Getting Your Work Noticed

Mohana Rajakumar shared with us a host of ideas to help market our writing, methods that have worked for her. She based her presentation on establishing your “Brand Story” by answering three questions:

1. What are you passionate about?
2. Who do you want to read your book? What types of readers will find value in your work? Why? How will you connect emotionally with your readers? Why should they care?
3. How can you use your strength? How is your work different from that of others? How do you wish your reader would describe your work to a friend?

Your brand. The first step in your marketing campaign is to define your brand, including not only an image but a tag-line, motto, or slogan. This will be your image for your readers. It must be visually consistent—same colors, same fonts, same logo or photo—everywhere you present your writerly self.

Your media. Choose the appropriate social media to reach your readers. Choose those you will update on a regular basis, weekly or oftener, to keep their attention. Where do your readers hang out? Different websites reach different audiences. For example, older folks use Facebook. Young people no longer use Facebook—find them on Instagram and YouTube. Find professionals on LinkedIn. Set up special accounts for your author persona—you’ll want it separate from your personal life.

Besides all the major websites—Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterist, Twitter, Google+—brainstorm for other ways to connect: your own website, a blog, a newsletter. Write a bio to access by a tab on your website.

For input ideas, remember the audience you want to reach. Who are your ideal readers? What are their wants, desires, values, interests? Who are their influences? Where online are they spending their time? What do you have in common with them?

Update. Contribute something unique to each medium at least weekly. Use pictures to help hold attention. Interact with people online, reminding them who is behind the writing. Participate in discussions. Time your entries to your readers’ schedules, entering blog posts to be read Monday morning when they first sit at their desks. Post Facebook entries to be read right after work.

Mohana emphasized giving something of value to the reader of your promotional material. Share news or ideas four times as often as you mention the work you want to sell. Link your entries to each other, and link to additional information—that’s a freebie you give the reader. Send a free short story, for example, in exchange for an email address.

Help is available online, much of it free:

To develop your brand, try http://www.yourwriterplatform.com.

For ideas on many aspects of marketing your work including building a contact list, try https://janefriedman.com. Other sites: http://www.novelpublicity.com, http://katetilton.com.

For working with a long list of contacts, as you might have with a newsletter, try MailChimp.

Get reviews to show someone has read your book. To get a review of your book to post on Amazon or elsewhere, contact Bookbloggers. The cost of the service covers administration only—the reviewers are not paid for their work, so treat them kindly. They sign up to read only books they want to read. Even if the reviewer gives your book only one or two stars, at least that’s evidence your book has been read. Appreciate the effort.

Mohana gave pointers for arranging in-person events, such as book signings and making contact by phone. “For book signings, choose a location where you won’t be sitting alone,” she said. “There’s always the chance no one will show up. And in trying to set up an event, prepare yourself for unanswered phone calls. To promote your work, you need a tough skin!”

She also mentioned that IngramSpark is a print-on-demand alternative to CreateSpace.

A book signing followed the program. At left, Mohana signs a book for WAG member Lee Phillips, author of Child of the Land.

For a free copy of Mohana’s Coloured and other Stories from her newsletter, click here. To learn more about Mohama and her work, check her website or follow her latest on Twitter: @moha_doha.

Mohana’s talk was summarized by Joan Carter.