Email List - 10 Giveaway Freebies to Get Readers to Opt-in

As an author and/or freelance writer, you probably already know that one of the most important tools you can have for selling your books or building your writing business is a list of the email addresses of current and prospective readers and clients. This is your mailing list.

Your mailing list gives you a way to keep in regular contact with your readers and clients to let them know of your latest books, products, or services. The emails and regular newsletters you send to those on your mailing list will help these people get to know, like, and trust you a little more, and when they do that they will be more likely to buy from you on a regular basis. Everyone receives so much email these days, though, that many people are hesitant to join one more mailing list. That means you need to offer them a nice incentive just for joining (called "opting in" to) your list.

Here are some suggested give-away freebies that can help you grow your list and, in turn, sell more books or build your freelance writing business:

A Free Report or Guide
Put together a short report or guide to something that appeals to your target market, and then turn this report into a PDF file people can easily and quickly download.

A Coupon or Discount Code
People will love this if they intend to purchase from you, and it will actually give them an extra incentive for doing so right away.

A Checklist
People love checklists and it should be fairly easy to create a quick checklist that your readers will value.

 A Free Course
If you write mysteries, for example, offer your readers a free course teaching how to write a mystery. Deliver the course via a series of emails delivered once a week for several weeks. Not only will a free course help build your mailing list, it will also help build your credibility as an expert in your field or genre.

A Recorded Interview
Interview someone in your industry and record it (get their permission, of course). If you choose someone who is widely known, this freebie should get you many, many opt-ins.

A Free Consultation
This is perfect if you also coach or teach. It will give people a taste of what it's like to work with or learn from you.

A Free Video
If you're an author, you might create a video showing where and how you work, with tips for other writers.

A Free Audio
A short (15 minutes or less) audio that offers tips or advice on a topic that appeals to your target market can be a great incentive for them to opt-in to your list.

A Tips Sheet
People love tips sheets as much as they do checklists. "Ten Tips for Reading to Your Child" would make the perfect tips sheet to
offer your readers if you write children's books.

A Free E-Book
You don't have to write the e-book either. Simply find one that is in the public domain. Just make sure it is on a topic or genre that will appeal to your target market.

There are dozens of other types of freebies you can offer people in return for joining your list. Just remember, though, that once you get people toopt-in, you need to continue sending them something – a newsletter or short email of some sort – on a regular basis.

~~~~~
Suzanne Lieurance is an author, freelance writer, writing coach, speaker and workshop presenter. She is a former classroom teacher and was an instructor for the Institute of Children's Literature for over 8 years.

Lieurance has written over two dozen published books and her articles and stories have appeared in various magazines, newsletters, and newspapers, such as Family Fun, Instructor, New Moon for Girls, KC Weddings, The Journal of Reading, and Children's Writer to name a few. She offers a variety of coaching programs via private phone calls, teleclasses, listserv, and private email for writers who want to turn their love of writing (for children and/or adults) into a part-time or full-time career.

To learn more about Lieurance, visit her website at www.suzannelieurance.com (http://www.suzannelieurance.com) or The Working Writer’s Club (http://www.workingwritersclub.com).

Sublime Planet - A Review

Title: Sublime Planet
Authors: Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball
Photos: Ann Howley 
ISBN: 978-1482054705
Reviewed by Karen Cioffi

Gearing up for Earth Day, Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball are releasing a brand new collection of poems titled Sublime Planet. The collection features relevant poems by Carolyn and Magdalena that demonstrate the interconnections of the world around us, including life, family, and love, along with the growing concern for the earth’s preservation.

This is a beautifully written collection that allows the reader to pause and take note of the world around her.

One of my favorite poems in the collection is “The Giraffe:”

A tongue generous
as my head he reaches
for me, barriers no match
for his long neck, sniffs
my hair, kisses my face.
He unaware
he is endangered.
I unaware he might
be dangerous.

This poem is a powerful, yet simple tribute to a majestic creature that is now an endangered species. Can you imagine a planet without the giraffe?

Another poem in the collection that struck me is “Tipping Point” by Magdalena Ball: “[. . .] you eat and eat through four billion years of evolution now held loosely by one thread. [. . .] The future waits impatiently your decision.”

Again, powerful, and revealing.

Sublime Planet offers moving insight into the world around us and into a world that is in need of attention, and it certainly honors Earth Day. I highly recommend it.

For those who aren’t aware of what Earth Day is, Senator Gaylord Nelson created this special day in the spring of 1970. The purpose behind it was to make everyone aware of all the toxins being spewed into the air and dumped in nearby streams or other waterways by manufacturing companies.

At that time, there were no regulatory or legal safety nets to protect our planet, our environment. Senator Nelson took a stand and his cause quickly caught on.
The earth is our planet, our home, our responsibility, and we’re not doing such a good job protecting it.

Sublime Planet will be released before Earth Day (April 22nd). Keep a look out for it and get a copy as soon as it’s available.

The poems "Giraffe" and “Tipping Point” are from Sublime Planet, a book of poetry in the Celebration Series coauthored by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball. It will be released before Earth Day.  In the meantime learn more about Carolyn's poetry books (including that Celebration Series!) at http://howtodoitfrugally.com/poetry_books.htm. And, learn more about Magdalena’s poetry and fiction at http://magdalenaball.com

~~~

ACX - Audiobook Creation Exchange

As a member of Sisters in Crime and havig a fairly close local chapter, we have guest speakers each month, alternating mystery authors and "professionals".  This month our guest speaker was Nina Bruhns, Sr. Editor of the Entangled Suspense line.  Entangled Publishing (previously Dead Sexy) offers a variety of ways to get books with a romantic element in them, ranging from 20 to 80% romance to suspense/mystery/thriller/whatever line you choose, published digitally (they aren't doing print books because they believe that the print books and brick and mortar stores are going by the wayside).  Nina really only looks at suspense or thrillers but there are editors for each of their lines and publicists that go along with that.  While Nina was talking about publishing through entangled, she also mentioned audio books.  She said she listens to audio books all the time when she is traveling.  Of course Amazon is the forerunner in this area as they have bought out audible.com which is the leader in selling audiobooks.  I know several places audiobooks are used- the state libraries use them for the blind patrons but they are still using bulky cassette machines with the books being on tape.  Audible.com will now sell audiobooks on amazon.com and itunes.com as well as on their main site audible.com. 

I wasn't really thinking of doing audiobooks at this moment but I need some sales and I figure - adding audiobooks can't hurt.  So I went to the website and decided to see if it was a simple process, like the KDP is, or how much time it would take to get an audiobook produced.

So far, the process isn't that difficult but there are a few things you must do before actually set up  your profile and start putting your book out there for auditions and a finished product.

When you sign onto the website, the first thing you will see is a big search box kind of in the middle of the purple colored box.  You need to search for your book by title and if there is more than one book with your title, find your book.  Claim your book as your book (I own this book or This is my book - something to that affect).  Once you have claimed your book, you will be asked to sign in to your amazon account, which most of us alreadyh have established as we have posted books on the KDP program or we have made purchases on amazon.com.  After you sign in, you will be asked to set up the book's profile and to upload your sample for auditions.  I would recommend loading the first chapter, or if it is fairly short,  the first two chapters.  I uploaded the second chapter of Finally Home and the auditions I've asked for and gotten back I realized that my chapter 2 wasn't the exact chapter from the book (apparently I had used Chapter 2 for a workshop or reading of some sort prior to really completing the book).  It's okay  that this isn't the completed chapter as you are just giving them a sample to read from to see how they handle the content of your book.

Once you have  completed the profile and uploaded your sample for auditions, then the fun begins.  This can be a very time consuming part of  the production of the audiobook process unless you narrow your search down.  When you get to the "auditions page", you are informed that there are something like 10,930 narrator files to search from.  There are options to narrow the field down.  So for my book, I opted to narrow down to genre, gender and payment type - genre - teens - this is my target audience; gender - female (since my characters are basically female and are teenaged girls); and payment type - royalty split.  The payment type should be indicated when you set up your book's profile and you have 2 options - you can pay the narrator a straight fee (this is based on hours to produce the book and can range from $50 per produced hour on up the gamut to over $1000 per produced hour.  The second option is a 50-50 split royalty on every book sold through audible.com, itunes. com and amazon.com - Audible will set the retail price (there is a formula based on number of hours the book takes to produce to get the price).  Since I don't personally have over several hundred dollars to pay someone to narrate the book, I opted for the royalty split option.  To me this works out best.  Anyway, after narrowing down what or who I would like to narrate the book, I dropped from 10,930 to 79 options. The next thing to do is listen to the  sample narrations that are available.  I found four or five within the first 3 pages of samples (there are usually 12 per page and I only 7 pages to go through), and basically within the first couple of pages that I was impressed with. 

After listening to the sample narrations, then I started checking the profiles of the ones I liked and sent them each a message indicatig that I was looking for a narrator for my book, Finally Home, and if they would be interested in auditioning for me.  At the time of this writing, I had requested auditions from four ladies and had received two back.  The first one I received, she wasn't too bad but she read the main text very quickly - I almost felt like she was on a speeding bullet.  She did get Emma Louise's personality in her reading rather well, so that was a good thing.  The second one I received, I really liked how she got the gist of Kelly's character but she seemed a bit too southern (yes, I know Emma Louise is southern and all but she's not quite that southern).  Basically  I have two good readings of my sample text but neither are quite right.

After I get the other two back, I'll either search for more readings, maybe narrow it down to only females and payment type as opposed to genre and see what I come up with.  It may actually take the longest to find the right narrartor for the book than anything else.  I'll probably update the status on my blog as I get closer to getting an audiobook produced of Finally Home. 

That's my experience so far with ACX and creating an audiobook to sell and hopefully start seeing some profits on my book sales. 

Since it is almost Valentine's day and this is the last of the "giving holiday season", how about give your loved ones a good book to read or listen to.  Pick an ebook or audiobook or even a signed copy of one of the authors from this group and show them you love them.  I have one Melonberry bookworm left and can't find that yarn at any of our local Walmarts, so in honor of Valentine's day, I will do a drawing from the comments on this posting for that particular bookworm.  All you have to do  is comment and leave your email address in the coment (in the format of email addy (at) whatever (dot) com if you don't want to be spammed) and I'll do a random drawing on Friday, the 15th for the bookworm.  Don't worry if  you  live outside the United States as you a re eligible also since the cost of sending overseas isn't really that high.  Good luck to all and see you in the postings - E :) 

-------------------
Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a middle grade/YA mystery

Ms. Eldering is the award-winning author of the Junior Geography Detective Squad (JGDS), 50-state, mystery, trivia series.  Her stories "Train of Clues" (available in print and as an ebook on kindle), "The Proposal" (available as an ebook), "Tulip Kiss" (available as an ebook), and "Butterfly Halves", all placed first, second, or runner up in various contests to include two for Armchair Interviews and two for Echelon Press (Fast and ... themed type contests).  Her story "Bride-and-Seek" (available as an ebook) was selected for the South Carolina Writers' Workshop (SCWW) anthology, the Petigru Review.  She also has written several other short stories for contests including the second place winning story, "Zombies Amuck", and "La Cave".  Ms. Eldering makes her home in upper state South Carolina and loves to travel, read, cross stitch and crochet.  When she's not busy with grown children still at home, working her full-time job as a medical transcriptionist or participating in virtual classroom visits, she can be found at various homeschool or book events and festivals promoting her writing.

You can find more information about the JGDS series on the JGDS website or follow the JGDS blog.

You can find out more about Elysabeth and her other writings on her website or follow her blog.

Tips for Writing Engaging Romance

I asked Romance Author Amber Lea Easton to sizzle up our blog today with some tips on writing romance. This is a growing market with all types of sub-genres, allowing the new to experienced writer to spread their wings and add some love to their book.

With Valentine’s Day only a few days away and lots of inspiration peeking around corners…maybe this little guest post will give you some new manuscript ideas.

Tips for Writing Engaging Romance

By Amber Lea Easton

All novels, regardless of genre, need captivating characters and hooks that pull the readers into the story.  Romance, in particular, is a character driven, highly charged genre.  In all great love stories, there needs to be an emotional connection, not just between the characters, but between them and the readers as well.  How do we novelists write engaging/believable romance without being cliché, crass or cheesy?  After all, emotion can go over-the-top if we’re not careful. 

 Flawed characters.  No one is perfect, even if the hero looks like a Greek God and makes you drool.  In order for the reader to connect, there must be a vulnerability that makes the character human.  Why root for someone if we think they’re superficial or mean?  

Attraction.  You may think that’s easy to write, but it isn’t.  Saying, “wow, he’s hot” is lame. Think about it...when you’re attracted to someone, don’t you have a physical reaction?  When I write attraction, I don’t tell the readers I show them through nonverbal cues.  In Riptide, when Lauren first interacts with Noah, I write, “little earthquakes of desire rocked through her until she thought she’d fall off the stool.”  For attraction to jump off the page, the reader needs to feel what’s happening, imagine being on that stool and talking with that man.  Non-verbal physical reactions are key to engaging the reader in this area, which we all know is a key element of any romance novel. 

Conflict. Nothing worth having comes easily, isn’t that the saying? Even though there is the attraction, there needs to be a conflict to overcome whether it’s trust issues, betrayal, or, because I write suspense, a life and death situation.  Even though I have the suspense in my novels that provides a natural plot conflict, there are still human conflicts that need to be worked out to make the characters believable.  We all have baggage--past heartbreaks, abandonment issues and what not--so the characters need those as well.

Sexual tension and sex.  The sex needs to come at a natural time in the evolution of the relationship, just like in real life. Now this timing varies from story to story depending on character development, but the readers truly need to be saying, “will they ever just rip each other’s clothes off already” before I give them satisfaction.  Writing sexual tension is fun...prolonging the actual act, building up to it...not only do the readers shift in the chairs with anticipation but so do the characters, which makes it all that much more rewarding when the sex scenes finally happen. 

Engaging romance readers is all about tugging at their heartstrings and making the characters as believable as possible.  We all want to be rooting for the happy ending and smiling when we turn the last page.  

Amber Lea Easton is a multi-published fiction and nonfiction author. For twenty years, she's worked in the fields of journalism and advertising with a brief detour into the financial industry.  Although she holds a BA in Communications & Journalism, she is a perpetual student of life who enjoys taking courses on a wide variety of subjects when time allows.  Smart is sexy, according to Easton, which is why she writes about strong female characters who have their flaws and challenges, but who ultimately persevere.

Easton currently lives with her two teenagers in the Colorado Rocky Mountains where she gives thanks daily for the gorgeous view outside her window. She finds inspiration from traveling, the people she meets, nature and life’s twists and turns. At the end of the day, as long as she's writing, she considers herself to be simply "a lucky lady liv'n the dream."

The World of Ink Network is touring author Amber Lea Easton’s contemporary romantic suspense (adventure) novel, Riptide throughout February and March 2013. You can find out more about Amber Lea Easton, Riptide and her World of Ink Author/Book Tour at http://tinyurl.com/a2azncg

To learn more about the World of Ink Tours visit http://worldofinknetwork.com

 

Visit Amber at:

Website - http://www.amberleaeaston.com

Blog - http://amberleaeaston.blogspot.com

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmberLeaEaston

Twitter - @MtnMoxieGirl