marketing – Page 7 – Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher

Marketing Test

Starting today and probably for at least the next couple weeks, I will be testing advertising my works at different frequencies to see how that will affect book sales. Today, you will see the same announcements for Diabolical and Alien Embrace at least four times (every six hours) each to see if that not only affects sales in the US, but around the globe as well. My followers in other countries occasionally purchase a work, but I have to ask myself if this is because of the difference in time zones and because I have been making announcements only once per day. For example, if I announce a book is available at 8:00 eastern standard time (EST) in the US, which is an optimal time to advertise in the US, that announcement reaches people in India around 5:30 pm, which may or may not be a time when the announcement will reach the most viewers. What gave me this ideas is noticing that since I have started advertising my works once per day at 8:00 EST, my readership in India has picked up. Therefore, I am experimenting to determine the optimal times to reach a worldwide audience.

Unfortunately, this will clutter this website with the same repeated ads, so I will run these multiple ads only sporadically. I will not be doing this every day.

You will also start seeing the occasional article in another language as part of the effort to reach a global audience. This articles will be most likely be in German, French, or Spanish, all of which I can speak or read to some degree. A translation may or may not be provided.

Marketing Test

Unfortunately, this will clutter this website with the same repeated ads, so I will run these multiple ads only sporadically. I will not be doing this every day.

Marketing Test

Unfortunately, this will clutter this website with the same repeated ads, so I will run these multiple ads only sporadically. I will not be doing this every day.

World Book Day and Other Holidays

If you want to expand your book sales, one way is to increase your online audience by expanding your promotions to overseas.

In a previous post, I talked about timing your posts to reach overseas audiences by posting them at times appropriate for your target overseas audience. For example, I live in New Mexico, which is Mountain Standard Time (MST). If I want to time my posts, so that they post on the most populous part of Australia (the east coast), I have to first consider, when the most likely time Australians might be up, moving about, and looking for something to read. On social media, a common hashtag for book promotions is #FictionFriday. This is when a lot of people look for books to read over the weekend. Therefore, I might want to time my posts when everyone on Australia’s east coast, which is Australian Eastern Daylight Time is rising and getting ready for their day. Assuming they have to be at work at 8:00 a.m, I may want to time my posts to hit there at 7:00 a.m. 7:00 a.m. Friday in Sydney is 6:30 p.m. in Albuquerque. So, I post at 6:30 p.m. Albuquerque time. You can find lots of articles and maps on the Internet to calculate the time difference, but iPhones and other gadgets enable you to monitor the time in several locations at once.

However, now I want to discuss promoting your books/posts by using holidays, international and national.

There are lots of international holidays with which to time posts or promotions: Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, New Year’s Day, etc. Everyone knows these. Many of these are religious holidays.

There are also a lot of lesser known holidays that you can use to target an audience depending on its topic, of course. One example is World Book Day, which is generally celebrated on April 23rd. Calendarlabs.com provides a good list of international holidays such as these.

Then there are the national holidays celebrated by your target country. Assuming you want to promote your book to English-speaking countries, the five major English-speaking countries are the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. English is spoken world-wide, so if you target these countries primarily, you will probably reach the vast majority of the English-speakers as well, though you may be a time zone off here and there. Of course, you can find exhaustive lists of holidays for each of these countries scattered around the Internet, but here are a few you may want to consider (the links are to a list of each country’s holidays):

United Kingdom

Spring Bank Holiday, May 28, 2018

Boxing Day (in most English-speaking nations), December 26, 2018

Canada

Victoria Day, May 21, 2018

Canada Day, July 2, 2018

Labour Day, September 3, 2018

Remembrance Day, November 11, 2018

Australia

Australia Day, January 26, 2018

ANZAC Day, April 25, 2018

Queen’s Birthday, June 11, 2018

Boxing Day, December 26, 2018

New Zealand

Waitangi Day, February 6, 2018

ANZAC Day, April 25, 2018

Labour Day, October 22, 2018

Boxing Day, December 26, 2018

Remember that the UK consists of England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland, so you may have to consider the holidays in each of these separately. Also, some states and provinces may or may not celebrate national holidays in the same way or on the same date as the rest of the nation as well as having their own holidays.

As mentioned, these are only a few, actually a very few of the holidays celebrated in English-speaking countries, but I hope it gives you an idea of what is out there that you may want to incorporate into you posting and planning.

This article also appears at farmingtonwriterscircle.wordpress.com.

I try to publicize my works as much as possible using social media, because it is very inexpensive (often free) and it has the potential of connecting with people around the world. My personal WordPress account shows that my viewers come from around globe from such diverse locales as Ireland, Russia, India, Singapore, Australia and Brazil among many others.

I became curious about what would be the best time to post to reach the largest audience. I did a little research on the Internet and made a few calculations and came up with some interesting results.

