Tag Archives: Passion Creek

Facebook: My New Frenemy

Oh Facebook, you’re like the girl who tells you she loves your shoes only to follow it up with: “If you like that style.”

Yeah, Facebook you’re my new frenemy.

As you probably know, Facebook has implemented a new promote button to fan pages and profiles. Here’s the simple version:

1. Any status update you put on Facebook is only seen by a percentage of your friends and fans.

2. However, for a nominal fee you can promote a status update so it is seen by more of your fans/friends and their friends.

My fan page has 952 fans. These are people who’ve opted in to hear news from me. I love these folks. They’re awesome.

On November 26 (a Monday), I posted a photo of a contest winner with a link to another giveaway I was having. According to the Facebook gurus, adding a photo increases your chances of being seen on a newsfeed. Four people liked the post and one fan commented on it. Ninety people or 9.4 percent of my fans saw the post. We can agree this is not a great percentage. However, if I paid to promote the post for $10, all of my fans would see it (potentially). Or I could pay $15 and reach at least 1,680 of my fans and their friends.

On November 16 (a Friday), I posted a quote from a positive review for Passion Creek with a link. I paid  $15 to promote this post. Note: The amount you are charged to promote varies depending on how many fans you have and how many folks you could reach. More than 9,100 people saw this post – 7,975 of whom saw it because I paid to promote it. Of those, 231 liked the post, eight commented on it and three clicked the link to the review.

On November 25 (a Sunday), I used HootSuite to schedule and post a status update with a link to a Tumbler of men reading. Fifty-seven people saw the post. That’s 6 percent of my fans. No likes. No comments. That is the kind of result that makes very unladylike words spill from my lips. Why the difference? According to all those Facebook gurus it’s because Facebook’s algorithms rank posts from other sources that go to Facebook (a scheduler like HootSuite) at about the same level as pond scum.

End result? Facebook can still be a marketing platform for you but you going to end up paying for that reach – even if you’re targeting your own fans who want to hear from you. And you won’t just be paying with money. You’ll be paying with time by hand-posting status updates on Facebook instead of using a scheduling application.

Paying to promote gets your status updates seen by more people. However, if you’re going to go this route, I’d recommend using it judiciously unless you want to be paying out the wazoo.

Final thought? I can’t wait for the new My Space platform to send me my invite.

Should Writers Buy Ads?

Oh my, the lagoon feels awesome today. Just what I needed in the midst of promo madness for Passion Creek.

Hold on a second, let me sink a little lower in the lagoon’s fizzy jets. Ah, yes, it’s right between my shoulders. Love. It.

Okay, what was I talking about? … That’s right promo. I had an interesting conversation via Twitter with a few folks recently about why would an author (or publisher) buy an ad on a specific book blogger’s site and what they wanted from the site. Then, I had a conversation with a lovely group of authors who said they rarely, if ever, bought ads.

So should authors buy ads and if they do, what should they consider when making an ad buy? Continue reading

Passion, Wigs & Double Stuffed Oreos with Avery Flynn

The Waterworld Mermaids are thrilled to have one of our own back in the lagoon today. Welcome, Avery Flynn!

Avery has just released her third book, Passion Creek. She was kind enough (or crazy enough) to chat with me on Facebook about this hot and steamy thriller. Let’s get right to it…. 

 

Kerri:I think we have to start out with the REALLY big thing everyone is talking about…

We’ve noticed your hair has changed. Care to comment?

Avery: The color of my underwear?

Kerri: Oh this chat is gonna be good! Continue reading

Going Hollywood: Making Book Trailers

I’ll start off by letting you know this post is going to be Mac centric. That doesn’t mean I don’t have anything for you PC users out there. I do. Here is the best advice ever for PC users:

GET A MAC!

OK, that was smarmy of me. I apologize. Sort of.

Whether you use a Mac or a PC, there are a ton of movie editing apps and programs you can use to create a book trailer. Here is a comparison for PC and here for Mac. I use iMovie, which comes with my Mac. With this software, I can use themes to create fun little slideshows with still images or I can use trailers to create video clips that look like movie trailers. The best part of this is that is is so simple to do I could do it drunk. It probably wouldn’t look pretty and the spelling would be atrocious, but it’s possible is my point. All you have to do to use iMovie is drag and drop files from one window on your screen to another. You can add in title cards, dissolves, sound clips, music and more.

I love book covers, but I find book trailers that are just pans of the book cover kind of boring. Not saying they can’t be done and end up extraordinary, but those are few and far between. My recommendation is to go to a stock art site and buy stock video. My favorite site is istockphoto. You can type in some key words and find exactly the type of video you need. A word of warning: If you’re like me, you will get sucked into this site, so be prepared to spend some time. Also, istockphoto has still photos and music files, so really it’s a one stop shop for book trailers.

No, I don’t own stock in the company, but really I should considering how much money I spend there between Avery Flynn stuff and client photos and videos for the Evil Day Job.

Another option is to work with a company that produces book trailers. One company whose trailers I really like is Circle of Seven Productions. I haven’t worked with them myself, but they do some beautiful videos. Another possibility is Jeffrey Somers who made Amanda Brice’s super cute young adult novel book trailer. The narrator’s voice is just sooooo 14.

Ready for some examples? Yay, me too!

From Circle of Seven Productions:

 

From WRW’s Amanda Brice created by Jeffery Somers:

 

And from little ole me and my Mac: