Writing and Publishing News from

October 6, 2011

How to Make Other People Care About Your Book

Filed under: Book Promotion — Patricia @ 4:51 am

Who cares about your book as much as you do? The answer is, no one. That’s why you are the best person to represent your book to your audience. Sure, you can pay someone to promote your book—money causes people to care.

Your main job, however, is to get your potential readers to care. It really is personal. If there isn’t something in or about your book that will benefit your readers, why should they buy your book? Why would they?

Are the benefits to your readers blatantly evident to those who see your book? Does your promotional material address the “you” factor in your book enough to entice readers to buy it?

They say that some of the main enticement triggers that should appear in some obvious or subtle way, when promoting anything, are money, success, happiness and health. As promoters, we must show or indicate that our book will make the reader happier, healthier, more successful and/or wealthier. They might want to know how to solve a problem they are having. If a potential customer has a goal or a desire and he or she believes that your book will help them to attain it, certainly, they will buy it. Maybe they want to more effectively discipline their unruly children, get along better with their spouse, earn more money, become more creative, do better in the stock market or become more organized. If your book can promise this—and if you make these promises in your promotional material, your sales might increase dramatically.

You’ve heard (read) me preach about the importance of knowing your target audience and keeping them in mind throughout the writing process. Maybe you are finally beginning to see the value in this message.

If you can’t define your audience, you won’t be able to locate them.
If you can’t locate them, your promotion won’t be very effective.

What about fiction? What need are you attempting to fill with a historical novel, romance, western adventure, fantasy, thriller, mystery, etc? That would be our need for entertainment—our desire to dive into a book and lose ourselves or to, perhaps, tickle our intellectual prowess or to simply enjoy a good story. Your promotional tactics are important for fiction, as well. There’s a lot of competition for good books. What can you do to make yours stand out, entice readers, grab them and cause them to purchase your book?

What stops you when you are seeking out a particular type of book? What catches your eye and attention even when you are not looking for a book? Your responses to these questions might give you some important insight that will help you create promotional hooks in your book as you write it, to present a more attractive product and to write better promotional copy.

If you are struggling to sell copies of your fiction or nonfiction book and if you are interested in reviving it, order a copy of my newest book—Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author.
http://www.matilijapress.com/promoteyourbook.html or at amazon.com http://amzn.to/oe56Ia

If you are still working on your book and plan to bring it out within the next several months, order a copy of this book and begin to familiarize yourself with the huge task of book promotion. This is your key to publishing success. This book could very well make the difference between your success and your failure as a published author. Remember, over seventy-six percent of all books fail in the marketplace every year. Which books do you think sell? Those by authors who take the initiative to understand the world of publishing, book marketing and their target audience. Promote Your Book is your education and could be your salvation in the highly competitive world of bookselling and promotion.

Make sure you are on the right path with your book or your book idea. Sign up for my FREE booklet, “50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book,” at http://www.patriciafry.com

October 4, 2011

Why a Book Proposal/Why Now?

Filed under: Authorship,Book Promotion,Book Proposals — Patricia @ 6:25 am

Are you working on a nonfiction book? You have a dream and a vision. You have an audience in mind—in fact, you can visualize members of this audience purchasing your book. And you plan to move forward rapidly with your project so you can make it available to the people you envision need and want it.

There’s just one problem. You haven’t asked anyone from your proposed audience if they want a book like this. You haven’t done the necessary research to discover if this book is actually needed/wanted and by what percentage of people. You just assume that since this is a topic you know, others are interested in it and want to read about it. Perhaps you’ve actually talked to a few people about the book and they are encouraging you to publish it. But are they a large enough representation of your target audience? Probably not.

Before you go off in some crazy direction eager to get your book on how to properly wear your orthodontic retainer, hair ribbons for the fashion-conscious teen, the joy of keeping your trash barrel clean, how to wash a kitten’s face or tips for cleaning your DVDs published, stop, look and listen to the experts. And the experts are saying, “Write a book proposal.”

The research you will do in order to devise a meaningful nonfiction book proposal will show you whether you actually have a viable product or not. You’ll learn if you, indeed, have an audience for your book and who they are. Through the book proposal process, many an author has discovered that the book they are writing either doesn’t have much of an audience or it’s not who they thought it was. Some authors learn, through the book proposal process, that they are writing a book that has been duplicated time and time again. It doesn’t offer anything new—the material is stale. And some find out that their plan for approaching their audience isn’t going to work well—the door to bookstores, for example, is closed to most authors today.

A book proposal, for the first time author, can be a bit difficult to construct. It can take time, tax the brain and generate unpopular results. But it can be one of the most cost-effective decisions you will make with regard to your book.

When I say “unpopular results,” I mean, what author wants to backtrack and start over with their book concept? And a genuine book proposal may indicate that you should. For example, perhaps you have written a book on a popular topic and there have been a rash of new books out on that topic in recent years. If you just barrel through with your book without checking the competition, you won’t know that the market is inundated. Once you find this out, you may decide to add an aspect to your book that none of the others include, thus you’re still writing on a popular topic, but with a new twist.

During the process of writing your book proposal, you might discover some avenues of promoting your book that you hadn’t thought of before.

Write a book proposal even before you start writing your nonfiction book and you could save yourself a lot of time, trouble and expense.

If, however, you have already produced your book and you’ve discovered that it isn’t selling as well as you expected, consider writing an after publication book proposal. I may be the only one who has created a guide for an after-publication book proposal. It’s called, The Author’s Repair Kit, Heal Your Publishing Mistakes and Breathe New Life Into Your Book. It’s a 27-page ebook available only at my website and the cost is just $5.95. Order your copy now at: http://www.matilijapress.com/author_repairkit.html

Why write a book proposal after the fact? Mainly to gain a better understanding of who your true audience is and how to effectively locate and approach them.

If you haven’t done so already, order your copy of my latest book—Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. http://amzn.to/oe56Ia

You will need the ideas and information in this book once you begin the book promotion process—but I strongly urge you to begin your education about the huge, HUGE process of book promotion even before your book is a book. I’ve seen it time and time again, authors who have not prepared for the task of promoting their books before publication, often fail in the marketplace. Book promotion is not what most authors expect. Besides, there are many things you can do before publication to ensure greater success for your book and Promote Your Book will guide you through them. Order your copy at Amazon.com today. It’s in print and on Kindle.

Here’s another idea—a FREE offer for my blog followers: Visit my website and download a FREE copy of my ebooklet, 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book. It’s an amazing gauge for hopeful authors. I know that many of you have already downloaded it. I’d love to receive your feedback. Did it discourage you from writing a book? Did it offer valuable insight into how to prepare for the task of publishing a book? How did it help you? http://www.patriciafry.com

October 3, 2011

Authors, Position Yourself as an Expert

Filed under: Book Promotion — Patricia @ 3:07 am

Are you published or mentioned in other books as an expert? When you begin to receive requests from other authors to be quoted or mentioned in their books, does this mean you’ve arrived? Well, maybe at a new plateau.

I don’t know how many books, outside of my own, I’ve been in. Sometimes you aren’t even notified that you’ve been included. You just come across the book one day and find yourself in the index.

In recent months, I discovered that I was referenced in half dozen published books and I was asked to submit a few paragraphs to another book earlier this year. Frequently, I’m mentioned in the acknowledgements page as the book’s editor. But I’m also noted fairly regularly as an expert in the publishing field.

How do you manage to be included as an expert in books related to your field? By making yourself known. Publish books, submit articles to appropriate publications, go out and speak on your topic, participate in forums and discussion groups on the topic, establish an organization, circulate a newsletter, create a blog and post regularly and get involved in social media.

You should also keep your finger on the pulse of the industry. Communicate and even partner with other professionals in your field. Invite them to be a guest blogger, involve them in a project, send congrats when they come out with a new book, and so forth. Offer articles for their newsletters, join their discussion groups, send them a copy of your book. If you visit their blog, read their newsletters and frequent their website, you know when they are planning a new book. Offer to send them something of value for the book—an anecdote, excerpt from your book or an article, for example.

Whether your expertise is in the area of cats, real estate, finances, writing, aviation, retirement or health and fitness, you can increase your visibility by piggybacking with others in your field. And there are many ways to do this. Aside from those I mentioned above, consider piggyback marketing. Either purchase a quantity of the other author’s books and bundle them at a special price with your own. Or exchange promotional material to send with your respective shipments of books. You might also arrange to conduct a seminar or workshops together in order to attract a larger audience.

If you are an expert in your field and you have a book to prove it, don’t rest on your laurels. Connect with other experts in order to get even more exposure for yourself and your book.

