Valerie Allen Gives You Most Inexpensive Promotion in your Marketing Campaign

Business Cards

by

Valerie Allen

A “must have” for every professional author is a business card with contact information. No one should ever wonder who you are or how to get in touch with you! The objective is to provide information about you and your books, yet keep your business card uncluttered. Have a mix of text and graphics, but remember white space is a good thing.

Minimal information on your business card includes:

1.  Your name

2. Book title

3. Email address

4. Web page

Additionally, you may include the ISBN, a post office box, or FAX number for direct book sales. To avoid unexpected company, do not use your physical address on your business card.

     The reverse side of your business card can be used for     marketing and other information. Suggestions include:

1. Your photo

2. Book covers

3. Your 25 word pitch

4. A tag line from your book

5. List of your other books

6. Social media links, ie, Facebook, Linked In, Twitter

7. Code number for a discount if ordering directly from you

A low-budget idea is to rubber stamp a small picture that coincides with your book or your name on your card. Craft shops have hundreds of unique stamps with letters, numbers, symbols, plants, animals, smiley faces, etc.

Business cards will likely be the least expensive item in your marketing plan, but the most versatile. Keep them in your car, wallet, purse, briefcase, home, and office. Use several of them as bookmarks in each of your books.

Begin to collect business cards for creative ideas, author networking, building resources, and collecting email addresses.

#

Valerie Allen is an author, playwright, and speaker. She has published fiction, non-fiction, short stories, plays, and children's books. Her popular book, used at writer conferences is, 'Write, Publish, Sell!: Quick, Easy, Inexpensive Ideas for the Marketing Challenged 2^nd Ed.' She also sponsors two book fairs each year in her home state of Florida. Valerie can be reached at:

VAllenWriter@gmail.com   and   ValerieAllenWriter.com

-----
 Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

What To Do to Jumpstart Book Sales!

Book Sales Getting Musty?

Adapted from the multi award-winning Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) Aslo available on Kindle

 

In the world of publishing as in life, persistence counts. Of course, there is no way to keep a book at the top of the charts forever, but if you keep reviving it, you might hold a classic in your hands. Or your marketing efforts for one book may propel your next one to greater heights.

 

I can’t tell you how often I’ve seen authors who measure their success by book sales give up on their book (and sometimes on writing) just about the time their careers are about ready to take off. I tell my students and clients to fight the it’s-too-late-urge.

 

Publicity is like the little waves you make when you toss pebbles into a lake. The waves travel, travel, travel and eventually come back to you. If you stop lobbing little stones, you lose momentum. It’s never too late and it’s never too early to promote. Rearrange your thinking. Marketing isn’t about a single book. It’s about building a career. And new books can build on the momentum created by an earlier book, if you keep the faith. Review the marketing ideas in this book, rearrange your schedule and priorities a bit, and keep at it.

 

Here are a few keep-at-it ideas from the second edition of The Frugal Book Promoter:

• Run a contest on your Web site, on Twitter, or in your newsletter. Use your books for prizes or get cross-promotion benefits by asking other authors for books; many will donate one to you in trade for the exposure. Watch the 99 Cent Stores for suitable favors to go with them.

 

Hint: Any promotion you do including a contest is more powerful when you call on your friends to tell their blog visitors or Facebook pals about it.

 

• Barter your books or your services for exposure on other authors’ Web sites.
• Post your flier, brochure, or business card on bulletin boards everywhere: In grocery stores, coffee shops, Laundromats, car washes, and bookstores.
• Offer classes in writing to your local high school, college, or library system. Publicizing them is easy and free. When appropriate, use your own book as suggested reading. The organization you are helping will pitch in by promoting your class. The network you build with them and your students is invaluable. Use this experience in your media kit to show you have teaching and presentation skills.
• Slip automailers into each book you sell or give away for publicity. Automailers are envelopes that are pre-stamped, ready to go. Your auto mailer asks the recipient to recommend your book to someone else. Your mailer includes a brief synopsis of your book, a picture of the cover of your book, your book’s ISBN, ordering information, a couple of your most powerful blurbs, and a space for the reader to add her handwritten, personal recommendation. Make it clear in the directions that the reader should fill out the form, address the envelope, and mail it to a friend. You may offer a free gift for helping out, but don’t make getting the freebie too tough. Proof-of-purchase type schemes discourage your audience from participating.
• Send notes to your friends and readers asking them to recommend your book to others. Or offer them a perk like free shipping, gift wrap, or small gift if they purchase your book for a friend. That’s an ideal way to use those contact lists you’ve been building.
• While you’re working on the suggestion above, put on your thinking cap. What directories have you neglected to incorporate into your contact list? Have you joined any new groups since your book was published? Did you ask your grown children for lists of their friends? Did you include lists of old classmates?
• Though it may be a bit more expensive than some ideas in The Frugal Book Promoter, learn more about Google’s AdWords and AdSense and Facebook's ad program. Many authors of niche nonfiction or fiction that can be identified with often-searched-for keywords find this advertising program effective.
• Check out ad programs like Amazon’s Vine review service. You agree to provide a certain number of books to Amazon and pay them a fee for the service. Amazon arranges the reviews for you. It’s expensive, but it gets your book exposed to Amazon’s select cadre of reviewers who not only write reviews for your Amazon sales page but also may start (or restart!) a buzz about your book.
• Some of your reviews (both others’ reviews of your book and reviews you’ve written about others’ books) have begun to age from disuse. Start posting them (with permission from the reviewer) on Web sites that allow you to do so. Check the guidelines for my free review service blog at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com.
• Connect and reconnect. Start reading blogs and newsletters you once subscribed to again. Subscribe to a new one. Join a writers’ group or organization related to the subject of your book.
• Record a playful message about your book on your answering machine.
• When you ship signed copies of your book, include a coupon for the purchase of another copy for a friend—signed and dedicated—or for one of your other books. Some distributors insert fliers or coupons into your books when they ship them for a fee.
• Adjust the idea above to a cross-promotional effort with a friend who writes in the same genre as you. He puts a coupon for your book in his shipments; you do the same for him in yours.
• Win an award (win, place or show!) and promote it like crazy--promote it everywhere!
• Use the fun little QR codes on your business cards and other promotional material.
• Explore the opportunities for speaking on cruise ships. Many have cut back on the number of speakers they use, but your area of expertise may be perfect for one of them. I tried it, but found ship politics a drawback. Still many authors like Allyn Evans who holds top honors in Toastmasters and Erica Miner have used these venues successfully. For help with the application process from beginning to end, contact Daniel Hall at speakerscruisefree.com.

 

-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Getting Submission Protocol Right

This is from the regular Q&A a la Ann Landers column in my SharingwithWriters newsletter. I used to edit her column (make it fit into available space) when I was a staff writer for The Salt Lake Tribune back in the days of the dinosaurs and love this format for learning about life--and that includes just about everything. (-:

Getting Submission Protocol Right

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Question:

Dearest Carolyn, I am designing a new business card to send to editors that will be attached to the top of my manuscripts when I submit them. I would like to know if the correct title under my name should be "Writer?" or "Novelist?" Thank you for your help. I appreciate it so much! Your newsletter was full of wonderful information. I enjoyed it and look forward to the next one with great anticipation!. Hope you are having a good week.

Sincerely, Kae Kleinman (student from Eve Caram's UCLA class).

Answer:

Kae, sounds as if you need The Frugal Book Promoter. Though a business card is OK, you need a cover letter or query letter with your manuscript and you didn't mention that. The Frugal Book Promoter or the chapter on query letters in The Frugal Editor (www.budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor) will keep you from doing something that will mark you as an amateur. I take it your book is a novel. You should follow each publisher's or agent's submission instructions exactly. That probably means you won't send the whole manuscript.

If you want to slip a card into the package, fine. But don't attach it to the manuscript. And, I'd use "novelist" if that's what you're shopping and not a whole range of genres which is  what the generic term "writer" connotes.

Having said that, you can probably get by without a business card--at least for this purpose. Maybe you'll want to wait for a bit. Say until you have a great Web site page or a blog that showcases your platform.

Hope this helps.

CHJ

 -----

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Business Cards Are Mini Advertisements for Writers

Business Cards for the Age of Tech and You
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

The LA Times just headed an article "Business cards get filed under obsolete.'" I'm hoping none of my author friends read it, but just in case, here is my rant. They said that young people especially think that now we have e-mail (and, yes, I presume e-mail signatures!) business cards are redundant.

I remember back in the 70s (hippie days, remember?) when my husband and I opened our retail shops. We thought business cards were too, well—hoity toity. We were wrong then and whoever these "young people" are—well, they're wrong now.

Yes, more business is being done by e-mail. And yes we do have e-mail signatures (though most business correspondence I see doesn't do a good job with branding or information in their signatures. In fact they don't do as well as most business cards I see!).

Yes, people can easily punch details into their iPhones when they want to keep information. But business cards can be (should be as far as I'm concerned!) more than a way to exchange phone numbers. They should be mini advertisements. That phone number in someone's iPhone will not sell a book, but a business card with your book cover, a blurb, and maybe even a little award logo on it sure can. And it can do it more than once. It can remind people of you now and every time they run across that card in the future.

I am so convinced, I've included a little section on designing effective business cards and ideas for how to use them in The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo). Here's but one quick example:

I spoke at the Book Publicists of Southern California meeting  last month. There are usually 50 to 100 people at these meetings. What a shame if I let that kind of opportunity pass by just speaking and then saying "See you all later." Of course! Business cards! They will appear magically near each attendee's dinner plate. And yes, they have my book cover, an endorsement from Dan Poynter, and a USA Book News award-winner logo on them. And essential ordering information, of course.

 (By the way, there is a list of my appearances--most of them free--in my Sharing with Writers newsletter. Anyone who would like to sign up need only send me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and I'll do it for them.) 

I use business cards when I travel, too. They are crucial for those doing business in China, as an example, and yes people there still respect them enough to present them with both hands. People who think everyone lives and breathes by their smartphones are just as out of touch as those who ignore them in their marketing plans. Business cards are complementary to apps and other digital marketing, not an anachronism.

Some of you may remember when everyone thought that TV would make radio obsolete. It didn't. Radio just evolved. So will business cards. And in the meantime, I hope you won't let the opportunities they offer pass you by.

To for resources on business cards and you may want to subscribe to Reno Lovison's blog, www.businesscardtobusiness.com/blog. 

-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second ediction of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Is This YOUR Web Site or Bookmark Faux Pas?

I recently spoke at a writers' club and, of course, came back with a stack of business cards and bookmarks. I am giving all those authors applause for having cards or bookmarks, but after visiting their Web sites I was so disappointed!

Many of them had no way to contact the author. Their main Web site page is only a marketing page and the link takes visitors directly to a sell page on Amazon or elsewhere). One didn't even include a review. None included a media room. 

This kind of inaccessibility violates one of the most important Web site rules for authors.  It appears on one of the first pages of The Frugal Book Promoter. That is: " Don't pretend that people have come to your Web site only to buy a book."
A free page at AuthorsDen.com is better than something like this. AD doesn't have the ability to offer a media room per se, but an author could just offer a media kit using e-mail.

But more heinous even than no media room is that there was no way to reach the author. Sometimes there was no e-mail address even on their business card!

Authors! These are your READERS. Or your future readers. Let's treat them with respect. If you are one of those who are doing this for security reasons, for heaven's sake, get an e-mail address separate from your personal one. Put it on you business cards, bookmarks, Web site and everywhere else you can. Your readers will respond with book sales and with compliments that can be used as blurbs or endorsements.



-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Mini Promoting Tip for Writers

Here's a small tip from The Frugal Book Promoter. Don't use business cards the way the world of business uses business cards. Make yours into mini ads instead. Feature your book cover picture and then include an assortment these marketing tools:

~A blurb or endorsement.
~Any awards you've won.
~A logline (pitch) similar to what movies use to entice you to buy a ticket.
~Goes without saying your Web site address.
~Some prefer to keep their e-mail addresses a secret. Personally, I'd rather make it easy for opportunities to come to me.


