My First Author Newsletter

The article below is an excerpt from my first quarterly author newsletter, which was emailed to subscribers today. To get the whole scoop, including the special surprise, you can subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of my Author Website.

It's been two months since The Buried Symbol was released. The reception from readers and critics thus far has been great, although I could certainly use a few more reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and other reader sites. As for book sales, it appears to be going as well as can be expected for a first-time author working with a small publisher, but I have nothing to compare against. What I can tell you is that I love receiving feedback from readers and it encourages me to push forward with the sequels.

For readers eagerly awaiting book two, The Emblem Throne is releasing in October!

With my publishing contracts for books two and three now signed, I am back to working against a schedule. Thankfully, the second book was written months ago and merely must endure a sequence of edits. As for book three, An Empire in Runes, I still have much work to do. The book is over half written but deserves a delicious ending to cap-off the series. With my focus now shifted back to editing book two, it will be months before the first draft of book three is complete. Look for an update in my October newsletter. In the meantime, check the progress graphs for each book below.

If you or someone you know would like to purchase a SIGNED copy of The Buried Symbol, visit myWEBSITE and use code LostMagic at checkout and receive a 20% discount.

Lastly, I've included a special treat below, just for newsletter subscribers. 

Subscribe to my newsletter and receive an inside scoop about my upcoming books and author events

Authors are Fans of Their Fans Too

In my youth, I was always eager to join my parents for a trip to the local mall. Of course, the moment we stepped into the building, I would take off on my own with my first destination usually being Waldenbooks or B. Dalton Booksellers. With a mixture of anticipation and dread, I would run to the fantasy shelves to see if the latest book by David Eddings or Raymond E. Feist was waiting for me. When those hopes were dashed, I would peruse the shelves for the next hour, hoping to discover another author who might transport my imagination to a thrilling new world filled with magic and wonder.

Predating the Internet or email, discovering new books and new authors was far more difficult than it is today. Even worse, it was nearly impossible for this kid living in the sticks of northern Minnesota to have any sort of connection with the authors whose works I cherished dearly. Questions unanswered bounced within my head: What are they working on? When will it come out? What happens next in the series? How many times do I need to reread my favorite books until the next chapter appears on the shelves?

Thanks to technology, access to information and ease of communication has grown exponentially. Booklovers can now interact with their favorite authors in ways that were impossible twenty years ago. As a counterpoint, authors can establish a more open connection with readers, sharing their work and progress in a proactive way. One important tool that satisfies both sides is the Author Newsletter.

Sometime next week, I plan to push out my first quarterly newsletter to readers who have registered through my author website. Recipients will get inside information on my next book and awareness of the activities I have planned for the rest of 2016. This tool not only provides them with some insight on the release date and plot, but also offers more transparency about the writing and publishing process.

Do you have favorite authors? Are you eagerly waiting for the next chapter in a series? If so, I encourage you to visit said author’s website and sign up for their newsletter/fan club. Not only do you get the inside scoop on what’s next, but your involvement provides the author with a tighter connection to readers, encouraging him or her to write more books and to remain engaged in a more personal manner.

If you’d like to receive my quarterly newsletter, visit my website at http://JeffreyLKohanek.com and sign up at the bottom of the page. Don’t forget to accept the confirmation email from MailChimp.

Get ready, because news is coming soon!

Don't Let the Darkness Win

The darkness is seductive, luring readers into a world of ruthless and selfish characters. This has been particularly true in epic fantasy novels, as the moral gap between protagonist and antagonist has narrowed dramatically over the past two decades.

Years ago, the dark lead character was far less common. There was a time where most fantasy novels featured a protagonist with a good heart, imperfect but well intentioned. Somehow, the cynical nature of the real world around us has prevailed, compelling readers toward the morally ambiguous lead who would just as soon slit your throat as shake your hand. As an example, this type of character dominates The First Law universe. The edginess of it all can become a rush for the reader, making him or her feel that it’s good to be bad.

As a reader, I found myself caught in this fishnet, drawn into a sequence of fantasy series featuring dubious characters driven by their own selfish personal agenda. Not every character was outright nasty, some landed in an ambiguous region where black and white blurred to gray. Even worse, some authors opted to include a few honest characters for me to love, only to kill them off and leave me destitute and in search of replacement within the story. Yes, Game of Thrones, I'm looking at you (A Song of Ice and Fire series).

After a few years of enduring tales featuring individuals who were as bad as they were good, I decided I could take it no longer. It’s one thing to read a novel or series and find a character who is good at heart, but goes through a troubled period. A good example is the Wheel of Time series. There were times when I really disliked Rand, feeling frustrated by his arrogance and self-pity. However, he eventually got past it and found balance to show that he remained the good person we remember from when the series began. I get it. Behavior changes and internal conflict are natural human responses to the events that impact our lives.

However, I would like to know when and why it became unpopular for the main character to be a good person. Books featuring a protagonist who tries to do right, using a moral compass to guide them, often find reviewers labeling the protagonist as shallow or one-dimensional.

