Book Publicity via Twitter

By Stacey J. Miller, Book Publicist
S. J. Miller Communications
bookpromotion@gmail.com

Can Twitter be part of your book marketing and book publicity campaign? It can, according to what this book publicist has seen and what novelist Helen Clark has experience (see her excellent Huffington Post blog, "Making Twitter Work for Your Book").

Twitter, like blogging, can connect authors with their target readership quickly, and can be instantly gratifying. Book marketing means making those connections, and using those connections to build your brand, and Twitter can be an important part of the platform that you use to sell your books and your expertise. In other words, yes, Twitter can be part of your book marketing and book publicity campaign.

But here's the down side of using Twitter as part of your book promotion campaign. Unlike other book publicity strategies, such as participating in media interviews and writing articles (that byline you as their author and include a link to your book web site), Twitter doesn't have a beginning, middle, and ending. Building your brand via Twitter isn't something you can schedule into a few hours a week, and it isn't something you'd necessarily want to outsource and have a book publicist do for you.

Finding the right followers on Twitter, and reading (and responding to, or retweeting) the tweets that those you follow compose, takes time. Composing tweets, and deciding what to post, and when to post them -- and, perhaps, figuring out what not to post and learning why not to post it -- is an infinite pursuit that can occupy endless hours of your time. Now, if you're going through a dry spell as a writer, or if you're such a successful author that you can afford to take time off from writing in between book promotion campaigns, then you might well have the time that building your brand, and expanding your name recognition, on Twitter takes.

Otherwise, if you're like most authors, you'll tweet as a small (but important) part of your book promotion campaign. You'll set a limit on the number of hours you'll devote each week to Twitter, and you'll use that time wisely. And, the rest of the time, you'll engage in book publicity activities that may lead to slightly delayed gratification.

But, if delayed gratification leads to book sales, who's complaining? Not I, says this book publicist.

Wattpad is here.

By Stacey J. Miller, Book Publicist
S. J. Miller Communications
bookpromotion@gmail.com


This book publicist uses technology for every book publicity campaign (whether it's a book marketing campaign that includes social networking outreach or whether it's a book marketing campaign that revolves around traditional book publicity opportunities). So I'm surprised to say that I am hearing about Wattpad for the first time.

Wattpad, according to a goodereader article, boasts more than 30 million users, and it allows authors to write, post, and share content. That would seem to be a great way to bring a book's content to readers which is one of the main goals of book marketing.

However, as the article points out, some sort of system must be put into place to protect authors' copyright. From what the article says, it seems Wattpad has found its vehicle for protecting authors' copyright:  Open Stories, a Creative Commons option. So now authors can share their content with readers (and, one hopes, can gain new readers) with Wattpad. This will provide a book publicity opportunity that authors need. And, at the same time, the content will be protected through a Create Commons license.

Does technology get any better than when technology meets book publicity?

This book publicist is properly impressed.

Why do you need a book publicist?

By Stacey J. Miller, Book Publicist
S. J. Miller Communications
bookpromotion@gmail.com


Why do you need a book publicist? You can write your own press release, and you can garner media interviews yourself by tracking down the appropriate producers, editors, bloggers, and freelancers. You can join GoodReads, Shelfari, LinkedIn, Twitter, and all of the other social networking sites that are where readers gather, and you can post messages, and you can build your own author platform online, and you can build your brand as an author offline, too.

You can implement all of the book publicity strategies you've heard about, and you've researched, and you've intuited, all on your own. So, if you can do your own book promotion, then why do you need a book publicist?

The reason you need a book publicist is because, if you conduct your own book publicity campaign, and you do all of your own book marketing, then you'll have no time to write books.

So which would you rather be: a book publicist or a writer? Which are you?

When you want to delegate your book publicity campaign to a book publicist with experience of more than two decades, I'll be here for you.

Are book trailers a silly approach to book promotion?

Are book trailers a silly waste of time for those who want to promote books? Laura Miller, writing for Salon, says they are and cites examples of badly-produced (and ill-conceived) book trailers that detract from, rather than enhance, book promotion efforts.

But concluding that all book trailers are a silly approach to book promotion doesn't make any more sense than deciding that blogging for book publicity is a bad idea after you've seen a badly-written book blog, or reasoning that media releases don't work after you've seen an incompetently-handled press release (most likely, one that reads as if it were an ad for a book, which won't accomplish anything, rather than an actual news release, which most likely will help you achieve your book promotion goals).

A good book trailer, on a professionally designed web site (and on You Tube and other video-sharing sites), can be a part of a highly effective, and perhaps even a viral, book marketing campaign. And, of course, a book trailer can enhance your online footprint which means it will improve your search engine rankings. You'll also vastly expand your potential online audience with your book trailer. These are all good reasons to consider hiring someone to create a book trailer for you.

