Thirteen places to hold book events

Lucky 13... Thanks to Caitlin Muir @authormedia.com for these great suggestions. Get motivated to plan a book tour schedule for next Spring to promote your books. Pick a few close to home and do winter events too. People love to get out and hear authors talk about their work.

Find a Place To Give a Book Reading:

1. Your local coffee shop
2. A hospital
3. A retirement community
4. A rehabilitation center
5. A local church
6. A locally owned bookstore
7. The library (try the five closest to your house)
8. The local community college
9. A school
10. Wherever the main setting of your book is
11. Google+
12. Videos you upload to Facebook
13. Goodreads--stay active on this site

Even famous authors can get a bad review

Book reviews help our books get noticed. That's a good thing, right? Usually...

People reading reviews on Amazon understand that when a grumpy person writes a negative review, the author doesn't deserve to be attacked. We tend to dismiss reviews that insult the writer's integrity, or when the reviewer is being mean.

But, how would we feel if said review was in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, and tore into the author's work in such a highly visible way? The author I'm referring to is Joyce Carol Oates, and the review was of her story collection, Lovely, Dark, Deep.

The reviewer, who shall remain nameless here, has decided the book is "a fatally slack enterprise, a makeshift heap of first drafts, blighted by shallow emotion". Worse, he refers to offhand manipulation of trauma, and prose that feels virtually unedited.

Ouch!

Promote your events @ Poets & Writers

Poets & Writers has revamped their Literary Events Calendar. They cite its "beautiful new interface makes it easy to find readings and other literary events near you, and to post events you are part of." 

And, of course, its free! Post your upcoming events now, and they will also be listed in our their new app -- Poets & Writers Local -- coming later this fall!

Go to the Calendar Now

Do reviews help ebook sales?

I;ll bet you think the answer is "Yes, of course."

Surprisingly, though, the chart below shows ebook sales attributable to a traditional media review represent only three percent. That means word-of-mouth and browsing are better methods of discovery. Of course, the best way is being a repeat author and having fans waiting for the release of your next ebook....

Thanks to Mark Coker of Smashwords for the chart below:

Do you measure up online?

We used to measure our popularity and successful relationships by the number of friends we had; those who exchanged birthday cards, met for lunch, sat on the front porch on a summer night. now, though, our friends are measured by the activity in our social media sites.

We measure our business success perhaps by a fully booked calendar, making large bank deposits from speaking gigs and book sales, or signing contracts for lucrative freelance writing.

Who knew that today's mark of "Success" is defined instead by social media? How many followers are enough to make you popular? If you have more social media traffic, are you inclined to make more frequent posts?? Is it an effective way for you to keep in touch with close friends?

A recent Writer's Digest article posted counts for notable pageviews for writers trying to prove they have a decent following for their work.

Notable numbers are high, starting with:

Blog page views: 20,000/month 
Twitter followers: 5,000 followers or newsletter subscribers
Speaking appearances to 1,000 people per year
Book sales total:  4,000 for self-published nonfiction, 2,000 for fiction


By those standards, most of us are lurkers - reading just the blogs and Facebook/twitter feeds we can scan in a few minutes.

Don't take it too seriously though. It's summer, and we know where our real friends are - out on the porch, reading a good book.

Think big for your book promotion

Beyond your local bookstore and local library, there is a world waiting to discover your book. Work a book tour into your summer vacation this year if you're promoting a new book. Poets & Writers has a huge database of literary places here:
http://www.pw.org/literary_places


Libraries, book shops, museums, arts centers.... you're sure to find a few great places where you can book an event.

Make a good impression in 2013

Start the new year with an aggressive approach to earning new freelance assignments

Besides finding markets, crafting a clever pitch, what's the best thing you can do to get noticed?

The answer is "Wow 'em with yur clips."  Until now, this was an ugly project for most writers. Either send them a link to your site or links to the original articles on magazine sites. Of course, you hope those links remain fresh, but we know that's not always the case. Besides bad links, you can send PDFs or JPGs that may not make the best impression.

So the solution is:  Pressfolios where you can manage an online portfolio of your work. You add a link, whether clips are stored on your site or elsewhere, organize them, and use the one simple link to let editors view your work. You can choose the photo to accompany each article's link, refer editors to the permanent link, and be proud of your queries with smart clips.

Spend an hour this holiday weekend to get started, and you'll put your best clips forward for greater success in 2013.

