Writing and Publishing News from

There’s so much to do and so little time in a day. Are any of you finding this to be more and more true? In talking with other authors, it seems that part of the problem is the type of work we do. Most authors have only so many hours in a day that they can actually write something intelligible and meaningful. Creativity seems to have its bounds.

It gets even more dicey for authors who are writing AND promoting books. Ideally, an author sets a schedule of writing during his/her most creative periods—first thing in the morning or late at night after everyone has gone to bed, for example. And that leaves the rest of the day for promotion. Well, except for when you have to work, care for small children, handle household chores and tend to other obligations and responsibilities. I can hear the deep sighs filled with frustration. How does an author do it all?

I’ve been in this business for over 35 years and I keep altering my strategies to keep myself afloat. So far, so good. But it can become difficult, especially when it comes to book promotion.

Have you noticed how many ways there are to promote a book? You read books on the subject, attend lectures, study your various book promotion newsletters and discuss the subject with other authors—oh, there is no shortage of book promotion ideas. In fact, I’m revising my book, “Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book,” for a publisher who’s interested under a new title: “Over 100 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book.” And do you know what? I have closer to 300 ideas.

It’s mind-boggling. How does an author single-handedly use all of the tools available, try all of the ideas and address every member of their readership? It’s impossible. There’s not enough time in an ordinary lifetime. So what does an author do? The best that he or she can.

One of the beauties of my online Book Promotion Course is that it assists the author in discovering his or her strong-points within the realm of book marketing and encourages them to set reasonable priorities. I try to urge authors to find their comfort zone when it comes to promoting their books and then to push at least a bit beyond it in the direction that makes the most sense to their particular project.

New authors sometimes ask me, “What is the best way to promote a book?” And I always respond by saying, “It depends on the book and it depends on you.” And it also depends on the audience. You wouldn’t speak primarily before groups of college students and submit your book for review in pet magazines for a book related to elderly abuse. Nor would you focus your promotional efforts through a magnificent website with all the bells and whistles, high-end retail stores or expensive TV ads when your audience is comprised of homeless families. Likewise, if you are pretty much homebound, you can’t expect to go on the speaking circuit and do signings in every major city as a way to promote your book.

There are promotional activities within every possible category and it is up to the individual author to choose those few that he/she can reasonably pursue and then to pursue them with gusto. I recommend reviewing your promotional tactics every few months and making appropriate adjustments—crank up the activity on those you are involved in, add one or two new ones and, most certainly, drop any of those that are not working for you.

Note: Don’t give up on any ideas too soon. Sometimes the results are slow in coming. Make sure that you give each good idea a reasonable chance.

If you need help selecting and/or organizing your book promotion activities, sign up for my Book Promotion Course.
http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm

Yesterday, my blog title promised something I realized that I didn’t provide—how to treat your customers well. In my early morning fog, I ended up talking about how to get customers rather than how to maintain a healthy customer base.

What comprises good business practices? How do you make a good impression?
• Communicate clearly with your customers.
• Provide what you promise in your advertising.
• Make all transactions as smooth and easy as possible.
• Give something more than your customer expects.
• Pack books so they arrive undamaged.
• Ship in a timely manner.
• Handle any problems promptly, cheerfully and satisfactorily.

I like the idea of giving something more than customers expect. I know one author who
wraps her poetry book in pretty tissue paper and ties it with a piece of ribbon before sliding it into the padded mailer to ship. I enclose a gift magnet with the image of the book cover with shipments of my cat stories books.

It’s actually fairly easy to please a satisfied customer. The real challenge comes when something goes wrong with the order.

One author I know inadvertently shipped out a box of books that included a couple of flawed books. When the customer explained the problem, my friend replaced the books at no charge and even returned the customer’s original payment for those two books in order to maintain good customer relations.

A few years ago, a customer called me to say that the Ojai history book I sold him had a signature of pages missing. To keep things simple and take care of the problem quickly, I did not ask him to return the damaged book. I immediately shipped him a new book. And to further repair customer relations, I enclosed a copy of my Nordhoff Cemetery book as a bonus. This man will not hesitate doing business with my company again and he may even tell others about Matilija Press and Patricia Fry.

