Tag: amazon

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We’re Watching You!

August 3, 2021-During August, we’re talking about what publishers want (and what they don’t want) from authors. We’re going to touch on a subject today that can quite honestly make or break your career (pretty much any career), so pay close attention!

When it comes to social media, like anything in life, there are good and not so good aspects. Let’s break down each.

Good: 

  1. Content. New, fresh, consistent content that is relevant to your audience is always a good thing. Talking about your upcoming book, the books you’re reading, inspiring quotes, behind-the-scenes photos of you working on your manuscript, and appropriate hashtags and visuals are looked upon by publishers as an excellent indicator of your commitment to your craft.
  2. Engagement. Publishers love it when we see our authors interact with their followers. This shows us that you care about your readers and that you’re invested in building a relationship with them on social media.
  3. Professionalism. Everything from your user name to your email address is important to publishers as this is your public persona. We want to see that you’re more or less an upstanding citizen who contributes to society through your craft and that literacy matters to you.

Not so good: 

  1. Pictures. Pictures of you binge drinking, using drugs, or passed out in an alleyway are all detrimental to your brand (and ours) as you are an extension of the publisher. Don’t expect to get a publishing deal if you’re posting ridiculous images of yourself that aren’t going to make you a role model for readers. It doesn’t matter what you write (kids books to thrillers and everything in between); you need to conduct yourself with integrity.
  2. What’s in a name. Everything. I’ve told my students this (who co-op and volunteer with my company) hundreds of times-your handle matters, what you call yourself online matters. I once received a resume with the handle methhead99 and recycled it upon receipt. Do you honestly think that a publisher will sign you with their House if you’re not even mature enough to have a professional social media name? You’re not worth the risk of embarrassing ourselves by having your horrible handle plastered all over our accounts.
  3. Hate speech. We will not tolerate hate speech, racism, sexism, or bullying of any kind. Liking comments, images, or posts that are inflammatory (it doesn’t matter if they’re on your page or someone else’s) is still a disqualifier for us. We care who you are, what you participate in online and in real life.

Your social media presence and conduct matter, and we WILL be checking before we even consider bringing you onto our team. We’ll check your Facebook, your Instagram, your LinkedIn, your YouTube, your TikTok, your Snapchat, and you’d better believe we’re going to Google you. All businesses do this, so be sure to keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble. Everyone who works for Pandamonium Publishing House is an extension of me. I choose my authors, illustrators, clients, and employees very carefully because of this. And so will every other company.

For more tips on what publishers want check out my book here: Advice from a Publisher (Insider Tips for Getting Your Work Published!): Bakker, Lacey L., Goubar, Alex: 9781989506141: Books – Amazon.ca

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Motivation vs. Discipline

March 15, 2021– I hope that you’re enjoying our monthly theme during March which is answering your most asked questions! The questions coming in are great and touch on a number of topics that range from how to make money writing to how to write books kids will love, and everything in between. If you’d like to send in a question, please email us at pandapublishing8@gmail.com.  Here is today’s question:

Q:“I started writing an adventure novel five years ago, but I’m finding it difficult to stay motivated to finish it, actually, to keep writing each day. Do you have any suggestions to help get me motivated?”

A: There’s a big difference between motivation and discipline. “You will not always be motivated, so you must learn to be disciplined,” is one of my favourite quotes. Let’s face it, if we waited for motivation to write, most of us would never finish our book. Writing is our job and we must show up ready to work every day. I know it’s hard to sit down in front of your computer and get the words on the page, but it has to be done if you’re going to be a published author. Sometimes we see tasks as too daunting and we get overwhelmed with how much we have left to complete, my suggestion is to:

  1. Set aside the same time each day to write. Routine is key and discipline equals freedom. Figure out your best time to write and start writing; whether it’s early morning, afternoon, or midnight, choose whatever works with your schedule. Be sure to set a time that you will be uninterrupted so that you can let your creativity flow.
  2. Set a timer. Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. When I’m not in the writing groove, I’ll do basically anything else to avoid what I need to do and that’s write! I set a timer for ten minutes and begin. I usually end up writing long past the time of ten minutes and all I needed was a boost to get started!
  3. Don’t self-edit. Get the words on the page and edit later. Also, don’t go back and re-read your work. Think of writing like building a sandcastle, you just have to keep shoveling the sand into the box and then refine it into a castle later.

Keep the questions coming! Check out my Amazon, number 1, best selling book, Advice from a Publisher here: Advice from a Publisher (Insider Tips for Getting Your Work Published!): Bakker, Lacey L., Goubar, Alex: 9781989506141: Books – Amazon.ca

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Are They Aware?

September 18, 2020-What do you see when I say the word McDonald’s? For some people, this word will conjure up the image of burgers, fries, broken ice cream machines and chicken McNuggets, and some will immediately see the infamous golden arches. It doesn’t matter what came to mind first, the food or the logo, because both things achieved the same goal, to make you aware of their brand and what they sell.

Are people aware of what you sell? Do the covers of your books come to mind when they think of you? Do they see your company logo? Do they know what you offer? If not, here are some good ways to make people aware of you, your brand, and your books:

  1. Business cards-Always carry a stack of business cards with you. It should say who you are, what your occupation is, website, email, phone number, and have your logo/slogan on it. Mine is black with a silver P, on the front with my name and owner of Pandamonium Publishing House.
  2. Brochures-These are great tools to hand out to people to explain your business offering, product samples, book excerpts, reviews, and services. Be sure to include your logo, colours, website, email, business name, how to order, and social media information.
  3. Postcards- I use postcards a lot for many different things. I use them to write notes to clients, to include in our subscription book boxes, to say thank you, and for appreciation notes to anyone who orders off our site.
  4. Banners/signage- These are essential for shows and events that you’re attending. Include your logo, brand colours, slogan, and website/email/social media info. Be sure that everything is large enough to read from a distance.
  5. Letterhead- This should include your company name, email address, website, address, and logo as well as company colours, and phone number.
  6. Email signature- Some days, I’ll send up to 50 emails per day, depending on the circumstance. An email signature is a great way to let prospective clients know what you do, who you are, and how to reach you and your social media handles. Also, if you have a writing business, your email signature is a great way to let everyone know what your hours are or when you’re out of the office/away from your desk.
  7. Social media-Amazon author page, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram- You should have all of these things and more. People need to know where to find you, and you need to be consistent with your posts. Use a social media scheduler like Hootsuite to pre-schedule your posts so you’re not tied to your phone when you could be doing something more valuable with your time. Your social media should all be linked to each other and be informative, educational, and entertaining while adhering to your brand message and aesthetic.
  8. Blog-How your blog looks and what it does are synonymous with your brand awareness and what you do/offer. Your books should be for sale online as well as your services, an about section about you and your company, and your logo, colours, and common theme should run throughout. If you’re a romance writer, for example, you could have topics on your blog that include things such as the elements of writing romance, specific genre information, how to write characters etc.
  9. Logo and colours-Our brand colours are black, white, and purple; this follows through to our cards, brochures, postcards, signage, letterhead, and blog. Our logo is a black box with a white letter P in the middle.

Every time you create content or interact with people, you are representing your brand. Do it well.

Have your coffee the same way that we do!
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Putting the Pieces Together

July 17, 2020– She’s one of our own and we love her to bits! You know her as the author of Pants and Unfrogged, Tamara Botting; she’ll have two more books coming in 2021, so be sure to look for them in stores, on Amazon, and on our site. I’m thrilled to have her guest blog for us today!

I’ve had a longstanding love of Disney’s animated masterpiece, Beauty and the Beast. I wore out my first VHS copy of the film (yes, I’m that old and yes, it can be done). I bought the DVD as a teen, then bought the DVD again a few years later when the special collector’s edition came out. (So far, I’ve resisted the siren’s call of the Blu-ray). To this day, I can quote the opening of the film verbatim.

So, when I found a 1,000 piece Beauty and the Beast-themed puzzle, I decided to splurge a bit. (Hey, it’s not like I was going out, so why not bring a little entertainment home?) The thing is, as much as I like the idea of puzzles, I’ve only worked on a few over the years, mostly when I’m at a friend’s house, and they have one in progress.

