SYAWAN: Advertising

You've written a book, you've got it published, and you've even managed to get the perfect book cover.

Now you can just sit back and watch the money roll in while movie directors fight to the death for the honor of making the epic motion picture based off of it, sitting on your golden throne.


No, not that kind of throne.

You can't just throw a book out there and expect it to rake in millions. In reality you have to work really hard to make people aware that it even exists, and to do that you have to advertise it. There are several ways to advertise your book with the primary focus being on making your own advertisements.

Pay Someone Else to Advertise Your Book.

Difficulty: Easy

Cost: High

I'm not familiar with this outcome, since I'm a cheapwad, so I'm really only throwing it out there as a possibility to consider.


Give Your Book Away for Free

Difficulty: Medium

Cost: Low

I kind of fought with the cost, waffling between Low and Medium. Medium because it technically eats into the profits of your book, but at the same time Low because many of the people snatching it up for free wouldn't have ever bought it in the first place.

Giving your book away for free is the fastest way to generate readers, and when people read your book, they are going to talk about it (this is especially true with teens). Word of mouth is your best friend in advertising when you're a small-time writer.



Make your Own Advertisements.

Difficulty: Medium

Cost: Low

When making your own ads, ask yourself these questions.

Does it grab someone's interest?
Is it visually appealing? (From far away?)
Does it describe the book?
Would your curiosity be piqued if handed a similar advertisement?

I thought about making the difficulty on this one low, since all you have to do is print out some fliers or talk about it online, but you have to take several factors into consideration.

First, you have to consider the content and visual appeal of your advertisement. I already made previous posts about the book cover and blurb, so take those and apply them to the idea of an advertisement.

Second is, what kind of advertisement? Fliers and business cards are good ones to consider. I've made fliers for Dusted with little tear strips (A quick note about the tear strip advertisements. Put information on the main part of the flier, too. I once saw a flier about a math tutor, but there was no way of contacting them because all of the tear strips were gone.)

Ask Yourself, Would This Interest Me?

Does your advertisement draw you to it? Try to remove the bias you have of it being your own book. Consider showing it to friends and family, or even people you don't know.

Know Where to Advertise

You have your advertisement, and it's fantastically designed, but where to put it? Libraries are good places, as well as local colleges (I've tried putting them up in my local college, but they keep getting torn down.) Also consider the competition. Barnes and Noble probably won't put up your flier if you're advertising a book for Amazon Kindle, instead you should keep an eye out for independent or used bookstores.

Look for more than just places that sell books, too. Keep your audience in mind. If you have a hard-core apocalyptic survival book, you could think about putting up fliers in your local gun range or sporting goods store. If you have a fantasy book, there are gaming shops or comic book stores.



I'm talking gaming with dice, but whatever works for you.

There are, of course, places you shouldn't advertise your novel. The previously-mentioned apocalyptic survival book shouldn't be advertised in a children's toy store (but it would be a great place to advertise a children's book.) Again, keep your readers in mind. What else is your audience likely to do and where might they go when they aren't reading?

Something very important to mention: Always ask permission before posting a flier. How would you feel if McDonald's suddenly plunked down a big picture of their golden arches right on your front lawn one day?


I'm hatin' it.

Unless the place is totally public and anyone can post anything they want (this is unlikely the case, even in the most public of areas), always ask for permission. If in doubt, definitely ask permission.

Nobody said writing a book was easy, and nobody ever said it got easier once you finished writing it.

Birthday of the Demigods (Aka: Get Dusted for Free!)

Springtime is on the slow side for a Harvest God like me (Lavtia is north of the equator, as a result I use it as the basis for my seasons) so one year ago I, Rungis the Latvian God of Harvests (known to my author-minion as Smudge), decided to bless a particular home with my kittens.

It was a quiet morning on April 20th, 2012 and two of my caretakers were just barely beginning to get ready for school. I had decided to finally slip inside one of the cardboard boxes they provided for me. I hadn't been in one without their coaxing, so I figured it would be a rather large hint that I was ready. Sometime between late morning and afternoon (cats don't measure time precisely, we have better things to do) I had four kittens.

I regret nothing.

All of them are happy and doing very well and, to commemorate this wonderful event I have, again, hijacked Jennifer's blog and her novel.

Starting today (April 19th) you can get Dusted free for 3 days! (Ends Sunday April 21st at midnight)

And if you happen to run into my little kitties: Dave, Grim, Bean, or FSMO, tell all of them I said hello!

SYAWAN: The Cover

"Don't judge a book by its cover."

You've probably heard that your entire life but honestly, when you walk into a bookstore, what's the first thing you notice?

The cover.

Yes, it's really an example meant for people, so let's use a person as an example, shall we?

GAH!

Sight is the primary sense you use and, whether you want to admit it or not, you do judge a book by its cover. You've already formed an opinion of the person in the above picture (for me it's late at night and I can't help but get the feeling this is the last image people see before their soul is sucked out through their eyes).

The cover, I think, can sometimes make or break the sale of a novel. If you have a homely cover people aren't even going to bother reading the title. Really, in order of attention, it goes like this:

Cover > Title > Blurb > First Sentence > Book

(Quick side note: Somewhere in there is Name Dropping. Name Dropping is something like an Oprah Book Club sticker or someone like Stephanie Meyer or Suzanne Collins saying "Couldn't put it down!" and they quoted it on the cover. Name Dropping can vary from person to person, it can be something a person pays a lot of attention to (I've heard of a reader picking up a book just because it was read by her favorite author) to absolutely insignificant. Name Dropping falls into the second category for me because I usually don't even notice it, or read it only after I've read the entire book. There have been a few handful of times where certain names praising the book have actually repelled me from purchasing it.)

I've actually been lured entirely by the visual siren song of novel covers. Some turned out to be amazing stories, others terrible ones that I wish I could just keep the cover, frame it, and use the pages of the book to insulate the place where my cats sleep.

Some examples of covers that have greatly influenced by purchases are: Anna Dressed in Blood, Airman, Worldshaker, Maximum Ride, Ranger's Apprentice, Eyes like Stars, The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch, and Across the Universe.

 Those are just examples of books that I really enjoyed (Whereas Hush Hush is an example of a pretty book that made me vomit rage once I actually read it, and Girl of Nightmares, though even prettier, wasn't nearly as good as the first book.)

Some examples of books that actually repelled me upon first sight were Uglies (original cover), Mistborn (original hardback cover), the Sookie Stackhouse series, Peeps, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Wereworld (US version) and, yes, even the Dresden Files series (with the exception of the Science Fiction Book Club editions, which I love. The rest are incredibly generic and you can't tell them apart.)

I'm rather biased, of course. If you're familiar with them you'll notice half the covers I dislike (Uglies, Peeps, and Forest of Hands and Teeth) are super closeups of people's faces. For some reason I'm always incredibly distracted with the fact that I've got my fingers all over someone's face when I'm trying to read (this is only true in paperbacks, with hardbacks I just take the dust jacket off). I also get distracted when I'm reading a book with an ugly cover. When I'm reading a book all of the super interesting stuff is pointed toward me, anyone else who happens to look at me is just going to see an ugly book and wonder what in the heck kind of drivel I'm reading. All of this over-thinking starts wedging into the story I'm trying to enjoy reading
.


My head does this at least once a day.

"Okay," you promise, "I won't make an ugly cover with a really closely-zoomed in picture of some person's face. So then what kind of cover do I use?"

There are two answers: A cover that is pretty, or a cover that is relevant to the story (or both). The cover is probably the second-most popular part of a book an author fantasizes about (the first being who will play the main character in the inevitable movie based on your soon-to-be bestselling novel) I'll admit I gave the cover a bit of thought, but it wasn't until crunch time that I suddenly found myself going "Uhhh." It was the cover that slowed down the publishing of Dusted more than anything else once I got going.

Here are some things I learned in the process.

