Marketing & Brand: Tips from Philly Writer’s Conf.

Still hot writing business and craft tips to report on from the Philadelphia Writer’s Conference this month.  Here is more of what I learned during that weekend from a round of excellent presenters.

Creating Your Brand and Marketing Your Work presented by Don Lafferty and Marie Lamba.

ID your reader and market
Are there special qualities, issues or setting in your book that appeal to certain groups? Hikers, teens, mountain climbers, veterinarians? Find those groups on Twitter and listen to their conversations. Mention your book when relevant.

Do you offer readers something they need in your book? Can you do a workshop or talk? For example, is your book MG or YA? Hook up with Scout organizations to do a workshop on your book so they earn a reading badge and your earn readers (for your sequel too).

Does your book feature a certain locale? Post photos of those places along with mention in your book on a blog post.

Who are the gatekeepers to your book? Librarians, parents, bookstores, conventions, etc. Find a way to access.

Connect and be found
Be on Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, LibraryThing, IndieBound, LinkedIn.
Start a blog.
Add tags (keywords) to bottom of your blog posts so they can be found in a web search by keyword.
Keep blog posts to 300 words.

Brand look
Create author bio/photo/brand image/press release templates

Create one look for yourself (photo, image) and carry over into all marketing pieces to create “your brand”.

Create a short and long bio, with photo.

Create business cards you can change as needed to print out for special events.

Band together with other authors
Start a blog with a group of authors and expand your publicity. Good example is here and here!
Collaborate with your author group to do  community outreach together related to literacy.
Do signings together.

Share the love
Don’t let your social networking be all about you. For each tweet about your work/success post 12 tweets  about the success of others or valuable information.
Post reviews of book similar to yours online and email the author your reviews.
Find authors similar to you and check out their blogs, blogs they’ve been a guest on and any published articles.
Write articles for industry publications/blogs sharing your knowledge.
Always include your bio in any post/article so folks can link back to you.

Build brand through family/close friends
Invite family and close friends to be your “street team”.
Have them:
Attend signings
Do online reviews
Request your book from local library
Hand out bookmarks
Plant your book card in similar books in the bookstores positioned halfway through the book
Face your book out on the shelf (publisher’s pay for that space)

Constantly re-evaluate your marketing!

Download Don Lafferty’s marketing guide!