marketing – Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher

New Pinterest Ad for A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror

The ad I uploaded recently was too small to work well with Pinterest. Therefore, I created this one. Let me know what you think. I also created a new feature image, which is at the bottom of the page. The feature image will be primarily for use on WordPress. Both are currently linked to Amazon. I designed it for maximum impact with the simplest possible design to evoke an emotional impact while getting across the most essential information. In the Internet age, anyone wanting to know more can Google the title or my name.

New Ad for Facebook

I created a new ad for displaying on Facebook today. Of course, I used the cover of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror. I wanted to emphasize that it is out there waiting to be purchased, so in the biggest letters and in the most contrast to the background and to show the format that is most widespread based on my research, I put “Paperback Available Now”. I did not put it in all caps as some people might see that as (metaphorically) shouting at them and make them uncomfortable (ironic when you consider the subject matter of the book).

I then mentioned “print on demand” to suggest they probably won’t find it on shelves but can order it. I then listed the biggest chains where someone can find it.

Finally, I put “also available on Amazon Kindle at the end, because I am not emphasizing that as much as the print version or where it can be found.

To keep the text from seeming jumbled and to keep it varied, I put the most important points of my message in white, which has the highest contrast to a black background. Then I chose yellow, which will be a bit more subdued but still quite prominent for the rest. I chose black for the background because that seems to be the color most associated with death, evil, and all the other things a horror novel might encompass. Also, in my opinion, it makes the other colors pop out and it blends with some of the colors in the cover shot.

Of course I can use this in a lot of places besides Facebook.

Let me know what you think.

Where You can Find A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror

Because Ingram Spark has a famously huge distribution network, lately I have been searching book retailers worldwide to find out exactly where A Tale of Hell… is being sold.

This in not just out of curiosity. I have a practical angle. I will use the information I glean in publicizing where to find my works (some of the retailers are apparently on Amazon’s distribution network, because I find my Amazon works there as well).

My theory is that it is one thing to say “My works can be found in many retailers.” It’s another to say , ” My works can be found at Powell’s Books”, because fans of Powell’s will key on to that, because it’s a place they like to go for whatever reason. Whereas a Powell’s customer may not like Barnes and Noble, so saying that it can be found at Barnes and Noble will probably have little to no effect on the Powell’s customer. This is a matter of appealing to customer loyalty.

Cover of A Tale of Hell by Phil Slattery

This is also a matter of customer convenience. A Powell’s may be across the street, while the nearest Barnes and Noble may be across town. As I try to utilize the full power of the Internet, mentioning where my works can be found in other nations works on the same principle.

In any case, for the sake of your convenience and/or curiosity, here is my list as of today, November 22, 2020. I will be adding more to it.

Click on the link to go to that retailer. Most of these will take you to the latest print copy of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror. A few retailers will also carry one or more of my other works. I was having problems with the Barnes and Noble link for whatever reason, so it is broken as of this posting, but you can find my works there.

I am keeping a running list of the retailers carrying my works on a separate page on my website now. Follow this link to go to it. Be sure to bookmark it.

Barnes and Noble

Booktopia (Australia)

Blackwell’s (United Kingdom)

Half Price Books

Amazon

Protect yourself and your family over the holiday season.

From YouTube: Typical Books Lists New Horror from HWA & Mentions A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror

Tonight I found out that on November 11, YouTube channel Typical Books mentioned A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror among its new releases in November. Check out the clip. My section is probably less than thirty seconds, but it is nice to be mentioned somewhere.

Reviews Needed

I am looking for reviewers who would be interested in reviewing any of my works, but especially A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror and Nocturne: Poems of Love, Distance, and the Night, a callous and disinterested lover. If you would be interested or know someone who would be, please let me know in the comments. I prefer to send paperback copies.

New cover of Nocturne — New Cover as of August 9, 2020

Update on “Murder by Plastic”

This being Veteran’s Day, I had the day off. I intended to spend most of the day writing on Shadows and Stars, on which I have spent a few hours so far, but I have also accomplished something else. After some editing, I submitted the stage version of “Murder by Plastic” my flash fiction thriller, to Lakeshore Players Theatre 17th Annual Ten-Minute Play Festival. I should know if I am a semi-finalist by the end of January.

