3.0 Approach to blogging: three key web tactics proven to work

Almost every author has a blog. Anecdotally, it hardly seems credible to claim — as I do — that the blog is the most important marketing tool for publishers and authors. Why, if it’s so important, doesn’t a blog automatically translate into sales?

It’s not magic — or how blog marketing actually works

It’s not the willingness to blog or the act of blogging that leads to success. Authors and publishers who succeed with runaway sales on their books — as proven by dozens of our own writers — are those who take a three-pronged approach to blog success (hence Web 3.0!) The proven tactics are:

• Create multiple blogs, at a minimum twelve or more, each on separate themes
• Blog daily and power-blog weekly
• Guest blog and blog tour on high-profile blogs and on social networks (Myspace, Facebook, Goodreads, Authorsden.com, and as many as you can manage).

Blogertizing, it’s a beautiful thing—no cost (other than time) and it works

Okay, I’ll come clean and admit Blogertizing is my own trademark and a book releasing to major buzz and print run in fall 08 (Blogertize: A Leading Expert Shows How Your Blog Can Be a Money-Making Machine — www.kunati.com/blogertize .) But I’ll share, step-by-step, some important quick-start top-level tips here, and invite you to visit www.blogertize.com throughout the year to learn more.

First — why blog at all?

Most publishers cannot commit the time to provide blogs on behalf of authors. It’s really up to authors, to empower their own success. The most a publisher can hope to do is coach the authors to develop the daily blog habit. The key reasons to blog at all:

• No cost — other than time. Most blog services are free
• Editorial-style credibility: where a website is often viewed as an online ad, a blog is more often thought of as an “E-Zine” (online magazine, for those who don’t speak web lingo)
• Google and other search engines automatically rank blogs higher than websites (in part because they own many of the free blogging services, but mostly because blogs offer “timely” and current content)
• Blogs encourage return visits, subscribers and loyalty if the following techniques are deployed
• While it makes no sense to have multiple websites, it makes plenty of sense to create multiple blogs on various themes to mine readers from different interest groups
• Since the ultimate goal is to sell books, blogs allow hundreds or thousands of opportunities to direct traffic to book pages on online stores via “inbound links” (more on this nifty concept in a moment.) Websites might offer, at most, dozens of links.

It’s all about "inbound links"

If you haven’t heard of this nifty term, make it your mantra: inbound links drive success, inbound links drive success…

Inbound links are almost the sole driver of Google Page Ranks. Google, and most search engines, rank sites based on how many quality inbound links are offered TO your site or blog. This means I, and all your other friends, associates and supporters, have to embed a link TO your site (usually in return for likewise consideration from you.)  Since links are “online referrals” they weight higher than any other consideration. People visit sites — and buy books — based on referrals.

As a goal, in your first year, focus on a minimum of 6,000 inbound links. To find out how many you have now, go to Altavista.com and type in LINK:www.yourwebsite.com (substituting your website name, of course).

Google Page Ranks — the true measure of success

To measure your success, as it stands right now, install the Google Toolbar on your browser. Once installed, you’ll see the all-important Google Page Rank on the top right after you land on a page. You can get this mandatory tool here:

• http://toolbar.google.com

If it seems like I’m plugging Google, I’m not. The reality is that Google drives the internet these days. A Google Page Rank tells you all you really need to know. Now, check out your author or publisher blog and your website.

If you see a 1/10 rank or a 2/10 rank — or the all too common 0/10 rank — you now know why your blogs haven’t translated into sales. It’s unlikely you achieve much above a 3/10 or 4/10 in one year, since the rank is incremental, but this should be your minimal goal. A 4/10 rank means you’re selling books. Any less, you’re definitely missing sales.

The 6,000 inbound links I mentioned above probably translates into a 4/10 Google Rank. And a lot of books sold.

Equity and content rules in blogs and books

You’re building equity in your blogs through inbound links and page ranks. It will take months, but as your rank climbs on your various blogs, your book sales will as well. Content rules on your blogs. Talk about yourself and your book at your own risk. People want information, news, tips, commentaries — but not a synopsis of your book.

The best way to do this — and to create more and more audience subscribers — is to have multiple blogs. Since they are free on services such as www.blogger.com, it costs only time. For example, most books have multiple themes, whether non-fiction or fiction. For example, my current novel, MADicine (www.kunati.com/madicine) has several themes that can each be turned into interesting topical blogs:

• The dangers of genetic research
• The global power of pharmaceutical giants
• The evolving dangers of super viruses (perhaps talking about bird flu, and so on)
• The stupidity of reality television

There are four blogs, to start. Add to this an “author blog” for a more “commercial” push on the novel, and there are five. Then, drill down to the smaller topics.

Editorial content is the key to success

The critical aspect of this is to write the blogs as you would an article or and editorial for a magazine. If it’s informative, researched or helpful, readers will find you through the almighty power of Google. Since the goal is daily short blogs, and a weekly “major” piece on each blog, you have to diversify:

• How-tos are popular (something like this blog topic)
• Feature stories on any of your thematic topics. I advise you too create a Google Alert for each of your keyword topics so that you’ll have daily fodder for your stories. You can set up Google alerts here: www.google.com/alerts)
• Snippets of other people’s news with links to the sources
• Editorials (opinion pieces, but not usually rants)
• News — for example, on “the stupidity of reality television” theme mentioned above, I might announce and review a new reality show
• Reviews of other people’s books on the theme.

Guest blogging and touring
Without question, the above techniques — thematic blogs, many of them, editorial content — will incrementally grow your sales, audience, fans, and page rank. In the meantime, you need faster results, right?

The secret to fast results in Guest blogging and blog touring. It’s simple, free, but time-consuming. The advantages include:

• Driving immediate traffic to your blogs and book pages if you embed links in your guest blog. For instance, here’s a link to the Amazon page with my novel MADicine, mentioned above: http://www.amazon.com/MADicine-Derek-Armstrong/dp/160164017X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204041923&sr=8-1

• The inbound links created improves your long-term page rank
• You can sell books instantly if you seek out the high-profile, high-traffic sites.

Unpaid freelance writing
To succeed in a Blog Tour — the most important type of author tour these days — you’ll need to query the blog owners as you would a magazine editor. The query must be valid, well-written and offer something to the blog owner’s audiences. Most blogs have a contact email for this purpose.

Finding candidate blogs is a little more involved. Search your theme’s keywords — for example, for MADicine, I’d search: pharmaceutical, genetic research, reality TV — on the popular blog engines:

• www.technorati.com/blogs
• www.blogsearch.google.com
• any of the dozens of other blog search sites.

It’s all in the page rank
Since query writing takes time, and your only payment will be publicity and inbound links, choose carefully. This is where the Google Toolbar comes in. Go to the sites referred on Technorati and Google Blogsearch, and view their page rank (top right of your browser if you installed the tool.) Include in your query list any blog with a page rank of 3/10 or greater. 3/10 might not sound like much, but it indicates a maturing site with a nice-sized audience. Each rank up from there is at least a “doubling” of rank, so 4/10 is twice the value of 3/10.

Guest blogging without permission
You can also be a guest of all the high profile blogs without asking. Comment on blogs, even the high profile ones on Variety Magazine, ForeWord Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and the New York Times. To avoid being “moderated” keep your comment informative, add statistics or useful tips and bury a link to your blog at the end. Mention all your important keywords in your comment: name, book name, publisher name, ISBN, web address. Most of the time, you will not be screened out unless you overtly spam. “Nice post, visit me at www.mysite.com” is spam. If you create a thoughtful comment, you’ve created an inbound link to your site on one of the biggest blogsites on the net.

