Deborah Riley-Magnus's Blog, page 5

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Published on November 16, 2011 08:28

October 5, 2011

Authors! Three Tips for Keeping Your Marketing Momentum

How do you keep the MARKETING love alive? We authors have a massive load on our shoulders! We have to work to pay the bills, take care of family, socialize occasionally with friends, write books and … Dum dum daaaaaa … promote and market them too. It's a lot to ask of anyone, but asking an author who is basically creative to suddenly become an analytical and business-like person is sort of like asking a dog to be a cat two days a week.

Guess what? We have to do it anyway.

I'm sure you've all faced the dilemma of starting some kind of marketing strategy for your book and discovered that after some time (a few days or weeks or months) that fantastic strategy has sort of fizzled out. What's an author to do? We don't want to start from scratch but we can't just stop marketing and promoting or demand for our next book will be next to nothing! Catch 22? Nope, it's just time to put on our thinking caps again.

Creativity is creativity and if you look at marketing and promoting your books as part of the whole creative process – rather than look to what other authors have done and try to imitate that for success (i.e. giveaways, FB ads, book marks and imprinted mugs) – you are sure to find the perfect formula for success that works for you and your book.

The reason most "tried and true" marketing strategies fizzle out so quickly is that they are basically overused. The prospective book buyer has seen them a thousand times. The key to keeping your marketing push alive, well and hopping is to keep it moving like a good boxer with great footwork.

Here are three tips to reboot your marketing efforts that won't take a ton of time or energy, just a little creativity.

TIP NUMBER ONE – FIND A NEW ROUTE

It's the ugly truth – your book is in the same genre and tapping into the same market as a thousand other books. You do what the most successful authors are doing, at least you try, but it always falls flat quickly.

This is a simple study in looking the other way, or in this case, ANOTHER way. I've always found that if everyone is taking a particular freeway at a particular time, it's easiest on my gas tank and my nerves to simply take a different freeway. Apply that to your marketing and everything gets a whole new light.

For example, if all the authors are slamming away on the newest trick of the day … giveaways or contests or scavenger hunts … you need to look at doing something they are not doing. In fact, this works best if it's something they never even thought about doing.

Consider creating a high visibility promotion that includes publicity: a walk for cancer by zombie book lovers (in costume of course), or blood drive where vampire authors donate blood and attempt to reach a goal of a certain number of donors in a limited time. This kind of publicity gets noticed and if you are the author who created it, it also has long term positive ramifications as you move ahead in your writing career.

Have you thought about doing an event at a nurses group or meeting of the local garden club? Trust me, nursing and gardening aren't all these groups talk about or all they do. These people like to read too. If you offer to do a reading and Q&A at a meeting of the local women's club, they might jump for joy. These organizations are always looking for interesting subjects and speakers for their meetings. And while every other author in your genre is pounding away, trying to give a way a free book on twitter, you're signing a selling fifteen or twenty books at the Ladies Auxiliary meeting right in your home town.

Looking elsewhere is always a great way to keep your sales hopping. When you go back to the regular grind of twitter and facebook, you suddenly have some really fun and interesting experiences to talk about.

TIP NUMBER TWO – CHANGE THE ODDS

Ever been to Vegas? Even if you haven't, you know the odds and what they mean. If Dan Brown writes a book, everyone buys it. He has all the odds in his favor, a big publisher, extraordinary talent, high visibility thanks to his wonderful marketing and publicity experts, and fans by the boat loads. How are we supposed to stand against all that?

Simple. Change the odds. For example, even if your book touches on similar subjects, has a similar story and similar characters, SOMETHING about your book is different and extremely unique. The only way to battle something as formidable as the Top Ten Best Sellers of the World is to find your hooks and make sure they're sharp.

Is your hook the unique character traits? Use them. If your main character is a cigar expert, you need to tap into the cigar industry. If s/he is into vintage clothing or fine whiskey, there are two more audiences. The magic of changing the odds falls under the category of cross marketing. If you can cross market your book to music teachers or coffee lovers or the home building industry because your story and primary characters are connected with that subject, you are tapping into a new market.

Here's the kicker, it's not only a new market to connect with, it's the same market Dan Brown is tapping into. He's just doing it as the author of a few best selling books. You are stepping into that arena as the author of a book that fits the reader's personal interest. You're doing this without an expensive publicist or big publisher, you're doing this as you. AND it really does change the odds because now you can sit at the same poker table with any author in the world. Stepping into this cross marketing arena also feels and looks different than how all the other authors are trying to market, so it's a great freshener for your strategies.

TIP NUMBER THREE – LOOK OUTSIDE

When you want to do some marketing, where do you look? At other authors, of course. It's a great place to look, right?

Wrong.

Yes, other authors are doing what authors do and I'm not telling you to stop doing the tried and true marketing techniques. I'm simply suggesting that you look outside the publishing world for interesting and powerful ideas.

Did you notice a slogan on the passing exterminator's van that caught your fancy? A billboard that used just the right push for the product? A radio or television campaign that you can't forget. Marketing and promotion is going on all around us and there are some fantastic approaches to the market just outside the publishing world. Don't have narrow vision, lift your head and look around.

If you take a week and keep a small note pad at your side, you will find yourself observing and jotting down cool ideas from all kinds of products and services. These concepts impressed and intrigued you. They sparked your imagination and made you smile. All you have to do is think them through and see if one of those kinds of approaches will work for your book. Maybe you can't do a teaser promotion on the radio like you heard for the new Tide with bleach … but you can do something similar with teasers in your blogs, on twitter or facebook. If the fun event to raise money for your local zoo can't exactly work for your book, perhaps there's an element of that event that you can implement for your own marketing.

All I'm suggesting is that you can seriously impact your marketing approach if you just step away from the computer screen and look outside. Marketing is happening all around you! Get influenced by some of the best of our time.

So, there you go. Three tips for keeping your book marketing momentum alive and vibrant. Give them a try and let me know what you come up with!

