Dawn Hill Publications

Author Spotlight & Sneak Preview Courtesy of Dawn Hill Publications For Ravina Hilliard’s Soon to Release Book. . .

Catherine Lyon - Literary Marketing Expert A Writer's Thoughts, Author News, Book Award News, Featured Guest, New Book & Author Press Release, News Around The Web, Updates and More , , , , , , , , ,


“WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE”

Written By Award-winning Author Ravina Hilliard
A Dawn Hill Publication Author



This CAT always enjoy sharing new books when they are ready to release soon and when readers to get a ‘Sneak Peek’ before it drops! Dawn Hill has done it again with their amazing award-winning author, Ms. Ravina Hilliard and her book titled “The Billionaire Athlete”…


~The Avid Reading Cat


It’s been my endeavor to ensure variety in my protagonists, not that the task is easy. Billionaires tend to come in very few shapes and sizes, not literally of course. Most of them are scions of industry. Then again, we have actors from my soon to be published books – like Patrick Townsend from ‘Looking for Like’ and a race car driver Dean Winters from ‘All You Have To Do Is Call’.

The publishers have asked me to write one with a sports star. The choices are aplenty. Aforementioned Dean Winters is one candidate, but the truth is that he isn’t an F1 driver in the story, rather it is his back story. He is actually a manufacturer of e-vehicles. I know some of you are going … yawn.


“They tend to be hot-headed. Drama queens – and very good actors, not to mention artful manipulators.”


If I were to invest in a sporty character, what sport would I choose? And what got me thinking about it?

Let’s answer the second question first. Summer in the Europe provides fodder in abundance from Wimbledon, French Open in Tennis, Tour de France, the Euro cup which England sadly lost despite a stellar performance and ICC World Cricket championship which New Zealand won. Watching Tom Cruise hob-nob with David Beckham on Centre Court got me started. The same day, watching the Euro Cup finals not too far away in Wembley nailed it for me.

Tom Cruise spotted at Wimbledon this year.


If I were to choose, I’d probably choose football or as the Americans like to call it, soccer. Why? First, it gives me an opportunity to write about another Italian billionaire, with Italy winning the Euro Cup. The female leading lady could be a British WAG wannabe who is seeking payback for England’s loss.


We all know footballers have their own currency printing press, not literally, but each of their contracts run into tens of millions of pounds. Add to that sponsorship and ad revenue and bingo – you have yourself a billionaire. There aren’t too many of them around – Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo being two of them. Technically, net worth’s are shy of a billion but who’s counting?

Giroud is a prime example of an incredibly attractive athlete. Loaded, and wears the hell out of that suit!



There are plenty of other reasons. Athletes, footballers in particular are fit. Not going to the gym three times a week fit. I can run around chasing a ball for 90 odd minutes fit. Most of the players in the latest Euro cup were still strutting around after two hours. They tend to be hot-headed. Drama queens – and very good actors, not to mention artful manipulators.


Have you seen them fake injuries on the field in order to earn a free kick? There are a few Oscar-worthy performances in all the big matches. They’re large-hearted, passionate (at least about football) and players for the most part – in a decidedly sexual way.


My hero would be a nasty piece of work on the outside – hard-headed Alpha Male who is as rich as God, arrogant, overbearing, physically rough-edged but later will reveal a gooey and tender heart. His language would be foul. At first, he’d treat the female lead like a bit of shit – remember The Billionaire Needs a Bodyguard? 


Then, our hero would fall in love after some TLC from the vengeful WAG who maybe, just maybe is into some light S&M. Our Bitch would spring the trap, leaving our footie hero devastated when he realizes that she’s been gaming him.

The Billionaire Needs a Bodyguard Kindle Edition


How do I get them back together? Hmm. Let me think about that. Most certainly, there’d be a match or two in the play. Where do the thrills come from? Oh, just wait and see. I’m not going to give the whole plot away, but I will leave you with a hint. Think corruption scandal, match-fixing (oh yeah, it does happen, even in football), and football hooligans – remember Green Street? Our WAG is going to get beaten up. Badly.

And here’s the icing on the cake. I’ve yet to see an ugly footballer. They’re all handsome, sexy, tidy, gorgeous hunks of masculinity with my fingers now itching to create a thriller romance with one of them. I can imagine in my mind’s eye the cold-hearted calculating British bitch of a ex-WAG targeting an Italian footballer and falling into his love-cum-lust trap, inconceivably finding a Happily-Ever-After. My mouth is already drooling. And ladies, there are other parts that are also … okay, let’s keep it U-Rated for now.

And let me get to work.

Sigh. With a saddened heart I bid you goodbye, but only for the moment.

