Archive for October, 2007

Writing/Publishing Courses-on-Demand

Sunday, October 28th, 2007

Did you know that I offer one-on-one coaching through my online Courses-on-Demand. What does this mean? You sign up at your convenience for the 6 or 8-week course that meets your current needs or interest and I will send you a weekly lecture and an assignment.

You then have the opportunity to send your completed assignment to me for evaluation and comment.

Here are the courses-on -demand that I offer:

Self-Publishing Workshop (8 weeks) — $160
Learn more at: http://www.matilijapress.com/course_self-pub.htm

How to Write and Sell Magazine Articles (6 weeks) — $125
Learn more at: http://www.matilijapress.com/course_magarticles.htm

Write a Successful Book Proposal (6 weeks) — $125
Learn more at: http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookproposal.htm

Note: See testimonials at the bottom of each course page.

And let me know if you have any questions or concerns: plfry620@yahoo.com

Posted in Publishing, Writing | No Comments »

Promote Your Book by Strutting Your Stuff

Thursday, October 25th, 2007

Do you write articles to promote your nonfiction book? If you don’t, you’re really missing out on an opportunity to strut your stuff. Your informative, educational articles help to position you as an expert in your field. Each article can also serve as a vehicle to promote you, your book and your services.

What if your book is a memoir or a novel? You can still write articles and stories designed to promote it. Here are some suggestions:

1: Offer book excerpts to appropriate magazines, newsletters and websites. Be sure to represent your material as an excerpt when you submit it. You may need to do a minor rewrite so that the piece has a beginning, middle and end.

2: Write new stories related to your topic/genre. For example, if your memoir or novel takes place in Nashville, come up with an article about a recent occurrence in that city or one featuring a little-known aspect of Nashville history. Maybe your memoir or novel features struggles with MS. Write a new story or an article with this theme.

3: Multiply your ideas. You will be amazed at how one idea, theme or topic can grow into hundreds once you get the hang of this concept. Let’s say that your story involves an eccentric woman with lots of cats, publicize your book through articles and stories on many aspects of cats—caring for a cat, unusual cat stories, how a cat colony works, profiles of cat people. Now take each of those topics and watch your list of article/story ideas grow: Under caring for a cat, there’s how to prepare when bringing a new cat home, cat-proofing a home, introducing the new cat to the resident pets, traveling with your cat, grooming the cat, the aging cat and so forth. You should be able to come up with at least a dozen article/story ideas related to your theme or sub-themes in just one attempt.

4: Look for ideas everywhere. Here’s where your observational skills will come in handy. Did you notice a cat wandering through the aisles at your local independent bookstore? Interview the bookseller about his shop cat. Maybe you saw someone walking a cat on a leash—hey, there’s an idea to research and write about. I met a woman at a cat show once who had her cat dressed up in a little coat, hat, glasses and she was even carrying a cat-size purse. Wouldn’t cat lovers be interested in an article or even a fictionalized story about playing dress-up with your cat?

5: If you are promoting a novel, you probably have drawers full of short stories that you’ve written over the years. Dig them out, polish them up and start sending them to appropriate magazines.

Remember, the reason that you are writing these articles and stories is to position yourself as an expert in your field, gain credibility in your topic or genre and generate a following (readers) for your book. Make it your goal to write highly informative and/or entertaining articles or stories. And then include information about your book and yourself in the bio at the bottom of the article.

For details on submitting articles and stories for publication, read my book, A Writer’s Guide to Magazine Articles http://www.matilijapres.com/writingpage.html I also include a section on magazine article-writing in The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

If your writing project is stalled, be sure to order the revised edition of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book and the accompanying Author’s Workbook. If you are thinking about writing a book. You need to read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book and use The Author’s Workbook to help you get started. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
Contact me at plfry620@yahoo.com with your comments and questions.

Posted in Book Promotion | No Comments »

Have You Ever Bought a Self-Published Book?

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

Seriously, this question was posed to a friend of mine who contemplated hiring a self-publishing company for his first book. The author who asked him this was trying to make the point that no one buys self-published books. This author, of course, has had a few books produced—all of them by traditional royalty publishers.

