Book Marketing Makeover: First-Time Novelist Novel Marketing Strategies

Guest post Q&A with Simone Bailey

Simone Bailey is an Australia author who specializes in adult satire and young adult fiction. As a member of The Book Marketing Network, she volunteered to be interviewed about her marketing efforts for her debut novel, Calumny While Reading Irving Welsh.

Question: Are you involved in any social networks? Have you used them in marketing your book? Again, if so, how?

Answer: Yes, I am a user of social media. I use Facebook and Twitter to publicize my work. I have posted some articles on The Book Marketing Network, which has the facility for sharing to these sites. I have also attached reviews for my work, reviews I have written for other's work, my press release, and newspaper interviews.

Question: Did you speak to promote your book? If so, what audiences or venues produced the best sales?

Answer: Yes, I have spoken at book launches, libraries, and classrooms. The book launch talks have been the most fruitful in terms of sales.

Question: What Internet marketing technique produced the best sales results for your book? Did you do anything interesting to boost the effectiveness of the technique?

Answer: My personal blog is where I do a lot of my marketing. I receive up to 1,000 hits per day on average. I have just posted on it,. Recently I've asked about getting some advertising on my blog as a form of extra income.



About the Author

Simone Bailey is the author of Calumny While Reading Irving Welsh. Her personal blog is at http://bingellsblog.bigblog.com.au.



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Novel Promotions: 3 Author Success Stories

Here are a few author success stories I shared a few years ago in my Book Marketing Tip of the Week newsletter. They're still relevant today, especially for novelists.



The following story came from book publicist Denise Cassino of
http://www.wizardlywebdesigns.com:

I recently got one of my young adult fantasy fiction authors a gig at a local grade school. She sent flyers a week in advance with purchase information. We set it for the last day before Thanksgiving break. There were 56 students and their parents there for a feast. Afterward, she did a book reading at which she offered a writing contest to the kids. Each student writes a story using her book's main characters. The teacher chooses the top 5 and sends them to the author who picks the best one. That winning student's name will be used for a character in her next book and will get to appear on the author's radio show! Way to keep the kids interested!

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The following story was sent to me by a reader, Jessica James, author of Shades of Gray: A Novel of the Civil War in Virginia:

Every author trying to market a book has probably heard these words of advice: Tie your book to a current news event. If you write fiction, that is sometimes hard to do, but by no means impossible.

Historical fiction author Jessica James found a way to connect her Civil War novel with the hoopla surrounding the recent presidential election by conducting a poll on her website asking readers to choose the literary character they thought had the qualities to make a great president.

One of the characters from Shades of Gray ended up coming in third, but that was just icing on the cake. What mattered was that many newspapers ran portions of the press release and online sites linked back to Jessica's website for the full story. A few days after the election her historical fiction novel was in the top 10 on Amazon in the Romance/Historical category.

Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird won her presidential poll by a wide margin. The full results of the poll are still listed at her website: http://www.jessicajamesbooks.com, and a full story can be found on her Civil War blog at http://www.jessicajamesblog.com.

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The following story was sent to me by a reader, Doreen Orion:

I saw your newsletter note about the author in Hawaii. What I did on my book tour was contact hotels near my signing (as well as the one I was staying in, of course) and speak to the concierge. They are always being asked by their guests what there is to do in town. I told them about the signing and asked for their fax number. Then, I faxed them a flyer.

My book, Queen of the Road, went into 6th printing after only 3 months out. When I thanked my editor at Doubleday, she said, “I think you only have yourself to thank.”

John's comment: An active author is the greatest blessing a publisher can have. Active authors sell books.

Web: http://www.bookmarket.com/novelmarketing.htm

You Know Your Query Letter Sucks When You Write: Dear Agent

This blog post is courtesy of Jeff Rivera, founder of HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com.

First impressions are so important to a literary agent, especially when they receive hundreds of query letters a day. They're on auto-pilot and can click delete faster than you can blink an eye. You've got to grab them and you've got to be cautious not to give them any reason to click delete.

I still can't believe I have to even mention this because to most, it seems so obvious but you'd be surprised how many query letters I see that have this fatal mistake: "Dear Agent" or, worse yet, "To whom it may concern..."

