CFOM Publicity Article

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I promise I'll have more interesting posts in the future, but I want to pass along a link to an article I wrote for the Christian Fiction Online Magazine this month.

I was asked to write about TitleTrakk.com's beginnings and publicity, so that's what I did. Ever wondered how my sister, Tracy, and I started TitleTrakk.com? Or, if you're a writer, how to best contact web media? I talk about it all in the piece, "TitleTrakk.com: Origins". Check it out here.

Deonne Beron (Advice for Novelists, Part 95)

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Welcome to another edition of my Advice for Novelists series in which editors, authors, agents and publicists answer the question:

"If you could say one thing to aspiring novelists, what would you say?"

Today a publicist chimes in with some great advice:

Know that you are your book's own best publicist. Approach your book like that from the very beginning and invite your publishing team to join you. It begins with a proposal that shows you've been thinking about how you can promote your book. But it doesn't end there. In terms of publicity once your book is published, there are three key things to keep in mind:

1) Audience- Start early by cultivating an audience of readers interested in books like yours and ways to communicate them--facebook, twitter, blogs--all those things are free or available to you at a very low cost.

2) Hook- Promoting a fiction novel is much more than just delivering a book report. Whether talking to a member of the media or an interested reader, they want to know what makes this book interesting and worth their time to read. If your book has a strong tie to current news or trends, it widens the number of media who will be interested in that hook. A good hook also provides multiple ways to enter into the content of the book. I've seen a number of fiction novels with great hooks for media interviews that help draw readers in. For example, one author's spent 25 years researching the biblical and historical world of a Bible character before writing her first novel, while another author had a character who used advances in a specific field of science to solve crimes, so in both cases, having these hooks added to the story of the novel and made good material for an interview.

3) Timing- Beginning to understand the timeline of a book's life will be critical. For PR, we begin working with your book at some level around 6 months before the book's release. Some blog tour reservations and media opportunities need to have a book in their pipeline that far in advance. But having buzz or media too far out can also hurt the book. For example, if someone you know offers to do an interview or review of the book earlier than the month of release, this can backfire, something many authors I've talked with don't understand. If the book is not out in stores when people are alerted to it and go looking for it, they will often forget about it and the impulse purchase you worked so hard for is lost. It's far better to try and cluster as much media as possible in first month or at most two after release.

--Deonne Beron, publicity manager, Baker Publishing Group. Visit Baker online at their website.

Kathy Carlton Willis (Advice for Novelists, Part 88)

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Here's today's entry in our Advice for Novelists series. I've asked authors, agents, editors and publicists their response to the question:

"If you could say one thing to aspiring novelists, what would you say?"

Publicist and author Kathy Carlton Willis responds today:

One thing that I tell novelists to remember prior to writing each book is to write marketing/PR INTO the book. Novels are different "birds" to promote, and it's so much easier if you have planned ahead for it by weaving specific promotable topics into the story line. And then, keep a list of these hooks for your marketing and PR team to work up. Also consider various niche markets who might benefit from the book and be sure you've written text with them in mind. Many special interest groups are using novels as an interesting way to get across non-fiction truths in a more entertaining wrapping. Booking agents can pitch you to speak with groups within your niche market and you'll be deluged at the book table after your programs!

--Kathy Carlton Willis, owner of Kathy Carlton Willis Communications, a full-service firm with a dedicated team committed to customizing packages for your marketing plans, publicity, editing, and writing needs. http://www.kathycarltonwillis.com/ WillisWay@aol.com