In other words, make your business cards work for you. Of course, they won't work for you if you don't give them out. Janet Elaine Smith has even been known to leave a couple in public bathrooms near the vase of flowers.

PS: Use both sides of the card. Do a special offer on the back side. Or let people know how they will benefit from your service or book.



-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.

If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widge to let them know about it:

The Skinny on Business Cards for Writers

I admit it. When I opened my first retail store in the 70s, I thought of business cards as too officious for my branding--you know, something that CEOs handed out, though I'm not sure they even called them CEOs back then. How wrong I was. Business Cards are essential and even if you're branding isn't . . . mmmm . . . corporate, there are lots of ways you can jazz them up.

Then I became so firmly convinced that business cards are a must, I suggested that authors use them in The Frugal Book Promoter (http://www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo).

The thing is, it never occurred to me there was so much to say and know about business cards until I met Reno Lovison, author of Turn Your Business Card Into Business (www.businesscardtobusiness.com). Of course, he knows that business cards are still woefully underutilized in everything from the retail environment to their use by authors and other artists. And that they're often designed poorly for their purpose.

Mine, as an example, may be designed poorly. They are more like cramped mini advertisements that include my books' images, their awards and even little blurbs (or endorsements). None of that corporate well-designed, lots-of-space look. Right or wrong, I know they work and recommend them to other authors in my UCLA Writers' Program classes and in my books.

Reno hasn't seen my cards but it iterates my thinking when he says, "Think about it. Your business card--if properly designed--is like a small advertisement. You probably see the value of advertising in a newspaper or magazine or on the web where we often speak of “impressions.” That is to say how often the printed ad has influenced or made an impression on a potential customer.

A business card is no different. It is an opportunity to make an impression on a customer. If your customer [or reader] takes the card and looks at it three more times in the course of the week that is three more impressions. Three more times that she is reminded of your business."

Reno's chapter on communications strategy is a perfect tutorial in helping people consider their branding when designing a business card. And you've heard me talk branding, I know. On my blog. In my books. Everywhere I can. Authors, in fact, are their own brand but we still have to think about what that constitutes before making marketing decisions.

Reno also reminds folks:

1. "A card is a better way to advertise than many others because it will probably be seen more than once and is far less expensive per impression."
2. "Do not be concerned that the customer will eventually dispose of the card. Customers eventually throw away their newspapers, magazines , flyers and e-mail too."
3. "Distribute your cards to friends, family and people you meet. Enlist others to be your sales staff by providing them with additional cards."

Per card (and even better, per impression), business cards are very nearly free advertising. You can learn more about business card marketing in Reno's book at www.businesscardtobusiness.com and in The Frugal Book Promoter.

Oh, I should have said this earlier, but business cards are not just for writers with published books or for freelance writers. They're also for new writers. One of the biggest psychological hurdles we writers must overcome is beginning to think of ourselves as writers. Having a card with our name and the title "Writer" beneath it is a tangible beginning for that process.

-------
Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a former New York publicist for the world of fashion. Though she eschewed business cards when she first founded and operated her own chain of gift stores she has come around and now offers them liberally for all of her books—from her novel, to her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers to A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques at www.budurl.com/RetailersGuide. Her Web site is www.howtodoitfrugally.com.
-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.

A Neat Affirmation of an Old Marketing Principle

I can't resist telling you about the fun thing that happened on my vacation. It is a little more bloggy and a little less like an article than my usual posts but none-the-less it was a memorable event AND it illustrates one of the marketing principles I have the most trouble getting across to my clients. It's hard because everyone naturally wants to see results from their efforts and pinpoint them.

So here is the story:

I took a short cruise from Long Beach (near Los Angeles) to Mexico. On the last night I was stopped on the way out of the dining room by a young mother. She had two daughters in tow along with the others from one of those tables that seats ten.

"Are you an author?" she says. "My daughter says she thinks she knows you."

Of course like any good author (and marketer) I wanted to know how her daughter knew me. The girl, who was about 15, couldn't remember; she just knew she knew me.

