The Misadventures of a Life Less Lived (Gerrard)

September 12, 2017 — Out Now!
College junior Doug has built his entire collegiate experience around having a cool life, a status he maintains by keeping his bookish tendencies and crush on “nerdy” Eliza a secret from his popular fraternity and cheerleader girlfriend. But when he wakes one morning to discover that the life he’d kept in the fraternity fridge (because where else would one store a chill life?) has spoiled, panic ensues. As a high-ranking member of a popular fraternity, having no life is social suicide. He’ll be ostracized, forgotten, and maybe even kicked out of the frat.

Desperate to remedy his lifeless status before anyone notices, Doug embarks upon a mission to replace his ruined life with a similar one. But finding a new life isn’t quite as simple as going to the store. And Doug quickly discovers that if he wants another life, he’s going to have to earn one by running a gauntlet of humbling, and often humiliating, life lessons. Though resistant, he may yet learn that his deceptions have never served him and have only helped enforce the biggest lie of all—the one he’s told himself.

A snarky, often ridiculous satirical examination of what makes a fulfilled life, The Misadventures of a Life Less Lived is a quirky, thought-provoking debut full of clever metaphors and literary allusions.

Conduit (Dowling)

October 31, 2017 — Sign-up for the cover reveal September 26th!
When college senior Jane Lamb dies suddenly, she discovers that the afterlife is less pearly gates and fluffy clouds and more standing in line at the DMV. But before she can spend eternity lamenting over her short, unremarkable life, she’s offered a do-over—as a Conduit, a reincarnated messenger contracted to reap souls.

Determined to do things right the second time, Jane takes the job and reincarnates as eighteen-year-old college freshman Liv Hartley. Only, the excitement for her new life doesn’t last. There are consequences to bearing the coveted infinity symbol tattoo marking her as a Conduit, and Liv quickly finds that getting a second chance doesn’t mean getting a better one. Possessive demons, stolen assignments, and a love life that’s decidedly complicated are all a far cry from the mundane existence Jane led. But with more questions piling up than bodies, there’s only one thing Liv knows for sure: life doesn’t get any easier after death.

Filled with sparkling wit, conflicted romance, and more spirit than a haunted mansion, Conduit is a fun-filled paranormal that explores the idea of regret, love, and what we would give to live twice.

Of Bells and Thorns (Cano)

November 28, 2017 — Sign-up for the cover reveal October 3rd!

Sequel to The Rose Master.

“In this Gothic fantasy, Cano evokes both Beauty and the Beast and Jane Eyre while creating something new and strange. Cano does a beautiful job of setting mood and atmosphere, and her characters dance around one another with relentless industry and brooding allure, fighting their inevitable attraction. This is a strong, satisfying effort.”
~Publishers Weekly on THE ROSE MASTER

Official blurb coming soon.

The post Fall 2017 Release Schedule appeared first on REUTS | Boutique Book Publisher |.

This post will be geared towards authors, but I think it will be interesting to anyone who has a to be read pile that could crush a man. Adding a new chore on a to do list is never meant with the same excitement that adding a book to your TBR list is. But like all lists, they inherently have problems.

A few years ago, the Harvard Business Review wrote a piece on why to-do list don’t work. To summarize, they simply aren’t effective. The article claims there are five problems with this organizational system.

1) The paradox of choice is a theory suggests that the more options you are given the more anxious and unsatisfied you become over those choices.
2) Heterogeneous complexity happens because your brain loves quick rewards, and will lead you to picking off easy targets first.
3) Heterogeneous priority is caused by differences in deadlines, perceived or not.
4) Lack of context comes into play when a whole series lands in your pile. Or maybe one of the books is three times as long.
5) Lack of commitment devices are factors that keep you engaged and make it so you can’t quit the task.

I believe all of them, at some level, apply to having your book stuck on a TBR list.

Paradox of choice: Why your book? And why should someone read it now? Most marketing methods work to solve this problem. Discounts, reminders of your books features, and so on.

Heterogeneous complexity: This is a harder one to combat. If you wrote a brick of a novel telling people it will take forever to read is not the right method. On the flip side, I’ve seen people add “weekend read” plenty of times. Similar tactics can also be cleverly used with an anthology. If it’s a long book, is it an easy read?

Heterogeneous priority: In the advertising world this is the power of “limited time only”. If your book can get picked up by a club it’s priority will shift. If you are coming out with a sequel people might try to finish the first. Does your book cover a certain holiday? Suggest reading it over that season.

Lack of Context: I think for an author, the context that is important is who you are to the reader. Do you share your favorite books? Do you tweet funny things? Do you fight for others? Who are you beyond an author when the TBR is filled with all authors. There are so many books that release all the time. But if someone I know has a book, I’ll likely read it before an unknown writer with a cool concept.

Lack of Commitment Devices: Sometimes there’s a free book I’ll download with intent to read, and never actually do. I don’t lose anything here. On the flip side, if I’m given a book and told someone I’d review it, I feel guilty if I don’t. If it’s part of a book club, readers feel compelled to finish since it’s a collective agreement.

Once someone buys or agrees to review, there’s no device in place to have them actually read it. Sure you could nicely follow-up, but I’d suggest going about in ways that offer something more. Stickers, bookplates, hell, I’ve seen cat gifs promised as a reward for simple tweetable actions. REUTS author, Drew Hayes, turns release day into a drinking game

I hope these twists on old problems help you market your work more organically, and help books you’re actually excited about escape that TBR purgatory as an author or a reader.

The post TBR Pile – Marketing Monday appeared first on REUTS | Boutique Book Publisher |.

It’s one of my favorite days of the year. No, seriously. The day—the fifth of February (not to be confused with the fifth of November, also one of my favorite days; also not to be confused with Superbowl Sunday)—is special to me, and to those who edit for REUTS. One year ago, I dubbed February 5th Thank an Editor Day, because so often the editors of our community aren’t acknowledged as they should be. It was also a day when REUTS made a promise to you, the readers, and our wonderful editors: Every book published from here on out will feature an “Edited by_____” spot in the copyright page. Cover artists, photographers, musicians and interior formatters are thanked—why not editors?

To continue spreading the love and gratitude, we want to shout from the social media mountain tops how thankful!

So, please join us in five days (February 5th, 2017!) in thanking the editor who championed your book. The editor who saw the jumbled pieces, and stitched them whole. The editor who may know your story even better than you know yourself. Thank them, and all the hard work they’ve done for this community and the publishing industry as a whole. Use the hashtag #ThankAnEditor to do so, or overlay one of the images below on your book cover and tag your editor! Or both!

 (Right-click + save the image, or drag it onto your desktop to use.)

Here are some examples of how the overlay will look over a book cover:

Remember: #ThankAnEditor day is

Sunday, February 5th, 2017!

And, as always, here at REUTS, we’re absolutely thankful for all the editors on our team ::hugs::

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Is the blog active?
I won’t ever email someone who hasn’t posted in months since I feel like it’s a waste of everyone’s time. If you don’t signal you are around, for whatever reason, I don’t want to bug you.

If you are bad that consistently blogging, try to aim for at least something once a month. The type of post matters very little in this situation. If you’re like me and post on multiple platforms another option is to consider cross-posting. That way it’s hardly any more work for you, and all your pages stay up to date.

Is the blog a match?
It’s almost eerie how many about sections display the same word for word list of favorite genres. I’m not all that picky either, but if you just say fantasy, I don’t know if you like Tolkien, or City of Bones. Maybe you don’t like either! Sure, I’ve emailed people simply because they are fantasy fans before, but I’d go as far as to make a suggestion here.

