Why Am I All Over the Web?

This year in 2017, I’m trying hard to consolidate all my internet past, present and future activities so everything is available in one area.  Well, what I’ve discovered about my past online endeavors is that I am basically all over the web.

For years, my son has been telling me to focus on my website and building my own brand.  Now that I’m finally trying to actually do this, I see why it has taken me so long to even make the attempt.  There is so much that needs updating, revising, or simply just getting rid of!

All Over the Place

For more than two decades, I’ve been working online in one capacity or another.  As a result, I’m all over the web, and not necessarily in a good way.  NO – I don’t think I have any compromising photos or anything like that in the cloud.  What I’m referring to is, the fact that I’ve been involved in a whole lot of internet activities.  They all call for setting up profiles and providing a variety of information.  As the years go by, a lot changes and things become less or more important.  Somethings just become irrelevant and not worthy of mentioning.

Trying to sort through all the activities, accounts, and other online crap is an ordeal.  Deciding what to keep, and what to let go of is worse than spring cleaning!  With the help of my know it all son, I’ve tried my best to redesign my website so that it reflects the best of what I’ve done and what I’m continuing to do online and with my writing career.  Here’s the web address:  http://charmbaker.com

Moving Forward:

As I move forward, the above web address is where I’ll be doing most of my blogging and basic updates related to self-publishing.  The site is now designed to accommodate regular blog posts, in addition to keeping readers informed of my status .

This SELF-PUBLISHED blog will continue to provide important, but more SPECIAL news and content related to the self-publishing industry, as well as my own self-publishing journey.  Of course, readers can always visit my website also for as much information as I can possibly provide on these and other topics, like this one:

Wanted: New Undiscovered Authors Seeking More Exposure and Book Sales

If you specifically want to read more self-publishing posts, take note of the following.

AUTHORS seeking informative posts on self-publishing can take advantage of previous and upcoming posts that focus on the these topics:

• Amazon Buzz
• Announcements
• Author Insight
• Author Resources
• Book Marketing
• Media / Videos
• Publishing Process 

READERS looking for something interesting to enjoy can find something here in my current post categories available on the website:

• Books/Movies
• Family
• General
• Life
• Poetry
• Rants

 

 

 

SelfPublished: Deciding Whether or Not to Have a Paid ISBN Number for Your Newly Published Book Title

If you’re a self-published author, you may be wondering how to decide whether you should have a paid ISBN number for your newly published book title.

I recently published “Skipping Childhood:  A Novel (From Abused Foster Child to Adolescent Serial Killer).”  You can find this dark urban drama in Amazon’s Mystery, Thriller & Suspense category.  You might be surprised to learn that in addition to the suspense element, my novel is also a coming of age story.  It chronicles the life of a twelve-year-old girl who resorts to murder and turns into a borderline sociopath.

When I released the book this past December, I struggled with the idea of whether or not to purchase an ISBN for the Skipping Childhood title.  I had to go back and read some information I posted over two years ago concerning this issue.  After considering all the facts about obtaining my own paid ISBN, I decided to wait for now.  I will, however, be giving the topic much more consideration, especially with regard to buying a block of ISBN numbers from the Bowker website.  The following details and comments from the “experts” may help you understand a little more about free versus paid ISBN numbers.

ISBN Facts

• The ISBN number is actually internationally accepted as the “standard book number” for a publication.
• It appears on the detail page and it is there for a reason; to identify that particular, unique version of your book.
• An ISBN number for your print book will not be the same as your digital book.
• If a book appears in different languages, you need to have an ISBN for each language version.  The same is true if you create another edition.

Free ISBN

Publishers such as Smashwords and Amazon/Kindle (also distributors), do not require your new digital book to have an ISBN number.

The reason that mandatory because they will assign a “free” number to the title; one that will also help them to catalogue the book according to their own procedures.  Since the “free” number is specific to whichever publisher happens to publish your book, you will usually get a warning about using it with different publishers.

This kind of makes you wonder whether or not multiple numbers will end up causing confusion?  Bowker (ISBN.org) is the official site for everything pertaining to ISBN numbers.  Here is what they had to say on the issue.  “If an ISBN is obtained from a company other than the official ISBN Agency, that ISBN will not identify the publisher of the title accurately.”  Bowker is the official source for ISBNs in the United States.

