How to use this Page

Tweet

By Dennis Meredith

Since Oxford published my book Explaining Research in February, I’ve learned a great deal about book marketing. And since the success of a book depends so critically on adept marketing, I’d like to share those lessons.

First of all, authors should always consider themselves critically important marketers of their own books. After all, it’s your book, so who else would know the most about it and care most about its success? Begin by assiduously filling out your publisher’s author questionnaire, supplying comprehensive information on the book description, unique features, newsworthy topics, audience, promotional targets, and sources for advance comment. Many departments, from marketing to sales, will use this information as a guide to their marketing efforts.

While your publisher will manage such marketing efforts as sales and distribution, sending review copies, and advertising, there are many marketing efforts you can make as well. The good news is that most of these are free or very inexpensive. Here are some marketing tips that I found most effective:

- Work with your publisher to notify your institution’s news office and professional associations about your book. The news office will likely do a news release and promote you to the media, while your associations may review on its website and in its publications. Also, notify internal publications such as the alumni magazine. They’ll likely review it.

- Offer to be a “media expert” on your topic. Volunteer to be listed on your institution’s list of people willing to talk to media, as well as in national experts directories such as Profnet, Help a Reporter Out, PitchRate and the AAAS Science Talk Experts Director & Speakers Service.

- Promote your book and drive sales at your publisher’s website by including your book’s information in your email signature, in talks and articles, and on your institutional web page.

- Blog about your subject by creating your own blog and by “guest blogging” on others’ blogs about your topic. For example, I’ve created the blog Research Explainer, in which I offer tips on communicating research. I’ve also found the blog useful in updating and expanding on the information in my book.

- Write articles and op eds about your book topic for professional and popular publications and Web sites. Make sure the author identification mentions your book.
Market on Amazon. Ask readers who like your book to write a positive review. Create an author page. See Amazon’s Author Central for information. Have your blog posts automatically feed to your author page. Ask Amazon top reviewers to review your book. See this guide to getting your books reviewed on Amazon.

- Give public and professional talks about your book’s subject, in which you mention the book. Work with your publisher to organize book sales at public talks.

- Distribute your talk on the Web as a narrated “slidecast” via such services as SlideShare o

How do you prepare for an interview about your book?

Until five minutes ago, I hadn't pondered the question. But now, I'm convinced that it is one of the most useful questions a newly-published writer can ask themselves.

The excellent Book Publicity Blog answered that question today, in a post chock-ful of journalist interaction wisdom. Check it out at this link.

As a journalist who has interviewed countless writers, I love it when a writer and I understand each other going into the interview. This bit of wisdom from Publicity Hound is priceless:

"If you don’t know the reporter personally, Google their name and see what you find. If the reporter blogs, read the blog!"

I'm taking it easy this week, savoring a little time off at work and bowing to the inevitable summer traffic drop. I thought it might be a good time to test-drive a new feature.

Welcome to Dueling Comments, where I print my favorite comments that I've spotted in publishing blogs. There are some smart people lurking in the comments sections of blogs, so I'm scrounging around the Internets to find the crazy, the useful, and the crazy-useful wisdom that they leave behind.

Over at Gawker, Special K weighed in with these smart thoughts about blogging authors--something all fledgling writers and aspiring bloggers should take to heart. Check it out:

"some bloggers can't write coherently beyond an 800-word limit ... and, like writers-workshop dropouts, also make the mistake that general-audience readers give a flying fuck about their oh-so-unique personal experiences. But there's also this... good blogs tend to be funny, witty, snarky. And not ony is it hard to be funny, witty, snarky for extended periods of time, it can actually be hard to read -- well, snarky at any rate -- for extended periods of time."

On the other side of the coin, Jungle--purportedly a publishing insider--explains why they advise many writers not to blog. 

Can a series of web videos help a bestselling author?

Over at Reel Pop, Steve Bryant takes a look at a series of web videos that serve as book trailers for the new Robin Cook thriller. Here's his original review, a bit of book trailer intelligence:

"Obviate distribution costs, capitalize on Web video's cachet and circumvent the online video advertising hoi polloi by creating a series that is, effectively, a very long advertisement. Regardless of its success as original entertainment, the book (the real breadwinner) receives tremendous press coverage (e.g., this article) just in time for summer travelers to snag an airport copy."

Secondly, KnowMoreMedia, my bloggy employers, are conducting a reader survey. Click on the big blinking survey link up top to participate.

Finally, I advise you to stop reading. It's a gorgeous day outside, and, as the Urban Muse explains, A Beautiful Day for Writing.

The work doesn't stop when you publish your book. 

Earlier this week Ed Park--my editor at The Believer and one of my favorite literary essay-writers, published his first novel. It's called Personal Days, and he's taking off for a book tour as we speak.

Besides the tour (check him out at McNally Robinson next week), Park has a guest spot on a blog, a long-running printable newsletter called The New-York Ghost, a book website and an email list to help people find his book.

Worn out yet? That's just the beginning...here are some links that might help you get out the word about your book, blog or other kinds of writing.

Over at the Urban Muse, here are some tips about How To Get People To Read Your Blog. On this blog, Jeff Gordinier recently explained how he built his book promotion effort from scratch. Finally, over at The Book Publicity Blog, there's some great advice about reaching out to book clubs:

"A lot of marketing departments reach out to book groups.  Booklist’s Book Group Buzz blog lists some sites that feature online reading guides."

