Stephane Hessel, 95-year-old international publishing phenomenon
On Tuesday, February 26, 2013, Stephane Hessel died. He was 95 years old. He was not well known outside of France until three years ago when, at the age of 92, he wrote and published a small, 4,000-word pamphlet. The original print run was 8,000 copies. It was 29 pages and bound with two staples.
It took France and Europe by storm. The same defiant spirit that had caused Hessel to be a hero in the French Resistance sixty years ago burned anew with the same vigor and energy. His words were few but they were strong and ignited a crackling flame of resistance.
He urged young people to unite against the injustice of a nation out of control. He called for a peaceful rebellion against what he called the dictatorial forces of international capitalism.
His plea was that the privileged classes must help the less fortunate, not grind them beneath their feet. He targeted France’s treatment of illegal immigrants, the news media controlled by the rich, the cutbacks, and the continued cutback of social safety measures for minorities, and Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians.
The fiery pamphlet struck a chord with young people upset by the policies of French president Nicolas Sarkozy. It was distributed wildly during Christmas by left-leaning parents wanting their children to become aware of the cause. Protesters responding to the economic crisis grabbed the pamphlet and held it aloft as a rallying cry across Europe.
It was quickly translated into more than a dozen languages and in less than a year sold more than three million copies. In 2011, it was published in the United States with the title Time for Outrage. It was handed to participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement that started on September 17, 2011, in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District. It has now spread to over a hundred cities in the United States and 1,500 cities across the globe.
Authors of every age, young and old should be inspired by the success of this amazing author, Stephane Hessel. At Wheatmark we believe in helping authors with every step of the writing and publishing process. Whether your book is is in the beginning or final stages, tell us about your project.
7 surprising reasons why you should use demographics to sell more books
Almost every author wants to sell more books.
New authors think if they can just get one lucky break the yellow brick road of fame and fortune will magically open and their worries will disappear.
If only that were true.
The truth is even if an author does get a few lucky breaks there will still be periods of time when they will have to grab their bow and arrows and go hunting for readers.
In order to do that successfully you need to find the hunting grounds where your readers are feeding.
Your readers.
Not the reader of another author who writes in a different genre than you do or appeals to an audience that has nothing in common with your style of writing.
Finding the common threads between your book(s) and your book buying audience is the basis of target marketing for authors. There are many different factors in breaking down an audience demographic. Some of course are more valid than others are for authors but you will find that all do play a role in targeting a reading audience.
What age group is most likely to be interested in your book?
One way to figure that out is to start crossing off the list those who don’t fit and see who you have left. This does not mean that other age groups will not read your books but it does mean that you concentrate your time, money, and energy on the group that will give the highest return. Consider the amazing sales of Harry Potter. The target audience was for children between the ages of 8-12. Once the books became wildly popular, all ages loved the book but the target was for a specific age group. The cover design, advertising, and roll out to schools, social media, and book reviewers all targeted that age group. This is where the books made their biggest impact and continues to do so today.
Here is the typical breakdown of age groups.
- 3-to-5-year olds
- Middle schoolers
- Teenagers and young adult
- Echoes born between 1979-1990
- X-ers born between 1965-1978
- Boomers born between 1946-1964
- Matures born between 1909-1945
Where does the location of your book take place?
Typical readers are more comfortable reading about lifestyles that they can easily relate to or have some experience of. Do your books take place in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, the North Pole? Outer space? Customs, manners of speech, thinking, lifestyle, all play a significant role in how attracted your audience will be to specific locations.
Does your book lean toward a male or female audience?
This is an important one that some nonfiction authors do not take into account seriously enough. While some books do easily cross the lines many business books will find the common base of attraction more with one sex than the other. For instance, though both men and women are interested in social media, their approach to it and their reasons for using it are quite different. With Facebook, women are more interested in making connections and men in raising their status. If you try too hard to appeal to all, you may find that neither side makes a strong connection.
What is the income level of your best reader?
How expensive is your book? If you are writing a book about frugal living but the price is $50, you probably won’t be seeing a lot of dollars rolling in. If your book is aimed at a more influential segment, pricing it too low may cause it to be dismissed as not having value.
What education level does your book reader have?
It’s not only the reading level of your book that matters here but also how comfortable your readers are with different topics, ideas, and the way things are presented. College professors are happy with statistics, logical analyses, and extensive footnotes and references. Others would just like you to get to the point and leave out all the why, wherefores, history, and background.
What is the marital status of your reader?