What is wrong with the main character in a novel being likable? Shouldn’t readers gravitate toward a likable character? I'm not saying that darker tales featuring cold-blooded lead characters shouldn't exist, it just shouldn't be at the expense of stories intended to inspire.

It’s obvious that a morally conscientious protagonist provides a good role model for young readers. However, I believe that even adult readers need a reminder that compassion and integrity are traits that define humanity and without them, we will at some point cease to be human. For the sake of making all worlds better, real and imaginary, I beg you not to allow the good guys fade from the pages that feed our imagination. Embrace the light, don’t let the darkness win.

A Festive Experience

I spent the past weekend at the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley, California. Being my first foray into the convention scene as an author, it was quite a learning experience. 

Traveling from southern California, my son and I took an early morning flight, hauling heavy luggage stuffed with books, props, and supplies. After a 4:45 am rise, we arrived at the event at 9:45 am, just fifteen minutes before it opened. We quickly set the booth up and were ready for interested readers!

From 10 am to 6 pm, Saturday and Sunday, I stood before my little tent and greeted attendees. I met some great readers and supportive fellow authors, handed out over a hundred bookmarks, and sold twenty-one signed copies of my book. While I had hoped to sell more copies, my results appear to be a bit better than average and were far better than many other exhibitors. 

In addition to the direct sales, I also was able to create awareness about my book and the upcoming sequels, doing so in a region outside of my local territory. Hopefully, the readers who purchased The Buried Symbol, at the event and afterward, love the book and tell their friends. Word-of-mouth remains the main driving factor for book discovery and purchase. You have to start that snowball somewhere, hoping it grows quickly and continues to roll forward.

Similar to any first-time experience, I learned a lot by attending the book fest. That knowledge will help me be more prepared for future author events. I'm sincerely looking forward to that first public event that includes fans seeking me out because they love my novels and wish to meet the author. That's the real reward for all the hard work that goes into being an author (although making money helps too). I love my readers!

Pictures of the event are included below for your entertainment. Yes, many people spun the wheel to determine their vocation. I found that many people approached me, just to ask what the wheel was and what the runes meant. That allowed me to tell them a bit about the book and spurred some added sales.

Post a message if you have any questions or comments about the event!

Reddit Fantasy Writer of the Day

I am hosting the Writer of the Day blog over at Reddit/Fantasy on Wednesday, June 1. The thread will run throughout the day and you can check out the discussion by clicking the link below.

It's a great opportunity to ASK QUESTIONS about my writing process or about The Buried Symbol and the two sequels that are in the works. Please consider participating because the more activity I have on the thread, the more people will check it out.

REDDIT FANTASY WRITER OF THE DAY

Promoting a Book: Part 2

This is part two of my blog about my book promotion activities. If you haven't read part one yet, check it outhere for more info. 

Book Reviews

Reviews can do a lot to help garner interest in a book. Good reviews provide potential readers more confidence in your novel and makes the book more intriguing. Knowing that I needed reviews, I reached out to more than 160 book bloggers, offering a free copy of my book in exchange for a review. Sixteen bloggers accepted, pledging to get me a review within a few weeks or months. Less than half have come through thus far, more than a month after sending them my book. I also attempted to get reviews from Booktubers, but have gotten nowhere with that route at this point.

In addition to book bloggers, I provided my book to free and paid book review organizations, such as Midwest Book Review, Booklist, and Kirkus. Some of these routes take months before you get a review, which causes difficulties since librarians and booksellers rely on these review services to determine if they should order your book. Another means to get a book in front of librarians and reviewers is to pay for a listing with NetGalley and/or Edelweiss. Working through my publisher, I opted to do both.

Author Interviews

While interviews don’t have the power of a good review, they offer an easy way to create more awareness. If readers aren’t aware that your book exists, they won’t seek it out. Deciding that any exposure is helpful, interviews also enabled me to present my book and myself in a way that seems more personal. Creating this connection with potential readers may not lead to immediate sales, but it does help to garner their attention and may help in the long run.

I found that getting interviews posted with book bloggers tends to be much easier than getting them to review a book. Interviews provide bloggers with content for their website and require very little effort or time on their part, while doing a book review is a commitment of 4 to 10 hours. I was also able to get an interview in the May edition of Fountain Valley Living, a local publication of 25,000 subs.

Giveaways

Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing, and YA Books Central are book-focused sites that provide simple tools for authors to run book giveaways. Interested readers can enter to win a free print or digital (it’s up to you which format) copy of a book. I opted to run giveaways on all four sites, tracking them to measure interest generated. While I might lose money by sending out free copies of my book, it’s an investment for the awareness created. I find that these giveaways help to gain the attention of hundreds of readers that I may not have reached otherwise. I just hope that it will eventually lead to sales.

Book bloggers love to run giveaways on their own sites because it adds more perceived value to the readers who visit the website. Any blog site that frequently gives free books out is more likely to get repeat business than one that doesn’t have that service. The fact is that people love free stuff. The trick for any author is to decide how many copies you can afford to give out and when the giveaways begin to lose their value because you are not hitting enough new potential buyers.

