book promotion – Page 6 – Patricia J. Parsons

Author photos & bios: Reasons to care

Posted on 11 Jan 201211 Jan 2012 by Patricia J. Parsons

cannes 09 — Would this make a good book-jacket photo?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I’m wondering what those thousand words could possibly be as I contemplate the photos on some of my book covers. And then when I read the bios, it occurs to me that the author bio issue is even more fraught with considerations.

Generally, from my point of view, the author photo on the book cover has two distinct objectives:

* To assist in the marketing of the book.

* To massage the author’s ego.

Achievement of the first objective is very difficult to figure out. Achievement of the second – a lot easier.

Book marketers see the visual needs of the potential book buyer as very important important (that’s why covers are very important); thus the author photo is a key part of the book jacket’s appeal or lack thereof as far as they’re concerned. One web commentator suggests that there are three reasons to put author photos on book covers…

Author photos help to sell books.
Author photos help to build name recognition.
Author photos help TV bookers decide whether the author would be “good television” material[1].

Valid points, all; however, no one really knows the extent to which an author’s image assists in the selling of the book. No one seems to have done any solid research.

Patient Power — We convinced them to put us on the front cover. Quite a coup!

Some years ago when my co-author (husband) and I were negotiating the cover for a health-related book targeted at the general public, we insisted that to personalize it, our photo had to be on the cover. We had previous experience of this publisher; they had not wanted any photo on the earlier one, front or back. In fact the cover issue was a contentious one with this publisher. This time around, we wanted our photo there – and not on the back cover – we wanted it to be the front cover. When a doctor and a health educator are writing a book that they hope will benefit the readers, it seemed important to us that when potential readers slid it off a shelf in a book store (it was the dark ages, after all), they might be interested in who was speaking to them. It seems that most book marketers agree, but there are pitfalls here. The selection of the photo can be hazardous.

Paul Hiebert, writing online in Flavorwire makes a very good point: “Excellent authors avoid writing clichés. The problem is that some of these very authors do not apply the same level of vigilance when it comes to taking promotional photographs, whether they’re for magazine profiles or back-of-the-book biographies…”[2] He describes the kinds of staged photos that really do give little information to the potential reader and often make the author look, well, clichéd. His piece is worth a click.

If you think that no one actually looks at author photos, you might want to surf by David Wills’ piece The Curse of the Douchey Author Photo, wherein he writes an email to a reader who actually had the temerity to write a nasty note about the photo on his book. It makes an author think carefully about image, an image and personal brand that are influenced by both the photo and the bio.

Over the years, I’ve had publishers who insisted that there be no author photo (very hard on the author ego) as well as others who insist on one (easy on the ego if I get to select the photo – which I do). Their focus was on the author bio. A succinct statement of author credentials is very important to readers who are looking for information in addition to entertainment. I take great pains over the construction of that very brief bio, taking into consideration the needs and wants of the actual target market. What do they want to know about me? What do they need to know about me? What do they not care about? Then I avoid over-sharing – the plague of the modern technological society.

When it comes to fiction, the author’s bio might not be all that important. Do you really care what kinds of previous books the author wrote? Do you care where the author lives? Probably not. You are probably going to be more concerned about the book summary on the cover and whether or not it is compelling to you as an individual reader. Do you care what the author looks like? Probably not. But you might be curious. The real down side to this is that an author photo might actually put off the bigots of the world who might be the very people who need to open their minds.

Two different kinds of books (first, historical fiction; second, business), two different photos & bios — same author.

[1] http://www.writersblock.ca/summer2002/feature.htm

[2] http://flavorwire.com/117566/against-promotional-author-photographs

Author web sites

Author web sites: Need to have, nice to have or nuts to have?

Posted on 15 Nov 2011 by Patricia J. Parsons

J.K. Rowling has quite a web site. It’s flashy; it’s imaginative; it’s just the kind of web site you might think that creator of the Harry Potter brand ought to have. And I have no doubt that her myriad fans visit it when they are in need of all things JKR. However, what’s the point of the unknown author having a personal web site (beyond the obvious ego-massaging aspect?)

In general terms, and in these days of social media, you have to be clear that a web presence is just that – a web ‘presence.’ It is present – no more, no less.

A web presence is usually a static site where organizations or people can hang information. If they seek to be dynamic in nature or to engage others (in the case of authors – presumably your readers), then they need to be connected to opportunities for encouraging this engagement: an author blog (present site included), a forum of some kind (perhaps a Facebook page where discussion can take place on the ‘wall’), a wiki (wherein you might engage your readers to help you create a piece of writing – but that’s a bit odd in my view. (Just odd enough that I might try it.)

The Huffington Post ran an article earlier this year that explores just this question. The article focused on an interview with Anik LaFarge who is the author of The Author Online: A Short Guide to Building Your Website, Whether You Do it Yourself (and you can!) or You Work With Pros. Just as you might imagine, the discussion of the pros and cons is hardly balanced: the interview subject is, after all, in the business of creating author web site, so naturally she thinks that they fall into my “need to have” category. The one thing she does suggest that seems completely useful is this: there’s no point in having a web site if you don’t use it. Couldn’t agree more. I think that the question of using it, though, has two components. First, the author has to use it, and then the readers have to use it.

An author’s use of his or her web site manifests itself in a couple of activities. First, the author needs to ensure that the site has useful information that is updated on a regular basis for those who do happen to stumble upon it. Second, the author needs to get that web site into search engines so that it can actually be found.

As far as readers are concerned, they need to use it to become engaged with the author, something that many authors in days gone by, weren’t really interested in. Times have changed. I suppose readers use authors’ web sites to get the backstory on current work, to find out what’s coming up and to get background on the author. Those would be three kinds of content that could be found. However, how often do you as a reader actually visit the web site for an author you like?

As a reader I never seek out and visit author web sites. Do you?

As a writer, I think that my web site tells certain people that I’m a serious writer and that I have accomplished a few things. Who, though, are those certain people? Agents? Film makers? New publishers? I don’t know the answer.

My own web site caused me considerable soul-searching. Did I need one? What would be its objective? Who would read it (a bit like the question of who will read your book)? Who will design/maintain/update it? Was it worth it?

It seemed like a no-brainer. These days, if your work is in the public view, whether you’re an organization or an individual, if you’re not on the web, in some sense, you don’t exist. Perhaps that’s a bit strong, but it does make a point.

The truth is that an author web site is a place for me to send interested individuals whom I meet at parties etc. who specifically ask if there’s anywhere they can read about me. So, if I meet you at a party and you happen to ask what I do (I usually don’t talk about myself unless asked these days) and then you’re interested enough to ask where you can find out more information, I’ll probably send you to my web site. But do I think thousands of people are visiting it monthlly? I’m smart enough about web sites to be sure of the answer: NO.

There is one thing I know for sure: a web site will not make you a rich and famous writer. But what I don’t know is if you can become a rich and famous author without one. That’s if you want to be rich and famous.

Blog tours, Book promotion

The virtual book tour: virtually useful?

Posted on 31 Oct 2011 by Patricia J. Parsons

Anyone who thinks that public communication about anything and everything has not changed much in the past few years is clearly living a life of denial. Organizations these days have learned this lesson – often the hard way. Now, in these days of do-it-yourself book marketing, authors need more than ever to be vigilant for new opportunities.

I’ve talked in the past about how book marketers at publishing companies seem to have a different role than marketers of other products and services. There is an urgent need for anyone who writes these days – and expects to be published – to be able to articulate clearly how the work can be marketed and to whom. And this isn’t just for self-publishers.

Traditional publishers these days are even requiring book proposals to have fairly well-developed section on exactly how this book might be marketed. This means that keeping abreast of the new approaches is vital for writers.

We’ve talked at length about book trailers and have yet to come to any conclusion about their effectiveness. The next newest approach to book promotion is the virtual author tour. It is much on my mind this week as I tackle such a plan for my latest book. So I thought I’d let my blog readers in on the research I’m doing and the action I’m taking. Maybe some of my work might help you.

Let’s start by defining the virtual book tour. Any kind of a book tour is a marketing technique that puts a writer front and center in public communication vehicles. In a traditional book tour, a writer moves from venue to venue giving interviews to media personalities – radio, television and print (newspapers & magazines). The traditional book tour (effectiveness notwithstanding) is generally predicated on the notion that the writer will tour around and talk about the book. In a virtual book tour, the tour is virtual (the book usually not!).

And there is a whole cottage industry that has sprung up around the notion of virtual book tours (also known as blog tours). There are even tour coordinators. Who knew? Precisely. The problem in my view is this: no one seems to know much about virtual book tours except the people organizing and implementing them. Excuse me for a moment, but I thought that the main purpose was to publicize a book to potential readers. If readers don’t know about virtual book tours or are not tuned into those pieces of social media where they take place, then what’s the point? I digress…

In his book Plug Your Book: Online Book Marketing for Authors, Steve Weber provides some useful guidelines for setting up these tours. In his view, these so-called blog tours are “especially valuable for authors unable to travel, uncomfortable with public speaking [remember my discussion about author readings?] or whose dispersed audience makes touring impractical.”[1] Of course, not only are book tours often impractical, they are expensive and the ROI (return on investment) is often not substantial.

My virtual book tour (because I told my publisher I’d do one) is currently in the planning stages. I’m following Weber’s advice and am doing the following:

I am first building a list of target blogs that might actually be read by potential readers of my book. I’m looking for content that is congruent with the kinds of things these readers might be interested in – since this is in the historical fiction genre, that’s where I’m looking. In this case, much of what I’m finding is book blogs – and there are hundreds of thousands of them. This is going to take a bit of time. If I were trying to organize a blog tour for one of my earlier non-fiction works, I think the job might be easier. The smaller the niche, the easier it is to find blogs whose owners might be interested in guest bloggers on their topic
are (especially if the guest blogger is an expert).
The second step that I’m going to take is to evaluate these blogs. I need to find out if it’s worth my time to even approach them. If the blog in question has only a trickle of readers, it’s probably not going to be worth it to me. I need to find those blogs spaces where large numbers of my readers accumulate. Weber suggests looking at not only traffic volume, but also reader involvement – this is what I’d call online engagement. (He provides details on how to accomplish this.)
While I’m doing the above, I’m working on the excerpt that I’ll offer to the blog and the Q & A author interview that some bloggers might be interested in using rather than sending along their own questions.

All throughout this process, I’m continuing to question the effectiveness of this marketing strategy. I’ve been looking for stats on this, but like in the case of the book trailer, no research yet exists on the effectiveness of these tours. Maybe one of my grad students will take this on? Hmm? Anyone out there listening??

[1]
Weber, Steve. 2007. Plug your book: Online book marketing for authors. Stephen W.
Weber, p. 87.