Yes, it matters. Not for all books perhaps but lifestyle is very much affected by the family or group one is engaged in. Parents have concerns that singles do not. Young couples are faced with problems older ones have already worked through. Long-married couples have trials that the honeymooners think will never happen to them. Divorced, separated, and widowed people have levels of hurt and pain that are often still being worked through.
What occupation will you typically find your reader involved in?
This factors significantly in nonfiction but will play a role in novels as well. How much educating of the reader needs to be done to bring them into the action? If your book is about finance and you are talking to bankers the level can be pretty high. If your book is about street musicians on the other hand, you will need to tone it down some. Even though a number of street musicians have impressive college degrees, the lifestyle is certainly more laid back, day-to-day, in the moment, and your readership will be attracted to those who want to embrace that lifestyle.
What is the ethnic background of your book?
This is important in many more ways than you would think. The type of clothes you wear, the car you drive (or don’t), the food you eat, the places you shop, work, and go for relaxation all have definite ethnic attraction. The way kids are raised, spirituality is followed, and family lifestyle is lived out are significant factors in readership.
The more information you have about your readers the more closely you can direct your book publishing efforts. Wheatmark can help you create a book marketing strategy that will help you maximize your impact while minimizing your time. To learn “the one way” to market your book, visit http://authorsacademy.com.
Is Amazon Author Rank a good thing for Authors?
On October 9, 2012 at 3:55 am, Amazon rolled out another feature for their readers called Amazon Author Rank. It rates the most popular authors by the hour. Readers who are floundering for what to read next can jump on the “what’s popular” train and make a winning selection.
So, is this good news or bad news for beginning authors who are miles away from the “Most Popular” zone? Is this a case of where the popular gets more popular and the rest of the herd slips further and further back into obscurity? You can be the judge. Here are some pros and cons for what Amazon Author rank does for authors.
The Good News
If you have any ranking at all on this list, it can be a definite pat on the back. A confirmation that you are doing a few things right and making progress.
It can also be a goal, something to aim for in the never-ending climb to author fame and fortune.
Used as a gauge it can measure progress (according to Amazon) on whether you are moving forward, holding still, or slipping into the ooze of the lost, gone, and forgotten author sink hole.
Use Amazon Author Rank as a motivation to improve your Author page. Is your biography the best it can be? Do you need to add more photos, update your blog, create new video, or showcase a tour event? Look at what the popular authors are doing for inspiration to improve your own ranking.
The Bad News
Is it really a good thing to compare yourself with other authors? For some authors it may be more discouraging than encouraging.
Checking your Amazon author ranking too often can be a waste of time. Be careful. If it becomes one more shiny object that keeps you from writing it may be doing you more harm than good in the long run.
Unless you are only selling on Amazon be aware that how you rank on Amazon is only one part of the picture. Many authors are selling books from the back of the room, their website, and in other online and offline bookstores.
In summary, Amazon Author Rank is a tool primarily for the reader to find books. It may not be the best use of time for a beginning author or one whose books are not wildly popular but still very much worthwhile. Check it out, just be aware it’s not for everyone.
At Wheatmark we believe in helping authors with every step of the writing and publishing process.
7 ways Goodreads helps authors to sell more books
To sell more books you have to let more people be aware of them. If your audience is small, the number of books you sell will be small. If you have a large audience but no one sees your book, you have to work to make it stand out. This article will show you seven ways to make your book stand out among the 14,000,000 readers on Goodreads.com.
1. Become a member of the Goodreads Author Program
This program is completely free. It is designed to help authors reach their target audience and promote their book(s) to them. Over 44,000 authors, including New York Times bestsellers and other national bestselling have their books listed with an author profile. If you are not on it, don’t waste any more time! Sign up and get started.
2. Advertise your book. Yes, sometimes you have to put a little money into the pot to make a decent stew. Goodreads has over 140 million page views and 19 million unique visitors a month. All these millions of people have one thing in common: books. They love to read. Start with a small test and if you get positive results do more.
Here’s the big tip: Make sure you have your target audience carefully in mind. Not all 14 million readers are interested in your book. You will be paying for each click your book receives. Make sure that “click” is targeted by the correct book genre, location, gender, and even age.
3. Book giveaway. Goodreads states that the average giveaway attracts 825 entries (many more views). Does any of that payoff in sales? It’s hard to say as readers often will buy books later or from a different site. There were 95 comments about the giveaway program and of the authors who commented most did not feel it resulted in direct sales. Many were also unhappy with the few reviews they got. Still, getting 800 people to look at your book is worth a try, in my opinion.
You can give books away before the book is published to build up buzz and after publication. You can also give away books later.
4. Lead a Q&A discussion group for readers. This is a way to connect with new and old readers. The recommendation is to start by creating a single discussion topic called, “Ask me something!” Start the thread by writing a post welcoming everyone to your group and asking for questions.
5. Participate in discussions on your profile, in groups and in the discussion forums for your books. Selling books is all about building relationships. All authors have to spend time and energy making connections; here is a place where you can do it without traveling and for free.
6. Become a Goodreads librarian. As a librarian, you will be able to edit and improve the Goodreads catalog. Other activities include combining editions, fixing book and author typos, adding book covers, and discussing policies. You will also have some librarian status over your own books and can edit. You must have 50 books added to your profile to sign up to be a librarian.
7. Rate books, leave comments, and write book reviews. Little bits of activity that build up your profile and help you to get involved in the Goodreads community.
Not only is Goodreads a great place to promote your books it is also a fun place to simply hang out around other book lovers. You can see what other people are reading and what they feel about different topics. This is a wonderful place to mingle with your target audience, read comments and reviews on books in your genre, and dip into the world of your favorite people: Book readers!
To find out more about marketing a book and about building your author platform, check out the Authors Academy.
7 offbeat book-marketing ideas
If the standard way of marketing your book doesn’t seem to be making any connections perhaps it’s time to try something new.
Something not everyone is doing; something that makes your book stand out above the crowd of 15 million other books being dumped on the market in 2013.
Granted, it may not make enough difference to put you on a bestseller list but often even a small incremental push in sales can put you on a new level of recognition in the book world. Sometimes doing something different creates a buzz that builds in bigger ways than you can imagine.
So, ready to go into vistas where the author stampede is not as thick and heavy? Try one of these ideas. They might be what works for you or, at the very least, kick start your imagination into finding your very own offbeat marketing idea.
1. Sell your book in a shop or store that doesn’t cater to books. If your book is the only book on display, it will stand out. A few authors have found creative markets by putting their books in beauty parlors or barbershops, health stores, bowling alleys, or even on the checkout counter of small restaurants or mom-and-pop stores.
2. Make a magnetic sign about your book and attach it to your car, truck, or SUV. You can put a 12” x 18” sign on a car door for as little as $10.00 from VistaPrint. What’s nice about magnetic signs is that they are easy to put on and off, letting you pick and choose when to advertise.
3. Put your book cover on a T-shirt and wear at a walking, running, or bicycling event. It’s bold, it’s bizarre, and it’s fun. Go to your favorite T-shirt print shop online or off and give it a try. Cost between $12 to $20.
4. Put your book on candy! Put them in a bowl and display wherever friends or people gather. You can put your own design on 108 individually wrapped caramels from icandywrap for about $11.00. Use Google to find other candy wrapping places such as M&M’s, and Hersheys.
5. Team up with several authors and cross-promote each others’ books on your websites. Each author could create a small banner that would click to the others’ websites.
6. Have a little extra cash and want to go over the top? Put up a billboard. Expensive? It all depends. If you go the typical commercial sign route it could cost anywhere from a country billboard spot at around $200 to city spots up to $10,000! But, you could make up your own 8’ x 24’ vinyl sign and put it up on a friend’s yard (on a busy street) for as little as $100.00.
7. Offer to donate your book as a door prize for a charitable event. The occasion doesn’t have to be big. If you’re a member of a club or group of even 6-8 people, it’s still a way to get the conversation tuned onto your book for even a few minutes. Word of mouth can start very, very small, and end up going a long way.
Creative marketing can cost very little and even with a bit of imagination and work be completely free. Hold your book in your hand (literally or figuratively), put on your thinking cap and dream away. Share your ideas in the comments. Every new idea sparks another.
If you’re looking to make progress in publishing a book, we at Wheatmark can help!
How important is building a brand name for an author?
How important is building a brand name for an author? Very important!
Most readers don’t remember titles of books as well as they remember an author’s name or the main character of a novel. As an author writes more and more books, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember single book titles. Readers will walk into a bookstore or start searching on Amazon or Barnes & Noble for the latest book by the author’s name.
That’s what they remember. That’s why you as an author must build up your author brand if you want to sell more books.
Fiction writers may create a character that becomes very memorable. Think Harry Potter, Nancy Drew, etc., but even with memorable characters the author’s name will still be very important.
If you write nonfiction, it is even more important that you make your name as widely known as possible.
Once your name is established, any product or topic you write about will automatically get the “stamp of approval” by people who know your name. You will have built credibility and trust, which will result in more and more sales.
There are many different ways to build brand awareness as an author.
Offline you can do it with business cards, letterhead, and a mailing address.
Online you start with a website, blog, and different social media accounts.
Use the same version of your name consistently across all online platforms. If your name is Bill Jones but you sometimes go by Billy, William, Will, pick one and use only that one for your author brand. Don’t end up with bill@yourwebsite.com, William Jones, Inc. as your email signature, and a Twitter account “Willy.”
What you’re trying to do is imprint your name in people’s minds. Staying consistent with your name no matter what social media platform you’re using, will make it easier for other people to remember you. It will narrow the time spent trying to figure out who you are on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and other sites when they search for you.
As an author, your name is your brand. If you leave comments on blogs, send emails or text messages, always remember to be consistent in using the same name.
Authors: How to sell more books with bookmarks
The journey of selling thousands of books begins with selling one. If you can sell one, you can sell two.
Many times authors will neglect doing small book marketing practices because the results appear to be insignificant. But the truth is that a small practice done regularly over time can build up your marketing sales very effectively.
Book marketing is all about making connections. You never know when one connection will make a big difference. Providing as many different avenues for people to find and read your books should be an important part of your book marketing strategy.
Today’s book marketing strategy is using bookmarks to sell more books. And yes, even if your book is only available for eReaders, bookmarks can still be used quite effectively.
The basic marketing idea behind bookmarks is to showcase your book in an attractive way before your target audience. Following are seven simple tips and strategies for authors to use bookmarks to sell more books.
1. Start small by printing only a hundred bookmarks. Yes, you can get a better deal by printing a thousand, but unless you have a big event or mailing list, a hundred bookmarks will be a safe way to test the market. Not every strategy will work for every book, audience, or author. A small number keeps the project doable, affordable, and practical.
2. Put a bookmark in letters you send out to family and friends as well as in bills, notices, and general correspondence.
3. Put a bookmark in books that you package and sell from your home. What greater way for a reader of your book to share with a friend can you find? All the exciting details of your book are printed on one tiny space with contact information to your website and places where the book is available.
4. Put a bookmark in other books that match your target audience. While new bookstores may not want your bookmarks in their books, it doesn’t hurt to ask! They may say yes. You can also put a bookmark in books at the library, used bookstores, and any event such as bazaars and yard sales that are selling books. Ask for permission, of course.
5. Ask bookstores (who are carrying your book) if you can leave a small bookmark display on the counter. Free bookmarks in a small cup or bowl are easy to pick up and fun to take. Perhaps salesclerks will even slip a bookmark in a shopping bag as they ring up an order.
6. Leave bookmarks in public places where readers might be. For instance, when you have a cup of coffee at a coffee shop, leave a bookmark on the table. Include a bookmark in the small folder when you pay for your meal at a restaurant. Leave them on tables in public sitting areas, nice restrooms, at airports and bus stations.
7. Form a bookmark exchange with other authors. This works especially well with books of the same type. Instead of putting your own bookmark in your book, slip in another author’s bookmark. If you have a group of five or more authors, this means each of you is being exposed to four new audiences one bookmark at a time.
Keep a few bookmarks with you at all times and drop them like Johnny Appleseed wherever you wander.
At Wheatmark we know that there is a lot more to your book’s success than simply getting it published. If you’re looking for a team of publishing professionals to take the pain out of book publishing and book marketing for you, tell us about your project!
7 myths about being an author
Ever dream about becoming an author? Today it’s easier than ever. And I will be first in line to encourage you to pursue your dream. But making your dream come true means one also takes into account the cost, the reality, and the practicality of how to make that dream actually happen.
The following seven “dream-busting” myths are not meant to discourage you but rather to toughen you up for the exhilarating but often difficult journey almost every author encounters.
1. Publishing a book will make you an instant celebrity. The truth is, it may make you a celebrity in your circle of family and friends but there’s a lot of book competition. In 2011, three million books were published in the United States and the count has been doubling, tripling, rising steadily every year.
2. Becoming a published author will make you rich. The average book sells 500 copies. That’s an average. If you take into account that the big sellers sell millions of books it means that there are many authors who sell less than 100 books. Thousands upon thousands of authors can’t even give away their books. Are they bad? Not necessarily. Perhaps, there was simply no interest in the topic, style of writing, or any number of other factors that weren’t taken into consideration before the books were printed.
3. Having a book will open doors to get you onto radio and television. Sorry, not even close. In fact, one radio host told me privately that authors are in fact some of the worst people to have on his show. A lot of authors, he says, can string a bunch of words together beautifully on paper but flounder hopelessly in front of a mic. Most authors will benefit from media training if they want to sell books on the air.
4. Once your book is published, everyone will want to buy it. Wrong again. This was never true even back in the good old days when fewer books were being published. Many people only buy books from authors they already know and love. It takes work, persistence, and imagination to get your book selling by the cartload.
5. The hardest part of book publishing is writing the book. If only that were true! It does indeed take hard work to write a book and even harder work to stay with the editing and rewriting until it actually sparkles. And it is true the publishing part is the easiest of the whole process. But the truly hard part for most authors is marketing. The good thing is that once authors make the commitment to promote their books, many find that, though hard, it is lots of fun!
6. Once your book goes to press, your job is done. Only if you want to print 25 books and send them as Christmas presents. Selling book number 26 to 5,000 is going to take some push and promotion. Many authors mistakenly believe that it’s up to the publisher to promote their books. The fact is, even major publishers spend only a tiny fraction of time and energy to promote a new book. Unless it’s going to be a mega seller. And even then, popular authors with bestselling books spend hours on the road, in front of cameras, talking on radio shows, and doing a lot to promote their books. Once your book is published the “real work” has only begun!
7. Every book can be marketed in the same way. This may only be true if you’re writing a series of books with the same topic, same target audience, and same appeal. But every day is a new day. What sells like hotcakes one year may not have the same thrill of excitement another year. Fads come and go. Vampires are in, vampires are out. You must constantly study the market, follow the flow, and, if at all possible, get ahead of it with imagination, creativity, and boldness in order to get and keep your book in the limelight.
So, does this mean you shouldn’t write and publish a book? Not at all. If you want to do it, jump in and start making a splash in the water. Once you have your feet wet go out a little deeper and learn to swim. Just as you can get a lot of enjoyment out of swimming without being an Olympic champion, you will discover there are many rewards to writing a book besides fame and fortune. And there’s always a chance your book will make it big. Especially if you have the fervor and commitment to see it through to the end.
You’ll never know if you don’t try.
Finally, I leave you with the best reason of all for writing a book: Do it because you love it. Because you have a story to tell and a message to share. As a result, once you’re done with the manuscript and your book is published, not only will you have a huge sense of accomplishment, you will experience the joy that being an author (yes, even an only slightly famous one) can bring.
The easy button for building your author platform
Over the years, we’ve probably heard one statement more frequently than any other from our author clients: “I don’t want to market my book, I just want to spend my time writing.”
But as an author—and as an entrepreneur—you have a message for your audience. It’s your duty to let them hear it—and you accomplish this task through marketing.
Naturally, you may just want to write—to focus on crafting your message. You may even wish someone else would take your message to your audience. But the truth is, if you really care about your audience, you’ll want to deliver your message yourself because you are the best possible messenger. Don’t be like the mailman who landed in jail for throwing away all the mail in a dumpster instead of delivering it!
Now, suppose there was a way for you to just “sit and type all day” but still be able to connect with your audience: one by one, then dozens at a time… then hundreds, even thousands of people at once. Just by sitting and typing away, day after day…
Yes, wouldn’t it be great to have an “easy button” where, when you pressed it, you’d get to write all day, and your audience would just magically show up to read what you’ve written?
Well, there is such an “easy button” now! We call it the Authors Academy Simple Marketing System. By using the power of online search, social media, content automation, and email marketing, this comprehensive system gets you started building your online author platform and building a dedicated list of followers with an absolute minimum of fuss and zero technical knowledge. All you have to do is write!
We start with a questionnaire about your past experiences and how you really want to be known as an author. We’ll use your responses to create an in-depth positioning analysis of you and your author brand. We’ll do custom keyword research and help you develop your new author brand, including the design and branding of your new website and all your social media marketing channels.
Then we’ll create a custom branded author website that looks great not only on a desktop computer but also on phones and other mobile devices. We’ll include a lead capture form so you can build your own email list of readers. We’ll also make it easy for your visitors to share your message to their friends via social media. You’ll receive comprehensive monthly marketing training, website hosting, technical support, site maintenance, and analytics reporting as part of this system.
