We CAN! promote our books

Your brand is YOU!

Susan Meissner, here. If you're a fiction author like me, you know the peculiar struggle we often have to market our books without the all-important platform. Novelists aren't typically recgonized as experts-in-the-field and so sometimes creating a brand can seem a little complicated. But I just read a very insightful article about branding that elevates this aspect of marketing to something bigger than just being known for my expertise on a topic. The insights here revealed that branding is just as much about me as it is what I write. Fellow CAN member Mary Byers sent me this link and I'd like to share it with you. Enjoy!

A marketing experiment

Susan Meissner here to chat about a little marketing experiment I have embarked upon. Last week my newest release, Blue Heart Blessed, hit bookstore shelves. It's no secret I am the Marshmallow Marketer in this crowd. I'm a huge fan of the soft sell. The softer the better. And for this book's release,I decided to do something different to promote it; a soft sell approach that I hadn't tried before. I created a blog just for this book.

A Visit with Mindy Starns Clark

Susan Meissner here with a real treat for all of you. I've asked my good friend and colleague Mindy Starns Clark to share with us her tried-n-true marketing secrets.

Mindy Starns Clark is the bestselling author of one nonfiction book and nine novels, all from Harvest House Publishers.  Her books include the standalone mystery Whispers of the Bayou, the nonfiction how-to guide The House That Cleans Itself, The Million Dollar Mysteries series, and the Smart Chick Mystery series. She has been nominated for an Inspirational Reader's Choice Award and has appeared on TV and radio stations across the country.  A singer and former stand-up comedian, Mindy is also a popular inspirational speaker and playwright.  She lives near Valley Forge, PA, with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs.

There's some great stuff coming your way so sit back and soak up these great promotional tips

Enhancing your "business" image

I'm at Chapter Seven in The World's Best Marketing Secret - Building Your Business with Word-of-Mouth Marketing. After spending several chapters on building a broad contact networt,authors Ivan R. Misner, Ph.D and Virginia Devine now turn their attention to "creating a positive image, delivered effectively."

That begins, Misner and Devine say, with enhancing your business image.

Sometimes it's not about you

Susan Meissner here. September has flown by at breakneck speed and I honestly feel like there might be something broken in this thing that holds my head up! Life has been crazy busy these last four weeks and there were times I felt a meltdown coming on. There was just too much to do and not enough time to do it. Two major conferences, an out-of-the-country speaking engagement, a looming deadline, a major small groups launch at my church for which I was the director, and a new book release. Yikes. Too much. By the middle of the month I was berating myself for having taken on so much responsiblility, especially out-of-town trips that consumed more of my time than any ledger would find profitable.

Making sense of who you know

Susan Meissner here to chat with you about the lovely art of Word of Mouth Marketing. I am reading "The World's Best Known Marketing Secret" by Ivan R. Misner, PhD and Virginia Devine and sharing with the CAN audience the keys to successful Word-of-Mouth marketing, many of which are covered in this book.

Spreading the word

The Marshmallow Marketer (that would be me, Susan Meissner) and queen of the soft-sell is here to share some insights on my favorite marketing tool, Word of Mouth.

For the next few weeks, I will be sharing tidbits from The World's Best Known Marketing Secret, a book that unpacks this tried-and-true promotional device that anyone can learn to operate. The book's authors are Ivan R. Misner, Ph.D and Virginia Devine.

This book focuses on two key strategies that the soft-sell junkie in me can stand behind with unexpected and uncharacteristic gusto. They are:

There are no short cuts

Susan Meissner here, back from ICRS with an interesting perspective to share with you, one that probably won't surprise anyone reading this blog, but will hopefully serve as a reminder and an encouragement to press on.

Most of us know the road to publication can be a tough one. Once you're on that road, staying on it can test your mettle as surely as waiting for that first contract. We spend a lot of time marketing ourselves before we're published and then we double and triple our efforts once we're in print: We not only have to promote ourselves, we must promote that lovely rectangle of paper, ink and color: our book. It can be exhausting, frustrating, time-consuming, and can often yield less-than-expected results.

It would be nice if there was a short cut.

The Marshmallow Marketer goes to ICRS

One week from today, the Marshmallow Marketer (that would be me, Susan Meissner) will be in Atlanta for the 2007 International Christian Retail Show — known industry-wide as ICRS and by a much smaller group as "Ickers." Preparations have been taking place for months for this massive retailing/promotional event, the kind of planning that doesn't come natural to marketing marshmallows. We M&Ms are more comfortable with the soft sell, the non-competitive, one-on-one approach: befriend, build, and broaden. So how do I plan for an event where I will be one, largely unrecognizable author in a sea of writers, publishers and retailers?

Wombats and marshmallows

Do you know what this cute little guy is? He's a wombat — a nocturnal marsupial native to Australia. What's he got to do with marketing our books? Just this. The Marshmallow Marketer (that would be me, Susan Meissner) likes promotional ideas that are nice and soft. And one of the marketing avenues I like best and which can have a profound impact on a book's success is Word of Mouth. WOM. I am a fan of WOMbats because I like being one. I like promoting my books through Word of Mouth. It's a a soft marketing tactic that begins with one person, one book at a time. Being a WOMbat means you are always on the lookout for opportunities for your books to become the topic of discussion.