Writing and Publishing News

You hear about people having computer problems&#8212the computer is down, the computer crashed, the computer is in the shop, etc? Well, it is happening to me. My old computer, which I’ve had for probably five years, is getting tired and I bought a new one. But the transfer of files from one to the other did not go well. So both the old one and the new one are in the shop. I’m blessed to have a temporary computer to use, so I don’t get too far behind on my work. I’m treating it gently, though, because it is about 8 or 10 years old.

In the meantime, I am teaching my online (via email) Book Promotion Course and I want to invite you to sign up. The second lecture and assignment goes out today. Sign up at least by Tuesday, November 4 and you will be able to catch up. The cost is $200 for the 6-week course. What’s the purpose/objective? To guide you in promoting your fiction or nonfiction book through a variety of avenues.

If any of the following describes you, you probably need this course:

• Do you have a novel, memoir, book of poetry, how-to, self-help, informational book, recovery book, children’s book or reference book, for example?
• Have sales slowed to a dead stop?
• Are you running out of ideas for promoting your book?
• Is it much harder than you thought to market a book?
• Have you come to a place where you need help with promotion?

Sign up today for my brand new book promotion course and, together, let’s jumpstart sales for your book. What better time to invest in your book’s future than right before the holidays&#8212the most opportune time to sell books.

Remember, no one will buy your book if they don’t know about it.

Learn more about the online Book Promotion Course and sign up at
http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm

Check out my other online courses at
http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

Questions? PLFry620@yahoo.com

Friday October 24, 2008&#8212mark this date on your calendar. This is when my NEW 6-week online Book Promotion course starts. If your book sales are lagging&#8212if you want to increase sales by Christmas and start the New Year out with higher sales&#8212then sign up NOW. Space is limited. Your credit card will not be charged until the day I send your first lesson (Friday, October 24).
Learn more at: http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm

FREE Book Offer
If you’ve been wanting my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, but you couldn’t put out the money? First of all, if you want to succeed in the publishing arena, this is an investment. And that’s why I’m offering a special for my blog readers through December 25, 2008. Order my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book for $19.95 before Christmas and you’ll receive The Author’s Workbook and Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book FREE. But you’ll only get the free books if you email me after placing the order and let me know you are a blog reader. If I do not get the email from you, I won’t know to send the free books. PLFry620@yahoo.com. If I have to send the free books in a separate package, you will pay the extra shipping charges. Order The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book here:
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
And then email me at PLFry620@yahoo.com

Make Plans Now for Spring Promotional Opportunities
Did you know that organizers are already planning book festivals and writers conferences held in the spring and summer? Some coordinators are even putting the finishing touches on their fall 2009 events. If you want to attend such events next year, start now scoping them out.

Use your favorite search engine. Type in “writers conference” or “book festival” and the city/state. Whether you want to attend events close to home or take advantage of those in areas you’ll be visiting, it’s wise to locate the possibilities and compare the important elements. For example, how many visitors does the book festival generally attract and how much do they want for a booth? If the foot traffic is minimal (or not available) and the cost high ($400 to $900), keep looking. Likewise, make sure that a writers conference has the elements you seek&#8212agent meetings, workshops related to publishing protocol, well-known professional presenters and/or high profile authors. Match the conference or the book festival to your particular needs and desires. Compare prices against value. And be sure to take into consideration the location. Will you have to pay travel expenses or is it local or in an area where you can stay with friends?

Share Your Successful Book Promotion Activities
For most of you, book sales are slowing down. This is no reason to stop promoting. In fact, this is a good reason for stepping up your promotional activities. Get creative and try something new. Climb into the head of your customers and try to give them what they want/need. We’d all like some help with promotion. Do you have an idea that is working for you? Have you discovered a way to increase your book sales? How about sharing it with us. Just leave a comment at this blog site. And don’t forget to take steps to improve your sales figures. Sign up today for my brand new Book Promotion Workshop. http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm

Does anyone need help with book promotion? Are you an author who is struggling to sell the quantity of books you desire? If you’re like most authors, bookstores are shutting you out&#8212and those booksellers who do accept your books are not selling any. You’ve given up on sending press releases because they are always ignored. You don’t really understand how to get book reviews. You’ve done a few speaking gigs and would like to do more, but don’t know how to go about it. If this describes you, you are in the majority of authors today.

