Guest Post: Ashley Dawn

Today we welcome Ashley Dawn, on tour with Virtual Blog Tour Cafe and author of the Shadows series. She has prepared a guest post for us to talk about important marketing tips that help authors out along the way to success. 

Without further ado...

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Marketing Tips
With so much going on with books on the internet, there are a lot of options for authors to promote their work.  I’ve used several of these…some worked and some didn’t.  For me it was trial and error type work so I thought I would share what has worked best for me:

1. A Blog.  This can be FREE or there are some places where you pay for the blog, either way it is useful.  I have a review blog where I read and review other author’s work.  It gets my name out there and I have a page on my blog dedicated just to my books.  That way, when authors are out there promoting their book and send people to my blog, I have the possibility to have them check out my books as well.  It isn’t a guarantee but it has worked for me.
2. Help other authors.  This one sort of goes along with the blog idea.  If you review an author’s book for them, you have made a contact that in the future (or now if you agree to do a swap with them) can do a review for you.  If you help other authors with reviews and promotion, they will help you.
3. Facebook page.  It is a wonderful and FREE.  You can post what is going on in your writing life, upcoming releases, book covers, etc.  People click ‘like’ on your page and immediately see your feed.  You have to post on there for it to be useful but there is a whole lot of people on facebook that can be reached through this and it doesn’t tie up your personal account.
4. Blog Tour.  On this, you set up a time frame (either by yourself or hire someone to do it) where on certain days you are on certain blogs either doing reviews, guestblogs, giveaways, excerpts…the possibilities are almost endless!  This way, you reach a completely new audience through the blogger’s followers and at the same time, you are helping them promote their blog by promoting your book!
5. Twitter.  It works a lot like facebook only with more limited character space.  I admit I don’t utilize this one like I should but it is there as a promotion tool for us authors and once again it is FREE.  You can promote yourself, gain followers, announce release dates, or just talk about what you are working on to keep people interested.

All 5 of these can be used together to help you market and promote your work.  Make sure to have fun with your marketing.  I know it is work and you so bad want to get all the exposure you can but remember to take time to stop and see what you are accomplishing along the way.  I hope this helps or at least gives a few ideas!

- Ashley Dawn

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Thank you so much Ashley for coming by! Make sure you check out her book series. Here's a summary of Book 3, Shadows of Pain!

"Revenge is sweet…unless you are on the receiving end of it.
“Do you know of anyone who would want…you dead?”
Officer Daniel Jenkins was no stranger to the dangers his job posed but usually he knew who was trying to kill him. Being stalked was a completely different ball game, and he wasn’t sure there were any rules…
“…I need you.”
Terrified didn’t even begin to describe how Kami felt with the stalker targeting her. As an FBI agent you were trained to handle stressful situations, but being the victim put the whole process in a different light.
As the killer gets closer, so do Kami and Daniel, but will they live long enough to see their love bloom?
Only God can save them from this unknown killer…"