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!
Stop waiting for your PR firm to make news for you. Use your blog and do it yourself. Here are three ways you can use your blog to get the media to pick up the content. (Caution: PR spoilers included in this post!!!)
1. Write news-worthy blog posts that link to major media stories and give your take on the story. Share your expertise in brief bullet-style sentences in regard to a specific media topic or story and then link that to a breaking news story. (I mean really link it, hyperlink the news story in your blog post!)
2. Put Google alerts on the blogs of the publications you most want to be covered in and make sure that at least once a week you’re posting a comment to a breaking story on their blog as well. Post authentic, honest comments that are not self-serving but add to the discussion.
3. Put Google alerts on the top two competitors/thought-leaders in your vertical and start compiling a list of publications and journalists that interview them. These are the same journalists and publications you want to make sure you’re reaching out to via social media and your blog.
BONUS! – I posted these links on my Twitter account but just in case you don’t have them. If you want to get a great free list of the media on Twitter (that takes just a bit of work to compile), you can go to the site Mediaite.com and hit their PowerGrid link and get the Twitter addresses of each person they list. (Oy vey, does it take some time? Yes! But will it save you some PR retainer fees and move you one step closer to the media? Yes!)
The new media person I’m following on Twitter is Willie Geist – http://twitter.com/williegeist1 , because I love Morning Joe and he and Mika both inspire me. Joe does too!
Now go and find the media masses!
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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- Image by luc legay via Flickr
Here are some new ways you can empower your profile, enlarge your community and GET MORE SOCIAL!
1. At every single book signing you do make sure you not only sign your book, but what about putting your @TWITTERID right underneath your signature?
2. Revive and revamp your signature line in your email – make sure you include your TWITTERID, YOUR LINKEDIN profile, your FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and a link to your BLOG. Also make sure that you put your TWITTERID and your LINKEDIN ID on your business cards.
3. Encourage people to tweet during your booksignings. Create a hashtag that is your book title, or topic and give it out at the start of the booksigning.
4. Still think you can’t find media on Twitter? WRONG! Check out this great link for all the public media.
5. Always mention your TWITTERID in media interviews – say you would love for people to connect to you via Twitter.
6. Subscribe to the enewsletters from media, print and online magazines you want to be featured in. Make sure when you get the enewsletter you take time to then go to the site and immediately comment on a story. By doing this authentically you are not only providing more insight, but providing the reporter or freelance journalist another possible expert for a future story. Journalists don’t always want to quote the same sources for every story. Respect their work and they will in turn count on you to add new ideas in future stories.
7. What? You don’t have time to source actionable data on Muckrack.com? That’s crazy! You aren’t seriously thinking your PR person is doing this all day every day to find new journos on twitter? Peeshaw. Start doing it yourself.
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Use the below list to determine if you just might be a social media junkie. Answer Yes or No. Score 1 for Yes. 0 for No’s (Hint: If you answer Yes to one question you might be a junkie and that is not exactly a good thing.:>)
For someone (me) who is always trying to balance the online with the offline, I feel your social media junkie pain.
You Just Might Be A Social Media Junkie if…
1. You keep dropping a note in your collection plate at church instead of a donation. The note says, “Dear Reverend Hill – why have you not yet started a Facebook fan page for Jesus?”
2. Your wife wants you to be in therapy with her, but you’ve told her you will only do it if you can find a therapist who can dispel his/her wisdom in 140 characters or less. (length of a Twitter)
3. You’ve told your immediate and extended family that the best place for them to find out what you’re up to is on Tweetdeck.
4. Instead of an emergency phone number on your children’s school information – you’ve posted your TwitterID account and told them that is the best way for them to reach you. (The school secretary in particular does not seem hip to the tweeting.)
5. You volunteered for the Parent Teacher Organization group but only on a virtual level and have promised you will send tweets during the school carnival when the principal is dunked.
6. Your Mom closed her Facebook account, because she was getting too many Fan messages from you asking her to join your Fan page.
7. Your husband has a Google alert set up on your name and occasionally searches Google images so he can see what you looked like before you became part of your office chair.
8. Your neighborhood bunko group has unfriended you on Facebook because they don’t much cotten to you sending status updates like, “I just kicked everyone’s butt in bunko. I’m the bunko queen and these women can’t roll a triple six if it killed them.”
9. You tell people you and Barack Obama are very close virtually because you joined his Facebook Fan page.
10. You found your Honors English teacher (Mrs. Whitley) on Facebook and you’re sending her blog posts to redline for you (because after all once a teacher, always a teacher.)
11. Your husband has banned twittering, facebooking, linkedin-ing from the bedroom.
12. Your pug starts a very high pitched noise when he sees you reach for your iPhone.
First day’s recap of Erma Bombeck Conference, and what a day it was! Tomorrow I’ll be presenting my “Overwebbed: Help I’m Having A Social Media Breakdown and I Can’t Tweet Up” and I’m very humbled to be here.
Wonderfully funny and incredibly talented people abound and the dinner this evening could not have been more hilarious. If you’ve not read anything by Laretta LaRoche, please change that and get her books.
She was the keynote speaker this evening and really delivered! Also Tim Bete (past director of Erma Conference) spoke and he was truly funny as well.
The room tonight was packed full and what a great honor to be among so many talented people.
I’m nervous about presenting tomorrow but I’m wearing my tweet-proof vest so all should be well, plus I’ve got to say the spirit here feels incredibly kind and generous. I’m going to try very hard to have the audience at my first “Hello, Ya’ll.”
I also got to hang out with Sam Horn, who I really count as one of my mentors and just think it is incredible gift to know. You should also check out Sam’s books!
7 Ways to Kiss Your Publicist Goodbye
1. Make your site a mini-magazine issue of thought-leadership. Look at your site as though it’s a real publication for both your peers and the media to source for news. Build an editorial calendar for all your online tools including Twitter, Linkedin.com (status updates), Facebook and make sure you’re congruent in your content and your expertise.
2. Make sure you’re linking outside your blog to other news sources and stories by journalists. As a recovering technology journalist (1996-2004) I can tell you that all journalists love to have their names or links to stories, surface in Google alerts and they really love to show those to their editor as well. You’re also giving them new sources of experts to look at when you write about stories they’ve covered and what your take is on the story.
3. Build a set of Google alerts on topics you’re most interested in and let those Google alerts give you ideas for new pieces of content on your blog, your Twitter and your Facebook pages. Don’t just stop at posting those story links, go and comment on the stories at the sites they’re on and that will help you with building link-love to your site.
4. Don’t purposely be contrarian to the news. Be the person who lends a new angle or insight to a story.
5. Make sure you’re reading the online and offline magazines in your vertical and studying how their stories are created, who they source and where you can contribute bylines.
6. Have a website that encompasses a Web 2.0 press ready page. This includes your TwitterID, Facebook, Linkedin.com, YouTube channel and one pager about your expertise.
7. Put Google alerts on journalists’ names so you can build a clip file of what they’re covering and who they write for. More and more the online media is made up of freelance writers so don’t leave them out of the mix.
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1. Journalists are curious and under very tight deadlines. You can write all the content you want on your blog, Twitter account, Facebook but if you don’t work at making it interesting, enticing and engaging they won’t source it.
2. Who the top reviewers Amazon are for your genre. Get them yourself by doing a search on Amazon or actually just hit this link where you’ll find the list.
3. What journalists to follow on Twitter. You can find them on your own by hitting sites like Muckrack.com and using Google search to search Twitter IDs.
4. How to engage your fans on Facebook – the secret is post often, post thoughtful content, post responses to comments and just when you think you’ve done enough – post even more.
5. What the names of producers are at major television shows. Ok, here’s the thing, the PR firm won’t tell you even if you do pay them, so one thing you can do is join a site like MediaBistro.com and watch the comings and goings in news staff and compile your list from there. You can also use google search and search on terms like, “Producer Anderson Cooper show” or “NPR Morning Edition producer.”
6. Who the top bloggers or online book reviewers are in your book’s genre. For this one use Google, Technorati and do searches like “book blog reviews” or “cookbook reviews” or “business book review”. You can also apply this to Twitter searches as well.
7. That you matter. Too often we forget that our ideas, our expertise can contribute something greater to the discussion and sometimes our PR firm can forget that as well. Make your ideas actionable, news-peg worthy, future focused and you will find media that is interested in it.
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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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- Is your social media social or anti-social? (socialmediatoday.com)
- Social Media Marketing for Dummies (socialmediatoday.com)
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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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OPA think “lobster, beer, big belly”- meet author, Dave Simons, Boston Sox fan – a real man’s “eat, pray, love.” Perfect for diet show.
O: her husband left her, her dog ran away, she sold all her pageant trophies to a gold exchange and now she’s going to climb Mt. Everest.
Oprah – My mom just read my book, “My Mom is Happy, and That’s all that Matters,” and said you would LOVE it for your show.
I paid $435 for six webinar series on Oprah. They promised you would have me on your show if I pitched you just once. When is show date?
I know Gayle is reading this for you. Gayle, if Oprah won’t have me on her show, what about your radio show instead? I like your hair.
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