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Rising to the top
Latimore, Robbie Smith
The purpose of this study was to understand how African American women community college presidents in the USA ascend to the presidency. The study was guided by the following research questions: (1) What is the typical career preparation of African American women presidents of community colleges? (2) What are the common strategies that African American women presidents of community colleges use to negotiate their careers? (3) What were the salient factors that affected or shaped their career paths? Eight African American women presidents of two-year colleges in the six accreditation regions that are recognized by the United States Department of Education were interviewed in this basic qualitative study. The constant comparative method of data analysis was employed to uncover emerging themes from the transcripts. The first finding of the study was that typical career preparation of African American women presidents of community colleges consisted of extensive preparation, which included holding several jobs throughout the college, frequently volunteering for special projects, acquiring and cooperating with a mentor, earning advanced terminal degrees (despite the career norms of White males and White females who held the jobs), and participation in leadership training. The second finding was that the Black women community college presidents negotiated their careers by: constructing a well-developed professional image that exuded confidence and by taking calculated risks that better positioned them for advancement. The third finding was the Black women community college presidents' careers were shaped by their understanding of and management of the racism and sexism that they encountered and by strong reciprocal community and family relationships. Three major conclusions were indicated from the findings. First, the career preparation of African American women community college presidents is different because the women were held to higher standards than their counterparts because of racism and sexism and therefore the women "over achieved" and "over prepared" and "over credentialed" in an effort to counteract these implicit societal forces. Second, African American women community college presidents developed a deliberate yet flexible approach to their careers that was consistently cognizant of managing their images and that was informed by a mentoring collective. Third, African American women presidents were engaged servant leaders who constructed and nurtured a politically savvy persona that they used to engage the community as a base and support system.
http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/latimore_robbie_s_200905_edd


An alumni-owned brewing company stays competitive by crafting 270 beers in Melbourne.
Intracoastal Brewery Co. may have embraced the boost in business brought on by the growing craft beer industry, but it plans to keep the local vibes of the Melbourne area flowing strong.
Intracoastal Brewing Co. was founded two years ago by John Curtis, Donald Atwell and Kyle Smyth. It keeps a competitive edge by crafting hundreds of beers specific to the small Melbourne brewery.
"We bring out a lot of favorites, but we keep brewing different beers that people want to enjoy so when they come back, they're able to taste some of the fun things that we had before, but they're able to taste some of the fun things that we haven't done, and that's where I think that we stand out," Curtis said.
Brewmaster Atwell has created over 270 unique craft beers for Intracoastal, and said that he enjoys the creativity that comes with his job. Brews on tap include Rice Krispies Treat Cream Ale and Live Free or Apple Pie.
The brewery, which was voted best local brewery by SpaceCoast Living, boasts a friendly atmosphere that complements its menu of rotating, in-house beers.
A long row of picnic tables covered in the signatures and drawings from hundreds of customers stands as a testament to the many faces who have come through the brewery's doors.
Smyth said that the company plans to expand around Brevard and into Central Florida, but the Brevard-based brewery wants to keep the niche of its ever-changing menu.
There are a total of 111 craft breweries in Florida with more than 75 having popped up in the last two years. Smyth said that he is excited to be a part of such a growing industry.
"It's cool because it means the economy is thriving, and Florida is finally getting on board with craft beer, which hasn't always been the case," Smyth said.
To stay relevant, Intracoastal will have to make some changes in the near future, Smyth said.
Curtis said they aim to adapt quickly to any changes in the brewery market while remaining competitive yet friendly, and Smyth said he's enthusiastic about the rapidly growing number of craft breweries, but hopes they live up to a high standard.
"We want to get our beer out a little bit more and we want to be players in the different fields of what breweries are opened up around us," Curtis said.
Sarah Gangraw is a contributing writer for the Central Florida Future.


Creative Liberty | Celebrating and exploring the creative process!
Photo by Zsuzsanna Kilian. Courtesy of SXC.
Erika Hall, the author of "Just Enough Research," and the co-founder of Mule Design Studio, a San Francisco-based interactive design consultancy, makes a persuasive case for not following all the current cool design kids down the path of failing early and often. Her point is that ignoring the importance of research – which she defines as "a set of activities (ideally somewhat organized) that help businesses gather the additional information they need to achieve a goal" – actually takes even more time (in terms of chasing ideas down blind alleys or solving problems that no one encounters in reality) than studying a creative design issue the old fashioned way. A great contrarian take on one of the big creative memes of our age.
The handmade feel to Pinterest's offices is actually the expression of something deeper, says (brand designer Victor) Ng–a core value that is likely key to the company's success.
"There's a value in the company called 'knitting,' which essentially means collaboration," says Ng …. "Knitting" applies not just to work projects, he explains, but to the crafting of Pinterest's own physical space. And indeed, beyond that, the spirit of "knitting" applies to any of the various aspects of Pinterest's culture that are about individuals creating and sharing with the group: the baked goods the recruiting team brings in every Friday [and] the weekly "Studio Nights" on Thursdays when anyone in the company can share a skill with the others (recent topics have included sushi-making and beeswax craftsmanship).
"It's all part of the culture of making that we try to encourage," says Ng.
Painter Christine Martell has produced a really fine essay that discusses her choice to take on an artistic challenge that previously had her feeling intimidated: participating in a plein-air painting day in her community. She went so far as to get on the committee organizing the event, and she was planning to participate as well (this essay was written in September 2013).
She mentions some great strategies for taking on challenges that stretch a person creatively – including not trying to challenge oneself on too many levels at once (i.e., since she's really stepping out with painting outdoors in public, she's going to use media familiar to her), bringing friends along to play, and not making it competitive – but my favorite part of her post is her explanation for why she decided to do it.
Why am I doing it anyway? This is how I grow artistically. I push myself to continually try new things. Whether it be new subject matter, new technique, new media, or new approach, I seek ways to challenge myself to do things I'm not good at. I don't make the same kind of leaps when I stay safe and execute the same things over and over. This is definitely a feel the fear and do it anyway concept.
This article is a great one to pull out any time you need inspiration to reach beyond what you're comfortable with to grow and develop creatively.
Over the years, I've interviewed many people for Creative Liberty about their creative habits and how they maintain a life that allows creative flourishing. I've also pondered the fate of the artist at work – that intersection of making art and making a living. However, when I saw that Pamela Slim was coming out with her new book Body of Work, I immediately sent off a request for an interview, because I could tell this was a book that would bridge the gap some of us experience between flourishing in our creative discipline and feeling like we are crafting a successful career.
I posted a review of the book a few days ago, and it's well worth the read. At the end of December, Pamela and I had a lovely phone conversation. Here are some highlights from that interview.
Pamela hard at work in her office!
Creative Liberty: Tell me how you came to write this book, and how it fits with the message of your first book.
Pam Slim: What I had noticed over the past 8 years since Escape from Cubicle Nation was published was that in working with early-stage entrepreneurs, there was a light and a dark side … People would end up believing that working for oneself was the only way to experience freedom, when I never put that forward. I was quite fond of my time in Corporate America…. In the new book, I wanted to open up the discussion about how to create our own security in a market that's more uncertain than ever.
Creative Liberty: Although there's plenty in the book that creative people can gain from, it's not aimed entirely at artists and innovators. What parts of the book do you think will be most useful for creatives?
Pamela Slim: The most relevant chapters are Chapter 5, on creativity; Chapter 7, on collaboration; and Chapter 9, on selling your story.
For entrepreneurs, getting good at creating, and definitely getting good at getting your work shipped, is very important. Building a collaborative network is also important, especially if you're moving into a new area. And everyone needs to improve their storytelling abilities. We all have to tell someone a story to convince them to work with us.
Creative Liberty: I especially liked the tip in the chapter on creativity and innovation that urged readers to "think like a scientist." What did you mean by that and how can it help creative people?
Pamela Slim: When doing something new or creating from the heart, it's easy to look at things in terms of success or failure … When we release our art into the world, it's a sensitive time. If it doesn't go well, it's far healthier to take an objective view and ask, "I wonder what happened?" Other people may have succeeded because they had a huge platform of support, had a timely idea, or had more resources to pour into the launch of their work. When we're able to look at a situation objectively, it's possible to discover things that will help us be more successful next time.
Creative Liberty: You spend some time in the book discussing how to deal with the shame of failure. Why is this important for someone building a body of work?
Pamela Slim: The decision to include material on dealing with shame comes from the sort of work I do. I spend hours in heart to heart conversations with people [who are launching new ventures]. What people see of that process in public and on social media is an overview that skips many steps. It doesn't show the weeks of time when we may have felt self-doubt, stuffing Oreos in our mouth and grappling with uncertainty.
For people who are unknown, it is part of the creative process to experience shame. If it's not discussed, people beat themselves up more. … If we recognize it's normal and we have ways to deal with it, that's very important.
Creative Liberty: One of the things about the book's focus that struck me as interesting is that it provides a platform for viewing service-oriented activities (social entrepreneurial projects or volunteering) as directly tied to our "body of work." How do you think this is different from the status quo (the way we tend to view volunteer/service activities now), and how might this play out in the life of a creative person?
Pamela Slim: In the creative community, we have seen 2 extremes when it comes to this question – the starving artist who suffers joyfully for his or her art, but who must be broke to be any good, and the person who makes the choice to monetize everything.
