Becky Robinson's Blog, page 19

Plan the Work, Work the Plan

Peter Drucker famously said, “What gets measured, gets managed.” We have our own version of his maxim: “what gets planned, gets done.”  Without a plan, all of our great ideas are just great ideas.  

So, if we understand that a plan is important, why are we all so resistant? There are generally three things that stop us from planning: time, overwhelm, and self-discipline.  But it’s not too late to overcome these obstacles and get started now on a holiday book promotion plan and your 2021 action plan.

I Don’t Have Enough Time

None of us has enough time to do all the things we need or want to do.  Now, more than ever, life is demanding and exhausting.  A plan can help you relieve some of the stress and accomplish more, but you have to make planning a priority.  Our team recently scheduled two 4-hour meetings to roll up our sleeves and work on a 2021 plan. It was a challenge to wrangle all the schedules and client needs in order to create this planning space, but it was a priority, so we made it happen. 

If you are going to create a plan, the perfect time will never come.  Pull out your calendar right now and schedule planning time.  You may be able to plan long-term during one session, or you may need monthly or even weekly planning sessions.  Find what works for you and schedule it.  

Where Do I Begin?

Planning can feel overwhelming.  There are so many areas to address, but we suggest that you plan the same way you would eat an elephant—one bite at a time.

Start with your end result in mind.  What do you want to achieve? 

Next, brainstorm all the ideas that will help you get where you want to go.  Make a list and capture all the ideas, then go back and prioritize and organize. What will you really do? What should you get help to tackle?  What’s just not worth the time?

This process will set you on the path to planning success!

But it’s so Boring…

That’s where self-discipline comes in. Planning IS boring.  We are all resistant to doing things that don’t feel engaging or quickly rewarding, but investing in your long-term success will pay more dividends than binge-watching The Home Edit (though we are 100% in support of the organized life!).

If you consider your goals and get excited about them, planning will feel less like a chore.  Get help if you struggle to focus. Planning with a team is rewarding and energizing and may be the way you have the most planning success.  Plus, you have people to hold you accountable, and accountability always improves outcomes.

Now it’s your turn!  How are you planning for holiday book promotions?  What ideas do you have for 2021?  It’s time to record your plan, so you can turn all those great ideas into reality…and book sales!

The post Plan the Work, Work the Plan appeared first on OLD Weaving Influence.

Episode 34: All things PR with Mike Onorato

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Welcome to The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson and Christy Kirk. This is the final episode for the first season and we are grateful for you listening to us over the last few months. If you are a newer listener, don’t worry. We have 33 other episodes for you to catch up on before our new season starts in January 2021! For this final episode, we are pleased to have Mike Onorato from Smith Publicity. Mike shares everything you need to know about media relations, how to set expectations, PR myths, and more. 

Becky: Mike, as we dive in today, will you tell me a little bit about the work you’ve done/are doing with authors?

Mike: Thank you for having me on the final episode! I’ve been in book PR since 2002 and the majority of that time was spent in-house at Wiley. I worked with a lot of authors on crafting their message and pitching to media. At Wiley, all of the books we did were nonfiction and I specialized in the general interest consumer space. So basically, anything that wasn’t business or cooking. I was there for 12 years and it was great. 

It’s been 4 years since I’ve been at Smith Publicity and it’s a lot of the same work, again a lot of media interaction. A lot of representing authors to the media, but now I’ve folded in more of the fiction work. We also consult with authors on things like book cover design and what their platform should look like, and it’s been incredible to continue to work with authors. Publicity has changed drastically from when I first started, but not the way we interact with media—that will never change—it’s the way we are talking to them that has changed. We’re still trying to tell the world about a good book and interesting authors, and that has not deviated since 2002. 

Expectations when investing in PR

Becky: Publicity and media relations are a core offering of Smith Publicity, and I know Smith Publicity as a company has 20 plus years of serving authors. So, I’m curious if you can shine the light on what authors can expect when they invest in publicity/media relations?

Mike: Yeah, that’s a great question. What it looks like first off is they can expect us to get as familiar with their book, brand, and message as we can. Besides combing their book, website, and socials, we are going to try and get a really strong sense of their messaging. Sometimes they come to us and they don’t know what their message is, and we will help them develop that. And what we’ll do with that, in essence, we’re looking back and combing back through our mental Rolodex of pitching media all these years to find out what works. They can expect effort. We are going to represent and show their book to as many people as we can. And we’ll talk about how we are doing that and what angles we’re using. Publicity is a challenging field because you can’t guarantee anything. The only thing I tell our authors and clients is that you can guarantee effort. We will do what we can and if something isn’t working, we’ll pivot. We also try and be very transparent. If something isn’t working, we’ll communicate that to the author. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, they can expect communication. We want to be talking and interacting with them about what we are hearing, what we are seeing, and what the landscape is. We’re the media experts, we are monitoring the media all of the time. So we’re going to report back what’s getting a lot of attention or what we need to stay clear of. 

Becky: That’s really helpful, Mike! So they can expect honest communication, that you’re going to know their content well, and that if needed you’ll pivot. Those are all very powerful things to expect. I’m wondering what myths do you hear authors express about PR and what it can accomplish?

PR Myths

Mike: Often times authors will think that just getting 5-15 media wins will result in a bestseller. And we all know that there are so many factors, publicity being just one component that makes a book a bestseller. That’s one myth. The second one is just the fact that they’ve written a book it makes it newsworthy. One thing that I always tell my team is don’t rely on a news hook being “Hey, new book by…” unless of course, it’s James Patterson or someone at that level. That’s myth two. Myth three is people just want to hear from someone because they have a different perspective. Yes, of course that’s true, but what it all boils down to is what else are you doing? What have they been writing about? What have they been commenting on? If the Google results are blank, that’s a problem. So we need to build authors up. Sandy Smith, our president, has a wonderful phrase that I always steal, and that is when you’re dealing with national media you’re talking about the world series. If you are an unknown, you have to be known first in little league. And then we are going to build you up, but you need to take those steps seriously. You can’t just hit the ground and want to be playing in the big leagues. 

Becky: So it’s a myth authors can jump straight to the big leagues?

Mike: Big time. Now listen, there is always going to be the one exception when the book, author, and pitch just hit it. And that’s great, but for the most part, it’s going to be a build. It’s not a bad thing, you just need to be patient. We need you to trust the process and have realistic expectations. 

How to set reasonable expectations 

Becky: That leads to our next question. How do you set reasonable expectations with your clients?

Mike: We used to get this a lot, and we still do about other shows, but back when I first started in PR it was, “How can I get on Oprah?” Whatever show it might be, I would always say watch the show for a week and tell me how many authors you see in a similar topic or genre. And 9 out of 10 times they aren’t going to see that. So another way we set expectations is really just educating our authors. They don’t know media; it’s not their gig, it’s ours. The other thing is the timing of it. Some authors think, “My book comes out next week, I’m starting to work with you right now. So which tv shows will I be on when my book launches?” You know, Becky, how long it can take to build up a book. For example, at The Today Show, they get those galleys 3 to 6 months before the book comes out and so they are able to plan what that looks like 3 to 6 months out. If we are just coming to you a week before, not much can be done in that regard. That said, we will still pitch other places. Another big expectation setter is when there is a negative review. Because sometimes authors think, “Oh no! Everyone is going to be negative.” We know there could be an anomaly, who knows why that reviewer felt that way, but it’s the kind of thing where you know how many books don’t get reviewed. Yes, it’s a bummer you got a bad review, but you still got reviewed. That’s an important thing to remember. 

Easiest books to get press

Becky: Certainly. So let’s talk about something positive. Let’s talk about what books are easiest to get press for? Especially now with all the noise of the Coronavirus and the election. 

Mike: This is going to sound odd, but a really well-written book. And what I mean by that is we are going to do our darndest to get that foot in the door and get the book in the hands of readers, but the book needs to stand on its own. They need to be able to read it and say, “Yes! I want more.” So those are the books that are the easiest to get PR. Also, I think a really willing author, someone who is going to work with us and brainstorm angles and topics, makes our job easier. Listen, books about current events and politics are very difficult right now. Lifestyle and health and wellness are not as hard. Fiction is working pretty well for us thankfully. The fiction genres are more removed from the pandemic and the election. I would even take it a step further and say people are seeking out more fiction. Those are the books that are easier for us to work with. 

Smith Publicity’s criteria to become a client

Becky: That’s very helpful. The first time I met Sandy Smith she mentioned to me that there are many authors who come to you seeking services who aren’t a great fit for the work that you do. 

So, what is your criteria for deciding if an author is a good fit for your organization’s services?

Mike: Yes. First off, we look at the book and we look at the cover. We look at the topic and the title. We look at the author’s platforms and community and we get a sense of that. Lastly, and most difficult to measure, is their willingness to work with us and know they need to build their book up. What we look at, especially if the book is in health and wellness, is what are their credentials? Because that matters. We also look at their social media. Are they going to be able to get that word out and amplify the wins they do get? We do this vetting process because we want to make sure we are doing right by our authors. 

Becky: That’s really helpful, Mike. It occurs to me that it would be great to let our listeners know about your podcast. So before we outline some action steps as we do at the end of every episode, maybe you can give a quick plug for your podcast. 

Mike: Thank you! My latest guest is your host today. It’s the All Things Book Marketing podcast, and I’ve only been the host for less than a year. We’ve had some authors, clients, agents and media, and industry partners on. We really just try and talk about a different aspect of publishing or PR, that authors might not know. It’s a lot of fun, and we try and do it a few times a month. 

Action Steps

Becky: Before we wrap this episode and the first season of The Book Marketing Action Podcast, I’m wondering if you can identify a couple of action steps authors can implement after today’s episode to be prepared to leverage media relations and publicity in a more effective way? 

Mike: Great question! 

Update your website. Get your website updated and up and running. Make sure you have a press section with your most recent media wins listed to show people you’re out there doing things and active in this space. 
Take a stance on something. What I mean by that is, if you have a book that touches on the news, be prepared to think when something happens that is related. And think of 1, 2, or 3 things that are unique about that. Always be prepared to write down why your point of view or perspective is different. 

Resources

Click here to learn more about Smith Publicity.


Listen to the All Things Book Marketing podcast here.
Connect with Mike on LinkedIn or Twitter. To get in touch with Mike, you can send him an email at mike.onorato@smithpublicity.com. 

We hope you take advantage of the resources above and let us know if you take Mike’s advice and implement one or two of his ideas. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover in the next season starting January 2021, please email Becky Robinson here and Christy Kirk here. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 34: All things PR with Mike Onorato appeared first on OLD Weaving Influence.

Episode 33: Holiday Letters with David Greer

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Welcome to The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson and Christy Kirk. We are happy to reconnect with David Greer, an old friend, and client in the early years of our business.  During the episode, David shares his passion for holiday letters and the process of how he’s incorporated book marketing into each letter he sends. 

Becky: Before we get started, I want to give David a chance to introduce himself. David, could you tell us a little bit about yourself, your work in the world, and about your book?

David: Thanks, Becky! I’m an entrepreneurial coach. So when I was still at University, 22 years old, I joined a young software startup and built that into a very successful software company. After that, I become an angel investor for startups. And then for the last 5 years, I’ve been an entrepreneurial coach, working 1 on 1 with entrepreneurs and their senior teams on strategic planning. 

What I’ve discovered in 35 plus years of being an entrepreneur is that there are a lot of patterns that get repeated. I eventually decided that I really wanted entrepreneurs who haven’t been through it before to have a resource where they didn’t have to wear or earn all the scar tissue that I earned. So I conceived my book, Wind In Your Sails: Vital Strategies That Accelerate Your Entrepreneurial Growth. I’m a very passionate sailer, so I used sailing analogies throughout the book. I interviewed 45 entrepreneurs for the book and featured 10 entrepreneur case studies. Over a third of the book is other people’s stories, so you not only get the advantage of my scar tissue, you get the advantage of 10 other people’s scar tissues. I definitely wrote it as an evergreen book, so it’s intended to have a lot of ways to think about your business, but very practical ways to apply it for a long period of time. 

Holiday Letters

Becky: If we have any entrepreneurs listening to this podcast, I hope you’ll check out David’s book and his work. 

David, I reached out to you about this podcast because this month we are focusing on holiday book promotions and how you can use the holidays as a means to get the word out about your book. I know by being on your email list for many years, that one of the things you do is send out a holiday letter. Let’s talk for a moment about holiday letters. Some people call them brag letters, what are other names we use for letters that come at the end of the year? 

David: Yeah, other names used are the Christmas letter, holiday letter, holiday newsletter, and family letter. 

Becky: Because it’s been so long since I’ve last sent one, I especially wanted to invite someone on the podcast who’s been sending holiday letters. David, share with us, how long have you been sending them? 

David: I can’t remember exactly, but at least 30 years. 

Becky: Wow! Tell us a little bit about your process, the types of information you include, and who the letters go to. 

David: For me, the Christmas letter is a very personal letter, so it goes to family and friends. It also goes to a few entrepreneurial friends who I have a close, personal relationship with or I feel I’ve connected to them in some way. 

The way we’ve written them is fairly consistent for 30 years. My wife and I always write them together. I always write the first draft and think of any photographs to include, because I’m a photographer. Part of the process is getting the whole family together for a picture. I usually keep it to two typewritten pages so single sheet, double-sided. After I write the first draft, my wife adds her part and then edits and revises it. 

Becky: Wonderful. David, you did say you send these in both a print and digital format? Talk to me about that. 

David: I love getting Christmas cards and letters. Especially from the people who I don’t keep in touch with enough, and people who I see on social media on a regular basis but they don’t share details such as their husbands changing jobs, their moving in a new direction, different stage of life, etc. I have some people who’ve sent me their family letter for 30 years. It really helps me stay connected to those people, and I always read the letters when they first come in. It’s something that’s very special to me. 

Becky: It sounds like a very important tradition in your life. As I’m listening to you, I’m wondering if our listeners are thinking, well what does this have to do with book marketing? So let’s talk about why we are bringing this topic of holiday letters into a book marketing podcast. To do that David, tell us about how you’ve incorporated your book and business offerings into the holiday letter. 

David: So we have three children and there is always a section about each of them. And then, the section on my wife and I almost always has an aspect that talks about our work, what we are doing, and what’s new or different. In 2015, the Christmas letter definitely included the announcement of the launch of Wind In Your Sails. I’m sure the digital version of the letter included links to Amazon. Last year in the Christmas letter, I had openings for more clients so I let everyone know, and actually had a personal friend reach out to me and became a client of mine. We also mention our daughter and son-in-law’s landscaping business in the letter, which generates them more clients. 

Becky: That’s amazing and so great you’ve been able to help fuel that success for your kids. I love what you’re saying about making sure there is awareness so that your family and connections really understand what you’re up to in the world. I think sometimes we make the assumption that if we include something about our new book or work in our letter, that it’s self-promotional. I always try to reframe that with authors on a few different levels. One is that if you have a book that can make a difference, you’re not promoting yourself, you’re promoting your message. I think one thing that we underestimate is the way that our letters are received. And what I hear you saying, David, is that you love to receive these letters and are hungry for insights into your friends and family’s lives. If we can imagine the recipient of our holiday letter, well, of course, your book deserves a place in that letter because it’s a huge accomplishment. 

David: That’s correct. Absolutely! Why would you not include something so significant in your life? How many people can say they’ve written a book? Yes, a lot of people have written books, but in the huge scheme of the global population, it’s still this massive, massive achievement to get a book finished and published. 

Becky: Yes! And so would your connections want to celebrate that with you? 

David: Yes! And then for me, there is also a cultural alignment piece. In that, one of my deepest, cultural core values is massive family connection. To me when I send the family letter, even to the people who I’m connected to from business, it’s just consistency about what I really stand for. 

Action Steps

Becky: That’s very powerful. So reinforcing through your routine activities the values that you stand for in your life and work. Every time we finish the podcast, we always wrap up with some action steps. We want you to be able to take action based on what you hear. So we have three action steps from today’s podcast:

Include your book in your holiday letter. If you currently send a holiday newsletter, what we’d like you to do is consider including your book this year. 
Consider sending a holiday letter. If you’ve never sent out a holiday newsletter, consider sending out a holiday newsletter this year and start to identify recipients.
Share the good and the bad. Include the challenges and the wins in your life in your newsletter, because it helps people connect to you on a human level. 

Resources

Click here to learn more about David and the work he does in the world. 
Get your copy of Wind In Your Sails: Vital Strategies That Accelerate Your Entrepreneurial Growth . 
View the Greer Family’s Current Newsletter here. 

We hope you take advantage of the resources above and let us know if you take any action steps today. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here and Christy Kirk here. 

Reminder: We are going to conclude the first season of the podcast at the end of October. We are taking a break over November and December before coming back with fresh episodes in 2021. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 33: Holiday Letters with David Greer appeared first on OLD Weaving Influence.

Episode 32: Holiday Book Promotions with Barb Roose

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Welcome to The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson and Christy Kirk. We are thrilled to be joined with our friend and Becky’s high school classmate, Barb Roose! In this episode, Barb shares her best book marketing secrets and ideas for promoting your book during the upcoming holiday season. 

Becky: I’m so glad you could carve out some time to talk with me today. Welcome, Barb! Tell our listeners about you, your work, and your newest book in case they haven’t met you yet.

Barb: Thank you! One of my very favorite things in life is equipping people of all stages and ages, but particularly women, to overcome their fears so they can live beautifully strong and courageous. I believe that everyone has a great adventure of purpose for their lives and so I love creating, whether it’s writing or speaking, and giving people inspiration and tools to overcome fears so they can get to that great adventure. 

I live in northwest Ohio. I am the proud mom of three adult daughters and for me, watching them live beautifully strong and courageous is super fun and exciting. I absolutely love writing and speaking at conferences around the country when I am not managing a book deadline. 

Becky: So talk to us about how many books you have so far and tell us the title and information about your latest one. 

Barb: I am grateful since 2015 I have published a total of 8 books and Bible studies. I have a great publishing company out of Nashville, and I think the interesting part of my story is in the last 12 months, I’ve had 3 book contracts as well as 3 book releases. 

Becky: Wow! It has been quite a whirlwind for you, Barb, and I know I was very excited to see the latest book release. So talk a little bit about that and then we are going to talk in general about book marketing and some of your favorite tools and tricks. I am also excited to share with our listeners some ideas you have for holiday promotions. 

Barb: I’m excited to get to those as well. My most recent book is a devotional and it’s titled, Surrendered: 40 Devotions to Help You Let Go and Live Like Jesus. I wrote this book during the quarantine season when we were all staying at home, and this project is all about letting go of the things we can’t control. It is a faith-based book with 40 brief devotions on topics we struggle with, such as letting go of worry, negative thinking, and toxic people. All of these topics I love writing about because they are the real thing in life. I also have books and Bible studies about anxiety, winning our worry battle, and self-image, as well as books about learning how to be patient in long seasons. I write from a Biblical perspective about a lot of the things in life that I’ve had to overcome. 

Becky: Well, I have had the pleasure of participating in a few Bible studies based on your content, and I’ve always learned so much from you. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to bring you on. Before we dive into some of your favorite tricks and tools for marketing, talk to me for a moment about how marketing a Christain women’s book is different from other book marketing. 

Barb: When we talk about book marketing, it’s based on the audience as well as the connections we’ve made. I do have a background in business. I actually still speak at leadership events and work with companies on individual management coaching. So I read a lot of business books and love business books. 

When it comes to Christian marketing, when I look at that and how to reach women, most of my audience is on Facebook, and a growing number on Instagram. My approach has been to create connections with other Christian women speakers and authors. When it comes to actually marketing the books, there is a little bit of tension we have to manage, at least from my perspective, because when you are writing about God, people do not like you to put the hard sell on them. There was this old phase when I was a sales rep, called “sell the features and the benefits.” So a lot of my approach is very much selling the features and benefits about what it is I’m writing about, versus saying you must buy this. 

Becky: You and I were talking a little bit about that before we began recording. I was telling you what I always tell my authors that when you don’t ask someone to buy the book, they’re not going to buy the book. So tell me some of the ways you get around that when you’re marketing to Christain women. 

Barb: Let’s be clear, I need them to actually buy the book because there is not magic fairy dust that keeps these book contracts coming. It has to actually be sales. So we end up using language like “hey, check this out” and I still provide web links on my website to all my books and Bible studies. I find that I have to be careful about using the language of “you must buy this book” or “buy this book right now,” it’s more of a softer language of “I believe this could be a great next step” or “you can pick this book up at…” so it’s different ways of saying buy. 

Marketing Tools

Becky: Got it, thank you so much for sharing that, Barb. It’s interesting to think about the approaches different genres might require. So tell us your best-kept secrets for book marketing. 

Barb: Well, I’m hoping this first one isn’t a secret, and it’s a tool online called Canva. I know this is not the first time your listeners have heard about Canva. When you think about connecting with the people in our audience and the people we want to reach, visual media is the name of the game. Canva does not just give you the ability to create graphics on all digital platforms, but they also provide desktop publishing services for items like ebooks and powerpoints. You can schedule your social media posts and order handouts and t-shirts directly from Canva as well. You can even make videos now from Canva! So it is a complete marketing tool for those of us who have to do our own book marketing. 

Becky: Thank you for sharing some of those newer features. I know you also have another tool you wanted to share with our audience today. 