Phil Slattery portrait — Phil Slattery March, 2015

The Lakeshore Players do not pay a lot, therefore for me the reward is more publicity and exposure for me and my works (should I win, of course). Sometimes this is more valuable than the financial rewards. This is how I feel about short stories and flash fiction. Short stories, for most of us, pay little if anything. The biggest payment to an author is in the exposure. It keeps your name in front of the public.

I am also finding out that there is more than one way to gain exposure as a writer. There is the publication of the work itself , the pre-publication publicity, and the subsequent sales and critical opinions (which, granted, may be good or bad) and renown if it a popular work. And there is the publicity to be gained by writing about the creative process and/or publicizing it before the work is published. Everything I see about publicizing and marketing one’s works boils down to getting one’s name in font of the public as often as one can. This often involves blowing one’s horn for the most miniscule of reasons.

As you may have noticed, getting my name before the public is what this article is doing right now.

Comments?

A public service reminder from Phil Slattery

Update Nov. 7, 2020, 1:19 a.m: A Few Booksellers Carrying My Works

Here are a few of the book retailers where you can find my works.

Yesterday, I became curious as to what booksellers I could find that carry my works now that I am publishing through IngramSpark. I went to different bookstores online and simply searched for the ISBN of the new edition of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror, after which I searched for “Phil Slattery” to see which of my Amazon books they carry. To my pleasant surprise, I found that most of the major bookstores carry both. I also found out that IngramSpark also distributes through Amazon, because the new edition of A Tale of Hell popped up there in each site for the US and other countries.

In any case, here are the bookstores where you can order each of my works via print-on-demand, i.e. you have to order them from the store. Also, if you are looking specifically for my latest version (i.e. the IngramSpark edition), use its ISBN to ensure you get it and not one of the earlier Amazon editions: 9780578759913. Search the bookstore for “Phil Slattery” to get one of my other works, which are available through Amazon.

Don’t forget to retweet and share this post with your friends.

Bookshop.org

Books A Million

Parnassus Books (Nashville, TN)

Wordsworth Books (LittleRock, Arkansas)

Joseph Beth (Lexington, KY)

The Strand Bookstore (New York City, NY)

Book People (Austin, TX)

Collected Works (Santa Fe, NM)

Elliott Bay Bookstore (Seattle, WA)

Word Bookstores (Brooklyn, NY and Jersey City, NJ)

Blackwells.co.uk

bookdepository.com (UK)

allibris.com (UK)

literatibookstore.com

Also check the Amazon page for each county (e.g. amazon.de, amazon.fr, amazon.uk, etc.

Update November 6, 2020: Sales of A Tale of Hell…

I am beginning to see sales via IngramSpark that are better than I saw at Amazon. I will be moving more books to IngramSpark soon.

Just now I checked my IngramSpark account to get the ISBN for A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror. I was pleasantly surprised to find that since having published A Tale of Hell… on October 21, I have sold five copies (including one author’s copy I bought at a discount). This is definitely more print copies (and probably more than the number of Kindle versions) than I ever sold in four years on Amazon. I did give away a lot of Kindle versions as promotions. So, maybe the promotional giveaways are working in a weird, ironic way.

I have no indication of where these were sold or who bought them.

I have always thought that Amazon prices its print copies so high that it drives customers to their Kindle versions. Its print copies are not great nor vey professional in their quality. These factors also undoubtedly drive customers to Kindle.

Yeah, branching out to IngramSpark was a good idea.

I will therefore be moving Nocturne: Poems of Love, Distance, and the Night, a callous and disinterested lover to IngramSpark soon. I have already started a draft there. I will start looking at moving the e-versions there as well.

Thank you very much to those of you who have purchased a copy.

For those of you who haven’t yet bought a copy, IngramSpark distributes to over 39,000 book retailers worldwide. Ask for one at your local bookstore. I am researching which stores do sell these. So far I have found that you can get them through Books A Million (though these may be just the Amazon version), Barnes and Noble, and Powell Books. These are print-on-demand, so they probably won’t be on the shelves. You will probably need to order them.

Please retweet or share this article with your friends.

My Works are Available at a Book Retailer near You

Since I published A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror with IngramSpark, I am going to different bookstores online and searching them for my works. Just now, I found that Powell Books can order my print books. I know Barnes and Noble can get them as well. I will keep you updated as I find more. IngramSpark is supposed to make my works available via print on demand to over 39,000 retailers. Ask your local bookstore for them.

