most” position as we have a pretty well established
readership built up over the last decade plus. Our official NobleDead.org
website had 10,500 hits in the past thirty days and has been climbing steadily
over the last 5 years.
JC
markets the pants off of our “Tales from the World of the Noble Dead” over
there, and he has built us an automated social networking system; everything we
post on that site goes out to some twelve different social system satellite
pages/sites that he has set up. This of course includes Facebook
(#TheNobleDeadSaga) and Twitter (#NobleDeadOrg), as well as Google+, Squidoo,
Pinterest, Delicious, and more. And all of those satellites are linked on our
site along with automated share systems for visitors to help us out.
However
. . . our entire marketing base consists of built-in Noble Dead fans. This has
created both a driving force and some limitations on what we write for our
indie titles. We would LOVE to find a way to break out of marketing to
only our built in-fans (even though we are extremely thankful to them).
So, lately, we’ve been doing a lot of research in this regard, but I’ve seen
the same advice everywhere . . . and much of it offers a total avoidance of
reality.
From
this point on, I’m going to switch gears and approach this from the viewpoint
of a brand new novelist with no fan base at all. Here is the advice given
over and over and over in every book and every online site I’ve read:
Anyone Can Market a Self-Published
E-book with Wild Success! Here’s How . . .
1) Create your own blog and begin
building an email list from that blog.
2) Write "guest posts" on
other people’s related blogs to tap into their existing audiences. This
will allow you to rapidly build a fan base.
3) Use the email list you’re
constructing to begin marketing your book before it is even published.
4) Use social media like Facebook
and Twitter to let everyone know about your self-published, e-book.
By following these steps, your book
will have a built-in audience before it is even released!
Okay
. . . this is Barb chatting again. Can anyone point out a few problems
with this glistening advice?
Regarding
#1: First, if you are a complete unknown, how do you get people to visit
your blog and express interest in signing up for your email list?
Regarding
#2: If you are a complete unknown (novelist), how do you convince others to let
you write a guest post on their blog?
Now
. . . I can see this working if you have knowledge or a skill that is a strong
running thread in your novel. For example, if you’re well versed in
martial arts, and your novel contains a good deal of martial arts, you might
know some folks running blogs on various martial art practices who would allow
you to come in and talk about the novel (fiction) that you’ve written. I
don’t know if this will get you any sales, but you can see what I mean.
If you’ve included any skill (or knowledge) that you possess in your novel, you
might be able to tap into #2 above.
But
what if you’ve just written a basic dynamite fantasy novel—and you’re otherwise
unpublished? How do you convince people running blogs to let you be a
guest? I’m not sure. I think it’s certainly possible (if you can
come up with an angle), but it’s not as easy as these “how to” people seem to
suggest.
#3
can be somewhat perilous, so do be careful. At first, that list is
probably going to consist of your Grandma Bea, your brother, Henry, three of
your first cousins, and a few friends from high school.
Most
people don’t like spam. It takes ten times as much work in the long run
(according to J.C.) versus building a functional, automated social connections
system off of that same blog. Any blog worth its weight should have an RSS feed
that your readers can subscribe to, so they don’t need you loading up their
inbox.
#4
though makes a good deal of sense, and it probably should be the first thing
you do. Work smarter, not harder, especially if your work isn’t quite yet
making you enough money to pay for all that extra time in which you should be
writing your next great novel.
Please
don’t misunderstand me. With this post, I am NOT discouraging anyone from
self-publishing. I’m rapidly becoming a huge fan of self-publishing.
I’m just asserting that marketing may be a tad more complicated and elusive
than what you might be told going in . . . and please ignore any hogwash from
the gurus telling you that you don’t need to worry about marketing at all.
Again . . . ugh.
Myth Busters: Marketing a Self-Published E-Novel
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Myth Busters:
Anyone Can Market a Self-published E-Novel with Wild Success</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>
</b></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> There
are actually two myths I want to cover in this post, but the first one is
short. Here is one of the most
common questions that hopeful new writers ask of the loudly vocal gurus touting
the miracle of self-publishing: </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“If I
am a totally unknown writer, how do I market my self-published e-novel?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
answer these poor folks receive from the vocal gurus always makes me bang my
head slowly on the desk. Here is the very helpful answer that is always given:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“Marketing? You don’t need to worry about
marketing. Just write the best,
most fabulous novel you can and put it out there. It will find an audience.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ugh.