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

“Cheers!”

~Ravina

Check out all all her newer releases now on Amazon!
https://www.amazon.com/Ravina-Hilliard/e/B089K1K8HN?ref
Stop by and see all the exceptional authors of Dawn Hill Publications today!
https://dawnhillpublications.com/authors/



Cat’s Friend Rahull Ravi of Dawn Hill Publications is Back With More Marketing Tips & Advice For Us. What is Marketing Non-Negotiables?

Catherine Lyon - Literary Marketing Expert Book Promotion Tips For Authors, Featured Guest, Marketing and More, News Around The Web, Posts , , , , , ,


Image result for free images of people in marketing meeting

Marketing Non-Negotiables


Essential Rules to Live By:

I wish someone told me there are certain non-negotiables to marketing, before I entered the world of marketing, so I wouldn’t have made a fool of myself. I entered my first marketing role quite a few years ago, and to that job, I brought with me a few misguided pre-conceived notions about marketing.

The most dangerous notion being, assuming I could simply advertise my products on social media from the start. No value offers. No personality. Nothing. I quickly learned that you have offer something, some value, bring your personality to the table in order to increase my engagement, but we’ll get to that later, trust me.

Luckily for you, I made mistakes, so you won’t have to. I’ve improved and honed my marketing skills over the past few years, and I was lucky enough to realise there are a few non-negotiables to marketing.


These are the golden rules to marketing, so pay attention, and make notes:

Content is King:

  • Burn those three words into your memory and repeat it like a mantra every-time you think of new marketing methods.
  • You can learn the intricate ins and outs of Facebook’s Ads Manager and throw a £1000 daily budget into your many split-audiences and split-campaign objectives, but if your content is poor, if you’re using a shoddy image or a video shot with a 2005 Sony Ericson, then your campaign will fall flat on its face. Thud, bang, lights out.
  • Remember to look at the content around you and I don’t mean scrolling on your Instagram feed for 5 minutes and then going back to your Netflix series. I mean, you need to make a proper report.
  • Analyse your competitors, what sort of content do they release, is it visual, is it professional photography or is it digital design? What sort of engagement do they receive? How many social media sites are they on? Which sites are they not on? What sort of value are they providing with their content? Are they missing any areas of value or lacking in detail? These are just a few questions to consider.
  • The final point is key, whatever your competitor is doing wrong is essentially a gap in the market. While you shouldn’t base your entire strategy around it from the get-go, you should pay close attention to it and see if you can fill that gap and provide your audience with the content and value they’re so desperately yearning for!



Provide Value before you Promote:


  • Have you ever spoken to someone in real life who spoke about themselves non-stop and never asked how you’re doing? That’s how a lot of authors look like on Twitter and Instagram. They promote, promote and promote without ever listening to their audience and providing the value that they’re so desperately seeking!
  • It’s simple, provide value to your audience. If you’re an author, you should have a pretty good idea of what sort of advice and help you’d like to be receiving. Writing tips, marketing tips or simply some writing related humour.
  • If you can’t provide advice or help, then just have a conversation and support other authors, be nice. It’s certainly better than aimless promotion.
  • We’re not saying promotion should never occur, it’s most certainly important, just remember to provide some value first, that’s how you draw your audiences attention.

Consistency

“I’m getting no traction; I can’t be bothered anymore” – probably some aspiring author after a few weeks on Twitter. Here’s the thing about marketing, it’s really fun to do, until it’s not. I’ve spoken to a lot of aspiring marketers who have asked me, ‘how do you stay motivated?’. The truth is, I don’t. Some days, I’ve woken up and realised I have to put more time and effort into a channel that has been underperforming for weeks but I just get on with it. I do the work.

I don’t care if my writing or content comes out looking like hot garbage on the first draft, I can always edit it later! Let me tell you, that’s when you really learn about yourself and how far you’re willing to go to achieve your success. Ask yourself are you willing to work even when you don’t want to? Even when you’d rather be watching your favourite Netflix series? Don’t be an excuse generator, be an excuse incinerator.

Consistent posting on your marketing channels such as your blog, Twitter, Instagram etc, is what separates you from a lot of authors. Let me tell you, when you combine consistency with high quality content, and you have a delicious recipe for success.

Don’t believe me? Go to a successful YouTuber’s channel such as ‘Jenna Moreci’, go to her videos and sort it from ‘oldest to newest’. You’ll notice three things:

  • You’ll see consistent posting; most successful YouTubers post on their channel 4 to 5 times per month.
  • With successful channels, you’ll notice, as time goes on, the quality of the content is slowly getting better, the author of the videos is slowly but surely understanding what works with their audience, and what doesn’t work. That only happens when you post consistently, make mistakes quickly and learn with speed of Usain Bolt, not literally of course.
  • You’ll notice the engagement suddenly shoot through the roof, that’s what happens when high engagement, excellent SEO rankings and word-of-mouth all combine.

