As an established author, one may come to notice a seemingly inevitable plateau or decline in book sales as time goes on. There are ways, however, to re-engage your fan base and reinvigorate your marketing strategies. One terrific, simple way to do this is to arrange a book reading at your local bookstore, library, coffee shop, university or school, etc.
It is important–whether or not your book is hot off the press–to keep your audience engaged, but also to keep yourself actively engaged in promoting and selling your book. Not only do fans of your work want to see you in person, a book reading can also drum up potential fans who would not have otherwise heard of your piece!
So…the question you may have is, how does one prepare for a book reading?
Come Prepared
Pick 4 or 5 captivating passages to really draw in your audience. Practice reading these passages to friends, to a mirror, or even to your cat if you feel so inclined. If you want to utilize the camera feature on your smartphone or computer, you can even film yourself to see how your performance will appear to others.
Be Confident, Comfortable, and Relatable
A great way to relate to your potential readers is to provide your personal reasons for writing the story, or the inspiration behind it. Make sure to come up with key talking points if you’re going to take this approach so that you can talk freely without a script–appearing confident and comfortable will further inspire people to give your book a chance!
Keep Your Audience Engaged
Make sure to keep a close eye on your audience: if you’ve only made it through some of your material but notice that the crowd is getting restless or checking their phones, change gears and do a Q & A to keep them actively participating. If you’re too busy staring down at your script or book, you’ll miss important body language cues that could help you gauge where you should direct your attention, or perhaps encourage you to take up a more captivating tone or to make better eye contact.
Don’t waste a precious opening by reading out a long list of names, thanking those who helped you publish your book and risk putting your audience to sleep–instead, lure them in, grab their attention, answer their questions, THEN thank whoever you need to thank.
Anticipate Obvious Questions
Don’t fumble when people ask you “What does the title mean?” or “Was the character inspired by a real person?”, etc. etc.
Also, repeat the questions to the audience, you want everyone to know what you’re responding to, not just the person posing the question.
Don’t Be Afraid to Get Creative with Location
Remember that bookstores are not the only places to find potential readers. There are a myriad of potentially relevant locations for you to speak at which could span from a woman’s shelter to a community garden to a prison, etc. etc. If your book is about long distance hiking, try a local gear store. The key is, start close to home!
Get the contact information for whatever venue you’re looking to speak at: manager’s name, phone number, and email are great places to start! Describe how your book reading could benefit the business by drawing in customers, resonate with the store’s target customers, increase the likelihood that those there for the book reading will also shop at the store after the event.
Advertise Your Event!
Make sure to publicize your event: flyers, social media posts, mention it in your blog, send a press release to local shopping guides or community calendars.
Remember above all else, it is not up to book stores to sell books, but authors themselves! Be active in the process of marketing and selling your book and the success of your book sales will reflect your hard work!
[ book readings are a great way to drum up interest in your book! ]
Thank you for reading! If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line atselfpublishingadvice@gmail.com. And remember to check back each Wednesday for your weekly dose of marketing musings from one indie, hybrid, and self-published author to another. ♠
ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com. 10:00 AM
Welcome back to our Tuesday segment, where we’ll be revisiting some of our most popular posts from the last few years. What’s stayed the same? And what’s changed? We’ll be updating you on the facts, and taking a new (and hopefully refreshing) angle on a few timeless classics of Self Publishing Advisor.
Last Friday I happened to run into a new friend at a coffee shop down the street from my home. She also works in the publishing industry as a consultant, but more on the traditional model side. We enjoy running in to each other and talking shop.
This last run-in she mentioned a new author for which she’s providing ghostwriting and consulting services. Amy was evidently reserved in progressing with the project and I pressed for a bit more information. As it turned out, this particular author Amy was working with has a timely book topic on the table with a pressing eagerness to see it published; and with business savvy, the author wanted to see an attractive return on investment.
