Read Tuesday

My author friend Chris McMullen has created an exciting counterpoint to the (depressing) Black Friday retail experience in the U.S. this week.

“Read Tuesday” on December 10, 2103, is a worldwide online sale discounting hundreds of books. All shoppers, including those on a budget, will have an easy and affordable way to give books as gifts this holiday season.

I’m asking you to do two things:

1. Offer a discount on your book for just one day and add it to the Read Tuesday site catalog.
2. Help shoppers and readers find books for themselves or others by sharing information about Read Tuesday, December 10. Tell your in-person and social networks — they’ll want to know about it!

National Novel Writing Month $5,000 Giveaway

Author Sensei is offering the competition winner $5,000 in book marketing services plus guidance from Pubslush on a crowd-funding campaign. The package includes book cover and interior design, a website, and a book trailer, among other things. Act quickly on this one — the deadline is November 30, 2013.

Learn more and submit your pitch to win at the Author Sensei website.

New Novels Competition 2014

Rethink Press is looking for two new, “brilliant” novels for publication in 2014. If your novel is completed and unpublished before the January 31, 2014 deadline and you would like to have it published on Amazon in paperback and Kindle, enter the Rethink Press New Novels Competition 2014. Visit the Rethink site for details, rules, and information on how to enter.

Please share this information with your author friends and networks so that more people learn about these opportunities. Thanks!

Getting found

The first is the Be Your Own Book Doctor site run by my friend Jennifer Lawler, who wrote a fantastic three-part series on promoting romance novels for this blog. I returned the favor by writing a guest post for Jennifer on the “Top 3 reasons why nobody knows about your book.” Maybe it will trigger a light bulb over your head!

This isn’t my only collaboration with Jennifer. I’ll write more about what else we’re working on together next week.

Authors and e-mail lists

I also wrote about “The what, why, and how of e-mail lists for authors” on the Pubslush blog. This is a topic that all authors need to care about, but even if you don’t, check out that blog. It is one of the coolest-looking sites I’ve ever seen. I just love that lined paper look. (But my life-sized mug shot kind of freaks me out . . . .)

Justine Schofield of Pubslush also wrote an incredibly helpful post for us here, “7 ways to conduct a successful crowdfunding campaign,” earlier this year. If crowdfunding is an option for you, you’ll definitely want to follow her advice.

Guest blogging tips

If you’re thinking about offering to write guest blog posts for sites that serve your book’s target audience, consider reading my post here, “How to be a great guest blogger.” Be sure to read the comments for additional tips, too.

If you write a blog for authors, I’d love to contribute a guest post. Do you have an author marketing success story to share here? I’d love to hear from you. Just send me a note!

7 ways to conduct a successful crowdfunding campaign

By Justine Schofield

In the age of the Internet and social media, crowdfunding is becoming an increasingly popular means of mitigating financial risk for creative projects. Crowdfunding platforms offer a wonderful opportunity for artists to raise funds and awareness for their projects, but since crowdfunding is still a relatively new concept, it can be difficult to run a successful campaign.

So, here are a few tips that will help you run a more effective and successful crowdfunding campaign.

1. Offer enticing rewards. Although people generally don’t support crowdfunding campaigns for the rewards, it’s still important to put a lot of thought behind the reward levels you create for your campaign. The effort you put in will determine the success of your campaign. It’s important to remember that some of the most enticing rewards are the fun and creative ones that don’t necessarily cost the author very much money. For example, an author crowdfunding for a book can promise to name a character after the person who donates $500+.  This costs the author nothing, but is a fun incentive.
2. Do pre-campaign research. The biggest don’t of crowdfunding is starting your campaign before you’re ready. Time is a big factor in crowdfunding campaigns (most campaigns run for 30-60 days), so don’t put your project up and then try to figure out your strategy. Also, it’s very important you research your costs up front so you can create appropriate reward levels. The goal is to make money, so obviously your reward levels will be proportionate to the amount donated. To be successful, you will need to determine how much money you’ll need to raise to complete your project and fulfill the incentive levels. Tip: don’t forget about shipping costs.
3. Know your audience. No matter what your crowdfunding project is, there is a specific audience that will be more inclined to be interested in and support your campaign. Knowing who your audience is—age, gender, occupation, etc.—will help you maximize your time and efforts.
4. Target your audience. Once you know your audience, your focus should be to reach out to that particular group of people. Learn where these people are, both on the Internet and in your community, and reach out through the appropriate platforms. For example, finding blogs your audience would read and reaching out through that platform would be much more effective than yourself blindly blogging to the vast Internet as a whole.
5. Don’t be timid. Here’s the most important tip when it comes to crowdfunding: It’s a lot of work. Your success is directly connected to the time and effort you put into your campaign. The funds aren’t going to raise themselves (wouldn’t that be nice, though?), so put yourself out there and ask people to support your campaign. The worst they can say is no.
6. Be personal and make it easy. While asking for support, it’s always more effective to do so on a personal level. Sending out a generic tweet or Facebook message won’t feel as genuine to your audience. Reach out to your close network via a personal e-mail or message with the link to your campaign. Also, provide them with an e-mail they can send out to their own network as well. Make it as easy for them as possible to support you.
7. Keep your supporters updated. Once you get someone to support your campaign, don’t just let them fall by the wayside. Keep them in the loop by sending out a newsletter or e-mail updates throughout your campaign and post-campaign. Make sure they know their support is appreciated.

Have you use a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for your book? How successful were you?