100,000 Plus

by: Jo Fulkerson

Your novel is finished, you’ve had it edited by a professional Editor, and you’ve done the rewrites. What? You haven’t had an editor edit your work yet? This is a must. There are many editors advertising in Writer’s Digest. I have used one in whom I have the utmost confidence – William Greenleaf. His website is http://www.williamgreenleaf.com email wgreenleaf@email.com Another editing service I have contacted is A-1 Editing Services – http://www.a1editing.com I have not used their services as yet, but they did do a 5-page critique and edit for me at no charge so that I could get an idea of their work. I am seriously considering them for my next novel.

Once you have had it edited and done the rewrites, you’re ready to send it off to the publisher (or get it set up as an ebook), and . . . And then what? How are you going to promote and market your newest creation? Any Ideas? Let me strongly recommend a service which I used and with which I have been extremely satisfied. Publishersandagents@aol.com is an email query service headed by Gini Scott. She works up a solid query letter for you, emails it to film producers (for scripts) and agents, as well as book publishers (editors) and book agents. You will be amazed at the response you will get from her emails (they come directly to you from the contacts). This is by far better and easier than looking up the contacts yourself and contacting them each individually. Let me give you a word of warning: Be sure and have your response materials ready. Your script treatment, your manuscript, your bio, your synopsis – all of the materials that these contacts are likely to ask you to send should be prepared, corrected, and in your files ready to send when you begin receiving inquiries.

If you decide to self-publish your work, search all of the information you need to be able to decide where to have the work published. POD publishers, such as


    * iUniverse – http://www.iuniverse.com –

    * Infinity Publishing – http://www.infinitypublishing.com or email: info@infinitypublishing.com –

    * 1st Books – http://www.1stbooks.com

    * Trafford Publishing – http://www.trafford.com

    * Book Locker – http://www.booklocker.com


All of these are sources I have contacted and find their information worth considering. (For “Sing Me No Sad Songs” I chose Trafford Publishing.)

Whether you find a regular publisher or self-publish your novel, or offer it as an ebook, you’re in for a big shock if you believe you won’t have to promote and market your book yourself. You will have to do the work yourself. And if you thought that getting your book finished and polished was a giant task, you’re going to find out that the work you put into writing your novel was a walk in the park if you don’t get your ducks all in a row to begin your marketing strategy.

Among the various marketing strategies I uncovered and recently began using (I told you that I didn’t plan ahead for my book promotion) are these:


    * Book Crazy Radio has interviews with authors via internet radio every Tuesday. http://www.bookcrazy.net for information

    * Brian Jud has two book marketing services which are well worth considering. I am using one of these right now.) He also has an ezine for writers with many promotion tips. Contact BrianJud@aol.com for details.

    * BooksAndAuthors@aol.com has some good book promotion ideas and services.


Other places to find great promotion information are these newsletters:


    * authorgmooney@getresponse.com

    * http://www.writersweekly.com

    * http://www.bookcoaching.com email: Judy@bookcoaching.com

    * http://www.digital-e.biz.com email: birgitt@digital-e.biz.

    * Book Promotion Newsletter – contact franalive@optonline.net

    * http://www:oncewritten.com


Use your search engine to locate other ezines for writers – they are an invaluable source of publicity by using your articles with your signature at the end to direct people to your book.

Don’t wait! At least by the time you send your manuscript to the publisher or get it ready for an ebook, you should be checking ezines for information about marketing. You should gather all the information you can find relating to marketing – look up websites, contact them all and find out what kind of marketing tools are available to you and which ones you want to pursue.

Keep file folders, with all the information you gather, and find some way to keep track of what each file folder contains. Then categorize your folders by subject – Marketing Information, Info on Publishing, Ezines for Promoting, Comments – Reviews – Press Releases, etc. You need to be able to find just what you’re looking for without going through folder after folder looking for it.

The important thing to remember – Don’t wait until you are ready to begin marketing your book to begin collecting information. Be ready to start marketing as soon as your book is finished and ready to be marketed.

In the case of articles, you should write several articles, polish each one to perfection, and then contact or send them to appropriate ezines and newsletters. Send your articles out every week or two and keep sending them out as long as you develop new lists of ezines to submit to. Keep writing new articles which help others to learn from your experiences and put your signature at the end of each article. Your name, a published article or book, website, etc. should be at the end of EVERY article you submit.

Copyright 2004 Jo Fulkerson

Jo Fulkerson is a published author, songwriter, poet.


Author of "Sing Me No Sad Songs" Available at http://www.desertmesa.net


"Secrets of a Publisher Author" available at http://www.writersline.net

I think I was born with a pen in my hand - I have been writing poetry, stories, etc., since grade school. Born in Illinois, now living in New Mexico. Married (just before graduating high school) 49 1/2 years. Published first novel at age 69.

by: Penny C. Sansevieri
Have you ever dreamed of selling your book to a large corporation? A sale that would register several thousand copies of non-returnable product on the book sale meter? What's that? You've never thought of it you say? Well, never fear! It's not too late to pursue this avenue, especially if you have a book ripe for a particular market.

Before you embark on this project, it's important to understand the possibilities out there. Start being aware of incentive items you might see and understand how they are used. Many are offered as consumer gifts or incentives while others are used as training tools or morale boosters for employees.

Some examples of premium sales might be:

Books offered at yearly company sales meetings
Books offered to consumers at a discount (consumers are usually asked to send in product UPC's to qualify for these specials)
Books offered to new customers at financial institutions
Books offered to new home buyers
Books offered to new magazine subscribers

To determine the market segment you want to go after, study your book first for obvious clues. If you've mentioned or recommended companies or products in your book, those will be the first tier you'll want to go after. Next, think about the message of your book and how it aligns with particular companies within that industry. Company web sites and ads will offer great clues when trying to match a company or organization up with your book.

If you're going after the magazine subscriber bonus segment, you'll have a bit more flexibility. Generally, if the book fits the reader demographic and aligns itself with the message of the magazine, it will be considered. For example, you might offer a home organization book to Good Housekeeping or a fitness book to Self or Redbook. Before you approach these magazines, read them for about three months so you get a good sense of what they're about and who their audience is.

If you're going after a particular market and are trying to locate companies within that industry, try doing a Boolean search in Google. Your search should look like this: "your industry and companies." Another resource is http://www.thomasregister.com. This site will link you to companies nationally and internationally within your industry.

Next, don't overlook companies in your own backyard. Think about industries, companies and organizations in your area that might work well for your book and begin going after them. Many times, local companies will welcome the opportunity to support hometown authors.

Once you've put your list together, you'll want to contact them and pitch them the idea. Or, in some cases, our company will send them the book and proposal before we even make phone contact. Sometimes the companies you've targeted will be on the lookout for incentive items, other times this will be a new (and exciting) area for them. If you're going after employee incentives, it's interesting to note (and mention in your sales letter) that employee incentives increase individual performance by 27% and team performance by %45 percent.

Be open and creative with your pursuit of premium sales! Many times, companies will want to put their logo on the cover or include an extra page in the book with a letter from the President or CEO. Check with your printer or publisher on whether this is possible for you and what the additional costs will be before you start pursuing the premium sales arena.

So, how long does this process take? We've seen premium sales turn around in a week, while others take a year or more to complete. Oh, and the most important part... how many books can you plan to sell? Anywhere from one thousand to several thousand depending on the deal and the company. We've even got a deal in the works for a half a million copies of one book. Discounts and negotiations vary. Often, we'll negotiate volume discounts of 50% to 70% on bulk orders. Again, make sure you've got these figures ready when you pick up the phone to make your pitch.

With the right book, premium sales are not only a great way to gain exposure of your book. But in the end, they make great "cents."

Penny C. Sansevieri
The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed the ranks at Amazon.com to the #1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: No More Rejections. Get Published Today! was released in July of 2002 to rave reviews. Penny is a book marketing and media relations specialist. She also coaches authors on projects, manuscripts and marketing plans and instructs a variety of coursing on publishing and promotion. To learn more about her books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.booksbypen.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@booksbypen.com
Copyright  2004 Penny C. Sansevieri

by: Denise Hamilton
You are about to embark on the most exciting enterprise of your life -- publishing a cook book! You will soon learn that writing a cook book is truly a fun, exciting and challenging project – more than you can imagine. Like me, you can publish your own wildly successful cook book. And if you ask me if I think publishing a cook book is worth the time and effort? You bet I do!

My cook book, Fit to Cook – Why ‘Waist’ Time in the Kitchen? sold over 250,000 copies (with, I might add, less than 10% of those sales coming from book stores). However, I wasted a great deal of time, back-tracking and scrambling in order to sell all those books because in the beginning I did not have a complete grasp of the publishing industry and the process of marketing a cook book.

Before you rack your brain figuring out how to write a cook book, and more importantly, how to publish a cook book, take some time to thoroughly research the why and what you are writing about, who you are writing for and when is the best time to launch your book.

Whether you want to get published or whether you want to self publish your cook book, the same basics apply – you need a good understanding of the publishing industry. Without the basics, will you know if your contracts are in order, that your book is the best it can be and that your cook book marketing plan is actually an effective strategy? No – but, knowledge is power. It is crucial that you take enough time to educate yourself about the entire publishing industry.

Understanding publishing, and the marketing of books, will clearly help you to identify why you are writing a cook book. Perhaps you are writing a cook book just to record secret family recipes or to have all of your own favorite recipes in a book format; maybe you are writing a cook book for a community or church fundraiser; or best of all, your goal is to create a bestseller. Cook books that are written for a very small group do not require business and marketing plans because you already know how many books will be purchased and who the buyers are. However, if you are planning to publish your own cook book for the mass markets, you need to understand that you have moved beyond author to publisher. That means that you are now a business person whose primary goal is the creation of a product to sell. There is no point in printing a book that no one will want to buy.

When I began writing my own cook book, I naively thought that it would be a two or three month process, and that in no time I would have a book on every book store shelf in the country. Ha, ha, ha, chuckle chuckle… Experience is a great educator, but who says that you have to learn the hard way? Obviously I had no idea how to publish a cook book in the beginning! However, through this article and via the publishing course that I and my partners have created, I intend to help you avoid losing time and money.

How did I create such a successful cook book? The short answer is research, research, research, and then more research. Thankfully I had the wisdom to do the research before going to print. But research can, and did, take years. Primarily for that reason, I created a self publishing course, Recipe for Success (Click Here for more information) as the most valuable publishing research shortcut in existence.
 
In my experience, after I learned how to write a cook book I had to learn all about cook book publishing:

copyright

trademarks

ISBN numbers

cataloging in publication data

printing terms like cover stock, bindings, signatures and bluelines

learning how to obtain printing quotes, (crucial in knowing how many books you can afford to print)

barcodes

graphic design (makes the difference between great sales and no sales)

editing (cannot, and I mean cannot, be done by yourself, friends or family)

titles and subtitles (they can make or break a book)

title search (avoid duplicating someone else’s title)

distribution

Next, I had to learn about how to start a business:

business plan
incorporation
toll free numbers
corporate logos and identity
websites
shipping arrangements
accounting principles

Most importantly I had to become wise about marketing:

writing a plan

researching competition

understanding target markets

going through the difficult but crucial process of choosing a book title

discovering the importance of a book’s cover – both the front cover and the back cover – and how to design the cover

looking outside book stores for buyers

learning the importance of publicity

discovering the essential need for a stellar media kit and how to create one

approaching the media and the importance of a good publicist

I learned, and I will share with you, a key point to consider when you are discovering how to write a cook book. Before you even begin to write your cook book, you must identify your target market. Who will actually buy your cook book? It is amazing that so many authors think that “everyone” will want their book, but that is not so. Not “everyone” is a target for anything! – not even the Bible.

Know who will actually buy your book. Interviewing the owners of cook book stores and specialty cooking stores can help you to identify cook book trends so that you know what people are actually buying. It is also a good idea to think of corporations and organizations that might benefit by using your book as a promotional item. Approach them even before you go to print, offering them special discounts, opportunities to place their information in a special printing of the book, advertising chances to offer your cook book as a “freebie” with the purchase of their product – just to name a few cook book marketing ideas.

