Category: Marketing

Posted in Marketing

Marketing Monday: What Do You Think of Newsletters?

Posted on by beckylevine

For about the past two years, I’ve had an email newsletter that I send out, oh…quarterly. It usually has some basic information about what’s coming up for me in the next few months, or what I’ve been doing that’s exciting (for me, at least!). Then I add a few links to posts I think might interest readers, and I send it out.  I use Constant Contact, and I’ve been more than happy with their templates and the way they store and let me update my mailing list–either manually, or through my blog/website.

I am, however, considering whether to keep the newsletter going.  I’m going to summarize my thoughts about why and then follow up with a few questions for you to, hopefully, get your take on things. I’d love–as usual–to hear from writers who get newsletters and writers/readers who receive them (or work very hard not to).

A few years ago, I think email newsletters were the best, if not the only, way to reach readers directly–at their inboxes. Then along came Facebook and Twitter and Goodreads and all the other social networking sites. Facebook sends me a note–to that inbox–when anyone contacts me in any way on their site, and with Tweetdeck, it’s easy for me to see if anyone’s trying to get in touch with me directly out on Twitter. I get messages from Goodreads for updated booklists, and I get Google Alerts that let me know when I, or my book, am mentioned pretty much anywhere. (Okay, not yet on Mars, but I’m sure that’s just a few years away.)

The other thing that these sites all do is make it incredibly easy for me to get information out. I know there are all sorts of questions about how easy it is to social network, about the best way to tweet effectively or to use a Fan page on Facebook, but in actual time, there’s just no comparison between typing in 144 characters on Twitter and setting up the next newsletter to be delivered.

I don’t have a huge mailing list for my newsletter. In real marketing terms, it’s probably considered almost infinitesimal. And I know that when I send it out, at least a few people are reading it–because I can see when they’ve clicked over to my blog to check out some of those posts I’ve linked to. But…if I’m going to use this list to any purpose (if that’s still truly possible), then the list has to grow. Which means I have to solicit (nicely) people at workshops and conferences and do something else (ideas?) to get its numbers to increase. These tasks are feeling like they’re hitting the side of the scale I call “Not my comfort zone and possibly not worth my time & energy.”

What do you think? Where are newsletters falling these days in the marketing world, in terms of popularity and effectiveness? If you send out a newsletter, how are you feeling about it? I’d love to hear what you include, how often you send it out, and whether (and why) you feel it’s a useful marketing tool. If you don’t send a newsletter, do you still keep a mailing list and how do you use it? If you’re a reader of newsletters…why? 🙂 What is it you like about them and what makes you sign up for one and keep reading it when it comes? And if you’re someone who does whatever possible to avoid getting a newsletter, please share that, too.

Thanks again, all, for letting me pick your brains and poll your thoughts! And a happy, productive week to you all, this Monday!

Posted in Marketing

Marketing Monday: How Do You Feel about Handouts?

Posted on by beckylevine

So I’ve got a few things setup for the year–talks at some local writing clubs and a couple of conferences. I’ll be spending a little time this month looking into some 2011 scheduling–it always blows me away how early you have to get on top of this stuff, but it doesn seem like a reality. Overall, though, I’m feeling pretty good about the marketing work I’ve done for The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide,  in terms of “live appearances.”

What I’m not so sure about is the kind of handouts, if any, I should be bringing along with me.

True confessions: I am not a handout person, in terms of being on the receiving end. I don’t use bookmarks; I just pretty much remember where I’m at when I close a book. I don’t pick up flyers at workshops, except to read them and put them down again for someone else to take away with them. I’ll take a business card if someone hands it to me, but too often it ends up in the laundry or in a pile that I don’t ever get to sorting through and organizing.

On the other hand, when I’m talking marketing with other writers or reading their blogs/tweets online, I get the impression I may be in the minority. And that I’m not doing myself or my book any good assuming that other people think/respond like me on this.

So…your take, please. As readers-when you’re at a writing event or a bookstore signing, and there are various and sundry marketing materials being handed out or displayed attractively on tables, what do you pick up? What do you take home & actually use, or hand on to someone else as a piece of information you think they need? If someone was going to hand you a single something, what would you like it to be? And–writers–what pieces have you had the most success with, at least in terms of their disappearing from your stack and needing to be replaced.

