Welcome to blog Jog Day!

I have a special gift for you just for stopping by! Leave your e-mail address in any of the comment areas and I will send you The Writer In You, a short e-book full of advice from published authors in all fields of writing.

When you’re done peeking at my site here, please click over to Rose Firewalker’s TeaGarden at http://rosefirewalker.wordpress.com. I had the best time browsing through her Blog!

Remember Joggers, if you drift away from the chain of Blogs, click back here or start over back at http://blogjogday.blogspot.com. Enjoy your journey!

To Be, Or Not To Be Self-Published; That Is The Question

This article coutesy of Angela Joseph. Thank you Angela!

The term self-publishing carries with it a lot of negative connotations. As writers, we are led to believe that if you self-publish your book, you immediately brand yourself as “not-good-enough.” Truth be told, most of the self-published books I have read have made me cringe, but some traditional books also come in for my mental red ink. With traditional publishers falling on hard times, editors are becoming more leery of taking on new names these days and are sticking with their tried and true authors. Occasionally, a new name makes it into the hallowed halls.
Knowing al this, I decided to take the plunge and self-publish my first non-fiction book Women For All Seasons which was released a few days ago. Why did I self-publish? Mainly, for reasons listed before. As a newbie without a platform, having a work of non-fiction accepted by a traditional publisher seemed as unlikely as snow falling in Florida. Also, I’ve heard that authors, indie or otherwise, must do their own promoting. You cannot rely on your publisher to promote your book for you. Since my book is a niche book, I thought if I market wisely, I could see some good results. For those reasons I never approached an agent or editor.

Bigger Royalties
Traditionally published books earn an average of 10% in royalties, which in most cases is just around $1.00. If you did get a big advance, that may help, otherwise $1.00 is not enough to make you give up your day job. To my great amazement, I realized that my self-published book would earn just slightly more on Amazon after the publisher has taken out his share. And it’s not likely to get into bookstores, nor is it likely to be reviewed, unless I choose to pay for a review. However, if I convert to an ebook or Kindle, which I plan to do, I can make much higher royalties.

The Advantages of Self Publishing
So what are the advantages of self publishing? First, it ensures that your masterpiece (if you can call it that) goes before the public instead of staying on your hard drive. Second, it's quick. Your work gets out while it’s still fresh in your mind and you still feel some connection to it. Third, if your book is well written, you can get positive feedback from your readers and your book may eventually be picked up by a traditional house. Fourth, even though you may not make a lot of sales, a good self-published book can lead to other things; speaking engagements, writing contracts and the like.

The Company You Keep
If you still think your self-published book puts you in the company of the less-than-noteworthy, think again. Ever heard of Virginia Wolf, Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, John Grishman? These famous scribes all self published at one time. So if you decide to go the self-published route, here are some things to consider. Do your homework. If you are tech savvy, you may opt for a service like Lulu where you can convert your work to a PDF file and upload it. Then you can design your cover or have someone do it for you. If not, you can research one of the many POD publishers, as I did, and choose the one that gives you the best value for your money. Polish your work as if you were pitching it to a reputable agent. Get someone to edit it, or enlist the help of your writers’ group (as I did). Only when you are satisfied that your book meets and passes the sparkle test, then go ahead and publish. Once you have submitted it, begin your marketing efforts. Make use of social networking sites, blogs and other communities to create buzz about your book. You may find that once you have done all that you can do, and then some, you will enjoy the journey of bringing your baby into the world.

Post courtesy of “Angela’s Freelance Writing.” Please visit Angela’s site at http://www.angelasfreelancewriting.com

If you are undecided as to how to publish your book, visit Plain & Simple Books Publishing at http://www.plainandsimplebooks.webs.com and learn about alternative book publishing options.

Image: George Bernard Shaw 1912

Publish Your Book For Free? Yes!

Are you a writer ready to publish your book? Is the process confusing and frustrating? Not sure what publishing method to use? I may have a solution for you.

For more than five years now, I have had my own publishing company, Plain & Simple Books, LLC. The company was formed strictly for the purpose of publishing my own books; I am now ready to open my business to outside authors seeking alternative publishing.

What Plain & Simple Books is offering authors:
*No upfront costs
*Free basic layout and design (value $200+)
*Free basic cover design (value $300.00+)
*Commission on Amazon and Kindle sales
*Significant discount off the cover price for author book purchases (no minimum order)
*Authors maintain rights to copyright
*Finally, and most importantly…your finished book in hand!

To learn more, please visit my new “temporary” Website at http://www.plainandsimplebooks.webs.com or e-mail me with your questions at caroldenbow@gmail.com.

Blog Jog Day Sign-Ups in the Works

40 sign-ups so far for Blog Jog Day November 21st. Can we reach last years total of near 150? Sign up now to get your blog seen! Visit http://blogjogday.blogspot.com for more info.

Another Great Way to Get Hits to Your Blog!

When I first began this Blog two years ago, I would get only four or five visitors per day. I was frustrated because I wanted to share book writing tips with others and I didn’t know how. I had befriended a wonderful person online who I shared my frustration with and she told me about Entrecard. Entrecard is a free service where all I had to do was add a link to my site (see link to the right) and other related, as well as some unrelated Bloggers, click on to my Blog to earn credits towards their own advertisements on other sites. It’s all free and increased my hits to over 50 per day! Now my site is highly ranked by the search engines and I get new visitors every day.

Entrecard has been a terrific asset to my Blog and has really helped me grow. I suggest if you have a Blog or Website, try it and see if your visitor count doesn’t increase substantially. If not, you can easily remove the link (but I think you’ll be surprised!). Click on to Entrecard!

Read the Entrecard Blog at http://entrecard.com/blog/?p=1593

2'nd Blog Jog Day Coming Soon!

Our second annual Blog Jog Day will be held on Sunday, November 21!

Plug Your Blog! Potentially thousands of hits in one day! Long-term results! Permanent links! Join us for Blog Jog Day on November 21.

What is Blog Jog Day? It’s a one-day event where Bloggers are joining together for a pyramid effect promotional rally. We all post on the same day with each post leading the visitor to the next Blog, and so on full circle. That’s it! Visitors explore your Blog, and then click on to the next one bringing potentially thousands of unique visitors to your site.

How Blog Jog Day Can Benefit Bloggers
*More unique visitors to your Blog
*More subscribers
*More comments
*More inbound links
*More Followers
*More exposure and sales
*Grow your daily hits
All which look great to Google, Yahoo, Bing, and the other search engines! With popularity comes a higher Page Rank and greater exposure for your Blog!

How It Works
Bloggers can sign up at http://blogjogday.webs.com. There is a one-time $2.00 participation fee which helps support additional advertizing for Blog Jog Day.

Then follow-up with an e-mail to chipanugget@gmail.com with your Blog address. Within a few days, you will receive a post to copy and paste as a post on your Blog. It will look similar to this:
“Thank you for stopping by my Blog! Please explore all this Blog has to offer, then jog on over to (add next Blog link here). If you would like to visit a different Blog in the jog, go to http://blogjogday.blogspot.com.”

You will be allowed to personalize your Post to suit your own Blog and personality. Maybe a good opportunity for a giveaway, contest or poll on your Blog? However, we will be providing the required link to the next Blog.

I can’t guarantee massive results, but I can assure you of numerous new visitors to your site! The more of us that do it, the better the results for all of us! Last year was great!

We all have Blogs, we all have friends. What are you waiting for…get on board now!

Virtual Book Touring with Author Patricia Rockwell

Patricia Rockwell has spent most of her life teaching. From small liberal arts colleges to large regional research universities and even a brief stint in a high school; her background in education is extensive. She has taught virtually everything related to communication. Patricia was on the faculty at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for thirteen years, retiring in 2007.

Sounds of Murder, her first novel, is a cozy mystery which follows the exploits of amateur sleuth and acoustics expert Pamela Barnes, as she attempts to use her knowledge of sound to solve the murder of a university colleague strangled in the departmental computer lab.

Recently, Patricia organized her own virtual book tour and is here to chat with me about that experience.

Carol Denbow: Welcome Patricia, so glad you are here to help our visitors understand what a “virtual book tour” is and how it works to promote your books. Please start by offering us your definition of a virtual book tour.

Patricia Rockwell: Carol, my understanding is that a “virtual book tour” occurs when an authors “tour” around the blogosphere visiting different blogs and at each stop to promote their books. It takes the place of a “real” book tour in which authors would actually travel around the country from bookstore to bookstore promoting their books. The major benefit is that the “virtual” tour is less expensive and less time consuming.

Carol Denbow: You set up your recent virtual book tour yourself. How did you locate and make contact with online sites for your tour stops which would be suitable to your genre?

Patricia Rockwell: Well, for me it was a no-brainer. I have two blogs and a number of followers; a number of whom I’ve gotten to know quite well. I put a request up on both my blogs for hosts for my book tour, indicated the dates and what would be involved. I received responses from six bloggers which covered most of the dates I had planned for the tour.

Carol Denbow: When contacting potential tour stop sites, how receptive were the Webmasters to your requests?

Patricia Rockwell: Very. As I said, I posted the request on my blogs and bloggers responded to me—so I knew they were willing.

Carol Denbow: Did you set up individual interviews at each stop, post book reviews, or what?

Patricia Rockwell: I gave each blogger the choice as to what they preferred. They all chose interviews so that’s what I prepared. Some gave me prepared questions, and some let me create my own.

Carol Denbow: How did you promote your virtual book tour?

Patricia Rockwell: Mostly, I just posted about it on my blogs, mentioned it on Facebook, and tweeted on Twitter.

Carol Denbow: In your personal opinion, how hard was it and how much time did you need to invest to set up a successful tour?

Patricia Rockwell: I found it was less time-consuming than I imagined it would be. The important thing for me was to maintain a calendar of each date of the tour and know exactly what was to happen on that date and make certain I was prepared and had delivered the appropriate material to each blogger in time for the visit of the day.

Carol Denbow: Was there any monetary expense in putting together your virtual book tour?

Patricia Rockwell: No.

Carol Denbow: Where did you learn how to put your tour together and make it happen?

Patricia Rockwell: Mostly from your blog and other online sites.

Carol Denbow: In your eyes, was the tour a success and would you recommend other authors try it?

Patricia Rockwell: It’s hard to evaluate how successful it was because it’s difficult to attach book sales to one particular event. I can’t say I saw a dramatic rise in book sales from the tour, but I certainly got more press that week than I had previously.

Carol Denbow: Is there anything you would do different if you decide to do it again in the future?

Patricia Rockwell: I think I might expand beyond just the followers of my blogs—maybe investigate some book bloggers or other book sites, particularly sites oriented to my genre.

Carol Denbow: Thank you Patricia, great interview!

Patricia Rockwell’s publications are extensive; with over 20 peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals, several textbooks, and a research book on her major interest area of sarcasm published by Edwin Mellen Press. In addition, she served for eight years as Editor of the Louisiana Communication Journal.

Dr. Patricia Rockwell is presently living in Aurora, Illinois, with her husband Milt, also a retired educator; the couple has two adult children. Visit Patricia’s Blog at http://subjectivesoup.blogspot.com.

If you are interested in learning more about organizing a virtual book tour of your own, read the e-book, How to Organize a Virtual Book Tour, available at Authors Box.

On Book Marketing

While waiting on an “in-progress” special post for A Book Inside Blog, I’ve decided to offer a one-time deal to my blog visitors to help with their pre-holiday book marketing (no, it’s NOT too soon).

Now through October 31st, when you order either of my e-books, How to Organize a Virtual Book Tour or 100 Ways to Market Your Book For Free (or really cheap), I will include the other one free! Each of these books is available on my Website for $3.99, but right now you can get twice the help for the price of one book. That’s a boatload of marketing information for a very affordable price!

Also, if you have your heart set on the new e-book version of A Book Inside, How to Write, Publish, and Sell Your Story, order it and I will include one of the above titles for free as well!

To order, please visit my Website at AuthorsBox or go directly to the Webstore at http://authorsbox2.webs.com/apps/webstore/. Please specify your desired free e-book when ordering.

I wish every author out there successful holiday sales for 2010!

How to Promote Your Book Online

Since I’ve recently been on the topic of book promotion, I think I’ll go one more. It’s a trying ordeal to compose and publish a book, but selling it can be the biggest and most frustrating part of the journey. So I believe this topic to be the most relevant to authors, especially those newly published.

The key to selling books is exposure; if no one knows about your book, they won’t buy it. So how do we get noticed in this competitive field? Statistically, most books are not sold through traditional brick and mortar book stores. 52 percent of all book sold are sold via mail order, online, book clubs, discount stores, and nontraditional retail outlets. Since 2008, online sales have nearly doubled and are expected to increase steadily year after year.

Realizing this, I suggest authors focus on strengthening their online presence. Personally, I’ve been working this method of marketing for more than four years. Just for fun, Google me and see how much exposure I have accumulated—“Carol Denbow.” Now hold the chuckles, some of my search results are for recent news unrelated to books (I’m a golfer in a small town, always makes the news!). But for the most part, you’ll see a massive number of links to my books and marketing articles, interviews, etc.

I have found the best means to gain online exposure is through author interviews and submitting book related articles to article sites such as Amazines.com and EzineArticles.

Join sites like Author & Book Event Center or get in the “Author Spotlight” for great front page exposure.

The restaurant business is one of the toughest out there. Even as a competitive business (as we are), there is a saying amongst restaurant owners which is, “where there’s a restaurant, build another and they will come; ever heard the expression, “restaurant row?” Authorship is a tough business as well and we must work together. How about swapping author interviews on Blogs? I, as an author, will interview you this week on my Blog, and you interview me on your Blog next week. Surely you know an author with a Blog? No? Google one! Do the same with book reviews.

So with that in mind, I’d like to ask that all published authors add a comment to this post and tell us what your most successful marketing tool has been. Let’s share our ideas and get some books sold! Don't forget to leave a link to your Website or Blog!

Finding Your Book's Audience

The following is an excerpt from A Book Inside, How to Write, Publish, and Sell Your Story. It is crucial you recognize and make plans to target your specific audience before you sit down to write your book. Please read on.

Before you decide exactly what to write, figure out who will be buying and reading your book. If you’re writing a family history for instance, your audience may be limited to your friends and family members. In that case, book market statistics won’t be a concern to you. But if your plan is to sell your book to the public and make a profit, you’ll need to research the market to determine what your audience will want to buy.

People generally buy nonfiction books to learn about something and they purchase fiction books for the pleasure of reading. You might want to consider nonfiction for your first book. It’s easier to write and considerably more nonfiction books are published than fiction. In fact, nonfiction generally outsells fiction by two to one.

Half of all books sold in 2006 were sold to people over age 45. Women buy 68 percent of all books sold, so it might be wise to consider targeting your book idea to include a more mature and primarily female audience as well. The highest percentage of books sold was mass-market paperbacks and college textbooks.

The following are statistics on what age groups purchase which type of books. Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,001 adults, aged 18 and older.

Ages 18–29:
• 72% — Biographies or books about history
• 60% — Self-improvement books
• 58% — Thriller or suspense novels

Ages 30–49:
• 72% — Biographies or books about history
• 60% — Religion and theology
• 60% — Self-improvement books

Ages 50–64:
• 74% — Biographies or books about history
• 60% — Self-improvement books
• 59% — Current literary fiction

Ages 65 and over:
• 76% — Biographies and books about history
• 58% — Religion and theology
• 53% — Current events books and mystery novels (tie)

Aside from those listed, the genre choices in the poll included business management and leadership books, classic literature, horror novels, personal finance books, science fiction, and romance novels. All rated between 7 and 48 percent.

References:
Lou Aronica, Publishers Weekly (March 22, 1999).
Gallup, Inc., Gallup Poll, Do Reading Tastes Age? (February 4, 2003). To learn more about this study, visit http://www.gallup.com/poll/7732/Reading-Tastes-Age.aspx.