Stock Images and Public Domain

Unless you specifically commission (pay) someone to create an image for your book, chances are you will be using a stock image. A stock image is a photograph that is meant to actually be used in some form instead of just looking pretty. Some stock images you still have to pay to use. If you're on a tight budget, consider looking for free-to-use or public domain ones.

If I had all the money in the world Dusted would probably feature Crystal and company. I don't, so I had to come up with a cover that would be visually appealing and still sort of link to the story. Dusted starts in a forest, escalates in a forest, and finally they have to go through the forests of Faerieland, so naturally a forest scene for a cover would be rather fitting without breaking by puny, non-visually-artistic brain.

I browsed the Stock Photos of DeviantArt with the search word "Forest", found a picture I liked, and asked for permission. I told her exactly what I was going to do, and she allowed it, but only if I edited the picture. I'm not the best at photomanipulation, I don't own anything like Photoshop, and wouldn't even know how to use it, so I used PaintNet (it was that or MSPaint), tweaked the appearance until I got something that looked interesting, and left it at that.

Don't want to bother with stock images, too shy to ask people for one, or can't find anything in the public domain that fits just right? Another choice is to...

Use your own Artwork or photos

The great thing about your own work is that you own the rights to it.

If you can't draw, don't try. I've seen several self-published ebook novels with covers that look like a 14 year old anime fan churned it out during English class. The same holds true for your BFF "Artist" that says she wants to draw the cover for you.

Photographs are harder to screw up. It's impossible for something to look unnatural because, well, it physically exists (bad angles and lighting and the like not withstanding.) Owning the rights to a photo is a bit of a grey area. Please be aware of the laws behind photography, especially since you will be using it as the cover to a product you intend to sell to the public (you want to take into consideration photos of people, licence places, company logos, things like that.)

So now you have the perfect cover for your book, but you've forgotten one last thing...

Font

"But Jen, you oh-so-brilliant and totally under-appreciated author of written prose," you say, "Why can't I just use Comic Sans and call it good?"

First, because Comic Sans causes people to punch other people in the face for a reason I can't seem to understand.

Second, when was the last time you saw Arial or Times as fonts in your everyday book cover? Yes, the font inside the book should be as standard and easy to read as possible, but the title on the cover is another part of the cover art: It's meant to be visually appealing.

I went through various websites looking for a good font, but you just can't beat the good, hardworking artists at DeviantArt. I did see one I really liked, but it was labeled "For personal use only," meaning I couldn't use it to sell something. Instead I found a lovely one called Northwood High and found the font rather interesting. Better yet, it was free to use.

Have Fun

This is the most important. This is your book and you have finally gotten far enough that you can consider making a cover. Best of all, as a self-publisher you can choose whatever you want for the cover. Have fun looking for pictures, choosing a great font, and putting it all together.

SYAWAN: The Blurb

First, what's a blurb? A blurb is the little description of the book that people are going to read on the cover (or the description of it on a seller's website) You're probably familiar with (if not sick of reading) Dusted's blurb:

Even if the Faerie Dust infection didn’t kill seventeen year-old Crystal Ball it still might prove fatal as she and her friends are thrown into a full-scale hidden war fought between faeries and other infected humans known as the Dusted. Suddenly Crystal is trying to figure out her new dust-given powers as well as survive the hostility of both sides in the war as they try to either kill or recruit the trio.

Having to deal with her new powers as a witch as well as an eternally hungry werewolf and a revenge-seeking vampire are bad enough, but throw in a mysterious faerie with a strange affection for her, a grizzled zombie faerie-war veteran, and an all-powerful Night Goddess faerie gunning for them and Crystal’s life becomes a tangle of how to stay alive, stay sane, and figure out who dusted them in the first place.

Show more

Show less

Out of the things listed in the first So You Already Wrote A Novel, the blurb is, in some ways, both the hardest and the easiest. The easiest because you're very familiar with the material you're about to blurb about, the hardest because how can you possibly condense all that material into only a few paragraphs?

The blurb is the first piece of your writing that people will read. If it has misspellings or doesn't flow right, chances are, they will assume the rest of your book won't either. I have turned down free e-books on Amazon because their descriptions had misspellings or the grammar was terrible (and that's why I don't own a copy of my own book, hah!)

I had more trouble with the blurb for Dusted than I did any other part of it. I must have written it dozens of times, and even now it makes me squirm when I try to think about how I could write it better (the beauty of publishing on the Kindle is that I can change it at any time. If it was an actual copy there'd be no take backs.)

Here are some things I've learned when trying to blurb.

Keep it short

If you're writing a novel about your novel, you've done something wrong. Try to keep it 1 to 3 paragraphs long. The first blurb for Dusted was far too short, then too long. I tinkered with the wording, cut out pieces I didn't feel were relevant or interesting, and left it at that.

Keep it simple

Don't go into detail about any specific parts of the story. Keep it at somewhat of a bird's eye view of the story as a whole rather than specific scenes or characters. In a blurb you never see anything about what the main character looks like, for example (unless a specific trait is important to the story, like, say, the character is part elf and that is shown by her silver hair.)

Tease and Interest

You want people to be grabbed, and then make them think "So what happens next?" Usually blurbs will end with a question that is somewhat the basis boiling down to: "Can X make Y happen?" The final paragraph, often, is in itself a sum up of the entire story usually:

Crystal’s life becomes a tangle of how to stay alive, stay sane, and figure out who dusted them in the first place.

The rest is just extra.

Read other Blurbs

Just as you'd read other books to get an idea of how to write, be sure to read plenty of blurbs, both of books you have read and those you haven't. In those you have, ask yourself "What about it grabbed me?" and "Is it accurate to the story?" In those you haven't, ask yourself "Why does this interest/not interest me?" When you read about blurbs in books you've never read before, try not to focus on the genre (like you hate romance, and study a romance blurb, ignore the fact that you'd sooner eat your socks than read the book) It's even better when you find a book outside of your normal genre-reading where the blurb piques your interest.

Actually Describe the Book

I didn't think I'd have to actually say this, but I've seen some pretty terrible blurbs by self-published authors on Amazon. The worst ones are ones that don't even have a blurb. I don't mean the description is blank, I mean they fill the blurb area with quotes from the book (that's what the Book Preview function is for, people), or they fill it with reader praise: "Oh my gosh this book was so amazing! Read it!" (That's what the Review section is for). No matter how much the cover, title, or even reviews grabbed me, I refuse to consider a book that doesn't have an actual description of the story.

Let me see if I can whip up an example of a bad blurb for Dusted:

"Oh wow!"

"Couldn't put it down!"

"Amazing!"

Anyone who reads Dusted is always amazed. Readers often compare it to Maximum Ride, with just a touch of the Mortal Instruments series.

This is a rich, detailed story with an amazing cast of characters and excellent world-building from the author. Truly a great writer feat that all would love to enjoy.

Not only am I scratching my head because I have no idea what the story is about, I'm also starting to suspect that the author, Jen is an egotistical liar. Nowhere in her 4 reviews are those quotes, so where did they come from? Her sugar-coating parents? Her best friend who doesn't read a lot of books but is super-duper impressed that Jen wrote one? Her cat? (In reality I have neither sugar-coating parents nor a friend who doesn't read, though I do have several cats that think my books are awesome.)



I only sit on books written by Jennifer Clark...or Larry Niven.

Something else to be aware of is that blurbs of self-published books are written by the author himself. No one wants to read about an author basking in the glow of his own amazing writing ability. You're here to read a blurb about the book, not about the author and not random people talking about how great it is.

Write a blurb, print it out, and then have people read it who have never read anything of your novel. Does it interest them? You will have to test-run it through some people who won't praise you just because it's about your novel. It's nice to be praised once in a while, but this blurb is going to be read by hundreds (thousands?) of people who don't give a crap about who you are and are just looking for a description of a good story.

So give them one.