There Are No Rules - Building Readership

Whoa, there Nelly!

I've been on the horse for a very long time and you're galloping a bit to far ... ahead.

Don't like this kind of talk. Don't like my work being called "content."

I can't imagine any writer I know who would thrill at the sound of that word.

Easy does it, there. S-l-o-w. D-o-w-n. You know I'm forward-minded ... but this is a bit too forward for me.

I have a feeling most book authors will not warm up right away to this idea of being a "content provider" rather than an author. (And let's not exempt editors from this thinking, either. Meredith has talked about hiring "content strategists" rather than "editors." See this article.)

There is a great deal of romance, authority, and credibility tied up in this idea of being an author. And it sounds distinctly less sexy (and even less beneficial) to be a "content provider." And while I think we should keep playing with the words until it sounds desirable for everyone involved, the sooner we can shift our thinking here, the more viable we will all remain.

Last week my company, F+W Publications, officially changed its name to F+W Media. Read the press release here. CEO David Nussbaum says:

As a Company, our mission is to strive to offer the highest quality content in a wide variety of formats – from print to digital to video – to highly passionate enthusiast communities. We provide compelling content engaging communities and most importantly consumer satisfaction. We are a media company with enormous potential for future growth through excellence and innovation.

So what's the takeaway?

Method of delivery (or format) is irrelevant. Book, DVD, Web site, podcast? It doesn't really matter. What will do the best job of delivering useful, engaging content or community?
While some people (or some audiences/consumers) may be enthusiasts specifically of the book format, first and foremost (at least when we're talking about the majority of the nonfiction audience), people are looking for an interaction, experience, or information.
I love this Seth Godin quote from an article in The Futurist, "The 21st Century Writer": "The book is a souvenir." What does that mean? It means that the book is becoming the ancillary product in a much larger experience, that people want more than information. Read "The 21st Century Writer" to fully explore this idea.

Media companies, formerly known as book & magazine publishers, have to create or support products/content/experiences so unique and personal that they can't be easily duplicated elsewhere for free. Books are only one aspect of the bigger picture.

(Apologies to Christina Katz for setting her up! As she says, she's very forward thinking.)

Building Readership | Digitization & New Technology | Industry News & Trends

7/21/2008 3:46:28 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, July 18, 2008

Excellent & Innovative Author Marketing-Promotion-Publicity Tips
Posted by Jane

Here's a round-up of the more intriguing or helpful articles I've been reading on author marketing, promotion, and publicity.

What Social Media Does Best (Chris Brogan)
Chris Brogan's blog is probably my favorite new read; he tackles questions of marketing/promotion in relation to social media in a fresh and useful way. This post helps give you a grounding of the principles.

Use LinkedIn to Promote (The Publicity Hound)
LinkedIn is a social networking tool for professionals that comes in handy for job searches and business opportunities. I'd never really considered it as a book promotion tool, but this post gives a vague idea of how it might work. (Unfortunately, rather than deliver the real goods, the post promotes a teleseminar on the topic.)

Tips on Working With Publicists (GalleyCat)
Here you'll find links to the latest advice on how authors can work effectively with their publishers' publicity departments (or lack thereof) or independent publicists. Invaluable. Read. Bookmark. Save.

Starting and Writing an Effective Blog
One of the most frequently asked questions at conferences is how to start and run a blog that really makes a noticeable difference to an aspiring or published author's career or visibility. Here are a variety of resources I've found that offer genuine tools:

Blogging: How to Get Started (Sling Words). A step-by-step primer on the logistics. (What service do you choose, how do you set it up, etc.)
A Sample Blogging Workflow (Chris Brogan). Shows you how to keep your blog populated consistently with good content without expending all your energy on it.
10 Secrets to Better Blogging (Chris Brogan). He must know what he's doing, because this is my third link to his site in this post.

Building Readership | Digitization & New Technology | Industry News & Trends | Marketing & Self-Promotion

7/18/2008 1:19:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

How to Avoid Sabotaging Your Writing Career (#3)
Posted by Jane

Here's the dirty little secret of publishing:
Many publishers don’t know how to sell books to readers. They only know how to sell to bookstores, wholesalers, and other middlemen. Which leads to the next sabotage:

#3 SABOTAGE: EXPECT YOUR PUBLISHER TO MARKET YOUR WORK

Successful authors (particularly nonfiction authors) often have a marketing platform long before they decide to publish a book. They know how to market perhaps even better than their publisher, because they know how to reach a readership.

What is a marketing platform?

It’s NOT your credentials.
It’s your visibility and what you do to continue your visibility.
You cannot act on a one-time basis and have a platform. It is a process or a journey.