In my chapter on the definition of success, I note that some people prefer to make an impact. Money isn't really part of it. What's important is that you focus on what's important to you. … You need to decide what you require in order to feel successful, and then ask yourself how you are going to fund that. The person who should judge that is the person doing the creating – not me.
Creative Liberty: Is there anything else you'd like to share that's relevant?
Pamela Slim: I've noticed that when I've presented the Body of Work perspective to clients, they've reacted with relief. In the entrepreneur's world, there is too much focus on differentiating "work" (a full-time wage job) from startup ventures.
As the book is released, I am expecting some push-back from those representing traditional work paths. Recruiters may read it and say "I'm not going to be interested in hiring someone whose job history is all over the place, versus someone with a focused career path." My response will be to point out how many fewer people have been able to pursue a focused path thanks to the economy, and how fewer people who are coming out of school today actually want that kind of path.
When you separate various types of work modes from the "traditional" path for a particular type of creation, people have choices. For example, to do an outdoor art installation, you can seek grants, do a crowdfunding campaign, or work on commission. It may be possible to do creative work within an organization – simply realizing that provides relief and support for many people.
The Take-Away: The Myths of Creativity is a highly readable book that's a solid summary of research and anecdotal evidence about what really works when it comes to encouraging creativity and innovation.
The Review: I became acquainted with David Burkus' writing through LDRLB, an online publication of his that shares insights from research on leadership, innovation, and strategy. Unlike many academics (Burkus is assistant professor of management at the College of Business at Oral Roberts University), his writing is accessible and easy to digest. So when I saw that he was producing a book debunking commonly held beliefs about creativity, I knew I had to see it.
He was kind enough to send me a review copy, and I have not been disappointed. The Myths of Creativity covers a range of erroneous assumptions members of our culture tend to make about the creative process, from the Eureka myth (creative insights come out of the blue, like lightening bolts) and the Breed myth (creatives are a special "type" unlike other people), to the still all-to-commonly applied Incentive myth (which posits that increasing external rewards will amplify the level of creativity being produced).
Burkus is not the first person to explore this territory – Scott Burkun covered much of the same territory in his Myths of Innovation. However, Burkus' new book has an exceptionally high level of readability without "dumbing down" what he is writing about. He's also focused on helping readers understand why perfectly good ideas do NOT thrive at a certain moment in the marketplace or world stage, then blossom later, either in the hands of the original creator or a new innovator who tries a different approach or combines the original creator's inspiration with something else.
The Myths of Creativity is a good read for any artist or innovator who wants to understand why their creations are getting "stuck" before launching out into the world, or for anyone who wants fact-based responses to those who reduce creativity to a simple set of outdated and stereotyped notions.
Photo courtesy of Thad Zajdowicz via SXC.
Adventure photographer Dan Bailey provides three very good tips on how to get your ideas and works of art/innovation flowing again: change your environment, use a different tool, and use limitations or aribitrary "rules" to shake up your mind.
A few weeks ago, I bought a harmonica. Totally new instrument that requires completely different techniques that my brain and body aren't nearly as familiar with. I'm still playing music, but since I have to think and work in a new way to make sounds and melodies, my creative mind is being exercised in an entirely new way. I come up with original ideas that I'm able to expand on when I go back to the guitar.
Sometime I'll even switch to an entirely new medium for awhile, such as sketching or writing. Stuck on picture taking? Try writing a story or drawing a picture. It's not pictures, but it's still creativity.
This is a very cogent piece by Richard Florida, who wrote "The Rise of The Creative Class," about a recent UK study that backs up a key thesis of his – that it is the activities of creative individuals, regardless of whether they work for a firm or industry categorized as creative, that drives innovation in a city. He argues that cities should shift away from focusing on innovation at the company level and note instead the creative individuals that carry novel practices from employer to employer in a given geographic area.
I think part of the reason Florida was so successful was that he offered a very simple and cheap solution for localities to turn around their economies. He was providing an easy-to-achieve blueprint for economic redevelopment, centered around the idea that all a city with a stagnant economy needs to do to jumpstart its economy is to provide cultural amenities to appeal to the "creative class". But the data tell a very different story. If you look at the history of American creative cities, what I would call the innovation hubs today, typically they first became rich and prosperous and then they became creative and cool. The evidence point to a blueprint for economic development where jobs come first, and cultural amenities follow. This is exactly the opposite of Florida's blueprint.
Paul, a journalist, provides her take on a recent study by assistant professor Alaa Ahmed and two of her colleagues in the integrative physiology department at the University of Colorado-Boulder, which found that over-rehearsing a skill eventually helped the neural process underlying the skill far more efficient, even once there was no further visible improvements in the skill.
Paul speculates on what this might mean.
The brain uses up energy, too, and through overlearning it can get by on less. These gains in mental efficiency free up resources for other tasks: infusing the music you're playing with greater emotion and passion, for example, or keeping closer track of your opponent's moves on the other side of the tennis court. Less effort in one domain means more energy available to others.
Overall, the post underscores the value of deliberate practice.
A bit of a wonky read, but this post walks readers through the reasons that our current business environment is not producing big breakthrough innovations that are also producing lots of new jobs. He bases much of his post on Professor Clayton Christensen's essay "The Capitalist's Dilemma" and offers ideas on how to chart a bolder, more productive way forward.
Like dogs, dolphins and small children, Creativities perform well when coaxed into action by the promise of treats. Small outings or even a simple change of routine can replenish the creative well that keeps we Creativities functioning at our whacky best.
Some of my favorites on the list include a trip to the museum, visiting an inspiring friend and having a "do nothing" day.
3. Do search. But in order to find that other than what is searched for.
How It Works: Open an account once you have downloaded the app and Zite will guide you through a topic set-up. You can add more topics later based on your Twitter or Facebook feeds, or delete ones you don't like. You can then review your news feed either topic by topic or through the "top stories" mixed feed.
No way to adjust profile settings once it is set up – I think it is drawing on the Twitter and Facebook feeds on the mobile device and if you want to change what feed it draws from, there is no easy way to do that.
The settings tab takes you to a lame FAQ page on Zite's blog and an email link to support – extremely misleading!
I evaluated Zite with an eye to its suitability as a tool for creative cross-pollination. It has proven to be useful in that regard, although the flaws I pointed out related to the profile settings limit its ability to provide content if you divide your digital life across several social media accounts.
Zite recently began a series of interviews with VIP users. Several of those profiled are creatives and their answers shed additional light on the potential of the app as a creative tool.


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'We woke up in an occupied city' Sverdlovsk's governor spends two hours in negotiations with protesters, and here's how that turned out
Sverdlovsk Region Public Communications Department
On the evening of May 13, Yekaterinburg witnessed the start of mass, unplanned protests against the construction of a new cathedral in one of the city's central parks. Demonstrators toppled a chain link fence that appeared around the site earlier that morning, before a group of men identifying themselves as "church supporters" forced the protesters back to the perimeter and restored the fence. The next day, Sverdlovsk Governor Yevgeny Kuivashev sat down together with representatives on both sides of the issue to hear their arguments. The meeting lasted more than two hours. Meduza presents a summary of the opposing positions.
Opponents of the cathedral's construction in the public park at October Square:
We're not looking for a fight. The demonstrators in the park are just people who have come to defend one of their favorite spots in the city. Our goal is to find a solution that satisfies all sides.
We exhausted all democratic and legal options — both the courts and appeals to the president. We tried to start a dialogue with representatives from the St. Catherine's Foundation and City Hall, but nobody would talk to us.
We didn't provoke what happened on May 13, and the situation is now beyond our control. We've passed the point of no return. People realized that they have no chance of being heard, though this is precisely what they want.
None of this would have happened, if we'd all come to the negotiating table sooner. Now we have to reset the situation and remove the fence.
There are no conspiracies or secret sponsors behind these protests. According to polling, 40 percent of the city is against the cathedral. There are people who will protest against the cathedral, no matter where they put it, but this describes just a percentile of the people who turned out on May 13. The rest of the demonstrators just came to protect this park and the nature it makes available to the public.
For a constructive dialogue, there needs to be mutual trust, but we don't have that right now. On May 13, the public was confronted by armed men guarding a fence. It's like we woke up in an occupied city. You can't build a church with automatic weapons and violence.
We need a legal assessment of the actions by the city's law enforcement. The police totally ignored the use of violence and tear gas by RMK guards. Why did the officers and the riot police protect them?
Let's find a site that suits everyone, and then let's decide on a good construction project. Right now, people think of 280-foot-tall concrete walls and they ask, "Who needs that?" The cathedral should bring us together, not divide us like this.
Supporters of the cathedral's construction in the public park at October Square:
The only compromise you suggest is moving the cathedral's construction to another site, but we're perfectly aware that there will be new opponents at any other site.
This project went through all the necessary procedures. There was a decision by the City Council, and City Hall hosted public discussions on its website. More than 3,500 people voted for the project, and just 300 voted against it.
The people who don't like this project need some kind of hype to keep their cause alive. You know you've exhausted your legal options, so you called people out into the streets.
It's strange for you to accuse the cathedral's supporters of neglecting public opinion and escalating the conflict, when it was you peace-loving citizens who knocked down the fence, overran the guards, and occupied a site that doesn't belong to you.
