Help! Today I Have Nothing to Write About
I don’t think for a second that you’re struggling to come up with ideas for your next book or what to write about on your author blog and website. If you weren’t a writer, that would be one thing, but since you are, coming up with content for your audience comes more easily to you than to others. Quite the contrary: many writers suffer from writing too much.
There are, however, days when you feel like you have nothing of value to say, nothing to contribute to the Great Conversation that’s taking place in cyberspace.
In the Authors Academy, we drill into members the importance of regularly publishing quality content on your blog, so that your target audience (with ample help from search engines and social media shares) could find your message more easily.
As you build your digital author platform this way, by writing on your blog about your passion and your expertise, and sharing your blog content to social media connections and followers, you run the risk of appearing to talk only about yourself. Your own Twitter feed may be just a list of links to your own blog posts. That does sound a bit like the uncle at the dinner party who only talks about himself.
The cure to both having nothing to say and sharing only your own content with your audience is called content curation. “Content curation is the process of collecting, organizing and displaying information relevant to a particular topic or area of interest. Services or people that implement content curation are called curators” (Wikipedia).
Don’t just be a source of information about your expertise, be also the source of information about information. Be the source where people hear about other people’s expertise in your niche as well. This means reading and sharing what other authors, experts, and authority figures have to say.
Instead of appearing only to share your own content, share other people’s articles, books, videos, or blog posts with your followers. Instead of only posting what you think about healthcare, share with your followers what you yourself just read about healthcare. They presumably follow you because of your expertise. Why don’t you become a source of all useful information about healthcare, not just your own? Quote someone else’s blog post and link to the original post. Share or reshare someone else’s blog post on Twitter, Facebook, or Google Plus, and add your brief commentary to it. Prove to your audience that you don’t just talk about what you yourself think, but that you’re a virtual library of thoughts on healthcare, taxes, basketball, history, westerns, or fantasy fiction writing.
I admit it’s overwhelming to think about where to look for quality content to curate for your audience. I recommend starting with feedly.com. Type in your topic and see the latest thoughts on it. Build your library of blogs to keep up with, and when you feel you’ve got nothing to share, or if you catch yourself talking too much about yourself, visit your Feedly library for new inspiration. Scan the headlines, read the ones that interest you, and share with the rest of the world the absolute best! That’s the kind of content curator your audience will trust!
An Amazing Resource: FriendsPlus.Me
Recently, we’ve been emphasizing Google+ and its versatility. Here’s another reason to start using Google+ immediately.
FriendsPlus.Me allows you to post an update or picture on Google+ and automatically have that post appear on your other social media accounts. Go to http://friendsplus.me and connect your Google+ account. Then, choose which social media sites—Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Tumblr—you’d like to repost to. You can also select whether you’d like your Google+ posts to be immediately reposted on other sites or schedule a specific date and time. You could even pick a time of day when there will be more traffic on a social media site and increase your engagement with followers. Posting a picture? No problem. FriendsPlus.Me will include the picture at an optimal size when it gets reposted on Facebook or Twitter.
The main goal in using FriendsPlus.Me is to start interacting regularly on Google+, instead of spending all of your time on other social media sites. Your readers and fans may be interacting on only one social media site. Therefore, sending a message to multiple social media sites means that readers and fans can connect with you on the site of their pleasing. If you are feeling overwhelmed with the various social media sites, then focus on Google+ and let FriendsPlus.Me do the rest of the work for you.
How to create a strong social media profile as an author
Part of a successful digital author platform is a consistent brand image and active participation in several relevant social media networks such as Facebook or Goodreads.
Your personal brand should be consistent across every platform. This means you use the same name, colors, images, and biography for each account. For example, you don’t want to use your name on Facebook and the title of your book as your Instagram account.
If you plan to write more than one book, it is especially a good idea to go with your personal brand and get your name out there instead of just your book’s title. This personal brand will carry you through different book titles, speaking engagements, book tours, and other projects that will happen during your entire writing career.
