Category: in your corner

elizabeth speaks, in your corner, Uncategorized

In Your Corner : Want to win big at marketing? Unleash the wisdom of “Game of Thrones”!

Oh, I bet I could get myself into a lot of hot water for this kind of headline–from fans and the show’s detractors alike–but I can’t help it!  This paradigm shift of an HBO show (based, rather loosely at times, on George R.R. Martin’s bestselling book series) changed the way we watch television … for better or worse.  It ramped up the intensity of on-screen cruelties, particularly against women but sparing no one in the end, and has sparked some of the most interesting conversations about human nature and power that I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening in on–and yes, it has spawned its own raft of political memes during the current American presidential election season.

Game of Thrones isn’t the only pop culture machine to be churning out this kind of material … but it’s the show that everyone seems to be watching.  Or have an opinion about, as it were.  (A very very strong opinion, at that.)  So why do I love it–and what could Game of Thrones possibly offer a self-publishing author in respect to marketing acumen?

It’s all about consequences.

The similarities just about end there, but that’s plenty of food for thought.  Just about every five minutes, some character of other in the Game of Thrones universe makes a decision along the lines of:

game of thrones

Cersei Lannister (above) often serves as the show’s mouthpiece for raw human instinct: strive, dominate, circle the wagons, protect family, etc etc.  But the best part about her character’s storyline, and the narrative arc of the television series as a whole, is in the nature of action and consequence.  There’s no escaping the laws of physics: what goes up must come down, that sort of thing.  It might only take fifteen minutes of screen time for these actions-and-consequences scenarios to play out … but sometimes it takes five, or six, seasons to unwind the implications and effects of a decision some character made years back … and that George R.R. Martin probably made to write into the story over a decade ago

Which is … kind of like life.

And is kind of like … marketing!

Here’s the self-publishing parallel: it’s vitally important to consider how you plan on marketing your book, even before publication.  (Actions have consequences!)  You have an opportunity prior to publication to make decisions that can either help or hurt your marketing efforts after publication … sometimes long after.  And I guarantee you don’t want to be sitting in a room somewhere (in front of a roaring fire, with perfectly styled hair, and a mug of honeyed mead or whatever they drink in Pseudomedieval England With Bonus Dragons) thinking:

game of thrones

Which isn’t to say you should constantly battle to outpace regret.  There’s no such thing as a mistake-free life, just as there’s no such thing as a healthy parent-child dynamic in the Game of Thrones universe!  But you’re not a character in a niche television drama.  You’re an author, dangnabbit!  You’re not blind to the benefits of foresight … and you’re not trapped in the midst of a story you have no control over.  Every decision you make, from start to finish, drafting to publication, will have long-term consequences.  You can predict these consequences by being the most informed, educated, and responsible author you can be.  In a world of traditional publishing, this conversation wouldn’t be possible.  But in the world of indie, hybrid, and self publishing–it is.  You are in control of your book’s long-term success!  And …

 

You are not alone. ♣︎

ElizabethABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 18 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Manager of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, pre-production specialists, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.

 

 

Advocacy in Self-Publishing, Choosing a Publisher, elizabeth speaks, in your corner, Uncategorized

In Your Corner : Shopping for a publisher? Three lessons from a lingerie counter.

No–I promise the title isn’t just for clicks!  One of the critical components of a conversation about lingerie that should be a part of a conversation about publishing–but often isn’t–is that of support.  How does your publisher affect your book sales?  Does your publisher offer support before, during, and after publication?  Does your publisher offer marketing solutions to help your book sell?  Making an informed decision prior to publication will help you long afterwards, as you transition into the life of a published author and begin to weigh some of the risks … and, hopefully, the rewards.

***

So what’s this about underwear and support?

lingerie

Lesson One:

Your publisher should be your advocate and ally, not just a platform.

In today’s competitive world, authors have more choices than ever in terms of where they take their manuscripts for publication–whether traditional publishing, hybrid publishing, or self-publishing.  We’re still in a somewhat weird place where the market is flexing, and where supergiant corporations like Amazon can afford to be monolithic and self-absorbed, but the paradigm is shifting in favor of the reader.  How do I mean that?  More hybrid and self-publishing companies are serving as fierce advocates for their authors above and beyond basic tech support.  The term “support” has come to mean a dedicated band of professionals working together to find a marketing solution for your specific book, and companies are sitting up and realizing that they need to do better.  Even traditional publishers have begun to realize that they need to be better, especially in respect to their treatment of their authors.  The downside of being a traditional publisher or massive corporation (like Amazon) today is that it takes a long time for even the clearest of realizations to trickle down into actual corporate behavior.  It’s like turning a behemoth around–smaller, more nimble companies will leap ahead of the curve…and this is what we’re seeing with small presses, hybrids, and completely self-sufficient self-publishing authors.  Don’t settle for mediocre support!

