I apologize for the brevity of this post, but I still have eleventy billion things on my to-do list before I leave for San Francisco bright and early this morning (as you read this, it's "this morning").
I am thrilled that one of our very own Mave Faves, Angie Fox, will be guest blogging next week to celebrate the release of her debut novel, The Accidental Demon Slayer, which went on sale yesterday. If you haven't yet purchased your copy, run to the bookstore! I plan on picking mine up tonight at the Literacy Signing and getting it autographed to ME! Congratulations Angie!!!
And that, I'm afraid, is the end of my post today. Next week I will post a newsy summary of all the fabulousness that was the 2008 RWA Conference. I am so excited to see old (and new) friends and partake in the roller coaster ride of being a Golden Heart finalist. I am especially looking forward to the champagne reception Friday afternoon for GH finalists and RITA nominees (and their editors!). I promise I'll take pictures!
A few days ago, I was talking to a friend about possible marketing and promotion options for a new website-slash-product/service he is about to launch. I mentioned jump-starting his own viral marketing campaign by contacting people who have access to his market and asking them to work with him to promote his product. As an example, I mentioned that I had been contacted by YouCast Corporation to promote the new Schick Quattro for Women razor on my blog.
There's a few cool things I learned about marketing and promotion while working with a representative from the YouCast team. First, it is definitely okay to contact people out of the blue and ask them to try your product. The worst they can say is no! Second, once you do, you have absolutely no control over what they decide to say or do about said product promotion. For example, I am convinced YouCast didn't mean for me to make this post about their marketing and promotion service, instead of about the Schick Quattro. Third, it's a good idea to have more than just a sample of your product to share when you're looking to generate interest. Schick Quattro has a contest, but more, they've created a "Dream Date" widget that cracks me up. Check it out, then think about ways you could create a widget or tool that is fun and interactive. Something your friends, fans, and family (and virtual strangers) could post on their MySpace (or other social networking site -- I don't claim to know what the cool kids are doing these days).
YOUR TURN: What do you think? Would you or have you ever asked strangers to post about your product online? Do you think it helps? Have you ever tried a Schick Quattro (so silky smooth!)? What are some of the newer-fangled techniques for promotion you've used, seen, or heard about?
Today I'm indulging in shameless self-promotion. A few weeks ago I was interviewed by our local newspaper. They received a press release regarding my Golden Heart final from RWA who graciously sends them to three media outlets (designated by me). I had no idea if the press releases would bear fruit and was thrilled to get a call from Kristen Forbes who wanted to interview me for the article.
I'd never done an interview before! But I'm a talker (no, really?), so it was pretty easy (okay, except when I spotted a couple of teachers from my daughter's school at a nearby table and had a moment's panic for some inexplicable reason). The only problem was not asking her a bunch of questions in return (which I ended up doing anyway - she was incredibly nice and fun to talk to). I'm just amazed at how much information she packed into the article. And I'd even forgotten a few things I'd said. She took awesome notes.
Ever done an interview? Been on the news? What about from the other side - ever interviewed anyone? What's the one thing you'd like to share about yourself - dish it here!
These days a lot of authors have blogs and often, the blog gets more hits than the author's website (or sometimes, the blog exists for way longer than the author's website). I've also found, that a lot of authors include links to their blogs in emails or posts to various groups (another good way to generate traffic). And many times, these blogs are the first glance a potential reader has of the author.
Which is why I'm always so surprised at how scant some of these blogs are when it comes to promotional information. For example, on one of my loops an author has linked to her blog twice in the past month -- once to show us her new cover (very cool) and once to ask for help choosing an author photo. I followed the link. I thought her cover was cool and wanted to know more. But there was nothing about this author on the blog other than her name. Nothing.
No links to webpages. No profile telling me how many books she had, when her books would be published, how I could learn more about her. Here I am practically begging to become a fan of hers, but how can I?
I'm constantly amazed when I stumble on an author's blog but can't find out more about him or her. Sometimes, I can't even figure out what name they write under because their blog just has a title like "Book Writer" or "I like to write books" (just for example). And they don't put their pen-name, link to a blog, etc. I even remember Miss Snark once saying that she had an agent email her interested in a crapometer submission, but when they clicked on the writer's profile and blog, there was no email -- no way to contact to offer representation.
Naturally, you are all calling me a hypocrite right now. Because I barely have any information at all about my book (I have some in the sidebar to my blog) and my website isn't even designed much less written. But to be fair, the moment my announcement hit Publishers Marketplace, I put at least *some* information on my blog -- my name, an email, a link to the blurb.
I still believe that if you have a blog, hoping it will help with marketing (which I argue it will), then make sure it works as a marketing tool. Make sure people who randomly find your blog get the information they need. For example, look at Diana's blog -- she has all her book covers (so if I forget the title I can recognize it in the store), a list of her books, and her website and email are listed in her profile (though I'd argue that information gets lost and they should both be clickable links). Diana makes it easy for people to learn more about her and buy her books. Sure, hers is fancier than most, but even the most basic blog can have that same information.
So, if you have a blog, take a look at it and think about the random browser who stumbles on it. Maybe links from another blog, maybe follows the footer in an email of yours. Ask yourself what you want that new visitor to know about you, and then make sure that information is front and center.
Which leads me to my question -- what do y'all look for in a blog? What do you look for in a website? What are your pet peeves?
___________
* When I see an interesting deal listed on PM, one of the first things I do is google the author name and a lot of times that leads me to a blog (or livejournal or whatever). It's frustrating to find a blog that doesn't give me any info on the author. Because to me, marketing starts the day the announcement is listed. Seriously, what better marketing is there for your book and name than tons of publishing professionals reading about it and wanting to know more? You don't have to have a professional website or anything, but at least update the blog with current info.
So... even though my book isn't out until Spring 2009 (April is the word on the street these days), I just got my first review! Click here to read Melissa Marr's thoughts on The Forest of Hands and Teeth. A huge thanks to Melissa for taking the time to read and comment on a debut book and thanks to my sister who read me the review over the phone because I was off in the mountains without internet access :)
Anyways, recently the Mavens all talked about those ah-ha moments in writing. As I said then, I get these moments all the time. I can have the same conversation about craft, read the same books on craft, have the same day dreams and each time I'll walk away with something new. The other day I had one of these ah-ha moments I wanted to share :)
I was reading a book and realized that while the writing for much of the book is great, some of the writing is just... writing. It's not great, it's not bad, it's not mundane or boring -- it's just words strung together getting points across. Honestly, I doubt anyone reading those particular passages would have thought anything of the way they were written -- like I said, they were written fine. They didn't stand out as gorgeous prose -- they didn't really stand out at all.
And suddenly I had this ah-ha moment! I realized that the purpose of writing a book is to tell a story (yeah, most of my ah-ha moments tend to also be duh! moments). I realized that sometimes we get so focused in on parts of our books that we forget to stand back and take in the big picture -- we forget to look at the story we're telling.
Sometimes I think it can be easy to focus on internal conflict versus external conflict versus raising the stakes versus showing all five senses that we forget that all of these devices serve to help us tell a compelling story. And I think sometimes you can look at individual scenes of a book and they work, but once put together as a cohesive whole suddenly the story feels off.
Here's a rather timely but odd example... it's March Madness, the season where everyone fills out NCAA brackets and joins office pools to see who wins. I love following the tournament but I never have the time to follow the whole season -- so when it comes to filling out my brackets I have NO idea who to pick. I do it all by gut and who sounds good and whose colors I like. JP was reviewing my choices and finally he said "each game you choose is totally plausible, when you look at your brackets on a game by game basis, it's solid. But overall there's no way you're going anywhere."
I've judged some contests recently where I see this happening -- scene by scene everything makes sense, but when you read the synopsis, when you look at those scenes adding up to become the whole, the story just isn't there -- it doesn't hold together.
So, along with all the myriad other things we remember when writing, don't forget that in the end we're all story tellers. How we tell that story (what devices we chose, the tone, the language, the POV) influences that story, but in the end, it's all about telling a good story.
The Mavens are thrilled to announce Sheila English, today's guest blogger.
A publicist and CEO of Circle of Seven Productions, the premier creators of Book Trailers®, Sheila Clover English has created a niche in the book industry with creative promotional and marketing ideas.
A five-year veteran as an Executive Producer of award winning book commercials, Mrs. English is best known for her creative media endeavors, bringing book commercial distribution to movie theaters, television, cable and an online network of approximately 150 sites.
MM: What interested you in making book trailers, and how did you turn that interest into a business?
Sheila: It was a combination of things really. I was an aspiring author looking to find a way to promote myself in a unique way, but also, once I came up with the idea of book trailers, I thought it would be a fantastic marketing tool and I wanted to create them for other authors.
MM: Could you describe your book trailers' integration with social sites and subsequent viral marketing?
Sheila: Book trailers are formatted and supported by a variety of online social sites. User-generated video sites such as YouTube, Veoh, Google, Yahoo, iFilm and over 100 other sites created a venue that allows books to be seen in a way that most people respond to - visual.
We have a fulltime staff that is responsible for distribution of our videos onto those sites. But, they do so much more than that.
Social sites are like cities and the landscape of those cities can change according to the type of people that come in, new widgets, new groups and other variables. So, book video may be popular there for a while, but it there may come a time where book video isn't being watched as much for a time. Our distribution department does research on a continual basis to make sure our videos are uploaded to sites that have interested viewers and to sites where the video will get quality hits.
We distribute to more than social sites though. We have boutique or specialty sites as well, such as The Romance Zone or Find Me An Author. We also send our videos to booksellers and the videos play on bookseller sites.
Viral marketing is often misunderstood. Viral marketing happens when you put up information, in this case a video, and other people take it and pass it on to others. This is a common occurrence for COS videos. We have a loyal fan base who will put our videos on their sites or blogs. We make video sharing very easy to do. Since 2005 every single video done by COS has gone viral to some extent.
MM: Could you give examples of the types of authors who should consider using book trailers, and examples of authors who may be better served waiting for a different time/project?
Sheila: This is a really great question!
I have actually recommended that a client wait to have a video done. There really are good times and reasons to do a book video.
New authors benefit by getting their name out there. You can have the best book out there, but if no one knows about you, how will they know to pick up your book?
For new authors we would do a different distribution package than what we would do for an established author. A new author has different needs than an established author. Our distribution is catered to the needs and situation of the client.
Any author trying to create or change their brand. I feel branding is very important. So many authors try selling their books one at a time. Really, they should be selling themselves and making themselves a promotional tool for each book. We have worked with authors to help develop or change their brand.
Any author starting a new series. It's good to have a video that announces a new series is coming. For author Christina Dodd, we started working with her to establish her brand. Then, once we got that done, we wanted to highlight the different genres she does. She started a new paranormal series and we did a video for each book, but we also did a video for the series as a whole. It was a great success! The books did great and it caused a real buzz online because she'd never done a paranormal series like this before. We even had booksellers contact us asking to use the videos! The same thing happened with author Lisa Kleypas. She started doing contemporary novels after years of doing historical novels.
Highlighting a cross genre is a wonderful reason to use a video. You may write romance, but your books are well researched and you write about SEALS or suspense or something else equally as exciting.
Expand your readership. Much along the same lines as highlighting a cross genre, you can highlight certain aspects of your book in the video to target specific readers. You can concentrate on action/adventure to bring in more male readers. You can concentrate on paranormal elements to bring in more fantasy readers.
Bring in new readers. If your numbers are staying the same it's because you're doing the same thing. If you want your numbers to go up, do something different. Video reaches more viewers than a print ad will.
To build your website traffic or membership. You can feature your video on your own website first and direct people to that site in order to see the video. If you're building a membership, you can do two videos, one that points to the one on your site. Christine Feehan's website membership has gone up 600%!
Fan appreciation. You can do one as a gift to your fans. If your book just did great how do you thank your fans for their loyalty to you? Fans love the videos!
Sales Teams. You can have your video put on DVD or CD Rom and sent to your publisher to give to the sales team.
Expanded Media. You may be ready to do television or movie theater ads. You can spend less than $2000 and get great spots. Plus you have the benefit of telling booksellers that your book will be on television. And you can put "As seen on TV" on your site.
There are good reasons to do a video. And there are bad reasons to do a video.
Book video is a promotional tool like any other. If you use it correctly you can build a great marketing campaign. I see a lot of people creating videos and putting them on their site, YouTube and MySpace. They put them there because they don't know what else to do with them. You need to use the video to hit specific target audiences, or for very specific reasons, in order to get the most out of it.
MM: Your web site shows a wide array of services, ranging from a $250 single-image video to a $50,000+ amazing trailer, complete with a live action custom script, sound effects, and CGI. What possibilities would you recommend an e-book author (who earns no advance), a debut trade paperback author (with, say, a $5000 advance), and a multi-published author (with, say, a $25,000 advance)? How much depends on the disposable income available, and how much depends on where they are in their career?
Sheila: If you're an author you need to determine what your disposable income for promotions will be. Only the author can really decide that. And of that money, what is your ROI (return on investment). If you pay $250 for bookmarks because you can get 2500 you need to really know what you expect out of each and every bookmark. How many sales do you expect to get in relation to the number of bookmarks you give out? How many people will remember your name from a bookmark? How many other bookmarks are competing for that same reader?
People often go for what they feel is more instead of what is effective. It's a common mistake that I see made over and over.
The trend I've seen with e-book authors is that they are doing their own. If they do their own they could still get COS to do target-specific distribution for them for $150. They could have a Fast Track Trailer done for $390 that will also go to booksellers, can be linked on Amazon.com and will be seen by thousands of people. They need to determine for themselves what they feel is right for them. If they're looking at making $150 - $300 on that book, then I wouldn't recommend a $390 video. But, I would recommend the distribution.
A debut trade paperback author may want to spend 50% of their advance. They aren't just looking to have a video made, they are looking at an investment in their career. Our most popular videos are our level 1 mini teaser ($750) and our level 2 mini teaser ($1500 and very popular with booksellers). Every video we create comes with distribution. Every video we make is sent to booksellers and book clubs. It does on Reader's Entertainment TV and on our MySpace. If the author spends 50% of their advance, they could have a video done, perhaps purchase extra distribution or put the video on television in certain US regions.
An established author with $25,000 is still going to want to be thrifty with their money. But, studies show that the live action trailers are by far the most popular with fans. We have done live action trailers since 2002 and we have our own fan base for them. For $5000 you can get a great live action video. That may sound like a lot, but on average, the cost of a professionally made commercial is currently $12,000 per second. COS actually makes the least amount of money on live action Book Trailers in relative comparison to our other products. But, in all honesty, they are the most fun to make. Where many of our competitors are charging $7000 to $20,000 for a professionally made Book Trailer, we try to keep the costs low and script to budget.
The type of video you choose should give you an effective tool for your situation. Whether it is a $250 Cover Story video or a $5000 - $10,000 Book Trailer, you need to know what you want to use it for before you pay for it. We have had top authors start with our $250 video and after they see what it can do for them they immediately move up to our $1500 video. We don't try to persuade an author to do a particular product. If they ask what kind of video they should go with we ask them what their budget is, or if the budget is flexible, we ask them what they hope to accomplish with it.
It is not uncommon for me to have a one hour consultation with a client to determine what product and distribution is best for what they want to do with their career.
MM: How much control/input does the author have over the video's fonts, colors, script, casting, sound/CGI effects, cinematography, etc?
Sheila: We have an established contract that spells all of that out with our client in advance to them even sending us a deposit. We want their input. And in the end they must sign off on the script, casting and final video proof. We want them to be so happy that they come back again and again. One of our strongest marketing tools is our repeat business.
Of course, we do have to have limitations on certain things in order to stay within budget and on time. If a client pays $5000 and then insists on $1500 of that going toward wardrobe, that isn't fair to our production partners. So the best way to have a positive experience for everyone is to communicate effectively and establish acceptable parameters in advance.
And, clients pay us for our expertise. If they want to do this themselves they can hire a videographer/editor. And some do. But, we work closely with the booksellers and we do beta testing as a QC/QA measure to ensure that the fans like what we're doing as well.
If the client wants to have the majority of the creative control, we can't make any promises that it will go viral or get picked up by booksellers. We have a great deal of confidence when we maintain the majority of creative control.
MM: Once an author purchases a trailer, does it belong to her to do with what she will, or does COS retain copyright/ownership?
Sheila: This is an industry standard. The author retains the copyright to the book, characters, etc. COS retains the copyright to the video. But, it is a product and it does go to the author to use it wherever he/she wants. The client is given a formatted copy and they can put it on their site, on YouTube, etc. We do not automatically format for television though. So, the client couldn't take the video to their local TV station and have it played as a commercial.
Also, the client would not be able to take their video and have another company make changes to it.
Again, this is industry standard. If you watch a movie made from a book the copyright does not go to the author or even the publisher. It goes to the producer.
MM: Speaking of copyright, from what we gather Circle of Seven didn't just put book trailers on the map--you trademarked it. Do you actively police usage of the phrase? Is that even possible?
Sheila: We did trademark it. And, in all fairness, it was NOT a common term when we did it. As a matter of fact when we did a broad search on all the search engines at that time we didn't get back a single return on the term. When we went to NYC and spoke to every publisher there, we had to define what a Book Trailer was. People did not simply know what we were talking about by the term. It's common now, but we've spent tens of thousands of dollars marketing the term, the definition and the utilization.
By law we are required to police the use of the term or we forfeit our right to it. But, we only police the term in relation to people selling their own product under our trademarked name. If no one is making money off the term we aren't concerned with it. And, by making money we don't count the fact that authors who make their own video are making money through sales. We really are only concerned with competitors.
At this point in time it would be impossible to police the term. And we really aren't looking to penalize authors who use it to describe their video. We hope their video does great and that they decide to hire us later on when they can afford a professional book video maker!
MM: Do you have any data you can share on the success of various services you offer? Are there many good ways to measure click-through rates and increases in sales due to book trailers?
Sheila: A recent survey showed that 70% of the people who watched book videos were enticed to purchase the book. That's from all viewers though, not just COS viewers.
Here are some statements from clients:
"I call the money I spent on a COS mini teaser "the money that goes on spending" I have benefited from your tremendous after care." Veronica Towers (e-book author)
"In just three days of being featured on MySpace books, my blog got over16,000 views, my website received ten times the usual amount of hits, letters from interested readers greatly increased, and my pre-sales numbers on my upcoming release spiked. I cannot thank Sheila and COS enough for providing this service. " Alyson Noel, author of: Faking 19, Art Geeks and Prom Queens, Laguna Cove, Fly Me to the Moon, Kiss & Blog, and Saving Zoë
We have authors who have never made any of the bestseller lists make them after we did their video and distribution.
As far as click-through rates go that is not the best way to measure success. I work with other online distributors and no one uses click-through rates as the only measurement of a successful online campaign. There is a formula though. It has to do more with number of "engagements" instead of click-through. If the person shares the video, posts it to a site, blogs about it and links to it, clicks on it, comments on it, rates it, those are all "engagements". We do follow those on some of our videos, but not on all of them.
We have more and more booksellers taking the videos as content. That's very telling. And many of our clients who use the Amazon Associate program have reported increased sales during the time the video is up.
The fact is, you'll get more people to see that video in the year or more it is online than will ever see it in a single print ad. What is that worth?
MM: We notice on your web site that the commercials can be formatted for TV and movie theaters. What percentage of your clients take advantage of this? Do you have any data as to the ROI of showing the trailers at the movies as opposed to the Internet?
Sheila: More and more of our clients are taking advantage of this since COS has established relationships with National Cinemedia and Comast allowing us great distribution for relatively little money. COS also works with ABC, NBC and CBS, but they tend to be more costly.
Since the publisher is the gate keeper of the information about increased sales in a given area, we don't know the specifics of how well the tv campaign did in a given area. What I can tell you is more and more publishers are paying for the media time…repeatedly.
The movie theater idea started in 2004 when digital media was accepted as a format. This was all very new. Historically you could put up a static ad on the big screen, but nothing really exciting. Technology changed and so did the utilization of our videos. COS came up with a way to make digital media look great on the big screen. And, according to our rep at NCM we are the only company who has done this.
Now, we can penetrate areas such as Los Angeles and New York City via movie theaters at an affordable rate compared to TV spots. We ran one campaign in the middle of NYC that ran over 900 times for less than $2000.
The viewers online, television and in movie theaters are likely to cross over. People will see the video on TV then see it online. They are seeing it more times in more venues and are more likely to remember it that way. The great thing about using the Internet is that people can come back to it. If they missed the author's URL they can just watch the video again. They can search for it if they think about it later. They can share it with their friends. They don't have to move from their seat to buy it after they watch the video. I highly recommend Internet distribution.
MM: You have won awards for many of your book trailers. Can you tell us a little about the kinds of awards you and your videos have won?
Sheila: The most prestigious award that you can win in the commercial field is the Telly Award. It is like an Emmy or Oscar, but it's for commercials. We have won seven Telly Awards. The Davey Awards are International Film Awards and are sponsored by the International Academy of the Arts. Collectively we have won 11 awards so far. The categories range from special effects to screen writing and from comedy to best low cost video. We also won something called the Cameo Awards which were for romance videos only and we won 12 of those including reader's choice.
We are very proud of the awards, but especially the Telly Awards because those are so difficult to win. We won alongside Warner Studios, Disney, SciFi Channel and other top producers. We've spoke with people from other production companies who have been in the business for 20+ years and never won a Telly. So, the fact that not only did we win, but we were the first to win making Book Trailers, is really exciting for us!
YOUR TURN: When did you first hear of book videos? What are examples of the best ones you've seen? If you have one of your own, please link to it in the comments!
Sheila English from Circle of Seven productions, the company who began the book trailerTM phenomenon, will be here to answer all your burning questions, from when you should (and shouldn't!) consider a video commercial for your stories to what kind of results should you expect from your investment.
Now, onto the show!
Over the past two weeks, we've been talking about the many ways you can promote yourself and your books. Yesterday, Maven Darcy talked about promoting yourself to others and sounding confident while you do it. I admit, I am not that great about either promoting myself or my friends in conversation. (Pause to let you digest the fact that I may actually be bad at something.) But it's true...Maven Darcy nailed my startled Whhwhawhaat? after the Rose City Luncheon perfectly. You mean we can promote each other?
Lucky for me (and all you people like me), there's the internet. I'm not nearly as shy about promoting my writing on the internet (if you're reading this, it must be because you want to, right?) and I'm certainly not as shy about promoting my friends. So. It seems to me, internet promotion is where it's at. Your readers are active, they're interested, and they're just a few mouse clicks away from buying my product. What's not to love?
But how do I get you people to promote me by word of mouth? Well, I can try to be a sneaky ninja. I can email Maven Erica and beg, for example. But what we all really want is to have more of are those lovely times when we Google our own names and find really nice comments about ourselves (or better yet, our books) on other people's sites. (And by that I did not mean to imply Maven Erica and I are the same person. You get what I mean.)
Obviously, if I knew some trick to creating positive word of mouth I would have done it already. This site would have thousands of millions of hits and I would be world-famous. At the very least, I would be in a completely different industry. Unfortunately, my suggestion that you "just stand out from the crowd" doesn't make the cut for startling advice. I can only tell you what works for me in real life, and that is to act totally bonkers and hope people get the joke.
Which is sort of the problem and the solution at the same time. I think, and I'm no professional here, most people aren't willing to put themselves out there with controversial subject matter. Let's talk about two seemingly different but totally similar things: Anna Campbell's Claiming the Courtesan and Napoleon Dynamite.
Did that get your attention, Anna?
Both had that "Oh, no she didn't!" factor, right? With CTC, nobody could believe Anna would (allegedly) try to bring back the 80's romance novel. With Napoleon Dynamite... Need I say more? But if I do, let me tell you... Yet another very special 80's throwback. (Okay, that was just a really weird coincidence. What I meant to point out is that the story is just so freakin' weird, it's hard to believe anyone ever thought it up, let alone made it into a successful movie. A really, really successful movie.)
Both were successful because, I think, they each have enough elements in them that the entertainee could identify with what was going on. But at the same time, the entertainee is glued to the story because they just can't believe anyone would ever actually write something that sounds a lot like the weird crap that goes through their head on a day to day basis -- stuff that they would never, ever admit to. (Ok, maybe less likely with CTC, but I think you get me here.)
My point is, when you're watching Superbad, 40 Year Old Virgin, or Knocked Up, you're identifying with the storyline, but at the same time, you can't believe someone had the nerve (or the creativity) to write that story in the first place.* Which is why you walk out of the theater (or put down the book) and immediately start looking for people to talk about it with. Often, I might add, in slightly negative tones. But hey, the writer's the one laughing all the way to the bank, right?
So take that gem, make it your own, and let the people talk about you just a little bit. Sure, you may have the occassional weirdo walk up to you and repeat something back to you that will make you cringe wondering why you let that tidbit fall out of your mouth in the first place. Er, fingers. It's human nature to want to fit in with the crowd. But chances are, you'll have 10 more people laughing their hineys off because you did. (Or crying into their hankies, or whatever.)
Be weird. It's different.
Tell me something you've said or done that made you cringe at your own bravado/stupidity/hilarity/craziness, and then tell me about the person who came up to you and said hey, that was funny!/sad!/cringe-worthy!/you almost made me pee my pants!
Don't leave me out here on a limb, guys...
* If you click on the Knocked Up link (or Google this subject at all) you will find that, in fact, someone else DID write that storyline before. Two someones. But that totally takes away from the fun point of this blog, so I choose to ignore it. Sorry, Rebecca Eckler and Patricia Pearson.
I've found it's easier/more comfortable/more fun/easier to pimp other people's books than my own. At my chapter's readers' luncheon last spring, I talked at length about both Maven Erica and Maven Lacey's books. (Maven Lacey was there and can confirm.) About mine? Nada. Later, Maven Lacey says to me, "Doh! I didn't even think to jump in with pimpage on your book!" From there, we formulated a plan in which we would pimp each other and ourselves, because honestly one is easy and one is, well, hard.
Anyone who's ever met me will tell you I love to talk. About myself, my kids, my experiences, and slowly, but now surely, about my writing and my book. But, it took awhile. Why? I wish I knew. Even though I like to talk, I don't like to blow my own horn or make a big deal or, gasp, brag. Unfortunately, promoting yourself requires you do all three.
I think being with other writers really helps. They are naturally (and genuinely) interested in what you're writing. Listening to you gush about your book means they can comfortably gush about theirs. And listening to other people self-promo is a great way to feel more comfortable about promoting yourself. I encourage you to practice as much as possible.
After going to more chapter meetings (be sure to read my last week's post for why else chapter meetings are so important), I became more comfortable promoting myself and my writing. Writing for this blog has also helped. Case in point: after starting this blog, I decided to post updates to my website home page. I guess I realized it's okay to bring attention to yourself - in fact, the more the better! (Ahem, visit my website, please. Read the excerpt for Glorious, please. Tell all your friends/agent/editor about Glorious, please.)
Now that I've pimped myself a bit, it's your turn. Tell us why we must read your book, visit your website, haunt your blog. And make it good! You never know who stops by MavenLand!
P.S. Today is my daughter's first day of first grade. My goodness, where did the time go?
Fairly soon after I started writing seriously enough to think I might have a shot at getting published, I decided I needed a pseudonym. There were a lot of reasons for that, including: my real surname is difficult to pronounce, I work in a very conservative industry and wanted to distance my writing life from my professional life, and finally, that I feel rather protective of my private life and family.
Jacqueline Barbour had a lot of thing to recommend it as a pseudonym. To me, at least, it sounds like a historical romance writer's name. It's also relatively easy for me to remember. (My father, who was an anti-smuggling detective in the Border Patrol, used to say that the biggest mistake criminals made when taking aliases was that they chose names they'd never remember to answert to.) In this case, since my real first name is Barbara (but you can still keep calling me Jacqueline or Jacq or Jackie; I'll answer!), so Barbour is a riff on that and, as a bonus, gets shelved at the beginning of the romance section. Jacqueline is also a riff on a real name, in this case, my maiden name. And last but not least, the domain name was available. (This is actually very important. If you can't buy the domain for your real name, you need to consider a pseudonym you can buy.)
I didn't think much about pseudonyms again until I sold Carnally Ever After. I could certainly have published that story under the Jacqueline Barbour name, but I wasn't sure I wanted to do that. Although there's an argument to be made that I'd be building my "brand" by using my existing pen name, I wasn't sure the brand I'd be building was the right one for the books I've been writing under that name. They're traditional historical romances, set in the Victorian era, and while I'd like to think they're pretty hot, they're not erotica. Carnally Ever After, however, is Regency-set and it's definitely erotica. That being the case, I decided it was probably better to establish a second pen name and publish any erotica titles under that name, thereby reserving the Barbour brand for my traditionals.
And thus, Jackie Barbosa was born.
Of course, this isn't to say that pseudonyms are a necessity for branding. There are successful authors who've done it both ways. Lisa Kleypas is now writing both historicals and contemporaries under the same name. Nora Roberts, however, is also J.D. Robb, and even though most readers are probably aware that they are the same person (in fact, I think I've even seen J.D. Robb book covers that state this fact), readers also know what type of book they're getting when they buy a Robb versus a Roberts.
It seems to me that the advantage to branding by a pseudonym is that readers know what type of story to expect based on the name it's published under.
YOUR TURN: Are you considering using a pseudonym? Multiple pseudonyms? Are there any authors you read who have multiple pseudonyms you were surprised to discover are one and the same person?
Oh, publicity. If you get five authors in a room and ask their thoughts on publicity you’ll get six opinions. At least. Everyone’s trying to find the magic formula that will turn their publicity efforts into guaranteed sales of books. The problem is, there’s simply no concrete way to tell if publicity works. At all. Rarely does a reader come up to an author and say, “Great glo-in-the-dark pen! It’s the reason I bought your book!” And yet most authors feel they need to do some kind of publicity for their books.
So here are my rules for publicity. It’s extremely personal, it reflects my own narrow experience, and it may not be of any help to you at all. Take it with a grain—or pound—of salt.
Rule 1: Sell Your Book to a Good Publisher
Not only do you usually get a better advance and sales distribution from a major publisher, you also get in-house publicists. They’ll be doing a whole lot of behind the scenes stuff that you’ll never see and won’t properly appreciate until much, much later. Some examples:
Ads in Romantic Times Book Reviews Magazine. Most major NY houses do this even for newbie authors.
Sending out advance reading copies of your book to reviewers. Lots of reviewers.
Angling for article and interview opportunities for the author.
Rule 2: Get a Professional Website
This means a professional website designer. Really. The type of readers who will be visiting your website will also be visiting other author websites. You don’t want to look bad in comparison.
You could stop right here with your publicity efforts and I’m not sure it would make a speck of difference in your book sales. But most authors are much more paranoid than that, including me. Which brings me to . . .
Rule 3: It’s About the Book, Dummy
Whatever you do, whatever fun, strange, expensive, or it’s-so-cheap-you’d-be-a-fool-to-miss-it publicity ideas come your way, remember this: the book is the product. Everything you do, think: will this get someone to read my book? If you’re going to spend money on give-aways, why not give away your book? That’s what you’re selling, right? Not T-shirts, not mugs, not even glo-in-the-dark pens. You’re selling your writing.
Recently I was reading the comment trail on a popular blog that had asked for publicity ideas (*cough* Smart Bitches, Trashy Books *cough*). Somebody wrote in saying they’d got the niftiest reading light from an author. The commenter loved it! She still used it! She just couldn’t remember the author’s name . . .
Rule 4: Do What You Like to Do
A writer’s job is stressful enough. If you don’t like doing a certain kind of publicity, then don’t. If you don’t like public speaking, then for God’s sake, don’t give workshops. It’s just not worth it. The inverse of this is, of course, do what you like to do. If you love signings even if you only sell one book, then you go, girl! Forget the people who say signings aren’t worth it. To you they are. Personally, I have a thing about sending letters. I have a form on my website so readers can order bookmarks for free. Every time my critique partner sees it, she thinks I’m insane. Answering that much mail would just be another stress for her. For me, though, it’s kind of relaxing and I enjoy it. Do what you like to do.
Rule 5: Spend Your Money Up Front
Now, I don’t mean break the bank or go into debt, but think about it. When is your publicity money going to be worth the most? Answer: when nobody knows you. Which, unfortunately, is at the beginning when you have the smallest advance of your career (we hope, anyway!) Suck it up and if you can afford it, spend now. Writing is a business and all small business owners turn their profits back into their business for the first couple of years. Invest in yourself.
Note: Elizabeth will be bopping in to comment when available, so if you have a pressing EH question, please ask it!
Note II: Elizabeth's fabulous new book is out Tuesday! For those of you living under a rock, The Serpent Prince is the third eagerly awaited book in her Prince series. Order it now! (Then come back and leave a comment.)
Note III: Maven Lacey's reviews of The Raven Prince and The Leopard Prince can be found on Romantic Inks.com. Sadly, she has not yet read The Serpent Prince, but her fingers and toes are crossed in the hopes it will materialize soon...
You guys are not going to believe how much information I have to share today. Or rather, you already knew there was a ton to know about promoting your blog, and you will cry because you already barely have time to post. I know I was sure surprised! See, when I drew the Promoting Your Blog straw a few weeks ago, I think I must've thought between then and now, I'd become some sort of guru with fabulous advice. But now it's midnight on Wednesday and I'm realizing... Probably not going to happen.
The truth is, I muddle along in this blog business just like everyone else. When I realized I really only had two pieces of advice to share, and that they must be exactly the same stuff you'd tell your friend who was starting up a new blog (make love to the link-love and spread your blog seed early and often), I realized I'd better do some research. And, well... Guess what? There's a ton of blogs out there written on the very subject of promoting your blog. Lucky me! I do so love it when other people do my work for me.
So what I'm going to do is link back to a few of the top hitters I found and highlight some of the tips from each that I think are particularly helpful for our industry. If you decide to read all the articles, which I highly suggest you do, you will see that these blogs seem to be aimed more at driving traffic and therefore ad revenue, opposed to driving traffic aimed at physical book sales (etc). But they still have way more professional advice then what I was going to share, so listen up!
In my early days of blogging I stumbled across the idea of incoming links...and so I began a campaign of gathering links to my blogs. [...] I managed to increase the number of links to my blogs over time. In the process here’s what else happened:
My posting frequency dropped
Readers became frustrated with my content (which was obviously linkbait)
I lost some of my passion for blogging and my topic
I sold out content wise (started picking topics to write about that didn’t really add value to my blog)
I started watching my metrics more than the news in my industry
Frustration crept into my blogging when the links didn’t come
My Page Rank increased - but my actual SERPs (the position of my blog in search engines) dropped
It wasn’t until I took a step back from blogging for a week at one point that I realized how distracted I’d become and how the very thing that I thought would ‘make’ my blog was in danger of killing it.
I decided to focus again on my readers and on producing content that would be useful to them and in doing so saw a reversal in all of the above points.
Blogging is about co-opetition. Competition certainly exists in the blogosphere. Yet there is more cooperation happening than competition. Bloggers want to help each other. They want to inform their readers about other bloggers, blog posts, products and services. They know doing so adds value to their blogs and often builds loyalty in their readers.
I know, I know. You're thinking, who doesn't know this? But seriously. Next time you're feeling envious of a particularly good blog, why not link to it? Chances are, linking to her post will drag your name up in the search engines...
You Can Pay Someone to Do Your Work For You (okay, well you still have to write the blog)
In this article on Daily Blog Tips (who knew there was a site called daily blog tips?), the author discusses 7 ways to promote your blog by spending a few cents per hit. Now, as authors in a tight blogosphere we usually rely on our readers and writer friends to find us. But if you have a low promotion budget and a website with great content, perhaps getting yourself some Adsense makes sense.
Don't Be Shy
In this article on Webloghits.com, the author lists 55 social networking sites you can use to get your blog content launched into the big, bad world. I've never done this before, but according to the author, "Many of these sites will show your site on their home page as soon as you submit it. It’s up to everyone else that uses each of these sites whether your site stays there or gets buried."
Sounds win-win to me. You already wrote the post, right? And it's brilliant and inspiring and people can't wait to read it--so long as they know it exists. Why not get noticed? The worst thing that can happen, apparently, is that you get buried alive. You're an author! You're used to rejection!
bwa ha ha ha ha...
Get Down and Dirty with Your Numbers
In this article on TopRankBlog.com, the author shares thirty tips for marketing your blog. Don't tell me there isn't SOMETHING on this list you could be doing better. Me? I could improve my skillz with #15, Submit blog url to paid directories with categories for blogs - Yahoo, BOTW, bCentral, WOW, JoeAnt. (Surprisingly, we Mavens do pretty well with most of the others. What about you?)
Likewise, in this article on ProBlogger.Net (hey, they made the list twice! Way to go, content!), the author provides "41 ways to kickstart your marketing efforts." Personally, this was my favorite article of all of them, so if you're going to read just one I recommend this one.
So what did you learn today? Anything to add to this subject? And don't forget to come back tomorrow. Elizabeth Hoyt will be talking publicity, and you won't want to miss it! (I'm pretty sure having industry professionals guest blog on your site is always good for promoting your blog. Thanks, Elizabeth!)
Doesn’t that title bring to mind the educational movies you watched in elementary school? You know, the ones filmed in the late 50s or 60s and explained everything from how to winter plants to how to do calisthenics. Perhaps you settled into your rock-hard chair at your desk, excited about seeing a movie (or maybe it was even a “filmstrip”) instead of doing long division. But then you realize it’s something you’d seen last year. And the year before that. And the year before that.
Hopefully your RWA (Romance Writers of America) chapter meetings are not like that! But I get ahead of myself. First, do you belong to RWA? Or, if you’re not a romance writer, do you belong to whatever national/international writing group that might apply to you? Do you also belong to your local chapter? If you don’t have a local chapter, do you belong to any online chapters? (Isn’t the Internet grand?) Note to reader: Joining RWA and a chapter can be a great way to promote yourself!
If you answered no to all of those questions and are dead-serious about getting published, you might want to rethink. The first thing I did when I decided I was “serious” about writing romance was join RWA. Took me another six or so months to join my local chapter, Rose City Romance Writers, but I kind of eased into the writing thing over the first year. Then, a year after joining RCRW, I, uh, raised my hand at the wrong moment and found myself the new vice president of programs. Whoops. Er, yay! Note to reader: Becoming an active member of your chapter can be a great way to promote yourself!
I’m not in charge of promotion, but I am responsible for ensuring we have a program at each meeting. This is typically a speaker who talks for an hour or so on a writing-related topic. We love to have big names and exciting topics that will draw loads of members and often we do. I also really appreciate our chapter members who present a handful of workshops each year. I always learn something and I enjoy getting to know my fellow chapter members in this way. Note to reader: Giving workshops can be a great way to promote yourself!
RCRW also offers published authors all sorts of cool things – links on the chapter website, plugs in the printed monthly newsletter, opportunities to come talk (hint, hint), and we always, always invite our authors to sign their books. We have our business meeting and then we break before the program. Our awesome local bookseller brings and sells the books for the author to sign during the break and we happily rack up her sales numbers. Note to reader: Attending chapter meetings and signing books can be a great way to promote yourself!
We also have a PAN (Published Author Network within RWA) liaison and a PRO liaison for those of us on our way up to publishing. Anyone will tell you in any field that who you know can play a huge part in success. Your chapter members will be more than writing supporters, they will be networking contacts. They’re likely to read your book because, hey, they know you. And once they read your book, they’re likely to recommend it. Note to reader: Networking with chapter members can be a great way to promote yourself!
You no doubt have figured out (or will by the end of next week when we conclude our promotion series) that promotion is one of those things that will give results based on what you put into it – whether it’s money, or time, or passion. Here’s a new Mavenism: If you work it, it will come. (Hmmm, definitely a romance writer, I guess.) How about, If you pimp it, it will come. (Not any better, huh?) Ah well, what I’m trying to say, is work your chapter meetings and events, work the RWA National Conference – make this membership work for you! That’s absolutely what it’s for.
How has RWA (or appropriate organization) helped you? What kinds of promotion opportunities does your local or online chapter offer?
I decided I had to make this Ebook Promotion 100 and not 101 because I'm still learning myself how to promote an ebook! And since my ebook hasn't even been out for two weeks, I know I've got a long way to go before I really figure out how to do the promotion gig right. So this is definitely the zero level in the series :)!
That said, the fact that ebooks are sold entirely via the Internet gives an author a leg up in the promotion game because she (and her publisher) can focus on promotion via a single channel: the Internet itself.
This isn't to say that the Internet is the only place one should consider promoting an ebook. In fact, I swore to myself that I was going to get together a media kit by now and send out media releases about my ebook in the hopes of getting some publicity in other media. And not just in the hopes of bolstering sales of my book, but in the hopes of getting more people interested in and aware of the ebook phenomenon. Remembering that I wasn't even plugged into the concept of ebooks until quite recently myself, I am willing to bet that there are loads of potential readers out there who would be interested in purchasing ebooks if they knew they existed and where to find them.
Unfortunately, life intervened, and I haven't gotten around to that media kit yet. Maybe next book (I'm currently working on the sequel to Carnally Ever After and, given that Deanna at Cobblestone tells me she has been poking around on my Jackie Barbosa website and can't wait to see that story, I have pretty high hopes of Carnally Yours being picked up by Cobblestone).
So, what have I been doing to promote my book?
Well, first off, I've been posting about it like crazy here and on my Jacqueline Barbour blog. Maybe you noticed ;)?
I've also been lucky enough to have great publisher support. Cobblestone Press publishes a newsletter and in the last issue, Deanna excerpted the first chapter of my book. That led to some nice buzz on the Romance Divas forum leading up to the release. Emma Petersen, a fellow Cobblestone author, really loved the excerpt and without any prodding from me or from Cobblestone, she has waxed enthusiastic about my story several times. My friend Ericka Scott, another fellow Cobblestone author and former FanLitter, also made Carnally Ever After a recommended read on her blog (and no, I didn't ask her to!).
Cobblestone also has an author blog, where we are encouraged to post announcements about our releases and excerpts, especially on the day of a release.
Finally, Cobblestone hosts a chat room every Friday night from 7-9pm central time. During the chat, authors who have releases that week usually give away a copy of their books to one lucky winner. This chat also gives authors a chance to talk about their books with other Cobblestone authors and readers.
The other promotional effort I made was to score a guest author slot over at Romantic Inks from yesterday through tomorrow. If you're not familiar with this blog, you should be. Not only are Mavens Lacey and Erica regular RI posters, but it's a fabulous spot to read craft advice and industry insider dish from the many high-profile published authors they line up as guest posters.
YOUR TURN: Do you/have you read ebooks? If you have, how did you learn about those books? Through blogs/websites or word of mouth recommendation from people you know? If you don't read ebooks, why not? Is there any promotional effort that could get your attention and make you take a chance on one?
It's Promo Week here in Mavenland! And no, we're not promoting ourselves--we're promoting YOU.
Or, rather, sharing our tips and tricks on how you can promo you.
Today we're going to have a little chat about web sites. What makes me qualified to chat about web sites? Well, I've been designing, programming, and developing them professionally for a decade now. I've seen 'em impact sales, I've seen 'em fade into visitor-less obscurity, and I've seen 'em bomb with enough destructive power to re-explode the Death Star.
Let's aim for success, not planet detonation, okay?
Here are our steps: * Do I even want a web site? * What kind of web site do I want? * Who should make it? * How should it look/feel/act?
Get out your pen and paper--this is a workblog!
STEP ONE: Do I even want a web site?
As someone who pays her mortgage by making web sites for other people, you might imagine me persuading everyone I meet to get a web site. The truth is, however, that if there's no reason for you to have one, there's... well, no point in having one.
The purpose of a web site is some combination of the following: 1) Share information 2) Collect information 3) Promote something or someone 4) Sell a product
If you don't have need of any of those, you do not need a web site. Don't waste your time or money.
I'll walk you through the four points.
1) Share information This can range from contact info (Think store websites that pretty much consist of phone number and directions) to dissemination of information (Wikipedia, anyone?)
If you do have a web site, you must include some way for your web visitors to contact you, for reasons of legitimacy as much as interaction and visitor convenience.
Some authors also include information like tips for writers, or agent/editor interviews, etc. This is value-added content. It is a good idea, assuming the text contains quality information.
You do not have to do this, but if you do, know exactly what information you want to share.
2) Collect information Maybe you want to get visitor emails for your newsletter. Maybe you want to collect addresses for a mailing list. Maybe you simply want to collect statistical information to see how many people are interested in you, and what search engine keywords they're using to find you.
You do not have to do this, but if you do, know exactly what information you want to collect.
3) Promote something or someone Perhaps you want to promote your newest release. Perhaps you want to promote your entire book backlist, grouped by continuity series. Perhaps you want to promote your blog, or your writing-oriented community forums/bulletin boards, or your chapter contest, or your writing conference, or your book signing, or your workshop presentation, or your for-hire critiquing and editing service, or simply yourself and your contest wins.
You do not have to do this, but if you do, know exactly what you want to promote.
4) Sell a product Remember, a product can be a book, and a product can be YOU. Either way, if sales is your goal, you will have to provide the web visitor with persuasive marketing copy as well as a method of purchase, whether that be a web site shopping cart, a hyperlink to Amazon.com, or simply a contact form requesting your book/services/etc.
You do not have to do this, but if you do, know exactly what you want to sell and provide the visitor with an easy method of purchase.
STEP TWO: What kind of web site do I want?
I'm covering this topic in a six-part series (starting today!) over on my "Erica Writes" blog because it's just too complex to do justice in one post.
However, here are the primary points to consider: 1) Message and Image 2) Marketing and Promotion 3) User Interaction and Content 4) Aesthetics and Competition 5) Technology and Hosting 6) Content Administration
As mentioned, I'll go into explicit detail on each of these on my blog, but I want to make sure we're on the same page.
1) Message and Image In other words, what is the point of your web site and how do you wish to portray it? If the point of your web site is to sell your dark urban fantasies and you wish to portray this goal by having the tone of the web site emulate the tone of your books, then you might want to theme your site accordingly. (Sherrilyn Kenyon comes to mind.)
2) Marketing and Promotion Once you know what your web site's goal is, you must determine how to achieve this goal and how to measure success.
3) User Interaction and Content What do you want visitors to do when they come to your web site? You need to know, and they need to know. If you want them to read your three dozen articles on First Person vs Third Person, then links to those articles better be on the first page. If you want them to sign up for your newsletter or call you for a critiquing quote or buy your new release, again, make it obvious and easy!
4) Aesthetics and Competition I don't care who you are or what you write, (well, I do care, *g) every single author has competitors. Determine yours. Which of them do their job well? Which do not? (We're talking web site promo here, not prose. *g) What about the successful web sites make them work? What about the unsuccessful web sites make them fail?
5) Technology and Hosting This means you and your visitors. Who is coming to your site? Know their technology demographics and expectations and provide accordingly. And make sure your web host can support the files, traffic, and technology your web site will require.
6) Content Administration Do not forget this step! Somebody must update your web site content. It cannot just stay the same, week after week, month after month, or people will stop coming. Whether you will update your own content or have someone do it for you is entirely your preference, but make this decision up front so the site can be designed with this step in mind.
STEP THREE: Who will make my web site?
There are basically two choices here: You, or Someone Else.
The first thing I'll say--and I can't stress this enough, so listen up--it is far better to have no web site than a bad web site.
Got me? I'll say it again: It is far better to have no web site than a bad web site.
It doesn't matter if you're just starting out or if you have fifty New York Times best sellers. If your web site looks like you let your eight-year-old nephew make it with fingerpaints, you are not helping yourself. Stop. Step away from the web site.
Word of warning: this can happen whether you do it yourself or not. Before you pay someone to do it, check their references. Meaning, ask for examples of other web sites they've designed. Then visit them. Do they suck? If yes, run away. What is the point of the web site? If you can't tell, run away. If the web site's goal is to sell a book, how easy is it to buy? If it's not easy, run away. Do all the links work and the pages load quickly? If not, run away.
In other words, if the samples provided are not web sites you as a consumer would enjoy/frequent, then why pay money to have an equally bad web site of your own?
The flipside of this coin is that a talented professional can ALWAYS turn out a better product than an amateur do-it-yourselfer.
Know this, and decide accordingly.
If you have zero budget, zero programming talent, and zero time to learn--consider not having a web site at all. Seriously.
If you have no budget or necessary skill set, but you do have the time to learn how it's done, you may consider doing it yourself. It won't cost you anything, and if it sucks, you don't have to publish it, and at least you'll have learned a valuable skill for when the day comes for you to be in charge of updating web content.
If you have the skills already, feel free to give it a try. Can't hurt, so long as you view the final product objectively and only put it out there for the world to see if it truly will accomplish your goals.
If you have a middle-sized budget, you may wish to hire a semi-professional, such as a university student majoring in web site design and/or programming.
If you have a larger budget, you will probably be best served contracting a talented professional.
STEP FOUR: How should my web site act?
Once you know what the purpose of your web site is, what it should look like, how you will promote it, and who will develop it, you need to know what it needs to do.
If the purpose is to share information, then your web site better be chock full of useful, en pointe information.
If the purpose is to collect information, then collection opportunities better be on every page. This may mean a newsletter signup form on every page or this may mean a link on every page to the registration form or request for quote form, etc.
If the purpose is to promote something, then your web site better be promoting whatever it is on every single page. Do not miss an opportunity.
If the purpose is to sell something, then buying a product from your web site better be the easiest thing in the world for your visitors to do.
Above all, the web site must be: 1) legible 2) intuitive 3) easy to navigate 4) easy on the eyes
I'll break it down:
1) Legible No black text on gray backgrounds. No white text on tan backgrounds. Do not make the visitor click "Select All" and highlight the text just to be able to read it. Do not make the text super tiny or overlarge. Do not make the text scroll left-to-right further than the common denominator screen size. Do not design the site/text in such a way as to make it impossible to print, or to read once printed. They will not come back.
2) Intuitive The visitor should not have to waste time figuring out what to do when they come to your web site. They will not waste time figuring out what to do. If their first reaction to the home page is "What now?" instead of "Oh, wow!" then they will leave and never return. Make the choices obvious.
3) Easy to navigate Let's say a visitor wants to send you fan mail. They come to your web site. They can't find contact information anywhere. They go away. Forever. Don't do this! If links to important stuff isn't on every page (and, really, it should be) then at the very least, make an obvious link to a Site Map or similar at the top of every page. Somewhere they will see it without scrolling. Ideally, links to the Home Page, the Contact Page, and at the very least the primary pages for each of the major sub categories (if you have subcategories) will be on every page, in the same spot. Easy to find, easy to read, easy to click on.
4) Easy on the eyes Do not make your web site an eyesore! No loud, clashing colors that give readers headaches. No spontaneous music they can't shut off. (And I would even say, no spontaneous music at all--many web visitors browse at work and do not want to advertise their surfing.) No ads that pop up over the content or blinking text that's hard to read or flashy animated graphics/banners/etc that distract the reader's ability to read the content or buy your product. I'm not saying you can't have music or ads or flash animations, I'm saying do not annoy your visitor with it. If your web site is obnoxious and/or a hassle, they will go away and not come back.
On that happy note...
Last but not least: Measurability
Once your web site is out there, it is often a good idea to use tracking software (such as StatCounter) to find out where your visitors are coming from, how long they're staying, and what they're doing once they get to your web site. This will help you tweak accordingly.
YOUR TURN: Any questions? Comments? Derogatory remarks? (*g) I am able to check the comments frequently today, so please take advantage if there's something you want to know/say/ask!
Erica is so freaking awesome, but in case you somehow missed the news...SHE FINALED THREE TIMES IN THE TARA CONTEST! And her cp, Kelly, finaled, too. I don't know about you, but I'm impressed beyond belief. Triple-wow!
So last night I met up with a few of my chapter gals to go see Shannon Hale sign Austenland. After the signing, which was hilarious for a lot of reasons I'm not going into right now, I went out with one of them for drinks. Which was very cool, since it was a Wednesday and I had to stay up way past my bedtime to do it. Of course, it's not hard to stay up past my bedtime. I have to be at work at 6am. Speaking of which, I'm late.
Anyway, she's very new to this whole thing and y'all know how much I lurve to share my opinion. HA-ha! Captive audience! World domination ensues...
But that's ok. Even though I saw a new, clean pitch drafted by Darcy in response to Erica's blog -- which means Erica somehow managed to make her point in under the 3 hours it took me to -- I looked through didn't see the same level of detail I'd used over drinks. Probably because Erica has a life. And no mango margarita :-)
So here's what I think is important (and it definitely goes WITH what Erica said) (Btw, Erica, what's a GMC-D hook? I know a GMC hook is what I'm describing here -- Goal, Motivation, and Conflict, but what is D? A typo? Quoting an email thread from a long time ago).
You need to find the core of your story and then you need to find a way to stick to it while you're pitching. Here's why: the agent or editor is going to interrupt your every next sentence to ask for clarification on a point. That's fine -- it's what they do, right? But at the same time, you're still responsible for delivering the story hook to them. If they get sidetracked on how your Shawano heroine got to England and you never manage to get to the reason why she's a great foil for the hero, you look like you have a very implausible character in a manuscript with no plot and a heap of backstory.
As I suggested to my new little friend (insert diabolical accent here), if the editor (or agent) tries to start asking questions that YOU KNOW have no real bearing on the story you're trying to tell, find a way to answer the question in a way that brings the conversation back around to the point. Example (yes, I'm quoting myself; bite me):
"My heroine is brazen, wild, and actually pretty violent. As a Shawano warrior, violence is all she's known. She needs the hero to--"
Editor interrupts. "What did you say?"
"Uh, I said she's Shawano. Like the Indians. Er, Native Americans, but of course they were called Indians in 1814."
"Why is the heroine a Shawano warrior? I totally don't get that. How'd she get to England?"
"Oh! Of course! Well, let me explain..."
So here's where it gets tricky. The editor or agent will interrupt you a LOT. You think they're either interested in your story or trying to find giant plotholes and you start to get nervous, so you start to blather trying to answer everything (in the meantime, you feel like you sound totally stupid and your confidence starts to plummet). GET AHOLD OF YOURSELF! You're treading in dangerous water. If you don't ever make it back to why the hero and heroine can't be together, then you may use up 10 minutes bumbling on about your really complicated plot and never make your point. Then she'll close with, "Well, that sounds very fascinating and well-researched, but I can't see what's going to sustain the novel for the 100K words you were talking about. Plus I'm really confused."
Doh!
Don't panic if this starts happening. Just try and make the conversation come back to the conflict. So above, I might say, "Well, the heroine's father made some pretty debatable choices when he was her age, and she's been raised very differently than most of your RS-H heroines. Basically, this is what makes her a great foil for the hero. He'd like to overcome his very undeserved, very dark reputation so he can have a normal life. But the heroine is all about danger and darkness. 'Normal,' in her world, means surviving to see the next day, and she has no interest in changing this. She thinks that would make her weak. They're drawn to each other, but they have completely different values and a lot to learn about balance before they can be together."
So to summarize:
a) DO practice talking about your story in English b) DO be prepared to be interrupted every 5th word c) DO ask if the story sounds right for her d) DO act like you LOVE your story as much as is humanly possible without coming off false
See all the hms and uhs and wells I put in my example? It's OK to talk like that! Just keep smiling. Say "Good question" if you need a minute to think. DON'T FREAK OUT. You'll only have 3-5 if it's a group session and 10 if it's just you. That may seem like forever at the time, but it can be easy to be sidetracked and use it up on nothing in particular. You will want to ask HER questions, so don't let the time get away from you. It may seem like the more time you spend talking about your ms, the better, but in truth she won't remember anything you say. YOU, however? She'll remember YOU. Sell yourself, not your ms. Be a good listener. And for goodness sakes, act interested in your own story! (Side note: When I did my pitch session in Atlanta, the lady goes, "Oh, you do voices, too?" Well, it wasn't on purpose, but I was nervous. When I'm nervous I let my mouth run. Benefit? She loved voices.)
Anyone else have some great pitching advice? (Yes, I'm calling our advice great. Hey, that's part of self-promotion!) Horror pitching stories? Great experiences?
I promised on Friday that my first “official” post would be about promoting your book(s), and by extension, yourself. Some of you are probably already thinking, “Well, this has nothing to do with me, because I don’t have a book to promote.”
To which I say, “Au contraire, mon frere (or soeur, as the case may be).” The perfect time to start thinking about how you’re going to promote your books and your “brand” as an author is before you sell. (And I'm betting that most of you who have blogs have them, at least in part, because you know there's self-promotion value in them, so it's not like you haven't thought about this already!) Having sold something, however small, I’m already behind the eight-ball and have to play some catch-up.
Before I go into any specifics, however, I need to credit the source of this information and send you to her website. Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a multi-published author who has made a sideline career out of teaching writers how to promote their work in ways their publishers just won't. If you visit her other website, http://howtodoitfrugally.com/, you can order her book, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't, which goes into a lot more detail about this stuff than I'm permitted to do here without being accused of plagiarism!
Now, Carolyn shared a lot of different ideas with us during her presentation, but the one I want to talk about because I think it's most applicable to writers at the beginning of their careers is the Media Kit. Your Media Kit is exactly what you think it is--a group of materials you send out with a media release (not a press release, folks; this is the age of multi-media, remember!) to introduce yourself to a story editor and make it easy for that editor to choose to do a story about you and not someone else.
Building a media kit is a significant endeavor. You'll need to write two bios, one long and one short. You'll want a list of your awards (yo, contest finals) and publications (and blogs count :>). You should try to get some reviews of your work from other authors or experts, again one long and one short, to include in the kit. If you have any areas of special expertise related to your writing (think Kalen Hughes and costuming), consider putting together seminars or podcasts on the subject and including that in your media kit.
And that just scratches the surface. There's more. Go get Carolyn's book for the details. (Should I mention at this moment how well Carolyn's self-promotion efforts worked for her? She came and gave a talk to about 40 women at an RWA chapter meeting. Today, I'm here pushing her book to you, my blogosphere friends. Can you say snowball effect? That's what you want for yourself and why being able to give seminars on writing-related subjects can be very effective.)
I think you can already see that there's quite a bit of work involved in getting all that stuff written and compiled. In addition to the actual materials, however, you also need to start scoping out media outlets to which you'll want to send your kits when you've actually got something cool to announce (your first sale or, for those who've sold already, your next sale or next release).
Here, you need to be thinking not only of the obvious places (RWR, Romantic Times, etc.), but of places outside the romance-writing-and-reading community. Sure, you want to sell your book to people who already read romance, but how about broadening your audience by attracting more readers to the genre? So look at your local newspapers, both where you grew up and where you live today (that's your hook into them), the little freebie papers that you often find in delis and restaurents (which people actually read because they're there eating alone, and so can be even more effective than traditional newspapers), as well as radio stations, online media, etc. Carolyn's recommendation is that you have a list of at least fifty different media outlets along with the names of the story editors.
But the beauty of doing this before you sell your first book is that when it happens, you're ready! You write your media release, tweak the details in your media kit to appeal to particular media outlets, and package and send your releases to the folks on your media list.
Of course, there's no guarantee that any of these news outlets will ever pick up your story. But if you don't send it, they certainly never will. Your goal is to get your name out there and eventually, the effort will probably pay off. You just never know.
Carolyn told us a great personal anecdote that illustrates the value of sending out these media kits, For two years, she sent media kits to a local paper in Pasadena and they never printed a story about her. Not one. Then, early this year, she was recognized by that very same paper as One of the Ten Women Who Make Life in Pasadena Happen. So, they were paying attention, even if it didn't seem that way!
Since I don't have a media kit but I do have a release coming up in August, I have to get cracking!
The Mavens are thrilled to announce 
First, Don't miss tomorrow's guest blogger! 
Fairly soon after I started writing seriously enough to think I might have a shot at getting published, I decided I needed a pseudonym. There were a lot of reasons for that, including: my real surname is difficult to pronounce, I work in a very conservative industry and wanted to distance my writing life from my professional life, and finally, that I feel rather protective of my private life and family.
It's Promo Week here in Mavenland! And no, we're not promoting ourselves--we're promoting YOU.
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