I was intrigued when I saw that a panel discussion from Book Expo America was online as a podcast, The panel included agent Betsy Amster, book events coordinator Kim Rickets, and a couple of authors. Unfortunately, it mostly points up how poor panels often are at transmitting useful information relative to the time invested. The practical tips are in short supply, and I can summarize them for you here:
* Authors can't wait for people to walk into book shops, we have to go out and find them.
* It's useful to get endorsements from people who know you from your website or blog.
* With fiction, being able to position the book (that is, to come up with a hook that will immediately capture attention) is more important than the author's platform (ability to reach an audience).
* With non-fiction, the author should have at least a regional reputation and ideally a national one.
* One new outlet is for authors to give talks to employees at big companies such as Microsoft. It may also be possible to arrange talks for non-profit groups, at resorts, on cruise ships, for Chambers of Commerce, and at conferences.
There are loads of other Expo podcasts on that site, maybe some of them are better. I'll review some more and let you know!
(if you want monthly tips on how to be more productive and creative, subscribe to my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin--just send an email request now to bstorm(at)aol.com.
* Authors often come up with good marketing plans in their proposals and then never follow through with them--the follow-through is very important.