Now that I’m working on one all on my own, I realize it’s a much bigger task than I’d anticipated. There’s a lot to work with, and a lot of pieces to try and fit together. And sometimes it takes a really long time to realize that what you thought was part of Belle’s dress is actually Beast’s waistcoat.

In a way, working on a puzzle is sort of like working on a book. Sometimes you find it’s easier to work on the framing; other times, you find yourself diving right into the middle of it. Sometimes the piece you thought should go in one place actually belongs in an entirely different spot.

It can be really easy to get discouraged when you have part of it coming together in one spot, part of it coming together in another, and for the life of you, you can’t figure out how those two parts come together.

But if you keep picking away at it, keep coming back to it, and keep on just telling yourself that you’re going to stick with this and get it done, eventually the parts will fit together. The bits that seem to have no home prove to actually be really important parts of the whole picture.

And once you have it all put together, you get to enjoy not only the completed project, but also the fact that your table is now clear, and you have room to work on a whole new project.

Because let’s be honest – whether writing or puzzles, it’s pretty hard to stop at just one.

beautyandthebeast

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No One Cares Who You Are.

March 16, 2020- Grrr…buckle up for this post. It’s about to get heated.

I was at a tradeshow last weekend, and there had to be fifty or more vendors set up around the room. There were businesses that dealt with health and alternative medicine, personal beauty, finance, and everything in between. As I made my way down the aisles, I counted on one hand how many people engaged with me as a customer…my grand total? 3. Three people said hello and started up a conversation about their business, what they were doing at the show, and how their services/products could potentially help me.

I wasn’t shocked, and that’s something that we should be worried about. It means that as a society, we have been trained over the years to expect crappy service and rude/rushed sales associates. As consumers, we’ve been trained to get things ourselves, and this trickles all the way down to self-checkout processes.  Some business owners make the horrible and profit hurting assumption that if people want to buy our products, they’ll be the ones to break the ice, so why should we bother to look up from our phones or even stand up to greet them. And we wonder why online shopping and Amazon are taking over the world. I don’t wonder, I know.

Let me remind you-NO ONE CARES WHO YOU ARE. If you’re in business or an author for that matter, it’s YOUR job to make people CARE about who you are and what you have to say. I tell my authors this all the time when they are about to do a book signing, “You are not James Patterson, no one is here to see you.” Harsh? Maybe, but they’re a tough group and they get my point that they need to engage with readers. They are unknown, and it’s their job to talk to people about themselves and about their books. It’s their job to tell the readers and customers why they should read our work and how our books can benefit them in some way. STOP SELLING AND START HELPING.  That’s enough ranting on my end. We don’t do missed opportunities at my House, so let’s get down to business.

Here’s what you need to do to make people give a damn about what you have to say.

  1. Put away your phone. This is first on the list because we live in a world that is full of distraction. Being on your phone while customers are walking by your booth/business/table is unprofessional and rude. It shows that you care more about what’s going on in the virtual world rather than in the real one. It also sends a message that they aren’t important enough for you to put your phone down for. 
  2. Smile and say hello. Imagine that! So easy and so simple yet 80% of people at tradeshows, retail environments, and behind booths don’t do this.
  3. Engage with people. Ask them about themselves. Be genuinely interested in what they have to say. Don’t pitch your products or services right away that drives me insane more than anything. If you’re just jumping into your spiel of, “This is what we do,” blah blah blah, then you may as well just get to the point and say, “Give me your money.” It’s so offputting, and so is faking interest in people and interrupting them. If you care about your customers and readers, they’ll know it, and they’ll care about you too.

I know that this list seems ridiculously simple, but I wouldn’t have to post about it if it wasn’t true. Get your head out of your ass and take care of your customers and potential customers. The life of your business depends on it.

