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We love our (Facebook) fans, all 12,345 of them (and counting). And we have more love to spread, so we would like to see our fan base grow. As a little bit of motivation, we will be giving away a NOOK Color ($249 value) to one of our fans when we reach the 20,000 benchmark.

It seems fitting that we have just reached 12,345 fans on Facebook as we enter the New Year. We like to look at this figure as a herald of growing numbers.

Over the past couple of years, Facebook and other forms of social media have been a great way to communicate with our existing publishing partners, connect with potential customers, and build a book-loving community.

How are you using social media to promote yourself and your books? If you aren’t connecting with others, you are missing out on sales potential, and the potential to grow your expertise through connection with others who have similar goals.

Your social media campaign will likely look different from ours. We have different target audiences. We tailor our approach to publishers and individuals who need publishing solutions such as editorial, design, eBook conversion, printing, print and eBook distribution and marketing.Nook Color

We benefit from our fans by learning what their wants, needs, and dreams are. This helps us to better serve our customers. We also follow industry experts and news sources to keep fresh on the changing book industry.

Your audience and the people you follow should vary depending upon your topic. But the key point is that you need to engage. Getting yourself out there as a source of information builds your brand and puts you on the consumer’s radar.

If you haven’t already, a good way to start building your brand through social media is to find leaders in your field. See how they are using social media. Where are you finding them? What are they saying? What kind of information do they supply? Start commenting and responding on these threads. Helpful and creative contributions position you as a go-to source, and you will soon see others begin to follow you.

If you are already been using social media to promote your books, but are not  seeing the results you would like to see, try to take an objective look at your content. Are you spamming or doing blatant self-promotion without engaging? Are you connecting with what your fans want to see and read about? Check out other entries on this blog for more marketing tips.

Ok, back to the NOOK giveaway. What do you have to do to win? First, you need a Facebook account. If you are already a fan of Bookmasters on Facebook, you don’t need to do anything! You are already entered!

If you are not yet a Facebook fan, visit our Facebook fan page to like us, and you will be entered.

When we reach 20,000 fans, we will randomly select a winner from our fans to win the NOOK Color. It’s that easy!

This offer is exclusive to our Bookmasters Facebook fans. One winner will be chosen at random when the Bookmasters Facebook fan list reaches 20,000 fans.

CONTEST/GIVEAWAY RULES:

Contest giveaway is for one Nook color valued at $249. No substitutions or cash equivalents allowed. Cannot be combined with any other promotions or contest. Contest is void where prohibited. Bookmasters reserves the right to cancel, terminate, or modify this promotion if it cannot be operated, conducted, or completed as planned, for any reason. Bookmasters is not responsible for any problems with entry, including technical failures. Contest does not apply to Bookmasters employees.

Photo: kjarrett, Creative Commons

motivationWriters are often advised to carve time out of each day to write, to put themselves on some sort of schedule and make it happen, inspired or not. This isn’t easy for everyone, and many writers struggle with the distractions provided by the internet when they do sit down at the computer. But the internet age has provided us with more than just distractions. It is also rife with tools and inspiration.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) asks writers to work on a novel every day in November, committing to a certain word count, and the results have been remarkable for many people. But then the month passes and we must find other motivators to keep us working on our craft.

There’s no reason that daily writing should only be part of November’s routine. It’s good practice for any aspiring writer to sit down as routinely as possible to put words on the page, even if only a few of those words end up being worth keeping. But what happens when you force yourself to sit down at your computer only to be faced with a mockingly white blank document and an equally blank mind?

One way to find inspiration is through writing prompts. You can find books full of prompts, or you can visit a number of websites that will give you ideas. Poets & Writers offers a weekly fiction and poetry prompt called “The Time is Now.” Writer’s Digest also offers a weekly fiction prompt.

Another way to stay motivated is to set your sights on contest. Now that NANOWRIMO has come and gone, try putting your energy into entering writing contests. Winning a contest will help you make a name for yourself in the writing world, and it could garner the attention of prospective agents and editors. Poets & Writers offers a database of contests and competitions for writers of fiction, prose, and creative nonfiction. The database is a great source to keep track of deadlines, entry fees, and prizes. There’s often an entry fee, but the reward often includes a substantial cash prize and sometimes even publication.

