Meet My Marketing Friends of Books Shelf. Together We Are Sharing Author Advice and Featured Article About “How To Build Your Author Fan Base”. . .




Most of my friends and authors who come to visit “The Reading Den” know this CATS PASSION is helping authors and writers learn where to promote and market all their books. I am also the Queen Cat of discounts and affordable book advertising to larger reader sites.

Now, I happen to stumble upon this amazing website of Books Shelf here- https://www.booksshelf.com/about-us around late spring early summer. Was this CAT happy she did! They offer an array of services from Amazon marketing and ads, publishing, and many promo options to get your books the exposure they deserve

First? I highly suggest you go visit them and sign up for the Author/Book Email Newsletter so you don’t miss a DEAL or perhaps your next amazing read!

Second? You need to check out all the services they offer for Advertising Promos and they also have publishing services too: https://www.booksshelf.com/advertising-plans.

They have helped make some of my job much easier when Building My Marketing Plans for my author clients and pretty much have added them as one of the “Go-To” places all my authors are set up on.

Here is why the email newsletter is a MUST. Every so often they run a Special Offer and discount for the up coming month you can purchase. They do what they advertise with exceptional service and why I keep setting my clients on Books Shelf. Again, they give great client service before and after your promotion/ad too! It is free to register and edit up a nice Author Profile and Ad your Books before you make any promo purchase. They make simple to do. Then you will be ready to go!

So, this week, Books Shelf is my choice as my ‘Featured Guest & Article’ as they share with all of us “How to Build Our Author Fan Base.” Let’s all learn together! ~The Avid Marketing Cat!



BooksShelf Logo .png
“So Many Books, So Little Time!”



Books Shelf 4 days ago

How to build your author fan base?


When writing a book, you always want someone to recognize your work and eventually fall in love with it. No one really wants the countless sleepless nights he or she spent in writing to be all for nothing. If you have done everything right, people will buy your book, read it, put it on the shelf, and maybe forget about you or your work after a month or two.

That is not something you want to happen. You need to build your fan base, you need people that will wait in excitement for a new release from you, you need people who will tell all their friends and relatives about your books. But how to achieve that?

First of all, you have to know your target audience. For example, you can’t expect children to read a book about politics or something more romantic and vice versa, you will not see any adult read a book about a rabbit with superpowers, except if it is a bedtime readable for their children. You should set yourself a target audience for which the content of your books would be relevant. Then you can start advertising your book on social media, or on your own website.

Okay, now that we have set our expectations, we need to think about how can we fulfill them. A great way to make your readers become your fans is by interacting with them. Social media is your main weapon in this fight. You can make promos for your new books, you can post a teaser of your new project, you can make a “questions & answers” post in which people who have bought your book can find a bit more about you as a person. Letting them closer to your life will mostly benefit you, people love to feel a close connection to each other, and you can use that to your advantage.


How to Create a Book Out of Your Blog Content | Elegant Themes Blog


You can make a blog and post stories from your life which can help your fan base to be more involved with you, you can also make giveaways, in which you can put a free copy of your book up for one lucky reader to get.


Now that we’ve briefly covered the author promotion and social media marketing, we have to look at our fan base expectations towards the book itself. If your book is a huge success and you want to make a sequel, there are some unwritten rules you need to follow.


First of all, you should never change the main part of the storyline too much, because your readers would most likely purchase the second part of your product, just because they liked the first one very much, and when something is very good you should not change it, you only want to expand it.


The characters can “evolve”, but for this to happen you have to set a slower rhythm. For example, a bad bloodsucking vampire can’t fall in love with the innocent girl that randomly came to his house. His behavior can change, but not immediately, this will help keep the interest of the reader and will look a lot better story-wise.


Of course, you can always ask your readers about what do they want, and if you feel like fulfilling all of their expectations, you will raise your prominently book sales. Another thing you should remember is thinking twice about making drastic decisions towards plot twists. Most of the readers love seeing plot twists happen because they want your book to be unpredictable before its end, no one wants to read a book where you can predict the ending after reading the first thirty pages. Making a plot twist is a high-risk, high-reward move.


In the past, whole fan bases have turned against their favorite author because of a bad decision for a plot twist, you would rather avoid a similar situation because it would greatly damage your reputation and most likely put your book sales number on a hold.



Building a fan base is hard, it requires a lot of time and dedication, but once you succeed in this manner, you will find out how this will affect your life. Your fan base can become your friends, even your family. Don’t look at your books only like a matter of living, look at them as a way to express yourself, as a way to change people’s way of thinking, or even changing their life.


Having a fan base that always buys your new books without hesitation is the best thing that can happen to an author, it means that your books are worth something much more than their prices in the bookstore, it means they have a value that no money can match, and last, but not least, it means a lot for your value as a person.


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MORE ABOUT MY FRIENDS OF BOOKS SHELF

We are a group of 7 book lovers with expertise in different fields – marketing specialists, SEO specialist, author, and graphic designers. 

We all love to read, we have our favorite genres (we’ll keep that in secret!), and we all want new books and authors to succeed. In our opinion, there are many pearls in the ocean waiting to be found! 

Using the knowledge in our fields we help authors the best way we can! 

Follow us on Social Media too!

​Instagram @bookshelf.team

Facebook: facebook.com/booksshelfcom/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BooksShelfcom

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcog0PFVHAVOWdhyhNzUXFg


Meet Shawn Robinson and His Website: “Self Publishing On A Budget” and This Post About Editing – Feedback…

I always love sharing other bloggers who have the same passion as I do in helping writers, authors, and bloggers. I found Shawn today and this particular has solid advice about how to get “feedback” while writing. Please visit his site for the whole post and let him know? CAT sent you!  Six Ways to Receive Feedback and WELL.

 

As a follow-up to Five Ways to Tell You Do Not Want Feedback, I wanted to share six great ways to show you do want feedback and to help you make good use of the time with your “Feedbacker.”  I’m sure that’s a word. Don’t look it up. I strongly believe that good feedback on my writing is like gold. It’s often rare, but it is so precious. 

I have valued the feedback from people more than I can express. Sometimes they tell me things I do not like. Sometimes they tell me things I can’t use. Most of the time, they tell me things that save me the embarrassment of poor writing and poor storytelling.

I think good feedback is so very important to an author. Here is some advice on how to receive it well:

 

1. Lean in

I mean it
 physically, lean in! If you’re really into a movie or a book, you probably find that you’re actually leaning toward the screen or book. It’s the same with a story. If someone really has you on figurative the edge of your seat, look down. You are probably also on the literal edge of your seat.

When you are genuinely interested in something, you naturally lean in. So if you really want feedback, overcome the feeling of shyness and the fear of someone having found a problem in your writing
 and lean in! Show yourself interested.

 


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So stop by Shawn’s website to read the rest of this amazing and helpful post for all writers and authors…


ABOUT SHAWN

I’m not going to bore you with major details
 so I’ll be short and to the point.

I’m a writer, a husband, a father, a Christian, a hiker (or at least I was until some recent health problems), a lover of coffee, a biker (not the cool kind, but the kind that rides around on an old motorcycle and has a blast) and someone who enjoys watching movies with my sons and playing cards with my wife.

I have done a lot of writing in the past, but only recently has it become a focus and a hobby. Some life changes (health issues mentioned elsewhere) have been part of what I believe God has been doing in my life to refashion me.
The writing has been fun as well as somewhat therapeutic to me in my recovery.

If you’d like to know more about me in general, check out My Story.  If you want to know more about my Writing Journey, check out
 well
 my Writing Journey.

 

“CAT LYON’S Reading and Writing Den”

getPart (3)

 

Let’s Have Some Fun Readers with Maria and Her ETERNAMENTA Blog Awards for “Most Talented Reader.”

Hello, Welcome Readers, Bloggers, and Friends!


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Now all my friends know I enjoy a good book and I consider myself an avid reader. So when I was alerted to a fabulous blogger named Maria KethuProfumo and  learned about this fun event and awards she is holding on her blog, I just had to accept! And I hope many of my blog friends will too. I know there are many book bloggers and blog reviewers out here in WordPressville. So come join the fun. Here are the “Rules to Participate” and I feel I am qualified to be entered and participate……

WHY do I want to Participate ? I feel I am a “helper” to other authors by taking the time to read the hard word they put into their craft as a writer. Authors are very talented people who come in many forms. Some are good with writing thrilling Mysteries or Suspense reads, many are fabulous as writers of Murder, Sci-Fi, Romance and so many genres. As a qualified avid reader, I always make sure I go back and “Leave A Book Review” for the author to share thoughts and comments on why I enjoyed reading their books. That IS the best gift you can give an author. I had been book promoting many fine authors for more than 3 years right here on my blog, so I have read a lot of books! That is why I want to be a part of this awesome Award Event.

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“The Rules”

Dear Bloggers,

“Blogging doesn’t mean only writing, it is reading as well. And good reading certainly changes our life for the better. Milorad Pavic used to say: “there are more talented Readers than Authors.”  So, tell us what kind of Reader you are and be awarded as an “Honored Reader.”

Terms of Participation:

  1. Let us know that you wish to participate in our award: leave us a comment to this post or confirm a personal invitation you’ve got. ( Done! )

  2. Write a post explaining why you’re a talented Reader and what good experience you’ve got through blog reading. Name the post ‘On Eternamenta Awards’. Send us a link.  ( Done! )
  3. Inform any 5 bloggers (certainly good Readers too) about our award for them to participate too. (You might simply mention them in your post.) ( And Done! )

    1.)  HarsH ReaLiTy | A Good Blog is Hard to Find

    https://aopinionatedman.com/

    2.)  Bette A. Stevens, Maine Author | A writer inspired by nature and …

    https://4writersandreaders.com/

    3.)  The Public Blogger

    https://thepublicblogger.com/

    4.)  Fiction Favorites | with John W. Howell

    https://johnwhowell.com/

    5.)  SOBER COURAGE

    https://sobercourage.com/



    *These Are My Five Chosen Bloggers for this Award!*

    The voting period starts the 1st of December of 2016 and ends the 28th of January of 2017.

           Winners will be announced during the first week of March via a post in our blog        and a personal message to them.

Our award is non-commercial; however, we guarantee some nice special Readers’ prizes.

Good luck to all!

Best Regards,  Maria KethuProfumo of  Eternamenta Blog

Happy Reading Friends! ~  Author & Columnist for In Recovery Magazine,
Catherine Townsend-Lyon XOXO  🙂

 

5 Strategies to Increase Blog Traffic.

“As a writer and blogger, I can always use extra help learning how to increase my blog traffic in as many ways as possible. That is why I always look to the “professionals” of  TruConversion and Mike Dane, PR Manager and my buddy.
Here is a new guest article he has shared for all of us to gain more traffic to our blogs. All this back -link and SEO stuff can sure be confusing, so I always welcome Mike to help us understand it all. He is the expert” . . .  *Cat Lyon*

 

Mike Dane

Immediately after writing a post, publish it on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The same day, after 2 hours, share the post on Twitter again, do the same next day, next week and for next two consecutive months. Twitter posts only have 140 characters and get buried down easily, thus this strategy.

On Facebook, your post keeps showing up on other’s news feeds, so once you post it on your wall, don’t re-post it until the next month. Rand Fishkin promoted this strategy in his Whiteboard Friday clarifying that tweeting the same post after a month gives off the message that the post is still contextual.

Apart from timing, hashtags are important. Highlight the key-phrases with which people search by using  hashtags as they are critical to social media success.  Do this on all networks and you’ll positively see more engagement on your posts.

Guest posts and interviews

Writing guest posts is a wonderful idea for all bloggers out there. Guest post tick all checkboxes – SEO, social share, safe link building, networking and interaction with readers.

If your posts are informative and insightful, reputed blogs wherein posts get hundreds of shares may accept them. Any idea what that spells out? You, as the author will get recognition and your blog will get it too.

pie chart via iwillteachyoutoberich.com
Source

With just one stone, you kill five birds. The links pointing to your site, in the author bio and the organic ones in the body will ratify your SEO efforts. The blog’s popularity will fetch social shares and ensuing interaction with other bloggers and thought leaders in the industry. It all depends on the quality of your posts. To excel in guest blogging,  you need to write high-quality content.

Similar to guest posts, interviews help you create networking ties with other bloggers. As you publish interviews of other bloggers on your blog, those bloggers will promote the posts, bringing traffic to your blog.

Write unique posts

This might sound like a no-brainer. All your posts are unique and original. They are copyscape certified, so no question of plagiarism. Why does this even have to be mentioned in the first place?

Well, what you understand by uniqueness may not be what uniqueness really stands for in the blogging context. Maybe your post wasn’t copied from anywhere else, but that doesn’t mean it’s unique.

