Book Marketing Blogs

We uncovered some of the top book marketing Tweets during the past week, from bloggers, marketers, authors and others. The range of topics include: branding, creating and sharing press releases, starting your book promotion, selling your book on Kindle and tweeting for authors. Good luck with your marketing efforts!

Authors, Publishers – Everyone Needs to Brand

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A look at the various ways to keep to building your brand and your business:

http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/authors-publishers-everyone-needs-to-brand/

6 Modern Ways to Create and Share a Press Release

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A rundown of five services that can help you create and share press releases:

http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2011/03/14/5-modern-ways-to-create-and-share-a-press-release/

Social Media: There’s No Such Thing as Starting Too Early

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Try three years before your book comes out – that’s advice from marketing guru Seth Godin. Learn why:

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/03/social-media-theres-no-such-thing-as.html

Book Marketing: Understand Amazon Kindle Before You Go

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A feature of the latest update to Amazon’s Kindle software is a really useful marketing tool:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1izqLc/www.thecreativepenn.com/2011/03/16/amazon-kindle-before-you-go/

How to Sell Books on Kindle From an Indie Publisher

Cover via Amazon

Tips M. Louisa Locke learned from others and her own experience, after selling more than 9,000 books mostly through the Kindle store:

http://thehendersonfiles.blogspot.com/2011/03/guest-blog-m-louisa-locke-on-selling.html

Does a Blog Sell Books?

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Some very interesting survey results worth reading:

http://fictiongroupie.blogspot.com/2011/03/does-blog-sell-books-survey-results.html

Strategic Tweeting for Authors

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Think of Twitter as a megaphone that can spread your message and attract readers:

http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2011/03/20/strategic-tweeting-for-authors/

RSS Readers – The Most Valuable Tool You Don’t Use

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The RSS news reader is a free Web-based tool that lets you subscribe to and manage blog content, as well as other real-time news such as your Google alerts:

http://www.jeffkorhan.com/stand_out_in_your_market_/2011/03/rss-readers-the-most-valuable-too-you-do-not-use.html

We had a great show on how to find and successfully query agents with our special guest Jeff Rivera.

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About our guest: Jeff Rivera is the founder of http://www.HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com. With over 100 clients to date, he has a 100% track record of getting at least 10 literary agents to request to read his client’s manuscripts and proposals.

How does an author land an agent? Either you go to them or they go to you. Current self-publishing sensation Amanda Hocking made a big splash by making a million dollars (literally) from selling her ebooks and got agents’ attention. Now she’s considering a traditional publishing deal in the $1 million range. However, waiting for agents to hear about you takes considerably longer, so most authors decide to be proactive and send a query letter.

Simply put, a query letter is a single-page letter in which authors introduce themselves and their books to agents.

Getting started with your query

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Unfortunately, many authors make some huge mistakes in their query letters that guarantee the agents they contact will NOT read their manuscript. Two of the most common mistakes are:

1. Attaching the manuscript to the email without receiving the agent’s permission

2. Not giving agents what they require in the query letter

Jeff offers the following advice so authors can send effective, persuasive queries:

Remember that agents are people first and they are very busy. Get to the point, hook them in the first sentence, and don’t waste their time. Don’t be desperate. Mention that you’re a prolific writer and looking for a full-time career as a writer (that indicates you have many books left to write).

* Make sure your query letter is no more than half a page long (no attachments, no packages)

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* Send email instead of snail mail, no one opens snail mail these days

Components of a query letter

* Opening paragraph: Grab their attention. One way to do this is to mention a mutual acquaintance, if you have one, such as a colleague or friend.

* Write something with an emotional appeal … you don’t want to be too formal

* Be personable without overdoing it. To learn more about the agent you’re emailing, go to publishersmarketplace.com, (a $20/month subscription required) look up that agent and see what they’ve recently sold. For instance, if you have a book on turtles and you’ve discovered that agent Jane Smith sold a book on turtles, you should mention that in the query letter. It shows the agent that you took the time to learn about him or her. Or, if you’ve ever read an interview with the agent you can mention a fact gleaned from article in the query letter. Attention to those details puts you in the top 5% of the authors who query agents.

* Also make sure your book is a genre the agent seeks. Use Google to search on agents and see what kind of books they represent before you send an email.

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* Second paragraph: Dive into what your book is about. Imagine you’re in an elevator with the agent and only have a couple of floor stops to explain the book. Make it short and sweet: agents want the sizzle, not the steak.

* Third paragraph: Explain your platform. If you’re working with someone or have hired a marketing company to help you build your platform, let the agent know. Then the agent knows you’re doing something – and that you understand the need to have a platform. That knowledge puts you in the top 2% of authors who query agents.

Platform is the concept that matters most; if you can’t write, you can hire a ghostwriter. If you don’t have a platform, you’re not going to get an agent.

Platforms that work

What do agents like to see for a platform? Jeff highlights the following:

* If you have a blog that is read by at least 10,000 readers each week, or have a mailing list of at least 10,000, you’ve got agents’ attention.

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* Similarly, having a large following on your Facebook Page or Squidoo lens, or having a YouTube channel with 10,000 unique viewers also constitutes a healthy platform.

* If you are a public speaker, agents love to hear about it. They love it because they know you’ll get out there to speak and sell that book.

* Mention if you’ve won any awards for self-publishing or writing.

* If you’re a journalist, then agents know that you can write, meet deadlines and have media contacts.

* Let the agent know if you have famous friends or contacts who can endorse the book.

Never embellish or lie – everything about you can be verified – you can be Googled, and you don’t want to be caught misrepresenting yourself.

* Final paragraph: This is your action step, let agents know how to contact you if they want to read your manuscript.

Hot genres in demand

Jeff says the genres agents want right now include:

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* YA novels (don’t say teen books) – YA is one of the few genres that has boomed in the past few years.

If you are a teacher, the parent of a teen or have a connection with teens, be sure to let the agent know.

* Middle grade fiction, basically tween fiction. Use the term “middle grade fiction” in your query as it shows a level of professionalism, that you did your research and know the lingo. Even better: if you write middle grade fiction for boys.

* Celebrity-driven books are big, whether it’s co-writing with a celebrity or working with a celebrity.

* A high-profile or big platform-driven book is always in demand. For instance, if the president of an association with 100,000 members in the U.S. writes a book, and then does teleseminars or travels the country to spread his or her message (which in turn, promotes the book). It also helps the platform if you have a company poised to purchase the books via bulk order.

Image by Tojosan via Flickr

* Graphic novels – these are being snapped up like crazy for film rights (even better: if it’s also middle grade fiction or a YA graphic novel, because you’re combining hot genres).

If you’re having trouble getting your novel published, try having it made into a graphic novel. All you need is five pages and a summary for submissions. Or, if you’re not a good writer, but a good storyteller, consider a graphic novel. You can get a graphic artist to work with you (try sites like craigslist to find an artist).

Additional hot genres include women’s fiction (never say chick lit), romance, paranormal fiction, thrillers (don’t say mysteries) and dystopian fiction.

Agents like to see self-published books that have sold 5,000 to 10,000 copies to demonstrate that they are marketable. If that’s not your sales level, be honest and say you test-marketed the book and it got great reviews. Remember that agents can research you, so you cannot embellish any statements you make.

Image by Josh Bancroft via Flickr

Selling 5,000 of your ebooks is great, and it doesn’t matter if it was for 99 cents. It means you can make 5,000 book sales – and agents will be interested in talking to you.

You can contact Jeff at jeff@gatekeeperspost.com if you want Jeff to read your query or to learn more about his services.

You can download the full show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders/2011/03/22/secrets-to-landing-an-agent

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Upcoming Episode:

Please join us April 5, 2011 for Dos and Don’ts of Distribution

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders/2011/04/05/the-dos-and-donts-of-distribution

Many authors don’t realize the importance and value of distribution, but if you self-publish there is a lot you need to know. Our show will provide an overview of distribution, including:

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· What you must know about book size

· How printing in color limits your distribution options

· The guidelines for manuscript and cover design formatting

· Going beyond ISBN – learn about Bowker, www.myidentifiers.com AND the time delay to get on Amazon and into distribution channels once the book is “published” (6-8 weeks)

· The questions to ask up front if you’re distributing with a self-publisher’s name – and whether this is a good idea or not.

One of the biggest mistakes I see writers make is calling their book the next Harry Potter. Never, ever, compare your book to a huge top seller. Doing this makes you look like an amateur to the agent and actually turns the agent off on your work.

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Often times, once a book becomes as famous as Harry Potter or Twilight, for example, the industry gets oversaturated with authors sending in their wizarding world or vampire books. No agent wants to represent a book like that because they know the chances of it being a success is slim to none.

A better approach to take is comparing your writing style, rather than your book as a whole. For example, you can tell the agent in your query letter than the style of the book is like JK Rowling meets Toni Morrison.

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This is more likely to pique the interest of the agent rather than hearing that your book is the next Harry Potter. They hear stuff like that all the time and are sick of it. It doesn’t make you stand out and it doesn’t get them interested in you enough to request a manuscript.

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Guest post by Jeff Rivera, who is the founder of http://www.HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com.  With over 100 clients to date, he has a 100% track record of getting at least 10 literary agents to request to read his client’s manuscripts and proposals.

Here’s a breakdown of a few of the most useful book marketing Tweets during the past week, from bloggers, marketers, authors and others. The range of topics include: managing the Facebook Page changes, using Twitter to market your book, getting Twitter followers, and being the perfect guest blogger. Happy marketing!

Q&A: Using Twitter to Market Your Book

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BookBuzzr had a webinar about Using Twitter to Market Your Book. The panel consisted of Carolyn-Howard Johnson (author of the HowToDoItFrugally series), Joel Friedlander (proprietor of Marin Bookworks), Laurel Marshfield (professional writer, ghostwriter and developmental editor), Phyllis Zimbler Miller (co-founder of Miller Mosaic Power Marketing) and Penny C. Sansevieri (CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc.). See what the experts had to say:

http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/qa-using-twitter-to-market-your-book/

Elements of a Successful Book Proposal

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Everything you need to include and the order in which it should appear, in your book proposal … listed in great detail:

http://www.annemini.com/?p=14046

You Have A New Twitter Account With No Followers: Now What?

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That’s the question every new Twitter user has once that account is live. Learn how to get going so you’ll find – and keep – followers:

http://blog.marketingtipsforauthors.com/2011/03/you-have-new-twitter-account-with-no.html

Facebook Page Changes: What You Need to Know

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One thing you can always count on with Facebook is that it will change. Now that the former fan pages have evolved, here’s what you need to know:

http://communicatevalue.com/social-media/facebook-page-layout-changes/

Self-Publishing a Book: 25 Things You Need to Know

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Sure, it’s easy to self-publish. But, there are no guarantees, and there are many things you should know before you take the leap. A self-published author shares what he’s learned about the process:

http://reviews.cnet.com/self-publishing/

How to Be the Perfect Guest Blogger

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One of the best ways to raise your profile online is through guest blogging. And it never hurts to have a few tips to make your guest blogging stint effective and rewarding:

http://www.bigbadbookblog.com/2011/03/09/how-to-be-the-perfect-guest-blogger/

The idea of marketing yourself online is still very confusing to a lot of people. Why? Because things change all the time on the Internet; if we didn’t have a dedicated department researching this and reading all the “geek stuff,” we’d never be able to keep up. But for right now I want to give you the bottom line basics, because at the end of the day, we all need to start somewhere and the best place to start is online.

