As an author you are an expert on your subject. People will be anxious to hear your opinions of your work. Giving lectures and readings is one way to promote a book. It’s gratifying for the ego, lets you meet interesting folks, and—when done selectively—sells books.

Writers can find speaking engagements at church groups, the Y, PTAs, civic groups, libraries, women’s clubs, professional organizations, adult educational institutions, or senior centers. You might also consider giving in-store demonstrations if your subject matter lends itself to a commercial tie-in. Constantly have your antenna out for possibilities to plant yourself in the midst of potential customers. The more specialized, the better. Sometimes these contacts take a long time to develop, but when they ripen, look out!

To maximize your exposure, here are a few dos and don’ts. If sales are your goal, it’s a waste of time to talk about a specific subject (organic gardening) with a small general audience (the XYZ auxiliary). The few who would be passionately interested in your topic aren’t worth the effort.

Marilyn spent much of her career as a highly sought after speaker. She recommends that you be selective and accept only those engagements for highly specialized audiences or large groups where there is more likelihood that a reasonable number of sales will be generated.

Be sure to go armed with sales materials whenever you speak. Fliers with self-contained order blanks work well, as do business cards with your book cover on it (and your web address, of course). If you are donating your time, don’t hesitate to pass out literature, or at the very least have it available at tables. Some authors even manage to get fliers tucked into the next membership mailing. Make sure you have books with you. Display several of them.

Some authors give a small discount—perhaps 10 percent—to induce immediate sales. In any event, be sure to weave into your presentation that personally autographed books will be available afterward. It’s also wise to show the book a couple of times as you speak.

After the talk, ask the introducer to announce something like, “The speaker will be in the back of the room to autograph books.” This reminder is a good sales stimulator. People who have enjoyed your talk will want to take something of you home, and your book satisfies that desire. Appropriately enough, this is known as “back of the room sales.” Many authors have sold thousands of books this way; some professional speakers make more from their back of the room sales than they do from their lecture fees!

If you feel more comfortable in a classroom setting, you’re in luck. There are adult learning centers all over the United States and Canada seeking experts (you!) on an expansive range of topics. Find out who schedules classes at your local community colleges or universities and what they pay. There are many privately owned extended studies and adult education facilities, as well. These folks are especially open to your selling books at your classes.

A wonderful training ground for the novice is Toastmasters International. It has more than six thousand clubs around the country where you can get over your jitters. I joined this group years ago and found it is an extremely positive environment in which to hone your speaking skills.

If you’re serious about joining the ranks of those paid to speak, join the National Speakers Association (NSA) as soon as you’re eligible. It has three dynamite meetings a year where you can learn more in a couple of days than you’d ever imagine. The dues are high—and so are the rewards for the dedicated. Incidentally, if you are not yet eligible to join, NSA offers a “nurturing environment for emerging speakers who want to learn how to get started in the speaking profession.

Writing books and public speaking — as polar opposite as the two might seem to be — really do go hand in hand.

(Portions of this post have been excerpted from The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, 5th edition, by Marilyn Ross and Sue Collier.)

(Cross-posted at the Writer’s Digest website.)

Self-publishing can be the road to independence. What motivates entrepreneurs to launch their own businesses? Most want to be their own bosses. More personal freedom was the second most important reason. Some do it out of necessity during tough economic times. But most people dream of becoming self-employed. You can turn that dream into reality. Here is a dynamic, proven way to shape your own destiny. It is an answer not only for city folks but for urban escapees seeking to prosper in paradise.

Becoming a self-publisher also provides a helpful tax shelter. After forming your own company and meeting certain requirements, you can write off a portion of your home and deduct some expenses related to writing and to marketing, such as automobile, travel, and entertainment costs. Always check current tax regulations and restrictions.

Another advantage is that you can begin your business on a part-time basis while keeping your day job. Why risk your livelihood until you’ve refined your publishing activities and worked out any bugs?

