 87% of Pinterest users have bought a product because they saw it on Pinterest. Has that grabbed your Attention? It should, because that is 87% of around 300 million monthly users. We here at Selfishgenie Publishing had heard of Pinterest, of course, but we hadn’t paid it much attention. It didn’t seem to have a place in our marketing strategy, as far as we could see. We regarded it as a poor relation of the social media world and therefore not able to do much for us. Then we watched a video that changed our minds. The video was made by a well-known self-published and mainstream published author, Melissa Bourbon, who also provides a wide range of training for writers. She also does a lot of her own marketing and is a big user of Pinterest. In the video she showed us what Pinterest had done for her and we were sufficiently impressed to give it a try for ourselves. So, we gave it a try and it worked for us too, which is why we are now suggesting it for you. What follows is a bit about how Pinterest can be used for marketing, along with some hints and tips we’ve picked up along the way that will help new users to make an impact with it. Let’s continue with a few more significant statistics.  47% of Pinterest users go on the site specifically to shop. So, if you want to find buyers, Pinterest seems to be the place. 50% of Pinterest users are outside of the USA. So, wherever you are in the world, you have a Pinterest audience waiting for you. Finally, just to whet your appetite a little more, Pinterest users are more likely than other social media users to click-through, share or use your content. First of all, what is Pinterest? We thought it was just another social media platform. We were wrong.  Social media posts are here today, gone tomorrow things. Every time you make a post, older posts get pushed further and further down your profile page. That means you have to keep refreshing your messages with new posts. With Pinterest you don’t have to. Pinterest “pins”, as they are called, show up in search results according to relevance, not currency. So a pin made 5 years ago can show up alongside a pin made today. Pinterest is really a very powerful search engine. But unlike other search engines, it only searches within its own site. When users log into Pinterest they are usually looking for something and Pinterest helps them to find it. One of the popular searches is for recipes, for example. Readers enter a few ingredients or other suitable search terms (dinner recipes, summer recipes, etc) into the search bar and Pinterest will show them all the pins related to those search terms. But not only do your pins show up on Pinterest searches but, if you set them up correctly (I’ll return to that later in the blog) they’ll also show up on Google searches. Two for the price of one. Actually, two for the price of none because you don’t have to pay Pinterest anything, unless you want to use their advertising tools.  And the same applies to books. Some readers go to Pinterest to find ideas for new books to read. If you have a website, Pinterest can give you immediate impact. Google takes a long time to find new websites and show them in their results, no matter what SEO “gurus” might tell you. They can take weeks, months or even years to make it to the first or second pages of search results. But pins on Pinterest show up the day they are posted. All users have the latest pins displayed on their home feed, before they even start searching. And the pins they are shown are those relevant to the sorts of things they have saved before. So, if they have saved pins related to books, they’ll see new pins related to books – your pins. Why do buyers like Pinterest and not Amazon or one of the other book etailing sites? Probably because there is no pressure to buy. They are just browsing, looking for ideas or suggestions.  If the reader finds something they like the look of, they can click on the pin to find out more, but if they aren’t interested they can just go onto the next pin that takes their fancy. Unlike other social media sites, Pinterest actually encourages users to click on links, by including those links in prominent positions on the details page of the pin. And this is why it is a marketing tool for indie authors. Now, I’m not claiming that Pinterest is going to turn a book into a bestseller overnight. Nor would Melissa Bourbon make that claim. This is just one more string to the indie author’s marketing bow and should be viewed in the same light. But it’s probably a more powerful marketing tool than either Facebook or Twitter/X. We started using Pinterest back in November, when we were setting up our social media marketing for the Christmas season. It’s a big time for book sales and we wanted some of that action. The timing of our “discovery” of Pinterest couldn’t have been better.  We have two books which we think are especially suitable for Christmas and we put up several pins relating to them. And we got sales. What is particularly significant is that for one of the books, sales had been pretty poor over the first 10 months of the year, but as soon as we put it on Pinterest, that changed. Coincidence? You know we don’t believe in those. Besides, Pinterest’s tracking data showed us how many views and clicks we got for the pins, so we can be pretty sure that the sales came via Pinterest and not just from random searches on Amazon. I’ll be frank, there is some work needed to get the best out of Pinterest, just as there is for any other marketing channel. Experts suggest you have to make around 10 pins a day. Well, we haven’t got time for that so we’re not going to make the same suggestion. But using it regularly is going to have better results than using it sporadically.  In one of the videos we link to later in the blog, the presenter suggests that you can get great returns not by pinning quantity, but by pinning quality. She claims that over 50% of the traffic that is driven to her website by Pinterest comes from just 3 pins, which she made a while ago. But they are “quality” in terms of what makes a good pin, which is why they keep on working for her in the long long term. We’re not going to take you line by line through how to set up a Pinterest pin or how to create a good quality pin. Instead, we went on YouTube and found a video that does that. We provide a link to it at the end of the blog. But we have learnt a few tricks, and we’d like to offer you a few tips.  The first tip we have is to make sure your book’s cover is eye catching. Your cover image is going to appear as one of many, so it has to stand out. If it isn’t eye catching, put it onto a background that is eye catching. Graphics packages such as BookBrush and Canva have tools that allow you to do that. It does no harm to surround the cover image with short text phrases, to entice the reader in. We’ve put one of ours here to show what we mean. Pinterest also allows you to overlay text onto your images. Second tip: Make sure the filename for your cover image actually describes the image. Many graphics packages download images with filenames that are just bunches of numbers and letters and authors often don’t rename the files. But if you rename them so that it describes the image, the description acts as keywords, so they show up in search results. For example, we use the format “Author Name_Book Title_Genre_Book” Not only will those words be found by searches on Pinterest, but Google will find them too if someone does an image search using any of those terms. I always include the word “book” in all relevant file names, because that will show up in all searches where “book” is used as a search term, even if none of the other words are used.  Third tip: Use the right tags for your books. Pinterest doesn’t allow you to create your own tags for your books, but it has lists of tags that have been used in a lot of searches. If you start to type a word into the tags bar, you will get a box that contains all the tags related to that word. Scroll down and select the tag you want and click on it and it will be added to your pin. It guarantees that your pin will be found if that tag is used in a search. Use as many tags as you can – but make sure they are relevant. Your book showing up in a search related to pea soup is not going to win you any friends or sell you any books (unless you write recipe books, of course).  Fourth tip, post regularly and vary your post images and text. As we have said in previous blogs, it can take up to seven viewings of a product before some people will buy it, but at the same time Pinterest has rules about posting spam, so if the images and text are always the same you could get into trouble. This is where packages such as Canva and BookBrush come in handy because they have lots of templates you can use to create different images with different text, all of which will have your book cover at the forefront. Fifth Tip, make sure you are using the right keywords in your pins. Like any other search engine, Pinterest looks for pins that contain the words that users input into the search bar. So, you have to use the same keywords. You can also nudge the search in the right direction by including hastags in the pin’s description (but put them after the main text). Do your research by entering the keywords you think are right to see what sort of results you get. Refine them until you are getting results that display books just like yours. Those are then the keywords you need to use in your pins to get your books found.  Finally, don’t forget to make special pins for special events: Christmas, Valentines Day, Halloween, Black Friday, Cyber Monday etc. These are great times to boost your sales, especially of paperbacks, and special pins will attract people who are looking for anything related to those occasions.
So, that is our quick whizz around Pinterest, and we hope you have the same success with it as we have. But remember, this is just one string for your marketing bow. A well rounded marketing strategy uses all available and relevant channels and also uses them in multiple different ways. If you want to give Pinterest a try, then beginners can watch this video Once you are happy with using the platform, you might want to take a look at this video, which is aimed at optimising pins for business use. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.
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Every year we like to try to give our blog page a seasonal theme and in the past we have allowed our authors to give you their take on the Christmas season (with varying degrees of success). This year, however, we thought we should get some contribution from the people that really make Christmas happen, the ones that live at the North Pole. So we emailed Santa and asked for a contribution from himself and maybe one from the reindeer and the elves. Much to our surprise we got all three, though from Mrs Santa, rather than from the man himself. Up until 16th December we are posting the replies. They look a bit like a conversation was taking place, because when we got the emails they prompted a lot of questions, which we asked and for which we got answers. So, we edited them all together to make them easier to read. So far we have heard from Vixen the Reindeer and Nobby the Elf and now it's the turn of Mrs Santa Claus.  OK, you asked for an email from Santa but you’ve got one from me, Mrs Santa, instead. Or Mrs Claus if you prefer. I don’t mind. Anything except Nellie, which is my real first name. That got ruined for me back in 1956 by that singer Mandy Miller. But I digress. Santa would have replied in person, but you have to understand that this is his busy time of year. Ha, gotcha! Don’t make me laugh – Santa? Busy? Oh no, he’s got it all worked out. There’s half a million elves next door doing all the work for minimum wage and I do all the work in here for no wages at all. Even the reindeer do more work than he does. He a lazy fat (expletive deleted), but I still love him. I shouldn’t complain, I suppose. I knew what I was letting myself in for when I married him all those epochs ago. Oh, you think he was a 3rd century Greek who was canonised, somewhat belatedly, in 1446. No. The Greek gets the credit (for the usual reasons regarding cultural misappropriation) but Santa is far, far older. As am I, of course. No, a lady never reveals her age and a gentleman never asks. Let’s just say that I’m as old as my tongue and a little bit older than my teeth. Actually, a lot older than these teeth, because I only got them this year. Very nice dentist in Birmingham. Lovely soft hands. Sorry, I’m digressing again. Where was I? Oh yes. No, nothing to do with Greek saints. We’re what the archaeologists call primeval, or is that primordial? I can never tell those two apart. Let’s just say that the day before the big meteor struck, there were a lot of happy dinosaurs unwrapping presents. Not T-Rex’s of course. their arms aren’t long enough to pick them up. Most of what you think you know about us comes from Victorian times. The actual celebration of Christmas is the misappropriation of many different pagan rituals to mark mid-winter, but you already know that because the “We don’t celebrate Christmas, we celebrate saturnalia” posts are all over social media. Jerks! But not as big as the jerks that say “winterval”. They are total (multiple expletives deleted). It doesn’t matter what you call it, it’s an excuse for a party and that’s never a bad thing. Not that we ever go to parties. We don’t even go to Longyearbyen for the annual “decorating the dead whale” festival, and that’s only 650 miles away. Do you think dinosaurs had Christmas? They didn’t even have calendars. We gave them their presents whenever they deserved a treat. Which, to be fair, wasn’t all that often. Giant carnivorous lizards are often naughty. Mind you, we didn’t leave them coal back then either, because it hadn’t been made. It was still standing upright covered in leaves. This year we’d like to tell you that there are a lot of people out there who won’t be getting presents, because they’re sat on the naughty step. I won’t name names. You read the news so you can guess who some of them are. All we can say is that if you behave like a (expletive deleted) we’ll treat you like a (expletive deleted). So, if you find a present from Santa under your Christmas tree (or whatever culturally misappropriated pagan ritual symbol you have in your home) then you know that you have been judged to be nice this year. I know some of you will be quite disappointed when you don’t find yours. Why is Santa so judgemental? Well, unlike most people who are judgemental, it is actually in his job description. By what authority is he allowed to be judgemental? That’s a much harder one. You’d have to go all the way back to the Big Bang for the answer to that one and even then it wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Let’s just say that the universe knows the difference between right and wrong and leave it at that. How does the universe know? Sorry, but to answer that would take several Christmases. Try asking a scientist. They’re getting closer to finding out. I’ve got mince pies and mulled wine to make for half a million elves or there will be no end of trouble next door.  I blame that Nobby. Right little rabble rouser that one. I’ll be glad when he retires and so will Santa. He told you I charge for the food? Oooh, I’ll have him, see if I don’t. Let me explain. I make the food, out of the goodness of my own heart. But food costs money, so I have to make a nominal charge, just to cover expenses. It isn’t my fault that I have to travel the world to buy it all every day. The mini-market in Longyearbyen never has anything other than frozen pizza with whale meat topping and only a couple of those at any time. You can’t feed half a million hungry elves on that! And as for the First Class flights and the 5 star hotels, well Santa insists. He says he can’t have me slumming it in Business Class. I need a wide seat and a comfy bed at my advanced age. No, I couldn’t take the sleigh. I’m allergic to reindeer. So yes, that does increase the costs a little bit, but never more than the elves can afford to pay. It’s not my fault that they want money left over to go drinking whisky in Longyearbyen at £25 a shot. How do I get on an aeroplane if I live at the North Pole? My, you are a nosey beggar aren’t you? Let’s just say that I have abilities that you will never understand and one of them is to turn up in the First Class lounge at any international airport in the world (avoiding the queue for Security in the process). So, why do I need airports at all? Why not go straight to the supermarket? Because the supermarket doesn’t have a breakfast buffet cooked by a Michelin starred chef. Now stop being so (expletive deleted) nosey. Oh, now you want to know how old Christmas really is? Well, way back a couple of billion years ago, a lightning bolt struck the primordial soup and caused some chemical changes which resulted in the creation of a single cell life form. No, that wasn’t us. We were already there. But we did give the single celled life form a birthday present and that’s how it all started. You could call that the first Christmas if you want. We got more organised as things went along, of course. We hired the elves, roped the reindeer in (literally) to provide the power for the sleigh, and that sort of thing. Where do elves come from? Now you’re asking! No one really knows. They sort of turned up, unannounced. For several millennia we regarded them as a sort of infestation, then we found they could be trained and that eased Santa’s workload a lot.  They eased it so much the fat lump doesn’t do anything but drive the sleigh nowadays. And for that he gets all the credit. Bit like politicians I suppose. Now politicians, well, they're definitely on the naughty list so you’ll find they’re all getting coal again this year. That's 5,000 years in a row, since you’re asking. It’s been so long since we gave a politician anything but coal for Christmas that we’d have to look it up in the archive to find the exact date. We did think about not giving them anything even before they became politicians, but we decided against that. There’s judgemental and there’s judgemental. There’s always a chance that one of them will do something useful. We won’t hold our breath while we wait, but we have to believe that in an infinite universe, anything is possible. No, we’re not going to answer that one. I refer you to what I said about infinite universes. You believe what you want to. It won’t make the slightest bit of difference to the way things really work. Some of you lot think you know the answers, but in reality you haven’t even worked out the questions yet. Anyway, back to mince pies and mulled wine for me, 'cos I can hear the elves starting to pack away their tools. They need some cheering up before they start to load up the sleigh. Santa’s starting to check the “naughty or nice list”, so it too late to change your behaviour now. But if you don’t get your present from Santa, ask yourself why. Then take a look at your world and start to think how you could make it a better place instead of a worse one. And if, after you’ve looked, you’re thinking “that’s someone else’s job”, you’re wrong. Merry Christmas from The North Pole! Selfishgenie Publishing is closing up for the holidays now, but our blog will be back in January when we have some interesting things to say about how Indie authors can use Pinterest for marketing their book. So don't forget to check back on 6th January.
In the meantime we wish you all a Merry Christmas and if you don't celebrate that holiday, we wish you all the very best wishes for the season. We also wish you all a very happy New Year. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so. Every year we like to try to give our blog page a seasonal theme and in the past we have allowed our authors to give you their take on the Christmas season (with varying degrees of success). This year, however, we thought we should get some contribution from the people that really make Christmas happen, the ones that live at the North Pole. So we emailed Santa and asked for a contribution from himself and maybe one from the reindeer and the elves. Much to our surprise we got all three, though from Mrs Santa, rather than from Santa himself. Up until 16th December we are posting the replies. They look a bit like a conversation was taking place, because when we got the emails they prompted a lot of questions, which we asked and for which we got answers. So, we edited them all together to make them easier to read. Last week we heard from Nobby the Elf and this week it's the turn of Vixen the reindeer.  Hi ya, Vixen here. I’ve been elected to send this email on behalf of all of Santa’s reindeer. Well, elected may be putting it a bit too strongly. It makes it sound like I had a choice. As the only female in the outfit, I tend to get given all the jobs the other reindeer don’t want to do. Which turns out to be most of them. And for 20% less pay! Yes, even up here! Cupid? No, he’s not female. Let’s just say “10% of the population” and you’ll get the picture. Now, the stories and movies all tell you that Rudolf is the one who doesn’t get the breaks, you know because of the … Actually, we don’t talk about that anymore. We call him “differently nasalled” and leave it at that. But no. because of all the stories, Rudolf is the top reindeer these days, even though he has done very little to deserve it. No, he never used his differently nasalled state to guide the sleigh. Are you kidding me? I know it’s bri… no, I better let it go. I’m actually lead reindeer. There are reasons for this that all the females reading this email will understand. If you want a male to do your bidding, just make sure he gets a good look at you from behind, which is why Santa puts me at the front. It’s the only way he can get those lazy b******s to move at all. Not that I’m bitter you understand. But it would be nice to be appreciated for my intellect for a change, rather than for my superb butt. And it is superb, even though I say it myself. But I’ve also got a PhD in comparative philosophies and nobody seems to take any notice of that. OK, philosophy isn’t such a big deal these days, not like it was back in the old days in Greece. You know the names of all the greats from back then: Aristotle, Plato, Socrates. Even batty old Diogenes in his barrel gets a mention from time to time. But name one philosopher from the 21st century! I bet you can’t. And maudlin, drunken introspection doesn’t count as philosophy. But that’s enough about me. What it is it really like being one of Santa’s reindeer? Actually, aside from the casual sexism, it isn’t too bad. We only work one night of the year unless some of the elves fancy a night out in Longyearbyen. We all have our own stalls, with hot and cold running hay, a TV set that gets Disney+ and Netflix, Santa keeps the heating on all winter and most of the summer (it never really gets warm up here) so I guess as far as being a reindeer is concerned life isn’t too bad. Let’s just say that it’s a lot more fun than living in Lapland, foraging for moss and being milked by Sami with cold hands. That’s just the females that get milked, by the way. See, more casual sexism. Mind you, Cupid probably wouldn’t mind too much if the Sami tried to milk him. So, for 364 days a year we get to stay in our nice warm barn and on the 365th day we fly around the world as Santa and the elves drop off all the presents. Yes, I know that scientists say that this isn’t possible. Well, scientists can go and f… have a real good think about it for a while. We’ve been doing this from the dawn of time (No, nothing to do with him, we’re far older than that). So, we know we can do it. Something to do with the Big Bang apparently. Some things started to slow down afterwards, but we kept the ability to move really fast if we want to. Or if Santa wants to which, apparently, is what we really want as well. As a female I really appreciate it when males tell me what I want (yes, you’re right, that is sarcasm). All reindeer have this ability, by the way. But the rest of them haven’t got a fat bloke cracking a whip over their heads to encourage them. How come we can fly when we aren’t very aero dynamic? Let me tell you, when you can travel the speed we do, you don’t need to be aerodynamic to be able to fly. The hard part is slowing down enough to land on a roof without sliding off the end! How do you think Rudolf got his red nose? Just our little joke. Actually, we don’t tell it anymore. Where do you think the term “snowflake” was invented? We got our inspiration for it locally, of course. So, that’s what being one of Santa’s reindeer is all about. 364 days of munching on hay and making sure Santa doesn’t forget to lock the door to my stall, and one day of moving so fast my antlers glow. Yes, I know female reindeer don’t have antlers (more sexism). But I’m one of Santa’s reindeer and he gets what he wants and he wants all his reindeer to have antlers, so antlers it is. I think I carry them off quite well. Our relationship with the elves? Cordial, I would call it. We don’t see a lot of them apart from Christmas Eve. Unless they want a night out in Longyearbyen. Fortunately, they don’t earn enough to get drunk, so they aren’t bad passengers. There’s no vomit to clean off the seats of the sleigh unless they’ve eaten a dodgy bit of whale meat. There’s one I don’t like. Grumpy little sod by the name of Nobby but he retires straight after this Christmas. Not a day to soon if you ask me. I won’t be sorry to see the back of him, I can tell you. You know what he once asked me to do? The filthy little sod. He crept into my stall one night and he …. (Editor’s apology. Once again the end of the email seems to have become corrupted and we have been unable to get it resent in time for inclusion on our blog page.) The last in this trilogy will be posted next week, when we hear from Mrs Santa Claus (Santa was too busy to reply, apparently). If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.
Every year we like to try to give our blog page a seasonal theme and in the past we have allowed our authors to give you their take on the Christmas season (with varying degrees of success). This year, however, we thought we should get some contribution from the people that really make Christmas happen, the ones that live at the North Pole. So we emailed Santa and asked for a contribution from himself and maybe one from the reindeer and the elves. Much to our surprise we got all three, though from Mrs Santa, rather than from Santa himself. From now until the Saturday 16th December we’ll be posting the replies. They look a bit like a conversation was taking place, because when we got the emails they prompted a lot of questions, which we asked and for which we got answers. So, we edited them all together to make them easier to read. First up is the reply we got from Nobby The Elf.  Being one of Santa’s Elves is not as great as you might imagine. Will Ferrell has a lot to answer for! (Look out Will, we’re coming for ya) You just have to look at the shape of Santa to know that flatulence is going to be a major issue, right? But it isn’t just that. Let’s take it from the top – literally. Here we are, up at the North Pole, with sod all to do once we knock off for the day. The nearest restaurant is in Longyearbyen (yes it’s a real place – Google it if you don’t believe me). Now, if you haven’t heard of that place before then don’t beat yourself up over it. No one who isn’t from Longyearbyen has ever heard of it either. It’s in Svalbard, which is the largest island in a group of islands owned by Norway. Even other Norwegians haven’t heard of Longyearbyen. Now, there are a couple of things you need to know about Longyearbyen, Svalbard and Norway in general. Trust me, it isn’t all fjords and woolly hats. The main industries up there in Svalbard are fishing and whaling, along with their associated pastimes of fish gutting and blubber rendering. So, in the nearest restaurant to the North Pole there is a lot of fish and whale meat on the menu and not very much else. If you are looking for fresh fruit or veggies, go somewhere else. If you are lucky there might be a bit of reindeer meat available from time to time, but we don’t go too much on that because, well, you know … It’s a bit close to family you might say. The second thing you have to know is that no country in Europe charges more for alcohol than the Norwegians. You have to be a millionaire to even attempt to get drunk. Us elves, paid what we are by himself, stand no chance. One beer and that’s month’s wages down the toboggan run without a bobsleigh! At least visitors are spared the smell of rotting fish and dead whales for most of the year, because nothing rots in a country that is basically one giant deep freeze. So, us elves don’t get out much, even when Santa lets us use the sleigh. Now, you’d think that making toys for all the ickle children of the world would be a great job. So much job satisfaction to be had, thinking about all those happy smiling faces waking up on Christmas morning to find what Santa has left under the tree for them. Not a chance. It is monotonous, fiddly work and any self-respecting slave labourer in a third world sweat shop would refuse to do it. I once spent a year putting the eyes into teddy bears. I almost went blind in the process. Now, that would have been ironic. Of course, teddy bears are a thing of the past. These days it’s all Playstations, X-Boxes and robots. At least Barbie is back in fashion this year. We get a lot of fun out them. Don’t judge! You try getting thousands of pairs of plastic boobs to stay the right shape and see what it does to your mental health. Without a little bit of a distraction there would be no Barbies for Christmas, so just think on that when you’re looking into the loving eyes of your little girl (or little boy – unlike you, we don’t judge). And for our Australian readers, Barbies have nothing to do with outdoor cooking. At least, these ones don’t. If it doesn’t come served by a butler on a silver platter, she isn’t interested, not since the movie. I suppose that working long hours for 364 days of the year has its compensations. We have so little time off that the fact the nearest restaurant is 650 miles away (about 1,100 kms) isn’t as bad as it might be. Then there is Christmas Eve. You think Santa slides down the chimney to leave all the presents, don’t you. Well, he doesn’t. That fat lump could never get down a chimney. So, we go down it for him And, of course, it isn’t all chimneys, not anymore. We’ve got log burners, gas boilers, oil furnaces and houses with no chimneys at all to deal with. How do you deal with a house that has underfloor electric heating, for goodness sake? And don’t get me started on heat pumps! I have to say we’ve adapted well. We can wriggle through the holes in an air brick if we have to. It’s pretty tough getting a Playstation through too, but that’s what magic is for. But kids, if you really want to help, leave a window open. Not it your room, of course. We wouldn’t want you to get cold. No, leave the window open in mummy and daddy’s room. But I have to tell you a secret now, so I hope the children won’t be too disappointed to find this out. It isn’t us that eats the mince pies or drinks the sherry. And the reindeer don’t get the carrots. We’ve no time for all that. No, It’s mummy or daddy who scoffs all that stuff. But not the whisky. We may be elves, but we’re not stupid and a tot of whisky keeps us going. Besides, even if we don’t have time to drink it we can always take it back to the North Pole with us and flog it to the Norwegians on the black market next time we go to Longyearbyen. Have you ever travelled on the back of a sleigh in the middle of winter? It’s no picnic, believe me. Santa’s OK, he’s got that big red coat on with all the fur trimmings, but not us. We just wear our normal clothes and a set of stripy socks doesn’t do a good job of keeping the cold out. And pointy ears get frost bitten very easily. You’d think evolution would have done a better job with us, considering where we live, but no. Even nature gave us elves a raw deal. Are there any up sides to being one of Santa’s elves? Just the one. Mrs Clause is a great cook (which is why Santa is the shape he is). She does all the cooking for the toy factory and the meals are great. She doesn’t even charge us too much for them, which is nice of her. I’m one of the lucky ones though. I come up for retirement this year. After 400 years of slaving at toy making and sliding down chimneys, I’m off to Spain to live in a little house I bought there. I picked it up for a song after the last banking crisis. There’s a lovely restaurant at the end of the street with not a bit of whale meat in sight. Ot's right next to a bar that sells cheap beer and shows all the football on Sky Sports. And Santa can go f…. (Editor’s apology. The end of the email seems to have been corrupted and Nobby is now too busy to resend it. We think it might have said “And Santa can go for a walk in the snow and not worry about me”. But we can’t be sure.) Next week we hear from Vixen the reindeer. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.
 Having a great idea for a story is one thing, turning that idea into a book that people want to read all the way to the end is something else. Countless books end up as DNF (did not finish) and attract poor reviews because the author couldn’t keep their readers interested enough in what was happening for them to stay the course and finish the book. And a book that ends up as DNF means that its reader won’t buy the author’s next book. Then you have the books that readers did finish but didn't like, which also attract poor reviews. So, 10 simple tips to make sure your book doesn’t share that DNF fate and attracts good reviews. They aren’t complicated, but they do need to be at the forefront of the author’s mind as they write.  1. Invest time in your character building People engage with characters, not plots, so the characters are the most important part of writing. A good protagonist (or MC if you prefer) isn’t what is visible from the outside. It is what is on the inside that counts. We may be attracted to a person by their looks and style, but we fall in love with them because of who they really are, even making allowances for their flaws. In real life we don't fall in love with shallow people, so why would we do it in books? Create a pen picture for all your major characters. Start by giving you character a back story, beginning with their family and home life, through their education, their peer groups and their life experiences. These things shape their values and beliefs and those are the things that direct their behaviour. Your character has to behave consistently, in accordance with their values and beliefs. They may be forced by circumstances to “act out of character” at times, but that always creates a dilemma for them and is a source of internal conflict (see below). Above all give them emotions, so that readers feel those emotions and reflect them in their reading experience. If your character is moved to tears, your readers should be moved to tears too. If your character is laughing, your reader should also be laughing. You may not use a lot of the material that you generate in your pen pictures, but knowing how characters will behave in any particular set of circumstance means they can behave consistently over a lengthy story.  2. Create a meaningful conflict. Character + conflict = plot. The conflict that faces your protagonist is what the story is all about. No matter what the conflict is, they have to resolve it by the final page in order to complete the story and fulfil the destiny you create for them. Conflicts come in many different disguises and will depend very much on the genre in which you write. It can be the character’s internal struggle to overcome their own demons, or it can be an external struggle to overcome actual demons. Every story, even a comedy, is about overcoming conflict. But whatever the conflict is, it has to be of interest to the reader, so it has to be larger than life and something that readers are unlikely to experience for themselves, which makes it interesting for them  3. Create a meaningful consequence Failure to resolve the conflict has to have consequences, otherwise it is hard to inject drama into the story. The more severe the conflict, the greater must be the consequences of failure. In romance, failure may end with a broken heart. In a court room drama failure may end in imprisonment or financial ruin. In action adventure the consequence of failure is almost always death and/or destruction. Whatever the consequence, it has to match up with the reader’s own fears because that is what will keep the reader turning the page. Even though the reader knows the story will probably have a good outcome for the protagonist, that element of doubt is what keeps them reading, because they have to know how the protagonist avoids the consequences.  4. Motivate your character. In a story, as in real life, the protagonist has a choice whether or not to get involved with the conflict. A hero isn’t a hero because they are brave. A hero is a hero because they choose to run towards trouble when other people are running away from it. This means that the protagonist has to have a reason to get involved and this is where their values and beliefs come in. On the other hand they can’t get involved because they are compelled to by some outside agency. In other words, it can’t be just about the job they do. There must be an opportunity to walk away early in the story and even later in the story when things get difficult. Take a typical private investigator story. The PI gets involved initially because they have been hired to do so, but they can also turn the case away if they wish. They don’t know at that stage that their life may be threatened. Later, however, they find that their life is on the line if they continue the investigation, so they can choose to walk away. Why they don’t walk away is because of their motivation, not because they are being paid. The motivation has to be believable, and it must fit in with the character you described in your pen picture.  