Why Book Promotion Takes Patience By Patricia Fry

Why must authors have patience? Because it takes time to go from exposure to sales. Exposure is necessary in order to alert potential customers to your book-let them know that it exists. People have to know about your book before they will purchase it. News flash: Just having it sitting on a shelf in a bookstore, doesn’t necessarily mean that people will be inclined to purchase it.

They need to hear about it, read about it, hear others talk about it, see it reviewed in their favorite related publications, handle it a few (or many) times, have it recommended and learn more about it. Not only do they need to know about it, they must be convinced that this is something they want to read-that they will enjoy it or benefit from it or that someone they know will. Handpicked books make great gifts.

So how do you get this sort of exposure for your amazing book? You must establish a website and, perhaps, a blog site. Go out and speak. Get your book reviewed many times over. Arrange for book signings. Rent booths at book festivals. Join organizations and groups that can help you get exposure for your book (those related to the theme or genre of your book as well as those that can help with marketing, offer resources, etc). Where appropriate, teach courses and/or give workshops related to your book. Speak at conferences related to your book. Talk about it everywhere you go. Submit articles to appropriate magazines/newsletters/sites. And make sure you are listed in Books in Print (so booksellers can special order your book for customers).

Currently, I am testing new waters while getting exposure for my latest book, Catscapades, True Cat Tales. And I am reminded how time-consuming book promotion can be, especially just coming out of the publishing gate. How much time is it taking? LOTS of it. Getting exposure in all the right places is my full time job at the moment. And it takes patience, because reviewers don’t always respond as quickly as you would like. Booksellers can drag their feet about scheduling your signings. Potential customers who may really want a copy of your book put off purchasing it.

How long does it take to get the results you want through exposure? Do you want me to be candid? This is an ongoing activity for as long as you want your book to sell.

Until you have major name recognition as the author of mysteries, true crime books, children’s or young adult books, fantasies, science fiction or books on finance, for example, you will need to practically hand sell each and every book you produce. As authors in this publishing climate, the best that we can do is to consider authorship a serious business, not a privilege that will result in instant fame and fortune.

Sure, you’ll get a flurry of sales after a positive review is published by a reviewer of some credibility and with a large following. You may sell a box or a handful of books at a book festival or a large conference where you speak. You will surely sell a dozen or so books at a well-publicized book signing. And some of those customers will tell others about your book and you’ll get some residual sales. But then, you’re back to the drawing board reminding potential customers about your book on a regular basis while attempting to find new ways to get exposure.

Does it sound like a dismal reward for writing a marvelous book-to have to promote for evermore? It depends on how you look at it. I suggest shifting a measure of your creativity over from your writing efforts to the process of promotion and look at it as a creative challenge.

Here’s another tip. Don’t ever allow yourself to be discouraged when your sales, during a particular event or after a great review, fall below your expectations. Exposure doesn’t always lead to immediate gratification (sales). In fact, I like to tell the story of a SPAWN member who shared in our SPAWN booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books one year. He didn’t sell very many books that year, but he made some amazing contacts that led to him being involved in a documentary featuring the topic of his book. It airs frequently on the Military channel.

If you are currently or will soon be promoting a book, keep things in perspective. Understand the concept of book promotion.

· Book promotion is not a one-time shot. It is ongoing for as long as you want to sell copies of your book.

· Book promotion is not a passive process. It takes serious planning and assertive action.

· Book promotion efforts do not usually result in high sales right off the bat.

· Book promotion takes time, effort, energy and creative thinking.

If you have a good product, your next obligation is to be proactive in promoting it and be patient.

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Patricia Fry has been promoting her books for over 30 years. She is the Executive Director of SPAWN (Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network) and the author of 31 published books, including “The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book,” and her newest book, “Catscapades, True Cat Tales.” See her books here: http://www.matilijapress.com. Patricia has just added two new courses to her array of online courses for writers and authors-check out the Self-Editing Course and the Memoir Course here: http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

Phyllis Schieber Tour – Sinners Guide to Confession and Willing Spirits

As the child of parents who survived the Holocaust, the notion of loss was integral to our family dynamic. I grew up without ever seeing a photograph of my maternal grandparents or of my mother’s oldest brother. After they survived the Transnistria Death March, they were taken to Obadovka, a ghetto in the Ukraine. Two-thirds of the Jews died en route. Most of those who survived ultimately died of disease and starvation; brutality was a constant presence. Early on, I knew that my mother’s losses defined her. My late father, a German Jew, lost his connection to the country and the culture he had loved and was forced to flee Leipzig, together with the rest of his family. His oldest brother died in concentration camp, unable to slip through the Nazi machine. My father managed to escape and fought with two different armies, Romania and Russia, eager to defeat the Nazis. My parents’ story is not uncommon among those who survived the Holocaust. However, what always caused me to marvel at them and at the countless other survivors was their will to live and their ability to still love and know joy. In many ways, I am also a survivor, a Second Generation survivor. It has shaped how I understand and handle loss.
Learning how to live with the absence of much loved people is analogous to a gaping hole that you learn to walk around, ever careful not to fall in and be swept away by the grief. I continue to be mindful of that hole when I miss the people I have lost. From time-to-time, that hole beckons, but I force myself not to yield. Everyone knows what happens if you are stranded in a snowstorm and fall asleep. We have to push on. Still, I hold the people I have lost close to my heart and speak of them often. I strive to keep them alive by recounting stories and sharing memories. As the years pass, I do not miss any of them any less, but I do not allow myself to fall asleep in a snowdrift.
Loss is invariably synonymous with death. We euphemistically murmur, “I’m so sorry for your loss” countless times as the years pass. And undoubtedly, death is always a loss even when the death is a blessing. I have known much loss through death, and even when I finally welcomed its arrival after my mother’s protracted illness, the loss was, and continues to be, profound. My father died when I was twenty-six. His death was sudden and traumatic. My family was irrevocably devastated, and almost thirty years later, we continue to recover. I have also lost dear friends, most notably my friend Bette. I dedicated my novel Willing Spirits to her, as well as to her daughter Polly, who died several years later at the impossibly young age of twenty-three when she succumbed to an asthma attack. These losses were particularly hard for me. Bette was only fifty when she died. She was my self-appointed older sister. I was sixteen to her thirty when we met, and I consistently deferred to her wisdom without question. Of course, as the years passed and the age difference narrowed, I periodically doubted her, but invariably she was always right. The loss of her presence in my life left me adrift for a long while. Polly’s death was unspeakably tragic, one that continues to plague me, making me wonder if there was anything I could have done to prevent her untimely end. That loss was especially life altering, as it always is when someone so young dies.

There are, however, other losses that can be as harrowing as death—betrayal and divorce come to mind, though there are others. I have written a great deal about the consequences of betrayal. In the aftermath of a betrayal, the sense of loss can be overwhelming. When the person we love and trust betrays us, the grief is incomprehensible. Some of the characters in my novels, Willing Spirits and The Sinner’s Guide to Confession have been betrayed by men they loved, and others have betrayed men they loved. Some of these women have gone through the anguish that comes with a divorce.
The losses incurred by divorce and betrayal are not easily surmountable, but I believe that the way we meet the challenges of these losses shapes how we move through the rest of our lives.
Loss and change—we can count on both. They are certainties that demand our attention, but not our preoccupation. And while there is no right way to grieve, and no time limit on how long we should grieve after the loss of a loved one or the humiliation of a betrayal, the key is to move on. The women in my novels know many types of losses. Some have been widowed; others abandoned, and still others have lost parents. However, perhaps the most overwhelming loss belongs to Ellen in A Sinner’s Guide to Confession. At fifteen, she is forced to give up her baby girl. Ellen spends her entire life grieving the loss of her baby, a loss that is compounded by her inability to conceive again and her beloved husband’s betrayal. Yet, Ellen moves forward, and the novel’s conclusion reaffirms that nothing is stronger than the human spirit, not even loss.

Sinners Guide to Confession – Kaye and Barbara are longtime friends, now in their fifties. Ellen, who is several years younger, develops a friendship with the other two women years later, solidifying this close-knit group. The three women are inseparable, yet each nurtures a secret that she keeps from the others.
Willing Spirits – Jane Hoffman and Gwen Baker, both teachers and in their forties, have a friendship that helps them endure. Years after Gwen is abandoned and left to raise two sons alone, she finds herself in love with a married man. After Jane is humiliated by her husband’s infidelity and Gwen must face her own uncertain path, the two women turn to each other. Now, as each is tested by personal crisis; Jane and Gwen face new challenges—as mothers, as daughters, as lovers. And in the process, they will learn unexpected truths about their friendship—and themselves.
Phyllis Schieber The first great irony of my life was that I was born in a Catholic hospital. My parents, survivors of the Holocaust, had settled in the South Bronx among other new immigrants. .In the mid-fifties, my family moved to Washington Heights. The area offered scenic views of the Hudson River and the Palisades, as well as access to Fort Tryon Park and the mysteries of the Cloisters. Her first novel, Strictly Personal, for young adults, was published by Fawcett-Juniper. The Sinner’s Guide to Confession, was released by Berkley Putnam and in March 2008, Berkley Putnam issued the first paperback publication of Willing Spirits.

Join us on the Sinners Guide to Confession and Willing Spirits virtual tour. To learn more about the tour, visit http://bookpromotionservices.com/2010/05/04/phyllis-schieber-blog-outreach/. You can also learn more about Phyllis Schieber and her books at http://www.phyllisschieber.wordpress.com.