Writing and Publishing News from

You wrote an amazing book, designed it to perfection and even managed to get it published. But it isn’t selling as well as you thought it would. What went wrong?

Here are seven common mistakes that authors make:

1: The author writes the wrong book for the wrong audience. Way too many authors write the book they want to write without truly considering their audience.

2: The author doesn’t know that he is responsible for promotion. Obviously, this author didn’t take the time and initiative to study the publishing industry or he would have known that his job isn’t over once the book is published.

3: The author neglects to build promotion into his book while he’s writing it. Savvy authors think about their target audience while they are writing and designing their books.

4: The author neglects to establish a platform. Many new authors don’t know what a platform is. It’s the author’s following, his reach, his way of attracting his audience. Most successful authors today have a platform in place before they produce a book.

5: The author has unrealistic expectations. Many first-time authors (we’ve all been there) expect to sell their books by the truckloads through mega bookstores. They believe that any good book will be eagerly welcomed by bookstore owners and managers. The reality is that few people outside of traditional royalty publishers with track records can get new books into bookstores—no matter how brilliant and beautiful they are.

6: The author gives promotion just a lick and a promise and then wonders why his book didn’t “take off.” Authors need to understand that book promotion is ongoing. It should start before you write the book and continue for as long as you want to sell books.

7: The author gives up. I can’t tell you how often I hear this from disillusioned authors, “I can’t sell my book, so what’s the use?” There’s one thing for sure; you won’t achieve the level of success you desire if you quit. Successful promotion takes time, energy, patience and lots of persistence.

There’s a lot to contemplate when entering the huge and competitive business of publishing. And promotion is a major consideration. Whether you land a traditional royalty publisher, self-publish (establish your own publishing company) or go with a fee-based POD publishing service, it is up to you—the author—to promote your book. And the time to start thinking about promotion is before you ever sit down and put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

Learn more about the publishing industry, your options and your responsibilities as a published author by reading my book: The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

If you’ve already produced a book and it is faltering and you are struggling, read my ebook which is designed to breathe new life into a failing book: The Author’s Repair Kit.
http://www.matilijapress.com/author_repairkit.html

(Today I am demonstrating a tip sheet. Create your own and send them to appropriate magazines, newsletters and also newspapers nationwide. Editors love informative, useful filler pieces. They use them to fill small spaces left over once the meaty articles and ads are set.)

Tips for a Successful Publishing Project

1: Study the publishing industry so you understand your options, the possible ramifications of your choices and your responsibility as a published author.

2: Define your purpose for writing this book. Make sure it is valid, not frivolous.

3: Determine your target audience. Who is most likely to read this book and how many people does this comprise?

4: Ascertain whether this book is needed/desired. Is there a market for this book?

5: Consider your platform—your following, your connections, your way of attracting readers. Why are you the person to write this book and who is going to care about reading it?

6: Create a marketing plan. How will you get word out about your book?

7: Find ways to build promotion into your book while you’re writing it.

Patricia Fry is the author of 31 books, most of them related to writing and publishing. For much, much more on every aspect of this tips sheet, read Patricia Fry’s book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

(This is tip sheet comprises 130 words—perfect for, perhaps, newspapers, senior publications, authors’ newsletters/magazines and so forth.)

You can’t believe everything you read on the Internet. And the more well-known you become in your field, the more “lies” (or shall we say “inaccuracies”) you will discover about yourself.

One way to help avoid having lies spread about you is to keep your website current. Update your “about us” page whenever you add a book, service or something else of significance has occurred with regard to your business. Refresh your “appearances” page frequently. And continually add testimonials.

Keep your signature current. When something changes, change your signature. I’m working on a new website—the Patricia Fry website. As soon as it is up and running, I will add it to the “signature” that automatically follows my emails. A signature, by the way, is that bit of promo that you can add automatically to your emails.

What do you include in a signature? Here’s mine:

Patricia Fry, freelance writer, author and editorial consultant.
www.matilijapress.com
Executive Director of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network)
www.spawn.org

Patricia is the author of 31 books including,
The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book
The Author’s Repair Kit (e-book)
The Successful Author’s Handbook (e-book)
and her newest book, Catscapades, True Cat Tales
www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html

Visit my informative writing/publishing Blog often:
www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog

I do what I suggest and keep things up to date. But sometimes people just don’t pay attention. They don’t bother to check on the status of a product or an individual even though they may not have had contact with that person for over 5 years. Here’s a recent example of that:

Just this morning, Google Alerts brought to my attention that someone has recommended one of my writing/publishing books in her blog. Yup, she posted The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book as her top recommendation for authors. And she posted the cover image. But, alas, this is the first edition of the book which I produced way back in 2005 and it is out of print! Not only that, she used an amazon.com link for ordering this book and the price was listed as $37.95. (It was originally $19.95.)