Sometimes an author/publisher is asked to go beyond what should be reasonably expected and, sometimes the author loses. As an example, a few years ago, a gentleman from Australia ordered one of my books through my website. He contacted me almost immediately after making the transaction to say that his card was charged several times, but he only wanted one copy of the book. I checked my merchant account system and, sure enough, his card had been charged something like eleven times. He admitted to having clicked “buy” maybe twice, but not eleven times.

This was my first experience with this sort of problem and it was a slow go. When I completed the tedious process of hand crediting his card, I contacted the customer and he claimed that I was still charging him for two copies of the book.

What? I double checked carefully and discovered that I had accidentally inserted the wrong credit card number in one instance while attempting to issue him the appropriate credit. Turns out it was a valid credit card number and it greedily accepted the credit.

I didn’t know what to do, so I called the tech people for my merchant account system and they advised me to simply charge that same card in order to retrieve my money. I issued my customer one more credit in the amount of the book and I attempted to charge the card I erroneously credited. Guess what? This card was red-flagged and was being investigated. I never did get that money back. Consequently, for all of my trouble and time (because of a situation caused by the customer), I ended up with zilch. Regardless, I sent him the book he ordered.

Not every transaction is flawless. That’s for sure. But you will make more friends and attract more customers (including repeat customers) if you do your best to keep things simple and if you will give the customer the benefit of the doubt.

Visit my new website: http://www.patriciafry.com

One thing an author needs is readers. This is true whether you are a one-time author who just wants to get your memoir down on paper or a career author with many books in your future. Readers are your bread and butter, your best support system and your harshest critics. It is important to establish an excellent rapport with your audience, but how? There are many ways.

Maintaining a good connection with your audience isn’t unlike nurturing a friendship, partnership or any other relationship. Through your writing and your actions, you should strive to gain the trust and respect of your readers. However, in order to meet your goals of teaching, informing or entertaining others, you must first get their attention.

You know how to nurture a friendship, right? You communicate—you are present. You let others know that you care. You share. You respond to their difficulties, celebrate their accomplishments and offer constant support.

How do you establish and manage a meaningful relationship with your readership? Here are some suggestions:

• Write the book they want/need.
• Make sure you let them know that the book exists.
• Maintain contact with your readers through an active blog.
• Continue supplying readers with information and resources through articles.
• Be constantly visible through many channels, including social media.

This is probably what most of you authors are already doing. Good! But it is important that you continue posting meaningful material at your blog; communicating through your Facebook, Linkedin, etc. accounts; writing articles of substance; showing up at various events attended by your audience; making yourself available to respond to question and so forth.

Your audience is important to the success of your book. That’s why I join other experts in urging you to start thinking about your readers long before you actually write the book. And continue thinking about them and catering to them for as long as you hope to sell copies of your book.

For more about making all of the right decisions with regard to your book project, read my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book: http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

For a fun read this summer and/or as a gift, purchase my latest book, Catscapades, True Cat Tales.
http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html

This may seem like a strange concept, but think about it. If you’re promoting a book, don’t you seem to gravitate toward the same types of book promotion activities most of the time? Sure you do. There are hundreds of book promotion possibilities and only twenty-four hours in a day. Plus most of us have a life outside of our book projects—although, it doesn’t seem like it sometimes. We can’t be everywhere and do everything we want to or should do toward promoting our books. It’s simply impossible.

So which activities do you choose? What book promotion projects and programs do you find yourself pursuing most? Where is your level of comfort when it comes to promoting your book? Do you promote through your website, speak to local civic group members, use a signature with your emails and seek book reviews? Maybe you send press releases, carry your book with you everywhere you go, write a daily blog and submit articles or stories related to the theme or genre of your book regularly. Do you go out of your way to promote your book—travel to conferences and other events all over the US where you can speak to your audience?

