Promote A Book

When people want to promote a book, most creative people plan their work with the highest of detail, but seem to throw a promotion program together rapidly and without much thought. Is it a wonder that most authors when trying to promote a book never get their book known?

I have to admit that until I became a marketer and PR professional actually in the business to promote a book for authors, I was one of those creative’s who did not understand the value of a solid, well-planned marketing and promotion plan. Since my mind was not on the business of how to promote a book, but rather on creating, I figured that any work that is good will eventually find an audience through word of mouth.

Many creative people, like authors, have the same mentality when they try to promote a book that they have written. They view promotion and marketing as a necessary evil that cannot be trusted; hence they fear reaching out to learn what their options are, since all marketers and PR professionals are thieves and liars in their opinion. If you’re reading this, you are probably agreeing with me right now.

So what they tend to do is look for the inexpensive to free, quick solution to promote a book that will promise a high return—like online promotion programs, doing social media marketing for themselves, doing book readings whenever possible—and when it doesn’t work, they move on to the next inexpensive to free option because they are desperate to promote a book that they have written. Does this sound like you? It definitely was me.

What I learned was that ALL the inexpensive options I tried to promote a book, for fear of speaking to a professional book publicist that I thought would be too expensive, cost me a small fortune. That money would have paid for an entire PR campaign that would have gotten results. Like it’s been said, “Advertising is expensive if not done properly; it’s free if done correctly.” This is especially true when you need to promote a book beause it pays for itself in the return of exposure, credibility, sales, and trust engendered.

When you decided to write your book, you probably counted the cost for design, editing, binding and publishing; but you didn’t count the most important cost; the cost to promote a book. Without the promotion, writing the book will just be a personal satisfaction, but it will find little to no audience.

Well if you are one of these poor souls trying to promote a book, take heart; it’s not too late to start. First and foremost, avoid all the cheap stuff that everyone else is trying in his or her efforts to promote a book. After all, if it worked, there would be many more bestsellers today. Second, do some research and find several good book publicists you can compare that truly know how to effectively promote a book. Find out how long they’ve been in business, what do they specialize in, who have been their clients, ask for testimonials from their clients and what method do they use. When I say method, I’m talking about how they charge to promote a book and whether they are a retainer-based or a pay-for-performance agency.

Retainer-based agencies charge you a monthly retainer to promote a book and then bill against it for any service they may provide (phone calls, e-mails, faxes, shipping, strategizing, etc). They guarantee best efforts only; in other words, we will try our best to get you as much exposure as possible. You don’t know what you will receive, until you get it.

A pay-for performance agency charges no retainer to promote a book and typically guarantees a certain amount of interviews and/or editorial coverage. In other words, if you want 15 radio interviews in top 100 markets, you get 15 radio interviews in the top 100 markets and it’s the only thing you pay for. If you don’t get it, then there is no charge.

Finally, once you’ve found the agency you feel comfortable will really do a good job to promote a book that you have written, sit down and create a promotion plan that will get you and your message out to the public.

So if you’re in the process of writing your book, or starting on your second edition, make sure you count the cost to promote a book as well. Research and have your game plan ready so that when your book is published, the demand has already been created and your efforts to promote a book will be firmly in place.

July 8, 2011

Filed Under: Book Promoter Promote A Book Promote A Book Public Relations

Promote A Book By Doing Things Right is more important than Trying To Promote A Book By Doing the Right Things

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How to Avoid Being Busy But Getting Nowhere with Your Efforts To Promote A Book

When it comes to the business of trying to promote a book, or even a marriage, there are things that you should do to have success and things, that while are good, that are not a priority. You can get so focused on your efforts to promote a book that it is easy to get those priorities mixed up. What it boils down to if you are going to be successful in your activities to promote a book is it is imperative that you are doing the right things versus doing things right.

Let’s take it out of the realm of your efforts to promote a book and for an example, let’s say that you started a new sales job. You’re supposed to create a list of prospects and make a certain amount of calls during the day, because it’s a numbers game. So you sit down at your desk, you reach for the handset on your phone and you look at your desk and think, “What a mess! I can’t work like this.” So you proceed to clean and organize your desk.

Now you’re happy. You reach for the phone and you look down at your legal pad, and notice that it’s halfway used with old scribbles and torn off sheets. You think to yourself, “Oh, this won’t do. I need a fresh legal pad so that I don’t get confused with previous notes.” So you proceed to go to the supply closet to get yourself a new legal pad.

Okay, now you’re ready! You reach for the phone and notice that your pencil is not sharp. You think to yourself, “That’s not good. I need to sharpen ALL my pencils, so that I don’t have to stop when I start making calls.” So you proceed to sharpen all of your pencils.

You reach for the phone and you think, “When I start talking, my mouth and throat will get dry. I’d better get a nice hot cup of coffee so as to wet and warm my throat.” You proceed to the kitchen and run into your cohort, who starts to talk about last night’s hockey game and how the Lightning swept Washington in the playoffs. You talk for about 30 minutes. When you get back to your desk, you reach for the phone and notice that lunch is 10 minutes away. You think to yourself, “There’s no way I can do anything productive in 10 minutes. I guess I’ll go to lunch and continue when I return. BOY, WHAT A BUSY MORNING!”