If your cook book is targeted to busy families, the recipes must be easy to prepare in a short time period; if it is targeted to gourmet cooks, the recipes must be of the quality that you would expect to find in a four or five star restaurant; if it is targeted to a specific ethnic group, the recipes must be authentic; but if it is targeted to the mass market, your cook book must have a very wide scope with recipes that make any mouth water, and the ingredients must be readily available in grocery stores.

Once you have identified who will buy your book, you can target your marketing plan and your book design with your customers in mind, such as:

· Where do they shop?
· Where do they play?
· What style of book appeals to them? - (research your competition closely).
· What price are they willing to pay?
· How many pictures do they want in a cook book? (a lack of photos can kill book sales)
· What colors attract them? (spend time in book stores and libraries, learning which books have the most appealing appearance)
· What size of book is currently popular?
· What type of book binding increases sales?
· Are they concerned about health or other issues?
· Do they appreciate little stories, jokes, cooking tips or other information in the book?

Sometimes I took two steps forward then had to take one step back, but at other times I took one step forward and two back. Don’t waste time the way that I did – use my experiences to your advantage (in Recipe for Success I have included many resources and templates to help you. Once you have a grasp of the basics, you can actually begin to put your cook book publishing and marketing plans into action. 

Of course, a cook book has special challenges that other books may not have. Your primary goal is to give people unique, delicious recipes that they can create successfully in their own homes. That means that you have to measure exactly and your instructions must be clear and simple. You will have to test each recipe over and over until it turns out perfectly every time, then you will have to enlist other people to prepare those recipes independently of you. No matter what their comments, you must take the critiques of your testers seriously because if they do not achieve great results the chances are very good that your customers will be unhappy with their “flops”. Finally, it is a good idea to have the recipes tested by a professional home economist or other food expert.

Depending on the focus of your cook book, you might want to include nutrition information such as calories and fat content. Fortunately, there is now computer software that will do the calculations for you. You must also provide an index at the back of the book, and thankfully, software is available for this chore also.

Food photography is a special challenge of its own, requiring many tricks to make good look appealing. A good food photographer is a vital part of your cook book publishing team. Great attention must be paid to every minute detail, down to the grains of pepper in a dish and to the bubbles on top of a cup of coffee. Each photograph can require four hours of shooting time, if not more, so plan adequate time for the photo shoot. 

The services of a food stylist are very helpful, but with research you can do a great deal of the food styling yourself. Find as many books as you can on the subject and practice in advance of the photo shoot. I learned simple tricks like:

sticking sandpaper to the plate to prevent food from slipping

using whipped icing or shaving cream
in place of ice cream or whipped cream

placing a shot glass under a very thickly cut slice of lemon to prevent the lemon from absorbing the liquid underneath

using beef bouillon in place of “coffee”

using dish detergent to create bubbles in the “coffee”

using a blow torch to make meat appear cooked

and the list goes on…

Food styling is such fun, but it requires a great deal of time, even in advance of the photo shoot. You will need all of your “props” in place, such as dishes, cutlery, flowers, table linens, food items and backgrounds. Many companies will happily lend these items to you in exchange for a credit in the book – this can appear on the Cataloging in Publication data page at the beginning of your book.

When your book is ready to go to print, it is time to put your cook book marketing and publicity campaign into gear:

· Decide on the best time of year to launch your book. September is usually the best month for Christmas sales, but you also face steep competition. Try to think of a time that is appropriate for your book, such as January for a healthy eating book, late Spring for a barbecue book, Valentine’s Day for a romantic book, Heart and Stroke month for a heart-healthy book, etc.
· Produce galley copies.
· Send galleys to appropriate book clubs (look at their websites to learn their submission requirements).
· Research appropriate catalogs and send galleys to them.
· Have your publicist approach magazines that review cook books (magazines have long lead times).
· Stay in contact with any corporations and organizations that might use your book for promotions.
· Find a reputable distributor to have your book accepted by the book store trade, as well as other retailers.
· Contact non-book store book sellers.
When your book is ready to roll off the press, get your publicity campaign into high gear. You can have the best book in the world, but if no one knows about it, no one will buy it. The easy part is over – publicity and marketing now become your life. This part is the most fun, as you now reap the rewards of all of your efforts. Your goal now is to turn your cook book title into a household word. Go for it -- publish your own cook book!