Finally, some Tips
Whether you’re guest blogging or writing for your own dozen or so blogs (which soon will have GPRs of 4/10 right?), you’ll want to keep these tips in mind:

• Keep your posts informational: news and content drives traffic and links
• Write a daily post in each blog, even if they’re short
• Write personally, in the first person. Use I, you and we.
• Work hard on your headline and be sure to include all your keywords so that audiences can find you
• Provocation helps. My most popular blog title, still going strong on several sites, was:
Are Readers and Movie-Goers Addicted to Sex and God-Killing?
• Work equally hard on perfecting your first paragraph and be sure to ask a question that must be answered
• Don’t preach or proselytize
• Be truthful, honest and sincere. You hurt yourself with any form of exaggeration.
• Write your best prose. As a writer or publisher, your writing style will be evaluated based on your blog
• Link liberally to other blogs, especially your other blogs
• If you can’t break news, provide a fresh point of view on the what’s happening
• Be chatty and conversational. Blogs are editorial, but more conversational than a magazine feature article
• Tell as story
• Be useful
• If you rant, do so with good humor and provide facts. Don’t whine
• Allow commenting on your blogs to increase your page ranks and inspire audience participation. To prevent spamming go to your blog settings and turn on moderation
• You don’t have to remove negative comments (except for racist, sexist, or rude comments) as long as they are intelligently argued. Construct a reply that is equally thoughtful and you’ve created a conversation
• Only write how-tos if you’re an expert. Otherwise, be helpful and simply point people to the experts
• Write a major feature a week on your blogs, and a daily short post. Monthly, plan on a killer post that will drive new audiences
• Use your important keywords in every post.

Posted by: Derek Armstrong

Let’s call it Web 3.0 — The Cure-All For Book Sales Horror Stories

How do publishers and authors beat the odds—that terrifying Nielsen Bookscan report that nearly 80% of books in the market sell less than 99 copies in total?

One of the key reasons authors bury Kunati Books in submissions—8,500 submissions per year is pretty much a “drowning in manuscripts” scenario—is our “marketing-first” approach to publishing. Quill and Quire profiled Kunati Books as “what a publisher looks like if the marketing department runs things.”

A How-To: Web 3.0 from the Experts

Step-by-step I’ll cover the top-line tactics that we’ve proven work, starting this week with our own killer applications: book/novel trailers and the author marketing group. Next week, I’ll reveal our Web 3.0 Social Marketing Program.

Bear in mind these are methods we’ve proven to work, beating the odds with all of our released titles—by a good margin. It’s not Quantum mechanics, and anyone can do it, but I’ll warn you—these methods require talent, hard work, long hours, commitment, discipline, planning and heart. Heart, because that’s what keeps you going seven days a week during launch phase. If that sounds like too much, stop reading now. You’ll get nothing from this how-to.

The Author-Publisher Partnership—Your Online Marketing Group

The most important anchoring strategy I can offer, fundamental to that all-important author-publisher partnership, is the Author Marketing Group. Every publisher who works with more than one author should have one. We set ours up as a free private Yahoo Group, inviting all our authors to participate by email.

Everything from author ideas to tips to events are discussed, topic by topic in this private “forum.” Our authors get to know each other. They buzz each other’s books and events. They tell everyone about their friends. They link their blogs to each other.

Big news is conveyed seamlessly to authors. As long as the group remains dynamic and interesting, every post is read by authors. Our Kunati Authors Group now has an archive of 6,500 past posts, fully searchable by new authors who join and want to “catch up” on how-to manage a book signing, how-to approach a bookseller CRM or manager/owner, how-to set up a Facebook page, how-to use Widgetbox. It’s all there. Priceless.

The Author Brand—Everyone’s Secret Weapon

I write this without fear that our authors’ egos will suddenly inflate to unmanageable levels. I also write this as a publisher who virtually specializes in debut authors with no brand awareness. Ultimately, this is the “secret weapon” we wield, the key to beating the odds. Even a debut author must become a “name brand.”

Treat Every Author as a Celebrity and a Friend

Celebrities can be friends, too. We hope to make our authors celebrities. And we hope they’ll stay friends forever. It requires hard work, a true partnership between author and publisher. Starting, of course, with the Online Marketing Group.

Step two is an innovation of our creative director Kam Wai Yu. Kam invented the book trailer back in the dark ages when 1 megabyte of Ram was too expensive for most designers—back before anyone even know what QuickTime was in the distant 1990. His innovation, an innocent one, would change everything online. Now, no one in publishing would think of launching a book without one, right?

