Get the basics down, author dude

You can revisit it here: How to Write Good.

I’m not going to backtrack; I still believe that action trumps inaction on the part of the small business owner who is anxious to dive into social media and doesn’t know where to begin.

But, New York Times Best-Selling Authors Should Know Better.

I signed up for a list from a well-known “personality” – their marketing started with a webinar that I missed, followed by another email inviting me to listen to the archive. It was semi-classic marketing: webinar will be filled up, you need to get on the phone lines early to secure a seat. Oh and stay tuned for great things to come.

Imagine my surprise when I got an email, from this same “Best-Selling Author,” with this subject line (truncated so you can’t tell exactly who sent it):

“1st of it’s kind marketing system ready for you”

Mistakes happen, right?

WRONG.

One of the themes from last week’s “How to Write Good” comments centered around trust, higher standards, what we as a (dare I say) content community owe our readership. So, on MY site, well, YES, I cannot STAND typos, wordos, bad grammar, bad punctuation. I do everything in my power to stamp those out.

And, dare I say, New York Times Best-Selling Authors owe us more.

Especially in the subject line of their email – which may have gone out to 100,000 people, I don’t know.

Sadly, it gets worse.

There are trusted names within this email. Names that I am sure have been used with permission. Names that I personally trust. And one of the names is misspelled.

So, I am now questioning a couple things. Such as whether these folks whose names are within the email know what they are getting themselves into. Whether they are sacrificing quality for reach.

Finally, as if to nod to the fact that this “Best-Selling Author” has no respect for our time, the death blow to all respect. (Again, truncated.)

Typos are my gift to you.

My gift to you, Mr. Author Person? An unsubscribe, and a jaundiced eye toward your product.

Oh, and you lost me as a prospect.

What content do you have lying around?

There’s a long-standing phrase in the real estate industry:

The three most important words? Location, Location, Location.

Upshot: bad house, great block better than great house, bad block. Or, near the good schools better than far away. Or…

In advertising, back in the day we’d hear that the three most important words were:

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition.

The Three Most Important Words in New Media Marketing?

Repurpose, Repurpose, Repurpose.

Content is King. Content you already have on the shelf? The King’s Court. Or a whole bunch of Princes.

Where’s that paper you wrote two years ago? You know, the one you thought would be a good white paper but you weren’t able to do anything with? Should you look it over, see what’s there, share it with your world?

Repurpose, Repurpose, Repurpose.

That video you did six months ago? The one that was clever, showed your ability to position yourself as a thought leader, led to a few more page views, maybe a couple new contacts?

Repurpose, Repurpose, Repurpose.

An important thing to realize: it might be new to your audience. It could be old and stale to you, but that’s just because you have seen it a dozen times.

We used to do this as fledgling sportscasters, back in the day. You have to give the same score update every hour for three straight hours in what, for a college student, is a crazy early time of the day. (6 a.m.?) But the people who wake up at 7 and 8 have no clue what happened, and they want you to tell them – and have energy when you do so.

The challenge was to breathe new life into the old story – which can’t be done if you just have a “blow the dust off the old stuff” mentality. So you learned to do that pretty quickly, or you found yourself lower down in the pecking order of fledgling sportscasters.

We are NOT talking about lame “article spinning” programs. Quite the contrary.

Google changes their algorithm all the time, so it’s highly possible that the article spinning program you bought last month will be rendered useless this month.

What we are talking about is either doing more writing yourself to refresh your content, or finding folks you like working with who can write and re-write for you.

In any event, find stuff you have that’s good, and share it again. We’d LOVE to read it.

Repurpose, Repurpose, Repurpose.

Robert Rodi

This time, we talk to a gentleman who has written several books – the most recent being a charming story about a man and his (agility) dog. Meet Robert Rodi.

Whenever someone asks me for advice on getting published, the first thing I ask is, “Why?” In other words, what is it that’s driving you to seek publication? Do you want to sell a book because it opens a door to a career as a working writer, or do you want to sell a book because you have something you’re compelled to say—a story you urgently need to tell?

If you’re in the former group—the would-be careerist—then approach publication as you would any business endeavor. See what kinds of books are flourishing right now. Find the place where your own interests and expertise intersect with what the market is supporting. Maybe that’s a travel memoir, or a book about diet and weight loss; or it could be a historical novel about an English king. Then figure out what it is that you’ve got to say that sets your take apart from all the others. Work up a synopsis, write a few sample chapters, and then go to literarymarketplace.com and find an agent who has sold similar properties. Send him or her a query email asking for representation; if you get a positive response, send along the proposal and go from there.

Listen to your agent’s advice, and don’t be thin-skinned. He/she is as eager to make a sale as you are.

If you’re in the second group—that is, you’re compelled to tell a certain story, in your own way, on your own terms—then you’ve got a harder road ahead of you. Try to find an agent who has represented other highly personal or idiosyncratic books. There will always be a market for unique stories and distinctive voices, but it may not be an extensive one; a sensitive agent can help you shape and massage your project to find it the largest audience possible.

Some compromise will be necessary; it always is—ask any professional. Your alternative is to self-publish, which is immeasurably more viable an idea than it was twenty, or even ten, years ago. But it comes with a set of drawbacks, not the least of which is promotion; very few self-publishers have the kind of resources available to them that a major publisher’s marketing department can deploy. Just remember, this is your vision and your voice; that’s as much a responsibility as it is a privilege.

Good luck.

Editor’s Note: Robert’s web page is http://robertrodi.com – there you can learn about his book, Dogged Pursuit, and other projects. If you want to join the almost 5,000 others (!) you can follow Dusty the dog on Twitter.

Marian Schembari

Our question: From your perch – marketing and social media “thug” for authors – what are the things that authors have to do differently with their marketing strategy?

The thing authors need to do differently? Actually use social media. You think the Twitterverse/blogosphere/whatever is overrun with authors and publishing hopefuls, but it’s really not. Most folks in publishing avoid the social web like the plague. The thing that will set you apart is to actually use and embrace it. Have a good attitude.

One of the biggest mistakes I see authors make is having a crappy attitude towards social media and this really comes through in their profiles, making readers not want to buy their books. So many authors think it’s “not their job” to take care of the marketing of their book, but guess what? Your publisher is busy with all their other authors and besides the bare bones of marketing/publishing, they’re not going to do shit for you.

If you want to make sure you actually sell your book, take some of the easy marketing into your own hands. Get on Twitter. It’ll help you find that community of readers who’s going to fall in love with your book. Create a Facebook fan page and spread the word. But don’t sit at your desk whining that it’s not your responsibility. The incredible power of social media is that you don’t need to be a marketing expert, you just need to have a passion for your book, be willing to learn the basics and have fun with it!

The second mistake I see too often is blatant self-promotion. While people will start following you on Twitter or become your fan on Facebook because they want to hear more about you, they don’t want to hear you constantly egging them on to buy your stuff.

Don’t know what to share with your fans/followers/readers? They want to hear where your next reading will be or get a link to your latest review, but they’d also much rather know about YOUR favorite authors, top writing tips, bonus info from your book. And, of course, you need to give love to get love. So retweet and engage others in conversation to get the most out of your online presence.

First up, here’s Dave’s take on “The Week That Was…” (Or, more accurately, here’s what’s on the site that you may have missed.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yP63Tof_2w

Then, an answer to a question that we get often. Specifically: what do you folks DO at Area 224 HQ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogvxZsQO_zM

Happy Friday!

Not an expert by any stretch – but I did cash a couple checks thanks to this book.

The Real SMM 2010 Social Media Marketing Guide for Real Estate.

I’ll leave the advice on “finding a publisher” to the others. I’d rather share a one-two-three punch – some things you can do like, right now.

1. Lulu. Big-Time Advantage – Getting an actual copy of your stuff. For some people, tangible is great – hold it in your hands, dog-ear the pages. Some people like to read on a bus or a train.

For me, getting an actual copy of my stuff was done for THIS REASON:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfd_8Gp-kgo

Tangible Proof of Expertise. Positioning.

Not done for the sales numbers – checks are nice to cash, but that’s not the real reason for writing this particular book. This one was all about a means to position me in front of more real estate industry clients as someone who knows what I’m talking about.

