It seems to me we need more people like Abbie supporting herself and the rest of the Indie writers.
This is what's she is doing.
Virtual Bookfair. Online via Facebook from Feb 20th to March 4th.
This is being run by Abbie of the Support Indies Authors group on Goodreads.com with their support.
Yes, it is reputable. Check it out at Facebook!
DETAILS
Who am I?
My name is Abbie Chandler, and last July I finally published my first paranormal mystery, The Veiled Soul. I've been writing for what seems like all my life, but this is my first leap into the world of publication. I always have at least three writing projects open at a time, and I'm always coming up with new ideas! You can find more information about me from my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/abbiechandler13/
What was the idea behind the book fair?
I quickly discovered that while Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes&Noble.com are wonderful platforms for self-published and indie authors, it's a marketing nightmare. I work part time as a freelance writer and part time as a cocktail waitress. My funds for marketing are extremely limited. I'm bombarded every day with ways to market my book, but they always cost hundreds of dollars. The alternative was social media groups that supposedly helped connect indie authors with readers, but they were so saturated with authors posting about their books that I knew that most readers probably weren't even looking at the site anymore. So what could I, an author living from paycheck to paycheck, do to help promote my book?
Maybe it was the fact that I was ordering from the kids menu at work one night, but I had this flashback to the book fairs from elementary school. We got to spend an hour or so each day for several days browsing the books that were set up in the gym. For a bookworm like myself, it was a dream come true. I wanted to take that concept and modernize it for the adult world. And so the virtual book fair was born. I don't know if it's the first one ever (I would guess not), but it's the first once I've ever come across, and the first one I've ever done!
How will the book fair work?
It will be done strictly from Facebook. Set up as a Facebook event, it will run from February 20-March. Ever day of the event will be set aside for books from a particular genre. Guests will be able to see book covers, summaries, and purchase links. They'll be able to read information about the author and view book trailers (when available). The best part is that most of our authors are also on Facebook, so guests can connect directly to the author and ask them question about their works or their writing styles! In addition, each day will include chances for the guests to win free books!
What do I hope to achieve from this?
The idea is to connect people who want to discover new books and authors with writers who are otherwise struggling to expand their audience. In setting it up this way, I hope to avoid certain marketing faux pas. Since the event will only run for two weeks, we won't be bombarding guests with "Buy me now!" posts for the rest of their lives. Once the two weeks are up, guests can either bookmark their favorite books or buy, and then they don't have to worry about hearing from us again until the next one. If they want to connect with the authors on social media for updates on particular works, they can. I hope that the guests who do win or buy books will leave honest reviews (remember, reviews feed authors!!), and they'll discover a new author that they like!
What types of books will be included?
All kinds!!
Romance
Mystery
Horror/Thriller
Fantasy
Science Fiction
Paranormal
Humor/Satire
LGBT
Religious
YA
Chick-Lit
Literary Fiction
Non-fiction
Who can join?
Anyone with a Facebook account can join! Print giveaway from the site will be restricted to US residents only, but authors will also be promoting their own e-book and print giveaway that will span other countries.
How do I join?
Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/927569970656592/ and sign up today! Although the event hasn't started yet, book discussions have! Guests are already voting for their favorite genres and discussing their love for books! The event is completely free. Who knows- maybe you'll find your next favorite book, your next favorite author, and connect with a new friend!
Showing posts with label goodreads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goodreads. Show all posts
Monday, 18 January 2016
Monday, 16 June 2014
It's June, and half way through already. May disappeared in snow storms, frosts and floods! This is unheard of as May is the last month of autumn and therefore usually grey, louring and foretelling of winter. It does not act like winter and dump on us with cold snow and heavy rain.
Seems to me the climate is crazy. Could it be that thing the Americans don't admit is happening? We know all about climate change in the Pacific. All those tiny atoll islands now losing their drinking water as the sea rises or suffering violent waves washing over their homes. Some islanders have already had to leave and come to New Zealand.
