Copyright 123RF Stock Photos
It’s your release day! Your book just hit Amazon.
If you’re like me, you have a whole host of activities you go through when you release a new book, but they only happen as you remember them. For my sanity and to help anyone else who suffers from A.D.D. Author Brain like me, I’m going to compile a list of activities for the new releases. I would love if you could add to it, so we can develop a useful tool for all erotic authors!
1. Buy your own book on Amazon. Early purchases of your book help get those Amazon recommendations in place, which really are your very best promotional tool. Amazon collects data on the other books you’ve bought, and I’m assuming you’re buying books in your own genre, so your books will then get recommended under theirs as “People who bought this book also bought…”
Be sure to tweet and post to FB with the new link to your book. Hopefully you have been doing some advance promo like a cover reveal or offering excerpts/snippets, so your fans will snatch it up when they hear it’s available (again, early sales are your friend).
2. Claim your book on your Amazon author page through Author Central. Add your back list of books to the back page or inside flap. Add your bio, and any author note you may want to include.
3. Promo! Tweet, post it on your blog, Facebook groups and Google Plus. Be absolutely sure to use the best key words when you post on Google plus, because this is the ONLY Search Engine Optimization you need these days. If I Google Plus a blog post with the tag “spanking romance by Renee Rose” my post will be at the top of the search results for spanking romance by the next day (sometimes within hours).
4. Add your book to Goodreads if you did not already pre-load it. Add it to the appropriate group reading lists (such as BDSM, Spank that Romance, etc), along with a post in the author section of those groups. Add it to any Listopia lists such as “Best Spanking Fiction 2014”.
5. Add your book to The Romance Reviews (add the book to the site and also add a Headline Ad – free if you put their logo on your blog). While you’re there, request a review. Don’t be discouraged if they haven’t picked up one of your books before or you had a poor review before. It’s all about who picks it up. You may get someone new this time.
6. If you keep a mailing list– send out a notice to your readers.
7. If you planned on doing any paid advertising (Facebook, Google Adwords, book review sites, etc) activate your ads.
8. Post your book on appropriate review sites. There are so many out there, it’s hard to choose, and like I said with my comment on The Romance Reviews— it really just depends on who picks up your book. Use your intuition–there’s no need to beat your head against a wall if you already have the sense they would hate your book. If you can’t afford (or your publisher doesn’t provide) submission to NetGalley, getting your book out to some good sites is important. I recommend Manic Readers, just because with one submission, you go out to multitude of reviewers (and it’s free).
9. Submit posts to your contacts for a blog tour. Or don’t. (See last month’s column on blog tour staycations and not pushing yourself if you feel like a hamster on a wheel).
10. Add your book to What to Read After Fifty Shades of Gray (if it’s BDSM).
11. If you didn’t do this in advance, schedule a cover reveal with Cover Reveals. It’s free, and in addition to the blog post, she will tweet your book for months afterward– so worth the time it takes you to submit!!
12. Scratch your head and wonder what you’ve forgotten that you’ll remember in a couple weeks.
If you can think of something I’ve left off–great sites to list your book for free, or important steps you always take, please post it in the comments below, so we can build on this list as a useful tool for all erotic authors!!
ADDING ON FROM THE COMMENTS BELOW:
–Send a notice of your book release to Erotica for All
–Add your book to http://authorsdb.com/
–Submit your book to Korner Kafe Exposed
–and most importantly: Pat yourself on the back, take a break and try not to check your Amazon ratings compulsively!
Find Renee Rose online:
Blog: www.reneeroseromance.com
Twitter: @ReneeRoseAuthor
Facebook: Reneeroseromance
Great List! I also always send a new release announcement to Erotica for All.
Ooh, thank you for that addition!
4. Add your book to Goodreads if you did not already pre-load it.
Can you explain “pre-loading” or give me a link to an explanation of that? Thanks!
Sorry, I all I meant was that you had already added it to Goodreads before your release, to get the excitement building, get people to add it to their TBR lists, etc.
Ah ok that’s what I didn’t realize you could do! I thought you had to wait til you released it, so you have an ASIN or ISBN to enter into the GR form as you “add” your new book? You’re saying you can put a book in GR before it is released? That’s what I need to know how to do.
That’s right– you don’t need the ASIN or ISBN or even the cover to enter a book– just the title and author will get it posted.
Huh, didn’t realize that! Thanks! I’ll try it. Seems like I did try once and it wouldn’t take it.
Kathy Batts gave me this link as a place to list your book for free: http://authorsdb.com/
Thanks Renee!!!
🙂
Great list Renee! I also try to schedule a little bit of time to pat myself on the back and also try to spend some time offline so I am not checking Amazon compulsively. 🙂
YES!!! I forgot the mental health steps! LOL. Thank you for those two additions!
Excellent list, Renee! I also use What to Read After Fifty Shades of Grey for my non-BDSM books. I don’t write much BDSM, but I submit one of my books every day on there and also on Korner Kafe Exposed. I just rotate my all my titles (except the Xmas ones – I only do them for the Xmas season) so they all get equal coverage. Sometimes I see nice little bumps in sales.
Wow, Holla, I had no idea you could submit a book more than once! Thanks for this great tip!
Yeah, they just don’t want the same book over and over. Korner Kafe wants only one book per day from the same author, I’m not sure what Summer’s rules are over at WTRAFSOG but I just do the same thing and haven’t had any complaints. Right now I have 11 non-Xmas titles so each one gets a plug 2 or 3 times a month.
Very interesting post thanks for the links.
Pingback: Using Amazon Affiliate to Generate Revenue from your Blog | Write sex rightWrite sex right