eBook Publishing to Spread the Word

Ebook publishing can be a quick and effective way to disseminate your message. 

This morning, a friend let me know that her nonprofit organization had raised $30,000 to provide ten K9 vests to police departments in one year. What a wonderful accomplishment! In congratulating her, I asked my friend whether she would consider writing an eBook about the importance of providing police departments with K9 vests. It would be an honor for me to then conduct an eBook promotion campaign for her nonprofit as long as she's willing to approve media materials and act as a spokesperson for the organization. It's easy enough to learn about eBook publishing, I promised her, and I'd handle her eBook's editing, and the conversion of her Word or PDF file to Kindle's mobi format (and to Barnes and Noble's Nook format, too, if she were interested in even wider eBook distribution). 

I made the offer automatically because I spontaneously realized that eBook publishing isn't only for traditional authors anymore. Ebook publishing is now available to everyone who has something to say, and needs a platform to delivery that message. 

If my friend wants to become an author, I can make it easy to achieve that goal. I'm already offering coaching for eBook Publishing and eBook promotion services to authors. Why not encourage a friend to tap into my expertise to help outfit as many service dogs with K9 vests as possible? The only thing this book publicist cares more about than family, cooking, friends, and books...is our four-legged companions. I hope we can use eBook publishing to help as many of them as possible!

The Etiquette of Author Radio Interviews

Congratulations! You've done your first radio interview (or you've completed your first flurry of radio interviews), and you're hoping to leverage that accomplishment and build long-term, mutually productive relationships with the radio producers and radio hosts who were gracious enough to invite you to be on the air with them. It's time to learn, and practice, the art of follow up radio interview etiquette. Here's what to keep in mind after your author radio interview:

• What you want. Of course, you want a copy of your radio interview. Take it from a book publicist who has been in a lot of radio studios over the years: you don't want to ask for a copy of the interview. The radio interview may have been a peak and important experience for you. For the radio show, you were just one of hundreds of authors and other experts who have appeared on-air. Know your place in the radio food chain. Radio stations are typically understaffed. The producer who booked the interview with you, and the host who interviewed you, doesn't have time to dub copies of the radio interview. They don't have flunkies who can do it for them. Don't ask, and don't ask your book publicist to ask for you. Be clear about this point: your book publicist isn't "too shy" to speak up and ask for what you want, and she's not giving you the brush-off if she refuses. It's just that your book publicist is wise enough to know that the answer will be (or should be) no, and that asking for a copy of your radio interview would mark the book publicist as a rookie or, worse, as a disrespectful pain in the neck -- and not the type of book publicist the producer or host would want to work with again in the future. If your book publicist burns a bridge with a radio station, this doesn't help you (and it surely doesn't help your book publicist, either). Your instinct is correct, however. It is a good idea to hear what you sounded like on the air so that, going forward, you can build on what you did best and make adjustments to your weak points. Listening to your radio interview will help you to improve your performance next time. Fortunately, most radio stations do archive some of their radio shows on their web site. Google the show a couple of days after your interview airs, and you might be lucky enough to find your segment online. Otherwise, you can ask your book publicist to ask the producer when, and where, a link to your segment might be available. That's a way to get what you want without incurring any of the complications of what you definitely don't want: anything that might hinder your relationships with radio producers and hosts!

Give thanks. It was nice of you to give up your time, and expend your energy, to be a guest on a radio show (or radio newscast). You didn't get paid for it, and you have a right to expect gratitude for what you did. But the reality is that you're probably not going to get the thanks you deserve. Just look at it from the radio show's perspective. You got a chance to plug your book, build your brand, and raise the public's awareness of who you are. Radio producers and hosts could have given this opportunity to any of your competitors, but they gave it to you, this time. And you want them to choose to give you an opportunity another time, too. So express your gratitude. Your book publicist will have the email addresses of the radio producer and the radio host (and anyone else who was involved in booking the interview). Ask your book publicist for that contact information, and then use it to write sincere thank-you notes to the media people who were kind enough to invite you to be their on-air guest. A little bit of gratitude goes a long way in building relationships with the media. Also, mention your availability to do additional interviews with the host in the future (if you can make yourself available on short notice, mention that, too -- it's a great selling point for many radio shows). Specify some topics that you can address on the air. You'll get bonus points if you can tie your expertise into upcoming holidays or events that the broadcast or newscast will likely cover. Make your ideas easy to read by formatting them as a bulleted list. The radio producer and host will be best able to digest your pitch if your gratitude begins and ends the email -- and if your email is short and to the point. Then put aside your expectations. Don't be dismayed if you don't get a response to your email. Understand that time is short for radio folks just as it's precious for you, and email silence doesn't mean your email when unnoticed or unappreciated. And don't let the lack of good manners on the part of some busy radio people dissuade you from thanking the next radio producer and radio host who invite you to join them on the air.

