Tag Archives: book marketing

What did I do this month? Well, first, I did do the writing for all the books throughout the month, but I didn’t do many of the other social media that I had planned to do because I was busy with the garden this month. Early in the month, I was planting and later started harvesting a lot of the earlier crops. We weeded and have been watering because we are currently in a drought and excessive wave.

In addition, I processed the garlic for storage, and canned green beans as well as having prepped for and attended the farmer’s market.

Book Sales, Mixed Results

Book sales haven’t yet been what I have been looking for online yet, but in-person book sales at the farmer’s market have been doing well. If I could sell as many books online as I do in person, it would be great. I guess the issue is that I don’t have the online presence that I need to make the sales. I haven’t yet been able to connect with the right readers. I think perhaps what I need to do is to focus each month on the readership of the different genres I am writing rather than trying to do them all at the same time. I think that the best genre to work on right now during the summer would be my historical fiction series, The Locket Saga. In addition, I need to focus more time on the latest of that series Two Rivers. Probably the best idea right now is to connect with other writers in the genre too. I really do think that where I am having the most difficulty is in the aspect of connecting with individuals online. Connecting with other writers and supporting one another would be a great place to put my focus for the next several months or even the next year.

What sales I have made online have been mostly by chance, not by design. One way that I think I received purchases was when I commented on a YouTube page and left a link to my relevant book, and another was from a bookmark that I gave away at Farmer’s market and the person purchased The Locket Saga on Kindle.

There are several other things that I need to do to make my books more accessible too, but that is going to require some work that I have been putting off. Perhaps that will also need to be the focus of my work in the next month as well. I will discuss this more during the next few weeks.

Writing Two Rivers

This month I have done some work on Two Rivers, Book VII of The Locket Saga, Of course, I still have a lot of editing to complete. I currently have written 75520 which is 4480 words less than I planned to get written. However it is still progress.

Looking ahead to July

Now that I have had a successful June, I have a new month to plan for. It already looks to be a very busy month. Farmers Market and blog post writing for both this blog and my other blog The Perpetual Homesteader are given, but here are other priorities I have for July.

My writing and book marketing projects for July will be to (1) Update several books to put them into more distribution. (2) Do a complete second draft of Two Rivers by working on one chapter per day. (3) Developing contacts with other authors. (I plan to share more about how I am developing these contacts throughout the month).

In gardening, my plans are to (1) plant fall beans and late corn. As well as plant cabbage and broccoli indoors. (2) harvest beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, and zucchini. (3) eat fresh, can, or sell beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, and zucchini.

How about you? What are your plans for July? Feel free to share in the comments below.

If you haven’t checked out my Author Page on Amazon and check out the look inside feature on every book of interest.

Making the Most of a New Month

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The Marketing Focus

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SOFFing is a system that I use to complete my goals. SOFF is an acronym for Starting, Organizing, Focusing, and Finishing a project of any size whether it is a tiny series of tasks to be completed within an hour or as we saw last week, it can be used to complete a huge project spanning a long period. SOFFing can be used on the individual project level, the daily level, and on a weekly level. It can also be done on by the month as well.

Planning the Month Begins With Where I am now

“To discover how to get where you’re going, you have to first know where you are.”

I start my month by assessing how I did in the previous month. In May I:

*Planted the garden. and so next month I know I will be maintaining, harvesting, and canning. I will be talking more about what I plan to do gardening in my next article on my other blog: The Perpetual Homesteader.

*Research is Done on Two Rivers-in June I want to get the word count of the book up to 80 thousand words. (I currently have written 60 thousand words If I add more dialogue and more scene descriptions, I’l have the 80 thousand).

*I have made Some Progress on Organizing my House-I want to continue with a single project in which my husband and I put two sets of shelves in the master bedroom.

*Made it to the farmer’s market every Saturday in May.

*Did some marketing online with a little luck in views and book sales this is my biggest challenge for June.

“It matters less whether I meet my goals than it is that I made progress toward those goals and that I will make more progress in the immediate future.”
Cygnet Brown

My Biggest Win and My Biggest Fail (or in other words, next month’s challenge)

Biggest Win-The Garden is growing well and producing some crops.

Biggest Challenge: Online book marketing and sales.

