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Marketing Calendar

October 22, 2020-Are you a self-published author? If you are, I hope that you have a marketing calendar. If you don’t have a marketing calendar or aren’t marketing your book, I’m willing to bet that your customers and potential customers don’t know where to find you and that your sales are less than stellar.

A marketing calendar allows you to be organized in communicating with your audience. Let’s explore Pandamonium Publishing House’s Marketing Calendar:

Daily-Post on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and respond to comments accordingly.
Weekly-4 to 5 times weekly, we do a blog post on our site. We also send a link to our latest post to the list of our subscribers. We do a weekly podcast each Tuesday. Friday, we check in with our Pandamonium Publishing House International Book Club members and discuss the book we’re reading. We mail out 100 direct mail pieces such as brochures and postcards to a mailing list of clients we keep in touch with.
Monthly-We send out a monthly newsletter to all of our subscribers.
Quarterly-We post content on YouTube *We need to increase the frequency of these posts. We send out an email to customers who we haven’t heard from in a while to let them know we are thinking of them and to see how they’re doing.
Annually-We mail out holiday cards to everyone we’ve been in contact with during the past year; customers, vendors, teachers, authors, and businesses.

It’s essential to keep in contact with your readers regularly. You want to serve them in the best way possible but won’t be able to do that if they forget who you are and what you do.

Get your marketing calendar together, execute your plan, and watch your book sales grow!

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This is Not a Joke

April 1, 2020– It may be April Fool’s Day, but this post about research is not a joke. I started writing my new thriller titled, My name is Jessica Westlake, around a year and a half ago. It’s in the final stages of completion, and it was a hard book to write because a lot of the content was about things that I’ve never had to deal with personally. A lot of writing advice says, write what you know, and I think that’s the easy way out. To be a good writer, we must spend a ton of time researching different topics, events, and people. Credibility in our writing is essential because as soon as the reader doesn’t believe what you’re saying, you can kiss them goodbye. This is especially true for crime scene buffs, books with a medical or legal slant, and locations if they exist in real life.

So, how do you protect the integrity of your own work when writing fiction? Here are three tips:

1) Talk to the experts. I enlisted the help of the head of homicide at the TPD to help me with my book Obsessed with Her because it had a major crime scene in it, and I needed to be accurate. If I had just thrown together something that I thought was correct or close enough, my seasoned crime readers would have thrown my book across the room and would have never read another thing I’ve written. With my new novel, I joined a grief counselling group online and read the comments, I visited funeral homes and asked about the process from beginning to end, and I spoke with a police department detective in my city.  It’s imperative to be precise when writing so that your readers can take you seriously.

2) Consider the source. The internet is an excellent reference for information, but be careful to consider the source.  Along with facts and figures, there can be a lot of fiction. Be sure to get your information from reliable sources such as Google Maps (which updates frequently), City of (insert your city here), and police department websites.

3) Get to the library. Books are a wonderful resource, especially when it comes to writing historical fiction! Plus, the more you read in other genres, the stronger writer you become.  When looking for books to research your own, be sure to find as many as you can in your specific interest so that your research will be well rounded. For example, if your main character is a reiki healer with a magic touch, and you’ve never had a session in your life, grab a book or five on the subject. Learn as much as you can because your readers will thank you for it!

Research, research, research and remember to acknowledge those who have helped your book along the way with their expertise. X LLB

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Publisher’s Corner…

July 19,2019- Let’s check out our Publisher’s Corner question of the week!

Q: “Lacey, I don’t read a lot of books because I don’t have tons of time, I know you’ve said in the past that reading directly influences writing, so I’m wondering what I can do to make more time to read! Any suggestions?” 

 A: “Ah, yes. This is a huge problem in society at the moment! We are living in such a fast-paced world that we barely have time to do anything pleasurable or just for fun. But, making time to read is essential! Not only does reading lend to our ability to write, but it also makes us better writers, better storytellers, and more empathetic toward our fellow humans. The average Canadian adult has approximately 5 minutes per day to read!  That’s it. I admire your commitment to reading more and I’m so happy to help! Here’s how I squeeze in time to read”: 

1) I wake up an hour earlier or go to bed an hour later. Carving out this hour to read is essential to my happiness and to my business as I usually read things that are relevant in my field such as trade magazines or what’s trending on the best seller’s list. This hour before or after allows me to be uninterrupted.

2) I listen to audiobooks. Audiobooks are portable and you can listen to them everywhere. I travel a lot so this format of book allows me to get my reading done in the truck, on a plane, in the airport, on the treadmill, or wherever else I am. You wouldn’t believe how much time is wasted while travelling and waiting!

3)I read novellas, short stories, poems, and magazine articles. Reading anything is better than not reading anything at all! I’ll pick up a book shot by James Patterson for a quick, action-packed read that satisfies my craving for a good story in a short time.

Getting your daily dose of reading is only a matter of scheduling and preparing! Happy reading and writing! X LLB

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I Care About Your Credibility…You’re Welcome.

June 25, 2018-The most important thing a writer can be other than creative is credible. This graph explains the limit of the human body which is essential stuff if you’re writing your character into a sticky situation!

Credibility is crucial because as soon as your reader calls bullshit on what you’ve written you’ve lost them and they’ll put your book down possibly to never pick it up again. It’s different if you’re writing fantasy and building your own world. However, if you’re writing in this one, here’s what you need to know about the limits of the human body.

Interesting to know