I very rarely do not approve a comment to my blog because it’s very important to keep the communication gates open both ways and we’re all here to learn together. With that in mind, please take this lesson to heart. It is not good marketing to post a short blurb about your book in someone’s comment section of their blog. I know there are some book “marketers” and book “social media experts” who for years have touted this as a good idea. Heck, they’ve even published this suggestion in some of their own books!

However, this is never a good idea. Ever, ever, ever.

Think of it like this. What if you decided, in an effort to get more buzz out about your book, that the best possible thing you could do is spray paint the front of someone’s home with your book title and short description?

This would actually make the homeowner feel great rancor toward you and the neighborhood (her community) wouldn’t much cotten to seeing this either. They trust the homeowner to keep her home spiffy, smart and valuable!

A blog is someone’s home. People come to it and the blog author opens his/her doors to a knowledge base that will hopefully be very educational and actionable. And FREE of marketing blather including in the comment section.

With that in mind, here is the aforementioned comment I received (I’ve edited it a bit so not to expose the commenter, so anywhere you see BOLD I’ve changed it from what it actually was.)

“Shoved to the curb and left to fend on her own at the age of 14; AUTHOR NAME eventually went on to receive a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work.

But God was not welcome nor allowed to be spoken on the job… Not able to do so, AUTHOR NAME went on to work for the Archdiocese of St. Paul/ Minneapolis for 8 years.

NAME OF BOOK is a true story of AUTHOR NAME strength & perseverance. That, combined with her strong faith is what makes this story unique and a must read!

This is AUTHOR NAME first book and is currently working on her sequel… NAME OF NEW SEQUEL.”

So here’s the thing, this comment not only violates the good mojo in terms of respecting one’s home blog turf, but also it shows these three things:

1. The author has not ever read the blog she just posted a comment to.

2. The author did not actually read the blog post she posted the comment to.

3. The author is unaware of how one should post comments to a blog.

Lessons Learned:

1. Read the blog you’re going to post a comment to.

2. If you want your book reviewed or want to drive traffic to your book site – research the sites that talk about books, book reviewing and reach out to those blog editors in person through an email pitch, not through an email pitch.

Here are some good ones to check out -

a. BergersBookReviews.com – Alice Berger’s fantastic site.

b. Bookpleasures.com - Norm Goldman’s superb site. Note, on Norm’s link that he has a quick review service, but also offers a free review service.

*I posted the two examples above without the direct contact information (emails etc.)  because I’m mean and I don’t want to share. Ok…that’s not really true. I posted them like that so you could learn how easy it is to use this little free tool called the Internet, hit those sites and get the contact information on how to pitch them books very easily from their site!

To sum up: Be your own best advocate, keep pitching and swerving and building strong lists for your book, and don’t listen to everything social media book gurus advise you to do.

And in the words of one of my favorite Monty Python songs, “Always look on the bright side of life, always look on the bright side of life.” How does that apply to marketing your book? There are thousands of blogs you can find to feature your book if you’ll just stay positive, focused and in it for the long haul.

Now go and get your book out there!

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I do feel compelled though to advise against what this author is doing in terms of social media.

Here’s what she wrote on my Facebook Wall.

“Hey, Nettie!

How are you doing? Have you seen my new book video on YouTube?”
END

Why do I think it’s not a good idea to graffiti someone else’s Facebook wall with marketing spam about a book?

Because it’s not good manners to just splash your marketing message all over the walls of folks on Facebook before you ask them if you can do so. I deleted the message and the messenger from my Facebook account and so what it really did was alienate me from the author and any book by the author.

If you want to market your book, that’s great. I encourage it! Really! But there comes a point when enough is enough and usurping someone’s Facebook wall to graffiti a message about a book on YouTube is enough. It’s impolite and it’s disrespectful.

My advice is to not do this to your connections on Facebook even if you do have a book. One way to get them to talk about your book is to authentically engage them and go from there.

Just because there is a wall doesn’t mean you should use it for your own marketing spam purposes.

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One of the most interesting reveals of the survey is how journalists are finding experts for stories using LinkedIn. While folks are touting that everyone must have a MySpace and Facebook profile too, I really like LinkedIn and have used it both as a journalist and in my work as a blogger.

With over 1200 media folks taking part in the survey it also revealed that 1/3 are on LinkedIn and 1/3 are on Facebook themselves.

“When asked how they acquire information about a company, journalists cite company Web sites (89%), Google (73.8%), e-mailed press releases (72.7%), and conversation/personalized e-mail from a PR person (70.9%). Nearly half (49.5%) use newswires, while only 13.9% report that they use RSS feeds.

Journalists are also turning to social networking sites and blogs to supplement their news coverage or find sources. Of those surveyed, 25.5% say they have a profile on MySpace, 29% are on Facebook, and 32.3% are on LinkedIn. While only 8.4% say they “always” use blogs for research, more than 36.5% say they use them “sometimes.” In addition, 57.7% report using blogs to measure sentiment, 38.7% for finding subjects, and 29.5% for searching industry experts.”

The survey also reveals that folks are still lacking “pitch” technique because many of the bloggers are receiving pitches that have nothing to do with what they’re blogging about!

Boo on that.

When I was blogging for Allbusiness.com as the Senior Editor for Must Read Business Books and the Professional PR blog, I received tons of pitches that had nothing to do with my blog topics at all.

Please give bloggers a break and make sure you have the respect to read their blog and not just think of it as a way to “push your own messaging.” It’s not about you – it’s about their readership and that readership really trusts and values the blogger!

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Today I got a real press query that had the subject line of “My vacuum cleaner needs a software upgrade”.

Seriously.

I was pretty sure it was spam, but I opened the email and it was from a PR person and the content of the email was about one company’s acquisition of another company in the content management space. (I used to write for Publish.com and this was one of my main topics of coverage so thus the query.)

Vacuum cleaners and content management systems are a bit of a stretch, there are better ways to tell the story that fit within the terminology of the company’s products and the journalists covering the beat.

So here’s the takeaway – don’t write pithy subject lines that have no real relevance to what you’re trying to get news covered about. Espescially, if honestly they have nothing in common with the possible story’s topic focus.

Pitching to people is a really important skill to know if you’re going to keep engaging PR, bloggers and journalists about your product, book or service.

So if you’re a book author and you’re trying to reach out to a potential journalist to review your book, here are five subject lines you never want to use:

Top 5 Subject Lines…Not To Use:

1. Read This Book
2. My book is not unlike Faulkner, Chaucer, Chekov or Drucker
3. THis book is all you’ll ever need to know the real scoop on “”"”"”"
4. My kids need a college fund and here’s the book to get it.
5. This book is groundbreaking and you’ll be left out if you don’t read it

Good Ones to Use:

1. Review Copy Available – Book Title
2. Lloyd Dangle – Liberal Cartoonist Releases New Collection of Cartoons and Still Evades Gitmo
3. Blog Schmog – (title of Bob Bly’s book – had I been his publicist I would have only used those two words all the time in the subject line when trying to garner reviews or comment.)
4. Reviewers Copy – Book Title – Jack Welch called this book, “The greatest book ever written.” (Only if he really did, but you get the example.)
5. Possible book for your Review – Title of Book -

And while we’re at it, and I know I’ve posted this before, but go and read “The Care and Feeding of the Press” by Esther Schindler at Netpress.org.

Interview with Bob Bly here.

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Great mistakes to avoid here!

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Check it out and lunch is not on me.

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