  For Authors
This week: Promote That Book for Success Edited by: Vivian  
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With my company, we're addressing the need for everyone to promote and publicize his or her book or books. Some authors are hard workers and find creative ways to let others know about their titles. Others sit back and say, "Let someone else do the publicity. I wrote the book." Of course the final product has been edited and revised numerous times to get the manuscript to publish-ready. However, the need to promote is great and important.
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Promote that Book for Success
Authors need to promote their books. Even with the backing of a major publisher, books will not put themselves on bookstore shelves or in the hands of readers. Publicists can help, but unless an author is already well known, he is usually on the bottom of the priority list. Self-published books and not-through-traditional-published sales depend entirely on the efforts of the author to be recognized and sold, but this do-it-yourself promotion is becoming more and more the norm for all authors. However, authors can do several things so that their books will be noticed.
The first thing before publicizing and promoting a book is to write a book of high quality and relevance, one that will grab a reader’s attention and keep it from the beginning to the last page. Then work to get the word out about the book.
Two things that need to happen come before the book is printed: Do not have a comb-bound or saddle-stitched book and be sure to have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN), preferably with a bar code on the back cover. Bookstores will be more interested in stocking, at least on consignment, books meeting those two requirements. Publishers provide the ISBN, so authors don't have to concern themselves about this step. One reason to go with a publisher.
Be sure your book is listed on Books In Print, which can be done by filling out the Advance Book Information form (ABI) if the publisher doesn’t take care of that important step.
Go to independent book stores and offer a few copies on your book or books on consignment. Visit with the managers/owners, ask if you can have a book signing, offer to host a promotion that would include your book.
Spread the word. Send copies to book reviewers for newspapers in your geographical area. Contact local television and radio stations. Do something that will gain publicity for yourself and use that as a springboard to gain publicity for your book.
Take part in local activities for authors. The Historical Society of my town has a reception and signing for local authors. I take part every year.
Enter your book in contests. The two books that I helped edit and write in 2005 were entered in the state book awards. Whether they place or not, entering the books generates publicity for me and my co-authors. One book from my company won the Oklahoma Book Award in Fiction for 2009. Some of my books and other writings have won regional awards, and my latest book is a semi-finalist in a national competition as I write this.
According to Carolyn See, a reviewer for The Washington Post, making contact with editors and print editors at conferences, book festivals, and publishing parties creates a process that helps you and your books become well-known. (Bharti Kirchner, The Writer October 2005)
The one person most interested in the success of a book is the author. Therefore, you are the one who should be working hardest to tell others about the book and to drum up sales. Promoting your book is your business. |
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Words from Our Readers
Several people left comments about my last editorial "What If." I had given an example with different scenarios using "what if." The background: a man is severely injured and withdraws from his wife, who has to be the mainstay of her family.
The ingredients are in place to produce a tragedy or a great love story. Now we have to add the what if to see what happens.
What if Dee finds another man, one who wants to be a complete part of her life? Would that make a successful story?
What if Dee, now that she has enough income to last her family, puts her career behind her and rejoins her family full time.
What if Roger decides his wife deserves more than he is providing her and decides to join her when she wants him and hold his head up high. He has nothing of which to be ashamed. Perhaps he becomes a writer, incorporating all he has experienced and learned.
Which would make the better story: Dee leaving her husband for the other man, or Roger deciding to join his wife publicly as well as privately?
I know how I would write the story. What if I wrote a human, touching, true love story that shows the couple building a stronger union? Yes, that's the "what if" I see.
Below are comments from readers.
☮ The Grum Of Grums 
Hi Vivian. What a lovely idea. I'm an HEA person from way back and I love the idea of, "What if I wrote a human, touching, true love story that shows the couple building a stronger union?" From a WdC perspective, yes, make him a writer (maybe an artist) and throw in a few vicissitudes but have them complement each other towards a strong, enduring love and friendship. PLEASE, let us know when it's written.
Regards
bumblegrum
A.J. Barretts 
I love playing the what if game, especially with my own characters in my story. I know some of them sooo well that I have to sit and think, what if this happened or what if that friend wasn't there.... It can change your whole story or move it forward, not to mention giving great ideas for another related story.
jim1184 
Great Newsletter. What If, is a question that starts many writing projects. If it gets asked at any time during the writing process, it can change project directions in a heart beat. I am experiencing a what if moment now in my own writing. Thanks Jim.
Lulu
In the what if story I see the woman coming very close to having an affair with someone who has mentored her during her career building process. She feels ashamed to have such feelings, and deep down still loves her husband. He decides to brave the public she is emeshed in, and join her on the road. They have children who also join them. At first there is strain in their relationship, and she knows it is the thoughts of betrayal--still haunting her. Her husband feels it is due to his disability. They attend a wedding for a friend, and both have a re-birth of deep devotional love, and from that moment on they are soul mates forever.
Christine Cassello
That third ending is the one I would want to write too. I don't like movies or books where people cheat on each other.
Quick-Quill 
In the 80's I read a newspaper article that triggered a What if? A family went missing and 6 months later the bodies of the two youngest were found in the river. I researched and wrote a novel. this above story was based on this same story with a different take. It was published.
Zeke
You are so right!! What if is the real beginning of fiction.
JACE 
Great topic this month, Miss Viv. Thanks for sharing it.
pinkbarbie
I think stories with conflicts, drama and tragedy are more enjoyed than a story with a positive atmosphere. So for the case of Dee and Roger, Dee leaving her husband for another man would make a dramatic story with a very exciting climax.
Joto-Kai 
"What if" really drives some of my stories, being essentially a Sci-Fi/Fantasy writer. Sometimes the What If will appear months before any characters arrive to interact...
Thank you for your comments. Apparently we have a difference in opinion as to which path our main character should take, but we can see "what if" would make our story develop.
See you again in four weeks.
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For Authors: June 06, 2012 Issue [#5077]
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