Use Goodreads to Drive Aamazing Amazon Reviews

Followers of my blog know how much I adore Goodreads.  I believe it is an author's (indie or traditional) second most powerful marketing tool.  Twitter being the first.  The best thing about both these tools is they are free.  I've talked about using Goodreads giveaways to gain Impressions; I've counseled you on how to use Goodreads to Connect with Fans.  If you haven't read these posts I suggest you do because they are chock full of great marketing tools for all authors.

Yesterday I was looking for ways to garner new Amazon reviews for my latest novel, The Zombie Always Knocks Twice, when it occurred to me I didn't need to look around for possible reviewers.  I had already been contacted by possible reviewers, in fact for The Zombie Always Knocks Twice I'd been contacted by over 300 readers who wanted to read my book.

Those prospective readers signed up for my last Goodreads giveaway.  When I hold a Goodreads giveaway I only offer one copy of the book and I only hold it for just 5-7 days.  My last giveaway was for just 3 days. If you want to know why these numbers are important, read my post on Impressions.  305 readers signed up to win a free copy of my book, but only one of them won.  I realized I could make winners out of many more of them for something in return--an Amazon review.

So last evening I went to my Goodreads author page and began clicking on the icons of the readers who wanted my book.  I was able to see what their favorite books were, what books they'd recently read, what were their favorite genres and much more.  In other words, I am able to look at the profiles of everyone who requested my book and determine which of these readers might be most interested in reading it and (hopefully) giving my book a favorable review.

Then I messaged (yes, you can write a personal message to anyone on Goodreads who tried to win a free copy of your book) 10 of the readers.  I realize I'm not going to hear from all of them, but that's okay, I still have 295 prospects left.  How about that?

All you need to do to get a pool of qualified reviewers for your book is to: 1) host a Goodreads giveaway and then: 2) Contact those who didn't win and offer them a second chance at your book in exchange for an Amazon review.  Please remember when you're writing someone to be respectful of their privacy and time.  But be honest with them.  Say something like "I see you were interested in winning a free copy of my book. Sorry you didn't win, but I'd love to send you a copy in exchange for a fair an honest review that you post on Amazon." I'm sure you will get your share of positive responses.    Remember, these are people who already want to read your book.

The only drawback to a Goodreads giveaway is you must give away a paper book.  No ebooks.  So if you're ebook only, sorry, but this won't work for you.  If your book is available in paper it still doesn't mean you have to offer a hard copy for your Amazon review.  Postage can get expensive.  I started out by offering e-copies.  I'm sure I'll get some takers.

And I know I said use Goodreads to drive amazing reviews, and there's no guarantee of that.  But I am assuming your book is amazing and that all it needs is a few more readers singing its praises on Amazon to kick your sales into high gear.

That's my latest offering for indie authors.  I hope I didn't leave anything out.  I just thought of it and was dying to share it with you. 

Oh wait, one more thing.  I'm still looking for fair and honest Amazon reviews for The Zombie Always Knocks Twice.  If you're interested in reviewing my book please email me at info@evanlowe.com  Hope you enjoyed the post.


Peace.

Trolling For Reviews

I was trolling for reviews this evening when I came across a review of one of my books that cracked me up.  What is trolling for reviews?  That's what I call it when I go to Goodreads and scroll my books looking for a good new review. Yes, even the vaunted E. Van Lowe needs an ego boost from time-to-time  :-)   That's what I was doing this evening, killing some time and hoping to find something to boost my ego. Boyfriend From Hell has nearly 300 Goodreads ratings and 85 reviews, so finding a good new one can take a while.  But I'm glad I took the time.  I found a review posted today by Cindy.  It was perfect. Not because she wrote such an awesome review. But because it reads like a posting from someone who got the book and really enjoyed it.  And isn't that what we authors live for?  It's not for the money, although I'm sure we'd all love it, it's for fans.  We live to hear that readers love our books.  Cindy's review is full of quotes and even contains a photo of Rupert Grint, Ron Weasley, who Cindy thinks would be the perfect Matt.

