Tag Archive - Marketing

The Keys to a Great Book Proposal

May 17, 2012 in Book Proposals, Branding, Business, Marketing, Tamela with 33 Comments

by Tamela Hancock Murray

“I think book proposals are one of the most difficult things to write, second only to obituaries.”

When I received this email from one of my authors, Sherry Gore, (and yes, I have permission to quote her), I could relate. I’ve never written obituaries, even though writing one’s own is a popular goal-setting exercise. But I have written and read many book proposals so I know they aren’t easy to write. Sometimes they aren’t easy to read. So how can you make your book proposals easy to read? When my assistant and I are scanning proposals, here are the key points we first notice:

1) Format: Is the overall look of the proposal easy on the eye? A poorly-formatted proposal won’t be rejected if we are wowed by the content, but proposals with a pleasing appearance make a great impression.

2) Title: Tell us immediately what we are viewing: Fiction/nonfiction? Series/standalone? Genre? Historical/contemporary?

3) Hook: What is the spirit of your book?  Fried Green Tomatoes meets Star Trek? Or A Systematic Approach to Spiritual Spring Cleaning?

4) Back Cover Blurb: In two or three short paragraphs, make me want to buy your book. Take the time to make this sparkle, because great back cover copy will help sell me on your book, then the editor, then the pub board, then marketing, then your readers.

5) Info: Can critical facts be found with little effort, including:

a.) published/unpublished status
b.) sales figures for published authors
c.) manuscript status, including when it can be completed
d.) manuscript history

6) Summary: I find that one-page summaries usually work best. If you have already invested in a lengthy summary, you can include a short summary and a long summary.

7) Market Comparisons: Showing us books that are similar to yours will help us know where your book will fit in today’s market. Be respectful rather than critical of other authors’ work when comparing. Show how your book fits into the market, but is still unique enough to attract readers.

8 ) Endorsers: This area causes many authors anxiety because they may not be acquainted with big name authors, or they are afraid that listing a friend may be promising too much. Rest assured that no agent or editor thinks a big name author is a guaranteed endorser. We all know that popular authors’ schedules are packed and that the timing to read your book may or may not work. I recommending listing three names of authors you know well enough that you can approach them for an endorsement. If you honestly have no idea, it’s better not to list anyone than to list impossible names. Don’t distress — your agent can work with you here.

These key points are by no means inclusive. I have only hit the high points on some of the areas that tend to make authors jittery. Don’t worry. Do your best with the proposal, and write the best book you can. That’s all we ask!

For complete guidelines, visit our site here. These may be our guidelines, but they are universally accepted as an excellent and proper way to write a proposal.

We look forward to seeing your work!

Your turn:

What do you think is the hardest part of a proposal to write?

What is the easiest part of a proposal to write?

Writing to Market: Bad Advice?

May 10, 2012 in Business, Marketing, Publishing, Tamela, Writing with 20 Comments

by Tamela Hancock Murray

Throughout my career I’ve seen various responses to the advice that declares “Write to market!” In other words “write what sells” because that is what is most important for a writer. Is this good advice or bad advice?

It is both.

Here is when it’s bad advice: When you’re made to feel you have to write a certain type of book just to break into the market, any market.

If you think, for instance, that any lame brain can write a romance novel, but hey, romance authors are millionaires, then the romance novel market is not where you need to be. You won’t respect your readers or give them your best.

So if writing to market means you’re slogging away writing a book you loathe in hopes of entertaining riches, then you’ve taken bad advice.

Then when is writing to market a good idea? It’s a good — even great — idea when you are:

  1. writing your best work, giving your readers your all.
  2. creating a timeless story.
  3. staying within your targeted publisher’s word count, as shown in the publisher’s guidelines or advised by your agent.
  4. choosing a setting to which your intended audience can relate.
  5. selecting a time period you are passionate about and can make come alive for your readers.

I won’t say that any and all fabulous books written by passionate authors will be published to greatness. Whether we like it or not, a wonderful 300,000-word book set in Antarctica in the year 789 is likely to find the market inhospitable. (That statement guarantees someone will sell a book fitting this description tomorrow!) The general rule is that most successful writers study current market parameters and write books that make sense for the market. Editors will often say to me, “I see something there,” when they spot writers they want to work with, even if the project itself isn’t quite right. Those authors should try again. And again, if necessary.

In my view, it’s best to write a story that excites you. Show us the result. Then let’s see what happens.

Your turn:

How do you write to market?

What publisher are you targeting? What is your biggest challenge in writing for them?

