Book marketer Ann Edwards: A token of thanks to me; a free seminar/Q&A to you.
Way back in the mists of time when I was Head Goose of Goosebottom Books, I had an Editorial Assistant Goose who left the nest and grew up to be a book marketer for HarperOne/HarperCollins, and then Marketing Strategist for Callisto Media. You devotees of the Mendocino Writers’ Conference may remember her name, Ann Edwards, as she once co-presented the one-day Publishing Bootcamp that followed the conference.
A couple of weeks ago I was speaking with Ann—specifically I was lamenting the confusion surrounding the differences between a book marketer and a book publicist—and as a nod of thanks for having offered her a job on her birthday many years ago, she offered me a free consultation.
Of course, I immediately thought of you. (Insert halo here.) I thought how most of the writers I know can be separated into three groups. Those who hate marketing and don’t do it. Those who hate marketing and do it badly. And those who never realized that as authors they might have any marketing responsibilities in the first place. Doesn’t the publisher do all that? Well, the short answer is no. The publisher will push your book if it’s already doing well and some further effort would yield a good ROI, but even then another list of books with higher priority is on its way ‘round the corner. And note that I said, “book.” Even if a publisher pushes a book, the person who’s responsible for marketing you is YOU.
So, Ann and I decided to have our free chat on Zoom. If you sign up below, you can be part of the studio audience. If not, I will post the video as a resource on my website. But there’s a huge benefit to attending live; namely the ability to ask a book marketer questions. When was the last time you could do that? And the main question we aim to answer is why you should care about this in the first place. For maximum efficacy, it’s often recommended that you get started with your marketing even before you’ve finished writing the book. Why is that? And how do you do it? And how do you put a personalized strategy together that will make it both rewarding and fun? (In my case, for example, that strategy would have to avoid Twitter.)
There are a ton of pragmatics up for discussion. How do you start thinking of yourself as a brand—which every author with a career is? Which of those horrible social media channels (I know, my bias is showing) are in fact mandatory? How do you start identifying target audiences for a) your kinds of books; b) your particular book?
So, bring your questions and be part of the conversation. Accept this free Q&A as my thanks for having all been such a great and loyal community.
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Here is the conversation we had with Ann on Thursday, December 16th.
And quickly, seeing as we’re talking about the business of becoming or being a writer, here’s a quick reminder that Funds for Writers is out there. As they say, TIME TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT YOUR WRITING CAREER. You may not be able to quit work and write, but you might find a grant to make your writing goals easier, or a crowdfunding opportunity to fund your project. Find serious contests, too. Only those that pay in cold hard cash. No pay-per-click, $1 per blog or exposure markets either. If you think a little writing money would come in handy, click here.
And now we’ve mentioned contests, congratulations to community member Emily Weber who went from having nothing to put in the bio section of her query to having plenty to say in six months. Emily placed second and third in the competitions of two respected writers’ conferences, and garnered a byline in an associated literary magazine. Ann would give Emily a gold star because she’s marketing herself before her book is even finished!
If you want to generate similar marketing success, you have to be in it to win it. To start making use of the rest of this year, here are three free literary competitions still open, courtesy of Winning Writers:
Furious Fiction Monthly Short Story Challenge 12/05/21 Free contest from the Australian Writers' Centre gives publication and a monthly AUD$500 prize for a short story, 500 words maximum, on a prompt that changes each month. Open worldwide to writers age 17+.
Quantum Shorts Competition 12/16/21 Free contest awards top prize of $1,500 and online publication for flash fiction stories, under 1,000 words, that are "clearly inspired by some aspect of quantum physics". For 2021, entries also must contain the phrase "It's a lot to think about". All winners receive a trophy and a one-year digital subscription to ScientificAmerican.com. (Doug, this one’s for you!)
St. Martin's Minotaur/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition 12/17/21 Free contest gives $10,000 advance for a crime novel written by an author with no previously published books in any genre and who is not under contract with a publisher for publication of a novel. Authors of self-published works may enter, as long as the manuscript submitted is not the self-published work. (Kurt, Cat, and Cléa, sound tempting?)
Good luck, everyone.
Happy Thanksgiving, and happy writing!
Shirin