Tag: holiday marketing

Holidays, Kelly Speaks, Uncategorized

Bringing in the Harvest!

“The law of harvest is to reap more than you sow.
Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character.
Sow a character and you reap a destiny.”

– James Allen

 

Harvest Celebration: a time of merriment, ample food, music, and a reprieve from the hard work done in the fields during the growing season. A time to reap the fruits of your labor, a time to celebrate the coming to life of what were just a few months ago mere seeds being pushed into the soil.

As an author, you know the feeling. A seed of an idea that you invested hours into watering; you weeded out the grammatical errors; you kept it safe from the cold bouts of dwindling motivation; and you watched it grow from a sapling of a paragraph into a full grown manuscript. The celebration of creativity, of growth, and of life is one that farmers and writers alike can share.

harvest illustration

Harvest Celebration focuses on the tradition of communities coming together. You can use this time of year as a platform to host an event that showcases local authors and that celebrates the creative members of your community. Perhaps showcase the history of authors in your community, or writing that showcases the history of your community itself. Host a reading where people can stand up and share excerpts from their favorite books or poems by local authors or about local history. Collaborate with local farmers, wineries, etc. and try to get food donations to provide those who come to your event.

Another idea: ask local farmers to share some of their favorite poems or stories about farming, or perhaps ask them for samples of their own writing if they have it. If that’s too much socializing or too much of a hassle to collaborate for you, find agricultural writing on your own or with the help of a few close friends. Put together a small book that can be given away at a harvest festival in your area to showcase written expressions about the relationship between human beings and their environment. Authors and poets like Wendell Berry, who was a farmer in Kentucky for much of his life, would make for terrific samples in a piece like this.

 

“We have the world to live in on the condition that we will take good care of it.
And to take good care of it, we have to know it.
And to know it and to be willing to take care of it,
we have to love it.”

– Wendell Berry

Celebrate what farmers have reaped healthy crops from their harvest, celebrate writers who have reaped wonderful stories and poems from their lived experience, and celebrate your community, and communities around the world, who have allowed for these people to flourish. This Harvest season, may your bellies be full of good food, and may your bookshelves be full of good stories.

Thank you for reading!  If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@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. ♠

Kelly

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

 

Alternative Marketing Methods, Book Marketing, Holidays, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Uncategorized

Ringing in the Holidays!

The trees have shed their colorful fall foliage, the air has grown crisp, the kids are back in school, and you know what that means? The holidays are just right around the corner. This is a time of year to celebrate, not only because it means the return of pumpkin spice lattes and apple crisp, but because it is a time of year devoted to giving thanks, sharing delicious food and thoughtful gifts, and it is a time to gather with and spend time with those we love and cherish.

You can further celebrate this time of year as an author by innovating your marketing strategies, as there are certain advantages to marketing this time of year that aren’t available to you on just any summer day.

With an increased amount of shoppers trying to fill stockings and fill out the base of their Christmas trees, it is imperative that you’ve nailed down who exactly your audience is. Is your book a children’s book? Make sure your book is made available in local toy stores and maybe put some flyers up in local day care centers, libraries, and schools. Also, think of how great your book could be as a stocking stuffer for family members; being generous with your book this time of year could lead to more readers not only within your family, but whoever your family ends up sharing it with as well.

This is also a great time of year for holiday giveaways online. Vamp up your blog with relevant tags, and host your giveaways there! Post on pages relevant to your story–this could be anything from a Facebook page of the state your book takes place in, a Facebook group of readers that your book might appeal to, or maybe even to a Facebook event in your area that fits the theme of your book.

Remember that Christmas stockings are often full of Amazon gift cards; do you have an ebook to offer all these new potential buyers? Going digital means that there were literally be MILLIONS of people who will have access to your book, who never would’ve come across it otherwise. If you already have an ebook version, ask your readers for a priceless holiday gift: a good review online.

We know here at Outskirts Press how busy this time of year is. We know that you’re also out shopping for you families, preparing turkey feasts for your families, carving pumpkins for your porches, etc. etc. Don’t hesitate to treat yourself to the gift of our services that can help you with these marketing tasks that are so important this time of year!

holiday sales marketing

At Outskirts, we have a marketing package that includes a custom press release, an author platform setup through social media, a book trailer with social network distribution, AND you get 5 hours with your own personal marketing elf…I mean, assistant. This is a great way to ensure you don’t miss out on the perks of holiday marketing, but also ensuring that you don’t miss out on the holiday cheer because you’re too busy worrying about marketing your book!

