Guest Blog Wednesdays with... Elizabeth Kolodziej
This week on Guest Blog Wednesdays at The Australian Bookshelf we are joined by author, Elizabeth Kolodziej.
Elizabeth has a great post about publishing. Welcome Elizabeth!
I find it surprising that publishing houses (big and small) still don’t understand the new wave of eBooks, book bloggers, blog tours, etc etc out there. Especially when so many bloggers (authors and book) are talking about the importance of social media. The Internet as been around for years now and it isn’t going to die. Books have been around forever too but the way we market them is going to enhance. Not change. Enhance.We now have ways to get in contact with readers in China, Germany, Africa, etc without having to fly our butts out there and have a book signing. Which is something I would love to do but I don’t have a couple of thousand dollars lying around. (If you do and would like to “sponsor” me please leave a comment <wink>) What I love about having my own publishing company (Third Broom on the Left Press) is that I am the only employee. Yes, I have tons of contacts and network with everyone, but I get to say what works and what doesn’t. Personally, I question these “tests” that show the sales rating for a book after doing something like a blog tour. In my humble opinion, there are way too many variables in place for that.For instance, how many book bloggers are you using? How many followers do they have? Is the author promoting the event as well? How popular is the book genre at the moment? And so on and so forth. Isn’t the phrase, you got to spend money to get money? Now I understand that you can only stretch this phrase out so far! Don’t go spending thousands of dollars on something that may or may not work. You must remember to do your homework. But to make money with books, you will have to do giveaways for fans and free copies for reviewers.Here is a great example: I held a giveaway for Werewolf Descent on goodreads. At the end I had to give away a couple paperback copies, BUT! I had 527 people who never heard of Werewolf Descent read the synopsis and sign up to win a copy. Even though they didn’t win it some of them added it to their TBR lists and a couple probably went out and got the eBook.The point I am going on about is that publishing houses (especially small ones) need to take a look at the social media promotions happening now. It isn’t what it used to be. There are so many ways to get people to look at your book and possibly get some great sales going. At the end of the day it is readers like you guys and gals (followers) that help books to get talked about and get people interested in reading it. Now doesn’t that mean that I should thank you on occasion and offer giveaways? I think yes, yes it does.So, if you could, please leave a comment and tell me about a great (or not so great) experience you had with an author. Did they do something that just shocked you and you are a fan for life (or will never again pick up their book). What promoting ideas have you seen work that people still don’t us on a regular bases? I know you have comments to make so let me hear them!Plus … I’m giving away 2 eBooks. One of Vampyre Kisses (book 1) and one for Werewolf Descent (book 2), both part of the Last Witch Series! So leave a comment to enter!
Thank you for your great post Elizabeth!
GIVEAWAY
ONE lucky commenter will be in the running for an ebook copy of Vampyre Kisses and Werewolf Descent from the Last Witch Series by Elizabeth Kolodziej! Please leave an email address so you can be contacted if you win. Entries close July 19th and will be drawn via random.org. THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. Winner drawn HERE
You must be a follower of my blog to enter this giveaway!
If you would like to feature on Guest Blog Wednesdays at The Australian Bookshelf- whether you are an author, reader, writer, blogger- drop me a line at jayne.fordham(AT)live(DOT)com.au.