5. Invest time in creating your villain Authors often spend a lot of time building good protagonists, only to let themselves down with their antagonist. Nobody is born bad, so there must be a reason for them becoming the person they are. It doesn’t matter the genre, your villain has to have his or her own back story which explains their behaviour. Just as with your protagonist, you may not use all the material you generate in developing your antagonist, but if you understand them it will add depth to your plot and your readers will understand them.  6. Create smaller conflicts to add complexity and drama. Sub plots are what turns a short story into a full length novel and those sub-plots are created with small conflicts that get in the way of your protagonist dealing with the big conflict. Imagine our PI, mentioned above, who owes money to a loan shark, who wants his money back. The PI spends time during the story dodging the loan shark, trying to raise the money to pay him back etc then, just as the PI is about to solve the case and confront the villain, they are snatched off the street by the loan shark and are threatened with dire consequences if the money isn’t forthcoming within the hour. There is several chapters worth of drama available in that short paragraph. Sub-plots are also a great way to put your minor characters centre stage for a while as they try to help the protagonist deal with the minor conflicts so the protagonist can get on with dealing with the major conflict. This is what injects "pace" into a story; the peaks and troughs in the action that keep the reader turning the page to find out what happens next. However, the sub-plots and the main plot must interact with each other. If the sub-plot has no impact on the outcome of the main conflict it is redundant, and the reader ends up saying “what was that all about?”, which is not a good thing.  7. Do your research This applies to any genre but is particularly important when it comes to specialist settings such as police, medical or legal dramas and historical fiction. Readers of that sort of fiction know their stuff and they expect their authors to know their stuff as well. I’ll give you a real life example. I recently read a book set during World War II. The first third of the book was set against the backdrop of an RAF Lancaster bomber squadron. It became quite clear that the author knew nothing about the RAF. He had researched the Lancaster bomber and knew quite a bit about that (but not as much as he should have known), but he was clueless about the RAF in general. As I’m a former member of the RAF he had me wanting to throw my Kindle at the wall in frustration at the gaffs he committed, and he completely undermined his credibility as an author writing about that period. Needless to say, the book ended up as DNF. What made it worse was that most of what he needed to know he could have found on the internet and the rest from one of the several standard works about the RAF during WW2. The golden rule is always “write what you know”. As that is a bit limiting the next best thing is to work out what you don’t know and learn about it. Learn everything about it. Like character development, you may not use everything you learn, but at least you won’t make the sorts of gaffs the above author made, your credibility will be retained and your story will be more authentic. It’s easy to say “Readers probably won’t know that, so I won’t bother researching it” – but some readers will know it and they are the ones who will write the bad reviews of your book.  8. Don’t show off. This includes using multi-syllable words when single syllable words will do and using technical, scientific or jargon words that readers won’t understand, or including unnecessary detail just to prove you’ve done your research. Your readers don’t want to have to read your book while holding a dictionary in one hand and an encyclopaedia in the other. So, use language that the average reader will understand, even if you know all the technical or scientific terms yourself. There will be times when you need to use those terms, in context, but make sure that you provide your readers with an explanation so that they will understand it too. You can have the protagonist or another character acting in place of the reader and have the “expert” explain what they mean in simple language, for that character’s (and the reader’s) benefit. This is often done in cop shows where the Forensic Medical Examiner has to explain post-mortem results in terms the lay person (the viewer) will understand.  9. Know the ending before you start. If you know how your story is going to end, you can construct a “road map” that will take your protagonist to their destination. One of the biggest problem for “pantsers”, as some authors are called, is that in not having a map to follow, they get side-tracked, which is confusing for the reader and it is hard for the author to get the plot back on track because they have confused themselves. It is OK to deviate from the map, but if you don’t have a map to start with you won’t know if you are deviating from it.  10. Write for your readers. Many authors are advised to “Write for yourself first” and that is OK if all you want to do is write. But if you want to write a best-seller, you have to write for your readers. You have to know what they want and what they expect, and you have to fulfil their wants and expectations. If you do that your book will get good reviews, which will mean it sells more copies. But if you don’t meet those wants and expectations, you can only expect bad reviews, which will stop sales in their tracks. What the readers want and expect will vary from genre to genre, so you have to understand your genre inside out, and that means reading books in that genre. Read the best-selling authors in that genre to learn from the best. Once you have established yourself as a best-selling author, you can then “write for yourself” in the certain knowledge that your name will sell the book. But you have to cross that bridge when you reach it, not when you are just starting your journey.  And Finally
Nobody can guarantee that your book will be a best-seller. But if you follow the advice above, you will stand a better chance than those authors that don’t follow the advice. But if there is a key to success it is in the first three tips. Character, conflict and consequences. They are what make up the vital elements of the story. At least get those right and you are well on your way to writing a best-selling novel. Now that you have read this blog, why not take a look at our books to see if our authors have followed the advice that we have offered? Just click on the “Books” tab to see their work. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.  As an Indie author, are you ready for Christmas? This is one of the best times of the year for books sales, because books make such a great gift. But, just like any other time of the year, your potential readers need to know about your book and how it is going to be the perfect gift for their loved one or friend. If you use Amazon Ads, then now is the time to launch a “keyword” ad aimed specifically at the Christmas market. There are two steps to this. Firstly, find the books by other authors that are like yours and use their titles and the authors' names as keywords in your ad.  Secondly, add in suitable keywords so that people searching for Christmas gifts also find the book. The most efficient way to do this is to add the words Christmas, festive, seasonal, holidays (if you are American) and similar to other keywords you may use that are related to your book and its genre. For example, Christmas books, Christmas novels, Christmas romance. Christmas mystery etc. If you are a stranger to Amazon Ads, then their tutorials are the place to start finding out more and learn about their power to improve your sales. But Amazon is only one place where you should be promoting your books for the Christmas season. If you are on Facebook, X/Twitter, Linkedin or Pinterest, you should be scheduling posts specifically aimed at the Christmas market.  People are desperate for ideas for gifts to give, so they will appreciate you giving them helpful suggestions. Make sure you include some of those keywords in your posts, so that they show up in searches. Also use hashtags for added searchability. You might also consider setting up some book bundles for readers to buy. This is particularly relevant if you write series and you can bundle 3 or 4 books from the series. By offering a reduced price compared to buying the books individually, you can increase your sales, which increases your income.  If you have your own website where people can buy your books directly from you, then setting up “buy one get one free” (aka BOGOF) offers will also give your books a boost. Everyone loves a bargain and being able to buy two gifts for the price of one is always a winner. Black Friday is 24th November and Cyber Monday is on 27th November and both those days should also be targeted for sales. But you must offer deals on those days, or people won’t buy.  If you have access to graphics packages such as Canva or BookBrush, use their templates to set up some seasonally themed mock ups for your books. Putting your book cover on your social media is OK but, psychologically, displaying it in a Christmas setting is another nudge towards the “buy” button. Making it clear that price is reduced for Black Friday is another nudge. But remember, you aren’t selling your book direct to the reader, you are selling it to a friend or loved one. So the text that accompanies your promotion has to be about how somebody else will love the book. So, a phrase such as “The golfer in your life will love this book” is more appealing that just telling the viewer that your book is about golf.  The key to extra sales isn’t about promoting your book once and hoping for the best, it is about promoting your book continually throughout the season. Most social media sites have rules about spam, but if you vary the images and the text you will get away with it, as each post will appear unique. But the Christmas selling season doesn’t end on 25th December.  A lot of people get gift vouchers for Amazon and for other etailing sites, so set up another series of promotions and post them starting on 25th December and running through to the New Year, because that is when people will be going on-line searching for things to buy with those vouchers.
Make sure it is your book or books they buy! And, if you are looking for some great book ideas to buy for your friends and loved ones, then you might want to take a look at the ones we have to offer. Just click here to take a look at our catalogue. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this book review are those of the review's author and are not necessarily those of Selfishgenie Publishing.   “The Trial” is Rob Rinder’s first foray into fiction and it’s one that will keep you guessing all the way to the big reveal. For those outside the UK who are unfamiliar with Rob Rinder, he is our equivalent to “Judge Judy”. As a successful barrister (trial lawyer for our overseas readers) he was well known in legal circles before venturing onto our TV screens. Now he appears in a variety of shows in different formats, including documentaries. With this foray into fiction, he becomes not only Britain’s Judge Judy, but also Britain’s John Grisham. The story is basically a courtroom drama, but one with a strong human element. Unusually, it doesn’t follow the exploits of an experienced lawyer plying his trade against all odds, but instead the protagonist is a novice, stumbling through the foothills of the legal mountain range as he learns his trade while flirting with the ruination of his career before it even gets started. Adam Green is a law graduate from Oxford University who is the second 6 month of his yearlong pupillage – the basic training for a barrister where he is supposed to be mentored by a King’s Counsel in a prestigious “chambers”, as legal businesses are called in the UK. If Adam performs well he will be offered a “tenancy”, which is basically a full time job in the firm. But there is only one position available at the end of the year and he has a rival with whom he must compete, the attractive and outgoing Georgina. Adam is very much an introvert to Georgina’s extrovert, and she isn’t afraid to use her gender to charm her male colleagues. Adam, while being a very likeable person, usually comes across as socially inept, which is very much a disadvantage in the British legal profession. I frequently found myself wondering how much of Rob Rinder there was in the character of Adam. For the uninitiated (like me) there is a lot of arcane terminology to get your head around that has nothing to do with the law itself, but everything to do with the ancient traditions of the legal profession as practised in the UK. Several hundred years of custom and practice have created a world that is closed to the outsider, but for which Rob Rinder raises a corner of a curtain to allow us to peek inside. "a national hero who once saved the life of the Queen." For example, did you know that barristers never shake hands with other barristers? No, nor did I. It has something to do with barristers trusting each other and not needing to shake hands in order to prove their hands are empty of weapons. Who knew? Stag Chambers, the place where Adam is a pupil, is asked to defend a man accused of murdering a police officer. Not just any police officer, however, a national hero who once saved the life of the Queen. "a deeply unlikeable person who has little time for young whippersnappers like Adam" It is an open and shut case, to all intents and purposes and Jonathon Taylor-Cameron, Adam’s pupil-master (mentor) considered it beneath him to attempt to mount a defence. But legal traditions dictate that he can’t turn the case down and Adam is assigned as his “junior”, or assistant. Which means Adam does the hard work of preparing the case while Jonathon does the grandstanding on the courtroom floor. Needless to say, Taylor-Cameron is painted as a deeply unlikeable person who has little time for young whippersnappers like Adam, creating a major source of conflict within the plot. "A reasonable doubt is all that is required to obtain an acquittal." Adam soon starts to believe that their client, Jimmy Knight, is innocent but the evidence is stacked against him. The big question throughout the book is whether Adam can find the evidence that will get their client acquitted, or at least cast doubt on the evidence provided by the prosecution, so that a reasonable doubt is created in the minds of the jury. A reasonable doubt is all that is required to obtain an acquittal. Obviously, I can’t say much more than that, because it would spoil the book. But I can say that there are so many secrets to be exposed that Adam has his work cut out to make sense of it all. And just to add a bit of extra drama, if he doesn’t make a good job of the defence, it is unlikely that he will be offered the permanent position at Stag Chambers.  Author Robert Rinder Rinder’s writing style is easy to read, and he makes some complex subjects easy to understand. His knowledge of the British legal system is obvious, and he does his best to make sure that readers can understand it as well.
I found myself turning the pages in anticipation of the next twist the plot might take and what new secrets would be exposed. There are red herrings aplenty, but the truth is there to be discovered if you can pick up on the subtle clues that Rinder drops into the narrative. But there are also a few lessons to be learned about the morality of the legal system and it becomes quite clear that justice is often not what is done, but what is seen to be done. You would think the legal system is there to establish guilt or innocence, but those concepts seem to slip between the cracks when it comes to what can be proved and what can’t. If you like legal dramas, then I highly recommend you give this one a go. “The Trial” by Rob Rinder is an absorbing read which left me wanting to read Rinder’s next book (assuming there is one) straight away. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.  There was a recent kerfuffle amongst Indie authors on X/Twitter when a well-known, trad published, author (I won’t name her, the posts are all there if you want to look) suggested that Indie authors take the “easy route” by self-publishing. She actually said it on Instagram or TikTok, or one of those platforms, but the kerfuffle was on X/Twitter. Naturally, this is not a view we share. And we are pretty sure that it isn’t true anyway. I know for a fact that Selfishgenie Publishing wasn’t the first choice for any of our authors. Nor were we their second choice, or their third. In fact, if we made it into their top 100 choices we would feel quite proud. Those authors came to us because they felt they had nowhere else to go. It most certainly wasn’t an easy choice for them to make, we know that. Our authors came to us for three reasons:  1. We were willing to give them a chance. 2. We were able to provide skills that they didn't have. 3. Unlike vanity publishers, we didn’t make any upfront charges for our services. Now, you may be wondering why, as publishers, we lump ourselves in with Indie authors. It is because that in many ways we function in exactly the same way as the indie author functions. We may be publishers, but we are also authors ourselves. Our company exists because we started doing for other people what we were already doing for ourselves. And, just like many other indie authors, self-publishing wasn’t our first choice. But it wasn’t really a choice we made for ourselves anyway. It was made for us by others. For many self-pubbed authors, there is a three step process. Let’s just go through it to see if it rings any bells.  Step One – Querying. Sending out queries to agent after agent and getting knocked back every time. How many letters are sent and over what time scale varies from author to author, depending on their resilience. But in the end the author finally admits that it isn’t going to happen for them and stops sending out query letters. The decision to do that isn’t one the author makes voluntarily. The author has just come to the realisation that none of these agents are going to offer to sign them, so it isn’t actually a decision at all.  Step Two – Pitching to smaller publishers. There are some smaller publishers that accept submissions direct from the author, not via an agent (they do accept submissions via agents as well, of course). After working through the lists of publishers who will accept those submissions and once again getting knocked back every time, the author once again realises that those publishers aren’t going to sign them. Again, the decision isn’t really being made by the author. It is being made by the publisher. The author is just accepting the reality of their position. Let’s face, getting a trad publishing deal is a numbers game. Using the old iceberg analogy, it is only the authors that represent the tip of the iceberg that get a publishing deal. The vast majority that sit below the waterline don’t get one. They are probably around 95% of all authors writing today. They can’t all be bad. In fact most of them are pretty good.  Step Three – Self Publishing. When the author decides to self-publish, they are making a choice. The alternative is not to publish their work at all and, sadly, some authors do make that decision. Their talent will be forever lost to readers simply because they are worn out from trying. So, what part of steps one and two were easy, do you think? Is it easy to get rejection after rejection? No, it isn’t. Every rejection feels like a dagger through the heart. Is it easy to get back on the horse and try again, and again, and again? No, it isn’t. Yet we kept sending out those queries, even though we knew we would get more stab wounds.  The author who thinks it is easy to go self-pubbed is speaking from a highly privileged position. They got their agent before their resilience ran out. They got their publishing contract. Every time they submit a new MS to their agent, they know that the agent is very likely to go into raptures of appreciation for it, because they know that another pay-day is approaching. And when the agent puts the MS forward to publishers, they know there is a very high probability that it will be accepted for publication. That is privilege indeed. But, apparently, we Indies are the ones who take the easy route. So, what does that easy route look like? Aside from getting stabbed repeatedly, of course.  Learning new skills, that we never imagined we would ever have to learn when we first sat down to write our book. Not writing skills - we knew we might have to learn a few of those. No, we have to learn to edit, to proofread, to format, to use new platforms so we can upload and distribute our books. We have to learn how to spot the fakes and the scammers who want to take our money. But most of all we have to learn how to market our books. This really is the biggest challenge for the author. Nobody is going to buy a book they don’t know exists and marketing is the way we get the book out in front of readers so that they know about it.
So, how can any of that be the easy option? The only easy option is to not market the book and accept that it isn’t going to sell.  I suspect that the author in question, like so many trad published authors, simply has no idea what an Indie author actually goes through, or the amount of work they have to do, not just today, but every day until they either give up or they die. If that is the case then they should understand the risks of talking about things of which they have no knowledge. They should also be aware that they are perpetuating the prejudice that being self-published is somehow second rate. It isn’t. We are self-published because no agent or publisher would take a chance on us. That doesn’t mean our work isn’t any good. Agents and publishers want guaranteed best sellers. There is no room for risk in that equation and new authors are risky.  We know that because quite a few authors do get book deals with trad publishers, but when their book doesn’t sell as expected, the publisher drops them. And when the publisher drops them, so does their agent.
And they end up here with us indies. But we also know our books are good because, providing we get the marketing right, we are able to sell our books. And some of us even sell them in quantities that some trad published authors can only dream about. So, to all you indies out there, we want to tell you that you are our heroes. You are the people we admire. We admire you far more than we admire trad pubbed authors, because we know what it has taken for you to get where you are today. Because we have travelled the same road and we know how hard the journey is. We wish you well. Keep fighting the good fight. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so. |
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