Attention All Authors: Create a Marketing Plan and
Take Every Opportunity to Hawk Your Book
by Terry Haycock, Recording Secretary

Get off your booty and hawk your book! That's the bottom-line message of publishing experts who shared their knowledge and experience at IWPA's November 15 luncheon and book fair: "Getting the Word Out."

Authors and publishers from throughout the area listened eagerly to the voices of the distinguished panel: author and Pioneer Press diversions editor Robert Loerzel; publicist Paul Lloyd, cofounder and managing director of Zuk-Lloyd Associates, Inc., Chicago; publicist Tom Ciesielka, president of TC Public Relations, Chicago; and publisher James Kepler, founder of Adams Press, Chicago.

Loerzel, author of recently published Alchemy of Bones: Chicago's Luetgert Murder Case of 1897, noted that although the University of Illinois provided him a publicist, he had to do a lot of the promoting himself using his own connections. But, ". . .You can't depend on just friends. Sometimes they can't help," he said.

Loerzel made his own book signing arrangements. Local bookstores, he advised, are often biased toward major publishing houses, but don't rule them out. Most bookstores are interested if you provide the link to an audience and get the people there. Since his book mentioned different part of the country, he developed press releases notifying the various towns that they were mentioned.

"Submit matter is important. That's why you wrote the book," he said. So work on relating to various audiences whose interests connect with the book. As the author, you need to be prepared to promote your work.

Publicist Paul Lloyd suggested that planning is vital to successful marketing. He provided these tips:

1. Find out in advance what the publisher will do for the book-tours book signings, talk shows.
2. Contact local media to find places to appear on radio and cable television shows.
3. Explore any possible connections to find multiple markets for your book.
4. Look for unusual ways to place your book.

Tom Ciesielka offered tips and questions authors could use to promote their work:

Do PR Research
Explore other books similar to yours; what makes yours different? Who in the media likes to talk about your topic?

Find low-cost focus groups to read and discuss your book, i.e., friends, special interest groups, and community organizations. Contact the Chicago Public Library's ProQuest database to find possibilities.

Establish a Publisher Partnership
Form a partnership with the publisher. Know how the publishing cycle works, what the marketing plan is and what the deadlines are. Give them the tools they need.

"If a book hasn't sold in two months, it is dead," Lloyd said.

Make a Marketing Plan
1. Know who the audience is, how you are going to reach it and how you are going to sell to it.
2. Make a list of five or ten nonnegotiable must-haves, i.e., book signings, tours, and book lists, and stick to it.
3. List as least five places to pitch: i.e., to a news tie-in, to women, to the arts, to a specific geographic area.

And finally . . .get off your booty and hawk your book!

Publisher Jim Kepler agreed. "Authors need to sell all the time," he said. He noted that subsidiary rights-paperback, large print, film-are important and can often generate more than the original project. Ghost writing and coauthoring are other ways to publish.

Novels and nonfiction should be approached differently. Novels should be completed at the time of submission so the publisher knows the author can tell a story. Nonfiction, on the other hand, should be submitted in proposal form, selling the idea of publishing the book.

According to Kepler, books selected for publication go through several stages:

1. The reading editor, who reads an overview and example chapters.
2. The editorial committee, who wants to know what it can tandem with and what it can use as a hook. You should:
   a. Describe the book briefly in a way that will convince the committee that it will make money.
   b. Write a blurb for the book cover; include it in your proposal.
   c. Have an idea (or illustration) for the cover.
   d. Note whether there will be a foreword and, if so, who will write it.
   e. Get an agent before accepting an offer. Don't negotiate on your own.
3. The editorial read, where editors will look at how the book will go over in the market, whether there are any holes in it, whether it will pass the line edit, what kind of cover it will have, whether it will be paper- or cloth-bound, and what the subsidiary markets might be.
4. Production. Staff will look at the book and cover design, where the book can be placed in the market, how it will be distributed and where it will be printed.
5. Page proofing. This is the only chance the author has to read and correct typos. Content edit is not done at this time. The author is responsible for the content.
   
6. Planning for marketing. Staff decides which list will include the book-fall (after Christmas) or spring (for Christmas), and explores book club rights; film, TV and foreign rights; books on tape; advertising on a list in catalogs; book tours and author interviews; special sales; displays or dumps; and promotional tie-ins.
   
7. Publicity sales. Some staffs are more credible than others. This is where they explore the Internet market, large booksellers such as Wal-Mart and Costco, and sales in airports, military bases, and specialty stores.
   
8. Enticing readers. This involves the cover, the blurb, the price, where the books are shelved, and whether the genre category is indicated on back.
   

Answering these questions, planning ahead and working "as hard at hawking as at writing" will help you get your word out successfully.

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