When something isn’t new anymore—whether it’s your car or your book—value disappears with each passing day. But while that new-book smell might decrease, the value of your book to you, as a creator, doesn’t have to if you know where to look.
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Reinvigorate Your Media Outreach
With so many books published each year, it seems like people only care about new books. For a lot of media, that’s true; it’s why so many outlets have such strict guidelines when it comes to submitting books for possible review, or pitching to media.

The major book review journals—Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Foreword Reviews, etc.—all have strict pre-publication submission guidelines, but they all also have a backdoor: PW’s Booklife, Kirkus Indie, and Foreword Clarion are a few examples. These secondary options do not restrict the potential for review based on the book’s release date, and as such, already-released books can be submitted for review. In the case of Kirkus and Foreword, these options are paid for and therefore guarantee a review for your book.

A new book review—particularly a positive review—is a great way to bring new attention to an existing book, whether that’s new outreach to booksellers or librarians, consumers, or media.

Cut It Up
Before it was a movie, and before it was published by Random House, The Martian was a serialized work of fiction. Serialization is the latest trend in storytelling, from the Serial podcast to Serial Box (an online platform for serialized fiction), entire business models are cropping up around the idea of leaving the reader hanging, and it could be a way to find a new audience for your narrative.

And it’s not just linear storytelling that you can apply parts of your book to. Services like Slicebooks exist to cut up your work to sell on different platforms, in collections and more.

Just because your book is no longer new doesn’t mean you’ve squeezed it dry. Launch is just one part of a book’s life, and the ideas above are just a few ways you can create an income longtail for yours.
I’m just saying. Need help breathing new life into your old book, call us at 866-599-6270.
 
To Your Success,
MG

 

As authors advance in their skill and understanding of social media and marketing, one of the things that seems to come curiously late for some is a question of credit—crediting authors, or each other, that is. At times, I’ve used the hashtag #creditwriters to try to help folks remember this simple courtesy. Help your fellow writers.

Journalists notice the problem right away. Why? Because we journos know that The New York Times has never written a word. CNN has never done an on-camera interview. NPR has never broadcast a report. In every case, that work was done by people, reporters. And yet you routinely see a story tweeted or posted to Facebook with just the medium’s name, right?

•           “Great story!” with a link and “via @WashingtonPost.” But who wrote it? You can find out if you’ll just check the byline.
•           “I got a super review from the @NYTimes!” No, you got a super review from a critic at The New York Times and that critic has a name. Just check the byline.
•           “Cool author blog post on outlining your novel!” By? Just check the byline.
But wait. What if there isn’t a byline on that author’s cool blog post about outlining your novel?

It turns out that this is a two-way street.

Writers fail to credit each other all the time, but just as frequently, authors aren’t thinking to put bylines on their own posts. And remember, if a visitor to your author website was linked to your post without any credit to you, that visitor may have no idea whose site he or she has landed on.

That’s why bylines are important. Here’s what I recommend:
•           On each blog post you write—yes, including on your own site—use your byline.
•           List not only your name but also your Twitter handle or your Facebook link—whatever social account you use the most. Like this: By Porter Anderson (@Porter_Anderson). Try to make every mention of your name work for you by linking it to a pertinent spot.
•           If you have guest posts on your site, follow the same pattern: always byline them and include a social media handle or link for them, too.

The point is to make it easy for your site’s visitors—who, we hope, will become your books’ readers—to be certain of who you are. And you want them to credit you and help others find you through social media. If they have to search for your handle or Pinterest account—or for your name on your own site (you’d be surprised how hard it is to locate that info on some sites)—then there’s little chance that your site’s visitors will have time to do anything about crediting you. A visitor impressed with your latest blog post is likelier to give you the courtesy of a credit if you make it a breeze to know who you are and how to reference you in social media.
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Is it more blessed to credit than to be credited? Probably! But you’re likelier to be offered the same kindness if you make it simple for your colleagues to share your work with your name attached. And after all, if writers don’t credit each other, who will? Help your fellow writers.
 
 Live by the philosophy that a candle loses none of it’s shine by lighting another candle.
To Your Success,
MG
 

Did you know for five dollars you can get someone to write your book title on their face or stomach? How about give the synopsis of your book via video...dressed as a nun? The Internet is a bizarre place where you can find someone to do just about anything in the name of marketing. Why would you want to? Because weird and crazy, when done right, actually can help sell your book.
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Does that mean that having a person dressed as a nun telling people what your book is about will turn your book into a bestseller? Probably not. But guerrilla marketing—the idea of using a small amount of money to do something unconventional—should be a part of every writer’s book marketing strategy.

Here are five  tips to consider as you develop your campaign:

Weird for the Sake of Weird Is Weird
At first glance, it might sound funny when you log onto a website and see that for only five bucks, you can get someone to sing about your book, while hula hooping, in a bikini—but avoid the temptation of hiring that person to market your book. Weird is fine, and weird can work, but there has to be a reason for it.

Be Careful of the “Expert”
The rise of freelancing websites has made it possible for anyone to say they are an expert. The trouble is many are not. If you are considering hiring a marketer or publicist, you can find plenty on the cheap—but more often than not, they’re cheap for a reason. As you go through the process of selecting someone to help you, make sure you see their track record—who have they worked for, and, if possible, talk to a few authors who have worked with them. Consider also using freelance marketplaces like Reedsy, which is more focused on the publishing industry. Or better still, ask your friends in the publishing industry for recommendations and pay attention to experts recommended by publishing associations or established industry publications.

When It Comes to Likes Think Quality Over Quantity
For just a few dollars, you can get 10,000 people to follow you on Twitter. Never mind the fact that the people aren’t real. There’s plenty of self-described influencers—people who say, “I’ll promote your book to my 250,000 followers.” Don’t take the bait! You are better off spending a few dollars getting your messages out to a few dozen people who might actually buy your book than thousands who won’t. A targeted audience is the best audience. In the case of buying followers, you might even get banned. While it might sound impressive to say you have 15,000 followers, it will come back to haunt you. The only way to build your platform is organically.

Promotional Items That People Want
Hosting a giveaway with a $50 Kindle Fire? It will get people to enter, for sure, but the Kindle Fire is an easy-to-find product that many people already have. In short, nobody gets excited for that giveaway. But doing a giveaway for a $60 NES Classic, which is much harder to find—that’s going to do better. If your book is a history of Nintendo, then, by all means, do it! But remember you want people to enter that might ultimately buy your book, so make sure you’re doing a giveaway that’s going after the right audience. Ask yourself who your audience is, and what can you offer them that will make them enthusiastic. Offering them something that is in no way related to your book is a good way to get people who are only in it for the prize and don't actually care what your book is about. Once again, a targeted audience is the best audience.

Think Outside the Bookstore
Bookstores are the obvious setting for author readings—but obvious isn’t always the best. Think about settings that might tie into your book. Years ago, when Neal Pollack released his first book, "The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature," he did a reading in the bathroom of a train station; 15 people showed up to the reading, but the story of an author doing a reading in a bathroom went viral and helped sell more books. It worked for Pollack in part because the book was a humor book. A train station bathroom probably won’t help your book sell more copies, but remember: bookstores aren’t the only place for a reading.
 
Let me know if you try any of the tactics listed here and how they work for you.
 
To Your Success,
MG
 

There are so many options these days on how to get your book into the hands of readers. Gone are the days when one single path led to publication, and it can be confusing to wade through the pros and cons of being independently versus traditionally published. One of the ways you can evaluate how to move forward with your manuscript is to think about how you would prefer to promote your book.
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The book promotion tactics an indie published author takes can be different from those with large publishing contracts, largely due to the higher level of control independent authors maintain over their books. If you’re thinking about indie publishing for your book, consider how much easier it is to engage in these forms of book promotion as an indie author.
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Meet Your Local Booksellers
This is something that only the author can do! A large publisher or your independent publicity firm may coordinate meetings with these booksellers, but this is something indie authors can do really well on their own. Books are hand sold by booksellers all over the world, which means that they give recommendations to people browsing their stores and can influence purchasing decisions. Making a personal impact on a bookseller so that they want to sell your book is a savvy move on any author’s part. Stop by a store, be polite, buy a book, and tell them you hope they’ll stock your book one day.

Create a Goodreads Author Profile and Use it Actively
Maintaining control over vital social media platforms is a benefit to indie publishing—you’ll always make your own account and run it for yourself. On Goodreads you can make friends, follow reading lists, join book clubs, and organically network to create a community that will put your book onto their “to-read” bookshelves when it comes out.

Start an Author Instagram and Use it Consistently
As an indie author, you’ll want to connect directly with readers. People support brands they admire, and they learn to love a brand by encountering an individual first. Showing who you are as a person on the fastest growing social media platform can help readers find you. “Bookstagrammers” are becoming a powerful “influencer” segment in social media marketing, and connecting with them is something an author can do all on his or her own. You can do your own giveaways without a publisher restricting your actions! Don’t forget to use relevant hashtags like #bookstagram, #lit, #amreading, #books, and more. Instagram rewards hashtagging…so use as many as you like and you have a higher chance of showing up in the feeds of your followers, as well as good discoverability by random users that are checking out popular hashtags.

Make Vital Changes to Your Publication Timeline and Other Important Book Details
These may not seem like part of the promotional process at first glance, but sometimes books are published by large publishers on schedules that might not be the best fit for an author. Picking a publication date that fits with your personal life, relevant holidays (a book on motherhood might be more easily promoted if it is published the week of Mother’s Day, for instance), and what else is on the market is a great way that indie authors get to plan their promotions early on to best suit their sales. As an indie author, you can also make edits to your book cover, your price, and other important details based on reader feedback before you move to a final version, and this is not something traditional deals typically allow.

Sell Your Books More Easily at Private Events
Because you are in charge of your book’s distribution, you don’t have a middle man between you and your print-on-demand that can hold up this process. If you are headed to an author event, book fair, library, or private book launch, you get to decide how many copies and on what timeline you want to bring them for sales.

There are pros and cons to both traditional and indie publishing, and hopefully learning about some of the considerations regarding book promotion on both sides can help you choose your publishing route more successfully.
 
To Your Success
MG