Horse poop. Piles and piles of
horse poop.</span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This
answer is so absurd that it barely warrants a response. If you are a completely unknown writer,
no matter how fabulous your novel might be, how is anyone going to know it
exists? Any writer with two brain
cells that can actually fire at the same time should be able to reason that
much.</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Moving
on to the topic of marketing . . . There are a number of online sources that
claim anyone can market a self-published e-novel with great success. JC and I are in a “better than most”
position as we have a pretty well established readership built up over the
last decade plus. Our official NobleDead.org website had 10,500 hits in the
past thirty days and has been climbing steadily over the last 5 years. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">JC
markets the pants off of our “Tales from the World of the Noble Dead” over there,
and he has built us an automated social networking system; everything we post
on that site goes out to some twelve different social system satellite
pages/sites that he has set up. This of course includes Facebook (#TheNobleDeadSaga)
and Twitter (#NobleDeadOrg), as well as Google+, Squidoo, Pinterest, Delicious,
and more. And all of those satellites are linked on our site along with
automated share systems for visitors to help us out.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">However
. . . our entire marketing base consists of built-in Noble Dead fans. This has created
both a driving force and some limitations on what we write for our indie titles. We would LOVE to find a way to break
out of marketing to only our built in-fans (even though we are extremely
thankful to them). So, lately,
we’ve been doing a lot of research in this regard, but I’ve seen the same
advice everywhere . . . and much of it offers a total avoidance of reality.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">From
this point on, I’m going to switch gears and approach this from the viewpoint
of a brand new novelist with no fan base at all. Here is the advice given over and over and over in every
book and every online site I’ve read:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Anyone
Can Market a Self-Published E-book with Wild Success! Here’s How . . .</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>1) Create your own
blog and begin building an email list from that blog. </i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>2)
Write "guest posts" on other people’s related blogs to tap into their
existing audiences. This will
allow you to rapidly build a fan base. </i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>3) Use the email
list you’re constructing to begin marketing your book before it is even published.</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>4) Use social media
like Facebook and Twitter to let everyone know about your self-published, e-book.</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>By following these steps, your book will have a built-in
audience before it is even released! </i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Okay . . . this is Barb chatting again. Can anyone point out a few problems
with this glistening advice? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Regarding #1: First,
if you are a complete unknown, how do you get people to visit your blog and
express interest in signing up for your email list? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Regarding #2: If you are a complete unknown (novelist), how
do you convince others to let you write a guest post on their blog?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Now . . . I can see this working if you have knowledge or a
skill that is a strong running thread in your novel. For example, if you’re well versed in martial arts, and your
novel contains a good deal of martial arts, you might know some folks running
blogs on various martial art practices who would allow you to come in and talk
about the novel (fiction) that you’ve written. I don’t know if this will get you any sales, but you can see
what I mean. If you’ve included any
skill (or knowledge) that you possess in your novel, you might be able to tap
into #2 above.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But what if you’ve just written a basic dynamite fantasy novel—and
you’re otherwise unpublished? How do
you convince people running blogs to let you be a guest? I’m not sure. I think it’s certainly possible (if you can come up with an
angle), but it’s not as easy as these “how to” people seem to suggest.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">#3 can be somewhat perilous, so do be careful. At first, that list is probably going
to consist of your Grandma Bea, your brother, Henry, three of your first
cousins, and a few friends from high school. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Most people don’t
like spam. It takes ten times as
much work in the long run (according to J.C.) versus building a functional,
automated social connections system off of that same blog. Any blog worth its
weight should have an RSS feed that your readers can subscribe to, so they
don’t need you loading up their inbox.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">#4 though makes a
good deal of sense, and it probably should be the first thing you do. Work smarter, not harder, especially if
your work isn’t quite yet making you enough money to pay for all that extra
time in which you should be writing your next great novel.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please don’t misunderstand me. With this post, I am NOT discouraging anyone from
self-publishing. I’m rapidly
becoming a huge fan of self-publishing.