A bad book trailer isn't likely to enhance your online credibility, so avoid the temptation to create a book trailer on the cheap just to have a book trailer. But don't be shy about considering a book trailer as a potential asset to your book publicity campaign. There's nothing silly about them. Book trailers can be an important part of your book promotion strategy. Just hire the right firm to help you get it right. Most book promotion firms would be glad to give you some recommendations (and, no, an honest book publicist will not accept a commission for the referral).

Book promotion campaign on the rocks?

Is your book promotion campaign on the rocks? If your book is with a major publishing house, and your book publicity campaign has stalled before it started, then it might be because your in-house book publicist has James Patterson Syndrome.

Check out the New York Times's article about the attention a James Patterson books gets from its publisher. Because Patterson's vast number of books reliably bring in a tremendous sum of money for his publisher, Little, Brown & Co. gives Patterson's books all of the attention and nurturing they need -- possibly to the detriment of other books that haven't yet proven themselves as moneymakers.

Every major publisher has its James Patterson, and that phenomenon of highlighting one author to the detriment of all other authors is what I call James Patterson Syndrome. It's when your publisher's in-house book marketing team doesn't know that your book exists.

Is there a news story you could speak about? Could you shed some light on a study, or does your novel tie into a trend? Could you lend your expertise to a season or an event? Maybe, but your phone isn't ringing, and your inbox is empty, and it's because your in-house book promotion team's energies are tied up elsewhere.

So, if your book promotion campaign is on the rocks, and you're hearing "sorry, we're just getting no media response" from your publisher's book marketing people (or, worse still, if you're hearing only silence from your publisher's book publicity team), then it's time to take your book promotion campaign into your own hands.

It's time to conduct your own book promotion campaign, which you can do with, or without, help from an independent book publicist, depending on your time, resources, and goals. You don't have to miss major media opportunities because James Patterson Syndrome has eaten up the lion's share of your publisher's time and energy. You can believe in your own book, and you can use the traditional media as well as the online media and social networking to direct your book's destiny.

We can't all enjoy James Patterson's status, skill, and good fortune. But we can make sure that our book promotion campaigns don't get left in the dust before they even get off the ground.

Book promotion has authors wearing a new hat.

According to an article in the business section of today's Miami Herald, many authors at mainstream publishing houses have become responsible for creating their own book publicity opportunities. Many traditional publishing houses, the article points out, have trimmed down their publicity and marketing departments. That means they have little time to spend on book promotion campaigns, and authors who want media opportunities frequently have to find those opportunities themselves.

And that's if authors are lucky enough to have a traditional publishing house behind their books. Most authors, of course, self publish, and those authors expect to manage their own book promotion campaigns.

As the article points out, it can be tough for authors to wear so many hats: writer, book marketer, book publicist and, perhaps, book publisher. In addition, many authors have day jobs and full-time professions (doctor, lawyer, speaker, educator, and the like). Obviously, authors also have (or are trying to have!) personal lives and to make time for their families and friends.

That's what keeps book publicists like me in business. We provide book promotion support for authors who simply can't find enough hours in the day to do it all. Book publicists are glad to help make authors' lives easier. And I'm sure authors will be glad, upon reading that Miami Herald article, to discover their book publishers aren't picking on them or purposely ignoring their book promotion needs. Economic hard times have hit the book publishing industry, and in-house book publicists are doing the best they can. Many of them are thrilled to have the support of authors and any independent book publicity help they might have. Teamwork is what book promotion is all about!

Google steps into book promotion arena?

Hey! I didn't realize that yesterday's Google homepage doodle was about book promotion! I thought it was about a scientific discovery!

Yesterday, Google's homepage featured one of those intriguing doodles that I had to click on before I could start my day. What was that weird drawing, anyway?

It turned out to be a fossil or, more specifically, the "missing link" -- which, happily for Colin Tudge and Josh Young, coauthors of The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor (published by Little Brown and Company) -- was the subject of their new book. The book's publication date, by the way, was(May 20, 2009, which was the date that Google featured that promotional doodle on its homepage.

We all know that prominent search engine placement is a critical aspect of book promotion. If your book's web site is prominently featured in Google, then potential book buyers will go right to it when you've been interviewed on radio or television, or you've been featured in a magazine, newspaper, or online article. Driving traffic to your book's web site is a first step on the path toward selling potential readers on your credibility, expertise, entertainment/news value, and so on . . . so I've always said that SEO (search engine optimization, which for books' web sites involve writing articles and op-eds, social bookmarking, posting press releases in online "banks," and the like) is a key to book promotion (and book marketing, by the way) success.

But I never imagined that Google itself would overtly take a hand in an author's (or a publisher's) book promotion campaign! How cool would it be to have Google link to your book, via its daily doodle? How many thousands of people would click on that doodle to find out about your book, and perhaps to visit your book's web site?

Now if only Google would make its daily doodle available to advertisers. And if only the cost were less cost-prohibitive than, say, inventing a new species or a new planet where life forms could live . . . and if only ordinary authors and publishers could afford to give it a try.