Thursday, March 26, 2015

Book Marketing Flashcards For Authors


My seven-year-old daughter has shown great progress in becoming an independent reader.  One of the things I believe will help her is for her to recognize more words by sight.  I decided to buy some flashcards that help her learn scores of words on one side, and then a chance to create new words on the other side.  It made me think that it would be cool if we had flashcards for ideas, especially ones that help authors to build up their book marketing and publicity skills.  Maybe I’m onto something?

There are many books, online courses, and seminars that profess to tell authors how to promote themselves and their books.  This blog has done that for the past four years.  But if we had to narrow down the core elements that represent the foundation of PR building blocks, what would they be?

Flashcards are usually quick reminders of things.  Children learn numbers, equations, letters, words, and images that help them expand their minds.  Teenagers and even adults use them to prep for tests and to prepare for speeches.  We associate many traits and ideas to a single picture, phrase, or symbol.  Authors need their reminders and cues to jumpstart their book publicity.

I would break the cards down into the core areas that they need to address:

·         Social Media
·         Traditional Media
·         Speaking Appearances
·         Direct Bulk Sales
·         Branding
·         Networking
·         Writing Pitches
·         Press Kit Development
·         Media Coaching
·         Research And Learning
·         Website Launch/Revision
·         Bookstore And Library Singings
·         Brainstorming
·         Creating Marketing Materials

Of course, there are other cards that could be created, but this is a quick-study method, so let’s focus on the above.  Then break each of those 14 areas into subsets.  For instance, traditional media would list national/local/international TV, radio, and print (newspapers, magazines, newsletters, newswires, trade publications).  Social media would be divided into content you generate blogging, podcasting, via video, and on various platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube.  Then there’s getting coverage by others: bloggers, podcasters, reviewers, and major media websites like The Huffington Post.

So the flashcards would identify the areas that need attention, post questions, and give you food for thought so that you’ll spur your own ideas as to what you should be doing.

The questions for each area would revolve around the obvious.  For instance, if the flashcard reads Twitter, it may have these questions:

·         How much time shall I designate towards it today?
·         How many people will I seek to follow me today?
·         How many people will I choose to follow today?
·         How many tweets will I send today?  What will they say?
·         How many retweets will I share today?  What will they say?
·         What types of lists shall I create today?
·         Whose tweets will I read today?
·         How many people will I Direct Message or respond to today?
·         How much time will I spend reading and learning about the profiles of Twitter members?
·         What leads can I find on twitter that lead to real-world contacts?

You get the idea.  It’s all very logical and methodical.  If only you had 240 hours in a day!

If flashcards are helping my little girl to read, they can help you promote and market yourself and your book.  Don’t forget to create a flashcard that says: Read BookMarketingBuzzBlog!

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015

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