Assembling a Media Kit

One of the things you need to market your book, in addition to a web site and a book trailer, is a media kit.  The purpose of the kit is to help members of the media learn about your book so they can report on it, which helps you get the word out.  Unlike the web site and the book trailer that showcase your book, the media kit is more about you and what you are offering.

Since every writer and novel combination is different, the specifics of each media kit will be different, but here are a few highlights to ensure you've got the basics:

• Press release announcing the book is coming.  Then a press release about the book launch and any events associated with the launch.  
• Two paragraphs of your biography.  You may already have this because typical such things go in the back of your book.  The biography should include the things you've published, your educational background, what you are currently working on.  The idea here is to explain why you are the perfect person to have written your book.
• Photos of yourself and the book.  The photos of you should be head shots.  Again, you may have this already, as a photo of the author is included in most books.  If at all possible have the photos of you taken by a professional photographer.  The candid photo of you at last year's barbecue belongs in the family album, not in your media kit.
• Reviews of your work.  You'll want to collect all reviews of your work and put the best one in your media kit to show how great your book is.
• Interviews.  You'll want to collect all interviews of you for the same reason.  If you've not been interviewed, come up with sample questions of your own and answer them.
• A list of published work.  Include a brief summary of what every item is about, the ISBN, and the sales of each item.  You'll want to date this so you know how recent the sales figures are.
• A summary of your book.  This will help give members of the press a sense of your book without having to slog through it.  They won't have time for that; they've got a deadline.  On the other hand, you might pick up a reader or two this way.
• Target demographics.  You probably already know who you are writing for since this is one of the cardinal rules of writing: know your audience.  No?  You just sat down and began writing.  Me too.  But I had a general idea and I discovered a target demographic after I was done.  It was pointed out by several friends who read and reviewed the draft at the time.

There are other things you can include:

• A business card or even several.
• Any important URLs that might not be covered elsewhere.  For example, if your business card has the web address of your publisher and you, you might want to include the URL to the book trailer and your blog.
• Other promotional material you might have.  For example, I like to make 4x6 postcards with the cover image on one side and the book's back cover text on the other.  It makes for a nice giveaway.

And that's it.  Hope this has been helpful.

Keep writing everyone.

Writing Novels is Like Owning a Small Business

I don't suppose this comes as a shock to everyone but I suddenly realized that writing and selling novels is like owning a small business.  I never really appreciated that until the other day.  I was giving my web site an overall when this thought popped into my head.

I wish I had realized this sooner.  I took no business courses in college.  I have little knowledge of running a business.  Still, I know a few things.  For example, I know I need to advertise my work.  That's what the  web site is for.  And the book trailer.  And what my Facebook Fan Page is for.

It is not why I blog.  That's to get my name out there.  Name recognition is a little different.  But I digress.

I suppose I should point out here that I don't have a book trailer yet.  I did the storyboards for it the other day.  The publisher liked it so we'll see what comes of that.

Like all businesses, I have inventory.  At the moment, these come in the form of my published work.  Since all my work is self-published, there is no warehouse with stories in it.  However, that will change when the publisher prints my first novel.

I also have inventory of unpublished work.  This ranges from work I'm holding for one reason or another to ideas that need developing.

And like all small business owner, I tend to mine on a regular basis.  Whether I'm revising of scene, writing a new chapter, following people on Twitter, or considering how to market my book, it all contributes to the business in a small way.

Eventually it should all add up into sales.  That's the hope and the goal but I can't be sure until the book is available for purchase.

Personally, I'm thinking that when the book trailer is posted, a lot more people will sit up and take notice.  I certainly hope so.

The Climb isn't just Uphill, it's Steep too.

Readers of this blog may recognize this theme.  I've written about this before: namely how hard it is to write and publish a novel.  But I think this bears repeating.  Plus I keep finding new potholes in the road.

First, you have to have a good idea.  That's hard enough.  It doesn't need to be an idea for a story.  It can be an idea for a character.

Next you have to develop the idea into a story.  The story must be well written and must be satisfying to the reader.  Some people have told me it must be exceptional, but this is subjective.

Then you have to sell the story to a publisher or publish it yourself.  If you publish it yourself, you must be sure the production value is top-notch and that it is priced properly.  Electronic distribution makes this easier but I don't think you can distribute exclusive in electronic formats.  You need a paper form too and getting that right can be a huge time sink.  The paper version will also be more costly.

Marketing the story is also an issue.  You'll need to spend the word yourself and that's a lot of work, making hard to find time to write another book.  But you must continue to write.  One book from one person is like a lightning strike.  It's a fluke.  But if you can write two or three or more books than readers (and publishers too) will know you have the right stuff.

This is why many famous and well-known modern writers started by writing short stories and then graduated to novels.  They proved they could do it.  But short story writing and novel writing are different and I have no interest in writing short stories, at least not at the moment.

What this means is this even if you have a good story that is well-written, it may go nowhere because you have not marketed correctly or you've priced it too high.  Or maybe your sample is not interesting enough.  In my case, I know my sample, before I revised the novel this year, was misleading.  It gave the wrong impression of the story.  The new sample from the revised novel should work better, but it has not helped from what I can tell.

So I am forced to conclude that the marketing of the novel is insufficient or poor in some way since I know the story is good (from the reviews I've had) and it has been professionally edited.  Maybe I need a thicker skin.  Maybe I shouldn't let this concern me.  Maybe.  But it does.

I think I need to attract the right audience.  And I need to find a way to do that.  I have some ideas on that score which I've not enacted.  Perhaps it is time I get off my ass and do something.  And perhaps I will once I am ready to announce and relaunch my first novel.

Marketing Thoughts

I have been reading a book on web marketing to learn what I can do to promote my novel and boost sales.  So far I've not learned that much, except that I'm probably not in touch with my target market though all the social media I use.

I tend to go find other writers on Facebook, in forums, and even this blog is targeted for writers.  I need readers and more specifically, I need readers of fantasy novels.  I had hoped the release of the Lord of the Rings movies would have sparked an interest in the genre the way Star Wars did for science-fiction.  But I'm not sure that's happened.

I do have a few ideas of my own.  One is to give away the first book in the series to generate interest.  That's not something I'm going to do now since I've only completed one book so far but may be an option once Book 2 is available.

Another thought is to give the reader more information about the book on my web site.  Currently, I only provide the back cover text.  I'm thinking a slightly longer and more in-depth synopsis with links to sample chapters might help.

And I need to experiment.  One of the things I've learned to promote my blog is to post in Facebook and change my status to reflect the current blog post.  That seems to attract more people than having them completely unrelated.  I discovered this by accident while experimenting with the medium.

The same is true for promoting my novel.  I need to try different things and see what works.

So far not much has been successful so I need a way to reach readers that I've not tried yet.

I'll post more once my experiments are complete.

Promoting Yourself

It's been a busy time here as I promote my book and myself.  So far I've:

• Posted announcements to Digg, Delicious, Buzz, and Technorati.
• Posted announcements in Facebook and Goodreads
• Sent out a press release
• Emailed friends and relatives
• Added links to the book here, on my blog, and other sites I have accounts
• Adjusted my email signature to include a link to my book

I'm also in the middle of answering some interview quotes.  Hope to get some reviews of the book in place soon.  I've also got one or two other ideas to work through.

The nice thing about Smashwords is they provide a marketing guide to help me reach others.  As part of that effort, they suggest I include the following presentation.

Hope you like it.

Introduction to Smashwords - Ebook Publishing and Distribution Made Easy

View more presentations from Smashwords, Inc..

These are all things you may want to do too if you need to promote your work. Food for thought.

Publishing Strategies

Some weeks back I wrote about self-publishing, saying that it wasn't for me mainly because I want to work with publishing professionals when my novel goes out into the world.  My theory on this is I will learn from them all the little nuisances of publishing and promoting books.

However, nothing is ever as clear-cut or monolithic as it might first appear.  In this case, I was basing my discussion on the assumption that to publish you need to use the same source to publish every version of your book.  And that's not true.

For example:  last month I submitted to a small press that only wanted the electronic rights.  Had they accepted the book, I would have had an ebook of my novel but not a paper version.  Since people still read paper copies, and some people prefer them, I realized I needed to find a way to offer a version in paper.

Suddenly self-publishing seems like the perfect answer.

I also made the mistake of not considering my overall marketing plan.  Don't make that mistake.  Think about an overall marketing plan and, as you consider how to publish, think outside of the box.  Consider whether you want to self-publish and, if so, will it be electronic only or paper or both?  If you want more of mix look for a small press that wants only the electronic rights (this is increasingly more common) and do the paper edition yourself.  Or if you don't want to even consider self-publishing, look for a more traditional small press that will handle both the paper and electronic publication.

And don't forget about an audio book.  (don't laugh; several friends suggested that I do an audio version first to promote the book.  If the effort wasn't so high I might have considered it)  Chances are you'll need to do that yourself or with until your work is wildly successful.  If you do it yourself, your main enemy is background noise.  So you may have to record the book at odd times.  The good news is you can find good theme music for the opening and there are services that will podcast it for you, in case you don't want to do that yourself.

So spend some time, do some research, and plan out how your book will go to market.  It is worth the effort.