© Copyright 2004 Ink Tree Ltd.
http://www.inktreemarketing.com/PublishaCookbook.htm

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Denise Hamilton self published her own cookbook and has sold over 250,000 copies to date. She is now sharing her secrets with other authors.

by: Penny C. Sansevieri
Ok I admit it. I'm a Californian. We live in shorts, we dine at juice bars and our politics are nothing short of, well, a Hollywood movie. If you've been shaking your head wondering how someone with a narrow political background could be elected to a state boasting on of the 10th largest economy in the world, join the club. That, my fellow savvy book promoters, is a campaign we could all learn from.

Schwarzenegger is a guy who, while being well-known in the movie world, is far less well-known in politics. During campaigning, he carefully avoided addressing issues Californians wanted to hear about. Nor did he ever stand on any one particular political platform. So, how did he win? He found a need and filled it. With recent indicators showing Californians leaving the Golden State at alarming numbers, we desperately needed a boost.

Schwarzenegger's media team saw a need and filled it with an action hero who vowed to "terminate" traditional politics. Whether you believe Arnold will be a good governor or not, you have to admit he ran one heck of an amazing campaign.

While most of us can't afford the pro team Arnold could, we can still effect changes in our book promotion campaigns that will turn the tide in our favor. It's called trend-spotting. Many people make their living trend-spotting, and you can do the same thing with a few clicks on the web. Take a look at http://buzz.yahoo.com/ or http://50.lycos.com/. You want to anticipate a need and fill it.

To stay ahead of the trends, our team at Authors Services spends considerable time brainstorming recent issues and how they'll affect various areas of our everyday life. These emerging trends are what we focus on as we prepare or launch a campaign.

If you're planning to write a book or preparing to work on your book promotion, take some time to study trends in your area of expertise. How will these trends look twelve or twenty-four months from now? How will that affect book sales down the road? For example:

Escapism: the new vacation. Many of us no longer have time for two week vacations. Instead, we're opting for one day outings and novels to give us that quick "out" when we need it. Does your book provide a mini-vacation for readers?

What do a down-sized engineer named Dilbert and a slightly built Keebler-elf sort of character by the name of Clay Aiken have in common? They're both chart-toppers. Many have called this the revenge of the nerds. How will this affect your next book?

Trend spotter Faith Popcorn recently said that time is becoming more valuable than money. People would rather spend money to have more time. The effect? More home delivered goods, and more consumer conveniences. How can your book address this trend?

And finally... We're hearing more about "Politainers" these days: entertainers turned politicians. Are they serious politicians or figureheads? How will this affect the future of politics? Planning a political novel? George Clooney for President!

If your topic doesn't have a trendy angle, create one. Figure out which part of the trend you can grab onto and do that. Again, find a need and fill it. Keep your subject matter, book or PR campaign topical, trendy, and hip. That's what we did with this story. After all, who would have thought book promotion and a governor's race would have had anything in common?

Happy trend-spotting!

Penny C. Sansevieri
The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed the ranks at Amazon.com to the #1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: No More Rejections. Get Published Today! was released in July of 2002 to rave reviews. Penny is a book marketing and media relations specialist. She also coaches authors on projects, manuscripts and marketing plans and instructs a variety of coursing on publishing and promotion. To learn more about her books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.booksbypen.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@booksbypen.com
Copyright  2004 Penny C. Sansevieri

by: Ray Robinson - Dog Ear Publishing

Self Publishing Book Marketing 101

No matter what any POD publisher or marketing company tells you (even the traditional publishing houses) you, the author, are almost 100% the reason your book will sell.

It is your belief, excitement, enthusiasm, and energy that will get a reader excited about buying your book.

Publishers are certainly a vehicle by which you can communicate your passion to the rest of the world, but, for ANYTHING to happen you'll need to know a few things about yourself and your book - and be able to communicate them very clearly.

1 - What is your definition of success for your book?

