All The News That Fits?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Okay, be honest. Do you read author newsletters?

I have to admit I get a lot of them, and I always open them, but after a quick glance and a kind of industry-insider assessment--oh, that's an interesting cover, oh, what a nice photo, oh, that book comes out on a holiday, oh, that one seems too long--I delete them.  Well, first, I often reply, just to say hi, and let the author know I'm listening.  (Do I ever buy a book BECAUSE of the newsletter? Hmm. Not sure about that.  Do you? Most authors whose newsletters I receive I'd buy anyway.)  

I analyze the successful-looking ones, too. Though of course, I don't know if they're actually "successful, if "successful" means selling books. Or what does "successful" mean?

J.T. Ellison's is always fun  

and Alafair Burke

and Wendy Corsi Staub

Brad Meltzer's look just like email. And I read every one. I always believe it's just to me. Which, of course, is the point.

It's  a dilemma. I mean, I send them, not many, maybe five a year? Only when there's something to announce. And I work very hard on them, making them interesting, and not too-too promo-y,  and I try to give the reader some valuable or at least entertaining information, and some value-added to thank readers for paying attention. Like a giveaway, or a contest, or a bargain price. 

But is it a good thing? Or a waste of everyone's time?

I did an experiment, too. I wondered if some of mine were going to spam, so I sent some in HTML with graphics and links, and some in plan text, just like an email.  But I heard from a similar amount of recipients with each, so I'm not sure what that proved. (I also realized that a lot of you go on vacation--the moment I send them, I receive a flurry of "I'm on vacation" responses.

I LIVE for the people who write back. That just makes my day. SO lovely to know you are out there!

So Reds and readers, what think about newsletters?
 Do you send them? Do you read them?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I'll send out "News From the Kill" when I have a book coming out, or if I'm going to be appearing somewhere outside Maine. Often, before a new book comes out, I'll offer advance readers copies, and that ALWAYS gets a good response! Of course, since it's been nineteen months since my last book came out, I'm not sending out many these days... sigh.

I'm ridiculously old fashioned in the way I do it though. I may be the last author who doesn't use a service - I keep all the mailing lists myself and send out any communications in plain text. I mean, I'll use hyperlinks, but it's basically an email from me. 

I DO check out other authors newsletters and I'm always impressed by how professional they look. The question I'd like to know is, do readers prefer the chatty, once-a-month newsletters, or the ones that only have new information about books and tours?

HANK: Yes, agreed! I'd love to know that, too.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, newsletters! Ack. I started one this time last year with the help of a wonderful friend who has years of experience in PR. We decided we would aim for quarterly. I've sent...two. Partly because I've been so late with my book, and I wanted to send NEWS--and I didn't have any other than, "Still working on book..." And partly because I think the format we set up was a little too complicated, with layout space for multiple articles and photos. What I really want to do is just write a chatty message, so I'll be looking at simplifying. And partly--maybe mostly--because life has just been so busy and I haven't managed to fit it into a routine. Louise Penny does the best newsletter, very chatty and personal, and it goes out every month on the first.

(HANK: Anyone else get Louise's? What makes it so good?) When's your next one, Debs?

DEBS: I promise, all you lovely readers who have signed up, I will send something AS SOON AS THIS BOOK IS FINISHED.

LUCY BURDETTE: Sure I have a newsletter and you can sign up for it on my LucyBurdette.com page. I send it when there's news--in this business, there may be a long lapse between missives! "Everyone" says your newsletter subscribers are your most valuable asset as an author--people who love your writing and really want to know what's going on in your writer's lonely life:). The trouble is, jotting something on Facebook is oh-so-much easier!

One newsletter I especially love is Jenn McKinlay's. It's not so much about her books as slices of real life. But she has a gift for telling these stories, and that makes you want to read her other book stories. 

HALLIE EPHRON: I do send them out... before book launches. Go to my web site and sign up if you're interested and I promise you won't get more than one a year. And it always has some kind of essay or short story to make it worth opening. Sez me.