Preparing to Sell Your Work

It seems I've reached stage two of the journey toward publication. Stage one is the initial part all about writing. You know this part, where you have an idea for a novel or story and you write it. You work hard for weeks or months to complete your writing project, polishing it so that it is ready to go out into the world.

Stage two is all about selling your work. The selling process changes a few things. For example, during the writing phasing I kept the draft of my book in a single file.  Now, however, I need to give out pieces to editors and publishers so that approach isn't the best. What I need is a way to write individual chapters so I can send them out when needed and still create a single complete copy for anyone who want to see the whole thing.

I also need to single-source the novel so I don't have multiple copies of the novel floating around. Microsoft Word won't do for this, which is unfortunate because the distribution format still needs to be .doc or .rtf since that's what most places want.

InDesign would good except it doesn't export to .doc or .rtf. I need something else.

Enter Scrivener. On a whim I decided to check out this software. It meets all my requirements beautifully. The only problem it is not cross-platform. It is only available for Mac OS X. (Now there's a switch). For me, that's not an issue. My Macintosh box is my primary writing machine. For others, it will be. However, Windows users can use FrameMaker which can support this same workflow once you add an extension to export to RTF. One caution: FrameMaker requires a lot of time to learn to use it properly so if you can't do that, look for another authoring tool. FrameMaker is also pricy. Scrivener is only $40.

Another change, as least for me, is patience. I hate waiting and it seems to me that in the submission process that's all I do. I suppose, that gives me more time for other things since simultaneous submissions is generally frowned on. 

And then of course there's the promotion aspect. I need to promote what I have, my blog, my ideas, my skills and experience. That means surfing the web looking for places and ways to sound the trumpet and let people know I'm here. That's a huge time-sink. Guess, I know what I'm doing between sending out submissions.

However, before I do that I need to get all my house in order. The blog just got a small makeover. I added a menu bar at the top, and added some images to a few older posts.

Next, I need write about my fantasy world to show it's depth and breath. I started a web site for this information last year but abandoned it in favor of completing the first book in my fantasy series. Now I think I need to reverse that a little and give it some attention while I complete book 2.

What else do I need to do to prepare for selling my work? I don't know,  but I'm sure I'll think of other things. For now this is enough. After all, I still working in stage one too creating new stories and working on new ideas and I don't won't to overload myself.

Don't be Jealous

Are you stuck in the mud unable to get your writing the visibility you'd like? Do others around you seem to be have more success or even some success?

Well, don't be jealous. We are all working hard to write and create stories we will enjoy reading. If writer A succeeds while writer B does not, there are a few things to remember:

• What is and is not published is completely subjective. If your work is going nowhere this is part of the reason. To change this you need to know how to sell your work.
• Competition is fierce. I submit a story and it is rejected. Part of the reason for this is the magazine I submitted to is flooded with other work as good or better. This does not mean my story is bad, just that the other stories a better fit for that magazine. So I move on.
• Luck is factor. Some people just show up at the right place and the right time and some people don't. I usually don't. If you are not lucky then you'll need to rely on talent, skill, and persistence.
• Some people are more talented than you. And some are not. This does not mean you can't write. It does mean you need to write your best at all times. If you are going to market with a B-story and not an A-story you will only have heartache after heartache.
• Publishers do not take risks. If your story is risky to them and they feel it won't sell, you are rejected. That doesn't mean they are right, only that you may need to self-publish to have the story go out to the world.

I say these things not to discourage anyone; rather I am trying to be honest so that you understand the forces working against you. Frankly I'm surprised anything ever gets published given all this. But I also say this to remember myself why I find myself in this boat. The longer I go down this path, the harder it is for me to continue because I seem to be going nowhere. It is easy to forget what I'm up against because I don't see anything obvious working against me. But they are there nonetheless.

For me, this does not stop twinges of jealousy from flaring up. Yes, I get jealous of others. I am only human after all. That doesn't mean I wish these people ill. On the contrary, I wish them all the succeed they can earn. I just wish I was there with them going on the same journey, instead being stuck on the shore waiting for a boat to have room for me.

It also doesn't make me a bad person, flawed perhaps (and who isn't?) but not bad. Luckily I am not consumed by jealousy. That would do me no good. I have to remember to stay focused. I determine my own success or failure. Me. Not the writers who are succeeding. Not the publishers who are rejecting me. After all, if I wrote a story than was a perfect fit for a magazine or small press they'd take it in a shot. They'd be stupid not to. But my work isn't a perfect fit so I need to sell my work the best I can, self-publish, or give up.

For now, I'm trying to sell my work. Well talk about doing that next time.