Writing and Publishing News from

Valentine’s Day is just one of hundreds of reasons to promote your book. How many of you used a Valentine’s Day theme in order to pick up a few extra or many additional book sales this year? If my new print version of Catscapades, True Cat Tales was published, I would have been promoting it as a sweet Valentine’s Day gift.

But I haven’t really missed the boat on this great promotional opportunity. First of all, it will be ready in plenty of time for Easter! Also, I know that there will be many, many other seasonal prompts I can use to promote this book throughout the year. Here are a few: Happy Mew Year for cats, Responsible Pet Owner’s Month, Hug Your Cat Day, Adopt a Shelter Cat Month, World Animal Month, Adopt a Senior Pet Month, National Be Kind to Animals Week, Pet Appreciation Week, Take a Pet to Work Week, Sylvester the Cat’s Birthday and even Scoop the Poop Week.

I discovered these and many other fun and serious reasons to celebrate (and to promote) at three different seasonal/holiday sites. (I just found a new one this morning.) Here are some of the other great prompts you can use in promoting your book: National Hugging Day, Thank Your Customer Week, National Ghostwriters Week, Celebrate Your Name Week, National Words Matter Week, If Pets Had Thumbs Day, Read an E-Book Day, Family Reunion Month, Make a Difference to Children Month, National Tooth Fairy Day and Read in the Bathtub Day.

Can you already envision ways that you can use some of these prompts to promote your book? Find more at these sites:
http://www.brownielocks.com
http://www.holidayinsights.com
http://www.gone-ta-pott.com

Have fun!!

Special Offer for Cat Fans and Fanatics
If you love cats (or know someone who does) and if you love a bargain, you may want to take advantage of this. I’m offering a discount on Catscapades, True Cat Tales during the next few weeks—shipping date around March 15. Here’s what you get, the newly revised and designed print version of Catscapades (130-pages, 46 cat photos, over 40 stories and vignettes featuring cats in a wide variety of circumstances and lifestyles) for $12.95 plus tax of $1.06 per book (California residents only). I pay the shipping (to one address only) and you get a gift for each book ordered. Learn more at my Catscapades blog:
http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades

Questions: Contact me here: PLFry620@yahoo.com

Authors and writers want to know—they ask, they inquire, they request information and then, many times, they close their ears and walk away. What do they do next? They go ask someone else the same question. If the response is not to the author’s liking—it seems to require something more of him than he is willing to give—he ignores that one, too.

How do I know this about authors? Because I keep responding to the same questions through my blog, through my writings at the SPAWN website and beyond, through my books, in SPAWNDiscuss, through personal emails, during workshops and presentations. And I hear other professionals doing the same thing. They answer authors’ questions in a variety of ways and still the question comes back time and time again.

I guess some authors are seeking a specific question—one that they feel more comfortable with. Many of them don’t want to take time to study the publishing industry when they have a book written and ready to go. They resist sitting down and writing a book proposal. Many authors especially dislike the idea of having to promote their books. That’s the last thing they want to hear while they’re focused on writing or publishing their books. Consequently, the next question they have for publishing experts, once they hold their, sometimes, inferior book in their hands after signing with the first publisher that woos them is, “Now what do I do?”

If they had studied the publishing industry, written a book proposal, taken time to become familiar with their options and their responsibilities as a published author, they would be prepared for what’s on the other side of publishing.

What’s on the other side of publishing? Promotion! A book doesn’t sell all by itself. And it won’t be embraced by very many people outside of your target audience. Promotion isn’t a science, but it does require some thought, preparation, planning and implementation. In today’s highly competitive publishing field, promotion, for some, has become even more difficult and complex. It only makes sense to know BEFORE publishing a book, what the process of promotion will require of you. And this is not something you can learn by listening to one speaker, reading one article, joining an organization and never participating, sitting in on a writers’ group meeting, having a discussion with another author.

Book promotion is a process that requires an appropriate mindset, creative ideas and a fairly high energy level.

