WHAT PUBLISHERS LOOK FOR

"You’ve got to instantly engage the reader. Your
first page should make them want to read the rest of the book. The last page of your
book should make them want to buy the next book."

 Linda Leon

AUTHOR BLOGS-DO'S, DON'TS, TIPS

For authors, a blog, or two, can be an important marketing tool. It is a great way to build readership and to 'strut your stuff.' There are some do's and don'ts so here are a few tips.

Don't get into people's faces about your book. If your blog looks like an add people will avoid it like the plague.

Don't scatter your posts on a million topics. You can't be an expert in all areas and people will soon discover that you are just filling the pages to get attention.

Don't take on topics if you have no expertise or interest. readers don't like shallow writing.

Don't rant. You don't want to come off as crazy or weird, unless that is your marketing strategy.

Don't fill your blog with tons of adds-if you have any-be selective.

Do find a niche. As a writer, you must be passionate about something. If it is the topic of your book, that is great, so you'll want to post about issues that your book addresses. When appropriate you can insert a reference to your book. You can also write about the art of writing, How To's, and be a place to visit for guidance.

Don't allow open 'ID or anonymous' for comments. This is just me, but it opens the door to massive amounts of spammer messages. If someone has to put a real email address they are less likely to load you up with spam.

Do offer tips. People love free advice and like to hear what others think work or don't work.

Do be honest.

Do have Favorite Links and a Blog Roll. This is where you can link to your web site, your publisher, other authors and sites that might pertain to your topics.

Do write about things that are of real concern to you. It is okay to be passionate.

Do fill in the Labels or Tag section below your blog. These are what SEO's pick up on. BE SURE that your first sentence or two contains words that you use in these Labels or tags. Again, this is for SEO. BE SURE TO PUT YOUR NAME IN YOUR LABELS

Do make sure that you have enabled your blog with SHARE buttons (Twitter, FB, etc)

Do vary the nature of content. Find videos on YouTube that are germane and copy the html embedd code and post on your blog. Have guests blogs. Have some opinions, some straight facts, etc. Post Cinchcasts that are audio reports (Cinhcast.com).

Do make your links live so others just click and go to the link page.

Do post as often as you can.

TIPS FOR TOPICS:

Go to Google Insights and see what is trending and what is a hot topic. You can also see who and where there may be an interest in your topics.

See what is trending for topics on Twitter and Yahoo.

Ask others if they will share a gust blog with you on a periodic basis.

Set up a set of questions (say 10) and invite others to answer them. These can be author interviews, expert interviews, survivor interviews, etc.

Some sites allow and encourage a re-posting of their blog-wider exposure is good.

Search for articles-there are many sites that offer free articles on just about any topic.

The key is to write about things you care about. Be helpful, offer advice and tips, be honest and caring in your topics. Never defame another author or blogger. And, don't be concerned if you don't get tons of comments. People live busy lives and often will not comment on your blog. Post often and try to thank those who comment on your posts.

AUTHOR PRESS KIT

Jerry D. Simmons -
Author, Publisher, Speaker
INDI Publishing Group
Creating Opportunities for Writers
Author of What Every Writer Needs to Know About Publishing
Also available as an eBook
www.WritersReaders.com
Preparing Writers for Success
www.NothingBinding.com
Introducing Emerging Writers to a Global Audience

The Author's Press Kit - What is it? Do I need one? -
By Carole Barnes

An author's press kit (also known as a media kit or a promo kit) is a package of information about you.... the author. Often authors are asked to provide details about themselves and their work to members of the press, their publishers, or potential clients. A press kit is a simple tool for handling this request quickly and efficiently. A press kit is a great, cost-effective way to generate exposure for you and your business. If you don't already have one then it may be time to consider one.

A well prepared press kit is an all-in-one package that summarizes you as an author and all of your professional information. It allows you to have pertinent information about your books, biographical information, activities, achievements and press coverage at your fingertips whenever needed. It can be as simple or as elaborate as you like, with its main purpose being to pull together all your information and make a good solid first impression.

