AGT Monthly Meeting for August 2024

The Authors Guild of Tennessee held their monthly meeting on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, at the Faith Lutheran Church in Farragut. Social time started at 10:30 and the business meeting at 11:00.

The following members were present:

Stephen Lyn Bales, Bill Barbour, Gary Butler, Bobbi Chapman, Gayle Curtin, Laura Derr, Kaye George, Brooke Gilbert, Leoma Gilley, Jim Hartsell, Wade Johnson, Kathy Parr, Cheryl Peyton, Nancy Pressley, Ron Pressley, Stacy Rowe, Frank Snyder, Art Stewart, Becky Tucker, Joelle Whitewolf, Victoria Winifred, and Curt Young

Visitors: Elaine Jungk, Jean Kranzle, and Chris Rowe.

Welcome – Cheryl. Introductions of new members.

Stacy Rowe has written several books, a debut novel, a series of sports journals for kids, and a women’s journal.

Brooke Gilbert started writing about her autoimmune conditions and travel. She has lots of experience in recording audiobooks. Romance is included in each volume.

Wade Johnson retired from the navy. He has a book about battleship and executive development. Men learn best with examples and stories such as Managing in turbulent times. He worked on this for 30 years using his naval experience as examples. He turned the two books into a novel. He was also a professional ventriloquist with his own show on TV. He took the scripts and turned them into the book: Programs for the Self-employed Ventriloquist. He also has a book of jokes he collected over the years.

Gary Butler writes fantasy and is a former journalist. He is trying to get his first novel published. He would like to know about self-publishing, cover design, etc. If anyone would like to read excerpts from his book, he is willing to share. It has magic along with a human story and real-life conflict for an adult audience. The title is A Misplaced Soul.

Joelle has a website with her visual art. She writes poetry. This is a new career for her after being a global HR Exec.

Cheryl is preparing a seminar about self-publishing. Details will be forthcoming.

July Minutes: Approved on line.

Treasurer’s report: Russ

Beginning Balance: $2031.86

Ending Balance: 2,214.96

Book sales:

Preferred Pharmacy $345.09

Total Payments:

Author payments – $286.99

Pending Transactions $345.09

 

Reports by members and Committee Chairs:

1. Festival Facts – Bobb. Last year we attended 3 festivals, this year 33, next year 56 so far. We have captains of festivals who will act as the point people. One more author is needed for Knoxville Home Show at the Expo Center next weekend We have a great location. $65/author.

2. Dog Daze – Cheryl is the captain. Will take place at Village Green Shopping Centre in Farragut, Aug. 9-11. There are six authors total, 4 at any one time. Starts 4:00 Friday for three days. We have 4 tables. Authors should bring books, a chair, and publicity materials. This is the first festival we’ve done in Farragut. The emphasis is on dogs.

3. Leoma mentioned she knows a South Sudanese woman who has left an abusive relationship and needs to find work. She cleans and can also sit with someone who is elderly or ill. She is honest and desperate to provide for her 14-year-old son. Contact Leoma Gilley.

Speaker

AGT member Victoria Winifred was our speaker. Victoria spoke on using Facebook ads for book promotions as well as other social media sites. Victoria is active on X (Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. She also blogs and has her own website.

Victoria advised that the more we write, the more diverse we become. We need to increase the visibility for our products. The Rule of 7 says: it takes an average for someone to see something 7 times before they buy it. Repetition matters.

Instagram: when you advertise you get more followers, but you don’t know about sales. Post beautiful pictures of your book and what people have said about it. If you use several photos, Facebook and/or Instagram will make a reel. Use # and words that people actually follow, ie., #booksaboutcats. Ask ChatGPT for top 10 hashtags for your topic. Make sure everything is in the post that you want to use before you click advertise (or boost). Once you’re satisfied that it’s what you want, set a budget. (You can’t edit after you promote it.)

X: Tweet regularly using hashtags. It’s free. Create a beautiful post and make it your “pinned” post. It will be at the top of anything you do. Create a book trailer with hashtags to get a lot of likes. If it isn’t an ad, people won’t see it unless they come to your site. You can’t edit your post after you boost it.

Print Ads don’t seem to be successful. Victoria published in a niche publication (chess) and didn’t see any results. Everyone wants to simply click on things now, not seek them out.

Facebook ads: Don’t use your personal account. Create a business, professional author account linked to your personal account. It can be more public. You can edit posts so you can add anything you forgot to include (like offering to speak). Once you are in the promotion section, you can target advertising, target demographics, customize audiences. They create different version, reels, carousel. They automatically do that for you. If you want people to follow you or go to your website, add a link. You can’t see for sure if anyone buys your book from your ad.

Create a good post including as much information as possible. Then asked ChatGPT for improvements to the text. Make adjustments. Take photos of yourself at festivals, especially holding your book. After your ad is ready, click Boost Post. It creates 3 different versions, and you can choose one or rotate them. Do you want people to message you? What results do you want? Get more website visitors. Link the book on Amazon. It gives you an idea how much to spend. You can adjust that, but be careful. The amount can be changed after the post becomes active. Who should see your ad? Advantage audience – age range, gender, interests (find those related), $10 for 7 days. In your choice, Facebook gives an estimate of how many accounts might see it. You can see the results. Victoria had 16 link clicks of people who looked at it on Amazon after a few days. As of this morning 217 people had seen it.

The object is to get people to see your book and know you exist.

Canva is wonderful for creating images. Bookbrush is also good.

Adjournment:

Meeting adjourned at 12:05 p.m. The next meeting is set for Thursday, September 5tht at  Faith Lutheran Church, 10:30 a.m. to noon.