How to get Light Years ahead in the Twitterverse

Dear Facebook, There is Someone Else . . .

By Sue Ganz-Schmitt

When my third book Planet Kindergarten was nearing launch in 2014, I was figuring out how to get a presence on Twitter.  I was an avid Facebook user but did not understand Twitter.  It was an overwhelming waterfall gushing down my feed compared to the steady easy to manage stream on Facebook.  I just didn’t get it. 140 characters what was the point?

Facebook’s algorithms frustrated me at that point. My fan page posts to my several hundred followers would get me seven impressions if that. Plus you can only post a couple of times a day on Facebook without annoying people, so without buying ads to bring loads more followers to my page, I was lonely there.  

So I jumped in and have fallen in love with Twitter as my top social media choice ever since.   I still use Facebook but primarily for my closer network of family and friends.

On Twitter, I now get about 1M+ impressions a year.  I found a place to connect to other space enthusiasts, and a place to find and curate information.  It’s not just about having content for me.  It is that I am crazy to learn more. So with every post I share, and every post I find, I am becoming more savvy to my fields of interest.  And I find I now have some pretty interesting topics for dinner conversation.  By the way, did you know that Exoplanet Gliese 436 is coated in burning ice?

Aside from paid promotions to attract followers (which I haven’t found cost effective), the price of growing your Twitter community is time.  Time to find and follow like-minded Twitter users, and time to attract followers with your consistent and appealing posts. 

 One of the things I learned right away is that you don’t want a slew of posts, one after another (which can put people off when you dominate the feed).  The other thing is that I get far more impressions for a post with an image than one without.  My favorite tool –Buffer –helps me with both of these issues. 

Whenever I visit a web page with an article and an image I want to share on Twitter – I right click my Mac’s track pad (using two fingers) and Buffer shows up in the menu.  I select Buffer, and it creates a post and let’s me pull the image in and even add additional images from the article by scrolling through them in the Buffer post window.  I can then edit the text if I choose and select which of my Twitter accounts to post it to (it works with other social media like Facebook or Instagram too).  It is so easy!

Buffer lets me share my post right away, add it to a queue, or allows me to schedule it in the future by date and time.  I pay $10.00 for the service monthly, but you can also use it for free with a limit of 10 posts per day in your queue (vs. 100).  I tend to fill my Buffer for the week on Monday (9 posts per day), and then each day, I can check in on Twitter and reply to comments, retweet others posts, and find timely new posts that I want to add to the days offerings.  It’s a great way to ensure you consistently tweet every day even when on vacation.

Using a queue saves me hours of time every day when I would otherwise get on for a few posts and get sucked into the vortex of random social media that would lure me to a sad video of an octopus coveting a teddy bear on a fishing line that gets yanked away.  As the credits would roll, I would realize another day of writing time – squandered away.  Time to pick up the kids.

My favorite tool to help me follow the users who are right for me, and to unfollow the rest is: Statusbrew.  It is a free service that lets you follow up to 50 users a day, and unfollow up to 100 a day.  You can copy another users following, or find users by key hashtags/keywords that are important to you.  You can easily see who unfollowed you, find your fans that you are not yet following, and a lot more.  While this service is free, you can opt to pay a monthly fee starting at $10 for fewer limits.

One of my own guidelines is to keep my followers equal to or at a greater number than those I follow.   If someone doesn’t follow me back, I unfollow them.  If they are an expert in a field or a newsource that I want to follow and that isn’t going to follow me back – I make and add them to a list.  I never follow spammers or marketers who follow me.  I am here to build a real community, and not just numbers.   

Here’s to finding your space on Twitter.  Find me there and I will follow you back! 

Helpful Links

Statusbrew: https://app.statusbrew.com
Buffer: https://buffer.com/

Sue Ganz-Schmitt is the author of Planet Kindergarten, and it's soon to be released sequel Planet Kindergarten - 100 Days in Orbit. She also wrote. The Princess and the Peanut and Even Superheroes get Diabetes. She is my Superhero because she showed me how to better use Twitter.

 

Sue’s website: http://www.sueganzschmitt.com

Sue on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlanetKBooks

 

The Simple Ideas Behind Promotion for Writers

By guest Poster A,J, Cosmo

A.J. Cosmo is the best-selling author and illustrator of over thirty children's books. I first met him at a book sale at Encino Elementary School. I sat next to him ans was impressed by his style of presentation. The first book of his I read was The Monster That Ate My Socks. Loved it.

