1. Spend most of my time researching blogs and online websites instead of kvetching that my traditional publicity firm is just not trying.
2. Understand that I don’t need a publicist, mygrandma or even my publisher to work on my behalf to get coverage for my books! I can compile a list of blogs and start participating way before my book is out!
3. Take to heart that it is an author’s job to help publicize their book.
4. Get on Twitter and start tweeting.
5. Remember that if I’m going to build a FACEBOOK fan page I’m not done working with it just because I built it. I have to post to it at least three times a week and make those messages lively, dynamic and not marketing blabbity-blah.
6. Do a search for book awards and submit my book to every single one of them that I’m eligible for.
7. Take my book and page by page I would highlight short tweets I could repurpose on Twitter, and identify what ideas I can use for blog posts to help drive more interest about my books.
8. Stop believing that by getting a ton of “friends” to compile a bunch of empty bonuses together that those are going to take my book to #1 on Amazon.
9. Commit that I’ll be conversant on the news as it relates to ideas in my book and commit that I won’t try to get my book to fit every news angle.
10. Commit to not growing hits, but reaching new communities with valuable insight and the goal of long-lasting relationships.
11. Have an active profile on Linkedin.com, participate, offer good insight and join the groups that care most about my book content.
12. Stop spreading myself too thin across 8 billion social media profiles.
13. Use Google. Use Google. Use Google. To search for new opportunities for my book.
14. Pro-actively write a reading group guide and save that as a downloadable PDF that I offer for free on my site.
15. Thank every single reporter, blogger etc. that notes my book each time they do it.
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MYTH: You’re only going to find out the real deal on how to use social media off a long-copy sales page and a series of bonuses and webinars which you have to purchase.
REALITY: There are tons of absolutely free and in-depth social media help sites. If you spend just one hour a week on them, you can learn everything you need to do.
REALITY EXTRA: You cannot possibly learn any of this stuff by just reading – you have to start doing!
5 Sites That Give You LOTS of GOOD FREE Social Media MOJO:
1. For Facebook turn to Allfacebook.com – superb, updated daily and tons of tips to instantly use.
2. Mashable.com - one of my faves on all things social media. Fantastic resource.
3. Twittip.com - Twitter tips you can instantly use.
4. Linkedin.com – read their blog! You get the insider scoop on the latest, like today they’re showing folks how to reorder your profile information. Tons of guest articles too. Cool beans!
5. SocialMediaToday.com – another daily must read.
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I’m a giant fan of Mediabistro’s GalleyCat and think they’re doing a great job of providing resources for writers, authors, and idea-thinker uppers in regard to Web 2.0 tools.
Their latest piece titled, “The Most Popular Book Reviewers On Twitter” by Jason Boog is something you should definitely read and take actionable insight from!
What insight?
The column gives you some top Reviewers on Twitter, two of my faves being Susanna K. Hutcheson (top Amazon reviewer too) and my friend Wayne Hurlbert of BlogTalkRadio’s Blog Business Success. They also give you some good hashtags for Twitter that you can search to find new book reviewers to pitch.
I think you might have to be a member of MediaBistro to get GalleyCat content, but if you do then I encourage you to join MediaBistro. It’s one of my favorite sites for writers and incredibly uplifting on a daily basis with new resources and kicks in the writers’ block butt!
Go now go and twitter pitch your book! You CAN DO IT!
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We’re just days away from seeing Journalism Online”s system put into action with several newspapers. Journalism Online is a relatively new start-up venture aiming to facilitate newspapers’ efforts to charge online.
Here is a link to the full story , and I could not resist putting an excerpt from the story here, “”We’re starting small, so if this really turns people off, we’re not playing with a huge chunk of our readership,” Schreiber told the Times, reflecting a commonly-held fear among publishers of scaring away readers and losing advertising revenue.
This small start will only involve charging readers outside the local area and only for reading obituaries, as these are unique to the paper, Schreiber said, adding that local sports might be the next area targeted.”
A green “Press+” logo will appear next to each obituary headline, and after reading a certain amount of such articles, a user will be prompted to pay a flat fee to continue.
Here’s my question, how long are most obits? Is it really a good idea to charge folks who already might be a little bit down about the loss of a friend, family member etc. to read the full obit? Are we really so monetarily driven in this day and age that we have to charge for someone to read a full obituary to help print newspapers stay alive?
Question: Are people going to be creating Twit-obits to save loved ones the expense?
The bigger question is also whether overall this will even work since so much information including news etc. is so freely available on the Web?
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Don’t let any publicists convince you that you absolutely NEED them to do blog outreach on your behalf. To the contrary, it should always work as a partnership and it’s very important to put the YOU in the online outreach.
While many of you might not have the time or inclination to reach out to bloggers, and will want to hire a publicist to help you, keep in mind that you still need to participate as much as you can in terms of blogging, building good content to repurpose as guest bylined articles, and pro-actively thanking (via commenting) bloggers for featuring the book.
The best authors are those who are willing to take that extra step toward connecting with the bloggers whether they have a publicist or not. Take time to thank and give link love to bloggers who have featured your book.
Put Google blog alerts on books in your vertical and make sure your publicist is reaching out to those books too.
If your publicist is returning results to you that include blogs with just one or two readers, ask how that benefits the book. Part of understanding the blog world is getting your book to blogs that have a strong reader community. It’s not always about numbers – it’s also about quality – but you still need to shoot for blogs with a larger community of readers.
If you have a smart, savvy publicist then you should expect them to build and refine a very strong list of blog, website and online potential reviewers. You also want to look for blogs where the community is active in terms of posting comments to reviews. Also look for blogs that offer book giveaways. There are many of those and they’re very good about considering a book for giveaway.
Always keep in mind that bloggers want good content to give to their readership. Don’t blog-blast pitches that don’t fit the blog’s focus. Don’t rely on traditional PR methods to garner coverage. Don’t just send press releases. Send short pitches that evoke immediate reaction.
SAMPLE:
Dear NAME OF BLOGGER:
I’m writing to you in the hope that you might be interested in reviewing this book, “TITLE OF BOOK.” Here is the book’s website – www.WEBSITE.com . I know that you review leadership books – SAMPLE LINK OF REVIEW THEY”VE DONE RECENTLY , and would love for you to consider this book as well.
Here is a brief bio of the author and a link to the book information online.
Thank you in advance for your consideration!
Best,
YOUR NAME
Remember, your book can be evergreen on the Web. What that means is that long after you’ve engaged or not engaged a publicist you still have the potential for garnering new readers and reviews for the book.
Keep going!
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