Check out the Social Marketing Blog by Brick Marketing to see two social marketing sins to avoid when using online social networks to market your product.
I just found this great free leads service offered by Peter Shankman, PR man. It’s FREE to subscribe, and you never know what may turn up on it. Check out Help a Reporter Out and you may find yourself in the media!
Many thanks to Alyson Stanfield of ArtBizCoach.com for passing this along to me! Thanks, Alyson!
Have you heard the figures as to how many books were published in 2007?
Seriously, take a guess. 180,000? Over 200,000? 250, 000? Think about it: could there really have been a quarter of a million books published in a single year? That seems like a lot.
Nope.
The actual number is more along the lines of 411,422 books released last year.
Mind boggling numbers.
How can a mere mortal, a mere author, hope to stand apart from the crowd and get the attention that drives book sales?
According to Anna Maria Allessi, publisher of HarperMedia, the answer lies in promoting the author more than promoting a single title. “We are author publishers,” she said. “In my opinion, we’re trying to talk about authors as much as we talk about books, and that’s a subtle but important distinction.”
I couldn’t agree more: when it comes to publicity, you’re more likely to get it as someone who is an expert than because you’re someone who happens to have written a book. Focus on building your platform and making yourself the expert in your field and the attention will come from the media and the internet.
First, thanks to all of you who joined Dan Janal of PRLeads and me last week as we discussed concrete ways that authors and small business owners can use social media networks to get free publicity. We had almost 200 people registered for the call! Dan has a great publicity blog, too. If you don’t know about PRLeads, you should.
If you missed it, no worries: the link is up and you are welcome to listen to the how authors can use social media teleseminar anytime. You may choose to listen online or to download the .mp3 file and load it into your iPod for your listening convenience. Anything is possible.
People are buzzing about the upcoming online publicity coaching course. After considering feedback, we’ve decided to move the start date back a few days to Monday, June 16th. That means the early bird bonus rate has also been extended to registrations made by June 12th! From online media kits to pitching the media, from blogging to social networking to information products, you’ll emerge on the other side with solid strategies for pursuing publicity both in the traditional media and on the web. Be sure to check it out to see what it’s all about.
Are you still focusing all of your PR efforts on the traditional print and airwave media? Have you been looking for better ways to drive traffic to your website and generate sales? Are you clueless as to the potential of the web to build a buzz and give you free publicity? Are you taking advantage of the free resources offered by Web 2.0 sites to increase your exposure?
Join us Wednesday, June 4th, at 2pm EST for a FREE teleseminar on how authors can use social networks to get free publicity:
Publicity Through Social Marketing: Why Every Author Should Be Involved with Web 2.0
Hosted by: Dan Janal of PRLeads
Date: Wednesday, June 4, 2008, 1:00pm EST
Guest: Elizabeth Yarnell, publicity expert and author, www.RecipesForPublicity.com
Learn more about this free teleseminar on publicity and register now!
I’m back from the whirlwind of Book Expo America 2008 and thought I’d share some photos with you.
Here is the booth for the Colorado Independent Publishers Association – the largest independent publishers association in the country. This was my home base.
DK Simoneau shows off her award-winning children’s book on surviving joint custody for children of divorce: We’re Having A Tuesday.
The authors of the upcoming 
Random House novel The Necklace about 13 women and the experiment that changed their lives, brought a diamond necklace to BEA and draped it around fans for photographs. I thought this was a smart publicity move (can you see it around my neck?). Was it real diamonds? I have no idea! The book is due out in September.
Claudine Wolk was signing her new title, It Gets Easier! And Other Lies We Tell New Mothers
The authors of A Pirate’s Quest For His Family Heirloom Peg Leg are actually wildlife documentary filmmakers. The book is illustrated by a wildlife artist and tells the story of a pirate’s search for his peg leg. Not only were they in costume to draw attention to themselves, but I was serenaded with a pirate’s ballad accompanied by the guitar. It’s hard to see, but there is an iron hook on the end of his raised hand. They were also handing out pirate cookies — always a great way to get attention!
Terence Mix shows off his newly-released book, The Price of Ovulation, an expository look at the fertility industry and what fertility drugs are doing to women and their babies. Terry is a lawyer who has worked on behalf of women and babies who have suffered the side effects of fertility treatments.
13-year old twins, Brittany and Brianna Winner, announce the release of their award-winning novel, The Strand Prophecy. Besides penning a science-fiction adventure novel in the genre of Harry Potter, the girls also sing and dance and have their own music video. Their accomplishment is even more impressive knowing they were born 10 weeks premature and have faced health and learning issues as a result. They wear their beaded head-dresses to brand themselves.
It’s hard to describe the excitement of mingling with tens of thousands of people in the publishing world. Book distributors, librarians, educators, book sellers, authors, wholesalers, publishers large and small — they’re all there. The LA Convention Center was packed with some 30-40,000 people.
At BooK Expo, you can meet with foreign rights agents, chat with the presidents of publishing houses, get a book signed by a celebrity, or set your book up for catalog distribution. But don’t overlook the bounty of free books!