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Blogging: If you don’t feel like you can do anything online or you don’t have the time for extensive promotion, the quickest and simplest thing you can do is have a blog. A blog is a great way to keep your site fresh (search engines love sites that are updated often) and a blog is a great way to reach your reader. If you don’t have a blog or haven’t blogged in a while, take heart: start somewhere and plan to blog a minimum of twice weekly. You’ll need at least two posts a week to keep it current. The biggest problem for new bloggers is deciding what to blog about. Well, here are some ideas:

• Talk about trends in the industry you’re in (this works even if you write fiction, talk about the publishing industry…)
• Review other (similar) books – this is a great way to network with other people in your market
• Blog “in character” – readers love this!
• Develop your next story on your blog: you can ask for reader feedback on story direction, characters, etc.
• Lend your voice to a “hot” industry issue or controversy
• Comment on other blogs or feature them on your blog
• Interview people on your blog
• Talk about the elephant in the room: if there’s a looming issue in your market, why not offer your insight on your blog?

Feedback and blog comments: If you aren’t getting people commenting on your blog, don’t despair, it takes a while to get folks commenting and offering feedback, but the more you can tap into issues your reader cares about, the more comments you’ll see popping up on your blog.

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Publishing content: The Internet has really opened the door to publishing and pushing a lot of content online. Whether it’s articles, audio, or video, there’s a home for all of it online. Consider doing article syndication to start pushing content online. Here are some basic guidelines for article syndication:

You don’t get paid for this syndication. This is always the first question I get when I talk to authors about syndicating their articles, book excerpts, or tip sheets. You post it online for others to use and promote you, what could be better?

Your articles need to be helpful, not self-promotional. The more helpful they are, the more likely they are to be used. Yes, you can mention your book, but my recommendation is to keep any and all promotion of it to your byline.

Article titles are important. Remember that the title of your article must be a description, don’t make people guess what you’ve written about. If you do, you’ll find your pieces aren’t as popular as you’d like them to be.

Articles should be a minimum of 500 words, max of 2,000. Generally the most popular pieces are 500 to 750 words. Don’t forget your byline and website address. Also, and very important, get those articles edited before they go online. Once you send them out, you can never get them back.

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Participate: When it comes to online promotion, it’s really about participating. Think of the Internet as one big cocktail party. Go strike up a conversation with someone who you’d like to get to know better. Here’s a great way to do that. First, go to Technorati.com and find the top five blogs in your market, then watch them for a week or so and when you’re comfortable with what they’re talking about and the angle of their message, start posting comments and offering your own insight into their postings. Bloggers love comments and by participating you’re doing two things: you’re doing some virtual networking (aka cyber-schmoozing) and you’re promoting yourself via the link back to your site that’s part of your post every time you comment.

Conduct your own blog tour: After you’ve done some virtual networking and gotten to know some folks in your industry, you’ll want to contact them to see about guest blogging opportunities. Guest blogging is pretty simple, you post an article on a site (sometimes it’s also a Q&A) and you respond to comments that come in during that day or week that you’re guest blogging. Be ready to host a blog tour of your own, and unless the content is really off-topic from your site, I recommend that you consider it.

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Blog carnivals: If you haven’t participated in a blog carnival and you’ve been blogging for a while then head on over to http://blogcarnival.com and get started. Honestly, it’s super easy. Just find a category/topic that you can speak to or have blogged on and submit those blogs for consideration. It’s a great way to virtually network and publish more content online.

Help promote the good stuff: Do you get Google alerts on yourself? If you don’t, you should and here’s why: how else will you know what people are saying about you online? Google alerts is a simple way to monitor the cyber-chatter and get in touch with folks who review your book or feature you on their site. You can also go to Technorati.com, plug in your name, company name or title of your book and see what you pull up, then you can subscribe to the syndication feed of the search (just hit the RSS button and it’ll automatically subscribe you to that feed). Once you have your feeds all ready to go you’ll want to promote all the good stuff. How can you do that? First, offer a cyber thank-you to whoever mentioned you, reviewed your book or featured you on their site. Next, link to their site from your blog, and finally, go to a few social bookmarking sites and bookmark these postings for enhanced exposure. Here’s how you do that: go to either Digg.com http://digg.com/, StumbleUpon.com http://www.stumbleupon.com/, or Delicious.com http://www.delicious.com/ and create accounts (this takes just a few minutes). Then follow the instructions to bookmark a blog post or page on the site that’s featured you. This will help drive interest (and possibly traffic) to the site (which site owners will love you for) because you’re placing it in a public bookmarking system.

There’s a lot more you can do online, the possibilities are really endless. What I’ve found is that the confused mind doesn’t take action, so the simpler you keep it, the more you’ll do. If only one thing on this list appeals to you, that’s great. Keep in mind, doing one more thing this week than you did last week keeps you moving forward and helps you continue to create marketing momentum for your book!

Have you ever been on the phone with a friend of yours and your friend can’t hear you or they don’t recognize your voice? They can be rude, down right mean, “Who?? Who is this?!” they demand.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Yet, once they realize who you are, their entire tone changes. You can feel that scowl in their forehead melt and a smile in their voice. Why? Because they know who you are.

Referrals are an aspiring author’s best friend.  If you can find someone the literary agent knows to recommend you or at least someone who will allow you to use their name in an introduction, you will be ten steps ahead of everyone else.

When someone else refers you or recommends you to an agent, you are brought in at that same level. You don’t start from ground zero, like all the other aspiring authors. No, you are on a whole other plane.

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Always, always, always get the person’s permission to use their name before you mention them. They may even be kind enough to give the literary agent a call or email to let them know that you’ll be reaching out to them.

If you know someone the agent knows, mention that in the very first sentence. Do this and you’ll be one step closer to landing an agent.

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Jeff Rivera is the founder of http://www.HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com. With over 100 clients to date, he has a 100% track record of getting at least 10 literary agents to request to read his client’s manuscripts and proposals.

Wondering what on earth to write about – or looking for some new ideas to get you through the month? We’ll bet you never knew just how much there was to write about in March: http://www.brownielocks.com/march.html.

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* Adopt A Rescued Guinea Pig Month

* American Red Cross Month

* International Ideas Month

* International Mirth Month

* Music in Our Schools Month

* National Craft Month

* Small Press month – plus many more montly, weekly and daily observances!

~ Source: Brownielocks & The 3 Bears

http://www.brownielocks.com

Here’s a roundup of the best book marketing Tweets during the past week, from bloggers, marketers, authors and others. The range of topics include: getting started with Facebook, increasing blog traffic, moving your Facebook fans to action, growing your writing career and writing a successful book proposal. Happy marketing!

How To Write A Successful Book Proposal

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There are a number of tricks and tips you can use to produce a book proposal with a great chance of being spotted by an agent or publisher:

http://bubblecow.co.uk/2009/09/how-to-write-a-book-proposal/

The First Rule of Self-Publishing

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One word: editing.

http://moriahjovan.com/mojo/first-rule-of-self-publishing

How to Grow Your Writing Career

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If you are a writer – how will you pursue your goals in 2011? How will you move your writing career forward?

http://wegrowmedia.com/how-to-grow-your-writing-career/

13 Ways to Move Your Facebook Fans to Action

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Your fans will come – and they will stay – if you give your fans good reason to engage:

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/13-ways-to-move-your-facebook-fans-to-action/

Increase Blog Traffic – Blogging Advice and Checklist of 50 Ideas

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Try one or more of these techniques every day for the next 50 days to steadily grow your traffic:

http://www.self-publishing-coach.com/increase-blog-traffic.html

The Query Letter That Landed An Agent And A Four Book Deal

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Learn how to write a query letter that can convince agents and publishers that your book has the potential to be published, and, how to avoid writing a query letter that fails to address key issues and misses important information:

http://bubblecow.co.uk/2011/02/the-query-letter-that-won-me-an-agent-and-a-four-book-deal-and-why-it-was-so-successful/

