Terry Helwig: One Author’s Adventures in Social Media Book Marketing

True or False: Marketing a book is a grueling chore.

You already know this is a trick question, don’t you? The answer? True for some. False for others. Some people love to meet other people and share stories with them. They draw energy from their readers and look for innovative ways to meet more of them at less cost.

One such author is Terry Helwig whose new award-winning memoir was reviewed here by guest blogger Lanie Tankard a few weeks ago. Terry graciously agreed to share her experience of book touring. Below is her story in her own words.

With the downturn in the economy and the upsurge of e-books, book marketing is rapidly changing for authors—especially new authors. Instead of paying for airline tickets, hotels and transfers, many publishers are turning to radio media tours and social media to

promote new releases.  My recent book tour to promote Moonlight on Linoleum: A Daughter’s Memoir was a combination of both the old book tour (flying and driving) and the virtual book tour (staying put).

While I traveled to several states to promote Moonlight on Linoleum, released October 4^th by Simon & Schuster, I undoubtedly reached more people in a single day on a radio media tour while sitting at my dining room table. Wearing a headset, I talked to 19 radio stations in 16 states over the course of eight hours.  The taped and live interviews, ranging from ten to thirty minutes, took place with an array of radio hosts from syndicated NPR programs to morning talk show hosts, the most memorable being Bulldog, Jeff, the Dude who hosts Rude Awakening.

While this service is far from free, it was much more cost effective than flying me to 16 states.  My publisher hired Auritt Communications Group to set up the radio media tour.  A kind, calm-voiced operator, Anna, guided me through the entire day.  She patched me into one radio station after another, told me when to hold, and when to hang up and take a quick break. She listened to every interview, hearing similar answers to oft repeated questions like: How did you come up with your title Moonlight on Linoleum?  What do your sisters think about the book?  Was it hard for you to relive some of the more traumatic moments?  Anna surprised me when she remarked half-way through the day, “I’m going to buy your book; it sounds so interesting.”  It occurred to me that Anna and I had bonded—not face-to-face—but virtually.

In addition to the radio media tour, my publisher touts the value of social media (Twitter, Facebook, GoodReads, Skype, YouTube, blogging, a website, etc.) to promote books.  Simon & Schuster offers its authors exclusive Social Media Tutorials on its Author Portal site.  I had already created a website www.terryhelwig.com and a Facebook fan page for Moonlight on Linoleum, but GoodReads, Skype and Twitter were still unexplored frontiers.

My publisher gave 50 advance reader copies (ARCs) of Moonlight on Linoleum to GoodReads to give away to its members.  This helped readers become aware of my book months before it was publicly released.  I have no doubt the favorable reviews created a buzz for the book, helping it to become one of GoodReads October 2011 Movers and Shakers.  Even without a give-away, a Simon & Schuster tutorial encourages its authors to sign up for a GoodReads author account.

Another Simon & Schuster tutorial explains how to set up a Twitter account.  Within an hour, I was tweeting from @TerryHelwig.  I enjoy tweeting.  Creating a succinct message in 140 characters is a challenge and helps hone my writing skills.  Plus, I like giving a nod to worthwhile organizations, authors, and bookstores.  When I was on book tour in Atlanta, I stopped into Charis, an independent bookstore.  The store was pleased that I tweeted a

picture of me signing their stock and mentioning the name and location of their store.  When I tweeted about being in Nashville for the Southern Festival of Books, five people showed up because they had read my tweet the night before.  Twitter proved to be a fast and efficient way to communicate information about my book.

Now, a month after Moonlight on Linoleum’s release, I hope to settle in and learn how to Skype so I can video chat with book clubs in November.  I like the idea of sitting at home, wearing my favorite pair of fuzzy socks, and talking to my readers in rural and metropolitan communities around the country.  I can interact with many more people because I don’t have to hurry to catch a plane afterward.  Instead, I can click off the computer and slip into my own bed—which could be my favorite perk of a virtual book tour.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? Have any book tour experiences to share either as a reader or author? Book club members, what do you think of the Skype idea? Have you ever used technology to talk directly to authors?

 

A Query Critique Focusing on the Hook: Taking Care of Mother When Mother Didn’t Take Care of You

Marla Miller, of Marketing the Muse, explains to a writer with excellent credentials how to make her query letter stand out by strengthening the “hook”:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4_RJz3VPtk&w=640&h=360]

I agreed with Marla’s advice. Did you? Would you want to read a memoir on this subject? How do you determine a good “hook” in your own writing? Do you have a good critic who helps you?

A Memoir Writer’s Self-Publishing Success Story: An Interview with Mary-Ann Kirkby

Mary-Ann Kirkby, who grew up in a Canadian Hutterite colony until the age of ten, and whose memoir has been a publishing sensation in Canada, has kindly agreed to answer some questions. I chose her publishing story as the focus of my questions, and Mary-Ann gave generous answers that may surprise you. How did she go from a self-published to best-selling author? Read on!

Q. Tell us what it’s like to publish your own book. Was this a conscious choice, a preference from the beginning, or did you try larger publishers before deciding to go it alone? 

A. I most definitely did not want to self publish.  It was a complete act of desperation. Every major publisher in Canada turned me down, many medium sized ones did too and even little struggling ones did not imagine there could possibly be a market for such a book.  I have so many rejection letters I could dance to them!

Q. Where did you get the clever marketing ideas described on your website? Did you start off small or did you start off with all these ideas?

A. The ideas evolved and in fact still do.  I listen closely to what my readers tell me because they made me who I am.  So I will take their thoughts and ideas and toss them about with my wonderful friend and editor Arvel Gray.  Add a glass of wine or a generous piece of pie to the mix and our creative juices really get  going.  My motto is simple and soulful…a balance between enough information or too much information.   

Q. Do you still have a day job? How much of your time are you spending in speaking and marketing your book?

I Am Hutterite has become a full time job. I am a member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers so I do a number of speaking engagements every month and of course I sell many books at venues after people hear my story. I am also in the process of writing a sequel that is scheduled to be released in Canada next spring.  It is much awaited and anticipated and I am honored that my fans are so anxious to hear more from me.

Q. How and when were you approached by Thomas Nelson?

A. After my sensational debut here in Canada one of the reps for Wal-mart suggested that we ship to the U.S.  I realized that I had to act quickly to get proper representation and distribution in the U.S so I approached  a few major publishers with my dilemma and Matt Baugher from Thomas Nelson flew to Canada to meet me and I really liked him.  I took him to a Hutterite Colony and he was just “wowed”. Thomas Nelson really extended themselves by giving me a 6 figure deal for U.S. and world rights and flew me to Nashville to meet everyone.  It was wonderful.  Earlier this year my book was also published in Germany entitled, Ich Bin Eine Hutterin.  I am of course, thrilled!

Q. What’s been the biggest difference for you between self-publishing and now being with Thomas Nelson? Are they OK with Polka Dot Press continuing?

A. Oh yes, because I didn’t sell my Canadian rights.   So Polka Dot Press is my little treasure and thriving.  Self publishing is difficult when you live in another country.  I live in Canada so I know Canada and the people and how the media works and that makes all the difference.

Q. Does having a big publisher now make it easier to sell your book or not and why?

A. I suppose it is more widely available having a big publisher but  connecting to my readers the way I did in Canada really rocked my sales here at home and I regret not having that same opportunity in the U.S.

Q. How has your story been received by your family and the larger Hutterite community?

A. My family loves the book, but it is controversial among some Hutterites whose relatives are named in the book who might have had a hand in why we left.  Of course it is difficult to hear negative things about a relative or family member and so I understand that.  I had to weigh very carefully the value of the book against possibly hurting some feelings.

Q. In retrospect, what are a couple things you wish you had done differently in publishing this book?

A. It was all such an exciting and hectic experience, such a wonderful learning curve I just wish I had kept all the newspapers clippings and letters people sent me and organized them in a scrap book so when I’m in the old folks home I’d be able to look back at all the fun I had!  

Q. What advice would you have for other memoirists from small/closed/Anabaptist communities?

A. My biggest lesson: Just because someone rejects you and tells you there is no market for your book doesn’t mean they’re right.  Trust your instincts!

Q. What are the most frequently asked questions when you speak?

A. How did you do it?                                                                                                            

Readers, what do you take from this story? What else would you like to know from our guest author?   

The Memoir Project: Marion Roach Smith’s Video Book Marketing

One of my friends, Susan Neufeldt, whom I met at the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference years ago and who is writing her own book about wisdom, sent me a link to the NPR program that featured Marion Roach Smith, an author and teacher in the memoir field I had not heard of a week ago. Her brand new book The Memoir Project is getting lots of media attention.

What makes her book different from all the others? Take a clue from the subtitle: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing and Life.  Like many successful authors, Smith challenges conventional wisdom: for example, throw away the morning pages and the writing prompts. This advice might come as a shock to fans of Julia Cameron and Natalie Goldberg.

I haven’t read the book yet, so this is not a review. My focus today is Smith’s outstanding use of video to promote her book. Take a few minutes to watch both the book promo video and the “homemade” family story below. Then offer your comments below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpNgltJnw1Y&w=640&h=390]

Did you love the idea of Galileo in a box store above? Now listen to a “thoroughly non-standardized” metaphor for marriage below. Enjoy the laughter and see how sophisticated a simple video can be.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5yjwOJeyTg&w=640&h=390]

When you buy a new book, do you usually watch the video about the book? Have you made your own videos? What advice to writers do you have concerning video? Did viewing these samples and/or listening to Marion Roach Smith on NPR through the link above make you want to read her book?

Want to Write a Great Memoir Query Letter? Marla Miller Can Help!

Meet Marla Miller, marketing expert, blogger, writer, columnist in The Writer, workshop giver, and query letter critique-er

I first met Marla in 2007 when I attended the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference. I was totally new to both creative writing and marketing, so I soaked up every word of advice and made several new friends. Marla loves to give advice and to help other writers discover their own inner wisdom. In fact, she’s great. I was told by a frequent participant at SBWC, “Make sure you take Marla’s workshop!” I did, and I’m glad. You can meet her online at her website where you will also find her blog.

Marla has agreed to allow me to import some of the free critiques she gives on her website. If you find these helpful, please say so, and we will run them as a regular feature. Here’s the first one. Welcome, Marla. I’m deeply honored that you want to connect and so excited that memoir writers can have you as their coach through 100memoirs.com.

You can watch a short YouTube critique of a memoir below–and then subscribe to Marla’s YouTube channel for many more! Let me know if you enjoy, and I’ll offer more of these from time to time.

Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project: A Review

On a scale of 1-10, how happy are you? Honestly. Right now.

Most people rate themselves as happy–as 7′s. In a 2006 survey 84 percent of Americans ranked themselves as ‘very happy’ or ‘pretty happy.’”

If your number is anything lower than 10, you can benefit from reading The Happiness Project. And even if it is 10, you can appreciate and understand your good fortune more by also reading this book. Our book club rated this book a 4 on a 5-point scale, and it generated more-than-usual conversation.

This book intrigues me because of its excellent marketing. Rubin created an outstanding “platform” four years ago through the establishment of a website which featured a blog that helped her write the book. In the book she offers the backstory of how her blog came to be, how she committed to posting six days/week (wow!), and the happiness benefits that resulted.

Through the blog Rubin built relationships to readers as sources who shared stories later published in the book. Of course, the blog readers also became book buyers and likely “buzz” generators. The processes of writing, interacting online, and marketing became intertwined.

Here are a few ideas I am going to try to implement after having read this book:

• clean a closet and leave an empty shelf.
• laugh out loud more than 20 times a day.
• eat more vegetables and exercise regularly
• consciously cultivate friendships new and old (including family)

The most important philosophical principle I derived from reading this book is that the search for happiness, when entered deeply and consciously, serves the welfare of others even more than it serves the seeker. One cannot be happy by oneself. We get happy by making other people happy.

The golden rule not only makes us moral. It also makes us healthy, wealthy, and wise.

This is a great book to give someone for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah,  or New Year. You can make your own resolution chart (an idea borrowed from Ben Franklin) and turn 2011 into your happiest year ever.

The New Publishing Rules: Seth Godin’s Fascinating Talk to Publishers

If you are an author or hoping to become one, you are entering a field in great flux. Maybe chaotic is not too strong a word to describe the world of publishing right now. In such a time, a good guide makes all the difference.  Seth Godin, who has written ten bestsellers, using totally new marketing methods such as sending Purple Cow milk cartons in the mail and giving away e-books for free, understands the new rules extraordinarily well.  He’s making them up as he goes.

It’s hard enough to be a writer, you may say.  Do I really need to be a blogger and marketer also?? Well, no, if you are Anne Lamott or Kathleen Norris or Mary Karr.  But if you are not already established, you may benefit enormously by understanding some of Seth Godin’s principles. By embedding the video he republished on his blog, I hope to help memoir readers and writers benefit. And I am giving him permission, a concept he coined, to continue marketing creative publishing ideas.

What do you think? Will you try any of these ideas? Did you get inspired?

[blip.tv http://blip.tv/play/AbvOWgI]

The Happiness Project Model: Exploring My Goals for Blogging

This blog post will test-drive a new category:  writing tips and marketing tips.  My goals in setting up this blog were four-fold:

1.  To learn more about social media by practicing it.

2.  To educate myself about the genre of memoir by reading 100 memoirs and reviewing them for a group of people also interested in memoir.  To be curious in public about our age’s fascination with personal narrative in all forms.

3.  To collect published stories and mini-memoirs of my own in one place so that interested readers can find them and that I can organize them with tags and categories for potential future publications.

4.  To find new friends–writers and readers who travel a similar path, interested in similar topics.

Evidently, Gretchen Rubin had similar goals on the subject of happiness.  She’s miles ahead of me, however, in using media to create interest in a book under construction.  I enjoy her proficiency.  The most brilliant piece of writing and marketing I have seen for some time is this YouTube “one minute movie.” It also happens to be a video that parents should watch once a month:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jgVKw9rXRg&hl=en&fs=1]

Rubin’s book on happiness will be published this fall by HarperCollins, so she is focused now on marketing. She’s got a blog with movies, newsletters, a fan site on Facebook, and she’s trolling for “super fans”–volunteers who will help spread the word. If you click on the movie, you will be invited to join the newsletter. Pretty sophisticated stuff and lots of fun to watch.

I may become a fan on Facebook so that I can observe what’s happening. I am interested in both her subject and her skill at finding and engaging blog readers who will then become book readers and then even more devoted blog readers. Ah, the wheel of life.

Who are your favorite published author/bloggers. What other uses of social media to promote books are you seeing online?

Google Trends and Memoir

Have you ever used Google Trends?  You can find the website here.  The home page tells you what subjects are “hot” because they have appeared frequently and recently in both blogs and news sources online.  Right now, for example “Kemba Walker,” star of the University of Connecticut basketball team, enroute again to the Final Four in the NCAA tournament, heads the list.

What happens when we ask how “hot” the word “memoir” is?  Apparently hot and getting hotter:  When you search the word, you can discover all kinds of information–a history of the search volume over the last five years, the countries where the search is hottest, and how the search volume compares to news mentions.

One function that allows you to compare two words to each other.  For example, let’s look at memoir and autobiography.  Usage of “autobiography” is going down.  “Memoir” is advancing.  Take any two words you are interested in and spot the trend.  Here is “spiritual” and “memoir.”  Just for fun, try “recession, bling.”

Isn’t it cool to have this way to find out which words are hot?

Anybody have another Google application you want to share?

Discovering Shelfari

My son Anthony keeps showing me wonderful places to go online, especially places that help me learn more about social media and might brighten the face of this blog.  The latest is Shelfari, a place to rate books, talk about books, and meet new book lovers.  I have started a group there called–you guessed it–100 Memoirs.  Actually, It’s called 100 Memoir Challenge, to encourage others to join me in the goal of reading 100 memoirs.  If everyone in the group reads even a fraction of that number, we will together read 100 memoirs and benefit from the ratings and reviews of the other members.  To illustrate the group, I chose the cover of The Memoir Book.  It’s a book I have not yet read but will order today and tell you all about it soon.  I hope you will join Shelfari and the 100 Memoir group too.  So much fun!