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?

1: The author wrote the wrong book for the wrong audience. Way too many authors write the book they want to write without truly considering their audience. It’s no wonder they fail in their attempt to promote the book.

There are two things this author can do:

• Start marketing to the right audience.
• Create a book that actually appeals to his target audience.

2: The author doesn’t know that he is responsible for promotion. It’s never too late to promote your book. Start now soliciting book reviews in appropriate magazines and at related websites and set up speaking engagements, for example. Read my new book to learn how to use your personality to sell book: Talk Up Your Book. Available at Amazon.com. (Use my name with the title in order to bring this book up at Amazon.) “Talk Up Your Book Fry.”

3: 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.

How can you play catch-up with regard to your platform? Start now getting exposure and establishing credibility in your field. Participate in online forums on your topic, submit articles to appropriate magazines and newsletters, set up speaking engagements, write letters to the editor of pertinent magazines, make news by starting a volunteer organization, for example, and then tell the press about it. For fiction, get exposure and establish credibility as a novelist. Submit stories to publications your audience reads, blog regularly, use social media to become known and so forth.

4: 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.

Remedy this mistake by establishing a solid promotional plan immediately. Start by compiling a mailing and emailing list. You’ll use these lists to announce your book, publicize any specials you’re running, inform folks of new additions to your products or services, let them know about upcoming appearances and so forth.

5: 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 pay-to-publish 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.

Do you have an opportunity antenna? Are you aware when a publishing or book promotion opportunity comes your way?

Sometimes we stay so busy and focused on what is in front of us that we don’t even notice when an opportunity arises. For example, you attend a social event or business meeting and someone asks you what you’ve been doing lately. You might say, “Oh, I spent a few days at the beach with my kids,” or “I’ve been shopping for a new sofa,” or “I worked in the yard yesterday.” Instead, why not use this as an opportunity to promote your book.

Say, instead, “I just picked up a few boxes of my brand new book on vegetarian cooking last week,” or “I’m planning a book signing for my novel Friday night—here’s an invitation, please come,” or “I’m speaking next week to a group of businessmen about the history of our city—have you seem my new book in local bookstores? Here’s some information about it.”

I see authors at book festivals and writers conferences with their antenna down. A magazine editor might introduce herself and hand the author a card. This would be a great opportunity for the author to ask who their audience is and if they do book reviews or if they solicit articles from freelancers.

Librarians, booksellers and educators stop at the SPAWN booth at book festivals and speak to our authors. Some of them neglect to see this as a possible opportunity to get their books in libraries, bookstores or schools.

I once watched as the program director for a radio station tried to engage a couple of our authors in a conversation about their books and the authors just gave their usual spiel. It didn’t occur to them to pitch their book for a radio show.

And this is the very reason why so many authors leave a book festival feeling as though it wasn’t worthwhile. When book sales are your only measure of success, you may miss a lot of good opportunities. No, book festivals and conferences are full of opportunities and it is up to the author to develop and use his or her opportunity antennas.

It’s bad enough that authors stop seeking opportunities to promote their books. But when they avoid or ignore opportunities that look them in the eye, this is a sad, sad situation.

Can you think of an opportunity that you missed because you weren’t alert enough or that you accepted because you were paying attention? Would love to hear about them. PLFry620@yahoo.com

In the meantime, have any of you checked out my latest book at Amazon.com? It’s Talk Up Your Book. As it is now, you have to type in the book title AND my name in order to bring up this book at amazon. I hope that changes.

You may find, as I have, that there are many glitches and much waiting when a new book comes out. It seems to take a while for all of the ducks to be put in a row so that the book is available in print and Kindle/Nook, etc., so that you can easily order it from the most reliable sources, and so forth. The book cover for this book changed in midstream and the publisher hasn’t even posted the correct cover on his site, yet. I’ve asked about this twice and am told the request has been made.

In the meantime, I am working on getting the book on my site. I am eager to start promotion, but will wait until those ducks are all lined up.

