Marketing Round-up & Apologies to Lady Luck

Well, I feel like a total eejit this St. Patrick's Day-- I just accidentally deleted Robin's post from last Thursday that she did on Lady Luck. It was a marvelous entry about the role luck plays in this interesting publishing game in which we ponder and play. I am going to send a prayer up to the computer goddesses that she has a copy of it on somewhere so we can put it back up. At the very least, I want to re-post her links to a blog by an cool fantasy writer named Justine. I loved one of the comments a reader made about a formula she swears by-- "right manuscript, right editor, right day".

I think that is so true, and while that seems seeped in luck, it is also seeped in some careful planning. For instance, it was my great luck to have gotten a chance to drive Random House editor Wendy Lamb to her hotel once after a SCBWI conference. I was the only volunteer left-- still sweeping-- and she needed a ride. I nearly fainted. Me? Drive HER?? Omigod. I'd just heard her speak and I was beyond impressed with her talent, her list, her credentials.

Now if during the ride she'd turned to me and said, "Gee, I bet you're a writer! While we have a few minutes together, do you happen to have a manuscript with you that I can read?"-- that would have been some great luck!! As is was, I actually had a ms. sitting in her New York office that had been carefully targeted to her, knowing the kinds of books that she liked to publish. So it was planning, intention and then some marvelous serendipity that we ended up in the same car one sunny afternoon. (And, yet another reason that I think it is so important to do volunteer work! Can you spell K-A-R-M-A?)

When it came time for her to make a decision about my manuscript, I was someone she'd met and could put a face with. She knew I could sweep, drive and use my turn signal. ;-) We are now working on book number three together and I hope there are many more to come. I feel extremely lucky about that. She is simply the best.

I've recently gotten my marketing round-up letter from her office that lists all the things they will be doing to to promote my new book TEN LUCKY THINGS. . . Many of the items on the list have ocurred already, and some will be happening shortly. These include:

SOLICITATION: Sending out galleys in the sales kits, and featuring the book in the seasonal frontlist catalog.

PUBLICITY: Catalog mailing to 500 national media contacts, press releases and finished book mailings to 200 national review media contacts, listing in Pubisher's Weekly seasonal announcements, galley mailing to long-lead consumer publications and review journals, pitch letter and finished book mailing to local media, local bookstore appearance requests.

SCHOOL & LIBRARY: Advance galleys and finished book sents to 400 plus librarians/educators, submission for awards, book displayed at national conventions.

ON-LINE: Featured on Kids@Random and Librarians@Random

ADVERTISING: Included in some national consumer print advertising, and SLF Announcement issue.

So, with just about four months left until my title is released, that is what the publisher has planned, done and/or in the works. Can I tell you how thrilled I am not to have to be doing any of those large mailings myself? Postage and labor aside, it is a huge undertaking and would require much research on my part to pull all those contacts together. I am feeling very fortunate and appreciative.

Next step is to talk with the RH publicist for my book, and I will keep you posted on that front.

Erin go braugh, friends--

Mary Hershey

Ms. Viola on Book Tours and Book Trailers

Darling Violets and Vinnies--

At last-- I'm back! Your devoted Ms. Viola reporting in. I've barely been able to get a peep in edgewise with Mary and Robin being such blog hogs lately. For two Shrinking Violets, those birds do blather on, don't they! I had to play the teensiest trick on them to get some air time today. I called them both early this morning and rambled on and on about absolutely nothing for nearly thirty minutes. You could literally hear their Introvert Warning Systems (IWS) going off-- Danger! Danger! Your battery is nearly depleted! They both have scurried off to their respective little forests to recharge.

But, I just couldn't wait to tell you that I've just discovered a marvelous new on-line service for those of you promoting your books. All right, who was that I just heard run screaming from the room? Come back, lovey, this won't hurt a bit. La promessa!

Book Tour offers a free site for you to list your upcoming "touring" events. Now I want you all to go check it out. I had Mary Hershey register this morning, so you can see how hers looks. I'll be after Ms. La Fevers later today. If you are pre-published, do-do-do bookmark this site, so you can use it in the future! If you are published, sign up today, or I will call you on the phone and chat you into a coma.

The second thing I want to talk about is book trailers. Perfetta! An idea whose time has come. This is fabulous promotional tool for you to use! Splendid for introverts. You can make your own, or you hire a student to do it for you. If any of you know someone (or are someone) that likes to do this, please share! I'm linking to one of our own Violet's book trailers-- take a peek at Terry Pierce's book trailer. And, another one that I love is from children's author Mary Hanson for her hysterical book How to Save Your Tail.

As part of Mary Hershey's pre-launch homework, I'm having her make one of these. She will be able to post it on her website, and her blog. Her editor can link it over at Random House's site where teachers, librarian's, and parents will be able to have easy access to it. There are probably other venues that we will discover as well. But let's keep that between us for now, shall we? Don't want to put the poor darling under the table again today.

Oooh, best dash! I hear some tromping from the forest. Vi on the fly!

XOXO
La pace,
Ms. Viola

And Awwwaaaay I Go!

Ever feel like you've lost control of your life- your schedule- your plans? Oh, moi? Gee, never. But I 'know' this children's author who is experiencing something like this. It's a lot like getting your arm wrenched out of its socket by a thundering bull or an exceptionally fast little white dog. All you can do is HOLD ON. The crashing from letting go would be worse!

Or, at least that is what I imagine it feels like to her. :-] Okay, fine, it's me, and my month hit the ground at warp speed. I have way more events and deadlines than any one violet should have to endure. Lots of people+lots of events are to introverts what Kryptonite is to Superman.

I'm going to make sure that I get lots of down time in my special ice fortress-- or bakery. The latter works very well for me. Give me a latte hot as lava and a chocolate chip scone, and my battery starts humming again. (Not just from the joe-- really.)

And for the day's major gaffe, in editing my new Facebook profile, per my Marketing Plan, I accidentally fired off a request to (nearly) everyone in the northern hemisphere asking them to be my "Friend". The long list included the mayor of Santa Barbara, nearly every student I've ever had, some very high-profile editors and authors, and Robin's son in college. It was truly an introvert's nightmare.

I know I'll be laughing about it later in the week.

But I do want to speed by and deliver the ** NEWS ** that having counted all the entries for the Ms. Viola Makeover Contest, it is confirmed. The new look for Ms. Viola wins-- but only by a hair. Whew! It was close, a real dead heat. Thanks for all your entries, everyone!

Melissa Camara Wilkins' entry was randomly selected, and she will be receiving a copy of the Plug Your Book by Steve Weber. Many congrats, Melissa! Will you email me off-line and send me your address so that I can get it shipped to you? Click here to email me.

We haven't done a Milestone Monday for some time. Do any of you have any news, breakthroughs, incremental victories that you would like to post? We would love to hear from you.

Homework for This Week:

1. Update my mailing and email list. I taught two workshop classes over the weekend, and I'm doing a presentation at the Women's Literary Festival in Santa Barbara this weekend. I've circulated an email list in the class on Saturday and I'll do it again this coming weekend. Those names will all be added to my notifications lists. When it is time for postcards to go out in late May or June, I don't want to have to be scrambling to get my list updated. And, when I do my school visits this months, I'll make sure I get teachers' contact info as well.

2. Invite Shrinking Violets to be my Friends. A-hem. Any of you on Facebook?

Best,

Mary Hershey

Having a Marketing Plan

When you get a group of authors together and give them all a drink, one of the first topics to come up will be marketing. Specifically, the difficulty of getting marketing commitments from their publisher. With over 5,000 books published every year, clearly something needs to happen to make any given book stand out—thus marketing.

But to be fair, publishers have a limited amount of time, manpower, and marketing dollars to go around. With anywhere from ten to fifty books on each season’s list, prioritizing and budgeting are key. So what can a new author, or any author, do to help ensure their book gets a piece of the publishers marketing pie?

I think one of the most important steps an author can take is to demonstrate to the publisher that they are willing to be a partner in the marketing of their book. That they understand that both author and publisher have to work together to get this book into the hands of readers, that it must be a joint effort.

However, this can be really hard for introverts, as the mere thought of promotion tends to send us running for a bottle of antacid.

But we’ve demonstrated over the last few months that there are a number of things introverts can do that don’t require extroverted behavior or bold marketing moves but can still be effective in getting the word out to about their book. Armed with all the information you’ve learned here (and other places) I highly suggest you put together a marketing plan for your book.

In you marketing plan, you list the things you’re comfortable doing, you play to your strengths, and demonstrate your commitment. It’s a great opportunity to show how much you are willing to do to make this new partnership between you and your publisher a success.

Understand that a marketing plan is NOT a demand letter with the author stating all the things they want/expect the publisher to do for them.

It’s a statement of everything the author is planning to do to market their book, along with a few suggestions for joint promotion or marketing opportunities with your publisher.

So one of your tasks is to sit down and think what a brand spanking new (introverted) author like yourself brings to the table.

Your writing, which they’ve already shown they believe in. Your willingness to succeed, your enthusiasm and hopefully a small army of enthusiastic supporters—friends, family, fellow authors, the librarian you chatted up while doing your research, your child’s third grade teacher who found out you were writing a children’s book, your cousins, your local indie bookseller, where you’ve bought your books for years and are friendly with the staff, your small town newspaper or alumni newsletter, or church bulletin that’s always looking for bits of news to publish. (Remember, no book is as highly celebrated as a first book. It’s a momentous occasion and people will love celebrating that moment with you.)

Or perhaps you already have a couple of books out. In that case, you have a few more contacts to build upon.

An introverted marketing plan might include the following:

Create author website*
Feature contests and giveaways on author blog
Arrange blog tour with following popular blogs (then list them)
Print and mail 500 post cards to local schools, libraries, independent booksellers, and personal acquaintances.
Press kit mailing to local print media
Have promotional items made (this would be something that could tie in with your book in a clever way, like temporary tattoos, personalized pencils with the book title on it, magnets, etc.)

*Ideally you should have this up and running a few months before the publication date. It’s the #1 most important marketing tool you can have.

Not sure what else to put on the plan? Check back here to remind yourself which tasks you’re comfortable with.