FREE VIRTUAL TOUR

Authors & Small Presses -

Win a CUSTOM VIRTUAL TOUR
for your latest nonfiction or historical fiction title for adults or young adults.
Eligible titles must be released in print 9/15/08 - 7/15/09 and
authors must reside in the U.S. or Canada.

To enter, email below information to
steffercat@austin.rr.com
no later than 7/15/09:

- Author’s name, address, email address, phone # & weblink of author/book/publisher
- Book’s title, release date, genre, publisher, editor, # pages, & price/format
- Name of site, organization, or publisher from which you learned of this contest

Selected author will be notified on 7/16/09 and
book will be toured Fall ’09.

Entrant information will not be sold or shared.
Current and former clients of Stephanie Barko, Literary Publicist
are ineligible to enter.

Sponsored by

Stephanie Barko
Literary Publicist
"Authors indigenous to the American West"
www.authorsassistant.com/Barko.htm

Writing Book Reviews to Promote Your Book

Although most authors grasp the effectiveness of getting their book reviewed on Amazon, not many think to promote their book by reviewing books. If you can write, you can review. The trick is promoting your book at the same time.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Choose a high-ranking title in your genre and subject matter.

2. Read it and review it in an authoritative voice on the material.
Mention your book in the review, if you like.

3. Create your byline like this: Jane Doe, Author of Title.

4. If the site allows hyperlinks, after your sig insert “Visit www.title.com”.

Let’s hear from authors who’ve done this. Please comment about your experience.

-Stephanie Barko, Literary Publicist

Literary Agents

If you've already queried publishers who accept direct submissions and come up dry, or if your target publisher does not accept direct submissions, it might be time to consider finding an agent.

The first thing to do is to make a list of agents who take your genre.
My clients, for instance, write nonfiction and historical fiction.
A good agent for them to explore would be someone like Heide Lange at
Sanford Greenburger (see headshot right). www.greenburger.com/code/agents/heide.htm
Let us use Heide as a process example.

When you read Heide's bio, you'll find that she's been agenting a long time and is a notable author herself. The agency she is with has been around for over a hundred years. Heide's bio tells you what types of nonfiction she's passionate about. The clients she represents tell you what kind of historical fiction she likes to represent.

The next thing you would do is check her name and the agency's against indices like Preditors & Editors to cross-check for trustworthiness. You want to find out if authors consider her a reputable person to work with.

If you can establish a link to your work through someone she knows, that's the best way to have her find out about you. More agents accept clients through recommendations of other authors and agents than any other way.

If a link cannot be established, then write a custom query to her exact specifications. I always recommend that an editor look over your book proposal before you email it.

Feel free to leave a comment about your agent experiences.

-Stephanie Barko, Literary Publicist

Social Networking for Readers

If you like to read and share your book recommendations with others,
consider joining a social networking community for readers
like GoodReads, Library Thing or Shelfari.

The longer you network on these sites, the more you will discover within them.
After setting up your profile, enter titles of books that you've read.

If you are an author, you can also set up an author profile.
From these sites, you may conduct online events like chats and giveaways.

Each networking community also contains Groups that you can join which cater to a wide variety of genres and topics. You can even start your own Group.
Remember how exciting it was the first time you got on the internet?
That's the way you're going to feel when you start social networking
with readers.

-Stephanie Barko, Literary Publicist

Social Networking for Authors

One of my new year's resolutions is to get better at Social Networking. Is it one of yours too?

To improve the likelihood that a visitor will stay on your page, make sure your profile passes the 10-second test. If it does, that means who you are & why someone would want to follow you is apparent from your profile in ten seconds.

WHAT EFFECTIVE SOCIAL NETWORKING TIPS DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER? Leave me a comment and share with our audience.

-Stephanie Barko, Literary Publicist

Current Event Tie-Ins

Now is the time to promote your book if you can establish a tie-in to the
entertainment industry.

During the first sixty days of 2009,
the following awards are announced:

Golden Globes
Screen Actors Guild
Oscars

Your email pitch is more likely to be opened right now if you have an entertainment hook in your subject line. It is more likely to be read if it has no attachments, is brief, and is relevant to the publication’s audience.

You may find that online articles will help you compose your pitch.

If your media pitches are not creating responses,
consider hiring a publicist to help you.

-Stephanie Barko, Literary Publicist

Books Have a Lifecycle

Writers, editors, librarians, readers and publishers all value the enduring nature of books. Authors hope their novels will become classics or the seminal authority of a subject.
Ideas do endure, but books deteriorate, pages fall out and information becomes dated. All of us in the publishing industry have a responsibility to ensure the retirement of any book is handled in an environmentally responsible way. Even before your book goes to print, do you know what will happen to it at the end of its life cycle? How can your ensure your book will not end up in a landfill?
What will happen to the books you do not sell? Is there a school or library that can use them? How will the books weeded from library and bookstore shelves be handled? Do you know if your publisher, bookstore or library donates books or recycles them? No one wants to see books in dumpsters or landfills. We would like for books to remain on shelves forever, but any walk through a thrift or second hand bookstore is a clear indication that books are given away all the time. When those books don’t sell, what happens to them? There are now processes that turn printed material into carpet pads, garden mulch or building insulation. How are you making certain your literary contribution is not harming the environment? What is the life cycle of your book?