Coming Up For Air Can Net You the Biggest Fish

As a book marketer and packager of many different genres, I know how distracting the various markets can be and how hard it is to catch every little fish in the pond -- let alone the big fish.  I know how bad it feels to just miss an opportunity that should have been mine, or one of my client's.  "The One That Got Away" always feels awful for a long time.

I'm sure you have experienced it, too. Everyone misses opportunities because we are drowning in information. To make it worse, the news always bubbles to the surface only one measly day too late -- you hear about an event that would have been perfect for featuring your book, or you see an article in the paper where you would have been the perfect expert to interview, or a conference brochure arrives in the mail with another author delivering your topic, or someone tells you the most horrible news of all: Oprah just did a show on just your topic.

How can you be sure you are reeling in the best opportunities when there are so many places to fish?  Realistically, you can't. You are probably forehead deep in your topic already and can barely find time to come up for air as it is.  But you need to if you are going to thrive as an author. Using tools that are available can certainly help.
 
Here are three of my best fishing holes for automating a constant flow of useful information. Yes, I know any angler will tell you never to reveal where the fish are biting, but these will help you be more on top of things.  
 
1.  Google Alerts with daily notifications:

• Your name (and all its misspellings)
• Your book title (ditto on the misspellings)
• Your company name (ditto)
• Your competitors' names (ditto)
• Your competitors' book titles (ditto)
• Your topic areas -- in as many ways as you can think of saying them (ditto)
• Celebs, VIPs, experts in your topic area (ditto)
• Associations, organizations, groups important to your topic (ditto)

2.  Conference Programming Committees often put out a notice that they are looking for experts. They will post a "Call for Presentations", "Call for Speakers", "Call for Presenters", "Call for Papers", etc.  I put this phrase in my Google Alerts with my topic areas, too -- HOWEVER, doing a weekly search and deliberately looking for opportunities will net better results.  Google the phrases in quotes, with your topic areas outside the quotes.  For example, if your topic is Caregiving, your Google searches would be
"Call for Presentations" caregiving
"Call for Presenters" caregiving
"Call for Speakers" caregiving ..... and so on. 

The results will come up with various Calls and you will be asked to prepare proposals for your presentations -- some are very short and concise with their requirements, and some are extensive proposals.  Knowing they are available is 3/4 of the battle!

3.  Subscribe to HARO.com (Help a Reporter Out) and PitchRate.  Every day, you will receive an email (sometimes more than once a day). That email contains a list of articles for which reporters and bloggers are currently looking for experts to interview.  Casting your line into the water is simple, and you'll be surprised at how you can easily and quickly build your reputation for being a helpful expert. 

Come up for air, use the tools that are free and readily available, and start catching those opportunities!

Small Press Month - Tip # 28

March 28 - Participate in blog promotions and contests. A great way to spread the word about your title (as well as a relatively free or pretty cheap way) is to participate in blog giveaways. I don't mean enter to win a prize for yourself -- I mean offer YOUR book as the prize! There are many benefits to your book being "the prize". The blogger will mention your title multiple times in their posts: 1) to announce the giveaway, 2) to keep readers up-to-date on the entries, and 3) to announce the winner, at the very least. And more likely than not, they will link to your website...and we all like backlinks.

There are several ways to find blog giveaways in which to participate. The most obvious way is to search for blogs that cover your topic and then contact them to say you are interested in doing a giveaway of your book to their followers. They might say yes, but they might say no, too.  Move on to the next one and thank the blogger for their time. A more sure-fire way to get your foot in the door is to subscribe to free sites like HARO.com and PitchRate.com, which will send daily requests to your inbox from reporters and bloggers looking for sources and materials. You can tailor your results to fit your interests, whatever they may be. Bloggers will often get the word out this way when they are looking to do a giveaway, and you sure as heck want to know when they are asking!

When you receive a request that fits your topic, you simply contact the requester (however the site requires you do it) and let them know you are interested in being a part of their giveaway. Be sure to send them all the information they will need about you and your book. It is also a good idea to send them a link to your website and your online press kit if you have one (which you should!). If all goes well, they will let you know that they would love to do a giveaway of your book! The blogger will tell you what to do next -- some will want you to ship them a copy of the book for them to keep, as well as a copy to send to the winner. Others will want you to directly ship the winning copy. Either way, you have successfully done your first blog giveaway and added yet another great way to spread the word about your book to your toolbox.