Sell

Articles about book / author promotion and marketing, and author platform.

Pam Satran's Web-Book Synergy

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This article, from Laurie Lico Albanese, originally appeared on Shelf Awareness on 9/22/09.

Humor author Pamela Redmond Satran offers many lessons. For one, she advises those of us who are not-so-hip that the young and vibrant read vampire romances and graphic novels while assiduously avoiding eternal dieting, perpetual negativity, excessive housework or anything in leopard print spandex.

How Not to Act Old (Harper, $14.99, 9780061771309/780061771309), Satran’s self-help humor book inspired by the eponymous blog site known by its acronym HNTAO, was released August 7 and immediately hit the New York. Times Paperback Advice Bestseller List at the No. 7 slot, thanks to pre-pub orders fueled by the author’s tireless electronic networking outreach.

This included early cross-posting on the Huffington Post, marketing through More.com magazine in conjunction with Barnes & Noble.com and scoring a Best New Humor Website plug in the Los Angeles Times last year.

The lesson in this: as she has before for various literary projects, Satran was able to harness the evanescent attention and lightning-fast Internet connections needed to cross from blog to book to YouTube to Facebook, Twitter, print media, TV and beyond. And she did so on the cheap. Her start-up costs were "zero," plus "my own sweat-equity," she said.

After posting 70 entries on her new HNTAO blog site in July 2008, Satran went from web launch to book contract in six weeks, and from contract to book in a year. The book’s been favorably reviewed in the Wall Street Journal and has taken her to the Early Show, Good Day New York and dozens of radio spots. In July, Slate’s doublex.com Hanna Rosin praised "the great genius of How Not to Act Old," and the New York Times Book Review featured Satran at the top of "Inside the List."

Ironically Satran started the HNTAO blog after trying unsuccessfully to place a piece on the same topic in a national magazine.

"This is a hard market for people to understand," Satran said of her largely over-40, predominantly female market. "Ageism is deep-seated and pervasive and really at its heart is very vicious. I sometimes think that young people secretly wish we’d all go off somewhere and just die."
 

Read the rest of the article on Shelf Awareness.

Self-Publishing: Future Prerequisite

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Until recently, if you were self-published virtually any agent or book editor worth her salt didn’t want to hear about it. Many of them would want nothing to do with you at all, as if your self-published status might rub their own cachet off or something. But given the tenor and content of the sessions at this year’s Writers Digest Business of Getting Published Conference, I predict it won’t be long before agents and editors will routinely respond to queries by asking what you’ve self-published, and how it’s doing. That’s right, and you heard it here first:
 

I predict that within 5 years, self-publishing will no longer be an option, but a prerequisite for unknown, aspiring authors hoping to land a mainstream publishing deal. It’s the logical, inevitable next step in author platform.

At the conference, the prevailing message was that authors, both aspiring and already published, need to be getting themselves and their work out there in front of the reading public at every opportunity. And guess what? If you’re blogging or making your writing available for download in ebook or podcast formats you’re already self-publishing. As for those who aren’t doing these things for fear of intellectual property theft, in numerous sessions attendees were reminded of Tim O’Reilly’s now legendary quote: that for anyone trying to build an audience, “Obscurity is a greater threat than piracy.”

Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler, both of whom broke through to mainstream success after building an audience for their podcasts, advised conference attendees that the best way to get publishers to sit up and take notice is to demonstrate your ability to build an audience and move your material on your own. Social media guru Chris Brogan said the easiest way to get a book deal is not to need one—because you’ve already established your own platform and have your own audience—, and proposed that rather than follow established roads, aspiring authors should go where there are no roads and create their own. Writers Digest Publisher and Editorial Director Jane Friedman reminded us that here in the 21st century there are no longer any rules in publishing, and reiterated the notion that for aspiring authors, platform comes before the book deal. Be The Media author David Mathison hammered away at the importance of connecting with your readership directly. Booksquare’s Kassia Krozser urged authors to push out into every available channel to enable readers to find them, and as for The Writer Mama Christina Katz, the title of her most recent book is Get Known Before The Book Deal (’nuff said!).

So, how do you intend to enable readers to find you, or build an audience, or connect with readers directly, or get known before the book deal if you’re not publishing or podcasting any of your work? You can’t just tell your site or blog visitors your writing is great, they should trust you on that, and then expect to hold their interest with what amounts to a lengthy series of hang-in-there-I-swear-when-the-book-comes-out-you’ll-love-it messages.

As we all already know, a manuscript’s content is only one piece—an increasingly small piece, unfortunately—of the decision-making puzzle when it comes to convincing a publisher to make an offer. When the editors, marketing wonks and other decision makers get together to consider which manuscripts to acquire, Risk is the name of the elephant in the room and mitigating risk is the key to a sale. When you approach an agent or editor with a quality manuscript, you may convince them you can write but you’re doing nothing to reduce their fears about the eventual book’s performance in the marketplace. If you can approach those same people with a book that’s already in the marketplace and already has a fan base, you’ve already answered the question of how the book will perform post-publication. You’ve reduced their antacid intake by half and given them some very good reasons to invest in you and your book.

Don’t let anyone tell you self-publishing is a desperation move. It’s a power move.

April L. Hamilton is an author, and the founder and Editor in Chief of Publetariat. This is a cross-posting from her Indie Author Blog.

One Electronic Thingie an Indie Author Can’t Do Without….

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It’s been another strange week, in a strange year.  The wholesale adoption of the previously (all through the “dark ages”) shunned Print On Demand production model by the mainstream publishing industry continues unchecked.  The last reported Big Publisher to succumb is Hatchette as reported in Publisher’s Weekly.  Soon, I’m sure at least publishers and agents will have to admit that POD alone is not sufficient grounds to disregard a writer’s work!  But then, I’m not here to rant on…

As technology, especially communications technology continues to spin out new and improved ways to spread the word, Indie Authors may face a dilemma.  What gear do I really need to promote and sell my work? 

Now I’ve been called a gear-head by my wife – repeatedly – and something of a luddite by younger friends.  If a Blackberry or I-Phone is on your horizon, don’t let me stop you.  There are plenty of blogs and articles out there explaining how to use these devices along with web-based social networking sites and Twitter.  I don’t tweet.  At least not yet, and not in mixed company.

Today, I want to discuss adding traditional, consumer-targeted promotion tools to your arsenal.  We’ll assume relative computer literacy – you’re reading this online, after all.  You have a computer, can operate some photo editing/design software and probably a laser printer to handle the manuscript printing and submission letters, but do you have a photo printer?

Now I don’t mean one of those tiny, snapshot machines, although they do have some promotional applications.  I’m speaking of an inkjet or dye sublimation printer sufficiently large to handle at least letter sized stock.  The current crop of offerings by most manufacturers produce beautiful results – good looking photo prints, but they can also be used to produce excellent point-of-sale tools and mailers.  Important, for most of us, they are not terribly expensive. Be sure to choose one for which you can get supplies (ink, paper) locally. My favorite online gear seller is Tiger Direct, but there are many out there who discount quality hardware.

I use a Canon PIXMA ip6600D a few years old, which prints up to letter size, full bleed (no white borders) images on up to 10 point (fairly stiff) coated card stock.  It has helped me secure bookstore accounts for my first novel.  Along with a sample copy of the book and a nice, to the point cover letter offering direct sales with a good margin based upon the cover price, I enclose a counter postcard. This is made from the book cover graphic, and includes a very truncated pitch. At the bottom is a space that says simply, “Bookseller’s Imprint Here”.  I offer these, customized with the seller’s logo and contact info, free to the bookseller, the same as a book distributer would offer.  The last part of the package is a letter-sized full color poster of the book cover & blurb for the bookseller to use wherever it fits.  Letter size is actually better than larger for most booksellers as space for display is often at a serious premium. 

By using my photo printer to produce collateral promotional materials, customized for the bookseller, I improve my chances in two ways.  First, it makes my sales pitch more professional and businesslike. It shows that I’m serious about helping the bookseller make money with my work – not a small idea. Most independent booksellers are “Mom & Pop” operations that need any help they can get in stretching their profits.  If your promotional items are used, it will give your book better recognition with readers, and not just while they’re in the book store. 

As readers enter the visual clutter of a bookstore, they’ll be bombarded by images – hundreds of them, from posters to book jackets.  Despite the apparent confusion, marketing tests have shown that our human brains may not recall exact words, but a good image will be retained.  A color image, is retained much better than a black and white or grey-scale image.  An image displaying excellent composition and a clear subject focus are the very best. Like an excellent jacket cover design.  Retained images (of your excellent jacket cover) will come in handy when the shopper passes the table or shelf where your book is displayed, and ..something…calls out to them to pick it up.  That’s where recognition comes in very handy.  Of course, once they’ve picked up the book, your writing skills are put to their biggest test: presenting the pitch a reader can’t say no to.

If they drop your gorgeous, full color postcard into a pocketbook or briefcase, it will surely surface again, often where others can be exposed to its wonderfully insidious pitch and presentation.  Think: Ralphie with the ad for the Red Ryder BB Gun stuck in Mommy’s magazine, heh! heh!. Hopefully, as long as it gets passed around (intentionally or not) it can pitch your book and establish recognition.  This continues until it finally enters the trash bin.  We can discuss the green implications at a later time, if you think it’s important.  For my money, it sure beats a bumper sticker on a Hummer. 

We operate a small – tiny, really – online and mail-order company.  That’s where I got the idea, initially for the cards.  Using 4×6 photo glossy sheets, I began printing postcards years ago, with our store images and information to pack inside of each sale shipment.  Now when one of our customers opens their shipping box, they not only get a nice full-color store promotional card, but another card which offers “A Fine Addition to Your Fall Reading List”. As the seasons change, it will be easily revised to read: Winter, etc. 

My first book sales, outside of immediate friends and family came directly from these cards.  You may have your own business, or not, but you may be able to approach your employer about including a book postcard in shipments or correspondence.  It may not be possible, but it may, and it’s worth the risk to inquire.

There is another use for the photo printer that I’ve found very important.  Business cards.  You can purchase letter-sized sheets of glossy or matte card-stock that are pre-perforated, actually scored.  Each sheet can produce 20 beautiful business cards that you break apart with no ragged edges at all.  They look just like the ones I used to have printed by a color gang press in Texas. The really neat thing is, if I need a card with my personal contact information on it, as opposed to our business info, I can print whatever I need. They even make up fold-over cards that can make nice gift attachment notes, etc.  Small, full-color cards also make excellent postings for community bulletin boards, often found in bookstores and libraries.  I’m not too proud to hang my shingle and promote my book wherever I can. 

Now, you might be thinking that this doesn’t sound like what a successful author should have to do, but Indie Authors must wear at least two hats: writer as well as book promoter and publicist.  Also, try to get used to the idea of being a manufacturer of a product.  Once the writing is over, your job is to sell product.  It will put you in a very exclusive club with members such as Samuel Clements who, writing a short novelette under the name Mark Twain – his first commercial fiction work – resorted to distributing handbills himself to sell copies of The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

He lost his shirt in the effort, but he didn’t have a color photo printer, did he?

Next Time: My Tips for Designing & Proofing a Cover with Impact! Nuts & Bolts 101

The Indie Curmudgeon is Richard Sutton, Indie Novelist, graphic designer, marketing consultant, guitar picker, Indian Trader and online retail merchant since 1995.

Make A Good Impression With A Custom Twitter Background

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This post, from Hugh Briss, originally appeared as a guest post on the Twitip site on 11/12/08.

A Custom Twitter Background can make a real impression and enhance your brand – but how do you make one? In this guest post post Hugh Briss from Twitter Image (a service that offers custom Twitter backgrounds) shares some tips on how to make your own.

I know what they say about making assumptions but I’m going to make one now and assume that most of you already understand the potential of Twitter, especially for those of us with something to promote. If you aren’t yet convinced that Twitter is going to do for the Internet what sliced bread did for the sandwich, I encourage you to spend more time reading Twitip. My job today is not to evangelize Twitter — which I love to do — but to talk about how to create cool Twitter backgrounds and show you how valuable the proper use of that space can be.

Generic is Only Good for Prescriptions

In addition to the generic Twitter background, Twitter currently offers 12 stock backgrounds along with pleasing preset colors for the elements on the page. You can also modify the colors of the overall background, text, links, sidebar background and the sidebar border. The first thing any Twit (easier to say that Twitterer) should do is change the generic background, unless you don’t like standing out from the crowd, in which case you can stop reading now.

Switching backgrounds and changing the color palette of your Twitter page is easy to do. Simply select "Settings" in the top row of links on your Twitter page, click on the "Design" tab and then either select a "theme" or click on "Change background image" or "Change design colors" and get creative. Don’t worry about goofing anything up. Any changes you make will not be visible to anyone but you until you click "save".

screen1.jpg screen2.jpg screen3.jpg

 

Themes are Good but Why Stop There?

Now I know that some of you will be perfectly happy with one of the themes Twitter has provided for you but there are still going to be thousands of Twits with the same background as you. It’s like going out in public wearing the same exact clothes as a bunch of other people — which is only cool if you’re going to a football game or a funeral.

With the holiday season fast approaching, this would be a good time to start looking for a nice Christmas-themed background, or Hannukah, Kwanzaa or whatever holiday you celebrate.

The best way to make sure that your Twitter page doesn’t look like anyone else’s is to upload your own background image. Those of you with the necessary skills might want to use Photoshop or a similar program to create your own from scratch. If that’s not a possibility, then there are other options. You can simply upload a photograph you’ve taken, for example. Another option is to find an image that will tile (repeat) in an appealing way. Search Google for "tile background" and you’ll find thousands of places to get them.

Colour Lovers is an excellent place to start if you want to make your own tiling background patterns. They also offer palettes that will help you pick colors that go well together so your Twitter page doesn’t look like you picked the colors with your eyes closed or let your 3-year old do it for you.

Twitter Patterns is another great place to find patterns for your tiled background.

Here are some pattern generators that are a lot of fun to play around with:

Read the rest of the post, which includes much more information and links to some excellent free Twitter resources, on Twitip.

Publishers Must Change The Way Authors Get Paid

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This editorial, from novelist M.J. Rose, originally appeared on Publishing Perspectives on 8/28/09. While the piece deals with mainstream author compensation schemes (advances and royalties), it points up the fact that the line between mainstream and indie authors continues to blur day by day now that mainstream authors are expected to act much like indie authors when it comes to promoting their books.

Shout it from the rooftops, or better yet, hashtag it on Twitter. It’s time to turn the page on how authors get paid.

Times have changed, and with them, every aspect of the publishing landscape is morphing. And from my vantage point, nowhere is it changing more than in marketing. Authors aren’t waiting and watching to see what publishers aren’t doing for their books — they are jumping in feet first and months ahead of their houses to make sure there’s a serious marketing and publicity effort.

