Tag Archives: Book marketing

Book Award Season

Cynthia Kraack Posted on by

More than 900 people gathered April 16 for the 28th Annual Minnesota Book Awards. Writers, publishers, family, friends and lovers of books celebrated thirty-two authors whose work reached the finals of this prestigious competition.

While most of the winners were names well known in the book world, many of us hoped a writer friend would be the dark horse to take home one of this year’s eight awards. Regardless of results, they would always be a Minnesota Book Award Finalist, an affirmation of talent and skill earned by very few.

My friend Steve McEllistrem, author of The Devereaux Decision, now carries that status. Steve has been a host of KFAI’s Write On radio show for years and a wonderful sci fi writer.

Ames Sheldon, a member of my writing group, recently won the Independent Book Publishers Association’s 2016 Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal Award for Best New Voice in Fiction for her debut novel, Eleanor’s Wars. We have a gifted writing group with the current membership producing 17 published books and nine significant awards. We are thrilled for her success.

The High Cost of Flowers, my 2015 release, won two Midwest Book Awards—both Literary andContemporary Fiction.

The three of us chose a small publisher or self-publishing. Awards confirm that our works, rejected by

The High Cost of Flowers was the 2015 Midwest Book Awards winner in the Fiction and XXX Categories.

the larger publishing world, are quality. We earned affirmation, a little media coverage, a few speaking engagements.

But, there’s a whole lot of post-award publicity and book sales left on the table for writers like Steve, Ames and me. Without resources of a large publisher, there’s no expertise to develop plans in advance or manage promotion after winning a significant book award. The honors promote a publisher’s brand, a writer’s brand and sales. Nothing that should be squandered.

Most royalties are paid to a small number of authors. Self-published authors earn between nothing and one thousand dollars per year on a book which isn’t a lot different than with small publishers according to Amazon data. Being a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award or winner of the Midwest Book Award should help build valuable readership. Prizes open doors to meet readers through book clubs, libraries, and flowers-cover-200schools. But book clubs, libraries and schools first need to know about a quality book by an unknown writer.

My advice: if you are writing the best book ever in your genre, include how a publisher can support promoting an award in your decision of how the book is published. And if you do win relish the affirmation. It is priceless.

Mix and Match Social Media

Cynthia Kraack Posted on by

Kindle topping pile of books

Some writers spend half the year driving to bookstores, church fairs, and events to sell very few books at each. They don’t cover expenses; much less earn enough to give up their day jobs. Some are aggressive with their social media management. They’ve been told they need to be on all social media sites, that the more titles they publish the more people will recognize their brands, and the closer they will be to the tipping point of success. Published by small publishers, they have almost no marketing support and run on dreams and trust.

This is a turbulent time for creators of artistic content. Writers once made a living selling short stories to magazines. Now many markets charge submission fees. The number of self-published book titles in 2013 increased 17 percent over 2012 and 437 percent over 2008. Like the music industry, the large publishing houses assume less risk by signing fewer unknown authors. Those published have weeks for their books to meet ambitious sales targets or lose support.

Calumet Editions, my publisher, has built an e-world marketing strategy that includes a website and an aggressive Twitter presence. Through a traditional distributor, it uses a print on demand approach with minimal inventory. It is a new marketing model that has empty spaces that are different than those of the very traditional small press that published my first four books without social media or ebook strategies. Indie flowers-cover-200bookstores would like to have The High Cost of Flowers, a Midwest Book Awards winner, on their shelves, but don’t always have the hours needed to add another distributor to their business.

What makes sense for my work to be discovered by readers? Here’s what I discovered:

Women over 45 account for 58% of all books purchased. They rely on personal recommendations and like to visit bookstores. More Americans own tablets, but still almost 70 percent read traditional books. That distinction doesn’t vary much by demographic group. Young people are more likely to read ebooks than older people, but they’re also likely to read paperbacks.

As of 2014, 74% of online adults use social networking sites. Highest networking use is in the 18 and 49 age categories where over 82% use networking sites. At age 50 networking sites use drops to 65%. About 71% of online adults use Facebook. Only 28% use Twitter.

Doing fancy calculations that means about 15 out of every 100 online adults over 49, and 19 out of those between 19 and 49, might see a tweet. BI Intelligence found Twitter use leans toward males with 22% of online men tweeting and 15% of online women.

Follow me on FacebookWhere are the women I hope to reach? Some are not online. Those who are find their way to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Pinterest is leader in online shopping because of food sites. Facebook still claims top of the heap for other sales. The challenge for me is to pinpoint a social networking strategy to connect me with a primary demographic of women in their 30s through 60s.

I’ll share how I intend to augment my publisher’s strategy to connect with that group in my next blog.