June 13th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Good Grief, I had to go back a week to find the last challenge. YIKES! I’m such a slacker.

Honestly, I’m not. I have been working on a new marketing project for the past two weeks or so. I found this Indie Author support group and they give you ideas on how to promote your books in various ways. I decided to pick one and focus on it for a little while.

The one I chose was Goodreads. Goodreads is a site for avid readers, but it also has a section for authors as well. I have been an author on Goodreads for over a year now, but I really did not know how to utilize the site to help me promote my own books. This group has showed me how.

Goodreads has a feature called Listopia, which is a place where you can list books which fit a certain criteria. For example, Taking Chances went on the “Napoleonic War Fiction” list, because a good chunk of it featured the Battle of Trafalgar and Lord Nelson. I then let people who have read Taking Chances know it was on the list, and I asked them to vote for my book (and to join Goodreads if they hadn’t already). Several people did as I asked, and now Taking Chances is rated #1 in that category. Hopefully, now that it is #1, more people will see the book and want to read it.

It’s really a simple process and hopefully it will bump up my sales. If any of you are interested in checking out (and voting for) any of my books that you have read, please sign up for (or in to) Goodreads. Go to my author’s page; scroll down to where my books are listed; click on the book you’ve read; scroll down to where it says “List with this book”; click “more lists with this book”, and that will bring up all the lists that particular book is on and where it is ranked on the list. You can click on each individual list and vote for my book.

While you are there, if you can give my book(s) a star rating, and if you have time a review, that would be WONDERFUL. Now, if you have not read one of my books yet, you can add it to your “want to read” list, and that would help my rankings as well. The publishing world is a harsh and difficult world to survive in, so I am not above begging for ratings and reviews. Every little bit helps, and I would welcome all the help I can get.

Not only have I added my own books to lists, I have gone in and made sure all the indie books I have read have reviews, ratings and votes. I have also found a TON of books which looked really interesting and I have added them to my “want to read” list. I figure I’ll be busy until 2025 provided I don’t add any more books to my list. LOL. (I did not take the time to review or vote on books like The Hunger Games, even though I gave it a 5 star rating, because let’s face it, it doesn’t need my help in the ratings where Indie authors do.)

It’s funny, because I added my books to the list, but then I needed to “check out the competition”, so I took a look at other books on the list. Yeah, you guessed it, several are now on my “want to read” list. It’s all good though. Occasionally I stumbled across a list which fit a book which wasn’t mine, so I added it (ie: Keith’s book Man Hunt was placed on a Horror list, and Linda’s book The Bench was placed on the Cozy Mystery list, or Julien’s Flower of Heaven which went on a Paris Mystery list). I also actively sought out other book lists to add Cherrye’s Teacher, Teacher, and Heidi’s Elements of a Broken Mind (books I edited). I’m all for spreading the love. J

Okay, it’s time to get to the long overdue challenge. I hope you have a fabulous Friday, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

“Curtains Emma. I said please hang the curtains out on the line, not the kittens out on the line! Lord child, sometimes I just don’t know where your head is.”

“I was just playin’ Mamma. I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t hurt those poor babies did you?”

“Oh no Mamma, I could never do that. In fact, I think they kinda liked it. They all crawled into little balls and settled down for a nap in the stockings. Look Mamma, they’re all asleep.”

Mamma shook her head. “You are going to be the death of me yet child. Where do you come up with these things?” Emma shrugged her shoulders but did not offer an explanation. “Come on Sweetheart, take the kittens down off the line and I’ll help you get the curtains up. We have to hurry or they’ll never be dry before sundown, and I don’t want to have to wash them again.”

“Okay Mamma, I’ll hurry.”

Your Next Challenge is (from the writing group):

A Game of “Follow the Leader” gone awry.

You have ten minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.