10 Best Ways Writers and Book Readers Start Smart Connections

By Author Denise Turney

Connecting writers and book readers is truly an art. After years of writing, publishing, marketing and selling books, I have learned effective strategies to increase book sales. I am going to share several of these winning book marketing strategies with you in this Chistell.com blog post.

Chistell Publishing author Denise Turney writers and book website
Chistell Publishing Writers and Book Readers Website

These strategies don’t involve spending more ad money. Even more, these book marketing tips aren’t about living on the road with boxes of books stuffed in your car trunk.

Smart Connections with Book Lovers Isn’t Pricey

Howbeit, attending book festivals and the right literary events helps when it comes to connecting with book readers. (Keep reading to find out how attending large scale book events makes its way onto the 10 best ways that writers and book readers make smart connections.)

Several of the strategies won’t cost you a dime. Also, depending on your existing support system, you might not have to implement all of the strategies to start seeing an increase in sales. However, what you will have to do is to be serious, and I do mean serious, about staying with the book marketing process long term.

Additionally, you will have to engage in at least two of these 10 actions. Let’s begin.

First of the 10 Best Ways Writers and Book Readers Make Smart Connections

This first strategy will get you out of the house. Added to selling books is the rewarding chance to network and meet authors, the very people who can tell you about more effective ways to increase book sales.

Attend book festivals, large scale events. But don’t just go to any book event. Research festivals, conferences and book fairs. Find out how many attendees are expected at the events. If these numbers aren’t posted at the event website, email the event organizers and ask them to share this information.

After all, the last thing you want to do is to pay a registration fee for an author’s table at book festivals that only attract 20 readers. Also, check event websites (or contact the event organizer) to see if you can participate in radio, television and online promotions organizers run.

Organizers offer these services at competitive prices to help cover the cost of running book fairs. Before you sign up for the fairs, make sure the registration fee is competitive enough to allow you to generate a profit. Book fairs that attract 10,000 or more book buyers could make it easy to sell 60 or more books. If you’re out-of-pocket costs is $250 or less, you could easily earn a profit.

More Ways Writers and Book Readers Connect

Start your own book festival. Consider requiring attendees to register for the event in advance. This way, you will know how many people are planning to attend. Use this data in press releases, announcements, social media posts, flyers, direct mail and on postcards.

But don’t go it alone. Network with other writers who run book festivals. You might be surprised how many writers organize events. Connect with these authors and get tips on ways to gain sponsors and local media coverage.

Apply for awards. I’m seeing more book awards shows. These awards shows are similar to popular music and film awards shows. Similarly, book awards shows can bring you lots of exposure and help you make smart connections.

Engaging Book Clubs and More

As a fourth tip, reach out to book clubs. Choose book clubs that read the types of books you write. Please pay attention to that. Don’t try to force a connection. Make it easy on yourself and reach out to book clubs that align with books you write.

In other words, you won’t have to convince these book club members to want to read your books. All you should have to do is introduce your books to the club members.

Here are six more ways that writers and book readers make smart connections:

  • Create and send colorful, attention-grabbing postcards to local media, book club presidents and book bloggers.
  • Follow these postcards up with direct email
  • A week later send recipients a snail mail
  • Post flyers about your book on college campuses, local libraries, etc. Request approval from administrators before hanging the flyers
  • Inside direct mail, include short overviews of your books, your bio and the benefits that the organizations and their readers or listeners can gain from reading your books.
  • Shorten the time it takes to generate direct email messages by signing up with email marketing platforms (e.g., Constant Contact, MailChimp)

Final Four Ways to Connect with Avid Readers

Throughout the year, schedule radio interviews. Thanks to online radio stations and podcasts, this should be easy. As a tip, you can find radio stations and podcasts to interview on by following media influencers on LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media platforms.

Focus on being on the radio or on a podcast at least once a week. You could even start your own podcast like I did. Check out Off The Shelf Books Talk Radio. In fact, depending on the types of books you write, you could gain a feature Off The Shelf Books Talk Radio interview. Listen to the show. See if there’s a fit.

Graphic of Off The Shelf Book Podcast with author Denise Turney
Off The Shelf Book Podcast

If there is a fit, contact me through the show.

To connect with readers and gain more book sales, also attend networking events. Stay local and you could reduce your out-of-pocket traveling expenses.