And publishers aren’t gnashing their teeth over the author’s involvement anymore — they are encouraging it. Co-op is more costly than ever and eating up marketing dollars. In almost all cases, publishers are making it clear that they expect authors to supplement their marketing/PR effort in various ways and, in some cases, even soliciting the author’s help with both time and yes, money.

As a result, today the author’s marketing/PR effort is often equal to or even greater than what the house is doing.

The good news is it works. No wonder really — people do buy more of something when they know it exists, and in general, book marketing is so low-key that people don’t know what books are even out there. I have dozens of case histories of authors who have pushed their sales into reprints when none were expected, created enough velocity to generate free co-op when none was anticipated, and achieve bestseller listings when none were dreamed of.

But whenever there’s good news…

We now have a situation where publishers are financially benefiting from the author’s efforts but the author is still getting paid the old way, without regard to how much we personally invest.

There’s just no consideration for the checks we’re writing out of our own pockets for marketing or PR services.

Accordingly, it’s blatantly and patently unfair for us to invest in our own books and then wait for our advances to earn out based on the same royalties rates we’ve always gotten.

Be it $2,000 or $20,000, the money we invest should be discounted from the advances we’re paid, allowing us to earn royalties faster based on an honest up-front expenditure by the publisher.

And, it goes without saying, we should be be getting a higher royalty rate. After all, we’re doing more than writing our books, we’re business partners as well.

Read the rest of the article on Publishing Perspectives.

Punk Rock Ethos & Self-Publishing

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This post, from Daniel "Dust" Werneck (aka Daniel Poeira), originally appeared on his Empire of Dust site on 9/4/09. The majority of it is reprinted here with his permission.

“If you want something done right, do it yourself.”

– Old proverb

I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to cover this subject for a while. Now, thanks to April Hamilton – a.k.a. @indieauthor – and a link she just posted on Twitter, I think it’s the right time to talk about punk rock and self-publishing.

Since I halted my career as an independent animator and started to focus on my writing, I’ve been reading everything I can find about the current state of affairs in the world of book publishing. One of the ugliest feuds right now is between the publishing companies and professionals, and the self-publishing companies like lulu.com that print and sell books without editing.

The link Mrs. Hamilton twitted pointed to an article by Rose Fox, a professional reader and book analyst, criticizing people who self-published books. Her article, entitled “I Don’t Want To Hate Self-Publishers”, starts with two quotes; phrases she hears all the time coming from people who publish their own books. One of the sentences read:

“I’d love to see self-publishing have a similar vibe to it as punk rock – anyone can do it.”

And then she adds her view of that statement:

I know next to nothing about punk rock and I’m still pretty sure that that “anyone can do it” line is not only wrong but offensively wrong to people who do know anything about punk rock.

I also can’t see how it promotes self-publishing in any way at all, as the idea of “anyone” attempting to play punk rock only makes me want to cringe and cover my ears, much like the idea of “anyone” attempting to publish a book.

There’s plenty to criticize in both the recording industry and the publishing industry, but there’s also a lot of value in putting your raw creative endeavors in the hands of people who do things like produce albums and edit books for a living.

I am glad that she started her comment by confirming she knows ‘next to nothing’ about punk rock. Being born and raised in punk rock, I feel in the position to enlighten her shadowy views on that remark about ‘anyone’ being able to do it.

This assertion is not by any means offensive to punk rockers. Quite au contraire, it is one of the pillars of the entire punk rock experience.

Black Flag always did everything by themselves. After leaving the band, Henry Rollins became a writer and... book editor!

When punk rock first appeared with this name, in mid-1970s New York city, it was basically a bunch of amateur unsigned rock bands who wanted to make music. Back then, Disco music was the norm, and studio execs didn’t care much about rock, unless it was something gigantic and popular like Peter Frampton, or elaborate and complex like progressive rock. If you were just an average lower-middle-class bored kid with close-to-none access to musical education, making music was not a realistic option for you.

But even so, punk rock was born. It didn’t start like an organized movement, but more like a philosophy of how to do things. Bands like the Ramones, the Dead Boys and the Talking Heads had to play in an almost abandoned music venue called CBGB (an acronym for Country, Blue Grass and Blues) simply because no other place would accept them. But they did, anyway, and a lot of people loved them.

After the Ramones toured the USA and the UK in 1977, hordes of bored kids who wanted to rock bought or stole whatever instruments they could grab and started making their own rock music. They had no musical education, no media training and no producing values–but they sure had a lot of fun, and ended up creating timeless and enduring pieces of music.

The trick behind the success of punk rock back in the late 1970s and 1980s was simple: besides it being fun, thought-provoking and stimulating, you didn’t have to spend a lot of money or a lot of time to become a punk rocker. Clubs, tapes, instruments, magazines, records–everything was cheap, and felt very true to the soul. And also, at least in the beginning, on those long lost days of punk rock Alcion, you didn’t have to follow any rulebooks, or please the masses. It was a raw and free art form, and no matter what you were looking for (artistic expression, free beer, making new friends) you could get it out of punk rock.

*.*.*

Self-published punk zinesWhat does all this has to do with self-publishing books? Well, first of all, the very name of this thing called ‘punk rock’ came out of a self-published magazine. “Punk” was created by a cartoonist, a publisher and a journalist in 1975. All of them were independent, self-employed, eager and curious. Their fanzine went on to become one of the most important artistic statements of the late XX century, and is still imitated, revered and plagiarized.

Fanzines in general have also become a staple (no pun intended!) of the punk rock subculture, and thousands of them have been printed since then. I have been personally involved in many a punk zine, and my entire career as an artist [was] spawned from my amateur experiments with self-publishing those little pieces of folded A4 paper I gave out for free or sold cheaply at concerts, clubs and gatherings. I am not an exception, and have met dozens of people who [followed] the same path as I did, not to mention the literally hundreds of visual artists I’ve heard or read about who first became interested in graphic design and printing through punk or geek fanzines.

The thrill of it all? Exactly the same as with the punk rock bands. We did everything by ourselves, for ourselves, with no restraints other than the financial and technological. This led to extremely experimental solutions that became part of modern design language, xerox art, etc.

Read the rest of the post at Empire of Dust.

7 Tips For Starting A Writer's Group

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This post, from Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen, originally appeared on her Quips and Tips for Successful Writers site on 5/14/09.

Starting your own writer’s group will be a breeze with these tips from my own experience! Whether you’re a freelance writer, aspiring novelist, or published poet – a writer’s group can keep you motivated, disciplined, productive…and published!

I mentioned my writing group on Twitter, and received several “I wish I belonged to a writer’s group, but there’s none in my area” or “My writing group disbanded – and I really miss it!” responses. So, here are my tips for starting a writer’s group.

Before the tips, a quip:

“If you don’t feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn’t very vital.” – John Irving.

Fellow scribes, a writer’s group will help you stay grounded as you teeter on the edge of losing control and possibly humiliating yourself! For more info about writer’s groups, click on Writing Alone, Writing Together: A Guide for Writers and Writing Groups by Judy Reeves. And, here are my tips for starting your own writer’s group…

But first – the benefits of a writer’s group:

  • Information-sharing, which leads to growth
  • Inspiration from successful experiences
  • Support for rejections and feelings of failure
  • Encouragement to keep going
  • Feelings of solidarity and connectedness
  • Feedback for your writing, article ideas, or plans
  • Accountability for your writing goals

7 Tips for Starting a Writer’s Group

1. Decide on the best place to meet. My writer’s group started in a classroom at our local elementary school and moved to our homes (we rotate through the members’ houses). We’ve also met in the pub, which wasn’t as comfortable as a home. Other great places for writer’s groups to meet include the library, an uncrowded coffee shop, or a spare room in your local community center.

2. Be clear from the beginning about the structure of your meetings. Will you read your writing out loud, and will everyone give feedback? Will you email your story, article pitch, or book proposal before the meeting? Will you write during your meetings (that wouldn’t work for me – but it may be appealing to writers who struggle with motivation or time to write)? Will you brainstorm story ideas or wrestle with plot problems?

Read the rest of the post, including tips #3 -7, on Quips and Tips for Successful Writers.

What Are Your Goals For Writing?

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Goals are important. They sustain you through the difficult times when you feel like you can’t write another word. They will also show you what you have achieved when you get there. Life flies by – what goals will you achieve in your lifetime?

 

Path to achieving your goals

You need a huge dream-sized goal to aim for with lots of mini-goals on the way.  Maybe your main dream goal is to speak about your book on Oprah, or to become a full-time writer.

Write down what your big goals are for writing, and then write down the mini goals you need to achieve along the way. For example,

–          Publish an article in a certain magazine

–          Complete a book

–          Make a new stream of income by publishing an e-book

–          See your book on Amazon.com

–          Change career and become a full-time writer

–          Build an author website

Make sure you are congruent with your goals and that your behavior is also consistent with them. So if you set a goal to write 2500 words per week, then make sure you try to write 500 per day rather than leaving it to the last minute. If you want to write a book, set the goal and start moving towards it.

Your energy must go in the same direction as your goals. If you focus on what you want to achieve, you will get there.

“People with clear written goals accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine”
Brian Tracy

 

This piece originally appeared on The Creative Penn site on 12/5/08.

How To Lose Fans and Alienate Visitors

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Hi, Joe or Jane Author. My name is…well, it doesn’t really matter what my name is, all that matters is I’ve just signed up for your newsletter, or started visiting your site or blog, or registered for membership on your site, or started following you on Twitter, or friended you on Facebook or MySpace or FriendFeed or Goodreads or LibraryThing or something similar. This should be the start of a wonderful relationship, in which you share useful and amusing information with me and I sing your praises to everyone I know, buy your books, register for your webinars and show up to your speaking engagements. So far, so good.

Now here’s how to f**k it up.

Bombard me with emails. When I signed up for your newsletter, Helpful Tips or the like, unless you specified otherwise at the time I signed up, I’m expecting to hear from you no more frequently than once a week. And in all honesty, if your messages take longer than about five minutes to read, I won’t. Between my job, my family commitments, my social commitments, my own reading and writing, and the fall TV schedule ramping up again, I don’t have time to wade through your too-frequent or too-lengthy missives.

Bait and switch me. It might surprise you to learn that when I signed up for your newsletter or Helpful Tips I was expecting to receive…wait for it…news or Helpful Tips, NOT advertising messages. It’s fine to have a one- or two-line sales pitch at the end of your email, or to send out the occasional message about your upcoming book or speaking engagement, but the rest of your content better be worth my time and attention. Look at it this way: would you read a magazine that had nothing but full-page ads in it? If your favorite TV show suddenly started consisting of 80% ads and 20% show, would you keep watching it?

Son of bait and switch me. If you’ve promoted your free webinar, ebook, members-only site, newsletter or whatever else you’ve got as Twenty Surefire Strategies to accomplish some goal, and I sign up, I’m expecting to receive…you guessed it: Twenty Surefire Strategies. When you give me a series of sales pitches for twenty fee-based products or services from you and your affiliates instead, I tend to conclude you’re a lying liar.

Return of the son of bait and switch me. Goodreads, LibraryThing, Shelfari and other reader community sites are places where people share their reactions to books they’ve read and engage in discussions about all things book-related, generally from a reader’s perspective. If the only books on your virtual shelf are those you’ve written yourself, or if you’ve got a variety of books on display but reserve your gushiest reviews for your own work, it’s obvious you’re using the site as a marketing outlet. Way to give new authors everywhere a bad name.

Bait and switch me, the revenge. It’s great that you’re branching out into new areas, or already operating in multiple areas, but don’t assume I want to branch out with you. I signed up for your Sci Fi Wonks site because I enjoy science fiction in general, and yours in particular. Imagine my surprise (and annoyance) when I also started receiving emails from your Gory Horrors site. And your Renaissance Romance N’ Ribaldry site. And your [insert religious affiliation here] Inspiration Of The Day site. And your eBay store. Bonus question: how angry do you think I was to find there were no “unsubscribe” links in any of the unwanted emails?

Bait and switch me, the final chapter. I understand I may need to provide my email address when posting a comment on your blog or site, because it protects you from spammers and hackers. And of course, if I’ve used the Contact form to send you a remark or question off-site, you need my email address to respond to me. But neither of these actions gives you the right to add me to your mailing list. Even if you’ve added some verbiage to your site pages to indicate that’s what you’ll do anytime someone enters his or her email address anywhere on your site, since that’s not how upstanding and honest most sites operate, if you want to avoid any appearance of bait-and-switchery you need to have a separate page just for mailing list signups.

Bait and switch me, the remake. Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, MySpace and other social networking sites are intended for…seriously, do I have to say it? Social networking. Not marketing or sales pitches. If most (or worse, all!) of your tweets, status updates or blog entries are only there to promote yourself or your work, you’re wasting my time. Just like I said about signing up for your newsletter or Helpful Tips, I wasn’t expecting to get a steady stream of advertising.

Are you beginning to sense a common thread? When I’m getting a lot of quality content from you, I don’t mind getting a modicum of advertising and promotion too. Sometimes I’m truly glad to hear about your new book, service or product, especially if I’m getting a special discount, premium edition or access to material or events not made available to the general public. But the moment the balance between content and advertising tips in the direction of advertising, I’m out. The moment I start thinking you’ve abused my trust, I’m out AND spreading the word. So please, don’t make me tweet angry.

 

April L. Hamilton is the founder and Editor in Chief of Publetariat. This is a cross-posting from her Indie Author blog.

Free Web Savvy For The Book Industry

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Social media expert Mark Blevis is offering a series of free webcasts aimed at helping authors and publishing professionals get up to speed with using social media. From his site:

After three years of working with publishers, editors, publicists, authors and illustrators, and following my experience at BookCamp Toronto this past June, I decided it was time to offer the book industry the support it needs and the training it doesn’t have the budget for.

I’m teaming up with Greg Pincus to deliver a series of FREE webcasts that will give book publishers, publicists, authors, illustrators and enthusiasts social media savvy for outreach and promotion.  The series is titled How social media can help you sell books: Guidance for the book publishing industry and its stakeholders and each installment will seek to answer the question: How does this help me sell books?

Don’t miss the first four free sessions.

SEP 10 – Finding the Conversation: Who’s talking about you and what they are saying

Understanding search and alerts to monitor the digital conversation.  This session will focus on effective use of Google with references to Technorati, Twitter and IceRocket. (REGISTER)

SEP 17 – Twitter: More than “What are you doing?”

Why use Twitter, how to engage and craft your message, using hash tags and a few Twitter stories. (REGISTER)

SEP 24 – Bloggers/Podcasters are People, Too: Engaging with the social media community

Recommendations for meeting, relating to and collaborating with the social media community. (REGISTER)

OCT 01 – Remarkable Use of the Internet to Promote Books and the People Behind Them

Storytelling and interesting examples of effective book promotion in the digital age. (REGISTER)

 

Web Hosters Ordered To Pay $32M For Contributing To Copyright and Trademark Infringement

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In an article from Jaikumar Vijayan, which appeared on Computerworld on 9/1/09, it’s reported that a California jury determined web site hosting companies can be held liable for the illegal copyright and trademark infringement activities of their clients when the hosting companies were made aware of such infringement and still failed to take any action.

