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Promotion

This is Scary Stuff

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The Spontaneous Reader book blog has taken it upon themselves to feature me this month in what they are calling Scott-Tober. There was undoubtedly a vast amount of alcohol involved in this decision. Fortunately, more level heads prevailed at some point later in the evening because even though the bar bill tripled there is no evidence that anyone wandered into a tattoo parlor to commemorate this tomfoolery.

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity The Spontaneous Reader is providing me and appreciate all their efforts in planning this craziness. Special thanks to Rachel Verdi for suggesting this and to Abbie Machie for running with it. These two ladies put in a ton of work to make this happen.

There’s a lot going on during Scott-Tober. The promotion kicked off last month with The Lynne Scott Kick-Ass Read-a-Thon in the A Million More Pages group on Goodreads. Each participants reading list had to include at least one of my books. Those who read with us will get to mark off an extra block on the Bingo game we’ll be playing and the winner receives a Lynne Scott eBook of their choice.

*drum roll here* The winner of the Lynne Scott Kick-Ass Read-A-Thon is Erin/Ginger. Congratulations!

What exactly is happening this month? Wednesday, October 1st, I was introduced on The Spontaneous Reader book blog where Abbie told her followers what they could look forward to. Yesterday, the Scott-Tober Bingo card made its first appearance.

LS Bingo - Copy

Getting a Bingo enters you in the grand-prize round. The one with the most squares filled in at the end of the month wins. If there’s more than one person who fills in the card, we’ll put the names in a hat and let Mr. Scott (he’s so impartial it’s frightening) draw the three winners.

Bingo Prizes are:
1st Prize: A $25 Amazon Gift Card
2nd Prize: A full set of the Blood Link series eBooks
3rd Prize: 3 Lynne Scott eBooks of your choice
(If you are one of my 10 faithful fans and have all my books already – we’ll figure out something of equal value. No I can’t ship you booze or bullets – quit asking.)
Winners will be announced October 31st.

At least twice each week, The Spontaneous Reader will be featuring one of my books. There will also be a wild and crazy Mad-Libs interview (one of the strangest things I’ve ever done but a lot of fun), Q&A sessions, and opportunities to win my books. I’ll keep you informed both here and on my Lynne Scott Facebook page.

How do you, my ten faithful readers, participate?
First – Print a Bingo card so you can keep track. I wish I could play – I’d use one of those giant wide-tipped black markers to blot out the squares – no dainty daubers for me.

Second – Go to Goodreads and establish an account if you don’t already have one. This is where a lot of this action will take place. You won’t be spammed and they won’t sell your contact information. This is a site for readers to share information about the books they love.

Third – select the Groups tab and skim through the groups until you find A Million More Pages and join the group.

Last step – Look for the Scott-Tober thread within that group and join the fun.

I lied. There’s another step in there. Put Lynne Scott in the search box and become my friend and my fan – it’s on your Bingo card to do and will only take a minute. You can rate my books and cut and paste your reviews from Amazon into the review block – also on the Bingo card list. Your ratings and reviews are especially appreciated.

That’s all there is to it right now.

Truth time. You guys know this is new territory for me and as excited as I am, I’m also nervous. My natural fear and self-doubts are galloping madly, and I’m working at controlling my trepidation through deep breathing and dreams of alcohol and chocolate malts. This feels an awful lot like the first day of school. My biggest fear is that Abbie will have done all this work to throw a party for me and no one will show up. But the fact is that someone is trying to do something good for me, and I’m going to do my best to make it good for them too. So, I’m snapping my cap, stuffing my fears into the corner, and I’m going to smile and have fun no matter what. And when it’s over, I’m going to crack open the bottle of Jack Daniels I’ve got squirreled away and call this Scott-Over-Fest.

Thanks for your support on this crazy ride.

Am I Capable of Blatant Self-promotion?

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One of my favorite authors is an Indie named Russell Blake. He writes what some lovingly call “Men’s Fiction.” It’s action/adventure/suspense/thriller. It’s fast-paced, timely, and topical. I’ve read a good number of his books and enjoyed them. Russell has made it big. So big that he just co-authored a book with Clive Cussler and is on the NY Times Bestseller List. He’s living every Indie author’s dream.

Russell also takes the time to give back and he shares his experiences in marketing and offers us his views. He reminds us that we have to put ourselves out there and take chances if we want to be successful. He constantly reminds us that writing is only one part of the job – the other part is marketing. And no matter how distasteful it is or how hard it seems – to not do the hard part is to condemn yourself to being unknown in your chosen field.

One of the more interesting and unusual things Russell does is interrupt his blog posts with a paragraph smack in the middle of a conversation that he labels “Blatant Self-Promotion” or “Breaking News” in which he points out a new interview, review, or his latest literary conquest. It’s not something that I could ever really see myself doing. It’s arrogant, self-serving, presumptuous, unapologetic, and bloody freaking brilliant! I love that he is so damn blatant about it. And the tactic absolutely fits Russell’s persona and his books. I really wish I had even half as much guts as he does. But putting something smack in the middle of a post as he does is way, way, WAY out of my comfort zone.

At the same time, I want to let you (my ten faithful readers) know when something exciting has happened, or when someone (without being bribed or threatened) is saying good things about me. I want you to be able to enjoy them with me as well as point them out to your friends. It’s your opportunity to smile knowingly and say, “I was reading her books from the beginning. I knew they were good!”

So how do you think I should handle this? Should I just post them all on the Lynne Scott Facebook page and share the links there? Should I put something at the bottom of the blog post that’s not so blatant, but still reasonably self-serving? I’d very much like to provide a link to the page of the person who was kind enough to do the interview or review – see below for an example of how this might look. Or should I do both, since there are some who only look at Facebook but never read the blog and others who don’t do Facebook?

New Reviews and Interviews

A new review of Vapor Point by Thomas Everson

An interview by Justin Bienvenue on Book Blogs

Please feel free to let me know what you think either by comment on my Lynne Scott Facebook page (which you all should have liked by now), by commenting below, or by sending me an email using the Contact Me tab at the top of the page.

No Butt Kissing and No Sock Puppets – Reviews Part II

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Let’s talk honestly about the review process and who’s doing what. We all know the average reader doesn’t bother giving a review. They speak with their wallets and buy again if they like you. Some will even tell a friend. I love those people. I also love the people who write a short, sweet four or five star review on Amazon and then post the link on their Facebook page. “I read the book, wrote the review, buy the book!” They make any day better!

The truth is that good reviews help sell books. Knowing that, most authors are out there trying to find someone besides their mom to write a review for them. Most of us are doing it the old-fashioned way and begging reviewers and book bloggers to look at us. I can’t help but feel sorry for them in some ways – there’s a lot of craziness and desperation out there and sometimes it lands on your doorstep. Paige from Page by Paige cut loose not long ago and nailed the rudest of the bunch – the spamming authors. She was much nicer than I would have been. There wasn’t a single expletive in there.

But spamming is only one of the ugly problems with that small group of desperate crazies seeking reviews. Some authors and publishers definitely overstep the bounds of what I might consider ethical. There is a dark side to the review cycle.

There are some publishers that require their authors (as part of their contract) to review other authors from their stable. Reviews, blogs, twitter posts, etc. are part of the social media blitz directed by the publisher via their authors. As a result, everyone is saying really nice things about everyone else because they are not only supposed to, but they need everyone else to say nice things about them in return. This is based on the simple premise of your ten fans will love me and my ten fans will love you. Are these reviews and comments all BS – of course not. Most of these folks actually like each other’s stuff. But that doesn’t mean you love everyone the publisher represents or that you think their book is worth five stars – unless you’re contractually obligated to and then all bets are off. I’m not knocking this (your 10 fans can be my 10 fans) marketing method, but I can’t and won’t lie. I simply won’t tell you the sow’s ear is a silk purse or that your terrible author is a great writer. I can keep my mouth shut and say nothing. Most of the time…

Now you know part of the reason why I’m an Indie. Apparently, my ethics would get in the way of some people’s business ventures.

But it’s not just the publishers who are doing this. Realistically, some self-publishers or Indies often do the same type of thing. In their case it’s by choice. They agree to review each other’s books and post positive reviews on the various sites and blogs. The problem here is the word positive instead of the word honest. It’s a “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” operation. Where’s the honesty when you’re just blowing happy smoke so someone else does it for you?

I’m all in favor of soliciting reviews from other authors, bloggers, and websites that specialize in those things. I recently did it when I requested a review from Kindle Book Reviews. “Here’s a free copy of Stuck in Korea Time in exchange for a fair and honest review.” There is no expectation of reciprocation from another author and no pressure on that person to provide anything other than an honest review.

There are no ethical worries involved in requesting a review without reciprocation. That’s how I’ll be playing the game. As you might have guessed, I flunked Happy Butt Kissing 101 in the military and I’m still flunking it.

But not every author is happy with being ethical. Some of them have no ethical or moral codes and are trying to cheat the system.

