Promotion/Marketing piece of your proposal?

I am in much the same position as you are. I can't say I'm an expert or anything but I have done a lot of research. I also just got back from a writer's conference and gleaned a lot of info from that. So here goes;

What a publisher/agent does not want to hear is what you WILL do WHEN you get published. They want to know what you are doing now. Do you have a website? Myspace? Facebook? Blog? Have you placed yourself as an expert in the field?

In short, yes they do expect YOU to do this. Depending on the company, you may or may not get someone who will give it their all to market your book. Have you read 1,001 Ways to Market Your Book? I just finished it. It's fabulous. It will give you an idea of not only what an author needs to know, but how the publishing industry works.

You say you've worked in a PR company...apply your knowledge to your book. Tell them how you'll adapt those skills. Authors who say they'll do it all when the book is published, are a dime-a-dozen. Make yourself stand out.

I'm sure you have ideas about how to market your book, you just haven't put them into written form yet. I just read a section in Kremer's book about how bookstores are often not the best place to sell books, and the example was a travel book. If you want to sell a travel book, you need to get it where travelers are...travel agencies, cruise lines, airports, even gas stations.

You can do this. Just think creatively. Think beyond the norm. This is your book, your baby...do what's best for it. You know it best. When the time comes, you may have to give control to the publisher but for now, it's all yours! Good luck.

Karen

What most publishers want to see is how you'll help them promote the book--not by showing up at book signings, but how well connected you are to your subject and its audience. If you're writing a book about a particular country, for example (let's just say Bali, for example), and you're a Balinese art expert and belong to a bunch of arts organizations, you have a great platform for promoting your book to your colleagues and association members. If you've written a book about backpacking through Europe and you don't have any expertise per se in this field, but you have a blog about backpacking that 5,000 people read and comment on every day, that's still a terrific platform for promoting your book. You just need to think about the people you know, the groups you belong to, the skills you already have to promote the book, and pitch those as part of your marketing plan.

Lavinia's MySpace Page
is a perfect example of excellent promotion. Her book is not yet finished, but she has already created stir and intrigue. Take a look at her "friend's space."
Many of her choices are relative to her topic. When she sends out her weekly bulletin, she has a built in free promotion.

That's the trick to MySpace, other social networks and blogging. Find other blogs or pages of people who might have some interest in what you are doing, and link. For example: My fiction piece, Reflections in the Snow, is a novel about a woman who loses her father on 9/11. Her dad was a member of the 10th Mountain Division. She discovers some letters that were written to her dad by a woman he was involved with while training at Camp Hale.

So my MySpace page links to pages such as 10th Mountain Division, Wounded Warriors, various ski areas, etc.

Your promo could do a similar thing with your topic. Give an example of the type of weekly bulletins you would post, including news stories that are relevant to your topic.

Good luck!

I've seen the conversations on this subject go round and round here at AW. So when I went to the writer's conference, I asked a very well known agent/promoter who also works with Hollywood. (he's so well-known I can't remember his name right now) I said that I'd heard that there is a conflict if you post your writing online, any of it...that a potential agent/publisher would say that it was previously published. He said that isn't true and that often times that exposure alone, will prompt an agent or publisher to want to take a look at your manuscript. He was talking about posting a few pages or a chapter, not the whole book of course. Then I asked a related question. I asked about a book and wondered if I could sell an adaptation to a magazine...again I told him I'd heard that it would be considered previously published. This time he rolled his eyes and said just about the same thing...that the exposure may lead to bigger things. So anyway- I went away educated but feeling a bit silly. I know there are legalities involved in the issue and there are threads that deal with that heated discussion, so you should probably check those out.

I have not posted a chapter but I intend to. I want to create an actual website first. I will also include tips and printable questions for creating your own family history. So you see, I am not an expert but I am attempting to establish myself as a mini-expert.

Thanks for the kind comment lisamer. Sometimes it's hard to tell if any of it is effective. So I appreciate the input!

Karen

j.s.cutler said:

Thanks for the advice.

I created a myspace page. My friends section looks pretty pathetic though. If there are any fellow AWs out there please take pity.

http://www.myspace.com/frenchkissbook

Click to expand...

You think yours looks pathetic, mine would look so bad I'm afraid to do a myspace. Not to mention, I have no idea what I'd put on it.

But, I did follow someone's suggestion and start a blog. Another blog actually, here: http://preppingforcollegescholarships.blogspot.com/ The other one, in my siggy is just whatever I feel like writing about. This one, though, is strictly for my nf book subject - how students can make themselves scholarship material.

Now, if anyone can tell me how to promote it so junior high and h.s. freshmen can read it and comment I'd appreciate it.

I love this place.

j.s.cutler said:

Thanks for the advice.

I created a myspace page. My friends section looks pretty pathetic though. If there are any fellow AWs out there please take pity.

http://www.myspace.com/frenchkissbook

Click to expand...

Well I just sent you a friend request, so I'm your first friend, other than Tom!

I don't want to burst anyone's bubbles, here, but a myspace page isn't really the kind of promotion a publisher is looking for in a proposal. It's fine to include it and is definitely one source of viral promotion, but if you're trying to attract a publisher with your marketing plan, saying you have a myspace page isn't going to matter all that much--unless your blog starts attracting thousands of regular readers (in which case publishers will definitely take notice). In Lavinia's case, she could have strong ties to the VA and VFW organizations and associations, and potentially speak at their gatherings, or write for their publications, or have acces to their membership in ways that publishers interested in her book would find very useful. In J. S. Cutler's case, she could associate herself with any of the national junior year abroad or student exchange organizations by writing for their newsletters, submitting proposals to speak at their conventions or organization meetings, pitching articles on her experiences to magazines such as Seventeen, Teen Vogue, etc. These are ways to reach audiences that publishers would love, because it shows that the author knows how to promote herself to a broad audience.

Nomad, I would not be so quick to dismiss Myspace and the world of blogs . . . there is not a single week that passes without me getting a note about my blog from some senior executive at Random House and even at other houses. It's clear that its dynamic nature (when compared to a static website) has caught people's attention.

Many more people read my blog than are visible in the comments. In fact, less than 1% of my visitors leave comments. I get several thousand visitors per month, and I expect the number will rise once Look Me in the Eye is on sale.

The thing is, a blog is interactive where a website isn't. A blog allows you to float ideas and talk with readers about them. It allows readers to suggest ideas to you. My second book will incorporate a number of chapters whose genesis was my blog and the feedback to it.

Based upon my own experience, I think most publishers would pay serious attention to anyone who had a book-relevant blog that had a substantial readership (thousands or more). Of course, a platform to sell a book is more than just a blog. But it can be a significant part.

Beyond that, I agree, a publisher is going to want you to show why you're "the expert" in your particular non-fiction field. In some cases that requires work experience as an industry leader, or credentials as a professor or doctor or whatever. Other times, as in my case, being yourself will be enough.

John, people read yours and Lavinia's blogs because they're entertaining and informational. So far mine is neither, but then it's not actually to promote anything either. My second blog I started is for my nonfiction book (which doesn't have a publisher yet). I doubt it will be entertaining, but hope readers find it informational. Now, to just entice 13-16 year olds to read it since that's the audience the book is for. Well, them and their parents.

You say you blog isn't interesting . . . if it isn't interesting, how do you expect to entice people to read it?

Perhaps solving that question now will help you figure out how to make the book interesting, and not just informational. Because that's what it's going to take to sell it.

johnrobison said:

Nomad, I would not be so quick to dismiss Myspace and the world of blogs . . . there is not a single week that passes without me getting a note about my blog from some senior executive at Random House and even at other houses. It's clear that its dynamic nature (when compared to a static website) has caught people's attention.

Many more people read my blog than are visible in the comments. In fact, less than 1% of my visitors leave comments. I get several thousand visitors per month, and I expect the number will rise once Look Me in the Eye is on sale.

The thing is, a blog is interactive where a website isn't. A blog allows you to float ideas and talk with readers about them. It allows readers to suggest ideas to you. My second book will incorporate a number of chapters whose genesis was my blog and the feedback to it.

Based upon my own experience, I think most publishers would pay serious attention to anyone who had a book-relevant blog that had a substantial readership (thousands or more). Of course, a platform to sell a book is more than just a blog. But it can be a significant part.

Beyond that, I agree, a publisher is going to want you to show why you're "the expert" in your particular non-fiction field. In some cases that requires work experience as an industry leader, or credentials as a professor or doctor or whatever. Other times, as in my case, being yourself will be enough.

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John, I agree that a blog with thousands of readers would be important to a publisher; I said as much. But most people who are trying to get their nonfiction book published are not in your position: their blogs aren't read by thousands of people and shouldn't be the only or main point of promotion in their proposal. You are a terrific anomaly for a first-time author. Everyone should strive to have what happened to you happen to them, but honestly, it just doesn't. Your experience is the publishing equivalent of winning the lottery.

johnrobison said:

You say you blog isn't interesting . . . if it isn't interesting, how do you expect to entice people to read it?

