Pre-Natal Care for Your Book by Lynn Serafinn

I am thrilled to introduce you today to Lynn Serafinn, an author and book marketer with a depth of experience to share. When you read what all she is involved with, you will see why I am so excited to have her with us to share her knowledge on a topic that many authors don't start thinking about until it's too late: Marketing your book long before it's published. In fact, the three points of her intro to this post is worth the read alone. Without further delay, it's my pleasure to introduce you to Lynn Serafinn...


Pre-Natal Care for Your Book
Lynn Serafinn's Top 10 ways to campaign before your book is even finished, and why you should.

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Lynn Serafinn is an internationally recognized, award-winning transformation coach and teacher, talk radio host, public speaker, workshop facilitator, community leader and self-published author of the Amazon best-seller The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. She's also pretty much a one-woman-band and spent virtually nothing on the marketing campaign for her book. She says her secret was to start her campaign months before the book was even finished. In today's blog, Lynn shares some of her top tips for marketing early, and have fun without losing your sanity.
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These days, I am approached by many aspiring authors who ask me to help coach them to get their self-published book finished (or even started!) and out into the market. When I ask them what they are doing to prepare for their launch campaign, 9 out of 10 of them will say to me, "I can't think about that right now. I'm stressed out enough already over finishing the book itself. What's the point in thinking about my campaign now?"

Many people are surprised when I tell them that I started my online book campaign a full year before the book was released, and a good 8 months before the final draft was even written. In fact, I started my campaign as soon as I was nearing the end of my first draft.

"Why campaign so far in advance?" you might ask. "And how can you campaign for a book that isn't even finished yet?"

In answer to the "Why?" question, there are three good reasons:

1. Readers need to know who YOU are. Early campaigning helps potential readers get to know you both as a person and as a writer. This is especially important if you are a first-time author. People need to know who you are, how you write and what your "message" is.
   
   
2. You need to know who your READERS are. It isn't good enough for people to know who you are; you need to know who they are too. You need to find a way for them to join your mailing list, and want to stay there. You will need to cultivate a relationship with them, and make people feel connected to you. As this relationship is established, people will be open and eager to hear about your book.
   
   
3. Your readers need to know the TITLE and RELEASE DATE of your book. Believe it or not, my readers knew the title of my book a year before it came out, and the release date four months in advance. Why is that important? Basically, you have to remember that people are inundated with information these days, and they are unlikely to remember everything they see. With frequent but gentle reminders, people become aware that your book is coming out soon, but they don't feel pressured to buy it. In following this strategy, I cultivated a very loyal following who went and bought my book during the launch, driving it to the top of the bestseller lists within hours of its release.
   

Now on to the question "How can you campaign for a book that isn't even finished yet?" Well, here are my "Top 10" ways to campaign before your book is even finished, and why you should.

1. Register a domain for your book and start a WordPress blog. It is important that you have a domain just for your book and that you get it online with a good title and tags right away. Get this site online as soon as you have decided a title for the book, even if it just sits there idle for a year. Why? Because the longer the site is online, the higher up in the Google rankings it will be. My suggestion is to get a WordPress blog, as it will cost you nothing to get set up (except for domain registration and hosting). Also, blogs tend to get higher in the Google rankings than static sites, and they offer just so many ways to spread the word via integrating your site with social networks. If you don't know the first thing about setting up a WordPress blog, I recommend the book "Does this Blogsite Make My Wallet Look Fat?" by Sandra de Frietas. It's a bit pricey for the size, but it does give you lots of good step-by-step info for getting started if you are totally new to WordPress. You can see the WordPress blogsite I created for my book at http://www.give-receive-become-be.com. The "give, receive, become, be" are the "four principles" from my book. I do have two other blogsites now. One is my main portal at www.lynnserafinn.com, and I have another at http://www.thegardenofthesoul.com which will soon be a membership site revolved around the teachings from my book, as well as from its upcoming sequel, "The Companion Guide to the Garden of the Soul."
   
   
2. Create a substantial free "give away" that will build your list and get people to know your writing style. Ten months before the book came out, I started a series of 6 articles that I gave away as a "freebie" if people joined my list. I used my autoresponder to create a sign-up box for this and to deliver a new article to subscribers every week. If you want to see an example of my sign up page for this, have a look at http://www.create-a-life.co.uk/articles/least_resistance_request.html. The articles were not excerpts from my book, but they had a similar philosophy to what the book contained. This enabled readers to get to know both my message and my writing style. I also recorded the articles as MP3 audio downloads, which made people feel even more connected to me. Spreading the downloads over a number of weeks is a much better idea than letting people download them all in one go, as it keeps people engaged, and allows them more time to digest your materials. It also gives the illusion of giving more in quantity. As you create your "freebie," (and this is important) make sure that at the end of every article you mention the title of your upcoming book and its release date, so that people are thinking ahead. If you think this kind of giveaway is not necessary because you already have a newsletter sign up box on your website, consider this: 60% of my current list has come to me via my article series, whereas only 30% has come via my newsletter, and an additional 10% has come via other offers. Trust me, a good article series is worth the time spent in preparation. Besides, you're a writer! Do what you do best and write! After people sign up for the articles, be sure to copy their names onto your main database, and send them your monthly newsletter (or however often you send it).
   
   
3. Create a following on online forums. Are you part of an online professional network? Perhaps you belong to a few forums related to the same field as your upcoming book? If not, find some! For instance, I belong to several coaching forums, and my book is about personal transformation. In the months before the book came out, I spent at least an hour a week on the forums looking for places where I could help others who were asking for advice. I gave genuinely and generously of my time and experience wherever I could. Then, I signed each post with my name, title and something like, "Happiness is simply a matter of allowing your true Self to blossom. Download 6 free articles a http://www.create-a-life.co.uk/articles/least_resistance_request.html" As long as my post was well-written and contained genuinely valuable information (i.e., that it didn't just sound like a "token" post to get attention and mention my name!), dozens of people would respond to the post to join my list for the free articles. In fact, after a few months, the articles became so popular that I now call them "free chapters," because I decided to turn them into yet another book later this year.
   
   
4. Start a Ning group,and start announcing it on the Ning network. Try to attract the kinds of people who would READ your book. I created one on Ning called "Lynn Serafinn's Garden of the Soul", that I describe as being "A vibrant place for cultural and spiritual creatives of all kinds." You can find it at http://gardenofthesoul.ning.com (join if you like!). Start a group using the title of your book. The advantage of a Ning group is your followers really get to know you well, and they are very loyal! Also, you can cross-promote your events and blogs across all the Ning networks to which you belong. Even if the idea of running the group is too much for you to take on board, you can at least set up a nice home page with your blog streaming on the front page, and a link to your free downloads. But the more you interact with your members, the more connected to you they will feel.
   
   
5. Start a Facebook group, and/or a Fan Page on Facebook (yes, even if your book isn't out yet you can have fans!). I have both a group and a fan page, both called "The Garden of the Soul". A fan page is terrific because you can stream your blog RSS right onto the page, and put your free offer on there as well. You can update all fans at the push of a button, just the same way as you would send a newsletter. These are great ways for people to engage with you. You can test-drive book excerpts, ask for feedback, run contests, and do whatever comes to mind to get people engaged and involved in your creative process. The more people feel like they "own" a part of your book, the more likely they are to buy it when it comes out. Besides, you would be amazed at how much valuable feedback and information you can get from people if you only ask them!
   
   
6. Twitter is an absolutely essential tool. A lot of newbies on Twitter don't "get it" or know how to leverage it for business. Well, first off, I'll tell you right now to download Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is the software that makes Twitter come alive, so if you haven't downloaded it yet, do so and see what a difference it makes. Once on Twitter, your first object will be to find people to follow who are in your target audience. You can do this through key word searches using "Social Oomph" (what used to be called "TweetLater"). For instance, I started out by searching for "mind, body, spirit", "authors" and "coaches" and other key words. As you follow people, the idea is to get these people (and others) to follow you back. To gain a following, interact with people whenever you happen to be online. Talk to them in real time! ReTweet your followers' Tweets and recommend them to others as much as possible. Use the Twitter "tradition" of "followfriday" to recommend others. You will be amazed at how quickly your following will increase. Of course, be genuine about it! Don't do it just because you expect a favour in return. And don't try to advertise directly to people. It's a real turn-off. Once people know and trust you, they don't mind seeing what you're up to (in fact, they love it and they will help promote you without being asked). "Social Oomph" allows you to create an auto reply message to new followers. If you use this, you can give people the link to your "free gift", i.e., your article giveaway (see how much mileage you can get out of one small thing?). Another ESSENTIAL tool you will need is to connect your blog to Twitter via a plug-in called Bird Feeder, and in turn to connect Twitter to Facebook. But all of those treasures require more information than I have room for here today.
   
   
7. LinkedIn is also an essential tool in your "pre-natal" campaign. Again, the goal is to increase your list, but you should do this by targeting exactly the kinds of people you are looking for. For instance, my LinkedIn list is almost all people in personal development, holistic wellness, mind-body-spirit, positive thinking, online marketing or writing/publishing. My LinkedIn contacts are some of the most valuable ones I have in terms of gathering information. Whenever I have a business query I go either to one of the many groups of which I am a member, or to the Q&A on LinkedIn and I know I can find someone to answer it. Whenever I want to show my own expertise, I look for someone looking for help, and I offer it freely. Asking and answering questions is how you gain both credibility and "likeability" on LinkedIn. I am not sure how many "customers" for the book I had from LinkedIn, but I can tell you this: I found both my proofreader and my publicist through LinkedIn, and I also got advice that saved me from getting involved in some very dodgy publishing offers. I also have found many of my radio guests via LinkedIn. As a professional resource, LinkedIn is exceptional.
   
