The Importance of Gifts and a New SharingwithWriters Newsletter Format

Do you remember the Morton Salt icon--a little girl sloshing through puddles (as I recall it) to illustrate the idea "When it rains, it pours!" Consumers were supposed to correlate the motto with the idea that Morton's didn't clump together like salt used to. I really wouldn't know, the clumping part was way before my time! 

But that's what the last few weeks have felt like, clumping. And being unable to stop it!  My computer didn't work . . .and kept not working. We had workers clumping around the house an on our roof!  ("Clumping" seems like the right word, here, too.) Then one of my newsletter subscribers (a poet who is also a silicon valley management consultant) offered to do a new design for my #SharingwithWriters newsletter.  Perhaps she noticed that I violated my own advice to keep branding recognizable using focused topics and, yes, color!

This comes with my heartfelt thanks for making me giving me a new tool! It means so much because she cared enough to do it, but also because it illustrates how important it is for authors (Samanthi is a poet) to support one another—that sparkly essence called networking. But mostly it is proof that authors—generally speaking—are more caring with each other than those in many other industries. I remember once about ten years ago. I was at a meeting for writing instructors at UCLA. I was near the beginning of my foray into independent publishing and a similar viewpoint came bubbling out of my mouth. There was a loud guffaw from the other side of the room where the screenwriting instructors tended to group together. I chose not to react, but that person's disapproval of my Pollyanna attitude proved how important our camaraderie is, even if it didn’t prove that my premise was accurate. Samanthi Fernando—so many years later—dignifies my assertion with her caring.

Samanthi is the author of seven chapbooks. You can learn more about her under the “Thank Yous” segment of this SharingwithWriters newsletter by clicking on the May issue at http://howtodoitfrugally.com/newsletter_copies, on Amazon at http://amazon.com/author/samanthifernando or on the About Me segment of her website at http://www.starsafire.starrayz.com/aboutme.html. And, if you'd like to subscribe, you have time until Thursday to do it before I get my August issue out.  I hope you do! 

Have a happy summer,

Carolyn Howard-Johnson,

http://HowToDoItFrugally.com

MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER



Howard-Johnson is the author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including the award-winning second editions of The Frugal Book Promoter (where she talks more about choosing and the advantages of winning contests and how to use those honors)  and The Frugal Editor. Her latest is in the series is  How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. Learn more on her Amazon profile page, http://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile. Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers is one of her booklets--perfect for inexpensive gift giving--and, another booklet, The Great First Impression Book Proposal helps writers who want to be traditionally published. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it will help them convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. It 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. In addition to this blog, she helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. She also blogs at all things editing--grammar, formatting and more--at The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor (http://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com )

Make People WANT What You're Giving Away Free

Many thanks to Karen Cioffi for today's guest post.  Too many of us forget to explain the benefits of the services we offer and we're even more lax when it comes to letting our visitors know why we're the one with the credibility to help them.

Shout Your Author-Writer Qualifications
on Your Email Opt-in Landing Page

 By Karen Cioffi

All writers, including an author and writer, must have a Web site. It’s just the way it is. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you still need a Web site.

Everyone from Writer’s Digest’s Chuck Sambuchino to Jane Friedman (formerly with Writer’s Digest, now an editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review) to agents to publishers, adamantly proclaim the need for an author Web site, even before your book is published.

While a Web site is mandatory, another must-have is a separate landing page to entice visitors to subscribe to your mailing list. Many offer a freebie to entice them to do so.

 

Having a separate landing page for your email opt-in offer is a good marketing move. The primary purpose of this separate page is to avoid visitor distraction. On a regular author Web site or freelance writer site there are usually too many options and that translates into distractions for the visitor.

Think about it.

Do you have a Home page, About page, Reviews page, Events page, Awards page, Excerpts and Illustration pages? Audio? Video? Do you have ads or other sidebar content?

 

These are all distracting features. They may have their purpose, but they are counterproductive in regard to focusing in on building your subscriber list.

 

When it comes to building an e-mail list, your site must be focused – NO distractions – No visitor anxiety. It should have clear call-to-action content with a simple opt-in process.

 

This page should fully explain the benefits the potential subscriber will get if he opts in, and it should also include what your qualifications are for offering this particular information, for claiming to be an authority in your niche.

Let Your Qualifications be Known

People need to be persuaded into subscribing to yet another mailing list and into buying what you’re offering, so you need to make the YES decision and process as easy as possible. Conveying your qualifications for writing your book and the book’s merits are part of this process. For example, if you write fiction:

 

·       Do you have a ‘big name’ publisher?

·       Did your book win any awards?

·       Is your book a best seller?

·       Do you have positive reviews and feedback?

·       Are there book illustrations you can share?

·       How about a brief excerpt?

·       Do you have a book trailer?

·       Do you have good sales numbers?

 

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, the Frugal Book Promoter, suggests you also “include a pitch or logline for that piece of fiction that will intrigue your Web site visitor” and “include praise (blurbs) for it.”

Even your social networking numbers matter (e.g., number of Twitter followers, number of Facebook connections, and so on).

Getting a bit more specific as to your actual qualifications for writing the book, particularly if you’re writing nonfiction, or for offering freelance writing services or products:

·       Did you take special training (e.g., classes, ecourses)?

·       Do you have a degree or certification in the topic?

·       Do you have ‘good’ clips?

·       Do you have great testimonials?

·       Have you won awards?

·       Do you belong to relevant groups/clubs?

·       How in depth was your research?

·       Do you teach the topic?

Whatever gives you authority in your niche, whether fiction or nonfiction, be sure to include it in your list.

Sites claiming to be an expert in a particular niche are a dime-a-dozen. Let the visitor know you and your book are the ‘real deal.’

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Karen Cioffi is an author/writer online platform instructor and provides Web site critiques and optimization services. Take a moment and check out what she can do for your site:
http://www.karencioffi.com/website-services/

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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 .

Three Reasons Why Having Your Own Newsletter Is Important--and How to Use Others' Newsletters, Too

I don't think using others' newsletters and blogs a panacea for easy promoting. Newsletters and blogs that belong to other people are a great way of promoting but they do lack some of the benefits that you have if you run your own. That would be:

1.   The independence you have with your own.

2.   Using your own as mini a way to reward those who do something nice in terms of publicity for you. See the Thank You section in this newsletter as an example of this.

3.   Networking by offering guest features, guest posts, and other ways to link to people who—if they're savvy marketers—will reciprocate. If not today, then later.

4.   The ability to drive traffic to your Web site, online bookstore page, of anywhere your little heart desires.

Having a newsletter and blog of your own is a lovely way to share what you know. And having one doesn't discourage doing that in others' newsletters and blogs, anyway!

Here's an example of a tip I submitted to Penny Sansevieri's "A Marketing Expert" newsletter.

Reader Tip: Include Action Shots on Your Website

When you're updating your website as suggested by this Book Marketing Expert newsletter, be sure to include at least one action shot of you doing something. Many bloggers and online folks like plain old generic headshots but print media still need a whole lot more than someone holding his or her book or accepting an award. And TV producers need to see some possibilities for action in the still photos or videos you offer. Use my media room as a very basic example (http://howtodoitfrugally.com/media_room.htm) and Penny's as an example of what you're aiming for: http://www.amarketingexpert.com/media.html. And read more on why you need to relate to the media and how to do it in The Frugal Book Promoter at http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo.

Tip offered by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of how-to books for writers. http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com.

 

Here's an action shot like the one I suggested (see left). You just have to think of shot that is somehow associated with your book.

 

Having said that, any image is better than none at all. So a picture of you with your book at a book fair works, even though it may not qualify as a real action shot. Grab your book before the shutter snaps and take a picture anyway. But grab a fellow book fair participant to be in your shot with you because he or she may be willing to help you promote. Two marketers/publicists are better than one.

 

For more information on newsletters and blogging use the index of your Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) to find help, ideas, and tons more references.

Providing tips for others is a great way to extend your reach. But it's limited. You own blog and newsletter issn't. That's why I can include this additional tip in this blog post without considering word count (or just being a real pest to the newsletter editor!).  Here it is:

 

Re-use your action photo. Repetition is good for sales. That's why you have a book cover. I use this one in the image feature of my marketing books on my Amazon buy pages (see the images I posted on my Frugal Book Promoter buy page), on my Web site, and sometimes send it to feature editors after I've been interviewed. Especially if they don't mention sending a photographer to take a picture. It's part of our jobs to make it easy for editors to do their jobs easily and well.

