A Different Author Strategy

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Some publishing experts estimate 1,000 new books are published every day. This estimate includes the self-published books and it can be overwhelming when you consider the volume of print material which is entering the world. 

How can an author standout, be different and sell books? In this article, I want to give some strategy ideas and action steps. Upfront, I will tell you each of these methods are not quick and easy. They require effort and work to sell books. 

As you read and study the path of other authors, you need to understand success leaves traces. If you study the details of the success of others, you can discover the path for your own success and sales of your book. First, you have to gather some basics. What type of book are you writing? In general the techniques and path for a children’s book will be different from a novel from a nonfiction self-help book. Each of these types will often follow a different strategy and path to sell their books.

Several years ago I interviewed an author friend who self-published a nonfiction book. In the creation process, he created a book which was well-written with an attractive cover. He crafted the back cover copy and made sure there was a publishing logo on the spine and the barcode on the back was perfect. This friend paid attention to the details as he self-published and produced a book which when placed along side any other book would be accepted. Many people self-publish but they slip on these production details. 

This author targeted book sales to libraries. The American Library Association says there are over 123,000 libraries in the United States. He located a list of these libraries with the phone numbers. For several hours every day, he called the libraries, introduced himself and had a brief pitch for his book. He got the librarian interested in his book, got their name and with their consent, mailed a book with an invoice. It took hours of work and the development of a plan and execution of that plan, but he sold thousands of books in this process.  If you want more of the details, I have this interview in the extra products when you purchase my 10 Publishing Myths book. This strategy to sell books worked for this author and you could learn from his success.

I follow the teaching and stories from book marketing expert John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to MarketYour Book. Recently he made a bold claim encouraging authors to make up to $150,000 before your book is published! The strategy of pre-sales is one every author can learn about and practice.

If you have published or plan to publish a children’s book, then look at the information and actions in this section from John Kremer. As with the other strategies in this article, you can learn and then implement the practices for your books. 

Have you heard of bestselling novelist Terry McMillan who has several movies including Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back. As John Kremer said, “Her first novel was published by a large New York publisher, but they didn’t do much with it. This was in 1987. They sent out press releases. They sent out some review copies. But Terry was a first-time novelist, so media didn’t care. Nothing much happened.” How did Terry turn around this experience? John gives the details in the Rule of 3,000. McMillan handwrote personal letters to 3,000 bookstores. It was a huge commitment of time and energy but it got attention and paid off. Few authors would make this sort of effort but it launched a bestselling novelist. Maybe you want to follow this path for your book.

John wrote some additional details saying, “The response was so great that she ended up doing a 39-city book tour. Her efforts gained her plenty of rave reviews for her book as well as two reprintings in six weeks. That’s a major success for a first-time novelist. Her publisher got behind her once they saw that the book was selling, and it was worth reprinting again and again. The key point to this story is not who Terry sent letters to, but how many letters she sent. It’s a numbers game, and what happens with most authors, even though I’ve told them this story many times, is that they ignore this crucial advice. Write a lot of emails.”

One of my Morgan James Publishing authors published a personal story with a tie to the pro-life issue. She mailed 1,000 copies of her book to Crisis Pregnancy Centers around the United States. The effort was a financial and time investment in her book. One of the keys for her success will be the strategy behind it. Did she offer bulk sales to these places and how is she following up on the mailing? Each of these strategies have different details which are important for them to succeed. 

My encouragement is for you to learn about these different author strategies for selling and marketing your book. Try some of them and see if they work for you. If they work, then do it some more. If not, then press on to another one. There is not one path to success but many paths and as an author you have to select the one for you. If there was a single path, every book would be a bestseller. Instead we know some books have dismal sales and others succeed. 

My encouragement is to try a different author strategy to sell your book and keep doing it over and over until you find success. Is there another strategy that you have used to successfully sell books? Let me know in the comments.

 

Tweetable:

There are many different strategies to sell books. This prolific writer and editor gives several specific possibilities in this article. Read the details here. (ClickToTweet)

Much of the publishing process is outside of the writer’s control. 10 Publishing Myths helps writers have a realistic perspective and take action. Get 10 Publishing Myths for only $10 +FREE shipping + over $200 of free bonuses.

How To Lean In & Keep Going Forward

The writing life is filled with opportunities and challenges. As writers, our work gets rejected. We pour huge energy into writing which gets published in a book then does not sell. Our bills pile up and we wonder how we will be able to make the money that we need.

While I've written books which have sold over 100,000 copies, I also experience the range of emotional ups and downs that I put into the opening paragraph. Writers have to be actively looking for the right place for their writing to get published—whether in a magazine or a book. Your material has to find a connection with an editor or literary agent to find a champion to guide you through the process. The writers who succeed take action when they face feelings of discouragement and rejection. 

