Hello, Julie,
A
screenwriting self-help guide I wrote, HOW TO WRITE, SELL AND GET
YOUR SCREENPLAYS PRODUCED, is due out any day. I was wondering if you could
suggest how I could inform others about it.
Don Vasicek (FACES; OH, THE PLACES YOU CAN
GO; WARRIORS OF VIRTUE; BORN TO WIN)
http://www.SelfHelpGuides.com/authors/don_vasicek/
http://www.SelfHelpGuides.com/display.php3?guide=1822020719
………………………………….
Hi
Don
Luckily for you, you are writing about writing, which may be
one of the easiest types of book to market. The question ‘how do I
market my book’ really should have a never-ending answer, with
everything you do being an opportunity to market, however, in the
interests of bandwidth-preservation, I’ll suggest just a few
starting points.
READ
I would absolutely recommend getting a copy of '1001 Ways to
Market Your Book' to leaf through. It is aimed at printed books but
a lot of the techniques will spark ideas of your
own.
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0912411481/wordsmithyboo)
SIGNATURE
FILE
The first thing I would do is
change the order of the hyperlinks in your signature file, putting
first the page where readers can buy the book and relegating your
author page to second place – don’t make people hunt for a product
you want them to buy.
I would also be more explicit about what
those links are, so that people want to click on them. I would have
something like:
"How To Write, Sell and Get Your
Screenplays Produced"
Buy the e-Book NOW!
http://www.SelfHelpGuides.com/display.php3?guide=1822020719
GET
YOUR OWN DOMAIN NAME
Many companies will help you register a domain name of your
very own – something short, catchy, difficult to mistype, easy to
remember, unlike the 59 character link you now have. A
long stringy URL like the one above also runs the risk of being
'broken' into two lines by some email programs. This means some
people will not be able to click on the link and be directed to the
right page, and they may not realize where the problem
lies.
Don’t worry if you know nothing about building websites. You
can have a service like Yahoo! register a domain name for you, and
simply redirect all traffic to your existing URL (above). Yahoo!
charges $35 for one year, which is not the cheapest deal in town,
but it is very user friendly and there many competitors you can
scout out. Remember to check how long the license is for, when
comparing prices (some places register you for one year, some for
two or more).
If you do want a site of your own (to feature info about your
other books) you will need some space on a web hosting company’s
server. Again, Yahoo! will give you some for free, but remember you
get what you pay for. If you use a free service you will have less
flexibility and will probably have to put up with some advertising
on your site. If you want more freedom and are not scared by the
idea of creating and administering a website, you can get some
pretty good deals these days. The company that hosts my site is
at www.cedant.com and I think they're great, but they will not help
you design and build pages. They charge $39.50 for two-year domain
registration and as little as $7.95 a month for web hosting – which
includes an email account and unlimited email aliases (for example
reaches me), web traffic reports and support for a mailing list. (I
get nothing for mentioning this, I just like
them!).
Any site that is willing to register a domain for you will
also allow you to search for available domain names, or you can go
to the source: www.networksolutions.com. I checked and
'screenwriting.com' and 'screenplays.com' were taken, but
'aboutscreenplays.com', for example, was free.
Even if you were thinking of building your own site, I would
continue to refer people directly to the page where your book is
available for download. The fewer clicks, the less chance they’ll
give up.
REVEIWS
& EDITORIALS
I tend to think that reviews and editorial
pieces about you or your book are worth much more than paid
advertising, which people tend to blip over. I think reviews are
also slightly over-rated, because they're not as interesting as a
juicy human-interest story or a how-to, that promises to help the
reader with some problem.
Luckily for you there are
thousands of ezines and newsletters for writers, online. You should
make it your mission to get your book or your story mentioned in
every one of them. Some of my favorites:
inscriptions (http://www.inscriptionsmagazine.com/);
writersweekly (http://www.writersweekly.com/);
writing-world (http://www.writing-world.com/).
All of these have
weekly/bi-weekly email newsletters that contain spaces for paid
advertising. All of them solicit success stories and tips for other
writers, some solicit reviews. You may be qualified to supply any or
all of these.
EXCERPTS
Consider selling or giving away excerpts of your how-to book
to writers sites and newsletters - in exchange for a free ad in the
publication, or at the very least, a link to your book's page. You
may be able to sell excerpts as individual articles, especially to
sites that print 'reprints'. You can expect to make $5-20+ for each
of these (always shoot for the higher paying sites...why not?). Be
careful that you still own copyright and reprint rights to the
information in the book.
ADVERTISING
Remember that it is common lore in advertising circles that
you need to get your message in front of someone three times before
they will remember anything about it. Make sure you take advantage
of all the free opportunities for PR that are out there, before you
invest cash in an expensive advertising campaign.
NEWS/DISCUSSION
GROUPS
Get involved in discussion groups that touch on areas of
interest for your book: general writers' groups, e-publishers'
groups, self-publishers' groups, screenwriters' groups, film-makers'
groups. Observe the common etiquette of not posting blatant ads, but
chime in with advice when appropriate, always remembering to use
your signature file. You can find some of these groups/lists by
searching Yahoogroups (http://www.yahoogroups.com) and Googlegroups
(http://groups.google.com/).
OTHER
EDITIONS
I looked at the author guide on the site you published
through. It wasn't clear to me whether they took any rights, and
what those rights they might be. IF you retain all rights and it is
a non-exclusive contract, you might want to consider offering other
editions - for example a print on-demand edition, so that people who
like paper won't be put off. You can do this through companies like
www.booklocker.com (which also offers e-editions), www.xlibris.com,
www.infinitypublishing.com, www.1stbooks.com, etc. Be careful about
what rights you assign where.
If your current publisher takes all rights, I would consider
getting out of that deal if possible. Since you are essentially
publishing yourself and taking a measly 30% of the price of retail
(for which there is no excuse with an electronic edition, since
there are few hard costs once the book is set up) and handling all
the promotion yourself, I would consider getting a better deal
anyway. In my opinion, the booklocker.com deal is a very good one -
up to 70% of retail on e-book sales, and you collect from sale #1
unlike your current provider. Also, booklocker.com publishes a lot
of books for writers; so many writers already rely on it for your
kind of material. Of course, it does not offer editorial help and
you may have received that through your current
provider.
Anyway, other editions can allow for a second round of all of
the PR you’ve already done, and can boost income.
KNOW
YOUR AUDIENCE
This is the most important thing of all. Know who your book
is aimed at and figure out where to find them. Don't buy TV
advertising and expect success, but if, for example, you went to
film school, tell your alumni magazine all about your new book -
because the people reading it will be potential readers of a book
like yours. The magazine may be reluctant to print ordering
information but if the angle of your story is that you've published
using this funky new publishing technique, they may mention the name
of your site or provider, as part of the article.
In addition, since yours is an ebook, concentrate at first on
people who are already online, people who will be comfortable
downloading PDFs and know how to open them.
I think that the marketing part of producing a book can be a
lot of fun, but you have to be willing to be creative. Don't send
copies to the New York Times Reviewer - s/he can barely open the
office door in the morning as it is, because everyone sends their
book there. Get people interested in your subject, tell them why
yours is the best book ever; watch how other successful e-publishers
promote their work (hint: they're shameless!). Don't be bashful.
There is so much competition out there, that you are only going to
get me to buy your book if you give me evidence that it really is
good and worth not only my $5 but my time.
Good luck and let us know how it goes!
JULIE
***
I’d love to hear your
comments on this article: was it helpful; have you had success with
press releases, marketing or editors; is there anything I missed
that you would like to know about? Send your comments to
.
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