Want control over your work? In self-publishing, you guide every step. You’ll have the cover you like, the typeface you choose, the title you want, the ads you decide to place. Your decision is final. Nothing is left in the hands of an editor or publicist who has dozens (or hundreds) of other books to worry about. You maintain absolute control over your own book. (Along with this advantage, however, comes the fact that you also get stuck doing everything.)

Privately publishing your work also gives you the advantage of speed. Big trade houses typically take from a year to a year and a half—or even longer—to get a book out. Self-publishers can do it in a fraction of that time.

Even corporations are publishing books, although they have a different motivation. One of our past clients wrote us, “Your expert advice is paying off huge dividends for our small, nationwide consulting company. The book has become our calling card. It provides a great first introduction to our products and services. Often we are asked to provide follow-up proposals.”

Our company, Self-Publishing Resources, does turnkey publishing for many entrepreneurs and professionals today who write books to position themselves as the leaders in their industries. Publishing books also gives these individuals a fresh reason to attract media attention and be a source of news. Once they’ve written books, they are perceived as instant experts.

If your venture blossoms and the company expands by publishing others’ work, you have fresh opportunities to join the growing small-press movement. You can set policy, serve as a spokesperson, and bring deserving writers to the public’s attention.

The publishing business is a constant flow of exciting events. You will never forget that supreme moment when you hold the first copy of your very own book, just off the press. Some people compare it to holding their first child. When the book starts making the rounds, things happen. There’s a domino effect. One day you get your first fan letter (most likely read with blurry vision). Then a prestigious person gets wind of the book and requests an examination copy. Magazines and newspapers begin to review and mention it. Library orders start flowing in.

And, lo and behold, the biggies—those publishers that previously rejected your work—just may decide to reverse their decisions. Self-publishing can be the springboard to lucrative contracts with traditional publishers who were afraid to gamble before. Once the marketability of your book has been proven, they may be eager to take it off your hands.

So do you have what it takes to be successfully self-published?

(Excerpted from The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, 5th Edition, by Marilyn Ross & Sue Collier. Coming summer 2010 from Writer’s Digest Books.)

Thanks, Penny!

What is the best way to find appropriate blogs/sites?

I always recommend that authors get to know blogs in their market. They can do this by going to Google Blog Search, Technorati, or any other blog directory. In order to acclimate yourself to the blog environment, start by following five to seven blogs in your market and see what they are talking about. Then, I recommend that you communicate with them. How do you do this? By commenting on their posts. And don’t just write “great post!” offer some thoughtful feedback. This is a great way to start cyber-schmoozing with the bloggers you need to know. When your book comes out you can then offer them a review copy, since bloggers get so many books submitted to them, having done this advanced networking will really help get you and your book to top of the review pile!

 Are there specific genres that have more success with a virtual author book tour?

Not really, but we’re often surprised at books that just take off like wildfire. We had a book, self-published that was a fictional account of the life of a concubine. We almost couldn’t keep up with the review requests. Oddly enough I told the author that I wasn’t sure how well this market would do, but he decided to risk it anyway; we were both pleasantly surprised. One market that I can tell you is very cluttered is business. It’s a rough category to get into online, which is why I’m a fan of blog commenting to network with these folks. Someone out of the clear blue won’t get much traction in this area. New Age and Law of Attraction is similar though not as challenging. Thanks to The Secret and the tsunami of books in the LOA market that followed, this category saw an onslaught of titles that it could barely keep up with.

What would you consider a “successful” tour? How many site visits?

When it comes to online promotion, a lot of authors are impressed by getting on hundreds of sites. I counter that idea only because I know that sometimes online less is more and more is, well sometimes just more. Let me explain. The idea behind online promotion in my view is to gather incoming links to your site—these links act as highways, funneling traffic and readers to you. The other element of incoming links is the Google-factor—meaning that when ranking sites in their market, Google looks at the quality and relevance of incoming links. We’ve seen cases where authors have gotten hundreds upon hundreds of mentions and new links online with little or no change in their website ranking or traffic. Why? Because the incoming links themselves were coming from sites with very little traffic and small Page Rank (Page Rank is a number Google assigns to a site indicating its importance on the Net, Page Rank goes from 0 to10, 10 being the highest).

