Writing and Publishing News from

Over the years, I’ve fielded a lot of questions about writing, publishing and book promotion. I planned to list some of them here this morning and share with you my responses. But something else occurred to me when I started to list the ways that people find me to ask those questions. The sentence listing the different ways customers and clients come to me became so long and cumbersome that I that I decided to make that my blog for today.

If you have a book to promote and especially if you are a nonfiction author with an expertise you wish to share with your readers, you’ll want to have a sense of how to reach your audience. In fact, that is one question I get occasionally—not as often as I used to before the Internet grew to such proportions.

Anyway, if you have a book that you are interested in selling, you might want to pay attention to the many ways that my customers and clients locate me.

• Book festivals, signings and other events.
• My blog.
• One of my websites.
• The articles that I write.
• From my comments left at other blog sites.
• Through my affiliation with SPAWN.
• From my books.
• Through other websites that feature my book or articles.
• Through my presentations at conferences, etc.
• Word of mouth.
• Occasional paid advertisements.
• Personal recommendations.
• Interviews and book reviews.

Now that’s over a dozen different ways that my promotion helps me to sell books and gain new editorial clients. I think I will leave my blog at that this morning and proceed with some of the questions I field starting tomorrow. If you have a question you’d like to see featured in my blog, send it along: PLFry620@yahoo.com.

In the meantime, we’d all like to hear some of the specific ways that you reach out to your customers and clients and how these activities have served you. Probably my most spectacular story demonstrating how your promotional efforts can pay off is when I was invited to speak at a Toastmaster convention in Dubai because the committee wanted to introduce their first woman keynote speaker to the Middle Eastern clubs and because they knew me from my frequent articles published in The Toastmaster Magazine. (Read more about this adventure in my May 20, 2006 blog.) I even wrote a small book about the trip. http://www.matilijapress.com

I have several new blog followers. Welcome! Each time I speak or attend a book festival, for example, I meet new authors and hopeful authors who visit my blog. And some of them hang around to see what we’re talking about here. Some of them also buy books from me and/or hire me to edit their manuscripts.

When my articles are published, more authors become aware of my blog, my books and my services. Those who stumble upon my websites will discover my blog and establish a habit of tuning in every day or so.

I’m telling you this as a reminder of how important it is to keep promoting—to keep your name in front of your audience. While you may not notice a huge increase in sales after you build a website, get interviewed by a well-known blogger, participate in a webinar, publish an article or speak at your local Rotary Club meeting, all of these activities can certainly lead to sales.

I explained to an audience of around 50 last weekend how important it is to promote your book through public speaking. I said, “I am promoting my books right now, yet you may not even hear me mention any of my titles.” How can this be?

When I’m speaking to a group of authors or future authors, my focus is to provide information they can use. My goal is to help them through the publishing process—to respond to their burning questions. In the process, I hope to gain their respect. I’m establishing my credibility with them. If they like what I have to say—if they trust me—they will be more apt to purchase my books, sign up for my courses and use my services.

While we’re all still subjected to the hard-sell marketing approach—even where books are concerned—this is a turnoff to most people. Instead, try the soft-sell method where your book is concerned. Make sense, make friends and make sales.

For more about every aspect of publishing, including book promotion, order my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html.

For one-on-one assistance promoting your book, sign up for my book promotion course:
http://www.matilijapess.com/course_bookpromotion.htm

Saturday, I was part of a panel discussion on book marketing at the Ventura Book Festival. My assignment was to provide the 10 top marketing activities that every author should pursue in order to promote him/herself and his/her book. I thought you might like to see what I talked about. Here are the first 5 from my handout. (Numbers 6 – 10 will appear in tomorrow’s blog.)

1: Build Promotion/Additional Hooks Into Your Book
For a Novel
• Choose a setting (city or region) for your story that is conducive to promotional tours.

• Give a character a horse, a motorcycle, twins, a llama or a pilot’s license for example, and then promote the book to this audience as well as to your general romance, historical fiction, thriller or mystery readers.

• Include someone with autism or diabetes or who has had lap-band surgery or a head injury, for example. If you present the illness/affliction in a positive light, a related organization may team up with you in promoting your book.

