A-ha!

Building a buzz

Writing a book is only half the work. Once you are done, then the real work begins... spreading the word and getting people to read the words you labored over.

Sandra Beckwith, a good friend of ours here at A-ha! is hosting an online book publicity workshop. It starts February 4, so there is no time to waste.

Sandra says, "Got a book coming out you want to hype? Has your publisher’s publicist moved on to other projects? Do you have a book in stores that you know deserves more media attention than it’s getting? Are you working on a proposal that would benefit from a better understanding of what you can do to promote your book? You need 'Book Publicity 101: How to Build Book Buzz.'"

The class is taught by Sandra Beckwith, a recovering award-winning publicist; publisher of the free e-zine Build Book Buzz; and author of three books, including two on publicity  topics. 

·        How to create a book publicity blueprint you’ll be excited about

·        The single secret most authors don’t know about generating ongoing media exposure

·        The most effective and cost-efficient publicity tactics

·        How to generate buzz online using virtual book tours and other techniques

·        Radio and TV producer hot buttons

·        How to bring an energizing new level of creativity to your publicity efforts

Students receive instructional materials and resources and complete weekly assignments that help them discover how easy it is to create book buzz. Student interaction on the forum enhances the learning experience by offering fresh perspectives and new ideas for all participants while instructor guidance and input takes your work to the next level. A free-for-all Q&A corner lets students get answers to questions not covered in the course materials, making this a highly-personalized learning experience for nonfiction and fiction authors.

Registration is $179.

Registration is limited to 20 students.

Register at http://www.buildbookbuzz.com/workshops/book-publicity.htm; send course inquiries to Beckwith at sb@buildbookbuzz.com.

Movies and books

This weekend, armed with tissues, I made my way to the theater to watch Atonement. If you haven't seen it, I won't ruin the ending... but I will tell you that tissues will likely be mandatory!

What I really liked about the movie - as a writer -- is that it was told from the point of view of the author. It was supposed to have been her memoir with the title relating to her trying to atone for a horrible wrong she had perpetrated when she was 13 years old.

It was interesting to see the flash backs and flash forwards then find out at the end, it was being told from by the author to a television interviewer. It was fascinating and was my first exposure to any works of Ian McEwan and now I am hooked.I will likely go to the bookstore this weekend and pick up a couple of his novels -- including Atonement. I'd like to see how it compares and contrasts to the movie. 

As I sat in the theater, my writer's mind was going in directions that I hadn't anticipated. I was "reading" probably much more into what was in the movie than was showing up on the screen. Hey, by the end, I was giving it a happy ending!

The bottom line, I think, for any writer out there, it is easy to take an innocent situation and turn into into something fraught with more meaning than it originally had -- it's a great way to liven up a piece of prose -- whether fact or fiction.

Why not look at a situation in your life and see if you could change it and turn it into "something more."

Virtual Book Tours

The virtual book tour has become a successful (and easy) way to market your book. There are a number of folks who do this full-time, and a number of publishers who offer it to their authors. We are always committed to new and exciting ways to market books so we have started offering this option to our authors. In the near future, we will also offer it to other authors interested in tapping into the blogosphere for attention and connections.

Note that the virtual book tour cannot guarantee sales. In reality, nothing can guarantee sales -- except maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars traditional publishers put into books they want to be bestsellers. Mind you, that backfires sometimes, too. But, if a book gets mega-attention, in hundreds of places, it's more likely to find buyers.

And that's why a VBT is a good idea. A small group of niche bloggers writing about your book - can connect you to thousands of readers. Who, if they blog, could write about you and your book, and continue the connections.

VBTs take time, effort, and management. The more bloggers you engage, the more time and effort is involved.

We'll talk more about this in future posts. Meanwhile, follow our current virtual book tour (starting on Thursday, January 10th, 2008) and feel free to join the conversation.