Writing and Publishing News from

Opportunities come in all shapes, sizes and flavors. If you have a book to promote, you must learn to recognize opportunities when you see them. And then you must know which ones to act on and when.

It seems that when you decide to turn writer, you must also hone your social, networking, marketing, Internet, organizational, public speaking and psychic skills. Why?

• Bookselling opportunities are often revealed when you network socially as well as in business situations.

• Without an inkling about marketing and promotion, you won’t even recognize opportunities, let alone know how to act on them.

• The Internet has much of the information and resources you need in order to publish and market your book. You must use it to learn, reinforce your skills and to research individuals and companies before getting involved.

• Organizational skills are a must for any busy author and if you are an author and you are not wildly busy, you are doing something wrong. I’d bet, for example, that you aren’t selling many books.

• I believe strongly that personality sells books. It follows that, as an author, you should be out there meeting your public in person, of course, but also via your website, blog, newsletters, articles, etc. Every author should be prepared to speak one-on-one as well as to a group of his or her readers.

• And we need to use our intuition in order to make the right choices when presented with opportunities. Not all of them will move us forward along our path to success. I can tell you, however, that I’d rather you say “yes” to an opportunity that doesn’t take you very far than to decline and reject every opportunity that appears on your radar.

What skills have you honed since deciding to write a book or since publishing one? Are you pursuing new skill challenges? Are you remembering to use the Internet to research companies and individuals before becoming involved? Do you use research skills to keep your finger on the pulse of the publishing industry as well as the genre or topic of your book? Are you out there meeting people and learning from them? How often do you use your intuition? Or do you consider it logic? Perhaps one person’s logic is another person’s intuition.

I would like to hear from newer authors on this topic. I think it would make an interesting article. Here’s your chance to be featured in an article (or, perhaps, a book). It’s an opportunity to get exposure as an author and exposure for your book.

I have been writing for publication and publishing books for so long it is part of my DNA. I grew up automatically honing these skills, so it’s difficult for me to isolate which ones I’ve leaned on more than others. I guess for me and my long-standing colleagues, technology has been our biggest challenge. For me, after 20 years of running my writing/publishing businesses the old-fashioned way, I had to learn a whole new way of operating. This required a major shift in the entire operation of my businesses—how I approached my projects and contacted and related to people; having access to greater opportunities due to wider exposure; everything happening momentarily rather than taking days or weeks to accomplish; a new skill base and way different marketing techniques. It has been an interesting ride.

If you’d like to learn about publishing from professionals in the industry—those who have the experience—order my latest book, Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. It’s at Amazon.com and other online and downtown bookstores. You can order it at my website, as well. http://www.matilijapress.com

I pour knowledge from my nearly forty years writing and publishing experience into this book and I’ve included advice and anecdotes from around 24 additional authors and publishing professionals. I designed it to be a one-stop shop for authors at any stage of their projects.

Yesterday we talked about establishing and building on your author’s platform. For some of you, this was a reminder to get out there and make yourself known to a larger audience. Others still don’t understand the concept. You have told family, friends and a few acquaintances, coworkers and other random people about your planned book and they all seem interested. Their feedback has encouraged you to continue writing. From all indications, this book will be easy to sell.

But I have to tell you, only a percentage of those people you talked to will actually buy the book. You will need to reach a whole lot of people in order to sell even 100 copies of your book. If you want to sell more than 100 copies, you and your book must become known to an even larger number of potential customers.

Do you have an agent who typically works with big name publishers? Do you expect to land a publisher who will heavily advertise your book on radio and major magazines, get your book in Publisher’s Weekly, place it in all bookstores nationwide, get you gigs on TV, arrange for your book to be in the gift bags for the Oscars and so forth? Then, you can probably count on sales in the millions—or at least high thousands.

But if you plan to go with a pay-to-publish company, self-publish or even sign with a small or medium royalty publisher, it will be up to you to locate and pitch to your audience. Unless you have money to burn, there will be no advertising with the majors. Your book probably won’t be featured in Publisher’s Weekly. Nor will it be placed in bookstores or tucked into celebrity gift bags. In fact, any publicity your book gets is up to you. And with so many books being promoted, it’s really difficult to have yours noticed.

That’s why you need to make yourself and your book known to a wide audience. I mean thousands! You need to identify your specific audience and put your book in front of them as often as possible. And, because personality sells books, it is important that you become known to your audience. You might also come up with some interesting sales gimmicks

Margaret Brownley is a colleague of mine. She is the author of several novels, some of them hit bestseller status. I’ve known Margaret for a couple of years. And I’ve been curious about her books. I thought, “Someday I’d like to read one.”

Recently, I received a notice from her (because I’m on her emailing list). She was offering one of her novels FREE for Kindle. I didn’t have a Kindle, but I know someone who does and I asked him to order the book for me so I could read it. Not only did I enjoy reading her free book, I really liked using the Kindle. Now I have my own Kindle AND I’ve ordered more of Margaret’s ebooks.

Some authors run contests to attract new readers for their books. Some bundle their books. Amazon does a lot of bundling of late. In fact, we can learn from Amazon. They are amazing marketers. Do you notice how, when you go to their site to learn more about a particular book or to find a book on a certain topic or in a specific genre, you get suggestions for other books, as well. Amazon says to customers, “If you liked that book, you’re probably going to love this one.” They are always selling.

And one of their sales ploys is the book review. They know that the opinion of other readers counts.

We could all take lessons from Amazon. They are high profile, indeed. They try to make their authors high profile. And this is also something you need to do for yourself.

If you don’t want to put yourself in the limelight—if you would rather stay in the shadows—don’t expect to sell the number of books you would sell if you were out meeting and greeting your public in numbers of ways—even through your writing.

It’s your choice, of course. I just want you to be aware that, in this horrifically competitive publishing climate, if you don’t establish and continue building on your platform—if you don’t use your sense of creativity when it comes to promotion—you will be disappointed in the number of book sales.

Learn more about how the publishing industry works and your responsibilities as a published author by reading my latest book, Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. If you’re ready to start thinking about or pursuing book promotion, you really need my book, Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. Amazon is bundling these two books as we speak.

Do you screen—I mean, really screen your incoming emails? Do you do the polite thing and respond to those that are legitimate? Or do you assume too much when reviewing your email list daily, weekly or hourly?

Do you assume that those emails from people whose names you’re not familiar with are spam? Not necessarily. It could be that an editor saw your article published in a popular ezine and is writing to ask if they can reprint it. I once got paid over $1,000 for a reprint in just this way. (It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t opened the email, though.)

Perhaps someone read your book and wants to hire you as a speaker for an upcoming conference with all expenses paid. This has happened to me, as well. If I hadn’t checked out the curious email address, I would have missed out on a dream trip to Dubai.

Maybe someone is trying to reach you to order cases of your book for an event related to the theme of it. Or they want to ask you to judge a contest in your genre, accept an award, attend a gala event, or??? Use your imagination.

If you consider every email with an unfamiliar address spam, your life experiences and opportunities will be greatly limited. And this is true also if you neglect to have your own website.

I’ve harped on this before. Every author and every freelance writer should have an Internet presence of his/her own—in their name, such as I do with http://www.patriciafry.com

For years, I had just one website. It evolved as my business did and was doing triple duty as a book showcase, resource center and introduction to Patricia Fry. It did the job, actually. Anyone typing in “Patricia Fry” found my Matilija Press website, which meant they found me. My email address is prominent at both of my sites, so anyone who knew my name could locate me without any trouble and still can.

Learn more about how to become more visible and how to promote yourself by reading my book, Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. It’s available at my website, the publisher’s website, Amazon.com as well as most other online and downtown booksellers.