Writing and Publishing News from

I’m back in my home office and happily so, except that there is a lot of work awaiting my attention. But that’s a good thing. Without work, there’s no money for travel and when I travel, I’m able to help hopeful authors.

I’ve had some interesting feedback related to my last blog entry about “Yellow Book Promotion.” One freelance writer told me her story. She had a booth at a flea market where she was offering merchandise she collects and sells. A woman, whose niece had similar wares, stood in front of my friend’s booth directing potential customers to her niece’s booth. She said that this woman literally grabbed the arms of some of the browsers and ushered them away. Unfortunately, this soured my friend against participating in another flea market.

If this happens to you, speak to the event coordinators. They’ll take care of it. It’s bad practice, not to mention rude. Yup, this falls under the term, Yellow Book Promotion.

An author I know tells the story about another author, who was sharing a booth with him, attempting to lure his customers away during a book festival. Instead of waiting for the potential customer to walk away with or without having purchased his book, the other author would reach across the display of books and hand a copy of her book to the undecided shopper. No, no, no!! This is not good practice.

I’ve seen authors in an audience raise their hands, during a presentation, and pitch their books. Often, other audience members will begin to ask questions and soon the focus is on the author rather than the presenter. That’s plain rude.

Okay, on to more positive things. I had a great time visiting the Professional Writers of Prescott (Arizona) earlier this week. They invited me to speak to their group. And, even though it was the same night as the presidential debate on TV, we had a nice turnout of interested and interesting writers at all stages of publishing. Most had been published. Hopefully, everyone walked away with something they can use to reach their individual goals. And those without unreasonable expectations, I trust, did.

I learn something almost every single time I meet with other writers/authors, converse with other writers/authors and even when I am speaking to a group of newby writers or hopeful authors. I’ve met freelance writers and authors, however, who are so set in their ways and so determined to succeed and still stay within their comfort zones, that they are not open to new ideas, nor do they recognize information they can use. These authors walk away saying, “Well, I didn’t get anything out of that talk.” They stay closed. They discount those things they keep hearing and reading. They live in denial. These are generally authors who are stuck in grooves. Some of them are spiraling downward in their attempts at publishing success and they still won’t reach for a lifeline.

They may read books and articles and attend presentations hoping to learn how to reach their goals some easy way&#8212hoping that someone will give them a hand up. Only they don’t recognize it when they see it. They walk out of a presentation believing that they heard nothing new and certainly nothing of value to their project. They don’t want to grow or try anything new. They hope to sell more books, but they don’t want to change anything in order to do so. They will poo poo all of the statistics, facts, resources, suggestions, recommendations and ideas they hear because these are not within the realm of their comfort zone.

If this describes you, do your self and your project a favor and try reaching out into unknown territory on behalf of your book. Start by taking just one idea or suggestion and exploring it at least a little. Maybe you have a website and are waiting patiently for your readers to find it and start ordering your book. You feel this is enough&#8212you certainly don’t want to do public speaking or otherwise make a spectacle of yourself. But you can do a couple of simple things to bring attention to your book without giving presentations. In fact, there are plenty of things you can (and really should) do. Start by soliciting book reviews. It’s a simple task, doesn’t take much time and can be quite rewarding. How?

Use Writer’s Market to locate magazines related to the topic/genre of your book. In most cases, you’ll find dozens of them. Study the magazines on the racks at your local mega bookstores. List those that are appropriate. Consider those magazines you subscribe to. And then do an Internet search to locate additional magazines as well as newsletters. Then start soliciting reviews. Here’s how:

• Find out if these publications publish book reviews.
• Contact the book review editor or general editor of appropriate publications.
• Ask permission to send a review copy of your book.
• Send your book to those editors who request it.
• Follow up to make sure they have done (or have scheduled) the review.
• Post the reviews at your website.
• Ask the reviewer to post the review on your Amazon.com book page.

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

You might also find this book useful: Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book,
http://www.matilijapress.com/over75page.html

This book is a good value at only $6.50.

Do you have an agenda? Are you promoting a book? Maybe you’re involved in an organization or a cause. You hear (read) me nagging you all the time to promote, promote, promote. But don’t promote your agenda on my time. Don’t engage in Yellow Promotion.

What do I mean by this? Undoubtedly, you are familiar with the term, Yellow Journalism. This means to taint the news by using sensationalism or exaggeration, for example. I consider Yellow Promotion the practice of infringing on the time and space of others in order to promote your own product or agenda. It may be a matter of upstaging a colleague or fellow author.

I can’t tell you how many times authors bring their books or information about their organizations to me while I’m working at a book festival. I pay for the booth, I may have traveled a distance. It is my opportunity to connect with my potential customers and clients. So don’t walk onto the event grounds&#8212gaining FREE admission&#8212with your book or material on your cause, cozy up to my booth in front of my potential customers and try to sell me something. Get your own booth.

