Tag Archive | social networking

What Writers Can Learn From Public Radio

The local radio station that I listen to every day (WRTI in Philadelphia) is in the midst of its spring membership drive right now. That, of course, means hour after hour of the radio hosts going on and on about how I should pledge, how the station depends on me, and how the only reason they can say on the air is because of the support of listeners like me.

Well, I do pledge to the station. Every month, in fact. And I’ll confess, I tend to find something else to listen to for the ten days or so that it takes for them to reach their goals.

But then I started thinking…. Continue reading →

Marketing in the Publishing World: An Interview

Jan17

Today I am excited to bring to you an interview with my cousin Phyllis, who works in the marketing department for Tor Books. And why am I so excited? Because as any author, self or traditionally published, knows, marketing can be the most time-consuming, frustrating, perplexing, and downright mystifying aspect of this whole writing gig. I was eager to see if Phyllis could shed any light on the subject. And boy did she!

First, the basics…

How does book marketing work in the traditional book publishing world?

Wow, this is a subject for an entire book! I’ll try to give you a capsule version. As for traditional publishing, I think we need to leave that term behind soon because so much has changed in just the last ten years, and although publishing still employs some “traditional” tactics, we are discovering new approaches all the time. Book marketing is ideally, like most marketing, a multilayered endeavor, largely involving efforts by the author, the publisher, and the bookseller. For the author’s part, the most important thing s/he can do is write a good book. This is not negotiable. The author must also engage online as much as is possible. And I don’t mean only talking about your book. Writers must somehow build a platform for themselves and try to reach out to so-called Power Readers: people who live, breathe, and talk about books to their friends. If you’re writing topical non-fiction or straight genre fiction, it’s only slightly easier to find an audience than if you are writing literary fiction. One way to address this challenge, and this is something publicity folks do often, is find the non-fiction angle in your story. What real-life issue might you attach your story to that may be of interest to journalists and bloggers that write “off the book page.” The publisher’s role is to choose works that have a strong chance in the marketplace, and to produce and distribute the content through as many sales channels and in as many reading formats as possible. Marketing opportunities at the retail level are: paid positioning (also known as co-op) within the store or on the store’s website, and mentions or ads in retail newsletters that go out to their customers. Depending on the title and on the publisher’s expectations, a marketing plan is created including advanced galley distribution, co-op, publicity efforts, and advertising based on those expectations. At publication time, the plan is executed to a level commensurate with retail commitment. In other words, when the publisher’s sales team has sold a title into the retailers, the number of books out in the marketplace determines the level of marketing dollars committed from the original plan. With eBooks making up more and more of the total unit sale, this may change. But right now, printed books still represent the lion’s share of what is being sold. Booksellers, from the large chain stores to the independents, must make choices on what to carry in their stores (printed books), or on their sites (eBooks), and within those “walls” cater to their customer’s needs (books they know they want) and also to discoverability (books they don’t yet know that they want).

What have been some of the more successful campaigns you have worked on?

I’ll highlight one. We published a book called A Dog’s Purpose (fiction) by W. Bruce Cameron. It was a bestseller for many, many weeks in both hardcover and paper, and it sold a ton of copies in electronic format.

What made that campaign so successful?

Many things went into making A Dog’s Purpose a success:

A good story, well-told, and loved by many people at the publisher and eventually by many consumers
A NYT bestselling author, although all his previous books were non-fiction
A non-fiction angle = dog rescue
An extensive advanced galley mailing to booksellers and the media
Major co-op placement at every major bookstore chain, through our library wholesalers, and with our online retailers
Our publicity team scored tons of media attention in the publishing trades, major consumer media, and major pet media
An on-sale advertising campaign including major print and major online, utilizing glowing quotes from Alice Walker, Temple Grandin, and Dr. Marty Becker (Good Morning America)
An author who relentlessly promoted the book on Facebook and on his website, focusing on dogs and dog lovers everywhere. He even hosted a contest where people would win dog-of -the-week prizes like signed books.
Radio interviews with the author
Select author events in his home region
The book went on to be picked as a best book by Goodreads, BookPage readers, Rachel Ray
Alice Walker blogged about the book
Guideposts blogged about the book
The book has racked up 1000+ Amazon reviews, most of them 5 stars

What marketing media do you feel gives a book the best chance of succeeding (print media, social networking, etc.)?

