Paid Advertising with Faith Blum

Hello! I have Faith Blum here today to talk about the tricky waters of Paid Advertising. It's something that I've not really done yet, outside of an ad that I ran on Goodreads, but it's incredibly helpful and wish that I had the money to do it.

Find Faith on the Interwebs:

Website~Blog~Amazon~Goodreads~Facebook~Twitter~Pinterest

Why in the world would you pay someone to advertise your book? How does that help you make money? 

I was skeptical, too. Until I tried it. And sold more books than I ever expected that not only paid for the advertising, but also gave me more income than I had made for a while. And great rankings on Amazon. So why pay, how do you do it, and what sites are the best? I'll answer each question in order.

How do you do it?

What I have found to be the best thing to do is to put one of your books on sale for free. Sound counterproductive? It did to me at first, too. Then I tried it. Did you know that if you make one book free, people often buy other books in the series? Me neither. Probably because I don't usually do anything like that.

Anyway, I can't say how other people do this, but the way I do it, is this way.

Step 1: Pick a Book

First things first, you need to decide which book of yours that you want to set free. If you have never done this before, I would suggest the first book in your series.

Step 2: Set a date (or not)

Depending on which sites you choose, you may want to not set a date. Especially for Bookbub and EreaderNewsToday (see below) since they are usually a little more open when you are flexible. Sometimes. However, if you have a date or dates you want, for instance, you have a new release coming out in the series, you can pick the date that works best for that.

Step 3: Set up the promos

This is one of the hardest things to coordinate sometimes. If you have a date picked for your freebie, make sure you give them the range of dates and a preferred date if that is an option. Then set up the promo on KDP. My recommendation would be at least a three day promotion.

Step 4: Day of

On the days of the promotion, you can post on Social Media, too. Include the links from promotion sites if you can. 

What sites are best?

 Here are my favorite promotion sites to advertise on:

BKnights (Schedule only 7-10 days ahead, $5)

EreaderNewsToday (Pricey, but good. Sometimes picky.)

Spirit-Filled Kindle (Schedule 7-14 days ahead,$20)

Christian Book Finds ($5-10, super sweet to work with)

eReader Obssession (Free)

Free Kindle Books and Tips ($25)

Robin Reads ($40, very few genre choices, slightly hard to get into)

Bookbub (Expensive, difficult to get into, but super productive)

For a list of other promotion sites, you can check here.

Faith Blum's Publication Story + Q&A

It was a dark and stormy night. Or so many pretend stories start. This one, however, started differently. And it's real.

My publication journey started with a Facebook message from a friend of mine. She told me about a writing contest. The winner would get their book published by WestBow Press. I didn't win the contest, but that book was a semi-finalist. The contest spurred me on to publish my book. I had recently made a couple of online friends who had independently published books of their own. They helped answer some of my questions.

I won't go into all the details, mainly because I don't remember many of them. I hired someone to design the cover. I definitely recommend that unless you are super good at knowing all the intricacies of book cover design. I also hired a formatter because I had no clue how to format a book, especially a paperback. At the time, I didn't hire a proofreader. I had my mom and sisters do that for me.

My biggest mistake with the first book was that I rushed it. My book was good, but not great. It still had many typos and a few loose ends I should have tied up. Those have now been corrected.

Since my first published book in November 2013, I have figured out at least a little bit of a routine of writing, editing, editing, more editing, and publishing. The marketing part is still coming. Slowly.

If I had it to do over again, I would delay the publication of my

book for a few months to make sure it was truly and fully edited. I would hire a proofreader to go through it and I would learn a little more about the craft of writing.

It's been an eventful journey, but one that I would gladly do all over again if I could.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I would like to open the floor now for questions. Feel free to ask Faith any questions you might have about writing, her writing, her writing process, or anything else you can think about. She'll be around sometime today to answer them!

Plotting/Outlining with Faith Blum

Hello! I have Faith Bum here with us to day to talk about plotting. Specifically, about outlining your novel. Now, I've never written an outline - I look at all that organization and my eyes glaze over - I'm a plantser, but I do encourage new authors to try it out for at least one book, to see if it's right for them.

Even if outlining isn't for you, there are great tips in this post that you can use for lower-scale planning as well.

Faith Blum is a lovely friend of mine, though I've not yet read any of her books. I have several on my kindle, and I've attempted the first one multiple times ... but then get distracted by all the shiny fantasies that I also have on my kindle. (I'm not really a western person.) BUT, I've heard from my Western-loving friends that these are some pretty good novels, so if Western's your genre, do give them a go.

Follow her on the Interwebs:

Website~Blog~Amazon~Goodreads~Facebook~Twitter~Pinterest

Faith also hosts a monthly three-day word war on Facebook. The last one just ended, but do look into attending the next. They're awesome fun!

All writers know there's a difference between outlining/plotting, pansting, and plantsing. I'm not here to discuss those differences, but rather one way to do outlining. What I have in this blog post is a slightly abbreviated version of K.M. Weiland's outlining tips in her book Outlining Your Novel.

Step 1: The What if Questions

These are questions that may or may not apply to your book. Things that could happen in the book, but may not actually happen. For example, here are a few "what if" questions I have for my book He Hideth My Soul (Orphans of the West 3). It's a book that isn't published yet, but one of the first I've actually outlined this way.

What if Otis got a hefty inheritance and could finally go to school to become an even better doctor?

What if Otis got the schooling and then went to Colorado to his silver mine and found horrible working conditions?

What if Otis fell in love with the nurse?

What if the mine manager's sister comes to escape her abusive fiance?

Step 2: What's Expected

Similar to What if questions, these can be what will happen or some things that may not actually happen. They can also be ways to pinpoint areas where you can do what is least expected in the story.

Step 3: Premise Sentence

This is the absolute barest of bare bones of your story. They can also be called loglines. For example, here is my premise sentence for He Hideth My Soul: Now a fully educated doctor, Otis Miller goes to Colorado to see how his mine is going and finds horrible, dangerous working conditions for the miners.

Step 4: Pre-outline Questions

There are multiple questions you can ask before you actually do some outlining, but I only use a couple.

1. What are the 4 or 5 big moments in your story?

2. What are 2 complications for each moment?

Step 5: Scene List

This is a detailed description of all the scenes in your book. There are many ways you can do this. How much detail you put into the scenes is your decision.

Step 6: Setting

You can describe the setting in whatever way you choose that will be helpful. I found it very good for my book. This was the first time I described the setting of my books and I found it to help a lot.

Step 7: Character Sketches

This could be one of the most important things you do for your book. Finding out more about your characters can be fun or hard. Describing what they look like, what their personality is, what his motive is, his backstory, and so much more. You can find different character sketch questions in various places, but I have personally found the one K.M. Weiland provides in her book Outlining Your Novel to be the best one I have used yet.

And there you have it. That is one way you can outline your novel. I would love to hear your thoughts on how you outline, what you found most helpful, or even why you've chosen not to outline.