Above is an example of a media page from author Kathy Lynn Harris’s website. So do you need a media page (also known as a media kit?)

If you are considering a blog tour, are contacting reviewers, want to be featured on blogs, websites or your local or national newspaper/ magazine, a media page is a killer resource to have. It makes reporters and bloggers owners’ lives a ton easier (trust me I know all about this!) and this in turn means that they will be more likely to feature you.

If all the information about yourself and your book is in one place, it’s just so much easier to whip up a short post or feature. This is the aim of the media page, to cater to the media folk, so keep them in mind when building the most intuitive and informative media page possible.

Here is a list of 14 useful things you can include on it.

1. A summary of your press attention to date. This can be images and links to PR you have already received to show off a little.

2. Author Bio for Press. This is a professional yet fun summary that doesn’t include your whole life story. Keep it to under 150-300 words and make sure it’s interesting!

3. A Book Description. Short and interesting enough to be lifted and used in it’s entirety on another site or article.

4. Author Photo: Upload or attach a link to a professional, high resolution headshot. Not you at dinner with your other half or hanging out on the sofa in your Christmas sweater!

5. Book Info: The vital statistics – title, subtitle, genre, ISBN, no. of pages, formats available, publisher and release date.

6. Reviews and endorsements: This can be sentences lifted from Amazon.com reviews, or endorsements from professional reviewers or other authors/ celebrities (blurbs) if available.

7. Press releases, if any.

8. Buying information: Links to the relevant retailers.

9. Contact information. Your email address or that of a publicity rep, Twitter handle if you have one.

10. Interview topic ideas that are relevant to your book. Give the reviewer/ reporter/ site owner some food for thought.

11. News pegs. How does the book ties into contemporary issues, politics, news? Even if your book is a fiction, you can be considered an “expert” in the topics and issues presented in your story. Your personal story is bound to influence your writing, so if you’re not shy present your own experiences in relation to your book, too.

12. Sample chapter/ excerpt: (A link to) Don’t go overboard or include anything with spoilers! Enough text to pique interest is all that is needed here.

13. Book trailer/ audio file (interview)

14. Info on your target readers: Who reads and buys your books? Why? This info helps a journalist, blogger, or other potential reviewer know if you appeal to their own target audience.

And there you have it, a Media-friendly press page! It might take you a few hours to get all of this information together,  but the content will be useful for ALL of your promotional efforts, and will help you get the media attention you deserve by putting you a cut above the rest.

See my example for my book Wow! Glowing Bride in 30 Days here. See an example put together by 30 Day Books for the author Kathy Lynn Harris here.

4. Promoting a Book: 10 Sites You Can Use in Your Promotions

Image Courtesy of sellingbooks.com

*This is part 4 in the series Awesome Tools & Resources for Writers (Mostly Free). Find part 1, Writing a Book here. Part 2, Querying a Book here. Part 3: Producing a Book (for self-publishers) here.*

1. Amazon Author Central Be sure to fill out your Amazon author central profile, claim your books, import your blog and Twitter feed in order to make the most of the free profile Amazon offers you.

2. Vistaprint Create marketing materials such as bookmarks, business cards, Tshirts, pens & fliers for a low cost at Vistaprint.com.

3. CafePress- Merchandise can be designed and ordered in a print on demand fashion, at CafePress. This can help with offline PR efforts, and is a lot of fun too! For example, here is the CafePress Ladies Who Critique shop.

4. YouTube: Make a video blog (vlog) or book trailer and upload it to a YouTube channel for free. Make it interesting or entertaining and it might just go viral.

(You can read this great article from NovelPublicity about the why and how of book promotion on YouTube).

5. Quibblo: Quibblo online quizzes are a great way to introduce your characters and story to potential readers. Create character quizzes, fun surveys, polls & personality quizzes. Make your own quiz for your blog or Facebook.

