Cigarette-Lady Tray

Lacking sales is one thing, but lacking inspiration to make those sales is another.  I am struggling over here!  I strongly believe my attempts are completely half-ass.  I am not motivated to sell.  If I were truly focused and invested in making sales, maybe something would happen.  But for now, it is like the Sahara Desert up in here.  No action.

One of my recent half-ass attempts was contacting the New Orleans Bride Magazine who hosts (what they would call) a mega bridal convention here in New Orleans.  Upon calling their sales division, I was promptly contacted about their pricing and perks.  For approximately $1000, I would get a booth, a small add in their magazine, a mailing list of all attendees, a mailing list of all vendors, free ad webdesign, a puppy...Obviously joking about the puppy, but it was a significant amount of perks.  It all sounded wonderful until I realized: I haven't sold a book in 4 months, how would investing $1000 for ladies who are attending a bridal show to taste free cake and receive free hand-outs help me in the long run.  Clearly, this would be a poor investment.

Once I decided the tradeshow was not fiscally responsible for me, I had a lightbulb go off.  What if I built myself a cigarette-lady carrying device, loaded it up with my books, and just walk out front of the show...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSVNZLAsivg

I could have on a sandwich board, "Ask me about MARRIAGE LAWS."  What a Debbie-Downer I would be.  Then the real nightmare began, "What if I saw someone I know?  How would I ask for a random day off of work?"  All of those insecurities crept in.

So, here I am at the office.  Typing away on the thing I could have done; perhaps should have done.  I will never know.  I think I may check into the upcoming "book fair" that happens here in NOLA.  Maybe those booths will be cheaper...

Upward and onward...
CC

http://amzn.com/147813884X

http://www.amazon.com/From-Proposal-Ever-After-Louisiana/dp/147813884X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371652110&sr=8-1&keywords=from+the+proposal+to+ever+after

Ok, I don't think Facebook is a good marketing tool. Here is my experience...

I can honestly say I have been an addict of Facebook since I first started it in 2005.  But that has been because it revolves around my personal life.  My friends, my connections, my likes.  In regards to a professional use, I am not sure it is working for me.  Here is why.

The Facebook page was my original focus.  I figured it would be the brain of my marketing.  Type in the search engine: boom, you have all the Louisiana bridal shops in the area.  Need contact information: boom, check the About section.  Want to create an ad: boom, click here, input Visa card number and: boom, you have an ad.  Yeah, not quite.

Now, before I rip it, let me give it some props.  I did discover a Louisiana Bride blogger who reviewed my book.  We both communicated with great ease over their messaging service.  It was nice to reach out and touch someone who is just as obsessed with their Facebook accounts as I am.  That worked out awesomely and I am indebted to her for her completely unbiased review.

But...I wasn't looking for a Louisiana Bride blog, I was seeking Louisiana Bridal shops, magazines, retail locations.  The search engine on Facebook pulled up little.  Facebook search is no Google search.  Facebook only pulls what we put into it.  If you don't know it is New Orleans Louisiana Bride, then it doesn't pull it up.

When you do know the retail store's name you are looking for, it can be great.  There is the store, there are their hours.  But what about reaching out and touching them?  If I send them a message, will they read it?  Well, as obsessed Facebook fans know, you can tell when someone has viewed a message.  Not one of the messages I sent over Facebook to a retail location was read.  That tells me something too: are these companies really using their Facebook accounts or is their Facebook page like their abandoned 2007 website.  Who knows?

My other issue with Facebook was developing an online ad.  I really thought it would be an ideal ad location because you can narrow your field to exactly who you are looking for: women, Louisiana, over 18, family, etc. - Whatever terms you seek, you can get it pretty close because of the algorithms they developed.  But then, you get to the actual order time and it gets really complicated.  Do I want to pay per click?  Or do I want to pay indefinitely?  WTF?!  Indefinitely?  No.  Per click - how many clicks?   What am I signing up for?  The ambiguity of it all was frightening.  I never did it.  Plus, I heard this:

"GM Says Facebook Ads Don't Work, Pulls $10 Million Account" 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2012/05/15/gm-says-facebook-ads-dont-work-pulls-10-million-account/

If GM isn't seeing it as a successful avenue, why should I?

And what about my Twitter account?  Oh, please.  That is my own personal abandoned site.  That is the most collasol waste of internet space.  Granted, I think it occasionally grabs a follower, which is great, but I am pretty sure the follower is following me because they want me to follow their page.  I probably should check it more and be more interactive on it, but Twitter bores me.  I do not get it.

So, for today, I have visited the retail locations actual websites and emailed them a communication.  I am curious if I will receive any replies.  All of these shots in the dark will be helpful though when I decide to finally invest in actually SNAIL MAILING these individuals.  It may be the only way I can get through though.  We shall see...

CC


http://www.amazon.com/Proposal-Ever-After-Louisiana-ebook/dp/B008A0UVPG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370471596&sr=8-1&keywords=from+the+proposal+to+ever+after

"How to Sell"

I just typed, "How to sell" in the search engine of the Community Section on kdp.amazon.com.  I thought there may be a tid-bit of knowledge there; perhaps another user may have some insight.  What do I see in the comment section?  This:

Truly, that is the million dollar question.  I think my favorite comment was, "Put a ten dollar bill in each copy..."  Ha!

CC

A BOOK REVIEW!!! Someone actually read my book and then wrote about it...

Oh, the joy!  An actual person READ my book.  Not only did they read it, they took the time to REVIEW it.  Here is how it all went down...

I had been feeling uninspired about the marketing aspect of self-publishing life.  It is just, like, work.  So, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and look into Louisiana bride Facebook pages.  I was going this direction because I know there are bridal shows in New Orleans, but I could not figure out how to get to additional information on the event.  

As I was typing key words into Facebook's search engine, I came across an adorable, pastel-ly, chevron lined blog called Louisiana Bride.  The blog is adorable (I recommend you visit it: www.louisianabrideblog.com) and she is a very regular poster all things like love, life, food, etc.  After poking around her posts, I thought I would go out on a limb and see if she would be interested in knowing more about my book and perhaps even reviewing it for her blog.  

Shockingly, she accepted!  I quickly zipped her a copy from CreateSpace and only had to wait.  A couple of weeks later, boom!  I had a review.  Here is what she had to say:

MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2013

FROM THE PROPOSAL TO EVER AFTER :: BOOK REVIEW

I was recently sent a copy of Camille Carter's book From the Proposal to Ever After A Louisiana Woman's Guide to Marriage and Community Property Laws to review and share. All opinions are my own, I was not paid, but I was given a copy for the book for free. 

Have you ever thought about marriage law? Who's legally in charge of the money in the event of your husband's death, or even yours? What happens to property you owned before you were married? Does your spouse have rights to your inheritance?

Those questions and many more were answered by Camille in her new book From the Proposal to Ever After. As a woman we happily marry without ever thinking twice about marriage law. No one ever gets married with plans to divorce, but in the event it ever were to happen you would need to know a little about the state laws.

Not only were divorce laws covered, but Camille also hit on a topic we've discussed on many occasions...death. I've thought for some time about getting a living will together and now more than ever I think we definitely need to. In case you didn't know, Louisiana works under community property laws, I was actually surprised at what all was included in community property law. Something I found very interesting was that in the event your husband were to die that 50/50 law of Louisiana's doesn't immediately deem you the now 100% owner of everything the two of you owned. Nope. his half doesn't go to you but your children, if you have no kids then it goes to his parents. Next it trickles down to his siblings, their kids...and eventually landing at cousins. I think that was the most eye opening thing I learned, while it was very good to know the marriage law, the way things pan out in death was most interesting to me.

I could turn that into a big soap box though.

I really loved this book, it was well written, & Camille did a great job at putting legal terms into words we can all understand better. I learned so much about Louisiana marriage law from this book, and plan to take what I've learned and implement it into our plans for each other, if that makes sense. While divorce isn't in our planned future, many other things that fall into Louisiana marriage law will come upon us at one time or another.

I highly recommend this book to any woman or even man who live in Louisiana or were married here. If you are about to marry you should definitely read, it never hurts to know what the law has to say and how it will affect you in different circumstances.

To learn more about From the Proposal to Ever After check out the following links ::

You can purchase Camille Carter's book From the Proposal to Ever After on Amazon for $9.99 in paperback or for Kindle. If you have a Nook you can order here.

You can also find Camille on Twitter, Facebook,  or at her blog.

Click here to view the actual post!

I do believe this is a small step for From the Proposal to Ever After and a giant leap for Camille.  I could not be happier :)  

CC  

Pre-Nups, Fraud, and Huffington Post Reporting

I just read an interesting article posted on Huffington Post.  The article's headline was, Why This Millionaire's Wife Is Especially Happy.  This certainly piqued my interest.  Upon selecting the title, I then read the interior headline, "Elizabeth Petrakis, Millionaire's Wife, Gets Prenup Thrown Out."  

All right!  Now I am really interested.  

Then I read the first line, "In a rare move, a Brooklyn appellate court has decided that a prenuptial agreement between a Long Island woman and her millionaire husband will be thrown out, the New York Post first reported." Well, golly.  What happened? 

The article goes on to state that the ex-Mrs. Petrakis was given a pre-nup three months prior to their wedding.  The document stated that Mr. Petrakis' assests would remain his over the course of the marriage and in the event of divorce, but for every year they were married his wife would receive $25,000.  She refused to sign it.  

Four days prior to the wedding, Mr. Petrakis promised to destroy the pre-nup if they had children.  She accepted this and signed the document.  The article does not state whether or not they had children, but assuming they did have kids, he did not throw it out and later had his attorney enforce the document.   

The issue with the article is how it misleads readers.  It is not a "rare move" for a judge to throw out a document when fraud has occurred.  He lied to her to get her to sign the document.  That is fraudulent.  Not only that, but it was four days before the wedding.  Did she have time to really examine the document to comprehend what she was signing?  And what was the rush?  He wanted her to sign it so badly, he lied to her days before their nuptials.  

It smells bad and when it smells bad, there means there is a problem.  This was not a "rare move" by the Brooklyn judge.  It was the right move.  To visit the article, click the link below: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/elizabeth-petrakis-prenup_n_2853146.html

The Rejection Letter

The text was rejected by the publishing house:

Dear Ms. Carter:

Thank you for your reply. We have considered your sample but regret to inform you that the material does not meet our needs at this time. Our book list has little room for additions, and we find we must decline the majority of what is offered to us.

We thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider it. We appreciate your interest in Pelican Publishing Company and wish you the best as you pursue publication.

Sincerely,

---

Pelican

It was nice to at least receive a reply.  I honestly wasn't sure I would hear from them again.  It is disappointing, but the show must go on.  

I will also add, I love working under an alias!  This rejection felt way less personal.  More of a general bummer, but if I ever meet my rejectors (-ers?), they won't know it was me.  That feels satisfying.  

At least I can put this to bed and move on from the experience...

CC

A Fork in the Road

There is something to be said about getting off your ass and ending procrastination.  It certainly does lead to activity.  Activity is great, but this ultimately leads to shit actually happening versus nothing happening.

Can you hear that?  I think I just heard the world's tiniest violin...

Prior to the holidays, I forwarded a few chapters to the leading regional publisher of trade books.  I sort of thought they might be interested, but expected a flat rejection considering the economy and that they currently have a listing on family law.  What I did not expect is a letter requesting I detail how this text differs from their current offering.

Obviously, I am going to argue my book greatly differs from their current book.  That book is BORING.  I can barely read the introduction.  It is also dated.  It was published in 2004.  Hard to believe, but that is almost a decade ago.  Plus, that text goes for $20.  Mine is only $10.  BIG DIFFERENCE.

I know.  That sounds like a stretch...

To send a proper reply, I believe I should find that book at our local law library and really glance it over.  Do a little more than just "Click for an Inside Look" off Amazon.  I believe a few paragraphs in reply are in order.

The other fork in the road is that I have joined a local Meet Up self-publishing group.  We met a little over a week ago and I feel very inspired.  It feels great to learn tips, hear others self-publishing whoa's, and find camaraderie.  It sort of makes me feel like maybe going it alone really is the best option.

Right now, I feel like a cartoon character whose car has come to a fork in the road.  Rather than choosing a left or a right lane, I am simply picking my car up around me and two wheels are going one way while the others go the opposite direction.  Let's see how long this activity lasts...

More to come,
CC