According to study by Fictionophile, the most “literate” of the United States is the East Coast, where most major cities are concentrated along with most major universities and Ivy League Schools. Therefore, to gain the most exposure to this audience, you have to time your posts with the eastern time zone. How you want to do that, of course, is up to you. I try to post at 7:00 a.m. EST, when most people are rising for the and reading their e-mail or newspaper. But you might want to post at 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. when most people are coming back from work and settling in for the evening. You might also want to post on Fridays, often advertised as #FictionFriday, when people start to seek out reading for the weekend. There are a lot of other possible strategies as well. Fortunately, WordPress allows its users to schedule their posts, so this is easy to do for me.

Here are a few notes I took during my research. Being a former Naval officer, I still find military time easiest to use, so most of my time references are based on the 24-hour clock. I live in New Mexico, thus the references to Mountain Standard Time (MST). UTC is “Universal Time Coordinated, the successor to Greenwich Mean Time, which is the time in London, England. More on UTC can be found at https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/timezone/utc.

To time European English-speaking countries for publicity, use Central European Time (CET) which is eight hours ahead of MST. (2030 MST Monday = 0430 CET Tuesday). Ergo, 0001 MST = 2001 CET.
India Standard Time (IST) is UTC + 5:30 or CET + 4:30. Ergo, 2030 MST Monday = 0930 IST Tuesday
Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT: Sydney, Canberra) = UTC + 11/CET + 10
Staggering release times of announcements would seem to be best to catch a world audience. Ergo, for a three day free promotion, Release as follows:
- 0801 Mon. MST = 0001 Tuesday CET = 0431 IST
- 0001 Mon. MST = 0801 Monday CET = 1231 IST = 1701 AEDT
- 1931 Mon. MST = 0331 Tuesday CET = 0801 IST
- 1500 MST Monday = 2300 Monday CET = 0801 Tuesday AEDT

To make this easier for me to track, I use the World Clock feature on my iPhone clock, which allows me to track the time in several time zones at once. Currently, I am tracking the time in Washington, DC; Brussels, Belgium; New Delhi, India; Singapore; Perth, Australia; Sydney, Australia; and Honolulu. By targeting these time zones, I believe I can reach the majority of the English-speaking world.

Note that, if you are interested in targeting an Australian audience, they are about fifteen hours ahead of us (MST), so promoting book giveaways or announcements for a specific day is tricky. For example, if you have a book giveaway that starts at 8:00 a.m. MST on February 25, it won’t start for the folks in Sydney until 11:00 p.m. February 25. Here’s a screenshot from my iPhone to show the intricacies involved. Still, I believe that proper timing of your posts with the audience you want to reach will eventually be worthwhile.

Examples of the time zones with the majority of English-speakers

Reminder: The Farmington Writers Meet and Greet Will Be Held Today, Friday, June 9, from 5:00-9:00 pm.

Artifacts Art Gallery/302 Main Espresso, Farmington, New Mexico

Just a reminder that the Farmington Writers Circle Meet and Greet networking event is today, Friday, June 9, at Artifacts Gallery, 302 East Main, in downtown Farmington (NM) from 5:00 to 9:00 during the city’s Artwalk .

This event is open to everyone with an interest in writing or reading. Its purpose is for local area writers of fiction and non-fiction to socialize and make networking contacts with the public and other writing professionals such as editors, publishers, reporters, bloggers, teachers, and anyone else interested in writing. Novices, amateurs, students, and professionals of all genres, styles, and media are all welcome. Anyone with an interest in reading or teaching any type of writing is definitely welcome. This is an opportunity to meet your favorite local authors.

Bring business cards and any other handouts such as flyers or pamphlets to pass out to your new contacts.

There will also be book-signings and readings by several local authors and writers (a list will be posted soon). Artifacts Gallery will also provide a salsa-tasting. Refreshments will be available.

Check back frequently for updates.

For more information, contact Phil Slattery at phil@philslattery.com.

Reminder: The Farmington Writers Meet and Greet Will Be Held on Friday, June 9, from 5:00-9:00 pm.

Just a brief reminder that the Farmington Writers Circle Meet and Greet networking event is on this coming Friday, June 9, at Artifacts Gallery, 302 East Main, in downtown Farmington (NM) from 5:00 to 9:00 during the city’s Artwalk .

Bring business cards and any other handouts such as flyers or pamphlets to pass out to your new contacts.

There will also be book-signings and readings by several local authors and writers (a list will be posted soon). Artifacts Gallery will also provide a salsa-tasting. Refreshments will be available.

Check back frequently for updates.

For more information, contact Phil Slattery at phil@philslattery.com.

#Marketing Myself as a #Character

For the last few weeks I have been contemplating how to market my works. Of course, I wander through the local bookstore studying how each book markets itself, Also, I analyze everything else I see on line and in person for patterns. I think back on the famous authors of the past and wonder how they achieved their renown: how were they marketed and how has their fame spread since.

It occurs to me that readers are as fascinated by the lives of their favorite authors as they are by the characters in their novels. My favorite author is Hemingway. Hemingway’s life fascinates me at least as much as that of any of characters. His life probably fascinates me more than that of any of his characters, because there is more to learn about it. Frederic Henry (For Whom the Bell Tolls) is interesting, but his life has none of the detail that his author’s does. Henry is shallow by comparison. None of the characters of any of Poe’s works have the same depth and complexity of his own life. When authors of biographies market their works, they have to show how fascinating their subjects are just as novelists have to convince their readers of how fascinating their characters are.

Therefore, I am beginning to believe that to sell my works, I need to sell myself, my story, just the same as I would that of any of my characters. If my readers find my characters interesting, they will naturally want to find out more about me. This is not blatant egotism; it’s simple fact. Readers are as fascinated by the lives of their favorite authors just the same as they are fascinated by the lives of the characters of those authors. Instead of writing the same standard bio notes for readers on my website and elsewhere, I will start writing those bio notes the same as I would the bio of a character: bringing out my own flaws, contradictions, ironies of my life, and so on to demonstrate how complex I really and hopefully attract readers who find my life so compelling that they have to investigate the characters I write. Writing a autobiographical note, then, becomes another chance to show how well I can write and to give potential readers another sample of my work.

Update on My Blog & #Marketing Strategy.

If you keep up with my website and social media posts, note that I have changed my website on most from this WordPress site to my author’s page at Amazon. This is simply so that readers have a direct link to where they can purchase my works. I will still blog from here and my posts will show up on the Author’s page.

The Farmington Writers Circle Meets Tonight at 7:00

T zola_leandre he Farmington Writers Circle meets again tonight, Thursday, March 9, in the Entertainmart (formerly Hardback) Café at 7:00 pm. The topic of the night will be how to grow a twitter presence using hashtags and by following other twitter users.

Everyone is invited. There is no charge and no membership requirements.

Preceding the meeting, starting at 6:30 pm, E. Cluff Elliott will be reading from his upcoming novel From the Mountain. For more information on Mr. Elliott and his works, visit ecluffelliott.com.

The Farmington Writers Circle is a group of local writers who are interested in exploring and developing new means of marketing and publicizing their works.

For more information, contact Phil Slattery at phil@philslattery.com or via @philslattery201 or via this website.

Operation #WholePerson Update

My #marketing experiment, Operation Whole Person, is doing quite well and becoming ever more fascinating. I have also learned a couple of tricks to collecting followers on Twitter, which seem to be effective. For example, I created #JasonBrody yesterday and he already has 270 followers, the vast majority of which probably do not know that he is fictional. Jason is commenting on others’ posts, as are other characters, while another character, yet to be disclosed, was engaged in a Twitter conversation last night with people who believed him to be real.

Yesterday, I also created #JackThurston (whom I will describe in a separate post). Jack’s Twitter handle is @jthurston666.

A few more characters are on their way.

I encourage you to follow all my characters on Twitter and hold on for what should be an interesting ride.

The Farmington Writers Circle Meets Again on March 9

zola_leandre The Farmington Writers Circle meets again on Thursday, March 9, in the Entertainmart (formerly Hardback) Café at 7:00 pm. The topic of the night will be how to grow a twitter presence using hashtags and by following other twitter users.

Everyone is invited. There is no charge and no membership requirements.

Preceding the meeting, starting at 6:30 pm, one of our members will be reading from his/her works. The reader and his/her works will be announced once finalized.

The Farmington Writers Circle is a group of local writers who are interested in exploring and developing new means of marketing and publicizing their works.

For more information, contact Phil Slattery at phil@philslattery.com or via @philslattery201 or via this website.

A Blatant, Shameless, Ballsy Call for Reviews

If you are one of the you are one of the incredibly intelligent and tasteful people who has purchased one of my books from Amazon, please show your appreciation for my awe-inspiring writing skills by going back to Amazon and leaving a good review. Good reviews help move books up in the Amazon ratings and help sales, AND you’ll be able to sleep better tonight knowing you have done something to benefit mankind.

If you are one of those incredibly intelligent and tasteful people, and haven’t yet purchased one of my books, this is your opportunity to improve not only your lot in life, but mine as well, and to benefit mankind’s lot by raising the average I.Q. a smidgen.

If you’re not one of those people and haven’t purchased one of my books and, God forbid, don’t intend to, well, a good review still wouldn’t hurt.

LOCATION CHANGE: The Farmington Writers Circle Meets Tonight at Starbuck’s on Main

The Farmington Writers Circle meets again tonight, October 13, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. not at Starbuck’s at 4337 East Main, , but at Mary’s Kitchen (the student cafeteria) at San Juan College. Follow this link to the Facebook page for Mary’s Kitchen for directions. The meeting will actually take place just outside the cafeteria after it has closed, so bring your own refreshments (if desired).

The evening’s topic has not been determined.

The Farmington Writers Circle is nascent organization of Farmington-area writers who are interested in finding or developing innovative ways of publicizing and marketing their works. Meetings are usually round-table discussions, although occasionally a member will lead the discussion when it deals with an area of the member’s expertise. There are no fees or requirements to attend meetings. Writers of any and all genres, regardless of writing experience, and non-writers with an interest in the art are welcome. Previous topics have included establishing a website to maximize the use of social media in publicizing works, writers’ conferences, and finding an agent among other topics. Meetings generally run for two hours. For more information, contact me via this website.