From Contract to Launch: Check-in with Kimberly Miller

You may or may not remember during the A to Z Challenge when I introduced my crit partner, Kimberly Miller, author of the soon-to-be-released Triangles. In that post, I told you we would be following Kim as she grew her marketing in preparation for her book launch.

Well, here we are with a check-in. Right now, Spencer Hill and Kim are mostly working on edits, but Kim isn't neglecting her image building. She and some friends in her critique group have started a joint blog. A joint blog is a great idea for a busy writer. It can be an easier burden than trying to blog alone, and can get you more exposure. I talked more about joint ventures last month too, by the way.

Anyhoo, Kimmy's introduction on her blog went live today! Check it out.

Check back through the next few months as we more closely follow Kim and her marketing pathway. I can't say what it is yet, but there's something in the works that's gonna be awesome! So stay tuned.

P is for Promotion

Promoting yourself is hard. That's why I started this blog - so that I, or, we, rather, could practice promoting ourselves together. I haven't really encountered a need to actively work on my promotion seeing as how I don't have a book to send out to the world, but my amazingly talented critique partner, Kimberly Ann Miller, does.

This is Kimmy! Kimberly Ann Miller, I mean.

Remember how I said yesterday that you should always look for opportunity? When Kim got the deal to publish her book and began to ask me a few marketing questions, I thought, what a great opportunity to share the process with the blogosphere. I told her I'd love to give her some ideas and asked if she'd let me share here. She said yes! Welcome to another occasional series following Kim's book promotion from contract to launch.

Today is for introductions only, but I am very excited to give you my crit partner, Kim.


So Kimmy, tell us about your book and publishing deal: 
Triangles is a young adult contemporary fantasy. Here is the blurb from Spencer Hill’s website:

A cruise ship. A beautiful island. Two sexy guys. What could possibly go wrong?

In the Bermuda Triangle—a lot.

Hoping to leave behind the reminders of her crappy life--her father's death years ago, her mother's medical problems, and the loser who’s practically stalking her--seventeen-year-old Autumn Taylor hops on a ship with her sister for a little distraction. When she wakes up in the Bermuda Triangle, she fears she's gone nuts for more than one reason: that loser’s suddenly claiming they're a happy couple... a hot guy is wrapping his arms around her and saying "Happy Anniversary"... and suddenly, she’s full of bruises, losing her hair, and getting IV medication. Autumn visits the ship's doctor, hoping for a pill or a shot to make the craziness go away. Instead, she's warned that these "alternate realities" could become permanent.

She just has to ask herself one question—how the hell is she going to get out of this mess?

I had an interesting journey leading me to Spencer Hill Press. I entered a query contest on Kate Kaynak’s blog, Disgruntled Bear, last October. She is an editor and author at Spencer Hill. She liked my query and invited me to send it in when they opened to submissions on December 1, 2011. I had it ready and sent it per their submission guidelines on that exact date. A few days later, Kate requested the full manuscript. On February 21, 2012, I received an email from Kate offering me publication! They have been fantastic to work with since day one. I have already spoken to three editors and a cover artist! I am thrilled to have such a great publisher behind Triangles.

Before you landed your deal with Spencer Hill, what social media were you using?
I had a Facebook page and was fooling around with Twitter. I also had read along the way that it was a good idea to have a website, so I set up a basic site using my internet service provider.

What advice has Spencer Hill given you? What have you done since signing?
Since it’s early in the process, we haven’t gotten too deep into marketing, but my editor told me we will be working on a comprehensive marketing plan soon. So far she has made some suggestions such as becoming more active on social media, joining Tumblr, and improving my website’s look and color. We also talked about the importance of a great cover and captivating jacket copy. She’s interested in hearing what your suggestions are and coordinating our marketing efforts!

Isn't that cool? Her editor is interested in hearing what I have to say!! This is very exciting to me, especially since I have known Triangles for awhile now and feel very close to its success (it's a GREAT story!). So I typed up a bunch of suggestions and the team is looking them over now. As Kim and Spencer Hill move forward, I will share with you our ideas (as I'm able) so make sure to check back often. 

Find Kimmy at:
Twitter: @KimberlyAnnNJ: https://twitter.com/#!/KimberlyAnnNJ
Facebook: Kimberly Ann Miller: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000972287894
Email: KAMillerWrites (at) aol (dot) com
Website: kimberlyannmiller.com
Tumblr: http://kimberlyannmiller.tumblr.com/

Your turn, readers: what aspects of promotion do you find the most difficult? 

Fire in the Blogosphere: CassaFire Release

An interesting phenomenon took place yesterday. I went to my Google Reader to do some blog reading and the first blog that pulled up was spotlighting Alex J. Cavanaugh's CassaFire release. My first thought was, Whoops! I guess I forgot to write a post about that, myself...

Then, as the next blog I pulled up was also spotlighting CassaFire, and the next, and the next . And about forty more. I'm not kidding. The blogosphere was on fire. I was in awe of the incredible support that Alex had through his blogging friends. Not surprised, but in awe. It was beautiful.

Alex has done what we should all aspire to do. I'm not talking about great marketing, that's the side benefit. Alex has built real, honest friendships through consistent blogging, response to comments, and visiting and commenting on other blogs. This is not the reason that we blog, but this is what agents and publishers are looking for when they are interested in a writer's platform. Take some notes, folks. Reread my interview with Alex about how he built up such a great support system.

And congrats, Alex. It's a day late, but here's CassaFire!