I believe that most of us do what we can do and what we are willing to do. We push hard in the beginning—when we are still experiencing the excitement of a new book project. And then we find our comfort zone and pretty much stay there. Where we land within our individual comfort zones probably denotes our book promotion personality. Our choices indicate whether we are introverted, extroverted, assertive, aggressive, meek, self-conscious, ambitious, energetic, lazy, motivated, determined, shy, reserved or a real go getter. It’s the activities that we settle into after the big initial promotional push that indicates our promotion personality and, by the way, our potential for success.

Sure, it’s important to be true to oneself. But, when it comes to promoting your book, if you are seeking a level of success, it’s also necessary to stretch, experience growing pains, step outside of your self-imposed box and try new things.

Maybe I can put it in perspective this way: There are a whole lot of authors out there competing for their share of the readership. In order to compete, it’s imperative that you are on top of your book promotion game for as long as you want your book to sell.

I sometimes wonder how many people I have discouraged from publishing books. I do know that some people ignore what I say in my articles, blog, books and presentations or choose not to believe me. They go into publishing with no intentions of creating a business around their books. They don’t want to get involved in promotion at all. They comprise the 76 percent of authors who fail.

So do you know what kind of book promotion personality you have? Upon your evaluation, do you see that you could be doing more to promote your book or are you doing everything you know to do?

If your book is faltering and you are at a loss as to what to do next, let me make a suggestion. Purchase my little ebook, The Author’s Repair Kit, Heal Your Publishing Mistakes and Breathe New Life Into Your Book. It’s only 27 pages and $5.95—no shipping costs. And it is a great little book for authors who may have written the wrong book for the wrong audience and who could use some ideas for getting their book on track: http://www.matilijapress.com/author-repairkit.html

Are you planning to attend a book festival this summer with your book(s)? Scott Lorenz has an article in Fran Silverman’s most recent Book Promotion Newsletter in which he features the best book festivals to attend this year. I’m already scheduled to attend two of them. Subscribe to Book Promotion Newsletter (an enewsletter) at: http://www.bookpromotionnewsletter.com There is a small fee to offset costs.

How many newsletters and enewsletters do you subscribe to each month? You are probably receiving newsletters and other material related to the topic/genre of your book or, if you are a freelance writer—related to this field. And if you are writing, publishing or promoting a book, you should be subscribing to newsletters and enewsletters on these subjects. And you should be reading them.

If I were to ask for a show of hands out there indicating how many of you actually read those newsletters and enewsletters you subscribe to each month, there would be only a few hands waving at me. The faces belonging to the hands that are in your laps, have a sheepish look on them. But you know what? It is okay with me if you don’t read the newsletters that come to you regularly in good faith, unless you’re one of those who say about the organization producing those newsletters, “That organization has done nothing for me. I don’t think I’ll renew my membership.”

No newsletter, book, blog or article is useful to those who ignore it—who decide not to read it.

We’re all busy and, if your life is like mine, you get busier by the year. It’s hard to find the time to study everything that comes across our desks. But this is no reason to give up altogether on newsletters. At least look at the headlines. Note articles that sound like they might have information you can use and, either read it on the spot or set it in a priority box of items that you will read that evening or first thing in the morning before turning your computer on, for example.

There are a lot of knowledgeable people creating valid and valuable text designed to help you keep up with your industry (and the writing/publishing industry). By not perusing this information, you could be sabotaging the very thing you’re working so hard to attain—your success.

Sure, there’s a lot of insignificant material coming at you all the time. There’s stuff you don’t need to know, but also stuff you only think you don’t need to know. There are those of us who think we know it all. And then there are folks who read everything and end up confused. How do we create a happy medium?

Be open, but discerning. Be ever willing to learn. And give yourself the best opportunity to succeed by exposing yourself to the information you need and actually taking it in.

Of course, you will outgrow newsletters. Some of them will change into something that doesn’t relate to your project. It’s okay to unsubscribe. But give newsletters and other material a good opportunity to work for you—to bring you the information and options you need in order to make the best decisions on behalf of your project or business.

