Writing and Publishing News

After an event where I speak, such as the one last weekend in Rancho Mirage, California, I often get questions from attendees. Well, I solicit questions. I let folks know that I have an “open door” email policy. And when I hear from these authors and hopeful authors, I do my best to respond in a helpful way to their questions and concerns. Yesterday, a gentleman wrote and asked me: “Are there proven ways to effectively use a blog for promotion?”

Here’s the gist of my response:

I’m not sure that there are any “proven” ways. However, certainly, some bloggers have been successful with a particular approach when selling a specific type of book to a particular audience. I can’t imagine there being a blanket technique that would work for all bloggers/authors and all books, except, of course, be helpful, give what you can by way of resources and other materials and be consistent.

If you blog haphazardly—only once in a while, for example—you won’t have as many followers as you will when you have a consistent and frequent blogging schedule.

Here’s what I suggested to this author. Find some of the most successful bloggers on the Internet who are promoting books and material like yours. Isolate those bloggers that are getting the most comments, that are ranked high in a google search, etc. Then follow them. Find out what they are doing different to make their blog so popular. In other words, spy on your competition.

Is there anything you would add to this response?

Have you ordered your copies of my books yet? Let me give you a rundown:
Publish Your Book, for authors who are starting out or are struggling in the industry. This book helps hopeful and struggling authors to understand more about the publishing industry (sooooo important). It provides a great section on publishing options and walks you through a process of choosing the best option for you and for your book. It also goes into distribution and marketing. Contact me if you have questions about what this book covers. It should be at every author’s elbow throughout the process of writing, publishing and marketing a book and beyond.

Promote Your Book offers over 250 proven book promotion techniques and resources for all authors of fiction and nonfiction. If you are an author or plan to be soon and you want to sell your book to a large segment of readers, you MUST educate yourself about book promotion. And the earlier the better.

Talk Up Your Book is for authors who need more confidence, skill and techniques when it comes to public speaking and communication—a highly important aspect of book promotion. Personality sells books. This means that readers more readily buy books from authors they meet and like.

Order all of these books at amazon.com, my website or any online or downtown bookstore.
http://www.matilijapress.com

Sometimes people bring me ideas for blog posts. This week a friend suggested I write about the annoying author who “over-promotes.”

Do you think there is such a thing as over-promoting your book or yourself? I’m sure this subject could be debated from now until Sunday. What’s considered obnoxious promotion to one person might be creative, clever, on-the-ball promotion to another. Here’s what happened in my friend’s case.

She wrote an article and it was published. An author came along and posted a comment. What bothers my friend is that the comment was pure and blatant self-promotion. There was not one gracious iota about it. This author took the opportunity to promote. And promote, she did without ever mentioning the article she was using—that she had hitched her soapbox to. She simply took up that space and used that venue to promote her book and her views.

I still suggest that you should use opportunities such as this to promote your book, but do so with some sort of grace, for heaven sakes. Let’s say that you have a book of poetry and you found a great article or blog post featuring an active group who is fostering the reading and writing of poetry in schools. Sure leave a comment. But start out by commending this group’s efforts. Maybe compliment the writer for a well-written piece of importance to the community and then, perhaps, briefly tell of your experience learning about poetry in grammar school, for example. Then mention that you are now the author of a book of poetry. In my opinion, this is a more gracious way to promote yourself or your book using someone else’s article or blog post.

You can ride on the shirttails of another author or freelance writer, just do so with class, not brass.

Here’s another example: You have written a book focused on the life for one woman living in the Middle East. One day, you read an article featuring the Middle Eastern woman’s plight—how women today survive in some of the small villages. You want to promote your book to the readers of this article. Great idea! These readers are probably your readers and this is an opportunity to reach them. The gracious way to proceed would be to compliment the writer on her research and sensitivity to the subject. Explain that you have traveled into some of these communities while researching for your book and maybe tie something from your book to an area of research noted in the article. Of course, give the title of your book and a bit-ly Amazon link along with your name.

Now go out and find recent blog posts and articles on the topic of your book and see how gracious you can be while promoting the heck out of your wonderful book.

Talk Up Your Book is outselling my other two recent books—Promote Your Book and Publish Your Book. At least that’s what the Amazon stats show this morning. Unfortunately when you are not the publisher, you don’t get the orders and the only accounting you have of books sold through online and downtown outlets is through your royalty statement.

But it does give an author a bit of a thrill to see ranking numbers at Amazon under 500,000; 300,000 and, as in my case this morning, under 100,000. Could this indicated increase in sales be the result of my personalized promotion over the last few weeks? Not only did I contact my massive email list, but I did a blast to newsletters, magazines and enewsletters in my niche market.

There are 10 reviews posted for Talk Up Your Book at amazon.com now and I got word from the publisher that the book will be on Kindle soon. Any day now.

I had to remind the publicist to make this happen, though. Keep this in mind if you land a publisher and have use of a publicist for a brief period once your book is published. You aren’t the only book they are promoting, so you have to sometimes remind them to follow-through with aspects of your marketing program.

I tell authors, you must consider yourself the CEO of your book. And this is true whether you self-publish, go with a pay-to-publish company or land a traditional publisher. You are in charge of your book’s success and you are responsible if that book fails. You can’t say, “My book failed because there is no market for it.” It failed because you didn’t bother to research the market thoroughly enough or you rejected the information you found and published it anyway.

You can’t say, “My book failed because bookstores won’t carry it.” If you want the book in bookstores, it is up to you to promote it enough to the right people so it is selling in bookstores.

You can’t say that your book failed because of anyone or anything else. Your success or failure is all on your shoulders. You are in charge from the germ of an idea to publication and beyond. This is why I wrote Publish Your Book. To help you prepare for success from the very beginning.

I’m off to talk about the psychology of a book proposal to a large group of authors in Palm Springs today. While I’m gone, go to amazon.com and purchase the books I’ve written just for you. If you are starting out as an author or struggling, read Publish Your Book. If you need help promoting your book and understanding promotion, read Promote Your Book. If you would like to step up your promotional efforts and get personal with your readers, by all means, you need Talk Up Your Book.

This week I contacted around 45 editors of magazines and newsletters for authors. You see, authors comprise my audience for several of my books, including my latest one, “Talk Up Your Book.” In press release style (or media release, as they refer to it now), I introduced this book to editors, shared a few features and the benefits for published authors and asked the editors to review it for their publication. I also attached the ebook so they would have it at their fingertips. (Of course, most of the editors knew me because I have been writing articles for them—directed at my audience—for years as an expert in my field.)

The response has been quite exciting. Already, I’ve received enthusiastic emails from editors who can’t wait to read the book and write reviews. Some have asked me for articles so they can feature the book. A couple have already posted it as their recommended book for the month. Already, I notice that Amazon sales are up from what they were last week.

If you have a nonfiction book to promote, don’t overlook the great opportunities for promotion in magazines and newsletters related to the topic/theme of your book. Many of them are eager for information, news and resources that will help, educate, inform and/or entertain their audiences. And if you are already known to the editors through your article submissions, for example, they will be even more eager to promote what you produce.

If you are an author with a book to promote, you need this book in your library. It’s “Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals Conferences and More.” You will learn how to locate and how to create opportunities to speak to your audience, tips and techniques for more successful public speaking and communication experiences, how to sell more books at book festivals, how to get speaking gigs as an expert at appropriate conferences and more. You’ll also learn how to get involved in webinars, podcasts and radio/TV interviews.

If you’ve been promoting a book for long, you know how important the personal approach is. Become more adept at presenting in person whether to a large group or one-on-one. Order your copy of “Talk Up Your Book” today. (Soon to be on Kindle.) Read the 10 5-star reviews! http://amzn.to/ZMJndK

And start today contacting newsletters and magazines in your topic and negotiating some publicity for your amazing book.