Are you a thinking of writing a book, or are you in the process. You are that’s great! Then you’ll be looking for ways to market your work won’t you? This article is intended to provide a little guidance based on a new writer’s experience to date.
You’re probably thinking, wait a minute did he just say marketing? Well, yes book marketing is the order of the day. Writers don’t just write you know. They are researchers, editors, information managers, data inputters, archivists, increasingly IT experts, strategists, recruitment and selection specialists, project managers, sales people and, yes, marketers. If any functional roles out, please feel free to chip in and make a comment.
It’s very true nowadays that more writers, authors, whatever title you choose, have to market themselves to get their books published and sold. Now many newbie writers would cringe at that prospect, and why wouldn’t they, they just want to write, don’t they? Well the message is that you just have to get on with marketing your work and yourself otherwise you won’t attract a Literary Agent or Publisher, and you won’t sell. You won’t build an audience, or platform as it is known in the industry and all your hard work could be wasted. Now if you’re used to speaking to others, especially in front of others then you have an added bonus. You at least have at your disposal classes, workshops, seminars, after dinner talks et cetera that could keep you busy in creating exposure. But wait a minute, nobody is going to invite you to do any of this without you being known, or are they? If you have a particular skill, knowledge that gets you invited and helps you build your platform that may just be the angle that you’re looking for. But you need to do more, yes more.
Building a platform is essential in order to seek publication these days and there are many books out there to help (a must read is ‘Getting Known Before the Book Deal by Cristina Katz) and that is probably why you’re reading this right? The aim of this article is to share an experience and hopefully make the marketing tasks seem less daunting to fellow new writers.
The following tips are the areas of promotion used to date by the writer of this article. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list. If you know of other things that work for you that could be included here please just feel free share your knowledge using the details at the end of this article. Anyway here goes:
1. If you’re just tipping your toe in the water using a blog as a web site is an option. It is possible with a WordPress blog and you can obtain your own domain like this www.paulstrettonstephens.com . Now this can seem daunting to some but the fact is that there are so many templates to choose from nowadays and all have easy to follow instructions too. In fact the template chosen here allows the user to make the first page a static page thus giving the impression of a website. This site went live and the first blog post was written on the 3rd March 2011 at the 80 day point it had received 488 visitors according to the statistics.
a. This site has the following pages: Ebooks, Links of Interest & Causes, FREE Poetry, The Writer and Writer FAQ’s.
b. You can link your site to your Face Book Fan Page where you can post some interesting snippets of news in addition to receiving news from those that you have liked. You can also have some invaluable dialogue with fans.
c. You can link your site to Twitter where you should try to post often and create a following. Whilst you’re at it why not add a listing to Listorious.com too. Listorious kind of supports Twitter by providing your information to would be readers. It also provides an additional listing for you to get found in search engines.
d. The site is also enabled to LIKE’s and tools such as Digg and Stumble upon, Reddit and Press This. These links enable readers who like what you have written to share your work with their friends and contacts. This is not time consuming in any way for you, you don’t have to do anything other than click a couple of times at the set up stage. You won’t be bombarded with emails as a result.
2. All images are optimised, that means that keywords and descriptions including your book synopsis can be embedded (written) in the image’s properties so that they can be searched online using the keywords. You should be able to see how people have arrived at your site via images for example on Google Images.
3. A few folk are reluctant to have a Facebook Fan page, indeed some would probably wish that they would call is something else. However, you will benefit from doing so and if you manage to get 25 or more ‘fans’ you will be able to obtain your very own Facebook domain. Like this, http://www.facebook.com/paulstrettonstephens. Here visitors have the option of visiting and LIKING your page. It will soon build with a little tender loving care and effort. A caveat is due here though, you might receive some invitations to participate in a round robin of LIKES for LIKES, and yes it may boost your number of fans. However, it may be better to have a little patience add some good content regularly and seek quality links from people who really LIKE what you’re doing.
4. A Strap Line – Well this took a while for to refine, it was of Christina’s gem suggestions. Strap lines are one of those obvious things that you have created for your work in the past and may have forgotten to create for your own writing. Feature it everywhere, in your email signature, blog and online network responses. Here is an example, ‘Writing to Feed the Senses’.
5. Included tags in the side bar and posts for search engines and bookmarks like del.ico.us to be able to pick them up.
6. Get on Twitter and create a memorable username like PenofPaul. Click if you care to follow? A quick tip here: Link up to Hootsuite if you have more than one account for e.g. LinkedIn and Twitter. Then you can post once and its goes exactly where you need it. They are user friendly and easy to set up.
7. There is a page on the web site for Ebooks and links straight through to the sellers such as AMAZON
8. Selected poems have been uploaded on the FREE Poetry page for readers to share with their friends. You could post extracts, tip, advice, contents pages or reviews. Don’t forget that whatever you post it is public. Hopefully potential readers, agents and maybe publishers will access it?
9. Use testimonials from readers of your work, examples of which can be seen here.
10. Create an email subscription box where readers can gain updates straight into their mailbox. Whilst we’re talking of emails, do create a signature block with all of your details on for every email that you send out. Be sure to include, Name, Strapline, web site address, Facebook fan page address and maybe Skype and a Telephone number. Tip: Set it up on your email but also have a copy on word for when you post dialogue on any online groups et cetera and then you can add it to everything you write thus giving you more exposure. Setting these sorts of things up means that you only have to do it once. From then on it’s just copy and paste, simple and easy.
11. Write articles like this one and invite your readers to link with you if they have a relevant web site or blog. Invite them to send a request in the comment section on any page like at www.pstrettonstephens.com . You too can write articles and post them on your blog and ask for links.
12. Become a member of a number of social networks online and the advice here is to get actively involved in groups such as:
e. LinkedIn, a professional network with a number of writer groups i.e. Writing Mafia, Book Writing, Self-Publishing, and Marketing for Business People, Affiliated Authors, Book Reviewer and a whole lot more. It’s proving to be a great community and that is thoroughly recommended. You’re sure to find some really interesting, knowledgeable and friendly people with like minds here such as Judy Cullins, a Book Coach and her wonderful newsletters.
f. Book Blogs – This is another must for writers and there are too many forums here to mentions and it is a lively community. Check it out you will be surprised.
g. If you write for Young Adults (YA) then Yalichat is a must destination for you to link with like minds. It is a really friendly community.
Well there you have it, 12 book marketing musts for all new writers to help them build platforms and hopefully gain a suitable Literary Agent and Publisher.
Now pay attention because here’s the call to action part, the part where Writer Marketers must throw caution to the wind and ask for something like this:
‘If you are one of those nice people (Literary Agent or Publisher) that can help me sell my current fiction book that has got very serious serial, film and merchandise potential you can see what I’m doing to create my platform. Having said that, please feel free to get in touch with me if you are interested in starting some dialogue.’
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© Copyright Paul Stretton Stephens, all rights reserved 2011
Article may be reprinted freely as long as the author bylines and info box are included. The article itself may not be altered.
Author Paul Stretton Stephens
Paul is an Englishman who lives in Spain, where he currently teaches Business Studies by day and writes by night. His writing projects currently include: articles, fiction, Young Adult (YA), short stories, children’s stories and poetry.
Paul can be contacted as follows:
Paul Stretton Stephens
‘Writing to feed the senses’
http://www.paulstrettonstephens.com
http://www.facebook.com/paulstrettonstephens
Skype: paul.ss1
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