For a Nonfiction Book
• Involve a lot of people by interviewing them, quoting them and/or listing them in your book. (Most of these people will purchase copies of your book, they’ll promote it through their promotional channels and they’ll tell their friends/colleagues about it.)

• List resources and recommended books. (These entities and authors will most likely purchase copies or your book and recommend it to others.)

• Ask experts in your field to write testimonials for your book. (Testimonials by professionals in your field or genre have clout with your audience.)

• Include a bibliography and an index. (Librarians, the media and researchers love books with indexes and extensive bibliographies.)

2: Engage in Public Speaking
• Contact the program directors for civic organizations.
• Arrange to speak to members of your affiliations (church, club, etc.)
• Apply to speak at appropriate conferences

Directories of Conferences
(Locate conferences in your book’s subject where you can apply to speak or present workshops.)
http://www.allconferences.com
http://www.bvents.com

Hone Your Public Speaking Skills
Join Toastmasters:
http://www.toastmasters.org to find a club near you.

3: Build a Useful/Meaningful Website
• Showcase your books attractively
• Provide a buy button (either through a merchant account or Pay Pal or both)
• Offer resources related to your book topic

4: Connect With Your Audience
• Compile a massive mailing and emailing list and use it to make announcements about upcoming book events, awards your book has won, etc.

• Create a newsletters designed to maintain a connection with your audience.

5: Get Book Reviews
• Solicit reviews in appropriate magazines, newsletters and websites.
• Study publications related to your field/genre to see if they publish reviews.

Let me know if you have any questions or want me to flesh out any of these concepts for you. PLFry620@yahoo.com. Or leave a comment here. For additional information order a copy of my book, “The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book” or sign up for one of my online courses: http://www.matilijapress.com

I womanned the SPAWN booth yesterday at the Ventura Book Festival in Ventura, California and had a blast. It was a good event with a steady flow of visitors most of whom came to the event, seemingly, for good books to read. I sold a nice quota of books, gave away nearly 100 copies of our new print SPAWN Catalog of Members’ Books and Services and signed up 40 people who want to subscribe to SPAWNews. I spent the entire day talking to people about writing, publishing and book marketing. Most of the day, people were standing two and three deep waiting to discuss SPAWN or their writing projects with me.

I participated in a panel discussion with Irwin Zucker of the Book Publicists of Southern California and Kim Dower, publicist from Los Angeles. We spoke and responded to questions about book marketing. Around 50 people sat in on our session. And what a good group it was.

Today, I am logging my book sales and following through with those individuals who gave me their proposals to look over or who asked me to get back to them with regard to a question. I also wrote to thank the organizers of the event. And I am going through my notes. For example, the organizers of an upcoming writers’ conference approached me about participating in March. I need to log the dates. The owner of a local store that sells a couple of my books came by, noticed my wide array of books and asked me to bring more copies of more of my titles to her on Monday. I volunteered to review a book for SPAWNews—so need to take a look at that. I also collected some business cards from people I want to connect with. So I will be contacting them.

Do you know what the best part of the show was? The exposure we got for SPAWN, for my own books and for my consulting business. Fifty people picked up my brochure, 50 sat in on my panel discussion, 15 bought my books, close to 75 took my business card and probably a total of 500 people either walked past and noticed my booth, saw my name in the program or all of the above. That’s what’s known as exposure.

Some people came to my booth indicating that they were acting on some of my previous means of exposure. Don’t you love it when that happens? A couple came over and introduced themselves as SPAWN members. A few mentioned having my writing/publishing books and finding them extremely valuable. Several said they’ve read my articles. One knew me as a long-time contributor to The Toastmaster Magazine. Still others recall speaking with me last year at this event. One or two said they attended some of my workshops over the years. That is an example of exposure working—especially when some of these people come back and purchase a book for the first time or ask you to edit their manuscript.

My presentation, yesterday, involved a list of the 10 top activities I would recommend most authors engage in. One, of course, was public speaking. In my presentation, I said that I am speaking in order to promote myself and my books, even though the audience may not hear me actually give a sales pitch. I explained that what I was doing was being helpful, offering useful information, advice and resources and that this would help to build my credibility among my audience. If I could give enough value in such a way as to create a rapport with these authors—to gain their trust—they would be much more apt to purchase my books and/or hire me to help with their projects and/or join the organization I represent.

