Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 6 (Your Fans)

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This is the last in this basic Net-Marketing series. There is, I'm afraid, more and more that one can do. (Blog tours, for one: see the link below.) But all that can evolve later, and only if you wish. Basically, what you've done, is set up a way to catch people's attention, and, hopefully, in the process, attracted them to your book. You've got fans. 

"Fans" is kind of a blown-up way to say that you've got enthusiastic readers: and they are a precious bunch. They are your core support. Treat them well. Thank them when they re-blog a post or a tweet, answer every email. 

Set up a Google Search so that any time your book is mentioned, you will be notified, and, should you wish, you can respond. (Signing off, of course, with links: to your book, to your website, etc.) 

Make it easy for people to reach out to you. Put your website address on your next book. Gather their emails and send out newsletters. 

Everyone in publishing talks about the importance of platform. You have to build it, bit by bit. I don't know who said it, but platform, in essence, is the place from where you speak to your readers. "Build it, and they will come."

Related links:

How to set up a Blog Tour

Net marketing for Ludites: Part 1

Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 2 (Cracking the Social Net)

Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 3 (Blog? Website? Both?)

Net Marketing for Ludites: Part 4 (Friends & Followers)

Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 5 (The Book Trailer)

How to promote your book without giving up writing

A wonderful article by Margaret Atwood on discovering the Twitterverse and other foreign realms: How I learned to Love Twitter.

*****
Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/
Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://bit.ly/sgullandFacebook
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_Gulland

Tumblr: http://sandragulland.tumblr.com/ 

Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 5 (The Book Trailer)

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Writers these days make (or have made) "trailers" for their books. These are put up on YouTube and on web sites. Here are a few examples:

Claude & Camile; A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell


The Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Series


Mary Sharratt's, Daughters of the Witching Hill

 Some authors get a lot of Net attention by creating a funny video. This one continues to get quite a lot of "buzz":

This emotional author video got over 1.5 million viewers and created a bestseller for author Kelly Corrigan:

Videos don't have to be expensive. With George's knowledge of film, his natural wit and Hollywood background, I imagine that he could come up with something catchy and off-the-wall.

Related posts:

Net marketing for Ludites: Part 1

Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 2 (Cracking the Social Net)

Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 3 (Blog? Website? Both?)

Net Marketing for Ludites: Part 4 (Friends & Followers)

How to promote your book without giving up writing

A wonderful article by Margaret Atwood on discovering the Twitterverse and other foreign realms: How I learned to Love Twitter.

Next up: Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 6 (Your Fans)

 *****
Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/
Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://bit.ly/sgullandFacebook
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_Gulland
Tumblr: http://sandragulland.tumblr.com/

Net Marketing for Ludites: Part 4 (Friends & Followers)

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You've got your sites set up and you're sending out pithy thoughts. You're cooking! But who is reading them? Your "followers" (on Tumblr), your "friends" on Facebook and MySpace. With luck, maybe some of your followers and friends will re-blog your posts, in which case they go out to all their friends and followers, etc. etc. etc.


But basically, you need to have some friends and followers of your own ... and there's nothing more humiliating or infantile than having to send out "Will you be my friend?" messages hither and yon.


What you can do: follow and befriend others, and then maybe they'll follow you back. Troll the friends and followers of the hip and famous (or simply like-minded) for possibilities. Some sites allow you to upload your email contacts to see who might be on the sites: this is a good way to create a base. MySpace allows you to find people on-site by age, sex, marital status (creeps!)...but also by interests. You might be able to hone in on people who might be interested in your subject.


One word of caution: only go looking for friends and followers after you've posted some interesting posts and all your sites look inviting.


Also: limit it to 20 minutes at a time. It's too demeaning!

Related posts:

Net marketing for Ludites: Part 1

Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 2 (Cracking the Social Net)

Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 3 (Blog? Website? Both?)

How to promote your book without giving up writing

A wonderful article by Margaret Atwood on discovering the Twitterverse and other foreign realms: How I learned to Love Twitter.

Next up: Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 5 (The Book Trailer) 


*****
Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/
Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://bit.ly/sgullandFacebook
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_Gulland
Tumblr:  http://sandragulland.tumblr.com/

Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 3 (Blog? Website? Both?)

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Does an author really have to have a website and/or a blog? Websites can be expensive to set up, and even more expensive to maintain. I suggest setting up a simple blog that serves as a website. I use Blogger, but WordPress is another good one (possibly better). Both are free.


If you don't want to set it up yourself, I know that there are people trained to quickly set up WordPress websites, and no doubt on Blogger as well. Once set up, you can easily maintain it on your own.


The advantage of a website/blog is that it serves as a place for all your information. It's where media will go if they want to contact you. It's were readers first go when they want to know more about you, or to email you. It's where you announce your events, post your videos, your reviews, your stuff. 


Here's an example of a WordPress Blog-style Website:

http://andyremic.wordpress.com/

The other important function of a website is that it can serve as a fan e-mail collector: the basis of a newsletter mailing list. These are your core fans, your core support.


While a website is fairly static, a blog is active. One page in the website might be a blog. If you write a blog, you should blog at least once a week. The blog written on the website can be automatically posted to your page on Amazon as well as to your Facebook Fan Page, and links to the blog can be posted on Twitter, MySpace, Tumblr.

I can see George blogging about his work in progress, or posting random paragraphs from his published work.

One important thing about blogs: they should be short, and the title should be catchy.

The only way that I have found to have blog posts automatically sent to ping.fm (and then to all your sites) is to use TwitterFeed.com. This can be tricky to set up: tech nerd recommended! You can always simply make a bit.ly link and post your blog to ping.fm yourself.


Related posts:

Net marketing for Ludites: Part 1

Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 2 (Cracking the Social Net)

How to promote your book without giving up writing

A wonderful article by Margaret Atwood on discovering the Twitterverse and other foreign realms: How I learned to Love Twitter.

Next up: Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 4 (Friends & Followers)




*****
Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/
Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://bit.ly/sgullandFacebook
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_Gulland
Tumblr:  http://sandragulland.tumblr.com/

Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 1

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I always knew my good friend George Whiteman was talented: his paintings are amazing; his CV includes album cover designs for the (now) classically famous. But now he has published a memoir (the first in a trilogy) — The Perennial Freshman — and it turns out he's also an amazing writer.

But now that he has a book out, he needs to know how to promote it. He's never seen a Facebook page, thinks Twitter is what birds do, and doesn't know what a blog is. Where to begin?

First, I would say: the old-fashioned way, by pitching his book face-to-face with bookstores. No successful author hasn't set out on that humiliating road without a box of books in the trunk of their car (John Grisham, Margaret Atwood ... ). Independent bookstores are best (although harder to find). Put together a flyer on the book so that you have something to leave with the clerk and make a dignified exit. (The book has rave Amazon reviews, so he should be sure to quote them in the flyer.)

He should give readings: it's good practice, even to an audience of two (his wife and the bored store clerk). This, too, is part of every writer's experience. If he is in a particular area, his publicist should be able to contact bookstores and set it up. Remember, with readings, it's about practice performing, and about having something to hang promotion on — a reason to put up posters and contact local media, etc. It's not about turn-out (but nice when it happens).

One idea is to film these readings, edit them and put out a short clip on YouTube. George is a natural comic, and this could be a home-run way for him to find his audience. Heck, splice in hecklers and a laugh track!

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An excellent book on the practical side of from-the-ground-up promotion is How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights, by Ariel Gore. She also discusses putting together a book tour, which many authors do, although the trend now is toward a "blog tour" (more on that later).

Next up: Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 2 (Cracking the Social Net). Watch this space.

*****

Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/
Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://bit.ly/sgullandFacebook
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_Gulland

Tumblr:  http://sandragulland.tumblr.com/

Google Lit Trip: student guides wanted!