Lesson Two:

You’re paying for support–support–and that means highly structured, organized assistance.

Here’s another fundamental fact of the universe: when you pay someone to publish your book (according to the hybrid and self-publishing model) or allow someone to take a cut of your book’s royalties (according to the traditional publishing model), you are not paying for therapy.  You have the rightful expectation of seeing more than a tepid response to your book, a lukewarm attempt at promotion, or a scattershot approach to marketing.  You have every right to expect–and demand–meticulous, highly structured support.  Even if you choose not to pay for a full-fledged marketing campaign, you are the beneficiary of the best work of each professional you engage with over the course of the publication process.  And if you’re not getting it?  Here’s where feedback is important.  There are two ways to go about giving feedback: asking for better treatment, and actually taking your money elsewhere.  Realistic expectations are important, but if you’re worried that you’re not getting real advocacy from your publisher, it might be time to start asking the tough questions.

Lesson Three:

A good publisher + good marketing + your book = good sales.

The implications are clear, right?  If one of these components is broken, every other element in the formula for success will fall out of joint.  If sales are not strong, apply a microscope to the work done by your publisher.  Are they showing real dedication?  Do they display a sense of organization and interest in your work, specifically?  A half-baked marketing plan will only ever produce half-baked sales figures, and a haphazard publishing package will take you to the exact same place.  It’s hard to strike the balance as a self-publishing author paying for a minimalist publishing package, but there are still options.  Don’t be content with the first bare-bones self-publishing website you stumble across!  Read the fine print.  Call up the help center.  See what all is available to you as an author in terms of targeted support and guidance.  Only you can decide how much of the marketing process you want to take on, and how to spend your money effectively.  Don’t let a company decide that for you!

You are not alone. ♣︎

ElizabethABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 18 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Manager of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, pre-production specialists, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.
Book Reviews, elizabeth speaks, in your corner, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, outskirts press, Uncategorized

In Your Corner : Putting the Pieces Together

Figuring out how to navigate the world of book marketing can be a hazardous task, with many unmarked dangers–and shortcuts to safe passage–awaiting the self-publishing author. Over the last three weeks, I have introduced some of those campaign components which I happen to think are vital and important:

The problem, of course, is that while all of these probably sound like good ideas, they also require a lot of work.  And by “a lot of work,” I mean they require both time and a fairly discrete set of skills––each.  That is, the skills and even equipment required to craft that polished press release may have very little natural overlap with the skills and equipment required to craft an impactful video trailer.

“Well, what about Google?” you ask, and fairly.  “What about YouTube?  Can’t I look up some tutorials and put something together myself?”

Yes, yes you can!  And there are some really fantastic free guides out there.  I always recommend looking to the “making-related” articles in peer-reviewed periodicals like Publisher’s Weekly and WIRED throughout the year, even when you’re not working on a specific project, to see what sorts of new ideas and tools are being put out there.  And the quality of instruction on YouTube videos has improved greatly!  I’m not going to lie: the Internet is my go-to place when I need to learn how to do something for the first time, whether it’s to refine my (practically nonexistent) origami skills or how to snake my toilet.  (Don’t ask.)

But some of the “barriers to entry,” as we like to call them, are still up–even with the Internet and YouTube and Google in play.  I successfully snaked my toilet … after an hour of “practicing.”  (Read: “flailing wildly.”)  I know I didn’t have an hour to burn that day, but the toilet needed to be done.  And snaking is a relatively simple task compared to some of the many involved in, say, acquiring the rights to an audio file you want to play behind your book trailer video.  Or tracking down email addresses for booksellers, reviewers, and other industry influencers to create an email distribution list.  Templates and virtual instructions can sometimes fail us at crucial moments–or inflate the time required to accomplish what needs accomplishing beyond what we can spare.

