Miguel Rivera - Beat It Dr. Vossy - Bohemian Rhapsody One day I hope to write as good as these guys play.
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When pitching the news media, one can employ any number of styles and call upon a variety of pitches. What will work best to get you that interview?
Customized pitches work the best. Know what media outlet you’re talking to and know more about the specific producer or editor that you are contacting. What do they tend to like? What’s been done by them lately? Know the news cycle. Is there a big story out there that your book can shed light on? Is there a holiday or relevant anniversary coming up that you can tap into? Are you leading with the fact a problem exists – or that you have a solution? Many people will complain about an issue heavily, but go lightly on their prescription. It should be the other way around. Do you emphasize credentials and tell them who you are and why you’re uniquely qualified to share an advanced perspective on matters of concern? Can you give a proportioned perspective to the media and put into context the magnitude of the issue you want to discuss? Will they understand its significance and relevance? They need to see that what you discuss will not only impact a lot of people, but especially those in the demographics of their viewers, listeners, and readers. What you deliver to the media depends on your method of delivery. Are you seeing them in person? Talking by phone? Mailing a package? Emailing something? If you see them in person, your appearance, body language, voice, and presentation mannerisms influence their views. If you call on the phone, your voice and level of energy will need to sell it. If you mail a package, the book will speak for itself – along with supplemental materials, clever packaging, and attractive trinkets. Email relies on words – and sometimes images – to sell it – but avoid cluttering them with endless clickable and downloadable junk. The media needs to hear certain things early into the pitch or they move on. They want to succinctly know who you are and what you have to offer. Kill the fluff and hype, hold the story telling, and get to the point. They operate under extreme pressures and lack time – always. Use key buzzwords that draw attention. Someone didn’t pass on – they dropped dead from a violent heart attack. Someone didn’t sleep their way to the top – they screwed or screwed over anyone that stood in their way. Someone didn’t lose 150 pounds in three months with a cool diet – they lost half their body mass in just 90 days by utilizing a revolutionary diet that calls for dieters to eat fiber-rich foods. Your book doesn’t tell people how to save for retirement – it shows anyone in any career how to retire by age 60 and be a millionaire. Have examples ready to support your ideas, claims, and predictions. The media not only wants to hear validation for your bluster – it wants to reference them for a story. Create a villain – and be the hero. The media loves drama and controversy. Present them with a good-bad confrontation. Hit a key touch point. I don’t care what your book is about or which media outlet you are pitching. We’re all human. Did you reference sex, money, travel, family, or death? These are driving forces – toss in emotion, curiosity, power, and crime for good measure. Remember, most media has an agenda, whether it be to serve its followers, advertisers, ownership’s business dealings, the politics of the media outlet, or the existence of competition. Find the things that a media outlet cares about and fill the void. Finally, communicate with enthusiasm, passion, energy, vision, and confidence. You are a force and a voice – let the media know it! Posted: 24 Jun 2015 by Brian Feinblum Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at [email protected]. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015 If you put off promotion until the day your book is released, you’ve put yourself at a marketing disadvantage. If you know anything about book promotion, you know this already, just as you understand that much of your book’s marketing will fall on your shoulders, particularly if you are self-publishing or working with a small press with limited marketing resources. But how soon should you begin promotion, and how do you start? Promotion should begin at least six months before your book is released. With that in mind, begin by creating a timeline of tasks to be completed before your book launch. Launch Party. Will you be having a launch party at a bookstore? If so, contact the bookstore’s event manager early to discuss a time and date. It helps if you have already established a relationship with this person, because a bookseller can champion your book and your event. Depending on the time of year, your bookstore may have limited openings for events—that’s why it’s important to make contact far in advance of your launch. Confirming the details of your release date and launch party is critical for other promotion activities, such as sharing information with reviewers, bloggers, and media contacts. Initial communication with these contacts may be needed four to six months in advance of your book’s release date. Reviewers. Reviewers have long to-read lists, so contact them early to increase your chances of being reviewed. Be sure to follow submission guidelines carefully, providing a courteous and professional query that includes all the information the reviewer requests. Some reviewers will only accept a print version of an advance reader copy (ARC); others prefer an electronic version. Find out how much in advance of your release a reviewer needs your ARC, and add this information to your timeline. Bloggers. Will you be doing a cover reveal? Do you plan on