We're living in a real-live Groundhog Day right now: we've been through all this since 2010. We've been moving the construction site for the past decade, which is proof that we're willing to compromise. But what we've received in return is rioting and mass unrest, not a constructive dialogue.
We know there's never any consensus in the creative sphere, whether it's ballet or an art exhibition, and you're suggesting something that's impossible here: consensus.
Your position has no credibility, unfortunately. We have respect for you as activists — we even have love. Today and going forward, we'll pray for you that we don't come to hate one another.
Moving the construction site would be spitting in the faces of the 20,000 people who came to Yekaterinburg's procession of the Cross in April. They are people, too, and they're just as good as you.
Activists say they're worried about the trees. Gather all your activists, dig up these trees, and go plant them somewhere else.
There will always be people in our city with views we don't like. The fact that Russian Orthodox Christians have remained silent for the past nine years doesn't mean they're indifferent about this. We've simply tolerated it, and now our patience is worn thin.
We believers are deeply and still quietly hurt that we were denied a construction permit at a historical site, and sadly the news website E1 airs insults against believers and the patriarch.
It's excellent that we've gathered at the table now. We have demonstrated our commitment, twice agreeing to move the cathedral to another location, in the interests of peace and love. Now we have the right to expect concessions from your side, out of concern for peace and love.
Please, don't count on the police to be the main moderators in these events. On May 13, the officers were right to stand back. The police shouldn't have intervened and dispersed the crowd.
Opponents of the cathedral's construction anywhere on public grounds
The sticking point isn't that the public wasn't consulted. There will always be people against any project. The problem here is that the cathedral's supporters are always trying to build on public land. If this is a private initiative, let them build it on private land. Why do they need to be in this public park?
If people are unhappy about this, it means our laws need more work. You should be thanking the people who came out to express their opinions. Thank God that some people still care.
Let's ask the public where they'd like the cathedral to be. We don't oppose the cathedral or Russian Orthodoxy, but let's offer a choice of construction sites, so the public can choose. This is a democracy, after all. Not everyone voted for the president, but we all still accept him.
Supporters of the cathedral's construction anywhere
There are 1.5 million people living in this city. If the majority support the project, but 500 people are against it, then you're saying it's no good? You had 500 people turn out on May 13. In other words, the rest of the city apparently supports the cathedral. So where's the logic?
An Orthodox cathedral would add both spiritually and aesthetically to the city. We're not talking about another shopping mall here.
History is repeating itself. When they built the Eiffel Tower, the locals didn't like it. Some time passed and then it became France's national symbol. Ninety-five percent of the people in Sochi were against all the construction for the Olympics, and now everyone thinks it's become one of Russia's best cities. Rest assured that everyone will be happy with the cathedral, 20 years from now.
Try to imagine this conversation happening in a Muslim country, with some of the public opposing the construction of a new mosque. If our main religion is Russian Orthodoxy, then what's the problem?
We've already made compromises. We chose a new construction site. This project wasn't designed on a napkin — it cost money — and that's another compromise. Attempts to find further compromises are just an effort to muddy the waters and keep the process going forever. They won't admit it, saying that they're supposedly Orthodox, but this isn't true, of course.
How do we know this? There are criteria: an anticlerical fuse connected to an anti-state attitude. The Church is guilty only of finding a common language with the state. Like the state, we love our country, which is why this falls to us! It falls to all patriotic forces.
You tell us not to look for secret conspiracies, but we disagree. Let's take a look! You've got a representative from E1 on your side. And how long has E1 been a media outlet? You were a typical hostile voice of the Americans!
If somebody has a problem with the fence, they should have gone to court. But you decided to take down the fence, when democratic procedures didn't go your way. In other words, you resorted to terrorist actions. And there's no negotiating with terrorists.
Governor Yevgeny Kuivashev
I invited you here to talk about what happened on May 13. What happened was frightening. There was every reason to prosecute for property destruction, but I insisted on no arrests. Law enforcement will act within the bounds of the law.
People held public hearings, they designed the project, they filed the paperwork, and they chose the site. There are no legal grounds to cancel the construction.
I personally might have liked the city's television tower, but it was a public safety threat. It was unfinished, pieces were constantly falling off, and I couldn't finish the construction. It could have ended up another "Winter Cherry." So I made the decision to demolish it, and the protests turned political, just like on May 13.
Now we're dealing with a cathedral. There used to be a church here. Why don't believers have the right to build a new one in the same place? They're advocating historical justice. In 200 years, there won't be a Yeltsin Center or a drama theater, but there will be a cathedral.
I'm on the Internet, too, and I can see that there are political processes brewing, sometimes artificially. On your end, an unpermitted demonstration is being organized, and you're either its unwitting or knowing participants. I want to warn you against doing anything stupid. Apply for a permit and hold a rally. What happened on May 13 is over the line.
For more about Yekaterinburg's protests
On second day of anti-cathedral protests, Yekaterinburg residents toss fencing into ponds and try to avoid arrest
'You want a church, we want a park, and that means war' On the ground for night one of protests in Yekaterinburg against the construction of a new cathedral
Anti-cathedral protesters arrested in Yekaterinburg charged with hooliganism as two are jailed
Pavel Merzlikin, Irina Kravtsova, Sultan Suleimanov, and Konstantin Benyumov

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Whether rating hotels by luxury standards, historic significance or friendliness toward kids and family pets, Siesta Key accommodations get a thumbs-up. A tropical paradise defined by towering palms and turquoise waters, the 8-mile-long barrier island with its white sand beaches creates a scenic backdrop for Siesta Key's best hotels.
The Inn at Siesta Key captures the essence of historic Florida life. The Cottage, one of six units, dates to 1936 and is one of the oldest homes on the barrier isle. Each distinctive unit inspires beach living's easy-going style. The intimate one bedroom/one bath and two bedroom/two bath units feature fully equipped kitchens and casual furnishings. Beach lovers have only to step across the road to access their bliss. Take advantage of the free use of beach chairs and umbrellas for enjoying Florida sunshine. A heated on-site pool offers another swimming and sunning option. Explore Siesta Village shops, restaurants, pubs and island nightlife located just a five-minute walk from the inn.
Relaxation is the name of the game at the upscale beachside Hyatt Residence Club. Its 44 luxury condo-style units range from 1,800 to 3,000 square feet and include multiple bedrooms and full kitchens. They'll stock the refrigerator before arrival, arrange babysitting services, dinner reservations and set up on-site spa appointments or golf tee times. Soak up Florida warmth from the beachfront pool with private cabanas or relax to the sound of lapping waves from your beachside hammock. Rent bicycles and kayaks to explore Gulf waters or the isle. When unwinding indoors, visit the hotel's fitness center, request in-room dining, or ask to check out a laptop, game system, books and movies.
Kids and pets get in on Siesta Key vacation action at Turtle Beach Resort. Situated along Montego Bay, one- and two-bedroom cottages and studio units each offer private patios, hot tubs and hammocks. Several feature full kitchens and water views. For an adults-only experience, book a stay at the sister Turtle Beach Inn. Settle into a one-bedroom or studio suite tucked into a private tropical setting. Suites include hot tubs and kitchenettes. Both lodging facilities provide complimentary beach chairs, fishing gear, canoes, kayaks and access to the heated outdoor pool.
Birdsong and tropical breezes create a tranquil escape at The Capri at Siesta boutique resort. The Capri rents by the day or week and offers comfort and privacy. The resort sits only 200 steps from the highly rated Crescent Beach known for its fine, white sand and stunning sunsets. Choose from the resort's 10 accommodation options, which include studio, suite and villa units, all with kitchenettes. A private courtyard, lush landscaping, heated pool, grills, shuffleboard and volleyball courts invite both quiet moments and active play. Beach equipment rentals are available. Request a crib for a tiny tot sharing the getaway. To explore Siesta Key, check out Jonny's Original Free Ride.
The Ringling Beach House boutique hotel is a historic Spanish-style hacienda once belonging to the famed Ringling circus family. Its 12 one- and two-bedroom efficiency units have circus-themed, fun names like the "Flying Trapeze" and "Tiger." Each is individually decorated to create a personal ambiance. Siesta Beach, just across the street from the hotel, provides complimentary beach umbrellas, towels and chairs, and the property has three pools. Explore the village a short walk from the hotel. Before booking, note that the minimum night stay varies according to season. Military personnel are eligible for discounts, and pet-friendly units are available upon request.
Barber, Sally. "The Top 5 Places to Stay in Siesta Key, Florida." Travel Tips - USA Today, https://traveltips.usatoday.com/top-5-places-stay-siesta-key-florida-107151.html. 28 November 2017.


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text:
SPS-176: What's Working Right Now: BookBub Ads – with David Gaughran
Facebook, BookBub and Amazon ads
Ads Handout
In the second of this week's three-part series on advertising for authors, David Gaughran discusses the advantages of BookBub ads.
Appreciating BookBub as a reader first
Embracing BookBub's strengths, including stellar conversion rates
The ease of scaling up with BookBub ads
The importance of testing ads before scaling up
Why comparable authors matter to BookBub ads
Tips for designing your BookBub ad image
The importance of branding consistency
SAMPLE ADS: Click here to view David's ads that James and Mark analyse.
COURSE: The Ads for Authors course is opening this week for a brief enrollment period. Learn more here.
