#1 Send a news release to local media.

The key to your news release is finding the right “news” hook or angle that shows the relevance of your book to a current event. As a former newspaper editor, I remember reviewing hundreds of news releases every day. The news release that was timely and relevant got followed up on. HigherLife offers press release development and distribution services.

If I were an author, I would not want to try this on my own. Crafting a news release that catches an editor’s eye is an art in itself and a whole separate article. The benefit of a news release is that your book could get a mention in your local newspaper or land you an interview on a TV or radio show.

#2 Schedule a book signing.

Setting up a book signing in your local bookstore is as easy as picking up the phone and talking to the bookstore manager. Bookstores, especially independent bookstores, are always eager to promote local authors. The tricky part is promoting the signing yourself to ensure a good crowd.

#3 Create a presentation or workshop related to your book topic.

Your local library, Chamber of Commerce, community education centers, or business groups are always looking for presenters or speakers. Create a PowerPoint presentation or a workshop and you could be booked as a presenter or speaker. To pitch your presentation or workshop, you need a good bio. Again, HigherLife Development Services can work with you to create your presentation or workshop and marketing materials.

These three tactics help put you in front of readers who will want to buy your book after hearing your message. — Leilani Haywood

It is humbling to tell people that you value your own opinion, your life experience, or your ideas. That’s where the elevator speech comes in handy. You can create a standard answer, an answer you can believe in and share with strangers and dear friends.

The elevator speech is a way for you to focus on the work and the benefits of the message. By turning your focus from yourself to your work, you will find a comfort level with saying, “I’m writing a book on how to run a pet rescue and keep your sanity!”

Facts

An elevator speech is a short statement that describes who you are and what you do—what you would say to a stranger you met on a 1-minute elevator ride.

“My name is Alice, and I write books about dogs.”

Well, that works, but it’s boring. That statement is focused on the facts: who, what, how. Those are all important elements, but to grab the attention and interest of your listener, start with the ”why”—your motivation for writing this book.

Benefits

A good elevator speech lets your listener know what problem your book solves. Consider these questions:

- What solution does my book offer?

- Why am I writing this book in this way?

- What problem does my book solve?

- What is my purpose for this book?

- What would I consider a successful outcome for a reader of my book?

“I’m Alice, and I’m so passionate about the plight of animals in our city that I’m writing a book to help others understand how they can set up their own pet rescue organizations.”

I’m not writing that book, but it’s not a bad idea. – Alice Bass

Rita Arens

Editor’s Note: This is the third part of a series on how you can go from blogger to author, based on an interview with author Rita Arens. To see the second article, click here.

How do you promote your blog?

Every time I post, it feeds into my Facebook page. I manually tweet my new posts usually, as well. And if I write something I particularly like, I will Stumble it.

9) Can a writer earn a decent income from blogging?

No. Just no. I have met thousands of bloggers, and I’d say about 50 max are earning more than $30k from blogging. I don’t know too many people who can raise a family on even $30k. I know about ten people who are probably making close to six figures or more from blogging between writing, ad sales, speaking fees, affiliate marketing, and other related profit streams.

There are some folks who are blogging and also doing freelance writing, but unless they’re making the majority of their income from their personal blogs, I consider them to be freelance writers who happen to have some stuff published on other blogs.

10) Do you have another book in the wings?

Yes. I’m currently looking for a literary agent for my young adult novel, Empty Plate. Know anyone?

The myth is that if an author gets a traditional publishing model, he will never have to buy his own book. Here’s the reality in publishing: Regardless of the publishing model, authors buy books.

Buying Books in Traditional Publishing:
When an author goes to a speaking engagement and has a table at the back of the room to sell books, the author sells the books at the retail price or at a discount. (If retail is $16.99, you probably sell your book for $15 handshake to handshake.) To get that stock of books, the author BUYS the books from the traditional publisher at a discounted price.

For instance, a retail price on a small paperback book might be $12.99. It costs the publisher around $3 per book to cover printing and development costs (editing, design, etc.). The author buys the book from his or her traditional publisher at the author discount of, say, $7 per book and then sells them at speaking engagements for $10 each. You can see who makes the money in a traditional publishing deal. You make $3 per book that you sell yourself; the publisher makes $4 per book that they sell to you.

Buying Books in Co-publishing:
If you have co-published, when you go to a speaking engagement, you’ve already purchased your books, and you take them from your stock. In co-publishing, for 5,000 books, you probably paid around $3.50 each. You sell your book for $10 and you make $6.50 per book.

You can see why there is so much emphasis on marketing strategy and author platform. A book sells in a bookstore if the author is out marketing the book. The author doesn’t make much money from bookstore sales, only 15% of wholesale. An author can create a platform for book sales by getting out in the public eye both in person and virtually. Podcasts, seminars, speaking engagements, and book readings are all ways to increase your value and increase your book sales. And when you go to these events, you will need to buy your books in order to sell your books. Believing in a message is important to publishers and believing in an author’s ability to sell books is just as important in deciding to take on an author.

No matter what model you publish with, believing in your message and the impact it will have will give you the courage and desire to sell your books. – by Alice Bas

Rita Arens

Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a series on how you can go from blogger to author. To see the first article, click here.

4) How did your blog lead to an anthology of other mommy bloggers?

As I was getting ready to go to BlogHer 2005 to meet my favorite bloggers, I thought about printing off some of my favorite posts of theirs and getting them to autograph them when I was there. Then I realized that was the book, that this new idea had commercially viable legs that my own book hadn’t had. These people weren’t big nobodies, and a mommy blogging anthology was something that hadn’t been done yet. I lived in fear for two years that someone else would get to market with the same idea first.

5) What’s your writing process for your blog posts? Is it different from writing for books? Posts are way different than books. I don’t put tons of thought into posts — I just pop them out and proofread them a few times. Books take, um, forever. And a ton of rewrites. And getting feedback on them is really, really  hard, unlike blog posts.

6) What’s your advice to aspiring authors who don’t know where to get started with blogging? It takes literally 10 minutes to create a blog, and most platforms are free. I think you just start. Create categories so that you can write whatever you want, and the people who only want to read your rants about Pekinese dogs know where to find that stuff. People think they need their blogs to have a theme, but I totally disagree. It’s all about the voice, at least for personal blogs.

7) How did you build your follower base? I think most people read me because I write pretty consistently and they for the most part know what to expect from me. Some of the readers have grown with me. In 2004, I was blogging anonymously and writing about my days as a new mom. Today, I attach my name to my blog and would never reveal as much about my home life as I used to, but I write a lot more about politics and the publishing industry than I used to write. Readers — they find me from other bloggers’ sites, from things I’ve written on BlogHer, a few from newspaper coverage — but not nearly as many as you’d think — some from seeing me speak somewhere. Some are my real-life friends and family. Some are friends of friends who somehow got my feed on Facebook via Networked Blogs.

Next time:  Can You Earn an Income from Blogging? — by Leilani Haywood

What is it that will actually sell your book to readers? YOU! Who you are and what a reader has heard about you and your writing entice a reader to buy a book! Sure, the cover design helps, the back cover copy may confirm their desire to read the book, the endorsements help, but it really is about you.

That means you need to have a presence in the marketplace. If you have a significant platform already, you may have the opportunity to secure a traditional publisher. To get a traditional publisher, you need to pitch yourself to an agent who will pitch you to a publisher.

If you need to build a platform, more than likely you will want to start your publishing life through on-demand or co-publishing in order to sell your books handshake to handshake. Being part of booksignings, doing readings, and leading seminars create a platform by getting books into readers’ hands. When you create a buzz on the internet through blogging and social media, you can create a following that will strengthen your platform. From that platform, you can launch more products (write more books!).

It is often hard for writers to get into a pitch mode. It can feel like you are selling yourself. I have a motto: “The person is the person, the work is the work.” Even if I’m not in the mood to talk about myself or I feel undeserving of the attention, I think about the work. I worked hard to write that book! As the face of my book, the work deserves my full attention and support. So pitch and sell the work by being available to be interviewed, showing up at booksignings, and going door to door if you must! – Alice Bass

Rita Arens

I first met Rita Arens when I was an editor for an online magazine in 2000. In 2006, she hired me to write and edit tax content when she was an editor at H&R Block. I’ve watched Rita break free from the corporate cubicle to blogger and writing bliss.

Today she’s an assignment and syndication editor for BlogHer and a freelance writer. She has written over 50 articles for periodicals, including Scholastic Parent & Child, Babble, The Kansas City Star, Greater Kansas City Business, KC Weddings, Art and Ingram’s.
I asked Rita to share with you how she made that journey.

1) How long were you blogging before you started working on your book Sleep is for the Weak?
I started my blog [Surrender, Dorothy] in 2004, and I started working on Sleep Is for the Weak in early 2005.

2) How did you get the idea for your blog?
I was on maternity leave, and I didn’t have the energy to do the fiction and poetry writing I’d been doing prior to birthing a live human. A friend told me about blogging, and it seemed a perfect way to write without over-committing myself to a narrative arc. I consider my blog to be a writing exercise, and I use it like practicing scales—I try to hone different elements of my voice as well as see what people are interested in reading about. Readers are fickle beasts.

3) How do you get ideas for your posts? How often do you post?
I try  to post every weekday unless I’m traveling or on vacation, though it usually averages out to four times a week. My  posts are a combination of personal anecdotes, response essays to something going on in the world or to an article I’ve read elsewhere, pieces of larger works, and journaling.
I try to mix it up and not do too many essays or too many anecdotes in a row. Example: I recently did a follow-up on corn syrup to a post that originated on BlogHer because I found after I wrote the first post that I really wasn’t done talking. Another example: Yesterday I wrote an essay in response to an article about women’s anger that I read in Good Housekeeping. Today I wrote about my daughter and the Tooth Fairy.

4) How did your blog lead to an anthology of other mommy bloggers?
I originally tried to put together a book based on my own blog. It was called Riding in the Back Window, because my blog tagline was “When I Was Your Age, We Just Let Them Ride in the Back Window.” I thought it was hilarious. But nobody got the title, and I was a big nobody, and it just wasn’t working out. So I did the smart thing: I gave up on that project, but I didn’t give up on the idea of a book.

Next time: The writing process and promoting your blog! — Leilani Haywood

P.S. Who’s your favorite blogger? A few of mine are Rita Arens, Michael Hyatt and Seth Godin.

The reality is that to be an author you are more like a small business owner/entrepreneur, and you need a business plan for every book you write, including: product development, marketing strategy, sales pitch, product launch, and a plan for building your client base.

As an author, you are the primary pitchman for your book. Whether you publish with a traditional publisher or through co-publishing or on-demand, you will be selling books. Very often those sales are handshake to handshake at the back table after you give a speech on your nonfiction topic or after you do a reading of your novel, short story, poetry, or children’s book. When you sell your books at the back table, you will have purchased those books, either from your traditional publisher at a discount off the retail price or from your on-demand or co-publishing partner. Then what?

First – Figure out how many people are expected to attend your event, and order your books well in advance. Send them to your house and bring them yourself, if you can. You want to control your merchandise. You don’t want to end your talk and find that your books are locked in a storeroom and the maintenance supervisor has gone to lunch!

Second – Create a nice display with the books on the table. Bring a tablecloth and think of creative ways to stack your books so they look appealing.

Third – Bring a pen to sign your books. Seriously, bring two pens, along with a notebook for people to leave their e-mail addresses so you can connect with your readers through the web.

Fourth and finally – Bring change. Your publisher will not be supplying a mini-bookstore and retail clerks. You will be selling your books, mostly for cash or by check, and you will need to make change. So be prepared, and bring a calculator if you need it!

Next time we’ll talk about creating a platform and a marketing strategy! – Alice Bass

Twitter hasn’t enjoyed the same massive growth as Facebook because people are still trying to figure out how to use it. However, 300,000 users per day sign up for it. Twitter recently disclosed these facts:

• Twitter now has 105,779,710 registered users.
• 180 million unique visitors come to the site every month.
• Twitter gets a total of 3 billion requests a day via its API.
• Twitter users are, in total, tweeting an average of 55 million tweets a day.

Authors can take advantage of the unique relationship-building and promotion opportunities Twitter offers. Twitter is another tool in your social media strategy that could pay off in increased sales or connecting with a publisher. If you decide to join the 300,000 users on Twitter, here are 10 tips to gaining followers and building relationships.

#1 Set your purpose or strategy for Twitter. Your strategy will determine your status updates and the followers you attract. If you wrote a book about fly-fishing, then your tweets would be useful information about fly-fishing or your favorite fly-fishing lakes. Your tips and expertise would attract fly-fishing enthusiasts and hopefully a publisher of fly-fishing guide books.

#2 Use Twitter as one part of your overall social media presence. Besides Twitter, you should have a web site, blog and Facebook fan page. Your tweets – 140-character status updates – are teasers into your web site, blog, or fan page.

#3 Make sure your Twitter presence stands out. The standard Twitter background screams “newbie.” Pay close attention to your profile photo, bio, and background. There are several templates online that you can follow to create a customized background. Take advantage of the background to promote your web site, book, blog, or Facebook fan page. Show your personality in your photo, profile, and background.

#4 Connect with your followers through # tags. A # tag is a list of followers in your niche you can follow. For a list of authors to network with, check out #inkyelbows.

#5 Retweet or reply to tweets. The more you participate, the more your follower base will grow. A follower who retweets your tweet can exponentially grow your follower base. Especially if that follower has more fans than you have.

#6 Mix up your tweets. Just promoting your books or events will come across as spam. I schedule my updates using a third-party application, and then I insert some updates on the fly throughout the day just to keep my presence fresh and show some personality. Besides tweeting useful information, talk about what you’re doing during the day. Tweeters love a funny anecdote or quirky observation.

#7 Use third-party applications such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, or SocialOomph to schedule your updates. Joanna Penn, an author with over 14,000 followers on Twitter, schedules her updates and then mixes it up.

#8 Reach out to bloggers in your niche on Twitter. Penn says she has landed podcast interviews by reaching out to bloggers on Twitter. For the fly-fishing author, you can connect with fly-fishing bloggers on Twitter to build a relationship.

#9 Give and it shall be given unto you. In your “thanks for following me” message, include a link to a podcast, free download of a sample read, or your blog. This will help build your follower base.

#10 Keep your tweets positive. The twitterverse doesn’t like negativity. This isn’t the place to rant about your manic editor or publisher. You’ll get unfollowed fast.

Are you on Twitter? Tweet me at KCIslander or HigherLifeInc. — Leilani Haywood

1) Your friends are on Facebook. The best way to market and promote your book or speaking engagements is to tell your friends on Facebook. Let’s do the math on the potential reach for the so-called average user. Say you have 130 friends who each have 130 friends. You tell your 130 friends about your book. Your 130 friends tell their 130 friends about your book. You’ve just told 16,900 people about your book! If 10% of them bought your book, that’s 1,690 books sold. Not bad for unpaid advertising!
2) You can instantly promote your book signings, seminars, or workshops on Facebook. Create events for book signings, seminars, or workshops that you’re speaking at to further promote your book. If your book, seminar, or workshop made a positive impact on an attendee, he or she can post a reaction on his or her own wall to further your reach.
3) Your competition is on Facebook. Here are some examples of authors using Facebook’s “like” page or groups to promote their books:

Facebook Fan Pages
The Facebook Era by Clara Shih
Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

Facebook Groups
Content Nation by John Blossom
It’s Not What You Sell, But What You Stand For by Roy M. Spence, Jr. with Haley Rushing
Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

4) Book reviewers are on Facebook. Reach out to these reviewers who are on Facebook. Below are just a few book reviewers:

Christian Children’s Book Review
Danny Yee’s Book Reviews
The Bookish Type: Book Reviews

5) Your target market has a group on Facebook. Let’s say you wrote a book on marriage. Here are some groups on Facebook that you could reach with your book:

Marriage Is Forever with 22,188 “likes” or fans
National Organization for Marriage with 10,072 “likes” or fans
Save Traditional Marriage with 5,151 members

There are thousands of groups with special interests on Facebook. You could reach that group with your unique message.

Just think, with a few clicks you could reach hundreds of people with your book. Of course there’s a strategy and tactic for connecting on Facebook. If you would like to know more, call me at HigherLife at 407-563-4806 or send an e-mail to lhaywood@ahigherlife.com with your questions. If you have a Facebook success or not-so-success story, I want to hear it. – Leilani Haywood