Marketing

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Comment by Debbie Dunn aka DJ Lyons on March 2, 2009 at 6:57pm

I read that Helen M. Trencher wants to have books to sell at her storytelling performances. I originally was going to send this to just her. Then I figured some of the rest of you might find it helpful as well.

Helen -- this note is for you and any interested others.

Helen ,
You mentioned that you would like to be able to have a book you can offer to sell at your storytelling performances. I would like to suggest my publisher called PublishAmerica.com. They love first-time authors. They are not a vanity press. You do not have to pay one penny to get your paperback book published. They will design your cover for you. They will print the book. From the time of acceptance, you will have a published book in your hands in about 4 months.

Pros & Cons: (You judge whether these are considered Pros or Cons. Some are a mixture of both.)

1. They give you two free copies of your book. After that, you have to buy your own copies. The good news is they run specials all the time. You can purchase your books from 35% off to 60% off. Sometimes, they will even run a special where they will give you two copies for the price of one.

2. You are paid royalties twice a year: end of February and end of August. They are standard royalties. I sold 18 copies of my book entitled “The Bell Witch Unveiled At Last! The True Story Of A Poltergeist” written under my pen name of DJ Lyons at my one-woman show at the Maury County Public Library in Columbia, TN. I was so thrilled, I bought a bunch more copies. I figured I would get royalties on the books I bought as well. Sadly, I found out that the fine print of my contract stated that I do not earn royalties on the books I buy.

3. Please note, rarely, they run a special where the books you buy do count toward your royalties. You might want to wait to purchase a huge number when that special happens.

4. They will send out press releases for you.

5. They do some marketing of your book.

6. Amazon.com originally listed my book. Then because PublishAmerica would not agree to sell the book for at least as much as Amazon ‘s listing price, Amazon stopped listing any print-on-demand books. You will see my book listed at Amazon Marketplace, however.

7. PublishAmerica gives you a free website to use for marketing purposes. It has limited capabilities; however, it is free.

Compare:
Here’s my paid website through Yahoo: http://bellwitchunveiled.com

Here’s my free website through PublishAmerica: http://www.publishedauthors.net/dj_lyons/index.html

They also sell my book on-line at: http://www.publishamerica.com/shopping/shopdisplayproducts.asp?catalogid=23353

8. They will sell the book to libraries and bookstores for 40% off the list price.

9. You have complete creative control of your book. That is a very good thing.

10. Do not count on them to do much more than surface-edit your book. They pretty much publish it “As Is.”

Sad Story: A friend of mine requested that I edit his book. I spent dozens of hours going through his book with a fine-tooth comb, correcting dozens and dozens of punctuation and grammar errors.

For some reason, he kept a copy of his original manuscript and my edited copy in the same location on his computer.

He was a rather absent-minded fellow. When he submitted his manuscript as a e-mail attachment, he sent in the error-ridden manuscript as opposed to the corrected one.

We had lost touch as he moved to another state. He did send me a copy of his book months later. I am very sad to say that there are over one hundred glaring typos throughout his book. Sadder yet and cringe-cringe, he lists my real name in the Acknowledgments as being his editor. Growl!

The moral of the story: Please make sure you have edited your book prior to getting it printed. Either edit it yourself or get someone gifted in that department to help you out. That way, you won’t cringe when you hold your published book in your hand.

11. They submit your book to hundreds of on-line bookstores throughout the world. My book is listed in multiple countries. Check out this page to see how many bookstores advertise my book as of this past weekend:
http://bellwitchunveiled.com/Buy_Book.html

12. Everybody I have dealt with at PublishAmerica has been extremely nice and helpful. They really want you to be successful. After all, they will make more money that way.

13. They love first-time authors. You are pretty much guaranteed they will publish your first two books. After that, they probably won’t publish a third unless your books have sold a decent number of copies.

14. I plan to work with them for one more book as I also want to have books I can sell at my storytelling performances. Then hopefully, with two books under my belt, I can attract an agent and get published by one of those big-time publishers for my future publishing efforts.

I hope this has helped. Good luck to you, whether you select that publisher or another.

Best Wishes,
Debbie Dunn aka DJ Lyons
Author of “The Bell Witch Unveiled At Last! The True Story Of A Poltegeist” written under my pen name of DJ Lyons
http://bellwitchunveiled.com . I sell my book using Pay Pal on my website.

Comment by Glenda Bonin on January 15, 2009 at 11:19am

Hello Everyone!

Like so many of you, I have been busy trying to keep up with my "to do" marketing list while keeping an eye on the troubled economic situation the media keeps reminding us about.

I've been reading and looking to a variety of marketing opportunities to keep myself inspired and moving forward. Daniel Pink's book "A Whole New Mind" provided me with some important reasons why the arts (and particularly storytelling) are more important than ever, and why our ability to share (communicate effectively) with one another will make a difference in the future. Then, I finally got around to reading "Book Yourself Solid" by Michael Port - this book is a mind blower for storytellers who want to reach potential customers.

Most recently I've been focusing on using postcards to keep in touch with customers and farm for new ones. From all signs, my efforts seem to be working. I'll keep you posted.
Glenda

Comment by Rob McCabe on January 6, 2009 at 10:32am

Finally, I got a new web page which I created yesterday. I am very proud of this one and also will still keep my storyteller.net web page as well as Sean's hosting is very generously priced as is my Yahoo Hosting account. I have links to my storyteller.net page and will be adding written stories to both soon. Anyway, if you get the chance go to: www.robmccabe.com My business name is Long Ago & Far Away Productions. Let me know what you guys think.

Peace.
Rob McCabe--Storyteller/Writer/Performance Artist/Activist

Comment by Kaye Byrnes on December 1, 2008 at 6:32pm

Greetings!
Please check out the new posting under Events about the 25th anniversary Florida StoryCamp....it's not to be missed.
Pre-Camp session "Coming Home to Healing" with Elizabeth Ellis...hope to see you all there!

Comment by Buck P Creacy on September 9, 2008 at 7:50am

Hey Everyone;

Just a quick note about a conversation at the NSN Conference that I had with a teller from Chattnooga. Seems he found his way... way down in Georgia and there the teachers had my postcard and were asking about me. They haven't called yet, but I think there are two important things to take from this. One, they didn't throw it away. Two, they brought it out to ask questions of another storyteller. Luckily he spoke well of me... I solemnly promise to give a good report of you if I run onto your promotional materials somewhere out there in my journeys. If you have posted your stories as audio files here on PS... let me know and I will go listen to you and then I can say what I have heard. I think all of us need to "talk up" our profession and the others involved.

Just me thinking
Buck

Comment by Buck P Creacy on August 9, 2008 at 4:54am

Greetings from the NSN National Conference. I am feeling better but have to watch myself. Yesterday afternoon, I spent about two hours with Doc McConnell and Guerry. (One hour, we turned off the lights and laid ourselves down on the workshop chairs and took a nap) He gave a wonderful workshop on being a "professional storyteller." Some key points that made were about the "Business" side of storytelling. It is art, fun, healing, inspiring, and all of the other things we talk about around storytelling. But it IS a business, that must be attended to like a business, taxes, marketing, otherwise you eventually have to admit... you are a hobbyist. Nothing wrong with that... but if you approach our art as not only art but as an art business it puts the "work" into a different light. Marketing is equally as important as story development or rehearsals or research. New customer development strategies and product mix are also vital business decisions that will determine our success.

I suspect that Glenda and many others with marketing backgrounds could make a decent living supporting the guerrilla marketing efforts of other storytellers. I struggle with self promotion and there is no way to get around it, marketing is as constant as the chores we associate with work. I love to cook, love to eat, doing dishes... not so much. But I get up after dinner, rinse the dishes and give them a scrub. I have a callous on my finger from pushing the buttons on my dishwasher.

Unfortunately, I think we will be washing our "marketing" by hand for the foreseeable future.

Wish you were here at the Conference... I am really glad I came.

Buck

Comment by Carolyn Stearns on July 23, 2008 at 11:35pm

Glenda, I think you hit the nail on the head. I understand the concept of marketing but its so like doing laundry, you just keep doing it and the same tshirt is always in the machine! I think coming up with new creative marketing pictures, flyers, brochures, postcards has to be a constant effort. Now to make me do it because no one else cares if we do or dont. Marketing ourselves will take discipline! I need a list of monthly objectives and will start it with the same one I have been waiting on - new photos of quality! With my non exhistant budget I have treied to do some swapping, will have to try harder. Make the calls. Then I need to go over my mailing list both snail and email. Then my old plan of make 5 stops a week to leave a brochure , that fell by the wayside this summer must pick it up again. Anyone else got plans or ideas for my/our objective lists? Carolyn

Comment by Glenda Bonin on July 12, 2008 at 10:19am

This is my marketing confessional.

Years ago, when I worked for others, my jobs were in marketing and communication so this is a subject I should know about and be good at. However, when it comes to marketing oneself things get a bit complicated because it is hard to be completely objective. The other roadblock to doing a great job of personal marketing is taking the appropriate amount of time to plan and execute each phase of a marketing effort. When you are a “one man band,” marketing is often last on the list as it is methodical and seemingly not as creative as learning and telling stories. The fact is that marketing can be creative, but one cannot do a little work in this area and then forget about things for a while. In my experience, marketing must be done all the time – ALL THE TIME. As a storyteller, even though I know this, I rebel and often do less of a thorough job than I should. My left brain tells me to review my mailing list and plan a year’s worth of advertising/contacts (at least) to find new audiences and keep in touch with regular customers. My right brain tells me to find, create, learn and perfect new stories for new audiences. I’m always trying to find the right balance. What I know is that marketing is the key and that I probably need to spend 75 percent of my time marketing and the rest being story creative. In reality, I do the opposite. There. I have finally shared my reality.

So, how are you doing?
Glenda

Comment by Lois Sprengnether Keel (LoiS) on July 3, 2008 at 2:19pm

Hi, Tom, et al,
Tom, I notice that you were a ranger with the National Park Service, so I'm hoping you can tell us if this is the norm for Natl. Park programs or just for the 1 where you worked. It's possible that you only know where you were, but I'm hoping this isn't the usual way they expect storytelling to be done. Yech!

Comment by Tom Carter on July 2, 2008 at 6:09pm

Hi, I just took Buck's ( hope he is doing better) advice and joined. Also, I just quit a job that I'd got that that seemed to offer the chance to storytell in a resort setting (National Park) but I was expected to adhere to a script and not be controversial. My ideas were subject to approval by two entities, the government and the concessioneer and I was starting to look at the money instead of the experience. So, now I'm back home and looking for possibility where I'd decided there wasn't any. I'm in a small southern Utah town where I have organized a festival and had about three appearances, but a town that holds it's stories close as if to share them would be to invite aliens to dinner. Any ideas from folks who have had to work hard to find an audience?

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