Marketing The Writer

This week all the different ways to market seem to be discussed everywhere. Authors are always stuck when it comes to marketing. Marketing is a mindset and suits an extroverted personality. A lot of authors are introverted so marketing books can be a real trial let alone marketing themselves.

Kris Rusch responded to a question about author newsletters this week with a thoughtful blog about why she feels uncomfortable about them. You might feel the same way.

Anne R Allen also was thinking about author marketing mindsets and wondering if a blog was a better way than a newsletter.

Donna Galenti explores some of the rookie mistakes that authors make when they first try to market themselves. Tip. Start before the book launch.

Writers know how to write but do they know how to write marketing copy? Joanna Penn has a great interview with Joanna Wiebe on tips and tricks to help you write marketing copy for your books.

Sonja Yoerg wrote a guest post for Writer Unboxed unpicking the love-hate relationship many authors have with Goodreads. Is Goodreads your friend?

Buffer had an interesting article on Google Plus for marketing. People often forget that this website is a direct link into a Google search engine.

Chris Lavergne’s publishing business is directly to young mobile professionals. He explores the way his business has been growing in a great article on Techcrunch. Short books are the way to go... and Print is for luxury books with an appropriate mark up. This seems to be flying in the face of publishing accepted practice so how come his business is expanding in leaps and bounds? Porter explores what Chris is doing and offers his perspective on it.

Alison Morton recently wrote on the Alli blog about what constitutes a marketing success. Are writers guilty of only seeing traditional publishing bestseller numbers without understanding what a break even point might be. Maybe it’s not too hard to get a bestseller after all.

In The Craft Section,

Common writer entry level mistakes- Larry Brooks- Bookmark

Writing habits we can’t fix- Jami Gold- Bookmark

How to right size your book- Ruth Harris on Anne R Allen's excellent blog.

5 qualities of a brilliant story- Roz Morris

Writing voice lessons- Paula Munier- Bookmark

The biggest reason for storytelling- K M Weiland

How to write when the going gets tough- Litreactor

April – a month of story ideas- Scott Myers- Bookmark

Improve Book Descriptions- Jane Friedman-LBF17- Bookmark

25 habits that will make you a writer.- Bookmark

How to avoid the telling trap- Marcy Kennedy

In The Marketing Section,

Sorting out your media book pitch- The Book Designer- Bookmark

How to promote a series- Bookmark

10 ways to increase your book sales- Karen Dimmick.

Seth Godin’s 5 book marketing tips

3 easy steps to double your book discoverability

17 ways to use ibook author right now- Bradley Metrock

Get over your marketing resistance- Author U-Bookmark

Social Media content categories

Joanna Penn’s keynote at LBF17 on making money with your books- Bookmark

To Finish,

Are we guilty of snobbery when it comes to Book Marketing? Is our mindset a build it and they will come attitude? Does it work? And what about the writers who think that other genre writers are somehow a lesser breed? Mandy Hager, one of New Zealand’s best writers for Young Adults puts her finger right on a problem that many writers pretend they don’t have. Are all writers equal? Is it a fault of marketing?

Maureen

@craicer

My monthly newsletter is out. If you want to get a collection of the best of my bookmarked links plus other goodies make sure you subscribe.Thanks to all those who have fed my caffeine habit by hitting the Kofi button.
 

Pic: Flickr Creative Commons/ Financial Times/ Sotheby Auctioneer.

Content Collaboration

I’ve been thinking about content lately. 

Content is the new word for story. Container is the new word for form that the story comes in. It could be digital or print or images or audio or interactive game… 

A creative project I’m involved in is creating a found artifact which takes the form of a journal. This is to be part of a larger art project looking at different ways artists and writers collaborate together. I seem to be coming across content collaboration everywhere.

Porter Anderson reports on an opening keynote speaker at the recent Publishers Forum held in Berlin. Author Kathrin Passig gently told the publishers that they were using outmoded technology when they worked with authors. Had they ever heard of collaboration?

Joe Wikert has been thinking about content too. Specifically how he thinks publishers could improve the e-book sample and be better at converting samplers into buyers by working with authors.