Announcement: Publication in The Sirens Call E-Zine

I am proud to announce that today three of my works of horror microfiction (“Shadow Men”, “The River of Lost Souls”, and “Walking through Downtown”) were published in The Sirens Call E-Zine. Please feel free to take a moment to visit their wonderful online magazine. You will find my stories on pages 19, 53, and 54. You will also find an ad publicizing A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror on page 170, but it is the same one as I have on the homepage of my website.

Let me know what you think of my stories.

Hasta luego. Wear your mask.

Update October 26, 2020: Book Covers and Progress on Shadows and Stars

I was going through my electronic files tonight and came across a couple of alternate covers for a couple of my works. I thought I would post them up just to show them off. I don’t think I have posted them before, but I might have. Let me know what you think of them.

Of course, once they are posted here, I will post them on Pinterest, thus generating a smidgen more publicity for the works shown.

Also, I have been working steadily on Shadows and Stars over the weekend. I am making some good progress. I am editing it page by page trying to get a reasonably complete draft. I think I will make it, but I don’t know when I will have it done. Right now, I am on page 71 of about 300. I really like what I have accomplished over the last week or so. I am trying to refine it down to a gnat’s ass with supporting details, clues as to what will happen (but not foreshadowing per se). Tonight I have been working on describing an alien carnival. I have to use my imagination to show things that set the stage for future events while saying something about the nature of the alien society. It’s quite an interesting journey. I get to visit a fiesta on another world–at least in my mind.

Take care and hasta luego. Wear your mask.

Let me know what you think of the covers. I might use them some day.

Update on Today’s Giveaway of The Scent and Other Stories

As of 11:15 a.m. CDT, The Scent and Other Stories is #94 on Amazon’s list of free Best Sellers in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction. What impact does the cover design have on sales?

As of 11:15 a.m. CDT, The Scent and Other Stories is #94 on Amazon’s list of free Best Sellers in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction.

I am happy to see that people have an interest in it. I am looking forward to seeing the results of today’s giveaway after the numbers come in, which should be tomorrow morning, taking into account other time zones.

I have to ask myself if the new cover has anything to do with people’s interest in it. Looking at the diagram of today’s 100 best sellers in this category, the new cover makes it stand out from all the others. With a photograph of a young lady looking directly at the viewer on the cover, the book may have a subtle psychological effect on viewers, because the human mind has evolved to be attentive to faces and to remember intricate details in them. Her eyes are also big and open, which is characteristic of people who like or love someone they see. This may have an additional psychological impact, because the viewer finds himself/herself suddenly looking into the face of someone who likes him/her.

When I design covers in the future, I will try to orient them toward a photo of someone attractive who looks directly at the viewer and whose gaze says, “I like you.” I suspect people will tend to naturally remember this cover more versus covers of people looking away or not of a person.

I am considering putting out another edition of The Scent… just to change the title to make it pop up more often in search results. The primary place people search for keywords is in the title of a work. Ergo, critical keywords should be placed in the title. These should be keywords that reflect the intrinsic nature of the work. For The Scent… I am considering modifying the subtitle and swapping it out for the current title resulting in Stories from the Dark Side of Love: The Scent and Other Short Fiction. I will need to work on the subtitle more, but that’s an initial draft at least.

Let me know what you think.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and follow.

Hasta luego.

New Edition of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror to be Out Soon

As I may have mentioned, sometime back I decided to publish a print edition of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror on Ingram Spark as well as with Amazon. I have been working diligently toward that goal over the last few weeks. As I get ready to go to publication, there are a few things I would like to point out:

As I may have mentioned, sometime back I decided to publish a print edition of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror on Ingram Spark as well as with Amazon. I have been working diligently toward that goal over the last few weeks. As I get ready to go to publication, there are a few things I would like to point out:

This new edition will be a glossy paperback 5″x8″ in size and 238 pages. The cover design is below. I am still working out the price (somewhere around $15-$20 maybe), but I am keeping it as low as I reasonably can and still make a reasonable amount off each book sold.

I am finding out that shipping costs make the biggest part of a book’s price.

I am enjoying working with Ingram Spark much more than I did with Amazon. Amazon’s process is faster, much simpler, and easier, but I don’t think the product is as good as Ingram Spark’s will be. Ingram Spark gives you much more control over the final product. They also give you much better advice on how to maximize sales.

Although Amazon supposedly uses the same distribution network as Ingram Spark, I suspect/hope that I will have much better print sales. Amazon requires an author to price his/her print book at least 20% more than the Kindle version. Apparently, they are pushing their ebooks over print because they are cheaper to produce and probably much easier to distribute. I suspect they may be doing the same in distribution.

After A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror comes out on Ingram Spark, I plan to publish Nocturne: Poems of Love, Distance, and the Night, a callous and disinterested lover with them as well. That may be in about a month more or less.

I am going to experiment with advertising on Pinterest by promoting the cover design for A Tale of Hell… on there. I am also considering just developing a spectacular but subtle ad and seeing how that does.

Let me know what you think.

Hasta luego.

“How to Get Your Book Into Libraries: from Booklaunchers.com via YouTube

Update of August 31, 2020: Another Marketing Idea

As you may have noticed, occasionally I post an article in German. I speak some German, ergo I have an interest in things German, particularly German literature.

In the future, you will start seeing more articles post around 1:00 a.m. Central time or later. This is so they will appear in Germany around 8:00 a.m. or later.

Germans rank about #4 or #5 in buying my works, so they have a fair market share that I would like to expand.

You will also see me post at other odd hours in the US to appeal to a market somewhere else around the globe, e.g. India (my #2 audience) or Australia.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe.

Update of August 31, 2020: Another Marketing Idea

As you may have noticed, occasionally I post an article in German. I speak some German, ergo I have an interest in things German, particularly German literature.

In the future, you will start seeing more articles post around 1:00 a.m. Central time or later. This is so they will appear in Germany around 8:00 a.m. or later.

Germans rank about #4 or #5 in buying my works, so they have a fair market share that I would like to expand.

You will also see me post at other odd hours in the US to appeal to a market somewhere else around the globe, e.g. India (my #2 audience) or Australia.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe.

Update of August 31, 2020: Another Marketing Idea

As you may have noticed, occasionally I post an article in German. I speak some German, ergo I have an interest in things German, particularly German literature.

In the future, you will start seeing more articles post around 1:00 a.m. Central time or later. This is so they will appear in Germany around 8:00 a.m. or later.

Germans rank about #4 or #5 in buying my works, so they have a fair market share that I would like to expand.

You will also see me post at other odd hours in the US to appeal to a market somewhere else around the globe, e.g. India (my #2 audience) or Australia.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe.

Update of August 31, 2020: Another Marketing Idea

As you may have noticed, occasionally I post an article in German. I speak some German, ergo I have an interest in things German, particularly German literature.

In the future, you will start seeing more articles post around 1:00 a.m. Central time or later. This is so they will appear in Germany around 8:00 a.m. or later.

Germans rank about #4 or #5 in buying my works, so they have a fair market share that I would like to expand.

You will also see me post at other odd hours in the US to appeal to a market somewhere else around the globe, e.g. India (my #2 audience) or Australia.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe.

Update, August 22, 2020: Large Print Edition of A Tale Of Hell…Coming Soon

portrait of Phil Slattery — Hasting’s, Farmington, New Mexico, October, 2015,

I have decided to produce a large print edition of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror for the visually challenged. I don’t know when it will be out, hopefully soon.

The mechanics of converting to large print are simple. Changing the font to 18-point vs. 12 was easy enough, but now I have to contend with the font that was larger than the original 12-point and the space between paragraphs. What size do I want to make them?

The larger print, of course, means more pages, so the price will have to increase accordingly, but I will keep the increase to a minimum. I will also have to review the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines and ensure that I am following their advice. This means I may have to change the font from a serif to a non-serif and make other minor adjustments.

Once I have accomplished changing A Tale of Hell… I will look at adapting Click, The Scent and Other Stories, and Nocturne: Poems of Love, Distance, and the Night, a callous and disinterested lover to large print as well.

Thoughts? Comments?

Don’t forget to like and subscribe.

Ad for A Tale of Hell — New ad created August 19, 2020.

Update, August 22, 2020: Large Print Edition of A Tale Of Hell…Coming Soon

I have decided to produce a large print edition of A Tale of Hell and Other Works of Horror for the visually challenged. I don’t know when it will be out, hopefully soon. Changing the font to 18-point vs. 12 was easy enough, but now I have to contend with the font that was larger than the original 12-point and the space between paragraphs. What size do I want to make them? The larger print, of course, means more pages, so the price will have to increase accordingly, but I will keep the increase to a minimum. I will also have to review the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines and ensure that I am following their advice. This means I may have to change the font from a serif to a non-serif and make other minor adjustments.

Thoughts? Comments?

Don’t forget to like and subscribe.