Also one lucky winner will receive a copy of my newly re-edited romantic fantasy Sara's Awakening! This book went through a huge overhaul and the series is filled with: magic, deceit, love, heartache and death.

***I am thrilled to say that both book one and two are now in print! I will be at a book signing in Worcester MA at the DCU Center on Oct 4th with these on hand!!***

Wow! So it’s been forever since I have blogged about anything. Today’s post is a warning to my author friends. So Amazon is again deleting reviews. Big surprise right? (note the sarcasm)

Anyway, so you know all those events where you give a gift card, or you give those to family and friends and they say—oh I am going to support you and buy your books. Yeah tell them not to unless you want to see about 5 valued reviews drop off your books. Not just the one from the gift-cardee (yes, I am an author, I make words up).

This goes for gifting your books too right? Nope. Amazon likes that authors have to buy books that they already own. Sigh. But there is some pretend limit. So don’t buy too many, whatever that means.

Where am I getting all this crazy cockamamie stuff? (I can get naughty words in everywhere peeps) A trusted group on my yahoo loop. They are Indie and hybrid published (meaning some where traditionally published and came over to Indie and fought for their rights and others have some toes in certain trad pub waters.

Anyway so what do we do?

Well, the solutions they said were:

1. Buy Amazon cards at a store and snail mail them. But this doesn’t even guarantee your winners from your events and contests to buy your books, just like before with online. And do they really want to give their address? And postmarked from where you are too?
2. Buy online gift cards for other places like Starbucks and Victoria’s Secret. Ultimately Amazon is just shooting themselves in the foot. IMHO.
3. Other people have a second account which is another no-no for Amazon. So with that you risk all your reviews. And ultimately they DO NOT have to sell your books at all. Remember that people.
4. I’m just going to continue giving me free copies from Smashwords. I have a couple of books that are Amazon only, but still I am just keeping Smashwords for this specific reason. Plus, I can make things free. People say they can’t review if they didn’t buy the book on Amazon. I’ve been doing it as a reviewer. I haven’t checked to see if they are still up, but it lets me.

 

You are probably wondering why. Well this isn’t new. Amazon goes through ebbs and tides with their crazy stuff, but there has been a huge discussion on people “buying” reviews. When I first heard about this phenomenon I was disgusted. I still am disgusted. You will know who they are. They released the book and have 500 5-star reviews from their pre-order status. Then once the book starts selling the real reviews come in and they are 1’s and 2’s if that. Most say things like I don’t know who those other reviewers are but this book wasn’t edited or other terrible things…

But why do we give a crap?

Well rankings of course. They are holding a slot where a real true valuable author could and should be getting recognition. But alas the crazy world we live it.

For me I gave up caring about reviews and rankings. Sure, I love the great ones, but I no longer obsess. I appreciate all the good and push out the bad. Hey, I’m an optimist. ;)

If you haven't found out by now my new release, Erotic Fantasies, well it's an anthology with 10 other fantastic authors,  has been released it is free everywhere but Amazon (of course). So any help with price matching would be so much appreciated!!

This scene is a little after the other one from last week...

So they just kissed and Sir complimented her, stating she probably had other talents in the oral realm.

“Should we test it out now, sir?”

His teeth gripped my earlobe. “You are the tease I knew you would be. I promised no sexual contact tonight.”

I whimpered. “I’d like to take care of you. Please, sir, let me take care of this.” I grinned, as it twitched under my bottom, as I pleaded.

“I have half a mind to spank you until you are sore, for being such a cock-tease.”

“But, sir, I really want to-” My hand slipped between my thighs.

What do you think is going to happen next??

Buy links for the FREE Erotic Fantasies Anthology!
Also please help us Price Match

Grab a link
(copy B&N or All Romance and click on Amazon for price matching)

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/417296

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/erotic-fantasies-anthology-tonya-kinzer/1118904099?ean=2940045756563

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-eroticfantasiesanthology-1447671-362.html

 AMAZON

On 3/24 it is my One Year Author Anniversary. So in honor of that I am having an event on Facebook. Please click on my Facebook Event for a free copy of my short story Cristal Blue. (Note: you have to be going). Also if you invite the most people (they have to click your name and be going) you will win a $10 Amazon Gift Card!   CLICK HERE

I have another question for you...if you have have seen my free reads section and read my short story (The Visit), which is in 3 parts. I'd like honest opinions. If I cleaned it up a bit and added more depth, would it be a respectable piece to send to the BDSM writers con contest. I wanted to send Saving Lady J, but there is no category for switch. :( I might submit it to another publisher, because I truly think it's a great piece. Thoughts?