Joanna Campbell Slan talks about serialising a novel on her website and what she has learned. Is this controlling your content or letting it go? I know of other authors who do this in other canny ways.  (If you can’t wait for the next installment you can go buy the whole book...)

The latest Author Earnings snapshot is out. You may have heard that e-book sales are declining. Author Earnings gurus Hugh and Data Guy have discovered that this is happening only to Trad publishers who raised their prices after negotiating new deals with Amazon. Check out the Author Earnings website for other interesting news from the 6th snapshot.

Joel Friedlander has an interesting guest post up. Short is the new black- your shrinking reader attention span. This is spinning your content in another way.

Mandy Hager recently had to give a lecture on Dystopian Fiction so she posted it on her blog. What does an author have to think about when constructing a dystopian world.

With the suspension of NZ Book Month... A group of writers have taken to Twitter to promote NZ Books. #NZBookMonthMay A lot of us are posting a NZ book a day so check in for your next great read.

Tinderbox 2015 has a website. We are getting ready to post delicious tidbits about the conference.

In the Craft Section,

Is your prologue destroying your subtext? K M Weiland

7 secrets of highly persistent writers

2 great posts from the Emotion Thesaurus team. Moving Beyond 

the Face to Show Emotion and Key elements to help you evolve as 

a writer.

Screenwriting tricks has a story elements checklist.

Tips for novelising true events.

Why you should put your book on Wattpad (this is a quick intro to Wattpad.)

In the Marketing Section,

Making a living from your writing – Joanna Penn (Bookmark)

7 email marketing secrets for Fiction Authors

Spine out - Design tips for your Book Spine.

Good Font choices for books (Bookmark)

Preparing your Author Business for Failure.

Kameron Hurley (popular sci fi author) has posted an in depth article on why Patreon is better than Kickstarter for writers. If you are interested in crowd funding this is a must read!

Helen Sedwick has crunched the numbers on the cost of Author copies 

Website of the Week

Last week I linked to Dave Gaughran talking about Author Solutions. Indie Publishing Magazine has a link to the class action depositions (testimony from the other side) and what I read had my eyebrows achieving liftoff. I am honestly amazed that Random Penguin would be associated with this outfit.

SFWA, who sponsor Author Beware, have a link to the list of DISREPUTABLE publishers out there.

To Finish,

Brian Pickings always has interesting long form articles. This week they look at Delacroix’s journal notes about the need for writing in solitude. If you had to go away to collaborate on content, how about going to a castle which is a dedicated library and hotel...

maureen

Pic from Flickr/ Creative Commons- Butch Delisay

Accolades

This week I have been contemplating the future of the modern book launch. 

A book launch is a celebration and a promotional opportunity for the author, bookseller and publisher to highlight a creative achievement and to get the printed story into the hands of readers. Pre the book launch the reviewers would have been given advance copies to review, hopefully favourably, to generate interest. People would be awaiting the party...book launches are great affairs where the writing community gets out in support. A good book launch can propel a book onto the best seller list which then gets it noticed more....

I have attended many fabulous Book Launches at The Children’s Bookshop in Kilbirnie where John and Ruth McIntyre have been proud Godparents (and sometimes midwives) of some very special books... They were wonderful Godparents at my own book launch 3 years ago and have been encouraging and commiserating with me as my midgrade novel Craic repeatedly gets so close to the acceptance bar. Today it was announced that they have been awarded the Betty Gilderdale award for Services To New Zealand Children’s Literature and they are worthy recipients! As the current Convenor of the Wellington Children’s Book Association I am proud to announce our co hosting of the Award ceremony for them at Turnbull House on the 21st of November. (it’s nice that I can now blab this secret as well.)

With Amazon commenting last week that they were selling 2 eBooks for every 1 Print Book...the future of the book launch, the count down to the day you hold the book in your hands, has changed.

An eBook launch is a different beast altogether. You can still have the party but the signing table will be empty...the cash register won’t be ringing in the background.

Melinda Szymanik was telling me that the launch of her eBook, The Half Life Of Ryan Davis, was an email from her publisher with an Amazon gift certificate for the book attached and a celebratory glass of wine with the publisher. There will be a party when the print book comes out later in the year tho!

Three years ago the printed book would have been launched with a splash then later in the year, unheralded, the audio book and the eBook. Now the eBook comes first with the book trailer then the audio book and, if you want, you can have a print book...either P.O.D. or traditionally.

Reviewers slot in all along this process so the three months or so of new book publicity can be dragged out to a year if you are a canny marketer....A quick look at a new publisher on the New Zealand block, Pear Jam Books, shows that they understand this very well. (Great acronym use of the word PEAR! )

So here are some more great writers who are launching eBooks this week and how they are doing it.

Jane Friedman has a great guest blog from Roz Morris on her experiment of the serialisation of her novel on Kindle. Roz talks about what works and what didn’t. This model of publicity made Dickens famous...

Victoria Mixons second book on The Art and Craft Of Story is getting great reviews around the blogosphere. You can check out free samples of the practitioner’s manual here on a bookbuzzr widget or over on Storyfix where she has a chapter up on science and story in a great guest post.

Victoria also has a fantastic interview with Joanna Penn about her very successful ePublishing career and why she chose to publish this way.

The Huffington Post has spotlighted Self Publishing this week with an interesting guest post from Felicia Ricci entitled How to self publish (and seem like you’re not.) If you are looking for a step by step guide check this out!

Greg Pincus has highlighted an interesting post by a successful picture book writer who is trying to get an intriguing historical non fiction story picked up by a publisher. Think about trying this idea out!

In marketing the eBook you need to be just as careful in your planning as you were in formatting it. Tony Eldridge has a revisited a link to an article about how not to use Print On Demand (worth rereading for the tips on how to do it better.)

Tony also has a popular resource of the week series. Check out YouTube creators for help with that book trailer and Paypal tips for getting the money flowing into your account from your website.

Of course you will have a website to promote your book, eBook or trad...Bookmarketingmaven has a punchy post that reminds writers of what should be on their website...(hint; it begins with B)

Publisher’s Weekly has put the spotlight on Children’s publishing this week with an indepth article on YA publishing and where it is at. There are great quotes from agents and editors in here.

I received my copy of the 2012 Children’s Writers and Illustrators Market book this week and this article backed up all the agent interviews in the book.

Chuck Sambuchino, who edited this years CWIM, has a great interview on his blog where an agent pulls apart a successful query letter and shows why the novel got picked up which subsequently launched a successful career.

Another great interview to catch my eye was Johanna Knox’s interview with Mandy Hager on Tim Jones’ blog. Mandy is an accomplished writer and here she talks about how her Blood of the Lamb trilogy has unsettled Americans and how her scriptwriting skills came in useful...

Over in the Craft section,

Janice Hardy talks about script writing a scene that is not working to find out how to fix it.

Agent Mary Kole has some timely advice on how not to use Social Media when looking for agents and editors.

Over on Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have links to

Konraths E predictions in 2009...This was Joe talking about what he thought would happen in the future...check out the comments about where we might be heading to now!

Writer Beware – Bad Publishing Clause series...ouch!!!

Make Books Easily for the iPad

To finish,

This week Mike Shatzkin examined the Amazon/ Apple, clash of the behemoths, with the launch of the Kindle Fire. Is it about the device or the content....

As I have been writing this blogpost, news has come in of the passing of Steve Jobs, one month after he stepped down as Apple’s CEO. He was a visionary and an extraordinary man. He could polarize a room and inspire it the same time. His commencement speech for Stanford University, just after he was diagnosed with the cancer that killed him today, is one of the most viewed speeches on YouTube and a superb testament to the power of one man who changed the world.

maureen

P.S. From time to time I put up a video as a Thank You for someone who has sent quite a few Readers over to Craicer. Melinda the following video is for you... 

What To Put In The Bag...

This afternoon I pack my bags and head on up to Auckland for the Spinning Tales gathering, The second National Conference for New Zealand Children’s Writers and Illustrators.

One of the conference organisers, Melinda Syzmanik, has posted a lovely post which fits my thoughts exactly about why you should try to attend conferences.

I have been beavering away (interesting word to use as NZ doesn’t have beavers) on tightening a manuscript using today as the deadline.
 Laura Pauling has given me great advice in her article on making a revision list from your weakness and Publetariat has a fabulous article with 4 links to help you overcome publishing despair.

Fictiongroupie has a good article on motto’s for yourself and your character. I probably need one for conference as well...Relax could be a good one!

As I sat down to begin this blog post into my inbox popped an email from Mandy Hager...letting all her writer friends know of what not to do when your book is reviewed online.

The Book Reviewer, Big Al, gave a fairly balanced review to a book called The Greek Seaman and then the Author disputed the review.... The comments are a lesson to us all. (warning don’t drink coffee when reading....) It could be a reverse marketing ploy...

What that author should have done before responding so badly was read this...Avoid the Poison Apple. This is a great article on keeping your perspective.

Over on Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have links to articles on

The 50 Books Kids must read? (The Independent left out a whole heap)

The Top 5 Children’s Books For Adults (winnie the pooh...)

Writing Effective Dialogue

50 Iconic Writers Who were Rejected...there is hope....

Protect Your Blog From Being Hacked

The Top Selling Kids Books Of 2010 (with Stats on ebooks sales as well...Rick is on a roll...)

To finish 
 The wonderful words of Tahereh Mafi. 9 Things Everyone Needs To Know About Writers...

Maureen...(Catch you at the conference...)

RIP Diana Wynne Jones....Writer, World Builder and Muse....You are sadly missed!

pic....my conference essentials....coffee and chocolate all wrapped up in one easily digested form.

Changing The Variables

March is New Zealand Book Month. Already I have attended a National Address, hosted a dinner, attended a book launch and organised an award party. Somehow I have managed to be out nearly every night since March began.

The National Address, The Janet Frame Memorial Lecture, was given by Joy Cowley. Joy is one our most beloved writers for children and as befits one of our own being chosen to give this prestigious address, the children’s writers were out in force. There was a huge crowd! Afterwards I hosted a dinner for members of the Wellington Children’s Book Association. It was a great night.

I missed one of our member’s book launches but managed to attend another. Mandy Hager has finished her Blood of the Lamb trilogy with Resurrection.  This whole series has been a tour de force.

Our Patron, Jack Lasenby, turned 80 this week and as he has been shortlisted for the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards (his 30th novel for children) we thought it might be a good idea to get all the other Wellington area finalists together. It was a bit of a mission but we managed to surprise them all with flowers and Jack with a large birthday card signed by quite a lot of people...(it helped that he couldn’t make the memorial lecture as I was running around like a mad thing getting signatures and the card would have been hard to hide.)

Today I was reflecting on Bob Mayer’s article on the three author variables and thinking about the quality of the writing here in New Zealand. Both Joy Cowley and Jack Lasenby are among the very best writers for Children we have produced. Joy is known internationally with her readers and picture books and the famous Mrs WishyWashy. Jack is not. He has been a huge influence on generations of children through his work as a School Journal editor and the fact that he has personally known and encouraged our best literary writers over the last 50 years to write some stories for children.

Bob talks about the mix of Platform, Product and Promotion. We have always had strong product but New Zealand is small and our publishers are small and the print runs are small and so the head offices of the big publishing companies pretty much ignore books printed here. With internet and the new global market place, New Zealand children’s books might just be ready to be discovered. All we need is a strong platform and great promotion.

Somebody who has been swinging all the variables of Platform, Product and Promotion is Seth Godin. David Meerman Scott interviewed him on his new project, Poke The Box.

Anne Mini has taken a look at how clichés can destroy your chance of being picked up with a series of funny examples of overridden cliché queries that are in need of editing or just search and destroy.

John Rember has written a guest post for Jane Friedman on the relationship between author, agent and publisher and the need to examine this carefully in the fast changing world of publishing.

March is also Small Press Month...and Elisabeth Spann Craig has taken a look at small press vs large press. Which is better?

Over on Craicerplus (My Amplify Page) I have links to articles on

9 Questions Editors Ask When Reading Your Submission

Authors Engage Or Die

Justine Musk On The Best Way To Blog

Harpers ebook Lending Policy Trashed.

To finish,

Mashable is looking at new digital trends...the way the news is being gathered is changing also how brands are becoming social media and how aggregation is changing bestselling statistics. This is a good article to read if you want to know how these trends will change the variables in publishing through the rest of this year. As New Zealand is about six months behind we have a little bit of lead in time...use it wisely.

The New Zealand Book Council’s video shows some 3D storytelling which is our associations next event in New Zealand Book Month. 


enjoy,
maureen

Number 100

It’s that time of the year again when the great and the good gather together to witness the awarding of the ultimate prizes in Children’s Literature in New Zealand. Last night they gathered in Auckland for the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards 2010.

The annoying thing about the awards is that they can’t give great cash prizes to all the finalists...because they were all so good.

Every year Children’s Choice seems to up its profile and that is as it should be because we write for the children.

This year the Children’s Choice overall  winner was Wonky Donkey  By Craig Smith Illustrated by Katz Cowley

The winner of Children’s Choice Young Adult was Brainjack By Brian Falkner

The winner of Children’s Choice Junior Fiction was Friends By Joy Cowley Illustrated by Gavin Bishop

The winner of Children’s Choice Non Fiction  was Dear Alison edited by Simon Pollard.

As an interesting side note none of these books took out the top prize in their respective category.

Melinda has a great run down of the winners so you can jump over to her blog to satisfy your curiosity.

Thanks to the power of text and friends I was kept up to date as the awards were announced in Auckland and due to the power of email and friends the results were soon posted up on The Wellington Children’s Book Association website...almost in real time!!!

A nice golden glow was provided by Mandy Hager, her book ‘The Crossing’ was launched at Spinning Gold last Year and who won the Young Adult category.

As I have said before we must celebrate the brilliance, not only of the winners, but of the finalists because it was a truly hard task to separate them out.

I have been thinking lately that it is about time New Zealand woke up to the fact that we have world class GENRE writers  in this country  who quietly get on and do the business and never get acknowledged by the literati or CNZ....This would be a great profile push for New Zealand Book Month. 

Who are our unsung heroes in GENRE FICTION in this country? 

A good pointer to the answer can be found in the nominations for The Julius Vogel Awards for New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Nalini Singh has two novels and a novella entered...She is a New York Times Bestselling Author and Yes she is one of our top Romance authors. If you look down the Julius Vogel list you will see familiar names from the New Zealand Post Children’s Book finalists this year.

OK rant over (...well muted)

In other news... recently Booktalks was launched. This lovely initiative was sparked and germinated at the Spinning Gold Conference last year. The website, where Schools, Authors and Illustrators can hookup through Skype is up and running. New Zealand yet again is among the leaders in using this technology. This week I came across a great little blog Picturebook Junkies (five PB authors) extolling the virtues of Authors skyping into schools in the US and thought yep we’re doing it... only we are more organised.

Nathan Bransford has a great little poll on his blog at the moment - Which fictional land would you like to live in? No prizes for guessing  the most popular...although quite a few authors were extolling the virtues of their own created fictional worlds...heeheehee....

On Craicerplus (my Amplify page) I have links to articles on

Defending Teen Fiction

The Big Digital Issues in 2011

Humanoid Robot in Space...Go R2 (a nod to my geek side)

The Children’s Lit Conference programme...ax murderers, sexism, Pulman and fairytale fallout (this one has generated a few comments on Facebook)

The pic is The New Zealand Post Children’s Book of The Year 2010 Old Hu Hu. Congratulations Kyle Mewburn and Rachel Driscoll.

I can't think of a better pic to celebrate my 100th Blog Post.

maureen


So which fictional land would you like to live in? If you said Middle Earth we'll make room for you in Central Otago where Kyle lives....