BOOK: David's book all about BookBub advertising: BookBub Ads Expert.
Transcript of Interview with David Gaughran
Speaker 1: On this edition of the Self-publishing Show.
David Gaughran: I think we're always looking for that magical button and the X factor, and a lot of it is just standing around. Inside the book I think it's pacing. That's a discussion for another day.
Speaker 1: Publishing is changing. No more gatekeepers, no more barriers. No one standing between you and your readers.
Do you want to make a living from your writing? Join indie bestseller Mark Dawson and first time author James Blatch as they shine a light on the secrets of self-publishing success. This is the Self-publishing Show. There's never been a better time to be a writer.
James Blatch: Hello. It is the Self-Publishing Show with James Blatch in Huntingdon, UK.
Mark Dawson: And Mark Dawson in Salisbury UK, which is much prettier than Huntingdon.
James Blatch: That is true, although we have a lovely market square.
Mark Dawson: You do.
James Blatch: I don't know if you've seen our market square.
Mark Dawson: I drove through it. Yes.
James Blatch: Oh did you, yes, with a war memorial sculpture called The Thinking Soldier, which is really worth a visit, designed by … who was that naturalist Peter Scott's wife, in the 1920s, it really is a beautiful sculpture. It's a soldier contemplating the tragedy of what he's just been through. I find it very stirring.
Right, enough waffle from us. We do get criticized occasionally by somebody who doesn't like the waffle and then lots of other people say, "We love the waffle." Who knows.
We are now talking paid ads this week in these special episodes, two bonus episodes in addition to our regular Friday episode.
Yesterday we talked about Facebook ads with the excellent Shane Silvers, and today we have the also excellent Dave Gaughran to talk about BookBub ads.
I have a little BookBub love in with David at the end of this interview because they're just an organization that seem to get it right to me. They really focus on readers. Everything they do works well, and if it doesn't work well, they tweak it and make sure that it does. They're really earnest and an enthusiastic team. Actually lovely people as well.
There are lots of organizations that come and go in this indie world at the moment, and not all of them are as wholesome as we'd like them to be. But BookBub are definitely, as far as I can tell, some of the good guys.
Mark Dawson: Oh God, yeah. I went over there twice last year to Boston to see them. I strolled past, I can't remember what I doing, both times going over to conferences, I took a stop in Boston to go and see them. I spoke to like an all hands meeting to like a hundred of them the second time, and it was really great there.
They're really lovely people and they're smart, they're clever. They're working on some new things in the background that they haven't announced yet that I think will be really fun. Some things that people have been asking for for ages they are working on. I'm a big fan of BookBub.
Also we're not talking about their featured deals today, which is kind of the thing they're known for. But I do see occasionally in various Facebook communities that I'm in that people were moaning that BookBub ads don't work anymore. I have one answer to that, kind of like Horlicks, actually no, Horlicks doesn't sound like bollocks does it? Anyway, there you go.
James Blatch: Rowlocks, used on a boat.
Mark Dawson: Yeah, exactly.
James Blatch: That sounds like bollocks, because we can't say bollocks, can we?
Mark Dawson: We couldn't say bollocks, no. Let's say it's nonsense. They do work really well. I had one not too long ago, last month that did really well.
They're probably not as effective as they were like four years ago because like everything else there's much more competition now. Facebook ads aren't as effective as they used to be, but they're still effective. BookBub ads are still very effective too. So don't believe that if you hear it.
James Blatch: Okay, well let's talk to Dave Gaughran about the platform.
Now I should say right at the beginning, David on the day that we were due to interview suddenly had to flee to Lisbon. Not for financial reasons but because he had a domestic thing to sort out, I think he has a flat he owns there. But he very kindly, and we were communicating as he was on the bus to his flat trying to work out if the wifi would be enough.
We got a signal together in his flat, it's not brilliant and the sound is not perfect, but nonetheless, you can hear I suppose talking, so I'm just warning you that is the case in advance. Let's hear from Dave, and then Mark and I will be back to look at a couple of examples that Dave sent us after the interview.
James Blatch: Dave, welcome back to the Self-Publishing Show. I think the last time you were on the Self-Publishing Show, we were probably sitting in the clammy confines of a Floridian hotel room.
David Gaughran: We were, I remember the sound set up, we had to interfere with the air conditioning, which made it a very, very hot interview.
James Blatch: Now I'm in the cold dry air of the UK. But again, you're clammy somewhere.
Is it warm where you are?
David Gaughran: It's indescribably warm, it's about 25 degrees officially. But I think they're lying. I think it's like 55 degrees. That's what it feels like to this Irish man anyway, we're not built for the hot weather.
James Blatch: No. So you're in Portugal today, and I'm very grateful for the fact that we've snatched some time out of your busy schedule to talk about BookBub ads, which have come out of nowhere a couple of years ago, and are now part of the toolkit that many indie authors are using.
Why don't we start just to bring people up to date, because not everyone is intimately familiar with these things like we are.
What is BookBub and where did the ads platform come from?
David Gaughran: Okay, so let's start at the top. I would say even just to take off our writer hats for a minute and just think of ourselves as readers for a moment.
I think everyone should sign up to BookBub as a reader. It's a really cool website where they send out daily deals, free books, 99 cent books, 1.99 books in every possible genre. You can indicate which genres you're interested in as a reader, whether or not it's science fiction or erotic romance or anything really.
They've got about 30 different categories now and you pick whichever categories you're interested in, and you'll get an email every day with several books in it which are all going to be between free and 1.99.
Some of them will be huge authors like John Grisham, some of them will be indies. Some of them will be guys that you haven't heard of, but the big thing about it is they put a lot of effort into curation. So it's actually quite hard to get a deal, I'm sure we'll talk about that in a moment. But the level of the books you're getting recommended is usually there's a lot more curation than some of the other sites.
So even just as a reader, I recommend signing up and just seeing what's going on. I buy a couple of books a week just from the emails. It is really good quality recommendations.
As a writer, getting in that email is something that we're all shooting for. I think they only accept about 20% of applications. It's quite difficult to get a deal. The reason for that is because they have such a huge audience.
I was actually chatting to them recently and asking, because they used to have a public thing on their website saying how many readers they had, and they stopped doing that recently. I just asked them to share how many people they have on their mailing list now. It's over 10 million readers.
James Blatch: Wow.
David Gaughran: Across all their different mailing lists. So if you go to their website as an advertiser, they'll actually tell you how many people are on each category. So I think the biggest one might be crime, I think has maybe 3 million readers or something. A lot of the other sites are a lot cheaper. They have much smaller audiences.
BookBub is just like several leagues above any other site in that space where you can have your book, your deal being shown to millions and millions of readers.
James Blatch: That's why they're so sought after, as you say. I think they call them featured deal spots. Is that the terminology?
David Gaughran: Yeah, that's the nomenclature, that they have featured deals. You can sign up as a reader and you'll get several books in your email every day depending on how many genres you picked when you sign up. They'll all either be 99 cents or free or 1.99. The prices are starting to creep up a little bit.
James Blatch: Within the last couple of years, so up until maybe 18 months ago, whenever the platform changed a little bit, that was the only way you could get into that email, was to be selected. Go through that curation.
You say teams of people in Boston, who look at your reviews, look at your writing, it's properly done with humans, which is why they put a lot of effort into the quality of their recommendations, which is obviously the secret to their success.
Then they started opening up a paid slot on the emails.
David Gaughran: If you are a subscriber, if you scroll down to the bottom of your email, at the very bottom there's a little ad slot, it's almost kind of a squarish kind of box, which is a pay per click advertising platform that's open to anybody.
You don't have to apply to featured deals, you can advertise on that whenever you like, there's no real restrictions on who can advertise there. As long as you're pointed towards a book and you're advertising a book, they give you pretty much free reign.
The only thing you can't actually advertise there is a reader magnet, which is something we should point out. They won't allow you to do that. As long as your book is on sale at a retailer, or even if you're selling from your own site, you can't point to your own site, they don't want that, but as long as it's a book on sale somewhere and you're not just using this to collect email addresses they'll let you advertise pretty much anything.
What's really interesting about BookBub as an advertising platform, there's a number of things, and I think actually when it comes to any advertisement platform, whether that's Amazon ads or Facebook ads or BookBub ads, I think it's very important to lean into the unique strengths of the platform and not be rowing against the tide.
There's certain things that BookBub ads are very good at. There's certain things that BookBub ads are less good at. I think it's important to embrace the strengths, and that goes for any platform that you're advertising on.
With BookBub the unique thing that really makes BookBub ads particularly powerful, and I think people get surprised when they advertise there, once they get the hang of it and once their ads are optimized, like the conversion rates on BookBub ads are phenomenal, they're like leagues better than Amazon ads, they're considerably better than Facebook ads.
I routinely get conversion rates of 25% or higher, which is unbelievable for advertising. Sometimes it's a lot higher. I think the reason for that is because the ads are being delivered by email. Anybody that has a reasonably good email strategy will know that email is different to social channels, is different to Facebook, Twitter. It's different to even blogging, there's something more intimate about email. I think anyone with a reasonably sized mailing list will know that your conversion rates on something in an email will be a lot better than a blog post. It just converts better.
Being able to advertise in an email, like it really changes the equation. When you're running the numbers on something like Amazon ads and Facebook ads, you're often dealing with … like sometimes with Amazon ads, your conversion rate might be 5% or 10% or something like 15% of your ads are really working. When your conversion rate is that high, 25%, that really changes the equation with regards to what you're spending and what kind of return that you're getting.
James Blatch: Okay. I've got a few follow-up questions to things in those answers. So first of all, just to clarify that you can't put a book on there that's free.
You can't give a book away via this ad?
David Gaughran: Well you can, you can if your book is free on Amazon, if it's free on Kobo or Barnes and Noble. It's just not a reader magnet that you're giving away free on your website.
So I think their actual rule is if the purpose of the ad is to drive signups to an email list, it's not permitted. But any free book is fine. Any full-price book, any deal, it's usually better to have some form of deal like a 99 cent book or a free book. You get far better return on that approach because it's a deals newsletter.
That's usually the first question I get asked about BookBub ads, people want to know if they can advertise full price books there. Everyone wants to advertise full price books. That's one of the things that BookBub is actually weaker at. It's harder. It's not impossible to sell full price books.
When I say full price I mean 2.99, 3.99, 4.99.
It's a deals newsletter. So if you put yourself in the reader's shoes, which is always a good thing to do, and you imagine you're there getting your daily email, and there's books in the email from people like Stephen King, and he's selling a book for 1.99 or 99 cents, and they scroll down to your ad and you're trying to sell a 4.99 book. It's difficult.
I think BookBub's biggest strength for me is I don't advertise all the time on BookBub. I wait until I'm putting together a big promotion and then BookBub acts like this accelerant to really take a promotion to the next level. That's I think the biggest strength.
James Blatch: Okay, well I'll ask you a bit more about strategy in a moment. A couple of other quick points. You said that the advert's open to anyone, certainly in the early days you had to apply to be approved to advertise on BookBub.
Is that still the case, or is it literally a platform you can literally sign up to and advertise on?
David Gaughran: I'm pretty sure it's open to everybody now, I think that was when it was in Beta. You had to apply and they were kind of selective at the start when they were just slowly rolling it out, and then they were more open, and now I think it's just open to anybody.
So as soon as you go to BookBub you can sign up for a partner's account I think it's called and I think they approve you very quickly.
James Blatch: My final question from the opening sort of gambit was you talked about the excellent conversion rates, and they really are excellent. Emails are a more personal medium I think which is why that works like that.
So what about upscaling? Is there such a thing with BookBub ads? If you're getting great returns, most people would be happy to put more money in.
David Gaughran: Yeah, for sure. This is actually my favorite thing about BookBub ads because I think people get very surprised when they start using BookBub ads about how responsive the platform is. They're used to, with Amazon ads sometimes you're waiting up to three days to get reports on how your ads are doing. That for me feels like swimming in treacle or something, you know?
An ad might be taking off and then we only find out three days later when you're trying to turn up the budget that you've got to wait three more days to see the results of that.
With BookBub it's almost instantaneous. You can put up an ad and within five minutes it'll start serving. Facebook sometimes takes an hour or two to fully kind of ramp up. BookBub, it goes from zero to 60 in the click of a finger.
So that has good points and bad points. If your ads are bad, it means you can lose money very quickly. If your ads are good, it means you can scale up almost instantaneously. So you have to be a little bit smarter about how you manage it.
I kind of micromanage my BookBub ads a little bit, where I'll only give them a budget of $10 or $15 until I see that the ad is converting really well. Then I will turn it up. If you wanted to spend $200 in an afternoon, it'll do that. It'll do it very well if your ads are optimized. So it's a really good tool to have in your toolbox.
My main use for BookBub ads up until about a year ago was kind of the get out of jail free card, because there's no other platform that responsive. If I was doing a big marketing campaign or a giant launch, I would keep BookBub ads in my back pocket. If something was going slightly off-kilter, I knew I could throw down $300 or $400 or $500 and get a certain amount of sales for that.
Once you get a hang of the platform, it's the most predictable and most consistent and most responsive platform.
James Blatch: Great.
David Gaughran: That as I said cuts both ways. If you go in there and you haven't tested your ads and you haven't tested your images, your targeting, and you throw down $100 you'll lose it in a second and you'll see very little back from that. So I think it's really, really important to go through the testing process and take that slowly and spend a bit of time nailing down which author targets will actually work for you on BookBub.
James Blatch: Mark's very keen on people starting slowly, starting small and scaling up slowly as well when that happens, although by the sounds of it, BookBub is the platform where you can move quickly once you sort of hit that oil spurt.
David Gaughran: Yeah. In my experience with Facebook, I tend to start slowly there as well, but you kind of have to ratchet it up. I might increase the budget from like $10 to $50 to $100, and kind of check it everywhere along the way to make sure nothing has gone wrong.
With BookBub I find if that $10 or $15 is returning a good CTR, I can just turn it up and then I know that it's going to work. So it's nice to have something kind of hands-off like that in your toolbox. It's very, very useful.
James Blatch: Okay. So let's go back to strategy. You started alluding to how you use the platform in your cycle of bookselling.
Let's take an average author who might produce two or three books a year. It seems like quite a lot from where I'm sitting, but it seems to be what people do. You've talked about it being a launch tool.
Where should they be looking at BookBub?
David Gaughran: I think a lot of this will come down to whether you're exclusive with Amazon or whether you're a wide author, because I think there's kind of two different approaches to marketing depending on which way you're going with your books. So let's talk about a wide author for a moment first.
They'll tend to lean more on things like permafree, so you're using BookBub ads there, you'll have more of a kind of drip. You might just have a daily budget of $5, $10, $20 a day depending on your needs. They'll be slow in following people into your free book, into your other books in the series. That's where your profit is.
With a KU author it's a bit different, you approach marketing in a different way. Or at least I do for KU books, I tend to focus more on doing big huge promotions over a five day period, or a seven day period, with your KDP Select five-day free run, or you're doing a countdown deal for seven days.
I tend to focus the marketing in that period, and then do pretty much no marketing for the rest of the month. Sometimes for even longer, I can just post off the last of what I've done in those five to seven days. So in that case then you're looking to spend as much money as possible in a window.
It's a very different kind of approach. But the good thing about BookBub ads is, you can scale up really, really fast as we were saying. Which you can't really do with AMS or Amazon ads. It's very difficult. It doesn't have that kind of instant feedback to give you, to let you know how you're doing with it.
For me, at least with Amazon ads, I find it just gets kind of a nice baseline sales. I can't, if I want to go and spend $1,000 in five days. I can't really do that on Amazon ads. I can definitely do that on BookBub.
James Blatch: Amazon ads notoriously difficult to scale up, I know this. So, and just to clarify, as you mentioned, wide exclusives, I should have asked that at the beginning. There's no reason if you're exclusive to Amazon, that you can't run BookBub ads, because I think as I remember right in the email, you get tabs basically underneath the book to where you want to buy it.
If you're exclusive to Amazon, you would just have the Amazon tab there. Others might have Kobo and Apple, etc, there as well.
David Gaughran: Right. So when you're a reader and you sign up, you indicate which retailer you buy from. Some people will indicate multiple retailers, but most readers just have one retailer when they buy from, whether that's iBooks, or Kobo, or Amazon. And so they will only see Kobo deals in their newsletter.
So if you're a KU author, if you're exclusive to Amazon, you will only show your ad to people who are buying at Amazon.
Same goes for Kobo and iBooks, and Barnes and Noble. They have a very good system with making sure the right people see the right ads. You have that level of targeting on there. There's not a huge amount of options with BookBub ads, it's not like Facebook where you can kind of get lost in all the options. But you can target by retailer, you can target by country which is very useful.
So if you only want to advertise in the US and the UK, for example, which you might want to do if you have a countdown deal, for example, because they're only in the US and the UK. They don't exist in Canada so you don't want to advertise the Canadian people. BookBub allows you just to show your ad to people in the US and UK.
Or for example, maybe you're trying to actively build up in a certain market. Maybe it's the Australian market. You want to spend a bit extra there, to build up your readership there. You can just run ads to the Australian market, or same goes for if you want to actively build up at Barnes and Noble or Apple. You can spend more money there or you can just target those readers if you want.
The most important thing about targeting, which we should probably talk about, is that the main targeting of BookBub, and this is what makes it pretty unique, is just done by author. You can target by genre, but that's not really recommended because as I said, there's millions of readers on some of these lists, so you don't want to advertise to three million people. You want to drill down to the author who was a good comp author. Someone who writes similar to you, or you share an audience with. And that's the best way to approach BookBub ads.
James Blatch: Finding out those authors, we've had some discussion about this in the past, and a few authors have told us they've been surprised after they'd been operating for a year or so of running a survey or looking at the auto bot, that you can't necessarily easily predict what sort of other authors you're comparable to. You might have one idea, but your readers might have another idea.
Is there any help within the BookBub universe to find those authors for you?
David Gaughran: Well, I just want to speak about comp authors more generally and then I'll talk about how it works in the BookBub ecosystem because it's a little bit different to platforms that people might be more familiar with.
This is one of many areas where our inner artist leads us astray, and when we talk about comp authors. So I think a lot of us, well I do anyways, get kind of tied up in knots when I start thinking about comp authors. Who do I write like? If I'm going to say I write like Bernard Cornwell, he sold 100 million books or something. So that seems like a big claim to make. I think the best way to think about is, who do I share an audience with, instead of who do I write like?
Because if you start thinking about who you write like, you might write like nobody. If you drill down far enough your voice is unique. That's your fingerprint as an author. But who do you share an audience with? I can say I share an audience with Bernard Cornwell. I'm not beating myself up too much there or making any bold claims.
But we are aiming for the same set of readers. He's doing it slightly more successfully than I am, but we are aiming at the same segment of the market. So I can say Bernard Cornwell is a comp author for me. That's just speaking generally. He is a good target for me on Amazon ads and on Facebook.
But when you come to BookBub, BookBub is its own little universe. I think a lot of people will have already advertised on Amazon ads or Facebook as well before they come to BookBub, and they might have a list of authors that they target on Amazon, and they target on Facebook.
They might even be in their also boughts on Amazon and they are in the real world, good comp authors for them. That doesn't mean they're going to be a good comp author for you on BookBub. BookBub is its own little world with its own little rules, and you have to individually test each author on BookBub to make sure it's a good complimentary author for you on BookBub.
The reason for that is partly down to how BookBub is structured. So they've been building out all these social aspects to the site. It's getting more than the deals newsletter that we talked about. It's turning more into kind of a Goodreads, where readers can review books and they can follow authors. They want to make the site a bit more of a destination now, and that's definitely the way they've been pivoting over the last couple of years.
And that means that some authors who might be a genuinely huge author in the real world mightn't have too many followers on BookBub, because you imagine followers that you have as an author. Like I think I have, I don't know, five or six thousands followers now. There's some like genuinely huge Nobel Prize-winning authors who might only have a couple of thousand followers on BookBub. Even though they've sold, 50 million books or something, because what gets you followers on BookBub is running featured deals and running advertisements. They're the things that will generate followers.
So there might be someone, I think in my book, I talked about Isabel Allende, she's either won the Nobel prize or has been in the running for it several times. She's sold a hundred million books or more, critically claimed, huge career, lots and lots of books. And she only has a couple of thousand followers because her publisher has never run a feature deal for her books, and she's never run any BookBub ads.
In the world of BookBub, she's not a huge author. So someone who you think will be a solid gold comp author for you, might not be in BookBub. You have to test it individually there.
James Blatch: And this is the reason you start low with those £5 and £10 investments and watch carefully.
David Gaughran: Yes. In my book, I think it's something like 25% of the book is all about the testing process. I'll be straight with you, it's the bit that people find most frustrating. But you only have to do once. The good thing about BookBub as we said before, is the consistency.
So if I discover that an author is a good comp author for me on BookBub, that won't change. I haven't had to ditch any of my comp authors over the last couple of years. I think there was only one time when I had to remove an author from my targeting because he just blew up, and he had so many followers that it just became too big an authors to target. But aside from that, if you're getting good results targeting an author, you will continue to get good results and you don't have to rejig that at all.
James Blatch: So for people who want to start out on BookBub ads, I think we have one bit of advice you gave right at the beginning, is make sure you're a reader on their list so you understand how it works in the email. Become familiar with all of that. I think that's a really good tip for anybody.
In fact, you should think like a reader for every platform by the way. That's a really important part of you being a good advertiser on there.
Would you recommend they start by trying to get a feature deal or does it not matter whether you've had a feature deal in the past?
David Gaughran: I think you should. If you have a chance to get a feature deal, you should grab it with both hands. If there's no such thing as a sure thing in the world of marketing. But a BookBub feature deal is definitely the closest thing to it.
They are expensive. I think for the biggest categories, like crime, I think they run to something like $1,000. For the smaller categories where they have considerably less audience. I think it might only be $250. But that's still a fair chunk of change.
But I will say that you will make that money back. Like 99% of people make that money back within 24 hours. A good chunk of them will double or triple their money over the next couple of days. A BookBub deal, the bigger categories can throw you into the top 50 on Amazon.
It really is huge, you'll sell thousands of books. So if you get a chance for a feature deal, absolutely go for it. Problem is, you usually don't get accepted, and you still want to access that huge audience of 10 million readers, because these guys really are readers. They are power readers, they're definitely the guys that you want on your mailing list, that you want working through your series. So it's a really valuable audience to reach. So if you can't get a featured deal, basic BookBub ads, it's not your plan B.
I think like you know there's a lot of uses for BookBub ads even if you're one of the authors that is getting featured deals every month. You still want to advertise to this audience because it's something that you control, and you can do whatever you like. There's a lot of, things you can do with the ad platform that you can't do with featured deals, because you don't control that as directly. But the two can be quite symbiotic and feed off each other.
James Blatch: So okay, you move onto your first foray into advertising on BookBub.
If you've got a series, is it the traditional advertising thing of focusing on the first book in the series for your advertising money?
David Gaughran: Yeah. That strategy isn't bad. But I think the most important thing with BookBub ads is to make sure that you have some kind of offer in the ad. As I said before, you can advertise full price books. But if you're trying to do that in your first go, before you've really nailed down your targets, and before your images are really good quality, it's really, really difficult.
So I strongly, strongly recommend starting out advertising a deal. Like a $0.99 I think is best of all, because especially when you're testing, because sometimes you'll get very high click-through rates on a free deal, and they might mask some kind of problems with your targeting and image.
But a $0.99 cent deal is definitely best for testing, for checking which authors will work best for you. For checking your images, I think this is something that authors don't spend enough time on.
I think some people get a little bit lazy or maybe they're not graphic designers, which is fine. You can hire it out, you can hire someone to design a BookBub ad for you for I think $20 or $30 is what I paid the last time I hired it out. I make to myself now in Canva, and I am not remotely artistic. But just with practice I've gotten pretty good at designing BookBub ad images now. So I think anybody can do it,
Canva is free. So you can just play with it and see if it's something that's going to work for you. But if you really don't want to do that, just hire it out, $20 or $30. You'll have a BookBub ad, and if you design it in the right way, you'll be able to reuse that multiple times.
But actually the best thing, and the easiest things to do, is when you're getting your book cover done, for a small amount extra, and sometimes designers will just throw this in for free, get all sorts of promo graphics made with your book cover. Like get a Facebook header image, a Twitter image, some branding for your website.
For a small amount of extra money, you can get all these extra images. For a professional designer, who has all the tools at their disposal, they can knock this stuff up really quickly once you tell them the dimensions that you need for a BookBub ad, or for Facebook ads, they'll be able to knock them out pretty quickly, and you'll be able to just reuse them.
Get a few variations so you can test and see what works. But yeah, spend a bit of time on the image, especially at the start before you know what audiences really respond to.
I think one of the traps that people fall into tends to be like with Facebook, there used to be very strong restrictions around texts. They've changed that a little bit, but BookBub, there's no restrictions. Again, one of the unique things about BookBub ads, is it's just the image that's doing the selling for you. You don't have any text there at all.
People tend to go a bit wild with that freedom and put too much text on their ads. Some of them have 50 words, and it's only a small little box.
So I would actually say a pared-back approach, I've done a lot of testing on this, and all sorts of different genres. I think a very pared back approach is usually what gets best results. I think the book cover front and center, something highlighting the deal, like a big obnoxious price tag, saying, "Free" with a button is something that people always respond to and if you have a really cool tagline, throw it in there. But if you don't have one, I wouldn't sweat it.
Sometimes just the book cover, some background and a price tag is enough and that'll work.
James Blatch: That's a really good tip you buried in there Dave, which is too, when you get your book cover done, do get the images, pay extra. It won't be very much if you're upfront from the beginning, don't try and do this afterwards. Don't deconstruct something that they've given you without their permission.
But if they know in advance you're going to want the layers for instance, and the dimensions of the various advertising platforms you work on, most of the times they would be more than happy to do that for a modest amount more.
That, as you say, makes all the difference for professional looking adverts.
David Gaughran: Yeah. Just in terms of consistent branding, if you look at the really big selling authors, we're always kind of looking for that magic bullet and the x-factor. I think a lot of is just down to branding. Inside the book, I think it's pacing. That's a discussion for another day. But outside the book, I think it's consistent branding.
You look at their bio on Amazon, you look at their Twitter profile, everything is in harmony. So when you are getting your cover design, make sure to commission all sorts of assets to go with that. Not just your BookBub ads, but Facebook ads, and your Facebook cover photo and everything.
I think that's one thing that really makes the best sellers stand apart, is that kind of consistency and branding. Actually, this is another reason why you should, even if you are commissioning all this stuff, which is what I did at the start, start playing around in Canva anyway. Just to get your hands dirty, it gives you just a deeper understanding of branding, I think, just playing around with that stuff.
James Blatch: Yeah, I mean you say for the big authors that the branding is good. There's no reason why an indie author can't actually be better at branding because we control almost every aspect, every webpage, every Facebook account, every Amazon author profile.
So you can actually be really on top of the game here.
David Gaughran: Yeah. Well now, when I think of big authors, I'm thinking of my role models, the people I'm looking to are people like Cheryl Bradshaw. I'm thinking of the big indies who are doing all the smart things. John Grisham probably doesn't even know what his branding looks like.
James Blatch: No. We always laugh when we see a traditional publishing, big author, Facebook advertising. It's usually strewn with errors.