Click here to find out more:
http://outskirtspress.com/book-marketing.html

Thank you for reading!  If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or contributions, please use the comment field below or drop us a line at selfpublishingadvice@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. ♠

Kelly

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
elizabeth speaks, Holidays, in your corner, Uncategorized

In Your Corner : Christmas Traditions!

In this busy world, our equally busy lives can sometimes get in the way of passing along traditions to our family.  Publishing a novel, a memoir, a cookbook, or some other piece of writing is an oft-neglected but rewarding way to pass on our traditions–as well as our special holiday stories–to family members and to our friends!

pierogies pierogi varenyky

For example, take the cookbook.  There are infinite varieties and forms that the cookbook can take–no two cookbooks look or feel or read the same, even if they overlap in terms of recipes.  Why is that?  Well, for one, a cookbook is first and foremost an artifact of its author’s personality, history, culture, and interests.  The most interesting cookbooks, in my opinion, are not the ones produced by Williams Sonoma (as swoon-worthy as we all find their copper pots to be) or even Cooks Illustrated (although, let’s face it, we like the science).  Books produced by committee may have their strengths, but they don’t lock in the same quality of story.

Take these three cookbooks, for example, all of them put out by Outskirts Press:

“The Seven Fishes: An Italian Christmas Cook Book”
“Firewood, Family & Friends”
“Easy as Hell Dinner Party Cookbook”

We have Sleeping with the Seven Fishes: An Italian Christmas Cook Book (2013) by Mike KC; Firewood, Family & Friends Cookbook (2010) by Cheryl Paninder; and the Easy as Hell Dinner Party Cookbook (2013) by Bill Bjorkman with Michael Cilella of the Cox Roosevelt Inn.  And as you can tell from first glance, they’re all radically different books!  One is geared specifically towards the holidays, one towards the cozy kind of relationships we prize during the holidays, and one towards the home cook with ambitions at throwing a gourmet extravaganza.  (I’ll leave it up to you to decide which is which!)

What’s most important to note about these books, however, isn’t the covers themselves but what the covers and titles and typography–and all of the other graphical elements–combine to imply about the stories behind the individual books.  These are the things that are worth taking note of as a self-publishing author–and whether you’re thinking of publishing a cookbook or some other type of book, the same principle holds true–because these are the things that grab a reader’s attention in the bookstore and compel that person to carry your book all the way to the check-out clerk.  Authorship isn’t exactly a cult of personality, but it can sometimes be useful to think of a published book the same way you might think of a person going in for a high-stakes job interview: presentation matters, because it conveys a lot about that book’s/person’s backstory.

 And for better or worse, people connect with story.

 
spiral cut ham

The Christmas holidays is an especially important time to be thinking about helping to preserve your family’s history and legacy by self-publishing a book.  That’s because Christmas, perhaps more than any other holiday, is rich with oral storytelling traditions, baking traditions, and narrative traditions of all kinds.  You can both collect new material for your book and enjoy the rich conversations that will inevitably collect around the news that you’ve got a book in the works.  And sometimes, at Christmas as at other times of year when our relationships with the past are the hinge upon which our lives turn, we can all do with a little reminder:

It is my hope and wish that you enjoy a wonderful, relaxing Christmas–a Christmas thickly textured with the best kinds of traditions!

 

Merry Christmas!  

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.
from the archives, Holidays, Jodee Speaks, Kelly Speaks

From the Archives: “Merry Christmas Self-Publishing Authors!”

Welcome back to our new 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.

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[ Originally posted: December 24th, 2012 ]

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all my readers! Unfortunately, there are many people who will not have the joyous holiday they imagined this year. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting. Despite the tragedy they are recovering from, I hope they are able to enjoy the true meaning of Christmas: faith, love and family. For those of us who are blessed to be in the company of all of our loved ones, please keep those who need your support in  your thoughts and prayers.

Too often, Christmas is associated with expensive gifts and frivolous spending, but Christmas should really be about love and family. This year, I challenge you to take a few moments to appreciate your blessings and to help those who are less fortunate. One of the easiest ways to do this is by spending a few minutes writing this holiday. You could write a poem, a letter, a short story, or even begin a chapter of the novel you’ve been putting off. Write about Christmas or your family, or use writing as a way to cope with the heartbreak that is saddening our country. Whatever you write, let it come from your heart.

Merry Christmas.