News You Can Use – May 8, 2012

May 8, 2012 in Marketing, News You Can Use with 2 Comments

Traditional Advertising is Truly Dead – Not sure I agree with the over the top headline, but the article does make some excellent points. A quote from the article:

“The equation used to be: money x media = business.

The new equation is: time x media = business.

In other words, every company is a media company.”

Microsoft has invested in Barnes & Noble’s Nook - But before everyone gets excited, remember that Microsoft also invested in Yahoo in 2009 (in order to enhance the Bing search engine).

Ten Rules for Writing Suspense Fiction – In 1994 John Grisham credited this article for giving him the tools he needed to write The Firm. Save this one and refer to it often!

On Fiction and Literature – a great interview with Russell Moore. A quick quote from the interview:

“…good fiction isn’t a “waste of time” for the same reason good music and good art aren’t wastes of time. They are rooted in an endlessly creative God who has chosen to be imaged by human beings who create. Culture isn’t irrelevant. It’s part of what God commanded us to do in the beginning, and that he declares to be good. When you enjoy truth and beauty, when you are blessed by gifts God has given to a human being, you are enjoying a universe that, though fallen, God delights in as “very good.”

Why Men Should Read More Fiction! – a fascinating article. What do you think? Agree or disagree?

Design the Ultimate Home Page for your Blog – an extensive article with visual examples.

4 Ways to Grow a Twitter Following that Matters – an extensive article with numerous resources. Well done.

The top 10 most read books of the last 50 years (found on the First Things blog). Take heart, the Bible by itself was read more than the other top nine books combined:

 

 

 

News You Can Use – May 1, 2012

May 1, 2012 in News You Can Use with 2 Comments

Amanda Hocking is Happy with her Publisher – An update from the woman whose self-published ebooks garnered a monster traditional deal.

10 Best First Lines in Fiction – Chosen by editors at the Guardian (UK). Do you agree or disagree?

How We Will Read in the Future – An excellent interview with Maria Popova, the curator for the great BrainPickings blog. (The article is about 2,500 words long so take your time to absorb her thoughts.)

The Return of the Novella – “The Atlantic” article things this art form will have a resurgence. I contend it has been around, but not in a sizeable way. Try presenting one to a publisher and then talk about how easy they will eventually sell to the public.

How Do You Know You’ve Made it as a Writer? - Steve Ulfelder attempts to answer the question right after being nominated for an award for his first novel.

Market Your Book Through Google Ads – Ever wondered if this is a good use of your money? And if so, how you would go about it? Vikram Narayan does an excellent job introducing the idea. If it works, let us know!

The Most “Kindled” City in the U.S. - The answer may surprise you. The analysis of the whole article is fascinating.

Four Best Twitter Tools – Agree? Any you want to add?

News You Can Use – Mar. 20, 2012

March 20, 2012 in News You Can Use with 2 Comments

Why Finish Books – I loved this essay! He had me at the picture of C.S. Lewis…

Why Your Book Isn’t Selling – Suggestions from a book marketing expert.

The Publishing Industry May Not be Falling Apart After All - One author suggests that today’s crisis sounds awfully familiar. And underneath all the talk of seismic changes and Amazon, she has a valid point. If you click all the way through to her original article you will find a “Live Journal” site that is hard to read on-screen.

Free E-book on How to Attract Customers with Twitter – From Hubspot. Must submit registration info to get the free e-book. They offer a number of these papers on a regular basis.

Is Your Facebook Account Part of Your Estate? – Facebook says that if you die your Facebook account must be closed. So all your writing, pictures, etc. will disappear. And they don’t like it if someone else simply uses your password to keep it online. Goes to the heart of what you “own” and do not “own” on the Internet. Read this and plan accordingly!

How One Man Started Writing for “Sports Illustrated” – He worked on his craft for six years before submitting something to an editor.

The Making of the Hunger Games Blockbuster – Whether you like the book or not is beside the point. Read the article to find out how this YA phenomenon grew via word of mouth and intentional marketing. Fascinating.

News You Can Use – Mar. 6, 2012

March 6, 2012 in News You Can Use, Steve with 0 Comments

Your Average Facebook Post Only Reaches 12% of Your Friends – Exposing yet another challenge to the world of marketing, either through traditional means or through social media.

New French Law Seizes Digital Rights – “Any book published in France–which would include translated foreign-language books–that went out of print in France–not necessarily elsewhere–before 2001, can be scanned into a database.” And then be made available without compensation.

It Has Come to This in Hollywood – GCB. Fire up the TiVo for that one… Good grief.

From Idea to Store Shelf – I love these kind of stories. Shows the incredible “curation” it takes for a good idea to become great and then what it takes to bring it to market. There are many parallels to the writing and publishing industry here.

Give it Five Minutes, Then React to an Idea – A good reason why appointments at a conference are 15 minutes long.

Free Mac Tools That Make Writing Easier - Agree or disagree? What tools do you use? And if you are on a PC, what do you use?

Anatomy of a Successful Press Release – Try writing one for your own book. Discover that it ain’t easy.

Eight Basic Don’ts for the Beginning Novelist – Steve Moore provides some great stuff. Good reminders for those who think they know this already.

This is a very clever ad for the British newspaper, “The Guardian.”
Click to view “The Three Little Pigs.”

7 Ways Agents Measure Social Media

February 20, 2012 in Agency, Branding, Business, Guest Post, Marketing, Steve with 32 Comments

Guest Blog by Thomas Umstattd

We are thrilled to have Thomas Umstattd as our guest today. His company built our web site and we unabashedly recommend their services. Thomas built his first website at the age of 13 and taught his first web design class at only 16 years old. He has been helping authors and small businesses use the web ever since. Thomas currently serves as the CEO of Castle Media Group LLC, a company that builds websites for world changers.

He runs AuthorMedia.com a resource for authors who need help with technology and need to develop an effective social media strategy. As an award winning speaker, Thomas teaches all over the world where his friendly speaking style blends multimedia and audience participation. His combination of experience and youth give him a unique perspective that can help you use the web in a whole new way.

If you have a chance to take his classes at a future writers conference don’t hesitate. Sign up!

________________

In the old days all you had to do was tell an agent or publisher “I’m on Facebook, Twitter and I have a blog” and they would be impressed with your online presence. Now publishers are getting more sophisticated in measuring your online presence. They are realizing that not all blogs are the same and that the size of your Twitter following does not directly correlate to influence.

This post goes over 7 ways agents and publishers will measure your social platform in 2012. You may also want to check out 7 Things Agents & Publishers Look for in Author Websites (2012 Edition).

1. Number of Facebook Likes

What is it?

The number of Facebook likes indicates how popular your author page is on Facebook. Notice I am not saying “Facebook friends.” There are only an handful of ways to advertise your book to your friends effectively without sounding like a shill. Fan pages offer much more effective tools for selling books.

Why are fan pages important?

Facebook Fan Pages are better for authors for 3 very important reasons:

  1. Facebook Ads – You can’t buy Facebook ads targeting your friends. You can buy ads targeting just your fans. These targeted ads are some of the most effective advertising you can do for your book. You also can also use ads to get more fans.
  2. Unlimited Fans – Your personal page is limited to 5000 friends which limits your growth somewhat. Agents and editors really want to see Facebook pages with 10,000+ fans.
  3. Landing Pages – Fan pages have the ability to have landing pages that can call visitors to take a specific action such as sign up for your newsletter or buy your book

How do you boost your fan count?

  • Answer the question for your readers: “What is in it for me? What do I get out of liking your page?”
  • Advertise
  • Add the Facebook icon to your website

Read: 10 Ways to Boost Your Facebook Fans

2. Facebook Engagement

What is it?

Facebook engagement is the degree to which people are reacting and responding to you on Facebook. It also is an indication of how many people see your status updates on their Facebook streams.

Why is it important?

Having a lot of Facebook fans is of little value if those people ignore everything you post. The higher your engagement the more fans you will be able to convert into readers.

How do you measure it?

The easiest way to measure Facebook engagement is to look at the “# of people talking about this” on the left-hand side of your Facebook page.

How do you improve engagement?

  • Ask questions
  • Put fill-in-the-blanks
  • Share positive news (people don’t like complaining or bragging)
  • Post interesting images.
  • Care about your fans.

3. Number of Twitter Followers

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a micro-blogging social network that has become popular in the author community. It is a way of posting short messages to your followers or to specific Twitter users. The number of people who follow you on Twitter is an indication of how popular you are on Twitter.

How do you improve your Twitter following?

There are two ways of growing your following on Twitter. The effective way and the easy way. The easy way is to follow other people. There are even some automated tools that will do this for you. The problem with this method is that this sort of follower uses Tweet Deck to ignore your tweets. It is not uncommon to see someone with 10,000 followers on Twitter and none of them retweet tweets or click links. Following strangers on Twitter gives you phantom followers.

The effective way to gain a following on Twitter is to post Tweets that are so interesting/helpful/funny that people are compelled to retweet them. A retweet is a forward of your message to someone else’s followers, many of whom may have never heard of you before. The more of your retweets they see the more likely they are to check you out and follow you on Twitter. This is what we do on @AuthorMedia and we have been growing at around 50-100 followers a week and we don’t auto-follow. These are folks who actually want to hear what we have to say and don’t just want to inflate their following.

