VJs Power Blog

For self-published authors and those at small to mid-sized presses, it’s critical that you know how to get out there and sell your book.  And now that major publishing houses have also cut publicity staff, the task is just as important for their authors.

So I’m offering a 2-hour online course for you:  BOOK TOUR BASICS, on Saturday, Oct. 17th, 10am-noon west coast time.

I’m limiting the number of authors in the class to ten people so we can really get into YOUR specific book project to:

Find your story hook to attract the media

Nail the “what’s your book about?” opening question

Relieve the stress and panic of performance

Adapt to all types of interviews - Radio, TV, Phone, Internet

AND…SELL LOTS OF BOOKS!

Class size is limited to ten people, so sign up HERE.

“Your coaching helped me both on the radio and in my first presentation—

I got a standing ovation, and sold lots of books and CDs!”

My client launched his book tour last week and is already seeing RESULTS.

To kick off the Fall Book Tour Season, I’m offering a

BOOK TOUR BASICS SPECIAL:

2-hour ONLINE Training for $97

DATE: Wed., Sept. 30^th, 10am -12noon Pacific Time

Whether you’re self-published or with a small or large publisher—this program will work for you.

In this customized media training session you will learn how to

Find your story hook to attract the media

Nail the “what’s your book about?” opening question

Relieve the stress & panic of performance

Adapt to all types of interviews – Radio, TV, Phone, Internet

AND…SELL LOTS OF BOOKS.

ONLINE SESSION IS LIMITED TO 10 PARTICIPANTS, SO

SIGN UP NOW BY CLICKING HERE.

Ray Bradbury recently held court for an hour and a half to a packed room at the Promenade Barnes & Noble in Santa Monica. Then he signed books until his hand got too tired, so adoring fans stopped by just to touch his arm and say hi. He’s 84 years old and was rolled into the room in a wheelchair, but what keeps him alive is his love…for stories, writing, and people. He talks about his latest projects– a film shoot in Japan and his book of essays coming out next March titled “We’ll Always Have Paris” on his love for that city.

Bradbury is a master storyteller–whether it’s about how he got the Martian Chronicles published…or how as a young man his girlfriend gave him “a smooch” at the end of their date late one night in L.A. and he was so stunned and excited, he got on the wrong streetcar and rode it to the other end of the valley.  She of course, became his wife and lifelong love.

It’s not just the writing of the story that Ray Bradbury loves, it’s the telling of it. You can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice as he pushes his breath out to share each tidbit of information.

He begins each public appearance with a missive to the audience: “No matter what you do in life, do it for love. Not for money, not for fame. Do it for the love of it, and send your love out and it will come back to you.”

It’s a wonderful metaphysical message from the master of the tale. “I write fantasy, not science fiction.” Bradbury says. “I am not a scientist.”

No, Mr. Bradbury. You’re a gift, and we are all richer because of it.

A good time was had by all at Sunday’s “IWOSC Reads Its Own” at Barnes & Noble, the Grove in L.A. Fifteen writers shared both published stories and works-in-progress, including a song about writing at Peet’s Coffee! I read my essay, “Mother’s Day” (see pic) and several poems, which will soon be available as recorded downloads.

Because the subtitle of this blog is Make Your Message Count, here are some of my tips to add Performance Power to your readings:

1. ADJUST the microphone until it’s the right height and is close to your lips. Particularly important if someone much taller or shorter has read just before you.

2. PRINT your selection in larger type, double-spaced on paper if you want to make it easier for you to read. Some authors also re-write certain book passages if they don’t sound quite right for the spoken word. Others are perfectly comfortable reading from their published books. That’s up to you.

3. BREATHE. Pause and take breaths regularly for energy, pacing, tone, and character shifts.

4. SPEAK UP. It doesn’t matter what beautiful words you wrote, if the audience can’t HEAR them.

5. PRACTICE. If you write every day, read out loud every day. It’s a different set of muscles.

As writers, if you can face the blank page and write, you can face the microphone and speak. Each is its own mountain, and you climb them one step at a time. Yes, it’s work, but the view from the top is well worth it.

High transportation costs and changes in the book biz are sparking creative marketing campaigns, including the virtual book tour.

Case in point: Angela Nickerson’s tour to promote her new travel companion book “A Journey Into Michelangelo’s Rome” from Roaring Forties Press.

Angela tells me she “appeared” as a guest on a new blog each day for one week per month, but it went so well that she kept adding more one-day blog appearances:

One blog asked me to create a playlist for A Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome which you can now buy on iTunes. I blogged for a blog in Spain. I did a live chat with readers in England. I was a guest on a blog in New Zealand. I don’t have the budget to go to England or down under to promote the book, so this was a cheap way to connect with readers all over the world.

The Chicago Sun Times even picked up one blog entry and ran a newspaper story, as virtual publicity fed back into traditional media.

She points out that a virtual book tour is very time consuming. You have to set it up, stay organized, come up with new topics each day, and point readers to each new exclusive blog site. But with contests, chats, links, and interviews, your audience grows with each “stop” on the tour.

Of course the virtual book tour doesn’t replace the power of face time between authors and readers.

Angela will be at Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA on Saturday, July 19th.

I just got an email from author Doreen Orion about her book QUEEN OF THE ROAD: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus With a Will of Its Own (Broadway Books).

She ran a contest and gave away copies of the book which chronicles how she and her husband, both psychiatrists, took a mid-life break to spend one year driving across America…through fires, floods, an armed robbery, the nudist RV park, and more. Here is an author who totally gets book marketing, as is reflected in her email:

“I do hope you’ll consider reading my book about our life-changing trip (published in trade paperback, so perfect for summer!). Please feel free to check out my website for the great reviews it’s getting, pictures of our trip, videos, podcasts, my blog, book tour appearances (San Fran, Oakland, Portland, Phoenix, Denver and Boulder are coming up), and tons of other fun stuff. In addition, if you’re in a book club, I’m happy to ‘appear’ by speakerphone and there’s a way to contact me via the website for that, as well.”

Later she told me, “Writing is 20%, marketing is 80%. And if you can’t have fun with the 80% of what it takes to do a book, what’s the point?”

EXACTLY. It takes a lot to grab the attention of readers who have so many choices these days. But you gotta have fun doing it. Of course, anyone who packs up a husband, a dog, cats, and hits the road for a year already understands the meaning of “wild ride.”

When my former communications client Geri Spieler finished writing her book on Sara Jane Moore who had tried to assassinate President Ford in 1975, she couldn’t get major publishers interested in it.

She went through two book agents and round after round of rejections. This, despite the fact that Geri had spent many years in exclusive conversations with Moore, uncovering even more angles to the bizarre 1970s era story about this country club mother and doctor’s wife who fired at President Ford that day outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.

Then, on New Years Eve of this year, Sara Jane Moore was released from federal prison, after serving more than 30 years.

Suddenly, New York saw the value in this book. Four publishers who had said no were interested. Geri Spieler’s book, “Taking Aim: Sara Jane Moore and the Plot to Kill the President” will be published next January. Congrats!

Geri says yes, it takes timing, and tenacity…four years of researching, writing, revising, revising, revising. Her other advice: “I learned an important lesson: It’s not about having an agent, but the agent you have. Use agents, editors etc. who specialize in your genre.”

Of course I reminded Geri that her work has just begun. Writing and getting the book published are two giant tasks. Marketing it to the world will be the next wild ride.

Stay tuned.