Follow through. If you promised to stay in touch with the radio producers and radio hosts when you wrote them thank-you emails (better still, if they asked you to stay in touch with them while you were on the air or in response to your follow up email to them), then follow through by sending them occasional emails. You might let them know about future projects, or point out your perspective on a breaking news story, or offer a connection between current events and your expertise. Always close with a reminder that you're available for radio interviews and that you'd like to be considered as a guest if the opportunity arises.

With a small investment of effort, you can turn a one-shot radio interview opportunity into an ongoing dialogue with radio producers who are always willing to listen to your ideas. Be respectful, show your thanks, and making a continual effort to build and then maintain your relationships with radio decision makers ... and you can find a single author radio interview turning into a career-long, mutually rewarding relationship.

Stacey J. Miller is a book promotion specialist and founder of S. J. Miller Communications. Visit her at www.bookpr.com (connecting with her on Facebook or Twitter is strictly optional).

Book Promotion on Twitter

Although traditional book publicists still think of book reviews as mainly appearing in newspapers, magazines, and journals, there are also online opportunities to get book reviews. I like to approach book review bloggers whether or not I'm setting up a blog tour for authors and publishers. Bloggers are the obvious, most reachable book reviewers. However, there is also another book review venue to consider: Twitter.

David Duhr, a self-described "Austin dude," wrote a wonderful column for Publishing Perspectives about the etiquette of Twitter book reviews (from both perspectives: that of the author, and that of the reviewer). Take a peek at David Duhr's brief bio so you can see where his advice is coming from.

Duhr's column might encourage you to start, or nurture, your relationships with Twitter book reviewers as part of your book promotion campaign. If you tweet -- read David Duhr's column, and start integrating Twitter into your book promotion campaign today!

A major book promotion disappointment.

You might be a veteran media guest. You might have successfully done hundreds of radio, TV, print, and online media interviews as part of your book promotion campaigns. You might have wonderful media relationships, and you might have earned those friendships the honest way: through years of offering the media what it needs, of making yourself available when you're called upon to do so, and of coming through for the media with professionalism and charisma every time you've had the chance.

In other words, you can have a long and impressive history of doing everything right. And still, book promotion disappointments can happen. They can happen to anyone, at any time.

They can even happen to this book publicist and to an author who simply deserved better.

I know that no one in the media is obligated to give my authors airtime, bandwidth, or editorial space. I'm lucky to have the media's ear and to be in a position where I can ask them to listen to my story suggestions. I guard my media relationships very jealously, and if an interview doesn't always go according to plan ... well, I take responsibility for that. Was a reporter uninformed when she spoke with my author? I make a mental note to get more background material to the reporter the next time she does an interview with one of my clients. Was a radio or TV show host combative? I make a note to warn my clients about the potential to be ambushed by this host, and I always give authors the option of taking known-to-be combative interviewers off my list of media targets as we proceed with book promotion campaigns.

So I'm disinclined to ever blame my media contacts when something goes wrong. If an interview doesn't go the way that I want it to, I see it as a learning experience, and I use the experience to be better prepared the next time around. It's unusual for me to say "never again" about working with anyone in the media.

But I make exceptions to that rule, and I was motivated to rethink my relationship with a radio talk show host by a specific unfortunate event.

Here's what happened. One of my favorite clients -- in fact, one of my favorite people -- committed to staying up very late last night (or very early this morning, depending on how you look at it) and to forfeiting a good night's sleep to accommodate the host of an overnight radio talk show host's interview request. This author has done hundreds of interviews, and she is a consummate professional. She appreciates all interview opportunities, and she was glad to have another one.

The author was to call into the studio line, and her book publicist was awake -- I'd purposely set my alarm for this -- only to hear that the interview did not take place. The author emailed me to let me know that the host had cancelled the interview opportunity because he was onto a topic that was working for him, and he had spontaneously decided not to switch gears (and, potentially, sacrifice all of the enthusiastic calls he was generating). He wanted to reschedule the interview, at some point.

If he does want to reschedule, my client and I are both on notice that, as likely as not, he'll flake out again. Therefore, my best advice to this client is to cut her losses and never deal with this inconsiderate radio show host again. And this may very well be one radio talk show host who is on my short list of media people to avoid dealing with on the grounds that he is just too undependable to take chances with (unless I'm working with an author who is a night owl and doesn't mind taking a chance on being disappointed by a talk show host).

This was a good reminder for me, though. Even reputable shows (or other media outlets) can cancel interviews, with or without a good reason, at the last minute -- and, this, after an author has put aside time and made scheduling changes to take advantage of a book promotion opportunity. Cancellations don't happen often, but they can, and they do, despite meticulous planning and the best of intentions.

