What Would You Do To Get Your Books Onto Store Shelves?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

Have you ever wondered how to sell your books to stores if you’re not published by one of the top 5 publishers?

Well, I did. I spent a year trying different techniques, and I’ve put everything I’ve learned into a book.

Do you want the following pictures of you and your books?

AGSBNB Photo colllage in stores

 

Do you wonder if selling to non-bookstores is for you?

How would you approach a store?

How would you decide on a price, on a deal, on how to collect money?

I’ve answered these questions and many more in THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO SELLING BOOKS TO NON-BOOKSTORES.

 

AGTSBNB

Release Date: May 28, 2016

Published by Imajin Books

Special pre-order price of $0.99 USD

Time Limited Offer!

Click to buy at Kobo, Google Play, Amazon

Also on iBooks

Imagine walking into a grocery store, gift shop or other non-bookstore and seeing YOUR book for sale.  This wonderful experience is within your grasp—if you’re bold enough to pursue it.

Selling to traditional bookstores and making a profit can be extremely difficult, but there is an alternative. In this step-by-step guide, best-selling author Kristina Stanley will show YOU how to move beyond the bookstores and sell to other retail outlets. Every step is detailed, from formulating a plan to collecting money.

Stanley speaks from experience. She’s sold more books through non-bookstore retail outlets than through traditional bookstores, and YOU can too. Read on, and turn your dream into reality. Success is within your reach.

Pre-order The Author’s Guide To Selling Books To Non-Bookstores

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

 

Imajin Books, publisher of THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO SELLING BOOKS TO NON-BOOKSTORES, has generously offered a special price for a limited time only ($0.99 US).

Available now for pre-order at Kobo, Google Play, Amazon, and IBooks.

 

AGTSBNB

Imagine walking into a grocery store, gift shop or other non-bookstore and seeing YOUR book for sale.  This wonderful experience is within your grasp—if you’re bold enough to pursue it.

Selling to traditional bookstores and making a profit can be extremely difficult, but there is an alternative. In this step-by-step guide, best-selling author Kristina Stanley will show YOU how to move beyond the bookstores and sell to other retail outlets. Every step is detailed, from formulating a plan to collecting money.

Stanley speaks from experience. She’s sold more books through non-bookstore retail outlets than through traditional bookstores, and YOU can too. Read on, and turn your dream into reality. Success is within your reach.

Write Better Fiction: Scene Exit Hook

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

Today on Write Better Fiction we’ll cover The Exit Hook. Write Better Fiction is a process to help you critique your own manuscript and give yourself feedback. This will help you improve your novel, so you’re ready to submit it to an editor.

Everyone knows the cliche hook, line, and sinker. You can apply that to your scene but think of it as entry hook, scene middle, and exit hook. You’ll need all three of these elements in every scene to create a story your readers can’t put down.

The Exit Hook:

An exit hook is the thing that will keep your reader wanting to start the next scene.

You can ask yourself: Why would the reader keep reading once they reach the end of a scene?

Hook, LINE, SinkerTypes of Exit Hooks:

  1. Cliff Hanger – perhaps your protagonist’s life is at risk.
  2. Revelation – show the reader something that will change the course of the story.
  3. Set back for protagonist or antagonist – one of these characters should be very unhappy about the latest event.
  4. A secret revealed – you can either reveal a full secret or only part of a secret.
  5. A question left hanging – this will tease the reader, making them want the answer.
  6. An unexpected plot twist – this will keep the reader guessing.

Like scene entry hooks, varying the types listed above will make the novel more interesting for your reader.

You don’t want the reader to get to the end of a scene and be bored. You want them to resist going to bed, or making dinner, or going for a walk, and instead, keep reading.

Your challenge this week: Go through your manuscript and list the type of endings you have for each scene. Do you vary them? Have you used all the types? If you have other types, please list them in the comments below and help other readers learn from your experience.

I critiqued DESCENT and BLAZE using the techniques I’m sharing in Write Better Fiction, and I believe this helped me sign with a publisher.

Please let me know in the comments below if you have any suggestions how to check whether a scene middle is strong enough?

AGTSBNBAnd just for something different.  I’m happy announce that THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO SELLING BOOK TO NON-BOOKSTORES is now available for pre-order on Kobo and Google Play The release date is May 28th, 2016.

Thanks for reading…

Mystery Mondays: The Best Time To Start Promoting Your Novel

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 29 Comments

It is my pleasure to welcome Amy M. Reade to Mystery Mondays. Amy is an author and another of my “internet friends” who has generously agreed to share her advice.

The Best Time To Promote Yourself by Amy M. Reade

Screen Shot 2016-04-21 at 8.18.23 AMWhen Kristina asked me to write a guest post about my novel, my research, or a writing/publishing tip, my first inclination was to write something about the research I did for my new release. But then I changed my mind. I wanted to write the most helpful post I could think of, and research, while I love it and find it endlessly fascinating, is not a terribly enlightening subject for a blog post.

Instead, I’m going to share the best advice I ever received about marketing books.

Ready?

The best time to start promoting yourself is the day you decide to write a book, not the day you decide to shop it around to publishers or self-publish.

That was tough advice for me to hear, since it came from an acquisitions editor to whom I had sent my first novel. She liked the book, but when my manuscript came across her desk she did an online search for my name.

Know what she found?

Nothing. Not even a Facebook page, because I had sworn to myself never to enter the realm of social media.

She had to turn down my book, she said, because her press simply didn’t have the money to take a chance on a writer with zero followers.

That very day, I set up a Facebook page. Then, a few days later, a blog.

Fast forward three years. I’m still on Facebook with both a personal page and an author page. I still write a weekly blog. But you’ll also find me on my website, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, and author pages on Amazon and Goodreads. I also have a quarterly newsletter. I have embraced social media in a way I never dreamed possible. And here’s the best part: I love every minute of it.

My hope as I continue to write and publish books is that I can scale back on the number of sites I frequent and instead concentrate on a select few, but for now the name of the game is getting my books out there and helping people find me and my books.

I try to slip in and out of Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram a couple times a week, but I post on Facebook and Twitter several times daily. I keep my website updated with release and appearance dates and my book information and, as I’ve mentioned, I try to post a blog weekly. As for the Amazon and Goodreads author pages, I check those at least once a week to make sure they’re up-to-date.

I try to follow the 80/20 rule on most social media sites. The rule states that 80% of an author’s posts should be something other than “Buy my book! Buy my book!” The remaining 20%, however, can say exactly that.

The difference is on my Facebook author page, where my posts are almost 100% about my writing, my work, and links to my other social media sites. I try to promote other authors on my author page, but that is mostly done through links to book recommendations and author interviews I have on my blog. But that’s the point of a FB author page- it keeps your readers connected with you and what you’re up to as a writer. I share information and posts about other authors several times daily on my personal FB page (and all the time on Twitter).

And what I just said? It bears repeating: it’s essential to promote other authors because when you do that, it helps everyone. Recall the proverb “When the tide comes in, all ships rise.” It’s the same with authors. Helping other authors works to everyone’s advantage.

That brings to mind one more piece of advice: comment, comment, comment on the blogs of other authors, agents, readers, reviewers, and publishing industry insiders. It’s a great way to get your name out there. You’d be amazed at the number of interview and guest blog requests I’ve gotten just by commenting on other people’s blogs. It’s been a huge boost to me.

If you have questions about anything I’ve said, or about the host sites I use for my website and/or my blog, please feel free to leave them in the comments section. And please visit me on any of the sites below!

Website: www.amymreade.com

Blog: www.amreade.wordpress.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/amreadeauthor

Twitter: www.twitter.com/readeandwrite

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/amreade

Tumblr: www.amymreade.tumblr.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8189243.Amy_M_Reade

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Amy-M.-Reade/e/B00LX6ASF2/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

WHO Is Amy M. Reade?