Book Trailers—If Done Right, the Most Important Tactic of All

Pretty much everyone does them now, but hardly anyone does them well. Why? Because they’re too rushed, not thought out; they try to do too much.

To do a trailer that works requires time and talent. The trailer should be as good as the book. Remember, we’re building the author brand. The trailer is the 30 second stand-in for a book that someone is going to invest days in reading: reviewers, librarians, booksellers, readers.

It must build the author’s brand in two minutes. At Kunati, Kam spends weeks on each trailer, not days, carefully scripting, adding sound F/X, building it in proper animation software. And it shows. Each one is a priceless work of art. Each one is memorable. Each one is distinctly the author’s brand.

A Good Trailer Results in Reviews

With Kam’s trailers, every single one of our debut authors has received big trade and newspaper reviews that sold books. The credibility alone, of an apparently big budget trailer, overcomes the “debut author” stigma. I remember one magazine editor (it might even have been someone at ForeWord), commenting on how the “trailer DVD” sent with the galley made such a difference, especially since they’d never heard of either Kunati or the author.

The book trailer alone for The Last Troubadour directly sold thousands of books, and helped build my own author brand. If we had done nothing else, the trailer would have made the book a success and built a fan base. You can view it here: http://www.kunati.com/the-last-troubadour-historical/

Burn it to a DVD for Reviewers, Load it On Your Web, Watch the Sales Come In

Each prospective reviewer should receive your trailer with an author sell sheet, the galley and a nice presentation. The trailer should be right on top on the book web page—the first thing a visitor sees. They sell books! Every time.

Quick Trailer Tips

• Take your time and do it right. Hire the best if you can’t render the best. If you can’t afford to do either, skip the trailer altogether and find another way to impress reviewers, readers, librarians and booksellers (next week’s topics)
• Burn a DVD for reviewers. It can make a difference when a reviewer is deciding where to spend his or her valuable time. A typical reviewer or editor must choose which of the thousands of books in the pile to review. Stand out from the pile.
• Use YouTube to host your videos. Not only do you build a social network at YouTube, you can embed their code on your website, in your emails and in your blogs without uploading the video countless times.
• Do not use voices or actors. It’s doubtful you can afford a good actor. A bad actor can cheapen the author’s brand, turn away reviewers and readers. Even a good actor weakens a book video because readers want to visualize their characters for themselves.
• Use images, appropriate music and sound effects and—one long, run-on sentence, just a few words per screen sequence. Skip the punctuation and paragraphs. It’s just a teaser!
• Do it right, or don’t do it.

Three Examples of Correctly Rendered Trailers that Sell Books
I’ll share three we launched recently for three spring titles, two for debut authors. Almost immediately after the trailer launch, advance orders doubled. The only other tactic proven to hit advance sales so hard are good reviews. And trailers help there as well. It’s win, win.

Try these links out, and see if you don’t agree. These not only sell books, they sell author brands to reviewers, librarians, booksellers and readers. Take them for a spin. You’ll love them:

• The wild and wacky world of Alban Bane in MADicine: http://www.kunati.com/madicine/
• The DaVinci Code killer Hunting the King from Peter Clenott:
http://www.kunati.com/hunting-the-king-peter-clenott/
• The gripping and too-real “ripped from the headlines” story of Karen Harrington’s http://www.kunati.com/karen-harrington/
• Check out last season’s blockbusters here:
http://www.kunati.com/kunatis-famous-novel-trailers/?currentPage=2


Social Marketing for Books Taken to the Next Level

Almost every publisher and author these days claims to have a MySpace page, and if done properly, they have a few thousand friends, post a blog daily and update their friends with bulletins. This is Web Marketing 2.0, and it’s important. But to really make a difference, go Web Marketing 3.0.  Next week, I’ll cover how to do this.

Meanwhile, get busy with your author marketing group and your book videos and novel trailers. Post your trailer links here in comments. We’d love to see them!

Posted by: Derek Armstrong

Warning — May Cause Nightmares.

Book industry numbers are cold-sweat terrifying for publishers and authors alike. According to Nielsen Bookscan, 3,000 books are published per day in the United States alone (as reported on www.deadlyprose.com). ForeWord can review at most a few thousand per year. Publishers report an average of 2,100 submissions per year, totaling 132 million submissions. Just under one percent are accepted for publication.

In the face of these staggering odds, is there any hope for authors and publishers?

The Majority of Books Sell Fewer than 99 Copies
Of the 1.2 million titles tracked by Bookscan in 2006, only 2.1% sold more than 5,000 books, 16.6% sold fewer than 1,000, and a terrifying 79.6% sold fewer than 99 copies. The 99 copies are no doubt the reason only one percent of authors’ submissions make it through the arduous publisher-review process.

This is all the stuff of wake-in-a-sweat nightmares: 63,000 publishers vie for readers with their wonderful author lists (according to Dan Poynter’s ParaPublishing.com).

The terror is no less for authors: only six conglomerate publishers publish fewer and fewer debut authors and less and less fiction. Then the real horror story commences as a book makes it into distribution. The bestseller dreams of authors and publishers are splashed with the cold water of real numbers.

Negative or Naïve?
Am I being negative or naïve? Perhaps both. The naïve part of the equation is my firm belief there are ways to break through these barriers to success. Kunati  was founded with this goal in mind, and has proven it can work.

Heather Shaw touched on one important element of the success formula in her insightful Blog on book covers. When competing with 1.2 million titles, first impressions (impact) and credibility are vital. These are the twin functions of a cover.

What Works for Selling Books?
Websites, book videos and novel trailers, author critique groups, social marketing, author Blog tours, old-fashioned but still-important book signings, and publicity are the proven methods for marketing. I hope to focus on these in future Publisher Insider Blogs in a more how-to format.

Innovation begins with a study of what works. Read every Blog in the ForeWord archive and every article in the magazine. Visit the sites of successful publishers—the innovative publishers who lead with new ideas such as novel trailers, Blog touring, online publicity. (hint, hint, Kunati). Read every page on sites from innovative publishers.

Getting Noticed is the Primary Goal
My message is simple. With these horrifying numbers, being noticed is almost the only thing that matters—for both authors and publishers. Many authors are creative, even brilliant, yet if they can’t market their “author brand” no publisher is interested.

The publisher faces an epic battle analogous to a Tolkien quest to get attention in the marketplace. The publisher must build the authors’ brands, edit the manuscripts for the market, arrange distribution, obtain reviews from magazines (which choose from millions), then sell to wholesalers, retailers and finally readers.

The Retailer
How does a retailer choose which titles to carry? The average retailer chooses to stock a few thousand copies per year, far less than 1% of the titles available—similar in numbers to the reviews published annually by ForeWord. That’s not a coincidence.

Publisher and author success relies on buzz, which is a combination of review exposure, social networking, book cover designs, author activities such as Blogs and signings (the two types of touring, virtual and tangible). The last part of the equation is wonderful content.

Innovative Authors Look Beyond Good Prose
With the knowledge that more than 80% of books published are going to fail, how can a publisher risk taking on new, unproven property? How can an author convince a publisher to take them on?

There are certain musts in an author presentation, and in our evaluation of the author:
• Is the query well-written? An author who doesn’t polish a query until it becomes the choicest morsel of prose ever written has no chance at all.
• Is the idea compelling? Yes, tell us the comparables (claims of being the next Da Vinci Code or Harry Potter are overused though!), but what’s the UNIQUE aspect—the high concept. No matter how small, there must be one.
• The sample chapters? Same story. If those three chapters aren’t pure masterpiece, the editor will tend to move on.
• Did they read the submission guidelines on the website? One mistake here disqualifies most authors. Take the time to study your prospective publisher.

Innovative Publishers Look Beyond Agents
Unlike many publishers, Kunati accepts un-agented submissions by email. How can we do this, given the awful odds against a new author’s success?