 6. HARO.com - Help a Reporter Out – “No such thing as free PR? Over 50000 journalists use HARO to locate experts for on-air interviews, article quotes and more.” If your book is non-fiction, or has some non-fiction PR angles, be sure to read the HARO emails each day where journalists and other media peops send out requests for experts or people with knowledge in a certain field to quote. That could well be you!

7. Animoto.com: Animoto is a slide show software that allows you to add pictures and music – a great, low budget way of making book trailers. It’s free for up to 30 seconds, longer videos are available for a low cost.

See an example book trailer made with Animoto.com.

8. Blogging platforms: WordPress is my platform of choice (very customizable and flexible – Ladies Who Critique is hosted on WordPress), Blogger is also a popular (and free) option.

If you want a great resource to learn how and what to blog about in order to create a successful blog, I suggest Kristen Lamb’s Are You There Blog, It’s Me Writer.

9. Email marketing services: Mailchimp/ Constant Contact are both great services for emailing several people at once; perfect for author newsletters or for spreading news about your writing/ books and keeping a complete list of subscribers. Mailchimp is my fave, plus it’s free up to 2000 contacts.

Here is an article from Joanna Penn of the Creative Penn on building an email list for author marketing.

10. Reddit: Users add news links, but these don’t really have to be “news” in the traditional sense. You can upload links to your latest blogpost, photos, or anything that might be of interest. Votes by other users promote stories to the front page (but you can also be voted down so be sure to add something of value!) Great for promoting your own articles and news. As a writer, be sure to join these groups: writing, nanowrimo, selfpublish, books, literature.

 The next post in this series will cover social media sites you can use in your promotions: stay tuned post-Thanksgiving!

3. Producing a Book (for independent & self-published wannabes)

The independence that self-publishing has created is wonderful. Many companies and services have jumped on the bandwagon trying to sell their services and help converting and producing printed books and eBooks. While there is some merit (and certainly convenience) in these services it is possible for those on a tight budget to produce both paperback and digital formats. Here are some great links to get you started:

1. Print on Demand Companies: (e.g. Createspace, Lulu, Lightning Source) Print on Demand (POD) services allow you to print as many or as few copies of your book as you like, have it dropshipped and therefore eliminate the need for a publisher or physical stock. The most common and well regarded companies are:

- Createspace (My preferred POD company)

- Lulu

- Lightning Source

Great How-To:  How to Publish a Book Using Createspace, by Karen McQuestion

2. eBook Conversion:

Sigil: “Sigil is a multi-platform WYSIWYG ebook editor. It is designed to edit books in ePub format” For Kindle, and it’s FREE!

eBookburn: “eBookBurn.com is a full-featured eBook creation tool that’s also simple to use. Sign Up Now! It’s Free! No Programming Required”

Kindleprocessor: Kindle formatting conversion for 99 cents.

3. Book Cover Design: I strongly suggest hiring a fantastic book cover designer to produce a cover that looks as professional and pleasing as possible. For great tips on what this involves, get familiar with Joel Friedlanders site, The Book Designer. For those who have some graphic designer skills and/or really cannot afford a professional’s help, royalty -free/ low cost images are available from:

Graphic River.net

istockphoto.com

Dreamstime.com

Bigstock.com

The Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog

4. Publishing Digitally

- Publishing on the Amazon Kindle: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin

- How to Publish on Kindle (by Amazon) You Tube Video

- Publishing on Barnes & Noble Nook: www.pubit.com

- Smashwords: For publishing on other eBook retailers and platforms (Kobo, iStore, Sony and more) I suggest converting your manuscript for Smashwords (the infamous meatgrinder is notoriously difficult to format for, but please see below for “easier” guidelines) http://www.smashwords.com

- The Official Smashwords Style Guide – http://www.smashwords.com/books/download/52/1/latest/0/0/smashwords-style-guide.pdf

- The Shorter, Easier, Non-Migraine Inducing Version of Smashwords Style Guide (by Catherine Ryan Howard) http://catherineryanhoward.com/2010/09/06/how-to-format-your-e-book-the-non-migraine-inducing-way/

- Catherine Ryan Howard An eBook Checklist – amazing!  – http://catherineryanhoward.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/ebook-checklist.pdf

As always, let me know if I missed anything!