Perhaps solving that question now will help you figure out how to make the book interesting, and not just informational. Because that's what it's going to take to sell it.

Click to expand...

You are right of course, and finding a way to make it interesting is a challenge. Especially since my audience is 13-16 year old students. Their parents too, but mostly the kids. Since I've only posted one blog, I have hopes I can make it interesting as I go. Btw, the blog you read and posted at, and thank you, is not my book blog. Just to make it clear, because sometimes I'm clear as mud.


So, now I need to find a way to make my blog interesting, informative, and accessible. Sheesh.

Nomad, I understand that I'm an anomaly, and so is my brother. But our lives are what we make of them. My life story is interesting in large measure because I chose to do interesting things, and other people today have the same opportunities I had to make interesting choices.

With respect to the blog . . . it didn't have any traffic until I created the traffic, and I did that in large measure by myself. There was no publisher publicity in the time my blog got established. Instead, I reached out to parent communities, autism families, and groups I knew would have an interest in my story. Again, that's something anyone can do.

You may feel my story is the publishing equivalent of winning the lottery, but I feel life favors those who are prepared, and I try to be prepared. Luck surely has something to do with it, but hard work is more accurate. I recognize that most people may not achieve the success I have, but it's just a matter of percentages. If you believe I've done better than 99% of the authors . . . how do you know you're one of the 99%? How do you know you're not one of the 1% too? YOU DON'T KNOW. The game isn't over.

And that's why you should always be prepared and never give up.

Luck=preparation+opportunity. I don't know who first said that, but my husband often repeated it to his kids. And it's something I believe also. I'm not sure how the lottery fits in there though.

But John was lucky because he was prepared, he wrote an interesting, informative book well(I'm assuming here since I haven't read the book). He may have been lucky in finding a publisher as quickly as he did. But, I think that was opportunity, he put the manuscript in front of an editor that was looking for something similar (opportunity). Because it was well written, informative, and entertaining, (preparation), he was able to make a sale.

Next, in anticipation of having a significant number of sales he started a blog to generate interest in his forthcoming book (preparation). Next he reached out to the people he expected would be interested in his book (more preparation). Now when the sales numbers of the book are high people will say, he was lucky. But again it will be his preparation (blog, radio spots, other promos he does) meeting with opportunities (people walking into bookstores) that will make him lucky.

I hope I can do partially as well as he has. I expect to have trouble reaching my audience. Because, they may read. But I don't think books about how to prepare to get scholarships are going to be on their radar screen. I'll have to find some other way to catch their interest.

To me, people who say, "you're just lucky." or "it's like you win the lottery," are making excuses or justifying a lower level of return for themselves or someone else. Even the lottery sales people say, you can't win if you don't play. And I stay in the game, and plan every move. Planning and preparedness count for a lot more than dumb luck.

That's been true with everything I've done in my life. Succeeding at writing books is no different than succeeding at running commercial real estate or many other things. Just as many people have the dream of being published authors, many people have the dream of being the boss man in the factory or the big landlord or whatever. But few people figure out the necessary steps to attain that goal and then pursue them with the required focus and determination.

It may be that I have factors in my favor, but so do you. Maybe there are elements of natural intelligence or creativity, or whatever. But for any factor like that you can name, I'll bet I can name someone else who made it big without it. Opportunity exists for all of us, but few will sieze it.

Oh, I didn't mean that you were just lucky-I've read excerpts of your book and it's terrific. You have obviously lived a remarkably interesting life and you write about it beautifully.
I meant that your experience was like winning the lottery because it fell into place remarkably quickly (you mentioned on another thread that within days of submitting your manuscript you had a bunch of publishers all fighting over it; you got an audio deal right away, etc.) And I do think that you had and have advantages that some other writers don't have. That's fine; I do, too. Other people have different advantages. The point I was trying to make way back when was that for the average writer trying to pitch a book, saying you have a page on MySpace and you have a blog is like saying you'll be happy to do book signings--everyone has them now, so it's not going to be enough for a publisher to say, "Oh, I must sign that author!" unless your blog or website or whatever has a significant following.

Well, Nomad, you're right about all that. Saying, "I have a blog" is one thing, saying, "I have a blog with 5,000 visitors a month" is entirely another.

That brings up another idea . . . to sell non-fiction today, writers need to be immediately verifiable, in my opinion. If you're proposing a story it's going to help if the publisher can see the essential elements online. That's a different thing from having a blog. It's "having an Internet identity."