Issue #819 May 20, 2014
Publisher: Joan Stewart
“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
In This Issue
- Media Kit Webinar Sold Out
- Fun Facts About You
- Is Social Media a Must?
- Hound Video of the Week
This Week in the Hound House:
They warned me in puppy school that I shouldn’t let Bogie lay on my bed. But she’s spoiled, OK? Every time she jumps on the bed, she takes one of my shoes with her. Not two. Just one. Do you have any idea how much time I spend in a week looking for the other shoe?
1. Media Kit Webinar Sold Out
More than 1,500 people have signed up for tomorrow’s free webinar on “The Indie Author’s Guide to a Killer Media Kit.”
If you’re one of them, get on the call extra early because we only have room for 1,000 people. The call starts at 4 p.m. Eastern Time and lasts one hour.
If you haven’t registered yet, you can still do so. But only the first 1,000 people will be able to get onto the call. Usually, only one-third of the registrants attend live. The others would rather watch the video replay at a time most convenient for them.
If you can’t get onto the line, you’ll be able to register to watch the replay at a wide variety of times morning, noon and night during the next several days. Publicity Hounds all over the world will find convenient times from which to choose.
Why so much interest in media kits?
Because by the time authors are finished writing their books, they’re exhausted. So they slap together a kit. Or sometimes they don’t bother one at all.
The other reason is because ebooks have made it easy for anyone to publish a book.
Many authors who registered emailed me to say their books have been out for months. But they never created a media kit because they weren’t sure how to.
Book publishing expert Joel Friedlander will join me, and we’ll walk you step-by-step through the entire process of how to create a media kit that will satisfy seven important audiences. Find out who they are at my blog.
2. Fun Facts About You
One of the things I’ll recommend during tomorrow’s media kit webinar is that everyone, not just authors, include a section in their author bios called “5 Fun Facts You Didn’t Know About Me.”
For example, I still know all the words to the song that opened the “Talent Roundup Day” each Friday on the Mickey Mouse Club during the 1950s. You Boomer Mouseketeers can watch the video and sing along at my blog at . I even sang the song for the audience at the Author U Extravaganza when I presented a program on blogging earlier this month.
Here’s another fun fact I found in a story about the retirement of Carl Kasell, the official judge and scorekeeper of the NPR quiz show “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!”
Kasell dreamed of being on the radio since he was a kid. “I sometimes would hide behind the radio — which would be sitting on a table — and pretend that I was on the air and try to fool people who came by to listen,” Kasell said during an NPR interview with Renee Montagne in 2009.
Doesn’t that paint a great picture?
What fun facts can you share about your childhood, high school years, a first date, an unusual hobby, a guilty pleasure, an embarrassing moment, or even a quirk?
Include it in your bio. And then hop on over to my blog and share it in the Comments.
3. Is Social Media a Must?
I received an interesting question from a Publicity Hound who’s registered for tomorrow’s call. How would you answer this?
She wrote:
“I am not a fan of social media. Having teenage kids, I have attended multiple presentations by law enforcement experts about the unsavory aspects of social media. Since those lectures, I’ve become silent on Facebook and really never began a presence on other social media sources.
“I realize that in being self-published, social media is an important vehicle to spread my message and sell my books. I am conflicted and don’t want to ‘use’ social media just for my benefit. I would feel in-authentic. Am I being too naive? Can the ‘old school’ ways of marketing still work?
And in reality, my priorities are my family and home life and my coaching practice. I am not up for ‘old school’ book tours and ‘pounding the pavement!’ I know my book has real value and I am excited to share it–but you see how I am reluctant as well. If that’s a question…then please go for an answer!
Here’s my reply:
“There are hundreds of things you can do to market your books. Social media takes a huge amount of time and a gigantic commitment. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.
“Do you have to do social media? No. Will you sell fewer books if you don’t do social media? Probably. Will your family be happier to have you around more often if you spend more time with them instead of Facebook? Yes.
“That’s your answer. See you on the call.”
4. Hound Video of the Week
Stand-up comedians have nothing on these hilarious four-legged hounds! Watch funny dog videos sent in by Animal Planet viewers.
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