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• Don't let your site's content or look get out of date.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.

Marketing Intensive for Professional Writers

Susan Raab talking to writers at the marketing intensive.

Those of us who are in this intensive session have a huge day ahead, and while we're not going to share all of the details on the blog, we'll give a few highlights as the day progresses. But we can share the schedule, so you see how information-packed this sort of thing is:

Using Social Media to Your Best Advantage, with Sarah Dickman of Odyl.net; Susan Raab, president of Raab Associates; and Deb Shapiro, founder of Deb Shapiro & Co.

Creating Book Trailers & Other Random Acts of Promotion, with Darcy Pattison.

Promote Yourself via School Curriculum & Visits, with Nick Glass, founder of teachingbooks.net and Deborah Hochman Turvey, founder of Visitingauthors.com.


Developing Effective Websites, with Maddee James, owner of Xuni.com.

Working Collaboratively with Publishers: What Should You Do and What Should They Do, with Cindy Tamasi Hamilton, director of publicity at Harper Collins; and Tracy van Straaten, vice president of publicity at Scholastic.


Tweet, Promote and Brand Your Way to Marketing Success: Strategies and Real World Scenarios, with Tracy Barrett, author; Roxie Munro, author/illustrator; Lin Oliver, author/SCBWI co-founder, Susan Raab, president of Raab Associates, Inc.

New Directions in Publicity, Emerging Trends, with Jason Kintzler, founder of PitchEngine.


Where Next? Multimedia, Mobile, Electronic and Game Platform, with Jon Fine, director of author and publisher relations at Amazon.com; Michel Kripalani, president Oceanhouse Media; and Peter Reynolds, founder of Fablevision.com.