Which reminds me whilst I'm on the subject, it would be great to see some examples of good BookBub ads Dave. Maybe something that Mark and I can talk about immediately after this interview, or put them up on the screen for people watching on YouTube. So perhaps afterward in the next day or two, if you could forward me maybe a couple of your own, or a couple of others that you've seen that have caught your eye that you think work well.
That'd be good for some best practice inspiration for people.
David Gaughran: Yeah, for sure. I should point out that BookBub has a lot of cool resources, free resources on their site. They have an excellent blog. But they have regular posts where they show some of the highest performing ads from 2018. They've lots of galleries of winning ad images. There's lots of great stuff out there that you can access and look through, and get a sense of what works for audiences in different genres.
James Blatch: Do you know percentage wise how much you're spending on BookBub compared Amazon and Facebook?
David Gaughran: Well this is really interesting because I did a survey of what I was spending on different platforms and CTRs and CPCs. Because when you have your nose to the grindstone, and you see a lot of variance, and prices going up and down, and spends and all that.
When I actually zoomed back and was just looking on a book level, on a more meta level, CPCs have remained remarkably consistent and CGRs have remained consistent, and this is across Facebook and BookBub.
But one thing that jumped out a mile was, I can probably, maybe two years ago or a year and a half ago, I could probably spend $300 or $500 on BookBub before the wheels came off. This is doing it a KU Books promotion where I'd be trying to spend as much as possible over five or seven days and just get as much visibility as possibility.
But there was a hard limit to how many people I could show my ads to where I'd still get a decent response. But now two years later, because they've built all these social aspects on site, and because they've grown their audience so much, and because all these things where people are reviewing books and recommending books, generates more emails from the website to people's inboxes. Which means there's more billboards for us to advertise on if you like.
Effectively now I can spend four or five times as much and still get the same kind of good results that make it worthwhile for me. So that's just in the space of 18 months. My effective spend has grown four or five times there. Where it's remained relatively stable on Facebook. Amazon ads, it's gone up a tiny bit, but that's where I personally have seen the biggest growth.
James Blatch: So you are fine with the BookBub Ads platform.
David Gaughran: Yeah, it's definitely got its pros and cons. Its strengths and weaknesses, but if you don't roll against the tide too much, once you know what it's good at, and lean into those strengths. For me it's my favorite ad platform right now.
James Blatch: Yeah. Great. That's a fantastic overview and a scraping down to some of the detail. I think we should say that a lot of organizations have started, in the last few years on the indie wave that's going on at the moment, sort of revolution if you want to use that word and we're quite rightly skeptical of some, and absolutely you're like the shop steward of the indie world, Dave, and you quite rightly point the finger when things aren't necessarily right.
BookBub have built, I think, a really good platform, a very reader focused platform. It's very neat. It seems to work. It's attractive to be a part of, and it's really pleasing to hear that the ads platform side of it, which is fairly new for them is in the same way is working.
David Gaughran: Yeah. And I think part of that is down to the people they have on the ground. They spend a lot of time going to all sorts of writer conferences. If you've been to any conference in the states, you probably, you probably met the team.
Some of the bigger retailers I think, they'll turn up to some events and that kind of feels like a duty for them. Like they have to be there, they're ticking a box, whereas BookBub feel like they're actually listening. Like they actually want to know what your problems are with various aspects of the platform. Again, it's not just a box ticking exercise. You'll say something to them and then they'll, fix it within a month and you're like, wow I wasn't really expecting that to happen.
James Blatch: It was a real conversation.
David Gaughran: Yeah. They are actually paying attention, but that's not just my experience. That's everyone else I talk to, and when they interface with the team, they're actually listening. They actually want suggestions, they want to build it.
It's kind of the same vibe again, when you're talking to the Kobo guys, they actually want to build things in a way that's most useful to us. Amazon is far too big to take that approach anymore. So it is really nice to have companies like that who genuinely, it's not just corporate blather. They genuinely do want to listen to our problems and try and fix them.
James Blatch: Yeah. Fantastic. Good. Dave, I'll let you get back out in the sun. I hope you've got some slap with you.
David Gaughran: I'm going to need it. I'm going to need one of those little parasols.
James Blatch: Yeah, to walk around with. Well look, we benefit a lot from your knowledge and your work and experience here.
Should we should say you have a book available, now's your chance?
David Gaughran: I do, yes. It's called BookBub Ads Expert, and it's quite a considerable tome. I think it's 40 or 50,000 words. So it goes and spends a lot of time talking about things that we couldn't really get into here. Deeper levels of strategy and how to run campaigns to support a launch, or if you've got a free book or what ways you should do things differently. If you're in KU, if you're wide.
I think as I said about a quarter of the book goes through testing because that's really the most important part. And then it's got all sorts of advanced tips at the end, which you know, once your ads are optimized, you've gone through the testing process there's some really cool things you can do once you've got your targeting nailed down.
And actually, because you were talking about interest and stuff, this was one of the funky things about eBooks, you can't really put a lot of images in eBooks. I'm sure that's something you guys have run into, without the delivery fees is getting bumped up. So this is something I just realized as I was formatting the book. I built this private page on my website, which anybody who buys the book can access, and it's got a gallery of ad images.
It's got all sorts of detailed optimization advice and it's really cool because as things change on the platform, instead of having to go back and change aspects of the book, I just put up a new section on the website. People are in the comments helping each other with targeting advice.
It's building organically into quite a cool little resource. But for anyone who's not fully on board the BookBub train just yet, there's also a free course I have. Now it's super basic. It's not going to teach you everything how to use the platform, but you want something just like bite size. I think you get 10 emails over 10 days, and you can read them in five minutes, and it'll just give you a very, very, super basic branding on the platform.
James Blatch: Awesome. Fantastic. Great. Dave, Thank you so much indeed for your time today. I really appreciate this. I know you're a busy man. A lot of traveling on your hands today. Thank you.
David Gaughran: Thanks for having me.
James Blatch: There you go. Yes. Apologies. The sound wasn't quite up to our normal standards here, certainly on the Lisbon end. However, very grateful for Dave for taking the time to do that and he speaks very eloquently about the platform, and he gave us some examples so we're going to go through those.
They are numbered one to four, they're in the pack if you go to self-publishingshow.com/ads now. A-D-S N-O-W. You can have a look at these examples along with us and we'll try and put them on screen. We will put them on screen in the YouTube version as well.
So example one. Now he did talk about less is more with BookBub ads. They're quite small at the bottom of the email and you don't need to put a lot of stuff on there. And he said one of the mistakes people make is to put too much text on screen. This is a great example of a minimalist ad that people may well click on because it tells the story in image form.
Mark Dawson: Exactly. David is pretty good at this. I have to admit, I haven't listened to the interview yet so I don't know whether he mentioned. But he has run some BookBub ads for me before, so I paid him to do a couple of months worth of work to run some BookBub ads just so I could get some data to see how they're performing.
David is very thorough when it comes to how he puts these things together, his ads together. So we're looking at Invasion first, so Jay Allen, and that's a science fiction author.
It's minimal in terms of the content. It's got the book cover. It's then got the artwork from the cover as its background, and then just the word new. So that is really skimpy in terms of the content, but the genre is obvious. It's clearly science fiction.
It's a nice bright, bright yellow box there so it will stand out of the bottom of those ads and bear in mind of course that he'll be targeting this. So it goes to readers of science fiction. So they will be very warm in terms of this, it's called Invasion. That's a very popular kind of sub-genre invasion, a subsection of invasion novels. I can see working quite well. And as you said, it really does exemplify that less can be more for these kinds of ads.
James Blatch: And you've got to keep focused on what the aim of this ad is. The aim of this ad is to get a click, and the click will go through to your Amazon page. On your Amazon page or wherever, presumably Amazon page, at that point you've got a lot more detail about the book.
You've got your blurb, you've got reviews, all the rest of it. So in a way, the more you put on this advert, once you've told people it's exciting, it's in their genre and it's new, the more you put might be reasons for them not to click. So I think that works very well in that sense.
Now there are a few more words on some of the other adverts. If we look at example two, Mark.
Mark Dawson: So that one is One Tequila by Tricia O'Malley. So a little bit different in terms of the content we've got. They've certainly got much more text. The book cover, it's a flat 2D version of the book cover, over on the left-hand side. Then just a blank background. I'm not in touch with what that background actually is, but it doesn't really matter. It's not important.
The text there, "A psychic, a witch and a voodoo priestess walk into a bar." It's very nicely establishing the tone and the content there. So we know there's going to be some kind of some magic, something along those lines is going to be contained within the book. Beneath that we've got the word in, "A magically fun mystery. More than 40 5-star reviews on Goodreads."
So establishing some social proof there with that, in terms of the number of reviews, and the fact that there are five-star reviews. Then just finally a little blue button that says, "Free today."
BookBub is subscribed to readers who are looking for deals, and some of them will be looking for free books. Obviously, BookBub is great for publicizing a free run. They also buy, BookBub have made that clear. They've got the data that suggests that readers will buy as well, and also buy at full price. But this one is appealing to the free reader crowd, and what Trisha will be hoping to achieve with this ad is to get people into her writing, into her series and then they'll progress through and buy subsequent books that come along.
James Blatch: Dave pointed out in the interview, you can't use these ads for list building. So you can't have a signup page on the end of this, but you can give a book away for free, and once hopefully your reader likes your stuff-
Mark Dawson: Dave's right. You can't send it to a landing page where they sign up for your newsletter. But what you can do is run a big free promotion like this, and make it very, very clear. This could be a reader magnet.
So they could go to Amazon, download the free book. It doesn't cost me anything. Then at the end of the free book, there's a chance to sign up for the second book, and that's your magnet to get people to join your list. So you definitely can use them to build your list. You just can't do it in, you have to have one step in between.
James Blatch: Sort of indirectly.
James Blatch: Good. And Dave's a big fan of the offers, as you rightly pointed out, Mark, as why a lot of people subscribe to BookBub, and they like offers. They like bargains because these are people who read lots of books, and it can get expensive for them. So that's a really good thing to do.
Let's look at example number three. Dave's himself.
Mark Dawson: So yes Let's Get Digital by David Gaughran. I think is that this is a bit of a chancer, and I wouldn't recommend this book at all.
James Blatch: Yes, you would.
Mark Dawson: Well it would be one of the first books I ever read, when I was getting into self-publishing. So yeah, I absolutely would recommend it. It's excellent.
So again, just to describe, it's got a keyboard as the background, which doesn't look too busy, it works quite well.
Then he's got a 3D image of what looks like a hardback book. Which is kind of curious because people won't be buying this in print. Although I'm sure he does sell a good number of them in print. But got it as a 3D hardback, and then in that yellow and black text that he favors in his ads, Kindle Daily Deal Today only. So establishing a little bit of scarcity. So you want people to get over there quickly, 0.99p.
So there's the price, and save 75%. So lots of strong messages there, and is book cover itself, meaning that he doesn't need to describe in the ad copy what the book is. Because you can read, quite clean. I think you would even be able to read this on the BookBub email, which is a little smaller: How to Self Publish and Why You Should, Let's Get Digital David Gaughran. So the whole, every message that he wants to get across there is contained in the ad in one way or another.
James Blatch: Yeah. Excellent. Very, very bargain. Heavy on that.
I've been helping my daughter with her GCSE maths revision this week. That'd be a classic question there is, what was the original price?
Mark Dawson: Well, I think it would be a 99X4 James, would it?
James Blatch: 99X4?
Mark Dawson: Isn't that right? Well, 25%.
James Blatch: No 75% off. It's going to be about £1.75 or something like that. It's complicated.
Mark Dawson: Oh okay, whatever. We don't do maths.
James Blatch: We don't do math. We have a final example to look at here, which is from Lucy Kevin.
Mark Dawson: It's actually Bella Andre.
James Blatch: No, it's from Bella Andre.
Mark Dawson: Lucky Kevin is a pseudonym for Bella. She's combining her pen names. She outed herself a while ago as Lucy Kevin.
So just a slightly different tone from her. I think Lucy Kevin is a little less racy than Bella's normal stuff. Anyway, again, so very straightforward. We've got a kind of a pastel blue background. It looks like the boards of perhaps a beach hut. At least that's what it would suggest to me. The book is called, "A Summer Wedding." With a cover of a bride and groom on a beach.
So it's definitely setting out that kind of coastal theme. Fun, flirty and romantic is the copy, five stars beneath that. Sale $0.99, again in slightly less shouty, yellow and black. And then at the top a strap line, "New York Times bestselling author." So tons of social proof there.
New York Times best selling authors, they sell lots of books so immediately your reader would know that this isn't some fly-by-night author. They've been doing it for a while. You've got the five stars they're setting up that, and the price. So a nice effective ad, not too in your face. But that would be, I think they would convert quite well for that particular market.
James Blatch: Let's talk about colors, because there's a psychology isn't there, colors and adverts. I've seen the yellows quite prominently in quite a few of the ads we've looked at.
Mark Dawson: Yeah, yellows and oranges work quite well on online platforms. I've no idea why. There may not be a psychological reason behind it. It might just be that they are displayed well on digital devices. I really have no idea, but I've always found my best performing ad ever, and I've served literally millions of impressions now. My best performing one is a very bright sunset-ty background with a single figure silhouetted against it, so quite orange.
That's always been the one that's worked best. And then just after that a slightly lighter, a light red with San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in the background has always worked quite well as well. So no idea why that is.
Dave's obviously landed on yellow as being a color that converts quite well. It does stand out well, yellow. I think if you look at, well I'm not an artist obviously. But When we could get Stuart Bache to talk about this, but I think I remember reading somewhere that black stands out particularly well on yellow.
James Blatch: Well bumblebees, it works, and wasps.
Mark Dawson: Whether Dave knows or has just come to that through testing, I don't know. But I remember reading that's a particularly good combination. Black and yellow.
James Blatch: Yeah. Good. Okay. Look, that's the BookBub ads platform. Don't stop applying for the Daily Deals, the Feature Deals as Dave says. I mean, they are fantastic and still brilliant for people.
Mark Dawson: As Mark says, I'm Mark, hello.
James Blatch: Yeah, but Dave also said that.
Mark Dawson: Oh, okay. Fair enough. I haven't heard that. I believe you.
James Blatch: Yeah, because you haven't heard his interview yet. But he does say that. He says still apply for them. And I know it's frustrating when you don't get them, but the BookBub people always tell us, just keep applying and you'll get that.
Mark Dawson: I got turned down last week. I hate it. I hate BookBub. Did I say I liked BookBub? They're dreadful. They're dreadful, bunch of useless charlatans.
James Blatch: They're lovely, lovely people, I'm looking forward to meeting up again at the conferences this year.
Okay, look, I've got an overheating camera. It went off in the middle of that, but it's back on now, which is good. But people watching on YouTube, you don't miss me because we've got backup cameras.
Mark Dawson: I don't miss you.
James Blatch: That means we're going to have a little break and a coffee, and we're going to come back and we're going to record Friday's episodes, so we had Facebook ads so far, we've had BookBub ads.
We're going to finish off with Amazon ads tomorrow, and also going to talk about your foray into the German market translation and all of that.
That's it from our second bonus episode of this first week of July, June. Oh yeah, I was going to give the date away. Do you remember we said about the Book Brush Webinar, which is coming up?
So just to say that again, that is going to be on July 2nd, the Book Brush, which is a neat little program, Canva-esque program to help you produce images for your ads. So it goes in very nicely with these series of podcasts. And to be eligible to sign up for that webinar, you need to be in the SPF University. So either by one of our courses, or you can very cheaply subscribe to patreon.com/selfpublishingshow and sponsor the episodes from as little as a $1 an episode. And you'll be in the SPFU and eligible for those webinars. Great. That's it. We'll be back tomorrow so it's goodbye from me.
Mark Dawson: and goodbye from him. Goodbye.
Speaker 1: Get show notes, the podcast archive and free resources to boost your writing to boost your writing career at selfpublishingshow.com. Join our thriving Facebook group at selfpublishingshow.com/facebook. Support the show at Patreon.com/selfpublishingshow. And join us next week for more help and inspiration so that you can make your mark as a successful indie author.
Publishing is changing, so get your words into the world and join the revolution with the Self-publishing show.
SPF-028 : Success, Marketing and Writing – With Rachel Abbott
SPF-148: Hitting the Right Notes with Non-Fiction – with Joseph Alexander
SPS-162: Writing to Market: Using Big Data to Find Your Niche – with Alex Newton
SPF-133: The Author Accelerator – with Jennie Nash


text:
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace AllYourTextsLib.Framework
{
    public interface IConversationManager : IEnumerable<IConversation>
    {
        int ConversationCount { get; }

        IConversation GetConversation(int conversationIndex);

        int FindConversationIndex(IConversation conversation);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Featuring a sequin freakum dress.
Queen and Virgo supreme Beyoncé was a fashion icon well before she scored the CFDA's seal of approval. Before those "Formation" witch hats, Bey wore embellished purses and denim capris. Before couture bodysuits, she donned sequin freakum dresses for performances. Before Ivy Park, she and Miss Tina helmed House of Deréon. God bless HoD.
Beyoncé's casual wear and performance fashion has changed dramatically since her B'Day era 10 years ago, but the girl inside the clothes remains the same. We pulled some of Bey's B'Day era looks that best exemplify 2006 style. Long live the babydoll top.
Check out Bey's B'Day throwback looks here.
Coordinating with the ladies of Destiny's Child at the 48th Grammy Awards.
Repping House of Deréon at MTV's TRL studios.
Hitting up a basketball game in denim capris with Jay Z.
Performing "Ring the Alarm" at the 2006 MTV VMAs.
Celebrating her role in Dreamgirls in powder blue.
Performing "Irreplaceable" in a sequin freakum dress at the 2006 AMAs.
Going off at the 2006 World Music Awards in London.
With the fam for the screening of Bring it on: All or Nothing, starring, of course, Solange.
With La La at MTV's TRL studios in NYC.
In "Irreplaceable" garb while performing on The Today Show.


Your comments are needed to regarding to the proposed DOTD by April 15. Have you been by the clubhouse to sign your form? If not, please fill out the form available here: DOTD Comment Letter 4.3.19 and drop it off in the container at the clubhouse.


Yes, we know that the audio is terrible and that it sounds like we recorded this in some giant, extravagant hall. We are very sorry, and it will never happen again. Please find it in your heart to forgive us.