Being vague might get you more requests, but I truly do only email bloggers things I think they’ll enjoy, so go ahead, take some liberties. Tell me you like Westerns, but include your favorites are the ones with girls and non-binary characters in them. If you are burnt out on a trope, let me know and I’ll avoid suggesting stories with it. Do you need trigger warnings? If you display what you need or want, I can suggest titles that will likely mean more to you.

Is your email displayed?
If it isn’t, do you have a contact form? If I had a book I knew you’d love to pieces, but I couldn’t find a way to contact you, even knowing you are looking for new things, it’s not going to work out. If your book blog is on Tumblr, an ask box isn’t going to work sadly. Many publishers don’t have tumblr, or are shared side blogs and can’t send asks even if they wanted.

Publishers use social media to be, well, social. Sure authors and individuals might ask you to review or sign up for a blog tour over it. But imagine the state of your mentions if that became the preferred method of reaching book bloggers?You’d get an @ from a friend, an annoying egg, and hot local books are waiting for your review all within 140 characters. (Emojis optional.)

Publishers should take talking to you seriously. Make them be formal with you if they are unknown. I personally think businesses shouldn’t ever forget that they are asking you for something here. Please and thank you level manners are really a low bar, and you definitely deserve more praise than that.

Now, that I flattered you the tiny tiniest bit. I have a confession. Appearances do matter.

Does your theme work?
I have not contacted people simply because the blog’s theme had issues. Blogs with text that isn’t readable, let alone accessible are a concern. Places so cluttered I’m not even sure which column the posts are in are another issue.

If you use a Tumblr blog and use it for more than your original posts, make sure you link to your own reviews, your preferred genres, and contact info. Depending the Tumblr theme those things like to hide. No matter the theme you can always add it in your description so publishers know you are active, a match, and ready to contact.

If your New Year’s resolution was to blog more about books or give your site a facelift, I hope this list helps you know what a publisher is looking for when they visit your blog. Merry reading and happy new books!

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If you are anything like me, you are going to be stuck thinking about this election until it’s over. Instead of stress watching the news, let’s aim that train of thought in a new way to see how it’s related to marketing.

A good part of marketing is understanding how people behave, and I think get out the vote methods are an extremely good way to showcase that, because it’s all behavioral science.

Let’s first talk about celebrity endorsement videos. I think this is the easiest to picture because it’s also the most viral. If you like a celebrity out of the say, dozen they show, you’re likely to pass it on. But as it turns out, this method is not very effective. They at best change the narrative around voting. To suggest it is your duty to vote, or that it’s a close race and you need to be the one to decide it.

Now while changing the narrative around things can cause real change in some areas. If you ever been the one person who hasn’t read Harry Potter, or Twilight, or watched Luke Cage, you likely know a slight narrative shift of an impersonal “do this thing” won’t help all that much. Because even if you say that you will, when it comes down to the actual voting, you might not. I see this happen a lot with books when I’m not in a buying mood. The conversion rate just doesn’t have a high yield.

These videos are useful, I’ve listened to the election version of Our Fight Song, several times even. I’ve also had my afternoon made by a Congress parody with Chris Pine, who we seriously should give more comedies too. But they both are indirect marketing methods. When applied to your book, they remind me of its existence, or hopefully endear me to your work, but they don’t directly cause me to vote, or buy a book.

According to behavioral research on the matter, having people create a plan to vote is up to three times more effective. If you have it all planned out then you are less likely to come up with an excuse when the time comes. In marketing, I think we see this clearly when it comes to midnight releases of movies. Even for things I’ve waited years for,if there isn’t a plan around it, who knows when I’ll actually do it. Imagine a time you really wanted to see something, then just didn’t, and now it’s out of theaters. That happens when you don’t have a plan. Pre-order options can help counteract this effect, but only because it allows you to act now instead of betting on your future actions.

For more on the behavioral research behind voting, I highly suggest the video “Facebook Could Reveal Your Voting Record”.

We’ve briefly talked about pre-orders but I’d like to talk about them again. There is a belief that if you are in a state that is always colored one way, that why even vote? That since you are one person, you will hardly make a dent either way. However, even if you are voting against, or with the current, you let the powers that be know you are paying attention.