No, I don't read them. Except for The Hot Sheet (http://hotsheetpub.com/) - Jane Friedman's and Porter Anderson's super smart monthly assessment of what's going on in publishing. I actually pay for a subscription, that's how good it is.

HANK: I get that, too, Hallie. But it's that element of promotion that's fascinating o consider A reader knows a newsletter for an author is a sales tool. And as a result...well. I just keep wondering. And now,  Rhys comes to us from Italy! 

RHYS BOWEN: I send out a newsletter about six times a year, usually when I have something new and important to announce. I use Vertical Response as it's easy to use their templates and manage lists. I send it out to about 7000 subscribers. However, I've found that my Facebook page has much greater impact as I can update daily (and have a lot more followers). 

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: I don't do a newsletter. Folks, I often don't do Christmas cards, do you really think I'm going to do a newsletter? Um, but should I? Somehow, I seemed to miss this when I was first starting out... Must say, it seems kind of old-fashioned to me. I'd like to think that my web site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and whatever the heck else I do gets the word out. I don't subscribe to author newsletters, either — is that terrible? But if I like an author, I'll follow her on Twitter, so I'll get my info about release dates there....

HANK: Exactly what I'm getting at, Susan. IS it worth it? DO readers care? (If you're on my list, one is coming tomorrow--with a wonderful offer!) (If you're not, sign up here! http://www.hankphillippiryan.com/contact.php



But for now:
  Is it "better" to do a flat out announcement, with no value added? Or be chatty and tell stories? How about a contest or giveaway? 
 Readers, do you care? What do you love and not love? (Authors! If you have a newsletter, tell readers where to find you!) When a newsletter shows up in your mailbox--what do you do?

They Don’t Buy Your Book because it’s Good; a guest post by PJ Nunn

 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I think almost everyone in the crime fiction business has at least heard of PJ Nunn. She's been the owner and chief publicist of Breakthrough Promotions, one of the most effective (and affordable) PR firms around. How effective? Well, I did more radio, television and print interviews in the four years I was her client that I have before or since. 

I have to admit, I never stopped to wonder why PJ specialized in crime fiction. Or how it was she seemed so sympatico with her authors. It turns  out PJ wasn't just promoting crime fiction. She was writing it, too. Her new mystery, Angel Killer, has just been released by Oak Tree Press. Today, she tells us about her writer's journey and about how she - and we - can help get the books we write into readers' hands.

 

If you haven’t met me yet, I’m a publicist and I specialize in promoting authors and their books. I’m also an author, but I didn’t start out that way. My career path has been long and varied, but I like to think of it as a tapestry that creates a picture. You have to examine it closely to see the detail in individual threads but they all come together in the end.

I didn’t start out to be a novelist, and still don’t necessarily consider myself one. I actually started out in college with every intention of going to medical school. A certain young man caught my eye and I went home with the old M-R-S Degree instead. By the time I found my way back to college, I had three kids and med school was out so I changed my major to psychology. Soon I was doing a practicum and internship as an abuse counselor, serving on the local county child welfare board and consulting with the local police department on child related cases.

I loved my work, but it was intense and after several years, I couldn’t seem to escape the darkness that came with it. I gave up the counseling and child welfare work when we moved back to Dallas and opted for teaching instead. When I had to leave my job teaching at the Dallas County Community College District because my son was too ill to be left on his own all day, I put my background in psychology to work with my skill for putting words to paper and built a pretty good reputation as a freelance journalist specializing in mental health and abuse issues.

It didn’t take long for me to tire of reporting statistics that are all too sobering. It took me right back to the reason I’d left the field of counseling abuse issues in the first place. I don’t remember exact details, but when I started writing my first novel, I found freedom there. So once my day’s business was complete, I always tried to make sure there was a little time left for writing fiction. Characters developed ideas, voices, plans. It was almost as if I was merely the director. I could give them a script, but they didn’t always stick to it. Oddly enough, sometimes their ideas were better than mine. The psychologist in me still finds that fascinating.

I drew ideas from the caseload I’d worked for all those years, but in my writing, there was time to examine things more closely. I wasn’t bound by the urgency to get a child out of a situation or to get a case ready for court. I could take as long as I needed to study it and figure things out.

Over the next several years, I refined my craft and made the shift from freelance writing to book promotions for some of the friends I met along the way. First one then another had their books published, but balked at making calls to set up book tours and couldn’t afford a publicist. I saw a need and a business was born. Over the years BreakThrough Promotions became successful, so I tucked my manuscripts away (and there were several by now) and gave myself to promoting everyone else’s work.

I absolutely love what I do and after all these years, I’m pretty good at it. But I missed that time with my writing. I enjoyed being able to take something I came across in a real situation, whether counseling or casework, and apply the “what if” to it and see where the story might lead. When I gave in to the desire to dust those manuscripts off, and factored in the recent self-publishing revolution, an idea formed. What if I revised a manuscript and submitted it to one of the smaller presses? Would they be interested enough to publish it? Amazingly enough, they were! Shari Markham, forensic psychologist and criminologist was about to become a published character.

Suddenly a lot of things seemed to make sense. I’d studied for years to get my writing into professional form, and had on-the-job training learning how to best promote new authors and their books so that I had the knowledge to promote my own. It was almost like it was pre-arranged. 

With Angel Killer in the hands of the publisher, I decided to polish another manuscript that is the start of a different series and publish it myself as an ebook to see how that went. I was taking on more and more clients who wanted help promoting their ebooks. It seemed a logical way for me to learn the ins and outs of the process. 

Since the main reason someone hires me is to help increase their sales, I need to know why people buy books. As a psychologist, it’s natural that deductive reasoning comes into play and I’m always looking for cause and effect. Enter the process of elimination. I might not be able to tell you what does sell your book every time, but I can tell you what doesn’t. Just like I can tell you that talent is no guarantee of recognition as an author. If I had to choose whether to have talent or perseverance as a trait that would lead to my success, I’d choose perseverance. Of course talent would be nice too, but things are just not always as they seem. I could name a long list of very talented writers that you’ve never heard of because they didn’t have the perseverance to stick in there until they got published.

People look for a publicist to help increase their book sales. They judge the success or failure of a book by the number of sales, and often, logically, assume if a book has high sales figures, it must be good. But it’s kind of like that old riddle that says bananas are yellow so if it’s yellow, it’s a banana. Obviously that logic is faulty. 

If a book has high sales, it doesn’t mean it’s good.

If a book is good, it doesn’t mean it will have high sales.

Everyone wants to think his or her book is good, and I’m the first to admit it’s a HUGE plus if it is. But being good just isn’t enough to rack up the sales. People buy books for lots of reasons:

·     

          Because they like something else the author has written

·  

          Somebody told them it’s good

·         They like the cover

·         They like the description

·         They met the author and like to tell people they know her

·         One of their favorite authors wrote a blurb on the cover

·         They read a good review

·         They won a previous title in a drawing and liked it

·         Who knows?

Obviously, what people see and hear about a new title is at least as important as how good it is. If the description or cover or whatever doesn’t capture their interest, they may never see what’s inside.

That is where I come into play so often. Presentation. First impressions. It’s my hope that I can help my clients present themselves (yes themselves and not just their books) in a way that will appeal to the group that is most likely to want to read their book, and to set the stage by finding the right reviewers, the right publications, the right radio and television programs to make the author shine and make their book seem highly desirable.

And now that I’ve schooled myself in all those things, I need to figure out how to do them for myself. I was working with a web designer just today, helping him to get the right content on a new website for one of my clients. He came back later and said, “Just so you know, I put links to your books on my website. Hope that’s ok.” I was really surprised and asked him why. He said, “I think you spend all your time promoting other authors and somebody better promote you.”

Wow. Busted.

You can find out more about PJ Nunn and the Shari Markham mysteries at her website. You can friend her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter as @PJNunn. If you want to find out more about PJ as a publicist, check out Breakthrough Promotions or contact her directly at pj@breakthroughpromotions.net

GET FAT! Yes, really.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: So, all you published and not-yet-published authors out there, now that you've gotten your legal facts straight--thanks to Leslie Budewitz on Tuesday, and you have your book trailer made--thanks to Lisa Black on Wednesday, and you understand why a one-star review might be a good thing--thanks to Catriona McPherson yesterday--now what?

Marketing maven Jen Fusco has three little words:

MARKET OR DIE.

(And for all you readers out there-this proves how incredibly important you are to the future of the books you love. This proves how one kind word--can change an author's life.)

Now. You'd think we at Jungle Red would never advocate getting fat. But Jen Fusco says yes! To succeed--we must all get fat! And, sadly, that has nothing to do with chocolate.

JEN FUSCO: Thanks so much to Hank for allowing me to return to the Blog. I really enjoy spending time with you guys.

The weekend is almost here. I'm glad, too. I could use a rest, but I won't get one. I'll be visiting some new friends in San Diego, CA. And I couldn't be more excited about it. Not only do I get a chance to meet new people and introduce them to some practical marketing techniques, but I also benefit. I have the opportunity to "get fat." No, it has nothing to do with extra dessert at lunch.

Its about widening Market or Die's sphere of influence. Take a look at this. This graph comes from Bob Clark at 24kmarketing.com, someone I like to read when I have time....

Let me explain this sphere of influence thing. You and me, we make up the smallest part of the Core Circle. By being an Market or Die trubie, you are going to know things about MOD first. I need you and your support and hopefully, you need Market or Die.

Now, let’s look at the inner circle. These are your writing groups you work with, your social media "friends" and the professional writing organizations you belong to or other writers you know professionally. Hopefully for some, your readers fall into this category. The outer circle describes the people who know you, but you fail to know them. These are the people who buy your work, form an opinion about it and tell others.

Scary, huh? But also valuable.

To succeed in this business you and I have to get fat. We need to keep widening our sphere of influence and growing our inner circle. Can it be uncomfortable meeting new people? You bet.

The upside? The more people you bring into the inner circle will help you spread a positive message about you and your work to the outer circle.

Those people will be come your brand advocates.

Brand advocates are your village and they have the power to emerge online as your primary influencers. Recently, I ran across a marketing blurb about brand advocates that said using brand advocates yielded a two-to-one positive influencing rate of a friend or family member to buy the product or brand they recommended. Brand advocates are incredibly valuable to an author because they are better connected to other readers and can have a larger sphere of influence.

But Fusco, you say, I’m a published author. I have influence.

True.

But how much time do you have to pound the pavement and stalk the internet?

And, how sick are people going to get of you tooting your own horn?

Isn’t it better when someone else toots it for you? Doesn’t it make the claim that someone should buy your book more powerful if you’re not the one saying it?

Of course it does.

If you want to stay relevant in the competitive world of writing, your time is better spent putting butt to chair and words on paper. Trust me on this one, will you?

So tell me one thing, how you vow to do to widen your circle?

Lesson number two! Advertising! And the keys to making a successful ad. There's one golden rule in advertising. If your audience remembers the ad, but doesn't remember the product, you've failed.

There are millions of great ads out there, but only a few that I remember both the ad and the product the ad was selling.

The biggest one that comes to mind is the Snickers TV ad that featured Betty White playing football. The concept a group of guys razzing a teammate for playing poorly and his teammate says, "You're playing like Betty White out there," until the player eats a Snickers then becomes himself again. The tagline, "You're not you when you're hungry."

Brilliant!!

What we as writers can learn from this piece of advertising is this. MAKE IT MEMORABLE. I know we all don't have budgets to advertise on TV however, some print and online advertising can be affordable. Make your ads interesting enough to the reader so that it will get their attention. (A book cover with an ISBN number running across it IS NOT interesting) Jazz it up.

Don't be afraid to tell the reader why they're going to like your book. And, don't forget to direct them to where to buy it.

So, in thinking about advertising what's worked or hasn't worked for you?

HANK: And what do you think, Reds writers? What's worked for you--and hey, what hasn't? And readers--what makes you choose a book?

And we'll give your choice of Market or Die (for authors) or a book by a Jungle Red author (for readers) to one lucky commenter!

How to Succeed in Writing without really trying!

Every writer who publishes her first book dreams it will be a mega success. The new writer naively believes that the publisher will pour enormous amounts of money into publicity, buy ads in the New York Times and everyone in the world will want to rush out and buy the book.

By the second book the sober truth dawns--for the majority of writers there will be little or no support from the publisher in the matter of publicity. If we don't work to promote our own books, nobody in the world will hear about them. And so we grope blindly in the darkness, trying to come up with brilliant ideas to make us rich and famous, while not costing an arm and a leg. Private publicist--the good ones cost two arms and two legs. Self funded book tour all over the country? Most bookstores aren't even interested in the fledgling writer because it costs money to host an event and they want a guarantee that books will actually be sold.

We join writers organizations and try to pick the bones of established writers, wanting to know what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately they are none the wiser. Some books are just lucky--they hit the shelves at the right time, they touch a nerve with the public and they are best sellers.

Be we keep trying anyway. We try postcards and bookmarks, pens with our names on them. Buttons with cute sayings. We wear funny hats to conventions. We offer to speak to womens luncheons for free.

Well, finally I have the answer. And it is: cupcakes!

I hosted a cozy writers panel last sunday and one of the panelists, Jennifer McKinlay, writes a series featuring a cupcake shop. AND SHE BROUGHT CUPCAKES for show and tell! And guess what? We had a huge audience and she sold a ton of books. In fact her books have made it to the New York Times extended list!

So now I know what I've been doing wrong. In my next book Her Royal Spyness Lady Georgie is going to join forces with her best friend Belinda and open a frightfully genteel tea room at which cupcakes are sold. And I'll have samples everywhere I go. I'll be a mega success!

But joking apart, in uncertain times like these many readers seek out books that represent comfort and security. Craft cozies, about quilt making and knitting are thriving. And comfort food books--cookies and cupcakes are doing even better. It's easy to understand why. How great to be surrounded by virtual cupcakes, to enjoy reading about them without putting on any calories!

So, fellow writers--do you have any tips to share on promotions that have worked for you? or any that have been simply not worth the time and effort?

SECRETS OF THE HARWOOD METHOD

“JACK WAKES UP rocks! It’s a fast, smooth ride on a highway not found on any map!”
Michael Connelly

You should have heard Seth Harwood at Newtonville Books (my local bookstore) when he started reading out loud from JACK WAKES UP. The roomful of people was silent. Listening. Riveted. It was so--cinematic--it was like watching a film.

Turns out, Seth is all about how his books sound. Out loud. And is making a national name for himself not only for his incredibly well-received first novel, JACK WAKES UP, but for his innovative and wildly successful methods of promotion.

Here's the scoop.

HANK: So, Seth. Most people write a book on paper or type it on a computer. Then they SELL it. That's not exactly how you decided the world should work. What's the Harwood method?

SETH: Well, the Harwood method is basically that when things aren't working you have to innovate and try different things. I wasn't getting the responses from agents that I wanted (How about at least a simple "No"? In some cases I couldn't even get that.) so I had to find another way of working the publishing game.

I wanted to put my novel on the internet and didn't know how, or if people would read it, but I'd always listened to books on CD in the car, so when I found authors who were reading books and distributing them as free audio podcasts--and that thousands were listening!--I bought a mic and jumped in!

By working with those authors, I saw how they did it, had a chance to promote to their existing audience, and got folks hooked on my book. I was up over 1,000 downloads of my chapters a week before I was half-way through the first ten episodes of JACK WAKES UP. Eventually I used that audience to storm Amazon.com with a small publisher, hit #1 in crime/mystery, and convinced New York that I could sell books!

What it comes down to is the selling method: I wasn't getting anything from stuffing envelopes with agent submissions, so I had to find something else to do with my work. I knew my novel was done and wanted to keep writing new material, not caught in an endless loop of revision and slush piles.

I should mention I still type my work on a computer.

HANK: Wait—so you read you book out loud? And recorded it? How did that work? I mean, I know how it WORKS, but did you use a studio? Did you have to edit? How long did it take?

SETH: Yep. I read my work out loud and release it for free on the web as serialized audiobooks. It’s been a great way to create a fan base online!

I use what you might call a “studio” in my apartment. It’s actually a glorified closet with blankets tacked up on the walls. And I edit out my flubs and flibs on my MacBook using Garageband. Very easy to do. I actually explain it all in this three minute video:

And Scott Sigler and I have been teaching others to do it through our Author Boot Camp series


HANK: ANd did it work? What was the reaction?

SETH: it worked. Like I said, I sold JACK WAKES UP to #1 in crime/mystery on Amazon, got an agent by doing it, and the book was in editors' hands the next week. When they finally saw it, a few of them loved it. I think JACK WAKES UP is a great book, that always had to be the core of the approach--I put my time in first on the hard, careful writing--so when it got to an editor I could be confident in the result.

From there I landed a contract with Three Rivers Press and the book just came out in a major nationwide release this spring.

HANK: Then what? And now what? (You're giving away 3 chapters free?)

SETH: Now I'm doing a lot of touring--on my own dime. I believe in what I've done on the web, but also in the great bookstores and mystery booksellers out there. So I'm getting out and meeting them, reading the book in stores and meeting a lot of the folks who've been following me online. They're an awesome bunch!

HANK: So you're actually seeing people in person now. How's that?

SETH: It’s great! I love meeting people who’ve listened to my podcasts and now getting to talk with people who’ve read my book. Through Facebook and Twitter, I’ve been able to announce my events and get some good crowds out to the stores. Then I usually grab a bite or a beer with some of the online “Palms Daddies and Mommas!”

But in some ways, I feel like I already know a lot of these people. They’ve been writing me emails and participating in the forums on my site for a while now. Enough that we’ve built a relationship. They’re awesome fans!

HANK: Tell us about Jack. And tell us about the books!

SETH: Jack Palms is an ex-Hollywood action movie star—kind of a one-hit wonder who pissed his career away with a series of bad media relations and a drug addiction. JACK WAKES UP picks up about three years after that: when Jack’s cleaned himself up and needs to find out what he’s going to do next with his life. He needs money and when an old friend from LA calls to bring him in on a drug deal, he says “Yes” out of curiosity and simple desperation. From there, he finds himself walking the line between acting and action and becoming unsure which side he’s really on.

It all takes place in San Francisco with a cast of mobsters, outlaws and drug dealers that rival anything you’ve seen in the best action movies. As Michael Connelly says, “It’s a fast, smooth ride on a highway not found on any map!”

I've put out a total of three Jack Palms novels as audio podcasts now and finished a fourth crime novel this spring. They’re all free. I'm giving away the first three chapters of JACK WAKES UP as a free pdf via my site and still going strong with my CrimeWAV podcast, which is where I produce a weekly short story series by other crime writers to introduce their work to my listeners. We've done 40 episodes so far and have had on some greats!

HANK: Aren't you from Boston? How'd Jack end up in California?

SETH: You bet I'm from Boston! All the way. I grew up in the South End and Cambridge, Newton a little, and was living in Boston again after getting my MFA from Iowa in 2002. I took writing classes at Harvard Extension before that, from 1998 to 2000. I lived in the area until my wife got accepted to grad school here in Berkeley. We moved out in 2005 and kind of love it out here, I have to admit. Though I'll always be a native East-coaster, I'm really enjoying California right now. For a city with great crime/noir roots, San Francisco is pretty damn hard to beat. But I still come back for the Celtics and the Red Sox!

HANK: Yeah, good luck with that Red Sox thing. (But really, this could be the year!) So, questions for Seth? Like: should we all get in on that podcast thing?