IWSG: Marketing Mojo

It's Insecure Writer's Support Group day! The first Wednesday of every month is when members of the Group post about our writerly insecurities. If you want to sign up, go HERE. Thank you to Alex Cavanaugh and his co-hosts for making this event happen every month. 

Marketing. Doesn't the word strike fear in your heart? It does mine. If you're an indy author or with a small press then you know the agony of marketing. You're expected to do it yourself. But of course, you can't really do it by yourself. You need help and you have to ask for it. You have to ask bloggers to host you and share your books. It's a lot of social media. Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Wattpad.

That's why I've done virtually no marketing of my books this year. The push and the grind of trying to get sales is stressful. I just didn't want to do it. Blogging has been part of that push and grind for me too. So I took a break.

But, well, I really want to be a writer. A successful writer. So I'm starting to come back around. I'm getting those stirrings where I'm sort of caring again. About writing and even marketing. And maybe when I really get back into the writing (I've only been outlining) I'll care about blogging again and sharing what I'm working on.

So--since I write paranormal and this is October, the most paranormal month of the year, I went out on a limb and took things in hand a bit. I made Second Death free (which wasn't easy, but I'm pretty sure it was the hour I sat at my laptop pasting in the free link from B&N at Amazon so they'd price match) and put books II & III on sale. AND, I'm doing Facebook and Twitter sponsored ads. We'll see how it goes *shrugs*

OH! And I decided to be a real author and start a NEWSLETTER. It'd be awesome if you subscribed up at the top in the sidebar--and receive a free book (See? I've got marketing mojo!).

And...I'm thinking about writing a short story for the A-Z Anthology contest. Not that I'll win, not with all the other awesome authors and submissions, but I think it will be a good experience for me.

How are your marketing skills?

Have you even run ads?

How do you promote your books?

Ghost Head Hunter of The Rifters

I'm so happy to have M. Pax as my guest today. Mary has two new books coming from a new series, but today she's talking about The Rifters - and ghosties! And you know how I love my ghosties! SQUEEEE! *clamps hand over mouth* Oops, sorry. That just slipped out. But you're going to love this.

And hereeeeee's Mary!

George “Haw Shot” Hawley

Strange creatures, the stranger the better, fascinate me. I loved Relic for that reason and I loved the interesting creatures Cheri Reich dreamed up for Reborn. Beasts can make a world come alive for me, i.e., Dragon Riders of Pern.

Gwen writes about great ghosts with pasts getting them stuck in the present... well, in haunting the present.

George “Haw Shot” Hawley is a ghost with a twist. I based him slightly on fact and slightly on fiction. One of the main characters in The Rifters was a real outlaw. So I did a lot of research and ran across this guy: C.B. Hawley (18??-1882) - An outlaw, Hawley confessed to stage robbery in 1882 near Globe, Arizona and was lynched. Index of American Outlaws

Hanging was a common sentence in the old days, whether by proper sentence or mob. It also wasn’t uncommon for the head to come off during hanging. “Black Jack” Tom Ketchum was the last man to hang in America in 1901, because hangings often went wrong. Tom ended up in three pieces. more info

Sounds like a reason to be a ghost with a thirst for vengeance to me. The C in CB stood for Charles. I already had a Charles old west outlaw, so I renamed him George and moved him to Nevada.

George uses my other outlaw to murder townspeople and steal their heads. The heads give him more powers, because he’s not a normal ghost. He’s possessed by another creature from the rift using him for its nefarious purposes.

 

 

Rifters blurb:

The Gold Rush trickles to a fool’s quest and a string of stagecoach heists. In 1888, Earl Blacke decides to make a new start and become a better man. He escapes into the mountains, heading north. In the wilds of Oregon, a rift inside an ancient volcano opens and sends him into the future, into the present day. It also shaves forty years off his age, forty years to live over again and atone for what he’s done.

Starting over is hard to do. In current day New York, Daelin Long’s dream job at a publishing house goes the way of the dinosaurs her sister chases. With no money and nowhere else to go, Daelin accepts the librarian position in her sister’s dinky town in the middle of Oregon. Nestled inside ancient volcanic peaks, the town of Settler holds onto many secrets. Residents roam the streets with weirdly fashioned devices, and odd lights pulse in the night skies. People whisper of a phantom outlaw and start dying, murdered and missing their heads. On top of it all, Daelin’s sister is missing, and Daelin doesn’t know who to trust.

Earl knows more than he’s saying. He shares a notorious history with the phantom, one he’ll see remains buried. Keeping Daelin’s sister’s secrets is his only chance at redemption, and the only way to keep this world safe.

 

Try Rifters for free!