Book promotion is darn hard work. I actually had a hopeful author tell me once, “I won’t have to do the usual promotion because this book will sell itself.” How naïve, short-sighted and immature is that? Even if the book is so amazing that it sells itself, you still have to introduce it to your audience. You still have to make it known. And this means knowing who your audience is, knowing where they are and understanding how to approach them. These are the beginning steps for marketing a book.

Add to this, an assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, the willingness to grow and improve in areas that will compute into book sales and the huge task of discovering what book promotion is all about and choosing those promotional activities that suit you and your project.

The fact is that most authors need help in the areas of mindset/understanding, knowledge and motivation when it comes to book promotion. Generally, author types are not natural marketers. That’s why I have written books and hundreds of articles on the subject and that’s why I have devised a brand new Online Book Promotion Course.

I will be starting the first course very soon&#8212probably this week. So, if you are interested sign up NOW. I’ll let you know what day of the week the lessons and assignments will arrive in your email box. For additional information and to sign up, go to http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm

Your credit card will NOT be charged until we agree on the day of the week I’ll send the lectures, etc.

It’s a 6-week course. I will work with authors of fiction or nonfiction, including children’s books. I work one-on-one with each student privately. So you get what you need/desire related to your specific project. The fee is $200 for the 6-week course and my regular feedback.

Contact me with questions: PLFry620@yahoo.com.

Hurry, I expect this class to fill quickly. Sign up today and you’ll have a solid marketing plan in place in time for holiday sales. And, keep in mind that when the economy is weak, people turn to books as cheap entertainment. Let me show you how to reach your audience.

http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm

The orders are coming in. Yes! I am so pleased to know that you will be studying The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book before you get too far into producing your book. This book will guide you in understanding the publishing industry to the point that you can navigate it more successfully. It will apprise you of your options and help you to select the best one for you. And it will lead you through all of the steps toward successful publication and successful marketing and promotion.

Two questions I get regularly are: What’s the best publishing options? And What’s the best way to promote a book?

Here is my response&#8212one response for both questions: It depends on you and it depends on your book. And my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, will give you the information, resources and understanding so that you can make the right choices and decisions on behalf of your project.

Patricia Makes the Big Time
I received a newsletter from Anvil Publishing, Southern Review of Books this morning. (This is one of about two dozen newsletters I receive each month.) Publisher, Noel Griese, created a chart showing the top selling (most popular) books on book promotion as far as Amazon’s sales are concerned. My book, Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book ranks as number 13 out of 27, beating out books by Brian Jud, Fern Reiss, Marilyn Ross, M.J. Rose, Penny Sansevieri, Shel Horowitz, Rick Frishman, to name a few.

And you (my blog readers) can get this book for FREE through Christmas, along with The Author’s Workbook (the companion book to The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book) when you order a copy of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.

Take two simple steps:

1: Order the book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book here:
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

2: Immediately send me an email letting me know that you ordered the book and that you’d like to receive the FREE Author’s Workbook AND Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book. PLFry620@yahoo.com

I must receive your email before I ship the book, otherwise, you get to pay the additional charges for shipping the free books separately.

So far everyone is following the rules perfectly. Thank you!

We all feel it. We’re all aware of the economic downturn and none of us knows what will happen next. Will things improve or keep tumbling downward? We fear for our futures. As authors, we wonder if we’ll ever reach our goals. The timing stinks. Just when you thought you had a handle on the mysteries of book promotion, everything seemed to come to a halt. Book sales are even more sluggish. Everyone says it will only get worse. You might as well go back to work or get another part-time job. Or you can get creative and kick up your promotional efforts!

We’re hearing that library use is way up. This is typical in times like these. It is common, during difficult economic times, that people turn to books as cheap entertainment. Some seek comfort, solace and healing through inspirational and spiritual books. It’s cheaper than hiring a therapist. When things are hard, we crave something to laugh about and we buy more books of humor.

When times are financially tough, we start thinking of ways to improve our personal economic situations. We navigate toward how-to and self-help books. We might want to learn more about how to budget, how to travel for less, how to save money by grooming our own dogs, how to get a better job or how to feed a family for less. When things around us change, we know that we must change and the most economical way to learn something new or improve a skill, for example, is to buy a book on the subject.

As you can see, for some authors, the economic situation is an opportunity. If you have a book that is entertaining, humorous, inspirational and/or helpful, you might want to amp up your marketing program. Instead of throwing in the towel and giving up on your book, perhaps this is the time to shift into high gear and promote the heck out of it. Here are a few off-the-wall ideas that you might want to try:

1: Arrange home parties related to the theme of your novel. Involve guests in an enactment of your story during the evening. Bring simple (or elaborate) costumes, give participants scripts and share just enough of the story to entice guests to want to buy the book. Most of all, make it fun.

2: Package your romantic novel or thriller with a candle and bubble bath or cocoa mix and mug or, perhaps, chocolate and a CD of classical music. In other words, create a mood to go along with your book. Help readers escape from the harsh reality of life into your story.

3: Offer two books for the price of one during the holidays. This might encourage sales&#8212one for the customer and one for him to give as a gift.

4: For your nonfiction self-help or how-to book, arrange for workshops and/or demonstrations at appropriate venues. If your book features budgeting tips, gather at an accountant’s office. The accountant might even send invitations to his clients. Program chairmen for various civic organizations are always seeking speakers for their weekly or monthly meetings. Contact them and offer to present a workshop related to the theme of your book. For a cookbook featuring quick, easy and cheap meals, give demonstrations at local kitchen stores, PTA meetings, for church groups as well as in the homes of friends and neighbors.

5: We all need and desire to have as many warm fuzzy moments as we can muster in these uncomfortable times. It is a good time to promote your feel-good spiritual book. Again, you can develop workshops and demonstrations and present them at any number of venues. Maybe you can arrange to share your relaxation tips at gatherings in local therapists’ offices, the hospital, various doctors’ offices, businessmen’s and women’s club meetings and so forth.

Additional Tips
Use your imagination when planning your presentations and venues. And always keep your potential reader in mind.

Consider dropping the price of your book, especially if your POD company has jacked it up pretty high. Remember, we’re looking for bargains now. We need value for our dollar.

And speaking of value, this would be a good time for you to purchase my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book&#8212the book that will guide you on your journey toward publishing success. I know that, if you are an author or hopeful author at any stage of your project, you NEED this book. I want you to have this book. So here is my special offer to you.

Order The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book from me between now and Christmas day and I will send you a FREE copy of my companion book, The Author’s Workbook. I will also give you a copy of my book, Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book. Just place your order for The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book at my website. (It’s $19.95 plus tax (California only) and shipping.) Then send me an email (either through my website or using the email address I’ll give you in this blog entry). Tell me that you ordered the book through my website and ask for The Author’s Workbook and Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book. Order the book here:
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

My email address: PLFry620@yahoo.com

I’m back in my home office and happily so, except that there is a lot of work awaiting my attention. But that’s a good thing. Without work, there’s no money for travel and when I travel, I’m able to help hopeful authors.

I’ve had some interesting feedback related to my last blog entry about “Yellow Book Promotion.” One freelance writer told me her story. She had a booth at a flea market where she was offering merchandise she collects and sells. A woman, whose niece had similar wares, stood in front of my friend’s booth directing potential customers to her niece’s booth. She said that this woman literally grabbed the arms of some of the browsers and ushered them away. Unfortunately, this soured my friend against participating in another flea market.

If this happens to you, speak to the event coordinators. They’ll take care of it. It’s bad practice, not to mention rude. Yup, this falls under the term, Yellow Book Promotion.

An author I know tells the story about another author, who was sharing a booth with him, attempting to lure his customers away during a book festival. Instead of waiting for the potential customer to walk away with or without having purchased his book, the other author would reach across the display of books and hand a copy of her book to the undecided shopper. No, no, no!! This is not good practice.

I’ve seen authors in an audience raise their hands, during a presentation, and pitch their books. Often, other audience members will begin to ask questions and soon the focus is on the author rather than the presenter. That’s plain rude.

Okay, on to more positive things. I had a great time visiting the Professional Writers of Prescott (Arizona) earlier this week. They invited me to speak to their group. And, even though it was the same night as the presidential debate on TV, we had a nice turnout of interested and interesting writers at all stages of publishing. Most had been published. Hopefully, everyone walked away with something they can use to reach their individual goals. And those without unreasonable expectations, I trust, did.

I learn something almost every single time I meet with other writers/authors, converse with other writers/authors and even when I am speaking to a group of newby writers or hopeful authors. I’ve met freelance writers and authors, however, who are so set in their ways and so determined to succeed and still stay within their comfort zones, that they are not open to new ideas, nor do they recognize information they can use. These authors walk away saying, “Well, I didn’t get anything out of that talk.” They stay closed. They discount those things they keep hearing and reading. They live in denial. These are generally authors who are stuck in grooves. Some of them are spiraling downward in their attempts at publishing success and they still won’t reach for a lifeline.