The first way is by purchasing a positive review. We aren’t talking about a paid professional review by a respected company with integrity such as Kirkus Reviews. With Kirkus there are no guarantees of a positive review. You pay your money, you get an honest and fair review by a professional reviewer. You have the option to publish the review if it’s good, or to not publish the review if it’s bad. Honest work for honest pay. The ones that I’m talking about here are the sites (and there are more than a few) who will purchase your book and provide a positive review for a fee – even if your novel is a steaming pile of cow manure. Pay your cash and they’ll create X number of reviews and post them everywhere and anywhere you want.

The second way is by far the most disgusting thing that I’ve seen happen. It’s called “sock puppeting.” This is self-reviewing under another name/account. This is how the truly pathetic and unethical authors do it. All you need to open an account on Amazon is an email address and a credit card. One credit card can be tied to multiple accounts. Purchase one book for $0.99 or more and you can review an unlimited number of books.

What kind of a f***ing Asshat fakes positive reviews?

I use a name other than my own on Amazon when I read and review. This way I can be completely honest without any fear of retaliation. (There really is a thing called vendetta reviewing out there – how sad is that?) The point is, that if I think the book deserved a one or two star then “Sue from Des Moines” (not the name I use so don’t bother looking) will be the one to tell you that the book blew cookies. Is that fair? Yes. I as a reader have an opinion that I’m entitled to share. I bought the book, I read the book, and Sue from Des Moines can say whatever she wants. I rarely do so, but there are books that the public needs to be warned about.

What you will NEVER see is “Sue from Des Moines” reviewing a Lynne Scott or L. Scott book. It’s just not f***ing ethical, and I’m disgusted by those who do it!

I know it’s hard to believe that someone actually does this, but it’s happened. I personally know one author and his/her best friend who wrote five out of his/her 25+ five star reviews. Amazingly, the author saw nothing wrong with this practice. I read the book and it was good enough to have gathered the 20+ positive ratings without the unethical behavior, but the author just couldn’t wait. Frankly, I don’t care if his/her next book wins a Pulitzer, I’ll never spend another nickel on that author again. The only things I felt I could do was advise Amazon (big shock, they don’t care – someone spent their $0.99, so they get to say their piece just like I do), and I severed all ties with that person both personally and professionally. They still don’t understand what my problem is. I’m just not interested in being associated with someone who doesn’t get it.

So there’s the good and the bad. We want reviews and we need reviews. I believe that how I go about getting those reviews matters. I’ll take my books off sale and quit publishing before I compromise my integrity for a damn review.

Here endeth my current rant.

Tiptoeing into the Melee

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Almost all of the people who talk/write about doing this (I’m not supposed to think of it as onerous) task of promoting, suggest doing it in small increments. 10-20% of your work time should be devoted to marketing. I’ve found that in the last three weeks, it’s been closer to 80% of my time as I try to get educated and organized.

One of the sites I’ve learned from and really like is Goodreads.com, which bills itself as: “The largest site for readers and book recommendations. Chances are your friends are discussing their favorite (and least favorite) books on Goodreads.” I’ve established my presence there under both Lynne Scott and L. Scott. Anyway, in the process of completing my profile, I rated some books, answered some author questions, and in general made a nuisance of myself. But at least I got out there and did something genuine and real.

[In the interest of full disclosure – I made such a mess of setting up my L. Scott account for the Blood Link series that it took their poor customer service rep three days to straighten my mess out. They were very nice about it, but I’m still apologizing.]

Goodreads is also a place where readers, authors, editors, and just about everyone else mixes freely. There are groups for every taste and a lot of self-help areas for the clueless like me.

In the course of bumbling along, I managed to make a new friend. Her name is Rachel. It turns out that Ms Rachel has some public relations and marketing skills. And we all know that I’m desperately in need of those things. Ms. Rachel has foolishly agreed to assist me. I’m not sure there’s enough wine in the world to save the poor woman now. She’s already helped me get organized, set up a targeted approach to obtain reviews, and talked me up to some friends of hers who are now (just as foolishly) also interested in helping me get seen and noticed.

Why am I being so vague? Well, Ms. Rachel is still setting up her business and not ready for a full-scale launch. [And ya’ll back off, she has her hands full with me!] And as for the ladies at The Spontaneous Reader, they’re uber busy with plans for me in October. Big plans. Plans I’m really excited (and maybe just a little freaked out) about. Abbie’s interviews are wildly inventive and unique. I can’t wait for you to see what she’s doing to me next month. It’s the first time I’ve done an interview that I had fun with. You’ll have to wait until next month to see it, and even then, you may not believe it.

These women are making this so much easier and fun for me. For the first time, I’m feeling not only comfortable with the process, but even moderately hopeful.