Some authors write for themselves and their families only – they don’t dream of their books as bestsellers in the marketplace. Some authors write for a very specific personal need to tell their story. Some have unique insight into very specific topics. Many have dreams of seeing their book in the front of Borders or Barnes & Noble. Each author is different, but you MUST decide what your real definition of success happens to be. Don’t try to pursue a goal that may not be what you actually feel is important.

2 - Who will buy your book?

This is the big secret to sales success in self publishing. Target your marketing to your potential reader – and have it be someone who is reachable.

“Everyone will want to read my book!” Sorry, but that doesn’t work. Even the absolute best selling books – that sell 2 or 3 million copies in a year - only penetrate to a very small percent of the population. Sales success for your book will be driven by defining a very clear picture  of who is interested in what you have to say.

And - they must be identifiable: Make a list! Which groups would be interested in your book? Why? Who is next? Why should the need or want your book? (remember this – someone is more likely to buy something they NEED before something they WANT)

Now – narrow it down even more. Years ago books on computers were all the rage – the market was saturated at the “beginner” level, and it seemed impossible to get anymore books into consumers hands. Then a company came along with the bright idea that they would write a computer book for beginners – but beginners who felt intimidated by their computers – and the now ubiquitous and quite famous “For Dummies” series was born – at the time the books hit, there were nearly 3 dozen titles out for beginners. Yet this one scooped up nearly a 70% market share overnight. The rest were left to fight for the scraps. Find a unique angle about your book – and don’t try and be everything to everyone, because you can’t – instead target 100% of a specific part!

3 - Where will you sell your book?

Start Worldwide (world wide web that is) and then get local: Where are your customers? Probably scattered around the country. Use the power of print on demand and just in time fulfillment to deliver books all across the nation without having to print hundreds at a time. Where does your customer hang out online? What magazines and papers do they read? What stores do they frequent – that AREN’T bookstores? What associations, clubs, or affiliations do they join? What conventions to they go to? How can you reach them? Promote your books where you find your potential buyers.

4 - How will you promote your book?

The least expensive and most effective ways to promote books are with book reviews, news releases, search engine registration, and some form of highly targeted direct advertising – such as email campaigns, news releases, and pay-for-performance click through advertising. Longer term promotions include author signings, TV and Radio spots, and tradeshows – these are also the most difficult, time consuming, and expensive to secure.

Do NOT neglect the power of you the author – many publishers promotional packages include materials that can help turn you into a promotional machine. Business cards, posters, bookmarks – all are available to support your marketing efforts.

Follow these steps on creating a plan for your book, and you'll find it much easier to create an effective and efficient marketing program for your book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ray Robinson is a partner in Dog Ear Publishing (http://www.dogearpublishing.net) a self publishing company specializing in delivering "high touch" services to the author community. His company provides a full range of services to authors, from editorial to page layout to marketing and fulfillment.

by: Jeremy M. Hoover

Francine Silverman. Book Marketing from A-Z (InfinityPublishing.com, 2005). Trade paperback. 400 pages. $18.95 US.
For beginning authors, book promotion is the key to success. Whether an author self-publishes or is published by a major house, most often that author needs to market her book herself if she wants there to be any chance at all of it being successful. Large publishing houses are too concerned with promoting the next blockbuster to focus even on mid-list titles, and smaller publishing houses usually don’t have the resources to commit to marketing their titles. Even worse off are those who self-publish, because when they receive their books, they are on their own. Any marketing that happens, happens because of their efforts, and their efforts alone.

What is a new author to do? He can sit back and hope that his book sells somehow, or he can put money into a marketing plan and hope that plan is successful. But without a marketing background, that money can be wasted quickly. As a result, many authors don’t market out of fear of loss and uncertainty, and sell far fewer books than they should.

Into this void comes a wonderful book – Book Marketing from A-Z by Francine Silverman. The sub-title explains it all: “More than 300 authors share the peaks and pitfalls in promoting their books.”

Silverman hasn’t so much written this book as she has edited it. She is the successful author of two books, as well as the owner of a very influential book promotion newsletter (http://bookpromotionnewsletter.com). Over a couple years of publishing her newsletter, she has collected marketing success stories from many authors, and, combined with her own expertise, has put it all together into an excellent resource.

This book contains everything a new (or even experienced) author needs to begin marketing. Authors might be surprised to learn that there are many free things they can do to market their books! For example, I was surprised at how many authors related that something as simple as handing out bookmarks or pens stamped with their website and book name resulted in much publicity and many sales.

The book is comprehensive—arranged alphabetically, Silverman covers such topics as the importance of good reviews, what to do (or not do) at book signings, how to brand yourself, how to tie-in with holidays or movies, how speaking engagements can help a career blossom, and how to send out press kits. There are two huge sections on using Internet technology (web sites, ezines, e-groups, etc.) and newsletters to build a following. In my view, these two sections are the most informative sections of the book.

Silverman has produced a timely, comprehensive, and very helpful book that new and expert authors will return to time and again as they build their writing careers.

About The Author

Jeremy Hoover is a proofreader and book reviewer. He proofreads and reviews religion books, poetry, and most fiction. Contact him at jeremyhoover@gmail.com or Hoover Reviews (http://hooverreviews.blogspot.com) for proofreading rates or to request a review.

by: Penny C. Sansevieri
Are you prepared for the media to call you? If you're not, you should be. Pitching is great, but if you're not ready when the call finally comes in, it is really just a wasted effort. Most authors go about their routine of sending press releases, e-mailing pitches or mailing books, but they're unprepared for the caller that says, "Yes, I'd like to interview you for a story I'm doing." Most likely the interviewer is calling several people; being prepared will give you a leg up on the competition.

As thorough as you're being in your pitch to them, you'll need to be equally thorough when they call you. The first step is to keep a file close at hand with a list of places you've pitched and the angle you've given them. Most reporters won't take the time to reconfirm the slant you took or the ideas you offered; having this handy will give the impression of someone who is on top of their media campaign. Taking the time to dig or reconstruct this information is unprofessional and will reflect badly on you.

Next, have all your tip sheets handy. If you didn't submit tips to the media in your pitch (and even if you did), you'll want to offer these to the person interviewing you. It’s also important to keep up with current events that might add a new twist to your topic. When relevant to your industry, it's also a good idea to stay up to date with new research that might shed some additional light on your subject matter. Also, keep a list of other experts in your field to help the reporter or producer flesh out a story. If you do your homework, they won't need to call anyone else, but in case they do, have this information handy, especially if they can offer a different perspective than yours. Remember, it's the media’s job to offer all sides of the story. Keep in mind that this is not just about getting them the information they need, but also ingratiating yourself to the media and becoming their No. 1 contact for this particular topic. Be generous. The more you can help them do their job, the better an interview will go, and the chances are very likely you'll get called on again.

Be courteous of their time and be aware of their deadlines. If they need to see a copy of your book and they're local, offer to drop it off. If they aren't local, do whatever you can to get the book to them on time, even if this means incurring overnight mailing fees. The more you can help them enhance their segment or print piece, the more time or "ink" you might get. Also, if there are pictures or digital files related to your subject matter, make sure you have them handy and can e-mail them with a few clicks of a mouse. It's tedious and time-consuming to have to scan these first (or have them scanned) before they are in a format that can be quickly transferred from interviewee to the reporter.




I tested these ideas a couple of years ago when the San Diego Union Tribune contacted me to ask me one question about my topic. Because I had everything ready and was able to update them on new developments, this one question turned into a front-page story. When it comes to the media, be a Boy Scout: Be prepared, or be prepared to give up a story to someone who is.


About the author:
Penny C. Sansevieri
The Cliffhanger was published in June of 2000. After a strategic marketing campaign it quickly climbed the ranks at Amazon.com to the ##1 best selling book in San Diego. Her most recent book: From Book to Bestseller was released in 2005 to rave reviews and is being called the “roadmap to publishing success.” Penny is a book marketing and media relations specialist. She also coaches authors on projects, manuscripts and marketing plans and instructs a variety of coursing on publishing and promotion. To learn more about her books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.comTo subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@booksbypen.com
Copyright ã 2005 Penny C. Sansevieri