My Journey to Indie Publication by Cynthia Woolf

Today, I bring you the indie journey of an incredibly prolific author whom I've know for 12 years.  We met at Colorado Romance Writers and it was Cynthia as president in 2006 who handed me my Newsletter Article of the year award!

Saturday I'll post an excerpt from her new book Capital Bride.

Please join me in welcoming Cynthia Woolf.
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My Journey

Thank you, Leslie Ann, for having me on your blog today.  I’ll be giving away a copy of my new book, CAPITAL BRIDE, to one lucky commenter and a $5 Starbucks card to another, so be sure and leave me a comment.

I’ve been very lucky in my publishing journey. I was laid off June 17, 2011.  Though I continued to look for a “regular” job, I knew this layoff was an opportunity to fulfill my dream of writing and I grabbed on with both hands.  But, let me back up a bit.

I was in the hospital in April 2011, recovering from a severe anxiety attack.  You see, I thought I’d had a heart attack.  But it was just anxiety, brought on by my current job and soon-to-be lack of job.  I found out in April that I was being laid off in two months.  Though I was unhappy in my job by this point, I was even more scared not to have one.  Hence the reasons for impending anxiety attack.

After the attack, still in the hospital, and I can’t rest.  I have insomnia and with all the tests…I simply couldn’t calm down, so I asked my husband to bring me a pad and pen.  That night I finished my second book, Centauri Dawn.  It was the first one I would publish.

After I got out of the hospital, I was talking to my friend Michele Chambers, who writes as Michele Callahan, and she told me I could publish it myself and told me how.  That was the beginning and I haven’t looked back since.  I also haven’t had another bout of anxiety and my blood pressure is great. I  think that self publishing agrees with me. :)

 

Michele gave me the resources I needed to publish my book.  She told me about KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) and that I’d need a professional cover and an editor for the book.  I found both a cover artist and an editor and was off to the races.

My books languished in obscurity for months.  I published three more books by the end of the year and was still not selling very many.

What finally broke me through the obscurity bubble was a blog tour arranged by Black Lion Tours.  The book that they were promoting, Tame A Wild Bride, took off like gang busters.  It took with it the other two books in the Tame series, Tame A Wild Heart and Tame A Wild Wind.
I Tweet and Facebook as well.

Tweeting being my most effective marketing tool.  I also blog whenever possible.  I pay for advertising when it’s a venue I know I’ll get a return on, like Ereader News Today but it’s very hard to get onto that one.  They open up for spots in January and are full for the year within hours.

Any venue that is free, I take advantage of.  And to be honest, I’ve got my books on so many venues right now, I don’t remember what all they are.  Several of them have buttons or banners on my website.  That’s how I ‘earn’ free advertising.  I advertise for them and they for me.  It’s a win-win situation. 

I’ve tried Facebook ads (didn’t work) and Twitter ads (also didn’t work for me).  I advertise on just about anything I come across where it’s less than $25 for a reasonable ad.  What is reasonable varies with the site and will vary with what you believe is appropriate for your budget and your books. 

The other thing I do that has given me lots of exposure and a visible increase in sales is to participate in blog hops. 

What happens with a blog hop is that you write a blog about a particular subject.  On your blog you have links to the other blogs in the hop and they have links to yours, so someone doesn’t have to look you up, the just click on the link and go there.  The blog hops usually offer a grand prize like a Kindle fire or Nook.  I also offer several prizes.  The comments increase dramatically with a hop.  It’s not unusual for me to get almost 100 comments from one blog during a hop.

Another thing I do and I highly recommend is that you have your own blog.  My blog hosts guests three times per week.  I may blog myself on Friday of that week especially when I have a new book to promote.  Always leave a day for yourself whether you end up using it or not.  You can always have your friends and critique partners blog on that day as well.

In association with your blog, join Triberr.  It gets you exposure like you wouldn’t believe.  I average more than 1100 hits per day on my blog and have had 1600 in one day during a blog hop.  This leads to sales.

Make sure all your books are shown on your blog with the links to the websites where they can purchase them.

Lastly, though just as important if not more so, is to get reviews of your book.

Submit to every review site you can.  The more reviews you have on Amazon and the other outlets the better.  Amazon does not accept author reviews for books anymore, so you can’t have other authors, even those who bought the book rather than were gifted it, review your books.  Trust me, it’s devastating when they take them down.

I recommend diversifying and listing your book everywhere possible for sale. I get most of my sales through Amazon, that is true and I’ve tried their Select program.  It was not effective for me.  I didn’t have any more sales and more importantly I didn’t get any borrows.  The payment for borrows and the five free days are really what sets Select apart from being like any other sales venue. That being said, several of my critique partners participate in Select with great results so it just depends on you and your books.

The road to publication has not been a smooth one but has had its bumps and rocks and holes I've had to watch out for.  Most of what I do is "trial by fire."  I try something and either burn with it or find myself soaring.

I’d love to hear your ideas and what you do that works for you.  What works for one person does not necessarily work for another as we all know from other aspects of our lives.  I hope I’ve given you a few ideas to help you promote your own work. 

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Thanks Cindy for being so candid about your journey.  See more about Cindy at www.cynthiawoolf.com

Don't forget, comment today and on her excerpt Saturday for a chance at her latest book and a Starbucks Gift Cert. Yum. I'll post her bio on Saturday as well, it's really fascinating.

LINKS FOR CAPITAL BRIDE

AMAZON - http://amzn.com/B00AM3CNQ4
BARNES & NOBLE - http://bit.ly/UBnOpz
KOBO - http://bit.ly/12kQNCu
SMASHWORDS - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/263984

TITLES AVAILABLE  

CAPITAL BRIDE

CENTAURI DAWN
CENTAURI TWILIGHT

CENTAURI MIDNIGHT

TAME A WILD HEART

TAME A WILD WIND

TAME A WILD BRIDE

THE SWORDS OF GREGARA – JENALA

THE SWORDS OF GREGARA – RIZA 

COMING SOON

THE SWORDS OF GREGARA - HONORA