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You’re an indie author. You heard someone talking about building a reader base and raking in those likes, so off you go and create your author page on Facebook. Facebook, by the way, barely even has a page category for authors. “Writer” and “Author” are there, but there is no way to let people know what genre you write, or even that you write novels and not cookbooks, or road signs.

Anyway.

There you are with your author page, you’ve picked a nice mug shot and, I’m guessing, the cover art from your latest book for page background. A couple memes and a dozen Amazon links.

And of course you invite all your friends and family. And then you sit and stare at your page stats. 38 page likes in one day.

And the number stays the same the next day and the day after that. Damn relatives and friends, betraying you and not inviting the thousands you deserve. So you look at the competition, and see they have followers in the tens of thousands. What do they do that you don’t? Well money, of course! They must be spending shazillions in Facebook ads. You timidly check the promotion options and hey, that’s not so bad…Facebook promises to get your page out to the world and only charges you a few pennies for each actual like!

Ready to start your first page campaign?

Stop.

Don’t even start down that path. I am not saying it won’t work. Believe me it will. I tried it on my first author page and it worked wonders. In a week I had three thousand likes. I felt so famous. Now my posts and especially my Amazon links would reach my trusted readers.

I went on for a few months like that, thinking I would be getting incredible sales anytime now. I didn’t.

None of my posts were getting much engagement. Not even my absolutely hilarious memes. (I have a very high opinion of my sense of humor. The mere thought makes me laugh every time.)

Three thousand followers and maybe five thumbs up for my awesome posts. Not a single link click on “buy my book” posts. Not even when I had a freebie giveaway.

What was happening was that I was not targeting people interested in me as an author or in my books. Despite spending hours refining my audience and reach, I was not reaching the people who click on something they like.

I was reaching a lot of click farms. Click farms are batches of accounts which, through affiliate marketing, get a small portion of money back for liking paid links.

When I realized that, I deleted my page and started from scratch. This time I vowed to never use Facebook page ads again. Instead, I created a second page dedicated to people who like famous authors and genres close to my own writing style. A page dedicated not to buyers, but to fans. I write sci-fi and fantasy humor, so I made a page called “The BookLover’s Guide to the Galaxy” or “BLG2G”. I dedicated some time to that page and watched it grow quickly, from a few dozen to nearly two thousand followers. I never spent a single cent on it.

Oh, and I never invited any of my family members in there either. Those who liked the page simply discovered it because I shared some of the stuff on my personal page.

In the meantime I created my new page, and started sharing some of my material (never buy-me links) to BLG2G. Some followers trickled from there to my author page, where they were able to “discover” my writing style. Just a few dozen, that’s true, but their response to my posts was amazing. Their shares brought a few more likes. I looked at the profiles and saw they were active in many groups dedicated to sci-fi, fantasy and funny stuff.

And here’s the next move: I joined those groups. As my author page where possible.

Whenever I posted something which was in line with the topic of one of those groups, I shared it there. If you are careful and pick the right content, usually a meme, a quote or an interesting link, you have a 99% chance of getting your post approved.

What happens next is better than any Facebook boost: I got likes, hundreds of likes, and next to them, a little button saying “invite”.

That’s right. If you share as your page and someone likes the post, you can invite them to like your page. About 20% – 30% of the people who liked your post will be inclined to accept the invitation. You usually retain 80% of those likes.

I now have about 1,800 page likes on facebook.com/authorlahey, about half of what I originally had with paid likes. But the response is absolutely incredible. Each one of my posts gets hundreds of likes and tens of shares. My average post reach easily hits the thousand mark, and I’ve had a few posts go viral and exceed 300’000 views.

In exchange for this, as a sign of respect for my tribe, I don’t flood them with “buy my book” Amazon links, also because good ‘ole Facebook catches those posts and throttles their visibility. Instead I give insights on my writing, share my absolutely outrageous sense of humor hahahaha, and, of course, some of my free short stories from my author website. As a result, when I’m not reaping invites from the groups I get a steady flow of new followers every day.

In conclusion, fewer is better, get engaged followers, not paid clicks, but make sure your content is worth their attention. Your tribe will reward by liking, sharing and, yes, actually buying your books.

If, while doing all this, you actually remembered to write some.

hahahahahaha.

The basis for this article comes from the Rule 300 concept. You can find more about Rule 300 here.

Don’t forget you can get a free short story just by signing up to my newsletter. You will also be invited to virtual book fairs and get the opportunity to promote your book for FREE and even win a $25 Amazon gift card.

