The Clean and Green Club

Ever dream of getting a big New York publisher for your future best seller? Don’t do it like this—in fact, don’t esend any kind of pitch letter that makes these mistakes:

M husband has a finished book and he is looking for a Book Agent or Book Publisher. His book is geared for young adults. He is a Highschool teacher and his students are chomping at the bit to read his book. We are sitting on a gold-mine! If you are interested, please leave your information so we can send you more information on the book! Thank you so much.

This was an actual query, submitted through a media query submission service. Let’s play a little game with this, just for fun. How many things can you find wrong with this post? Use the comment form to respond, and then scroll down to see my list (don’t cheat!)

Publishers are deluged with queries and are actively looking for reasons to say no. Any of the eight points below will probably trigger rejection. All of them together? This proposal is going nowhere, fast. Similarly, executives look for reasons to brush off sales pitches…customers of any kind want to be romanced, but this letter is more like the equivalent of a wolf-whistle on the street corner.

1. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation count. I notice two typos (dropping the y in My and running high and school together into one non-existent word), one inappropriate hyphenation, and four inappropriate capitalizations.
2. Writing style counts. This limp and wooden paragraph gives me no confidence in the author’s ability.
3. I don’t even know if this is fiction or nonfiction, let alone the subject and genre. Tell me what the book is about, tell me your working title, get me interested.
4. Young Adult, in the children’s book market, is a much younger reader than high school. She doesn’t know her terms and her audience, which means she doesn’t know the industry, which means the product is not likely to be salable.
5. Don’t give me hype (gold-mine). Give me facts.
6. What a great market analysis—NOT! His students are eager for the book. OK, let’s say he teaches five classes of 30 kids each, which would be a pretty big load but not out of the question. OK, so that’s a universe of 150 students per semester. If even 25 percent of the market actually buys (and that’s about 5 to 10x more than I’d guess), you’ve just sold a whopping six books. That won’t even pay for the cover design. I think this particular gold mine may be all played out. And no other markets are mentioned.
7. What’s his name, what are his credentials, and why isn’t he writing his own letter?
8. Finally, why submit this to a media pitch service that goes to experts across all genres, seeking publicity by answering reporters’ queries? The targeting is very poor. It would make a lot more sense to pitch a list of actual publishers, don’t you think?

And by the way, if you’re thinking of submitting a book proposal or query letter to an agent or publisher, a bit of expert help can make a huge difference. I offer critique services, rewriting, or writing from scratch. And I’ve sold to Wiley, Simon & Schuster,and Chelsea Green, as well as gotten nibbles for my clients from many other fine houses. For those authors better suited to self-publishing, I walk you through every step of the process and we come out the other end with something as good as books coming from major publishers.

My eighth book, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet (co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson), was released just over a month ago, and I’ve been completely consumed with launch activities for several months leading up to the release.

Working with a major publisher for the first time in 18 years, I’m keenly aware of the publisher’s high expectations, and doing what I can to make waves. Here’s a bit of what I’ve done:

The partnership strategy

One of the most powerful marketing strategies I advocate in the book is to form alliances with others who are already reaching your key market. And taking my own advice, I put together several alliances in the project. First of all, I brought my co-author in: Jay Conrad Levinson, “the father of Guerrilla marketing,” is a marketing superstar with not only an extremely well-known brand but also a large and well-oiled marketing machine. From reading some of his other books, I had a feeling this concept of Green marketing would resonate with him. He was delighted to be part of this project. And that made it a much bigger book from the publisher’s point of view, and thus gave us considerably more leverage in negotiating a contract. Wiley has been great to work with, and I think part of the reason is that they see this as an important book. Oh yes, and when I asked them to do the book on recycled paper, they said, sure.

Next, I sought a charity partner for the launch. I brought in Green America, which is perfectly aligned with the philosophy of the book. It’s an organization that supports Green, local businesses.

And finally, I went out to my considerable network of bloggers, e-zine publishers, and such, and offered them the opportunity to benefit from promoting the launch: first, by submitting a bonus and getting exposure to everyone who registers as a buyer—resulting in a package of over $2600 worth of extra goodies that anyone who buys the book (no matter where they buy it) can get with a couple of clicks. And second, by launching a membership program in conjunction with the launch, and offering commissions on any sales of that program. So they had two incentives to participate, and these make it sweeter for  buyers of the book as well as for the marketing partners.

What are the results of these three partnerships? On my own, I have access to about 10-12,000 people (depending on how much overlap there is between my newsletter subscribers and my book buyers). Bringing Jay in added 84,000 people. Adding Green America added 94,000. And adding the bloggers/publishers reached another 800,000. So I went from the 10,000 people I could reach on my own to 988,000. In other words, I could reach almost a million people through partnerships. And those partners and their networks are spreading the word even further; as of February 23, exactly one month after the publication date,  hits on Google for “Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green” (exact match) were an extraordinary 1,140,000. I don’t think I’ve ever been involved with anything that got a million hits on Google before.

What did these partner campaigns cost me? Almost nothing. The only things I had to pay out were to cover a few hours of my assistant’s time to set up the infrastructure (less than $200), and the results-based payment to the charity partner. All the rest was just time and creativity.

Partnering was only one strategy in this launch. Tune in next month for more takeaways from this campaign.

REMINDER: Unless you step forward, next month will be the last issue of this newsletter. If you want it to keep going, make your voluntary contribution via paypal: shel@frugalfun.com, specify Book Marketing Tips. You’ll get refunded if we don’t reach a critical mass of funding. Why not do it now, while you’re thinking about it?

For authors and publishers, certain ways to structure a website make particular sense. Lets explore six different models (three this month, and three next month): Resource sites, author sites, publisher or series sites, buy-my-book sites, blog sites, and salesletter sites.

Common Elements

For the first four of these six, certain common elements could be:

•            A navigation mechanism

•            Pages that create interest in your book(s) and/or you as the author

•            Pages that market the author to the media and to meeting planners, schools, bookstores and libraries

•            Pages that market your book to resellers

•            Materials that others can freely use on their own websites, e-newsletters, and print publications (thus spreading you to new audiences)

•            A blog that you can update on your own, at any time (some whole sites are nothing but a blog; see the fifth model)

•            Schedule of appearances (if you can keep it current—personally, I find it easier to do this in my newsletters)

•            Archive of past newsletters

•            Some way of keeping in touch with visitors

•            Feedback mechanisms: contact information and forms, order forms, comment pages, etc. (Warning: Never put your e-mail address as a text link on your website; the spam robots will collect it and you’ll be sorry! I recommend web-based contact forms)

•            Links to other relevant websites

•            A site-wide search tool (Google has a particularly nice one, and it’s free)

Let’s look more closely at the pages that generate interest in you and your book; they should offer…

• Solid information that will save or earn the reader money, solve a problem, learn a new skill, address a pressing desire (e.g., lose weight, find a mate, de-stress), shed light on historical or current events, etc.
• Excellent entertainment
• A brush with celebrity

Resource Sites

When people search on the Web, they’re typically looking for specific information about a topic. If they find your site while they’re searching, you hope the high-quality information you provide will convince them to buy—or at least sign up for your newsletter so you can sell to them later.

To set up this type of site, create a few dozen pages on your topic. These are fun sites to do and easy to gain traffic but they can get out of hand pretty quickly, because there’s so much good stuff out there.

You can see examples at <https://www.frugalfun.com > (my site on having fun cheaply, with arts and travel magazines and frugality resources—which gets at least 50,000 visits every month these days) and <https://www.frugalmarketing.com> (my general business site). Both of these sites actively promote my books but also attract a lot of traffic that will never buy, because they just want the specific information they came for

Author Sites

A site to promote your ” brand” as an author. It should let readers get a sense that they know you personally, as well as, of course, introduce them to your various books. It may or may not have a direct-selling component.

This kind of site is also an ideal place to set up a fan club.

My wife’s site at <https://www.ddinafriedman.com> is one of these

Publisher or Series Sites

Similar to the author site, but promoting the book series or entire publisher line. Typically, these present a catalog page, with tiny book covers and brief descriptions; when you click on the cover or description, you get much deeper information about the book.

Condensed from a much more in-depth section in Shel Horowitz’s seventh book, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers.

I was just beginning to think about what I’d write about this month when Jim Cox’s column crossed my desk. Jim has tons of good resources for authors and publishers on his https://www.midwestbookreview.com website and cheerfully gave me permission to reprint here.

Guest Column: Why Covers Matter
By Jim Cox, Editor, Midwest Book Review

I’ve had the pleasure of being one of the annual Audies Award judges for a good number of years now. But this year there was a new twist — most of the award categories were being offered to we judges as computer downloads instead of our assigned category audio book CDs arriving in the mails.

I don’t have a laptop computer that I can sit back in an easy chair with to listen to hours upon hours of audio book recordings. Neither am I familiar with iPods or whatever it is that is sticking out of the ears of so many young people these days. What I usually do is listen to the audio books I review (including those that I once-a-year annually rank and pass judgement upon) while I’m working at my desk, driving around in my car, taking long walks, or retiring to bed in the evening.