  • A fun, colorful bookmark with a picture of the book on it, a few choice, descriptive words, and the author’s website url
  • A pen or pencil, also colorful, with the title of the book & the author’s name
  • A postcard with information about the book, but also detailed contact info for the author (email, blog, website)
  • A flyer that tells you about the book & any services that author may provide to other writers (editing, school appearances, workshops)
  • A basic, simple business card

In other words, I guess, are you more interested in getting a lot of information, or would you rather have something bright & cheerful that doesn’t overload you with details? And, since I guess the point of this is to spread the word, which would you be more likely to take a few of and pass around to your friends?

Everybody has the marketing tasks they enjoy & the ones they’re not so crazy about. I think this is one of the latter kind for me–I haven’t yet worked out what I’m supposed to DO with these things when I’ve got them with me, or if/how I should be distributing them around the world, without being present to hand them out in person.

Please leave all & any thoughts in the comments. And if any of you have found THE PERFECT COMPANY (aka quality and not-too-scary quantity at a reasonable price), I’d love it if you’d drop in that info with your comment.

Thanks again, for helping me benefit from the true power of the Internet…you guys. 🙂

Posted in Blog Contest, Blogging, Blogs, Marketing, Promotion, The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide

Marketing Monday: Setting Up a Blog Tour & Adding a New Blog Feature

Posted on by beckylevine

Before I get down to business today, I want to show you a few of my favorite books.

Wait, what’s that one out in front? Is it…? It is! Yes, two copies of The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide showed up at my house this weekend. Did I mind the rain and gray skies? Not after that delivery, I didn’t!

Okay, so if the book is here, this means I should get back to my marketing to-do list and get some things checked off. The book is due out January 15th, but I’ll have some copies before then that I can, and want to, use for marketing. I’d like to set up a blog tour for January…with giveaways! I’m keeping this simple, just hoping to visit a few blogs and let people know about my book, share some thoughts about critiquing and critique groups. If you’d like your blog to be a stop on the tour, I’d love to come by. I think interviews are fun, because I can talk about what you and your blog readers want to hear, but I can also do a guest post if that’s easier for you.

If you’d like to host me at your blog, please send me an email at beckylevine@ymail.com

The other thing I’m looking to do is add a new, probably monthly, feature to my blog in 2010. I’d like to host you, if you’ve got a story about a critique group or experience to share. (Obviously, I don’t want posts that are just rants or vents, but I’m definitely open to learning-experience stories as well as the more positive kind!) And if you’ve got a book out or coming out that you’d like to promote, I’ll include pictures and links to let people know about it. You can also donate a copy of an ARC or published book, if you’d like me to run a contest.

Again, if you’d like to guest blog here with your critique story, please email me at beckylevine@ymail.com

Next post, back to our regular, random programming.

Posted in Marketing, Promotion, The Writing Path

If it’s September, it Must be M…m…marketing?!

Posted on by beckylevine

Well, not yet. For pete’s sake, people, the book doesn’t come out until January. But I’ve read enough about book promotion to know that you don’t wait for the book release to get started. And the one date that has been floating in my head for a while is October—the month I’m supposed to talk with the manager at Books Inc in Palo Alto about my launch party. He sends a newsletter out in November, so he/I/we want it on the calendar by then.

And October isn’t that far away.

I’m not diving in deep yet. But I do want to at least start work on a list of to-dos and check that list for my Comfort Level Inventory, as the brilliant ladies at Shrinking Violet Promotions call it. Because we can’t do everything we want, or even everything we think we’re supposed to. And I want to have as much fun as I can with this part of the writing path, not spend all my energy on all the “shoulds” so very accessible to all us worriers.

So this week I start on the list. I’m going through ALL the blog post headers over at SVP, browsing for the helpful tips I’ve read before. And I’m going back to BubbleStampede, too, for all the great ideas Laura and Fiona put up in their year of blogging. You remember, the ones Laura talked about in her interview.

There are some things that I pretty much know won’t show up on the list right away. Like a trailer. I had some ideas, and I may get to them further into 2010, but I know that the visual is not my strength and there are a whole lot of twists and turns down that path that will take some serious quiet time for me to figure out. (I can hear you all now, Oh, come on, Becky, you can TOTALLY do a trailer. And I say back to you, Maybe. We’ll see. Now go away.) Some promotion I’ll be doing through Writer’s Digest, and I think it’s better not to overlap much on that stuff.

But things like:

  • Local launch party
  • Blog interviews
  • Review copies
  • Bookmarks (Are these still a good giveaway, with all the e-readers out there? I mean, think about that.)
  • Updating my profiles on different sites
  • Stockpiling chocolate

Yes, those will all be on the list. And more. Hopefully, you guys will find this part of the journey interesting, because I’m pretty sure I’ll be blogging about it now and again. And again. As the panic rises.

It’s sure to be quite a ride. 🙂

Posted in Blog Contest, Marketing, Promotion

Marketing Interview (& Contest) with Laura Purdie Salas

Posted on by beckylevine

In September of 2008, Laura Purdie Salas joined up with Fiona Bayrock to explore marketing and PR possibilities for two of their picture books that were being published the next year: Salas’ Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of Schooland Bayrock’s Bubble Homes and Fish Farts. And they decided to do this exploration publicly—at their LiveJournal community, Bubble Stampede. Over the next months, the two authors discussed their marketing goals, their fears, and their plans.

I asked Laura if she’d do an interview here, to talk about what some of those plans were, how they year and the release went, and which ideas worked better than others. Happily, she said, “Yes.” Read all the way through—Laura has provided a TON of specific, practical information.

And leave a comment. I’ll enter you all in a drawing for Laura’s book Stampede! I’ll draw the winner next Wednesday, September 2.

And on to the interview.

BL: How did you and Fiona hook up? What made the two of you decide to work on your marketing plans together?

LPS: When I posted one or two Marketing Monday posts on my personal blog, I told readers that I’d be sharing my book promotion journey. Fiona Bayrock and I knew each other from being on the NFforKids Yahoo group, and she emailed me to suggest we join forces and do a joint blog. I thought that was a fantastic idea and said, “Yes, let’s!”

BL: Why did you decide to do the planning publicly, on the community blog?

LPS: Well, I had a nice motive and an ulterior motive. The nice motive was that I like to share stuff on my blog, when possible, that is information and that’s hard information for beginners to find. My ulterior motive was that by sharing my promotion tasks, I’d be promoting my book, of course. Also I hoped to get feedback and ideas from some writers who were more experienced than me. And we did! Finally, I thought being public about it would help make me accountable and keep me on track.

BL: What were your biggest/basic marketing goals for Stampede!?

LPS: Here’s the list I was working from.

Interview/Reviews

  • Contact local media (personally & also through publisher’s publicist). Do again in summer with a back-to-school angle
  • Approach blog reviewers about sending review copy (give list to publicist)

ONLINE

  • Create a STAMPEDE website and give it some presence on my website
  • Create “billboard presence”—my word for a static online site/page that you don’t have to change a lot—on Facebook, Linked In, MySpace, Ning, etc
  • Update Flapjacket, Children’s Literature Network, and other sites that list my books
  • Do an ongoing marketing blog with Fiona Bayrock

Events

  • Book launch
  • Local book events with another author?
  • Attend IRA (International Reading Association) in May this year, here, in Minneapolis
  • Possibly attend ALA (American Library Association) in Chicago
  • Try to arrange to speak at some conferences in 09

Reaching out to Teachers/Booksellers

  • Teacher’s guide
  • Reader’s theatre
  • Authorless event kit? (A set of online materials a bookstore can print out to create a fun storytime with reading, activities, maybe a craft…all without too much work on the bookseller’s part and no in-person visit from the author.)

Reaching out to the Press

  • Create an online press kit
  • Update my bios
  • Create some resource materials (10 Great Back-to-School books, 10 Terrific Poetry Books, etc.) to share in press materials and also on Amazon
  • Write a back-to-school piece for news wire

Name Recognition

  • Guest-teach a couple of classes in the Whidbey Island Writers Association
  • Serve on poetry panel for CYBILS awards
  • Write a bi-monthly poetry column for Kid Magazine Writers
  • Attend local book club with media specialists, kidlit profs, and children’s book buyer for the entire Minneapolis metro area as members, etc
  • Anything that can bet my name in front of people and where I can slide a mention of Stampede! in there

Miscellaneous Stuff

  • Book trailer
  • Blog campaign to get people to request that their library buy a copy of the book
  • Have promotional items made
  • Campaign contacts to review the book on Amazon and B&N
  • Mail press kit to local media
  • Have postcards made as soon as cover is final and start handing them out now!

Mailings

  • Start updating contact list so that I can do mailing to schools, libraries, independent booksellers, and personal contacts

BL: What were your marketing fears?

LPS: In-person events scared me the most. I was losing sleep about a book launch. The idea made me so nervous. The other big fear was just that everything would fall flat. The more you put into it, the harder you try, the bigger our humiliation is if it all falls flat.

BL: Where and how did you gather your initial ideas about what a marketing plan might include?

LPS: The fantastic blog Shrinking Violet Promotions was a great starting point for me. Also, I had been saving emails and articles and all sorts of stuff for years in a folder marked Promotion. It was a “someday” folder…and someday came, and I really did use a lot of that information!

BL: What marketing to-dos went on your original list of things to focus on?

LPS:

  • Contacting the publicity department at my publisher
  • Building the microsite for Stampede!
  • Creating the book trailer
  • Figuring out a book launch

BL: Did you accomplish that whole list?

LPS: I did do all the stuff on that short list, though I ended up doing an online launch. It was a ton of work, but it was also lots of fun. The launch happened in April, but all the activities and comments are still live here.

BL: What was the best thing about marketing your book?

LPS: That’s a tough question, since marketing doesn’t come easily to me. Um…One was that putting so much effort into this really made me appreciate the value of my book. I risked my time, energy, money, and pride, knowing I might not get something in return—but felt like my book was worth it. Two was that by putting a lot of visible effort into Stampede!,I made my publisher aware that I was willing and able to promote my book. And that in turn made my publisher more willing to promote my book, like by sending me to ALA Chicago (and Texas TLA—Texas Library Association—next spring). This is a lot of money to spend on an unknown author, and I think (though I don’t know for sure) that my own promotion efforts indirectly lead to this.

So much stuff we do in marketing has no immediate, tangible result, so it’s hard to evaluate. But I do think impressing your publisher as a busy, effective marketer can only help!

BL: What was the hardest thing about marketing your book?

LPS: Handing out postcards or flyers or whatever at conferences—that is just so not me. Even as I’ve gotten more confident and a little more experienced, I’m still not comfortable with this. OH! And the other hardest part was in bookstore/signing events. Some were better organized than others, and some resulted in a few book sales. But I do not have a salesperson’s personality, and three hours out of too many Saturdays resulting in three books sold just got kind of old.

BL: With the book launched and “out there,” and looking back, is there something you now see as a must-do for writers?

LPS: If you’re not 100% comfortable with marketing, partnering up with another writer with a new book out is what I would consider a must-do! Teaming up with Fiona Bayrock for some online promotion at Bubble Stampede pushed me to do more. And for in-person events, which are what really intimidate me, teaming up with Dara Dokas (Muriel’s Red Sweater) was such a wonderful thing for me. The other must-dos, I think, are:

  • A website or section of a website devoted just to your book
  • Teacher-support materials (reading guide, reader’s theater, etc.)
  • Getting your book into the hands of reviewers (both print and blog)
  • Increasing your visibility in the writing community—don’t always focus on just one book; the more visible YOU are, the more people will recognize your name and hopefully check out your book(s)
  • Make postcards and/or business cards featuring your book cover and hand them out freely

There are a few things I never got to on my list, mostly because I ran out of time.

  • I never did any mailings
  • in-person launch (fear factor, more than time factor)
  • More billboard presence for my book on various online platforms

BL: Are there any other recommendations you’d give to writers whose book will be published in the next year?

LPS: I know I said bookstore events weren’t that successful for me. But it’s great to do them to build relationships with your local booksellers. I’m doing a reading at Red Balloon Bookshop in October, but they also hooked me up with an event at a minor league baseball game and recommended me to a school looking for (paid) author event. Booksellers have all kinds of connections with schools and organizations, so it’s smart to make them aware of you, your book, and what you might have to offer.

Start early. Some of this stuff takes a ton of time! And bookstores and other venues plan events for the future.

Don’t beat yourself up. I did as much as I could for Stampede!. I wanted to learn what works best for me. I didn’t get to everything, but I tried to just be proud of what I did do. And with my next book, I’ll be more selective, concentrating on the kinds of things that worked well the first time around.

Posted in Blogging, Guest Blogger, Marketing, Promotion, SCBWI, Social Networking

Guest Bloggers: Mary Hershey & Robin LaFevers from SVP

Posted on by beckylevine

Shrinking Violet Promotions is one of my favorite blogs. I discovered it soon after I started blogging, and I’ve been a regular reader since. Mary & Robin are encouraging, enthusiastic, and seriously GET how tough it can be for writers to get out there and market themselves and their books. So, obviously, I was very happy when they accepted my invitation to guest blog here.

Ladies and Gentlemen, pull up a chair, get out your notebooks, and listen up!

PRE-Marketing: Seven Important Things You Can Do Before You Sell Your Book, by the Shrinking Violets, Robin LaFevers & Mary Hershey.

Is it ever too early to start marketing? We’re betting the answer to this question depends on who you ask. Editors, agents, and authors will likely all have different perspectives. And, of those groups, it is likely that it depends on whether you ask an introvert or extrovert.

Robin and I have thought long and hard about this question as it has pertained to our own writing path, and the path of our readers at Shrinking Violets. As a generalization, introverts are more likely to want to remain in the wings until show-time. (Some of us would prefer to stay in the wings beyond that!) 🙂

One of the things to remember about marketing is that it’s really about connecting; connecting to a community of readers or writers or booksellers. As a pre-published author, one of the best things you can do is to begin to build those community relationships. The cool thing about starting before publication is that you will comfortably know these people by the time your first book sale is made, and it won’t feel stiff and in-your-face to mention it to them, it will make sense. The good news is, it’s never been easier. Between blogging and all the social network sites, it’s easy to begin tapping into those communities and building connections.

If it feels more comfortable, start off in those communities identifying yourself as a reader; most writers are avid readers first and foremost, and that can feel like a safer place to start from. Follow librarians’ blogs, “friend” indie bookstores and your favorite authors on MySpace, join book discussions with others about your favorite books. Follow your favorite authors’ blogs and comment, fer gawd’s sake. (They will not know you are there if you don’t comment!) Begin your own blog. At first, you can simply talk about your writing struggles or what you read or the authors and librarians you meet, however, at some point, it can be really smart to create a blogging niche for yourself. Something that guarantees a source of topics for you to talk about and get people coming back to your site.

Cyber Niches can be based on so many different things: Genres, Plotting, Marketing, The Industry, Gossip, Situational (ie: SAHM, writers who are actual teens, etc.), Personal Quirks, “The Call” stories, Rejection Letters, Interviews. Yes, there are lots of blogs with author interviews, but how about one that showcases booksellers or librarians. How about Reporting New Deals, or Six Degrees of Separation in publishing. (For example, did you know that Betty Groban of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is related to Josh Groban? Or that Jake and Maggie Gyllenthal’s aunt has just published a book?)

The point is to find something that interests you and begin building a community or connections around that. But don’t rely on that alone, be a good community member by participating in other communities as well. Again, the internet makes this easier than ever–and you’ll learn tons while doing it. Promise.

As a community of writing introverts, we also want to be smart and savvy about our work. We want to make sure that we take advantage of every possible opportunity, and we also want to conserve our energy for those activities that give us the biggest bang. We want to make sure that the major proportion of our personal resources goes directly to the work–to creating the best possible book we can. I believe strongly that this in itself is the most powerful marketing activity of all…writing a kick-ass book. Once that has been done, then absolutely–do whatever you can to create buzz–that enigmatic and intangible magic that gets your book into all the right hands and right places.

