A week tomorrow…

… I shall be giving my talk all about online marketing and PR for authors, as part of the Romantic Novelists’ Association Book Marketing Day.

So what are the most effective online methods for promoting books? Any comments?

Online banners

Banners – online adverts – can offer a cost-effective way of marketing yourself and your books online.

The process of getting yourself a banner is relatively simple. Either:

• Ask a designer to make one for you. Check out any websites you intend to advertise with, as they may offer a competitively priced design service. Don;t forget you can use the banners once they are made elsewhere.
• Or create your own. Addesigner.com offers free online banners. You just decide the template you want to use and then customise the text/colours. If you’re on a budget they look ok to me.

Banners come in a number of shapes and sizes so its better to decide first where you intend to use them, and then design what you need according. Banners tend to be described as either static or dynamic, the latter meaning that they move. 

Banners are typically placed on websites, but can also be used in email marketing. The banner advertising space is sold in a variety of ways, usually one of the following:

• Cost per 1,000 impressions (i.e. page impressions). This is effectively a cost per view.
• Cost per click (CPC). i.e. You pay per user who clicks through your banner (to your website or wherever the banner links to).
• Cost per month. Some websites offer fixed prices for a fixed time period.

Cost per click will generally be more expensive than cost per thousand as a click is regarded as valuable action “proving” that someone has seen and acted on your banner. When considering cost per month, consider the cost versus website’s traffic. Ask to see traffic stats if they are not already supplied.

In the UK cost per click starts from around 0.5p per click upwards, although there are usually volume discounts. However, I’d always recommend testing any banner campaign first so you can evaluate the quality of the response before commiting a large sum of money to it.

If you’ve a banner you’d like to try out on a general UK mass market audience, I’ve been working with a general consumer shopping website where I can get you 5,000 click throughs for £20! I’ve not seen any authors on there but it would be an innovative way to raise your profile. Email me if you’d like to give it a try.

Business cards

So, it seems that no one uses Bebo!

I lunched today with a lovely author. At the end as we were leaving I gave her my business card. She didn’t have one. When you meet people – booksellers, othor authors, journalists – you want something concrete to give them with your details. If you’ve not got author business cards yet – get some.

Business cards should include your name, the fact you’re an author, your phone and email, website/blog URL and you can also mention if you’ve room your latest titles. With digital printing business cards are very inexpensive.

Bebo

Anyone on Bebo? Is it working? Email me.

Rules for radio interviews

Radio interviews are a gift. They give the opportunity to talk in depth about you and your book. I’ve uploaded on MySpace an interview I did as an author on radio which did just this. I know this interview got results because the day after the studio called as they had lost the press release but were still getting calls the next day asking for the book details.

Rule 1 – always mention your book title. Repeatedly if possible, but at least three times if you can.

Rule 2 – make sure the station has your press release which must include information about where the book is available to purchase, title, author and ISBN.

Rule 3 – Speak more slowly than usual.

Rule 4 – Try not to say umm and ahh or any other annoying inflection.

Rule 5 – Keep the sound of your voice upbeat and make sure you vary your tone.

Rule 6 – If a question throws you, be honest and ask for it to be repeated.

Rule 7 – Don’t waffle ever. Take a moment to think what’s you will say before you start speaking.

Rule 8 – Prepare beforehand by writing yourself a list of key bullet points about your book you want to get across during the interview. One of these is the title and others should be the key hooks which you want to communicate about your book. Have this list in front of you during the interview.

Rule 9 – Also prepare by making sure you have answers to those typical but annoying questions authors always seem to get asked. e.g. Where do you get your ideas from?

Rule 10 – Your final preparation should be making sure you understand what your interview is about, the programme it’s included in, and who you’ll be interviewed by. And that you’re happy with all this. You don’t want any nasty surprises on the day. If you feel you’ve not been given enough information, get your publicist on to this in advance, or if you are doing your own publicity, call the station and speak to the programme editor, presenter or one of the researchers. They will be happy to help.

Rule 11 – While you are waiting for the interview to start make sure you breathe deeply and have had a drink. Test your voice to make sure it’s sounding normal – not dry or croaky. Suck a throat sweet if this helps, making sure to remove it before you’re on air.

Sunday interview: Bernardine Kennedy

Do anything and everything with a smile, says UK women’s fiction author Bernardine Kennedy. She is published by Headline and has her own website and blog.

