So how on earth do you reach new readers with social media?

Welcome,

Today’s big question is an ongoing experiment in social media and content promotion. Yep, you guessed right first time, I’ve no clue how you reach anyone including my own family on social media. By ‘reach’ I mean to make a meaningful connection with as opposed to randomly spam or annoy. ‘Reach’ as in – interest them enough to go to your website, read a sample of your book and perhaps consider a purchase. Because they want to, not because of a guilt trip, pity purchase or a clever bit of key word marketing and coding.

So here’s my run down so far in relation to my experiences promoting Sean Yeager Adventures Admittedly on a zero budget and now with two entertaining books published. And let me tell you – the writing was the easy part, the reviewing was horrible but way more productive than attempting ‘social media connections’. As I joked recently, ‘I could sell more books standing next to a motorway than via social media’.  And it’s not about some mental block thing or lack of trying – there is a giant, electronic, elephant in the room.

Amazon – virtually useless, search engines optimised for top sellers only. It’s a shop for the top, period. You’ll be dead before someone finds your book or Kindle board note. And then it’ll be a mistaken browser looking for someone else. Catch-22 is – they don’t know you, so they won’t look for you. Your book may as well be buried 300 feet beneath the ocean,

KDS Free days – virtually useless. So you give away free books, then what? Sales spike and all is well? Dream on. It might work for big name authors with tens of books in their canon, for the rest of us I doubt it is of any use at all. It also devalues the writing and the book. Also a great way for pirates to obtain content without doing anything remotely clever.

Twitter – virtually useless, an echo chamber of people selling stuff to other complete strangers who are selling stuff to complete strangers. Might work for ‘real’ celebrities, if we can glean who they are online these days. Could be their cat for all we know. More likely an impostor or an intern with a crush.

Facebook – virtually useless, a cage of rules for not bothering people and then a non-stop stream of content from people who like to transmit. Always best when you have no idea what  on earth the original event or question was – all you see is a response and some pictures. Right, for light relief of the comedy kind it’s okay, that’s all I seem to see. Jokes, viral images and comments. The spam you learn to look through and ignore. And why wouldn’t you?

Facebook has some great info groups online. Promotion – forget it.

Yes Facebook do advertising, unfortunately they do a really bad job of explaining to me why I should pay a bean for it. Free trials, stats, breakdowns – it’s not happening for me and yes of course I’ve a zero budget anyhow. Social networking and connecting? Not any more, you could throw some money into the void and pray. Now that’s a sound business investment decision right? Not on my planet.

Linked-In – fine for articles and groups, rubbish for promoting fiction. Another echo chamber.

Goodreads – good for presenting stuff, great for giving away stuff. I’ve yet to be convinced that anyone actually buys and reads unknown fiction as a result. Maybe some people do.

Scribd – good for presenting stuff, great for giving away content. I’ve yet to be convinced that anyone actually buys and reads unknown fiction as a result.

Librarything – ditto, seems to be for ‘serious fiction’ really. Held breath and died before anyone read a simple posting. Now a ghost haunting the site out of morbid interest.

Book Blogs – difficult to judge, no one is interested in reviewing Sean Yeager as it’s an adventure /  sci-fi book. (Yep, real niche stuff alongside underground stuff like Star Wars, Star Trek etc) So de facto useless, but it may work if you write books that are reviewed and hence promoted on book blogs. Which seems to be anything written for a female audience and blogged about by a lady with a love of books (who also happens to write romantic supernatural stories about vampires and men with six packs and no clothes on (I blame the TV) )

That’s all for now, I’m off to the pub for some research, And a primal scream.

AHHHHHHHHHHH!

That’s better.

Happy reading

D.M. Jarrett

It’s not a matter of life or death, it’s more serious than that……… the riddle of unloved sci-fi

Following a late night debate over a beer or two, I recently researched the best selling films of all time

I like all kinds of fiction and non-fiction in films, TV and books. I like comedy, horror, adventures dramas and such like. I only draw the line at ‘crud’ and the majority of chick flicks. So that also rules out anything Twilight related. (Yes I can’t stand them – for me the Underworld series is a far better story)

I began writing Sean Yeager Adventures because it felt right and because it arose from my interests as a youngster. We used to have no end of sci-fi on TV: UFO, Dr Who, Star Trek, Blake’s 7. And at the lighter end we had Danger Mouse, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and many more. I guess some of it rubbed off and then Star Wars happened…

So back to the film stats. It turns out that nearly 1/3 of the top selling films of all time are sci-fi and they account for just under 1/3 of the gross income for the top 50 (that’s about 28% or $13.2 Bn).

The big winners are of course well known:

• Avatar
• Star Wars
• Transformers
• Inception
• ET
• Jurassic Park
• The Matrix

To which we can add other big films like the Terminator, Alien and Star Trek series who fall outside the top 50.

And my point is?

Simply this – how come there are so few top selling books that are sci-fi?

I don’t believe for a second that sci-fi lovers don’t buy or read books.

Happy reading

D.M. Jarrett

To boldly go where no man has gone before……….. Sean Yeager in print now

After months of crafting, designing, huffing and puffing… Sean Yeager and the DNA Thief is available in deluxe print!  Hurray!

Deluxe because it is a 6×9 inch book size which shows off the cover and makes it very easy to read.