Here's some action steps when you get these types of feelings:

1. Adjust your mindset. Your mindset will be reflected in your actions and I encourage you to take a different course of action. When writers get rejected once or twice, many of them will decide, “No one wants this book.” In contast, authors who get published will decide they have not knocked on the right door yet and will move to the next publisher. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen were rejected over 160 times with Chicken Soup for the Soul. When rejected, they looked at each other and said, “Next.” This single word is hopeful and a tool you can use with your own rejection.

2. Approach a new audience. I've got a number of marketing books on my shelf. One of the most thorough is 1001 ways to Market Your Book by John Kremer. It's always wise to open this book and read a few of the ideas, then take steps to implement one of them. It will propel you forward.

3. Create a new product (online or in print). If you are looking for some insights. Listen to this free interview with marketing expert Bob Bly, then actively take action in a new direction.

4. Write something different.  If you are writing books, then write a magazine article or post to your blog or beef up your social media. Moving in a different direction will help you keep going ahead.

5. Get some fresh air. Walk around the block or take an exercise break. Just changing your position, will help you.
From my years in publishing, here is a simple truth: everyone has issues in their life. Children are ill or worse. Our cars break down. Our parents grow old and ill or any number of other issues.  What is the distinction between those people who get their work into print and into the market and those who do not? The people who succeed take act. They move ahead in spite of what else is happening. 

The key is not to mope around and get discouraged, stop or stagnate. Move forward. Read some of my Pro-Active Author columns on The Wordsmith Journal or some other blog. Lean into your situation.

Tweetable:

Facing a obstacle with your writing? Try these five ideas: (ClickToTweet)

Effective Use of LinkedIn

For years I ignored the LinkedIn emails asking me if I wanted to “connect” with someone. Yet there are 300 million people on LinkedIn and it is an effective tool—if you use it properly.

I changed my resistance to active use of LinkedIn. While my public profile says that I have 500+ connections, it is really over 4,000 connections. It is one of three or four social networks that I use constantly. For example, I regularly post updates and publishing information on LinkedIn. I use Hootsuite (an effective free tool) for these posts and they appear throughout each day with articles that I'm reading and other comments related to publishing.

Here's an example of a profile that I did not accept their invitation--in fact I marked it as spam so they will not be able to invite me again:

To make effective use of LinkedIn, your first priority is to fill out your profile. I see some people who don't have their photo or location or background with their profile. Unless I recognize your name, I'm probably not going to connect with your LinkedIn profile. It does take a bit of effort but is well worth it.

The second step is to connect with people that you know—and people who know you. We live in a mobile society where individuals change positions. The publishing world is fluid and it's common for people to change positions several times during their career. Here's one of the key details for LinkedIn: many professionals and business people use this network. If they change positions or move, they take their LinkedIn information with them. They change their emails, phone number and address information in the contact section of LinkedIn. 

If you are trying to pitch a particular editor or literary agent and you are connected to them through LinkedIn, you can quickly check to see if they are in the same location by checking their profile—before you fire off your proposal or query and learn they are no longer with the company or have changed positions.

LinkedIn has tools to help you expand your connections. Because of my large number of connections, I receive several invitations a day to connect with individuals. I do not want to be connected to spammers or individuals who I don't immediately recognize. Each time I check their profile and:

—If blank or only starting their connections, often I do not connect with them.

—If they are outside of the U.S. and I see no immediate relationship, then I do not connect with them. Sometimes I mark the person as spam and if so, LinkedIn will not allow them to send me another invitation.

—If I see they have connections with other publishing people that I know, like and trust, then I will often connect with those individuals.

Notice several things about how I used LinkedIn:

1. I do not spend much time on the site.

2. My profile is completely filled out—and LinkedIn lists me as an “all-star” with my information which has a great deal of detail.

3. I'm cautious and thoughtful about the people that I do connect with on the site.

There are many other ways to use LinkedIn. There are groups and other tools on the site. I have not chosen to get involved in these aspects because my time is focused mostly on being an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing and helping other authors get their books into print.

If I receive an invitation to connect with someone I do not recognize, some times I will reply to that invitation. The email goes directly to their in box. In my short email, I ask them to remind me of our connection or relationship. 

Sometimes I hear that the person and I met at a conference or has a connection with me. In those cases, I will accept their Facebook and Twitter. In those cases, it is often unlikely that I will connect with them for that reason. I have thousands of friends on Facebook and Twitter. You need to give me a stronger connection for LinkedIn.

There are probably many more effective ways to use LinkedIn. I suspect many of those ways I'm not using involve large volumes of time (something I do not have to spend on LinkedIn at the moment). As an additional resource, I encourage you to grab this 35 page report on LinkedIn from my friend John Kremer. Through this post, I hope I've given you some new ideas how you can connect with others in your profession and increase your use of this site.

Read and Share with Others

Throughout my day, I receive a variety of newsletters and blog posts. Plus I'm reading about the world of publishing. As I read, I'm looking for the share buttons which could be in a sidebar or at the top or bottom of the article. With one click of these little buttons, you can pass the information in the article along to the people who follow you on Twitter or your Facebook friends.

I enjoyed reading what literary agent Rachelle Gardener wrote about wanting to throw a book across the room in a recent blog post. So I tweeted about it (see the link for my tweet).

Joan Stewart the Publicity Hound put a compilation of some of her tweets which contain valuable insights about working with journalists or editors or getting more publicity. So I tweeted about it (once again use this link for my tweet).

Today I was reading my local newspaper and on the front page was a fascinating feature about how bestselling novelist Philip Roth has decided to stop writing novels. At the age of 80, I applaud his decision and I tracked down the article, located the share buttons and tweeted about it.

Book Marketing Guru John Kremer has some great info statistics about social media. When I read it, I found the share buttons and tweeted about it.

To locate these buttons and use them only took seconds. It gives my twitter feed and my Facebook page fresh content—which is diverse and focused on my topic of publishing and writing. 

Are you using these buttons to pass along information on your topic and focus to your readers? It will help you grow your readership and increase your presence as an expert in your area of the market.

Finally, are you adding these share buttons to your own blog posts and websites? It is through these little share buttons that you spread the message to others and build your own visibility. 

Notice the buttons at the bottom of this post? That's why I include them each time. I hope you will use them to share with others.

Catch this Book Marketing Resource

For almost a month, I've had a browser window open to catch this interview with John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books for Authors and Publishers. I receive blog post email updates from Joel Friedlander and this interview looked like a good one. I didn't have a chance to listen to it—until today.

Joel has the link to the audio on his website or you can watch the interview on YouTube. You can download the audio and hear it on your computer or iPod. I listened to the audio version and found it fascinating.

To quote Joel's blog:

“John’s three top tips:

1. Build relationships with bloggers
2. Blog tours with big blogs to be effective
3. Social sites where readers congregate

Topics discussed:

• What killed the Amazon Bestseller campaigns
• The role of social media in book marketing
• John’s three favorite social networking sites and why
• How to connect with thought leaders on social media
• Automating your marketing efforts
• How John uses Twitter lists
• Why John doesn’t check his Twitter DMs
• How blogs help authors market
• What to do about ebooks
• A quick way to raise your book’s ranking in the Kindle store
• The problem with book trailers
• The power of women in book marketing”

I found the discussion between Joel and John engaging. Both of these men know a great deal about marketing and selling books. I recommend you take notes and apply it to your own books.

A Simple Idea to Sell Books

I'm always looking for simple ideas which will help me sell more books. I find ideas in different books and articles. The foundation for most book sales are building relationships—whether in person or online. The author has to take a proactive stance to actively be on the lookout for different innovations and opportunities to sell their book.

Unfortunately many authors try and delegate this responsibility to others. Then when their book doesn't sell they blame anyone and everyone—except themselves. In Jack Canfield's The Success Principles, the first principle says, “Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life.” This principle also applies to authors who want to sell books.

Recently I read a fascinating article on John Kremer's site from David Koop called Book Marketing Makeover: Creative Marketing Nets Real Results. You can click the link and read the article but I want to point out several things that I learned from this article.

First, David Koop wrote about a topic where he has tremendous passion: beating cancer. It's a memoir called Cancer, It's a Good Thing I Got It! and a topic that many people want to know about his experience.

Also in the first paragraph, Koop reveals that he's tried many different marketing ideas for his book. It's important for every author to try different techniques. As you try these techniques, I encourage you to keep track of the results. When something works well, then do more of that particular technique. It is different for each book and each author. From my years in publishing, I know there is no magic bullet in the area of selling books. If there was such a magic bullet or consistent formula, then every publisher would use it every time. It does not exist.

Also Koop has created a business card then uses two cards when he pays a bill or pays with a meal in a restaurant. Also he gives the cards to everyone he meets when he travels. He is an evangelist for his book and telling everyone face to face about his book.

In addition, he carries his book so he is prepared to sell it if someone wants a copy.

As I read the article, I had a question, “What words are on his business card that get people to respond and order the book?” This information wasn't in his article. I went to Koop's website, wrote him a note and asked him to see the card.

In his shopping cart, Koop has created a coupon code. People love discounts and using coupons. The back of his card says, “Save 20% on book – enter coupon code “I met him.” The simple idea was brilliant and gets response.

To show you the card, I scanned the front and the back so

I can include it with this entry.

To sell more books:

*Be watching what other authors are doing

*Incorporate ideas that work into your own book marketing

I've got several different business cards but none of my cards include the coupon idea. It looks to me like a simple idea worth trying. If you do it and it works for you, let me know. I'd love to hear your comments and experiences.

Every Writer Needs A Plan

How did 2010 turn out for your writing life? Did you get as much into print or online as you planned? Or did you plan at all?

Many writers have a haphazard system for getting their material submitted and out into the marketplace. They work at it off and on without any type of consistent action, then they act surprised when little or nothing happens.

I've written many times about the necessity for a writer to learn his craft and improve their writing skills. It happens through consistency and constant learning and growth. Through experience their communication abilities increase and more of their work appears in print or online. As you write better, you will be compensated better (in most cases) for your writing. The principles are the same for growing your audience, your presence in the marketplace and improving your marketing skills. You need a plan then to consistently execute the plan. If you fail to plan, you should not be surprised when little or nothing happens.

As Raleigh Pinskey writes in the early pages of her excellent book, 101 Ways to Promote Yourself, "P.T. Barnum is the father of a well-known marketing cry, 'Without promotion something terrible happens--nothing!'"

What are you wanting to accomplish in the year ahead? A typical goal might be to gain more people coming to your personal website---or traffic as it is called in the Internet world. What steps can you take to generate more traffic and increased relationships because as John Kremer consistently teaches, writers sell books through building relationships.

I suggest you tap into this free resource from Anthony Morrison, 30 Days to Massive Traffic. This 76-page resource will not cost anything but it will require effort on your part. First download it, print it, read it but then apply it to your life. You will see a different result for your work in the days ahead. More people will know about you and your work.

Want More Twitter Followers?

When writers see that I have over 21,000 followers on Twitter, they wonder how I got there. It is not complicated but like other things in the writing world, to be successful it will take disciplined and consistent effort. I'm going to show you the direction to go with your own Twitter account.
The best way to get more followers is to follow other people. It sounds simple right? People follow those people who follow them. It's one of the key principles of twitter.
So, you just follow thousands of people and gain your followers? No, it is not that simple. Twitter controls the number of people you can follow during a 24-hour period. The exact number isn't clear but I confess that I've maxed it out several times.
Here's how to find who to follow. Think of your brand and topic. Who is the leading person or persons active on Twitter? You want to find someone who has thousands of followers.
Go to www.twellow.com. This site is like the yellow pages for Twitter and tracks many of the people who have the highest number of followers. The search tool allows you to search for a specific subject. For example, if your area of speciality is parenting. You want to follow the people on twitter with the largest following in this specialty. Often you will find one or two people who have substantially more followers than others in the area. Focus on these few leaders and make note of their twitter names. You will need them in a few minutes with another free tool for Twitter.
First, are you logged on to your Twitter account? Have one of the tabs in your browser open to your twitter account and be logged on to your Twitter account. Now open a new tab in your brower and go to a site called Refollow.com. While I have gotten a lot of use from this site, it has no instructions or help menu. You have to either spend time playing with it or learn how to use it from someone else (which is my purpose in writing this entry).
Use the Secure Login to log on to your Twitter account. You will reach a screen like:



It's asking your permission to log on to your Twitter account and you choose the Allow button. Then you will get to a screen that looks like:



Notice my own profile photo and which shows I'm logged on my own Twitter account? I use Refollow for several different functions. First, I want to follow everyone who is following me (which is a general principle in the twitter community). Focus on the little boxes on the top of the page. I want to check the box which says, "Following Me." Then in the next column, I want to check the box that says, "I'm not Following." I have Refollow "load" my followers. Then all of the people who are following me and I'm not following, will load into the program. I select them, the follow them.
Next I want to Unfollow the people who are not following me. I load all of my followers into the memory of the program and check the boxes at the top of the page which say, "Not Following Me." Then in the next column, "I'm Following." It will show you all of the people who are not following
you. I select all of those followers. It may be several pages of people (depending on when I do it), then I select the Unfollow button--and the program automatically removes everyone of those people.
Finally, I want to proactively follow new
people who are interested in the topic of my tweets. I use my list of people that I made from Twellow. For the top buttons, I want to check these boxes:

Not Following Me
I'm not Following
Never Followed
Not Locked
With Picture (shows an active Twitter user)
Tweeted in the last 3 days (again someone active on Twitter)
In the center area of the screen, I want to select the button, "Users who are following:" then notice the blank spot. Put the user name you found from Twellow into that spot and click the update button. Refollow will load about 100 of the person's followers. Often I will load several hundred of this users followers into the program. Next I select those names using the "select page" button. It adds little check marks to every name selected and totals the names. When I get several hundred, then I click the large yellow "Follow" button. As it performs the function, you will see the followers added to your Twitter account.
At this point I am finished with Refollow and log out of the program and close that tab. About two or three days later, I return to Refollow. I follow the people who are following me and I'm not following. Then I unfollow the people who I'm following and are not following me. Finally I select a user who is a leader in the area where I tweet, load their users into the program and follow several hundred new followers.
There are several cautions using this program. If you are too aggressive and follow too many people and unfollow too many people, then Twitter will notice and possibly suspend your account (which you do not want to happen). Also Twitter controls how many new people you can follow during a 24 hour period. I've maxed out my new followers several times. If that happens, you wait for 24 hours, then you are able to follow new people.
This tool is not a quick fix or way to instantly gain thousands of followers. You are intentionally adding several hundred followers at a time, then returning a couple of days later to see if they have started following your tweets. Through consistent use of these programs, you can increase your followers.
In these last two entries for The Writing Life, I've shown you a proactive way to increase your effectiveness of Twitter. This tool helps you relate to new people in a different way. I like what John Kremer has regularly said about book selling: it is building relationships. You are building relationships in a different way through the consistent use of Twitter.

Writers and Social Media

Many writers balk at the concept of marketing or interacting with the general public. To them, it's completely outside their comfort zone to interact with hundreds of people. Instead, they want to sit at their keyboard or typewriter and crank out more words which ultimately become books or Ebooks or articles.

Besides, they've taken the plunge and created a website. Isn't that enough of a reach into the marketplace?

They have surveyed the key personality traits of writers and editors. The bulk of these individuals are introverts who prefer peace and quiet to loads of noise and activity. So why do you insert yourself into the noise and activity of social marketing?

Some of you reading these entries will be surprised that in many regards I'm also an introvert who prefers sitting in the corner reading a book to being the life of the party. Yet I've always had a keen interest in marketing because I understand the vital connection between marketing and getting your product into people's hands.

What if you created the most amazing party or celebration and no one came? Or what if only a few people came? Wouldn't you be disappointed that no one accepted your invitation? A similar action takes place in the book world. Authors create well-crafted books and publishers take those books, edit them and distribute them into the marketplace. Yet if no one hears about the books and purchases them, then they remain in a warehouse. Ultimately the publisher sells the books for pennies on the dollar and destroys the rest of the books. They never find their audience and go out of print which is a very sad state of affairs--yet something which happens often in today's market.

As an author or want-to-be author, it is your responsibility to learn about the variety of means where you can touch the marketplace and connect with potential readers. There are an endless supply of ideas in this area. If you want to see the full range of ideas for authors, I encourage you to pick up a copy of John Kremer's 1001 Ways to Market Your Books which is over 700 pages. The index isn't included in the book and you have to download it online yet this resource is remarkable and highly recommended.

Here's a basic FREE resource to understand social media and small business. Writers are a small business and the sooner you begin to think of yourself in this manner, the better. John Jantsch has written this excellent and straightforward explanation. It's worth your reading time to absorb this 23-page Let's Talk, Social Media for Small Business Ebook and gain from John's insight.

Finally, it is easy to get overwhelmed with all that needs to be done as a writer--the writing, learning the craft of writing, the relationship building and the marketing. In a word, don't let it overwhelm you. Tackle what you can on a consistent basis--then let the rest go. The most important aspect from my view is to continually grow, improve and to be on that upward trajectory. As the old cliche goes, "Inch by inch, it's a cinch."

Is Giving Away Content Valuable?

It is completely counter-intuitive to give away valuable content. Often new or unpublished writers will ask whether they lose their rights or will be hurt or hindered if they give away their written material online.

While I understand their fears of their idea being stolen, I reassure them from my personal experience of years in publishing, I have never seen it happen. Yes, I've seen people pitch similar ideas but I've never had one of my exact ideas stolen from either my work online or my printed writing. I've actually been too busy writing and producing new material to spend a lot of time thinking about it, guarding my work and even worrying about it. In many ways, it's the complete wrong focus for a would-be writer.

Instead, I'd encourage them to be focused on learning the craft of storytelling and how to shape their words into compelling prose. It's a better use of their time and energy. If you have written something that is excellent and valuable--whether fiction or nonfiction, you can give that information away--and attract readers. For example, I'm giving away my Straight Talk From the Editor Ebook in exchange for giving me your first name and email address. Or I'm giving away a 90 page Ebook about book proposal creation with the same exchange.

Or maybe you've written an excellent novel and are trying to figure out how to get attention for it. Could you achieve that attention through giving it away?