For those of you who didn’t listen or who didn’t have anyone to listen to while going through the publishing process, do I have a book for you. If you are struggling and floundering within the publishing industry, consider reading my brief ebook, The Author’s Repair Kit. It will help you to heal some of your publishing mistakes and start anew with your wonderful, but possibly misdirected, book.
http://www.matilijapress.com/author_repairkit.html

If you’re just starting out–you are thinking about writing a book, you are just about finished writing a book, you have finished your book, your book is with a publisher or you are in promotion mode and things aren’t going well, you NEED my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. I can’t begin to tell you how many publishing projects this book has saved.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Ask, Listen and Learn!

How much publicity has your book received lately? I just got word that I was quoted in an article on writing and publishing last week. Also, when I received Brian Jud’s newsletter yesterday, I saw that he had published one of my timely tidbits of information. Of course, my blog goes live almost every single day and I get some publicity when I remember to twitter.

Currently, I have about half dozen articles scheduled for publication in a variety of regional and national/international writing/publishing newsletters. And each bit of exposure certainly introduces my books and services to additional authors at all stages of their projects.

Oh yes, and I ordered 100 photo magnets yesterday to use as give-aways to those who order my upcoming book, Catscapades, True Cat Tales.

Are you getting word out about your book? Are you reaching your audience with your publicity? Are you giving in order to receive—in other words, do you freely offer information and resources related to the theme of your book? Do you provide excerpts and free chapters? Do you have gimmick gifts?

When other authors give like this, do you feel compelled to trust them? When you are in the market for their services or a book like theirs, do you consider purchasing what they have?

This week—Valentine’s Day week—jot down all of the ways that you can accommodate your potential and real customers.

I knew a woman once who was looking for a man. She kept making lists of what she wanted in a man and she prayed about the type of man she wanted—what qualities she desired… But no man came into her life. Finally, one day, she began thinking in a very different way. She started considering what she could offer a man. And that attitude, for this woman, was the beginning of the end of her loneliness.

Do you sometimes feel lonely? Are you and your books sitting there all alone all day and night, pining to be noticed? This week, try reaching out. Come up with reasons why people would want to buy your book. Give them additional reasons by providing them with information they need or even a little incentive to buy.

Do these things and let me know how it goes for you.

In the meantime, be sure to check out my latest book—an ebook for authors: The Successful Author’s Handbook.
http://www.matilijapress.com/successful_author_handbook.html

If you and your book are struggling to be noticed—your audience seems to have abandoned you—order The Author’s Repair Kit. http://www.matilijapress.com/author_repairkit.html

It’s Super Bowl Sunday. I’m not a football fan, but I’ve enjoyed some fun gatherings (and food) around the event over the years.

These parties remind me of some of my book launch celebrations. Once my three daughters threw me a party on the large patio of a local outdoor bookstore and invited around 100 people. That was super fun.

These days, however, releasing a new book simply means shifting into higher gear with promotion. The only semblance of festivity is a high five or a few “atta-girls” as the neighbors (or my grandsons) help us unload boxes of books from the freight truck.

There is no fanfare with the publication of an ebook, however. The fact is that ebooks are fairly obscure/invisible. There’s no excitement of a big shipment arriving at our doorstep. There’s nothing to show off in person or to place on bookstore shelves. Producing an ebook is kind of a silent victory except where the computer is concerned. When you hatch an ebook, the Internet becomes your very best friend and a hard-working tool. And the author must work even harder than ever to get the word about the secret he doesn’t want to keep.

Have you all checked out my latest ebook or any of my ebooks? If you are a successfully published author with extreme knowledge about the publishing industry, then I probably do not have a book for you. If, however,

• you hope to someday become an author.
• you have one or more books that aren’t selling very well.
• you are about to come out with your first book.
• you are working on a book,

you really must take a look at two of my ebooks—The Successful Author’s Handbook
and The Author’s Repair Kit. http://www.matilijapress.com

If you’re not accustomed to purchasing and handling ebooks, here are a few suggestions:

1: Print the ebook out on 3-hole punched paper and store it in a binder for easy reading and reference.

2: Save it in your computer where you can read it and refer to it at any time.

3: Purchase a handheld reader.

There’s still a lot of controversy about the current and future popularity of ebooks. What is your experience/feeling about them? Do you buy or publish them? How do you use them? What do you believe about the future of ebooks?