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| Make Your First Book a Winner! Strategies From a Successful “Newbie” by Peter Bowerman Part 1 of a 2-Part Article A few months ago-- I’ll never forget the day-- I was checking my e-mail and I got another book order notification. On my web site I have a little information capture mechanism that asks for name, e-mail address (for future mailings) and where they heard about the book (a good idea for your web site, incidentally…). Her answer? “Everywhere!” Now if that isn’t music to an author’s ears, I don’t know what is. It’s proof that I was getting the job done. That was only the first. I kept hearing different iterations of the same basic theme. One woman wrote: “I first heard about your book on writersdigest.com, then on writerswrite.com and finally on writersweekly.com. After the third time, I figured I needed to see what it was all about.” What does that tell us (besides that I’d been busy…)? That people may very well have to receive multiple impressions before they take action. Very useful information. So, how did I get to this point? After all, I started with just me and my book. No big publishing house, agent, publicist or big promotion/marketing budget. Not to mention virtually no mainstream media coverage. Yet, I still landed three major book clubs: Writer’s Digest Book Club, Quality Paperback Book Club and Book-of-the-Month Club. Plus reviews from (historically self-pub-averse) publications as Library Journal and Booklist. Not to mention a “Full Publisher Contract” - typically reserved for the big boys - from Ingram. And several book awards. How did I do it? The Internet, of course. Exponential Efficiency The Internet has dramatically raised the bar on productivity, allowing for maximum accomplishment and “reach” in minimum time. In the hugely competitive scramble for attention in the book world, the ‘Net can be the great equalizer for the little guy. So, let’s take my book as an example: "The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency As a Freelance Writer in Six Months or Less"-- a step-by-step “how-to” for establishing a lucrative full- or part-time freelance corporate writing business. With all the downsizing of the past decade, Corporate America is outsourcing plenty of writing projects at hourly rates of $50-100+. OK, so who’s my audience? For starters, how about any and all “wanna-be” writers looking to make a handsome living with their pen? Add seasoned freelancers looking to diversify beyond magazines into higher-paying work. And at-home moms and home-based business seekers looking for a flexible, well-paying career from home. Go to Your Market To sell books, you need to get reviews. Book reviews are far and away the cheapest and most effective way to build demand and sales for your books. So, to get reviews for one’s book, go where your various target communities hang out. Scour the Internet for web sites, associations (check print version of Gale’s directory), newsletters (Oxbridge Directory of newsletters on-line and others) newsgroups and other writers of related books. Visit these sites, find the “Contact Us” link and make your pitch by e-mail. Make up one standard pitch letter, vary it slightly for your different audiences and “cut ‘n paste.” In the beginning, I was on the hunt for blurbs for my final edition. In less than a week, while still doing my corporate writing work, I lined up close to 25 commitments, not only for blurbs, but reviews, interviews and articles (which I’d write). I was getting responses back in fifteen minutes! Out went the galleys. And then I simply repeated the process, over and over, as my laser-targeted review copy list beefed up fast. Try any URLs that sounds right for your topic. Actual examples for me: writers.com, writing.com, freelancewriting.com, athomemoms.com, homebusiness.com, etc. Find writers of related books through Amazon.com (many have e-mail links) and pitch them directly for blurbs or reviews. Mainstream Media? Certainly you should pursue mainstream media coverage in addition to your Internet contacts but here are a few caveats. The reality is this: If you’re an unknown author, the chances that a reasonably major-market paper will give you exposure or write an article is slim. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, but just a heads-up. If you do plan to go for it, DO NOT just send out review copies en masse with no personal contact. If you do, you will almost certainly succumb to the Dumpster Factor. The average big-city daily gets 125 unsolicited review copies daily, more like 250 during the holiday season. I was told by someone who worked for one that they literally have a dumpster in the mail room and most of them get tossed, unopened. For starters, forget sending a review copy to the book editor. Unless you’re a big name or local talent, they don’t care. Do however, contact the book editor with info on upcoming signings to go into their calendar and try to get them to include your web address in the listing. As for coverage, figure out what editor would be best for your topic. Does your topic fall into Food, Jobs, Career, Business, Features, Computers, etc.? Contact the appropriate editor and be sure to pitch, not the book, but an angle represented by the book. They don’t care about books; they want to know why the book is relevant now. With my book, of late, I’ve been pitching three things: 1) the tie-in with all the corporate downsizing and accompanying outsourcing of writing projects at high rates, 2) the idea of the book discussing a lucrative direction for all those aspiring writers out there just trying to figure out how to make a handsome FT living as a writer, and 3) the growing trend of people wanting to drop out of the rat race, start their own home-based business and recapture precious quality of life and time for leisure and loved ones, etc., etc. Your Web Site A web site is mandatory. Period. It’s the linch-pin of any Internet marketing push. Mine (wellfedwriter.com) has sample chapter, table of