Interview with Cedar Fort Marketing Director: Kirt Forakis

Kirt Forakis is the new Marketing Director with Cedar Fort Publishing. I appreciate him taking the time to answer a few of my questions about the role of marketing in publishing and the philosophy of Cedar Fort's marketing efforts.

Steve: Please tell us something you are normally too shy or humble to admit about yourself.

Kirt: I won Utah state champion in physics and represented Utah in Nationals and was on the Deans list almost every semester in college.

Steve: As Marketing Director, how will your marketing experience strengthen Cedar Fort as a publisher?

Kirt: Cedar Fort wants to get more involved with social media and gorilla marketing and I have seen success using both methods. I will help Cedar Fort expand their marketing avenues using proven methods and creative thinking.

Steve: How has your previous experience prepared you for this new role?

Kirt: First, I love marketing and advertising. It is a passion for me and I never stop learning or trying new ideas. Second, I have a lot of experience. I have used almost every advertising method I can find and have used several different ad campaigns and designs. Tracking is also important to me and I have tracked most the campaigns I have run. I have a good idea of what types of advertising tends to work and what does not. I have experience organizing and managing events, giveaways, websites, social media outlets, design teams, customer service, PR and media relations.

Steve: What is your marketing philosophy?

Kirt: In short, marketing needs to generate results and wow your audience. I believe you need to capture the attention of your audience within a few seconds and from there have a call to action that creates a direct response, preferably a purchase. From there, it needs to be as easy as possible to move from the advertisement or media to the decision making and purchasing phase.

Steve: What should writers expect from the publisher in terms of marketing effort?

Kirt: We will be using our experience and creativity to help authors reach their audience and reach their goals. Authors are the best marketing tools and so our goal is to teach them and give them direction in their efforts. We will work with authors throughout the entire process to help create a marketing plan and other materials that will be useful to make their book successful.

Steve: What should the author do personally to market their work?

Kirt: Everything they can! A publisher can only do so much and go so far. The author holds the keys and can make the difference between an average selling book and a top seller. Authors need to finish two important steps for their book to sell well. First, write a great book and second, do a great job marketing it. We will be producing an author training packet that will outline what an author can and should be doing to market their book that will contain details, examples, tips and screen shoots. Again, we will be here to help along the way and get authors started in the right direction.

Steve: What is your vision for marketing LDS based fiction and non-fiction in the LDS community?

Kirt: This will depend on the demographics for the book. There are several ways to market a book and first you start with “who” you are going to market to. Once you know the “who”, then we can plan the “how”. There are several LDS websites, blogs and social media sites that appeal to certain markets and we will find the ones that work for individual books. We already work with some LDS based media and authors are encouraged to find more places to talk about and discuss there books.

Steve: What is your vision for marketing Non LDS based fiction and non-fiction regionally and nationally?

Kirt: Again, this depends on the “who”. We have several media outlets for national and regional, but the genre of the book will direct the process further. For example, we will focus cookbooks to media that involves cooking in general. The author is advised to seek out any form of media related to their book and contact them. Some will request the publisher to contact them and we will contact corporate in such cases. Using marketing material will help your chances of getting on these media outlets such as reviews and press releases. These items should be thought through and included in the marketing plan.

Steve: What should every author understand about the marketing process at Cedar Fort?

Kirt: First, we need to start getting support material such as reviews, press releases, endorsements and so forth. These will be useful for creating buzz and initial sales. It is good to talk with authors over the phone or in person to make sure we understand each other and establish a good working relationship. Second, we will put together a marketing plan that outlines the “who” and the “how” for the book. It will include an outline and details for dates, goals and possibilities that need explored by the authors and by us. Social media will need to be set up and authors will need to be interactive on them to generate followers. The authors will then start plans for a launch event, book signings and interviews. We are here to help. We will work with corporate and other places where an author can get stuck such as Deseret Book and Barnes and Nobel. Training material is being created as fast as we can and will be a valuable resource for authors for a step by step of the marketing process.

Thank you Kirt for sharing some insight to the marketing process at Cedar Fort.

As Kirt said, authors have two main responsibilities. 1- Write an outstanding book. 2- Reach the intended audience through personal marketing efforts. Cedar Fort is committed to providing an Author Training Packet that will assist the author in learning how to effectively market their work. The publisher and the author are a team. Both have interest in making each work successful and by working together they can build an effective marketing plan.

Cedar Fort Author Group on Goodreads

Have you used Goodreads?
Cedar Fort authors can now collaborate together on a group specifically made for you. Click here to request to join the group. The more the merrier!

