Tips For Hosting A Facebook Launch Party

August 12, 2015August 12, 2015 ~ Kristina Stanley ~ 49 Comments

Exhausted, that’s how I felt when my Facebook launch party ended. Three hours of chatting online, asking trivia questions, keeping track of winners, and answering questions.

This is the story of how I created and hosted my first launch party.

Preparation for the event.

Create a banner to announce your event. I used Canva.com. It’s free.

Set up event on Facebook. Remember to make the event public or only your friends can see it.
Put the back description of your novel at the top of the page with a link to where your book is sold. You can use booklinker.net to create a link that will take the person to the amazon site of their home country.
Invite all your friends and ask them to share your post.
Send a reminder the day before and the morning of the event.
Have something to give away. I had 14 books donated by other authors. My publisher recommended not to give away DESCENT as it is a new release. I limited each winner to two books.
Create trivia questions. My questions were all related to the books being given away by other authors, but you ask anything really. I created questions from the Amazon site for the books donated so people could look up the answers and there would be no confusion about the correct answer.
Have winners direct message you with their email address. I only gave away eBooks to make the process easy and less costly for donating authors. People could attend your event from different countries and mailing a paperback could get expensive.
If books are being given away, take a screen shot of the book cover from Amazon and post it with the trivia question. Don’t add the link to Amazon as the answer to your question might show up too.
Keep the trivia questions and answers in a word document so you can cut and paste them instead of having to type them as you go. Things move fast in a launch.
Create a list of pre-posts in word in case things get slow. I only used a couple of the ones I created. This could be a question about reading, your books or anything your guests might be interested in.

Here are a couple of sample threads you can post about 10 minutes before the event starts.

Pin the first thread to the top, otherwise people won’t be able to follows what’s going on.

Welcome Guests (other than authors giving away books): Please check in here. Tell us your name, where you’re from and how you know me ☺ This is our main chat thread.

Have a thread where authors can sign in.

Authors check in: Can donating authors please check in here. Tell us your name, location and the name of the title you are donating. Thank you.

After the launch:

send an email to donating authors with email of person who won their book. The donating author will send their book directly to the winner.
Watch the site in the days following the launch. Sometimes people come on later just to comment or ask a question.
Update your Facebook banner to remove the banner announcing the launch and replace with new banner.

Once you add the updated banner, remember to add the shop now button. Again I used the Booklinker.net link so the reader could be taken to their relevant amazon site.

You can see an example of my event (held July 25th, 2015) at: https://www.facebook.com/events/459737280862514/ Feel free to copy any of the threads to use for your event.

If you’re interested, you can buy or download a sample of DESCENT at: myBook.to/Descent

Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or suggestions to improve a Facebook launch party.

Thanks for reading…

Tools for Tracking Novel Sales

August 5, 2015August 6, 2015 ~ Kristina Stanley ~ 14 Comments

DESCENT was published July 25th, 2015, and I’d like to share some of the tools I’ve discovered since the launch.

Novelrank is free software that keeps track of Amazon sales for you. I don’t know how accurate it is, but it does give an idea of how your book is doing.

Booklinker is free service that will create a link for you book, but here’s the magic. Instead of having to create one link for each Amazon site your book is on, it creates one link and when a user clicks on the link, they are taken to that Amazon of their county. Book linker also shows you how many times the link was clicked for each country. Here is the link for DESCENT: myBook.to/Descent

Bitly is another way to create links. In one email campaign I used, I sent a specific link to each person using the amazon of their country. Bitly has a useful stats page that will tell you how many times the link is clicked and what day it was clicked on. Here is an example of the country specific clicks. This doesn’t tell you anything about sales, but it does let you know if people are clicking the link and hence is your campaign working.

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The other way to get an idea of how your book is doing is watch amazon rankings and bestseller lists. Your publisher may also publish a bestseller list. Imajin Books showcases their bestselling authors each month and you can see DESCENT did well in both paperback and eBook.

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If you know of any other useful tools out there, please comment below and let me know.