Barb: I do, and this is a fun one. Again, I have a traditional publisher, but for anyone who is self-published or traditionally published, we still carry the weight of creating connections with our audience. One way we can do that, especially as authors, is to actually let them hear our voice, even if you don’t have an audiobook. I’ve been using Wavve.co to create audiograms. An audiogram is essentially a graphic with an audio file embedded in it. When someone is scrolling through social media, they hear my voice, they see my book graphic, and it becomes a very personalized way for them to connect with my content. 

Holiday Book Marketing Ideas

Becky: Barb, I love that you’ve been making those audiograms because it is such a fun way to connect with your audience. And speaking of fun, we’re focusing this month on the topic of book marketing ideas for the holidays. I know that you had a really exciting and creative approach with your first book. Could you tell us more about that? 

Barb: I would love to! For anyone out there, I’ve given books as gifts for years. I still give books to my kids. I did borrow an idea from a fiction author and this idea was creating an experience box. This was with my first book, Enough Already: Winning Your Ugly Struggle With Beauty, and what the experience box entailed was a copy of the book, but then I went through the book and several of the themes. I then took those themes and I matched a gift with each of them. 

This was a book about identity and inner/outer beauty, so there was a necklace, a framed photo of one of the quotes from the book (beautifully designed in Canva), chocolate, a magnetic bookmark, and a couple other items. These were all items I could order in bulk or I could produce them at a very low cost, and I wrapped each of them individually. I also included a letter with the book that outlined for the reader which pages to open up each gift. 

I didn’t do thousands of these but I did a fair amount, and then I was able to sell them. I had some local events and women loved buying them as gifts for friends. It was a gift already done, it was already wrapped and they could give an experience and not just a book. 

Becky: Wow, I just love that idea, Barb. Especially now that a lot of authors don’t have the opportunity to do events because of COVID and all the challenges that presents, in what way could you shift that idea of an experience gift to make it easier to ship? 

Barb: This entire year is about learning to adapt. There is an abundance of ideas we just have to be willing to shift. So one of the things I’m thinking about is in my new devotional there is this concept called Kintsukuroi, and this is a beautiful type of Japanese art. You might be familiar with Kintsugi, or you can Google it. There are all kinds of Etsy jewelers who will make Kintsugi jewelry. Right now I’m considering creating a Kintsugi piece to go along with the Surrendered book, because both are small and easy to ship. This is a high-end item with low weight that I can actually pair with the book and somebody could give it as a meaningful gift. 

Action Steps

Becky: Well, I love that idea. I also love we are recording this conversation at the end of September and you’re already thinking about Christmas gifts for the holidays. And just a side note if anyone is beginning to plan their holiday promotions, it’s not too soon to really think strategically about what you might create as a complement to your book, and a gift package you might be able to offer. 

So Barb, one of the things we always do is we always leave folks with a couple of action steps that they can take to implement this week, and supercharge their book marketing efforts. I know you have a couple of ideas for our listeners. 

Barb: I do! Thank you again for having me as a guest and thank you, everyone, for hanging out with us today. Here are a couple of action steps for people to think about:

Get familiar with Canva. If you are not familiar with Canva, go to Canva.com and learn from their tutorials. Canva can radically change how you connect with your audience. 
Pay attention to other authors’ book marketing ideas. When I see book marketing ideas, I take a screenshot and if I see a campaign or marketing concept that I think is cool, I contact the author and ask for more information. 

Resources

To learn more about Barb Roose, you can visit her website here. 
Browse her books and bible studies here. 
To sign up for a free Canva account, click here. 
Click here to learn more about audiograms on Wavve.co website. 

We hope you take advantage of the resources above and let us know if you take any action steps today. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here and Christy Kirk here. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 32: Holiday Book Promotions with Barb Roose appeared first on OLD Weaving Influence.

And: Making a Difference by Leveraging Polarity, Paradox or Dilemma

Often, when trying to solve a problem, we unconsciously lean towards or-thinking: choosing between one argument, or point of view, over another. In doing this, we create a tension, also called a polarity.  A polarity is two-interdependent pairs that need each other over time and generally require and-thinking to come to a solution or make a change. This week, we’re excited to launch a new book addressing how to supplement or-thinking with and-thinking to create lasting change.

And: Making a Difference by Leveraging Polarity, Paradox or Dilemma

AND is a resource for people who want to make a positive difference, regardless of the size of the system that you want to change. How? Through a clear five-step process to replace or supplement, or-thinking with and-thinking. 

You will learn when and how to bring And into your efforts to make a positive difference. When done well, supplementing Or-thinking with And-thinking will help you convert the wisdom of those resisting change into a resource to support a more effective change. 

And-thinking will help you join polarized groups and convert a vicious cycle into a benefit for all. The results will benefit both groups and the larger system of which they are a part.

Meet the Author

Barry Johnson is the creator of the Polarity Map®, a founding partner of Polarity Partnerships, and the author of several books, including Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems, Managing Polarities in Congregations: Eight Keys for Thriving Faith Communities, and his most recent And: Making a Difference by Leveraging Polarity, Paradox or Dilemma.

Praise From Readers Like You

“Both/And thinking allows for the recognition that two seemingly contradictory

things can both be true at the same time. Within equity, inclusion, and justice work,

the Both/And lets us be honest about our privileges without descending into guilt or

shame, recognize urgency while understanding that growth takes time, and focus on

the concerns of marginalized communities while uplifting our shared humanity.” 

— Shelly Tochluk, Author, Witnessing Whiteness: The Need to Talk About Race and How To Do It and Living in the Tension: The Quest for a Spiritualized Racial Justice

“Polarity Thinking is the most elegant approach to dealing with the critical issues

that we wrestle within institutions, organizations, and groups the world over.”  

— David Magellan Horth Director of Innovation Venturing and Partnerships / Senior Fellow, Center for Creative Leadership

“And: Volume One and And: Volume Two takes us step by practical step to

understand and dismantle the exclusionary paradigm that we are so used to,

and builds an inclusionary paradigm with one simple tool, And.” 

— Rev. Dr. Shanta Premawardhana President, OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership

Learn More

Visit the Polarity Partnerships website to purchase a copy of the book
Watch the recent webinar to learn more about And-thinking

The post And: Making a Difference by Leveraging Polarity, Paradox or Dilemma appeared first on OLD Weaving Influence.

Episode 31: Finding your niche market with Susan Friedmann

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Welcome to The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson and Christy Kirk. It’s a new month and in the month of October, we are going to be focused on helping you get ready to market your books during the upcoming holiday season. In this episode, we are joined by special guest, Susan Friedmann. Susan shares the importance of niche marketing and strategies for marketing your book during the upcoming holiday season to your niche audience. 

Becky: As we get started today, Susan, could you tell us a little about yourself, your business, and how you work with authors? 

Susan: Absolutely, I’d love to. I love to work specifically with non-fiction authors because I find they often struggle to identify themselves in a very crowded marketplace. They want to be known for their expertise, and that’s what I specialize in at Aviva Publishing. I work with specific authors to get their books published, and then help them identify who they are and how to excel their authority in their marketplace. 

Niche Marketing 

Becky: Thank you so much. I know that your specialty is in niche marketing, so can you tell us what you mean by this and how it influences the strategies you recommend to the authors you’re partnering with?

Susan: I love that question, Becky. It’s one that I don’t think enough people appreciate because they feel that when they come to me with their book, and I say to them, who’s this book for? And they say well, it’s a universal message, it’s for everyone. My biggest concern is that yes, it may be, but I can’t imagine you have the funds to market it to everyone. The more specific you can get about who your actual target market is, the better and more efficient you can be with your actual marketing. Really narrowing down who your book is for and finding a niche market is critical. 

Becky: I was laughing along with you when you mentioned authors say their books are for everyone, because I think nearly every author that I’ve spoken to starts there. I think it comes from this belief in their ideas, and it is not a bad impulse, but as you’ve said it’s very difficult to market a book to everyone. And a book for everyone is a book for no one. So when you are able to focus on your specific target market then your book becomes for someone and you can be more clear about the messages you create. 

Susan: Absolutely. People like that more when they feel oh my goodness this person is speaking to me. And that “me” you have to really identify. More often than not it’s actually a person like yourself, because you probably wrote that book for somebody else like yourself to help them in some way. 

Becky: Sure, that’s very helpful, Susan. I love your idea that many times authors are writing to people like themselves. I know one difference in the way that the two of us work is you’re really involved on the front end of helping an author conceive their ideas and publish their books in order to bring them to market. Whereas I more often get involved after the book has already been written. One of the things though, when I do talk to authors prior to them writing the book, is I ask them to envision that persona they’re writing to and make sure they personalize their writing so it speaks to that intended audience. I’m curious if there are any tricks that you have in helping authors as they’re actually writing and composing their words, to be able to stay focused on their niche? 

Susan: I think really thinking about, again, targeting people like themselves. So if they think of themselves and then think of somebody in the workplace that needs what they have to offer, they need to visualize that person, because if there is one person like that, chances are there are many others like that as well. If you think of someone you know that could really prosper from the information you have, then that’s the person to visualize as you’re writing. 

Becky: That’s helpful, Susan, thank you. So in addition to being a publisher, you are also an author, and your book is called, Riches in Niches: How to Make It BIG in a Small Market. So, why are niches so important for people who want to make money from their books? 

Susan: There are fewer people out there in a niche market then there are in a general market. When you find yourself a niche and focus on that, then your marketing can be more efficient. Believe it or not, you can actually charge more, because if you’re the only game in town then people will pay more for what you have to offer. 

Holiday Marketing 

Becky: So Susan, let’s shift for a moment. I mentioned as we started the podcast, that we are focusing this month on holidays and how we can use holidays to market our books. Not only the upcoming holidays at the end of the year but all of the holidays throughout the year can be an inspiration for authors looking for a way to promote their books to their niche markets. So I’m curious, Susan, how have you seen authors successfully pivot their approach in niche marketing to showcase their books by using holidays throughout the year? 

Susan: So as you rightly said, we have the big holidays coming up, and those themselves can create many different subjects, one of which is stress. It’s a very stressful time of year; however, as you and I were talking before, there is a national day calendar out there. Do a search on it and you will find every single day of the year there is somebody who concocted a day which they want to celebrate. 

For instance, October is Health Literacy Month and the 15th of October is Health Literacy Day. I have one of my authors who has a book on Health Literacy, and it’s the A to Z of Health Literacy. Do you think she’s marketing it this month? You bet she is! She’s doing everything she can to reach out to her target audience, who are primarily Healthcare professionals, to bring this to their notice and, of course, her book and the opportunity to talk about the subject. This is a very busy month for her. So I would absolutely recommend your listeners to go and find what holidays would work for their message. You can attach your book message to almost any holiday, you just have to get a little creative and think outside the box. 

Becky: It sounds like you’re advocating that authors can have fun with this and really be thinking about not only their niche market, but about what holidays might appeal to the people in that market or be relevant to them. 

So I’m wondering, Susan, if you can share some examples of other authors and what you’ve seen work best for them, particularly with the upcoming end of the year holidays. What have you seen authors do to leverage the end of the year gift-buying season to market their books more effectively? 

Susan: What they do is a lot of is getting interviews or articles, and again, I’m thinking particularly of this idea of stress when it comes to the holidays, because not everyone likes the holidays. It’s a stressful time, and so I’ve got authors who’ve written in subjects about yoga, inspiration, motivation, or workplace books, parenting books, books for children, I mean every one of those could have a different angle as it relates to stress. It’s a hard time, and I think this year’s holiday is going to be an even harder time, so if they’ve got messages about hope, encouragement, and maybe ways in which people can feel a little more wanted and needed in the world, I think that in itself is very inspirational. 

Action Steps

Becky: Those are some fantastic ideas. Thank you so much for sharing them, Susan. So as we wrap up today’s episode, we always want to leave our authors with some important action steps that they can take. Susan, I know you have some gifts for our listeners, and those wrap into these action steps. So what action steps do you recommend for people to put into practice today? 

Susan: 

Email me for 10 questions to find your niche market. I would love to offer your listeners a copy of my 10 questions to find your niche market for free. And even if you feel you have a niche market, it will help you think a little bit more about your niche market. 
Brainstorm and research a list of relevant holidays for marketing your book. I recommend looking for holidays on the national holiday calendar that you’ll be able to connect your book message to. Don’t be afraid to be OUTRAGEOUS. 

Resources

If you’re interested in contacting Susan for one on one 20 minute consultation to find your niche market, email her for more information. 
Learn more about Susan and her book, Riches in Niches: How to Make It BIG in a Small Market, here. 

We hope you take advantage of the resources above and let us know if you take any action steps today. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here and Christy Kirk here. 

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The post Episode 31: Finding your niche market with Susan Friedmann appeared first on OLD Weaving Influence.

Planning for the Holidays

Marketing a book, once it’s launched, requires finding new ways to keep your book in the conversation. Holidays throughout the year, when they are relevant to your book’s topic, provide a natural reason to promote your book. 

The end of the year events are a great time for nearly every author to promote their books as gifts. Cyber Monday for online book shopping is a natural day to promote as people are shopping for Christmas and Hanukkah gifts. For business book authors, a bulk sale campaign might appeal to training and development professionals who may have year-end budget to invest. New Year’s can be a time to promote self-help or business books as people are looking for a fresh start or new learning resources. 

During the month of October, we’ll be talking all about marketing your book(s) for the holiday season. We have a lot of great content planned, and we hope you’ll join us throughout the month in sharing your own ideas and personal learnings with us. 

You may be wondering why we’re talking about the holidays so early (we know, we know, it’s not even Halloween yet!) but planning thoughtful offers around your books or content takes time. Our goal is to give you the tools and resources you need to effectively market yourself and your book during the upcoming season of gift-giving. 

Here’s what you can expect from us this month: 

A blog post on the importance of planning your promotions early.
Four great podcasts that cover topics such as gift giving, inclusivity, how you can use holidays throughout the year to keep your book in the conversation, and expanding awareness of your book with your yearly brag letter. Be sure to subscribe to get these on your device.
A free webinar on holiday ideas for book marketing. Join us!
Social posts throughout the month, sharing past articles we’ve written about holiday promotions.

We’d also like to invite you to share any questions or ideas you have related to holiday book promotions by filling out this form.

The post Planning for the Holidays appeared first on OLD Weaving Influence.

Episode 30: Advice from a first-time author with Alain Hunkins

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Welcome to The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson and Christy Kirk. In this episode, we are joined by special guest Alain Hunkins, a first-time author. During the episode, Alain shares his best advice from being a first-time author, and how he’s had to pivot his strategies because of COVID-19.

Becky: Let’s start with you introducing yourself and telling us about your work, book, and what you’re up to in the world. 

Alain: Thanks so much, Becky! My name is Alain. My mom is from Brussels, Belgium, and gave me one of the most common French names on the planet. My work is in the domain of leadership. I’ve been working as a leadership consultant, trainer, speaker, and coach for about 25 years and I recently published my first book, Cracking the Leadership Code: Three Secrets to Building Strong Leaders. Probably like many of you, I was super excited to put this all together, and also a bit overwhelmed because I really didn’t know what I didn’t know. I knew there were a lot of moving parts to the process, and I’m happy to say 6 months after launch, I’m still alive! The book has come out, it’s doing well, I’ve learned a ton throughout the process, and I’m excited to share that with you. 

Becky: We have had a few authors on the podcast but you may be the first, first-time author that we’ve had as a guest. Being a first-time author, you definitely bring a unique perspective that will be especially interesting to those who are listening who are preparing to launch their first book. So let’s dive-in, tell us more about what you’ve learned from the process of launching your book? 

Alain: Wow, certainly. I want to start with the mindset, because I knew the book was launching in March back in September or October of last year, and I noticed I felt this incredible internal pressure of launch day coming. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself that I somehow had to do all this stuff before launch day. I had some great mentors along the way, and I think I even heard this from you, Becky, that launch day is a DAY, and one of them said that unless your last name is Kardashian or you’re J. K. Rowling, people are not going to be lining up around the block to get this on day one. Are there things you can do to make a ripple or a splash? Sure, but don’t put all this pressure on yourself because, ultimately, it isn’t about selling hundreds of thousands of copies on the first day as you’re really in this for the long term. Think of it more as a marathon and not a sprint. That really took a lot of the mental pressure off. 

That being said, I think the other big thing that I’ve learned is that there are so many things you can do, and that can get overwhelming as well. I think it’s figuring out your sweet spot or strength you want to spend your time focusing on. I knew that, for example, I can speak really well, and speaking about my work is my strength. So, I created the podcast strategy. I also have a pretty big network from my professional and personal life, so I considered how could I tap into my network. What could I do to share things with people, over time? Something else I realized, and I had some mentors early on tell me, is to start growing my email list. I started doing that a few years ago, so when it came time to book launch, it wasn’t just my mom on the list. It really was looking at those things that I wanted to focus on and then really digging deep into them, because there were more things to do than hours in the day. 

Becky: Just to do a quick recap, you had three areas that you focused on the most. One was mobilizing your network, another was the podcast strategy, and the third was leveraging your email list, which you started to grow a few years before you needed it. Let’s dig in a little deeper on this idea of the podcast strategy, and I want to make sure we reference how you had to pivot strategies because of COVID. You initially had a strategy of speaking at events but had to change that due to the pandemic, and podcast speaking was your way of still using your strengths in a powerful way in the world. Tell me more about that. 

Alain: Absolutely, yes. The book launch date was March 24th, which was around the time in North America for a lot of people that everything shut down. So any type of live event or speaking at larger organizations was gone. Okay, so what can I do? Well, I can get on a microphone from my laptop and do podcasts. Even before that, I had started down that road. So the first thing in terms of the podcast strategy was I knew I needed to have quality content to put out. You have to have quality content or it will be hard to pitch it. Good marketing can’t cover up bad content. 

The next thing was just doing a lot of querying. I spent a lot of time researching leadership podcasts and seeing if I was a fit for it. I looked at the ones I was interested in, and when it came time for querying the host, I looked for a common connection. For example, I would look at previous guests and if a previous guest was someone who endorsed my book, I would use that as an in, in terms of the subject line. I would also look at what their podcast was about and frame my queries around, “I know your mission is about this, my work is very much about that.” I made it about them, and what they’re trying to do in the world. Through October of this year, I’ve done about 120 podcast interviews. Apart of that is also following up. I’d love to say all the hosts got back to me on the first email, but they don’t. You’ve gotta follow up because people aren’t always going to get back to you the first time. 

Becky: So I’m sitting here a bit amazed that you took this work all on your own. It sounds like you researched the hosts and podcasts you wanted to be on, created the list, you sent out the queries, and you did the follow-up all on your own. That sounds like it took a great deal of time. So tell me, how did you decide you were going to do that yourself rather than partnering with an agency for example?

Alain: I think part of it had to do with the fact that this all coincided around March and, frankly, most of my work was face-to-face so I was basically unemployed. So the first few months, I would joke with my family that for someone who was unemployed, I have never worked this hard in my life. I was putting in 12 hour days working on this stuff. Again, it’s a question of time. I didn’t partner with an agency because I had the time, and I figured this was something I could do. If I had my regular schedule, I probably would have subcontracted a bunch of this out to an agency or podcast service. 

Becky: Got it. Do you mind me asking, what type of results did you see in terms of book sales or interest in your business through being on 120 podcasts?

Alain: Particularly in the last couple of months, I’m starting to see unsolicited podcast queries come into my mailbox instead of me reaching out to others. I’ve had a couple of people ask if I can speak to their group online and they buy a book for everyone. Another thing I’ve seen come out of this, is people say they’ve heard me on a podcast and ask if I can create a leadership training program for their company. I’ve closed on a couple of little projects, but a lot of opportunities are in the funnel right now working their way forward. 

Becky: Let’s talk a little bit more about what worked well for you in launching your book. 

Alain: Yeah, so we mentioned the fact about me reaching out to my network. So one of the things within my network, I thought about how I can enroll people to be book ambassadors. Whether it was my email list or my monthly newsletter, I sent out a link to my dedicated book page for people to sign up to be an ambassador, and it had all kinds of copy/paste templates so they could easily grab it and share it. People will do things if it takes them two minutes or less. 

The other key piece was when people would do stuff, share it, and tag me in it, I would make sure I thanked them. It seems so obvious, but people want to be seen, thanked, and appreciated. It’s keeping the human factor, and that’s what I teach in my leadership courses as well. So it was important for me to model that kind of leadership with my team. 

Becky: What advice would you give to others who are first-time authors preparing to launch their books or are on their way to bringing their first book to market? 

Alain: First, there are a ton of resources out there about how to launch a book. I know this is a big piece of what you share, Becky. Read up because you aren’t inventing the wheel, someone else has gone down this path before, so look at the potential things you can do and know you don’t have to do all of them. Pick the things you know will work for you and then put the effort and time into implementing those things. Also, find a cheerleading team, find the people who are going to keep you going. If you can get people to work alongside you, even better. Keep reaching out and asking for support. 

Becky: That is so powerful. As we always do, we want to wrap today’s episode with action steps authors can take. Alain, can you share those with us?

Action Steps

Alain: Yes. 

Enroll your network as book ambassadors and give them easy copy/paste templates. 
Be Diligent – dedicate yourself to book marketing as if it were your full-time job.
Follow-up – create a plan because it will be overwhelming in the beginning. Create a system for when you need to follow-up to help you be more consistent over time. 
Be bold about asking for help and talking about your book. Always keep your deeper purpose in mind.

Resources

Special offer: Email Alain that you’d like to be considered for a chance to join The 30 Day Online Leadership challenge for free (make sure you mention The Book Marketing Action Guide). Don’t wait – there are only two spots available! 
Learn more about The 30 Day Online Leadership Challenge. The 30-Day Challenge starts on Monday, October 5th. Registration closes Friday, October 2nd.
The first podcast Alain mentioned in this episode was “Decision Vision” presented by Brady Ware & Company. You can listen to that episode here. 
The second podcast mentioned was the Read To Lead podcast hosted by Jeff Brown. You can listen to that episode here. 
Learn more about Alain and download a free sample chapter of his book, Cracking the Leadership Code: Three Secrets to Building Strong Leaders, on his website here. 

We hope you take advantage of the resources above and let us know if you take any action steps today. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here and Christy Kirk here. 

Click here to tweet about this episode!

The post Episode 30: Advice from a first-time author with Alain Hunkins appeared first on OLD Weaving Influence.

Episode 26: Two Authors’ Journeys with Network Mobilization

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Welcome to The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson and Christy Kirk. In this episode, we are mixing things up to help two authors celebrate the launch of their new books. We are thrilled to have our client David Taylor-Klaus and his wife Elaine Taylor-Klaus on this episode. They are sharing a unique and exciting experience of launching their new books in the same week! 

Becky: I can’t even imagine the stress level and the craziness that you two must be experiencing this week as you birth your book babies into the world together simultaneously. I thought it would be so fun to talk with both of you about what you’ve learned on your journey. Before we dive in, tell us about your books and your work in the world. 

Elaine: Thank you for having us. It has been a wild ride with both of us launching a book at the same time. My work is as a parent, coach, and educator. I have an online resource for parents called ImpactParents. We provide a coach approach to parenting complex kids. Kids who struggle with life or learning, what we’ve found is that coaching is a great way to empower parents and their kids to become more independent. 

My book is called The Essential Guide to Raising Complex Kids with ADHD, Anxiety, and More, and it’s really a compilation of all the work we’ve been doing for about a decade. This is our body of work and what we teach parents and I’m so excited to get it out into the world. 

David: For the last 12 years, I’ve been a coach as well. My favorite way to describe my work is I reintroduce successful entrepreneurs and senior executives to their families. My work shows up as coaching for leaders and the teams they lead, and I end up coaching a lot of the same audience that Elaine works with, but coming at it from the professional side. 

My book is an extension of the work I do with my clients around mindset. My book is called Mindset Mondays with DTK: 52 Ways to REWIRE Your Thinking and Transform Your Life, and it’s the outcome of what started out as a year-long series of weekly broadcasts every Monday morning that’s continued now for almost two and a half years. 

Becky: It’s been so fun to get to know you, David, and I’m excited to dive into your book and apply those things into my life. I encourage you to check out both David and Elaine’s books. 

So on this topic on network mobilization, let’s start, David and Elaine, with the question of what does network mobilization as an author mean to each of you?

David: It means asking, and a lot of asking. Elaine, you shared as we were talking about this, that it starts long before the book launch. How long did we start the ask process for our books?

Elaine: We started almost a year in advance, maybe 9 months. 

David: It starts with asking for endorsements from folks that add authority and exposure to your project. So reaching out to the folks that their endorsements are going to be on or in the book, has to be done early. Then it comes down to mobilizing the people that will help you promote the book around the launch. 

Elaine: What you started with I love, because really it’s about asking for and accepting help. None of us can do this alone. We don’t write it alone. We don’t publish it alone. We don’t get it out into the world alone. The reason we are all out there in the world building these networks is because sometimes we need to call on them, ask them for help, and we need to accept the help they are offering. That’s a big tool that David and I both teach in our work, and we’ve been getting a heavy dose of our own medicine in this process. 

David: Another piece is not taking it personally when people around you say no. 

Elaine: Right. Because sometimes it’s not that they don’t want to, it’s because they can’t or they are caught up in their own lives with their own focus. Very often what we find is that we are all busy and in our own world. Part of network mobilization is checking in and catching up with people when the stars align.

Becky: So what has worked the best for the two of you in terms of really being able to connect well with those groups of people who are around you and want to support you? 

David: I think this is true for any author, that the people in your world want to help you. But they have to know what help looks like, and you have to get and keep their attention. So I think what’s worked well has been being super specific about what support looks like. Whether it’s leave a review on Amazon, buy copies for your clients, promote it on social media, give them a specific ask so they know what to do. 

Elaine: Yeah, absolutely. I think what I would add to that is there is something about connecting with people who I haven’t connected with in a while. First, you want to connect and engage so it doesn’t feel opportunistic, but them understanding what’s in it for them. So we are working on something together and not necessarily them doing me a favor. As a coach for parents, everybody knows parents struggling with complex kids especially during a pandemic. So it’s not a stretch for most people to make the connection and see it’s relevant to them. So I have been reaching out to former clients and telling them, hey this is what I’m doing now, and because we have that relationship, some of them have an interest in supporting me. Former clients, former colleagues, people we’ve known over the years, it’s a great opportunity to reconnect and find out what other people are doing, and share with them what we’re doing. 

David: I’ve also found that thought leaders, other authors that you know, and anybody who has been through this process is more than eager to help support you because they know how hard it can be, and they wish someone would’ve done the same for them. People are willing to give you the help they wish they had. 

Becky: That’s really powerful. I think that one of the comments Christy and I talked about on a recent podcast was also being willing to reciprocate. So it’s likely as you’re going out with your network mobilization, people saying “Hey, of course, I’d like to help you, and here’s a way you can help me.” Have you experienced that? 

Elaine: Oh, for sure. A lot of that actually. It’s an interesting dance because you have to be conscious of what your bandwidth is. So sometimes it can be yes, but in a couple of months. Let’s schedule it, let’s plan it, but I’m focused on this right now. And sometimes you have to say that’s not worth the cost for me. I can’t do that right now, but thank you for the offer. You have to be able to look for the juicy yeses and the juicy nos. 

David: And saying no to someone, you can’t take that personally either. It has to fit into your world. 

Becky: I love that. What, if any, surprises have you encountered on this journey of mobilizing your networks as you prepare for your book launches this week? 

David: I was very surprised about how many times people needed to be reminded. I need to be reminded on the teams where I’m helping other people promote their book, but it still seemed to be a surprise to me that we needed to remind folks as much as we have. 

Elaine: Yes, and I have to be honest, it surprised me how many people said they would buy it when it launched, but would not order it for presale or pre-order. For me, there was a lot of value for them to order it early, but a lot of people were like, it’s my intention to get it, but not now. That took a little navigating from my perspective. 

Becky: Interesting. So people were reluctant to pre-order the book, but they want to be reminded when it comes out so they can buy it then.

Elaine: Yes. To me it would be easier to pre-order, but people are busy. 

Becky: Well there is this need in our culture to have instantaneous satisfaction. So if you order it, you want it to be on the way.  

Elaine: Yes, so what we did is, if you pre-order, you can get a bonus copy and extra goodies and gifts. We created incentives for people to pre-order so they could get something as immediate satisfaction. 

Becky: How did that work out? 

Elaine: Not as well as I would have liked, again kind of surprisingly. But it definitely created the momentum I needed to get a significant number sold before the publish date. 

David: Now granted, we are talking about things that may work totally differently and have different outcomes and require less effort outside of the period where we have a global pandemic and social upheaval. So, this may just be unique to when we are launching our books. 

Elaine: Yes and no, David. On the one hand, I do think it’s unique because people have more time, but they have less attention somehow. It’s been really hard to get people’s attention to what’s most important, because people aren’t sure where to put their attention and what’s important to them. So I think it’s been harder in that aspect.

On the other hand, I think a lot of what it takes to mobilize a network takes work, effort, engagement, time, reminding, clear asks, all of those things we’re talking about, and it’s not for the faint of heart. I don’t mean to scare people, because it’s also fabulous, exciting, and engaging, but I would say if you’re a writer then it may be that the network mobilization is harder, and vice versa. 

Becky: Yes, thank you for calling out the hard work associated with this, Elaine, because I think there are all kinds of people at different ends of the spectrum in terms of, I love to write and don’t love to market, or, I love to market but I don’t love to write. It’s helpful to evaluate what things are easier or harder for you.

I’m wondering is there anything else you would like our listeners to know about this journey you’ve been on, specifically related to your networks?

Elaine: I think what I want to add is, David talked earlier about falling in love with your book and loving what you’re doing, not because of the ego piece, but because of what it has to offer. The other thing we talked about is people need guidance. They want to engage, but they need to know what to do. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want and be willing to accept the help. 

Becky: This is so powerful and there are so many great ideas. One of the things we also do on this podcast is we focus on the key actions authors can take today to be more effective in marketing their books. 

Here are today’s actions you can take: 

Fall in love with your book. You have to fall in love with your book so you’re willing to make the asks, put yourself out there, and promote it. 


Be specific with your asks. Ask very specifically, I want you to endorse it, I want you to post a review on Amazon, I want you to invite me to be on a podcast or Facebook live, I want you to tell your friends. Whatever you’re asking, be very clear and specific so it’s easier for people to help. 
Ask more than once. Especially right now, people are time and attention poor, so you’re going to have to ask more than once. Busy people like to be reminded, so don’t take it personally. 

As always, let us know below if you will take any of today’s action steps. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here and Christy Kirk here. 

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The post Episode 26: Two Authors’ Journeys with Network Mobilization appeared first on Weaving Influence.

Episode 25: Outsourcing Your Marketing

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Welcome to The Book Marketing Action Podcast with Becky Robinson and Christy Kirk. One of the most important considerations when you’re crafting your book marketing strategy, is to think about your available resources. In this episode, Becky and Christy dive into the importance of being clear about what recourses you have for marketing your book, and when, if, and how you might want to outsource your book marketing work to others. 

One of the most important things to do as you’re crafting your book marketing strategy is to take stock of your current resources. If you’re an author, you understand the pain of having a ton of great ideas for marketing your book in the world and the strategies you want to implement; however, eventually, you face the reality of only having a certain amount of time, money, and energy, and you have to reevaluate your initiatives you are planning. 

What are the three types of resources?

You have probably noticed there are at least three types of resources that you might have to market your book. You have your own individual time as the author, you have money, and you might have existing staff or other human resources to contribute to your project. So start with identifying how much time you or your team has, and how much money you have to outsource. You also want to ask yourself, which resource do I have more of right now? Do I have more money? Or do I have more time? 

Once you ask yourself those questions, you can take a hard look at your strategy and identify where you might need to get additional help. So, what are the different types of help or outsourcing you can do when you’re looking at a book marketing initiative? Free help usually comes from your family or friends. Your friends and family can help you prep for the launch team, identify people for target outreach, and package and ship books. If you have kids in your life, whether they are your kids or nieces and nephews, you’ll want to enlist their help as it relates to getting your book out into the world. 

The other thing we often talk to clients about is identifying some lower-cost resources. Especially when clients are coming to an agency like ours if their available budget is low, you have to think creatively about whether you have a lower cost resource available. Some of our clients have paid interns or entry-level assistants. These types of positions are great for writing or posting content on social media, email marketing, and scheduling and responding to correspondence. You want to think about things that need to get done that you don’t have the time or interest to do and can easily train someone else to do them. 

A lot of times clients will come to our agency and want us to price this type of work out for them. While we can certainly do that, your marketing dollars will stretch a lot farther if you can identify a lower cost assistant to contribute to your book marketing initiatives. 

What is the value of hiring an agency vs. an individual?

The number one reason for choosing an agency is that they can develop a strategy and a plan for you. You can certainly do that on your own, but an agency is experienced in doing it. They can look at your resources and develop a plan based on your resources and the resources the agency has as well. Agencies often have contacts and networks that an individual usually doesn’t have, so they can get your book in front of more people. 

Agencies also can do multiple layers of work. They can write and launch emails, create websites, public relations outreach, build larger launch teams, and have graphic designers on hand for your social media and other book-related projects. There is a lot an agency can do on your behalf during the process, and an agency will take the burden off your shoulders of overseeing everything. 

One of the things our clients say about the value of working with our team is that we shepherd them through the process. We’ve been there and done that on dozens of book launches, so we can really be a helpful partner and coach through the process. If an author is new to launching a book and they hire an assistant, there are so many unknowns. It’s also hard to find an individual with all of the varied skills necessary for launching a book. When hiring an individual you also have to keep in mind that although the hourly rate might be lower, if they go on vacation, become sick, or if there is turnover, you’ll have to spend more time and money to train a new person. 

What are places to avoid cutting corners? 

We cannot stress enough how critical the visual branding of your work is for your marketing efforts. Although we recommend using Canva for creating graphics for social, when it comes to the real visual branding for your website, book cover, and collateral don’t think you can do this on your own. It’s critical to have a professional look, especially for your book cover, because people are visual. So many of our buying decisions are based on the look of the book. So if you have a strong book cover, people might be more willing to read your book, even if they are unfamiliar with your work. 

You cannot cut corners showing up, or trying to outsource showing up. You are the author for a reason. No one knows your subject matter the same way you do. You are the expert. You want to make sure whatever you outsource, you don’t outsource showing up. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t get help with ghostwriting articles, but it does mean you need to review those articles to make sure your voice shines through and your expertise is heard. 

To recap, every author likely has ambitious strategies and plans to get their book out into the world, and the reality is no one has enough time to implement all of their amazing ideas. So, it is critically important to identify those areas you can outsource to others, have the right resource at the right time, and have it fit within your budget. Here are a few actions steps for today:

Make a list of your resources. Create a list of resources you have for marketing your book. Write down the time, energy, money, and human resources you have for marketing your book. 
Take a look at your visual branding. Try to step outside of your work and look at your work the way an outsider might. Is there cohesion with the colors and images you’re using? Do you show up professionally? Is your online presence matching your real-life expertise brand? Don’t be afraid to ask others for feedback!

As always, let us know below if you will take any of today’s action steps. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover, please email Becky Robinson here and Christy Kirk here.

If you missed the episode where we talk all about book covers and their importance, you can listen to that podcast here . 

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The post Episode 25: Outsourcing Your Marketing appeared first on Weaving Influence.