If You Build It, They Might Not Come — Promotional Realities Pt1

Guest Post by Jo Ettles, author.

If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you right? I had no idea when I wrote my first book in 2012 that it would be such a challenging experience in more ways than one.  Ever the eternal optimist, I do believe self-belief is a huge part of achieving success. BUT it also takes real work, determination, dedication and commitment to marketing yourself and your books continuously to make it in such a competitive world.

I have a strong background in marketing and it is second nature for me to recognise that you need to actively market yourself as an author and promote your work consistently.  You know that old line from the movie — Field of Dreams — “If you build it, they will come”? 

Well, it may have worked for Kevin Costner, but if you take that approach, your amazing book might never reach anyone.

I recently connected with some gifted authors who have released incredible books.  Each and every one of them wanted to know how to improve their marketing and share their work. Here is some of the information that has helped me get both of my books out into the world.

Author Profile
I think everyone needs to have a professional headshot for their author profile. It is amazing how people respond to a professionally taken image as opposed to one that was just taken randomly at a party or family dinner! Present a professional image to the world and invest in a decent author photo.

When it comes to writing your bio, keep it short and sweet but always write from the heart. Readers want to really connect with you. Be uniquely you.

Goodreads
Goodreads is a phenomenal way to get your books seen all over the world. Create an author profile and list your books as soon as you can. Goodreads runs a giveaway competition for readers. I normally giveaway 3 signed copies of my books every few months and it generates a lot of interest in my work. I highly recommend it. 

There is a section where readers can review your work and also give it a star rating. Try not to take it too personally if a review isn’t as great as you had hoped. Not everyone will get your message or your writing but don’t let that stop you from moving forward.  

I recently had a review of one of my books and the reader said, that it had motivated her to clean up but I had rehashed a lot of self-help stuff that was already out there and generally, my book would only appeal to an Australian audience. At first, I got my back up! In my book “The Shed” I share a very personal story so it is definitely not rehashed. After a couple of wasted hours trying to make sense of her opinion, I just accepted that my work is not for everyone and if I was going to continue writing, I had to respect everyone’s opinion and take it on board. The following day, I saw a post on the internet by an American man. He had recommended my book on a reader’s forum saying it was full of good ideas and it was a very decent entry into the self- help genre. Balance restored! 

See Post 2 for more promotional suggestions from Jo.

Showcasing Australia's Ornithological Riches — Book Design

We have just begun work on Cranes, Herons and Storks of Australia by the noted ornithological expert Dr David Hollands AO. Previous titles completed by WorkingType Design for David were: Owls Frogmouths and Nightjars of Australia, and Waders: the Shorebirds of Australia. The photography is uniformly of a very high standard, all taken by the author, often in very remote locations. An essential look at a sliver of the threatened but  still magnificent natural heritage of Australia. The book should be complete by midyear.

Business Directory for Heidelberg

The latest directory of businesses in Heidelberg Central is out. We have been designing this annual publication for several years, characterised by a simple card-like layout for the traders, colour coding for each category and plenty of white space. It has been interesting to observe the recent evolution of street shopping away from retail towards service industry businesses (food, hairdressing, gyms, consultancies etc).  Set in Proxima Sans.

Local History, Eltham Style

Geoffrey A. Sandy has just published the third volume of his History of St Margaret's Church in Eltham, Victoria. Extremely comprehensive and well-researched, the history covers every possible aspect of that particular place of worship. The author has been a parishioner for several decades. Published by Busybird, who also published Volume 1 of this history (Volume 2 has yet to be published). Our design was in keeping with Volume 1, this time emphasising the interior spaces of the Church.

Recent Work: Banner for Eaglehawk Hotel

A banner for a beautiful little hotel in the goldfields region. Modern retractable banners are inexpensive, cheap to print and great for promotional impact.

Finding your BIC code when setting up an Amazon account

When authors set up accounts at Createspace/Amazon for print on demand or via Kindle for ebooks, they are confronted with a request for their BIC code. This is a unique identifier code used for international money transfers, and is also known as a swiftcode. To look up the BIC for your bank, go here.

Type Lovers United

The creator of this website doesn't post often, but when he does, he makes up for the lack of quantity with sheer quality. He has an eye for interesting new type design plus a deep knowledge of design history. His enthusiasm is infectious. Well worth visiting for ideas and inspiration, unexpected combinations of type and strange tales from the dawn of typography.

Mud, Blood and Gold — Cover Design

In his book "Mud, Blood and Gold", Les Pitt tackles the wild years after the discovery of gold in the Daylesford area. He has amassed a wealth of anecdotes and character studies, combined with a range of photographs from the era. We wanted a title that seemed a little worn, but still bold and striking. The title is Nexa Rust and the subtitle is Nexa Rust script. The author name is set in Sentinel.

Amazon Set to Open Non-Virtual Bookstores

After spending the last decade laying waste to the bookstores of the world, it now seems vaguely possible that Amazon is about to build a few of its own. That's right: physical bookstores, with actual books on actual shelves. And actual customers, one assumes. Amazon doesn't do anything without a plan, and without a preternatural understanding of their customers, so their business model must be pretty robust. As this blog post points out, the massive number of print on demand titles that Amazon hosts gives it the ability to tailor store offerings in a granular way without having to maintain huge warehouses of stock. And no-one does logistics and fulfillment as well as Amazon. Lovers of books may find it reassuring that Amazon evidently subscribes to the view that print books will be around for the foreseeable future.

Makerbook Showcases Quality Free Resources

Free is the new black on the Web. Free digital resources of surprising quality are available for photographs, typefaces, illustrations, web wireframes and much more. Makerbook brings together some of the higher end sources of free material and organises them in a simple and visually attractive way.

Primer Promotional Lessons from Google

As the biggest seller of advertising space in the world, Google knows a thing or two about marketing. They have distilled some of that knowledge into a series of lessons. Topics include "Create  a Landing Page that Lands Customers", "Segment Your Customers to Reach the Right Ones" and "Keep Customers Interested with Email Automation".

“We assembled a small team of our own marketers and challenged them to build a product they would use. The result is Primer.”

Children's Book Council Reviews

Best known as the organisers of the CBCA awards, the Children's Book Council of Australia also offers (but does not guarantee) to review childrens and YA books sent to them at this address: 

Reading Time Online
PO Box 216
Kallangur LPO   QLD   4503

The reviews are published at  readingtime.com.au

The overwhelming majority of reviews are of books published by mainstream publishers, but independent authors should still give it a go. The criteria for inclusion genuinely seems to be quality rather than origin.

Using Facebook to Sell Books (really)

Despite the presence of 'book' in the name of social media's behemoth, Facebook is usually not associated with book selling or promotion. But with 1.6 billion regular users (about which it knows a great deal), Facebook offers a massive opportunity to engage in savvy marketing.  Digital Book World recently published an article by Mark Dawson, who describes himself as "pretty much the definition of a midlist author". He cites specific strategies, gives his own sales figures and engages with commenters. Well worth a read.

Content Marketing: an Inch Wide and a Mile Deep

A very interesting discussion on the topic of content marketing. Mark O'Brien, CEO of Newfangled (a US-based agency partnering with agencies "to make digital business development platforms for themselves and their clients") makes a good case for highly targeted content-based marketing. He discusses the approach with one of his clients, who gives many examples of the effectiveness of this approach. The client has gone from trying to attract clients from many industries to focusing on one very small industry segment. Using social media tools and creating useful, responsive content, the client was able to reposition his business, resulting in a massive increase in client engagement, meaningful lead generation from his website, all through quality content. No hard-sell, no desperate cold-calling. 

“[these new businesses are] looking at a much smaller, smaller, smaller sector of the economy, but they’re marketing to thousands of those people. Funny, it’s like the magnifying glass. You’re putting that on there but you’re actually reaching far more people ultimately in a far more effective way, even though you’re looking at a much smaller slice of the economy.”

Re-starting an Important Social Debate

Deb Campbell is a passionate advocate for voluntary euthanasia. She believes that risk averse politicians have quietly kept the issue out of the public debate, despite broad public support for greater patient control over the end of one's life. We used a bold, highly visible sans typeface with a touch of personality for the title and author name (Sinkin Sans) and used Impact Label Reversed for the subtitle. The delicately shaded background artwork was supplied by the author.

Keep Calm and Sell Your Book

Author and client Jaclyn Humfrey writes to inform us that she has found two new outlets for her excellent colouring book (both located in beautiful Albany, Western Australia) — Paperbark, and Yellow Bird. 

A Tale of Two Professions

Joe Reich's latest book is an enjoyable journey through the vanished world of 1970s Melbourne — focusing on the intersecting lives of a doctor at a major urban hospital and an engineer working on the doomed first attempt to build the Westgate bridge. It is a masculine world of prejudice, misconceptions and cigarette smoke. This draft of the cover features an inverted image of the bridge in its incomplete stage and a troubled Melbourne sky.

Museum of the World

Only the British Museum could bill itself as the Museum of the World without straying too far into hyperbole. With the fruit of centuries of acquisition (imperial or otherwise) at its disposal, the BM has allied with Google to showcase some its most impressive items online. Users can scroll along an interactive timeline and drill down to objects of interest. Along similar lines to their very successful "A History of the World in 100 Objects" collaboration with the BBC.

Bayside Grunge — Book Cover Design

A tale of growing up on the shores of Port Phillip in the 1980s, featuring a lad with attitude, problems with the authorities, and a taste for booze. Out soon from Brolga Publishing.

Lightning Source versus Createspace

One of the benefits of digital printing combined with online bookselling is the capacity of printing books as they are ordered, rather than pre-printing and warehousing. This massively reduces costs for small presses and self-publishers. Two major players dominate this field — Createspace, owned by Amazon, and Ingrams Spark (Lightning Source in Australia). The two services offer a very similar level of functionality, but there are differences in pricing, approach, assistance and sales channel availability. Check out these interesting articles discussing  the relative merits of each service, and identify which one better fits your particular use-case.