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Here's a list of ten things your publisher might not tell you about the marketing of your book:
1. We have 100 other books to market this month and only three full-time PR folks.
2. We mail your book out with the press release folded inside and never use a personalized letter or book packet.
3. We're trying the best we can but you can't possibly expect us to send the books to the bloggers for review too? We don't know that many bloggers.
4. We like you, we want you to succeed, but you have to market the book yourself to really have it be a success.
5. Put out multiple press releases about your book covering different topics from the book.
6. We would like to help in creating and repurposing content out of your book for amazing sites like Changethis.com and others, but we really don't know where to start.
7. We thought a virtual book tour was a ride they offer at Disney.
8. Always send hand-written thank you notes to anyone who talks, reviews, or quotes your book.
9. Spend the extra few dollars and buy some postcards that have your book logo on them and definitely have a web site devoted to your book.
10. Treat the book as you would your own child and don't let a day go by without introducing it to someone new who could possibly review it. Be willing to send a free copy of your book out to lots of folks.
Question: Does every business author need a web site or a blog?
Answer: YES.
Not only do you need a Web presence, but it's a darn good idea to start a conversation with readers and encourage them to link to your blog or your site. When it comes to business authors, it's ideally important to have this because the immediacy of a web site or a blog connects you to potential readers, reviewers and peers within your arena. It also connects you easily to journalists. And YES, you should do a press release on PRWeb that announces the launch of your book, your web site or your blog if you have not done so.
Shel Holz's post on why newspapers will still be around in ten years and how they are evolving.
Great post on writing leads to hook readers.
"Sometimes getting the first paragraph down is the hardest thing about writing. Get it right, and the rest of the story will flow. Often it helps to remember the seven main lead sentence formats. Write your lead following one or two of the established frameworks, choose the one that works best, and away you go." (excerpt - Strive Notes blog)
Below is an excerpt from Duct Tape Marketing blog and Jantsch's take on teaching. This relates directly to messaging as well. Does everyone at your company really understand what the company does and what they are providing? If they don't, then how can they be expected to sell the company and its offerings?
Teach! Share your wisdom. Don't operate from scarcity within your business.
"You should teach internally as well. Do you know why nobody else at your shop gets it? - because you keep it to yourself. At least once or twice a month you should have an internal seminar and teach everyone in the firm something about what you do, or how you sell.
And when you've done that - teach your clients, vendors, and associates how to teach. You do that and selling your ideas will get really easy." (Duct Tape Marketing Blog)
Here are some good things to keep in mind in regard to marketing yourself:
1. Be real.
2. Be brief.
3. Truly be willing to show your expertise.
4. Learn to say "No" if there's an opportunity that you don't feel is the right fit.
5. Learn to say "Yes" more often to challenges and overcome them with bravado.
6. Build your peer network and outreach. You'd be surprised how many folks are glad to hear from you and help you.
7. Learn all the terms for what you do and start using those in your conversations.
8. Always follow-up and do what you say you will do.
9. Don't give away your knowledge for free.
10. Always be willing to ask questions - so you're constantly learning new things.
I'm waiting on a phoner for a client in Australia and am also going through my desk and pulling out old photos. So in light of opening up my world here a bit - I'm posting some family photos today and maybe on Saturdays when I work I'll do that once in a while.
I'm crazy about my family. These are in our younger days.:>) My kids are much older now.
And my husband, who was an IT director for many years for different software firms, at 37 had an early (sanctioned) mid-life crisis and is now an elementary school teacher. He's also a kids' musician - here's a link to a particular favorite song I like that he sings.
audio/mpeg (1 257 ko) Michael Gray at SearchEngineland just posted a very insightful bit titled, "Top 12 Ways to Win Friends and Write Magnetic Headlines" (I particularly like the Moses' reference).
For business book authors - really take a good look at his musings on different title grabbing headlines and think about how you can incorporate those into your next press release about your book.
And yes...I work on Saturdays!
Just when your knees were all a "twitter" over all the other networking sites, along comes Twitter - and thankfully a great article to keep you in the loop and up to date here.
