The Hartsock Agency » Books

Your Mother Doesn’t Pitch Here Anymore

Nettie Hartsock — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:55:02 +0000

If you’re still operating on the misguided notion that social media is not here to stay, or even worse, that it is not a viable option for PR pitching, then step away from this chapter and by all means go back to playing with your mint condition Atari Pong Game.

If however, you do understand that social media is vibrant, ever-increasing and valuable then keep reading!

Today’s lesson is about pitching and social media. What follows are some tips for you to employ if you really want to find the best possible places to pitch yourself, your products or your brand online.

1. Don’t pitch on social media platforms where you don’t have a presence. Set up your Facebook Fan page, your blog, your Twitter account and shine up your LinkedIn.com profile as well.

2. Don’t push out generic pitches to anyone and everyone on these accounts.

3. Do your research and don’t mass pitch lists of folks. This is really a no-no on social media platforms.

4. Don’t write your pitches with you in mind, write them with the producer, blogger or journalist in mind.

5. Practice makes perfect. There is something incredibly valuable about learning to pitch a brand or product in less than 140 characters.

6. Don’t pitch a journalist or a blogger more than three times if you’ve not yet had a response from them.

7. If they ask you to stop pitching them – really do.

8. Don’t twitter-stalk journalists or bloggers.

9. If you cannot fit your pitch into 140 characters or less, rework it until you can.

10. Always follow-up with a thank you if a blogger or twitterer shares your news with their readership.

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Book Lovers Abound Online – Use these Resources

Nettie Hartsock — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 19:42:37 +0000

The Web is an incredible tool for authors and PR people to use in finding new book lovers to pitch books too. While one can spend thousands of hours searching for new book blogs and book reviewers – there are also free tools that are available to you and that we encourage all our authors to utilize. It’s very important that authors stay empowered in working collaboratively with their PR firm so that no opportunities are missed.

When it comes to Twitter, if you’re an author and you’re just starting out, one of the ways to find people to follow is to use the Wefollow tool. If you hit this link, you can see the Wefollow books list – http://wefollow.com/twitter/books . These are Twitter book reviewers, publishers, and media people who write about books or work in the book industry. This is a free tool that you can use anytime to find some more book folks to follow.

If you want to find more libraries on the Web a great resource to use is GalleyCat’s listings at this link – http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/best-library-people-on-twitter_b11945 .

The other important thing to remember as an author on Twitter is that you use your tweets to provide strong visibility for your book. Too often authors are letting others tweet on behalf of them or focus too much on sales jargon instead of tweeting about the book and why readers would want to identify with it.

Another tip we give authors during their book signing tours is to make sure they highlight and follow the bookstores that they’re appearing at on their Twitter feed. This is a great reciprocal way to acknowledge and support the independent brick and mortar stores that are supporting authors in incredible ways.

To find bookstores who are twittering – see this link on Wefollow – http://wefollow.com/twitter/bookstore .

If you do a book signing at a brick and mortar store – take a picture and post it out across all your social networks as part of your support of the store as well as your book. And make sure that you tweet out your date and time for signing prior to the event. Thank the bookstore via Twitter as well.

Make sure your PR agency is also keeping up with the latest tools online and offline so that you’ll have the competitive advantage! Ask them if they are open to you sending them blogs that you want them to reach out to. Ask them if they pitch to Twitter book reviewers and online blogs/sites. Ask them how often and how many and see if you can see samples of links and posts they’ve garnered on behalf of their authors.

Above all, use the best of online and offline tools to make sure your book comes out on top!

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Eccentric is Good – “Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead”

Nettie Hartsock — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 01:58:09 +0000

Today I flew out from San Francisco after speaking to the Northern California Book Publicity and Marketing Association luncheon yesterday on ”Online PR and Social Media,” and spent the flight listening to the Dead on my iPhone.

This was shortly after having coffee in Sausilito this morning with my friend Ann Matranga at The Depot. We sat outside and watched the kids play in Lytton Square which Bill Graham helped create and we talked about the Dead.

So it seems synchronistic, speaking of the Dead that David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan today announced, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from The Most Iconic Band in History (Wiley, 2010).

There are so many reasons why this book is cool, but I have to be honest and say I love Chapter 8: Encourage Eccentricity and the whole focus on the fans and marketing.

I love it because it reveals how a company or band or individual can tap into the power of differentiation and eccentricity to make their way in the world. Not only can this bring you success, but it’s the right thing to do!

To quote from that chapter, “The Grateful Dead teaches us that we are all eccentric in some ways. Smart companies understand eccentricities and create a market from them.”

I also like this from the book, ”Deadheads are your neighbors, coworkers and friends.” As a dancing bear tattooed Deadhead I’ll have to confess, I know the deadheads, the deadheads are friends of mine, and I am proud to still be one!

As Bill Walton says in the foreword of the book, “Like other daring visionaries The Grateful Dead rejected conventional wisdom.”

That’s why we are still dancing – and that’s really how you can build a fan base that even after all these years is still trading Dead stories, tapes, t-shirts and mementos of their time drifting with the Dead.

So any marketing lesson that Scott and Halligan share in this book you definitely should tune into.

Go see David’s post all about the book tour at his site.

And check out his new tie-dye pic on the site too. Wonderful.

Meanwhile, me and my dancing bear will be digging the marketing nuggets of this extraordinary and timely book on marketing!

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Kiss Your Publicist Goodbye and Meet My Friend Called the Web

Nettie Hartsock — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:36:34 +0000

Friday is a good day for posting a few sites you should know about and tools you should be using as an author. So enjoy and think kindly of me as the temperature in Austin is heading toward the upper nineties!

1. If you’ve not yet registered to publish your blog on Kindle then you should do so today. Here is a great and easy way to do it on Squidoo. I have to say too that Seth Godin mentioned this in his incredible talk at IBPA this year so YOU really should do it!

2. If I were an online book publicist (which I sometimes am) then I would feel incredibly happy to share the link to the Book Bloggers Convention attendees and tell you that you don’t need an online publicist to build your own book blog pitch list from those blogs.

2A. Don’t copy the whole list and then just spam pitch them. Take time to read their blogs, see if your book is a good fit and contact them one at a time. (Of course one would hope this is what PR flaks would do too, but alas, I’m not sure they are as smart as you!)

3. Gee, I wish all those cool blog posts I have could somehow be converted to newspaper-style format, so I could be my own mini-me publisher. Hmm. How can I do that? Try Feedjournal.

4. If I were an author I would be using Muckrack.com to find what journalists are tweeting in my vertical/topic and I would make a list and follow them on my Twitter account.

5. If I were someone who is always trying to figure out other ways to use Twitter (and I am), I might start following the publications I hope to be featured in and anytime they tweet out a new article link, be one of the first ones to go the publication site and comment on the article. If I do it often enough they might even think about using me as an expert for a future story. If I do it without marketing blather and authentically then at the very least I’ve created a way for folks to find me and perhaps visit my blog.

6. If I wanted to save money on news clipping services and use the Google alerts I set up in an even more powerful way, then I would convert all the places I’m mentioned or featured online by using HTML to PDF converter for free.

7. If I had an intern and wanted to be booked on radio shows, I might have them go through this list and see how many are a good fit for my topic and who the producers for the shows are by visiting the web links to the actual station. (Ok, this means you have to do a little bit of sleuthing but is that so wrong?!)

8. If I were an author hoping to get a book review or a writer wanting a book deal I would follow the folks listed under books here.

Now go and conquer all things Web and may the “book-Force” be with you.

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How Not To Promote Your Book: Drive-By Blog Comments

Nettie Hartsock — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:01:32 +0000

Because I come from an Internet journalist background, I felt compelled to post this comment below that I received on the post I did “I’m not Your Social Media Expert, and That Should Make You Happy” .

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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New BEA Head Sought

Nettie Hartsock — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:11:38 +0000

I love this headline. It just came across in the PW e-newsletter as their subject line and for a moment I had the vision of Lance having lost his actual head!

Turns out Lance got promoted and BookExpoAmerica is on the hunt for a new director. He has in my estimation done a stellar job with BEA. He is the most approachable person and is always up and positive at BEA. I hope they find someone to fill his shoes that has the same enthusiasm and love for books!

TODAY’S NEWS

Fensterman Promoted, Search on For Successor
“Lance Fensterman has been promoted to group v-p of Reed Exhibitions and will devote his time exclusively to running the company’s pop culture business. He will retain oversight of BookExpo America until a replacement is found. A spokesperson said Reed expects to have a successor in place before the 2010 convention set for New York City. Fensterman. who joined Reed in April, 2006, will now manage New York Comic Con, Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo as well as a number of other shows. ”

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5 Ways to Empower Your Book on the Web

Nettie Hartsock — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:58:26 +0000

1. Use Google Blog Search and search on the title for a very successful book in your genre. What the search returns will be blogs that have mentioned, reviewed or featured the book. Make your own pitch list from this as well. In your own email pitch to the blogger, say something like, “I know that you recently reviewed “Freakonomics” and was hoping you might review my book as well. My book is similar to this one in terms of “FILL IN BLANK HERE.”

2. Don’t forget to look for book discussion groups on the Web as well. Don’t just think blogs. Think forums and book groups online. Read about this group that just formed in the UK.

3. Or look at these groups – Booktalk.org and Bookbrowse.com

4. Check out the ALA information to find more book clubs and book groups at libraries.

5. You absolutely must join Shelfari.com and Goodreads.com and for good karma release at least one copy of your book on Bookcrossing.com.

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Sherman Alexie on BigThink.com – ebooks and more

Nettie Hartsock — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:26:53 +0000

Go to Bigthink.com and see Sherman Alexie’s take on ebooks, publishing and more. Really must see if you’re an author or in publishing.

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Book Awards Matter

Nettie Hartsock — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:44:48 +0000

Often when I work with authors, one of the first things I will ask them is how many awards they’ve submitted their book to. It’s always surprising how many people have not done one thing in terms of trying to garner an award or two. What’s most surprising is that this is definitely a no-brainer! For the small amount of investment it takes for an author or a publisher to enter contests like the IPPY, Benjamin Franklin, The Ethan Awards, USABooknews.com or the Axiom Awards, it’s well worth doing so in the long run.

Even if your book garners only a finalist mention, that helps it stand out amongst a crowded field of books that don’t have any finalist mentions or any award wins. In bookstores when I shopped with my kids, I was always drawn to the children’s books with the bright shiny Newberry Award sticker on them. Why? Because I knew they had been vetted by an objective and savvy group of book enthusiasts and voted tops for kids.

The same holds true in terms of the awards I’ve listed above. The awards are serious business, and the people who run the contests make sure they have a stellar panel of folks reviewing and scoring each book as the “best” in its category.

And don’t forget there are many awards available through local community and regional clubs, for instance, the San Diego Book Awards. If you’re feeling that twinge of “poor me! my book isn’t in published form yet, so I can’t enter” — don’t be silly! You can enter for Best Unpublished Novel awards or Best Creative Non-Fiction awards, to get a good list of those you can simply keep abreast of the ones noted by Writer’s Digest and other leading writing magazines.

This is a good list too for creative book awards available – http://www.bookspot.com/awards/ .

I just had two clients garner nods in the USABookNews awards – Melody Chatelle was a finalist for her book, “Journeys of Heartache and Grace,” and Bill Scheft won Best Humor award for his book, “Everything Hurts.”

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You Should Apply for this business book award…

Nettie Hartsock — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:31:00 +0000

Please don’t forget to submit your book in for consideration to the Axiom Business Book Awards. I’m proud to say I’ve had many past clients submit and then win the award and I hope you’ll submit your book as well!

P.S. (Do it yourself so you’ll know it gets done. Don’t wait for your publisher to do it, and if you’re self-published send it in now! Early entry deadline is November 7th.)

Past Client Wins:
2008 Wins:

7. Human Resources/Employee Training

Silver: Growing Great Employees, by Erika Andersen (Portfolio/Penguin Group)

17. Advertising/Marketing/PR/Event Planning

Gold (tie): Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, by Lois Kelly (Amacom)

Winners 2008 Full List

2009 Wins:

22. Business Fable

Silver: Awake at the Wheel: Getting Your Great Ideas Rolling (in an Uphill World), by Mitchell Lewis Ditkoff (Morgan James Publishing)

2009 Full Winner List

*Note: Seth Godin has won an award two years in a row. Let’s all chant, “What’s good enough for Seth to apply to is good enough for us to apply to.”
If that doesn’t inspire you then perhaps chanting this quote from Stuart Smalley will do the trick,”I deserve good things, I am entitled to my share of happiness. I refuse to beat myself up. I am an attractive person. I am fun to be with.” (And my business book is award-winning!)

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eBook.com new updates

Nettie Hartsock — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:16:10 +0000

eBook.com has been launched with a new age interface, interactive web 2.0 functionality and the ability for members to customise their own entry page to suit their reading habits.

eBook.com eBook Club members can choose their favorite authors, publishers and even specific titles and display these on their very own eBook home page which comes bundled with a unique URL (Web site Address). Members can share their unique web address with friends and family through social network sites, blogs, their own web site or just by email.

As a bonus, eBook.com eBook Club members receive 25% discount coupons on eBooks from major publisher such as Wiley, McGraw Hill, Random House, Harper Collins and Hachette. There is no cost associated with becoming an eBook.com eBook Club member.

eBook.com offers readers the freedom to read their favorite eBooks anywhere, any time… but in totally different way than they’ve ever read before. The end user is able to save their eBook onto a laptop, Netbook, PC and Mac and even onto a USB drive and read their eBook at home, at work, on the train or plane and even on their holiday.

Think books without boundaries… A library available to you anywhere, any time…

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Shelfari Amps Up New Features for Community

Nettie Hartsock — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:58:55 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

Very cool Shelfari has amped up new features on its site to make it all that more accessible and community-focused. The new feature is still in beta, but I encourage you to check it out and see what you can add!

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