Mondays

BookBub marketing.

/ lizziechantree / 3 Comments
cropped-IYLMIY-Covers.jpg

Hello everyone. It was such a weird weekend for me. My daughter was at a festival for the weekend and the hotel had a mix up with the booking so they couldn’t get in, which meant a mad dash across country for me and another one of the mums to be with our children. We managed to get most of them a room for the night, but I ended up sleeping in my car! It was freezing, and not my best idea ever, but everywhere else was sold out due to the huge festival. I finally got in at 2 am this morning, after leaving at midnight the evening before, but it ended up being a hilarious road trip. It gave me ideas for another book! This was us, sleep deprived, but still smiling.

IMG_1808.jpg

I haven’t posted a Monday Marketing post for a while as I’ve been busy with some writing projects. I came across this article recently and thought it might be helpful for anyone who is trying to gain more followers on BookBub. BookBub is a wonderful place to promote books and to find a wider audience. If you are an author and haven’t made profile there, it’s worth taking the time to do. I also did a Booksweeps promotion with lots of lovely romantic comedy writers recently and I now have many more newsletter subscribers, which is fabulous! I have sent the winners their books (pictured above this post) and can’t wait to hear what they think of the story.

On a side note (I’m so excited!), after my BookBub feature, my book, If you love me, Im yours, has risen to the number #1 paid bestseller spot in one of it’s categories and is ranked 89 paid overall in Australia, 136 overall in Canada and 882 in the U.K! A big thank you to everyone who downloaded a copy for just 99p/99c. You can still grab a copy today here.

Check out the BookBub article here:

14 Ideas For Getting More BookBub Followers

Monday reads.

/ lizziechantree / 6 Comments

listen meme by Lizzie Chantree

Hello everyone. I’ve got my first festival next weekend where I will have a book stand and hopefully be chatting to some book lovers as well as music lovers. I have been trying to pack everything I will need and remember to take things like sellotape, signage, and table coverings. I put the books into boxes and it’s tricky to know how many to take. It’s a music festival, but there is a shopping area, which is where I will be with my books. I have also designed some pop up banners, and have a fold up book stand for the counter top.

I did a checklist and thought it might be helpful to anyone else doing a book fair or festival.

  1. Books. Enough of each type to display and sell.
  2. Stands to hold some of the books up so that they are easier to see.
  3. Frames with clear pricing. These follow my brand and have a picture of my books and a slogan at the top.
  4. Table or counter cover.
  5. 2 x chairs
  6. Gazebo.
  7. Tables.
  8. Name squares for customers who would like a book signed so that I know how to spell the names! These are cut out of A4 sheets but fit with my branding colours.
  9. Battery powered lights.
  10. A receipt book.
  11. Paypal app set up on my phone.
  12. Card reader.
  13. Plastic cover to keep the table dry if the weather turns.
  14. Sun hat/suncream.
  15. Water.
  16. Food.
  17. I have a five aperture frame with each of my book covers in to show the range.
  18. Scissors.
  19. Pens.
  20. Change for sales.
  21. Decoration for the table. Paper hearts etc for romance theme.
  22. Bookmarks.
  23. Leaflets. I had these made with all five of my books on them.

I hope I’ve thought of most things, but if you have any other suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Have a great week! From Lizzie:)

Author page: https://www.viewAuthor.at/LizzieChantree

The Village Green Festival. Chalkwell Park. Southend on sea. Essex. U.K. This is the trader area. There are many more stages and creative areas around the park. Saturday 13th July. 11am-9pm. Festival link.

map artwork VG





Monday Motivation.

/ lizziechantree / 4 Comments

Bookstore meme by Lizzie Chantree

Happy new week everyone. What inspires your writing? For me it’s either getting to a point in a new story that I can’t wait to write, or sitting somewhere with a beautiful view. Just taking in the scenery is often enough to lift my mood and make me want to start writing. If you are feeling frustrated with finding time to write, then taking a walk and a notepad can refresh your mojo enough to get back to your work flow when you return.

I carry a notepad everywhere and often jot down characteristics of people I see when I’m wandering around and I like to note clothing, stance, how people use their hands to express themselves and other details like that. It comes in handy when I’m forming characters in my mind. Although they are often jumping up and down and introducing themselves before I’ve finished the previous manuscript, so I have to hold them back and tell them to be patient.

I hope you find some amazing new books to read this week!

Homesick meme by Lizzie Chantree

 

Monday Mojo.

/ lizziechantree / 12 Comments

Hi everyone. The last few weeks have been a bit hectic for me with trying to update my first three novels with new covers etc and also trying out new marketing techniques. I’m also making three of my novels into paperbacks, which has been a steep learning curve as my lovely publisher designed and formatted my most recent books for me. Now I know how much hard work it is for them! I’m trying to get all of my books on brand, so that readers can see they are my books at a glance.

New FB header 2019

I’ve also been playing around with some book graphics and am really pleased with the results. Sites like Canva, Book Brush and Visme all have free options to make graphics and have simple tutorials if you need them. It’s also made it easier for me to be able to update my website and make that more reader friendly too. I’ve simplified all of the tabs, taken away ones I don’t use and begun making sure all of my pages are relevant to my current work.

On top of all that I’m now writing my 7th book. I have one book which is ready for publication and one almost complete, which is quite exciting. To keep myself motivated and up to date with blog posts, social media and making time for everyday tasks, I’m trying to be kinder to myself and giving myself a breather to have a cup of tea or sit by a view, to replenish my energy. I also find meeting up with other writers, either in person or in online groups, fills up my creative energy tanks for quite a while. I always come away feeling inspired by what they have all achieved and ready to get back to writing.

Have a fun filled and creative week everyone.

From Lizzie.

NSM tweet 10

 

Monday Mojo. 25/2/19.

/ lizziechantree / 3 Comments

Enough Books Meme by Lizzie Chantree

Hello everyone. I’ve done so many marketing posts over the years that I’ve decided to change things up a little. I will still be doing marketing posts and sharing extra writing tips on my Facebook group, Lizzie’s Book Group, which you are all welcome to join, but I also thought I’d share some ways to keep your writing mojo alive and to motivate us all to feel good about ourselves and write more.

When it comes to ambition, both internal and external forces come into play and things like praise, accolades, money, status, friends, family, sometimes take over when research suggests that personal desires and motivation last longer and can ultimately lead to us achieving more in life.  If you are stuck in a rut, revisit what brings you happiness and clarify your personal goals. Put aside goals that you feel others expect of you.

Can you clearly see what motivates you as well as what holds you back? If you understand where you might be failing, you are more likely to be able to overcome it. Fear of failing often prevents us with actually getting on with a task, so have courage and start that new book. Silence your inner critic and reach for your dreams.

Learn. Knowledge is a great way to gain skills to succeed. Maybe find a mentor and soak up their experience.

If you are struggling to meet your goals, rethink them. Make them smaller and more achievable and then move on to the next step of your career. If you set yourself a target of writing a book in three months and that’s not achievable, as you have another job or busy family life, why not extend the boundaries and try and write a book in a year? You might find that without the added pressure of timeframes that the words flow and the book is completed in eight months.

A top tip I was told when I began my writing career was: You can’t edit a blank page. Just get those words on to paper. Believe you can and you will.

 

Have a fun filled and fabulous new week! From Lizzie. 

Monday Marketing with guest Lizzie Lamb.

/ lizziechantree / 26 Comments

Today it’s my great pleasure to invite author Lizzie Lamb onto my blog to share with you her top three marketing tips. I’m Currently writing my seventh romance novel, so I can relate to the ‘sit down and finish the novel’ tip!

#1

#2

#3

Lizzie’s author bio with links –

After teaching her 1000th pupil and working as a deputy head teacher in a large primary school, Lizzie decided to pursue her first love: writing. She joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme, wrote Tall, Dark and Kilted(2012), quickly followed by Boot Camp Bride. She went on to publish Scotch on the Rocks, which achieved Best Seller status within two weeks of appearing on Amazon and her next novel, Girl in the Castle, reached #3 in the Amazon charts. Lizzie is a founder member of indie publishing group – New Romantics Press, and has co-hosted author events at Aspinall, St Pancras and Waterstones, Kensington, talking about the research which underpins her novels. Lizzie latest romance Take Me, I’m Yoursis set in Wisconsin, a part of the USA which she adores. This novel also achieved BEST SELLER status >travel>USA. She has further Scottish-themed romances planned and spends most of the summer touring the Scottish Highlands researching men in kilts. What’s not to like? As for the years she spent as a teacher, they haven’t quite gone to waste. She is building a reputation as a go-to speaker on indie publishing, and how to plan, write, and publish a debut novel. She is currently working on #6 – a road trip ‘movie’ where two warring guardians are forced to join forces and set off in hot pursuit after a runaway niece and son.  Lizzie lives in Leicestershire (UK) with her husband, David.

She loves to hear from readers, so do get in touch . . .

Lizzie’s Links

https://www.amazon.com/author/lizzielamb

www.facebook.com/LizzieLambwriter

lizzielambwriter@gmail.com

website: www.lizzielamb.co.uk

https://twitter.com/lizzie_lamb

Newsletter – http://tinyurl.com/ELNL-2016

Linked in: uk.linkedin.com/pub/lizzie-lamb/18/194/202/

Goodreads http://tinyurl.com/cbla48d

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/lizzielamb/

 

Takeme_8 (1).png

Take Me, I’m Yours

India Buchanan plans to set up an English-Style bed and breakfast establishment in her great-aunt’s home, MacFarlane’s Landing, Wisconsin. But she’s reckoned without opposition from Logan MacFarlane whose family once owned her aunt’s house and now want it back. MacFarlane is in no mood to be denied. His grandfather’s living on borrowed time and Logan has vowed to ensure the old man sees out his days in their former home. India’s great-aunt has other ideas and has threatened to burn the house to the ground before she lets a MacFarlane set foot in it. There’s a story here. One the family elders aren’t prepared to share. When India finds herself in Logan’s debt, her feelings towards him change. However, the past casts a long shadow and events conspire to deny them the love and happiness they both deserve. Can India and Logan’s love overcome all odds? Or is history about to repeat itself?

 

Monday Marketing.

/ lizziechantree / 6 Comments

Lizzie Chantree Monday Marketing2

Happy new week everyone. Today’s post is about how you can help yourself with your marketing approach. When I published my first book, I didn’t know where to go to for help with marketing and I felt quite isolated. I then joined a book group called RRBC and also some Facebook groups and found that there is a lot of help out there. Here are my three top tips for marketing that have worked for me.

  1. Shout out about other people’s work on social media, but always remember to tag them in on it by adding their Facebook page name or Twitter bio name with the @ symbol in front. This disappears on Facebook once you type the name, but it tags the person you are talking about. More often than not, people will see that you are trying to help promote their work and do the same for you if they can. This is all about helping each other. It doesn’t mean spend all day tweeting or posting about other people’s work, but a few choice posts will make others see that you are willing to help them. They might check out your work, tweet about it, or share it on their Facebook timeline.
  2. Join groups on Facebook. You will often find people who have similar interests to you here, and if you are a writer, most groups about books will be full of other authors and readers of different genres. Just type something like romance readers book group etc in the search bar and ask to join. I have a book group and FB have just dropped 60 of my members without my knowledge, because they weren’t active, even though they may have enjoyed reading the posts. This seems to be a new thing, so if you want to stay in a group, be sure to post in it every now and them or join the group discussions. My book group is full of marketing tips for writers and book suggestions for readers. Lizzie’s Book Group. Feel free to join if you want to.
  3. Have bookmarks or business cards made up – not just with your business details, but make them interesting! You can put quotes, photos and anything that will make other people pick them up. Leave them in coffee shops, on notice boards and in shop windows. These are often free or cost as little as 50p per week to post.

Monday Marketing. 3 Quick tips.

/ lizziechantree / 1 Comment

Lizzie Chantree book quote 7

Hello everyone. I’ve been travelling in Spain and around the U.K. for the last few weeks and have been writing a new book. When I write I am inspired by views and the hustle and bustle of people around me, but I also like quiet writing time in my own studio, where I don’t have any noise other than the tapping of the computer keys while I type.

I have been working on social media and branding too and am trying a new app, Visme. I was offered a professional account to try and see what I thought of the software and so far so good. The basic software is ok, but once you log into the premium settings, there is so much to explore. I will write a blog post about it when I have found out exactly what the best features are. For now, check out https://www.visme.co to decide for yourself.

Some tips on discovering your own author brand:

  1. Define your brand. What is your purpose? How do you communicate your message and make an impact? For me this is letting my readers know what my ethos is, my writing style and why they might like my books. Take a look through my blog page and social media sites. They all have the same branding and hopefully tell my readers that I write romance novels.
  2. Do you have a professional headshot that you use across all social media platforms. It’s worth getting a proper photos taken or asking a friend to take one for you.
  3. Do you have a digital media kit? This is a marketing package that states what genre your books are, prices, page length, release dates etc.  This makes it easy for journalists to upload relevant information without hours of research. Check out my media kit page here for some tips.

IMG_9221

Monday marketing. 3 quick tips.

/ lizziechantree / 9 Comments

Happy new week everyone. Here are 3 quick tips about scheduling social media posts or tidying up your Twitter feeds. Marketing can eat into your day, so I am sharing some great tools to help you schedule in some of the posts to save time. I don’t agree with all posts being scheduled, as the idea of social media, is to be social! Interaction is the main way to keep and grow your Twitter/ Facebook accounts etc.

Logic meme by Lizzie Chantree.png

  1. SocialOomph: This a is a scheduling app. It has free and paid options. You can run a free trial to see if it is the app for you. You can schedule tweets, Facebook posts and blog posts, add images and links.
  2. Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a bit clunky for me, but it is a great place to start when you are looking for content to retweet on Twitter or you have your own information to schedule. Because this app updates so often with new news items, it can be slow. The upside is that there is a wealth of information to choose from and it is very easy to use.
  3. Manageflitter: This is a good app for unfollowing anyone who doesn’t follow you back. There have been recent changes, so unless you pay for the basic service, you can only have about 30 unfollows a day. For their basic package, you can unfollow as many as you like.

 

Monday Marketing. 3 quick tips.

/ lizziechantree / 3 Comments

Happy new week everyone. Today’s 3 quick marketing tips are about pinned tweets. I have written about this before, but it’s easy to forget how important they are. It might look good for your Twitter account to have hundreds of retweets of it’s pinned tweet, but if someone has already retweeted it, they can’t do it again. This means they have to search through your Twitter feed to RT your work.

Creativity blossoming meme by Lizzie Chantree.png

  1. Update your pinned tweet often. Even if you do it once a week, or every few days, it gives visitors something new to RT without searching your timeline.
  2. If you are using a daily hashtag, for example, #tuesnews or #MondayMotivation pin it to your profile for that day only. Check out the daily trending hashtags and add one to your pinned tweet that day. I regularly look at trending hashtags and make a tweet with it in. It’s great for networking and helps spread the word about your business or product.
  3. Regularly check out the pinned tweets of your followers and RT them. In return, some will do the same in support of your work. Having a pinned tweet shows the most current information about you. If it is years old, it is confusing to visitors and the information might be out of date.

Check out my Twitter timeline here to see my latest pinned tweet to get some idea of how it works.