Janet Goliger is back with our booth for her second year. She is a master promoter. Here she shares with her fellow booth participants but also with others who may be signing at a book fair. Here, she says, is what she has done so far "in a nutshell."
Now is the time to promote for the 2009 L.A. Times/UCLA Festival of Books. Press releases need to be submitted to online sites now for search engines to pick them up. Once the search engines get them, they will be available for viewing almost immediately and will also run for a good year. I still find some of my old press releases when I Google my name or book title that were submitted over a year ago.
Many of these online sites are now charging a fee, however, there are still a few like 24-7pressrelease.com/ and http://free-press-release-center.info/ that are free to use.
Another great way to network is to send your fair invitation to everyone you know. In the message, ask them to forward the invitation to their friends and colleagues, post them at their place of business and maybe even make copies to give to others. I sent mine to about 60 people, many of whom are in different fields of work, and within 1 hour I received 12 responses, all positive. The point is, you’re not just letting your friends know about this, but by the time they each send them to their friends, and so on, you have literally sent out over thousands of invitations for free! And who knows? Your invitation just might get into the hands of someone who can do more for you. If you have your own Web site or blog, get it all updated now.
No matter what you do to promote your book and our book fair booth, be sure to include the names of all authors associated with our booth. The more we do this, the more publicity we all get!
Now one more tip. Go to VistaPrint.com. They offer so many FREE promotional materials that by the time your done, you only end up paying a small shipping fee. I do this once a week all the way up to the date I need them. I have already ordered free promotional post cards, door magnets, calendar magnets, posters, pens, hats, t-shirts and more, all for only minimal shipping costs.
Good luck to you all and I’ll see you at the fair!
------
Blogging by Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Learn more at Carolyn's website, www.howtodoitfrugally.com. Her blogs are also content-laden:
www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com
and a Writer's Digest Top 101 Website:
www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com
And the New Book Review is at your service: www.thenewbookreview.blogspot.com. (Follow the submission guidelines in the left column!)
Showing posts with label book fair promotion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book fair promotion. Show all posts
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Friday, May 23, 2008
AC Member Pam Kelly Sets Promotion Example for Us All
Authors' Coalition thank yous go to Pam Kelly for putting the Authors' Coalition (and my guest appearance at her class) front and center on her blog. http://www.pkellycom.blogspot.com/.
Her blog is a perfect place to see some shots of fair happenings at our booth (the videos with Rey Ybarra at our booth, shots with Annette Fix, (a fellow Authors' Coalition booth participant) and Book Publicists of Southern California (BPSC) leader, Irwin Zucker, plus notes on the way she used a drawing (and promoted it!) during her signing time and, of course, the beautiful set-up for her table during her signing time. Her passion shows through, of course, (She wrote Speak with Passion! Speak with Power!) but her promotion details set an example for us all.
Just a quick note on the Authors' Coalition catalog that goes out to booksellers, too. Mindy Laurence is sending copies to bookstore buyers. Both in her hometown and that of her PR client, Dr. Dan Skelton.
----
Blogging by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, founder of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). Learn more at both the AC site and Carolyn's website, www.howtodoitfrugally.com and her blogs:
www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com
www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com
Her blog is a perfect place to see some shots of fair happenings at our booth (the videos with Rey Ybarra at our booth, shots with Annette Fix, (a fellow Authors' Coalition booth participant) and Book Publicists of Southern California (BPSC) leader, Irwin Zucker, plus notes on the way she used a drawing (and promoted it!) during her signing time and, of course, the beautiful set-up for her table during her signing time. Her passion shows through, of course, (She wrote Speak with Passion! Speak with Power!) but her promotion details set an example for us all.
Just a quick note on the Authors' Coalition catalog that goes out to booksellers, too. Mindy Laurence is sending copies to bookstore buyers. Both in her hometown and that of her PR client, Dr. Dan Skelton.
----
Blogging by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, founder of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). Learn more at both the AC site and Carolyn's website, www.howtodoitfrugally.com and her blogs:
www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com
www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Q&A a la Ann Landers: Is a Book Fair Booth Signing Worth It?
Below you'll find a question from one of our booth participants that turned into my annual report of book fair booth do's, don't's, pro's, con's and marketing secrets:
Question: It would appear, from my short stop at the tent [at the LA Times Festival of Books], that no one made enough sales to break even. If that is true, an analysis would determine if it is worthwhile.
Answer: Thank you. This is a perfect way for me to focus that fair report that I promised those who participated in our booth. Questions and answers are always better than a plain old report. (-:
I can't remember exactly when you came onto the scene in our little book fair process. I say over and over again (in my newsletter, on my website, even in my book and on this blog that fairs are NOT about book sales but about exposure. The chance to send out invitations, releases, etc. and align oneself with the name of a fair as prestigious as the LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books. It is prestigious not only because of its size and its own association with names like the Times and UCLA but also because the general reader assumes that if you're signing at the fair in any capacity, that's a big deal.
I. E. book fairs are about opportunity, not sales. That is why all our AC booth participants receive e-mails from me over and over again. They include templates for releases, for fliers, for invitations and tons of stuff on the basics of marketing in general and marketing book fair appearances in particular.
Having said that, I can't think of one book promotion in the ten years I've been doing it that "pays for itself." For one thing, except for a book fair, it's rare if we know exactly how many book sales to assign to a particular effort. Even a fair can't really be measured this way. Did people go home and buy a book online, as an example? Did they do it Monday? Will they do it Wednesday after the fair? Will they do it when they see you or your title again in the newspapers or on the WEB next week?
Marketing is cumulative. Marketing is about "Persistency over time" and "frequency." Those words are my marketing mantras.
A fair is also about networking. As are many speaking engagements (where one also may sell quite a few books and sometimes, may not).
So, I think the question to be asking ourselves here is not if anyone sold enough to cover their expenses (if you count my time billed out at minimum wage, I certainly didn't and haven't for the last six years!) But instead each person who signs at a fair should ask themselves:
1. How much did you learn?
2. What would you do differently next time?
3. Did you participate in any of the value-added promotions offered by your booth planners or produce any of your own? Did you do your basic marketing? Those releases and invitations?
4. Are you using what I'm sending you after the fair for follow-up publicity. And are you assigning a value to that (not in book sales--again, that's too hard to trace -- but in what you would pay for advertising space equivalent to what you got either on the Web or in your hometown newspaper?)
5. Did you make an important contact for your future career at the fair. A publisher? Editor? Bookstore buyer? A writing club? Editor? etc.
6. Did you collect names for your contact list? That's important so that the next time you will have more people to invite.
7. Did you use your participation as a featured author in your other promotion? Your website? Your blog? Your newsletter? (It is not too late!)
In other words, did you play this fair (or any other fair or book signing or event) for all it can do for you?
For those of you who participated in the catalog only, the principles I've mentioned apply to that kind of promotion, too. Did you supply book buyers' names as asked? Are you following up with that list to talk to booksellers about the catalog? Are you sending them another catalog or media kit or sell sheet now that the catalog has been delivered? Perhaps with a handwritten note attached pointing your book out as one written by a local author.
By the way, did you know that big marketers think any campaign is HUGE if they get 7% of results. That means if they send out 100 postcards, they feel very fortunate to get responses (even nonbuying responses) on seven of them.)
So, to answer this question. Those of you who prefer to evaluate your book fair may certainly find that it didn't pay for itself. Of course, much depends on your royalty/profit margin on your books. Much will also depend on the kind of book you have. Generally, as an example, nonfiction books sell better than fiction. It's the nature of the game. That is true across the board in the world of publishing.
I saw people in our booth sell from two books to about 12 in an hour (the higher number is a guess because I obviously can't count everyone's sales when I'm busy.) And I would welcome figures from you all. I also saw many visitors ask authors for their signatures on posters, ask to pose for photos, etc., and I believe that those with signs that made passers-by immediately aware they were authors, saw more of this kind of action than others. That may not seem like a calculable benefit to some, but I sure think it adds to the fun. And those pictures can end up on Facebook, blogs and more. Especially if you had good signs and/or remembered to grab a copy of your book and hold it face out for the camera!
If enough of you volunteer to give out your sales, I will be happy to post that. I'd also like you to briefly enumerate what you did to promote your appearance before the fair.
Here are just a couple of additional items to report. We had three volunteers who handed out fliers and bookmarks and many authors brought their own volunteers who were generous about handing out materials for authors other than the author they came with. Yes, I often asked them to do that. Ha! Our books were on display individually (something few booths do) and well lighted, also a book fair booth rarity.
If any of you have anything to add to this, suggestions for next year or things I missed, please use the comment butt on this blog.
What have you found effective in the book fairs you've participated in? Please share here by using the comment link below!
----
Blogging by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, founder of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). Learn more at both the AC site and Carolyn's website, www.howtodoitfrugally.com and her blogs:
www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com
www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com
Question: It would appear, from my short stop at the tent [at the LA Times Festival of Books], that no one made enough sales to break even. If that is true, an analysis would determine if it is worthwhile.
Answer: Thank you. This is a perfect way for me to focus that fair report that I promised those who participated in our booth. Questions and answers are always better than a plain old report. (-:
I can't remember exactly when you came onto the scene in our little book fair process. I say over and over again (in my newsletter, on my website, even in my book and on this blog that fairs are NOT about book sales but about exposure. The chance to send out invitations, releases, etc. and align oneself with the name of a fair as prestigious as the LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books. It is prestigious not only because of its size and its own association with names like the Times and UCLA but also because the general reader assumes that if you're signing at the fair in any capacity, that's a big deal.
I. E. book fairs are about opportunity, not sales. That is why all our AC booth participants receive e-mails from me over and over again. They include templates for releases, for fliers, for invitations and tons of stuff on the basics of marketing in general and marketing book fair appearances in particular.
Having said that, I can't think of one book promotion in the ten years I've been doing it that "pays for itself." For one thing, except for a book fair, it's rare if we know exactly how many book sales to assign to a particular effort. Even a fair can't really be measured this way. Did people go home and buy a book online, as an example? Did they do it Monday? Will they do it Wednesday after the fair? Will they do it when they see you or your title again in the newspapers or on the WEB next week?
Marketing is cumulative. Marketing is about "Persistency over time" and "frequency." Those words are my marketing mantras.
A fair is also about networking. As are many speaking engagements (where one also may sell quite a few books and sometimes, may not).
So, I think the question to be asking ourselves here is not if anyone sold enough to cover their expenses (if you count my time billed out at minimum wage, I certainly didn't and haven't for the last six years!) But instead each person who signs at a fair should ask themselves:
1. How much did you learn?
2. What would you do differently next time?
3. Did you participate in any of the value-added promotions offered by your booth planners or produce any of your own? Did you do your basic marketing? Those releases and invitations?
4. Are you using what I'm sending you after the fair for follow-up publicity. And are you assigning a value to that (not in book sales--again, that's too hard to trace -- but in what you would pay for advertising space equivalent to what you got either on the Web or in your hometown newspaper?)
5. Did you make an important contact for your future career at the fair. A publisher? Editor? Bookstore buyer? A writing club? Editor? etc.
6. Did you collect names for your contact list? That's important so that the next time you will have more people to invite.
7. Did you use your participation as a featured author in your other promotion? Your website? Your blog? Your newsletter? (It is not too late!)
In other words, did you play this fair (or any other fair or book signing or event) for all it can do for you?
For those of you who participated in the catalog only, the principles I've mentioned apply to that kind of promotion, too. Did you supply book buyers' names as asked? Are you following up with that list to talk to booksellers about the catalog? Are you sending them another catalog or media kit or sell sheet now that the catalog has been delivered? Perhaps with a handwritten note attached pointing your book out as one written by a local author.
By the way, did you know that big marketers think any campaign is HUGE if they get 7% of results. That means if they send out 100 postcards, they feel very fortunate to get responses (even nonbuying responses) on seven of them.)
So, to answer this question. Those of you who prefer to evaluate your book fair may certainly find that it didn't pay for itself. Of course, much depends on your royalty/profit margin on your books. Much will also depend on the kind of book you have. Generally, as an example, nonfiction books sell better than fiction. It's the nature of the game. That is true across the board in the world of publishing.
I saw people in our booth sell from two books to about 12 in an hour (the higher number is a guess because I obviously can't count everyone's sales when I'm busy.) And I would welcome figures from you all. I also saw many visitors ask authors for their signatures on posters, ask to pose for photos, etc., and I believe that those with signs that made passers-by immediately aware they were authors, saw more of this kind of action than others. That may not seem like a calculable benefit to some, but I sure think it adds to the fun. And those pictures can end up on Facebook, blogs and more. Especially if you had good signs and/or remembered to grab a copy of your book and hold it face out for the camera!