CassaFire
by Alex J. Cavanaugh

CassaStar was just the beginning…

The Vindicarn War is a distant memory and Byron’s days of piloting Cosbolt fighters are over. He has kept the promise he made to his fallen mentor and friend - to probe space on an exploration vessel. Shuttle work is dull, but it’s a free and solitary existence. The senior officer is content with his life aboard the Rennather.

The detection of alien ruins sends the exploration ship to the distant planet of Tgren. If their scientists can decipher the language, they can unlock the secrets of this device. Is it a key to the Tgren’s civilization or a weapon of unimaginable power? Tensions mount as their new allies are suspicious of the Cassan’s technology and strange mental abilities.

To complicate matters, the Tgrens are showing signs of mental powers themselves; the strongest of which belongs to a pilot named Athee, a woman whose skills rival Byron’s unique abilities. Forced to train her mind and further develop her flying aptitude, he finds his patience strained. Add a reluctant friendship with a young scientist, and he feels invaded on every level. All Byron wanted was his privacy…

Available now!

Science fiction - space opera/adventure
Print ISBN 978-0-9827139-4-5, $15.95, 6x9 Trade paperback, 240 pages
EBook ISBN 978-0-9827139-6-9, $4.99, available in all formats
CassaFire is the sequel to Cavanaugh’s first book, CassaStar, an Amazon Top Ten Best Seller:

“…calls to mind the youthful focus of Robert Heinlein’s early military sf, as well as the excitement of space opera epitomized by the many Star Wars novels. Fast-paced military action and a youthful protagonist make this a good choice for both young adult and adult fans of space wars.” - Library Journal

Book trailer available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa6VINRGtyE.

Barnes and Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cassafire-alex-j-cavanaugh/1034742568

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/CassaFire-Alex-J-Cavanaugh/dp/0982713940/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329417150&sr=1-1

Amazon Kindle - http://www.amazon.com/CassaFire-ebook/dp/B007A2TSNG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1329663355&sr=1-1

Blog Critique: Julie Hedlund

In this series I give constructive feedback about the look and function of an author blog from a marketing perspective. As always, I rely on help from graphic designers Tom Barnes (my hubby) and Joe LaRue. To review the blog elements we look at or to submit your own blog for critique, go here.

Today begins 5 days of blog critiquing awesomeness. Are you ready for it? We're starting off with a bang with the amazing pre-published author Julie Hedlund. Check out her blog real quick and come back to see what we're gonna chat about today.

Okay, Julie's blog is pretty much perfect.  She has a great title, it's beautifully laid out, easy to read, easy on the eyes, organized very well, and so on and so on. Take special note on how she handles her blog roll -even though she has a lot of names, they are very cleanly listed and don't seem cluttered at all. (My only grievance is that I didn't find my name listed among them... :) 

Anyway, I'm breezing through this part because this isn't what we're going to talk about in regards to Julie's blog. What we are going to talk about is that little box that says "Vote For My Story!" See, last week when I stopped by her blog, I noticed Julie was in the middle of a MeeGenius Author challenge. She entered a contest with MeeGenius that required her to do some of her own promoting and getting people to vote for her picture book. Problem was, she wasn't promoting her story very much. That vote for my story box wasn't there. I'm not saying she was doing nothing - she was tweeting and encouraging people to vote through a few mentions on her blog - but I sensed she needed a bit more of a push. So with only a week left for gathering votes, I decided to give Julie some ideas to get the word out about her book. Hopefully the tips I gave her are also helpful to all of you whether promoting for a contest or a newly released published book. Here's the highlights of what I told Julie last week:

1. Run a contest on your blog. The winner will get something cool.  To enter to win, readers must tweet, facebook or blog about your book entry at MeeGenius. They must include a link to your entry to be counted as an entry. They get one chance to win with each that they do. Have them put in the comments links to where they facebooked, blogged, or tweeted about your book. 
2. Set up a mini-blog tour. Yes, it's short notice, but you could tweet or blog out a call for anyone who might want to help.  Be sure to post a schedule of your blog tour. .
3. If you don't get enough bites on the blog tour, you could offer to do joint promotion with one of the other entry winners. Now this sounds devious, but pick someone who doesn't have a lot of votes. You don't want to help out someone who is already winning! Anyway, contact the author and ask if they would like to write a post on your blog about their book in exchange for you writing a post on their blog about your book. It seems like you are shooting yourself in the foot, but it actually is a great way to reach out to your fellow authors and show support. I believe in author karma and this will get you a ton of it. 
4. Make sure you get optimum traffic to your blog this next week, whatever methods of promoting you decide to do there, by commenting on lots of other blogs. Look at all your followers and try to leave meaningful comments on all of their blogs. A lot of bloggers will visit you because you have recently visited them. The more comments you leave on other blogs, the more likely it is they will visit you. 
5. You need a button/badge in your sidebar near the top directing people to your entry. Don't make them read your posts to find out about your book

As you may have noticed, Julie's already implemented many of those ideas. Consider sharing her link and entering her contest. And then, I urge you to check out her story at MeeGenius, not only to vote, but also to keep track of her votes. This is sort of like an experiment for all of us. I'm very excited to see how it works out for her. As I type this, she has 206 votes and is ranked at 45. The first round voting ends Dec. 18th. The first round finalists are chosen by an unknown combination of votes and MeeGenius staff. If Julie makes the first round, her story will be professionally edited, illustrated and animated and reposted for the finals in March. LET'S GET JULIE TO THE FINALS AND DISCOVER THE POWER OF ONLINE MARKETING.

What do you say? Do you have any ideas to help Julie? Please share!