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There’s no beating about the bush. COVID-19 has affected the sales of pretty much everything, from cleaning products to crude oil. Some go up, and some go down. What people believe to be essential goods go up, including, rice, water, hand sanitizer and, for some goofball reason, toilet paper, while all that is thought to be non-essential is left on the shelf.

That includes, of course, fun stuff. In moments of perceived crisis people will lay off the entertainment and focus on the essential needs. They will not buy new entertainment, and focus on what they already have, which includes Netflix and other streaming services, which are going crazy with views. Reading is of course a popular form of entertainment and you’d think that, what with Prime Video and other useful products that get delivered at home, Amazon would also prove to be the go-to place for books. Apparently though, that is not always the case.

Some indie authors are definitely feeling the wind of change regarding the current situation, although it too seems to be blowing in different directions. Some have noticed little change, some have reported dramatic drops and others have tried to make hay while the sun shines and quickly patched up guidebooks on how to survive coronavirus, which were so roguish Amazon decided to restrict their sales.

So what can you do if your book isn’t selling well right now? Surprisingly, the answer is “What does ‘now’ have to do with it?” – wait that’s not an answer, that’s another question. The answer to THAT question is: nothing. Book sales are not a fixed point, they change with the market, with the taste of the readers, with what’s trending in movies or in media. The way Amazon had to actually stop people from throwing their money away on virus survival guidebooks made from copied articles found on the web is a lesson on how fluid the situation can get. So what you CAN do, to answer the original question, is dedicate some time to develop a more solid and constant asset: your brand.

Your brand is what defines you as author. Not just your name or your genre. It is your overall literary footprint. Who do you think about if I say “elves and dwarves?” Tolkien. His fantasy creatures have become the blueprint for all other such characters in fantasy novels. Also, Tolkien actually tweaked the correct plural form “dwarfs” into “dwarves” which is now an acceptable alternative, so he injected his brand in the English language, the sly devil.

What is your brand? A fictional place where all your stories take place, like Pratchett’s Discworld? A strong character which identifies your entire genre, like Sherlock Holmes? A niche genre only you write, such as fantasci-fi fortuitous humor? (Sorry, that one’s taken). If you are not sure about this, your readers will not know how to reach you, they will be drawn to more identifiable brands.

Once your brand is clear, look at your social media. Are you presenting yourself in a way that is coherent with your brand? Will someone who lands on your webpage or your Facebook page know it’s the same author?

Will they just find a long list of posts with Amazon links slapped on to them? Do you know how many indie authors share the “Amazon Link Spammer” brand?

In moments like this, where you’re stuck at home and the grimness of the situation is eroding at creativity and writing moves along slowly, and you look at the sales and (some of you) suddenly wish you hadn’t, dedicate your time to polishing your social brand. Unify your presence on the Internet and make your voice, not your links, be heard. Social networking is more for you, and less for your books, that’s more of a job for websites and newsletters. Once you have defined your identity and made your literary footprint, readers will come to your website and subscribe to your newsletter.

P.S. If you need a little incentive for your writer’s block, check out my article about authors and their egos.

Thanks to author Slaven Vujic for the inspiration.

Views: 723

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The basic thing about Harry Potter’s world is that it’s nice, imaginative, colorful, and ends about three feet around the corner at the end of Diagon Alley. You just get that perception that it’s a painted façade, and that if Harry makes one wrong turn, he’ll find himself floating in an empty void while J.K.Rowling frantically dreams up a new setting for the scene.

By contrast, anything happening anywhere in Middle Earth looks like it’s not the first time that sort of thing happens there, it probably won’t be the last, and, to put it quite simply, wherever there is, it doesn’t really give a rat’s ass about what is happening, because it’s been around long enough to have an opinion. Reading about the setting feels, in other words, like a real, living world, and the events which come together to form the Lord of The Rings trilogy are just the last chapter of a beautifully complex interaction of history, society and even geology.

In other words, in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, a troll inexplicably shows up inside Hogwarts. How did it get loose? There is some half-assed explanation about the bad guy trying to do random Bad Guy acts, but basically it’s because J.K.Rowling thought it would be a good moment for a troll to appear, more specifically to appear in the girls’ bathroom. Why? I DON’T KNOW WHY!

In The Fellowship of the Ring, the company encounters a Balrog. Why? Because they’re in Moria, underground, and Balrogs are underground. How did it get loose? The dwarves dug too deep. Where are the dwarves? KILLED BY THE FREAKING BALROG, NOW RUN! It just all fits together better.

