This is the podcast episode where I tell you allllll about my Facebook Ads account being restricted, and mostly about how I was told everything would be fixed… but it wasn’t. And my ads account is now basically gone. Well, it’s here, but I can’t use it.
A few things in this episode:
I may get slightly frustrated and laugh because sometimes, well, why not laugh?;
I explain the back and forth and more than 80 hours lost in this;
I think about multiple streams of income – including an “I Fail” series;
I talk about expectations;
I focus back on writing…
This is not the episode where you’ll learn how to get your account back. (Spoiler: I haven’t – and I’m no longer trying…).
Have you ever got your FB ads account restricted? Disabled? Back?
Totally looking for a dopamine hit here, but if you’ve listened to the podcast, don’t hesitate to let me know by leaving a comment and make sure you follow my podcast.
My Self-Pub Weekly Diary: Some Wins, Some Wobbles, and Absolutely Zero Words (on My Manuscripts)This episode is a daily mashup of behind-the-scenes of my self-publishing life including: libraries buying my ebooks, regaining my B&N vendor account, releasing a book (YAY!), but no words on my manuscripts (I did write bonus scenes).Also: trying to invigorate my Goodreads profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/55359987.Elodie_NowAs always if you enjoy this podcast make sure to subscribe and leave a review.Thank you so much for listening!www.elodienowodazkij.com
It’s been about a month since my last blog post. Hi! Wishing you all the words or time to think about your words, books that make you feel and warmth. Here’s a (non-exhaustive) recap from the last 30 days…
This past month, I spent a lot of my time (really, a LOT of my time) exchanging emails with Meta about my restricted Facebook Ads account. (your guess is as good as mine). My Facebook Ads account is now disabled. Read more about it in my Substack post, Dear Meta, It’s Not Me, It’s You…
I shared voice memos (and more) about my writing process on my FREE Patreon. If you’d like to listen to them and get early access and random musings and a CHAT (with a pickle), make sure you join…
I spent a bit less than two weeks in France–spending time with my family and enjoying walks and moments around the area where I grew up.
Rosoy…PierrefondsA CatDid you see the snail says “I’m beautiful”
Pictures from the plane… and the airport in Iceland…
The Chemical Engineer and I celebrated our engagement anniversary on St. Patrick’s Day 🙂
For years, I’ve been thinking about splitting my Elodie Nowodazkij fiction in two. And it’s time. Read more about it in Two Heat Levels, One Author Brain (And A Little Bit of Hopefully Organized Chaos) here.
For book club, I read Heartless and couldn’t put it down… so I read Rebel Witch right after…. Love, love, love that duet! Have you read it?
Also Kristen called Heartless Hunter her fuck-it book… and I’m going to share more about my Fuck-It book aka Nice Guys… very soon.
Heartless HunterRebel Witch
My newsletters this month (in case you missed them :-)) – the latest one had a question about your favorite cover (and an exclusive access to the first 1.5 part of Nice Guys…)
I have published those top 3 self-publishing mistakes a few weeks ago…before I started my podcast. And I have now uploaded this post as a podcast episode as well…:-)
Today, on the podcast, I also mention that I have changed #THELEFTOVERBRIDE pre-order price to $0.99 ( Amazon, iTunes, Kobo). Come discover this second chance romance (think a sexy Hallmark movie).
This is the first book in a series of standalone romance novels and I haven’t published anything in years and…I will change the price to $2.99 three days after publication. I will let you know how this strategy works and will go deeper into my release plan strategy for #TheLeftoverBride soon.
I have also purchased Publisher Rocket to try to change my keywords and categories. I’ve learned that one of my keywords had almost 0 searches. So, that was helpful to know 🙂
What is PublisherRocket you may ask? Short story: it is a dashboard that helps you search keywords and categories (among other things) and it helps you see how many times people have searched for certain keywords. I’ll let you know if investing in this too is helpful. I have used other keywords search in the past but they were pretty cumbersome to use. So far, PublisherRocket is very easy to use. And again does seem to help narrow keywords and categories.
In it, she shares some of her failures and how she has learned from them and now makes 6 figures as a self-published author. It is a really insightful and detailed post!
I failed. A lot. But each stumble taught me something and brought me closer toward the eventual path to success: I now make six figures as a self-published author. In this post, I’ll outline the top lessons I learned from these failures, so you can learn from my mistakes and get a leg up on your leap to six figures.
How many times can I say self-publishing mistakes in this post? I mean the first one I mention I feel is a publishing mistake many authors can make. And let me preface this by saying that I love daydreaming. I still daydream.
Thinking my book would become an instant best-selling success – just because it was good. Let me tell you, that’s not enough 😊. Rationally speaking, I knew it might not be the case, but I thought that most of the early reviews were so positive, even from people I had never met! That was mind-blowing, and I did daydream quite a bit. I still do daydream very often. I sometimes fall asleep dreaming about my books being picked up by Netflix or the Lifetime Movies Channel. Or I daydream about my Gavert City audiobook series being downloaded thousands of times with people raving about Megan’s narration (which they already do, but now we’d have thousands of downloads daily 😊). Anyways…back in 2014, a little part of me thought maybe I’d be that overnight success. The one people talk about, not realizing that overnight usually means years of writing and sometimes years of publishing. I read at the time about authors succeeding in self-publishing, but (a) I didn’t really define what succeeding would mean, (b) I didn’t have benchmarks.
Don’t get me wrong…I hadn’t left it all to sheer luck. Oh, no, no, no. I thought I had it all under control and was set for success. After all, I had a great cover, early reviews, and a release plan (with cover reveal, blog tours, Netgalley…). This meant I would release it and everyone would want to download it and I’d be set for success.
Spoiler alert: In June 2014, when I published ONE, TWO, THREE, I sold 45 copies…So. Not an overnight success. 😊 Granted, that book has now sold many more copies. It has also been picked up by a French publisher, and I even received a message from a French teenager who mentioned that this book, this little book of mine, has gotten her to love reading!
Sometimes, it feels that self-publishing is a sprint. And maybe sometimes it is. But not always…And marketing doesn’t stop with release month…
Advertising to the wrong audience. When I first started self-publishing back in 2014, I thought it was essential to have a Facebook page with lots and lots and lots of followers – which may have been true if I had first analyzed the audience that would be most likely to buy my book. I went for a worldwide audience at a time where my books were (a) only in English, (b) on platforms that weren’t necessarily accessible to readers all around the world. And at that time, I was not really targeting my ads…
So yes, I had many followers, but not an enormous audience of readers interested in my books. This is a mistake I’ve made again but more structured, as I’m still trying to see what ads work the best for different audiences. I’ve succeeded in France (and I’ll get into it in my weekly newsletter in the coming weeks), but my conversion rate (how many people actually buy a book after clicking on a link) is still too low for the US market. But nothing…nothing compared to 7 years ago.
Not focusing on my newsletter. I remember reading years ago…and I mean yeaaaaaaars ago how important it was to have a newsletter because social media algorithms change (and man, do they change). That way, you may build more of a connection with the reader. Some newsletters I subscribe to are only letting me know when the author has a new sale. Others are expanding on the books they’re reading, how they’re writing, maybe movies or podcasts they’re enjoying, or other things going on in their lives.
Have I ever bought or reviewed a book based on a newsletter? Yes. Yes, I have. I have a Facebook readers’ group (if you’re on there, thank you 😊), but I haven’t been spending a lot of time on Facebook. And I don’t have Facebook on my phone. And every single time I post something on my Facebook group, the reach (people who may see it in their feed) is about 35 to 50 out of more than 400 Facebook group members). More people open my emails. And it feels like people unsubscribe more when they’re no longer interested any long…. Still, I’m in Facebook groups I haven’t checked in probably years…so…yep, I’ve been refocusing on building my readers’ newsletter.
I do wonder about that new platform Facebook announced on March 16th. They’re getting into the newsletter subscription area and do mention also the use of groups in there. So, will that change the algorithm? Apparently, it might give writers more tools and could help in audience growth…but again, one might be dependent on changes…
Not like we’re also not dependent on changes with emails. When Google introduced the tabs in Gmail, some newsletters ended up in the Promotions tab, which is not necessarily read as often…Anyhow…😊
Not focusing on my newsletter was one of my self-publishing mistakes, mainly since I don’t publish a book every two months or so. Newsletters help me stay in touch with my readers in-between (which I love doing) and grow my audience.
And those are my top 3 self-publishing mistakes.
Again, if you’d like to see my top 5, you can just click here or on this cover, add your email and you’ll get access to the full pdf…
I’ll be sharing more in the coming weeks as well as what has worked for and my current publishing updates…including some stats about my bestselling format and platforms.
Thank you for reading!
Did you enjoy this post? Do you want to help support me and my writing? You can forward this email to someone who might be interested, buy my books and as always, don’t hesitate to leave me a comment.
My Self-Pub Weekly Diary: Some Wins, Some Wobbles, and Absolutely Zero Words (on My Manuscripts)This episode is a daily mashup of behind-the-scenes of my self-publishing life including: libraries buying my ebooks, regaining my B&N vendor account, releasing a book (YAY!), but no words on my manuscripts (I did write bonus scenes).Also: trying to invigorate my Goodreads profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/55359987.Elodie_NowAs always if you enjoy this podcast make sure to subscribe and leave a review.Thank you so much for listening!www.elodienowodazkij.com
If you have any questions about my adventures in self-publishing or anything I shared with you today, don’t hesitate to reach out and I’ll make sure to reply in my email next week.
Today is all about keeping track. Sometimes, I get so deep into all the tasks involved with each project that it can get difficult to remember all those projects that I did bring to fruition within a month, especially since I’m trying to be more strategic…
Talking about business, if you want to support me, my career and these weekly posts, the best way to do so is to either (1) purchase one of my books or audiobooks or recommend them on Overdrive to your library, (2) forward the post to a friend, (3) sign up to my readers’ newsletter if you’re interested about my books and my writing, (3) subscribe to my weekly emails about self-publishing, (4) talk about my books to your friends/family.
What books and audiobooks did I publish?
Published the A SUMMER LIKE NO OTHER audiobook narrated by the wonderful Megan Carter. In terms of marketing, I’m trying a Buy One, Get One Free promo. Will keep you updated. I still need to announce it to my newsletter. But I did announce it on my blog and on Goodreads and I took advantage of a very good wordpress deal to make this website.
Published a new German/English bilingual book: announced it to the German subscribers of my newsletter, announced it to my blog, and am currently boosting one of my Facebook posts to an audience of English-learning and English instructors in Germany also interested in reading and romance novels on Facebook.
Published another new bilingual book (French/Italian). I still need to announce it on my French website.
Marketing-related: I’m still listening to Mark Dawson’s Ads for Authors course.
Marketing-related: Took a FREE Goodreads online webinar by Alessandra Torre. I am sharing a link in my email. Will be sharing more about that course soon and some strategies that I am trying. I know. Goodreads. But trying a different approach.
Writing-related: Started reading through the Margie Lawson course packet about visceral rules (beyond hammering hearts).
What movie/post/documentary about writing did I watch/read?
One of my very good friends who also happen to be a writer friend recommended the Naughty Books documentary on Hulu. It was very interesting! Lots of thoughts.
And then I wrote. Maybe I didn’t write as much as I wanted to, but I did write. And I think I wrote one of my favorite sentences…I think I am going to be sharing that sentence very soon. But trying to be more strategic about it. (Ha, full circle with the first paragraph). 🙂
Quick reminder: if you want to support me, my career and this weekly posts, the best way to do so is to either (1) purchase one of my books or audiobooks or recommend them on Overdrive to your library, (2) forward the post to a friend, (3) talk about my books to your friends/family.
Did you enjoy this post? Do you want to help support me and my writing? You can forward this blog post to someone who might be interested, buy my books and/or audiobooks and as always, don’t hesitate to leave me a comment.
If you have any questions about my adventures in self-publishing or anything I shared with you today, don’t hesitate to reach out and I’ll make sure to reply in my email next week.
Sometimes, formatting bilingual books feels like a Groundhog day. It starts over and over again and even if I feel like I have perfected the process, there are still issues. I have files that are called UPDATE 1, UPDATE 2, UPDATE 3….and so on and so on. Formatting bilingual books is slightly more complicated, in my view, than formatting my regular manuscripts, just because I have to ensure those pesky page breaks actually happen when they’re supposed to.
And some of you might ask, “But Elodie, why don’t you use all of this time to write and publish original content?” And this is a great question. Because I have plenty of ideas. I have ideas about a series, I’m finishing writing my first rom-com and I’m planning this as a series of standalone novels. So, I have ideas. And I am writing, albeit maybe not as much as I’d like to.
But I know that my bilingual books generate income.
And while I am developing a strategy (which I will share with you on this blog and more in detail in my weekly email) for my upcoming novels and series, I know that working on those bilingual manuscripts is helpful to my business. And as a language learner (currently learning Russian on Duolingo for 250 days straight :-)) and former language teacher, I love that those bilingual books might help people who are learning a language.
Talking about languages, I saw this post on Instagram the other day that really resonated and thought I’d share it with you all. It says, “If someone is speaking to you in a foreign accent, they are smart enough to know two languages and brave enough to do their job in their second.”
Anyways…I spent a lot of hours this week finalizing another English/German book and this was only a tiny portion of the work that I needed to do for this particular book. And I’m happy to report that I did manage to publish EINE ZWEITE CHANCE (TEIL 1) / A SECOND CHANCE (PART 1) – Zweisprachiges Buch Deutsch / Englisch – Bilingual book: German / Englisch. (Amazon.de, Amazon.com, Google Play, iTunes, Kobo…)
To publish this book, I needed to:
(1) Using the manuscript in English and the manuscript in German, format the bilingual edition (manually) with one page in German and the corresponding text in English on the other side.
(2) Have a freelancer language specialist proofread the German translation one more time.
(3) Go through all the changes, review and implement the chances in the translation.
(4) Ensure that the pdf interior has the correct formatting. (that took FOREVER as every single time I would upload the word document, there was something wrong with it…one tab too many and that can really mess with the formatting. I use Draft2Digital to make the interior of the book.
(4) Design the cover.
(5) Add a series page on Kindle Direct Publishing, Draft2Digital and Google Play for “Zweisprachiges Buch Englisch Deutsch Nick & Em”.
(6) Add all the metadata on all platforms (summary, keywords, categories and so on…)
(7) Upload the files for the ebooks.
(8) Create the paperback in Kindle Direct Publishing…
As mentioned…the formatting can be slightly frustrating at times. If my husband would read this, he would chuckle at the “slightly”. 🙂
But the process can also be fun. 🙂 While I cannot listen to music when I am actually in the process of copying and pasting the German text to fit the English text and vice versa, I do sing very badly or lip synch in this case, when I’m making sure the format is correct (headings where there’s supposed to be headings, page break at the right spot, no extra paragraph…).
Did you enjoy this post? Do you want to help support me and my writing? You can forward this blog post to someone who might be interested, buy my books and/or audiobooks and as always, don’t hesitate to leave me a comment.
If you have any questions about my adventures in self-publishing or anything I shared with you today, don’t hesitate to reach out and I’ll make sure to reply in my email next week.
Thanks for reading this post… If you just stumbled on this blog, I started self-publishing in 2014, so I got quite a few years of experience and made many mistakes along the way. And while I’m sharing my top 3 self-publishing mistakes on this blog, I am sharing my top 5 self-publishing mistakes in my weekly email. If you’d like to receive those as pdf and join my weekly email, just click here.
Before getting into my top 3 self-publishing mistakes, I’d like to share information on how to help stop hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The rise in hate crimes against AAPI in the US has been staggering, but it’s not a new phenomenon. This post by USA bestselling author Tif Marcelo on Instagram is a must-read: “Don’t Avert Your Gaze” (please read it, and please don’t avert your gaze). As I was looking for more resources to share, Susan Dennard’s newsletter landed in my inbox with those words and the links below: “Please, educate yourself on AAPI racism. Please, speak up when you see it in action. And if you can, please donate to causes that can help.” I know I’m planning on doing all of those things. And I will keep on looking for resources as well. If you have any, don’t hesitate to let me know.
How many times can I say self-publishing mistakes in this post? I mean the first one I mention I feel is a publishing mistake many authors can make. And let me preface this by saying that I love daydreaming. I still daydream.
Thinking my book would become an instant best-selling success – just because it was good. Let me tell you, that’s not enough 😊. Rationally speaking, I knew it might not be the case, but I thought that most of the early reviews were so positive, even from people I had never met! That was mind-blowing, and I did daydream quite a bit. I still do daydream very often. I sometimes fall asleep dreaming about my books being picked up by Netflix or the Lifetime Movies Channel. Or I daydream about my Gavert City audiobook series being downloaded thousands of times with people raving about Megan’s narration (which they already do, but now we’d have thousands of downloads daily 😊). Anyways…back in 2014, a little part of me thought maybe I’d be that overnight success. The one people talk about, not realizing that overnight usually means years of writing and sometimes years of publishing. I read at the time about authors succeeding in self-publishing, but (a) I didn’t really define what succeeding would mean, (b) I didn’t have benchmarks.
Don’t get me wrong…I hadn’t left it all to sheer luck. Oh, no, no, no. I thought I had it all under control and was set for success. After all, I had a great cover, early reviews, and a release plan (with cover reveal, blog tours, Netgalley…). This meant I would release it and everyone would want to download it and I’d be set for success.
Spoiler alert: In June 2014, when I published ONE, TWO, THREE, I sold 45 copies…So. Not an overnight success. 😊 Granted, that book has now sold many more copies. It has also been picked up by a French publisher, and I even received a message from a French teenager who mentioned that this book, this little book of mine, has gotten her to love reading!
Sometimes, it feels that self-publishing is a sprint. And maybe sometimes it is. But not always…And marketing doesn’t stop with release month…
Advertising to the wrong audience. When I first started self-publishing back in 2014, I thought it was essential to have a Facebook page with lots and lots and lots of followers – which may have been true if I had first analyzed the audience that would be most likely to buy my book. I went for a worldwide audience at a time where my books were (a) only in English, (b) on platforms that weren’t necessarily accessible to readers all around the world. And at that time, I was not really targeting my ads…
So yes, I had many followers, but not an enormous audience of readers interested in my books. This is a mistake I’ve made again but more structured, as I’m still trying to see what ads work the best for different audiences. I’ve succeeded in France (and I’ll get into it in my weekly newsletter in the coming weeks), but my conversion rate (how many people actually buy a book after clicking on a link) is still too low for the US market. But nothing…nothing compared to 7 years ago.
Not focusing on my newsletter. I remember reading years ago…and I mean yeaaaaaaars ago how important it was to have a newsletter because social media algorithms change (and man, do they change). That way, you may build more of a connection with the reader. Some newsletters I subscribe to are only letting me know when the author has a new sale. Others are expanding on the books they’re reading, how they’re writing, maybe movies or podcasts they’re enjoying, or other things going on in their lives.
Have I ever bought or reviewed a book based on a newsletter? Yes. Yes, I have. I have a Facebook readers’ group (if you’re on there, thank you 😊), but I haven’t been spending a lot of time on Facebook. And I don’t have Facebook on my phone. And every single time I post something on my Facebook group, the reach (people who may see it in their feed) is about 35 to 50 out of more than 400 Facebook group members). More people open my emails. And it feels like people unsubscribe more when they’re no longer interested any long…. Still, I’m in Facebook groups I haven’t checked in probably years…so…yep, I’ve been refocusing on building my readers’ newsletter.
I do wonder about that new platform Facebook announced on March 16th. They’re getting into the newsletter subscription area and do mention also the use of groups in there. So, will that change the algorithm? Apparently, it might give writers more tools and could help in audience growth…but again, one might be dependent on changes…
Not like we’re also not dependent on changes with emails. When Google introduced the tabs in Gmail, some newsletters ended up in the Promotions tab, which is not necessarily read as often…Anyhow…😊
Not focusing on my newsletter was one of my self-publishing mistakes, mainly since I don’t publish a book every two months or so. Newsletters help me stay in touch with my readers in-between (which I love doing) and grow my audience.
And those are my top 3 self-publishing mistakes.
Again, if you’d like to see my top 5, you can just click here or on this cover, add your email and you’ll get access to the full pdf…
I’ll be sharing more in the coming weeks as well as what has worked for and my current publishing updates…including some stats about my bestselling format and platforms.
Thank you for reading!
Did you enjoy this post? Do you want to help support me and my writing? You can forward this email to someone who might be interested, buy my books and as always, don’t hesitate to leave me a comment.
If you have any questions about my adventures in self-publishing or anything I shared with you today, don’t hesitate to reach out and I’ll make sure to reply in my email next week.
Updating the back matter of my book…what do I even mean when I say that? Let’s talk a closer look, shall we?
Important: If you’re a newsletter subscriber, you’ve already gotten the full version in your email. Make sure you check your promotion tabs in gmail as this is where I received mine. 🙂 This blog post is a truncated version of what my newsletter subscribers have received, meaning I share more information with my “A self-published author’s diary weekly email” subscribers. You can subscribe here…When you subscribe you will receive access to past issues as well. 🙂
A. Update the “Little message to my readers”
In almost all my books, I have “A little message to my readers” at the end (I’m sharing that letter with my newsletter subscribers – don’t hesitate to subscribe here and I’ll make sure you receive it :-)) This email is not only thanking readers for their time (which I do truly appreciate)…I mean did you know there are more than 48 million books on Amazon. And while it seems very hard to get yearly data on how many books are being published each year, an article on PublisherWeekly based on Bowker’s data indicated that the number of self-published titles jumped 40% in 2018...So, yep, I am super grateful readers did pick mine up in an ocean of almost endless possibilities…
My “Little message to readers” aims to encourage readers to:
leave a review. Why oh why do I ask for reviews? Because reviews really help other readers discover new authors. Annnnnnd….it also helps get more visibility. Reviews don’t have to be raving for this to be true. One of my first review one of my best-selling book basically says, “this book sucks.” But the overall rating for that book is a 4.3 out of 5, so that means that even though someone clearly didn’t like it very much, it doesn’t deter other readers to pick it up. Sometimes, those bad reviews actually help other readers pick a book up. One of my low rating review for ALWAYS SECOND BEST mentioned it wasn’t the equivalent of an Oscar-nominated book but rather a Danielle Steel novel. And let’s face it, this was actually a pretty big compliment to me, because I’d love to have Danielle’s Steel career and her books are beloved by millions…Another one noted that my Gavert City series reminded them of Lifetime movies…which, again…yes, please! Those reviews actually helped me gain more readers and even narrow my marketing.
susbscribe to my newsletter: Subscribing to my author’s newsletter is very very important to me. Why? Years ago, I remember hearing how important it was to have your readers’ emails because you can contact directly with them. And I’ve seen in the past few months how true this is. Algorithms change and people may like your page that are also no longer interested in your books…So the audience might be slightly skewed…In a newsletter, if someone doesn’t open your emails for months or years, then you can remove them from your audience but even more importantly, they receive the news directly into your inbox. You don’t rely on boosting a post or crossing your fingers you’ve understood how to use social media, especially when changes are implemented about who sees what and what posts are given priority.
Follow me on social media. You might think, wait, you just mentioned how important it is for you to grow you subscribers’ list. True. But for people who might not feel like they want to receive an email from me, then they can check out my social media. It is true that social media definitely isn’t one of my forte (and I’ll go into details about that at another time) but if someone likes my page, I can at least have one more opportunity to interact with them and build a link with them and maybe, they’ll love another one of my books.
Create a connection. By adding a little message to my readers, I may create a first connection with a reader. And maybe they will follow my BookBub page or maybe they’re going to be more enclined to recommend one of my books. I do believe they’ll pick another one up if they loved the one they read but maybe they might remember that little message and talk to someone about the story they’ve just read…
B. Update the “Other books by” and maybe the sample at the end.
C. Make sure all the social media info + newsletter info is correct, as well as the short bio info had been updated, if needed: I mean for a while there, I had the wrong link to my Facebook Author Page. I had updated the handle for my Facebook Author Page to match my other social media but hadn’t updated that info into my books…DOH! By the way, if you’d like to like my Facebook Author Page it is: www.facebook.com/enowodazkij
So what am I doing.did I do this week? (I’m starting to write this on Monday and will update it throughout the week…)
Upload the bilingual version of A SUMMER LIKE NO OTHER (English/Spanish) onto Google Play and contact Kindle Direct Publishing about the metadata of that kindle book. I have chosen to list the language as “English” (I cannot list two languages for those books right now), but they got back to me saying the metadata indicated the language was Spanish. I just double checked using Calibre and it still says “English”…so trying to figure out what is happening and if I could indeed list this book as both English and Spanish. Once that it is resolved, announce the book on my blog and on social media. –> I did the first part. Still need to announce the book…
Do some promo for the audiobook of SEE ME, SEE ME NOT. Share the full bloopers to my readers’ newsletter (if you’d like to subscribe to that one, you can do so here…) –> Did that and also shared one deleted scene of Megan singing.
Finish formatting the ALWAYS SECOND BEST bilingual books (German/English) and review it. I have made some changes to the ASB manuscript and I have to make sure it is updated in the German version as well.–> I have formatted the first part of the bilingual book and am currently interviewing some proofreaders to ensure everything is correct before uploading it on all platforms.
