Liz Berry wants to put the networking back in "social networking."
She's the executive director of ThrillerFest and got into the publishing world after her husband, Steve Berry, became a NYT bestselling author, with 12 million books in print all over the world.
"It's social networking, not 'pimp my book,'" Liz said at the 2011 Pacific NorthWest Writers Association conference in Bellevue. "It's meant to meet people and build relationships."
Authors are putting too much faith in the viral power of social networking, Berry said, thinking they'll tap the viral power of the internet.
Some authors are giving away first chapters online with the idea being to build up an audience who then pays actual money to buy the book. Others give away old books online hoping readers buy their new books.
"An author I know had 6,000 downloads of his free first chapter," Liz said. "That's a ton, right? Huge." Total sales related to those 6,000 downloads? "Seven."
The real viral power, Liz said, is more old-fashioned: building relationships and tapping into word of mouth.
When Steve was just starting out, she said, he couldn't afford a big publicity or promotion campaign. He called all the writing conferences within driving distance to say he was an author with his book coming out soon. Could he come to their conference?
"They'd invite him. Every town he went to for a conference, he'd visit all the bookstores and build relationships with the people who worked there. Then he'd send thank-you cards afterward."
In the book business, selling a book one-on-one is called "hand selling." What he did was basically hand-sell himself to the people who hand-sell books all day.
Steve also go involved in all sorts of writers' groups, including ThrillerFest, which drafted Liz to work and then made her executive director.
ThrillerFest is the annual convention for the International Thriller Writers group, which also has a monthly webzine, The Big Thrill, that goes out to 20,000 subscribers.
Liz said that targeted audience is perfect for thriller authors breaking into the business. You could reach a bigger audience through other means, but those 20,000 subscribers aren't just readers, authors, editors and agents. They're readers, authors, editors and agents who love thrillers.
Social networking and the web are useful when done right, Liz said.
On your author website, put links to all the places they can click to buy your books. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, independent bookstores, anywhere that sells them.
A newsletter by email is also smart, she said. It's a direct link to your fans. Every six to eight weeks is about right. More than that and it can bug people into unsubscribing, though it's OK to do it more frequently right before a new book comes out.
But most importantly, building relationships is key.
Steve was profiled once by a freelance writer doing a piece for Writer's Digest, back when he was just starting, Liz said. He kept in touch with her. Then she got in touch with him, to say she was now editor-in-chief of Writer's Digest and wanted to do new piece on him.
The book world, she said, is small. Be nice to people. Watch what you say. Build relationships.
Steve never says "I" -- he always says "we," as in a team. Publisher, editor, agent and author all working together.
Some authors will hire outside publicists, Liz said, which can be fine. Steve's publicist does great work. Authors should be careful, though.
"Make sure they have references of authors in your genre and can show results of what they did for an author in the last six months," Liz said. "I don't want y'all to throw your money away."
Authors also need to understand the difference between promotion and publicity versus marketing.
Promotion and publicity is free, she said, but you don't know exactly how it will go.
Marketing is targeted and trackable, and you can link it directly to results. But it costs real money.
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