"Print Death for Life, But Photos Live On(line)
Time Inc.'s umpteenth experiment with the brand called Life -- you know, formerly the most successful magazine in the world, until television came along -- ended in failure yesterday, as these experiments always do. The newspaper insert version of the magazine was closed on Monday after bleeding money for three years." (Media Bistro)
Here's the sad thing about Life being shuttered - it was for years one of the most illuminating and dynamic publications to read and more importantly it fostered a remarkable connection to one another.
At the end of the day what social networking, Web 2.0, marketing, wikis, public relations, success stories etc. really should all lead to is the same place - a conversation with a prospect to exchange something meaningful that benefits both entities.
With the celebrity glitterati magazines and the rush to make news at any cost - we've lost some of the fundamental part of authenticity that it takes to make that conversation in print, online or in person real.
Life had honest, often startling pictures about real people doing real things. One of my own most beloved heroes Margaret Bourke-White made her fame shooting photographs for the magazine and went on to have her own surgery shot by another famed photographer and put into Life magazine by the editors.
I disagree that Life failed. And I urge you to make it your experiment to not fail in being authentic and real each and every time you have the opportunity.
This interview features Thomas R. Clifford - Corporate Documentary Filmmaker & Story Katalyst - "Breaking patterns...Discovering heroes...Igniting conversations"
Tom's blog is full of great storytelling insight and in this interview he shares some secrets about filming and creating insightful company stories. Tom also has a superb list of "Ten Tips to Create Your Remarkable Company Video" at this link.
Interview:
Nettie: Tell us about your background.
Tom: here's the elevator pitch. I'm a documentary filmmaker and my passion is telling remarkable stories from remarkable organizations. I've been doing it for almost 25 years. I've done PBS, broadcast, commercials, and had some film pieces in the NFL hall of fame.
Nettie: What is important in making and producing a great story in terms of businesses?
Tom: There are many ways to tell a story, I tell stories literally through the lens of the camera. Most of the films are short- under 10 minutes. What I do are short corporate films and they could be for human resources, marketing, sales, diversity issues, recruiting/hiring, raising awareness, correcting misconceptions.
The secret ingredient or the sauce is my crew and how I shoot. I have a unique style of filming that is handheld, no tripods and energetic. I interview people very close and tight, it's all moving – never a dead moment on the screen.
My mentor 25 years ago said, "If the camera's not moving or your subject is not moving, you better be a still photographer." The film is always moving.
Nettie: And your films focus truly on the employees of the companies right?
Tom: Yes, that's number two for the secret ingredient. 95% of my films use entirely the employees of the organization. That is important because of authenticity. To have a top down message come out especially in a film, you can't hide anything in a film, so you have to have authenticity.
I despise narration for these types of films, coming out of the documentary field, my bias is that when you pre-script something from a top down or marketing department as soon as I roll tape the audience will smell "inauthenticity." My audience is usually people learning about an organization or they're trying to retain employees and my films typically have a highly driven people focus in them.
To have slick voiceovers or a dispassionate voice in the background tell you the story it doesn't resonate. And over 100s of films I've made, using the voice of the employee is so much more engaging and compelling.
Nettie: Is it because it presents the company's true meaning?
Tom: When I film the person in that chair in front of me, the person who ultimately views it has to identify with what is going on in the screen. That's key.
ON PROCESS:
Nettie: What is the process of making the films?
Tom: First you meet the client and you really understand the scope of the job. Meeting with them, you see the hidden agendas and real agendas. Stage 2 is you discover the employees (who I call heroes), I call them storytellers or heroes to tell the company story. They are sharing their truths in front of the camera and their perspective on the world, so before we get to that point, I make it my mission to discover the company's heroes. That is the most exciting thing. Finding out what makes the company great, what the employees love about it and why they're all there. Once you have those heroes, the rest is easy – you just have to capture the story.
Those heroes "employees" are the people that the viewer can easily identify with. The polished message crafted perfectly doesn't resonate. I look for the journey and how the heroes got there. That is the heart and soul of every film I make.
FINDING THE STORY:
Nettie: How do companies get to the place to better tell their stories?
Tom: Here's the trademark indicator. If the internal actions match the external actions – then they are in true alignment. They walk their talk. You can easily tell that. For me that's the indicator. Frankly if an organization is trying to present something else, it's not something that works or that I want to represent.
When I discover the story and the people, that is the true North of the compass. That all comes out when you cast these people and they believe in the dream, and they're great at telling the story on camera.
