My book goes live soon--what should I do/expect?

[R.E. Chambliss]

Hi!

At last, I'm ready! Dreaming of Deliverance will go live on podiobooks.com starting 10/26. I'm very excited, but also a little nervous. I thought I'd ask all of you who've been through this what to expect and if there's anything you recommend for me to do to make the process go both smoothly and successfully. I signed up for twitter a couple of days ago (it's a little mystifying and I'm still trying to figure it out) and I'm hoping to have a facebook fan page soon. Anything else?

And thanks so much for being here! I've gotten so much great information already, both directly through my questions, and indirectly by reading your responses to other people!

Thanks again!

-Renee

[Mike Sharpe]

I'm also following this page.. I'm staggering the Book and Serialised Audio Book version Launch due to Technical Problems and now lack,Time before Nanowrimo.

I'd recommend getting a Application for Twitter. TweetDeck is my choice.

[R.E. Chambliss]

Hi Mike-

Since it's been a few weeks now, I thought I'd share what I've learned so far. What I've noticed is that you can't expect everything to happen all at once. Not that I really did, but I was a little impatient I have to admit.

Slowly I'm building an audience, gathering followers on Twitter, and even getting some reviews. Each kernal of acknowledgement is a huge mood booster! I still feel very much the newbie, but like it's all going somewhere.

And it's so much fun knowing that people are listening! I hadn't expected that to be so exciting!

Good luck with it all!

-Renee

[Patrick McNamara]

Promote it. Don't expect Podiobooks to do all the work. You'll likely get some downloads but if you really want to get good numbers you need to let people know about it. (That's probably the biggest mistake new writers make when they have a book published.)

[Jeffrey Kafer - Male Voice talent]

second this. Simply putting a book on Podiobooks is just like dropping it on the shelf at Borders. No one is going to find it unless they know to look for it. And that's where you come in. Theoretically, you've been spending as much time marketing your book as you have been recording it. Hopefully more.

[R.E. Chambliss]

Any specific suggestions for promotion? Here's what I'm doing so far/thinking of doing: I'm going on Podioracket at some point (yay, Rhonda and Heather!). I'm tweeting and Facebooking. I signed up for GoodReads.com. I'm working on my author profile at Amazon.com. I have a website and blog. I'm working with a local book store. I'm hoping to go on a local radio show.

My main character is a distance runner, so I thought I'd approach the online running community. There are lots of running podcasts so I thought I'd see if they might be interested in trading plugs on our podcasts. I'm part of a writing podcast called "Unpublishednotdead". Then there are family and friends who are interested (more in the print version, since they aren't very podcast-savy).

I know people have contests and giveaways, but I figured I'd need to build at least something of an audience first before anyone would even know to enter!

So I am thinking marketing, but like a lot of this process, I'm winging it. Which is why I asked here, b/c I thought you guys who'd been through it before might have some ideas that hadn't occurred to me! :o)

[Dave Hitt]

Participate in forums, and have the book in your signature. Once you've got a dozen or so posts in place (over the course of at least a week) you can start a thread about it, but if you do it before that you run the risk of looking like a spammer.

Use your book cover as your avatar.

[R.E. Chambliss]

Thanks! Great suggestion!

[Craig Robertson]

You are welcome to 'follow' me on Twitter, and send test messages; I'll be your non-judgmental guinea pig. Craigr1971 is my symbol. In terms of awaiting release, there's not much to it. You excitedly follow stats on "author tools' (Evo will activate it for you soon) and Libsynpro (more downloads shown there than PB.com). The next big task is to morph your text to post on Smashwords.com; Mark Coker has a manual just like Evo's so check it out. Evo is also having us morph the audio files to 'audiobook' format, no hurry, but it will be another techno-task for you soon. If you don't have a webpage, there's another big task, so you can put it in your outro's (you can edit your episodes at any time, no rush if you haven't yet). Otherwise, just sit back and gloat, have cards made up, email everyone you even knew, introduce yourself as 'an author', and generally enjoy.....congrats craig

[R.E. Chambliss]

Thanks, Craig. I'm following you now. I do have a website (rechambliss.com) and am putting the episodes on it with bonus "talky bits". I don't think I want do do smashwords, since I have a print version available on Amazon.com. I also have a Kindle version.

But I completely forgot to sit back and gloat! I'll add that to my list! ;o)

Thanks for the congrats. It is all very exciting!

[Patrick McNamara]

I should add that Paul Levinson posted a podcast episode about having a book published:
http://paullev.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=543824