Read: 12 Ways to Get More Twitter Followers

4. Twitter Engagement

What is it?

Twitter engagement is the degree to which your Twitter followers pay attention to what you have to say on Twitter.

How do you measure Twitter engagement?

There are four primary ways to measure engagement.

  1. Retweets – What percentage of your followers forward your messages on to their followers?
  2. Bit.ly+ clicks – What percentage of your followers click the links you share on Twitter? You can check this by adding a “+” to the end of any bit.ly link to see how many clicks it has received.
  3. Follower Ratio – How many people do you follow back? An author who is following 20,000 people and has 18,000 followers is not nearly as attractive to publishers as an author who is followed by 7,000 people and only follows 150 people.
  4. @replies – Some authors’ Twitter profiles are full of a lot of one-way communication. They post and post about themselves and their writing. Other authors spend a lot of time answering reader questions and engaging readers 1 on 1 using Twitter’s @reply feature. A lot of back and forth @replies is the sign of a healthy Twitter page, particularly when those @replies are to a lot of different folks.
  5. Listings – How many times have people added you to a Twitter list? This is an indication that they 1) read your tweets, and 2) find them helpful. Publishers are impressed to see you listed in a lot of Twitter lists.

How do you improve Twitter engagement?

There are no shortcuts here. Excellence in Twitter, as in all things, takes hard work and is not for every author. The majority of authors waste their time on Twitter talking to other authors. They key is to connect with readers and join the conversations they are already having on Twitter. Don’t be that guy at the party who charges into a conversation and starts shoving business cards at everyone.

Read: 7 Steps to Becoming a Twitter Ninja

5. Number of Blog Comments

What is it?
Comments are responses to your blog posts and they generally come in the form of questions or reactions.

Why are comments important?
Responses indicate visitor engagement. Some websites get visitors who come for a few seconds and then bounce away. This counts as a “visit” in your analytics but these sorts of visitors don’t buy books. The kind of visitors who would take the time to leave a comment are the same kind of folks who would buy your book. The number of comments indicates how passionate readers are about you and your writing.

Why would someone pay to read your book if they won’t read your blog for free?

3 Quick Ways to Increase Your Comments

  1. Make commenting easier. Avoid making people type in squiggly letters or doing math.
  2. Ask questions in your posts
  3. Be controversial.

6. Followers on Third Party Social Networks

What is it?

A third party social network is a social network other than Facebook & Twitter. They include, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, GoodReads, StumbleUpon, Foursquare, Gowalla and dozens of others.

Why are they important?

They may not be. The key is to convince agents and publishers that your following on xyz social network is both significant and likely to buy your book. It is unlikely your Foursquare friends are going to buy your next romance book. But the folks who follow your romance book reviews on GoodReads very well may buy your book.

How do you grow your following on third party social networks?

First, don’t get on every social network. Pick the ones your readers (or ideal readers if you are unpublished) are already using. Go to where the party is already happening. Second, provide some sort of value to those folks that is related to your writing. If you write about parenting, give parenting tips and answer parenting questions. If you write about cooking, share recipes. If you write fiction, talk about other fiction and stop spending as much time with social media and go work on your novel.

Read: How To Get More Followers On Google Plus

7. Klout Score

What is Klout?

Your Klout Score is a single number that tries to capture both the size of your following and your degree of influence over that following. In a sense it is a one number summary of the other 6 metrics in this post.

Why is Klout important?

Klout is the easiest thing for publishers and agents to check, which means it will probably be the first thing they check.

5 Ways to Boost your Klout Score

  1. Add all your social profiles to your Klout profile.
  2. Invite your followers to connect with you over Klout and give you +K
  3. Give +K unto others as you would have them give +K unto you.
  4. Unfollow people you don’t care to listen to.
  5. Pick a theme for providing value around the web and stick with that theme.

Read: 7 Surefire Ways to Increase Your Klout Score

 

News You Can Use – Feb. 14, 2012

February 14, 2012 in News You Can Use, Steve with 1 Comment

It has begun – The Welcome Assault on Costly Textbooks- But is this the best way to do it? Free online publisher-quality textbooks for five of the country’s most-attended college courses. Funded by big charitable organizations like The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It could change the economic future of some major textbook publishers. I fear the homogenization of Education or the control of what is taught in college Biology class, just because it is free.

