President’s Page
OUR PREVIOUS/MOST RECENT MEETING
Information about our most recent
meetings is available via a link on the “Welcome” page. (To the left)
Visit the “Programs” page (to the left) to
learn about our next meeting and other writer related events.
We now post current and most recent
columns from our President, our Editor/Web-master, and
any member or guest who wishes to contribute to ensure everyone sees them.
(Newest is at the top)
FROM OUR PRESIDENT
Marketing for Dummies like Me
It’s springtime in the Lilac City, and soon we can look forward
to Easter and the Lilac Parade. As I
promised last month, here are some of my thoughts on marketing.
The arena of marketing your books is a broad subject, but the
fact is that no matter how you publish, selling your masterpiece is up to you.
My focus has been mainly on local sales. I use Gray Dog Press to print copies of my
books, and I sell them at a profit through book signings (I miss Hastings for
that, but other bookstores will sometimes take books on consignment and
schedule signings for you), craft fairs, and any other sales venues I can find.
I also market internationally through Amazon/KDP, which saves me
the printing costs. They charge a fee to
host your book on their website and handle the financial transactions, but I
don’t have to spend any money upfront, so it’s worth it to be one author in
millions. Amazon also provides an author
page for you free of charge, where you can link your book titles and your blog
posts (at least Word Press does that, and maybe other blog sites as well.) On
my to-do list is updating my Amazon author page. Also, book descriptions, keywords, and
categories can be changed from time to time to attract new users. Revising those details can be done without taking
your book off the market while they approve changes.
Name recognition is another important tool you can use. I hand out business cards wherever I go,
letting people know that I write books. Several of our members always have copies of
their books in their cars and can sell one whenever they talk to someone
interested.
I have taken my books to several local library outlets. The first two Emily Trace mysteries are
available at the Spokane City and County Libraries. I donated them, and the libraries had someone
read them to approve for quality that met their standards. You might think that would take away from
local sales, but I believe it has helped. I also donated a few copies to other
libraries, including the Little Library system. My granddaughter took a couple of my books to
her middle school, and they put them in the school library.
There are probably many other ways to do your marketing. One more outlet available is the two radio
hosts who are always looking for guests on their shows. They are both affiliated with KYRS, and one of
them is our friend Stephen Pitters, who has had several of our members as
guests on his radio show and other events he has hosted.
You can also search the internet for information and ideas on
marketing. Beware of those who charge
money. Some are legitimate; some are
scams. Joanna Penn is a blogger who has
loads of free information. She is
internationally known for her blogs and podcasts. She also offers courses in various writing
subject areas. Another writer whose blog
I follow is K. M. Weiland. Her website
is www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com, and I have picked up
many helpful tips from her. Finally, a
good resource for marketing is Reedsy.
Please have a good rest of March and hope it goes out like a
lamb. See you at the April meeting.
Sue Eller
FROM YOUR
EDITOR, WEB-MASTER, TREASURER
I guess
that lack of ambition and inability to concentrate on anything I mentioned last
month is still with me. I am on time for
compiling and sending out the April Edition of SASP NEWS, but there were a
couple of things relating to the web-site I did not get
to as I would have liked. Maybe the
advent of spring and the continuing downward trend of the pandemic will snap me
out of it. Additionally, I hated to miss
our last meeting, but I did not feel well at all that morning and a couple
hours before decided I wouldn’t be up to attending. I look forward to being at our April
meeting.
Following our April meeting
we will be making adjustments to the “Members” list on our web-site. Those who are not paid members, not paid for
2022 will be removed from that list. If
you are not on that list, there is no way anyone can link to and view your
Member Web-Page. For those who haven’t
been paid members since 2019, you will soon be removed completely from our
roster and will no longer receive copies of our newsletter. We will also remove your books from the list
of member’s books on Amazon.
Personal note, please renew
or rejoin. It’s a lot less work for
yours truly to update memberships than it is to remove them.
You can bring
cash, check, or a money order to a meeting or mail a check or money order for
$15.00 to:
Spokane
Authors and Self-Publishers
P. O. Box
18573
Spokane, WA
99228-0573
I check the mail
weekly, and if we receive any dues payments, I take those payments directly to
our financial institution for deposit. I
also try to notify anyone who pays that the dues payment has been received…
usually by way of e-mail.
FROM OUR PRESIDENT (Previous)
More Than Luck
It takes more than luck to produce a book.
Yes, I believe we all know that, but sometimes we forget to
appreciate what we have done. Relax if
you haven’t yet published a book via the Indie (self-publishing) route or are
getting impatient with your traditional publisher. We are all human. (Well, at least most of us are.)
We all know the first step is to write the book. In the beginning, it can be a daunting
task. We are so relieved to finally type
“The End” that we forget the work has only just begun.
At this point, finding other people to read your book and give
you helpful feedback is a critical step.
You can also hire a developmental editor. They will be able to provide you with tips on
story flow, plot holes, and other major problems writers sometimes run into
because they are too close to their own story.
Then comes the interior design stage. If you know how to do this yourself,
great. If you don’t, find someone who
does. It will make your book look more professional
and polished. Now is also the time to
obtain an ISBN. You will need that
identifying number to complete your copyright page.
Now you have your story, story flow, and plot, and your words
are now on pages with headers, footers, footnotes (if needed), chapter
headings, and page numbers. Is your book
ready to go to print? Not yet, but
you’re getting closer.
You need to go through it line by line (or hire a line editor)
to check for misspelled words, punctuation, grammar, correct word usage, and
repeated words or phrases. If you do
this yourself, watch for words that sound the same but mean different
things. Examples are past and passed,
your and you’re, floe and flow... You get the
idea. The English language is rife with
examples.
Now it’s time to order proof copies, right? Not without a cover. Unless you are proficient at graphic design,
you should spend the money to hire someone else. You can give them ideas, or you can give them
free rein, but be sure they know that the back cover is on the left, and there
must be an allowance and design for spine width based on the number of pages in
your book.
Once all these steps are complete, you can order proof
copies. The last step is
proofreading. Mark up these books, make
the corrections, and request another proof to make sure your book is the best
it can be. You can also hire a
proofreader at this point. Then take a
deep breath and upload it to a distributor like Ingram or Kindle. You can also send it directly to your
printer.
If you have a traditional publisher, they must go through all
these steps on every book they publish and hire each step done. In the self-publishing world, the author
should complete each step or hire someone to help them do the things they don’t
know how to do.
Hopefully, this will help you appreciate yourself more if you
self-publish and appreciate your publisher even more if you go the traditional
route.
Next time: Everyone loves to hate Marketing
Sue Eller
FROM YOUR EDITOR, WEB-MASTER, TREASURER (Previous)
I don’t know if
it the time of year or what, but over the past few weeks I’ve found it nearly
impossible to concentrate on anything. Thus I’m trying to scramble and get the March issue of SASP
NEWS out at the last minute. Hopefully
it will be on its way to you soon and I will not have missed any (or that many)
pertinent announcements. The same holds
true with regards to the SASP web-site.
There are still a number of folks who have yet to pay dues for 2022. If you want to continue your membership in
Spokane Authors and Self-Publishers, please pay your dues. It isn’t fair to those who have paid, and in
another month or so, your name will come off the member list on the web-site, and your member web-site will no longer be
accessible. For those who haven’t been paid members since 2019, you will soon
be removed completely from our roster and will no longer receive copies of our
newsletter.
On a personal note, please
renew or rejoin. It’s a lot less work
for yours truly to update memberships than it is to remove them.
You can bring
cash, check, or a money order to a meeting or mail a check or money order for
$15.00 to:
Spokane
Authors and Self-Publishers
P. O. Box
18573
Spokane, WA
99228-0573
I check the mail
weekly, and if we receive any dues payments, I take those payments directly to
our financial institution for deposit. I
also try to notify anyone who pays that the dues payment has been received…
usually by way of e-mail.
Dave
Mc
Spokane
Authors & Self-Publishers
Page revised 04/04/2022
DAM
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