Book Marketing Expert John Kremer tells the story of Brazilian author Paulo Coelho who for years has been an apostle of free Internet distribution. "He figures they sell more books this way. In 1999, best-selling author Paulo Coelho, who wrote The Alchemist, was failing in Russia. That year he sold only about 1,000 books, and his Russian publisher dropped him. But after he found another, Coelho took a radical step. On his own website, launched in 1996, he posted a digital Russian copy of The Alchemist."

"With no additional promotion, print sales picked up immediately. Within a year he sold 10,000 copies; the next year around 100,000. By 2002 he was selling a total of a million copies of multiple titles. Today, Coelho's sales in Russian are over 10 million and growing. "I'm convinced it was putting it up for free on the Internet that made the difference," he said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos."

"Coelho explained why he thinks giving books away online leads to selling more copies in print: "It's very difficult to read a book on your computer. People start printing out their own copies. But if they like the book, after reading 30-40 pages they just go out and buy it." By last year Coelho's total print sales worldwide surpassed 100 million books. "Publishing is in a kind of Jurassic age," Coelho continues. "Publishers see free downloads as threatening the sales of the book. But this should make them rethink their entire business model." Now Coelho is a convert to the Internet way of doing things. His online e-mail newsletter, published since 2000, has 200,000 subscribers."

While this story about Coelho is a great success story in the publishing world, make sure you see one of the keys--brilliant storytelling is foundational and understanding the needs of the audience or market--then meeting that need with excellent writing. All too often, I've seen people attempt to give away material which does not fall into this excellent category and does little to help them in their audience building intent.

As I've often cautioned in these entries on The Writing Life, it's a tricky balance between learning the marketing skills and learning the craft of writing.

More About Promotion

Since my last post about The Writing Life, I received an email from Raleigh Pinskey. I was interested to learn since 101 Ways to Promote Yourself first appeared in 1997, it has sold over 250,000 copies in nine countries.

In light of the typical low sales numbers for many books, I found that quarter of a million sales number pretty amazing. How did it happen? Raleigh continues to work at promotion for this book through speaking, book signings, teleseminars and a host of other such ideas. She is not sitting around expecting the sales to happen naturally because most of the time they don't. The author has to be proactive to encourage people to buy their book.

Here's another creative resource with 50 book marketing ideas. If you sign up at John Kremer's blog to receive his updates, you will receive a seven page list of these ideas which came from a two hour speech at the PMA Publishing University several years ago. The sign up spot it in the left-hand column of the page.

I love #48 on John's list: "Do Something Every Day" where he says, "Each day, take some marketing action on every active title on your list. Write a letter. Make a phone call. Create a new ad. It need not take much time, but these small actions can keep your books actively selling for years to come. If you devote just ten minutes of focused marketing time every day on each book you published, I guarantee you will make more sales."

If you become a proactive author about your books, you will stand out from many other authors in a positive way. Publishers want to continue to publish and work with authors who understand the necessity and priority that needs to go toward consistent promotion.

The Beginning and Ending of Marketing

When a writer want to write a book, they will ask at what point to begin their marketing efforts. In traditional publishing, books often take months to get through the system before they are published. While there is no universal starting point for your marketing efforts, it is hard to begin too soon.

In Steve Weber's Plug Your Book!, he includes a relevant quote from bestselling author Seth Godin who says, "The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out. Three years to build a reputation, build a permission asset, build a blog, build a following, build credibility, and build the connections you'll need later."

It doesn't take much for me to imagine all of the authors who moan, "Three years!" As the author, you have the greatest vision and passion for your book--no matter how you publish it. The publisher's attention will be divided with other titles and matters where you can steadily focus on your book. Potential readers need continual reminders about the availability of your book and why it is relevant to their needs. In the case of Book Proposals That Sell, I've seen a steady increase in the sales of this book since it released several years ago. At first the more experienced writers would tell me that they knew how to write a book proposal and had read other books on the topic so they didn't purchase my book until later. When they finally got around to reading it, they realized my unique perspective and the valuable information which it contained--even if they had read other books.

If you are looking for the end point to your marketing efforts for a book, again as the author you will have the greatest passion for your book. If your book goes out of print and your passion for the book has failed, then you can stop marketing your book. Otherwise I would encourage you to continue your efforts--even if it is only once a week or once a month. You never know which one of your efforts will be the tipping point to move your sales rapidly ahead. I continue working to let new audiences know about Book Proposals That Sell and the sales continue to be steady for it.

And if you wonder about the wisdom of giving away your novel online before it appears in print, just check out what happened with Paul Coelho's The Alchemist and this recent post from Book Marketing Guru John Kremer. Possibly it will encourage your efforts.

A Fascinating Video Clip

This morning through John Kremer, I watched a fascinating video presentation from Matthew Bennett.