I’m just asserting that marketing may be a tad more complicated and
elusive than what you might be told going in . . . and please ignore any
hogwash from the gurus telling you that you don’t need to worry about marketing
at all. Again . . . ugh.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH... src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH..." border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH... src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH..." border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH... src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH..." border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH... src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH..." border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH... src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH..." border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH... src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH..." border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH... src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/BarbH..." border="0"></img></a>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Myth Busters:
Anyone Can Market a Self-published E-Novel with Wild Success</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>
</b></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> There
are actually two myths I want to cover in this post, but the first one is
short. Here is one of the most
common questions that hopeful new writers ask of the loudly vocal gurus touting
the miracle of self-publishing: </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“If I
am a totally unknown writer, how do I market my self-published e-novel?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The
answer these poor folks receive from the vocal gurus always makes me bang my
head slowly on the desk. Here is the very helpful answer that is always given:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“Marketing? You don’t need to worry about
marketing. Just write the best,
most fabulous novel you can and put it out there. It will find an audience.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ugh.
Horse poop. Piles and piles of
horse poop.</span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This
answer is so absurd that it barely warrants a response. If you are a completely unknown writer,
no matter how fabulous your novel might be, how is anyone going to know it
exists? Any writer with two brain
cells that can actually fire at the same time should be able to reason that
much.</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Moving
on to the topic of marketing . . . There are a number of online sources that
claim anyone can market a self-published e-novel with great success. JC and I are in a “better than most”
position as we have a pretty well established readership built up over the
last decade plus. Our official NobleDead.org website had 10,500 hits in the
past thirty days and has been climbing steadily over the last 5 years. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">JC
markets the pants off of our “Tales from the World of the Noble Dead” over there,
and he has built us an automated social networking system; everything we post
on that site goes out to some twelve different social system satellite
pages/sites that he has set up. This of course includes Facebook (#TheNobleDeadSaga)
and Twitter (#NobleDeadOrg), as well as Google+, Squidoo, Pinterest, Delicious,
and more. And all of those satellites are linked on our site along with
automated share systems for visitors to help us out.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">However
. . . our entire marketing base consists of built-in Noble Dead fans. This has created
both a driving force and some limitations on what we write for our indie titles. We would LOVE to find a way to break
out of marketing to only our built in-fans (even though we are extremely
thankful to them). So, lately,
we’ve been doing a lot of research in this regard, but I’ve seen the same
advice everywhere . . . and much of it offers a total avoidance of reality.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">From
this point on, I’m going to switch gears and approach this from the viewpoint
of a brand new novelist with no fan base at all. Here is the advice given over and over and over in every
book and every online site I’ve read:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Anyone
Can Market a Self-Published E-book with Wild Success! Here’s How . . .</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>1) Create your own
blog and begin building an email list from that blog. </i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>2)
Write "guest posts" on other people’s related blogs to tap into their
existing audiences. This will
allow you to rapidly build a fan base. </i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>3) Use the email
list you’re constructing to begin marketing your book before it is even published.</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>4) Use social media
like Facebook and Twitter to let everyone know about your self-published, e-book.</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>By following these steps, your book will have a built-in
audience before it is even released! </i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>
</i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Okay . . . this is Barb chatting again. Can anyone point out a few problems
with this glistening advice? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Regarding #1: First,
if you are a complete unknown, how do you get people to visit your blog and
express interest in signing up for your email list? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Regarding #2: If you are a complete unknown (novelist), how
do you convince others to let you write a guest post on their blog?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Now . . . I can see this working if you have knowledge or a
skill that is a strong running thread in your novel. For example, if you’re well versed in martial arts, and your
novel contains a good deal of martial arts, you might know some folks running
blogs on various martial art practices who would allow you to come in and talk
about the novel (fiction) that you’ve written. I don’t know if this will get you any sales, but you can see
what I mean. If you’ve included any
skill (or knowledge) that you possess in your novel, you might be able to tap
into #2 above.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But what if you’ve just written a basic dynamite fantasy novel—and
you’re otherwise unpublished? How do
you convince people running blogs to let you be a guest? I’m not sure. I think it’s certainly possible (if you can come up with an
angle), but it’s not as easy as these “how to” people seem to suggest.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">#3 can be somewhat perilous, so do be careful. At first, that list is probably going
to consist of your Grandma Bea, your brother, Henry, three of your first
cousins, and a few friends from high school. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Most people don’t
like spam. It takes ten times as
much work in the long run (according to J.C.) versus building a functional,
automated social connections system off of that same blog. Any blog worth its
weight should have an RSS feed that your readers can subscribe to, so they
don’t need you loading up their inbox.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">#4 though makes a
good deal of sense, and it probably should be the first thing you do. Work smarter, not harder, especially if
your work isn’t quite yet making you enough money to pay for all that extra
time in which you should be writing your next great novel.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please don’t misunderstand me. With this post, I am NOT discouraging anyone from
self-publishing. I’m rapidly
becoming a huge fan of self-publishing.
I’m just asserting that marketing may be a tad more complicated and
elusive than what you might be told going in . . . and please ignore any
hogwash from the gurus telling you that you don’t need to worry about marketing
at all. Again . . . ugh.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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December 31, 2012
Noble Dead Raffle #1 — And the Winner is…
Joseph Drane wins the first signed hardbound first edition of S3B2: The Dog in the Dark. Joseph’s prize is slightly delayed, as post offices in the area shut down early today and will be closed New Year’s day as well. But his prize will be on its way as of January 2nd. This concludes the first of the current series of six raffles for signed volumes from the Noble Dead Saga.
COMING SOON!
Noble Dead Raffle #2 will begin next Friday, but don’t jump the gun just yet. No early entries will be accepted, so wait until the raffle officially opens. Watch for the announcement coming next Friday. And as to the prize for that raffle…
Prize #2 is a complete set of signed first edition paperbacks for the entire Series 2 of the Noble Dead Saga: S2B1: In Shadow and Shadow; S2B2: Through Stone and Sea; S2B3: Of Truth and Beasts. But wait, there’s more!
Along with Noble Dead Raffle #2, we will run a parallel raffle at BarbHendee.org. The prize is the complete signed mass market, first editions for the five volume “Vampire Memories” series by Barb: VM1: Blood Memories; VM2: Hunting Memories; VM3: Memories of Envy; VM4: In Memories We Fear; VM5: Ghosts of Memories.
NOTE: Entries for the “V.M.” raffle will be submitted through BarbHendee.org. Don’t worry, when it comes time, we will point you in the right destination for each raffle.
That’s enough of a teaser for now. Thank you to everyone who joined in on the fun so far. Still more to come, so stay tuned to your preferred news source coming out of NobleDead.org and/or BarbHendee.org.
UPDATE: Availability of the latest Noble Dead Saga books
From Barb: Okay, I just checked the B&N stores within a hundred miles of our house, and all of them are showing that they have copies of S3B2: The Dog in the Dark. I just wanted to make sure because this is an unusual release date for us.
So far, the only glitch I'm seeing for this release date is that the mass market paperback for S3B1: Between Their Worlds is being listed on Amazon and B&N as a completely separate book (it's not linked on the hard cover/Kindle page at either site), and the e-editions are still listed at $12.99 when they should have dropped to $7.99. Our publisher is closed for the holidays, but if this problems has not corrected itself, I'll contact our editor on Wednesday and see if she can help.
From J.C.: Certain standard vendors we link for each book on our “Books” page have delayed updating their listing for S3B2: The Dog in the Dark. Very frustrating for us, as well as some of our readers of ebook editions. This has been reported to our publisher, and I am monitoring those vendors several times per day. As soon as proper listings are available, I will update them immediately on our site.
Noble DEAD Raffle #1—UPDATEThe winner of the first raffle has been determined and notified, but we have yet to set up processing on the prize. Please stayed tuned for the official announcement later today, along with details for when the next raffle will begin. There will be a little something extra as well for what is coming.
December 29, 2012
Noble Dead Raffle #1 — CLOSED
The current raffle for a signed hardbound first edition of S3B2: The Dog in the Dark ended as of midnight last night. Hopefully all of you got your entry in before the deadline.
The next step is selection of the winner via Random.org according to the amount and order of entries received [see rules in the original notice]. The selected winner will be notified by email and have 48 hours to respond with verification of shipping address. If no response is received, a new winner is selected and verification repeats.
Come Monday we should have either a winner to announce or notification of a redraw process. After that, we will let all of you know when the next raffle will begin and what the prize will be. In this six raffle series, there will be three signed hardbound first editions of S3B2: The Dog in the Dark interspersed with other prizes. And yes, you may enter each raffle regardless of winning a previous prize.
Oh, and when the next raffle begins, watch for something additional at the same time coming out of BarbHendee.org. We will be back again soon!
Barb Hendee
Posts from the Romance/Suspense blog of Barb Hendee.
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