Don't internalize book promotion disappointments, when they happen. Just do what I have decided to do: note the person, log the event, learn from the incident, and move on.

Book promotion for self-published books, too

You've tried -- for months, or for years -- to convince a literary agent to persuade a traditional publisher to lend its imprint, and its credibility, to your book because you're under the impression that book promotion opportunities exist for traditionally published books that aren't available for self-published titles. 

Wrong.

Here's the good news. For the most part, the stigma that used to be associated with self-published books is gone. While traditionally published books have lost none of their cache, even with all of the changes in the published world, new opportunities have arisen for those whose books haven't been picked up by traditional publishers. While the traditional publishing world was doing its thing (the same old, same old thing, for the most part), self-published books (and that includes self-published ebooks, by the way) have established their own strong track records and earned their own top-notch book promotion opportunities.

To reinforce my point, here's an interesting link from -- ironically enough -- a venue that's all about traditional publishing (but that, in recent years, has begun to take self-published authors seriously, too).

This Publishers Weekly article shares the results of a recent Writer's Digest survey that compares writers' (those who have worked with traditional publishers to publish books and have also self-published their own books) satisfaction with traditional traditional publishing compared to self-publishing. Self-publishing came out ahead, and I believe it's because self-published authors gain so much (specifically, monetary rewards and control over every aspect of their work) and sacrifice so little by way of media recognition, credibility, and distribution/sales potential. 

In short, it's as easy to find book promotion opportunities for self-published books as it is to find book promotion opportunities for traditionally published books once you look beyond book reviews (some of which are still unavailable for self-published authors since some traditional book review outlets are still holding onto the last vestiges of discrimination against self-published books).The book promotion opportunities for all books, and ebooks, have grown in number over the years as new venues have emerged. All books, and ebooks, regardless of the way they are published, have access to these book promotion opportunities.

Now it's just up to you, the author, to find those book promotion opportunities, and to see how your book can take advantage of them.

A book promotion "don't do"

There are some things you shouldn't do for book promotion. Here's a question that just came to me, via email, from a "prospective book publicity client":

Hello Dear,
I am an author who is currently working on a book and I wonder if you offer a service where you buy 500 -100 copies of a book to increase the sales rank of an author?

Kind Regards
XXXXXX [I have masked the name of the author to protect his/her identity)

Because of the odd language, I suspected that one of two things is true about the sender of the email. Either the email was written by someone for whom English isn't a first language, or the author isn't playing with a full set of Legos. Or, perhaps, both of those things are true.

Anyway, here is the reply I fired off to the author:

In a word, no. I don't engage in practices I consider unethical.

Stacey Miller
S. J. Miller Communications
www.bookpr.com

*sighing* I know we all want to sell books, and our ranking in online bookstores does matter. However, there's a way to promote books, and then there are book promotion ploys to avoid. Hiring a book promotion specialist to purchase books from a bookstore (a traditional bookstore or an online bookstore) is, plain and simply, a dishonest practice, and this book publicist would never even consider it.

Hopefully, no book publicist would.

Are we entitled to book promotion?

Are we entitled to book promotion? Or book sales? Or shelf space in a particular bookselling venue? Joan Rivers seems to think Costco has banned her autobiography, I Hate Everyone … Starting with Me, and I guess that's possible. However, the book publicist in me tends to think that Joan Rivers is on the wrong track here. Many books are pitched to Costco. Given Costco's limited shelf space (so to speak), few books are chosen. Saying that Costco banned Joan Rivers' autobiography is like suggesting that "Entertainment Tonight" banned Joan Rivers' memoir by choosing not to schedule her as a guest or that Publishers Weekly or Library Journal banned Rivers' autobiography by deciding not to review it (assuming "ET" didn't book Joan Rivers, and assuming PW and Library Journal didn't review Rivers' memoir, which I don't know to be the case).

So, okay, Costco might have found Joan Rivers' book (or Joan Rivers herself) to be objectionable, and its book buyer may have decided to forgo the opportunity to stock Joan Rivers' book. But does one potential book buyer deciding to not buy a book constitute a boycott? Joan Rivers seems to think so...but this book publicist, I'm happy to say, has a bit more common sense than that.

Book Promotion: How to Abuse the Privilege

Would you like to abuse the privilege of embarking on a book promotion campaign and scoring A-list media coverage? Then follow the example of Chase Brandon, former CIA agent. Brandon is promoting his new novel, The Cryptos Conundrum, whose publication was more or less timed to coincide with the 65th anniversary of the incident and subsequent cover up(or non-event, and the crazy myth-making and rumor-spreading that followed the non-event, as the case may have been) as the case may have been) at Roswell, NM.