Check out his work at ajcosmo.com that is, if you like monsters, imagination, or heart.

I do! A.J not only has a great website, he has a free picture book for following him. I signed up to test it out and Pretty Please? Princess Polly is delightful

The Simple Ideas Behind Promotion for Writers

Everyone wants to promote, or should I say, they

need to promote. For some reason authors tend to shy away from sales. We tell people that it's about the passion, or the craft, or the love of just doing it, which is true, but it would be disingenuous to say that money isn't a factor.

So how do we sell books? Well, why do people buy books?  There are three reasons why a person purchases a book:

1. Entertainment
   The book appeals to them for the sake of passing time, making them feel better, or making them think about something new.
   
   If your book relies on entertainment alone, make sure that you understand what it is about your work that people enjoy. Be sure and ask your readers because the answer may surprise you. Once you understand that, make sure that all of your sales material points to it.
   
   
2. Information
   The book appeals to readers because it contains something they want to know or teach.
   
   This applies well to non-fiction but can also apply to fiction. Some books for children may secretly teach language and shapes while some grown-up books may take place in a historically accurate or otherwise well researched setting. Make sure that your advertising tells readers what they will gain from investing in your book.
   
   
3.  Symbolism
   The book represents more than the sum of its pages. It represents an ideal, movement, or a group of people that the reader wishes to be a part of.
   
   How many of you have gone to a speaker, loved what they said, bought their book, and then never read a single page? Don't feel guilty. You weren't buying their book, you were demonstrating your appreciation of that person and your agreement with their views.
   
   If you can score school appearances, events, or conferences to sell your books, good for you! If you can't though, you can still attach your book to a cause. Wonder by Raquel Jaramillo marvelously tied itself with the relationship between othering and bullying while Harry Potter has become synonymous with perseverance.

Hopefully your book can sell to at least two of these ideas. After all, the best textbooks are also entertaining while wonderfully written narratives can unite entire groups of people (think of John Green.) Spend some time considering how you would sell these features of your book and to whom those features would most appeal.

Basic marketing is nothing more than informing people of something they might like. Inform the right group of people in the correct way and you won't even be called a marketer. Tell the wrong people in an offensive way and you will be thrown out as a shyster.

If we turn all of this into a process you get something that looks like this:

1. Determine what you have.
2. Determine who would want it.
3. Test how best to describe what you have.
4. Find where these people gather.
5. Present what you have to them in an appropriate manner         (as dictated by the customs of the group.)

Simple, no?

Notice how I haven't once mentioned a traditional ad- that's intentional. Ads are like rain; most people ignore it, some avoid it, others get upset by it, but very few people enjoy standing in the middle of it. What you need is something more focused.

If you have a romance book, you would start your promotion by finding groups of romance readers. The more specifically the group matches your product, the better. If your book is about creating romance, you would look for an audience of lonely people to show the work to. If your book is a revolutionary love story about an oppressed minority, you could speak at a convention hosted by said minority.

What you don't do is blow $500 on shotgun Facebook ads, spam Twitter with "buy my book" tweets, or guilt trip your friends and family into making a purchase. All of that will only end in poor sales and tears.

Human beings naturally promote to each other, it's in our DNA. As a species, it's beneficial to share where delicious fruit trees are. Yet, we are also distrustful of those outside our tribe. If your brother tells you of good food, you will go at once to retrieve it, however, if a stranger tells you the exact same thing, your first thought may be of a trap.

That's why finding your audience, your tribe, is so important. Before you can find that tribe though, you first have to understand exactly what kind of fruit you have and who specifically has the taste for it.

The Burbank Library Author Signing: What We Took Away

By Susan J Berger and Victoria Krol

On Saturday, October 17, The Burbank Public held a Local Author signing event.. They opened up a meeting room, set out tables, made signs and a program listing the bios and books of the signing authors. The event was beautifully organized and well attended. 

I was one of the fifty signing authors, each of us there, hoping to attract the attention of the attending buyers.

And I had help! My brilliant fellow Inker Hilde Garcia stayed up most of Friday night baking her justly famous chocolate chip cookies. (This one top of the regular organized chaos that is her life and a twenty page paper she had due.) She and I and her son Sam wrapped over 100 cookies and attached a postcard to each. I wanted prospective readers to know how to find the eBook, Audiobook  and paperback on Amazon in case they weren’t prepared to buy at the event.

Most authors brought giveaways ranging from bookmarks to chap sticks. One author’s publisher provided Book shaped USB Drives. I think I had the best. Hilde’s cookies are the bomb.

Hilde schmoozed, bought books and made sure every author got a cookie and the postcard.

My favorite new idea? The author who had a poster with large print snippets of her reviews. It also said Show Special. 10.00 Next time, I want to do that. I know people put review snippets on bookmarks and postcards, but they are two small to read when you’re browsing a show.

 
Kris Kahrs, my other in-town Fellow Inker came and brought her son Tommy. And bought a book. We haven't had a Pen and Ink meeting in a long time. I was so happy she came!

I sold eight books.  - Five of my children’s books and three copies of Time and Forever.

Kris Kahrs, Susan J. Berger Hilde Garcia. We miss Lupe!!!!

I had three children's books to sell. I sold the last copy of Growing Up Dreams before this picture.

Children’s writers were underrepresented. I am not sure why.  I think SCBWI and Pal didn’t get the word

E Katherine was there with the ARC for her debut novel. How to Be Brave. I’d read a blog interview with her and it’s on my TBR list.

Andrea Loney, winner of the Lee and Low New Voices dropped by and bought my book. I love Andrea.

While I sat passing out cookies and talking with prospective readers, Victoria Krol interviewed many of the authors about the books. Here are her comments.

Sisan McNeil

Her book theme was Norse Mythology.
In her book it was Fantasy and a little drama.
 

Nara Duffie and her mom.



Nara Duffie

She is a twelve year old novelist.

The Monster Realm Her book is about a secret land called Lanodeka that monsters created to  be able to live in peace. The main characters sibling gets taken into the land of Lanodeka and encourages the monsters to go to war.

 

Tori bought this book and I dipped into it. I am borrowing it when Tori finishes.

It is self published and very well written. Also I love the cover design.

 E.V.Fairfall

The books she wrote were Y.A.

One of them was about mother earth and her  creations and how a hunter continued to destroy it. Her other book was about a person who had a personality disorder where at night he was really sweet and kind, but in the day he was mean, cruel and rude.
 

Paul Marquez

His book was called the Devil’s Daughter.

The Father and the daughter despise each other.
The daughter believes that her father should not destroy humanity so she tries to foil his plans and save the victims of his plans. His book is fantasy and it’s for young adults (Y.A).

R.J.Johnson

One of his series is about Indiana Jones meeting Iron Man.

The other series was called The Twelve Stones.
Both series were not my age group.It was for 18 year olds or higher. Vic Cabrera

Vic Cabrera wrote short stories about his life in Cuba.

It is titled My Cuban Story funny memories ,serious times.

Patrick Burdine

His story is titled Vampire’s Lover’s.

It is not my age group yet. There are good vampires and bad vampires that have developed into bloodthirsty monsters. The main character’s blood helps keep the good vampire’s alive and the bad vampires are trying to kill all the people with the special blood so only bad vampires are on the earth ,they don’t want any more good vampires on the earth.

 
Nancy Lorenz

Nancy Lorenz wrote about a girl that loved to dance but she faces conflicts when they move from New York to California.Nancy Lorenz included real facts about ballerinas because she was a ballet dancer.Her book is Y.A.

Allison Morse

Allison Morse wrote a book called The Sweetheart Deal. It is very light, The main character wants to be the head of her family's company and another man tries  to take over the company.
 
LeeAnne Hansen

Her books are for adults. One of her books is titled Yonder and a male ghost haunts a living girl. Her other book is called Ghostlight and it’s about these actors in Scotland and they have a performance in a Scottish castle and a ghost haunts that castle.

Barbara Sheppard

Barbara Sheppard wrote a little book and its purpose is to remind us to live life and enjoy it.

 

Cheryl Holt

She has written 40 books. One of her books is about a girl and when she is very little and her parents die and she gets separated from her siblings and neither of her brothers remember and one day she remembers and goes on a mission to find them.

 

Charles Duffie

Charles Duffie is Nara’s father.

He has written two comics, and one fairy tale about a Mole and an Owl.

Note the poster!

Nancy Cole Silverman

She wrote a book titled Shadow of Doubt and it’s about a reporter that dies from poisoned bath salts… who did it?

 

Christine Ashworth

She writes romance with mystery in them. Her book has a music star whose live is being threatened.

