So, What Is The Real Deal About The .99 Cent Book Promo?

March 18, 2016March 18, 2016 Catherine Lyon Author/Writer Book Promotion Tips For Authors, Featured Guest, Posts .99cent book promo, Amazon, Author, Books

Hello and Welcome friends,

So I came across a new article over on BookDaily.com by: Donna Brown, a book promoter and book lover. And many of my own book clients and friends happen to do Kindle E-book promos for just .99 cents. So when I read this article? I knew I had to share it for all of you and get to the bottom of “The Real Deal about the .99 Cent Promo Deal.” . . .

The Real Cost of The .99-cent eBook Offering:

I have nothing against 99-cent eBooks. I’ve bought them, I’ve read them and I appreciate that now it is easier than ever for authors to put their work out there and pricing is at an all time low. Whether books are priced $0.99, $2.99 or $4.99, it’s hardly a financial risk to try something different. When you can get 100 titles on your Kindle or Nook for a couple of hundred dollars instead of a thousand dollars, that has to be something to smile about.

However is the true cost of 99-cent eBooks all about the sales? Do they take away from higher priced authors? Or is it actually something much more insidious and sinister: do they diminish the quality perception of eBooks altogether?

I recently posted a customer review of a story I loved on Amazon. The writing was excellent, the story flowed beautifully and it was wonderful to read. It cost me five times less than a glossy magazine and was perfect alongside my morning coffee. I gave it a well deserved five stars. Unfortunately not everyone was so generous. The reviews ranged from cynical to scathing then to downright nasty.

But why? Simply put: it was not a 200-page novel but a short story. They felt like they were ripped off because they paid 99 cents for a short story; about 0.0005 cent per word! Hmm… when you look at it like that…

If an author receives just 35 cents from each eBook sold for 99 cents. Once you factor in tax, marketing, writing time, formatting time, preparing or paying for a cover image, hiring an editor/proofreader and so on, an author has to sell an awful lot of copies to even make their money back. So who’s selling who short?

When authors are kind enough to share quality fiction with us, how do we respond? Not by considering that we got a great piece of writing for less than the cost of candy bar but by insulting them and making them feel that they’re ripping us off?
Drinking instant coffee at home can be just as fulfilling as the three dollar cup of coffee at the local café bar. We appreciate the quality, we appreciate the treat, and we appreciate the value in something we enjoy. Is it so difficult to apply the same principles to eBooks?

So, authors, I implore you: the next time you see a 99-cent short story listed for the same price as a 200 page eBook, don’t feel that you have sold yourself short. Feel lucky that there are still passionate book lovers, like me, out there that take pleasure in quality pieces of fiction. At least you’ve given someone the chance to try something distinctively satisfying for less than a dollar.

About the Author:
Donna Brown is a self-employed Social Media, Blogging and Promotions Consultant living in Yorkshire, UK with her author husband and six naughty rescue cats. She works with bestselling author Terri Giuliano Long and has also worked with a number of other authors. Find her on Twitter or visit her website.

It’s “PAY IT FORWARD” Week at #RRBC! Meet Award Winning Novelist and Playwright Marc Estes!

March 17, 2016 Catherine Lyon Author/Writer Posts

A fantastic guest post I just had to share with my readers … By Natalie Ducey.

Rave Reviews Book Club’sgoal is to Profile, Promote and Propel its member-authors via as many viable vehicles as possible.

As a proud member of the club, I’m delighted to participate in our“PAY IT FORWARD” week. Join me and let’s celebrate the Award Winning Novelist and Playwright Marc Estes!

Meet Marc Estes

marc pic

Accomplished writer, Marc Estes, is the award winning author of the Vendicatori Series. His 2014 debut novel, Four Pieces For Power, Book One of the Vendicatori marks the first in a series of Vendicatori novels developed by Mr. Estes. Book Two of the Vendicatori: Rekindle the Flame was released in 2015.

He is a two-time winner of the Vermont Playwright’s Award for his plays, What Would Dickens Do? and Glass Closets. What Would Dickens Do? also won the 2012 Robert J. Pickering Award for Playwriting Excellence. His play, Gumbo (adapted from the short story by Charles Huckelbury) was a…

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Book Promotion – Author, Catherine Lyon Does Recovery & Book Promoting Right.

March 13, 2016 Catherine Lyon Author/Writer Posts

Thank you, Jason, for the Fine Book Promo and Love your new Online Book Store! I hope your friends will come visit my recovery blog to learn more about gambling addiction and recovery.

Author & Columnist, Catherine Townsend-Lyon :-)

Author A.R. Tirant Makes Media Splash with her Book “Echoes from the Oasis!”

