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Thursdays with Amanda: 7 Ways to Grow Your Blog Readership

Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

Thanks for tuning in to my ongoing discussion on author platform! We’re on post two of a three-post miniseries on building your platform through blogging. (If you missed it, last week we talked about the components of a great blog post). This week, we’re going to look at some things you can do to improve traffic and blog searchability. (Is that a word? you ask. Thanks to Google, yes).

Seven Ways to Build a Platform Through Blogging:

1.      Title it right – Google is structured so that the title of your blog post helps determine its position within searches. The more searchable terms/keywords that a title has, the more likely it is to be pulled up in a search result. Confused?

Think of it like this...When people do a Google search, Google, in its infinite wisdom, pulls out what it deems to be the keywords of that search. You can throw an entire sentence at it, and it will pull out the proper nouns, nouns, and possibly verbs. It then moves across the Internet to find a match for those terms, and relies heavily on page titles to do so. This is why it’s key to avoid vague blog post titles, such as “Introducing my new book!” and “Happy to be home!”. These will get you nowhere because the words within them are overused. They aren’t specific enough. Still confused? Stay with me here...

Let’s say you do a blog post on your next book, which is about a cowboy winning the heart of a school teacher. You want to name the post “My next book!” but realize that would be Google suicide because the odds of your post coming up when someone searches for “book” are like a zillion to one.

So, you do a bit of research and figure out that search terms like “Modern Cowboy” and “Cowboy Bachelors” are all popular. Then you ask yourself, If I was interested in modern cowboys and romance, what would I type into Google?

You develop a blog post entitled “5 Ways to Attract a Modern Day Cowboy.” This will draw readers who are interested in cowboys, romance and potentially, your book. It’s also much more searchable than your original title idea because it’s packed of appropriately grouped search terms. Plus, numbers posts rock (5 ways to, 10 secrets of, 15 thoughts on…). These are hugely popular and will ensure that if people stumble across your post on Google, they’ll actually click through.

 

2.      Link to other sites – Another way to increase SEO (search engine optimization) is to link to other sites within your post. It’s ideal when those sites then link back to you, but it’s not always feasible.

Also, avoid the tendency of anchoring the link on the word “Here.” For example, “Check out our agency website here.” This is bad, because the word “here” isn’t a good search term (I mean how often have you Googled the word ‘here’?). Instead, anchor the link to key search terms. The link will tell Google that this particular term has added information tied to it, so it will make your post move up on the overall searchability side. Here’s an example of a link done right: “Learn more about how to become a freelance writer.”

How many people do you expect search for “how to become a freelance writer”? Lots.

 

3.      Go out and get ‘em! – So many bloggers think that you can just slap up a post and then sit back and wait for the masses to come running your direction. But growing a blog is like getting a date for New Year’s...you don’t just put on a suit (or dress) and sit in your house, waiting for people to throw themselves at you. No, you make yourself available. You go to the coffee shop, the church function, the bar, eharmony.com and wherever else people go to find other singles these days. Then, you strike up conversation. You form a relationship. You get your name out there.

Blogging (and all of social media, really) is the same way. You have to get out there and find other blogs with readerships similar to your own. Then, you make friends. You post comments (always providing a link to your blog!). You do video responses. Whatever it takes to get those readers to notice you, click through to your blog, realize that they like being there, and ask you out on a date.

4.       Use the tools you’ve been given – If you have Twitter, Tweet a link to your latest post as soon as it’s up. If you have Facebook, share it in your status bar. If you StumbleUpon, then like your post and add it to the StumbleUpon queue. If you use Pinterest, Reddit, Digg and other less outdated sites, then use them to share your latest post. But YOU MUST BE CONSISTENT. I attracted a few readers to my blog through StumbleUpon, but they wouldn’t read unless I added my latest post to the queue. So keep this in mind: readers are lazy. If they get used to finding your blog through Twitter, they’re going to rely on you to share those links. You stop sharing; they forget your blog ever existed.

 

5.      Include pictures and visual stimuli – Okay, so you’re drawing readers to your blog, but how do you keep them there? Pictures help keep the reader reading. They offer a visual break and can make long posts seem shorter. Be sure to use these in all/most posts! Also, block paragraphs of no more than 2-4 sentences are best.

