The BIG Countdown to Spring Sale!

The warmer temperatures these last few days reminded that it really is true - no matter how dark and snowy a Winter can get Spring will return!

Just the thought of daffodils and birds singing makes me feel lighter and frivolous. So much so that I've decided to start counting down the days until the official first day of Spring on March 21  -  and to lower the price on the Kindle editions of my books to 99 Cents!

Yes - that's right - just ninety-nine pennies! 

Why?
Because I can.
Because it feels good to do so. 
And - because it was so much fun seeing It Takes An Egg Timer go over the 10,000 download mark when it was free I thought it would be a kick to see what will happen at $.99! 

Besides - who doesn't love a good sale? 

The Numbers Obsession - Day 13

I told myself when I started this experiment that it was for me first. That I wasn't writing any of these posts with my readers in mind. Whatever I was inspired to write, I would write.

But then I caught myself the other day checking my Google Analytics. Trying to make some sense out of which posts are getting the most reads and which ones fall flat. What's getting a retweet and what is a lonely soldier. And then my head started spinning with what I should write that will get read more so I could get the stats up instead of what I wanted and needed to write. 

The next thing you know I couldn't write at all. 

Except I had to. I was committed to this 30 day experiment. And almost half way through I am not about to bail. So instead of staring at a blank page on my computer I stared at my Stats Overview. And then my inspiration clicked in.

I've been here before. I saw myself fall into it when I self-published my first novel. Checking Amazon every day for numbers of books sold and where my darling was ranked. It was that same obsession with numbers that had been drilled into me during my corporate career. That above all - above the quality of the work, above the process, what is most important at the end of the day are the numbers. Did we meet our KPIs? Are we pacing to meet our goals? How much money will this make us?

It's a failed premise. Yes, the metrics are important and in the age of Big Data we are now entering, there is no doubt there will be even more emphasis on numbers. 

But an obsession with how may Facebook shares you garnered gets in the way of delivering good product. A fixation on how much revenue is hitting the bottom line gets in the way of creativity and productivity. It gets in the way of the work. And sometimes it gets in the way of writing a blog post. 

note: This is Day #13 of a 30 Day Experiment. Here are the details on how it all started.

When The Best Way To Connect Is To Disconnect

This was going to be a blog sharing this really great novel I just finished. It was so good, simply writing an Amazon and/or Goodreads review just did not seem sufficient. So I started to write this post.

I was going to tell you about how on Friday after an exhausting week of work I needed a break. From everything. People. Places. Computers. Things. I was going to tell you how I retweeted this tweet that originated from Lee Woodruff.

I had heard about this book. How could I not? While I don't know Caroline Leavitt personally we are Facebook friends. In fact apparently we have 118 friends in common. I checked ( yes - bloggers do research what they are writing about) and discovered  there are actually more than a dozen of those mutuals that I consider friends in the non-virtual world.

Anyway - Caroline has been sharing posts about this new novel for a while. She is one of those authors who understands the value of social sharing in a way that allows her true writer voice to be heard - authentically.

I made a note to add it to my Amazon wish list - for when I had time to luxuriate in a novel. Which was definitely not Friday. Not when I have a new NYU class starting on May 29,  two proposals for clients and all that marketing and prep work for the Digital Marketing w.001: Shedding Light On The Basics workshop on June 4.

But as I said, I was exhausted. I did not want to do any of the above, so I downloaded Is This Tomorrow to my iPad. Around 4 in the afternoon, I lay down on the couch and started reading. And I couldn't stop.

For the record, that doesn't happen often. I read a lot. I love to read. But it is a rare novel that I cannot put down - no matter how much else I "have" to do. It is a rare novel that reads effortlessly. That doesn't make me want to do anything but  read the next line. That each character pulls me in more than the next. That allows me that luxury of escape into someone else's world. That reminds me of how when I was a kid, one of my favorite places in the world was the second floor young adult section of the Glen Oaks Library where I could open the cover of a new book, lose myself in someone else's world and mysteriously connect more with myself. A book that reminds me I haven't been writing fiction enough of late.

I read until I was too tired to read one more word. All day Saturday, filled with real world responsibilities I kept thinking of this story set in suburban Waltham, Massachusetts in 1957 and 1963, of the complexity of the characters and of how real this fictional world had become for me. I couldn't wait until I got home to find out how it ended.

That's what great writing does. You can't wait to get back to it and then it makes you almost sad when you read the last page because even though you wanted to find out what happens, you don't really want it to end.

I wanted to write this blog to share this really great book and tell you that I think you should read it.

But as I was writing I realized there was more to this post than that.

This was a post about connection and how we find things in 2013. 

I had not read any of the reviews when I downloaded it. I hadn't seen it featured in a bookstore, because truth be told the last time I set foot in a real life bookstore was in January at the Barnes and Noble on Broadway to hear Ann Leary speak. (for the record I found out about that reading on Facebook)

I only knew that it was a May Indie pick and got featured in People Magazine because Caroline had shared that with her Facebook tribe. I read her posts because she shares good, useful info and often makes me laugh at her take on things. 

It was a tweet by Lee Woodruff, author, contributor to CBS This Morning and savvy social sharer that hooked me in on Friday. 

That's how discoverability happens today. Yes - there is a place for all that coveted traditional press - but what makes ideas and products and yes - great books spread - is good ol' word of mouth recommendations - a Tweet, a Facebook share, a Pin or a + Google.

This is also a post about disconnection. When I stopped all my busyness on Friday to treat myself to a novel the idea was sparked - without them having any idea - by the tweet of two people I really only know through Facebook and Twitter. 

And by that virtual nudge I was reminded that sometimes the only way to connect back with ourselves is to shut it all off. And do something drastically old world. Read fiction. 

So I'm sharing. Generously. Not because I'm being paid to. I'm not. Not because I was sent the book for free.  I wasn't.  Not because I will get something for this. I won't. 

I'm sharing because I can. And that's how people can say thank-you in the digital world.

This novel gave me a much needed respite from a crazy and exhausting week. The story and the characters replenished me, made me think and inspired me to go back to my own art - my unique combination of consulting, teaching and writing.

I'm sharing to say thank you to the author for creating such great art.

I'm sharing because that is the way of the world - and the digital world allows me to share more and do it more quickly.

I'm sharing because it makes me feel good. As did Is This Tomorrow.

A Dream Come True !!!

Last week I realized a big dream. I became a best selling author!   Me. Joanne Tombrakos. My 3-Day Free Kindle promotion had taken my book, It Takes An Egg Timer, A Guide to Creating the Time for Your Life, to the #1 position for best selling free Kindle books in the Time Management category. For three days only. Just like the sale.

It was a heady, free-floating few days spent glued to my computer, watching my Twitter feed, sharing Facebook and LinkedIn posts while emailing for help and assistance far and wide. For seventy-two hours I got to feel the experience of what it means to say I am a best selling author, that dream that every writer who has ever thought about writing dreams.

I became addicted to my Amazon reports, tracking the number of downloads by hour. Even more so, to my ranking.  By mid-day of Day 1, my book moved into the #1 spot  in the time management category and stayed there for the duration. It went to #2 in Business/Life and as high as #5 in overall Business. I'm not sure what to compare this to, but 1584 downloads in three days was something that I was pretty proud of. Especially considering how I had struggled with the possibility that no one would download it, even if I gave it away for free.

I made myself a best selling author by  pushing out of my comfort zone. I agonized over this “free” thing for a long time. In the world that I come from of radio and television advertising sales, free is only given when attached to cold, hard cash. And while I never wrote the book just to make money, I am a for-profit entity. I had read all about how free promotions could be of benefit, but I had resisted.

I did it anyway. I jumped, knowing the worst thing that might happen was I would fail.

I’m not sure just yet what this all means in the long term for the sales of my book. I'll be back to you on that.  But right now, this is what I know for sure:

• My book is in the hands of 1584 people who did not have it before.
• The Internet is an extremely powerful tool, that if used properly can make a big difference in a short period of time, even if you are an entrepreneur working out of your house.
• Every step of your journey thus far can help you moving forward. I applied my sales background and advertising expertise to the new tools of social media.
• People are basically good and so very generous in helping and sharing , if you just stretch enough to ask.
• People are kind, and will take the time, unsolicited to drop you an email and tell you they read the book  and loved the message and then spread it among  their tribes.
• We live in a global world. Because of this promotion my book now has its first 5-star Review on Amazon UK!!  
• Networking today happens on-line and off-line. I picked up a lot of new followers on my social nets  and made many new connections over the course of three days.
• On-line connections can meet off-line. On the last day of the promotion I attended the S.H.E. Summit at 82 Mercer. A woman waved at me with a big smile as if we were long lost friends as she announced,  “I know you! I just read your book!”
• Dreams can come true, not necessarily exactly as you imagined, but true nevertheless if you are just willing to leap out of your comfort zone and experiment.

I made myself a best selling author. I didn’t wait. I figured out a way to do it. For three days. 

What will you do today that takes you out of your comfort zone?

What dream are you willing to make come true?

Hot New Releases !!!

Just HAD to take a screen shot of this on Amazon!! 

Having It Takes An Egg Timer be called a HOT new release....well it just warms my heart!!

Download now in time for the weekend.

Or if you prefer good old fashioned paper, click here to buy and here to enter to win a free copy. 

(contest ends June 12, 2012)

Give that Like button a little click while you're there!

Happy Weekend!

Managing Expectations

The headline of the article in the print edition of Wednesday's New York Times Business section read "Sales Miss Forecast at Amazon." The online version was more pointed. "Amazon's Revenues Disappoint." Judging by the number of Amazon boxes I saw delivered on an average December day to my West Side building, I found this difficult to believe. So I kept reading.

Once into the article you find that their revenue for Q4 was up 35% at a staggering $27.43 billion. But Amazon's showing was considered "poor" because it was off nearly a billion dollars from what analysts were expecting. This apparently caused shares to "slump"in after hours trading on Tuesday by $18 from a high on Tuesday of $194.44.

No doubt these kinds of reports combined with the press spreading the news made for an uncomfortable work day at Amazon with people feeling bad about "disappointing" and worrying about how they were going to make up the shortfall and from where.

But from my outside the corporate confines perspective, all I can think is how absurd this is. Where have we gotten to in our society that we are disappointed because $27.3 billion dollars in quarterly revenue in  a snail's pace recovering economy wasn't $28.3 billion. What has happened to the word reasonable when setting expectations? And isn't this why so many of us feel like failures?

We set the bar so high it becomes unreachable. And when we don't make it, we feel like we have disappointed and failed, when the thing we have failed at most is acknowledging just how far we have come.

I Really Am An Author !

I am really an author! I realize that for those of you who follow this blog regularly you are already bored because you know that. I have written about my journey. You have seen my book for sale on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, perhaps even bought it. But you see the person that doesn't always get it is me. And lately that has been more true than not.

I can't quite pinpoint the reason for not feeling it. Perhaps it has something to what my friend Agapi Stassinopoulos discussed in her blog today, comparing oneself to others instead of focusing on yourself. I have been so consumed with seeking out reviewers, pitching different publications to write about me or my book and wondering why it seems so easy for others,  that the fact I am an author has gotten a bit lost on me.

And then there was the day after Thanksgiving when I decided I had already I had enough of the holiday season. With December 1 looming ahead, my already congested head was trying to make sense of the year about to close. Just what exactly had I accomplished? I avoided taking out that list of 101 intentions I had trumpeted here last January for fear there was too little to check off.

Yes, I know you are thinking....WTF*#!!* is she talking about it? She published a novel. She found a fabulous editor, a talented cover designer and a genius interior designer. She learned about KDP, Smashwords and Create Space and hit the publish button. She IS an author AND a publisher. That's a lot to check off!

But you see, I still wasn't feeling it.
Until last night when I drove to Denville, New Jersey to attend my first book club event.