Now that I've read Victoria's notes I wish I had been able to dip into more of the books. I have read Allison Morse's The Sweetheart Deal and Christine Ashworth's Star books and loved them. Alison and I belonged to the same SCBWI critique back in 2008. Christine is the former president of LARA-RWA, which was well represented at the signing. 

Conclusions: No one was making many sales. Most book signings aren’t huge money making events. Don’t spend a lot of money on promotional items. Bookmarks or postcards are good. Candy is excellent. Cookies home made? Gold. A poster with review snippets which people can read easily, with a sticker giving a show special price is an excellent idea. Next time I will get a Square Reader so I can take credit cards. Write on!

Earthquake, Chocolate and Book, Oh My

By Susan J Berger

It's the Anniversary of the Northridge quake and I'm out of chocolate. This is a disaster.

I always check my emergency supplies on January 17th. Anyone who remembers the quake knows that terror requires comfort food. Chocolate is the number two staple on my emergency supply list. Right after batteries.

The Northridge Quake occurred in the early hours of Martin Luther King Day. The fact that it began at 4:30 AM on a holiday probably saved countless lives. That was twenty one years ago. My son commented, "The Northridge Quake is now old enough to drink.."
No California resident twenty one or under has any experience of what it feels like to be in a devastating shake. But if you lived in Northridge, Sherman Oaks or Santa Monica in 1994, you probably have a cellular memory of what it felt like. Some moments are like that. 9/11, for example.

Ventura Blvd South of Tyrone Ave. Sherman Oaks. Those stores are still there.

I



Corner of Hazeltine and  Moorpark Sherman Oaks.

Broken Freeway. Not sure where.

 

 

I was a Sherman Oaks Resident. That day is burned into my memory. So much so, that a decade later, I wrote a book for children on earthquakes.

 

Earthquake was aimed at a second grade level. Guardian Angel Publishing published in 2009. It won an Honorable mention in The Green Book Award. It had approval and nice comments from FEMA administrators.

Fired with enthusiasm, I got a list of school districts in California, Washington and Alaska and wrote them all.

I contacted Libraries and my local Fire Department.

No response.

I got a  book trailer.

 

I made a website 

I did a Teacher Activity Page 

My favorite activity is a hands on demonstration of the strength differences between numbers on the Richter Scale.

 

I made a tab for Emergency Supplies and links to other Kid Friendly Earthquake Websites.

I added a tab listing Grant resources for teachers wishing to use the book in their classroom.

I started a Facebook Page Which I update with reasonable regularity.

I took it to the SCBWI Summer Conference twice as part of the PAL book sale.

I don't think anyone really wants a preparedness guide for younger grades sprinkled with humor and factoids.

Occasionally I get a comment. After the 8.8 Earthquake in Chile in February 2010, I received a letter from Julio Vogel

Dear Susan

I´m very interested in your book about hearthquake as you should understand due last events in Chile.

I work at school preparing parents and teachers in several matters of comunications between them and with childrens, and a subject like hearthquakes today is a must.

How can I do in order to reproduce your work into spanish and spread it trough my blog, for me is very important with the huge numbers of childrens that survive an experience of an earthquake of 8.3 degrees, also if you can introduce me to places where i can found subjects about post traumatic stress for children.

For me is useful in english also because I work with several bilingual school and they talk only in english

Hope my english is ok for you 

warm regards.

 

I used Google Translator to make a copy of the book in Spanish. Hilde Garcia and her husband, David Krol proofed it for me. I sent it to Julio. I hope it helped.

 

In six years I  have done two school visits. On February 22nd I will be doing the Encino Elementary Charter School Book Fair.

I am proud of Earthquake. I think the editor/book designer, Lynda Burch did an amazing job of putting together.

I can't say it's a failure. The people who read it, seemed to like it. But there haven't been many readers.

Earthquake is available in paperback and hardback.The Kindle version is skewed. It doesn't get the factoids, pictures and text in proper order. It's better to buy the 5.00 pdf from Guardian Angel Publishing and send it to your reader program, should you be minded to check it out..

(In putting this post together, I notice that I have six reviews on Amazon, and three ratings on Goodreads - One of them from me. If any of you would like to review the book, I will be happy to send you a PDF.)

 

So my question, dear reader is what would you have done differently? How could I do a better job of selling the book?

 

Happy Birthday,  Martin Luther King. Post I have A Dream from January 20, 2014