Tag: #Selfpub corner

Self-pub corner

#Selfpub corner – Organizing a cover reveal…

Elodie

#Selfpub corner buttonSooooo it’s been a long time since I’ve done a #selfpub corner, and since I’ve been updating my business plans and doing more research and all that, I thought it was high time to start again. Plus, I love reading others’ experiences . Time to give back 🙂

Organizing a cover reveal

To organize a cover reveal or not? How to go about it? Alone? With a provider? How about tying it to a pre-order? How about a giveaway?

There are a lot of questions to ask oneself before organizing anything, especially when it taps into your self-publishing funds.

I usually set up my goals ahead of time now and try to stick to them.

  • Why a cover reveal?

To gather interest, to create a possible buzz around the book…and to share more about your book with the world. In addition, if you have a pre-order set up, that could be the moment to mention it.

  • How about a giveaway with the cover reveal?

It all depends. What are your goals? What is your budget?

For A Summer Like No Other, I decided to have a giveaway along with the cover reveal. Another way to spread the word about my book.

  • Cover reveal: how to set it up?

There are so many ways to set it up: either yourself if you have enough following. Or with a provider.

Usually setting it up at least a month in advance really helps to gain traction.

When it comes to providers (including prices), there’s a good list here. As mentioned I’ve used Xpresso Book Tours and it worked very well.

You can also organize an exclusive cover reveal with a blogger or a particular website. I’ve never done that one so not sure how it works, or the results.

  • What did I want to achieve with the cover reveal?

I wanted to put my books in front of bloggers and possible readers, to create a buzz, to gain new Facebook group members and newsletter subscribers. Possibly new Instagram followers & Twitter followers too.

And I also thought maybe some would pre-order my book.

  • Was it worth it?

– Number of sign ups

For my first cover reveal, One Two Three, I had more than 85 bloggers signing up, for this one I had about 38. So yes, big difference. However, I didn’t have a l

– Gaining new FB group members and newsletters 

Definitely worked. And yes, I know, many new members are mainly here for the giveaway buuuuuut some are not and I’ve interacted with some already and I’m really enjoying that.

– Creating a buzz around A Summer Like No Other

I think that worked. I’m getting a few comments that readers keep on hearing about it and on Netgalley, 5% have clicked that they liked the buzz when requesting. I wish I could compare those numbers with One, Two, Three but I don’t have those.

– Get some pre-orders for A Summer Like No Other

Hmmm. This is where I have to remind myself this is a marathon not a sprint 😛 I have 11 pre-orders for A Summer Like No Other on Amazon. But crossing my fingers that just means everyone is waiting for release day. Right? Right.

  • Will I do it again?

Most probably, yes. It depends when I finalize the cover and blurb of Always Second Best. I’d like to do the sign-ups for the cover reveal much earlier, giving at least a month for people to sign up. And then do the giveaway right when the book goes up on Netgalley (like I did this time around). Basically, I need to work on the detailed timeline to see if it works or not.

  • What comes next?

Next week, my book comes out so I’m organizing a Book Blitz. However, this time, I’m doing it by myself (will see how that works). If you’d like to help me, don’t hesitate to sign up here. (my goal is to reach at least 15 sign ups, and I have 4 so far – thank you, thank you, thank you for helping me <3)

Hope this was helpful/interesting.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to let me know 🙂

If you want me to tackle a certain topic, just ask and I’ll try my best 🙂

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Self-pub corner

#Selfpub corner – My experience with #Netgalley

Elodie

#Selfpub corner button My back is slowly starting to get better. I still walk a bit crouched and I can’t do certain movements, nor sudden movements but it’s better… And it’s time for #selfpub corner! Since I’ve been updating my business plans and doing more research and all that, I thought it was high time to start again. Plus, I love reading others’ experiences . Time to give back 🙂

MY EXPERIENCE WITH NETGALLEY

  • How to put up your book on Netgalley as a selfpub author?

There are different options for selfpub authors. You can book a spot for different lengths where someone else is handling everything for you. I used Patchwork Press in the past and loved working with them. And I know that Xpresso Book Tours is also offering this service now. You can also try to find a co-op where you can put as many books as you want within a year (one at a time) and where you need to handle some of the requesting and so on… I love being in a co-op. I love being able to switch my books easily and to know that I have a spot for each of them without having to worry. I think the co-op works best when you have a lot of books coming out in one year. And if you like being hands-on on certain aspects. You can also “rent” your spot when you’re not using it.

  • Is it expensive?

It’s always relative, isn’t it? 🙂 I think that having a book on Netgalley really helps to get your book in front of thousands of readers/reviewers. For a month, $60 seems to be the price on both Patchwork Press & Xpresso Book Tours. The co-op is for a year and I pay $350 I think the co-op works well for me, because I already had two books up and I have 5 more planned before May next year. And it gives me quite a bit flexibility, when it comes to adding things to each book’s profile. For example, I now have files in the press kit section. Among other things.

  • What did I want to achieve with Netgalley?