 

6.      Post regularly – There’s this mentality that more is better. While that’s true, there’s nothing more destructive than when bloggers abandon their active blogs for lengthy periods of time. My rule is to commit to something that is do-able. Start by posting once per week. Post on the same day and preferably the same time. This will develop a readership.

When you feel as though you can do more, expand to two posts per week. But never commit to something that you can’t live up to. As a reader of multiple blogs, it gets old really fast when bloggers commit to things and then never follow through.

Let’s use “Thursdays with Amanda” as an example. Every Thursday and Friday, we see traffic on this blog that is different than the traffic we see on other days. That’s because this “Platform Monster” series is drawing a specific crowd. They know that Thursdays mean a new post, and they come here expecting to hear from me.

 

7.      Reply to comments – To encourage a healthy blog community, it’s best to reply to every comment…even if you just thank them for stopping by. This will keep readers coming back, because they will know that you’re active on your blog and that you want to interact with them/hear what they have to say.

 

This is just the tip of the iceberg. If you have a tip, idea or question to share, then please do! I’ll be responding to each comment below.

 Next week: Blogging as a fiction writer

Thursdays with Amanda: 5 Rules of Blogging Well

Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

As promised, this week we're continuing our Platform Monster discussion by talking about blogging.

Blogging is the easiest way for any author to get their feet wet when it comes to online promotions. It has a free-form approach, meaning you can be as long-winded as you like, and it’s fairly simple to navigate, with free blogging services available from blogspot.com, wordpress.com and more. They even come with tutorials. It’s a win-win.

But blogging doesn’t come without its share of hurdles.

There are approximately 150+ million blogs. That’s 150+ million peopl screaming for attention. For your blog to rise out of this noisy mess, it needs to be good. It needs to be really good. And for it to result in a salable platform, well...let’s just say it needs to be near perfect.

So let’s start with the basics and build from there.

 

Blogging 101

The reason there are 150+ million blogs is because everyone has something to say...or at least they think they do. Of those 150+ million blogs, 149.9 million are written poorly. And the basic rule of writing is that you don’t get anywhere with a poorly-written blog, manuscript or what-have-you, right?

So let’s take a look at some of the most ignored, broken and abused rules of a well-crafted blog post.

Five (of the many) Rules of Blogging:

1.      Stick to the goal – Before you begin, give your blog a goal (this is a good rule of thumb for ALL of your social media sites).

Do you want to promote yourself as an author/speaker/expert? Do you want to promote your book? Do you want to connect with fans? Do you want to offer an online experience that ties in with your book? These are important questions, and without answering them, your blog will turn into a mush of information.

For example, we’ve all come to know and love Chip’s blog. He provides valuable information on the industry and is a huge help to writers.

But what would happen if Chip suddenly started blogging about the Oregon Ducks? He certainly loves them enough to do so, and we all know he isn’t shy about his affections. So what if every other post was a recap of their season? And then what if on the weekends, he shifted gears with his blog and talked all about dancing? (Yes, Chip dances). What would happen then?

I’ll tell you what would happen...he’d start to lose readers. Sure, he’d gain a few who are interested in the Ducks and dancing, but all of you who come here for publishing insight would soon find other places to go. The bottom line is that he wouldn’t be hitting his target market anymore. He’d instead be hitting a niche market interested in publishing, the Oregon Ducks and dancing. Not exactly a best-seller-sized readership.

When your blog lacks a clear, singular goal, you will either lose readers or gain readers who aren’t going to contribute to your success in publishing. Simple as that.

2.      Treat each post like a story…have a beginning, middle and end – It’s a common mistake for bloggers to cram multiple themes/points/declarations in each blog post. What you end up with is smorgasbord of personal opinion and experiences, and the reader is left to wade through it all and extract what they want.

This is why each blog post, no matter the topic, should be treated like a book. It should have a beginning, in which it teases the reader or introduces the topic; a middle, in which it provides additional information; and an ending, in which it hits it all home and brings it together.

