And Now on to List Building...

First off, I’ve been busy.  First, busy hustling a new novel off into the great, wide world; second busy being sick.  So, cut me some slack, Jack.

So, where were we…Christ, has it been a month already?  Sigh…

OK, so when we parted company 30 or so days ago, we had talked about the importance of social media.  Now, we’re going to talk about list building.

Sounds dry, doesn’t it?  Sounds tedious and dull.  Racks up about a zero on the old thrill meter, huh?

This is probably why more people don’t pay attention to what I think is a critical thing in this new, unexplored world of small and/or independent publishers.

Let’s break it down, shall we?  When I say “list,” I mean “customers.”  And when I say “building,” I mean “building.”  Got it?  By “list building” I simply mean keeping track of your customers and potential customers in an organized fashioned.

A small digression.  I come from the world of magazine trade publishing, business-to-business periodicals.  Now, publishing may still be a gentlemen’s business—though I have me some true douchenozzles (and –nozzellettes!)  in the industry—but it isn’t an industry that is generally heavy on assets.  And by “assets” I mean “Shit that’s worth something.”

Whilst in this gentlemen’s business, I had what I hope to be my first, last and only run-in with that dubious breed known as the “investment banker.”  By “investment banker,” I mean “Shit heel” or “Lying Shit Heel.”  They always told us that a publishing company’s only two real assets were, first, its employees.  What a great sentiment!  And probably true, if we’re being serious.  But “investment bankers” aren’t serious, and they only told us that to lull us into security while they picked the corpse of our company clean in order to turn a profit.

Anyway, second was the list; i.e., the list of subscribers and past subscribers and expired subscribers and potential subscribers to each magazine.  This was what the investment bankers really meant when they said “assets,” because those lists were their lifeline to money.

A list of subscribers is like any list of customers.  At its simplest, it’s just a list of people who have bought your product; people who have spent money to receive what you’ve created.  It’s easy for a magazine to keep track of this, because the company has to send out the product each and every month; hence, a subscriber list.

But someone like you, say, a writer or an artist of some sort who is creating stuff and wants to put it into the marketplace, it may not be as intuitive for you to keep a list like this.  But you should.

Here’s why.  There’s an old adage in sales that says the easiest customer to sell to is someone who’s already bought.  In other words, if a person has already bought your stuff, it’s a whole lot easier to convince them to buy more of it—say a new novel or collection or whatnot—than it is to find a new customer and convince him to buy.

So, if you’re on Facebook or Twitter or you have a blog or whatever, these things are important not just in the sense that you’re communicating with (shhh!  Selling!) people, it’s important because most of these social media thingies also keep track of “Friends” or  “Followers.”  See these as “Buyers/Potential Buyers,” and you’re building a list.

People who actually buy from you might be more difficult to get to, especially if you’re working for a publisher, but keeping track of your Facebook, Twitter and blog followers is essential.  This is your “list;” a lifeline to your money.

As any list, it needs to be kept up with.  Spam and essentially worthless followers have a way of clogging up Facebook and Twitter over time.  Best to periodically weed through these and unfriend and unfollow those accounts who aren’t doing you any good as a buyer/potential buyer.  How can you tell these?  Well, most times they’re ridiculously obvious—accounts that don’t friend or follow you back, descriptions of accounts that are patently fake, ludicrously pornographic or just not your target audience. Get these out of your lists. 

Also spend time making sure you’re following the right people.  Friend those who seem like they’re in the audience for your stuff; follow those with the right hashtags in their descriptions.  And follow and friend the right people, and unfollow and unfriend the wrong people regularly.  This is vital in not just making sure you’re reaching the right people, but also in growing your list.  (See Roy’s posts on this at www.booksofthedeadpress.com.)

In the end, as a writer, this list is one of your only assets.  You’re unlikely to be bought out by an investment firm so you’re unlikely to be told that you yourself are one of your own personal two assets.  You undoubtedly are, though your well-maintained, well-grown list might be even more important.

And that’s my take on this subject after being hepped-up on generic Thera-Flu.  I might feel differently tomorrow.

Next Up: Get your signing pen and author signature ready…it’s time for personal appearances.

Like this? Click on the Bookstore Page at upper right and buy some books!

Great Review for Matt Hult' Husk!

Our good friend John Milton over at AndyErupts has posted an excellent review for Husk, by BotD author Matt Hults.  Here's a bit of it, but to read the entire thing, go here.

