OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
Podcast: Download (Duration: 57:24 — 13.2MB)
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This podcast is all about book marketing, author platform and promotion – of yourself and your books. I have learned a lot about this over the last 2 years and actually love marketing, so this session is me answering some of your questions from the survey I ran in December.
[UPDATE: Click here for up to date book marketing tips.]
Here are the questions that I answer in the show:
- Where do I start in making myself known as an author?
- Is having a logo important for my brand?
- Is it necessary to have your own blog as an author? How do you create one and what should be the topic?
- How can we promote fiction books online? What are the best giveaways to help promote books?
- I have accounts on Twitter, Facebook and other sites, but how do you break through mid-level success?
- How do you promote with no money?
- How can an unpublished writer generate a following that would impress a publisher?
- How do you know if there is a market for your book?
- How do you market yourself without seeming arrogant?
- How do you put together a marketing and promotion plan for your book?
- What is the best way to draw traffic to my site?
- Is it a good idea to create a teaser ebook about my non-fiction book?
- How do you manage your time so Twitter does not become a time suck?
- What programs do you recommend for submitting articles to multiple places?
- Is cold calling necessary or is email marketing enough?
- What are the best and cheapest ways to create a book trailer?
- How do I do a press release and what is the most effective way to use them?
There are also promos from Mur Lafferty's I Should Be Writing show and Philippa Ballantine's Digital Magic novel.
Show Notes:
Here are the links I mention:
- Robert McKee's Storylogue
- Holly Lisle's books on characterisation and plot (and more!) – affiliate link
- Brisbane seminar
- Bali Writer's Retreat
- How to discover and build your author brand
- Zen Habits, Problogger and Scott Sigler blogs, Neil Gaiman's blog, Alan Baxter dark fiction
- iStockPhoto and Flickr
- WordPress.com free site, WordPress.org for hosted option
- Podcast with Joel Williams on all the basics about blogging you need to know
- Twittermoms
- Cory Doctorow gives it all away for free
- Publish on the Kindle for free
- Gary Vaynerchuk's 10 book deal with Harper Studio,
- Podcast with Debbie Jenkins on how to discover if there is a market for your book
- Google Adwords search tool
- Podcast with Dana Lynn Smith on writing a book marketing plan
- Free downloadable award-winning book marketing plan
- Nonfiction proposal writing
- SocialOomph.com for scheduling twitter
- Tweetdeck , #thrillerchat and Tweetie for the iPhone – I am @thecreativepenn on Twitter
- Ping.fm for submitting to multiple social media sites , plus EzineArticles for article submission
- How to make your own book trailer in 11 steps
- GetYourVideoOnline.com with Gideon Shalwick, excellent info on making video for online
- Book trailer for Scott Westerfeld Leviathan (not DIY!)
- Tubemogul to send video to multiple sites
- Press releases – best resource is PublicityHound.com
- How my press release got me on Australian national TV
- Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
thanks Joanna, really worth while listening to.
🙂
Lots of great info, Joanna! Glad I took the time to listen. The best general advice was to target my marketing efforts. I think I know how now. Thanks!
You know, my gut kept telling me that pushing my books wasn’t the way to get out there, and this podcast definitely confirmed that for me. Also, I completely agree about the websites. Pictures make a greater impression to me than the text ever does.
@Michelle & @Ami – Thanks so much – I know it is a bit long – I got a bit carried away so glad it was useful 🙂
@Ruth Ann – it’s definitely about giving and relationships these days, and yes, pictures are very important – although we love words, we are still visual people.
That was great. Thank you for taking the time – I had no idea you fitted all this around another job!
@Gwyn – yes, I just do this for the love of it 🙂 My ebooks and Author 2.0 just pay for hosting and small costs… give it time and I will make it pro!
Ooh, I got a mention! Great podcast, Jo. Thanks.
Thanks so much for this very useful podcast. I’ve been struggling to figure out how to go about publishing and promoting my novel on my own and this information was very helpful.
Hi Joanna,
This is a pretty good summary; as one comment says – “we are visual people” 🙂
I would only add that SmartSymbols for Books can track the effectiveness of all your promotional efforts in one place. Here is a quick example of determining what readers want to know.
Thank you,
-Stas
Good stuff, Joanna. Starting it now!
Nick
This is such great stuff. Thanks Joanna