March 31 – The last panel discussion I attended was PR & Marketing Ideas, with panelists Sue Trowbridge (moderator), Kimberley Cameron, Linda Joffe Hull, Jane Ubell-Meyer, and Linda Wiken. This was an interesting group. Of course, any errors are due to faulty notetaking and/or memory on my part.
Sue
- Same social media for all age groups
- With Twitter, if you’re not willing to engage don’t do it
- For your website, keep in mind who the audience is, not necessarily people who just want to buy your book
- Include the feed in Twitter and Instagram
- Keep website up-to-date
- BookBub moves the needle
Kimberley
- As a literary agent, she pushes her clients
- May hire a publicist
- Publishers expect you to be active in the public relations role
- Use website, blog, writing
- It is worth it to have a professional-looking website
- Don’t leave your comfort level when using social media, see what works for you
- Avoid politics
- Keep it professional and about your career
- An author’s publicist will work with publisher to push out a book
- Ask for help
- D.P. Lyle’s website is a good author’s website
- Always considers what an author’s website and blog looks like
- Use teasers on social media to promote your book without being too aggressive
- Make sure all your links work
Linda JH
- Hybrid (independent, traditional) author
- Has used three different publishers
- Has had every experience with publishers that a person could possibly have
- Social media is not age-related, everybody still looks at everything
- Most important word – curate – put your best foot forward
- Leave a little mystery about yourself on your Facebook page
- Never say buy my book
- Not one specific thing to move the needle, keep trying new things
- Not a problem to write under two names
- Doing Goodreads giveaways may not change sales but will change visibility
Jane
- Created a company called Bedside Reading to place books by bedside in luxury hotels
- As an author, you want to be found by readers who are the most important
- List of 22 hotels, some have book clubs
- She is about branding the author, will do everything she can do to get her authors out there
- Her company is only one tool in an author’s toolbox
- An author must apply to be in the program (nothing highly sexual, violent, or inappropriate for a five-star hotel)
- Hates Twitter but has learned to love Instagram
- Need to have a “look” (taught to her by a 12-year-old)
- Ask your publisher to get their social media person to push out your book
- Your name is a long-term game, the more you get your name out the more people will recognize it
- Branding of your name is the key
- Post on LinkedIn something topical about your book
- Use your expertise to push out three hot tips for an author, then mention you are an author
- Reach young adults/new adults via Facebook and Instagram
- Writes a newsletter once or twice a month, writes about authors coming up and different events
- Does giveaways
- If you have a following, ask “does anyone have any experience with this”
Linda W
- Being a bookseller, bookmarks work best for giveaways (not postcards)
- Any bookseller needs to know about the author
- Does not have a newsletter, but suggests sharing (trading) your newsletter with another author, romance writers say this is a great tool