2. Kindle. Big-Time Advantage – Selling Your Content Lickety-Split. I hang out from time to time in Internet Marketing circles – but not with the Social Media Tools but with people who share information that can actually help me do my job better. One such guy is a James J. Jones, and his techniques for putting together content that can be sold on the Kindle Platform are rather cool.

I’m not gonna talk about his techniques, though. Instead, I’ll share this bit of advice:

If you have written a book, or have even written a few chapters of a book, get it on the Kindle Platform NOW.

How easy is it? I sat in on a one-hour webinar from Mr. Jones and multi-tasked. While he was sharing his grand strategy, I was signing up to publish my book.

Here’s a link to it in the Kindle Store.

3. Nichification. Big-Time Advantage – There’s a niche you’re already in. Still a big fan of the term “Nichification.” Still eventually going to write a book on that very topic – Jim Alexander and I are still talking to people about it, doing interviews, blah blah blah.

But, while we went down the path of “write a mass market advice book on niche business marketing,” I would encourage you to take a look at “writing a niche-focused book on a niche topic that you know something about.”

It’s a big world out there – 400,000 Kindle titles published last year alone. And, if you’ve read the classic “The Long Tail,” you’ll know full well that there’s an audience for just about anything.

F’rinstance…real estate social media marketing.

Publishers – the types who want the next The 4-Hour Workweek – will need to see Social Proof these days. If you’re a Scott Stratten or an Amber Naslund and Jay Baer, your social proof is already evident in the last few years of, well, being you.

Your Social Proof can be – and, in this world, should be – seen in the fact that you can put your thoughts to digital paper, and put that digital paper into people’s hands. You don’t have to sell a million. Or even a thousand.

Do you have a publisher? No? Doesn’t matter – best way to prove your mettle as a writer is to actually get out there and write something. And use the three tactics above to, well, change your title from “writer” to “Author.”

Shelly Kramer

My answer is a bit different, Dave, than what you might expect because my publisher sought me out. That said, it only makes the process a little bit easier.

I’ll answer the question you didn’t ask first. If you have an idea, you have to be prepared to sell it. A well-written proposal that includes not only your idea but also your ability to SELL BOOKS is key. Publishers don’t market, authors market. So bringing that understanding to the table will help you a lot – and including information in your proposal about why you’re uniquely suited not only to write this book, but to market and sell it, will go a long way.

I wouldn’t do anything differently. We wrote a great proposal and didn’t have to work hard to convince the publisher that our topic was timely and that we had the power to sell books.

After agreeing on a contract and ultimately submitting a table of contents (which is the first step), my co-author and I quickly realized that the book the editor wanted us to write and the book we thought was important and timely were two very different things. She wanted a primer and we wanted something with a bit more substance. Because we’re already busy on a day-to-day basis, moving forward and writing something we weren’t totally psyched about just wasn’t something we were interested in. You might think it odd, walking away from a book deal that was a lucrative one financially, but for us, it just seemed the right thing to do. We’re marketers – not book authors. And our real passion is marketing and communications. So writing a book doesn’t bring us validity or credibility – just doing good work does that.

[See, my answer is different than you probably expected. And I won't be offended if you don't use it.]

Bottom line – if your dream is to write a book, have a great, well-written proposal filled with exactly what the book will cover and why it’s timely. Include a sales pitch about why you’re suited to not only write this book, but to market and sell a LOT of copies.

And sit down, buckle up and dig in.

Shelly Kramer is Chief Imagination Officer, V3 Integrated Marketing, Kansas City.

Thanks, Gary

How did the writing a book process work for you?

The process for me was a bit odd. First off I decided that I did not want to write at length, and only wanted a sarcastic book that was short and to the point. While my book has few lines per page, it took six months to edit.

A good editor will take the time to pull your idea out on page and protect you from you. When the book was almost done being edited I started looking for publishers. Finding a publisher takes more space than what I’m given here, but suffice it to say, it takes longer than you’d think.

How I found a publisher is a bit different than most. But one of the things I did was had an actual prototype of my book made up. I designed the cover, its size, hard cover, laid out the pages etc and sent it to Lulu.com who made a single copy for me. I used that copy as motivation as well as a sales piece. You’d be surprised how elated you feel by actually seeing your book in a final form. Not just a manuscript.

What I’d do differently next time is to find an agent.