If you don’t market and promote your work, who will? General-interest publishers can struggle to reach readers directly, meaning often YOU are the best person to reach readers. Your publisher will not take care of everything. Assume they will do nothing and you will not be disappointed. That aside, your publisher often uses your network, contacts, and knowledge about the market to form their own marketing campaigns. If you have nothing to contribute, they have to start from the ground up. Or they might not start at all.

Envision your book—spine out—on bookstore shelves, surrounded by thousands of other titles. Who knows it's there? Who is going to tell people it's there? Don't wait for your publisher to tell the world. You tell the world.

The greater lesson: If you build it, they will not come.

Related posts
How to Avoid Sabotaging Your Writing Career (#2)
How to Avoid Sabotaging Your Writing Career (#1)

Building Readership | Getting Published | Marketing & Self-Promotion

6/25/2008 5:32:15 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Thursday, May 22, 2008

The Essential Elements of a Writer's Online Presence
Posted by Jane

A faithful reader of this blog recently sent the following question:

I believe that some writers are unsure of the exactness of their Web presence. What I mean is, sure, to have a personal Web site is a must.

But what other aspects of a Web presence should one pursue? Places like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, blogging (blogspot, blogger.com, wordpress?)—which should writers pursue, any online items/sites writers should avoid?

And with blogging, what about streaming the blog right onto your Web site, as opposed to it sitting on the blogger host site?

And what have I not thought of?

There is a practical answer, and there is a big-picture answer.

First, the big-picture answer, from 50,000 feet.

Do only what's meaningful to spreading news about your work, cultivating a readership (or interacting with a readership), and establishing your position or brand.
Do only what's meaningful to your readership.
Do what adds value (avoid distractions). (For example, Twitter may ultimately be a distraction. But I want to try it out, see what it's about, for the same reasons that Michael Hyatt does. I need to understand it so I can innovate, in the right ways, in my job.)
Do establish a clear identity online, or multiple identities online, depending on the facets of your career or expertise.

These should be the principles that guide you. Now for the practical answer.

For Aspiring Writers/Unpublished Writers

Try to buy a domain name that's a close match to your name (www.yourname.com). You don't need to build or create a Web site right away, but reserve that real estate for when you do need it. It's inexpensive and easy to do.
If you don't yet have a use for a personal Web site (www.yourname.com), establish a modest profile or blog through a site like Facebook, Wordpress, Blogger—something clean and easy to use. This profile/blog/page can serve as either a public or private place for you to get comfortable interacting in an online community if you're new to it.
For unpublished writers who are already comfortable in online environments/communities, think about what your unique identity is or could be in an online environment, and how can you begin to position yourself and your work. Become known to your target audience if possible by participating in blogs, online communities, groups, etc.

Minimum Requirements for Active/Published Writers

Yes, you must have a professional Web site with a URL that matches your name as closely as possible, or conveys your tag/handle (e.g., www.ChiefHappinessOfficer.com). It should include info on your publications, your events/engagements, your bio, and your contact info. This site can remain fairly static, but should always offer up-to-date information about your work or your events.
On your site, have a prominent spot for people to sign up for your e-newsletter, even if you don't really have one. (Start building a mailing list or fan list! Invaluable.)
You should also have a dedicated Web site for each book or major project underway, something that's separate from your name-based site. Such sites should use the title of the work as the URL address.

Recommended, But Not Essential

1. A general blog. Think carefully before starting one. Maintaining a strong and beneficial blog for readers takes time away from your writing. However, the trade-off is usually worth it—it helps spread the word about who you are and should grow your platform. Strong blogs give people a reason to visit regularly—a benefit or feature of some kind, or a unique position/slant. If you're just blogging about the minutiae of daily life ("My golden retriever vomited on the floor again"), no one will care or return.

In my experience, it doesn't matter if your general blog is part of your main site or hosted elsewhere, though the blog should have its own distinct URL. Here's what your set up might look like, using my name as an example:

My Main Site
www.JaneFriedman.com

My General Blog
blog.JaneFriedman.com

My Book's Site (which may involve a 2nd blog related to the book!)
www.GreatAmericanNovel.com

Seth Godin (a very prolific author and blogger) juggles multiple blogs and products; look at his sites and see how seamlessly they all work together, how his sites are like a family, and it's easy to move from one to the next.

2. A social networking presence. I have yet to see any author sell a boatload of books because they had a million billion friends on Facebook or MySpace. However, the connections or network you build in such communities can be helpful in the long run. And, as with any online community, it's all about the time you put into it. Just setting up a profile and adding a link to your book isn't much better than no profile. Plus, there's not much benefit in pushing your book through these broad social networking sites if that's not where most of your audience hangs out. Again, always think about the habits of your target audience and how they prefer to be contacted. If it's through a MySpace bulletin, then by all means pursue that. (It worked for musicians.) For book authors, a more targeted approach is more likely to pay off when it comes to book sales.

Blogging Software
I recommend using services through Google (Blogger) or Wordpress, but there are far more educated people than me on this topic. Just be sure that the service you choose fits your skill level (or whatever Web presence you have already established). Do keep it simple and avoid paying for it.

LinkedIn
This is worthwhile as a job-hunting and professional networking site; it's also just a cool way to observe or keep tabs on how people become linked throughout a profession. I've heard it dubbed "MySpace for businesspeople," but I disagree. As far as I can tell, it's wonderful for job search, not really a place to hang out, and definitely not a place to promote a book or product.

This has been a long post, but I've just scratched the surface. I encourage your comments—please share your experiences of what's worked and what you now avoid. (And, what have we not thought to address?)

Building Readership | Digitization & New Technology | Marketing & Self-Promotion

5/22/2008 5:50:45 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The Secret to Effective Marketing & Self-Promotion
Posted by Jane

Writers love to admit they're terrible at sales and marketing. Somehow, if they admit they're bad at it, they think it means they're off the hook. "Well, I'm just a writer, I'm not a marketer." Or: "I don't feel comfortable selling—I feel like I'm selling myself out." Or, best of all: "I would never shill my book." (Or, sometimes, "I don't have the time and money to self-promote." Egregious error! But to be addressed some other time.)

I have two philosophies to share with all writers:

If done correctly, marketing and promoting your book does not mean you are selling out or shilling.
Even the most introverted writers, with no marketing and promotion experience, can take effective, meaningful steps to sell and publicize their books.

These concepts are at the front of my mind lately because I'm working with author Christina Katz on her upcoming fall 2008 book, Get Known Before the Book Deal.

The concept I find us returning to, again and again, is one of authenticity.

AUTHENTICITY works two ways.

First, whatever you do to market and promote yourself and your work, it needs to feel good to you. It needs to make you even more excited and passionate. It should not feel like bad medicine, otherwise you won't do it. Your efforts should fit with who you are as a person (build on your strengths) and make sense in the big picture of your career.

Second, your actions need to appear genuine and authentic to your intended audience. Your actions should be from a "real" person offering a benefit (whether that's information or entertainment); you should not be just another huckster selling another widget. Nobody likes a shill, so don't be one.

Your marketing and promoting journey (which is really about platform-building too) involves leveraging who you already are (in an honest way), identifying and understanding your readership (in a genuine way), developing your own unique approach to that readership (that feels good to everyone), and building an authentic connection. People should trust you.

Now for the latest conundrum Christina and I have discussed.

What about author blog tours, where the author pays for the promotional opportunity. Is that shilling?

What about the bloggers who promote products for companies in their blogs (for money or free stuff)?

What about authors (or coaches/consultants) who employ the you-plug-my-product and I'll-plug-yours strategy?

Is this stuff shilling?

I don't think there's a clear-cut answer because it involves so many factors, but whenever there's pay for play, or a quid pro quo, your authenticity comes into question. Or, even if it doesn't come into question, why would you want to invest your time, money, or energy into anything other than a genuine and authentic opportunity to reach or serve your target readership? Sometimes, when you pay for a certain type of promotion or publicity (or accept fringe benefits in exchange for helping someone else promote), the results are less quality. You hurt yourself in the long run. (If marketing and self-promotion were only about having enough money, couldn't we all just pay for enough of it to make our books bestsellers? But it's not that easy.)

To be clear:
It's absolutely shilling if you're touring blogs with audiences who aren't interested in your book/expertise; it's shilling if you promote products or companies for quick gain (and not out of a true partnership, or a desire to give your readers a benefit); it's shilling if you're pushing any kind of product-person-service that you don't believe in and/or that isn't related to your readers. It's about your relationship with your readership. Put yourself in your readers' shoes; would it look like shilling to them? Would it look questionable? (Do you look desperate or gross doing it?) Then don't do it.

I would love to get your viewpoints on the questions above. What have your experiences been? Do you think it's OK to pay for play? When does an author cross the line into shilling?

Building Readership | Marketing & Self-Promotion

5/21/2008 3:45:30 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Friday, May 16, 2008

The No. 1 Requirement for a Good Experience
Posted by Jane

Last year, I started using a Web application for my to-do list, Gootodo. It's a brilliantly simple little tool that has streamlined my work life. Simple but useful tools are difficult to find.

The creator of this tool, Mark Hurst, has an e-newsletter I subscribe to called Good Experience. His latest newsletter (and blog post) discusses the No. 1 requirement for a good experience, which goes against the grain of most business thinking: empathy.

Empathy - the driving force behind good listening - is the number one requirement for anyone who wants to create a good experience. Not a long list of methods, not a scholarly knowledge of one's niche field - but empathy. Anyone can learn a method; but people who can listen, can pay attention, can see the experience from someone else's perspective, are rare and valuable.

Writing a book, for example, requires the author to constantly read and re-read the text from the perspective of the readers: will this make sense to them? Not to me, the author, but to someone who's coming at this fresh?

