Marketing Your Book: The Publisher's Role and Your Role

If you're new to the publishing world, you've probably assumed that the publishing house that publishes your book will do all of the marketing and promoting of your book as well. However, that's not entirely true.

The publishing house does a lot for you, as far as marketing is concerned. But, believe it or not, that's not enough for your book to get noticed amongst the raging sea of new books that appears each year.

So what does a publishing house do? Well, that varies with each different publishing house. Rachelle Gardner posted on her blog 34 things the marketing department of a publishing house commonly does for your book.

Now, that list may seem extensive, but in reality, over a million new book titles get published each year. Suddenly you have competition. Imagine a million other authors using the same marketing materials. Whose voice will be heard?

When I tried to sell jewelry online, I quickly realized that I needed a niche. Jewelry is one of the most commonly-sold things on the Internet. Everyone and their mom makes and sells jewelry online. Jewelry is easy to make and women LOVE it. So, naturally, it does well! But, if your product doesn't stand out, no one is going to notice it amongst the floods of other products that look just like yours.

If you're familiar with Etsy.com, this is common knowledge to you. If you're unfamiliar with Etsy.com, try looking up something like "red jewelry heart pendant". I received almost 5,000 results. In order for me to choose to view a seller's pendant, over the thousands of others listed, the seller needs to have a really special product, something that really stands out.

As an author, you need to not only have a story for your book that sticks out amongst the others, but a unique marketing tactic as well. Now, I'm not saying you should create your own genre. You need a market to market to! If your story sticks under the genre of "cowboy environmentalist space romance", you're not going to have a very large circle of readers. Instead, stick to a familiar genre, but dish out something unique, something that stretches the boundaries of that genre. Make sure you can explain your concept and your plot concisely and in a way that entices potential readers.

Check out these great marketing links. One of the lists features links geared toward artists; however, most of the marketing strategies can be adapted by anyone who has a product to sell.

Four Reasons Why You Must Take Responsibility For Your Own Marketing; Michael Hyatt, Intentional Leadership

Huge List of Ways to Help Promote and Advertise Your Shop + Marketing Tips; SoapDeli, Etsy

The 7 Biggest Fan Page Marketing Mistakes; Brian Carter, All Facebook

The Persistent and Damaging Myth About Introverts and Marketing; Jane Friedman, There Are No Rules

Writing Style: What the Heck is It?

A writer's style is the "voice" of the writer, as "heard" through their writing. Style is displayed in the way a writer composes their sentences. It's displayed by love their for dialogue, or their overuse of wordy descriptions. It shows up when they use one too many short sentences, or when their paragraphs are overflowing with commas.

A writer's style is as unique as they themselves. Some writers have such a distinct style that they could publish a book without their name on it and still be recognized as the author. The way in which they write leaves "fingerprints" all over their books. Someone who is familiar with the author's style will detect it in an instant.

Style is what makes us hate one book and love another, in the same genre. Two people can have the same story idea but execute it differently, potentially ending up with two completely dissimilar audiences of readers. Take these two sentences, for example:

1.) "His arched eyebrows grazed the brim of his brown plaid cap as he attentively eyeballed the mysterious -- and possibly dangerous -- individual."

2.) "The man gripped the edge of his seat, staring, brows lifted warily under his dark cotton cap."

These two sentences are describing the same person in the same situation, yet the descriptions are quite different. This is a simple example of two different styles. The way a writer takes in a situation, and then translates it onto paper, is what makes his or her style unique.

This is just a basic introduction to writing style. In future posts, I'll cover various topics about style, including common style problems and how to fix them.

Our favorite author's style of writing is what keeps us coming back to their books. Can you figure out what it is about their style that you love? Leave a comment!

Writer's Digest Weekly Writing Prompt: 10 Words

(Visit WritersDigest.com and enter your email in the left sidebar to receive their weekly writing prompts and read some great articles!)

Write a 10-word sentence that sums up your day.

I know the day's only half over, but this has been "one of those days", as it were. So....

"Juice puddle, ant army, crabby kids; but I love life."

Yeah, yeah, kind of a poorly crafted sentence, but that just about sums it up. ;) I do have "bad" days sometimes, where the little things gang up on me and threaten to drive me wild. But I still love the life God has blessed me with!

And call me a deviate, but I also love using prepositions at the ends of sentences! ;)

Post your own 10-word sentence here, and/or visit the Writer's Digest forum to post your response!

Writing Exercise - Painting Pictures with Words

As any typical aspiring writer would, I subscribe to emails from the folks at Writer's Digest. The emails include articles with tips for those of us who like words. One of the articles boasts The 5 Secrets of Great Storytelling.

"Secret" number four encourages writers to paint lovely images while describing the simplest of objects. The article, written by I.J. Schecter, reminds us to avoid cliches and all those lovely little things that bore readers to tears (oops -- a cliche!).

Instead, we should use original phrasing and create beautiful imagery out of even the most mundane things.

The Exercise: So, as per the article, walk around outside, stop, and pick out an object with your eyes. Describe it. Then, describe it differently; try to make it interesting. Then, test out some metaphors. Make the object come to life. Repeat five times.

This Mailbox Looks So Much Cooler Than Mine

Here's what I did. I chose the mailbox: White. Rectangular. Holding a red flag. Plastic. Hinged door.

Then I kicked it up a notch: Standing tall, hard and fast. Receptive. Protector of letters. Encourager of communication. Case of mysteries.

And finally, metaphorically speaking: House of letters. Fortress of exchanged ideas. White jewelry box full of scripted pearls. Steadfast messenger. Architecture of the American Dream.

Okay, so most of the descriptions may sound outlandish, even lame. But they will provoke your creativity and inspire you to wax poetic on your descriptions in future writing. And the better you get at creating images with your words, the easier it will be for you to entice your readers.

Pick an object and leave some beautiful imagery in the comments. :)

Photo credit: srchen from morguefile.com

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