For your author website, choose a domain name that has your name in it., and not one that is your book title. Then make sure you use your name consistently for your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other accounts. Don’t be Michael J. Taylor, Jr. on one and Mike Taylor on the other; pick one and stick with it. Each social media page should also incorporate the same colors, photo, and biography so that readers going from one platform to another will feel they are making connection with the right person, the right brand.
Finding a URL for your website using your name may not be easy. New domain names are created by the thousand every day, thus the chance of getting your first choice is rare. You may have to be creative and add a word or two to your name to make it work. If your name is Tom Jones, obviously, TomJones dot com is already taken. You can add a word to the name and make it work, such as TomJonesWriter dot com.
Before you purchase the domain for your website, cross-check the other major social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest, to see if that username or account URL has already been used in these places. Providing a consistent brand name across every platform’s URL will build name recognition more easily.
You can use a site like http://www.knowem.com to check the availability of your username or URL choices across 25 of the most popular social media networks. In some instances, you may have to adapt your name slightly by putting last name first or adding a word or two if your name is available in most sites but not all and you really want to use that one.
To get started creating your consistent branding message, spend some time brainstorming what message you want to convey to your reader. What words can you use in your tag line or short bio? What colors come to mind to connect with that message and what emotion do you want to convey to your reader to complete that message?
Gather all the information you will need for each site, such as URL, biography, images, and tagline. Write your biography in two different lengths: long and short. Start with the long one and then shorten it as this will help you keep the same tone and message.
Get a professional photo taken and use this for each social media account, including your profile on Gravatar.com. You can use Photoshop, or a free online editing program like Pixlr, to create different image sizes.
By having a consistent brand image on the Internet you have the opportunity to give people the idea that you as an author are present in many places online. On the other hand, if you use a smorgasbord of different names, pictures, logos, and colors, your brand will not be as recognizable. By being consistent, your digital brand will slowly earn recognition and awareness among your audience.
7 pitfalls to avoid in writing your first novel
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could simply sit down with your laptop or notebook and write your novel from beginning to end without any problems? Imagine waking up every morning with excitement to get a few more pages down and every week seeing the pages add up and the book coming together as easy as creating a favorite dish in your kitchen.
Have all the right ingredients? Check.
Have the oven on? Check.
Have the time to prepare it? Check.
When it comes to cooking, you’ve done it a hundred times and this time will be no different. You can already see the dish coming out of the oven and you know the pleased responses you will get when you set it on the table for dinner.
Just imagine what it would be to write a novel like that?
Have a good plot? Check.
Have time to write every day? Check.
Know exactly what you are going to do and how to do it? Check.
So what is the big difference? Why are you not on your 10th and 15th novel by now? Why are you still struggling with everything?
Perhaps there is more mindset to this game of writing than meets the eye.
Maybe you are thinking too much and doing too little.
After all when it comes to cooking you simply do it. Sure, you might have a few fumbles with a new recipe but it never stops you from getting something on the table every night. With this thought in mind, here are 7 mistakes that may be stopping you up from whipping up your next, juicy novel!
1. Thinking your book has to be perfect the first time.
2. Not starting because you don’t know where to start.
3. Quitting because the project seems too big, too hard and too complicated.
4. Stopping because you had no idea it would be this much work!
5. Hating everything you write and hating everything you write…
6. Feeling you were and are stupid to ever think you could write a novel! For heaven’s sake, what were you thinking?
7. Giving in. Giving up. Quitting.
Lucky for you there are ways to get rid of this mental crud very easily.
Apply these quick and easy remedies to each of the negative lemons and start drinking another cold, refreshing glass of lemonade. Your novel will get done. It will be the best you can make it. And when you are done with the first one, you will start on the second and the third and the fourth. You are a writer and nothing will stop you.
Let’s go!
1. Celebrate that your book does not have to be perfect to be wonderful! Think of it is as your first born. No matter how red, wrinkled and scrunched up looking that first triumphant finished book is, nothing is going to stop you from keeping it and acknowledging it as your own. You may have other books, better books, but this is your first and worth loving.
2. You don’t have to know where to start to start. Start anywhere and you are on your way. Write the end first if you want. Write what comes easy and flows. Keep writing.
3. No quitting. Simple as that. Don’t allow that option. It’s up to you to throw in the towel or not. Just refuse to do it. The book doesn’t have to be Shakespeare but for your own good it does have to be done. Lots of writers write first books that never get published. But they had to write that first one. So do you. Don’t quit.
4. Of course it’s a lot of work! But prop yourself up with visions of how wonderful it will be to actually be a published writer. Everything looks like a lot of work if you look at the whole project from start to finish. Instead, break it up into small enough, day-sized pieces and it’s doable.
5. Okay, on this one I can’t say that you will love everything you write, but I do know that as writers, we are not good judges of our own work, especially in the beginning. I do know that every day that we write we get better. It’s a learned skill and it does improve with practice and perseverance.
6. Of course you are not stupid! You are brave and wonderful to follow a dream and make it come true. When it comes to being a writer, it is up to you to make that dream come true. If you are a spiritual person pray about it and ask God or the Universe or whatever power above you that you can connect with to help you fan your talent into its most perfect state.
7. Same as # 2. Just don’t do it. Adapt, refocus, switch gears a bit, but don’t quit. Just keep at it and it will happen. The magic happens when we stay around long enough for it to germinate and grow!
How many words should a picture book have?
This is a question that many beginning writers have. How long is too long? And how long is not long enough? While every book can be an exception, you are far better staying within suggested guidelines for book length if you want your book to be accepted by publishers, parents and young readers.
Every book type has its own recommended length based on the age of the reader, education and book type. Obviously a thick paged picture book for a 3-year-old is going to be vastly different from The Mouse and the Motorcycle, a book for a ten year old to dig into for the first time.
Picture Books: Targeted for 2 to 8-year-old kids, this type of book typically has between 400 – 800 words. There are 5 basic types of picture books.
1. Young Picture Books aim for the 2 to 5-year-old. These are basic learning books that creatively teach colors, numbers or simple, fun stories for bedtime. Many of these books are written in rhyme or in a simple sing-song meter that is catchy and fun. Word count is between 200 and 400 words.
2. Basic Trade Picture Books as seen in most stores will typically have a standard set of 32 pages. These books are geared for children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old. Each page often has only one line to keep it simple and easy for a young child to follow. The word count to aim for with this type of book is usually between 500 and 600 words.
3. Novelty Books include pop-ups, puzzles, pull-tabs and other interactive features. In some cases, these books will have no words at all, such as for the very small child who likes to feel the fluffy cotton tail of a bunny or push the squeaker for a duck quack. If the book offers more complicated instructions such as for creating an origami bird or a fashionable paper doll, the word count can extend as high as 1,500 words.
4. Picture Story Books for older children between the ages of 6 and 10 include more text with each picture. These books can have as many as 1000 – 3000 words and may have pages without a picture. These books along with the chapter books (below) are for the child who is beginning to read and can follow word concepts without pictures. Often a parent or teacher might read the book aloud and then it is lovingly read again and again by the young reader.
5. Chapter Books are those magical books that transition the young reader from pictures to text. The chapters are short and simple with only an illustration or two per chapter. These books are for readers between the ages of 6 and 10 and can have as many as 3,500 words. Children often read these books completely on their own. Chapter books are often good for serials as children delight in one story and want more.
Word count is very important to writing books for young children. Publishers know this and often won’t even look at a book submission that is too long. Too many words are a warning sign that the author does not know how to write for the age group and that the book has not been edited seriously enough.
First time authors need to do everything possible to ensure their book gets a chance. Be professional and not emotional. Authors who think that their story is so good that a few extra hundred words won’t matter will find their manuscript on the slush pile. One glance. One look. Toss it.
Self-publishing authors will find that parents can be as critical an evaluator in making decisions for book length as any editor. The actual process of why they reject a book may not be as obvious to them but in most cases extra words mean the book is aimed at a higher level of reader than it is marked for. Take word count seriously and work within the accepted guidelines for the age group you are writing for. It’s only one point in writing a picture book, but it is an important one.
Want 15% of $26,000,000?
We’ve all received advance-fee fraud emails claiming that if we just allow the deposed King of Tannu Tuva to deposit $26,000,000 into one of our bank accounts temporarily, we’ll be able to keep 15%. At some later point we’ll be asked to lend $5,000 (the advance fee) very temporarily to allow the transaction to go forward. Ever wonder why the fraudsters don’t make these emails more believable? Why they claim to be from Nigeria when most people (correctly or incorrectly) believe that Nigeria’s the source of most scam emails? Why they don’t tell less farcical stories about why they need our help? Why they offer such absurdly large amounts of money for otherwise readily available, inexpensive banking services?
Because they only want to get responses from the very gullible. They want the somewhat gullible to weed themselves out, so the scammers don’t have to waste months in email and phone conversations with people who will, at some point, before sending any money, figure out that they are being scammed.
There are two powerful marketing principles here: First, marketing skills can be used for good or evil. (Please, use your marketing prowess only for good—to connect people with amazing books and services that offer them real value.)
Second, your marketing should not just attract people you want to engage, but also repel people you don’t want to engage.
Anyone in any business is familiar with prospects who take up ton of times but never buy, or customers who are endlessly difficult to deal with. You want your marketing to actively repel these types of people. This principle is especially important if you are marketing using a blog and social media. There are followers who comment frequently, demanding lots of answers and attention, without any intention of ever buying your books or service. There are followers who try to steer your following in directions other than what you intended, like to their competing books and services. You want your blog and social media presence to actively repel these types of followers.
The bottom line is: Good marketing attracts your best prospects and repels your worst prospects at the same time.
15 ways to market your book for less than a dollar
What’s stopping you from selling more books?
In most cases, it’s not money.
Authors tend to think that only if they had more advertising dollars they could turn their book into a bestseller. The truth is it’s more often an author’s mindset than an author’s checkbook that gets those books rolling out the door.
Spend your money on making your book the best it can possibly be. This includes a great cover, powerful editing and revising, tweaking, rewriting, editing, and revising again and then, when your book is perfect from the opening page to the end, you can use the following simple ways to get your book into the hands of avid readers.
1. Create an email signature and use it for every email you send out. Simple emails are often overlooked when it comes to book marketing, but personal notes actually have more influence than you think. When you include a simple link to where your book can be purchased, this informs your family, friends and contacts without being pushy or invasive. It’s there at the end of your note, no big deal. Most of your friends and acquaintances probably already know that you have written a book, give them a chance to explore further without pressure.
2. Once a week tweet some news about your book on Twitter. It doesn’t have to be a “buy now and get one free” sort of thing. Simply leave a comment about how your book is doing, what a friend said about it, or “Great news! The Browser Bookstore is now carrying my book!” As with all tweets, keep it short, interesting, and friendly.
3. Print off a postcard on your printer and mail it to someone. You don’t have to buy special postcard stock. Simply get a piece of 8½ x 11 card stock or heavy construction paper that will print. Divide the page into four equal sections and write a bit about your book. Include something of interest about it—a quote, a testimonial, a review. Then, add a link to where it can be purchased. Find an address to send it to and apply a stamp. In fact, if you don’t want to use a computer, you can simply handwrite your message for an even more personal approach.
4. Create a flyer for your book and keep them with you as you go about town. You can post them on bulletin boards in grocery stores, senior centers, and activity centers, and leave one in a barber or beauty shop.
5. Change the phone message on your answering machine to include a line about your book. “Hi, you have reached Joni Author. I can’t come to the phone right now; please, leave a message. Check out my new book, The Storms of April, on mywebsite .com, and let me know what you think!”
6. Get another piece of paper and create some simple bookmarks. Homemade ones will attract more attention. You can use a stick figure if you are not much of an artist. Include basic information about your book and then pop one into a library book or even in a magazine in a doctor’s office or clinic.
7. Don’t forget that word of mouth begins with you! Tell people about your book. Carry your book with you and if someone comments about it—tell them it’s yours! Have something fun or interesting to say about it that will create interest.
