Beyond the Elements of Style

The Book Industry in 2009

There’s obviously a lot to say … it’s been an amazing year (not always in a positive way!) for the book industry.

A 2009 roundup of the happenings in the book industry is offered here by USA Today. it covers the emergence of ebooks, the question of whether literary novels are dead, and the rise—yet again—of the vampire genre.

My best advice? Read about the trends, but follow your heart. Write what is in your soul to write. If it’s meant to be out there, it will be, eventually. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Readers’ Reactions

We’ve been talking a great deal about book promotion here recently, and I wanted to take a moment to share with you one of the more delightful fruits of one’s labors … namely, the responses of readers.

My best experience in this area was a letter I received after the publication of my novel Wings. One of the characters in Wings, Sarah Martin, is modeled on Harriet Quimby, the first American woman to hold a pilot’s license. The letter read, “My husband knew Harriet Quimby, and he says she would have liked the life you gave her.”

A few years ago I wrote a book called Open Your Heart with Geocaching, and have had very nice feedback on it indeed. But even better is when what you write inspires others, makes them take your thoughts further, allows them to appropriate truths from it for themselves. So I was pleased to receive the following email:

I hope you don’t mind me sharing a few thoughts with you relating to my experiences after I started reading your book on Geocaching.

I have struggled for years to find a hobby that I can really get interested in. I tried woodwork for a while, but it just didn’t grab me. Then at the start of this year I stumbled across Geocaching and everything fell in place. I think it is the way in which the sport manages to pull together all the different interests that I have. It does not matter what your interests are, you will experience the same ability of Geocaching to pull unexpected things together at the most unexpected places.

I find it extraordinary how your mind gets informed of something and you then shortly thereafter encounter it in a totally different context – almost like a confirmation! In the copy of the listing of “Dark Satanic Mills” in Appendix C of your book, you quote an excerpt from Jerusalem by William Blake. I am one of those types that read more than one book at a time. It was therefore at the same time quite surprising but also entirely expected that a few days later I found a quote from Europe by William Blake (1794) in the story of the 9 remaining moon walking astronauts – Moon Dust by Andrew Smith (Bloomsbury 2005). What makes it quite incredible is that this quote is a very accurate description of the experience of the earth at creation which is similar to that which one can expect to experience while you are out in nature geocaching: “every particle of dust breathes forth its joy”!

The use of poetry in Geocaching is quite special. I recently did a multi-cache that also makes use of poetry in its various waypoints. This cache is situated in a very well kept cemetery – the Fourways Garden of Remembrance. Fourways is a suburb approximately 25 km from the centre of Johannesburg. The cache – Celebration of Life GC1CWP6 – is extremely poignant. The celebration of life in a cemetery is a beautiful concept – the use of poetry appearing of various graves makes it all the more special.

Here your advice to breathe and experience the location really made sense.

Look for the delight that your words can bring to others. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Revisiting Jodi Picoult

I’m a playwright as well as an author, and earlier this year I had the honor of “translating” one of Jodi Picoult’s novels, The Pact, into a stage play. The play has been an immense success, including a nomination for best script for the NH Theatre Awards, and it’s led me to revisit many of her other novels, most of which I haven’t read in some years.

There’s something about revisiting an author you haven’t read for some time; it’s like spending time with an old friend. Comfortable and pleasant and sometimes (when you’re lucky) a little surprising. Yesterday a blizzard hit the Cape, where I live, and I allowed myself a pleasant snow day: I stayed in my pajamas and did very little but re-read old friends. Phil Rickman. Dennis Lehane. Michael Malone. And, of course, Jodi herself.

There is a lot of joy in reading (as I discuss in some length in Open Your Heart with Reading), and it doesn’t always have to be something new and challenging.

Spend some time this holiday week with one of your old friends and see what a great experience it can be for you! And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

More On Book Marketing: Social Media

Last time we talked about SEO for book marketing on the web. But the reality is (and those of you who subscribe to my newsletter, Limitless Content, already know this) that the trend of 2010 is toward integration. SEO alone isn’t going to do it. Direct mail alone isn’t going to do it. You really need to integrate all of your efforts into one seamless strategy if you’re going to get any traction in your book marketing efforts.

Enter social media. Here’s not only a way to reach a lot of people, but a way to have someone else help you do it! How cool is that?

First step: Open accounts with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, and MySpace. If you already have one, think about opening a second one that is tied in specifically to the book you’re marketing. The more focused your interactions in social media, the better.

Social media has emerged as one of the biggest buzzwords in the short history of the Internet. Never mind what tool or platform you use, social media is really about connecting people, engaging them, and treating them the way they want to be treated. Social media is having a huge impact on business, not just from a marketing perspective, but also in areas such as customer service, market research, and product development.

Social networks can allow you to reach and influence thousands of people, which can generate more traffic to your book’s website and sell more copies of your book. When optimizing your site for social networks, it is important to keep some general tips in mind:

1. create a well-written summary of your post in the first paragraph
2. place social networking bookmarks and buttons on your site
3. comment and submit stories
4. establish yourself to potential customers as an expert in your field.