Goodreads is a fantastic social networking tool for anyone in the book world. Whether you're an author or a reader, this site will help you organize your books and keep in touch with other authors. You can become public fans of your favorite authors, and build a list of fans.

The discussion boards will enable all of you Cedar Fort authors to get in touch with each other and plan events, brainstorm ideas, and support each other!

We look forward to seeing you online!

(Originally posted by Emily here)

Team Book Tour: 4 Authors on the Road

Four debut authors. Three book signings. Three states. Twenty-four hours. What a trip!

This past weekend I had an excellent opportunity to take Bumpy Landings on a summer book tour with Tamara Heiner (Perilous), Lynn Parsons (disAbilities in the Gospel), and Cheri Chesley (Peasant Queen).

Tamara and Cheri came to Dallas on Friday, where Lynn and I met them for an evening signing at Moon's LDS Bookstore. Then, bright and early Saturday morning, we drove to Hastings in Duncan, Oklahoma, where Cheri is visiting family. After our morning signing there, we zipped across the state to Springdale, Arkansas and Beehive Mercantile, which is Tamara's hometown bookstore.

The tour was fun and extremely valuable, although maybe not financially profitable. Was a trip this size worth the time, cost, and effort? I think so, if only because of the people met and lessons learned.

As we sat down to breakfast yesterday, we talked about what worked, what didn't, and what advice we would give to someone else planning a similar tour. Here are some of the things we came up with:

• Two of our stores had several months to prepare, although only one actually put together an "event". This was a much better signing.
• One of the stores was a last-minute replacement, with only a week of preparation time. This signing was good, but could have been so much better with a month or more to prepare and promote.
• Signing with other authors is awesome! When the signing is slow, there is good conversation to be had. Travel time conversations are great, and it's nice to split the gas costs.
  
• Two to four authors is a good number. It's not so many that it intimidates customers, and "unknown" authors still get some attention (unlike, perhaps, mega-signings with dozens of other writers).
• Summer is a convenient time for authors to travel, but may not be the most optimum time for bringing in customers. Check with the bookstores to find out when their busy times are.
• Traveling to multiple locations in a day is fun and would seem to be an efficient way to work. However, it forces compromise on the schedule. Our morning Oklahoma signing would have been much better in the early afternoon, but then we would not have had time to make it to the signing in Arkansas.
• This kind of signing is like a business trip, and the planning and coordination need to be professional.
  
• This kind of signing is like a vacation (or writing conference), in that (especially for 4 debut authors) the only thing you can really count on is meeting new people and getting to know the other authors really well. Most vacations don't turn a financial profit, either. The real value is time spent with others, learning and growing.
• Get the word out! Relying on walk-in traffic is courting failure. The most valuable customers are the ones the authors bring in themselves. Also, this kind of book event is an opportunity for you to crow about something. The publicity the tour itself generates may be the most valuable return you get.

Have you done a big multi-store, multi-author tour? What have you seen that works (or didn't work) and what things have you learned from taking your book on the road?

Celebrity books in the news

                                                                By Trina Boice
                                                            http://www.sisterthrifty.com/

Arnold Schwarzenegger was bragging that he was about to sign the biggest book deal of all time a month before the news broke in May that he fathered a love child with his housekeeper. But after the scandal, it’s Maria Shriver’s book that publishers are chasing, sources say.

#1 NYT bestselling author James Patterson’s next 26 books, including 4 new series for young readers, with 13 titles each for Michael Pietsch at Little, Brown, and Megan Tingley at Little, Brown Children’s, for publication through the end of 2014, by Robert Barnett at Williams & Connolly.

NYT bestselling historical thriller writer Matthew Pearl’s The Bookaneer, about a literary spy and bounty hunter in the 1890s who sets off on a quest to the Samoan Islands to wrest a manuscript from a dying Robert Louis Stevenson, moving to Ann Godoff at the Penguin Press, in a two-book deal, by Suzanne Gluck at William Morris Endeavor, and to Stuart Williams at Random House UK, by Cathryn Summerhayes at William Morris Endeavor.

Rock music legend from The Band, Robbie Robertson’s untitled picture book biography, written by his son Sebastian Robertson, focused on his early years growing up in Canada spending time at Six Nation Indian Reservation, and, later, living and working in America, joining Ronnie Hawkins ’s band as a guitarist at 16, sold to Christy Ottaviano of Christy Ottaviano Books, for publication for Spring 2013, by Ryan Harbage at the Fischer-Harbage Agency.