As I navigated roads of the Garden State I don't usually travel, I felt a small panic unleash. I had never done this before. Just what exactly was I going to say? What if the thirteen women who had read my book, of which I only knew one, had no questions for me? What if they hated it?  Why did I say I would do this? Oh, yes, my old college buddy Sandy had been so excited when the book came out, she had purchased 13 copies and given them to her book club and asked me if I would attend their next event. I had been so moved that I said yes, of course I would.

The panic quelled when I remembered I used to sell radio and television commercials. I never met a question I couldn't come up with an answer to.  I had been trained to think on my feet. Besides, my fear was better left for how I would ever find my way back to Manhattan in the dark.

And then a funny thing happened. I sat down in the circle of chairs that had been set up in the kind of family room with a fireplace that is not to be found on the Upper West Side and I got my first question. Don't ask me what it was. My memory span doesn't last that long, but I know I answered it easily. As I did the next and the next. And in that room with this group of bright, engaged and might I add well prepared with their questions women, I got it. I really was an author. This is what authors do when not begging for publicity. They interact with their readers, the ones most important to the process. The people they are writing for. They learn things about their story they didn't even know was in there. They get excited when someone tells them their book made them cry and they never cry. They feel joy when they are told their readers loved the characters they created.  They know they have done their job when they are told the family dynamics transcend ethnicity, in essence, you don't have to be Greek to like the book.

I remembered I really was an author and this time I felt it.

Afterbirth

Having never had children I don't know from personal experience what happens in those first weeks after giving birth. But I'd think there are some similarities to what I've been feeling since The Secrets They Kept was published. This book after all, was my baby. Instead of nine months, it took seven years.  Seven years of attachment in some form to this story and these characters I had invented, fed and nurtured, breathed life into, let rest for awhile and nurtured some more. And then with a press of a button on a keyboard the placenta is broken and I am detached.

But not really. What mother gives birth to a child and stays separated? 

And then there are all those questions crowding my mind and vying for attention.  Like what do I do now?  I can't leave this thing sitting on a web page on Amazon by itself and think it will survive?   Is it going to be a healthy child or sickly? Why has it taken so long for Smashwords to send files to Barnes and Noble and iTunes? Will it live to a good old age or die young? And then the really big question, am I actually ready to be a mother, I mean published author? No matter. It's too late now to debate. There is a newborn book who needs me.

The book needs press and reviews that will translate into sales. It needs me to guest post and be interviewed to spread the news of its arrival. There is no nanny in the form of a Big Six marketing budget, just me, the birth mother, with a little  help from Facebook,Twitter and her friends, trying to wash away the afterbirth and get on with the business of making sure this baby book lives a healthy, happy and long life.

After all, that's all any mother wants for her child.

Check out  my first Amazon review in which The Secrets They Kept was called an "Excellent Debut Novel!"

On Sale Today, For Your Reading Pleasure

I am not a woman of few words, although Twitter has helped me in learning how to write in 140 characters or less. But today this will be brief. After countless hours, days, months and yes, years, of writing, dreaming, thinking, editing, trying it the traditional way, throwing that aside and editing again, this novel is out in the world. Technically it was available for sale yesterday, but for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is today's new Moon, I selected September 27 as my official launch date.

I like new Moons. I like ritual. I like superstition. Maybe it is the Greek in me. In any case, a new Moon is said to be a magical time of new beginnings when you can recharge intentions or set new ones out into the world. My intention to become a published author has been on many my new Moon lists over the years. It took a while and it certainly did not unfold the way I expected it to, but then what was I thinking? I'm really not a conventional kind of girl. Why would I have followed the established route? 

The print edition and the Kindle edition of The Secrets They Kept are available today on Amazon.com.  There, I said it and I admit it feels a bit surreal. 


If you read fiction, I invite you to buy a copy.
If you like it, I invite you to give it a Like on Amazon.
If you really like it, recommend it to a friend. Tweet it. Facebook it.
If you really, really like it, write a review on Amazon.

Having not gone the traditional route there is no Big Six Marketing budget to drive attention to my novel. Just me and my intentions.

Which, by the way, is to spread the word as far as our viral, interconnected world will allow.