A Little Bit of History

The Novel Neighbor

Yesterday a group from the Missouri History Museum took a bus tour in St. Louis, learning about the history of printing and publishing in this area. The tour ended at a local bookstore, The Novel Neighbor, which recently celebrated its one year anniversary. The tour organizer thought it would be interesting to add a segment on self-publishing, so she asked me to come and speak to the group at the bookstore. It was quite convenient for me as the store is located about a mile from my house.

There were 28 tour-goers crammed into a craft/meeting room in the back of the bookstore. Because my presentation was only 30 minutes, I did not need to use any audio-visual equipment fortunately. There would have been no room to set up a projector. I began my talk by asking if anyone knew what the following books had in common:

 A. A Time to Kill by John Grisham

B. What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles

C. In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters

D. The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard & Spencer Morrow

E. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr.

F. The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer

G. The Plant by Stephen King

H. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

J. The Martian by Andy Weir

Following suggestions that the authors were all from Missouri, or the books were all best sellers, someone correctly guessed that all of these books were originally self-published. And these authors were in good company, as Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Martin Luther and Walt Whitman also self-published their books. This sort of information certainly makes people think of self-publishing in a different light.

My talk covered the evolution of self-publishing, why authors self-publish, pros and cons of self-publishing, how to self-publish a book, and how I got my three books into print/ebook format. I wrapped things up by discussing the recent trends in publishing before taking questions, of which there were few. I think this topic is far removed from what the group usually encounters on their tours, but I hope some of them found it to be interesting.

It was good preparation for me as I get ready for the next community college class on November 7th. The St. Louis Publishers Association is again offering a four hour workshop on book publishing. This time instead of just being the organizer of the class and moderator for the day, I will be covering the section on getting your book into print and into the marketplace. The workshop is always very well-received, and I look forward to working with the students twice a year.

10 Media Relations Tips for Authors and Publishers

The Publicity Hound

Writers and publishers in the St. Louis area are blessed to have the active and resourceful St. Louis Publishers Association right in their backyard. In addition to monthly meetings and an annual class on getting your book published, occasionally a national speaker is brought in. Such was the case last Saturday when Joan Stewart, aka The Publicity Hound, came to St. Louis for a jam-packed three hour workshop on tips for profitable self-promotion. Joan is a publicity expert, speaker and trainer who works with businesses, authors, marketers and many others who need assistance with their publicity endeavors.

Saturday's workshop covered working with the media, creating video and audio, blogging (and repurposing your own content), press releases and pitching to journalists. Here are my top ten takeaways from Joan's presentation:

10. Pinterest is one of the fastest growing forms of social media. This visual platform is predominantly used by females.

9. Join LinkedIn groups that contain influencers who can help you with your promotions, not just author and/or publisher groups.

8. The Freelance Directory of the Society of Professional Journalists can help you locate journalists who write about your topic.

7. Once you have identified the journalists who represent what you write about, then read their blogs. Research them before you pitch to them.

6. Authors need to blog. Ideally, a blog post should be around 700 words so Google can find it.

5. Repurpose your content. Turn blog posts into podcasts, create YouTube videos, put tips on Pinterest.

4. Review existing podcast topics. Small, niche topics do well here because not too many people are doing it.

3. Complete a Google profile, and make sure that you have linked all of your websites to it.

2. Creating videos and audio content is imperative if you want to be found on Google, and to be recognized as an expert in your field.

And the top tip learned from Joan...

1. Promote yourself as an expert, do not promote your book. If the media sees you as an expert, they will call upon you for stories. The publicity for your book will follow.

Joan's presentation was professional, entertaining and enlightening. The fifty some attendees were attentive and engaged. What a productive way to spend a Saturday morning.

If you are not currently following Joan, I would highly encourage you to do so. Her publicity tips are priceless, though many of them are offered for free. To receive her free DIY publicity tips, you can subscribe here.

A House History Book

house history book

There are many ways to get your book into print. If you have a story that relies heavily on photos and you only need a couple of copies of the finished product, then one of the online photo book services may be just what you need. I have used shutterfly.com and snapfish.com with good results. I recently finished a photo book on the research I have compiled on the history of my house. There are many photos in the book, both historic ones that I obtained from descendants of the previous owner as well as pictures I have taken over the years as we have made changes to the home.

I only needed one copy of the finished product for myself, so with the coupon I had the book was fairly inexpensive. These two companies, as well as their competitors, are always running specials so there is no reason to ever pay full price for a book. In fact, through the years I have received many coupons for free books.

The quality of both companies is comparable, so it may come down to the length of the book in terms of which one you select. Snapfish allows a lot more pages, so be sure to compare the specifications of the companies to see which one will fit your needs.