A good example of this is here on my personal blog. It’s a humor post, but notice how the opening line presents the subject matter in a way that is both intriguing and funny. The next few paragraphs offer supportive information, building on the subject matter without fully disclosing what the heck I’m talking about. Then, the final paragraph brings it all home for an ending that (I’m hoping) is both enlightening and laugh-out-loud funny.

(Note: My blog is NOT a professional blog. It’s simply something that I do for me, so it doesn’t follow many of these guidelines).

3.      Keep it casual – There’s this tendency to treat blogging as you would an essay. Proper grammar, no contractions, complete sentences. But that’s the very mindset that will kill your blog. Think of it more as a conversation with friends. Throw grammar rules to the wind and leave properly-formatted sentences to your high school English teacher.

Trust me. You’ll get a lot more readers this way.

4.      Don’t forget voice! – Your author voice is one of the most effective weapons you have in making your blog a success, yet you’d be surprised at how many authors don’t incorporate it into their blogging. Think of it this way: your blog is an advertisement for your books. And what better way to prove you’re a great writer than to have a strong, compelling blogging voice?

5.      Avoid the “daily diary” syndrome – This is probably the biggest problem for those 149.9 million bloggers, and it can be summed up in one sentence: No one cares what you had for dinner.

There’s this tendency to treat a blog like a journal where you archive your day’s events. But the truth is, no one cares that you went to the grocery store after picking up Travis from football practice. And no one cares that you found ground beef on sale for $2 a pound.

If you’re blogging about your personal life (this goes back to rule #1), avoid the tendency to rehash all of the events of your day. Pick ONE event and form a blog post around that. Give it a beginning, middle and end, and your blog will leave readers wanting more.

I hate to be pointing you to my personal blog, since it’s not a shining example of perfection, but if you look at that post again, you’ll see that I wrote it the day before my best friend’s wedding. I had a million topics to choose from. I could have written about her dress, or the decor, or the strange guy I had to walk down the aisle with. I could have written about how I barely got off work in time to be there or how I was wearing shoes with million-inch heels. But instead of cramming all that juicy (and sometimes entertaining) information into a neverending post, I selected one thing. One thing that I felt encapsulated the experience. And truth be told...that blog post almost landed me a major marketing job at a college here in Fort Wayne.

 

Once you’ve mastered blog writing, then you can focus on the components that will draw readers to your blog...which will be next week’s topic. (I had intended to fit it all in one, but I’m not sure you’d want to read a 2,000 word blog post).

So that’s it...five of the hundreds of rules for a great blog post. What rules do you rely on? What rules have you been breaking?

Creating a Career Plan for Writers

I have a background in organizational development -- that is, the study of how an organization grows and changes over time. In my job as a literary agent, I've found it's proven helpful when talking to writers about their careers. You see, my contention is that some agents pay lip service to "helping authors with career planning," but many don't really have a method for doing that. (Actually, from the look of it, some don't even know what it means. I think "career planning" to some agents is defined as "having a book contract.") During my doctoral program at the University of Oregon (Go Ducks!), I served as a Graduate Teaching Fellow in the Career Planning and Placement Office. The focus was on helping people graduating in the arts figure out how to create a career plan, and that experience allowed me the opportunity to apply the principles of organizational theory to the real-world setting of those trying to make a living with words. So here are a few things I like to consider when talking with a writer...

First, I want to get to know the author. Who is he (or she)? What's the platform he brings to the process? Does she speak? If so, where, how often, to whom, to how many, and on what topics? Does he have experience with other media? What kind? What's her message? What books has she done in the past? What other writing is the author doing that could boost the platform?

Second, I want to find out about the author's past -- the significant events and accomplishments. I also like to make sure I'm clear on things like strengths, gifts, burdens... all of that helps give me context when discussing career paths.

Third, we have to talk about perspective -- what is important to the author? How does he define success? What does she need to change? What do they want to accomplish?

Fourth, we sit down together (or talk on the phone), and we talk about personal organization. Every author needs a TIME to write, a PLACE to write, and a GOAL that he or she is writing toward. Do they have a plan in place? Are they moving forward? Do they have a project they are working on? Do they have a filing system to keep track of projects? Do they have a writing calendar, so they know what  and when they are working on each project? I encourage authors to create a budgeting calendar -- something that is very important to every working author. Of course, each writer is unique -- what they are writing and how fast they write it will be different for each person. But knowing their financial goals and what sort of help they need from me makes my role clear.