Throughout the years, my own company has been fairly good at this. We conduct surveys, focus groups, and make it easy for customers to contact us. Our editors are not protected from the random calls coming into reception from people who want to know how to get published. I believe we do listen. While F+W may not always succeed in delivering a good experience, at the very least we know what that good experience looks like, even if our own internal systems prevent us or limit us from delivering it! (One example is WritersMarket.com, which is an excellent tool, but still needs improvement—and that's a task we've been undertaking intensively for more than two years now.)

But back to writers specifically: If you're writing a book, are you really focusing on the reader, or are you more concerned with publication or "spreading your message"? Of course there's nothing wrong with being motivated to spread a message, but what I find unique is when a writer wants to help or benefit others, and asks that question first and foremost. Then the writer has his focus on the right place: the marketplace. In fact, if more writers honestly asked themselves this question, would they still conclude that writing, publishing, and promoting a book is the best course of action?

Building Readership | General | Getting Published

5/16/2008 10:33:34 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The Litmus Test: How Well Do You Understand the Book Publishing Industry?
Posted by Jane

In our office, we keep a little book of quotes where we record the strange, funny, or absurd things that people say, both knowingly and unknowingly. Here is something we captured from early 2007:

“Someone’s buying those books. I have no idea who.”
—Steve Koenig, (former) F+W National Sales Manager

When you read that, what is your reaction, on this scale of 1 to 5?

5 - Laugh out loud funny!!!
4 - Very amusing!
3 - Huh?
2 - Long and knowing sigh.
1 - Sad silence, with slight downturn of the lips.

The closer you are to the book industry, probably the less funny (or absurd) this quote seems. It reveals what I often call the dirty little secret of (trade) book publishing: We don't know who's buying our books. All we know are the middlemen: the distributors, the wholesalers, the chains, the reps, etc. Many book publishers are experts at working the system to get books distributed, placed, and promoted in outlets far and wide. But are we experts at knowing the reader? Do we know, in the end, who's buying our books off the shelf? In many cases, we do not.

One of the historic best-selling series at F+W is on painting rocks. It all started in 1994 with The Art of Painting Animals on Rocks by Lin Wellford. Over the past 10-15 years, our rock painting books have sold more than 1 million copies. Who's buying these books? Sometimes, we have an idea, when we're able to talk directly to consumers (like through book clubs or at specialized trade shows). But mostly, we don't have a clue.

This is why publishers depend on authors to know their audience/readership, and to develop a platform that can reach readers directly. The publisher is often incapable of doing this effectively or efficiently. Of course, some publishers do have strong direct-to-consumer businesses and know how to promote directly to readers. Rodale is one example. Hay House is another. (Click here to read a fascinating article on how the Hay House business grew, and continues to grow, through its ability to reach consumers.)

In the future, given how technology/digitization is changing how people find and purchase products/content (and how distribution models are changing for all media), the publishers who succeed will be the ones who can directly reach and market to readers, and have expertise in serving that reader—rather than just being expert at driving product to the middleman.

(Thanks to Grace, WD's managing designer, for providing excellent fodder for this post, that is, the quote itself!)

Building Readership | F+W Life | Industry News & Trends

5/14/2008 10:25:17 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Why No Rules?
Posted by Jane

This blog's name is inspired by a quote from Thomas Edison: "Hell, there are no rules here—we're trying to accomplish something."

In an industry that's undergoing dramatic transformation, the only constant is change, and whatever rules we're following today won't necessarily work tomorrow.

Which brings me to an interesting bit of news forwarded to me by an F+W colleague. (Thanks, Erica!)

The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) completed a case study of Random House's e-book giveaway earlier this year. For those who aren't aware, Random House offered a free digital download of an entire Suze Orman book (as a PDF file) for limited time that coincided with Orman's appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

The BISG case study concludes that giving away the digital book for free resulted in increased sales of the print book. One year after publication, the book (Women and Money) shot back onto the New York Times bestseller list and has remained there ever since.

Some writers spend a lot of time worrying about their work being given away for free -- or being stolen and spread without their permission. These writers often ask what steps they can take to protect their work.

The question I want to ask in response is: Wouldn't it be flattering if someone wanted to go to that much trouble to steal and disseminate (or distribute) your work for you? It might mean your work has value and is worth reading and sharing -- and that's exactly what you want. Isn't it difficult enough to get people interested in your work (in a world with fewer readers and more books than ever)? Cultivating a strong readership is a process that spans your entire career, and giving back to your readers is part of that process.

What can you give your readers for free? Or what do you have to offer readers that would make them excited enough to share your work with everyone they know -- leading to even greater sales in the future? Giving stuff away for free is just the beginning, right?

Building Readership | Digitization & New Technology

4/30/2008 5:14:11 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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