Content created by authors and released by publishers may be protected by trademark (e.g., trademarked processes or techniques, terminology, character names/likenesses, book series names, etc.) as well as copyright, so this case sets a legal precedent upon which authors and publishers can rely in fighting online piracy of their works. 

See also: Internet Defamation, Author Platform And You.

9 Things To Do To Make Sure Your Next Blog Post Is Read By More Than Your Mom

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This post, from Darren Rowse, originally appeared on ProBlogger on 9/3/09.

Two days back I explored the myth that all you need to do is write great content on a blog for it to get readers and introduced the idea of ’seeding’ content rather than ‘forcing’ it upon readers.

Today I want to take the ’seeding’ idea a step further and give a few examples of ways that you can do it – and in the process hopefully grow your readership beyond your immediate family (not that there’s anything wrong with Mom reading your blog).

I should say that while this post contains 9 ways to promote a blog post – that I rarely use all of them at once. Keep in mind that the idea of ’seeding’ is not about forcing things but rather it is about getting things going and then letting something organic happen. You might need to put a little more effort into things somewhere along the way to keep momentum going (like ‘watering the garden’ helps a seed to grow) but the idea isn’t for force things.

So without further ado – let me share a few of the techniques that I use to ’seed’ content:

1. Tweet it

I find that one of the most effective ways to get a link to a new blog post ‘out there’ is simply to tweet it. Tweeting a link is quick and easy to do – and if you do it well it can be quite effective at both driving direct traffic to a blog post but also in starting other little viral events on other sites.

The effectiveness of this does depend a little on the size of your follower group – but other factors you can have a little more control over include:

  • timing your tweets to be during peak times when lots of people are on Twitter.
  • doing a followup tweet to your original one (I only do this on important posts and usually try to change the wording so as not to annoy people too much)
  • the wording of your tweet (give people a reason to click it)
  • making your tweet ‘ReTweetable’ by not making it too long (I keep these seeding tweets to under 120 characters to leave room for people to retweet them).

I find that when something does well on Twitter (and not every post will) that it can often trigger a secondary event on a site like Delicious. This in turn can trigger blogs to link to my posts or other social bookmarking sites to pick up links.

2. Facebook Status Updates (and other social media)

This is of course similar to Tweeting a link. I’ve not had as much success with Facebook as a promotional tool for my blogs but know of a few bloggers in different niches who find it to be more effective. Whether it sends loads of traffic or not it can be helpful in an overall strategy.

Similarly I sometimes also use other social media sites like LinkedIn’s status update if I feel that the content I’m promoting is better suited to other audiences. Again – it depends partly upon the size of your network on these sites but even a small but relevant network on these sites can trigger other bloggers to link up or secondary organic submissions on other social sites by those in your network. You never know what impact sharing a link in these sites can have until you do it.

3. Pitch it to another Blogger

Is the post you’re promoting relevant to the audience of another blog?

This is a question I’m always asking myself as I’m writing blog posts. As I write I jot down the names of other bloggers that have an audience that might find what I’m writing helpful. This means that when it comes time to promote the blog post I have a ready made list of people to shoot out an email to to let them know about my post.

I don’t send these emails out often, nor do I send them out to the same group of bloggers repeatedly – but if I genuinely think my post is of high quality and that the blogger will find it relevant I will.

Check out these suggestions on how to pitch other bloggers for some more tips on how to do this effectively.

Read the rest of the post, which features six more options to spread the word about your blog posts, on ProBlogger.

How Lucky We Are That The Book Business Is Not Like The Movie Business!

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This post, from literary agent Richard Curtis, originally appeared on the E-Reads Publishing In the 21st Century blog on 8/17/09.

Is the book business beginning to feel like the movie business? An article by the New York Times‘s Michael Cieply might reinforce the similarities.

Cieply reports that, unlike filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino who landed huge studio deals at the Sundance Film Festival, today’s aspiring young movie makers have got to finance everything, investing in themselves on the speculation that lightning will strike in the form of financing and distribution by a major studio. As more and more authors throw in the towel in despair of landing a book deal with a big publisher, they are publishing their own books and underwriting every step from editorial to publicity.

Are there other ways to compare Cieply’s description of the film industry with the current state of publishing? Let us count them, and to help you, I’ve taken the liberty of extracting some of Cieply’s descriptions and substituting language that might reinforce the idea that New York is a lot closer to L. A. than a five hour flight on the red-eye.
 

The glory days of independent film [first novels], when hot young directors [authors] like Steven Soderbergh and Mr. Tarantino had studio [publishing] executives tangled in fierce bidding wars at Sundance [Book Expo, Frankfurt] and other celebrity-studded festivals, are now barely a speck in the rearview mirror. And something new, something much odder, has taken their place.

Here is how it used to work: aspiring filmmakers [authors] playing the cool auteur [literary lion] in hopes of attracting the eye of a Hollywood power broker [major New York literary agent].

Here is the new way: filmmakers [authors] doing it themselves — paying for their own distribution [self-publication], marketing films [books] through social networking sites and Twitter blasts [social networking sites and Twitter blasts], putting their work up free on the Web to build a reputation, cozying up to concierges [maitre d’s] at luxury hotels [chic publishing watering spots] in film festival cities [New York] to get them to whisper into the right ears.

Read the rest of the post on the E-Reads Publishing In the 21st Century blog.

Authors: Just Say "No!" To Your Advance

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This article, by Joe Quirk, originally appeared on the SF Gate site on 8/27/09.

My fellow authors laughed when I said I was publishing my fourth book with Numina Press. Then they learned my cut of each sale.

How big is the difference? Try three times as much money each sale.

Numina is an exclusive commercial publisher that uses print-on-demand technology to radically alter the cost ratios in favor of the author. They started working with dead writers like Jack London, who was quite cooperative. Now they have their sights set on living published authors, who are not.

Your choice, living authors. Take home:

$1.50 from a $23 book, or

$4.50 from a $16 book.

Wait. You have to give up a lot of perks for this tripling of your pay, and my living author friends are quick to list their objections:

Big New York publishers will give me an advance!

 

Okay, stop flapping your wrists like a pack of sissies. Let’s walk through each of the standard fear-driven objections one by one.

But major publishers will pay me an advance!

An advance is a chance to ruin your career. A big advance for a first or second book is a chance to almost guarantee your career will end six months after your book comes out, and nobody will tell you until you write and try to sell your second book. A gigunda advance? That spells an almost certain death.

The bigger the advance, the worse it is for the author.

Seventy percent of published books don’t earn back their advance. Add to the balance sheet the costs of printing, shipping, and promotion, and that means even more than 70% of books lose money for the publisher. That means the majority of published authors get a permanent Big Red Mark next to their name.

Publishers don’t know why most books don’t sell, nor do they understand why most of their riches are made off less than 5% of the new authors they publish, and they don’t know what to do about their ignorance, but they do know how to do one thing: blame the author.

If your first book lost them money, they will not publish your second book, no matter how many copies it sold.

So move on to another publisher? Not so fast. Publishers share sales information with their competitors. That’s right, competing New York publishers close ranks in solidarity against the authors who might have sold well but lost money. Most major publishers, before they read your new book, run straight to the stats and see how well your last book sold, how much money was spent on it, how much was earned back, and their eyes go straight to the bottom line: Did it lose money? If the answer is yes, they don’t waste their time reading your new book.

Remember: Second book finished? Publishers read the bottom line on their balance sheet before they read the first line of your manuscript.

Read the rest of the article on the SF Gate site.

Big New York publishers will get me publicity!

Big New York publishers will pay for a book tour!

Big New York publishers will get me book store placement!

But if I accept triple money with a print-on-demand publisher, Big New York publishers will punish me! My agent will be mad!

How To Fail At Self-Promotion

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This post, from Merrilee Faber, originally appeared on the e-Fiction Book Club site on 8/16/09.

Here’s a tip for the clueless author.   Self promotion does not mean spam.  Word of mouth?  Not YOUR mouth.  Getting noticed?  Not successful if people remember you as an arrogant arse or a nutter.

(Obligatory disclaimer; the opinions expressed in this post are mine and do not represent the views of other members of the e-Fiction Book Club.)

Back to the soapbox.

I know you want the world to hear about your opus.  I get it.  And getting noticed in the vast sea of information that is the internet can be an uphill battle.

But just think for a moment.  Remember those comments you get, the ones trying to sell pharmaceutical products, or encourage you to explore the dubious delights of a XXX site, or the ones that promise to make your sex life better?  How many of those do you read?  How many of those do you post to your site, thinking ‘wow, I’m so glad someone told me about that’?

My blog is not here as a vehicle for your marketing activities.

When you post a long advertisement about your book/site/product whatever, you are spamming me.  Your information is unsolicited, and that means it’s unwelcome.  Yes, even here, on a book review blog.  The rules for submission are posted on the front page and on the submission page.  90% of the authors who find us can figure it out, why can’t you?

Wail, bitch, moan, they say, how am I going to get noticed if I don’t spread the word about my book?  Oh, I noticed you, all right.  But I’m certainly not encouraged to click through and read your book.  I’m going to hit the Spam It button, and say bye-bye.

There are ways to do self promotion right, and the internet is a great vehicle for it.  If you can’t be bothered to Google ‘internet marketing’, I can’t help you.  But I will pass on 3 marketing guidelines for the clueless author (and any authors who might just be uninitiated.  There’s a difference, and mostly it’s to do with attitude.)

1.  Be involved, be interesting, be a person.

People connect with people.  Want to be noticed?  Get out there, on Twitter or Facebook or WordPress or whatever.  Find your community.  Get involved.  Read blogs, post comments, tweet about your day.  Connecting, finding followers and building your audience is primarily about making friends.  You don’t have to be the life of the party; networking is just getting to know people, and letting them get to know you.

 

Read the rest of the post, including tips #2 and 3, on e-Fiction Book Club.