Fifth, we start to talk about an actual writing plan -- what will the writer create over the next two years? The next five years? What plans are they making? Do those plans reflect their values? Does it all match up with their life purpose? Does it maximize their strengths? Is their spouse in agreement with it all? Knowing an author is at peace with the overall plan is important if this is all going to happen in the writer's life.

These things all work together to create a career map for an author. Various documents are derived from this information -- a writing calendar, a budget, a wish list, maybe a statement of purpose. But my goal isn't to get an author to write some grand purpose statement -- my goal is to help an author create a workable plan he or she can use to move forward in a writing career. I aim to keep writers results-focused. I'll sometimes ask an author questions such as, "What person would you most like to invest in this year?" or "What single thing would you most like to purchase this year?" or "What obstacle seems to be holding you back right now?" In talking through issues like this, we start to gain some clarity as to what an author wants to accomplish.

And, to be completely open about this, sometimes an author will work through the process and decide she really doesn't want to be a full-time writer. And that's okay -- the goal is to figure out the calling. I want the authors I work with to be crystal clear in their two- or three-year career plans. That way an author can understand what "success" is, and each one has a means of measuring progress. Feel free to ask me questions. 

 

Thursdays with Amanda: Success with Writing Articles

NOTE: Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

We’re on week three of tackling the Platform Monster. Week one we talked about numbers as in how big an author platform should be, and week two we took the first step toward achieving those numbers by acknowledging that growing a platform should be like playing with dominos. You move forward, tile by tile, focusing on one thing at a time until the big payoff when everything falls into place and you have your platform.

So now let’s dig deeper. Each week, we’ll take a look at one of those platform components (Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Speaking) and I’ll give insight into how to do them right and reap the biggest reward.

This week, we’re talking about WRITING ARTICLES.

I chose this one to start us off, because aside from blogging, it comes more naturally to most writers than, say, YouTube vlogging and public speaking. It also is one of the easiest ways to ensure your name gets in front of lots and lots of people.

Here’s my thinking...you Tweet something or write a blog post or throw something up onto the Internet, and unless you happen to be talking about a trending or searchable topic, it only gets read by your immediate audience. But with articles (especially print articles), your words will be read by a majority of that publication’s readership. And 99.9% of those readers are people that you haven’t met before. So while pitching articles and columns may be a bit outdated, it’s one of the best ways to get your words in front of NEW readers.

So how do you see success with articles? Here’s what I recommend:

1.      Take a look at what you write and identify the topics you specialize in. If you’re a nonfiction writer, this is pretty easy. If you’re a fiction writer, it’ll take a bit more effort. Come up with a list of 5 or so interests that you feel are reflected in your writing. For example, Bernard Cornwell writes spectacular historical fiction geared toward men. When he was in the midst of writing and researching his King Arthur series, he could have identified the following groups of people who would be interested in his work: British history enthusiasts; King Arthur enthusiasts; mythology and folklore enthusiasts; myth, hero, Arthurian and possibly medieval reenactment groups; and of course, historical fiction enthusiasts.

2.      Once you’ve identified your groups of readers, track down publications that serve those readers. You want to dig up as many publications as possible and focus on print publications as well as e-publications (oftentimes referred to as e-zines). Popular blogs may also be considered.

3.      Write a handful of articles or essays for each interest group (some may cross over). If you’re like Bernard Cornwell, you may choose to write about the research that you’re doing. Or, if you’re Susanna Clarke, you may want to write about Magic in Adult Literature – Has Harry Potter Juvenalized the Subject? Whatever the topic, make sure it parallels your writing subject and interests your reader.

4.      Pitch your articles to the publications. Now the key here is to reuse articles so that you’re not always writing something new for every publication. The article you sell to Fitness Magazine can also be tweaked and then used in Self, Shape, and then Oxygen.

5.      When you get a few bites, pitch new ideas to those publications. The goal is to create a relationship with the publication in hopes that they’ll bring you on as a contributing writer or columnist. Also, by frequently appearing in the same publications, you’ll start to develop a readership.

