We Are Rockstars!

I teach a course on self-confidence in public speaking called Channeling Your Inner Rock Star. It’s a fun hour filled with tricks and tips on how to pretend to be cool and confident while you’re really shaking in your boots.

One Saturday, while teaching this course, I suddenly got very worried that the sea of faces looking at me, did not like me. Or have any interest in what I was saying. Does this sound a bit ironic? Read on…

As I gazed out on the audience of attendees who came to ‘Channeling Your Inner Rock Star’ and I cautioned my listeners how to avoid reading the audience too closely, I realized that the group in front of me looked more bored than a group of supermodels at a class about humility.

I almost broke a sweat as I worried about how the women in front of me were receiving what I said. Am I being too confident about self-confidence? Not confident enough? Can they tell I’m worried that I’m not helping them enough? Am I simply feeding my desire to be adored, by doing this class? Probably.

I stopped myself. Be confident. Assume they love you, Kim.

I followed my own advice and believed that they were praising the day they saw my name on the workshop lineup. It’s what you should do in a situation like this.

My audience was a small group, given that the AVON Romance Author live-stream online chat was five feet from our door (and they had cupcakes), but I was pleased at the turnout. I’d been prepared for one or two. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. I was ready for non attendance, having been in the Bellevue Hilton bar years before, when we’d added to our group of cocktailers a gal who didn't have anyone attend her workshop. “Oh dang,” we’d said with glasses of chardonnay, “join us and you can do your workshop right here, over wine.” It was the last slot of the conference and many had hit the road early.

Not my workshop though. I had attendees! After all, it was only 11 am. These pioneers had waded through a Cherry Adair chat and Salt Caramel Chocolate confections to get to the door of the workshop that would teach them how to channel the most confident, most engaging side of oneself for self- promotion. These gals had put off other incredibly helpful classes to see if I could offer some insight to confidence. All I needed was one person in the class to need me. To need the confidence to do their own PR work.

I raged on. We covered poise, body language, speaking to the back of the room, imagining everyone in their underwear (I assured them I wasn’t doing this to them!) And it was magic.

After the class, the person who I thought was most likely to run for the door in boredom the moment I said we were done, approached me with a story to break my heart--to make this reader want to champion for her, to read everything she’s written. She’s painfully shy, cripplingly shy and got so much out of my class. And, I wondered what, in an audience of writers who worry about self-confidence, was I expecting to see? In a class about confidence, did I think the group would be a gaggle of class clowns?

The writers who attended my class, gave me confidence that day. And they gave me the knowledge that smiles and nods aren’t comfortable reactions for people who don’t want to draw attention to themselves.

There are many ways to support, to love and to champion for the women who have left the safe path to write novels. We are brave behind the keyboard.

But for those moments when we need to step out and meet the public, just remember that we totally rock. You totally rock. Just the fact that we write books, hoping to entertain and enlighten... I love us.

Singing ‘We are the champions, my friend...” Everyone hum along…

And now, in an effort to Channel my inner rock star, here is my new signature to show I’m social-media savvy...

Kim Hornsby

Commercial Women's Fiction

You only journey if you dare to leave home

The Dream Jumper’s Promise

Necessary Detour

http://www.kimhornsbyauthor.net

www.kimhornsby.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/kimhornsby

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6763851.Kim_Hornsby

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http://pinterest.com/kimberwrite/boards/

Kim is the author of Amazon Best Sellers, Necessary Detour (about a retired female rock star) and The Dream Jumper's Promise

FREE STUFF - READ ON

Free stuff is good. I think we can all agree on that one. When I lived in Hawaii and taught SCUBA diving I used to say that nothing in Hawaii is free but the sunshine. Customers used to laugh and nod knowingly at that one. Every once in awhile, you run across something entirely free and wonder 'what's the catch?' sometimes there's no catch. Sometimes your email address is needed by the good folks who offered you the free beauty product or free pair of pantyhose. That's when it's handy to have an address for junk mail only. Sometimes a phone number, or a friend's email address is needed, or signing away your first born.
Here's the beauty in Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Everyday the good people over at Amazon in Seattle offer the world FREE BOOKS. In every genre. Entirely free. All you need to get one, or a hundred, is an AMAZON account, which is also free. You can read these ebooks on your computer, phone, ipad, kindle, nook, and any mobile device just by downloading the Kindle App. You don't need to own a Kindle! Ever. At all! The catch has nothing to do with you. They are simply trying to generate eventual  sales by letting the publisher offer books free for a few days every 3 months.