2. Querying a Book

The best way to become familiar with what it is agents & publishers are looking at is to get the inside scoop, and these links are a great place to start. Bookmark these sites and blogs!!!

- Nathan Bransford Nathan is a former literary agent turned author and his site still has a ton of resources for authors seeking literary agents – where does he find the time?

- Miss Snark’s First Victim This mystery blogger was the former query-critiquing queen, Miss Snark’s, fist victim! Now she took all that good advice and critiques excerpts and queries.

- The Public Query Slushpile Have your query letter critiqued by the public – there is no literary agent on this site, it’s up to visitors to comment, hence the “public” query slushpile.

- QueryTracker A list of 9000+ authors and the literary agents who represent them, or who have represented them in the past.

Articles about QueryingHow to write a Query Letter: by Gary Smailes

How to write a Book Proposal: by Gary Smailes

How Do I find an Agent?  by Gary Smailes

Chuck Sambucino’s Guide to Literary Agents Blog

Ten Factors to Consider When Writing Book ProposalsA list of successful query letters from different authors. Thanks to Matthew MacNish of the QQQE for putting this together!

What Not to Say in a Query, by Rachelle Gardner

 As always, don’t forget to share any tools or resources about querying that you have found of use in the comments below. Muchos gracias!

Image Courtesy of maryloukayser.com

One of my aims when I started Ladies Who Critique was to help empower writers to understand the latest technology and keep up with the current trends. With new resources and services popping up each day, it’s hard to stay on top of it all.

Just this morning I spoke to a retired writer who was feeling overwhelmed by the current technology and Internet tools that he hears about and reads about, but doesn’t truly understand or see the value in.

Over the next few days I am going to give an overview of some of the online tools, resources and sites that as a writer I use regularly and find incredibly helpful in my writing, publishing and promoting. I will cover each one briefly, including links to the best explanations I can find on how to use them effectively.

If you are ever feeling unsure on how to use one of these resources and wish to learn more, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and I’ll help you out where and when I can. Here are the blogposts scheduled for the next week or so:

1. Writing a Book: 11/17

2. Querying a Book: 11/18

3. Producing a Book: 11/19

4. Promoting a Book: 11/21

5. Social Media: 11/22

6. Monitoring Sales: 11/23

1. Writing a Book

1. 750 words a day

If you are struggling to write each day, 750 words.com might be just the accountability you need. It’s super cute, fun and if you are competitive, it might help that there is a leader board to egg you on.

Log on first thing in the morning, and get writing. You can even join one of the 10 day or  1 month challenges and receive a badge of honor when you are done.

750words.com/

2. Online Cloud Storage

Some people are diligent enough to back up their writing and work on an external hard drive or USB pen. For the rest of us, online cloud storage such as Dropbox and Google docs allows us not only to back up our work in case of any computer disasters, but also to retrieve the documents from any computing device, anywhere in the world. No longer do you have to juggle multiple copies of the same file; just work with one master file and edit it from anywhere. (Oh yeah, you can also use it to collaborate with others – perfect!)

Links:

Dropbox (You get 2 GB free)

Google Docs (1GB free)

iCloud is also available for those using Apple products.

3. Evernote

Jot down notes wherever you are! Evernote is a free note taking system that is great for us writers to sketch out outlines and jot down ideas for later use. Use it on your smartphone or computer, on the go or mulling over a cup of coffee at you local coffee house.

4. Writespace

Writespace (for Windows) is a fullscreen writing environment which creates a distraction-free environment in order for you to focus on your words and not get sidetracked by facebook & so on. It has a built in spell check as well, yay! If you use a Mac, Write Room is a similar program. Download the software for free and enjoy the peace and quiet.

5. Grammar Girl

Grammar queen Mignon Fogarty provides “quick and dirty tips” for better writing over on grammar.quickanddirtytips.com. Even the best writers make common grammar mistakes that only a fantastic editor will catch. Learn what they are here.

6. Story Starting Ideas

If you are in need of a prompt or two to get you started, Story Starter.com can help!

p.s. If you want have children to keep entertained over the holidays, there is even a StoryStarter for Kids…

7. Visuwords

On Visuwords, look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Visual diagrams show you how the connections and associations are made, helping you to expand your vocabulary, fast.

8. Ladies Who Critique!

Well I may be a teeny bit biased but… in all seriousness a good critique partner is essential for better writing. In fact I wrote a post for NovelPublicity.com this week about that very thing (Does My Manuscript Look Fat in This?) If Ladies Who Critique is not for you (and please remember that men are ALWAYS welcome!), here are some other critiquing sites that are out there;

How about you? Do you have any great tools or resources for writing a book to share that we could all benefit from?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post: Awesome Tools & Resources for Writers | Part 2: Querying a Book

On your profile there is the option to add the URLs to your personal and company websites:

If you click ‘Edit’, you can add in your own URLs.

The options you have for filling these out are: Personal Website, Company Website, Blog, RSS Feed, Portfolio or ‘Other’.

If you want to customize the title of your website to make it more enticing than ‘personal website’ or ‘blog’, click on ‘Other’ and you will then have the option to add in the name of your site (middle box), as well as the URL (end box).

On your profile, your websites will then be displayed by their name:

Voila! Easy wasn’t it?

Unsure what ‘latest generation’ means? See this page for images of the different Kindle generations to see what yours is!

The Before You Go… feature invites the reader to share with their Twitter and Facebook followers/ friends that they’ve finished the book. They are also able to give it a rating and write an Amazon review.

The page also links to other titles by the same author, as well as a list of books that “Customers who bought this book also bought…”. This is great news for authors with more than one title.

Image courtesy of pcmag.com

Key Points: Before You Go

1. Before You Go is a built-in feature and it’s only built into the latest generation. Neither the Kindle owner nor the book publisher has to turn it on, it’s naturally there.

2. Readers do need to enter their Twitter and Facebook account details into their Kindle in order to share what they have read.

3. The only real thing you need to know as a publisher: the Before You Go… page is a very useful way of getting reviews on the spot since many people will forget to write them later. And as we all know reviews drive sales. So you want as many people as possible to see this page.

What you do not want therefore is a ton of backmatter between the last word of your book and before the Before You Go screen. When formatting your book, be sure to make sure the Before You Go screen comes soon after the book finishes.

Traditionally there might be acknowledgements, references, book club questions and prompts after the last word. I would argue that it is more important to have readers see this screen than include this information. Important acknowledgements (brief ones at least) can come at the beginning of the book, and other information can be found on your website, which you can leave a link to at the end of the book.

The only backmatter exception I can see worth having, is a chapter excerpt for another of your titles at the end of your book. If readers enjoyed the book they just finished they will most likely want to read your excerpt and be drawn into your other title this way.

What are your thoughts and experiences with the Before You Go… screen? How will you handle not leaving the traditional pages and pages of acknowledgements? Do you think that spreading the word through social media in this instance drives sales?

My first writers group experience was 18 months ago, when I plucked up the courage to join the amazing “Coffee House Writers Group” led by the wonderful Christine Marie Bryant. I was pretty nervous, but that woman is such a sweetheart. She creates an amazing atmosphere, ensures that everyone feels comfortable, and most importantly of all, the group is all sorts of fun. I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t been going regularly for 6 months (wow… I had no idea it was that long … time flies) due to work and family commitments and just general frazzledness.

In the year that I spent attending the meeting weekly however, I gained a sense of confidence in my writing, confidence in sharing my writing, and yes, my writing improved. A lot.

And so I founded Ladies Who Critique, a site for writers to find critique partners even if they are too busy (or shy) to commit to a local writers group. If you don’ t know why critique is awesome, and WILL improve your writing, read some of the many reasons below. All excerpts are taken from authors interviewed on the Ladies Who Critique blog.