Nettie: What are ways to identify a company's story? How is it separated out from the marketing speak? Do you have surprises as you go through the discovery process?
Tom: Yes, that's a great question. A few years ago I made a film for a Fortune 500 insurance company. A big huge company and I'll never forget it, they wanted a film made about their huge department and how they supported the company. And they gave us a 40 page PDF file and all these links on their Web site as a starting point for who they were and I looked at the folks at the meeting and said, "We're just going to throw these in the trash. I want to know from your heart who you guys are, I don't care about the upper management, you have hundreds of people supporting thousands of people, what is great about your story? Give me examples of what you do."
The story has to come from heart, past experience, positive moments. Appreciative inquiry is something I've really tapped into and that means to ask really affirming questions. If you keep asking questions about the problems, you will keep getting problem answers. If you ask, "What's the problem here?", you'll get 10 problem areas.
But if instead, you ask, "What is one success story?" You get a success and then you just keep going further for more positives.
The other stuff that's important in my filmmaking is quantum physics. Years ago people used to think "We'll just watch and observe, but we won't affect the outcome." That's impossible. Quantum physics has ripped that apart, as soon as the camera is in place, you have totally affected the outcome. So I'm still aware that by engaging the process of making the film, I change the outcome of making the film. So always be mindful of the truth of the story. The story and the message still has to be true at its core. That is the overarching principle and the company needs to know their true story.
Nettie: What still keeps you inspired?
Tom: I have an insatiable quest to understand the world and all the stories that are out there. I get a total charge out of "what's the next story" and I've got amazing clients.
Nettie: Are you doing what you love?
Tom: I can't imagine doing anything else. I was a rock and roller years ago and that's all I wanted to do and my dad was a lawyer but he really supported me in my dream and following that passion even though he wanted me to go to college.
In the summer of 75, in New Haven, our band was going to open for Crosby, Stills and Nash and two weeks before the big concert it got cancelled. And so instead that summer, I went into college and majored in filmmaking and here I am.
Nettie: Everything happens for a reason.
Tom: Exactly.
John Backus died this week and while most of us are busy utilizing all this technology - it would serve us well to remember this amazing visionary. As a past employee of IBM, I can say that Backus' achievements were and still are touted decades later.
I regularly consult with potential business book authors and help ghostwrite book proposals and one of the main things we always tackle first is the sticky question of, "What really makes a good business book? "
Business books have changed drastically from the old days and people want to be enthralled, engaged and enthused about what they are reading.
Business books can be amazing vehicles for actionable learning. You want your readers to have many "aha" moments while reading your work. After the "aha" moments pass, you want readers to feel as though they've been armed with a new way of looking at their business and how to empower it.
The more you weave a story throughout your book, the longer shelf life your book will have. It will also have what I term the pass it forward factor. What that means is your book should always compel folks to pass it on or strongly recommend it to their employees, peers and even customers.
The pass it forward factor is espescially useful when it comes to bloggers and their readers. Bloggers are voracious and conscientious readers and they truly will pass it forward if they feel the book is of great value to their readership.
Business does not have to be boring, dry and verbose and neither do business books. The best business books bring great ideas in focus and engage new ideas through the wisdom they impart. They engender insightful and creative methods that help the reader identify any business challenge and gain the tools to overcome it.
Now go and write!
A long time ago I had the great opportunity to interview Ben Stein when he was the host of "Win Ben Stein's Money" on Comedy Central. Ben Stein is briliant. He is funny and he was a wonderful interview. In fact, at the time, he gave me some very sage advice about writing that has served me to this day so I owe him a great deal actually in terms of my career.
So it's late (middle of the night) and here I am writing - working on applying for a media fellowship and an avid reader of Ben Stein's sent me this link to his article. Interesting article on business, the world and money.
Ben was a speechwriter for Nixon and Ford by the way. Here's Ben's bio.
Oh...and why do I love him? Because he writes authentically and without remorse, regret or even a hint of dishonesty.
Hello dear readers,
As some of you know I still like to keep the old "typing digits" in the writing game too and one of the places I've kept from my ebiz days is writing for PlanetPDF as a Contributing Editor. In doing so, I'm actually getting the opportunity to travel to Disneyworld with my family in May (mother's day weekend) to cover PDF 2007 - where everyone will gather to talk about how PDFs affect each and every thing we all do in our daily lives. (That's actually more true than you might gather.)
