Tag Archives: reader magnet

Monday’s Author Update

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Words: 1450
Time to read: 8 minutes

I don’t have much to say this week. I was able to finish proofing my proofs and I tweaked their covers. They looked plain, like they were missing something. I had made a series logo when I had the other covers, but with the colored lights, the logo didn’t fit anymore and I had to figure out something else. I really like the bokeh city background. I think it fits in with my other covers and the brand I’ve been able to create with all my books so I didn’t want to change it once I found it.

The tagline doesn’t add much, but I think it fills in the emptiness and balances out all the text at the bottom. I bolded the font (in Canva, if there’s not a choice to bold a font, you can duplicate it and lay it on top of the first which is what I had to do here) and it actually doesn’t look too bad in person. I won’t bother to take a picture of it because it wouldn’t look right anyway, but I’m pleased with how they look and besides moving the guy up on the sixth book, the covers are good. Here are all my covers together, besides my series, if you wanted to see them side by side:

Some might say not being able to read the tagline is a concern, especially at thumbnail size, but it will be bolded on the Amazon product page in the blurb section, so it’s mostly for decoration at this point.

I still have a lot to do–I haven’t even paged through the proofs yet, just opened the box to see how the tagline looked on the covers. I need to make sure the interiors are okay, that I added and took out everything I wanted, change the chapter headers because the paperback and ebook chapter headers have to be different, and then create the ebook files, for both Amazon and Bookfunnel. For six books, that will likely take me all day, and then I still have to create download pages for Bookfunnel and upload the files. I decided that I’m going to put all the ARCs up first before putting my preorders up on Amazon. I just want to do things one step at a time, and I’ll put my ARCs up for a couple of weeks first. I plan to run a Facebook ad to my website to encourage readers to download and I’m also going to use Booksprout since I’ve been nurturing a following there. I was a little hesitant putting the ARCs up while they were on preorder because I don’t want to upset the Amazon gods in any way, and I’d prefer links not being up in other places if they’re on Amazon, even if they’re only available for preorder.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t dug into any of that yet, it’s because I was stupid. On Saturday I had the entire day ahead of me, and instead of reading a book that I didn’t write or making graphics for social media, I opened my reader magnet and started reading My Biggest Mistake.

I didn’t have any intention of editing it, but once I started reading, I started changing things here and there, getting rid of some echoing, that kind of thing. My Vellum file says I last edited it in January of 2023, and while I did a good job, I’m finding things to fix to make it sound better. The story is still solid–I’m only changing things on a paragraph and sentence basis, and not even much of that. I started reading it because I really enjoy the story, and since I’ve been lightly editing it, I’m almost sorry I’m giving this book away. Despite the changes I’ve made so far, it’s one of my better books, deep and angsty, my characters saving each other from the choices they’ve made.

I don’t know how I could sell it and not feel bad since it’s free on my website, and I don’t want to put it for free anywhere since it does encourage visitors to my blog. I’m still giving away copies, about one every two days, though I’m not sure if I’ve been getting new subscribers. I exported my list from MailerLite and fed my list into my website, but since then the numbers have remained steady, though WordPress gives me a notification now and then I have a new subscriber. I’ve been blogging more, trying to get the word out, so I guess if people are getting sick of that, they’ve unsubscribed.

I don’t pay attention to those kinds of numbers, but I would feel bad if I took down my free book. I’ve been giving it away since practically I wrote it–it’s basically part of my brand now.

Anyway, so I enjoyed reading that and it will be better for it besides.

I have a Mayo Clinic appointment on the 23rd, and my sister is taking advantage of the trip to see a dermatologist for her eczema. I’ll be gone August 21-23 and I’ll try to get as much done as I can before then. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get my ARCs up. It would be nice if I could, because once those go up, I’ll be able to take another break. I haven’t been feeling lousy, and it would be fun to actually enjoy this trip down to the Cities–maybe eat at a place we never have before and I want to hit up Half Price Books in Apple Valley, if time allows. I haven’t been in there for a long time, and they may have some craft books I haven’t read yet.

Otherwise, that’s about all I have going on. I’m having an MRI done at one of my appointments, and I think she’s going to tell me I have endometriosis. This isn’t the blog for that, but I’ve been going down there every three months since February and if she wants to see me again, I’m going to put her off until December, or even January. I’d like to enjoy the holidays this year since even though I’m not cured, I’m feeling better, AND my 50th birthday falls on US’s Thanksgiving Day. That has got to be some kind of omen, you’d think. Better things coming for 2025, maybe? Not sure. I’m too hesitant after everything that’s happened to hope.