You’ve been doing figure 8’s, doing what you thought were the “right things” to do. After all, a clean and organized desk, sharpened pencils and a fresh legal pad are great things, but they got you no results. Had you been doing things right, you’d have been dialing the telephone and talking with prospects, trying to make a sale.

When it comes to your efforts to promote a book the same concept applies. Often, authors do the right things, but they don’t do things right. In other words, they do the things that will get little to no results when you promote a book; wasting resources and time that could have been used for doing things right—like hiring a book publicist.

For example, a book signing is a right thing to do to promote a book; eventually. Since it is a tactic that has been used by many authors for decades and can be relatively inexpensive, authors will gravitate to it. In their mind, they think, “Book signings are good and will cost me little, so I will start with book signings in my efforts to promote a book.”

The problem is they don’t get you the exposure you want when you need to promote a book on a grand scale; it only serves a small portion of a local market. Plus, if you are a relatively new author, if this were done first, the only people that would show would be family and friends.

Another promote a book tactic is that of book reading. The same dynamics of the book signing apply here with a book reading. Now a book reading and signing are not inherently a bad way to promote a book, but they will not get you the results you need. So if that were the case, why would you waste time, money and effort for something that will only suck up resources that could have been used to promote a book to get you better results?

If you want to get known, create awareness of your book and gain credibility with your public as you promote a book, a PR campaign consisting of talk radio interviews and editorial print is what you need. The PR campaign will bring you national, regional and local exposure, credibility, trust and respect and will successfully promote a book to the masses. These are all things that are needed before anyone would be interested in a book by an author they’ve never heard of before. This is doing things right!

I’m sure you’ve all either heard or seen the analogy done with a jar, big rocks, pebbles, gravel and sand. For those who have not, it goes like this. If I were to put the sand in first (the most minor of things), then the gravel, then the pebbles, there is no room for the big rocks. However, if I put the big rocks (the most important things) in first, I can then put in the pebbles (the next most important) and they will fall in between the rocks. I would follow with the gravel (some of the minors) and finish with the sand (the least important). In the right order, it all fit perfectly; in the wrong order, the majors never made it.

In other words, when you promote a book if your priorities are skewed, you will have exhausted your resources and energy, and may never make it to the major things (PR), because the money was spent on the wrong priorities and you’re burned out.

So take the time to really think your efforts to promote a book through. Prioritize and make sure that you do things right. Stop doing figure 8’s, wasting time, energy and money, and get the success you want and really succeed with your efforts to promote a book. Stop sabotaging yourself and then wondering, “What happened?” You put thought and prioritized well in order to write your book. Take the same attention approach in your efforts to promote a book that you have written and you may be the next bestseller.

July 1, 2011

Filed Under: Book Promoter Promote A Book Promote A Book Public Relations

Promote A Book With Social Media? Is NOT PR: It’s Just One of the Tools

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In this post I want to discuss why a badly managed social media campaign to promote a book will hurt more than help. Most people trying to promote a book immediately think of social media to get the word out, but if not done right it can actually have a negative affect on your efforts to promote a book that you have written.

I once heard it said that the best and worst thing that Microsoft ever created was PowerPoint. Why? There is nothing better than to be able to organize your thoughts and present them in a powerful way. However, the worst thing is that everyone thinks they know how to create a professional presentation that has impact, and there is nothing as bad as having to sit through a terrible presentation.

The same could be said for desktop publishing; everyone thinks because they have the tools that they can do a professional job. And, after the author tries to promote a book that they have written and when the leads don’t come in and the sale is not closed, they wonder why.

Suddenly, a new paradigm has been established that allows one to communicate to the world; social media networking. Since business people are quick to grab on to any way they can promote a book or to market their wares to the public that is cost effective, they rapidly created the industry known as “social media marketing.”

Once again, the same old thinking took over and many people wonder why their social media marketing is not bearing fruit. It’s one thing if you want to personally socialize online and meet people; it’s something totally different if you want to promote a business. Why? Social media was not created for marketing, but rather, for socializing and anyone who forgets that quickly is reminded that people don’t like to be sold.

So if you want to have success with your efforts to promote a book that you have written, there are a few things that you need to know. Let’s take a look at these.

1. Trust is the Key – If there is no trust, there is no relationship: People like to do business with people they like and trust, or with people referred by someone they like and trust. So if you want to build a solid SMM program to promote a book, the first key is that you must build trust, not make sales.

2. It Must Be About Them and Not About You: No one likes someone who is braggadocio; in other words, don’t break your arm patting yourself on your back. If the content that you post to promote a book is all about how great YOU are and how great your book or PRODUCT is, you will lose. You must post content that provides a solution to the needs and wants of the public you are trying to befriend. You need to realize this before you even think about your efforts to promote a book.

Use Your Expertise to Provide Help: Everyone has an expertise; something they are SO good at and knowledgeable about that they could provide solutions to people’s problems. If you’re a botanists, and you want to promote a book that you have written, you can help people save their plants and get a better harvest. If you’re a writer, and you can help someone who struggles with writer’s block you may want to promote a book on “How To Overcome Writer’s Block”. Whatever it is, your content should be from where you shine best so that people will see the value of what you have to offer.

Remember, no matter how excited you are in your attempts to promote a book, if you do not first show your concern, interest and attention to your potential readers, you will fail in your efforts to promote a book. Zig Ziglar says something to the effect: “If you first help others get what they want then you can have what you want”

Cover of Zig Ziglar

I apologize to Mr. Ziglar for my injustice in re-quoting him, but it I could go even a step further and use his concept in a quote, I am sure that if he were telling you the best way to promote a book he would say something like, “If you really want to promote a book that you have written via social media, then you first must show concern and interest in the people that you are Tweeting or blogging to etc, before you can hope to be successful in your efforts to promote a book.”

June 23, 2011

Filed Under: Book Promoter Promote A Book Promote A Book Public Relations

Promote A Book: The Tomb of the Unknown Author

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If you go by Arlington National Cemetery, our nation’s most hallowed ground, you will see the monument of The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This is a tribute to those who fought for our freedom and died, but were not identified or were missing in action, never to be found. So what does this have to do with your efforts to promote a book?

Well, I sometimes think that in front of the Library of Congress there should be a tomb for the unknown author who never had anyone let them know how important it is to promote a book. There should be a tribute to all the literary warriors who fight with the power of the written word, to change thought which decides action.

In the movie, 2012, author Jackson Curtis wrote a book that was full of deep wisdom. The problem was that no one knew who he was and he sold few books. It took the end of the world for his book to become popular, since the scientist that helps save the world read it and was a fan. Certainly, after the end of the world, who is around to promote a book to?

Is this you? Are you the one with the great book screaming to be read, but no one knows about you or what your message is? Are you failing to promote a book that really needs to be read?

When one considers that according to the report by Somersau, State of the Publishing World Now (2010 Statistics), that approximately 350,000 books are published annually and over one million are actually written; there are many unknown authors. So how does one make sure he or she does not wind up a statistic? The answer: a book publicist who knows how to properly promote a book.

With that many books being written and so many authors vying for the media’s attention, book signing opportunities and flooding the social media landscape in the hopes of getting exposure, if one does not have the proper channels opened to promote a book that they have written, it will be almost impossible.

So how do you get the media’s attention in your attempt to promote a book? Let me ask you a question. If you wanted to get into a building that was locked, would you prefer to try and climb through an open window or would it be easier to just find the person who has the key? The book publicist has the key to the promote a book door. That is why a good book publicist is important. You see, a good book publicist knows proper public relations (PR) and will break through the media hedge that keeps most out.

When you understand that the news media does not exist to help you sell books and that their sole purpose is to deliver content for their reading, viewing and listening public, you can see why it’s not easy to break through in your efforts to promote a book. Most authors will write a press release and fax, email and mail it to every organization they can. The press release usually reads something like, “… I wrote this book because … my idea was … I believe it will help … I, I, I, I…” So if you were lucky to actually get someone to look at it, it would be discarded pretty quickly.

Since a book publicist knows this, he or she will never position your efforts to promote a book in that way. The book publicist will write a pitch (not a press release) that will satisfy the media’s need for content for the news of the day. They will show how you, as an expert, have a solution for their story and why their audience would benefit from hearing what you have to add. In the process, you get the credibility, respect and trust that only comes from third party verification, by whomever is the audience’s favorite host. The host then is the one to promote a book for you; not you touting your own book.

The end result is not only will your efforts to promote a book get exposure, but more importantly, YOU will become a known entity with credibility that will open many doors. And, if you’ll notice, that many known authors comment on the news in radio talk shows, TV news shows and are quoted in print. Do you think that this happens just because the person is known? While for some that may be true, but most are using PR just like you.

So if you want what they have, you have to do what they did… and still do. Get yourself a book publicists and get the exposure that you need to properly promote a book and your book deserves. After all, you don’t want to wind up just another writer whose memory is kept by the tomb of the unknown author — do you?

June 18, 2011

Filed Under: Advertise Book Book Promoter Promote A Book Promote A Book Public Relations

Promote a Book: Why Should I Have To Learn How To Promote A Book?

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“…To Thine Own Self Be True.” William Shakespeare (or was it Francis Bacon?)

Being an author is a business. While the artistic passion often tries to conquer the capitalistic vision, make no mistake that if you do not learn how to promote a book and your books are not sold… well, starving artist comes to mind. While that may sound romantic, in some sort of Machiavellian way, it definitely does not lend itself to fulfilling your dream of having people get your message and recognize your talent (not to mention becoming rich as you learn how to promote a book for books sales and the resultant money that comes).

So while as an author, the passion of the message can often make one assume that if he or she writes it, people will automatically want to read it; after all, it’s an amazing message that will (fill in the blank); the harsh reality is that to the masses, you don’t exist if you do not make efforts to learn how to promote a book. So if that’s the case, being honest with yourself, you need to ask, “Why should anyone buy my book?”

If the book is well written and has a unique message, it’s a great start. However, how does the public KNOW that your book offers this unique message that will add value to them for reading it if you do not strive to learn how to promote a book that you have written? More importantly, and this is a hard one to swallow sometimes, “What makes me qualified and special to be the one that SHOULD deliver this message?”

It’s easy to just say, “Because I wrote the book!” But is it really enough; why should I have to learn how to promote a book as well? I mean, let’s say that you fell in love—at first sight—with the most beautiful girl in the world. You are convinced that she should be your wife. However, she doesn’t know you exist. If she did, she doesn’t know YOU. “What makes you SO special that I should dedicate the rest of my life just to you?” she might think. You say, “Because I love you!” You get my message?

You have to woo her, have her see your special qualities, get her to trust you, show her the value you bring to her life, and then—maybe—she might fall in love back! This takes time, effort, planning, and it can’t be you telling her how special YOU are. After all, no one likes anyone who pats themselves on the back. No my friend! You need to show her that you are special, but have OTHERS say, “That’s a special guy (or girl in the reverse context)!” So you enlist all the friends you two have in common and you start your personal PR campaign for the heart and mind of the one you love. The same thing is true when you write a book; you need to learn how to promote a book as well to “clinch”

Guess what? The same applies to your efforts to learn how to promote a book in your endeavor of wooing the public into wanting to buy your book. How to woo the public is the structure you apply to your promotion or marketing plan to learn how to promote a book, or for that matters to learn how to promote any product or services.

So ask yourself, “What makes me special?” The answer to this question will reveal your expertise. “What value do I bring to the relationship?” The answer to this question will show you how you fit into the media in your attempts to learn how to promote a book. “What friends can I make that will help me show the world that I am the qualified special person for this message?” The answer to this question is simply “the media.”

Well, now we have a dilemma! Do you know anyone in the media that would be willing to interview you on TV or radio, or write about you in newspapers, magazines and online publications in your crack at trying to learn how to promote a book? If you don’t, how are they going to tell the world that YOU ARE that special person? That’s where a book publicist and public relations comes in; they are specialists and know exactly how to teach you how to promote a book.

A good book publicist will help package your message and deliver it to the media, getting you the TV appearances and talk radio interviews, and the editorial coverage to accomplish how to promote a book that will tell the public, “Hey, pay attention, you need to know this person.” When that happens, that’s your moment to shine and show the value you bring.

You see, after all, when it’s all said and done, YOU are the product. If the public buys YOU, they will most likely buy ANY book you wrote and/or will write. But more importantly is the credibility it will engender. That’s the true value of PR when you learn how to promote a book! Once you have the credibility, not only are your books getting promoted, but other opportunities may arise. Imagine becoming a regular commentator on a radio or TV show. Imagine being asked to contribute to editorial coverage or a blog. The possibilities are endless. But one thing is for certain, if no one knows you, nothing will happen.

So have a personal heart-to-heart with yourself. Ask yourself the tough questions. Figure out the correct answers and then find yourself a good book publicist to assist in your direction in learning how to promote a book and start wooing the hearts of the public. After all, like your efforts to have a good marriage, when you are trying to learn how to promote a book, you can have a fan for a lifetime!

June 8, 2011

Filed Under: Advertise Book Book Promoter Promote A Book Promote A Book Public Relations

Promote A Book: Radio is Still the Best Promotion Tool Available

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Why the Internet is Not Killing Radio When You Want To Promote a Book, But Making It More Powerful

Communication is the most important component for success in any aspect of life. Think about it. If you do not communicate with your spouse, your marriage is doomed. If you do not communicate with your children, they grow up spoiled. If you don’t communicate in a combat situation, you lose the battle. If you don’t communicate with your consumer, you go out of business. If you do not communicate when you want to promote a book, you will fail.

I’ve been talking about radio a lot over the last few weeks, because it’s the best medium for you to deliver your message to promote a book or any product or service for that matter. For over a hundred years, radio has been the stalwart.

Many claimed when television was invented that radio would die. Yet radio still grew. Then along came the Internet and for sure, this time, this would be the death knell of radio. After all, you go online and listen to so many shows from around the world. While on the surface one may think that hurts radio, but quite frankly it helps. Realize that those shows are RADIO shows on which you can promote a book are being streamed online.

Radio has always been a resourceful industry and has adapted to every change that has come along and extended its reach. When TV started broadcasting shows, radio switched to music. When the quality of stereos got better, FM was created. When AM was going by the wayside, talk radio breathed new life into it which became a perfect avenue to promote a book.

When the Internet was born, it extended its reach to listeners that would’ve never had the chance to hear their broadcast unless they were in their market, by broadcasting online. With the introduction of social media, it further extended this reach; now one could post shows and interviews on their efforts to promote a book so that friends and followers could hear them all over the world. With the introduction of smartphones, the radio came full circle—back to the transistor radio days—with apps like iHeart Radio and TuneIn that allows one to listen to their favorite show anywhere one can take their phone. And, when advertising started to fall from grace, talk radio became the new advertising method through public relations (PR) to promote a book.

