In today’s world, whether you publish through a publisher or you self-publish, you will still need to do your own marketing. Now that my first book has been published, I am trying to figure out what marketing strategies work best.
So, what have I done so far?
I have set up an author’s page on Amazon and Goodreads.
I do my best to post here on my blog five days a week, but because I also take my aging mother to medical appointments and have responsibilites in my own household, I don’t always accomplish this goal.
I have a personal page and a professional page on Facebook. If you don’t follow me, please do: my Facebook professional page and my Personal Facebook page. I try to post something on these pages at least once a day, and I try to read and respond to friends’ posts, and to the group posts on the groups I’m a part of. Facebook also has ways to promote posts and I think they have ads available too, but I haven’t tried any of that. I’m just trying to get to know people and connect with readers.
Amazon also has ads, but I haven’t done any of these yet either. There is a cost for ads no matter what website or social media page you’re on. I’ve heard some of the ads are reasonable and worth it, but I’m not ready to try that yet.
I also answer two questions a week on Goodreads and am trying to connect with readers on there as well. Goodreads has some suggestions for authors to do to engage with readers, and they have some marketing tools and suggestions as well. Again, I have not done any of these yet or looked into them in detail.
I’ve been told “word of mouth” is still very effective in selling books, and in the beginning, I have seen that working. I sold a decent amount of books because of that. However, my sales have slowed down, so I need to start looking into and trying some other things. It’s all a process of learning and trial and error.
I have not found much on Barnes & Noble’s website in the way of promoting books, and, honestly, I don’t know if many people buy books from their website. My books been on their website for several weeks now and hasn’t made a single sale. I know Amazon is the place many people go to, not just for books, but for lots of other things. I see their vans all over my town and neighborhood almost on a daily basis, and definitely on a daily basis from October through January.
So, what about you other authors who visit here? What have you done and found effective in selling your books? Please leave a comment in the comments section. I love when we writers/authors can help each other. That’s why I share the posts I share here.
This week Mom pulled out a different color tennis ball. This intrigued me. However, when Mom tossed it into the yard, I ran to it and lay down next to it.
When Mom approached, I got up and got ready.
Then I picked up the ball and ran around the yard with it, not letting Mom catch me or have the ball.
After a couple times of playing “keep away” with Mom, I lay down and chewed on the ball. But Mom didn’t want me doing that. She said, “I don’t want you chewing that ball up. It’s to play with, not to destroy.” Then she came and took the ball, and we went back into the house.
I love fancy teapots. Unfortunately, I only have one and it’s packed away because I don’t have occasions to use it because I am the only tea drinker in my household. My husband and sons only drink tea if they have cold symptoms, and they have no interest in a fancy tea party. The pretty Victorian stained glass teapot in the photo above does not belong to me, but I wanted to share a Victorian teapot and I found this pretty pot on Amazon and chose to share the photo.
I am a practical tea drinker. I do have one fancy tea cup that I do enjoy using when I really want to feel fancy or dainty. That may happen more frequently now that I have my electric tea kettle because I can make enough tea in that, to be able to refill my pretty cup. Otherwise, I do like to use my mugs because I like a good amount of tea, especially if I’m sitting in the living room with a good book. Then I don’t want to have to be interrupted to go refill my pretty cup.
What about you? Do you have a fancy teapot? Do you use it?
Book Review: Love By Pony Express by Kelly F. Barr
Posted July 27, 2024
Please be sure to visit Carrie’s website and read more of her reviews.
About the Book: LOVE BY PONY EXPRESS by Kelly F. Barr SERIES: The Stars Into Horses #1 GENRE: Historical Western Romance (Christian) PUBLISHER: Kelly F. Barr Publishing RELEASE DATE: June 6, 2024 PAGES: 433
Johnny Reason notices a woman with a long red braid swaying in the middle of her back as she steps from the train before him in St. Joseph, Missouri, where his life as a Pony Express Rider will begin. But as he settles into his new life, Erin, a bold young woman seeking a husband, sets her sights on him. He soon wonders which is more dangerous–riding for the Pony Express or being pursued by Erin Byrne.
And why do thoughts of the young lady with the long red braid continue to invade his mind?
Since her mother’s death, Maggie Carter has struggled to get out from under her oldest sister’s thumb to live her own life. Sparks of romance stir within her from the first moment she sees the handsome Pony Express rider, Johnny, but her overbearing sister has determined that Maggie needs to find someone more fitting for her social standing.
Will Maggie win Johnny’s heart, or will her sister put an end to the relationship before it starts?
Carrie’s Thoughts
Even though it only lasted for 18 months, there’s something about the Pony Express that still captivates us over 150 years later. In Love By Pony Express, debut author Kelly F. Barr builds on this fascinating history with a mix of fact and fiction – and romance!
The hero of the story, Johnny Reason, may be a figment of Barr’s imagination but he’s based on various Pony Express riders, including the very first – the role that Johnny takes in this book. I enjoyed the fanfare surrounding the inaugural ride (some of it, like the mayor’s rather lofty speech, taken verbatim from historical accounts) and learning more about the expectations for the riders and the potential dangers they faced. From riding at night (where you can’t see potential harm/pitfalls to the horse or rider) to tribal attacks, dust storms, and blizzards, these Pony Express riders like Johnny were much braver, more daring – and a lot dustier (lol) – than I realized.
Historical representation notwithstanding, Johnny is a sweet character with a good heart, integrity, and a strong sense of morality. His background is tragic and heartbreaking but he’s allowed it to shape him into a stronger person and I enjoyed getting to know him on these pages. The main love interest in Love By Pony Express – Maggie – is equally likeable and kindhearted, despite her overbearing sister who (thankfully) is Maggie’s opposite. Johnny and Maggie’s relationship is gentle and warm, with attraction growing from its initial spark to something deeper through simple-but-meaningful time spent together.
Bottom Line: Love By Pony Express by Kelly F. Barr captures an intriguing time in ‘Old West’ history, giving readers a well-researched glimpse into the adventure of being a rider for this groundbreaking mail service. Johnny Reason and Maggie Carter are easy characters to like, and you will smile as their romance grows from a sweet courtship to gentle passion over the course of the book. I do admit to feeling disconnected from the story overall, I suspect because some scenes didn’t really advance the plot and therefore the pace meanders a bit. But I was engaged enough that I want to see where Barr takes the series and, in particular, if a certain saloon waitress gets her own story. Kelly Barr is an author to watch for sure, and I think fans of Tracie Peterson and Lauraine Snelling will enjoy this book too!
(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the author. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.)
My Rating: 4 stars / liked it!
KissingBook Level: 3+ / will forget to breathe on occasion
The photo above is the home two doors down from me. Someone is growing a lot of something! It sort of resembles a jungle. I see some yellow flower buds. I’m sure they are growing some kind of food item. They remind of some kind of squash. I’m waiting to see what they actually turn out to be.
You can’t see real well, but there’s also something growing from the ground up, and I have no idea what it is. I’m enjoying watching the progress.
On a side note, my Places, Plants, and Animals post from May 30th, ended with me sharing a photo of a plant with little purple flowers that my son bought for me on a trip to Longwood Gardens. Some of you had left comments that you wanted to know how the plant fared for me when I mentioned that it didn’t seem to be doing well and that I transplanted it into a larger pot in hopes it would survive. Sadly, although the lady from Longwood said it would live through the summer, kept indoors, it did not. In the end, I realized that the roots of the plant had not been planted deeply enough into the original soil by Longwood, and that was its demise. I wish I would have noticed that when I did the transplant because that might have made a difference, but sadly, I missed that and so I no longer have that plant. I may check with a local plant nursery to see if they have any and can give me more information about, possibly, bringing one home that will survive. I’ll keep you posted.
Writing and publishing books is much different than it was when I first began dreaming of becoming an author. Like many writers of my generation, I dreamed of writing a fantastic story and submitting it to a publisher, who would love it so much, they’d publish it. I also dreamed that they would arrange book signings for me and get the word out about my book, and get it into bookstores. Yes, I dreamed of seeing a beautiful book cover with my book’s title and my name on the cover on a bookshelf in a cozy bookstore like Barnes & Noble.
My, how times have changed. Now, in the age where technology seems to rule–I mean, the vast majority of the population carries a phone with a computer everywhere they go. They can write or read on their phone. They can purchase books on their phone.
Enter the world of self-publishing. Yes, that is the road I have chosen to travel. “Why?” You might ask. There are several reasons:
I did, at first, at the encouragement of a bestselling author friend, submit a query to an agent. I had high hopes that this agent would be thrilled to represent me and help me get my first novel published. After all, my bestselling author friend was thrilled with the first three chapters she read, and so was her husband, who said I painted the scenes in his mind with the words I used. However, the agent wasn’t as thrilled. Oh, she didn’t turn me down, exactly, but she wanted me to make a lot of changes. You see, I don’t like to read, what is referred to as “formulaic” romance, but that’s what agents and publishers want because that is what they believe sells best because that’s what they’ve seen happen. Now, you may be asking, “what is ‘formulaic’ romance? That simply means that the woman is the main character and the man and woman have to meet within the first few pages. That wasn’t the way my story was written, and still isn’t. However, if I would’ve agreed to make the changes, this agent was willing to work with me because she did like my writing. I was not willing to make those changes.
Traditional publishing takes a long time. After submitting and having your manuscript accepted, it takes a year to eighteen months, sometimes longer, until your book is actually published.
Of course, there are smaller publishing companies as well. I also submitted to one of these. However, they wanted to make lots of changes, beginning with the title I had been using for my book. They also would’ve chosen my cover, and I already had an idea of what I wanted my cover to look like back then, as well.
Finally, my bestselling author friend contacted me after she wrote a book and submitted it to her publisher (a big name publisher). She told me that they had refused to accept her book because her prior book didn’t have the number of sales they had expected. So, she independently published that book and has decided that is the way she will go with future books. She said publishers are getting too picky and, if they are dropping bestselling authors, a new author would really have a battle trying to convince them to take a chance on her.
Now, I will admit, it took me a long time to publish my first book — a little over six years! Why? Because when I started writing my book, I was still homeschooling my sons. I was also still learning what publishers and agents look for, because even though I knew I was going to publish independently, I wanted my book written well. In addition to learning what publishers and agents look for, I studied the writing craft. I also had to do research because I write Historical Christian Romance, and I need to get the history right. In addition to research, learning, and writing, I met consistently with my critique partners and did a lot of editing, as well as a rather large rewrite.
Finally, after a little over six years, I believed my book was ready, and I was ready to release it to the world. Then I hit technology road blocks. I knew absolutely nothing about how to format my book for a paperback book or for an ebook.
Well, praise the Lord, who has a plan for this book! First, he brought a new friend into my life in church. She studied art and computer stuff, and she volunteered to create my cover. Then, God brought another writer into my life — someone who spent her life doing lots of technical and nonfiction writing, and had just been called by God, to write fiction. (She has retired from technical and nonfiction writing, for the most part.) She had already published a fiction book, so she had already figured out how to do the formatting, and how to get it up on Amazon.
Therefore, with my book cover downloaded onto my computer, and with the help of my friend, who knew how to format a book for paperback and ebook, my book was properly formatted, and I was able to publish it through Amazon KDP, which is actually very easy to walk through step by step.
So, my book is available on Amazon, and after it was on Amazon for nearly a month, I figured out how to get it up on Barnes & Noble as well.
Since I now know how to write a good quality story — one that holds the reader’s interest and has them asking if I’m already working on my next book, I don’t anticipate my next book taking nearly as long as this first one did. I am already working on my next book, and though, it might take a year, I’m hoping it won’t, but, ultimately, it’s in God’s hands and it will be published in His time. I just plan to devote as much time as possible working on it because I am building a fan base who are looking forward to it. I hope you’ll be interested in becoming one of them.