"...Matt Hults’Husk takes the horror genre and gives us a new villain, the likes of which I can honestly say I have never encountered before…

One of the key strengths of Husk is the author’s development of the characters, their own storylines and particular arcs. To my mind, Hults leaves none of the leads of his story behind, devoting time, without sacrificing pace, to building up the integral players before uniting them for his grand finale… and trust me, it’s quite the spectacle!

Husk is ripe for a big screen adaptation providing it gets the right budget and certificate (would undoubtedly have to be an 18 here in the UK in order that it not betray the source material!) but some of Hults’ more “creative” scenes may have to be omitted, since I’m not sure that they would translate well to the big screen; and many in a more mainstream audience may baulk at some of the subject matter.

Hults takes what appears to be the story of a dead serial killer who is seemingly continuing to commit his signature crimes and adds a unique supernatural element to it, significantly beefing up what, if played straight, could have been written as a regular copycat killer/ police thriller and creates a worthwhile addition to the horror genre that is entertaining, memorable and horrifying."

And of course, to buy a copy of Husk, go here.

If you like what you've read here, you're gonna love Books of the Dead's other books.  Buy some here.

Part Deux: In Which We Discuss Becoming Socialized

Social media.  There I said it again.  If you’re over 40, you’re probably groaning at its mere mention.  If you’re under 40, you’re probably shrugging and saying, Yeah, so what?

OK, first off, if you’re under 40, go away for a minute.  Play some X-Box or whatever it is your mysterious, young generation does to fritter away the time.  Us old folks are going to jaw for a moment.

Are they gone?  Good!  It’s just me and everyone born before Tricky Dick resigned.  Now, all of us left are over 40, perhaps some of you substantially so.  I, myself, am on the cusp of 49, having been born right after the assassination of—and named for—John F. Kennedy.  Others of you may remember where you were on that horribly notable day.

Whatever.  The difference I want to get at here is the computer.  Some of us grew up with it; others of us had it thrust open them…and with that comes a certain amount of dubiousness and, let’s just say it…fear.  Fear of something we don’t quite understand.  Fear of having that thing make us look old and foolish and hopelessly out of touch…like the music of Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga, let’s say.

The way some of us choose to deal with this is to ignore it, which, in the case of both Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga is a perfectly acceptable reaction.  Not so with the computer and the things the computer brings to the table.

Now, I know many of you geezers are already shaking your heads.  I use a computer all the time, you’re saying.  I’m perfectly comfortable with it.  Sure.  You use a computer to write, perhaps, maybe to play Angry Birds or Farmville or send e-mails to the grandkids.  Sure, go ahead and consider yourself quite the technophile.

Are you on Facebook, though?  Twitter?  FourSquare?  Pinterest?  StumbleUpon?  Even—groan—MySpace?  Are you, in the end, on any social media?

If you are, congrats.  You are aging well.  If not, why not?  Do you prefer to communicate with friends and family via a Dixie cup and string?  Smoke signals?  Passenger pigeon?  Step into the 21^st century with the rest of us…it’s not so scary.

These sites are really just the electronic versions of talking to a friend or neighbor over the backyard fence…except the fence stretches around the world and you might be talking to 10,000 “friends.”  Same thing, just a new way to do it.

Why is it so important to get with it on social media instead of just aging like your grandparents did and shaking your fist at what the kids are doing these days?  Well, and I’m assuming we’re still talking to writers here…writers who want readers…if you want to reach readers with your scribblings, these places are where the readers of today hang out.  Reaching them means being where they are.

So, if you have a blog or a website of some kind (See Part One, below), great.  Now, let’s move some people to it by participating in today’s social media.  For a start, let’s consider Twitter.  I have to admit that I, like many old people, at first didn’t see the use of this.  Communicate in 140 characters or less?  Why?  What for?  What can possibly be said (of any value at least) in 140 characters?

Plenty.  But before you start bombarding people with your 140-character musings, you have to register for the service.  Then you have to build an audience.  That means searching through the audience to find like-minded people.  Write horror?  Then look at other horror writer’s followers and follow them.  Hopefully, they will follow back.  Spend some time doing this, use a service to unfollow those who don’t and soon you’ll have an impressive list of followers who will receive and hopefully read your tweets.  (For more on doing this successfully, I point you toward Books of the Dead’s publisher, James Roy Daley, and his instructional postings on our main site, www.booksofthedeadpress.com.  See them here.)

OK, now you’ve built an audience.  What do you say to them?  Well, it doesn’t have to be what you ate for breakfast or the fact that you’re currently singing hymns at Aunt Florence’s funeral.  Those are fine, if prosaic, uses of Twitter and plenty of folks tweet the minutae of their days with all the fervent energy and rampant self-absorption of teenager.

But consider, oh writer, the fact that you now have an audience of like-minded people who might be interested—nay, induced to purchase for real money—your work.  It might be a good idea, then, interspersed between your daily toilet schedule updates and callouts to other drunken friends, to let them know about your work and where to get it.  Twitter kindly lets you add specific links to where those works might be found—Amazon, let’s say—so that your audience can simply click away, if so disposed, and buy your works.

Using Twitter to point your audience to your website or blog, and connecting said website/blog to your Twitter feed is a self-sustaining promotion machine.  Just don’t be too spammy.  Retweet stuff from your followers.  Tweet news articles you see, pictures, whatever.  Be sparing in how you use it promotionally, but use it promotionally.

Same can be said for Facebook or Myspace of whatever.  Use these social media to get out there and talk to people.  To build an audience.  To talk to that audience.  To sell to that audience. 

Unless, of course, you’re more comfortable with the telegraph.  In which case, definitely get off my lawn.

Next up:  List Building. (And don't worry, we'll get to what readers can do soon!)

Like what you read here?  Support us by purchasing some of Books of the Dead's fantastic titles here.

And Now A Word From Our Sponsors...

OK, so Roy (our friendly neighborhood publisher here at Books of the Dead) has told me to make this blog, the marketing blog, mine.  To do with it, as it were, what I will.  I’ve put some placeholder stuff up on the blog to this point.  Mostly interviews with BOTD authors that, while interesting and fun, haven’t really captured what I want to do with this site; namely, draw people to the site and sell 'em some books.

I got to thinking the other day about what I’ve done to help move my own BOTD book, the extremely well-reviewed (ahem) Little Deaths.  (2.99 for Kindle/ $11.99 for paperback at Amazon.  Also on Nook and at Smashwords.  Buy it.)  And it got me thinking what other authors are doing for their book.  Or not doing, as the case may be.  Because if you think that most publishers are swinging for the bleachers to move your specific title, even the big publishers, you are on illegal narcotics.

So, I thought I’d jot down a few things that I’ve learned about authors moving their own books.  Maybe some of this will help.  In Part Deux of this article, we’ll take a look at what readers can do in this new egalitarian book publishing world to help move their favorite books and need to come down from your ill-advised high.

But, since we’re here already and I am one, let’s start with them that brought us to this dance…the authors.  And for the sake of this publishing company, lets restrict our discussion to horror authors specifically.

Marketing 101

So, you finally moved from “I want to write a book” to “I’ve written a book.”  Great!  Congratulations!  You’ve officially moved farther along the writer path than 99% of everyone who says “I want to write a book.”  Now what?

Well, let’s jump ahead now and say that you’ve taken whatever difficult, agonizing, ego-crushing efforts necessary to find a publisher willing to publish your masterpiece.  Again, congrats!  You’ve moved farther ahead than 99.5 of everyone who says “I want to write a book.”

Now, I bet you’re planning on sitting back and waiting for the royalties to come rolling in while the gears of the publishing world grind your book out into the marketplace.

Hah…hehehe…oh my, let me catch my breath, and wipe the tears from the corners of my eyes. At this point, you may as well believe in the tooth fairy, William Shatner's hairline or the efficacy of trickle-down economics.

Let’s leave the world of fantasy for a bit and talk about reality.  Stone cold reality.  And the reality is that you are as much—or even more—responsible for the success or failure of your book than your publisher.  And that's not counting writing the very best book you can.

You’re now obliged to market it.

In effect, you’ve got to come out of the cloistered, solitary little world you inhabited as an author, pull on your big boy or big girl pants, and go out into the great, big, indifferent, uncaring world of the buying public and sell yourself.  Hard.  So, whaddaya need?

  

Author Site

First things first, in this brave new electronic world, do you have a website…a blog…a Facebook page?  You’ve got to have some kind of base from which to work your marketing magic, and in this age, it’s got to be on the interwebs.  Any of these three choices are fine, as long as you’re easy to find.  If your name is John Q. Frenulum and you’re a horror writer, your web address had better be www.johnqfrenulum.com or www.johnqfrenulumwriter.com or www.jqfrenulum.com.  Not www.vervetlover.com or www.airyfarts.com.  Similarly, if your e-mail address isn’t your name, but rather drwhofantatic@aol.com, change it to your name.  (And really who uses AOL anymore anyway?)

The point is you need a base and it needs to be easy to find.  Besides if your just getting started, you want your name out there everywhere, on everything you do.  It might sound silly, but everything you do should be working to generate name recognition, which is the key to the selling game.  Why would you want to generate awareness of your love for vervets instead of your name? (And besides, vervets carry diseases, man.)

Right!  Once that’s established, now what to put onto your author site?  Well, start with the basics.  A bio would be nice, an authorial picture or two might be good.  Just restrain yourself with pictures, though.  People coming to your site don’t want to see the drunken shots of your 32^nd birthday party at Hooters or your kid’s first doo-doo picture.  Keep it sweet and simple and to the point.

Next, how about some credits?  Some list of the stuff you’ve had published, where, when and how an interested reader might find them. Links, as always, would be helpful.  If you don't have these yet, don't sweat it.  Maybe a list of the stuff you have written and are circulating...you are circulating your stuff, right?

Links to other authors, writer’s sites that you like or other genre sites you enjoy would be good.  This is called a blog roll, and is way to point people who come to you site to other like-minded sites; it’s also a way to promote other sites that could be swayed to promote you similarly.

So, bio, pics, credits, blog roll…umm…oh yeah, content!  It’s not enough just to put up a static page with this stuff on it.  It’s not enough just to have a site up that doesn’t change.  People will come one, take a poke around, then perhaps come again a week later or so.  If nothing has changed, however, they probably won’t be back again.  Why bother?  

Add some content to your site; which means, of course, that you’ll have to actually write shit…often.  Regularly.  Right about what you’re up to, stuff you’ve read, other authors you like and why, or well, just about anything. 

Make it interesting, make it different every couple of days at least, and people will come to the site often. 

Then, of course, you can sell them.  If you’ve got pieces that are for sale at Amazon, be sure to include links to them.  If you’ve got a few things up at Amazon, create an Author Page.  It’s simple and provides an easy place for readers to go to find all your stuff.

OK, first step:  base of operations.  Check.  And now...

Next Up:  Social Media.  Yeah, I said it.

In the meantime, click the Bookstore link upper right, and get some great books!

Two BOTD Authors on The Electric Chair Show!

Both Tonia Brown and John F.D. Taff are featured on the great horror podcast The Electric Chair Show.  Hosted by Midnight Corey, these podcasts are a great insight into the person being interviewed, as well as some discussion about a favorite horror movie.

Tonia's featured in Episode 16, where she discusses her work, including Badass Zombie Road Trip, and the movie Prince of Darkness.  You can download it here.

John's featured in this Sunday's episode, Episode 20.  He discusses his collection, Little Deaths, as well as An American Werewolf in London.  Find it here this Sunday.

John will also be featured on Tonia's own podcast in just a few weeks.  More on that later!

Tim Lebbon is a Busy Guy!

I’ll start this short article off with the same six words as the title. (Well, that’s not technically true since I’ve already rattled off some 25 words that aren’t the same as the six words in the title but…oh, never mind.)

Tim Lebbon is a Busy Guy. Lebbon, the author of nearly 30 dark fantasy and horror books, has a lot of irons in the fire. He is the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of more than twenty-five novels, including The Island, Fallen, Dusk, Dawn, and, with Christopher Golden, Mind the Gap and The Map of Moments. His most recent book is The Heretic Land. He’s written the novelization for the movie The Cabin in the Woods, and he’s working on a novel set in the Star Wars universe—Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi—Into the Void.

Tim has won four British Fantasy Awards and a Bram Stoker Award, and several of his books and short stories are in development as movies. He lives in South Wales (UK) with his wife and two children.

He’s also the author of the terrific horror novel, Berserk, which Books of the Dead Press re-released this year as an e-book. He took some time out of this dizzying schedule to answer a few questions.

Being a UK writer, do you see any differences between the UK horror reader and one in the States? And do you write for one or the other?

I certainly don't write for any particular nationality of reader, no. And I don't think there are great differences, certainly not nowadays with the internet, instant communication, and any book you want available at the touch of a button.

I noticed that you run marathons. Is there anything you've learned from this physical activity that you've been able to apply to your writing?

Training for marathons and generally getting fit in my early forties has given me more of a can-do attitude than I've ever had before. I'd have never believe I could run a marathon a couple of years ago. And now I'm training for an Ironman. I think it does affect my writing in that I feel better and fitter than I ever have, and I'm generally more upbeat and filled with energy. It also does sometimes bleed into my writing because of reading I've done about exercise science and the like. Running a marathon is a horror story in itself...

Books of the Dead has republished Berserk. Tell me a little about the genesis of that novel and where you were mentally when you wrote it.

It was a while ago... I think it largely came from the image of the mass grave, and an ongoing fascination I have with Salisbury Plain and the military experiments that went on out there decades ago.

Do you have any unusual writing habits or things that you absolutely require a certain way when you write?
Not really. I use a laptop so I tend to move around the house, and sometimes out to a cafe if the kids are home and the house is noisy. I have to fit writing into a very full day that also involves family and exercising, so I tend to be able to write whenever I get a few free hours.

You just announced that you're writing a Star Wars novel. What's the most exciting part of this for you?
Well ... it's Star Wars!!! I've been a fan since I first saw it as a kid, so being able to play in the Star Wars universe is a real thrill.

Tim’s Amazon Author Page is here.

You can buy a copy of Berserk here.

Thanks, Tim!

Great Review for Little Deaths at Horror Talk!

Gabino Iglesias, the prolific reader and reviewer for HorrorTalk.com, has given Little Deaths a great review.  I've posted some of it below, but definitely go to here to read the entire thing.  And follow Gabino on Twitter @Gabino_Iglesias.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: variety can make the difference between a good short fiction collection and a great one. In the case of John F.D. Taff's Little Deaths, variety doesn't even begin to describe the dazzling array of themes, tones, and voices the author was able to cram into the compilation. From creepy horror and heartbreaking stories of loss to spooky narratives written in a Poe-esque prose and tales that can only be called Lovecraftian in nature, Little Deaths has something for everyone. 

Little Deaths kicks off with Bolts, a story most collectors will be able to identify with. Ace lives with his girlfriend Rachel. He makes a living buying and selling collectibles online, but keeping too many of them around often causes the couple to have disagreements. While fighting with Rachel about a life-size Battlestar Galactica Cylon he plans to keep, Ace finds a treasure: the actual prop neck bolts Boris Karloff used in Frankenstein back in 1931. He makes the purchase and patches things up with Rachel. Soon after, disaster strikes. Scared, sad, and in denial, Ace will do whatever it takes to makes things right again, and the bolts will play a vital, and disastrous, role. 

While Bolts is the first standout in the collection, it's far from being the only one. Here are some other stories that stuck with me: 

•  The personal account of one man written by a younger neighbor, The Water Bearer tells the story of Jim, a guy who worked maintaining a young doctor's house and grounds in 1923. Dr. Evander Wilson had recently lost his wife when Jim came to work for him. What follows is a creepy and somewhat Lovecraftian narrative full of brackish water, the smell of decay, and dark secrets. 

•  Child of Dirt mixes horror with emotional tension in a way that the reader will probably feel sorry for the man having to deal with the creature looking up at him from the cradle. 

•  I love stories that have body modification as an element in the narrative, and Orifice is a fine example of just how far something like a tattoo can be taken by capable hands.

•  Darkness Upon the Void is one of the most memorable psychological/physical horror stories I've read in a while. It begins with a man named Ed Martinez squeezing a tiny white worm out of his forearm and gets progressively nastier from there. There is a religious element to the story that makes it even more interesting as Ed's mental state is questioned and the creatures coming out of his body increase in size and gruesomeness. While the tale might be too much for those with weak stomachs, lovers of hardcore horror will definitely get a kick out of this one. 

•  Horror is not often simultaneously eerie and heartbreakingly sad. Here, the 16th story in the collection, brings those two very separate things together very well. The premise is simple: a man's dog is killed by a car and then comes back to look for his owner. It might sound undemanding, but the tension is kept sky-high throughout the story and the writing is very touching and emotionally gritty. Love, loss, loneliness, and ghosts all come together to make this one a standout. 

•  Last but not least, The Mellified Man is one of the absolute best stories in Little Deaths and one of the most unique short pieces you'll ever read. Bobby Jenkins is a man with only one vice: candy. His sweet tooth keeps him constantly on the lookout for new sugary delicacies. When he walks into The Alhambra, a new candy store that offers the best sweets from around the world, he becomes a habitual visitor. Despite tasting great things on a regular basis, Bobby wants more. Aziz, the store's owner, delivers the goods. Once the once-in-a-lifetime treat is devoured, Bobby starts to feel different and things go from incredibly sweet to nightmarishly sour.

Taff is a very talented writer, but his attention to detail is what sets his work apart. Each description is rich without being boring and each setting is as unique as the characters that inhabit them. Also, most stories engage the senses. For example, in The Water Bearer, The Scent, and The Mellified Man, smells play crucial roles. 

Collections are never perfect and there are always one or two stories that readers will not be crazy about. However, this collection will surely satisfy many readers. Given its variety, it's almost impossible not to find something you like. If you're looking to liven up your horror reading, Little Deaths will do it in a big way."

Thanks, Gabino!  Glad you liked it.

Go here to pick up your copy today!