Monday: Ann Brodeur was excited to share her writing journey from island resident to debut novelist!
Wednesday: Share Your Christmas Traditions! Mindy Obenhaus kicked things off with a favorite Christmas tradition we can enjoy all season long. The winner of a copy of her upcoming March release, A Brother's Promise, is... Vince!
Friday: Share Your Christmas Traditions! Ruth Logan Herne asked fellow Seekers how they kept the joy of Christmas Simple. Winners of Amish Christmas Secrets are Angeline and Linda Winners of Finding Her Christmas Family are Lori and Lucy! And we're adding Rachel just because we can!
Monday: Mary Connealy's Adventures in Nano Land. There will be Christmas prizes!
Wednesday: By request, Pam Hillman is bringing back Part I of her DIY Graphics Design post that appeared over the long Thanksgiving weekend, PLUS Part II will post on Thursday for two full days of discussion about creating your own covers.
Friday: We'll be chatting about the age old question of how do we begin writing? Plus a game to get it going!
For more info on the formats available and to purchase All God's Creatures, click here.
 |
| Grab Pam Hillman's DESTINATION CHRISTMAS Just 99cents until the 12th! And feel free to SHARE the sale with your friends and spread the love. Click Here to Buy. |
 |
| JoinPam and 35+ Christian authors for a Christmas Round Robin Giveaway. Chance to win $350, $250, and $150 in Amazon Gift Cards. Wow! >>NOTE: THIS ROUND ROBIN BEGINS DEC 6TH!<< Go to Pam Hillman's blog to start the Round Robin |
Hide in Plain Sight by Marta Perry & Amish Rescue by Debby Giusti
Two great stories in Harlequin's New Red Diamond Imprint
Available Dec 29 on Amazon
6 Design Tips for DIY Book Covers by Teresa Conner At Book Brush
Authors Say #DisneyMustPay by David Gaughran
Getting Past the Blank Page by James Preston at Writers In The Storm
Beautifully Organized by Camilla Caminha at Bullet Journal
Beautifully Organized by Camilla Caminha at Bullet Journal
Hope in the Warm Fuzzies for Writers by AC Williams at The Write Conversation
Voice Technologies, Streaming and Subscription Audio in a Time of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by Joanna Penn at The Creative Penn
Fun Fridays by Steve Laube
How We Wrote and Promoted a Multi-Author Book Series by Pippa Grant at BookBub Blog
Don't you love the Christmas season? We're heading up into the Black Hills to cut our Christmas tree tomorrow afternoon, and I can hardly wait!
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm so glad Pam is rerunning her post from a couple weeks ago. I missed it over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Have a great Saturday, everyone!
I missed Pam's post too as we were with family so I'll be glad to catch it on the re-post!
ReplyDeleteHappy Advent to all!
Jan, happy tree cutting! I hope to start decorating soon. I've been working on a new book proposal so I'm a bit behind in Christmas prep!
Happy Saturday Seekerville!!!
ReplyDeleteThe RED DIAMOND mystery
ReplyDeleteHarlequin's new Red Diamond Imprint is very interesting from a marketing POV. Why do this? These titles seem to be already published books. Why would they need their own imprint?
Well, Harlequin marketing people are probably the best book marketers in the world. A lot may be learned by looking into why this new imprint was created.
First, look at the cover art! It has one book title and one marquee author featured. It is also priced at the same price as a standard Love Inspired book. In almost all other book marketing when you get two books for one price, both book covers are shown on the cover of the combo book. Not here.
Second, notice that the artwork is for Debby's book, "Amish Rescue," and not Matra Perry's, "Hide in Plain Sight," which is the title of the book given on the cover. If Perry's book was not an Amish book, this would be a very big marketing mistake. If you attract the attention of readers who want to read an Amish book, you should show an Amish cover, however, if you show an Amish cover and it is not an Amish book, then you are going to hear about it. Fortunately, Marta's book is an Amish theme book. Yet this still provides a problem. Some Perry fans may see the cover and title and think, "I haven't read this book" because they don't recognize the cover. When they buy it however, they may learn that they already own it. (Amazon will not pre-warn the buyer that they already owed a book if they own the single copy of a book that is now part of a two for one offer.) .
Something else is going on here because this is rather unique marketing.
Third, the cover looks just like a Love Inspired Suspense but the LI logo is not there. Are they stealing from themselves? Not likely. It seems marketing wants to attract suspense readers but they want to use a secular cover as most all of their other lines. This is an appeal to readers who may not want to be seen reading a Christian fiction book or who just won't even consider buying one! Well, there are book imprints I won't even consider buying myself. So this is understandable.
Fourth, the title of Debby's book is not even mentioned on the cover. Odd for a two book deal…or is it? I don't think so. Instead of getting two 4.99 books for 4.99 or about 2.49 each, you are getting a 4.99 book plus a bonus book. This is a way to maintain the day to day perceived value of the LI Suspense titles.
I think this will be a case of marketing genius if it works and I expect it to work. I do believe that the approach does protect the perceived value of the LI Suspense line while at the same time clearly appealing to a new segment of the reading public who do not even consider Inspirational titles.
Is this approach worth the cost of line-extension with all its risks? Can it get the bookshelf expansion needed? The marketing textbooks are full of case studies of famous line extension failures. Well, if these Red Diamond books are to be sold mostly online, then there may be little risk.
Anyway, when we discuss covers on Wednesday and Thursday, this will be something eles to talk about.
Vince