Did I get mad? No, I am actually glad for the publicity and the promotional opportunity.

I commented at her blog, letting her (and her readers) know that I revised and reprinted that book in 2007 and the current version is available for $19.95 at Amazon and my own website. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Do you sometimes find erroneous facts, information or insinuations about yourself? Oh my gosh, the more people who write and talk about you, the more things they get wrong. If you interview people, keep in mind that businesses grow, individuals develop their products and services over time. In other words, things change. Always, always check personally with the subject of your interview or recommendation before writing about them or preparing a speech introduction, for example. Look at their website. Read the “About Us.” But don’t rely completely on this as not everyone keeps this very important aspect of their promotional program up. And this is unfortunate.

Discount on Online Patricia Fry’s Courses
Remember, I am offering a 20% discount on all of my online courses throughout the month of June. It’s okay to sign up now. Here’s how it works—sign up, pay full price using your credit card and I will reimburse you. Or send a check for the fee (less the 20%). See the May 24, 2010 entry for more details. The courses available include Book Promotion Workshop, Self-Editing Course, Self-Publishing Workshop, Memoir-Writing Course, Article-Writing Course, Book Proposal Workshop. Contact me with questions: PLFry620@yahoo.com.

Do you dream of having a book signing? Or maybe you have done book signings. Were they successful? How did you measure your success? How many book signings have you attended? How would you judge their success or failure?

I signed copies of Catscapades, True Cat Tales yesterday at a local upscale pet store and had a great time. Several friends came out to support me. I met some new cat lovers. I sold books to friends, family and strangers. And I assisted in helping stray cats. How? The owner of the pet store donated store profits from sales to GrayFoot Cat Rescue—a local cat rescue organization.

So what are the benefits of doing book signings? Selling books is the obvious response, right? But there is so much more. My signing was advertised in several newspapers. There were posters posted at the site for three weeks in advance of the event. I announced the signing to my email list, neighbors and others. So those who couldn’t make the signing, but who like to read about cats or who know people who do, were made aware of this book of cat stories. In fact, this morning, I had another order of 3 cat books from Amazon.com. These could well be a result of the promo for this signing.

So what are some of the other benefits? If the signing takes place in a busy store, you are getting some very personal exposure. People coming in for other reasons, notice you and see your book. Some will stop and pick it up. Many will look at it in passing. Some will linger at your signing table. But many more people are now aware of you and your book. Whether they purchase copies at the signing or not, they now know it exists and this comes under the umbrella of exposure.

Some marketing experts say that a potential customer must see or hear about a product 7 or 8 times before purchasing it. Now those for whom this is true, might not order your book when they receive your email blast. They will appear only mildly interested when they read about it in your newsletter. They may pass on purchasing it after checking out the book page at your website. They may linger over the article in the paper about your book signing. They might even show up at the signing and remain in the shadows. But then, when they read your article on the topic of your book in a familiar magazine—boom! They decide it is time and they go to amazon.com and place an order for your book.

Or, this person might first become aware of your book at your signing and not buy it. They may see it in local bookstores. They might hear someone talking about it. They may even notice it in the library and then hear you speaking about it on their favorite radio talk show. It could be at that point when they decide to explore your website and purchase the book.

That’s how it works for some people. In fact, marketing experts believe this is how it works for a lot of consumers. Think about this scenario as it relates to your purchasing pattern. Are you an impulse buyer or do you need to sort of warm up to a product before eventually purchasing it? For myself, I tend to forget about a book I don’t purchase on the spot. When someone brings it up again or I read about it, I may finally be spurred into action and purchase it.

If you haven’t scheduled a book signing for your latest book, consider doing it today. Be sure to read pages 223-228 of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book so you’ll make all of the right moves on behalf of your signing event. And be kind to your potential readers/customers. Understand their initial reluctance to buy your book. Be patient with them and continue your promotional efforts on their behalf. If your book is something they can use, would enjoy or desire, they will eventually purchase it.

They will not buy it, however, if they don’t have access to it—they can’t find it at their usual stores or sites where they like to buy books, they haven’t seen a reminder that this book exists, lately, they have not been invited to purchase it recently. In other words, keep on keeping on with your marketing plan so that your audience is well aware of your book and how to purchase it. Then make it easy for them to buy it from your website, at their favorite store downtown, through amazon, etc.

This is kind of a silly title and not exactly descriptive, but I think it’s cute and fun. I actually did have fun with Google yesterday searching where my latest book is showing up.

As soon as you start promoting a book on the Internet, you can keep track of it by doing a Google search (or using Google Alerts). It’s good business practice to know where your title is being promoted and it is rather encouraging to find your book listed at a wide array of sites.

As many of you know, Catscapades, True Cat Tales, is my latest book—the one that is getting most of my promotional effort, energy and time, these days. So it’s the one I’m following—keeping tabs on. It was quite an interesting and satisfying Google search I conducted yesterday. I found 495 hits for “Catscapades” with my last name—Fry. I located 791 hits for just “Catscapades.” (Not all of these links were related to my Catscapades book, however.)

Many of the listings were expected—Amazon, my Matilija Press website, my Catscapades blog, Barnes and Noble, Twitter, Facebook and several sites and publications that did reviews or posted this as a recommended book. But there were also a few surprises—sites that I didn’t know where they had commented, featured or otherwise acknowledged this book.

This also gave me a chance to check for any discrepancies in representing this title. For example, I notified those sites that didn’t have a link to the Catscapades site, that didn’t have my name listed in the author list even though my book was featured and so forth.

I hope that you are keeping track of your book by using Google alerts http://www.google.com/alerts and by doing an occasional Google search. Then follow up with those site owners and reviewers who have done nothing with your book after a significant amount of time since they promised to do so or since they received a review copy.

It’s time consuming, that’s for sure, but well worth your effort to stay on top of your promotional game. And it’s really a cool feeling to find your book prominently displayed at site after site throughout the Internet. Set yourself up for some giggles today.

If you do a Google search and do not find your three-month old book listed at least 300 times or your year-old book listed at least 1,000 times, you may not be doing enough promotion.

My book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, when put in quotation marks—indicating a more refined search, results in 4,400 hits. My name brings up 1,550,000 results.

What does this mean? That I’ve been promoting my books and myself via the Internet. The results reflect my website, my blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. as well as my articles appearing at various sites and in various publications, my comments at other blog sites, interviews at other sites, book reviews, bookstores that carry my books, my memberships, my affiliation with SPAWN and so much more.

I’d like to hear the results of your Google search this week. You can comment here at this blog site.

When you read about how one should pursue book promotion, do you sometimes feel a bit intimidated? Do some experts make the process sound way too complicated? Do we suggest ideas that you wouldn’t try in a million years? Are you just interested in finding your book promotion comfort zone?

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you are probably timid about responding to that question. You don’t want to admit to me that you are a book promotion slacker—that you aren’t aggressively marketing your book and that there are activities that you just can’t bring yourself to pursue.

While I sure try to encourage you to step outside the box, widen your horizons, stretch, expand your reach and so forth, I realize that some of you are going to settle into a book promotion style and pretty much stay there. Here are some of the styles I’ve observed and the potential downfall of each:

• The gung-ho promoter. This author is excited, energetic and full of promotion ideas right out of the chute. He signs up for every opportunity that comes along and follows every lead. He eats, drinks and sleeps promotion. This is admirable, as long as the energy and enthusiasm holds. Beware of burnout.

• The focused promoter. She envisions one avenue of promotion for her book and that is the one she pursues. It might be getting it in bookstores, soliciting reviews or doing a press release blast. This could work for a while. But it is important to know when to continue and when to shift gears and try something else.

• The scattered promoter. He tries a little of many promotional activities, but doesn’t stay with any of them long enough to experience much success.

• The organized promoter. This author has a marketing plan and is dedicated to sticking with it no matter what. Problems arise when opportunities come up and he is so committed to his plan that he doesn’t acknowledge or even recognize them.

In my opinion, the best approach to book promotion is from a place of knowledge. Educate yourself about the publishing industry and the process of book promotion before getting involved. I also urge authors to be flexible and creative. Be willing to try something new and be equally willing to back away from a promotional activity that isn’t generating results.

For a good lesson in book promotion—one that covers the basics—sign up for my online, on-demand Book Promotion course. http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm It’s like working one-on-one with me as your mentor for 6-weeks. The course is $200, and it could result in thousands in sales once you understand how to approach the process of book promotion.

If you’re an author who spends any time at all studying the process of book promotion, you know the word exposure. You are being told that sales are not nearly as important as is exposure. You read that authors must strive to get, above all else, exposure. Experts advise you to seek ways to get exposure. What does this mean?

• What is exposure?
• How do you get exposure?
• What can exposure do for your book?

Suggesting that an author forget about sales and focus on exposure is sort of like asking someone who is super excited about his/her pending book debut to chill—be patient. Authors want/need sales. We want to cut to the chase and sell books, not just show it around to people. What many new authors don’t understand, however, is that exposure leads to sales.