No, my first book is not on bookshelves in any bookstore(s), yet. I say “yet” because I haven’t given up that dream, and there are still a couple local bookstores in my area that I plan to approach. That’s part of marketing. I’ll talk about that next week.
Hi, it’s me, Harper! During these hot, humid days of summer, while Mom sits pecking away at her keyboard, I spend a lot of time spread out on the loveseat snoozing. I was sound asleep when Mom took the photo above. She said she took it because she thought I looked so cute.
What do you do on these hot, humid days of summer?
See how dry and brown the lawn is? That’s because we’ve been experiencing sweltering temperatures in the upper 90s and low 100s, and it’s been humid, with no rain. I don’t even want to run around the yard, so I walk around inspecting the yard with my nose. Then I enjoy a roll on the dry, crunchy lawn.
Then I lie like this and look at Mom. When she says, “Okay, Harper, let’s go in,” I run to her, then up the wooden steps onto the deck, where I wait for her to get up the steps and open the patio door, and we retreat into the comfortable air-conditioned house.
I will mention that yesterday we did have a thunder storm that poured some wonderful rain down for a short period of time with a few minutes between two downpours, and it amazes me how green the lawn looks this morning. But the temperature is already near 90 and it’s just 10:30 a.m.
We live in a townhouse, and in these pictures you can see a white vinyl fence. That fence belongs to one of our neighbors and it runs the length of our yard on the left. The neighbors on the right also have a fence, not as tall and not white vinyl, that runs the length of our yard on the right. Therefore, for my first birthday, Mom and Dad bought some fence posts and coated wire fencing and closed in the back of our yard so that I could have a nice place to go out and play and run without having to be leashed.
So, Mom has been trying to get me to play ball with her out in the back yard. She takes a tennis ball out when we go out, and she stops halfway down the steps while I stop at the bottom of the steps and look up at her expectantly. Then she throws the ball and I run after it. In the above photo, I am approaching the ball.
In the photo above, you can see that I am sniffing around the ball.
In this last photo, I am walking away from the ball. We have stray cats in our neighborhood and I’d rather sniff for them than play ball with Mom. Mom has even come out into the yard, picked the ball up, and tried to get me to catch it when she throws it up in the air. If I do decide to pick the ball up, I don’t take it to Mom — not even for a treat, (and yes, she tried to get me to play ball by offering treats to me too). Instead, I play keep away. I take the ball and run away from Mom and drop the ball somewhere in the yard.
But I do play fetch in the house with my rubber balls and rubber bones. I run from the living room to the dining room and back and often leap onto the love seat like a super hero.
I don’t really know why I don’t want to play ball outside in the back yard. Maybe it’s just because I have the freedom to run a longer distance, and when mom acts like she’s going to chase me and encourages me to run, I will do that!
I love to drink tea, especially loose leaf tea. There are so many tasty kinds. In the photo above is one of my favorite mugs to drink my tea from. There are three reasons I love this mug: 1) it was handmade by a potter; 2) it holds 15 oz. of tea; and 3) the rabbit holding the sword, in the oval on the mug, is Picket Longtreader, a character from the Green Ember book series by S. D. Smith, which I am currently reading. Picket is one of my favorite characters in the series.
Reason #2 — it holds 15 oz. of tea is important because when I want to enjoy a good cup … uh, mug of tea, I like something that holds a lot of tea. Hence, why I often prefer a mug as opposed to a pretty, dainty teacup. I save my pretty, dainty teacups for tea parties and special occasions, or for when I just want to enjoy a pretty cup.
This particular mug also has a very nice, wide, easty-to-hold handle with plenty of room to get four fingers through.
But, remember, this is only one of my favorite teacups or mugs. I’ll share others in future posts.
Do you have a favorite teacup or mug? If so, what do you like about it? Feel free to share in the comments.
Kelly F Barr 