For more great ideas for attaining greater recognition and selling more copies of your book, read my book this week: Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. Order it in print or Kindle at: http://amzn.to/oe56Ia

September 26, 2011

Book Promotion Help for the Reluctant Author

Filed under: Book Promotion — Patricia @ 6:01 am

I spent the entire weekend promoting my book, Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. I must have sent out 500 or more press releases by hand to individuals—no mass mailings to people unknown. And I watched the numbers at Amazon change throughout the last two days. They dropped lower and lower as I did this promotion. And that’s a good thing. You want your book to be number one at Amazon or at least in the low thousands, which would be more likely for a niche book.

Amazon’s ratings include all books in every category. So when your book is ranked number 345,898, this means it is the 345,898th most popular book of all the books they carry. I’ve noticed that Promote Your Book has been ranked over a million and yesterday it dropped down to under 50,000. It’s interesting to watch the numbers—but confusing, too.

What did you do to promote your book this weekend? What do you plan this week? If you are weak when it comes to book promotion and if you want your book to sell, you’d better pump up your book promotion activities. Here’s what you can do today:

• Seek out speaking venues—what groups would like to know more about your book’s topic or be entertained by the theme of your book?

• Write (or even outline) a press release to send out to members of your reading audience. Point up a new finding in your topic, share some interesting news related to your book or your topic/genre or make an announcement—the book has just come out in Kindle, for example, or it has won an award or you are doing a book signing soon.

• Purchase or create lists of people to send your press release to.

• Brainstorm to come up with an activity you could get involved in related to the theme of your book. If it is a novel featuring a homeless family, you could start a coat drive or start serving sandwiches in the park for the homeless every weekend. If your book focuses on cat stories, establish a food drive for the many feral and stray cat organizations in your community. Maybe your story has an elderly character or is about eldercare, start a volunteer service of taking care of yards for the elderly or those who are temporarily disabled, etc. This is how you make news.

• Locate conferences and trade shows where you could speak or exhibit your book and sign up for a few of them.

• Join SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) and participate in the discussion group and read both newsletters that come out each month. You’ll be blessed with ample book promotion ideas and resources. http://www.spawn.org

• Purchase Patricia Fry’s new book, Promote Your Book, not to watch the numbers go down, or to pad Patricia’s pockets, but to treat yourself to a huge supply of ideas, tips, techniques and resources that will encourage, inspire and direct you in your own book promotion efforts.

Here are two links to talk segments I have done recently. I interviewed with Anna Farmery at The Engaging Brand earlier this month: http://theengagingbrand.typepad.com/the_engaging_brand_/2011/09/how-to-promote-your-book.html

Last week, I spoke with Stacy Lynn Harp at Active Christian Media
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/acmedia/2011/09/20/250-ways-to-promote-your-book–patricia-fry

September 25, 2011

Tips for Maintaining Your Author’s Website

Filed under: Authorship,Book Promotion — Patricia @ 5:08 am

Do you keep your author’s website up-to-date? It’s easy to just let it ride—assume that it is doing its job of showcasing your book, introducing you and your qualifications/attributes, offering ordering options, etc. But wait—is what you posted three years ago or even last year still accurate? Is there anything new there to attract visitors and more search engine activity?

Here are some tips for maintaining a viable author’s website:
• Use dates in your bio instead of years/time spent, etc. Then you won’t have to change the text every year. Say, for example, “I published this book in 2001 in order to…etc.” rather than, “It was 10 years ago when I produced this book…”

• Keep your appearances page up-to-date. Continually add book festivals where you will be exhibiting your books, book signings, conferences and other venues where you’ll be speaking.

• Add to your media page regularly. Include published press releases, announcements and book reviews.

• Post testimonials at your site as they come in—or once a month or so.

• Create and maintain a resources page listing other materials on this topic or in this genre, organizations, news, trends, etc.

• If you don’t have a blog, establish one and post to it often.

• Establish an articles/stories page and add to it every three months or so. Not only are you providing something of value to visitors, you have links where you can send people to view specific articles that might be particularly useful to them.

• Offer something FREE to site visitors—an e-booklet, for example. Ask them to sign up for the free download. This will give you some concrete idea of how many people are visiting and who are interested in your offerings. Change your offering from time to time.

• You might even change your home page message every few years. Or change the design of your website. I just established a second website a year or so ago. My Matilija Press website now is a showcase for my books and my Patricia Fry website focuses on me and my services.

Check my sites out at http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com (Order your copy of 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book here.)

Order your copy of Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author at http://amzn.to/oe56Ia
Or you can order it at http://www.matilijapress.com or http://www.BN.com or http://www.IndieBound.org

September 24, 2011

Why is Your Book Bombing in the Marketplace?

