Chad A. Webster seems to do it all . . . in addition to his role as a Charlotte police officer and author of the middle-grade Mystery Muffin book series, he's now adding YouTube star to his list of credits. Chad's new podcast, Please Pass the Bacon, is available as a podcast and YouTube channel. Chad says, "The podcast hopes to 'peoplize the police' and connect with the community through good news stories and humor."  

So far, the response has been positive. Chad and the 'Bacon' team have been covered by WCNC and Spectrum News and will be featured on Pat McCrory's radio show on WBT this Friday, March 29 from 9:30 and 10 am Eastern Time. 

Chad has also used this opportunity to promote his author brand and his books, which are an important part of his personal mission. In writing about neighborhood detectives that often partner with the police department to solve mysteries, he hopes to reinforce the benefits of family and community while entertaining readers of all ages. 

It may not seem sensational, but the words an author uses to describe his or her book (or his or her self) from book descriptions to author bios to social media posts matters! Meta data is the key to how search engines find book information and help present it to potential readers. This an be words, phrases, and paragraphs and can be a great way to promote and market your book on the sly. Sites that sell books discover products via search engines and distribute the information that is provided by the publisher, author, or marketer. It's important to use consistent key words and descriptions within Goodreads, Amazon Author Central, and across any author blogs, websites, and social media sites you maintain. 

To help connect readers, curators, reviewers, and buyers with your book, select valuable keywords and phrases that best describe your book. This could be in your ISBN listing or Amazon product listing (you can work with your publisher to refine these), as well as any web pages you manage, descriptions and bios on social media sites, and the content in your blogs and author profiles on the web. 

It's a good idea to keep a master list of strategic keywords and phrases you intend to leverage across platforms. Even if you are writing an article or participating in a media interview, plugging your meta data into these venues will help reinforce your brand and help readers find your book!

Think about your potential reader and super-fan - what words and phrases would they enter into a search engine to find your book? Test this out on Amazon and Goodreads to see if they return books that are similar to yours and would attract your buyers. You can leverage Google Trends for more ideas on keywords by popularity and how often they are searched. Tip - the less popular keywords will have less competition and may allow your book to rise to the top!

Work on your list until you have a list of 10-25 words and phrases you plan to leverage every time you mention yourself or your book. Put them in order of importance, with the top 10 being those you rely on and keep in your memory (or back pocket) to pull out anytime you are posting on social media, writing a blog, or interacting on Goodreads. 

But most of all, just keep it simple, make sure it reflects the brand you're looking to create, and have fun with it!

Author Vince Bailey was welcomed warmly by readers and fans at a recent author event, held at Barnes & Noble Arrowhead in his hometown of Peoria, Arizona. Vince met with readers and passers by and signed copies of his paranormal historical fiction novel, Path of the Half Moon. Path was recently named an official SEMI-FINALIST for the PARANORMAL Book Awards for Supernatural Fiction, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs) and is the previous winner of the Arizona Authors' Association Literary Award. 

We're excited to announce that Vince Bailey’s debut paranormal historical fiction novel, Path of the Half Moon, has been named an official SEMI-FINALIST for the PARANORMAL Book Awards for Supernatural Fiction, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs). The Paranormal Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of  Paranormal and Supernatural Fiction. The Paranormal Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The #CIBAs).

Path of the Half Moon, also winner of the Arizona Authors' Association Literary Awards, is a paranormal historical fiction tale set in a remote detention facility for wayward boys in the early sixties. Curtis is an African American youth whose character and physical endurance are tested by a murderous inmate and a century-old Apache curse. It's available in print and e-book wherever books are sold. 

We discussed earlier this year how important building your brand as an author is. Strategy, content, and social media all come into play when building your own brand. Here, we will break down some practical ways to begin building your brand and give you a step-by-step guide for getting started!

3. Set Up Your Platform
When you’ve answered the questions of who you are as an author and who your target audience is, you can start to set up your actual author platform. First and foremost, you will need to set up your author website. For further instruction on how to best build your website, you can revisit our blog post on it.
 
4. Don’t Shy Away From Email
If you think of your email list as just another way to connect with your readers, like Twitter or Facebook, it becomes much less intimidating. If you can make a great first impression with your readers and create an easy form for them to use to subscribe to your email list, building your email list is completely doable. The important thing to remember when building your email list is that you shouldn’t wait to start. Begin building the list and develop it as you go, even if your website or book aren’t quite ready. 