March 5, 2016March 5, 2016 Catherine Lyon Author/Writer Featured Guest, New Book & Author Press Release, News Around The Web Amazo Best Seller, Historical Romance Novel Series, Lyon Book Promotions, Media Press Release, Novelist A Rosie Tirant, PR Echoes from the Oasis

Hello Readers and Welcome Blog Friends and Authors,

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“Media Release for “Echoes From The Oasis” a Historical Romance Novel”

“One of the many reasons why I enjoy helping authors promote all their fantastic books? Well, for one it is my passion! And, when my authors make mainstream media headlines. Great job Rosie Tirant!”

“Stunning Novel Depicts Bold, Brave Women of Seychelles’ Bygone Era… Hailed “Captivating” by Critics.”

BEAU-VALLON, MAHE, SEYCHELLES, February 25, 2016 /EINPresswire.com/ — Written from the heart by A.R. Tirant, ‘Echoes from the Oasis’ is the first volume in a compelling new series that thrusts readers back to the turn of the nineteenth century to explore the colourful history, religion, culture and changing role of women inhabiting the Seychelles. Tirant is herself a native of the islands, and her tale of love, faith, brevity and a deadly Smallpox epidemic goes beyond illustrating the region’s exotic beauty and natural charm to celebrate the sheer grit of the islanders of this tiny British Colony on the eve of the ‘First World War’.

While millions flock to many of the Seychelles’ 115 islands in search of sand, sea and sun, few are aware that the region’s history is boundlessly tumultuous and fascinating. In her cinematic new novel, the author manages to skilfully hold the reader’s attention as the story develops its numerous threads that set the stage for a flurry of love and passion in the midst of hardships suffered by the young community of the tiny archipelago. Her penmanship is particularly remarkable in the manner in which she paints the historical backdrop to the stage setting as she introduces the main players whose lives and passions intertwine with the historical events of that period.

‘Echoes from the Oasis’ is a cocktail of love, adversity, religious oppression and societal change – all told through the eyes of a young nurse – Anna Savy – who refuses to experience life from the sidelines. But, as with any epic work of fiction, her thirst for more comes with its fair share of challenges…

Our story opens in 1912 on the island of Mahe. The forces of newly found love between Anna, the daughter of an overseer, and Louis du Barre, the son, and heir of the landed gentry, faces the almost impossible challenge because of their backgrounds and social status, taking them on a head-on clash with all the norms and values of that period.

While the novel’s central focus is naturally on the Seychelles, the story also visits many other areas of the world, their fascinating brushes with history, and their connections with the Seychelles islands. The myth of the ‘Garden of Eden’, the siege of Khartoum and the demise of British General, Charles Gordon, is prominently featured. Through two of the main characters, the hatred and mistrust between Irish Catholics and English Protestants show’s the devastating impact of the ‘Potato Famine’ in Ireland, but it also highlights the power of forgiveness, and how we are all the same in God’s eyes.

Without doubt, no story of a colony of Great Britain, no matter how tiny, could ever be told without showing the role played by the ‘Motherland’, so we see the garrison town of Greenwich and East London, with the mighty River Thames taking prime focus, with its numerous quays docking the Steam Ships plying those rich cargo routes of the colonies, but with a slight twist, as it is two English ladies of Greenwich who shows us the real East End.

Readers have celebrated the novel, with a string of five-star reviews. Frank Alphonse comments, “This unstoppable book is a must have and a must read. The writings boast incredible characters, fantastic locations, and wonderful adventures which are all tokens of the author’s commitment to her research but also to her natural charm”. Whilst David Sinon adds, “From the minute I started reading the book, I did not want to put it down. Beautiful, well written, captured the essence of the islands”. For more readers reviews, articles, interviews, purchase links and information and picture of Seychelles, please do visit the website at www.seychelleshistoricalnovels.com ..

‘Echoes from the Oasis’, from Beau-Vallon Publishing, is available in both Kindle and Paperback.

‘About the Author’

Rosie Tirant-Longhurst, aka A.R. Tirant, was born in the Seychelles in November 1958. The daughter of a policeman and, the eldest in a family of four brothers and four sisters. She grew up on the northern coast of Mahe island, in the tiny seaside village of Beau-Vallon. Her working life started in 1975 as a nurse at Mahe’s Victoria Hospital, and followed thereafter by a career in the Hotel Industry. She emigrated to England in 1995, and now lives in West Sussex with her husband. She has two grown up sons and a granddaughter.