Self-published author Matthew Bennett has sold over 5 million books this way, mostly to Fortune 500 corporations. He'll be teaching his entire system at Steve Harrison's "Sell Books By The Truckload Training Event, November 8-10th, in Philadelphia.

For a free video previewing some of what will be taught at the training event, go here: http://www.SellBooksBythetruckload.com/video/?10887

For information on attending the training, November 8-10th, go here: http://www.SellBooksByTheTruckload.com/?10887

At the same time as this conference, I will be at the Florida Writers Association but I was intrigued with the video and found it worth watching. Hopefully you will as well.

Why Social Network?

The majority of writers are introverts. It's something that I've read as well as personally observed over and over. Yes, we dig down deep inside to write words and get them out to others. A few writers are extrovert in personality but the majority are not. An editor from a well-known Chicago-based company told me their entire office took the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory Test a few years ago. This company has many different print and online publications. Of the group of editors something like two of them were extrovert and the rest were introvert.

Even someone who is basically an introvert can rise to the occasion. It's what I do when I teach at writers conferences and in other situations. Yet selling books is about creating relationships. You have to reach outside of yourself to create those relationships. The more relationships, the more people who know about your writing and you as a person.

John Kremer at BookMarket.com included a tip about the Book Marketing Network in this week's Book Market Tips. I’ll admit when I read it my curiosity got the best of me—so I went to it and joined. John is the creator of this social network which is a growing network of people interested in the topic of book marketing. If you get real fascinated with social networks, you can even create your own social network. It's another free networking spot. I've not spent a lot of time on my particular page but I have added a few links to some of my resources. There are several hundred people on this spot--and it is growing all the time. I exchanged greetings with a few old friends and have been meeting some new ones. It's another resource to check out and become a bit more social.

The Forgotten Story Continued

In yesterday's entry, I wrote about the forgotten story of Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code and some of his not-too-long ago days in the publishing business. I included a short quotation from a court document. Just ahead of the quotation is another element in the story and points to a common situation within book publishing--change.

Authors are trusting of their publisher that they will carry out all of their promises for promotion. These marketing plans are nonbinding since they are normally not included in the actual book contract yet are used to show the publisher's intentions for your book. These plans are offered in good faith but many things change within a publisher between the signed contract and when the book is actually released into the marketplace. Editors leave. Marketing people change houses and financial priorities shift. Many years ago I signed a contract with one of my books and the editor told us about plans to market the books in airports around the country with distinct displays and other such ideas. In between signing the contract and the release of the book (often separated by as much as 18 months), my editor left and none of those plans occurred. Yes the book was published but in a much more modest fashion.

For Brown's earlier novel, Angels & Demons, he changed publishers from St. Martin's Press to Simon and Schuster. Here’s the promised plans from his publisher, "Simon & Schuster said they were extremely excited by Angels & Demons. They promised to give the book considerably more publicity and support than my previous publishers. Their proposed publicity included a much larger print run (60,000), advertising in major newspapers, web advertising, a 12 city tour, an e-book release, and other exciting prospects."

For a writer like Brown who was financially struggling, such a promise was a major encouragement. Yet the court document continues and reveals what happened: "Unfortunately, when the book came out, my print run was slashed down to 12,000 copies with virtually no publicity at all. I was once again on my own and despite enthusiastic reviews, the novel sold poorly. Blythe and I were heartbroken as we had put so much work into this book. Once again, we took matters into our own hands, booking our own signings, booking our own radio shows, and selling books out of our car at local events."

You have to understand this incident took place in 1999 or 2000. Angels & Demons has gone on to become a bestseller. After the success of The Da Vinci Code, readers purchase Brown's other books.

OK, what do you gain from this little historical trip? First, it's a reminder of the ever changing nature of publishing. Also it's encouragement for every author to take a pro-active stance with their own marketing and reaching their own grassroots audience. It's not easy for anyone but if you are consistent (and have a book which is compelling and excellent), then you can eventually find your audience and success. Hold on to the dream yet realize it may take years of consistent work and effort to reach it. Everyone is looking for the quick way and more often than not, there is no quick way. If publishers understood it, then they would use it on the next book and the next book (which so often doesn't work on a regular basis).

Authors need to keep working on building the audience for their books through forming relationships and the dozens of tools out there. If you need any inspiration in this area, pick up a copy of John Kremer's 1001 Ways to Market Your Books and start something that you haven't been doing. In this area, I've been learning about virtual book tours and teleseminars. Last night my first teleseminar was successful. After the teleseminar, I edited the tape some at the beginning and the end using Sound Forge which is a terrific piece of software. You can get it from Mike Stewart, the Internet Audio Guy. Then I uploaded the file to the replay page using audio generator. I selected the "snazzy player" which allows you to fast forward or rewind the teleseminar. It was not complicated and I believe I created a great result--and learned a bit more about marketing books through teleseminars. Also I helped people learn about a great resource for authors, Author Law.