 

If you'd like to be sure you see all my favorite marketing and writing tips subscribe to my SharingwithWriters newsletter at http://howtodoitfrugally.com. The subscribe button is in the right of almost every page. And you'll get a free little e-booklet on wordtrippers when you do it. And, yes. I encourage you to submit your own favorite tips to that newsletter and to include credit lines with links to your book's sales page.   

 

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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 .

Unlocking Query Letter Secrets By Example

21 Query Letters That Sold is a free e-book offered to subscribers of Mridu Khullar Relph's weekly newsletter, featuring queries that sold to The New York Times, Time, Ms., The Christian Science Monitor, and many more. You get the full story behind each query as well as the published article at the end. Sign up for your (free) copy at http://www.mridukhullar.com/ebook-queries/ .

Mridu Khullar Relph is a multiple award-winning freelance journalist currently based in New Delhi, India, and I trust her expertise. She has lived and worked in Asia, Africa, and North America, and writes for The New York Times, Time,The International Herald Tribune, ABC News (Australia), The Independent, Global Post, Parade.com, Ms., and the Christian Science Monitor, among others. Visit her website at www.mridukhullar.com

 

You'll also find query letter templates that were successful in my The Frugal Editor (http://budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor).  You'll also find the results of more than 100 of my interviews with agents about their query letter pet peeves in that book. The agents generously (and often humorously!) contributed in the interest of helping authors avoid booboos.

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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 .

The Big Lie You Believe Could Hurt Your Book Marketing

By Joan Stewart, AKA The Publicity Hound

To convince journalists to cover you, you need a huge audience to prove you're credible.

You hear that all the time. But don't believe it for a second.

It's a lie.

You don't even need a big audience or a big email list for a successful online business [or marketing campaign].

If your newsletter has fewer than 1,000 subscribers, you can have far more success than someone who has a list of more than 10,000 names.

How? By building an audience that's incredibly loyal and engaged, even if it's small, says Danny Iny.

Last August, when I hosted a webinar with Danny, he demonstrated how to write a guest blog post in under an hour and get it published on a high-traffic blog. The response from Publicity Hounds was overwhelming. Those who attended gushed about him.

They also loved the fact that when they emailed him with questions afterward, he took time to answer every one. And I loved the fact that he CC'd me on them all.

That's why I said "yes" immediately when Danny asked if he could present another free webinar on how to build a loyal audience. It will be at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Jan. 10, and you don't want to miss this one.

He'll be giving the step-by-step blueprint that he used to grow his company, Firepole Marketing, from a "nothing" to a multiple-six-figure business.

Danny is somewhat of a media darling, too, especially with bloggers who welcome his guest posts because their readers love him. You will too.

Join us next week by registering for the free call at http://audiencebiz.com/go/joan-stewart/

~Joan Stewart publishes one of the best online newsletters I know of. Between my Frugal Book Promoter and her newsletter you'll stay up-to-date on marketing your book and being inspired to do so.  Subscribe to "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week. " You'll get tips, tricks and tools for generating free publicity. Subscribe at http://www.publicityhound.com/ and receive by email the handy cheat sheet "89 Reasons to Send a Press Release."  You'll also want to get my SharingwithWriters newsletter for even more tips and articles to keep you motivated. http://howtodoitfrugally.com. You'll get another freebie that includes humiliating editing mistakes.
  

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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:

Your Book, Your Newsletter, Your Visibility

Guest Post

How to Increase Your Newsletter Visibility by 100% ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By Penny Sansevieri

Newsletters are a great way to stay in front of your audience, but I’m amazed by how many people still have no idea how to manage their own newsletter. I see sloppy copy or newsletters that haven’t been edited (am I really going to buy from someone who doesn’t have the time to edit their newsletter or make it look nice?). I also see newsletters that veer off topic so much that I instantly unsubscribe. And, my absolute favorite: how on earth did I ever end up with this newsletter in the first place?

If used correctly, newsletters can be a great way to get your message out there, offer helpful advice, and keep people in your marketing funnel. We’ve had our newsletter for ten years and it’s been a solid way to stay in front of our audience and educate them about their market and what we do as a company. Candidly, I would consider getting rid of a lot of things, but never our newsletter. It’s often the single biggest business driver to our company. It’s not easy, it requires work, but the rewards are tremendous. Here are some ideas for enhancing your newsletter and growing your audience:

• Know your audience: While this might sound trite and a bit “duh,” it’s actually more important than you might think and, ironically, quite overlooked. Many business owners who put out newsletters write more for themselves than for their audience. This is a huge mistake as you can imagine because most of the time, your consumer won’t care about things the way you do. Speak to their pain, their needs and their hot buttons and most important, know exactly who they are before you start cranking out newsletter copy.
• Other newsletters: It’s important to know what other folks are putting out there in regards to newsletters. This will help you learn what you like, what you don’t like, and what might work for your market. Also, you want to really understand your space and other experts who share your arena.
• Subject lines: This is probably the most important part of any newsletter. They need to grab the reader’s attention, and if you know what your audience wants, the subject lines shouldn’t be hard. But they must speak to the needs of your reader. Of all the things going on in their lives, as it relates to whatever you are selling, what’s their biggest need right now? Answer that and you’ve got a perfect subject line.
• Who cares? Whether it’s a newsletter, a blog post, or a tweet, ask yourself: “Who cares?” If you can identify the person as your reader and the content important enough to get them to care, then you have a good topic. Remember, it’s not about you – in fact when it comes to creating great content and newsletters that rock, you don’t matter at all. Keep that in mind, and understand that this is about putting together a message that 100% benefits the people you are writing to.
• Personal notes: What prompted this article was an email note I got this morning. The subject line said “A personal request” which prompted me to open it. When I did the email started out with Dear….., and a bunch of spaces after the word “dear” because I had not entered my name into their system. Be really careful of this. Not everyone enters their name into your email list when they sign up; if they don’t, you want to try and avoid these types of emails because they look a bit odd to the recipient. A subject line that said “A personal request” along with an email that was anything but personal caused me to unsubscribe right away.
• Length: A lot of people say that they prefer shorter emails to longer ones. I say it really depends on your market. Our newsletter is pretty long but it’s packed with content and  I hear from authors all the time that they keep these issues, often printing them off. Your market will dictate how long or short your newsletter should be and if you are following others in your market, this will tell you a lot.
• Colors vs. text:  I’m still a big fan of text-based newsletters. I know that folks will say that color works best but I still think that color newsletters can be harder to read on your phones and often wind up in spam filters.
• Frequency:  How often you deliver your newsletter will generally depend on your consumer, but a good rule of thumb is once a month at a minimum and once a week at a maximum. I would not recommend sending your end-user too many announcements and newsletters. Also, it’s a lot of content to create, so keep that in mind. If you build a loyal following you can often create special blasts with more frequency and not lose readers, but keep in mind that we’re all inundated with emails so many times, less is more. 
• Editing: Please make sure your newsletter is edited, this is so important. Remember that everything is your resume. I used to know a guy in publishing who put out a newsletter that said “this is not edited.” I felt like it detracted from his message, especially when he backed up that statement with typos. Not good. Everything is your resume. If you don’t have time to send out an edited newsletter, you should consider whether or not you have the time for it at all.
• Appeal to the “skimmers:” Most people skim email these days, so appeal to that. Use short paragraphs, bullet points and strong headlines. That way your reader can glance through the newsletter without having to sift through endless copy and get to the heart of what they are looking for.
• Promote or not? I’m not a fan of a newsletter that’s all heavy promotion. You know the ones I mean, they scream “Look how fabulous I am” and then contain a lot of sales copy and special offers. I unsubscribe from those pretty quickly. Ideally you want to strike a balance. Clearly you are doing this to promote yourself and you want your readers to know what you do, what your message, book, or product is about and how they can get it. You can and should talk about this in every issue but keep in mind that a healthy balance is 95% information and 5% sales. You’ll build customer loyalty much faster this way.

Having a solid base and a consistent way to communicate with your audience can really help to optimize and increase your bottom line. A newsletter might seem like a lot of work, but in the end if it’s done right it will pay off in some pretty amazing ways.

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Author and marketer supreme Penny C. Sansevieri is founder and CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. She is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. She is an Adjunct Professor teaching Self-Publishing for NYU.

Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most innovative Social Media/Internet book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Red Hot Internet Publicity, which has been called the "leading guide to everything Internet."

To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.com.

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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: