Deborah Riley-Magnus's Blog, page 4

5 Things I’ve Learned About Writers

For over six years now, I’ve been coaching authors and working with writers in live and online workshops. I teach them how to be more successful, how to gain more book sales and how to negotiate the world of marketing, promotions and public relations. I know, I know, the thought of marketing is like having to eat vegetable you don’t like or do 20 minutes on the treadmill – all necessary, but oh how we hate it. Unfortunately, I sometimes get the brunt of an author’s frustrations over having to do what they don’t like.

Over these years I’ve noted patterns that appear in every place I speak, in every workshop I teach and with every author I coach. I thought it might be helpful to share them with all the writers I know. Here are the 5 things I’ve learned about writers.

WRITERS WANT TO KNOW WHY – No matter where I am or what kind of writer I’m talking to, this question always comes up. Why do I need to blog? Why do I have to tweet? Why do I need a website? This list can go on forever, but only a clear understanding of how marketing works helps them understand. What I’ve come to realize, is that the question WHY is usually an umbrella covering a plethora of other things, some related to writing and being successful, some completely unrelated. We writers are a stubborn bunch. We have to be. This is a tough industry to break into, survive within and ultimately find success. When a writer desperately wants to have great book sales, it’s often time to set our stubbornness aside so we look for the solutions. As a coach and workshop instructor, it’s my job to discover what that WHY is all about. Usually the question isn’t so much WHY but more like “Why do I have to do it?” The author in question may be working two jobs, meeting publishing deadlines, dealing with kids or well, simply stubborn. The answer to the big WHY question is painfully simple – because EVERYONE has to do it. The basic techniques of marketing are tried and true and have been for centuries. They are as true for you as they were for Andrew Carnegie.

You have a product
Your are in a competitive industry
You must make your product stand apart from that competition
You must make the public aware of your product
You must promote your product
And you must grow and maintain sales for that product

No one writes a book in hopes that no one will know about it or buy it. The basics of marketing are important and everyone with a product to sell must use them.

WRITERS WANT TO KNOW IF THERE’S A SHORTCUT – Oh what a great question and I totally understand why a writer would ask. A shortcut to work gets us there faster or helps us avoid traffic jams. A shortcut at dinnertime, like prepared foods, take-out and a dishwasher, saves us valuable time in the evenings. We are programmed to look for shortcuts. Time is finite and everyone on the planet gets the same 24 hours in any given day. Looking for shortcuts is expected … but shortcuts -  like auto twitter and auto Facbook post programs, and blogs that announce themselves on every other social media you use – not so much save time as limit your capacity for creating impact. Short cuts don’t work when marketing, in fact I’d go so far as to say they never work best when marketing. So many times an author will write to me after taking a workshop and say that they’ve done all the things recommended but received little to no response. After some exploration I always unscover that they’ve taken these handy-dandy shortcuts. Yes, they’ve saved time but what they’ve unfortunately done is become so automated, their tweets, Facebook posts, and blog announcements LOOK like a machine did them. All those sparks in their social media circles are flat, without personality and unfortunately, without true marketing impact. Because marketing is a living, breathing thing, it lends itself to being brilliant … but only when backed by a human being. By all means test all the shortcuts. I suggest you test them one at a time then take a breath and do it all again without the shortcuts, using your personality and style. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes! Using shortcuts and saving time but gaining little to no sales is just … foolish.

WRITERS WANT TO KNOW HOW TO FIND THE TIME – This one too is painfully simple. There are so many things a writer does in life, everything from taking care of family to valiantly protecting their valuable writing time. Finding the time to do everything means biting the bullet and making a plan, a schedule, a check list, a reminder buzzer on your cell phone, a kitchen timer … ANYTHING IT TAKES to be efficient. This requires good time management skills and discipline, but have you ever known a successful person in any field who doesn’t have good time management skills and discipline? Everyone’s time management style is different, but only those who master it actually get everything done.

WRITERS WANT TO KNOW HOW TO STAND APART – It’s a dog-eat-dog publishing world out there, crowded with books and shouting authors and dwindling distribution points. Whether you are published by a big, small or medium publisher or self published, and even if you’re a writer just finishing your first book, the question has always been, “How do I stand apart from everyone else?” You did it with your writing and wrote a book that no one else could write because it came from your unique mind. Now it’s time to take that powerful creative gift and use it for marketing. So what happens? So many authors find themselves moving with the crowd they had hoped to stand apart from. This happens ALL THE TIME. Take a look at any author’s twitter following or Facebook friends and you’ll discover that the majority (and sometimes ALL) of them are other authors. I think this is based in fear – fear of tooting our own horn, fear that without other authors around us we’ll falter, fear of … well … success. It makes sense to have lots of authors around us, but it doesn’t make sense to completely surround ourselves with our competition. Shuck off the fear and reach out to readers. Who are the people who would buy your book? Time to make twitter followers, Facebook friends, and Goodreads friends with them. I always tell writers that the best ratio is 2 fellow authors for every 8 prospective book buyers. This is how to stand apart, take steps away from the competition and market to your fans and prospective book buyers.

WRITERS WANT TO KNOW HOW TO TAKE THIS FURTHER – Once an author strategically reaches out to prospective book buyers and creates fans and sales, something wonderful happens. It clicks. Fireworks go off. The light has come on for them. One small taste of success makes them hungry for more! They discover that this marketing thing DOES WORK and it doesn’t take all that much time, especially if it’s carefully targeted and efficiently implemented. There’s basic marketing and there’s advanced marketing. Taking an author’s marketing to the next level with cross marketing techniques and platform expansion skills becomes easy. Having reached this part of the success adventure, authors are starting to think like marketing people by revisiting their back list to build sales, creating promotions that other authors never think about, in venues other authors don’t use, and speaking to book buyer in places other authors never dreamed of. Taking it further really only take one thing … eliminating the very first WHY hurdle.

 FREE Ten Tools for Author Success Handbook available for download at The Author Success Coach website.

“Finding Author Success” available in print and ebook on Amazon , B&N , Apple and Sony !

Things that Scare Writers …

It’s October and the chant “Deadlines and Edits and Bills, OH MY!” can be heard ringing from the rafters of every writer and author I know. Even a few publishers are squawking as the harvest moon rises. Why do we get this way? And more importantly, how can we manage the dreaded forth quarter scary stuff? Here are 5 Tips to help writers and authors get through to the New Year.

NaNo Only if You Can

NaNoWriMo has been a fantastic phenomenon. Many writers find it a fantastic challenge, but for as many writing a new book or finishing a work in progress who find it a successful process, there are just as many who find it to be far less productive. My theory is that timing may be the issue. To participate in NaNo, the writer must commit all their time during the month of November to reaching a word count goal. Granted, writing 50,000 words in 30 days can be a great thing, but writing the RIGHT 50,000 words is what really matters. If you’re able to do NaNo – meaning if your life allows you to block off 30 days and nights for nothing but writing – by all means, go for it. But most writers and authors I know have many, many other responsibilities in their lives, They are mothers or caregivers, hold down full time jobs, take care of the house and cook meals and they have outside commitments to their community or church or clubs and friends.

Don’t get me wrong, NaNo can be a wonderful tool, but if this is your first time on the NaNo speeding train, I have a few suggestions. Before you sign on, take an inventory of your life. Determine what’s most important to you in the month of November and carefully evaluate the stress level you’ll be adding to your load. Stressed writing is never the best, but if after thinking it through you discover that you’re the kind of writer who thrives under tight, heavy deadlines, rock and roll with it. I’ll be looking for the NaNoWriMo logo on your social media and cheering you on!

Keep a Sharp Eye on Your Platforms

Platforms are the pumping, heated life blood for your book. Your website, twitter, Facebook and blog entries are how you tell the world – prospective book buyers, fans, literary agents and publishers – that you are writing a book. It’s how you get them excited about it.

This final quarter of the year is fraught challenges, the holidays, the changing weather, and that all-important self-imposed deadline. We’ve all done it … “I’m going to finish that book before New Year’s Day!” (Never mind that we might have decided to write that book LAST New Year’s Day, LOL.) It all adds up to pressure and ignoring your platforms to carve out more writing time is simply COUNTERPRODUCTIVE. Your book may get finished, but no one will know about it. A disappearing act by any writer or author can set things back drastically.

Plan your platform activity time carefully. Twitter 2X every day for 10 minutes each morning and 10 minutes each afternoon. Facebook  once every day. Post a question or fact of the day that pertains to your book’s unique elements. Blog at most once every two weeks, and at least once every month.  Be sure to blog about your book – the story, subject and unique hooks within your book. Don’t blog about the process of writing, it gets boring and basically is nothing new. Your blog subjects should be interesting to your prospective book buyer and reader fans … not other authors. Update your Website at least once every month. These updates can be adding the newest reviews for your backlist, interesting subject explorations related to your work in progress, where you’ll be speaking or signing books. A great way to handle website updates is to embed your blog into your author website.  Every time your blog entries are made, your website is also updated. Cool, huh?

Keep your platforms alive and hopping so that readers, prospective book buyers and established fans will be excited and waiting for your next book. (Even if this is your first book, keep those platforms sparking!)

Take a Moment to Look Around

I see you there, sitting at your computer, wearing sweats and a pair of ugly fuzzy bunny slippers. Time to look around! Put on your shoes and go for a walk. Go out and do your grocery shopping. Take an hour to walk around the mall. JUST LOOK AROUND! Who knows? That old man strolling from his car to the dry cleaners just might be the basis for a great character. The colors and weather you see might play a critical role in your plot. Passing conversations may inspire dialog you didn’t expect. Go on. Get out of the house. Enjoy. It’s good for the writer’s soul, especially as we face this time of year.

Plan Your Holidays NOW

Oh the Holidays! How crazy can those get? Family, parties, gift giving, baking, cooking, entertaining – it all adds up to a stressful time of year for anyone, especially the writer working on a deadline. It’s still early enough to plan a low-stress holiday season. Take advantage of the lay away programs for your gift shopping. It gets the names on your gift-giving list checked off, keeps the gifts out of your space and gives you a feeling of accomplishment. Do a little bit every week.

Talk with your friends and family now and find out what they’re planning. Will you be going to a party or ten? Will you be responsible for bringing a part of the menu? The beer? Flowers? Keep this simple and plan ahead.

Are you a holiday card sender? Writing holiday greetings isn’t exactly writing. I honestly know people who send out hundreds of holiday cards every year, each with a sweet personal note in them. If you’re like that, get those cards early, write 10 of them every week then set them aside. This way you’ll have them all done before it’s time to drop them into the mailbox.

Above all, remember to take in and cherish the holidays. They only come once a year and we deserve a little frivolity and joy.

Sleep

Yes, sleep. If you’re like me, sleep is that elusive thing that everyone else seems to enjoy. My mind spins with what has to be done, what isn’t done yet, what I want to do and how much I don’t want to fail by not finishing something … especially my book.

There are tricks for getting sleep. Drink chamomile tea instead of coffee after 7 p.m. Avoid stimulation like exercise, computer games or reading that wonderful horror book beside the bed. Do Yoga. Relax and breathe. Yeah, right, like any of those actually work. The only real advice I can give is this … when I honestly feel that I’ve been productive that day, I can actually sleep. Sleep is replenishing. It’s healing and healthy. Anything that works for you to make sure you get the rest you need is a good thing. And remember, real, deep sleep brings fantastic dreams that can easily find their way into your book. Nothing is more important than creative ideas, right? So why risk giving up 1/3 of your creative life to stress and fretting over everything that needs to be done? Get your fair share of dreams!

There you go, 5 Tips to help writers or authors get through this scary, stressful final quarter of the year. Happy writing!

FREE Ten Tools for Author Success Handbook available for download at The Author Success Coach website.

“Finding Author Success” available in print and ebook on Amazon , B&N , Apple and Sony !

It’s Back to School Time for Authors!

Summer’s OVER! And like most people in the world, authors and writers come into the reality that it’s time to hunker down and get back to work. Not that we haven’t been writing or creating ideas all summer, it’s just that when fall arrives, our memories travel to the days of new school clothes, notebooks, pencils and getting down to study.

Since marketing, publicity and promotions are very much the author’s responsibility in order to be a GREAT selling author, today I’m going to dedicate my post to the many and various focuses you need to think about … even before your book is finished! This is the listing of the workshops I’ll be teaching between now and the end of the year. Grab a pen, find the help you need most, and sign up today!

The first listing is the workshops I’m teaching through The Author Success Coach website. All workshops are $15, taught online over a week, can be participated in at your leisure and cover valuable author success techniques. Sign up soon, workshops fill quickly.

After that is the list of workshops I’m teaching through Savvy Authors. These too are between $15 – $20. They are taught online within the Savvy Authors forums and cover a two week span. Here goes!

ONLINE WORKSHOPS AT THE AUTHOR SUCCESS COACH WEBSITE

Geisha Marketing for Authors     Sept 17 – 23, 2012

Description: The definition of Marketing is: The process by which one creates customer awareness and interest in products or services. The definition of Geisha is: An entertainer whose skills include performing various arts such as classical music and dance. This workshop is specifically designed to show the true art of marketing, instill the power of passion, skill, creativity and understanding to create a successful book marketing plan.

Cross-Marketing Magic   Oct 22 – 29, 2012

Description:There is real magic in every author’s arsenal, you just need to know where to find it and how to turn it into more book sales!

