Planning for the Holidays

Whether you have a new book coming out this year or are just concentrating on marketing your already published backlist, now is actually a great time to ponder your end of year sales campaign. I know that some authors keep at it all the time, but I find that three or four times a year is a good way to give your books a bit of publicity without irritating the daylights out of your followers. It’s also always a good idea to have a comfortable plan in place for the event all ready to go in plenty of time. Get as many goodies in your Christmas bag as you can.

First decide on a budget. It is very, very hard to sell books with a zero advertising budget, but even a little will help. When it comes to presents and bookmarks though, I’ve seen some fabulous homemade ones, so you don’t have to break the bank. Rafflecopters and events with prizes don’t always have to be about Amazon gift cards. You could have something a little more special to win – something related to one of your books or characters. And one thing’s for sure – fans absolutely adore getting something personal from a favourite writer. So – on your holiday campaign to-do list—

Pick your dates.

Allocate a budget if you can, and decide what you’re going to spend it on.

Choose one or a couple of paid book advertising newsletters and pay in advance if you can to avoid price increases. Get a list together of free sites too.

Open a new word document and copy and paste all the links you’re going to need – get your Global Amazon Links there so you don’t have to post separate links for each site, making it easy for readers to use one easy click to buy your book. Shorten your URLs in readiness for your Twitter shoutouts, and get your book covers or artwork all stashed in a file ready to go for the same thing.

Collect some fabulous short excerpts from your book and zoom over to Picmonkey to add them to images that are going to make people want to share.

Set up dates on your list to remind you to go to Amazon and create free days or countdowns for your books. Remember, that as well as your own advertising, Amazon always has a page for countdowns that a lot of readers regularly check.

Set up your swag early. Order or make bookmarks. Get your paperback giveaways ready for posting with personal notes all ready to go. An absolutely fabulous idea is to go to Zazzle and order mugs or just about any other thing on the planet with images of your book covers on them.

Best of all, boost that celebratory excitement by heading over to TSRA Book Trailers and getting yourself an awesome trailer made. These really are attention grabbers, and another wonderful way to find new readers. We all love retweeting cool trailers on Twitter.

I suggest that you do all this well before the actual celebration days begin. There are a lot of people buying books after getting Kindles for Christmas – that’s true, but you’re going to sell a lot of books when people are still in shopping mode too, so try and at least begin before the big bang and let your event zoom through till the end.

Once you have your plan in place you’ll probably find yourself so hugely inspired that you just might not be able to stop yourself from making sure that it’s going to be a brand new book that you’ll be throwing a party for. In that case, get to scribbling scribblers! You’ll find it a lot more fun having everything ready to go in December, rather than having a mad dash at the last minute.

Party

To #SWAG or not to SWAG? Readers and writers, what do you think?

Hi all:

For great royalty free pics, check Unsplash.com
For great royalty free pics, check Unsplash.com

As you know, here in Lit World Interviews you can find advice for writers, inspiration, interesting resources, book reviews, interviews, offers, recommendations… I know not only the collaborators to the blog, but also the readers and followers have plenty of experience in the world of the written word, be it as authors, readers or both.

I wanted to try to tap into the vast knowledge and also the opinions of the readers here. We’ve talked about marketing on many occasions, although mostly about ways to sell digital books. I’ve been interested in selling directly to the public for quite a while, although I hadn’t managed to get organised until recently. Now I’m booked to attend a couple of book fairs, one in April (check here ) and one in August (check here ), in different parts of the UK, and as these are my first, I’ve been wandering about SWAG, those complimentary presents writers give to readers as reminders of their books and brands.

I’ve read some articles on the matter and authors have very different opinions on it. I was wondering, authors, if you had used it, what’s your experience of it? What was more successful for you?  What did you find offered you the most value for your money? Are there particular items you recommend or tips you can give? Did you personalise everything? And readers, do you like swag? Are there any items you remember in particular? Are there things you would feel cheated if you didn’t get? Do the items you get influence you in any way? What would you like to see if it was your choice?

I have some ideas but don’t have a lot of money to spend on this and my skills are quite limited with regards to crafty things (I’d love to be able to crochet bookmarks but I don’t have much time) and I have no helpers or team. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks very much for reading and for your help. And if you want to share, the more comments, the better. Ah, and if you’re near the locations of the book fairs, do come for a visit! 

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