But wow, what a question: “Have you ever bought a self-published book?” I can’t imagine very many people responding in the negative. Of course, we’ve all bought self-published books.

First, let’s identify a self-published book. It’s a book that was produced independent of a traditional royalty publisher. It’s a book published by an individual who becomes an independent publisher or through one of the many fee-based POD “self-publishing” companies. If you’ve ever bought a book at a book or harvest festival, a flea market or holiday boutique, for example, it was probably self-published. If you’ve purchased books in the back of the room after a conference, speech or other presentation, chances are, it was self-published. Do you buy books online? Some of them may be self-published. And, certainly you’ve purchased self-published books in bookstores–especially independent bookstores.

When you bought the book, did you check to see who published it? Probably not. Did you care whether or not it was self-published? If you’re fascinated by astrology and you found a neat little pocket guide to astrology, you’re probably going to buy it no matter who published it. If you discover a quaint little book of poems about children, you may purchase it for your niece who’s expecting her first child whether it was produced by Simon and Schuster or the Mom and Pop Publishing Company of Kansas. If someone recommends a fantastic novel, you’re going to order it no matter where it came from.

I probably buy more self-published books than traditionally published books. And I do so consciously. I like to support my fellow independent publishers and those who teamed with fee-based POD “self-publishing” companies to produce the book of their dreams.

I wonder if the author who asked that controversial question knows that Mark Twain self-published his work. And is he aware that James Redfield (Celestine Prophecy) and Richard Paul Evans (The Christmas Box), Beatrix Potter, Zane Grey, Edgar Allen Poe and Patricia Fry are all self-published authors? Most of us have had publishers pick up some of our works after we demonstrated their worth in the marketplace.

It’s too bad that the self-publishing stigma lives on in the minds of some people. How can we change that? By producing the very best books that we can. This means, study the publishing industry so you know what it will bear and how you can participate in raising the bar. Write a book proposal so that you ultimately produce a quality book that is wanted/needed by a large segment of the population. Commit to promoting your book so it receives the recognition it deserves. Also, support independent publishers who are producing quality products. Join with others to convince booksellers and major reviewers that they should consider books by merit rather than company name.

If you are new to the world of publishing or if you are struggling and have questions, you’re an excellent candidate for studying my self-published book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book (revised, second printing) and the brand new, Author’s Workbook. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html and http://www.matilijapress.com/

Posted in Publishing | No Comments »

Talking About Your Book

Saturday, October 13th, 2007

Q: What’s the first thing an author must do once his or her book is published?
A: Go out in search of readers!

If you wrote a complete book proposal, you’ve already identified your audience and you know where they are. You even have a marketing plan in place. Presumably, the plan involves speaking engagements.

I included a section featuring public speaking tips in my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. I’ve also written several articles on various aspects of public speaking for authors. (See the links below.)

Once you read pages 260-263 in the 2007 edition of my book and study some of the articles listed below, you’ll be ready to speak. But what will you talk about? How can you create a speech that others will enjoy?

Developing a speech is much like writing an article or a book. You’re just using a different medium. You’ll be delivering it in person instead of expecting someone to read the material at some later time. You actually have more control over your audience when it’s in person. But you’re also more vulnerable. With this in mind, you’ll want to create a speech that’s entertaining, informative, helpful, useful and/or meaningful. You can entertain while teaching. You can inform in an entertaining manner. And, depending on the topic or genre of your book, you should try to incorporate both elements.

People pay more attention to a topic that is presented in an entertaining, enjoyable, clever or interesting way. Great speakers often use humor to capture audience attention even when the topic is of a serious nature.

But how do you prepare an enjoyable, entertaining, informative, meaningful speech related to your book topic or genre? Here are a few ideas:

Example 1: Your fantasy novel features bird people. Devise a costume or props depicting some of your characters. Use the props or make costume changes in order to tell the story. Ask members of the audience to come up and assist you with the story. Practice using vocal variety—lots of high tones and low ones. Make it fun and you’ll sell books.

Example 2: Your historical novel tells the story of two estranged sisters during the Civil War. You brought this story to life throughout the pages of the book. Practice bringing it to life for live audiences. It’s okay to tell the story or portions of the story. People will still want to read the book. I sometimes wear period clothes when I’m promoting my local history book and I share the history as if I was living it.

Example 3: Yours is a book about recovery. Find ways to help your audience relate to your story. You might draw them in by telling part of your personal story of addiction, injury, abuse or illness. And then try to make the recovery aspect more universal, if possible. The more people who can relate to the recovery process, the more copies of the book you will sell. It’s okay, in fact, it’s important, to evoke emotion.

Example 4: Your memoir reveals hardships and little-known facts about a period in history. Audiences would probably enjoy a chronological narrative that weaves your experiences into interesting historical events (or vice versa). Learn how to present your talk using intrigue and an element of surprise. The greatest challenge in this kind of speech is the dull factor. Choose material that is interesting, funny, mysterious, shocking—something designed to touch members of the audience. And then use emotion in your presentation. Make someone feel sad, happy, thankful, inspired, fearful or at peace as a result of your story and they will be more inclined to buy your book.

Example 5: Your book tells how to grow a critter-safe garden. Give demonstrations. Use a PowerPoint presentation. Provide handouts. You are the expert. You know what the burning questions are. Respond to those questions.

In fact, no matter the topic or genre of your book, use customer feedback to help develop future programs. If a lot of readers comment on the how intrigued they were by the return of the faithful cat or how they could relate to the impish qualities of the younger brother, feature them in your talks. The question I hear most often is, “I just finished a book, how do I go about getting it published?” So this is the focus of my presentations.

For more information about how to develop as a public speaker, follow these links to my articles:

You’ll find the following articles at my Web site: http://www.matilijapress.com/articles.htm
How Do You Get All of Those Speaking Gigs?
Tips for Becoming More Media Worthy.

Find some of my additional speaking-related articles posted at Writing-World.com
Promote your Book Through Alternative Speaking Venues
http://www.writing-world.com/promotion/venues.shtml
When Authors Engage in Public Speaking
http://www.writing-world.com/promotion/pubspeaking.shtml

Read these articles posted at the PMA website:
To Be a Better Public Speaker
http://www.pma-online.org/articles/shownews.aspx?id=2514
My Path to More Successful Public Speaking
http://www.pma-online.org/articles.shownews.aspx?id=2372

And remember, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book contains everything you want or need to know about the publishing process. Order your copy of the new, bigger, better, revised edition NOW http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html And jumpstart your publishing project by purchasing the accompanying Author’s Workbook http://www.matilijapress.com/workbook.html

Posted in Book Promotion | No Comments »

When Authors Bite the Hand That Teaches Them

Sunday, October 7th, 2007

Most of you are probably shocked by the title of this blog entry. Why would an author turn against those who can help him succeed? It doesn’t make sense to me, either. But, trust me, there are authors who show up at writers’ conferences, enroll in online and real-time courses, subscribe to marketing publications and then block much of the information they’re offered.

They’ll email professionals with questions and, rather than consider the responses, they’ll argue about them. They’ll give out their email addresses and then complain when they receive material that could help them meet their publishing goals. I met two such people last month.

Bruce attended my authors’ workshop. He signed up to receive additional material from me and later claimed that I had stolen his email address. He said that he did not want to receive information about my blog, the discount offer on my book or anything else from me. One has to wonder how he thinks he’ll ever move forward and succeed as a published author when he is so protective of his space and has such a closed mind.

Lola visited the SPAWN booth at a book festival with a burning question: “I’m almost finished with my memoir, how can I find a publisher?” I suggested that she shift gears and write a book proposal. I told her that, through the process of writing a book proposal, she will determine whether or not there is an audience for her book, who they are, where she’ll find them and how she’ll market to them. I said that the experience of writing a book proposal will also give her the opportunity to learn something about the publishing industry, such as her publishing options, and she may come up with ideas for making her book more marketable—more salable.

You might not believe Lola’s response. She said, “Heck, I don’t want to get all that involved, all I want to do here is write my memoirs.”

I said, “Oh, I guess I misunderstood. So you just want to write this book for family and friends—you plan to have just a dozen or so printed?”

She looked at me as if I was from another planet. “No,” she retorted. “I’ll be selling it through bookstores; you know, how books are sold these days…” She walked away before I could give her a reality check on that pipedream.

The learning curve isn’t for sissies. It’s hard work getting up-to-speed on any new industry or field. And it takes an open, inquisitive and discerning mind.

Hopeful and struggling authors, I challenge you to study the publishing industry through books by professionals, membership in publishing organizations (SPAWN, PMA, SPAN) and subscriptions to appropriate electronic and print publications. But don’t stop there, also participate, read the materials and check out some of the resources.

Here are the newsletters I recommend to authors:
SPAWNews
As you may know, I am the president of SPAWN. And I can tell you that SPAWNews does not carry any advertising. Instead, we provide book reviews only on books related to publishing, pertinent articles, a book marketing column, a Q and A reflecting questions you might ask a professional and we list conferences, contests and other events of interest to anyone who is involved in publishing. SPAWNews is a FREE e-newsletter that comes to your email box every first of the month. Subscribe at www.spawn.org. Click on “FREE Newsletter.” Scope out the current newsletter and the archives at http://www.spawn.org

SPAWN Market Update
Because SPAWN’s membership is diverse, as the editor of the SPAWN Market Update, I strive to address the needs of each one. Whether you are a freelance writer, graphic artist, independent publisher, author of many or just one book, editor, illustrator, screenwriter, poet or novelist and whether you are a beginner or a veteran, if you are interested in being published, I have you in mind when I produce this newsletter. Here, you’ll find opportunities for authors, artists and freelance writers. There are resources galore and news bites and tips. I also include an agent, publisher or writer interview on occasion. This newsletter is available to SPAWN members only. Join SPAWN at http://www.spawn.org. Click on “Join SPAWN Now.” It’s $45/year. Most members get their money back and MORE from the information and opportunities listed in only one SPAWN Market Update.

I also recommend reading every page of the PMA Independent and the SPAN Connection. Obtain these important print newsletters through membership in these organizations.

The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter
I highly recommend this newsletter for anyone with a book to market. It isn’t a huge newsletter, but each issue is packed with cutting edge marketing techniques. The most recent issue of Penny Sansevieri’s newsletter features how to get more traffic to your blog. Learn more about Penny’s work and subscribe to her newsletter at http://www.amarketingexpert.com FREE.

Book Marketing Matters
Brian Jud’s Book Marketing Matters runs only about 7 pages. While he promotes his own products and services, he also adds a lot of value to his newsletter with short notes from various experts and professionals such as Dan Poynter, author of The Self-Publishing Manual; Marcella Smith, small press business manager for Barnes and Noble; Penny Sansevieri, A Marketing Expert; Rita Thompson, producer for CNBC and CBS News; John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book; Rick Frishman, author of Author 101: Bestselling Book Publicity and several others including yours truly, Patricia Fry as a guest columnist from time to time. This is also a FREE subscription.

Now subscribing is only the first step on your way toward success as an author. You must also read the newsletters. I recommend reading them from beginning to end, noting the articles that resonate with you and the resources you want to check out.

I subscribe to probably two dozen writing/publishing-related newsletters. I typically print them out and read them in the evening when I’m away from the computer. I mark the items I want to pursue. And I follow through with them the next morning.

There’s a lot of unwanted and unrelated material coming at us every day, from every source. And it can be annoying and downright bothersome to have to face it. But it is vital to your success as an author to wade through the muck in order to harvest the pearls.

The revised second edition of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, Your Complete Guide to Successful Authorship should arrive on our doorstep this coming Wednesday (October 10). Be sure to order your copy along with the brand new Author’s Workbook. Order them together for only $28.00. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html If you own the first edition of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, order the Author’s Workbook for only $10.00.

Posted in Book Promotion, Publishing | No Comments »