Marketing
You, dear writer, are going to fail. Miserably.
Until you succeed.
You will be alone.
Until you are embraced with open arms.
We are going to make fun of you (giddily.)
Until we come to respect you.
We will find every tiny flaw in your otherwise decent story.
Until it grabs our hearts and makes us fall in love.
We will do the worst thing possible for way longer than you expect: we will ignore you.
Until we can’t stop thinking about you, and talking about your work.
We will use you as a scapegoat for our own sense of inequity.
Until we strive to become more like you.
We will take pot-shots at you. Making fun of things that are none of our business.
Until you stop caring about those things.
We will grossly generalize what your work embodies, misconstruing it whenever possible.
Until you ensure we “get it.”
Dear author, we are not going to make this easy for you.
Read MoreToday’s guest post is by Sabrina Ricci: author, e-book developer, and entrepreneur. Her startup, Write or Read, is a subscription site for e-books that gives readers access to a wide variety of titles and helps writers build their platform and become more successful. Sabrina earned her M.S. in publishing from NYU, and while she was in school became interested in e-books and self-publishing.
It’s fascinating how much the publishing industry has changed in the past three years . . . I started self-publishing and working on my startup to get a better feel for the process and figure out how to best help writers. For this particular article, I loved hearing Hugh’s techniques for marketing. There are so many articles about using social media and being constantly online trying to find new readers. But it’s nice to know that other approaches work, and that they allow time for authors to do what they love best: writing.
Check out Sabrina’s blog and her books; follow her on Twitter @sabsky and find her on Facebook.
The Year of the Reader: How One Successful Indie Author Marketed His Work Up the Bestseller Lists
Hugh Howey, author of Wool, has sold at least a million and a half books.
You hear about it more and more frequently these days. A successful indie author creates a bestseller and is able to quit his day job to pursue his lifelong dream of writing. But how does an author get to that point? For Howey, it was a combination of strong storytelling—Wool went viral and sold 1,000 copies per month before he even started actively marketing it—and innovative, subtle marketing.
Unlike some indie authors I’ve talked to who have had successful marketing campaigns using social media and reaching out to new readers, Howey has a slightly different approach: he only contacts existing readers.
“I try not to at any time tell new people to check out my work,” Howey said. “I spend all my time interacting with existing readers. And I find that to be much more effective because the only way you’re going to have any kind of viral growth is with readers telling other readers about the work.”
Howey said he neither enjoys nor has the confidence in his work to constantly promote it and tell strangers to read it.
“No one wants to listen to a writer talk about their work,” he said.
It’s All About The Readers
In early 2012, Howey posted a YouTube video of he and his sister doing “The Time Warp” dance from The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the middle of Times Square, NY, as a thank you in honor of getting his 100th review of Wool on Amazon. He had promised the dance to his fans a while back, and one of his friends waited to be the one to post the 100th review.
“She wouldn’t let me forget,” Howey said. “At the time I had a very small readership, so I had no idea it was going to be seen by lots of […]
Read MoreIf you’re a writer focused on not just getting published or selling a book, but actually ensuring those books get read, we’re here to introduce a conference that promises to do exactly that. Get Read: Marketing Strategies for Writers takes place completely online on November 13th and 14th. We’re thrilled that Dan Blank, master of ceremonies, is here with us today to tell us more about the event.
Q: Let’s say we meet up in an elevator–me, the writer with Discovery issues. Can you share your one-sentence pitch for this conference?
DB: In terms of finding readers, most writers focus on the wrong things; we look past the easy stuff that doesn’t work, to show you practical real strategies to understand who your ideal readers are.
Q: What will “Get Read” offer that other conferences do not? Will the information truly be fresh? (Truly?)
DB: Most conferences are multi-track, allowing attendees to pick and choose what they FEEL they need. What gets lost here is a truly cohesive framework – that the topics we cover are topics that ALL writers need to pay attention to, not just those that you are comfortable with. The range of presenters is incredibly varied, from librarians, booksellers, authors, marketers, agents, and publishing experts – these are people who are in the trenches in every aspect of publishing.
I work with writers every day, this is the event I KNOW writers need. It is a complete resource from all sides of publishing, focused intently on those who engage with readers every day.
And quite frankly, I made a concerted effect to line up speakers who I know to be the most practical, down-to-earth, no B.S. folks working in publishing. These folks won’t be presented quick fixes that don’t work, they strip bare our assumptions about what works, and what doesn’t. This is a conference with attitude.
