Transcript Power Point You Are Your Own Best Publicist - Southern

You Are Your Own
Best Publicist
Publicist:
Kathie Bennett of Magic Time Literary Agency
Author:
Sharman Burson Ramsey: Swimming with Serpents
and In Pursuit
Your Role as CEO of your
book
• Devise your master marketing plan
– Monetary budget
– Timeline: 1-3 years
– Daily commitment: 1-3 hours
• Research promotional strategies
–
–
–
–
Books
Podcasts
Articles
Workshops and lectures
Countdown Step One:
On Your Mark
• Plan your marketing campaign
–
–
–
–
–
Determine audience
Shape promotion to build audience
Position book in marketplace
Determine pricing
Package the book to sell: traditional print
and/or e-book
• Cover design
• Website design
• Amazon, Smashwords, or CreateSpace’
Design your marketing
tools
– Postcards with book cover
design
– Bookmarks
– Invitations
– Business cards with book
cover design
– Posters: window and
tabletop
www.vistaprint.com
Introduce yourself on the
literary landscape
–
–
–
–
–
Booksellers
Libraries
Authors
Media
Field of interest outlets:
arts arenas, environmental
organizations, etc.
Countdown Step Two: Get Set to Be a
Friend and Make Friends
• Establish a database
of existing friends and colleagues
• Announce the launch of your
book and consider asking
friends to help host events
–
–
–
–
–
Blog/Twitter
Postcards/Brochures
Website/Facebook/
All social media
Traditional media
Countdown Step Three: Go Hook
Your Reader (Sell your books)
• What is your book
about?
– written response
– verbal response (sound
bite)
• Dress for Success
– Character costume
– Conventionally
unconventional
– Authentic you
Olivia deBelle Byrd
Mrs. Hildreth Wore Brown
Jane Friedman’s
definition
What editors and agents typically mean by platform
•
They’re looking for someone with visibility and authority who has proven reach to a
target audience.
•
Let’s break this down further.
•
Visibility. Who knows you? Who is aware of your work? Where does your work
regularly appear? How many people see it? How does it spread? Where does it
spread? What communities are you a part of? Who do you influence? Where do you
make waves?
•
Authority. What’s your credibility? What are your credentials? (This is particularly
important for nonfiction writers; it is less important for fiction writers, though it can
play a role. Just take a look at any graduate of the Iowa MFA program.)
•
Proven reach. It’s not enough to SAY you have visibility. You have to show where you
make an impact and give proof of engagement. This could be quantitative evidence
(e.g., size of your e-mail newsletter list, website traffic, blog comments) or qualitative
evidence (high-profile reviews, testimonials from A-listers in your genre).
•
Target audience. You should be visible to the most receptive or appropriate audience
for the work you’re trying to sell. For instance: If you have visibility, authority, and
proven reach to orthodontists, that probably won’t be helpful if you’re marketing
vampire fiction (unless perhaps you’re writing about a vampire orthodontist who
repairs crooked vampire fangs?).
Self publishing successes
• E. L. James Fifty Shades of Grey
• Stephanie McAfee Diary of a Mad
Fat Girl
• Darcie Chan The Mill River Recluse
$1000 $500 for website and 500 to
advertise on blogs that review
ebooks
ASK YOUR FRIENDS
FOR REVIEWS
• Colleen Hoover's self-published book,
Slammed, got over 50,000 ratings
and over 8,000 reviews on Goodreads.
It's become a bestseller, been picked
up by a traditional publisher, and she
has even been able to sell the movie
rights
•
Young adult novels get more reviews because young people are more
computer savvy
40 + takes different marketing tactics
Amazon algorithm
•
Anything less than 4 stars means “NOT RECOMMENDED.” Don’t expect an
author to be pleased with 2 or 3 stars, no matter how much you rave in the
text. Those stars are the primary way a book is judged. Without a 4 or 5
star rating, a book doesn’t get picked up in the Amazon algorithms for
things like “also bought” suggestions. Giving 1 or 2 stars to a book that
doesn’t have many reviews is taking money out of the author’s pocket, so
don’t do it unless you really think the author should take up a new line of
work.
•
Well, if you really enjoy a book and tell your friends or even mention it on
your blog or Facebook or Twitter, consider also posting a quick review on
Amazon. The more five and four star reviews, the more chance the book
has to reach an even wider audience.
