Say Hello to BTS Emag!

The BTS brand began in 2011 with our Book & Trailer Showcase website. Since then we have evolved to offer Book Tours on the booktrailershowcase.com website and our magazine BTS Book Reviews (formally BTSeMag) which now calls the BTSemag.com its home.

On a personal note: My husband retired after 25 years in the Army in May 2012. He thought it would be a good idea for us to start a family business since he likes to keep busy, and it made sense to revolve around writing. I have 14 books published through Ellora's Cave and New Concepts Publishing, and a short story on Kindle. So we started Book & Trailer Showcase to help authors promote their work.

Our first magazine was published in April 2012 as a quarterly. There was so much interest from readers & authors that by September we had decided to publish it every other month. In October Barnes & Noble offered us a partnership to sell the magazine on their digital Newsstand. We then started publishing the magazine every month since that is the "norm" at B&N. You cannot imagine how excited we were that a big giant like Barnes & Noble was interested in our little emag. It's been a long wait to launch, and we have been told by the end of the year. But, we are trying to be patient and hoping that nothing interferes with that schedule. B&N has lots of irons in the fire and we can't wait to share that news.

Since we publish our magazine through Issuu, we count "views" not subscribers, and of course the emag is free until we go on B&N. We are asking readers to subscribe at the website now though so we can send out updates - the button is on right side bar at the top. Our views for each issue average 30,000 to 60,000.

The more the authors in the issue promote, the higher the views are, so we ask everyone to pitch in. Authors who take out ads never truly see their ads die, because readers keep coming back to older issues. Some time ago we checked the views for our September 2012 issue and it was over 247,000!! This is our highest views to date on an issue. 

REVIEWS: Authors who purchase ads get their book(s) considered for review. This is not a bought ad; it is not guaranteed. The charge is for ad space. If chosen the review is published in the magazine, and the reviewer has the option of posting on their blog and Goodreads too. Anyone who is interested in reviewing please write Annette at: annette@btsemag.com.

While I cannot promise that every author will find success with their ads, my own sales have grown tremendously by having one in each issue. Also I have had several authors share that their sales went up, and one author gained name recognition. My books are mainly erotic, one of our successful authors writes dark paranormal and mystery/thrillers, while another author is a Christian novelist. These two authors have been highlighted in our magazine in different ways - one with a cover feature and she is also a columnist for us. The other places ads every issue and was featured inside an issue.

I feel success depends on what the reader is looking for, having a nice cover, an interesting blurb, plus exposure. I don't know that placing an ad one time will be very effective. A well-known marketing saying is that a potential customer must see a product an average of 7 times before buying. While I do think there are ads that grab reader’s attention with less than that number, it is something to consider when purchasing promotions, no matter who you buy it from.

Our magazine content is author features which include an excerpt or interview, reviews, author & publisher ads, a short story and columns. Due to the magazine getting too large, we moved the Writing columns to the website. If you want to get some informative tips on writing please visit the columns.

Articles have also been moved to the website and authors are welcome to submit articles and short stories. Write me for details at: myra@btsemag.com.

The columns remaining in the magazine are Heat Diva by Nikki McCarver (covering some hot reads), Sex & the Single Woman by Nicole Morgan (the series of a romantic relationship), The Lowdown with Laurie (always a super informative column from Laurie of BittenbyParanormalRomance), The Scrying Eye by Kelly Hudson (covering great reads in Fantasy, S/F & Horror), Chic Trends in Romance by Sandra Bunino (covering great reads in romance, with a different theme each month), and the Historical column by Christy English.

NEW: We have a sign up for Media Kits on our menu. Check it out, we have a $25 gift card drawing each month for those signed up and other benefits to bloggers. http://btsemag.com/community/monthly-media-kit-team/. Added just this month we are now conducting interviews.
http://btsemag.com/interviews/

COMING SOON: We will start Blog posts in Oct.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE: We can't wait to go on B&N because they are working on some exciting expansions and we can't wait to share the news. We hope that working with such a big company will mean our little magazine goes big. Next September we were invited to cover the ARC in New Orleans as Press. We're very excited about this event. Heather Graham will be the keynote speaker, and Sherrilyn Kenyon will be there. We have scheduled her as our cover author for October 2014.

Myra Nour
BTS CEO
www.btsemag.com
www.booktrailershowcase.com