You see, radio is not the best venue only because it has extended its reach and provides content for your Web site and Facebook page, but also because advertising no longer wields the power of persuasion it once did. Sure, if you’re an established well-known brand, your advertising will be effective. However, if you’re trying to establish a brand in your efforts to promote a book, it won’t work. Why?

People do not trust advertising and advertisers. Al Ries, world renowned author on marketing, advertising and PR, with over a dozen bestsellers to his credit, notes in his book The Fall of Advertising and Rise of PR, in a survey conducted that people do not trust advertisers. On the scale, they were sandwiched between used car salesmen (who were dead last) and insurance salesmen. This is true whether they are trying to sell cars or to promote a book.

We see this in our very own lives. People DVR or TiVo their shows so as to skip the commercials. We use SPAM filters and pop-up blockers online. We channel surf on the radio. Simply because we don’t want to be bothered by someone telling us what they think we want to hear so that we’ll buy their product.

Image representing TiVo as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

Where people DO pay attention and trust what they hear is on their favorite shows. Whether it’s Sean Hannity, Michael Medved, Juan Williams, Alan Colmes or Laura Ingram to name a few, when they interview someone and introduce them as an expert in whatever field of expertise they may be from, what the audience hears is, “I can trust this person and they know what they are talking about.” In the process, they come to know you or your spokesperson, your company, in your efforts to promote a book or product, and you earn credibility, trust and respect in their ears. This implied third-party endorsement goes a very long way.

So whether it’s a book, a company, product or movement, if you want to reach the masses with your message and have them listen intently, talk radio is the way to go. If you are trying to promote a book it is probably the number one way to go.

June 5, 2011

Filed Under: Advertise Book How to write children's books and get them published Promote A Book Promote A Book Public Relations

How To Write Children’s Books and Get Them Published Part 2

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In the first of my series, “How to write children’s books and get them published Part 1” I talked about getting in touch with the child inside of you. I started my series with the importance of finding the kid inside of you because I really believe that it is probably one of the most important aspects of writing children’s books.

After all how can anyone expect to learn how to write children’s books and get them published and then successfully promote a book once it is published, unless they can really communicate well with children at the child’s level, and have a real sense of what the child feels and to what thoughts, fears, hopes, dreams etc for which the child will respond.

If for some reason you have not had the opportunity to read “How to write children’s books and get them published Part 1” please click on the link and go back and read that article before you finish reading this one. I truly believe that it is the foundation to writing good children’s books.

One of the issues that I touched on toward the end of my first installment on how to write children’s books and get them published was the value of reading other people’s children’s books if you were having trouble getting in touch with the child inside of you. I now want to discuss this from a different perspective.

Before you ever try to write children’s books and get them published I personally believe that you should do some research first. Not just research from the perspective of what you may want to write, but also what may be the best genre of children’s books from a pure marketing perspective.

After all, what good does it do you to learn how to write children’s books if you cannot get them published? Unless you are writing children’s books purely for the purpose of reading them to you children or grandchildren, then you should be concerned with how to get them published.

Certainly you will never be financially successful no matter how well you learn how to write children’s books IF you don’t get them published. I can guarantee that you will not be successful in getting them published unless they have marketability.

And understand when I talk about marketability I am meaning not only will they appeal to the children, but will the concept fly with an adult that controls the decision process as to whether your new children’s book will or will not be published?

In my first installment of “How to write children’s books and get them published Part 1” I talked about my beloved childhood teddy bear, Bobo, for which I have many fond memories and some really solid concepts and ideas that could easily develop into an excellent series about my dear childhood friend.

Conversely, if I think that I am going to write children’s books about Bobo and he will become the next Winnie the Pooh, then I had better not hold my breath. Oh, do not misunderstand me, I just might become the next A.A. Milne, but it is not likely.

On the other hand, as I shared in part 1 of this series, my beloved Bobo really helped me deal with the death of my grandmother and I very well could develop a niche of children’s books that would help kids deal with the loss of a loved one.

The question that should come to your mind, and for that matter mine before I would embark on my great writing quest in my efforts to successfully learn how to write children’s books and get them published, would be to question; is the market already saturated with this type of children’s book? Is there room or need for any additional books for children suffering with the loss of a loved one for me to develop a series in this particular book genre? Can I successfully market my books to get them published once I have written them? These are only a few of the questions that I should be asking if I am going to successfully learn how to write children’s books and get them published.

In the past 20 plus years our group has successfully helped many authors profitably promote a book or a series of books in countless areas of expertise and knowledge. Every one of these successful authors either had an already marketable book that they had written and now wanted to promote, and that was already in a “hot” area of interest by the public, or they had written a book that because of their extensive expertise in a particular field, were someone that we knew that we could be successful in helping to promote a book like they had written.