8. Take a picture of your book and post it on Facebook. If you are not a Facebook user ask a friend to do it for you.
9. Post a notice on Craigslist. It’s free and you can include a picture, information about your book, and offer to autograph it if you want.
10. Sell it on eBay! Lots of booksellers and authors do this. It costs nothing to place an ad and you might be surprised and make a few sales. If nothing else, you are giving exposure to your book.
11. Join online author groups and include your book title in your bio. If allowed, add a picture of the book cover.
12. Join an author support group and when it’s your turn to talk it can be about “your” book of course! Fellow authors are quick to support one another and even if they don’t buy your book, they may give you great leads as to how to promote your book.
13. Offer to give a free talk at a local school, church group or organization looking for speakers. The more people you meet and greet, the more exposure your book gets. Talk about how your book came to be written, the struggles, the joys and anything else of interest. If permitted, you may be able to sell your book at the back of the room.
14. Contact your local college, high school, senior center, etc. and offer to teach a course on writing. You may or may not be paid for it, but the exposure of having your book mentioned in the curriculum catalog or on the events board is great free advertising!
15. If you have a blog you can periodically mention your book to your followers. But even if you don’t, you can always read other book blogs and leave a comment.
When it comes to book marketing, being creative can get surprising results. Once you start the wheels turning in your brain for ways to spread the word about your book, opportunities will appear as if by magic. Be bold, daring and go for it. Nothing happens unless you do something! And once you do a little something, bigger opportunities often open up.
7 author marketing tips for books that appeal to women
There are as many ways to sell a book as there are people who write them. The one thing that is common among all book selling approaches is that you match the right book with the right buyer.
If your book is written typically for a female reader it makes sense to direct your book selling efforts to the places that women tend to congregate. The following seven tips are perfect for locating new readers for books written for women.
1. Women’s magazines. As a writer, try to get an article published in a women’s magazine. While it may be difficult to get accepted in the beginning by the top magazines in this field (Better Homes & Gardens, Good Housekeeping and Woman’s Day), it is still well worth your time to get published in smaller outlets that reach out to women. Work your way up by starting with magazines that have smaller circulations and you can increase your odds of breaking into the field. Once you have a few successes, it is an easier step up to try for the top ones.
2. Blogs for Women. The best thing about tapping into women’s blogs is that many, such as 5minutesformom.com , are open to guest posting. One way to find out is to search online for the name of the blog and add “+ guest post” in the search query. This will tell you in a second if the blog accepts guest posts. Most blogs that do accept guest posting will have guidelines to follow that make it easy to create a post that will be a perfect fit.
3. Women’s Clubs. Once your book is published, it’s a great idea to get a few speaking engagements for spreading the word about your book. Start by connecting with women’s groups in your local area including garden clubs, church groups, women’s book clubs, volunteer organizations or women’s community groups listed by meetup.com.
4. Shops where women shop. This one makes so much sense but many authors do not think about this simple strategy. Where are the places that women in your book target group go to buy things? Whether it’s a store for food, clothing, hair, or pedicure nail art, try to start up a conversation with the owner if it’s a local place and ask if they would be open to selling your book (with commission perhaps) in their outlet. Offer a free book for the owner and leave a free readers copy on a table with coupon and information for purchasing inside.
5. Women’s Holidays: Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Christmas are all great book gifting holidays. You can go the quick and easy route by spending a few advertising dollars or come up with a fun and informative three-to-five minute radio talk geared around the holiday and get on the radio. Submitting an article to your local newspaper that focuses on unique gifts for the woman in your life is another way to get great media coverage around holiday time.
6. Women’s Conventions. These are wonderful places to make book selling connections. If you are lucky enough to be a speaker, you will be able to connect to potential fans, but even as an attendee, you can meet other women and make a friend or two that could lead to book marketing opportunities. Women love helping other women. Find ways to help out and you will have a golden opportunity to slip something about your book into the course of conversation. One source to find women’s conventions is at eventsinamerica.com. There are 56 women networking events listed for 2014.
