Do you have an opportunity antenna? Are you aware when a publishing or book promotion opportunity comes your way? <\/p>\n
Sometimes we stay so busy and focused on what is in front of us that we don\u2019t even notice when an opportunity arises. For example, you attend a social event or business meeting and someone asks you what you\u2019ve been doing lately. You might say, \u201cOh, I spent a few days at the beach with my kids,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019ve been shopping for a new sofa,\u201d or \u201cI worked in the yard yesterday.\u201d Instead, why not use this as an opportunity to promote your book. <\/p>\n
Say, instead, \u201cI just picked up a few boxes of my brand new book on vegetarian cooking last week,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m planning a book signing for my novel Friday night\u2014here\u2019s an invitation, please come,\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m speaking next week to a group of businessmen about the history of our city\u2014have you seem my new book in local bookstores? Here\u2019s some information about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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\u2019t occur to them to pitch their book for a radio show. <\/p>\n
And this is the very reason why so many authors leave a book festival feeling as though it wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Can you think of an opportunity that you missed because you weren\u2019t alert enough or that you accepted because you were paying attention? Would love to hear about them. PLFry620@yahoo.com<\/p>\n
In the meantime, have any of you checked out my latest book at Amazon.com? It\u2019s Talk Up Your Book.<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t even posted the correct cover on his site, yet. I\u2019ve asked about this twice and am told the request has been made.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u2019t even notice when an opportunity arises. For example, you attend a social event or business meeting and someone asks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t