Publicity heaven...

This week I have been thinking about publicity...when and how you go about letting people know that you are here.

This all came about because an organisation I know decided to have an open day....

This is a wonderful opportunity to show people what happens in our building was the internal memo to all the building residents.

“But who will come to the open day,” I asked innocently to an inmate of this building.

People who are interested in what people in this building do.

“But this building is ugly. You can’t find the front door because it is on the opposite side of the building from the car park. There is no reception. There are three floors of doors to national offices and a communal lunch room at the back on the second floor,” I said matter of factly.

People might still be interested.

“What is your publicity hook? What’s in it for them? Why would someone bother to come into the middle of the city where you can’t get a park (coz you won’t get one outside your building with the two visitors car parks which are never empty) to visit you?” I asked belligerently this time...because this was looking like an exercise in futility.

People might still be interested.

“Who is this people? Who are your target audience?” I asked pointedly

Um not sure. Anyway we’re having it. The general manager has already advertised it (without telling anyone beforehand) None of us knows what we are doing on this day so we’re just going to be working and prepared to speak to anybody who wants to talk to us in our capacity of national organisation.

“Yeah right.”

There will be pancakes....I think...

Can you see some of the problems here in this attempt at raising a profile.
No targeted audience.
No onboard involvement from the people it directly affects.
Nothing new to tell anyone.
No carrot to bring in the people....there were free pancakes as it happened...the buildings inmates enjoyed a nice lunch and some waifs and strays did too...courier drivers...the odd person who had to be there for an appointment...and discovered an open day.

Plan your publicity carefully. Have a reason. Why do you want publicity? It could be a new book...a reprint...a book launch... Your best friend, visiting author, minor celebrity, really interesting person... is coming to town and you want to celebrate with an event.

Let everyone in your target audience know...many times...make it a must be there event...

Generate gossip, if you have no publicity budget.

Think creatively.

Have a definite hook and involve everyone in planning and promoting from the beginning.

Have a timeline and work backwards from the event so that you allow yourself plenty of time to generate buzz.

Giveaways, competitions, free food, buskers...all add to the atmosphere...

Authors can write their own publicity packs. They can involve their target audience...head for the library and offer to do something public...Design a tee-shirt to promote my next book...signed copy and free food prize...then get the library to promote it by telling the local papers...win win...

Here is a sample of the different things you can do. Read Marcia Yudkin on how to get started.
Read Vocalist on the nuts and bolts of putting something together...(if you have a budding muso in the house this site is great) and go here if it all gets too hard and you want to throw money at the problem to make it go away.

In geek news I had a sneak peek at the inside of Carter Observatory today. Carter reopens in March with a brand new planetarium...even tho the builders are working, I felt like I was on the set of Star Trek...aaaaaaaahh geek heaven. (they just need to add the sound effects on the doors...)

maureen
pic is from foxnomad. com...they have a cool quiz to see what kind of star trek crew member you travel like....

Who are you?

This week I have been thinking about the author presence and the fundamental who-ness of public and private life.

Who are you,

on facebook?

on twitter?

on your blog?

on your website?

in the bookstore?

in person?

to your fans?

Are any of these seperate whos, the same person? Are you such a split personality that you need therapy?

I have been talking with friends about the public private life of the author...much like teachers...when their students discover them in the supermarket. (OMG Miss Crisp eats the same apples I do...or she’s seen me being whiney, now I know she will hate me...)

Since I started blogging on author marketing and other musings...learning in public about this tricky promotional world... I have seen the internet face of people change, about as fast as some publishing houses....From a few years ago when people put their whole lives out there, to now, where suddenly the public private balance is swinging more to private. (it’s about time.)

If you want to live your life in public, fine, but remember the people who live with you might not want to have public lives.

I admire the third child of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne who refused to have any part of the publicity show that her mother cooked up to revive Ozzys career. (What? You didn’t know there was a third child?) That is a brave stand to take and I hope that aspiring authors are keeping an eye on their families reaction to publicity. Is it fair to the kids or is it emotional exploitation that will come back to haunt you....

People occasionally ask my advice on website content...the first thing I tell them is to decide who YOU want to be in public. This colours everything you do online. Because once you click that post button it is out there for the world to see...and even if you remove it later... it will remain search viable in archived threads. Ouch.

For myself I try to keep my family hidden from view (mostly because I can’t remember their names and it’s embarrassing to say thingumie in public) and myself too. (coz I hate pictures of me)

I am on twitter purely to keep up with blog posts...twitter is great for this. I use a feed that posts my blog titles to my twitter followers and receive tweets of blogs that I follow. I also use Alltop which creates a virtual magazine of up to the minute content drawn only from blogs and websites that interest me...astronomy, space tech, gadget tech, children’s publishing, marketing, commentators that I like...great for researching.

I blog, so that my name is searchable and that any kids who stumble across my book and do an internet search can find me and get to the Bones book website if they want. And for anyone else out there who stumbles across me, I hope that they find something interesting and relevant on author marketing to think about.(waving to my hidden followers....)

I privately email and play on a wordpress site...that one day may morph into a public website (or not...depending on whether any publishers pick up any of my novels currently languishing on their desks...)

Nathan Bransford has bogged on author privacy recently here. A great post as ever...there is a comment on Neil Gaiman’s fiancé Amanda Palmer who lives her life on line purely for marketing purposes as a musician....as Neil blogs and tweets obsessively I guess he is fine with it...although he has kids....(hmmm one of my novels deals with the fall out of a parents famous public life on a child...)

The great Jane has blogged on two wonderful posts I recommend you read on writing, for the money? Jennifer Topper on why she has a free ebook novel...and Mark Barrett has a fabulous post on a new interpretation of Yogs law - that money should flow to the writer not away from the writer. It has a whole new perspective on the changing face of the middlemen in publishing...ie how content gets to readers...Go read and ponder...

To answer my own question at the beginning...

It’s a wysiwyg. (what you see is what you get)

I don’t think I’m any different on line.....hahahahahahahahahaha. ducking now.....

maureen

PS Alice Pope Of CWIM fame posted this video on her blog...take it away Erin.....