How To Get the Most From Your Featured Author Day
Jacquie Rogers, Author
by Jacquie Rogers
Copyright © 2009 Jacquie Rogers
Reprinted from 1st Turning Point
Your book is out, waiting to be purchased by eager readers, and you’re on the promotion circuit. In a flash of genius, you signed up for a featured-author day on a readers’ email group. Let’s call it BookLoversWorld on Yahoo Groups. (I just made that name up-don’t know if there really is a group named that!) So now there’s a whole day dedicated to you and your book.
Now what?
Make sure your day is a success, that’s what. Be proactive. Here are a few pointers.
First, confirm that you’re subscribed to the group and can post. Send two or three test posts. I know, this seems obvious, but I’ve seen several authors fall into this trap, and when their time to shine comes . . . nada. If the list owner isn’t Johnny-on-the-spot and helps rectify the situation, you could miss your own day. Not good.
Make sure there are at least two other people subscribed to the group who will interact with you, even if you have to drag your critique partners in and subscribe them. Nothing is more bewildering than posting and not receiving any response at all. Lots of times, if a few people respond, some of the list lurkers will come out from hiding. Otherwise, you can end up singing to an empty room, which is not what you want.
Always have plenty of material prepared ahead of time. What material, you ask?
- An introduction, preferably a bio that relates to your audience. If the list members are more scholarly, then tailor your bio to fit academia. If they are rowdy, tailor for that. Always remember who your audience is and try to give them what they want.
- An outline of what you have planned for the day.
- A listing of all your social networks in one post.
- A couple messages containing excerpts from your featured book. Prepare excerpts from other books you have available, too, just in case someone asks. Make sure you always put the rating (G, PG, etc.) and a buy link in every excerpt post. A cover image is a necessity. Learn how to do it. If you don’t know how, I wrote an article with detailed instructions: Effective Email Promotion.
- Sponsor a contest or five. Give away your friends’ books, or a CD, or a T-shirt. Make it fun. Hint: chocolate is always a hit.
Have a game plan:
- Maintain activity on the list. Yes, a day is a long time and you do have other things to do, but check in frequently. Don’t let questions go unanswered for long; otherwise, that reader will think you don’t deem his/her comment important. Bad juju!!! All readers should feel like they’re important to you. And of course they are.
- Have a contest schedule and stick to it, whether you get enough entries or not. And speaking of contests, the more you force the readers to do, the less participation you’ll get.
- Post recipes, or funny pictures, or jokes (but make sure they fit your audience, and stay away from politics and religion). Think about what will stir the list members into action.
- If someone is snarky or mean-spirited, ignore them. Policing is the list owner’s job, not yours.
- This is your special day, so take advantage of it.
Create the time to make your day a success. You’re the star, so don’t give yourself short shrift. This is not the day to write a 50-page RFP, weed the garden, and make a gourmet dinner for 30 people. Try not to have anything scheduled. All too often, there are must-do’s such as picking the kiddos up from school. You can work around those things, but try to keep them to a minimum.
Most of all . . . Have fun!
Faery Merry Christmas
by Jacquie Rogers
(Kindle only at this time, but did you know you can download a Kindle reader on your PC?)
Romance has gone awry in Faeryshire.
Who would’ve thought Mr. and Mrs. Claus’s daughter would be “on the shelf”? Yep, Cheshya’s all a’flutter because her 2,000th birthday, the last day she’s eligible to take a mate, is on Christmas, only four days away, but Liam of the Red Clan, the only man she has ever wanted is otherwise occupied . . .
Terra Humanus in 1956: carhops on roller skates, the submarine races, a pink Nash Metropolitan, Lucky Strikes, Little Richard, and the Shoreline Sharks Baseball Club starring ace pitcher Liam Stone.
For the past five years, Liam of the Red Clan has lived in Terra Humanus, pitching for the Shoreline Sharks and obsessed with signing as a major league pitcher with the Cincinnati Reds. The faery queen sends Cheshya to help him achieve his goal, but in signing with the Reds, will he lose out on his true heart’s desire?
What will it take to make a Faery Merry Christmas?
“What faery fun! A winsome sprite’s barely still-ticking time clock. Mayhem in the land of Claus. And the man who could wave just the right magic wand obsessed with baseball. A Christmas story to cuddle up with–and keep you really warm.” Stella Cameron, NYT Best-selling Author