One thing at a time, at any rate, and getting those ARCs up is what I’m going to be working on this week. My sister and I are dragging my daughter (who is eighteen) to see Twisters (the second time for my sister and me) and I’m looking forward to that. When the original Twister came out, I saw it in the movie theatre thirteen times. There’s just something about seeing a movie like that on the big screen as often as you can. Probably the only good thing I can say about COVID is that the theatres were forced to regurgitate old movies, and my sister and I were able to see Titanic a couple of times in the theatre. She’s young enough she never saw it on the big screen. We made my daughter go to that one too, and I was pleased she sniffled through the entire thing, even though she gave us a hard time for forcing her to go.

Sales are slow at the moment, and there’s nothing to report there. The only thing that will breathe life into my sales now, I’m afraid, is publishing again, and I’ll get on that soon enough. I’ve heard lots of reports of August being a slow month (which I don’t really believe because the world is a big place), and I almost regret putting out my series during an election year. Stupid politics. I have a bad feeling that fiasco is going to ruin my launch and I can only hope the series hangs in there until after the New Year because I’ll be releasing into summer of 2025. But, never fear, it’s the first year my daughter can vote and I’m running her little butt up to the polling place because we both understand the assignment. Besides, I’ve benefited from living in Minnesota. Tim Walz is great, and I would love for the rest of the country to benefit from all he’s done for us, too.

I don’t get political often, and I hope if you’re publishing around that time, too, that you have a great launch!

That’s all I have for today. Good luck this week, keep your chin up if you’re going through the usual garbage. Take care of yourselves.

Until next time!

Reader Magnet Prep Work

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A reader magnet is also known as a cookie to bribe, I mean, encourage readers to sign up for your newsletter.

During the past couple of days I’ve been plotting the novel that is going to be my reader magnet for my newsletter. A reader magnet, or a “cookie” as some refer to it like Tammi Labrecque and David Gaughran, (though I think David borrowed it from her as they’re friends) is something free to entice readers to sign up for your newsletter. Authors give away a whole gamut of things from little short stories to full-length novels. Something Zoe York said in an interview on a podcast I listened to a long time ago (I forgot which one, I’m sorry) said that as an author who writes novels, giving away a story that is less than novel-length doesn’t make sense, and I took that advice to heart. It would be more time/cost effective to write a novella, since I could probably write 20k in just a few days, but I don’t write novellas, nor do I sell them, so skimping on my reader magnet doesn’t make much sense.

But, as I write my novel, I’m going to have a hard time parting with it. As an author, I give away books all the time. I do a Freebooksy now and then, and if someone approaches me and says they can’t afford to buy a book, I’ll send the PDF at no charge. That doesn’t happen very often, and I only had one taker when I offered up Wherever He Goes in an exchange for a possible review. Writing a reader magnet for the sole purpose of attaching it to a newsletter sign up will be a different mindset altogether, though I know it needs to be done. Giving a book away in a newsletter is almost the standard these days, and you’re missing out on a newsletter-building opportunity if that’s something you’re not doing.

It’s frustrating, in a way, that indie authors have trained readers to give away their email addresses for a free book, and you sometimes will get only freebie-seekers when you do that. Curating a list of readers who are interested in your work and sign up to stay on top of what you’re doing can be time-consuming and one of the (many) reasons I haven’t bothered with a newsletter yet.

That’s why I decided to write a full-length novel and write it to be the best book it can be. I want readers to have a taste of what they’ll get when they read my future work.

The plotting is almost done, though I am missing a couple of the big things I need to make the book move. I always have something huge in the middle of the book to prevent saggy middle, and always the BIG BAD that breaks them up (momentarily) toward the end. I have their backstories ironed out for the most part and I had to do a lot of name research to name the male MC because I have a habit of reusing names.

I also had to figure out where the novel was going to take place–all my books, even the ones I wrote in 3rd person past, are set in Minnesota, usually a fake city so I don’t have to worry about details. I make the city how I want it, and no one can complain. A good setting can actually become a protagonist/antagonist in its own right. A long series that comes to mind is Susan Mallery’s Fool’s Gold, a fictional town in California with a mayor who appears to be able to do a little magic through some not-quite-believable coincidences. I chose a fictitious resort on a lake in Minnesota, and I’m using the Arrowwood Resort Hotel and Conference Center as my muse. It’s not that far from me, in true, physical distance, but I’ve never been there. Here’s a picture from http://www.planetware.com from the Arrowwood website:

This resort will have everything the characters need to occupy themselves, and hopefully get into a little trouble, too. With a spa, pool, waterpark, marina, and much more, there’s no lack of things my characters can do. Because we’re talking about a billionaire family, they’ll own the resort, naturally.

I’ve been doing the preliminary work for this book–but doing so taking some advice from Suzy K. Quinn and Elana Johnson. I’ve worked out the potential cover, the tropes, the tagline, and the subgenre. Keeping in line with the “Package is the Promise” idea, this is the working cover for I suppose what will appear on Bookfunnel (though I haven’t gotten that far in the research stages yet).

The plot is about what you would expect–he’s best friends with her brother and when she was in her teens, he made fun of her for her looks. She never forgot it, and now when they meet up ten years later, he’s a bit surprised at just how far she’s come. This is a fine line to walk because he has to love her for who she is or he’ll get skewered in the reviews for being shallow. That means I have to make sure they spend a lot of time together so he can get to know the type of person she is. They don’t work together. I had to think of away he wouldn’t know she changed. So she doesn’t work for the family company–she set out on her own to make a reputation for herself on her own merits. He’ll come to eventually respect her for that, but at the beginning of the book he hates she’s not working for the family. There are a lot of layers and I’m really excited to start writing this book.

Still not 100% sure if I’ll use my initials for my pen name. I’ve been told to use my real name and brand the books differently from my 3rd person stuff, and I’ve been told to find something romantic that is in line with the authors who write billionaire romance. Chances are pretty good that the readers who like my billionaire stuff won’t move over to my 3rd person books, and that’s okay–that the whole point of the pivot. I don’t want to distance myself too far from the real me, otherwise I’ll have a difficult time being authentic in my newsletter and other social media platforms. I don’t want to hide behind a pen name, but I want to make it clear these books are different. We’ll see what happens.

Writing a cookie and starting up a newsletter is an exciting (and long-coming) thing for me. I’m excited to see where it takes me.

Thanks for reading!

February goals and what I’m doing this month.

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I just wanted to say hello to everyone and give you all a quick heads up with what I’m doing this month. I will definitely finish the second book in my series by my soft deadline of Valentine’s Day. I’m at 66k right now and while I aim for 90k with these first person books, I’m at the point in the story where it will end how it will end. I have the rest of the book planned out and it shouldn’t take me long to finish it up.

After I finish, I’m going to learn MailerLite through their Academy. I’ve said enough about it on the blog, so I’m finally going to get that up and going, and while I do that I’m going to write a reader magnet to give away. That definitely won’t be a 90k novel, but it will be longer than a novella, complete and a standalone, and in the first person present/billionaire subgenre that I have decided to write in for the foreseeable future. I’m also taking Suzy K Quinn’s How to Write a Bestseller through Mark Dawson’s SPF University, and I’m going to write this reader magnet using the things I learn in her classes.

So I do have a few things coming this month, some of the “I don’t wanna” variety than really looking forward to doing them. The reader magnet will be fun, and I invite anyone to slap me if I even THINK about writing it to sell. I need something to giveaway. That’s a given. And the book before the one I’m writing now was supposed to be that magnet. It turned into a six-book series instead. Not good. There are authors who write a magnet to give away for newsletter subscribers and sell it too, but I’ve heard you can grab more emails if you are exclusively giving it away. On the other hand, all you grab then is the freebie seekers. On the other hand, I plan to put my books into KU and a lot of readers do feel that reading with KU is free, so I guess I’ll just have to take my chances and see what I get.

All I know for sure is:

  1. I need a newsletter.
  2. I need a reader magnet.
  3. Nurturing my list will be my main priority next to writing books.

2021 is the year to learn from my . . . I wouldn’t call the last four years of publishing a mistake, but I haven’t done things correctly, and the time to start that is now.

Also this month I’ve been dealing with a little anxiety. I don’t know where it’s coming from–other than the fact I’ve been trying to work too many hours at my job and still write as much as I always have. Due to some financial things going on, I had to go from part- to full-time last November. I’m fortunate in that I have been able to cut back my work hours just a little bit, and I hope that helps. I also have been sitting on a chair that is not made for sitting for so long and needless to say, it’s made my, ah, bottom a little sore. I think my anxiety latched on to that too, and I’ve been to the clinic a couple times for an ailment I simply don’t have. I need to stand up more during my working hours, that’s about it–and probably find a better chair to sit on.

Anyway, so I’ve decided to try a little counseling, and I made a tele-visit appointment with a counselor for the end of the month. I have a lot to talk through–working from home has been an adjustment–and a few other things. I don’t think one session is going to help me, but it’s a start in the right direction. I also need to take my health more seriously–I need to schedule a checkup soon for my girlie bits. I’m not a spring chicken any more, and my mom passed away when she was only ten years older than I am now. It’s not a pleasant feeling thinking about that. I’m going to try to be more proactive about my health in the coming months if it’s going to trigger my anxiety. I also try to do things with my sister and I walk with a friend every now and then (we wear masks) so I’m not completely cut off from the world because I’m working from home.

The main thing I need to remember is writing is fun, and while I still need to think of my writing as a business, I’m not going to want to do it for the long haul if I can’t enjoy it, too. I need to take a deep breath. Things will be okay.

How is your 2021 going? Let me know!