Writing and Publishing News

The Internet is ever changing, isn’t it? Each time I teach my online courses, I have to check the links I give because they change, they disappear, they break and sometimes I mis-type them.

In case I have given you the link for Shaw Guides directory of conferences, lately, I want to make sure you have it right. When I checked the link I had in the latest book I’m writing, I noticed that the link was broken. Later in the day, I discovered that I had the wrong link. Here is the correct link for those of you who are seeking conferences to attend or to speak at on your expertise. http://www.shawguides.com. For writing conferences and workshops, type in http://www.writing.shawguides.com .

It appears that my favorite book festival directory link is gone. That’s www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/bookfair.html. If anyone knows of another good book festival directory, I’d sure like to know about it.

Your Book Festival Listing/Banner
Another thing I’d like to talk about today is your banner and your listing when you secure a booth at a book festival. You may recall the story I tell about the time I went to the Los Angeles Times Book Festival (where they receive around 100,000 visitors) and sold very few books. The reason was the booth banner. When I display my writing-related books at the SPAWN booth, I do very well. Why? A huge number of our visitors come to us because they are interested in writing and/or publishing. They listen as we answer their questions about SPAWN and give them a few suggestions or resources related to their project and then they typically purchase one or more of my books.

The day that I sold so few (if any) books, I shared a booth with a guy who wrote novels and children’s books. His banner advertised “Novels and Children’s Books.” Guess who came to his booth? Readers of novels and children’s books. And he sold a lot of books.

My point is that when you go to a book festival with your book, make sure that your listing in their brochure and your banner reflect your book’s topic or genre. What is it about your book that attracts readers? That’s what you want to advertise—healthy eating cookbooks, science fiction, young adult thriller, books on grammar, travel guides, etc.

If you plan to share a booth with another author, make sure that your books are somewhat compatible. Will the people who purchase her books also be interested in yours and vice versa? Can you come up with something for the banner and program listing that will encompass both of your books?

Fall is a big book festival season, as is spring. Check out book festivals in your area or where you will be traveling by typing “book festival” or “book fair” and the name of the city at the Google prompt.

For more about participating in a book festival, read my article, “How to Work a Book Festival So it Works for You” at http://www.matilijapress.com/articles/promo_bookFestival.htm

Do you maintain a blog? Do you post daily (or practically daily, as I profess to do)? How do you come up with topics? If this is a problem for you, maybe I can help. This is my blog post number 590, afterall.

Presumably, if you are reading this blog, your blog reflects your book—it is a way of promoting your book to the world. Here are some blog post ideas for authors of nonfiction books:

• Use excerpts from your book.
• Tell some of the back-story around the writing of the book.
• Talk about what inspired you to write it.
• Share some of the concepts from your book.
• Share related resources.
• Talk about new findings, sites, etc. related to your topic.
• Write and post informational articles.
• Post how-to articles.
• Review sites/books by other experts in your field.
• Invite guest bloggers in related fields.
• Write about your background/experiences in this topic.
• Introduce new products.
• Announce any publicity you get—book reviews, etc.
• Describe interesting/pertinent conversations with customers.
• Create posts from experiences you have while promoting your book.
• Offer freebies or discounts as incentive to buy your book.
• Develop additional services/products and talk about them here.

For authors of fiction books:

• Use excerpts from your book.
• Describe some of your characters and how you formed them.
• Share stories from your experiences while writing this book.
• Write about some of the themes imbedded in your story.
• Talk about what inspires you to write.
• Interview other novelists.
• Review similar books.
• Publish reviews of your book.
• Post testimonials/reader comments.
• Share some of your other writings.
• Reveal the plot of your next novel.
• Describe some of your book promotion experiences.
• Involve readers in writing assignments.
• Offer freebies or discounts as incentive to buy your book.

This is pretty basic. You can take it from here and expand on some of these ideas, dissect them, analyze them…

Remember that the point is to bring attention to your credibility in your field, your skill/talent as a writer/storyteller and the value of your book and/or services/products.

For more about book promotion, sign up today for my on-demand, online book promotion course: http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm.

Do you need an editor? Study my resume and my array of books at my website:
http://www.matilijapress.com