Advertising

I find that paid advertising is the most difficult aspect to gauge regarding book promotion. While there are many routes to advertising, deciding which routes are good investments is quite difficult. I believe that I will have to experiment with sites such as Facebook, Goodreads, and others in order to see what route works best. I have also been considering book blog tours, multi-media websites, and other potential marketing routes.

One promotion that I did decide to try was the social advertising route, getting multiple weeks-worth of constant tweets, Facebook posts, and other social media ads through a company that focuses on that type of promotion. Since that effort is currently active, I can’t gauge results other than increased product awareness.

Festivals and Conventions

The best marketing targets exactly the type of person who is most likely to purchase a product. My product is a fantasy book, so spending time and money on book festivals and geek conventions (like Comic-Con), is a wise investment. With more than a hundred thousand people in attendance, these events attract people who love to read and people who love magic and fantasy. Those are my readers. But I don't want to just be there passively, I am there in full force.

From a distance, you will see my banner inviting you to Discover a lost magic, buried and forgotten. Swing by my table and you will find it decked-out. We are wearing Academy cloaks and holding the lost book of magic. You can spin a wheel to determine your vocation rune and receive your temporary tattoo for your vocation. I'll give you a free bookmark, some candy, and am happy just to talk. Alternatively, you can buy signed copies of my books, with cash or credit. Regardless, I will make sure that the people I meet have fun and remember stopping by my booth.

Summary

As you can tell, book promotion is a multi-faceted venture that requires a lot of time, effort, and some level of financial investment. Thankfully, I have the help of my publicist to share in the workload, which is necessary because I work a full-time day job and am writing book and editing book 2. In the end, the time and money I spend now are seeds for the future, helping to grow a fan base that will eagerly consume the books I write. This effort is not only about The Buried Symbol, nor is it just about The Runes of Issalia trilogy. I am investing in myself as an author, hoping to connect with as many readers as possible for all of my future books.

Promoting a Book: Part One

May 18, 2016 • Jeffrey L Kohanek

When I finally decided to write a book and pursue getting it published, I had no idea what to expect. After 1,000s of hours of writing and editing, I found a publisher and then realized that I was going to have to put my marketing hat on and get serious. It turns out that successful authors put as much work into promoting their book as they do writing it. There is so much involved in book PR that I chose to split this blog into two parts.

Website

I decided that the first step would be to create an author website. It is my home base and is the one location on the internet that I control fully. All messaging, images, contact info, events, author biography, blog thread, and more are intended to be part of a tight strategy. Any social media or bookseller links would send readers back to my website whenever possible, creating a hub to my online presence.

Social Media

In today’s world, I had to have a social media presence. It is a means to share information with my readers and to help create awareness of me as an author and of my books. I created a Facebook author page, opened a Twitter account, jumped onto Google+, created a Tumblr page, and added Instagram to my toolkit.

Book-Focused Websites

I need to be wherever people who like books might go. Accordingly, I now have a book and/or an author page on the largest online booksellers’ pages. In addition, sites such as Goodreads, Library Thing, and YA Books Central are sites designed to help readers discover and review books for themselves. A list of my online links is shown below.

Online Presence: List of Links

Author Website	Facebook	Twitter	Tumblr
Google+	Blogger	Instagram	Booklife
Goodreads	Good Reads Author	Readers Favorite	Library Thing
Amazon Book Page	Amazon Author	Barnes and Noble	YA Books Central

Launch Events, Signings, and Guest Speaking

My book released on May 5, 2016. Accordingly, my publicist (thanks for all the help, Jodi) and I set up a number of author events to promote the book. With two launch parties, two author meet-n-greets, and a two-day book festival set within the first month, I will be busy. See the Launch Event Schedule below. If you can make it to any of these events, I would love to meet you and answer questions about the book or my writing process.

Event Date               Event Type and Location
Thurs May 19, 2016:   Book Launch Party @Lamppost Pizza, Fountain Valley, CA
Sat May 21, 2016:      Book Launch Party @Mama’s on 39 in Huntington Beach, CA
Tues May 24, 2016:    Author Event @Mangiamo Gelato Café, Huntington Beach, CA
Sat May 28, 2016       Author Event @Great American Yogurt, Huntington Beach, CA
Sat June 4, 2016:       Bay Area Bookfest, Berkeley, CA
Sun June 5, 2016:      Bay Area Bookfest, Berkeley, CA

Guest Speaking

I am offering a FREE 30-minute seminar to schools and libraries titled A Writer’s Journey: The Path to Publication, where I will share what I've learned from my experience in writing and getting published. I hope that this will help to encourage others who dream of writing a book while also helping them to avoid some of the pitfalls that I encountered on my journey. My first session is set at Fountain Valley High School on May 19. I hope to do more sessions this school year and in the future.

This gives you an idea of what is involved in a book launch. Tune in next week for part two of this blog for more into and to see what else I have cooking.