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Published on October 05, 2011 07:51

August 25, 2011

The Eight Desperations of a Struggling Author

And all this time you thought becoming an author would be fun? Just for kicks and giggles, I thought I'd take a stab at the eight worst habits of the published and about to be published author. (Good thing we're not all like this!)

Desperate are the poor of spirit, for theirs is the hell of the hopeful without guts or a plan.

Desperate are they who gripe, for they learn nothing from the rejection form letter.

Desperate are the meek, for soft-spoken is less effective than a powerful voice.

Desperate are those who hunger for the pat on the back. Ain't coming.

Desperate are the merciless, for they "borrow" ideas and audience but will forever suffer being unoriginal.

Desperate are the clean of chart, for without sharp strategy nothing is accomplished.

Desperate are the friend-makers, for they will forget to seek out genre fans and book buyers.

Desperate are those who persecute their fellow authors, for they will be friendless and ignored at important tradeshows.

Your thoughts?

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Published on August 25, 2011 00:00

August 18, 2011

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing – Time Management Tips for the Marketing Author

I can hear it already, the classic Author Whine. "I have no time for this marketing thing! When am I supposed to write my next book? It takes too long to create correct, targeted platforms, much less use them effectively. Why can't I just write, let my book be wonderful and people will buy it? Wah, wah, wah!"

It's like listening to a broken record. We all know the truth of the matter, don't we?

We're afraid to try
We forgot the real reason for marketing (because no one else is doing it for us)
We didn't remember the golden rules of time management – schedule, implement and get the hell out

Resisting the fact that you must market will only hurt you and your book in the end, so toss that concept right out the window and just dig in and start.

Good time management is vital for success in any industry, so why is it so hard for authors to grasp the reasoning and practicality of it? We are creative minds and it's difficult to put that into a box while being business minds, but it has to happen in order to have … well … it all. Fans. Great book sales. Demand for more books.

Managing your time so that you can write AND promote isn't as tricky as one might think. It just requires planning and strict attention to your daily goals. Before we get into the meat of managing your marketing time, let's talk about two elements that will set the stage for everything you do.

Research – Yes, research. Too many authors have a ton of other author friends, fans and followers, but once their book is released, they discover that they have a very small genre reader following. Yes, you do need other authors to keep your creativity and energy up during the writing phase of the project, but facts are facts – other authors aren't exactly your best sales target. Research is a big, important task you must take on NOW, no matter where you are in your writing/publishing process. In fact, the earlier the better. Know where the readers of your genre

Learn about their favorite kinds of books
Buy their books, and
Talk about their favorite books.

With these contacts clearly defined, you can add them to your regular social marketing strategies. How much time should you commit to research? Take a solid 30 minutes every day to seek out and spear those prospective readers. Do it every day, even after your book is out and getting sales. Continue to build your audience.

Resources – Budgeting your time is as important as budgeting your marketing resources. Keep it tight and succinct. Make a daily chart and refer to it often. Be strict with yourself. I understand that this concept might be all new to you, but is it? Really? You put a deadline on writing word counts, finishing a manuscript, editing and pitching, right? So why can't you take those fantastic management skills and move them to your marketing?

TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR THE MARKETING AUTHOR

Twitter – Love it or hate it you gotta twitter. The real key to Twitter time management is so simple you may not even believe it. For example, I get on twitter for 15-20 minutes twice each day, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon (this accommodates time zones pretty much all over the world). My TweetDeck has a column following me and whenever I get on, I respond to people who've talked to me (@rileymagnus) while I wasn't there. I keep my focus for that day extremely clear – am I promoting a blog post? Asking questions for research? Socializing (and yes, occasionally you must smile and socialize)? My total is 30-40 minutes a day, Monday through Friday. No more and no less and guess what? My Twitter followers think I'm there ALL THE TIME. I'm so committed to this plan, I actually use a timer, log on to twitter and off 20 minutes later, that way I'm not tempted to play too long or get too involved.
Facebook –The same rules apply here. If you use Facebook for personal activity, you'll need a separate Facebook page or account for your author business. As with twitter, make a plan. I post my "Author Survey Question of the Day" in the morning and just pop my head in every now and then. I love the responses and especially love when the responders begin to chat with each other. My platform is about author success and there's nothing more intriguing than 20-50 authors shaking things up and sharing techniques, ideas and humor about being a writer. I visit my facebook wall four or five times each day. I don't stay, I don't post more than one question each day, I don't even go to Facebook on the weekends, and I always find a good time to post my own answer to the question or respond to comments made there.
Email Lists – Did you really think we wouldn't talk about email lists? Of course you need them, strong, targeted lists you build slowly. Building your email list is one of those projects that go on in the background. It really doesn't require time scheduling. Just keep your ears and eyes perked for a good person to contact or a good place to invite people to join your mailing list.
Group Memberships – What's your book about? Is there a major gardening theme in it? A medical theme? Legal theme? Coffee or tea lovers theme? Knowing your major "hook" is how you find the right groups to join. Notice I said "hook", not genre. That "hook" represents a possible Cross Market! Finding entire groups of people interested in your "hook" makes group memberships a powerful social marketing tool. Join several groups, sit back and watch as the emails came in (I always go for daily digest, just to keep things neat in my inbox), then determine which groups have real value for you based on how their subjects and dialogue presents. Settled on three groups and simply exited from all the others I never spend more than a few moments a day looking through the group emails, and I usually contribute at least once a day on a subject that interests me. My email "tag" is clearly a subtle book pitch with buy link.
Face-to-Face Networking – Remember people? Living, breathing people? The kind you look right at and can touch when you shake hands or give a casual hug? Social networking isn't just internet networking. Granted the internet makes our world wider, we still can't let it limit us in the process. Authors need face-to-face networking too. Schedule everything you want to do in this "real life venue" because every moment you're doing your face-to-face reach, you're not at your keyboard. Work smart and strategically. Keep a few nicely designed flyers about your book in your car so that you can take one with you every time you run an errand. Trust me, the perfect bulletin board is waiting for it and a wonderful conversation can be had that leads to book sales.