I am not going to lie. Netgalley is scary. https://twitter.com/ENowodazkij/status/621281019937824768   Having your book up for review is even more nerve-wracking than having your book up for sale. I’m not sure why. And on Netgalley, you have people that review books, which means some are reading to review. I review when I read books that I really really love, so it’s not the same perspective. And it’s perfectly fine. It’s just getting used to, especially since you can opt to receive the feedback directly into your email. With Netgalley though you can really connect with readers. Whenever a reader clicks they wouldn’t mind connecting with the author, I send them an email. I am so grateful for them to take the time to review my little book and it’s a great way to inform them of what else I have going on and the fun things they can join and that I’m open for interviews and so on. Of course, early reviews are also important. And one of the easiest way to get them is to put your book up on Netgalley. In addition, cross-reviewing to sites like Amazon, B&N and Goodreads really helps authors. Of course, not sure how everything is evolving on Amazon since those reviews are not from verified purchases but that’s another story and I really am thankful when reviewers take the time to cross post their thoughts on my books. ❤

  • How did it go?

I had lots of requests. LOTS of request. At least it felt like it 🙂 The first time around, I had 310 requests for review The second time, I had 193 requests for review. Overall, on Goodreads I had about 65 reviews from Netgalley and on Amazon, I think more than half of my reviews are from Netgalley members.

  • What happened after the book was no longer on Netgalley?

I am still getting reviews for One, Two, Three, and I am so happy it enabled me to connect with readers and reviewers.

  • Was it worth it?

Yes. Definitely yes.

  • Will I do it again?

Actually, I am. Right now. A SUMMER LIKE NO OTHER is up on Netgalley (it was first available to my Facebook Group Members – Elodie’s Cozy Nook :))

Hope this was helpful/interesting.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to let me know 🙂 I’d love to hear your own experience with Netgalley if you’ve used it…and if you want me to tackle a certain topic, just ask and I’ll try my best 🙂

Self-pub corner

#Selfpub corner – My experience with #Freebooksy

Elodie

#Selfpub corner buttonSooooo it’s been a long time since I’ve done a #selfpub corner, and since I’ve been updating my business plans and doing more research and all that, I thought it was high time to start again. Plus, I love reading others’ experiences . Time to give back 🙂

MY EXPERIENCE WITH FREEBOOKSY

  • What is Freebooksy?

Freebooksy promotes free books (being perma-free or those free for a limited period of time). At the time of this post, they do not restrict their ads to full-length novels. I checked with them to make sure I could buy an ad for a novelette and it was fine.

Freebooksy currently advertises to more than 130k newsletter subscribers and 200k+ Facebook fans.

  • What did I want to achieve with a Freebooksy ad?

– At least 800 downloads of ONE DREAM ONLY

– At least 5 reviews of ONE DREAM ONLY

– At least 5 new subscribers

– At least 5 new FB group members 

– At least 20 new sales of ONE TWO THREE

  • How did it go?

I bought a Freebooksy ad ($70) for my novelette ONE DREAM ONLY (which is currently free). I scheduled it for June 5th. And this is what happened…

Units ordered

More than 700 copies on the day of the ad and overall more than 1000 copies….During the ad, One Dream Only ranked #3 in the free Best Sellers in Two-Hour Teen & Young Adult Short Reads.

One Dream Only Best Seller

  • What happened after the ad?

– I sold more than 10 copies of One, Two, Three (sales had been stagnant previously)

– I gained one newsletter subscriber

– I gained two new members in my Facebook group.

  • Was it worth it?

Yes. In my view, it was. Gaining new readers is so important. Plus, I love connecting with them, so I am very excited whenever they either subscribe to my newsletter or join my FB group.

In addition, when people download something free, they may not read it right away and I think I’m still seeing some One Two Three sales thanks to the ad.

  • Will I do it again?

Yes. But not right now. Right now, I’m going to look into ENT and BargainBooksy and others to plan some ads on ONE TWO THREE, around the release date of A SUMMER LIKE NO OTHER.

Hope this was helpful/interesting.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to let me know 🙂 I’d love to hear your own experience with Freebooksy if you’ve used it…and if you want me to tackle a certain topic, just ask and I’ll try my best 🙂

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#Selfpub corner: Behind-the-scenes of a Facebook release day party

Elodie

#Selfpub corner button#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.

Release day party

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.

bag

pen

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…

Ad for the FB release day party

  • 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!

Self-pub corner

#Selfpub corner – Netgalley, yay or nay?

Elodie

#Selfpub corner button

It’s Friday on my side of the world…which means it’s time for #Selfpub Corner…

Topic of the week: Netgalley, yay or nay?

Every month, I will be asking a YAY or NAY question to selfpub authors.

Today, Elizabeth Briggs, author of MORE THAN MUSIC and Jennifer Ellision, author of THREATS OF SKY AND SEA as well as SISTERS OF WIND AND FLAME  agreed to play along.

We are looking at Netgalley and our own experience with it. I will be explaining the different ways of gathering reviews as well as the different ways to get your book listed on Netgalley next week.

Thanks again Liz and Jen!

Elizabeth Briggs . Netgalley

Ellision

 

Netgalley Elodie

 Hope this was helpful!

Let me know in the comments, and do not hesitate to ask me any questions 🙂

Next week’s topic: Netgalley, blog tours, Goodreads: how does one gather reviews?

Self-pub corner

#Selfpub corner – My book cover design process and what I learned

Elodie

#Selfpub corner button

It’s Friday on my side of the world…which means it’s time for #Selfpub Corner…

Topic of the week: cover

Covers are important, they really are. But just to show you how important the cover of One, Two, Three has been important in getting the word out, here are a few quotes from reviewers.

“I totally went off the cover,” A flurry of ponderings.

“I surprised myself with this book I literally only requested this book based on the front cover.” Natalie

“The minute I saw the cover, I had to read this” Tonja

As you can tell, I am super happy with my cover designer: Derek Murphy from Creativindie who created magic!

I mean, look at this beauty 🙂

Official cover

 

As a self-published author, you have many choices: you can buy a pre-made cover (which I will talk about with other selfpub authors in a future post), you can go with several types of cover designer–including ones that may even arrange their own photo shoot.

The prices will definitely differ depending on what you choose. Pre-made covers are usually cheaper (you can find some on sale for $15), the ones where a photo-shoot is organized will be more costly.

And then you need to decide, what type of adds-on do you want? Some cover designer will also do promotional items, others may offer discounts for future works.

How did my process work?

Once I contacted Derek to see if he would have some time. He sent me a few sites to look at pictures that would fit with my story, so he could get a sense of where I was going.

This is one of the image I sent him, do you recognize it? 🙂

http://www.bigstockphoto.com/image-9859367/stock-photo-broken-and-bleeding-heart-on-the-wall

He then sent me 9 different proposals of covers…and I showed them to my street team, who also fell in love with the same one I did: a slightly different version than the cover I have today.

Based on that, he reworked it with different fonts and different placings. I chose this one because I felt the rhythm going through the cover.

He also sent me Facebook cover, quotes boxes and so on…

For example, that one:

ONE, TWO, THREE...banner

What did I learn?

1. The emotions. Oh, the emotions.

Working on the cover is VERY exciting, like everything else in the process. Do you see the dancer walking away on the cover? well, it has been used by other books, and I saw it only close to publication. Cue, freaking out.

 

Like, writing on my Facebook Team 123  secret group and the wonderful ladies there held my hand and reminded me how different the covers were, despite their one similar element.

Still. This is a reality that one needs to realize, some elements of your cover may not be entirely unique. However, with a strong designer, your cover itself will be unique.

🙂

And I am still in love with mine, like the very first time I saw it.

2. Choosing the cover designer.

Personally, I googled cover designers for selfpub authors and I asked my dear friends Juliana and Jen to see who they were using. I also looked at the copyrights information of the selfpub books I really liked the cover of.

Here are some names in case you’re looking. There are different price ranges and there are more in the resources article at the end of this super duper long post 🙂

3. Planning the cover – timeline and type of cover (ebook, print, both)

Before contacting the different cover designers, I first had to decide which format I wanted. And of course, I had to know approximately when I wanted to do the cover reveal and when publication date was going to be, giving a bit of buffer.

4. A tagline

Always helpful to intrigue people.

5. Author photo

Of course, you also need an author photo for the full cover. Here you have to decide what type of author photo you want, but more generally speaking, the advice I received was: a photo where people can really see your smiling face 😉 This will be the topic of another post.

6. Possible early reviews

If you have early raving reviews, you could add a line to your book. Look what L.G. has on her cover: a review from Cora

7. Will I do anything differently for my second book?

Yes. In the sense, that my second book will only be an e-book (it’s a novelette), so I am not going for the full range of ads-on that I did for my first book.

8. More resources

 Hope this was helpful! Let me know in the comments, and do not hesitate to ask me any questions 🙂

Next week’s topic: Netgalley, including the views of several self-published authors on the topic

Self-pub corner

Presenting #Selfpub Corner (and a super cute button)

Elodie

I have been thinking for the past few weeks how to best share my experience int he self-publishing world. I have had people reaching out to me and asking me questions. I always try my best to answer and I thought maybe others would also benefit from my experiences: what I learned, what I would do differently and what I will do again for my second release.

So…I will be starting as of next Friday the #Selfpub Corner.

#Selfpub corner button

Isn’t a cute button? I love it. I always admired the ones Jaime created and she told me about PicMonkey. Love it!

Every week or so I will take a different question or angle, such as: how to get reviews, why use Netgalley (if at all), how did I find my editors, my cover designer, and then from times to times I will feature a self-published author asking a few questions or asking them to share their own experience.

Are you a self-published author and would you like to get featured on this new corner of my blog?

Do you have any questions you want me to answer about my experience?

Leave me a comment or don’t hesitate to shoot me an email.