Book Marketing, Kelly Speaks

5 Ways to Promote Your Book in July

Summer is here and temperatures are high!  While you’re sitting by the pool or at the beach, don’t forget about the importance of marketing your book.  Here are five ideas for promoting your book this month:

  1. Fourth of July.  If your book is about America, patriotism, US government or a similar topic, you may have lots of opportunities to promote your book to people over this holiday weekend.  Get involved in a local parade or book fair.  Check your newspaper for local events.
  2. Speaking of local, do you have a niche book?  Think about local shops whose clientele might be interested in your book.  Can you put a copy in their waiting area?  Would they be interested in selling copies in their shop?  Prepare a pitch and contact them.  You’ll never know until you ask.
  3. Going on vacation this month?  Be sure to carry business cards with you at all times so you can hand them out when you meet new people and have an opportunity to mention your book.
  4. Create a Facebook Page for your book.  You can do this in 6 easy steps.
  5. Start thinking about the Beijing and Frankfurt Book Fairs coming up.  Now is the time to register.

DISCUSSION: How are you planning to promote YOUR book this month?

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT:
Kelly Schuknecht works as the 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 at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Social Media Marketing

Top 5 Ways Self-Publishing Authors Can Take Advantage of Social Media Day

Today is Social Media Day. All around the world people are celebrating the birth of social media and its impact on society. Did you know that self-publishing authors can use this day to their advantage? Today is a perfect day to get involved in social media if you haven’t already.

Here are some of the top 5 ways that you can get involved on social media sites and take advantage of Social Media Day:

1. Create a social media account (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, or any other account that may suit your fancy).

2. Re-activate your social media accounts so that you can reconnect with long lost friends.

3. Go to a local Social Media Day event and meet some new people.

4. Post helpful, non-promotional messages on your social media profiles. Vow not to promote your book for the entire day.

5. Start planning a social media party (Twitter parties are the most common) for your book or just for fun!

Keep in mind – the purpose of social media is to connect with others and have a good time. As long as you maintain a certain level of authenticity across your profiles, relationships and possibly new people who are interested in your book may result from your efforts.

So, get out there and enjoy Social Media Day 2011!

Self-Publishing, Wendy Speaks

Am I Self-Publishing If I Use a Self-Publishing Company?

When you decide to publish your book, there are essentially two well-traveled paths you can take – seek out an agent/publisher or self publish. Of course, there are a few other options in between but most authors fit into one of either of those buckets. Traditionally published books are those that the author doesn’t have to pay to publish. Normally the author secures representation by an agent, is sometimes provided an advance, and allows the publisher to do all the “work”. Of course, these authors still have to market their books, but all of the production costs are absorbed by the publisher. When you self-publish, you pay all of your own costs and are in complete control of your book.

Some that are from the school of thought that if you use a self-publishing company to publish your book, you aren’t really “self-publishing”. That couldn’t be further from the truth. You are as much of a self-published author as any other author.

Let’s take it one step further. Dictionary.com defines the adjective “self-published” as “having published one’s own work independently: a self-published author”. The site also defines the adjective “independent” as “not subject to another’s authority or jurisdiction”. Most self-publishing companies, including Outskirts Press, allow authors to have complete control over their book. So, by definition, authors that are able to exercise full creative freedom over their own work are self-published authors.

Using a self-publishing company is much like hiring a freelancer to work on your book. Why pay someone else to publish your book? The answer is simple – because you are a professional in your field, but not necessarily as well-versed in the world of publishing. Do you plumb your own toilet? Repair your own car? Wire your own electricity? Probably not. Can you? Sure – but you would lose more money in the time it takes you to learn how to do those things than it would cost to hire a professional. The same is true for publishing a book. In the end, will your “savings” really be worth it?

Have you ever published a book on your own? Would you do it again?

ABOUT WENDY STETINA:
Wendy Stetina is a sales and marketing professional with over 30 years experience in the printing and publishing industry. Wendy works as the Director of Author Services for Outskirts Press. The Author Services Department is composed of knowledgeable customer service reps and publishing consultants; and together, they all focus on educating authors on the self-publishing process in order 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, Wendy Stetina can put you on the right path.
Book Marketing, Kelly Speaks

Should authors thank reviewers for reviewing their book?

What do you do when you receive a good review for your book?  Do you thank the reviewer?

Authors often ask me if this is something they should do.  Most reviewers don’t write reviews for anything in return, so they wouldn’t be surprised by not receiving anything in return.  However, if you really appreciated their review and want to take them by surprise, thank them.

I recently reviewed Blue Boy by Rakesh Satyal.  Just like the other 40 or so books I have reviewed on Amazon, I didn’t expect any thank you or acknowledgement from the author.  But to my surprise, a few days later, I received this message on my Facebook account:

Was I surprised?  Absolutely!  The personal thank you from the author made me feel a connection with him.  I’m glad I read the book and I’m glad I wrote a review.  If Satyal publishes another book someday, you can be sure I will read and review it!  That is the power of connecting with your readers.

DISCUSSION: Do you typically thank readers for reviewing your book?  If so, how do you do it?

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT:
Kelly Schuknecht works as the Director of Author Support for 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 at http://kellyschuknecht.com.
Social Media Marketing

Authors Can Get Free Advertising Using Facebook

Facebook is a tool to connect and share with friends, family, and others in your various networks. It was started in 2004 and has since evolved from a site that was exclusively available to college to students to a worldwide social network with an audience where 50% are not college students and the fast growing demographic is the 35+ year olds. There are millions of current Facebook users and many more are signing up each day. You may have already known that, but did you know that it can also be used as a tool to get “free advertising”? Well, it can, and when used correctly, it will.

Facebook has become increasingly popular not only among individuals but also among businesses. The reason for this recent boom in Facebook and other forms of social media is because there are no time or space constraints and everything can be much more public for everyone to see. So, it helps businesses grow their network and ultimately “meet people and start conversations”. Many online consulting firms refer to this as the “online cocktail party”.

The first step in building such a network, though, is to create a business page. While you may already have a personal profile, you will want to create a business profile to support your business. The main reason for this is that Facebook has a lot of tools/options built into the business profiles that you will not be able to get with the personal profiles (such as analytics to see how much traffic you’re getting to your page and where that traffic is coming from). If you do have a personal profile, though, you will most likely want to tie that to your business profile.

Another big difference between business pages and personal profiles are how people add you to easily keep up with what you’re doing. Pages get “fans”, which only require the users to add themselves as a fan and involves no interaction on your part. This helps you build your network naturally and easily. Personal profiles, however, get “friends”. After someone adds you as a friend, you then need to accept them in order to allow them to view your profile and other information. If your business network is large (which hopefully it will be), you will not have time to go through and add all of the friends that request you.

Like many of the other social media / blogging type sites, your success is based on how well you take advantage of the give and take relationships that must be made. In the case of businesses, there will be quite a bit of giving in order to take away a new customer. However, the tools available on Facebook allow you to easily connect with your customers and engage them in your businesses and its doings. This will, of course, create a “community around your company”. That community will make it easy for you to obtain the ultimate goal – free advertising!

Once you have developed an online community of “followers”, it will be relatively easy to get the word out when things change in your business. For instance, if you introduce a new product/service offering and your Facebook “fans” catch wind of it, you can expect the majority of them to spread the word to their friends, family, etc. You may even find your fans are reposting your content within Facebook and further “advertising” what you announced. This form of advertising did not cost you anything. So, you have natural buzz about your product/service. Additionally, customers are more likely to trust natural buzz as opposed to marketing speak.

After creating your business page on Facebook, you want to remember to post interesting and informative content. Your job here is not to be a sales person. Your job is to post things to help people better understand your products or services, provide tips, or unravel a concern within your industry. In doing that, you will find yourself positioned as a natural resource and your network will begin to look to you as the go to person in your industry. In turn, you have built trust and those customers will more easily turn to you to utilize your products/services when needed (or wanted). That’s how Facebook (as well as other social networks) can be used to get free advertising.