Book Marketing Archives | Cindy Ratzlaff

How to Make Podcast Appearances Work For You

By Cindy Ratzlaff December 4, 2020

You’ve written a book, and you’ve secured, or had someone secure for you, several podcast interviews to help promote your work. Well done. The exposure these podcasts can bring to you and your writing is invaluable. They live on the internet forever. Properly market your own interviews and you will help drive potential readers back to your digital homebase for a long time. These simple actions will help make your podcast appearances work for you.

Gather Your Assets

Having a list of all of these social handles and tags in one place will save you time as you promote your podcast interviews. Gathering these assets in one place will also guarantee that you won’t forget any of these steps.

Make a list of all of your social assets. For many this will include your website, your Facebook profile, your Facebook page, your Twitter account, your LinkedIn account, perhaps your Instagram and your Pinterest accounts as well. Each of these digital touchpoints will be used strategically to help share links to your podcast interviews.
Don’t forget your host. Ask your podcast host for a list of his or her social handles. Every time you share a link to your interview on their show, you’re going to tag them so they see you are promoting your appearance, saying nice things about them as a host and encouraging your followers to visit their podcast. More often than not, they’ll retweet you, comment on your post, share what you’ve said and in that way, exponentially amplify your original post by sharing it with their followers.
Remember your publisher and agent. Ask your publisher for all of the appropriate social handles for both the house and for the imprint and for any marketing people and/or editors who are active on social media. Do the same with your literary agency. When you create posts with links to your podcast interview, tag those important and influential publishing people who are invested in your success. Many times they’ll also retweet or share your posts, and again, amplify your appearance link.
Create a street team. A street team is a fancy marketing term for a select group of people who are active on social media, love your work, care about your success, and are willing to share good news about you. Make sure you text or email them with the link to your podcast interview the moment it’s available and ask them to share it with their social networks. You can write a suggested post for them (which saves them time), or you can send them a link to one of your posts and ask if they might consider liking it and sharing it on their preferred network. Ask them to tag you when they share so you can thank them publicly. This gives you yet another opportunity to share the link to the interview.

Platforms and Personal Branding for Authors

By Cindy Ratzlaff August 18, 2015

Congratulations. You’ve written a book. Now you’re about to take on a new job; Chief Marketing Officer of the Brand of You.

“I just self-published my first book and I need help marketing the book.”

Every week I received at least one email from an author that starts like this, “I just self-published my first book and I need help marketing the book.” I always respond to the author with the following questions:

What are your goals in publishing this book?
What is your platform for helping your ideal reader find your book?
What is your current plan for letting your ideal reader know your book exists?

The first question informs the entire approach to book marketing and promotion. The second question lets me know if the author has any way to let readers know the book exists. The second question lets me know if the author understands the concept of “discoverability.” The third question helps me guide the author to focus on the actions that they will most likely be able to take to help them achieve their goals.

10 Social Profiles Every Author Needs

By Cindy Ratzlaff June 14, 2015

Every author needs a platform, a way to connect with readers and let them know when their next book is ready to be purchase. So what is a platform? A platform is simply the reliable ways in which an author can connect with fans and encourage them to buy books.

Bestselling authors have a history of bestsellers, creating a kind of literary celebrity. That’s a platform. Some authors have national television shows, magazine columns or are regulars on nationally syndicated radio. These are platforms too. An author might have a commitment from Staples or IBM to buy books and give them to employees. That’s a kind of platform, too.

Until recently, the average author was out of luck if they didn’t have a platform. That was before social media and the power it has to excite, engage, build community and create media for authors.

Social Marketing for Authors

By Cindy Ratzlaff July 25, 2014

Romance books are consistently one, if not the, bestselling genres in publishing. Why? Perhaps it’s because romance writers understand the importance of networking. They create writing groups, attend writing conferences, read each others books and share their love of reading at the drop of a hat. I had the honor of addressing this year’s Romance Writers of America Conference in San Antonio, Texas this week to speaking about social marketing strategy for authors and the complete slide deck of presentation is online and available to view or download on my SlideShare Account here.

Write Non-Fiction Books as a Marketing Tool

By Cindy Ratzlaff January 21, 2014

Write a book. I’m begging you. I’m not going to mince words here. People are search, right now, for exactly what you offer. But they can’t find you. So they hire someone else. Want to be the one they find and hire? Then write a book.

If you know how to do something, write a book.

If the service you provide can be taught, write a book. If the concepts you impart during the consulting you do are replicable, write a book. Writing a book will stake your claim to leadership in your business and set you apart from the pack as a unique brand voice. But one cautionary word here. Make sure that if you are going to write a book, you pack that book with the kind of information and value you’d give to your clients in person.

A book is a more permanent reminder to potential customers of what you stand for. So if you write a book that does not deliver on the promise, you’ve created a negative digital connection to your brand or business. But if you write a book that surprises, inspires, solves a problem or teaches a new solution to your ideal client base, you’ll have a credible resource to point to in every business situation.

Building an Author Platform | Publishing House Secrets

By Cindy Ratzlaff September 29, 2010

You’ve got a great idea for a book, have created an outline, done your research and you’re ready to find an agent and sell your book to Random House. Having been one of the people who sits at the table, reads your manuscript, proposal or outline and decides whether or not to buy your book, let me tell you the first questions we ask ourselves.

Publishers want to know. What is your platform?

We need to know how you are going to sell your book. As a publisher, we’re going to provide professional editing, design services, expert sales people and great distribution. We’ll put marketing dollars toward selling you book and work hard to give your book the visibility it needs in stores and online so that YOUR fan base can find it and buy it. It all starts with you. The publisher wants to know, before they buy your manuscript, what you bring to the table in terms of a ready made audience.

Do you have a radio or television show with a lot of viewers and great ratings?
Are you a celebrity?
Are you a lecturer with many firm bookings for the coming year?
Do you head a vast organization whose members will want your book?
Are you social media savvy with more thousands of followers?
Do you have a large database that can be utilized to rally your fan base to purchase your book?
Have you previously published a bestselling book?

Gone are the days when a publisher could easily take a risk on an unknown writer. Although that still happens, thankfully, it happens less frequently than one would wish. So how do you make yourself a more desirable publishing partner to attract the attention and investment of a big publishing house? You create and execute your own pre-publication marketing plan. This is a good strategy even if you are self-publishing…in fact, especially if you are self-publishing.

Here are just a few things every author and would be author can do to being now to build a platform that will help promote your book at publication time.

Create a Facebook Profile so you can easily connect with everyone you every met. Those people are the most likely to want to purchase your book and support your newest endeavor.
Create a Facebook Fan Page for your book so you have a professional page with your book title that will be indexed by Google, increase your SEO and give you a proper place to talk about the making of your book.
Start a Twitter account in your own name. Every tweet is a unique URL and again, online is all about search. Every tweet is new content, all new content increases your Google juice, the more Google juice the more people will see your name and find your book.
Write a blog. Do it on WordPress or Blogspot because both of those platforms are already optimized for search. You need a blog to communicate longer thoughts than can be done through either Facebook or Twitter. Additionally, your blog can be reproduced as a “guest blog” on sites with more traffic. This, of course, increases your visibility and the likelihood that readers will find your book.
Make videos. Talk about your book or your area of expertise. Tell or show viewers something they don’t already know that fits in with your book theme or ideas.
Write a book club guide with questions and discussion prompts. Put it on your blog as a free download for book clubs.
Make your own book trailer for free with a program called Animoto. Upload it to YouTube, Facebook, and your author page on Amazon.com, as well as your blog.
Offer yourself as a guest on Blog Talk Radio shows, webinars, teleseminars or any other outlet where your most likely audience already gathers.

These strategies take time to implement. Most of them are free. Once you write your book, your new job is marketing. Having a well plotted strategy will help. What platform building ideas are you employing? I’d love to know.

Book Publicity | The Top Ten Things Book Publicists Want Authors to Know

By Cindy Ratzlaff January 6, 2010

You’ve handed in your manuscript, completed all the edits and now your job is done. You’re thinking that now it’s up to your publisher’s publicity machine to make your book a success. Wrong.

In most houses that publicity machine has been downsized while the number of books needing publicity and promotion has stayed the same. What’s left is a hard-working group of thoughtful people who truly love books; who would spend all the time in the world to get the word out if it was humanly possible; and who need an author’s cooperation, participation and good-cheer now more than ever before. Remember that these overworked people want your book to succeed.

How does one get to be the author whose publicist tells others: “this author was great to work with,” “the author knew the right people and really helped me get the book into important hands” and I would walk through hot coals for my author?”

It’s essential that authors view themselves as a partner in the publishing process and that includes the marketing and publicity portions of the book publishing cycle. To that end, I’ve enlisted veteran book publicist John G. Ekizian to join me in creating this list of The Top Ten Things Book Publicists Want Authors to Know.

Before you turn over the responsibility for communicating your book’s message to the world, remember.

1. You are a brand.

2. Your book is your first product.

3. Your reputation is on the line and if your first product doesn’t succeed, launching new products or books will be much harder.

4. Therefore, you must be a full partner in promoting your book, finding and alerting potential readers and in general, creating conversations about YOU.

Here’s what can you do?

1. Mobilize your friends, family and fans. They really do want to help—but you have to tell them how they can be most helpful. Start with your immediate fan base, however small. Give them early copies of your book or galleys—or even a PDF of your manuscript. Ask them to read it and give you their feedback. Ask them to write a short review and to post it on Amazon.com, BN.com and Borders.com. Tell them not to gush, but to relate why the book moved or informed them. Ask them if you can post their review to your website. Ask them to give their opinion on your Facebook Fan Page, on Twitter and on LinkedIn. Start close to home and create buzz that can build.

2. Influence the influencers: Create a list of the top 25 people in your area of expertise or who write in the same field or genre as you do. Find, read and subscribe to their blogs. Comment whenever they write something that interests you. Become visible, let them know you’re a fan, offer them new content from you whenever appropriate, such as being a guest blogger. You should also consider finding and following them on Twitter and Facebook. Again, interact with them. Pass their blogs, tweets and posts on to others. In other words, hang out on line with people you admire and who you would love to have read your work. After establishing an online relationship, you may have an opportunity to offer them an early galley or ask them to give you a quote. But first you need to be a part of their community and genuinely engaged with them.

3. Find your natural audience: The biggest marketing mistake most people make in book promotion is to assume that everyone will be interested in their book. Books that sell usually begin selling to people who are really interested in the topic. Want to sell a cookbook? Go after the person who has a shelf full of them. Who really cares about your topic? Think about it this way. You were attracted enough to this topic to write a book. Where would you go to learn about you? Would you find the kind of information in your book on CNN? Then that’s your natural audience and you and your publicist should target CNN. Are you writing about romance and mystery? Then maybe CNN may not for you. Every author we’ve ever worked with believes their book is right for Oprah. Not all books are right for Oprah. Watch the shows, see what kinds of guests they book and then make sure your publicist knows which shows most often present the subject matter most similar to your book.

4. Facebook Fan Page: Please create a Facebook Fan Page for yourself. Every author needs one. Name it for yourself, the author. You might call it John G. Ekizian | Author, Speaker. Use your name, then the upward slash and a two to three word qualifier. Those keywords will be useful in identifying you to potential friends and fans and will be Google searchable. Then create a tab with the name of your book. You can add video interviews or author chats that you create yourself. You can use the Events application to invite fans to your personal appearances. You can post news and information about reviews as they come in. This is a wonderfully rich and free tool. Please don’t overlook it.

5. Advertising versus publicizing: Every author wishes that their publisher would place full page ads in the New York Times Book Review for their book. Realistically the more that $75,000 (conservatively) that these types of ads cost isn’t a good investment for your publisher in terms of return on investment. In other words, they’re not recoup $75,000 in books sales from that ad. Publicity is a better investment of marketing dollars because a television appearance, a national publication, a radio tour or other major media can reach far more people than a one-time advertisement in one publication.

6. Webinars and teleseminars: These are the new virtual author tour and can help you reach hundreds and perhaps thousands of potential readers without ever leaving home. A webinar allows participants to view your computer screen and hear you talk as you show either a slide presentation or demonstrate something online. Many webinar hosts also allow for the audience to see you at times during the presentation. Teleseminars are via phone and are audio only but listeners can ask questions via a type-in pod. Both can be very interactive and allow people who might otherwise have not been able to “meet” you, come and hear you talk about your book.