In the last five years, we’ve all born witness, or heard the tales of unpublished writers that have sold their work based on their mega-blogebrity status. Agents and editors have shopped them from their blog or website and offered contracts. Exciting stuff, for sure, but rare, in our opinion. The bottom line is that agents and editors are not going to come find you. You need to write a book that will find them, and grab them by their editorial lapels.

All right, all right! We promised a list–and here it is! 🙂 🙂

THE OFFICIAL SHRINKING VIOLETS PRE-MARKETING ACTIVITY LIST

  1. Meet your tribe. Get out there and start connecting with other writers. You can find them on-line and at conferences, critiques, schmoozes–follow the trail of writer bread crumbs!
  2. Join a professional writing organization like the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), the Romance Writers of America (RWA), or the Mystery Writers of America (MWA). Let the world know that you are serious.
  3. Start doing some karmic networking NOW. Become a volunteer in some reading/writing arena. DO something besides focus on getting yourself published.
  4. Dive into the classics. Read the Newbery, Caldecott, Cybil, Indie Bound award winners. Taste and savor the cream. Know exactly what you are up against. Know what the market buys. Then ignore it and go deep into your own  secret, crazy, unique place and write from there–that’s where YOUR best stuff hides.
  5. Write a fan letter to an author, or editor, or librarian or teacher or bookseller. For no purpose than to celebrate their work and thank them for their contribution to children’s literature. This is not a pitch, but an expression of appreciation with NO hook.
  6. Start designing a website or a blog if you haven’t already. Before you’ve sold something? Yep! Step into the frame of your future. Try it on for size. What would you like it to look like? Have some fun! Use this as a vision for your future. It will draw you there.
  7. Choose one thing slightly outside your comfort zone in the writing field and move toward it. Examples: finding opportunities for public speaking, doing a storytime with children, introducing yourself to the local booksellers, etc.

No matter how many dozens upon dozens of books an author or illustrator may have out–don’t ever forget that we ALL start unpublished. Remember to enjoy the whole of your journey. It’s all rich!

Posted in Contest, E-Launch, Launch Party, Marketing, Promotion

THIS is How to Do an Online Launch

Posted on by beckylevine

Launch party. What image does that phrase evoke for you? A crowded bookstore with a big, yummy cake? An author up at the front of the room doing a reading? A raffle?

I love book launches. I love to go and hang out with fans and other writers and celebrate a friend’s newest book. In a little less than a year, I hope to be launching my book and having a blast.

I also, though, am thinking about how to market that launch online. I will be doing an e-launch with/through Writer’s Digest, but I also want to make the most of any of my other online resources. So I’m starting to pay attention to how other authors are using the Internet to announce their books and get people hooked.

Cynthia Liu writes for children and teens, and her book Great Call of China has just been released. I went over to her website to check out the launch, and I am MORE than impressed. I’m going to take a few minutes and go through everything, taking notes at every step.

Go take a look yourself!

Posted in Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, The Writing Path, Webinars

Webinars…Maybe I’m Catching up with the Millenium

Posted on by beckylevine

Can you see me? Feebly waving an arm at you all, while I prop myself up against the wall? No, it’s not that bad! 🙂

I’m just being silly. I feel pretty great, actually, because I just sent the first (of two) chunks of The Critiquer’s Survival Guide off to my editor at Writer’s Digest. Happy Dance! But, yes, it’s a bit of a wimpy Happy Dance, because I am feeling just a tad brain fried. I was on deadline without any problem, but I did hit that adrenaline high that comes along with any “Do it NOW!” kind of focus. And I did stay up just a tiny bit late a night or two along the way.

So you’re not getting much of a blog today, but I did want to point you over to Jane Friedman’s post from last Tuesday. She’s talking about the series of “Webinars” that Writer’s Digest is starting this year. She lists the ones that are coming soon and gives a brief description of what you can do if you sign up for one.

This is the one I liked:

  • “Ask the presenter questions in real time”

Why am I interested, you ask? Besides the fact that these sound very cool? Well, because the current plan is for ME to do one of these webinars for the critique book. I’LL be the presenter that people can talk to. VERY exciting. Me, who has only been out of the morass of dial-up connectivity for a few months!

Anyway, check them out. I’ll be thinking and planning about all this, after I finish writing.

Posted in Marketing, Promotion, Social Networking

Social Networking: GoodReads

Posted on by beckylevine

Last month, I put up a post about various links to people “talking” about social networking. Included in the list was Martha Engber’s post about GoodReads, which included a brief discussion on how authors can use the site to market their books.

Right after I blogged about this, I signed up for GoodReads. (You can see the button to my GoodReads page over there on the right–it took me WAY longer to add that button than to complete my GR profile, BTW!) I admit, signing up was, for me, sort of an exploratory mission. I’ve never been one to catalog my books in any ways, and I was just stepping out of a review job and was looking forward to NOT writing up my opinions for a while.

Well, of course, I found myself having fun. I do like listing the books I’m reading, and I like checking out the updates I get about my Friends. I haven’t started using the site as a source for my own to-read list, but that may be because I’m knee shoulder deep in reading research books for The Critiquer’s Survival Guide right now.

The other thing I haven’t yet dug into is the marketing/promotion aspects of the site that Martha talks about.  I’m curious, though, so I spent a little time today browsing the web to see what other people think about GoodReads. The overall consensus seems to be that it’s a wonderful sort-of online book group, but there isn’t that much talk out there about using it as an author, not just a reader.

I did find a few links, in addition to Martha’s, for you to check out.

I also took a first step and browsed the GoodReads Help pages for info about the author’s program. The best thing I saw is that, yes, it’s free to set up your own page, if you’re a published author. Always a nice feature. You can list all your books (or just the ONE that’s coming out next fall!),  put up an excerpt of your writing, add y our schedule of events, and run book giveaways. 

Here are a few links to GoodReads information about how authors can use their site:

Finally, just so you can take a look at a “final” product, here’s the GoodReads Author page of one of my favorite mystery writers, Dana Stabenow.

Are you on GoodReads? How do you use it–for fun as a reader, or promotion as a writer? (Or both?) Or do you belong to one of the other book-based social networking sites–LibraryThing or Shelfari? What do you think of them? I’d love to hear your take on these sites in the comments!

Posted in Marketing, Publishing, The Writing Path

To Worry or Write? That’s the Question

Posted on by beckylevine

It seems like, for the past few weeks, I keep running across articles of doom and gloom. Now I know. I get it. The economy stinks. And it’s hitting everybody, no question. Including publishing.

Realistically, this is going to impact us as writers. And, realistically, I–for one–am capable of breaking into a cold sweat and spending way too many hours fretting about how, specifically, it may impact me.

But I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’m going to keep writing.

Yes, things are bad, but the economy, like everything else, goes up and down and–sometimes–in loop-de-loops. I am incapable of predicting how long this downfall will last or where I’ll be on my writing path when it’s over. For all I know, just as I finish my current revision or get the next book idea drafted, everything could be on an upswing and every publisher in the world will be wanting me as their author. (Okay, its a stretch, but if I’m dreaming, I might as well really dream.)

So I’m going to figure that there’s still a book market out there and that Publishing will survive and I will have a place in it. And I’m going to keep putting words on a page and networking with other writers and marketing my skill with words as a valuable commodity.

I’m not putting up any negative links in this post. Instead, I’m just going to share a couple of the ones that made me feel better today.

My sister, a home economist in Illinois, put this link up on Facebook. The article basically says that, when we freak out, we don’t do ourselves or the economy any good. I’m taking it as a prescription to stay sane.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/garden/20math.html?ex=1384923600&en=e2861f2c72869a85&ei=5124&partner=facebook&exprod=facebook

And this article shows the flip side of book sales (maybe!) going down. We all love our libraries and wish good things for them, so…

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/10/16/library_use_rises_as_economy_falls/

What about you. Got any cheerful links to post about what’s happening with books and writing and how you’re dealing with the uncertainty?