Aggregating the author… and The Google

At the end of the day, the reality every new author faces — even established mid-list and best-selling authors — is self-promotion. Getting the word out about their book. Branding their name. Driving eyeballs to a website that ultimately motivates readers to buy their product… it’s tough, hard work. Time consuming and rife with such brain damage as to mandate major pharmaceuticals, the bottom line is that, at least for most writers, shameless self-promotion is a creepily uncomfortable task.

But unfortunately, punching a hole through the cacophony of digital distraction that is today’s transmedia marketing world in effort to glean attention for one book, among the nearly 100,000 titles published each year in the U.S., is pretty much what every author seeking some calculable measure of success must do. And since author marketing strategies is something I want to address more substantively on this blog, I thought the below piece by SCWC*LA6’s Andrew Peterson (First to Kill) might make for a good kick-off:

The picture that started it all

Just got a call from another longtime friend of the SCWC, movie editor John Rosenberg, who was a conferee at one of our LA events, and whose manuscript nabbed the attention of editor Jennifer Redmond and agent Sally van Haitsma (as usual). His novel is so achingly close to finding a home that I’m staking money on it being yet another LA-conference book published as a result of the collective effort of so many staffers. He won the SCWC Fiction Award for it, now fingers & toes are crossed that he’ll land the deal it warrants.

And this got me thinking about the LA conference history in general, and in particular how one of the upcoming LA6’s guest speakers (Stacey O’Brien) got her gusto after attending LA4, which was held in Manhattan Beach. Sally van Haitsma put it perfectly:

I’ll never forget that day when I first met Stacey at the conference and you spoke to me about the excitement her project inspired. The endorsements we’ve been receiving for Stacey’s book have been amazing. Here’s the latest, from one of the greatest naturalists alive:

Most “me and my bird” stories are mildly entertaining at best, but Wesley the Owl is a different animal altogether. Stacey O’Brien got to know this owl with a unique combination of deep scientific understanding and rare emotional intensity, and the result is stunning, unforgettable. Read this book and you will never see owls, or humans, in the same light again.

–Kenn Kaufman
author of Kingbird Highway and Flights Against the Sunset

How exactly did Stacey’s manuscript become the focus of so much attention? Well, truth be told, Stacey included the above photo of Wesley in her submission of manuscript pages addressed to conference assistant director and registration administer Chrissie Barnett, my wife, who was so smitten with it that she called me just before Saturday evening’s banquet and insisted that I introduce her to somebody who might become a passionate advocate of Stacey and Wesley’s story.

There you go. I just read the galleys of the book and it is a wonderful read. I laughed. I cried. I suck. I suck because of maintaining this simple perspective: The only rule in publishing is there are no rules!

–msg

SCWC Writers, Bring Work To Read!!

My first post on SCWC’s writing blog is a request. My workshop, Marketing the Muse, held on Sunday, 2/17/08 is interactive which means I don’t want attendees sitting there listening to me talk about marketing your work. In keeping with our tradition to show don’t tell, I will show attendees marketing strategies by using examples read in the workshop. If you want to know if your query letter has hook or your first page compels readers to turn to page 2, bring your works in progress to read. I am filming this session so be prepared to be on camera. The workshop welcomes fiction and non fiction writers-those who come on time will have the best chance of getting read.

–mm