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Throwback Book Trailer for Obsessed with Her…

February 22, 2019– I thought it would be fun to post the throwback book trailer for my novel, Obsessed with Her! Have you read it yet? What did you think? It’s in its fifth reprint, and we just can’t seem to keep it in stock. Get your copy today from our online store or at Indigo, Chapters, Coles, Barnes and Noble, and of course, Amazon! The prequel to Obsessed with Her, is titled, Becoming James Cass and will be released in September of this year. Stay tuned for more trailers from Pandamonium Publishing House, coming soon!

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The 60 Books I Read in 2018…

December 31, 2018– Well friends, it’s been an epic year in so many ways; I started some new adventures, made lots of new friends, traveled, and of course published a few books. But what about the books I read? It would be unfair of me not to mention them as some of them made such an impact on me, that my life and way of thinking will never be the same. 

60 books in a year was my goal, and I’m happy to say that I reached it. For all of you numbers nuts, that works out to approximately 1.15 books per week. Now, remember that not all of the books I read were in paperback format, some of them were audio books, and e-books. This method of “reading” allowed me to listen to books while travelling and while doing mundane tasks. I know that without audio books, it would have been much harder for me to reach my goal of 60 books read for the year. 

Let’s get on with it! Here is my list of books that I read in 2018: (A quick search on Amazon will show you details and the authors)

  1. 5 Thieves of Happiness
  2. Murder, She Wrote- Hook, Line, and Murder
  3. The Million Dollar Blog
  4. Thirteen
  5. Clockwork
  6. Profit First
  7. Murder, She Wrote- Dying to Retire
  8. Never Lose a Customer Again
  9. Mind Over Mind
  10. Outwitting the Devil
  11. Murder, She Wrote- Scared to Death
  12. Hocus Pocus
  13. Google Adwords
  14. Every Breath You Take
  15. The Couple Next Door
  16. You are Not so Smart
  17. The Brain that Changes Itself
  18. Tools of Titans
  19. You
  20. Make Your Bed
  21. Discipline Equals Freedom
  22. The Power of Gratitude
  23. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
  24. To Kill a Mockingbird
  25. Witches
  26. Unmarketing
  27. E Squared
  28. Do the Work
  29. 12 Rules for Life
  30. The Checklist Manifesto
  31. The 5 Second Rule
  32. The Obstacle is the Way
  33. Plum Lucky
  34. The 10x Rule
  35. 33 Strategies of War
  36. Brainfluence
  37. All Marketers are Liars
  38. The Toyota Way
  39. The Magic of Thinking Big
  40. The 48 Laws of Power
  41. Challenge Your Potential
  42. Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty
  43. The Positive Power of Negative Thinking
  44. How I write
  45. On Writing (Stephen King) 
  46. It 
  47. Delores Claiborne
  48. The Psychology of Winning
  49. 1 Page Marketing Plan
  50. The Art of War
  51. The Idiot Brain
  52. Screenwriting for Dummies
  53. Nocturnal Animals
  54. I See You
  55. The Woman in Cabin 10
  56. The Sales Bible 
  57. Save the Cat
  58. Book Yourself Solid
  59. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
  60. Holes 

So, there you have it! I look forward to reading another 60 books in 2019. Remember, you can never be overdressed or overeducated. Happy Reading! X LLB 

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Obsessed with Her (It’s FINALLY Here!)

December 27, 2017- Obsessed with Her is finally here. Get it on Amazon now, or in stores on January 20, 2018. What would you do if your child was missing? How far would you go to find out what happened to her? Obsessed with her is every parent’s worst nightmare.

Untitled

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Unfrogged! It’s Finally Here!

July 3, 2017-Well friends, this weekend was wonderful in so many ways. Not only was it Canada Day on July the first but I’m happy to announce that Pandamonium Publishing House along with a very talented author, successfully launched Unfrogged by Tamara Botting. Unfrogged is a middle-grade novel that is based on a fairytale, but I must say that I like this version a whole lot better! Princess Meredith is the definition of anti-princess, and that’s just one of the things that make her so relatable.

Here is a picture from the weekend of author Tamara Botting with her novel, Unfrogged for the very first time. Way to go Tamara! Unfrogged will be available in stores such as Coles, Indigo, and Chapters as well as Amazon this coming week.

tamara table