My encouragement to each of you is to continue forward--learning the craft of writing, forming new relationships and crafting better submissions for the editor.

Take Marketing Responsibility

Communication snafus are everywhere. It happens for many reasons and most often it's a lack of communication or the assumption that something is happening when it is not happening. For example, in the book publishing world, it takes a lot of work for a writer to get a publisher interested in their idea and concept. The writer has to learn the craft of writing and build credibility through writing magazine articles or ebooks or other media to build their credentials and abilities. Finally they craft a book proposal and get a publisher to issue a book contract. Their book is released into the marketplace. Because the publisher has invested a large amount of money and energy (and the writer has as well), the writer assumes the publisher will market the daylights out of their book and sell many copies. Now my last sentence is full of wrong assumptions. Publishers do want their books to sell and be successful but they count on a partnership with the author to get the word out about the book, build buzz and sales for each book. Some times it happens in the early stages and other times it builds to a loud clamor in the marketplace.

My encouragement for every author is to take responsibility for their own marketing. Let's assume the traditional publisher will have good distribution (which in some cases is an assumption). Your book has entered the market and is widely available through distributors, sometimes in the bookstores and can easily be purchased at the major online places. It is not a time for the author to sit back and work on their next book (well maybe some of the time but not all of it). The author needs to continually take responsibility for their own marketing--even if they have had measures of success in the past. The public quickly forgets.

Last week I received a book proposal from an author who is eager for me to represent the project. The marketing section is two paragraphs and all fluff with the major responsibility on the publisher. I groaned the minute I looked at it because this author will need a huge amount of education on my part before this person can put together an attention-getting marketing effort. Yes, this person has had mega sales in the past but it will not necessarily transfer to this new direction and this new proposal. To believe it will transfer, the author is operating on a false assumption which may fall completely flat.

I'm personally limited about what I can put in these entries about the writing life. I have the same 24 hour constraints that you operate under. I’m going to give you some resources and places to turn. First, make plans to attend a Mega Book Marketing Event. They are coming to many different places around the country and the next one will be in New York City later this month. Unfortunately I am not going to be able to attend this event but it looks great. If you can't go, then make sure you listen to the free preview calls and gain the insight of the speakers. Either listen to them live when they happen or listen to them after the fact through the replay buttons. This training is absolutely free and valuable to any writer no matter where you are in the journey. You can learn from these experts.

Also John Kremer, the Book Marketing expert, is having a free teleseminar this week. It's another free and valuable resource.

In other entries, I've written about Debbie Macomber, one of the leading romance novelist and someone that I know personally. There is a fascinating article about Debbie in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Here's a writer who has over 70 million books in print and is on the current New York Times bestseller list. She has not assumed her publisher will market her books and is taking a continual active role in this process. Notice the article points out that Debbie has a mailing list with 75,000 readers--and not a list she has purchased but people who have contacted her personally. I'm one of these readers and I get emails from time to time from Debbie. Every writer should be working on developing their list of readers. I've got my free Right-Writing News. Several times a month, I will email this list with single letters around a particular product that I am recommending. Then once a month, I will send a regular newsletter which is full of how-to-write articles. In the back issues (which are only available to subscribers—and free), readers have access to over 400 pages of information. I am continuing to work at growing my list and expanding it. If you have no idea how to write a newsletter or what to say, I'd encourage you to follow the links and learn about it, make a choice and get started. It's another way for you to take responsibility for the marketing of your own books.

Break The Ice

Have you ever entered a new group of people and wondered, "How in the world will I begin a conversation? What's a good question to ask?" There is an old proverb that goes something like: The man with many friends must consider himself friendly. At least you've got the Terry Whalin spin on this saying since I don't recall where I picked it up.

A week or so ago, John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing, wrote on his blog about Scott Ginsberg, who is known as the name tag guy. He pointed out several free ebooks on Ginsberg's website. I downloaded the PDF files to my desktop and promptly did not read them. Today I got around to reading them. One or two of them, I didn't find valuable but several of them I've actually printed and read. I don't agree with everything but they have some good ideas and are worth your attention in my view. Let Me Ask Ya This has some good ideas for breaking the ice and starting a fascinating conversation with a new person. It's a good resource to help you build some relationships.

Over the last few days, I've been listening to a recorded message from John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book. John says that one of the keys to selling your book--at any stage of the process is to continue to build and foster relationships. Each of us need all of the tools we can get in this process so if reading Scott Ginsberg's ebook of conversation starters helps you to build relationships, then you need to use it.