Create Pre-Book Buzz

How to Create Pre-Book Buzz

By Suzanne Cordatos

www.suzannecordatos.blogspot.com

Your long-awaited book is FINALLY hitting the shelves in the foreseeable future. How do you build buzz that drives book sales? Be pro-active! Here's how to get started and FIND YOUR AUDIENCE!

Write non-fiction articles and use social media to find folks that relate to your fiction topic

At first glance, there isn't much non-fiction I can squeeze from my upcoming 4RV picture book about a dragon, Willard the Dragon: Sneeze-Fire. But look again! Willard loves pepper jelly. How about putting a recipe for pepper jelly on my blog with a link to it from Facebook? Willard loves to play in the snow. I started a Pinterest page showcasing snow-dragon photos.  The dragon catches a bad cold, so an article geared for pre-schoolers on how to avoid catching a cold would be appropriate for a school newsletter, or perhaps an online magazine can pick it up. With the third Hobbit movie coming out this year, dragons are everywhere. I can hop on the bandwagon with an article about books and their famous dragon characters.

Focus on finding the niche where your readers hang out

In the case of my upcoming novel, The Lost Crown of Apollo, the problem isn’t so much coming up with non-fiction topics as how to narrow the field of too many. Anyone who has dipped their toes in the pool of Greek history knows it is a deep ocean rich with material. Archaeology, thousands of years of history and wars, religion, islands, tourism, boating, Greek mythology . . . the list goes on and on. How do I find new angles on such well-trodden paths? The main characters discover spear fishing, snorkeling, jellyfish that light up like Christmas and explore cave formations. I can write articles about these topics, along with kid-friendly history about the Greek islands. Did you know that the Greek island homes were built with a maze of alleys on purpose to confuse pirates? Narrow the focus to find your potential readers.

Publishing takes forever—how can I get articles out there before my book?

Seek out newsletters for special interest groups (print and online) and discover local groups for special interests that may have their own publications/flyers. Does your main character ride a bike or dig for dinosaur bones? There are often city clubs and local groups who gather for shared interests from kite-flying to hiking to archaeological digs. These venues may have a website, blog, flyer, meetings and festivals in which to volunteer as a guest contributor. In a timely manner, you'll build a readership of kids and parents most likely care for your store before it becomes available. What author doesn't want a long line of people anxious for their special signed copy?

Think global, act local

Community bulletin boards, local library and independent bookstore newsletters may be a good source. Develop a grassroots base of fans for your book that can spill out into social media and cyberspace. Discover local clubs in interest areas similar to your main characters. With further digging and a few phone calls, you may find that these groups have newsletters of their own that could print a timely article—and could welcome you as a guest speaker expert on a topic of direct interest to future readers. The local preschools may like to have a guest speaker talk about how to not let your dragon catch a cold!

My fictional family spends their summer vacation on a boat. While there may not be much interest for ancient Greek mythology in my local area, there is a lot of interest for boating of all kinds. I live near the beautiful Connecticut shoreline with an old whaling tradition and diehard boaters in places like Mystic, Guilford, Stonington, and the Thimble Islands. Bank Street Books and RJ Julia are a fantastic independent bookstores along the shoreline and they constantly host events with authors. With some pre-book effort on your part, you'll have a ready made audience anxious to click "buy" when your book comes out!

What ideas have worked to generate your book buzz? Please share in comments!

Marketing Tools: The Pros and Cons of Blogging

By: Stephanie Burkhart

Authors have several tools stuffed into their marketing tool bag: Facebook, Twitter, Triberr, Word of Mouth,  Conferences, Yahoo Groups, and Blogging.

There are two popular blogging "hosts" today: Blogger and WordPress. When I signed up for Blogger in 2009, it was very user friendly. Nowadays, five years later, it's not as user friendly as it used to be, but one can manage. I've also had experiences with WordPress and while I don't find WordPress user friendly, I do find it offers a host of options that generally appeal to readers.

The purpose of a blog (for an author) is to give readers a chance to get to know and interact with you. Even on the Internet, "word of mouth" by one reader may attract many readers to your blog to see what you have to offer.

Using Pictures in your Blog Post

I highly encourage this. A picture says a thousand words. Just like a cover, a picture can draw a reader to your post.  Unless there's a distinct photo theme, try to limit the amount of pictures you use.  I generally try to use a picture that sets the 'theme' of the post. I might also share an author picture as well.

Blog Titles

A catchy blog title always draws a reader interest. Consider it a hook. It should sum up the theme or topic of your post.

Topics:

Don't do promo of your book(s) every day. Constant promo turns off readers. And don't post every day. It's a drain on you and your creativity. Give your topics a day or two to breathe before tackling a new idea.

Do share a little bit about you. You don't have to get overly personal, but sharing likes and dislikes of every day things draws interest. Try to be quirky. Humor also draws attention.

Vary your topics and intermix writing topics with your interests. Some ideas include:

Writing ideas: characters, setting, research, inspiration behind the novel

Book reviews of books you've read. Share your favorite authors with readers.

Cooking

Promo: sharing an excerpt/blurb of your book. Host a contest.

Interview fellow authors

Host a blog tour

Talk about holidays and what they meant to you.

Share a movie review

Sports – gush about your favorite team.

Talk about music that interests you. Share some of your favorite quirky "You Tube" videos.

Gardening

Talk about your favorite TV Shows.

Share something locally about or near the place you live

Share your travel adventures

Do try to blog 2-4 times a week. Even if you can only blog one day a week, I would encourage it. An active blogs keeps readers coming back for more.

Try not to get long winded. Keep your blog between 200-500 words. End your post with a question to encourage readers to answer you. With blogging, I've learned slow and steady usually wins the readers over.

QUESTION: Do you have tips to share about blogging? What do you do or don't do? What format (Blogger or WordPress) do you use?

Author Bio: Stephanie Burkhart is a 911 Dispatcher for LAPD, Cub/Boy Scout mom and a taxi driver for her boys. She adores chocolate, loves coffee and enjoys taking long walks on her days off. She writes romance, mainstream fiction, and children's books. Her works with 4RV Publishing include "The Giving Meadow" and "First Flag of New Hampshire." 

FIND ME ON THE WEB AT:

WEBSITE:

http://www.stephanieburkhart.com

TWITTER:

http://twitter.com/StephBurkhart

FACEBOOK:

https://www.facebook.com/StephanieBurkhartAuthor

GOOD READS:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4031660.Stephanie_Burkhart

YOU TUBE CHANNEL:

http://www.youtube.com/user/botrina?feature=mhee

PINTEREST:

http://pinterest.com/sgburkhart/

Social Media: Putting together an effective blog

By: Stephanie Burkhart 

Social media has brought the world closer and opened up markets along with promo opportunities not available before. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other media are excellent marketing tools. Today, I wanted to touch on blogging, discuss its benefits and how to be an effective blogger.

As I was researching this topic, two important points stuck out to me: #1 Blogging helps you build a network and #2 it allows you to help others.

Networking

A blog is a great way to reach out to others, especially since being on the web has a global reach. So how to you appeal to the global audience? Find those topics that are valuable and interesting to you. Don't just talk about your writing all the time. What draws readers to you are the valuable and interesting topics you present.

Helping Others

A hook to your blog should include a way to help others. After all, the power of the blog is to inspire, educate, and bring people together. People and readers are attracted to those posts that talk about the challenge of weight loss, raising kids, and how others face life's adversities.

As a writer, using blogging as a marking/networking/promo tool, you've got to find balance. I'm learning it's 80% being interesting/inspirational/helping others, and 20% promo.

Some items to consider:

Blogging is a great way to ask for feedback. Don't forget to end your post with a question that your readers will feel compelled to answer.

Share ideas – what I like about Pinterest is how easy and fun it is to share ideas – especially recipes.

Post regularly. This can be a challenge, but one worth mastering. You don't have to post every day. I would suggest 2-3 times a week. I know people who post once on Mondays, but their topics are so interesting, readers always visit.

Remember:

Facebook and Twitter are blogging-like platforms, too. Ask questions. These platforms are great for feedback.

Expression

Blogging allows the blogger to expand their creativity and imagination. Go for it!

What you need:

A pound of passion, a gallon of purpose and a tablespoon of focus. Without these motivating factors your recipe for blogging will never reach its full potential.

Suggestions:

Before you blog or if you're in a blogging rut, make a list of your outside interests. (apart from writing) some ideas include: dancing, reading, being outdoors, traveling, scouting, swimming, Olympics, everyday challenges, breast cancer, football, etiquette, or music. Pick a few you want to explore on your blog. Research them. Write from the heart. Remember you have 200-300 words to keep their attention. End with a question and, depending, a small promo about your writing projects. Smaller is effective. Trust me. Use a one line hook., one buy link., and one review quote. Don't bang people over the head with how good your book is. Get their interest and inspire them to investigate.

Blogging ultimately comes back to inspiring and the more passionate you are, the more you'll attract readers.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.  What's your balance with blogging ? How much is promo and how much is other material that interests you? Do you have any tips/suggestions to share?

Author Bio: Stephanie Burkhart is a 911 dispatcher for LAPD. Her book, "The Giving Meadow" is published with 4RV Publishing.

About "The Giving Meadow:" Caterpillar learns the value of caring and sharing as he travels through a meadow.

"A heartwarming story." – 5 Stars, Midwest Book Reviews

Publishers Buy Link: http://www.4rvpublishingcatalog.com/burkhart.php

a guest post by Holly Jahangiri

Join in the Conversation!

You’ve spent time building your blog. You’ve written killer content, found or created an attractive template to show it off, baked cookies, sent out engraved invitations, and…what? Now you wait?

If only that were enough! Here are a few tips for bringing readers to your blog:

Research other blogs – not only blogs in your niche, but blogs run by your readers.

Every time you visit a blog, do as many of the following as you can spare the time for:

• Leave a meaningful comment. Never just say “great post” or “interesting” unless you want to be mistaken for a spammer. Refer to the blogger by name. Mention something specific you liked or didn’t like about the post. Share a story of your own.  This is a great way to leave “breadcrumbs” back to your own blog, especially if you’re lucky enough to be commenting on a blog with CommentLuv+ or CommentLuv Premium. (If you buy CommentLuv Premium, you will always get a choice of 10 posts from your own blog to choose from when leaving comments on others’ blogs.)
• Share the posts you find interesting. If there are share buttons, use them – Facebook “Like” or share; Twitter; Google +1; LinkedIN, and StumbleUpon.
• On Twitter, be sure to share useful information. Try a tweet that starts out, “Did you know… “ and follow it with a grammar tip or publishing statistic. Every fifth tweet or so, plug your book or your latest post. Use Tweetdeck (it’s free!) to manage multiple Twitter accounts (perhaps your characters, like @Trockle, have their own?) and schedule Tweets to space them out throughout the day.

Part Calling Card, Part Writing Sample

Remember that every comment and link you leave on others’ posts is your “calling card.” As a writer or other book publishing professional, you want to make a good impression – and comments are forever. So before you Submit, be sure to proofread your comment. It doesn’t have to be perfect every time, but you ought to make an effort. Try not to criticize others’ spelling, grammar, or punctuation though. About 80% of the time, the more critical the blogger the better the odds of his own comments containing grievous errors!

Backlinks Beget Backlinks

When crafting your posts, reward great content and interesting or helpful bloggers by adding links to their posts. Make sure your “anchor text” (the text that a reader clicks to get to the other blog) is meaningful and also something people are likely to be searching for online, and make sure that it opens in a new tab or window so that readers of your blog won’t get whisked away, never to return. A good backlink might look something like this:

For a great bedtime story to help kids get over their fear of monsters under the bed…

To code that, you’d type the following:

For a great <a alt="Trockle is a great bedtime story to help kids get over their fear of monsters under the bed." href="http://jahangiri.us/kids" target="new">bedtime story</a> to help kids get over their fear of monsters under the bed…

The alt tag is used to help visually impair readers understand more about the link. A good screen reader program will read that to them. Search engines look for that information, too. Just make sure that when you put keywords in alt tags, they’re helpful to both people and search engines!

The target tag ensures that the reader won't be yanked off your page to go read the other blogs you've recommended in your post. They'll be able to refer to both - side by side, if they want to!

Just remember - it's not enough to build it and hope for readers to come. You have to show them the way and make them feel welcome.