The topic of the post makes it unique. Cover a topic that’s new and interesting at the same time. Make sure very few people have covered the topic. Writing on such topics gives you the first-mover advantage. Whenever someone will write on it in the future, he will reference your article. If he links your post, Google will acknowledge it as link-bait-worthy and you as a thought leader.

Besides that, your post may come in top search engine ranking whenever someone searches with keywords pertaining to that topic. For better visibility, anticipate possible keywords, keep 1% density of them in the post and highlight them in the meta properties.

Retain your readers

While getting readers is important, retaining them is even more important. The reason nine out of ten bloggers find it difficult is they take their readers for granted. A change in approach is necessary for them.

A blogger needs to visualize himself as the CEO of a company. CEOs can do everything in their capacity to convert leads to sales, let alone be retaining the existing customers. They never take any of their customers for granted.

A blogger needs to display the same approach. He needs to take each single of blog visitors seriously. The best place to interact with them is the comment trail. But most readers don’t post comments, they leave the site after they are done reading a blog post.

One way to make them interact is telling them to do so in the article. Finish the article with expressions like “Let us know what you feel” or “Share with us your opinion on this.” The problem is this strategy is new anymore, readers have somewhat become immune to it.

A better way to make them interact is to end an article with “Let us know your problems in the comments and let’s see if we can solve it.” But in that case, you have to write “How-to” type posts that deal with specific issues, not anything generic. A third way that persuades readers to interact is holding contests and offering giveaways. Many bloggers do this and if done correctly, it can make a blog popular among readers.

Blog well!
Mike Dane of TruConversion

“Presented by Lyon Book & Social Media Promotions”

OH YES! It Is All About Me.Com

Hello Authors, Writers, Bloggers and Friends,

Ok friends, so everyone always asks me why I’m so crazy about this Fabulous Website & Service called: About.me.com!  So I thought I would let my current stats from my own About.me page to show and explain why . . .

About.me

About.me

About.me is a personal web hosting service co-founded by Ryan Freitas, Tony Conrad and Tim Young in October 2009. The site offers registered users a simple platform from which to link multiple online identities, relevant external sites, and popular social networking websites such as Facebook, Flickr, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube. It is characterized by its one-page user profiles, each with a large, often-artistic background image and abbreviated biography.


Activity On Your Page: ‘Lyon Book Promotions’

Lyon Book Promotions: Wahoo! You have 1097 views this week on about.me!

Stats:  Past Year: 80,848 views   359 Compliments   303 Collections   232 Shares

So let me explain a few of the features that come with your free page when you go join and make yours again, for FREE by using my Invite Link Here: https://about.me/invite/code/6a3339023ee44f3836dfac7f1b46fb75

There are many awesome features you can use to make your page shine. It is a great book promoting tool as readers are learning all about the books and authors who showcase their books there. And the best part is? It is global! Many people will see your page, book and author bio.

You get visitors from all over the world. Make collections and add people to them by interest and more. Give others compliments of their page all over social media to engage with others. And many will share your page and add you to their collections too! And they offer Premium Services as great low prices as well.

A Wee Bit More About Me.Com

“We believe that you should own your own identity. That your identity should be both projected and protected. It should encompass the different facets of your life. It should be portable and universally accessible. And most importantly, it should be easy to create and manage.”

Create your personal homepage
About.me makes it easy for people to learn about you and find your content on the web
See who’s interested in you
Get detailed stats on who visited your page, what they clicked on and where they came from.

So go get your own page and make it your own today ~ Invite Link:  https://about.me/invite/code/6a3339023ee44f3836dfac7f1b46fb75

“Lyon Book & Social Media Promotions”

“A Spotlight On O.M. & A Tip For My Author Friends Who Are Bloggers, By My Pal Opinionated Man”

Ok authors, this special spotlight re-share blog post is all yours!

Now one of my pet peeves, and now obviously I’m not the only one who complains, about the topic of using blog post TAGS. My good friend OM also seems to be agitated about this topic as well. So when I read his blog post today, I dropped everything to come share his post here on my book promotions blog.

WHY?

Because I tell many of my author clients who also blog and by way of me twisting their arms to do so, that we need to make sure you use tags so readers and other bloggers will be able to see your posts.
Now I think that OM has done a fine job in his post about driving this point home, Because we all know he is really good at doing this in his own special, sweet and polite way right?

But? “We Gotta Love Him!” And many do! Her we go!

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You all still suck at tagging