We certainly acquire agented manuscripts, but the creative-process required for an author to pitch a manuscript is clearest sign of ambition, drive and creativity. We believe in the un-agented submission. It allows the author to prove they can develop their author “brand.” Other things we look for:
• Is the author realistic about his/her prospects?
• Is the author able to work with the publisher at making the book as marketable as possible? Considering the numbers, this might be the most important of all.
• These days, we also look for authors who are savvy about online marketing, blogging, MySpace and social marketing, and who are not shy about public appearances. Some writers are notoriously shy, preferring to hide behind their keyboard.

Successfully Marketing Books Require a Publisher-Author Partnership.
The truth is, only bestselling authors receive major publishing support in marketing. A publisher’s first duty is to market to the trade. That’s a big job. Stores stock thousands out of the millions of titles. Just getting the books into distribution is monumental. Trade ads, reviews, advance reading copies, publicity, great book covers, strong web presence, book trailers—these all help. Even the big conglomerate publishers typically stop there. There’s not much in the way of marketing dollars left for end-reader marketing for 90% of authors. Hand-selling from retailers and buzz becomes the key to success.

Hand-selling and Buzz
Book selling is still very much a word-of-mouth business. Readers don’t always respond to what we think they will. Social marketing, in all its aspects, it the true secret of any book’s success. Books can become bestsellers when just one influential person finds it and starts buzzing (Oprah will do.)  Social marketing involves building a broad network of friends.

Ultimately, the true secret to publishing success is a strong partnership between authors and publishers, working together to create buzz. This is a big topic, and the subject of next week’s Blog.

Posted by: Derek Armstrong

Norman Mailer, one of the leading American icons of contemporary American literature, is dead.

Presumably you already knew that. But I am not here to praise, or disparage, Mr. Mailer’s work. I can’t, because I never read anything he wrote. His hardcover books always looked too thick and heavy for my squeamish tastes. And they always seemed to be pushing the list price envelope by $5 to $10, as if it was assumed the rich elites would reliably consume his books with great velocity without bothering to note the price. I suppose they did. I don’t recall seeing Mr. Mailer’ books in post-hardcover paperback, though they must be. I probably didn’t notice them because I wasn’t looking for them.

I was also somehow repelled by the Mailer head shots that seemed to crown his books. The imposing images never struck me as joyful or easy going. There was pain, even agony, in the wrinkle-lined eyes, and a possibly abrupt rudeness around the mouth. I could imagine myself in his presence being incessantly lectured to about the ways things were and should be. I didn’t think he would care about what I thought, or take the time to listen. Though as a successful novelist, he must have possessed an intuitive ability to absorb other people’s personalities and sentiments. Let me be clear, I never met Norman Mailer and never had any opinions about him whatsoever, until his death made me think about him.

Mailer literally lived in a glass dominated house for all to see. In fact, it would have been easy to throw bricks into his living room, and then disappear into a crowd. I sometimes wondered if any one ever did. His impressive apartment faced the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, where thousands of people walked within his view every day, though most of them probably didn’t know or no longer cared.

I have spent almost all of my adult life in the book business, and have lived more in New York than elsewhere. Yet, I don’t think I have ever had a conversation with anyone about Norman Mailer’s books, but I can say that I have heard his name and perhaps even said his name many times over the years, always in the context of his being Norman Mailer.

The name Norman Mailer was, and still is, an unmovable brand, like Andy Warhol, and Joe DiMaggio, and JFK, and numerous others. Most people who connect to the energies of these powerful names have little or no awareness of what any of them actually did when they were in their primes, but the names have become immortal adverbs through which to express certain meanings and feelings, they even show up in random songs, but it’s not yet known if Mailer will reach this rare pantheon in years to follow.

What’s the point of this blog? Well, Mailer was a major American celebrity, at least through the decades prior to the ’90s. His name was dropped in conversations; people were excited if they saw him in person; he was the frequent subject of rampant gossip and inane gibberish, and he would show up in high profile venues and situations that had nothing to do with his actual “job,” which was nothing more or less than writing. His name was used to help define an exalted “form” of writing and journalism. How many living or recently deceased writers can we say all this about?

Frankly, for those under 40, Mailer may have already been a vague ghost for a long time. But then who do they have instead?  My point exactly.

Posted by: Jeff Herman