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Say “Cheese.”

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

I read the newest book by a very prolific author. Each time I read one of her books, I turn it over to the back cover and see the same picture. She hasn’t updated her photo in at least the past 20 years.

I checked her Facebook page. Both her picture and bio haven’t been updated there, either.

I had to laugh though, when I realized I hadn’t changed my picture in the last 7 years.

Whether it is just pure laziness or if it’s because I like seeing a younger version of myself, I had to laugh at myself for doing the same thing.

Clearly, I have updated my information in About Myself on my website, www.brendapoulosauthor.com, but the picture remains the same one I’ve always used.

I’m told that when you make changes on your website or Facebook page, the little internet crawlers get more interested in visiting you. Then ever-so-slightly, your ranking is improved. The changes don’t have to be huge. A change as small as a new profile picture is all that’s necessary.

So, take a few selfies, upload, and wait to see if you’ve become more visible.

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A Trip Down Memory Lane

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

I recently took a trip down memory lane. I reread some of my blogs from five and six years ago.

I have learned some things since then. One of which is to shorten my writing to a few paragraphs instead of several pages.

In the age of texting and Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, we have all become accustomed to short snippets of information. So, for the next few weeks, I am going to take my early blogs (which you may not have read because they were sooooooo long) and shorten them into concise bits of knowledge.

Rewritten, I hope they will be more useful, with the ultimate goal of encouraging you to keep on writing.

Even in isolation, amid Covid and natural disasters, writers can still write and take solace in the fact that your words can mean all the difference to readers worldwide.

Promote Your Book

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

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Back to our research on book promotions for Indie Authors:

The article I mentioned in my past blog recommended three companies: Books Butterfly, Kindle Nation Daily, and Bargain Booksy.

I went to each of these sites. I scouted around for different promotions, cost, layouts, ease of use, and overall appeal for readers.

Of the three, I found that only https://www.Bargainbooksy.com ticked off all of my boxes.

The other two were unappealing, expensive, and didn’t offer what I wanted for my specific genre. Feel free to visit those websites and check them out. 

I read the general information on Bargain Booksy as well as followed links they supplied for examples, additional information, and customer reviews.

First of all, their site is attractive and fairly straightforward. They supply a handy chart of genres and the cost of advertising for each genre. 

They claim over 305,000 registered users. They also say that a Bargain Booksy feature will help drive sales of your e-book, find a new audience of readers, generate reviews, and improve your book rank on retail sites.

With a paid promotion, your book will be in their daily email of Kindle readers who have expressed an interest in your genre.

They will link your book on Bargainbooksy.com with Kindle, Kobo, Apple, and Nook.

Your promotion will feature your book’s front cover and a short description.

You must price your book between .99 and $5.00 for the length of your promotion. (There are articles that explain how to do this.)

Your book will be in a daily newsletter to over 294K combined subscribers of all genres AND a customized email to readers of your specific genre. [Each with book cover, purchase links, description, and price.]

Additionally, your book will be featured on the Bargain Booksy website and their Facebook Page, which claims 20K followers.

Note: There is a Deal of the Day Premium feature which has different pricing, but it is only for these four genres: Romance, Mystery, Fantasy, and Science Fiction. See their site for details. 

Audiobooks can be promoted on their sister site,  https://ReadingStacks.com 

Hit the USA Today’s Bestseller’s List

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

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Learn how, along with me:

I’d like to share what I have read so far. (Book Bub has lengthy articles on this. I have condensed it for this blog, but feel free to go on their site for the “expanded” version).

They suggest a concept called PROMO STACKING, which is “running multiple marketing campaigns within a short timeframe to maximize the volume of sales within a bestseller list’s reporting period.”

Here’s my outline from reading on BOOK BUB:

  1. Promo stack during the preorder period.

            a) One month before a book release run a Book Bub Preorder alert. (More about this is to come.)

-or-b) Discount the book during the preorder period, promote on author’s blog, do giveaways, do a Book Bub Ad campaign. (Yes, we’ll learn about these, too).

2) Discount a previous book, along with making the new release only .99 or 1.99. Run a Book Bub Ad campaign.

Put ads on Books Butterfly, Kindle Nation Daily, and Bargain Booksy. Blog. Do an Organic Twitter campaign. (Again, I will be learning about these and passing the information along to you in the coming weeks).

3) Bundle previous books into a Boxed set at a discounted price. Write new back matter for the boxed set. Run Amazon Marketing ads and Facebook Ads.

It’s okay if you aren’t familiar with one or more of these.

Each week, read my blog. I will be researching them, individually, for you…

and learning right along with you!

Linking

Posted on by Brenda Poulos

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NETWORKING. LINKING. MAKING CONNECTIONS.

That’s the name of the game.

Five years ago, I was told I needed to blog. 

Give content. Encourage.

I got in the habit of writing once a week on each of my websites, www.brendapoulosauthor.org and www.spiritualsnippets.com

That is a lot of writing. I learned to get as much “mileage” as I could from everything I wrote.

One simple way was linking my websites with Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads. Every time I write on one of my blogs, the content automatically goes to these three other social media avenues.

All I had to do was set and forget.

Authors have more and more to think about nowadays. As many things as we can set up like this, the easier we make it on ourselves.

That means more time for doing what we love—

Writing!