If only there was somewhere we could turn that provided professional insight and assistance with our marketing campaigns!  Okay, okay, I know it’s a little on the nose, but I really do recommend paying for at least one consultation with a PR Publicist when you’re looking to put out a press release, a graphic designer or videographer when you’re crafting your book trailer video, and someone on the inside–with real experience–when it comes to tracking down credible book reviewers.

There are, as always, several ways you can go about this–you can contact these people individually, or you can opt to pay for a bundle of services that put all of these professionals under one roof (digitally speaking, at least).  Do your research, shop around for the best deals, and weigh your priorities against your marketing budget.  (Yes, you need one of those!)  Do what needs to be done to get you back to what you really love–writing–and cuts down on the time you spend fumbling around with that toilet snake.

You are not alone. ♣︎

ElizabethABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 18 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Manager of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, pre-production specialists, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.
elizabeth speaks, in your corner, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Uncategorized, youtube

In Your Corner : Lights! Cameras! Action! Taking your book to the movies

There once was a time when book marketing was mostly a print and maybe occasionally a radio affair. Then came television, and the publishing world absorbed the change. Later came the internet, and the publishing world was faced with a new dilemma: how to make use of the new platform and opportunities provided by the internet to build successful marketing campaigns? Always one step ahead of the curve, self-publishing authors began to look for websites like Youtube and Vimeo as possible platforms to connect with new readers and share their book trailers. And they have been wildly successful!

A book trailer is, in short, a kind of movie trailer for your book. Because videos tap into two fundamentally important human senses–both sight and hearing–at the same time, they have the power to both introduce new readers to your book and inspire them to purchase it.

A good book trailer presents images related to the book’s theme and content in an entertaining way, and is set to music that conjures up the appropriate atmosphere. A mystery novel might be set to a brooding tapestry of minor-key notes, while a romance novel might take advantage of a light-hearted upbeat tempo to clue readers into the nature of its story. Just as moviegoers might find themselves on the edge of their seats at the theater, your potential readers will wait with bated breath for the chance to pick up a copy of your book. It’s all about creating that “buzz” around your book’s release.

YouTube Screenshot

Crafting a book trailer that connects all of the dots in order to inspire this kind of reaction is, of course, quite a challenge. Video editing demands a certain professional creative skill set, complete with a deft hand at image placement, talent with text arrangement, and a nuanced way with transitioning from one frame to the next. And the timing must be precise: the entire trailer must take place over approximately sixty seconds in order to communicate all that it needs to and command a viewer’s attention.

The value of a well-made book trailer is, however, unquestionable. Short movies are the most portable of marketing tools, and are easily shared across all of the major social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and elsewhere. They can be embedded into blog posts or the link distributed by email. And chances are, nine out of every ten video links you’re going to click in the coming year will lead to something on YouTube–a website which generates its own enormous slice of direct internet traffic and has proven a reliable source of many “viral” marketing campaigns already. But you never know what the next video application could be–even Amazon is getting into the video game these days.

As a self-publishing author, you’re already strategically placed to take advantage of video–but creating a book trailer? That might be outside of your comfort zone or even fully beyond your abilities. There are, of course, hybrid publishing companies that offer these services as part of a package, or you can commission someone to assist you. If you opt to pay for assistance, your music selection, image identification, and text integration will all be taken care of for you, and a draft of your book video trailer delivered to you. As I recommended last week, check the fine print: as author, you should retain the right to review the draft and suggest changes before final modifications are made. You should also own any and all rights to the final book video trailer outright and therefore use it throughout your marketing efforts–by uploading it to Yahoo! Video, MySpace, Daily Motion, Twitter, Metacafe, and other popular video hosting websites.

Book marketing is all about human connection, and your book video trailer is no different. A book trailer puts all of video’s greatest assets–its immediacy, its ability to convey a lot of information succinctly, and its visceral impact–at your command. Movies have the power to move people, and a book trailer has the power to capture your reader’s attention and then translate that attention into engagement on social media as well as drive sales. Your book video trailer is a backstage pass into who you are as a writer, and an all-access ticket to the theme park of your book’s greater universe!

You are not alone. ♣︎

ElizabethABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 18 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Manager of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, pre-production specialists, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.
elizabeth speaks, in your corner, Uncategorized

In Your Corner : Amplifying Your Voice, OR, “What IS a Press Release Anyway?”

Are you ready to amplify your voice? A press release may just be your next step.

I know what you’re thinking: You’ve written your book, and now you’re on track to building a marketing campaign to do it justice. The hard part’s over … right? But it’s never easy getting word out to new readers about a brilliant new book they should be reading, especially for a self-publishing author with limited resources of time and energy to spend building connections and broadcasting the release. But while there are few events you might think worth publicizing with a press release, publishing your book should definitely one of them!

But … what is a press release?

Generally speaking, a press release is a written or visual bundle of information sent to members of the news media in order to announce something newsworthy. They are typically sent to the staff of newspapers, magazines, radio or television stations, and the administrators of various popular websites. If this sounds like a lot of work for one person to organize and distribute, that’s because … it is. But the benefits of a press release are extraordinary: the resulting national and even international exposure cultivates the interest of untold numbers of new readers who otherwise would never hear about your book.

There are a number of ways to go about writing and posting a press release. You can do what I’ve just said, and carry the entire burden yourself, or you can work with a self-publishing company that will partner with you to produce the press release for a small fee.  Every company is different in what it bundles together, but I do know that Outskirts Press (my employer) offers its authors the opportunity to have a professional writer draft a press release as a part of its Book Blast package.

Generally speaking–whichever company you opt to run with–once the first draft has been composed, you can elect to make moderate changes and corrections before the final draft is published. You should then receive a copy to use in your own marketing campaign, while the company makes use of its existing connections to distribute your professional custom press release through the News Wire–an electronic database of around 100,000 media contacts, newsrooms, industry analysts, and freelance writers who choose to receive daily emails regarding press releases that fit certain criteria. If the company you’ve chosen is on top of its game, it will also ensure that a number of popular websites and ezines, magazines like ForeWord Reviews and Publisher’s Weekly as well as newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and USA Today will receive notice of your book’s publication.

This press release will help drive sales by piquing the interest of reviewers, journalists, bloggers, and members of the media and encouraging them to pick up copies of your book. If you read the fine print of your publishing company’s press release package, you might find hidden gems to maximize each distribution, as OP does by optimizing your press release for search engine indexing, and working hard to ensure a speedy one-month start-to-finish turnaround on press releases. Always read the fine print!

Once you have your press release in hand, what next? I’d recommend a PR Publicist, if you have the free capital–it costs a bit, but the payoff is extraordinary, especially for self-publishing authors who don’t yet feel like they have a good handle on publicity and marketing campaigns. Ever and always in search of ways to make your work as an author easier and to help you build a successful marketing campaign worthy of your book, a PR Publicist will assist you distributing your press release to the personal email inboxes of credible book reviewers and editors in print, radio, and television, with connections to multiple trades, ezines, syndicates, and local, regional, and national wires. Unlike many authors, who don’t have the time to cultivate relationships with “influencers” in the publishing world, a PR Publicist’s entire job is to build a powerful distribution circuit that will help but your book on the map with those experts and resources who wield real influence over new readers.

A PR Publicist is not just confined to the digital world. In addition to email distribution, your publicist should follow up your press release with phone calls to key editors, beat writers, and particularly important reviewers to lift your press release to the top of the pile. This kind of detailed and personal contact increases the probability of both interest and coverage by these industry experts, and because these experts have agreed to receive press releases relevant to their interest, these qualify as something altogether more valuable than a “cold call.”

But here, too, I recommend taking a look at the fine print. A good PR Publicist, just like a well-written and widely-distributed press release, can go a long way to raising awareness about your book. But not all PR Publicists and not all press release packages are created equal. I work for Outskirts Press, so I’m definitely not unbiased in recommending who to choose, and in all things I want to place the power of choice back where it should be: in the hands of the author. Do your research, and balance your needs against what you can afford–what will prove most useful to you. You and your satisfaction are my priority, and I want to be here as a resource for you, no matter what course you choose in navigating the world of self-publishing!

You are not alone. ♣︎

ElizabethABOUT ELIZABETH JAVOR: With over 18 years of experience in sales and management, Elizabeth Javor works as the Manager of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable publishing consultants, pre-production specialists, customer service reps and book marketing specialists; together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process to help them publish the book of their dreams. Whether you are a professional looking to take your career to the next level with platform-driven non-fiction or a novelist seeking fame, fortune, and/or personal fulfillment, Elizabeth Javor can put you on the right path.