Get Connected to Publishing People

By W. Terry Whalin

Within the publishing community, who you know is almost as important as what you know. Yes, it is important to pitch an excellent book proposal or manuscript to the right publisher. As an editor and an author, I also understand people buy (books or manuscripts) from people they know, like and trust. How can you know more publishing people? From my years in publishing, one of the challenges is keeping track of the moving people.

Years ago, one of my six-figure book deals was cancelled because my New York editor had changed companies. My book was orphaned or without an editor directly responsible for my project. It taught me the importance of having a champion within the publishing house for each book.           

How does a new author with no connections, begin to get connected to publishing people? Everyone can use a social network which has over 562 million users: LinkedIn. This network is primarily business related and publishing is a business. To get connected, you need to take several actions:

1.      Rework your LinkedIn profile to show your activity in publishing. Do you write for magazines? Have you published books? Or possibly you have some other explicit publishing role such as leading a local writer’s group. If you have these types of qualifications, then add them to your LinkedIn profile.

2.      Begin to send connection requests to different people in publishing. These people could be book editors, literary agents, magazine editors, authors and many other roles. In some cases you will want to send them a little personalized message with your invitation. In other cases, you simply send out the generic invitation that you want to connect with the person.

For many years, I received LinkedIn invitations and ignored them. I had very few connections on LinkedIn and was not connected. Then I began to look at the background of the person and for most people, I accepted their invitation to connect. My number of connections increased and my public profile says the common “over 500 connections.” The real number of my LinkedIn connections, as of this writing, is over 6,700. These connections are varied with many different roles (mostly within publishing) Here’s the critical reason you want to be connected: when I need to reach someone that I’ve not emailed or called in a long-time, I check their LinkedIn contact information.

While there is a lot of movement within the publishing community, when they change positions or companies or physical location, everyone takes their LinkedIn account with them. This account belongs to the individual and is a way to consistently keep up and reach them.

LinkedIn has a lot of other functions as well but being connected and maintaining those connections is one of the basics and best reasons to consistently use this network.      

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W.Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents, Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. Check out his free Ebook, Straight Talk From the Editor. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Connect with Terry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Social Media-Another One Will Come Along

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief, Southern Writers Magazine

Okay, let’s face it; we have no control over Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any Social Media. Yes, I know that sometimes we feel like we are at their mercy.  We work hard trying to learn how to function on these venues especially when we are marketing our new books and just when we think we have learned how to generate people viewing our sites, reading our content and seeing the new books–BAM! They pull the program, change it or give us new rules to use it.

In their defense, they do believe they are probably making things better for their users. However, this is difficult for us to understand since we don’t know what we can do, or if we can replace it. We feel like we were dumped and left out in the cold. Questions bombard us, wanting to know what we will do now. What will we use to get the word out?

I’m sure you know by now, Google terminated their Authorship program. Google used this to rank content according to the authority of the person who created the information.

We all put in a lot of time and energy on the venues we use…..but quite honestly, that is just doing business and using what is available to us. We must remember that change is not necessarily a bad thing. We just have to move on and look for another venue that will be good to use to get the word out.

I doubt if Google will leave us in the lurch. I am sure they will show us other ways to use their programs that will benefit us in our endeavors. So will the other Medias. After all, they do want us to use their venues.

My point? Don’t panic. Just readjust your thinking and look for other ways that will benefit you even more. Continue to be alert to new opportunities that come along. Some will last a long time, others will fall by the way side. The secret is to use what you have at your fingertips to the best of your ability to get the word out about your book. Another secret is never put your eggs in one basket.

This is why it is important for authors to make sure they have many venues to get their name out so people will recognize their name. The more someone reads your name or sees your name the more important they will think you are as an author. They will start looking for your books. Just make sure you are getting the name of your book out too along with your name.

Use Technology to Jumpstart Your Book's Success

By Michele Howe        

Becoming active on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can quickly render an author feeling overwhelmed, defeated, and somewhat hopeless.

Why is this? Simply, it's the age-old trap of making comparisons. One author's speaking/writing/publishing platform compared to the next; one author's sales numbers compared to the next, or one author's three signed book contracts compared to the next (or more specifically, to yours). As soon as any of us begins to make comparisons, we've made the biggest mistake ever. Our job, our personal mission, is to write and work and market according to our best ability. 

Easier said than done, I know. After a brief period of lamenting all that I couldn't do (or didn't have the resources to utilize), I started looking at FaceBook/blogging/enewsletters/websites from a different angle. Once I did, it changed everything. Instead of focusing on what I lacked in comparison to bigger name authors, I decided to watch and learn.

