Archive for March, 2011

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How Does an Author Prepare for a Speech?

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

I’ve been working on a speech that I’m presenting at the Carolinas Writers’ Conference this weekend. My method of practicing a speech is to recite it while I’m walking. So I walk more when I have a speech in the works. And the weather here in California is certainly cooperating. We’ve had gorgeous, warm days this week in which to walk.

I don’t memorize my speeches. My concern is with the timing and organization. I know the material. I want to be sure to deliver it in a logical manner within the time limit. I want to cover everything that I feel needs to be covered adequately. So I take my speech notes out walking.

The words might be different each time I go over the speech—and the actual presentation might not closely resemble the original walking speeches. But I manage to cover the important material and that’s what’s important.

How do you practice for your presentations? Do you have any quirky, unusual methods of remembering key points—of preparing to face an audience? Or do you speak off the cuff.

I might adlib when I’m scheduled to speak for half an hour or so. Then, I would probably be covering one topic, such as, “What are your publishing options?” “What are the 5 best book promotion activities?” “What are the steps to a successful book signing?” and so forth.

But when I am conducting a workshop or speaking for an hour or more, and I will be covering several topics—the basics of publishing, your publishing options, steps to successful publishing and book promotion—I need to organize the talk in my mind.

It’s actually similar to the way I write. When I write my daily blog, I might just start with a topic and run with it. If I’m going to write a long, more detailed article or a book, I feel a need to organize the material so I have a specific direction before I head out.

Did I tell you that I am writing a book for authors who want to go out and speak about the topic of their books? Let me know if you want to be notified when it is available. It will be an ebook—probably under thirty pages and the cost will be around $5.00. PLFry620@yahoo.com (if you want me to let you know when it is available).

Posted in Public Speaking | No Comments »

Need Help Writing Your Book Proposal?

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

I’ve started a new Book Proposal Course today. It will be held every Wednesday for 8 weeks and you don’t even have to get out of your jammies to attend. This is an online course on how to write a more successful book proposal. There is still time to sign up. Go to http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookproposal.htm

Why write a book proposal? If you hope to land a traditional royalty publisher for your fiction or nonfiction book, it is likely that you will need a book proposal. But the main reason to write one BEFORE you write your nonfiction book and BEFORE you complete your novel or children’s book is for YOU. A book proposal will tell you whether or not you have a viable product as well as who your true audience is and how to reach them. You will learn something about your platform and how to build on it—strengthen it. You will be required to create a marketing plan, so you’ll know how to proceed with book promotion once your book is a book.

Let me walk you through the book proposal process. This could make the difference between success and failure.

One of my book proposal students discovered through the course that she was writing the wrong book for the wrong audience. She changed her focus in midstream and ended up landing a book contract with Houghton-Mifflin. Not too shabby, right?

If you’ve written a good book proposal, but you need help recognizing and building on your platform, sign up for my brand new course, “Establish Your Author’s Platform.” http://www.matilijapress.com/course_platform.htm

Posted in Book Proposals | No Comments »

NEW Book—FREE E-Booklets for Authors

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

There’s lots popping in the offices of Matilija Press and Patricia Fry.

New Book on Public Speaking for Authors
For those of you who don’t know, Matilija Press is my publishing company which I formed in 1983. I’m getting ready to add book number 34 to my list of published books. This one is going to be for authors who want to go out and speak as a way to promote their books. Is there anyone out there who would appreciate some friendly support along these lines? Do you want to know how to conduct yourself while speaking, how to find venues where you can speak on behalf of your nonfiction or even fiction book, how to conduct an in-person interview, how to get involved in appropriate conferences related to the topic or genre of your book, the best way to rehearse your speech, how to create more interesting presentations, etc? What else would you like help with related to public speaking for authors? Let me know so I can include it. PLFry620@yahoo.com.

This will be a rather compact, no hassle ebook. I’ll make an announcement when it is completed.

Kudos for Patricia Fry
While dining with authors Sunday, I sat next to someone who said, “I heard people talking about the presentation you gave at the library Tuesday.” Of course, this statement piqued my interest. I said, “Pray tell—what were they saying?” She said, “All good. They said they could have sat and listened to you for hours—you were such a wealth of information.”

Good to know. Good to hear. Isn’t it heartening to know that you are helping the very group of people you hope to influence with the information and perspective you share? This is satisfying.

If any of you will be near Wadesboro, NC Saturday, I will be speaking at the Carolina’s Writers’ Conference there that afternoon. http://www.ansoncountywritersclub.org
FREE Booklets for Authors
There has been a flurry of interest in my FREE ebooklet, 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book. If you’d like a copy, go to http://www.patriciafry.com and click on the link to this ebooklet.

Another FREE ebooklet you might appreciate comes FREE with your SPAWN enewsletter subscription (which is also FREE). Go to http://www.spawn.org and click where it says, “Click here.” You’ll get a FREE monthly enewsletter brimming with information for authors and freelance writers as well as a FREE ebooklet called, Promote Yourself: 25 Ways to Promote Your Work Whether You’re an Artist, Author or Small Publisher.

http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

Posted in Announcements, E-Books | No Comments »

Sample of a Tip List for Authors

Monday, March 28th, 2011

Do you attend local author events? You really should, when you get the chance. I heard three authors who are on totally different paths speak at a luncheon yesterday. It is always inspiring and interesting to hear how others approach writing—how their journey to authorship began, where it has led them and where it is likely to take them in the future.

I am reminded that there is no one off-ramp for everyone. And, while professionals like me try to teach hopeful authors the right way to discover publishing success, there are those who are living that success without having experienced the hardships and the disappointments. Are these people simply more patient, more tenacious and, perhaps, lucky?

I invite your take on this subject—post your views in the comments section here:

In the meantime, I promised you an example of a tip list. Here it is? I might send this to magazines for corporate managers, business owners or college students, for example.

Do you dread standing up before your peers? Are you timid about speaking in front of a group Do your presentations lack luster? Here are seven tips that will help you be a better speaker:

1: Be prepared. Know your subject and spend time organizing it so it flows.

2: Develop a strong and pleasant speaking voice. If you need to, hire a voice coach. You can retrain your voice.

3: Learn to speak up so you can be heard. Mumbling isn’t cool.

4: Use vocal variety. Hone this skill by reading to children—use your voice in all of its ranges. Another effective and fun way to develop vocal variety is by joining a storytelling group .

5: Eliminate filler words and phrase such as “uhm,” “er,” “you know,” etc. Avoid connecting sentence after sentence using “and.” It takes practice to change these bad habits, but you can do it. Start by eliminating them from your everyday conversations. Practice, practice.

6: If you are required to read something in public, practice reading it over and over again. Most of us do not come across as natural when we read before a group. This is a skill that needs to be honed.

7: Join a local Toastmasters Club and participate often in order to improve upon your public speaking and communication skills.

That’s the long and the short of a tip list. The point is to offer something of use in a brief list of tips to a segment of people—most often, it is the audience for your book. At the end of the tip list, you would type a brief bio. For this tip list, I might write, “Patricia Fry is the author of several books related to publishing and book promotion. She often speaks to large audiences on these topics. http://www.matilijapress.com

Also visit me at http://www.patriciafry.com

Posted in Article-Writing, Book Promotion | No Comments »

Promote Your Book Using Tips Sheets

Sunday, March 27th, 2011

Do you recall my blog posts related to the tip sheet? I posted one in June of last year and one in October. Maybe you recall that a tip sheet is a short list of tips that you create on practically any topic for editors of print or online publications.

It’s similar to an article, only it’s brief and succinct. And it is another good way to promote your nonfiction book to your audience while continuing to position yourself as an expert.

Instead of writing in detail about your topic, you simply offer a short list of tips.

Whether you write on weight loss, pet care, volunteering, health issues, fitness, showing rabbits, traveling, how to write poetry, sibling rivalry or hoarding, you should be able to come up with many different tip sheets.

What are the types of tips you could list on a tip sheet? Let’s use volunteering in our example. You could list:

• 10 resources for finding volunteer opportunities
• 5 types of volunteering people do
• 7 attributes of the best volunteers
• 15 types of volunteer opportunities
• 8 ways to choose your volunteering match
• 10 of the best ways to help your community

For the traveling topic you might create tip sheets on the following:

• 10 popular destinations
• 7 packing tips
• 20 tips for traveling with kids
• 10 ways to entertain kids on a plane
• 5 tips for choosing the right luggage
• 15 RV travel tips

Sell your tip sheets (with your brief bio attached) to publications related to the topic of your tips and tweak them to fit regional (they relate to a specific geographic area), general (write them for a more general audience), religious (give them a spiritual edge), senior, parenting and other types of magazines.

Here are a few examples of how to tweak your tip sheets: volunteering for seniors, volunteering for residents of the Midwest states, tips for traveling with your pet, tips for keeping the faith while traveling, how to get a teaching job on a cruise ship and so forth.

Contact me if you need help getting your freelance article-writing business started, writing your book proposal, promoting your book, building your platform or if you are looking for a book editor. I just learned that a client whose query letter I edited and helped her rewrite, has caught the attention of a major publisher. Another client emailed me last week and said that she has now sold over 50,000 copies of her book.

Tomorrow I will post a sample tip sheet.

PLFry620@yahoo.com
Visit my websites: http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

Posted in Book Promotion | No Comments »

Common Publishing Mistakes You Do NOT Want to Make: Part II

Saturday, March 26th, 2011

Today we’re continuing with the seven common mistakes authors make. Here are the last four.

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?

Royalty Publisher
A traditional royalty publisher puts up the money for the production of your book and pays you royalties on books sold. These publishers are generally very selective in the books they publish and the authors they sign.

Self-Publishing
Self-publishing means that you establish a publishing company (get a fictitious business name, purchase your own block of ISBNs, etc.). You get your book ready for publication, you hire a printing company, you are responsible for distribution and shipping and you reap all of the profits.

Pay-to-Publish Company
You pay the company to produce your book. Most of these companies will accept any manuscript—they are not generally discriminating. They each enter the publishing arena with very different publishing contracts. It pays to do plenty of research so you know exactly what you’re signing.

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) http://www.spawn.org Ask questions.

6: Uninformed authors blindly sign up for unnecessary services. Some pay-to-publish companies state that they will get your books into bookstore databases and provide a return policy on your books for a fee of around $700-$800.

I have two things to say about that. First, you can get your books listed in bookstore databases nationwide for free. All you have to do is fill out an Advance Book Information (ABI) form. And the listing in Books In Print is free.

Secondly, the return policy that some publishing services are selling their authors is, in my opinion, a huge waste of money. This policy is no more a guarantee that booksellers will carry your book than a nickel guarantees the purchase of a candy bar.

7: Authors neglect to hire an editor.
Many authors, by the time they complete their manuscripts and self-edit it, 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 and so, by the way, do readers.

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.

Learn more about Patricia Fry here:
http://www.patriciafry.com
http://www.matilijapress.com

Posted in Publishing | No Comments »

Common Publishing Mistakes You DO NOT Want to Make

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Over the next two days, I’m going to list 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 pay-to-publish 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). Read Mark Levine’s “The Fine Print of Self-Publishing,” to discover which pay-to-publish services are legit. (He has just come out with a newly revised edition. Get the ebook version FREE when joining SPAWN.) http://www.spawn.org

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 were over a million books published in 2009 and 288,355 of them were produced by traditional publishers.

For more about publishing and book marketing and for online courses in the topics you need help with, visit http://www.matilijapress.com

If you are seeking editorial or consulting services, visit http://www.patriciafry.com

Posted in Publishing | No Comments »

8 Things You Can Learn From Your Book Proposal

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

Most first-time authors, see the book proposal process as intimidating—an unpleasant task that you’d rather avoid. However, you’ll have a much greater chance of publishing success if you look at your book proposal as a learning experience.

Whether you decide to develop a book proposal by yourself or you hire a professional to help you, there are enormous opportunities in the process.

So what can you learn from your book proposal?

1: Do you have a viable product? The research you do for your proposal will help you to determine whether or not this book is actually a good idea or simply a frivolous fantasy.

2: What is your competition? In order to determine whether you have a book at all, you need to check out other books on this topic/in this genre. What’s out there? This information is important now—in determining whether you should come out with this book at this time. And it is important later to help guide you along your book promotion path.

3: Who comprises your primary and secondary audiences? Is there anyone out there waiting for this book to hit the market? Who needs it? Who wants it? How widespread is your audience? Where will you find them? Understanding your customer is primary to planning your marketing strategy and, if you don’t think that this is one of the most important aspects of producing a book, then you really have a lot to learn about publishing.

4: What’s it going to take to promote this book? Once you have established your potential audience, and you know where they are, you can begin thinking about promotion. What is the best way to approach your particular audience? How do they purchase books? Where do they buy them? In order to succeed as an author, you must go where your customers are and make the book available according to their comfort zone, not yours.

5: What do you have to offer toward the process of promoting your book? What are your strongest marketing skills—public speaking? Writing ad copy? Doing cold calls? Arranging for presentations, book signings and book reviews? Take inventory and note all of the qualities and personal assets that you could use in promoting your book.

6: What skills do you need to improve in order to successfully promote your book? Start planning your strategy for strengthening these important skills.

7: What does a publisher truly want/need to know about your project? Most new authors, when left to their own devises, give potential publishers a bland report about their book and call it a book proposal. Your job is to convince the publisher that your book has value, that it is marketable, that you are credible in your field or genre, that you are more than qualified and willing to promote it—that your project is a good investment for the publisher. And you don’t do this by making a statement, rather by presenting a complete and fascinating book proposal.

8: How do you summarize your story or nonfiction book? Another weakness that most new authors share is the ability to describe their book succinctly and, even, accurately. Working through the book proposal process, particularly if you are working with a professional, will help you to improve in this area.

Yes, an author can learn volumes about the publishing industry, the project and him or herself through the book proposal process. It’s just a matter of doing the work with an open mind.

If you’d like help with your book proposal, sign up for my online, on-demand Book Proposal Course. http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookproposal.htm

Posted in Book Proposals | No Comments »

Book Publishing and Promotion

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Mark Levine has come out with an updated version of his book, The Fine Print of Self-Publishing. If you are thinking about going with a pay-to-publish (self-publishing) company, you MUST read this book. He rates and ranks and exposes aspects of these companies and he explores and explains the contracts of around 50 of them.

This book is in print form, PDF, MOBI and ePub. Order your copy here: http://www.bookpublisherscompared.com/buy-the-book

To get a 50% discount on this book, join SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network). This offer lasts through May. http://www.spawn.org

Of course, by joining SPAWN, you get tons of additional benefits as well. It’s something you’ve probably been thinking about doing—you’ve wanted to do it for a long time. Perhaps now is the time! It’s $65/year. The networking opportunities, support, resources and the tremendous opportunities and information offered in the monthly editions of the SPAWN Market Update (if you take advantage of them) will result in earnings and savings many times your initial investment. AND you get this valuable book half price.

As if this isn’t enough of a gift, I’d like to share something else of value to you this morning.

Here are my top ten best book promotion ideas for authors. They are in no particular order of importance. Your first choice might be someone else’s 5th choice. But every author should pursue every item on this list:

1: Build promotion into your book before it’s a book. (Let me know if you need help understanding this concept.)

2: Go out and speak about your book.

3: Build a useful website.

4: Establish a massive email/mailing list and use it.

5: Get book reviews—lots of them.

6: Do book signings, demonstrations, performances.

7: Become involved in social media.

8: Submit articles and/or stories on your topic/in your genre.

9: Join related organizations and participate.

10: Spy on other authors. Find out how they are promoting their similar books.

To learn the ins and outs of each item on this list, sign up for my online Book Promotion Course.
http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm

Posted in Book Promotion, Publishing | No Comments »

Is Your Book Ready to Be Published?

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Brian Jud ran the first of my 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book in his “Marketing Matters Newsletter” yesterday. You can see it here: http://www.bookmarketingworks.com/mktgmattersnews
I’m the “Guest Columnist” this week.

If you haven’t done so already, go to my newest website and sign up for the free ebooklet, 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book. http://www.patriciafry.com

This ebooklet will help you to determine whether or not you are ready to produce your book and what you need to do or to consider before doing so. As you know, publishing is not an extension of your writing. Writing is a craft—a heart thing—and publishing is a seriously competitive business. You will need to enter into the world of publishing using completely different methods, skills and mindset than you used while writing your wonderful book. And this ebooklet helps you to understand just what steps you must take now in order to successfully enter into the publishing field.

You might read this ebooklet and realize the importance of hiring an editor before showing your book around to agents/publishers or even before self-publishing. You may discover that you haven’t given your audience much thought and you really need to make some changes to your book before it is publisher (and reader)-ready. You might decide that you want to pursue a small traditional publisher rather than go with the first pay-to-publish company that tries to woo you. (Some new authors simply don’t know what all of their options are.)

You may decide to hold off on producing your how-to, business book, memoir or novel until you’ve spent more time building your platform and designing a marketing plan. Likewise, you may choose to build your website before you come out with the book (the recommendation of most experts).

The thing is, if you are not appropriately prepared to become an author and if your book doesn’t have all of the aspects and elements necessary in today’s publishing climate, you are pretty much wasting your time if you proceed with it. This FREE 24-page ebooklet could make the difference between a successful book and a failed one.

Download your free copy of this booklet at http://www.patriciafry.com

Contact me here PLFry620@yahoo.com for a consultation appointment (via email or phone), estimate for manuscript editing, help with your book proposal etc. Sign up for one of my 7 online courses http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

Several of you have downloaded my ebooklet: 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book. I’d like to hear from you. Did it make a difference in your publishing plans? If so, in what way? PLFry620@yahoo.com.

Posted in Authorship, Publishing | No Comments »

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