Write it Right Workshop at Perfect Peace

Networking No Comments »

Several friends sent me information they saw about a workshop series being hosted by Perfect Peace for aspiring authors and self-publishers. I signed up for the July workshops and am looking forward to attending the first one tomorrow. It is titled, “The Self-Publishing Experience” and the presenter is Gina Nachtigal. In addition to learning from the experience of others, I’m also anticipating meeting other authors and self-publishers in the local area. I’m hoping to take lots of notes and post them on here for easy reference in the future by myself and others.

3 Keys to Marketing for the Self-Publisher

Marketing No Comments »

In the course of my reading, I’ve boiled the immense world of marketing into 3 easy-to-remember tips. Although I have been garnering lots of great marketing ideas from the books I’ve been reading on the topic, it is easy to feel like marketing a book successfully is an impossible task. But by the time I finished reading How to Publish and Promote Online by M.J. Rose and Angela Adair-Hoy tonight, some common themes seemed to emerge.

I think that condensing the broad concept of marketing into these 3 general areas will give me a better sense of structure and enable me to focus my efforts more effectively in the days ahead. And actually, come to think of it, I almost feel a twinge of excitement at the thought of marketing now, whereas before I felt only dread and total incompetence in the field. Now I can develop specific strategies in an effort to achieve each of these three goals. So, here are the 3 keys:

1. Know your target audience. Be specific. Identify your niche market. Don’t just assume that everyone is interested in your book or you will be lost and ineffective when implementing marketing strategies.

2. Be creative. Look for new, unique ways to present your book to the public and potential reviewers and publicity outlets. While there is certain protocol that should be followed for certain situations, don’t be afraid to branch out and try new approaches to get your book noticed.

3. Market early and often. Don’t wait until your book is published to begin publicizing and promoting it. Take time early on in the process to develop a plan and set it in motion.

If you disagree with the primary importance of these 3 keys or have other suggestions, please don’t tell me. I rather like the simplicity of this system and don’t want anyone to complicate it for me again. 🙂

Lots of Reading

Reading/Researching No Comments »

I just realized a day or two ago that all my self-publishing library books are due back this Friday. Since I’ll be out of town next week, I decided to try to take in as much as I can from the books before Friday and then catch up on my writing next week. Hence…less content on this blog. But I plan to post some reviews soon!

Guerrilla Marketing for Writers Review

Marketing, Reading/Researching No Comments »

Anyone who does any research in the field of self-publishing will quickly learn that there are three keys to selling books. 1. Marketing, 2. Marketing, 3. Marketing

For anyone feeling uncertain about how to approach the vast world of marketing possibilities (and I’m pretty sure that includes just about every author-turned-self-publisher!), just pick up this arsenal of “100 No-Cost Low-Cost Weapons to Help You Sell Your Work” – Guerrilla Marketing for Writers by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman & Michael Larsen. One can’t help but feel as they read this book that the authors are really serious about wanting to help writers achieve success in their marketing efforts. Although it’s written with the assumption that the author’s goal is to be picked up by one of the big publishing houses, it is equally useful for the self-publisher. Perhaps even more so, because every time I read, “Your publisher should…” or “Ask your publisher if…” I made a mental note that I am my publisher and those are responsibilities that I too must shoulder.

The book is divided into four parts as follows:

Part I – Guerrilla Marketing: The Right Idea at the Right Time

Part II – Weapons that Make You a Guerrilla

Part III – Weapons Galore to Help You Sell More

Part IV – Weapons that are All About You

Each of these is subdivided into smaller categories into which are placed each of the individual “weapons” – specific marketing ideas. The Table of Contents lists each of these individually and serves as the perfect place to mark the strategies you want to use first. If I wasn’t borrowing this book from the library, that’s exactly what I would have done. In fact, the book would have been very well-marked by the time I finished it if it was mine.

In addition to all the practical strategies, the authors share numerous additional “guerrilla tactics” – ideas submitted by other authors, and “war stories” – real life examples of the guerrilla tactics and weapons in action. I can’t wait to get my own copy of this book and start marking it up! I’ve also just begun perusing the wealth of information and resources contained on the Guerrilla Marketing website. Between the book and the website, it’s almost as good as having an experienced mentor guiding you through the steps to effectively market your book!

Staying Current with Trade Magazines

Reading/Researching No Comments »

After reading several times about Publisher’s Weekly, I finally remembered to check out their website and subscribe to their free e-newsletters.