“Okay, what concerns do you have?” I asked. Amy first responded that shopping for an agent to pick up the book would push the timeline way back, and then between the agent’s and then the publisher’s cut, what could she reasonably expect to provide as an incentive to her author.
I couldn’t help but smirk. With self-publishing, authors retain exclusive control and full royalties, while having their books published in full-service style – start to finish – in around 12 weeks. Amy’s look was one of almost disbelief. When I mentioned all of these things along with the advantage of unlimited on-demand, international distribution offered by the best full-service self-publishing options she was noticeably, informed.
If you are an author, or publishing professional, revisit this question: What are your publishing goals? For many authors, the most important goals are:
1) Keeping 100% of your rights and creative control to your book
2) Keeping 100% of your author royalties
3) Setting your own retail price, profit, and author discount
4) Publishing a high-quality book that is available worldwide
I hope that helps. Keep writing…
– by Karl Schroeder
When we think of the expression “___ is the new black” in 2016, we envision something entirely different from what Karl intended back in 2009–thanks in large part to Jenji Kohan’s hit Netflix Original Series, Orange is the New Black, now four seasons strong on that video streaming website and renewed for at least another three. The series, based on a memoir released in 2010, follows a seemingly unexceptional 30-something woman as she enters a woman’s penitentiary for a crime committed in her youth–but of course she’s not the point. She’s the audience’s excuse to fall in love with all of her wild and wonderful fellow prisoners, learn their backstories, and so on. And without the limitations of broadcast television, the show’s producers are more than a little on the nose with their depictions of sex, violence, and abuse. All of this has made the show a worldwide phenomenon … and sidetracked the original reference implied by “___ is the new black” in much the same way that “Kleenex” has come to replace “tissue” as America’s word of choice, in the face of an overwhelmingly popular product.
But you’re not here for a long analysis of Orange is the New Black or even, it must be admitted, Kleenex. You’re here because you want to know what has happened since 2009 to update our undestanding of self-publishing. And the expression, not the show, is my avenue into that subject.
The expression “___ is the new black” traces its roots as far back as the end of WWII, and the tasteless few who managed to be flippant about wearing anything other than the standard-issue colors of economic depression and institutionalized grief–or in other words, anything other than black or a very dark grey. According to Wikipedia (and other sources), the term was most often used in the 1980s, when mass consumer culture began to offer the average Westerner a glut of affordable options in fashion and home design. When you can wear clear plastic shoes instead of black leather, you know you’ve crossed some sort of cultural Rubicon!
In titling his original post “Self Publishing: The New Black,” Karl was deliberately aligning self-publishing with these trends in order to demonstrate its rapid rise to viability as a competitor to the traditional publishing platform–a full year before the inspiration for Jenji Kohan’s television show was released into the world. And he was right: like Kleenex, like Orange is the New Black, self-publishing has shot through the roof in terms of popularity. And the similarities go farther: all of these things (Kleenex, OITNB, and self-publishing) have become household terms due to their popularity. Almost everyone will know what you mean if you mention one of them. As products of a capital market, they have staying power.
There are implications to the original usage of “___ is the new black” that I’d be more than willing to retire. Namely, implications that the subject in question–self-publishing–is faddish and therefore will fall victim to the rapidly-changing dictates of popular fashion. (And c’mon, we’re always going to need Kleenex.) It’s not such a bad thing that the expression is now most often associated with an instant cult classic of a television show that shows no signs of losing its devoted audience … but even if it did, self-publishing isn’t going anywhere. In fact, every round of data and statistics released by Digital Book World and other organizations tracking self-publishing indicates that indie publishing is here to stay! There’s never been a better time to get on board.
Thanks for reading. If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hearthem. Drop me a line in the comments section below and I’ll respond as quickly as I can. ♠
ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com.
