Today's guest article is from multiple award winning author and editor Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Carolyn not only explains these ten myths, she provides the needed remedies.
And, away we go...
10 Marketing Myths That Can Kill Your Book and Career
(And Their Remedies!)
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Here are excuses many authors use not to promote, killers all. Each includes advice that will help a writer salvage his book and career from wrong thinking.
"My book is doing well enough. My career is on an upturn. I can easily take a year off from promoting to write." Advice: Cut back if you must but slot in some time to keep the efforts you've already made at least at a simmer.
"I hear everyone is cutting back on promotion so why shouldn't I?" Advice: Didn't your mother ever ask you, "If Johnny jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?" Look at those authors. If they're selling lots of books, it's because somebody (their publisher, bookstores, their publicists) is promoting them. I'll bet, though, that most of the authors saying this aren't selling very many. Look at your situation. If you don't do it, who will do it for you?
"I like Carolyn's Frugal Book Promoter idea so I'm going to only do things that cost no money at all." Advice: Hey! Frugal is one thing. Cheap is another. Some of the best things you can do cost some money. An example is American Booksellers Association Advance Access program. Find it at www.bookweb.org.
Careful though. Always weigh the "rightness" of any program for your particular book.
"I'm gong to examine everything I'm doing and only continue what I can prove is working." Advice: You may not be able to prove much, if anything. That's not the way marketing works. Judge how well your entire campaign is going only after you have given it plenty of time to work. If one thing is working well, maybe it is because your title or name is being seen elsewhere. Balance your campaign, yes. Try new things, yes. Cut back on a few only if you must. Keep in mind that book sales are not necessarily the most valid way to evaluate your promotion.
"Nothing I've tried works. I'm giving up." Advice. You may be on the brink. Or maybe you've been giving up on each aspect of your campaign too early. Any marketing plan must be many-pronged, frequent and long-term.
"If I cut back on promotion and find my sales slipping, I can always gear up again." Advice: Yikes! Good publicity and promotion build. It's like skipping rocks on a pond. With each stone, ripples wave out, out, out. Eventually, after you've skipped lots and lots of stones, the results start coming back to you in waves. If you stop whipping those stones into the water, the results dissipate. It will take a long time to get enough stones dancing across the water again to match what you've done and, once you lose momentum, you may never get it back.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't, The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success and an Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need To Know To Sell Your Book in 20 Minutes or Less." Learn more at http://www.howtodoitfrugally
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Until next time,
Karen Cioffi
http://karencioffi.com
2 Comments on 10 Marketing Myths That Can Kill Your Book and Career, last added: 3/10/2010
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By: Karen Cioffi,
on 3/6/2010
Blog: Writing for Children with Karen Cioffi (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: Karen Cioffi,
on 6/3/2009
Blog: Writing for Children with Karen Cioffi (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions, award-winning author, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, How to Do it Frugally, The Frugal Book Promoter, Sharing with Writers, The Frugal Editor, Add a tag
We're back with Carolyn Howard-Johnson and today we’ll go over some of Carolyn’s books, but first I’d like to tell you about the two I recently read.
The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success is a must have book for all writers. It is jammed pack with information, tips, and advice to guide and help you with the writing process. From how you punctuate your titles to query letters, it’s covered. What I especially like about this book is its detail. Carolyn gives step-by-step instructions for things such as using Word’s Track and Find functions. It even mentions the word snuck. This may not sound important, but I very recently wrote a story for children and used the word snuck in it. I will be changing that word to sneaked thanks to Carolyn’s tip. What are the chances? The book also includes other great resources for making your writing the best it can be. The Frugal Editor will stay by my computer so it will be readily available every time I sit to write.
Next up is The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t. This book is such a great resource for promoting yourself and your books. For lack of better words, I have to repeat myself: it is jammed packed with great information, tips and advice - I mean that literally. The Frugal Book Promoter explains what PR is, including branding, your tagline, and your pitch. It explains how to build your Media Kit as well as how to build your credentials to include in your kit. The Frugal Book Promoter has 38 chapters and each one is filled with practical and detailed information. If you want to get your book reviewed, appear on television, take part in a book fair, know what to do before and after you sign that contract, or want to utilize Amazon’s features, this book has it all. And, as with The Frugal Editor, Carolyn included a number of other great resources to help with your promotion efforts. If you have a book you want to promote, or just as important, if you are writing a book, The Frugal Book Promoter will be an essential tool in your promotional journey.
Now, here’s more about these two books and other books Carolyn has written:
The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t
ISBN: 193299310X
Publisher: Star Publish
Awards: Winner USA Book News, Irwin Award
Price: $17.95 but discounted at:: http://www.amazon.com/Frugal-Book-Promoter-What-Publisher/dp/193299310X/
For only a few cents a day The Frugal Book Promoter assures your book the best possible start in life. Full of nitty - gritty how - tos for getting nearly-free publicity, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, an instructor for UCLA’s Writers’ Program, shares her professional experience as well as practical tips gleaned from the successes of her own book campaigns. She tells authors how to do what their publishers can’t or won’t and why authors can often do their own promotion better than a PR professional.
A recommendation from BarnesandNobel.com: Feather Schwartz Foster, an author, September 9, 2004,
Packed With Wonderful Information! For anyone who has written a book of any kind - this is a must-have, and must-keep guide! Every chapter is filled with insights and how-tos and a whole bunch of where to finds!
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The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success
ISBN: 9780978515874
Publisher: Red Engine Press
Awards: Winner USA Book News, Reader Views Literary Award, New Generation Marketing Award
Price: $18.95
To Order: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978515870/
There are gremlins out there determined to keep your work from being published, your book from being promoted. They -- resolved to embarrass you before the gatekeepers who can turn the key of success for you -- lurk in your subconscious and the depths of your computer programs. Whether you are a new or experienced author, The Frugal Editor will help you present whistle-clean copy (whether it's a one-page cover letter or your entire manuscript) to those who have the power to say "Yea" or "Nay."
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The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need To Know To Sell Your Book in 20 Minutes or Less
ISBN: B000YG6O5U
Publisher: Amazon
Price: $0.49 (or 49c!)
To Order: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YG6O5U/ref=cm_arms_pdp_dp
The perfect learning experience for those who want to learn to wow an editor in no time flat and only 49 cents out-of-pocket!
OH, I downloaded this from Amazon. This ebook is another great resource and full of practical advice and guidance. And, for the price an absolute must have!
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson is also the award-winning author of:
This is the Place (a historical novel set in Utah in the 1950s)
Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered (these are creative nonfiction - told like stories but true nonetheless)
Tracings (a traditionally published chapbook of nostalgic poetry - Papeback only with satin ribbon bookmark)
Other books by Carolyn:
She Wore Emerald Then: Reflections on Motherhood (coauthored by Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson - Available as paperback or e-book)
Cherished Pulse (an e-chapbook of Valentine poetry co-authored by Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson
And, last, but certainly not least, Carolyn’s newest book:
A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How to Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrift Events and Sales Techniques.
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Finally, I wanted to mention Carolyn’s newsletter, Sharing With Writers. It’s a great source of news, tips, resources and articles. Go to [email protected] to subscribe.
Learn more about Carolyn at:
http://carolynhoward-johnson.com or
http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com
It's been fun and informative! Thank you Carolyn, for visiting with us this week.
Karen
Some great advice here, I am currently marketing my first Children's novel - Ghostnapped! It is frustrating to say the least. Everyone who has purchased and read the book has really enjoyed it, but the sales are stagnant at the moment. I am definitely not giving up, but am wary of expenses, not because I don't beleive it will work, but because I have a young family and money is important, but I like the sentiments in your article and am going to keep promoting because I beleive my book is worth it!
Ashly, thanks for stopping by. Yup, writing is the easy part . . . it's the marketing that's the killer. Marketing needs to be an ongoing endeavor.
But, what's the alternative.