Category: Author Coaching

Who Said It Would Be Easy?

I was sitting on the judges panel for the 2012 San Francisco Writers Conference Pitchfest, which is usually a contest—we changed the rules at the last minute this year, when my literary agent and fellow judge, Verna Dreisbach, leaned over and said, “It’s okay, Nina. It’s okay.” I realized I had sort of gone off [...]

Monday February 20th, 2012 in Agents, Author Coaching, Finding an Agent | 2 Comments »

Mari Smith on Why Writers Need to Use Relationship Marketing

I spend a lot of time on social networks every day—maybe more than I should or have to if I knew how to do a better or more effective job with my social marketing. However, those efforts have garnered me a decent—not huge—platform, one that grows every day. In fact, it’s growing faster every day. [...]

Mari Smith on How Writers Can Use Social Networking Effectively

Many aspiring and published authors balk at the idea of getting involved in social networks. My clients continually tell me they don’t want to have to “sell” themselves and their writing via social media nor do they want to “waste” their precious writing time on this endeavor. So, when I found myself at BlogWorld and [...]

How Writers Can Use the Super Bowl as a Promotional Tool

I’m not a football fan—at all—but I spent the afternoon and evening yesterday keeping my husband company as he watched the Super Bowl. I watched the commercials and the halftime show and kept a running commentary on them on Twitter as I pigged out on junk food. With the exception of the dip and chips, [...]

What Do Your Social Media Stats Mean to an Agent or Publisher?

I recently saw this basic question asked in a LinkedIn discussion: What do all my social media stats—blog readers and social networking followers—mean to an agent or a publisher? My response: “They mean a lot.” They mean you have platform. And platform equates to you being someone with whom an agent or a publisher wants [...]

4 Steps to Your Social Networking Program

More aspiring authors than I can mention in desperate need of a platform refuse to use social networking. They see it as a waste of time and a time sink. Published authors needing to promote their books also won’t go near Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google Plus. Somehow, it is beneath them, an activity not [...]

Jonathan Fields on Best Book Marketing Practices

Did you ever wonder how some writers make it to the top of the bestseller lists? Or how they manage to sell more than the average 300 books per year? Of course, you have. It isn’t just with a good idea and good writing. Not any more—not for nonfiction. It takes great promotion and a [...]

20 Things Aspiring and Published Authors Can Blog About

As a follow up to my Writer’s Digest Conference session on “How to Blog a Book” and as a precursor to my upcoming session on “How to Blog Your Way to a Book Deal,” which I’ll be offering next month at the San Francisco Writer’s Conference, today I’m writing about how aspiring and published authors [...]

How to Craft a Pitch for Your Book

I’m in New York City today for the Writers Digest Conference. Next month I’ll be at San Francisco Writers Conference, and this spring I’ll be at several more such events. Most of these events have some sort of agent or acquisitions editor pitching event, so I thought today it would be appropriate to write a [...]

Why Writers Should Make Time for Content Marketing

Over and over again we hear the phrase, “Content is king!” Writers produce content. And content drives readers to our books, websites, blogs, videos, audio, and social networking sites. It’s what creates SEO, but it also makes our readers trust us, like us, know us. Our words—whether written or spoken—must strike a chord with those [...]