10 Ways to Stimulate Conversation About Your Book by Renee Giroux

Today, we have with us Renee Giroux, founder of Stimulating-conversation.com, an author marketing strategies company. She will be sharing insights on ways to stimulate conversations about you and your book. She has graciously rescheduled her guest post that originally was scheduled to run last month, but my computer problems while on vacation kept me from posting it then. It's a pleasure to finally introduce her to my blog readers.

Before we get to Renee's article, I have a couple of in-house announcements:

1. If you have not entered my Twitter contest yet, make sure you do so now. You can win over $1300 worth of marketing books, classes, mailing lists, website memberships and more from 15 book marketing experts. The contest ends tomorrow night, so don't delay!

2. Chapter 15 in my award winning novel, The Samson Effect, has been released on the serial release site. If you have not started this novel that NY Times best selling author Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure", then you can visit the Table of Contents to start from the beginning. While there, check out the announcement of the novel being acquired by a major Hollywood film producer.

And now, on to Renee's article...

10 Ways to Stimulate Conversation About Your Book
By Renee Giroux

The benchmark of book marketing is the art of conversation. On rare occasions conversation is started for us, but much of that happens by luck and timing. When Kaylene Johnson wrote her book, Palin: How a Hockey Mom turned the Political Establishment Upside Down, neither she nor her publisher even imagined Ms Palin would be running for Vice President. Timing and luck at work. But banking on your book being thrust into the forefront of media is like basing your retirement on lottery winnings without buying a ticket.

Authors must do their part in getting the conversation about their books going and keep it flowing. Today the Internet offers free to inexpensive opportunities to let the world know about you, the author, and your works. Here are some relatively painless and often fun ideas to get people talking about your book. The key is staying current and interesting.

1. Take a step back and look at your book. Look deeper than the characters you love, the intricacies of the story line, and the amazing ending. Think about the trials and tribulations you endured while writing the book, the research you delved into to develop a believable story. Readers love to hear the back story, how the author learned about a little known detail used to make a scene realistic.

Recall any situations or comments made where you were torturing your significant other to reread, or worse, listen to you reread the text for the four hundredth time. Turn these into to anecdotes that are fun or touching. Think about the days when you were madly in love with the story, and the days when you never wanted to think about it again, and maybe you decided you might prefer any other job than being a writer. Write down these little vignettes. They are interesting to your readers. I know, that seems strange to you, but it humanizes you, makes you a richer person and far more interesting.

Keep these gems tucked away for the really great interviews or for blogging days when you feel stuck. Believe me, when you're on Oprah or Fresh Air, you don't want to repeat the blurb on your book's back cover or press release. Keep it fresh and current, remember. Keep notes or a journal you can refer to with enough of an opener to jog your memory about a story and tell it with conviction.

2. If you are not already on the HARO board, sign up now. I mean right now, go there, sign up and you can come back and finish this article. HARO stands for Help A Reporter Out. It is a free, genuinely altruistic service that you can read about in detail on the board. The really amazing thing about this service is that thousands of journalists use the free, yet very well connected, service to find contacts and experts for their stories. Everyday you get a nice handful of emails which list in a very organized fashion stories journalists are seeking experts for interviews or some other help. The cool thing is that one day you will be reading across your HARO email, and shazaam! a journalist will be looking for you!

Don't waste your time trying to fit your square peg in a round hole with HARO. Realize that everyday there are hundreds of requests sent. After reading them for a day or two you will see the variety and the mainstream outlets who use the board. You will have more faith that your area of expertise will be listed. On that day, pitch your heart out to the requesting journalist. With luck and timing, your name will appear in a regional or national outlet.

3. Search for your genre specific blogs and follow them. Even more important, make comments, ask questions, interact with the members. Let people know who you are and how to find you. Use a good signature line with your name, contact information and maybe even list your last book or two. Look at other authors' signature lines and model yours after the ones you like. You can use slightly different ones on different sites, but always keep your name and contact information the same.

4. Visit Twitter and participate by sending out short, fun, informative tweets. Ask open-ended questions on several topics. Respond to all who comment to you or on your questions. Keep the talk moving. You will become more visible. There are many articles on Twitter, and how to best utilize the service. Booksquare University has a nice TweetCamp geared for authors and others in the book world.

5. Focused virtual tours and interviews are a great way to promote and interact with readers. You contact owners of blogs, BlogTalkRadio, uStream.tv, or any of the many outlets, who feature guests specific to your audience, and genre. Then ask to be a guest. Schedule, planning several in a month, post the schedule and the results on your website. See how easy and fun it is to stimulate conversation about your book and you as an author. Book bloggers are a powerful force with huge audiences.

6. Search Yahoo and Google for groups of your genre or interest areas and join a few. Take care to not choose too many at first as it can all be overwhelming. Once you have found several groups link them together so that as you post to one the others receive notice. Google's Social Graph API is one linking program

7. Running contests, polls, questionnaires on your site with prizes draws people to you and can keep them coming back. Remember to cross post all your fun activities for more conversation generators. This activity can be used to generate email lists to use for announcements and special events.

8. Do you have an e-newsletter to your fans? No? Check out one of the many services that can help you develop and maintain an interesting informative newsletter. You can use this as a way to leak secrets, offer special premiums, open for subscriber-only free stuff or many imaginative gimmicks to keep conversation about you and your books flowing. And of course collecting emails is part of having a newsletter. Read this article by Deane Brengle called Choosing an Email Newsletter Provider for great things to consider as you look for a company to help you. She also list several services. There are also several services that will help you develop surveys or polls; just Google for them.

9. Your book becomes more desirable to book clubs and readers groups if you create a readers' guide. Post this on your website for anyone to use and comment on. Ask your publisher to send out copies with review copies. Book clubs and readers groups love to be able to talk directly with the author of the books they read, so offer to be a call-in guest. Be prepared with your anecdotes, perhaps some insights not often considered about your book or yourself, maybe even a gift for the group to stimulate conversation spreading beyond the group.

10. Rethink book signings! Visit with your local area or any cities you are comfortable visiting on your dime. The local independent book stores are often more receptive to having an author do a signing along with a reading. (Pitch to the big chains, too, but don't expect much.) Offer to teach a mini class, or do a reading or workshop; their customers enjoy the more interactive programs and so will you. You need to supplement the stores' advertising of your event through your own networking. Many regional writers' groups, schools, and libraries are also open to that model. (Don't forget to put your tour schedule on AuthorTour.com so your fans know where they can see you; free service) Do not charge for these talks; it's tacky. If you feel people would be more receptive to a small fee, ask for a charity to be represented, and donate the proceeds to them. I am sure there is a charity which reflects back to your book, and that combination often is newsworthy to the local media. The other type of book tours available are blog tours on the net. You contact owners of blogs, BlogTalkRadio, uStream.TV, or any of the many outlets, who feature guests of your type and ask if you can be a guest. Set up a schedule, planning several in a month, and post the schedule and the results on your website. See it's easy and fun to stimulate conversation about your book and you as an author.

Most of all, stop regurgitating the same spiel about your book, and start forging relationships with your readers. The story behind the book is much bigger than your boilerplate. Share the whole story with as many people as possible. Allow readers to fall in love with you, the author, so they will not only buy this book, but become loyal fans of your work, buying all of your books!

Looking forward to seeing you all over the net!

Renee Giroux is the founder, developer of Stimulating-conversation.com, an author marketing strategies company. We help authors build the foundations for promoting themselves and their work, to get the conversation going. Renee's back story is very interesting. Ask her about it. Renee@Stimulating-conversation.com 979-209-0436