The most important element of your press kit is its professional appearance and packaging. A press kit is used to promote you, your products and your business, as well as providing your contact and ordering information.

So, what's actually in the Press Kit?

The contents can vary, depending on the intended purpose and/or audience, but in general, a press kit contains the following:
1. A brief biography - a one page summary about you, what you do and what makes you unique. This is a good place to insert your contact information and a photo of you.
2. If you are promoting your current book, your press kit will include a summary, title, publisher, publication date, synopsis, and a picture of the book's cover. This is a great place to add reviews about the book, as well as an order form.
3. If you wish to promote your general writing services, a list of what you've done for others in the past and some testimonial comments from satisfied clients can be added.
4. Reprints of newspaper and magazine articles, printouts from websites and references to TV and radio shows where you have been mentioned. Articles and media exposure lend tremendous credibility.
5. All awards and citations you have received.
6. A list of all your works, including where and when they were published.
7. Previous book signing photos as well as mention of any upcoming signings.
8. Of course you'll need something to put it in so it all stays together - a professional folder with your photo or logo on the cover.

With all of your information put together in an attractive, professional kit, you'll have a cohesive, convenient, and centralized marketing package. This packet will clearly communicate all the key facts about you, your work and achievements. The best part is that it will be ready to distribute at any time, with the goal, of course, of attracting future business and interest.

In these hard economic times, if an agent/publisher requests a summary of your information, it makes sense to have a showcase of your work ready to send out or take with you. A press kit can be handed to anyone... TV executives, agents, publishers, reviewers, etc., and can also be used to introduce yourself to prospective bookstores.

Press kits can be as simple as a one page summary of you and your work, or as detailed as you like. The best part is you can customize your kit for any occasion. Your can get online examples and do your own press kit, or have it done professionally, whichever is your preference.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like help developing a professional press kit specifically for you and your needs!

www.CaroleBarnes.com
CaroleBarnes@cox.net
Ph 480.330.3918

BOOK SUBMISSION ERRORS

Authors need to show more consideration to their peers. It is incumbent upon authors to read publisher's web sites prior to submission. We have had several cases where the author has sent in the first three chapters, as required, then the whole ms, as we requested. We like the book and offer a contract. Then the author reviews our website and decides, perhaps, that our publishing parameters are not what they expected (being, like the vast majority of both large and small presses, print-on-demand, for example, or "oh, I want this published in hardcover" as opposed to paperback).

In the first place, authors need to keep informed as to what is happening in the industry. Almost all publishers, in some form, are using print-on-demand technology. Very, very few "warehouse" books in this day and age.

Secondly, and most important to us, a lot of time is spent reading and carefully reviewing each manuscript submitted to us. The time spent on submissions from authors who have not reviewed the website, contract, et cetera, is time taken away from other authors who know what we do and how we do it.

Bottom line, authors, regardless of where you submit your ms, please read the material on the web site. It is there for a purpose.

MORE AUTHOR MISTAKES AND SOME ADVICE

As an author, I understand that once a your book is complete, you want to send it to a lot of publishers-that is only natural. The hope is that publishing offers will come pouring in and you will then sit back and choose the best. Now back to reality. For most first-time authors, this is not the case. You discover that the big publishers won't even look at your ms and the rejections flow in. Time to re-think. You begin to look for small publishers. Still many rejections, but a few want to see the entire ms. You actually get the offer of a contract and you are elated. However, you think there may still be a better offer coming in your next email so you tell the publisher that offered the contract, "I'll get back to you in a few weeks." You then get an email saying, the offer is rescinded.

What happened? Please keep in mind that publishers understand that most authors send their ms to multiple publishers. However, if you are offered a contract, and then tell them they will have to wait for an answer, you are telling them that they are not your first choice and you want to see if anything better comes in. The publisher that offered the contract has read your query, read your sample chapters and synopsis, asked for and took the time to read the entire book. After spending valuable ours in this review process, you then try to tell them that you want to wait. This just does not work.

At ATTMP we have lots of submissions that need reviewing and many books in various stages of the publishing process. If we have taken the time to offer a contract and then are told to wait to see if you get a better offer, your book will hit the rejection pile.

Some advice. If you are waiting for a specific publisher, do not mass submit your book to others. Wait until you hear from your first choice. To tell a publisher that they are the second, third or even fourth choice and to tell them to wait a few weeks for your decision shows lack of respect for the effort that goes into bringing your book to the contract offer stage. As we tell all future authors, read our web site so you have a full understanding of what ATTMP is all about. When we receive a submission, we assume that you want us to publish your book because you like what you see.

I DO NOT WANT MY BOOK PUBLISHED

Sometimes we get submissions where the author seems to be telling us, "I do not want my book published." Either they could not understand our simple submission requirements or they just ignored them.

Here are some real examples that scream, "Do not Publish My Book!"

1) There is nothing in the body of the email query-just attachments. Would you even open an email like that?

2) The submission is in the email.

3) Submissions are sent as pdf's. We require a word doc. or rtf.

4) The query has no synopsis, word count, or any descriptive information about the book.

5) We actually had a query that told us to "please publish my book, no one else will."

6) We have had authors that say we look like a good publisher, but could you change your contract? This is even before we have a submission.

7) The query asks many questions that are clearly answered on our web site.

8) We have received submissions that say that the book is not complete but will we publish it when done? Our requirements clearly state that the ms must be complete.

9)The query is filled with typos. Does that raise a red flag?

10) Dear Agent or Publisher. They have not even to take the time to send to us directly.

11) A simple spelling/grammar check reveals many errors on the first page of the submission, never mind the ones in the email.

12) We have received submissions that have said, "here is the ms, but I am thinking of making a lot of revisions."

Authors must recognize that publishers receive many manuscripts, are busy reviewing, editing and publishing,marketing,as well as working with authors whose books are in the process of publication. Most small presses do not mind answering questions and making clarifications. However, when the questions asked are clearly answered on the web site, the author is not making a great impression. We implore all authors to READ THE SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS. Publishers do not load their web sites with useless information. It would behoove authors to review the entire publisher site PRIOR to submission. We have received may great submissions from many great writers. If your work is good, do not have it rejected because you failed to follow some simple steps!

STUFF PUBLISHERS HATE

FROM AUTHOR MARKETING EXPERTS, INC.

Five Things You Should Never Say When Pitching Your Book to a Publisher or Agent
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(aka stuff publishers and agents hate)

If you're trying to get an agent or publisher for your book, there are a lot of things you need to do but also several you shouldn't. With writers' conference season in full swing the opportunities to pitch your book to an agent/publisher abound. Here are a few things that will turn off a publisher or agent when you're pitching them!

1) Everyone loves my book: don't lead your pitch with this. In fact my recommendation is to leave this out of your pitch altogether. The definition of "everyone" is generally friends and family, and while we love them for being a supportive bunch, when it comes to mainstream publishing they don't really count.

2) No one else has written a book like this, it's never been done before. This is a big red flag to almost anyone in the book world, if it's never been done before there might be a reason. They say there are no new ideas, certainly there are, but publishing tends to fall into categories and if it's never been done, there might be a reason. If it really is a new idea, great! But do your research first before you toss out the "first book on this topic ever."

3) My book should be a movie or - my book is going to be the next bestseller. No one can predict a bestseller or, for that matter, what will become a blockbuster movie. I know if Hollywood and the New York publishing community could predict this, they'd be in a much better financial state than they are now. The fact is, you might wish or hope that your book becomes the next classic but even you, the uber talented author, can't predict this so don't pretend you can. It's a big eye-rolling turn off. Trust me.

