BEYOND THE PAGE: Awakening Publishes Tomorrow!

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October 6, 2015

BEYOND THE PAGE: Awakening Publishes Tomorrow!

FFFriends, today marks the final installment in BEYOND THE PAGE! It’s our last behind-the-scenes glimpse into turning a manuscript into a published book series. Author Catrina Burgess sat down with us for the last time to discuss THE DARK RITUALS, which begin publishing TOMORROW. Take it away, Cat…

Yes—my books begin publishing tomorrow!! If you think creating a finished book series has been a lot of work so far, here comes the hardest part: trying to get readers to notice. There are a ton of books out there, so how can you make sure people know about yours?

To help spread the word about The Dark Rituals, I’ll be posting covers, book blurbs, teasers, excerpts, and buy links on my social media—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Wattpad—and scheduling a blog tour.

How do you set up a blog tour, you ask? There are groups on the internet that will set up a tour for you for a fee, but many authors also set up their own tours.

Tips for setting up your own blog tour:

  • Start keeping a list of any book blogs you come across and jot down blogs you see your writing friends and favorite authors posting on
  • Do an internet search for blogs, looking specifically for blogs that are interested in the genre you write (there are romance blogs, mystery blogs, paranormal blogs, etc.)
  • Create an email to send out to all the blogs that contains the following information:
    1. A paragraph asking if the blog has any space and if you can come and blog about your book
    2. An introduction or author bio
    3. Information about your book
    4. Any excerpts and buy links

What is expected of you when you “visit” a blog as an author on tour? Sometimes a blog will just want some info to post: your cover, book blurb, buy links, and author bio. Other times, a blog will want a more personal guest post. A guest post is basically you rambling on about something. 😉 You can talk about what inspired you to write the books, or you can do something creative, like an interview with one of your characters. Or you can talk about a topic that has nothing to do with your books—write a rant on your hatred of Twinkies, for example. But make sure whatever type of guest blog you end up writing includes all your book info and social media links somewhere in the post. Remember, the whole point of blogging is so readers can learn more about you and hopefully go check out your books.

Thankfully, FFFDig’s marketing coordinator, Caroline, is helping me with all of this stuff. Caroline set up the blog tour and will also send shout outs about The Dark Rituals to review sites. Caroline will be there every step of the way to help me maneuver through all the tricky things that go along with the marketing of my books. Thank you, Caroline!

But here’s some really important information: an author can’t just sit back and let the Caroline of the company do all the work. No reader will find the book if the author isn’t involved in trying to get the word out.

You can also interest readers by running contests. Rafflecopter is one cool website that helps you run a contest. What kind of things do you giveaway? This depends on the type of book you’re publishing, and the audience for that book. Some authors just give away copies of their books—either digital or print. Other authors like to put together a prize pack.

For The Dark Rituals, I first gave away a Reader’s Survival Kit full of fun paranormal stuff. That contest just ended today, so…drumroll please… The winner is…Barbara Desmond! Congratulations, Barbara!

Next, I’ll be giving away a Ghost Hunter’s kit. You can enter the giveaway HERE starting tomorrow, October 7th.

You can also make up some cool swag to go along with your books. One thing a lot of authors like to make is bookmarks. My friend, author Lilian Carmine (she wrote the Lost Boys Trilogy), is an illustrator in her day job. She created this very cool graphic for my bookmark:

awakening-bmark_720

I will also be making up a bookmark that features the newer Dark Rituals covers.
So, there you have it—a peek beyond the page. A chance to see what happens when you sign up with a publishing house and all the work, sweat, and tears that go into taking a story from manuscript to published work. Now go out there and help me spread the word about The Dark Rituals, because tomorrow, Awakening goes on sale!

What is BEYOND THE PAGE?

Ever wonder what happens after you sign with a publishing house? Catrina Burgess, author of The Dark Rituals series coming this October, has convinced us to give you a behind-the-scenes look at how a manuscript becomes a finished book. Tune in every Tuesday for a new installment, and check out the series on the author’s blog at catrinaburgess.com!

Read the whole series here:

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