Prequel

All the Reasons to Write Prequels for Your Book

 

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Only a couple of days until you finish your 50,000+ word manuscript in this year’s NaNoWriMo – and what then?  

Editing, cover design, formatting and layout – it all will take not only weeks, but often months until your readers will find your book in stores or at online retail sites.  Don’t let them wait this long, give them a short (or even longer) story that is related to the content of your book, a “prequel”.
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Promote Your Future Book Through Short Stories.
Savvy authors are building excitement and attract readers to their upcoming books.  Editor Alan Rinzler describes them:
Back stories for the longer book to come.  Others are like outtakes from the novel, standalone narratives that add to our knowledge of the characters but don’t appear in the books themselves.
Prequels provide readers with the flavor and quality of the forthcoming book in a way that makes them yearn to read more.  This technique has had notable successes lately, like propelling a book from obscurity to six-figure advances, and building pre-publication buzz and momentum.”
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Rinzler mentions two authors, published by the “Big Five”: Brittany Geragotelis and thriller author Mark Sullivan.  One of the most talked about prequels was written by J.K. Rowling, she did it for Harry Potter.  Stephen King also often writes prequels in the form of short stories for his books. Just like these bestselling authors, every writer should create a prequel (or several) for their upcoming book.
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It’s Never too Early to Write a Prequel.
You might write it even before starting to write your book, using your research, character outlines or your first draft manuscript.  Often your novel has to be shortened to create a faster pace.  Don’t delete these text parts! Create your prequel out of it.  Or use locations where your novel takes place to elaborate and write in detail about it.
For example: If you write a thriller and your protagonist is an art dealer in Paris, you can write several prequels how and where in Paris your mystery unfolded, a comprehensive description of the main character and his dealings or a pre-story of the events.  Or you could even write a non-fiction prequel about all the restaurants and coffee shops that your protagonist patronizes.
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How to Publish and Promote Your Prequel?
Most important is that you post it in as many venues as possible, including your Social Media sites.  Even better are reader communities or forums, where people tend to spend more time, including sites, such as Google+, LinkedIn, Wattpad and Goodreads or FictionPress, and send an invitation to load it down to your readers on your mailing list.
It could also be a short story in form of a magazine or website / blog article, or a short (free or inexpensive) e-book or a guest blog, and even a video or a slideshow.  Promote it as much as you would promote a book.

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Show Off the Quality of Your Upcoming Book!
Build pre-publication buzz and momentum and create backstories for the longer book to come.  Don’t see prequels as a marketing gig, they are valuable parts of your author platform and brand.
Don’t forget: Promotion of your book must start long before you finish your manuscript, so that you do not lose sales and success!  Competition is growing by the day…  Do what you as a writer likes most: WRITE!  Not only 50,000 to 90.000-word-manuscripts, but also short stories and blog articles.

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Book Sales Plateau – 13 Tips What You Can Do!

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First-time writers are often puzzled when after a very successful book launch and many book sales, their ranking on Amazon drops and their sales numbers dwindle over time – which is a totally normal process, even for bestseller authors. So what can you do as a writer – besides writing your next manuscript:
Your book has been launched months ago or even last year and you had great sales numbers. NOW readers need to see something NEW from you. It doesn’t need to be a whole new book:
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The three main assets you have already

  • your writing skills
  • the content you already wrote
  • the research you have done for your book(s) can be used to write at least 20 – 30 articles or blog posts – and if regularly posted on Google+ it is raising your Search Engine Ranking on Google tremendously.
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1. Use the manuscript text from your “old” book to split it into tiny portions and write lots of short blogs / articles from the content – along with a two sentence bio and a link to your webpage or Amazon author / sales page. Make use of your assets! Which means not only your book, but using all the research notes and text, you have compiled to write it. Make it a habit to post/publish content at least two – three times a week!

More benefits of writing content:
- it is a subtle way to promote your book
- you receive valuable back links to your website or blog
- you will have lots of possibilities to post on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Facebook….
- include links to your articles in email newsletter (that you hopefully send out regularly to your readers)
Post these articles on your blog or contribute guest blogs to other sites that are focused on the same topics as your book.

Content is used to draw in your ideal readers / reviewers, it will link to your book sales page or your website and it helps a lot to build a platform. Last but not least it gives you a lot of material to post and to tweet. The result: you will increase your exposure, show your writing skills, grow a loyal following and attract reviewers – in one sentence: you will achieve success with your writing – and in many cases, even get paid for it.

Read more here:
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/prequels-authors-benefits-of-writing-them/
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/a-new-way-of-book-marketing/
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/free-brilliant-book-marketing-to-a-million-audience/
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/smart-authors-get-paid-for-marketing-their-books/

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2. Rewrite these articles a bit, add more material and offer them to magazines, newspapers etc., starting with Airline Inflight Magazines, Huffington Post and Salon.com etc., even The Atlantic could be interested if it is a longer article with great content. Focus more on discoverability rather than selling. Your work is important, so help readers to find it.

World-famous bestseller writers, such as Ernest Hemingway, Margaret Atwood, Tom Chiarella, Gloria Steinem and Stephen King did it: Writing occasionally short stories and magazine articles – before blogs became fashionable. In several former posts I explained in detail how easy it is for writers to create content, such as blog articles and sell them to magazines and newspapers or write guest blogs. Read more about brilliant book marketing and content writing, check out the links below.
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3. You Need More Potential Readers
Are you really adding at least 25 new followers per day to your Social Media networks? You often can add more, 25 is the restriction on Goodreads, but Google+ for example allows you to follow up to 5,000 people. However, don’t choose just anyone: type into the search function: booklover, avid reader, reviewer, book blogger… you get the point? These are the folks who might be interested in your book – and tell other about it. Make it a habit to add EVERY DAY new followers to each one of your Social Media sites. Future book campaigns will only be successful if you have enough fans!

