web stuff 4 writers

I’ve probably seen hundreds of trailers for films in my lifetime.  Almost every trip to the cinema begins with those short clips, highlighting the best bits of movies-to-come.

This week, I’ve seen my first book trailer - or rather my first nine book trailers - which have been posted on YouTube to promote the launch of Douglas Coupland’s new book, The Gum Thief.  Three of the snippets are from the point of view of Roger, the main character.  Three are from the point of view of another character, Bethany.  And three are extracts from Roger’s own novel, Glove Pond.

Here is my favourite - it’s an introduction to Bethany:

You can view the rest on Douglas Coupland’s YouTube page.

Your thoughts

I’m probably not the best person to comment on the effectiveness of these videos, as I’ve already bought and read (and enjoyed) The Gum Thief.  For anyone who hasn’t read the book, do these videos leave you wanting to find out more?

Tags: Promotion by Natasha
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Earlier in the year, the UK rock band, Radiohead, announced that they were going to sell their latest album via their website, inrainbows.com. Nothing new there. What was different was that, when the buyer got to the virtual check-out, they were presented with a pound sign and then an empty box. Click on the question mark next to this box and they got the message, ‘it’s up to you’.

In other words, as the consumer, you could pay what you thought the album was worth.

Fast forward to earlier this week, when I discovered this Associated Press article: Most Fans Paid $0 for Radiohead Album. According to the study quoted in the article, 62% of the survey participants downloaded the album for free. The remaining 38% paid an average of US$6.00.

So, at first glance, it seems that Radiohead’s not making as much money out of this album as they would if they sold it through the music stores. What they are doing though, is making headlines. They’re getting their name out there, creating a buzz. And a buzz will sell box-sets, and buzz will get people to their gigs.

Also, when you download the album – even if you pay nothing for it – you have to register for an account with the inrainbows.com website. I’m not sure how this data will be used, but when you sign up for any website, there’s the potential that you’ll be made aware (usually by email) of any future products or campaigns.

Your thoughts

Do you see this business model working for book sales? If you had the option of downloading it for free, would you still pay for the right to download a book by your favourite author?

Tags: Promotion, Publishing by Natasha
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In Friday’s entry, I wrote about how writers could use the basic features of facebook.com – the groups, event calendars, and profile fields that become available to them as soon as they become a member of this social networking website.

However, there’s more to facebook than these basic tools. Earlier this year, the owners of facebook began to allow external organisations and web developers to create their own applications.

There are hundreds of these applications now available: from maps applications which show all the cities you’ve visited to vampire/werewolf applications which allow you to virtually bite your friends and have them join your monster army. Here are a few of these applications which as, a writer, you might find fun or useful.

Blog RSS Feed Reader

This application uses your blog’s RSS feed to display the titles of your recent entries within your facebook profile. Profile visitors can click through to your website to read the full text, or subscribe to the feed directly from facebook.

Books

As a writer, I’m also a reader – and the Books application allows you to share your opinions on the books you’ve read (as well as keeping track of any comments that facebook readers have left about your own). The book information is generally taken from Amazon, but if the book you’ve read doesn’t appear there, you can add it most of it yourself.

There are a number of different versions of this application. At the moment, I’m using the one coded by Larry Gadea and Martin Mroz.

Storylines

This is a shared story application. You write the first 200 characters of a story, then invite your friends to add their 200 characters and see where the narrative goes. This one was a bit buggy when I first installed it, and I couldn’t see new additions to my stories for days at a time. However it seems to be working fine now.

Scrabulous

Scrabulous is a online version of my favourite word game. You can challenge up to four friends to a match, with each player taking their turn when they’re logged into facebook.

How to add applications to your facebook profile

1. If you want to add the specific applications I’ve mentioned here, you can search for them by their name. Alternatively you can browse applications by keyword.
2. Clicking on the name of the application in the resulting list will usually take you to a page with general information about the application. Click on ‘Add Application’ to add it to your profile.
3. The application may need some extra information from you in order to display correctly. Once you’ve filled in all the details, the application will appear as a box on your facebook profile.

Your thoughts

If you’ve got a facebook profile, do you use any applications to help promote your book? Or are there any writing-related games you play via this social networking website? Leave a comment and let us know.

Tags: Procrastination, Promotion by Natasha
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Here’s a new concept for the week: blog tours.  Well, the concept is new for me at least.  Other writers, it seems, have been packing up their virtual bags and touring round the blogosphere for months now.  There are even organisations, like Pump Up Your Book Promotion PR who specialise in these online book tours.

How does a blog tour work?

Instead of visiting bookstores and libraries to promote their new book, a writer will make guest posts on a number of blogs – trying to visit as many as possible within a restricted ‘touring’ period.

At each ‘stop’, the writer will either take questions from the blog author and readers, or post an entry on a prearranged topic.  Touring writers will often publish their itinary on their own website, as seen here on Trish Milburn’s blog.

Why go on a blog tour?

As far as I can see, there’d be two major advantages to going on a blog tour.

The first, and probably most important, is that it gets the ‘buzz’ about your book, out to new audiences.  Blogs that host tours may have many more daily readers than your own blog or website.  If you pick your blogs carefully, you might also be able to reach people who are unaware or unfamiliar with your work, but already interested in your subject matter.  For example, if you had written a non-fiction book about scrap-booking, you might want to target craft blogs, blogs by craft store owners, and so on.

The second is that, your appearances may inspire the readers into online action.  If you’re on a shortlist for a contest, as Trish Milburn is, at the end of each post you can call for votes.  Or, if your book’s available online, you can provide a link to a site where the reader can find out more and maybe purchase a copy.

Over at The Blog Tour Spot blog, there is an evaluation of Mary DeMuth’s tour of 85 blogs in six weeks, as well as more information about blog tours and tips that might come in handy if you’re organising your own.

Your thoughts

Have you seen authors on blog tours?  Have you been an author on a blog tour?  Do you think that the publicity gained is worth the time commitment involved?

Tags: Promotion by Natasha
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Whether you have hired a web development team to create you a multi-page website or you are setting up a free profile on MySpace, it’s important to first consider what sort of information you’re going to make available.

You might choose to have a blog, an online forum or animated games which fit the theme of your book.  You might want to post reviews of your work or exchange links with other writers.  These features all add to the website experience and may keep your readers coming back, but they’re not, in my opinion, ’essentials’. 

These would be my essentials:

1. Information about your work

For many writers, promoting their work is a major reason for having a web presence.  Simlarly, for many readers, finding out more about the writer’s work is a major reason to visit the writer’s page. 

On Beverly Cleary’s website, for example, there’s a list of her published books.  Clicking on the cover image next to each one takes you to a page with more information about the book.  There, you can read a sample chapter online or find out where you can order that book online.

If you’re a journalist rather than a novelist, you might want to include links to online examples of your work.  If you’ve had poems or short stories published in an anthology that is not available in online book stores, you might still want to mention the title so readers can seek it out by alternative methods.

2. Information about you

There may be some who argue with this one, but I like to find out about the person behind the writing – and there’s more space on a page of a website than there is on the back cover of a book.

It’s up to you how much information you want to reveal.  Some writers include their entire life history, while others keep this section very much focussed on their writing.   On her ‘about’ page, young adult writer, Lauren Barnholdt includes both the ‘official’ biography and ‘what you really want to know.’

3. A way to get in touch

Readers may come to your website with questions.  Reviewers too.  Journalists or agents.  These people may leave frustrated if there’s no way to contact you. 

To remedy this, you could include an online contact form like the one here on web stuff 4 writers. 

An email or PO Box postal address will also serve the purpose.

Your thoughts

What features do you think are essential to writers’ websites?  Do you agree with the three I’ve listed here, or would you argue for others?

Tags: Creating websites, Promotion by Natasha
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In the latest issue of Mslexia, there’s an article by Marion Husband called ‘Confessions of a self-promoter’.  In it, Marion writes about different ways you can promote your new book – from offering to do readings at events to ‘gently badgering’ journalists who’ve covered your work in the past.

In her ‘use the internet’ section of this article, Marion does touch on using social networks such as MySpace and faceook, saying ‘it’s a way of getting your name out there, garnering interest and gaining new readers.’

However, what I found interesting, was that the main focus of her ‘internet’ section was using the internet to get in touch with writing groups and organisations like the University of the Third Age who might be looking for a speaker.  After all, speaking at events means selling books to attendees, as well as building your profile.

I have to admit that, in those first few weeks after Lessons to Learn was published, the majority of my internet time wasn’t spent blogging.  Although I did write a few entries on natashajudd.com, I ended up focussing more on researching where my book was being sold online, submitting the book to online databases, searching for the contact details of student magazines so I could send review copies, setting up two bookrings on Bookcrossing.com and answering emailed interview questions.

Your thoughts

Thus far, web stuff 4 writers has focused on websites, blogs and social networks as ways to promote your work online.  However, there are lots of alternative ways to use the internet.  If you’ve got any suggestions or can say what’s worked for you, please leave a comment below.

Tags: Promotion by Natasha
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A couple of weeks ago, Faye (yesterday’s interviewee) sent me an email about Bebo. I’d heard about Bebo. I figured it was just another social networking website, kind of like facebook or MySpace. Which it is. But what I didn’t realise until I received Faye’s email is that Bebo has a section dedicated to writers. This afternoon, I decided to check it out.

Authors on Bebo

If you click on the ‘Authors’ tab on Bebo, it’ll take you to a section of the site where you can browse published and un-published writings, via genres or Bebo’s book charts.

Visiting a book’s profile may allow you to read an extract, or – if you’re signed into your Bebo account – you can leave comments, write a review, or add yourself as the book’s ‘fan’.

Setting up a profile for your book or short story on Bebo

To set up a profile on Bebo for a book or short story you’ve written, click on the ‘Authors – Register You Book’ link in the authors section of the site. If you don’t have a personal Bebo profile, you’ll need to register for one of those as well (but, if you wish, you can change the privacy settings so that your personal profile can be only seen by those you’ve added as friends).

Once your personal profile has been configured, you can register your book or short story on the site, entering in its name, tag line, assigning it a category and entering a 1000 word description. For published books, you can also add a publisher and a ISBN number.

You’re then presented with a generic profile, which you can customise with the cover of your book ( click on ‘upload profile photo’). You can also add an extract (‘add a chapter’ under the ‘Read’ tab), set up a blog or a poll, and pick a more appropriate design for your profile (‘change skins’).

For an example of a Bebo book profile, check out Faye’s page for Cover the Mirrors.

Why use Bebo?

Bebo, like any social networking site, works best when you know a lot of other people who are using the service. I’ve set up a profile for Lessons to Learn but as I don’t currently have any Bebo friends, I’m not sure how anyone would find it (if they didn’t follow a link like the one I just provided).

Bebo’s one way to promote your book but, in my opinion, it doesn’t replace having your own blog or website. I couldn’t find a way to create a clickable link back to natashajudd.com from the front page of my Bebo profile, nor to any non-Bebo reviews, nor to an online store where Lessons is on sale – which kind of limits the routes your profile visitors can take to find out more about the book.

Still, I’m going to leave Lessons to Learn up there for a while at least, and see what happens.

If you’re interested in learning more about promoting your work and finding new readers on Bebo, you might want to check out this article from the Bebo author blog on how to be a great Bebo author.

Your thoughts

Do you have a Bebo account? If so, how useful has it been for you? Do/would you ever use a site like Bebo to discover new authors and writing?

Tags: Promotion, What is? by Natasha
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This is something that should be obvious to me: things disappear from the web.

Websites shut down.  Pages are removed. I didn’t update my OpenDiary journal (back in the day when they were generally called journals, not blogs) for a couple of months and my username and all my entries disappeared from the system. Friends have deleted their free email accounts, the messages I’ve sent them have bounced. I’ve done the same.

You would’ve thought I might have learnt my lesson by now.

But no.

The press clippings that are not there

Last night, I decided to put together a press clipping file for my first novel (Yes, it’s called Lessons to Learn. No, the fact that things disappear from the internet is not mentioned in it anywhere). My local paper, back in Auckland, wrote two short pieces about me and the book, before and after the launch. The launch was on the 16th of June. When I left New Zealand at the end of that month, the articles had been reproduced on the newspaper’s website. ‘That’s fine,’ I thought. ‘They’ll be there if I need them.’

Last night, I clicked on the links to the articles that I’d put up on my personal website. I was taken to the newspaper’s website. But instead of seeing the text I wanted, I saw: ‘Sorry, this story is no longer available.’ 

Finding old web stuff

There’s a website called WayBack machine which archives old websites. There’s some pretty cool stuff there, such as the 1998 version of the Google homepage. I’ve used it before to find my articles after a website has closed down or been redeveloped. However, the WayBack machine works best with simple html pages, and alas, the newspaper articles about Lessons were nowhere to be found.

What I should have done

When I first saw the articles online, I should have:

• printed them or
• saved the webpage (I find selecting ‘save as’ from the File menu on most web browsers works okay) or
• pressed the ‘PrtSc’ (print screen) button on my laptop to take a screenshot of exactly how the article looked in the browser window, opened up MS Word, and pasted the screenshot in there.

Luckily, the print versions of newspapers are a little more enduring, and if I ever really need those articles, I can check a public library microfiche record when I’m back in New Zealand (or hope that a friend/relative cut the articles out and saved them for me). However, things would be a lot easier and my clippings file would be two pages thicker this morning, if only I had printed or saved the pieces when I first saw them online, remembering that nothing’s permanent on the world wide web.

Your thoughts

Have you been the victim of any kind of web content loss? Do you know of any other ways to retrieve things that go missing on the internet? Advice gratefully received.

Tags: Promotion, Research by Natasha
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