When I get a chance to talk to former SPAWN members, I always learn that the reason they didn’t renew was one of two things. They either lost interest in their book project—decided not to pursue it—or they admit that they just didn’t participate in the way that they should have. They often regret that they didn’t take part in SPAWNDiscuss so they would meet other authors and publishers and learn more about the day-to-day world of publishing and book promotion. They confess that they didn’t read the SPAWN Market Update every month—in fact, they rarely got around to it. These former members joined with high hopes, but just couldn’t get it together enough to even use the benefits available to them. Others joined expecting SPAWN to “do it for them.” They somehow misunderstood the premise we so openly promote. They didn’t understand that SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) is a networking organization designed to provide members with resources, information and opportunities to help them make the best choices for their projects.

Don’t be a drop out. In order to succeed as a published author, freelance writer or in any other field or business, you must take the reins. Study the map. Know your options. Be clear as to the opportunities available because it is up to you to chart your own course.

Check out both of my websites: http://www.matilijapress.com and http://www.patriciafry.com

Check out SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network): http://www.spawn.org

I generally warn authors against soliciting reviews at book review sites because of the volume of books being reviewed. It is difficult, if not impossible, to have your book showcased effectively at most of these sites. There’s just too much competition. On the other hand, you can never get too much exposure for your book. While I don’t believe that a review on a major book review site will generate many (or any) customers, it does provide exposure. The more times a reader sees your title or hears about it, the more apt he or she is to purchase it. But there is an even more important reason to pursue book review sites.

Some professionals believe that publishers scour book review sites in search of the next bestseller. Some say that multiple reviews at the review sites impress librarians and they’ll be inclined to order your book.

So go ahead and solicit book reviews at some of the online book review sites. It might be worth your while in the long run.

Tip: create your book in ebook form as well as print. Many reviewers will accept the ebook version, thus saving you money on the cost of the book as well as shipping.

Online book review directories:
http://acqweb.org/bookrev.html lists over 100 review opportunities in most genres.
http://dir.yahoo.com/arts/humanities/literature/reviews lists some of the most popular book review sites.

For more about book review sites, how to get book reviews and other book promotion ideas and resources read my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Sign up for my book promotion course—I’m offering a discount through the month of June. See the May 24 blog. Check out the course description here:
http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm

I decided that I wanted to interview prolific and effective bloggers for the August edition of the SPAWN Market Update. These bloggers must also write about aspects of writing/authorship. I just spent an hour in research mode and came up with scant few who fit my criteria—they blog regularly, stick to issues of writing/publishing/book promotion and they offer information and resources their audience craves.

Maybe you can recommend some of your favorites. I’d appreciate that. Contact me with your recommendations here at this blog—leave a comment—or email me at PLFry620@yahoo.com.

In the meantime do you blog as a way to reach your audience? Some bloggers claim to have landed book deals because of their meaningful blogs. Others have been asked to submit articles or stories for publishing consideration. None of these things has happened to me, but that isn’t the reason why I write. These aren’t my goals for this blog. My aim is to communicate with other authors and writers—to share what I have learned over three decades of freelance writing and publishing.

If you are promoting a book and are considering or attempting to establish a blog, here are some tips that might help. If you can’t follow these guidelines, you might as well forget the blog.

1: Post regularly. Your audience needs to be able to count on you. This means every single day or, at least every few days—regularly.

2: Stay focused on your topic. Make sure that you are providing the information your audience wants in a way that makes it palatable. Stay on track when adding to your blog so that you are always addressing your target audience.

3: Use appropriate keywords often. If your audience is seeking information about gardening in the northwest, continually use words in your blog entries that your potential audience would use in an internet search.

4: Keep selling to a minimum. Yes, you can promote your own book and services, but the way to do that within the blog culture is to demonstrate your expertise, be helpful, give and share. Then let blog visitors know that they can get more help, advice, information or entertainment if they purchase your book, attend your workshop, visit your website—whatever.