Create Book Tours:
10-15 events with sales reported to
New York Times
– Launch party/parties
– Book signings: build event
•
•
•
•
•
Nonprofit
Schools
Foundations
Industry
Literary luncheons
– Book festivals
– Writers’ conferences
– Conventions
Sharman’s schedule since September 2012 release of Swimming with Serpents
SIBA
Book Launch for Swimming with Serpents
Ladies Auxilliary St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club
Naples
Cultural Arts Dothan
Panama City
Panel
Speaker
Books Alive Local Authors
Public Radio
PC Writers Guild
Delta Delta Delta House
Supply Store U of A Auburn/Alabama
Beach Library Bag Lunch Author event
Hub City Books
Fiction Addiction
Luncheon
Blue Bicycle
Something's Cookin‘
Bay Point Woman's Club
Wilcox County Historical Society
Panama City Genealogical society
Chautauqua
Litchfield Books
Daughters of the American Revolution
Amelia Island Book Festival
South Carolina Book Festival
Panel
Historic Chattahoochee Commission
Historical Novel Society
Decatur Book Festival
Speaker
In Pursuit Released
Southern Independent Booksellers Association
Florida Heritage Book Festival
Nashville Book Festival
Pulpwood Queens Girlfriend Weekend
Panama City
Troy
Panama City
Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa
Panama City Beach
Spartanburg
Greenville
Speaker
Guest
Speaker
Book Signing
Book Signing
Speaker
Speaker
Speaker
Charleston
Book Signing
Panama City Champagne Book Signing
Panama City Beach
Speaker
Furman, AL Speaker
Panama City Speaker
De Funiak Springs
Speaker
Pawley’s Island
Movable Feast
Panama City Speaker
Amelia IslandSpeaker
Columbia
Moderator and
Eufaula
St. Petersburg
Decatur
Speaker
Panel
Panel and
New Orleans Movable Feast
St. Augustine
Nashville
Panel
GOODREADS
Here are a few ways to be a part of the
conversation on Goodreads:
• Shelve your favorite books or the ones that have inspired
you and review them. Readers love seeing what their
favorite authors are reading.
• Start a Q&A group about your book and invite people to
join.
• Join a group around a topic or genre related to your book.
If you join a group, participate as a reader first. Once
people see you are a passionate and friendly member of the
group, then you can discuss your own work.
• Write a blog or import your blog. Authors are the only
members of Goodreads who can have blogs, and author blogs
are a great place to start a conversation.
After all of this I would
be remiss if I did not
mention
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
General interest Southern culture genealogy, manners and etiquette,
recipes, history website: http://www.southern-style.com
Author http://www.sharmanbursonramsey.com
Blog http://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/
Twitter https://twitter.com/SharmanRamsey
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sharman.ramsey
Goodreads
Amazon
Conclusion: Book in
Orbit
• Accept the role
of CEO
Break out groups
•
Create a 3 to 5 sentence presentation of your novel
REMEMBER
•
Use concrete nouns and vivid verbs
•
The synopsis of the novel on the back of the book must draw the reader into the book
within 200 words.
•
Eliminate usely ly words (adverbs)
•
Helping words begin to jump out at you at a time when you cannot edit them out of the
manuscript. Weed them out in the beginning. For example:
“Arbuthnot!” Jackson spat with contempt, his eyes flashing. “At last I meet the infamous
instigator of this war! It is you who have led these poor savages in the belief that the
treaty they signed in my presence is worthless! You have encouraged them in their
depredations. It is you who claim to speak for them."
Leaving out unnecessary helping verbs gives more power to the writing.
Pitch for In Pursuit
The pirate Gasparilla sends goons to a tea room to kidnap the scholar with a
treasure map, Godfrey Lewis Winkel. They accidentally take beautiful Joie
Kincaid dressed as a street urchin along with Godfrey and a story of
passion unfolds. Joie must overcome a childhood of abuse and rejection to
accept love she had never known while embarking on the adventure of a
lifetime.
Together they weather the tempests of pirates, illness, the Seminole
War, family vendetta, and a hurricane to find their way to each other and a
love neither could have imagined.
Interwoven in this action-packed adventure is the long-forgotten tale of
hope and betrayal at the Negro Fort, the plight of the Red Sticks after
Horseshoe Bend, the greed of a pirate longing for a legacy, Andrew
Jackson’s single-minded vision of a nation’s manifest destiny.