Writing and Publishing News

Publishing/Marketing News and Views

Bringing you the information and resources you need to succeed.

November 2014, Volume 2, Issue 8

Editor: Patricia Fry

Why This Newsletter?

This newsletter has been a long time coming. With over forty years embedded in the world of writing, publishing, and book promotion and a good twenty years working with other authors, I’ve finally accepted the requests of many to launch a newsletter. As you can see, this is the eighth issue. See all issues here: http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog/?page_id=3081

What are my qualifications? I’ve listed them below. My first priority is to bring you the information and resources you need/want in order to become a more successful author. I realize that you are all at different stages and levels of writing, publishing, and marketing one or more books. Some of you are only interested in reading what others write. My goal is to address your concerns, interests, and questions related to writing and publishing books and to present you with a few surprises along the way.

Included in this issue:

• What is a Book Review and Why Should I Care?
• 7 Surefire ways to Get Your Book Reviewed
• Book Review Resources for Authors
• Your Book Review; For Better or Worse
• Recommended Reading—Fiction (The Celebrity Cat Caper)
• Resources of the Month—Recommended Books for Authors
• Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup

(If you do not wish to receive information from Patricia Fry and Matilija Press, please use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the page.)

What is a Book Review and Why Should I Care?

If you’re an author, you’ve heard the term Book Review. A book review is a written evaluation or opinion of your book. Some of you consider a book review to be an honor bestowed only on the famous and fortunate or a privilege you must pay dearly for. Wrong!

There are thousands of free book review opportunities for authors at all levels and books of every type. In fact, if you’re in the process of writing a book, this is a great time to start planning for book reviews.

First, you must know who your audience is and where they are. Determine the best places for reviews of your book to appear online as well as in print media. When the time comes, choose credible reviewers whose reviews reach your potential readers.

Who Reviews Books?

Let’s identify the book reviewer.

• Random readers may choose to post a review of your book at Amazon.com and, perhaps, their websites, GoodReads, Barnes & Noble and other places.
• You may solicit book reviews from peers, experts in the field or theme of your book, professionals, and others.
• There are also hundreds and hundreds of people who review books for the fun of it. Most of them review books they like to read—this might include thrillers, mysteries, and crime stories or young adult books or romance, for example. Many of these reviewers have review websites. They post reviews at their own sites and various other sites.
• There are people with websites dedicated to horses, cats, a particular breed of dog, writing, sailing, parenting multiples (twins, triplets, etc.), antique-collecting, quilting…you name it. These site owners often review or feature books related to the theme of their site.
• Many newspapers still run book review columns. See links to newspaper directories below.
• Some magazines publish book reviews. Typically, the book must fit in with the theme or genre of the magazine.
• Don’t discount the newsletter. There are newsletters on every topic imaginable. Locate those related to the theme/genre of your book and contact their editors about reviewing your book.

In most cases, you will seek out the reviewer, rather than the other way around. So it is important that you understand what a review is, who reviews books, where to find appropriate reviewers, and how to approach them.

7 Surefire Ways to Get Your Book Reviewed

1: Write a book that reviewers want to review. Now this sounds like a big fat no-brainer, doesn’t it? But think about it. What more could you do to make your book in progress more appealing to reviewers—more appropriate for a larger number of reviewers?

I advise authors to build promotion into their books—in other words, add wider dimensions to attract a larger audience. This practice will also attract a greater array of reviewers.

2: Seek out magazine book reviewers. Not every magazine runs book reviews, but many of them, do. Editors of some literary magazines review books. Some genre-fiction magazine editors publish book reviews—this might include science fiction, romance, horror, young adult, and children’s.

Likewise there are hundreds of consumer and association/trade magazines that run book reviews on appropriate books. My book on presenting a Hawaiian luau on the mainland was reviewed in dozens and dozens of cooking and foods magazines. My writing/publishing-related books have been reviewed in numerous writing and publishing magazines and newsletters. There are magazines in every category imaginable—business, child-rearing, pets and animals, public speaking, fitness and health, education, sports, hobby and craft, and on and on and on.

Again, the more aspects you have skillfully worked into your novel or nonfiction book, the more potential you have for getting your book reviewed.

Here’s an example: Write a book about a run-of-the-mill factory worker and his life after divorce and your book will likely appeal to a relatively narrow audience of reviewers. Add the fact that he (or another character) is dealing with an affliction such as deafness or ALS, for example, and they have a therapy dog that saved someone’s life, and you’ve expanded your options. Now you may get reviews in fiction and relationship magazines as well as those related to handicaps, ALS/deafness, therapy dogs, and animal heroes.

3: Make the most of what you have. Okay, your book is a done deal. How can you maximize your book review options? Get personal with your book. Dissect it and jot down what you find. For example, what city is the story set in? Pursue reviews in regional magazines in that area. Do you have a section in your budgeting book for teaching children money-awareness? Parenting magazines might be a good secondary review option for this book. Is your book clean and honorable? Consider reviews in religious magazines. Maybe your novel has a séance scene. This may provide an opportunity for a review in a metaphysical or New Age publication.

4: Locate appropriate publications and websites. You probably have magazines in your genre or topic on your own book shelves. Start there. Scan magazines at your local library and bookstores. Study Writer’s Market and other magazine directories to find additional magazines related to your book’s theme. Do a Google search to locate even more magazines and newsletters

5: Contact appropriate online reviewers. There are hundreds and hundreds of book review sites. Use the directories listed below under “Resources” to locate appropriate reviewers for books in your genre. Visit their websites, read their submission guidelines and comply. Most want to receive a description of your book. Give them what they want—no more and no less. Some reviewers are desperately overwhelmed with review requests and may ask you to hold off submitting your request for several months. Some reviewers accept only traditionally published books. Remember, when it comes to book reviewers, there are no standards, so it’s important to study each reviewer’s guidelines. (Submission guidelines are generally posted at the reviewer’s website.)

6: Locate specialty sites. Some site owners review only books related to the theme of their site—cozy mysteries, romance novels, chic lit, young adult, or nonfiction books for authors, horse enthusiasts, gardeners, etc. If your book fits into a specific genre or covers a certain topic, research related websites. Contact those site owners who review or feature books. This activity may be the most effective one that you pursue. The greater the site popularity, the more exposure your book will receive among your potential readers.

7: Keep accurate records. Log every review request and book that goes out and note any response. In this publishing climate, it is appropriate in many cases to send a PDF of your book or you can gift the reviewer with an ebook. Some reviewers, however, still accept only print books.

Unless your book is seriously obscure, you should be able to land book reviews in dozens of publications and websites. And the book doesn’t have to be hot off the presses. Maybe you neglected to solicit book reviews when your book was fresh. Don’t let that stop you from trying to get it reviewed now. Go ahead and contact appropriate book reviewers on and off line. If it is a worthwhile book, most of them will say, yes.

Book Review Resources for Author

5 Great Book Review Directories

http://www.bookrevieweryellowpages.com/reviewer-list.html

http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers

http://karinafabian.com/index.php?name=Content&pid=28

http://robinmizell.wordpress.com/book-reviewers

http://www.ebookcrossroads.com/book-reviewers.html

http://www.acqweb.org/bookrev.html

Newspaper Directories

http://www.newspapers.com

http://www.onlinenewspapers.com

http://www.thepaperboy.com

http://www.50states.com/news

Newsletter Directories

http://www.newsletteraccess.com

http://www.newsletterdirectory.co/directory

http://www.ezine-dir.com

Your Book Reviews; for Better or Worse

If you have a published book, you may already know something about book reviews. You’ve received a few or many—depending on how aggressively you’ve researched and approached reviewers. If so, you know that not every reviewer thinks alike. If not, this is your wake-up call. Here are some of the review variations you might encounter:

• The reviewer only describes your book or the plot and doesn’t give his or her opinion of the book. (It’s not the end of the world. It’s still publicity and your book is still getting exposure.)
• The reviewer has a strict evaluation system and sticks firmly to it. (This may or may not benefit your particular book.)
• The reviewer—generally a casual reader—gushes about the story and the characters and encourages sequels. (You gotta love this reviewer!)
• The reviewer hates the story and says so. (It happens. Remember, it’s only an opinion.)
• The reviewer nitpicks one aspect of the story—too many uses of “gosh,” too much (or not enough) romance, too much (or not enough) suspense, one character is unlikable (unbelievable, shallow, etc.). (Again, it’s only an opinion.)
• The reviewer obviously doesn’t like this genre or an aspect of the type of story (animals, teens, Westerns, comedies, historical settings, etc.) (Avoid reviewers who don’t typically appreciate books like yours.)
• The reviewer was negatively influenced by his/her own issues. He tried to read the book when he was tired, in a bad mood, distracted, upset…Had he picked it up at another time, he may have thoroughly enjoyed it. (Just hope he picks the book up again when he’s in a better mood.)
•  The reviewer has a very different sense of humor and could not relate to your attempt at comedy or light-reading.

Seasoned authors can add to this list. The thing we need to remember is that a review is simply someone else’s opinion.

Recommended Reading—Fiction

Of course I will mention my latest novel here. You might consider it “tooting my own horn,” “singing my own praises” or “blatant promotion,” but, honey, that’s what it takes to get your book noticed. Listen and learn.

I’ve just introduced the 6^th cozy mystery in my Klepto Cat Mystery series. Celebrity Cat Caper is formatted for your Kindle. Don’t have a Kindle? You can download the software to most any device from practically any page at http://www.amazon.com

In this story, Rags, the kleptomaniac cat, opens up a whole new bag of tricks, when he becomes a therapy cat in a children’s reading program. A documentary film crew arrives to capture the cat in action and they get more than they bargained for. Find out how Rags handles his sudden celebrity status.
Savannah and Michael Ivey invite strangers into their home during a torrential rainstorm and learn that one of them has a sinister past. Someone is murdered, Savannah is stalked, Michael’s life is threatened, and Rags helps to uncover an old mystery that, until now, has everyone baffled.
The Iveys’ baby Lily is three-and-a-half-months old and, along with nine-year-old Adam, provides some sweet and warm moments throughout this fast-moving story with many twists and turns. Order your Kindle copy of Celebrity Cat Caper here: http://www.amazon.com/Celebrity-Caper-Klepto-Mystery-Book-ebook/dp/B00NSBHB2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414075806&sr=8-1&keywords=celebrity+cat+caper

There’s more news in the Klepto Cat Mystery factory. For those of you who have not adapted to the electronic way of reading books, we now have four of the series in print form. You can order Catnapped, Cat-Eye Witness, Sleight of Paw, and Undercover Cat in paperback. http://amzn.to/1kAI8I2

Recommended Books for Authors

Here’s a list of books that every author should read sooner rather than later:

Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author

Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author

Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signing, Festivals, Conferences and More

By Patricia Fry.

Available at amazon.com in print, Kindle and audio.

You’ll also find these books at most other online and downtown bookstores.

Order your print copies here: http://www.matilijapress.com

New Blog Series

Today—November 4, 2014, I’ve started a new blog series you might want to follow. The first post is “Increase Your Chances of Landing Major Publisher.” This is to be followed by:

“Self-Publishing is NOT the Only Other Option”

“Keys to Choosing the Right Publishing Option”

“Submission Guidelines; How Important Are They?”

“What is the Author’s Most Important Selling Point?”

“I’m a Published Author; Now What?”

“How Much Should I Pay for a Promotions Package?”

“Book Promotion 101”

Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup

I’ve been writing for publication for 40 years and I’m the author of 46 published books—most of them on publishing and book promotion. I maintain a publishing blog. The blog boasts over 2,000 posts to date http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog

My articles have appeared in over 300 publications, including Writers Digest, Publishing Basics, Book Marketing Matters, Writer’s Journal, Cat Fancy, Your Health, Horse of Course, Western Horse, The Artist’s Magazine, Woman’s World, The World and I and many others.

I work with authors on their projects from an editorial standpoint,

While I’ve been writing nonfiction for all of my 40 years, I recently dipped my toe into the world of fiction and have launched the Klepto Cat Mystery series. There are currently 6 in the series published for your Kindle. Four of them are in print. http://amzn.to/1kAI8I2

Mission Statement: The primary purpose of this enewsletter is to bring information, resources and encouragement to fellow authors both beginners and experienced. It’s an education for authors who want to become more successful in a highly competitive publishing industry.

 

 

 

 

 

Publishing/Marketing News and Views

Bringing you the information and resources you need to succeed.

September 2014, Volume 2, Issue 7

Editor: Patricia Fry

Why This Newsletter?

This newsletter has been a long time coming. With over forty years embedded in the world of writing, publishing and book promotion and a good twenty years working with and writing for other authors, I’ve finally accepted the requests of many to launch a newsletter. As you can see, this is the seventh issue. See them all here: http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog/?page_id=3081

What are my qualifications for writing this enewsletter? I’ve listed them below under “Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup.” My first priority is to bring you the information and resources you need/want in order to become a more successful author. I realize that you are all at different stages and levels of writing, publishing, and marketing one or more books. Some of you are only interested in reading what others write. My goal is to address your concerns, interests, and questions related to publishing and books and to present you with a few surprises along the way.

This issue is dedicated to promoting your book through speaking gigs on radio, TV, and Internet podcasts. We’ll talk about doing your own webinars in order to bring attention to your nonfiction—or even fiction—book.

 

Included in this issue:

• Editorial: What’s Happening in Patricia Fry’s Office—New Klepto Cat Mysteries
• Author Scam at Amazon
• Patricia’s Take on Offering FREE Copies of Your Book
• Book Promotion Activity of the Month—Radio/TV/Internet Interviews
• “Speaking Out Across the Airwaves”
• “Viable Virtual Speaking Opportunities”
• “Prepare For Your Author Appearances NOW”
• Resources of the Month—Recommended Books and Sites
• Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup

(If you do not wish to receive information from Patricia Fry and Matilija Press, please use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the page.)

What’s Happening in Patricia Fry’s Office?

NEW!! Klepto Cat Mystery—Celebrity Cat Caper  (book number 6) is out on Kindle. Undercover Cat (number 4 in the series) is now in print. Order any Kindle or print Klepto Cat Mystery using this link: http://amzn.to/1kAI8I2 or go to www.amazon.com and type in “Klepto Cat Mysteries” at the prompt.

People ask how long it takes me to write a book. I’ve produced four books in the Klepto Cat Mystery series this year. Sleight of Paw in January, Undercover Cat in March, The Colony Cat Caper in June, and Celebrity Cat Caper in September. In between, I wrote a book for my publisher—one many of you will be interested in. It’s Propose Your Book, How to Craft Persuasive Proposals for Nonfiction, Fiction, and Children’s Books. I’ll be telling you more about it when it’s published, presumably in the first part of 2015.

So what am I doing to keep busy this month? I’ve just finished Klepto Cat Mystery number seven. It’s with the proofreader now and the cover designer is working up a design. This book is full of horse energy. But we haven’t slighted the cats. They still show up strong in this story, as well. I expect this book, Kittywampus Pals, to debut in October or November. While I’m waiting for my designer, I’m working on Klepto Cat Mystery number 8. This one takes place at the beach. Yes, Rags, the kleptomaniac cat is on vacation with his human family.

Author Scam at Amazon

I was shocked to see the print copies of my Klepto Cat Mysteries selling at Amazon.com for over twice the regular selling price. I offer these books at $8.95. Amazon sometimes discounts them to $8.50 or less. But evidently someone is buying my books from Amazon and selling them for $22.95. I’m appalled. But I guess this is an example of American commerce. Evidently, this goes on all over the Internet. Doesn’t seem right to me, but it’s one more reminder that we, as consumers, must be on our toes and study our buying options carefully.

Should You Offer Free Copies of Your Book?

My response to this question is yes and no. Amazon offers a promotion for their Kindle Direct Program members where you can offer free downloads of your book for a period of time. I figured this would be a good idea for someone with a series of books. It seemed like a great way to introduce people to my mystery series. So I offered Catnapped, the first in the series free for one day. I was stunned to learn that during that 24-hour period, Catnapped was downloaded FREE by over 8,000 (yes eight-thousand) people. During the same period, sales for that book quadrupled. I’m not sure why. I mean if readers could get it for free, why buy it on that day?

Have sales on the other books increased since the free promotion? It has been twenty-two days since the promotion and I have not seen a noticeable increase in sales. I’m not complaining about sales. Sales have been amazing!!! But offering the free book has not made a difference so far.

I’ve had some great reviews since the promotion. That’s a good thing. But why haven’t sales gone up considerably? I imagine it’s because people who download free ebooks have quite a load of them on their Kindles and it takes a while for them to read all of the books they’ve accumulated. I expect to give you a different report as time goes on. I’m convinced that when people read Catnapped, many of them will order the others in the series at $2.99 each.

Book Promotion Activity of the Month—Radio/TV/Internet Interviews

Today we’re going to discuss one of the best ways to get word out about your book—in person, front and center. Authors need to be visible. You must go where your readers are. One way to address large numbers of potential readers is through radio, TV, and Internet podcasts, interviews, webinars, etc.

Since this form of promotion is foreign to most authors and, at the same time, most desired, I’ve decided to make it a topic of discussion for this newsletter. For additional information, resources, anecdotes and so forth on this topic, order my book, Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More. It’s at Amazon in print, Kindle, and audio. Or purchase it at my website: http://www.matilijapress.com.

Speaking Out Across the Airwaves—Radio/TV

Do you listen to talk radio? Have you noticed that practically all of the guests on every show, no matter their topic, have books? A book has become as common to a professional as a business card used to be, and it is used as casually.

Whether I am listening to a talk radio program or watching one on TV related to spirituality, religion, parenting, politics, relationships, health, hoarding, the economy, or some aspect of self-help, every guest seems to be promoting a book on the subject. In most cases, however, these individuals did not speak on the topic until they came out with their books. They were not considered experts in their fields until they became authors. Now the former bank associate is doing radio interviews and TV appearances to talk about her book on childhood abuse, the chef shares his book of kitchen tips, the retired accountant travels around talking about his novel, and the factory-worker is promoting her true crime book.

Yes, there seems to be a flood of authors guesting on every talk show around. Do you wonder how they get the invitations? Even more importantly, do these appearances on radio and TV sell books?

Most authors, when they’re planning a book, expect to appear on TV shows like “Good Morning America,” “Live With Kelly,” “The Talk,” “Ellen DeGeneres Show,” “The Daily Show,” “The View” and popular talk radio programs. Some of you will make it happen. These opportunities, however, are generally out of reach for most of us—the relatively unknown authors.

Please don’t let this discourage you from ever trying to get the major publicity that’s available out there. You might have written the book of the century—one that is of great interest to a large viewing audience. Sure you already believe this describes your book, but only a scant few of you are correct in your evaluation. The rest of us may be delusional. This doesn’t exempt you from getting publicity via radio and TV, however. Not at all. Most cities of any size support one or more radio stations and often they have talk shows scheduled throughout the day and night. You probably don’t have to travel far to locate a TV station with shows that host authors at least occasionally; and don’t discount public radio and TV stations.

I write within a strict niche, as many of you do. Yet, I’ve appeared on TV in Alaska and California. I’ve been interviewed numerous times on regular and public radio in many cities and blog talk radio (on the Internet). I have to tell you that being interviewed for radio or TV is a different experience from standing up and speaking to a group of people. In fact, most often (for radio) you give the interview from your home office (or wherever you happen to be) by phone. I’ve heard authors being interviewed while waiting for a flight, vacationing with family, recuperating from surgery and I’m sure some of them were still in their jammies. We’ve all seen people appear remotely on TV programs, as well. Skype is one technology that makes it possible for guests to appear on a TV station in Los Angeles from a remote location in another city or country.

How do you locate radio and TV interview opportunities? You’re probably familiar with some of the talk shows in your region. This is a good place to start. Check their websites for instructions for becoming a guest and follow the guidelines. Call and talk to the program director. If you speak to someone by phone, I suggest standing tall during the conversation, speaking clearly and as animated and friendly as your book topic dictates. The program director may be evaluating your voice and manner even during your initial contact. So put your best foot (or speaking voice and personality) forward.

Do an Internet search for additional radio and TV stations. Study directories such as, Gales Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media, Literary Marketplace and  books, such as Fran Silverman’s Talk Radio Wants You, An Intimate Guide to 700 Shows and How to Get Invited. Use references such as: The Radio Book http://www.theradiobook.com and consider getting listed with GuestFinder (http://www.guestfinder.com) or Radio-TV Interview Report http://www.rtir.com

Kim Dower is a literary publicist and media coach. She runs an agency called Kim-from-L.A. (http://www.kimfromla.com) She says, “I work with a variety of authors and all kinds of books getting them exposure through various types of media from radio, television, and print interviews to social and viral media outlets. I offer whatever they need in order to help prepare them for speeches, presentations, book signings—any situation where they find themselves in front of a camera, a microphone or an audience.”

Dower is in agreement that, “An author’s presentation is key to promoting their book. Successful authors know how to promote their books and this is a skill that can be learned. The key is to get readers/listeners/viewers turned on and excited by the ideas in the book and the passion and enthusiasm of the author.” She says, however, that, “with hundreds of thousands of books coming out each year and only so many media spaces available, you can imagine the odds aren’t in the author’s favor. The first category of people to get booked on shows is always celebrities. Always was and always will be. The next is breaking news and politics. What’s the latest disaster and what talking head can address it? ‘Softer’ topics—biographies, self-help, fiction come way, way down on the list. And we need a valuable ‘hook’ to get these authors booked. How does their topic fit into what’s going on the world today—now? What makes this author or their topic relevant? If the topic is strong and timely and the author is a great presenter and the book is provocative, we have half a chance of getting on the show.”

According to Dower, “Getting on smaller radio and TV shows is more realistic, but still difficult. An author needs a good, short pitch—one paragraph to describe the topic and why the author has the credentials or expertise to talk about it. And why is this topic important?” She also likes to challenge authors to “offer three provocative or newsworthy questions that they will answer during the interview.”

So what makes for a successful media appearance? Dower says, “Enthusiasm and passion and energy; delivering a few ‘take-aways’—some real tangible information that is new and interesting; leaving the audience with enough to make them like you and be interested in your book.” But she cautions, “Don’t give so much away that they have no reason to purchase it.”

Dower suggests using the Internet to find radio stations across the country that have talk shows. She says, “Research and listen to the show. Don’t try to get on a show you know nothing about.”

Viable Virtual Speaking Opps

Most authors will be interviewed for Blog Talk Radio, podcasts, webinars, teleseminars and so forth at some point during their promotional efforts.

The first thing you’ll want to know is, are these forms of promotion worthwhile? It depends on who you talk to. The problem is that sales and other benefits from some of these publicity methods are difficult or impossible to track. However, they do provide name recognition, and this is certainly a benefit to any author who wants to sell books.

Even before your book is a book, become acquainted with and known through appropriate websites. I’ve been saying this since before the popularity and ease of doing podcasts, webinars, etc. I continue to advise authors to seek out book reviews and interview opportunities throughout the Internet. So what is actually available and how can authors benefit?

First, study websites related to your topic or genre and discover how you can become involved. Remember, their visitors are your readers. Is there a newsletter that you can contribute to or place announcements in? Do they review books, interview authors, feature recommended books, or run a speakers bureau? Perhaps they record interviews with authors and post them at their sites. Once you have taken advantage of book promotion opportunities at some of the more obvious and even obscure websites in your field or genre, shift your attention to the world of social media.

Basic Social Media

Everyone is using social media today for personal and business purposes. While social media connections are generally made in writing, except for, perhaps, YouTube, I thought it useful to mention this extremely popular medium. You can, as a matter of fact, incorporate photographs and even videos into your social media messages and at your own website.

Most of you reading this are set up to communicate with your readers through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Authors@Google and so forth. You may (and should) have a blog. For those of you who don’t know, a blog is a web log that you can use to share information, stories, snippets from your life as an author and announcements for new books, scheduled speeches and so forth. It is a way to communicate with your readers. Not only can you have your own blog, but you can comment at or be interviewed on other blogs related to your book theme or genre. This puts you before a whole new group of potential customers.

When you become a nonfiction author, you are also considered an expert in your field. People want to read what you write and hear what you have to say. Why not add to your professional credibility by seeking interview opportunities at websites that feature podcasts, webinars, Blog Talk Radio and so forth?

Carol Sanford, author and public speaker, often lands radio interviews. Sanford is also active in landing radio interviews. She says, “I follow the people with radio blogs related to my topic and who do interviews with authors. I retweet their stuff and make myself useful to them. I also follow a lot of journalists who write in my field. Journalists were a great strategy for me. I get lots of press as a result of putting key ones on a Twitter List and staying connected to what they are writing, by tweeting it and commenting on their blogs and posts with links on my blog and Facebook pages.” According to Sanford, “Journalists are a good route for authors, since they are always looking for content.” But she cautions, “You have to give generously and be useful to them, if you are to receive from them.”

The Teleseminar

A teleseminar is a program—often an interview, a workshop or seminar—presented through a conference telephone call. People can call in and listen in real time (and in some cases, ask questions) and the seminar is generally recorded so people can go to a website and download the seminar or listen to it streamed from the website.

The Webinar

According to Stacy Harp, founder and president of Active Christian Media, “A webinar is simply a seminar that you hold on the Internet. Some webinars are listened to via the phone, and others you can watch by logging into the webinar using Skype or another computer phone interface. Webinars are becoming more and more popular. Because the technology has advanced so much, many businesses are no longer traveling to meet with their customers. Instead, these companies use webinars to train people and educate their customers.”

Harp says, “Webinars are also a great marketing tool for authors although, I don’t see many authors using webinars, yet. But they should, because they can sell more books this way. For example, if you have a book already published, a webinar would be a great way to have a virtual book club. You can even charge for the club if you want to make it exclusive, and the author can offer a special one-on-one time with their readers as a benefit.”

Harp explains that the process of setting up a webinar isn’t all that difficult. She says, “Anyone who can talk and record what they are saying, can technically create a webinar. What makes it a webinar is uploading it to the Internet and making it available on the web.”

According to Harp, “I think webinars are better when the presenter uses either video or at the very minimum PowerPoint or Key Note to make slides so that they can convey information visually, and not just via audio. One service I found recently is called Screencast-o-matic which you can use to record what’s on your computer, including showing a PowerPoint slideshow, and then you can edit it and upload it as a video. You can also use it as a webinar if you’d like, but it would not be a live presentation…it would have to be prerecorded. You can learn more at http://www.screencastomatic.com.”

Another resource, http://www.GotoWebinar.com

The Podcast

A podcast is a type of digital media that can be presented in both audio and video. Podcasts can be listened to or watched on portable media players. There is special software available to be used in creating podcasts or you can use Skype.

Skype

Harp gives us a lesson in Skype technology. She explains it this way. “Skype is the most popular voiceover Internet protocol service. Put simply, Skype is what most people use when they make Internet phone calls. All you need is a computer and a microphone and you can literally call anyone in the world using Skype’s platform. Generally, Skype is not used to do podcasting, as the actual term podcasting has nothing to do with recording a call or a video. However, what you record using Skype can be turned into a podcast. With Skype, you can make computer-to-computer calls with other Skype users, anywhere in the world, and it’s free. You can talk to these people with just your computer microphone or using your webcam.”

She says, “Skype also offers other features like your own phone number, text messaging

services, and the availability to use Skype to call someone who does not use Skype. For an author, I would highly recommend using Skype especially if they want to be a guest at a book club, host their own book club or even lead their own book club. If the people interested in hearing the author have a computer, it’s very easy to set up in a big or even a small venue, and ‘broadcast’ the event that way.”

Blog Talk Radio

There is also what’s known as Blog Talk Radio. Stacy Harp has her own Blog Talk Radio program called On the Wall Radio.

So how does Harp find guests? This is something you want to pay attention to—because these ideas should be a part of your strategy. She says, “I find most guests through press releases and publishing companies. Some people also like Help a Reporter Out, also known as HARO.” She advises, “I think the best things an author can do is make a press kit, blog, network online, and hire someone to do publicity for them if they can afford it. Be bold enough to hunt down talent you think would be a good fit for your book. Send show hosts information about your book: A press release with information about your blog and website, a pdf file of your book or a review copy. But before you send any of that, know your host—listen to the show, know the audience. Don’t take that platform for granted.”

Prepare for Your Author Appearances NOW

As I said earlier, it is possible to conduct an interview from home in your robe and bunny slippers or bathing suit and flip flops. I recommend dressing, however, and standing tall—no slouching. If you look professional, you will feel and act more professional. When you stand or, at least, sit up, you will come across sounding more alert. Smile—it will come through in your voice.

Barbara Florio-Graham suggests preparing for a telephone interview with a radio or blog talk radio show host this way, “Don’t use a cell phone during the interview. If you do telephone interviews often, invest in a headset. Make sure pets are comfortable in another room. I use post-it notes or other page tabs to mark the pages of my book that I might want to refer to and I print out the table of contents for easy reference. I have a page of notes based on the questions sent by the host earlier and I continually make notes so I will remember things I want to comment on.”

I work along the same lines as Florio-Graham. I never ever use a cell phone, unless I happen to be traveling and there is no other way. I always request the host’s list of questions or the topics he/she hopes to cover with me. I might also offer to send the host my suggested questions or line of questioning. They often appreciate that gesture.

During the interview, I make a lot of notes. Sometimes radio show hosts get involved in long narratives. By the time they finally come up with a question for you, you may have forgotten some of the things you wanted to comment on.

Jot down one- or two-word reminders. Don’t get so involved in writing notes that you neglect to listen to the host. You never know when a question will come up and your full attention is required. Have a bottle or glass of water nearby in case your throat gets dry.

While I suggest preparing thoroughly, there are simply some things that you cannot prepare for. Here’s a story from my radio show history file. I was contacted by an Internet radio show host who wanted me to “appear” on his show. Of course, I agreed. I learned a long time ago to always say, “yes.”

The day of the show, I realized I hadn’t heard from the host for a few weeks and I wanted to make sure we were still on. I emailed him. A few hours later, he responded by saying, “Yes, we’re on for 12:30 this afternoon.” (In a scant twenty minutes.) That’s when he told me the agenda. He said, “I will introduce you and then you take it from there. At exactly 1:15, I will break in and sign off.” What? I was supposed to just speak without a host asking me any questions? And I had twenty minutes to prepare?

Believe it or not, I nailed it. I managed to give a coherent presentation with a beginning, middle and end which I felt was extremely useful and informative to my audience. If someone had measured my stress level during the first few minutes of that “interview,” it would have been off the charts. Once I got in the groove, however, I did just fine. How does one succeed when given such a test?

When you are prepared—you know your material and you’re comfortable presenting it under normal circumstances—the rest is all attitude. If you’re thrown a curve like I was—you’re expected to perform at a moment’s notice, for example—just adopt your best “can-do” attitude and meet the challenge head on.

It’s hard to predict which books will be of interest to radio and television show hosts and what sort of connections you might make as you continue your quest for exposure. But knowing the potential for book sales through radio and TV, it seems reasonable that you would pursue this avenue of book promotion with some gusto.

Your Awesome Author Interview

So, you can create your own podcast or webinar. You can put on your own teleseminar. You can have your own Blog Talk Radio show. But most likely, at least in the beginning, you will be conducting interviews with people who use these methods of creating, preserving and sharing information on topics of their interest for their own websites.

Someone with a pet rescue site might contact you for an interview related to your new book on feral cats and cat colonies. The owner of a site focusing on everything bird-related, might want to interview you about your book on bird-watching. Certainly, if he hears about your book on serious Internet scams, the owner of Internet warning sites will want to interview you.

Or you might go in search of these opportunities. Scour sites on your topic. Here’s a directory of Blog Talk Radio sites you will want to check out. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/categories.aspx Interviews and interviewers come in all shapes and styles. Some interviewers want you to respond to questions via email and they post your interview as is at their site or publish it in their magazine. Others prefer to conduct a telephone interview which they will paraphrase in their publication. But the most popular interview processes today are the real time podcast and the online radio show.

Not everyone is comfortable being interviewed. Yet, if you expect your book to reach a high level of popularity—if you hope to sell thousands of copies of your book—you really must learn to handle the interview.

I have been interviewed numerous times in a variety of ways. Personally, I love the email interview where I just respond at my leisure by typing my answers. I like having the time to think about my responses and to reread them before submitting. My worst interview experience occurred when the interviewee, in a real-time interview, began challenging my responses—playing the devil’s advocate. I’m not a debater and I don’t do well under that kind of pressure. I had to work hard so as not to come off sounding defensive. I hope I was able to carry that off. Book sales after that interview were up and that’s always a good indication of a good interview.

You truly never know what to expect from an interview and maybe that’s one reason why the fear of the interview is so prevalent among authors.

If you would like to be interviewed on the topic of your book, here are some tips and techniques that could help:

• Locate interview opportunities through websites and publications related to your topic as well as those that feature general author interviews. If you spend some time exploring the site, you will soon discover whether or not they conduct interviews. If you see no indication of interview opportunities, post an email asking for the opportunity.
• Do a Google search to locate directories of websites and publications with general interview opportunities or those related to your expertise.

• Study this directory in order to locate Blog Talk Radio opportunities. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/categories.aspx
• Once you’ve located interview opportunities, create a succinct, but impressive bio to include with your inquiry. A potential interviewer will want to know that you are articulate (which should show through, at least to some degree, in your writing style), qualified, credible, knowledgeable, and interesting. A bio can help to portray this. A good interviewer who conducts live interviews will also want to hear your voice. So give your phone number, as well.

Handle yourself as a professional during any interview. Here are some tips:

• Think like your target audience. What do they want/need to know about your subject? Even if your interviewer gets off track with his line of questions, you can bring the discussion back to the issue at hand. Always keep in mind, “What information and resources can I offer my audience?”
• Don’t be afraid to give. It’s highly unlikely that you could ever give away too much during a thirty or sixty minute interview. Besides, the more you give, the more the listener will want. And it’s that yearning for more that will sell copies of your book.
• Expand on each topic just enough, but don’t overdo it. Respond fully to questions, but avoid going off on a tangent.
• Jot down several key phrases you’ll want to remember. Work them in when you get the chance.
• Read and listen to other author interviews to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t. Of course, you want to keep your own style of speaking, but there are also mistakes you’ll want to avoid.
• Practice speaking off the cuff. You will definitely need this skill when doing a live interview.
• Have someone record or videotape you speaking and listen to/watch the recording with a critical ear. Is there anything you need to work on? Do you use too many filler words?

Authorship is a business just like being an insurance agent, a car dealer or manufacturer, an electrical contractor or a merchant. And there are certain responsibilities and requirements for success.

Resource of the Month

Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More. This is a must-have book for any author who wants to hone his or her speaking skills, learn how to land speaking opportunities, come up with speech topics, sell more books at book festivals, form a stronger bond with audiences, attract more people to their book signings, and ace those intimidating recorded presentations. Order your copy at http://www.amazon.com or at http://www.matilijapress.com. $19.95 print. Also available in audio and for your Kindle.

Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup

I’ve been writing for publication for 40 years and I’m the author of 46 published books—most of them on publishing and book promotion. I maintain two blogs—one for authors, with over a daily publishing blog. The blog boasts over 2,000 posts to date: http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog. I also write a blog related to cats—through which I promote my Klepto Cat Mystery series and Catscapades, True Cat Tales. http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades

My articles have appeared in over 300 publications, including Writers Digest, Publishing Basics, Book Marketing Matters, Writer’s Journal, Cat Fancy, Your Health, Horse of Course, Western Horse, The Artist’s Magazine, Woman’s World, The World and I and many others.

I work with authors on their projects from an editorial standpoint.

Mission Statement: The primary purpose of this enewsletter is to bring information, resources and encouragement to fellow authors both beginners and experienced. It’s an education for authors who want to become more successful in a highly competitive industry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Publishing/Marketing News and Views

Bringing you the information and resources you need to succeed.

June 2014, Volume 1, Issue 6

 

Editor: Patricia Fry

plfry620@yahoo.com

 

This month, we’ll continue with the public speaking theme and discuss how you can locate opportunities to speak at targeted conferences and trade shows. Now you may not have one iota of interest in public speaking or meeting face-to-face with your potential readers. But if you are a published author or plan to become one, you need to go out and meet your readers. They want a relationship with you. They are more apt to buy your book in person. Speaking in public should be on your list of skills to adopt or hone. I’ll offer some tips and techniques. I’ll also help you find audiences for your speaking gigs—people who would be interested in reading your book.

Included in this issue:

• Announcement!! Two more new additions to the Klepto Cat Mystery series
• How to Become a Presenter at Prestigious Conferences
• Public Speaking Tips for Authors
• Special Report—Basic Podium Protocol
• Resources for Authors—Links to Conference and Trade Show Directories
• Recommended Books—Promote Your Book and Talk Up Your Book
• Publishing/Marketing News and Views Archives
• Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup
• Previews of Coming Attractions

A Klepto Cat Mystery Update

Sleight of Paw, the third in the Klepto Cat Mystery series is now available at Amazon.com in print. Order your copy today. If you haven’t read the first two print books in the series, order all three! Catnapped is first, then Cat-Eye Witness. See the amazing covers by Bernadette Kazmarski and read the story descriptions at the Klepto Cat Mystery page at Amazon.com. http://amzn.to/1kAI8I2

NEW! The Colony Cat Caper. Now there are 5 Klepto Cat Mysteries on Kindle for your cozy mystery reading pleasure. Catnapped, Cat-Eye Witness, Sleight of Paw, Undercover Cat and BRAND NEW: The Colony Cat Caper.

 

How to Become a Presenter at Prestigious Conferences

As you may know, there are conferences held in many locations world-wide on numerous topics including travel, arts and crafts, writing, publishing, computer technology, agriculture, ecology, animals, photography, health, real estate, finance, business management, education, sports, spirituality, paranormal and more.

A conference might be a one-day event or run for ten days. Most are two and three-day events, usually over a weekend. Conferences generally consist of anywhere from five to thirty-five (or more) workshops running throughout the duration of the event. Often, they’ll have two or three (sometimes more) sessions running simultaneously. At some point during the conference, everyone will come together to hear the keynote speaker—generally in conjunction with a formal dinner. Sometimes the keynote address is given early on the first day of the conference as an opening to the event.

If you have written a nonfiction how-to, informational or reference book, you may be considered an expert—or at least very knowledgeable—on that topic, and you may be able to get a speaking gig at an appropriate conference. If you hope to do more than one or two conferences per year, you will probably be required to do some traveling.

So what can a conference presenter expect as far as expenses and fees? There are nearly as many scenarios as there are conferences across the United States. Some conference organizers are authorized to pay all expenses for their presenters. Some pay for your hotel stay, all meals associated with the conference and free admittance to the conference. Others may give you the conference admission and meals only and pay you a small stipend.

Why should you pursue the opportunity to speak at conferences on topics related to your book? Because this is where you’ll find your audience. If you have a book featuring tips and resources for artists and crafters who want to sell their work, many of your readers might gather at a conference on the business of arts and crafts. Maybe your book is a primer for families who want to go green or a step-by-step guide to installing solar power. You might find your audience at conferences related to green living.

Being a writer, you are probably already familiar with writers’ conferences. Perhaps you’ve attended a few of them. If you are promoting a novel, you may be inclined to seek speaking opportunities within these familiar territories.

You may recall listening to novelists speak at writers conferences on character development, how to promote a novel, writing a dynamite opening, tips for a more descriptive way of writing, how to show and not tell, how to use dialog and so forth. You’ve probably heard novelists talk about their writing journeys. I sat in on a session with a former police officer once who talked about how to accurately describe the appropriate guns and ammo one could use in their stories. I enjoyed a presentation at a conference not too long ago where a novelist shared her research techniques. So, yes, you could, conceivably, get a speaking or workshop slot to talk about fiction-writing at a writers’ conference or even a writers retreat. This may be satisfying and enjoyable, but is this sort of exposure lucrative for a novelist?

Margaret Brownley speaks successfully at conferences and she has developed a fairly versatile repertoire. She says, “I gear my talks toward the audience. Writers like ‘how to’ information and readers enjoy an entertaining look at the life of a writer. Since I write westerns, I also give talks on women of the old west. I’ve spoken at the Romance Writers of America and American Christian Fiction Writers national conferences. Even though the audiences are mostly writers, my novels sell out at conference bookstores.”

So how do you land a speaking gig at the conferences of your choice?

• Research conferences in your field and in your region and select a few. (See links to conference directories below.)
• Do a Google search to locate conferences in specific areas. Use keywords, “health conference Nashville,” “pet events New York,” for example.
• If at all possible, attend a couple of conferences to find out what sort of programs they present. You can do this while you are compiling or writing your book and receive the added benefit of additional knowledge and perspective in your field or genre. (A small conference might cost around $50 to $100 for the weekend. A more prestigious, longer-running one might come with a fee of $800 or more, depending on what they offer. If you’re not ready to be a presenter, but you want to attend in order to learn, consider asking for a volunteer position.)
• Study the list of programs and workshops at conference websites. What topics are covered? What could you bring to the table for this audience that relates to your book?
• Create a handful of unique, yet potentially popular programs you could present to your particular audience. Certainly, you could recycle some of your former presentations.
• Contact the organizers per the requirements at their websites. If there are no submission guidelines at the website, simply introduce yourself and your potential programs through an email to the appropriate person, include a brief bio and ask them to contact you for additional information and/or an invitation to speak.

When I locate an event of interest, I study the information presented at the website and, if it seems appropriate, I submit a proposal or I send an email of introduction, based on their submission guidelines. If there are no guidelines posted, I will email or call the director and ask how to apply to be a speaker or a workshop leader. I have a résumé prepared listing my qualifications as an industry professional, an author of books in this field as well as a speaker, and I’m always ready to make workshop or speech topic suggestions.

Sandra Beckwith often speaks at conferences. She says, “My book, Publicity for Nonprofits, was published in 2006. During the first eighteen months after the book came out, I spoke at several national and regional conferences. This was no coincidence; I submitted many proposals to appropriate organizations well in advance of the book’s release and did a few teleseminars, as well. I was paid for all of them with the exception of one teleseminar, which led to a follow-up in-person paid speaking gig for the organization. I earned almost as much in speaking fees for that book as I did for the advance.”

QiGong expert, Victoria Cobb says, “Last summer I was invited to teach at a retreat in Michigan. It is a wonderful long-running, spiritual retreat. For over forty years, these like-minded people have gathered. There are many classes and about 300 people who attend. I was their energy teacher and one of many massage therapists.

“I sold books and DVDs in the bookstore and made bottles of flower remedies, gave massages and taught what I have learned as a student, teacher and healer. This was a remarkable and memorable event! Last year at the event I sold twenty-five DVDs, fifty-three books and all thirty remedies. I have been invited back for this July… a rare thing since no one has ever been invited twice in a row.”

It’s true, conference directors like to invite new people with fresh ideas and unique presentations. If you want a repeat invitation, look around while you’re at the conference and come up with something appropriate, but unique to suggest for the following year.

While some conference organizers are still selecting speakers a month prior to the event, many of them have their programs set practically a year in advance. I’ve discovered that, if you want a speaking gig at a particular conference, you’d better be proactive. Early in 2011, I contacted the director of a writers’ conference I wanted to participate in. She told me, “Contact us in October.” When I did, I was told that all of the speaking slots were filled and the event isn’t until spring. In this case, I should have checked in earlier than I was told to.

Here’s what I recommend: Research conferences that occurred one to four months ago. Contact the organizers of those events. If they suggest you reconnect in six or seven months, make a note on your calendar to contact them in three. They may put you off for another three months, but that’s okay—they know you are interested. Besides, there is always a chance that they are beginning to interview possible speakers for their program next year.

Nancy Barnes presents workshops and speaks on how to write your life story or memoir.

She says, “It’s easy to research conferences now that their information is all online. When I started out I wanted to establish myself as a speaker, so I ‘paid my dues’ by renting an exhibit booth at an expo. While I was there, I closely examined the expo program and dropped in to watch many other speakers. Then I put together a better presentation—a better PowerPoint, a livelier description, and a great title—one that ensured the expo organizers allowed me to speak at the next conference. (Since they’d met me already as a paying exhibitor, they were inclined to give me a chance.) Once I had my foot in the door at that expo, it gave me credibility when I applied to speak at other events. Now I keep a spreadsheet of ten conferences, and about ten book festivals, with dates a year and a half out, and I monitor their application deadlines using Google alerts to be sure I’m applying for each one.”

Some books are conducive to sell at tradeshows. There are differences between conferences and tradeshows, however. Conferences are generally learning opportunities. People attend conferences in order to gain more knowledge, information and resources on a particular topic. Typically, during the day, attendees sit in on presentations and workshops by professionals, experts and others with experience in various aspects of the topic or field. There are often casual mixers and/or elegant dinners in the evening, sometimes accompanied by an awards program or an entertaining keynote address. There is generally a bookstore set up where attendees can purchase books by the speakers and workshop leaders. As an alternative, speakers will be provided a signing table separate from the bookstore for an hour or so after their presentations.

(Excerpted from Talk Up Your Book, Allworth Press, 2012)

 

Public Speaking Tips for Authors

Speak out. Practice speaking up and speaking out. Whether addressing a large audience or a small group, always speak so that you can be heard even in the back of the room. Keep those folks in mind throughout your speech. Speakers often heed the advice of their audience and speak up at first. But if not prodded, they soon fall back into their old routine of quiet talking, mumbling or dropping their voices at the end of their sentences. You’ll hear the speaker ask in a strong voice, “Can you hear me?” When everyone assures him that they can, he then ratchets his voice back down to his conversational tone.

In order to make it easier on yourself as a speaker, if there are empty seats, invite those sitting in the back to fill some of the seats toward the front of the room. But most will not budge. They choose their seats according to their level of comfort. Some sit close to the door in case they don’t want to stay. At conferences, some people bounce from one session to another in order to pick up a few ideas and the free handouts from each. Some people don’t want to sit close to others, don’t like people sitting behind them or just want to spread out without infringing on others or vice versa. So, while you can try to rearrange audience members, just know that some will not comply.

Make eye contact. Move your attention around the room as you speak, making eye contact with each person throughout your presentation.

I like to make frequent eye contact with those in the audience who are responding to what I’m saying. Some will smile. Others will nod in agreement and, perhaps, frantically jot down some notes. These people energize me and keep my enthusiasm level up throughout my presentation. I avoid focusing on those with blank stares, those who are chatting with their neighbors while I’m speaking, those who are nodding off or those who are sitting back appearing a bit smug—as if what I’m talking about is of no importance to them. When you make eye contact with audience members, you are getting some feedback. Some of it is positive and some might be rather disturbing, even confidence-shattering.

Sure you want to know that you are reaching at least the majority of your audience with your message. If you see the blank stares and it appears to you that people are not interested or are not getting it, start asking questions. You’ll learn a lot about how you’re coming across if you allow your audience to respond to some pointed questions.

In the meantime, don’t shortchange the entire audience by reacting to the negative vibes you might pick up from a few people. Always focus on the positive. You will often discover that what you perceived as disinterest in an audience member or indifference—even arrogance—may have been erroneous. I’ve had these people come up to me after the program or speak up during the question and answer session expressing keen interest in the material I was presenting. Some of them even bought my book or hired me to edit their manuscripts.

I remember a gentleman in one of my sessions a few years ago who seemed indifferent to the material I presented. He sat in the back row with two other men. They talked among themselves several times. He didn’t take notes. His eyes kind of wandered around the room. But he didn’t leave. After the program, he came up to me and introduced himself as the president of the organization. He said, “You’re amazing. You gave us more value in one presentation than our speakers did throughout the entire conference last year.”

Don’t apologize. Avoid sabotaging your presentation by making excuses for not being well-prepared or for poor speaking skills. Stand tall, appear self-assured and you will gain the confidence of the audience.

I’ve heard speakers stand before an audience and actually say, “My voice tends to drop off at the end of my sentences, so forgive me if you can’t hear everything I say.” “Sorry I’ve been busy and haven’t had much time to prepare. Just bear with me, will ya?” Or “I’ve been flying all night and don’t have much energy today. I hope you don’t expect much of me.” No, no, no. Never indicate to the audience that you do not plan to give them your very best performance.

Sure, if you have a cute story as to why you rushed into the meeting hall at the last minute, tell it. Or if there is an important message or lesson in something you feel you should apologize for, perhaps you should share it. What I’m trying to prevent you from doing is to give audience members the impression that you are not going to give them your all—that there is something more important to you than this presentation. You certainly don’t want to negate any credibility you have with this audience.

What if, after you’re introduced, you say to the audience, “Well, I don’t really know that much about the topic of my book. I’m just one of many who have written about it, but I’m not the authority. I will tell you what I know, but you should take it with a grain of salt. Joe Schmo knows a heck of a lot more about it and I always recommend his books.” Sure it seems ridiculous that someone would sabotage themselves like this, but you would be surprised at how little some author-speakers know about promoting themselves and their books, human psychology and even communication.

Use vocal variety. Make your talks more enjoyable by using an assortment of vocal tones and pitches rather than speaking in monotone. If you need help developing vocal variety, practice reading to a child. Use your highest and lowest voice and everything in between. I’ve mentioned joining a storytelling group a few times already. Please consider this if you need help with vocal variety and if you are going to read publicly to children or tell stories related to your novel.

Eliminate non-words. Inexperienced speakers generally use so many filler words that Toastmasters actually have an “ah counter” at every meeting. This person counts the number of filler words each member uses throughout the course of the meeting. Filler words include uh, ah, um, er and so forth. You can start eliminating filler words by paying close attention to your speech during your daily communication. Listen to yourself (and others) during conversations.
Practice speaking without inserting those fillers between thoughts and sentences. This is a habit you can definitely break.

As they do in each Toastmasters meeting, ask a friend to tally the number of filler words you use while rehearsing a speech or during a casual conversation. The numbers may shock you. Once you are aware of your filler word habit, you will be more motivated to make some changes.

Eliminate poor speaking habits.  Rid your vocabulary of stagnant verbiage. Break yourself of those mundane phrases you like to repeat, such as, “yada, yada, yada” or “know what I mean?”

Be prepared. You will be more at ease if you know what to expect. Find out if there will be a lectern or microphone, for example. How many people do they expect? How will the room be set up? Also, have your props or notes organized so there will be no annoying fumbling during your presentation. Know your material well enough so that you are prepared for any interruption, agenda change, etc. that could, and often will, occur.

I know two speakers who have had the power go off during their presentations due to storms. One was in the midst of a PowerPoint program. With the use of candles, flashlights and battery-operated lanterns, both of these shows went on, only without the digital props.

You may never experience this sort of interruption while speaking, but you should prepare so well that you could carryon expertly should anything like this happen.

Write your own introduction. You know what you want your audience to know about you before you speak and what information you will share during your presentation. So doesn’t it make sense that you would write your own introduction? If you don’t, the person in charge of introducing you might get it wrong. I’ve had MCs introduce me based on the back cover info of a book I produced three years earlier. This might not include the fact that I am now the author of thirty-six books or that I am now the executive director of SPAWN rather than the president, etc. If you want the intro to be correct and to include only certain information, take charge. Find out who will be introducing you and email them your introduction. Also carry a copy of it with you to the event in case it was misplaced.

Know your audience. Gear your speech to the needs and interests of this particular audience. When I talk about the local history, I give a completely different talk to students at local elementary schools or a visiting tour group than I do when addressing civic organization or historical society members. When I speak to a group of writers who may or may not decide to publish anything they write, I put a very different slant on my talk than I do when my audience is comprised of published authors.

A standard rule in preparation is to learn as much as you can about your audience from the program coordinator. This is an excellent place to start. However, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve discovered while in the process of speaking to a group that they do not actually resemble the demographic given to me. That’s why I also pay close attention to the promo going out to the public or organization members. This will give me a clue as to who would be attracted to this program—to this slate of speakers, etc. Once I stand before my audience, I almost always ask a few questions before I get too deep into my planned presentation. Let’s say that I have prepared a speech on writing a book proposal. I’ll ask for a show of hands representing those who are in the process of writing a book, those who have a book they are pitching to publishers and those who have a published book. If the majority of audience members already have a published book, then I might spend some time talking about the post-publication book proposal—something I have devised to help authors with faltering books determine their true target audience.

Perhaps your book covers do-it-yourself home remodeling and you’ve planned a presentation for homeowners who want to remodel their kitchens. Only, after quizzing the audience, you discover that most of them are renters, so your original talk wouldn’t actually apply to this audience. What to do? This is when your professionalism, or lack of, will become apparent. Can you shift gears and share ideas for making a kitchen more user-friendly? This would not involve tearing down walls, building new cabinets, putting in flooring and such. Instead, it might cover storage ideas, how to create a new look in your kitchen without spending a lot of money, tips for choosing the right countertop kitchen appliances, how to give your old kitchen a fresh and modern look simply by using paint and wall covering creatively.

Dress to standout, but not to distract from your presentation. If you’re a man, you’ll most likely wear a suit and tie or slacks/jeans and an open-neck shirt. Unless you have a statement to make related to the theme of your book, I would avoid faded jeans and a tee shirt. For women it might be a suit, dress, skirt and top or slacks and a sweater. Just keep it neat (fitted, crisp and pressed). Be tasteful (no low cut tops, too short skirt or too tight skirts/slacks).  I’ve seen authors dress in costume related to the theme of their books—a WWII bomber jacket, 1950s vintage outfit, Victorian dress and bonnet, overalls, an apron and so forth.

Anyone can get up in front of an audience and speak. How well you do it is what counts. Consider each and every one of the points above when you next take the stage.

 

Basic Podium Protocol

Perhaps you’ve noticed that there is a correct and incorrect podium protocol. This is something, I’m sad to say, that escapes many program coordinators and masters of ceremonies. You may want to teach this etiquette to the MCs you meet during your speaking tours. For example, the number one rule is: Never leave the podium area (or stage) empty. Here’s how it goes:

1: The master of ceremonies introduces the speaker and waits for her to join him at the microphone.

2: The speaker greets the MC and shakes his hand. The MC either turns and leaves the stage or he steps behind the speaker and walks off stage. The MC never crosses in front of the speaker.

3: As the MC exits the stage, the speaker very breifly thanks him for the introduction and then begins to address her audience.

4: When the speaker concludes, she nods toward the MC indicating the end of her program (or she might say, “Mr. MC…” to get his attention or even “Mr. MC, I return the program to you.”)

5: The MC then joins the speaker on the podium and shakes her hand. The speaker either turns and walks off stage or she steps behind the MC to leave the stage going in the opposite direction.

Particularly for a major presentation before a large group of people, I recommend that the speaker go over this protocol with the MC or coordinator prior to the program. Rehearse it a time or two. This will give your entrance and your performance a greater sense of professionalism and you are providing a valuable service to the leaders of the organization by showing them the proper way to enter and exit a stage.

 

 

 

Resources for Authors

Links to directories of conferences and trade shows

http://www.shawguides.com

http://www.allconferences.com

http://www.tsnn.com

http://www.eventseye.com

http://www.eventsinamerica.com

 

Recommended Books

Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author

Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More

 

Publishing/Marketing News and Views Archives

http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog/?page_id=3081

1: August, 2013—Before Your Book is a Book

2: October 2013—The Psychology of a Book Proposal

3: December 2013—Publishing

4: February—2014—Understanding Book Promotion

 

Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup
I’ve been writing for publication for 40 years and I’m the author of over 40 published books—most of them on publishing and book promotion. I’m the Executive Director of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) http://www.spawn.org I compile the Market Update, a bi-monthly newsletter for SPAWN members and I maintain an almost daily publishing blog. The blog boasts over 2,000 posts to date http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog I also write a blog related to cats—through which I promote my Klepto Cat Mystery series and Catscapades, True Cat Tales. http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades

My articles have appeared in hundreds of publications, including Writers Digest, Publishing Basics, Book Marketing Matters, Writer’s Journal, Cat Fancy, Your Health, Horse of Course, Western Horse, The Artist’s Magazine, Woman’s World, The World and I and many others.

I work with authors on their projects from an editorial standpoint, I teach online courses for authors and I travel to speak several times each year at conferences and other author events.

http://www.matilijapress.com

http://www.patriciafry.com

http://www.facebook.com/kleptocatmysteries

www.twitter.com/authorplf

PLFry620@yahoo.com

Previews Coming Attractions

Speaking out—Radio/TV/Interviews—August 2014 (Volume 2)

How to Use Social Media for Book Promotion—October 2014

Solicit Book Reviews—December 2014

Promote Your Book Through Articles/Stories—February 2015

The Ins and Outs of a Blog Tour—April 2015

 

Mission Statement: The primary purpose of this e-newsletter is to bring information, resources and encouragement to fellow authors both beginners and experienced. It’s an education for authors who want to become more successful in a highly competitive industry.

 

 

Publishing/Marketing News and Views

Bringing you the information and resources you need to succeed.

April 2014, Volume 1, Issue 5

 

Editor: Patricia Fry

plfry620@yahoo.com

 

Spring typically brings with it new beginnings. And this can mean change. Ick, yuk, arghhh, ewww. No one likes change. We prefer living within our comfort zones, wherever that might be. But if you have a published book or you’re writing a book for publication, and if you’ve thoroughly enjoyed the process, you may be in for a shock. You’re about to be faced with challenges you didn’t expect.

That’s one reason why I’ve decided to produce this newsletter. I want to help diminish the ick/yuk factor, make sure you know what to expect after publication and prepare you for the challenges ahead.

So what is ahead for you? What are the changes you will be facing? It’s what comes after publishing. It’s called promotion. In issue 4 of this newsletter, we covered the basic concept of book promotion. I talked about your author platform and how to establish one. As promised, in subsequent issues of Publishing/Marketing News and Views, I’ll cover all manner of promotion. This month, we’ll talk about using your personality to promote your book.

I’m headed to the huge Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in a few days. I’ll be womaning the SPAWN booth while also selling my own books at USC in Los Angeles April 12 and 13. If you’re in the area, please stop by and introduce yourself. (Some of you receiving this newsletter, I met at the LATFB over the years.)

Having a booth at a book festival is a great way to promote your book. Not only will you sell copies, you will have the opportunity to talk about your book and distribute handouts—in other words, get exposure for your book. You’ll meet people who can provide additional opportunities for you by way of book signings, speaking engagements, library sales, school presentations, radio/TV appearances and more.

From the information in this newsletter, I expect you to learn the extreme value of exposure, the importance of the personal touch and a few tips for being the best ambassador on behalf of your book.

 

Included in this issue:

• Announcement!! Two new additions to the Klepto Cat Mystery series and an update on Patricia Fry’s blog tour
• Personality Sells Books—How to Use Yours
• Book Festivals—Take Your Book to a Show
• Special Report—How to Work a Book Festival so it Works for You
• Recommended Book—Talk Up Your Book
• Resource of the Month—CreateSpace
• Publishing/Marketing News and Views Archives
• Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup
• Previews of Coming Attractions

Announcement!!

Cat-Eye Witness, the second in the Klepto Cat Mystery series has joined Catnapped in print form. You can order either of these books for your Kindle at $2.99 and in print ($8.95). http://amzn.to/1kAI8I2 Also NEW for your Kindle, Undercover Cat. This is the fourth in the Klepto Cat Mystery series. All four of the books, both Kindle and print, are listed here.  http://amzn.to/1kAI8I2

In the last issue, I announced that I was going on a blog tour. And what a kick it was. In a future issue, I’ll outline exactly how to set up your own blog tour. Just let me say that mine was a success. I visited five blog sites in five days, each offering a different kind of promotion for the Klepto Cat Mystery series, in particular the newest book at the time, Sleight of Paw. Did this effort result in increased book sales? Indeed, it did. Sales for my books doubled during the week of my blog tour. For more about my blog tour and how to organize and manage your own tour, read my blog post for February 15, 2014 http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog/?p=3289

Personality Sells Books

Yes, I’m going to say it again—personality sells books. If you doubt it, begin a campaign to engage more people in conversation about your book and see what happens. Talk to people at a bus stop about your book, show your book to folks who are waiting in line at the grocery store, bring it up at business meetings and social events where appropriate, share it with members of the congregation after church service. Your potential readers who meet you in person are more apt to buy your book either now or in the future than those who have had no contact with you whatsoever.

I read the results of a survey recently where authors and publishers were asked, “What’s the best form of promotion?” The largest percentage of people responded that they sell more books through personal contact. The thing is, readers want a relationship with their authors. People buy certain books based on the author’s credibility and they are somewhat loyal to those authors they know something about, whether it is through your facebook page, your blog or a radio interview. If they meet you in person, all the better. In fact, some readers get a thrill out of purchasing a book that the author has autographed right in front of them.

There are many ways to become known—through an active blog that reflects your personality and expertise, for example, through social media, through a website and podcasts that express your personality, and so forth. Even your articles and stories in appropriate publications carry weight with your readers and often help to sway them to purchase your book.

The most successful mode of promotion, however, is through personal appearances where your particular audience gathers. An author who decides not to pursue the personal approach when promoting his or her book, is an author who probably won’t sell many books.

Here’s a 10-ingredient recipe for selling more books through your personality:

1: Hone your public speaking and communication skills by joining a Toastmasters club and participating for several months. Or take a speech class at a local college. If your book is fiction, poetry or a children’s book, consider getting involved in a storytelling group, and learn how to entertain through storytelling techniques. This will also do wonders for your fear of public speaking and your confidence level.

2: Practice, practice, practice. If you don’t feel ready to address your audience, yet, ask friends to gather and allow you to present your material. Give presentations in the security of your Toastmasters club. Take on jobs and volunteer for committees that require speaking in front of groups. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about your book or speaking on another topic at first. The point is to become more comfortable and confident in front of an audience.

3: Locate speaking opportunities in your community and beyond. Start close to home and then branch out to other cities and states, if feasible. The easiest types of speaking opportunities to get are generally those for civic organization meetings (Kiwanis, Rotary, Optimist, etc.). Program directors are always on the lookout for interesting speakers for their weekly meetings. Design an entertaining or informative program around the theme of your book.

4: Create speaking opportunities. Approach organizations, schools and/or corporations related to the theme of your book and ask to be placed on their program agenda. Or help them to design a program for their members, students, attendees.

5: Book signings are not passé. It’s true, the average author doesn’t generally attract many people to bookstore signings. However, you might generate quite an audience when doing a book signing at a busy coffee house, pet store, hobby shop, cupcake bakery, sporting goods store or children’s store, for example, depending on the theme/genre of your books and the effectiveness of your publicity. (Do not disregard these last four words. Publicity is of major importance to a successful signing event.)

6: Develop workshops related to the theme of your book. A great way to address your audience is through classes, courses and workshops. If your book is conducive to this sort of presentation, consider engaging in it as a way to meet your readers face-to-face and getting to know them. Not only will they learn from you and buy your book, you will have the opportunity to learn volumes from them. Feedback from your readers is priceless. Use what you learn from them in your presentations, blog, articles and future books on the topic.

7: Take your book to book festivals. A book festival is a great place to meet authors who may have never heard of you or your book. Be prepared to talk about the benefits or reader value of your book to numbers of people. Have attractive handouts and give them away generously. Also have a signup sheet so you can collect email addresses for those people who are interested in the topic or genre of your book. A follow-up email is a great way to keep potential customers from forgetting you. (Read more about how to work a book festival in this issue.)

8: Apply to speak at conferences related to the theme or genre of your book. For the most part, you must seek out opportunities. Especially at first, program directors or conference organizers do not come looking for you—until you have proven yourself over and over again. Conducting a workshop or giving a presentation or keynote speech at a conference attended by your readers can give your book a huge boost.

9: Be creative. Have a booth at a wine festival, the county fair, flea market, youth sporting events, etc. Set up a table outside the parameters of a Sunday farmers market. I know an author who did this. He gave away his humor book FREE to those who purchased a glass of lemonade for $10.

10: Speak while traveling. Before you take off, research opportunities in the cities you will be visiting and arrange for presentations, signings, radio/TV interviews and so forth.

Of course, publicity for any of these activities must be well-planned, widely distributed and on-the-mark. Not only will this help to attract more people to the event, the publicity will serve to put your name and the title of your book out there in front of more people. You might get 15 or 115 to show up, but your message might reach an additional 500, 1,000 or more potential customers.

Continue to promote the activity afterward by posting pictures from the event, a report about the success of the event, etc., at your blog or on your facebook page.

There are many ways to entice potential readers to buy your book. But the common denominator for achieving the most success seems to rely on your personality. First, produce a good book that has a solid audience. And then go out and meet your readers using these and other ideas.

Take Your Book to a Show

Book festival season is upon us. Most book festivals are held in the spring and fall, which makes sense. That’s when the weather is most stable and pleasant.

Have you ever sat behind a display of your very own books at a book festival, greeting visitors in hopes that they will make a purchase? How many times have you walked away after a book festival despondent because you are toting home most of the books you came with? How many of you have vowed never to pay for space at a book festival again?

It doesn’t have to end this way.

Book festivals present great opportunities for authors. But you have to do your part. If you’ve experienced disappointment at book festivals, I suggest that you change your approach and your outlook.

What is your main objective when you reserve space at a book festival? Most authors say, “To sell enough books to make it worth my while.” They want to break even financially and then some. And that pretty much sums it up.

Exposure—a Highly Valuable Benefit

Have you ever considered the side benefits to participating in a book festival? There’s exposure, of course. If you stay in the game and continue promoting your book to your audience, exposure can lead to sales. Exposure is more valuable than many authors know. There are people who purchase books on the spot. But there are many others who don’t buy a book they actually want until they’ve seen it, heard about it and/or read about it numbers of times. So a wise author makes sure his or her book is getting the exposure that can lead to even eventual sales.

Exposure can garner other advantages, as well—some that the author may not consider as such even in the face of the opportunity. Let’s say that your book features unusual gifts you can make for under $25. You might meet a stringer for a home and garden, country or craft magazine who would love to interview you for an article. A librarian might want to include your children’s book in their summer reading program. A small business owner might see your book on office organization and hire you as a consultant. Likewise, an organization or corporate leader might take your card and call you several weeks or months after the event to order two boxes of your business management book for employees.

Exposure is not typically a one-shot opportunity. Very often, there are ongoing and far-reaching effects resulting from exposure.

Authors often say to me, “I did a book festival once. Didn’t sell many books, so I won’t be doing that again.”

I will sometimes ask the author, “Did you meet anyone interesting at the book festival?”

She might say, “Not really.”

I’ll say, “I almost always meet someone who offers me an opportunity of some sort.”

The author might then reply, “Oh yes—there was this guy who came by my booth. He gave me his card—what did I do with that? He said that he was in charge of buying goodie-bag gifts for conventions and he wanted me to give him a bulk discount price. I guess I forgot to contact him.”

Hellllooooo! That’s called an opportunity.

Some authors recognize the opportunities that occur at book festivals and still don’t consider book festivals worth attending. I know one author who met the producer of a syndicated radio show who wanted to put him on the air with his book. And another met a man who later filmed a documentary around the theme of his book. That documentary still airs on the military channel.

What Can You Expect?

New authors ask me what to expect at a book festival. I have attended over fifty book festivals throughout the US over the years—large ones like the upcoming Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and the Tucson Festival of Books, as well as small ones. And each of them seems to have a personality of its own. The thing is, you just don’t know what to expect at a book festival—even the same book festival year-after-year. You might sell numbers of books and meet up with many opportunities or you may sit alone for most of the day and sell nothing.

I’ve seen authors turn what could have been “nothing” days into good days. How?

• The author engages people as they walk past their booth. If she has a children’s book, she might say, “Do you know a child who likes to read?” She may also ask parents with children, “May I read a short story to your child?” Try this and you will sell copies of your charming children’s book.
• When someone seems interested in his book, the author talks to the visitor about benefits not features. (What can the book do for the potential reader?)
• The author knows how to listen. Sometimes the visitor just wants to tell his story or rant about his experiences related to the theme of your book. If your book addresses some of the issues he brings up, let him know this and he may become a customers.
• If there is nothing happening—it’s a really slow day—the author might walk around the event with his book and show it to other book festival participants. I often sell copies of my publishing/book-promotion-related books to other authors at book festivals. And I buy books, as well.
• Authors who maintain a good attitude even when things seem slow will sell more books than those who appear disgruntled.

This spring why don’t you seek out a book festival near you or where you will be traveling and plan to take full advantage of the exposure and opportunities in the experience.

To locate book festivals, do an Internet search using key words: “book festival” and your city/state.

How To Work A Book Festival So It Works For You

If you have a book to promote, sooner or later you’ll probably participate in a book festival. There are hundreds of book and author festivals held throughout the U.S. each year where you can rent a booth and sell books. Writing/publishing organizations often purchase booths at book festivals and rent space to their members at a savings.

Authors can also secure booths at trade fairs, flea markets and art and craft fairs. I had a booth at our county fair one year and sold nearly 200 copies of my brand new local history book.

How Many Books Can You Sell at a Book Festival?

We’d all like a guarantee, before getting involved in a book festival. The truth is that you could walk away $1000 richer or it might cost you money to participate. Your success depends on several factors. While no one can second-guess the public’s book-buying habits, there are steps you can take to ensure greater success. For example, it’s important that you choose the right venue.

If I’m doing a book festival or craft fair close to home, I always bring my local history books. If I’m out of town, these books won’t be of much interest to festival goers. When I’m participating in the SPAWN booth (that’s Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network), I bring my writing/publishing-related books. Many of the folks coming to this booth are authors.

I generally sell anywhere from 6 to 50 copies of my books at a book festival. One time, however, I sold nothing. And it was because I chose the wrong venue. I joined a fellow author in his booth at a large book festival in Los Angeles. I had a metaphysical adventure story and books on writing. A large banner above the booth advertised that we were selling mysteries and children’s books and this is what people came to our booth to purchase.

A booth displaying a large variety of books attracts a lot of attention. If your book has a dull, uninteresting cover, however, chances are, it won’t get noticed. At book festivals, I notice that people are drawn first to books with colorful, eye-catching, appealing covers. Next, they seem to gravitate toward a book on a subject of their interest: horses, writing, history, poetry, children’s books or a period novel, for example.

Focus On Exposure Not Sales

Of course, you hope for sales when you participate in a book festival. But what if you don’t sell as many books as you expected? Sure, it’s disappointing, but this doesn’t mean that the festival was a failure.

Number of sales isn’t the only way to measure success. As I mentioned above, exposure has value, too. And a book festival is a good way to get exposure for your book—to make people aware of it. Anytime you display your book or talk about it, you’re getting exposure. There are those sales you make on the spot—spontaneous sales. And there are those that come only after exposure. The point is to view each person you talk to as a potential customer. If he doesn’t buy your book now, there’s every possibility that he will in the future.

It’s important that you hold to this belief. It will help you maintain a good attitude and a good attitude will go a long way toward making friends and making sales.

Create Great Promotional Material

Whether you’re sending your book to an out of town book festival for display or selling your books from your own booth, you’ll need something to hand out. And your handout should be every bit as professional and appealing as your book is.

I’ve seen a lot of promotional material. While some pieces seem like an afterthought, others are so appealing that I can’t bring myself to discard them. A good promotional piece should reflect the tone and appearance of your book. What is the function of a promotional piece? It’s a reminder, it’s a sales pitch and it provides necessary information.

What comprises a good promotional piece? I prefer a color copy of the book cover on one side of light to medium-weight cardstock. Put a brief description of the book, your qualifications (if pertinent) and ordering information on the other side. I also recommend designing your promotional material in postcard or bookmark size. Anything larger is difficult to display. The smaller size is better for mailing, more functional and easier for potential customers to handle.

Tip: Ask everyone who visits your booth for their contact information. Have them sign up for a contest or drawing and give away a book at the end of the event, for example. Put these names on your mailing list and send out periodical promotional packages.

Here’s What to Bring to a Book Festival

When You’re Sharing a Booth

Find out from the organizer how much space you’ll have and what you can and cannot bring. If you have one title, you may want to bring a display stand, a small standing poster showing off your book cover, 30 books (or so), promo material (handouts) and maybe even some candy or stickers to give away. The SPAWN booth often offers visitors heart-shaped stickers that say, “I love books.” I’ve also seen authors give away advertising pencils.

Bring change in appropriate denominations. I generally round off the prices of my books for festivals. Rather than charging $15.95 plus tax, I’ll ask $15 or $16 and I’ll pay the tax. Sometimes for my $6.50 book, I’ll ask $7, letting the customer pay the tax. If you have a merchant account, come prepared to take credit cards. Look into getting a card reader for taking credit cards. The device is free. You pay a percentage of the sale to the company.

While virtually all book festivals have food and drinks for sale, you might want to bring your own water and lunch. Also bring sunscreen, a hat and a sweater. Pack an extra folding chair. Organizers typically provide two chairs per booth.

Invest in a luggage carrier with wheels to transport boxes of books. I bought mine at a garage sale. Or use a piece of luggage with wheels.

When It’s Your Booth.

Booths can cost anywhere from $75 to $900, depending on the scope of the event. If you want a booth but have only one or two titles to sell, you might consider inviting others to participate with you. By sharing the cost of the booth, you stand a better chance of profiting. Additionally, people are drawn to booths that are interesting and inviting. A larger display of books will attract more people than just one or two titles will.

Choose your booth partners carefully. Avoid authors with books that compete with yours. But consider those with books of the same nature. A book for preschoolers and one for teens might be a good combination. A book of poetry and a book for young writers may complement one another. A book featuring extreme sports and an action novel might be a good match.

Consider sharing your booth with someone who has a product rather than a book. If yours is a children’s book, partner with a local toyshop owner or someone who makes wooden toys from home.

Book festival organizers generally provide a table, a covering for the table and a sign or banner. Make sure that your booth is appropriately categorized. You might want the title of your book on the sign instead of your publishing company name, for example. At some book fairs, the booth signs are tacked to the front of the tables. People can’t see your sign when others are standing in front of your booth. I suggest making a large banner that you can post behind you in case you need the extra signage.

A small sign that says “autographed copies” will impress and draw some shoppers.

We find that a small folding table placed at the back of our booth comes in handy at book festivals. Purchase these at Office Depot. Bring a large tablecloth that will hide boxes of books and other stuff that’s stored under the table.

Also bring extra pens (at least 5 of mine walk away during every event), felt markers, tape, bookstands, scissors, paperweights (we use painted rocks or clay animal shapes) and advertising posters. Don’t forget your promotional pieces and business cards.

Display With Pizzazz

Presentation is everything. If you have a sweet little book of poems, for example, wrap some of them in pretty paper and tie them with ribbon. This can make a most appealing display.

Add something to make your book even more special. I have a book on journal-keeping for teens. For the next book festival, I will package it with a journal book and a pen. This will transform a nice little gift book into a very nice gift package.

Maybe your book cover is particularly lovely. Create some note cards featuring the cover. Offer them for sale separately or together with the book. Have gift bags made with the cover of your book on the front.

Create special interest in your booth. For a children’s book on trains, set up a small train that goes in a circle around your book display. For a book on making living wreaths, have a wreath in progress for everyone to see. Wear a costume. If your novel is set in 18^th century England, dress the part and decorate your booth appropriately. If the main character in your children’s book is a clown, become that clown.

Plant seeds about gift giving. Wrap a few books in appropriate gift paper. Put up signs that state, “Perfect Gift for Dad,” “Easter Gift Idea” or “Do Your Holiday Shopping Now.”

Sell More Books at a Book Festival

A key to selling books at a festival is to connect with the potential buyer. When someone looks at one of my books on writing or publishing, I ask, “Are you a writer?” Invariably, we become engaged in conversation which affords me the opportunity to give my sales pitch.

I once watched a man with a children’s book ask everyone who walked by, “Do you know a child who is around 12 years old?” Many people did and many of them bought his book. In fact, he sold out before the day was over.

If someone expresses an interest in your book, but doesn’t buy it, make sure they walk away with one of your professional quality promo pieces.

And this brings me to another important point. Know when enough is enough. I’ve seen authors oversell their books and turn potential customers away. Likewise, I’ve observed authors avoiding contact with people who, with a little nudging, might have bought their book. There’s a happy medium in there somewhere and it’s up to the author to discover it. How?

• Be observant.
• Learn to read body language.
• Know how to talk about your book.
• Practice your sales pitch.
• If you need help with any of the above, join a Toastmasters club.

Make it easy for people to purchase your book. Have plenty of change. Accept checks. Accept credit cards. Provide bags for their purchases.

Book festivals can be worthwhile endeavors, but you have to be well prepared and willing to stretch and grow.

To locate book festivals and book fairs throughout the U.S., do a Google search using the keyword “book festivals” or “book fairs” and your city/state name.

Recommended Book

What book would I recommend for someone who is involved in or would like to become involved in using their personality to sell their books? Definitely it would be, Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More. This book focuses on the concept, preparation, planning and execution of promoting your book using the personal touch. To learn more about Talk Up Your Book and for ordering information, http://www.matilijapress.com/TalkUpYourBook.html

Resource of the Month

I’d like to talk about CreateSpace. We decided to use CreateSpace to print Catnapped and Cat-Eye Witness and I can’t say enough good things about them. They are easy to work with, prompt, friendly, helpful and they seem to do good work. Once they have produced your book, you can go to their site and check sales daily or hourly, if you want.

One of the perks for me is that they are owned by Amazon. When customers order copies of my print books, CreateSpace ships immediately. I simply sit back and collect royalties—well, after doing tons of promotion to make that sale, of course.

Publishing/Marketing News and Views Archives

http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog/?page_id=3081

1: August, 2013—Before Your Book is a Book

2: October 2013—The Psychology of a Book Proposal

3: December 2013—Publishing

4: February—2014—Understanding Book Promotion

Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup
I’ve been writing for publication for 40 years and I’m the author of over 40 published books—most of them on publishing and book promotion. I’m the Executive Director of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) http://www.spawn.org I compile the Market Update, a bi-monthly newsletter for SPAWN members and I maintain an almost daily publishing blog. The blog boasts over 2,000 posts to date http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog I also write a blog related to cats—through which I promote my Klepto Cat Mystery series and Catscapades, True Cat Tales. http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades

My articles have appeared in hundreds of publications, including Writers Digest, Publishing Basics, Book Marketing Matters, Writer’s Journal, Cat Fancy, Your Health, Horse of Course, Western Horse, The Artist’s Magazine, Woman’s World, The World and I and many others.

I work with authors on their projects from an editorial standpoint, I teach online courses for authors and I travel to speak several times each year at conferences and other author events.

http://www.matilijapress.com

http://www.patriciafry.com

http://www.facebook.com/kleptocatmysteries

www.twitter.com/authorplf

PLFry620@yahoo.com

Previews Coming Attractions

Public Speaking and Targeted Conferences—June 2014

Speaking out—Radio/TV/Interviews—August 2014 (Volume 2)

How to Use Social Media for Book Promotion—October 2014

Solicit Book Reviews—December 2014

Promote Your Book Through Articles/Stories—February 2015

The Ins and Outs of a Blog Tour—April 2015

Mission Statement: The primary purpose of this e-newsletter is to bring information, resources and encouragement to fellow authors both beginners and experienced. It’s an education for authors who want to become more successful in a highly competitive industry.

 

Publishing/Marketing News and Views

Bringing you the information and resources you need to succeed.

February 2014, Volume 1, Issue 4

 

Editor: Patricia Fry

plfry620@yahoo.com

 

So far, in this bi-monthly newsletter, we’ve focused on the fact that a successful book requires a great deal of thought and action even before the book is a book. In the August, 2013 issue, I listed 10 steps authors must take before they start the writing process. In the October issue, we focused on the psychology of a book proposal. I’m sure this was an eye-opener for many of you, In December, the theme was publishing. We covered common publishing mistakes that many authors make.

So what comes after publishing? Those of you who have been following the suggestions in these newsletters and the advice of other professionals already know that it is PROMOTION. And that is the focus of this issue. If you’re writing a book, trying to get one published or you have one or more published books, the information and resources in this newsletter could make the difference between your book’s failure or success.

Because promotion is such a major, complex, oh-so-important topic, we will cover it over the next several issues. If you’ve missed any issues of this newsletter, remember, they are all archived here: http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog/?page_id=3081

 

Included in this issue:

• Announcement!! Patricia’s Going on a Blog Tour
• Book Promotion Basics—Understanding the Concept
• Your Author Platform—What is it, How do you get one?
• 10 Ways to Establish Your Author Platform BEFORE Your Book is a Book
• Recommended Book—Promote Your Book
• Special Report—How to Transition from Nonfiction to Fiction Writing
• Resource of the Month—Kindle Direct Publishing Program for Novelists
• Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup—Introducing her latest Klepto Cat Mystery
• Previews of Coming Attractions—A plethora of book marketing ideas

Announcement!!

Patricia Fry is on tour—a blog tour, that is. During the entire Valentine’s Day week—February 10-14, 2014—she will visit blogs related to mystery-writing and/or cats. Why? In order to promote her Klepto Cat Mystery series, Catnapped, Cat-Eye Witness and Sleight of Paw.

 

Here’s her schedule:

Monday, February 10, http://www.readalot-Rhonda1111.blogspot.com

Tuesday, February 11, http://bookread-mumswritings.blogspot.com

Wednesday, February 12, http://www.mochasmysteriesmeows.com

Thursday, February 13 http://socratesbookreviews.blogspot.com

Friday, February 14, http://kittycrochettwo.blogspot.com

Tune into her daily publishing blog and/or her Catscapades blog each day that week for updates.

http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog

http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades

 

Book Promotion Basics—Understanding the Concept of Book Promotion

Most of us, when we decide to write our first book, expect a bestseller or at least one that will attract thousands upon thousands of readers on merit alone. You might envision yourself being greeted by enormous crowds at book signings throughout the country and being interviewed by this nation’s top TV show hosts. You dream of launching the book and, within a few months, when sales are in the millions, stepping out of the limelight and going to work writing your next book.

A Reality Check

What you’ll soon discover is that, in order to sell even a few copies of your book, you’ll have to pay at least as much attention to promoting it as you did to writing it. If you want sales to continue beyond those initial ones to family, friends and folks who read the nice article about you in the local newspaper, you will have to keep up your promotional efforts. If you want to reach potential buyers in a wide range of arenas, you may have to market outside of your comfort zone. Any successful author will tell you that marketing takes creativity and an enterprising outlook. And this is true whether you land a traditional royalty publisher, you self-publish (establish your own publishing company) or you decide to go with one of the many hybrid pay-to-publish (vanity) services.

Develop a Marketing Mindset

The best way to approach the huge responsibility for promoting your book is to get a clear sense of what the process of book promotion entails and the multitude of options at your disposal. In other words, study the publishing industry including the process of book promotion. Know who your readers are, where they are and what is the best way to approach them. Learn about some of the many book promotion activities. Then go back and choose those activities that resonate with you—that make sense in light of your energy level, time allowances and constraints, skills, talents, strengths, interests, comfort level and the topic/genre of your book.

Let’s say you’ve just completed your first (or twenty-first) book. It doesn’t matter how many books have gone before this one, they’re each your master-work—a thrilling accomplishment.

Creating a book is not unlike creating life. The author conceives the idea, grows it inside of him/herself and, after many months of labor, gives birth. If you doubt your emotional connection to your book, think about how difficult it was to send your “child” off to the publisher or printer. If you’re like many authors, you experienced a strange sense of loss as you relinquished temporary control of your project. And you couldn’t wait to hold the finished book in your hands.

Before welcoming your completed book home—in fact, even before writing it—you need to think about its future. The point of producing a book for publication is presumably so that it will be read. At the very least, you hope to recoup your expenses. And you would not be human if you didn’t dream of it bringing you fame and fortune. This won’t happen, however, without your concentrated effort. It’s up to you to promote your book. And the time to plan your marketing strategy is even prior to writing your first chapter.

Before starting that book, answer these two questions.

• Why do I want to write this book? What is my primary reason for writing it?
• What is the point/purpose of the book?

If you’re writing a book because you want to become famous, earn a lot of money,

show off, prove something to someone else or yourself, you may be writing it for all of the wrong reasons. If, on the other hand, you love to write, you know you have something of entertainment or intellectual value to share with a segment of people, your book will fill a definite need and/or you want to use the book to position yourself as an expert in your field, your reasons might be valid.

When considering the purpose of your book, if you determine that you’re writing it in order to change minds, make an unpopular point or to tell the world your rather ordinary story, the validity of this book is questionable. If your purpose is to educate or inform a particular audience on a topic of interest to them or entertain readers through good writing, perhaps you’re on the right track. Make sure that your reason and purpose are genuine and not frivolous.

Can I Get My Book Into Bookstores?

Even when yours is a valid book with a true and significant target audience, you must understand that there’s more to selling books than having them placed on the shelves in mega-bookstores. In fact, it’s almost impossible for a self-published author (one who has established his/her own publishing company) or a pay-to-publish author to convince major booksellers to carry their books nationwide. Managers of chain bookstores will generally special order copies of your book for customers who request it, as long as you’ve taken the steps necessary to be included in the main bookseller databases. And some of these stores will carry books by local authors. In order to have your book stocked in bookstores nationwide, you’ll need one of two things—the support of a major traditional royalty publisher or an aggressive marketing plan that’s bringing hundreds of customers into those stores asking for your book.

If your book has been published and is being distributed by a recognized traditional publisher, the chain bookstores will most likely take it on. But if sales don’t meet their expectations, your book will be rotated out of stock and sent back to the publisher along with truckloads of other stagnating books.

No One Will Buy a Book They Don’t Know Exists

The point is that your book won’t sell itself. Its success depends on your ability and willingness to promote. Even before you put pen to paper, it’s important to think realistically about marketing. And having a New York publisher doesn’t change this fact.

It’s hard work to promote a book. If you’re still reeling from years of banging your head against the computer while writing this book and months of dealing with cover designers, editors, illustrators, printers, the bar code folks, the copyright office, etc, you ain’t seen nothing, yet. Published authors will tell you that producing the book is easy compared to marketing it. Publishing guides typically warn budding authors to prepare themselves for the work they’ll encounter after their book is published. And, yes, marketing is the responsibility of the author.

Even before starting your book, decide whether or not you’re cut out for the work ahead. As you know, writing is a relatively quiet activity—one that even an introvert can pursue successfully. But publishing and marketing are active businesses that take imagination, assertiveness, courage, persistence and lots of energy. Not everyone is suited to do both the writing and aggressive (or even assertive) marketing. Are you?

Further, with the advent of the Internet and the obvious race to create new technology at a faster and faster pace, it is important that you learn about the marketing tools available through social media and through your own website. The technological learning curve can be difficult for someone who is not all that familiar with the digital movement. But it is oh so important if you want to participate on a level playing field.

How Much Time Does it Take to Promote a Book?

Consider the following: time is a major factor in book promotion. The ideal would be to devote all of your waking hours to marketing your book. If you can’t give the book your undivided attention, at least commit to a promotional schedule. Vow to make three contacts related to book promotion per day or spend one or two days per week pursuing marketing efforts.

And this should not be considered a temporary schedule. Don’t assume that one book tour will launch your book or that one review is all you need to keep your book selling. It’s likely that when you stop promoting your book, sales will dwindle and then stop.

Do you have something worthwhile to market? This is an extremely difficult question to answer. Even experienced publishers wrestle with this question, as is evidenced by some of the books they turn down that later become bestsellers and some of the losers they take on.

Research Can Make the Difference Between Success and Failure

Why does a book fail to sell? Sometimes the timing is off—the subject has been

overworked or its time has not yet come. Maybe the author hasn’t hit upon the right slant for his book or the right market or marketing technique. That’s why it is imperative that you research the market for your book even before you start writing it. And a book proposal can help you do this.

As we’ve established, marketing a book takes time, commitment, energy and creativity. Following are additional ideas to help you launch your successful promotional program. If you select the right activities for you and your book and you proceed in an organized, methodical, diligent and persistent manner, you will most likely succeed in your promotional efforts.

 

Your Author’s Platform—Where Does it Come From?

You hear/read a lot about the importance of establishing and building on a platform. What exactly is a platform?

Your platform makes a case for your credibility as the author of your particular book. A platform involves your way of attracting readers. You can trace your bookselling success (or lack of) directly to your amazing platform (or lack of). If you have a valid and convincing platform, people will buy your book. If not, maybe not. For example, if you are thought of as an expert in your field, people will have more trust in you and will be more apt to purchase your book on the topic of your expertise. If you have proven yourself as the author of Western stories or science fiction, you’ve developed a following.

A platform is your reach—how far and wide you are known by your potential readers. For example, if you have a large readership for your blog, newsletter, articles and other books in a specific genre, you can be fairly certain that you will be able to sell a number of copies of your new book in this genre.

A platform includes your realm of influence. If you have a large following of people who use your products or services, who attend your lectures and who believe in the advice you offer, for example, you are most likely influencing many of them and they will trust you enough to purchase your book on this topic.

Sometimes a platform comes naturally—you sort of grow a platform without realizing it is happening. You develop it as a matter of your life course as a PE teacher and fitness advocate, a longtime author of genre fiction, a parent of an autistic child and a widely-known activist for mainstreaming kids with disabilities or a flower shop franchise owner and public speaker at floral trade shows, for example. But most of us with platforms must continually build on them in order to remain visible to upcoming generations and to keep up with technological and other advances in our industries/areas of interest.

Other times we must build our platforms from scratch. The retired bank president who sits down to write her first book focusing on child-related charities abroad, may be known in the banking industry, but will have to play catch-up when it comes to establishing a platform on the subject of her book. The grammar school teacher who decides to write a children’s book has a ways to go in order to create credibility as a children’s book writer if she has no background experience. The foundation of her platform is the fact that she is a teacher. But she will have to build from there.

There are many steps to building a platform. I write about how to do this a lot. I speak about it. I frequently outline various steps to help authors recognize the cornerstones of their natural platforms and to continue building on them. A platform is such an important aspect of authorship that there should be more platform support systems for authors.

Download our FREE ebooklet, How to Establish Your Author Platform. http://www.patriciafry.com

 

10 Ways to Establish Your Author Platform BEFORE your book is a Book

1: Build a Website related to the theme of your book and promote it widely.

2: Get involved in social media sites and actively pursue this opportunity.

3: Compile a huge mailing and emailing list to use in promoting your book.

4: Seek endorsements from high-profile people in your genre.

5: Submit articles or stories to the publications read by your audience—lots of them!

6: Establish an active and useful or entertaining blog and promote it.

7: Be a guest blogger at popular blog sites related to your book’s theme or genre.

8: Participate in organizations and groups related to your field or genre.

9: Talk about your book everywhere you go—hand out promo material.

10: Speak to your audience every chance you get at club meetings, appropriate conferences, etc.

 

Recommended Books

This month, I recommend reading Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author, by Patricia Fry. This book is endorsed by some of the most well-known professionals in the business, including Penny Sansevieri, Mark Levine and Dan Poynter. It is one of those books you’ll want to keep at your elbow throughout the publishing and marketing process. This well-organized collection of low- and no-cost ideas provides solutions for any author in any genre. Let me stress that this book is designed for authors of fiction as well as nonfiction.

My most recent book for authors is Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More. An important aspect of book promotion is the personal approach. You will sell more books through personality than practically any other way. And this book is designed to guide you in becoming a better spokesperson on behalf of your book.

Both books available in print, Kindle and audio at Amazon.com and in print here: http://www.matilijapress.com/PromoteYourBook.html  http://www.matilijapress.com/TalkUpYourBook.html

 

Special Report—Transition from Nonfiction to Fiction Writing

After forty years of writing nonfiction for publication, I’ve started dabbling in fiction. Unlike many young writers, years ago, I dreamed of writing nonfiction. I fantasized about having a byline in magazines and I did—many times over. I wanted to be a columnist and I accomplished that goal. Then I decided to write a book. I’ve now published over forty of them. All I wrote was nonfiction until one day in June of 2011, when I discovered my fiction muse (or is it a folly?). All I know is that I am in LOVE with writing fiction and I’m enjoying the challenges presented in the process.

What are the main differences between writing fiction and nonfiction? What skills must be honed when shifting from one to the other? Is a new mindset or aptitude necessary? Do the rules of one apply to the other? Here’s my take on these issues:

1: You still need to write with your audience in mind. In nonfiction, make sure your instructions are clear, your organization logical and that you are presenting something useful to your reader. As a writer of fiction, you must also write for your audience. Can they follow along with the story? Is it entertaining enough that they want to keep reading? If you can’t put yourself in the minds of your readers, you may not be successful at writing either fiction or nonfiction.

2: You must make sure you have an audience. Is this book actually something that is needed/wanted by a segment of readers? How large is this proposed audience? Pointed research may be necessary to determine how many people read novels set in Alaska involving pilots, period novels or who enjoy mysteries. If you’re writing nonfiction, you should find out how many people in America follow tennis, are allergic to makeup, are vegan or have horses, for example, before writing a book on this topic.

3: You must be consistent in both mediums. In nonfiction, avoid using conflicting facts, information and statistics. We’ve all seen it happen—in Chapter One, there are 25 million dog owners in the US and in Chapter Twelve, the author claims there are 50 million. In fiction, we sometimes change a character’s name, hometown, place of business, street name, etc. and then forget to make the change throughout the story.

4: In either medium, you must give your book credibility and personality. When done correctly, these can lead to smoother transitions. For nonfiction, working quotes into an article or chapter is sometimes tricky. It can be a challenge to get someone to say what you want them to say in order to corroborate a point you’re making. I’ve had difficulty at times writing a point using an expert quote. While quotes certainly aren’t the backbone of a nonfiction book, often, in fiction, dialog is. Dialog helps to move a story along. It gives the characters personality and it’s a vehicle through which they can express emotion.

5: Fiction must be as believable as nonfiction. In the latter, the author must strive to appear credible in his presentation of facts and figures. But don’t be fooled. In fiction, your story still has to have an element of truth. Not that you can’t fictionalize and use fantasy and science fiction—of course you can. But if you say the main character has a broken left leg, the next time you mention that leg, it had better be the left one. If you set the scene during summer in Las Vegas, don’t have someone shivering while walking down a street at noon and pulling their wool coat up around their neck. Fact-checking is also a necessity for novelists. If your story doesn’t make sense, your reader will lose interest and you will lose credibility in his/her eyes.

6: Both fiction and nonfiction must share an element of emotion. In fiction you use emotion to set a scene. In nonfiction you set a tone. How can one write emotion into nonfiction? Have you ever read a rant or a passionate opinion and felt the anger or tension in the nonfiction piece? Sure you have. In fiction, it is the dialog and descriptions that set up the scenes or the mood that express emotion. A character might be quickly pacing the floor with a scowl on his face. Perhaps he grimaces and pounds his fist on the tabletop or winks and smiles across the room at someone. There are many ways to convey a mood in a story or the tone of an essay, for example.

7: Many types of writing rely on some measure of storytelling skill. In fiction, we create stories in order to entertain readers. In nonfiction, we often use real-life examples and anecdotes to illustrate points.

As you can see, the elements of good writing are all there for both fiction and nonfiction-writing.

Some of them are just used in different ways.

This is not to say that it’s easy to shift from one type of writing to the other. Actually, most people have difficulty making the transition. The nonfiction author must overcome her tendency to write within strict boundaries—her narration and dialogue may seem stilted and forced. The novelist might have difficulty coming across as credible when writing an instructional book, for example, because his style is too literary.

So what is the key to changing up your writing preference from time to time? A willingness to learn, flexibility and practice, practice, practice.

 

Resource of the Month

I’d like to recommend Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing program. I’m using it to produce my novels, Catnapped, Cat-Eye Witness and Sleight of Paw and I’ve been most pleased with the service, the promotional efforts of Amazon, the ease with which I can check my sales and the amazing number of sales these books continue to generate. Check this opportunity out here: http://www.kdp.amazon.com

I wouldn’t necessarily suggest this to those of you who write nonfiction. But people do seem to be reading their novels on Kindles and other eReaders.

 

Patricia Fry Bio Roundup

Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup
I’ve been writing for publication for 40 years and I’m the author of over 40 published books—most of them on publishing and book promotion. I’m the Executive Director of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) http://www.spawn.org I compile the Market Update, a bi-monthly newsletter for SPAWN members and I maintain a daily publishing blog. The blog boasts over 2,000 posts to date http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog I also write a blog related to cats—through which I promote my Klepto Cat Mystery series and Catscapades, True Cat Tales. http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades

My articles have appeared in hundreds of publications, including Writers Digest, Publishing Basics, Book Marketing Matters, Writer’s Journal, Cat Fancy, Your Health, Horse of Course, Western Horse, The Artist’s Magazine, Woman’s World, The World and I and many others.

I work with authors on their projects from an editorial standpoint, I teach online courses for authors and I travel to speak several times each year at conferences and other author events.

While I’ve been writing nonfiction for all of my 40 years, I recently dipped my toe into the world of fiction and have launched the Klepto Cat Mystery series.

Patricia Fry announces another NEW addition to her Klepto Cat Mystery series.

First there was Catnapped, which is now in Kindle and print. http://amzn.to/14OCk0W

Then came Cat-Eye Witness, still available on Kindle http://amzn.to/1bJiq0x

Now we have created Sleight of Paw, a new Kindle book. http://amzn.to/1mGuAXQ (NEW)

If you like light mysteries and appreciate stories involving animals, you will enjoy this series. You can read any of these books as stand-alone books. But, if you’ve read Catnapped and/or Cat-Eye Witness, you sure don’t want to miss Sleight of Paw. Order your Kindle copy today: http://amzn.to/1mGuAXQ

If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download the Kindle app FREE to your computer, iPad, iPod or other device just go to: http://amzn.to/1mGuAXQ and download it from there.

 

Previews Coming Attractions—Plethora of Marketing ideas.

In the coming months, each newsletter will focus on a type of book promotion—public speaking/using your personality to promote books; social media; submitting articles or stories for publication; radio/TV; conferences; book reviews and so forth.

Mission Statement: The primary purpose of this enewsletter is to bring information, resources and encouragement to fellow authors both beginners and experienced. It’s an education for authors who want to become more successful in a highly competitive industry.

 

Publishing/Marketing News and Views

Bringing you the information and resources you need to succeed.

December 2013, Volume 1, Issue 3

 

Editor: Patricia Fry

plfry620@yahoo.com

 

A Holiday Gift for Authors

This is the third issue of Publishing/Marketing News and Views. In August, we covered how to build promotion into your book while you’re writing it. The October issue featured the psychology of a book proposal. (Visit our archives here: <a http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog/?page_id=3081The feature article for this holiday issue focuses on getting your book published—what are your publishing options and how can you be sure that you’re making the best choices?

 

Hopefully, you built promotion into your book while you were writing it, you’ve written the right book for the right audience, you’ve done a serious market analysis and you know there is a market for this book, you are aware that you’re responsible for promoting your book and you have had your manuscript professionally edited. Now let’s pursue publishers. Where does one start?

 

Too many authors rush through this phase of the process. By now, they have put a lot of time and effort into their projects and they’re ready to move on to something else. All the author wants is to find someone who will take over from here. Stop! This is the wrong approach.

 

You may think that writing a book is hard work. It takes a lot of concentration, time and effort. But I have to tell you, writing is the easiest part of the publishing process. Gaining an understanding of the highly competitive publishing industry and learning how to successfully navigate it is much more difficult for most authors. We won’t even discuss the enormity of book promotion—that’s for another issue of this newsletter. Read “Get Your Book Published” below and you will have the tools and the knowledge to make better decisions on behalf of your book.

 

For those of you who have one or more books to promote, the book promotion activity featured this month is book festivals. There’s a huge one coming up in Southern California. Find out how you can participate and how you can make all future (large and small) book festivals more successful bookselling experiences.

 

Included in this issue:

• “Get Your Book Published” (Excerpted from Publish Your Book)
• Special Report—“Publishing Mistakes to Avoid”
• Recommended Reading—Publish Your Book
• Book Promotion Activity of the Month—Take Your Book to a Show
• Bonus Article—“How to Work a Book Festival So it Works for You”
• Resources of the Month—Book Festival Directories
• Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup

(If you do not wish to receive information from Patricia Fry and Matilija Press, please use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the page.)

 

Get Your Book Published

(The following is excerpted from my book, Publish Your Book.)

 

A point I’d like to make right away is that publishing is not an exact science. The publishing option that is right for one author may be wrong for the next. A particular publisher that is right for one project, may not be right for yours. And you’ll find that you can’t become successful in this industry when you make uneducated decisions—when you go with the first company whose representatives compliment your book, for example. Consider yourself the CEO of your book project. While writing is a craft, publishing is a business—a highly competitive business. Take charge. Educate yourself so you are more apt to make the best choices for your book. The following will help in your quest for knowledge. I’ve also included some of the pros and cons (advantages and disadvantages) of each publishing option.

Choose a Publisher Before Your Book is a Book

Locating and landing a publisher can take time. Most hopeful authors, after devoting several months or years to writing the perfect manuscript, don’t want to spend another several months in search of a publisher. It is at the point where the author has finished the writing, that way too many of them make a major mistake. They go with the first publisher who expresses an interest in their project without considering the consequences or the cost. If you have a few appropriate publishers in mind before writing your book, you could save time, money and heartache.

 

Your first choice of publishers might have some specific requirements that you need to know about before writing the book. I know one successful author who forged ahead with her book without considering her publishing choices. It took her only five or six months to find a publisher, but he wouldn’t publish her book without a major rewrite designed to more appropriately focus the content of the book. This extra work might have been avoided had she put more effort and thought into a publisher before writing the book.

 

Choose a publisher before you write the book and you may get an advance. Yes, a publisher might pay you a fee to write the book. This amount would then be deducted from future royalty earnings. Generally, a publisher will pay half of the advance when you sign the contract and the remainder upon satisfactory completion of the manuscript. While publishing advances are sometimes in the thousands of dollar range, it is rare for a first-time author or the author of a book with a narrow niche audience to receive more than $500 or $1,000.

 

Keep in mind that publishers generally won’t issue a contract based on a query letter by an unknown, unproven author. However, an excellent book proposal for a viable book including chapter summaries, sample chapters and a marketing plan just might generate that contract.

 

Here are some key things that you need to know before you start writing:

 

• What are your publishing options for this particular book? Are there publishers who produce books like yours and if not, are you willing to self-publish (establish your own publishing company) or go with a pay-to-publish company?

 

• What is the general word count for a book like the one you want to write? Some publishers have word count requirements. One publisher might want no more than 40,000 words while another won’t publish anything less than 70,000 words. There are strict word-count guidelines for children’s books based on the age group. And few, if any, publishers will invest in an oversized novel by an unknown author.

 

• What does the publisher need or expect from you? Does the publisher of your choice want to see the completed manuscript, a synopsis and two sample chapters or just a query letter?

 

Manage the Maze of Potential Publishers

I receive the same question from hopeful authors many times each year. “How do I find a publisher?” Another even more important question might be, “What is a publisher?”

 

A traditional royalty publisher assumes the expenses involved in publishing a book and gives the author a percentage of each book sold. Depending on the policies of the publishing house, royalties are figured on either the retail or the wholesale price and generally range between five and eighteen percent. The more you understand about the publishing industry, in particular what drives a publishing company, the more well-prepared you will be to land a publishing contract. For example, a traditional publisher is more interested in his bottom line than your wonderful story or nonfiction book. It is up to you to demonstrate to the publisher your understanding of book marketing and provide evidence that you can and will launch a seriously aggressive marketing campaign for your book.

 

Subsidy or vanity and co-publishers produce your book for a fee. This publishing model has changed in recent years. Under the original premise, the vanity or subsidy publisher was hired to produce books for authors who didn’t want to establish their own publishing companies. With the advent of the digital age, a new model of subsidy publishing began to take shape. And today, there’s a blurred distinction between the old vanity press and the modern-day all-inclusive pay-to-publish services.

 

Pay-to-publish services (formerly known as fee-based POD publishers or self-publishing companies) charge anywhere from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars to produce your book and then they print the number of copies that you need as you request them and charge accordingly. They also offer various promotional packages and advantages for additional fees. These companies are extremely popular right now, but they are also the brunt of numerous complaints. I maintain that this is due mostly to the authors’ lack of industry savvy and unreasonable expectations. (Read more about pay-to-publish services in Chapter Three of Publish Your Book.)

 

Self-publishing (also called independent publishing) means that you establish a company through which to produce your book and you arrange for and pay for all of the necessary components—copyright, ISBN (International Standard Book Number), barcode, cover design and so forth. You audition printing companies and hire one for your project. You also promote, distribute and ship your books. (Read more about self-publishing in Chapter Eleven of Publish Your Book, including a time-line of tasks involved.)

 

How to Find the Right Royalty Publisher for Your Project

Traditional royalty publishers are everywhere—not just in high-rise buildings in New York City. They reside and work in practically every state in the U.S. And there are literally hundreds and hundreds of them; large, medium and small. So how do you find out about them?

 

Start in your home library. You probably have books on the topic or in the genre that you will be writing. Look at those books. Who published them? Would your book idea fit into their list?

 

Visit local bookstores and locate recently published books similar to the one you have in mind. The publisher’s name and contact information is usually on the copyright page and/or the back cover of the book.

 

New authors typically say, “But there is nothing out there like my book.” Then consider this: Maybe it is not such a good idea. If you can’t find any books like yours, perhaps there’s no market for it. This reality check ought to help you develop a more open mind when seeking your book’s rightful place in the scheme of things. Now, go determine where your book is likely to be placed in bookstores. What section would it fit into? Who published some of the books in that section?

 

I met a man at a writer’s conference in Northern California a few years ago who told me there was nothing on the market like the book he was writing. It was a book of recipes and stories handed down by his German ancestors. Out of curiosity, I did my own search and immediately located a book featuring recipes and stories handed down by the author’s German family. This book would be stocked with other cookbooks—perhaps more specifically, family cookbooks, memoirs, etc. A publisher who has produced books on Italian, Polish, Mexican family recipe albums, for example, would surely be interested in one related to German family cooking.

 

Use reference directories to locate appropriate publishers. Here are a few:

Writer’s Market http://www.writersmarket.com (Writer’s Market comes out each fall in print. Cost around $30. Or sign up for their online database.)

http://www.publishersglobal.com/directory

http://www.publishersglobal.com/directory/media/book-publishers

 

Your ABC List of Publishers

It’s unlikely that your first choice of traditional publishers will accept your book, especially if you are a first-time author. However, it is possible, particularly if you use the correct criteria in making your choice.

 

Note: The more thoroughly you research publishers, the more realistic you are in choosing one, and the more stringently you adhere to their guidelines and requirements, the more likely you are to receive a positive response from a traditional publisher.

 

BUILD YOUR “A” LIST OF PUBLISHERS

Who is the ideal publisher for your project? Most authors start at the top of the publishing chain. And that’s okay. Keep in mind, however, that few of the major publishing companies will entertain a proposal without representation by an agent. (Read how to find and select an agent in Chapter Eight of Publish Your Book.)

 

Advantages of Landing a Big Name Publisher

• You pay no publishing costs.
• You are validated as an author.
• There’s prestige associated with this partnership.
• Your book will most likely be available in bookstores.
• Your book has a greater chance of becoming a bestseller.

 

Disadvantages of Landing a Big Name Publisher

• You will wait for a year or more to see your book in print.
• Your book may have a very short lifespan. Typically, major publishing houses give a book a year or less to prove itself. If it isn’t paying its way, they will not reprint it.
• Communication is often difficult. The company is so large that your itty bitty problem or miniscule request can become quite insignificant.
• You have to rely on someone else to get your books to signing events on time and to send out review copies within deadline. Even the largest publishers are sometimes lax when it comes to amply supporting an author’s promotional efforts.
• You are expected to help promote your book.
• You earn only a small percentage on sales.

 

CREATE YOUR “B” LIST OF PUBLISHERS

Your B list might include some of the many appropriate medium and small traditional royalty publishing houses. Time spent researching these publishers is definitely time well spent.

 

Advantages of Working With a Small to Medium-size Publisher

• You pay no publishing costs.
• You are validated as an author.
• Your book will most likely have a longer shelf life than if you go with a large publisher.
• The publisher will participate to varying degrees in promoting the book.
• The publisher may have access to important promotional avenues such as bookstore sales.
• Smaller publishers seem more loyal to their authors.

 

Disadvantages of Working with a Small to Medium-size Publisher

• The publisher is less well known—there may be minimal name recognition.
• You could wait for a year or more before seeing your book in print.
• Author/publisher communication is sometimes a problem.
• You must rely on the publisher to ship your books to a bookstore for a signing or to get copies to you in time for a book festival.
• There’s a greater chance that a new publishing company will go out of business.
• You are expected to promote your own book.
• You earn only a small percentage on sales.

 

DEVELOP YOUR “C” LIST OF PUBLISHING OPTIONS

 

Pay-to-Publish Company

You could pay a company to produce your book. While there used to be few subsidy publishers and few people used them, there are now at least 100 of them, and thousands of people publish through them each year. But with advanced technology and an increase in new authors, the paradigm has changed considerably. And the contracts come in a wide variety of patterns. In most cases, you own the copyright and, depending on the company, you may get some assistance with promotion. Different companies offer different packages. I know of one co-publisher who becomes a royalty publisher after the author has sold 1,000 copies of his book.

 

The general description of a pay-to-publish company is a subsidy publisher that uses digital technology to produce books when you need them. This is a popular means of book publication these days. Some pay-to-publish companies try to confuse you by advertising that they are royalty publishers or that they will help you to self-publish your book. I urge authors to exercise caution when considering a subsidy publisher. I can’t stress enough the importance of heads up research before signing any publishing contract. Read Chapter Three in Publish Your Book for a more detailed explanation and evaluation of this modern day publishing model.

 

Advantages of the Pay-to-Publish Company

• You are guaranteed that your book will be published.
• You’ll have a book in weeks rather than months or years.
• Your book stays alive for as long as you promote it.
• If you sell enough copies, you may be able to interest a traditional royalty publisher in your book.
• You don’t have to store boxes and boxes of books.

 

Disadvantages of Pay-to Publish Companies

• It is often costly.
• Yours may be one of the countless books that are riddled with errors.
• Your book won’t be welcome in bookstores unless you can bring in enough customers to warrant them carrying it. And this is enormously more difficult than you might think.
• You may be asked to sign away the rights to your book for a period of time. (One such publisher holds your copyright for seven years.)
• You are expected to do the majority of the book promotion with very little help. What help you do request from the company will cost you. (One company charged their authors thousands of dollars to sit in a booth at a major book festival for an hour and give their books away.)
• Some reviewers and booksellers still reject pay-to-publish books.
• Books are often priced above market value making them difficult for you to sell.

 

Before choosing a pay-to-publish (self-publishing) company, read Mark Levine’s book, The Fine Print of Self-Publishing. He rates and ranks dozens of these companies for you. (Highly recommended.)

 

Self-Publishing

You establish a company through which to produce your book. You obtain your ISBN (International Standard Book Number), barcode, etc. You arrange for the page layout and cover design work. You hire a printer. You accept total responsibility for writing, producing and marketing your book. (Learn how to publish your own book in Chapter Ten of Publish Your Book.)

 

Advantages of Self-Publishing

• You’ll definitely see your book in print
• You could have a product in weeks instead of months or years.
• You are in charge of every aspect of production and sales.
• You can keep the book alive for as long as you promote it.
• You have a book to show around to publishers. If it does well, you may land a royalty publishing contract.
• You keep all of the profits.
• You have legitimate tax breaks.

 

Disadvantages of Self-Publishing

• Self-publishing can be costly.
• You are in charge of every aspect of production and sales; promoting a book is extremely hard work.
• You are also the distributions manager, shipping clerk, PR person and bookkeeper.
• Some bookstore managers and book reviewers may shun your book.
• Unless you use POD (print-on-demand—digital) printing technology, you may have to store boxes and boxes of books.

 

Ebook

An ebook is a digital book posted online for consumers to purchase and print out, download onto a handheld electronic device or read online. It appears as though ebooks are here to stay. Novelists are selling hundreds of books for Amazon’s Kindle reader. More and more books are being formatted for print, ebooks and audio.

 

Advantages to Publishing an Ebook

• There is no or very little cost. Generally $0-99.
• You do not have to store or ship books.
• You can make changes to an ebook at any time.
• You keep all of the profits, except for any royalties you pay to web hosts of sites where the ebook is sold.
• There are more support companies than ever before for authors of ebooks who want to convert them to Kindle, Nook, MS Reader, iPad, etc. or who want to distribute them through wider channels.

 

Disadvantages to Publishing an Ebook

• They may not be well received within the genre or topic of your book.
• You may not be taken seriously as an author when you produce only ebooks. (Self-publishing of print and ebooks is discussed in Chapter Ten of Publish Your Book.)

 

If you are interested in the rest of the publishing story—locating and approaching agents, how to write a book proposal, distribution issues, a timeline for self-publishing, marketing and a whole lot more, order your copy of Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author today. http://www.matilijapress.com/PublishYourBook.html or at http://amzn.to/1a7KUOt

 

7 Publishing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

It happened again at a writers’ conference a few weeks ago. I met two disgruntled, disillusioned, almost bankrupt authors who admitted to making most of the mistakes listed below. They both have wonderful books in hand, but little understanding of the publishing industry and even less marketing savvy. They learned too late that the time to ask questions and study options is BEFORE you begin to make publishing decisions.

 

First-time authors are eager to see their books in print. I know this. I’ve been there and I’ve made mistakes. As authors, we work long and hard on our projects. The last thing we want to deal with after finishing a manuscript is the learning curve. Rather than spend weeks, months or years searching for a publishing opportunity, we’d rather sign with the first “publisher” who extends a friendly hand.

 

I’m on a mission, folks—a mission to help hopeful authors become more well-educated and informed about this industry so they will make more appropriate choices on behalf of their publishing projects.

 

Following are 7 mistakes that many new authors make—mistakes that can cost you large sums of money and dramatically diminish your opportunity for publishing success.

 

1: Inexperienced authors write a book as the first step. Why is this considered a mistake? If you aspire to have your book published and widely distributed, this may be the wrong approach. Whether you’re writing a how-to book, biography, self-help, romance novel, children’s story, mystery, memoir or dictionary, write a book proposal first.

 

In the process of writing a book proposal, you will:

• Learn if you have a viable book at all.
• Discover whether there is a market for this book.
• Determine your target audience.
• Ascertain the best way to promote your book.
• Be prepared to establish your platform.

 

Write a book proposal as a first step and you’re more apt to write the right book for the right audience. How better to snag a traditional royalty publisher than with a promising project?

 

2: Eager new authors often go with the first publishing opportunity they stumble across. You don’t make other business decisions this quickly. You research the possibilities and study your options. Many authors forget that publishing is a business. We get so attached to our projects and so eager to see our books in print that we act emotionally rather than logically.

 

Learn the difference between a traditional royalty publisher and a fee-based print-on-demand publishing service. You’ll find hundreds of traditional royalty publishers listed in Writer’s Market (available in the reference section of your library or for sale for about $30 in most bookstores. A new edition comes out each September).

 

Visit bookstores in search of books like yours. Find out who published these books and contact those publishers.

 

As an author, you have many options. Research them, understand them and scrutinize them in order to choose the one that is right for your project.

 

3: New authors believe that they don’t have a chance with a traditional royalty publisher. This is simply not true. If you have a viable project, you arm yourself with knowledge and you approach the publisher in a professional manner, you have a definite chance of landing a traditional royalty publisher. There are more publishers than you might think eager for a good book with a fresh voice.

 

Find publishers who produce books like yours. Study their Submission Guidelines. Follow these guidelines in approaching them with your project. If they request a query letter first, do NOT send your complete manuscript. If you don’t understand what goes into a query letter, study books and articles about writing a query letter.

 

There are hundreds of small to medium-sized publishers eager for good, marketable books.

 

4: Many authors don’t understand publishing terms. Authors will say to me, “I’m self-publishing with ABC Publishing Company.” What they are actually doing is going with a pay-to-publish company. What are your primary publishing options? They are listed in the article above.

 

5: Newby authors don’t generally solicit advice from professionals until it is too late. Do NOT sign a contract with any publisher or purveyor of publishing services without hiring a literary or intellectual properties attorney. This should go without saying, yet thousands of authors each year bypass this important step.

 

I also recommend that inexperienced authors talk to other authors who have used the services they are considering. Contact organizations such as SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) www.spawn.org. Ask questions.

 

6: Uninformed authors blindly sign up for unnecessary services. Beware of over-priced add-ons that come with unrealistic promises. Stay grounded. Study books, newsletters and articles by professionals and do your own research before signing up for any services your pay-to-publish company might offer.

 

7: Authors neglect to hire an editor. Many authors, by the time they complete their manuscripts and do some self-editing, are more than ready to get it published. Some of them don’t feel they have the money to spend on a professional editor. Some expect to get a good enough editing job through their pay-to-publish company. Still others believe that they don’t need to hire an editor because traditional publishers have editors on staff.

 

One of the biggest mistakes a hopeful author can make is neglecting to hire a professional editor before approaching publishers of any type. News flash: publishers want to see professionally edited manuscripts. The fee required by many pay-to-publish companies for editing services, is often wasted money. Hire our own professional book editor.

 

If you want to enter into the world of publishing, learn something about the business. Study your options and the ramifications of your choices. Define your responsibilities as a published author. You may still make a few mistakes along the way—we all do, but knowledge will definitely save you money and heartache.

 

Recommended Reading

Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author (Allworth Press) $19.95 at http://www.matilijapress.com/PublishYourBook.html. Also available in print, Kindle and audio at Amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores. $19.95. This is a definitive guide to publishing with insider tips, marketing strategies, timelines and more. Some consider it a comprehensive tour of the world of publishing designed to help authors successfully navigate the industry. Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, Publish Your Book will help you succeed.

 

Book Promotion Activity of the Month—Take Your Book to a Show

You’ve probably attended book festivals, where you see authors and publishers sitting in decorated booths talking to passersby about their books. Perhaps you’ve participated in one or two of them in your community. You should know that there are book festivals of all sizes held in hundreds of cities throughout the US and beyond every year. If you’ve had what you consider a bad experience at a book festival, please don’t call it quits. Learn from the experience. And learn from this article.

 

I’ve attended dozens and dozens of book festivals in many cities—St. Louis, Los Angeles, Dallas, Santa Barbara, Tucson and so forth. Some of them were tiny, little affairs and others were huge events. I sold numbers of books at some of them and only a few at others. But one thing I and so many of my colleagues gain at every single book fair is exposure—valuable exposure. No one will buy your book if they aren’t aware it exists. Each and every contact you make in person or online or through printed material, represents one or dozens of potential sales for your current book as well as others you may produce.

 

Authors sell more books through personality. Readers like to meet authors of the books they read. They are apt to buy and read a book by an author they have met.

 

And there are other gifts that arise from the book festival experience—invitations to speak to your public, opportunities to be interviewed on Internet or live radio, introductions to key people who can get your book before your audience and so forth. If you offer a service, you have a perfect opportunity to solicit clients. I know one author who met a filmmaker at a book festival who filmed a documentary featuring him and his book. It still airs on the military channel.

 

Now that I’ve convinced you that book festivals are a good idea, here is my article on how to have a more successful experience at a book festival. Read it here: http://www.matilijapress.com/articles/promo_bookFestival.htm

 

How do you find book festivals to attend? The best way is to do an Internet search using keywords, “book festival” or “book fair” and “your city/state.” Here are a few Directories Book Festivals

http://dir.yahoo.com/arts/humanities/literature/events/festivals/?skw=book+festival+directory

http://childrenslitnetwork.com/book-festivals-directory

 

If you live in or will be traveling to Southern California, consider taking your book to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books (LATFB) April 12/13, 2014. This is one of the largest and most prestigious book festivals around. Most of you are aware that I am the executive director or SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network). SPAWN has participated in the LATFB since the beginning some 18 years ago. Because the booth fee is so high, SPAWN secures booths and invites members to sell their books. Here is the promo that went out in the December issue of SPAWNews (http://www.spawn.org)

 

Join SPAWN at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Date: April 12-13, 2014

Place: University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California

 

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books (LATFB) is billed as the nation’s largest public literary festival, attracting around 140,000 people last year.

 

It wasn’t always this big, and some of us here at SPAWN remember its beginnings. The LATFB launched in 1996, the same year that SPAWN did. SPAWN has had a presence at this now-gigantic event almost every year since.

 

The LATFB will be held at the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles again this year on April 12 and 13, 2014. SPAWN has secured two booths to accommodate our members. The fee for selling your books from our booth is $203 per day. (Three titles per member, only.)

 

We are also offering to those who cannot attend the LATFB the opportunity to display a copy of their book(s) in the SPAWN booth for $20 each title. For an additional $37, members can list their books in the SPAWN Catalog of Member’s Books and Services, which will serve as the brochure for all participants. Everyone visiting the SPAWN booth will walk away with one of our beautiful full-color print catalogs. The absolute deadline for having your book included in the SPAWN Catalog of Member’s Books and Services is February 7, 2014.  (Yes, it’s a short deadline this year. So don’t procrastinate.)

 

Visit http://www.spawn.org/latfb.htm to read about all of your options and to sign up.

 

Visit http://www.spawn.org/catalogofbooks.htm to view the online version of the SPAWN Catalog of Member’s Books and Services.

 

The LATFB opportunity is open to members only. If your SPAWN membership has expired or you haven’t joined yet, this is a good time to take care of business. If you want a major bookselling opportunity and incredible exposure for your book, sign up to join us in the SPAWN booth—first come, first served. Learn more about the LATFB here: http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks.

 

Join SPAWN here: http://www.spawn.org

Questions? Patricia@spawn.org

 

Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup

I’ve been writing for publication for 40 years and I’m the author of 40 published books—most of them on publishing and book promotion. I’m the Executive Director of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) http://www.spawn.org I compile the Market Update, a monthly newsletter for SPAWN members and I maintain a daily publishing blog. The blog boasts over 1,950 posts to date http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog  I also write a blog related to cats. http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades

 

My articles have appeared in over 300 publications, including Writers Digest, Publishing Basics, Book Marketing Matters, Writer’s Journal, Cat Fancy, Your Health, Horse of Course, Western Horse, The Artist’s Magazine, Woman’s World, The World and I and many others.

 

I work with authors on their projects from an editorial standpoint, I teach online courses for authors and I travel to speak to authors several times each year at conferences and other author events. My topics relate to publishing and book promotion.

 

While I’ve been writing nonfiction for all of my 40 years, I recently dipped my toe into the world of fiction and have launched the Klepto Cat Mystery series. Catnapped is the first in the series and it has been closely followed by Cat-Eye Witness. These cozy mysteries are on Kindle only. The third in this series, Sleight of Paw is scheduled to debut this winter.

 

To order Catnapped for your Kindle http://amzn.to/14OCk0W

To order Cat-Eye Witness for your Kindle http://amzn.to/1bJiq0x

 

Mission Statement: The primary purpose of this enewsletter is to bring information, resources and encouragement to fellow authors both beginners and experienced. It’s an education for authors who want to become more successful in the highly competitive publishing industry.

 

 

 

 

 

Bringing you the information and resources you need to succeed.
August 2013, Volume 1, Issue 1

Editor: Patricia Fry

Why This Newsletter?
This newsletter has been a long time coming. With over forty years embedded in the world of writing, publishing and book promotion and a good twenty years working with and writing for other authors, I’ve finally accepted the requests of many to launch a newsletter.

What are my qualifications? I’ve listed them below. My first priority is to bring you the information and resources you need/want in order to become a more successful author. I realize that you are all at different stages and levels of writing, publishing and marketing one or more books. Some of you are only interested in reading what others write. My goal is to address your concerns, interests and questions related to publishing and books and to present you with a few surprises along the way.

Included in this issue:

• A Successful Book Starts Before You Step Up to the Keyboard (10 Tips)
• Book Promotion Activity of the Month—Book Reviews (100s of Reviewers)
• Recommended Reading—Fiction (Catnapped, a Klepto Cat Mystery)
• Book Review Opportunities for Readers—Speak Up
• Reader Review Sites (Start Here)
• Resources of the Month—Recommended Books for Authors
• Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup

(If you do not wish to receive information from Patricia Fry and Matilija Press, please use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the page.)

A Successful Book Starts Before You Step Up to the Keyboard (10 Tips)

 

1. Study the publishing industry before ever attempting to write a book for publication. Writing is a craft—it’s the easy, peasy, fun part. In contrast, publishing is a seriously competitive business. It’s crucial to the success of your book that you know something about this industry before getting involved. Read my book, Publish Your Book. You will be surprised at how much you need to know in order to successfully navigate the fiercely competitive publishing arena.
2. Read books like yours—on the same topic or in the same genre. Lots of them. Learn what is and what isn’t acceptable. Discern what is missing in other books on your topic. Discover what readers of a specific genre expect in the books they buy. Make sure you are writing a book that is wanted/needed.
3. Start saving money now for a good book editor, a professional book cover design and possibly for the services of a pay-to-publish (self-publishing) company or printer, a webmaster, promotional material and so forth. Forget the idea of quitting your job and supporting yourself as a published author. It’s a rare author who actually makes money. Disheartening, I know. But it’s true. The current failure figure is at nearly 78%. What do authors of failed books have in common? They entered into the world of publishing clueless, uneducated, uninformed and ill-prepared. How much will it cost you to publish your book? If you plan to land a publishing contract with a traditional publisher, your investment may be only around $800 to $3,000 for editing. Yes, it is necessary to deliver a finely tuned manuscript to the publisher. If you establish your own publishing company or go with a pay-to-publish outfit, you’ll need to ante up something in the neighborhood of $800 to thousands. It depends on the magnitude of your book project, your writing/self-editing ability, your choice of cover designers, publishing format, publishing company and marketing activities.
   Are you beginning to understand why it’s so important that you educate yourself about the publishing industry, your many, many options and choices and your responsibility as a published author?
4. Write the right book for the right audience—in other words, know who needs/wants this book and make sure you include the information, organizational style, resources, storyline, etc. your readers require or expect.
5. Keep your reader in mind throughout the writing process. Write clear, concise instructions or dialog, for example. Do not leave your reader behind in a fog of complex rhetoric, disorganized/disjointed material, unnecessary descriptions or ambiguous plots.
6. Build promotion into your book. For nonfiction, include a lot of people, interview and quote experts, request testimonials from professionals and reference major organizations, for example. For fiction, use nonfiction hooks—give a character a pilot’s license, a horse or twins and then promote to pilots, riders and parents of multiples as well as your primary readers of mysteries, adventure novels or historical novels, for instance.
7. Hire a good book editor. Every author needs an editor. Sure, run your manuscript by Aunt Grace, who’s good with words; your retired high school English teacher and a few friends who love reading books in your genre or on your subject. But also hire a good book editor to give your manuscript the polish it will need in order to pass muster with professionals, reviewers and publishers, as well as your readers.
8. Start planning your marketing strategy. You should understand early on what it takes to promote a book. This is a good time to take inventory of your skills and review your platform (your following, your way of attracting readers, your connections…). Read my book, Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. Not only will this book give you a meaningful overview of book promotion, it provides hundreds of ideas along with anecdotes to help you devise your own successful marketing plan. http://www.matilijapress.com/PromoteYourBook.html
9. Use the guide in Publish Your Book (by Patricia Fry) to help you determine which publishing option is best for you and to choose the right publishing company or service. http://www.matilijapress.com/PublishYourBook.html
10. Start Implementing some of your book promotion ideas—such as amassing a massive email list, sending pre-publication order forms to your email list, setting up presentations, signing up for book festivals where you can exhibit your book and talk to readers, build a website, start blogging and more.

Book Promotion Activity of the Month—Book Reviews
(Access to 100s of Reviewers)
Do you have a book to promote or will you have one sometime this year? Here are some directories of book reviewers that I suggest you place in a hot file for easy reference once your book is a book.

Why seek out book reviews? For fiction—because avid readers of novels in your genre rely on reviewers to introduce them to new books they might enjoy. For nonfiction—readers seeking books on a particular theme are often swayed by the reviews they find at Amazon or published in the magazines they read related to this topic.

There are reader reviews, expert/peer/professional reviews and reviews by those who have taken it upon themselves to read tons of books in their favorite category and report their impressions.

Many reviewers specialize in certain genres/topics. Some review only print books. Some prefer ebooks. Some review only pre-publication copies. Many reviewers have their own websites where they post reviews for their frequent visitors. Others post just at Amazon or just in their print or digital magazines/newsletters.

Your goal should be to collect many reviews from many professionals, reviewers, dedicated readers and others. Use them to promote your book. Post them at your website and on your promotional material. In order to get the reviews, often it requires that you give free copies of your book. Keep in mind, though, that a credible reviewer will not give a positive review just because the book was a gift.

5 Great Book Review Directories
http://karinafabian.com/index.php?name=Content&pid=28

http://www.ebookcrossroads.com/book-reviewers.html
http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net/reviewer-list.html
http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers

Recommended Reading—Fiction
Of course I will mention my novel here. You might consider it “tooting my own horn,” “singing my own praises” or “blatant promotion,” but, honey, that’s what it takes to have your book noticed.

Catnapped, the first in the Klepto Cat Mystery Series. (Cozy Mystery)
Storyline: When Savannah Jordan agrees to help her Aunt Margaret while she recovers from a broken foot, she doesn’t expect to walk into a mystery, become part of a not-quite-legal surveillance team, be kidnapped by a deranged stranger and meet a steaming hot veterinarian.

Beloved neighborhood cats are missing—the community can only guess at their fate—and Aunt Margaret’s life is being threatened. Is it because she has a clue to the missing cats or is it something more sinister? Of course, as in all of the Klepto Cat Mysteries, Rags, an ordinary cat with a most unusual habit, has a paw in saving the day.

If you like light mysteries with only a little terror, if you’re infatuated by interesting cats and if you love a love story, you must read this book. It’s at Amazon in Kindle only. http://amzn.to/14OCk0W

This ebook was first launched for Kindle on June 8. On August 8, we replaced the original version with a revised, corrected, proofed copy. Enjoy!

Book Review Opportunities for Readers (Speak Up)
If you’re an avid reader of mysteries, young adult fantasies, true crime, romance or ??? you might enjoy writing reviews for some of the books you read. It would be a big help to authors who are working hard to bring you good books.

If you’re like most readers, you have an opinion about the stories you read. Why not share it with other readers at Amazon.com and other sites where books are exhibited?

Start by studying reviews at Amazon.com and some of the sites listed in the directories above. Consider signing on to review books for appropriate sites. What are the benefits? Free books.

Reader Review Sites (Start Here)
Dear Author is a romance book review site. This site is set up for readers to review books for readers. If you just love a good romance, you might want to check out this reading and reviewing opportunity. http://dearauthor.com

Story Cartel is another reader review site. As an author, you can offer your book for review. As a reader, you can offer to review certain books you want to read. This site is not even a year old, but they’ve managed to get over 6,000 reviews for authors’ books so far. And we all know that reviews can help sell books. Here’s how Story Cartel works. The author offers his/her book as a free download for a period of time at this site and readers who choose to read your book promise to review it at Amazon. Check it out to see if this is a good promotional ploy for you and your work or if you would like to review books here. http://www.storycartel.com

Resource of the Month—Recommended Books for Authors
Here’s a list of books that every author should read sooner rather than later:

• Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author
• Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author
• Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signing, Festivals, conferences and More

By Patricia Fry.
Available at amazon.com in print, Kindle and audio.
You’ll also find these books at most other online and downtown bookstores.

Patricia Fry’s Bio Roundup
I’ve been writing for publication for 40 years and I’m the author of 39 published books—most of them on publishing and book promotion. I’m the Executive Director of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) http://www.spawn.org I compile the Market Update, a monthly newsletter for SPAWN members and I maintain a daily publishing blog. The blog boasts over 1,850 posts to date http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog I also write a blog related to cats—through which I promote my Klepto Cat Mystery series and Catscapades, True Cat Tales. http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades

My articles have appeared in over 300 publications, including Writers Digest, Publishing Basics, Book Marketing Matters, Writer’s Journal, Cat Fancy, Your Health, Horse of Course, Western Horse, The Artist’s Magazine, Woman’s World, The World and I and many others.

I work with authors on their projects from an editorial standpoint, I teach online courses for authors and I travel to speak several times each year at conferences and other author events.

While I’ve been writing nonfiction for all of my 40 years, I recently dipped my toe into the world of fiction and have launched the Klepto Cat Mystery series. Catnapped is the first in the series and it will be closely followed by Cat-Eye Witness. These cozy mysteries are on Kindle only at this point. Watch for future announcements. Order Catnapped today: http://amzn.to/14OCk0W

Mission Statement: The primary purpose of this enewsletter is to bring information, resources and encouragement to fellow authors both beginners and experienced. It’s an education for authors who want to become more successful in a highly competitive industry.