How Can I Possibly Write AND Market? Here’s How!

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I have no time to write because I’m marketing. OR I have no time to market because I’m writing. OR I can’t possibly do both!

When did it have to be either/or?

It doesn’t! And if you don’t think your social media or online presence will contribute to you being signed by a publishing house or agent, read this post by Lori Culwell about what she learned at #BEA13. Bottom line: people DO search for you and if you can’t be found, you won’t be signed. And if you’re self-published, you won’t be found at all.

I’ve previously given many practical solutions for you to do it all (time-management tools, tips and tricks) so today, let’s focus on the each of those questions specifically, and how that thinking affects us, our work, and our sales.

1) I have no time to write because I’m marketing.

Okay, this is the one I probably relate the most to because of what I do for my day job: social media and author marketing for multiple clients. And yet, I’ve published three books in two years, just sent book four to my editor, and am starting book five (the ‘sequel’ if you will, to Broken Pieces, titled Broken Places). Of course, you’ll have nothing to market if you don’t write, so the writing must always come first!

So how do I do it?

Lack of sleep, caffeine, and drugs. Kidding! Well, the first two are true. I don’t sleep as much as I’d like because I write when the house is quiet late at night. I like writing in the dark — much of what I write is serious nonfiction these days, so darkness helps set the mood. From a practical standpoint, I do much of my social media during the day because it’s much more active at that time. I also write blog posts for several online publications as well as my own two sites, so basically my writing never stops. My advice?

• Set a goal. If you want to write a blog post per day or per week, do it. No excuses. Stop whining talking about it and get it done. Tough love, baby but it’s true. In the time it takes you to chat with your friends on Facebook about how behind you are on your blog, you could have written a post! 
• Decrease distraction. Turn off social media and your phone (or at least mute it). If you’re in a noisy area, pop in your earbuds and crank up the tunes. Whatever it takes to not be distracted. 
• Create a reward system. We really are just like kids, so allow yourself a treat of some sort when you reach a writing goal, whether it’s something physical (new shoes, music, a cookie, or in my case, a martini. What.), or more virtual (time on Facebook, chatting on Skype with a friend, playing a video game). You get the idea.

2) I have no time to market because I’m writing.

I’ve written before about this, but the biggest mistake I see authors make: doing no marketing whatsoever, releasing a book, then waiting and wondering why the book isn’t selling.

Reread that last sentence. I’ll wait. *whistles*

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if just writing the book magically created enormous book sales? That the mere existence of our books creates a sales vacuum unlike anything ever seen before in the history, of history?

Wake up now.

Marketing is the step that takes the product (your book) from existence to selling. Think of marketing as the bridge to go from one side to the other. Marketing your book is not an option if you want it to sell!

So,  how you do you make the time to write and market?

• Blog. It’s really quite simple: choose which topics are relevant to you and blog about them at least once weekly, if for no other reason than to make your name more visible in the various search engines, particularly Google. Plus, the blogging is a great exercise in discipline, something all writers need. 
• Applications: It can be incredibly difficult to manage all the various social media channels and your site and your writing and your…etc. So make it easier: use Hootsuite (Tweetdeck) or any number of other applications that allow you to have all accounts in one place. No more jumping around.
• Reward system. As I mention above, while it’s important to have an online presence, you still must devote yourself to creating the product (in this case, a book). So once you’ve reached a goal, and only then, allow yourself to chat on Facebook, Twitter, or G+; pin some cool stuff on Pinterest, whatever.

3) How do I do both?

The tips I’ve given you will absolutely allow you to do both. However, not everyone can manage it all.

• Hire an expert. If you just cannot manage it all, hire someone like me to help you! If you do hire a social media or author marketing person, be sure to check references and discuss expectations thoroughly. If you think that hiring an expert will help you sell millions of copies, you need to adjust those expectations.
• Block out your time. We are all busy. We all have real life stuff that keeps us away from writing. If you find you have only two hours to write, devote yourself to it but save fifteen or twenty minutes out of that time for social media, answering comments on your blog, or creating a newsletter. Something marketing.
• Manage your time. Set the timer on your phone to beep when time is up. Schedule writing and marketing in. It’s your job.

My goal is always to give you practical tips to manage your book marketing and share with you what I use. Got questions? Ask!

Giveaways: Books, Bags and Balloons at BEA

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As you may know if you follow this blog, some of us were at BEA last week. Lori covered her highest level takeaways here.  Our panel on Wednesday was standing room only, and we had some great participation and discussion afterwards. Yay us!

That said, the main exhibit floor was a truly staggering and awesome temple to all things bookish. Especially print books.

Books – This was my first BEA. I had been told about the huge number of books being given away, and I *thought* I was prepared for the scope of it all. I was wrong. I was in no way shape or form prepared for the scope of it all. There are people, not just a few mind you but legions of them, who bring suitcases to the show in order to haul away all the books. The first day, I naively thought that all these people had just gotten in to town, and had to “coat check” their suitcase because they didn’t check in yet. Nope. There is a corral for suitcases, and they are full of books. I brought home exactly two books, myself. Why? Well, I am truly an ebook convert. I only have print books of those authors/titles I covet for sentimental collector type reasons. They are art, or keepsakes. Which two books did I take the time to get? Funnily enough, “Wool” by Hugh Howey and “Oliver’s Hunger” by Tina Folsom. This is only funny if you know that these are both indie authors, and were part of a group of six best-selling independent authors who banded together to get a booth at BEA (you can read about them here in Publisher’s Weekly). I also took home an autographed postcard from Guy Kawasaki who did a signing in Writer.ly’s booth for his ebook “APE: Author Publisher Entrepreneur” (as an entrepreneur, meeting him was a super-geek-out moment for me). So, essentially, I went to the largest traditional publishing event in the world, and came home with self-published books. I am not sure what that says about me, but what I think it says about the industry is that it no longer matters who publishes your work, as long as the work is good.

Bags – As luck would have it, many publishers also gave away bags to carry all those books in. The only one of those that I took was too eye-catching to pass up. It says “sex” all over it, and was from the erotica imprint Ellora’s Cave. Again, not sure what that says about me, but I think what it says about them is that they are smart marketers who know sex sells. They also had their cover-models in the booth for the fans to take pictures with: their cover-models being very muscular, hunky men.

Balloons – Yes, you read that correctly. The other category of giveaway I saw I have put into the “totally weird and memorable” category, but not memorable for the brand it promotes. For example, these dog balloons (thanks to Lori for modeling them). I saw them absolutely everywhere. I have no idea what they are promoting, although I hope for their sake it is some sort of children’s book or they are even farther off the mark than one would hope. I saw everything from necklaces, to pen holders and could not for the life of me tell you how they were relevant. 

So, what can we book marketers learn from all this? Maybe, that giving stuff away sells books? Well, in point of fact, very little was actually for sale at BEA. Or perhaps, that giving stuff away builds brand awareness? In some cases, it does. I don’t think I will be forgetting the sex bag anytime soon, and it is clear the publisher’s brand is cemented in my brain. On the other hand, I couldn’t name a single one of their titles or authors. In other words, book marketing fail (from a pure readership perspective).

I think that giveaway’s done in the right context, at the right time can help build brand awareness. I highly recommend a good free ebook campaign, for example. I think in other cases, it just amounts to a lot of things to haul home in a suitcase. And perhaps some humorous photos to put up on Twitter. In truth, I think most of BEA was still homage to the traditional print book days of glory. I will be very curious to see how it evolves in the next few years.

ABM: Always. Be. Marketing.

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Today’s title references the classic scene from the movie version of Glengarry Glen Ross, where super-salesman Alec Baldwin gives this harsh motivational speech to his group of sales guys.   This clip definitely contains language and is definitely not safe for work, so I would recommend turning down your computer’s speakers if you are in the office.

I put this clip up today to illustrate an important point: as an author, it is your job to get yourself out there and talk to people with the intention of a) selling them a book, or b) getting their email with the intention of selling them a book in the future. Is everyone going to be in your target audience? Nope. But, you need to talk to people you don’t know (whether on social media or in person) like they could be.

Here is a classic example of an author who puts themselves out there WITHOUT the “Always Be Closing” mentality: an author whose name I will not use, but who had a booth set up at BEA. I want to make a proper example out of this person because she made a mistake so simple yet so fundamental, it made me sad and angry for her all at once.

Here’s the scenario: a friend of mine who is a fellow author and blogger stops by this woman’s BEA booth and chats with her about her book. My friend is interested in the subject matter of the book and has a huge Twitter following, so if she likes the book, this might be a big opportunity for the author to sell some books or at least to expand her audience.

After a few minutes of chit-chat, my author friend asks for a book, and the BEA booth-having author, who is clearly NOT in the “Always Be Closing” mindset, takes one look at my friend’s badge, sees the word “Author,” and says “No….you can’t have my book.  I’m not giving copies to other authors, only to people who have influence.”

Wowzers.     So now this author has alienated my friend (author with a huge Twitter following), and has made herself the subject of a BookPromotion.com post where I implore you to please, PLEASE go out into the world with the mindset that anyone could be a potential reader/ customer for you, and that you should “Always Be Closing” until further notice.  Everyone you talk to might not be a member of your exact target audience, but you won’t know that unless you give them a chance.  Besides, what was that author even doing with a booth at BEA if she wasn’t interested in gaining exposure for her book?    I find it sad that she made it all the way to BEA with a published book, then was thwarted by a limiting mindset.

Go forth and network, and remember– you never know who you’re talking to, so ALWAYS BE MARKETING.

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Don’t you sometimes think that authors should earn the right to use Twitter properly? God knows, I do. If I get one more ‘TrueTwit validation’ (a bot to confirm I’m not a bot? Just no.) or autoDM ‘BUY MY BOOK!’ with link, I may start pulling out my red hair — which is okay, I have a lot of hair. But what does properly mean? And who am I to tell someone what’s ‘proper,’ anyway? Someone on  my author stream told me that I’m too bossy and people can use Twitter however they want. Which is absolutely true. My goal is to point out how people can be using it more effectively. Remember, Twitter is not a selling tool in the traditional sense. Rather, it’s a marketing tool, a way to inform, provide, connect with people on a personal level. When people like you, they are more inclined to buy your book. So let’s discuss it a little more in-depth — what does properly mean for authors specifically? 1) Attract. The entire point of social media, whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Google+, whatever, is to attract readers to you, the author. We say ‘brand the author, not the book,’ because most people have an innate interest in writers as people. We may write (insert genre here), but that doesn’t mean we are one-note. We are people, with many varied interests. If all you do is shove your book links at people, what does that tell them about you? Not much, except that you’re quite self-involved and could give a flying kitten about them. Basically, by only talking about yourself and your books all the time, you’re basically now ‘that guy’ at the party we all avoid. Do you want to be ‘that guy?’ So, how do we attract followers? Think about the Rule of Thirds (and it’s not really a rule so don’t get all rebellious. It’s more of a guideline. Breath.): one-third self-promotion, one-third promotion of others, one-third providing information, resources, and other content. And it’s not random content: you should know very specifically what keywords or phrases you are using in your branding and create/share content based on that. 2) Retain. Lori talks quite a bit about email lists. Despite advances in social media tech, email is still the most popular way to connect with readers (beside word of mouth).

Why Live-Only Social Media Interaction Doesn’t Work

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People who only live tweet are steadfast that the Twitter Police will arrest you if you don’t only interact live. 

Okay, kidding…kinda. Yet many of these people are quite zealous in preaching to people that if they schedule in ANYTHING AT ALL, they are DOING IT WRONG.

I disagree.

As someone who makes a living helping people learn how to do social media and book marketing (in additional to writing and publishing my own books), I spend a good majority of my day on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Goodreads, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, for both personal and business reasons. Therefore, it’s important that I learned early on how to manage my time best for my clients, so I’d still have time to write, market my own work and that of my clients.

There’s been a debate on Twitter and Facebook for years about what’s ‘better:’ live interaction only, live interaction combined with some scheduling, or scheduling only. Some people will scold someone for scheduling, as if it’s the eighth deadly sin.

I’m personally a fan of the middle option and I’ll explain why below. Let’s now, however, deconstruct the pros and cons of all three options.

LIVE INTERACTION ONLY

Pros: One the advantages of only live tweeting (or FBing, or any live anything thing) is that you can be involved in conversations as they happen. Breaking news, popular trending topics, etc. Totally true. In addition, Twitter is the great equalizer. You can speak with anyone, from writers to musicians to celebs to politicians (if that’s your thing) as you see interesting things in your feed. You can also thank people for sharing your tweet or FB message as they do it. Also, if you’re at an event, live tweeting is essential and fun to help spread the word and connect with others. 

Cons: In my experience, if you only live tweet, it’s hard to be ‘on’ all the time. Most people don’t have the time to stay on any social media channel full time, so you miss a lot (unless you go back through and search for something specific to comment on). People also miss what you have to say.

Also, if someone comes to your stream (or page) and sees a bunch of ‘Thank you for the RT’ tweets, it’s boring. They have no real idea if you’re cool, interesting, or what. Your branding is diluted. That’s why I use Pluggio to spread them out.

I also find that using something to schedule in tweets/shares, etc (I prefer Hootsuite though many people like Buffer) helps me address a number of my keywords and topics and spread them out.

COMBINATION OF LIVE TWEETING AND SCHEDULING 

Pros: You can better manage not only your time but also your followers. If you spread your tweets out throughout the day, people can check in when it’s convenient for them, and you can schedule in posts that tie to your interests. I find planning ahead to do things like: share fellow writers’ posts, memes (like #MondayBlogs, #WW or #FF), and promotional events work better when I’ve scheduled in the posts. Then I can live tweet any responses.

Cons: If you schedule in articles or current event tweets, you can be easily burned when something happens and your scheduled tweet is inappropriate (this has happened frequently this past year with some large companies who should know better). This is why I only schedule a day or so ahead of time, and I choose topics that aren’t dependent on the current social climate (I save that for live tweets).

SCHEDULING ONLY 

Pros: You set and forget, which makes it easy to focus on other things, like making money, family, cleaning your house, making your martini…whatever.

Cons: Fairly obvious, as mentioned above. I’ve struggled with scheduling in pertinent articles (no more than one every 4 hours), because once you set it and forget it, you realize that many of these articles have quickly become dated (for example, I scheduled in a bunch of Twitter articles over the holidays, and some are just surfacing now, which is embarrassing). Clearly, a mistake on my part and something I’m much more on top of now.

Also, you can come across as quite robot-like, which is diametrically opposed to the concept of ‘social’ media, since many of these tweets contain links. (According to Twitter’s spam guidelines, tweets should consist primarily of personal updates, not link after link after link.)

Here’s what I love the most about Twitter (or any social media platform): you curate it for what works best for you. If you’re not getting the results you want, change it up. Read some stuff. Learn. Nobody has a right to tell you what to do (unless you’re doing something that is against guidelines like putting a link in every tweet or spamming your wall or using autoDMs with links or…). I encourage you to look closely at what you share, pay attention to the ‘rules’ provided by each channel, and figure out what works for you.

Big Changes with the Big Internet Booksellers

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Just when you think things are stable in the world of the big three tablet/e-reader  battles, they aren’t. There was interesting news from Apple this week which makes some folks wonder if they are planning a bigger push into the book space. Amazon could (should?) be nervous, but so far they haven’t flinched.

Up until now, the Mac OS did not include iBooks on the desktop. Well, with the new Mavericks release, launching this fall, it will (Geekwire reported). Why is this significant, you might ask? This gets interesting when you look at the data (I know, me and data!) According to PEW Internet research, “46% of computer owners consume e-books on their computer”. NBC news reports further that “Of those who have read an e-book in the past 12 months, 42 percent said they read it on a computer; 41 percent on an e-book reader; 29 percent on a cell-phone and 23 percent on a tablet.” I confess the computer number was a bit of a surprise to me.

The potential disadvantages for Apple come from two sources. First, they have a smaller book catalog than Amazon, about 10% less. This means consumers may choose to remain with Amazon regardless. Second, the Department of Justice lawsuit is ongoing, and looking pretty dicey for Apple (as reported on Digital Book World ).

At the nearly the same time, Barnes and Noble announced it would not support older legacy PC software for the desktop saying, “We are no longer supporting NOOK for PC for Windows 2000/XP/Vista. To enjoy the NOOK content on your PC please use the NOOK for Windows 8 App or NOOK for Web.”. On the one hand this sounds bad, on the other, it isn’t really that huge a change for them since they already didn’t support the latest versions of Apple’s Mac OS X.

So, what does this all mean for your book marketing efforts? Ironically, probably not a whole lot. Although it may mean that you should consider the iBooks store this fall (if you haven’t), because there is a smaller pool, you might be able to stand out. On the other hand, Apple is notoriously harder to work with than Amazon, takes longer to “approve” your uploaded file, and has few (if any) marketing programs for authors (versus KDP Select). As far as Barnes and Noble’s latest move, well, I can’t say it does anything for your Nook strategy. I had high hopes when Microsoft invested in them a while back, thinking they would potentially clue in and do more to make themselves a platform for Amazon to worry about, but no such luck thus far (similar conclusions were reached by Geekwire last month when Nook announced a new deal with Google Play – say what?).

To sum up, pay attention, not because you should panic, but because you could take advantage. Know that the more they fight to win the tablet wars bringing those hardware prices down, the more books you will be able to sell! Remember, tablet and ereader consumers read 40% more than their print counter-parts per PEW data – yes, more data. If we are lucky, someone will start giving the readers away and we can really go to town!

What Social Media Is, And What It Is Not

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What Social Media Is, And What It Is Not

One of the biggest complaints people make about newbie authors on social media is the spam. Many authors start on Twitter or Facebook and think, ‘Wow, cool! Now I can tell everybody about all my stuff!’ like little kids in a candy store. But, if you’ve used any platform for awhile now, you’ll see that is decidedly not the case.

I’ve certainly written about it before but people either don’t think what I write applies to them, they don’t care, or most likely (I would hope), they just haven’t learned how to create a fully interactive, targeted stream. It reminds me a bit of someone eating a steak dinner without a knife and fork. It just isn’t done, is it?

Let’s discuss.

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social media definition: forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos) (Merriam Webster).

First known use: 2004 (though some say 1994 with the creation of the now-defunct Geo-Cities).

So the technology we use daily didn’t exist ten years ago. That’s a little mind-boggling, isn’t it? It’s no wonder people are confused.

Let’s break it down further.

SHARE INFORMATION

When we define the sharing of information on social media, it can be anything: breaking news, quotes, sayings and quips, blog posts, books, music, etc. What’s wonderful about sharing information — and reading what others provide — is that we are reading more than ever and learning incredible amounts daily.

The downside: as always, there are people who use it strictly as a one-way broadcast model, i.e., authors who do nothing but spam links. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not only indie authors who do this. I’ve worked with and consulted on plenty of traditionally published accounts and my observation is this: it doesn’t matter how you’re published. It matters what you share.

Take a look at your last twenty tweets — how many contain links? You may want to rethink that.

IDEAS

I enjoy Twitter, Facebook, G+, etc because of the plethora of amazing ideas out there. I can pick your brain, you can pick mine. It’s a wonderful equalizer. And you curate your account to be what you want it to be. You choose whom to follow, interact with, whom to retweet. The exchange of ideas is but one of the many benefits of social media. Ask yourself this: how are you contributing to the exchange of ideas? Are you contributing — or are you adding to the constant self-promotional link spam?

PERSONAL MESSAGES

Twitter is no longer what you had for lunch or your teen making plans for the mall with the boy you can’t stand. Many authors are using social media in a positive way, interacting with other authors, forming promotional groups, guest blogging, and most importantly, creating a fan base through relationship building. And that’s great! The best way to grow your following organically is to be your authentic self.

Somehow, spamming duplicate links all day isn’t being your authentic self now, is it? Are your tweets reflecting your personality? Are you sharing information or resources or quotes that reflect your interests and passions? Well, start.

VISUAL CONTENT

It’s a well-known fact that we retain more of what we see visually than what we read. That’s why social sites like Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube are flourishing. Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ are no different — adding a visual will get you more clicks and retweets.

Just don’t overdo it. Remember, adding a visual is still creating a link. Balance is key.

Bottom line: social media is about relationship building and listening, and the way to do that is to relationship build and listen. It’s not rocket science, eh?

What is Your Launch Date?

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In these days of self-publishing, there is one thing from the traditional publishing model I would like to encourage you to really consider – your launch date. In the old days (so, five years ago) there was always a launch date. This was the date your publisher negotiated with the bookstores that they would put your book in that cool special display they had made just for your book, at the very front of the store. If you were J.K. Rowling, people lined up the night before to wait and buy your book. Nowadays, we have a harder time actually pinpointing the date when things go “on sale”. More often than not I see announcements that say “next week” or even “this summer”. People seem to have used the variances in internet retailer upload policies combined with the variances in freelance service provider deadline adherence as reasons to no longer have a true launch. I freely admit that I have, in the past, also been guilty of this laziness. But now I say – pick a date.

Your launch date = your deadline.

• This is the date by which you need your primary initial surge of support ready to fly.
• This is the date you pre-announce on your blog your book will be available for sale (please don’t make me explain again why you need a blog).
• This is the date you have all your Twitter followers primed and prepped ahead of time with a list of tweets.
• This is the date that you have all the advance readers of your book ready to write those reviews.
• This is the date you might want to have that party to say to friends, family and community members “thanks in advance for helping to spread the word for me” (if they drink your wine, they will feel more obligated to actually do it – there, I said it). No, I did NOT say a bookstore signing. Trust me, have a party, have some fun and make it only partly about your book.

Note that this does not have to be a year in the future as in the traditional publishing space, a few solid weeks will do. But DO have a launch date.

Wait, why should I have a launch?

• Most good bloggers are pretty backed up, and may need some time to get to your work.
• Your friends and family do want to help spread the word, but they have lives, and are busy. Give them some real time to read your book and figure out what if anything they can do to help you.
• You are human, and therefore will probably be more effective in your planning if there is a concrete date to plan towards.
• All the people you have hired to help you with your book (editors, designers, etc.) are also human, and also need a deadline to work towards. Trust me when I say that “I booked a room and made postcards” will carry more weight than “because I really want it”.

So – pick a date, do your planning, do your preparation, and LAUNCH!