Likewise, when I arrange to speak at a writers’ conference, spend months preparing a workshop and pay my own travel expenses, I do not appreciate it when someone slips into my class and uses my time to promote his or her product or cause to my audience.

I know, I know, I tell you over and over again to promote however, whenever and wherever you can. But this does not mean infringing on someone else’s valuable time and space. It’s not cool, folks.

I’ve known authors to come on the grounds of large book festivals, set up their own tables, put up signs and proceed to sell books without paying the fee. Others will come in with handout material and stand across from our booth luring passersby away from us. Of course they are usually booted out. This is pure thievery.

If you want to sell books at a book festival, rent your own booth. If you want to connect with an audience, hone your speaking skills, search out venues, arrange to be invited, pay your dues and you will have your own audience. As I said, Yellow Promotion is not cool. So be cool. Promote honestly and with the blessings of others. If you want to promote yourself in my workshop or at the book festival where I have a booth, do so subtly. Here are some ideas:

• Walk around wearing a sandwich sign or tee shirt advertising your book.
• Leave your business cards in the restrooms, buffet table, etc., but NOT at my booth.
• Network with folks during breaks at conferences and in the food court at book festivals.
• Talk to me about your book/cause after my presentation. Or pick up my card at a book festival and ask if you can email me.

I know how creative you are. How about sharing some of your own ideas with my blog readers?

In the meantime, for more about how to promote your book, read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

I’ve been interviewed again. My interview is posted at A Book Inside.
http://abookinside.blogspot.com

Stop over and visit.

This opportunity made me start thinking about my bio, which I send out numerous times every month. You probably have a bio that you use for various occasions, too.

Think of the many ways we use our bios. We send them to the director or program chairperson for conferences or presentations we schedule in order to promote our books. These bios serve two purposes: to give the event coordinator and committee the information they need in order to accept or reject our proposal to speak or teach. And they’ll use some of this information in their event promotion.

We include brief bios with the articles we submit. This is generally added at the end of the article.

Someone might request your bio when you have contacted them about an interview or a book review.

Book fair organizers often want a bio of participants to include in their program.

So what do you put in your bio? Do you send a cookie cutter bio for all occasions? Or do you change it to suit the situation and to incorporate your current projects?

I change my bio often in order to gear it toward the audience. If the bio is for brochures or other promotional material for a writers’ conference I’m participating in, I will strive to illustrate my expertise in the topic of my presentation. For example, when I’m scheduled to talk about freelance writing, I focus on my article-writing credentials. If the topic will be publishing, I include the facts that demonstrate my experience in publishing.

When I have a new online course starting or I’m ready to launch a new course, I will write articles related to the theme of the course and promote the course in my bio. For example, I’ve recently added a book promotion course to my offerings. So I wrote a few articles on various aspects of book promotion (in order to demonstrate my expertise in this topic) and, in the bio at the end of the articles, I wrote, “Patricia Fry is the president of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network). She has been writing for publication for 35 years and she has 28 published books to her credit. Patricia teaches a series of online courses. Her newest one is the Book Promotion Workshop
http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm.

Use your bio to your benefit. Promote yourself, your services and your books. Lead people to your website. Mention any upcoming events or recent accomplishments, if pertinent to the interest of your audience.

Maybe you give workshops and sell books and materials related to quilting. Your audience consists of quilters and people who are interested in learning to quilt. You want to entice them to visit your website, purchase books and materials and attend your workshops. Here’s how your bio tacked to the end of your article or included in a promotional brochure might read: “Mary Jane has been teaching quilting techniques to beginning and advanced quilters for 13 years. Her hands-on workshops run throughout the spring and fall in St. Louis and summer and winter in Seattle. Visit her website for more information and to view a wide array of learning aids and quilting supplies. (Give website address.)”

Perhaps you write spiritual books for parents and you want to promote your books through articles. Submit articles on topics related to your book. In your bio, you might write, “Dale Osborn is a child psychologist and the author of the Successful Christian Parenting book series. (Include website or other contact info.)”

Have you looked at your bio lately? Maybe it’s time to freshen it up and to rethink your promotional tactics.

For more great ideas for writers and authors as well as resources, tips, information and techniques, be sure to order your copy of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

This is a question I get a LOT. And I always answer it the same way: “It depends on you and it depends on your project.”

It’s true! Some promotional tactics or activities are more conducive to some book types and not others. I’m sure that those of you who have been promoting your books will agree. I sold hundreds of copies of my luau book through specialty stores&#8212cookbook stores, kitchen stores, barbecue stores, Hawaiiana shops nationwide&#8212and through websites related to Hawaiiana, barbecuing and cooking. My local history book sold well in local bookstores and gift shops. It was also well received by libraries nationwide.

