An Author’s PR Roadmap

Whether you’ve signed with a major publishing house, a boutique publisher or have self-published your book, there is one constant…

You need to market!

PR, marketing and promotion are not luxuries for authors, they are necessities.

The question authors need to ask is not if you should market, but when and how.
Your best bet is going to be a combination of a public relations outreach combined with a social media campaign.

Why PR?

Because public relations is the only form of marketing that reaches your target market and offers you the credibility and validation of being featured in the media.
You are not in a commercial or an ad.
You are featured in the news. You are the news!
To start, keep in mind that marketing your book is different than marketing yourself as an author. A book can be an engine that helps pull the train, but the overall train is your image and brand as a writer. One of the problems with publishing houses is that they focus solely on marketing the book and often overlook valuable PR and marketing opportunities that can be gained from marketing the writer themselves.
I understand a publisher’s perspective. They’re going to make their return off the book sales and the author might not be with them a year or two down the line.

But as an author, you need to think more long term. Each book is a part of your canon. No one work defines you. Your marketing, PR and branding focus needs to be on your overall career as an artist.
Still, if you do have a book coming out, you’re then working with a specific timeline and need to develop a marketing and PR plan targeting your book release. Write out your plan. Have it include objectives, timeframe, goals, strategies and tactics. Whether you’re self-publishing or working with a traditional publishing house will change your approach.
If you’re working with a publisher, they should give you some guidance, but do not expect them to take care of your PR and marketing needs. Realize that you are going to have to take charge of your marketing. If you can hire a PR firm, do it. If not there are still steps that you can take to promote and market your work.

Do some homework.
Learn some of the PR basics.
And remember, effective PR is effective storytelling.
And who better to tell a story than –
An author!

Create & Wait: An Author’s Worst Marketing Approach

Many authors, filmmakers and artists, work under a strange type of “create and wait” mindset. According to this approach once a work has been created, an artist has completed his or her work and can't be bothered with marketing or promotion.

Some feel that they shouldn’t have to market their art, others are loath to invest in their work. Those are such strange attitudes to hold around something that is so important. When I ask artists what is most important to them, the response is invariably, their art. If it’s not number one on their list, it is assuredly in the top three. Yet when it comes to caring for their art, which by definition involves marketing and promotion, that importance often seems to plummet.

This a strange disconnect. Not that it’s not understandable. We live in a culture where art is generally seen as an avocation or a hobby. We view those artists who have made it as anomalies. We could never be one of those success stories. When young artists tell their peers or families about their dreams, they are generally told to grow up and find a suitable career. Without support, is it any wonder that so many simply give up their art, or do so in secret? What other venture would have people hiding as opposed to promoting their work?

The other trap is when artists believe that marketing is beneath them. They've done their work and shouldn't have to bother themselves with marketing or PR. To those I simply say - join the real world and your chances of success will increase exponentially.

If this describes you, change your mindset – now!

The best book or film in the world needs a bridge built between it and its audience. From my perspective, building that bridge is something that artists owe to their work. It's incumbent on them to give their work the best chance it can to succeed, reach an audience, and touch others.

The trick here is to view promotion as an art.

If you can afford it, hire a professional. If not, don’t wait. There are tools you can learn and implement on your own.

Learn the art of marketing; the art of PR.

Have fun with it, experiment, be bold.

To quote Goethe: “Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

And the truth is if you adhere to the “create and wait” philosophy, chances are you will wait and wait and…
You get the picture.
Writers not only need to be bold in their work, they need to be bold in how they market their work.
One artist told me, he was confident his art would be discovered once he passed on. But, waiting to die in order for one’s art to be discovered doesn’t quite seem like the most effective marketing plan for your work.

Take action.
And, remember Goethe –
Be bold.

PR & Marketing in the Age of Disruption

From music to film, to publishing, to the world of fine art, the internet has forever changed marketing in the creative industries. This shift has been seismic and has turned what had been thought of as set-in-stone business models on their collective heads.

I began as a music journalist and then managed bands in the early ‘90s, but those days are gone. The music world was the first to be rocked by the changing communication landscape, whereas many were engulfed by the changes and faded, a new breed of musicians learned to take matters into their own hands and create successful careers utilizing PR, social media and guerilla marketing

The publishing world has also been turned upside down. No longer do traditional publishing houses hold the keys to success. Self-published authors are taking matters and marketing into their own hands. Increasingly self-published authors are landing on the best sellers list and on Amazon’s top 20 list. Amanda Hocking initially became a millionaire by self publishing her work. It was only after she was established that she signed with St. Martin’s Press.

The shifts came later to the film industry, but it too is experiencing the change. For example, as with self-published books, CreateSpace (http://www.createspace.com) serves entrepreneurs in the music, publishing, and film worlds. As an independent producer you can upload your film as part of a digital DVD along with cover art and information on the film. Your film is then posted for sale. The company (which is owned by Amazon.com) takes and fulfills the orders and splits the profits with the filmmaker. That is just one option. There are several outlets online that help producers sell their films. There are also new channels of distribution. Films are now reaching the public by being shown at churches, organizations, schools, museums, and other non-traditional establishments. Theatrical distribution is no longer the only name of the game.

That said, the most powerful marketing tool available to artists is a combination of PR and social media. An effective public relations campaign will land you media coverage that offers you the validation and credibility that no other form of marketing can offer. You are the news! You can then begin to share and amplify your media coverage on your site and on your various social media platforms. Compared to other forms of marketing, this combined approach can be extremely effective and affordable.

Whereas the internet has torn down down some of the traditional walls and allowed artists in all fields to take more control of their careers, doing so is not always easy. It involves creativity, persistence, and an investment of both time and money. These changes can initially be daunting. For years musicians, filmmakers, and authors were reluctant to rock the boat and alienate the powers that be by charting a path of their own. But more and more artists are realizing that the old models have shifted, bringing different challenges but also opportunities. The upside? With tenacity and creativity, artists can now carve out successful careers on their own terms.

Upcoming Event: Beyond The Trailer - Movie Marketing Strategies

Beyond The Trailer: Movie Marketing Strategies and Promotional Tactics
Presented by American Marketing Association (AMA) Los Angeles

Want to learn how to create an effective PR and marketing campaign for your film?

Actually, that’s a rhetorical question. I can tell you, the answer is YES. You want to develop and launch the most effective PR campaign possible. You’ve put your heart, soul, time and money into your film project. You now owe it to the film and to yourself to give it a chance to succeed.

With that in mind, join me and other film PR and marketing experts on Thursday, November 2.

Beyond The Trailer: Movie Marketing Strategies and Promotional Tactics
Moderated by Philip Rebentisch, AMA Los Angeles President

Thursday, November 2, 2017 - 6:30 – 8:30 p.m
WeWork La Brea
925 N La Brea Ave, 4th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90038

So, what will be covered?

Why PR is important for your film and your career as a filmmaker

How to find your most compelling stories

What the media is looking for

How to pitch the media

Which media outlets to pitch

How to meld your social media outreach with traditional media

How to utilize your PR to reach your target market, distributors, investors and influencers

...and much more.

Dive into your film project. Make the very best film you can. But be smart about it. Realize that PR and marketing are not an option, they are essential. You owe it to your film to give it the best possible chance to succeed.

Learn more and get tickets here!

A Voice with Legs: Laura Carruthers Translates Dance into Film

Laura Carruthers is a six-time national champion and world-ranked Scottish Highland dancer, a former member of the Ballet Arizona, and an award-winning filmmaker whose portrayals of dance on screen welcome mainstream audiences to its intricacies. Her latest film, Grace Fury, is an autobiographical exploration into the joy of creating art that has just been nominated for multiple awards at the Glendale International Film Festival, the San Francisco International New Concept Film Festival, the LA Underground Film Forum, and the World Music and Independent Film Festival. Fascinated by the journey that would take a young Los Angeles native from Celtic dance enthusiast to successful filmmaker, I chatted with Laura about what it’s taken her to get here, the inspirations and challenges that she found along the way, and the sense that “bonding with art isn’t always immediate escapism.”

Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA--Burbank, to be exact--Laura spent childhood summers watching her father compete in traditional Scottish sport, a subculture she describes as larger than life. “Not your traditional vacation,” Laura noted laughing, but one that quickly inspired her to enroll in Scottish Highland dancing herself. And she was good at it--really good: she went on to win six national championships. Things took a turn when Laura enrolled at Arizona State University to study history, but there she kept her passion for dance alive by studying ballet under former Kirov principal Zenia Chlistowa, and following graduation she was accepted into the prestigious Ballet Arizona by Director Michael Uthoff.

At this point during our conversation, we paused a moment for me to ask the question that she says nearly everyone who’s not in her worlds asks: what exactly is Scottish Highland dancing, and is it anything like ballet? The answer: Scottish Highland dancing is very aerobic and demanding, requiring a simultaneous precision and buoyancy that results in what Laura describes as a “state of perpetual spring” (which as you might expect, is “very horrible on your legs”). Far from the synchronized pounding of its more mainstream Celtic sibling made popular with Riverdance, Highland dancing is relentless but never heavy. Ballet in turn depends on the same level of precision, but is, perhaps surprisingly so, less rigid than Highland dancing--a flexibility that Laura found very liberating and appealing.

Of course, one must acknowledge that Laura is blessed with preternatural energy and grace--born to a mathematician mother and a father who loved Scottish sport but not dance, Laura is the first of her family to become a dancer. And yet nearly everyone who has crossed her path can’t help but notice a natural exuberance and magnetism that translate across Celtic, classical, and contemporary techniques.

So, Laura made it to ASU where she discovered that the Scottish subculture of her Californian youth was minimal at best. She found herself living almost a double life: the side focused on that subculture, and the side in which her peers had zero connection to it or understanding about it; as Laura describes the dichotomy, “you’re either in it, or you don’t know much about it.” Despite pressure from her father to focus on academics and graduate, Laura discovered that ballet was a way to bridge the gap between Highland dancing and the mainstream professional dance world--and perhaps even a way to turn the dance realm into a long-term career.

Laura started introducing her fellow ballet dancers to the “strange little technique” of Highland dancing, and as a burgeoning choreographer she blended the Celtic with the classical. People took notice, and it was at this point that she started her transformation into the “voice with legs.”

Fast forward to today: Laura is still dancing, but is now also a successful filmmaker and a self-described sociopolitical activist. Her overarching artistic philosophy is intrinsically bound to her unshakeable insistence that art have a place in today’s increasingly money-focused and conformist culture: “I fear that in some ways we’re losing the innocence of just being artistic, allowing for a degree of freedom and room to do just what you need to do and say what you need to say...I feel like art, like science, is a space where we should be pioneering, and in many cases you don’t even know what contributions you might make--a way that might not seem huge in the moment but might influence people down the road. Even if it’s not entirely practical or doesn’t have a huge payoff, in some cases that’s the real stuff, the parts of the variation in our species that goes missing because we follow the same lines too often.”

It is impossible not to be inspired by the conviction with which Laura shares that vision for a world in which creativity continues not simply to exist but to thrive, and it makes it easy to understand why her latest film Grace Fury is picking up nominations across the festival circuit.

An autobiographical foray into Laura’s life and the necessity of artistic creation, Grace Fury combines her obvious long-time love of film (Kubrick and Coppola are some of her biggest influences) with a lifetime’s understanding of dance and self that’s challenged only by the technical innovation that five Panasonic VariCams offer insofar as true viewer immersion. The film is a beautifully intimate experience with a degree of “poetic mystery” that is all too often hard to capture, but it also speaks to the greater human experience. Laura notes, “I hope that some of the points I’m making, the questions I’m asking, are bigger and more core; I’m saying this little microexperience, this one person’s tiny shot at life that I have, that maybe there are some things I’m saying that might resonate with other people, that might speak to human nature.”

Grace Fury originally started as a festival opportunity offered to her by a couple producers in New York; when the larger project died, Laura decided to keep going with the film, realizing that maybe it was time to say what she really meant. If that’s not a metaphor for Laura’s entire drive in life, I don’t know what is. I asked Laura what she looks to get out of this film and the work she does now.

“I just hope the whole thing inspires people to do their own thing as well. To maybe be on the lookout for different kinds of artists who aren’t always in your view all the time. It’s important to inspire people in whatever capacity you have to make art. We should all have the experience of making art, and never resign ourselves to just being spectators or saying we can’t. It’s part of the human experience.”

Check out Laura's work and upcoming film Grace Fury at http://www.lauracarruthers.com.

Podcasting, Fandom, and Media Specialization

Media placement is one of the core tenets of public relations, if not the main goal: we build clients into Brands through their exposure across a variety of outlets until they hit the threshold of public interest and become relevant (and then the real PR fun begins).

The endless evolution of media is one of the ever-changing trends that we have to be very aware of in PR; particularly since the 2000s, news and pop culture consumption has changed radically (and continues to). For example, the last five years have seen an abundance of articles bemoaning the “death of journalism” in the face of social media ubiquity and a pervasive click-bait-as-business mentality. Leading national newspapers continue to increase print subscription fees as consumers turn to the Internet, and even that online presence is constantly challenged by the instant accessibility of in-your-face Facebook algorithms that bring the news to you via right rails and friends.

In that same vein, we no longer turn to radio as much as we used to in booking exposure for clients. Radio shows used to be a default go-to, but as with the rest of media consumerism in 2017, the variety show model has largely been eclipsed by outlets that are tailored to specific interests and which are easy to digest on the go with a smartphone.

Enter the Podcast. A portmanteau of “pod” (iPod) and “broadcast” coined in 2004 by BBC journalist Ben Hammersley, podcasts snuck into the scene and enjoyed moderate interest among key early adopters until an explosion in the 2010s that cemented them as a popular medium, challenging traditional radio business practices. Of course broadcast radio is still prevalent: it’s an easy habit to flip on FM while driving to work in the a.m., and if we're talking local traffic, national news, and current hits, you're set.

But, so many of our clients—especially our authors and filmmakers who are just starting to take off—don’t have stories that fit immediately into that general news mold. Podcasts offer an hyper-accessible channel with the advantage of highly particular subject matter, if so desired. The host-guest(s) conversational structure that features in so many podcasts also means authentic connection and the chance to build lasting and mutually beneficial professional relationships. Plus, podcast audiences are already primed to be interested in show guests.

Why is that so important if the audience is just a niche community? Because if we can successfully identify appropriate channels, we win guaranteed exposure for clients in communities that will champion them, and amplify their presence enthusiastically and organically. In eternal HBO hit Sex and the City, leading lady Samantha Jones is a PR pro who pushes her then boyfriend Jerry “Smith” Jerrod to commercial success as an actor, gleefully noting of his confusion at the path his burgeoning career is taking, “First come the gays, then the girls!” Sure enough, his career takes off right on schedule.

Now we’re not that particular market here, nor would we perhaps be quite so flippant, but the wisdom holds: in this new age of Comic-Con as a media mogul instead of just a nerd haven, and Harry Styles as a critically acclaimed musical talent beyond a pre-teen dream*, we embrace and rely on fandom more than ever.

In 2017, fandom is not frivolous, it’s what comes first.

What we’re saying: if you’re an author or a filmmaker, don’t shy away from appealing to niche audiences, or starting off with exposure in smaller, more specific outlets (and if you’re working with your PR team, trust us, there’s a plan). Podcasts in particular are your friend! Find the communities that love what you’re doing and want to champion you, so that when it comes time to pitch yourself to bigger fish, those mainstream outlets will care because a quick Google search will show that everyone else already does.
*If you're dubious about One Direction's main man, check out NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour or Panoply's Switched on Pop for more on Mr. Styles...speaking of podcasts.

Happily Ever Appter: Traditional PR Gets Social

There’s no doubt that Public Relations is an art. PR is a unique combination of communications mastery, sincere relationship building, and Jeopardy-level knowledge of current events. For good measure, toss in some tenacity and a sixth sense for what people will find compelling, and how. In PR, we build brands that set trends by capitalizing on the current.

But while PR has always required that we keep our fingers on the pulse of current global culture, what we consider “the media” is now more far-reaching, ubiquitous, and noisy than ever.

So how do we keep up? How do we separate the substance from the fluff, and make sure our own (quality) content stands out? We could easily drive ourselves into the ground trying to shoehorn our original methods into digital-age style, or we can evolve with the industry.

In short, to be successful in PR V.2017, we have to work smart, not just hard. And I do mean that literally—get your smart phone, we’re going mobile.

Okay, not just mobile, but that is a big part of it. These days, we have to optimize our journalism-based storytelling within traditional media outlets for the platforms and apps that drive contemporary consumer connection.

I’m not suggesting we toss our standards to the wind in favor of churning out daily content for ten different platforms in an effort to simply invite the masses to mindlessly “like” us. Quite the contrary, we have to raise our standards for content creation in order to stand out in a sea of contributors, and then we have to employ those same standards in carefully trimming and adapting that content for multiple short-form and visual platforms in a way that not only grabs attention, but keeps it.

When we do all of that successfully, we effectively convert momentary fans into long-term followers who will continue to engage with us through whichever platforms they prefer.

Social media—an incredibly broad term for the multitude of user-based sharing platforms that connect and inundate billions of brains a day—is here to stay. Maybe not in its current forms, for certainly not all of today’s popular platforms will weather the millennial storm, but it is undeniable that social technology has woven itself inextricably into daily human livelihood.

Increasingly, our conversations with clients include strategic approaches to pairing social and traditional media (sometimes even viral marketing), because it’s both what clients are already seeing daily and what we suggest they use to maximize their presence. We also have a much more involved relationship with web developers and analytics experts because we’re constantly monitoring the ways that people ingest interviews and news, and making sure content is accessible to the largest number of people.

What this means: If you are a PR professional, read up on social platforms, mobile news apps, and the digital workspace tools that can help you streamline efficiency and engage with your audiences. If you’re a writer looking to self-promote or hire a PR firm, make sure that you and/or your reps understand thoroughly the critical combination of legitimate news coverage and clever, multi-platform content distribution—that's definitely a conversation to have early on.

O brave new world!

Top image courtesy of Espresso Digital

Ann Convery: Featured Panelist at How to Find and Retain New Customers Event

On Thursday, May 25^th, 2017 Ann Convery, creator of Speak Your Business™, will be a featured panelist at the event How to Find and Retain New Customers, presented by American Marketing Association (AMA) Los Angeles. This unique event, which will be held at General Assembly in Santa Monica, California, will focus on how marketing professionals, agencies, and content creators can best attract and keep their clients and customers.

Joining Ann on the panel will be:

► Anil Punyapu: SVP of Sales, Cvent

► Elizabeth Primm: Industry Director, Twitter

► Sean Kelly: Head of Sales, Spotify

The event will be moderated by Philip Rebentisch, President of AMA Los Angeles

TALK TO THE LIZARD BRAIN

Speak Your Business™, Ann’s signature system, uses neuromarketing and other tools to show business owners how to transform their messages into client magnets that increase revenues, win the pitch, and boost the bottom line. Ann’s system focuses on targeting the Lizard Brain, the part of the brain that makes decisions. With Ann’s system, business owners talk to the “decision-maker” every time they communicate.

CAPTURE, KEEP, SHARE

Ann’s system shows how using the 5 rules of the Lizard Brain, in a brief story, makes it possible to capture anyone’s attention in 8 seconds. Lizard Brain stories make it a cinch to keep that attention, and get prospects and customers to care about the story they just heard.

GLOBAL TO LOCAL

Ann has delivered over 150 trainings in Barcelona, Madrid, Liverpool, Mexico City, New York, Chicago, Seattle, and California. She has worked in over 25 different industries with clients on four continents. Recently Ann worked with digital tech entrepreneurs at Cross Campus, the hub of L.A.’s Silicon Beach community.

For over 15 years Ann has prepared top professionals to appear on CNN, Oprah, Fx News, 60 Minutes, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other outlets. Her media training evolved into Speak Your Business, a company that is out to revolutionize the way business owners communicate.

ALL MARKETING CHANNELS

Speak your Business works across all marketing channels, including personal introductions, customer and investor pitches, speeches, presentations, sales conversion, and b2b or b2c – online and off.

Ann has been interviewed by The Los Angeles Times, Elle, Cosmopolitan, ABC-TV, Entrepreneur, and many other media. Her two books were published by Harper Collins.

Thursday, May 25, 2017
6:30 – 9:00 pm PDT

General Assembly
1520 2nd Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401

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A Conversation with Kathleen Sexton Kaiser

I met Kathleen at the wonderfully produced 805 Writers’ Conference. I make a point of that, since she produced it. Kathleen is a savvy navigator of all things publishing. With four published books and three plays under her belt, she understands how authors and artists are often confused by the new world of marketing their products and themselves. Kathleen, whose expertise encompasses seminars, conferences, special events, publicity, marketing communications and trade show production, maintains a small list of clients that allow her to continue her volunteerism, which includes being co-founder and executive director of the Pacific Institute for Professional Writing, producer of the annual 805 Writers’ Conference, president of the national organization Small Publishers, Artists & Writers Network (SPAWN), and organizer of a monthly literary meeting in Thousand Oaks, CA sponsored by SPAWN and the Independent Writers of Southern California. The following is a conversation with Kathleen on books, writers and the brave new world of publishing.

How did you get started working with writers?

I’ve always had people that write in my world. My career began as a music journalist and most of my friends were writers for local papers or magazines. Moving into the corporate world, I wrote marketing copy or hired copywriters. It was a learning curve to understand how to creatively describe a business or product.

I’d written a novel, and took it to the Santa Barbara Writers Conference in 1998. That’s where I met this new world of writers and instructors—pros that were writing or editing everyday. The conference was a master class for me and is where I met the legendary southern California editor, Shelly Lowenkopf. He changed my entire view of writing.

What initially drew you to the field?

Always been a storyteller. Made up stories for my paper dolls, then for friends to act out. Was a school newspaper columnist by seventh grade and published in a local newspaper at sixteen. Founded a Beatles Fan Club in San Diego at fifteen and wrote a small newsletter. By twenty, I was an editor at Teen Screen Magazine in Hollywood, next west coast editor for Rock Magazine while freelancing articles. I worked until I was 32 as either a music journalist or publicist writing press releases. During that time, I wrote countless articles for publications in America, Canada, England, Italy and Japan and four books on rock and roll for Japan.

In 1997 I fell and broke my foot. Cooped up in the house I came up with an idea for a screenplay that eventually became my novel.

What are the main changes you’ve seen since you began working with authors?

How much they have to do to market their books and become mini-entrepreneurs. They must have an ability to write blogs, tweets, and talk about their books. Fortunately, I worked for 20 years in graphic design following the desktop publishing revolution of the late 80s right into the internet. Gave me a leg up on understanding the technology and, by working with a real futurist, Jonathan Seybold, I was introduced early to new tools that made writing and designing books easier. Then the World Wide Web exploded and we can never look back.

Authors are now in control of their destiny as long as they want to put in the hard work. Publishing is a business, not a hobby. It takes commitment.

How has self-publishing changed the publishing world?

It’s not really self-publishing that changed, it was two things that changed publishing: going digital drastically lowered the price of producing a quality looking book; and two, Amazon. Vanity presses have been around forever. Now you don’t need to fill your garage with boxes of boxes. Everything is done Print on Demand. If anyone tells you to order hundreds of books, run away. Totally not necessary. They are just taking your money.

For years independent films have been considered art, but self-published books were viewed as vanity projects. Is that changing and if so, why?

The content and quality are what matter. Is it art? Only if it moves you. It’s all in story. Personally, I put down a book with grammar and construction errors because they pull me right out of the story. Most important relationship a writer has is with a great editor. They can save your book. And I don’t mean editors for grammar or punctuation. I mean real development and content editors.

What are some of the biggest pitfalls that self-published writers need to be aware of?

Cost, distribution, marketing, and the time commitment you need to make to have any success. Plus, having a well-written story that follows the norms for writing in the 21^st Century. If you haven’t read 20 bestsellers in your genre over the last 3 years, then you have no idea how much style has drastically changed. What readers want now are action from the first page. The days of 70s and 80s writing with long setups are gone.

Remember, buyers can read the first 3 pages on Amazon. If you don’t grab them within 3 pages, they don’t buy your book. Writing is competing with film, which drops you into the action immediately and your character must fight they way out from page one.

Pitfalls include the many scammers out there pretending to be publishers who take your book and then charge you a small fortune to publish your book. NO REAL PUBLISHER charges the writer. There are some good hybrid publishers who charge a small fee, but READ THE FINE PRINT.

Tell me about The Small Publishers, Artists & Writers Network (SPAWN)

SPAWN has been around for twenty years. In the beginning their goal was to build a community of writers, which the internet allowed because we didn’t need meetings with everything online. We have an award-winning website that is a top resource for writers. Our free monthly newsletter goes out to over 4,000 writers in five countries. Our Market Update, which is a member benefit, gives tips for marketing a book, for illustrators on style and color trends, for small publishers an update on what is happening in the world of publishing. I read or monitor over 50 newsletters to create each Update, bringing what I feel is the latest news, trends, and tips SPAWN members need to stay on the leading edge of book publishing.

How did you become involved with the 805 Writers’ Conference?

I produced the Ventura Writers Fair in 2010 and invited Shelly Lowenkopf to speak. He and I got talking afterwards about the many changes happening in the 805 area, the decline in the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and the need for better education. We co-founded the Pacific Institute for Professional Writing in 2011 and launched the first conference along with a series of workshops and intensives. This year we launched the Indie Author Seminars for writers considering self-publishing. Since I produced technology conferences and trade shows for years, it was a natural fit to be the producer of the 805 Writers’ Conference.

What part of your work fulfills you the most?

Hearing the joy in a writer’s voice when they receive that first printed copy of their book. The struggle and time invested to get to that point can be exhausting and the sheer triumph of holding your new book is amazing. I know it was for me.

Helping people avoid mistakes I’ve seen done in the past. Showing them how to build an audience and sell some books. Though I run two literary groups, my main work is in book marketing. I want to share what I’ve learned with others.

What are the three main tips you’d give to writers?

Learn the craft. Take classes from established pros that work in the industry. If you can’t find one in your area, take university writing classes at night.
Attend writer conferences. Meet the instructors, get on their newsletter or Facebook lists and learn. Meet agents and editors. Submit your book to qualified editors and listen to what they say. With my novel, I went through two editors that helped my writing more than anything else.
Understand that publishing is a business that must be worked. You need to commit to finding and building your audience. Even bestselling authors must now market their own books. Marketing departments at publishers have gone the way of dodo birds.

Learn more about Kathleen at www.KathleenKaiserAndAssociates.com.

Do Not Read this Article - If You Want Your Film to Fail

Why filmmakers make films Let’s start with a multiple choice pop quiz that includes just one question:

Why do filmmakers make films?

1) Because they’re bored and have nothing else to do.

2) Because they have too much money and don’t know how else to spend it.

3) Because they want to watch it in their room, by themselves, on their laptop, over and over.

4) Because it’s a fun, albeit expensive, way to meet people and maybe find a date.

5) Because they have a story they want to tell and share with as large an audience as possible.

If you answered 1, 2, 3, or 4, stop reading his article right now and see what’s playing on Bravo.

If you answered number 5 and you indeed are a filmmaker, or interested in becoming one, read on.

In all honesty, I don’t think there are many filmmakers that set out with the objective of having their film fail. They’re not rooting for it to be seen by only a handful of family and friends, or spend its life in distribution limbo or be remembered only as a side note, they can say, yeah I made a film once.

But the way many filmmakers act and the decisions they make or don’t make has to make one wonder.

Without marketing and public relations there is no film success.

Period.

It’s a given.

It’s a truth, set in stone and yet it’s something that many filmmakers ignore or avoid or in some case simply forget. They are so focused on getting their film made that they forget why they are making their movie.

Understand that as a filmmaker marketing is an integral part of your job description. It isn’t simply something you could do. It isn’t a choice, isn’t an option

If you want your film to succeed setting up a marketing plan that stats when you’re writing your first draft is something you will do.

Start outlining your public relations campaign, as soon as you start working on your project. Whether at the writing or preproduction stage, start thinking about the PR angles and how you can best utilize them when ready

Once you have your stories map out your outreach, if you can hire a PR firm to launch a campaign, or for some basic consultation, that will make your life a heck of a lot easier, but if your budget doesn’t allow it, don’t let that stop you.

Make a list of your possible stories or media angles. Successful PR is successful storytelling. It’s an art. One angle could be the film itself, the subject matter, another could be your journey to making the film, and another could be the cast members. No matter how crazy some of the ideas might sound, write them down. You never know where that one story that hits the right nerve will come from.

If you’re adept at writing, put together a one page press release. If you’re not, find someone who can and have him or her write one for you. Keep it at one page.

Next put together a list of your main target media outlets. Now contact them. Be aggressive, but not pushy.

Don’t wait for others to market your film. It’s up to you to take action. Either bring a professional on board or start your own marketing outreach.

You’ll never get where you want to go if you don’t start.

So…

Start!