6.      Keep track of how many people are seeing your words. Every print or e-publication has a readership number. For print, they refer to this as their circulation. You can find these numbers on their website or by emailing and asking. For e-publications, you’ll need to get their web stats. I like to rely on www.compete.com to give me insight into how many visitors a website will get per month (Tip: Only search the home page of the website. Don’t search your article’s individual URL).

7.      You should have some sort of website already, but at this point it’s time to add another outlet. Say, Twitter or Facebook. Think of it as placing that second domino right behind the first one.

8.      Come up with a byline that directs your fans to whatever social media outlet you chose in step 7.

If you look at the top of this blog post, you’ll see I have a handy little byline that directs you to follow me on Twitter and visit my Facebook page. And it’s worked. Since writing these posts, I’ve added three dozen or so followers. It’s not much, but imagine if I had been posting these words on multiple blogs and e-zines around the Internet. That group of three dozen could have been a few hundred. In just a matter of weeks.

And that’s it. Success in article-writing in 8 easy steps.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions and questions.

A Series of Fortunate Events - a guest blog from Gina Holmes

It's not everyday that a debut novel becomes a bestseller, which is perhaps why people are curious as to why and how Crossing Oceans made its way on to the CBA, ECPA, Amazon, and PW Religion lists. 

Anyone who regularly follows the bestseller lists for a few months will notice that while the book titles change, the authors rarely do. People like Ted Dekker, Francine Rivers, Karen Kingsbury, etc show up there over and over—making it difficult for a new name to squeeze in. (This is true in the CBA as well as the general market).

There is, of course, no single way to turn a book into a bestseller. If there were, everyone would be doing it with every book. I can’t speak for the rest of debut novelist’s who were lucky enough to break in, but this is how it went for me:

·      I had a champion.

Actually several. It started with a top-notch agent, Chip MacGregor, who championed the book and sold it to Tyndale House. Karen Watson, Associate Publisher there, read a partial manuscript and became passionate about it. She took a risk and gave an untried author a chance.

 This wouldn’t have happened though if the idea had been poorly executed. It took years to hone my skills. Over the course of ten years, I'd written several manuscripts that were ultimately rejected, read every how-to writing book I could get my hands on, and aligned with the toughest critique partners I could find. 

Lucky for me, the rest of the team at Tyndale House also got excited and additional resources were thrown at the book. One "higher-up" from Tyndale commented it was one of the best debuts he’d  ever read. That’s the kind of excitement that helps sell a book.

·      I had a great editor.

 I doubt I have to convince writers how important this is. Kathy Olson saw my vision for the story, suggested changes and heard me when I had questions or disagreed. We listened to each other, and there was compromise on both our ends.  She didn't change the essence of the story, or my voice, which I'm truly thankful for. What she did do is make a good story better.

·      They listened.

Right from the beginning stages, I worked with a team that wanted, and heard my input. They suggested changes they thought would improve the book. They also invited my feedback from everything from the cover design to the portion of endorsement we ended up using.

I was grateful when my (fan-stinking-tastic) marketer ran ideas past me about ad displays and which outlets they planned to advertise with. I offered insight, which could have been ignored, but wasn't. When I saw a PR tie in, I wrote to my publicist and we brainstormed and then acted. Sometimes she pitched an angle, sometimes I did, depending on who we thought would get the best results. There were no egos involved on either end, just a desire for the book to succeed.

·      Serendipity 

A major book chain buyer, (God bless her!), fell in love with Crossing Oceans and got the stores excited about it too. She ordered lots of copies, gave it placement at the front of the store. It was put on sale nationwide, which helped introduce it to readers. I couldn’t have planned that if I wanted to.

Another national chain made it their book club pick. This certainly wouldn’t have happened if Tyndale hadn’t pitched it to them or if it wasn’t a story that resonated, but I’m sure lots of other books were just as worthy. Like I said, serendipity.

Kindle offered it as a daily deal, dropping the price to $1.99 for the day. This also introduced me to many readers who wouldn’t have discovered me otherwise. Again, not my doing.

·      Word of mouth

Word of mouth normally only happens when enough people, the right people, (read The Tipping Point), read a book and become passionate about it. My publishing team took care to submit it to the "who’s who" of reviewers and outlets.

