Writing and Publishing News from

Those Annoying Spam Filters
Don’t spam filters drive you batty? I think I dislike spam filters more than I dislike spam—and that’s a lot. No, I’m not a spammer. The reason why I hate the filter programs is because they interfere with the transmission of legitimate email. Because you don’t want to bother with deleting unwanted email, I must take the time to jump through your hoops in order to communicate with you EVEN WHEN YOU INITIATED THE CONNECTION.

It happened again this morning, a customer placed an order for my ebook, The Author’s Repair Kit at Matilija Press (thank you very much). When I attempted to send the ebook, however, I immediately received a response stating that I had to click on a link, sign up and copy some silly letters and numbers before this person would agree to accept my email—which included the PDF file for the ebook that he ordered!!!

Folks, even when you expect a message, it sometimes comes from an email address that your system is not familiar with.

When I see an author or hopeful author use this sort of system, I cringe. Why? Because the chances are that they will miss some great opportunities. For example,

• Someone reads about your book and wants to review it.
• An events organizer wants to invite you to speak about your book.
• A bookseller wants to order books.
• A potential customer has a question.
• An editor or blogger wants to interview you.

How many of these people might decide not to click on that link and go through the extra trouble to reach you?

What’s the alternative? Allow spam to collect in your spam box and delete those that you can identify as spam.

When to and When Not to Delete
Some authors delete everything that lands in their spam box. This is not a good idea either. Sometimes I find a real gem among the stones of spam—a treasured new client, a friend or colleague I often communicate with via email (how they land in the spam box, I’ll never know), an author seeking information or a potential customer with a question.

Because of this, I look at the name and subject line of each of the 150 or 200 emails I receive in my spam box every day before deleting them. And every day, I find something of value there. This is where Angela Hoy’s Writer’s Weekly Newsletter lands, for some reason. This is where I’ve found some of my favorite clients. This is where I’ve discovered some marvelous opportunities related to my career.

So my message today is, if you want your book to be noticed or if you are trying to establish a business,

• Don’t chase away a percentage of your potential customers/clients through an unfriendly spam filter. Make it easy for these people to get to you.

• Don’t indiscriminately delete, delete, delete that spam.

The All Important Subject Line
And, while we’re on the subject, pay attention to the subject line. Keeping in mind that everyone receives a lot of spam every day, when you contact someone who doesn’t know you, make sure that your subject line message is crystal clear—or it just flat might be deleted.

Let’s say that you are emailing me for the first time (I don’t know who you are) with a question about getting your book reviewed. If you type the following in your subject line, it is likely that I will overlook it: “Question.” “Please Help me.” “Review?” or, heaven forbid, you leave the subject line blank.

On the other hand, if you type, “Question about getting my book reviewed,” “How can I get book reviews,” “Author with a question,” or “Book review question,” for example, I will open your email, and I’ll respond to your question.

I’d love to hear your opinion on email spam blockers. Do you use them? Why? Do you avoid the process of getting approved by someone else’s spam blocker? I’m taking a poll. Talk to me. PLFry620@yahoo.com. (No spam blocker here.)

And if you like this blog, you will definitely LOVE my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. Order your copy now at http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Well, I witnessed it with my own eyes—what appears, from every angle, to have been a successful book launch.

Virginia Lawrence, Executive Director of SPAWN, and I attended Diana Zimmerman’s book launch event at Storyopolis, yesterday. Storyopolis is a magnificent store filled with books and art projects for kids. If you live in Southern California and have children or a book for the young set, you must check this place out.

And if you want to have a successful book launch, you really ought to do what Diana Zimmerman did. First, she wrote an amazing fantasy book, Kandide and the Secret of the Mists; The Calabiyau Chronicles. Maxine Gadd of Australia did the beautiful artwork and Lance Burton, Internationally acclaimed magician, along with S. Earl Statler, critic correspondent for The Los Angeles Newspaper Group wrote glowing testimonials. Burton says, “Kandide is pure magic” and, according to Statler, “Kandide gives its readers one captivating, enthralling adventure after another.” Sigfried, Las Vegas Magic Superstar says, “Kandide is a magical journey into a world full of wonder, suspense and hope.” Learn more about the book at http://www.noesispublishing.com or http://www.kandide.com

Diana made another good move by hiring a book editor. Guess who? That’s right, I had the privilege of editing this wonderful juvenile fantasy. And then Diana hired a public relations company, Bruce Merrin Public Relations, http://www.celebrityspeakersentertainment.com

I venture to guess that between Merrin’s promotional efforts and Diana’s connections, creativity and hard work, they drew around 50 people to the debut of Kandide and the Secret of the Mists. And since many people were purchasing multiple copies, they could have conceivably sold 50 books or more. Our group of four went home with 7 copies of Kandide.

So how did Diana and her PR company pull off such a successful book launch? First, I’m certain that they issued invitations to everyone in Diana’s email list, Rolodex, personal address book and Christmas card list. And their invitation was quite intriguing. Here’s what they promised: Meet the author for a lively presentation and book signing, be mystified by Magic Castle Magicians, win Brunch for 4 at the Magic Castle, participate with actors in live performance, join composer/singer, Jeannie Cunningham in a rollicking great song performing the national anthem for the story’s imaginary city, view a screening of the Kandide book trailer, Play Kandide’s “Attack of the Garglans” video game, see Kandide’s original illustrations by Maxine Gadd, take home a “Vanishing Garglan” magic trick.

Now does that sound like fun for kids and adults or what? And it was!! Magicians were wandering through the store performing some of the most amazing tricks. We watched a super creative trailer (video) depicting the story. We enjoyed a reading by 3 entertaining actors, including one of the book’s junior editors. We were tapping our toes and clapping our hands as Jeannie belted out the Calabiyau National Anthem, which she also wrote. And Diana made each person, especially the children, feel special, indeed, as she chatted with them while signing their copies of her book.

Hopefully, this will give you some ideas for your book launch. Here are my suggestions in a nutshell:

• Hire the best PR company or book publicist you can afford.

• Create the atmosphere and bring in entertainment that relate to the theme of your book.

• Hold your event where there is plenty of room and parking.

• Solicit the help of several friends, colleagues, family, etc. Assign them tasks such as, MC for the evening, entertainment, refreshments and valet parking (if the event is held in someone’s home, for example).

• Hold a raffle and/or promise give-aways.

And don’t stop with just one book launch or book signing. Move from city to city and county to county spreading the word about your magnificent book and inviting the community to come celebrate with you.

For more on book signings, including a timeline, as well as many other book promotion ideas, order your copy of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

And be sure to sign up NOW for my online Article-Writing course which starts Tuesday, April 22, 2008. http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

This is the next to last day of my free ebook offer. Contact me at PLFry620@yahoo.com today (April 19, 2008) or by midnight tomorrow (April 20, 2008) and I will send you a free copy of my new ebook, The Author’s Repair Kit. This book features the Post-Publication Book Proposal. It is designed to help authors breathe new life into their books that may be faltering or struggling in the marketplace.

I’m off to support a client/colleague today. Yup, I’m driving to the big city (Los Angeles) to attend the launching of the first in Diana Zimmerman’s Kandide fantasy book series.

Do you attend book signings, readings and book launch events of your peers, writing club members, colleagues, friends, acquaintances? It’s good practice to support other authors when they do a book signing at a local bookstore, have their books for sale at a flea market, appear at an author event at the library, participate in a poetry slam or present a demonstration at a local store, for example. As an author, you appreciate the support. Offer it to other authors, as well.

If you purchase their books, send them comments after you finish reading them. This could be their first testimonial and they may want to publish it at their website and ask you to post it at their Amazon book page. They may also attend your book signing or reading and bring along some friends.

We’ll all agree that writing is solitary, but what comes after publication is anything and everything but solitary. Once you have a book in hand, you must become visible. You have to go out of your way to get exposure, solicit interest in your book and get the sales. It’s hard work and believe me, as an author, you can use all the help and support you can get. If you make a habit of supporting other authors, they are bound to appreciate it so much that, when it is your turn to produce a book, you’ll be able to count on them for their help and support.

It’s good for authors and it’s a good for humanity.

Keep Writing. Keep Promoting. In fact, I challenge you to try a new promotional idea this weekend. It’s Saturday. I’d like to hear from you Monday morning with a report on your success with a new idea. It might be walking door to door with a wagon-load of books, putting up posters or point of purchase displays at several local businesses, calling people you haven’t talked to in years and telling them about your book, wearing a tee shirt with a pix of your book cover to a large weekend event or using Google to find at least 2 dozen new sites related to the topic or genre of your book and contacting them about a review.

Report back to me Monday and let’s discuss your efforts and your success. PLFry620@yahoo.com. And don’t forget to purchase your copy of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. If you order the book before May 1, 2008, I’ll throw in a free copy of The Author’s Workbook. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

I love it when I get an email announcing that a review of one of my books has been posted. This week, so far, it has happened twice!

Mary Lewis at Virtual Wordsmith wrote a great review beneath the largest image I’ve ever seen of my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. See this phenomenon and read the super review at http://virtualwordsmith.blogstop.com

She also posts my interview with her at http://blogstopbooktours.wordpress.com/blog

Thank you, Mary.

Dawn Copeman, the new newsletter editor for Moira Allen’s Writing-World.com and editor of the Newbie-Writers Newsletter, sent me a copy of her review of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. It’s spectacular. She refers to my book in the first sentence as “dynamite!” Her great review will be posted at her website soon. I’ll let you know when it’s up. It already went out in the Newbie Writer Newsletter—in case any of you receive it. You might want to check out Dawn’s site for newbies at http://www.newbie-writers.com

As I understand it, it’s a work in progress, so visit often. Thank you, Dawn, for all that you do at Writing-World and with your Newbie Writers.

Interview Techniques
Have you ever been interviewed on behalf of your book? Do you know what you would say? How would you respond to sensitive questions? What do you want others to know about you and your project? What message do you want to leave with readers?

Here are my tips for participating in an interview:

First, how do you get an interview? Sometimes people will seek you out, but most often, especially when your book is new, you must be proactive in locating interview opportunities.

• Search out sites, newsletters and magazines that post/publish interviews with authors and other professionals in your topic/genre. Google Alerts can help you with this task as this service notifies you when there’s something new on the web related to your topic/genre. http://www.google.com/alerts

For a face-to-face interview

• Before seeking out interview opportunities, hone your communication skills. I recommend joining a local Toastmasters Club. http://www.toastmasters.org for one near you.

• Come prepared to be photographed or bring your professional photo with you.

• Choose your words carefully, some interviewers actually include every “um” and “er” you utter. Truly, it happened to me once. And believe me, this does not make for a very good presentation.

• Break those bad habits such as the overuse of words and phrases—“clearly,” “apparently,” “you know” and so forth.

• Learn to think on your feet. This is something you can practice with friends.

• Be real. Speak from your knowledge base, but also from your heart.

• Keep your audience in mind throughout the interview.

• What if you are asked a sensitive question—something you’d rather not answer? Fake it—just use that question as a segue into an area you are comfortable talking about. For example, you’re asked, “Your book focuses on childhood abuse, is this something that you experienced firsthand?” If your parents are still alive and you aren’t ready to reveal your personal story, simply say, “Millions of children each year suffer abuse at the hands of people they trust. It’s more common than you think.” And then go into one of the stories from your book, perhaps, or share a story from your files as a social worker.

Email interviews are popular these days. The interviewer will send you a list of questions (hopefully, after studying a little about you) and you can respond at your leisure. The beauty of the email interview is that you can change your mind in midstream of an interview question and no one is the wiser. For an email interview:

• Respond in a timely manner. I can’t tell you how many people cheat themselves out of interview opportunities for the SPAWN Market Update because they don’t respond promptly. Soon they forget the request and/or just never get around to it. If you put off responding to interview questions until you finally forget about the opportunity, you are the one who loses.

• Respond to the questions when you are fresh and then go back over your responses after letting them sit for a while.

• Think about your audience while responding. Are they mostly professionals related to your topic or newbies? Are they involved in your topic daily or on occasion? Do most of them seek a career in this field or are they just curious about it? Find out who your audience is and speak to them.

• When you’re asked to describe your typical day, this generally means with regard to your topic. If you’re a fitness expert, for example, with a book on fitness, your audience is interested in how you stay fit. Maybe yours is novel or a children’s book and your audience is made up mostly of new writers of novels or children’s books, they probably want to know how you schedule your day to include time for writing. They want to know how you write amidst chaos or clutter and what techniques you use throughout your day for inspiration.

• When you’re asked what led to you writing this book, your audience probably wants to be able to relate to your story. They want to be able to say, “If he came from an uneducated family and succeeded as a writer, I can, too.” Or “If she can write a book while working fulltime and raising a family, why can’t I?”

• Always give more than you’re asked for. Give more than a one sentence answer to the question, “What would you advise others who would like to earn an advanced degree (or learn to skydive or become fit)?” The more you offer, the more apt the reader is to purchase your book.

Being interviewed is an interesting process. I always learn something about myself: my habits, my inspirations, my motivation, when I respond to interview questions.

If you need more information about any aspect of writing, finding a publisher for and/or marketing your book, please read this multiple 5-star rated book which, as you can see, is quite well-received by my peers: The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Yes, the topic of today’s blog is the workshop, but first…

As I said, while I’ve been reporting some of what others are saying and doing and threatening to do, with regard to the Amazon/BookSurge situation, I haven’t felt comfortable making a statement personally or through SPAWN until I read the original statement from Amazon. Well, we found the “letter” that has created so much anger. You can read it, too, right here:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-printondemand

Please share your comments with us: PLFry620@yahoo.com.

Your Workshop Topic
If your book is a how-to, self-help or informational book, for example, you are probably an expert or, at least, well-versed in your field. Design workshops and other presentations related to your topic. I’ve promoted my local history books for years by going out and speaking on aspects of the local history. I speak and conduct workshops related to writing and publishing as a means of gaining exposure for my books on these topics. I know authors who conduct demonstrations and give presentations on topics related to gardening, cooking, relationships, budgeting, meditation, training rescue dogs, identifying wildflowers, art and many others.

Generally, you will pare down your book topic—choose a chapter or concept to focus on when planning a talk or workshop. Instead of trying to share the entire history of the Ojai Valley with a group in 30 or 60 minutes, I might talk about the earliest settlers, the events that led up to establishing the town, early businesses in the valley or the history of the school system, for example. If you’re promoting your memoir, share just one aspect of your story and give it depth, meaning and interest by learning some storytelling skills.

If your book is fiction or a children’s book, you can read from the book, but I think you connect better with an audience if you tell your story. If you aren’t a natural storyteller, join a storyteller organization and get plenty of practice.

For fiction, you might devise a workshop related to writing a book like yours or how to conduct research for a historical novel, for example.

Is it a Workshop, Demonstration or Talk?
What is the difference between a workshop, seminar, demonstration, presentation or plain old talk? Actually, you’ll see some of these words used interchangeably and, in my opinion, erroneously so. A workshop is an educational seminar, which might or might not involve audience participation. A seminar is a form of academic instruction where the group focuses on a particular subject and everyone participates. Conference organizers will refer to a plain old lecture as a workshop. When you are asked to a workshop or seminar on a complex subject in a 30 or 60 minute session, you know that you won’t have time for much hands on work or audience participation. If they want you to conduct a 3-hour program, you can follow a seminar or workshop plan and involve your audience/students.

How Do You Get These Gigs?
I always advise starting locally. Ask the program director for your church or a club you belong to or somewhere else where you will feel comfortable getting your feet wet as a presenter. Get a list of your local civic organizations from the Chamber of Commerce and contact the program directors. Contact appropriate organizations and businesses related to your topic/theme of your book. Reach out beyond your city, county and state and seek out scheduled conferences related to your topic through http://www.allconferences.com and Shaw’s Guide at http://www.shawguides.com

Create your own opportunities. You no doubt have resource lists and access to resource lists related to your topic/genre. Tap into these and create opportunities to promote your book. For example, if your book features using intuition in the workplace, contact corporate leaders with a proposal for your program.

What if You Are Afraid of Public Speaking?
It’s not unusual for writers to be meek promoters. If this describes you, you have two choices: forget about personal presentations and chance losing out on thousands of book sales or hone your speaking skills. I recommend the latter. I further recommend that you join a Toastmasters Club NOW. Go to http://www.toastmasters.org to find a club near you. You won’t regret this decision.

And before you venture out to speak on behalf of your book, and particularly before you start writing that book, read my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. I write about a lot of different writing/publishing-related topics in this blog and in the various articles you see published all over the web and in the mags and newsletters you read. You’ll find most of these subject in more detail in this comprehensive book. It’s one of those books that you will refer to often, so buy it, read it and then keep it close at hand. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html