Get Known Before the Book Deal

I WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOU IN PERSON!

Here's a list of 2010 events where we can connect in-person:

Digital Book World
New York, NY
January 26 - 27
Panelist: "Get Noticed! Earn Attention for Every Book"
More info


Private Workshop: Power Up Your Platform for the Internet Age
January 31st
Location: Wilsonville Public Library, Rose Room
Time: 2 - 5 p.m.
3-hour workshop
Increase your visibility and influence based on your personal strengths and balancing offline and online strategies.
More info/register


The Associated Writing Programs Conference
April 7 - 10
Denver, Colorado
The Colorado Convention Center
More info


The American Society of Journalists & Authors Writer's Conference
April 24-25
NYC, NY
More info


Oklahoma Writers Federation Conference
April 29 - May 1
Embassy Suites Hotel
Oklahoma City, OK
More info

Podcasting 101: Continuous Improvement

By Kati Neville

 

Continuous improvement and professional development are vital for writers. With enhanced skills and fresh ideas, we're more confident and better equipped to take advantage of additional opportunities. And people around us, like editors and agents, find us easier to work with too.
 
Apply your professional improvement standards to your podcast as well. I'm not suggesting that you give your podcast the same level of attention you give your writing, research, or business practices. Rather, make your efforts proportional to your podcast's relative importance to your career. This is art, not science. But when you've established a good metric, consider the following resources.
 
Attend podcasting or new media events. Expos and conferences provide strategic and technical tips. Podcamps are popular with podcasters because they aren't showy or pretentious. These "unConferences" are primarily local endeavors, sometimes in small venues such as libraries, where everyone is a "rockstar."
 
Large new media conferences, which cover podcasts in addition to blogs and social networking tools, are another avenue. It's always hard to generalize. But a more diverse audience may mean you're sacrificing breadth for depth.
 
Whichever opportunity you choose, take time to connect with fellow attendees. Yes, it's exhilarating to rub elbows with professional presenters. But don't neglect to meet others too. You never know when you'll meet the next new media guru!
 
Seek out books, blogs, and online articles about podcasting. My favorite podcasting books are The Business Podcasting Book and Podcasting Hacks: Tips and Tools for Blogging Out Loud. Periodically, I'll cruise the online booksellers and search for new titles. Turn to blogs and online articles after you learn industry and software terminology. You'll be able to evaluate the results of a quick Internet search more effectively.
 
Listen to other podcasts frequently. Podcasting is no longer a realm dominated solely by techies and teenagers. Small business owners, universities, multi-national corporations, churches, and libraries are podcasting. By listening to a variety of other shows, you will glean new ideas.
 
For example, while planning my vacation to New York City last summer, I discovered the podcasts for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. I eagerly subscribed and began listening to episodes about special exhibits, historical restoration challenges, and other subjects completely unrelated to my show. And yet, I still found several technical production and style ideas to try.
 
Don't be afraid to look for help or challenge yourself to become a better podcaster. Even small improvements will payoff.

Happy podcasting!

 

  

Kati Neville is coauthor of the best selling cookbook, Fix, Freeze, Feast. She is a contributing editor for The Saver's Kitchen podcast and regularly blogs on The Forklift. Kati teaches cooking classes in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. When not online or teaching, Kati enjoys writing and tasting new recipes in her kitchen.

Upcoming Classes with Qualified Instructors

Register Now for Winter Classes That Begin on January 13th

Now includes both regional and national markets!
Writing and Publishing The Short Stuff
Especially For Moms (But Not Only for Moms!)
With Christina Katz
Class Begins January 13, 2010
Prerequisites: None
Finally, a writing workshop that fits into the busy lives of moms! You will learn how to create short, easy-to-write articles-a skill that will make it easier to move up to longer, more time-consuming articles when you're ready. Try your pen at tips, fillers, short interviews, list articles, how-tos, and short personal essays-all within six weeks. Now includes markets!
Cost: $250.00
More/Register at www.christinakatz.com


Personal Essays that Get Published
With Abigail Green
Class Begins January 13, 2010
Prerequisites: None
The popularity of reality shows, blogs, and tell-all books proves that it pays to get personal these days. Whether you want to write introspective essays, short humor pieces, or first-person reported stories, your life is a goldmine of rich material that all kinds of publications are pining for. Personal Essays that Get Published will teach you how to get your personal experiences down on the page and get them published. Students will learn how to find ideas, hone their voice, craft solid leads and endings, reslant their work for different markets, and submit their essays for publication.
Cost: $250.00
More/Register at www.christinakatz.com


Updated and Improved!
Turn Your Specialty Into Course Curriculum
With Christina Katz
Class Begins on January 13th
Prerequisites: Former student or Permission from Instructor. Recommended before CSNBP.
I bet you have worked long and hard to discover your specialty, narrow the focus of your expertise, and build your credibility, so shouldn't you also develop a course curriculum that you can use as the starting point for years of teaching and learning from your students? I have been doing this for eight years and in this six-week class, I will share all of the insights I have learned so you can create your own class, including strategies for cultivating a following of students who succeed. This is probably the most important class I teach because it helps writers make the most of the expertise they already have.
Cost: $399
Register at www.christinakatz.com


Coming Classes:

Pitching Practice: Write Six Queries in Six Weeks
With Christina Katz
Class Begins May 12th
Prerequisites: WPSS with published clips or permission from the instructor.
In this writing class, pitching is all you do. Each week, you will study a successful writer's query and create your own list of steps to follow. You will receive a three-page worksheet weekly, which will provide helpful ideas and checklists to help you systematize your query writing process and increase your productivity.
Cost: $250.00
More/Register at www.christinakatz.com


Updated and Improved!
Craft A Saleable Nonfiction Book Proposal
With Christina Katz
Class Begins on March 3rd
Prerequisites: Former student or Permission from Instructor.
Most writers underestimate the comprehensiveness needed to craft a saleable book proposal that will garner the interest of agents and editors. They also mistake the definition of platform and importance of aligning their proposal to a solid track record. A two-time author, Christina has helped hundreds of nonfiction writers succeed over the past seven years. Now she's making her proposal-writing advice available in a six-week e-mail course to aspiring authors who want to nail the proposal the first time around. The best way to craft a short, tight proposal that will impress agents and editors is with the help of a seasoned professional.
Cost: $399.00
Register at www.christinakatz.com


NOW OFFERING ONGOING SUPPORT FOR FORMER STUDENTS VIA DREAM TEAMS!

Read the updated information and register here.

Invest In Your Writing Career Today
& Reap Greater Rewards Tomorrow.

Dear Fellow Groovers, November-December 2009 Issue of the Get Known Groove Starts Here

So here we are. The holidays have arrived. Happy holidays, everyone!

No doubt you are taking some time off. I hope you are or will.

Downtime is so important for creative people. Above all, we need to avoid that fanatical, always anxiously doing, doing, doing trap that is so much easier to fall into these days.

I spent five days not doing over the Thanksgiving holiday. Or if I was doing, it was just about vacation, family or home life. And now, I am returning to work, refreshed and clear. I'll be working pretty hard between now and Christmas...and I am looking forward to it.

Before I went away, I promised to make progress on some changes around here, and so I have. I've launched the all-new, fancy-schmancy christinakatz.com. Would you please add it to your blog reader?

I've not only launched, but filled a dream team that will run from January through May 2010. This is something I've wanted to do for a very long time and I could not be more thrilled with the positive response.

I've taken the liberty of included my list of 2010 classes with either Abigail Green or me, below. Two classes of particular interest to platform builders are Turn Your Specialty Into Course Curriculum in January, followed by Craft A Saleable Book Proposal in March. The two courses build upon each other well.

I've set a date, time and place for my three-hour Power Up Your Platform workshop here in Wilsonville on Sunday, January 31st. Hope to see anyone who is local there so we can have a three hour conversation about your platform plan for 2010.

And I'm still ticking to-dos off my list that are essentially game-changing for my career. And man-oh-man, it feels GOOD.

I mentioned that I hurt myself last year by working too hard and not paying attention to my body. Well, I've noticed that my body is humming along pretty happily since I've started making changes in earnest. So onward, full speed ahead! There are more changes on the horizon. I will make sure you are among the first to know.

I want to pause here for a moment and just say how grateful I am for all of you, for all of our 2009 contributors, and for our wonderful managing editor, Gigi Rosenberg. With assistance from Judy Miller since May, it has been my pleasure to bring you this e-zine. And I have been blown away by the quality of the advice month after month. I hope you have enjoyed it too. If so, please let our contributors know.
 
Make good things today and in the New Year!
  
Christina Katz
Publisher & Editor

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Book Promotion Tips from the Pros: Featured Author Kenn Nesbitt

By Cindy Hudson

 

Kenn Nesbitt is the author of five collections of funny poetry for elementary-age kids, including his latest collection, My Hippo Has the Hiccups. Nesbitt has three books coming out in 2010 and he is the creator of the world's most popular children's poetry website poetry4kids.com. He lives in Spokane, Washington with his wife and two children.
 
Q. What can authors do before their publication date to make a book launch more successful?
 
A. A lot of the promotion should be handled by the publisher, of course, as they are more likely to have media contacts who can generate some buzz around your book, but the one thing I think more authors should be doing is permission marketing. In other words, I think authors should gather the e-mail addresses of their fans to let them know whenever a new book comes out.
 
Nine months before my last book was released, I put a simple sign-up form on my website, offering free weekly poems by e-mail to my readers. That is, in exchange for their e-mail address, I send them a funny poem once a week. This is all handled by an "auto-responder" (I use aweber.com, but Constant Contact or others should work as well) so that I don't need to manually send the e-mails.
 
By the time the book was available, I had over 2,500 e-mail addresses of kids, parents, and teachers who enjoyed my poetry. When my next book is published, I expect to be able to send an e-mail announcement to over 6,000 people.
 
Q. What do you like best about promoting your books? 
 
A. Mostly I do assembly programs and writing workshops in elementary schools to promote my books. This has the advantage of giving me direct contact with my readers. I can try out new material on kids and see what they react to. I can find out what works for kindergartners, third graders, sixth graders, etc.
 
Although traveling is hard work, doing assemblies for kids is very rewarding. And because most schools sell books for visiting authors, I typically sell 5,000+ books a year myself.
 
Q. What is one mistake you made promoting your first book that you would recommend others avoid?  
 
A. I think I might have done better with my first book had it been published by a larger house; one with the resources to provide more publicity for the book. Because it was my first book, and my first publisher, I didn't know that some publishers promote their books more than others. I thought it was normal that I had to do all of the promotion and publicity myself.
 
Although I don't think I should have waited for a different publisher, I probably should have tried to work with the publisher's publicity and marketing staff more, rather than trying to do everything on my own.
 
Q. Can you share your top three book promotion tips for first-time authors?
 
A. Network. Explore the online "kid lit" community on the Internet. Read the blogs and introduce yourself. Connect with the folks who are blogging and podcasting about children's books. Stay in touch via social networking such as Facebook and Twitter. If they like your book, they will help you spread the word.
 
Use permission marketing. Everywhere you go, collect the e-mail addresses of everyone who is interested in knowing about your book. If you can send an announcement to thousands of readers, you're going to sell more books.
 
Read to your audience. Unless you are an A-list author, you may not have anyone show up at bookstore signing events. Instead of waiting for a few readers to come to you, go where the people are. I perform my work at schools (including high schools and colleges), conferences, festivals, libraries (summer reading programs), and any place else where I can share my work with a large audience.
 
Q. Is there something you would say is never too late to do when promoting your book? 
 
A. It's never too late to create a video to promote your book. This year Eric Carle created a video for the 40th anniversary of his book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. More and more authors are using videos on YouTube and Amazon.com to make a connection with their readers. In fact, if you'll excuse me I think I'll go make a video to promote My Hippo Has the Hiccups.

 

Cindy Hudson is the author of 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. Visit her online at MotherDaughterBookClub.com and CindyHudson.com.

I WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOU IN PERSON!

Here's a list of 2010 events where we can connect in-person:

Digital Book World
New York, NY
January 26 - 27
Panelist: "Get Noticed! Earn Attention for Every Book"
More info


Private Workshop: Power Up Your Platform for the Internet Age
January 31st
Location: TBA
Time: 1 - 4 p.m.
3-hour workshop
Increase your visibility and influence based on your personal strengths and balancing offline and online strategies.
Info coming soon...