From advance reading copies of upcoming releases to reprints of classics from deceased authors, many publishers offer stacks of books free for the taking. It almost feels like stealing. And, of course, there are imprinted canvas book bags to haul away your loot.
Aside from working the booth for a half day and representing the 30 authors participating in the Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA) effort, I have goals of publicizing my own activities, namely this blog and the upcoming teleseminar (Wed., June 4, 2pm EST — click the teleseminar link to the left to learn more!) as well as the January release of my cookbook from Broadway Books.
Here are some of the highlights of my first day at BEA in Los Angeles:
- I stood in line to get a book signed by Barbara Walters (her new memoir). When it was my turn, I told her she looked lovely (very true) and gave her one of my cards with a recipe from my upcoming cookbook on the back. It’s a long shot, but how great would it be if she actually looked at it and was interested in my cookbook when it comes out in January?
- I distributed more than 100 cards to authors interested in learning more about publicity and told them about the teleseminar on Wednesday. I printed the cards with the recipe on one side and the publicity information on the other in hopes that people would hold on to the recipe, if nothing else. Having something extra that people want to keep on your materials decreases the probability that your piece will get jettisoned before it ever gets home from L.A.
- I spoke with a guy who works on the big L.A. food and wine festival in April. I will keep in touch with him and see if I can get on the stage there to do a cooking demonstration.
- I picked up about 20 books to carry me through the year and be passed around my circle of book-loving friends and relatives. I’m sure I’ll get more today.
Even though I alternated between 3 pair of shoes, I still managed to come out with a massive blister by the end of the day! Do men have this problem?
The first day was so exciting and overwhelming that I never took a single photo! I will try to today. Wish me luck!
For those who might not know, Book Expo America (BEA) is the largest national trade show for the book industry. Every year in June publishers, authors, book sellers, distributors, wholesalers, foreign rights purchasers, and everyone else remotely connected with the book industry swarms to a major city for three days of scouting and schmoozing.
On Thursday, I head down to join them in Los Angeles.
Last year I went in on a shared booth with 7 other independently published authors from Colorado. My mission was to interview and land a new literary agent, generate interest in my book from major publishers, and explore getting my book in the hands of distributors. This last one was the least important as my overarching goal was to find an agent and sell my book to a major publisher.
It was a blast to be among more than 30,000 book-lovers in a hot NYC summer, to say the least. Feasting in Chinatown, strolling through Little Italy, and thrift-store-cruising aside, I achieved my BEA mission: I interviewed and signed with a fabulous agent, agreed to work with Broadway Books, a Random House imprint, to publish my book, and talked with many distributors.
This year, I am between books but I’ve been coordinating a group of 30 members of a group booth through the Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA). So my mission at this BEA is a bit different: to promote my publicity coaching and to engage anyone in the entertainment industry who might be able to help me make a cooking show.
Follow along as I wander through this enormous event this weekend and let’s see if we can generate some publicity and buzz!
This past weekend I spoke on a panel at the Colorado Independent Publisher’s Association meeting about using social media networks to target your niche markets.
You might say that social media marketing could replace pitching the traditional media as the best way to get free publicity. At the very least, it offers a viable means of getting exposure and publicity without relying on the whims of print, television, and radio producers and editors.
The web allows us so many opportunities to find and interact with our niche markets. Here are three strategies I shared with the CIPA attendees.
1. Visit discussion groups in their forums and bulletin boards. Just recently there was a discussion about my cookbook in a cancer patient forum. This is great exposure to one of the niches within one of my target markets (people managing chronic diseases like cancer who want to eat healthier). Respond to posts and become known.
2. Post articles on your topic. Submit your articles to article submission sites like ezinearticles or cultivate relationships to web editors of sites relating to your areas of expertise. My articles have hit my target markets on sites from MomsMenu to CooksRecipes to HealthyWealthyNWise with the help of a good internet publicist. I highly recommend Net Connect Publicity for this.
3. Give potential fans ways of finding you beyond text. Post relevant videos on YouTube, share photos on your topic in Flickr, offer podcasts, publish e-books. Use these tools to target narrow audience. I like to offer very targeted e-books, for example. These allow me to target smaller audiences with more focused interests. My 3-minute cooking demonstration series on YouTube has drawn a lot of visitors back to my website.
I’ll be talking more in depth about these strategies and more during my teleseminar with Dan Janal of PRLeads scheduled for Wednesday, June 4th, 2pm EST. I will be sharing 8 Secret Strategies for Getting Online Publicity. Mark your calendars. More details will follow.
2008 MOONBEAM CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARDS - Early-bird Entry deadline June 15, 2008
“Celebrating youthful curiosity, discovery and learning through books and reading.”
Accepting entries until August 16th, 2008 for books released in 2007 or 2008; open to authors, illustrators, and publishers of children’s books written in English and intended for the North American market.
Click here to download complete guidelines and entry form for the Moonbeam Awards.