So I penned an article about what I want to ask Al Gore - who will be the keynote speaker for the conference and have included a link to the article. Please put your e-prayers in that I'll actually get to interview him, as it would be cool.
Here's the "Ten Questions I would Ask Al Gore" .
And email me if you want to know the one I had to edit out.:>) It's the funniest one.
Also - just to be completely off topic - I went and saw Bob Schneider and his Wednesday night band - Texas Bluegrass Massacre at Threadgill's in Austin. SXSW music fest is officially ON and what a great week of music. In particular, it's gratifying to be working as the publicist for such a gifted and amazingly talented musician as Bob. His site by the way is www.bobschneidermusic.com . Fantastic performer.
I'm a softie for a great commercial or any emotionally-driven films, tv etc. During both my pregnancies, my husband actually threatened to put a password block on the Lifetime Channel, TLC, Oxygen and if he could have done it, all the Hallmark commercials would have been locked as well.
And my favorite "customer centric" campaign running as of late is Kleenex's - Let it Out campaign. This campaign is a stunning example of how you can as a company, person or brand, engage your prospects on their level.
At the end of the day, who wouldn't want to sit on a bright blue couch with a Kleenex box and tell someone an amazing story about their lives? That's what our lives are made up of, and that's what Kleenex gets with this series of vignettes of folks on the couch.
The first time I watched the commercial, I honestly felt compelled to dust off my application for a Master's in Counseling. Now that's an engaging commercial!
Go and see for yourself here. Keep in mind after you watch it, that there are few things truly in this world that are universal - but emotion is certainly one of the most powerful things.
Ask these questions about your story:
1. What is my company story?
2. What is the emotional hook for what I'm trying to sell?
3. How can I tell the story so it's truly authentic and engages others?
4. Why is my story different than all the others out there?
5. Is the story strong enough to motivate my customer to take action?
So you want your PR person to get you in the news yesterday? Even with breaking news you have to keep trying. Too many times companies and individuals think the first pitch wins.
The first pitch doesn't win, unless you're Oprah's publicist and you're breaking news is that she's finally getting married to Stedman.
With anything else, expect that it will take a while. Kevin Dugan of The Bad Pitch Blog, says it takes up to six months to get a good placement.
"Sending a breaking news release to the media and expecting to go from being a complete stranger to being a trusted source with one email or phone call is ridiculous. You’ll usually make multiple attempts to contact your reporter and pitch the story," excerpt from Dugan's blog post.
So be patient, Rome wasn't built in a day (as my mom used to say.)
Getting Your Book Out There!
There are tons of things you can do to garner new PR about your book - so don't stop with just sending out a press release or making a few phone calls. And don't stop with, "My publisher's PR person is doing that."
Imagine one PR person in charge of 500 titles and you've got the in-house publicist' challenge about right. They're great at their jobs, but they have so many titles to try to get some coverage on, that unless yours is a fantastic out of the shelves best-seller even before it hits, chances are your book is not going to get the coverage it deserves.
Think niche and that's how you can push your book out. Look at the publications you most read, the organizations you belong to and the peers you correspond with on a daily basis.
There are tons of ways you can push your book out without ever calling someone like me or another PR rep.
Here are a few:
1. Use your existing newsletter and plan a book giveaway.
2. Reach out to bloggers that you correspond with or are in your peer arena and see if they want to review the book or do a short e-interview with you.
3. Repurpose content from the book into syndicated article sites.
4. Come up with a reader's guide so that book clubs can tap into the book and pick it to read.
5. Make your web page or blog dynamic - keep adding new content at least once a week or more to both so that people come back for more and it helps with SEO as well.
* Tip: Never say no to an interview query. If someone wants to interview you about the book - make time to do the interview.
How to Pitch, Swerve and Succeed As A Freelance Copywriter
When I'm asked about how I've stayed "mostly employed" as a writer and covered so many genres, I always reply, "I know how to pitch and swerve." For me that's what this long journey of writing is really about. It's about racing toward your dream and not giving up, taking the dents and scary curves along the way and using them to improve your journey and empower your writing.
It also means you have to be willing to pitch and swerve to garner possible jobs. Becoming a master copywriter is a never-ending proposition and lifetime journey.
Becoming a good solid copywriter well-versed in many arenas is a good solid way to increase the potential for writing jobs. I call that, “pitch and swerve” and the way I apply it is to always increase my copywriting abilities so if one pitch does not work, I can readily swerve to another pitch in different arena.
Being a copywriter is like being the turtle in the race between the turtle and the hare. Slow and steady wins the race. My own race has lasted nearly fifteen years and it hasn’t been until the last five years that I’ve made it to the stage of full-time freelance writer.
The great news in the race to write is that there are always new opportunities. The race for content continues to grow and the demand for good copywriters will continue to grow as well.
When I started out nearly fifteen years ago, I was a full-time mom with a twelve week old daughter and wanted to stay at home with her. I wrote mostly in the middle of the night between “mommy naps” and feedings. I had been a published fiction essayist and short story writer, but I knew that wasn’t going to pay the bills. With only a BA in English from Goddard College, I turned to copywriting to subsidize my staying at home with my child.
I committed myself to writing every single day. If you want to be a virtuoso you have to practice the scales. In writing, you have to apprentice to the craft of writing and practice it daily in order to push your skill set to the next level. You cannot be a brilliant writer unless you are willing to write, rewrite, write and rewrite again.
I started out writing for our church newsletter, then pitched free stories to an Austin celebrity magazine, which eventually led to me being the Managing Editor for the magazine for three years. When it went under as they often do, I utilized my best interview clips and applied for a job online to do interviews with CEOs. (Many of these interviews were done with my three year old daughter on the floor playing with Legos and eating banana slices, while I sat at my desk and interviewed tech leaders.)
In my interviews with online folks I always worked hard to engage them and this helped in later years, because many of those CEOs impressed by my research skills, and the interviews I did with them, hired me for copywriting work. As a writer, you’re always auditioning your work. So don’t be lazy and do your legwork. Build your network one job at a time.
The other very important thing you can do during this slow race is to be an apprentice to the copywriting craft. Be willing to listen and learn from the masters like Bob Bly, Peter Bowerman and Nick Usborne.
Here are some other good tips to follow for long-term race success:
1. Formulate copy before you have a job to write copy. What that means is practice makes perfect. Even if you don’t have published clips to send to a prospective client, come up with some good solid writing samples of ready copy that you can send as samples of your work.
2. Join a professional writers group in your area. You’ll be amazed at how the networking aspect will kick in if you put yourself out in the network!
3. Think locally and build regionally. Pitch a couple of articles to your local newspaper, even if they don’t pay for contributors. If they run your article, you’ve got your first published clip.
4. Be willing to “kill your little darlings.” The hardest thing early on as a writer is to understand you’re not writing for you…you’re writing for them. So while you might love everything you write, you must be willing and able to adjust your style to what the company needs. They’re your customer and the product you’re selling is content.
5. Be your own best salesperson. Writing jobs don’t come to you, you have to search them out. Join freelance job listing sites and respond to those listings.
6. Don’t get discouraged. If you truly want to succeed as a copywriter, you cannot take rejection personally. You cannot let fear of “not being good enough” keep you from doing anything at all.
As aspiring writers you have to be willing to let go of “scarcity” and only deal in “abundance.” Stay hopeful and persistent and do not come to the career from a place of fear, because if you are afraid you cannot do it, you most certainly will not be able to do it.
Win your race one writing clip at a time. Be abundant in your writing, and don’t measure the value of it early on by whether you have earned top dollar for the work. The money will come if you’re willing to spend many hours laboring to build a solid framework of clips, potential clients and fellow peers.
Here are some ways you can tell you are a writer who can win the race:
1. You obsessively make suggestions and edits on menus in your neighborhood restaurants.
2. You are a voracious reader.
3. You love books and new knowledge.
4. You spend hours writing copy for your neighborhood newsletter. (By the way those volunteer newsletters can serve as great sample clips.)
5. You are a news-hound and you have opinions you want to share.
For myself, I've traveled the world of writing for entertainment magazines, health and bio-tech news writing, playwriting, tech and e-business writing, white papers, case studies, and blog writing. At night, after all is said and done, I turn on my writing engine one more time and fine tune my one-woman show. And don't even get me started on the two novels I'm trying to sell!
You can do the same! Remember, slow and steady wins the race.