Facebook for Authors – How to Get Started

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You probably think about getting on Facebook, or what you’re supposed to do aside from creating an account. Here are some tips:

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/02/facebook-for-authors-how-to-get-started.html

Part Two: How to Grow and Build Your Platform

Steps to growing your platform

Now that you know what you need to do to identify your platform, it’s a matter of expanding it. But where to start?

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The place to start is research. Remember all the homework I had you do around other authors in your genre? You’re going to use that now to expand your platform as well. Here’s how:

Follow the Leader

If you have identified others in your market, then you know the leaders you should align with. Success leaves clues; follow them. Track where other authors have been featured online and make those websites, blogs, Twitter accounts, or fan pages part of your promotion. If you do your research well, you will begin to unearth all sorts of great places to align with. In fact, you might want to head on over to Google Alerts and plug in the names of the authors you are following so you can see what kind of exposure they are getting and where. Not familiar with Google Alerts? It’s a free service from Google that will let you monitor keywords and names online. Just type “Google Alerts” into your search bar and voila! It’s free and great for research!

Networking

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Next up is connecting with other authors in your market. It might seem counterintuitive to network with “the competition,” but in reality there is no competition. Let’s face it, if you read a lot of mystery or romantic suspense you probably don’t read just one author, and you are also probably open to considering a few others, right? Readers who buy self-help fall into this same market. Think Lays potato chips: you can’t eat just one.

Networking with authors in your market could really open up some doors. Just like in-person networking, getting to know your market could help you gain access to new promotional opportunities, speaking events, etc. Authors are a very generous breed; get to know the folks who have already been out there, and then be prepared to do the same for authors who may contact you.

Your Big Networking Event

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Outside of the networking you will do with your fellow authors, you will also want to identify bloggers, reviewers, and other marketing connections online. Much like with the authors, you will want to network with them by following their blogs, commenting on posts, retweeting their information, etc.

Building Your Platform

Now that you have done all of this legwork, it’s time to look at the platform you are building and what building blocks you need to get there.

Hopefully by now, you’ve identified various areas of focus, authors to follow and blogs/websites and other social media to follow. If you haven’t, go back and make sure you complete this research. Without this piece your platform will never make sense.

Next you’ll want to break down your platform building so that it’s both manageable and easy to implement. Here are some tips for breaking this down:

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What? For your particular market, what makes a good platform? Is it a fan base, speaking, product? Write that down first; if it’s a list then start a list.

How? How will you attain this? Start formulating a list and ideally, try to break this down into as many pieces as you can. Meaning that you want to have a list of action items that you need to implement in order to grow your platform.

Action: what action do you need to take to make this happen? Make a list of tasks: Perhaps it’s blogging, getting a Twitter account, or networking with other blogs, forums, etc. Create your action list and make it as complete as possible.

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Divvy up the work: now you need to break the work down into manageable, actionable items. For example, if part of your platform is blogging, don’t just write “Need to blog” on a list. Make sure that it’s quantifiable – otherwise you likely won’t do it. How many times do you need to blog, etc?

The above work (and yes, at times it will feel like work), will really help you to gain direction. As you begin to pull together all of these pieces, a road map will start to emerge. You’ll begin to see where and how you need to show up online. What this will do is keep you laser-focused on goals that will directly help you expand your reach online, as opposed to that endless to-do list that makes you drift from one area to another, never really gaining ground.

If you consider your marketing roll-out as your final exam, then the homework you do prior will really help you breeze through the test. What you’ll find on the other side is a campaign that not only works, but might even make you feel like a rock star. Oh, and book sales? Yeah, I know I said ignore them, but as they said in Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.” Build your platform now, and readers will beat a path to your door.