Promotion and Marketing by Stephen Tremp

“In order to promote yourself and your book, you need to develop an identity potential buyers can relate to and remember.” – Stephen Tremp

I’m pleased to host the author of Breakthrough, Stephen Tremp today. Stephen has a B.A. in information systems and an MBA degree in global management. He is currently completing his doctorate program in business administration. He spent over ten years in consumer finance for some of the largest companies in the industry, holding numerous management positions. After many years of writing short stories and poems, Stephen has taken the last two years to fulfill his lifelong passion: write and publish Breakthrough. Today he is here to give us some advice on promotion and marketing, a weak area for many of us introverted authors.

***
You are a writer. You know it. Others close to you recognize your talents and abilities and have been encouraging you for as long as you can remember. It’s an inherent gift, perhaps lying dormant for years, and you now realize its time to move forward with what you know you have to do. You either have a manuscript, are in the process of writing one, or you want to write. It could be fiction, non-fiction, or your personal memoirs that you want to share with the world and even help other people.

How do you do this? Let’s start with your blogging platform. What makes a good blog, increases traffic, and builds a community of followers? I think this is an area many writers fail in. They have not taken the time to formulate their branding and a series of catchy blurbs, slogans, and one-liners that people can remember.

First, in order to promote yourself and your book, you need to develop an identity potential buyers can relate to and remember:

Branding and Blogging,
Can you tie your blog and book into a one-liner? (Include your name and you have a trifecta). Your Blog Banner should tell a visitor who you are and a little of what the can expect. You can run a contest on your blog and give away a signed copy for the winner. This also engages visitors and helps make your book and brand more than a fleeting memory.

So here is my Blog Banner: Breakthrough Blogs: add murder, mayhem and a wormhole, and you've got BREAKTHROUGH. Welcome to chaos. Helen Ginger and Elizabeth S. Craig are examples of really good Blog Banners.

Also, do you have an image or a word that defines and communicates you, your blog, and your book to your audience? I use Einstein-Rosen Bridges, or wormholes, to help accomplish this for me.

Second: You can develop a handful of catchy blurbs, slogans, and one-liners:
30 second elevator interview describing your book or your blog in no more than three sentences (most people will not listen to anything longer)

Here are two of my one-liners:
“BREAKTHROUGH - An exciting new dimension in sci-fi suspense thrillers."
“Near-future Sci-Fi for Action Lovers”
You can place one-liners on stuff you give away like book marks, business cards, and email signature lines. Place a blurb on the back of your business card – leave them at a table when you leave restaurant. Give them to bank tellers. Ask the manager of your local bookstores if you can hand these out in their store. A blurb with a picture and your name and blog site is all you need.

Third: Can you explain your blog on Twitter in 140 characters or less? Here’s mine: Author of the Breakthrough trilogy - a near-future Sci-Fi action series weaving together theoretical physics and technology with greed, murder, and mayhem.

Do you have an image of your book (or something that relates to your blog) as your wall paper for Twitter? I do. All too often I visit authors and they have something silly as their wall paper. Um … Hello? Upload an image of your book! Then go make some Twitter friends.

Adding Tabs to Your Blog A blog is as important (if not more important) than a static website. Eventually, we may see blogs replacing websites, which is why blogging platforms are adding pages and other features to their blogs. Blogs are essentially becoming interactive websites.

Example: I’m developing a SCIENCE FOR KIDS tab that will debut Wednesday November 10th when I stop by Shannon O’Donell’s blog . This is a great way to promote outside of your niche and genre. I have interest in California, Montana, and Michigan and hope to hook up with schools across the country. This could open more doors for a children’s animated series I’m currently working on too that teaches kids about science in a fun way.

Please join me Monday as I visit Alex Cavanaugh’s blog and we talk about how to write a near-future sci-fi. Due to the proliferation of knowledge, this is an emerging genre that is very popular.
***

Thank you, Stephen. I hope to implement some of your ideas to improve my blog design and Twitter page.

Please feel free to leave your questions or comments for Stephen.

You can visit Stephen Tremp, author of the action thriller Breakthrough at Breakthrough Blogs.

How do you promote yourself and your book(s)? As a reader, what sort of promotion most encourages you to buy a particular book?

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope to see you again on Monday.

Tags: Stephen Tremp, Breakthrough, branding, blog banner, 30 second elevator interview, promoting and marketing,