How to Publish a Book Readers,

This week at How to Publish a Book, we're bringing you a video from last month's Raleigh Write to Publish group meeting at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. For a change, I stepped back behind the camera and assistant organizer Alice Osborn moderated the panel with the publicity and marketing directors from Algonquin Books.

For those who have knocked around this business for a while, we know that writing a book and publishing it is only about 10% of what a working writer does. For those who may be visiting this site for the first time and only have a very general idea about publishing a book, it's an important point to understand.

Every writer who succeeds commercially must figure out how to market and publicize her books. For most debut authors at major publishing houses, very little is done to promote the authors' books. I believe the more innovative, helpful, and interesting the marketing is the better effect it will have. But most times this marketing must start right from the author.

I can't emphasize this enough. If you're going to be a writer, it's a little like trying to start your own business. Understanding your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is essential to book publishing success.

In fact, it probably wouldn't hurt to write out a list of these before you even begin your project. And revise the list from time to time over the course of months or years. Which leads me to my thesis for this week at How to Publish a Book:

I believe the single most important factor in marketing yourself is credibility.

Nothing is more important, and hundreds of things contribute to strong credibility.

 

When people believe your story, when they believe you're plausible, they will get behind you. For some writers, it takes 15 or 20 years to get to this point. Some writers never achieve it.

Now, credibility is not the only thing that you need to be successful as a writer. You got to have a great story... both in the book you're trying to publish and in your personal life. But I do think credibility is one factor that most aspiring writers lack, overlook, or dismiss altogether. And nothing will get you a rejection letter faster than when a person picks up your story and doesn't believe you're a credible storyteller.

When the momentum swings your way, though, and people in positions of authority in our business begin to believe you, you can accomplish great things. Nothing's harder than trying to win them over: it's humiliating, awkward, painful, and a rite of passage that can take a decade or more to accomplish. But if you stay with it and remain true to yourself, are genuinely likeable and talented, and work your ass off, it will eventually happen.

So, without further ado, here is this week's video of Algonquin Books Publicity and Marketing Directors Michael Taekens and Craig Popelars on the topic of Book Marketing and Publicity. Enjoy.

Stacey

How to Publish a Book Readers,

I need your help. Starting on May 15, 2009, I am going on an author "blog tour" to promote my new book CLAWS. For 45 days, I'm going to try to guest blog on a different blog each day, and I need you to host me.

So far, I have almost a dozen people who have said they'll let me guest blog on their sites. For everybody who hosts me as guest blogger, I will be posting daily updates with links to their sites here at howtopublishabook.org and at staceycochran.com as well as including them on the tour calendar and posting links to their books.

So what do I need?

I need you to contact me to say that I can guest blog on your site. I'll provide you with the text of the guest blog (or we can do an interview), so that you can post it at your place.

Here's a list of the tour stops so far:

 

May 15 - Heather Hummel at http://www.heatherhummel.blogspot.com

May 16 - Elisa Lorello at http://kairoscalling.blogspot.com

May 17 - Alice Osborn at http://wildwomenswriting.blogspot.com

May 18 - Henry Hutton at publishandsell.com

May 19 - Eileen Batson at http://batsongroupmarketingandpr.blogspot.com

May 20 - Anthony Policastro at http://writersedgeinfo.blogspot.com and http://aspnovelist.blogspot.com

May 21 - Carol Denbow at http://abookinside.blogspot.com

May 22 - Dawson Vosburg at http://dawsonvosburg.blogspot.com

May 23 - Barbara Quinby at http://www.weaveandsewdust.typepad.com/

May 25 - Diane Chamberlain at http://www.dianechamberlain.com/blog

May 30 - Dusty Rhoades at http://jdrhoades.blogspot.com/

June 8 - First Offenders at http://firstoffenders.typepad.com

June 9 - Jon Batson at http://midnightwhistler.blogspot.com 

June 20 - Shelley Rodrigo at http://www.committedtechnofile.com

 

If you would like to help by hosting me as a guest blogger your blog or website between May 15 and June 30, please just drop me a note and say "I want to host you, Stacey!"

Thanks so much, everyone!

Stacey

How to Publish a Book Readers,

Last Friday, I interviewed Duke University's N. Katherine Hayles about her career and her published books. I definitely felt like I was stretching myself to interview Dr. Hayles because her published books on electronic literature and the convergence of science, culture, and books is pretty esoteric stuff. Nonetheless, I think it's good to stretch myself once in a while and go outside my comfort zone in interviewing folks whose published books I may not totally understand.

I decided to post the interview here because I occasionally get messages from folks through the site about publishing non-fiction books. All of Dr. Hayles books have been published with university presses, and toward the end of the interview she talked a little bit about how she is able to sell a book to a university press at this point in her career based mostly on an idea.

I found her discussion of the challenges facing electronic literature preservation compelling, and I thought her discussion of "downloading consciousness" was fascinating.

In the next couple of weeks, I hope to get a video online of a Book Marketing Discussion I filmed for the Raleigh Write to Publish Group with Algonquin Books Directors of Marketing and Publicity. Also, I'm developing an internet-based, ad-revenue-supported poetry contest. You might keep an eye out for updates on both of these topics in the weeks ahead.

Take care, folks. And thanks for stopping by How to Publish a Book.

Stacey