If enough of you volunteer to give out your sales, I will be happy to post that. I'd also like you to briefly enumerate what you did to promote your appearance before the fair.
Here are just a couple of additional items to report. We had three volunteers who handed out fliers and bookmarks and many authors brought their own volunteers who were generous about handing out materials for authors other than the author they came with. Yes, I often asked them to do that. Ha! Our books were on display individually (something few booths do) and well lighted, also a book fair booth rarity.
If any of you have anything to add to this, suggestions for next year or things I missed, please use the comment butt on this blog.
What have you found effective in the book fairs you've participated in? Please share here by using the comment link below!
----
Blogging by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, founder of Authors' Coalition (www.authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com). Learn more at both the AC site and Carolyn's website, www.howtodoitfrugally.com and her blogs:
www.thefrugaleditor.blogspot.com
www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com
Monday, July 30, 2007
West Hollywood Book Fair or What You Can Do to Promote Your Appearnce EARLY!
All Authors' Coalition's efforts are cross-proportional. That means we all benefit from the promotion each of the others does. So here is what anyone participating in a book fair can do six to eight weeks out.
1. Ready your media release. Check my HowToDoItFrugally website for a list of media release disseminators. Click on the tab at the top of the page that says "Resources for Writers" and scroll down. You'll even find my super-mini reviews of each site. Also be organizing your local list of contacts. Invite everyone, even those who have already purchased your book. They may need another for a gift, and they'll want to meet your fellow authors.
2. Some sample media releases will soon be coming your way. Jiggle them a bit to accommodate your own needs but do include the names of other participating authors. That helps search engines pick up your releases more frequently and gives your appearance credibility.
3. Janet Goliger, one of our booth signers, has volunteered to let us use her flyer as a template. That, too, will be coming to you.
4. Go to the Authors' Coalition site to pick up your logo. Use it on your website, in your newsletter, on your flyer, on your book's order forms, on your posters, etc. The possibilities are limitless. Please link any logo used on the web to: http://www.atuhorscoalitionandredenginepress.com.
5. Begin thinking about your order forms. All those with signing times will have their books shown in the booth on special bookshelves. A bood business card or order form should be available for visitors to pick up.
6. If you have a poster from the last AC Fair we did in Los Angeles, I saved it. If not, you may want to consider making one to specifications. More on that later.
7. Please share your promotion ideas with others. Click on the "Comment" link below. It's also a good place to ask questions.
Anyone who is interested in those last couple spaces available for this Sept. 30th fair can reach me for details at HoJoNews@aol.com.
Very best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
http://www.hotodoitfrugally.com
http://www.authorscoalition.blogspot.com
http://www.TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com
And my Sharing with Writers and Readers blog
1. Ready your media release. Check my HowToDoItFrugally website for a list of media release disseminators. Click on the tab at the top of the page that says "Resources for Writers" and scroll down. You'll even find my super-mini reviews of each site. Also be organizing your local list of contacts. Invite everyone, even those who have already purchased your book. They may need another for a gift, and they'll want to meet your fellow authors.
2. Some sample media releases will soon be coming your way. Jiggle them a bit to accommodate your own needs but do include the names of other participating authors. That helps search engines pick up your releases more frequently and gives your appearance credibility.
3. Janet Goliger, one of our booth signers, has volunteered to let us use her flyer as a template. That, too, will be coming to you.
4. Go to the Authors' Coalition site to pick up your logo. Use it on your website, in your newsletter, on your flyer, on your book's order forms, on your posters, etc. The possibilities are limitless. Please link any logo used on the web to: http://www.atuhorscoalitionandredenginepress.com.
5. Begin thinking about your order forms. All those with signing times will have their books shown in the booth on special bookshelves. A bood business card or order form should be available for visitors to pick up.
6. If you have a poster from the last AC Fair we did in Los Angeles, I saved it. If not, you may want to consider making one to specifications. More on that later.
7. Please share your promotion ideas with others. Click on the "Comment" link below. It's also a good place to ask questions.
Anyone who is interested in those last couple spaces available for this Sept. 30th fair can reach me for details at HoJoNews@aol.com.
Very best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
http://www.hotodoitfrugally.com
http://www.authorscoalition.blogspot.com
http://www.TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com
And my Sharing with Writers and Readers blog
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