Next we’ll create and optimize your Amazon Author Page. Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla of online bookselling, and by optimizing their Amazon pages, Wheatmark clients and Authors Academy members have helped swarms of new readers discover their books, selling thousands of copies in the process. We’ll link up your website so that your Amazon visitors can see your latest blog posts as well, prompting them to visit your site. We’ll also make sure to add relevant keywords to your Amazon profile so that prospective customers can find you and your work, kickstarting your marketing on the most powerful bookselling site around.
We’ll also get you set up on all relevant social media channels—at the bare minimum, Facebook and Twitter—and optimize them for your best keywords.
Don’t worry, we’re not creating a major time-suck for you: you won’t even have to log in to these social media sites unless you really want to. When you post a new blog on your branded website, the link will automatically be posted on your branded Facebook author page and sent out via your branded Twitter feed as well. This automated content syndication will help you to organically grow your list of followers while at the same time driving traffic back to your site where you can capture the email addresses of your new followers.
The final and most important piece of the marketing puzzle is building your email list. This is a list of fans and prospective book buyers from whom you gain permission to market to over and over again. It’s the most important piece of the System because you own and control this contact list—not Facebook, Twitter, Google, or Amazon.
We’ll set up an email marketing system and import your existing opt-in list, if applicable. We’ll also set it up so that when you post to your blog, your list will automatically be notified of the new post.
By implementing the Simple Marketing System you’re guaranteed to distinguish yourself from the thousands of other authors publishing books this year. In fact, many established businesses don’t even have a marketing system that approaches this level of sophistication and complexity. We know this System works—it’s the exact same one that we’ve used to build our own list of nearly 30,000 contacts.
To find out more or to get started, attend this FREE webinar:
See you there!
9 guerilla book marketing survival tips for bestselling authors
Ever wonder how popular authors seem to be everywhere at once and still have time to write another bestseller? Super authors do not have magic powers. What they do have, though, are a few secret weapons in their arsenal that keep them on the front lines while giving them time to type away on their laptops in the back.
Here are nine book marketing survival tips and tricks they use that make a difference:
1. Basic strategic planning is number one on their list. Getting to the top by luck might happen to a few authors once in a decade. Most of them, though, carefully calculated what it would take, mapped out a strategy, and kept to it. Many of these authors had a coach or special mentor that advised them. Others simply read and studied what worked for other authors and implemented those actions into their own battle plan.
2. Budgeted their time. Once a plan is in place, they mapped out how long each activity would take and put it in their calendar. Time management is not a mental juggling game. To be the most effective, each activity is scheduled into their daily routine. They know that a little bit every day pays off in better results than a weekly or monthly social medial cram session.
3. Prioritize activities. For every popular author, the number one priority will usually be writing on his or her next project. But building reader relationships (the essence of all marketing activity) for their book can never be forgotten or placed lower than number two. Who knows how many wonderful books never made it simply because they were never discovered?
4. They concentrate on what activities will most support their writing and simply delegate the rest. This could mean hiring a cook, a housekeeper, and a babysitter to free up more time. It could mean hiring a virtual assistant to handle book orders, email, and other correspondence. It also means getting professional help with book marketing, publicity, cover and layout design, website maintenance, and other promotional activities.
5. They constantly recycle content. Every speaking event—whether live or virtual—is recorded and offered for sale or as a free download. Their books are selectively cut and rewritten to create blogging content, tip sheets or articles for guest posts, magazines and newspapers.
6. Social media is front line work for today’s busy author, even the most reticent. A lot of this is hired out very unobtrusively. Their virtual assistant will type out quotes, tips, and other material from their work and schedule it to be tweeted, blogged, or socially shared in different venues. Surprisingly, many blogs today are ghostwritten (yes, even authors use them!) or accept guest posting to keep them active and current.
7. Bestselling authors will attend one to three book-marketing events every year. This is a prime way they connect with their audience, make important publishing and publicity contacts, and, of course, promote their books. They will also do book signing at bookstores, agree to interviews, and appear at social events when invited, as time permits.
8. Joint ventures. This is a powerful way that a number of popular authors actually became popular! Connecting with a prominent author can open doors you could never push open by yourself.
9. Radio and TV. This is still an important media outreach for these authors. Granted, not all authors felt comfortable going “live” in the beginning, but getting out of their comfort zone put them into a new zone of visibility. Many authors who invested in media training found that it more than paid for itself in gaining confidence and snagging interviews on bigger stations and networks.
If you are not a popular author yet but hope to be, Wheatmark can help you create a book marketing strategy that will help you maximize your impact while minimizing your time. Ask us how!