A book’s best chance of succeeding is getting it in the hands of people who have the power to influence other people and hope those influencers say something great about it. In other words: WORD OF MOUTH. This is still the most powerful tool in the box because people trust other people: friends, relatives, celebrities, bloggers, journalists, booksellers, etc. And, you’ve got to start with a good story, well-told. Next is in-store promotion. As mentioned in my first answer, exposure at the retail level is key because, in general, 75% of books are still sold in print format. That said – every book has its own set of parameters that will dictate the media channels that best serve it and the audience to be reached within the budgetary limits that a marketer has available. Many consumers are moving away from traditional media to digital media options, but there is still a large amount of print and broadcast options that reach readers, and as long as these exist, they should not, if possible, be traded for the sexier, cheaper online venues.

What changes have you seen in the way books are marketed?

Some of our marketing dollars are moving out of print and broadcast, and into online options: social networking, search advertising, newsletters, and mobile. This is where the audience is spending a good deal of time and to not be there will limit exposure. Also, authors are a very important element in the marketing mix. They are maintaining comprehensive web sites, engaging with readers on social networks, blogging, and connecting with readers like never before. There are so many online book-club type environments for readers to share their love of reading by listing all of the books they’ve read or will be reading. All of this adds to the rigor of reading and experiencing literature together as a society.

What advice would you give a self-published or small press published author on marketing their work?

Assuming you’ve done the hard work and written the best book you can, now it’s time to devote yourself to marketing. This will feel like a full-time job because it is. While you’re marketing you will (probably) not have time to write. Get the work out to as many people/influencers as possible, ask for reviews and quotes from people with writing cred or who are otherwise respected for their own platforms. Create electronic files of the work to accommodate the various reading platforms. Distribute print galleys if you can afford them and ask booksellers to give you feedback. Post the work to NetGalley (review media is taking advantage of this more and more). Take advantage of relatively inexpensive online ads and online search campaigns. Learn how to conduct a publicity campaign or if you can afford to, hire a publicist or freelance book marketer such as FSB Associates. Stay current on the industry by reading trades such as Publishers Weekly, and bloggers such as Mike Shatzkin. Lastly, engage on as many social platforms as you have time for. Granted, many of the above ideas are easier said than done, but these are some of the essential ways to get a buzz going.

Where do you feel the book publishing world is heading from here?

Wherever the reading public wants to go! From my perspective, we publishing folks are striving to evolve with readers’ tastes and preferences. You may know that Tor recently removed all DRM (Digital Rights Management) from our electronic books so that consumers can decide where/how to read the content they buy from us. I hope that publishing will always be about providing the best possible works of literature to the reading public, in whatever format/platform is preferred.

What are your favorite authors to read for fun?

My tastes are changing all the time. I used to read (and still love) Anne Tyler, Saul Bellow, and John Irving, to name just a few. On the recommendation of a good friend, I recently read Bronte’s Jane Eyre and loved it. Also, just read Ender’s Game (a Tor book first published in 1985) and was amazed at how forward thinking the author, Orson Scott Card, was (and still is!) in the technology he imagined. On my list to read next is Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne – highly recommended by my brainy brother who reads everything.

Thanks so much for answering all my questions, Phyllis! Anyone else have questions? I’ll see if I can pass them along and get some answers.

Selfishness and the Writer

Nov21

It takes drive and dedication to write and publish a novel. That much everyone knows. If you’re going to reach for the brass ring and write something that people will want to buy, that they will want to tell their friends to buy, you’re going to have to put in some serious hours. You’re going to have to learn the craft, figure out the mysteries of grammar and punctuation. You’re going to have to put in the time to get the entire story plotted, whether you do it in advance or as you write. And you’re going to have to be painstakingly honest as you carry your novel through the revision process to make it the best work it can be. And that’s all long before you start to market it and yourself.

But lately I’ve been thinking about one other aspect of what it takes to be a writer. Did I say thinking? More like I’ve been wallowing in guilt over it. Because as painful as it feels, as much as it goes against all of the things we’re taught about being a good person, to be a successful writer you have to spend a huge amount of time being selfish.