Well … that's it for Cross Marketing, ladies and gentlemen. I know these strategies will help expand your fan base, readership and sales. Let me know how it's working for you and feel free to ask any questions. Author Success is in your hands and you have the tools to make it all work for you and your book!

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing

Cross Marketing from the Obvious to the Sublime

Crossing the line into TURBO Creative Thinking

Cross Marketing – How to Maintain Your Cross Markets

Cross Marketing – Playing the Genre Game WELL

Cross Marketing – Locating Your Alternative Markets

Cross Marketing – How to Approach Cross Markets

Cross Marketing – Putting it all Together

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Published on August 18, 2011 11:37

August 11, 2011

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing – Putting it all Together

Every element of your Cross Marketing Strategy should be documented and tested. It's not good enough to try something and discover a few weeks later "Oh man! That really worked! Now, what was it I did, exactly?" To build momentum for your book's visibility, interest and sales you need to know what you're attempting, what your goals are, and you must clearly document how successful or unsuccessful each effort is.

If you think a specific Cross Market is perfect for your book – that your murder mystery has enough "gardening" elements in it to approach the garden magazines, clubs and online stores – and you try it, how do you really know if it was successful or not? In your head, it might seem like a perfect fit, but did it really work? Of course, you will be running at least two or three different Cross Market approaches at the same time, plus your standard marketing to the obvious target markets, but how can you break it down to see which effort was successful and which was not so successful? AND, how much success makes a Cross Market direction worthy of additional exploration?There are a few critical red flags involved here, and among them are the biggest three that torment most authors.

HOPE – oh, we sooooo hope that people like our book that we sometimes display our baby and just wish for great results. We're looking for emotional, professional, personal and maybe even spiritual validation, a reason to go on. Okay, maybe that's a little too dramatic but you get my point. I call Hope a non-strategy . It falls under the category of inaction and must always be checked at the door when testing your marketing and especially your Cross Marketing, because there's easily twice as much of a chance for criticism in an unsuspecting cross market as there will be in the normal genre market strategy.
IMAGINED CREDIBILITY – okay, this one doesn't only apply to Cross Marketing, it applies to writing your book in the first place. Words you might say to yourself under the influence of IMAGINED CREDABILITY are: Oh, people will love this idea! People need to read more books like this. (And my favorite) If I just explain my reasoning they'll buy my book by the millions! Trust me, if you have to explain anything to anyone, it's not working, whether we're talking about your plot or your Cross Marketing strategy. Simplicity is what attracts people, and reality is what attracts Cross Markets. If you think that gardening clubs will love your book because your main character has a back yard garden, you may be way off base. Be credible with your Cross Marketing. It will take a LOT of focus on that character's garden to attract the attention of gardening clubs and groups. That garden must almost be a main character. If it isn't, this would be like approaching dentist groups because one of your main character brushes his teeth once in the book. Imagined Credibility is another non-strategy .
FEAR – yes, fear. Ouch, this one can put a real kibosh on your plans, no matter how well thought out and possibly successful your Cross Marketing ideas are. Try to look on the bright side. What are you really afraid of? Is a Cross Market does not respond to your efforts, there's nothing lost. It's not like your primary genre has stepped up and insisted you stink. It's a Cross Market … an extra step for seeking new and more readers … and the point of all this is to test uncharted waters. Face your fears, take a leap and see what happens. Fear = non-strategy #3

In all three of these cases – Hope, Imagined Credibility and Fear – you need to recognize them for what they are: non-strategies and ineffective wastes of time. I usually simply mark them "DUH" because, of course, I knew better when I implemented them in the first place.

So, how do you keep track of all this Cross Market activity? You must create a worksheet that A) Develops creative exploration for Cross Markets, B) Establishes a testing system to determine if the Cross Market is viable and C) Expands on good ideas while eliminating the bad ideas.

You must set standards. Creating a worksheet to help you navigate through the process can be a simple plan or a complex plan. It can be created on Excel forms or on a yellow lined pad. There are three primary tasks listed above and three non-strategy situations to avoid.

Because marketing and Cross Marketing your book is such a personal thing, I strongly encourage you to create your own worksheet, but to help you visualize, I've attached a sample Cross Marketing Worksheet PDF here.

Worksheet to Help Navigate Your Plan

Remember, every book and every author is different, so make sure your worksheet is specific to your book, your genre, your subgenres and your sensibilities. Make the plan aggressive enough but also not too big for you to manage effectively. Activity is the key to success and remember, you must put in the work.

Next week we'll add the finishing touches to this Cross Marketing Series with some Time Management Strategies!

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing

Cross Marketing from the Obvious to the Sublime

Crossing the line into TURBO Creative Thinking

Cross Marketing – How to Maintain Your Cross Markets

Cross Marketing – Playing the Genre Game WELL

Cross Marketing – Locating Your Alternative Markets

Cross Marketing – How to Approach Cross Markets

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Published on August 11, 2011 10:39

July 27, 2011

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing – How to Maintain your Cross Markets

Marketing a book today is a major undertaking and almost every ounce of that work falls on the author's shoulders. With a good Book Business Plan, a powerful set of Platforms, elegant marketing, publicity and promotion you can go far, but only so far. Cross Marketing is the key to breaking into big sales because it only works in tandem with YOUR manuscript and only approaches markets other typical genre authors don't think to approach. Sales success is all in the author's hands and only you can determine to take that extra step into the unknown to garner numbers that set you and your book apart.

No one said this would be easy, but I've told you often that it is simple.

So now you've found new Cross Markets and approached them. Let's say you've been successful with some of these Cross Markets and you don't want the success to stop. There are techniques to maintain and grow awareness within cross markets. Let's break this down and follow the same categories we used to help with the discovery of and approach to new Cross Markets for YOUR book.