As we’ve discussed, the purpose of your free ebooklet is to help you become more well-known among your readers and to sell more books. When you advertise the freebie, it will bring people to your website. When they read your brilliant, educational, informational or even entertaining ebooklet, some of them will buy your books or services.

Use the ebooklet itself to promote your books and services. I always include a paragraph or two about me and my books. I include ordering information in a couple of places throughout the ebooklet. I also recommend my books. For example, in my ebooklet, “50 Ways to Promote Your Ebook,” when I write about public speaking as a way to promote your ebook, I recommend my latest book, “Talk Up Your Book.” I also mention as often as possible without making it sound like a commercial, that I do book editing.

If you can offer valid resources and information on a topic of the reader’s interest and if you can come across as knowledgeable, people reading it will order your books.

And one of the best things about offering a free ebooklet at your website is the fact that those receiving it must sign up for it. Now you have the names and email addresses for those who are definitely interested in your topic or expertise. You can contact them with news of new books, new services, etc. These potential customers will become an important part of your massive emailing list.

Order my freebie here: http://www.patriciafry.com

Tomorrow, I will talk about freebie ebooks for novelists.

We’ve been talking about the incredibly useful freebie you can offer to your audience from your website. This is, perhaps, a free ebooklet of 10 to 50 pages or so that provides information, resources, ideas, tips, techniques, etc. related to the theme/topic of your nonfiction book.

Today, we’ll cover how to promote that freebie—how to entice people to download it from your website. And why do you want to promote something that is free—what will you get out of it anyway?

First, let me say that anything that will put your name before your particular audience is a good marketing move, don’t you think? People are more apt to buy a book by someone they have at least heard of. If they are interested in your topic and they find your free ebooklet informative or, in some other way, of benefit to them, they are more apt to buy one or more books that you have written. They are more inclined to consider any services you offer.

People LOVE getting something for free. Here’s an illustration of that point—I’ve been able to attract somewhere between 300 and 500 people to my site over the past year or so to download my free ebooklets. And most of these people had never heard of Patricia Fry. Sure, I go out and speak to hundreds of people throughout the US every year. I personally meet another hundred or two at book festivals each year. I also get exposure as the director of SPAWN and through the articles I write for a variety of writing/publishing publications. I have several books for authors and they are everywhere. But, still, many of the people who learn about my free offer of an ebooklet have not heard of me or my books.

They come to my website for the freebie and learn something about me and my work in the process. Not only does my website give them a peek into who I am and what I do—depending on how long they stay there—but the freebie, while it is highly informational, also promotes me and my work.

Okay, so how do you promote the freebie? Pretty much the same way you promote your books and/or your services. You go where your audience is. I promote my freebie through some of the articles I write for various publications they read. I promote it in this blog and when I am guest blogger. I tell folks about it when I speak. I announce it in the discussion groups I belong to and my member organization newsletters. I mention it in materials I hand out at book festivals and so forth. I talk about it when I do a podcast or webinar. I promote it through my social media pages. Some of my friends are promoting it, too. Even those who have downloaded my freebies sometimes promote it. I had someone stand up during a talk I was giving at a conference earlier this year and say, “You must go to Patricia’s site and download this free ebooklet. It is fabulous.” She had a copy of it right there with her. This was my freebie, “50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book.” It’s now for sale at my website for $3.95.

You could also mention it on your business card. Business cards are so inexpensive to produce these days, you might create one just to hand out to those folks you think might be interested in your freebie. Leave a few of them at your local business center, print shop, library, bookstores, art center, and so forth.

Would love to hear from those of you with additional promotional ideas I haven’t mentioned here. PLFry620@yahoo.com

Have you visited my amazon.com page to see my latest book? What do you think of the cover design? Why not be among the first to order this unique and highly useful book—well, highly useful to anyone who is promoting or will soon be promoting a book. Type in the title of the book AND my name: Talk Up Your Book—Patricia Fry.

Here’s access to my current freebie—50 Ways to Promote Your Ebook.
http://www.patriciafry.com