This should only take a minute.

It’s the big launch weekend for my newest book, Poggibonsi, an Italian misadventure, so I’m making some ads.

Fun stuff, right? Well, you need to learn this too, so pay attention.

Please scroll through these mock-ups and tell me if any strike your fancy.

You can buy Poggi this weekend for just 99 cents, then the price goes up – so act fast! But today I need input on what ads to run to catch other people’s eyes

You’re not going to offend anybody; just say, “I like Annette’s ad,” or “I don’t like Curtis’ one.”

If you say, “Screw the ads, I hated this book!” …we probably can’t be friends anymore.

Also, you can say, “I like the color of this one with that one’s words/layout/something. Any feedback is helpful. These folks didn’t make the ads, so they won’t be upset if you don’t like the ads. Probably.

Oh, and you might notice – I try to use YOUR Ammy review. If you are an author, I like to make ads that mention YOUR BOOK title!

Just another perk of being a loyal reader of the blog. Does Stephen King do that for you? No, he does not.

YOUR NAME AND BOOK TITLE in MY national advertising campaign. Because you guys rock and I like to help my friends. (So if you were thinking about doing a review…)

Okay. Get to work and look over these ads:

ABOVE: “Pretty sexy” ad with quotes from Anne Marie (we will stick her name in there on the final version)

ABOVE: “love the characters” ad featuring Annette Rochelle Aben’s Amazon review

ABOVE: “Funny and Sexy” ad featuring Curtis Bausse’s Amazon review

ABOVE” “Romance black background” ad featuring Amazon Top Reviewer Grady Harp’s review

ABOVE” “Romance white background” ad featuring Amazon Top Reviewer Grady Harp’s review

ABOVE” “Smart and HOT” ad featuring Jess’ Ammy review. (Say the word, Jess, and you’ll have your full name and book title. I didn’t do it because it wasn’t on Ammy that way and I always want to get permission first.)

ABOVE: “Skirt Anne Marie” featuring Anne Marie’s review

ABOVE: same ad with the book inserted. “Skirt + Book Anne Marie” featuring Anne Marie’s review

ABOVE: again, the same ad with different font colors “Skirt + Colored fonts Anne Marie” featuring Anne Marie’s review

ABOVE: “Skirt DG Kaye” featuring Debby’s book title Conflicted Hearts. This adds credibility to the ad and also gets Debby some pub.

ABOVE: “Skirt DG Kaye + Review box” featuring Debby’s actual Ammy review headline

 

That’s it!

Give me YOUR thoughts! 

Thanks in advance!

New Authors: asking for the opinion of fans and friends will save you LOTS of money on bad ads. The key is, you have to tell them to be honest and you have to accept their input. Post stuff like this on your blog, Facebook page, and Twitter, and after about 10-20 votes a clear winner emerges every time. 100 votes later, the winner will still be the same, so tons of followers aren’t necessary – and you save $$$ posting better ads than if you did this alone.

Please share this with your friends and reblog it! I want all the input I can get!

Dan Alatorre is the author of several bestsellers and the hilarious novel “Poggibonsi: an italian misadventure.”

Click HERE to get your copy of the funniest, sexiest book you’ll read this year!