Some contests to consider in the new year include:

  • Crazyhorse Fiction and Poetry Prizes–$16 entry fee; January 15, 2012 deadline; $2000 and publication in Crazyhorse awarded to the authors of one short story and one poem
  • Glimmer Train Press Very Short Fiction Award–$15 entry fee; January 31, 2012 deadline; $1500 and publication in Glimmer Train awarded to the author of a short story of up to 3000 words
  • Summer Literary Seminars Unified Literary Contest–$15 entry fee; February 28, 2012 deadline; airfare, tuition, and housing for one of the SLS-2012 programs in either Quebec, Kenya, or Lithuania; publication in the Black Warrior Review and The Walrus

NANOWRIMO is over, but you can still keep that momentum going by sitting down to write on a regular basis, using prompts to help inspire you, and entering some of the wide range of contests offered to writers every year. The resources available to writers can help to strengthen your writing.

Emily Matthews is currently applying to masters degree programs across the U.S., and loves to read about new research into health care, gender issues, and literature. She lives and writes in Seattle, Washington. Check out her previous guest post about NaNoWriMo. 

Photo: Nono Fara, Creative Commons

You almost miss itIt’s undeniable that the web offers an infinite cache of content ripe for a person’s perusal; mindlessly entertaining Tumblrs, Flickr accounts with engrossing images of foreign landscapes, and the notorious cat videos on Youtube seem specifically engineered to distract people from the tasks at hand. Writers are no less immune to these web based honey traps than anyone else. But for writers, the web can work as a hazard or a boon; the difference lies in their ability to harness the web’s potential for research and rich writing material.

Sure, you can bypass web-based distractions altogether by manually disconnecting the internet from your computer or by resorting to handwritten content. You might even experience a significant uptick in your productivity if you eliminate your internet usage all together. But if you turn your back on the web, you’ll be missing out on one of the richest resources available for any writer, be they a novelist, copywriter, or a freelancer. Taking advantage of the web’s potential is just a matter of redirecting the energy behind impulsive web surfing. To utilize the web successfully as a writer, you must turn your restlessness on the web to inspirational online content and resources built to unite and support writers as they practice their art. Consider these propositions to turn a web-addicted writer’s short attention span to constructive web surfing.

Blog your ideas

Blogging is both the easiest and the most rewarding hobby you can undertake if you spend most of your time online. Regardless of your writing background, blogging can help you to see the web’s potential as a writing tool. Think of your blog as a digital notebook with limitless opportunity for customization. On one hand, you could choose to use your blog the same way you would a journal, jotting down ideas as they come to you throughout your web surfing. But you can also use the blog as a storage facility for inspiring web content, whether they’re arresting images or news articles that relate to your writings’ subject matter. You can store a virtually unlimited cache of content on your blog that might help shape your writing, or at the very least bring some organization to fierce and time consuming surfing.  And your blog doesn’t necessarily have to dominate your time while you’re on the web; you can keep it open in a tab so you can easily refer to it when you’re struck with a thought worth fleshing out later.

A well-maintained personal blog is the ideal answer to writer’s block. If you continue to log your blog with notes accompanied with online inspirational pieces, you’ll have a treasure of material to draw from in the future to incorporate into your writing. With so many ideas and leads stored in one place, you’ll have no shortage of inspiration or writing prompts.

Search out other writers

If you’re not too keen on blogging, you should at least peruse social networks for potential writing contacts and confidants. The web is inundated with online communities made up of professional and aspiring writers of all stripes looking to help out their peers. If you’re looking for advice on how to execute a writing style or how best to develop a character, invest your time in one of the many online forums available—there are literally thousands of experienced writers waiting to lend their expertise. The focus of these online communities can run the gamut of the writing industry. Sites like inkpop and writer’s café house huge communities of solely fiction writers, while others like Scribd focus on the publishing side of writing. You could also “like” the Bookmasters fan page on Facebook to access a community of authors/publishers.

You should also investigate social media services like Twitter to find fellow writers. Using Twitter, you can quickly locate and then follow writers of any field by using the service’s comprehensive search engine. What’s more, you can quickly separate the Twitter accounts of more popular writers from those who have fewer followers. Popular writers typically utilize Twitter as a means of promoting their own work, but some of them offer free advice and invaluable tips of the trade as a way to entice more followers. Lesser known or struggling authors may be worth following as well, but for an entirely different reason. If they’re not solely interested in selling their works, these writers may be more likely to answer your direct messages and help out a fellow writer. There’s ways some choice information to glean from writers on social media services, you just have to be willing to engage with your peers online.

