"BOLDNESS HAS MAGIC IN IT"

Pat Bertram, author or A Spark of Heavenly Fire and More Deaths Than One, is my guest Over Coffee today. Not only is Pat a wonderful storyteller, but also she is also very savvy when it comes to promotion and in particular, online promotion. What’s amazing to me is the fact Pat never had Internet until just about two years ago. She had to learn everything from scratch.

Pat is currently the administrator of several groups on Facebook and Goodreads as well as being the author of two popular blogs, Book Marketing Floozy,
http://marketingfloozy.wordpress.com/ and Bertram’s Blog http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/. There is a wealth of information in the archives of Book Marketing Floozy regarding about every aspect of promotion. I would highly recommend purusing the archives.

Pat discusses the power of boldness when doing online promotion and how to use the social networks to promote both yourself and your books. She also shares some of her magical moments with us.




Writing a book was hard. Editing it was harder, and finding a publisher even harder. Waiting for it to be released after acceptance was murderous, and now promoting the book is . . .

Ha! Bet you thought I was going to say it was hardest of all -- most authors find promoting to be an arduous task, but not me. I enjoy it. What’s not to like? I get to meet wonderful people and have wonderful conversations. I get to write articles about anything I want and post them all over the internet. I get to . . . well, those two points are enough. Or should be. My books are still so new that they haven’t developed momentum, but I do believe that social networking is an incredible tool for book promotion.

Goethe wrote, “What you can do, or dream you can, begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” So, gather a bit of boldness and begin. Join sites like Facebook and Goodreads. Add friends. Take the time to get to know people by commenting on your new friends’ content, by sharing with links to some of your new friend's articles and content. And bit by bit the magic happens.

Let me share some of the magic that has happened to me.

I had the honor of hosting Michael Palmer’s very first guest appearance on a blog. How magical is that?

I had the privilege of meeting Bruce DeSilva, the writing coach for Associated Press, who introduced me (virtually speaking) to his wonderful wife, the poet Patricia Smith. Or is it his wife, the wonderful poet Patricia Smith? Either way, a remarkable experience.

I managed to impress award-winning ad exec Marshall Karp with the way I promoted his stop at Bertram’s Blog during his blog tour. Still don’t know how I did that. I just thought I was having fun.

Through one of my Facebook discussion groups, I met Rita Schiano, who is going to interview me live on her blogtalkradio show, Talk to Me…Conversations with Creative, Unconventional People, on June 16, 2009 at 8:30pm ET. Being a bit nervous, since I have not spoken before a group of people in decades, I posted articles asking for advice on both Gather and Facebook, and I received the most wonderful tips and suggestions. So if I screw up, it’s my own fault. (One bit of advice I got is to not talk longer than 2 minutes at a time, but it’s probably the one suggestion I won’t be able to follow. I do tend to rhapsodize about social networking. As if you haven’t figured out already.)

Am I bragging? Maybe, but the truth is, I am honored to have met these people and to have shared a moment of their lives. But it would never have happened if I hadn’t created a presence on Facebook and various other social networking sites.

The key to social networking is to be social. Spamming people with mass emails is not social. Nor is setting up a profile and expecting it to run itself. You need to add friends and take time to get to know them. Update your status frequently and include interesting links so your new friends seek you out. Reward those who post great content by leaving a comment or participating in their discussions. You need to take an interest in them. It’s up to you. You can treat book promotion as an arduous task, or you can be bold, give a bit of yourself, and perhaps create magic.

What are some of the magical moments you’ve had using social networks? What tips would you share with others?
***

Pat Bertram is a native of Colorado and a lifelong resident. When the traditional publishers stopped publishing her favorite type of book -- character and story driven novels that can't easily be slotted into a genre -- she decided to write her own.


Pat's books are available for order through the Second Wind Website http://www.secondwindpublishing.com/in ebook and paperback forms. Paperbacks are also available from Amazon and in Kindle format as well.