“Let’s face it, our family and friends don’t have a clue what we’re doing…just that it takes a long time and doesn’t bring in much money.  The industry communicates to us through cryptic rejection letters that Sherlock Holmes can’t interpret.  Only the critique group feels your pain, shares your success, understands your progress.

A really good critique group will keep you in the game long enough to win…and throw a very nice little party for you when it happens.  That’s all we as writers really need or want.
Someone to say, “You’re good. Keep going.””

Joyce Sweeney, Author & Writing Coach http://joycesweeney.net/

“I’ve participated in many critique groups over the last 15 years. My take-home has been in three parts:

(1) I became more sensitive to weaknesses in the writing of others, and therefore became more sensitive to those same weaknesses in my own writing

(2) I have often found some really good examples of ways to write something that I had not been aware of

(3) I’ve learned from other critics how to do a better job of critiquing.All writers (nonfiction and fiction alike) need feedback on what they’ve written. The least expensive way to get feedback on your writing is by participating in a critique group. It’s a case of “you show me yours and I’ll show you mine.” Well, at least in the clean sense of those words. You know what I mean.”

Victory Crayne, professional independent editor at www.Crayne.com.

“I’m completely dependent on my girls. We cheer each other on, we give advice, we help with everything the other girls need. Queries, research, reality checks, ego boosting, butt kicking… We’re there for each other every step of the way. Can’t live without my girls. I might’ve given up on my manuscript by now if it wasn’t for them.”

Gabriela Lessa, writer, editor, literary agent intern, journalist. http://gabrielalessa.com/ 

“…when you consider not having your book critiqued, copyedited and proofread:

• - consider how many times I thought my manuscript was good to go, when it wasn’t
• - think about how bad it’d be to give a poison pen reviewer fuel for their fire
• - imagine the most important person you can think of – your dream agent, your worst enemy, a producer on the Oprah show – reading it.

I’m sure you’ll change your mind.”

Catherine Ryan Howard. Author of Mousetrapped, Backpacked, Self-Printed & Results Not Typical. Blogger @ http://catherineryanhoward.com/(a must read for self-publishers)

“In an industry where one in 15,000 manuscripts from an unknown writer is published each year, we need groups like this. Writers need a sounding board and a place to find comfort, bounce ideas and smile. Life without my critty girls would be much less fun and infinitely more frustrating.”

Julie Anne Lindsey, Author of  Bloom & Death by Chocolate, coming 2012. Find Julie at http://blog.juliealindsey.com/

Here is an example of the tags for my wedding guide on Amazon:

What a lot of authors don’t realize is that tags not only describe your book, they also influence recommendations and this results in more visibility, showing up in pairings more often and thus being seen by potential customers who are browsing similar titles. The aim then is to catch his/her attention and draw them to your product page. In other words…

Tags are a GREAT way for customers to discover your book and making sure that the right ones are assigned to your title can influence recommendations and increase the chances of it appearing in search results.

In order for tags to be most effective, you should increase the number of tags that your book shares with other books, so that it is recommended more frequently when people are looking at these other titles. You want to encourage pairings too. Think of it like high school all over again: it’s almost like popularity by association.

Some tags that you might want to consider using on your Amazon page:

- Words from your title

- Your genre

- Your name

- Aspects of your novel (period, location, characters careers)

- Common misspellings or alternative (e.g. UK vs US) spellings

For some inspiration, here are the most popular Amazon tags right now:

To add tags to your book:

Scroll down to the ‘tags’ section of your product page (below customer reviews) and type in the tags you wish to add. You’ll be allowed to add up to 15  to each title.

Learn more about tags on Amazon’s site. Now go get tagging!

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As well as these general tags, Amazon allows authors to add specific tags for search purposes, known as “Tags for Amazon Search”. I’ll write a post about that one day soon. Stay tuned!