Alvina Lopez is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez @gmail.com. 

Photo: Travis Isaacs, Creative Commons

New Year…NEW Widget!

Discount
if purchased before January 31st, 2012

Please contact your Account Executive
at 1.800.537.6727 to learn more

A few months ago we featured an infographic from Maria Peagler about Facebook Marketing Strategies. Now she brings us some great tips on how to market using Twitter. In her blog post about using Twitter for marketing, Peagler suggests starting by using the infographic as a checklist: “tackle one item at a time and check it off your list.” Or you could select tactics from each category to create a unique and comprehensive marketing campaign.

Which of these ideas will you start with?

Thanks to AtlasBooks author and client Maria Peagler for this infographic. You can see what she’s up to at her website. The entire blog post about using Twitter for marketing can be found here. We are proud to have a publishing partner who takes social media so seriously and has used it to successfully promote her books.

$350
Today is the last day!
Only four spots available.

For more information regarding this unique advertising opportunity
please contact your Account Executive at 1.800.537.6727

*Note: Pricing includes 4% cash discount. Discount not available for other forms of payment.

Promotional Price 

$850*

Valid 12/05/11 – 12/28/11
For more information regarding this comprehensive strategy
please contact your Account Executive at 1.800.537.6727
*Note: Pricing includes 4% cash discount. Discount not available for other forms of payment.

From the Writer’s Digest website:

DEADLINE: April 20, 2012

THE PRIZES:

ONE GRAND PRIZE WINNER will be awarded $3,000 cash and a trip to the Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City. The editors of Writer’sDigest will endorse and submit 10 copies of the Grand Prize-Winning book to major review houses. Brian Jud & Book Marketing Works, LLC will provide a one-year membership in Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), guaranteed acceptance in a special-sales catalog giving you national representation through 1800 salespeople selling to non-bookstore markets, guaranteed acceptance by AtlasBooks, a top distributor to wholesalers, chains, independents, and online retailers, A copy of Show Me About Book Publishing and consultation with Book Shepherd Judith Briles—valued at $500, and a guaranteed review in Midwest Book Review.

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10 FIRST-PLACE WINNERS will receive $1000 cash and promotion in Writer’s Digest. In addition, Brian Jud & Book Marketing Works, LLC will provide a one-year membership in Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN), a guaranteed review in Midwest Book Review, a one-year membership to Book Central Station where you can find lists of suppliers rated by previous clients, and ebook  Beyond the Bookstore by Brian Jud (with CD).

Plus, all Grand Prize and First Place winners will receive promotion on the Writer’s Digest Web site at writersdigest.com, a copy of The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, 4th Edition by Tom and Marilyn Ross, $100 worth of Writer’s Digest Books and a Notable Award Certificate.

HONORABLE MENTION WINNERS will receive promotion at www.writersdigest.com, $50 worth of Writer’s Digest Books and a Notable Award Certificate.

All other entrants will receive a brief judge’s commentary and a listing with a link on the Writer’s Digest Web site, provided an accurate URL is provided.

THE CATEGORIES:

  • Mainstream/Literary Fiction
  • Genre Fiction
  • Nonfiction
  • Inspirational (Spiritual, New Age)
  • Life Stories (Biographies, Autobiographies, Family Histories, Memoirs)
  • Children’s/Picture books
  • Middle-Grade/Young Adult books
  • Reference Books (Directories, Encyclopedias, Guide Books)
  • Poetry

THE RULES:

1. The competition is open to all English-language self-published books for which the authors have paid the full cost of publication, or the cost of printing has been paid for by a grant or as part of a prize.

2. You may register and pay online for faster service.

3. Entrants must send a printed and bound book. Entries will be evaluated on content, writing quality and overall quality of production and appearance. No handwritten books are accepted.

4. All books published or revised and reprinted between 2007 and 2012 are eligible. (Writer’s Digest may demand proof of eligibility of semifinalists.)

5. All books not registered online must be accompanied by an Official Entry Form. Photocopies of the Official Entry Form are acceptable. You may enter more than one book and/or more than one category; however, you must include a separate book, entry form and the additional fee for each entry.

6. Check, money order or credit card payment for the required judging fee of $100 for the first entry, $75 for each additional entry must accompany submissions.

7. All entries must be postmarked no later than April 20, 2012. All winners will be notified by October 14, 2012. If you wish to receive confirmation that your entry was received before the deadline, we recommend using certified mail or some other tracking method to send your entry.

8. Judges reserve the right to withhold prizes in any category. Judges reserve the right to recategorize entries.

9. Books which have previously won awards from Writers Digest are not eligible.

10. Employees of F+W Media, Inc. and Book Marketing Works, LLC and their immediate families are not eligible. Books published by Abbott Press are not eligible to participate.

11. Writer’s Digest is not responsible for the loss, damage or return of any books submitted to the competition.

ENTRY FEES:

First entry: $100
Additional entries: $75 each

SEND books, entry forms and fees (if applicable) TO:

Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards
8469 Blue Ash Road, Suite 100, Cincinnati, OH 45236

DEADLINE:  April 20, 2012

TypingAs the month of November rolls around, the weather cools, the leaves fall, and NaNoWriMo begins.  From November 1 through November 30, thousands of professional and amateur writers attempt to reach that 50,000 word mark with a completed (or substantially written) novel by the time December comes.  It’s quite an accomplishment in and of itself to finish a novel in only 30 days, but once you type (or even hand-write) that last sentence, what then?

It’s important to remember that finishing the first draft is only half of the journey: once you finish that last chapter, you have to go back to the beginning and revise.  Revise, revise, and revise.  First, print out a hard copy of your novel: editing on a computer screen may save trees, but seeing your words on paper can reveal aspects of your writing that would be missed reading from a computer monitor.  Then, read through the entire first chapter without making any notes to see how it flows.  Even better, read your writing aloud: reading aloud can reveal awkward phrasings, words used too many times, run-on sentences, etc.

After you have read the entire chapter, go through each paragraph and each sentence, making certain there are no basic errors (grammar, spelling, punctuation) while paying attention to the overall structure of your story.  Do the scenes you included matter to the overall novel?  Are your characters engaging and act how you want them to?  Are your descriptions interesting?

Ultimately, though, editing is often a gut-reaction to a given text.  This part feels awkward; this paragraph seems extraneous; this character’s actions make little sense.  Change what you feel needs to be changed, but don’t edit your novel until it’s little more than a skeleton.  Be strict, not cruel.  Let your work flourish, but also know when to just let it be.

Now that you’ve not only finished but polished your NaNoWriMo novel until it shines, can it really be published?  It’s certainly possible.  According to the NaNoWriMo website, over 70 published authors have written their novels as a NaNoWriMo challenge, including Sara Gruen’s bestselling novel Water for Elephants. The novel became #1 on the New York Times’ Bestseller list and was recently made into a major motion picture starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, and Christoph Waltz.  Other NaNoWriMo participants and authors include Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Gayle Brandeis, and Rachael Herron, to name a few.

Edit your novel and send it out to anyone who could possibly be interested.  Write those query letters, research getting an agent (many times a prerequisite for any publishing house to read your manuscript), and the most important thing: don’t give up.  Keep getting your manuscript out there and with great perseverance and, yes, patience, you could very well be as successful as Sara Gruen.

Emily Matthews is currently applying to masters degree programs across the U.S., and loves to read about new research into health care, gender issues, and literature. She lives and writes in Seattle, Washington.

Another fine option is to skip the query process and jump into the publishing ring. It is easier, and better accepted now more than ever to self-publish. Though there are a lot of self-publishing choices, a lot of them still limit your creative control and ability to penetrate the market at all levels. This is where Bookmasters stands out. 

Though you can find all the tools you need to put together a book project that rivals anything from a major publisher, you still are the publisher and maintain control of your work, all with the ability to ask for help and advice along the way. Check us out today to see how we can work together. 

Now that you are wrapping up NaNoWriMo, don’t you think it is worth it to take that next step?

Photo: Weirtz Sebastian, Creative Commons

Karen Broach and Violeta Chini represented Bookmasters and AtlasBooks at this year’s Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association (GLiBA) trade show, held October 14-16 at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, MI.

The show was successful for Bookmasters, and we had especially lovely signings by Sharon Kreighbaum, author of Is Your House Overweight?: Recipes for Low-Fat Rooms and Michael Scotto, author of Latasha and the Little Red Tornado.

In an effort to adapt to the changing industry, GLiBA officials formally informed the membership that GLiBA and MIBA (Midwest Independent Booksellers Association) will combine to hold at least two joint shows. The first joint show will be held October 4-5, 2012 in Minneapolis, followed by a show in Chicagoland in 2013.

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