Syllabus:

Creative “Sales” Thinking, 101
Expanding your Platforms
Perfecting Genre Game Skills
Approaching and Maintaining Alternative Markets
Evaluating Your Successes

Roman Empire Promotions for Authors   Nov. 12 – 17, 2012

Description: Promotions is the activity around which your book is sold. This workshop teaches playful yet powerful military-like strategies designed to simplify the implementation of strong, effective book events and promotions.

Publicity, a Powerful Road to Book Sales     Dec 3 – 9, 2012

Description: While the crowd scrambles in the battle for the same reader, well managed and creative publicity can take an author to new audiences.

Syllabus:

Digging for Publicity Nuggets inside your Manuscript
The Seven Levels of Communications
Finding Venues for Exposure
Charities
Press Management

ONLINE WORKSHOPS AT SAVVY AUTHORS

Publicity, a Powerful Road to Book Sales     Oct 8 – 21, 2012

Description: While the crowd scrambles in the battle for the same reader, well managed and creative publicity can take an author to new audiences.

Syllabus:

The Goals Plan
Boosting your already Great Platforms
Understanding Marketing
The Nuance of Promotions
Powerful Publicity Plans

Gain More Book Sales!    Oct 29 – Nov 11, 2012

Description: Is there an author alive who wouldn’t love to gain more book sales? All authors, no matter what they write, how they’re published or where they are in the process – especially new and first-time authors – they all struggle with the most basic requirement of marketing well. It’s all about planning well.

Syllabus:

The Goals Plan
Boosting your already Great Platforms
Understanding Marketing
The Nuance of Promotions
Powerful Publicity Plans

SERIOUS Platforms Building      Dec 3 – 16, 2012

Description: Your platforms are what you stand on, where you shout your message from and how you reach your prospective fans, readers and book buyers. It’s time for a serious approach to platforms building, social media and time management. Create platforms that go above and beyond what other authors do and find the success your book deserves.

Syllabus:

Author Platform and Book Platform
Networking Smart
Platform Marketing Strategies
Budget, or the lack thereof
Tips for Time Management

All of these workshops are fun and interactive, giving the author a chance to practice the techniques taught for the unique elements within their own book. I hope to see you at one or more of these workshops and I wish you all GREAT AUTHOR SUCCESS!

 FREE Ten Tools for Author Success Handbook available for download at The Author Success Coach website.

“Finding Author Success” available in print and ebook on Amazon , B&N , Apple and Sony !

 

True Marketing Power for Authors: Test Your Cross Markets for Effectiveness!

EVALUATE, EVALUATE, EVALUATE

How do you know a Cross Marketing effort is working for you? Aside from the obvious – growing book sales – there are several ways to test your efforts for effectiveness. Here are seven tried and true tools and tips for testing your Cross Marketing efforts. Sometimes one works better than another in a particular venue or with a particular target, sometimes a few of these strategies can work hand in hand for best results. Some may simply just work great for you but not at all for another author. The trick is to know and understand all seven testing strategies, make them yours and use them well.

TEST BY TIMING

I’ve mentioned before that it’s best to never reach out to more than two Cross Marketing targets at a time. There’s a very good reason for this, because the whole time you’re reaching out to new and unique markets to build a larger fan base and grow book sales, you’re must also be doing your standard marketing – social networking, speaking, book-signings, reaching out to genre book clubs and approaching genre blogs for reviews and interviews. Your Cross Marketing efforts are those magical steps in places and toward targets that your competition is not taking. It’s vital to make sure you have time to do everything … and that includes writing your next book! I strongly suggest the Test by Timing strategy. This is easy, it requires that you approach and market to ONE of your Cross Markets for three-four solid months before adding another Cross Market. With this strategy you choose carefully. If, for example, scuba diving is an element within your manuscript and you go after scuba diving online venues, you will move through those prospects until you find the one willing to work with you, one with a large web presence and following as well as a very active business. Ride with the program you and the business or blog owner have created, never drop the ball or forget to send your content for columns or articles, never forget to respond to people commenting. Three or four months later, take a serious look at your sales. Have they gone up? Can you see how it could directly relate to your efforts at the scuba websites and blogs? Or have the sales numbers stayed the same? In that case it’s time to make a choice – give it another three to four months, or move on. If sales are rising and you’ve gotten a good grip on how this works, attempt a new relationship with a second target for your Cross Marketing and roll with both. ALWAYS watch your sales numbers and make sure your efforts are creating results. If sales go down, back up and punt. Are you spending too much time on the Cross Markets? Are you forgetting to do your normal social network marketing? Have you forgotten to keep things active and alive at your own book blog and website? Testing by Timing is a strategy that gives every Cross Marketing effort its full attention before adding another. If this is all done right, it will become a system for you that can be both easy and fun … after all, what in the world is more fun that selling more books and gaining more fans?

CONTROL ACTIVITIES

This seems simple but it isn’t.  The same twenty-four hours exist in each day for everyone on the planet, so careful scheduling and time management is crucial. Some authors find so much success with Cross Marketing (one, selling a full 7,000 more books than normal!) that they go a little nuts. They add too many more of those Cross Markets and learn that:

They have no time to write
They have no time to do a good job with all the different markets
They are pulled in too many directions and literally forget which target they’re talking to
Overworked people get sloppy and the target they’re trying to interest can feel that

Don’t get greedy! Let each Cross Market find its own level. Some may do really well for a while and fall off because just about everyone in that Cross Market through that particular venue has bought your book whose going to buy your book. Add a Cross Market only when you know you can handle the added efforts, and only when you are ready to spread your wings further. Give each venue your all,  know when to step away and know when to up your activity.

CONTESTS

This one is easy! If you’re book is about, for example, organizing, once each month or two, at the end of your column, ask the readers to submit a before and after picture of an organized drawer or closet and the winner will receive a free book from you and a free tape measure from the business you’re cross marketing through. If your book is about scuba diving, run a contest at the scuba diving website for a brief story about the reader’s diving experience and the winner receives a free book from you and something small from the scuba business. If your fiction is historical, ask the host website readers to tell you something that happened somewhere else in the world during the same time frame in your book, and the most interesting piece of information wins a free book and … well, you get the point. These contests work on several levels. The number of responses tell you how many people are actually reading your column or articles, and the responses give you an opportunity to directly connect with the prospective book buyers. No response after two or three tries tells the whole story … time to move to another Cross Market and another venue.

CODE WORDS OR COMMENTS

Use a few code words in your article that should lead the readers of your articles or columns respond. For example, if your book has dogs in it and your Cross Market is dog lovers, in your article at the chosen venue (dog care blogs or doggie daycare websites) you may want to use code words that correspond somehow to the title of your book – something like “Dogs sense coming bad weather”. At the end of your article, ask the reader’s how dogs sense coming weather. The responses can range from technical, to playful or ridiculous, but they all constitute a response, and that means people are reading your articles and want to interact with you. NOTE: It is ALWAYS more effective to close any article, column or blog entry with this kind of open-ended question to encourage response.

JOURNALING

To do this correctly and give your Cross Markets a fair three to four months to prove success or failure, make sure to keep a journal of several things:

The topic of your blog, article of column each month on each specific target venue
The number of responses received with each topic at each venue
The activity at your own book platform website immediately after each entry at a venue
Any related changes to your Amazon ranking after each entry at each venue
The number of total sales at the end of each month

These journal entries will tell you the whole story about how your Cross Marketing efforts are doing. Over time, you will be able to clearly see which venues are working and which ones are not. This gives you the information needed to do a few things:

Tweak your efforts to create better response
Make a good decision as to whether to leave that venue and move on to a different Cross Market target
Or stay the course and add an additional venue to the mix

BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF

So many authors love the “idea” of Cross Marketing and they really want to do it well, but the truth of the matter is that many drop the ball, get bored, or simply don’t care to put in the effort. Be honest with yourself when analyzing your Cross Market efforts. Did you really approach the right Cross Market target venues? Did you faithfully do your articles on time and with strong, creative content? Or did you take every short cut you could imagine? If a Cross Marketing approach doesn’t work you need to ask yourself if you really tried, or if it just may be the wrong venue for that target. Sometimes the problem isn’t the strategy or target … it’s us. Be honest. You’d never write a book you weren’t interested in writing, so never approach or attempt Cross Marketing to a target you aren’t interested in.

AVOID THE “FUN” TRAP

Oh man, sometimes Cross Marketing is so much fun! The host venue loves you and they think you and your content are a great addition to their website. They are always in touch with you and friendly with you and even come up with great ideas for you to use in your blogs, articles or columns. You are having a blast! But … if you’ve kept a journal and watched your book sales, you may discover that sales are staying the same and not moving up at all. The whole point of Cross Marketing isn’t to make a whole batch of new friends, it’s to sell more books, so it may be time to make some hard decisions. Is it time to step away and try a different venue or Cross Market target? Is it time to ask the venue to permit you to start featuring the cover of your book at the TOP of your article instead of just a tag line with a buy link? If they really like you and want you to keep writing content for them, they might be perfectly happy to let you directly promote your book. They may even give you an ad space for your book on their website. This has to be a Win/Win situation and they understand that so you need to keep an eye on your sales and know when to ask for more from the venue … or say farewell.

Questions? Post them and I’ll be happy to answer.

Next week we’ll be talking about HOW you can keep your Cross Markets momentum alive and exciting. See you then!

FREE Ten Tools for Author Success Handbook available for download at The Author Success Coach website.

“Finding Author Success” available in print and ebook on Amazon , B&N , Apple and Sony !

True Marketing Power for Authors: Making Friends with New Markets

Now that you’ve explored your manuscript and target book buyer audience beyond the norm … now that you’ve excavated new directions for your Cross Marketing efforts … now that you’ve determined 20 new targets and all new venues to approach … it’s time to put the magic into play. But how does an author reach out and tenderly cultivate these new markets?

The primary keys to approaching new Cross Marketing venues are patience and careful steps. Unlike the direct marketing efforts for your book – like mystery or romance readers where you locate the mystery or romance fan base and plow in with a 50 piece brass band – you must move into these cross markets with a more subtle string quartet that builds into a crescendo.

INTRODUCE YOURSELF

In your research you’ve determined 20 different directions to go with your Cross Marketing. For example, if your story is about a scuba diver who uncovers a mystery, you’ve decided that scuba diving enthusiasts, scuba diving stores, scuba diving schools, scuba diving groups and travel agencies would be strong directions. Whether this list of cross markets are live or online doesn’t really matter, all that matters is that the elements in your book fit well with your list. Now, go and introduce yourself. Join Yahoo groups that focus on diving and say hello. DO NOT OPEN WITH “Hey I wrote a book!” Instead just join in. See how the groups works, what they do and what they talk about. Be subtle and even though you’re not talking about your book, your email will always have the title of your book and the buy link at the bottom. This is a subject you’re already interested in, so it won’t be hard to just become part of this group. Gather nuggets of scuba information and expertise from the group’s members and remember to pipe in when you have something to say.

BE INVOLVED

Too many authors who attempt this Cross Marketing approach are looking for speedy results. They break rule number one and start pushing their book or talking about their book and end up being ignored or worse yet, ousted from the group. Patience is vital. Don’t forget, you’ve entered an arena where buying books isn’t the primary objective to the members. You need to make friends and make them feel safe with you. If you’re writing another book that includes the subject, there’s nothing wrong with, after a little trust has been established, telling the group members that your next book is also about scuba diving and you’re seeking their expertise or suggestions for locations or equipment information. You’ll be amazed how many people want to help a friend! They’ll send you photos and tons of information because not only do they like you, but they get to tell you about the thing they love. Oh, and you’ll also be surprised how many of them suddenly ask about your book and end up buying it, reading it and talking about it to their other friends!

MAKE REASONABLE OFFERINGS

Let’s talk about Cross Marketing to businesses. This works especially well for online businesses. These companies, large and small, have wonderful, active websites and blogs and you want to get involved in a way that helps sell your book but doesn’t compete with their corporate or business message. Again, you can’t hard sell and asking them to purchase an ad on their website for your book right off the bat may result in a very negative response. Be sure to make reasonable offerings. Put together a logical, simple proposal specially designed for each business. It may include guest blogging where you talk about diving, locations or your experiences. It may involve an “Info Dive of the Month”  article where each month you write something interesting related to a category of equipment they sell (or in the case of travel agents, the locations they’re featuring). It may involve something small and silly, like the funny things that can happen while diving, or the amazing things one might see while diving. For these businesses, you need to make sure you’re adding value to their website, their product and their customers, that way they have no issues at all if you feature your book cover and buy link at the bottom of every blog, article or tidbit. It’s the classic win/win. ONE WARNING: if you’re doing an article for one business website, you can’t do articles for another business. For the other business you’ll need to come up with something unique to their company. Create a list of 20 or 30 ideas and spread them around with your proposals. That way if one isn’t interested in the “Info Dive of the Month” but they’re interested in your involvement, you can propose something different and hold the original idea for a different business.

BE CONSISTENT

If you tell a business or group that you will do something, do it. I totally understand that an author’s life can be complex and busy. We have family responsibilities, dirty dishes, deadlines and our own muses to deal with, BUT if you’ve made a commitment to Cross Marketing, whether it’s as involvement with a group or to get the “Info Dive of the Month” article to a business website, be sure to do it. Nothing destroys faith in a person more than dropping the ball. To control your activities, I suggest you only work with three or four Cross Marketing targets at a time – one scuba Yahoo group, one diving gear online business and one travel agency. When you discover that one of these Cross Markets isn’t working for you or gaining book sales after a few months, exit and move on with a replacement. This way you’ll never get overloaded and you can always be consistent.