Blogging is one tool to use in promoting your fiction or nonfiction book. Learn about others through my online book promotion course. All six of my online courses are discounted during the month of June. Contact me at PLFry620@yahoo.com or read my May 24, 2010 entry for more details. Check out my array of useful and entertaining books here: http://www.matilijapress.com

You know it is good practice to get testimonials/endorsements from others in your field or genre to publish on your book cover or inside your book. You probably continue to solicit expert and reader reviews and comments to post at your website. But have you thought about the exposure you get when you endorse or comment on someone else’s book?

Once your book is published, offer to endorse other books on your topic or in your genre. I’ve written testimonials that have appeared on the covers of books on California history, spiritually, cooking and writing/publishing as well as a few novels. What does giving endorsements or testimonials do for your book? It provides additional exposure to your audience and helps to position you as an expert in your field.

Most of the time, I am approached to write the testimonial. But you can also offer to do them. It’s a little tricky to locate authors of books in the works because they don’t usually promote their books until they are published. If you stay abreast of what’s going on in your field/genre, however, you’ll begin to hear about pending books, read about them in blogs and find out about them through diligent visits to appropriate websites.

But, you don’t have to wait for a new book opportunity. We’re in the digital age, after all, and books are being revised and reprinted quite often these days. So if you offer testimonials for books by experts, your words could end up on the cover of their revision or a new book on the subject. At the very least, your testimonial will go on the author’s book page on his or her website.

Simply read the book, create a smashingly complimentary and articulate testimonial, give your name, the title of your book and your website address and then send it to the author to do with as he wishes. You might even suggest that the he post your comments on his blog, in his next newsletter, etc. Most authors have testimonials pages at their websites.

Maybe you feel a bit awkward about writing a testimonial—you just don’t know what to say. No problem. Simply find out what others are saying about the book you are “reviewing.” Look at the book page or testimonials pages at the author’s website. Read the customer reviews and comments at his page on Amazon. Do a Google search to locate reviews of this book elsewhere. Try to be clever, but not so clever that your words have little meaning. Be flattering. Be succinct. And be honest. Honestly, if you think the book stinks, don’t bother to affiliate yourself with it.

Speaking of Amazon.com, be sure to post your comments on these authors’ Amazon book pages for even greater exposure.

To discover additional ideas for getting exposure for your book, read my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

We have room for a few more students in our summer course sessions. Sign up for one of my six courses this month at a discount. (See the May 24, 2010 entry for details.)

Life has a way of racing past us while we’re busy trying to keep up. And if you are promoting a book along with everything else that you do, it can become overwhelming.

Think about it, how many good promotional ideas have escaped your grasp and been tossed aside simply because you are too busy or too preoccupied? That’s why I suggest that you grab each promotional idea you stumble across, without judging it, and file it in your Hot File. When things calm down, your speaking circuit has slowed down, you’ve sent out your quota of press releases for the month, you’ve made several cold calls, open up the Hot File and see what’s in there.

Here’s what I hope you’ll find waiting for you in there: leads for potential speaking engagements, information about a conference or trade show in your expertise, a new website devoted to the theme of your book, a list of magazines and newsletters related to your topic, the name of the new editor for a magazine you regularly submit articles to and so forth.

Don’t let another good (or even questionable) promotional idea escape you. File them in a red hot file and always take the time at some point to acknowledge, evaluate and, in some cases, pursue the idea.

This is just one of many ideas and tips included in Patricia Fry’s collection of writing/publishing/book promotion books. See her array of books for new and seasoned authors at http://www.matilijapress.com.

Do you want a one-on-one mentoring experience as you self-edit your book, write a book proposal, set up your own publishing company, write your memoir, start your article-writing business or promote your book? Sign up for one of Patricia Fry’s online courses at a 20% discount during the month of June. Classes are filling fast—contact Patricia now. Check out the courses here http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm. Read more about the discount offer in the May 24, 2010 blog post. Contact Patricia here: PLFry620@yahoo.com.