At the recommendation of someone on one of the self-publishing groups I joined, I also signed up for a free subscription to Book Business, another trade magazine.

Publisher’s Lunch is another highly recommended trade e-newsletter, so I went ahead and subscribed to that as well.

I figure I’ll try these all out for a month or so and determine whether they are beneficial or not. If not, I’ll just cancel my subscription. In retrospect, if I had thought of it before I finished subscribing, I would have created a separate and specific e-mail account (i.e. subscriptions@journeytoselfpublishing or something like that) to handle these, that way if my e-mail address gets phished by other companies, I could just delete the account. Rats! Wish I had thought of that sooner! Oh well, maybe someone else can learn from my mistake. 🙂 If you know of any other good (and free!) on-line or print subscriptions, please let me know!

Self-Publishing Blogs

Thinking No Comments »

You will notice that I’ve started a blogroll on my right sidebar for blogs related to self-publishing. I’ve only got a couple there at the moment – blogs that I’ve just happened across in my research thus far. Surely there are many more self-publishing blogs out there! If you have such a blog or know of a good one that you would recommend, please leave a link to it in the comments or drop me an e-mail with the info. I would love to connect with other bloggers who are traveling this path or have already traveled the path to self-publishing!

Advice for Writers…

Writing/Editing 1 Comment »

Write. That’s what I’ve read several times from experienced writers. When you feel dry and don’t know what to write – write. When you’re exhausted and don’t feel like writing – write. When you’re stuck and can’t think of the right way to phrase a sentence – write.

That’s definitely the only reason I started writing at 9:00 tonight, after I was done with all my other obligations today (at least all the ones I couldn’t put off until tomorrow!). Well, that and the fact that I have this blog that I started to compel me to write even when I don’t feel like I have it in me. 🙂

Tonight I felt much more inclined to curl up on the couch and read someone else’s book than exert exponentially more brain power writing my own. But I’m happy to report that I resisted the urge and opened my book file. I didn’t even stare at the screen for quite as long tonight as I did Monday before the words started flowing. Actually, it was probably more like a trickle, but at least there are words on the page now that weren’t there an hour and a half ago.

The Prepublishing Handbook Review

Reading/Researching No Comments »

The book research and writing is going a little slower this week, due to other responsibilities, but I finished reading The Prepublishing Handbook: What you should know before you publish your first book by Patricia J. Bell and wanted to post a quick review.

I knew with a copyright date of 1992 some of the information would be outdated and quite a bit of it was. But I still gleaned some good thoughts from it. In particular, Ms. Bell makes it clear that this is a “whether-to” book, not a “how-to” book. She does her best to scare off the faint of heart (or at least make sure that her readers are fully aware of what they are about to get themselves into if they decide to go the self-publishing route!). She points out that the self-publisher is an entrepreneur who uses his/her money to finance the project. Courage, persistence and resourcefulness are a necessity!

Ms. Bell makes it clear that a self-publisher must know what they hope and expect to achieve from the publication of their book. Is the goal to make money? Change the world? Pass on a family heritage? It is critical that this objective is clearly defined so that appropriate decisions can be made down the road.

Ms. Bell goes on to lay out five assets that will help an aspiring self-publisher determine if he/she has what it takes. The first four are interior assets (personal characteristics) and the last one is an exterior asset:

  1. Creative
  2. Confidence – you must learn to view your book as a product, not as your “baby”; you must be objective.
  3. Courage
  4. Stamina – persistence; determination to carry-through; need much physical, mental and emotional energy.
  5. Money – Ms. Bell suggests that at least $12,000 is required for the first year.

In chapter 3, the many hats of the small publisher are briefly explored:

  • Writer
  • Managing Editor
  • Financial Manager
  • Designer
  • Production Manager
  • Marketing Manager/Promotion Director
  • Sales Manager
  • Distributor
  • “Expert”
  • Secretary

It is prudent to consider that as a self-publisher one is assuming all the roles that are filled by a staff of people in a traditional publishing house. Of course these may be contracted out to freelancers as desired, but ultimately all the responsibility for the production of the book rests on the shoulders of the self-publisher himself.

At the end of the book Ms. Bell includes an annotated list of Recommended Reading that is very helpful. It is arranged according to various categories (eg. Publishing, Business Planning, Production, etc.) and some of those that she highly recommends – like Dan Poynter and Marilyn Ross – are still known today as “go-to-people” in the world of self-publishing.

The number one insight I have taken from this book is the need for vigorous self-education. And so…let the journey continue!

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