http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/05\/01\/books\/review\/how-writers-build-the-brand.html<\/a>.<\/p>\nLuck is luck, and you can\u2019t do much about that, and timing is hard to control too. Your first picture book comes out when the market is down for picture books. Your paranormal novel is released just when the trend is fading, or your historical novel about the San Francisco earthquake hits the bookstores just after an earthquake strikes… somewhere, and interest is high.<\/p>\n
The internet is the self-promoting author\u2019s good buddy. You can create a website, a blog; you can tweet, use Facebook and, I suppose, LinkedIn for publicity. You can link to other sites that may link to yours as well. Some literary blogs interview authors, and these interviews are written, no speaking necessary. You can shoot something for YouTube about your book. Some authors develop online book trailers, not cheap, but not a fortune either. A friend has created an e-newsletter for teachers and librarians. She promotes her own work but also offers articles of more general interest. <\/p>\n
I have a website and a blog (as you know!). The website is mostly for people who are interested in my books. The blog, obviously, is about writing, and it offers value even if you never read a word inside one of my books. But I do often mention a title or two to illustrate a point and to remind you that I\u2019ve written this book or that one. I don\u2019t do it so frequently that the blog is all about me, but the self-promotion is there, subtly. And of course I want to encourage you to come to appearances, where it will be hard to resist buying a book.<\/p>\n
However, the results of promotion are hard to measure unless you score a huge coup, like an interview that is sure to result in thousands of sales. I have no idea how many books have been bought as a result of this blog, but I like writing my posts, so I continue to do it. It\u2019s not worthwhile to promote in a way that makes you unhappy.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t tweet, and I keep meaning to set up a fan Facebook page, but I haven\u2019t gotten around to it, so I could do more. Everyone can do more. We have to choose between promotion and writing or hiking or talking to friends or flossing our teeth.<\/p>\n
Off the internet, you can have postcards made and send them to everyone you know and leave them at local libraries and stores, especially bookstores. Your editor will almost certainly give you a PDF of the book cover to use. Heck, the publisher may even go halvsies with you on the cost or may pay for the whole thing. I always do a postcard mailing for my books. If nothing else, the postcards keep me in touch with cousins and friends I rarely see.<\/p>\n
Friends can host book parties for you, although I\u2019ve heard that doesn\u2019t do much for sales. Still, a book is an achievement worth celebrating. You can write a press release and send it to local newspapers. If an editor wants to interview you, that will be one-on-one, most likely by phone, and your shyness may not be activated.<\/p>\n
You can arrange a signing at a local bookstore and pressure your friends and family to come to hear you talk about your book. You may not sell many, but your supportive audience will give you experience in discussing your work.<\/p>\n
Kids\u2019 book writers can visit schools, which I\u2019ve talked about before on the blog. School visits are a direct source of income as well as promotion, because we get honoraria for our visits. Some people who are shy with adults are comfortable with people half their size.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re willing to give speeches or run workshops and if you have a particular expertise that relates to your writing, which might be in writing gothic mysteries for teens, for example, you can develop presentations for conferences and apply to showcase them. Often you\u2019ll get an honorarium for this too.<\/p>\n
I like to speak publicly, but it wasn\u2019t always so. I got nervous. I feared that my nervousness showed, and my audience was suffering for me, miserable in the face of my misery. This was years before I started writing. Luckily, management at my job at the time brought in a public speaking consultant to work with me and a bunch of other newbies. He videotaped us (or whatever the technology was at the time) so we could see how we did. My big discovery was that I didn\u2019t look afraid. No one but me knew how scared I was, which put me at ease. Now I regard nervousness as a boon for my energy level, and I never begin a speech as some do by confessing my fear.<\/p>\n
If you can get training in public speaking, I suggest you go for it. It\u2019s comforting to know you can handle yourself in from of a crowd. After all, if success does come your way, you may need to make acceptance speeches.<\/p>\n
I remember a lot of the public speaking advice the consultant gave us, which I\u2019m happy to share. He was opposed to written speeches and even speeches from notes. He said if you don\u2019t know your topic well enough to talk from memory, you shouldn\u2019t give a speech about it. I\u2019ve taken some of that advice. I use notes to make sure I get to everything, but never a written speech. However, I do practice my speeches in the privacy of my office until I have what I want to say down solid, even to the cadence of my clauses, the expressions I\u2019ll use, a particular wording. Then, except for an occasional glance at my notes, I\u2019m looking at my audience the whole time.<\/p>\n
The consultant was against podiums too. He wanted to be able to walk in the aisles and lock eyes with anyone on the verge of falling asleep. An assertive fellow, he refused ever to speak after his audience had had a meal, when they\u2019d be drowsy. I don\u2019t love podiums either, but I speak from behind them when I have to, and I certainly speak after a meal. And I have observed people fall asleep, which throws me off my game a little, but I soldier on.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t remember if these are his techniques or if I\u2019ve come upon them myself: I never use a power-point presentation, although I do project images on a screen when I need them. Power point, in my opinion, like a written speech, lacks spontaneity. If the room isn\u2019t full, I urge my audience to move up to the front rows. I ask for the lighting to be as bright as it can be and still have people able to see the images on the screen. The most distressing speech (distressing for me) I\u2019ve ever given was in a darkened auditorium with lights only on me. Afterwards, I was told it went well, but I couldn\u2019t judge audience reaction and I felt boring and foolish. I know I would have been better if I could have seen a few people nodding or smiling.<\/p>\n
The point of the consultant\u2019s advice and my own strategies is to shrink the distance between audience and speaker. It\u2019s that distance that causes the horror, but when you close it, the experience becomes more intimate even when hundreds of people are listening. Intimate is familiar. We often do intimate.<\/p>\n
Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n
\u2219 If you belong to a writing group, my guess is that sometimes talk wanders to publishing and even self-promotion. Take turns with group members in giving a chat about your story. Listen to the others. What worked? What didn\u2019t? What can you incorporate into your own presentation?<\/p>\n
\u2219 Write a variant of (part of) Cyrano de Bergerac<\/i>. Your main character, Bethany, has published her first book. The publisher has set up a local signing, but she\u2019s terrified. So she enlists a friend, Wanda, to speak for her. Wanda, however, isn\u2019t much of a reader. She\u2019s told Bethany that she read her book and loved it, but in truth she got only as far as the first chapter. Write the scene.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Every year the empress of the Ocean Islands judges a poetry competition among her islands. The winning island hosts the empress until the next contest, and her presence brings the people of that island both esteem and wealth. On Parrot Island the judges have chosen Alti\u2019s poem as the one to represent them this year. Alti will have to read the poem to the empress, and his delivery will be part of her evaluation. Trouble is, he suffers from awful stage fright. His teacher, Yora, has been charged with helping him prepare, but she preferred a different poem by another student, and she\u2019s decided to sabotage Alti rather than help him. Write what happens.<\/p>\n
Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Starting off with a reminder that I\u2019ll be at the children\u2019s book festival in Tarrytown, New York, on Sunday. The event is held at historic Sunnyside, Washington Irving\u2019s home, a literary destination in its own right. On June 20, 2011, Jen wrote, ….I am a very introverted person. But I’ve read in a lot of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[162,163,164],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":430,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions\/430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}