7. Your 30 second pitch: When your publicist meets with national television producers and editors at major publications, he or she has 30 seconds to sell you and your book as a potential story or segment. Help your publicist hone your message down to a short, potent sound byte. Does your book “save lives through new research that proves sound waves are harming children,” or does your book show us “a brand new way to lose weight while you sleep.” These are silly but you get the idea. Think in headlines.

8. Op-Eds: Writing original opinion page articles can be a very effective way to increase an author’s visibility and by association help promote your book. The piece cannot be about your book but must be an opinion about some current affairs topic in which you might be considered a thought leader. For example, if you’ve written a book on World War II, you might write an opinion page article on the lessons learned or overlooked from World War II as we escalate troops in Afghanistan. You’re by-line would include Author of, the title your book. You may not mention your book in the article but positioning yourself as an expert will help you publicist book more media for you. You are sharing your ideas and information because you’re an expert. This part of a visibility strategy.

9. Create Your A List: Pick 10 media targets that you feel are right for your book and learn everything you can about them. Watch the shows, read the magazines and newspapers. Write down the name of the reporter or host who most often seems to be reporting on topics that are similar to your book topic. Share this list with your publicist who rarely has time to watch this much TV. He or she can really use your research skills. This is an excellent way for you to partner with your publicist.

10. Radio: Please don’t forget radio. Both broadcast and internet radio are great ways to reach people who might like your book. Blog Talk Radio and other internet radio platforms are reaching large numbers of people, are archived and accessible on demand and live forever on the internet. Please do not turn down internet radio interview opportunities because you don’t think they are worthy of your time. In fact, while your publicist is working hard on connecting with traditional media, why not reach out via Twitter and Facebook and put together your own Blog Talk Radio tour. Just start talking about your book, offering yourself for interviews, searching and following anyone with a Blog Talk Radio show and engaging with them on your topic.

BONUS TIP: All placements are not equal. You need to get your idea across or the placement is pointless. Working with a talented publicist can help you hone your marketing message into several succinct sound bytes that will be picked up and repeated both online and off to increase your outreach and brand visibility.

Publicity creates conversations about YOU. Be a full partner in making that happen to give your book the best possible opportunity to reach an enthusiastic reading audience.

Brand Strategy for 2010 | Publicity, Marketing and Communications

By Cindy Ratzlaff January 4, 2010

January is the perfect time of year for authors, speakers, small businesses and entrepreneurs to take stock of how their brand strategy for 2009 performed against expectations. Taking a hard look at the four pillars of branding; voice, visuals, value and variation, ask yourself how your brand delivered in 2009 based on your business goals and was 2009 profitable?

You voice is your message or your promise. Your visuals are the physical manifestation of your promise, the look that inspires and compliments your message and promise. Your value is what you offer and your variation is how you differentiate yourself from the all others in your area of expertise. How are you unique and what special offer do you have that causes clients or customers to choose you and your product over the competition?

However painful, an honest evaluation will set you up for success in 2010. Ask yourself “What worked for me in 2009 and will that continue to work in 2010 or do I need to evolve that strategy to a higher lever?” Then ask yourself “What underperformed or just plain didn’t work in 2009 that I’ll need to drop from my strategy in order to make room, physically and psychologically, for new and innovative strategies? What must I replace that is no longer worth additional investment of my time and money?”

For authors, this often means deciding which of the many platform building strategies are working and which are not? You might be spending a great deal of time with social media and not enough time writing your next project. You may need to bring new balance to that mix. Or you might need to rev up your platform building by spending more time developing a good mailing list in anticipation of the publication of your book.

A great exercise is to put together a month by month plan with real goals attached to it. By way of example, let’s say an author is publishing a book in June of 2010. Their plan for the first couple of months of 2010 might look like this:

January

Set up a Twitter profile, a Facebook profile and Facebook Fan page, a LinkedIn profile and a YouTube Channel.
Spend 15 minutes every morning finding and following people who are interested in books, publishing, reading, the arts or my area of expertise on Twitter. Follow everyone who follows me, even if they don’t seem to be a natural fit with my goals at this time. I never know who will be following them and what their interests might be. The goal with Twitter is to cast a wide net. My Twitter follower goal for January is 1,000.
Attract 500 new fans to my Facebook Fan page by posting a combination of links to articles of interest to my desired fan base, short posts about my writing process, photos of my speaking engagements, and once a month teleseminar and/or newsletter.
Add 500 people to my e-mail list by creating a weekly inspirational or tip oriented e-newsletter that would provide information directly related to my area of expertise and would be added value for my readers.
Write two articles to submit to print or magazines that cover my area of expertise and that would link back to or reference my Facebook page or my website or my e-newsletter.
Research list of speaking engagements for my summer or fall tour or for on-going promotion of my work throughout the year.

February

Attract 500 new fans to my Facebook Fan page (see January for ideas)
Add 1,000 people to newsletter mailing list by creating a contest and offering a desirable prize such as a Kindle, Nook or something readers might enjoy. The modest amount of money spent on the prize can pay dividends in new fans and word of mouth buzz.
Send out first newsletter and include links to all of my social media sites, announce any upcoming speaking engagements, give readers a reason to want to hear from me again.
Write two additional articles for magazines and syndicate January’s articles if they were not already published by any outlet. There are many syndication services such as http://ezinearticles.com who will broadcast your articles. The goal here is to create awareness of my name, book topic and to whet the appetite of readers for my upcoming book.
Contact speaking engagements that fit into summer or tour timetable.
Write non-time sensitive Op Ed piece and “bank it” until Spring.

March

Attract 500 new fans to my Facebook Fan page
Add 1,000 people to newsletter mailing list by creating a “refer your friends” promotion. Offer something special to current subscribers who encourage two or more friends to sign up for the newsletter.
Send out second newsletter. Engage my newsletter readers with polls, questions about future topics they might enjoy reading from me and create a sense of community by giving them insider information about me personally, my book and a look inside my life as a writer.
Write two additional articles for magazines and syndicate any articles that have not yet been published from the previous month.
Install the Slideshare application on my LinkedIn profile and create a powerpoint presentation about my upcoming book, making sure that it’s not an advertisement, but actually has value to a wider audience. Give facts, figures, interesting snipets. Post the powerpoint using Slideshare.
Write one additional non-time sensitive Op Ed piece and “bank it” for submission to newspapers in the Spring.

April

Attract 500 new fans to my Facebook Fan page. Make sure I’ve installed the Selective Twitter application on my page so that all my Facebook posts are broadcast to my Twitter profile as well.
Add 1,500 people to newsletter mailing list. Use my Facebook Fan page to talk about articles in my previous newsletters and invite people to sign up for the newsletter by installing an opt in box on your Facebook Fan page if I have not done so already.
Send out third newsletter. Invite people to connect on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
Firm up speaking engagement tour.
Contact bookstores in those towns to arrange bookseller for back of room sales.
Connect with a publicist who can book radio, tv and print in those towns.
Post 4-5 short personal videos to my YouTube Channel to give potential readers a taste of my personality, book, speaking style and what they can expect if they choose to buy my book. Again, these are not commercials. These are personal windows to allow the reader to get to know me.

May

Attract 500 new fans to Facebook Fan page.
Add 1,500 people to newsletter mailing list.
Send out the next newsletter with all tour dates and locations.
Create an Event through Facebook Fan Page and alert everyone on my list to upcoming tour dates and locations.
Create an Event on LinkedIn with the same information.
Put all of my social media platforms to work full force in getting the word out about these live events.

June

Launch my book with the personal appearances and ask all my friends, fans and followers to help me spread the word.
Post, Tweet and e-mail several times per week, if not everyday, during launch month and create the impression that I am everywhere at every moment. Attract new readers to my work by giving my writing away – in small samples – through social media.

* * *

Now, of course, this is not a comprehensive marketing plan and every book marketing plan needs to be unique, but you get the idea. Put actual goals and numbers to your strategy to help you keep on track, and be realistic about what you can do yourself and when you need to bring others in to help you.

Remember, your trying to create a conversation, a massive conversation, about YOU and your brand. Do you have additional ideas for creating your brand strategy goals for 2010. Let’s share those ideas with one another here.

Gather Your Assets

What is Social Proof?

What is an Author Platform?