Sticky Notes Blog

A blog of writing news, tips, and inspiration from Fat Plum

Category: Marketing and promotion

Guilt-free self-promotion, for writers and everyone

There's a great column in today's New York Times about furthering your success via self-promotion -- and not feeling embarrassed about tooting your own horn.

Marci Alboher's "Selling Yourself by Showing Yourself, in a Good Way" highlights the concerns people have about being labeled a "self-promoter" and shows how you can come to terms with the idea and promote yourself nicely.


I know my book is good, and after talking with scores of authors about what it takes to sell a book these days, I realized that if I did not convey passion and pride about my ideas, how could anyone else?

So while I might not be a fan of the terminology, I believe that self-promotion is essential in today’s competitive landscape. And this is not just true for authors. It is true for anyone who wants to get ahead when there is someone equally qualified sitting in the next office, cubicle or home office, or in India.

Posted by Cindy on August 23, 2007
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion
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Mega Online Marketing for Authors

If you missed Jamie Saloff's workshop at the Pennwriters conference, you can view her 25 Sure-Fire Ways to Promote Your Book Online by clicking here. Thanks Jamie!

Posted by Julie on May 23, 2006
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion

Writers with new websites

We're always thrilled to see writers with websites promoting their work. It is Marketing & Promotion 101 for any writer who is serious about establishing an audience and getting published. So, we're pleased to point you to the websites of two friends of Fat Plum:

K.J. Bryant's site (designed by our own Cindy Closkey!) promotes her upcoming book Journeys: 50,000 Miles of Wise Women. Go on and sign up for her free monthly e-newsletter. Better yet, join her Buzz Team and help convince publishers that there's an audience for her wonderful book about women who transformed their lives.

Val Brkich's website promotes his children's and YA books, his various writing services and a selection of topics he can speak on. You can also link to his very funny blog, Pure Nonsense. Val has pure marketing sense in our book!

Do you have a new website? Let us know and we'll get the word out! Need a website? Contact Cindy Closkey at Big Big Design: Website design to turn every visitor into a customer.

Posted by Julie on April 28, 2006
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion

"Buzz Your Book" Seminar

Learn how to create a buzz about your book from best-selling author M.J. Rose. Rose will be presenting her seminar on Sunday, January 29th at 1 p.m. at Mystery Lovers Bookstore in Oakmont, PA. For more information and to register, visit the Mystery Lovers website or call 412-828-4877.

Posted by Julie on January 19, 2006
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion

VidLits --

Here's a great way to promote a book: VidLits, short and clever, even hilarious Flash animations of excerpts from recent books, read by their respective authors. The current collection includes VidLits for books by comedian/TV host Bill Mahr, post-modern novelist David Foster Wallace, cartoonist Patrick McDonnell (of the comic strip "Mutts"), Julie Powell ("Julie and Julia"), thriller writer M.J. Rose, and more.

Be sure to check out the VidLit for "Fondling Your Muse: Infallible Advice from a Published Author to the Writerly Aspirant" by John Warner -- but don't follow any of its suggestions!

Posted by Cindy on January 11, 2006
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion
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The writer as blogger

I've written before about Neil Gaiman, the author of many sci-fi and graphic novels, and how he uses his website to stay connected with fans. The Business-Standard offiers a brief but useful profile of how readers perceive his blog:

A professional writer for more than 20 years, Gaiman has been at the forefront of the revolution that has seen comics and graphic novels gain a measure of literary respectability; his Sandman series is one of the most highly regarded works in the genre. Now, his official website has a cult following that rivals his published work ?with 400,000 unique visitors per month in 2004, and close to 600,000 per month expected in 2005. Gaiman?s online journal (which forms a section of the website) is syndicated to thousands of blog readers every day, and provides treasured insights into the writer?s inspiration, style, and working method.

(Link thanks to Syntax of Things.)

Posted by Cindy on August 24, 2005
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion, Online publishing
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Case study in book marketing: The Historian Vs. The Traveler

Today's Wall Street Journal has an informative article on the marketing of summer best sellers ("How Novel Differences Shaped a Battle Between Two Best Sellers," by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, WSJ, 8/15,2005, p A1). In particular, the article foces on the reasons why one book can end up with nearly five times as many copies in print in the span of a few months. The books in question are Elizabeth Kostova's "The Historian" and John Twelve Hawks's "The Traveler." Both authors are relative unknowns. Both novels are aimed at best-seller markets, and both enjoyed strong marketing and promotional pushes from their publishers. The key difference seems to have been author participation in the promotional process.

Striking a chord with the independent booksellers, in particular, helped reach the influential readers who help set reading trends among the public. "Word of mouth is still much more important than any kind of advertising," says Laurence Kirshbaum, Chief Executive of Time Warner's book group.