Naysayers and Online Promotion

~Sia McKye~

There are a lot of Naysayers out there who negate the value of Online Promotion. Particularly with using social networks to create name recognition to sell their products—books. They tout other methods, proven methods formerly used in promoting books and authors. What I say to the Naysayers, is this: Times change. The basic methods of publicity/marketing remain the same but the focus of the methods has changed. To be successful you must change with the times. Or get left behind.

These days, a great deal of shopping is done online, including books, music, movies, clothes, house wares and appliances—even cars and houses. Online is a HUGE mall and that’s the way you have to look at it. No it hasn't replaced concrete stores, but that doesn't reduce the validity of online sales, or online promotion. Why?

Face it, we’re a techie generation and the technology is there, in ever-increasing numbers, to facilitate online selling and buying. Studies track how much time the average person spends online for things other than working. While I don't have the figures at my fingertips, it’s a huge block of time. Computers can do about anything a TV can—provide you with the latest news, music, TV shows, movies, and books. Cell phones can hook you to your computer and access the Internet. C’mon. The Internet isn’t going anywhere unless some catastrophe happens to eliminate it. Naysayers have to get with the times. Which is why e-Books, Print on Demand or digital technology, and traditional published books in e-book format, aren’t going to go away, no matter how many opinions there are on what constitutes a real book.

If online sales weren’t valid, why is every paper catalogue put out have an online store? Why are even major manufacturers providing an online presence and a venue to sell their products? Everyone from attorneys to roofers sell their services on line. Manufacturers from Beer to Xanax use known personalities to sell their products. These personalities and stars are known because of their activity in sports and on the silver screen—and known on the Internet. Why? Name and face recognition.

Hollywood sells their products online. Their products are stars, producers, movies, and TV shows. The music industry is the same. Just about everyone who sells something has a website. It’s real. It’s today, not yesterday.

For instance, in Hollywood of old, anything that got the actors, producers, and the name of the movie or show, in the paper was publicity. It was encouraged, it was “leaked”, it fabricated. Paparazzi are still everywhere with hopes of catching something to write about and sell on the citizens of the movie and TV industry. But now, it’s not the papers that get it first, it’s the Internet and the publicity grinders make sure their people are on the internet. It’s the same method, different focus. Actors get known on the screen by the body of their work—if that was enough we wouldn’t see them in print or on the Internet. Personalities sell products. People want to get to know something about the actors not just the shows/movies they’re in.

If you’re an author and your product is good, you are going to sell it—if people know you have a product. How are they going to know? Today, it’s the Internet. Authors have to have an Internet presence. Social networks (no doubt there will be other ways in the future) provide a way for the authors to become known and to build a readership base. If the author is a known presence, then readers will know who these authors are, may have even chatted with them online. Readers will know the books, the storylines, and release dates. Consequently, authors will have better sales both online and where ever books are sold.

I’m not discounting the other avenues such as book signing events, speaking to book clubs, newspapers, radio, and TV, but, unless you have an existing platform for it, unless you already have name recognition, this may not increase your sales appreciably. Local, versus the World Wide Web. This is especially so given our present economic situation and the money spent to do this physically. The old ways vs. profits made? Getting known on the Internet can increase your sales. It’s free. Will it give you over night success? Pfft, not usually, in fact rarely.

It takes time and work to garner success. It may not seem like you’re getting anywhere in the beginning, but this is a long-range goal. The amount of publicity also depends upon how you promote yourself as an author and it depends upon how soon you start with gaining name recognition on the Internet before your book is released. It takes a lot of focused time and work.

My thinking on it this is if you go to all the trouble and time to write a book what’s the point if you’re not going to take the time and work to sell it? Or ignore the new ways to gain name and face recognition.

To the Naysayers, I again say, times change and either you change with the times or get left behind.

Welcome to today.

Sia McKye has spent over twenty years in marketing and promotion. She's written and published various articles on writing, marketing, and promotion. She's a Marketing Rep by profession and also writes fiction.