Yeah, I know! It came as something to a surprise to me when the epiphany hit. I was driving to work one day, feeling guilty about all of the emails I haven’t had the time to respond to. I’ve made so many great friends through my writing, fellow writers and readers alike. They’re awesome people. Everything fun and friendly inside of me wants to respond instantly to their emails, write all of the short stories and blog posts that they’ve requested I write, and keep in touch on a daily basis with these people. But my energy only goes so far.

: © Robtek | Dreamstime.com

The problem with being a writer is that in order to be successful at it you have to write things. Stories may pop into our heads fully formed – or not – but in order them to take on life and be shared with other people, at some point we have to sit our butts down at our computers and write the damn things. Trouble is, that’s a really time-consuming prospect.

Maybe I shouldn’t look at it this way, but I see each of the books I am writing or that I have immanent plans to write (I’ve got four of them right now – and those are only the immediate ones) as plates spinning. Have you ever tried to spin plates? It takes hard-core concentration. Just like writing. The problem is that my nature is one that likes to stop and chat with people, to make friends and exchange ideas. It’s difficult to do that while spinning plates.

And so I write. I write and I feel guilty. Because there is a very large part of me that things, that knows that I should be networking. I should be supporting my fellow writers to the full extent of my capabilities. I should be supporting my fans and connecting with them. But there I am, sitting at my computer, listening to Yoga Radio on Pandora and writing.

It’s selfish. It’s uniquely selfish. Selfishness means focusing on yourself, turning inward and putting your own concerns above the concerns of others. It’s also necessary. Writers exist in a distinctive space of needing to close off to the outside world in order to plumb the depths of our inner lives and record it on paper. We have to tell people that we’re very sorry, but we can’t hang out with them or respond right away to their email or return their phone call. What we do depends on being selfish.

At the same time, not all selfishness is a bad thing. Time and again we tell people that they have to take care of themselves before they can be fit to take care of others. That kind of selfishness is a healthy thing. It keeps us from falling apart and taking people down with us. Sometimes it’s all that stands between us and the cliff of insanity.

That’s the kind of selfishness writers need to develop. Yes, we need to turn off the phone and make our relatives wonder what happened to us sometimes, but we’re so turned inward because we’re creating. We need that time in our heads so that we can produce something beautiful to share with the rest of the world.

: Some of my cousin Christina’s artwork

It reminds me of pottery, actually. I have a cousin who makes the most beautiful ceramics you’ve ever seen, bowls, mugs, plates, you name it. Not surprisingly, her studio is separate from the area where she (and her kids) live most of their lives and she has to make time to work. Not only that, you can only do so much with clay out in the open, in public, as it were. Eventually you need to pack it all into the kiln, close the lid, and walk away. What happens to that clay when it’s alone, when it’s deeply immersed in itself and the creative process, is magic. But it can only happen in that high-heat, isolated environment. The results are stunning.

So should I be feeling so guilty as I run through the list of people I need to email or call back or the pieces I’ve been asked to write that I haven’t gotten to yet while sitting at a red light? Probably not. I do the best I can. But I also dream of the day when I can hire an assistant to keep me on top of those sorts of things.

The Age of Know-Nothing Know-It-Alls

Nov9

What will History think of us? How will the times we live in now be viewed in 20, 50, or 100 years? With everything going on right now, all of the political and social and economic issues that seem important in our lives today, what will last and what will disappear?

Ooo, yeah, that’s deep for a Fun Friday post! But as the election ended and the celebrations and hand-wringing began across our nation this week, I caught myself wondering how much it will really matter.

To put it into perspective, I was a History major in college. Twice. I have two bachelor’s degrees in History. And if there’s one thing you learn while studying history, it’s how to look at the big picture. History isn’t studied year-by-year, day-by-day, it’s studied in terms of eras, ages, periods, and trends. Everything is always changing. Good or bad, eras don’t last. Regardless of how change happens, people go on waking up in the morning, going to work, and interacting with other people.

So! Since we’re not going to be remembered for the exact, specific things going on right now that the media dissects in detail, what are we going to be remembered for?

: Ah, research!
© Abdone | Dreamstime.com

Well, first of all, I think we can pretty much all agree that we entered another era of history on September 11th, 2001. So very many things changed around that time that I’m reasonably certain the era we’re living in right now will be recorded as having started that day. But it goes far beyond the attacks in NYC. I think this era will also be known for the economic downturn. But more than anything else, maybe even more than 9/11, I think right now will forever be known as the Internet Age. Maybe more than that. Maybe it will be the Age of Social Media.

Now I love social media. It has opened the world up like nothing ever has before. I have daily conversations with people in Australia, New Zealand, and England, not to mention occasional discussions with folks in India and other non-English-as-a-first-language countries. How awesome is that? Communication is easier and freer than it’s ever been. Sit back and watch the ideas flow!

Except that there’s one glaring problem with this way of communicating. The way we get our information has changed, and not for the better.

Once upon a time, many years ago, when I was a young and impressionable girl who liked to know about things, I had an intimate relationship with the card catalog at my local college library. Let me tell you, I knew how to find stuff out! It wasn’t just the card catalog and the books housed at the library either. We had this set of books called The Guide to Periodic Literature. Basically it was a bound catalog of every magazine article that had been written about every subject. I would look stuff up and order copies of serious academic and scientific journals sent to me through Interlibrary Loan.

NERD!

Nowadays if people want to know those same sorts of things that I would look up what do they do?

I’m pretty sure you just answered “They look it up on Wikipedia or online”.

Yes, information is at our fingertips. We can find answers to things with a click of a mouse. But what exactly are we finding?

Granted, this is not news. We all know that the validity of information found on the internet has to be carefully scrutinized for quality before we can believe it. The thing is, people are lazy. They don’t verify things. It’s there online so we cut corners and assume it’s right, end of story.

I smacked hard into the wall of this kind of thinking last weekend, and it wasn’t pretty. I had posted a blog about The True Story of King Richard and King John at the website for my online RWA chapter. And I got slammed for the facts I presented. Boy did people argue with me! All because I was stating an alternative view to the commonly held image of Richard as a good king and John as a bad one. Granted, I know that this is a subject of fierce scholarly debate. There is evidence to support both interpretations of the facts. That’s what history is. It’s a constant debate. Facts are mutable and people spend their entire careers trying to make sense of them and argue for their theories.

Yeah. I was getting impatient with the arguments against my viewpoints. Especially since I said repeatedly in comments that renowned medievalists of sterling reputation have and continue to make cases on both sides of the argument and that it is just that, a debate. But no. I had a couple of people out for blood, intent on making me retract everything I said in favor of their viewpoint.

: Let’s not go there, people!
© Olgalis | Dreamstime.com

But the moment of crowning glory came when one of these commenters included a link to the source of their opinion, their “definitive argument”. It was an article from About.com. Said article was written by some freelance writer with a bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Texas, Austin (which we all know is a hotbed of medievalism … in Texas). Meanwhile, I had my actual hardcover paper books written by world-class medievalists (like Rhodes Scholar, Princeton PhD, professor at Columbia University Norman F. Cantor) open across my table as I fact-checked myself and my commenters.

Well, after that I gave up. I closed the books and the argument. (And I was cranky and ungracious about it too) I’m sorry, but I am not arguing academics with someone who uses About.com (or Wikipedia or anything online) as their primary source. Call me a snob, but my Rhodes Scholar outranks your U of T undergrad.

Okay, so I digressed a bit telling that story. The point is this. At the title of this post implies, I think this current era of readily-available “information” and communication will ensure that we are remembered as the age of Know-Nothing Know-It-Alls. Because really. We all think we know everything because we think we can click our way to online content that is written in a persuasive style.

Granted, I still think it’s a great thing that information is in the hands of the masses now and not the hands of a privileged elite. But at the same time, let’s face it, the masses haven’t learned to discern the quality of the information coming at them. There is no respect for scholarship and research anymore. It’s all about the McInfo. And that makes the giant nerd in me who used to order academic journals through Interlibrary Loan really sad.

So there you have it. We think we know everything because so many things that sound persuasive are just a click away, but because no one stops to verify any sources or do the hard work of real research, we actually know nothing. And that’s what we will be remembered for.

Do you think I’m on to something here? What do you think our current age will be remembered for?

How to Sell Your Book – The Masculine Way/The Feminine Way

Jun12

When selling your book you can’t think like an author, you have to think like a marketer. -Steven Spatz, VP of Marketing for BookBaby

Writers are different than businessmen. Readers don’t want to be sold to, they want to have authentic interaction with an author as a person. -Kristen Lamb, author of We Are Not Alone: A Writer’s Guide to Social Media

This past weekend I attended the Philadelphia Writers Conference. And it was awesome! Several things stood out to me. One of the most controversial was the session lead by Steven Spatz, VP of Marketing for BookBaby, about selling your eBook. What Steven proposed seemed to directly contradict what Kristen Lamb, my personal hero on the subject, advocates.

Okay, so neither of the above are direct quotes, they are me paraphrasing each expert. But I think the statements encapsulate the pith of what Steven and Kristen were each saying. Are these diametrically opposed philosophies? Are we being given mixed messages? Who is right? How do we know what to do?

Yeah, that’s what I’ve been asking myself for a couple of days now.

As I see it, the two approaches to selling books that I have now been presented with are masculine and feminine approaches to the universal problem that all authors have. Let’s take a closer look at each.

Steven’s approach comes from a marketing perspective. One of the first things he stated in his presentation was that you cannot look at your book as your perfect baby. You have to look at it as something you want to sell. He stated that you must view your book as on the same level as toothpaste or toilet paper. It’s a product and you want to sell it.

He advocated doing this with traditional marketing techniques: finding your target audience and hooking them with incentives. He used the marketing analogy of a funnel: leads go in one side and filter through, and sales come out the other. To find leads he recommended all of our standard social media tools, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, all that stuff. His method involves setting up email lists, running promotions, extending those promotions, and closing the sale.

Kristen has a different philosophy. She maintains that you cannot sell a book the same way you would sell toothpaste or toilet paper. A book is an emotional purchase, and as such a reader must approach an author as a person, not a product. Therefore, to “close the sale” a writer must interact authentically with potential readers. The focus should be on the “soft sell”, creating meaningful content that draws readers in and sparks their interest in your book.

Kristine notes that word of mouth is the most important tool in selling your book. People follow personal recommendations, not promotional messages in all their glory. If you spam people with email they will only get annoyed.

Okay, so who’s right? And what do I do next?

Here’s that I think…. They each possess a degree of rightness.

Steven’s approach feels very masculine to me. It’s aggressive and, in a way, dominant. You come out of the gate strong, gather and analyze your data, then plan your attack and execute it according to plan. My gut tells me this approach would work well for non-fiction or fiction aimed at a type-A personality.

Kristen’s approach feels feminine to me. It relies on communication, on empathy and connection. You make friends, show an interest in people’s lives. You share and relate. Word of mouth rules. Instinct tells me this approach would work brilliantly for romance, YA, and literary fiction. If you’re reading a book because you’re interested in the characters then it would follow that you’re also interested in the writer as a character.

Because in essence, both Steven and Kristen are recommending the same tools for the job. They just advocate a different way to use those tools. And to a certain extent I think they are suggesting those tools be used in a different order.

Here’s another thing I learned this weekend about selling books: what you write matters.

I write Historical Romance. My buddy Samantha Warren writes Paranormal and YA Paranormal. Samantha has outsold me by at least 20-1. The statement was made several times that Paranormal is super hot right now. Still. So is YA. Sam and I were talking about this and she said “With your writing being as good as it is you could make a killing writing Vampire Erotica!” To which I responded, “Yes, but I have no interest in Vampire Erotica at all.”

How do you sell books? Write Vampire Erotica. I’m not being flippant there. Book sales, like bell-bottoms and shoulder pads, are effected by trends. Today it’s Paranormal. Sucks to be me. Does that mean I won’t sell any books? Of course not! Historical Romance will always sell, but I will have to be a little more patient, work a little harder, and use a lot more of the tools available to me to seek out those leads, as Steven called them, to find my audience. I wish it could be easier, but that’s books. Someday the Paranormal folks might be pounding the pavement to find readers.

But hear this! No matter which approach you try, the one thing everyone agrees on is that the absolute most important thing you have to do to sell your book is to WRITE A DAMN GOOD BOOK! That is so much easier said than done. And guess what? Once you’ve done that it’s still going to take a hell of a lot of work of whatever type to stand out from the crowd and be noticed by readers.

You cannot slouch. You cannot limit yourself to one method. And most of all, you cannot ever, ever give up!

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