Saturday, February 19, 2011

Welcome to our new Research & Marketing Assistant, Melissa

Imajin Books is pleased to welcome Melissa aboard as our new Research & Marketing Assistant.

Melissa will be working on marketing research and promotional initiatives that will assist and benefit our authors. She'll be working directly with the publisher and at times with our authors. Her spirited enthusiasm for her job makes Melissa a welcome team member.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Reviewers needed!

Imajin Books is looking for freelance book reviewers who are interested in reading and reviewing ebooks by our authors. Reviewers can request a title from already published books or ARCs of upcoming releases.
  • Book reviewers should write well and not give away all the plot points in their reviews. 
  • Book reviewers must post their reviews to Amazon.com.
  • Along with posting to Amazon, reviewers may also post reviews to Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Sony Store, or any other site that features our books.
  • Reviewers may also post their reviews to their own websites or blogs.
  • We encourage and appreciate reviewers who also post their reviews on their Facebook, Myspace and Twitter  accounts.
  • We appreciate reviewers who post reviews within 2 weeks of receiving an ebook from us.
  • We do not pay reviewers, nor compensate them in any other way, and we ask for honest reviews. If you review one of our books, please email us with links to the website on which your review appears.
  • We reserve the right to refuse a review request at any time.
To request one of our ebooks to review, email us at imajinbooks@shaw.ca, with REVIEW REQUEST in the subject line plus the title of the ebook you'd like to review. In the email, please confirm your intention to post your review to Amazon.com, and list anywhere else you think you'll post to.

Some of our ebooks may have limited review copies available, so first come, first served. :-)

At a later date, we may create a list of preferred reviewers.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

How to get noticed by Imajin Books: Be the Visible Man/Woman-Writer

Since one of our goals at Imajin Books is to find writers who are well prepared to market their works, there are a few things a writer can do before querying us to get our attention, and one of those key things is: BE VISIBLE. Don't be the Invisible Man/Woman-Writer!

If we can't find you online, how will your readers find you? What? You thought you could wait until your book was published before setting up a website, blog, social networks etc? Really? Do you realize it takes some time for your website/blog to be indexed in search engines in order to be found when people search for you?

You are INVISIBLE if...
  • You have no website.
  • You have no blog.
  • You have no Twitter account.
  • You aren't tweeting on your Twitter account.
  • You have no Facebook or MySpace page.
  • If you type your writer name into any search bar and your links don't show up on the first page.
You are transparent (partially visible) if...
  • You have a website but haven't updated it in a year.
  • You have a blog but only post once a month, if that.
  • You have a Twitter account and your last post was over a month ago.
  • You have Facebook and/or Myspace pages but they're only for family.
  • You search for your name in a search engine bar and only a couple of links show up on the first, second or third page.
You are VISIBLE if...
  • You have a website and you update it once a month or as needed.
  • You have a blog (either separate or integrated into your site) and you post once a week or more on average.
  • You have a Twitter account and tweet at least once a week, plus connect with others.
  • You have separate Facebook and/or MySpace pages for your writer side and use these mainly for marketing/promoting and writing related endeavors.
  • You search for your name and links to everything about you are the majority listed on the first three pages, plus you have links ten pages deep.
If you query us and you aren't visible, why should we wait? Fact is, if you query us and you don't at least have a blog that you post to regularly, we either won't consider your submission or we'll put you at the bottom of the pile. Trust me, that's NOT where you want to be.

Tip: Give publishers and acquisition editors what they want, what they ask for.