So this year I passed upon most of the categories and volunteered for one that I’d never had before: Package Design. Ranking and judging audio book submissions entirely upon how they looked.

I took an hour to go over the entries carefully and make preliminary notes on the pros & cons of their respective packaging. Quite a change from assessing their contents!

But it did prompt me to reflect on how important packaging is when it comes to the commercial viability of a book — any book, any genre, any category, any format — and any author!

Simply stated, people judge books by their covers. And by people, I mean far more than the general reading public browsing through a bookstore or a library trying to decide what they’d like to choose from all that is being offered them. I also mean book reviewers, wholesalers, distributers, retailers, and librarians who are faced with the same decision.

How very often I’ve seen a lot of an author’s labor go into the writing of a book only to have a poorly chosen cover or badly executed packaging design crush any chance at commercial success.

Authors getting published by the major conglomerates have very little say in what the art departments of a Random House or a Simon & Schuster determine the ‘packaging’ of their book will look like. Self-published authors have the sole say for what their book will look like. Between those two extreme points on the decision making scale are most of the small press published authors. So if you as an author are being published by a small or independent press, get involved in the decision making process to assure that your book will not be handicapped in the market place by flawed artistic concepts, inferior execution of design, or slip-shod attention to the thematic relevance of what the artwork will be with respect to the content of the book being packaged with it.

When it comes to books, the two reasons for a badly designed or poorly executed packing I most often encounter is that the author and/or publisher didn’t have the capital to invest to produce a professionally competitive cover, or that they had some friend or relative that dabbled in art and they felt obligated to oblige.

Please believe me — if you as an author or a publisher find the book packaging to be distasteful, or substandard the chances are that your otherwise prospective buyers will too.

Bottom line — Spend as much time an energy on the outside of your book as you did on the inside.

Last month, we talked about the mindset to craft an effective pitch. Now, how to actually get in front of the journalists you want to cover you.

1. Use media query services that aggregate reporters’ requests for sources. There is no better way to get publicity than to hit a reporter who’s desperately looking for someone exactly like you in order to finish an article. I use HARO, PitchRate, ReportersSource and some others I can’t remember, none of which cost anything. In the past, I’ve also used ProfNet, which has a significant cost. I’ve had far and away the best success with HARO and ProfNet. Several of the media lead sources also post leads on Twitter. You’ll want to follow (in  alphabetical order) @helpareporter, @pitchrate, @ProfNet, and @reporterssource
2. Use social media sites to follow reporters on your beat, and build relationships (gently and without pressure); pitch only when you’ve established yourself as credible and your pitch is directly relevant to what they’re working on
3. Send a press release that’s NOT “I’ve written a book” but that focuses on the attitudes we discussed last month. Some sample headlines I’ve actually used for my clients:

• Pro-Anorexia Sites “Danger to Children,” Says Expert

• Moveable Historic Action Figures Awarded BEST CLASSIC TOY of 2009: Industry Newcomer’s First Release Joins Yo-Yo, Crayons, Other Long-time Favorites
• Teenage Partisan Who Fought the Nazis Lives to See Her Story Told—On Film and In Print
• Ethics Expert: As an Ethics Warrior, Spitzer Must Meet a Higher Standard (this was not for a client but a news tie-in for my own book, Principled Profit)

Of course, I go into much more detail in my seventh book, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers,and in several of my other marketing books too. Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First has a particularly nice section on building relationships with reporters.

Have you been cited in places like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Woman’s Day, Entrepreneur, and the top trade publications in your industry?

I’ve been in all the above–several times each. I’ve also been in hundreds of lesser known publications.

If you’d like that kind of ink, your pitches and press releases have to reflect the reality of the newsroom: overworked journalists sort through a mountain of information, mining for the nuggets to share with their readers, often under severe deadline pressure.

Here are a few approaches that tend to work:

• Solve a problem/ease a pain point/make people’s life better
• Expose some hidden truth that can change people’s thinking or behavior
• Tie in to a current and immediate news story or trend
• Provide a deeper “back story” on a news topic—or on a celebrity’s life
• Dip into your personal journey to show how you overcame adversity, did something really unusual, or separated yourself from the crowd in some other way
• Win an award, achieve a big milestone, etc.
• Create a catchphrase or buzzword that so perfectly captures an idea that it enters the common language

Next month: specific tools you can use to make your pitch. Note: my seventh book, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, offers six entire chapters on effective publicity. Click on the book title to order your copy.