 

christmas

It’s hard to believe that the third anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings is rapidly approaching; and 2015 has seen no shortage of heartbreak.  Paris grieved after the Charlie Hebdo newspaper headquarters was attacked in January, then grieved again when terrorism revisited the city in November. A heatwave in India and an earthquake in Nepal killed thousands.  Over 59 million  people will close out the year having been forcibly displaced from their homes––and often, their countries. These are just a few of the stories which have occupied Western headlines this last year, and they barely begin to touch the devastation and sorrow many have faced and continue to face around the globe over this holiday season.  Now, more than ever, we must recognize that hope isn’t just a feeling but rather an action––a determination to enact positive change in a world wrapped round and riddled with trials large and small.  Now, more than ever, Jodee’s words ring true: “Christmas should really be about love and family.”

Luckily for us, we don’t enter into this world without the most powerful of weapons at our disposal: Story.  Consider this poem by Mumbai-based poet Sanober Khan:

Words
are powerful
forces of nature.

they are destruction.
they are nourishment.
they are flesh.
they are water.
they are flowers
and bone.

they burn. they cleanse
they erase. they etch.

they can either
leave you
feeling
homeless

or brimming
with home.

As Jodee pointed out, the act of writing is a radical one and can reshape our world into something a little more comprehendible, a little less sad.  A note from a friend has the power to make someone’s day, and every carefully crafted book or novella or poem or other piece carries the potential to change lives for the better. The holidays offer us an opportunity to step back and reframe the conversations of which we are a part, to revisit past hurts and transmute our grief and our hope into action.  There’s no better time to finish that book you’ve been writing for years, or to begin writing down those ideas which pop into your head in the middle of the night, or to reach out to a friend or neighbor or family member with a letter, an email, or a post to your blog. Holidays are a chance to heal, and to be healed. I hope you have the opportunity to heal, regroup, and emerge into 2016 with a clear head and a warm heart.♠

 

KellyABOUT 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.
from the archives, Holidays, Kelly Speaks, Uncategorized

From the Archives: “5 Ways to Promote Your Book in December”

Welcome back to our new 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.

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[ Originally posted: December 21st, 2011 ]

The holidays are here and while you are probably busy with holiday parties, baking, family gatherings, etc., don’t forget about book marketing.  Here are a few things you can do this month to promote your book:

  1. Give copies of your book away as holiday gifts.
  2. Add a Kindle edition (or other ebook format).  Many people will be giving away ebook readers as holiday gifts.  Make sure your book is available in at least one e-bookstore for potential readers who will be browsing for books to read after they receive their gift.
  3. Enter your book in the ForeWord Book of the Year Award contest.  Deadline is January 15th, so submit it now before it’s too late.
  4. Start planning for 2012.  As you make your new year resolutions, consider your book marketing efforts and how you will increase or modify them in the new year.  Reflecting on what worked well over the last year and what didn’t will help you plan for a bigger and better 2012!
  5. Enjoy the season!  Take a break for a few days to enjoy your family and maybe even begin writing your next book.

DISCUSSION: How are you planning to promote YOUR book in December?

holiday marketing

It’s the time of year in which everything tastes like Pumpkin Spice and smells like peppermint … and along with all of the holiday buzz comes a slightly less pleasant sensation: the sinking feeling of knowing there’s just so much to do, and absolutely no time to do it in.  At such times, it’s important to have a few concrete and manageable places to start–and my five-item list from 2011 remains (amazingly) a great checklist.  It’s not every day that I can slip and slide back five years and find a post that ages as well as the one above, but there you go–holidays are magic, right?

Still, a couple of notes: the ForeWord IndieFab Book Awards, mentioned above, remains a wonderful resource for writers looking to get their titles out there.  There is now an early bird discount if you submit before September 1, but … well, it’s now December so that’s a thought to keep in mind for next year.  The final deadline (sans early bird discount) is still January 15th, and I fully believe you should bookmark that day in your calendar.

Also, you should check out my series from last year, “Christmas is Here Again: On Holidays and Happy Chaos” (see parts One, Two, and Three at the links)–a series which remains the most thorough holiday-related marketing advice that I’ve doled out to date.  And my last admonition?  It remains absolutely true today:

This holiday season, take time to breathe.  Return to those ways and means that rejuvinate you.  Cherish the stories you’ve written, and the stories you have left to write, and live.

I don’t know about you, but the holidays are as much a time of intense stress as they are a time of intense rejuvenation and joy.  Sometimes I need reminding–perhaps more than many–that it’s okay to take a step back in order to re-evaluate what’s working and what still needs some finesse. Join me in regrouping this winter! ♠

 

KellyABOUT 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.