5. Get Active on Social Media
As we’ve mentioned in posts previously, social media is crucial to your brand. The beauty of social media is that you have the creative liberty to tailor it to exactly the way you want it. Keep in mind the Rule of Thirds that we mentioned in an earlier blog post and remember to use your social media as a way to connect with your audience. If you use it solely as a promotional tool for your book or even for yourself, your audience will not be drawn in as effectively. Keep in mind what your readers connect with about you, and use that often in your social media.
 
Remember to have patience with yourself as you build your brand and that, even using these practical steps, it will probably take some time. It’s okay to not get everything in order right away, as long as you are making progress!

An eclectic mix of friends, family, writers, and aspiring authors attended a friendly launch party and book signing event for Vince Bailey’s Path of the Half Moon. Held at the Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix, Arizona, the evening opened with a few words from the author and ended with fans and prospective readers excited for Vince’s next creation!

After addressing highly anticipated questions and peeling back the curtain with valuable insights, the attendees were able to have a meaningful discussion about the book and its themes. From the quirky point-of-view to the chronological shifts, the Q&A session helped weave together the readers’ personal observances on Path of the Half Moon.

Path of the Half Moon is currently available in print and ebook format. Learn more about Path and connect with the author here. 

As part of our ongoing blog series dedicated to marketing books, we'd like to talk this week about getting social! Once you've checked out all the available social media sites (see our previous post about getting started) it's time to start connecting and building an audience. This may seem simple, but it really does begin one connection at a time - one like, one follow, one direct message. It may take a bit of time to build a following but you can start by following the authors, film makers, singers, celebrities, and sports figures that interest you. You'll get a sense of the types of content that professionals (or the pro's that manage sites for them) feel is important and will grab the attention of their followers. 

The rule of three . . .
According to Wikipedia and numerous pundits and internet articles and lots of books on Amazon, the rule of three is a general writing principle that groups of three are generally more satisfying and easier to remember for readers or audience members. The same can be said of social media practices.

This principle is a lot simpler than it sounds – so don’t be scared off by it! Simply think of your posts as clusters of three. For one of the posts, you will promote yourself (things like your book, business, or brand). For another, you will promote someone else (things like their book, business, or brand). For the final post, you will post something unrelated to your book or business, but still connected to you and your brand (things like a hobby, vacation, family picture, etc.). Simply rotate through these three kinds of posts! It’s so simple, but it gives you a great starting place when it comes to knowing what kind of content to create. And we follow the rule . . . with three images below!

At the end of the day, when it comes to building your brand, you have to start somewhere! Don’t let fear or intimidation keep you from beginning. Do your research ahead of time when it comes to picking your lane and finding places like conferences and online forums. Spend the time upfront setting up your social media and becoming comfortable with how it works so that, as your brand begins to take off, you can focus less on the logistics and more on building relationships with your readers and other authors.

One more thing . . .
You don't have to do it alone! While it's important to make your voice and personality shine throughout your social media presences, you can get help. Take a tour through LinkedIn and search for virtual assistants. You can specify marketing assistants or social media assistants and hire someone to help build your brand, keep your sites fresh, and work with you on connecting to followers. 

​When it comes to marketing yourself an author, you don’t have to wait until your book is finished and published to begin. The earlier you connect and begin to build familiarity and relationships with your readers, the better.

This becomes possible when you realize that you are marketing yourself more than you are marketing your book. At the end of the day, your name is a more important brand than your book’s title. The key is to build your own personal brand through which you can promote your books. We're launching a new blog series in 2019, dedicated to helping authors build their platforms and their brand. Here's a few things to get you started . . . maybe one or two will make it to your New Year's Resolution list!

For authors with books already published, we strongly suggest creating and keeping fresh your Goodreads Profile and Amazon.com Author Central profiles. Be sure to keep them fresh with weekly posts or link them to your existing blog.

Read more about Goodreads setup here. It's a powerful tool with a great return on investment of your time and energy. 

We'll talk more in upcoming posts about creating a compelling social media presence but for now just make a start. Create a profile and bring the new YOU to the New Year!