It has been my observation that those authors who concentrate only on sales, usually fail. It has to do with expectations. As an illustration, here’s the story of two authors, Bill and Betty. Both authors reserve a booth at a fairly large book festival. Bill expects to sell two cartons of books, which will pay for the booth and travel expenses and net him around $500. He arrives at the book festival with his books, a cash box and high expectations.

Betty also hopes to sell books, but realizes that it takes more than just offering it for sale. She’ll be happy if she sells 15 or 25 books, talks to 100 potential customers about it, hands out 300 brochures and signs up at least 150 people for her free book drawing or e-newsletter. She realizes that she may just break even at the book festival. But, she creates a lovely display of her books, sets up a large poster behind her in the booth and looks forward to talking to scads of people. Which of these authors will most likely be disappointed at the end of the day? Yes, the one with the high, rather unreasonable expectations.

And which one will be most successful in his/her endeavor to sell books? The one with the most realistic approach. It’s unlikely that Bill will sell his quota of books, unless it is something quite special and unless he is a master salesman. It is my experience, however, that an author with unreasonable expectations and little understanding of how to display and represent his or her book will sometimes develop a rather negative attitude about half way into the event if books are not selling as well as he expected. As you can imagine, this will drive customers even further away.

Betty, on the other hand, has maintained a good attitude throughout the long day. When someone seems interested in her book, but doesn’t purchase it, she thanks them graciously and makes sure they walk away with a promotional piece (postcard, magnet or brochure, for example) and/or that they have signed up for the free drawing or e-newsletter.

Now Betty has a list of people who have once expressed an interest in her book. She can email her e-newsletter, which includes promo about her book each month, as well as information about the topic or genre of the book. She can contact the people on this list when she plans a book signing, wins a contest with the book or to remind them to consider purchasing this book for holiday giving, Mother’s Day or another special occasion.

While Bill allowed himself just one chance at selling books, Betty took the opportunity to create potential customers out of the people she met who were not ready to purchase her book
that day. Her connection with some of these people may eventually result in book sales as well invitations to speak or be a guest blogger, for example. These people might be more inclined to tell others about Betty’s book. Those who saw Bill’s book only once and who walked away without something to remind them of it, probably won’t think about it again.

Can you see the importance of exposure in book promotion? Does this illustration help you to understand the value in displaying your book, of course, but also making an impression on potential customers by sharing something about the book, asking about their experience or interest within the genre or topic of your book, handing out material to continually remind them of your book and staying in touch through your newsletter, occasional emails, blog posts, etc.

And don’t overlook the possibilities of connecting with some of these potential customers through your social media networks.

In book promotion, exposure should be your primary goal. And the more creative you can be in gaining exposure for your book the more sales you will make.

For more about writing, publishing and promoting your book, read my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

It’s a good time to sign up for the online workshop of your choice. I provide the most amazing opportunity to work with me one-on-one—an opportunity that generally costs several times more if you were to hire me. Check them out at http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

Do you Google yourself? It’s a good way to find out where your articles/stories are being published. Google the title of your book and find out where it is offered for sale, who is reviewing it and what they’re saying.

If you’re the publisher—the person who is doing most of the promoting—you know who is reviewing it. But there’s also a lot that you don’t know. For example, I did a search for Catscapades, True Cat Tales, this morning and discovered that Steve Dale’s column, where he mentions Catscapades, has been run in newspapers all over the US—not just the one where I originally saw the review. I also found Catscapades on sites where I didn’t know it was mentioned or featured. Some site owners just don’t get around to letting you know when your review is posted or your book is listed.

I also use Google Alerts to alert me to new listings or mentions of me or my books. Every morning, I receive a notice letting me know where my name or one of my books has popped up. Sometimes they miss new listings, however. And sometimes they report old, old ones. So it is still a good practice to do your own Google search from time to time. Sign up for Google Alerts here: http://www.google. com/alerts

A big part of book promotion is research. And you thought that, once your book was finished, the research was over. Not by a long shot. Now you need to locate potential outlets, review opportunities, etc. for your book. And you must check back fairly often to make sure your book is being reviewed—that people are doing what they promised to do for you.

If you dislike research, but you want to produce a book that is at least somewhat successful, you’d better learn to tolerate the process of research. Or hire someone who will do it for you. Research is ongoing for the author with a book to promote.

Catscapades, True Cat Tales is being featured on the Cool Cat Books page of Flippy’s Cat Site in Melbourne, Australia. Check it out at http://www.flippyscatpage.com/coolcatbooks.html

To order your copy of Catscapades, True Cat Tales go to http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html

Book sales are up for my hallmark book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. See what everyone is so excited about: http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Summer is upon us. It’s a good time to sign up for an online course. Check out my array of online course:
http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

Everyone is doing some sort of social media experiment. Authors are flaunting their books and promoting their book signings. Freelance writers are attempting to make important contacts. We’re all involved in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and/or some of the other dozens of what are known as social media sites. And we all have our reasons for doing so.

How’s it working for you? Are you realizing the results you had hoped for? Or are your efforts in the world of social media just becoming a time-consuming hobby? You’re meeting new people, but not exactly the right people. You’ve let a few people in who turned out not to be on the same wave length as you are, and you don’t know how to get rid of them and their daily posts on topics of no interest to you. We’ve all made mistakes in our associations with these sites.

This month in the SPAWN Market Update, we’ve interviewed Penny Leisch, self-taught expert on social media. I have to say that I learned more from this interview than I have in all of the reading and studying I’ve done on this topic. And this is just one reason why I urge you to join SPAWN.

SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) is not a social media organization, but we are a networking organization. We have a discussion group where authors, publishers, graphic artists, etc. can communicate. And one of the major advantages we offer members is the monthly SPAWN Market Update. Some of you may already subscribe to our FREE enewsletter, SPAWNews. This is separate from the SPAWN Market Update. The SPAWN Market Update is posted each first of the month in the member area of the SPAWN site for members only and it is jam-packed with what you need in order to succeed as a freelance writer or author.

For example, in the May issue, we provided a link to a site with a book review directory. No kidding. This directory lists magazines that publish book reviews. Now, if you have a book to promote, wouldn’t this be a great advantage? I also went to the trouble of researching other magazines that do book reviews and listing them, as well. We also let you in on the 25 top book festivals around. Very often, we include freelance writing job sites. This month, I list a site that includes a directory of job sites featuring writing jobs. This treasure could feature literally thousands of job opportunities. Now, as a freelance writer, how could anyone refuse to pay the $65/year membership in order to earn literally thousands through the leads we provide in the SPAWN Market Update? Doesn’t make sense to me.

Learn more about SPAWN membership here: http://www.spawn.org

And join before June 1 to be among the first to finally learn which of the social media sites are the best fit for you and your purpose and how you can maximize your social media experience.

Of course, all issues of the SPAWN Market Update are archived. Plan to spend at least 3 or 4 hours perusing back issues. I would print them out and then highlight those leads and links you would like to pursue. Each morning or evening (whenever you have some quiet time) spend an hour or so following leads.

Book promotion and locating freelance writing work are huge responsibilities. At SPAWN, we do our best to give you the leg up you need in order to experience the success you desire.

How do you know when you have “arrived” in your field or genre? For some, it is when they are quoted in someone else’s book or when their book is included among the recommended books or resources section in someone else’s book.

This has happened to me over the years on numerous occasions. And it is always a thrill and a privilege. Yet, I know authors who are timid about getting involved with other authors’ projects. Sure, it is important to check the author out, if you don’t know him/her, and to ask questions about their pending book. You don’t want to find yourself improperly represented, for heaven sakes.

Is it worthwhile to go to the trouble of writing a blurb, giving permission to have your book included or even writing a chapter for publication in another book? Absolutely. I’ve done it many times and it has always turned out to be a positive decision.

Generally, the other author either comes to me for permission or a quote or they will just include my book or one of my quotes and tell me about it later. Especially if you are a new author, you might have to look for opportunities to be included in books related to your topic or genre. For example, stay in close contact with your colleagues. Read their blog posts and articles. Do they mention that there is a book in the works? If so, contact them. Ask if you can send them your book for possible inclusion in their resources section or to be featured as a recommended book. Of course, maintain your own blog related to your topic, comment on other blogs and place articles on related topics in many appropriate magazines and newsletters. In other words, become known as an expert in your field.

There are basically two ways to become known in your field or genre—by being in the right place with the right information at the right time and by pushing the envelope. Go a step or two beyond just putting yourself out there. Engage in assertive marketing. Instead of waiting for key people to notice you, introduce yourself, show up where they are, comment at their blog sites, communicate personally with them. And be sure to ask for what you want.

What do you want? Presumably you want to reach your readership and one good way to do this is to connect with others who have the same or similar followers. Be proactive. Be creative.

For more about book promotion, read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

For help with self-editing, writing your memoir, book promotion, self-publishing or building an article-writing business, check out my online courses:
http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

Contact me for a free editorial evaluation for your manuscript in progress. PLFry620@yahoo.com.