Jim Collins‘ Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite them All, co-authored with management professor Morten Hansen, asking why some companies thrive in uncertainty and even chaos, based on nine years of research, enumerating the principles for building a great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times, also to be released in ebook form for the first time (with Collins’ four previous bestselling books now being released as e-books from July through September), sold to Hollis Heimbouch at Harper Business, for publication on October 11, 2011.

When does YOUR next book come out?

Goodreads Giveaways

by Rebecca Talley

My first book, Heaven Scent, was published in 2008. It was automatically added to Goodreads. I'd never heard of Goodreads and had no idea what to do with it. Since that time 137 people have added it to their to-read shelf.

My second book, Altared Plans, was published in 2009. Again, it was automatically added to Goodreads and with this book I became aware of Goodreads Giveaways so I initiated one giveaway contest in which 669 people entered to win a copy. As of today, 191 people have added it to their to-read shelf.

My third book, The Upside of Down, was published in January 2011 and was added to Goodreads. Since I was aware of the giveaway contest that Goodreads sponsors I decided to do one about the time the book was released. 1230 people entered that contest. I held it for one month. A few months later, I did another giveaway for about a week or so and 979 people entered. I decided to do another giveaway for the month of June and 1368 people entered. As of today, 638 people have added this book to their to-read shelf--quite a jump from how many people have added my other two books.

I share these stats with you to show you that doing a Goodreads giveaway helps expose your book to many people. As you can see, many more people added The Upside of Down and I think it's a direct result of the giveaways I held.

Doing a Goodreads Giveaway contest is simple. Go to the page that lists your book, click on the "list a giveaway" icon in the upper right and then follow the directions. You can decide how many copies you want to give away and to what countries. Goodreads advertises the  giveaway, determines the winner, and then sends you the address(es) of the winner(s). Your only responsibility is to mail off the copy, or copies, of your book soon after the contest ends. Easy, easy, easy. For the price of a copy of your book, an envelope, and postage you can get your book in front of hundreds of people. Seems like a great deal, eh?

I try to respond to those who rate and review my books on Goodreads. In doing so, I met a woman who loved The Upside of Down. She was not LDS, my target market, but she really enjoyed it. When I asked how she'd heard about it, she said she'd entered the giveaway contest and when she didn't win she bought the book anyway. Hopefully, she'll now recommend it to her friends. Of course, it's impossible to determine exact sales from a marketing effort, but at least one person bought my book as a result of that contest.

As authors we want to write, we don't want to waste time marketing. But, that's a very important part of our job if we want our book to be successful. After doing Facebook ads, Goodreads ads, display ads, sending out postcards, emails, doing signings, holding my own contests on my blog, and doing blog hops, I'd say that doing a Goodreads Giveaway is one of the most cost-effective ways to advertise your book.

Stress and the Life of an Author

By Cheri Chesley (re-post from 5/24/10)

**These are simply my observations, and should in no way be taken as established truths.**

As an author, I dream of deadlines. I long to have an editor pushing me to get my revisions, or my drafts, in by a certain day and time. Yeah, I'm a glutton for punishment. But we do this. We want this. And, if we have a contract and this isn't happening, we (or at least I) can really drive ourselves up the wall.

But, in our heart of hearts, I think we can admit a good deal of the stress we experience as writers is self-inflicted.

I'm not going to tell you that setting goals and deadlines for yourself is unhealthy, because it's not. If you don't, you could well be working on the same novel for 20 yrs. At the same time, we are not above heaping stress upon ourselves for a great number of things.

Let's say we miss that deadline by a week.

Or we make the deadline because we've put off our family to have time to write.

After about ten minutes at the computer, I have horrible upper back pain. It just starts aching, and pretty soon I'll have to get up. I don't do my stretches. I don't see my chiropractor regularly and, sadly, have only had one massage in my life. I'm beginning to think, at least for me, these things are critical in relieving stress and making me a more prolific writer.

The sad thing is I can't offer any real solution for resolving the stress. There may be none. But, perhaps, some of you have ideas on reducing it. Thoughts?

Submissions Wanted: Mother's Day Pamphlet

Do you love mothers? Are you a writer? Have a great idea for a mother’s day book or pamphlet*?
Then we want you!

Yes, Mother’s day is still a few months away. But if you know anything about publishing, you’ll know that the sooner you submit your manuscript – the better!

Cedar Fort is looking for fresh ideas and well written stories that exemplify mother’s like never before.

Submit your Mother’s Day themed manuscripts or ideas with outlines by August 1st.

Take a look at our author guidelines before sending in submissions.

*note, pamphlets are 16 pages in length.