I will admit that some of these authors, because they were leaders in their field, had books, that once they were given the proper book PR (book public relations) were wildly in demand by the public. The reasons for these successes are varied and many, but most of them centered around the fact that the people themselves, once they had the proper PR (public relations) program developed to promote them as the author, made it very easy to promote a book that they had written. The value was in the individual and their particular expertise. They were the real drawing card and the book was simply the resultant product that was to be sold.

Image by DoktorSpinn via Flickr

If you have never written a children’s book and you are just trying to figure out how to write children’s books and get them published, then unless you are a well know expert in some area of children development or children’s needs, problems etc, chances are you will need to be much more careful in your selection of the particular children’s book genre that you select before you start writing.

Ultimately, our success in helping ANY author is first in the promotion of the author through proper PR (public relations) efforts with the understanding that after we successfully promote the author and give them extensive public relations exposure, then our efforts to promote a book for that author become much easier.

Thus, once you have properly researched your children’s book genre, you should spend a considerable amount of time becoming an expert in the particular area that your children’s book genre covers. In my case, if my series of children’s books had to do with helping children deal with the grief of the loss of a loved one, then I had better do a considerable amount of research about that very subject.

These are just a few of a whole host of question and concepts that I think that you should ask yourself before you actually write your first children’s book. Because of the critical importance of understanding these concepts if you are going to be a successful children’s books author (by successful in this case I mean make money), I plan to answer some of these basic questions along with a list of other steps that you need to take in “How to write children’s books and get them published Part 3” of my series.

May 26, 2011

Filed Under: How to write children's books and get them published

How To Write Children’s Books And Get Them Published Part 1

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How To Write Children’s Books And Get Them Published Part 1: Get in touch with the child in you!

People are constantly asking me how to write children’s books and get them published. Well the first thing that I tell them is start at the beginning and to go directly to ground zero.

You may be asking, “Where is ground zero in how to write children’s books and get them published”? That is really easy; look first for the child in you.

Let’s face it; we have all been children at one time, even though for some of us it is hard to remember! In fact, if you are like a 62 year old man like me, you may feel like you never were actually a child!

On the other hand, even an old man like me from time to time still dreams about when I was a child and things that I did and that happened to me when I was very young.

So one of the most effective things that you can do when you are trying to figure out how to write children’s books and get them published is to recall special events, people, times, places and things from your childhood.

After all, how better to begin to learn how to write children’s books and get them published then to start thinking like a child again. Because let’s face it, unless you think like a child, it will be hard to write meaningful children’s books!

So how do you go about getting in touch with the child in you?

Sometime your best inspirations do come through dreams. Let me illustrate with a real story that happened to me just recently.

Just the other day, I dreamed of a special teddy bear that had been extremely precious to me when I was only four or five. His name was Bobo. The dream was extremely vivid and brought back many memories that I had long since been forgotten. In fact, after I had awakened, I was sharing the dream with my 15-year-old daughter, and I remembered an anecdote about Bobo the teddy bear.

I remembered that when I was four how incredibly I loved the teddy bear, and how that it had comforted me during the death of my grandmother. I had held it close to me and took the teddy bear everywhere that I went during the ordeal. I vowed that the teddy bear and I would NEVER part and that we would always be together as friends.

In the middle of sharing my dream with my daughter, as the promises I had made to the bear came flooding back to me, I remember my most solemn promise that I had made to my dear friend Bobo. I had promised Bobo that one day when I was very old I would, regardless where he was and what I was doing, remember him and think of him and remember my promise to never ever forget my love for him.

Image via Wikipedia

As the thoughts of my childhood lost raced through my mind, and the fact that Bobo had long since gone to the heaven in the sky for teddy bears long forgotten hit me it was impossible for the tears not to flow as a deep sadness wafted over me of the loss of childhood, special friends, precious things and lost innocence.

OK. Now wait a minute. You may be wondering how it the world this sad story will help you on your quest to learn how to write children’s books and get them published. I agree that this sad story is not one that you should send to a potential publisher; or is it?

Obviously, the basics of the actual story itself would be far to sad and over the heads of small children. Those of us who write children’s books certainly don’t want to disturb our young readers and if we write books that cause the loss of a child s innocence, we certainly will not get them published.

On the other hand, many children lose grandparents, uncles and aunts as well as beloved pets, and children’s books about how to deal with the grief of a loved one or the death of a pet are very excellent subjects if you are trying to learn how to write children’s books and get them published. Publisher love books like this.

Right about now you may be thinking, “I never dream about my childhood, so I cannot count on my dreams to help me to learn how to write children’s books and get them published…how can I trigger the thought process to get in touch with my inner child?”

There are countless ways to get in touch with your inner child.

One of the best ways is to sit and talk with your parents, brothers and sisters, aunt and uncles, cousins and other friends and relatives that have been in you life, and simply reminisce about your childhood. Recall good times that you had together, and events that are particularly vivid in their minds.

Have them recount stories that they remember about your childhood that will give you the fodder to sit and re-write some of the stories of your past. Be sure and take good notes. Do not rely on your memory, because I find that when someone is reminiscing, they have a tendency to get distracted and forget much of the real meat of the conversation.

So make copious notes and ask your friends and loved ones to elucidate on details about the stories that they are recounting of your childhood. If they are telling you about a bike that you had or that was very special to you, if you cannot remember the color or what it looked like, have them tell you what they remember about the bike. Ask them why they remember this particular story about your past and ask them to go into detail about their recollections of the story.

Remember, children’s senses are very heightened when they are being read a story and the more descriptive that your recollections are about your own past, the more powerful your story will be as you share it with a potential publisher. Remember, your first quest is to learn how to write children’s books and get them published and if the children’s books that you write do not resonate with your potential publisher, you will not get published. (Note: in future articles, I will be sharing several different ways to get published if you cannot find a traditional publishing firm to publish your children’s books)

If your parents, aunts and uncles have all past away and you can no longer sit with an older member of your family and reminisce about your childhood, family albums and pictures are an excellent way for you to remember your childhood.

Be sure and group the pictures into age brackets if at all possible and hope that your family and friends put dates on the back of the pictures to help in this process.

The reason for the grouping of the pictures into date categories is that one or two pictures that would have absolutely no meaning unto themselves, when given a time context, can conjure up memories that will greatly aid in your efforts to learn how to write children’s books and get them published.

A picture of a place or even a car your dad may have owned, in and of themselves may not trigger any childhood memories, but if you have them in a time sensitive order, the picture of a park or hotel coupled with the rememberance of the car could elicit a wealth of wonderful times in your life that would be excellent food for thought as your are writing your children’s books about things from your own childhood.

Don’t have any picture albums or other personal sources of materials to help you remember your childhood stories? Then simply read other author’s books about their childhood experiences and see if this helps jog your memories of days gone by. Their childhood experiences, albeit different from yours, may trigger thoughts of days long ago when you went fishing like the author did, or you enjoyed a particular type or flavor of popsicle, that brings forth a treasure chest of ideas for your own children’s books.

In Part 2 of this series on how to write children’s books and get them published, I will be discussing simple tips to make it easier when writing children’s books.

May 26, 2011

Filed Under: Promote A Book Promote A Book Public Relations

Promote A Book – PR Does Not Stand for “Press Release”

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Promote A Book – PR Does Not Stand for “Press Release” Or, Why press releases don’t open the door with trying to promote a book—providing news does!

I wonder if people think that press releases are the way to effective PR to promote a book because it shares the same acronym: PR. If you ask the average businessperson how they intend to get their message out, one of the very first things that they utter is, “We’re going to send out a press release.”

Well, when you’re talking to your business friends about your efforts to promote a book, it has a nice ring to it… PRESS RELEASE, it sounds official and it gives the connotation that the “press” will read what you are writing to promote a book. News Flash (no pun intended)! Unless you are a reputable source that has established relationships in the media, your press release to promote a book is not going to get read.

Why? A very good question that I thought you’d never ask.

Have you ever written a press release? I am not talking just about a press release to promote a book. Have you ever written a press release at all? If you have, how have you written it? Was it from the company’s or your best interest point of view? Was it making sure you hit all the sales hot buttons? If you’ve ever read the average press release to promote a book, did it not read as if those were the points being made?

Since the news media exists to provide news, not make sales for anyone, they are not reading press releases to promote a book, or for that matter to promote anything else. Understand that the goal of the news media is to provide information that will be useful to their viewers, readers and listeners. If they do their job well, their public grows and they become more influential. The more influential they become, the more they can charge for advertising revenue. After all, how do you think the media makes money?

Couple this with the advent of the Internet and news aggregators, and what has happened is that traditional media has had to downsize their operations and make them leaner and meaner. For example, The New York Times laid off over 1,500 personnel in 2010. They receive approximately 500 press releases daily. Who do you think is reading them? No one. So how do you reach the media then to promote a book? You become a solution that fills their need.

Image via CrunchBase

Imagine that you are a journalist with a deadline and you need a source that can add substance to your news story. You don’t have the time to hit the streets and hope you can find someone who can speak to the dynamics of your story. Instead, you pick up the phone and you call your trusted sources for news guests that can contribute to your story: PR agencies.

Even better, you check your daily messages and faxes, because your trusted source is sure to have already sent you a media pitch for that news story (hopefully your story on your efforts to promote a book!). You see, a good PR agency understands that the way you get publicity and PR coverage for a client is to stay on top of the news. This is true when you promote a book or you promote some other product or service. The minute a news story hits, the PR agency already knows which client has the expertise and experience to able to be a guest on TV and radio shows, or be interviewed for a print article. Moreover, a good PR agency that is qualified to promote a book typically already has a readymade pitch for the client, based on his or her expertise, so that it can be edited at a moment’s notice to ensure no opportunities are missed. Plus, a good PR firm to select to promote a book will already have the relationships established with an open door, so that when the opportunity arises, the pitch goes directly to the producer or host who is a decision maker.

No press releases to promote a book are going to get perused when a deadline looms, and if the journalist or host makes a mistake, it’s on full display for the entire public to see. So, instead of sending a press release for any little thing you think can qualify for writing one, figure out the expertise of your message and get a PR firm that can present you and your efforts to promote a book as a solution to the media’s need for news.

