Blogger: Kathleen Y’Barbo, Publicist
Location: The Woodlands, Texas PR Office
Weather: Unseasonably cool and dry
As I type this, “American Idol” has come to its season’s conclusion. Glittering confetti showered screaming crowds as millions looked on. When voting closed on this yearly spectacle, more than 100,000,000 votes had been cast for the remaining two candidates. That’s one hundred million phone calls–and it’s likely the majority of those dialing in to vote were viewers tonight.
Millions of eyes were watching, and in between songs by Kiss, Lionel Ritchie, and Carlos Santana were commercials. Very carefully planned and selected ads for products millions of people in their target market saw (mainly for Ford, Coke, and AT&T Wireless, if you were keeping score). Not only were the products touted during paid advertising, but they also were prominently visible on the judges’ table (Coke), in videos (AT&T), and in the prizes awarded (Ford).
So what does that have to do with book publicity? Plenty! The companies that invested the big bucks to advertise tonight did so because they were going where the audience was. The lesson here is to decide to whom your book appeals and find ways to reach that market. How do you do that?
Way back at the proposal stage you should have done a marketing plan, indicating exactly this sort of thing. Pull out that plan and use it as a road map to decide where your potential readers are hiding. Are they online? Perhaps a blog tour combined with a concentrated social media campaign is for you. What other authors are they likely to read? Maybe teaming up with several other writers to do a local, regional or even national book tour would work well to get buzz going. Or linking to each other’s blogs or websites. Twittering about each other is another option. Being a team of writers that promote each other is a winning combo. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.
How do you go to where fans are flocking? What has worked for your novel or nonfiction book, or, conversely, what would you do differently? I’m eager to hear how writers capture potential readers’ attention.
Great Blog post. I am going to bookmark and read more often. I love the Blog template
When I first published my state history curriculum, homeschool book fairs were the place to be. Buyers wanted to see the product demo and try it out for themselves. Ten years later, that is changing. While it’s still good to be “a presence,” more and more customers do at least their initial research online. Time to invest in adapting my website to the new trend!
I’m excited to read the fiction writers’ responses. It’s a unique market that I am just beginning to learn about.
I’m anxious to read the comments from more established writers. Until I land an agent, I’m trying to do smart things for promotion that don’t take away from what little real writing time I have. I blog and maintain my website. This week I broke down and joined Twitter, even though I’m not exactly sure how it works. I follow the industry blogs.
In these times of downsizing, I think authors must demonstrate a willingness and ability to promote themselves in ways that used to be handled by the publishing houses. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
I love the idea of authors working together in a group blog format, similar to Novel Matters, Seekerville, and others. I think it would be a great way to spread out the work load and also a way to share in developing a reader base. Perhaps those authors could at some point even consider doing a book tour together.
While I enjoy blogs, I find that among fellow authors, there’s a lot of audience overlap. Not that that’s a bad thing. And I think reader blogs are great–they’ll be honest and we can ‘win’ one reader at a time. We can’t overlook that more personal connection, esp. if we don’t have millions like Ford or Coke.
I’ve had success through Facebook exposure–I have yet another radio interview (Santa Barbara CA) next week as a direct result of Facebook.
The smartest thing an author can do before OR after publication is to develop a network of like-minded readers and fellow authors to interact with. The Internet has shortened the time line here and given us a myriad of good choices for meeting people who write and/or read what we write, but there is no substitute for face-to-face contact. Consider this: How many of you can recall meeting a celebrity? Think back to the first time you laid eyes on a “famous person.” Let’s say it was fifteen years ago. Now try to name ten other celebrities from that era. Maybe you can, but are you going to think about those other celebrities in the same way? No. They’re pictures in a magazine, on a CD cover, or images on the small or big screen. Flesh and blood people, now those are memorable.
The lesson: meet and greet. Be it conferences, book signings, writers groups, whatever. Step away from the computer from time-to-time!