How To Keep Getting Tons out of a Writers Conference After the Event

Today’s SharingwithWriters guest is the co-chair for Book ‘Em North Carolina Writers Conference and Book Fair that supports local literacy and anti crime. This is a woman who can help the essentials of making a book fair and conference work for you. I extended her wisdom to three guest posts. If you missed the first two, start two posts ago on "What To Do Before a Book Fair" and read on through to this one.

How to Get the Most out of a Writers Conference

Part 3: After the Event

By p. m. Terrell 

Making the most of an appearance when it’s over is often the most overlooked part of book promotion. Yet it can be the most effective.

1.     Contact the Media. Have you noticed that 99% of what’s in the news is about what’s already happened? Send a picture of yourself at the conference to your local media with a caption and contact information. Often they’ll print the picture with the caption. And sometimes it leads to additional interviews.

2.     Update Your Web Site. Put pictures on your web site and keep a “Past Events” page. When you are booking other venues, they will often look at your website to see where you’ve appeared before. Especially if you have a line at your desk or you’re surrounded by fans, it shows future organizers that you can bring in the crowd.

3.     Update Your Social Networks. Tweet or post updates on Facebook and other social networking sites. If you have pictures, be sure to share them. You want people to know you’ve just attended a very successful event.

4.     Keep Up Your Contacts. Don’t make the mistake of dropping out of sight after the event. Send emails to those you met—fans, readers, and fellow authors—to thank them for attending or letting them know how much you enjoyed spending time with them. Staying in touch can often lead to more book sales and more appearances.

5.     Thank the Organizers. This can also be a good time to ask about any future events they have planned. As writers conferences and book fairs become more successful, the spots available to authors can fill up fast. If you had a good time and believed it was beneficial, make sure you’re one of the first in line for their next event. Other authors are doing it and you don’t want to lose out.

6.     Blog About It. Let those fans and readers who couldn’t be there in person know about the event and any highlights. Post pictures and provide links to buy your books.

7.     Update Your Mailing List. Hopefully, you got email addresses or mailing addresses of those who came by your table. Make sure you’ve added them to your list so you can keep them informed of upcoming events and new book releases.

What are ways you promote your successful appearance after the event? Click on the little comment link to share your ideas—and be sure to tell us about what you are doing in the publishing industry.

 ~Learn more about p.m. terrell:

www.pmterrell.com
www.pmterrell.blogspot.com/
www.maryneely.com
www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/pmterrell/
Terrell is author of more than 16 books, including the Award-Winning historical books River Passage and Songbirds are Free; internationally acclaimed suspense Exit 22, Ricochet,The Banker's Greed, Kickback and The China Conspiracy; the how-to book, Take the Mystery out of Promoting Your Book; and four non-fiction computer books. Look for her latest book, Vicki's Key, a two-time award nominee and finalist in the 2012 International Book Awards, and her next book, Secrets of a Dangerous Woman, due to be released in the fall of 2012!


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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:

The Single Most Important Plank in Your Platform and a FREEBIE

You may have noticed that the holiday season is a good time for us bloggers to share the brilliant ideas of our fellows. Guest posts are little two-way gifts--one to the author doing the sharing and one to the authors doing the reading. They also are a great way for a blogger to avoid getting "blogged down" (yes, a pun!) during a season that's especially busy.  So today Laurel is talking about what I consider the single most important plank in your platform, your contact list.  But she's also offering a holiday gift that not only offers information every author should have, but shows them how a great e-book should look. If I were giving a prize for great e-book design, hers would win!

BUILD YOUR AUTHOR PLATFORM WITH A FREE E-BOOK 





By Laurel Marshfield

One fairly easy way to build your author platform (a single plank of it, at least) is by systematically collecting the e-mail addresses of people interested in your book, your subject, or both. As your list of e-mails grows, it will become more and more valuable to your promotion efforts. Eventually, you’ll reach many thousands of people with a single online mailing. When that happens, you’ll reap the rewards of promoting your book to thousands of interested readers.

There’s one small problem. How do you convince people (those who know you, those who barely do, and those who don’t) to fork over their names and e-mail addresses? You can do that by offering them a gift--a bribe, actually. And one of the best bribes for an author is a free, downloadable e-book about something that those interested in your subject or your book will be fascinated by. Wow, you want them to think, I have to know what this e-book says. The freebie list-builder e-book bribe isn’t limited to nonfiction authors, either. It works equally well for those who write fiction and memoir, because the steps are essentially the same. Here they are:

~First, Find an Enticing Subject:

If you write self-help nonfiction, focus on the problem your readers want to solve, and write your e-book about one part of the solution. If you write fiction, focus on the world your novel creates, and provide more background information. Or tell the story of how you came to write your novel (locate the most exciting element, and dive into it more deeply). If you’ve written a memoir, provide material not covered in your book --tell stories you left out, or talk about aspects of your journey as an author. In every case, write about the one thing, or several things, your readers really want to know.

~Second, Use Your E-Book Opportunity Well:

Your freebie e-book is a chance to communicate in a more personal way with your readers and fans, to show them you’re worth their loyalty. Apart from intriguing information, offer them a way to cultivate a relationship with you. Encourage them to comment on your blog, or perhaps ask questions via an email address dedicated to that purpose. Be creative about finding the best way of connecting with your audience of readers. But do make yourself available (via the Internet) for reader-author dialogue. This is good for your book, but it’s more than that. Once you publish, you become a spokesperson for your book’s subject (nonfiction), or its world (fiction, memoir), and wise authors seek forums in which to fulfill the spokesperson role.

~Third, Create a Visually Appealing E-Book:

Your e-book should communicate with your readership in a meaningful and memorable way, but words aren’t everything in the effort to do that. The design of your e-book is nearly as important. Hire a professional designer to create something you’re proud of, an e-book your readers will want to print out and read, not just scan quickly online. Use lots of images or photographs to break up blocks of text. Use white space, too, for the same reason (you can buy images from many online sources; one of these is: http://www.istockphoto.com/ ).

~Fourth, Provide Additional Resources:

To make your e-book more valuable, dedicate its final section to resources for your readers. If you write nonfiction, list other books; Web sites (include your own Web sites, too); organizations; and professionals in your field--all of whom can offer more insight on your topic. If you write fiction, provide links to your blog, Web site, book trailers, video and audio interviews, print articles, and book reviews. If you’ve written a memoir, list all of the above, depending upon what sort of world your book encompasses.

With a bit of research to find a topic enticing to your readers, a week or so spent writing, and the services of a professional designer, you can create an e-book your readers and fans will eagerly give you their email addresses to get. In return, your mailing list will grow into a useful promotional tool that sells your book and nurtures your career.

Want to see an example of what I’ve been talking about? Pick up a copy of my freebie e-book for authors by signing up for my free, periodically published newsletter at:

http://www.bluehorizoncommunications.com/every-question-same-answer/
The signup form is in the upper right-hand corner. The e-book giveaway is I Need to Be a Bestselling Author -- Is That True? The Five-Destination Roadmap to Authorship.


~Laurel is owner of Blue Horizon Communications,1037 Waverly Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147,

http://www.bluehorizoncommunications.com/. where she specializes in BOOK MANUSCRIPTS AND PROPOSALS, Consultation, Manuscript Evaluation, Developmental Editing, Collaboration, Co-Writing, Ghostwriting, and Coaching for Authors and Writers. Reach her at  (215) 922-7207, or books@BlueHorizonCommunications.com.  She blogs for authors at www.BlueHorizonCommunications.com/blog/. Follow her on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BookEditorLM

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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:

ON BEING A FRUGALISMO – Self Promotion I: DATABASING

Mindy Philips Lawrence writes a regular Itty Bitty Column for my newsletter, Sharing with Writers, as well as serving as line editor for it. This column received lots of response from readers (in spite of the fact that list building is the core of the plan I outline in The Frugal Book Promoter!). At least--one way or the other--Mindy and I are getting people to hear this message!


Cheap is a word with bad connotations. I’d say “frugalista” except I hear the word is now trademarked and I don’t want the legal system sending me cease-and-desist letters, so I will use the term “FRUGALISMO” to define doing things effectively but with as few monetary resources as possible.

