Check out this article by Angela Ford on giving away your books for free. I’ve never been comfortable giving away my books except to my ARC / Beta Readers so I find her perspective interesting. I would love to hear other’s opinion on it though and to be provided with more resources to support the article. The comment left on the post poses a good question too.
What about you? Do you think authors should give their books away for free? Why or why not?
“In the indie author community, there’s a false mindset you have to give your books away for free before people will be willing to purchase them. If the first book in your series is free, someone will pay $0.99, $2.99 and even $5.99 for your full priced books. In truth, I’ve been seeing the opposite effect and heard from indie authors who have had the same experience. Here are some examples…”
As we approach the end of the year, I am doing what I always do at this time. Revisit my pages, update them, move some things around and maybe change my theme. In doing so, I’ve compiled all the Introduce Yourself Interviews and stored them away on their own page. You can now easily access the author’s interview using the Introduce Yourself Author Interview page. If you are one of the featured authors, you can also easily access your feature if you need to copy and paste your link or share it.
As a reminder, I am still looking for authors interested in being interviewed by me on this page. When I took that extensive break the feature slowed down but I am now ready to start scheduling again. AND if I missed you, please resend your information to my email HERE.
Interviews are published every Monday (being it’s already Sunday afternoon here whether we have one tomorrow will depend on how early I get some questions in).
Here are some benefits of being featured on someone’s blog:
Whether you are guest blogging or being interviewed, promoted or featured, as a guest your work is introduced to a NEW audience. This gives people who have never heard of you or your books an opportunity to learn more about you, follow your blog and check out your social media pages.
I’ve heard it said that guest posting is FIVE TIMES GREATER than posting to your own blog. Now, I am not sure how accurate that is but I do know from experience that guest posting gives you the opportunity to connect with a new group of people and to share your expertise or skill. If you wrote a book, I believe you are an expert on the subject matter that you are writing or have written about. In fact, I believe we are all experts in some way. Everyone is a genius when we focus on our own individual gifts. We have all been given something special that others can learn from.
You could have been blogging for five years and promote your books the whole time only to find out, after posting to someone else blog, that few people knew you existed. That’s the power of networking. Being featured on someone’s blog is stepping outside the box. If you’ve been blogging longer than one year, chances are you are already comfortable with your own blog. If you want to continue this growth, step outside your comfort zone and introduce your books to a new audience. Why not start here? Whenever I publish an Introduce Yourself Feature, it always becomes the most viewed page on my site for that week and a few authors have even informed me that they have sold a book or two.
Not interested in an interview but have books to promote? Just shoot me an email with your covers, links, bio, and release date. I’ll be happy to help you to spread the word!
Note: If you have any trouble with the email link or emailing me in general, use the contact page.
Yecheilyah (e-see-lee-yah) is an Author, Blogger, and Poet of nine published works including Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One), her latest novel available now on Amazon.com. Learn more by exploring Yecheilyah’s writing on this blog and her website at yecheilyahysrayl.com.
When creating a password, be sure you have a password using at least one capital letter, a number, and a special character:
Example_1 is an example of what would be accepted. If you don’t have at least one number, capital letter and special character it won’t let you go on.
After you set everything up, check your email and activate your account.
Here is where you enter your name and the name of your business.
Next, you are going to have to add a physical address. This is because of anti-spam laws. Learn more about that HERE. But you can always come back to this page to change it later.
I would recommend your first and last name and the city, state, and zip in place of Do Not Contact. It looks more professional.
Your Name
Your City, State, Zip
Remember, a street address is optional so you don’t really need that and also remember that you can change this later.
This is your dashboard. When you start sending emails you will see your campaign here, your data and so forth.
Now for the fun part. It’s time to get started. First, you need to create a List. Click on the List tab.
Go ahead and create list.
List Name > The Name of Your Newsletter
Default from email > Your Business Email
Default Name > I highly recommend using a name people are familiar with already, such as your name. I started with Literary Korner Publishing but then switched to Yecheilyah and my open rates have increased tremendously since then. For your default name, I recommend using your name.
Remind people why they signed up > Wherever people could have accessed your form, put that here “You are receiving this email because…”
Scroll down and check the address for this list. If you want to change it from when you first set up, do that now.
Scroll down. Now that Mailchimp has changed to offer Single Opt-In, you can decide if you want to continue with a double opt in or not. Double Opt-In means once people sign up to your list they will have to confirm again before they are added, like always. Single Opt-In means they are automatically signed up when they first fill out your form. No checking emails and confirmations. They will be automatically added.
If you want Single Opt-In, leave this as is. If you want double opt-in, click on it.
Now, move on to notifications and check all that apply. It’s just asking how often you’d like to be emailed on activity with this list.
Next, you’ll see this page. Until someone is subscribed to your list, you’re done.
Or, you can manually add subscribers you have been given permission to add.
You can also import contacts from your email, assuming you’ve been given permission from those people to be added.
In any event, you won’t be able to send a Campaign or email until you have subscribers to the list.
To manually add subscribers, click add contacts and go from there. In the meantime, let’s move on to how to send emails.
