A Different Approach to Book Press Releases

After you complete your book and are ready to publish, there are a million things to take care of before the book goes live.  One of those things is to write a Press Release.  A press release is a news piece that is sent to newspapers and online news sources.  It details who you are, what your book is about, and why someone will want to buy your book.  Once you have it written, you have to submit it to different media outlets.  The problem comes when no one picks up your release.  You might wonder, “why didn’t they post my story?”  Probably because there are millions of other authors who are doing exactly the same time, but what can you do?

Launching a book for a self-published author is an uphill battle.  No one knows you; no one wants to give your book a chance, because are not backed by a big name publisher, so sometimes a self-published author has to start small.  Yes, you have a submitted your book to Amazon.com and Smashwords, but they are large sites and you are just one person.  You have to build your own audience and then drive them to large book sites or you will never succeed, one way to do that it to start small and focus on your hometown.

Extra Extra Read All About It - Instead of shooting for the stars and sending your press release to every major news outlet, start by submitting to your local papers.  Every town and community has a few papers that will run local news articles.  Gain the support of your neighbors and community, while working your major social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter.  The key to submitting a press release to local media and community sites is to make the local community care about you, as a person, not a writer, or an author of the “next great American novel.”

Local Man Does Something Amazing - Create your press release by talking about yourself from a community aspect.  What makes you stand out as a person and as a writer?  Talk about your struggles in writing your book.  Make the press release interesting to local readers.  This is an opportunity to humanize yourself and be spotlighted as more than just a writer behind a keyboard.  Mention the book and give a brief description of it, but think of the rest of the article as a human interest story.  If you already have ties to the community, then talk about that as well.  People like reading about individuals who have struggled to achieve something.  Find an aspect of your life than can be highlighted to make people relate to you and care about you.  They are more likely to support you by telling others about you.  They may not read your book, but they will talk about you and help spread your name.  

Dear Editor, Please Post My Story - When submitting your press release to local papers, remember to be polite to them.  Most local sites don’t have a press release submission procedure, so you will have to send a general email to them asking them to run your article.  They are people in your community, show them respect.  They might not be lead reports at a huge metro paper, but they are the people you want to be nice to.  They have to review your submission and decide if they will publish it, but they are also members of the community.  If they are interested in your article, they will tell others.  If you are disrespectful and don’t thank them for their time, they will remember it the next time you ask them to post a news article and may pass on your submission.  

In Other News - Once the local papers have started to accept and publish your article, you will need to rewrite your press release for the other media outlets.  This release will focus on you as a writer and why someone should read your book, but it will have to appeal to a larger audience.  This is the “go big, or go home” article.  Take the basic elements of your original article and enhance them to stand out against the millions of other press releases.  Keep in mind that you must be truthful in your article and don’t over promise something you can’t deliver.  Always make the article creative, but realistic, and gear it toward your target audience.  If you write children’s books, appeal to the parents who will buy it for their children.  If you write romance novels, appeal to the women and men who love a good romantic story line.  Write your article for your reader, not the other portion of the population who has no interest in reading, or who only care about actual live news.  Jazz up your release with creative words and interesting facts about you and your book, but keep it grounded in reality.

Before you start your press release, Google “how to write a press release” for the basic layout and structure.  There are plenty of sites that can help.  The release date of the book will need to be posted at the top, or label it for Immediate Release.  Then create a cover letter for the review sites that only offer an email address for submission and don't forget to attached your book cover and/or author photo.  Most of all, have patience in submitting the press release.  Not every news outlet will post the article for different reasons, so it may have to be submitted again after some revisions, or during a slower news cycle.

For an example of my “local” press release, click here.

Book Covers - "Do It Yourself" or "Professional Cover"

I recently had a number of conversations with other authors regarding their book covers.  The question always comes up about whether to DIY (Do It Yourself) or buy a professional book cover.  New authors face this problem all the time due to money restrictions or lack of knowledge on how to find good covers.  The issue comes down to, how badly do you want to sell your book?  Most authors are so engrossed in writing and worrying about publishing that they are sometimes too close to the problem.  Covers can become the bane of their existence, yet authors need their covers to speak for them when they aren’t there to promote their works.  So which option is the best?

