by Peggy Grillot, 1st Vice President - Programs
How to Get the Word Out to Get the Cash In
by Peggy Grillot, 1st Vice President - Programs
Image: your first book has just been published. You are ecstatic to receive your first hardbound copy off the press. Now what? Do you know what's needed to make your book a bestseller? Do you know what other authors, publicists, and publishers do to get the word out to get the cash in?
Come to IWPA's Nov. 15th 9th annual bookfair and meeting to learn book promotion from our four-person panel of experts.
Does author promotion through book signings and speaking engagements work? Author Robert Loerzel's first nonfiction book: Alchemy of Bones: Chicago's Luetgert Murder Case of 1897, released in September by the University of Illinois, will share his first-hand experiences about self-promotion.
Robert Loerzel is diversions editor of Pioneer Press. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in print journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His first job was news reporter with the Chicago Suburban Times (now owned by Pioneer Press). He has won several Lisagor Awards from the Chicago Headline Club, including one for this work on the Brown's Chicken Murders.
Alchemy of Bones grew from an 1897 criminal case in which Loerzel amassed 3,000 pages of notes. Louise Luetgert vanished and police charged her husband, Adloph, with murdering and dissolving the corpse inside his sausage factory. In addition to unraveling the facts of the Luetgert mystery, the book presents a portrait of Chicago during the 1890s.
Now image your publisher has hired a publicist to promote your book. What happens next? And what happens if your book hits the big time? Publicist Paul Lloyd, co-founder and managing director of Zuk-Lloyd Associates, Inc., a Chicago-area marketing communications firm, served as publicist on a business book that became an international best seller.
Lloyd has handled corporate communications for Spiegel, Inc. and served as a senior communications consultant for The Hay Group. He began his career as a stringer for a suburban Philadelphia newspaper. Lloyd and his wife Lynn are founders of Promise.Garden.com, a Web site dedicated to art and inspirational writing on the Internet.
Lloyd and fellow publicist Tom Ciesielka, president of TC Public Relations in Chicago, will share their experiences finding the best angle to get the word out. He has worked in marketing and public relations for more than 16 years. In the past five years, Ciesielka has worked extensively with book public relations for authors, including internationally known authors such as Andrew Greeley and John Maxwell. He has been a guest speaker for The Society of Midland Authors and The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. The Society of Midland Authors features his book publicitity advice on its Web site.
And while the author and publicist are hard at work, what is the publisher doing? Learn from James Kepler of Adams Press in Chicago, exactly what is going on from his vantage point. Before founding Adams Press, Kepler was a representative for Harper & Row (now HarperCollins) and also for a New York literary agency. Kepler is past president of the Independent Writers of Chicago.
Join us on Sat., Nov. 15 to learn how the team approach is a key ingredient to book promotion.
Author Tables Available: Authors, editors and publishers who attend
are invited to sell their books. Tables are limited, so call today to reserve
book space. Please let us know the title(s) you will be bringing when making
reservations.
Time: 11 a.m. bookfair and registration, 11:45 a.m. lunch, 12:45-2:30 p.m.panelists,
2:30 to 3 p.m. bookfair wrap-up. Cost $30 IWPA members, invited guests and full-time
students; $40 others.
Meeting Location: Chicago Athletic Association, 12 S. Michigan; Parking
is available at the Grant Park Underground; El stop right outside the door.
Reservations: Call IWPA hotline 312/458-9151. Payment (cash or check) may be made at the door.