“If the Internet allows people to share their unadulterated ideas, what are zines still doing here?” asks Dillon Pilorget for The Oregonian on July 10, tracing the history of these “small, self-published magazines” back through the 1970s punk movement and the birth of mass-marketed science fiction and its doppelganger, fanfiction, in the 1930s. They were, as Pilorget writes, one of the earliest forms of self-publishing, making room in beloved genres for the unsavory or the uncensored–in other words, for creative license without editorial oversight. Before, Pilorget notes, the internet rendered such literary misbehavior accessible to the average person. But, he continues, “the medium is perhaps as strong as ever,” and cites his experiences at “the Portland Zine Symposium,” held on July 9th of this year. Pilorget reports on his conversations with zine makers Quinn Collard and Meilani Allen, as well as Powell Bookstore’s zine procurer, Kevin Sampson. Well worth a read, I’d think–and you can catch the full article here.
We all know this story: a book is self-published, author uses substantial market savvy to push it into new readerships, and through a series of unlikely events, the book is discovered by a literary “talent scout” and published through a traditional Big Five publisher, leading to world-wide sales and general success. What we’re not quite so used to, however, is the author in question being anything other than North American, with the rare exception (my current favorite exception to everything being Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin’s The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep). But as Rachel Deahl reports in this Publisher’s Weekly article on July 8th, we have a new entry to the global self-publishing-to-traditionally-published market: Diary of an Oxygen Thief, originally self-published in Amsterdam by an anonymous British author in 2006. The book, which Deahl describes as “detail[ing] the travails of a broken-hearted, alcoholic, and bitter misogynist (who is also an unreliable narrator)” was recently picked up by Simon & Schuster, but the real work was done and the real groundwork laid, Deahl says, “due predominantly to the marketing efforts of its anonymous author. He pulled off a savvy publicity campaign that prioritized, above all else, getting the book’s title shared on social media.” The book’s rise to “respectable” sales in the traditional publishing market does not, in point of fact, prove that real success comes after transitioning away from self-publishing–it proves, rather, that “savvy” and social-media rich marketing by a self-publishing author is what makes or breaks a book’s sales. Oh–and sometimes, the generosity of a good friend. For the full article, follow the link!
Actress and self-publishing author Louise Linton is having a rough time in the public eye after the publication of her memoir featuring somewhat terrifying adventures in the heart of Africa, as Michael Schaub writes for The Los Angeles Times in this August 6th report. Perhaps the politics of her situation are partially to blame for the negative press she’s receiving–after all, she’s dating Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump’s hedge-fund manager and campaign manager, Steven Mnuchin, during one of the most linguistically violent and controversial electoral battles of recent memory. Or perhaps we might attribute the book’s negative reception to the very real necessity for authors to write what they know, and for authors of privilege (white or otherwise) not to steal the limelight away from the underprivileged peoples they ostensibly write about, especially when those people are embroiled in an ongoing conflict that–as in Linton’s case–is treated without full understanding. Schaub quotes one particularly acerbic reviewer as saying, “If you’ve read the [T]elegraph excerpt and have at least half a brain you can see the string of every possible stereotype of life in Africa: jungle canopy, vines with killer 12-inch spiders, orphan girl with AIDS, rebel soldiers and so on and so on. […] This is 2016. We all know better than cling on to that drivel.” The moral of this story for self-publishing authors may be manifold, but I think it’s safe to say one should trade neither on stereotypes nor on celebrity to sell a book. As self-publishing authors, we have the opportunity and therefore the responsibility to color outside the lines, bringing voice to those who lack one, and taking the time to represent the unrepresented–and well.
As a self-publishing author, you may find it helpful to stay up-to-date on the trends and news related to the self-publishing industry.This will help you make informed decisions before, during and after the self-publishing process, which will lead to a greater self-publishing experience. To help you stay current on self-publishing topics, simply visit our blog every Monday to find out the hottest news. If you have other big news to share, please comment below.
ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com.
Book reviews are a great way for self-publishing authors to gain exposure. After all, how can someone buy your book if he or she doesn’t know it exists? Paired with other elements of your book promotion strategy, requesting reviews is a great way to get people talking about what you’ve written.
When we read good reviews, we definitely like to share them. It gives the author a few (permanent) moments of fame and allows us to let the community know about a great book. Here’s this week’s book review, courtesy of BlueInk Review:
The KGB agents are vicious, and they are closing in… His odds of escaping are bleak… Will he prevail although everything is muddled in a treacherous love triangle? Whom can he trust? The inevitable checkmate could bring him freedom … or death. Checkmate Run is an adrenaline rush of a story about a precocious young man’s deadly struggle to survive the brutal Soviet regime. Alex Loevsky is a medical student and an inspiringly rebellious poet. He becomes enmeshed in a breakneck battle against the rampant cruelty of the totalitarian state, where just the desire to think freely is nearly a crime on par with treason, and being born Jewish is more than a mere hindrance.
Alex aspires to be a physician. Despite his top academic standing, he has to overcome unspoken rule that aim to restrict the number of Jews entering medical school. Before sitting his admission exams, he is unable to locate his name on the list of alphabetically grouped applicants. He soon discovers that a special group has been created and that everyone in it, including him, has Jewish-sounding surnames. Finding this odd, he goes to his friend and confidante–his aunt Anna. They formulate a daring scheme to shift his name to the regular group.
Alex gets the highest score in the admission exams, but to his chagrin, he discovers that everyone in the special group has been flunked. Shortly thereafter, with the help of his literary mentor, Andrey Simyavsky, Alex’s poetry gains recognition, and New Word, a coveted avant-garde literary magazine, starts to publish his work regularly. All of a sudden, Andrey is arrested, convicted in a closed trial, and sentenced to seven years of hard labor after his banned novel, Lyubimov, was covertly published abroad. While searching for the secret transcripts of the trial, the KGB murders Andrey’s wife.
Alex, who is suspected of hiding the transcripts, is hounded, severely beaten, and left to die. He manages to escape and runs into Lara, a fellow medical student, who saves his life. Aunt Anna enlists the help of her friend, who now holds the rank of general in the Interior Ministry Force. They devise a plan to shield Alex from the KGB by keeping him in solitary confinement inside the Internal Ministry prison. Six months later, the general arranges for Alex’s release, but with one caveat–Alex is forever barred from creative writing. While incarcerated, Alex is expelled from medical school. The general applies pressure on the corrupt dean, and, with Lara’s help, Alex is reinstated.
A few years pass, Alex witnesses the murder of a dissident who seeks to expose to the Western world the torturous reality of life in the Soviet Union. The murder leads Alex to the core of the dissident’s underground movement. His life becomes a death-dealing game of chess; he needs to remain one step ahead of his ruthless opponent–the KGB’s Second Chief Directorate–and must win the game in order to survive. Unexpectedly, the KGB attempts to recruit Alex as an informant. Being entrapped, he experiences betrayal at the hands of the woman with whom he has had a long and passionate love affair. As Alex and Lara grow closer, their friendship turns into love. They get married, and a year later, they have a son. Concern for their son’s future fires up their desire to escape the country that turned on them. Having nothing to lose, Alex and Lara navigate through the imminent danger of terrifying twists and turns in their bid to cross the Iron Curtain.
Critique:
Allan Alexander’s compelling autobiographical novel follows an increasingly disillusioned and rebellious young man through a decade in Brezhnev’s Soviet Union.
Alex Loevsky is an aspiring doctor, but his heart belongs to poetry. With the encouragement of his intellectual Aunt Anna, Alex begins contributing to the avant-garde journal New Word and mingling in literary circles. But his and his friends’ nonconformist work angers the authorities. In order to continue his studies, Alex must renounce his literary career.
This is only the beginning of the injustices Alex experiences and witnesses. His Jewish heritage, in particular, singles him out for abuse. But institutional anti-Semitism also brings Alex close to Lara Katz, a fellow medical student. Still emotionally tied to a former lover, however, he initially thinks of Lara as only a friend.
Although he has officially given up poetry, Alex continues to mingle in contrarian circles. He helps smuggle the transcript of a dissident writer’s show trial out of the country and carries on a dead man’s crusade to expose the abuse of political prisoners in mental hospitals. Through these adventures, he grows closer to Lara and begins to reconsider his feelings for her. Eventually, Alex and Lara decide to attempt their most dangerous mission: escaping the Soviet Union for a better life.
Checkmate Run occupies a rather uneasy place between the literary fiction and thriller genres. The novel covers so many incidents and experiences that it occasionally feels unfocused. A slightly slower pace and more descriptive passages would allow readers of literary fiction to feel more involved with the characters. On the other hand, although frequently gripping, the narrative lacks the kind of slick, streamlined plot that would appeal to genre thriller readers.
Nonetheless, Alexander’s work offers a fascinating insider’s portrait of Soviet life post-Stalin but pre-glasnost. It’s probably best appreciated by readers especially interested in that time and place, rather than casual fiction readers. That core audience should find Checkmate Run quite rewarding.
I grew up during the early “duck and cover” days of the Cold War. There was plenty of red scare propaganda back then, but (obviously), we couldn’t read about someone’s first hand experience in the “USSR,” as it was known at that time. Dr Allan Alexander’s book changed all that for me – what an incredible story…of love, of family, of survival, and of perseverance!
Checkmate Run is well written and the prose is tight. Dr Alexander’s precise word choices for describing people and situations make this book a delight for the reader. The author doesn’t waste your time with any unnecessary drivel; everything is well thought out, fast paced and deeply absorbing. I couldn’t put this book down!
I have recommended this book to many people since reading it. I would especially recommend it to those that grew up in the shadows of the Cold War on this side of the Iron Curtain. If this book doesn’t fill you with gratitude for the freedoms we so often take for granted, then perhaps you missed the Preface and didn’t realize that the author LIVED this story!
If I had to identify one thing that I wanted to find in the book, it would be a complete copy of the poem, “The Salvaged Hope.” Since there are multiple references to it, I found myself wanting to read it. Since Dr Allan Alexander wasn’t able to carry any copies of the magazine bearing the publication of his poems out of his motherland, it is possible they are forever lost to us. This is one of the sad tragedies of censorship – history is forever incomplete.
Checkmate Run by Allan Alexander is an intriguing story of Soviet Russia during the Cold War. It is a story about one man’s struggle against powers which tried to quash personal expression and ideas that were different than the status quo. The events take place between 1965-1975 as a young man named Alex learns the harsh and life threatening reality that he faces every day.
The story opens with a prisoner getting ready for trial. A trial that is heavily swung in the government’s favor. He is found guilty and sentenced for hard labor. We then meet Alex, a young man who has recently published a poem in a national magazine. A poem which openly criticizes the government. Alex is of Jewish descent and he must use trickery and subversion in order to achieve his goal of becoming a doctor as the government is discriminatory toward the Jewish citizens. With the help of his aunt and her powerful friends, he is able to get into medical school. When a friend and fellow author, Andrey Simyavsky, has been arrested for treason, a series of events occur that will change Alex’s life forever. He vows to fight in any way he can. He soon becomes on the radar of the KGB, the Russian spy and state-security branch, and he must fight quietly and undermine the growing reaches of the government. Will the KGB finally be able to stop Alex? Will he be able to escape?
I enjoyed this book very much. It’s hard to give a description of the book without giving too much away. Every event in the book is a piece of the puzzle, a calculated chess move in which Alex tries to outsmart the KGB and they are trying to catch Alex in “illegal” activities. I always knew about the harshness of life behind the Iron Curtain but to read about it in such detail, it’s heartbreaking. I have a deeper appreciation for the freedoms we have here in the US. We may not like what people say or do, but we can do the simple things like openly criticize the government without fear of losing our freedom or our lives. I was also intrigued of how the book Doctor Zhivago played at role in the story. I must confess I’ve never read the book or seen the movie but now I will. The last few chapters move at a furious pace as the danger greatly increases for Alex. I highly recommendCheckmate Run.
Writer! Published Author! PR Specialist? Marketing Coach? Book Signing Scheduler? Connection Coordinator for Radio/TV Interviews? Website, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat Refresher?
WHAT? No! Not me. I’m the writer. I poured my life-blood into this book and everyone who has read it (3 friends, my Mom and spouse) loved it. When it hits Amazon, it will certainly be a best seller!
Well, Mr. Writer, I’m right there with you. I wrote my “bestseller” in 2015 and the initial sales were okay. Today, I’m deep into the work of a second book—enjoying every hair-pulling moment—while sales of that first book are floundering. It is time to admit that I’m not Super-Author who can write all day and market all night. There are simply not enough hours in the day to do both jobs well. SO I’ve begun my search for HELP!
As Writers and Published Authors our needs are specific…
to the genre of the book,
to the main topic and/or perspective
to the audience the book is written for,
and to the unique goals each author sets.
The goal every writer/author hopes for can be stated in just one word: BESTSELLER. Thank goodness there are multiple Bestseller lists—most according to genre—that can fulfill that goal. However, it takes physical work to climb that trail and strategic planning to reach every Reader who is a potential buyer. This is why we need to search for the right Marketing Assistant for us, for our book(s) and for this book-buying season.
When at a Writers Conference, one of the Website presenters gave us some questions to ask ourselves before setting up our websites. Since then, I see the wisdom of answering these queries as I begin looking for Marketing help.
Who are your Customers? Backgrounds? Likes? Dislikes?
What would they be searching for on the Internet that would lead them to your book?
What would you say to them if you met?
What visual illustrations would attract your Readers?
Answering these questions as completely as possible before talking with prospective Assistants will help them understand the expectations you have in their work.
Next, develop questions you may ask when interviewing the Marketing Assistants whether in person or by phone or even email. I’ve come up with a short list. As you read them you may think of others.
What is it about marketing books that you enjoy?
Why do you feel qualified to market in the Children’s Books genre (or Sci-Fi, or Faith/Ministry, or…)?
Have you experienced marketing mistakes? What did you learn from them?
Describe how you’ve marketed similar books in the past and what success you’ve had.
What marketing strategies do you consider useful for my/this book?
Will you require me to sign a contract with you? What is your fee schedule?
This last question is the one we all want to avoid. We know we cannot do an excellent marketing job for ourselves and yet it is often a major stretch in our budget to hire someone to help us. Consider this: If we save the money, attempt to do the marketing, then have few (or no) sales, we’ve lostall that time and effort and $$ in writing and publishing. Wise counsel suggests that we invest in our work one more time and sign on with the Marketing Assistant who support us in reaching our goals. ⚓︎
ABOUT ROYALENE DOYLE: Royalene has been writing something since before kindergarten days and continues to love the process. Through her small business—DOYLE WRITING SERVICES—she brings more than 40 years of writing experience to authors who need “just a little assistance” with completing their projects. This is a nice fit as she develops these blogs for Outskirts Press (OP) a leading self-publisher, and occasionally accepts a ghostwriting project from one of their clients. Her recent book release (with OP) titled FIREPROOF PROVERBS, A Writer’s Study of Words, is already receiving excellent reviews including several professional writer’s endorsements given on the book’s back cover.
Royalene’s writing experience grew through a wide variety of positions from Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to Teacher of Literature and Advanced Writing courses and editor/writer for an International Christian ministry. Her willingness to listen to struggling authors, learn their goals and expectations and discern their writing voice has brought many manuscripts into the published books arena.
ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com. 10:00 AM
Self Publishing Advisor 