How To Make Your Marketing Plan as Much Fun as a Glitter Hula Hoop Dance Party

It’s no secret that publishing houses’ promotional budgets have shrunk, making it necessary for authors to act as their own publicists. Hell, when I was a mid-level marketer for an academic publisher five years ago, I was often frustrated by the limitations placed upon me when it came to promoting my authors. What I was able to do then is very similar to what most publishers are limited to now:

  • sending out review copies and press kits to a select group of media outlets
  • writing copy for forthcoming catalogs
  • if the timing was right, sending copies of the book to BEA, or to relevant professional conferences
  • and maybe — just maybe — sending out direct mail pieces focused on the book

It’s not much. But I don’t see these limitations as reason to abandon the traditional publishing model entirely. [Read more…]

How an Author Can Be Her Own Own Best Publicist

Blogging buddy and author Brette Sember has about 40 titles to her name at this point, a number that often serves to make me feel like a lazy-ass bum. Like, what have I been doing all these years!? Her output has been so extensive that her published books fill one and a half shelves on her office bookcase.

She published her first book when she was home on maternity leave from her law practice in 1998. A publisher called and asked if she was interested in writing a book about how to file for divorce in New York. She never looked back. Now, she’s spending time promoting her latest book — The Muffin Tin Cookbook, due out in April — and she’s finding the publicity process wildly different from what it was just 14 years ago. Lucky for us, she’s willing to share what it’s like to be your own best publicist. [Read more…]

Link Love: January 24, 2010

I seem to be pulling out of that slump I was in for the past couple of weeks with my at-home freelance work. My copywriting is going faster, and easier, and I’m also feeling fired up for Freelance Success‘s regular query challenge, which starts tomorrow, and for which I’m actually a team leader (talk about accountability…). On top of all that, I’m loving my part-time, on-site job more and more every day (which happens to make life — and my commute — a lot less gloomy). How is everyone else weathering the long winter?

Okay, okay. I know what you’re here for. This week’s link love:

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7 Portfolio Sites That Make It Easy To Strut Your Stuff

I’m a bit behind in updating my online portfolio. Because my professional site is not dynamic, I need to harass my husband every time I want a link to a new clip put up (conveniently, I’m married to my web designer). We plan on making the site dynamic at some point but, for the moment, I’m wondering if I should take advantage of some of the freelancer-friendly, portfolio-specific sites out there.

After the jump, a brief look at 7 different portfolio sites that you should check out.

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