Category: General Topics

In Paperback and Amazon Kindle

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Good morning Lovelies,

The Road to Freedom – Joseph’s Story is now available in Paperback and eBook on Amazon Kindle. This also means that the Stella Trilogy is complete and all three books are now available on the site, both individually as well as a bundle pack.

In the meantime, don’t forget…. I’m in Atlanta babies!!

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Meet me in person at The Metropolitan Branch Library at 1332 Metropolitan Parkway from 12noon – 4pm for a signed copy of this book as well as the others in the series.

The Best Way for Writers to Use Amazon’s Preorder Feature

Great info over at Live.Write.Thrive on how to use Amazon’s PreOrder feature. Here are some key bullet points in the article that can help you to make wise preordering decisions (please visit the site for the entire article). Penny C. Sansevieri, Founder and CEO Author Marketing Experts, and best-selling author says:

  • First Time Published Author: If you’re a newly published author, the idea of a preorder probably seems exciting, right? Your book is up on the Amazon site as time ticks down to its release. And while it seems exciting, it’s not advisable to spend a ton of marketing time on the book because you can’t get reviews (though there is a workaround for that), but using this to build a fan base may not be the best idea. 
  • Already Published Author: If you have a book out there (or several), and you’ve built a mailing list of fans, then preorder may be a fun thing to do to build excitement for your upcoming book. 

I would still caution that the lion’s share of your work should only begin when the book is actually ready for purchase. Why? Because unless you are some mega-bestselling author, it’s hard to drive significant numbers to a preorder page.

The other issue is immediacy. If a reader wants something now, they may not want to wait for your book to be ready and will, instead, buy another Amazon-recommended book. Also, this is another reason to keep your preorder time short—which I’ll explain next.

<<<I only gave about 2 weeks for my preorders. Penny explains why you should keep your Preorder time short>>>

  • Timing of Your Preorder: Though I know there are folks who are fans of long preorders, I am not one of them. Amazon allows you up to ninety days, but when I’ve done this, I have found that a month is just about right. That way you can promote it to family, friends, and even your e-mail list, and still build some momentum for it without spending a ton of time pushing a book that no one can read.
  • Promoting a Preorder: Along the lines of what we discussed earlier, I would share this with your followers and your e-mail or newsletter list. If this is your second, third, or fourth book, the interest is going to be stronger than if it’s your first. But even a newbie author should not be discouraged from pushing this to folks who know you to let them know it’s coming. You can do this through images, blog posts, Facebook posts, and Twitter updates.

<<<Don’t Forget The Road to Freedom is available now for preorder at $0.99>>>

  • Pricing Your Preorder: For reasons I mentioned earlier, I would keep your pricing low— even if you plan on raising it later. Why? Well, you’re competing with millions of titles on Amazon and your book isn’t ready (yet), so the immediacy isn’t there. If you want to entice an impulse buy, keep the pricing lower at first, then once the book is live, you can always raise it.

Thunderclap: 1 Day Left!

Soooo we are only one day away from the conclusion of my Thunderclap and two days away from my next release. Friday is release day for the 3rd installment of The Stella Trilogy and my Thunderclap is at an amazing 30%, not bad for a five day campaign!

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Now, for the fun part. I have only ONE day left to raise the other 70%!

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I am not going to be on Facebook any time soon but for those of you who are, I’d appreciate it if you told your friends about my thunderclap. You can tell them how nice of a person I am and how I would LOVE to have their support :).

OK, tell them what you want, just don’t forget the Thunder Link! Hey, I like that, “Thunder Link”. Has a nice ring to it.

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Thunder Tip:

At this point I just like saying Thunder. Any who, here’s a tip:

Obviously, I started my Thunderclap late. When participating in any crowd funding, make sure to launch at least 2 weeks in advance. This will give the extra busy people in your life time to catch up with you. Secondly, if you are going to launch a campaign late (yes, like me), work smarter, not harder. This means you can’t be afraid to take risks. I knew it would be a challenge to launch a Thunderclap so late. I also knew I would possibly not reach my goal in time. So, to make up for what I’ll miss, I made sure to upgrade my plan to Thunderclap Lightening. Under this option, even if I don’t make my goal I will still get your support. That’s right! No one has wasted their time! To the 30 people who have supported so far, your social media messages will still post and your support will still count on friday! So you see, weigh your options. Know what works and what doesn’t. Know what will be a benefit and what won’t. With my campaign getting off to a slow start, it was a major benefit for me to go with the paid plan to ensure positive results.

Silver’s Coming Attractions – “The Road to Freedom: Joseph’s Story (The Stella Trilogy Book 3),” by Yecheilyah Ysrayl

Check out Colleens post of my coming attraction! Coming Soooon.

Thunderclap: End of Day 3

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Day Three of my Thunderclap campaign did really well. The support  increased by 15%! I have now reached 23% of my goal with a social reach of 23, 415. I am striving to reach 100% by Friday! Can we do it? Of course we can! Please keep spreading the word about my Thunderclap Campaign, it is most appreciated. If you’re interested in swapping Thunderclap support, I would be more than willing to do so. Support me and I’ll support you. Like they say, team work makes the dream work!

Why?

To start, I am preparing to release the third book in my short story trilogy this Friday. The story is set in 1960 and is about a young man of mixed ethnicity (part European, part African American) who struggles to understand the plight of the African American in America. The twist is that he doesn’t know that he’s of mixed race. As far as he knows, he’s just a white boy with a passion for black history. Please see the entire blurb on my static page here to learn more. You can also Pre-Order the book now for 99 cents on Amazon.

I have joined Thunderclap in an attempt to help spread the word about this book online, not merely for my sake, but for the sake of our youth. I believe this story is not only important, but necessary in a society where young people are constantly struggling to find their place and their purpose as individuals.

Thunderclap: Day One Results

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Yesterday was the launch of my Thunderclap Campaign as we count down the days until Launch Day. One of the reasons I scheduled it so close to Launch day is because it helps keep the book fresh in everyone’s minds. I also will not have so much online time on the day of release. This weekend coming up is going to be very hectic and I will need the help of my blogging friends and social media buds to help keep the thunder alive online while I handle my thing on the ground.

So my first day and first time hosting Thunderclap went very well! Now, by very well I mean I only reached 6% of my goal lol. But over 10,000 people through social media have at least seen it. We just have to get 94 of them to thunderclap!

That was yesterday. Tonight concludes Day 2 of the campaign and I am now at 8% of my goal with a social reach of 15, 613. I’m really excited about everyone who put their hands in to assist me in this endeavor and I hope that you will continue to spread the word.

Click Here to Support My Thunderclap and Follow Me To Freedom!