"God, how I love Ronald Weasley"  That's Cindy talking, not me.  But I have to agree.  He's a great choice. Cindy is my kind of girl. She really got the book and took the time to comment on all the characters. Here's a link to her review: Cindy's Review

By the way, my post on The Twenty-Five has gotten some awesome responses.  I am so pleased to say I now have a Twenty-Five.  If you've asked to be a member you will be receiving an email from me in the next few weeks welcoming you to the group.  And if you're reading this and would like to become a member, I can have have more than 25 members.  That's the idea.  Just read the earlier post and send me an email.  Easy Peasy.

I haven't blogged for a while because I am doing final edits on Heaven Sent, the third book in the Falling Angels Saga.  But if you're looking for an E. Van Lowe read with my inimitable sense of humor, you don't have to wait for Heaven Sent.  The first book in my Hollyweird series, The Zombie Always Knocks Twice is now out.  Sales have been slow, so I could use your help, but the reviews have been as good as ever.  You can read a few here. Hollyweird on Goodreads.

All right, Frans, I have to get back to work.  The new one is due out in December.  If you're an author and on Goodreads, you never know what gems you'll turn up while trolling for reviews.  Cindy's review is the perfect example because it prompted this post.  Thanks again, Cindy.

Troll responsibly.

Peace.

The Power of 25

 

In my last post entitled Cultivating Fans, I used author John Locke's example of starting with 25 fans you can count on for a sale and building from there.  In the post, I said my goal was to have 100 such fans or frans, as I call you guys because hopefully you're more than fans, you're friends.

Because of several RTs and a posting by good fran, Donna at Girl Who Reads, that post has received almost 300 views, which is a lot for me in a week.  Anyway, that post got me thinking about the power of 25.  Look at the Twitter word-of-mouth photo above. 

One person talking about your book can really multiply.  If you know me, you know I like putting my money where my mouth is.  So, I've come up with a great idea that I want to share with you.  I have decided to start a group.  Not so much a fan club as a fran club.  I am calling my new group The 25.  If you decide to latch onto this idea, terrific, but call your group something else.  Okay?

I want to prove the power of 25.  I want to identify 25 frans who will buy my books.  I no longer want to assume I have 25 people who will buy my books.  I want to know I have 25 people because they have joined the group and are committed.  I hope some of you reading this will become members of The 25.  Here's what I am asking of you.

* That you buy 1 ecopy of my latest book
* That you purchase that copy on the day I ask
* That if you enjoy the book you evangelise it to at least 1 person
* That you sign up for my newsletter (with exclusives just for The 25)
* That you spread kindness, without being asked, to other authors and bloggers

And that's it.  I ask 5 things of you.  Just five things.  My ebooks generally sell for between &2.99-$5.99.  I publish 1-2 books a year.  That's a yearly financial burden of $9 dollars for joining The 25.   If you all purchase my book on the same day (Nook or Kindle) my ranking will drop (That's a good thing).  If my ranking drops low enough I will make a list.  If I make a list others may see my book and want to buy it.  You see how this works?  There's power in numbers--even a number as low as 25.

When you tweet to me add the hashtag #twofive.  Why?  Because pretty soon others on Twitter are going to ask about the hashtag and we can direct them to this post.  And who knows, maybe others will join The 25.

Why comment?  Because as my friend Donna pointed out in a post last week, I want to start a dialogue, and I can't if you don't respond to my posts or tweets.  Don't just read them and enjoy or hate them.  Let's talk. We should feel like we're in this together, that 25 is just a number, but that we're larger than that.

Okay, so what's in it for you:

* If you're an author, I will buy your books.  If you're a blogger and you need me to participate in some other way, just let me know.  And if you're neither author nor blogger, you need to tell me what you'd like from me.  I hope it's not a pony.  I cannot accommodate that.

* I will follow you, and tweet you, and at times sing your praises.
* You will get exclusives on contests and free stuff
* You can become one of my trusted beta readers and get fee autographed copies of my books

* Most importantly, I will be there for you, just as you are there for me.

Anyway, that's my idea of how to build a following, a community.  My community is selfish.  It's built around me, my work and my goals.  I'm not trying to pull the wool over any one's eyes here by pretending this is for you. But you--everyone of you can do the same thing.  Start your own community around your own selfish desires, but make sure part of your mission is to help others in achieving their goals.  It's the easiest way to get people to help you.  And the bonus is: it makes you feel really good, trust me on that.

That's the idea.  if it works for you--steal it. If you'd like to join The 25, email me at info@evanlowe.com.  I do not plan to stop at 25 members. I'd love to get to 1000 or more. I won't be asking anything from you now, but like Vito Corleone in The Godfather, I will be calling upon you some time on the future for a... favor. 

And it would be nice if some of you left a comment here.  Even if you don't like what I'm saying here, comment anyway, and let me know. 

If you want to improve sales and get more dedicated viewers to your blog, start with 25 frans and build a community of frans online.  That's the way I see it.

Peace.


** 1/2/15 I still need a few more beta readers for my latest work.  If you'd like to be a beta join The 25 now.


**10/24/14  Update.  Shortly, I will be looking for beta readers for my latest work.  If you'd like to be a beta, join The 25 now.

Cultivating Fans

When I worked in television, I was fortunate enough to work on shows that had thousands, if not millions of fans.  As a writer/producer of The Cosby Show and Even Stevens, fan mail was routinely diverted to a department at Disney who dispersed it to cast members.  I don't know what they did with the mail that wasn't directed to specific cast members, but in my years at Disney, I saw very little fan mail.

Because of this, fans seemed to me to be "those" people.  The show's ratings told me they were out there and that they adored my work, but I had no direct contact with them.  Because they didn't feel real to me, I took them for granted. Believe it or not, many authors today have this same attitude, thinking that fans are "those" people.  People who adore us, but we don't have to do anything for their adoration. 

Coming out of the TV biz, I realized if I was going to be successful as an author, I had to change my attitude.  Fans aren't "those" people, fans are "us."  We're in this together.  I do my part by writing something you like.  You do your part by purchasing it.  And hopefully in between the writing and the purchasing, we develop a relationship and try to get to know one another a little bit.

John Locke, the indie author who became famous for selling 1 million ebooks in five months says: Develop a list of guaranteed buyers.  In his book, Locke says his ultimate goal is to have an email list of 10,000 guaranteed buyers, but he started out with a goal of 25.

I think this is a good place for any author to begin.  Find 25 fans that you can email with, tweet with, message with on Goodreads and chat with on Facebook.  These are the people you can count.  They're not exactly fans, though.  They're more than fans, they're friends, or as I like to call them-- frans.

Last week I received a Goodreads  message from a fran in Italy asking when the new Falling Angels Saga book was coming out.  I messaged her back, reminding her it was coming out in December but that I had a new series starting right now with The Zombie Always Knocks Twice.  She bought my new book, read it, and gave me my very first review.  I know for sure when Heaven Sent comes out in December, she'll be at the head of the line.

I chat with a handful of frans on Twitter on a regular basis.  I email with several more.  I wouldn't know any of these people if they hadn't found one of my books.  But now that I do know them, I try to be a friend to them.

Recently, a fran who wasn't a writer, became a writer and wrote her first book.  I bought her book just as she has bought mine.  The old TV me might have thought "ooh, isn't that cute, she wrote a book."  But me and my frans are in this together, which means we have to support one another.  By the way, if you're looking for an excellent dystopian romance with some terrific action and suspense, have I got a book for you:  Frozen Heart. 

Would I like to have 10,000 frans I can count on for a sale?  Of course I would.  But right now I'm concentrating on 100.  100 frans I can count on to buy my books.  If I'm going to reach this goal I have to do my part as well.  They need to know I'm rooting for them, too.  And the best part of it is... I am!!!

In the world of independent authors, the relationship between author and fan is no longer a one-way-street.  I think this is a good thing.  So if you want to become a Best Selling author (both Boyfriend From Hell and Earth Angel made Amazon's children's ebook Best Seller List) start by cultivating a relationship with 25 frans and build from there.

Hey, E. Van Lowe frans--Thanks for everything.  And if you're not a fran yet and would like to be one, write me and become one. There are no special requirements to be in my club.

*the photo at the top is Lauren, one of my first frans.  She was in high school back then, participating in my first photo contest.  Today she's a college student. Last year I paid Lauren to help develop my marketing plan.  We're in this together.

Peace.

The Zombie Is A Knockin'

Okay, people!  It's put up or shut up time.  All of you who say "Ooh, E. Van Lowe, we love you so much,"  I have a new series starting and it's success depends on you.  I think this new one is every bit as good as my best selling novels Boyfriend From Hell and Earth Angel.  If you'd like to check out a sample there's one available at The Bookish Brunette, who was also gracious enough to host my book cover reveal.  Thanks, Ashley.


Peace.

BlurbQuest IV

Back in early 2009 before my first YA Never Slow Dance With A Zombie had come out, I received an email from my editor at Tor Teen telling me I needed to get some author blurbs for the book.  You know those blurbs you see on book covers or inside.  "Scared the bejezus out of me" --Stephen King. Those things.

I was stunned.  "I thought you guys came up with that stuff."  "No.  Blurbs are acquired by the author." 

And so I set out on my very first blurbquest.  I looked everywhere, wrote many authors.  I didn't get one.  After a few weeks of failure, I tried another angle.  I was new to writing novels, but I wasn't new to writing, so I decided to get blurbs from writers in the genre I knew best.  TV. 

Never Slow Dance With A Zombie is a funny zombie novel, so I reached out to writers who wrote for TV shows with fans I thought would find my book appealing.  I found great success.  I got two awesome blurbs.  Mike Price of The Simpsons wrote: "If this book doesn't make you laugh out loud at least a dozen times, then maybe you're a zombie."

Jim Bernstein formerly of Family Guy and American Dad wrote: "Mean Girls meets Night of The Living Dead, as frightening, tumultuous and hilarious as actual adolescence."

I even had a friend wrangle a blurb from comic book sensation Marv Wolfman, creator of Blade and The New Teen Titans: "Van Lowe's prose is fun, funny, as well as insightful, and his story is filled with the kind of antic bizarreness that definitely is High School."

I was feeling pretty good about myself... until I presented my blurbs to my editor who told me "Only author blurbs or prestigious periodicals go on the cover." 

I was crushed.  They weren't going to use them.

I had called in favors to get those blurbs.  But hey, no worries. That was one of those life lesson thingys. Despite having no blurbs, the book went on to become a Scholastic Book Club selection, was nominated for an ALA Award, and sold pretty darn well. So nah, nah! blurb Gods.

Since then, however, I have to admit, I have gotten the sweats every time a publisher asks for blurbs.  And while I was close to landing one with Boyfriend From Hell, I was not able to land an author blurb that meant anything...until now.  Several weeks ago the publisher of my up-coming novel The Zombie Always Knocks Twice, Imajin, asked for blurbs.  Oh, nooooo! Not again!  I could feel the flop sweat pooling up in my armpits before I finished reading the email.

This time, however, things would be different.  I knew a prominent zombie author whom I'd met on line.  I wrote another big name zombie author blind, and she wrote back "E, I feel I already know you."  Wha??? I even reached out to a prestigious organization.  They all agreed to... write... blurbs.  Hallelujah!

It took me four years and four books to finally get an author blurb. The lesson here is if you stay at it long enough, you will have success.  That goes for getting published or any other endeavor.  Hang in there, friends. 

I want to thank Rusty Fischer, author of Zombies Don't Cry, Amanda Ashby, author of Zombie Queen of Newbury High and The Paranormal Romance Guild for their awesome blurbs.  The blurbs?  I'll share them with you in another post.

I you don't already know, The Zombie Always Knocks Twice is the first in my Hollyweird series.  The cover reveal will either happen today or tomorrow.  It's being done by The Zombie Queen herself, Ashley, The Bookish Brunette.  I want to thank her as well.  Please support me and purchase the book on or after 8-30-12.  It's being released as an ebook first with the paperback coming in a month.  And if you enjoyed this post, please let me know by leaving a comment.

By the way, those awesome blurbs Tor didn't use reside on my equally awesome Never Slow Dance With A Zombie bookmarks. Oh, yeah!
Peace.

Meet Davah Avena

Last Monday I went to the offices of JKE/ATA, the company that optioned my novels  Boyfriend From Hell and Earth Angel to turn them into a TV series.  My visit was to meet one of the prospective writers chosen to write the Boyfriend From Hell TV pilot.  Meetings like this can be tough on the writer.  There were five of us there to hear her tell us how she envisioned the show.  That can be nerve wracking for anyone.

Our writer, however, was really vivacious and full of smiles.  I liked her immediately.  We went to a conference room, all of us on one side of the long table across from the poor writer.  She was unfazed and proceeded to tell us how she would present the series, and also gave us a primer on the different ways to pitch it to different networks.  She knew her stuff.

By the end of the meeting we were all in love with her.  We knew we'd found our writer.   And so, without further ado,  I am happy to introduce you to the writer of the Boyfriend From Hell TV pilot, Davah Avena.

This photo was taken last Friday when me, Davah and JKE/ATA manager-creative development, Heidi Mueller, met in JKE's beautiful break room to further discuss the show. Davah was a writer and story editor on NBC's Medium for two seasons.  I loved that show.   I also loved Davah's pilot Armed & Psychic, about two sisters, one cop, one psychic.  The script had a sense of humor that reminded me of my own.  And look at that smile.  You guys are falling in love with her already, just like I did, aren't you?

The journey to getting on TV is a tricky one, and I'd like to take you along with me.  To get on TV, the first thing you must do is find a writer who is on THE LIST.  Networks have secret lists that aren't all the same. It's like an exclusive night club.  If you're not on the list, they won't take your pitch.  We know that Davah is on the CW, ABC Family and NBC lists, and these are key places we'd like to take the show.  So we're in good shape there.

That's Heidi above.  Her passion about seeing my books become a TV show is one of the reasons I'm with JKE.  She's a great development exec with an excellent feel for what a youthful audience wants to see on TV.  She's convinced my books will make a terrific TV show.  I hope she's right.  Thanks for your support, Heidi.

The three of us met and discussed what would be different about the series from the books.  I liked the new stuff, and if the show gets on, you'll be in for some neat surprises.  One thing I'm sure everyone will like is Davah's desire to give both Guy and Matt a larger role.  I can't tell you how many people have written me saying they needed to see more Guy.  Now you will.

Me and Davah.  I know, I am wearing the hell  out of that hat.  What can I say, I like it.

The three of us had a great meeting of the minds on Friday, combining elements from the books with some new stuff.  By the way, Davah loved Ibwa from Earth Angel, so expect to see more of the little red demon as well. 

Next step is for Davah to work up the pitch.  She says it will take a week.  In the mean time, Sheree (my manager and producing partner) and Steve (president JKE/ATA) will be setting our first pitch meeting.  I'll keep you posted. 

I hope you enjoy my peeling back the curtain of the inner workings of Hollywood.  I know most people outside of the community have no idea how a show gets on TV. So come with me on this journey, and hopefully next spring, we'll have something to celebrate.  I also hope to do an interview with Davah down the road so you can get to know her better. 

If you enjoy stories that take place behind the scenes in Hollywood, you will love my up-coming novel The Zombie Always Knocks Twice.  It's the first book in my Hollyweird series.  The book is due out on August 30th.  That's all  for now.  Man, I am having one exciting August.

Peace.