From their statements, we can “assume” that it makes more sense to pay for your own ISBN number.  Paying for your own will allow you to use the same one for all your digital publishers.

While this may be the case, you still have another dilemma; whether to use a free, versus paid number for the PRINT version of your book.

ISBN for Print Books

Print books do not share the same ISBN number as their digital counterpart, even when you pay for the ISBN.

If you prefer purchasing your own ISBN number for your newly published title, you will need to buy two; one for your print version and one for your digital book.

ISBN Prices

You will spend no less than $10 for each ISBN if you buy them one at a time.

You can select the more expensive option of about $99 (or more) for a block of numbers.  ISBNs are sold in blocks of 10, 100, and 1000.  The price per ISBN decreases, the larger the block that you purchase.

Important Considerations

The ISBN publisher prefix is considered the “root” of the ISBN number.  It identifies a single publisher; that is why, if another publisher subsequently obtains that same ISBN from the assigned publisher’s block of ISBNs, the publisher of record will remain the same.

That means that when someone searches the industry databases for the number, it will identify the original person as the owner of the ISBN number, even though it has been re-assigned.  Ultimately, this can lead to the huge expense of applying for a new prefix, and re-assigning a new ISBN.

For print books, it could also lead to ISBN stickers being applied to books that are already printed and in circulation

Notice what the Bowker, the experts and final authority on the issue, stated to new authors and self-publishers:

“If you are a new publisher you should apply for your own ISBN publisher prefix and plan to identify and circulate your books properly in the industry supply chain. You may encounter offers from other sources to purchase single ISBNs at special offer prices; you should be wary of purchasing from these sources for the reasons noted above. There are unauthorized re-sellers of ISBNs and this activity is a violation of the ISBN standard and of industry practice. A publisher with one of these re-assigned ISBNs will not be correctly identified as the publisher of record in Books In Print or any of the industry databases such as Barnes and Noble or Amazon or those of wholesalers such as Ingram. If you have questions, contact the US ISBN Agency for further advice.”

ISBN.org by Bowker

Since ISBNs are sold in blocks of 10, 100, and 1000, Bowker suggests you estimate the amount of publications that you will be publishing (as much as five years in advance), then purchase the block that will suit your purposes best.  For exact details on purchasing your own block of ISBN numbers for future use, visit their myidentifiers.com site.

Promoting Your New Book Title with Amazon Marketing Services (Update)

The Amazon Marketing Services available for KDP authors might be just the boost you need to help gain more book exposure. You get to create an enticing book ad and have it displayed in a couple of ways.

As any author with a newly published title knows; gaining exposure for your book can be difficult, especially in the very beginning.  The Amazon Marketing Services offer a couple of different ways for you to try and increase your odds for exposure.  Those two ways are by means of creating promotional ad campaigns for your book title; either a Sponsored Products ad campaign or a Product Display ad campaign.

Tweaking the Ads is Important

So far, what I’ve discovered about both types of ads is that you have to keep tweaking them in order to come up with the right dynamics.  I’ve purchased both types, and so far, I’ve started and stopped a few different campaigns.  I’ve also allow a couple to run to completion (just two days each).  I won’t try and explain the difference in the two ads, and how the campaigns need to be set up, because honestly, I’ve yet to get the hang of things.  The basic difference in the two are:

• Sponsored Products Ads allow you to select targeted keywords
• Product Display Ads allow your ad to be displayed with similar or related products

I’m currently running two different Ad campaigns.  In the screenshot below, it shows all the campaigns I’ve run, even those that have ended, been terminated or paused.  There are only two active ones right now.  One is the Sponsored Products ad (Yellow), the other is the Product Display ad, (Red).  As you can see, the more than 17,000 impressions where my ad was visible has gained me 31 actual clicks.  I’ve paid a total of $13.64 for those clicks, but none of the clicks have led to actual sales.

As for the other ad, it did even worse.  There were only 1593 impressions of my ad, and they only gained me 3 clicks, and once again, I can only assume that no sales were gained because my total number of sales on the other Report page did not increase.

Possible Benefits of Amazon Marketing Services

I could very easily assume that neither ad is doing me any good, if it weren’t for one more important stat that I’ve noticed.  On my page where the book sales are reported, I’ve been noticing something I never noticed before.  The KENP pages.  This refers to pages of your book that have been read and you somehow gain a portion of the “global fund”.  In order to be eligible, your book must be enrolled in the KDP Select program at the time, as well as having received allowable page reads.

I’ve always gotten notices about this fund, but don’t recall ever having any qualifying book reads, until now.  Since the number has been gradually rising, I decided to document the number so I can try and determine just how much this number is increasing.  I also suspect that maybe the ad campaign is affecting this number.  I guess I’ll need to keep a tight eye on this development, and let you readers know more in the future.

While I usually ignore the email from Amazon about the “global fund”, the next time I receive a notice, I’ll pay more attention to what it says.  I’m pretty sure I’ve read that eligible authors earn a portion of this fund, in addition to our regular royalties.  If your reports don’t show any number in this area, it means that none of your titles have qualified “normalized page reads” to earn you any cash from this fund.  Apparently, I never noticed this area before, because I never had any qualified page reads.

As best as I can understand (according to details I’ve read), the fact that Skipping Childhood now has 679 qualified page reads is not that big a deal to get excited about.  It is simply equivalent to a little more than two people reading the entire book when you consider that there are about 253 pages (according to Amazon, so I’m guessing that’s digital pages).  Of course I could be understanding this whole thing wrong.  But as far as I’m concerned, I’m glad that at least people somewhere are reading the book, even if the sales and reviews don’t seem to reflect it.  I look forward to providing more details in the future on what the KENP global fund is all about.

Book Marketing Blues: There’s More to Publishing a Book than Simply Writing it!

Many NANO authors and other indie authors with new releases will often come down with a case of the book marketing blues.

This happens when authors complete their manuscripts, only to discover that there’s much more to publishing a book than simply getting the writing done.  Marketing and promotion is really where all the hard work comes in.  No one wants to hear it, including me, but the reality is; it’s not unusual for a new title to take up to two years before starting to gain some momentum.  All the experts say that even this kind of timeline will be dependent on just how much time the author is willing to devote to marketing.

The above viewpoint, and slight variations of it seem to be all I hear when it comes to having a successful novel.  It seems almost unbearable, the amount of hard work that goes into trying to gain exposure and recognition for something that you’ve already poured your soul into.  The challenge to try and get your book into someone’s hand, and then have them talk about it continues to get harder and harder.

Comes with the Territory

For unknown or unpopular authors and titles, the book marketing blues basically comes with the territory.  No matter how excited you are to finally upload your work and publish your book; be prepared to have a little air let out of your sails.  Just like the thousands of NANO writers who completed this year’s challenge, I too released a new title on December 1, 2016.  The book, Skipping Childhood:  A Novel (From Abused Foster Child to Adolescent Serial Killer) is now available exclusively on Amazon, via their KDP Select program.  Since that time, I’ve been monitoring book sales, while trying out a number of different ad campaigns and book marketing services.  The results are far less better than I anticipated.

Although I didn’t participate in NANO, I have no doubt that lots of those writers are probably facing the same book marketing blues that I’m having myself.   This is especially true when you’re a first time author, but even though this is my second novel, the whole marketing situation is still discouraging.  I learned two years ago (when my first novel:  “Experimenting with Murder” was released) just how foolish it is to expect your numbers to soar overnight.  It didn’t’ happen then, and it’s not happening with “Skipping Childhood”.

Stay Focused

One thing I’m determined to do this time around is to stay focused on the big picture; which is to always be writing.  When you’re so wrapped up into trying to market one product, it can make you lose sight of your actual brand.  I believe that my “Charm Baker” brand is good enough that people will love it, once they actually discover it.  So I can’t afford to put all my efforts into marketing just the first, second, third, or even fourth novel.

Out of all the book marketing methods I’ve read about in order to help gain more book sales, is the method of “creating another book, and another, and another…”  That is a philosophy that makes sense to me and definitely one that makes me feel positive about the outcome.  I’d rather be doing something proactive, than simply waiting around for people to find my book and buy it.  There’s nothing more proactive than writing another one.  That’s why, believe it or not, I’m just about ready to sit down and get started on a sequel to “Skipping Childhood”.

My plan is to continue talking about and marketing my newest release, but not to waste any time starting the next book.  So far, I’ve posted and positioned “Skipping Childhood” in many of the same places that most new authors submit to:  Goodreads, Kindle Boards, etc…  I’m using both paid and non-paid book marketing services, and I’m doing what I can in the way of social media (although this is probably my least effective resource).

Some authors really benefit from social media book marketing, those who have a large following on one or more popular sites.  I personally believe you can end up wasting your time and efforts on social media if you don’t really have a following.  I’ve lost time and energy trying to navigate social media sites that I don’t ordinarily interact on.  I think it’s important that each author focus on book marketing activities that are not foreign to them and that they actually enjoy.  These are the things that you’ll continue to do on a regular basis.

Prevent the Blues

You can prevent yourself from getting the book marketing blues if you find effective activities that you really enjoy.  If you enjoy making videos and want to market and promote your book in that way, than get good at doing that.  You don’t have to try EVERY book marketing activity that you read about; just the ones you actually want to do.  For instance, I operate a blog called:  “Skipping Childhood (Ramblings)” and it is a companion blog to my book.  The whole blog is devoted to topics related to the book, but it allows me to do what I love best; talk, share, and give my opinion on things.  My “ramblings” on the blog cover all kinds of thought provoking issues, all related to my book in one way or another.

I’ve given myself a whole long list of topics to choose from whenever I write a post for the Skipping Childhood blog.  The cool thing is, everything I discuss all comes back to the book, including the characters and scenes it contains.  This is one way that I’ve found to help get rid of my book marketing blues.  I feel confident I’ll stick to it, even if I tire out and stop doing all the other marketing activities.  This kind of close scrutiny of the book has helped me discover so many new things about the topics, about myself, and even about the book’s characters.  I look forward to this type of marketing each day, instead of dreading it.

Now, what about you?  How will you chase those book marketing blues away, now that your new title is published?  Feel free to share your thoughts.

Save

Amazon Book Review Policy: Blessing or a Malediction

Amazon’s new book review policy makes it really difficult for some new authors and titles to get highly coveted reviews.

I say “new” policy, because quite frankly, it’s new to me, although it must have been implemented within the past two years.  The main issue is the fact that people who purchase a product (particularly a book for purposes of this conversation) need to have spent at least $50 in purchases on Amazon.  Not $50 in one purchase, but no less than that amount prior to leaving a review.  Personally, I think that sucks.

Quality Assurance

I’m sure that Amazon feels their policy is about quality assurance, and I can respect that.  When it comes to acquiring honest and legitimate reviews, I’m all for it – 100% and any author who really cares about their work and reputation probably feel the same way.  But I fail to see why a person who chooses to support an author by purchasing a book and following up with a review has to be a regular Amazon customer.

Any individuals who choose to try and defraud the system with bogus reviews aren’t hindered by this issue; not when they already have a budget in place for this type of deception.  It seems to me that the people who are most adversely affected by this are the authors who lose out on much needed reviews because some of their readers have no particular loyalty to Amazon.

I mention this point because my sister is an AVID reader, only she has a Nook (Amazon/Kindle competitor).  The more than two thousand dollars she’s spent over the years on books go to Barnes & Noble, or Audiobooks, not Amazon.  In the past, I’ve been hesitant about asking family and friends to support my writing.  Now that I’ve published: Skipping Childhood:  A Novel (From Abused Foster Child to Adolescent Serial Killer), I’ve been busy rallying the troops to buy and review the book.  A dark urban drama about a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship. From child abuse to murder, the suspense mounts after each killing.

VIEW BOOK TRAILER

I had my sister set up an Amazon account and make her purchase there, but three days later after finishing the book, she wasn’t allowed to leave a review, due to the aforementioned policy.  I’m concerned now, because she won’t be the only one from my support system that has this problem.  So I guess I’m screwed on getting reviews from those I knew I could count on.  BUMMER!

Hands are Tied

With so many strict rules and regulations regarding acquiring reviews, the average new author and his/her titles have little to no chance of being discovered.  Most of those really creative ways that you come up with to obtain a review are now a “no no” with Amazon.  No review swapping and certainly no purchased reviews are tolerated.  This has really got some of our hands tied.  If any authors out there have found any ALLOWABLE solutions, feel free to comment below.

New Amazon Authors: Do You Know What You Write and Who You Write For?

There is one all-important thing that I have come to appreciate about writing a book. It is important to know from the very beginning, as well as during the middle and at the end of the process, just exactly what you are writing and who you are writing for.  I know you’re probably thinking “Duh? That goes without saying.”  Or maybe something like, “I already know this”, or “Yeah, I’ve heard this before.”  Well even if you have heard it before, you’d better be good and certain that you fully understand what it means by the time you get to the end of the writing process.  Besides recognizing and understanding this point, you also need to apply it.

NOTICE THESE AMAZON CATEGORIES AND HOW MANY LEVELS DEEP THE SUBCATEGORIES CAN GO

In the above example, you might lose out if you’re some kind of “epic” writing genius and you only list your title in the more broader “Romance / Science Fiction” category.

What are you writing?

I speak from experience, because this isn’t the first time that I have finished a complete novel and though I thought I was writing one thing, I later discovered that I had actually ended up writing something else.  Not something worse, just something different.

Finding this information out long after the fact can end up being detrimental to getting exposure for your book’s title.  I’ll save the details about my first experience with this for another time.  Right now, this conversation is specific to my new book:  “Skipping Childhood:  A Novel” (From Abused Foster Child to Adolescent Serial Killer).

This dark urban drama about a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship starts with child abuse but ends in murder.  The suspense mounts after each killing and a neglected 12-year-old fights to survive abandonment and foster care.

I wrote this book with all the enthusiasm of an author who is writing a dark thriller, full of suspense. But while Skipping Childhood has thrilling elements as well as elements of suspense, there is also another major focus.  It is the child abuse and the dynamics of the dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship.

In searching through the different Amazon categories, I came across the parenting and relationship option, which also offers two additional subcategories; abuse and child abuse.  Taking advantage of this particular category may prove to be a lot more beneficial to my title.  Not only is this category more specific to the book’s content, it is also a category that is not as broad as the urban, or thriller and suspense categories which are extremely popular. (More about this in the KDP section below)

On Amazon, listing your title in a category that has less competition means you have the possibility of your book receiving a higher ranking for that specific category.  Your potential to rank among the top 100 in that category is much more increased. This of course will get your book title more coverage and visibility than if you were at the bottom of a popular category.

So before you start to go with the mainstream and get buried in too broad of a category, you may want to think in terms of targeting a smaller niche subcategory. Since Amazon allows you to select two categories, you can even go with one broad category that matches your book’s content, as well as the more closely targeted niche.  This is what I recently did with Skipping Childhood.  The changes just became effective so I’ll try to watch the progress, although now, I also have some other variables to be considered.  (More about this in the KDP section below)

Who are you writing for?

Just because you’re smart enough to determine what you are writing doesn’t automatically mean you realize who you’re writing for.  One of the things that helped me to determine what it was that I had actually written (after the fact), was the blog that I created as a companion to my book.

My Skipping Childhood (Ramblings) blog has helped me to take a good, long, and thorough look at the focus of my novel and what is driving the story.  This is when I was able to recognize how much the complex relationships between the characters stood out.  The blog has given me a valid reason to discuss the book on a regular basis, and a platform I feel strongly committed to.  As I began to interact and get feedback on book-related blog posts, I get closer to the people that my writing is for.  This doesn’t mean that readers who love urban drama and suspense novels can’t or won’t find me; it just means that those who prefer other aspects of the book will find me as well.

RECENT “”Skipping Childhood (Ramblings) BLOG POSTS:

• The Little Girl Who Kills – Deandra Baxter (Character Insight)
• Why Do We Hesitate to Speak the Truth?
• How Do You Deal with Your Flaws?
• Survivors: Finding Ways to Assert Your Power

KDP select

Since the December 1^st release of Skipping Childhood:  A Novel, there has been one decision that I wrestled with concerning distribution.  I hesitated on whether or not to submit the title to KDP select.  I’ve used it in the past, and did not experience the success that I imaged I would.  That is why I really hate the idea of tying up my new title for 3 months and making it exclusive to Amazon.  Nonetheless, I decided to do it anyway, especially since I’m prepared to do a whole lot more marketing of this title.  I’m determined to master the strategies of becoming a best-selling author on Amazon so now is as good a time to start as any.

Here’s the dilemma that I created for myself before thinking about it more.  Not only did I sign up for KDP Select, but I also started running another Amazon Marketing Campaign (the other one was short-lived because the keywords were off).  I also chose to run a promotion for two free days.  So now, I have:

• New book category
• New keywords
• Amazon Ad Marketing campaign (2 days)
• Free Days promotion (2 days)

I think I may be doing too many things at one time.  If something actually works, it may be difficult to determine what it was.  That means I’ll need to pay close attention to my Amazon stats so I’ll know how to duplicate an activity that actually succeeds.  By next week this time when I post again to this blog, I’ll have something more about this to report.

KBoards’ “Book Discovery Day” Promotion (Update)

My KBoard Book Discovery Day was scheduled for their Tuesday blog post, the day they typically feature new or overlooked books.  Since I’m committed to giving an honest review of the $15 service, I’ll admit to my readers that I was a bit irritated when I went to their blog page several times during the course of the day, only to find that the book discovery related post wasn’t posted yet.  That being said, I decided to cut them some slack after checking for the final time on Tuesday evening.  I resolved to just wait and view the posting tomorrow (now today).

After a quick run to my local post office this morning, I checked in with the KBoards blog at 11:00 am and still no mention of the current “Book Discovery” titles.  I found the previous Tuesday’s post, as well as other previous dates, but not the current post.  Then I remembered that they said to be sure and check their Facebook page about the blog post.  When I went there, that’s where I saw the current link.  I followed the link and found my book details midway down the page (screenshot below).

“Book Discovery” Benefits?

So the question is this really a beneficial book promotion service and would I use this particular promotion again?  FOR SURE!  I don’t know how much I’m winning with it right now because it’s too soon to tell, but I know I’m definitely not losing by getting my book in people’s face.  So be sure to check me out on the:

KBoards Book Discovery Day (Blog Post)

There was one small point that I was a little miffed about; the fact that the blog post link – when used in social media – automatically displays one of the book images from the page and it wasn’t mine.  I had to make sure I indicated in my posting that my book is ONE OF THE BOOKS featured on the page, so they wouldn’t mistakenly think the image in the social media post was my book.  Other than that, I was happy to make various mentions about the KBoards blog post to my own Twitter, Google+ and Facebook accounts.

Feel free to let me know your thoughts if you decide to use KBoards.

Local Author Meets Local Libraries – (Skipping Childhood: A Novel)

Skipping Childhood:  A Novel is the dark urban drama recently released by author Charm Baker; a Los Angeles California resident.  If all goes as expected, this coming of age story about an abused child who resorts to killing will be available in southern California local libraries.

Baker has submitted requests to the following local branches, in an effort to have them offer the Amazon and digital downloads of the book, as well as copies of the print format.  If you reside near any of the following branches, and would like to read a copy, please check with your local branch to see if the title:  Skipping Childhood: A Novel (From Abused Foster Child to Adolescent Serial Killer) is available.

If you would like to submit an online library request so they will obtain the book for your branch, please follow the simple instructions below.

SUBMIT A REQUEST TO LOCAL LIBRARY

Click this link:  Public Library

Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and look on the right side of page for the “Contact” link.  Follow the contact link to the “Suggest a Purchase” link and simply insert the following details under the section that says:

Fill in these Suggested Item Details:

TITLE:  Skipping Childhood: A Novel (From Abused Foster Child to Adolescent Serial Killer)

AUTHOR:  Charm Baker

PUBLISHER:  Just Charm Publishing

PUBLICATION DATE:  Jan. 1, 2017

ISBN:  978-1540648808

FORMAT:  Book

 

KBoards: Why I Plan to Use Kindle Boards Book Marketing in 2017

As most new and existing Indie authors know, KBoards is a popular Kindle book marketing resource site.  They offer a number of great of marketing and promotion opportunities for new indie titles.  In a previous blog post, I spoke about two of those marketing opportunities.  Today I would like to provide updates on one of those services.  That service is the $35 “one day featured book” service.

I knew my book, “Skipping Childhood: A Novel (From Abused Foster Child to Adolescent Serial Killer) would be featured for one day on Monday November 28^th.  The night before, I decided to log into KBoards and see if there were any suggestions on what I could do the next day to help me get the maximum benefit from the promotion.  It just so happens that it was after midnight when I logged into KBoards, which meant that technically it was already Monday.  Low and behold, the first thing I see when I log onto the sight was my book ad – YAY!

I checked into the website periodically throughout the day and of course my ad was still there, just as promised.  I know that KBoards is a reputable site with a pretty good Alexa rating.  They get very decent traffic, therefore, your book can gain a good amount of exposure, even for one day.  Although I’ve yet to see what the results are from this promotion, I believe the $35 is money well spent.  I may even purchase the two day plan next time around.  I think it was $80.  If you’re a self-published author with a new title to promote, I wholeheartedly recommend using KBoards.  You can notice what the simple but (hopefully) effective book ad looks like in the screen shots below, plus see how strategic the ad placement is on the page.

 

FEATURES OF BOOK AD SERVICE

There are several things to notice in this second screenshot (below).  First of all, there are links in your add that will offer visitors 3 different ways to view your book.  I believe the “Open it” link should enable them to read a sample, however since my book is a pre-release, the sample text is not available until the actual December 1, 2016 release.  Therefore, this particular link in my ad did not work.  Authors may want to keep this point in mind if you plan to use the “Featured book” service prior to your own book’s release.

The second accessible book link is the “Amazon” link in your ad.  This allows visitors to go directly to your book’s Amazon buy page so they can purchase it right then and there.  Cool huh?

The last link in your ad is a cool “Hover” link.  It allows them to see details about your book by simply hoovering over the link.  The screenshot you see below is an image I captured when I used the hover link.  As you can see, my book details for ““Skipping Childhood:  A Novel” is displayed.  Visitors get a chance to see that this title is an urban novel and a dark coming of age story about a twelve-year-old who resorts to killing as retribution.

To learn more about this book, feel free to visit the book’s new compaion blog site:  skippingchildhood.blogspot.com because it outlines details about the book, as well as the characters.

To learn more about KBoards, visit:  www.kboards.com

Book Marketing: Promoting Your Self-published Title on a Limited Budget

If you’re a new indie author like me; you know that book marketing is the hardest part of the whole writing a book process.  Promoting your self-published title on your own is definitely no easy task, especially if you’re on a limited budget.  There are some pretty straightforward things that you can do yourself, and even authors who can afford costly marketing fees still take advantage of some of these same tactics.

Here are a few not too expensive actions that I’ve taken to help promote my new title:  Skipping Childhood: A Novel (From Abused Foster Child to Adolescent Serial Killer).  Once you look over these services, you may find that you’re already familiar with them, and maybe have already tried them.  If not, why not check the websites out and see if they’re worth your time.  I only implemented the services very recently, so it’s too soon for me to discuss the results, but I’m hopeful.  All the websites listed below seem pretty reputable and should be able to provide at least some exposure for your book.  It definitely won’t hurt to try the services, even it takes a while for noticeable results.

After you’ve had a chance to check out the book promotion sites that I’ve just recently tried, be sure to pay attention to what I think is another awesome idea.  I stumbled across a form online that may help in more ways than you might imagine.

Try Amazon Book Marketing Services

Amazon sent me an email regarding a new (or newer) marketing feature that they’re offering to KDP authors.  It basically works a lot like Google’s Adwords.  You can either run an ad campaign based on keywords, or based on other books and products that relate to your own.  The minimum Ad campaign amount you can start with is $100, so that’s what I did.   That amount can actually be stretched over a period of time, depending on the maximum amount I want to spend per day.  For instance, if you do like I did and select a 30 day period to run a campaign, that allows me a $3.33 a day budget before my hundred bucks is gone.  It’s a little more detailed than that, but that’s the gist of how it works.  I’ll post any results when I have them.

By the way, I had to supply some text as a caption for my ad, so I chose a variation of my book’s tagline.

Killing just ain’t right, but neither is child abuse. A twelve-year-old girl  takes matters into her own hands and when she does, it’s murder!

Hopefully this will be catchy enough to make viewers want to learn more about the book.  I pay for each click a person makes on specific keywords (it’s deducted from the $100), so I hope my words adequately convey what they’re searching for before they click the ad.

Check Out KBoards

For those who don’t know, KBoards stands for “Kindle Boards” and for good reason.  All the forums on the website and various resources relate specifically to Kindle books.  For example, I purchased the $35 service for a 1 Day Featured Book Ad.  My “Skipping Childhood” related book ad will run on Tuesday, November 29^th.  On Tuesday When I visit the KBoards blog at:

http://kboards.blogspot.com and their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/kboards

I will be able to see my ad featured there for the day.  It sounds like the kind of exposure that “Skipping Childhood” can really benefit from.  We’ll see.  If all goes well, the next time I’ll order the 2 day book feature for a little more.

KBoards Offer Much More

Since KBoards have so much to offer, I also selected another cool book marketing opportunity that was also economical.  This was the KB Book Discovery for only $15.  By now you may be thinking, “hmmm, not bad” and you’re right.  For a few dollars, why not get as much more exposure as possible?  Now that I’ve got your attention, I’ll let you visit the KBoards website and see what you get for this $15 service.

Consider Your Local Library

Now it’s time to consider something you may not have really given thought to for your self-published book; your local library.  Hold on one moment and I’ll tell you why.  The fact of the matter is,  most of you savvy indie authors are probably already up on KBoards, not to mention the ever popular Goodreads, and Book Daily, two more popular sites.  If you are, that’s a good thing, but the fact that they’ve become so popular is reason enough not to rest all your hopes in their services.  There are just so many of us authors vying for needed attention.  That is not to say don’t bother trying these or other options; it’s just to say don’t limit yourself to these.

KBoards, Goodreads, and Book Daily are options that have really become like second nature to new authors and especially two-time self-published authors (by the second time around, you know the ropes).  Try them yourself and if they serve your particular purpose, great, use them again.  If not, move on to the next one, but in order to do that, you’ve got to start compiling a list of options; paid and non-paid.  And don’t be too lazy to SERIOUSLY monitor results.  I’ll talk more about this later in the week when I share screenshots from my Amazon marketing campaign.

Now about the local library.  I actually went to my local library and left an author introduction letter for the “adult books” librarian, along with a book flyer with details about “Skipping Childhood”.  In it, I told her several points about my African American urban life novel.  I briefly mentioned how it is a sort of twisted coming of age story about a twelve-year-old serial killer.  Later when I got home, I decided to try to find some actual email contact information for the librarian.  I discovered something even better on the public library website for my area.  It was a form for individuals to actually Submit a Purchase Request for a particular book.  Among the dropdown options to identify yourself were:  “Author” and also “Patron” so that let me know it was okay to submit my own book.  YAY!

There was a comment box at the end of the form, and once again, I took an opportunity to introduce myself as a local author and asked for their support.  Now for the REALLY cool part.  Since the form was specific to the library nearest me, I decided to search for another nearby library.  I located the site and luckily, all the sites were set up the same, with the exception of having their own special events, photos, etc.  I found the form to submit “Skipping Childhood” to another library.  The auto-form fill even worked, so all the information just popped in, the moment I put the first character in the box.  Needless to say, I got busy and submitted my request to as many libraries as I could before I got tired (50 in all).  I offered to provide courtesy print and digital copies from those who specifically requested them.

I’m not sure what results to expect, but I sure felt proud of myself for such an earnest effort towards the success of my book.  I realized also that if I could submit a request as the author, perhaps I could get some other locals to make the same request for my book.  That way, maybe librarians will see the title is in demand, and actually stock some for their branch.

With that said, if anyone in the Southern California area is near one of these Public Library locations, you can make a request to them to purchase a copy of “Skipping Childhood” for your nearest branch.  The print book will be released in January 2017, plenty enough time for them to order a few copies.  Some libraries also make digital downloads available, but if you use the following information, the ISBN is specifically for a print format.  All the information to make a library request for “Skipping Childhood” is below.  If you live in another state and would like to do the same for this book, please check for a link to your local branches.  Thank you.

Click this link:  Public Library

Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and look on the right side of page for the “Contact” link.  Follow the contact link to the “Suggest a Purchase” link and simply insert the following details under the section that says:

Fill in these Suggested Item Details:

TITLE:  Skipping Childhood:  A Novel (From Abused Foster Child to Adolescent Serial Killer)

AUTHOR:  Charm Baker

PUBLISHER:  Just Charm Publishing

PUBLICATION DATE:  Jan. 1, 2017

ISBN:  978-1540648808

FORMAT:  Book

Get Innovative with Your Marketing

As you can see, this whole library option could turn out to be quite promising, even if only one or two librarians support you, they still may have a lot of influence on whether others buy or read your book.

If you’re a new indie author looking for more book marketing options, why not give these a try?  When you only have a limited budget to promote your book, give your new title every opportunity for exposure that you can.  Good Luck!