Q: Does the fact that the conference is online in any way affect my ability, as a participant, from interacting with presenters? How will this work?
DB: Quite frankly, I think it encourages greater interaction. I have been too A LOT of conferences, and notice that most attendees – at best – ask a single question of a speaker, don’t follow up, and don’t go out of their way to socialize with others at the event. They instead use even a moment of downtime to check email, or Twitter, or otherwise avoid social situations, almost as if it were the first day at a new school.
The live text-based chat during the event will be moderated by our staff, and ensure that people are encouraged to participate, without any awkward social “risk.” I know, we pretend that adults don’t fear this stuff, but most of us do.
Likewise, we are planning pre and post event ways to engage attendees, to get them familiar with and connected to each other and speakers.
Q: What made you realize that “Get Read” was something you wanted to pursue?
Read MoreWU Newsletter recipients already know this, but for those of you who haven’t yet subscribed (remedy for that oversight) here’s the scoop. Our Ad Guru has called for an Autumn Ad Sale, and here are her terms:
Have a book or e-book to promote for the upcoming holiday season? Want to target Writer Unboxed’s substantial readership? We have a deal for you!
Give us $100, a book blurb or quote, and your book cover image, and I’ll turn your book cover into an eye-catching ad graphic that links to a website of your choice. I’ll post it in the upper left hand column of staging-writerunboxed.kinsta.cloud for two weeks, as part of a shared ad (your ad will cycle in the same space with up to two other ads). This deal is only available for October and November ad runs (twelvetwo slots total) so act quickly to lock in your space.
First purchasers get first choice of advertising slot!
Questions? Want to reserve an ad space today? Contact wuadguru. Write on!
And remember, advertising revenues on staging-writerunboxed.kinsta.cloud directly support this website. It’s a win-win-win.
Read MoreToday’s guest post is from Kristen McLean, “book futurist, consumer zoologist, and idea omnivore,” as well as founder and CEO of Bookigee, a Miami-based tech startup that builds products and analytics for the book-publishing ecosystem. Kristen is passionate about helping authors navigate the abundance of options, tools, and channels for producing and distributing books. She’s an eighteen-year veteran of the book business, and as a leading industry analyst, she speaks around the world about the digital transformation of books and reading. In this post, Kristen talks about why one size doesn’t fit all. She said:
I’m super passionate about helping authors navigate this amazing (and sometimes daunting) publishing environment. On one hand we have an amazing abundance of options, tools, and channels for producing and distributing books. On the other, we are writing and publishing more books than at any other time in human history, and all that *noise* and conversation is making it hard to figure out how to reach an audience. You still have to write a great book (which is no easier than it ever was)…maybe BETTER THAN EVER to stand out. I do my best to help authors with good tools and helpful information. Because I love entrepreneurial authors who are paving the way for everyone in this kooky business.
Follow Kristen on Twitter.
Understanding the Five Phases of Book Marketing: Why “What’s working?” is not one size fits all
It is an amazing time to be a reader or a writer in today’s publishing landscape. We are reading and publishing more than at any time in human history, and it has never been easier to produce and distribute a book.
However, that same abundance is a double-edged sword, especially for writers who are trying to figure out how to get their work into the hands of their potential audience in such a noisy & overwhelming environment.
Up until now, the publishing transformation has largely focused on three things: new forms of production (self-publishing & print on demand), new forms of distribution (tablets, e-books, online reading communities like WattPad, Smashwords, and Kindle Direct), and new channels for sales (online retail, apps, supermarkets, big box stores, the Kindle & Nook devices, Kobo – basically everyone but the traditional bookstores).
But for a book to successfully find a reader, there are two big things missing from this “new publishing” equation: Marketing and Discovery. In other words, how do we (the content creators) tell people about our work, and how do they (the readers) find new things to read?
Traditionally, bookstores have had a very large role to play in both of these functions. Bookstores were the place where readers went to browse, and publishers could reliably reach those readers by working with bookstores and reviewers to get their books front and center. But now, there are a million channels competing for a reader’s attention, and we have not successfully duplicated the bookstore experience online—especially in a way that authors have any input.
