Time to Write

Poets - here's how to distribute your poetry

Can what works for music work for poetry as well? The people behind poetryspeaks.com hope so. At their website you can search for poems by topics, by poet, or by name of the poem. You’ll also find the biographies of poets, be able to listen to (or watch, in the case of videos) 30 seconds of any poetry products for sale on the site, and upload your own poetry and get feedback on it.

Regarding this last function, the site says:

“Discover and be discovered! YourMic is your online stage for poetry. Not-yet-published poets can upload their video and audio poetry performances to YourMic. Register for a free account on PoetrySpeaks.com to upload your poetry to the site. PoetrySpeaks.com is a community where you can rate and review poetry performances. Join the community for the opportunity to be critiqued or discovered by like-minded peers. Your poetry performances may also be viewed by published poets who are on the PS•Voices and SpokenWord sections of the site. Build your following on YourMic.”

There’s lots more on the site, both free and for a fee, and the creators (Sourcebooks) say they’ve invested five years and a quarter of a million dollars in it. Using iTunes as a model they’ve set it up so you can download an individual poetry reading for 99 cents, or a video version for $1.99. They’re hoping that the interactive elements will draw people to the site, saying that “in essence, it’s a social network for poets and poetry lovers.”

In my experience, poets have often been more interested in writing poetry and selling it than in buying it. We’ll see whether this venture can find enough of a balance to make a profit.

(Want 100 techniques for being more creative? They're in my newest book, "Creativity Now!" --check it out on Amazon and other online retailers or, in the UK, at WH Smith travel outlets)

Could this be a model for marketing your writing?

According to the blogger Destructive Anachronism, the formula for post-print literature may be “high quality content + innovative marketing + multimedia.” This was referenced in an article in the New York Times about a new quarterly literary magazine called “Electric Literature.”

 The publishers are making the magazine available on paper, as an ebook, on the Kindle, on the iPod and as an audiomag. They’re augmenting it with YouTube videos featuring collaborations between their writers and artists and musicians, and one of their authors is writing a short story using Twitter. For the first issue they had animations created for each of the short stories.

 I admit it: as an old-school reader and writer, sometimes I revel in the silence of paper. But I think it’s important to be aware of the new options available to us. As the article points out, we’re going to have to be innovative because writers “drown in the great middle between the mega-sellers like Dan Brown and the avant-garde work produced in small quantities.”

 At the moment, the magazine is still on the small side: 800 subscribers and 1600 single-copy sales, but their readership is growing quickly. (For more information see the New York Times article, or go to the electricliterature.com web site.)

 I like the attitude of one of the founders, Andy Hunter: “We have an optimistic message at a time of pessimism. As writers, we got tired of the doom and gloom. The future is not something you acquiesce to, it something you create.”

(for help in being more creative and productive sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm ebulletin by sending an email request to BstormUK@aol.com; also get my new book, "Creativity Now!" published by Pearson.)

 

The truth about book reviews

Writing on his Fast Company blog, Adam Pennenberg said this about book reviews:

 “Book reviews don't sell books anymore. All they do is act as marketing fragments for publishers and authors to spin for promotion.

 

Good reviews help, at best, incrementally, and bad reviews hurt, at worst, incrementally. They're published then they disappear, living on as pithy testimonials on authors' Web sites, or on the back covers or in the fronts of paperback editions.

 

It wasn't always this way. A rave review 20 years ago in, say, The New York Times, Washington Post, or Publishers Weekly could usher an obscure author into the limelight.”

 

He mentions that his first book got about 30 reviews in a variety of publications, his second got seven, and his third (and current) looks to get just three, because the number of publications carrying book reviews keeps shrinking. I’ve noticed the same trend with my own books (even though I was never ushered into the limelight…).

 

Now it’s bloggers and Amazon reviews that make a difference. Pennenberg cites a study that shows the impact of a one-star review is greater than that of a five-star review.

 

Of course with Amazon reviews you’re at the mercy of anyone. Some years ago one of my books got a review in which I was called names and was accused of stealing someone else’s book title. It turns out this fellow had self-published a book with a vaguely similar name and had posted hate-reviews for half a dozen other books as well. Fortunately Amazon took down the reviews as well as the reviews of his own book (he’d either written them all himself or happened to have half a dozen reviewers with the same habit of using exclamation marks in every sentence).

 

On the other hand, I’ve been fortunate to receive emails from people who have enjoyed my books and usually I ask them to please post a review on Amazon or their other favorite online site—and some are nice enough to take the time to do it. (Hint: if you’ve read one of my books and liked it, it would be great if you could do the same.)

How writers and others can build a platform (part 8 - the last, for now)

In this final (at least for now) segment on building your platform, let’s look at how you can make people aware of what you’re offering them. It’s one thing to make a video or write a special report, but it’s another to actually get people to watch or read it. Here are six ways to get the word out:

 Write articles for distribution services like ezinearticles.com. They don’t charge you for uploading your articles, and in your bio box you can include a link to a blog, a website, a podcast or the other location where people who are interested can find what you’re offering. Naturally the articles should relate closely to the thing you’re offering.