Pre-orders allow publishers to gauge how eager people are for something, and allows them to take bigger marketing risks beforehand based on it. Twitter will also display the interests of people who interact with you. Wattpad will tell you age group, gender, and country of origin. Analytics allow publishers to act accordingly. A big showing for an LGBTQ/MOGAI book? Give it a sequel, or add more of them to the catalog.

This is true with voting as well. The clearest example is seen after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, communities that showed up to vote ended up getting more work done on their streets. You might think you are just voting for a person, but you are also voting to say, “Here I am”. Same is true when you buy a book. That sell tells someone you are a person on the other end. Both governments and publishers want to please those people. In marketing, it’s called customer re-acquisition, and generally, those groups are less expensive to reach than finding a new customer. An engaged citizen, or reader, is easier to please than a disenfranchised, or discouraged, one.

For more, check out this video on “5 Things You Believe About Voting That Are Statistically BS”.

The last thing I want to talk about is opportunity cost. In the U.S., election day is held on a Tuesday. Which means many people work or have to go to school. It’s easy to vote when you have free time or ability to take days off. Not so easy when the free act of voting actually costs you. Babysitters fees, or the cost of a taxi, are factors that you might not think of when it comes to a free activity. That’s why in general voting favors the rich, and why newer get out the vote methods include offering rides to polling locations.

I’d be willing to bet some of those hard to come buy dollars that marketing trends also follow classist patterns. With exceptions for underserved demographics that get labeled “niche”.

This is why I personally love giving out review copies, love that buyers have the option between paperback or ebook, love that some libraries share their collections with other libraries across the country. The lower the opportunity cost of trying a new series, the better chance you’ll have at getting strangers to give you a try.

If you still need the vote, make that plan today.

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Last week was Bi Week. It’s a time to raise bisexual awareness and impulsively buy books with bi protagonist. (That bit was just me? Worth it!) Anyways, if you were on twitter you might have seen some recent book events and they got me thinking.

When we write a book the goal is to finish the book. It’s a very in the moment feeling. Once we’ve done that we are told to write something else as we wait for news about the first’s fate. Again, a very in the present activity.

If that book in question get’s a publishing deal, then the whole process shifts to be about the future. About the TBD date, about the release date. Because isn’t publication day the day all your dreams come true?

When I finished posting chapters of Bone Diggers and my Friday was no longer Wattpad Friday, I literally cried. I was so sad it was over. I love that novel and I didn’t want the project to end, even though I knew the story did. And here’s the first point I’m getting at.

I think it’s a misunderstanding of the internet, and maybe even the world, to think it’s a straight progression of linear understanding. Because it’s not. It’s more like a spiderweb. Something posted in March can raise a controversy in September. It’s not that everyone planned and waited for Fall. It’s simply a fact of life that the majority of people will not know things the second they are done.

To visualize this let’s use real data from tumblr.

Purple is the original poster and orange is one of my blogs, blue is anyone else who reblogged. Notice how there is nothing linear about this? Notice the complete lack of designated handoff? I can show you an endless amount of digital spiderwebs to prove this is how information is spread.

That wasn’t my only reminder that data travels this way from last week. My friend retweeted a lovely cover that was in the #BiVisibilityDay tag. The author was posting international cover variants of an already published book. In the mood to buy, I went straight to Amazon and soon realized the book was from 1987.

The first time I knew this nearly 30-year-old book existed was on that day. Not because I personally found the author tweeting, but because someone else did and indirectly showed me.

The marketing moral here?  

Books are forever.

If you want your book to sell, to find new audiences over the years, you’ll never be completely done with it. And today might feel lackluster, but your story will be with you forever if you want it to be.

If success is the goal, you’ll never have to say goodbye to your story after all. 

The post Marketing Monday | Bi, Buy, Bye appeared first on REUTS | Boutique Book Publisher |.

“All publicity is good publicity.” I’m sure you’ve heard this. I feel like it’s a saying that’s completely saturated in American culture.

And in some ways, this is true. Reviews are so important in the indie world because it’s a form of word of mouth. In other posts, I pointed out my own buying habits which again narrow down to word of mouth. Getting people to talk about your book is priceless.

But blindly wanting to be talked about at all or having that at the heart of your marketing plan is playing with fire. I’ve personally seen authors, delete their Twitter, delete all known email addresses. Fall off the map because of bad publicity. Platform lost. And this doesn’t just happen to small authors who succumb to bad PR. Let’s look at celebrities.

Remember when Tiger Wood’s brought golf to everyone’s attention? Then all the negative press he got? He’s still playing golf, but no longer is golf’s darling.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think O.J. Simpson? Was it his profession or court trial?

How about BP? If all publicity is good publicity, why did they spend $500 million to restore their image?

If all publicity was good publicity then wouldn’t negative stereotypes help the groups they are about?

As writers, you know words matter. You know how to write a villain, how to convince your audience that someone is bad. J.K. Rowling didn’t have He Who Must Not Be Named because Harry mustn’t give his nemesis free press. (If anything the reverse was true in the Harry Potter world.)

A few years back an author sued Ubisoft over copyright. I love Assassin’s Creed. I’d love more books like it. Since that lawsuit was picked up by everyone for a couple months surely you know the book series. No? Me either.

You’ll be hard press to even find an article about the author that isn’t dated back from 2012. Outraged fans (who were jerks) littered Amazon with one-star reviews. But if you hop over to GoodReads there are 2 ratings. Collectively. For all the books written.

Sure, Amazon normally ends up with the most reviews. But the point stands that all publicity is not good publicity. At best, bad publicity will entrench those who already are your fans.

But as an author, you are in this for the long haul. You need to make sure whatever publicity you get is representative of you and your brand. Damage control is for those running for office and have fundraisers at $1000 a plate.

The post The Good, The Bad, And The Publicity appeared first on REUTS | Boutique Book Publisher |.

Your marketing plans need to cause a reaction. If you are an author the desired goal is likely for someone to read your book. This topic was inspired by a reader request for a resource guide, and before this riveting read becomes too repetitive with it’s r’s let’s tackle the topic.

The first question is always “how?” How do you do the thing? How do you learn the topic? How do you even start? There are many answers to this. You can get a degree in advertising, you can spend your life mentoring under an advertising executive, or maybe just binge watch Mad Men for research. But, those last three will involve time. Something writers often don’t want to give up because it means less actual writing time. Worse, is they can get expensive. The last season of Mad Men is $35.99 alone! And a “formal education”? Yikes, that can be a painful bill. So, my advice on how and where to learn is with the library, with TedTalks, with the internet in general. Anywhere you’ll be treated more of a patron (or viewer), than a customer. Thanks to libraries and an endless Internet you don’t have to spend money on your quest for knowledge.

But, I want to do more for you then just say, “to google and beyond!” So here are some suggested reads, videos, and really whatever I could collect that offered a new perspective on the matter. I’ve included several different styles since everyone learns a different way. This is just a starting point that I will continuously update when I find more great resources. So fatten up your bookmark bar with this post, or any of the ones below!

Ted Talks:
Seth Godin: How to get your ideas to spread
Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man
Alexis Ohanian: How to make a splash in social media
TEDxPennQuarter – Rohit Bhargava – Reinventing Marketing
We’re All in Marketing: What Evolution Tells Us About Advertising
The Tribes We Lead

Articles:
What TV Networks Still Don’t Understand About Fandom
Be The Meme
Know Thyself, Market Thyself
3 Rules for Talking To Book Bloggers
“Oh, that sounds just like (book)!”
This Is Your Brain on Advertising: Why Sex Doesn’t Sell

Books (Suggestions from Carrie Ann!):
UNmarketing
Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers
Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us
Anything from Digital Book World

Netflix Documentaries:
Art & Copy

TV Shows:
Better Off Ted
(Because I know someone writers love to procrastinate and call it research. But in all seriousness, this comedy shows quirkiness of R&D and marketing.)

