Marketing for Writers by Scott Francis

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I spent mine working on a few odd jobs around the house (fixing our leaky kitchen faucet, mowing the grass, cleaning up the house) and my wife and I took our dog to the lake to play in the water. It was very relaxing.

It was the sort of weekend where I looked around at all of the things I had going on and felt pretty good about them. It made me think of something that my Tae Kwon Do instructor once told me, which went something kind of like this:

"You need to take time to appreciate where you are at this exact moment in time, to enjoy the journey..."

I try to apply the things I learn in my martial arts class to my writing and my career, and I think this bit of advice is important. It's easy to become very goal focused, especially when thinking about marketing or publicity. I try to occasionally step back to remind myself to focus on one task at a time. This approach will not only help you to enjoy marketing your work more and make the process of promoting your writing less stressful, but it will also help you be more successful at the task at hand.

From personal experience, as a writer sometimes I tend to have too many irons in the fire and get excited about a couple of new ideas, while I still have one project I'm working on and something else that I need to work on promoting. This kind of energy can be good and help you be prolific, but remember to step back, take time to enjoy working on one project (whether you're writing or trying to generate publicity), and give it the attention it deserves.

6/30/2008 9:09:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Setting Expectations
Posted by Scott

Lisa Lenard-Cook, author of the award winning novels Dissonance and Coyote Morning has some good advice about getting the most out of writing-related events such as conferences, seminars and workshops in her recent fiction writing book The Mind of Your Story.

She says, "make a list of what you want from anything writing-related you might attend, and then steer your plans to your desires." Lisa advises downloading conference programs and scouring over the details ahead of time.

So much goes on at these types of events that the day can get away from you and you might not get what you expected out of it. With a bit of planning and setting goals you can make better use of your time whether you are trying to meet with agents and editors or simply take a class on a topic you've been having trouble with.

Learn more about Lisa's book here.

Visit her website at http://www.lisalenardcook.com/

6/26/2008 4:40:48 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Being Concise
Posted by Scott

Do you ever start to tell someone a story and realize that your giving way too much back information? I have a tendency to do exactly that.

When promoting yourself its important to be concise. In today's world people are impatient (especially the media), so it's a good idea to get your point across quickly. You may want to try writing down your pitch or your description of your work and editing it down and then rehearsing it a bit. Of course, you don't want to sound like a robot so don't over polish it, but instead practice getting your main point across. Your goal is to be quick, clear and interesting.

6/25/2008 4:57:26 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Remember, You're the Expert
Posted by Scott

Everyone has a different way of presenting themselves to the media whether your goal is to be authoritative or entertaining. The main thing to keep in mind is to present yourself as an expert on your subject, whether you think you are or not. To be an expert, you don't have to be the world's most knowlegeable person about something... you simply need to know what you're talking about. If you research and write about a subject, stay up to date with the latest news regarding your topic and present yourself in a knowledgable way, then that makes you an expert.

Bottom line: you have to believe that you're an expert before the media or your audience will, so have faith in what you know and present yourself with an authoritative voice.

6/24/2008 3:38:11 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

What No One Tells You
Posted by Scott

Hi Writers,

I've been reading a chapter about what happens after you get a book published from an inspirational book Chapter After Chapter by Heather Sellers. Heather is a very nice author (I've met her on several occasions) and has some great, down to earth advice about what to expect.

Heather of course advises planning to make time for readings, workshops, lecture and interviews, but she also advises that "this kind of basic publicity is not, as is commonly thought, the job obligation of the publisher, your editor, or their publicity team. It's your book. It's your job."

Wow. It's tough to hear it in those terms (especially, when as a marketer I like to think I do as much as I can for the authors I work with), but Heather is right. Hopefully your publisher has a marketing and publicity team that will do what they can to promote the book in it's early stages, but a lot of the book's success will depend on your own promotional efforts. Being realistic about how much effort you'll need to do on your own can make a big difference in the experience you have marketing your book. If you expect your publisher to fly you around the country for book signings, you're bound to be disappointed. On the other hand, if you work with your publisher and communicate with them about the efforts you are putting forth on your own, they are more likely to try to help out any way they can.

Check out Heather's book... it's full of great writing advice and will help you stay excited about the craft.

Also visit her website: www.heathersellers.com

6/18/2008 4:57:34 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Importance of Writing Constantly
Posted by Scott

Being very prolific can help you promote yourself. Write as much as you can and try to get published everywhere you can... and in saying this I mean not just writing in your main area of interest. Try sending out articles, essays, short stories and editorials to newspapers, magazines and journals that publish any subject that you're interested in writing about. Even if you ultimately are mainly interested in writing in a specific genre or format, getting published in other places will help you establish your name and make connections. Any writing opportunity should be considered a good writing opportunity... I wouldn't advise "saving your talent" for only one thing. Bottom line: get published wherever you can. The more you get out there, the more (and better) opportunites should follow.

6/17/2008 1:08:40 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, June 13, 2008

The Importance of Staying Up to Date
Posted by Scott

In today's fast paced world it's easy to be quickly forgotten if you don't keep up with constant change. An important part of marketing your work is staying up to date. If you're promoting your book or trying to promote yourself as a freelance writer you need to present yourself as an authority on the subject areas you write about. Make sure that you keep up to date with the latest news in your subject areas and that you stay active on any forums or message boards that you belong to. Make regular blog postings to keep your audience reading and update your website frequently to keep people coming back for new content. If you send out press releases or media kits, make sure that you update them to include information about your latest accomplishments, appearances, or clippings of your most recent articles.