 Create “trailers” to put up on YouTube. Be sure that the key words you put with the video are precise so that people who are searching for videos on your topic will find them.

 Let bloggers who are in your field but not directly competitive in terms of what you offer know about it. I know from the experience of writing a blog post every day that bloggers are happy to get material they can use.

 Consider the use of low-cost online ads on sites and blogs that are closely related to your topic. These can cost as little as a few dollars or pounds and while the readership typically is low, they will have a high degree of interest in your arena.

 Cross-promote. If you have a blog, be sure people who visit it can sign up for your e-bulletin, if you have one. If you send out a free report, include your website and blog addresses in big print and in several locations. Use the auto-signature feature on your email to include links to your blog or website.

 Consider using ads in offline media. Again, ideally this would be in a specialist publication that targets exactly the group you want to reach. These don’t have to be huge ads—in fact, start by testing whether classified ads work for you, and then try small display ads. Haggle—very few people pay the amounts on a magazine’s official rate cards.

 I hope this series has been helpful. If you have other ideas or are willing to share your experiences in building a platform, please get in touch at jurgenwolff(at)gmail.com. And keep reading this blog because I’ll be adding new ideas and strategies from time to time. You can also get more ideas from my book, “Your Writing Coach” published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers and if you’d like me to guide you through to your writing goal over the course of 60 days, see my new Breakthrough Strategy coaching program at www.jurgenwolff.com.

How writers and others can build a platorm (part 7)

In previous posts, we’ve looked at what a platform is, who to target, how to find them, and the kinds of things you can offer them. There’s one big decision you need to make about how you want to handle the people who you lure to your site. That is whether you will make them register with their name (perhaps just their first name) and email address, or give them the content freely. Let’s see the advantages and disadvantages of both.

 If you ask people to register with their contact information before you give them access to your report or video or audio or other product, you will have the information you need in order to stay in touch with them. You can let them know about your latest products and services, special deals, appearances, etc. Of course you must make it easy for them to unsubscribe from anytime they want to, but this way you can build up a good list of interested people. Some internet marketers stress that having a list like this is absolutely crucial.

 The downside is that a certain number of people will be put off by the need to register, either because they can’t be bothered to fill in the form or they fear that it will lead to getting unwanted email.

 If you make your content readily available without any need to register and specify that you are happy to have anybody distribute it, it will be seen by more people. It’s a good way of building up awareness of your name and what you offer.

One time management coach created a small guide to using your time better and distributed it this way and he said it has been downloaded more than 60,000 times. Because it included his email address and a blurb about his services at the end, it did serve a marketing function. His guess is that if he’d required registration in order to allow downloads only a couple thousand people would have done it. He has gotten business as a result of it, but of course there’s no way of knowing how much more—or less—business he would have had from it if he’d required registration and sent a variety of messages over time to that list.

 Your decision is this: do you want to get your name out there in a general way, or do you want to build a list of people who are interested enough to give you their name and contact information? Of course you can combine the two and use it as a test: create one report or video to distribute freely (from a download site that doesn’t require registration) and another on a related topic for which people have to sign up. Then keep track over a period of several months the contacts and new business you get from each. Overall, I suggest the list-building approach.

(Do you want to be guided through to your writing goal in 60 days? See my new Breakthrough Strategy Program at www.jurgenwolff.com and my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers.)

The writer as performer--is this you?

Last year writer Malcolm Gladwell sold out the 2000 seat Lyceum Theatre in the West End with a ticket price of £20. The Financial Times’ write-up revealed that he used no props, no slides, just a big video screen of him talking. He used the 65 minutes to tell the story of one vignette from the his most recent book, “Outliers.” There was no Q & A afterward.

 As the article points out, it was more like a theatrical one-man show than a typical author’s appearance. It has some distinguished ancestry via the lectures of Charles Dickens and Mark Twain.

 The article’s author, James Harkin, the director of talks at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, sees Gladwell’s show as part of a trend encouraged by the success of TED, the festival of Technology, Entertainment and Design which features 18-minute talks by a variety of innovators. (You can see videos of many of these at www.ted.com and they’re well worth your time.]

 Are such talks going to save authors whose income from their books may be declining? Well, as usual, it’s a big help to be successful already. Gladwell’s best sellers, “The Tipping Point” and “Blink” paved the way for him to become a star of the lecture circuit. It also helps if you are a good performer—there’s no doubt that Gladwell feels confident in front of a crowd.

If you also feel comfortable speaking to groups and have an entertaining message that will appeal to an easily-identifiable target audience, it may be worth exploring whether talks could be a part of your repertoire. You won’t start out by filling the Lyceum, but it could add to your income and increase interest in your books or other writing.

(If you'd like an affordable writing coaching program that guides you for 60 days through to your writing goal, check out my Breakthrough Strategy Program at www.jurgenwolff.com)

Another vision of the future of books

Many publishers are still rearranging the deck chairs as the ship starts to sink slowly, but HarperStudio, a newish imprint of HarperCollins, is experimenting to find new ways to do business and find customers. They publish two books per month and pay no advances but do a 50-50 profit share with authors.

 Julia Cheiffetz is an editor there and she told Fast Company magazine about some of their activities:

 “At HarperStudio, there’s an R&D element to what we’re doing. For instance, we gave all of our authors Flip cameras and asked them to start video blogging, opening up their writing process and cultivating an audience as soon as a book is acquired. We’re looking at multimedia packaging…with each project we think about what kind of experimentation is appropriate.”

 Of course you can think the same way if you’re self-publishing or if your book is published by a more traditional company—as long as you’re willing to do the work yourself. For inspiration, have a look at their YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/TheHarperStudio

How writers and others can build a platform (part 6)

In previous posts in the series, I’ve suggested how to find your target audience, what kinds of content to use to attract them, and how to decide which media to use. Now let’s move on to the action phase.

 The next step is to create the incentive that you’ll use to get people to connect with you. As we discussed in previous posts, you can use text, podcasts, reports, e-bulletins, videos, etc. Here are some tips on that:

 Create a series. As with this series of posts, if people are interested in the first part, they’ll come back for subsequent instalments. That could be a series of articles, a series of videos, several related blog posts, etc. You can later gather them together and offer them as a free or paid-for report.

 Make it personal. This doesn’t mean you have to reveal all the details of your personal life, but be sure to emphasize the things you can offer that others can not, and let your readers or viewers see that they’re dealing with a real person.

 Use each message as a way to lead people to what else you offer, just as in these posts I have referred to my podcast, e-bulletin, and books.

 Encourage feedback. On your blog, allow comments, in your e-bulletin include an email address, on your online articles include links in your bio box, etc.

 Whichever medium you choose…do something different! Your message will be competing with many others (on YouTube, with millions) so if you want people to be interested, offer them something unique in terms of content, presentation, or both.

 Should you require people to register (that is, give you their name and email address) in order to get your free content? That’s what we’ll look at in the next post on this topic.

 (For information on how to use traditional and new media to market yourself and your work, see my books, “Your Writing Coach,” available in the US and UK, and “Marketing for Entrepreneurs”—UK only at this stage).

How writers and others can build a platform (part 5)

In previous posts we’ve looked at how to identify your target audience, how to find out where they are, whether to attract them with entertaining or informative content, and what approaches fiction authors can use. If you’ve done that, you’re ready to take the next step and create the content.

 Which medium do you think would be most attractive to your target audience?

 Possibilities include:

•  Text: articles that you can distribute via sites like ezarticles.com; print or electronic newsletters; e-mail courses, reports, White papers, e-books.
  

•  Video: fictional series; interview series; tips and techniques. You can put these onto YouTube and other video distribution sites, or on your own site, or both.
•  Audio: fictional series, interview series, tips and techniques.
•  Facebook or MySpace pages: for yourself, for the book, for the protagonist or other characters – your entries on these pages could include text, audio and video.

You also need to consider what media you find the most appealing to create. Fortunately, all are getting easier all the time to produce. I suggest that rather than trying to use all of them at once, you now choose one or two.

 In the next post in this series, we’ll look at how to put your decisions into action. (for more on how to use traditional as well as new media to market yourself and your work, see my book, "Your Writing Coach" and in the UK, my newest book, "Marketing for Entrepreneurs.")

What you can do for £45--or was it $35,000?

Marc Price says he only spent £45 making his horror feature film, “Colin,” with his old camcorder. It took 18 months and he got friends and family to work for free and recruited more helpers and cast members via Facebook.

 It was hit-and-run shooting with no permissions and a major emphasis on improvisation. For instance, on Bonfire Night he rushed out to record the sound of firecrackers going off and incorporated them into the soundtrack as the sound of gunfire.

 Price learned by doing and eventually edited it down to 97 minutes and took it too small film festivals. At one of these Helen Grace of Left Films spotted its potential and she and Price screened it at Cannes. It landed a distributor and will show at some UK cinemas in time for Halloween.

 It just goes to show what £45—and a lot of determination and ingenuity—can achieve.  Or wait a minute…could it be that it cost more and saying it cost only £45 and was shot on a ten year old camcorder is a great way to get press attention? Sideline.com says:

 And sorry guys, but Price spread some really nice porkies so it seems. The whole budget for the film was well over US$ 70 and is instead said to be well over US $35,000 which means Price didn't beat the record "The  Blair Witch Project" supposedly set. The news was confirmed by an actor in the film who said: "Price has been feeding the press utter nonsense, which is kinda funny!"

 So maybe we should say it just goes to show what $35,000 and a clever, if dishonest, PR strategy can achieve…

(for tips and techniques for being more creative and productive, sign up now for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin. Just send an email request to BstormUK@aol.com. And for 100 case studies of creative marketing, get my book "Do Something Different," published by Virgin Books with a foreword by Sir Richard Branson and available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers.)