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4. Post and Tweet more about borrowing your book for Prime Members.  After all you earn money with each lending (approx. $2 per book).  Every day new customers sign up for Amazon’s Prime membership program.
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What’s More:

5. Post something new on your website at least once or twice a week

6. Plan and create an email campaign to potential readers

7. Book Signings end Readings bookstores, museums or literary cafes

8. Readings at libraries & book clubs or Meetup Groups

9. Participate in Writing Contests (national and international)

10. Write a prequel for your next book and add a link to the first one

11. Join HARO (Help a Reporter out) to make yourself a name as an expert in your field
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12. As soon as your next book is written, contact the library distributors, read the useful blog article from SavvyBookWriters.com/blog with lots of tips and links how to sell your book to libraries.
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13. You Might Need More Distribution:
Use BookBaby or .eBookpartnership for example, to place your book on all Amazon’s Kindle Stores: US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, Brazil, Japan, India etc .  In North America: Apple, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Ingram. In Europe to: Askews & Holts, Blackwell’s, BlioBook, Depository, Kalahari.net, Waterstones, Whitcoulls, WH Smith. Their yearly fee is less than $100 and you can save LOTS of hours for uploading your book, for accounting with these retailers and if you work on Windows, to use a Mac computer (for upload to Apple).  Best of all, they do not take commissions, such as with Smashword for example. You keep 100% of the revenue from online retail. However, you should buy your own ISBN’s, preferably a block of ten, and don’t forget to register your book worldwide with Bowker’s database, which goes to all bookstores and libraries in the world.
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Don’t forget:
If you have only one book there is nothing that readers can actually buy from you, after they have read your book! The only benefit is the lending program for Prime Members that gives you some revenue – but only if you have priced it higher than $2.99, as readers usually prefer to borrow higher-priced books. And: marketing means not only sales campaigns … so do everything to show your potential readers a bit of content that leads to your book. The key to success is confidence in yourself, persistence, and also knowing what you want!
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SECRET:
Your first book will very often increase in sales as a result of a successful launch of your second book. Every time you launch a new book, it has an impact on past titles, if they are written for the same audience.

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars  Or visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo/
to advertise your new book, specials, your KDP Select Free Days or the new Kindle Countdown Deals.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,010 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://www.111publishing.com

http://www.e-Book-PR.com/

http://www.international-ebooks.com/

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: book launch, book signings, BookBaby, content writing, eBookpartnership, HARO, Prequel, research you have done, sales plateau, Writing Contest, Writing skills

Prequels: Author’s Benefits of Writing Them

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Prequel

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J.K. Rowling did it for Harry Potter – every writer should create them too: Writing a Prequel for their upcoming book.  According to the FreeDictionary:  ”A literary, dramatic, or cinematic work, whose narrative takes place before that of a pre-existing work or a sequel. [pre- + (se)quel.] prequel.” They are teasers in short story form that preview the key characters and settings of an upcoming novel.
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Prequels: Promote Your Future Book Through Short Stories
Savvy authors are building excitement and attract readers to their upcoming books. Editor Alan Rinzler describes them: “Back stories for the longer book to come. Others are like outtakes from the novel, standalone narratives that add to our knowledge of the characters but don’t appear in the books themselves.  Prequels provide readers with the flavor and quality of the forthcoming book in a way that makes them yearn to read more. This technique has had notable successes lately, like propelling a book from obscurity to six-figure advances, and building pre-publication buzz and momentum.”
Rinzler mentions two authors, published by the “Big Five”: Brittany Geragotelis and thriller author Mark Sullivan.
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When and What to Write?
It is never too early to write a prequel.  You might write it even before starting to write your book, using your research, character outlines or your first draft manuscript. Often your novel has to be shortened to create a faster pace. Don’t delete these text parts! Create your prequel out of it. Or use locations where your novel takes place to elaborate and write in detail about it. For example:  If you write a thriller and your protagonist is an art dealer in Paris, you can write several prequels how and where in Paris your mystery unfolded, a comprehensive description of the main character and his dealings or a pre-story of the events.

No Limit on the Number of Prequels
The prequel can be one story or a dozen. However, it should be an irresistible preview of the book itself, short, but with a revealing scene from the draft manuscript of the novel, and a great teaser for the upcoming work. The author’s goal should be: to make the reader want more…
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Where to Publish a Prequel?
There is no limit how you publish a prequel. It could be a short story in the form of a magazine or website / blog article, a short (free or inexpensive) e-book or a guest blog, and even a video or slide show.  Most import is that you post it in as many venues as possible, including your Social Media sites. Even better are reader communities or forums, where people tend to spend more time, including sites, such as Google+, Wattpad and Goodreads or FictionPress, and send an invitation to load it down to your readers on your mailing list.
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Prequels are beneficial for you and your readers: Show off the quality of your forthcoming book, build pre-publication buzz and momentum and create back stories for the longer book to come. Don’t see prequels as a marketing gig, they are valuable parts of your author platform and brand.
Don’t forget:  Promotion of your book must start long before you finish your manuscript if you don’t want to loose sales and success!  Competition is growing by the day… Do what you as a writer likes most:  WRITE!  Not only 90.000-word-manuscripts, but also short stories and blog articles.

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing:  We offer all this and more for only $159 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about our individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Or visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo/
to advertise your new book, specials, your KDP Select Free Days or the new Kindle Countdown Deals.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 980 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://www.111publishing.com

http://www.e-Book-PR.com/

http://www.international-ebooks.com/

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

.

Hyper Smash

Pingate


Tagged: Alan Rinzler, FictionPress, FreeDictionary, GoodReads, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, Prequel, Wattpad, writing a novel