1. What kinds of marketing have you done as an author?

I’ve done book signings, stock signings, local press interviews as well as other mags where I might fit their readership! Also library talks and book festival talks and panels. I basically do anything I’m offered. Even the local Ladies Luncheon Club and the Salvation Army.

2. What marketing did your publisher do?

They always send advance copies to the press and to magazine editors, as well as to anyone else I ask them to. They also send out very good press releases and will always mail me if they are approached about interviews that might ‘fit’ me!

3. What essential things about marketing did you learn that you wish you’d known from the start?

Most papers and mags are inundated daily with books and press releases so it takes a really good hook to get the reviews and interviews. The hook can be either related to the book or to the author personally.

4. What did you learn during your experiences of trying to market your books?

That although my book may be the most important thing in my life at that time I’m actually just one of the many thousands being published. An author has to work at marketing, it doesn’t just arrive on the doorstep with a grin.

5. What’s the most successful piece of marketing you’ve done?

Probably getting some short stories and features out there around publication date. My name and the book’s title and publication date were mentioned at the bottom. It definitely helped.

6. What advice would give for authors starting out with marketing their books?

Do anything and everything with a smile and get yourself known as approachable. Go into bookshops and introduce yourself when its NOT publication date and you don’t want anything from them. Payback will come at publication time when they remember you.

Public speaking nerves

Many authors are nervous about public speaking, not least because they may have never done it before. I was quite lucky as I went through the pain of learning how to speak in public when I was at school. I attended a girl’s school up to the age of 16, but the debating society was run in conjunction with several other schools, meaning we could meet and mingle with the opposite sex. It was therefore a popular extra-curricular activity. The first time I rose to make a comment from the floor, the butterflies seemed to be eating my stomach, the whole room had become hot and clammy, and my voice seemed to come out as if it was coming from somewhere else. I felt faint as I sat down.

Nowadays, nerves are usually just a slightly fluttery, light-headed feeling about 5 minutes before I’m due to start. I deal with this before giving work presentations by nipping to the Ladies and having a quiet couple of minutes gathering my presense of mind before venturing forth. Conferences can be difficult, especially when they want to wire you up while the previous speaker is on and there is still some time to go. I prefer it when the PA is fixed, or with no PA at all. I had to address very large halls as a debater without a PA and therefore worked my voice projection up to a good standard.

If public speaking nerves are getting to you I recommend you try a number of things, and see what works for you:

1. Make sure you’re prepared, practiced and use pauses. I used to write it all down on note cards, annotating with pauses. I would then practice several times. Pauses force you to slow down, give your brain a chance to think, and make your words more impactful.

2. Even for off the cuff, have some notes. I now tend to speak mostly off the cuff, but I always, always have notes with me. There are there as a back-up, just in case the worst happens and my mind goes blank. Having a crutch you can switch to, if the nerves are winning, will help and will make you feel better and in control.

3. Slow down and breathe deeply. Nerves can make you feel light-headed and your breathing come in short. Make sure you keep speaking slowly and breathing properly.

4. Before you start, try a mantra. I have a little mantra in French I say before speaking and before walking into rooms with strangers. At the same time I imagine the Three Musketeers when they say their motto of “one for all and all for one” and raise their swords. If they can do it, so I can I.

5. Before you start, distract yourself. Having a quick chat with someone before I start helps me forget I’m about to speak, and therefore seems to help keep nerves at bay. If you don’t feel like waiting in the room while everyone comes in, no one is forcing you to be there – go elsewhere.

6. Check out the room first. And decide where you’ll stand/sit (if you have a choice). If you’re the only speaker, and you want the furniture rearranged – do it! For imformal talks I like sitting on tables combined with a bit of walking around. I don’t like being stuck sat down behind a desk. But if being behind the desk/lecturn makes you feel better, do it.

7. Dress cleverly and comfortably. Authors are supposed to be creative individuals and therefore, you can wear what you want, but I’d suggest wearing something with a bit of flair and colour because being all in dark, drab colours is draining on most people and will mean that your audience looks only at your face. Distracting them with a wonderful jacket, piece of jewellery or high-heels, will take the pressure off a bit.

8. Work towards being warm, inclusive and use open body language. All my nerves go once I know I’ve bonded with my audience. This is because I know they’ll forgive me if I do say something stupid or mediocre after that.

9. Decide whether you want to be interupted with questions or have them at the end. I like being interupted with questions, as this helps me with point 8, but if I have a short slot and a lot to cover, I’d leave questions to the end as that is better than being distracted into losing too much time and then having to rush and/or cut valuable material. I would recommend, until you are used to dealing with questions so that they can no longer throw you, having them at the end.

Pack is back

Scott Pack is back blogging and reveals what was behind his sudden disappearance.

If you have not come across Scott Pack, you obviously don’t follow the UK book trade, and if you’re a UK author serious about having a career in this trade, you probably should do some reading about what’s going on in the newspapers, trade magazines and blogs. Multiple magazine subscriptions are indeed expensive so if you can only manage one I’d recommend The Author, which always covers any book trade news with potential impact on authors in an intelligent and informative way. The Author is the Society of Authors‘ magazine.

Any international recommendations for required reading for authors – please comment below.

Tuesday tips 14

Got a tip?

Email me.

Planning. Don’t plan one author gig (today: workshop to creative writing students) after another (tomorrow: talk to writers’ circle about romantic fiction), both of which need preparation time, with a full day of work sandwiched in between, and combine with the delusion that you’ll have time to write up some Tuesday tips for your book marketing blog.

Sunday interview: Roger Morris

Be realistic in your expectations, says UK crime author Roger Morris whose first novel, Taking Comfort, was published by Macmillan New Writing last year. Roger Morris has a marketing background and used his experience to promote his own book. (Like me!) He blogs at Roger’s Plog.

1. What marketing did Macmillan do?

Aside from sending out a lot of review copies, there were a number of specific things. Because my book has something of a marketing theme. Macmillan came up with the idea of writing to people in the marketing departments of big companies. A direct marketing campaign, in other words. Also the novel starts at Highgate Tube Station, so they produced and distributed a flyer which was handed out to commuters one morning. They also produced glossy postcards for me to send out to friends and acquaintances which my wife Rachel has been active about distributing. They arranged a number of interviews with local papers. Online the Macmillan New Writing website is an important marketing presence, but Macmillan also decided to film ‘author talks’ which were put on our amazon pages. Generally they have been very receptive to ideas, such as the flyer which was my idea.

2. What kinds of marketing have you done as an author?

I started my blog before publication and have used that to help spread the word in advance. I’ve now branched out into MySpace and have a more conventional website for the book. I also made a trailer for the book which I’ve put on a number of hosting sites. I also filmed a ‘virtual reading’ which is on MySpace. I had always been surprised when people actually bought the book after readings so I thought that putting one on the web would be a good way of reaching more people and spreading that effect.

3. What essential things about marketing did you wish you’d known from the start?

I come from a marketing background. My day job is as a copywriter and I have actually worked (freelance) for publishers in a marketing capacity in the past. So I always knew it would be hard. I think that you have to make the most of everything you do. Sometimes the story is not the book, which is annoying in a way. It may be the trailer or the virtual reading. Thing is a lot of people have books out – what journalists are looking for is a bit of a story. Something that distinguishes you from the mass of other authors.

4. What marketing diffculties did you face?

It was always said that Macmillan would not spend a fortune on marketing – but then again I think that’s rare for any publisher. The six of us who were the imprint’s launch titles probably benefited and suffered equally from the attention that was on the imprint as a whole. The broadsheets [upmarket UK newspapers] took a bit of a snooty view of the whole thing and tended to review the books all together. I only got one solus review and that was the Glasgow Herald and I was very pleased with it. The literary blogger reviews have been a different matter. Rather than concentrating only on the business model of the imprint, there was more of a focus on what the books had to offer readers.

5. What did you learn during your experiences of trying to market your books?

I’ve learnt that I am a shameless self-promoter. On a serious note, I wonder if all this effort might backfire and actually make certain readers dismiss the book. “Oh, he’s just a marketing person, not a writer.” I am a writer who happened to fall into marketing. Why shouldn’t I use some of the things I’ve learned along the way to promote the one product I’ve produced myself?

6. What is the most successful piece of marketing you’ve done?

My blog and being part of the online writing community through various writers’ websites. The blog has brought me to the attention of some influential literary bloggers, like fictionbitch and crimeficreader, who have both reviewed my book favourably. Despite having to buy their own copies!

7. What marketing advice would give for authors thinking about being published by a scheme like Macmillan’s?

Be realistic in your expectations. But be proactive too. Try and think laterally – what is your book about? Who is likely to read it? What innovative ways are there to reach that potential audience that don’t necessarily cost a fortune?