Writing and Publishing News

It truly is a time for giving and that also means donations. One way to promote a book is through donations. I recommend donating copies to organizations within your community that are running live and silent auctions. Everyone at the event will see your book either lying on a table for several hours with a bidding sheet or being held up and spoken about during a live auction.

Sometimes donated items are listed in event programs, the local newspaper and/or at the organization’s website. Other times, the donation doesn’t get a lot of public attention, so what are the benefits in this case?

The organizers and volunteers will become aware of your book as they handle it and direct it to the right recipient. The recipient is certainly aware of it as is anyone he or she talks to about it. It is impossible to know how many people this is. It could be one or two or the total number of people who hear about or see your book as a result of one donation could be in the dozens, hundreds of thousands.

As an additional benefit, this is a write-off on your income tax. And it makes you feel good when you give, whether it is to an individual at holiday time, someone in an assisted living facility, an inmate, a guest or resident at a homeless shelter, a child, a library system or someone who happens to place the highest bid on a gift basket containing your book.

Dallas Woodburn, a graduate student who is also teaching writing and runs an organization for young writers, operates a book drive for children in an attempt to promote literacy each year in this month. This year, I purchased books from Karen Lee Stevens, author of “Animals Have Feelings, Too” for Dallas’s book drive. (The illustrator for this book is SPAWN member, Terri Rider.) http://www.allforanimals.com/book.html

To donate books to the book drive, go to http://writeonbooks.org Click on “Holiday Book Drive.”

I am also giving copies of my unpublished novel to about a dozen friends and family members this year for Christmas. No it isn’t published, yet, but we have a comb binding machine, so we created a cover, printed it out and bound it to wrap as gifts. FUN!!!! The novel is part of the Klepto Cat Mystery Series. It’s called “Catnapped.” I just finished another rewrite am really pleased with how it shaped up.

I once sent a whole crate of my metaphysical book to Louisiana after Katrina. They were asking for books for those who would be in shelters a long time.

How do you use your book as a donation or a gift? How does this benefit you? Leave your comments here.

By the way, this is just one idea from my book of over 250 ideas for promoting your book—Promote Your Book. Order your copy now at Amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores.

I hope you learned from the week-long book promotion blog-shop (that’s my play on the term workshop). I know it was meaningful to at least one woman as she came to my website and purchased all 3 of my latest books—Publish Your Book, Promote Your Book and Talk Up Your Book.

By the way, there is a new 5-star review at Amazon for Talk Up Your Book. This makes 8 of them.

If you have a book and you’ve accumulated reviews, you know how interesting it is to find out how others view it—their perspective on your book. Very often, you learn new ways to promote your book based on how others describe it. C. Hope Clark offers a fascinating sketch of Talk Up Your Book in her new review and shares some interesting analogies to describe the intent and value of it.

Honest reviews from your colleagues and your readers can be most valuable in promoting your book. First, their followers trust their opinion and this will surely spark sales. But also, reviewers can provide you with some interesting new ways to describe and present your book that you may not have thought of.

We talked about getting book reviews during the weeklong blog-shop. But I don’t think authors use the book-review option to the fullest extent that they could. It appears to me that most authors avoid going to the trouble to get reviews. Sure it can be time-consuming and sometimes rather demeaning. If you want a review from a particular professional or author in your genre, for example, you sometimes have to keep asking for it. People put things off and reading a book. Writing a review is one of those things that seems to land on the bottom of our to-do list.

So not only does that leave the author with the responsibility of locating and approaching appropriate reviewers, but he/she is stuck with the job of following up on those they have found the courage to contact.

You may notice that some books have dozens of reviews at amazon.com. That’s mostly because the author or publisher or publicist has asked for the reviews and have, in some cases, badgered the potential reviewer to follow through.

For the author or other professional, writing a book reviews is generally not a priority. Even those who have book review sites and spend all their time doing book reviews may be sluggish when it comes to reviewing your book. That’s generally because they are inundated with books. Since they are reading and reviewing for pleasure, they pick and choose the books they want to read.

If you are an author or hope to be soon, I write for you. See my array of books at my Matilija Press website or at Amazon.com. If you have recently finished your book manuscript or you are showing one around and are not having much luck landing a publisher, send it to me for a free editorial evaluation. I may be able to help. Yes, I am also a book editor. Contact me here: PLFry620@yahoo.com

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

Once you have a website up, you are blogging regularly and promoting your blog far and wide, you have started sending out review copies and you’re doing a few speaking engagements and book festivals, it’s time to add to your agenda.

Along the promotional path, you have probably become aware of a few ideas that worked for you and your book or you’ve heard about some activities you want to try. After having established a bit of a comfort zone with book promotion, it is time to start expanding.

Do more of what you are already doing, of course, but add things such as contributing to newsletters in your topic/genre. Do a blog tour. Comment at other related blogs. Bring in name people connected to your field/genre to post at your blog—guest bloggers. Seek out bookstores and other outlets in your area and while you travel and offer your books on consignment. Arrange for local radio interviews and submit articles in regional magazines to bring attention to your book at these locations. Start your own newsletter.

Does it sound like you are free to go back to your job or writing once your book is a book? Not if you want to sell copies of your book. Follow this guide and sell maybe 200 to 1,000 or more copies of your book, depending on the nature of it and the scope of your audience. Or go back to work—and many an author can confirm this—do nothing more than get one write-up in the local newspaper after your book comes out and you will sell maybe as many as 10 copies.

You do the math. You make the decision. Are you ready to take on the huge, time-consuming, energy-draining responsibility and commitment of producing a book? If not, I’d say keep working, save your money and hold off publishing until you are financially and physically ready.

In the meantime, I keep writing books that include my knowledge and expertise after 40 years in the business and including advice and anecdotes from many other professionals.

For a greater understanding of the publishing industry and how to successfully navigate it, read Publish Your Book.

If you are ready to start planning your marketing strategy, order a copy of Promote Your Book.

If you realize you should be out there talking about your book, but you lack confidence and knowledge about how to get started, how to write a speech, how to rehearse and deliver one, how to handle visitors to your book festival booth, how to become a workshop leader at appropriate conference and more, read Talk Up Your Book.

All available at amazon and most other online and downtown bookstores. Also order them here:
http://www.matilijapress.com

A good number of those first few boxes of books you order from your printer or publisher will be give aways. You’ll give copies to contributors to the book, your editor and key players in your industry or genre, for example. These are people who might talk up your book and recommend it to others. In fact, after giving them a copy of the book, send emails or give a call occasionally to ask if they have read the book and what they think about it. Urge them to write a review and post it at appropriate sites. Ask them to promote it to their colleagues, in their newsletters, at their blogs, etc.

Send books to appropriate reviewers. This might be book review editors for industry or genre magazines and newsletters, colleagues and professionals in your field or genre and/or some of the many online book reviewers.

Newsflash, you do not have to pay for reviews. Magazine/ezine book reviewers do not charge for book reviews, in fact sometimes they pay for book reviews from outside contributors. There are dozens—maybe hundreds—of online book reviewers that do not charge. Here are a few book review directories:

http://acqweb.org/bookrev.html
http://dir.yahoo.com/arts/humanities/literature/reviews
http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net/free-book-reviews.html
(These are just a scant sampling of the resources and information you will find in my book, “Promote Your Book.”

When someone writes a review or makes positive comments about your book, always, always ask them if they would post the review/comments at the book’s Amazon page.

You can also research other books like yours at Amazon. Find out who is reviewing them? Contact some of those reviewers and ask if they would review your book.

Some reviewers prefer to receive an electronic version of your book. Others will insist on a print copy.

Along with the task of contacting people to review your book, be sure to send notices to everyone on the gigantic email list you have been building. Tell them about your book. List the benefits to potential readers and supply ordering information.

Order your copy of Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. It’s available at amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores. Also at http://www.matilijapress.com

You’ve made an educated decision—you had your book manuscript edited by an experienced book editor. You followed the editor’s instructions and suggestions for tightening your writing, rewriting muddy sentences, creating better transitions, etc. You have studied your publishing options and you’ve researched each one so you know you are making the right publishing decision for you and for your particular book. You are ready to move forward.

Now if you can’t relate to the first paragraph, let me back up a bit. You should know that, in publishing there are apples and there are oranges. A few grapefruit and lemons are tossed in as well. The policy manual and values of one company doesn’t necessarily reflect the policies and values of all. Choosing a publisher can be as personal as—well choosing a hairdresser or a best friend. You must do your homework and part of that homework is studying, not just the first publisher or pay-to-publish company that contacts you with a contract, but studying the publishing industry and all of your options. Become aware of the dangers. Find out who are the good guys and who have shaky reputations. And this is not something you can do on your own. Read books by professionals in the industry—including Mark Levine’s “The Fine Print of Self-Publishing.” Learn to do your own research in order to discover if Company A is upstanding or if there have been many complaints lodged against them, etc. And please, please, read my book, “Publish Your Book.” I wrote it just for those of you who are not, yet, familiar with the world of publishing.

Okay, once you have done your homework and made a good publishing choice, you will soon have a book in your hands. If you chose the pay-to-publish route or self-publishing (you’ve established your own publishing company), have enough books printed so you can give many of them away and still have some to sell. If you’ve gone with a traditional publisher, likewise, order at least two boxes of books to sell on your own. The publisher expects you to do this, you know.

Once you have made your publishing decision, you may have anywhere from two-weeks to several months before you hold your book in your hands. Start now seeking out book festivals, appropriate conferences and speaking opportunities where your audience congregates.

I’ve given these links to you numerous times, but here they are again:
To locate conferences related to your topic:
http://www.shawguides.com
http://www.allconferences.com
http://www.eventseye.com
http://www.eventsinamerica.com

To locate book festivals:
http://author-network.com/festivals.html
http://bookfestivals.com

Also conduct your own Internet search to find conferences and festivals in your area.

Before your book is a book, set up website start blogging.

Make sure your book is at Amazon.com. Generally, your publisher or pay-to-publish company will arrange this for you. Just make sure that it happens. Everyone shops at Amazon these days.

If you need more information, anecdotes and resources to help you develop or hone your speaking and communication skills, how to locate speaking engagements, how to get on radio/TV, how to do webinars, etc., be sure to read “Talk Up Your Book.” Available at Amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores. Also at my website: http://www.matilijapress.com

Tomorrow we’ll talk about those give-away books. Who are you going to give them to and why? What are the benefits of giving free books? Why does it pay to be generous?