YOUR BOOK IS THE UNDERLINE, NOT THE STATEMENT

Cross Marketing is not marketing the way most authors understand marketing. It isn’t fireworks and loud speakers and it isn’t a quick solution to a problem. Some authors have perfected Cross Marketing by keeping in mind that all of their activity requires putting the hard sell on the back burner. Cross Marketing is about making new friends, developing a new market for your book and being very subtle about it. Give all your Cross Marketing efforts at least three months before seriously analyzing results. And once you’ve mastered a great cross market, don’t stop there! If you found that scuba diving bloggers are a fantastic source of book buyers, reach out to them all. Just remember to make you content unique to that blog and never repeat. If you discover that only one travel agency is working for you and all your efforts to make things happen with other travel agencies fails, stick with what’s working. You know how much you can market … and you know how much you want your book sales to grow. Plan well and never use hard sell tactics with a cross market.

FOLLOW UP

Wow, you’re selling books like crazy through that online scuba supply website. You are writing great articles every month and being subtle with your book and you’re a happy camper! Until, one day, six months into it, the business contacts you and informs you that they no longer wish to sponsor your articles. What happened? No follow up. You need to have a contact each and every month with the business to make sure they’re pleased with what you’re doing. Ask them if they’d like to see something else, or would like you to focus an article on a specific topic. Stay in touch to assure that your Cross Marketing activities are really a win/win situation for both you and the business. Otherwise it can all blow up in your face. Always follow up and always remember to thank them. It’s just good business and good manners.

KNOW WHEN TO STEP AWAY

Earlier I mention that it’s wise to give a cross market at least three months to show results, but I really would like to see a six month activity with business websites. Not only does it take that long to hook deeply into that company’s customer base, but it serves the seasonal cycles of the business. It also gives you a fair amount of time to watch your sales and determine if the effort you’re putting into Cross Marketing is giving you the results you want. With groups, it should only take a few weeks to see if the people there will serve your Cross Marketing goals. A quick and friendly exit is always best. There are hundreds of groups, live and online, out there and sticking with one may be foolish. In the end, you should at all times have six streams of Cross Marketing working for you – two different business websites with their own unique content, one guest blogging opportunity per month, and three active online groups. If any of these are not giving you the results you want, step away and move on to the next.

Always remember, Cross Marketing is not something every author does and that’s a super good thing! You’ll be working in a landscape free of competition and fertile with new book buyers. Cross Markets are not for hard sell tactics, your book’s story or subject must relate to the Cross Market, your efforts must be planned, managed and well connected, and most of all, if it’s not working, there are 20 other directions to go on your list.

Cross Marketing isn’t easy. But think about it, does the easy way ever really work? Cross marketing is logical, simple in its approach and when well done, the results can be extraordinary. Go ahead, try it. You’re up for the challenge. After all, you’re amazing! You already wrote a book!Questions? Post them and I’ll be happy to answer. Next week we’ll be talking about HOW you can test your Cross Markets for effectiveness. See you then!

FREE Ten Tools for Author Success Handbook available for download at The Author Success Coach website.

“Finding Author Success” available in print and ebook on Amazon , B&N , Apple and Sony !

True Marketing Power for Authors: NEW Book Buyers are Hiding Inside Your Manuscript!

It’s fabulous to have a book published, no matter how it’s published. There’s the thrill of seeing it available on Amazon or on a bookshelf, there’s that excitement when you sign the book for someone, and it’s so much fun to watch the books sell and sell.

But guess what? Right on the tail of your book launch at least a thousand other books are being launched, a huge percentage of them in your same genre and going after the same reader who buys your books. What’s an author to do? After the first blush of success, it quickly fades and most authors resort to harder pushes on twitter or facebook or silly gimmicks like giving away free books or dropping the price of their book to less than a buck. It’s time to face facts, every book faces a crunch time where it feels like the author can make it or fail miserably.

So … how do we solve this dilemma? It’s so simple it might make your head swim.

Locate your secondary markets
Plan early
Implement without fail
Enjoy your success

Yes, that’s it. Four little steps and I’m going to help you organize your plan so that it will run smoothly and efficiently. And guess what? If this is done right, you’ll never have to watch your book flood into the market for Free or .99!

LOCATE YOUR SECONDARY MARKETS

Where are your book buyers? I’ve asked this already several times during this blog series, and I’ll be asking it several more times before we’re finished.

I want you to imagine yourself as a General. You’re in charge of winning the war and in order to be ready for the battles ahead, you need a strong strategy. Whether you win the first battle or not, you still have a whole war to win, so planning is critical.

Your first offensive line as an author is to follow the standard procedures. Announce that your book has been released. Reach out to your genre readers through twitter, facebook, blogging, guest blogging, blog tours and book clubs. This is the first blush of success I mentioned earlier and it is a thrill, but it dies out soon.

The difference between you and all the other authors out there is that, as a good General, you have an entire set of strategies for your second, third and forth attacks.

No matter what you’ve written, fiction, non-fiction, YA or a children’s book, you must have these secondary strategies ready and waiting for the next battles ahead.

As an example, let’s imagine you’ve written a romance or romance subgenre, an urban fantasy, high fantasy, mystery, cozy mystery, science fiction or women’s fiction. There is one strong and very broad target for your books that takes your marketing strategies beyond the standard first-blush targets. That is simply … women. Where are women? They are everywhere. A vast majority of them read books, are not a member of any of the book clubs you’ve already approached, and they gather in places other authors aren’t thinking to approach.

To strategize a plan of attack for reaching this very broad general target, you need to slip away from the normal book selling and promoting marks, lift your head and look around. Nurses are women. Mothers are women. Home cooks are women. Bike riders and palates classes are filled with women. Dental assistants are women. Women are EVERYWHERE. Don’t be like some narrow minded authors out there who can’t see the forest for the trees. Do any of your friends or neighbors belong to a sewing or scrap booking group? Is there a ladies auxiliary group in your neighborhood? How about a walking club or weight loss club or cookie club? How many of these groups have online activities? Food or cooking bloggers? Skiing clubs? Swim clubs? Anywhere and for any reason women get together can be a vast target for this secondary approach.

Another direction to go for finding broader book buyer targets is to look inside your manuscript. Dissect it, examine it. Stay close to your manuscript not only as you write the book, but after the book is out in the world. You’d be surprised how many authors I work with have basically forgotten many of the subtle elements inside their own manuscript that can possibly prove to be great directions for marketing. Pick up tour book and READ IT AGAIN. Take notes. Is there something in there that can fit perfectly as a new target marketing goal for sales? Is the main character a baker or gardener? Do they have a food preference that comes up often? Does the book touch on an illness or have an underlying story arc that explores travel or sailing or mechanics? Every one of those elements you originally put into your story to add color or roundness to your characters can easily become a powerful direction for marketing.

Next week we’ll be covering how to approach these new secondary markets, but in order to do any of that, you must identify them! That’s why it’s the first step for developing growth potential for your book sales. Take a few hours, review your own book and list every possible secondary market inside the manuscript, as well as every place you can locate these target book buyers.

PLAN EARLY

Before your book even comes out is the perfect time to seriously plan your strategies. Never launch all your strategies at once. Start with the standard book launch approach, then after a few weeks, launch your next attack, then your next then the one after that. Watch how your book is selling. When things start to quiet down, be the General and get your strategies into play. Never try to do too many different approaches at the same time. Two is about the limit if you want give it your full attention and gain the best results.

The most important part of your plan is testing the results. By watching your sales and comparing it to your activities, you can see quickly if a target is responding or not. If it’s too quiet for too long – two-three weeks – step away and go another direction. Without understanding what works and what doesn’t, you will be spinning your wheels and the goal here is to be enjoying success.

IMPLEMENT WITHOUT FAIL

Now that you have our plan and know your secondary targets, there’s a big thing you must remember. You can’t tell if a strategy is working or not if you don’t implement it fully. This is vital. If you choose to approach women through live groups, email groups, online groups and blogging, you can’t simply start, get bored and drop the ball. It happens easily, trust me, I’ve been there. There are a thousand distractions in an author’s life. There are new books to write, family and friends to socialize with, houses to clean and bills to pay. When you find yourself at a point where you’re losing interest in a new target approach, ask yourself this question. What did it feel like the day your book was released? Regain that enthusiasm and excitement and remember … the new target you’re going for knows nothing about you or your book. It’s all new to them, so it must feel all new to you too and your enthusiasm must shine through!

Remember to learn from every target you approach. Tweak your strategies like a real General and use those variations for the next attack.

Your plan should include no less than twenty new targets that reach beyond the standard author marketing approaches. If a target proves successful, find ways to expand it. For example, if your main character knits and you’ve discovered that knitting groups, live and online, are responding, take it further. Reach out to stores that sell yarn and inquire about any knitting groups they might know. Contact specialty yarn and knitting needle online stores and ask them if you can write a weekly column, or at least advertise your book on their website. Be sure to tell them how many knitters love your book, perhaps even send them a list of the reviews. What you’re looking for is a way to get MORE of the same sales success with a target that is proving lucrative.

Have fun with this. Don’t stress or go nuts over it. Never forget that the average author is sitting at their computer panicking over why their book sales have fallen off and offering free copies or .99 books just to try to build their numbers up. Of course, you can do that too, but why not play in the areas nobody else has even thought about looking at? Enjoy the ride. Be the General! Don’t sit back and wait for failure to crush you, be proactive and go out and win as many battles as you can.

ENJOY YOUR SUCCESS!

If you’ve found your secondary targets within your genre and manuscript, if you’ve done your planning well, if you’ve implemented your strategies joyously and without fail AND kept records so that you can determine which targets are worth going deeper with and which are worth discarding, you can’t help but find sales success. Manage your time carefully, approach no more than two new targets at a time and remember to keep up your momentum and enthusiasm. Just as energy breeds energy, success breeds success!Questions? Please post them and I’ll be happy to answer.

Next week we’ll be talking about HOW an author approaches and maintains a new market effectively. See you then!

 FREE Ten Tools for Author Success Handbook available for download at The Author Success Coach website.

“Finding Author Success” available in print and ebook on Amazon , B&N , Apple and Sony !

What happened at the Conference: “Finding Author Success” SCORES!

Last weekend I was at the Pennwriters Conference. The last time I went to this particular writer’s conference, things were quite different. I was one of a few hundred writers desperately hoping to have a good face-to-face meeting with a literary agent so I could pitch my book. The stress level was high and I was, naturally, a nervous wreck. I got through it but what I learned there reshaped my entire idea of being an author forever. That was eight years ago, it was a good experience and I did get a request for a full manuscript, but my oh my, how the industry has changed since then.

This time I was at the conference to speak, teach workshops and sign books.

Have you ever had one of those moments when you wonder what you’re doing with your life and if it matters to anyone? With the shifts in the publishing industry, of course I continued to write and after several years, finally found publication. But something else happened. The deeper I got into the true dynamics of creating success for myself, I discovered that many other authors were struggling with the same problem. With nearly all of the marketing, promotion and publicity required to make our books successful sellers on our own shoulders these days, I realized that I had something unique and powerful to offer. I have more than two decades of experience in all those elusive conundrums that baffle authors – marketing, promotions and publicity – it was suddenly obvious that I had a lot of the answers. It all began by answering authors questions on twitter about how to market and grew into Finding Author Success: Discovering and Uncovering the Marketing Power within your Manuscript. It’s gone even further since the book was released last November.

Yes, I’ve had two novels published, but this time the conference for me was all about author sales success and what it takes to attain it. Armed with copies of Finding Author Success I taught a pre-conference workshop on Building a Book Business Plan. I then did a three hour workshop covering the 10 Tools for Author Success. I was asked to do a read and critique session with literary agent Miriam Kriss of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency, and I sat and signed books in the hospitality suite. Sounds like lots of fun and great exposure and one would think I’d be thrilled with how far I’d come since the last Pennwriters Conference I attended … but it goes much deeper than that.

This was a wonderful experience for reasons that have nothing to do with being asked to speak in cities like Boston, Chicago, New York and all around my own state of Pennsylvania. It had to do with something even more exciting! Success … for several of the authors I chatted with, taught in the workshops or simply met in the halls.

Part of both the Book Business Plan workshop and the 10 Tools for Author Success lecture has to do with helping the authors attending to polish, tighten and add power to their 25 word core pitch. What I feared would be boring to them, turned out to be magic and five of them, using the pitch they’d perfected during the classes (and one simply through a brief conversation at breakfast) all managed to have wonderful results with the agents … and they all tracked me down to let me know that the agent they’d pitch had requested full manuscripts! I felt like a proud momma! I felt like dancing in the streets for them! And … I finally knew that what I’m doing really does make a difference.

I’m not one for shouting from the rooftops but my publisher encouraged me to do a little horn tooting about this. Finding Author Success is truly a book that helps authors in many ways, from getting an agent or publisher’s attention to letting the whole world know they have a book for sale.

Another thing that came from the conference was the fact that as much as I love writing fiction and will continue to do so, there’s much more on the horizon for me as an Author Success Coach. I can help authors find the sales success they need by taking them deeper into the simple but unique areas of marketing most authors never explore. I’m starting another book for Author Success that will focus on the power and push of serious cross marketing that can take an author’s book sales from mediocre to the stars.

Now all I have to do is write it.

Next week we’ll return to the True Marketing Power for Authors series and we will be talking about seriously dissecting your own manuscript to find even more new prospective readers. See you then!

FREE Ten Tools for Author Success Handbook available for download at The Author Success Coach website.

“Finding Author Success” available in print and ebook on Amazon , B&N , Apple and Sony !

