I'm going to self publish!

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Celeste Carrara

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May that sale be followed by many more!

And congratulations on setting up more of your internet presence! Your husband is clearly a sweetie.

Thank you!!

I've had another sale! My printed copies of my novel should be arriving today. I plan on offering a free giveaway on Goodreads. If anyone is a member over there feel free to friend me. :)

I'm a little confused on how I should be using my Twitter to promote my book. I only have 8 friends on there lol so if I'm posting things about my book aren't they the only ones that see it? How do I find Twitter people that are fans of the genre I write?
 

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Wanted to drop in and say congratulations! I think it takes guts to put your work out there for the entire world to see.

I love reading everyone's threads about their adventures publishing / promoting / etc. their books. Makes me want to get to work on my own stuff. (Always a good thing, since I can be a procrastinator.) I wish you all of the best.
 

Rob Lopez

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I've had another sale! My printed copies of my novel should be arriving today.

Good going. Do let us know what you think of the quality of the received copy and whether you can recommend lulu. I haven't gone the POD route yet so all info is useful.:)
 

Al Stevens

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I haven't seen a lulu book yet, but I can vouch for CreateSpace. I've published two niche books and a short story all in paperback, and the quality of the books is fine.

If I self-publish my WIP, there will be a hard-cover edition, and I'll probably use lulu for that.

@Rob I just bought Even the Dead Dance to Live. I'm looking forward to reading it. The Look Inside sample grabbed my attention. Nice cover, too. Perhaps you could share your experiences with self-publishing an e-book. Cover, editing, layout, and so on. Might want to open a different thread.
 

Rob Lopez

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@Rob I just bought Even the Dead Dance to Live. I'm looking forward to reading it. The Look Inside sample grabbed my attention. Nice cover, too. Perhaps you could share your experiences with self-publishing an e-book. Cover, editing, layout, and so on. Might want to open a different thread.

Thank you Al. Thread already started - Clicky Linky Thing
 

Celeste Carrara

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Wanted to drop in and say congratulations! I think it takes guts to put your work out there for the entire world to see.

I love reading everyone's threads about their adventures publishing / promoting / etc. their books. Makes me want to get to work on my own stuff. (Always a good thing, since I can be a procrastinator.) I wish you all of the best.

Thank you! It's so true it does take guts and I usually don't have any lol ;-) If it wasn't for my husband and my best friend encouraging me to go for it I would not have done it. Well, it would have taking me a lot longer to build up the courage. It's like standing in front of a crowd naked and asking everyone to judge you!

Good going. Do let us know what you think of the quality of the received copy and whether you can recommend lulu. I haven't gone the POD route yet so all info is useful.:)

The book printed from LuLu is fantastic! I am so happy with it! The pages are high quality and the image on the cover looks great. It took about a week to be printed and shipped and the books were very well packed.

Congratulations, Celeste. Good luck on your Giveaway.

Thank you! I listed it yesterday and already have 38 people trying to win! I have it up until June 9th which will be for 3 weeks total. A month seemed too long and 2 weeks seemed too little lol. Also I put 2 copies up for free.

Way to go, Celeste! 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1, etc. leads to success!

Thank you!!!!
 

Amarie

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Thank you!!

I'm a little confused on how I should be using my Twitter to promote my book. I only have 8 friends on there lol so if I'm posting things about my book aren't they the only ones that see it? How do I find Twitter people that are fans of the genre I write?

On Twitter, it's better to treat it as a way to connect with people, and to only use it occassionally as a promotion tool. Because I write for children, I follow teachers and librarians and talk about children's books (other than my own most of the time) and a little about my life and writing, and also about things that interest me, so I end up retweeting things about science and animals. To find people to follow, search for some key words relating to what you write and see if you can find people that way.

There are also tweetchats on a variety of different writing-related subjects. I clicked on your amazon link and see you write paranormal romance, right? There is probably a weekly tweetchat about that.

Do you know about hashtags? Here's a link if you don't:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/twitter-hashtags/9419/

I use hashtags on some of my tweets if I think the content will be interesting to people I don't follow, but yet have an interest in a particular subject. For example, I add the hashtag #homeschool to tweets about resources that might be useful to homeschoolers. Since you have a goodreads giveaway going on, you can add the hashtag #giveaway to a tweet with a link to it.

Twitter is time-consuming though. I've been staying away from it for now because I'm trying to concentrate on writing and research.
 

Celeste Carrara

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On Twitter, it's better to treat it as a way to connect with people, and to only use it occassionally as a promotion tool. Because I write for children, I follow teachers and librarians and talk about children's books (other than my own most of the time) and a little about my life and writing, and also about things that interest me, so I end up retweeting things about science and animals. To find people to follow, search for some key words relating to what you write and see if you can find people that way.

There are also tweetchats on a variety of different writing-related subjects. I clicked on your amazon link and see you write paranormal romance, right? There is probably a weekly tweetchat about that.

Do you know about hashtags? Here's a link if you don't:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/twitter-hashtags/9419/

I use hashtags on some of my tweets if I think the content will be interesting to people I don't follow, but yet have an interest in a particular subject. For example, I add the hashtag #homeschool to tweets about resources that might be useful to homeschoolers. Since you have a goodreads giveaway going on, you can add the hashtag #giveaway to a tweet with a link to it.

Twitter is time-consuming though. I've been staying away from it for now because I'm trying to concentrate on writing and research.

Thank you so much for this information, I really appreciate it!
 

Celeste Carrara

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In less than 24 hours listed my giveaway is up to 52 people and 14 people added my book to their "to read" list! I am really happy about these numbers!
 

Celeste Carrara

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I just wanted to update my progress so far.
I've had 9 sales!!!
On Goodreads my promo for a free book is up to 132 people requesting it and 29 people have it on their "to read" list. It may not seem like much to some but I'm happy with it!:)
 

Pyekett

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How To Promote Your Book Like An Intelligent Human Being and Not An SEO Dweeb

You want to engage in conversation, and not just about your own books. Talk about other people's books more than you talk about your own.

Yes. That is a great resource.

If one hasn't yet gotten people interested in one's work, there remains a ripe field for engaging. However, once one turns off potential readers by being an SEO Dweeb, those readers are pretty much gone. It's far too easy to overshoot and burn through opportunities.

Good wishes, Celeste. The covers are striking, and your enthusiasm is catching.
 

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Have you tweeted about the goodreads contest?

Congrats on your progress so far!
 

Celeste Carrara

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Read this:

How To Promote Your Book Like An Intelligent Human Being and Not An SEO Dweeb

You want to engage in conversation, and not just about your own books. Talk about other people's books more than you talk about your own.

Create a profile with a link to your Website.

I've done that but I have to be honest this social media stuff is very time consuming lol.

Yes. That is a great resource.

If one hasn't yet gotten people interested in one's work, there remains a ripe field for engaging. However, once one turns off potential readers by being an SEO Dweeb, those readers are pretty much gone. It's far too easy to overshoot and burn through opportunities.

Good wishes, Celeste. The covers are striking, and your enthusiasm is catching.

Thank you so much!!

Congratulations, Celeste!

Thanks!

hi,

Why don't you tell your friends on Facebook, and then they will tell their friends, etc?

I haven't told my FB friends because I'm writing under a pen name and I don't want my real name associated with my pen name.

Have you tweeted about the goodreads contest?

Congrats on your progress so far!

Yes I did tweet about it! Thank you!

I've had another sale today! More people have entered the contest and added my book on their "to read" shelf on Goodreads. I'm finding that Goodreads has been the best, easiest networking tool for me so far.
 

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hey celeste. i just saw your avatar on another thread, and so came here to post. your cover looks really good.
 

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Celeste, it looks great as an avatar: but I'm not so sure that it'll work well exactly as it is when shrunk down to a thumbnail size.

At its current avatar size, I can barely see the subtitle, let alone read it, because it's too transparent and greyed out; and I struggle to read the title and your name because the font is too fine. You might like to ask your designer to make all the text a bit heavier and clearer. Just a thought.
 

Celeste Carrara

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Celeste, it looks great as an avatar: but I'm not so sure that it'll work well exactly as it is when shrunk down to a thumbnail size.

At its current avatar size, I can barely see the subtitle, let alone read it, because it's too transparent and greyed out; and I struggle to read the title and your name because the font is too fine. You might like to ask your designer to make all the text a bit heavier and clearer. Just a thought.

Can I ask what computer you are using? I use a MAC and everything looks perfect to me. I can see and read everything clearly without any trouble. Also, I have different ones to use as thumbnails, the one I used for my avatar is the actual ebook cover. I don't know how to explain it properly. What I'm trying to say is I have smaller ones for thumbnails and they look clear too. You are the first person to tell me they have a problem reading it. Is it just here as the avatar? If you wouldn't mind clicking on my website, on the first page is the book cover. Do you have the same issue with that one? Thanks!
 

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Amazon is going to use the cover image for the thumbnail, if you plan on uploading for their Kindle service. I don't know about the other e-self-pub services, but I suspect they do the same.

I also have trouble reading the font, especially the subtitle. Unless I go right up to the screen, I've got no idea what it says. And your name? I wouldn't be able to tell what it is if it wasn't printed above your avatar in plain block text for the board. The "F" in "Forever" also seems to get a little lost in the font and the background, making the book look titled "Give Me Oever."

The font is just a little too... swirly for a cover. Oh, it sets tone nicely. "This is a romance." It just makes it a bit difficult to decipher. You might also want to make sure the font you're using is free for commercial purposes.
 

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Can I ask what computer you are using? I use a MAC and everything looks perfect to me. I can see and read everything clearly without any trouble. Also, I have different ones to use as thumbnails, the one I used for my avatar is the actual ebook cover. I don't know how to explain it properly. What I'm trying to say is I have smaller ones for thumbnails and they look clear too. You are the first person to tell me they have a problem reading it. Is it just here as the avatar? If you wouldn't mind clicking on my website, on the first page is the book cover. Do you have the same issue with that one? Thanks!

I'm using a Toshiba laptop, running Windows, Firefox, and so on.

It doesn't matter that you can read everything clearly, because you already know what it says and you're not one of your own potential readers. The point that I can't and that Kriven is also having trouble (and I agree about the "F") means that some of your potential readers won't be able to read that title either. And as Kriven has already pointed out, you don't use separate images as your thumbnails on Amazon: you use the cover image.

You must also address the issue about font licensing, before you go any further.

ETA: I've looked at your website and I'm afraid the cover for your other novel is no better. I strongly recommend that you get your designer to rework the typesetting for both covers. I'm sorry to be so negative, but I hope you'd rather be given the chance to address these problems than only hear positive comments.
 
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