You can even get on a list that sends you an email daily (or weekly)with free books in your favorite genre. There are about 50 sites out there that compile these on a daily basis. Check our Freebooksy, Kindle Books and Tips, Pixel of Ink, eReader Cafe, Free Book Dude, Awesome Gang, Bargain eBook Hunter.
As an author, going free is a wonderful marketing tool to generate interest in your book. Especially first time authors. Or Indie Authors. Building a readership is key to us new authors and getting 20,000 downloads on free days is going to look good for our book's ranking, as well as get reviews from people who don't expect much from something they didn't pay for. My latest review for THE DREAM JUMPER'S PROMISE this morning said "I feel guilty for not having paid full price!" Those words were payment enough, Rhonda.

Here's my tips to authors when getting ready to go free on Kindle Select:

1. Do 3 days and save 2 for later
2.Two weeks in advance, submit your free day notice to as many sites as possible. See AuthorMarketingClub for a good start on this
3. Write some blog posts and set up several days of blogs during free days to lead readers to your book.
4. Get ready to Facebook blast and ask friends to do this by sharing. People love free stuff, don't be shy!
5. Prepare tweets on Hootsuite or another timed site, to go off every 30 minutes for hours on the first day. (Say something compelling and include #Free#Kindlefree)
6. Retweet, share on FB, and keep promo going the first day, especially from about 2 a.m. Pacific Time to noon. This is when you'll get your biggest 'sales'.
7. Set up some cheap ads for the day after you are free. Keep the book at .99 or 1.99 to avoid sticker shock for those lollygaggers who got their emails late about free days.
8. Keep the momentum going as long as you can for downloads- have a contest, do a radio interview, drop flyers from the sky.
9. Write the 2nd in the series ASAP and get it out there!
Remember free days isn't a time to make money, but to generate interest. Two to four days after the promotion ends on Select, you'll see a bump in sales and this is the golden time to keep the momentum going.
Enjoy all the free books out there, everyone and be sure to review as if you're saying this to the author's face.

Good luck Authors and You're Welcome Readers!

Kim Hornsby is the author of Amazon Best Seller The Dream Jumper's Promise

Kindle Select - FREE BOOKS!

Why would anyone want to give something away that they spent years creating? Aside from blatant benevolence, the answer could be to eventually direct you to something that does cost money. Like your second book. If you are a new author, building a reader base is extremely important. More important than money, unfortunately. Especially if you are in this for the duration and hoping to build a career. Getting in people's faces and heads is everything for a new author. visibility. Exposure.

And that is why Amazon Kindle has a program called SELECT where you can give away downloads of your book 5 days out of the 90 day program--free downloads of a book that you might have spent years writing. It seems like a terrible idea when what you want is to make money from writing books. However, if you can see ahead a year, the free days can help your ranking on Amazon, which helps to sell books. On Amazon, (the biggest book sellers in the world), ranking is everything. If you get yourself in the top 100 on the paid list, you can look forward to some sales that are generated purely by being on that list. No advertising necessary. Unless you want to keep the momentum and propel it farther up the list. Which you should. It's not a great idea to sit back and watch your success. Marketing is an ongoing process.
Unless you're Nicholas Sparks and wrote Safe Haven. Then you can sit back and rake in the money because your book reached #1 and stayed there for a long time.

Kindle Select gives you the opportunity to get exposure, but it's up to you to advertise your free days and get on lists with your generous offering. Over the last few months, I've compiled a secret list of forty publications who will announce your free days and direct traffic to download your novel. The higher your ranking gets, the more likelihood that when free days ends, you will maintain sales for a while if you play your cards right. And it's good to have a marketing plan for after free days like cheap ads, keeping the cost of the book low and good reviews to keep sales coming in.
Should you do all 5 days together or split them up? I've done both and I'm not sure what is best. When my Romantic Suspense did all 5 together it garnered 35,000 downloads and got some kick-ass sales for six weeks after. Then the publisher raised the price and things are not going as well. My Paranormal Romance has only ever split up the free days. Because it's self pubbed, I can choose and it does well enough with 3 days in a row. I would never do one day because you need the momentum to build. And five days feels like too much. I want to save two free days to give the book another shot in the arm next month. The Dream Jumper's Promise was free May 26-28 and after the first 24 hours, had 12,000 downloads, reaching #4 in the Kindle store FREE and  #1 in paranormal romance. The FREE lists are way different than the paid lists but still a good indication of how the public likes your cover and blurb. At the point of writing this, in my free days, I'm just hoping, that with another 40 hours to go, I can maintain my position or even reach #1 in the Free Store (above that dad-burned 160 calorie cookbook!)
Free Days has helped us self pubbed or newbie authors gain a fighting chance in this market. Since ebooks and self pubs have opened to writers who used to spend years trying to get an agent, editor, publisher and readers, there is now a lot of floatsum and jetsam out there and the discerning reader must sift through it to find a good read. But, if they like your cover, your blurb, you reviews, your name, anything, they might 'buy' it for free, read it, review and tell their friends to read it when it costs money.
Granted, many of the readers who buy your free book will never read it and those who do will probably never write a review or refer someone to your book but some might. There are millions of readers out there in the world, buying books, downloads, entertainment, and even if there is a slight chance of a hundred real sales and 2 reviews, it's worth it to do free days.
Even though it's hard to giveaway something that you value greatly, the idea behind free days is that you have to 'spend money to make money'. Give something away for the reward later. Readership. So go ahead and get writing that second book while free days are on because you know they're going to ask for it. And you'll probably have to offer that one free at the beginning too.
Good luck Writers and don't forget to check your SELECT actions on KDP to make decide if you want to re-enroll in SELECT when your 90 days ends. Otherwise it automatically gets re-enrolled for you.

Kim Hornsby is the author of NECESSARY DETOUR, published by The Wild Rose Press and
THE DREAM JUMPER'S PROMISE
as well as a contributing author to SWEET SUMMERTIME LOVE

How To Write A Book Review

I have most of my epiphanies in the shower and today was no exception. Here's my amazing realization for today:
Non-writers find it difficult to write a review for a book they like. I almost slapped myself on the forehead when I realized that it's probably hard for people to write what they liked about a book if they, themselves, are not writers.They are the blessed readers so why should they be able to write?
And so my friends, here is my blog on how to write a quick review to help support your favorite writers and ensure that they won't spend the week in the fetal position wondering why no one has reviewed the book that took them two years of their life to write.

Short Version:

Fill in the blanks
"I just finished reading___ and ____it."

Long Version:

First, to review, you sometimes have to buy the book, then usually wait a day or two. Amazon has a little old school teacher in a room timing how long it takes you to read a book and won't let you review even if you're a graduate of the Evelyn Woods speed reading course until she says the time is up. When you're ready, go to the book's Amazon page, click on 'like' on anything associated with this author to do a very good deed, then scroll down the page where you found the book for sale and click on 'Write a Review'.

First it asks you to rate how many stars you'd give it. 5 is fantastic and this means that you enjoyed the book immensely. Not necessarily that it will be awarded the Golden Amazing Book of the Universe Award but just that it was a great read for that type of book. Eg) if it's romance, don't judge it by a Pulitzer Winning Novel about World Peace. And remember, you can give anyone you want 5 Stars. You don't have to save just one to give out in your whole lifetime.
3 Stars is a bit of a downer for most authors so keep that in mind if you go to hit 3 but really liked the book. As my mother said, if you can't say anything nice...
I tend to only review the books I really like. The world does not need my rant if I didn't like something. But that is entirely up to you.

Then move on to the box where you must use a set amount of characters to describe your experience with the book. This does not have to be beautifully written and if it is, the review is often removed. Amazon thinks authors should not review each other's books and again, that schoolteacher in a little room will notice a gorgeously written review and pull it before you can sign your name.
In your review of the book you just finished, you can start by saying that you enjoyed the book, it was a fun distraction, a beautifully written novel, made you laugh out loud, loved the characters, related to the setting, the humor, the dialogue, liked the writer's style, look forward to more books from this author who didn't disappoint. This type of feedback is lovely to read, as an author. No need to write something unique. A compliment is always unique. If it's hard to fill up the necessary words, say I can highly recommend this book to anyone who likes______.
Here is a simple, yet wonderful review of one of my books:
"Great Book!"

If you feel compelled to write something negative, then remember the critique rule - sandwich your negative comment between two compliments. Writers are sensitive people and they get the idea if you didn't appreciate one aspect of the book. No need to get carried away. I once read a three paragraph rant about a book that made me want to read it right away (and verbally pummel the person who wrote the review).
You don' t need to use your real name. Choose a user name and be anonymous. (A scathing review written anonymously is considered as a chicken-shit move among authors BTW). Click when you are done and know that you have helped further a writer's career by taking the time to lend your endorsement. I guarantee that for the moment the author reads your positive review,they are thanking you in their hearts and letting out a big sigh to say 'someone out there liked what I did'.
If you are a Goodreads user, copy your review and paste it to Goodreads so the author can be liked over there too. www.goodreads.com

If you read this blog because you want to write a review, I commend you. Thank you from all the authors out there who check daily to see if anyone likes their books.

Over and out.

Kim Hornsby is the Amazon Bestselling Author of The Dream Jumper's Promise, a three-time award winner with over 65,000 downloads and 223 reviews. She lives in the Seattle area and writes novels while trying to keep a clean house and raise two children to not be thugs.