Consistency is key, there’s no way around it. There’s no secret to staying motivated either, some days you’ll have to grit your teeth and get through it. It’s never as bad as you think it’s going to be.

That’s it. Those are the three staples of marketing. These really are non-negotiables; you cannot avoid the universal truth that’s been laid out for you in this blog post. These three rules alone won’t lead you to glory, but they will be the backbone and foundation of your success.
Who said it would be easy?
Nobody.


Make sure you give Dawn Hill Publications a visit as they have more solid and sound marketing advice for authors and writers here https://www.dawnhillpublications.com/ They represent some amazing authors and a great place for readers to find new books to read!

Let’s Get Ready To Market Our Books Into The New Year With My Friends of ‘Dawn Hill Publications’…

Catherine Lyon - Literary Marketing Expert A Writer's Thoughts, Book Promotion Tips For Authors, Featured Guest, Marketing and More, News Around The Web, Updates and More , , , , , ,


What Are The Three Main Influencers of Book Purchases?
By Rauhall ~ https://www.dawnhillpublications.com/post/3-main-influencers-of-book-purchases


Dawn Hill Publications in the UK




Most self-published authors spend the majority of their week in two ways, writing their next novel and marketing their current book.

Courtesy of Dawn Hill Publications Marketing Director


It’s no secret that we operate in a highly saturated market, with hundreds of sub-markets which are also highly saturated, take for example, the romance genre. In the era of saturated markets and heavy competition, it’s important for authors to know what makes the book buyer think ‘yes, I’m going to buy this book!’.



Word of Mouth


Word of mouth is statistically proven to be the most popular reason for book purchases. Word of mouth translates to recommendations from friends or family. It makes a lot of sense that the average book buyer trusts the opinions of their friends and family over the transnational publisher waving their promotions in their face.

Word of mouth marketing is also undoubtedly the hardest to achieve and execute because you’re essentially not in direct control of anything. Most major publishers have an army of reviewers, major newspapers and popular bloggers to spread the word about their books. As a self-published author you can still achieve word of mouth sales, you’ll just need to put in a bit of work into developing a base of reviewers and followers first, but we’ll address that in a different post.

Book Reviews:

You guessed it! Who would of thought that the main influencer of word-of-mouth marketing would be crucial in increasing your book sales?! Okay, we’ll stop with the sarcasm, you get the point. Book reviews are crucial. Firstly, they provide valuable social proof that your book is worth the reader’s time.

Readers are often inundated with a plethora of book choices on Amazon and as a result they have to make snap decisions on which book link to click on and during this snap decision, most readers take into account the number of reviews a book has. The more, the merrier. Tip: find the average amount of reviews in your genre on Amazon’s search results and make that your review target.



Favorite Author:


For the most part, book readers are a loyal bunch. When they find an author they really love, they’ll stick to them like glue, often choosing their new releases over other books which are also very enticing. Writing a fantastic book goes a long way to securing your place in the hearts of readers, but it’s not the sole factor.

Many successful authors have strong personal brands on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, where they share aspects of their personal life and communicate with their audience. They’ve cultivated relationships with their readers, and this cannot be understated enough.

Once a reader falls in love with the personality of an author, as well as their writing, it’s a wrap. They will be purchasing their books until that author decides to stop writing.

Hope you enjoyed the read,
~ Rahull

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VISIT DAWN HILL PUBLICATIONS IF YOU ARE AN AVID READER and JOIN THE DHP REVIEWERS’ CLUB!
https://www.dawnhillpublications.com/drc



Spotlight & Guest Post By Ravina Hilliard, a Dawn Hill Publications Author… “Why She Became An Author.”

Catherine Lyon - Literary Marketing Expert A Writer's Thoughts, Author News, Featured Guest, Featured Guest Writer, Updates and More , , , , , ,


WELCOME READERS AND VISITORS ALIKE!
Happy Reading!


The First Part of WHY I BECAME AN AUTHOR




NOW, just ignore the above “Click Below, to read more” as CAT was given permmision to SHARE Ravina’s Guest Post in full. I will urge you to go visit “Dawn Hill Publications” as they are located in the UK and have some amazing author’s they publish for and their books! https://www.dawnhillpublications.com


YES, Ravina was born to write! Ravina Hilliard – Nov 5, 2019 – 4 min read

Unlike poorly written mysteries where the plot twists and turns with characters hiding information for no fathomable reason other than to stretch the plot to its inevitable conclusion – the denouement, I am not going to make you read the whole article before answering the question in the title.



