Highlights from the Writers' Marketing Intensive

It's hard to choose just one highlight per speaker--everyone has had remarkable insights and tips. But, alas, that's all we can reveal from this remarkable day.

From the social media panel: 

Deb Shapiro, founder of Deb Shapiro & Co. She advises patience. "It takes a long time to build and develop a fan base. More often than not, the authors you see who were quite successful, it did take them some time."

Susan Raab, president, Raab Associates: Ask yourself: Who is your market. Teens? Educational market? Go where your market is, and find out what they want by following them.

Sarah Dickman: “Facebook is a black hole. It’s taking everything. You have to be on there—really.”

From Darcy Pattison's book trailer presentation: 

Darcy Pattison talks about book trailers and what works.

In book trailers, the idea matters more than anything. Very specific, concrete details make things memorable. You are looking for things to add into your trailer that are specific and concrete. Also, "go for the emotional response." (And humor plays really well, if it's appropriate for your story.)

From Promote Yourself Via Curriculum & School Visits with Nick Glass and Deborah Hochman Turvey: 

Nick Glass: Prepare classes before school visits. It makes it better when they’ve prepared the way you want them to prepare. They can read the book, do activities beforehand. Other things, like reader's theater scripts can be effective if your contract allows it. Readers want to know how you work, where you get your ideas, etc.

Deborah Hochman Turvey: There are a lot of little things you can do to prepare for a school visit: Get directions to the school, be nice to the school secretary, be flexible, bring Sharpies, bring books--and prepare for nothing to work.

From Developing Effective Websites with Madee James owner of Xuni.com:

Among other things, Madee shared a bunch of handy website "don'ts." Does your site break any of her rules?

• Don't have an unprofessional design. 
• Don't have a cluttered, cutesy navigation. 
• Don't let your site's content or look get out of date. 
• Don't design it entirely in Flash--search engines can't find you. 
• Don't have your book trailer or music play automatically. 
• Don’t put book spoilers on your site. 
• Don’t include images that are too big in terms of file size.