Marketing your Book

Marketing your book by Penny Sanevieri


Ask yourself, what action will get me the most exposure?

Repetitive exposure is very important. The seven touches with your potential customer.

Nearly 4 to 5 active intranet users visit social networks and blogs. 70% of active online users shop online.

You need to create a plan

What does the ecosystem look like? Who is your audience? Where do they buy?

Understand your target, Find other authors who’ve written the same genre and model them. Get to know them, where do they spend their time? Google your genre and follow the first 5 authors that come up. Know what they are doing. Your goal is to be on the first page on Google. 70% of all users go to Google to search.

Start marketing 6 – 7 months before book comes out. Test your site making sure everything works. Be consistent don’t change your branding at important times. Keep doing what you’re doing even though it seems like no one is listening. The internet is one big networking event, find people who care. Find bloggers who blog about what you write. Find experts in that field.

Get 5 to 10 bloggers that you can follow and get to know. If they know you, they’ll be more interested in your book. Everything you do online is searchable. Anything you write could end up in the media. Never write anything you don’t want your grandmother to read. Not everybody is going to love your book but don’t respond negatively.

Post comments on the bloggers you like. 3 comments a week and make it thoughtful, it’s a great way to network. Bloggers love it. Each time you comment put your website on there as it will drive interest.

Set up Google alerts. This way you can track potential good target places where other authors are showing up.

Back Type – is a program that lets you know when someone mentions you in their blog.

Other network option:

Twitter – 1 million accounts are added every with 33 billion tweets per day. Twitter is like breaking news. Listen and follow people. Learn, participate, and contribute.

Never lead with your wallet. Ads don’t sell. People don’t like to be sold. Communicate not broadcast. Follow cool people on twitter. www.whoshouldifollow.com

Facebook- Personal profile vs. fan page on face book- Love your fan page on face book. You’re not allowed to use your personal profile to sell things. Fan page is a great way to network. Don’t be overly promotional, be helpful. Make lots of friends. 1 of 11 internet users women 25 – 54 spend 20 minutes each day on facebook. (That is huge amount of time for internet use.)

Be friendly and comment on news feeds and Share them with others. Review books for others, even unsolicited. They will love it. (Of course only if it’s a good review)

Pinterest -this networking site grew 3 million users in 10 months. 35 – 50 age group. They grew more than twitter and Google combined in Jan 2012.

Driving traffic to your website-

Use Soovle.com or adwords.google.com

Use SEO keywords in your research when you blog and on your website.

Check out Google.com/trends and Google insights. Blog what people are interested in. Try to make it relevant to your book.

Put keywords in your URL of your website. Search engine are very sensitive to keywords. If you want to sell you’ve got to get in front of your audience.

Be specific on your blogs and don’t blog random categories. Stay on topic to your book. One website is all that you need.

How to pitch your book

How to pitch your book


By Arielle Eckstut & David Henry Sterry

The voice of the pitch should match the book voice. No elementary school book reports. Use your craft to get the pitch to move people. Record yourself doing your pitch. Get a team of supporters to help critique you. You’ll need a cheerleader and hater in your support group.

The word “journey” in pitches has been overused and agents hate it.

Don’t be plot heavy- ever detail seems important but it should be like a movie trailer. Generic words don’t tell us specifics, try to give specifics but don’t do a play by play.

Start with action. Use picture words. Give the big picture of the story.

Give comparable books that are like yours. Don’t say my book is the next harry potter.

Start blogging about your book early on. If you establish a good following you can mention that in your pitch as a reason why your book will sell.

A powerful title can sell the book. Use your SEO words. (Search Engine opportunity) A title that references something with the book may not be the best title. You want to provoke a reaction. Your Brand should show through.

Tell them who’s the hero? Who’s the Villain? You need to show the tension. Every word has to count. Use your skills as a writer. Don’t pitch just a set up of the story, you want to show the arch of the story and take to the cliff hanger and make them want more.

What about traditional publishing?

Annette Rogers http://poisonedpen.com/

Gayle Shanks http://www.changinghands.com/

By Mike Slack http://www.mike-slack.com/

Your manuscript needs to be perfect and completed before you send it to be published. It’s critical to get feedback from writers groups and editors. Pay a professional to edit your book.

Query letters – One page and one page only. Introducing you, who are you? And what is the book about?

It should be three paragraphs- The hook; mini synopsis; and writer’s bio.

The hook is one sentence, your tagline. Tell me what your book is about?

Mini synopsis is the back flap of your book. Read your favorite books or similar to your genre and read the back of the book to get ideas.

Bio is kept short and relevant to your writing. Education or jobs should only be mentioned if it applies to your story.

Thank the agent and advise them you will send full manuscript upon request.

Go to individual websites to get submission request. You do not need a cover letter just a one page query.

No form letters sent to agents. Show you did your research and you are picking a certain agent for a reason.

http://www.poisonedpenpress.com/ is a great website for mystery writers. They are currently running a contest. They are looking for new writers to publish. They are interested in a good voice and someone with a different voice.

When editing your manuscript read it out loud to someone. Your ears will pick up something your eyes may not have.

No prologue – it’s an industry no no.

Your first scene is very important; you have to jump right into the action. You want your readers to ask what happens next. The reader has to cheer for the main character. And you need a really good Villain. The pace should be like a movie. Think of Bruce Willis in Die Hard, would he be walking slowly through a country lane? No. Show action. Keep the readers on the edge of their seats.

A helpful website:  http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/

Agent and writer blogs can be very helpful. Some helpful blogs to follow: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/ & http://open.salon.com/blog/steven_axelrod

One of the panelist mentioned that out of every 10,000 manuscripts only 3-4 are published. They stated this came from Wall Street Journal. After a little research I found an article that covered some of that information.
Wall street journal article on Jan. 22nd 2010 By KATHERINE ROSMAN -The death of the slush pile. Even in the web era, getting in their door is tougher than ever.
Harper Collins launched a website called a web slush pile. Writers could upload manuscripts, readers voted for favorites. About 10,000 manuscripts have been uploaded so far and they’ve only bought four.

A quote in the article I thought was pretty interesting:
“These days you need to deliver not just the manuscript but the audience," says Mr. Levine at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. "More and more, the mantra in publishing is 'Ask not what your publisher can do for you, ask what you can do for your publisher.'"

Indie Author Publishing Conference 2012

 I'm going to post my notes from each class I took in a separate blog for the next couple of weeks. Here is the first class which was giving by the funniest and well matched couple I've ever been around. I hope this will help others who are wanting to launch their writing careers as much as its inspired me to continue down this fabulous road of becoming a successful published writer.

It’s a great time to be an author- by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Terry.

Ask yourself- what is your platform? What is your ability to get an audience?

Blog every day, Writing is putting your passion into print. Figure out who your audience is and connect with them. Figure out who they are connected to and so on and so on.

Four traits to be a successful author-

1) Research- Do your homework before querying agents. Agents get mass queries all the time not in their field, or books already been done. Get to know your section in the bookstore. Read all who write in your category. Tell an agent they represent books like yours.

2) Networking –Network with everybody you know. Join writers groups to network with. If you’re referred to an agent let them know. Follow up is very important. (Cute story- David sent his book to an agent and called her once a month to see if she read it, for 9 months he called and finally he said he was going to be in NY and set up a meeting with the agent. This motivated the agent to read the book and this is how Arielle & David meet. They now have a child together, and a very successful writing career.)

3) WRITE every day, even for just 15-minutes a day. Have a set time to write.

4) Perseverance – Don’t let rejection stop you. People who keep going succeed. Learn something new each time you get a rejection letter. Make it better each time you get a critique. Feedback helps make it better. Deal with rejection gracefully.

Independent book sellers can really help assist in getting your book out there. Booksellers are professionals who you can actually speak to.

Getting great reviews from well know blogger does a lot in promoting your book.

Book Doctors is a good source http://www.thebookdoctors.com/

Acknowledgment section in a book of your genre is a great way to find an agent.

Create a competitive environment. Tell agents that you’ve got interest with other agents if someone has asked for your work. If there is one agent you really like, tell them you are giving them exclusive rights for two weeks and then you are sending it out to others. In the query tell agent that they represent (x) book and you love that book because (x).

http://querytracker.net/ is a great website to tell you who agents are but make sure you also go to their website and find all you can about that agent.

Write up your dream agent list. Start with top agents of best sellers. Start big and then filter on down the list getting a good mixture down to small agents.

**don’t ever pay a reading fee to an agent. Agents generally will get 15% commission from your book.