SoonerCon: A Media Guest’s Retrospective

Yesterday ended my weekend at SoonerCon 26, a local science-fiction/fantasy/writer’s convention in Midwest City, Oklahoma within a short driving distance of my house.  This was my second year being invited as a media guest, which means I’ve written a few books and have done some podcasting, so they allow me to come be part of

How to Set Up an Amazon Giveaway to Drive People to Your Amazon Author Page

I can’t take credit for finding out about this cheap little marketing gimmick.  That credit goes to my awesome podcast partner Richard Kutz.  We host a weekly podcast together called “Three Cylinder Stardrive”, a geek-out fun-fest where we break down current pop culture often from a writer’s perspective and also note a “Dollar Rental of

Conventioning: A Promotion Idea

This summer I will attend SoonerCon 2017 as a media guest. I attended two years ago in this capacity, and I had a pretty good time, but I don’t think I utilized my market potential very well.  My appearance this year will be a bit more useful to building a brand because I’ve hit on

Use Everything to Promote Everything

There is a solid reason I haven’t released my short story compilation recently.  In fact, I’m brushing on some finishing touches before it is released very soon. The fact is, I was ready over a week ago to release it, but after talking to a friend who had one of his brilliant ideas I realized

My Abysmal Facebook Promotion Ad

Last week I posted that I was going to try out a Facebook ad to drive traffic to my Amazon page where my book was listed at a Kindle countdown price of .99 cents. I’ll have to admit…I had high hopes. Well, I quit the ad yesterday. I’d spent a little over $100 after about

How I’m Using Facebook Advertising

Well, The Terminarch Plot has been available for 6 weeks and my sales are pretty dismal.  I’m undaunted, however.  Recently I was paid for an editing job and that gave me some capital to throw at the problem. Rather than throw money around willy-nilly (which would be irresponsible) I decided to spend some time doing research

5 Best Bits of Advice About Marketing Your Book

While the draft of my newest book The Terminarch Plot is in the hands of beta readers, I thought I would focus today’s blog post on some advice I would give an indie novelist who is considering marketing their book. I’m sure you’ve gone to Twitter and seen those shameless folks tweeting away about their books,

Free Book Giveaway: Day 3

I saw a little spike when I announced the book release to my Facebook followers.  I basically set up an event and then invited everyone.  I know it’s spamming to some extent, but it drove people to the site to download free copies.  I have now given away 153 copies.  Let’s hope that will translate

The U.S of After Chapter 9

Howard Morax flew at the back door.  He snaked out a hand, his fingernails long, the color of onyx, his skin grimy, and held the door knob fast.  The fire raged around us.  His inky dark eyes flashed in my direction and he grinned that same grin he always did, that same grin I had

Friday Roundup: This Week’s Self Publishing Articles

This week’s roundup holds a fistful of great advice for self-publishers.  Being a self-publisher is a very hard life, which usually includes searching the internet for the best marketing strategy, creating a great cover, and using Twitter and Facebook like mad to market to an audience…not to mention blogging.  I learned a lot of great