GENRES

Here you may be a little limited, especially if your genre is extremely specific – like children's books or hard erotica – but in most cases you can milk the new sub-genre for as long as the readers will have you. If you've written a mystery with heavy romantic undertones and at least one paranormal element, you could be golden. You can be selling your book to mystery lovers, romance readers and paranormal book junkies. That's three audiences instead of one. The question is … how do you keep the love growing? This takes some careful strategies.

Gain reviews from reputable reviewers in those genres – Of course you want good, strong reviews from mystery reviewers because it's your primary genre, but one thing you need to do is get good strong reviews from romance and paranormal reviewers too. Those reviewers have large audiences within the genre and can, with the post of one review, gain substantial sales for you. Seek out as many reviewers as possible within all your Cross Market genres and be sure to clearly state that your book has strong storylines within the genres the reviewers are working with. Never just assume the reviewer will understand that your book entitled Murder in the Tropics has paranormal or romantic elements … tell them. Stop being so afraid to give away parts of your story. Spoilers are one thing, but imagining that a reviewer will search for the element that interests them is foolish and a sure way to end up in the trash/recycle bin.
Promote those reviews to a larger audience of that subgenre – When you get a great review in one of your Cross Market subgenres, don't just automatically promote it to your regular twitter, facebook or group followers and expect a huge sales jump … take it outside the normal venues. Talking to the same people over and over will not gain new sales. Find or get involved with, in this case, paranormal and romance groups. Those are the places to promote the great review for your book.
Seek out new venues to reach more variables within that subgenre – Don't stop with the obvious. Romance groups love romance, but who else loves romance? Nurses? Dentists? School teachers? Housewives? Mothers? How can you approach them? The odds are smaller but they are still sales! If one nurse loved the book and mentions it to another and another … well, it can grow! If it ends there, it's three more sales than you originally had and a tested Cross Market. Who likes paranormal? Would they like the paranormal elements in your book? One way to seek those people out is by searching "paranormal" on twitter or facebook and seeing what comes up. 10 people? 10,000 people? Are they worth approaching? Your choice. Me? I'll shoot for those 10 or 10,000 more book sales. How do you find these groups in the live world? Just look around. All organizations, no matter what they specialize in, are always looking for speakers for interesting, social and creative subjects for their meetings. Talk to the library, how many different kinds of groups meet there? Look into social halls and organizations, women's clubs, ski clubs. You will find groups looking for something stimulating to feature at an upcoming meeting. Why can't it be your fantastic book?

SOCIABILITY

Remember the "Smile and Make Nice" category last week? Well now I'm going to ask you to make even nicer. Be an online and live social butterfly! I want to see your name everywhere! When was the last time you Googled yourself? Try it now and be amazed. Is there one page of you? Ten? Twenty? Are they all related to the book(s) you want to sell? The reviews you want people to notice? The news about your book? If not, you may be too scattered.

Try this … every time you use your name, make sure you use the name of your book and the 10 word soundbite/tag for your book. Making these connections in interviews, blogs, tweets and facebook entries can create a substantial synergy between you, your book and your various audiences.

Take a moment to introduce yourself to Cross Market groups and segments by immediately connecting you with your book. It can be as subtle as making sure the tag is on every single email you send out … or it can be as elaborate as offering a free book to the person who responds to your introduction with the most interesting Mystery (or Romance or Paranormal) comment. Making friends is nice, making strong friends in a big way is power.

INTEREST GROUPS

You may have approached reading groups and book clubs, you may have approached other groups specific to the elements in your book – coffee lovers, gardeners, flying fanatics, etc. But after you give your first approach and see a little sales growth, you can't just sit and hope it continues. These groups are collections of PEOPLE and people only like, trust and purchase from other likeable, trustworthy people. When I told you to "make friends" in these groups and keep the sales pitch to a minimum, I mean to SERIOUSLY make friends with these groups. That means getting involved. If the group is doing a fundraiser, offer help either in time, contacts or a free book or two for the silent auction. If the group is planning a live get-together in New Orleans, try to get there if you can. Trust me, face-to-face has far more impact than online connections. You may make friends for life in the Crescent City who will wholeheartedly and tirelessly promote your book just because they like you so much IN PERSON. (Talk about Big Easy!)

If the group needs ideas for a project, chime in. If they need an answer you can help with, offer it. Remember, these are your friends now and they want to help you too. Wouldn't it be fantastic to use them for research for your next book! They'll be thrilled to help because you've been so much help to them. They'll tell their friends in other groups about you and your book.

Going the distance with interest groups is a real win/win … if you do it with the future in mind. If you approach the group and think only of what sales you can gain quickly then disappear, there's little chance of your popping back in for your next book and getting a favorable response. Play nice and they'll play nice right back!

NON-COMPETITIVE BUSINESS

All right, serious Cross Marketing is about digging deep, deeper than you think. Yes, you've done some wonderful things with connecting your book with Coffee Shop websites because your main character loves coffee, but have you gone far enough? Here are a few suggestions that might spur new ideas:

Coffee recipe websites
Coffee Mug websites
Contests on various websites where you give away a copy of your book and the coffee company also gives away something – a coupon for a free cup of joe or a discount on a pound of coffee. Or maybe have people create a coffee drink (alcoholic or not) and win a free book
Coffee Tasting/Book Signing parties, or how about creating a Coffee and Book PAIRING group of your own?
Coffee/Tea lovers groups, websites and groups
Develop "TeaTeasers" or "CoffeeBeans", small hints about your story that can entice tea or coffee lovers at a website or tea store into reading your book.
Write a weekly blog or column for a coffee blog or publication – the by-line will be your coffee loving character, of course.

And all of this is just for one concept – coffee. Let your imagination fly. What is one of your specific Cross Markets and how many different ways can you think of to grow it deeper and wider?

CHARITIES

There are a few strong theories on working with charities. Some say you can spread yourself around and support several charities, others feel the loyalty focus is more effective for you and your charity of choice. Honestly, it is your decision to make.

Personally, I've always felt that choosing a charity is an important part of defining who you are as an author. If you wish to support a charity, it should have a personal connection or a strong social affiliation you really want to be connected to on a variety of levels. Choosing a charity just because it might gain visibility is foolish and basically, unproductive. It's like you ooze some kind of stink that tells everyone you're just doing it for yourself. We all know what it means to support a charity and mean it. I strongly suggest you do that.

Assuming you chose the charity because it somehow fits with your story, or at least the point of your story, you can do more than just announce that you support that group. There are several ways to support your charity and to explain it, I'll take my charity of choice. In October, my book The Author Success Coach will be released. These are some of the activities I plan to do in support of my chosen charity, The American Literacy Council.

Donate a portion of book sales profits to The American Literacy Council
Speak at various colleges, universities and high schools about the techniques in the book, and the challenges of The American Literacy Council
Set a goal and make it known on the website that I wish to raise X amount of dollars for The American Literacy Council, thus making myself accountable
Offer assistance when The American Literacy Council is doing a fund raising event in my area
Ask to be part of The American Literacy Council's newsletter or blog, possibly with a monthly blog or brief column on literacy and fiction in America
Purchase ads for my book in church bulletins, school newsletters, online websites for colleges and universities, all with a tag that a portion of the profits for book sales go to the American Literacy Council

As you can see, there's more to it than just noting on the last page or back cover of your book that you are supporting a charity with the sales of the book. You must get involved, become known and connected with the charity.

Charities can be the most powerful tool in your Cross Marketing arsenal. Use it wisely and with gusto!

Next week I'll show you how to create a Cross Marketing Worksheet!

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing

Cross Marketing from the Obvious to the Sublime

Crossing the line into TURBO Creative Thinking

Cross Marketing – Playing the Genre Game WELL

Cross Marketing – Locating Your Alternative Markets

Cross Marketing – How to Approach Cross Markets

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Published on July 27, 2011 09:28

July 20, 2011

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing – How to Approach Cross Markets

Six weeks ago I answered the question What is Cross Marketing? It's a way of finding multiple markets for your book, no matter the genre or basic target reader. It's all about the TWIST you put on your thinking! Over the past few weeks we explored various ways of locating those possible Cross Markets and today, we're going to talk about approaching the markets you've uncovered.

After you've explored all the possible Cross Markets for you book based on genre, subgenre, elements inside the manuscript (locations, character likes and dislikes, sub-plots) you have now identified a new groups of possible markets for your book. You must go through them carefully, perhaps test them in a small way before moving on to the next step. For example, if your book is a murder mystery and you're seeking book clubs to promote and gain reviews through, you may want to look closely. What if that particular book club is partial to COZY mysteries? You must know this, because if your book uses colorful language or includes a sex scene or two, you have just barked up the wrong tree and it can become very ugly. The last thing you want is ANYONE for any reason saying something negative about your book or your tactics for marketing it. Know your genres and markets very clearly before you do anything. Mistakes like the one mentioned with the Cozy Mystery book club can hurt you down the road because people know people and if you write another book in another genre and your name is a little tarnished, it might not go well for you.

Cross Marketing can be risky business but only if you're not paying attention to the details. If you are approaching gardening groups for your romance, make SURE your book has enough romance in it to be of interest as a Sweet Rose Smelling Romance. Many urban fantasies, mysteries, even horror and adventure books have some romance elements in them, but be sure they have enough to qualify … in other words, a quick sexual encounter is not a romance to most readers. A love story twisted into a murder adventure just might qualify. Be careful how you use genre, readers aren't stupid and they know a romance, when they see one. A sultry look and dirty thought does not qualify.

GENRES

Genres have been strict for many reasons but you need to only be careful of the primary direction you want to go with your Cross Marketing. Using genre means stretching it as far as is rational. Never go too far. A horror adventure about Zombies dying and decaying in a field will not qualify as a great read for a group of ecological earth renewal workers. Be practical. Of course, if your main character, the hero who saves the world is an earth renewal and sustainability expert, you may have something there, but remember to be honest about the primary genre. If you're afraid to tell a group that the book is really about zombies, it may be the wrong group. Choose carefully what Cross Markets are best suited for your book.

SMILE AND MAKE NICE

Approaching qualified Cross Markets is a touchy feely thing. First of all, I don't suggest that you approach more than one Cross Market at a time. It takes full attention to understand all the nuances of a new Cross Market and if you pound away at three or four, you might lose some focus as well as miss a few opportunities you didn't see coming. For example, if you are planning to approach coffee shop websites in hopes of promoting you book because your main character is an avid coffee lover … AND you approach Mystery lovers book clubs because the sub-plot of your book has a mystery in it … AND you want to approach several paranormal clubs and groups because a portion of your book explores ghost interaction and paranormal events … it's too much to go for at once. Choose one to start with, preferably the most promising target. Let's say the Paranormal Groups is your first approach because the ghost and paranormal activity is a) in at least two thirds of your book and b) has the strongest interest target (just check out the number of followers on twitter or facebook for paranormal and ghost related accounts!).

INTEREST GROUPS

After you join a group, you must make friends, get involved and PARTICIPATE. Yes, yes, I know that inside your mind all you're thinking is "GET SALES" but this just doesn't work that way. Every time you connect with one of these Cross Market groups, it should be in response to someone else's post. Insert yourself into conversations and become a contributor within those conversations. Make sure you have your book clearly in the tag line of every response you make. After a few days you'll have a good idea of how this particular group works and what their primary interests are. If it doesn't suit you, quietly bow out. If it does, begin a subject of your own and NO, it can't be that you wrote a book. This is a subject that interests you or it wouldn't be in your book, so talk about it and make sure to leave an open ended question at the end of your post to invite responses!

Now, let's say you've gotten one new Cross Market rocking, if it's paranormal yahoo and online groups, perhaps now you can begin gaining twitter followers and facebook friends from these kinds of interest groups. Approach each person and group the same way, smile, introduce yourself, make friends, get involved and make sure there's a tag about your book everywhere. Now, if someone asks about that book, you've gotten an invitation to pitch away!

NON-COMPETITVE BUSINESSES

The next target Cross Market you may want to approach is the websites. Business and interest websites are a little different, and the most effective ones are the ones that have no competition. For example, of your book is a paranormal romance and you get involved with every paranormal fiction and supernatural story website around, you will have some serious competition! Everyone can do that, you are better and can do something far more effective. Yes, have a presence, but remember, those websites are not Cross Marketing, they are direct marketing – marketing a vampire book to vampire readers, for example.

To do this WAY more effectively, let's talk about the main character who loves coffee. Coffee websites sell … coffee. If you manage to sell a few books by being affiliated with their website, they have no issues because you are not taking sales from them. Research these websites, how many are there? What do they look like? Do they have a large following or small following – you can tell by how active the website is. If they don't update daily or weekly, you don't want them. But if they're active, this is where the magic starts! You will need to approach the owners of these websites. Simply contact them and ask if you, the author of a murder mystery where the main character loves coffee, can participate in their website. They may permit you to purchase or place an ad for your book (passive, and not always the best option), or they may welcome you as a guest blogger (a great opportunity to not only get your name out, but also the name of your character and book) or perhaps they'll let you create a daily or weekly feature on their website, like "Detective Moore's coffee of the day". You can choose a specific coffee the website sells or lists and do a little daily tip from the good "detective" to the website visitors.

Once you get permission, don't dilly-dally! Get going right away. Don't miss a beat, miss a day or a week. Be consistent with your efforts and you WILL gain sales, you'll be amazed! If the company will only allow you an ad and it's at a reasonable price, do it, and make sure something in your ad states that "Coffee and Detective Moore are the perfect afternoon reading mix!"

Move on to the next coffee website and start again. At any given time, you may be present on as many as five or six different coffee websites! HERE'S THE TRICK! No two websites are receiving the same thing. In other words, if you're doing a daily coffee tip from the good detective on coffee website A, have placed an ad on coffee website B, then you need to do something different on coffee website C, D, etc. You can post excerpts from your book. You can run a contest to win a free copy of your book. You can create clues and do your own mystery on one of those websites – the contests run by Detective Moore, of course.

CHARITIES

The last category I'd like to discuss is charities. If your book touches on or relates to a subject that will work as a public relations direction for you – i.e. your main character is fighting to save the rainforest, or help save a young girl suffering from cancer, or dealing with the plight of baby seals at the North Pole. These are important and wonderful directions in which to Cross Market, ESPECIALLY if you are donating a portion of the sales of your book to that charity.

You can take this further. You can create fundraisers for the charity through your book events, you can become a part of other events and make it always known that a portion of the book sales go to a particular charity … and you can ask to participate in that charities' website much the same way you do above, in the "non-competitive business" section.

REMEMBER, to work this way you must seriously contact and discuss it with someone at the charity. They have rules, they have paperwork, they have procedures and they have specific logo images you can and cannot use.

Cross Marketing with a charity is a perfect way to create a new audience simply because many will purchase the book simply because it helps a cause they care about. Those people are readers and they have friends who are readers and most of these readers would have never been reached through the standard genre pitch form of marketing.

Now you have it. The approach to each Cross Market must be done carefully and with a gentle hand. You're stepping into an arena that isn't about hard sell, communicating with a collection of prospective book buyers who aren't currently thinking about books, and talking to a new market where in most cases, NO OTHER AUTHOR HAS GONE BEFORE.

Feels kinda Star Trek to me. The final frontier? SALES!

Next week we'll discuss … How to Maintain your newly acquired Cross Markets.

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing

Cross Marketing from the Obvious to the Sublime

Crossing the line into TURBO Creative Thinking

Cross Marketing – Playing the Genre Game WELL

Cross Marketing – Locating Your Alternative Markets

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Published on July 20, 2011 14:06

July 12, 2011

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing – Locating Your Alternative Markets

Where do you find readers for your book? How to you search for them and how can you know if that an avenue will be successful or a bust? These are the questions we'll explore today.

Imagine you're in a different city and have to go to the grocery store. As similar and organized as grocery stores across the country can be, you simply can't find the product you're looking for. Say you want a pound of coffee. Usually it's on the shelves with tea and dry coffee creamers, but in this store, you just can't locate it. Where would you look? With the baking goods? The cake mixes and sugar? Perhaps it's in the aisle with the cookies and packaged cakes? Maybe it's with the cereals and dry breakfast items. Could it be with the breads? Maybe this particular store has a special aisle just for hot coffee beverages, specialty imported coffees, hot chocolate mixes and flavored coffees? Still can't find it, perhaps you should try the bakery section of the store, they may have set up a coffee display along the beautiful fresh baked goods there.

In other words, where might you find the coffee? If you think hard enough, you can probably determine ten or fifteen remotely logical places for the store to stock their coffee cans.

It's the same with your book. Just because it's a "pound of coffee" doesn't mean there's only one place to display it. If you dissect your manuscript, you will find several different possible places to find your prospective book buyer/reader/fan. Trust me, this works.

To find alternative markets for your book, you must revisit EVERYTHING in your book. Make a list of every possible alternative reader you can think of then go deeper exploration.

For example, let's try this with a random book.

Genre – Murder Mystery/Historic
Location – Eastern seaside town, 1910
Event 1 – The murder takes place in a lighthouse
Event 2 – The town suspects an elderly man of the murder
Character 1 preferences – Detective chews black licorice and smokes cigars
Character 2 preferences – His wife, the protagonist who has an instinct that the elderly man is innocent, is a gardener who discovers the murder weapon in her own petunia patch
Standard interest groups – Mystery lovers and mystery book clubs. Historic lovers and historic book clubs.
Cross marketing groups – Lighthouse lovers, tourist websites to lighthouses and seaside locations. Cigar websites. Licorice and candy websites, gardening groups and gardening supply websites.
Online exposure – Create a facebook page just for the book and connect with the groups listed above. Contact the websites listed above and either become active in their discussions or ask to post your book cover and buy link on their websites. Do the same with lighthouse, cigar and gardening bloggers. Become a guest blogger for them. Build a book website for your book and develop a page specifically to attract lighthouse lovers. Create a blog just for lighthouse or cigar lovers or garden lovers and build new fans there by promoting your book after each entry.
Publicity angle – Historic lighthouses need funding support for maintenance
Media – After deciding to create a fundraiser or participate in a fundraiser to support historic lighthouses, standard press releases to all eastern seaside town papers and magazines

All right, this is a great list, but is it reasonable? Perhaps your detective character really does love cigars, but you know nothing about cigars. Perhaps cigars, attracting mostly a male buyer, would be the wrong audience to go after for your book which is written to attract mostly female readers. What if, of all things, the licorice direction can prove very lucrative? Maybe you located a specialty licorice company with a really cool website and they're thrilled to have your book featured there. Look what you've got! You get to sell books to new readers and there's no competition between you and the candy maker. It's a win/win.

Now, take a serious look at the lighthouse element. The power of this particular approach is that all along the eastern and western seaboard AND the great lakes are … lighthouses. These structures have been a fascination for over a century to many, many people. There are huge organizations of lighthouse lovers who dedicate their time and money to visiting, climbing and supporting the maintenance of lighthouses. This is an extremely good direction to go! Getting involved with a fundraiser for these organizations on a local or even national level can only help expose your book in a big way to a big new readership!

Online, you'll need to really play with your cross markets. Don't just join a yahoo lighthouse lovers group and announce that you've written a book … get involved with the group. Chat. Make friends. Always have your email tag visible and let it do the selling for you. In groups like that, people buy from friends, not interlopers who pop in, talk about themselves and their book then leave, (we'll talk more about approaching your cross markets next week). Make sure your Author and Book websites are active with lots of interesting information so that possible book buyers come back regularly to see what's new. Regarding a blog, yes, you want a book blog, but be sure to create a blog about lighthouses that also promotes your book because this can do something magical for you! It can establish you as an expert of sorts.

Today, our goal is to help you locate your possible Cross Markets. Dig deep into your manuscript and make your own list like the one above. Let yourself go wild with it, you never know where there might be a fantastic hidden alternative market you never thought about before. After you've developed the list, bring a critical eye to it. What will not work? What's simply too time consuming and difficult to approach? What seems like a simple market to approach? What feels right and what feels wrong? You know your book intimately and only you can dissect it and find the Cross Marketing gems inside. Make your list and sleep on it.

Next week we'll discuss … How to approach those interesting Cross Markets.

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing

Cross Marketing from the Obvious to the Sublime

Crossing the line into TURBO Creative Thinking

Cross Marketing – Playing the Genre Game WELL

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Published on July 12, 2011 10:07

July 5, 2011

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing – Playing the Genre Game WELL

If you've been following this blog, you've read about what I call "The Genre Game" but playing the game and playing it WELL for Cross Marketing are two different things.

To briefly explain the Genre Game, let's imagine you own a beauty salon. Your immediate first customers will be women seeking a stylist to cut, color or style their hair. One of those women might bring in their child for an appointment. Now you've found a Cross Market and a new customer, children, and you stick a sign on your window stating that you style kids hair too. One afternoon, one of your stylist mentions that she does manicures, and you set up a station for her where she can do manicures and pedicures and another sign goes into your window. You've Cross Marketed further and your customer base just grew again. After that, you put a few shelves up and stocked them with shampoos, conditioners, hair treatments, brushes and combs. Have you gained more customers? Not exactly but you have gained more sales from your existing customers.

The point of this example is simple. Cross Marketing works on a variety of levels for new exposure, but it also helps with creating stronger ties to your existing fans. There is another, very important point to make here. Like the beauty salon, you, the author, must deliver quality to the customers. Bad hair stylists are more likely to lose customers than gain them, and broken promises are guaranteed to create nothing but failure.

Another example – A picnic. It was just a July 4th weekend here in America and I went to four different picnics, so this one is fresh in my mind. Say you want to have a simple picnic, toss a few hot dogs and burgers on the grill, whip up some potato salad, maybe bring a watermelon and don't forget the marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers for the S'mores. Nice. But say you want to have a small picnic for friends. For that you might pack some cold fried chicken, a grilled veggie salad and oatmeal cookies. Yum. Now perhaps you're planning a romantic picnic just for two. This time you may want to grill some lamb chops, take great cheese and a crusty loaf of French bread and a bottle of wine. The primary genre here? Picnic.

In this case we've looked at an extremely broad genre – picnic – and created different sub-genres to market to.

These examples may seem elementary but everything about good marketing and Cross Marketing is extremely simple.

If you've written a mystery, "Mystery" is your primary genre but it's just the jumping off point for your specific Cross Marketing efforts. You need to explore deeply into your manuscript to discover how many possible sub-genres you can Cross Market to. Is your mystery a period mystery? Does it have a little steampunk flavor it? Is there romance involved? Are there paranormal elements in the book – ghosts or supernatural creatures or paranormal events? Is there a hint of horror in your story? Is the target reader primarily young adults? Because remember, a great additional target for YA is women, 35-50 years of age. Is it a cozy mystery or does it have hints of sexuality or erotic romance in it?

Now a yes answer to any of these questions might cover only a minor subplot to the story … but if so, it is a terrific cross marketing avenue. Stretch out your mental minions like curious fingers and comb through your book. If you're marketing it hard to mystery readers, it could be extremely profitable to slip in and do some marketing to groups that fit the various subgenres you uncover. You shouldn't go to a Romance audience and call it a Romance Mystery, but you certainly can go to a romance audience and tell them that your book is a Mystery with some romance.

Literary agents pretty much perfected the Genre Game while trying to pitch and sell books to major publishers. There's no reason we can't use it to help get more sales for our books. Playing a GREAT Genre Game is all about understanding the target audiences you're going after. Do some serious research. Granted, there are a few genres that simply can't play this game – children's books, non-fiction and extremely hard erotica, for example. But generally, every other genre can grow an audience simply by taking itself out of the genre pigeon-hole.

Take the challenge and see what you can learn about your own book. Write down every descriptive word you can think of about your story and explore the possibility of exposing your book to that audience. You'll be amazed how many options are available to you!

Next week we'll discuss … Locating YOUR Cross Markets. See you then!

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing

Cross Marketing from the Obvious to the Sublime

Crossing the line into TURBO Creative Thinking

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Published on July 05, 2011 10:00

June 28, 2011

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing – EXPANDING your Platforms

I know what you're thinking. You're mind is spinning with all the activity you've already created for your various platforms. You have a large following on twitter and make sure you interact every day. You've built your friend base on Facebook to the max. You blog, you email, you interact with other authors … what else could you possibly do? And … how much time will it take? You're a writer, at some point you would like to be writing, right?

Take a deep breath and relax, this isn't what you think. Yes, you have done as much as you can with your websites, social marketing and group affiliations … but have you? Are your efforts gaining the responses and results you want? Are you talking to the right people … the BOOK BUYING people? Relax. You are doing well, but this week, we're going to talk about how to help you do better with Cross Marketing.

Have you ever heard the phrase "make money with somebody else's money"? Well, it sounds a little tacky and distasteful, but sometimes you need to look into another platformer's back yard to find a few more book buyers. No, I'm not talking about stealing friends or followers from other authors. In fact, far from it. I'm talking about strolling through an entirely different neighborhood to find more book buyers. Here's how this works.

Here are the facts. Most authors feel safer making friends and followers with other authors. It's a great resource for information and great support as you plot or develop characters. It's a fantastic group of people for input on your book cover ideas and gaining insight into your agent, publisher, format or distribution choices. But the truth is … authors don't buy other authors books, at least not enough to make a major dent in your sales. In reality, all of your author friends have already paid the price in time, advice and kindness while you showed them version after version of your book video or healed from your rejection wounds. If I bought a book from every author I've freinded on facebook, I'd have over 3,000 books! It simply doesn't make sense to put too much hope into selling books to other authors.

So, now that over three-quarters of your twitter and facebook followers are authors and writers, where do you look for book buyers? This is where the Cross Marketing magic really happens.

As I've mentioned a number of times over the years, everything you need to be successful with your book sales in INSIDE your manuscript. I recently had a commenter here on the blog who doubted that Cross Marketing could work with her genre – erotica. THIS is how it can work with EVERY genre.

To start this thinking process, I'm going to choose a genre and story plot point that is fairly simple. Let's say your book is a murder mystery about a woman who owns an auto repair business and loves to be under the hood, dirty and greasy. How the murder is discovered or solved isn't relevant for this exercise, so let's just go with what we have.

Let's say you've already promoted it to all your facebook friends and followers (most of which are other writers). Now what do you do?

Expanding platforms through Cross Marketing is about taking advantage of someone else's platforms. In the best case scenario, someone whose platform audience will find no conflict of interest and - most important – the platform owner has no competition should you sell a book to their customers.

Back to our lovely auto mechanic. Here are a few platforms the author could take advantage of.

Book Clubs

Not just the obvious mystery readers book clubs, but how about "How to" book clubs? How about car or machinery lovers book clubs?

Group Affiliations

Car lovers groups
Car maintenance groups
How to change your oil/sparkplugs/tires groups for women

Live Local Business Connections (never discount readers just outside your own door)

Pop by every oil change or auto services business and post a flyer or business card about your book on the bulletin board
Do the same with every auto parts supply store
Join the Chamber of Commerce and make "friendly" contacts for more ideas
Give away a free book at an antique car club gathering, or sell books there along with some free lemonade

Website Connections

Local and national auto service businesses (independent and chains) all have websites. Take a good look at those websites, find the contact and find out if you can post at their website, perhaps a photo of your book cover, better yet, a daily "Mechanical Murder" tip that talks about auto service and solving murders. If you can create a following on two or three of those major websites, your sales will jump!
How about asking to do this on Auto Clubs (like AAA) websites?

Blogs and Yahoo Groups

How many blogs exist that discuss women and auto repairs? Women who are automotively or mechanically helpless? Women who are mechanically savvy? Find them and ask to be a guest blogger to promote your book and do the guest blogs in a series so you can spread out the exposure.
Seek out Yahoo Groups that cover all the angles in your book, women, women mechanics, murder mystery lovers. Join, make friends and make sure your email promo tag for the book is prominent with every response you make to the group.

Alright, back to the question of an erotica writer doing some Cross Marketing.

Granted, mainstream situations may be out of the question for a M/MS&M or hard erotica book, but there are many other Cross Marketing opportunities most erotica writers haven't actually explored.

Check into website connections, for example, can you get your book promoted on a sex toy or lingerie website? Perhaps you can become part of one of their forums and chat away about your book to a new audience you haven't reached so far. If your book is paranormal in nature, it's not outside the box to connect with Paranormal Romance yahoo groups, Facebook Groups or Twitter fans. Take your time, explore every avenue. Can you make yourself an expert in something the erotica community is interested in? If so, go for it. Cross Marketing isn't something you can't use because it approaches a broad audience, it's something you NEED to use because in any tight genre, expanding the interest base and attracting more and new buyers for your books is all that matters. Cross Marketing for erotica needs to work within it's own universe, just like cozy romance or children's books. It's all about looking for your prospective book buyers where you haven't looked before, and connecting with them.

Once an author has EXPANDED their platforms with Cross Marketing, the whole world opens up for building a bigger fan base, stronger sales and greater demand for more books! It's a win/win/win!

Next week we'll discuss … Cross Marketing by playing the Genre Game like an expert. See you then!

Author Success Series: Cross Marketing