For today’s entrepreneurial author, marketing is largely going to be about finding an online strategy. And it’s also important to understand that you, the Author, need to treat marketing yourself and marketing a […]
Read MoreTherese butting in for a second to (very) happily announce the return of one of our favorite contributors: Jane Friedman! Jane is returning as a quarterly contributor, so we can look forward to seeing her essays several times a year here at WU–and of course you can see even more of her on her own site. Please join me in welcoming her back, and enjoy her words of wisdom.
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Most new authors, upon securing a book contract or planning a book launch, are advised they need to establish a Twitter account, a Facebook page, or [list social media channel here]. Why? To market their book, of course.
This presents an immediate dilemma: If the author is not already active on these channels, of her own interest and volition, she now has the mindset of using these tools to “market”—and the new author may have no idea what that means beyond telling people to like their page or follow them.
No one I know enjoys being a marketer on social media, not any more than people want to be marketed to. It poisons the experience, for everyone.
You might respond: Yeah, tell us something we don’t know, right?
Yet authors continue to use social media—and their online networks—as blunt instruments, posting things that beg people to pay attention and become a buyer or follower. Unfortunately, asking for such attention on a social media network is likely to ensure you won’t be getting any, except for those who already adore you or feel obligated to support you.
Here’s the much better alternative to begging: When you develop a strategic marketing campaign for a new book, the first thing you should do is list all the people you know who will buy it without you asking, and would likely recommend it to everyone they know.
These are the people you send a round of personal and private appeals to. These are the people whose attention you already have. These are your most important relationships, relationships you probably treasure and nurture. Ask these people for specific types of help during your book marketing campaign, based on their own strengths or connections.
Do not make a habit of broadcasting general, blanket appeals for attention and help to strangers. Keep those broadcast messages focused on what strangers most want to know, and focus on how those messages serve them. (Example: “Don’t miss the e-book giveaway on Wednesday only.”) After you make your well-strategized broadcast, go back to your regularly scheduled programming of cat videos, gardening tips, or beer photos—that is, whatever you normally post about, why people enjoy seeing you in their newsfeed or stream.
None of what I’m saying precludes sending appeals to influencers who may have never heard of you. That’s part of the game, too. But again, you should send personalized and private pitches if you’re seeking their time or energy. Their attention is precious, and they value their audience’s attention, too. You have to prove why you’re worthy of attention in that personalized appeal. (What I’m describing is basically what you might hire a publicist to do on your behalf. You can do it yourself, too, if you have the time.)
So, I’ve just outlined two types of […]
Read MoreI work with a lot of writers, and it is not unusual for them to feel overwhelmed at some point in the process of trying to craft their platform. I define platform as having two core elements:
Notice a phrase missing here: “social media.”
Yes, social media can makes it easier to do these things, but it can be overwhelming to manage. I find that for some, it obscures the real goal: establishing meaningful connections with other people, not waiting to go “viral.”
In fact, I often find social media works dramatically better for authors when you completely flip the mentality of hoping to “go viral.” Instead: work hard to resist going viral, get focused, simple, and human. I mean, seriously, when did the word “viral” become something we desperately feared to becoming something we desired? Ick!
Your platform as an author is based on the QUALITY of connection with someone, not the quantity of how many people you are loosely connected to.
I have worked through SO MANY digital strategies from the height of the first dot com boom, through the decade plus that followed. So often, you hear big numbers such as “the link received 10,000 clicks,” or “the effective reach of that blog post was 200,000 people,” or “judging value based on how many eyeballs saw a page.”
Another “ick!” here. Why would we dissect a human being’s value to the body part that sees, but not the brain function that analyzes or the heart that cares?
What I find is this: a simple handwritten note can be dramatically more powerful in growing your platform than hundreds of Pinterest Pins, reblogs or followers.
I received a note in the mail the other week that put a warm feeling in my heart. Yes, I’m sentimental that way. Here it is:
Read MoreI understand my problem exactly.
On the one hand, I have a lot of how-to books (on writing and on poker) which sell their asses off because they have just exactly the information that certain people need, just exactly when they need it. On the other hand, I have all these terrific novels that struggle to find their audience, because reading a novel is a recreational activity; in other words, it’s a want to, not a need to proposition. How-to books sell because they meet the needs of a specific need-to proposition: the need to know how to do something. Novels, however, face fierce competition, not just from other novels but from all forms of recreation, especially when we take our reading digital. I’ll read books on my iPhone all day long – once I get done with my email and twitter and the baseball scores and all the dang games app-based games I play. I know I’m not alone in this. Never in human history has the act of picking up a book had to compete so hard against the act of picking up something else.
