Come blog with me …
Cover the 5 C’s, and you’ll be blogging with more confidence and capturing the attention of more readers. Come learn and try a few exercises in my free webinar on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. The sign-up sheet is here. Hope to see you Tuesday!
To subscribe to Steve’s Back Story blog, please click the green or orange icon on the blog homepage.
So tell me about yourself.
What rattles through your head when someone utters those five little words? Do you go on auto-pilot and deliver a few well-rehearsed lines? Do you grapple with the personal you versus the professional you? Are you different online than you come across in person?
Self-published authors should become adept at personal branding before venturing into cyberspace. Social media offers tremendous opportunities, but there are best practices to observe and pitfalls to avoid. I hope you’ll join me on Thursday, Feb. 7, at 7:30 p.m. EST for a free webinar that will help you bolster your brand and strengthen your online persona.
(To subscribe to my blog, please click the green or orange icon on the blog homepage).
If women love Pinterest and also buy the most books, where should authors be?
If you’ve written a novel, you’ve already told plenty about yourself. But social media sites provide authors the chance to reveal a lot more. How far should you go? How far is too far? Should you post pictures of your kids and dog on Pinterest?
This is one of the topics I’ll be discussing in a free, fun webinar on how authors can use Pinterest on Tuesday, Jan. 8, at 7:30 p.m.
Please sign up and drop by: bit.ly/MLzN1P
(To subscribe to my blog, please click the green or orange icon on the blog homepage).
Join me for free webinar this Wednesday.
Who says you can only have one launch party when you publish your book?
I say line up some dates and venues and party your pages off.
There’s lots more this Wednesday night at 7:30 EST in Part 2 of a free webinar on how to successfully get your book off the ground. If you missed Part 1, no worries; there’s a quick review up front.
(To subscribe, please click the orange or green icon on the blog homepage.)
What should you post on your blog the day you launch your book? If you think readers want to know how long it took to write, how hard you worked, or how wonderful the story is, I would disagree.
Learn why, and what readers are really interested in, on Wednesday, Nov. 7, in the second part of a free webinar where I’ll discuss how to build and maintain momentum throughout your book launch. No worries if you missed part one; I’ll be recapping the highlights.
(To subscribe, please click the orange or green icon on the blog homepage.)
If you have thousands to spend on some PR firm that will handle promotion and marketing for your new book, feel free to stop reading right now and go enjoy a nice adult beverage.
If not, please join me on Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 7:30 for Part 1 of
Free Webinar this Wed.!
a free webinar on the creation, development and execution of a plan to make your book launch as successful and productive as possible.
You can sign up in a flash at this site:
Join me for free webinar 5/17, 7:30 p.m.
I did a lot of interviewing over a long career as a print journalist. But it was rare that I got interviewed during that time. Answering the questions, I’d learn later as an author, is a lot different than asking the questions. I think of the interview as a cousin to public speaking. With either, you’ll do better if you know your subject, drill down to a few key messages, and if you practice, practice, and practice some more. This is important and the time to think about it is long before the interview. So Tip 1 – stop thinking like a novelist and start thinking like a reporter.
More in a free webinar Thursday, 5/17 (and repeated on 5/31) that you can sign up for at this site.
My thanks to author Tony Eldridge for allowing me to guest post on his blog, Marketing Tips for Authors.
This piece discusses how Indie authors can leverage book industry trade shows to increase their visibility, connections, and fans.
7:30 p.m., 4/25: http://bit.ly/tradshowz
Team Bella at 2011 NY BookExpo
All self-publishers reach a tricky point where decisions have to be made about spending money. Paid advertising is expensive and as alluring to the aspiring author as Eve was to Adam. We should all pause to remember how that one ended.
A cottage industry has sprung up populated by clever pitchmen (and women) who will get you noticed – for a fee. They know how badly you yearn to be a popular author and will happily create your press release, book trailer, web site and a dozen other slick products.
Some are better than others, and frankly, without some good publicity, even the great classics of yesteryear might have been colossal trees that fell unnoticed in the forest.
Today’s writers have the luxury of social media tools that enable direct contact with millions of prospective readers. While posting is lightning fast, sales can be painfully slow. While you’re waiting, Eve is smiling from the corner with that luscious apple. So tempting, right?
Bella’s path to market has been relatively low cost. Last spring, however, there was a huge book expo in New York City. I took the plunge and invested about $2,000 in a booth on Writers’ Row at the Javits Center, where 25,000 visitors passed over three days. The “visitors” were folks from the book, movie and other associated industries.
In this free webinar, I will talk about my experiences and explain why I’m headed back to New York in June for a second bite of the (Big) Apple.
Sometimes no matter hard you squeeze, the lemons will not yield lemonade. The screen goes black, the car won’t start, the camera flash won’t fire.
So it was during a recent webinar when I, fully engaged and plowing through one self-publishing tip after another, found I’d been talking to no one but myself for a good three minutes. This was a waste; I already knew the tips. More important, listeners around the country heard nothing but crickets.
A text message from the moderator clued me in. I stopped talking, and, in the quiet, thought of Aldous Huxley. “Technological progress,” Huxley said, “has merely provided us with more efficient means to for going backwards.”
The lemons having appeared, I began squeezing. The technology responded like an old engine on a snowy night. It sputtered, turned over, and then died. We were on, we were off. On, off, over and over.
For those on the other end, I apologize. We’ve done several of these and never had a problem. There were no hardware or software changes at either my or the moderator’s end.
Ultimately, I believe the Internet gods were tired, angry or in the mood for a little fun. We’ve all seen movies where the guy pulls away as his buddy tries to get in the car. Each time the friend gets close, the driver hits the gas. This is either exasperating or hysterical, depending on whether you’re the runner or the driver.
The plan is to re-do the Messaging Strategies for Authors webinar, but in the meantime, here are a few key points:
- The good news about self-publishing is also the bad news. These days, anyone can publish. Busy readers are overwhelmed, so writing a novel is not the end. You must follow up with creative social media sites and marketing materials.
- Leverage the power of good storytelling. If you’ve written a great novel, apply the same discipline and creative energy to your Facebook page, Twitter tweets and author pages. Don’t make the story of your life (your bio) a boring resume.
- Mainstream newspapers don’t like Indies. Just as there has been an explosion of self-published authors, however, there’s also been a dramatic rise in the number of blogger reviewers. Find the good ones, make friends, and get some reviews.
- While online marketing is critical, eye contact trumps a cyber shake. That means the connections you make face to face take more time, but are more powerful than the ones you make on the web. You need a combination of both – Twitter & Tee shirts.
When the date of the make-up webinar is set, I will announce it through the usual channels, assuming the Internet is working. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your failed technology story, and how you handled the sudden silence.