May 18, 2011

Filed Under: Advertise Book Book Promoter Promote A Book Promote A Book Public Relations

Promote A Book – Is a book a book if it’s never read?

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Promote A Book – Is a book a book if it’s never read?

Why choosing a book publicist to promote a book is key to delivering your message.

The tree stands majestically in the forest providing shelter for the birds, food for the giraffe and oxygen for everyone else. The day arrives when a storm knocks the tree down. As it teeters on the brink of seeing the earth rise up to meet it, it thinks (you didn’t know trees could think? Did you not see the Lord of the Ring trilogy… I digress), “I wonder if anyone will hear me fall.” The old, “If a tree falls and no one is around to hear it, does it make noise?” question! Right now you are probably asking, “What does any of this have to do with my interest to promote a book or find a book publicist?”

Well I ask you, if an author wants to promote a book that they have written and it never gets read, is it a book?

One can argue that it is physically (or digitally) written; hence the book exists and thus I should be able to promote my book. However, if you ask the author who toiled many a day and night, doing research, planning a plot or sequence, creating characters and pouring his or her heart and passion into a work that SCREAMS to deliver a message… he or she would probably say, “No.” It can seem like that and often one loses hope, because every effort to promote a book has brought little result.

What if it’s not that your effort to promote a book has no hope, but rather that you’ve read too many “so called online book marketing experts” regurgitating the same old methods that worked 25 years ago, but not today? You’ve tried it all, book signings (if you can get anyone to let you do one), blogging (which few people read because they did not know you), social media (where over 370,000 published authors are trying to promote a book and are vying for the attention and wallet of the same people you are), to sending out press releases like they were charity slips to the local pantry, but getting no bites (no pun intended). So what else is there to help you to promote a book? A book publicist!

Image via Wikipedia

Oh, I know, you’re thinking that you already did that with your publisher. Well, not to sound like a know-it-all, but there is a difference between a book publiSHER and a book publiCIST. A publisher’s job is to print books. While some publishers have outlets for selling books to those who want to buy them (book stores for example), how will the book store know to order the book if it knows nothing about it or does not perceive that there is a demand for it? This is not the way to promote a book; that is if you want the book to be read.

A book publicist, on the other hand, promotes and markets books with methods that are current and get results, and they already have established relationships to create the interest. They are in the business to promote a book and they have the exact knowledge to know what to do when you say, “Help! How do I promote my book?”

So, what is current you ask? A great question!

A good book publicist will get you on talk radio, TV news and shows, in newspapers, magazines and online publications to help you to properly promote a book. You see, people are tired of commercials and they avoid them like a bad rash. Trying to promote a book on a commercial of any sort can be a big dead end street. They TiVO or DVR their shows, use pop-up blockers in their browsers, skim radio stations and ignore billboards… unless they know the product, company or author! You see, with SO MUCH advertising happening with people trying to promote a book and thousands of other products and services, people filter out the noise. However, they selectively CHOOSE what they WILL pay attention to. What helps this filtering process? Public relations, which a good book publicist engages in with they are going to promote a book!

By being on radio and TV, you are no longer part of the dreaded commercials trying to promote a book and the thousands of other products and services out there. You are in between the commercials, where people are paying attention to their favorite shows. When that happens, you get to engage the audience, deliver your message and give them a chance to get to know you. After all, while the book is what you want to sell as you want to promote a book, nevertheless, you are the product! However, that’s a topic for another article.

Now, you are probably thinking, “That’s got to be expensive! And, what if they don’t get me the exposure I want and need to promote a book? I will lose all that money.” You know you’re thinking it, so let’s get it on the table.

As a wise person once said (I cannot remember who), “Bad advertising is expensive; good advertising cost nothing.” The implied message is that if it’s done badly and does not work (which happens more often than not) then the money was wasted. However, good advertising costs nothing because it will generate sales and pay for itself. Good advertising will allow you to promote a book or for that matter any product or service that you have to offer.

While PR (public relations) is not advertising (different art, but needed more than advertising—read The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR by Al Ries) the same concept applies. The exposure and credibility that PR delivers will pay dividends with the public. But then that brings up the question, “How do I know if it’s going to be GOOD PR?” You really don’t, until it’s been done. However, you DO have the ability to make sure you DON’T lose your investment. How so? Use a pay-for-performance PR agency to promote a book.

A pay-for-performance PR agency charges only for the PR it delivers; hence if you don’t get on radio or TV as you try to promote a book, you don’t pay for it. Most agencies like this will have you escrow the money for a guaranteed amount of interviews and as they deliver, they get paid per interview. If they don’t deliver all of them, you get the remainder back.

While this sounds fair (and it is) not all agencies that claim to be able to promote a book are created equal. So make sure that you do your homework. See how long they have been in business, get testimonials, Google them to see what you find… do your due diligence. When you find the right agency and book publicist, make the choice to make sure that you get your message delivered. After all, you wrote the book. Don’t let your efforts to promote a book be just your thoughts falling down in a forest of paper; make sure others are around to hear your message loud and clear.

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