eNovel Authors at Work is a year old

NEW RELEASE

It has been a heck of year. Putting together a group of authors to volunteer and network is a massive chore and cannot be achieved without cooperation of like-minded authors. eNovel has been so fortunate. We have two volunteer webmasters, Amy Vansant and Carolyn Steele, who maintain this site and build and our author pages. Our authors are prolific and we call on our Webmasters almost daily to add a book to our author page, exchange books on the slider or add revised blurbs and book descriptions to titles already on a page.

Networking at its best

Sharon Cupp-Pennington started our Twitter account and now, Effrosyni Moschoudi has picked up the ball and manages the Twitter account. Late in

By Effrosyni Moschoudi

the year a member suggested a private Facebook page where we could all come together to share news and events and promotion ideas. The traffic on the Facebook page is astronomical with eNovellers checking in daily and often more than once a day.  We composed a list of favorite promoters and put it in the FB file box. We also add our fav promoters to our Useful Links pages for all indie authors to tap. We learned of Thunderclap and tried it out. Many of our members had never participated  in a book tour for exposure. We engaged Book Partners in Crime Promotions Tour Director, Margaret Hughes and her team of two, to develop a themed tour package for the second Wednesday of every month through June of 2015.  The tours are wonderful for exposure to a new audience. We count them a success. We’ve made a lot of new friends and built our eNovel Authors at Work newsletter subscriber list from a starter list of 54 to above 700. Rebecca Dahlke has come aboard and fixed us with a Twitter service via Pluggio. Our behind the scenes wizard is a tech guru, Rich Meyer. He builds our banners, formats our books on the cheap, and often investigates sites for us so that we don’t fall into a scam.  He educated us on DMAC notices and how to submit them to those scummy folks who steal and plagairise  our books.

Find on Amazon

Lord have mercy! The discussions on reviews would no doubt reach around the earth. Some of our members review other member books, but we don’t trade reviews. We all agreed that we need organic reviews. I reached out to Jay Lee of Choosy Bookworm soon after his site went live in early 2014,  and sent him begging letters…to please give indie authors a corner of his newsletter to offer our books to his subscribers for reviews. He did. I designed the program and we beta tested. It works. We love it. Another raging success. There is a protocol and   ethical behavior expected of authors when it comes to reviews. We invited a TOP 1000 Amazon and Goodreads reviewer, Julie Whiteley to be an associate member and give us tips. Julie’s insightful blogs on eNovel are the most popular we have produced. Julie clued us in on how important a book description and our bios on Amazon, an area that often gets short shrift by indie authors.

New Release

Every group needs one or more leaders and one or more mentors. We have two “go to” mentors, both of whom are best selling authors, Donna Fasano and Carmen De Sousa. They share their paths to success that inspire us to achieve.

I would love to tell you I am the leader of eNovel Authors at Work.  I’m the founder. There is a difference. I don’t lead. To lead one needs persistence, patience and dedication. I am so short on patience you would have to measure it with a micrometer to spot it.  I do shove, fuss, and nag to get members to participate, promote and sell books. Because getting our books visible and selling books is what authorship is all about. I don’t have a vision, but I do have goals and a To-Do list. And all forty eNovel Authors at Work member’s names are on it.

As group we have participated in Tweetfests, installed our books on Riffle and made lists we promote and tweet. We’ve run Goodread campaigns for exposure and compared the results, engaged in book tours on a monthly basis, and how best to promote a title on FREE.  We learned how to check the value of a promoter’s site on Alexa.  We’ve learned that every mention of a book and a book cover needs to be live-linked to a sales venue and a buy page. The list of small and large achievements goes on and on. Every member brings something to the table.

New Release

If you are an indie author and wandering the  internet landscape alone, as I once did, do consider forming a group of like-minded authors. Set the goals for your group and go for it. Some members you invite will fall by the wayside. You may even have to boot a couple for the betterment of the group simply because their goals are not the group’s goals, or yours. As writers, we are all a bit narcissistic. We sometimes just focus on our own lives and our own books. It can’t be helped. It goes with the territory of authorship.

I am often astonished how quickly members respond to a clarion call for a Tweet, a comment on a blog post or a follow. Even as we produce books, write descriptions and set our promotions, we somehow find time to lend a hand and network with our brother and sister authors. You will discover that your busiest and most prolific members are those who will be the foundation of any group you form.

So! What goals do we have for 2015? We are going to learn how to put together boxed sets and promote them effectively.

99¢ Release date:
February 10, 2015

We are actively engaged in finding new ways to market our books.  Some of us are engaging in book signings and attending writer conventions and conference. We will continue to reach out to book promotion sites and search for the best places for our promotion dollars. We will continue to support one another on a book’s road to success. To learn what eNovellers have learned and shared,  do tick on the links in this article and  do take time to read the articles on eNovel. To know where best to spend your promotion $$$ visit our Useful Links pages. The author pages on eNovel contain a wealth of information as we often report the results of our sales promotions. Comments often have far more helpful information than the blog article.

Wishing all indie authors great success in 2015.

Jackie Weger

I’m Jackie Weger. Well, I lost a year. I thought 2015 was Leap Year. I always save all of my pennies in my kitchen for great good luck for the next four years. I’m saving pennies anyway. I had good luck all of 2014. So, my pennies were looking out for me.

I’ve got nine in the kitchen jar right now. Lookin’ good.

Don’t forget: Network!