by Ben Zackheim | Dec 2, 2012 | Shirley Link & The Hot Comic, Shirley Link & The Safe Case |
It’s time for a giveaway! You can enter to win both books in the Shirley Link series, to be delivered before Christmas. Shirley Link & The Safe Case and Shirley Link & The Hot Comic are both getting rave reviews on Amazon, Figment and GoodReads. If you or someone in your family likes fast, funny adventures then you’ll probably like Shirley Link!
It’s written for the middle-grade kids, but I’m hearing great things from all ages.
You’ll earn extra entries by tweeting the contest, or liking my page on Facebook. None of this is required though!
Good luck!
by Ben Zackheim | Nov 21, 2012 | Book Promotion, Writing |
How many moments do we miss? A joke told by a buddy with slashing panache that leaves you breathless. A month later you can’t even remember the setup, much less the punch line. Or the moment your six year old son uses the word “coincidentally” in a sentence and then looks up with the same eyes he had when he was a baby. Then later in the year you try to recall that word he spoke. And nothing. Nope. Lost to time, to the priorities that aren’t really important.
So at the moment, as I enjoy watching Shirley Link books climb the ebook charts (in the free category) I need to document it somewhere. Because next week I won’t recall this feeling of accomplishment, if I even recall it at all. Next week I’ll be back in the weeds.
But, for now, I have the #4 and #10 spots in Teen ebooks. #1 and 2 in Teen Mysteries.
by Ben Zackheim | Nov 9, 2012 | Opine, The Camelot Kids, Top Menu, Writing |
NOTE: This is the third post in a series,where I hope to capture the stress, heartache and rewards of writing a book with characters from the Camelot mythology. The title of my upcoming book is The Camelot Kids.
Catch up with part one and part two in this series for a complete picture.
***
Writing is hard.
Writing about famous figures is harder.
Writing about Camelot is downright dangerous. The consequences of taking creative license with something that has Ivy League programs dedicated to it invites wrath that’s usually reserved for atheists writing about God. But, really, can you think of a more exciting hill to climb?
When I started researching The Camelot Kids, I’d never read any of the classic Arthurian tomes. I’d never seen the racy Excalibur flick or Disney’s Sword in the Stone. But somewhere along the line I’d become so familiar with the gist of the key characters that I spontaneously grew an appetite to consume their stories, old and new.
As I immersed myself in the myth of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table I’ve been struck by how familiar it is. Where did I ingest the story so deeply that I could tell you about Mordred or Morgan Le Fay? How could I recall the young Arthur pulling the sword from the stone? Why was Lancelot so burned into my mind’s eye?
When I read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, I was surprised to find that it was good to see these old stalwarts, these staples of fantasy. It wasn’t quite the same as seeing a new Indiana Jones movie, or picking up a new Harry Potter, but it was still a tug at the heart which is the sole domain for old favorites.
But how could a myth that I’m unfamiliar with mean anything to me?
(more…)
by Ben Zackheim | Sep 20, 2012 | Book Promotion, Viral Juice |
Promote wisely (i.e. without Facebook Chat)
There are a lot of ways to use Facebook to promote yourself. Set up a product page for your book, run some polls, post some cool photos, arrange an event, interact with your fans. But Facebook Chat is an awful way to reach out. First of all, it’s unreliable. Secondly, few people use it on their computer to chat in real-time (though mobile is picking up speed). Most people (who know better) set themselves to invisible which means all chats are sent to the Message box. That may be fine for a quick ping. But if you catch someone online and try to chat up your new book with them they probably won’t appreciate it. The ambiance of Facebook is still one of arms-length. Even if you spend a lot of time on it, and feel fulfilled by it, most people use it to interact, but with some distance. Chat is too immediate for Facebook. I expect it will become even less prominent on their website as time goes on.
by Ben Zackheim | Sep 12, 2012 | Book Promotion, Viral Juice |
Google Ads are awesome. They genuinely generate traffic, which is what we all want, right? But beware! Google likes to send out free ad credits to new sites. You must enter your cc information when you sign up. It’s easy to turn on a few campaigns with those credits and then forget that you will be charged for everything over and beyond the freebie. So put it in your calendar. Pause your ad campaign!