On my end, I worked to gather up early readers and to create buzz. I spent probably on average 2-4 hours a day on publicity. That’s a lot of time, but you only get one chance to debut. Many outlets are more curious about your first book than subsequent ones. It pays to pour everything you have into the first 

It also helped that Tyndale offered up Crossing Oceans as a freebie on Kindle and Nook. It stayed at number one free download on Amazon for most of that two weeks and then stayed in the top one hundred paid for weeks after. That’s a lot of potential for word of mouth.

I had a platform which I’d spent years building: www.novelrocket.com. With a strong base of supporters, it was easy to scare up folks who were happy to help me get the word out. (When you take time to help others, expecting nothing in return, you tend to get the boomerang effect. Hint. Hint.)

This isn’t a conclusive list, but it’s a good representation of how and why Crossing Oceans launched so well. A bestseller tends to happen when you have a well-written & sticky, (again—see The Tipping Point), book, a great team of champions, and an author willing to do their part.

It’s important to point out the obvious—some great books don’t sell so well despite all involved doing everything right. And some maybe not so great books sell very well despite little effort. 

I think God sometimes smiles on certain projects for reasons only He knows, and perhaps some books are meant to reach many, while others are meant to reach a select few—but that’s a topic for another post.

What I do know is that we could try our best to recreate this series of fortunate events I experienced with Crossing Oceans, but probably will fail miserably because most of the best breaks weren’t within our control.

What we can do is to write the best book we can, do as much to promote as we can, hope that our publishing team and readers "get" us, and say our prayers.

 

Gina Holmes is the author of CROSSING OCEANS, her debut novel that hit the bestseller lists and won numerous industry awards, and her latest, DRY AS RAIN, which has been getting very strong reviews. Both books were published by Tyndale publishers. 

 

Thursday with Amanda: Growing a Platform Is Like Dominos

NOTE: Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

So now you know what to shoot for in terms of numbers (if you missed it, last Thursday we talked about how big an author platform should be). But as many of you pointed out, those numbers seem impossible. The time and effort required to grow such a following had some of you envisioning yourself with an impressive platform sometime in the year 2030. While others flat out admitted that they didn’t have a single sales bone in their body. You’re artists, after all. And artists don’t always make the most sociable, friendly, outgoing, spin doctoring bunch.

So what’s the secret? How can these numbers be achieved?

Let me explain it like this...most authors, when embarking on a quest to tackle the platform demon, treat it like spaghetti. They throw everything against the wall to see what sticks. They start a Facebook group, a Twitter account, a blog, a website, a Goodreads account, a newsletter and on and on and on until they feel they have all of the possible platform-building areas covered.

And then they’re surprised when nothing happens. When their Facebook group hovers around 50 followers—most of which are personal or family friends. When their Twitter account has more spam followers than real followers and their website stats don’t climb above 30 visits a day. They’re surprised by this, because they’re doing everything they’re supposed to do and nothing is working. And more than anything, they’re exhausted. They’ve spread themselves so thin, they can barely keep track of what was said where. At this point, most give up. They tried their best, and it didn’t work.

But platform is nothing like spaghetti. It’s more like a game of dominos (as in the game in which you set them all up and they fall over). Select one thing. One thing out of that list of 10 or so possibilities. Pour all you have into that one thing. Your time, your creativity, your resources. Stick with it, and when it starts to go, you’ll find that if you already have some of the other platform-related areas set up (most of us do), they’ll start to grow with it. And if you don’t have those areas yet set up, then you’ll find that it’s that much easier to get them going.

More importantly, you’ll find that you won’t be selling your soul to SOCIAL MEDIA. Sure, it takes sacrifice and commitment. But focusing on one thing and doing it well will save you from burning out and giving up.

Ok, so I know your next question is going to be how? How do I grow my Facebook? My Twitter? My blog?

We’ll get there. Come back next Thursday and we’ll start to talk about the how. See you then!

P.s. I loved the discussion last week. Feel free to weigh in again!

Should I be investing in my own publicity?

