Does Online Book Advertising Even Work? Part Two - Kara

Every week tens of thousands of new books are released onto Amazon. How to get a book seen by readers when you are literally competing with hundreds of thousands of others is a never-ending challenge for authors and publishers. Last month in Part One of my posts on online book advertising I looked at Facebook boosts/ads and GoodReads ads and giveaways. This month I'm going to talk about email promotional lists and Amazon ads :)

Email Promotional Lists

Those of us who are avid readers will probably belong to many email promotional lists that notify readers of cheap books and/or free deals. The most well known is BookBub but there are thousands of smaller genre specific lists. In Christian fiction the most popular include ones like Christian Book Heaven, Spirit Filled eBooks, and Faithful Reads.

Pros: Will get your book cover/description in front of readers who would otherwise never see your book. Pretty much guaranteed to result in at least some sales.
Cons: Can be expensive (a BookBub ad in the Christian fiction category for a $1.99 deal will cost over $500 USD). There is no guarantee you will make your money back in sales.

Since the three month "new release" window for Then There Was You has finished it now just trundles along selling 1-2 eBooks a day. So I decided it was time to try and get it in front of some potential new readers by trying a couple of email promotional lists. Last month I dropped Then There Was You to $1.99 (USD) for a week and ran ads with Spirit Filled Kindle and Christian Book Heaven. As you can see from the graph above, they both definitely had an impact. October 24 was when my ad ran with Spirit Filled eBooks and October 28 was when it ran with Christian Book Heaven.

In both instances they made enough sales to pay for the ad but little more than that. Given the expense of some of the larger lists like Bookbub I would only consider going there if I ever have more than one indie book and there is the chance that I will also benefit from a uptick in sales in my other (non-discounted) titles.

Amazon Advertising

If you've spent any time traveling around Amazon you've no doubt stumbled across "sponsored" product placement. These are almost always either in the list returned from your keyword search or on one of the product placement bars on the page of the book you're looking at.

Their appearance is not random. When an author of publisher sets up an advertisement they can include up to 1, 000 keywords or phrases that they want their word associated with. For me I've got a list of about a hundred comparable authors and titles to my books. But others get a lot more creative than I do!

So for those of you who have ever searched for a Christian book and suddenly found yourselves with an eyeful of a bare chested man wrapped around a voluptuous lady, that was not a mistake by Amazon. For reasons I've never been able work quite a few "steamy" romance writers put things like "Christian romance" in their advertising keywords!

The lingo in the reporting table...

Impressions: The number of times your add has appeared (note - this doesn't mean it's been seen! It could have "appeared" on a list but the browser never scrolled down far enough to actually see it!)
Clicks: The number of times someone has actually "clicked" on your ad
ACPC: Average cost per click. The average of how much it has cost you every time someone clicks on your ad.
Spend: How much your cumulative clicks have cost you
Total Sales: The $ amount of sales you've made as a result of those clicks (it can take up to three days for sales to show up here)

Pros: Unlike GoodReads, you don't have to pay anything upfront. Amazon charges you retrospectively for clicks in your advertisement/s. The keyword reporting is good and allows you to see which keywords are resulting in sales and which ones aren't so you can adjust your "per click" bids accordingly.
Cons: Now that every man and his cowboy have caught onto Amazon ads they are becoming less effective and you are having to be prepared to pay more "per click" just to get your ad somewhere where it can be seen.
Tip!: If you see a book with the tag "sponsored post" while trawling Amazon and the ad really appeals to you you can save the author from having to pay for your "click" but just searching for the book or author directly in the search bar :)

So there you have it, my foray into paid advertising for Then There Was You! So, in a nutshell, my assessment from most effective to least (purely in my experience and bearing in mind that this is my first crack so I'm a total amateur at all of these!)...

1) Email promotional lists (requires discounted book)
2) Amazon ads
3) Facebook boosts
4) Goodreads Giveaways
5) Facebook ads
6) Goodreads ads

And, if you're a reader, tired of being bombarded with ads for books that you have no interest in reading, hopefully this will give you an idea of what authors are up against trying to get their stories in front of anyone who might like them :)

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand. She is the author of Close to You, a RITA Award Double Finalist, and Can't Help Falling, an RT Review Top Pick. Her latest book Then There Was You released in June. When she's not chasing three adorable but spirited little people, she spends her time writing horribly bad first drafts and wishing you could get Double Stuf Oreos in New Zealand. She loves to connect on her website, on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Author and Twitter @KaraIsaac

Five Cross-Promotion Tools for Authors

By Iola Goulton

Over the last two weeks I’ve looked at Five Ways to Build Your Email List, and Five Tools for Managing Online Giveaways. This week I’m looking at cross-promotions, and introducing three popular ways to participate in multi-author giveaways:

• BookHub
• InstaFreebie
• Ryan Zee Author Marketing

BookHub

BookHub is run by Ken and Paula Sheridan (writing as Paula Wynne).

The purpose of a BookHub promotion is to add new subscribers to your newsletter email list.

Authors sign up and pay from GBP 25 to join a genre-specific group promotion. Each author also donates one ebook to be used as a prize, and are required to share the promotion with their email lists, and across social media. BookHub provides each author with a unique tracking link to confirm each author has emailed their list.

BookHub promotes the contest, chooses and notifies the winner/s, then collates all the email addresses acquired during the promotion and passes them onto the eligible participating authors. Only participating authors who shared the promotion with their email list are eligible to receive the list.

Eligible participating authors receive the email addresses of all entrants. 

This could be an issue: it’s possible some entrants will only be interested in a few of the books, so they are likely to unsubscribe from other newsletters.

However, authors who have participated in BookHub promotions don’t report this as being an issue. One way authors can work out who is truly interested in their list is to offer entrants a gift (e.g. sample chapters or a novella), then only add those entrants who download the gift.

Click here to find out more.

Reader Magnet

BookHub also offers a reader magnet (aka lead magnet or opt-in bribe) promotion for GBP 15. This has the same conditions regarding promotion as the cross promotions discussed above, but it’s not clear whether the promotions are genre specific.

In both cases, your book must be listed on BookHub.

Newsletter Swap

Note that giveaways aren’t the only kind of cross-promotion. In her book Book Promotion for Authors, Paula Wynne also talks about newsletter swaps. A newsletters swap isn’t authors exchanging email lists—that violates anti-spam laws.

Instead, a newsletter swap is when two authors agree to each promote the other’s book in a newsletter. 

This is usually a book that’s on sale rather than a free book, so this is about driving sales, not newsletter sign-ups. Authors usually want to swap with other authors in the same genre, with a similar-sized email list. I would also suggest that a newsletter swap is effectively you endorsing the other author, so you need to be sure his/her writing is of a standard and content you’d be comfortable endorsing.

InstaFreebie

Instafreebie is a platform which allows authors to give away copies of their books. 

I’ve recently participated in a group promotion on Instafreebie that added 350+ subscribers to my list. Other group members added over 1,000 (they had more generic books than my “hyper-niche” title).

With the free plan, you can give away free copies of your book to reviewers, fans, or anyone who asks. You can limit the number of copies you give away, or choose not to. Instafreebie will email each reader a personalised ePub, mobi or pdf file, and you can also choose to have this DRM protected.

With a paid plan, you can also require that people claiming your free book are also added to your email list. 

Paid plans start at USD 20 per month, although there is a 30-day free trial, and they do have an referral plan that offers credit for paid plans. Click here to check out Instafreebie (yes, that is my referral link.)

InstaFreebie suggest their platform can be used to provide prizes to giveaway winners, send review copies to bloggers or your street team, send advance copies librarians and other influencers, or run special promotions (e.g. a pre-release giveaway, or a downloadable sample).

Note that InstaFreebie don’t provide readers with any support in loading books onto their ereaders. If you’re part of a large group promotion, you might find yourself spending a lot of time giving your readers instructions on how to sideload or email the book file to their device.

Instafreebie also don’t organise cross-promotions—they are merely the tool. I found the cross promotion I participated in via a closed Facebook group.

Ryan Zee Author Marketing

Ryan Zee utilises an online tool to run multi-author giveaways (the tool looks a lot like KingSumo, which I discussed last week). He runs two or three genre-specific giveaways each week at www.booksweeps.com in which readers sign up to author newsletters in exchange for a chance to win.

There are two winners to each giveaway: first prize is a Kindle Fire with all the ebooks in the promotion. Second place is all the ebooks. Authors pay from USD 60 to participate, provide two ebooks as prizes, and advertise the giveaway to their current newsletter list, and on social media.

Ryan provides the graphics and links, social media and newsletter templates, and a spreadsheet of newsletter signups at the conclusion of the contest. I suspect this promotion will net fewer email addresses than a BookHub promotion, but the advantage is that all the entrants have elected to subscribe specifically to your newsletter. It’s probably still worth offering some form of free download, and deleting those emails which aren’t interested.

If you’d like to see a contest in action ...

There is a Ryan Zee Contemporary Inspirational Romance giveaway starting on 27 February (US time, so that means tomorrow). Ryan is currently taking signups for a Historical Inspirational Romance giveaway, running from 10 to 17 April. You can sign up here, and you can find out more about Ryan Zee promotions here.

Those are the major cross promotion tools I’m aware of. Are there any others you've heard of?

Have you taken part in any multi-author cross-promotions to build your email list? What was your experience? Would you recommend it to others?

About Iola Goulton

I am a freelance editor specialising in Christian fiction. Visit my website at www.christianediting.co.nz to download a comprehensive list of publishers of Christian fiction. 

I also write contemporary Christian romance with a Kiwi twist—find out more atwww.iolagoulton.com.

You can also find me on:
Facebook (Author)
Facebook (Editing)
Instagram
Pinterest
Twitter

Three Things Readers May Not Know About Being An Author - Kara Isaac

It has been just over six months since my debut novel, Close To You, released and a month since my sophomore novel, Can't Help Falling, came out. While this (in no way!) makes me a publishing veteran, I thought I'd blog today on some of the assumptions that some of my friends/family/readers have made about having a couple of books out there in the big wide world (and that I myself had before this new adventure!).

**I should note that the below are only for authors published by traditional publishing houses. Some of the below are very different for independently published authors.**

Before we continue, I should start by saying this is not a whinge. I love being an author, I love working with an amazing publishing team, I love interacting with readers and being able to give away books and all the other unexpected amazing things that come with this adventure. These are just a few things that people have been surprised by when I've told them that I thought may be of interest to others :)

We have no say (or control!) over price
Every now and then I'll get a message from a reader wanting to know when my book/s are going to be on sale for $1.99 (or better yet, free!) or someone will ask me why it is X price at one retailer but Y price at another.

Honestly, honestly, honestly, we have no say over what our publisher charges for a book, or what the distributor then charges for a book, or what a then retailer charges for a book. I've seen the paperback version for Close To You priced by retailers from $19.07 (NZD) up to $36.00 (NZD) and everything in between and I have no intelligence as to why any are priced the way they are!

We also have no say as to whether a title goes or e-Book sale, when it goes on sale or what the price is. Simon & Schuster put the Close To You eBook on sale for $1.99 the week before Can't Help Falling came out. Which I was absolutely thrilled about because one of the best ways to have new readers take a chance on you in the current environment is by offering it at the big discount. But I wasn't part of that decision, I was told about it after it was made and then used all of the channels I had available to me to try and spread the word.

Good reviews in publications do not necessarily equal good sales
With Close To You I was fortunate enough to receive a favourable review in a magazine in the US that had a circulation of over two million people (TWO MILLION PEOPLE! I thought I'd hit the author jackpot!). With Can't Help Falling I was blessed that it was named an October Top Pick by RT Book Reviews. Both were huge honours but I've also heard comments from people assuming that they resulted in books selling like crazy and so whether they bought it or not wasn't going to make any difference because I was already riding high on great sales numbers.

As much I would love this to be true (oh, so much so!), turns out it doesn't work that way. That magazine with the two million distribution? When I compared sales in the four weeks before the magazine came out and the four weeks after, the weeks after saw a sales increase of 28 books. Total. The day you see an author on the New York Times Bestsellers list or read that they signed a six or seven figure deal on their next contract is the day you can assume they're all good. Before that, I promise you every sale does count :)

We don't have access to limitless number of author copies to give away
My contract gives me fifty author copies for free, to be primarily used for promotional purposes. Of those five I held back for family (parents, grandmother, mother-in-law, sister and, strangely enough, one for my own bookshelf!). Another five went to friends who had saved my bacon somewhere in the writing process - either by being early readers, helping create promotional material, babysitting my kids so I could write etc. The other forty? Almost all are committed to giveaways before the book was even released via GoodReads, Facebook, guest blog posts or interviews, promotional giveaways with other authors etc.

Once those are gone, I have to buy them. While I could access them at a steep discount from my publisher, because I live in New Zealand by the time I also cover the cost of shipping them from the US plus the taxes that I incur importing them it actually ends up cheaper for me to buy my own book from a place that offers free shipping like BookDepository.com at their full retail price and have it dispatched from there. I'm 99% sure I'm their best customer for my own books :)

What about you? Were any of these things a surprise? Any other questions you'd like to ask me about life as a traditionally published author? There is the winner's choice of a copy of Close To You or Can't Help Falling for one commenter (please leave an email address if you would like to be in the draw so I can contact you if you win!). Entries close midnight, Sunday 20 November (US CST).

Kara Isaac lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her debut romantic comedy, Close To You, is about a disillusioned academic-turned-tour-guide and an entrepreneur who knows nothing about Tolkien who fall in love on a Tolkien themed tour of New Zealand. Her sophomore novel, Can't Help Falling, is about about how an antique shop, a wardrobe, and a mysterious tea cup bring two C.S. Lewis fans together in a snowy and picturesque Oxford, England. When she's not working her day job as a public servant, chasing around a ninja preschooler and his feisty toddler sister, she spends her time writing horribly bad first drafts and wishing you could get Double Stuf Oreos in New Zealand. She loves to connnect on her website, on Facebook at Kara Isaac - Author and Twitter @KaraIsaac   

Marketing your book in a boxed set

By Narelle Atkins

Boxed sets have proven to be a lucrative way for authors to market and sell their indie fiction ebooks. Check out the Amazon Kindle fiction genre lists and you’ll find numerous boxed sets among the top 20 bestsellers. 

Last year I wrote a 3-part series on indie boxed sets for the Australasian Christian Writers (ACW) blog. The posts contained information on how to publish a multi-author indie boxed set.

The Benefits from Indie Publishing a Box Set Collection 

How to Write and Publish a Multi-Author Indie Box Set: The Beginning  

How to Write and Publish a Multi-Author Indie Box Set: Preparing to Launch

I write contemporary Christian romance (CCR). In this post I’ll be referring to the CCR genre for examples of boxed sets purchased from Amazon Kindle. 

History of Christian Romance indie boxed sets

The indie author boxed set trend in the CCR genre kicked off in late 2014. The first Christian/inspirational romance box set to hit the Amazon bestseller lists in the CCR genre was Red Hot Squeaky Clean ROMANCE collection (Boxed Set): Ten Shades of Inspirational Romance, released in October 2014. The stories in this box set covered a range of Christian romance genres including historical, mystery, suspense, and contemporary.

Mistletoe Kisses (Inspy Kisses Box Set Book 3) was released in November 2014. It was the first Christian romance boxed set to hit the USA Today bestseller list. Four of the eight books in the collection are CCR. 

Love Brings Us Home was also released in November 2014. It hit the Amazon bestseller lists in CCR and contained full length novels that were previously published as individual indie releases. 

USA best-selling author Hallee Bridgeman was an author in Love Brings Us Home and Red Hot Squeaky Clean Romance. Hallee is our international guest speaker at the upcoming Omega Writers Conference in Sydney, October 28-30. 

Market research on boxed sets in CCR genre 

I put together a spreadsheet based on a sample of CCR multi-author boxed sets I’d purchased in the last 2 years. 

My research included: 
14 boxed sets in the CCR genre 
105 books (with only 1 duplicate title in 2 boxed sets)
45 authors – a combination of indie authors and hybrid authors who are traditionally published
7 titles by Marion Ueckermann
6 titles each by Kimberly Rae Jordan and Valerie Comer
I also sourced book release information from the Inspy Romance group blog (established in February 2014 for CCR readers)

My multi-author boxed sets I included in my research

SPLASH! (released in June 2015, retired in November 2015) 

Love Blossoms (released in January 2016, retiring soon in late October 2016) 

An Aussie Summer Christmas (new release in September 2016) 

Other CCR multi-author boxed sets in my Kindle account or on pre-order (minimum 6 books in each set) 

Candy Cane Kisses

Falling For You

Christmas Blessings

Immeasurably More

Snowflakes and Mistletoe

CCR boxed sets in my Kindle account that are no longer available for sale

Whispers of Love (USA Today Bestseller)

Home for Christmas

Summer of Love

Love’s Gift

Love Brings Us Home

Mistletoe Kisses (USA Today Bestseller) 

The boxed sets ranged in price from US0.99 to US2.99. I paid between US14.00 to US20.00 to purchase the 14 boxed sets (most were priced at 99 cents). As a result, the average price I paid for an individual book is between 15 to 20 cents. 

Is the price for boxed sets too low? 

The answer is yes and no, depending on your perspective. Traditionally published ebooks are often priced higher than indie ebooks.

If you’re a reader, bargain priced ebooks combined with the ability to subscribe to Kindle Unlimited (US9.99 per month to borrow an unlimited number of ebooks) is appealing. Avid readers can indulge their favourite past time without hurting their bank balance. For many readers Kindle Unlimited has replaced their use of public libraries (and free print book borrows).

If you’re an indie author and can place your book in the right boxed set in your genre, at the present time you can make a reasonable return on a competitively priced boxed set due to volume sales and page reads in Kindle Unlimited. Please note this strategy for success could change at any time due to the rapid changes that constantly take place in the publishing industry. 

The bestseller lists are your goal

For many readers the Amazon Kindle bestseller lists have replaced the physical bookshelf in stores as the place they browse for books. Book exposure on the bestseller lists and in the hot new releases lists is critical for reaching potential readers. Paid advertising, for example Bookbub, can help ebooks rise to the top of the bestseller lists. 

Boxed sets can help authors reach new readers who are fans of their co-authors in the boxed set. 

Bestseller lists provide both the platform for finding new readers and the visibility to gain ebook sales/page reads that generate income for authors. 

Successful authors place series books in boxed sets 

The large majority of books in the 14 boxed sets I researched were part of a series. If a reader falls in love with your writing, they may buy your entire backlist. 

Repeat books in multiple boxed sets

We need to think like a reader when we’re marketing and promoting our books. How would we feel if we purchased a boxed set containing repeat books we’d already bought and read in previous boxed sets? From my sample of 14 CCR boxed sets, the only repeat title was published in boxed sets with release dates of more than 12 months apart. 

Traditional publishers reprint their bestselling books and sometimes update the cover art. When I used to work in retail on the returns desk, the most common reason for customers returning print books was due to an accidental repeat purchase.

If you have a brand new story to place in a boxed set, it would be wise to seek a boxed set opportunity that will be marketed as brand new stories. 

Have you participated in a boxed set or anthology collection? Do you enjoy reading boxed sets? I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

This post is being shared on the Australasian Christian Writers blog and the Christian Writers Downunder blog.

If you’re looking to connect with writing groups online, you can join the Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group and the Christian Writers Downunder Facebook Group.

Omega Writers Inc. provides helpful resources and membership benefits for writers who live in the Australasian region.

A fun loving Aussie girl at heart, Narelle Atkins was born and raised on the beautiful northern beaches in Sydney, Australia. She has settled in Canberra with her husband and children. A lifelong romance reader, she found the perfect genre to write when she discovered inspirational romance. Narelle's contemporary stories of faith and romance are set in Australia. 

Her latest novella release, Seaside Christmas, is available in An Aussie Summer Christmas boxed set from Amazon for 99 cents. 

Website: http://www.narelleatkins.com

Blog: http://narelleatkins.wordpress.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NarelleAtkinsAuthor
Twitter: @NarelleAtkins https://twitter.com/NarelleAtkins

Google+ ~ Is it relevant and useful for writers?

By Narelle Atkins

When Google+ was first launched in June 2011, my writing groups discussed how we could use this new social media platform. Was Google+ the new Facebook? Many of us questioned if we needed another social network in our busy lives. 

Five years later, Facebook has grown and evolved into an essential social media platform for writers. The majority of my writing email groups have been converted into Facebook Groups. 

What about Google+ ? Is it a useful and/or relevant platform for writers in 2016?

The answer from my experience of using Google+ is yes, but probably not for the reasons you're expecting.

Connecting with other writers and readers on Google+

Google+ has a different set up to Facebook. In Google+ you follow people and add them to circles. The people you follow can choose to follow you back and add you to their circles eg. family, friends, acquaintances. 

I choose to make all my Google+ posts public rather than limiting them to one or more circles. This means the whole circle concept of splitting people up into different circles for sharing different content isn't important.

My previous employer used Google+ as part of their HR platform. In this business context, the circles were very important and useful.

I rarely chat and interact with people on Google+. The people in the writing world who I know on Google+ don't tend to chat and interact there, either.  

Why join Google+ ?

In 2014 I attended an excellent workshop by Kiffer Brown titled How and Why Authors Should Incorporate Google+ into Their Author Platforms at the Romance Writers of America conference. The workshop was a lightbulb moment because I finally understood why Google+ was important and how to use it more effectively. RWA members can purchase the audio file here.         

Google+ is part of the larger Google platform

The Blogger platform I'm posting on now is part of the larger Google platform. 

If I share this blog post publicly using the Google+ social media button below, it will post on my Google+ profile and push the blog post higher up in the Google search engine. 

If I use relevant labels with my blog post, the Google+ share will help the blog post gain visibility in Google searches. Since Google is a popular search engine, it makes sense to maximise the benefits from Google+ to promote your content.

I analyse the page views on our ACW blog to select the content we share in our 'Best of the ACW archives' posts. If a blog post from 2014 didn't include any labels, the page views are very low compared to the average post page views. The most popular blog posts tend to have titles and labels that contain relevant keywords.   

YouTube is also part of the Google family. If you use Gmail, your Google+ account will connect to your Gmail account. 

You can also set up a page in Google+ that's connected to your profile - similar to Facebook pages. I haven't investigated Google+ pages but I know there is an option to share to a Google+ page in my paid version of Buffer. Unfortunately I can't share posts from Buffer into my Google+ profile.

How to use Google+

Below is a screenshot from my +Narelle Atkins Google+ profile page that includes ACW blog posts that I've shared on Google+. You'll notice it has a similar layout to Facebook.

To tag another Google+ member in your post, use the + symbol eg. +Iola Goulton. 

The sidebar on our blog lists our regular blog contributors. Those of us with a red G symbol next to our names have set up a Google+ account and can be tagged in Google+ posts. 

Hashtags are used in a similar way to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can +1 (like/favourite) a Google+ post, comment on posts, and share posts. These are the three symbols (in order from left to right) at the bottom of the July New Releases post in the screenshot. 

The Verdict

Have you set up a Google+ account? Do you use Google+? Do you have any tips to share with us? I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

A fun loving Aussie girl at heart, NARELLE ATKINS was born and raised on the beautiful northern beaches in Sydney, Australia. She has settled in Canberra with her husband and children. A lifelong romance reader, she found the perfect genre to write when she discovered inspirational romance. Narelle's contemporary stories of faith and romance are set in Australia. 

Website: http://www.narelleatkins.com 
Blog: http://narelleatkins.wordpress.com 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NarelleAtkinsAuthor 
Twitter: @NarelleAtkins https://twitter.com/NarelleAtkins

The things writers do—Jo-Anne Berthelsen

I have had some interesting experiences during my writing journey, as I have spoken at many and varied places, promoted my books in stores or simply taken them somewhere to sell. In fact, from time to time, I threaten I will write a book about it all ... one day. Yet I doubt I will because, while most of my experiences have been so rewarding, I might well be too unkind about those that were not!

Take, for instance, the occasion I drove almost two hundred kilometres to speak in a church service. By the time I arrived, it had begun to rain, so I carried my books inside as quickly as I could—all the while watched by various church folk. I was shown a table I could use, but later discovered I had indeed sinned, since it was the morning tea table! I poured myself into speaking, had one good conversation, sold one book, then drove back home in the pouring rain, having been given nothing towards travelling costs—and certainly nothing for speaking.

Or take the time I sat at a church fete all day in the boiling sun, with even my book covers sweating in the process, only to sell not one book. Or the time I drove right across Sydney to speak on a busy Saturday evening, to have only four women turn up, since the meeting had not been advertised well. Or the time I was invited to speak at an RSL club nearby. Again, I was shown a table I could use—only to be told, minutes after setting up my books, that it was needed for the food. Instead, I was given a tiny, low, round table to use, still with the wet rings of cold beer glasses on it!

I doubt a book about such things would be either kind or uplifting, don’t you? But I have had many other experiences worth writing about. Like the time I spoke at a very well attended women’s breakfast. It was beautifully organised, with someone else even volunteering to sell my books afterwards, while I focussed on praying for various women instead. Later, I received a cheque for what to me was such a mind-boggling amount that I thought they must have added an extra zero by mistake!

Or take the conference I spoke at in a country town one weekend where several women bought all four of my novels published at the time in one big swoop, much to my amazement. Or take the many smaller meetings where I have spoken, including one only last week. I had just talked about how thankful I am for those who encouraged me on my writing journey and challenged those present to encourage others in their lives, when a lady I knew from years ago spoke up. She shared how I had given her a little encouraging note way back in 1992 that she has carried in her Bible ever since. A wonderful, ‘God moment’ indeed, well outweighing any negative experiences I have had.

So I encourage you all in your writing journeys, wherever you are at. Let’s take the good experiences as moments of great grace and be thankful. And let’s take the less than good as opportunities for growth, when God can comfort and strengthen us to keep on persevering.

Jo-Anne Berthelsen lives in Sydney but grew up in Brisbane. She holds degrees in Arts and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne is passionate about touching hearts and lives through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of six published novels and one non-fiction work, Soul Friend: the story of a shared spiritual journey. Jo-Anne is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and four grandchildren. For more information, please visit www.jo-anneberthelsen.com.  

Book Signing and Ethical Praying.

Book selling and Ethical praying

                                On my book signing days
                                Is it ethical to pray?
                                  “God, please sway
                               That ‘book looker’ to pay
                               Without debate or delay
                               For that book I wrote
                               As, I’m nearly broke!”

                              With my book display I sit,
                              Waiting for someone to pick
                                                               Just one book and discover
                                                                   What’s behind the cover?
                                                                   I’ve done my best to write
                                                                  This genre with life’s insight
                                                                  For people's reading delight!

  Too late now for prayer.

                                                               Sitting here as people stare
                                                              And wonder if they’ll bother
                                                              To go, meet the author
                                                              Or be safe and stay away.
                                                              So, I get tempted to pray,
                                                              “Lord, drag them my way!”

As this silent prayer I utter,

                                                            I fear it’s a wrongful matter.
                                                            God won’t hear this chatter.
                                                             “Son”, I sense His reply
                                                               “I cannot let you try
                                                               And use me to coerce
                                                              People to fill your purse.”

Not all, I admit, tho’ stricken,

                                                          Will like the genre written.
                                                           I, not God, am the salesman
                                                           And He is not my talisman.
                                                          My attitude about how to pray

Must surround my book display,

"Lord, let me honour you today!"

©Ray Hawkins Dec 2015.

How to Write and Publish a Multi-Author Indie Box Set: The Middle

By Narelle Atkins 

Last week I talked about how to set up an indie box set group project, drawing on my experiences from publishing my first indie novella in SPLASH! Today I’m posting the second in a three part series on how to indie publish a fiction box set collection with a group of authors.

Box Set Title

Your group will need to select a title for your box set collection. If the individual stories are connected via a theme, it can make it easier to choose a title with a strong marketing hook. For example, the SPLASH! box set has a water theme which we used to name our box set.

Box Set Cover Art

Important decisions need to be made by the group regarding cover art. This includes defining the group budget for cover art, selecting a cover designer, reviewing stock photo options, and forming a consensus on the style and content of the cover art image. It’s helpful to have a genre and theme to use as a starting point. For SPLASH!, we wanted the box set cover image to have a fun, contemporary, summer romance feel that included a water element. A bride splashing around in red gumboots met our criteria. Each group member was responsible for organizing the cover art for their individual novellas.

Ideal Number of Group Members

If all the individual titles are for sale prior to the box set group being organized, you can determine the ideal number of titles for your box set at the start. If the titles are being written under a deadline, it’s a good idea for the group to have a target number of titles in mind for the box set. With SPLASH!, we had original group members drop out and new group members join in later. Life happens, and it’s wise to assume that it might not be possible for all of your group members to submit their manuscript by the due date. For this reason we didn’t finalize the SPLASH! cover art until after the May 1 deadline had passed.

List of Instructions for Group Members

Our SPLASH! group leader had previously participated in box set collections, and she provided us with a document containing all the relevant deadlines and information we needed to submit. Being a new indie author, I found the checklist very helpful and it defined all of our responsibilities as group members.

Front and Back Matter

Each group member is responsible for independently publishing their own book, and providing front and back matter for the box set. This includes the individual novella cover art, book descriptions, author bio and photo, links, copyright and ISBN information, dedications and acknowledgements. For SPLASH!, I chose to keep my front and back matter to a minimum. My novella, His Perfect Catch, was the first title in the box set and the sample. The front and back matter will be more detailed in my individual novella release.

Writing, Writing, Writing!

If the stories are original releases that aren’t for sale prior to the box set release, the middle phase of the box set production process will see the group members writing their stories. The large majority of our SPLASH! group wrote their individual novellas during the three months leading up to our May 1 deadline. I appreciated the encouragement and support within the group as we checked in on our writing progress and worked hard to meet our deadlines.

Editing and Proof Reading

For SPLASH!, we agreed to submit an edited manuscript by the May 1 deadline. One of the first things I did was line up my freelance editor, Iola Goulton. I had to allow time for editing and proof reading prior to the May 1 deadline. During May, the group members had committed to proof reading a minimum portion of the SPLASH! draft document. The goal was to pick up any minor errors or formatting issues. The errors that were found during the group proof reading process needed to be fixed in the SPLASH! document, which would create additional work for the person formatting the box set. The group had a proof reading deadline to ensure that the manuscript was finalized prior to our Amazon pre-order deadline.

Book Promotion and Marketing Plan

During the middle phase, our SPLASH! group brainstormed book promotion and marketing ideas. We gradually put together a marketing plan as we worked toward our June 23 launch date. The plan included promotion before, during, and after the release of SPLASH! We looked at how we’d promote both our own individual titles and the box set.

Next Monday I’ll finish this series by discussing the final preparations for launching an indie box set collection.

A fun loving Aussie girl at heart, Narelle Atkins was born and raised on the beautiful northern beaches in Sydney, Australia. She has settled in Canberra with her husband and children. A lifelong romance reader, she found the perfect genre to write when she discovered inspirational romance. Narelle's contemporary stories of faith and romance are set in Australia. Her latest book, His Perfect Catch, released on June 23 in the SPLASH! box set contemporary Christian romance novella collection. 

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