OK, Ok, I've held you hostage enough. Please be sure to check out my spanky friends this week!!

Blue Bird is a complete story that will be featured in a book with 11 other authors and I feel quite honored. You will see what I mean when you look at the names on the cover below. It will be free, but if you purchase it while waiting to price match I don't think you will be disappointed. Each of us provided a story from 5-8k length to add to the book. I have been working on the promotions for it so I hope to see it shine like my other free anthology. It's hard when you are a control freak and not in charge lol

I believe most of the spanking hoppers will enjoy this and so far I have had enormous love on this piece from my critique partners. Funny thing is there is more story and less BDSM elements. It is a D/s love story of course. I try to offer different things in each story. Quite honestly, if you know me at all, I never plan what comes out of my head. It's like those people with no filter on their mouths...how I feel about my brain sometimes. ;)

Feeling ill at the beach, my little blue bird here is getting back in his car. He is taking her to her own car back at the bar. That is where they initially met for the evening.

I let out a big breath of nervous energy. I sniffled. “It’s alright,” I whispered. I figured I blew it anyway. I was acting like a complete psych patient. I leaned into the car and slipped my purse to the floor. I took my seat again.

I watched, as he gently closed the door and I stared out of the window. I stared in complete silence the short distance back to my car. I got out without a word and walked swiftly to my car, which was across the street in another parking lot. I didn’t want to let him see me upset.

Fool. I sat in my car a few minutes, trying to gather myself, wiping tears from my cheeks.

Text message: If you are quite finished, please get out and come say goodbye like a proper lady.

I hope next week to share not only a spanking scene but the release!

So I have been bugged enough, I am spilling the beans…LOL OK, honestly, I like to help others that are struggling with something that I figured out.

How did I amass a huge organic following on Twitter?

So let’s go back to the newbie me. Mid-Feb 2013, everyone was telling me ‘you need to be on Twitter. That’s where you need to market.’ I was completely confused by this thing. I am a Facebook girl. And to be honest that has better Marketing benefits to reach readership. You find more Author / readers on Twitter. Some regular readers, but it’s really not the same. So, as I mentioned I didn’t know how to even Tweet. I knew nothing.

Ok, so I used this PDF that was free on http://www.selfpubbookcovers.com/index.php There was a small section on there to help me sort of start my way into this social media time sucker-I mean great place to market myself. Tee hee.

After about a month I had 1k followers, 2 months 2k. I was amazed and others were too. I kept saying I would make a post about it so here it is. First, I have to admit having a picture of me; a real live person probably helps.

Tips/Tricks

How do I know if I should follow them?

My “personal” ways of going about this are, look at their profile. Are they a reader, writer, do they have something in common with you. Genre is a big factor. I try to spread it out so I don’t just follow everyone in erotica, since I write in many genres.

Follow book review people. This will skew your numbers a bit, but oh well you never know who will pick up your book.

Now, here is another tidbit and it might be a little confusing. The numbers: followers vs following. Are they even going to follow you back? If the numbers are close, perhaps they might. If they have low numbers and their Twitter remarks are “hey baby you’re hot” or “here’s my newest book”. These are the first things they say to you…um no. Twitter is a SOCIAL MEDIA SITE. Remember no one wants their first introduction to be a smack in the face with your book.

Now do you always care about the numbers? No. Follow EL James or my mentor Shoshanna Evers if you want some of their followers to perhaps see you. Now, how would these follower see you? You know, on that side panel: follow these people thing-yeah that one. I don’t really follow the “untouchables” though. The anti-socials that would never respond, celebs, etc. However, Neil Perry from “The Band Perry” follows me, perhaps he thought I was cute. LOL I love music that’s no secret.

Are they a bot? Should I follow?

“I just got 1000 followers..” yeah I mark as spam…move on.

They have one tweet and followed 87 people. Nope don’t follow.

They are a locked account with no bio. Now these are tricky. I pretty much follow and find myself unfollowing most of them. Some locked accounts are people with families, others are D/s relationships and others are just, well, who knows.

Following back

There is this unwritten rule to follow back within 3 days, so try to keep pace or note in your bio.

Your Bio

I changed mine about 50 times. Work on it, tweak it, and change it when new things come up. ;) Be honest. I actually told a writer putting Bestselling Author in his bio should mean he actually “sold” the book. I think being honest with your readership is the best way to gain and keep them. He has a Bestselling book that reached #1 in free. Yay! I mean I haven’t even reached #1 in free. Just my opinion perhaps. :/

Oh and typos, if you are a writer and there are typos in your bio…yeah there’s a problem there.

