Covers for Episode 3

Since Nanowrimo is over, it's time to calm the writing and start editing episode 3. Now I just need to pick a cover!

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What should I use for episode 3?
	Cover 1
	Cover 2
	Cover 3
	Cover 4
	Cover 5
	Cover 6
pollcode.com free polls

Trailers

So I want to make another trailer later, but here's what I've got so far so y'all can get a sense of the tone :)

November 28th

Not a huge writing day. I was real tired today and I just wasn't in the mode. I'm about 70% done with episode 4 and I wrote myself into a corner. My character is trapped in a lab and I'm not sure how to make her be evil like she's supposed to!

I wrote about 600 words and got a little momentum by changing characters. Hopefully tomorrow I'm more focused!

Business side, I did a free promotion for Episode 2 and my Driving in Reverse complete series. I wanted to see what happened if I did no marketing at all, and it wasn't too shabby. (Driving in Reverse was 2 days, The Six was 1 day)

 I even got a borrow and a sale from all that, so that's awesome!

I'm doing a promotion for Episode 2 on Friday and I'm going to try promoting it a lot more and see what happens...see if I can beat 72! The goal's to beat 100 :)

As voted by you...

They're so pretty!

Expert Help: Danielle Kazemi

Part of making things happen is to ask people who have already achieved the goal you want how they did it. Danielle Kazemi, author of  the Dragon's Fire novellas and much more! gave me some amazing answers and said I could share them all with you!

How do you market your book? Social media, paid ads, etc.?

I use Facebook - a lot. There are tons of groups on there specifically for ebooks that people belong to. Most of the people who run them are super nice and are always looking for something to tell their fans. I tried once with paid ads but they weren't worth it for me. Goodreads and other social media sites are also great for connecting with readers. A good hint: don't go in like a salesman. Go in like a friend. People are more inclined to read what you wrote after they get to know you.

Best advice and this comes from other, better selling authors - write a series and make the first one free. I did it and I went from selling about 6 books a month to averaging over 400.

What marketing technique did you use that didn’t work?

Paid ads would be one. Not looking at who visits a blog or website would be another series crime I committed. Most blogs and groups at some point show little icons about who follows it. If you're marketing for YA like me, make sure there are more teenagers following than adults.

How long did it take you to start making consistent sales?

Once I made the first one free - overnight. But at that point, I had nine out for the series to really take off. It took me a while to realize that was the best thing I could do. People like getting things for free.

November 27th

1,500 More Words!
 
The goal is 32,000 (for Episodes 3 & 4) so it's happening, people!

Covers pt. 2

I'm having a blast making these! Please vote on these two so I know which ones I should use for the series. PS, you guys are amazing!!!!

My Favorite One Is...
	Cover 1
	Cover 2
	Cover 3
	Cover 4
pollcode.com free polls

My Least Favorite One Is...
	Cover 1
	Cover 2
	Cover 3
	Cover 4
pollcode.com free polls

November 26th

Moving on up in my word count for episode 4. I'd like to have both episodes (3 & 4) done by mid-December so I can have the first 3 as a bundle for X-Mas. Totally possible! I also sent emails out to authors that I respect and have had great success. I've already heard back from one great author with some fantastic advice!

Covers!

I can't fall asleep!

So, I decided I wanted to mock up some covers. These are tremendously rough, just to get the idea. I'd love to hear any of your thoughts! (I'll probably be making more tomorrow but I was proud of these ones...I wanted to share 'em!)

(Little background...this book is a thriller/horror/suspense if that helps!). Also, I will be adding the episode # to these covers like in #1 but I just didn't feel like doing that on all of them since it wouldn't be as much of a design element.

Cover 1

Cover 2

Cover 3

Cover 4

Cover 5

Please vote in the polls! It's mean so much to me!

My Favorite One Is...
	Cover 1
	Cover 2
	Cover 3
	Cover 4
	Cover 5
pollcode.com free polls

My Least Favorite One Is...
	Cover 1
	Cover 2
	Cover 3
	Cover 4
	Cover 5
pollcode.com free polls

Today I buckled down and wrote more than I've written in a really long time...4k plus words!

For reference on the Failure Club situation I was talking about, this is Elizabeth Chan and her victory through iTunes. Her goal was crazy and she did it. She really inspired me!

Steps

Been brain-storming on some short-term goals for the book. They seem to be:

Get more reviews on all books. I currently have 1...but it's 5 stars bless that reviewer's heart. I need to put myself out there and ask for reviews.

Have 4 episodes in the bank. I have 2 published and a 3rd one is done but not edited. As a part of Nanowrimo, I'm doing as many episodes as November takes me so I'm about 25% done with episode 4.

Promote the book better than I am now, which is half-heartedly doing it on Twitter.

New cover. The cover is fun but it's not very exciting. I could definitely fix that up.

Better blog presence. I'm making it happen. I have my music blog but that really isn't super relevant so I'm going to blog here, too.