Brandon (and his new novel) garnered coverage in Time Magazine, the Huffington Post, and other top media outlets. All of that book publicity and the nice timing of the book's publication have helped the book's Amazon ranking; it's just a shade about 5,000 as I write this.

So, evidently, Brandon saw something in the secret files about Roswell that he'd like to tell us about but just can't bring himself to divulge (just like all the other intelligence agency people who saw things in the secret files about Roswell and can't bring themselves to talk about). Touching, isn't it? Brandon has a secret (Brandon has a secret, Brandon has a secret, Brandon has a secret!) but doesn't want to share it with the poor schlubs who'd be scared to death (and, perhaps, scarred for life) if he did.

Now, I'm not taking sides here. Maybe there really was a UFO that crashed at Roswell, NM, or maybe it was a weather balloon, or maybe something else happened that I just don't happen to know about (and, maybe, wouldn't want to know about, since evidently Captain Kirk or Captain Picard weren't around to deal  it -- whatever "it" was). But if Brandon knows more about this then I do, and he'd like to earn the editorial space and airtime that the top media outlets are granting him, then let him spill it: all of it. Book promotion, in this book publicist's opinion, isn't about teasing. It's about saying it. Either saying it, or hushing. In this case, since Brandon has no specificity to offer, I wish he'd taken the latter route and just hushed altogether. And I wish his book promotion campaign were a bit lower key. That's all I have to say.

Stacey J. Miller is a book promotion specialist and founder of S. J. Miller Communications. Visit her at www.bookpr.com (connecting with her on Facebook or Twitter is strictly optional).

Book Promotion When the Time Is Right

It's so simple to self-publish a book that, according to a thoughtful Forbes article, it's tempting for many authors to move forward to quickly. According to Forbes, authors are using social networking to promote books that aren't ready for book promotion campaigns. Worse, authors are social networking to connect with book designers, literary agents, publishers, and others in the book publishing industry to move forward their book publishing project when, unfortunately, their books aren't ready for publication. The only thing more embarrassing than publishing a book that's not ready to be published is having your intended readership learn, through your book promotion campaign, that you've had the bad judgment to publish your not-ready-for-prime-time book. Running your manuscript through spell check isn't enough. You have to have your book professionally edited and, in some cases, you might even be well advised to get some help in turning your manuscript from a mediocre manuscript into a polished, professional manuscript that will help you establish credibility and build your brand.

I was scanning Amazon's Kindle bestseller list recently and happened upon a novel that tempted me until I read the reviews. To paraphrase one readers review, "Come on, everyone. Cut the author some slack. Don't be so hard on him. This is his first novel. Could you do as well your first time? So what if it isn't perfect. It's still a valiant first effort." Do I want to read a novelist's first effort? Maybe, if that novelist is J.D. Salinger. Otherwise, not so much.

So Forbes's article is right on target. Self-publishing can be a terrific opportunity to disseminate your messages, sell your products or services, and set yourself apart from your competitors. Book promotion campaigns can work to your advantage when your book is excellent. If your book is anything less than that, then book promotion can wait.

Book Promotion by Doodle

Can you doodle your way to a successful book promotion campaign? A free doodle app and web site called doodle.ly lets you launch a free (do you enjoy the concept of "free" book promotion as much as this book publicist does?) contest for readers and fans of your book. You can read more about how this doodling for book promotion idea works at GalleyCat. In short, though, you ask readers to doodle sketches related to your novel or nonfiction book for a chance to win prizes. The success of a doodle.ly book promotion campaign relies heavily on social networking to get readers excited about participating in the contest -- thus, creating buzz for your book.

And speaking of book promotion, there's good news for those of us who live in Greater Boston. Parts of Massachusetts (hopefully, that will include my part of Massachusetts) can expect to see thundershowers this afternoon and, with that, a cold front will approach. That means the three-day heatwave will come to an end. For those authors, publishers, and book publicists who are based in New England and have pitched a heatwave-related story to the media, does that mean your story idea is dead in the water. On the contrary...Massachusetts (and New England) residents have long known that, once summertime begins, it's only a question of time until the next heatwave settles in. That means there will be ample opportunities to get media coverage if you can relate your book, and your expertise, to the summertime weather. So congratulations, Boston, on the approach of cooler weather. But do not fear. Your chance to pitch summertime stories to the media continues....

Boston and Book Promotion

Boston is hot today. It's 73 degrees in Boston as I write this, and the weather forecasters say that the temperature could reach 100 degrees in Boston (and in other parts of Massachusetts).

So what's a book publicist (or an author or a book publisher) to do? Pitch a heat-related story to the Boston media outlets, of course!

Think about whether your expertise can inform those who are facing the beginning of Boston's summer season in terms of healthcare, education, sports, real estate, workplace, parenting, entertainment, and the like -- and pitch your story to the Boston media outlets. That can get you coverage, particularly if you're a Boston-based author or publisher.