7. Women Authors. Don’t forget your comrades in writing! Put aside your fears about competition and instead think of ways to team up with fellow authors to create a bigger splash. Get together and brainstorm ideas and possibilities. Listen to what other authors have done and what works and what doesn’t in your area. Find out where other authors have successfully held book events and what they have done to sell books. Be generous in sharing your own successes and failures as it will generate reciprocal sharing.
Once you start thinking in terms of connecting with your female readers, more ideas will come to mind. When they do, write them down and be open to trying them out. If no one else is doing it, it may be the perfect opportunity for you. You’ll never know unless you try.
5 book marketing lies that stops authors from selling more books
Fiction authors are good at lying. Little lies and big lies that haven’t a speck of truth in them. Authors have no qualms filling their books with lies. They sugar coat their heroes with such virtues of talent, smarts and good looks that ordinary mortals step off the sidewalk to let them pass. Make way for superman and wonder woman! They describe their villains as malicious, scurvy folks that can be killed off with no more remorse than slapping a buzzing mosquito.
Imagination is what authors call it, of course. No one thinks of an author as a liar. That is much too crass and negative a word to describe such literary flights of fancy. Creative flow and artistic license is a nicer, digestible term. And people buy those lies; they love them. Who can stop with just one? They slap down money on the counter and walk off with the latest novel and can’t wait to escape into the lies and deception of the author’s latest creative endeavor.
So author lies are not all that bad in a novel or short story. But when authors hold onto lies as truth or cling to fears (false assumptions appearing real) as fact, serious problems develop. A lie, whether told to oneself or told by another, can be very damaging if the lie is believed and changes how one acts, believes and feels. The remedy for a lie is to expose it for the falsehood that it is.
Here are five lies about book marketing that many authors believe. These lies hold authors back from selling more books. When these lies are accepted as truth, they cripple every action the author wants to take to put their book on the best seller list. These lies about book marketing keep authors from making more money, getting more fans and, worse of all, stop them from writing more books.The good news is that once an author recognizes the lies that are stopping them from selling more books they can move boldly forward.
1. If my book is really good, I do not have to market it.
Many authors believe that good books should simply be discovered. Word of mouth should spread the news of the book like wildfire once a single person reads it. If my book were really, really good, I wouldn’t have to do anything at all to promote it. In fact, promoting my book demeans it and demeans me.
The truth is that 99.9 percent of every book is helped with promotion. Good book promotion builds the trust and credibility of an author and creates more fans. The more popular the book, the more popular the author becomes. The more books that sell, the more publicity dollars major book publishers put behind it.
2. Authors who promote their books have more talent, time and money than I do. They don’t have families to support, bills to pay or a full time job that takes up most of their day and saps most of their energy. Book marketing is too hard and takes too much money.
The truth is that book promotion can be as simple as telling a friend about your book or mentioning it on a Facebook post. You can spend as little as five to ten minutes a day promoting your book and get results over time. The most important thing is that you do something at least several times a week.
And yes, you should be prepared to spend some money to promote your book, but it doesn’t have to be a lot. You don’t have to put an ad in The New York Times or hire a publicity firm, yet spending a few dollars to create a nice website, sending a few postcards and buying a tank full of gas to go to a book event shouldn’t be overlooked.
3. Authors who are constantly telling others about their books are egomaniacs. They are only out to promote themselves. They are not nice, ordinary folks and they wish nothing more than to toot their own horn on every street corner.
The truth is that all kinds of people become authors — introverts and extroverts. A few are pushy, in-your-face types but many authors are more comfortable hidden away in a room with a typewriter. I rather imagine authors who are introverts far outweigh those who enjoy crowds and cameras.
4. My book is not good enough to compete with other books in the same genre. Maybe this is true. Possibly your book would be better if you did more research. A few more rewrites and editorial changes might be good. Perhaps your book would benefit from tighter narrative, shorter descriptions and more gripping sentences.
But the truth is there is a time for every fledgling to leave its nest. Baby birds don’t develop wing muscles until they start flying. Get your book out there and see what response you get from actual readers. If you publish your book digitally, you can easily do that fifteenth rewrite while it is selling.
5. If my book is over a year old, it is too late to do anything to market it. No one wants a year old book. The only way I can sell my book is to write a new one and just chalk this one up to experience.
The final truth is that people buy books because they enjoy them and want to read what the author has to share. Maybe your book is not a classic, but it doesn’t mean that it won’t be enjoyed by new readers ten or even fifteen years after it is originally published. Popular authors such as John Grisham get new readers of their old books every year. William Shakespeare, by the way, is still selling well several centuries later.
5 great places to give a book reading
Today when most people think of book marketing the first thing that comes to mind is social media — building a mailing list and getting likes on Facebook and tweets on Twitter. But surprisingly, the old fashioned methods of connecting face to face with live book events are as important as ever.
In fact, the connections made in person are stronger in many cases and can make a deeper, lasting impression. Shaking hands with a person, making eye contact and sharing a few minutes of conversation will create a more memorable bond than online connecting.
Definitely, it takes a bit more effort, and for the introverts among us, it may seem like a stretch out of the comfort zone. However, in many ways, meeting people in person can be a lot of fun and provide valuable feedback and encouragement that is limited when sharing 140 characters on Twitter or a three sentence photo comment on Facebook.
While it can take up to six months to build significant online connections, you can give a presentation to a small group for one hour and create relationships that will be remembered for years. There is a reason that politicians running for office spend long hours shaking hands with as many people as possible. One handshake is probably worth a hundred dollars in advertising spent online!
Most of us can recall connecting with someone in a one-time only, face to face encounter that may have lasted less than a minute, but we can recall every second of that minute years later.
Even casual personal meetings are more likely to be shared with friends both online and offline. Think about it. Many of us would naturally share at the dinner table about talking with a stranger in line at the airline counter but not even think about relating a Twitter connection or Facebook conversation.
Book events such as a simple reading do not have to be complicated, take a lot of preparation time or follow-up. And here is an important factor to consider; even if your book reading is not well attended the advertising of the event can be invaluable. For instance, if you offer to do a book reading at your local coffee shop at 3:00 on a Wednesday afternoon, you might have only half a dozen people stay around to listen. But most likely the coffee shop will advertise your event on their calendar, write it up on their chalk board and even allow you to leave flyers about the reading at the checkout.
If you arrange to do a reading at a hospital, school or public library you may get free radio advertising for the event simply by sending a public announcement news release to local radio stations. Offering to give a book reading at a local church will probably mean you get exposure in their church bulletin and perhaps even an announcement during the service.
Plus, every book event you create makes an instant newsworthy bit to share online. Get a friend to take a picture of you while you are doing the reading and share that on your blog, Facebook and Google Plus.
To give you a few ideas to get started, here are five great places to give a book reading. Not every book will lend itself to every venue but you should be able to find at least a few to get you started. Once you cover the places in your immediate neighborhood, you can venture further afield. Use the exposure of one event to encourage other places to allow you to give a book reading. Create a scrapbook of places you have given a reading and share that with those in charge of event planning.
1. Local Churches. While you can certainly target the whole congregation, you might want to narrow it to a specific group such as women’s club, men’s club or youth group. Many church groups are always on the lookout for something new to spice up an ordinary meeting.
2. Retirement Communities. Great place to find an audience for 15 to 30 minutes. Simply call the residence and ask to speak with the activity director. Most of them have a monthly Calendar of Events and are always scrambling to find a new twist to the regular monthly activities.
3. Schools. When starting out you may not be able to present to the whole school but even presenting to a single class creates a fun event. If your book has a historical background, you may tie it into a history class as well as a creative writing class. Business books will connect with classes in marketing, advertising and networking. From grade school to college, there should be places for you to make a relevant tie-in.
4. Bookstores. While it is getting harder and harder to find a mortar and brick bookstore, they are still out there and one of the things that makes customers shop at them instead of online is just such events as book readings!
5. Local fairs and community events. Drop in at your local Visitors Center and check out what is going on. While you may not want to pay for your own booth at an event, perhaps you can find someone who would love the extra exposure of having an author present a reading during the day.