The lightbulb moment came to me in a flash of inspiration, born of despair and crystallised by a simple compliment from a great man. Okay. No names shall be shared. No locations shall be shared. But here is how it happened. I was working in a fairly senior position in a private establishment – a software development and training organisation. The noise from the surrounding environment was horrendous.

It was inevitable, I guess as the location was bang in the centre of a raucous city. Eye of the storm. No surprises there. One day, in a fit of rage, I sent a letter to my favourite columnist, an editor of sorts who covered mostly interesting takes on current affairs. He often mentioned letters he received, summarising their messages. I had written it out of pure spite. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I didn’t even expect my personal assistant to actually send the letter to the columnist – she was smart enough to recognise a temper tantrum for what it was. 

And then, one fine day, as I was sipping my morning cuppa, paper in hand, the unimaginable happened. After skimming through the headlines, I went straight to his column. This great man, winner of many awards for his writing, respected by literally everyone, had not only mentioned my letter – he reprinted it word for word, with the precursor – “I have to admit that is a hoary subject, but I really enjoyed the style of the writer, I would like to share it with you – verbatim.”

None of my family understood my whoop of sheer delight until I explained it to them. An uncle, who was a pretty good writer himself, beamed a smile at me and congratulated me. My heart, bursting from its inadequate confines, was filled with a warm glow. I realised that I had been wasting my time trying to teach Digital Design to eager young upstarts and leading a team of programmers who were one step away from becoming hackers. I was born to write.

“That was the moment that I decided to become a writer.”

Let’s go back to the beginning. In retrospect, I don’t think that lightbulb moment was an accident. As a child, I read voraciously. I skipped the children books phase almost in its entirety and launched straight into crime and romance fiction. I had a penchant for romance, though, letting myself get submerged into heart-rending plots, becoming one with the heroines, riling against the tall, dark and handsome male with a mocking smile and jeer in his voice. I loved him. I hated him. I loved him. The last few pages were of a particular thrill to me, when the hero and heroine confessed their love for one another, hearts beating as one. Those moments were indescribable.

I don’t think my parents noticed me reading these books, or even if they did, bothered to remark about its appropriateness. I was barely old enough to understand sex when I started reading. In many ways, I think it made me a trifle more idealistic and utopian in my outlook towards the opposite sex. When I met my soulmate, years later, our eyes met, and I knew that I was in love. Perhaps I will tell you that love story in another article – it’s full of twists and turns – the stuff movies are made of – er – romcoms, at any rate.

I have to admit that I didn’t stop at lurid paperbacks. I read the classics – the Emily & Charlotte Bronte, Robert Louis Stevenson, Alexandre Dumas, Sophocles, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Miguel Cervantes, Jules Verne, Daniel Defoe, and later Ayn Rand, Leo Tolstoy, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to name a few – and by no means an exhaustive list.

I even read Sophocles. Romance and crime authors are far too many to enumerate here. Literally thousands of books. I managed to read 180-200-page paperbacks in a matter of hours, more often than not, more than two or three in a day. Some books, I read over and over again. I must also admit that I had a particular fondness for happy endings. Please don’t fault me for that. By the way, I enjoyed horrors and science fiction just as anyone else – Stephen King was one of my favourites, as was Michael Crichton.



What is the fastest you have ever read and why ? Was it an engaging story or are you a fast reader ? Let us know in the comments !

And then there was university, where literature, as a subject appealed to me more than any other. Hint. It was not my major. At school and at uni, I performed stage plays after formal training in elocution. It was a wide range of plays, from comedies written by Moliere to Greek tragedies – remember I told you about reading Sophocles? Of the tragedies, Oedipus Rex was my favourite. Of the comedies, Sganarelle. 

So, it took me time to reach that lightbulb moment. Big Whoop. By that time, I was older, wiser and ready to launch into my new and exciting career as a writer. I spend all my idle time daydreaming of my heroines arguing and making love with their heroes – in equal measure, keeping secrets, solving mysteries, saving lives and finding the bad guys. After all, the influence of reading crime novels has narrowed my niche to writing romances steeped in mystery and intrigue. Thankfully, my experience reading tragedies has had no influence whatsoever. 

After all, I did say that I like happy endings, didn’t I? I like to remain a mystery myself, so I have done some pretty heavy editing. I hope you enjoyed it reading this. I certainly enjoyed writing it!


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The Billionaire's Secret Kindle Edition

Books By Ravina Hilliard on Amazon

The Billionaire Needs a Bodyguard Kindle Edition