Readers, Fans, and Evangelists

Today's guest post is courtesy of  Jim Miller.  Jim does a great job of helping authors find their target audience, and he also writes his own blog at http://aftertheinkdries.wordpress.com

Authors talk and think all the time about who is reading their books, but how often do you think about who talks about your book and who gets others to read it?

Gaining readers is only the first step of building an audience. A reader is merely someone who read your book whether they loved it, hated it, or were indifferent. If all you’re building is readers, you’re doing all the work yourself, one reader at a time. You can have success this way, but you can have more success paying attention to the other types of people you’re looking for.

Fans are people who love your book and talk about it. Evangelists are people who get others to buy it. Building up these segments of your audience is far more important than building readers alone. These people will be the army you need to grow your brand.

So how do you build fans and evangelists?

• The first step is to provide a place for fans to gather. If you don’t have a blog, start one. If you don’t know what one is, you’re reading one. The internet has no lack of articles to learn how to blog well, but here is a good place to start.

• Use your website and/or blog to let people know more about you and your message. If you’re a fiction author, you can write short stories or back stories about the characters in your book and post them here. Do whatever you can think of to give more to people who want more. Think about the things you like to read about famous people you admire and provide these things.

• Encourage anyone who comes to the site to post comments and questions, and respond to them. Readers think every author is famous, and the more they like your book, the giddier they’ll get about hearing from you. When they’re excited about hearing from you, they’ll tell all their friends that an author replied to their comment. They may post a link to your blog or website on facebook or on their own blog. You can encourage this by giving blanket permission to repost your posts if they give you credit, like I did with the tips on blogging from Ford Saeks. (If you haven’t clicked that link yet, it’s right here.)

• Wherever you go to speak or sign books, tell people about your blog and/or website, and encourage them to connect with you there. If you use projection slides with your presentation, put your blog or weblink on the last slide, and make sure it stays onscreen while you are taking questions from the audience.

• Always, always, always ask people to tell others. Obviously, I’m not talking about accosting strangers and asking them to tell people about your book. That would be creepy. However, whenever someone says something nice about your book, your knee-jerk response should be, “Thank you so much. Please tell everyone you know about the book. We’re trying to build an audience!”

• This is particularly true when people ask you when your next book is coming out. It is not uncommon for new authors to have 5 or 6 people ask this question and then try to put pressure on me to make their 2nd book happen. I can’t go to our acquisitions editors and say, “6 people have asked when the next book is coming out.” Their first question will be, “How many books have they sold?” If someone asks you when your next book is coming out, say, “As soon as we sell enough copies of the first one, so tell all your friends to buy it.” Some people will. Those are your evangelists.

• Reward your fans and evangelists in ways that are small to you but big to them. This could be anything from sending them a handful of bookmarks to naming a character after them in your next book. Some authors even use their blogs to workshop their future books. They share ideas or setting and plot points on their blog and work the feedback they like best into their writing. Be creative.

The crazy thing is that fans and evangelists don’t even have to be readers, necessarily. I’m a fan of Craig Groeschel, pastor of LifeChurch.tv. I interviewed him (skeptically, I might add) when I was the editor of a magazine that showed how churches use technology in worship. The more I heard his heart and heard his passion repeated through my interviews with the rest of his staff, the more I came to appreciate him. I’ve never read his book Chazown (that’s the Hebrew word for “vision”), but I like it because I’ve seen his God-given vision in action.

Even stranger, I’m an evangelist for Bill Hybels, another author who is pastor of Willow Creek Church. When I was 17, my dad gave me one of his books, and for 25 years now, I’ve called it “the best book I’ve never read.” The book is called Who You Are When No One Is Looking. The title alone convicted me and changed the way I look at the world. It has shaped my character again and again over the past 25 years, and I’ve told many, many people to buy the book. If you’ve never considered this issue or known who you should be when no one is looking, go buy the book and read it.

If you’ve done anything at all to build your audience, you have some fans and evangelists. Connect to them and watch how much faster your audience grows.

Comment below: What are some of the ways you’ve created fans and evangelists?

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Brand Your Name, Don't Promote Your Book

Brand Your Name, Don't Promote Your Book

By Joanne Troppello


That's a strong statement, I know, but I wanted to capture your attention.

Stephen King, J. K. Rowling, Dean Koontz, Nora Roberts, Michael Crichton, James Patterson, Anne Rice, Mary Higgins Clark...we all know those names or at least a good portion of them. So what's my point? Just that...we know their names; we don't all remember the names of their books.

Your fans are not going to always be able to spout off the titles of all your books, but if they like your work and if you've become popular, they will remember your name. If they know your name, they can easily find you online or in the bookstores. When they find your website, then they can look up your books. When they go to the bookstores, they can find your specific titles.

As an author, hopefully you will continually be writing more books. Your readers may not always know your current works, but they'll keep track of what you're working on and when your new releases come out. So, how do you (and me), as up and coming authors waiting for the day you'll be on the best seller lists, brand your name and market yourselves as authors?

That question being put out there, you still, of course, need to work hard on marketing each of your books, but the way to really become popular is to market your name.

One of the best ways to brand yourself is to have a website. You always need to have an online presence; that includes branding yourself in the social media networks. Another good idea is that you should always try to write articles in your trade, and post them in free online writing networks. Usually, you just need to register and then you can begin posting articles; sometimes certain sites will need to review your articles first. These sites will allow readers to link to your profile, where they can follow a link to your website. Other online article posting sites allow you to list a byline with a direct link to your website.

You must remember that you are your greatest fan and you need to take advantage of that fact and promote yourself wherever you go. Of course, some people may feel this is taking you down to ego-land, but there are ways to promote yourself and your work without seeming to be overbearing. I don't usually like to be in the center of attention, but as my husband mentioned the other day, I'm an author now and I'd better get used to it.

Join writers groups and other writing associations and always attach your byline in everything that you write and have your "elevator speech" prepared and ready to use at all times. So what's an elevator speech? It's a short pitch on something you're trying to market and since you're trying to market yourself, be prepared to tell people that you are an author and when your next book is going to be released. Be ready to hand out a business card or at least be able to give out your website.

Blogging is another way to brand your name. You always want your readers, potential readers and the press to go to your website. You can do this by offering them something. How do you do that? You need to provide good content that is always updated. That's why it's good to have a blog directly on your website or if you have it through another online service, to at least have the blog link prominently displayed on your site. You can even create a newsletter. This will be a bit more time consuming than writing a daily or weekly blog, but it is something that you can think about as you get farther along in your writing career.

Don't forget to keep on promoting your name. You are your biggest fan! Make your marketing count!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joanne_Troppello


http://EzineArticles.com/?Brand-Your-Name,-Dont-Promote-Your-Book&id=5022674

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Creating Your Brand

It's a situation in which most new authors find themselves. Their book has been released, but it's just not flying off the shelves or climbing the sales ranks at Amazon.

"I thought this book would sell itself!" is something I have heard from several authors.

The truth is, no book sells itself. Authors sell books, with help (sometimes very limited help) from their publishers. We have already discussed how much competition there is in the publishing industry. So how does an author stand out from the crowd? With branding.

Everyone, regardless of what industry they are in, has a personal brand. Their brand is their personal reputation, how other people view them, and what they have come to expect from that person. Vikings quarterback Brett Favre has a brand. Coca Cola has a brand. Apple Computers has a brand.

There are plenty of pro football players, soft drinks and computers in the world. Hundreds, in fact, if not thousands. However, not all football players, soft drinks and computers are comparable. Some are better than others. Some have been around longer than others. Some have developed more of a following than others. They have developed this track record of success with branding. For example, when I go see a movie starring Sylvester Stallone, I can pretty much count on the fact it's going to be an action movie. When I read a book by Dean Koontz, I know it's going to be a thriller.

This blog is an effort to brand myself as someone who knows how to sell books. In the nearly four years I have worked at Tate Publishing, I have sold a LOT of books. That success didn't come overnight, and neither does developing a successful brand. So, how does an author go about developing a personal brand?

Identify your key strength. What makes you different from other authors? Do you specialize in a particular genre? What is your expertise? What makes your book different or more interesting than others? Make a short list of these qualities. These are the things that are part of your personal brand.

Develop a clear and concise message to communicate your brand. Burger King lets you "have it your way." Coke is "The Real Thing." Brett Favre is a "Superbowl champion quarterback." I promote "sales, service and success." These tag lines are all part of branding a personality, product or service. Once a person or a product becomes well-known enough, their name itself is a brand. Kleenex is a brand of facial tissue, but now everybody calls facial tissue Kleenex, whether it's actually made by Kleenex or not.

Persistently and consistently communicate your brand. Now that you have figured out your brand (you're a romance novelist who specializes in stories with twist endings, for example) you need a way to constantly communicate that message, and do it persistently. Michael Jackson always referred to himself as "The King of Pop," and after awhile everyone else called him that, too. Use many different communications channels to convey your brand. Your press releases, your news letters, your web site, your email signature line, your blog, your social networking pages...everything should contain your branding message. If your marketing materials contain your brand, then interviewers and book reviewers will start to use it, too.

Branding can be subtle. Not everyone has a tag line as part of their brand. Jeffery Gitomer writes a series of books about selling and positive attitude, and each of his books has a color in the title of the book. His best-known book is perhaps "The Little Red Book of Selling." When he appears at speaking engagements, he wears a red shirt. His own web site depicts him wearing a red shirt. He does have a slogan: "People don't like to be sold, but they love to buy!" In fact, he has trademarked that slogan.

"The Chicken Soup" series of books is perhaps one of the most well-known series of books around. Every book title in the series has "Chicken Soup for the Soul" featured prominently. "Chicken Soup" is part of the branding. You may not remember the names of the authors, but you will remember "Chicken Soup."

If you haven't given any thought to your personal brand, now is the time to start. Is your message in your marketing materials, web site and backmatter of your books clear and consistent? Can you somehow incorporate your branding into the elevator pitch for your book? Remember, your book is a business, and each successful business has a brand. What does your brand say about you?

You can learn more about branding at Brand-Yourself.com.

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