I just came back from a stellar all-day workshop hosted by Berrett-Koehler publishers. What an amazing event it was and I was humbled to be a presenter on two different panels in regard to PR. The first panel was focused on how to get journalists, media and even Oprah’s attention and the second panel was focused on how to get online visibility, blogging and finding your readers online.
Both panels were fantastically fun and on a larger scale one of the overlapping questions during the event was how much work do I need to do to get my book to readers?
Short answer – it never ends.
Long answer – Why on earth would you spend all that time writing a book only to birth it at the end and not do anything more to make sure folks see it?
If you don’t think you need to be a collaborative partner in promoting your book, then don’t write a book.
Seriously.
What are some ways you can promote your book?
1. Search technorati.com for blogs that write about books
2. Google searches for your book’s topic matter
3. Google searches for authors that your book’s genre is in and see who is writing about them.
4. Register your book with Microsoft LiveSearch
5. Amazon connect
6. Carry your book everywhere with you.
7. Blog about your book
8. Read tons of other people’s books and study how much news coverage they got and who wrote about them.
9. Write to fellow authors or bloggers and ask if they might like to review your book
10. Get your friends, relatives and peers to buy your book and review it on Amazon
P.S. On each Amazon review – always go through and mark Yes on “was this review helpful to you” if it was.
If you don’t have a bio on Wikipedia – add one. But really follow all their rules about not being overly promotional etc. because they will toss it out.
In terms of what they think is too “advertising” and not it’s a bit of a toss up. For instance they have a comment on this one for Al Ries and I think Al Ries is brilliant and this entry about him does not at all sound like “advertising.” It is just really what the guy has accomplished over all these years!
Here’s one Wikipedia likes (and so do I) on Tim Berners-Lee (please tell me you all know who he is) if not, read the entry.
The key in Wikipedia is to write the entry like an article. That’s what it’s all about. An objective journal focused article. I like that!
And would you believe Ronald McDonald has a Wikipedia entry with audio as well?
Here’s my favorite entry – not only because I’m related to him on the Clemens side, but more importantly because he is one of the finest writers that ever lived.
Now go and write. Or email me if you do a draft and want some help on how to make it sound less formal/bio and more article-esque. (No, I’m not pitching myself as the new Wikipedia Copy Guru – just want you to get to work on it and it’s always good to have a second set of eyes.)
The Search Is On!
This came from Publisher’s Lunch and I recommend you doing it if you have not already. If you’re a publisher (self-published or otherwise) and even if you just have one book to register, do it! It’s free and it’s a great way to bring the Web (and its readers) to your books!
“Get your titles in front of millions of Live Search users free with Live Search Books from Microsoft.
Live Search Books, at books.live.com, makes it easy to connect with Live Search users who are looking for trusted, authoritative answers—answers that may be found in books like yours. Our publisher portal walks you through the process of submitting your titles, selecting the amount of content displayed, and linking your commerce-enabled Web site to our pages so users can purchase your titles. It’s easy and it’s free!
publisher.live.com . “
As a writer, I deal with a bit of insomnia and I’m sure that most of you who are creatives deal with this as well.
My mom’s cure for insomnia was always a warm glass of milk and Windexing the windows, but in the modern day of the Internet revolution, the cure for me is to just get up and write and work.
Einstein said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”
Sometimes in twilight after this Texas heat all day, one can experience the mysterious by putting on some good music or even a Buddhist chant CD depending on the mood, and just sit at the keyboard and write.
I encourage you to take advantage of the twilight hour and contemplate how Edison, Einstein and one of my own personal heroes Richard Feynman solved the mysterious in twilight hours.
If you’re up but you’re stuck in what you perceive is a “writing block” then put out Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” or Garcia-Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and start typing the text from the pages. Nothing will kick-start you like typing in the work of the masters.
Every summer I copy in longhand a classic book just to keep my creativity flowing, so don’t be daunted.
Write, imagine, and leave sleep for mere mortals.
My friend Tom Clifford sent me this link with the announcement that Chris Anderson’s – BookTour.com is now officially live. See Chris’ announcement about it here and then go and check out the site!
Having been an Internet journalist for over 15 years, and seeing sites come and go, the only caution I would cite is that we’re all becoming inundated with disparate information and ways to receive it, so I hope the site will get much-trafficked, but I also think it’s a weighty proposition to try to be the catch all for all author tours.
However, I would encourage you to sign up your book at the site, and I will be signing up my clients and if anyone can make it work, it’s certainly the weighty founders behind the launch!
In the book world if you can’t pitch your idea in less than a couple paragraphs succinctly you’re going to have a hard time engaging folks to read the whole darn thing.
In the PR and journalist world the key is to tell your story or your client’s story so compellingly that whomever you’re pitching or pitching to feels as if they must cover it.
In my days with Publish.com I experienced many pitches that not only didn’t have a real kernel of a story, but that didn’t even apply to what I was writing about.
It’s better not to pitch at all then it is to “pitch and fall.” By fall I mean that the journalist or blogger realizes very quickly at the onset of the pitch that you do not read their work, their publication or their blog.
If you don’t familiarize yourself with what they’re doing, why on Earth would they want to write about you?
Think about the story behind your book, product or service? Do you really know what is most interesting about the story and can you tell it congruently and consistently all the time?
If not, then start re-writing it and come up with something that works.
Top Ten Hints Your Viral Marketing Campaign or Contest is Not Working:
1. Your grandma and her friends in her knitting group have registered for the contest – so you’re now up to begging distant cousins to register as well, so you can have at least 20 folks vying for the year’s supply of cat food your company is giving away.
2. You posted it on YouTube and have nary a comment.
3. You’re building alias names like mad on Gmail so that you can comment on your own campaign with comments like, “Wow, this contest for the cat food is really going viral!”, or “My cats are really excited about the possibility of a year’s supply of free kitty kibbles.”
4. Your Mom refuses to view the YouTube video where you have a giant lifesize cat singing your company theme to the tune of “Louie, Louie”.
5. Your cat refuses to view the YouTube video where you have a giant lifesize cat singing your company theme to the tune of “Louie, Louie.”
6. Your yellow Labrador named Fuzzy and his dog-friends love the YouTube video.
7. You’re left with several extra cases worth of your own cat food (think Pets.com) as it turns out that even the contest winner doesn’t want the food after all. (She was hoping there might be an iPod thrown in as well.)(Of course, your grandma is the winner of the contest, and she’s not going to rest until you get her the iPod.)
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