Okay, so that’s where we are: need-to books sell easily; want-to books sell hard. How should we, as cottage-industry entrepreneurs, respond to this? One thing’s for sure: we should write a lot of need-to books. This is simply a matter of looking around, saying, “What am I good at?” and knocking out 15,000 words on that subject. Did I say 15,000? Yes, 15,000. That’s not much, nowhere near the 70,000 words that you need to call a novel a novel. Is 15,000 words enough for a how-to book? I can tell you from personal experience that the answer is an emphatic yes. Because, you see, a function of all those rapidly shrinking attention spans out there, and a function of the competition of all those games, websites, downloads, videos, and social media, is that people would rather spend less – less time and less money – even for information they know they really need. My two small reads – the little book of SITCOM and How To Write Good – routinely outsell my whole novel catalog combined. They earn. They earn consistently and reliably, month after month, year after year, and they (and titles like them) allow me to call myself a working writer – a consummation devoutly to be wished.
So why don’t I write how-to books exclusively?
Read MoreIt began with a contentment-producing ritual.
Weather permitting, most Saturday mornings, I stroll a safe and pleasant three miles to the mall where I visit the library, the bookstore, and the grocer. I pick up fresh produce for dinner—the more salad-makings the better—then loop around and head home.
On the way back, I’m usually euphoric, flush with endorphins, time outdoors, and the knowledge that I’ve facilitated my family’s health and made a minor contribution to fuel-conservation.
But on one recent occasion, as I waited for a pedestrian light to change, a marketing concept inserted itself into my brain.
Brand as Constrictor or Liberator?
At the time, I was puzzling over the concept of branding, which, like most marketing principles, remains an elusive and scary prospect to me. I know it’s too early to be worrying about this for my fiction, but I’ve been blogging for a few years now. I still don’t know what promise I’m making to my readers in that venue. (My tagline is Art. Attitude. Vitamin C. Screams “unique value proposition”, doesn’t it?)
If branding is this unintuitive a process for blogging, what does that mean for my fiction? Will I inadvertently shoe-horn myself into an ill-fitting concept and have to start all over again? If a little forethought can save me from obvious errors, why not see if I can figure out an approach in advance?
So it was then, as I casually looked down and viewed myself as if through a stranger’s eyes, when I thought, The most accurate tagline for my appearance would be “hot mess”.
Read MoreWe are so pleased to introduce today’s guest, Meg Waite Clayton. Meg is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of four novels, including The Wednesday Sisters, a writing group novel, and the just released sequel, The Wednesday Daughters. She’s written for The Los Angeles Times, Writer’s Digest, Runner’s World and public radio, and for The New York Times and Forbes online.
“THE WEDNESDAY DAUGHTERS is a heartwarming tale of a group of women who know the best and the worst about one another, yet choose to embrace each other anyway as sisters and as friends. The book is filled with memorable characters, both British and American…It’s easy for readers to imagine themselves amidst the peace and beauty of one of England’s most famously attractive natural areas.” —AMIE TAYLOR, BOOKREPORTER
Meg says, “It took me 10 years to get my first novel published, and yet I can’t imagine how different my life as a writer would be without the support of Random House/Ballantine and the lovely people there. Anyone in publishing would likely be making more money elsewhere. They are in it for the same reason writers are: because they love books.”
To learn more about Meg, please visit her blog, follow her on Twitter or Facebook page. Take it away, Meg!
It’s a new world, and none of us are dependent on the whims of New York publishing to get our writing read. But here are five reasons why you might want to brave form rejection to find a traditional publisher:
1. Let’sStartwiththeEditing.
Yes, you can hire some pretty good copy editors these days, and even some decent book doctors, but they won’t have skin in the game the way an editor at a traditional house will. My editor goes through multiple drafts with me, and loops others in for fresh reads as well. Her reputation depends on the success of The Wednesday Daughters nearly as much as mine does. My writing is far stronger thanks to everyone who pitches in at my publisher. It’s not just about findingtypos, althoughthatdoesmattertoo.