MySpace
You don’t have to be sixteen and silly to leverage MySpace, and if your book is even remotely aimed at young people, it’s time to start your MySpace marketing. Start slowly: obtain an account, not with your own name, but with that of your book instead; instead of the requisite headshot, put in a shot of the book cover. Once you have that in place, look at the space as a mini-website ad put something together, being careful to keep the same look and feel (as much as possible) from your own website. Make sure that you have links back to your regular website, and use the social networking equivalent of alt tags on any pictures.

Facebook
Facebook allows you to create a “group,” but it doesn’t have to be about people. Think outside the box: the group can be an event, such as a sale, or it can be your book itself; once you’ve created it, invite all of your email subscribers to come and view it.

LinkedIn
Less social and more professional networking, LinkedIn nonetheless can be exploited for the holidays. One of the great resources of this networking site is the practice of users asking questions that can then be answered by other users. Many of the questions will be irrelevant to your book, but some will be; answering them well, completely, and helpfully will establish you as an expert in the field, an authority to which people can turn, and generate buzz about your book. Including a link to your website will garner great SEO mileage as well!

Make Sure You’re Prepared
One caveat that’s true for all social networking sites: if you’re building up a book profile, you have to consider what “friends” you want to be associated with for branding purposes. And you need to be willing to engage with the audience: blogging, sending messages, and being an actual member of the community. It takes planning and strategy, but social networking can really help with your book marketing strategy. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

More on Book Marketing: SEO

I’m starting with the assumption that you have a website dedicated to your book. If you don’t, go away now and create one, and then come back to hear the rest of what I have to say.

SEO (search engine optimization) is the art and science of bringing people to your website who are likely to purchase your book. Why use it?

• 81% of customers find products and services using search engines (Forrester Research). This is even true for local search.
• 60% of all search engine clicks occur in natural (non-paid) search results.

There are five components that contribute to high rankings in organic listings:

1. Keywords: This is a word or phrase that defines the demand on which targeted prospects are likely to search. Longtail and brand-related keywords are generally worth more than shorter, vague keywords, because they are typically used when someone is further along in the buying cycle.
2. Content: Search engine “spiders” read the content of the webpage in order to categorize the subject matter and determine whether or not the page should rank for related keywords and keyword phrases. Search engines also find content in URLs, alt tags, link title attributes, and heading tags.
3. Linking: Internal links are essential for good search engine optimization. The spiders find navigating your site easier when they can move through via internal links and place great importance on those linked pages.
4. Code: Code offers another opportunity to include keywords. It is often the first thing the spiders see.
5. Technology platform: Keeping technology as clean and simple as possible is important for both humans and search engines. Code factors that affect SEO include coding, databases, the use of JavaScript, and the content management system.

Along with these components, which are by and large onsite optimizations, a second component of your SEO campaign is a conservatively aggressive linking strategy.
It’s an essential part of search engine optimization, because the spiders “believe” that if you have links from other authority sites and important directories, then your site must be worth something in the eyes of the internet community, and they accordingly give you credit for that.

What is a link? A link is a reference on a web page that sends the user to some other place, either on the same site or out on the internet. Generally, a site with more quality inbound links will be positioned higher than a similar site with fewer links.

Some of these steps are things you can do for yourself. Others involve an in-depth knowledge of the search field and require the services of an expert. Feel free to contact Customline Wordware if you’d like some help with your SEO efforts!

Be aware in the meantime that SEO is currently undergoing a sea change. Google’s new personalized search (see this article by SEO guru Danny Sullivan to see where search is going) is going to be making a lot of changes in the landscape in the very near future. Stay on top of the trends, and then you’ll be .. beyond the elements of style!

More on Book Marketing: Libraries

Libraries used to be the hub of the intellectual universe. They may no longer be considered that by many who prefer their intellectual stimulation served up electronically, but they are still a wonderful place for you to gather some buzz about your book.

But wait, you say—libraries don’t sell books!

Of course they don’t … technically. But I’ve given many talks at libraries and asked in return only the ability to sell the book I’m promoting … and have made direct sales as well as creating a lot of buzz. That’s good marketing!

What’s even better is that once a library books you as a speaker, that library will market you as part of its regular programming. Not only do you not have to do the promotion (although anything extra you can add is a very good thing), you can learn about promotion from seeing what the library does.

Libraries sometimes will videotape your talk or presentation so that others can see it. But there’s a lot more you can do with the video! Check with your local cable TV and see if they’d be willing to run it; they’re often looking for content and this is great content. Put the video on your website along with your book trailer; put it up on YouTube; blog about it; connect it to your profiles on Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn (um, you do have accounts at Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn, don’t you?).

It’s not difficult to come up with an interesting presentation. If your book is nonfiction, your subject matter is obvious. If it’s fiction, find an interesting angle: the milieu in which the novel takes place, its historical context, professions practiced by the characters, etc. We’ll talk more about this sort of thing in the future.

And, of course, once you’ve given a successful presentation at one library, it will be easier to book the next one. Libraries are often searching for new and unusual content. Give it to them and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

More on Book Marketing: Direct Mail

As much as we’re all delighted by the new media available (see the last two posts), there’s still value in the old-fashioned approach of getting something printed (a postcard or a bookmark) and sending it out to a list of people who may be potential book buyers and/or reviewers.

Why? Think about it: as more and more companies take their marketing budgets online, people’s mailboxes have emptied out. While this month may be the exception (catalog companies are still alive and well and very evident during the holidays), in general you’re probably finding less and less direct mail in your physical mailbox. And what that means is that what is there is likely to merit more attention than in the old days when advertising postcards were plentiful.

I asked Tina MacNicholl of the direct marketing firm The Catamount Group if it’s a good time to do some direct marketing. Here’s what she had to say:

Think about it. What’s in your mailbox these days? Not very much, if it’s anything like mine. Not only has much marketing gone online, but so have bills, newsletters, donation requests … all the things that used to clutter up our physical mailboxes.

Yesterday when I looked in mine I found one lonely bill. And I have to say that if a flyer had been there, I would have looked at it!

One of our clients told us that response to their most recent direct mailing is the best that it has been in years, and that’s in the middle of a recession. Think about that: they got that response because no one else was there.

So maybe it’s time to come back into direct mailing while the competition is elsewhere. It’s not a complete marketing plan, but it’s an important component of one.

So have those postcards and bookmarks made up, and put together a mailing list for a direct mailing early in the new year. It’s one more part of your book marketing strategy that’s sure to bring success in 2010. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

More on Book Marketing: the Video

James Patterson does it on prime-time network television. Others do it on websites and in social communities. Where are you doing it?

I hope that you’re doing it somewhere, because integration of different media is the cutting edge of any kind of marketing these days. And it’s become easier and easier to do your own book trailer (think of what you see on movie trailers and translate it into a book) than ever before. You don’t even need a video camera.

There are a lot of different ways to create your book trailer (both Macs and Windows machines have software that does it more than adequately), so I’ll leave that explanation to the experts: just Google “create book trailer” or something of the sort and read about it. And—this may be the most important step—watch as may book trailers as you can stand. It’s essential to see what’s out there, what people are responding to, etc.

YouTube is making the distribution process easier and easier. Check out these two YouTube features:

• YOUTUBE CHANNELS: Have a whole section of YouTube that’s your very own! And Butterscotch has a quick and easy beginner’s guide to creating a channel. If you haven’t done it yet, now’s a good time to start, according to this Mashable post.
• YOUTUBE STREAMS: Once you start getting people interested in your work, you can create a YouTube stream … in essence, a space where you can watch the video in real-time with other people and discuss it. This is a terrific way to do virtual book presentations, since publishers now have limited budgets for travel and you may not be able totake that sort of time off from your day job.

So take time to learn about the process and play around with creating your own book trailer—again, even before the book is published. Creating buzz takes a strategy and video should play a prominent part in your online marketing plan. And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

More on Book Marketing: the Blog

Most writers (myself included) consider themselves to be, first and foremost, creative people. And we are, there’s no doubt about that. if you’re anything like me, your life is centered around sitting in a room and writing.

There may have been a time when that was enough. Writers wrote, and passed their work on to others who took it to market—edited it, packaged it, sold it, promoted it. That’s every writer’s dream, isn’t it? leave me alone to create, you do the rest.

If you’re just writing for yourself, that will work. You can sit and write to your heart’s content. Write a diary, fill notebooks with your deathless prose, feel good that you’re getting the words and thoughts and people out of your head. But if you want someone else to read what you’ve written … well, that’s going to take you out of your quiet room and your quiet writing and out into the bustle of the marketplace. Ewwww.

But take heart — there are a lot of ways to market your work, and among these many activities you can find something that will work for both you and your writing.

In the next few posts I’ll discuss some of these activities. If you haven’t thought much about marketing, try and see this as a buffet: think about each method, try it out, explore it, see if it resonates as something you feel you can enter into and work with.

One of the easiest and quickest ways to market your book—and one you can and should begin before the book is even published—is to write a focused blog. Before we go any further, write this on your brain: this is not the kind of blog where you offer opinions, share your breakfast menu, comment on the movie you saw last night, or diss your coworkers. A blog that markets a book needs to be devoted to that book, and everything that you write in it must have the goal of promoting the book.

A few years ago, Guy Kawasaki wrote a brilliant article about blogs that remains absolutely the best advice available for blogging, and I strongly urge you to read and re-read his words.

A good analogy is the difference between a diary and a book. When you write a diary, it contains your spontaneous thoughts and feelings. You have no plans for others to read it. By contrast, if you write a book, from day one you should be thinking about spreading the word about it. If you want to evangelize your blog, then think “book” not “diary” and market the heck out of it.

So think about writing a blog, even if it’s just to document your progress. One of my clients, Andy Kaufman, maintains this site where he blogs about what’s going on with his yet-unpublished thriller. I’d have liked to see more frequent updates, but you get the general idea (and Andy’s attention has of necessity been elsewhere). Getting people excited about your book before it’s published gives you an immediate sales lift when it does come out, and creates more buzz about it.

Buzz is what you’re looking for. Getting people to subscribe to your blog, link to your blog, talk about your blog and your book—that’s the goal. Work on it, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!