The Associated Writing Programs Conference
April 7 - 10
Denver, Colorado
The Colorado Convention Center
More info


The American Society of Journalists & Authors Writer's Conference
April 24-25
NYC, NY
Info coming soon...


Oklahoma Writers Federation Conference
April 29 - May 1
Embassy Suites Hotel
Oklahoma City, OK
Info coming soon...

Intro to Social Networking: Twitter Your Way to the Hearts and Minds of Publishers, Fans, and Agents

By Meryl K. Evans

Many writers flock to Twitter, a colossal virtual water cooler where you can tweet thoughts in 140 characters or less. Some find the microblogging website eases the loneliness that comes with the writerly life. Others find it hones their writing because of the short character count. Others rely on it as a vital marketing tool.
 
Does the thought of marketing paralyze you? Marketing on Twitter doesn't mean the hard sell, pushing to sell your books and writings. Instead, look to Twitter as an opportunity to build relationships with readers, publishers, writers, and others in the writing business or in your topic's industry.
 
Five Ways to Tweet
 
Thinking "relationship building" compels you to write meaningful tweets that others will value. You can do that by writing five types of tweets.
 
1. Share links: Don't just share links to insightful articles and blog entries, but also explain what's behind them, add your thoughts or say what makes them a great read. Limit linking to your own content. Once or twice a day is a good rule of thumb as long as it's not the only thing you tweet.
 
2. Retweet (RT): Retweet means repeating what someone else said and giving full credit. Here's an example beginning with the original tweet and following with a RT:
 
wendyburt Q7: Don't think your work is done when you finish writing. You have to promote yourself. You are your biggest fan. And Mom. #platformchat   
 
merylkevans RT @wendyburt  Q7 Don't think work is done when u finish writing. U have to promote yourself. U r your biggest fan. & Mom. #platformchat 
 
The RT has a few edits because copying an original tweet in full sometimes goes over the 140-character limit.
 
3. Reply to other tweets: Replying to another person's tweet turns it into a conversation. Someone asks a question. You answer. Someone posts a statement. You debate it (nicely) or share an opinion. Someone inspires you. You recommend others to follow that person and explain why.
 
4. Post original thoughts: Share what you're working on, give advice on how to do something, critique a book you read, ask questions, anything goes within reason.
 
5. Participate in a group chat: Get Known Groove's own Christina Katz (@thewritermama) moderates a chat known as #platformchat. The chat welcomes two guest authors who leverage their strengths and expertise to build a strong platform. Katz interviews the authors who share their experiences and then lets participants ask questions for the remainder of the chat.
 
People who focus on getting lots of followers rather than on content won't benefit from Twitter. High quality contacts and conversations take time to happen.  Twitter first timers: dig in and have fun.
 
Get over 50 writer uses for Twitter.

 

 
Meryl K. Evans is the author of Brilliant Outlook Pocketbook, co-author of Adapting to Web Standards: CSS and Ajax for Big Sites and contributor to many others. The long-time blogger and gamer has written and edited for a bunch of places online and off. A native Texan, she lives a heartbeat north of Dallas in Plano, Texas with her husband and three kiddos. Though born in silence, she tries to show that deaf people are just like everyone else. Follow Meryl on Twitter at @merylkevans.

Fund Your Writing Projects: Featured Money Magnet Mary Szybist

By Gigi Rosenberg

 

When poet Mary Szybist received the call that she'd won $25,000 from the National Endowment from the Arts, "it was a gift of validation and helped me restore faith in my own work," she said from her home base in Portland, Oregon.
 
This was the second time Szybist, an assistant professor at Lewis and Clark College, had applied for the fellowship, which supports the creation of new work in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
 
Szybist will use her fellowship to finish her second book of poetry tentatively titled Incarnadine. Poems in this collection investigate the idea of "incarnation" in its many forms. For some of the work, she is finding inspiration in painters like Fra Angelico, who painted scenes of the Annunciation. The money from the grant pays for expenses like research and travel, including a trip to New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
 
To be eligible for an NEA fellowship, applicants must have published a book of poetry or have other publishing credits. Details on eligibility, deadlines, and application guidelines can be found at the National Endowment for the Arts website. 
 
Does Szybist have any advice for others applying for the NEA fellowship? "You cannot start this application the night before because the NEA application is very labor-intensive," she said. Also, because the application must be submitted electronically, she recommends getting technical help, which she received from a colleague, as you prepare your submission.
 
Did Szybist do anything differently on her second time through the application process? The application only asks for a 2-3 sentence description of your proposed project and Szybist said she honed those few sentences until her description was straightforward, distinctive, and detailed. She said she wanted to make clear what her project was and explain in fresh language what set her work apart.
 
I wondered how Szybist felt about having to describe the idea behind her poetry. Does she feel that detracts from her work? "I have a love/hate relationship with being forced to articulate what I'm doing," she said. "Poems have to have space to take on lives of their own. The danger of articulating is that it can lead to being over-determined and take the life out of the work."
 
"As loathe as I am to admit it, this can also be helpful. There can be something very generative about being forced to articulate a theme or an idea," she said. For example, having to put the idea into words can encourage a poet to decide on a theme to place at the center of a collection of poetry, a creative decision that can actually benefit the work. "You're being asked for your framework and that's fair," she said.
 
Szybist's first book of poetry, Granted, was a finalist for the National Book Circle Critic's Award in Poetry in 2003. In 2009, also was selected for the Witter Bynner Fellowship in Poetry from the Library of Congress. To hear Szybist read her poems, go to the Lewis and Clark College website.

 

Gigi Rosenberg's essays and how-to articles have appeared in the Seal Press anthology The Maternal is Political, Parenting, Writer's Digest, The Writer and on Oregon Public Radio. She receives rave reviews for the grant writing workshops she leads at NYC's Foundation Center and Chicago's Self Employment in the Arts. She has performed her monologues throughout the Pacific Northwest and now coaches writers how to give stellar public readings and write winning grant applications.

ORDER MY FORMER STUDENTS' BOOKS FRESH OFF THE PRESSES!

 

  

MORE BOOKS BY FORMER STUDENTS COMING SOON!

Writerpreneur: Build Your Platform with...Products!

By Gregory A. Kompes

Freelance writers rarely earn enough cash from a single source to finance their lives. We require multiple income streams. Creating multiple writing gigs is one way to accomplish that. Another way to add a stream, while building your writer's brand, is developing a product line. Journals, greeting cards, mugs, playing cards, and T-shirts are all popular options.
 
Having a product line serves two purposes. The first is to generate income. When I speak at conferences, high schools, and speaker associations, in addition to having my books for sale, I also offer my products. The second is to help build brand awareness.
 
You can start simply by putting your logo or Website URL on giveaway items like pens, mugs, or mouse pads. That's one way to keep your brand and contact information at client's fingertips. Or, consider something like this. I love taking pictures. I take them when I travel and when I interview people for articles and books. I snap away around town, too. I took advantage of this side interest by creating a line of art cards and gifts featuring my own photos. I use my photo journals, cards, and other products as giveaways, prizes, and for back of room (BOR) sales when I speak.
 
A company that can help you easily get started with your own product line is CafePress. CP is a print on demand (POD) product company so there's no initial investment, no overhead, and no warehousing of products. And using the service is simple. Just create a free account, upload an image or photo, choose the products you'd like to sell, add the uploaded picture, and set the price.
 
CP also allows you to purchase your own products below sales price so you can sell them BOR when you speak and present. For sample CaféPress shops, visit Writers on the Rise Online Store and my own shop of art cards and gifts. If you choose to create a CP shop, you'll help out Writers on the Rise if you use "writersontherise" as your referrer!
 
For a larger personal investment, you can create logo and promotional products even cheaper by using one of the many imprint companies around the world. My favorites are 4Imprint and Queensboro Shirt Company.
 
As you build your writer brand, adding promotion and logo products will keep you and your company in the minds of existing and potential clients.
 
 

Gregory A. Kompes, The Writerpreneur, is an Internet self-promotion expert. Gregory is the author of the bestselling 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live and the Writer's eBook Series that includes Endorsement Quest, Should You Write an eBook, and Your Online Media Kit. He is co-founder of the Patchwork Path anthology series, Presenters & Programs, the Writer's Pen & Grill, and Laudably Tarnished: A Poetry Workshop. Gregory is editor of The Fabulist Flash, an informative newsletter for writers, and the award winning Eighteen Questions, a Q&A series that collects and shares the experiences of published authors.