When considering a tour, you’re better off targeting sites with high Page Rank and depending on your market, this could be anywhere from a 3 to 6… If you can only get on 25 such sites your time will be much better spent than pushing through the onslaught of hundreds of sites that don’t even show up in search engines.

So how much is good? Well, in my view online promotion doesn’t end—unless you decide to let the book and your career die. You should look at doing online promotion for as long as you’re in the business of being an author. So once you’ve captured the high-end sites in your market, it’s okay to go after the smaller-niche ones and keep building your momentum online.

How are tours coordinated? Over a set period of time? Or can they continue for weeks or even months as interest continues?

My recommendation is to not do a tour that is limited to a time period. Sure, week-long tours seem fun and exciting but what happens after the week is over? Not much. You’ve got to keep it going. I recommend doing one to five things a day to promote yourself; this should include commenting on blog posts and pitching your topic to bloggers.

What advice do you have for self-published authors who are organizing their own blog/networking site tours—specifically, dos and don’ts?

First off, think of the Internet as one big networking party. Even though you may never meet the blogger you’re pitching, the same rules apply. You’d never walk up to a group of people at an in-person networking event and say “I wrote a fabulous book and you should review it.” You should always lead with helpful information. Ask yourself why the blogger will care and then, offer them tips to get them to care; they must want your book not because you wrote it but because their readers will want to know about it, it’s timely, it’ll help in some specific way. Whether it’s to entertain, enlighten, or engage them. Lead with the benefits, not the features.

Second, the best kind of promotion online is slow growth over time. That’s why I recommend that authors build their network by engaging with bloggers long before their book comes out. There is no such thing as instant success, and you should shy away from anyone who promises you overnight success or a million Twitter followers in a week.

Third, remember that it’s all about your reader. Whether you’ve written fiction or non-fiction, your efforts to engage your reader are about your reader, not about you. Don’t give them what you think they need, give them what they want. Be interested, not interesting. Listen first, spend a good deal of time listening to what’s going on and what people are saying, then respond. By listening first you’ll show up engaged and informed and readers will beat a path to your door.

Overview

Web 2.0 and social media—the new, live Web—are here to stay. It’s no longer adequate to write your book, put up your website, and expect people to find you. You need to maximize your Web site’s value through interactivity, sharing, and building relationships. Although some people are intimidated by the newness of “viral marketing,” they needn’t be. Leveraging social media marketing to make yourself stand out from the crowd is not that difficult.

So what exactly is “social media”? It is often described as the online practice wherein people use technology to talk, participate, network, and bookmark. Social media sites blogs, microblogs, podcasts, videocasts, forums, wikis, or some kind of content community are included under this umbrella. It’s a contact sport. Unlike traditional media, which more or less is a one-way form of communication, social media promotes discussion, feedback, voting, and otherwise sharing of information. It also enables participants to stay connected with other people and resources.

Incidentally, “Web 2.0” doesn’t really mean there is a different Internet than there was before. The Internet superhighway is the same, but there are more vehicles traveling on it now, including communities that interact together (that is, social media). So the terms are closely related and often lumped together; we’ll simply refer to social media from here on in.

People are jumping on the bandwagon at incredibly high rates: Nearly half of all adult Internet users have created content online. And some studies show that 67 percent of businesses say their best source of advice for products and services are their consumers (who communicate with them via social media). Can you afford not to ride this technological wave of the future?

Are there pitfalls to this new technology? Absolutely! Losing track of time is the biggest. You start chatting on Twitter about your new book, and the next thing you know an hour or more has slipped by and you are clicking on links that have nothing to do with promoting yourself. (Some experts recommend spending twenty minutes or so in the morning and another twenty minutes in the late afternoon to respond to the day’s activities.) Another problem is not defining your purpose for using social media and making a plan before you get started.