Even if a book gets a good send-off from retailers, though, big-box discounters like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will swiftly ship a book back to the publisher if sales falter to make room for new titles. That can be costly. As a result, publishers are increasingly dependent on free publicity, which depends on authors making themselves available for signings, readings and media interviews.

This is where Ms. Kostova, a 40-year-old mother of three who has been working on her book for a decade, shone. She set out on a 15-city tour as soon as the book hit stores, ensuring continuous coverage in the form of feature stories in newspapers, online, and on radio and TV. She also landed a much-coveted appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America," which was broadcast on June 28.

Mr. Twelve Hawks, by contrast, is famously reclusive. He says he lives "off the grid," and neither his editor nor his agent know him well. His refusal to be interviewed or go on tour actually helped drum up prepublication publicity because "The Traveler" is about the need to preserve personal privacy. But after the book's release, his anonymity damped sales, despite what retailers say was an otherwise impressive marketing campaign by Doubleday that included a Web-based game and a two-CD promotional brochure.

Roberta Rubin, owner of The Book Stall at Chestnut Court in Winnetka, Ill., a leading independent bookseller, says people came into the store asking for "The Historian," and that didn't happen with Mr. Twelve Hawks's book. "We do a lot when a writer is coming to our store: We have a window display, we advertise, we promote. And all of that is invaluable to selling a book," she says.

The lesson: No matter who you publisher is, how big the print run is, as an author you must expect to help shoulder the burden of getting the word out.

Posted by Cindy on August 15, 2005
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion

Promote your books on Google

Google is testing a new service called Google Print. Here's how they explain it:

Google's mission is to organize the world's information, but much of that information isn't yet online. Google Print aims to get it there by putting book content where you can find it most easily ? right in your Google search results.

How does Google Print work?
Just do a search on the Google Print homepage. When we find a book whose content contains a match for your search terms, we'll link to it in your search results. Click a book title and you'll see the page of the book that has your search terms, along with other information about the book and "Buy this Book" links to online bookstores (you can view the entirety of public domain books or, for books under copyright, just a few pages or in some cases, only the title?s bibliographic data and brief snippets). You can also search for more information within that specific book and find nearby libraries that have it.

Where do these books come from?
The book content in Google Print comes from two sources: publishers and libraries.

And that's where you come in. As an author of a book, you can submit it to the system, so that it shows up in searches. Potentially, people everywhere will be able to discover your work.

If your book was published by a company, you'll want to work with your publisher on this. The Google site offers a page of publisher information, including rights concerns and reasons why it would be smart to be included.

If you self-published your book, you're free to submit right away. Make sure you've got the book's ISBN number handy and get cracking.

Posted by Cindy on August 03, 2005
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion, Online publishing

Inbox novel: The Daughters of Freya

An intriguing idea: a fictional story played out real-time through emails, delivered straight to your mailbox in readable doses. Jane Perrone of the Guardian Unlimited describes it:

The story centres around a journalist called Samantha Dempsey, who begins to investigate a cult in California that recruits women to sleep with strangers to bring about world peace. She does so after getting a desperate email from a friend whose daughter has been inveigled into the group, known as the Daughters of Freya.

It's as though some invisible IT gremlin is bcc'ing on you on a series of juicy messages as they're sent: a "24" via email, if you like.

The story is The Daughters of Freya, written by Michael Betcherman and David Diamond. At the low, low price of $7.49 US ($9.99 Cdn), this novel is a bargain for mystery lovers -- so long as they don't mind waiting for the next chapter to arrive in their inbox.

I signed up for the free preview. While this isn't my sort of mystery -- I'm more inclined to Donald E. Westlake or Elmore Leonard -- its topical combination of sex and cults putting young women in peril will hit many readers' hot buttons.

More importantly to us at Fat Plum, this demonstrates an interesting way to get your book read. It's not traditional publishing by a long shot, but if your story is good then word of mouth will spread (and quickly on the Internet). When it comes time for you to sell your next book, publishers will be more likely to take notice.

Posted by Cindy C on April 06, 2005
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion, Online publishing

Viral ads for books becoming more common

What had been an occasionally addition to a book's ad campaign has gained more awareness: online viral "movies" promoting books:

Over the last few years, many book authors have discovered that they can increase awareness of themselves and their works by maintaining an online presence, often in the form of a blog. But until recently, the opportunity for using the web's multimedia capabilities for book promotion has been limited.

Now that is changing. With the advent of services like VidLit, which produces short, humorous, animated Flash films about books, authors have a new way to reach online readers. Because of the viral quality of online videos, some writers are finding success at the end of the broadband pipe.

"I think VidLit is such a terrific idea (because) it creates at least 60 seconds of entertainment and information about a book and allows a publisher and author to use that as a calling card for a book in a much more expansive and elaborate way," said novelist M.J. Rose, who is planning a VidLit for her novel, The Halo Effect.

(Link thanks to Adrants.)

Posted by Cindy C on April 04, 2005
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion