Saturday, December 31, 2022

What Will You Do This Second?

 

A new year is upon us. Will this be the year of great accomplishments, failures, or mere survival for you? How soon before your resolutions become failed promises and broken dreams? Or, will this year be your breakthrough moment, where aha moments lead to a stronger commitment to doing things a new way and to doing new things?

Every second of the 86,400 seconds you get today, and on each and every day of your life, is precious.  How will you spend each one?

We know that time is precious. This irreplaceable commodity has an expiration date, one that is unknown to any of us. We can, if fortunate enough, hire people to use their time to help us appropriate our time to do something that we feel is more worthwhile or important. But we still have a limited supply of time no matter what.

When you choose to do A, it precludes you from doing B or anything else at that moment, setting you up and positioning you for something else that you want or need to do seconds, minutes, or hours later.

All of time is equal in a day but not in a lifetime.

A day in my twenties and thirties is worth more than a day in my eighties, in the sense that time in my youth seems more valuable than time in my elder years, just as the year of raising a seven-year-old is more previous than when having a 27-year-old.

But, in a given day, all of time is equal and how I spend the first or last second of a day is of a similar importance. We need to make the most or every second, doing the very thing we need or desire to do.

One thing that I hope to change this year is to spend less time escaping, avoiding, and unwinding. This means that I need to spend a little less time mindlessly trying to swipe my way out of boredom.

Less wading through random Internet articles and social media posts is needed.

I need to spend less time surfing television to invest in an eight-part streaming show that should be told in two episodes.

I certainly want less time arguing over nonsense with family members. I should be less invested in trying to prove a silly point that no one gives a crap about.

I also need to devote less time decrying what a waste our nation has become. It makes me sound old and does nothing for anyone.

Time is invaluable. You lost seconds of your life to reading this piece, but hopefully it was worthwhile. Live your life fully, enjoyably, and meaningfully. Re-evaluate how you use your time and make the most of it to do what you truly love to do
.

 

Please Contact Me For Book PR Help

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

Read This!

19 Resolutions For Authors & Book Lovers In 2023

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2022/12/19-resolutions-for-authors-book-lovers.html 

Top 24 Book Marketing Blog Posts of the Year

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2022/11/top-24-book-marketing-blogs-of-year.html


Great Book Marketing Podcast Interview With Book PR Pro Brian Feinblum

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/04/great-book-marketing-podcast-interview.html


About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2022. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.2 million pageviews. With 4,400+ posts over the past decade, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Susan RoAne, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, IBPA, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, NewsdayThe Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum

Thursday, December 29, 2022

21 Book Marketing Tips

 


Authors constantly ask me for tips to market their books successfully. I refer them to my blog’s 4300+ posts and alert them that they can of course, hire me to consult with them and/or execute a marketing plan for them. Today, I offer 21 suggestions on what an author can do to market themselves with great results. These are just the tip of the iceberg, but good luck in getting started!  

1.      When building or revising your website, make sure that it is easy to navigate, and includes in the tool bar these core things: 

Home

Books

--summary of each book

--excerpts from each book

--how to buy each book

About |Me

Blog

Testimonials/Reviews

Media

--list of media appearances

--links to past media placements

--press kit

Newsletter

Speaking

--where you have spoken/will be speaking

--speakers kit

--video of you speaking

Contact

--social media accounts

--contact info  

Your site should have a video of yourself and it should contain a free download in exchange for the visitor’s email and name. 

2.      Be on several social media platforms. On Facebook, join dozens of groups. Same with LinkedIn. Post to those groups twice a month. Connect with each group’s administrator. 

3.      If you are on Instagram, take advantage of Instagram Reels. If you are on Twitter, contact the followers of a competing author. 

4.      Set up pages on Amazon Author Central, Net Galley, GoodReads, and other online book sites.  

5.      Join writer associations based on your genre, location, or other characteristics, such as race, gender, or religion. For instance, if you live near Los Angeles, join the California Writers Club (state), Greater Los Angeles Writers Society (local), Catholic Literary Arts (faith), Romance Writers of America (genre), International Society of Latino Authors (ethnicity), and Women’s fiction Writers Association (gender and genre). There are general ones, like PEN, IBPA, Authors Guild, and National Writers Union to consider as well.  

6.      MeetUp is a good place to find your readers. Go to meetup.com and find existing events near you – or create one – and just show up. Want to meet people who like poetry? Go to meetup.com and tell everyone to meet at a specific location, at a set time and date, and watch people show up.  

7.      Contact local news media outlets and seek out individuals who may want to interview you, review your book, or feature you in a story. Make a list of all nearby media outlets: TV, radio, magazines, and newspapers. Then, determine which people at each outlet to contact. For instance, at newspapers, you may contact a book editor, features editor, local editors, and the editor of a section that covers your book’s subject matter. If it’s a TV station, look at the different talk and news shows that are throughout the day and week. Find the producer contact for each show. Same with your nearby radio station. Then, pitch them an idea that involves your book.  

8.      Cross-promote your book with other authors. Ask them to review your book on Amazon and to post about it on their social media. You do the same for them.  

9.      Get professional reviews, even if you have to buy them. On the high end is Kirkus Reviews and on the lower-cost part of the spectrum is Blue Ink Reviews 

10.  Choose your Amazon promotion if you are enrolled in Amazon KDP Select.  

11.  Join the Amazon Affiliate program.  

12.  Seek out local bookstores for a book signing and author presentation. Once you do a gig, ask the store if they can refer you to other stores or places that hold author appearances. Get a testimonial from the person who helped set your book talk up. Share it on social media, your website, your speaker’s kit, your press kit, and in your communications with other venues and groups.  

13.  Create a Q & A (12-15 questions and answers) for your website. This allows you to share information as if being interviewed by the news media.  

14.  Create cool graphics for your site. See BookBrush and PicMonkey for help.  

15.  If you don’t have a blog or a podcast, create a digital newsletter. Will you send it out quarterly, monthly, or every other month? How long will it be? What will go in it? You decide.  

16.  Try some paid promotion sites, including BookRebel.com, BargainBooksy.com, MyBookCave.com, eReaderNewsToday.com, and BookBub.com. 

17.  Post an excerpt from your book on Wattpad, a social network for authors and read with tens of millions of users.  

18.  Give free copies of your book to Amazon reviewers with a “Top Reviewer” badge who have reviewed books that are similar to yours.  

19.  Partner with relevant organizations locally, from a PTA to a church – or a business, non-profit, or government agency.  

20.  Run a Google Adwords campaign, using targeted keywords that others would use to look up content like yours.  

21.  Write and syndicate a press release about your book. Use free services to distribute your release, such as: EIN PressWire, PRLog, NewswireToday, PRFree, PR.com, OnlinePRMedia, IssueWire, and OpenPR. 

 

 

Please Contact Me For Book PR Help

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

Read This!

Top 24 Book Marketing Blog Posts of the Year

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2022/11/top-24-book-marketing-blogs-of-year.html

 

Great Book Marketing Podcast Interview With Book PR Pro Brian Feinblum

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/04/great-book-marketing-podcast-interview.html

 

About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2022. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.2 million pageviews. With 4,400+ posts over the past decade, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Susan RoAne, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, IBPA, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, NewsdayThe Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum

 

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

How Books Get People’s Attention


When some people speak – or issue a press release – they draw people to them and create a buzz. Is it the topic? Charisma? Luck and timing? Yes.  

What will get people interested in your message – and inspired by it to take an action step such as visit your site, buy your book, attend your event, interview you for the media, agree to sell your book)? You need to have an answer.  

Try any one or more of these things:  

·         Be controversial

·         Tell wildly funny jokes

·         Say contrarian stuff

·         Make vivid the dangers before us

·         Come off as an authority or leader

·         Sound insightful

·         Make bold future predictions

·         Simply be weird and unconventional

·         Break all of the rules, even the law

·         Ask questions that challenge the status quo

·         Say aloud what people only think

·         Appeal to us emotionally

·         Create a vision or a mission we’d want to buy into

·         Astonish, wow, dazzle, and amaze us

·         Feed and tease our curiosity

·         Tell the truth or be a likeable liar

·         Promote certain values, ideals, and beliefs

·         Disprove a fallacy or myth

·         Be bold, sound confident, look attractive  

Of course, it is easy for me to say you should be unique, great, interesting, daring, beautiful, etc. I know, I agree. But take the point to heart. Regular sentences, mediocre ideas, stagnant language, or accepted opinions don’t get you far. You need to be on the offensive. In other words, don’t bore me with your allegiance to standard fare.  

Now, you try it. Think of something. Write it down. Say it aloud. Listen to it as if it is the first time you are really hearing what your writing sounds like. Does your pitch letter, marketing email, blog, social media post, press release, or back cover copy draw me in, dazzle me, and make your best representation of what you truly offer? No? Get back at it. Yes? Still, check for weak ideas, dull words, or unnecessary statements. Make whatever you say to be said powerfully while using an economy of words.  

Look, to get attention you simply can’t just check boxes and feed us the ordinary stuff. Be loud and proud. Be colorful. Don’t play it safe. You simply must acknowledge that to break through you need to be unique, exciting, or new.  You are not on the two-yard line and expecting to score. Instead approach it as if you are 90 yards away and need a big play to get you downfield. Assume the role of underdog, victim, or loser.  

You must punch above your weight class. Go for it!

Please Contact Me For Book PR Help

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

Read This!

Top 24 Book Marketing Blog Posts of the Year

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2022/11/top-24-book-marketing-blogs-of-year.html

 

Great Book Marketing Podcast Interview With Book PR Pro Brian Feinblum

https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2021/04/great-book-marketing-podcast-interview.html

 

About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2022. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.2 million pageviews. With 4,400+ posts over the past decade, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Susan RoAne, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA, IBPA, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, NewsdayThe Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum