Don't Neglect the Obvious

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been proactively working on some marketing efforts for Book Proposals That $ell. I’ve been sending out some review copies of the book and following-up with various editors on some of these details. I’ve created a special website for the book and added some excerpts which I’d love for people to use in their newsletters or other types of viral marketing.

I’ve even pitched a couple of editors about using my excerpts in their electronic newsletters and other communication tools. When I selected these excerpts, I made a point of choosing short, interesting, how-to articles that could stand alone without any additional editing or explanation.

Some times people will hire a freelance publicist to handle the review copies and getting interviews for the authors. In this case, I’m handling the creation of the press release, the mailing of the review copies and other aspects of the process. 

As I thought about my marketing plan (yes I have a plan and created one weeks ago), I understood I was neglecting an obvious effort. I’ve devoted a great deal of energy and effort to creating Right-Writing.com. I continue to update the site and change various aspects—as well as produce a free newsletter.  The back issues contain a great deal of writing information from various authors. Subscribers receive the link to these back issues in their welcome message plus the link is in every newsletter.

While I had created excerpts and Right-Writing.com, I had not posted my excerpts on Right-Writing.com—a mistake. This morning I added the first excerpt to the site and highlight it on the front page. Check it out and see what you think. It’s a small taste of the contents of my new book and I’ll soon be adding the second excerpt.  As I created these excerpts, I changed the files from MS-Word files to plain text (what I needed for my website). Now I have these files to send to anyone with their own newsletter.

My key point is there are obvious actions you should be making as a writer. Don’t neglect those obvious disciplines.  For example, learn to write query letters. Then write those query letters to editors on a regular basis. Learn to write book proposals, then send your proposals to editors and agents on a regular basis. Each of us only have today so let’s get with it. Tomorrow will soon be here.