2. What Sells Books?
Read MoreThe post below is meant as a joke. I wrote it to underscore how sometimes people misuse social media and the idea of promotion and marketing in general. Finding a readership and using social media is not about “influence” and “leverage,” it is about genuine connections with the right people. There are plenty of folks who put pressure on authors to try to reduce the complexity of these relationships to a simple number. This post pokes a bit of fun at that.
Thanks. – Dan
Sometimes, an author comes to me with the expectation that an agent or publisher requires them to have a certain number of Twitter followers in order to be considered for publication. They wake up in the middle of the night screaming: “Thanks for the follow!”
Today, I want to provide a concise guide to help authors understand how to calculate the value of their social media following, in order to comprehend the proper role of social connections.
Put simply, this is how you judge the value of anyone you are connected to on social media:
X = (A*B)+(C*D)/E
Whereas:
A = number of Twitter followers you have
B = size of your email list
C = # of Facebook fans
D = # of daily repins on Pinterest
E = the likelihood that you can introduce me to Seth Godin or Malcolm Gladwell
X here, represents your value, or your “Base Author Recommendation Factor” or BARF score for short. In other words: exactly how valuable are you as a friend. What do you do with this X number once you have it? Oh, so many things, all of which are shielded from authors by the “powers that be” in publishing.
Read MoreToday’s guest post is from Marci Nault, whose debut novel, THE LAKE HOUSE (Gallery/ Simon & Schuster), was a Chicago Tribune, Cape May Herald, CBS, and Amazon Premier summer read pick. She is the founder of 101 Dreams Come True, a motivational website that encourages visitors to follow their improbable dreams. Her story about attempting to complete 101 of her biggest dreams has been featured in newspapers and magazines nationwide, and she regularly speaks on the subject on radio stations and television in the United States and Canada. Marci says,
I believe many writers have a hard time figuring out new ways to promote fiction. I decided to share the way I’ve marketed outside the box with the hope that it would spark a discussion on better ways writers can promote their material. I believe by working together we can get more people reading not only the bestsellers that get so much promotion, but the little-known writers making a name for themselves.
Follow Marci on Facebook and Twitter.
Marketing Outside the Box
At my first writer’s conference I asked a panel of agents, “How do you market fiction?” The room of aspiring writers and even some of the panel looked at me like I was crazy. One agent responded, “Well, that’s putting the cart before the horse. First you need to get a contract and then worry about it.”
But I was worried. I’d worked at a small press for nonfiction and had seen great books die because the writers didn’t believe they needed to promote. I’d also watched as mediocre books became great sellers because the author was willing to build their platform. I knew that the platform was everything in nonfiction, but how did the fiction writer build that same kind of following?
I worried even more as my novel, The Lake House, came to publication. There were online advertising campaigns, placement in stores, and book blogging tours. Reviewers raved about the story, but it seemed that everything was focused on the first six weeks and then the book would need to survive on its own through word of mouth and book clubs. I heard more than once, “No one knows what makes a book go, so move on to your next and build a career.”
I’m not the kind of person who can sit back. Call me a control freak, but I wanted a little more influence to get onto reader’s radar.
I came up with a plan outside the normal box. My book is aimed at women, so I’m sorry if my examples are focused towards the female population, but I want this article to open the conversation on how we can promote fiction better.
Read MoreSo I am going to ask Kathleen and Therese to bear with me here for a moment, I need to ask this great community to do something:
Go away.
That’s right, click away from this blog post right now, leave this wonderful website behind. Goodbye.
(Are you still there? You are such a stubborn writer! Which is why I love you. Okay, let me explain…)
Far too many writers build an audience of the WRONG people. As a writer, you craft a work that is meaningful to you, and you wonder how you will connect it to the world. So you begin engaging with people online and off, telling them about your writing.
And guess what? Guess who is MOST interested in this journey you are on? Readers? Nope. Oftentimes, it is other writers.
So we do what feels validating and welcoming: we join amazing communities such as staging-writerunboxed.kinsta.cloud. We forge relationships, we grow our platforms with people who want you to succeed as a writer.
But therein lies the problem.
These good people – these other writers, yes they may buy your book. They may read it too. They MIGHT even review it on Amazon & Goodreads. And this is good.
But what I worry about is that when you focus only on engaging other writers, you are not learning how to engage readers. Without the shared interest in becoming a writer, without tapping into that sense of identity and goals, you are not developing that keen instinct of who would love your book and how to get them interested.
Read More
