In-News: The Time Cavern Revisited

Welcome to August!  Check out the right side of the blog page to find out what reviews we are working on for this month.  For our first August In-News update, we’ve interviewed Todd Fonseca, author of The Time Cavern.  Todd has kept in contact with the Lulu Book Review since we reviewed his book back in May, updating us on the success of his book, both in marketing and in sales.  At a recent book signing, he sold over 50 copies!  After success with Amazon.com tagging, Todd was inspired to create a blog to help others with this web marketing technique.  The interview offers a wealth of information for POD authors.  Special thanks to Todd for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk with us.  He is already hard at work on his next book!

LLBR: First, tell us what inspired you to write The Time Cavern.

Todd: Growing up, I was one of those kids that did not enjoy books. I remember having reading assignments in school and I’d count the pages to the end of the chapter assigned—it was definitely a chore. Then I read A Wrinkle In Time¸by Madline L’Engle. I was completely engrossed in the story. Before I knew it, I had finished the book and subsequently became an insatiable reader. Years later, I re-read the book and relived not only the wonderment of the story from when I was younger but also appreciated it on an entirely new level as an adult. It was A Wrinkle In Time that inspired The Time Cavern. I wanted to write a book that featured everyday kids, not the jock or the beautiful girl. A book that would let them experience something as grand as their imaginations—but be real. Like Madeline L’Engle, I wrote it as a piece that does not talk down to young adults, but rather challenged their intellect while being entertaining. I think this is why both young adults and adults are enjoying the book.

LLBR: Why did you choose Lulu to publish your book?

Todd: I began this journey in November 2005 participating in Nanowrimo (national novel writing month–www.nanowrimo.org). After finishing the first 50,000 words in one month, it took another couple of years to finish, re-write, edit and polish the story. Lulu is a great option for writers because it allows the author complete control over every aspect of the book from cover design to distribution. The key aspect for me in choosing Lulu was the ability to have a relatively inexpensive option to obtain global distribution. There are currently over 30 distribution channels for my book around the globe.

LLBR: Was self-publishing from start to finish hard for you?  Did you have any help?  What did you like or dislike about it?

Todd: The key to success in self publishing is creating a product that is of the same quality, look, and feel of a big publishing house’s product. Three essential keys to doing this are a custom cover, copy editing, and book layout (typesetting). Regarding the cover, I have experience in 3D animation as well as Photoshop, so I created it myself. The feedback has been great and I think the cover alone sells a number of copies. Regarding copy editing, I hired someone to do this. I’m clearly a writer and not an editor. My editor’s changes were magic and well worth the money. If you are serious about selling your work beyond a few people—get a copy editor. Finally type setting. I did this myself but this is not easy. Just fully justifying your work is not enough. There is a lot of information on the web which can help you learn how to do this, but to do it correctly is a tremendous amount of work.

LLBR: What happened after you were reviewed on LLBR?

Todd: Reviews are essential to the success of a book. I know I always research books before I buy them either by reading the reviews online or from the blurbs in and on the book itself. LLBR was the first site to review my book and I’ve used that review in all of my marketing materials. This includes an excerpt of the review placed on my book’s back cover. Potential buyers are significantly more likely to buy a book which has been independently reviewed. These reviews are also key in the media kit you send out to editors and others when planning events like book signings.

LLBR:   Tell us about your marketing techniques for the book.

Todd: I spend at least an hour each day marketing my book. My efforts have been focused both online and at local venues. Online, Amazon has been huge for marketing my book. A major factor is the “Search Inside” feature which allows potential customers to essentially page through the book like you would in a book store. Using Amazon Connect, I also post information like website updates and the book trailer. Probably most important are Amazon tags which I’ll talk about later. My website, www.thetimecavern.com, has also been crucial. Not only have I added the pertinent information about the book and myself, but I also added website “stickiness”—that is, information to keep people who visit the site at the site. For example, I’ve included The Time Cavern webquest game similar to Dan Brown’s webquest for The DaVinci Code. There’s also window’s wallpapers to download and a banner for site links. One can’t get enough exposure, so I created a book trailer and posted it on YouTube as well as my site. The Time Cavern book trailer currently has over 13,000 views on YouTube which is more than Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes trailer! (please take a look and rate the video–www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAYqAYlzvKM). I’m advertising and having reviews done on young adult book websites. The key here is find the niche your book fits in and targeting those online communities that cater to that niche. An unexpected but pleasant surprise has been publishing my book on the Amazon Kindle (ebook reader). This is still a small community but the Kindle Amazon forums are very open to new authors. I’m selling about a book a day on the kindle and am consistently in the top ten in two Kindle categories—this provides huge exposure. (hint: use the software from mobipocket—www.mobipocket.com–which is owned by Amazon to convert your document for use on Kindle. Loading your book on mobipocket automatically creates a Kindle version and you are off and selling on Amazon!). Finally, I’ve been working book signings and also targeting schools. Because the book is educational containing a lot of science information as well as discussion of the Amish culture, I’ve been able to have success at schools. In fact, one teacher is ordering 60 copies for her sixth grade class.

LLBR: Tell us about your recent experience with Amazon tagging.  Is it helping to sell the book?  How does it work?  What has the overall response been?

Todd: For those of you who don’t know, customer’s can “tag” books on Amazon with whatever words they think are appropriate for the book—such as the tag “memoir”. The more times customers tag a book with the same word, the more popular that book becomes with respect to that tag. Note sales do not determine the books popularity with respect to tags, just the number of tags it receives for that particular word. So in my case, I asked folks to tag my book with the words “juvenile fiction” and “young adult”. As a result, The Time Cavern is now the #1 tagged book for “juvenile fiction”. You might think, so what, but there is a “juvenile fiction” customer community on Amazon with over 400 customer’s associated with it. On the home page of the customer community, because my book is tagged #1, it is highlighted on the home page of this community. Anyone who visits “juvenile fiction” sees my book—that’s huge visibility. The beautiful thing is—it’s all free—no purchase necessary to tag books. The issue is finding so many folks to tag your book (only one vote per person per tag).

LLBR: Do you think this multiple tagging is cheating?

Todd: Having your book on Amazon is the great equalizer. My book page for The Time Cavern looks pretty much like Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight page. The key to success is, obviously, to write a good book but after that it is to get visibility. I don’t see anything wrong with having people tag your book for exactly what it is—in my case, “juvenile fiction”. It is clearly a “juvenile fiction” book. It would be wrong to have folks who haven’t read the book to tag it “great read” because they obviously wouldn’t know that until they read it.

LLBR: Tell us about the blog you created.

Todd: I created the blog www.tagmybookonamazon.wordpress.com so that authors could leverage the power the internet to have their books appropriately tagged and gain some visibility on Amazon that they might not otherwise get. The idea is to submit your book, along with its description and Amazon link along with requested tags. A few books would be featured at a time. Those visiting the site are requested to tag the featured books as requested and in turn their book would eventually be featured. There are rules, however. I’ll only post tags that are obvious from the description of the book. Others—like “great read” have to be earned by having readers rate it as such. For more information, please visit the blog.

LLBR: What has been your best outlet so far for selling books?  Online, in stores, word of mouth, etc?

Todd: I’d say it’s about a third Amazon/online/blogging, a third word of mouth, and a third Kindle.

LLBR: I heard you have an upcoming book signing.  How did that come about, where is it, and how many copies do you think will sell?

Todd: To successfully market a book takes asking everyone you know to consider buying it—forwarding your website info, etc. Having it on Amazon gives you immediate credibility. As sales began to grow, folks who bought the book actually suggested the book signing. I decided to do what I thought would be a small signing at work. I put together a professional release and sent it to some colleagues. I included the fact the book had hit #9 on Barnes and Noble in the children’s science fiction category along with #1 and #2 spots in two Amazon Kindle categories. The response was really overwhelming. My sales rose and became steady on Amazon and I had pre-orders from over thirty people from work. I’m estimating this signing alone will yield 100 sales.

LLBR: What’s next for you as an author?  Will you choose POD again?

Todd: Well, The Time Cavern is book one in a series. I’m about a third of the way through the next book. Would I turn down a major publisher for the next book? No way. Having said that, I’m not actively soliciting them at this point. There are over 200,000 books published each year which doesn’t include POD books. I know that POD or not, marketing my next book will have a lot to do with me. At the end of the day, who your are and not your book is your brand—authors are what sell books. That’s why book covers feature the author’s name larger than the title of the book itself. Think of the next book J.K. Rowling will write—everyone will buy it because she wrote it not because of its title.