Developing an Internet Presence: The Public Author

This is the first in a set of six articles based on the things I learned during my first year as a published author. The articles will outline a few of the things authors should consider in order to gain an Internet presence. I have a background in public relations and several years experience in project management and promotions in higher education. My experience has been in the area of campaign development, press releases, advertisement, graphic design, and event planning. Marketing my book took me into unknown territory, but being one who loves a challenge and is something of a risk taker, I embraced the opportunity. But even I had to admit that as my debut novel SILENCED CRY was about to be released in April 2007, I was a bit apprehensive. My hope is that in sharing my experiences with you, you'll find some useful solutions to your marketing questions.

The Public Author

Why is an Internet presence important? Imagine yourself standing in the middle of a 5-circle bull's eye.

1) That inner circle is you; who you are, your experiences, and what you know. It also includes your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Anyone you come in contact with on a regular basis.

2) The next circle includes potential readers within your community who you may know, but who you're not in regular contact with or those who don't know about you or your book. The hometown advantage is on your side though. With word of mouth endorsements from those within your inner circle, some local press about your book, and book signings or other events, you have a good chance to reach a portion of the population.

3) The third circle from the center includes individuals you have contact with on a professional basis. These are more than likely other authors; members of author groups and organizations where you promote on a regular basis.

4) The fourth circle includes people who have bought your book.

5) Number five are potential readers in a global market. That's your goal -- to take your promotional campaign from your inner circle to the outer circle. The only way to get there is by having an Internet presence. It will draw readers, but more important, the publishing world demands it. The good news is that the Internet provides authors with unlimited ways to promote their books and most offer free or low cost options.

Aside from writing a heart-stopping novel, the single most important thing authors need to master is Internet marketing and promotions of their book. I've read numerous articles that state one of the first things an agent or publisher will do is Google the author's name. If they can't find the author on the Internet, they assume the author isn't savvy enough to help market their book(s) or worse, won't and thus they may move on to the next manuscript. From a publisher's point of view, the cost of production is too high to take a chance on someone who won't do their part.

Not everyone is born to be a salesperson. Whether on the Internet or in person, how an author breaks out of his or her shyness will of course depend on their comfort level. But at some point the author will need to break out of that shell. I spoke with several authors who hate book signings because they don't want to appear to be pushy and fear rejection. That's understandable if you have never been in the public eye before, but this is what you've been working toward. Public recognition. When you and your book are on display, that's your name on the cover and your heart and soul between the pages. Who better to sell it than you? If you love what you do it will show and your enthusiasm will spark a desire and spread like wildfire. Whether your publishing goal is to reach that small target audience within the two inner circles of your bull's eye or to connect with a global market, you must make yourself accessible to the public in order to sell books.

In my numerous conversations with aspiring authors, I found two misconceptions:

1) The publisher will handle all the promotion. Campaigns will vary from one publisher to another, but regardless of the size of the publishing house, the bulk of the responsibility will fall squarely on the author's shoulders.

2) If I launch a website, people will rush to view it and buy the book. Wrong! The website is only the beginning. One author told me that she has a site but doesn't do anything else on the web preferring to do speaking engagements at bookstores, libraries, etc. The local events are not to be dismissed, but if that is an author's sole marketing campaign, they limit their potential sales considerably.

First, let's take a look at what you can expect from a publisher. The narrowest definition of the role of a publisher is that they make information available for public view.

A publisher will in most cases assign an editor to work with the author and provide copyediting, graphic design, and will initiate production/ printing. In some cases the publisher will make the book available in print and in electronic media. They will also secure the legal rights of the author and purchase the ISBN.

Several months before a novel is released the publisher will send out advanced review copies (ARC) and will continue to submit the book for reviews throughout the contracted period of time. Most publishers will spotlight their authors on their website, they may promote their books at key events that attracted book sellers, will submit the books to writing contests, and will make them available to the public via online bookstores such as Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, and Books-A-Million. The publisher may also sell the international rights to the book (have the book translated) and assist with film rights if it comes to that.

Let's say you are a couple of months from launch date. The ARCs were sent and some reviews are coming in. Like it or not, you and your book are now public property. Reviewers will dissect your work and tell the world everything they love and hate about it. One reviewer will love your characters while another may feel they're not well-developed. Don't let their comments deter you from your goal. Use the glowing reviews in your marketing campaign. Quote them on all your written materials which you are now developing and will have ready before the launch. Printed materials should include; press releases, postcards, flyers, and bookmarks. Now is a good time to also get your mailing list of media contacts and others within your inner circle organized. Next, contact local bookstore owners for a commitment on a book signing. If they agree, ask them if they would like to have the launch party at their store!

The next article in the series: The Author's Website

Marta Stephens is a crime/mystery author of SILENCED CRY
www.martastephens-author.com

For more articles, please go to my website and look under the "Author to Author" link.

Very interesting article, Marta. I agree about the website misconception. Setting up the website is just the beginning since, once it's there, nobody's going to stop by if they don't hear about it through one form of publicity or another.

Malcolm

Thanks very much, will look forward to following this series of articles!

Yes, Marta, thank you. Very good information.

Definitely, Malcolm.

Worse yet, the chances of anybody stumbling across your novel website on a search engine is almost zero not matter how much you tune keywords and optimize and such.

What this means is, every eyeball coming ot your site has to be roped in there by you personally with a link somewhere an interested reader will see it: forums, networks, local websites, articles, etc.

The good news is that people who come from "hand-placed" links are MUCH more qualified than somebody who blunders onto your site from a search engine.

I would have to disagree with Lin on one point. It is possible to get your book's website to show up in the top 10 Google results for various keywords fairly easily - it takes work, but it is not too hard. However, that does not mean it is qualified traffic. That requires someone knowing about your book or looking for that subject.

So you not only need traffic to your site, but qualified traffic. How you get that is by what Lin suggests, "hand-placed" links, as well as all of the other various forms of on and off line marketing (ads, Amazon tweaking, reviews, T-shirts, postcards, stickers, word-of-mouth, etc.)

Tough for a novel, I would say. I'm trying to think of what keywords would do it. Lindsey Lohan? Ringtone?
Just kidding, but I think it would be tough unless the novel dealt specifically with a narrow topic and people were searching for that niche. novel, iraq, returnee?


Niche books, not so hard. 99 percent of my site traffic is from search engines, I'm all over the top ten for searches...but conversion is abysmal.

Outstanding article Marta. It is amazing how many misconceptions there are about the need for an author to proactively market their work.

Your article is spot on.

Kathleen Gage

Even if one's website were to show up in the search engines, this doesn't mean people will click on the link or that, if they do, they'll stay on the page for more than 1-2 seconds if they see that it's something they aren't hearing any buzz about already.

Malcolm

Optimizing your landing page is an entirely different ball of wax then SEO. That is why marketing is so hard - you need to drive traffic, the right traffic, and then still convert them to buyers. Those three steps alone can take someone a lifetime to learn - not to mention all of the other aspects involved in the book/publishing business.

Even if one's website were to show up in the search engines, this doesn't mean people will click on the link or that, if they do, they'll stay on the page for more than 1-2 seconds if they see that it's something they aren't hearing any buzz about already.

This is very greatly at odds with my experience in selling off a website. My own is dated and could do the selling job better, but nobody spends less than 10 seconds there.

My feeling on SEO is this: it really can't help you much with fiction and poetry. But there is not point in working AGAINST it because so much of it is common sense or useful in and of itself.

Having a lot of links, for instance. To sites of related content.

An amusing (not necessarily pleasing) example of what flash says there was the first three months of this year for my book sale site. This is a site that ranks on front page of google in its niche, ok. And my SEO work led to a big increase in visits, double and even triple.

During that period sales dropped.

Go figure.

Which is what I did, and came up with a pretty good rationale for what happened, and to extent what to do it about it, but I haven't necessarily done it all because it's a pain in the ass and I'd make about a dime an hour doing it.

Note: just like in other kinds of marketing/sales, a big, big word is QUALIFIED.

If, for instance, you are selling Hummers you advertise in Robb report even though it has a much smaller circulation than National Knucklehead or newspaper classified pages. Readers qualify themselves as potential customers just by paying the cost of the magazine.

Similarly, having 5000 people visit your site in a day doesn't help if they are all there because they think your site has nude pictures of Pamela Anderson.