Writing and Publishing News from

February 5, 2013

The Five Necessary P’s to Publishing, Continued

Filed under: Book Promotion,Publishing — Patricia @ 4:31 am

Publish
Once you have Planned, Prepared, Proofed and begun establishing your Platform, it is time to start thinking about Publishing. You have a choice to make—you have options. Will you try to land a traditional royalty publisher for your piece of fine work? Will you go with a pay-to-publish company? Or will you self-publish (establish your own publishing company)?

People ask me, which is the best publishing option? My response is, “It depends on you and it depends on the project.” Your job is to study the publishing industry so that you understand all of your options and the possible consequences of your choices. My book, Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author provides a good start in that direction. If you are considering a pay-to-publish company, also read Mark Levine’s The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, wherein he rates and ranks 48 of these companies and scrutinizes their contracts for you. (You can get the ebook version of this book FREE when you join SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network—something you should do, anyway.)

Publishing is not free. If you land a traditional royalty publisher, you may not be required to put any money up, but you’ll receive only eight to fifteen percent of the selling price of the books and this doesn’t typically add up to much.

If you go with a pay-to-publish outfit, you could end up with as much as $10,000 out of pocket. And in many cases, you still have to purchase your books. Read and understand any contract before signing.

If you self-publish, you could spend anywhere from $1,000 (for a few copies produced at a business center) to $10,000 or more. My first self-published book cost me $25,000 to produce in 1983. That’s before digital printing and I ordered 5,000 copies.

Both the pay-to-publish option and self-publishing require that you hire a page layout and cover design experts, unless you can do this work yourself. Here, you could spend another $3,000.

So how do you recoup your money? By selling books. To this end, it is imperative that you plan ahead and develop an excellent marketing plan.

Promotion
Do not even consider producing a book for publication if you do not have the money, time, experience, interest, enthusiasm for and/or knowledge about book promotion.

In order to sell copies of your book, you must turn practically all of your attention to promoting it. This means identifying your audience, locating them and finding ways to effectively approach them with information that will entice them to purchase your book.

There are numerous ways to approach book promotion and, in my articles, courses, workshops and books, I outline various activities for each type of promoter—the bold and the bashful. I highly recommend that you purchase and study and continuously refer to my book, Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. Do not expect to sell books without promoting them. Your book will not sell itself. (Don’t laugh. I’ve met authors who believe that their books will do just that.)

One of the things you will learn from studying the publishing industry is that the competition for books is fierce. You may have already noticed that everyone is writing a book. Did you know that over 75 percent of all published books sell fewer than 100 copies? And lack of promotion is only one reason why so many books fail. What are the other reasons?
• Lack of appropriate planning.
• Improper preparation.
• Inadequate proofing/editing.
• Ineffective publishing methods.
• Lackadaisical promotion.

Put your P’s in a row before you even put your pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and you will have a much greater chance for publishing success.

Order the books mentioned above at amazon.com or most other online and downtown bookstores.

February 2, 2013

Get More Valuable Exposure for Your Book

Filed under: Book Promotion,Bookselling — Patricia @ 5:20 am

I promised I would talk about exposure today. Exposure is one of the most valuable benefits you take away from nearly any of your promotional efforts. The exposure benefits are especially prevalent and important to authors who get out and speak to their audiences. Whether you are speaking to a group, talking casually with people at a signing, book festival, flea market or conference or you’re just chatting it up with potential readers, you are getting exposure. One or 1001 people (or more) now have the opportunity to learn about your book. This may be the first or twenty-first time they’ve become aware of you and your book. It doesn’t matter. If it is a book they can use or would be interested in reading, they will eventually do so, but only if they know about it.

Stay hidden behind your computer reaching only those people who happen across your website, stop in once in a while to read your blog, subscribe to the newsletters you write for, communicate with you via FaceBook, etc., and you will miss out on a lot of valuable exposure.
The fact is:

• People are more apt to buy books from an author they meet and like.
• The power of persuasion is more effective in person.
• When someone bothers to hold a book in their hands, they are more apt to buy it.
• The memory of a real-time experience is greater/stronger than that of one occurring online.

While some people purchase books they’re interested in on the spot without much contemplation, others need time to consider the book. The more times they see, hear, read about or are otherwise aware of you—the author of the book they’re considering—the more apt they are to eventually purchase it.

Exposure has other positive side-effects, as well. I’ve known many authors who have attended book festivals, signed books and spoke to groups, for example, and were disappointed because they didn’t sell many books. Some of them have vowed never to do that activity again because they sold so few books. What these authors didn’t consider, however, were the benefits outside of making that on-the-spot sale. For example,

• Awareness of you and your book expands every time you speak to new groups and individuals.

• You are reaching even more people when you publicize these activities and events.

• While out talking to people, you may meet someone or your publicity might reach someone who wants to purchase your book in bulk for an event, who invites you to speak to a large group of your potential readers, who has a radio show and wants you to appear, etc. It happens. I’ve seen it happen more times than I can count.

The next time you speak before a group, are interviewed on the radio, do a signing at a small bookstore, reserve a booth at a book festival, etc., don’t view this so much as a bookselling opportunity as one for exposure. Look at the bigger picture—how widespread can you direct the publicity? What opportunities might present themselves beyond just making those immediate sales? But you have to do your part.

You must get out of the office and mingle with your readers. You have to direct the publicity far and wide. You need to keep an attitude of gratitude which will help to open you up to whatever comes your way. And stop thinking so much about sales that you miss those opportunities that can lead to greater success.

For more about how to have more successful speaking engagements, book festivals, signings, etc. be sure to order your copy of “Talk Up Your Book.” It’s available in print and on Kindle at http://amzn.to/ZMJndK

February 1, 2013

Bookselling Opportunity for Authors

Filed under: Book Promotion,Bookselling — Patricia @ 6:56 am

SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) is offering some major book-promotion opportunities right now. Join SPAWN ($65/year) and you can sign up to sell your books at the gigantic Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in the SPAWN booth. $203 per day instead of the $1,000 (or so) you would pay for a booth of your own. Event dates: April 20-21, 2013.

If you don’t live near Los Angeles, you are a member of SPAWN and would still like to participate in this event, you can send one copy of your book to us for display in our booth. They typically get around 140,000 visitors to the event, which is now held at the USC campus. The fee for this opportunity with SPAWN is $20 per book.

Another level of promotion we offer members is an entry in our SPAWN Catalog of Members’ Books and Services. For $37, you can have your book featured in our catalog, which is online all the time and which we print to hand out at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books as well as other events throughout the US over the year. This year, it will also be distributed at the Tucson Festival of Books as well as several other events in Southern California, Texas, Louisiana and possibly others.

There are countless other reasons, of course, to join SPAWN. Read about them here:
http://www.spawn.org/member.htm

Join here: http://www.spawn.org/join.htm

Sign up to participate in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books—share booth space, display books and/or place book in catalog. http://www.spawn.org/latfb.htm

See the lovely SPAWN Catalog of Members’ Books and Services here: http://www.spawn.org/catalogofbooks.htm

Deadline for Catalog entries is a firm February 15, 2013.

I want to remind those of you who scoff at the cost to sell books at an event such as this, about the value of exposure. I’m going to talk about that in tomorrow’s post. Don’t miss it.

Questions: Patricia@spawn.org

January 31, 2013

Bookselling by Hand

Filed under: Book Promotion — Patricia @ 4:39 am

Delegating is not one of my strong suits. So here I am handling nearly all of the details of SPAWN’s participation in the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. You see, for most of the last seventeen years, SPAWN has had a booth or two at the festival and we invite members to sell their books from the booth. It’s a GREAT opportunity on many levels.

We also have a beautiful catalog of members’ books and services printed to hand out to visitors. Folks who don’t live close enough to participate in person can send their books for display. If those books are also in the catalog, it makes for a nice brochure for people to take home and use when shopping for books. There are fees involved to defray the costs of renting a booth and having the catalogs printed, etc. If you are interested in participating with SPAWN in the booth or have your book in the catalog, learn more here: http://www.spawn.org/LATFB.htm

If you’ve ever taken charge of an event or project, you know that there’s a lot of work involved. Mainly, pulling it together, making sure all possible participants are adequately notified and then there is the follow up. Today, for example, I will contact all members and make sure they know about the opportunities, even though, we have discussed this several times at SPAWNDiscuss and it has been announced in the newsletter three times and I have already contacted some members personally.

Then there are the numerous questions that come in, special requests and so forth. Every year, I vow to get help the next year. The only help I have is the volunteer who designs and creates the catalog and has it printed. Tamara Devers is a miracle worker. She and her husband own TLC Graphics. They do great work. I could never figure out how to divide the rest of the work, so I have never asked for a volunteer to help me.

This year, I have it figured out. I will get help next year contacting members intermittently to remind them of the various deadlines looming. I HATE it when members come to me too late and say, “I didn’t know anything about it—can’t you make an exception and put my book in the catalog—or make space for me at the booth—no one told me about this event. I want to participate.” And if is usually too late—the catalog is printed, the booth is full. But I feel as though I worked for each and every participant personally.

Well, it’s sort of like bookselling. Don’t you feel as though you sometimes hand sell each and every book? You really work for sales—often talking personally with potential readers at length in order to sell one book.

With so many options and opportunities now, we are on overwhelm. No wonder folks miss out on opportunities, ignore them, don’t notice them, don’t pay attention and put things off. Think about this as you plan your book marketing strategy. I often tell you that it takes time, creativity and tons of energy to sell books. Those of you who are involved in the bookselling process now know exactly what I mean, right?

Did I tell you that “Talk Up Your Book” is on Kindle? You can order it at Amazon.com in print or Kindle. This is the book that will help you over the hurdles related to hand-selling your books through public speaking opps as well as individually at book festivals, signings and even on the street. How do you approach potential customers? What do you say? How often do you have to go out and pitch your book? It’s all in my book, “Talk Up Your Book.” http://amzn.to/ZMJndK

January 29, 2013

You Are the CEO of Your Book

Filed under: Authorship,Book Promotion — Patricia @ 5:37 am

As I drove around town running errands yesterday, I noticed a couple of new businesses and began to wonder what motivates someone to open a wine store, a shop where they sell knitted items, a nursery, a coffee house, a hamburger joint, a children’s cotton clothing store or????? And what keeps such businesses going? Certainly, they don’t all make it. It’s common for small businesses to come and go here in our community. Why don’t they last?

I used to write a business column for the local newspaper and few of the businesses I featured lasted for more than a year. Why? Because so many proprietors started their businesses on a whim—they had a passion and wanted to turn it into something that would sustain them.

Few of them gave much thought to their location, their competition and their customers. They didn’t consider who their customers were and how to approach or attract them. Typically, the business owner comes up with an idea that appeals to him or her, chooses a setting they can afford and that is, perhaps, aesthetically suitable and they quickly open for business in hopes of selling lots of painted rocks, jewelry made from horsehair, used medical books, cardboard moving boxes or??? And some of these business owners either aren’t aware or don’t care that there is someone else up the block selling the same thing they are or that several other people tried these businesses and they failed.

I began to think about authorship. When you decide to write a book and publish it, you are going into business. From the moment you decide to publish your book, you should consider yourself the CEO of your book. But I hope you don’t go into business with blinders on like so many business owners tend to do. I hope that you will consider your readers before you start writing so that you know you are writing something a portion of society actually wants. You should know whether or not the market is already inundated with books like the one you have in mind. If you are writing in a popular genre, then this might be a good thing. People who read mysteries, for example, are always looking for another good one to read. You need to know how to reach your audience. Most authors do not realize that just because they produce a book doesn’t mean anyone will be poised to buy it.

It takes effort and time to put word about your book out there and then tons more effort, energy and time to get people to notice it and then oodles of creativity to get them to buy it.

This week, look around your town. Notice the small businesses that are thriving and compare them to those that are here today/gone tomorrow. Think about businesses that have left your area. Consider what these proprietors did wrong—what they did right. And then when you go back to your book project, whether you’re in the writing stages or you are already marketing it, examine what you are offering and to whom. Are you making good business decisions or are you letting your heart lead the way?

Stop looking at your book as an extension of yourself. You are the CEO of your book. It’s up to you to make sure—no wishful thinking here—make sure that your book is a good idea. If not, go back to the drawing board with it. Yes, give it a little tough love.

For guidance along the extremely competitive publishing path, be sure to order my book, “Publish Your Book.” It’s available at amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores.

January 27, 2013

New Book for Authors on Kindle

Filed under: Announcements,Book Promotion — Patricia @ 5:07 am

Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More has been in print since November. It is now on Kindle! Some of you have been asking me when it would be available on Kindle. Well, there you go. Order your copy now either in print or for your Kindle at http://amzn.to/ZMJndK

This book also has reviews posted at the Compulsive Reader and in “Freelance Writer’s Report.” You’ll see a dozen favorable reviews at the Amazon book page.

Oh yes, and my article on small talk is in the February issue of The Toastmaster with a blurb at the end of the article pointing up Talk Up Your Book.

So here I am getting additional exposure for this book in my blog. I’ll also do an email blast letting my clients, customers, colleagues and other interested authors know that the book is finally on Kindle.

This is what promotion is all about, folks. Continually promoting and talking it up!

January 25, 2013

Take Your Book or eBook to a Book Festival

Filed under: Book Promotion — Patricia @ 4:02 am

I often talk and write about taking your book to a book festival. Why?

• It’s good exposure. Anywhere from fifty to thousands of people who have never heard of you or your book might become aware of it when they see it at a book festival.

• Potential readers who have seen or heard of your book or ebook before, are more apt to buy it upon seeing it again.

• Personality sells books. People tend to buy books from the author him/herself.

• Most visitors to a book festival or book fair are there to purchase books.

• An attractive, professional looking book on a topic or in a genre of interest to a wide range of people generally sells well at a book festival if the author is personable, genuine and clever in promoting it.

• A book festival is a great place to learn more about your audience, their needs/desires and how to most successfully approach them.

• You’ll meet other authors and publishers at a book festival and leaders of writing/publishing organizations, creating useful networking opportunities.

• You’ll learn promotional techniques from other authors.

• You have the opportunity to add to your emailing list. Use this in promoting this and future books and ebooks.

• You’ll most likely receive unexpected opportunities to promote your book or collaborate with someone on another book, make bulk sales, etc. I can’t tell you how many times I and other authors I know have received invitations to appear on radio/TV, speak at local libraries or civic group meetings, have their self-published book published traditionally, etc. One SPAWN member landed a deal to star with his book in a TV documentary.

Learn more about how to locate, prepare for and work a book festival by reading my latest book, “Talk Up Your Book.” It’s available at amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores. Also read this article on how to work a book festival so it works for you: http://matilijapress.com/articles/promo_bookFestival.htm

January 22, 2013

Get Your Book in the Library System

Filed under: Book Promotion — Patricia @ 5:39 am

This morning, I was asked a few questions for an article about getting your book into libraries. I thought I would share some of my comments with you. There’s additional information about library sales in my book, Promote Your Book (Pages 158-161). Available at Amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores. Or purchase it at: http://www.matilijapress.com

I checked and find that it is also in 82 libraries from California, to Colorado, Oregon, Missouri, Kentucky and beyond. My self-published books are in nearly 100 libraries throughout the world. That is according to http://www.worldcat.org

If your self-published books are not showing up at World Cat, perhaps that is because you have not approached a library distributor. Read on.

I believe in donating copies to your local library system to get your books in the system. This is a generous way to introduce your book to librarians and to the community. I’ve also sent books to large libraries throughout the US along with my ordering form. This might be genealogy libraries for a local history book that profiles early pioneers, a library in an area where your story takes place—the west, a quaint town in New England, etc. or a medical, aviation, law, etc. library for a book, for example.

But there are things you can do even before your book is a book to make it more appealing to librarians—make sure the binding is sturdy. It should have a spine. Create an index for a nonfiction book.

Librarians buy books based on patron recommendation—so if you are doing your job promoting the book, people may begin to ask for it. In this case, you want to be sure it is easily accessible. Is your book listed with Baker and Taylor or one of the other library distributors? Have you sent your promo material to librarians? You can do so via email now. Certainly librarians read book reviews in the pre-publication review magazines, which are very limited to the number of reviews they can publish. But I understand some of them also read reviews at well-known online review sites.

I suggest taking advantage of your travels by stopping in at libraries as well as bookstores when you are traveling and show your book to the librarian. While they will pay full price, they do appreciate being offered a discount. So keep that in mind.

Here are a few library directories:
http://travelinlibrarian.info/libdir
http://www.publiclibraries.com
http://www.americanlibrarydirectory.com

Locate library distributors here: http://www.itcompany.com/inforetriever/vend_pub.htm

January 14, 2013

Resources and Options for Authors

Filed under: Authorship,Book Promotion,Publishing — Patricia @ 6:24 am

Do you have questions about publishing and book promotion? Most likely, when you ask your questions about publishers, agents, writing a book proposal or marketing your book, you are not fully satisfied with the answers. Do you know why that is? Because there are sorry few (if any) pat answers when it comes to the process of publishing and book promotion.

First, depending on who you ask, you may get very different responses. Who should you believe? And then sometimes the person you have chosen to trust most will leave you with more questions than you had when you approached him or her. All you want is some guidance and some definite answers to your questions so you’ll know exactly what to do with regard to your project.

The thing is, there are choices in publishing—extenuating circumstances, varying goals, different levels of understanding and interest. There is no one size fits all. The reason why you may get different answers from different professionals is because we come from different backgrounds. And we might not “hear” and assimilate your questions the same way.

So, while one professional or published author says, “You’ve gotta get an agent,” another might says, “I suggest you check out some of the hundreds of publishers that don’t require an agent,” and yet another advises, “For your first project, go with a ‘self-publishing’ company.”

One professional may tell you to promote your book through intense Internet advertising and another might advise checking out all of the free avenues of publicity. One professes that personal appearances is the best way to go, while another says, you can sell more books more consistently using clever promotional tactics throughout the Internet.

The fact is all of the above is true but not for every author and every book and not, generally, exclusive of the other options. So how do you weed through the information and recommendations in order to make the best choices for you and for your project? Be your own best resource center. Ask questions, certainly and scrutinize the responses with regard to your project carefully. Keep an open mind, but be critical, too.

Study the publishing industry. Yes, do an independent study by reading books, subscribing to and reading appropriate newsletters and magazine, joining organizations such as SPAWN and attending writers conferences—many of them lean toward publishing and book promotion rather than the craft of writing these days. This is not where you end up—this is where you START!!!! Read about the industry, how it works, what it entails, your choices, the possible advantages and disadvantages of your options, specifically how to pursue the various options and so forth.

I will dedicate my next four (or more) posts to specific resources for hopeful and struggling authors. I will list the books I recommend you read, the newsletters and magazines you should be subscribing to, the organizations you should join and why and how to locate conferences and glean from them what you need in order to succeed. So stay tuned all week. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Tell your friends about this Writing and Publishing Blog. And visit my websites for additional information about me—Patricia Fry.
http://www.patriciafry.com
http://www.matilijapress.com

And visit the organization I lead—SPAWN (Small Publishers Artists and Writers Network)
http://www.spawn.org

January 12, 2013

Promote Your Blog

Filed under: Authorship,Book Promotion — Patricia @ 5:00 am

It used to be that the main question authors asked me about blogging was, “What is a blog?” Now the two questions I get most often are, “What will I write in my blog?” and, “How will I promote my blog?” Yesterday I covered the former. Today, let’s discuss the latter.

Promote a blog pretty much the same way you would promote a book. Here are 15 ideas:
• Tell people about it
• Add the link to your promo material (brochures, business cards, bookmarks, handouts when giving presentations and so forth).
• Add the link to your bio at the bottom of the articles you write or stories you submit to magazines and newsletters.
• Comment at blog site on the same topic as yours and include your blog link.
• Have your blog included in directories of blogs on particular topics—writing, history, fiction, romance, etc.
• Create a “signature” for your outgoing emails and make sure the link to your blog is included.
• Enter your blog in contests for added recognition.
• Twitter your blog topics each time you post.
• Use FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc. to promote your blog.
• Use keywords in your title that will attract higher ratings with Google.
• Post your blog link at your Amazon.com page, Twitter profile page and so forth.
• Print your blog link in your book when it is published.
• Add your link to freebies you give at your website.
• Have clear links from your website to your blog site.
• Ask others at appropriate sites to link to your blog.

What are some of your ideas for promoting your blog? We’d like to hear them. Leave a comment.

This would be a good weekend to order copies of my books from Amazon.com. Which books do you need? Choose from these three:

Publish Your Book (By far the most popular among attendees at the Palm Springs Writers Guild when I visited their meeting last weekend. The best book for new and struggling authors.)

Promote Your Book (For authors who need more support, ideas and a more clear understanding of book promotion.)

Talk Up Your Book (For authors who want to expand their promotional activities to include live presentations, more successful interviews, and gain more powerful communication tools.)

Available at Amazon.com, the author’s website and most other online and downtown bookstores. http://www.matilijapress.com

Download my free ebooklet, “50 Ways to Prepare for Publishing Success” from http://www.patriciafry.com My other formerly FREE ebooklets are now available for small fees at http://www.matilijapress.com “50 Ways to Promote Your Ebook” and “50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book.”

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