Rosie wasn’t born with a pen in her hand, far from it. Life growing up was hard and strict. The home comforts we all now take for granted were but a dream for the young girl whose days were divided between household chores, cooking, cleaning and looking after her young siblings. Water for all the household use had to be carried from a stream, with one hand holding a pail on her head, and the other keeping a second from spilling.

Education only happened because it was the one way of getting some rest during the daytime, even if the chores still had to be done by the light of a coconut oil lamp. They were difficult times… times when she would lean against the pillar of the outdoor kitchen waiting for dinner to cook in the large black pots, staring at the tropical skies and marveling at the diamond beauty of the scattering of stars above, and all the while wishing for a different life…

‘Echoes from the Oasis’ is her debut novel which will be followed by other titles in the same series.
For direct contact, please email: a.r.tirant@gmail.com

“Presented By Lyon Book & Social Media Promotons”

Why Should Authors and Readers Engage & Connect With Each Other?

March 2, 2016March 2, 2016 Catherine Lyon Author/Writer Book Promotion Tips For Authors, Marketing and More, News Around The Web Authors, Book Promoting Advice, Books, Connecting With Readers, Reader & Author Engagement, Readers, Social Media, Tips For Authors

Hello Readers, Authors, and New Friends,

Why should authors and readers connect? There are many reasons why for both sides of this topic. As a book promoter, I know how important it is for an author to interact and engage with their reader fans. It creates more excitement for the reader to know an author is “touchable” and they can learn more about their favorite writers, which helps authors with book sales and gaining more book reviews for books. And it seems I am not the only book promoter, social media PR firm and book marketing site that feels this way.

Here are two articles I came across this week that can give insights as to why authors need and should interact and engage with readers throughout social media and many book sites are exclusively for this purpose like Goodreads. I will share snippets as I would like you to visit and join free so you can be “In The Know” with many tips and advice on book promoting . . .
OUR FIRST is at http://www.bookdaily.com/authorresource/blog/post/1805275

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“This morning I received three emails.”

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One was from a lady in Scotland who read one of my books and joined my fan page. She wanted me to know how much she appreciated waking up and finding that I had responded to her messages.

The second was from a man in Australia who sent me a list of things he liked about Silent Witness. He highlighted sentences that he particularly liked, but at the end of his note, he said, “thank you for making Hannah so intelligent.”

The third was from the very first fan I ever had. We’ve been pen pals for 28 years. Now we communicate on the computer but every once in a while we still send one another a card, remember birthdays, the holidays and share information on grandchildren (hers since I only have a grand dog).

The point of all this is that what authors do is extremely personal. It begins with our characters. If we don’t feel them in our souls and translate that feeling into words on the page, our books will be enjoyed but not treasured. When we do make that magic happen and a reader reaches out, opening a personal dialogue with them will make a reader into a fan. In some wonderful instances, it also creates a friend.

Here are my top five rules of engagement:

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1) Know thou characters: Know the personal history and habits of every character in your book and write as if you live and die with them. If you do this, real people will reach out to you . . .

Please stop by the link above to see all of Rebecca’s rules of engagement.
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OUR SECOND is by Marsha Friedman CEO & Founder, of EMSI PR Firm

No one really needs to convince me how great social media is for connecting you to your customers (Readers) – and keeping you connected – but the point was reinforced perhaps better than ever this week when I was chatting with Jay York, our senior social media strategist.

Jay was telling me about Datz, a restaurant near his home in Tampa, that has impressed him with its excellent use of social media as a marketing tool.
Talk about connecting! Datz has more than 12,000 followers on Twitter. It has nearly 8,000 on Instagram. It has 1,280 mostly positive reviews on Yelp. And, perhaps most impressive of all, more than 40,000 people “like” Datz on Facebook.
Those are remarkable numbers for any business. But especially when you consider that Datz is a local restaurant and not a recognizable brand name like McDonald’s!
So why am I telling you this? Because this social media success story prompted me to have Jay share tips on how small businesses ( and authors promoting their books) can make the most out of their social media to keep customers and potential customers thinking about them.

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Here’s what Jay had to say:

Interact with customers. Engage your customers inside your business as well as outside it. Some of the most successful restaurant owners have mastered this, Jay says. They take the time to chat with and get to know their customers when they are dining at the restaurant, and they also interact with them on social media. Here’s where it’s worth remembering the “social” part of social media. These sites are all about having a conversation and people expect you to be involved in that conversation – or else they’ll be discouraged from interacting with you in the future.
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Use undivided attention opportunities to promote your social media. There are a few ways to do this, Jay says. In-store signage that encourages you to follow the business on social media is the most obvious. Restaurants, such as, might drive visiting customers to their social media sites by giving 10 percent off an entrée if they follow them right at that moment on Twitter. Professional speakers can use the same strategy when they’re in front of a large audience by posting their Twitter handle on the screen behind them. The point is to take advantage of the attention of hundreds or thousands of people – all with mobile devices – who can start following you immediately . . .
.Again, please visit the link above to read the Tips to use social media to promote your books and small business. No matter the product, readers want to interact with you and this is a crucial part of your book promoting efforts. I hope you find these articles helpful. :-)

*Author, Catherine Townsend-Lyon of Lyon Book & Social Media Promotions*

“Welcome Mike Dane of TruConversion Shares a Two-Part Series on How To Increase Traffic With Back Links”

February 23, 2016February 23, 2016 Catherine Lyon Author/Writer Posts Backlinks, Guest Mike Dane, Indexing, SEO, TruConversion.com

Hello and Welcome Friends, Authors, and Writers,

As many of my author and writer friends know, I enjoy sharing guests on my blog.
I meet many helpful friends throughout social media who do various things to help me do my job better for all of my clients. And my guest “Mike Dane” just happens to be one!

He is PR Manager at TruConversion, a platform that will help take the many tools we use now to help gain traffic to our websites and blogs and put it into one nice helpful tool we can all understand and use, and sharing with us how to create backlinks to gain more traffic . . . .

(Mike Dane, PR Manager for TruConversion.com)
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What Mike shares is important, and I convey to all my book clients and author friends, gaining more traffic gives us the opportunity to engagement and interacting with your readers on social media as it is a vital part of your book promoting efforts. And there are many tools to use, but having just one would be so much easier.

So when Mike emailed me with some fantastic articles of different subjects, I knew he had to be a guest who can teach us some important aspects of our marketing that we may not know about on how to drive more traffic to our books too! So here is part one of a two-part series Mike has put together for all of us.

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How to build High-Quality Backlinks To Increase Blog Traffic ~ Part One

“If you have thought about SEO and taken the time to read about it, then you have come across backlinks.”

For some people, understanding this concept is sometimes a difficult part of SEO. Despite being one of the most used words in relation to SEO, many blog or website newbies find it hard to understand what backlinks are and the need to build high-quality backlinks.

Worry, not. In this post, we will delve into all the basic things about backlinks that you need to know, and believe me, by the end of this you will fully understand what this ‘monster’ word means, how to build quality backlinks and in turn, enjoy great SEO and amazing blog traffic.
Here is a sneak peek into what you should expect in this post:

What Are Backlinks:

Common terms related to Backlinks you should know

SEO advantages of backlinks

Number of backlinks your blog should have

What are quality backlinks

How do you build high-quality backlinks to increase your blog traffic?

What are backlinks:

So, what exactly are backlinks?

Generally speaking, these are incoming links to a webpage. Do you know when you visit a particular page and it has links that lead you to other pages? Yeah, that’s a backlink.

Common Terms Related To Backlinks That You Should Know

Before we delve deeper into backlinks, there are other common terms related to backlinks that you should know. Understanding these concepts will help you better understand your work and formulate great strategies.
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Here we go:

Anchor text:

This is a very common term that refers to the text that is used to hyperlink. This text is visible and when clicked, sends you to the URL that has been hyperlinked to that word. You need to be careful with your choice of anchor text because they help you rank for keywords.

Here is how an anchor text looks like:

Source: Truconversion

As seen in the image above, the anchor text is usually visible in the sense that it stands out from the rest of the text. Some sites show the text in a different color (red in this example). In others, hovering the mouse on top of the text will show you that the word is clickable.

Link juice:
Link juice is where a web page passes when it links to your website’s homepage or any of your articles. This is important because it helps the web page rank better and also improves the domain authority.

Here is how it works:

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Source: Adpearance

Low-quality links: These are links that come from automated sites, porn sites, harvested sites or spam sites. In actual sense, they do more harm than good. To avoid these, ensure that you get high-quality links (we will discuss this later) and also avoid buying backlinks.

Do-follow link: By default, all links that you add in a blog post are do-follow links. This type of links usually passes the link juice.

No-follow link:

This is the opposite of do-follow links. Unlike do-follow links, links with a no-follow tag do not pass the link juice. This means that even if you have linked to another web page, as long as the link has a no-follow tag, the link will not pass the link juice.

Such links are not useful to your page as far as ranking is concerned because they contribute to nothing. You are best placed to use this type of links when you are linking to an unreliable site. A great example is the comments section of another blog.

Linking root domains:

This is the number of backlinks coming into your website from unique domains. To put it in perspective, even if one website has linked to your website 10 times, this will still be considered as a one-linked domain.

I understand that this is annoying but I think it is an essential caveat to backlinking. Otherwise, the playing ground for all blogs and websites would not be as level as it is at the moment.

Internal links:

These are links that go from one page to another within the same domain. For example, a link within Truconversion blog linking to a different post within the blog. This process is known as internal linking, a very complicated yet crucial technique that you need to learn.
Internal linking as we have discussed links parts of the same website to other areas. It is done for three main reasons. One, to help in website navigation (For example, from your blog homepage, visitors can click past posts or other sections);

Two, it defines the architecture and hierarchy of your website and three, which I will briefly discuss, is to distribute page authority and ranking throughout the site.

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The seven tenets of internal linking are:

Create lots of content: Lots of content will mean that you have a lot of clickable pages.

Use anchor text: You can read about anchor text in our discussion earlier on.

Link deep: Go beyond the homepage and contact us pages. Link to deeper pages in your site.

Use relevant links: Just because you are sending people to other parts of the page doesn’t mean that you link for the sake of it. Remain relevant!

Use a reasonable number of internal links: Google ambiguously states that internal links should be at a reasonable number. The exact number? Nobody knows. Just use what works for you.

Use links that are natural for the reader: Ensure that you are user focused and use links that a user will find important. For example, links to content that is similar to what your user is reading.

Use follow links: Please visit our discussion on the do-follow links to know what they are.

SEO Advantages of Backlinks:

We have learned what backlinks are and even briefly discussed other common terms that you need to know.

But you should be wondering, after all this, what exactly is the importance of backlinks to SEO and your blog traffic?

Wait no more! Let’s get started:

Improves Organic Traffic= More Traffic

Some time back, backlinks were the major metric for ranking a web page. At this time, pages with even low-quality backlinks ranked. This means that a page with a lot of backlinks ranks higher than other pages in all major search engines such as Google.
You Get Referral Traffic

The beauty of referral traffic is the fact that it is targeted and according toHarsh Agrawal, has low bounce rate.
Let me explain this logically.

If your blog has been linked to from a different website and traffic comes to you from this particular website, then these are basically people who have been referred to you by a particular person, to learn about that specific topic you have discussed.

Let me ask you. How many times have you failed to read a blog that you clicked to? In my case, very few times.

Do you know why? I usually click the link with the intention to read that post because the anchor text gave me a hint of what to expect on the other side.
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Faster site Indexing:

Search engines are able to easily discover links to your site and lead to it when there are backlinks leading to you. This is an important aspect for new websites and blogs because they are discovered early enough.

To summarize, you need to build backlinks and also have as many unique ones as possible:

So, now that the number of backlinks matters, what is the ideal number for a blog post?

Number Of Backlinks Your Blog Should Have:

There is no exact number on how many backlinks your post should have. It all depends on what works for you.

Take Servando Silva for example. He took time to experiment and find out what worked from his site and what didn’t. Clearly, some of these things are better understood when you do your own SEO experiments and observations.

Is quantity all that you should care about? No. The quality of backlinks is also very essential in enhancing your blog’s reputation in search engines as well as increasing traffic.

So,

What are Quality Backlinks?

With the current Google Penguin algorithm, websites that are cheating search engines with fake and spammy backlinks are getting penalized. Before this improvement, even low-quality backlinks ranked.

So, smart humans did this:

They went round the system, created backlinks from bogus sources in order to boost their positions in the Search Engines Results Pages (SERPs).

Google discovered this and now you must have legit and quality backlinks to boost your traffic.

Here are a few characteristics of quality backlinks:

Characteristics Of Quality Backlinks:

Should Be From A Trusted Source:

A high-quality backlink comes from a high-quality website which is also a trustworthy site.

So, the big question is how you determine that a website is trustworthy.

Usually, search engines use a set of trusted seed sites which they know for a fact are high quality. These websites are known to be difficult to get backlinks from, making them the mark of website quality. These include The Huffington Post, BBC, and CNN among others.

Also, website extensions such as .edu and .gov are rated as trustworthy by Google, hence are one of the seed sites. More to come in Part Two later this week.

*So, later this week I will have Part Two of Mike Dane of TruConversion’s Backlinks & More Traffic to our sites and pick up with more details and illustrations about seed sites. What an interesting and helpful series so far. Mike shows us just how all this works, but in easy terms, we can grasp and understand. Let us never be afraid to learn New Things that will help us as bloggers and web owners. And I can apply this knowledge to my Book Promoting and Book Marketing efforts and all my clients will benefit* . . .