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Guest Expert: Dana Lynn Smith
Twitter is a great tool for building an author platform and promoting books. Here are some of the top ways authors can benefit from Twittering:
1. Help others by sharing information, while you gain a reputation as an expert. Nonfiction authors can post links to helpful articles, recommend resources, and teach mini-lessons. Fiction authors can talk about their genre. Children’s authors can promote literacy, share information about the benefits of reading for children and young adults, and offer tips on how to select age-appropriate reading material.
2. Meet potential customers and stay in touch with existing customers. Promote your Twitter URL everywhere you’re listed online, and include keywords in your tweets to attract followers who are interested in your topic or genre.
3. Stay on top of news and trends in your field or genre and get ideas for your articles and blog by reading the tweets of the people you follow.
4. Promote live and virtual events such as book signings, podcasts, virtual book tours, book fairs, teleseminars, and book launches.
5. Gain visibility and new followers by hosting a Twitter contest where you give away a prize to a randomly chosen winner, or give a free gift to everyone who follows you and re-tweets your contest message. See this post for tips on creating a Twitter contest.
6. Ask for help and get instant responses. When you request product recommendations, referrals to experts, or help with a technical issue, it’s amazing how helpful folks are.
7. Spread good will by helping your peers. Introduce other people in your field or genre, or recommend other related books or products. Re-tweet interesting posts from people that you follow.
8. Promote your book and other products and services. The key is to be subtle and make promotional tweets a small percentage of your overall communications, so people feel like they gain value from following you, not just a stream of sales pitches.
9. Meet other authors, experts, publishers, marketers, and vendors. Twitter is ideal for networking and it’s a great place to meet potential joint venture partners.
10. Keep in touch when you’re on the road. There are a number of applications that facilitate twittering from mobile devices.
Have fun! It’s fascinating to meet people from all over the world, gain a glimpse into their lives, and develop a cyber-relationship.
Excerpted from the Twitter Guide for Authors by Dana Lynn Smith.
Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer Guides. For more tips, follow @
Guest Expert: Jo-Anne Vandermeulen
Short, sweet with an amazing hook…and I’m not talking about a curve-ball.
To create a platform that stands out from the rest and *conquer all obstacles* you must learn how to ‘pitch’.
At first, creating a pitch will be awkward. Writing a page, condensing it to a paragraph, then finally to a sentence all takes cognitive thinking. Yet, you can feed off this process and soon turn it into a cheering victory! Attitude is the answer. Creating a pitch is NOT drooling work, it is a challenge—a win with even more opportunities—your reward worth the effort!
As a writer, we’ve heard the term ‘elevator pitch’ as a short yet remarkable synopsis of our book in the time it would take to meet someone in an elevator on the main floor and manage to hook the audience before we reached the top.
As a marketer, we need to stand out from the rest and prove we are the best as the competition is fierce.
As a blogger, we need to create valuable content in a short article that will leave the reader in awe and have them coming back for more.
Creating a pitch is difficult. Perhaps even more work than writing the article or even an entire book. A lot is on the line. Your audience, followers, fans and even the door to open for your next opportunity may be at stake.
Developing or presenting a pitch may come as written content or in the form of verbal conversation. Some may be planned, but many will be unexpected ‘moments’ when chatting with a stranger, an acquaintance, or even a dear friend.
Prepare Your Pitch
Be Ready – Always be aware of these prime-time opportunities. Blend your pitch into conversation when the subject becomes available. As a teacher, we call these unexpected opportunities as ‘teachable moments’.
Have Your Pitch Polished and Rehearsed – Often your pitch will not be planned and yet has to be polished and rehearsed. Observe your viewer. How’s the eye contact? Are you keeping them interested?
Know When You’ve Said Enough – Again, through observation, you must read their body language. Usually, you’ll have less than a minute. Be ready to add your own ‘stories’ or examples to hold their interest.
But, fear no more…simply:
1.) Begin with Action – Leave the ‘fluff’ or back story out.
2.) Revise – Cut, cut, and cut some more. Take the time to rehearse verbally.
3.) Think – Astonishing words that attract, hook and even shock the reader.
Now here’s the good news…
Creating A Perfect Pitch Becomes Easier With Practice. Overtime and with more experience, your pitch will become automatic. No work at all! You’ll receive unbelievable rewards as the new opportunities begin to take over.
No matter if you’re an author, blogger, or marketer your record for strike-outs will remain intact. To throw a perfect game and *conquer all obstacles* is to perfect your pitch.
Guest Expert: Dana Lynn Smith
As you write your book and develop your book marketing plan, one of the first priorities is to define your target audiences.
The primary target audience for your book is the “ideal reader” that the book was written specifically for. In your book marketing plan, define the characteristics of your ideal reader, asking questions such as these:
• What is their age range, gender, and education level?
• Where do they live?
• What is their family status – single, married with kids, retired couple?
• What is their income level and occupation?
• What are their interests and hobbies?
• What makes this person the ideal reader for your book?
• What are their book buying habits?
In addition to the ideal reader, most books have several secondary audiences. Your book marketing plan should include strategies for reaching audiences such as these:
Readers – people who buy the book to read. This is the most obvious category and it includes your primary audience as well as secondary audiences who have an interest in your topic or genre.
Purchasers – people who buy the book for someone else. For example, people buy books as gifts, parents and grandparents purchase books for children, women buy men’s health books, companies and organizations purchase books to give away as gifts and premiums. Who would be likely to purchase your book for someone else, and how can you reach those folks?
Retailers – companies who buy your book to sell it to others. If you’re selling through physical bookstores or other retailers, you have the task of convincing these resellers that your book will sell in their stores and demonstrating how you can help generate demand.
Influencers – people who communicate with your target customers and can let them know about your book. The influencers may be the most important category of all, especially in online marketing and social media. Think about how much you can multiply your marketing efforts when other people spread the word to their own readers, customers, and networks.
Your book marketing plan should outline specific tactics for reaching influencers, including print, broadcast and online media. You can reach the media through traditional publicity efforts as well as online press releases and article distribution.
Other important influencers include authors, consultants, and bloggers who cater to your target customers. These folks can mention you, your website, and/or your book in several ways, including blog posts, links, Twittering, ezine articles, and media sharing tools like Digg.
Here are some tips on working with influencers:
• Search the Internet to compile a list of the top websites, blogs, ezines, magazines, newsletters, online forums, books, ebooks, clubs, and association that cater to your target market or cover your topic.
• Study each site to get a good understanding of what they do and how it relates to your book, and look for possible promotional opportunities.
• Write a thoughtful, customized email or letter sincerely complimenting the prospect about their site, publication, or organization, and suggesting some specific ways that you might work together to your mutual benefit.
It’s also important to read the top blogs and online forums on yo
Guest Expert: Jo-Anne Vandermeulen
The characteristics of a successful blogger are not too far off from the attributes as being an excellent teacher. I taught school for 20 years and swimming for 5 years before that. Classroom management was my strong suit…and the fact that I loved my students, they in turn…loved me back. I can honestly say that I was a great teacher…and, I truly had wonderful students.
Having a teaching background has helped me become an expert blogger in such a short amount of time, but it is not a requirement…so don’t worry if education is not in your background. You may still have the essential qualities to *conquer all obstacles* and become a blogger with a huge following. Ask yourself these questions:
1.) Can you captivate an audience? Whether it’s on a one-to-one or in front of a group, are all the eyes cast upon your face and anticipating your next words?
Write articles in a variety of ways – Include various instructional methods—all levels of learning will be your viewers. They will be at different stages. Presenting a variety of methods and the complexity of the content is so important. When I write a post, I sometimes use point form, questions, bold statements, quotes, and usually include examples. Hook your audience right from the beginning. Repeat what works.
2.) Are you speaking from the heart? Do you show empathy, opening yourself by sharing honest examples of yourself; thus, exposing vulnerability?
Write with no fear – This is no time to consider judgements from others. Remember that what we say is subjective and our job is not to make everyone happy. Take chances and open yourself up…you’ll be amazed at how many others can relate to your story and come on board as more than just followers…but also as fans.
3.) Are you sincere when you show each individual is special?
Accept all attitude—The viewer must feel included and part of a community. They will not only want to stay until the end of the post; but also, will come back to read more. Begin the post with a ‘welcome’. Be inviting for the newbies by encouraging their talents…invite them to guest blog and offer to guest blog on their site. Thank the followers and fans—really show your appreciation by telling them that without an audience, you definitely wouldn’t be a blogger. You need them…and tell them that. Your viewers are needed!
4.) Is your message positive and the new content attainable?
Use the word ‘always’— Present content in a fashion of ‘do’ instead of what ‘not to do’. Keep the negative words out. Instead of using the word ‘never’, use ‘always’. As a lifeguard, I use to call out to a running child to walk on the deck…not the words, “don’t run”. The word ‘walk’ is positive and shows the behaviour you need for them to understand. Yelling the words, “Don’t run”, is negative and plants the seed of the inappropriate action as being acceptable. Words are powerful so check to see the phrases you use in your posts.
For your viewers to respect you, first you must genuinely respect them. As a blogger, our job is not only to supply valuable content; but also, to make the readers feel special. I use the brand or motto, *conquer all obstac
