Publicist:Publicist:Kathie Bennett of Magic Time Literary AgencyKathie Bennett of Magic Time Literary Agency

Author: Author: Sharman Burson Ramsey: Sharman Burson Ramsey: Swimming with Swimming with

SerpentsSerpents and and In PursuitIn Pursuit

You Are Your Own Best Publicist

Your Role as CEO of your book

• Devise your master marketing plan– Monetary budget– Timeline: 1-3 years– Daily commitment: 1-3 hours

• Research promotional strategies– Books– Podcasts– Articles– Workshops and lectures

Countdown Step One:

On Your Mark• Plan your marketing

campaign– Determine audience– Shape promotion to build audience– Position book in marketplace– Determine pricing– Package the book to sell: traditional print

and/or e-book• Cover design• Website design• Amazon, Smashwords, or CreateSpace’

Design your marketing tools

– Postcards with book cover design

– Bookmarks– Invitations– Business cards with book

cover design– Posters: window and tabletop

www.vistaprint.com

Introduce yourself on the literary landscape

– Booksellers– Libraries– Authors– Media– Field of interest outlets:

arts arenas, environmental organizations, etc.

Countdown Step Two: Get Set to Be a Friend and Make Friends

• Establish a database of existing friends and colleagues• Announce the launch of your

book and consider asking friends to help host events– Blog/Twitter– Postcards/Brochures– Website/Facebook/– All social media– Traditional media

Countdown Step Three: Go Hook Your Reader (Sell your

books)

• What is your book about?– written response– verbal response (sound

bite)• Dress for Success

– Character costume– Conventionally

unconventional– Authentic you

Olivia deBelle Byrd Mrs. Hildreth Wore Brown

Your PlatformJane Friedman’s

definitionWhat editors and agents typically mean by platform• They’re looking for someone with visibility and authority who has proven reach to a

target audience.• Let’s break this down further.• Visibility. Who knows you? Who is aware of your work? Where does your work

regularly appear? How many people see it? How does it spread? Where does it spread? What communities are you a part of? Who do you influence? Where do you make waves?

• Authority. What’s your credibility? What are your credentials? (This is particularly important for nonfiction writers; it is less important for fiction writers, though it can play a role. Just take a look at any graduate of the Iowa MFA program.)

• Proven reach. It’s not enough to SAY you have visibility. You have to show where you make an impact and give proof of engagement. This could be quantitative evidence (e.g., size of your e-mail newsletter list, website traffic, blog comments) or qualitative evidence (high-profile reviews, testimonials from A-listers in your genre).

• Target audience. You should be visible to the most receptive or appropriate audience for the work you’re trying to sell. For instance: If you have visibility, authority, and proven reach to orthodontists, that probably won’t be helpful if you’re marketing vampire fiction (unless perhaps you’re writing about a vampire orthodontist who repairs crooked vampire fangs?).

Self publishing successes

• E. L. James Fifty Shades of Grey• Stephanie McAfee Diary of a Mad Fat

Girl• Darcie Chan The Mill River Recluse $1000 $500 for website and 500 to

advertise on blogs that review ebooks

ASK YOUR FRIENDS FOR REVIEWS

• Colleen Hoover's self-published book, Slammed, got over 50,000 ratings and over 8,000 reviews on Goodreads. It's become a bestseller, been picked up by a traditional publisher, and she has even been able to sell the movie rights

• Young adult novels get more reviews because young people are more computer savvy 40 + takes different marketing tactics

Amazon algorithm• Anything less than 4 stars means “NOT RECOMMENDED.” Don’t

expect an author to be pleased with 2 or 3 stars, no matter how much you rave in the text. Those stars are the primary way a book is judged. Without a 4 or 5 star rating, a book doesn’t get picked up in the Amazon algorithms for things like “also bought” suggestions. Giving 1 or 2 stars to a book that doesn’t have many reviews is taking money out of the author’s pocket, so don’t do it unless you really think the author should take up a new line of work.

• Well, if you really enjoy a book and tell your friends or even mention it on your blog or Facebook or Twitter, consider also posting a quick review on Amazon. The more five and four star reviews, the more chance the book has to reach an even wider audience.

Create Book Tours: 10-15 events with sales reported to

New York Times

– Launch party/parties– Book signings: build event

• Nonprofit• Schools• Foundations• Industry• Literary luncheons

– Book festivals– Writers’ conferences– Conventions

SIBA Naples PanelBook Launch for Swimming with Serpents Cultural Arts Dothan SpeakerLadies Auxilliary St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club Panama City

Books Alive Local Authors Panama City Speaker Public Radio Troy GuestPC Writers Guild Panama City SpeakerDelta Delta Delta House Tuscaloosa Book SigningSupply Store U of A Auburn/Alabama Tuscaloosa Book SigningBeach Library Bag Lunch Author event Panama City Beach SpeakerHub City Books Spartanburg SpeakerFiction Addiction Greenville Speaker LuncheonBlue Bicycle Charleston Book SigningSomething's Cookin‘ Panama City Champagne Book SigningBay Point Woman's Club Panama City Beach SpeakerWilcox County Historical Society Furman, AL SpeakerPanama City Genealogical society Panama City SpeakerChautauqua De Funiak Springs SpeakerLitchfield Books Pawley’s Island Movable FeastDaughters of the American Revolution Panama City SpeakerAmelia Island Book Festival Amelia Island SpeakerSouth Carolina Book Festival Columbia Moderator and PanelHistoric Chattahoochee Commission Eufaula SpeakerHistorical Novel Society St. Petersburg PanelDecatur Book Festival Decatur Panel and SpeakerIn Pursuit ReleasedSouthern Independent Booksellers Association New Orleans Movable FeastFlorida Heritage Book Festival St. AugustineNashville Book Festival Nashville PanelPulpwood Queens Girlfriend Weekend

Sharman’s schedule since September 2012 release of Swimming with Serpents

GOODREADS

• Shelve your favorite books or the ones that have inspired you and review them. Readers love seeing what their favorite authors are reading.

• Start a Q&A group about your book and invite people to join.

• Join a group around a topic or genre related to your book. If you join a group, participate as a reader first. Once people see you are a passionate and friendly member of the group, then you can discuss your own work.

• Write a blog or import your blog. Authors are the only members of Goodreads who can have blogs, and author blogs are a great place to start a conversation.

Here are a few ways to be a part of the conversation on Goodreads:

After all of this I would be remiss if I did not

mention• General interest Southern culture genealogy, manners and etiquette,

recipes, history website: http://www.southern-style.com • Author http://www.sharmanbursonramsey.com• Blog http://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/• Twitter https://twitter.com/SharmanRamsey• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sharman.ramsey• Goodreads• Amazon

Conclusion: Book in Orbit

• Accept the role of CEO

Break out groups • Create a 3 to 5 sentence presentation of your novel

REMEMBER• Use concrete nouns and vivid verbs• The synopsis of the novel on the back of the book must draw the reader into

the book within 200 words.• Eliminate usely ly words (adverbs)• Helping words begin to jump out at you at a time when you cannot edit them

out of the manuscript. Weed them out in the beginning. For example: “Arbuthnot!” Jackson spat with contempt, his eyes flashing. “At last I meet the

infamous instigator of this war! It is you who have led these poor savages in the belief that the treaty they signed in my presence is worthless! You have encouraged them in their depredations. It is you who claim to speak for them."

Leaving out unnecessary helping verbs gives more power to the writing.

Pitch for In PursuitThe pirate Gasparilla sends goons to a tea room to kidnap the scholar

with a treasure map, Godfrey Lewis Winkel. They accidentally take beautiful Joie Kincaid dressed as a street urchin along with Godfrey and a story of passion unfolds. Joie must overcome a childhood of abuse and rejection to accept love she had never known while embarking on the adventure of a lifetime.

Together they weather the tempests of pirates, illness, the SeminoleWar, family vendetta, and a hurricane to find their way to each other and

a love neither could have imagined.

Interwoven in this action-packed adventure is the long-forgotten tale ofhope and betrayal at the Negro Fort, the plight of the Red Sticks after

Horseshoe Bend, the greed of a pirate longing for a legacy, Andrew Jackson’s single-minded vision of a nation’s manifest destiny.