I've had a few people write to me and ask about the marketing posts I did a couple weeks ago. Several have wanted to know, "When should I consider spending my own money on my book's publicity?" 

The answer is probably, "When you feel the marketing people at your publishing house aren't doing enough," except that NO author ever really believes the marketing types are doing enough for their book. (It's true. I've seen bestselling authors who are getting full page ads complain about the lack of effort from the marketing staff.) I suppose every author would like to see the marketing department try harder, do more, be more creative, and get away from doing the same things that don't work, all for no cost. But the publishers are all trying to do their best. One young publicist might have 20 or 30 books she's working on, so your book may not get a ton of attention. 

So again, let's just work on the assumption that YOU are in charge of the marketing. Anything your publisher does is great, and by all means you should express your appreciation for them sending out review copies or setting you up on some blogs to talk about your book. Hey, at least they're doing SOMETHING. But yes, it's possible your book may need a boost when it comes to publicity if it's really going to grab some attention. Figuring out what to do next is the key.

A lot of authors want to simply hire an outside publicist. That may work, or it may be an expensive mistake. Let me suggest that the first "outside" person who needs to get involved is you. It bears repeating: YOU are in charge of marketing your book. You. Not the publisher, who will help you but may not do all that much unless you're a proven bestseller. You. Nobody else knows your message as well; nobody else is as committed to your story as you are. Nobody else has as much riding on your book as you do. So just assume you're going to take charge of your marketing.

That means you're going to have to educate yourself. I can recommend some basic marketing books, such as marketing textbooks to get you started, but good books specifically targeted to book marketing include David Cole's COMPLETE GUIDE TO BOOK MARKETING, Steve Weber's PLUG YOUR BOOK, Jay Conrad Levinson's GUERRILLA MARKETING (there's a special one for writers), Penny Sansevieri's RED HOT INTERNET PUBLICITY, Chris Murray's MARKETING GURUS, David Scott's NEW RULES OF MARKETING AND PR, Lissa Warren's THE SAVVY AUTHOR'S GUIDE TO PUBLICITY, Shel Horowitz's GRASSROOTS MARKETING FOR AUTHORS, John Kremer's 1001 WAYS TO MARKET YOUR BOOK, Tim Berry's ON TARGET, and the books by David Rising. Rob Eager of Wildfire Marketing has a new book on marketing coming out with Writers Digest soon, so look for that one. Consider spending a couple hundred dollars to educate yourself first. You can also think about purchasing a used copy of something easy like MARKETING FOR DUMMIES and SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING FOR DUMMIES. That will get you started. Do that before you spend money on an outside specialist. 

Can a novelist market herself?

Christine wrote and asked, "Is it really possible to market yourself as a novelist?"

I definitely think it's possible for a novelist to market himself or herself. Over the past couple years, I've tried to share some thoughts on how novelists can market themselves, so you may find it helpful to meander back through my posts in order to look for ideas. But here's the big picture: In my opinion, a novelist has to begin seeing herself not just as an artist (which you, as a writer, most certainly are), but also as a brand name or commodity that deserves marketing. And that means creating a well-thought-out plan for marketing yourself and your work. (Okay, I'll admit that part of me hates writing that. I don't like talking about words as "commodities," and treating the writing arts as though they were cans of corn. But let's face facts -- I'm talking with writers who want to make a living writing, and that translates to selling books.)

Non-fiction writers find it easier to do some basic marketing, since they have a topic or hot-button issue that is clearly discernable. If you were to write a book on losing weight or making money or raising kids, the potential audience for such a topic is easy to recognize. You can go onto radio programs and talk about the problem and the solutions you're offering, or write articles for magazines and e-zines that explore your particular approach to the issue. With fiction, it's tougher. Good stories are not about one topic, but explore numerous threads. And no radio or TV program wants to invite you on to re-tell your novel. So instead of focusing on the story, most fiction writers find they have to focus on the author or the genre. In other words, you and your voice becomes the focus of your marketing. This is why it's essential that a novelist has a clear style. 

Or, sometimes, the focus of marketing is on the issues or topics raised in the novel. Think of the marketing of successful novelists -- it's not always the story that is the focus, but the fact that there is another great book from John Grisham or Elizabeth George or Janet Evanovich. Or it's about the fact that someone has written a novel that deals with identify or spirituality or suicide or... whatever. Sometimes the focus is a bit more on the genre -- the publisher wants readers to know this is an Amish story, or a techno-thriller, or a cross-cultural adventure story. But that's much less frequent than focusing on the author or issues. Again, great literature springs from a story that explores the great questions of life, those questions reflect our own lives, and the characters make choices about them. We, as the readers, may like or hate the choices, but at least we get to see what someone else would do with those choices... so in many ways, a novel offers us a vicarious exploration of the great questions of life. We learn, we are moved, we grow. The greatest novels I've read have changed me. 

Looking at today's market, what's the lesson for novelists? Discover your voice. Write a great novel. Market yourself hard.

 

Thursdays with Amanda: How Big Should a Writer's Platform Be?

NOTE: Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

You've heard it before...if you really want to impress an agent, make sure you have three things: a great idea, supported by great writing and a great platform.

But let's be honest, either you're born with a knack for words or you're not.

Either a great idea drops into your head one day, or it doesn't.

But platform...platform doesn't happen by chance. Platform is all about hard work.

I think it's funny that we dedicate entire conferences and workshops and critique groups to the very components that we have the least control over (You can't make great writers out of bad writers, and no classic American novels were written by following a novel-writing template), while the the third component--the one that really can be taught into existence--gets ignored.

This really bugs me, because we've turned platform into this mysterious entity that's somehow more difficult to achieve than writing a best seller. Somewhere along the line, we've decided using social media is more nebulous than developing a plot destined for the silver screen and that growing a readership as an unpublished author is more far-fetched than an agent offering on-the-spot representation.

How we became so dillussional is lost on me, but I'd like to begin to set things straight and pull platform out of the doghouse it's been sitting in for so long.

So first things first, what do impressive social media stats look like? (Hold on, it's going to be a bumpy ride...)

The cold, hard truth is that solid author platforms come in the tens or hundreds of thousands.

Let’s get more specific...

If you have a website or blog, your monthly unique visitor count should be at least 30,000

If you have a Twitter account, your followers should be pushing 5,000

If you have a Facebook group, your following should be pushing 5,000

If you’re a public speaker, you should speak at least 30 times a year and you should shoot for a total audience number of at least 10,000

If you write for e-zines and e-publications on a regular basis, you should have your words in front of at least 100,000 readers per month

If you write for print publications on a regular basis, you should have your words in front of at least 100,000 readers per quarter

Intimidated yet? I know I am. These numbers aren't easy to achieve. That’s why those who do so stand out in a crowd. And standing out makes them more likely to be published.

I'll be continuing this conversation every Thursday for the next few weeks, but in the mean time, let's talk about these numbers. Are they daunting? Feasible? Have they made you re-think how you’re using social media? Have they redefined success? Share your thoughts.

 

The Last Step: Go Back and Evaluate

Some people have twenty years of experience. Some people have one year of experience twenty times. The difference? The former keep track of their progress and learn from their mistakes as well as their successes. The latter keep trying something new, and have to re-learn the process every time. 

Make it easy on yourself -- mark your trail. Make a point of writing down everything that works and everything that doesn't as you work through your marketing plan. That will help you focus on the good ideas and eliminate the bad ones the next time you're doing marketing for a book. Give yourself some evaluations. Figure out if you could do something better next time, or tweak an unsuccessful effort in order to make it successful. 

If you keep track of everything you do in your marketing plan, you'll discover it moves along much more quickly the next time you need to do it. So make lists of your activities. Keep track of names and emails and phone numbers. Grab contact information to the producers and hosts and editors you're in contact with. Make notes of the ideas you found helped you sell books. Send thank you's to the people who really assisted you along the way. If you don't keep track of your work, the next time you have a book releasing you'll have to do all this stuff over again. 

If possible, talk through the plan with your team -- perhaps someone from your publishing house, as well as someone who helped you get the work done. Get their input into the ideas that worked best. By focusing on the best practices, you'll find yourself improving at the marketing side of the business, therefore allowing yourself more time to WRITE in the future. 

That's it -- my ten steps to creating a marketing plan. I hope you've found it helpful.