June’s Challenge

Since my biggest challenge in May was in the area of online book marketing, I plan to make June the month where this is my primary focus. Marketing is my biggest bottleneck. If I can break through and get consistent high-dollar book sales of the books that I have already written, I will also be able to get more sales from future books as they come out.

I have learned that some of the comments that I made on other people’s content where people asked me specific questions and I posted a link have received some hits, especially in articles that I wrote online, but not much more than that. I also found that if I used hashtags related to the subject, I get views from Twitter as well. I am thinking that perhaps I need to do more in that area. I found a system that someone else has used and will try it this month. I’ll let you know how it goes at the end of the month. Beginning later today, I am going to use it for all fourteen of my books this month.

I will post one Blog Post Per book (permanent) (every other day) be sure to include a link to the sales page on Amazon. Check out the first ten pages! Also, I will include within each post a link to the related books Locket Saga, Gardening, and Career Enhancement.

I will post two Pinterest Posts per book this month (every other day) I’ll be sure to include a link

I will post four Tweets EACH DAY for a duration of a week to THOUSANDS of followers (focusing on the book focus of that day. (28 total per book) be sure to include a link and related hashtags!

I will post four Tweets promoting each blog twice through the month-(books other than the most recent book blog created). The tweets for the first three blogs will be at the end of the month.be sure to include a link and related hashtags!

I will post to four Facebook READER GROUP Posts each day of June (one per each of the four most recent book blog posts. (Other than my own.) I will be sure to include a link to either the book or to the blog related to the book.

I will post four Facebook page posts sprinkled throughout the month for each book on my own Facebook pages (I have several). I will post on the pages on which the book is related. I will be sure to include a link.

I will save these social media posts in a Word Document so that I can easily access them for future use.

I will use Social Oomph to schedule as many of my posts as possible that way I don’t have to spend all day, every day working on this project, after all, I also have a garden, a home, a husband, a farmers market, and a house to run.

There you have it, my “S” and “O” of my SOFF of June., “the Start and Organization” for June’s goals. What are your plans for the month of June? Feel free to share in the comments section below.

At the end of the month, I’ll show you how it all played out by focusing on the challenge and how much of what I was able to finish.

Join Me in a Real Business of Authors Helping Authors

August 20, 2018

The Writing Business

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For a long time, I have been thinking about starting my own publishing company. I have been thinking about it since I finished writing my first book and while I was in college. I want the business to be author-centric. In other words, I want it to be a company where authors are the owners rather than just a commodity of the publishing business.
Since 2010, I have been learning how to self-publish. I made a lot of mistakes, but I learned from them, and I know I can help others avoid many of the mistakes that I made.

Over a year ago, I started writing a business plan. I decided that it would be best if the business was a corporation and I decided that it would be best if this corporation was an S corporation.
I also thought of a name for the business I decided to call it Jerjoboch Publications.
Then I got stuck. I got stuck because I was too busy writing books to find enough time to learn what I needed to learn about building a business.
I also needed money. You can’t establish a corporation without spending some money. However, I didn’t have the money to invest, nor did I feel that I had enough followers or connections with fellow authors to make this dream come true.
Because I needed to know more about marketing, since the end of NaNoWriMo last November, I have been researching that subject.

I have learned that one of the first things that I need to know is who my customers are. My customers are self-published authors who want to take charge of their own books and earn accordingly.

Starting last month, I have been reaching out to fellow self-published authors whose goal is to be in control of their own publishing fate. I am looking for authors who would like to form a corporation where we can work together to build an online self-published author nurturing center, a self-publishing author publishing company, an author PR firm and an author promotions company. In other words a corporation dedicated to helping authors control their own destiny.

Write a Book and Ignite your Business_red

Do you have the dream of self-publishing a book, but you don’t know where to start or what to do next? Contact me at cygnetbrown@gmail.com and we’ll see what we can do to help you. You can also check out the book I wrote about the writing process directed toward business owners who are considering self-publishing as well. Check it out at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076NWLTSP

Seven Things I Learned from the Got Marketing Workshop

June 12, 2017

The Marketing Focus

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June 12, 2017

Tierney James- The author of action/adventure novels is a former world geography teacher and Solar System Ambassador for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.