But the true magic is even deeper, in the synapses and veins of the narration itself. It’s in the names of things and places which, I’m sure you noticed the first time you read LOTR, come very close to discouraging you from reading such a complicated text. But you read on, and as you read, you start to realize that the strange names are not just patched up word games like, say, “diagon alley” and “hogsmeade”. You have Ered Luin, and then Ered Mithrin, and realize that ered means “mountains”, and mithrin means “grey”. And then you remember that one of Gandalf’s nicknames is Mithrandir, which means ‘Grey Wanderer’ and you go ‘oooooooh!’

You never go ‘oooooh!’ in Harry potter, but there is, admittedly, more booger humor.

The secret to this incredible realism of Tolkien’s world is in his special linguistic alchemy: he started from the languages and built the elves around them. Then his elves had some serious argument over some drag costume jewelry or something like that, and they split up into two groups. So the languages divided into Quenya and Sindarin (and other dialects too, but you don’t hear elves use them unless they’re swearing). Then came the other races, including men. For men, specifically the horseriding Rohirrim, Tolkien played the ace up his linguistic sleeve: Anglo-Saxon (or Old English). Eoh is Old English for ‘horse’ which became Roh in Sindarin, and although “Rohan” is a Sindarin name, you may have noticed that many of the actual names of the horse-people in Rohan begins with “Eo”, such as Eomer, and Eowyn. Eowyn herself speaks Rohirric when at the end of “The King of the Golden Hall” she says “Westu, Theoden hal,” which is 100% Old English for “bless you Theoden”. It is possible to etymologically trace many Anglo-Saxon words to their modern form.

But the J to the double R T. didn’t stop there, because he wanted his other languages to sound realistic as well, and so he made sure they too could boast some of that cool etymology, only the other way around. For example he reverse engineered ancient Quenya so our modern languages appear to contain words which originate from it. I shall leave you with a few examples:

• Direct connection: the word I cited above, ered, comes from ancient Quenya oron, which means mountain. So does Greek oros.
• Association: the ancient Quenya word for ‘strong’ is taura. Taurus means ‘bull’ in Latin.
• The Geology: ok, follow me here, the verb root for ‘to fall’ in Quenya is tal_. For example: taltuva, ‘he fell’, and atal_, ‘has fallen’. The fabled island of Nùmenor, the peoples of which Aragorn is himself a descendant, is said to have been punished by the gods after its inhabitants rebelled against them. The punishment? It was made to sink down into the sea at the end of the Second Age. After the cataclysm, the sunken island was known as ‘The Downfallen’. In Quenya: Atalantë 

oooooooh!

Ian Lahey writes fantasy and sci-fi. He really doesn’t want to be funny, he just fails at being serious. You can read more of Ian’s failures below, and even find links to his books.

Thanks to Marc Zender for correcting a linguistic blunder I’d made, which compromised my otherwise very serious article.

Don’t forget you can get a free short story just by signing up to my newsletter. You will also be invited to virtual book fairs and get the opportunity to win a $25 Amazon gift card.

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As the Azgaril Northern Liberation Army invades the tiny nation of Tamaria, Centurion Dathan Herulus faces the difficulty of harmonizing his orders with his conscience. As the Azgaril move north, Garrick Ravenwood, a young Tamarian soldier, meets Brenna Velez, a refugee who has fled the destruction of her homeland. Their courage helps Tamaria resist the might of the invading force.

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The post The Edge of Justice, by Robert Luis Rabello appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

Here is what the poor readers are saying:

• 29 January 2020: Delightful tales
  This is a lovely collection of unusual, enjoyable and imaginative short stories. They range quite widely in style and content, from fairy-tale-like to science fiction and fantasy, and contain a generous sprinkling of clever ideas and wit. Each is intriguing, amusing and has a great twist at the end. My two favourites were Coprolith and The End, but the others make for a good read too. Many of the ideas stay with you long after you’ve read them. Highly recommended.

Follow this link to buy your copy now (It’s FREE to read on Kindle Unlimited!)

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Author J.B.Richards had this to say about my short story:

If you read one short story that teaches self-love, tolerance, and acceptance to people of all genders, races, sexual orientations, religious persuasions, and ages, let it be “Asylum”. This short story is most certainly destined to be a children’s classic.

read the full review here

You can find out more about Asylum in my blog post here, which I edited with the new award logo!

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