For those who don’t already know – the book series is a mixture of adventure, comedy, action, science fiction and mystery. A bit like a cross between Young James Bond, Men in Black, Star Wars, Artemis Fowl and elements of Monty Python / Red Dwarf / Hitchhikers Guide. We’re not in Star Trek territory yet. Watch that space though, Star Trek is converging all the time…

The DNA Thief sets the scene at breathtaking speed and Hunters Hunted is set to build on the mysteries and action  in a big way.

It’s a big milestone for us and very soon we’ll be speaking to libraries and bookstores about stocking the physical books. It’s funny there is something about holding print in your hand that makes a real difference….

Meantime, on with the series. Hunters Hunted is nearing completion and will see the light of day first as an e-book initially with print to follow.

Happy reading

D.M. Jarrett

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sean Yeager takes over the world….. the story so far

For those of you who are new to reading this blog (and that’s several billion of you) a quick recap.

Sean Yeager began when I was trying to find some quality reading for my son. I struggled frankly. I was looking for an entertaining read that didn’t insult his intelligence and I failed.

So I listened to what he was interested in and I went out again to look for something with him. In the end I let him choose. We bought some books and they were okay but not great. They were mostly read and quickly forgotten. One was dumped completely as ‘boring’. Eventually we settled on Harry Potter as being the best all rounder. (And to this day my main role model in a book alongside Bartimaeus).

We talked some more and I wrote some short stories for my son about a boy called Sean Knight and how we helped to save the world. Surprisingly these were so well received I had a demand for a ring binder to store them in and some regular discussions about the characters and their gear.

I shared the short stories with some friends to gauge how well they worked. Was it just youthful enthusiasm? The feedback came in and it was mostly positive. The stories seemed to have something. People understood the concepts and liked the angle.

Next I did some research –  I figured out the market, costings and what I could achieve realistically. I also set about finding an illustrator and began sketching some ideas myself. My first attempt with a cover designer was okay and I sort of received what I commissioned. I was chuffed to begin with.

So I sent out loads of unsolicited submissions to agents and publishers. Not a single one was even vaguely interested in what I had written. Actually I fib, one sent me a vaguely positive rejection letter  that implied they might consider my work sometime later in the year. Needless to say I did not receive any follow-up inquiries or feedback. Perhaps strangely I was not surprised in the least. I thought ‘this is why most of the books in the shops don’t sell very well’. Not that I thought my short stories were exceptional, more that no one would even recognise the gap in the market I was aiming for.

Following a particularly ‘can’t be bothered’ piece of feedback from an agent I made a decision. I decided to take on the full responsibility for producing a professional product myself and to act like a professional. I set values and goals. I costed out the proposition and I researched. I planned to write two books inside a year and publish them in e-book and print. I also aimed for top quality plotting and writing together with top quality design and illustration. I realised it would be tough and I  also realised it would take a lot of work. As it turned out I was right on both counts you need a lot of determination and a thick skin to be a writer.

And that is where Sean Yeager and the DNA Thief began. I decided to change the character’s name because of a character called Sean Knight in a Mage comic. I wrote to the creator and in a trend that I have become very used to I received no reply. So I thought, ‘you know what change the name anyway and keep it straightforward’. In a way it was probably a good thing but at the time it was a complete pain to find and be happy with a new name.

I wrote and revised for several months until I felt the first novel was complete. Several revisions and corrections later I lent it out to some beta readers and held my breath. The feedback was consistently positive with some helpful suggestions which I applied to the next revision. Being a whole lot more involved than a short-story I realised that the plots and characters were equivalent to a film script. I figured ‘why not?’ So I set out to write so the stories are easily adaptable to film and yet quirky at the same time.

Which brings us almost up to date. I found a very talented illustrator and commissioned a new cover and some interior images. The interiors became material for website and posters when I realised how expensive colour printing can be. Needless to say the second cover was massively better than the first and you can see it above.

Sean Yeager Adventures has an e-book on each of the major sites a website, a blog, twitter, facebook, even a spoof advert on youtube and various postings all over the internet. Do any of them attract readers? Good question. If people want to find out about Sean Yeager I believe they can and will. So probably. Will social media sites sell people the books? I think people decide for themselves in the real world. I encourage people to read the free preview and see the website. And guess what? Many of them do. Soon they will be able to hold a printed copy in their hands (hurray!).

Yes Sean Yeager will soon be arriving in print. Then libraries and then (hopefully) some high street shops and book clubs. Meanwhile the second book is nearing first draft completion and promises to be every bit as good as the first and more expansive. Perhaps by the fifth draft it will reach the light of the internet and print outlets. When the quality is good enough that is.

So Sean Yeager takes over the world….. yes he does. It’s what the series is all about. I’ve set my aims high to entertain, stretch minds and be as good as the best. All that’s left is the blood, sweat and tears to push on and achieve those goals.

And why have I done this?

Because I believe readers deserve a really compelling book series and it all goes back to what my young readers told me they wanted to read about. I also have a ball writing the stories which makes up for the rejections and emails I’ve sent that have gone unanswered. I laughed recently about The Beatles’ first rejections, it clearly happens to everyone.

Yesterday I took some promotional postcards to a school and a boy asked for another one because he lost the first. He’d yet to read a word of the story and yet he loved the idea of the book simply based on the cover. Priceless.

Yes, Sean Yeager is taking over the world, you heard it here first.

Happy reading

D.M. Jarrett