So what’s the best way to promote your book? Do you know which promotional technique brings in the most sales? Sometimes it’s hard to tell, isn’t it? That’s why it’s a good idea to have a little question on your website order form asking, “How did you hear about us?” This will give you some insight as to which form of promotion is working best.

When you get a flurry of orders from Amazon or through your website, you can guess at what effort is bringing them in. Maybe you just did an interview for an appropriate website or magazine or your article on the topic of your book was published in a popular magazine. Perhaps a review of your book was recently posted.

Authors and publishers used to use codes for ordering. In other words, when they gave ordering information to be published with book reviews, they’d use one code and another for ordering information included in mail order promo, for example. These codes were generally tied into their mailing addresses, though. They would write, for example, “Department B” on some, “Department J” on others. Now, with most of our ordering occurring online, we need a different strategy for tracking our marketing success. Does anyone have any ideas? Is anyone using tracking methods?

One thing I am sure of, we should expand on those promotional methods that are working well, while also continuing the other marketing activities we are pursuing.

I promote my writing/publishing-related books through book reviews, articles, interviews and presentations (all of which I actively pursue). I also give endorsements for other books in this field when asked. This affords me some additional exposure. Do you know what else I do? I send copies of my book to other professionals in hopes that they will recommend my book when they give workshops, talk about my book in their blog and/or that they will include my book as a resource in their next book. Generally, they do all of the above.

I’d say that I get more sales from people who have attended my presentations, who visit my booths at book festivals and who read my articles. This is based on the small amount of feedback I do get from my customers. How about you? Do you know which promotional activity is creating the most book sales for you?

If book sales are sluggish, be sure to order your copy of my ebook, The Author’s Repair Kit TODAY. Don’t delay. This could actually save your book from failure. Do you know a major reason for the failure of a book? The author is marketing to the wrong audience. This book addresses this problem big time and helps authors get back on track.
http://www.matilijapress.com/author_repairkit.html

And, no matter where you are in the process of writing or promoting your book, be sure to order your copy of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

I love book festivals. I like planning for the event and organizing my stuff. I like starting fresh with a table or booth and bringing it to life with my books and brochures. I enjoy seeing some of my friends and colleagues who travel the book festival “circuit.” I like greeting visitors and talking to them about writing and publishing. In fact, the majority of my day at book festivals is devoted to answering authors’ and hopeful authors’ questions about publishing on behalf of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network).

Tomorrow is the annual Santa Barbara Author and Book Festival. Many people attend this event for the author presentations and others like to mill around and see what new books are out there. Some come to these events primarily to talk to authors about the process of publishing as they are on the brink of launching a book of their own. You get many, many people in that category at the Los Angeles Festival of Books&#8212not so many in Santa Barbara. Most visitors in SB seem more interested in attending “name” authors’ presentations and buying their autographed books than in checking out the variety of new books produced by locals.

SPAWN has 3 booths in Santa Barbara this year. We’ve invited members to join us with their books and we look forward to a lovely day in the lovely city and many sales. I tell members to consider exposure as valuable as sales. It’s hard for some authors to go home with almost as many books as they came with, add up their expenses and be happy campers. When that author gets a call from someone he met at the book festival inviting him to do a TV spot to promote his books, or he gets an invitation to speak at the local Rotary Club meeting, or he receives a request for a bulk order price for his books or he is asked to participate in a panel of experts related to the topic of his book, THEN he might understand the value of exposure.

Are you an author? Have you ever participated in a book festival? Here’s the link to my article on the subject. This is the article I always recommend that SPAWN members or clients read before signing up for one of our book festivals or any other book festival.

http://www.matilijapress.com/articles/promo_bookFestival.htm

Can you sell books at book festivals? Well, yes. Who sells the most books at these events? I’ve attended numerous book festivals over the years and here’s what I’ve experienced and/or observed:

Authors sell more books when they:
• Engage visitors in conversation in an easy and natural manner.
• Put their book into the hands of visitors.
• Have an attractive book cover and booth display. (Muddy, dull covers are bypassed time and time again.)
• Give out FREE samples or something else related to their book.
• Read a poem or other excerpt from their book. (This is particularly effective with children’s or poetry books.)
• Have a way of attracting their specific readers&#8212hang a sign that indicates “mysteries,” “books for writers,” “children’s books,” etc.
• Do not get discouraged when people walk away without buying anything.

I’ll be back Sunday with a report from the Santa Barbara Book Festival. Also, I want to share a cute story about Flat Stanley. Who has heard of Flat Stanley? Flat Stanley is visiting me and I’m taking him to the book festival to pick out a book for his second grade class in Idaho. (Does anyone know what I’m talking about?) Let me know if you’ve had an experience with Flat Stanley.

Visit my book showcase at http://www.matilijapress.com.

Contact me at PLFry620@yahoo.com. Or leave a comment here at the blog site.