Recently, I received an e-mail wanting to know if I was the publicist for Norris Church Mailer. I have no idea why anyone thought this but it made me drool to think that she has a new book out, a memoir called A Ticket to the Circus, and that anyone thought I had anything to do with it. Our only connection is that we are both from Arkansas. But it made me think. I began to wonder, if I WERE her publicist, how I would promote her work, a hypothetical dream job. From there I thought of how writers without Mailer’s resources could promote their creative work and still get the job done.

So, in the same vein of our fearless leader, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, here are some “frugalismo” ways to promote your work.

[If you have ideas, PLEASE forward them to me and I will post them in the Itty Bitty with your name and the title of your work (or work in progress).]

BUILD YOUR OWN DATABASE: Draw a radius around where you live. Stick a compass in your hometown and decide how far you are willing to travel to promote your book or other creative work. When you’ve done this, use the Internet to list every single media outlet within that radius. Build a database either in MS Excel or another database system such as ACT 2000 or FileMaker Pro. Include in this database Internet Web sites and phone numbers and e-mail addresses for local radio and television stations, newspapers, and magazines that might help get the word out on your work. You can branch out as your promotional plan begins to work, allowing you to travel farther cause you are selling your work.


USE A GOOD RESOURCE such as The Frugal Book Promoter, an Internet search, or both, to learn how to write an exceptional press release and query letter. You’ll have to do this in an incredibly professional way so go to school on professional releases you find from other writers and publicists. Go to publicists’ Web sites and see how they do what they do. LEARN!



KEEP TRACK OF WHAT YOU DO and when you do it. Make certain to update your contacts every six months. People move around in publishing and media often. Just call and ask if the person you have as your contact is still there and, if not, who has that position now. You’ll need to send a new letter to a new person to introduce yourself. This can be an e-letter or one by the good old US Mail, according to what the publisher wants.


IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE PROMOTING YOURSELF, as some do, think of yourself as a hypothetical big-name writer and promote that person. Of course, this person is actually YOU. You are worth promoting. Your work is worth promoting.

Writers like to write. Often, they don’t enjoy promoting their own work but it’s necessary. Unless you can afford to pay a publicist $1000 a month, it behooves you to learn to do this. And you want to be successful, don’t you? Of COURSE you do!

This is post number one in a series on self-promotion. In the next issue, I’ll have other ideas and, hopefully, some that others have sent me to put here. It’s spring. Let’s bloom! If you want to get in on the coming columns, send Carolyn an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. Her address is HoJoNews (at) AOL (dot) com.

Mindy
“Into Words ~ Into Print ~ Into Minds”

Link-A-Dinka-Dos



The Frugal Book Promoter

(if you don’t have this book, what are you doing without it?)
http://www.amazon.com/Frugal-Book-Promoter-What-Publisher/dp/193299310X

Be Your Own Publicist http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1563/is_n12_v8/ai_9685405/

How to Be Your Own Publicist

Publicity Hound: Free Publicity

How to Write a Press Release

Press Release Writing

Building Blocks to a Powerful Press Release

How to Write a Successful Query Letter

The how-to-write-a-great-query-letter chapter in The Frugal Editor--straight from the mouths of high-powered agents. Also find sample query letters in this book and The Frugal Book Promoter.

Sample Query Letter: Charlotte Dillon

Self-Promotion Guide: The Promotional Jigsaw

About the Guest Blogger:
Mindy Phillips Lawrence has written two poetry collections (One Blue Star and Above and Below) and co-authored The Complete Writer The Complete Writer's Journal(Red Engine Press). She writes the "Itty Bitty Column on Writing" for Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s Sharing with Writers newsletter and is a publicist, editor and literary agent for the fiction work of Bev Sninchak (Star Ferris). She lives in Springfield, Missouri and is working on her first novel. She blogs at MPLCreative. You can find her online.



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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 .

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

Your Web site, Blog, E-mail Lists and RSS Feeds

Sorry, followers. I've been sick and therefore AWOL. But here's an article for those of you into promoting online (and I hope you all are!). It comes from MaAnna Stephenson of JusttheFAQS.com and fellow tweeter. It's the sick girl's way to give you information--link only--but lots of love. (-:


http://www.justthefaqs.net/dwnlds/Why_Do_I_Need_RSS_Feeds.pdf

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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, 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.