If you're book promotion campaign is focused on other parts of the country, then note that there's a heatwave in many major metro areas ... and plan your book publicity efforts accordingly. This book publicist loves heat, and she loves summertime story ideas, and she's ready to dive in -- pun intended!

Stacey J. Miller is a book promotion specialist and founder of S. J. Miller Communications. Visit her at www.bookpr.com (connecting with her on Facebook or Twitter is strictly optional)

Local Book Promotion Options -- Part 2

In Local Book Promotion Options -- Part 1, I explained why authors and publishers who are promoting their books on a national level should include local media outlets as part of their book publicity campaign. For example, a Newton, Massachusetts-based author who reaches out to national TV shows and is lucky enough to get an invitation to appear on, say, "Good Morning America," should still pitch local media outlets (the "Newton Tab," which is a community newspaper with a Newton, Massachusetts readership, for example), local radio stations (in this case, WNTN which is based in Newton), and the community newspapers and radio stations in surrounding cities and towns (such as, in this example, Arlington, Cambridge, Concord, Lexington, Weston, and others).

But you can take that a step further. Besides pitching media outlets that are local to where you live as part of your book promotion efforts, you can also pitch the community newspapers, and radio and television stations, in any other cities and towns where you have (or have had) strong ties: where you were born and raised, where you went to school, where you work, where your family lives, and so forth. So if you're currently living in Newton, Massachusetts but you were born in Seattle, you went to school in Los Angeles, your first job was in Houston, and your parents are living in Miami ... you have four new sets of local media outlets, beyond the Newton, Massachusetts media outlets, to contact and incorporate into your book promotion plans.

To that list, you can add any cities or towns you happen to be visiting. So if business meetings take you from the Boston, Massachusetts area to four other cities on the Eastern Seaboard, factor the local media outlets in the "tour cities" into your book promotion plans, too. Emphasize the local news hook -- when you'll be in town, what you'll be doing when you're there, and how your expertise can tie into the events that are happening there or the controversies that are unfolding or the politics of the area.

After a "Good Morning America" appearance, it may seem lackluster to find yourself appearing on local radio shows or being interviewed by weekly newspaper reporters. But every interview you do adds to your portfolio and reaches a new audience, so no media outlet is "too small" or "too insignificant" to be a worthwhile component of your book promotion campaign.

And, after all, local media outlets are seeking local media news hooks and local story angles which you know you can provide. So why not give the media what it needs? It will benefit your book publicity efforts and become part of your sustained book promotion campaign.

Stacey J. Miller is an online book promotion specialist and founder of S. J. Miller Communications. Visit her at www.bookpr.com (connecting with her on Facebook or Twitter is strictly optional).

Local Book Promotion Options -- Part 1

You're looking for book publicity opportunities, with or without the help of a book publicist. What do you do?

Do you stick with national media outlets, or do you also pitch your book and your messages to local media outlets?

So many media outlets have a national audience these days. Radio shows that are streamed online can be heard by anyone in the country, and articles can be read by anyone in the world even when the article is originally printed in a local newspaper or magazine as long as that media outlet has a web presence ... and nearly every newspaper and magazine does have an online counterpart so their readership expands far beyond the areas you'd expect.

That said, media decision makers -- particularly, community newspaper editors -- still search for local stories. So while you're seeking national media attention, don't overlook the obvious: reaching out to weekly newspapers in your area in addition to pitching the daily (or larger) newspapers that cover your media market. You haven't covered all the author promotion possibilities until you've reached out to the local media in your area and let them know you are available for interviews and your book is available for review.

For example, let's say you're an author who's based in Newton, Massachusetts. Of course, you'll contact the editors at the daily newspapers in Boston, Massachusetts and the surrounding areas. You'll contact editors at the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald and let them know about your story idea. You'll probably also reach out to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette (a large daily newspaper in Central Massachusetts), the Patriot Ledger (a top daily newspaper in Southern Massachusetts) and the Boston Phoenix (a weekly Boston-based entertainment and arts newspaper) as a matter of course.

But, if you're a Newton, Massachusetts-based author, don't bypass other print book promotion opportunities in the Boston area -- specifically, in Newton, Massachusetts -- just because they're smaller media outlets. For example, be sure to put The Newton Tab's and Newton Living Magazine editors on your contact list.

Beyond local print media, you'll also want to contact the New England Cable News TV network which is based in Newton, Massachusetts, WNTN-AM (which, again, is based in Newton, Massachusetts), and more along with the Boston radio stations (among them, WBZ-AM and WRKO-AM which have a national listening audience although they still are local radio stations) and the Boston network affiliate TV statons including WBZ-TV, WCVB-TV, WCBS-TV, WFXT-TV (Boston's Fox TV station), WSBK-TV and WLVI-TV (Boston's two independent TV stations), and others.

