Don't Wait to Start Your Marketing Strategy
Copyright 2004 Jo Fulkerson
Your novel is finished, you’ve had it edited by a
professional Editor, and you’ve done the rewrites. What?
You haven’t had an editor edit your work yet? This is a
must. There are many editors advertising in Writer’s
Digest. I have used one in whom I have the utmost
confidence – William Greenleaf. His website is
http://www.williamgreenleaf.com email wgreenleaf@email.com
Another editing service I have contacted is A-1 Editing
Services – http://www.a1editing.com I have not used their
services as yet, but they did do a 5-page critique and edit
for me at no charge so that I could get an idea of their
work. I am seriously considering them for my next novel.
Once you have had it edited and done the rewrites, you’re
ready to send it off to the publisher (or get it set up as
an ebook), and . . . And then what? How are you going to
promote and market your newest creation? Any Ideas? Let
me strongly recommend a service which I used and with which
I have been extremely satisfied.
Publishersandagents@aol.com is an email query service
headed by Gini Scott. She works up a solid query letter
for you, emails it to film producers (for scripts) and
agents, as well as book publishers (editors) and book
agents. You will be amazed at the response you will get
from her emails (they come directly to you from the
contacts). This is by far better and easier than looking
up the contacts yourself and contacting them each
individually. Let me give you a word of warning: Be sure
and have your response materials ready. Your script
treatment, your script, your bio, your synopsis – all
of the materials that these contacts are likely to ask you
to send should be prepared, corrected, and in your files
ready to send when you begin receiving inquiries.
If you decide to self-publish your work, search all of the
information you need to be able to decide where to have the
work published. POD publishers, such as
iUniverse – http://www.iuniverse.com –
Infinity Publishing – http://www.infinitypublishing.com or
email: info@infinitypublishing.com –
1st Books – http://www.1stbooks.com
Trafford Publishing – http://www.trafford.com
Book Locker – http://www.booklocker.com
All of these are sources I have contacted and find their
information worth considering. (For “Sing Me No Sad Songs”
I chose Trafford Publishing.)
Whether you find a regular publisher or self-publish your
novel, or offer it as an ebook, you’re in for a big shock
if you believe you won’t have to promote and market your
book yourself. You will have to do the work yourself. And
if you thought that getting your book finished and polished
was a giant task, you’re going to find out that the work
you put into writing your novel was a walk in the park if
you don’t get your ducks all in a row to begin your
marketing strategy.
Among the various marketing strategies I uncovered and
recently began using (I told you that I didn’t plan ahead
for my book promotion) are these:
Book Crazy Radio has interviews with authors via internet
radio every Tuesday. http://www.bookcrazy.net for
information
Brian Jud has two book marketing services which are well
worth considering. I am using one of these right now.) He
also has an ezine for writers with many promotion tips.
Contact BrianJud@aol.com for details.
BooksAndAuthors@aol.com has some good book promotion ideas
and services.
Other places to find great promotion information are these
newsletters:
authorgmooney@getresponse.com
http://www.writersweekly.com
http://www.bookcoaching.com email: Judy@bookcoaching.com
http://www.digital-e.biz.com email: birgitt@digital-e.biz.
Book Promotion Newsletter – contact franalive@optonline.net
http://www:oncewritten.com
Use your search engine to locate other ezines for writers
– they are an invaluable source of publicity by using your
articles with your signature at the end to direct people to
your book.
Don’t wait! At least by the time you send your script
to the publisher or get it ready for an ebook, you should
be checking ezines for information about marketing. You
should gather all the information you can find relating to
marketing – look up websites, contact them all and find out
what kind of marketing tools are available to you and which
ones you want to pursue.
Keep file folders, with all the information you gather,
and find some way to keep track of what each file folder
contains. Then categorize your folders by subject –
Marketing Information, Info on Publishing, Ezines for
Promoting, Comments – Reviews – Press Releases, etc. You
need to be able to find just what you’re looking for
without going through folder after folder looking for it.
The important thing to remember – Don’t wait until you are
ready to begin marketing your book to begin collecting
information. Be ready to start marketing as soon as your
book is finished and ready to be marketed.
In the case of articles, you should write several articles,
polish each one to perfection, and then contact or send
them to appropriate ezines and newsletters. Send your
articles out every week or two and keep sending them out as
long as you develop new lists of ezines to submit to. Keep
writing new articles which help others to learn from your
experiences and put your signature at the end of each
article. Your name, a published article or book, website,
etc. should be at the end of EVERY article you submit.
Jo Fulkerson is a published author, songwriter, poet
Author of "Sing Me No Sad Songs" Available at
http://www.desertmesa.net
"Secrets of a Publisher Author" available at
http://www.writersline.net
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