Market Your Book

Thirty people attended “How to Market Your Book,” a panel discussion sponsored by networking group Write by the Rails on Sept. 8 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Old Town Manassas.  Here are five free tips from the writing pros:

1. Bristow resident Carol Covin, author of Who Gets to Name Grandma, detailed how social networking on websites such as Facebook.com and GoodReads.com can build a platform and a fan base for your books (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15745659-who-gets-to-name-grandma-the-wisdom-of-mothers-and-grandmothers.)

2. Lake Ridge resident Nancy Kyme set up a blog, Campfire Memories (http://campfirememories.wordpress.com/), that both complements her book, Memory Lake: The Forever Friendships of Summer, and drives traffic to it.  She landed a phone interview with the editor of the newspaper in the town where she grew up, and now uses the article he published as a clip to promote her book to others.  She also has an elevator speech to describe her book that is as brief and attention-worthy as a post on Twitter.

3. Bristow resident Tee Morris talked about the value of producing a short, compelling video trailer that will ‘show, don’t tell’ a scene in your book.  He ran three video trailers for his novels, including Phoenix Rising and The Janus Affair to demonstrate.  Morris also explained how recording your short stories on Podiobooks.com can easily pay a bill or two (http://www.podiobooks.com/title/tales-from-the-archives-volume-one).

4. Manassas resident Ross Murphy is both an author of You Will Never Dance Alone and Dancing with the Devil and the acquisitions director for Aberdeen Bay Publishing (www.aberdeenbay.com).  From a marketing standpoint, Murphy warned “nobody cares about you, nobody cares about your book and nobody wants to buy your book.” After that splash of cold water, he advised authors to create a marketing plan that casts both a wide natural market (family, friends and a growing list of everyone you know and meet) and a narrow target market (specific readers hungry for your specific subject matter).  He also advised first-time authors to polish their product with a professional editor before finding a mid-size press to publish it.  Don’t approach a mainstream publisher until you’ve sold at least 5,000 copies of your book.

5. Each attendee was given a handout of marketing tips from Claudia LeFeve, author of Parallel, Paradox, unDead Dixie Debs and The Fury.  In the handout she explained how running a free promotion for Parallel, the first book in her series, on Amazon.com brought her 401 paid downloads of Paradox in one week, landing her in the #2 spot in Hot New Releases in Sci-Fi on Amazon.  Her formula for great success is limited to these essential things:  a. Write a good book; b. Have a great cover and c. Start writing your second book.

Dan Verner, Biscuit City blogger (http://dverner.blogspot.com/) and Manassas Observer columnist, served as moderator of the event and Leigh Giza, author of Found and Lost, (http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000468173/Found-and-Lost.aspx) coordinated the panel.

Write by the Rails is an initiative by individual writer members of the Prince William Arts Council working to raise the profile of the local literary community and explore ways to nurture, cultivate and help that community grow.  If you are a writer, published or unpublished, affiliated with Manassas, Manassas Park or Prince William County, consider joining us.  Our next meeting is Saturday, Sept. 15 at 2:00 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 9325 West Street in Manassas.  Our guest will be June Forte, President of the Virginia Writers Club.

For more information, email writebytherails@gmail.com, or visit http://writebytherails.blogspot.com/.