Saturday, November 6, 2010

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,

18 comments:

The Old Silly said...

Some excellent ideas and tips here, Stephen - I took notes!

Mason Canyon said...

I think the catchy one-liners (especially like your first one) left on business cards are a great way to catch attention. People always glance at a business card, we can't help ourselves. With a catchy one-liner and a website or blog they can check out later will definitely peak their interest. Best of luck.

Mason
Thoughts in Progress

Old Kitty said...

Good sound and practical advice on how to build a platform and promote yourself and your book!!

I like the samples of catchy/memorable lines too.

Thanks for the links to samples of blogs who are great at blogging promotion and marketing!

Take care
x

Joanne said...

Great ideas here, thanks for sharing today. Blogs seem to be constantly evolving, and definitely have the capability for a far reach into the internet.

T. Powell Coltrin said...

This is great, Stephen, lots of good marketable ideas.

Thanks.

Golden Eagle said...

Great ideas on how to get the word out about your book! Thanks for this post. :)

Anonymous said...

MArvin, fortunately there will not be a quiz.

Mason, catchy one-liners were difficult for me so I asked the help of other bloggers. I received some great ones that day that I still use.

Kitty, glad you like the links. I refer to them from time to time and find them helpful too.

Joanne, evolving and adapting is the name of the game. Adapt and survive or play catch up to the rest of Blogdom.

Teresa, thanks for stopping by and glad you like the marketing tips.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

Very interesting, Stephen. I'm going to work on my three-liner and I think I'll redo my blog header. Will follow you to Alex's on Monday. Congrats on your release.

RaShelle Workman said...

Great info Stephen! Thanks. =D

Jemi Fraser said...

You've got the best tips, Stephen! Glad to meet you Jane - great blog you have here! :)

Anonymous said...

Golden Eagle, I hope these are of help to people. These tidbits og Promotion have helped me immensely.

Susan, thanks for the CingratS! and let us know wha you come up with for your blog header.

RaShelle, as always thanks for stopping by!

Jemi, Jane has a great site here. I check in every week and find something I cam use.

Jane Kennedy Sutton said...

Stephen, it was great hosting you. Good luck on the rest of your tour.

Thank you to all who stopped by and an extra thanks to those who left a comment.

N. R. Williams said...

Excellent suggestions all Stephen. I am still editing my book that I hope will be on kindle in December. When I do have it there, I will definitely use your ideas to create a platform.
Also, thank you Jane for hosting Stephen. I'm now your friend too.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, fantasy author

TerryLynnJohnson said...

great ideas, Stephen! Thanks for hosting, Jane!

Helen Ginger said...

Very good tips, Stephen. All that promotion can be time consuming. Writers still have to do it, but they need to know that upfront and be ready to put in the time and be ready to not go overboard and spend so much time they don't get the next book written.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Jane - good to meet you & Steve .. really interesting and important aspects you've given us here .. the Twitter wallpaper - so simple ..yet another promotional push each time.

The elevator pitch - so important .. keeps you focused too .. while giving your potential customers a perfectly & succinctly worded summary.

Thanks - enjoyed this .. see you next week .. Hilary

Laura Eno said...

Excellent points. I'm still trying to learn HOW to blog. The only thing on mine is normally my fridayflash. I have my book as my twitter background though. :)

Arlee Bird said...

Jane, thanks for hosting Stephen. I am a big fan of Breakthrough.

Stephen, you have some great ideas here that can be useful to all of us. I was so glad when I recently found out how to do the tabs on my blog, though I haven't really put them to full work yet.

Lee
Tossing It Out

Jane's Ride - Novelist Jane Kennedy Sutton's journey through the ups and downs of the writing, publishing and marketing world