Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’
Selecting Influencers for a Book Release: The Solution
Wrapping up my 3-part series on selecting influencers for a book release…
The goal of an influencer mailing for a newly published book is to put your book into the hands of folks with trusted names, contact with a large audience, and a willingness or ability to endorse your book. Missing any of these three things will mean your book either ends up on someone’s shelf or at least doesn’t reach a wide group of potential readers.
The solution is to carefully balance the kinds of influencers you contact. It is rare to find an influencer who meets all three criteria perfectly. Nevertheless, it’s worth sending copies to well-known influencers in the media or in your field, especially if you’ve had contact with them in the past.
Let’s say you send out 5-15 of your 50 influencer copies to folks in this camp. Maybe they won’t have the time to take a look at your book, but should they endorse it, you’ll have a chance to reach a broader audience. It may be worth taking a chance on some radio personalities, especially if their shows connect with your potential readers.
The next 20-30 copies should go to those who have a solid following or niche that trusts them and will be willing to interact with your work. There are a lot of very good blogs and podcasts out there with readers and listeners who may very well give your book a shot. In fact, because these are highly interactive networks with a higher trust factor than perhaps those with a bigger name, the potential readers in these networks may be more willing to buy your book.
I think this segment is easy to overlook because their reach may be in the hundreds or low thousands. However, keep in mind that these influencers will be easier to contact, more likely to interact with you, and have a lot more to gain if you can provide content for their blogs/podcasts as opposed to a major media player with lots of options for their shows. In addition, providing these bloggers and podcasters with a free book or two to give away always helps.
Lastly, never underestimate those the power of those with small audiences who are still very trusted and willing to endorse your book. Be sure to set aside about 10-15 copies for this group. With Twitter and Facebook even the smallest blogs can easily plug a book among hundreds of people. If you can provide an influencer who is passionate about your book with some great interviews, excerpts, and a free copy to review, your book may receive a lot more attention than a brief endorsement from a well-known influencer.
At the end of the day, it’s most important that authors connect with influencers who are passionate about their work and willing to talk about it. If you can put a free copy of your book into the hands of someone willing to talk about it, you’ve done the most important part of an influencer mailing.
Nevertheless, your work is not done. Authors need to make themselves available to help each influencer talk about their work, supporting them, and driving traffic to their web sites. Book publicity is always a two-way street. There is no room for the entitled author.
Previously…
Selecting Influencers for a Book Release: The Problem
Continuing my 3-part series on selecting influencers for a book release…
When you begin selecting influential people to help spread the word about your book, keep in mind the three qualities that you’re looking for: trusted names, contact with a large audience, and a willingness or ability to endorse your book.
In compiling my own list of influencers I worked very hard to contact those with large audiences and a trusted name, but I didn’t necessarily gauge the likelihood that they would plug my book. Keep in mind that the bigger a name, the more books he/she will receive. They can’t read every book that comes onto their desks, and so the question is, “Will this person both read and talk about my book?”
If an influencer doesn’t read your book, it’s nothing personal. There are only so many hours in a day. In addition, some may hope to read and talk about your book with their audience only for your book to fall through the cracks. Within days of receiving my book one well-meaning influencer realized he wouldn’t have time to read it and so he gave it away on his web site.
No exactly the ideal publicity you’re aiming for.
And so the challenge you face is balancing the audience size and trust of an influencer with that person’s ability to plug book whether in conversations or in an online or on-air review. However, the right kind of influencer for your book may not have that large of an audience and may even look quite different from what you expcet.
The next installments in this series…
- Selecting influencers for a book release: The Solution
Previously…
Selecting Influencers for a Book Release: The Goal
Before a book releases it is important for authors to assemble lists of influencers who can help promote and possibly add a public endorsement that will prompt others to buy their books. For instance, if a respected author, radio personality, or, in my case, pastor of a large congregation recommends a book, especially saying it’s a must-read, then a book may well receive a bump in sales.
Selling a book tends to be a very personal, one on one process. Advertising may raise awareness, but anything from a friend’s recommendation, a book seller’s comments, or an online review often makes the difference between a book staying on the shelf or ending up on the nightstand. In addition, a series of solid reviews do not guarantee brisk sales, just as negative reviews do not equal a book’s doom.
There is plenty of competition these days for not only the public’s attention, but also for the public’s disposable income. When trusted authorities recommend a book, authors have one more way to connect a book with readers. Influencers can vouch for an author’s credibility and provide a broad point of connection with potential readers.
The ideal influencers will have trusted names, contact with a large audience, and a willingness to endorse your book. Influencers may lead to direct sales or at least give readers another reason to recommend your book.
An influencer without one of these three qualities may not be a helpful contact. In the next post of this series I’ll look into some of the problems authors encounter in putting together an influencer list.
The next installments in this series…
- Selecting influencers for a book release: The Problem
- Selecting influencers for a book release: The Solution
The Best E-Mail Newsletters Service for Writers and Artists
I’ve spent a lot of time and even a little money looking into e-mail newsletter services. I think my search is finally over.
A friend of mine who’s an editor and an agent, a guy who strikes me as pretty smart and sharp, sent out a very professional-looking e-mail newsletter with Mail Chimp. I’m pretty sure he used the free option.
I’ve already been using the Mail Chimp two-column newsletter template for two years. It’s sharp, easy to customize, and easy to read. Now I’m sold on Mail Chimp as a newsletter service.
Most services either have a monthly fee or a steep one-time fee. In my own case, I’m sending out a newsletter once a month to just over 100 subscribers. I have no longer have any interest in buying a service such as AWeber with all of the bells and whistles. In fact, I found AWeber a bit too advanced and expensive ($20 per month) for my needs. Perhaps it’s the best bet for a large company, but all I want to do is safely send nice-looking newsletters and look at a few stats regarding who opened it and what they clicked on.
That’s right, I know who reads my newsletters.
Mail Chimp does all of that, and now is offering a plan called Forever Free. Your contact list can grow to 500 subscribers and you have 3,000 sends per month. So even at the top end of your subscription limit, you can send 6 newsletters per month. In addition, the newsletter set up, subscriber list import, and dashboard features are ridiculously intuitive.
I found AWeber unnecessarily difficult to navigate, and the newsletter set up features confusing. I lost a couple e-mail drafts because it’s so darn quirky. They constantly offered webinars to teach you how to use the service, but I’d much rather use a service I can figure out the first time I use it. I know AWeber has its evangelists, but I’m now a believer in Mail Chimp.
For a writer or an artist who simply wants to keep in touch with friends and to offer some free content and promotions, I can’t imagine ever needing anything other than Mail Chimp.
When Does Self-Promotion on Social Media Go Too Far?
As a writer I’ve been regularly confronting the concept of self-promotion for a solid three years now. With online applications such as Twitter and Facebook many worry that we are not only falling into a nasty pattern of narcissism, but some businesses and sole-proprietor businesses will abuse their networks of family, friends, and acquaintances to make a buck.
I’d like to tackle this from the perspective of a writer. Writers face the tricky matter of essentially “selling” ourselves and our talents of weaving words together. Readers and publishers look for someone with name recognition, and so writers must think of ways they can “make a name for themselves.” If you’re familiar with the biblical story of the tower of Babel, you may recall that the attempt of humanity to do such a thing resulted in their language being garbled by God.
Such a prospect is not necessarily encouraging for writers—especially a Christian writer.
The only way I can see handling this delicate matter of self-promotion in a way that avoids the exploitation of friends, family, and acquaintances is the following:
- Only promote what may help them. If I’m hoping they’ll buy my book and I send updates and links their way to that end, then the book I write should be of value to them.
- Don’t bombard anyone. I try to only send a manageable number of updates about myself and my work via twitter and facebook. I don’t want anyone to become tired of my endless stream of self-promotion. Everyone has a different limit here, so be cautious.
- It’s not all business. Part of keeping in touch with friends and family is adding some color from your own life, sharing pictures and stories that may be funny, interesting, or unusual. Don’t stick to mere work concerns in social media.
I can’t say for sure if I’ve done this perfectly, but as a writer who has to walk this fine line, I find that friends and family generally want to know what I’m up to. Therefore, it’s my job to keep them in the loop without wearing them out with my updates.
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Ed Cyzewski is a freelance writer and author of Divided We Unite: Practical Christian Unity, Coffeehouse Theology and A Path to Publishing. He also blogs on Christian belief and practice at www.inamirrordimly.com.Other Projects
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