Screen Shot 2016-04-21 at 8.21.16 AMAmy M. Reade grew up in northern New York. After graduating from college and law school, she practiced law in New York City before moving to southern New Jersey, where she lives now with her husband, three children, dog, two cats, and a fish. She writes full time and is the author of Secrets of Hallstead House, a novel of romantic suspense set in the Thousand Islands region of New York, and The Ghosts of Peppernell Manor, a novel in the same genre set outside Charleston, South Carolina. Her third novel, House of Hanging Jade, is set in Hawaii and will be released in April, 2016. She is currently working on the first book of a series set in the United Kingdom (expected release date in early 2017). She loves cooking, reading, and traveling.

 

 

 

Release Date Set! Cover Revealed! The Author’s Guide To Selling Books To Non-Bookstores

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 8 Comments

It’s been an awesome day in my house. I received two big pieces of news. The first is:

The Author’s Guide To Selling Books To Non-Bookstore is set for release on Saturday, May 28th, 2016 by Imajin Books. 

And…

Wait…

For…

It…

Ta Da! The cover.

AGTSBNB

Imagine walking into a grocery store, gift shop or other non-bookstore and seeing YOUR book for sale. This wonderful experience is within your grasp—if you’re bold enough to pursue it.

Selling to traditional bookstores and making a profit can be extremely difficult, but there is an alternative. In this step-by-step guide, best-selling author Kristina Stanley will show YOU how to move beyond the bookstores and sell to other retail outlets. Every step is detailed, from formulating a plan to collecting money.

Stanley speaks from experience. She’s sold more books through non-bookstore retail outlets than through traditional bookstores, and YOU can too. Read on, and turn your dream into reality. Success is within your reach.

Thanks for reading.

In case you haven’t heard, Imajin Books has their eBooks on sale this week. If you haven’t read DESCENT or BLAZE, they are only $0.99 until the end of the week.

 

Imajin Books Spring #eBook #Sale

~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

Only One Day Left so…Shower yourself with ebooks from Imajin Books…

Kristina Stanley's avatarKristina Stanley

Shower yourself with ebooks from Imajin Books during the Spring Showers eBook Sale April 17 – 23.

The sale includes DESCENT and BLAZE, so if you haven’t read either Stone Mountain Mystery, now is your chance.  Avalanche will be released later this spring, so why not read the first two in the series?

You’ll find an amazing selection of eBooks at Imajin Books for only  $0.99 US. If you like trilogies, and who doesn’t, these are only $1.99 US.

Give yourself the gift of reading. You deserve it.

Imajin Spring Showers Badge

Descent: When Kalin Thompson is promoted to Director of Security at Stone Mountain Resort, she soon becomes entangled in the high-profile murder investigation of an up-and-coming Olympic-caliber skier. There are more suspects with motives than there are gates on the super-G course, and danger mounts with every turn.

Blaze: Instead of exchanging vows, Kalin Thompson spends her wedding…

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Farley’s Friday: To Chase A Duck Or Not

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 11 Comments

Farley here,

The ducks are back in my neighbourhood. I’m contemplating chasing them. You can’t see them, but they’re in the pond.

Farley watching ducks

The problem is ducks can fly. I can’t. I wish I could. Do you think I can learn?

Woe is me. I’ll never catch a duck. Think I’ll just sit here and relax.

Happy Friday.

Woof Woof

Poll Results for Look The Other Way Back Text

~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

Thank you to all who answered my poll. Talk about an amazing experience. Not only did people answer the poll, some were kind enough to leave comments to help me improve either version, others sent me personal emails with re-written text.

LOOK THE OTHER WAY is a mystery that takes place in the Bahamas. Compass Cay is one of my favorite islands and is also one of the settings in the novel. Why you ask? How could sharks swimming beside our boat not be dramatic?

Sharks

So the results of the survey.

61% preferred Option B.

39% preferred Option A.

I’ve put the descriptions below in case you want to refer to them. One thing I gathered is that mystery readers prefer option A, and romance readers prefer option B.

Next, I’m going to take all the wonderful feedback and re-write to the text to make the description shorter and tighter.

In case you haven’t heard, Imajin Books has their eBooks on sale this week. If you haven’t read DESCENT or BLAZE, they are only $0.99 until the end of the week.

***

OPTION A:

Bobby Hall’s body washes up in the surf on a remote Bahamian island. His death is declared accidental. His grieving wife, Debi, hires Captain Jake Hunter, a former cop fleeing personal trauma, to sail with her on A Dog’s Cat and retrace Bobby’s final weeks at sea.

Shannon Payne is fired from the job she loves. Her engagement ends in disaster, and she no longer trusts her judgment of men. Giving up the life she knows as a reporter, she joins her aunt on A Dog’s Cat. The tranquility of life on a sailboat is what she needs. A tumultuous journey with the handsome captain is what she gets.

As tensions heighten on board, so does the attraction growing between Jake and Shannon. When Shannon learns a shocking truth about her childhood, a truth that might mean Bobby was murdered, the only thing clearer than the crystalline waters of the Bahamian archipelago is that someone is not telling the whole truth and hasn’t for a long time.

OPTION B:

A year after her uncle is lost at sea, Shannon Payne joins her grieving aunt on a journey through the idyllic Bahamian islands. She needs to recover from a devastating breakup with her fiancé. And sailing the turquoise waters, tracing her uncle’s route as a tribute to him, may just repair her heart. But instead of tranquility, she uncovers dark secrets from her past that may destroy any chance she has at happiness.

Captain Jake Hunter joins the duo on the thirty-eight-foot catamaran, A Dog’s Cat. He’s running away from painful memories. He dreams of escaping his life as a cop but finds himself embroiled in an investigation. He’s sworn off women, and now he’s living in close quarters with his boss’s niece, a blue-eyed beauty he can’t resist but should. Could his life get any more turbulent?

Shannon and Jake suppress the attraction they feel for each other, Bobby’s mysterious death hangs over them, and someone out there doesn’t want the truth uncovered.

Thanks for reading…

Write Better Fiction: The Scene Middle

~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

Today on Write Better Fiction we’ll cover The Scene Middle. Write Better Fiction is a process to help you critique your own manuscript and give yourself feedback. This will help you improve your novel, so you’re ready to submit it to an editor.

Everyone knows the cliche hook, line, and sinker. You can apply that to your scene but think of it as entry hook, scene middle, and exit hook. You’ll need all three of these elements in every scene to create a story your readers can’t put down.

Hook, LINE, SinkerThe Dreaded Scene Middle (hook, line, sinker)

You’ve got a great scene hook. Your readers are engaged. So don’t let them down when it comes to the middle of your scene. You want to reel them in all the way to the climax of the scene.

You must have conflict. This doesn’t mean a fight, but there should be something standing in the way of the goal of your point of view character for that scene. The conflict will cause the characters in the scene to react. This may be good or bad for your protagonist, but it must move your story forward.

Make sure there is action. Something must happen in the middle of your scene. I try to describe the action in one short sentence. That way when I scan the column in my spreadsheet and can check I have a tight middle.

 

This column will structure your thoughts  so it’s easy to ask yourself:

Are you repeating anything?

Does your middle link the scene hook to the climax?

Does everything in the middle either relate to the POV character goal, drive the story forward or develop character? If not, consider removing that part, or at the least, understand why you included it in your scene middle.

Screen Shot 2015-11-30 at 5.06.20 PM

Your challenge this week: In one sentence describe what happens in the middle of each scene. Is it enough to keep the reader reading?

I critiqued DESCENT and BLAZE using the techniques I’m sharing in Write Better Fiction, and I believe this helped me sign with a publisher. And speaking of my publisher, Imajib Books is having a sale this week.

Shower yourself with ebooks from Imajin Books during the Spring Showers eBook Sale April 17 – 23.

The sale includes DESCENT and BLAZE, so if you haven’t read either Stone Mountain Mystery, now is your chance.

Please let me know in the comments below if you have any suggestions how to check whether a scene middle is strong enough?

Thanks for reading…