Branding

Marketing with the National Day Calendar

By Steve Laubeon June 29, 2020

If you blog or post regularly, you know the challenge of coming up with new and fresh content. One idea might be to take advantage of NationalDayCalendar.com. This fun website has indexed over 1,500 national days, national weeks, and national months. Use this to find fun things you can write about!

Today is National Waffle Iron Day (no kidding!). Did you know the first patent for a waffle iron was submitted in 1869? Or that in 1918 (102 years ago) General Electric made the first electric waffle iron available to the public? You do now. That means you have to make waffles today in celebration!

Yesterday was National Alaska Day. Since I was born in Alaska, I found this one quite fun. Few realize how large Alaska is. If you cut the state in half, Texas would become the third largest state. It literally stretches the distance from California to Florida if you superimposed Alaska’s map on top of the contiguous 48 states.

Those of you who are romance writers should note that July 6 is International Kissing Day. I suspect you have a book that might be appropriate to promote this Monday.

See how easy it is to find things you can use to tie to your brand and your books?

Look up your birthday, and see what’s special about it. Find another day like an anniversary, a child’s birthday, or the day you signed your first book contract.

Can’t wait to see what you all can come up with!

I Have Plans to Write That Book

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon November 7, 2019

Last week, I talked about a few reasons why I don’t plan to write a nonfiction book on style, mainly because I have no desire to develop a presence or platform as an expert on style. But what if you want to write a nonfiction book about a topic you know and love? Let’s look at the list, revised from last week, to help you decide if you should: Are you well-known outside of your immediate circle of …

Category: Book Proposals, Branding, Marketing, Pitching, Platform, The Writing Life

Picture-Perfect Personality

By Guest Bloggeron July 25, 2019

Today’s guest writer is Emilie Haney, a freelance writer, photographer, and graphic designer living in Northern California. She’s a member of ACFW and writes young-adult fiction. She’s got a soft spot in her heart for animals and a love for the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. In her spare time, you can find her designing fun, bookish items for her Etsy and Society6 shops, all while …

Category: Book Proposals, Branding, Marketing, Platform, The Writing Life

What Makes You Click?

By Steve Laubeon April 29, 2019

Below is a visual representation of some astounding statistics regarding Internet usage. A little more than twelve years ago I wrote a chapter for a writing book on how to use the Internet for research. I re-read that article recently...umm, Google didn't even exist back then (founded in September 1998), much less Wikipedia (where the jury is still out if is a reliable source for verifiable …

Category: Branding, Marketing, Pitch, Pitching, PlatformTag: Digital Books, Facebook, Internet Usage

Lessons Learned As a Literary Agent

By Dan Balowon October 23, 2018

Dan is leaving the agency at the end of this month to focus his attention on the work of Gilead Publishing, the company he started in 2016. Here are some parting thoughts. _____ I’ve been a literary agent for about 2,000 of the 13,000 total days spent working with and for book publishers over the last thirty-five years. It’s been a great experience, for sure; but as I look back at the thousands of …

Category: Agents, Book Business, Branding, Career, Conferences, Craft, Creativity, Encouragement, Inspiration, Marketing, Personal, Pitch, Platform, Self-Publishing, Social Media, The Publishing Life, The Writing Life, Writing Craft

Caution: Loose Platform Planks

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon October 11, 2018

I love learning about authors on the internet. And as a literary agent, I enjoy the internet and find connections there that would be otherwise difficult to find and maintain. But as professionals, we must be cautious about what we share on any level. One reason is that we all know the internet is forever. Consider Blake Shelton’s recent woes over old tweets. He is not alone. When I was …

Category: Branding, Career, Marketing, Platform

Expert Training

By Dan Balowon October 2, 2018

With so many types of media available to citizens of the 21st century, anyone can appear to be an expert in anything. Access to the internet makes everyone smart. Or at least appear to be smart. Fifteen years ago I searched online for the acronym LOL because I wasn’t cool enough to know what it meant. Now I know. It means “left out letters” for people in a hurry to communicate. If you are going …

Category: Book Review, Branding, Marketing, Platform

Don’t Write Your Bio, Write a “Why Me?”

By Bob Hostetleron August 8, 2018

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, writers who were pitching their articles or books to editors and agents included in the query or proposal a “bio” paragraph. These writers would include such things as their education, previous publishing credits, and whatever other claims to fame they could cite. Some still do that, but for many years now my recommendation has been not to write a “bio” …

Category: Book Proposals, Branding, Marketing, Pitch, PitchingTag: Author Bio, book proposal, Pitching