Over the weekend I attended the Got Marketing Workshop put out by Tierney James, http://www.tierneyjames.com/ It was fun to get out and go to a workshop and I learned so much from this one. I have a lot of take away information that I know I am able to use to increase my marketing prowess.

What I learned At the Workshop

I have been going over my notes and here are a number of things that I have taken away from the workshop.

First one of course was to write this blog about it and to let Tierney know that I have mentioned her in my blog post. Thank you so much Tierney for all of your insights into book marketing!
Contact other authors that I met at the workshop. I made certain that at the workshop I took plenty of cards to share with the other authors that I knew I would meet there. I handed out twelve and got seven in return. I have already connected with Tierney, now just six more to go!
Start a Marketing Notebook-All of my work has been in online documents scattered throughout my files. Today I went to the store and picked up the few things that I needed so that I could get started on this project.
Every 90 days offer each of my books in this way on Amazon: 2 day free promotion, one day 99 cent promotion, two day $1.99 promotion and during the two free days, hit the free book websites. I can find these free book promotion sites by googling “free book promotions.
Get a Street Team- Find people who are willing to help me promote my books on social media and do it in a structured way.
Make memes that promote my books (without sounding salesy) and post them on social media. Have various themes so they don’t become “invisible”.
Probably, the most exciting way that she showed me how to market is by using Pinterest. I plan to create these boards:

A board for all the books by Cygnet Brown
A board for the actors who I think should play my book characters when my book becomes a movie
A board telling the story (without spoilers) for each book in the Locket Saga
Boards about Specific historical events in the Locket Saga.
Simply Vegetable Gardening Tips Board
Help from Kelp Tips Board
Diatomaceous Earth Tips Board

Followup, More Important than Learning

Although it is true that I learned a lot from this workshop, what’s more important than the learning is the fact that I need to implement what I have learned and have chosen to do with what I learned.

Well, now that I have written this blog post, I can cross that first one off the list! Of course, there are a lot more tips that she offered, but the items on this list, along with what I am already doing, should keep me busy at least for the next ninety days.

So what do you think? Which of these tips sounds most interesting you?

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Customer Service-Book Marketing Part 2-Building a Referral Network through Integrity

June 9, 2016

The Marketing Focus

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Last time we looked at having the right product, the audience, and advertising. We looked at the fact that the product has to be something that a person needs, but having a great product or service and advertising isn’t enough. A connection with integrity from you is also important.

A Lesson in Integrity

I will never forget my Navy Recruiter’s integrity and how it affected his ability to sign up recruits. When I went into the Navy Recruiter’s office, the US Navy recruiter’s name was Petty Officer Angel. He was not one of those recruiters that you hear about who will tell you anything you want to hear just to get you to sign on the dotted line. PO Angel told me exactly what I could expect. He told me that nothing was guaranteed unless it was in writing. He told me about what I could expect from boot camp. He told me that if I wanted a guaranteed school, I would have to wait for a few months to get that school. I chose instead to go into the Seaman Apprenticeship program which gave no guarantees of schools. It just guaranteed that I would be able to get into the Navy more quickly.

PO Angel treated all of the people that he recruited the same way. He treated each individual with integrity. He told them exactly what to expect and how to avoid pitfalls along the way. He was honest. He had a certain quota that he had to bring in every month. Do you think that being honest kept him from meeting his quota? If anything it was the opposite. While other recruiters had difficulty meeting their quotas, PO Angel not only met his quota for that month but had met his quotas for several months in advance. He benefitted by giving accurate facts because the recruits that he brought in told their friends and they went to him rather than to other Navy recruiters or other military services.

Petty Officer Angel knew the first rule of customer service. You’re not dealing with numbers, you’re meeting with people. You’re not just selling, if you’re smart, you are developing a relationship.

Integrity and Appreciation in Social Media

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” Francois-Marie de Voltaire 1694-1773

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. This is one of the reasons that social media is a powerful tool in book marketing. When I say using social media for a tool for marketing, I don’t mean that I blast my friends on Facebook with the fact that I am promoting a book every hour. What it does mean is that I get to know each person individually. I learn about their children and pets, kind of like a politician shaking hands and kissing babies. However, unlike politicians, the interactions have to be genuine. This is, after all, a post about integrity. I treat people with respect. I don’t rant. I post things that reflect who I am as a person.

I friend people I know and get to know their friends. I let people get to know me as a person and that I am more than just a historical fiction writer. I share memes that are humorous or inspiring. I let them know I am an author who knows a lot about gardening, canning and writing. I have three adult children. I love raising chickens and goats (even though I currently don’t have any, I thinking about getting more). I share free online articles. I have an interest in environmental issues. I have a free digital book that I give to people who want to limit toxic chemicals in their homes. I am a pastor and encourage spiritual growth.

I care about their lives as well. If my friend has a birthday, I don’t just say “Happy Birthday”. I give them a birthday blessing. If someone is getting married or has an anniversary, I send my congratulations. I love their baby and pet pictures. I am enthusiastic about their special events. If someone is sick, I tell them I am praying for them and then do. I do my best to care about people and to let them know that I do.

I avoid online drama. If an issue comes up online, but it should remain private, I make it private by taking it to PM on Facebook, sending an email, or phoning them. Because I am a pastor, it is my job to do religion. My online message, however, is the message of love. I avoid politics altogether.

I give credit where credit is due. I treat people with respect. I avoid arguments especially where others are looking for a fight.

Donna Brown is pastor at Faith in God Church 1 1/2 miles south of Brandsville, Missouri on Hwy 63. Sunday services are at 10 am and Wednesday night Bible Study at 6:30 pm. As Author Cygnet Brown, she has published a nonfiction book: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga. The next book Book IV of the Locket Saga: Sailing Under the Black Flag will be out in the near future.

Her most recent publication were two booklets Help From Kelp and Using Diatomaceous Earth Around the House and Yard. Available in paperback

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and her books, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .

The Marketing Focus-We Are Closer than We Think

February 25, 2016

The Marketing Focus

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The beginning of a wonderful relationship

Most of us have heard of the six degrees of separation. This is the theory that all of us are just six degrees from anyone in the world. We can thank the internet, according to a Facebook algorithm, that we are actually closer than that. The algorithm has found that most of us are actually closer to only 3.67 degrees of separation. Mark Zuckerberg has a score of 3.17, but mine is actually closer than his at 3.12. In other words, my personal connections are slightly more varied than Zuckerberg’s.
It is often said that it’s not what you know that counts, but who you know. This is good news because this information from Facebook lets us know that finding the right people to help us with our marketing is closer than we think. We just have to do our networking to find those people who can help or who can help connect us to our target market.

The Fiction Market VS Nonfiction Market

Lately I have been re-reading a book by Kristen Lamb called The Rise of the Machine.(here’s one of her latest posts https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/making-money-in-a-world-addicted-to-free-what-do-writers-do/#comment-233193 ) In this book, one of the important messages that she gives is that book of fiction cannot be marketed in the same way that nonfiction and other marketing is done. In nonfiction or other types of marketing, the idea is do develop a niche and write for that specific group of people. With a novel. however, according to Lamb, the goal is to get as many people who are not avid readers to read the book as possible. To put it simply, the way we do that is to find and nurture fans who in turn talk about your book on social media making the book go viral.

I personally have seen the difference between how I gain readers for my nonfiction books and how I gain readers for my novels. My gardening book-Simply Vegetable Gardening— for example is easy to sell using traditional marketing strategies. I go to where the gardeners are. I write an online article and connect it to my Amazon account with the book on it and I can sell. I can take my books to privately owned garden centers and animal feed stores, and health food stores and sell wholesale. I go to prepper and sustainability as well as local festivals and sell my gardening books. fiction books are different. The traditional methods do not work as well. The connections with fiction run deeper than with nonfiction books. Word of mouth sells novels in ways that traditional marketing cannot. Developing personal connections on social media leads to more fiction book sales than all the marketing in the world.

Writers are not my market for my fiction because writers don’t have time to read a lot of fiction books (aspiring writers, maybe, writers, not so much). Avid readers are people who will buy my book, but they are limited in number. The people that I need to reach are the people who want to read my book because they love the story and they love me as a writer. That’s one of the reasons that I started the newsletter was so that I could further connect with my friends on Facebook and Twitter and position myself as an author who cares about the people who read my work. The people who sign up for my newsletter are the people that love my work the most and don’t want to miss out on my next book. These are the ones I give special offers to first because they are my friends. They are also the first ones with access to my latest book and they are the ones who find out first where my next event will be so that they can get an autographed copy of a novel of someone that they know. (Just because someone read an e-book copy does not mean that this same person wouldn’t want an autographed copy of the same book.)

The process is simple, really. It is the same as in the real world. I interact with people on the internet and they become my friends. Because they know that I am a writer and I share some content with them, these people become my friends. My friends from Facebook and twitter who are reading my novel series are likely to be the ones who tell their friends who tell there friends until one day, because (thanks to the internet) the degrees of separation have diminished and my book series goes viral.

Donna Brown is pastor at Faith in God Church 1 1/2 miles south of Brandsville, Missouri on Hwy 63. Sunday services are at 10 am and Wednesday night Bible Study at 6:30 pm. As Author Cygnet Brown, she has recently published her first nonfiction book: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener

Her most recent publication were two booklets Help From Kelp and Using Diatomaceous Earth Around the House and Yard. Available in paperback.

.For more information about Cygnet Brown and her book, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .

The Marketing Writer-I can Produce Books, but can I Market them?

January 14, 2016

The Marketing Focus

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As I was evaluating my failures and successes of last year, I saw that I did very well at being a productive writer. I seriously edited my first book (hopefully for the last time), I wrote and published my 46ths books (the last two I published the last day of the year, but it still counts) also I completed the second drafts of two books, and completed the first draft of yet another, plus wrote numerous online articles and wrote this blog all year. However, I also learned that although I had a small amount of success in marketing my books, my book sales were nowhere near what I wanted or needed as a full time writer. Therefore, I needed to find out what I was doing wrong and what I needed to add to my daily tasks to become more successful at selling my books.

Organizing My Writing Day to Include Marketing

Probably the most important thing that I noticed about how I was marketing my books was that marketing was an afterthought. rather than a key component to my writing business thus far. Sure I had done a few things I wrote a couple of press releases, had been on the radio, had included it in my business plan, but I really have not made a plan to incorporate marketing into my daily routine. Since I know that I want to continue being nearly as productive as I have been, but I also know that just producing good writing is not going to sell books. I also know that I do my best writing/content writing in the morning. Therefore, I have determined that I will write in the morning and then in the afternoon focus on developing, maintaining, and utilizing my marketing plan.

Getting the Big Picture

In order to get the big picture, I have had to start researching what others are doing to promote their books. First, I had to realize that one format doesn’t fit all. I can put a book not just into a paperback format, but e-book formats as well. In these e-book formats there are numerous formats, not just Kindle. There is Nook, Kobo, and even pdf formats. In addition, I can format my books as an audio book. With some of my nonfiction books I could also make them into Power Point presentations that that I could sell as movies, presentations, or at least as trailers for the books.. Each of these formats can be marketed separately building on the overall platform that my books represent.

Marketing should not only include marketing my books, but marketing myself as well. I have a lot of good qualities that would make a good speaker on the subjects that I want to address. Not only am I a writer, but I am also a speaker and someone who can teach others how to do many of the things that I do. Building trust is an important aspect of book marketing. By demonstrating to my online and real life audience that I know what I am talking about and that i am interested in helping them, they learn to trust me and will buy what I have to offer. Part of this trust is built through this blog, but also through other online contributions such as online articles or YouTube videos. In person, this can be accomplished when I meet people at festivals, at book signings, and at conferences.

Two New Booklets to Market in Print

In addition to learning more about online book marketing, I now also have two new books to market in print both online and in real life. I also intend to make these books available as e-books as well. These booklets are Help from Kelp and Using Diatomaceous Earth in the Home and Garden. More about them next Tuesday on my Productive Writer post. Check them out now along with my other books on by Lulu.com Author Spotlight Page http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/cygnetbrown

Donna Brown is pastor at Faith in God Church 1 1/2 miles south of Brandsville, Missouri on Hwy 63. Sunday services are at 10 am and Wednesday night Bible Study at 6:30 pm. As Author Cygnet Brown, she has recently published her first nonfiction book: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and most recently, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga.For more information about Cygnet Brown and her book, check out her website at http://www.cygnetbrow.com .

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2016

God's Gifts to Us, Perspective, The Marketing Focus, The Productive Writer

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Here we are in a new year! Can you believe that 2015 is history and 2016 is now here! What are your plans for the coming year? Though I am not big on New Year’s Resolutions, i am big on taking a little time at the beginning of the year to decide where I want to go now. Here is what I have planned for this blog this year.

This post not only marks my first blog post of the year but it also is my 201st post on How My Spirit Sings! 2015 has definitely been a busy year for me and i expect 2016 to be even busier, except in a somewhat different way. The day before yesterday I went over the final edits of two the two booklets that I have written. One is Help from Kelp and the other is Using Diatomaceous Earth in the House and Garden. Within the month these two books should be ready for general distribution. I do however did get a few of each published yesterday. I had them published so that I could have some ready for the Ozarks Sustainable Living University.. The University will be held the first day January 23rd at Faith in God Church where I am pastor and the second day will be at the Next Step church on the other side of town.

To promote these two books, I have started a Facebook page called Naturally Improving our lives. Click here to Check it out and Like!

Every Journey Begins with a single step.

Changing Days of my Blog Postings

I am changing the days of the week that I post this blog. Beginning next week, I won’t be doing Monday and Friday posts. Instead I will be writing blogs on Tuesday and Thursday, but will continue writing my Wednesday Christian based blog post. This way I will put up three new posts a week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and not have any on the other four days.

Tuesdays-The Productive Writer

On Tuesdays, I will be writing about how to be a productive writer. I am a very productive writer. Last year I finished the final edits on three full length novels, wrote the second draft of three novels, wrote a complete first draft of another. I also wrote two nonfiction booklets about diatomaceous earth and another about kelp. I also started two more nonfiction books about how I have always avoided writer’s block. Add to that, the fact that I have written three blog posts almost every week since the beginning of last year and you should be able to see that I practice what I preach.

Wednesdays-A Year of God’s Gifts

A couple of days ago I told that God has numerous gifts that he wants to give us, but for what ever reason, we either don’t know about or feel that we don’t deserve these gifts. This year, every week I am going to share one of these many gifts that he has for us. If we are willing to accept them, that is.

Thursdays-The Marketing Focus

Last year my main focus was on being a productive writer and preparing to market my books. Though I do intend to publish several books, this year, since I have a number of books out, my primary focus is switching from writing my books to marketing those books. Like last year, I will be dividing my year into three sections. The first four months I will be focusing on marketing myself. The middle four months will be focusing on marketing my books, and the last four months will be related to marketing my writing business.

Donna Brown is pastor at Faith in God Church 1 1/2 miles south of Brandsville, Missouri on Hwy 63. Sunday services are at 10 am and Wednesday night Bible Study at 6:30 pm. As Author Cygnet Brown, she has recently published her first nonfiction book: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener

Closing Out the Year-Writing

December 7, 2015

Total LIfe Makeover

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My Last Planned Marketing Event

The last planned marketing event that I am participating in occurred last Saturday from 11am-2pm. I went to a local book store and did a book signing. Now that that is finished, I can determine how many books I have sold throughout the year. Granted, there will be number (I hope) that will sell online and at bookstores before the holiday., but as for me selling books in person, I am done for this year.

Writing Like a Mad Woman

I don’t know how I did it. I was trying so hard to keep my focus on single projects at a time, but during the past couple of months I went from working on one project to six book projects at a time. Plus I am finishing up this blog for the year. I have totally dropped Bubblews and Hubpages for now so that I can make progress and finish up some of the books I am creating.

First, There’s the novel that I plan to send to my first beta reader by the end of the year (read that the end of this month!) This book is called Sailing Under the Black Flag. This book will be book four of the Locket Saga. .I have been working on that every day and have been making progress. I should have it ready to send to her by New Year’s Day. Then there is the novel that I started in NaNoWriMo. I have that almost up to 60K This book is called The Anvil. . In addition, I have two books about overcoming writer’s block called Breaking Writer’s Block for Fiction Writers and Breaking Writer’s Block for Nonfiction Writers. I started these two books in October and have made a lot of progress there as well.

The last two books are my latest projects, but I need to have these two books done by the end of the year. These are not actually books but booklets. One is about the usefulness of kelp and the other the usefulness of diatomaceous earth. Some of the information I already had, but some I still need to research. To save time, I am going to be sending these two books to my second beta reader at the end of the month for her to be reading while my first beta reader is reading the novel. This second reader asked me to send her the booklets via the internet.

The reason I need these two booklets right away is because the church that I pastor is hosting the first day of the Ozark Sustainable Living University on January 23. (The second day, January 24, will be at Next Step in West Plains). The Oregon County Writer’s Group, to which I am the President is going to be selling books that are related to sustainable living. I will have my gardening book available, but I really want these two booklets done too. I know that there will definitely be a market for them.

Things I Didn’t Do This Year

One of the things that I was going to do these last couple months but haven’t is that I was going to get to know other writer’s better. I don’t see me doing this much this month, but perhaps later in the month I will actually be able to make this more of a priority. If I get Sailing Under the Black Flag and the two booklets done though, I’ll have freed up a lot of time. I can see where my biggest weaknesses are this year and that is in the aspect of social media and online book marketing. Fortunately, my writer’s group plans on focusing on that next year and that’s also my own personal focus for 2016.

Donna Brown is pastor at Faith in God Church in Brandsville, Missouri. As Author Cygnet Brown, she has recently published her first nonfiction book: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener

Changes in My Schedule

August 24, 2015

Total LIfe Makeover

2 Comments

A Change For The Better

My daughter told me the other day that she hates change. I however have learned that change is the only constant so I have learned to take change in stride. My job schedule has changed so that instead of working six days per week, I am working seven days, however, I am working fewer hours per day. Friday and Saturdays I am only working three hours per day and with both of these jobs, if for some reason I cannot come in that day, I can just call in or change the day easily with another person. I will have much more flexibility with writing. On the days when I used to work twelve hour shifts, I now work just seven and there are fewer responsibilities as well.

Changing my work pattern will be interesting in that I have more time in the mornings and in the evenings most days. It will actually open up more time to write during my best hours which is what a writer really needs. I also still have evenings clear. Three more evenings than I had on the ole schedule. I am smiling.

I have been thinking about what I want to write in this blog next month. One thing I have to do is finish the re-edits on my book When God Turned His Head. I hope this is the last re-edit I will have to do on that book. A lot of people who have read the book like the context of the book, but almost everyone has commented on the fact that there is a lot of typos in the book. Thanks to one of my beta reader, that should change.

Another thing that I am planning to work on next month is to work on creating my business plan. I am seriously, increasingly considering my writing as a business and a business needs a good business plan. I got a book that I am reading that is really good for this and next month I plan to share it as I develop my business plan.

Another thing that I have been thinking about stepping up my online marketing.One thing that I intend to do is to work on developing twitter tweets related to the history and characters in my books and connect my website and here in my blog. I will probably connect Facebook too because a lot of my friends find my trivia questions interesting. I have had more traffic with my trivia questions than I did with almost anything else. We will see how that works out.

As things move forward, it is time, actually, probably past time for me to look ahead and find online reviewers for A Coward’s Solace. I have to tell you that finding people to review A Coward’s Solace creates anxiety for me because I am not certain how the book will be received by other people and that makes me nervous. I, of course, think that my book is a wonderful creation. I hope others feel that way, but like my children, I am prejudice toward my own creation. So right now, while I am finishing the final preparations for my book launch, I am also working on finding these reviewers and asking them what they think. I have done this before so I know the drill. I am learning to have a thick skin.

If you are interested in reviewing my book, please let me know by replying below. I will get back with you with a free e-copy of Book III of The Locket Saga: A Coward’s Solace..

Donna Brown is an ordained minister. As Author Cygnet Brown, she has recently published her first nonfiction book: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues. Her upcoming book A Coward’s Solace will be available soon. Click here for more information about Cygnet Brown and her books.

—howmyspiritsings

O Give thanks to the Lord of Lords: For His mercy endures for ever!

Archive

Tag Archives: book marketing

The Month of June 2022 in Review

Book Sales, Mixed Results

Writing Two Rivers

Looking ahead to July

Making the Most of a New Month

Planning the Month Begins With Where I am now

I start my month by assessing how I did in the previous month. In May I:

My Biggest Win and My Biggest Fail (or in other words, next month’s challenge)

June’s Challenge

Join Me in a Real Business of Authors Helping Authors

Seven Things I Learned from the Got Marketing Workshop

What I learned At the Workshop

Followup, More Important than Learning