4) Don't stalk your agent/publisher: Ok, now I don't mean stalking in the sense that Lifetime is considering making a movie out of you, but I mean hounding, badgering, emailing daily, calling. You know, the super annoying stuff that will get you blacklisted off of every agent and publisher's list. Trust me, word will spread like wildfire if you're a pain in the you-know-what. It's also the quickest way to a rejection. Follow-up is ok, burning up the phone lines or hitting your send button obsessively isn't. Keep in mind that patience will often win this race. If you have found an agent that you trust, then trust them to do their job.

5) Not wanting to take feedback or rejecting professional advice: a good agent and/or publisher will offer you feedback on your book. Perhaps ways to enhance/correct it. Things you might want to consider adding to make it more commercially viable. Listen to these comments and learn from them, then, swallow your own opinions and consider incorporating them into your book. If you really have an objection that's another thing, but if pride is getting in your way then back off of the ego and see some of the points they're making as helpful and constructive. The writer sure to fail is the one who won't listen.

It's a competitive market out there, and with New York publishing in trouble these days it seems more and more that authors need to know the do's and don'ts before they rush headlong into publishing. From our perspective, the last thing you want to do is come across as a know-it-all or an amateur. These are the things that will not only hurt your career, but delay the publication of your book as well.

Marketing Experts, Inc.

Contact Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: penny@amarketingexpert.com
web: http://www.amarketingexpert.com

BOOKS UNBOUND

The following excerpts are from an article in Time Magazine dated 1/21/09. The url for the article is at the end of this post. It is a must read! This is one of the growing reasons why ALL THINGS THAT MATTER PRESS is focusing its efforts on internet marketing and not 'brick and mortar" stores.

"Fast-forward to the early 21st century: the publishing industry is in distress. Publishing houses--among them Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Doubleday and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt--are laying off staff left and right. Random House is in the midst of a drastic reorganization. Salaries are frozen across the industry. Whispers of bankruptcy are fluttering around Borders; Barnes & Noble just cut 100 jobs at its headquarters, a measure unprecedented in the company's history. Publishers Weekly (PW) predicts that 2009 will be "the worst year for publishing in decades." A lot of headlines and blogs to the contrary, publishing isn't dying. But it is evolving, and so radically that we may hardly recognize it when it's done. Literature interprets the world, but it's also shaped by that world, and we're living through one of the greatest economic and technological transformations since--well, since the early 18th century... If you think about it, shipping physical books back and forth across the country is starting to seem pretty 20th century. Novels are getting restless, shrugging off their expensive papery husks and transmigrating digitally into other forms. Devices like the Sony Reader and Amazon's Kindle have gained devoted followings. Google has scanned more than 7 million books into its online database; the plan is to scan them all, every single one, within 10 years.

And what will that fiction look like? Like fan fiction, it will be ravenously referential and intertextual in ways that will strain copyright law to the breaking point. Novels will get longer--electronic books aren't bound by physical constraints--and they'll be patchable and updatable, like software. We'll see more novels doled out episodically, on the model of TV series or, for that matter, the serial novels of the 19th century. We can expect a literary culture of pleasure and immediate gratification. Reading on a screen speeds you up: you don't linger on the language; you just click through. We'll see less modernist-style difficulty and more romance-novel-style sentiment and high-speed-narrative throughput. Novels will compete to hook you in the first paragraph and then hang on for dear life.

None of this is good or bad; it just is."
For the complete article go to: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1873122-2,00.html

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE

Please Pass It On! If you find my newsletter helpful, please forward to everyone you think might find it interesting. If my newsletter was forwarded to you and you would like your own copy, send me an email, jerry@writersreaders.com. With your sign-up you’ll receive free an 20-page eBook titled “What Writers Need to Know About Marketing.”

WE URGE WRITERS TO SUBSCRIBE TO THIS INFORMATIVE NEWSLETTER

Anything is Possible - ‘The ‘Indies’ best friend’ By Barrie David

I think writers become ‘Indies’, independent publishers, for many different reasons. Fame and fortune, seeing their work in print, or more probably for not being among the lucky handful chosen from countless submissions to the ever fickle mainstream. Some go it alone simply to share what they know, what they have seen and experienced with others. I like to think I fall into this last category. When your book is as polished and complete as you can get it and the exuberant dust settles, when family and friends, filled with admiration, (and occasionally the mute silence of envy) have finished raving about it, the Indie soon realises there is none of the formidable marketing backup that a mainstream publishing house would provide. At this point there are two basic options. Rest on his/her laurels - Well - at least I wrote a book etc. The other is the Indies best friend, that miracle of modern world wide communication - the Internet. Setting up your own website is not rocket science or vastly expensive. Seeing your work online, out there in hyper space yet available to VIRTUALLY anybody at the click of a mouse, brings potential that is truly infinite. It’s the next stage on the long hard road that may well have begun with a notepad, a pencil and the overwhelming urge to tell a story. The best that can happen…? Well, that’s in the lap of the Gods. At the very least, you will get what every writer craves – feedback – not to mention making a huge amount of new friends.

To see what I mean come and visit me at – www.barriedavid.com/

Keep writing. My very best wishes, Barrie David. Author – ‘Dormant Courage’

BLOGGING FOR FIRST-TIME AUTHORS

THE FOLLOW ARTICLE IS FROM THE WHEATMARK NEWSLETTER. Hey, if it is good advice, pass it along.

Book Marketing Tip

Blogging for First-time Authors

By Kathryn Gautreaux

One of the essential ingredients to a successful book marketing plan is a blog.

A blog will allow you to post journal entries about your process during the book writing stage, to post entries about your publishing timeline, to write about your published book, and to write about everything else you are interested in between.

On the Wheatmark website we have a blog post that includes step-by-step instructions on how to start a blog using Blogger - one of the free blogging sites available.

How does blogging for book marketing work?

It works by establishing a home base for your marketing efforts. As you read other people's blogs, you can comment from your blog identity, allowing them to follow you back to your blog. When you use Twitter, you can put up tweets about new blog posts and also put the link to your blog in your profile so Twitter users can read more about you. This will drive traffic to your blog.

On your blog site, make sure to add a link to where prospective readers can buy your book.

Why does blogging for book marketing work?

It works because it creates a virtual world where you can be the expert on your book's topic and allows people with similar interests to interact with you. The more readers you gain for your blog, the more readers you are likely to gain for your book! By allowing readers to be a part of your journey as an author-from first inspiration to the exciting book launch-you can form a community of people invested in your project and your success!

It can be difficult to get going... So here is a quick list of topics you could start blogging about today!

List of 5 ideas or thoughts -Numbered lists are always winners. It helps the blog reader understand what they are going to be reading and helps them get to the end. This works in a blog about business very easily. You can write about one of your chapters, offer tips, etc. But it could also work for fiction! Say you are writing a young adult fiction book about battling a demon. Your numbered list could be "5 Things You Need to Battle a Demon." It's entertaining and it brings people into your book.

Publish a list of links -Can't think of anything to write? Has someone else written it already? Post a link to the articles on your blog. They'll appreciate the favor and also your blog readers won't feel like you've abandoned your blog for the day!

Take a recent experience and share it-Maybe it is obvious, but writing about something that made you have an emotion is always good fodder for a blog. It lets other people into your world and also allows them to share their own experiences in the comments section. It may even inspire you!

Are you ready to start blogging for your book? Check out the step-by-step blogging instructions on the Wheatmark blog. To learn about more marketing and publishing-related tips, visit Wheatmark's Author Resources as well.

WELCOME TO ALL THINGS THAT MATTER PRESS

This is the official blog of ALL THINGS THAT MATTER PRESS. While there is one on our web site, we felt that more exposure would be generated here at Blogger and therefore there would be more exposure for our authors and publishing related issues. We will use this blog to highlight our books, relay publishing related issues and to communicate with our readers. We hope you will feel free to make comments.