Enroll my French Gavert City series into Kindle Unlimited. –> Well, I did update the back matter for some of my books and enrolled LA PEUR EN PLEIN COEUR in KU, buuuuuuttt I need to wait for
Finish this round of revision fo UNNAMED PROJECT (Actually it has a name. A name I kind of love) –> Still working on this. I really need to focus on this next week. It will be my main focus so that I can finally send it off to my wonderful wonderful critique partners. I started writing this book
Announce ONE, TWO, THREE in Italian and boost one of my Facebook posts. I did! Yay. I’ve announced it on my blog and I’ve also announced it on my Facebook and boosted one my posts. I’ve shared a video on Instagram which you can also see below.
My newsletter subscribers will get more information about some of the results of that particular post boosting and what I’m learning about the particular audience I’m boosting it to.
In Mailchimp, you can assign tags to new subscribers who subscribe from a landing page. The advantage? You know exactly where subscribers signed up from and you can tailor some of the emails based on that tag. In addition, you can then keep only one list with different automations.
You can then create a “journey” for them based on that tag.
At the end of the journey (since I have an essentials plan and not a standard plan), I add an additional tag to those subscribers.
They then start on the “regular” journey I have created for people who sign up through my website.
Let’s say, reader A finished reading FEAR ME, FEAR ME NOT and would like to read a bonus scene, he/she/they click on the link at the end of the ebook, subscribe(s) through the landing page (example here of said landing page) and then get(s) assigned the tag “FMFMN Bonus scene”.
Reader A then receives:
The exclusive bonus epilogue.
Then, an hour later, an other tag is added to Reader A through the “journey” called “Welcome emails”. Reader A then starts the “Welcome Emails” journey.
Reader A receives about one to two hours later a Welcome Email with a password to access more bonus content.
A week later, reader A receives another email with more info on the newsletter, info about free books, audiobook promo codes and pictures of Plato The Dog and Bobbie Voltaire The Cat.
So reader A receives a total of 3 emails within a week.
Here you can read much more about tags, journey, landing pages:
Authors are usually told that newsletters are very important because, unlike social media, one keeps the contact info of people who subscribe and is not subjected to the whim of the ever-changing algorithm of social media.
What does this mean? It means that you can reach people without relying on them using social media. You also can reach people without boosting your posts, because you land directly in their mailbox. When algorithms change on Facebook or Instagram, it can affect how often your audience sees your posts…and then your audience may leave social media, but might keep their email address.
It doesn’t mean that it’s free. Hosting a newsletter can get costly, depending on which provider you decide to use.
The ones I hear most about are Mailerlite and Mailchimp. I personally still use Mailchimp. But it’s mainly for convenience, and I still have a plan from years ago with them, and I haven’t reached the number of subscribers that would make Mailchimp very expensive.
Because it can get expensive. Did I mention that?
If you’re interested in the different platform and their pros/cons, here are a few articles.
I used to have different mailing lists, depending on where I was getting my susbcribers. This made sending newsletters a bit cumbersome, and then I had some duplicate subscribers. So, I’ve been consolidating my newsletters into one. And that’s when I started looking more closely at tags, and journey, and automation, and …. and …. and…
I chatted with Mailchimp employees several times to understand fully what the best solution for my needs was and decided on creating different landing pages, depending on where subscribers signed up. That way, I can attach a tag to said subscribers and they can have personalized “welcome” emails.
I’m still working on some landing pages but here are two of them if you’re interested in taking a look:
FEAR ME, FEAR ME NOT exclusive epilogue (link is at the end of FEAR ME, FEAR ME NOT encouraging readers to leave a review, but they don’t have to leave a review to receive the epilogue…): https://mailchi.mp/elodienowodazkij/fearmefearmenot
Website subscribers receive a password to a bonus content page which has all the bonus content as their first welcome email.
FEAR ME, FEAR ME NOT subscribers first receive the exclusive FMFMN epilogue and then another tag is added to their profile and they go on the same “journey” as website subscribers. Their second email is the password to the bonus content page.
The last email both sets of subscribers receive as part of their “welcome journey” is more info about the newsletter, as well as pictures of Plato The Dog and Bobbie Voltaire The Cat, and info about free books and audiobook promo codes.
FEAR ME, FEAR ME NOT subscribers receive three emails within a week. Website subscribers receive two emails within a week.
And this is it, today, for “The one where I share what I learned about tags and journeys for newsletter subscribers on Mailchimp…”
Don’t forget that if you’d like to receive my blog posts directly into your mailbox, you can sign up here (I blog more often than I send newsletters).
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#Selfpub corner is back and today, I’ll be tackling what goes on behind the scenes when organizing a Facebook release day party.
ONE DREAM ONLY is coming out on October 14th. Only a few more days, and you’ll be able to discover Natalya’s life before ONE, TWO, THREE.
You can see (and maybe join the party :)) by clicking on the picture or on this link.
For my last book, I didn`t really have the time to organize a release day party but this time around, I decided to go for a Facebook release day party.
And it’s quite exciting. Here are some questions I´ve received and some I came up with…I am trying to answer them as thoroughly as possible, but don`t hesitate to let me know if you have any additional ones.
Why did you decide to do a Facebook release day party?
I wanted to find a way to celebrate my release day and to spread the word about my book. I love the fact that it’s online, so that means despite the different time zones and all I can reach out to people around the world. I also have my Facebook Author Page and I wanted to find a way to make it even more interactive. Plus, I like that people can comment, post and be active…
What do you do during a Facebook release day party?
That’s a very good question…and personally, I checked out what other authors were doing and then came up with a few things I think would be fun.
Prizes:
– Naming a character in my next novel: That will be on-going during the day and I will pick a winner at the end of the day. People will be able to enter by answering a question.
– A signed copy of One, Two, Three
– Some goodies (a pen, a tote bag, postcards, mouse pad…): I’ve designed those online.
Fun
There will be trivia, character’s quizzes, Q&A session, music…
I worked on a 12 questions quiz where people will be able to discover which character they are (Natalya, Emilia or Becca).
I will be sharing some sentences from my next book.
How much did it cost?
Setting up the event: nothing.
The costs of the prizes: so books, the bags, magnets and pen is about $70
How did you promote it?
I shared it on my author page, I shared it on my personal page…I invited friends to join. I announced it on Twitter and informed some of the people who liked One, Two, Three.
Can I help you with the event?
Yes! If you`re on Facebook, you can join the event, you can share it on your wall, you can invite your friends to it, you can tweet about it, Instagram it…:-)
And then during the actual event, don´t be shy and participate 🙂
You can also share this picture on your social media…
Do you think the event will be a success?
Honestly, I don´t know. I also don`t think success means the same for everyone. For me, success will be if people are active, are answering questions, are asking questions…Do I also expect sales out of it? It would be nice of course to see my ranking go up, but my first release taught me to manage expectations when it comes to that. The sales need to be steady, and I am crossing my fingers that people will fall in love with Natalya, will feel right along with her.
Thanks so much for reading and Happy Friday!
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This is a bit self serving 🙂 but people have asked how they could help me and I thought instead of answering privately, I’ll do a post to also possibly help other authors out there. This is only what I learned so far…feel free to add more in the comments 🙂 I will then add them to the list to keep a list as updated as possible…
Dahlia shared some of her wisdom the other day on Twitter.
Telling an author how much you anticipate his/her next work can help them get through the struggles of writing it. #fantips
Some people in my non writing/book blogging life have asked me what Goodreads is. Goodreads can help you find new books, keep track of what you´ve read, share your thoughts with your friends…You can sign up here.
Before publication
Add the book to a TBR shelf
If you’re impatient about the book, don’t hesitate to mention it.
Add the book to lists – this helps raise awareness
if there is a giveaway with the book, don’t hesitate to enter it and spread the word on Twitter, your blog, Facebook, Google +…
While reading
While reading the book, you can also add quotes, you can update with the way you´re feeling about the book.
Share those on Twitter or wherever you like
After reading
Rate the book
Review the book
Add the book to other lists
2. Facebook
Did you know that even if you like a page, it doesn’t mean that you see its posts? There is an algorithm behind it (see here for more information). One can argue one way or another, but to help authors, there are a few things you can do:
Like their posts: if you enjoy the content don’t hesitate to like it, it will raise the probability of you seeing future post
Comment on their posts – create a dialogue 🙂
Share the post on your own timeline.
Share the page on your own timeline
Share on Twitter, share everywhere 🙂
3. Google +, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr…
Here the key message is share, share, share…the pictures of quotes, the cover of the book you’re reading, a quote you love, anything that gets you excited 🙂
Anywhere, everywhere…
4. Online retailer
Leave reviews at Amazon, B&N, other online retailer. This definitely helps.
5. Other ideas (library, book club…)
Don’t hesitate to ask the author for an interview or for more information about the book.
Spread the word at your library, request the book, talk about it.
How about suggesting the book to your book club?
Gift the book to friends and family (you probably can get a signed copy if you know the author).
Elodie Nowodazkij 