What are you currently working
on?
Incandescent Visions was published in January of this
year (2020) and I continue to actively market it. Right now I’m on a virtual
book tour in advance of the holidays (this guest article is being posted on one
of the tour’s participating blogs) and a NetGalley co-op book review
engagement. This fall I ran several bargain eBook promotions at $0.99 for all the
eBook formats and platforms that carry my book: Kindle (Amazon), NOOK (Barnes
& Noble), Apple and Kobo. That’s an enticing and substantial discount off
my standard eBook price of $3.99. Then I re-ran the most successful promotions
and will likely continue to do so at reasonable intervals. For those of you not
familiar with the bargain eBook promotions industry, the “sweet spot” bargain
price that seems to get the most interest (and purchases) from readers is
$0.99. There are also promotions for free eBooks, and although there are valid
reasons for offering a book for free, I’ve decided not to do that at this stage
in my book’s life cycle.
I regularly use social media to meet new readers, fellow
authors and book bloggers/reviewers, and to let them know about this book and
what I’m working on for future publication. The platforms I’m active on are
Twitter and Instagram.
I have a blog and a newsletter that both focus on themes of
artistic creativity, writing and self-publishing, plus an occasional book
review and artist interview. My most recent article is entitled “A Conversation
with the Multifaceted Artist Preston M. Smith: Painter-Podcaster-Educator-Poet.”
On average, I try to post a new article on my blog once or twice a month, and
to publish a newsletter issue once a month.
During 2020 I submitted my book for consideration to several
book awards and I submitted new poems to poetry contests. Submitting to book,
poetry and fiction contest/award programs is an important marketing activity
for any author because being listed as a finalist or a winner expands one’s
audience through recognition, reviews and sales. I will continue these efforts
in earnest going forward.
I recently received a response from the 28th Annual
Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards and although I was not a winner,
I did receive encouraging comments from one of the judges, “I really like the
look and production value of this book. The cover art is interesting and makes
me want to pick up the book... It’s also interesting to see the way the poems
and sections are structured with design elements that relate to the cover
image. It’s very clever. I also really enjoyed how the poems have a sense of
structure but still feel free and loose and playful within it. It’s a great
balance there, and I loved that they don’t feel rigid or at all predictable...
A great accomplishment.”
I’m preparing to submit poems to various literary journals,
and I’m working on a second collection of poems either as a book or a series of
chapbooks. To be determined. I’m applying the concept of “experimenting like a
child” to these new poems. Basically this means messing around with style,
form, length, tone, subject matter, all of it, without thinking about it too
much.
To be honest, I’ve got too much going on and I need to find
a balance between marketing this book and focusing on new work.
Jasmine, I enjoyed writing this Guest Post. I really appreciate you sharing my poetry book with your audience with that Guest Post and a Spotlight. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome! :) And thank you for the guest post!
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