Like any good marketer (and author), I told her that she is just the age bracket I am most interested in reaching with This Is the Place because I hope young women will see that even a short time ago things were not so good for women. I also hope that it will inspire them to reach for the gold when it comes to their own futures. I even had a couple business cards (mine are designed more like mini ads) in my purse and gave some to her and her friends.

Now, I know many of you have this happen to you all the time. Janet Elaine Smith, for instance. She recently moved from South Dakota where she was a real Star with a capital "s" in her community. In Los Angeles we have thousands of stars and, trust me, one writer with silver hair doth not a dent (or an impression!) make.

If you haven't had a similar experience, I just want you to know it is great. Not because of fame, but because it is an affirmation (one that could actually be identified) that promotion does work.

And for those of you who have had a similar experience, this is my plea to subscribe to my Sharing with Writers newsletter and to then share your secrets for making promotion work. I only wish my young new -- ahem! . . . fan, could have helped me identify the one specific thing I did that had made a difference. The fact that she couldn't emphasizes the point I keep making. Marketing is almost never one project. It is the accumulation of all you do that eventually makes a difference.

So yes, Keep promoting! And yes, writing and editing, too!

Best,
Carolyn

PS: Here is a picture from Mexico. I love traveling. Everything about it! Right down to the biology and rocks. This was a mango bush (tree?) with little pubescent fruits on it. (Those who read this newsletter in plain text will need to go to my blog, www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com) to see it.)


PSS: Don't forget that Patrika Vaughn, Allyn Evans and I are teaming up to present a free teleseminar titled "How To Write Your Life Story." to writers who want to tell their own stories, as memoir or as fiction. It is for genealogists, journalers and story tellers everywhere. Writers are invited to listen and come prepared with their questions at noon on July 12th EST. Call 1-218-936-7999. When prompted use this access code: 390175. If asked, participants may need this pin number: 2823.
The teleconference will be available as a podcast afterward at:
 Authors' Coalition, www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress/podcasts_&_radio.htm
 The ACapella Publishing site, www.acapella.com/
 Allyn Evans' site, www.allynevans.com
 On Allyn's Queen Power site, www.queeenpower.com .
 And on Carolyn's Resources for Writers page at www.howtodoitfrugally.com
Those with questions may contact Patrika at acappub@aol.com. Please put it on your calendar!
-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal." Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.

Q&A a la Ann Landers: Becoming Known As an Expert

Question:

Publicist Mindy Phillips Lawrence asks:

I have a client who is an academic. Do you have any suggestions to help him with being viewed as an expert by the press and others in the publishing world?

Answer: You client's website should tout him as an expert in specific fields, areas of study, etc. Authors can do that by being sure that their awards are listed and that they have a media room and that they have a page that lists seminar and workshop topics. Check out my site and snoof (yes, I make up words!) around. I'm serious. I'd direct you to one page but I've used methods of doing this throughout the site. Endorsements. Places where I've already served as an expert. There's even a video so people who might use me can see that I'm full of information but also pretty casual. So your job is to analyze those things and see how they might apply to anyone who wants to position himself as an expert.

And then there is our new Authors' Coalition speakers' bureau and others (far more expensive) where he can become listed. Once listed, tell him to include his URL in his signature, etc. to let everyone he knows (all those academics as an example!) that he is featured on a speakers' bureau. He should even do that on his letterheads and business cards. Maybe his older contacts haven't thought of him as a speaker! This cards might read "expert" but also might include "specializing in" "consulting on" etc., all of which connote "expert." He could even add a motto like "Sharing his expertise on the world of XXXX."

Hey, what about a newsletter or blog that does the same thing? Whatever he does, though, his credentials should be upfront and center. I have a client who is an MD. In an effort to be modest, she didn't those initials in her byline for her book. Next time she will! But remember, credentials aren't only about a string of neat letters behind your name. They're also about experience.

He can also get himself listed on sites where people go to find expert. Sites like: http://www.experts.com/
http://www.expertclick.com/
http://www.refdesk.com/expert.html

Sites like these are used by editors and program directors much as speakers' bureaus are. Each one operates differently. Use a search engine to find others in any given field.

-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THIS IS THE PLACE; HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED; TRACINGS, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T; and THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS.
Her other blogs include TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.