Fun, free app

If you can tweet it in 140 characters, you can say it on camera in 15 seconds.

That’s the concept behind Viddy (www.viddy.com), a social media app out of Venice, CA billed as a “life-streaming movie studio and real-time film festival – on the go.”

That’s a bit much, but the fact is that Viddy is fun, intuitive, and a nice addition to any self-publisher’s messaging arsenal. I’ve been using it for about a month and pumped out several mini-videos from BookExpo America in NY. Here’s my Viddy page.

Some things I like:

-       It forces you to quickly get to the point;

-       Posting to Facebook and Twitter is simple;

-       You can add a music and special effects;

-       You can use a tool like Hootsuite to re-tweet viddy tweets;

-       26 million users can’t be wrong.

Mashable’s “5 Ways Brands Can Shine on Viddy” suggests: offering a behind-the-scenes look; sharing promo codes and sales; hosting a contest; creating custom filters; and creating premium partnerships.

Have you had success with Viddy or a similar app? How about using with videos in general? Has it worked? Why or why not?

Modern message in a bottle.

Steve deconstructs a year in the trenches in this article for a popular self-publishing site.  ”As you move from creative writing to creative marketing,” he writes, “you want coverage in traditional and new media, and that takes persistent pitching, a thick skin, and a willingness to recast words you may have already spent years putting in perfect order.”

Read the rest here.

We’ve agreed that success for the self-published author begins with a well-written, marketable product, innovative use of new media tools, and the discipline to plan and stick with a rigorous game plan. Here are more tips to separate you from the competition.  (Also check out previous post).

6 – Get Social. Create Facebook and YouTube pages, and tweet whenever you add new content, which should be about once a week. Three tips: make your content different on each site, cross-link all new posts, and think of ways to solicit user-generated content. Which takes me to number 7.

7 – Market overseas. Okay, that might be a stretch. Still, friends headed overseas provide you a chance to get a shot of your book beside a famous landmark, plus send a “message in a bottle.” That is, have your traveling friend leave the book at a busy café.  Inside the front cover will be your friendly note asking for a hand from whoever picks it up. Here’s more: http://www.getbella.com/travels-with-bella/

8 – Get busy rewriting. Effective marketing requires a willingness to recast the words you spent years putting in perfect order. A hard copy version of Bella is 254 pages. On the website, it’s three lines: Isabel Moss knew she might lose her husband when he went off to war. When the call came, she was almost ready. What stopped her cold was the second call.

9 – Pay attention to the season. Over the summer, Bella was “beach perfect.” A few months later, with the holidays approaching, we saucily suggested that Bella was “looking good in stockings” this holiday season, and ran a homemade ad on Facebook with the book perched atop a Santa stocking from a local discount store.

10 – Don’t waste one email. Message your emails with active verbs and live links. Mine invite you to: Visit Bella on the Web: www.getbella.com; Friend Us on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/bellaFB; Follow Us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wordsprof; Watch Us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/getbella; Tumble with us at: http://stevepiacente.tumblr.com/; and, Read the Reviews on Amazon: http://amzn.to/catchingon

Success for the self-published author begins with a well-written, marketable product, innovative application of new media tools, and the discipline to plan and stick with a rigorous game plan.

Here are five tips that can separate you from the pack.

1 – Build a map. Find readers from as many states as possible. Get them to read your first 50 pages, and then send back their: name, city, state, head shot, and one positive  line about your book. Use Google maps to create a free map of the U.S. on your site, and plant pushpins to display the groundswell of support already underway. The Bella reader  map is at: http://www.getbella.com/fans-of-bella/

2 – Hitch up a trailer. People like videos, so take your story, reduce it to half a dozen plot points, and find yourself a good videographer. Work together on a script and storyboard, and then get out of the way. The payoff can be substantial. Our trailer greets you on the homepage of www.getbella.com

3 – Massage your links. Take extra advantage of sites that let you shorten long links by adding a customized message. When steering readers to the Bella Amazon page, I used: http://amzn.to/catchingon.

4 – Add art to your excerpts. Every author lets you peek inside the cover. Sweeten the deal by illustrating your excerpts. It looks great and helps separate you from the clutter. Here’s what I mean: http://www.getbella.com/illustrated-excerpts/

5 – Make it personal. Your family loves you, but to prospective readers, you’re just another salesman. Add a personal touch with an author video. You can talk about your muse, the main character or pretty much anything else so long as it’s short (2 minutes max), and engaging. Here’s mine: http://www.getbella.com/about-the-author/

Stay tuned for tips 6-10, and if you have other good ideas, please share!