One of the links on the Self Published Carnival led me to this wonderful list of Seven Tips to a Successful Author Book Signing and Writing Event by The Bauu Institute and Press:

1. Research Your Potential Book Signing and Writing Event Locations…
2. Be Professional In Requesting An Event…
3. Help Drive Attendance And Thereby Book Sales…
4. Create An Interesting Presentation Or Performance…
5. Remember The Details Of Selling Books…
6. Tie In Callback Or Side Opportunities…
7. After Event follow up…

Read the article for an ellaboration of each of these points. You’ll come away with all sorts of excellent tips on holding a book signing! I’m still hoping to do a couple of local book signing events, so I’ll definitely be referring back to this article for reminders on what to do and what not to do.

We’ve sent a number of press releases about Pajama School – stories from the life of a homeschool graduate to local media outlets and to national homeschool association leaders, but now I’m keeping my eye open for other opportune connections. For example, USA Today ran an article the end of last week about homeschooling. The story was written by Greg Toppo (the national K-12 education reporter for USA Today), so I began looking for a way to contact him directly. The search proved highly unsuccessful. There is no handy list of editors with contact forms on the USA Today website, and none of the articles include a link to connect directly with the writer. I did find what appears to be his facebook page, but this seems like a highly inappropriate way to go about making the connection. 🙂

In my search, I came across this helpful list of recommendations on How to Send a Press Release. Apparently, it’s akin to spam to send press releases to an editor without making prior contact. There is a drop down menu option of Press Release on this feedback page, but it seems less than professional to copy and paste a press release into that form field. And the probability of it being routed to and read by the appropriate editor seems pretty low since there has been no previous personal contact. So, that’s my dilemma of the day. Any thoughts or advice?

If you’re interested in tuning in to my live radio interview Friday, March 13 at 4:00 p.m. Central Time, you can do so at kcfn.afr.net. It will be part of the program “The Home Stretch” by Thomas A. If you’re in the Wichita, Kansas area, you can tune in to 91.1. It’s kind of hard to know how to prepare, but here are a few things I’ve done:

1. Typed a list of sample questions (I sent these to the show host as well). I’ve been thinking through and writing out answers to the questions, trying to figure out what I want the heart of my message to be.

2. Scoured the Internet for advice from others on how to give a successful radio interview.

3. Meditated on Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” I’ve been praying this for myself and have also asked others to pray it for me.

4. Printed out and reviewed a list of 40 suggestions/tips that my Marketing Manager sent me (have I mentioned how incredible she is? – thanks, Olivia!). This is helping me gain clarity in my thoughts and prepare some things I hadn’t previously considered.

The thing about radio interviews is that you can’t do them in writing…kind of a bummer for us writers, huh? 🙂 I’m not a very good “off-the-cuff” speaker, so the prospect of a live radio interview is rather intimidating terrifying. I think I’m beginning to see more of the big picture as to why God took me through the School of Contentment earlier this year. It’s certainly not pleasant, but I do believe that it’s good for me to be forced into situations that I’m not particularly good at in order to increase my faith and help me develop better skills. What a journey this continues to be!

Like any good child of the 20th/21st century, I’ve grown up depending on e-mail as my primary mode of communication. It’s so convenient – you can do it at any time of day or night, it can be personal or formal, and best of all, it can help you avoid the awkwardness of “cold calling.” For some reason, it just doesn’t seem as painful to be rejected by e-mail as it is over the phone. But that’s the catch. For some reason, it also seems easier to reject the requests of others via e-mail. The handy delete key can be dutifully employed and no one’s feelings have to be hurt. Instead, one is left wondering whether the e-mail was properly transmitted, whether the intended recipient viewed it, whether they are just busy and haven’t gotten around to replying yet, or whether they have indeed rejected the request and deleted it altogether.

Thus I have learned the value of a simple phone call. In my process of soliciting endorsements for Pajama School – stories from the life of a homeschool graduate, I’ve sent out numerous e-mails. Most went unanswered. However, last week, due to a tip from a friend, I made a phone call to an organization where a person from whom I was hoping to secure an endorsement works. After a brief conversation with his assistant, I sent a follow-up e-mail with the promised additional information and links. Later that afternoon, an endorsement arrived in my inbox. I was shocked! And regretful of my frequent hesitation/refusal to make phone calls.

So yesterday morning, I performed the much-disliked task of calling all the other endorsers from whom I had not heard to follow-up on the e-mail I sent weeks ago. And you know what? I didn’t get a single rejection. Every person with whom I spoke was friendly and receptive. But best of all, now I have a full list of names and addresses of people who are eagerly waiting to receive an Advance Review Copy of my book as soon as it’s printed and ready to go! 🙂

Last week I received an e-mail from a lady who writes a column for one of our local papers. She was interested in interviewing me about Pajama School and featuring it in an upcoming column! It was completely unexpected and I am praising God for what He is already doing to help me get the word out about my book! We just concluded the interview this morning and she said the article should appear in next Wednesday’s paper. I’ll be sure to post a link to it here when it’s available!

Google Alerts is a great way to keep up with the latest news related to the topic of your book or even self-publishing in general. I set up a gmail account specifically for this purpose and signed up to receive alerts for several keywords related to my book topic. I also set up alerts for the words “self-published” and “self-publisher” to get an idea of what news outlets pick up stories or do book reviews of self-published books. Another handy tool from Google!

Annette’s Paper Trail has a list of 14 Random Bits and Bytes of Book Promotion Advice for self-publishers.

1. Write about something you have a passion for.

2. Connect with your target audience.

3. Don’t rely on someone else to do your publicity.

4. Develop a diverse promotional plan.

5. Maintain a blog.

6. Use Amazon to your advantage.

7. A book is only one part of your platform.

8. Repurpose your content any way you can.

9. Get proper speaker training.

10. Post an audio excerpt on your website.

11. Become a shameless self-promoter.

12. If you are selling a story instead of information, ask: What is in this…?

13. Keep your eyes on the news.

14. Don’t let your books sit on the shelf.

In her post, Annette goes into more detail about each of these points, providing self-publishers with lots of practical tips.

John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, is known as a leading expert in the field of book marketing. He has a helpful list of Book Promotion Advice on his website.

1. 90% of marketing efforts are wasted.

2. Book marketing is all about creating relationships.

3. You can’t do everything.

4. Packaging is important.

5. Build a brand with your books.

6. We are in the business of creating and selling rights.

7. Remember that small presses can create bestsellers.

8. New standards are coming for submitting info to booksellers.

9. What was your strength can become your weakness.

10. Make no little plans, because they have no power to move the hearts of men and women.

Visit the Book Promotion Advice page to read Mr. Kremer’s elaboration on each of these points. You can also subscribe to his Book Marketing Tip of the Week e-newsletter for free by sending him an e-mail with Subscribe to Ezine in the subject line or by entering your e-mail address in the form field on this page.

So far, the most frequently asked question I am getting is what the topic and title of my book is. So, here is the official answer…

For right now I’ve decided not to share that information. I will formally announce both pieces of information at some point, but decided to wait until I am a little further in the process before doing so. I really have no idea what the standard procedure is for writing a book – whether people announce those things right off the bat or wait until they are ready to publish. Anyone know?