Five Promotional Preps to do While Your Write or Edit Your Book

Today, I thought I'd share some lessons I've learned about what other things I should do while I am writing the book.  I have several novels out now, and every book tour, I kick myself because I'm having to go back over memories that are years old to dredge up answers to questions, or I need to reread the book in order to cull it for marketing materials.  This time, with Neeta Lyffe 2: I Left My Brains in San Francisco, I got smart and started on these while the book is fresh in my mind.  I recommend them to anyone who is in the editing stages of their novel.  It takes a few hours during the process, but it will save you many more later and make for better marketing.

1.  Make and keep one copy that has commentary—who helped you with this idea?  Where did you get that fact? How did you come up with this scene?  This will help you immensely when doing your acknowledgements page and for interviews, etc.

2.  If you even suspect that you will write more with these characters make notes on the important characters, dates, and events.  Create an entire story Bible if you can.

3.  When you’re in the final editing stage, copy and paste one-liners that might make good tweets.  Put them in a document with a hashtag on each line, so go less than 140 or cut them down later.  Copy some longer ones for Facebook or other venues that take more characters.

4.  Pick out three short scenes and three long scenes that will make good excerpts.  Pick a couple that will make good read-alouds.

5.  Jot down the answers to these questions because they will be asked during tours:

* What was the best part of writing this?

* What was the worst?

* Did you have any issues you had to research or rewrite?

* Did you learn anything new?

* Did anything/any character surprise you?

* Any funny stories associated with writing this book?

* Any lessons learned?

Nine Ways to Promote Your Book When Your Book Isn't Ready for Promotion

We get told to start promoting early--earlier the better!  But in the age of Internet, attention spans are as fast and fleeting as the click of a mouse.  When we're balancing work and home, family and writing, does it make time sense to put a lot of effort into promoting a book when you don't have the cover much less a purchase link?

Online, that pre-promotion is less important as well.  You are not competing for shelf space, so you don't have to make big sales in those critical first few weeks.  You also don't have the benefit of a bookstore reinforcing your promotion efforts or taking names of folks who want to buy your book before it comes out.  So, while you could lose impulse readers who see something about your book a month before it comes out, then forget to buy it when it comes out, you have the luxury of taking a longer term approach and promoting months or even years after it's out.

Personally, I don't push a book online until I have at least a pre-order link.  However, that doesn't mean I'm not promoting and marketing. Here's what you can do to be ready for the big day:

1.  Gather your stuff!  Prepare a promotional package with the following”

• Tag Lines
• 140 character summary
• short summary
• medium summary (200 words)
• Long summary (400 words)
• 140 character bio
• 30-word bio
• 75-word bio
• 300 word bio
• Short excerpt
• Medium excerpt
• Long excerpt (make this one that’s good for readings, too.  No more than 5 minutes.)
• Video Trailer Codes
• List of where folks can find you—include all social media as well as blogs, etc.
• Links for purchase.
• Keep this file where you can fill it in as you get the stuff.  Use it for book tours or whenever you need the information.

2. Build contact list.

3. Build relationships.

4. Sell yourself as a writer.

5. Sell your book in general terms:  short stories, blogging about your writing adventures with that book

6. Build your marketing plan.

7. Make some teaser videos.  I did that with Live and Let Fly.  Short, snappy and of the “coming soon” variety, they got folks interested.  Later, when I got the book cover and date, I redid them.

8.  Pull out quotes you can use as tweets and excerpts for the blog tour, etc.  This is a good thing to do in the editing process.  Pick your favorite one-liners, esp those of 140 characters or less. Then when it comes out, you have a ready-made list of tweets you can post easily.

9.  Get endorsements.  Start finding a famous author or celebrity who will read and comment on your book.  You might be able to make a blurb page in the book or back cover and if not, you’ll have them for the website.