What not to have on your Twitter feed! (What I don’t have)

Politics, naked pictures (unless that is what you want to promote—we all have our own thing and our own brand), and really any hot button issues. You want this to be a place for marketing your brand then keep your brand fun, happy, and interesting. No bashing or self pity party’s people. Nothing wrong with a bad day, we all need support and as a community we will be there with our shoulders.

Also I do not have Auto DM’s I hate them and I will never open a link. I delete all that.

Use all the tools you can

1. Hashtags – Twitter gives you ones in a little dropdown.

2. Use a catchy phrase not, here’s my book or here’s my Amazon page. Excite people; make them want to click on your link.

3. Picture – Use your book covers as an advertisement. Twitter has changed this up a bit, but a picture will take up space and make your Tweet stand out.

4. Spacing/objects – Don’t be annoying, but you can be crafty with spacing and objects (arrows) that are eye catching.

5. Someone comments, respond, draw more attention to your Tweet. Also each connection helps you more visible in the main feed and perhaps gains you more followers.

6. Be bold and say things like I did “Wow, I am almost at my 1k (2k or 3k) follower, I think I had like 10 to go. This person will get a free eBook of mine their choice” I tweeted things like this. I also said virtual kisses, but I didn’t tell you that. People like silliness and winning nothing. I Tweeted the heck out of the winner and they were happy. Telling everyone to follow my latest follower, therefore getting more followers. (Make sure they are a valid person not a bot)

RT - ing

I tweeted/RTed daily. I would follow and RT those that RT’ed me. I had a nice community of people. I was spending 30 minutes, soon it became and hour. Suddenly, it was reaching hours. I was doing it multiple times a day. I always left my 4-6 promotional Tweets at the top. I found my hand was hurting and it was taking up so much time that I wasn’t really doing what I wanted, writing. At this point I was at close to 4k followers.

So, I looked for a solution. I wanted to still have control over who I followed and unfortunately I RT some porn, but overall I am very happy that I am able to still Tweet additionally and never go over my limit. Previously, I had been put in jail a few times for my RT-ing an not even been allowed to post my own promotions. Now what was the sense in that?

I use Begaware, Tweetdeck, FB autoposts for me and Tribber feeds.

Auto RT sites like Roundteam, Begaware, TweetDeck, etc

Auto RT’s. I don’t recommend this to you unless you already did everything above. Get a good following going, this takes work. Buying followers, which I have heard is robots, dead accounts, etc. Isn’t adding any value to your Twitter.

I now use Begaware for auto Tweets and ReTweets. It helps me to still be able to talk to people, write and just be me! I sometimes toss a question out into Twitter and see who responds. I find out who answers and make new friends. Again you need to remind yourself it is a social media site. Ask for help sometimes you never know who will respond.

So the sites I use:

Begaware

Tweets : http://begware.com/alogin.php

RT’s: http://begware.biz/member/activate.php

The RT one is good for say the ones you want to block, porn pics for example, or perhaps larger authors that don’t RT. My mentor doesn’t RT, but I like to tweet her stuff. This puts you in the eyes of others that read her work and similar stuff that you write. ;)

TweetDeck: https://tweetdeck

I use this to set up auto posts since Begaware only allows 20 set ones. Also, I can do one’s anything new happening: a new release, a cover reveal, a blog hop, etc. Plus I do great followers or favoriters. People like spotlights shown on them.

Triberr: http://triberr.com/

Triberr is for bloggers to meet others; you need to be faithful in reblogging here. This feeds to my Twitter. I actually don’t know much about this except that it helps get your blog posts out there across Twitterdom. ;)

Sometimes I find remarks of people not reblogging “enough”, but honestly I feel like no one lives in each others lives. No one lives in my shoes. I promote the hell out of people, I don’t run and jump on Triberr daily, people would prefer if I helped them sell books (my opinion). If you do it and promote others I think that’s sufficient. And sometimes I feel like we need to learn to have more respect for other people sometimes.

Unfollowers.com

Lastly, I use this (on Twitter, it’s free) to unfollow people that don’t follow me. Again I keep book reviewers and those that might give me a larger following, but I remove people that haven’t followed me in at least 5 days. I don’t follow the 3 day rule. And anyone that unfollowed me.



I have met so many great friends and supportive people and I can only hope to help and pay it forward just a little bit. I truly hope this post helps people. Marketing takes work and time. If you don’t put effort into it like you do writing, you are honestly writing for no reason. It would be like making a lemonade stand and then setting it up inside your house and not telling a soul about it. Think about it, no one else is going to sell you better than you.

Perhaps, I will do another post about Facebook or blogging one day. But that’s for another time. Please share and comment if this was helpful.

xx Suzy