How Not To Promote Your New Book

I have both brick and mortar books out there, as well as independently books. What do they have in common? That I flailed around in promoting them all! There definitely is a way to promote books, and a way to not promote them. One way leads to sales, the other does not. 

What we are going to talk about here applies to new authors, as well as authors with a few books under their belts. Until we take a good look at how we promote our work, we are not going to see good results. Probably the worst mistake that we can make is starting to work on our promotions too late. I have made this mistake more than once. What I am looking at for the future is to start putting together a plan for promoting my books when I am about half-way through writing them. 

I am going to develop a marketing plan at this time that includes starting to talk about my WIP on my author blog (this blog), on my social media sites (including a dedicated author age on Facebook), and in my newsletter (you can sign up for that here). I am going to contact people that I would like to review my book, and line up where I will be sending copies (written and digital).

Something that is still in the thinking stages with me is pursuing awards. I would like to do that, and I think that it would increase sales, but  I have yet to research how this would be done.

You need a website. I have a website now that includes all of my work (Tarot and writing). Before my next book comes out, I will be bringing up a site dedicated to my non-Tarot books. I developed my first website on my own (and it shows!). My new website will be developed by Blue Host (I have found them very easy to work with). The one thing that I am absolutely against is having a single page that just streams down. I want dedicated pages for a bio, a listing of all of my non-Tarot books, and a page dedicated to each individual book.

Spread out how you promote. I will be doing blogs, writing articles for LinkedIn, and placing commentary on Google +, Twitter, and Facebook. I will be doing at least one video for You Tube, and I may also be doing Facebook ads, although I have never worked with them before.

Which brings up the subject of money. Once you look at where you are considering promoting your book, set a budget for yourself. You can always expand your budget if need be, but set an initial budget so that you can some financial guidelines to work with.  

There is a need to brand yourself. We do this through the name(s) we write under (I choose to write under my own name), the genres that we write in, and how we present ourselves. I am looking at using the same background/banner for my website, my Facebook page, and my newsletter. 

We need to continue our branding through how we write - the focus on our author bio, the short blurb for our book (often referred to as an elevator speech), and a more detailed version referencing our book. We need to make our talking points reflect who we are as writers, as well as making our work interesting enough to draw in potential readers/fans. 

Final words: recognize that you are responsible for doing your own promotion. Hiring someone to do it for you may not be cost effective, and you may not be promoted in the manner that you wish to be. Promote wisely!

(c) September 2018 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission of the author.  

Video Marketing

Marketing is not my favorite activity, although as a writer it is a necessary one. Making videos - well, I have not attempted doing that yet. So why am I even considering it? If I will follow a link to a video, others will too. And I have learned a great deal through videos placed on individual sites, and on You Tube. There are some definite marketing advantages here.

Videos have their place in personal branding, as do the social media sites. Together they can form a marketing plan ... on that cinches an individual's brand, and gets (and keeps) their product known. We have to "be" how we choose to brand ourselves. Our work, our product, as to reflect our brand. When our respective audiences can see us :in person", through a video, they can identify with us. We become real to them. Now, all videos do not have to be personal videos, but the ones that are will, IMHO, have a greater impact.

We also need to consider conversion rates. What percentage of individuals clicking on a link are then going to follow through and purchase? If we can connect with them through videos, and get them to identify with us, and our brand, we will not only have a single purchase, but we have an audience that will follow us on social media, and want to purchase that next book, or CD, or attend that net seminar.

Allow your personality to come through. I am who I am ... in my mid-60's, a conservative liberal, and a wanna-be writer of cozy mysteries. This is who I am, and any prospective audience needs to understand this. My target audience is specific. Who are you? What do you want people to know about you? Who is your target audience?

I love videos - each has a story to tell! I look forward to getting my story out there ... and to hearing your story!

(c) 2015 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission of the author.  

What Do You Want Your You Tube Video To Do For You?

 

Is doing a You Tube video a one time thing for you ... or do you have a plan? I have had a reason for putting up each of my videos ... but I made  he mistake of not connecting them ,,, of not branding myself on You Tube, if you will. So what can You Tube videos do for us, and how can we make best use of them?

First of all, I want to thank Mary Nale, the person behind 99% of my videos. She has great insight, great vision, and can make an awesome video  from just a few keywords and a general theme. If you are doing your own videos ... pat yourself on the back right now! If you are having someone else do them for you, take a moment out to send them thanks!

To make our You Tube videos work for us, we want them to be seen, we want people to connect to them, and we want people to subscribe, How do we do that? As with the written word, we want to provide valuable content ... content that people want and need. Content that they will share. Word of mouth is a tremendous asset in marketing, and in building up a following.

We want our content to be relevant, to appeal to the people that we want as clients/customers/readers. There are all kinds of videos that can be done, from those that talk about your services, to a tutorial on how something can be done (I love tutorials!), to information on a specific product. For authors, our product is our books. 

Something that I did not realize is that we can feature a video at the top of our You Tube channel when non-subscribers visit. I am going to have to look at that, and see which of my videos is something that I want so show there. Or ... I may do a video that defines me, and my work. I am going to need Mary's expertise with that one!

Doing a video that includes stats lets people know where you stand, and that you are doing your research. Numbers mean a lot to me ... I am sure that they do to others also. You could also share a video that gives feedback on your product. For writers, we could do videos that focus on feedback from our reade s. Or do a tutorial ... for writers that might include tutorials on outlining a book, developing characters, or the dreaded editing phase!

Guess what else we can do with videos! We can embed them in our blogs, or on our sites. A whole new world is opening up here!

Take a look at one of the videos that Mary Nale did for me: "Seek Joy ... Toss Confetti". You can contact Mary about her video work at marynale@attunemagazine.com.

(c) 2000 - 2013 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction in any venue prohibited without the written permission of the author.

2013 - Off To A Good Start!

I feel very good going into the new year! The past  year saw my second print book, “Tarot, Rituals, and You” http://tinyurl.com/aywlljb , go into publication (it is due out from Schiffer Publishing in June of 2013), and a self-help book, “Surviving the Holidays” http://tinyurl.com/bfsyfxd, released through the Amazon Kindle program. I have an outline ready for a second Kindle book that should be up by the end of March, at the latest. I set the groundwork, along with a friend, to co-author a book on empowerment, and am working with another friend on a companion book to a Tarot project that she is working on. Then there is the mystery book that I have the backbone ready to build on. It is going to be exciting, and very, very busy!

What was left over from 2012 was not necessarily something that needed to be brought to closure, it was more building on what was there. Setting up informational pages for my books, and deciding how and where I am going to promote them. I have a new voice recognition system (Dragon) that I am working with (it is still in the “getting to know” stages), which should streamline my writing.

Over the past few years I have learned a lot about the writing process. The biggest misconception – that it is a linear process. I find myself working on one or more projects, while outlining another one. I have to pay attention to making professional contacts wherever possible, and make a consistent effort on the social media sites. Probably the most surprising thing to me was the fact that I need to plan for promotion before a project is done – to know how, when, and where I want to promote my work. I love what I am doing – which is fortunate, because it is a lot of work!

I do have one link that I would like to share with you - http://writetodone.com/2013/01/02/writing-brand/. This is a wonderful article on ways to develop and protect your writing brand. (You did realize that you needed to first find your voice, and then brand your writing, yes?) You need to be able to envision your brand (form a clear picture of it in your mind), format how you are going to market it, know what is important to you, and deal with the details one at a time. BTW – There is a freebie right at the top of the page – an e-book entitled “The (nearly) Ultimate Guide To Better Writing”!

What does 2013 hold for you?

© January 2013 Bonnie Cehovet