If you have a book on Amazon, make sure you use your free Author Page

Amazon Author Pages   (courtesy of Amazon)

Amazon Author Pages are a great way to keep your readers up to date about you and your work. You can create your Author Pages on Amazon.com and many of its European websites though Amazon Author Central. You must create a separate Author Page on each of the websites you want to appear. You can sign up for your Amazon Author Pages at each of the following sites:

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.co.uk
• Amazon.de
• Amazon.fr

On your Author Pages, provide a concise and meaningful author biography to help your readers get to know you. You can also upload a photograph and videos, add your Twitter handle, and even highlight events you may be attending. Author Pages also bring together all of your work as an author in one place, which helps customers discover more of your books. Use Amazon Author Pages to make a direct connection with your audience.

My author page is nothing special, but you can view it here if you want a sample:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BMFK78

Helen Gallagher

Care to try the EL James strategy?

The New York Review of Books has an interesting article by Emily Eakin on how the author of 50 Shades of Grey grew into such a success without a publicity campaign, formal reviews or a huge endorsement. How did EL James do it? And can you do it too?

Read the full NYRB piece here -- in essence plan to take a crash course in the magic of word of mouth. 
The author's work originated as "fan fiction, a genre that operates outside the bounds of literary commerce, in online networks of enthusiasts of popular books and movies, brought together by a desire to write and read stories inspired by those works.* (EL James real name) "Leonard’s excursion in the genre provided her with a captive audience of thousands of positively disposed readers, creating a market for her books before they ever carried price tags. But fan fiction is inherently collaborative and by convention resolutely anti-commercial, attributes which make its role in the evolution of her work both highly unusual and ethically fraught."

The NYRB is a long, thoughtful piece - worthy of your time if this genre is relevant for you.

Books sure keep life interesting... 

Show us your bio...

I have a new post on Freelance-Zone.com today on the importance of using a strong bio for yourself as a writer. When you write an article, pitch an idea to an editor, or create an author bio, it follows you everywhere. Make sure yours has some zing. Click here to read the full post at Freelance-Zone. Learn how to go beyond the ordinary, and even post your bio in the Comments section for a little free PR.

Selling books to libraries

Whether we publish traditionally or independently with self-publishing, we know our books get listed in the Baker & Taylor database. This is what most libraries use to find new material, and order books for their collection. If having a listing among the millions of books in B&T isn't enough, you can spend a little money for a direct approach. Maybe you thought you couldn't afford to advertise, but ...

For a fee, this firm offers you a listing in their monthly catalog to libraries. As an example, their half-page ad for one month costs $75. If you need a way to reach libraries, and have your book reach a wider audience, take a look at First Chapter Plus.

BONUS: First Chapter also hosts a huge Blogging Authors, a perfect place for you to participate.

Negative reviews

A bad review can seem devasting to an author, but in truth, it may not cause much harm. 

This is from a journal report in Marketing Science:

"Crunching data that cross-matched book sales against critics’ appraisals in The New York Times Book Review, they found that negative reviews of a new book by an “established” author hurt sales. 

“For books by relatively unknown (new) authors, however, negative publicity has the opposite effect,” increasing sales by 45 percent over their expected sales trajectory, they write. Evidently this boils down to increased awareness: the mere act of introducing something to a broader public — even by saying that it stinks — increases the chances that more members of that public will want it anyway."

So cheer up friends, and remember to offer to review books for fellow writers. 

I write book reviews professionally, and while my reviews are not always five-star winners, I almost always get a thank-you from the publicist, and often, from an appreciative author.

Source: New York Times Magazine, Oct. 29, 2010

The value of book reviews

Those of you who hear me speak at conferences, and who follow this blog, know I talk a lot about author marketing. One element is the value of online book reviews. I write reviews for BlogCritics.org, among other venues such as New York Journal of Books, and Salon. Here's an interesting timeline on the power of a review.

I wrote a review for BlogCritics of Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World, by Lisa Bloom on Tuesday. So far, itt has been pushed out to Facebook 35 times and retweeted five times. This is what you want to have happen.

On Thursday,  it was picked up by the Seattle Post Intelligencer (seattlepi.com)

And today, the author, her mother, and daughter were on a CNN talk show. The book's publicist alerted me to the fact that the author's mother said "Seattle PI just called Lisa's book the light bulb of the year for women," which she extrapolated from my comment in the review:  "this year's light bulb moment for women."

Now we all know she meant to say "Helen Gallagher said..." but its fun nonetheless, to have my writing move from my computer to the original review site at BlogCritics.org, then to the Seattle paper's site, and then a CNN talk show.
What's funny to me is that I never mentioned the sex references, and yet that's the hook the media used to make the book newsworthy for a talk show. Think about that - the universal appeal of the book is about women using their intelligence, but as we know, sex sells.

So, when you do your homework, research and marketing, remember to seek reviews of your book... But also work to keep readers focused on the point you're trying to get across.

Writing with a non de plume: What's in a name?

The folks at Writer's Relief have put together a good article on the pros and cons of writing under an assumed name.
I generally advise against it today, because of the online marketing needed for visibility. It seems doubly complex with needing two email addresses, business cards, a different blog identity,and so on.  Read the full article here.

As the article states:

The minute you decide to take on a nom de plume, be prepared to stick to that name in your correspondence and at writers’ conferences and book signings. You want people to associate that name with you, not give them a slew of different names to remember.

Hint: If you do choose to go with a pen name, choose a name that’s not too generic or linked to someone else. Try an online search of your prospective name to see what comes up.

Thanks to Ronnie at Writer's Relief.

It's award season for books

One of the best ways to create a long-lasting buzz for your book is by winning an award.

One of the first reputaable award campaigns to run in early 2011 and include books published in 2008 through 2011 is the
http://www.indieexcellence.com/

Susan Orlean on publishing today

Susan Orlean, one of my favorite authors, has a "Free Range" blog at The New Yorker. It includes a great post about finishing a book that she worked on for six years. She details the process of publishing a book and how it has changed. Read the full delightful post at her blog.

She cleverly describes the old way:
1. Think of a book topic.
2. Find a publisher who likes the idea.
3. Write the book.... and so on.

And the new way, which begins with:

1. Think of a book topic.
2. See if the domain name for your title is available. If not, consider changing the topic.
3. Does the book title/topic morph easily into a Twitter hashtag? If not, consider changing the topic.
4. Set up the Facebook page for the book and a fan page for yourself as Joe Blow, Author; send out an e-mail blast to your entire contact list asking people to “like” your fan and book pages.

You get the idea.... go read the rest at
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/susanorlean/2011/01/publish-or-perish.html#ixzz1BhA7w3T2

Sound familiar?  It's the PLATFORM discussion I've been having with you for a year now. Only Susan Orlean is much funnier than I am. Enjoy,

Helen Gallagher

Would CostCo want to carry your book?

Many of you know, I support groups that support writers. In one of my valued online groups, SPAWN.org, I learned of one person's experience with Costco. His story is so exciting, I commandeered it, with his permission, as a guest post here.

"A couple of months ago, while flipping through the Costco Connection magazine, I noticed a monthly column called Member Connection, where they profile Costco members who have interesting stories or events to tell about.

What caught my eye is that one of the three profiles on this page was of a woman who had written a book. They had a picture of her holding up her book (which was not available at Costco) along with a couple of paragraphs (one third of a page) about how she came to write it.

So, I sat down and emailed Costco Connection a brief version of my press kit, explaining that I had written a book and why it might interest Costco members. That was in August.

A couple of days ago, I got an email from a Costco Connection reporter who informed me that they liked my story and wanted to include me in the column in the February issue. We did a telephone interview yesterday, and I emailed some photos for them to choose from.

Good news all by itself, and I was thrilled. But, here's the exciting part... I decided, a few hours before the interview, to email the reporter a pdf copy of my book, "in case you might find it useful" for interview prep."

When he called to conduct the interview, he was effusive about how much he loved the book, and asked if I would mind if he passed it on to the Costco book buyer.  I, of course, said I would be most grateful for that, and mailed a couple of paperback copies for him to pass on and one to keep for himself.

Now, I realize that getting your book onto a Costco table is about as easy as getting it on Oprah, and I don't hold out much hope that it will actually happen. But, I do know that someone in the book buying office will read it, and it won't end up in that roomful of 100,000 books that never got opened.

And, at the very least, Costco members nationwide, and possibly in Canada and the UK, will be exposed to a couple of paragraphs about my book. I could not have purchased that kind of press.

If you have a note, photo or story to share about Costco or Costco members,  email it to connection@costco.com with "The Member Connection" in the subject line or send it to "The Member Connection," The Costco Connection, P.O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA 98124. Submissions cannot be acknowledged or returned."

Thanks to David Perkins for allowing me to share his success story with Release Your Writing blog fans.
Learn more about David and his book Dear Austin: A Letter To My Son, at http://www.davidmperkins.com and http://www.davidmperkins.com/amazon.

 And as for supporting groups who support writers, I think you'll agree my SPAWN membership was worth a full year's dues for this one tip alone.

Write on,
Helen Gallagher