Get Known Before the Book Deal

The Writer's Digest Conference: The Business of Getting Published

The Writer's Digest Conference:  The Business of Getting Published is designed to guide any author through the new dynamics of today's publishing world.  This three-day event takes place Friday, September 18, through Sunday, September 20, 2009, at the New York Marriott Marquis, on Times Square in New York.

With emphasis on platform, networking and social media, The Writer's Digest Conference is an innovative and ground-breaking conference, featuring the industry's top forward-thinking speakers, leading sessions on topics relevant to the current and future state of the publishing world.

Chris Brogan, social media genius, is the keynote speaker.  Other speakers include Kassia Krozser, editor/publisher of BookSquare.com;  David Mathison, whose online sales success is the new business model;  Mike Shatzkin, the industry's top publishing consultant, Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler, whose own podcasts and videocasts have made them superstars in the business;  and many more, plus the editors of Writer's Digest!

Complete program information, including speaker bios, special events related to the conference and registration, is now available at www.writersdigestconference.com.

Publishers & Agents Need to Partner with Writers for Our Future Mutual Success

There are many ways publishers can work with their authors for mutual success. I always encourage first-time authors to partner with their publishers as much as possible. But really the advice works both ways.

I see the role of publishers shifting from publicist for a select few high-profile authors to platform educators for first time authors, context builders among the authors on their current and backlists, and content facilitators for readers.

Publishers can do more to help empower their authors using methods that have become quite inexpensive thanks to improved technology and the ease of networking online.

If agents and publishers aren’t viewing authors as partners, it’s just not good for the business of selling books in an increasingly transparent marketplace.

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez recently said--and I felt his comment was apt--Publishers need writers to stay in business, but the reverse isn’t necessarily true.

Maybe we aren't totally there yet, but this sure seems to be the direction we are heading in. Food for thought.

To Succeed Next Year, You Have to Ramp Up This Year

The sheer daily-ness of consistent platform development is the key to success. The other key is focus.

Just because someone is blogging or social networking, doesn’t mean that they are focused or creating community. They might just be killing time. I think anyone who has ever participated in athletics understands the concept of getting into “game shape.”

Do the guys playing in the Superbowl start working out a week before the playoffs? And yet, writers sometimes make the mistake of thinking that they are going to get discovered eventually rather than simply working slowly and steadily over time. I think a writer’s expectations, attitude, and willingness have everything to do with his or her success.

Fantasies are nice, but they are not business strategies. Unfortunately the media (and now the Internet) perpetuate myths about overnight success that cloud the truth, which is basically the old adage: no pain, no gain.

Once writers recover from hoping to be discovered, there is really only one thing to do: get to work on a viable platform that you can commit to for a period of years. That’s the kind of platform that’s going to support a book. That’s why I wrote Get Known as a progression of steps that any writer at any level can use as a guidebook.

Show me a writer who is willing to do a little bit of work steadily over time and I’ll show you a writer who is going to get known and eventually get a book deal.

Context Trumps Content or Without Context, Content Is Lost

Everyone keeps saying that the future of publishing is all about content. But without context, content is just a bunch of words. And an excess of words just creates static. After clarifying a platform, creating a context becomes the next step.

Creating context is key to platform development because writers need to attract a base of readers…and naturally this takes time and patience…and eventually content. But without a context for your content that resonates with readers, a writer is really missing a wonderful opportunity to create community. Content and context really go hand in hand and feed each other.

What forms will your content take to address readers’ wants and needs? Once you are creating appropriate content for your specific audience, you’ve very likely created a context where something exciting can happen between you and your audience.

A common mistake I see that pertains to context is writers teaming up with other writers to create a group presence but then neglecting to establish their personal online presence. Guys, it's just not helpful to ask people who are interested in you to go on a wild link chase to find out more about you. You need to name and claim and build your own site about you too.

When this happens to me, I'll click a couple of times, but once I realize the person has no central home-base of info about who they are, what they offer, and why I should care, I'm done.

Use the five-second rule. If I can't find out all the WWWWWH about you in five seconds, you've lost my attention. Start with Google. That takes about five seconds. Plug in your name and hit return.

Okay, now at a quick glance can I see exactly where to go to find just the right amount of details about who you are and what you offer? (Hint: The place I'll find this info is probably your website or blog.)

If not, then back to the basics. You'll find them in section three of Get Known. The very first thing your context should do is make my life easier when I want to find out everything about you and I have no time to do it.

That's just one example of context in action. I'll say more on the topic later because it's obviously a big and complex topic. And the Internet is a big and complex place. So keep some of your most crucial contexts simple.

Integrate Platform Development Into Every Workday

Some writers feel frustrated once they learn that platform development is an additional job to add to an already pretty hefty to-do list. And I can certainly understand this frustration because platform development is a specific skill set that every writer must learn.

But this doesn’t mean that building your platform can’t be integrated into your daily work rhythms with practice over time. Isn't that how we learn pretty much everything?

Yes, writers have to wear more hats today than in the past, so focusing on all the noise out there will only take a writer further away from what’s truly important—choosing the platform that comes naturally and building the most authentic platform possible for you.

Platform is not an act or a show you put on for the benefit of others. It’s a natural extension of your own curiosity, exploration and discoveries that you share with the world. It’s taking things writers traditionally love—stories, process and creativity—and making them public. Platform is aligning your niche topic and unique expertise with the appropriate audience to create a unique context and forge relationships and community.

Becoming visible won't be an overnight occurrence. Trying to rush platform development is a surefire path to frustration, not to mention publishing failure. When you allow yourself the time you need to build momentum, things tend to go faster than you expected. And then your platform momentum is positive and contagious.

But anyone can make good things happen in their writing career and the careers of others, no matter where they are in the platform-development process. Just begin today and take it one day at a time.

Roundup of Seth Godin Posts Seen and Read

Yes, I'm catching up on my GoogleReader. No point in pretending otherwise. You're sure to figure it out.

One reason Seth Godin is brilliant: Strangers and Friends

If you haven't read his, Permission Marketing, I strongly suggest it. PM still works best.

This is another keeper, Thinking about business models. However, I'd read Get Known to cut through the confusion factor. Writing a book can really help you clarify who you are as a writing professional and what you have to offer. If you are trying to do and be everything for an audience, chances are you are not making as deep an impression as you might think.

More brilliance: Mechanics vs. Intent

I could seriously kiss him for writing this one: A million blind squirrels

Brilliant quote: Big enough is big enough, biggest isn't necessary.

And another: Let me be really clear: My job is not to tell you what to do. I don't know what to do. You do.

Wow. And another: Prediction: 90% of your sales will come from word of mouth or digital promotion by 2011. How do you change what you're doing today to be ready for that?

I'd kiss him for this too: Snarky vs. Earnest

Nonfiction book writers will want to read this one: Blogs, books and the irony of short

In this post, Seth asks "What do you call things you disagree with? I call them baloney. What do you call them?

This is a great end-note: Opening acts and rock stars

So which are you? The opening act or the rock star?

I'll tell you what I think: Seth Godin is the real rock star. The rest of us can only aspire to fill his...er...head. (But let's face it--pun intended, Chris is great too.)

I was going to rant...and then Guy LeCharles Gonzalez said the magic words

Here's the magic words I couldn't quite come up with on my own:

Publishers need writers to stay in business, but the reverse isn’t necessarily true.

And with this one simple sentence, reprinted here, from this post in Publetariat/LoudPoet, "Tone Deaf Publishers Need Savvy Writers," I no longer feel the urge to rant.

I'll save the rant I started in my drafts folder just in case another good example of silly things people in the publishing industry say comes along.

I mean if I get to three (I have two really silly things collected already) then I'm posting it.

But for now, I'll stick with: what he said. Pass the line around. It bears repeating.

Get Known Buzz and a Couple of Brief Rants

First, I would like to thank the King County Library System, and especially Deb Schneider, for inviting me up to speak at three branches. The audiences were great. I learned so much from interacting with them. And I'm already hearing from folks who are mid-read in Get Known and are already off and brainstorming ideas for their platform development. Thanks, Deb, Mary Jane, and everyone who attended!

Now THIS is really cool. Violette of Violette's Folk Art (which is wonderful btw) shared this illustrated response to the May/June issue of Writer's Digest Magazine. I feel proud and humbled to have played a small part in the issue. >>>

Lindsey over at The Write Words says "Nonfiction is good for the mind, Fiction is good for the soul." I think that's an apt sentiment, don't you? She keeps her copy of Get Known in the kitchen. Where do you keep yours? (Don't say the bathroom!)

Agent Robin Mizell mentioned not only that I will be at the Writer's Digest/BEA conference in NYC on Wednesday, May 27th, but that I am "charming." I believe what she is referring to is my lack of tolerance for baloney and my commitment to keeping the platform conversation based in reality for the sake of writers.

More on that, in a short rant, tomorrow. :)

Book Promotion Tips from the Pros: Featured Author, Elizabeth Lyon

By Cindy Hudson

Elizabeth Lyon is the author of six writing books on fiction and nonfiction, revision, and marketing: Manuscript Makeover, A Writer's Guide to Fiction, The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit, Nonfiction Book Proposals Anybody Can Write, The Writer's Guide to Nonfiction, and National Directory of Editors & Writers.

Manuscript Makeover was featured in the December issue of The Writer as one of "10 Great Writing Books in 2008," and as "perhaps the most comprehensive book on revising fiction." Lyon lives in Springfield, Oregon.


Q. What can authors do before their publication date to make a book launch more successful?

A. As soon as the finished manuscript is delivered, authors should dive into reading how to promote books. I recommend Get Known Before the Book Deal by Christina Katz, 1001 Ways to Promote Your Book by Jon Kremer, and books by Dan Poynter.

They should create a marketing plan, as strategically detailed as if they were planning a presidential campaign. Their plan should include setting up a modern website, finding related websites where they can plan to ask for reviews and offer to be interviewed and write short articles, build a targeted list of "special venues," organizations, associations, and sales outlets that will sell the book but are not bookstores. They should plan speaking engagements, magazines and e-zines where articles or stories may be sold or offered, newspapers for features about them and their books, radio talk show venues if appropriate, and networks of friends and colleagues to help.

Realistically, any advance money should go to hiring a publicist, especially a publicist who specializes in Internet promotion. If there is no advance, the author should pony up money for promotion and know the royalty begins with the first book sold.


Q. What do you like best about promoting your books?

A. I'm more of an extrovert than an introvert. As a result, speaking engagements, teaching, and travel is stimulating and supplies much-needed people contact that I don't get at home editing or writing.


Q. What is one mistake you made promoting your first book that you'd recommend others avoid?

A. My first book was self-published. The first review to come out the reviewer did not like the book, primarily because of uncensored black-and-white photos of women giving birth. I was horrified by the review, fearful of having 2500 copies of a book forever in my garage, so I wrote a rebuttal and sent it to her - and to her managing editor. Don't do this! Later in my career, I had a bad review in The Writer magazine and I knew the reviewer had read my preface, scanned the book, and/or had some personal reason for panning it. I did not write a flaming letter. I did find a discrete way, years later, to inform the right person about what had happened.


Q. Can you share your top book promotion tip for first-time authors?

A. Find relevant websites to your subject (nonfiction) or your genre (fiction) and write an e-mail note to the newsletter editor introducing yourself and asking if that person would consider reviewing your book or posting an announcement. Of the 60 sites I tracked down for Manuscript Makeover, I received 25 reviews (all positive), which resulted in writers all around the country learning about the book, website or blog interviews, and which resulted in a number of speaking engagements in places that did not already know me.