 

 

 

 

True Marketing Power for Authors: Looking in a NEW Direction

I just returned from five days at the Pennwriters Conference where I taught a whole section of my workshop on this subject, so this will be fun and creative!

Where do you reach your readers? Most authors (as I’ve mentioned before) appear in the same places other authors do and make the same approaches they make – heavily targeting their genre. Naturally, you should make yourself and your book visible at genre reading groups live and online, as well as with as many blogs as you can find that focus on your genre … but your readers are many, many other places too.

In order to explain why this is necessary and why it works, here’s a little bit of information about marketing in general. It’s the RULE OF THREE. A prospective book buyer should see and/or hear your name or the name of your book at least three times and in at least three different places. Yes, you’ve contacted three genre book clubs and you’ve probably done a guest blog or promotional blog on at least three different genre-based blogs but those only count as one because not only are the same people seeing those blogs and are part of those book clubs and groups … but also remember, all the other authors writing in your genre are also present there so it’s sort of like walking into a crowd of shouting competitors. Be there, shout a little louder, but remember, it still only counts as one of your important three exposures.

So where do you find those other two (and preferably more) important exposures?

There are ways!

Dig deeper into your specific book for the unique hooks and elements inside your story
Dig deeper into the demographic of your genre reader
Dig deeper into your own neighborhood

Let’s take these cool directions and carefully scrutinize them.

UNIQUE HOOKS AND ELEMENTS INSIDE YOUR STORY

Let’s say you’ve written a romance with an historical twist. You may have lighthouses as a focus of your story, or it may take place during the Revolutionary War or perhaps the story unfolds in the 1960’s. In addition to approaching romance readers where everyone else approaches them, you may want to look into lighthouse bloggers or blogs and groups that raise funds to preserve and restore lighthouses. There are hundreds of online groups who target Revolutionary War enthusiasts, antique collectors from the era or travelers who love visiting the battle locations. They too have blogs and are involved in groups specific to their interests. If your book is historic in the more recent years, like the 50’s 60’s or 70’s, again there are groups, bloggers and websites that focus solely on that nostalgic interest.

How do you approach these bloggers and groups? Easy. You simply contact the bloggers, tell them about your book and the research you put into it within their specific interest and ask if they’d be willing to let you guest blog. It’s that simple. When you locate groups on Yahoo groups that focus on this specific hook in your book, you simply join the group. There you would participate in the conversations, share what you know of the historic era and make friends … but one thing you shouldn’t do is simply post again and again that you have a book to sell. This is MARKETING, which is all about creating awareness about your book. Marketing is not promotion and it’s not hard sell, it’s AWARENESS. So go on and join, be part of the community and contribute, make friends and … make sure that your email tag ALWAYS has the title of your book, a brief 25 word blurb about it and the buy link. Oh, and remember, if this is a specific subject you love to write about, you’ve just tapped into a wealth of research information!

Unique hooks exist in every book, no matter the genre. All you have to do is find them and be aware of them so that you can effectively use them to extend your audience. Maybe your book is a murder mystery where the detective has a coffee addiction, or loves expensive cigars, or is crazy about ballroom dancing. As long as these unique elements are a strong part of your manuscript, you can seek out coffee lovers, cigar aficionados and ballroom dancing enthusiasts because basically, your book will interest them.

DEEPER INTO THE DEMOGRAPHIC OF YOUR READERS

The demographic is the specific identifying factors about a targeted group. What is the primary demographic of your book? Women? Men? Children? Highly professional people? Middle class people? Are they 25? Over 50? Between 10 and 15?

All these specifics for your demographic are important and remember, what you assume to be your demographic isn’t necessarily true. For example, more woman over 50 read Young Adult books than young adults. Do a little research before assuming anything about your target reader demographic.

Is your book a romance? Military Mystery? Cozy Mystery? Christian? Erotica? Make a list of everything you know your book to be then think hard about who the demographic really is.

Now … where are those demographics? If you’re promoting your YA specifically to young adults and through YA blogs, bloggers and reviewers, you may want to spread your visibility further. You may want to query reviewers and bloggers who focus on older women no matter the subject. Remember, we’re not talking about the places other authors are marketing. If you’re pushing your military mystery toward men, you may want to think deeper and grab some exposure with groups of military wives or military enthusiasts who have blogs that focus on weapons or strategies with commentary. If your Christian romance is targeted to only Christian women you are limiting yourself, promote the book to women in general within woman groups that have some connection with your unique hooks.

If your target is women, never forget … we’re everywhere. We shop in grocery stores, go to the cleaner’s, buy shoes, love cosmetics and jewelry. Men too are all over the place based on their interests. There is no reason why an author writing fiction or non-fiction shouldn’t take this expanded demographic approach and use their unique hooks to connect with much broader target groups. Write to the targeted blogger or website and simply tell them about your book, then ask them if you can write a guest blog or monthly column (if it’s a website) that will subtly promote your book with a picture of the cover and the link. You will be amazed how many of these bloggers and website owners will respond positively. This helps them too! It regularly updates their blog or website, and it brings more activity to their business or blog content. It’s a win/win.

IN YOUR OWN NEIGHBORHOOD

Whatever your book is about, whatever the genre and whatever the specific hooks, you can easily find local groups starving for an interesting topic for their next meeting.

There are local gardening clubs, local women’s clubs, knitting, quilting, and bird lovers clubs. There are local Rotary Clubs, nursing and dental assistant groups, church, community and city women’s and men’s auxiliary clubs. There are horse racing clubs, antique lovers clubs and music lovers clubs. These groups are everywhere, meeting someplace every single night of the week and all within five miles of your house. If you haven’t started speaking yet about your book, it’s time to take the leap. You approach these groups the same way you do everything as a writer … you query. Introduce yourself, tell them you are a local author, tell them about your book and make sure to touch on the unique part of your story that will connect with the group’s membership. Then you simply ask if you can speak at one of their meetings. Offer them a book signing after the speech. Most of these groups are bored to tears with the same kinds of meetings and you might just be the speaker they’re looking for. Be creative with your search, use your unique hooks and story elements to spice up your query, and remember to take into consideration your broad demographic target.

Oh, and one other thing about these approaches … I will warn you … it’s very unlikely you’ll find even one other author trying to get your prospective book buyer’s attention or money. You’ll have these audiences all to yourself!Next week we’ll be talking about seriously dissecting your own manuscript to find even more new prospective readers. See you then!

 FREE Ten Tools for Author Success Handbook available for download at The Author Success Coach website.

“Finding Author Success” available in print and ebook on Amazon , B&N , Apple and Sony !

True Marketing Power for Authors: Come Out From Under the “Narrow Marketing Vision” Rock!

I totally understand that authors are a little skittish and afraid of everything “marketing”, but we all understand that it’s the way of the publishing world these days. It only makes sense that like the original cavemen, writers and authors would ban together for safety and survival … but is that really the way to thrive and grow? Yes, it has been a fight or flight world for hopeful authors over the last decade, but it’s gone beyond the really dangerous times. Now we can all breathe a little easier and forge ahead in this brave new publishing world.

So, how do we go about it? With the apocalypse over and all the industry shifts finally settling into patterns, it’s time to pick up our heads and look around. We’ve all been hiding under a rock … the Narrow Marketing Vision rock … so who else is under there with us?

I’m going to start with a question. In your facebook list of friends, how many of them are other authors? How many of your twitter followers are other authors? To effectively use these two powerful social networking venues, the ratio of authors to prospective book buyers and fans should be – 1 author/10 book buyers. I’m going to guess you’re nowhere near that.

Most authors I know have hundreds of other authors as friends and followers and I completely understand the attraction. After all, we’re all in the trenches together, struggling together. We need each other for pats on the back and encouragement, a shoulder to cry on or an understanding sounding board. That’s all good … except that far too often we get so caught up in our author camaraderie, we forget the real reason for social networking – to GAIN PROSPECTIVE BOOK BUYERS AND FANS.

There are major benefits to having daily connection with other authors. It’s like a college study group, everyone has a different area of study expertise – the industry news, which agents or publishers are closing or opening, who got signed and who decided to self-publish. It’s great feedback on how the industry influences your own work. You always know what genres are building and which are fading, which audiences are becoming lucrative and which ones are dissolving. Other authors are a wonderful resource for a plethora of industry information that directly affects you and your career.

As wonderful as all this information is and as supportive as all these friendships can be, there is a dangerous patch of quicksand there too and it involves marketing. In any given hour, in any given author twitter stream there are at least three new fangled promotional ideas someone tried and someone else tried and someone else found success with. Does this mean it’s a good idea to help sell YOUR book? Maybe, maybe not. Does this mean it’s worth your time and effort? Maybe, maybe not. I can honestly say that if it’s free, try it but if it takes your hard earned money, think twice.

The kind of quick and easy promotional ideas that float around cyber space for authors have two problems. First, everyone has seen them so everyone will be trying them. And second, they usually have nothing to do with seriously targeting YOUR prospective book buyer. In other words, all the cool marketing ideas under that Narrow Marketing Vision rock are generic and overused. Many writers and authors are so deeply embedded into their author connections, they completely forget that there are other ways to gain book sales.

Back to that social networking ratio – 1 author /10 book buyers. A serious author seeking sales success must treat this ratio like a precious gem. No, I’m not suggesting that you cut off all your author friends, I’m simply suggesting that you focus your social networking growth on prospective book buyers and fans until you reach that all-important ratio.

Now for the BIG QUESTION. Where do you find your prospective book buyers and fans? Time get down to the work.

What genre do you write? What is the clear demographic of your reader? Where are those readers? For now, I’m going to just grab a genre and target market out of the hat. If you don’t write in this genre, the system of targeting is the same, just focused in a different direction.

The hat says … drum roll … Urban Fantasy. What we’re going to do first is determine how to find urban fantasy readers, then how to approach them on twitter and facebook.

Start with a list of places those prospective book buyers might be by determining key words.

Vampire
Fae/Fairy
Werewolf
Fantasy
Paranormal
Supernatural
Paranormal Romance (if it fits and there is some romance in your book)
Trolls
Shape-Shifters

This is just a brief list of subjects your prospective urban fantasy book buyer may be interested in. Now it’s time to reach out. Create a list under each category (if you ask twitter or facebook to search “vampire”, it will list everything under that catagory) and simply make friends or start following. If you do this for ten to fifteen minutes every day within your twitter and facebook accounts, you’ll be amazed at how your base will grow and that author/prospective book buyer ratio will improve.

There is a vital next step to all this. If you are currently heavily into author connections, you most likely tweet and facebook post “author and writer” related comments. This has to change along with your ratio of followers and friends. You’ll need to tweet and facebook post things about urban fantasy, your stories and exploration of the genre. Only by doing this can you hook your new prospective buyer followers and friends into wanting to chat with you and actively follow. Post a question of the day on your facebook. Create a fun exploration of an urban fantasy creature in your twitter stream … and ALWAYS REMEMBER to at least twice every day, post or tweet links to your website and where your books can be purchased.

Getting out from under the Narrow Marketing Vision rock is the first step to truly gaining bigger book sales.Next week we’ll be covering new avenues for marketing that your author friends haven’t even thought about yet … and in a few weeks we’ll explore how to delve deeper into your manuscript for prospective buyers that you can’t see on the surface of your genre.

Questions? Please post a comment and I’d love to answer.

FREE Ten Tools for Author Success Handbook available for download at The Author Success Coach website.

“Finding Author Success” available in print and ebook on Amazon , B&N , Apple and Sony !

True Marketing Power for Authors: Where are Your Book Buyers?

The more books published, the more venues for selling books and the more variety of quality and subgenres, one would think there are that many more book buyers – but where are they? I’ve herd this question from all my Author Success Coaching clients and I wonder if all authors and writers get lost in the quagmire of something I call … Narrow Marketing Vision.

Yes, Narrow Marketing Vision is real and it can be as deadly as the plague for authors desperate to gain fans and book buyers. The solutions are in so many places but the problem is that most writers simply aren’t looking in those places.

Today I’m beginning a blog series designed specifically designed to cure Narrow Marketing Vision and help you identify the plethora of unique marketing paths available to you.

In this blog I’ve covered Cross Marketing, Platform Building and the importance of creating a Book Business Plan. I’ve outlined skills for marketing, publicity and promotions. But this time I want to get very specific and break through the walls that hold authors back from reaching the sales numbers they seek. It all starts with what’s inside your head and what’s inside your book. It’s simple and complex, it’s eye-opening and powerful, but most of all, it will show you how and where to approach readers in places other authors aren’t thinking about. Instead of pinpointing the obvious (and severely overused) marketing tricks and strategies, this series will widen the landscape of possible readers and show you a few powerful ways to reach them.OVER THE NEXT EIGHT WEEKS WE WILL COVER

Coming out from under the Narrow Marketing Vision rock
Looking away from the directions other authors are using and overusing
Dissecting your own manuscript to find your new prospective readers
Understanding how to approach a new market
Testing your new marketing for effectiveness
Keeping the momentum going in your favor
Spinning off a new marketing campaigns from a successful campaign

We’re going to have some fun. Following through will present a little hard work, but you’re going to free yourself from the “me too” and “ohh that looks cool” approaches to your market in favor of creative and exciting strategies for sales success. With so many books in the world, published so many ways and available in so many venues, you’ll never again have to wonder where the book buyers for your particular books really are!

FREE Ten Tools for Author Success Handbook available for download at The Author Success Coach website

“Finding Author Success” available in print and ebook on Amazon , B&N , Apple and Sony !