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I just found out about Google Lit Trip and suddenly I'm thinking (with a bit of fatigue, I confess) that I could make a "Lit Trip" for each of my books.

I already have a Google map for all the places mentioned in Mistress of the Sun. It probably wouldn't take too much to turn it into a Lit Trip.

My imagination takes off: embedded photos, both old and new. Passages from the novel. Travel notes!

It's meant to be a great tool for educators — and it is, clearly — but I think the general reader would enjoy it as well. 

Sigh! I have a novel to write. I'm hoping perhaps some students will take this on. There are several wonderful student-created Lit Trips on the Google site. One of my young readers created a website for Mistress of the Sun as part of a computer class. Imagine an English or History teacher assigning the creation of a Google Lit Map of a historical novel ... mine, for example. I'd be delighted to help.

Link for Google Lit Trips:
http://www.googlelittrips.com/GoogleLit/Downloads_etc..html

Link for the Google map of Mistress of the Sun:
http://bit.ly/MistressoftheSunMap

*****
Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/
Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3xzbgv
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_Gulland

How to promote your book (without giving up writing)

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Stephanie Cowell, a wonderful novelist (click here to see her titles), wrote to me this morning:

I keep up my website and blog there, keep up my art web site, keep up my Amazon page, twitter, Facebook, reconstructing mailing list (!), answering many lovely e-mails….  What else do you do? I am afraid if I try much more I will not be able to submit my next book for hopefully a contract late winter. I’d appreciate advice. I also have not scheduled many in person signings. This is all so much more complicated than publishing a book several years ago!

This is such a big problem now. Writers have to invest both time and money in self-promotion, which robs time away from what's truly important: writing. 

How does one juggle so many balls? I suggesed to Stephanie that she try to get as much mileage out of what she was already doing (which is a lot). This is what I wrote to her:

Do you use Ping.fm or HootSuite.com? You set these up to automatically post your blogs to Twitter, Amazon and Facebook. (Note: my current favorite is HootSuite.)

Google Alerts are good for finding out whenever your book is mentioned on-line. Then you can leave a personal note, if it seems appropriate. The same for Twitter. Through a TweetDeck search, for example, I know whenever my novels are mentioned, and can respond. 

I’ve been making a point of including my on-line connections whenever I post to a blog or list. (See below. I don’t usually include a picture unless it’s an email — HMTL can be tricky on some sites.)

For answering fan mail, save time by creating a form-letter answer in signatures that’s easy to make personal. (A note on answering fan mail — some authors create an assistant identity to answer their mail. There’s an advantage to this: you can toot your own horn.)

Ultimately, a newsletter is important, so building up a database is crucial.



If you have a Facebook page (“fan page”), you can send out ads really, really cheap. It’s a lot of exposure for very little time and money.

Signings/readings do very little, in fact. So few people come! The main advantage is that it gets promotion. (I used to work this very hard, sending out posters, contacting the local media, etc.) Also, every reading you give is practice for the next one — every writer is an entertainer in training. And face-to-face reader contacts are wonderful, of course (the best).

There’s YouTube, as well — I use a little Flip video to record a reading or interview. These are good to put on your website and blog.

Book clubs are wonderful but hard to get to. I’ve been looking into Skype chats. (I still can’t figure out how best to reach book clubs, however.)

Book trailers are either time-consuming or expensive, but seem to be more and more important. (Are we to become film-makers, as well?)

I'd love to hear from readers of this blog: any other ideas? 

*****
Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/
Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3xzbgv
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_Gulland

Book trailer goes viral

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I'm both moved and inspired by novelist Kelly Corrigan's home-made book promotion trailer: it made me weep. Gone "viral," it's had 4.5 million viewers so far — and rising, no doubt. Watch it: I think you will see why. Kelly's words pull at the heart in key ways. She expresses herself so movingly, so poetically, the video made me interested in checking out her novel, The Middle Place.

How to set up a blog tour

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I've been asked about my Blog Tour twice in two days: How did it go? Who organized it (and how)? Who pays? So I thought I'd post about it here.

First of all, I'd say it went really, really well. A Blog Tour gets your book a lot of visibility and reviews.

I've never heard of a publisher organizing one, but it's possible. I've only heard of authors organizing a Blog Tour, and paying for the lion's share of it. There are Internet sites that will do this — TLC Book Tours (http://tlcbooktours.com/) is one — or you can do it yourself, or hire an assistant or publicist to help set it up. I hired an assistant — my "VA", or Virtual Assistant — but it was a lot of work, even then. My costs were low, under $500 for an extensive tour, but I think $2000 is more in range. (I'm no expert on this.)

The process, in a nutshell, is to contact suitable blogs, and ask if they would be interested in being part of the tour. If so, a book (or two) is sent to them: to give away in a lottery, review, and/or invite you to write a guest post or interview you. A schedule is made up, so — say — over the course of a month, the book is being featured two or three times a week.

The first thing to do is to make up a list of possible blogs. This takes a little research. My VA and I Google-searched for book blogs, and, in particular, looked for blogs that favored historical fiction. You need to look for "high-traffic" blogs, blogs that have a number of followers. I looked over the blogs other authors have included on their blog tours (just as others will do for my own). We found a wonderful Book Blogger group on ning.com (http://bookblogs.ning.com/) with a sub-group of bloggers devoted to historical fiction: bonanza!

Then the bloggers are approached, and if they are keen arrangements are made for a date and an understanding of what, exactly, will be done. Books need to be sent to them well in advance: my U.S. publisher took care of this, which was great. My VA took care of all the correspondence and scheduling.

My own feeling is that a review should be required (and ideally, as well, that the review be posted not only on the blog but on Amazon.com, other book sites and a link posted to social networking sites such as Twitter, etc.).

Book give-aways are also great: they create so much interest.

The interviews and guest posts entail a lot of writing, however, and of the two, interviews are less time-consuming (in my opinion). My feeling, at the time, was that a Blog Tour was every bit as consuming as a Book Tour coast-to-coast, but that's likely an exaggeration.

And then it's simply a matter of keeping on top of it: sending in your posts and/or interview answers on time, and then sending out follow-up thank-you letters. Book bloggers are amazing: they work hard for free, and deserve lots of applause.

If you Google "blog tour" you will find lots of guides.

For my tour, go to the Events page on my website and scroll down to "April/May Blog Tour links":

http://sandragulland-events.blogspot.com/

Donald Maass podcast

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I know I've mentioned before how I love to listen to Barbara DeMarco-Barrett's Writers on Writing podcasts when I'm doing the dishes, or sitting in an airport, or driving long distances. During this last long bout of travel (the last for a bit, I pray!), I enjoyed a number, but one in particular stood out for me: an interview with NY literary agent Donald Maass. I've read Donald Maass' book Writing the Breakout Novel -- and I wish I had it here with me now in my office in Mexico, because there are a number of interesting things he has to say in it.

Before writing the book, Maass made a systematic study of the novels that made the NYT bestseller list, wishing to identify what it was about a novel that made it outstandingly popular. I'm not attempting to be a Danielle Steels or Stephenie Meyer, but I do appreciate insights into what makes a story compulsively addictive. I like when a book has me deeply hooked: I love it ... and that's what I'm after.

Two things stood out in this particular interview for me:

One, that a compelling main character should be deeply conflicted right from the start: he or she must want two things that cannot co-exist.

The other thing he had to say that gave me thought was not so much about writing as about promotion: his belief that promotion and publicity isn't what sells a book — that what sells a book is the book itself. I'd like to believe that, but I'm not convinced. I don't think it's an accident that the Josephine B. Trilogy sold very well in the countries that invested a great deal in promotion (and conversely).

To town and back

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It has been eight years since I've had a book out, and the entire process has changed. We don't see galleys anymore, for example, and much of the promotion is through the internet. Before, when I had a reading, I would make up posters to put up around town myself, or mail off for others to put up. Now I'm thinking of making up a poster that can be downloaded and printed from my website.

Some things never change, however: and that's the need for a box of my books in the back of my car. I went into town today — gas, bank machine, drug store, grocery store, flower shop ... — and I was asked several times for my book. (The town is small, 600 at last count, and bookstores nonexistant.) I'd forgotten about this part of the process, this ever-so-sweet selling of books out of the trunk of a car, a tradition every writer alive has been part of. I think of Grisham, driving around the country, peddling his novels to bookstores. I think of Dickens. It wouldn't have been a car but a horse-drawn buggy ... but without a doubt, he would have had books with him.

On airport bookstores

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I cannot pass a bookstore without browsing, and for a few moments in a Virgin bookstore in the Vancouver airport, I loose myself in the titles. And then I wake up: I'm an author, I've a new book just published, is it on the shelves?

No.

I can't believe it. How is that possible? It's not that it's a hardcover, for they do have other hardcover fiction titles displayed, and published by my own publisher — titles not on the Maclean's best-selling fiction in Canada list for over two months, I note with angry jealousy. For a crazy moment I consider inquiring of the clerk, and imagine her saying, Oh, we just can't keep it in stock, it flies off the shelves. Instead I skulk away, pouting.

It's amazing how emotional this can be. I'm not this type of person — normally. But normally, too, I'm not on a book tour, I don't have a book out, and normally I do not have a book on anyone's best-seller list. A sense of entitlement comes quickly ... and lethally.

I remember walking in a mall with my then-young son just before my first book was to be published. Passing a bookstore I told him, "Next time we come, my book will be in that store." I realized, then, that my bookstore experience would change forever. No longer, relaxed and easy browsing. Once I had a book published, I would approach bookstores as an Author, making sure I was presentable, checking to see if my titles were on a table or shelf, and then going up to the clerk and explaining that I was the author of a book on their shelf (pointing), and offering to sign.

It's a job, what you do. My experiences have been varied, from the manager of a large store jumping up and down with enthusiasm, to an annoyed end-of-day who-needs-this response from a clerk. More and more, I'm asked to prove my identity first with an ID before being allowed to sign.

I came to see airport bookstores as the cream of the crop, and longed for the day when my books would be in one. I remember with great satisfaction when I first saw the titles of the Josephine B. Trilogy on the shelf of a bookstore in a San Francisco airport. As the Trilogy became more successful, I began to even expect to see it.

And so, grumpily, I left the Virgin bookstore in the Vancouver airport and proceeded through check-in. There was another bookstore on the way to my gate: I glanced over the shelves warily. No. No. No.

And then: yes. There is was, Mistress of the Sun stacked ever so nicely on a shelf at the front.

Happily, I got on the plane.

With voltage

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I sent out a newsletter this morning, and was taken aback to discover that the lion's share of the clicks went to this blog. I wasn't sure that my house was in order.

Truth is, my house is in profound disorder! Having a book published is rather like having a baby--suddenly there is so much to do, and so little time. Suddenly there are waves of emotions, and cherished moments with so many readers.

Once upon a time (surely I should begin a book that way one day), a German fan posted a review to Amazon in Germany. Through the wonders of the internet, I could have it translated. Basically what I learned was that she was chained to her chair and experiencing reading my book with voltage. Once I got past the fear that she had electrocuted herself, once I understood that what she had said, in her native language, was that she was enraptured, I began to see the term "with voltage" not as a mistranslation, but as the true thing. The ideal reading experience is one that happens "with voltage." And writing, as well.

And now, meeting the readers, I see it as yet another form of voltage. Writing a novel is an intimate act; reading a novel is likewise intimate. There is a very special connection between the writer and the reader — and meeting with readers this week, and hearing of their profound connection to something I had created: this, surely, is voltage.