Um, hello! Would you be interested in reading a letter that didn't address you by your name. It's bad enough to get those spam emails we get using our full legal name but how much worse when they say "Dear Friend" or something even more impersonal.

Literary agents are people first, and agents second. Treat them like a human being and they'll treat you like a human being.

Yes, they know you're querying other agents. They're not stupid, but they don't want to hear about it. It's like when you're first dating someone. You know you're not exclusive yet but you don't want to hear them talk about the passionate hot steamy sex they had with someone else the night before. No, and the same goes for an agent. They want to be treated as special.

If you can make your query letter as personalized as possible, starting with using their name (not "Dear Agent") you'll be that much closer to landing an agent.

Remember, you only have one shot with these agents, so make sure your query letter is as solid as possible. If you need help writing a winning query letter, email John@GumboWriters.com and we'll help you. 100% of the query letters we've ghost-written have received requests from at least 10 top agents to read the manuscripts or proposals.



Jeff Rivera is the founder of http://www.HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com. He and his works have been featured or mentioned in Publishers Weekly, GalleyCat, MediaBistro, Los Angeles Times, New York Observer, NPR, and many other media outlets.

How to Land a Literary Agent: First Get a Platform

The following guest blog post is written by Jeff Rivera, founder of HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com.

Your voice must be heard. There is no greater way to do this than to write a book. If you've ever given any thought to seriously landing an agent or being published, I'd like to offer a few tips that will speed up the process.

First, let me explain, I'm a book publishing executive who writes regularly for the #1 online trade magazine for the media & publishing called Mediabistro. I also write for GalleyCat, Huffington Post, and other key sites. I've interviewed everyone from major agents and editors to bestselling authors like James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, and Nicholas Sparks. I also do something else, I help connect writers with literary agents.

Publishing has changed so dramatically in the last few years that getting published isn't more difficult, it's more challenging. There's a difference and that difference must begin first with a shift in your mindset. Once you know what literary agents want, it's rather easy to land an agent.

Let's move beyond the fact that you need to write a great manuscript, because you already know that but did you know there's something else more important to an agent than ever before? Your platform. That is your built-in fanbase of readers poised and ready to purchase your book. Demonstrate you have this with at least 5,000 readers and you can land an agent quicker than you ever dreamed possible.

How do you do this? First understand, there's a difference between having 10,000 Twitter followers and having a platform. Anyone can get Twitter followers. You can even pay people to add them for you. That's not a platform.

I don't know about you but I don't tweet that often and I definitely don't read everything every person I follow tweets every day. I am not necessarily a dedicated fan of theirs. If I see their tweet, then I see their tweet. If I don't, then I don't.

As my friend, former Simon & Schuster editor Marcela Landres says in her ebook, How Editors Think, "It's not who you know, it's who knows you." Think about that difference.

The following are a few examples of legitimate platforms that will have literary agents licking their chops:

1) An opt-in mailing list of people who read your information regularly
2) If you are regularly on television
3) If you have a web series with at least 10,000 views each episode
4) If you are a public speaker
5) If you are a journalist with a column of loyal readers
6) If you have a regular broadcast radio show, podcast, or internet radio show with a significant audience
7) If you've self-published a number of books before and sold at least 5,000 copies of each
8) If you have a website with thousands of unique visitors each day
9) If you're the president of a large association or charity
10) If you're a celebrity already in another industry

There are a number of other examples of platforms you can view by visiting HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com. You'll also see over 60 examples of query letters we ghost wrote that successfully garnered requests from top agents to read our clients' manuscripts.

Remember, you only have one shot with these agents, so make sure your query letter is as solid as possible. If you need help writing a winning query letter, email John@GumboWriters.com and we'll help you. 100% of the query letters we've ghost-written have received requests from at least 10 top agents to read the manuscripts or proposals.



Jeff Rivera is the founder of http://www.HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com. He and his works have been featured or mentioned in Publishers Weekly, GalleyCat, Mediabistro, Los Angeles Times, New York Observer, NPR and many other media outlets.

How to Write a Query Letter That Genre Agents Want Now

This is a guest post form Jeff Rivera . . .

Everyday I'm on the phone with top agencies and literary agents that would have most writers salivating. They tell me on the down-low exactly what they're looking for in a writer and some of the inside secrets in getting them, to sign you. I thought I might share with you a few of the genres that they are dying for right now:

1) Middle Grade - If you write middle grade fiction and have a unique funny voice, agents will be ringing down your phone. Especially, if you write books for boys 9 -11 that are funny, funny, funny. "Stay away from bathroom humor," one agent who just sold a 3-book deal for her client said, "but let's face it, some of the biggest selling boy books are full of farts, snot, and talking butts" (literally).

2) YA (Young Adult fiction) - Beyond just the Twlight books, YA fiction is one of the biggest selling genres right now in books. In fact, although most book sales have gone down, this genre has gone up. If you have a background in education, or are a camp counselor, babysitter, parent, aunt, or uncle of a teen, definitely mention this in your query letter. Edgy, edgy, edgy - that's what they're looking for. Don't be afraid to have sex scenes or violence or curse words. And if you write clean cut Christian fiction, don't be afraid to mention that too. There's definitely a call for that as well. Don't talk down to teens talk up and keep your protagonist between 15 -21 years old if you can.

3) Graphic Novels - Oh, my God. If you want to light a fire and get a huge reaction from agents then tell them you have a graphic novel or better yet a graphic memoir. They're dying for them. You only need a 5-page sample of your art work and a full summary. So, even if you can't draw, you can team up with an artist. We can help you with that by the way at: http://www.GumboWriters.com. One tip: Try to stay away from comic book style art and do more of a style in the vein of Stitches by David Small or the Pulitzer Prize-winning Mause if you can.

4) High Platform Nonfiction Books - Platform is king, not content. One agent who just sold a book deal last week for over a half million dollars told me that editors are looking for one thing only, platform. Who cares if you can write? They can always hire a co-writer or ghostwriter to write with or for you.

If you have a huge platform, mention it in your first paragraph. I would say in your first sentence, literally. I did this for one client a week ago and he had over 30 agents that responded to his query letter in less than 24 hours. As you know, a platform is a built-in fan base. It's guaranteed buyers (not potential ones) that are poised and ready to by it. One big wig publisher at a Harper Collins imprint told me a few days ago that saying you can get a lot media coverage isn't going to cut it nowadays. It helps to have pre-buys and bring those to the table. Exactly how many? And what can you do if you think you don't have a platform? Well, if you want to know more about how to do that, stay tuned and we'll go into more of that next time.

For more tips visit my new site: http://www.HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com

And by the way, we're having a special for our query letter service from today to Monday, October 18th. 1/2 off, yes that's 50% off our normal price but only until this Monday then it goes up to its normal price. We guarantee we'll get at least 10 top agents to request to read your manuscript or proposal or double your money back.

- Jeff Rivera of GumboWriters.com

Scripts Make the Difference

I noticed the following comments in a recent issue of People Magazine - in an article on summer stinkers in the movie business:

Why The Last Airbender didn't work: Bad acting, lame visuals, and a script that bends logic.

Why The Killers didn't work: The actors had no chemistry - and painful jokes.

Why Jonah Hex didn't work: The holes in the script are bigger than the one in Hex's face.

Notice the common denominator: bad script, bad jokes, bad script.

You can have the best actors in the world, but if the script isn't right, the movie will never work.



Want to know more about writing scripts that work? Check out http://www.screenwritingu.com. Good people there.

A Great First Line for a Novel

I happened to see this first line from a new novel featured in Time Magazine:

"It began the usual way, in the bathroom of the Lassimo Hotel."

Quiet, interesting, intriguing.

The novel is Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad.

Bookmarks Help Sell Novels

Georgina Martin convinced three local Barnes and Noble stores to display her mystery, Reads Like Murder - In Honolulu. As a result, in a short time, she sold 82 copies.

51 copies were sold in one store. Why? Because she place 1,000 bookmarks in that store. As she noted, "The store had so many bookmarks they were practically giving them away to people."

As a result of the bookmark exposure and book sales, that store placed Reads Like Murder In Honolulu on the top shelf of the mystery section for more than three months, thus increasing the sales of the book.

Note: 1,000 bookmarks cost only 60.00 at http://www.overnightprints.com (recommended by the above author).

How to Sell Your Book Locally

Here are two tips that Bob Sanchez shared at the Book Marketing Network (http://bookmarket.ning.com). I thought they were very good tips for helping you to sell some of your books locally.



One thing that's helped me is to always keep copies of my two books in the back of my car. Then when someone says "Where can I buy a copy of your book?" you can tell them they can get it from you right then and there.

Also it helps to have business cards with you advertising your book. One thing I have tried is tacking one up on any bulletin board that seems friendly to local businesses. Does it help sales? I have no idea, but it can't hurt, and the card costs me only a penny or so. Sometimes people will come up to me at a book signing and tell me they've heard of the book but can't remember where. Just getting your name and the book's title out there is helpful even when it doesn't result in an immediate sale.

200 Copies of a Novel Sold in One Venue in 8 Months

The following post tells how one author sold 200 copies of a self-published novel in one venue in less than 8 months. Steve Miller, author of Enjoy Your Money! How to Make It, Save It, Invest It and Give It, posted this story in a forum on the Book Marketing Network (http://bookmarket.ning.com).

I have a friend who self-published his first novel and has sold, in the past 8 months, over 200 books in a local (not chain) restaurant. A check-out person said, "Here's how I see it working: people are waiting in line to check out. One starts thumbing through the book. The person behind him says, 'I read it. It's great!' The person buys it."

Outcome: Maybe we should take a harder look at local, non-bookstore possibilities for selling our books. After all, there's no competition with other books in that restaurant. If someone's just finished a book and is looking for the next read, voila!

I recommended that he try to place it in similar restaurants (locally owned, where lots of locals eat) in nearby towns. He can tell the owners, "It sold over 200 copies in this other restaurant, making them this much money." Businesses are looking for extra income these days. If he found 20 restaurants that could sell 300 per year, he'd sell 6,000 per year.

Steve's recommendation to his friend is on target. If something is working for you, expand in that direction. Offer the same deal to more restaurants. Start local, then go regional.

200 copies is more than most self-published novelists sell in 8 months in all venues. Congratulations to the novelist for finding a good place to sell his books. Now he should go out and replicate his success.

Marketing Novels: One Man's Experience

The following post was written by Earl Sewell in a forum at the Book Marketing Network (http://www.thebookmarketingnetwork.com).

What’s working for me is setting up events where I have an audience. Also having an act when speaking to groups helps a great deal---for example, I write fiction, and instead of just reading the work, I turn it into a dramatization and get the audience to participate. The Call and Response method works great for me. This also helps me to sell myself as an entertainer.

Two weeks ago I did a book release party with a book club in DC. I ordered 100 copies of my book from my publisher and let the book club pre-sell Have Mercy. Since Have Mercy is an erotic thriller, part of the program included a lingerie fashion show. About 35 people showed up and when it was my turn, I put on a great show for my fans. The book club kept the remainder of the books and hand sold all of them for me.

During my book signing in Kalamazoo, Michigan, I asked a local book club there to join me at Waldenbooks. I asked them to wear their book club t-shirts and walk around the mall handing out my promo cards. They did this for me and for the first time, I got a crossover audience. The ladies, whom I’d known for three years, told every woman in the mall what a great writer I was and they came over. Some purchased books while others were just curious.

I also write Y.A. fiction. What’s working for me there is dealing directly with high school librarians. They’re always looking for great books to purchase for their students. I also do creative writing workshops and publishing workshops. I charge a nominal fee for doing this plus I get the schools to order the books at a discount from my publisher.

In addition I have a special website for my Y.A audience. Staying in direct contact with them has helped because they tell their friends about the book and then get them to join my website. I have contests and prize giveaways for them.

However, even with all that I do, I still can’t get my sales numbers to soar the way I’d like them to. It’s a very very tough market out there and getting a name brand to stick without a large marketing budget is no easy task. However, this is my passion and no matter what, I’m going to keep moving forward. 

John's Comments: Earl is clearly creative and working hard to promote his novels. Obviously some things are working. I love his go-to-it-tiveness.