Marketing and Publicity Experts Answer Your Questions

Marketing Magic is hosted by the authors of
The Making of a Bestseller: Success Stories from Authors and the Editors, Agents and Booksellers Behind Them ,

The Publishing Primer: A Blueprint for an Author's Success

and the novel, Over Time, Love, Money, and Football: All the Important Things in Life.

Each of our experts will be answering the following question:

QUESTION: If an author only has $100.00 to spend to promote their book's release what would you recommend?

Answered by Paul J. Krupin    Custom Targeted PR Helping People Reach the Right Markets & the Right Media, with The Right Message www.DirectContactPR.com 

Stay local.  Be a celebrity in your own back yard first.  Figure out what it takes to be a success at home first.

Use the money for media kits, create your own news releases, do limited distribution to local media only, food and transportation.

But here's the important part -- Create an event that has a community involvement element. Get lots of people to be there when you speak. Be a show stopper.  Wow your audience -- blow them away by being remarkable at what you do. Shine by doing what you are best at.

Focus on People and Forget the Numbers.  Connect with individuals and convert them. Turn individuals into champions for you.  Learn what you can say and do that stops people in their tracks in ten to twenty seconds.

Think very specifically about what you say that turns them and that results in them on deciding to buy your books or services.

If you don't know, then you need to first pay close attention when you are speaking to them. You may need to have someone watch you and take notes or record what you say. You may even need to ask them "Why did you buy my book?" and pay close attention to the answers. In particular, you are looking for the specific statements and phrases you use when talking that absolutely rivet their attention. You must identify the emotional triggers that persuade people that they must have whatever it is you are selling.

These are your hot buttons.

Here's what I mean.

If you are driving down the highway and listening to the radio and the announcer says something that literally forces your attention off the road and you find yourself staring at the radio dial.

Your hot button has been pushed. Think again about what the announcer said that was so earthshaking that it really got your attention. It literally motivated you to take your eyes off the road and stare at those little numbers on the radio dial.

Yes, it doesn't happen that often, but when it does, it is really that good. You need to do learn how to do this yourself. This is the first step. You need to identify the hot buttons you can use to galvanize attention and get people to buy your book, or your product or your service.

It may be things you say or do individually, or when you speak in front of a group. The key is that you must know what you do and be able to repeat it again and again.

What you must then do is be sure that you've identified the right sequence of statements. You must repeat the experiment till it works just about wherever you go.

The theory is simple: If it works, do more of it. If it doesn't work, stop doing it.

So the first step - identify what works!  Start local.

Then you can place these hot buttons right into a news release.  You can do a local news release about your event and send it to local media newspapers, radio and tv) 20 days before your event.  Do it again ten days before your event.

Phone and follow up to get media to come to your event. Have media kits ready for media.  Do it.

America is a wonderful place.  300 million people.  we are homogeneous when it comes to how we respond to media stimuli.

And once you learn what it takes to be successful in one little tiny corner of the country, you can use technology as a force multiplier to repeat the same communications sequences to produce the same level of response and sales success.

And that's when it gets really interesting.

You can read more about my Hot Button theory here

Book Reviews, book publicity, book marketing

Answered by Lissa Warren VP, Senior Director of Publicity, Da Capo Press Author of The Savvy Author’s Guide to Book Publicity.

If you've published your book with a company that's large enough to have a publicist on staff, use the $100 to take that person to lunch. Use that face-time to establish a good relationship with the publicist and to find out what you can realistically expect from them, as well as how you can be helpful in the publicity process. If you're not in the same city as your publicist, spend the money on a long-distance phone call to go over the same things. Set any leftover money aside for a small thank-you gift--flowers, candy--that you can send once reviews and interviews start coming in. Publishing is a business of relationships, and establishing and nurturing your relationship with your publicist is key.

If you self-published or published with a small house that doesn't have a publicist, use the $100 to buy a book on book publicity because you are now your own publicist. And use what's left to take yourself to lunch because you're going to need your strength!

Answered by: Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Author, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T

Not spending it.  Use Amazon's perks like AuthorConnect, Wikipedia, So You'd Like Tos...., and Listmanias. 

You'll use up the $100 on postage sending out your ARCs anyway! (-:

Answered by Stacey J. Miller, S. J. Miller Communications, Total Book Promotion http://www.bookpr.com

If an author has only $100 to spend on book promotion, then they should spend their time online scouting out media outlets that would be appropriate venues for interviews. Then they should submit story ideas, through the media outlets' Web sites. Sometimes, media outlets' Web sites offer email addresses that you can use to pitch story ideas. Other Web sites provide online story submission forms. It costs nothing besides your time and energy to pitch yourself as a guest, if you use email and online story submission forms. However, producers and editors who are interested in getting more information about your topic (and about you) may well ask for a media kit and a copy of the book. Following through on media decisonmakers' interest in your story, therefore, may not be free -- but, then again, you do have $100 to spend.

Each of our experts will be answering the following question:

QUESTION: Could you describe a typical day in your life as a writer, author and marketing expert?

Answered by: Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Author, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T

Plant butt in chair in front of computer. Write. Promote. Love it.

Answered by Stacey J. Miller, S. J. Miller Communications, Total Book Promotion http://www.bookpr.com

As a book publicist, I spend each day doing a bit of everything: checking the day's news stories to see whether any current events tie into my clients' expertise; pitching stories to my media contacts by phone and email; communicating with my clients (authors and publishers) about what their needs and goals; following up on media requests for more information about my clients or to schedule interviews; staying on top of changes at media outlets; writing and refining media kits; marketing my services to prospective clients; fielding questions from first-time authors and publishers; and so forth. Since I'm a one-person company, I also have the pleasure of: making the coffee, acting as mailroom clerk, emptying the trash, acting as switchboard operator, and -- once in a great while -- taking a lunch break.

Answered by Lissa Warren VP, Senior Director of Publicity, Da Capo Press Author of The Savvy Author’s Guide to Book Publicity.

There is no such thing as a "typical" day for a book publicist, which is one of the things I love about it. I might start my day thinking I'll write a press release, pull a media list, extract quotes from some reviews, secure a couple of bookstore events, and follow-up on some galleys I sent out the previous week, but if I get an email alerting me to some breaking news that one of my authors can speak to, I have to scrap all of that and jump on the opportunity to pitch my author as an expert on the "topic du jour." And of course there are always in-house meetings--with our marketing team to coordinate efforts, with our sales team to hear how the books are performing in stores, and with our editorial board to discuss publicity potential for books we're thinking of acquiring.

Book publicity, book marketing, book reviews

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