6/13/2008 9:06:19 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Help Them Help You
Posted by Scott

Hi Writers,

One of the most important things I want to accomplish with this blog is to help answer the questions that arise when working with your publisher to promote your book. I work with authors every day who are confused about or don't really understand exactly what goes on in our marketing and publicity department, and therefore are confused about how much time, effort and resources typically go into promoting their book. If you're already published, then you probably have an idea what I'm talking about, but if you're soon to be published or are shopping your book around then I'd like to help you know what to expect.

One harsh reality you should prepare yourself for is that most publishers don't have a lot of money to work with for advertising. The reason for this is that the results of advertising are hard to prove. Sure you can know the circulation of a particular publication that a book is advertised in, but that doesn't really tell you whether or not the ad convinced someone to buy the book or not. It's simply hard to link a sale to an ad. This all means that when budget time comes around, justifying a lot of money for advertising isn't that easy to do and lots of "big sky" ideas end up getting cut or scaled back.

For this reason, a lot of promotional work that publishers do relies on publicity—which is to say that they try to come up with creative ways to get positive reviews for books in newspapers, magazines, blogs and work to get mentions in other media. This, as you can imagine, can be very hit and miss. Publicists find themselves at the mercy of the publications they're soliciting for reviews.

Which brings me to the second thing you need to keep in mind (especially if you're working with a larger publisher): publishers have a lot of books to promote and therefore have to divide their time and resources amongst many titles. In my own day-to-day work, this seems to be the primary cause of frustration with authors that I talk to. It's easy to feel forgotten or neglected when your publisher has a few main initiatives planned for your book when you’re brimming with lots of great ideas.

So where does that leave you, as an author? First of all, I advise any author to do a lot of their own work promoting their book. Whether your publisher has a large marketing plan or not, anything extra you can do helps. Try to set up some local speaking engagements and promote your book on your website or blog. Keep your publisher apprised of everything you are doing. This will help them to coordinate their efforts with yours. When working with your publisher, expect them to do a few key things to get the ball rolling such as:

1. Pitching the book to bookstores for seasonal or theme promotions

2. Executing an initial review copy mailing to publications and media relevant to your topic (if you have your own list of publications that you have in mind, particularly if you have contacts, it's a good idea to let your publisher know)

3. Work with authors to help set up local bookstore signings (don't expect to be sent on a large scale book tour, but if you are a frequent traveler, let your publisher know about areas you will be in—they may be able to help arrange something)

After that, you'll want to keep the momentum going on your own. If you're very ambitious, you might consider hiring an outside publicist. That, however can be an expensive proposition and if you do a little bit of work on your own, you can still get great results. Stay active on online message boards and forums relating to your topic. Consistently update your blog or website with new content. Attend conferences or events relating to the subjects you write about (if you write fiction, attend writer’s conferences and book festivals).

The main thing is to keep open lines of communication with your audience as well as with your publisher. By being open, positive and easily accessible, more opportunities will open up for you.

I’d love to try to answer any more specific questions you have about working with publishers and look forward to your comments.

6/11/2008 11:36:55 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Reporting on the Writers' Conference
Posted by Scott

Hi Writers,

I've returned from Los Angeles where I attended the Writer's Digest Writers' Conference as well as Book Expo America. Before I go into details I must apologize. I fully intended to post some entries from LA and give you updates about all the happenings there. Unfortunately I was just way too busy and wasn't a very good blogger. I hope you'll forgive me. Now on to the details

The Writers' Conference was great! Over 400 writers attended. The conference was packed. The day kicked off with a keynote address from Jaquelyn Mitchard, bestselling author of Deep End of the Ocean and throughout the morning there were workshops and lectures by Lisa Lenard-Cook (Mind of Your Story), James Scott Bell (Write Great Fiction: Revision & Self Editing), Bill O' Halon (Write is a Verb), and many others.

I spoke with Writer Mama author Christina Katz who writes the popular Writer's on the Rise newsletter for writers. Her forthcoming book Get Known Before the Book Deal (November) deals with growing your author platform. Christina is great at self promotion and I'm hoping to share more insight from her on this blog very soon.

Author and literary agent Donald Maass and I discussed his popular Writing the Breakout Novel Workshop series and his upcoming book The Fire in Fiction (Coming Spring 2009). Don has a lot of great insight about what makes good storytelling and makes a story really stand out. As Don points out, almost everyone has a good story to tell, but creating a great work of fiction requires passion and developing a compelling narrative voice. Check out his book Writing the Breakout Novel and the corresponding workbook.

The most popular event of the conference was the pitch slam where writers have the chance to pitch their story idea to agents. I moderated a room with seven agents and got to listen to writers giving their pitches, some good and some... well, not so good.

A successful pitch is concise and to the point. You should be able to explain your book idea and unique hook in under one minute. It's important to remember that agents are busy and may be turned off of a book idea when it takes too long to explain. If you attend an event where you expect to connect with agents or editors it's a good idea to practice your pitch. A short lead in (25 words or less) works well. If they want to know more, then you have your chance to go more in depth. Think of your pitch as a teaser. Give them just enough to get them interested.

6/4/2008 11:51:58 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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