Here is a picture of myself and my family in New York last week. This is our official Xmas card this year. You have to click on the picture to enlarge it a bit.
Going into the New Year I’m grateful for some mentors who truly inspire me and help me so much in my work life and have always been available to me and champion my work. And I’m thankful for tons of mentors, but always, always, always for Steve Kayser who is really truly one of the most inspiring, giving and intelligent people I’ve met via the Net.
And I have to thank Wayne of Cranky Middle Manager - who always is so willing to consider my authors for interview. His show is fantastic.
Also, I’m really grateful for such outstanding clients and people to work for that at the end of the day really want to improve and better everyone’s lives.
And my new revolutionary idea for the New Year is to figure out a way that book authors don’t have to buy copies of their own books if they’re using them for review purposes! I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to have authors who are great marketers, but have to take into account the money they have to spend to buy their own books from the publisher so they can then send them on to possible reviewers/peers etc.
WHY???
I get it, it’s how it’s always been done, it helps the publishers maintain a good bottom line etc. , but does it really? If you give your author five books for free and those five books end up resulting in 100 books ordered by a CEO who loved the book, or a reading group who loved the novel – then why in the heck wouldn’t you want to give those initial books for free to your author?
And why not give your author any amount of books they need for free? Why are authors buying back their own blood, sweat and tears in book form?
I get it. It’s always been done this way. But why does it have to be done this way now?
The last email I sent out today, I accidentally signed, “Beset,
Nettie” instead of “Best, Nettie”. So I’ll be off all next week working on the whole “work/life” balance gig! And meanwhile you take off too and enjoy the blessings we all have. Disconnect from the computer, your iPhone, etc. – I challenge you!
As we enter the holidays, and we see the crowded lines at bookstores and Amazon orders at an all time high, I’m mindful of how much effort it takes to write a book and move on to the next level of marketing and championing your work.
Many times it can seem overwhelming in terms of which choices to make and what to do next after your book is published. But if you’re willing to truly dive in and believe in what you’ve created your book will succeed.
Dr. Seuss said it best in “Oh, The Places You”ll Go”:
“And when things start to happen,
don’t worry. Don’t stew.
Just go right along.
You’ll start happening too.
OH!
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!
You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.
You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.
You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.”
The key is to see your book through its entire journey which includes being your book’s biggest supporter in terms of getting it out to folks. If you look at all the time it took you to write the book, and multiply that by 2 – you’ll have a pretty good idea of how much time you can spend marketing the book.
Be your book’s best champion and you’ll be surprised at what you can achieve.
I’m so proud of my amazing and multi-talented (multi-genered) client Beth Kephart. Her young adult novel, “Undercover” was picked as Amazon’s Top Ten YA, and one of the Kirkus Top YA novels for the year and I just hit her Amazon stats today and they are going gangbusters!
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,266 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories: (What’s this?)
#2 in Books > Teens > School & Sports > Girls in Sports
#11 in Books > Teens > School & Sports > Fiction
#39 in Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction > Love & Romance
Beth’s blog is also an amazing read and she is the perfect example of what can happen no matter what genre you’re writing in if you really work hard to establish a real, authentic and virtual conversation with your particular readers.
I’m also very excited to be working for her and Matthew Emmens publicizing their book that is also pre-selling on Amazon amazingly well and has secured several foreign rights. A creative, wonderful business book titled “Zenobia“. The illustrations for the book were created by William Sulit and are stunning and reminiscent of Edward Gorey’s amazing work.
And talk about a multi-tasking woman – Beth also by day dons her marketing cape and helps companies liven up their annual reports and other marketing collateral through her company, Fusion Communications. (Women never rest!!!!)
I have a challenge for you if you really want to write a book. Stop paying for or spending your time (which is money too by the way) listening to a bunch of publishing teleseminars. STOP STOP STOP.
For three months add all those newsletters, ezines, YOUR NEXT BIG Chance in Publishing Teleseminar offerings to your junk mail list. Let me be clear, I’m not targeting any particular teleseminar, I’m just telling you – urging you – pleading with you to get off the tele-merry-go-round. There is nothing they can tell you that you won’t be able to find out once your book is written. If your book is written – there is nothing they can tell you about how to start pitching it to agents.
If your book is published, you can spend two really fruitful hours on the Web by finding a book that is most like your book and doing Google searches for every place that book is featured. Voila – you’ve just built your first media target list, so you don’t need that teleseminar to tell you how to build your outreach list. Ah, another hour saved for you to spend pitching your book instead of listening to the “masters”.
STOP THE TELESEMINAR MADNESS.
In the summer my family puts our TV in storage for one month in the garage. You cannot imagine the time we have to ponder our navels, a great literary work, or just spending that time with the sheer joy of hearing one another breathe.
I’m urging you for this New Year to stop scurrying around from teleseminar to teleseminar and spend some time just pondering your work, your creativity and how you’re going to successfully blaze your own publishing trail.
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