New life for ‘Old School’ QR marketing

Generally, my posts on ‘Ramblings from a Writers Mind’ focus on the art of creative writing, authorship and ‘being indie’.

To help with such, I have published two books, ‘The Frugal Author‘ & ‘Lots of Author Stuff you Need to Know‘, both easily downloadable from Amazon. (See below for details)

Rarely do I venture into posting about promotion and marketing as these are areas which deserve a blog of their own, allowing for comprehensive explanations and discussion.

However, there are many simple elements authors can utilize to assist the sales of their books.

Many of these aspects, like listing your ‘other titles’ as part of your books backmatter should be standard practice.

Some mainstream publishers are now using a paragraph or two from their author’s other works in the front matter, stating the obvious.. ‘From the author of…..other title’. I think it is a spin-off from Hollywood film promotions, i.e. ‘From the director of….blah blah’.

While it’s a practice which is becoming common, flick through the first few pages of mainstream novels in your local bookstore to see this trend. It is not one I particularly like. To me it is a little too aggressive, even hinting at desperation. I’ll leave you to decide where you want to go with it, should you want to try this option.

One often-overlooked opportunity, (I have neglected this myself too many times in the past), is the use of QR codes.

While links, (hyperlinks), work well with most electronic flow files, that is eBooks, Kindle and such, they cannot be used in a physical Paperback or Hardcover book.

One can list site addresses, such as this one, (my Amazon author page), https://www.amazon.co.uk/~/e/B00CJCT5DK  but, with a physical book, it means the reader must type out the whole address string on their keypad. Not a spontaneous act and therefore it is more likely to be ignored than actioned.

I find a significant alternative is using a QR code, like this one which can simply be scanned with a cellphone. (Try it.)

 

Some may consider QR codes as ‘old school’. However, QR codes offer a great way to connect your reader instantly and directly with your chosen location. This could be your Amazon author page, (as in the example above), your website, your books purchase location, blog, or social media page on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or any other social site.

The location you choose to send your reader to is entirely up to you.

In reverse, QR codes included in you books can direct readers to you social pages, blogs or personal website. You could include several QR codes in one book if you so wished, but you would need to be judicious in their use regarding the appearance of your book.

In ‘Within the Invisible Pentacle’ I use QR codes to direct people to my targeted locations, once internally in the back matter on my ‘About the Author‘ page and once on the back cover, next to the barcode.

This is how I use them.

As an Electric Eclectic author, I also use a QR code to help direct people to the Electric Eclectic blog. This QR code you will notice incorporates the EE logo.

Using QR codes is a simple, extremely low-cost, yet effective addition to your marketing and promotional armoury and one I highly recommend you adopting.

You should incorporate these QR codes in your books and use them with your blogs, newsletters and in your social media posts, directing people to your chosen location(s).

The only limit is your imagination.

I am happy to produce bespoke QR codes for your author marketing needs.

I can also create QR codes incorporating personal or business/brand logos.

My QR codes can be produced in a variety of colours and in several bespoke shapes while maintaining their full functionality.

Interested?

Email me at pwauthor@mail.com

Below are the two eBooks I mentioned above, published to assist authors in being indie. You can download them both now via these links.

  https://mybook.to/Authorstuff               https://mybook.to/FrugalAuthor

Injuries, wounds and healing… information to aid your accuracy.

 

This is far from my normal ‘Rambling’, but…

After reading several books over the last few months I have realised the need for authors to portray far more realistic accounts of their victim’s injury and healing processes.

Getting this wrong not only disrupts the believability flow of the story but often wrong-foots the reader’s perception regarding the course of the true timeline.

How many times do we such inaccuracies represented in ‘blockbuster’ movies? One moment the protagonist is beaten to a pulp and cannot stand, the next he is running after the perpetrator of a crime with nothing more than a slight limp in his left leg… oh, now it’s his right leg… no left again.

Of course, when our hero takes the full impact of a 9mm parabellum, it is nothing more than a flesh wound and within a day he has discharged himself from the hospital and is fighting, and winning, against a dozed bad guys.

Okay, a film has a limited time to play out, often between ninety and one-hundred and twenty minutes. However, with a book, there can be no such excuse. Authors are not restricted to a timeframe and, in all honesty, not as hobbled by word count as they once were.

The modern reader demands accuracy in the authors account and rightly so. It is easy to browse the net and check for details of even the most obscure event or condition your characters may encounter. Therefore, research is becoming the defining line between a ‘professional author’ and a ‘hobbyist writer’.

If you scroll down and/or browse through the posts here, on Ramblings from a Writers Mind, I am certain you will find a wealth of helpful and useful information, much given in my usual random and wayward manner, which I hope most people find entertaining too.

Interspersed between my ramblings are some direct and useful bundles of information, such as the following which focuses on wounds, injuries and the healing process.

I shall not give any written account regarding the following as I think the illustrations say all that is required.

You may wish to download and file the images for you own reference records, please do, Particularly if it will assist you in creating far more realistic situations and timeframes in your works… of which you may always send me a copy.

Keep happy, Paul.

I hope the information above makes you consider reading one of my books, maybe my short novelette, A New Summer Garden, which you can download as an eBook here, or order as a ‘Pocketbook’, a small-sized paperback which will slip into the rear pocket of your denim jeans… or into your bag, handbag, rucksack, or just about anywhere. Get the pocketbook version here.