Do you want to be found? If you have a book to promote, the answer should be yes. Your website should come up immediately when your name is typed into any of the major search engines.
As you may know, I am contacting authors to interview for my latest book on book promotion. And I am constantly amazed and shocked to discover how difficult it is to locate some of them—even some who are rather high-profile in other ways: they show up in industry publications, they frequently participate in seminars, etc. But when you attempt to find their contact information, you are given links to press releases, mag/newsletter articles, blogs where they commented or where they were mentioned and so forth.
When I first wrote the book I am currently revising, expanding and updating, I stated that many authors have websites. Today, if you have a book to promote you must have a website; that’s all there is to it. It’s mandatory! It’s necessary. And it’s good business. Like it or not, authorship is a business. Writing may be a craft, but once you slip into the realm of publishing, you have entered a highly competitive business and, in order to have even minimal success, you must approach it as such.
Have any of you ever Googled my name? There are scads of other Patricia Frys. I come across new ones fairly often. Yet, when I Google my name, it is my websites that come up first, links to some of my published articles and interviews appear. This is as it should be. In fact, a funny thing happened a few weeks ago. A gentleman contacted me saying that he is writing a book about a woman named Patricia Fry and, in the process of seeking more information about her, he came across me. Of course, he had questions about publishing and marketing and asked them during our email conversations.
If you plan, anytime soon, to enter into the world of publishing, have a website built. Establish a blog. Submit stories or articles to appropriate publications. Comment at other blogs related to the theme or genre of your book. Be a guest blogger. Join organizations related to your book topic or to publishing. (Often, here at SPAWN, we get inquiries about one of our members or former members. Evidently, the only way these folks could be tracked down was through their membership in our organization.)
Another mistake I see authors make is to change their email address without telling anyone. How many times have you gone in search of someone, locate their websites and attempt to contact them, only to have your email returned to you? It happened to me again this morning. I read in one of my newsletters about an author I want to interview for my book (she would be getting FREE publicity for her book, after all) and the email form I filled out bounced. What’s up with this?
Unless you are wanted by the police or in some sort of witness program, if you are an author and if you want to sell books, you must find ways to be available to your public. And this generally means more than using social media sites. It means building and maintaining your own personal website or one focusing on the title of your book, perhaps. Your next responsibility is to make it easy to navigate and to contact you. Otherwise, you will miss out on sales and promotional activities.
Sometimes a customer wants to ask some questions before purchasing a book from you. Sometimes someone only wants to ask questions, but ends up buying your book or signing up for your services. Other times, there’s a promotional opportunity that you did not expect, which you will miss if you are not easily accessible.
If I had been difficult to locate in 2006, I would never have been the first woman ever invited to be the keynote speaker at a Toastmasters Convention in Dubai. I would not have experienced first class International flying. I would not have met some fascinating people and had the opportunity to tour areas of the Middle East.
Two things I need from you: Contact me with your book promotion experiences. I am particularly looking for stories focusing on affiliate marketing for authors, successful use of the press release for authors, interesting seasonal marketing experiences, selling books through specialty stores (jewelry store, pharmacy, auto parts store, hobby shop, etc.), selling through schools, how joining an organization helped your book sales, spin offs that were successful and book to film—making it happen and making it work.
Contact me here or at PLFry620@yahoo.com
In the meantime, visit my websites and check out my offerings:
http://www.patriciafry.com
http://www.matilijapress.com