Brand Building Square One: Win a Marketing Consult for Your Friend!

by Susan Raab, Raab Associates

• ATTEND the Random Acts of Publicity event on Facebook.
• Read the FAQ.

Susan Raab of Raab Associates

Susan says that focusing your book marketing efforts is essential. To that end, she has designed a short list of questions to ask your Friend about her book. Take time to discuss the questions and help your Friend decide where s/he wants to focus his/her efforts. Be a Friend: listen and cheer. But if you want to do even more, read on!

Raab Associates is offering 15 FREE book marketing consultations

To qualify, please interview your friend and provide the answers to these branding questions. Then, if you send the answers to us along with your friend’s name, email address, website, title and publisher of their most recent or forthcoming book, they’ll have the chance to be one of our 15 winners.

Here are the rules:

• Winners will be selected on a random basis.
• You must put your friend’s name and book title in the comments below.
• By midnight on September 6th, you must send an email to info@raabassociates with the interview answers (See interview questions below). Use “Random Acts of Publicity” as the email’s subject line. Answers should be limited to a maximum of 300 words (less than one-single spaced page). Be brief! No attachments: Interview answers must be in the email itself.
• By entering your friend in this giveaway, you agree that you have the friend’s permission to do so.
• Consultations will be done at a mutually agreed upon time.

Interview Questions for Raab Associates Free Consultation

Friend’s Name:
Friend’s Email:
Friend’s Website:
Book Title & Publisher:

1. What’s your elevator pitch (quick, catchy description of your book & why it should matter to me)?
2. Who would be your ideal media interviewer and why?
3. If I were that person, what 3 things could you say to me to make me want to get you on my show or featured in my publication or site?
4. Is there an interesting back story to your book and/or your writing career that might be of particular interest to the press?
5. How good is your online and social media presence, and what could you do to make it better?

In thinking about your work in the context of the market, you need to determine what can differentiate you from other authors out there. At first glance, it may not seem like there’s anything so unique, but clearly your publisher saw something of particular value, and you felt you had something important to say. That’s why you wrote the book in the first place. So, think about your original objectives, your expertise, and your body of work as a whole. How would you like to be viewed in the marketplace – for your expertise, sense of humor, unique way of presenting the topic or story, or for something else? Then consider the best ways to showcase that across various platforms – on your website and your Facebook page; in the tone you use for your Twitter and email communications; and throughout the interviews and appearances you do. The more you, and your agent, publisher, publicist, and everyone involved are in concert with the marketing presentation and focus, the more effective you’ll be.

Random Acts of Publicity Week was created by Darcy Pattison (www.darcypattison.com), writing teacher and author of Prairie Storms (www.facebook.com/PrairieStorms) , as a way to help create an atmosphere of fun and collaboration in marketing books. It occurs each September, the four days following Labor Day.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Next week is the Random Acts of Publicity 2011 –JOIN us on the Facebook Event Page– and we have lots of prizes for participating. Remember:
It’s all about your Friend’s book (OR, your favorite book).

The week will focus on the basic tasks of publicity and ask you to do a daily Random Act of Publicity: Blog, link, Like, review, or talk about the book . (BLLuRT!)

17 FREE Book Marketing Consultations

In addition, three book marketing and publicity professionals have offered to giveaway a FREE marketing consultation.

September 6: Guest Susan Raab

Susan Raab of Raab Associates

September 7: Guests Barbara Fisch and Sarah Shealy

Barb & Sarah of Blue Slip Media

September 8: Guest Deborah Sloan

Create Buzz by Connecting with Readers by Deborah Sloan of Deborah Sloan & Company. www.deborahsloanandcompany.com
One-day chance for you to enter your Friend to win a one-hour book marketing consultation provided by Deborah Sloan & Company.

How to Enter the Giveaway Contests

• You may not enter your own name in any of these prize giveaways, you can only enter your friend’s name/book.
• To enter, you must put your Friend’s name in the Comments on the Guest Post on the given day. By posting a person’s name you acknowledge that you have asked their permission and the post is with their knowledge.
• Please note carefully WHERE to comment for each giveaway. They all require you to comment on the POST at Fiction Notes (www.darcypattison.com). Posting on the Facebook Event Page does not qualify.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Today, everyone should be rolled over to Facebook’s new Page features. Why should authors care? Because it gives us new ways to interact with each other and with our readers.

LIKE my Facebook Page: I know there are neat, nifty little buttons you can put here so you can LIKE my Page without going there. Alas, I’m part geek, but not enough to have figured this out YET. Instead, PLEASE CLICK through and LIKE my Brand-New Page! BTW, I went with DarcyPattisonAuthor as the name of my page, so the URL is now http://www.facebook.com/DarcyPattisonAuthor.

Basic Changes to Facebook Page

Here’s a great detailed explanation of the changes. Here’s what authors need to know.

My new 180x540 Facebook Profile Pic.

• Photos at the top. Some time ago, Facebook Profile pages switched to pictures at the top and the Pages are doing this also. These are randomly displayed, but you can X out the ones you do NOT want to appear. The photos are drawn from those you upload and those you Tag with your PageName. It will NOT include photos posted by those who like your Page.
• Use Facebook as your Page. When you login you can switch and surf around Facebook AS YOUR PAGE. This means you can LIKE other Pages, post comments as your Page and function as the entity, Author. You can NOT post on profiles, only other Pages.
• Email notifications. You can choose to receive notifications when people post or comment on your Page.
• Featured Pages and admins. Hurrah! If you have Pages for each of your Books, you can feature these on your Page, thus linking all your Pages together in a coherent fashion. You can feature your publisher, your illustrator, your favorite organizations, etc. If multiple people are involved in the page, say for an anthology, you could feature each of those authors (if they have pages). It’s a nice networking tool
• Mutual connections: When someone visits your Page, they will see which of their friends also likes your Page, as well as other Pages that both they and your Page like.
• Profile picture size. Profile pictures were limited to 200×600 px, but that’s reduced to 180×540 px. What do you think of my new pic?
• Navigation. Gone are the tabs at the top, replaced by the Links on the left-hand side, exactly like on a profile. Tabs are swapped out for the personal info that used to be under your pic. Make use of your Info to highlight what is important.
• Custom “tabs”/Links to additional pages on your Page, now) can be created with iFrames. This is important enough it gets its own section below.

IFrames with WordPress

So, what’s the big deal about adding iFrames. Facebook is a clunky interface with no chance for customizing it unless you do some fancy coding. Before you had to use FBML (Facebook Markup Language), a variation on HTML (hypertext markup language).

Note: If you skipped learning all that stuff ten years ago, then you’re one of those who uses a Visual Editor on everything, a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get. It’s OK. There are tools out there for you.

Now, Facebook is switching to iFrames, which means that you create content and host it somewhere outside Facebook, on your own domain or server; then you pull it into Facebook, like putting a picture into a frame.

Complicated? Yes, a bit. Now, I’m not afraid to do some playing around with codes, but this iFrames stuff looked overwhelming to me. Fortunately, there are already apps to make it easy.

I use WordPress, which I host on my own domain. When I found this newly updated Facebook Tab Manager Plugin, I was excited. I followed the recommended video and quickly managed to create a custom page through WordPress and pull it into my Facebook Page.

Whatever platform you’re using, see if you can find a new App; wait a month, there will be one!

SEE THE CUSTOM PAGE: To see the resulting page, you need to LIKE my Facebook Page first. Then in the left-hand column, click on What’s New.

Using Facebook to Promote Books and Yourself as Author

So, why should authors care about all this new-fangled stuff?

Pull Together all Your Online Presence

For the first time, Facebook seems to be a place where you can pull together all your online presences. For example, I talk about writing fiction here on Fiction Notes, including the Novel Revision Retreats that I teach; I talk about book trailers at BooktrailerManual.com; and I talk about my books everywhere, including on some websites dedicated just to them. It’s frustrating because it’s hard to pull it all together in one place. A FB-Page now has that capability.
• Strategic Linking Use strategic linking on your Page, including Featured links to Pages. Use iFrames to create Links to pages that pull in your info to this one central place.
• Networked Blogs Use the Networked Blogs App to pull in posts from any and all of your blogs.

Keep People Engaged

Already, folks are pulling together info on how to best use a FB-Page for business. Here’s my best tip:

Tip: Get Hubspot’s Facebook Page Marketing 2011 free ebook. They give many more tips on using the new pages to promote. It’s not geared specifically toward book promotion, but many things apply.

• Timely Posting Specifically, Hubspot suggests that you post about every other day on your Page. Daily posts are too much for fans, but every other day is about right.
• Offers. This is hard for authors, but Hubspot says that in a recent survey, a majority said they LIKE a page, so they will get offers from you. I’ve always thought that book signings are a way for people to take home a tiny slice of an author: I’ve touched someone special and have this autograph to prove it. Likewise, the “offers” might be something like a book giveaway; but it might be a tiny insight into how you work; or it might be sharing an emotional moment with your fans, a success or a failure. The “Offer” for us isn’t necessarily physical, it might be an offer of an emotional connection. But it needs to be there.

Read Hubspot’s ebook for more tips.

LIKE my Facebook Page: I know there are neat, nifty little buttons you can put here so you can LIKE my Page without going there. Alas, I’m part geek, but not enough to have figured this out YET. Instead, PLEASE CLICK through and LIKE my Brand-New Page! BTW, I went with DarcyPattisonAuthor as the name of my page, so the URL is now http://www.facebook.com/DarcyPattisonAuthor.

Darcy Pattison

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Getting Your Book Noticed

Should You Social Media? Yes! No!

As authors, we want to know if all this effort on FaceBook and Fan Pages and Tweets and all the other social media helps or not! Here’s a sideways answer.

In a December 2010 survey of major retailers sites, 10,000 shoppers surveyed reported being influenced by these factors:

• Promotional emails – 19%
• Web Search – 8%
• Social Media – 5%

Going Mobile? Is your website ready for smart phones?

• 14% of the shoppers accessed sites through their phones
• 11% bought something through their phones.

Does this trickle down to authors with a single book to sell? Maybe, maybe not. Individuals who are dedicated and diligent in promoting online may see vastly different results. An individual title may buck the trend.

If you’re interested in using social media, here are some recent resources:

• Facebook Marketing in Six Steps: How to successfully manage your fan page
• Value Prop: Is there true value in your marketing proposition?

Have YOU had success with social media promotions for your book?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Help! I Can’t Find Any Help on Facebook

Of course, you know by now that for author promotion, you should be on Facebook. But frankly, I find it to be confusing. Yes, I easily figured out how to sign on and create an account. I figured out how to upload pictures and how to post on someone’s wall.

Is that all there is?

No. When you think about using Facebook as a tool for book promotion and publicity, you need to go deeper. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t have good Help. It’s hard to figure out where to go. You’re faced with a wall of posts and, what? I’ve found some of the important pages for you.

Individual Account v. Fan Page v. Group Page

My Facebook Avatar

• Individual Profile: Just sign up.
  • Pros: Easy. Privacy controls allow you to set who sees what, and who can comment. For example, several editors have their pages set to No Comments. If you have some popularity and get too many comments, you have options.
  • Cons: You can only have 5000 friends. If you have some popularity and think it will grow, then you should opt for a Fan Page.
  • Tips on keeping business/family separate: You could create two accounts, using two different emails. That’s what I did, because no one told me there was another option. Instead, you just create Friends/Lists. On your home page, left hand navigation, find the Friends Link and click. Then, in the middle of the page, at the top, look for the Create a List. There, you can create a List of Friends, a List of Writer Friends, etc. When you upload or post, you can decide WHO gets to see what. For posts, there’s a tiny link at the bottom of the posting box. For photos, look for these privacy controls when you upload.

    Unfortunately, Facebook is not forgiving. You make an ill-advised decision early–when you know so little about how it works–and you’re stuck. I’m keeping my two separate accounts; but I wish I’d know about the Lists so it was easier.

• Fan Page: Go here for information.
  • Pros: Unlimited friends. You can customize the page with any sort of app you want: discussion board, calendar of events, etc. There are tons of apps available, check them out.
  • Cons: People must LIKE the page first and you have to get them to do that. Once they do, your posts here will show up on your friends’ walls. But what they post on their individual walls will NOT show up here. It’s more of a one-way street.
• Group Page: Go here for more information. These pages are more like clubs. A group page is still tied to YOU as an individual, while a fan page is operated as something very separate.

Obviously, these aren’t exhaustive comparisons. Here are some great comparison charts.

• Fanpage v. Grouppage: When to Use Which
• Group v. Fan Page: What’s Better?

Create a User-Friendly Name

One thing that Facebook allows you to do is to create a user-friendly name. For example, my Facebook address is http://www.facebook.com/DarcyPattison (Hey, Friend Me while you’re looking.) Sounds great doesn’t it? But before I give you the link to do this, be warned: you can only do it once.

That is, since I changed my individual account to DarcyPattison, I can never create a Fan Page with that name. ARGH! I didn’t realize this when I changed my name, or I might have done it differently. Maybe DPattison. Then, later when I’m rich and famous I’d make my Fan Page DarcyPattison.

Plan for the future, in other words, when you create your user-friendly name and don’t use up all the good names at first. In fact, you can survive a long time without changing the name; I just like things neat and easy to remember.

Here’s Facebook’s info on creating a User Name: Proceed with Caution.

Facebook Events

Finally, you can also create a Facebook Event. This is an page devoted to a certain event that takes place on a certain day(s). Book launches are great times for an Event page. For example, I created an Event Page a couple weeks ago for the Random Acts of Publicity Week. 730 people officially responded and participated.

I’ve seen this used to invite people to a birthday party, a book launch, a conference, etc. One of the nice things is that others can invite people to the event. For the Random Acts of Publicity Event, there were a couple thousand invitations sent out, and I only did a couple hundred of those.

Have some FUN on Facebook

I offer here just one of the many fun ways you can waste time making your Facebook page/profile/image better. I love the image here of the guy hanging by his fingernails.

Need other help on Facebook? Look at the very bottom of the screen, on the right hand side. There’s a tiny Help link. Good luck finding what you need, they don’t make it easy.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

1384 People Interested in a Book

Update on GoodReads Giveaway

Joelle Anthony offered a signed copy of her novel, Restoring Harmony, as a giveaway on GoodReads. Joelle did a guest post, giving details on how to hold a giveaway on GoodReads.

Congratulations to the Goodreads contest winner, Kristin Wing. Kristin is an aspiring writer herself.

And Congratulations to Joelle. The contest garnered 1384 entries, an amazing number of people who were interested in her book. Clearly, it’s a good venue to get some interest in your fiction.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Guest Post by Joelle Anthony
Here you go. http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/5228-restoring-harmony

Giveaway on GoodReads.com

Last week, we talked about book giveaways in general. Today, we have a case study on book giveaways on Goodreads.com. Thanks to Joelle Anthony for this guest post.

On Your Site OR On GoodReads?

Book giveaways have become a great way for authors to draw people to their websites, and almost every day, several new announcements for contests pop up on Twitter and Facebook. There are usually more giveaways going than a person can keep up with though. Also, giveaways through blogs are often complicated and/or demanding for the person who wants to enter and can be time consuming for the author too.

It seems like many authors only want to give books away if you become a follower of their blog, retweet, fill in a form, or post about the contest on your site. If this works for them, and people don’t mind doing it, then I think that’s fine, but I personally like the ease of doing a book giveaway on Goodreads.

Goodreads Makes it Easy

For the author, Goodreads handles almost everything. There are a few requirements though. For example, your book has to either be coming out, or has only been out for six months or less. You can give away ARCs (advance reading copies) or actual books, but you do need to say exactly what you’re giving away, and ebooks are not allowed. You can read all their terms and conditions on their site. http://www.goodreads.com

It’s also easy for people to enter, which increases the entries. If you have a Goodreads account, and you see a giveaway you’d like to enter, all you have to do is click one button. If you’re chosen as the winner, you’ll get an email from the author asking for a mailing address. That’s all there is to it.

The nice thing about giveaways at Goodreads is that the site promotes them, they pick the winner, and they simply email you the winner’s information at the end.

Get Results at GoodReads

Also, the sheer numbers of entries can’t be beat. I’ve seen bloggers give away my book and have as few as twelve or thirteen entries and other more popular bloggers garner maybe as many as two hundred, but my first giveaway on Goodreads netted two thousand and seven entries.

In conjunction with this guest post, I listed a giveaway for my book Restoring Harmony on Goodreads one month ago. After ten days, I had over six hundred entries. Many of these people who entered also added my book to their To Be Read lists. I doubt all of them will actually read/buy it, but even if only a few do, those are probably readers I wouldn’t have reached.

Cross Promote

You can increase your entries, and thus your exposure (the more entries you get, the more actively Goodreads promotes your giveaway) by posting links on your own website, Facebook, or tweeting about it on Twitter. I do a reminder on Twitter and FB once a week during the contest, and the number of entries definitely jump when I do this.
So if you have a recent or upcoming release, I urge you to try listing a contest. Publishers can do the giveaway too, so you may be able to get your publicist to provide the book so you don’t even incur any expenses. One last thing I want to suggest is make sure you let your contest run at least a month. It gives it a chance to build momentum and interest and for plenty of people to enter. Speaking of entering, you can still enter to win Restoring Harmony through today, September 10th, 2010.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

WHAT: Random Acts of Publicity 2010
WHEN: September 7-10

Last year, I declared the week after Labor Day, as Random Acts of Publicity Week. It’s coming back this year on September 7-10. Here’s a quick summary from last year and we’ll update it with lots of fun this year!

Random Acts of Publicity 2010

Are you like me? I always promise myself that today I’ll write a review of my friends’ books and actually post them on Amazon or Library Thing or GoodReads or somewhere. But do I? No. That’s about to change!

I know how wonderful it is to see new reviews on Amazon of one of my books. I know that it’s better to give than to receive. During the Random Acts of Publicity Week, I vow to put these two things together and give friends some support for their books.

So, I’m declaring next week, September 7-10, 2010, as the RANDOM ACTS OF PUBLICITY WEEK, a week when you do something to promote a friend’s book, or to promote a recent book you’ve read. Four days of promoting others’ books should be great fun.

Why this week? We all know that the holiday shopping season is when people buy things, including books! We want our Amazon pages and other publicity in place before that season starts. So, September is a great month to help others by reviewing their books and doing other Random Acts of Publicity.

Look for more in the next few weeks. For now:

Spread the word. Let others know about the Random Acts of Publicity Week. (Copy the banner if you want and post it on your site.)
Read or re-read books. Plan the books you want to promote. Have you been waiting for a good time to read your friend’s book? This is that good time. Check it out; buy it; read it before September 7.

Any suggestions for this week? Help me plan it! Want to do a guest post on this, or plan a related day on your blog? 0

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Recently, I was asked a basic question: should authors promote their books? Yes. Here are your options.

Options for Promoting Your Book

This post has two parts. First, it’s a regular post; see below. Second, it’s a first attempt to post a video where I’m talking and explaining something. The video is below, but here’s a critique of it. Skip this part if you just want to read about author promotions.

This video was a first attempt, and first attempts inevitably go wrong. I knew it wasn’t perfect, but I also knew that if I didn’t make a start, if I waited for perfect, I would NEVER post a video. So, deep breath, have courage, Darcy, I posted one. Here’s a critique of it:

First, what’s right:

• I tried.
• I said everything I wanted to say. Well, in the video I said there are four major ways to promote your work and here I say there are five. And I included things in the video not in the notes below. Instead of “personal appearances”, I said “personal experiences”. But overall, I’m pleased with the content.
• The equipment worked well. My “studio” worked well.

What’s wrong:

• The hardware worked, but I still had software issues. In particular, I had to reload the editing software on my office computer. That left me short on time, so I just created the video and sent it to YouTube. I should have added a title screen, and text screens with the info I was giving at the appropriate moments.
  Lesson learned: create the video a day or so ahead, to allow time to edit.
• Wow, I say, “um” a lot! I need to tape myself more and make sure my presentation is cleaned up and held to a higher standard.
  Lesson learned: tape yourself and work to do better presentations.
• A phone rang during the taping. Gosh!
  Lesson learned: silence the phone while taping.

Basically, there are five options for promoting your book. Authors should choose from among these a unique mix of marketing efforts.
How to choose, what criteria will you use to decide what to include in your marketing plan?

2 Criteria for deciding on how to promote

Play to your strengths. Do what you like to do, what you’re good at.

Find your audience and play to their preferences, even if they aren’t your strengths. Where does your audience hang out and what media are they using? You gotta hang out there, too, and you gotta use the media they use.

5 Options for Promoting Your Book

• Print: flyers and posters, ads in magazines/newspapers/specialized publications, sample chapters, direct marketing, newsletter, interviews, business cards, slogans/pitches
• Audio: radio or online interviews, read samples of your work, give reader’s reactions and comments
• Web: website and/or blog, email marketing, online ads, sample chapters, RSS, feeds, bulletin boards or forums, ezine or newsletter, affiliate programs, online contests, webinars, advertisements (from Craigslist to GoogleAds), ebooks, podcasts, vlogging, internet memes
• Personal appearances: BEA, ALA, local library, bookstore signings, literary festivals, teaching, school visits, speaking engagements, seminars, conferences, asking for referrals, elevator pitches, personal PR
• Social Media: Facebook, GoodReads, Twitter, LibraryThing, delicious.com, StumbleUpon.com; spending enough time to become part of the community; using announcements, contest, giveaways

The Video: Should Authors Promote Their Books?

Social Media

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win