Filed under: Authorship,Book Promotion — Patricia @ 4:35 am

What good is promotion? You may sometimes wonder why you spend so much time promoting your book when it seems for naught. You create press releases and send them out, sit for long days at book festivals, talk about your book all the time and you even have a few copies in book and specialty stores downtown. But sales are sluggish and you are discouraged. Is it time to stop the madness? Should you just forget about becoming a successful author?

Welllll, let’s see. Is that what you really want to do? Or would you rather open your mind and try to discover WHY your book isn’t selling? Here are some possibilities:

• It isn’t a subject or angle that is of interest to very many people. I met a doctor a while back who is working on a book on vital organs. He told me the book would be for the layperson and he planned to market it to a general audience. I think this author will have more success if he creates booklets—one on each organ and then makes them available through doctors’ offices, pharmacies, online health/medical sites and so forth. If he comes out with the book he plans and tries to market it to the general public, I think he will be terribly disappointed in the results of his efforts. This is a case of the wrong book marketed to the wrong audience.

• The cover is blah and uninteresting. I’ve read many books by authors I’ve met through SPAWN, at book festivals and at writers’ conferences that I would probably never have bought, but I very much enjoyed reading. Why wouldn’t I have purchased the book? Because the cover was not enticing. I’m working with an author now who had someone (obviously not a professional) design a cover for his upcoming book. I was able to convince him that the cover was pretty awful. He had a cartoonish style for a book on a rather serious topic. The design gave absolutely no indication of the book’s true purpose or focus. Fortunately for him, he listened to reason and created a much crisper, more simple design for his book before publication—one that is conducive to the theme of the book. A good cover designer might charge up to $3,000, but, if you have a quality book on a topic or in a genre that is wanted/needed, and you promote adequately, you will earn that money back in a year or so—maybe less.

• The book has not been professionally edited. Way too many authors skip this step or hire the wrong editor. This is usually because they are in a hurry to get it published. Think about it, what is your impression when you start reading a book that’s riddled with spacing, typing, spelling and grammatical errors? Isn’t it distracting? It takes away from the story. And when the story doesn’t flow nicely or the material in a reference book isn’t organized appropriately, the reading experience isn’t as enjoyable or productive. A good book editor might cost you anywhere from $500 to $3,000, depending on the shape of your manuscript. If you skip this step, you will certainly regret it as reviewers refuse to review it or they point out the clutter of errors; readers won’t recommend your book and it isn’t accepted in book clubs, libraries, school districts, etc.

You have a huge responsibility as an author. And I can tell you that the effort and, yes, money you put into your book during the production phase is almost as important as the energy and time you pour into the promotion of your book.

Some of you have run businesses before. Many of you know people who are successful in business. Do you know of anyone who was successful in business and who went into that business without knowledge of the industry, a plan and funding? You need these three things whether you open a restaurant, a pet spa, a computer repair company, a nursery, a daycare center, a tax service or a retail store. And your business, like your book, must have a welcoming and professional persona about it.

Cut corners with your business—neglect to have the necessary equipment or space, show up to work in your upscale retail store wearing dirty sweats and flip flops, slap up a hand-painted sign made of butcher paper identifying your business—and you are not going to attract the clientele you hoped for.

How many ways have I attempted to make this point in this blog, books, articles and presentations over the years? Yet, I still see authors making the same mistakes. Why? Some of them do not study the industry until after they’ve produced a book. And some just don’t have or don’t want to spend the money to do their book up right.

Folks, don’t cut corners with your magnificent masterpiece. If it is worth publishing, it is worth publishing it in its full splendor.

Whether you are just starting to write a book, you’re almost finished or you have been involved in book promotion for a while, order and read my latest book: Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. http://amzn.to/oe56Ia

Read all 19 reviews at the Amazon book page. And contact me if you have any questions: PLFry620@yahoo.com

If you need additional assistance jump-starting the promotion of your book or if you’d like to learn how to build your author’s platform, sign up for the appropriate online course at http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

For my FREE ebooklet, “50 Reasons Why Your SHOULD Write That Book,” go to: http://www.patriciafry.com

September 22, 2011

Tips for Writers and Authors

Filed under: Book Promotion,Writing — Patricia @ 4:06 am

Things are hopping here in the offices of Patricia Fry and Matilija Press. My most recent interview—related to book promotion and my new book, Promote Your Book, is live. Listen here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/acmedia/2011/09/20/250-ways-to-promote-your-book–patricia-fry

Also, the book is reviewed in the October 2011 issue of Freelance Writer’s Report.

I’m receiving inquiries as to my editing work from all over the world—several are from authors I met in Alaska a few weeks ago. I had a booth at the Central Coast Book Festival Sunday. I will speak in Camarillo, California next week. I will take my books to a book festival in Ojai next month and I will sit on a panel of authors later in October. I teach a freelance writing session at the Ventura College in November. And I still must find time to spread the word far and wide that Promote Your Book is now on Kindle. This means doing an email blast to my list of hundreds of clients, customers, colleagues, acquaintances and so forth.

Is your book promotion dance card also full? If not—and if you want to sell books—you really do need to start reaching out and promoting your book. If you need help with that, sign up for my online Book Promotion Course. Check it out here: http://www.bookpromotion.htm

I want to share with you a really clever and useful article I read yesterday in my recent copy of Freelance Writer’s Report. This article was written by a savvy freelance writer/author whom I happened to meet a few years ago in Arizona. We’ve stayed in touch. She is quite prolific and professional—I see her writing-related articles everywhere. Often, they appear in the same issues as mine do. The writer’s name is Kathleen Ewing. If you are doing your homework and studying the world of freelance writing (if that’s your field) and publishing (if you are an author), you are probably familiar with this name.

Her recent article is called “The Writer’s Toolbox.” She wrote that she found herself recently in a situation where events and activities were happening all around her that were article-worthy or, at least, that rated a photo account in a local publication and she was caught without her writing tools.

She has since created a writer’s toolbox which she keeps in her automobile. I’d like to urge you to read the article yourself, but I can tell you that her suggestions are excellent. She recommends, for example, that you put together some items to keep with you in your purse, backpack, glove box… They include a disposable camera, a lens cloth, a photo-release form, a small tape recorder, mechanical pencils (she says that pens stored for long periods can be unreliable), etc. And she even explains how to safely store some items and which brands of some items are best.

Now there’s a writer with ideas, imagination, grit and she is a self-starter. I’m impressed. We should all be so clever and disciplined. Way to go, Kathleen.

September 21, 2011

Promote Your Book by Spying on Other Authors

Filed under: Book Promotion — Patricia @ 6:33 am

Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author is getting lots of attention. I did a podcast yesterday—I’ll let you know when it is available. Writing for Dollars published my piece on “8 Tips for Successfully Promoting Your EBook” this week. And the numbers at Amazon are looking good. The rank for Promote Your Book was in the 200,000 range a few weeks ago. Yesterday it was up over 1,000,000 and now it’s down around 400,000.

Don’t forget, you Kindle owners—Promote Your Book is on Kindle now. Yay! Order your print or Kindle copy here today: http://amzn.to/oe56Ia

Do you have a book to promote? If you have come out with a book, it is your job to promote it, you know. How do you get your book promotion ideas? Do you read books on the subject? Articles? Do you get ideas from speakers and members of your writers’ group? Do you attend writers’ and authors’ conferences? Perhaps you’ve received some tips for promotion through this blog. These are all good activities for any author.

Here’s one of my favorite book promotion tips. Snoop on other authors. Visit the websites of authors of books similar to yours and find out how they’re promoting their books:

• Where are they being interviewed?
• Where are they submitting articles/stories?
• Where are they speaking?
• Who is reviewing their books?
• Who is writing about them and their books?
• Which book festivals are they attending?
• Where do they have their books displayed/stocked?
• What unique promotional tactics are they using successfully?

Find out by studying their media pages, appearances pages, blog posts and reviews posted at their websites and at their Amazon book page, etc. You’ll also want to keep your finger on the pulse of your industry by joining appropriate organizations, reading periodicals related to the theme or genre of your book, subscribing to newsletters on this topic/genre, etc.

Promote Your Book is brimming with book promotion ideas such as this great one and it also helps authors to organize their ideas so they are pertinent and manageable. Buy your copy today in print of Kindle. I believe it is also on the Nook—not sure how to find that out. Anyone got any ideas?

http://www.patriciafry.com
http://www.matilijapress.com

September 20, 2011

Is it Time to Get Help With Your Writing Project?

Filed under: Book Promotion,Publishing — Patricia @ 4:00 am

Are you working on a book? Do you hope to get it published? When should you emerge from your writing room and start seeking the information you’ll need in order to make the best decisions on behalf of your project?