You can also contact small community newspapers associated with other nearby cities in Massachusetts: Cambridge, Brighton, Brookline, Arlington, Concord, Lexington, Quincy, Massachusetts ... well, you get the idea. If there's a city near where you live, that city has its own local newspapers, and it probably has its own radio station. And maybe it also has its own local cable television station, too.

So, when you're seeking national book promotion opportunities, think local. You'll have an obvious news hook, and you can leverage the fact that you know what's going on where you live and can address happenings (in this case, for example, in Newton, Massachusetts). Because you're a local author (local to somewhere in the country, if not Newton, Massachusetts), you'll most likely know the local media outlets off the top of your head and be able to reach out to them directly with appropriate story pitches -- or, at least, you'll be able to make sure your book publicist has reached out to all of the local media outlets. Never assume your local book publicist has all the media bases covered. Just be sure you have a list of all of the media outlets to which you can pitch a local media story, and don't leave out a single one. Each book promotion opportunity you garner, big or small, is another step on your path to maximum visibility for your book and your messages.


Stacey J. Miller is a book promotion specialist and founder of Greater Boston, Massachusetts-based S. J. Miller Communications. Visit her at www.bookpr.com.

Book Promotion Is a Crummy Investment, But It’s an Excellent Opportunity

A book promotion campaign represents a dubious expenditure if your sole goal is to sell a sufficient number of books to pay for the book promotion campaign and then to move enough additional books to turn a profit. Although there is a relationship between book promotion and book sales, that connection is highly unpredictable. You can't say with any degree of certainty, "If I invest X in my book promotion campaign, I'll see a boost of Y in book sales." The only dependable expression of the link between book publicity and book sales, unfortunately, is a negative one: if you don't promote your book, then you'll probably sell no books because nobody will know about it.

A book promotion campaign may help you sell books if you can get yourself in front of the right potential book buyers, in the right ways, and at the right times. Then your messages must be relevant and compelling. The solutions you offer must be credible, or you have to be really entertaining (or you have to know somebody who is). Potential readers have to learn (and remember) your name and your book's title, and your book must be readily, and continually, available where your intended readers can find and buy it. Your book also has to be worth its price, and it has to inspire buyers to tell other potential readers about it. All of that can happen. In other words, a book promotion might pay off in increased book sales, or at least in one or more short-term book sales spikes. But, in order for that to happen, a lot of variables have to fall into place. You have to be lucky, and the stars have to line up for you and, even then, you won't be able to replicate the experience every time you publish a new book. Few authors catch lightning in a bottle twice because there's nothing scientific about the relationship between a book publicity campaign and an increase in the number of books that you sell.

That said, book promotion campaigns are excellent opportunities for authors. No, you can't justify launching a book promotion campaign in exchange for a predictable number of book sales unless you're the type of person who bought Google shares during its initial public offering and then enjoyed a good night's sleep. But, if you're like most authors, you won't count on monetizing your publicity campaign solely on the basis of increased book sales. Your plans will also include embracing the benefits that book promotion campaigns always provide and that make book publicity campaigns reliably worth the time, effort, and money you put into it (yes, even shoestring book promotion campaigns require an investment of cash). But here's the good news. Every time you embark upon a book publicity campaign, you'll give yourself an opportunity to:

1. Disseminate your key messages and share your viewpoint. Your book gives journalists and hosts a reason to interview you. Once you're on the air, in print, or online, you can tell people what you want them to know, share your perspective with them, make your case, and persuade listeners, viewers, and readers to follow a specific course of action. A dentist who writes a book about the importance dental hygiene, for example, might target people who haven't had a checkup in years... and figure out how to finally get bring them into a dentist's office before a dental crisis erupts that will really turn dental care into a nightmare. You'll have your say, and people will hear you... and that's probably one of the main reasons why you wrote your book, anyway.

2. Establish yourself as an authority and gain a competitive advantage. Which furniture mover would you be more inclined to hire: the one whose media spokesperson is always providing advice for packing fragile items, transporting heirlooms across long distances, familiarizing yourself with a new neighborhood, and helping your kids adapt to a new school, or the one whose company name you've randomly picked up from the Boston Globe's classified ads? Your expertise is something you can translate into new business opportunities, increased fees for current offerings, and the like.

3. Enhance your online presence. As you establish your portfolio of newspaper and online clippings, and accumulate radio, TV, and web interviews, you'll find your search engine visibility improving, and organizations, clients, customers, and the media will be better able to connect with you. Online articles that link back to your website attract readers, and they help your overall search engine optimization efforts on an ongoing basis, too. You can leverage your increased online presence to create new business relationships and reach out to people who, otherwise, wouldn't have any way of finding you.

4. Build your brand. By sharing your expertise and point of view, you're creating a platform from which you can more easily and successfully launch additional products and services... or simply enlarge your potential client and customer base for the services and products you already provide (or hope to offer). Every interview provides you with the possibility of metaphorically handing out hundreds, if not thousands, of business cards all at once to highly targeted audiences.

So, although you can't count on a book promotion campaign to pay for itself through increased book sales, you can depend on the enhanced opportunities that book publicity campaigns provide. Launching a book promotion campaign is a sound investment... or, at least, it is a wonderful opportunity for authors who can see beyond a hoped-for spike in book sales to achieve far more lucrative, and sustainable, gains.

 

Stacey J. Miller is an online book promotion specialist and founder of S. J. Miller Communications. Visit her at www.bookpr.com (connecting with her on Facebook or Twitter is strictly optional).

Is this book publicist seeing things?

Yes, I know my life is all about book promotion, and books, and promoting books, and publicizing books, and...well, yes, I confess. I'm all about books.

But am I seeing things?

I just came across an MSNBC.com story titled: Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss! Vote for your favorite movie.

Yes, I'm aware that several of Dr. Seuss's books have been turned into movie. I'm fond of several of them.

However, is it asking too much that we honor Dr. Seuss on his birthday by remembering his books before we jump to the next topic, film? Is it unreasonable to assume that Dr. Seuss, most of all, would want to be remembered as an author and illustrator?

To me, Dr. Seuss is the genius behind some of the best books that ever were, or ever will be. On his birthday, I want to re-read some of those.

See one of the films? Maybe...but not until I'm finished reading the books. Does that make me strange?

A book promotion specialist's tools

Like all professionals, a book promotion specialist has her tools of the trade. One of the most important is the relationship she builds with each and every one of her media contacts.

The identity of those TV and radio producers, magazine editors and writers, and newspaper editors and journalists, bloggers, and other media decision makers are a proprietary part of a book promotion specialist's property. But those names and the contact information behind those names are only a piece of what book publicists offer. The rest is the credibility the book publicist brings to each encounter she has with a producer, writer, editor, and journalist. A book publicist stakes her reputation on every author she represents; her association with a book is an explicit endorsement for that book. An author who would like to hire me "only" to send his or her press release, on my letterhead, to my media contacts pays full freight. If I get behind a book, then the author benefits from my reputation, and that's what I offer: my reputation, my book promotion skills, my approach to book promotion, my creativity in planning book promotion strategies, and the media contacts who help me turn unknown authors into experts with a platform.

This is how I see a book publicist's offerings, and it would surprise me to know there's another perspective -- but, apparently, there is. A publicist with whom I have a passing familiarity left a message on my answering machine after hours. When I retrieved the message, I heard a request for the name of the producer I'd worked with to book myself on a segment of "The Rachael Ray Show" to promote my book, 101 Recipes for Microwave Mug Cakes (BPT Press).

I was bewildered by the request for a number of reasons including the following:

1. The identity of, and contact information for, the producer I worked with at "The Rachael Ray Show" and every other media outlet I contact was, is, and will remain my business, and nobody else's until such time as I decide to sell my book promotion firm. Does that sound selfish? Well, okay. But book promotion is my livelihood, and to compromise my intellectual property would be self-sabotage, and that's something in which I would not engage any more than I would consider sabotaging a colleague or a competitor's business.

2. I appeared on "The Rachael Ray Show" at the end of 2009. Why would a publicist presume that the producer with whom I worked is still working at that TV show?

3. The names of, and contact information for, producers at every national TV show you can name is available to people who are willing to a) hunt for it (I've written an article about how to get this information -- click here to read it) or b) pay for it. I'd be chagrined to learn that a publicist lacked access to the contact information for a major national TV show. In fact, it doesn't make sense that a publicist would lack that information or wouldn't know how to get it. And, as Judge Judy likes to say, if something doesn't make sense, then it isn't true. Which leads me to the worst conclusion of all.

I believe this publicist wanted to use my name, and my reputation, to contact the producer of "The Rachael Ray Show" without 1) being up-front about the fact that he wanted to do so and 2) without giving me the benefit of knowing anything about the book project on which he was working. Evidently, offering me payment for this information (which I couldn't accept for the reasons I've already outlined) was not a part of the equation.

A book promotion specialist has her tools, and this is how a book promotion specialist stays in business. This is what a book promotion specialist has to offer. If another publicist places so little value on those tools that he or she would blithely request the information, to do with just as he or she pleased, then I call that an attempt at theft.

Yes, there is a Recession going on. Maybe the publicist who tried to take from me a piece of my property and to "borrow" my reputation has fallen up against hard times. But I fear that the publicist in question isn't only facing a financial challenge. I am deeply concerned this individual has declared moral bankruptcy as well.

