Spill the Tea Tuesday: Judging a Book by its Cover

Don't judge a book by its cover! We've all heard that, and I'm sure a lot of us have said this at some point, too, but personally, I think this is terrible advice. I mean, let's be honest, we all judge books by their covers. How can we not? The cover is often the very first thing we see. If a cover is ugly or amateurish or confusing or hard to read, I'll keep scrolling (or strolling the aisles if I'm in an actual bookstore). Do I miss some good books because of this? Probably. But on the flip side, I've seen some absolutely gorgeous covers that make me stop and take notice. Then the blurb doesn't entice me or the story itself is just bad. 

Now, I realize this means I should take the above advice--don't judge a book by its cover--right? But again, no. Why? Because as an author, especially an Indie author, it's your job (my job) to create a cover that will grab a potential reader's attention. But my work doesn't stop there. I also need to ensure the blurb and the contents of the book are just as stellar. If my cover snags attention, I then need to guarantee my blurb will make that reader open to page one. And then I need to hook them enough to want to keep reading. 

So, while I agree we shouldn't judge the contents of a book by its cover, we absolutely need to use the cover as a tool to decide if it's something we want to invest our time and money in--two things a majority of people are in short supply of lately. 

You're probably wondering what prompted this post, so let me explain...

When I published my YA paranormal books (The Cursed Series), I hired a professional cover artist who I'd worked with before in various other capacities, and I truly adored her work. I gave her ideas of what I wanted, and she exceeded my expectations. 

I absolutely LOVE my covers, and when I'm at a book signing and have the entire series lined up on my table, I get so many compliments on the covers and how stunning they are--and how perfectly they all fit together from a series branding standpoint. And people really tend to love the colors, too.

But then I paid for a consultation from a successful author who reviewed my catalog and offered insight into how I could better brand and market my series in an effort to increase sales. Now, I learned a lot from this author, and I'm so glad I did the consult--it was definitely money well spent. However, one of her biggest "issues" was with my covers. She felt they didn't fit within the current market trends, didn't properly portray my genre and age category, and that, because the last book had an object as opposed to people, it didn't fit well with the rest of the series. 

I disagreed. Vehemently. 

And I refused to change my covers. 

Yes, a big part of this was sheer stubbornness on my part, but an equally big part was the cost of doing a total cover re-brand on seven books. I just didn't have the funds. Yet, I couldn't seem to shake her advice. Was she right? Did I need to re-do my covers? So, I do what I always do in this situation... I reached out to my trusted circle of friends and asked for their opinions. They all agreed that my covers were fine, and sales were steady. I let the advice go and kept going as I had been.

Recently, though, sales have stagnated. Not stopped, mind you, but I haven't really seen any increases, either. Can you guess where this is going?? LOL. 

For those of you who haven't seen today's social media posts, I'm finally taking the plunge and rebranding my Cursed Series. But not just the covers--the interior formatting, the editing, and the blurbs. Will this help boost sales? No idea, but it's worth a shot, right? 

My question for all of you readers: Do you judge books by their covers? How do you feel about authors switching out book covers like this--love it? Hate it? Don't really care? Drop your thoughts in the comments and let's spill some tea. 

Spill the Tea Tuesday: Brand Your Sh*t!

Today, blogger and PA Kris Riley is spilling the tea...

Hey y'all. Today I am spilling the tea on branding for your business and why you as authors, PAs or any business owner should be making sure your business is branded.

What is a brand? A brand is how you get recognized. It is a name, logo, tag line, brand voice and design that makes yourself or your business stand out from all the others. Branding helps create clarity and focus for your readers or clients. The benefits of branding are immense but just a couple that I think are the most prominent are customer recognition and consistency.

1.Customer recognition is huge. When someone sees your logo or hears your tagline they are going to automatically envision your company. 

2. Staying consistent in any business is crucial, as we all know. Changing up a logo happens. It is best to keep the same colors just so that while the logo may be new people will know the tagline. Same for when you change your tagline. 

Branding is one of the easier ways to bring attention to yourself and business.

As a business owner and PA, I make sure to brand all of my clients graphics. Living in the world of the internet and memes we all know how people save whatever snags their attention. Imagine working hard on a new graphic and having it swiped and used in a million places without anyone knowing who created it. Yet, if you have your logo and brand on it, everyone will know where to go to find more. 

Branding is an easy way to help further your career. The best part yet... starting a brand costs very little. There are so many apps that will help you make a logo. Canva and VistaCreate are great places to start. Make sure to choose your color palette to something that will age gracefully in your market. Fonts should be easy to read. A tip for when you download your logo - make sure you download one that is transparent. It makes it easier when you have a different colored background.

Once you have your logo make sure to place it on everything you make. It can be the focus point or it can be small. Which you choose will be based on the graphic you are creating. I hope this bit of tea helps you understand more about how important branding can be to you and your business. 

Kris Riley is the owner of Blissful Services. She started out as a reviewer/blogger and tiptoed into becoming a PA. While Blissful Services is a little over a year old, Kris has been deep in the indie book community since 2015. When Kris is not busy with Blissful Services she is usually found with her nose in a book, taking classes to further her skills as a PA, or playing in her digital planner. Kris has been happily married to the love of her life for 17 years. Together, they have 3 children and a spoiled pit bull. Learn more about Kris and Blissful Services on her website, blog, and Facebook. 

The tea has been spilled! Who's gonna clean it up? 

Drop your thoughts in the comments!

The Journey to Self-Publication, Part 18: Skipping a Month or Two

  I've gotten quite a few questions about why I finally decided to delve into self-publishing and how I'm doing it, so I figured why not create a new blog series!

Every Monday, I'll be sharing a piece of the self-publishing puzzle---from how I came to this choice to writing, editing, marketing, sales, and everything in between. Please remember that this is simply my experience, how I chose to do things. Others do things differently, and that's fine! So, your mileage may vary, but in the end, I hope seeing yet another way of tackling self-publishing will help you on your path. 

Need to catch up on previous posts? Find them here:

Part 1: Making the Choice

Part 2: Creating an LLC

Part 3: Writing the Book(s)

Part 4: STILL writing the Book(s)

Part 5: CPs, Beta Readers, and Editors

Part 6: Cover Art!

Part 7: Formatting and Distribution

Part 8: Pre-release Marketing

Part 9: Release Week Marketing

Part 10: First Month Sales and Efforts

Part 11: Marketing Book Two

Part 12: Audio Books

Part 13: What Now?

Part 14: Defining Success

Part 15: Building a Publishing Team

Part 16: Book Trailers

Part 17: Facebook Takeover Events

I published the first book in The Cursed Series in September 2020, and I've had a new book releasing every month for 6 months straight. Until now. I do not have a new book ready to release in March, and at first, I was panicking. I'd built all this momentum, and now I was going to lose it because I didn't have something new to promote. But then I realized, so what? Skipping a month or two without a new release is not the end of the world, nor is it the end of my Indie career. In fact, this is actually a good thing!

Every book in this series is connected. You can probably read book 2 without having read book 1 first and it will make sense, but trying to jump into this series with any other book, and you'll be lost. They were written and meant to be read in order, so even though all 6 books have released, I still very actively promote book 1 more than all the others because that's where I want readers to start. And if I can get them started with book 1, the hope is they'll become hooked and then follow through with the rest of the series. 

My next planned release is a spin off to The Cursed Series. It follows a couple of the secondary characters from the main series, but it picks up right after book 6 ends, and the events of book 6 are crucial to understanding the events in this spin off. So, once again, the series needs to be read in order. Now, I could have this new book ready to go by early April, and originally, that had been my plan.

But then it hit me!

I had no real reason to rush getting another book ready for release. Because all the books need to be read in order, I'd be essentially selling this new book to my already established readers, which is fine, but the ultimate goal is to always be finding new readers, right? And the only way to do that is by promoting the series as a whole, and that's now what I'm doing. 

I have decided to not publish this new book until May, which will give me March and April to promote the series, gain new readers, and plan and implement an effective marketing strategy for the next book. With a little luck and a lot of hard work, I'll have even more readers willing and eager to buy my newest book. So, HOW am I going to do this? I'm glad you asked ;-) 

1. Facebook Takeover Events -- I already have a few booked, and I'm actively scheduling more. These are great, fun ways to interact with readers and share information about my books. 

2. Interviews -- I'm booking interviews on blogs and podcasts that are geared toward

3. Consistent Social Media Presence -- I'll continue this blog series and sharing it on social media along with steady, consistent posts across all platforms. To be clear, these are not "buy my book" posts, but fun memes, questions, teasers, etc. Things that are interesting, fun, and of value to readers. If they get to know me as a real person (and actually like me), they'll be more apt to invest in my books.

4. Gathering More Reviews -- I've signed up to participate in a massive reader review event in March that encourages participants to not just review on Amazon, but Goodreads and Bookbub as well. When someone reviews on Goodreads, it shows up in their activity, which means their followers will see it, and that means an organic reach to other readers. And on Bookbub, if a reader reviews a book, they can recommend it to their followers, which again, is organic reach. 

5. Pricing, Freebies, and Paid Ads -- I'm not going to go into too much detail about this right now because this is the topic of next week's post, but I'm playing around with the price of the books in conjunction with a newsletter push and paid ads. 

Will any of these actually work? No idea, but I'm going to find out, and I'll share my results in a few months.

Got questions?

Drop them in the comments!

The Journey to Self-Publication, Part 17: Facebook Takeover Events

 I've gotten quite a few questions about why I finally decided to delve into self-publishing and how I'm doing it, so I figured why not create a new blog series!

Every Monday, I'll be sharing a piece of the self-publishing puzzle---from how I came to this choice to writing, editing, marketing, sales, and everything in between. Please remember that this is simply my experience, how I chose to do things. Others do things differently, and that's fine! So, your mileage may vary, but in the end, I hope seeing yet another way of tackling self-publishing will help you on your path. 

Need to catch up on previous posts? Find them here:

Part 1: Making the Choice

Part 2: Creating an LLC

Part 3: Writing the Book(s)

Part 4: STILL writing the Book(s)

Part 5: CPs, Beta Readers, and Editors

Part 6: Cover Art!

Part 7: Formatting and Distribution

Part 8: Pre-release Marketing

Part 9: Release Week Marketing

Part 10: First Month Sales and Efforts

Part 11: Marketing Book Two

Part 12: Audio Books

Part 13: What Now?

Part 14: Defining Success

Part 15: Building a Publishing Team

Part 16: Book Trailers

I've read a lot of articles and books that state Facebook doesn't sell books. I disagree. Is it the best place to promote your books? Probably not, but let's face it -- there are a LOT of readers hanging out on Facebook, and when used correctly, you can tap into that market. 

For a while, Facebook ads were all the rage... though I've heard they're not as effective as they used to be, but I'm not sure how accurate that is. A lot of other people who are smarter than me and better well-versed in Facebook ads have written about them, so I'm not going to. Instead, I'm going to focus on a different way to utilize Facebook: 

Takeover Events!

What exactly is a takeover event? It's when you essentially "takeover" a group for a certain period of time, usually a few hours or all day. The owner of the group will grant you admin status for the duration of the event so that you can post without restriction. 

So, how does all this work, how do you find groups, and most importantly, why should you bother? I'm glad you asked ;-) 

Recently, I did 3 different takeover events over the span of 3 consecutive days. A 30-minute one that was part of a multi-author event, a 2 hour hour one, and an all-day one. I had different results with each, but overall, I felt they were successful. During the course of these 3 days, I sold 7 books and had almost 3500 pages read. Again, I'm not hitting any bestsellers lists, but these are readers I wouldn't have connected with otherwise, and with any luck, they'll go on to buy more of my books. I also gained some new followers and newsletter subscribers, and that's always a good thing! 

How do you find groups to takeover? 

Obviously, you can search Facebook for reader groups and a ton will pop up. You can then narrow those down based on your genre. Also, search for your favorite authors who write the same stuff you do and join their groups. A lot of authors will open their readers' groups for takeovers with the hope that you invite your own readers, and the hosting author thereby gets access to YOUR readers while you get access to THEIRS. It's a trade-off that tends to work very well. 

Bloggers will also have groups you can join, and I've found that these are often the best and most fun. Seriously, book bloggers are your best friends! I adore all the ones I've had the pleasure of working with. But I digress... 

Here are some helpful tips for finding groups to takeover and proper etiquette: 

• Follow bloggers across social media platforms. They will often share takeover opportunities.
• Ask other authors if they know of any opportunities.
• Follow PAs on social media as they share a lot of stuff like this, too.
• Join various groups and interact! Please, please do not join a group, ask to takeover, then promptly leave said group. That's rude. Don't be rude. 
• Follow the blogger or author on social media. 
• If you're looking to do a takeover in an author's group, take some time to get to know the author. Follow them on social media, share some of their promo posts, read one (or more) of their books if you haven't already. 
• Basically, don't use these groups for just your personal gain and not offer anything in return. 
• If you have a group of your own, offer to return the favor to fellow authors.
• Promote the takeover on your own social media. Invite your readers / fans to attend and encourage them to share, too.

How does a takeover work? What am I supposed to do?

Have fun! Seriously, these events are meant to be fun, and while you're goal is to gain new readers and introduce them to your books, takeovers should NOT be all about "buy my books!" This doesn't work--trust me! 

Here are my tried and true tips for having a fun and successful takeover event:

1. Plan ahead! I cannot stress this enough! Plan your posts ahead of time, because once the event starts, it will move fast and time will fly, especially with shorter ones. I created a Google Drive folder where I store all my takeover images and a doc with all my posts pre-written. This makes it much easier to just copy and paste as you go.
2. Use images! They snag attention a lot better than a simple written post. I use Canva to create images that coincide with the posts. (See below)
3. Talk about yourself more than your books. Let them get to know you. Share stuff about your life, your likes and dislikes, etc. Let them know you as a person as opposed to someone trying to sell them something.
4. Sprinkle in posts about your books with the blurb, buy link, and an excerpt. If you can make this interactive, do it! For example, I have a teaser image that has the opening paragraph of my book. I post that with the blurb and then talk a bit about how I rewrote the opening so many times before settling on that one. Then I ask what they think, if they'd keep reading based on that paragraph alone. 
5. Play lots of games! People love games, and if you can tie them in to your book, even better! Because my series is all about vampires and witches, I play games asking who their favorite vampires are. I'll encourage them to show me with a gif or meme, which makes it a little more fun. 
6. Offer giveaways. People love to win stuff and I've found the posts I make with giveaways get double the interaction than those that don't. They don't have to be huge or expensive, either. I give away digital copies of my books, audiobook codes, and sometimes small Amazon gift cards. Because I have a series, I usually stick to giving away copies of the first book so that winners will be able to start at the beginning of the series, but also because my hope is they'll enjoy it and then go buy the rest of the series. 
7. Don't make the requirements for playing the games too complicated. I've seen some where the author requires people to go do XYZ then come back, comment, leave a screenshot, share on social media, etc. If you make them jump through too many hoops, they'll just walk away. I usually just require people to comment with an answer to a question. It's simple for them, and it's way less work for me when it comes time to pick winners as I don't have to go verify that people did everything I expected.
8. Engage the group with questions that encourage discussion. Avoid "yes" or "no" questions. Instead of asking, "Do you like romance?" ask: "What's your favorite type of romance?" This will get people talking. Readers love to gush about their favorite things, and once they do, others will join in to bond over their shared love of things. Also encourage people to talk about themselves, their likes, dislikes, etc. 
9. Acknowledge every single comment. Even if there's not much you can say in response, at least take a moment to like what someone says. This goes a long way to show them that you see them and appreciate them taking the time to read your posts and interact. 
10. At the end of the event, thank the host, thank everyone for showing up, and then invite them to follow you on social media. Include all of your links! I offer a free book to every single person who subscribes to my newsletter, so I always mention this. 

Sample takeover image with post: 

As writers, we’re told to start with action or a line  that will really  just grab a reader’s attention. Trust me, that’s a lot harder to do than you’d think. I rewrote the opening to Eternal Curse at least 5 times before I finally settled on this one. 

Based on this alone, would you want to keep reading? What’s the best or worst opening you’ve ever read in a book?

Doing takeover events can certainly be time consuming, and they can get expensive if you give away too much stuff. So keep your personal budget in mind as you do these. Most of all, though, have fun and meet new people! As I said, I've personally had success with these, and even if I don't make sales right away, I've gotten my name out there to people who didn't know me prior. Remember: publishing is a marathon, not a sprint. So is marketing yourself. 

Got questions?

Drop them in the comments!

The Journey to Self-Publication, Part 11: Marketing Book Two

I've gotten quite a few questions about why I finally decided to delve into self-publishing and how I'm doing it, so I figured why not create a new blog series!

Every Monday, I'll be sharing a piece of the self-publishing puzzle---from how I came to this choice to writing, editing, marketing, sales, and everything in between. Please remember that this is simply my experience, how I chose to do things. Others do things differently, and that's fine! So, your mileage may vary, but in the end, I hope seeing yet another way of tackling self-publishing will help you on your path. 

Need to catch up on previous posts? Find them here:

Part 1: Making the Choice

Part 2: Creating an LLC

Part 3: Writing the Book(s)

Part 4: STILL writing the Book(s)

Part 5: CPs, Beta Readers, and Editors

Part 6: Cover Art!

Part 7: Formatting and Distribution

Part 8: Pre-release Marketing

Part 9: Release Week Marketing

Part 10: First Month Sales and Efforts

Book two in my series officially releases tomorrow, and so I've been busy working to get the word out about that one, but promoting this book hasn't really been my priority. Why? Because it's the second in a series, and while it can (and has) been read as a standalone, it's much better when read after the first book. So, my efforts for this one have been a lot less aggressive. Here's what I'm doing, though:

1. Reviews. I've had the book listed on BookSirens, and it's gotten a handful of early reviews already that will hopefully hit Amazon during release week. 

2. Newsletter. I'll be sending a newsletter the day of release to announce the book. In there will be extra sneak peeks and a fun giveaway just for my subscribers! 

3. Paid Ads. Having run a ton of ads for book 1 via both paid and free avenues, I've been able to see what does and doesn't work, so I was very selective in what ads I chose to run for book 2, and I hope I'll see a better return on my investment. I have an add set for release day along with one the day after. 

4. Push Book One. As I mentioned above, this is the second book in a series, and I read somewhere once that you'll never sell more copies of the second book than you will of the first. And that makes sense when you think about it, so for me to get readers to invest in book 2, I need to get them to invest in book 1. In the back of book 1, I have a teaser for book 2, along with a direct link for them to go buy it, so in theory, once a reader finishes one, then can go buy and start two. So, part of my efforts for book 2 include continuing to be aggressive with book one, and I have some rather larger (and expensive) ads scheduled for book 1 to coincide with the release of book 2. 

Will all of this work? I have no idea. LOL. But stay tuned, and I'll circle back around eventually to share more sales numbers to see how it worked out. Next week, though, I'm going to talk about audio books, and I have a fun surprise for that post! 

Got questions?

Drop them in the comments!