Last winter we even had icebergs off the South island coast. Antarctica is melting fast and the glaciers are slipping. I think we should move all climate change nay-sayers to Antarctica and let them measure the effects.
The floods have made my land a revolting mess of squelch and mud. So much so that I nearly lost my gumboots this morning. I cannot open my road gate without wearing gumboots and have to travel to town with boot on board. Our local council is useless. We need a new larger culvert at my gateway to replace the inadequate one already there. No response from the council officials, of course. They spend their whole time saying NO and dodging what is legally council responsibility.
No change at Amazon and Goodreads either as they dodge their responsibility to prevent cyber bullying. Having watched, with horror, the bullies at work and then have Goodreads tell me that their so-called reviews, without having read the book, were allowed. Ah me! I'm trying to get Goodreads to allow readers a private review system where they can be as nasty as like but their one star nastiness is not counted against the poor writer's rating. I will keep trying. I have stopped giving star ratings to any book I read and can't give 4 or 5 stars to. It seems to me to be grossly unfair to affect a writer's rating for the simple reason of personal preference which has nothing to do with whether a book is badly written or not.
PR work for Writer's Choice goes on. I am learning daily of new sites and newsletters where I can get our books mentioned. It is time consuming but I hope the work will pay off and in future I will know which sites work for us and how to do it so that I save time.
The technology is killing me though. I never think the way the website designers do and consequently I spend ages on each website searching for pages hidden behind weird buttons or incorrect labels. It takes me ages. I'm wrestling with shelfari right now. I've seen its icon on several authors' websites and thought I ought to have one too. Looks neat. Joining up was easy, moving the darned icon has proved impossible.
It's going to be a cold snowy week so thank god for the huge log burner and the 20cubic metres of firewood. I can write and stay warm.
Seems to me the climate is crazy. Could it be that thing the Americans don't admit is happening? We know all about climate change in the Pacific. All those tiny atoll islands now losing their drinking water as the sea rises or suffering violent waves washing over their homes. Some islanders have already had to leave and come to New Zealand.
Last winter we even had icebergs off the South island coast. Antarctica is melting fast and the glaciers are slipping. I think we should move all climate change nay-sayers to Antarctica and let them measure the effects.
The floods have made my land a revolting mess of squelch and mud. So much so that I nearly lost my gumboots this morning. I cannot open my road gate without wearing gumboots and have to travel to town with boot on board. Our local council is useless. We need a new larger culvert at my gateway to replace the inadequate one already there. No response from the council officials, of course. They spend their whole time saying NO and dodging what is legally council responsibility.
No change at Amazon and Goodreads either as they dodge their responsibility to prevent cyber bullying. Having watched, with horror, the bullies at work and then have Goodreads tell me that their so-called reviews, without having read the book, were allowed. Ah me! I'm trying to get Goodreads to allow readers a private review system where they can be as nasty as like but their one star nastiness is not counted against the poor writer's rating. I will keep trying. I have stopped giving star ratings to any book I read and can't give 4 or 5 stars to. It seems to me to be grossly unfair to affect a writer's rating for the simple reason of personal preference which has nothing to do with whether a book is badly written or not.
PR work for Writer's Choice goes on. I am learning daily of new sites and newsletters where I can get our books mentioned. It is time consuming but I hope the work will pay off and in future I will know which sites work for us and how to do it so that I save time.
The technology is killing me though. I never think the way the website designers do and consequently I spend ages on each website searching for pages hidden behind weird buttons or incorrect labels. It takes me ages. I'm wrestling with shelfari right now. I've seen its icon on several authors' websites and thought I ought to have one too. Looks neat. Joining up was easy, moving the darned icon has proved impossible.
It's going to be a cold snowy week so thank god for the huge log burner and the 20cubic metres of firewood. I can write and stay warm.
Tuesday, 12 March 2013
Once again the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It's been a month since I blogged! Tut! There are always good excuses.
I tell my writing students that when they haven't written. I have a sneaking suspicion that those would-be writers who don't write won't ever write seriously. They don't care enough to write. That's me and blogging. I'd rather write a story or add another chapter to the novel than blog when any writing time is so precious.
The court case brought by the police against my bad neighbour is this week and I'm nervous and not very happy about it. It's going to be a case of his word against mine and he has paid expensively for a young and cocky solicitor who has the reputation of winning his cases by fair means or foul. The police prosecutor says it will be a matter of who the judge chooses to believe. This being all men versus me I am not hopeful of any sympathy from the judge. I can 'see' the defence doing his best to portray me as a neurotic old lady and his bloke as a bit of a character. We shall see.
The WWOOFers keep writing for a week's work and stay. They all want to come at the same time. March is fully booked. I will have a full house almost every day. My friends from Australia came and went too quickly. It is always fun having Julie and Michael visit. Now my house is full of Father Paul and his writer friend. Then it will be French and German WWOOFers until April. At least I will get the driveway trees trimmed back. They had formed a perfect tunnel. Also I hope all the hazels weeded and mulched.
'Jacob's Ladder' is, at last, being set for POD printing and should be printing off 12 copies for the Goodreads giveaway and 10 copies to come to me in New Zealand for the launch in our local library. There's a lovely group of Kiwi readers at Goodreads who do read our books. My books are on their list to read. I am so pleased to have the novels out to readers and the encouragement from my Writer's Choice colleagues keeps me going through the PR hoops. I've now published my favourite and prize winning stories, my prize winning novel and the next novel,'Aunt Tizzie's Jubilee' is being edited to go. 'Tizzie' was too cross genre for the trad publishers. After all that time wasted with agents and publishers it feels good to get them out to be read. Once that's done, by June 1st I think, and I think I'm running to schedule, I can concentrate on the next novel and some more short stories. And more PR! I do find it hard to brag and skite about myself and my writing but it must be done.
I tell my writing students that when they haven't written. I have a sneaking suspicion that those would-be writers who don't write won't ever write seriously. They don't care enough to write. That's me and blogging. I'd rather write a story or add another chapter to the novel than blog when any writing time is so precious.
The court case brought by the police against my bad neighbour is this week and I'm nervous and not very happy about it. It's going to be a case of his word against mine and he has paid expensively for a young and cocky solicitor who has the reputation of winning his cases by fair means or foul. The police prosecutor says it will be a matter of who the judge chooses to believe. This being all men versus me I am not hopeful of any sympathy from the judge. I can 'see' the defence doing his best to portray me as a neurotic old lady and his bloke as a bit of a character. We shall see.
The WWOOFers keep writing for a week's work and stay. They all want to come at the same time. March is fully booked. I will have a full house almost every day. My friends from Australia came and went too quickly. It is always fun having Julie and Michael visit. Now my house is full of Father Paul and his writer friend. Then it will be French and German WWOOFers until April. At least I will get the driveway trees trimmed back. They had formed a perfect tunnel. Also I hope all the hazels weeded and mulched.
'Jacob's Ladder' is, at last, being set for POD printing and should be printing off 12 copies for the Goodreads giveaway and 10 copies to come to me in New Zealand for the launch in our local library. There's a lovely group of Kiwi readers at Goodreads who do read our books. My books are on their list to read. I am so pleased to have the novels out to readers and the encouragement from my Writer's Choice colleagues keeps me going through the PR hoops. I've now published my favourite and prize winning stories, my prize winning novel and the next novel,'Aunt Tizzie's Jubilee' is being edited to go. 'Tizzie' was too cross genre for the trad publishers. After all that time wasted with agents and publishers it feels good to get them out to be read. Once that's done, by June 1st I think, and I think I'm running to schedule, I can concentrate on the next novel and some more short stories. And more PR! I do find it hard to brag and skite about myself and my writing but it must be done.
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