Out-of-the-Box Marketing by Melissa Clark

When I was trying to think of unconventional methods to get the word out about my first novel, The Playboy Mansion came to mind. 

You see, at the time, the reality show Girls Next Door was very popular and my dad, a writer himself, had lots of older friends who regularly attended the Mansion on movie night.  As luck would have it, calls were made and an invitation was extended to me, the glasses-wearing-uber-nerd-writer, to spend an evening at the Mansion. 

My aim was simple - I would deliver three signed copies of my book to the three girlfriends, and assuming they read, my hope was they might mention my unconvetional plot (girl gets pregnant from a lazy sperm) on air. 

The Mansion was not what I expected and the girls seemed so out of place among all the alter kockers there for movie night. I met Holly first, Hef's #1 girlfriend at the time. She smiled weakly and took the book saying she was about to go on a trip and would read it on the plane. Brigette was next - she was holding her dog in one hand and with the other hand reached out to take my book. She seemed a little confused, like why is this 30something girl with glasses handing me a book that she wrote? And then there was Kendra. She bounded in with all the energy of a 21-year-old. She was enthusiastic and full of questions. I loved her immediately. (She has since "written her own book"). 

After a mediocre dinner and a movie I'd already seen in the theater, I said my goodbyes and headed home, resolving to watch the reality show every week and hoping, praying, begging for a glimpse or mention of my novel. No such luck. 

A few months later, however, after an evening of Googling, I found that Bridgette, the least interested of the gals, had put my book up for auction in order to raise money for troops in Afganhastan. I was shocked. I spent the next few days watching the auction price rise - from fifteen dollars to a whopping $982.00! Who the hell paid 982 for my book? 

Well, the marketing scheme didn't exactly pan out as I'd hoped, but yay for the troops! 

In more mainstream marketing efforts I found postcards, book fairs and plain, old word-of-mouth to be the best bets. And as fellow Girlfriends have written in previous posts, just make sure you write the best book you can - the rest is truly icing on the cake.

Melissa Clark is the author of "Swimming Upstream, Slowly", "Imperfect," and the creator of the children's television show, "Braceface." She is too old to be a Playboy bunny, but a girl can dream... Follow her at Connections Clark!

Zen and The Art of Marketing, a survival message for writers

by Samantha Wilde
My long-awaited second novel, I'll Take What She Has, hits the shelves today. I have spent the past two months eating, sleeping, drinking and making love to marketing. (Bad in bed, by the way.

If you are going to work at getting your book out into the world, into the hands of readers and reviewers and critics and bookstores and bloggers and radio stations and television stations and friends, no good marketing plan can be without this: DTIP.

Sounds like a vaccination, doesn't it? Actually, it is. It's the way to vaccinate ourselves so we don't, as writers, become sick with the effects of the responses to our marketing. If you get yourself and your book out there, you will undoubtedly come up against rejection, criticism, silence, and the worst of them--failure.

I don't mean that you'll fail at everything, but, honestly, even with the best efforts, we can feel as if we have failed. If you want Oprah and #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list and you don't get there, you feel like you've failed. If you get in touch with bloggers who don't reply or reviewers who give you two stars, then you're bound to feel some sense of rejection. And this applies to all, including the most brilliant and accomplished of novelists. No one can write a book everyone likes. No one can market without some rebuff or silence or insult.

That's why we all need DTIP: don't take it personally. This is my survival advice for writers. It's my survival advice for living.

One person loves your novel. One person can't stand it. One blogger wants you on their site, one blogger never responds. You get a hundred people to read a post, you get ten. You're still putting out your best. Your book doesn't change in the hands of the readers; the readers are different. I truly don't know how any writer could survive the challenges presented by the layers of rejection involved in publishing and promoting a creative work without the ability to see that, in the end, it's not personal. And I don't mean that a person isn't rejecting you when they reject your book, I mean more than that.

Once you surrender your work to the ferocity of the modern world, the uncensored judgement of the internet, and the fierce competition of the publishing industry, you have to hold close to Zen.

When my copies of I'll Take What She Has arrived at my doorstep, I dressed up and I lay down in those books and rolled around in ecstasy. I wrote a book that was scheduled for 2010, went through five changes of editor, almost didn't release, and finally came to me in 2013. I wasn't going to wait for People or Oprah or the NYTimes to feel inside that experience of success. And you don't need to wait either. The world will or will not validate your work, or it will do it in part and not in other parts. Don't take it personally. The world has its own troubles. In truth, some of the most successful, prominent and most celebrated writers still do not feel they have gotten there yet. Where we all want to get to, it isn't a place, it's a feeling--and you can go there all on your own. And that's the Zen of it.

Watch the book trailer for I'll Take What She Has here. Buy I'll Take What She Has today and give Sam some more Zen! The book, about envy, friendship and new motherhood was an RT Book Review Top Pick. Sam, the mother of three small children and the author of This Little Mommy Stayed Home, is an ordained minister (believe it or not!) and a yoga teacher. Read her blog, laugh at her outrageous videos on FB or follow her on twitter @whatshehas.

5 Must Haves in Book Marketing

by Malena Lott

So this post is where my two worlds meet. I'm an author marketer. A marketing author. When I'm not writing fiction, I'm creating branded content for clients - everything from brand strategy like taglines and positioning to digital ads, web copy and traditional advertising campaigns. You can learn more about my company Athena Institute here. In 2011, I added publishing into the fold with the imprint Buzz Books USA. We've published 16 titles with 7 more coming this year, which means a whole lot of branding going on because each title or series needs a marketing plan.

Must haves?

1. 4 Ws and 1 H. If you don't know who you are, what you're doing, why you're doing it, where you're going to promote yourself and how you're going to get it done, you'll feel lost. A marketing plan can be as simple as that. Work it out and stay the course. 
2. Do something daily to promote yourself. It could be a guest blog or it could be simply having an ongoing campaign running to keep your name in front of your audience, but you do have to have action to make traction.
3. Invest in your brand. This means both time and money. It can be as little as a dollar a day spent reaching new folks on Facebook or a pay per click campaign. If you have enough money to try "lump sum" advertising, go for it and see what results. If you're confident about your 4 W and 1H, then you'll feel better about advertising.
4. Put yourself out there. Including in the real world. Digital is great and online will always be here, but it's actually noisier on here than it is in the traditional space. Reach is wonderful online, but effectiveness and return on investment can come a lot quicker with a speaking opportunity. I'm speaking to a group of young business leaders next Tuesday and I got my new business cards in. Or are they bookmarks? They are business card bookmarks. All business on the front and party on the back. And by "party," I mean my book covers. I'll offer those 60 attendees a card and if they email me, I'll give them an early review copy of my first branding book, The Little Brand That Could coming out in late spring. I'll also co-promote one of my author's books, PR Rock Star, which is the first Little Brand book. Always give them something in return for their time.
5. Persistence and patience. Don't give up. I tell my clients and my authors, just when you're getting tired of your campaign, everyone else is just starting to notice it. Marketing should be ongoing and good brands should never die. You have to keep breathing new life into them and also work on reach and frequency. If you are talking to a lot of people but don't have repetition, you're message will be forgotten. If you talk to too few people, but hit them with frequency, you'll get results but only by those few. It takes both. 

If you're a marketer, small business owner or an author, and would like to read an early copy of either PR Rock Star or The Little Brand That Could, leave a comment below and let me know which title you'd like and your email address. If you have a marketing question, hit me up. I'll answer. 

If you're on Facebook, I'm doing a year-long True-Do campaign on my Facebook author page with tips on living our true purpose with as much peace, prosperity and joy as we can muster. I'm also giving away weekly prizes.