They may read books and articles and attend presentations hoping to learn how to reach their goals some easy way&#8212hoping that someone will give them a hand up. Only they don’t recognize it when they see it. They walk out of a presentation believing that they heard nothing new and certainly nothing of value to their project. They don’t want to grow or try anything new. They hope to sell more books, but they don’t want to change anything in order to do so. They will poo poo all of the statistics, facts, resources, suggestions, recommendations and ideas they hear because these are not within the realm of their comfort zone.

If this describes you, do your self and your project a favor and try reaching out into unknown territory on behalf of your book. Start by taking just one idea or suggestion and exploring it at least a little. Maybe you have a website and are waiting patiently for your readers to find it and start ordering your book. You feel this is enough&#8212you certainly don’t want to do public speaking or otherwise make a spectacle of yourself. But you can do a couple of simple things to bring attention to your book without giving presentations. In fact, there are plenty of things you can (and really should) do. Start by soliciting book reviews. It’s a simple task, doesn’t take much time and can be quite rewarding. How?

Use Writer’s Market to locate magazines related to the topic/genre of your book. In most cases, you’ll find dozens of them. Study the magazines on the racks at your local mega bookstores. List those that are appropriate. Consider those magazines you subscribe to. And then do an Internet search to locate additional magazines as well as newsletters. Then start soliciting reviews. Here’s how:

• Find out if these publications publish book reviews.
• Contact the book review editor or general editor of appropriate publications.
• Ask permission to send a review copy of your book.
• Send your book to those editors who request it.
• Follow up to make sure they have done (or have scheduled) the review.
• Post the reviews at your website.
• Ask the reviewer to post the review on your Amazon.com book page.

For additional book promotion ideas, read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

You might also find this book useful: Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book,
http://www.matilijapress.com/over75page.html

This book is a good value at only $6.50.

Do you have an agenda? Are you promoting a book? Maybe you’re involved in an organization or a cause. You hear (read) me nagging you all the time to promote, promote, promote. But don’t promote your agenda on my time. Don’t engage in Yellow Promotion.

What do I mean by this? Undoubtedly, you are familiar with the term, Yellow Journalism. This means to taint the news by using sensationalism or exaggeration, for example. I consider Yellow Promotion the practice of infringing on the time and space of others in order to promote your own product or agenda. It may be a matter of upstaging a colleague or fellow author.

I can’t tell you how many times authors bring their books or information about their organizations to me while I’m working at a book festival. I pay for the booth, I may have traveled a distance. It is my opportunity to connect with my potential customers and clients. So don’t walk onto the event grounds&#8212gaining FREE admission&#8212with your book or material on your cause, cozy up to my booth in front of my potential customers and try to sell me something. Get your own booth.

Likewise, when I arrange to speak at a writers’ conference, spend months preparing a workshop and pay my own travel expenses, I do not appreciate it when someone slips into my class and uses my time to promote his or her product or cause to my audience.

I know, I know, I tell you over and over again to promote however, whenever and wherever you can. But this does not mean infringing on someone else’s valuable time and space. It’s not cool, folks.

I’ve known authors to come on the grounds of large book festivals, set up their own tables, put up signs and proceed to sell books without paying the fee. Others will come in with handout material and stand across from our booth luring passersby away from us. Of course they are usually booted out. This is pure thievery.

If you want to sell books at a book festival, rent your own booth. If you want to connect with an audience, hone your speaking skills, search out venues, arrange to be invited, pay your dues and you will have your own audience. As I said, Yellow Promotion is not cool. So be cool. Promote honestly and with the blessings of others. If you want to promote yourself in my workshop or at the book festival where I have a booth, do so subtly. Here are some ideas:

• Walk around wearing a sandwich sign or tee shirt advertising your book.
• Leave your business cards in the restrooms, buffet table, etc., but NOT at my booth.
• Network with folks during breaks at conferences and in the food court at book festivals.
• Talk to me about your book/cause after my presentation. Or pick up my card at a book festival and ask if you can email me.

I know how creative you are. How about sharing some of your own ideas with my blog readers?

In the meantime, for more about how to promote your book, read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html