To the publicist in question: If you happen to read this blog entry, no. I will not return your phone call. And I can't imagine why you left me the message in the first place if you consider yourself a person of honor.

Is 50 Years Too Late for Book Promotion?

Is 50 years too long to wait after an event to publish your story and hope to get some book promotion? Well, not if you've waited 50 years to talk about the affair you had with President John F. Kennedy while you were a White House intern, apparently. Check out just some of the national book promotion opportunities that Mimi Alford's new book, Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath, has received. Here's the story on CNN, and here it is on NBC's "Today Show."

And this is just the beginning.

Mimi Alford will be all over the media, promoting her new book, and she'll be given these book publicity 50 years after her lover's death because she was in the right place at the right time -- doing the wrong thing.

When the book sales that result from the book promotion blitz that accompanies Mimi Alford's new book are in, she might just feel that doing exactly the wrong thing was exactly the right book -- from a book promotion perspective.

Book Promotion Perspectives

A Houston Chronicle article talks about book promotion from the different perspectives of several successful authors including Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and others.

The story of how Skloot's created buzz for her book (beginning years before its publication!) caught my attention because, by coincidence, I'd just finished reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks . Of course, I read the book because of all the media attention it had received (yes, successful book promotion campaigns work for book publicists, too). But I found it fascinating to see the extent to which Skloot's generated all that book publicity for herself. She didn't wait for her book publisher to do it for her.

In the article, you'll read about authors who used Facebook and Twitter to generate buzz for their book, and you'll read about at least one author who avoided social networking. Finally, you'll read about an author whose appearance on a national TV show -- "Good Morning America" -- was the making of his book and proved, to him, that traditional book promotion strategies still work best (when you're lucky enough to score the right mix of major book promotion opportunities, that is).

Ask half a dozen authors whose books have been successful how they created buzz for their books, and you'll get six vastly different responses. But the cool thing is that we can learn from all of them, and we can adapt their book promotion strategies to our own book publicity goals, needs, and preferences. There's something to be learned from all successful authors.

Book Lust Rediscoveries Kindles Book Promotion Potential

Nearly every author who works with this book publicist has a dream: "Get me on NPR!" Any author whose book is featured on "Morning Edition" or any other National Public Radio show will be in literary and book publicity heaven.

Which is why it was particularly interesting for me to come across an article about Nancy Pearl, a librarian who comments about books on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition," and who has created the Book Lust Rediscoveries program with Amazon. The program will reprint books some of Pearl's favorite out-of-print titles that were originally published between 1960 and 2000. Pearl will add her own introduction and discussion questions to each reprinted book.

If Pearl puts her stamp of approval on a book than -- fifty years old or not -- there will be instant buzz about the title, and an instant surge of book promotion potential that, ultimately, will be a huge potential gain for the author. So Book Lust Rediscoveries is all good, right? You'd think so, except I ran across the article about Book Lust Rediscoveries in an article (ironically, one that was published on the NPR web site) titled: "Publishers And Booksellers See A 'Predatory' Amazon."

There's no doubt that Amazon's experiments and goals are in conflict with those of many publishing industry professionals. At the same time, the publishing industry is changing so quickly, and so profoundly, that it's almost impossible to single out one company as "all bad" or, even, as "all good."

My job is to keep up with book promotion opportunities, and right now, I'm grateful to Amazon for providing a new book publicity opportunity -- in this case, to books that are no longer in print. Tomorrow, I'm sure I'll lament something else's partnership with Amazon or a decision Amazon has made that can hurt small publishers ... but, at least in this case, I'm willing to give credit where credit is due. And credit is certainly due to Amazon and to Nancy Pearl for their Book Lust Rediscoveries program.

Here's How to Garner Instant Book Promotion

Here's how to garner an instant book promotion opportunity. Sell your book to a producer who creates a successful film best upon your book, and then have that film be nominated for an Oscar. There you have it: a chance to create buzz about your book.

USA Today reports that six of the nine movies that were nominated for best picture Oscars this year were based upon books. Those movies are: "The Descendants," "Hugo," "The Help," "Moneyball," "War Horse," and "Extremely Loud & IncrediblyClose." Last year (USA Today reports), ten movies were nominated for best picture Oscars, and half of them were based on books.

So if you want your book's title on everyone's lips (and all over everyone's social networking pages and emails), simply focus on having someone turn your book into an Oscar-worthy film. Failing that, do what the rest of us have learned works best: conduct a book promotion campaign that blends the best of traditional book promotion and online book promotion strategies, and maintain your efforts for as long as they're productive, cost effective, and enjoyable. Book promotion campaigns work -- perhaps not as well as having your book-to-film project nominated for an Oscar, but still, book promotion campaigns do work.