Do It Yourself - If you decide on the DIY method, there are programs out there that can help you design your cover beyond Photoshop.  My suggestion, if you decide to go this path, it to have reasonable expectations.  Are you a graphic designer or have some artistic abilities?  If so, you can make the DIY option work, but if not, you will need to have a great concept and way of making it visually pleasing.  

Choosing stock art or stock photos can be more cost effective than buying a cover, but you still need to have a basic understanding of layout and fonts.  If you can’t figure out how center a photo or add a text overlay, stop now.  You run the risk of failing before you even begin.  Picking a legible, but interesting font can be an even tougher challenge than finding the right photo.  The reader needs to be able to read the title of the book, even when it's a tiny thumbnail on sites like Amazon!  Don’t forget to make sure that your photo is size properly; otherwise, it will be distorted.  I saw a book cover that used a selfie from a camera phone and they stretched the photo instead of resizing it.  The cover turned out looking like a drunk person’s view of a woman.  I doubt that was the intended idea based on the title.

If you are using stock photos, find the right photo.  You want readers to be engaged by your cover, not confused by what you are trying to accomplish.  The main idea of the story, the main location, or the main character should be the focus of your cover.  If you lose sight of the main idea of your book or don’t properly represent it, readers will walk or scroll right past your cover.  Don’t be vague or understated.  This is your only shot of grabbing the reader’s attention.  Make them want to stop to read your description or blurb.  

Take the time to think about what theme you want readers to associate with your book.  If the tale is about dragons, don’t use a field of grass with a mountain range in the back, without a dragon.  People like reading about dragons! Give them a dragon to use as a model while they are reading.  If the book is about hot guys, don’t use a random cityscape.  Put the hot guy front and center on your cover and your female readers will line up just to see the cover.  Make sure that the cover wordlessly invokes your blurb or gives the reader the genre/tone of the book.  Express magic and light for fantasy books and outer space for sci-fi.  Tie the cover to the book.  Don’t pick a pretty picture you fell in love with when it has nothing to do with the book.  

Personally, I tried the DIY route, but I just couldn’t make it work.  The fonts were wrong and I had trouble the sizing the photo to fit the requirements for ebooks.  I had created multiple websites over the years as a hobby, but even I had a tough time with it.  I was honest with myself and admitted defeat.  Though I have seen some amazing DIY covers, you need a truly amazing cover that will stand up to professional covers.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it has to be unique.

Buying a Cover - If you decide to purchase a cover from stock cover sites, or through professional sites, perfecting a cover can still be a challenge.  There are varying levels of “professional” cover artists out there and they may not always have the answers either.  Graphic artists and authors have different ideas on art.  Authors want to visually explore the world that they are creating.  Graphic artists choose one part of this world to capture, but it might not be the right part.  Even graphic artists may have a limit to their abilities.  Again, you have to be realistic in your expectations.  They are worried about color and light, you are worried that the main character doesn’t perfectly match the person that you dreamed up in your head.  Odds are, the person you envision is prettier, or uglier, or thinner, or greener than the artist’s rendition.  Compromise will be important.  The model has brown eyes, but your dream guy has blue, but he is handsome and has an amazing smile.  You may have to allow some details to fall to the side, as long as the image captures the essence of what you are trying to accomplish.  Also, trust the graphic artist if he tells you certain colors will clash or if some details will feel out of place if you try to incorporate them.  They usually know what they are talking about.

Choosing a Premade Cover - If you find a cover from an online premade cover site that you are happy with, you may want to contact them to see if they can make minor changes to their cover if something is out of place.  Sometimes choosing a premade cover feels like a compromise.  It’s less expensive than a custom cover, and typically better than a DIY, but it may not be exactly what you are looking for.  Many of the graphic artists are willing to make changes for a small fee.  They can also add the fonts to the cover and may take suggestions if you have a font that you have used before.  See if they are willing to work with you.  If they want to make a sale, they should be willing to put in some extra work.

Personally, I went this route for both of my covers.  For my first book, I had a hard time finding exactly what I wanted, because I didn’t know what I wanted.  I scrolled through literally 3000 covers and bookmarked only three or so that I sort of liked.  In the end, the one I chose started to grow on me, but I still wasn’t happy.  (You can see the cover on the upper left side of my blog.)  The artist wanted to use red font, so I requested that he give me the artwork without the title and did the font myself.  The original photo had a deep blue filter that overpowered the photo.  I used Photoshop and toned down the blue.  What I found surprised me.  The blue receded and brightened the background giving the water and the lightning a chance to shine.  I’ve received a number of complements from strangers on how beautiful the cover is, which lets me know that I made a good choice.  

Premade doesn’t have to mean limited.  When searching for my second cover, which is still being worked on, I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, so I took my own path.  I found two different covers that interested me, each capturing one part of the cover that I wanted, and I merged them together.  Thankfully, both covers were designed by the same graphic artist and she was willing to work with me to combine the two covers.  They layout of both covers helped make my vision work.  The left half of cover one had the guy I wanted, and the right half of cover had the background I wanted.  A little cutting, pasting, a minimal fee, and I got the cover that I wanted.  

Turn Clichéd Covers into Exciting Covers - “A picture is worth a thousand words,” so use those words wisely and avoid covers that say the exact same thing as the next book.  Avoid using the same image that everyone else uses for the same genre.  Pick something unique to show the readers.  Grab their attention in some way.  Every vampire story has sharp teeth on the cover or a powerful woman ready to slay it.  Find a way to make your cover stand out.  Research the main idea or the genre of your book and look at all the covers that come up.  Find a new angle and make people stop to look at your cover.

I will cite an example.  I have seen many book covers with a muscled guy wearing a hoodie.  In the search for my cover, I tripped over a bunch of them.  It’s a known image, but it can be changed into something unique.  When I saw Lisa Medley’s “Reaper Series,” I saw the hooded jacket guy, but her covers made me stop and look.  She took a known image and used bright colors and interesting backgrounds to stand out.  She employed visually pleasing, and interesting font to express her titles and her names.  In a sea of Twitter posts, these images captured my attention.

 Check out the Reaper Series on Amazon

Find a Test Audience - Regardless of the method used to make your book cover, all of this effort will be wasted if readers don’t like the cover or don’t understand what you are going for.  It was suggested to me by another author to have multiple people look at the cover and give their opinion.  I’m not talking about your mom and your boyfriend; I’m talking about people from different cultures, different background, and different age groups.  It’s important to find out how different demographics will interpret your cover.  A 20 something male will likely have a different opinion than a 50 something female.  Decide who your main demographic is and make sure they like the cover.

After finding the cover I wanted, I took it to my test group.  I was interested in seeing their reactions.  While the men nodded their heads and understood that my book was a romance novel, they didn’t have much to say, just as I expected.  When I showed the cover to my 20, 30, and 50 year old female demographic, 4 out of 5 of them had the intended reaction.  Their mouths dropped on the ground and they stared delightfully at my Angel of Death.  Most were speechless for a few seconds, followed by, “WOW!”  Their responses ranged from, “now that will sell books” to “where do I get one like him?”  I knew I had a winner.  As one woman said, “the guy on the cover gives me a person to imagine while reading.”  That’s the response you want!

If you don’t have a test audience, post your cover ideas on your Facebook or Twitter accounts for feedback.  You can also run a contest for people to vote on their favorite cover and choose between two covers.  If you still aren’t sure, reach out to other authors for suggestions on author sites.  Other authors are usually good at giving you their honest opinion and advice since they have been in the same spot as you.

There’s Always a Second Chance During a Reprint - First time authors learn a lot about readers and promoting their books after their first book launch.  Even if you have a team of promoters and publishers, sometimes a cover just doesn’t work out the way you thought.  After speaking to readers and getting feedback from reviewers and critics, there is always the opportunity to change a cover during a second or third reprinting of the book.  Figure out what was missing from the first cover and incorporate the suggestions and new ideas.  If you couldn’t afford a professional cover, hopefully, you will be able to work with a graphic artist the next time around.  Don’t be afraid to try something new. 

In speaking to Lisa Medley about her “Reaper Series,” I found out that the hooded reaper was not her original cover.  While there is nothing wrong with the original cover, the second one is more visually interesting.  See the original cover and the reprint cover below.

                            

Another conversation with author Erin S. Riley, author of the “Sons of Odin Series,” revealed that she too had a second chance to change her original cover.  The first cover was made from a photo that she took on her phone.  While the first photo is fine, it doesn’t convey much about the story.  Her second cover, however, makes a bold statement about the book.  The new cover clearly states that there will be romance and hot Vikings.  Her two pending covers continue the theme of the new cover and promises more romance.  Below are the original cover and the new cover.

              

    

Check out Odin's Shadow on Amazon

At the end of the day, the decision is yours on how best to create your cover, but be honest with yourself regarding your talents versus your expectations.  Be willing to listen to feedback, criticism, and praise.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help.  The best covers are ones that readers remember.  Even if they are simple, they need to express some aspect of your story.

Author or Social Media Wizard

This post is geared toward self-published, indie authors who self-promote, or established authors looking to expand their social presence.

When an author writes a book, they think, “Wow.  I’m done now.  I can sit back and watch the magic happen.  I will get paid and be happy.”  Well, unless you have a publicist and entire team working to promote your book, the work has just begun.  Even if you have this team working for you, there is no guarantee that they are doing the right things to promote your book.  You might have to help yourself and learn a few tricks to succeed.

Please keep in mind that I am writing a book series, and am working to finish my second book before I explore every option available to writers.  I am using my first book as a learning experience so that I can understand the industry and find out what is involved.  I’m not running out and screaming to the world that I’m an author.  I’m taking my time to figure out what is involved and what works.

Self-promotion and marketing can be a fun, though a challenging experience.  I’m still in the beginning phase, which is the hardest part.  Personally, I had to piece together a media plan based on what I learned from different advice sites, or by trial and error.  I wanted to help enlighten fledgling authors on the uphill battle ahead of them so that they are prepared for the long journey.  These suggestions are based on things that I have tried, though I am always learning and happy to hear suggestions from other authors.  Please feel free to add comments about your experiences, good or bad, with your promotions.  I will add to this post once I tackle other avenues.

Let’s take a look at all of the steps needed to start the process.  When I told a family member about all the things I had done to start promoting, she laughed and said that she had trouble reading her email let alone embarking on an online campaign to search for readers.  It made me realize how much I had done in such a short period of time.  So, let’s begin.

Load your book to an ebook site, and/or have it printed.  If you don’t have a publisher, you need a platform for people to find and purchase your book.

Amazon.com is a great place to start.  You need to load your book to their site, but you MUST have a well-formatted Word (.doc/.docx) file.  Forget editing at this point, (that should have been done long ago) but you need to review your actual formatting.  Are your margins consistent?  Are the paragraphs tabbed correctly?  Are the paragraphs spaced properly?  Most importantly, does your Table of Contents link to the correct chapters?  Forget about page numbers because Amazon uses locations, which mean nothing to the writer.  Once loaded, REVIEW THE FILE TO MAKE SURE IT LOOKS CORRECT!!!  I can’t stress that enough.  Remove extra carriage returns, etc.!  Check Amazon’s submission guides before uploading to review their suggestions and acceptable formats. 

Smashwords.com is another platform to sell your book.  I have to warn you, the formatting MUST be done correctly.  Smashwords loads to different ereaders and will turn your words into a flowing river that will expand and contract based on the ereader’s requirements, so their formatting guide MUST be followed.  I read through the 117 page Formatting Guide and nearly cried.  You will have to rip apart all of your formatting and start over.  There are people and companies that will do this for you, for a fee, but it will save you time.  

Lulu.com and Createspace.com are sites where you can print copies of your book for a surprisingly low fee.  I was shocked that I could print one copy and not pay a crazy amount.  It was somewhere around $10.00 for a 250 page book plus shipping.  It’s not the printing presses of old where you needed to print 100,000 copies to turn a profit.  Since I’m still testing the waters of my self-promotion in print, I have only used this to print a few copies, but I plan to use it to sell print copies as well.  Sadly, I only have so many hours in the day to investigate all the ins and outs of every site or program.  (More to come on this once I devote my attention to it.)

Bring in the reviewers.  You can have the best book in the world, but without feedback and reviews, you will have a hard time convincing the world to read your book.  Think about how you purchase things online.  Last week I wanted a rice cooker.  I went to Amazon and what was the first thing I did?  I scrolled down to the reviews.  We all know that we have to take reviews with a grain of salt because there are tons of people online that LOVE to HATE, but you can usually get a good idea about the product.  If there are more 4-5 stars than 1-3 stars, then it’s probably a good rice cooker.  This is the same mentality that readers will use when looking at your book.  Why do they want to pay for a book that no one else has bothered to review? 

It’s time to throw your book in the murky waters of book reviewing.  You will need to find online reviewers who are willing to review your book.  Yes, you can ask every family member to go online and write a review, but people will start to notice that independent reviewers aren’t amongst your 5 star reviews.  Do you need professional reviews?  Unless you market a different way or already have a huge social media campaign that is working for you, it can’t hurt. 

Putting yourself out there to professional reviewers is probably the scariest thing you will ever do, but it needs to be done.  Personally, I stumbled on to a reviewer during a normal conversation on Twitter and it turned out to be one of the top 500 reviewers on Amazon who LOVES books.  I was nice to her and she somehow decided she liked me and wanted to review my book.  It doesn’t usually happen like that, but being nice pays off.  It turned out that she LOVED my book and gave me 5 stars.  I nearly fainted, literally!  I will forever love her.

The key to submitting a review is finding the right reviewer for you.  Search their genre, their likes, and dislikes.  Most reviewers state very clearly what they will read and what they won’t read.  Don’t send a sci-fi book to a romance reviewer or the results could be disastrous.  You wrote your book with a type of reader in mind.  Reviewers are no different.  They love books, but they too have preferences.  Pay attention to their requirements and ALWAYS be kind.  Even if they don’t like the book, use it as a learning experience.  Not everyone will fall in love with your book.  Thank them for their time.  Listen to their feedback and be willing to make changes if different reviewers are saying the same thing.

Build your website.  Readers want to know more about their favorite authors and books.  They will search to see if there are other books in your catalog, or look for more information about the book.  Give them what they want.  If they can’t find you on a Google search on multiple sites, you are dead in the water.  As an amateur web designer, I used to create sites for my husband’s side business.  I learned Photoshop and Frontpage (the only way of doing things back then) and had to teach myself how to do everything.  Over the years, I became really good at it, but it was time consuming.  Now, you can find sites that will help you build a page in a few hours, if you want more than just a page or two of basic info. 

I use wix.com and it is a thousand times easier than finding a template and reshaping it into what you want.  What once took me days or weeks to perfect, Wix helped me in a few hours.  Updating is simple, which is imperative because I’m always adding content or linking to some other media site that I found.

On your site, talk about the book, add links to buy it, and tell the audience about yourself.  The more interesting your site is, the longer they will look through your books.

Social Media time!  Reviews are vital to a book, but even the reviews are just a stepping-stone.  It doesn’t matter if you have written the book of the century if no one knows about it.  What you need now are actual readers!  Yes, you can make a Facebook page, a Twitter user name, etc., but you still have to speak to people to gain their attention.  You have to interact with people.  Find other authors or people interested in your genre and talk to them.  Retweet their posts.  Don’t just throw Tweets at people without taking the time to speak to them.  Some people are only interested in promoting their own works, but others understand the importance of communication.  Social Media has become less social and more one sided like a billboard ad.  Put “social” into your tweets and see what kind of feedback you get. 

I have met interesting and amazing authors along the way and I have learned something from all of them.  Don’t miss out on the opportunity of making a friend or an ally.  It will take you a long way.  Also, for the love of all that is holy DON’T DIRECT MESSAGE PEOPLE YOUR BOOK LINK!  Personally, if I have an interest, I will come to you.  I have already downloaded interesting books that I’ve seen and tried sample pages from Amazon when I find something unique.  I don’t need you slamming me with it.  At least buy me a drink and take me to a movie before you try to get something from me.

Be interesting!  Readers like a multimedia experience, as do other authors.  Start a blog and talk about something, anything!  You are a writer, so write!  Talk about something interesting or entertaining.  It can’t be all about your book.  I started this blog as a way of talking about my experiences writing a novel/series, including the highs, the lows, and the problems associated with being a writer.  I wanted other writers to know that they weren’t the only ones dealing with these issues.  Now that I’m beyond the writing phase, I have made my blog into advice about writing and promoting.  Who knows what I will write about next year.  The point is, I’m trying to, as one follower on Twitter called it, “give back to the writing community”.  Everyone needs help and advice, so share your experiences.  Be funny, or helpful, or whatever, just be something.

Claim your book and your identity!  As a part of your social media campaign, you will need to “claim” your book or your “identity” on some sites.  Most people don’t know about this aspect of self-promotion, but it shouldn’t be overlooked.  The first place you want to go is www.authorcentral.amazon.com to set your Author Page on Amazon.  This author page is associated with your online book site.  It’s a separate site, but you can load your twitter feed, blog feed, photos, and appearances.  There is a section where you can add your bio.  You can even see all of your Amazon reviews in one place.

Next is Goodreads.com and Shelfari.com where you can search for your book and submit yourself as the author.  Once they accept you as the author, you can add details to your book, and add your blog or twitter feed.  A separate author page is where you can add your bio and other fun details.  Once you are set up, you can add your friends, make new friends, or join groups with similar interests.  Regardless of how you interact with people, DON’T SHOVE YOUR BOOK IN THEIR FACE.  Get to the know them.  Find out what they like.  They might be just cool people.  Learn more about what they want in a book or genre.

Promoting at a price.  You will have to decide which paid sites you want to advertise with.  There are tons of Twitter sites and online promoters that will blast your book, but you will have to decide on how much to spend.  Promoting takes money, so you need to invest wisely.  Will you do a Book Tour?  Will you do a Giveaway?  Will you promote Free books?  There are many different ways to promote, but the bottom line is how much are you willing to spend?

There is an excellent article written by Lisa Medly, author of “The Reaper Series” who wrote about her experiences funding her promotion campaign called, “The cost of self-publishing one book: By the numbers”.  The article is well worth the read to find out about the stark reality of promotion expenses.

Learn from other writers and authors.  The most helpful information I have found is from other authors.  Sign up for sites where writers interact or give advice.  Penbuzz.com is a newer site where budding authors can ask questions or write blog entries.  Anyone can answer and give advice.  Bookblog.com is another site where you can interact with authors and readers.  Don’t be afraid to ask for advice or find out how another author started.  Again, interaction is the point of being on these sites.  Put yourself out there and see what comes of it. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter if you use a publishing company, or self-publish, there is no guarantee that your book will sell.  It’s up to you to write a quality book and take the time to understand how best to promote it.  You need to put in the effort to sell your book.  Talk about it to whoever is interested.  Highlight the points, don’t oversell.  Tease the reader to gain their interest.  Have your 30-second pitch ready.  Talk about you as an author, not just about your book.  The amount of time and effort you put into your promotion will show and hopefully people will be excited enough to read your master tome.