These networking events are different from book festivals. Examples include chamber of commerce awards luncheons, arts workshops, professional meetups and business startup discussions.

Exchange business cards with people who attend these networking events. Who knows, some attendees might help you get into large corporations they work at, which leads to the next tip to get more book sales. Depending on your book’s topic, you could speak at large corporations, sharing insights and research findings with corporate employee networks, etc. Should this happen, conduct book signings at the end of these speaking engagements.

You Can Get More Book Sales

Run a writing contest. You could also run a Q&A contest that focuses on one of your books. As a prize, you could give winners a collection of your books and/or a bookstore gift card.

Additionally, blog about your books. This isn’t a one and done. Be dedicated. This means, that you’ll publish a new blog post at least once a week, once a month at the absolute minimum. Write naturally and use a SEO plug-in to improve search engine rankings.

Furthermore, consider using tools like Google Analytics to track the effectiveness of your blog posts. In relation to this, regularly update your website content, including website meta tags.

Love Pour Over Me book in author Denise Turney personal library bookcase
Love Pour Over Me in book library

Also, reach out to other bloggers. Make sure they blog about the types of books you write. Ask to be interviewed or featured at these book blogs.

Tips to Get More Book Buyer Connections

Just for fun, here are even more ways writers and book readers start smart connections. Set up automatic social media posts. I’ve actually met media professionals this way and gotten published in major newspapers and magazines.

But don’t just publish auto messages to social media platforms. Actually, log into social media platforms and ask questions, post motivational quotes and info about your books. Also, respond to messages that other posters share. Please don’t just take or only advertise your books. After all, you’re trying to make smart connections.

To grow your readership, write and publish new books. As simple as it may sound, this is one of the best ways that I have found to increase book sales. However, make sure that you write your best book. Great books can create surprising word-of-mouth sales.

Let’s Talk Amazon and Barnes & Noble Book Retailers

Update your Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble book descriptions. Over the course of a year, I might revise my book descriptions three to four times. Add keywords that readers use to search for the types of books you write. Also, link your book blog to your Amazon Author Central page. You could also run book Amazon ads. If you do, track the results and make changes as needed. Start small and update keywords that you use in the ads. Keep tracking results.

Additionally, create profiles at popular book websites like Good Reads, CushCity and iTunes. Familiarize yourself with book distributions (e.g., Ingram, Baker & Taylor) and see if they are running book promotions you can participate in.

There are lots of actions you can take to increase your book sales. But these book marketing strategies have actually worked for me, which is why I am sharing them with you. These aren’t strategies that I just read about. These are book marketing strategies I have tried and gained results from.

One final note, the path to more book sales sounds simple. Just start selling more books by making smart reader connections. Yet, as simple as it sounds, it can take months to find and connect with your book’s perfect readers. The above book marketing tips shared in this post can save you years of trial and error.

Is It Possible to Talk to the Dead?

By Denise Turney

Ability to talk to the dead is available to anyone. In fact, it might be impossible to avoid hearing from a loved one who is no longer in a body if you had an especially close connection with that person. But how do you communicate with the deceased? Is there anything special that you have to do?

Picture of flowers by a grave of a dead person
Roses by Gravesite of the Dead – Wikimedia Commons, Picture by Samuriah

Let me start this blog post by sharing that I do not believe in death. To me, death is an illusion. But something clearly happens when we exit our bodies. That change seems to make it impossible to reach across the aisle and connect.

Expanding Communication Pathways

Centuries ago, we thought that about space and distance. If someone traveled to another continent, it was as if they were “gone”. Think about it, the telegraph was invented by Samuel Morse in 1837. Additionally, mail systems may have started during the Zia or Shang dynasties, as far back as 2070 BC.

Before then, when someone moved to another country, or worse, another continent, it was as if they had disappeared forever. After all, there seemed to be no other way to communicate with the person who was “out of sight” and space, far far away.

Today, technology has erased those impossibilities. But could we have found ways to communicate with those who seemed so far away (and still in their bodies) prior to the launch of the telegraph, mail systems, the Internet, face time and instant messaging?

And could it be possible to talk to the dead in ways that many are not aware of? As with the invention of advanced technological communication tools, those communication pathways may be most open if you live with an open, flexible mind.

Is a Departed Loved One Communicating

Now, to the signs that a “dead” person is trying to communicate with you. For starters, electrical appliances might go nuts, blinking or blaring if a departed loved one communicates with you. Lights might turn off and on. Familiar scents that are associated with the loved one who is no longer in their body might fill a room.

Also, people who don’t know the deceased might say the person’s name. For example, while I was on a train heading home from work, a group of kids outside a hospital shouted my departed son’s name over and over, about 12 to 15 times. It was as if the kids were making a song of his name, not as if they were calling out to a friend.

Even more, a stranger might tell you something that is directly related to your loved one who is no longer in their body, something that the stranger clearly does not know. For example, when I was preparing to move to a new city, I spoke with a representative at a moving company.

Coming Through an Open Pathway

The very first time that I spoke with someone at the moving company, the representative who answered the phone asked, “Is this the Denise who recently lost her brother or dog?” It was an out-of-the-blue question, totally unrelated to the move.

I had never spoken with the representative before, didn’t know the guy at all. I had never told anyone at the company that my son had transitioned. A moment later after I didn’t respond, the guy said, “Guess I had the wrong Denise.”

Dreams are open pathways through which you can communicate with a departed loved one, so pay attention to your dreams. But as with any circumstance, don’t become obsessed. Your life here matters, and it’s important that you live it fully. Strong emotion while in a certain location, intuitive direction and inner guidance are other ways to communicate.

How to Talk to the Dead

As with any other inner communication, you may have to take action to receive the full communication. For example, you might receive a message to go get your loved one’s picture. After you get the picture, your loved one might tell you that she’s right there next to you.

Also, you might be asked to turn on a certain television show. After you turn on the television show, you hear someone on the show ask, “If your loved one spoke with you, what would he tell you right now?” Another person on the television show might respond, “He would tell me that he’s still here, with me right now.”

The good news is that it is not necessary to pay a medium to talk to the dead. In fact, the best mediums will encourage you to communicate with your loved one on your own. Keeping an open mind may be the best way to talk to the dead.

This cannot be overstated. If you are dealing with grief, a process that could continue for the remainder of your physical expression, you may keep the lines of communication between you and your departed loved one going by writing or typing letters to your loved one.

Dealing With Grief

Despite your doubts, you might be surprised how healing writing your loved one letters can be. Another thing that might help you, is accepting communication signs from the dead without criticism or judgment.

As you continue your journey, love yourself. Be patient with yourself. Be very, very patient with yourself. Also, allow yourself to experience peace and joy. Let yourself feel the emotion of happiness.

As someone who has had both of her parents to transition, all of her grandparents and my son transition – I know that the first days, weeks and months after a loved one departs their body can be near impossible to get through.

Shock, sorrow, guilt, regret and intense sadness can feel overwhelming. The first few days, it may be hard if not impossible to relax, let alone sleep at night. That could go on for weeks. You might start crying, like I did, while shopping for shoes, buying groceries or driving your car.

Give Yourself Time

Instead of focusing on other people’s opinions, focus on the relationship that you had with your departed loved one. As an example, some people may think that you should “get over” the “loss” after a few weeks, six months or a year.

These people might lash out should you continue to grieve longer than they think you should. Some people might ask you to stop talking about your loved one, forcing you to not even speak the person’s name. My guess is that speaking a “dead” person’s name makes some people uncomfortable. Their demanding that you not mention the person could be a form of control, an unhealthy strategy they use to avoid feeling strong emotions.

Regardless of what others say or do, love yourself. Do what is best and most loving for you. This includes accepting communications that your departed loved one has with you.

Also, commit to moving forward. Remember that you are not ending communications with your loved one who is no longer in a body, especially if you talk to the “dead”. You are simply moving through the shift so that you can continue your physical expression in healthy ways knowing that one day, you too, will become one of those “dead people”.

Use Arts to Talk to the Dead

Are you a painter? Are you a writer? Do you love to sing? How about crafts? Do you love to knit, sew or crochet?

As you continue your journey, consider painting to express emotions that you are experiencing. You could also write songs about your departed loved one. A few months after my son transitioned, I started writing on a novel, a super hero story, with my son as the main character.

Writing on that story, is tremendously healing for me. Regarding self discovery, you might find that incorporating memories of your loved one in your creative arts could prove healing and transforming.

Love Yourself

Some artists paint amazing portraits of their loved ones. Singers have written, sang and produced songs in honor of a departed loved one. There are many ways to marry memory, love and art. Even more, don’t be surprised if your loved one starts to guide these creative works.

As a final word, in addition to being patient with yourself as you go through this journey, love yourself. And I do mean, love yourself. Really really love yourself.

This includes, seeking professional help should you feel stuck or drifting toward self harm. Suicide isn’t the only form of self harm. Over eating, drinking too much alcohol and abusing yourself with drugs, including prescription drugs, are other forms of self harm.

Accept Support

Talk with a friend you know you can trust. Join an online and/or offline support group. I am a member of an online support group for grieving mothers. Hearing other mothers share their stories is beyond helpful, beyond strengthening and supportive.

Give this love to yourself. Just give yourself love. Give love. Receive love. And stay open to those loving communications that come from your departed loved ones.

Spiral is a book that deals with receiving communication from the dead. It is a fictional mystery that needs someone (not a professional medium) who can talk to the dead to solve a crime. It is my hope that Spiral will help you as you work through dealing with a loved one’s transition, especially if the transition was traumatic.

More importantly, I hope that Spiral will stir your courage, inspiring you to take the right action to protect anyone who is being traumatized, forced into departing their body. Spiral and resources shared in this article might help you to overcome fear and continue your journey in healthy ways. You also might accept communication that you receive from an eternal loved one who is no longer in a body. I wish you well.

Get your copy of “Spiral” Now at –

Sources:

Ebookit.com – https://www.ebookit.com/tools/pd/Bo/eBookIt/booktitle-Spiral

Resources:

https://www.newsweek.com/2014/11/07/talking-dead-280717.html

https://www.healyourlife.com/10-signs-the-dead-are-communicating-with-you

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/biocentrism/201111/is-death-illusion-evidence-suggests-death-isn-t-the-end

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/grief/coping-with-grief-and-loss.htm

More about Books – Starting on a New Novel

By Denise Turney

I was almost finished editing Love Pour Over Me when I started writing my next novel. Looking back, I think that’s the way I’ve always managed the creative side of my writing career. The process keeps me from getting too attached to the book I’ve just finished writing. This, in turn, allows me to keep moving forward, ready to receive the next fiction story that surfaces within me.

Writing the first draft of a new book is fun. It’s also the most challenging part, especially considering the fact that I’ve learned how to cut the fat out of a story without feeling like I’m taking blood from myself. Oh, the despair, the dread I felt years ago when it came time to start editing and cutting away at a story I’d spent months laboring to pull together. Although I can’t confirm it, I imagine that most authors struggle with this part of the writing process.

As I’m experiencing with my next book “Gada’s Glory” (working title), I feel exhilarated while I’m creating a new book. It’s so much fun! The process is pure – purely creative. There’s no need to focus on marketing, promotions, etc. during this process. I don’t have to spread the word about a new novel I’m creating because it’s all mine . . . for now.

It’s like being in a laboratory, trying this and that, creating intriguing characters and placing them in challenging and/or rewarding scenes. In time I start rooting for one or more characters and disliking other characters. Amazing how this happens considering the fact that I’m the one who’s creating all of the book’s characters. Oddly, with Love Has Many Faces (sold out) a character I loved (Leslie Fletcher) was absolutely hated and despised by readers. That was a first for me. Leslie made a lot of mistakes, many of which deeply hurt innocent people, but she evolved and awakened by the end of Love Has Many Faces; however, readers were not up for dismissing her prior mistakes.

Which brings me to another point I love about starting on a new novel . . . I love working with emotion! It may well be my biggest payoff as a book author – hearing from readers, especially readers who are emotionally charged about a scene or character. I love when that happens!

Malcolm (Raymond Clarke’s father) is the guy who pulls loads of emotion out of readers in my recently published book, Love Pour Over Me. Unlike Leslie, readers come to see Malcolm differently by the end of Love Pour Over Me. Guess I got a little better at allowing characters to evolve and awaken. That or Leslie struck a nerve in readers and wouldn’t let go.

But that’s me . . . what are your favorite parts of a novel? What makes a story a winner for you, the type of book you simply can’t put down? Is it the plot, dialogue, an intriguing setting . . . Just what is it about a book that keeps you turning the pages?

I’m sure you can tell; the rewards of writing are a plenty! I love to write, to create stories that pull emotion up within readers like you! Gotta tell you, as a reader, you make my life’s work wonderful! Thank you!

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You!