Exposure, exposure, exposure!!! That’s what it’s all about. And that’s why I am always nagging at you to establish and keep building on your platform. What does this mean? Get your name out there where your audience will see it often. For example,

• Submit articles and/or stories to the publications your readers subscribe to.
• Conduct workshops and engage in public speaking on your topic/genre.
• Build a smashing website.
• Create your own blog and post at other blog sites.
• Participate in book festivals, conferences and trade shows.
• Write additional books/booklets on your topic/genre.

You get the idea. I’ve been telling you to do these things for a long time. Maybe now you will understand why this is a good idea.

Learn more about me and my books: http://www.matilijapress.com and my services: http://www.patriciafry.com

Have you ever participated in a panel discussion at a conference related to your field of expertise? Or maybe you’ve sat in on panel discussions presented by others. What was the format?

Generally, you have a moderator who introduces the panelists and fields the questions. Sometimes, each panelist will introduce him/herself and give a little of their background before the program is opened up to questions.

I’ve sat on panels that were near chaotic. Either one person would monopolize the stage or everyone tried to speak at once with the moderator sitting quietly in the background.

I’ll be on a book marketing panel this weekend at the Ventura Book Festival at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and the moderator has actually given me an assignment. This is a first. Each panelist is asked to speak on a different aspect of the subject within an 8-10 minute pocket of time. Then the floor will be opened up to questions. Good idea! I like the feeling of organization and order this moderator seems to be giving to the presentation. I’ll report later about how it worked out. For example, will she be able to keep each of us to the time limit?

This can be a problem in some venues. Oh my gosh, have I been disappointed a time or two when my presentation was cut short because someone before me spoke way too long. I can get sooooo infuriated with weak program organizers.

If you are putting on a program that has time-constraints (as most do), please be assertive enough to keep your speakers in line. Assign each of them a time slot and be firm about the parameters of that assignment. “You are speaking from 7:15 to 7:45 and then we’ll open the floor to questions for 10 minutes.” Tell the speaker that you will signal him or her at 7:40. And if he continues speaking beyond 7:45 by, say, 5 minutes, interrupt him and ask for questions from the audience.

And when you are the speaker, find out how much time you have to talk and then adhere to the boundaries.

My part of the panel discussion will be fun. I’ve been asked to come up with 10 things an author absolutely must do in order to promote his/her book. I have 10 minutes to accomplish this. I have decided to create a handout in order to provide additional information and resources that I won’t be able to cover in this brief time allotment.

One thing I’ll point out to the audience is that, as a member of the panel, I am promoting my book. I will do this as a way for them to understand how to use speaking opportunities as a book promotion tool. I’ll tell them that they may not even hear me mention the titles of any of my books. But that, by way of my sharing information and resources with them, I am demonstrating my expertise in the field of publishing and book marketing. My handouts will include my business card with my website addresses and my brochure showcasing some of my books and highlighting my editorial services. I will also have some of my books for sale at the event.

If they trust what I say, feel I am credible and want to know more about how to promote their books, they will purchase copies of my books.

You can learn more about me and my work here:
http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

Have you participated in or observed panel discussions that you thought were particularly successful or that just didn’t work at all? We’d like to hear about some of your experiences and get some good ideas for future panels.

What do you do when things slow down? It’s inevitable that there will be lulls in your activities along your book promotion route. There are times when you are so busy, you wonder how you’ll have time to do it all. You’re swamped with speaking engagements and upcoming book festivals. You’re presenting workshops, organizing a local author’s event and still working to get your book up at Amazon.com. Oh yes, and you’re shipping books, delivering them to local bookstores and libraries and continuing to send announcements to your mailing/emailing list.

But how do you handle the quiet times—when you’ve exhausted your book promotion resources or when you get tired of the hustle bustle of it all?

We all experience burnout at some point, especially when we’ve been pushing so hard to get our books noticed and working so hard for those sales. So what do you do? What is your remedy?