doing a blog tour? As with reviewers, start early in contacting bloggers. Similar to booksellers, it helps to network and build relationships. Some book bloggers are also authors, and may be more open to promoting your book if you are willing to post about their books as well. There are also great book tour companies that organize a blog tour for a fee. Services may include hosting giveaways or conducting a radio interview with you. This can be a tremendous help to an author with few contacts or little time to organize a tour. Research companies to compare services and rates, and connect with your chosen tour coordinator three to four months before launch. Media. Who do you know in the media? Make a list of your contacts and the publications you wish to target with a query. Pay attention to submission guidelines and timelines, as some publications require materials four to six months in advance. Others may not need as much notice to include your launch party in an events calendar. Depending on the publication, it can be helpful to include a press release with information about you, your book, and your event. It is important to tailor press releases to the publication’s interests. Are you submitting to a local paper? Mention that you are a local author. Does your book highlight current events or a topic of interest to that publication? Make that the focus of your press release. Book Trailer. Will you be creating a book trailer? Start work on this three to four months in advance of your release, especially if you are designing your own trailer. It is always helpful to build in additional time to complete this project and promote it via social media. If you work with a book trailer company, consider how much time they will require. Other promotion materials. Will you be creating materials to be shared before your launch or at events? If you will be mailing out postcards, these need to be designed and mailed one to two months before your launch. Think about book-related items for events and giveaways, and make a note on your timeline about when you will need to order them. All of these tasks can be time-consuming, but having a written plan helps. A timeline allows you to keep track of your progress as you countdown to launch, and hopefully, prevents you from forgetting a task or becoming overwhelmed. Plus, there is an additional benefit if you are working with a publisher: a timeline demonstrates your commitment to the promotion and success of your book!
Farewell, Sir Christopher Lee
To say that Christopher Lee was a legend would be an understatement… he was an icon. He will be remembered as one of the greatest actor’s to have lived. Not only was he a brilliant actor, he was a magnificent human being. He was regarded highly by his peers and listening to his extraordinary stories were one of the many perks of working with him. To hear of his passing is devastating beyond words. To me, he was invincible and immortal, so to come to the realization that he’s gone is truly heartbreaking. All we can do is keep his family and friends in our thoughts and prayers and take comfort in knowing that his legacy will forever continue through his iconic work. Today, I want to remember this great man whose work meant so much to all of us. Christopher, it’s our turn to tell your story. Be at peace, Wizard. This is a repost of Sandra Beckwith's post.
While attending uPublishU at Book Expo America as a speaker at the end of May, I sat in on several excellent panel presentations. One that I found particularly helpful shared the results of testing that BookBub has done on the text used to describe books offered for sale in its daily newsletters. The company did A/B testing of different text elements. A/B testing basically means that they sent newsletters with "copy A" to one part of their list and newsletters with "copy B" to another part of the list, and then compared sales results for each version. Each A/B mailing tested a different variable. The results are fascinating - and they will help you as you write the text for your Amazon sales page, your website, your book announcement press release, your e-mail announcement, and other promotional materials. Here are the lessons from BookBub's research: Quote a person, not a publication. When adding a blurb to your description ("A must for your beach read bag!"), quote an author, not a publication. Tests showed that descriptions with an endorsement from an individual sold more books than descriptions with blurbs from the press, such as Publishers Weekly. Help your target audience see themselves in your description. "If you love thrillers, don't miss this action-packed read!" sold more books than "An action-packed read!" In other words, tell sweet romance readers, history lovers, etc., that your book is for them. Don't force them to figure it out for themselves. For historical fiction, add a time period. Again, you're helping your target audience by saying, "This is for you." Tell people you have good reviews. Citing the number of Goodreads reviews sold more books than not referencing them at all. I have to admit that this trick does work with me. I buy through BookBub regularly and when I see that there were 500 five-star reviews on Amazon, I pay attention. When you've got reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, reference the higher number. In the example presented, the description that referred to more than 1,000 give-star reviews on Goodreads sold more books than the description that referenced more than 150 five-star reviews on Amazon. It's the number of good reviews then, not the site of the reviews, that matters. Include awards. If your book won an award, mention it. You'll sell more books. Here's what didn't matter:
About SandraSandra Beckwith is a former publicist who has won several national and regional publicity awards and teaches authors how to generate long-term media buzz for their books. She is the author ofthree books on publicity, conducts publicity workshops, and writes frequently on small business marketing and management topics. Please visit her book publicity site and publicity blog to learn more. Build Book Buzz is a free e-newsletter published twice monthly by Beckwith Communications. Please forward this newsletter to anyone. To subscribe, visit www.buildbookbuzz.com. We do not share our mailing list with any individual or organization for any reason. Need a writer's conference speaker or workshop presenter? Sandra's workshops at the American Society of Journalists and Authors annual conference, the University of Wisconsin Writers Institute, and at other industry conferences share priceless how-to information you won't get elsewhere. Contact her at [email protected] for more information. Build Book Buzz www.buildbookbuzz.com Sandra Beckwith, Editor & Publisher Phone: 585-377-2768 Email: [email protected] Banner image courtesy of bookbloggersintl.blogspot.com Posted: 08 Jun 2015 08:00 PM PDT
While attending Book Expo America’s blogging conference, Brian Feinblum realized a few things that we should all be aware of it. First, few if any secrets will be revealed in terms of meaningful strategies, lists, resources, or ways to really breakthrough, either as a blogger or as an author or publicist to influence a blogger. Second, the bloggers, even the popular ones, have their own concerns, fears, obligations, and limitations. They want to maintain their status and grow as well. They want to monetize their content, rise to another level of influence, and figure out what else they should or could do to grow as a writer. Third, by gathering hundreds of likeminded people we feel a room of energy and good will. Writers – whether authors, bloggers, or news media - share a common skill and brain. It’s great when we can listen to each other and recognize ourselves. Fourth, the best part of these conferences are the networking opportunities. It’s so easy to connect with others and these interactions will only serve to expand our careers. The panels address, not surprisingly, typical issues that have confronted bloggers for years, including: · How often should you blog? Some do once a day, once a week or once a month. One panelist said you should blog as often as you feel compelled to do so, especially when you have something to say. · How long should your blog post be? Some subscribe to the micro blogging approach. Others say 250-1200 words is the norm. One panelist said she experiments with 3,000-5,000-word posts. · How do you grow your readership? Vague answers circulated about using social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, and Pinterst. You grow readers by posting quality content frequently and then taking time to push it to influencers who will share it with others. Or so we hope! · What’s the five to ten-year future of blogs? The normally insightful, verbose panel really offered no clues as to what will be, for admittedly, no one has a clue as to where things are going. We know things change – and at a fast rate when it comes to technology. Anticipate change will happen. Some suggested building email contact lists in case your followers suddenly disappear because FB shuts down a page. What obligations do book bloggers have to publishers? None, because they don’t work for them. Bloggers are more like the news media but not quite. Most aren’t trained and educated on the ethics, techniques, or perspectives the media embraces. Should bloggers post on every book they request? No, but if they keep asking for books and never do anything, the publisher could feel properly motivated to cut that blogger off. What trends are happening? Is there a new hot site or a particular blog we all should follow? Nothing earth shattering came from the morning panels that I sat in on, but each person can take in one idea that resonates with them and feel they came away with a worthwhile tip or resource. Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at [email protected]. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015 One of the most common complaints self-published authors make when it comes to marketing is that they don’t have enough time. Authors with this perpetual excuse often use their restricted minutes to pop in on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. In most cases, they’ll find that the limited time they’ve spent has resulted in a limited return. The self-publishing stalwarts who succeed in marketing are extremely selective with the tools and strategies they use. Certain marketing methods aren’t worth the effort if you can’t make the necessary time investment. An author who has two hours a day TO MASTER TWITTER will likely trump someone who has two minutes. Marketing with a limited amount of time requires that you cut out anything you can’t do well. Here are some strategies you can effectively employ with limited amounts of time: 1. 10 Minutes a Day Real-time marketing like Facebook and Twitter shouldn’t be your focus with only 10 minutes available per day. You’ll get a better bang for your clock by setting up a COMPREHENSIVE EMAIL AUTO RESPONDER SEQUENCE. No matter how you use this strategy, whether you’re linking to old posts, asking questions for better participation, or providing bonus content, you’ll be able to manage an effective email campaign during your 50 weekly minutes. It’s important to note that it’ll take you at least a month to set up a long-running auto responder sequence using your 10 minutes. Once it’s up, however, the upkeep and responses should take a minimal amount of time. Use any spare minutes to work on emails for your book launches or any planned promotions. 