Don’t think you have to do anything and everything in terms of social media. New social media channels are cropping up on a seemingly daily basis; don’t be like the proverbial child trying to power through an entire bag of Halloween candy in one day. Pick two or three things that seem most applicable for you, and work at them consistently.

(Excerpted from The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, 5th Edition, by Marilyn Ross and Sue Collier. Due from Writer’s Digest Books, summer of 2010. Email Sue at sue@SelfPublishingResources.com for more information.)

Here’s a little bit of what the email said: “I almost fell down. I kindly mentioned that a lot of people don’t consider authors going through those POD companies to be self-publishers. While keeping it simple, I mentioned a few of the reasons why, and the difference between them and digital printing and CreateSpace and offset printing and fulfillment companies vs. distribution companies and wholesalers. I’m not sure how much he understood. I told him that Xlibris, AuthorHouse, and iUniverse are rip-offs for authors, and that athours should not settle for not owning their ISBNs.”

Unlike the writer of the email, I am not shocked at all. Based on what I see online daily, there is still a HUGE misunderstanding as to what constitutes “true” self-publishing. In yet another attempt to clarify the differences in publishing options–I am one of many who is trying to educated people–let me explain what means what.


Traditional Publishers
An author who signs a contract with a traditional publisher usually receives an advance of a few thousand dollars against future royalties. The publisher owns the ISBN, but the copyright is in the author’s name. The publisher pays for and makes decisions about editing, cover, size, price, and production. Sales channels generally include book wholesalers and retailers, as well as inclusion in the company’s catalog. Authors are expected to do a good deal of book promotion and publicity—although they are often not aware of this until it’s too late.

Self-Publishers
True self-publishing authors assume all responsibility for all aspects of their books—and they keep 100 percent of the profits. They also own their book’s ISBN and copyright; they pay for and make decisions about editing, cover, size, price, and printing, and they can use a wide variety of sales channels, including the Internet as well as all routes available to traditional publishers. Self-publishers know up front that they will be responsible for marketing, promotions, and publicity. Self-published books that sell extremely well may be noticed by traditional publishers, who might want to buy the rights from the author/publisher. (This has been the case with four of Marilyn Ross’s self-published titles. Marilyn is the founder of SPR and my co-author of The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, 5th Edition–one of the titles that was picked up by a traditional publisher.)


POD “Self-Publishers”—Another Twist
Today there is a popular player on the field—a hybrid of the typical “subsidy” press and POD. These companies call themselves “self-publishing companies” or “POD self-publishers,” and they offer more choices to authors at better prices than the typical subsidy companies. They might advertise that customers can use their own cover designs or set their own price. And they are usually inexpensive. What that means, unfortunately, is that they frequently attract bottom-of-the-barrel literary talent. Plus, with such low up-front investment, the authors themselves dive in head first, often without professional editing, typesetting, and cover design. Although these hybrids sometimes offer these services, they may be less than satisfactory. The result of this low-cost approach is frequently a poor quality book that sells few copies.

Typically, these companies issue one of their own ISBNs for your book. With this approach to POD, you are not the publisher. (There goes that control we wanted.)

The reality is that many of these companies are vanity publishers calling themselves “self-publishing” or “self-publishing POD” companies. In reality, though, they are often trading on the good name of self-publishing to make their companies appear to be a legitimate option for authors.

If you decide to go the route of one of these POD outfits, do your research! And keep in mind that since the digital landscape changes so rapidly, you should consult current Web sites of any companies that interest you. Also read industry magazines and newsletters to find out about new firms that have hung out their virtual shingles.

It’s also worth noting here that there are many digital (POD) printing companies that offer excellent service, prices, and quality. They should start calling themselves what they truly are: book printers.

Is POD “self-publishing” ever a good idea? Absolutely! Suppose you have no time or inclination to go the self-publishing route, yet have a book of poems you want to distribute to friends or relatives at Christmas. Or perhaps a beloved family member just died, and you want to preserve her writing for posterity. Maybe you’ve just finished tracing your ancestry and choose to distribute these genealogical findings to a wide circle of relatives. These circumstances, and any others where profit is not your motive, might be justification for subsidy publishing.
 