Pinterest Boards for Book Lovers – Ten places to try out the latest social network phenomenon.

Five Ways to Maximize the New Changes on Facebook – Confused by yet another change to Facebook? This should help.

Is Self-Publishing a Ponzi Scheme? – Richard Curtis, as usual, is brilliant and insightful. Do think this is out of line? or cutting close to the truth?

Is it Time to Bundle the E-book with the Physical Book in Online Sales? – I asked this question of Hachette 2 1/2 years ago during a Digital Initiatives presentation and was told no. Dennis Johnson of Melville House Publishers discussed the issue with great insight.

Lady Solves Wheel-of-Fortune Puzzle with One Letter - This article shows that it wasn’t luck but years of study and preparation. Sort of like someone thinking they can just sit down and write a whole book in a weekend. It’s easy!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Valentines' Day is a multi-billion-dollar business. Find out where your money goes in today's GoFigure infographic.
Source:LiveScience

News You Can Use – Feb. 7, 2012

February 7, 2012 in News You Can Use with 9 Comments

Author Says McGraw-Hill Cheats on Royalties - Details of a pending lawsuit.

What is Pinterest? -  The latest craze in Social Media Networks. AuthorMedia shows you the simple steps to sign up and tips on how to use it in the next article below.

Three Ways an Author Can Use Pinterest – Last week an editor told me how she was following a couple of her authors on Pinterest and how much she liked it.

5 Ways to Break Out of the Social Media Doldrums - Well said by Aubre Andrus.

10 Ways to Ensure No One Will Read Your Blog Post – Ali Luke give great insight

How Hard Can it Be to Write a Kids Book? – Sally Lloyd-Jones helps dispel a common myth.

A very cool six minute video envisioning a future technology. Imagine computing being done on glass walls, desks, and even in National Parks. From Corning. By the way, Corning makes the “Gorilla Glass” that you find on the iPad2.

Your Brand is Not a Limitation

January 19, 2012 in Branding, Business, Publishing, Tamela with 26 Comments

by Tamela Hancock Murray

It is All About Expectations

What if you bought a recording from a music group expecting their usual collection of ballads, only to hear guitar anthems? Or what if you picked up a book with a pink cover that promised a love story but ended up reading a novel where hapless and nameless victims suffered gunshot wounds on every page? You’d be disappointed, right? I would be. You don’t want to disappoint readers, so branding has become a consistent topic.

Your Best Friend

Some writers find the concept of branding to be limiting. When they think of branding the TV show “Rawhide”  and Cattle comes to mind.  And despite the awesomeness of such a theme song, they want to keep their options open.

While freedom to explore new avenues is desirable for growth, the fact is, writers need to first establish an audience. And to do that, their work has to be consistent in quality and content. The idea is to become a friend to readers, one they can rely on for certain reading value, whether it is fiction or non-fiction. Think about it — what if you had formed a relationship with a friend who consistently gave great advice from the context of her loving family and marriage. Over the years, you come to rely on her for Wednesday afternoon chats over tea in her cozy breakfast nook, watching birds from a bay window. In return, you might bring over some sugar cookies. You find comfort in her usual appearance — a white t-shirt and jeans, blonde ponytail and cotton-candy-pink lip gloss.

What Happened?

How would you feel if one week you kept your Wednesday appointment but were greeted by a stranger with cropped hair dyed the color of onyx, coal-black lipstick, a newly-pierced eyebrow, wearing black leather? Only this isn’t a stranger. It’s your friend. “How do you like my new look?” she asks. “I was tired of the old look and thought I’d spread my wings. And my husband? I threw him out and he took the kids with him. Oh, and I changed brands of tea. But come on in!” Would you trust her not to have spiked the tea as well as her hair?

Double Identity?

This isn’t a comment on fashion, it is a comment about expectations. This is akin to what happens to readers looking for a certain type of story associated with your name. Sure, you might be a cotton-candy-pink writer with a vampire novel sitting in your files. What with self-publishing, shouldn’t the vampire come out and play? Probably not a good idea. The idea of giving blood is not going to appeal to your audience looking for a sugar fix. If they happen upon the vampire novel, your readers devoted to light romance will be confused and disappointed. They will be looking for their friend. Granted, a very, very select few writers are able to write across genres and be successful at several. And others are skilled at using pen names and creating dual marketing identities. But that takes work and an intentional strategy to market to divergent audiences. For most writers, concentrating on a quality and valued friendship with a devoted audience is reward enough.

Your turn

Who are your favorite writers? And if you had to identify their brand, what would you say it is? (Remember a brand is not a slogan, that is a topic for another day.)

 

 

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