Download from: Amazon / AmazonUK / B&N / Smashwords /Googleplay / iTunes / Other

 

Take advantage of the preorder special on book 2, The Initiate. Only 99 cents via preorder from Amazon, iTunes, B&N, and Googleplay. Preorder

 

 

 

 

Author Bio:

 

Fantasy, science fiction, and the weird beckons to her, and she blames Oregon, a source of endless inspiration. She docents at Pine Mountain Observatory in the summers, and one of her cats has a crush on Mr. Spock. You can find out more by visiting her website: mpaxauthor.com

 

W4WS Most Wanted Detained!

Most Wanted!

Reward!

Gwen "The Rogue Writer" Gardner

 has been detained as a "person of interest" by
Writers 4 Writers.

They now have her in custody and she
needs you to spring her!

The cost of her ransom bail?

 

Tweets,

Retweets and

Facebook Shares.

As many as you want or can.

The loot is hidden below. Grab some.

Hurry! And Thank You So Much!
(and I hear Melissa needs sprung, too)

Tweets to copy and paste:


For Monday and Tuesday GUTG is FREE:

RT plz! Snuggle on down with Givin’ Up The Ghost. #FREE 2/18 – 2/19 a cozy read http://tinyurl.com/ctnnn4b #Kindle #GivUpTheGhost #UnRealms #W4WS

RT plz! Murder and Ghosts and Mayhem, Oh My! Givin’ Up The Ghost FREE 2/18 – 2/19 http://tinyurl.com/ctnnn4b #ebook #GivUpTheGhost #W4WS #WS4U

RT plz! Attn bookworms, cozy down with Givin’ Up The Ghost for #FREE ! 2/18 – 2/19 http://tinyurl.com/ctnnn4b #ebook #YANinjas #W4WS #WS4U

For Wednesday and Beyond:

RT plz! Snuggle down with Givin’ Up The Ghost. A cozy paranormal mystery http://tinyurl.com/ctnnn4b #GivUpTheGhost #ebook #UnRealms #W4WS #WS4U


RT plz! Murder and Ghosts and Mayhem, Oh My! Givin’ Up The Ghost http://tinyurl.com/ctnnn4b #ebook #UnRealms #W4WS #GivUpTheGhost #WS4U

RT plz! Attn bookworms, cozy down with Givin’ Up The Ghost, a cozy paranormal YA mystery http://tinyurl.com/ctnnn4b #ebook #kindle #W4WS #WS4U

Easy Retweets:
Retweets are easy. Just go to your
Twitter page and enter any of these hashtags in the search bar.
Click Retweet on any Givin' Up The Ghost tweets.

#GivUpTheGhost
#W4WS
#WS4U


Tweets for Giveaways:

RT plz! FREE autographed paperback giveaway of Givin’ Up The Ghost on GoodReads. Open to 10 countries. http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/44462-givin-up-the-ghost #GoodReads #FREE

RT plz! 1000 Tweet giveaway  1 signed paperback of Givin’ Up The Ghost per every 100 tweets!  http://bit.ly/TQ4AQr   #W4WS #GivUpTheGhost

Rafflecopter:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Confundus Charm and Your Love of Tweeting

Have you heard about

Writers 4 Writers?

Next Monday, on February 18th, I will be the monthly featured author on W4WS!

What is that, you ask?

Check it out.

It takes place the 3rd Monday of every month and is hosted by Steve Tremp, Mary Pax, Christine Rains and C.M. Brown.

Mission:


• Help writers bring awareness of their book(s) to tens of thousands of new people

• Help writers reach Amazon Top 100 in at least one category (i.e., suspense, free, whatever)

• Increase sales of their book(s) after the promo is over

• Drive new traffic to their blog and increase following

• Create verbal and viral buss.

The premise is brilliant and so simple. If you sign up on the linky list to be featured, everyone on the list will support you by tweeting and sharing on Facebook. That, along with the support from your followers serves to get you and your books in front of the masses.

So--if this Confundus Charm works *waves wand and casts spell* -- all you'll want to do next week is tweet and share about moi on Facebook beginning next Monday. I will provide/post the tweets/hashtags on Monday so all you have to do is copy/paste into your twitter box.

Here's my promotion plan:

• Monday and Tuesday Givin' Up The Ghost ebook will be FREE on Amazon
• On Monday I'll post tweets for you to copy/paste into your Twitter
• I'll post hashtags (i.e, #W4WS) that you can enter into your Twitter search box so that you can simply Retweet what's already there (this way you can just hit retweet on as many as you want at the same time).
• I'll run a GoodReads Giveaway of 2 autographed paperbacks with bookmarks
• I'll run a Rafflecopter Giveaway here and on Facebook with 2 autographed paperbacks with bookmarks - all you have to do to enter is Tweet or Retweet

If you want to be a featured author, you can sign up HERE.

And please "like" the W4WS Facebook page HERE.

Thanks for your support!

I couldn't do this without you!