Monice Mitchell Simms's Blog

For Make Believers – Book Tour in a B... For Make Believers Book Tour in a Box: P

For Make Believers – Book Tour in a Box: P.P.A.

This is tough.

Ever since I returned home from my book tour for Address: House of Corrections, I've been sleeping crazy. Up all night, vegging in front of the boob tube and knocked out until the afternoon…Only to start the cycle all over again the next day.

I haven't been writing either. Been thinking a lot about everything I want to create, but have yet to put pen to paper or hands to keyboard.

At first, I chalked my zombie state up to exhaustion. After that, I blamed it on the Holidays. C'mon, Fam, be honest. The Holidays are "the most wonderful time of the year," but non-stop consumer cheer, especially when you're watching it from the sidelines, can do one of two things — Send you over the edge in tears or lift you up so high you're moonwalking on cloud nine.

I, my friends, have metaphorically been hanging by my non-existent fingernails on the melancholy edge. But now that 2011 is rapidly approaching, it's time for me to take one of my long walks (for exercise and reflection) and get back on the good foot.

Before I share the next step I took (am taking) to build an author's brand from the ground up and how that made it possible for me to produce a successful book tour on a shoestring (no string) budget, first let's review the last three tips from my blog, Book Tour in Box: Phase II…

4. Build a website.

5. Draft a press Release(s).

6. Don't sleep on traditional media.

Got it? O.K. Onward and forward!

P.P.A.

BOOK TOUR IN A BOX STEP SEVEN:

Publicize, Promote and Advertise.

Contrary to popular understanding, promotion, publicity and advertising are three different things. I utilized the two that required no money – Promotion and Publicity. Check out these definitions from two business websites, About.com: Small Business: Canada and BusinessDictionary.com-

Publicity: The main objective of publicity is not sales promotion, but creation of an image through editorial or 'independent source' commentary.

Promotion: Communicating with the public in an attempt to influence them toward buying your products and/or services.

Cool definitions? Yes. But what does it mean to you?

Well, for me, publicity meant enlisting the help of my mother and hiring myself as my publicist. Check out what I said about writing press releases last time.

And promotion for my book and tour broke down like this: Social media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube were my main ones. Attempting to be creative, I posted quotes from my characters, excerpts from my novel and even poetry that inspired my novel.

A filmmaker by trade, I also produced and posted a trailer of my novel. I would suggest you do the same. Standard practice now, there are a plethora of companies that can produce a trailer for you. But before you plop down money, be sure to comparative shop and view previous work of the person or company. An expensive, corny, run of the mill trailer of a novel, I feel, does more harm than good.

Another thing that also harms authors is not taking advantage of all of the tools available to them. And one of those tools that is overlooked time and time again – especially in the beginning – is sound.

Let me make it plain. As an author, the best thing you got going for you is your voice. That's what keeps folks reading your books. So why not use it when you're promoting your novel?

As a spoken word artist, I recorded three poems inspired by my grandmother, the shero of my novel. I also enlisted the services of twelve talented actors to voice the characters of Address: House of Corrections for an audio series that I'll be premiering on a computer near you soon. To promote my book, I posted my actors'/characters' voices online saying some funny, racy and intriguing stuff. Did it help me sell more books? Who really knows? But it sure had folks hungry for more. And that's what you want, right?

But what if you're not a spoken word artist or don't have any acting friends at your disposal? Clear those pipes, friend, and get to reading. Choose a section that touches you the most – the one you're the most familiar and comfortable with. Rehearse and run it by some folks that will tell you the truth, then make necessary adjustments and post. Believe that your spoken voice will translate.

I hear you — easier said than done, right? Nope. If you have a laptop, you have a microphone and some kind of recording program, i.e. Garage Band for Macs. If not, you can download one. Here's a link to a recording program for Macs and P.C.s. (If you still have a P.C., that's a conversation for another time….:)

Audacity.com

And if you and downloading files on your computer don't mix, here's a link to program you can call into:

AudioAcrobat.com

Great. Now you have all the content you could ever need to promote your novel. How do you manage it all without driving yourself insane?

Late in the game – before I headed out on tour, actually – I learned about and incorporated HootSuite, a social media dashboard that allows you look like the big boys and manage multiple social networks through one client. Sure, I had to spend about an hour or so every week uploading and scheduling all of the content ahead of time, but when I was on the road, it would spit it out on cue and made it appear as if I had a publicity and promotion machine behind me.

Speaking of "behind me," my husband is sitting on the couch behind me, (im)patiently waiting for me to eat the dinner he cooked for us. Gotta go. Hope this helps. Happy Holidays!