2. 20 Minutes a Day Twice as much time will let you finish your auto responder sequence twice as fast, and you’ll eventually end up with another 10-15 minutes to spare each day after it’s complete. You could start dabbling in social media using that surplus, but your time is still better spent on email. Use the remainder of your marketing efforts to research better lead conversion. Lead conversion is all about improving your email signup landing page, YOUR POP-UP OR LIGHTBOX, and your special gift for signing up. Determine what other authors have done to become successful in this area and experiment with these tactics on your own. You may need to spend some of your 100 weekly minutes on creating a more compelling bonus for subscribers or implementing a new website plugin. Optimizing landing pages may not seem as flashy as trying to go viral on social media, but it’s a much better use of your time and energy. 3. 30 Minutes a Day After you’ve incorporated the above strategies into your daily marketing efforts, you’ll have a strong base with which to grow your author platform. The next step is to spend time sending traffic to your optimized landing page. Many authors have had success bringing hungry readers to their email signup pages using links to their COMPELLING OFFER IN THEIR PERMAFREE BOOKS or by appearing on relevant podcast interviews. To accomplish the same, you’ll need to pitch your free books to email marketing services like BookBub and your credentials to podcasts. Most of your time on the book advertiser side of things will need to go toward getting enough reviews and making sure your cover and blurb are top-notch. Proper podcast pitching means listening to shows to see if they’d be a good fit and figuring out a good enough reason for the hosts to let you on their program. Listen to the shows in double time on the iTunes podcast app to get through your listening sessions twice as fast. 4. 40 Minutes a Day Sorry to disappoint you, but social media largely remains off the docket in favor of more list-building strategies when you have 40 minutes per day. You need to keep return on investment in mind when you have limited time and financial budgets. With the other strategies implemented, you’ll want to work on building your email list to new heights through giveaways and Facebook ads. The best leads are almost always the ones who find you organically, but there are only so many people you can find without paying to play. Putting up prizes related to your genre, like signed copies of books by your more successful peers, is the first step. Learning how to set up giveaways on Rafflecopter and KingSumo and CONNECT THEM WITH YOUR EMAIL LIST is the second. Promoting those contests on sites like GiveawayPromote is the third, and all three steps take time and money. Targeted Facebook ads likewise require extra time and money, but they get you stronger leads for your email list than giveaways. You’ll still need to prune your new followers to keep only the most active around, but you shouldn’t have to do it nearly as often. Without building your own social media presence, you may be able to use giveaways and ads to grow your lists by the hundreds or thousands. 5. 50 Minutes a Day It’s time to bring social media into the equation, only not the way you’re used to doing it. Trying to interact with some of your fans on Facebook, some of them on Twitter, and others elsewhere will suck up your time with low-converting efforts. It’ll also waste your energy as you switch gears between the platforms. Leave the audience interaction to your email inbox and spend your social media time connecting with influencers in your genre. Twitter and Facebook are huge for NETWORKING WITH OTHER AUTHORS. When a person sees you liking his posts or retweeting his tweets, he’s more likely to remember you later on. Starting a relationship over social media gives you the opportunity to pitch multi-author promotions, connect during future podcast or blog appearances, and chat about your previous conversations in person at conferences and other events. As rewarding as it is to have an hour-long chat with your biggest fan on Facebook, that same amount of time spread out over a dozen interactions with a fellow author could lead to a much bigger return. 6. 60 Minutes a Day Your email list has a concrete foundation. It’s converting new readers to subscribe at a rapid clip, and you’re connecting with the kind of people who could revolutionize your career. Now you can put some time into social media, but you should still value efficiency with everything you do online. It’s better to become a master of one platform than to become shackled to them all. Use Your Hour Wisely
Strategies like the ones above seem like they’re meant for an Internet Marketing company at first, but as an author, you need to concentrate on results when you have limited resources. Too many authors will log onto Facebook for an hour, like a few posts, make a comment, and they’ll consider their marketing obligations fulfilled. Nebulous tactics lead to wishy-washy results. You could succeed on Twitter, but it’s not as likely as success from a bulletproof email marketing campaign. You’ll have enough time to thrive as an author entrepreneur if you come in with a detailed plan that you’re willing to follow down to the minute. Blog reposted from AUTHOR MARKETING INSTITUTE site. |
Greg Smith -AuthorI have 30+ years as a graphic designer under my belt. During that time I've worked on countless books; designing covers, layout, etc. Now I've decided to "go behind the camera." Now I'm trying my hand at writing. Archives
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