The Essentials --
* Facebook -- First, I set up my Facebook account for sharing and updating primarily work related information with family/friends/colleagues/readers and anyone interested in my writing/reviewing/books. Second, I added a "fan page" for my new book project; Burdens Do a Body Good. Here, I posted all current book information/media exposure/quotes from the book/quotes from the book's endorsers/reviews and anything remotely related to this specific project.
* Twitter - This is a simple device to open and use. It's important to link this marketing tool with others such as Facebook. Your "tweets" are very short, pithy updates that alert your followers of what you're up to at the moment.
* Linked In - A good place for your business profile and to continue building and connecting with others in your field.
* Blog - I use WordPress.com, it's free, it's straightforward to get started, and they have excellent customer care when you're setting up a blog for the first time. This is also your "home base" to situate any/all your work related information.

Daily Habits to Incorporate

* Check your sites - Every morning, I do a brief check on my main sites (FB, Linked In, blog, journalist enews requests, and two email accounts). I quickly answer emails/requests/queries, and then move on.
* Promote all current work regularly - I keep that ongoing (and always changing) marketing list next to my computer and give it a brief read every day to make sure I'm on time/on target with any upcoming book deadlines.
* Help someone out - Almost everyday on FB, some other writer will ask for help and I offer that help when I can. Often when perusing the journalists callouts for information, I'll frequently see something another writer can speak to better than I can and I pass that request on to them immediately.
* Keep tabs on what's effective and what's not - As I look down my marketing list, I can quickly identify those areas that are not working for me. When I write to a number of editors but get no response, that's the clue I need to change my approach
* Be willing to try new things - Refuse to say no to a new opportunity without giving it ample thought and consideration. Don't see the obstacles, see the possibilities.
* Look ahead - Just when I think I've exhausted all I can do to market my work, I think some more. Here are some specific angles that get me jumpstarted when I'm fresh out of ideas.

Think local. Think state. Think national. Think online. Think in print. Think in person.

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Michele Howe is the author of fourteen books for women and has published over 2000 articles, reviews, and curriculum to more than 100 different publications. Her articles and reviews have been published in Good Housekeeping, First for Women, Single Parent Family, Christian Single, and many other publications. Michele’s single parenting titles include, Going It Alone and Still Going It Alone. After having undergone six shoulder surgeries, Michele saw the need for a women’s inspirational health-related book co-authored with her orthopedic surgeon titled, Burdens Do a Body Good: Meeting Life’s Challenges with Strength (and Soul), released in 2010 and from which Prescription for Life, their health, medical and surgical informational book is based. One Size Fits All: Making Healthy Choices, Stepping Into a Meaningful Life, a women's health/inspirational devotional by Lighthouse of the Carolinas was released late 2012 and Faith, Friends, and Other Floatation Devices will be published in 2013 by ACTA Publications. Michele's newest release is Burden Lifters: Every Woman's Daily Guide to a Healthy Happy Life published by Bondfire Books. Read more of Michele's work at http://michelehowe.wordpress.com/ and contact Michele at: jhowe@toast.net.

Social Media Calling

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in Chief, Southern Writers Magazine

 They say it is imperative that authors have a social network in order to promote their books and themselves as authors.  I decided to look at a few and this is what I saw.

There is Facebook and Twitter. Then I’m told you need to subscribe to LinkedIn, YouTube,  Digg, Stumbleupon, Del.icio.us and My Space.  From there they move onto aNobii,   weRead, and then of course let us not forget Pinterest,  Shelfari, Google and reddit.com.

Now we find another ‘ sect’ has been added  for authors called voiceBoks, Fireflies, Book Launch & Paint Party, Calling All Authors, Branch Out, Author News, Crazy for books, Christian Poets and Writers, The Book Club Network.

Rather than naming anymore, I will just say, there are sites popping up every day for authors to use to get their books and their names out to the public. These are promotion tools for authors but if not careful, they can consume an entire day putting information on each one. Because authors are responsible for their own marketing and promotion maybe it would be a good idea to take some time and look at each one and perhaps categorize them as to what information is best to put on each one. For the most part, there are different audiences on each. After all that is what authors are after, to touch different audiences and introduce them to their books. 

If you know the purpose of each one, the audience it is reaching then you will be able to divide them into categories, using the same information. This certainly cuts down on the amount of time spent. See if you can get them divided into threes. Then you only have to have three segments of content. One segment goes on one list, another segment goes on the second list and the last segment goes on the third list.

If authors are spending a lot of time on building social media my question becomes is when do they find time to write? For authors their passion is writing. Most authors could sit for hours and just write. Yet all authors have to slice out of their workday time to work on the Social Media junket. So maybe if authors segment into list their promotions there will be more time for writing.