What I’ve Been Up To – #MondayBlogs #Marketing

/ Marcia


(Still Playing with BookBrush, Too)

A short time ago, I shared a post I found on The Creative Penn, written by Rob Eagar and regarding using language to help promote your books free. You can read the original post HERE.

I have been busily editing all my book sales pages on Amazon (via Author Central) to do one of the things Eagar suggested: adding accolades. I had thought you needed big-name Editorial Reviews in order to do this, but after some additional research and another great post on Indies Unlimited, Amazon Author Central: A Primer ( check it out HERE), I realized I could choose quotes from my Amazon or Goodreads reviews to share in the same manner. You can quote up to five reviews on your print book pages, but so far, I’ve only been able to add one on my eBook pages. (I’ve seen others with more, so I’m still looking for the workaround to that.) 

Here’s an example of what I did for my first Wake-Robin Ridge eBook page:

And here’s the Paperback page:

The process is pretty straightforward and easy, if you follow the steps outlined in the Amazon Author Central: A Primer link provided above. The longest part of the task was scrolling through my reviews, looking for lines that I thought would work well.

I don’t know if this will boost sales or not, but it sure can’t hurt, and hey–it’s free, so why not? And this may be old news to some of you, but it was completely new to me, so I figured I’d pass it along.

Also, as you can tell from the header at the top of the page, I’ve been spending a bit of time creating new  graphics on BookBrush. A few of you know I’ve been a bit under the weather lately, and haven’t felt creative enough to write, but I truly hate wasting time. These small promotional/marketing ideas have been productive ways to spend an hour or two each day, doing things that I wanted to get around to, anyway. Hope some of you will be inspired to give them a go, yourselves. 🙂 ❤

34 thoughts on “What I’ve Been Up To – #MondayBlogs #Marketing”

  1. I know how you feel – creative writing is beyond me at this moment, but there’s pretty much always something we can still do, and it’s great to see you tinkering with author central to display those accolades your books deserve. It’s one thing we have to take on board as authors – we MUST blow our own trumpets, even when it doesn’t come naturally to us!
    I always find your graphics inspiring, even when I don’t have the artistic talent to match them they make me sit up and remember to make some more, however simple.
    Hope you get back to normal soon ❤

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    • Thanks, Debby, and I am sure you understand just how disruptive to the creative process Real Life can be, whether it’s a physical thing or an emotional one. Or any combination thereof. I hope we are BOTH back to our “normal” selves soon, though we do have to allow ourselves time for healing of one sort or another.

      Very glad you enjoy my sharing of graphics, etc. I used to do a LOT of digital art, including painting (custom pet portrait work, in particular), So graphics are always fun for me, no matter what technique or subject I’m involved with.

      And a big YES to trumpet blowing, for sure. We began this journey knowing it would be a part of the process, so we need to keep reminding ourselves that one lonely “tootle” on the trumpet is NOT enough. We must learn to play entire songs. Maybe even concerts! 😀

      Thanks for stopping by, my friend, and here’s to easier days ahead. 😀 ❤

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    • Aw, thanks, Darlene. I AM feeling much better than I did a month ago, for sure, but not quite all the way back to great, yet. Definitely getting there, though. Glad you enjoyed my latest attempts at (as Debby says) blowing my own trumpet. I was very pleased to find out I could add those reviews to my sales pages, for sure. Folks might spot them, even if they don’t take the time to read full reviews. Plus, they give me short quotes to add to graphics, like the one at the top of the page. 🙂

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    • Yay!! I’m so glad you like the idea enough to try it out. I figured there had to be others out there that either didn’t know about this or had forgotten they could do it. Hope it goes smoothly for you. Good luck! 🙂

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    • You are very welcome, Robbie. Hope they are helpful to you. And thanks. I’m much better than I was, for sure, and hope to be back to 100% before too much longer. 🙂

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  6. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and just never seem to make the time for it. Thanks for the reminder. As authors, we unitize every tool at our disposal, especially those that are free!

    Hoping your under the weather days are behind you, soonest!

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    • It’s easy to do, Mae. You just have to decide on which quotes you think will work best. And there’s no law that says you have to do them all at once. You’ll see an “Add” button, and when you use it, another Add button will pop up for your next quote. It will be there waiting for you to use when you’re ready. You could do one book all at once, and another book another time. Or you could go through and add one quote to each book, and worry about adding more when your schedule allows. Maybe doing it like that would help? I know for myself, it’s hard to set aside more than a few minutes here or there, so I like to divide work into smaller units.

      And I’m feeling better each day, thanks! 🙂

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    • Glad you enjoyed the info, Julie. Hope it’s useful to you. As for BookBrush, I like that I can save a template of what I’ve done, and just change backgrounds and/or wording to have a whole new look. Saves reinventing the wheel every time. 😀 But this is definitely something I’ve put off way too long, and the kind of thing it’s easy to do when I’m not up to anything too brain taxing. Like actual writing. 😀

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        • Once you have your quotes picked out, it’s pretty fast. It only took me part of an afternoon to do all six of my novels, and my 2 novellas. (I do still need to do that book of poetry, though.) But really, once you navigate to the Author Central book page, scroll down to where it says “Editorial Reviews,” you’ll see a button to click to add one. And once you do, another button will be waiting. When you’ve added five, that’s as far as you can go with your print book. Or you can fewer, if you like. Even one per book would be a plus, I think. Let me know if you get stuck, but the second link above is very clear, with screen shots, too. Good luck! 🙂

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    • Thanks so much for the reblog, Reluctant. (Hope you don’t mind my using your first name. 😀 ) I found this to be such a useful and fun thing to do, and it just MIGHT catch a few eyes here or there. Hope some of your followers will also find it worth a try. 🙂

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    • This is a really quick and easy one to do, Staci. And you can pick and choose how much or little you want. You can put 5 on one print book & do the rest later, or one on each of them, and add more another time. Whatever you can fit into your schedule. I’m so happy I learned about this and was able to share it, either as new info or as a reminder to folks like you. 🙂

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