Other Topics or Places:
Sensitivity Readers
An introduction to public domain
Writing for Online Engagement
Terrible Minds
How to write back cover copy

I believe if you start with a solid marketing lens based on sociology, all the terminology and methodology you came across in this marketing game will have a more meaningful context. If anything has changed your perspective about marketing, please let us know in the comments!

TLDR: You need to talk about your work in a way that will cause others do the same.

The post Marketing Monday: Are You Re(market)able? appeared first on REUTS | Boutique Book Publisher |.

Last week, we talked about targeted marketing, this week let’s discuss if you are just making noise or actually hitting your mark. I said before that Tumblr is very anti-ad, and that resistance allows us to study why some ads aren’t cutting it.

“The youth” is really aware of when you are trying to pander. If you don’t understand a meme, don’t use it to tell to sell things. I don’t want to get into the culture of memes because PBS’s Idea Channel really covers everything you need to know. Please check out “Are Memes & Internet Culture Creating a Singularity?” and “When Do Memes Stop Being Funny?” And maybe even Are LOLCats and Internet Memes Art? if you’d like a throwback to make your art and marketing authentic.

Now I’m not here to shame you if you are a memer. Multimillion dollar industries are working on them and even Fortune 500 companies are doing it. Let’s be honest, we all have much moment, so true, wow.

The fact that businesses are trying to do this means they actually are listening. The errors made are akin to messing up your tenses when writing. The words are real, but the overall sentence is off.

This is what happens when you listen to a subculture you are not a part of. Sometimes we need to admit we can’t be a part of that culture either. That 50-year ad executive can have his ear to the door all he wants, he will never be a teenage girl.

A recent swing and a miss was this funyuns ad that was spit into everyone’s Tumblr feed. And the results were…. mostly confusion. You can tell me what you think of it in the comments.

(My thanks to salora-rainriver for grabbing that screen cap and inspiring today’s topic)

The key to success here isn’t mirror the meme, but be the meme. Let me show you what tricked tumblr into spamming everyone with Madden posts for a solid week.

Their Madden giferator created a platform for people to have fun with. Instead of saying “Look at me, I’m clever and meme” it was an invitation to have fun. And when your product is a video game, that’s spot on. You can see similar successful campaigns from Doritos and Mountain Dew when they had people naming their next new food. The only similar style that I saw fail was from Pepsi. They copied what Madden did, gave a new box of crayons to people, said play!  Then forgot that tumblr has a gif size limit so no one could share them on the website. Whoops?

If you want to meme, but don’t have the enough colors in your toolkit to share (aka you don’t have the budget to launch this huge thing) you might want to try Denny’s approach to “being the meme’. They create more than they copy, and by doing so they are able to serve a meme up while it’s hot, and drop it (like it’s hot).

People don’t follow Denny’s because they wanted to be reminded that you have can pancakes there, they follow because Denny’s makes them smile. And then when someone want pancakes they cash in on that brand loyalty. (Step up your game, IHOP)

It’s the interaction that makes Denny’s posts viral, while other ads only get attention to ask “please god, why?” Interaction is even more important in the book world. Even if a reader doesn’t want to interact with the author directly, they do in some weird way want to interact with the book. They want to feel something while reading, and that creates a brand loyalty to that series or author. That also is the foundation of fandom.

Yelling “buy this” even in meme-language form is not interaction. It’s a far more overt advertisement than you might think. Don’t just listen and repeat what your audience is doing, talk to your audience.  

An app that always advertises (and pays for it) on Tumblr is Episode. Let’s compare their average post, to them talking to their audience.  

Example 1:

Example 2:

TLDR: Don’t react to a meme, interact.

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