   
8. Chronicle your book writing process through your blog, network and/or newsletter. For many months, I ran a regular feature in my newsletter called "My 20-Step Diary to Becoming a Self-Published Author". Every month I took my readers through the process of where I was with the book, giving them valuable tips in case they themselves were interested in becoming an author (and believe me, there are a lot of people with this dream out there). I even provided people with links to publishers, proofreaders, photographers and shared many of the surprises I had encountered during the publishing process. After every issue, I would receive letters from readers wrote to me and told me how grateful they were to have this information, and how exciting it was to share the process with me. These days, I am currently engaging my readers by asking them send me "lucky numbers" every week, which correlate to different sections of a new book I am currently writing. It not only gets readers feeling engaged, but it also helps to motivate me as well, as I know people are following my actions through the creative process. I am not suggesting you should do things exactly this way. I am suggesting that you use your own creativity to think of ways to engage your readers with your process. Believe me, it will pay off. You can see one of my past issues at http://www.create-a-life.co.uk/ezine/2009/creative_living_0209-1.html
   
   
9. Start a radio show. I'm not kidding. Start a radio show. AND… it costs absolutely nothing! There are plenty of free online radio platforms out there. I use BlogTalkRadio, but there are many others from which to choose. This idea might be the most daunting for some of you out there. If you are not the kind of person who is comfortable being in the spotlight every week, or if you don't have time to commit to a regular show, this might not be your cup of tea. But consider this: I started my Blog Talk Radio show in January 2009, three months before my book came out, and it raised my profile instantly. In fact, my listenership within the first 6 months of broadcasting is more than double the size of my online subscriber list after 3 years' time. I think that speaks for itself. Of course, you have to make sure that your show is targeting the audience for your book...and that's a good show! In my case, all my guests came from the "mind-body-spirit" genre. You will also need to be ready to spend time finding guests and doing promotion. But if you have followed the other steps so far, you are half way there. Oh… and what do you call your show? The title of your book, of course! My show is called (can you guess?) "Lynn Serafinn's Garden of the Soul." And of course, be sure to mention your upcoming book launch on every single show. You can check out my show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn. It airs live every Wednesday, but you can listen any time on demand. Of course, if you think the idea of doing your own show is too much, you can always contact me to see if I can book you in as a guest in 2010. :)
   
   
10. Make a promo video. Again, some of you might think that this requires a lot of know-how and/or money but you would be surprised how easy it is to make a nice-looking promo video with nothing more than a headset, Windows Movie Maker and some nice photographs. If you know how to make a PowerPoint presentation, you can figure out how to use Windows Movie Maker. I made several promo videos for my book, but the ones I am most please with are "Song of the Rose" (http://tinyurl.com/rose-song) and "Song of the Iris" (http://tinyurl.com/iris-song) in which I recite poems from my book, set to music by some former students of mine, using gorgeous nature photos by my photographer friend Sheila Finkelstein (www.sheilafinkelstein.com). While I am sure my background as a sound engineer helped me in the preparation of the audio, I am sure you can find a teenager who dabbles in audio or music software to help you if you have no skills in this area yourself. Trust me, it doesn't have to be a big expensive operation, and a lot of companies out there offering to make you book trailers are not doing anything more complex that what I did at home for free. WARNING: Before you use any music or imagery, do make sure that your music and artwork is copyright free (or that you have the permission of the artists). Once your video is ready, create a channel for yourself on YouTube, upload your video, and then send the link to your subscribers, Twitter followers and others, asking them to comment and rate it. The video will stand out in their minds, and make them more curious about your book. There are other ways to leverage these videos, and use them as real marketing tools, but I'll save that info for another time.
    

These are just some very basic top tips for the "pre-natal" stages of your book marketing campaign. It isn't compulsory that you follow all of these tips, of course, but these are all things I have used, and continue to use, in my promotion. Most of these are pretty stress-free (and even fun) and are either totally free or will cost you pennies. Of course, I haven't gone into great depth for "how" to do all this, because frankly it would take a book in itself to give you all the details.

If you would like to know more about how to make social networking work for you in your book campaign, and how to construct the actual online book campaign, you might consider working together with me to help you get going. While I am primarily a Transformation Coach, I do take on a very few select clients at a time to help them work through the creative process of writing and completing their book, and to help them design and execute their online marketing campaign. If you are really serious, drop me an email at lynn [at] lynnserafinn [dot] com and we can set up a free consultation.

Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC Author, Transformation Coach, radio host Author of Amazon bestseller: The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self Main site: www.lynnserafinn.com Contact me on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnserafinn. Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LynnSerafinn Join my Facebook Fan Page: http://artist.to/gardenofthesoul Join my Ning social network: http://gardenofthesoul.ning.com Catch my radio show: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/gardenofthesoul Send me an invitation to connect. Just say you read about me here on www.marketingtipsforauthors.com and I'll accept your invitation.


















 --------  Tony Eldridge is the author of The Samson Effect, an action/adventure novel that Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the author of the Twitter marketing book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests.