Month: June 2014

The Black Bag Released

The Black Bag has been released as of today. It is available on Smashwords in all formats including PDF and is on the Smashwords Premium Catalog to all major ebook vendors – even Kindle – though it may take a few days to show up on all sites. See my author page here. All email subscribers to the blog receive a coupon for free purchase.

My next few posts will be about my experiences creating this ebook as a DIY and why I chose Smashwords at this time.

Here’s the final cover-art:

Available at Smashwords and All Major E-Book Vendors!

Available at Smashwords and All Major E-Book Vendors!

Feel free to leave comments. Please follow via email for a free copy coupon. Also follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

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Marketing: Mix & Match

It’s been very busy the last few days as I work on several projects. I’ve been editing my current WIP The Bow of Destiny. Also I am getting closer to releasing my award-winning short story, The Black Bag, as an e-book. Last but not least, I am working on the details of a crowd-funding campaign which I have discussed in previous posts.

Marketing
Several aspects of pre-marketing have come up the last few days which I find both interesting and exciting. Much of it revolves around crowd-funding toward the final push to publication of the Bow of Destiny which launches the whole Bow of Hart Saga.

I look at crowd-funding as a form of pre-marketing that is as important as social media. Gaining support through crowd-funding is akin to pre-release sales by which you discover more readers and increase the reach of your brand. But here’s the catch: unless you have a large following already you can fall flat even with a good product. So what’s the answer? Reaching out any way you can when the opportunity presents itself. If you find people who want to spread the word for you then encourage them since they are free advertising – but be willing to do the same for them. Other ideas present themselves like having Twitter parties but this is not limited to just one social media platform so if you have good enough reach on other platforms then plan for parties on those too. What’s a Twitter party? Read this article from Team Caffeine for more information. It’s a fantastic idea for crowd-funding and book releases.

I have a few other ideas that I’m working at this time. If it works out then I will announce those plans too. However, the main goal is to treat everything as a big funnel into the eventual book release. Even my short e-book release carries implications which can increase my marketing reach. The main thought is this: don’t count anything out. Be smart but also be willing to take chances as you do everything possible to make a “WOW” product and present it to the public.

What ideas do you have for better crowd-funding? What marketing can you improve and how? What have you found successful?

Please leave comments below and follow the blog through email, Twitter & Facebook. I have more announcements in the coming days about the various prongs of my brand so keep visiting all my platform channels.

Thanks for reading and following along as I bring this project to fruition.

PHS

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News: The Black Bag to Be Re-Printed

I’ve decided to re-print The Black Bag myself. I’m currently developing the cover and doing the formatting. It will initially appear on Smashwords. This is an award-winning short story listed on my short fiction WIP page.

I read articles onSmashwords and about preparing a manuscript for publication. William King also produced a helpful blog about making your own cover-art – thanks William! He’s also self-published in his own right so give his books a look too.

This is just a short item of note this evening but I will post more news as I progress with this small project.

Thanks for reading, please leave comments and follow the blog through email or click to follow over Twitter and Facebook.

PHS

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