Showing posts with label #author branding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #author branding. Show all posts

Friday, May 13, 2022

The Terrace Players

 


Thanks to some wonderful community theater actors here in Vermont (we have a history of knowing how to entertain ourselves), I am now part of the Terrace Players.

Who are we?

We're a group of friends and neighbors who support local authors by giving reader's theater presentations of scenes from our novels. 

The Terrace Players read at the Flat Iron Coffee House in Bellows Falls, Vermont

It started out of necessity. My friend and fellow author Bill had a bout with throat cancer that left his voice damaged, and so he was not able to do public readings of his novels. His friends in the local theater community came to the rescue and volunteered to read for him. When I learned of this generous group of actors, I asked to join and participate, and the Terrace Players (named after the street where both Bill and I live) was born.

We have grown since and now include a beloved local librarian and former radio announcer.

Where do we perform? At Vermont's treasured collection of independent bookstores, at libraries, on local radio and TV stations. It's great fun, and our audiences like hearing interpretations of our stories, and they learn about what inspired our writing. We help local businesses sell their books, donuts, cake and coffee! Out local TV station now has offered to help us turn our books into audio books using their community sound facilities and library of sound effects. The circle of generosity continues.

Authors...I'd suggest you'd give this a try. It is not a great time commitment to actors-- we have one or two read-through sessions before each event.  We now have luncheons and tea parties after rehearsals and performances, so we are becoming social friends. And nobody has to memorize a thing. It's a service you local communities and businesses and helps us sell our books-- a win/win for all!




 

Friday, May 15, 2020

Using TikTok to promote your book





“Another platform for book promotion? Aren’t we swamped already?”

Good question.

TikTok is not for every author, but for some, it could really help in book promotion. To understand how, let us look at TikTok first.

TikTok is the newest and fastest growing social media platform of 2019 and the trend is continuing. It started in China and is the visual equivalent of Twitter. Where Twitter posts are composed of short written prose, TikTok posts are composed of short videos. Users can create videos of fifteen seconds (or string togehter videos into posts of sixty seconds each.) Most users create videos on their phones, edit it using the easy-to-use but professional tools, add music, and download it on to TikTok. Most users use the platform on their mobile devices.

Is TikTok worth it? It depends on the audience for your book. Sixty percent of TikTok users in America are between sixteen to twenty-four years of age. For a young adult title, this is the perfect demographic and can help in author-branding. It is also extremely popular in places like China and India, with five hundred million monthly users in China while about the same number of Indians download TikTok videos every month. Targeting these geographic areas specifically is an option.

By its nature, TikTok is visually driven. Graphic novels are prime candidates for TikTok promotion. . Large companies such as Guess jeans and Chipotle have used TikTok with great success and many more are joining the trend. TikTok is a fun and visually-appealing platform. It doesn’t lend itself to serious topics and is not a place for making sales pitches.

TikTok has made available several marketing tools available. The videos can be linked to websites and the social engagements (likes, impressions, clicks, etc) are measured, allowing a marketer to know how well a campaign is doing. Use of hashtags, games and challenges allow for viral promotion.

TikTok is very easy to use and understand. It is this ease of entry that is its main drawing card. It is not for everyone, but for a product or book with a good fit, it can work well.


Mohan Ashtakala is the author of "The Yoga Zapper" a fantasy and "Karma Nation" a 
Literary Romance. (www.mohanashtakala.com)
He is published by Books We Love Ltd. (www.bookswelove.com)


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