Thanks for reading…

DESCENT: ‘My stomach knotted…’

August 2, 2015August 2, 2015 ~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

Reblogged from Magic of The Muses

DESCENT: ‘My stomach knotted…’.

Welcome to Kristina Stanley, author of the brand new thriller DECENT.

Let’s find out if doing the final edit on a novel is as terrifying as murder on the slopes… Read more at Magic of The Muses

***

Thanks to Eileen Schuh for hosting me on her blog.

Eileen’s books:

Eileen's Novels

DESCENT Paperbacks Arrive

July 29, 2015July 29, 2015 ~ Kristina Stanley ~ 10 Comments

It’s a chilling and exhilarating feeling to see a physical version of my novel for the first time.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Photo by David R. Conn

Descent is avialable for purchase on Amazon.

I’m just too happy to write anything more today. Thanks for reading…

Descent’s Launch: Seven Sleeps To Go

July 18, 2015July 24, 2015 ~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

I’m nervous. I’m excited. I’m flattered.

Check out the authors who are donating eBooks as prizes for DESCENT’s online launch party on July 25th, 2015.

Melodie Campbell donating THE ARTFUL GODDAUGHTER (A Gina Gallo Mystery) and A PURSE TO DIE FOR

Jessie Giles Christiansen donating PELICAN BAY (The Captain Shelby Trilogy Book 1)

Michael James Conn donating THE RIGHT TURN

Kat Flannery donating LAKOTA HONOR (Branded Trilogy Book 1) and BLOOD CURSE (Branded Trilogy Book 2) – 2 copies of each!

Debra Purdy Kong donating OPPOSITE OF DARK (Casey Holland Mystery #1)

C.S Lakin donating INNOCENT LITTLE CRIMES

Susan J McLeod donating SOUL AND SHADOW (A Lilly Evans Mystery)

Rosemary McCracken donating SAFE HARBOR (A Pat Tierney Mystery)

Cheryl Kaye Tardif donating Devine Intervention (Devine Trilogy Book 1) and E.Y.E of the Scorpion (E.Y.E Spy Mystery Book 1)

That’s nine authors and fourteen books. If you don’t want to wait for DESCENT’s launch to read one of these fabulous authors, click on the title of their book and you’ll be taken right to Amazon.

When is the party? July 25th, 3-6 PM EST

Where? Click here to sign up.

I’d love to chat with you online on the 25th, so come on by and sign up. Maybe you’ll be the lucky winner of one of these books.

One big happy thank you and shout out to the participating authors!

Thanks for reading…

Descent’s First Official Review

July 13, 2015July 13, 2015 ~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

Every day, it seems like the publishing journey sends me a present. But before I tell you what today’s present is, let me talk about what I learned this week.

Imajin Books taught me reviews are important for the success of a novel. This includes online reviews which Amazon won’t allow until the book is released – a good thing since how can someone review a novel if they haven’t read the book. These reviews have to come later.

The other important aspect are reviews from professionals who publish on blogs, in magazines and in newspapers.

How do you get a review? Well, you honed your skills writing query letters, didn’t you? That’s the big ask. The first letter to an agent or a publisher is the hardest. The asking gets easier with time. If you’re self published you’ll still want reviews and still need to ask.

To write a letter to a reviewer I included:

What I was asking for
The back jacket description of DESCENT
Who my publisher is along with release date
What my credentials are (award wins and nominations)
Early praise for DESCENT
And finally, I asked if the reviewer would read an Advanced Reader Copy of DESCENT. I didn’t send a copy until the reviewer said yes.

So now you’ve waited patiently to see what my present is. It’s my first review. You can hear a drum roll, can’t you?

Don Graves is a long-time mystery and crime reviewer. For many years he wrote a column for the Hamilton Spectator and has won an award for his Spectator reviews of Canadian mystery novels. Here’s what he had to say about DESCENT

Descent is the first in a series of Stone Mountain mysteries. It’s an action packed story. Testosterone, stress, dangerous corners and pain lead to murder on the slopes of this remote ski resort. Kalin Thompson, head of security is ordered to investigate by her boss. A growing list of suspects leads Kalin to wonder if the dead Olympic calibre skier got what he deserved. Descent, a mystery that keeps you riding the lift for one last read and the killer’s identity. – Don Graves, Canadian Mystery Reviews

If you’d like to help me celebrate , Descent’s Facebook launch party? July 25th, 3-6 PM EST. You are invited and most welcome to join us to help celebrate. Come and win a book from one of the amazing authors donating their work! Click here to join.

DESCENT is now available for pre-order in eBook format. The paperback will follow shortly.

If you haven’t read my blog before, I’ve signed on with Imajin Books and will blog about my publishing adventure. I’ll share what I learn and hope it helps someone out there get their novel published.

Please feel free to share this post and help me get the word out.

Thanks for reading…

Farley’s Friday: A Proofreading Dog

July 10, 2015July 11, 2015 ~ Kristina Stanley ~ 7 Comments

Farley here.

I’m getting a bit jealous of Kristina’s writing. She spends more time “working” than walking me. When we lived in the Bahamas we were off the boat by 7 am at the latest, and would meet our friend for life, Debi. She’s a human, not a dog, but still my friend. We’d go for a long beach run. Then the ladies would do yoga or work out on the beach while I relaxed in the shade.

Now this is what I get to do.

Kristina thinks I can proofread. If I wag may tail once, it means all is good. If I whine, I’ve found a mistake. My day starts with an hour of reading while Kristina markets her book, whatever that means.

She’s hosting a Facebook Launch Party for her debut novel, DESCENT, on July 25th from 3-6 pm EST. There will be prizes – meaning authors are giving away books to the lucky people who are the first to answer a trivia question. I can’t tell you what the questions are because she won’t tell me. Come by and say hello to me, Farley, and you could win a book! Just click here to join.

Woof Woof

DESCENT LAUNCH PARTY: July 25th, 2015

July 6, 2015July 7, 2015 ~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Who are the mystery authors donating books to DESCENT’s Facebook launch party?

This is all part of the publishing cycle – host a launch party. To energize the party and make it exciting for virtual visitors, I asked other authors to donate one or two of their novels as prizes.

So not to keep you in suspense, in alphabetical order, the contributors are…

But what books will they donate? That’s a mystery to be solved on another blog. Stay tuned…

When is the Facebook launch party? July 25th, 3-6 PM EST. You are invited and most welcome to join us to help celebrate. Come and win a book from one of the amazing authors!

DESCENT is now available for pre-order in eBook format. The paperback will follow shortly.

Please feel free to share this post and help me get the word out.

Thanks for reading…

DESCENT Coming Soon!

June 27, 2015 ~ Kristina Stanley ~ 10 Comments

I have butterflies in my stomach. Years of hard work and a dream has led to this…Imajin Books has announced DESCENT’s release date: July 25, 2015.

The full cover of DESCENT designed by Ryan Doan…Ta Da!

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000040_00072]

Can this really be happening?

Thanks for reading…

Unveiling of DESCENT…A little more…

June 24, 2015 ~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

You’ve probably noticed I’m having fun with the upcoming release of DESCENT. So here’s a big piece of the fun. Award winning author of the Inspector Green mysteries, Barbara Fradkin, provided a quote for the cover of DESCENT. I can hardly contain my excitement.

Screen Shot 2015-06-24 at 7.02.00 AM

If you haven’t read Barbara, now’s your chance! Here is where you can find her first Inspector Green novel, DO OR DIE.

For the inside cover, I was very lucky to receive quotes from Brenda Chapman and Garry Ryan. Check out Cold Mourning by Brenda and Queen’s Park by Garry. These are the debut novels in their series.

In case you haven’t seen their quote, I just have to share them again.

“Murder rocks the competitive ski world in Stanley’s layered tale with enough suspects to keep readers guessing until the last chilling chapter.” –Brenda Chapman: Award winning author of the Stonechild and Rouleau Mysteries.

“From the first line, you’re strapped into a Stanley novel. Just turn the page, hang on, and enjoy the ride.” –Garry Ryan: Award-winning author of the Detective Lane mysteries and Blackbird trilogy.

Full cover coming soon…

Thanks for reading.