The most reasonable course of action is to get back on the horse. Take a brief breather, if you wish—putter in the garden, have coffee or a cocktail with a friend, take a hike in nature or simply sit and meditate. Then pick up where you left off. Your book is not going to sell itself. It needs you to come up with good marketing ideas and implement them. So, once you’ve taken that rest, either continue doing what you were doing—if you were experiencing some results—or try new promotional tactics.

After a bout with burnout, you might need a change of pace.

• Spend a few weeks submitting articles on your book’s topic or stories in your genre to magazines.

• Contact the managers of key websites and ask about having your book listed as recommended reading.

• Offer to be interviewed or to be a guest blogger at blogs related to the theme or genre of your book.

• Establish your own blog.

• Power up your website by adding resource pages where your audience can come for information on your book’s topic.

• Design a new workshop or presentation.

• Outline a booklet or workbook to accompany your book.

• Search for more book reviewers and contact them.

• Seek appropriate conferences where you could speak on behalf of your book. Start contacting the organizers with your resume and presentation details.

Burnout might be more prevalent in summer because there’s more going on outside of our homes. The kids are out of school, the weather is nice and people are visiting. There are more distractions. As an author, however, you’ve taken on a full-time job—that of promoting your book. You are an entrepreneur and book promotion is your business. Your decisions and actions will make or break your business and you’ll soon find how important it is to stay on top of your game.

Having your book reviewed a couple of times is not enough. Notifying your mailing/emailing list that your book has been published is not enough. Doing a couple of speaking gigs is not enough. Getting local bookstores to carry your book is not enough. Spending a weekend at a book festival is not enough. Book promotion is full-time and ongoing for as long as you want to sell copies of your book. So, if you suffer from a bit of burnout, it’s understandable. Promoting a book is hard and intense work. And it’s okay to take a little time away—in fact, it is probably a requirement for a healthier you. But, if you desire success as an author, take a brief respite only with the full intention of returning to your “job” full-force and full speed ahead.

For more about what it takes to succeed as a published author, read my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Sign up for one of my on-demand, online courses. I teach courses on book promotion, self-editing, memoir-writing, how to write a successful book proposal, self-publishing and article-writing.
http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

Be sure to check out my brand new Patricia Fry website:
http://www.patriciafry.com

There are effective ways and less effective ways to promote a book. Most authors are busy people. We run businesses, work outside the home, care for a family and house, maintain a writing career, have a social life and promote one or more books. So it is important that we use our time wisely. Here are a few tips toward more efficient book promotion:

• Create a website designed to promote your book before your book is a book. And make sure it is absolutely complete and functioning accurately before sending announcements to your list. For example, is the ordering function in place and is it crystal clear for anyone wanting to purchase your book.

• Provide a way for each individual to purchase your book. Some people use PayPal. Others will only pay by credit card. And still others prefer to send a check by mail. Accommodate each of your potential customers, or you may, inadvertently, turn some of them away.

• Send promo packages and/or notices to your email and snail mail list letting potential customers know that your book is available—but only after you have your ordering options in place. Then repeat the mailing/emailing every few months. Try to preface each mailing with a pertinent announcement or message to capture the customer’s attention. Let them know when you are running a special, when your book won an award, when you are coming out with a new book or an accompanying workbook or when you are presenting classes in your topic, for example.

• Maintain a more intimate relationship with your audience by creating a monthly newsletter designed to inform, entertain and teach with regard to your book’s topic or theme. Of course, this is also a sales tool, so use it to promote your book.

• Periodically bring out new booklets, reports, workbooks, etc. to entice additional sales. And be sure to inform your customers and potential customers about these products.

In some instances, there is the right time and the wrong time to promote a book. You may be eager to tell the world about your book, but make sure that you are ready to accept orders before you start spreading the word.

Visit Patricia Fry’s bookstore and resource center: http://www.matilijapress.com and stop in at her new personal website: http://www.patriciafry.com

The experts will tell you that it is up to you, the author, to promote your own book. They say that no one cares about your book the way you do and that you are the only one who can successfully promote it. I agree. But it is also true that we can’t do it all alone.

If your writing business has grown into something, over the years, that you simply don’t recognize, you probably need in-house help. Look at my business, for example. I am a full-time writer/author/editor. The month of June found me revising one of my manuscripts for a publisher, taking on 6 large and small editing jobs, continuing to handle the ongoing tasks involved with running SPAWN (such as compiling and writing the Market Update, managing our discussion group, welcoming new members, etc.), writing this daily blog, writing an article on assignment and attempting to do a little book marketing. My book marketing efforts were rather weak, in light of my other commitments this month. And it occurred to me that I should hire one or two employees or, perhaps, bring in a couple of interns.

I used to hire a friend to prepare queries to send and do light research. She also typed an entire 360-page book into the computer for me—one that I wrote on a typewriter several years earlier.

With employees, I would not have to stop promoting my publishing/book promotion books when editing work comes in. I wouldn’t have to put the book of cat stories on hold in the middle of a promotional project when a publisher or editor requests a manuscript.

The fact is that we all need help, a leg up, an opportunity and support along the way when we are attempting to promote one or more books. While, you may not be in a position to hire someone, you will find yourself relying on book reviewers, editors, website owners, experts in your field, organization leaders, conference organizers, program chairpersons, mentors, web hosts, booksellers, customers and many others as you journey along the book promotion path.

It may feel as though you are all alone in your quest to create a desire for your book. But it will behoove you to realize how essential others can be in your promotional efforts. Connect with them, ask for the assistance you require and be sure to acknowledge their contributions to your progress.

In the meantime, for editorial assistance and help with your book proposal, contact me, Patricia Fry. I’ll evaluate your manuscript or book proposal and give you an estimate. PLFry620@yahoo.com.

It’s a jungle out there. Yes, I know this is a cliché. I happen to love clichés, but publishers and readers would rather see fresh, clever, creative writing instead of tired, old clichés. So this is my first secret to publishing success.

In no particular order, I’m going to spew a variety of tips to help authors climb closer to the pinnacle of success they are striving to concur.

Hire a Good Editor
Do not rely on your pay-to-publish company when it comes to editing your book. First, self-edit. If you need help with this, sign up for my new Self-Editing Course: http://www.matilijapress.com/course_self-editing.htm. It will save you tons of money and move you ever so much closer to your dream of publishing success.

Next, hire a good book editor. An experienced book editor is very different from a co-worker with a good vocabulary, your son’s English teacher or the retired professor down the street.

Use Your Writing Skills
Establish a blog. Write articles or submit stories for magazines and ezines. Develop a newsletter related to the theme of your book. If your book focuses on a popular, intriguing or meaningful topic, create a column for an appropriate magazine. These are all ways to get and keep your name in front of your readers.

Your Blog
Blog regularly, make sure that your posts relate to the theme/genre of your book and get your blog listed everywhere. If you’re promoting a novel, you’ll be writing within the realm of your genre. You may want to submit your blog to some of the top 10 writers’ blogs you find posted all over the Internet.

If you have written a nonfiction book, use your blog to be helpful. Share tips, techniques, new findings, anecdotes, information, concepts, theories, examples, your perspective and so forth. Search for lists of top blogs in your book’s category—gardening, roping, fitness, health, business issues, budgeting, etc. Study those blogs that are listed and strive to maintain one that is as good. Then submit your blog for consideration on next year’s list.

Other Blogs
Ask to be interviewed at other blogs. Be a guest blogger. At the very least, use Google Alerts ( http://www.google.com/alerts) to find out what other bloggers in your area of expertise or interest are writing about. Comment at their blog sites.

Speak Out
The authors I know who are selling books are not sitting at home twiddling their thumbs. They are out becoming known among their readers, speaking in public forums, getting radio and TV gigs, doing podcasts, presenting workshops and so forth.

Sign up for book festivals throughout your state and beyond. This presents another great opportunity to meet your public and get exposure for your book.

If you are timid or unsure of yourself in front of an audience, join a storytelling group and/or a Toastmasters club and participate.

If you are already doing all of these things, good for you. If you are pursuing some of them, I suggest amping up your efforts. And if you have not done any of the above in order to promote your book, I challenge you to start today. Devise a marketing plan that includes all of these activities. Put that plan into action. And report back to me in a month or two.

In the meantime, if you need guidance in choosing a publishing option for your completed or almost completed book or help with book promotion, contact me: PLFry620@yahoo.com.