I tell authors that they should start learning about the publishing industry as soon as they decide to write a book for publication. Those of you who have been reading my books, articles and this blog, have probably “read” me say, “Publishing is not an extension of your writing.” In other words, you cannot expect to enter into the world of publishing with the same knowledge, mindset, tools and skills as you used in the writing process. Writing is a craft and publishing is a highly competitive business. Writing is a solitary activity. When you shift over to the publishing side, you’ll be required to don hats of many different colors and shapes in order to handle the tasks involved. You’ll likely become involved in research while writing your book. To understand the world of publishing so that you can successfully navigate the raging waters and avoid the sharks, also requires heads-up research. Some authors must learn how to write good copy, good dialog, clear instructions, etc. There’s much to learn about the very different and very complex publishing field, as well.

You may not want to stretch and grow and learn about publishing while you’re in the process of writing your book, but this is the best time to begin your study of the publishing industry. Why? I meet way too many authors with finished books who are so eager to get published that they dive into the unknown world of publishing without nearly enough knowledge. Most of them fail. Why?

• They don’t know all of their publishing options.

• They don’t understand the possible consequences of their choices.

• They don’t accept that the author is responsible for promoting his/her book.

• And they certainly don’t fully grasp the magnitude of book promotion in today’s competitive publishing climate.

So what do I suggest? What is the best way to ensure publishing success? My responses are based on three decades of experience within the publishing industry, my involvement with an international networking organization for authors for sixteen years and my interactions with hundreds of authors every year:

Start studying the publishing industry even before you start writing the book. The direction of your book could change as you gather the information, comprehension and level of awareness
you need. And this can be a good thing. The book you want to write might not be the book that is wanted or needed. If there is no audience for this book, how will you find a publisher? How will you sell copies of it? Who will you promote it to?

An author, in order to be successful, must develop a business head as well as a writer’s heart. And those who don’t, typically won’t flourish.

Start now reading books about the publishing industry, subscribing to and reading newsletters and magazines related to publishing and book promotion and attending authors’ groups and appropriate lectures related to aspects of publishing and book promotion.

Don’t go into publishing without the necessary knowledge. You won’t survive.

For more about the world of publishing and how you can succeed within it, read my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. It’s discounted at my site: http://www.matilijapress.com.

Also order my newest book, Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. http://amzn.to/oe56Ia or http://www.matilijapress.com

Download my FREE ebooklet and find out if you are ready to become an author: 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book. http://www.patriciafry.com

September 19, 2011

Tools and Tips for New Authors

Filed under: Authorship,Book Promotion — Patricia @ 6:03 am

There are many ways that you can promote your book. Some of them require that you go out into the world—attend book festivals where you showoff your book to browsing visitors (mostly readers), present workshops in your topic or genre, speak to members of civic organization groups and other groups, do book signings and visit bookstores and specialty stores for consignment deals, for example.

There are many book promotion activities that you can do from home, as well. I like having options. I enjoy going out and meeting and greeting my reading audience. But I also relish my time at home promoting books with a cat on my lap. With my latest book now on Kindle, I have a lot of people to notify. I’ll be doing that through my email list (including customers, clients, colleagues, writers’ group leaders, conference organizers…), this blog, Facebook and Twitter, articles for appropriate magazines and ezines, etc.

I met people yesterday at the book festival in San Luis Obispo who are planning to write a book. When I questioned them, few of them had even considered their audience for their books. A couple of children’s book writers were not sure what age group they were writing for. Several authors of nonfiction books had no clue as to their audience. Like so many first-time authors they just expected to put their book out there in downtown and online bookstores and see who might buy it. I hope I convinced them that they need to be writing for their target audience now and planning now for how to reach that audience once the book is a book. Now is the time to be thinking about the business aspects of producing a book. Those many authors who do not follow this advice often fail. In fact, you’ve heard/read me say that over 76 percent of authors today fail in the marketplace. And lack of business sense with regard to their books is one reason.

Don’t just become an author, become a savvy author. Study the publishing industry early on in the process of writing your book so you know what to expect and how to navigate the competitive, complicated publishing industry. How?

• Read books by professionals. I recommend my The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book and Promote Your Book. Both available at http://www.matilijapress.com and amazon.com.

• Attend a writers’ conference and participate in all of the sessions related to writing, publishing and promoting your book.

• Join publishing organizations such as SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) and participate in the offerings. http://www.spawn.org

• Subscribe to newsletters related to publishing and read every one of them. SPAWNews, Book Promotion Newsletter and Publishing Basics are a few I recommend. You’ll get a lot out of the SPAWN Market Update and the IBPA Independent, as well. These are free to members of SPAWN and IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association).

I also offer online courses on book promotion, how to write a book proposal, how to build on your author’s platform and other topics of interest to writers and authors. http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

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