contents, reviews, cover art, Q&A, sample radio/TV interview footage and much more. Link to it from every e-mail you send and you connect your market to a wealth of information for nothing. By e-mailing press releases to media (or anyone) you give them instantaneous “click-thru” access to your site and all the things they need to make their job easier (like author pix, cover art, reviews, the interview clips, etc.) which in turn makes it easier for them to say “Yes!” Always add your URL to your e-mail signature going out on every e-mail you send. You’d be surprised at where interest in your title comes from. Assume that most people visiting your site will have headed there deliberately after hearing about the site somewhere, as opposed to stumbling on it. Don’t count on search engines to bring people to your site who initially knew nothing about it. It will happen and certainly cover your bases in that arena but work on building demand and traffic to your site through your marketing efforts. So, given that people will most likely have been steered there by your promotional efforts, keep the site simple by making it easy for them to get in and out. Focus on conveying information in a logical flow and dispense with the fancy (browser-clogging) graphics. If things take too long to load, trust me, they will leave. Go visit my site when you get a moment. Not the last word in web sites, but I think it works. Might give you some ideas. And remember, where it is today is a result of ongoing evolution. You don’t have to have a full-blown site from day one. Grow it. As for the question: “Should I hire someone to create my web site or do it myself?” that depends on you and your relative technical ability and inclination to be a “do-it-yourselfer.” If you love rolling up your sleeves and diving into a new software program, perhaps you have the temperament to do it. You’ll save yourself a healthy chunk of money. If however, you’re a techno-phobe like me and you have a few bucks to spend, or you think you might be able to pull it off but aren’t sure, you’re probably better off hiring someone. The key is to get it done. Web designers aren’t exactly scarce these days, which is driving rates down. At some point, I know I’ll need to bite the bullet and learn how to do this stuff, both to save money and be able to update my site without having to wait on my web guy to get to it. By the way, do-it-yourselfers, word on the street from many web designers is that Dreamweaver is the best program. Raising Eyebrows I made many of the above contacts with the writing, home-based business and at-home-Mom communities before I even approached the huge trade wholesaler Ingram to be listed in their database. In the marketing questionnaire Ingram requires as part of the application, I listed some 50-60 of these entities and got a pleasantly surprising response: they offered me-- one guy, one book-- a Full Publisher Contract, offering my title wider distribution. The message they’re sending is clear: we want to work with and will reward those publishers-- regardless of size-- who are committed, through consistent marketing efforts, to promoting their book(s). Logical, no? The Illusory “Official Publication Date” By the way, your “official publication date” (OPD) should be very different from your “bound book date” (BBD)-- the date you actually have printed books in your possession. If you’re smart, you’ll put three to four or more months between the two dates, giving you plenty of time to build awareness in the traditional media and in your grass roots Internet communities. In the process, you’ll extend the period during which the media will consider your book a “new release.” It’s not uncommon for some publishers to sell out their first printing before their OPD actually arrives. Get Personal This next point was driven home for me as I was promoting my Well-Fed Writer seminar recently in Nashville, TN. I had contacted the executive producer of a TV station by e-mail with a pitch to appear on their noon-day show. I’d heard nothing back, so the next week, I tried to reach him by phone and got his voice mail. I checked the station’s web site and found an “office” number listed for the noon-day show. I called, a woman answered, I assumed it was an “office” person. Wrong! Turned out to be one of the hosts. She was very nice, I pitched her, she requested a review copy, I said I’d get it out that day, and as a parting shot, suggested she visit my web site. When I returned from UPS, I found an e-mail saying: “Checked out your site. Looks great - I’m sold! Are you available on ____?” (Are you convinced yet that you need a web site?) Whether you’re promoting your book, seminar or both, try as much as possible to reach people personally. I’m certain that I’d have gotten nowhere with that TV station had I not connected with a real human being. Unless your book is so hot that the media is literally beating down your door, if you restrict yourself to impersonal shotgun press releases, it’s liable to yield little fruit. It’s always best to have an actual name. Obviously, few of us have the time to make hundreds of personal phone calls, but the more you can make, the more success you’ll have. When you’re calling, always ask for your contact person’s e-mail address before they connect you to them. If you get their voice mail, leave them a message briefly stating your business and that you’ll be e-mailing a press release to them. That way, instead of being just one more e-mail amidst the spam, they’ll be expecting it when it arrives. This article originally appeared in the December issue of SPAN. Reprinted with permission. Read Part 2 of this article by clicking here. Peter Bowerman of Fanove Publishing is the self-published
author of The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency As a Freelance
Writer in Six Months or Less, an award-winning, triple-book-club selection.
Visit his web site at www.wellfedwriter.com
and reach him at bowerman@mindspring.com. |
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