Subsidy/Vanity Publishers
A subsidy publisher (which was more frequently called a “vanity” publisher in the past) takes payment from the author to print and bind a book. With subsidy publishers, it’s the writer’s cash, not the quality of his or her work, that counts. They publish anyone who can pay. Typically, they provide little or no book editing, marketing/promotion, or warehousing services. It has become more and more common in the past couple years for these subsidy presses to refer to themselves as a “self-publishing company.”

Their use of the term “self-publisher,” which they and their authors are not, is misleading at best and dishonest at worst. They are even so bold as to imply that authors have only two choices: publish with a traditional house or “self-publish” with a subsidy publisher. Self-publishing your own book implies that you, yourself, are the publisher. If you use a subsidy press, they are the book publishing company, not you. They are a book publisher for hire, not a self-publishing company.

Authors who are “accepted” by subsidy publishers—and 99.9 percent of them are as long as they have the cash—pay to have these companies publish their books and get royalties on copies sold. The publisher owns the ISBN, although the author retains the copyright. The author pays for all steps in the publishing process, but the publisher makes most or all of the decisions on editing, cover, size, price, and production of the book. Sales channels are usually limited to the Web since these books are generally ignored by reviewers and others in the book trade. Authors must do their own promotion and publicity. Since they make money up front, subsidy publishers take no risks, and they have no incentive to design an outstanding book or fix typ
os or other problems. They likely print very few copies and stamp their company imprint on your book.

If you have visions of your book becoming the next bestseller—or if you’d simply be satisfied just turning a modest profit—a subsidy publisher may not be your best route. Books printed by subsidy presses rarely make it into bookstores. If your book does make it into a bookstore, you may find that it is not shelved in your intended genre, but rather, it has been placed in a catch-all category called “local authors.” Potential buyers often ignore this category because they perceive these books as being inferior in overall quality, which they sometimes are.

Review copies of books sent to columnists by subsidy publishers generally go directly into the trash can. Reviewers realize that very little editing has likely been done, and they also know that promotional efforts will be practically nonexistent and the book will not be available through the usual book distribution channels. A subsidy publisher’s name on a book is pretty much the kiss of death.

When you choose a subsidy publishing company, there is another issue to consider: Since they own the ISBN for your book, they usually set the price. They literally will tell you what to charge for your own book! This is more than a loss of control—it can even damage the sales of the book if they set the price too high or too low. Once an ISBN is set and printed on the back cover, and embedded in bar code, it’s almost impossible to change.

An ISBN is to a book what your Social Security number is to you. It’s your ID in the world. Consequently, all orders and inquiries will go to them. They are also listed as the publisher of record in Books In Print.

Why would this matter? Let’s take a few hypothetical situations: What if a book club discovers your book, loves it, and wants to adopt it for an alternate selection? The club will contact your Internet publisher who can’t handle the deep discounts needed and thus has no financial stake in such a transaction. What do you think will happen? Zip. Zero. Nada. Suppose a corporation is interested in purchasing 1,000 copies of your book, contacts the Internet publisher, but is turned off by the high cost of the books. You never hear about it. What if a distributor wants to take it on, but finds the economics aren’t feasible? Tough luck. Any of these scenarios can cost you thousands of dollars.

Authors choosing subsidy publishing really need to do their homework to make sure they understand exactly what they are signing. But if you intend to make money selling your book, and if you want value for your money as well as a credible product, true self-publishing is likely the best way to go. If you do self-publish, ensure your book’s quality by working with a reputable self-publishing company. Doing anything less can be a costly and career-threatening mistake.

(Excerpted from The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, 5th Edition, by Marilyn Ross and Sue Collier. Coming in summer 2010 from Writer’s Digest Books. For more information, contact sue@SelfPublishingResources.com; 720-344-4388.)