Tuesday, October 9th @7pm
ACENTOS Bronx Poetry Showcase
The Uptown's Best Open Mic and Featured Poet
MUNDO RIVERA

Mundo Rivera is a Nuyorican writer, born and raised in El Barrio.
He has attended artist residencies at La Fundacion Valparaiso in the
south of Spain and the La Napoule Art Foundation in France, near
Cannes. He has published articles in Urban Latino Magazine and the
New York Post, and is currently working on a novel and a collection
of poetry tentatively titled The Deliberateness of El Cuco in the Tree.
He is currently teaching 8th grade English/Humanities at the Urban
Assembly School for the Urban Environment in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

The Bruckner Bar and Grill
1 Bruckner Boulevard (Corner of 3rd Ave)
6 Train to 138th Street Station
Hosted by JOHN RODRIGUEZ
FREE! ($5 Suggested Donation)

Coming from MANHATTAN:
At the 138th Street Station, exit the train to your left, by the last
car on the 6. Go up the stairs, to your right, to exit at LINCOLN
AVENUE. Walk down Lincoln to Bruckner Blvd, turn right on Bruckner.
Walk past the bike shop. The Bruckner Bar and Grill is at the corner:
One Bruckner Blvd., right next to the Third Avenue Bridge.

Coming from THE BRONX:
By Train:
At the 138th Street Station, exit to your RIGHT, by the FIRST car on
the 6. Go up the stairs, to your right, to exit at LINCOLN AVENUE.
Walk down Lincoln to Bruckner Blvd, turn right on Bruckner. Walk
alongside the bridge, past the bike shop. The Bruckner Bar and Grill
is at the corner: One Bruckner Blvd., right next to the Third Avenue
Bridge.

By Bus:
Bx15 to Lincoln Ave. and Bruckner Blvd. Walk one block west, past the
bike shop, to the Bruckner Bar and Grill.
Bx1, Bx21, Bx32 to 138th and 3rd Ave. Walk five blocks south along
the left side of 3rd Avenue to the end (Bruckner and 3rd). The
Bruckner Bar and Grill will be on the corner.

For more information, please call 917-209-4211.

Santeria Garments and Altars is a literate, accessible, beautifully photographed book by a man who is a member/initiate in a house of Oshun. Its subtitle is, ‘Speaking Without A Voice.’ How appropriate! The emphasis is the striking photographs of the variety of altars to the different deities, members of a variety of houses preparing for, or engaged in aspects of worship.

By way of background information -- A ‘house’ is a group of devotees of a particular god or goddess under the leadership of a ‘babalawo’, or priest/priestess. Oshun is another one of the Seven African Powers who represents the archetypical female principle and the power of eros. Interestingly enough, abstinence or asexuality, and a virginal principle of female sexuality has no icon, nor any particular social importance.

Another interesting feature is that the author is a male practitioner, much in the tradition that the gods choose individuals to serve them regardless of gender. My own Catholic upbringing was full of gender separation, nuns as brides of Christ, servants of the male hierarchy, etc. While there are some tasks separated by sex, it does not appear to be as rigid, as attenuated as in a Christian/Catholic context.

One off the major tenets of this religious practice is the construction of altars, which every believer is required to do. There’s a synthesis between aesthetic and spiritual significance. It is considered one’s duty to create, as service to the deity to whom one has pledged oneself. A further illustration of the nexus between creativity and belief is the Santeria/Yoruba belief in ‘ache’, the universal life force present in all things. Each devotee is assumed to have within them the power to create a beautiful altar, one infused with ‘ache.’

In my performance pieces, there are ‘anchor ‘ points--static elements that have life infused into them. (In REM/Memory, there is a central, supine figure, hidden in a mass of blankets, who comes alive as the piece starts, and the nightmare begins. In Resurgam, a chaos of white fabric is stripped away to reveal a captive figure who finds release as the piece begins.) I see a similarity between a finished altar containing ‘ache,’ and a performance’s ‘anchor’pieces being the place where it all comes alive, more specifically, where it reflects at least the possibility of sacred ritual.

There are several points of connection for me here. When the author created an altar to Oshun, it was clear that it could also be seen as a ‘site-specific installation.’ Size of the space, mood of the space, prominent observation points are all taken into consideration. These are the same consideration I make with each piece, the same considerations any installation artist might make.

In the design of an altar dedicated to Oshun, ‘found’ elements are brought into the piece that symbolize her attributes. Since Oshun represents eros, obvious choices illustrate sensuality. Honey, honeycombs, silks and laces are standard items in such an altar. I constantly bring found items from daily life into my performances, hoping to create common imagery for myself and the audience as it unfolds as a shared experience. In Resurgam, during the 'communion’ section, I offer a papaya sliced in half to the audience, sharing its womb shape with them as the symbol of The Living Body--juicy, ripe, the source of all things, ever replenishing.

Lastly, I want to comment on the Santeria idea of ‘coolness.’ Essentially, it is the principle of balance, harmony, a reflection of the connectedness of all things. An altar, no matter how ornate, is not considered ‘cool’ if it does not have these attributes.

Even though my approach is spare, I try to layer things enough to suggest complicated ideas and experiences. It's work with a a consistent point of view, root motifs that I communicate to the audience, an arc of interconnectedness between myself, how I tell the story, the audience, and a unifying force that exists in the moment of performance, a force that I call Spirit.