(Reaching out to people to ask if they would like to join your list and if you can add them manually is another great way to increase your number of subscribers. Everyone doesn’t have to sign up, sometimes you can get creative and just ask around (Text messages, Facebook Messages, DM Twitter and IG Messages) All that matters is that you have their permission to sign them up.)
I added myself so that I can show you how to create a Campaign. Click on the campaign tab to get started. This page will come up with the floating arrow to show you where to click.
Click on Create Email
Name your campaign. Whatever your email is about.
The next page is self-explanatory. Just complete the fields based on your list. The To field will ask what list you are wanting this email sent to. Choose the list (you’ll just have one list if you just started), save and proceed to the other fields.
When you get to Design Email, you’ll see a page come up that looks like this. Choose the template of your choice. I am going to go with the follow-up.
This is where you design your email. It’s super easy. Just drag, drop and enter text wherever you want. I am not going to bore you with a step-by-step with this. At least not yet, maybe in another post. However, I would like to caution about one thing….
When I first started my email list I had colors and pictures and it was just going all the way on. While I can only offer suggestions (not guaranteed solutions), I would advise against this. As much as we want to showcase our personality, it helps if our email design is plain and simple. I know, that sounds boring but it’s easier on your audience.
Your email list is really not about you, it’s about the people who read them. Everything, from your subject line to your content and even your design is about making it easier on your subscribers. Therefore, I would say to stay away from too many colors, lots of widgets and pictures, and super long emails.
Personally, I love using my Cartoon Bitmoji as well as my Banner. Aside from these basics, I have taken everything else away. Here’s a snapshot of my real email list to give you an example:
Top
At the top I have my banner (which can be your logo) and a display of my social media buttons. I WOULDN’T PUT MY SOCIAL BUTTONS ALL THE WAY AT THE BOTTOM. I would put them at the top and at the bottom.
Body
The body of my emails have gotten a makeover since I first started. Black letters or gray against a white background. That’s it. Plain, simple, and easy to read.
Bottom
My bitmoji cartoon takes us on out with a reminder to add me to your address book (so my emails don’t go to your spam), check your Spam and Junk Folders (in case my emails go to spam), and a reminder that Gmail emails from Mailchimp tend to go into the promotions folder.
Very Bottom / Signature
Under the reminders is another look at my social widgets and my links.
OK, we’ve had enough Mailchimp for today. Just make sure your emails are clean, easy on the eyes (colors that are not too light or dark), easy to navigate and to the point.
Yecheilyah (e-see-lee-yah) is an Author, Blogger, and Poet of nine published works including work in progress and short inspirational guide “Keep Yourself Full.” Learn more by exploring Yecheilyah’s writing on this blog and her website at yecheilyahysrayl.com. Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One) is her latest novel and is available now on Amazon.com.
I believe in progress. In recognizing and acknowledging your growth. In appreciating not just everything that you have but also everything you’ve endured to get to where you are. In process. In stopping to consider where you are, not just where you are trying to go. In gratitude and contentment. In looking back only to be reminded of where you’ve come from. To see the lessons and to teach them and to inspire. To never forget where you came from. Your roots. Your experiences. Everything that made you who you are today. Everything that built you. You are not just the positive. You are the negative too. The struggle. The hustle. The grime. The beautiful and the broken. The good and the bad. You are balance. I regret nothing. There’s no reason to. I am not just made up of the good things. I’ve stolen. I’ve lied. I’ve been drunk. I’ve been hungry. I’ve been homeless. I’ve been hopeless. But I’ve also been happily married for seven years to a man I’ve been with ten years. I’ve also produced documentaries and taught women and children all over the world, hosted radio shows, performed poetry, taught grown women how to read, fed the homeless, helped felons to find jobs, and authored nine books and counting. I am not perfect, trust I have my days. Some are harder than others and I wonder how I’ll make it through but then, I believe in progress.
Yecheilyah (e-see-lee-yah) is an Author, Blogger, and Poet of nine published works including work in progress and short inspirational guide “Keep Yourself Full.” Learn more by exploring Yecheilyah’s writing on this blog and her website at yecheilyahysrayl.com.
Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One) is her latest novel and is available now on Amazon.com.
I am just about settled in which means that I will be getting back into the swing of things with reviews and promotions real soon. I still have a few things to do before I am back full time so I am still somewhat MIA this week, but I’d still like to get some interviews scheduled in time for November if possible.
If you are not familiar with my Introduce Yourself feature, here is a short breakdown. For more information, please do check out the first post HERE:
Introduce Yourself is a free promotional opportunity for new and established authors via an author interview on this blog. Unlike the same questions over and over again, authors have the opportunity to choose from 50 questions (SEE ORIGINAL POST) they would like to answer in the interview from writing and books to relationships, religion, and politics. But that’s not all.
To further set this feature apart, I do not just copy and paste your answers so be sure your answers are juicy and interesting! Once you have sent me your Q&A, I go over them to see if there is anything I want to add by way of commentary and you are given the chance to respond. We email back and forth until the interview sounds more authentic and real life (as if we are two friends sitting down for coffee) because that is at the core of what Introduce Yourself is all about. We want to get to know the real you. While your books and links will be promoted freely on this site, I ask that you use this opportunity to do less selling and more connecting with potential readers. This is what social media is all about.
If you are an author (Indie / Trad / Hybrid) and you’re looking for more exposure, CLICK THROUGH TO THE ORIGINAL POST HERE, choose your questions and email them to me at yecheilyah@yecheilyahysrayl.com. I will look over them, email you back so we can chit chat and then schedule your feature. All interviews are scheduled to go live the Monday of every week @ 12:00am Eastern Standard Time.
Today I’d like to extend a warm welcome to Emunah Y’srael. Welcome to The PBS Blog! Let’s get started.
What is your name and where are you from?
My name is Emunah Y’srael and I was born in Brooklyn, NY. First generation Carib-American with Hebraic roots.
Your name is beautiful. What does it mean?
My name Emunah means Faith in Hebrew.
Beautiful. What would your perfect writing / reading room look like?
Ah, the thought is so relaxing. The room would have a huge bay window overlooking nature (beach, lake, meadow) something breath-taking. Lots of natural light, a comfortable chair for me to recline and write. I am old school and love writing my first drafts with pen and paper. Oh, yes and lots and lots of pens for some reason they tend to wander off from time to time.
Lol. Don’t they? Emunah, what was your childhood dream?
My Childhood dream was raising a family in a quiet, peaceful, natural environment filled with love and laughter. No, really, I always dreamt of the simple life and still do. As we speak I am writing it into existence.
“Writing it into existence”. I like that. In your own words, what is humility?
Humility in my estimation is the ability to accept wrongs, take advice, understand that not everyone knows everything. Humility is being comfortable with giving and receiving. and accepting we are not perfect.
What would be the most amazing adventure to go on?
I am already on it, the wildest most amazing adventure for me has been and continues to be the journey to the center of my soul. Wherever that takes me physically adds to and helps to unpack the things that have been there all along.
Nice. Does blogging help you to write?
Yes, I started blogging more lately and it helps to keep my creative juices flowing. A lot of my work is historical research and blogging helps me share my findings.
Speaking of research, what genres do you write in?
Historical Non-Fiction, Fiction Romance, Coming of Age Fiction, Women’s, Fiction, Self Help
Emunah, we like to jam out here on Throwback Thursdays. What kind of music do you like?
Depends on my mood, reggae, blues, country, jazz, classical it all depends.
When did you publish your first book? What was that like?
Even to this day, that first published book gives me shivers. Back in 2005, I started on a journey of healing. I wrote my autobiography still unpublished but, I did publish a self-help tutorial inspired by the book in 2010. I tried to do it myself, laying it out was like plucking hairs one by one. It was stressful but once I got it done and published it took another five years before I published again.
What takes up too much of your time?
I would say research, I love researching and sometimes I delay writing because I’m concerned about not knowing enough on the subject matter. This is why lately writing fiction has added balance to my research obsession. I can express myself and write interesting stories without having to quote sources. I like both genres and feel they both have value.
What do you think of the world we live in?
The world we live in is beautiful and ugly, it is peaceful and chaotic, it is hopeful and hopeless it all depends on how we choose to look at what we see.
Perspective. I like that. What do you love about yourself?
I love my resilience.
What don’t you like about yourself?
My tendency to be consistently inconsistent.
Why is writing important to you?
Writing is important to me because it captures my thoughts, allows me to see my words, refine my message and share it with the generations to come. It also allows the audience the privacy to receive the message, thought or story in their own time.
Alrighty then Ms. Emunah. You have a way with words. I’d have to check out your books! In your own words, what is love?
Love, oh wow love is giving, helping to restore, support or establish balance. Love allows us to be in alignment with the universal laws that govern creation and when we love it transcends our feeling. Love is an action word.
“Love allows us to be in alignment with the universal laws that govern creation.” Yaasss!
OK, had a moment. I’m back. Lol In your own words, what is truth?
Truth is complete, it has not holes or gaps, it is 360 like a circle from point to point.
What a pleasure to have you, Emunah! We enjoyed you beautiful. Thanks for spending this time with us today.
Emunah Y’srael
Bio.
Emunah Y’srael is an expert in DIY Soul Improvement with over 20 years actively dedicated to her own soul journey. She is the creator of the a myriad of self improvement projects. Emunah has authored to date four books, all available on amazon.
Additional Info from the Author.
New Release – Island Love:
What could be more innocent than a good girl’s first crush? Jackie Brown was a sheltered teen who only knew sports and school, but when the new boy piques her interest she makes up her mind to take a chance at the game of love. But when her not so secret admirer decides to up the ante, the deck is shuffled and something goes terribly wrong. As secrets pile up a mistake she made in high school may cost her real love in the future. Will she reveal her hand in time or will her secret destroy her chance for true love forever?
Emunah Y’srael delivers a tale that is reminiscent of the writing styles of Mary Monroe, Brenda Barret, and Sista Souljah just to name a few. Island Love is her debut novella the first of a four part series, inspired by a Toni Morrison quote Emunah decided to write the book she wanted to read. Island Love is funny, culturally transparent and speaks to the awkwardness of coming of age and falling in love.
The PBS Blog 