Q. Is there something that is never too late to do when promoting your book?

A. In my opinion, it is never too late to do anything in your business plan for marketing your books. The only limitation is your time and energy. On my long-term follow-up plan is to track down the personal e-mail addresses of teachers of fiction and nonfiction in community colleges, colleges, and universities and to send a personal e-mail to each, by name, letting them know about my books and pasting in some compliments of them by other professors and teachers. I believe we authors must make personal relationships and help each other.

Last, we need to be the captain at the helm of our books, knowing that no one cares about their success as much as we do. Our partners are booksellers and librarians. My publishers don't market to libraries - a great awakening that was - so another author privilege is to let librarians know of our books. And, we can solicit three-way talks and mini-workshops to take place at libraries with books supplied and sold by booksellers.

One half of the job of being an author is writing, but if you want to have a career, the other half is all business.

Cindy Hudson is putting the finishing touches on her manuscript for Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs (Seal Press 2009). Her website, and its companion blog, feature reading lists, book reviews, author interviews, book giveaways and other book club resources. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Portland, Oregon, where she writes weekly for The Oregonian and edits the monthly e-zine, Writers on the Rise. Visit her online at MotherDaughterBookClub.com and CindyHudson.com.

Intro to Social Networking: Simple Ways to Promote Yourself Online (Part 1 of 2)

By Penny Sansevieri

As I've taught Internet marketing and publicity classes, I've found that marketing oneself online is still very confusing to a lot of people. Let's face it; our company has a department dedicated to this. Why? Because stuff changes all the time on the Internet; if we didn't have a dedicated department researching this and reading all the "geek stuff," we'd never be able to keep up. So I want to give you the bottom line basics because, at the end of the day, we all need to start somewhere and the best place to start is online.

Blogging: If you feel like you can't do anything online or you don't have the time for extensive promotion, the quickest and simplest thing you can do is have a blog. A blog is a great way to keep your site fresh (search engines love sites that are updated often) and a blog is great way to reach your readers. If you don't have a blog or haven't blogged in a while, take heart: start somewhere and plan to blog a minimum of twice weekly. You'll need at least two posts a week to keep it current. The biggest problem though with new bloggers is deciding what to blog about. Well, here are some ideas:
Talk about trends in the industry you're in. (This works even if you write fiction; talk about the publishing industry.)

Review other (similar) books. This is a great way to network with other people in your market.

Blog "in character." Readers love this!

Develop your next story on your blog: you can ask for reader feedback on story direction, characters, etc.

Lend your voice to a "hot" industry issue or controversy.

Comment on other blogs or feature them on your blog.

Interview people on your blog.

Talk about the elephant in the room: If there's a looming issue in your market, why not offer your insight on your blog?

Feedback and blog comments: If you aren't getting people commenting on your blog, don't despair. It takes a while to get folks commenting and offering feedback, but the more you can tap into issues your reader cares about, the more comments you'll see popping up on your blog.

Publishing content: The Internet has really opened the door to publishing and pushing a lot of content online. Whether it's articles, audio, or video, there's a home for all of it on the 'Net. Consider doing article syndication as a good place to start pushing content online.

Here are some basic guidelines for article syndication:

You don't get paid for this syndication. This is always the first question I get when I talk to authors about syndicating their articles, book excerpts, or tip sheets. You post it online for others to use and promote you. What could be better?

Your articles need to be helpful, not self-promotional. The more helpful they are, the more likely they are to be used. Yes you can mention your book but my recommendation is to keep any and all promotion of it to your byline.

Article titles are important. Remember that the title of your article must be descriptive, don't make people guess what you've written about. If you do, you'll find your pieces aren't as popular as you'd like them to be.

Articles should be a minimum of 500 words, max of 2,000. Generally the most popular pieces are around 1,000 words. Don't forget your byline and website address. Also, and very important, get those articles edited before they go out on the 'Net. Once you send them out, you can never get them back.

[continued next month...]

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the innovative Internet book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books including Red Hot Internet Publicity, which was just sold to Sourcebooks with a planned re-release in Fall 2009. To learn more about Penny's books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.com.