Tag: Cedar Fort

Why Going Through a Reputable Publisher Makes Sense by Rodney Fife/CFI

Recently, there have been many authors who have thought about self-publishing their book. While it is understandable why this may be attractive in regards to profit, there are advantages to going with a traditional and reputable publisher.  So you may ask, What does a Publisher do that I can’t do myself?

A reputable publisher can help you in many ways. First, most publishers have a marketing team that knows how to market and present your book to the media and ultimately the end-readers. These marketing teams usually have developed relationships with media sources. This allows them to get you attention from the media easier then someone going alone. The Marketing team also has experience in what works best for each genre. Hand in hand with the marketing comes the sales team. Most publishers have established accounts with large buyers of books. A lot of these buyers will not take a look at a self-published title.

Additionally, when publishing through a publishing house you have production support. The publisher usually has a design team, editing team and a warehouse. These are all services that come with the publishing contract.

When someone self-publishes they are alone. They either have to hire someone to perform a certain task or do it themselves. So they had to first write a great title. Then they have to design, edit, market then sell it. Just think about the effort, time and cost involved. The self-published author also has 100 percent of the risk involved with failure. How many self-published titles do you see on the New York Time’s Best Seller list?

Going with a reputable publisher is beneficial not just in the operational support. But, you have someone who is behind you 100 percent. Their focus is aligned with yours. They want your story to be told loudly so they can benefit right alongside you. A great publisher will always be there ready with advice, encouragement and support.

Rodney Fife is a publicist with Cedar Fort, Inc. If you are looking to publish a title. Cedar Fort Inc. is always looking for good titles. You can submit your ideas to submissions@cedafort.com or by filling out the form on http://www.cedarfortbooks.com/author-submission/

Author & Publicist: It’s Not a 50/50 Relationship by Kelly Martinez, Cedar Fort

One of the biggest misconceptions held by published authors is that once the manuscript and rewrites are finished, so is the author’s job.

Not so! Especially in today’s book market.

One of the points I diligently stress to the authors I work with is that ours is not a 50-50 relationship. If we go with the numbers game, then the breakdown is more like 80-20, with the author on the 80-percent part of the equation.

Unrealized by many authors—and, admittedly, a few of the ones I work with—is the fact that a publisher’s marketing rep is in place to help the author market, not do it for them.

I liken my role as a marketing publicist to that of a counselor: I can guide and offer suggestions of what to do, but ultimately it’s up to the author to sell the book.

We, the marketers at Cedar Fort, have an unofficial slogan we go by: Cedar Fort’s job is to get the books on the shelves and the author’s job is to get them off the shelves!

That said, a marketer’s responsibility is to offer marketing support, which, in my personal experience, comes in the form of keeping the author focused on our common goal of selling books.

From the author’s point of view, this goal can come in the forms of common book-promoting activities, including book signings, launch parties, blog tours, and media interviews.

To further illustrate my point that authors are their own best marketing resource, I’d like to share a personal experience.

I’ve pitched most of my authors to a host of media outlets and have had minimal success in attracting attention. Recently, an author of mine took the bull by the horns and pitched herself to a local TV show. A day or two later, she heard back from the show’s producer and now has a TV interview lined up.

I encourage my authors to do the traditional book-promoting activities—and whatever else comes to mind, no matter how farfetched it might seem.

Authors should never dismiss the power of social media and its ability to reach a large audience of prospective buyers. Facebook, Twitter, and author websites and/or blogs have the potential to meet hundreds, if not thousands, of people for whom the book was written!

It’s not enough to just set an account up on these social networks; the author needs to provide fresh, engaging, and entertaining material on a regular basis for it to work.

In summation, I can’t stress enough the importance that authors abandon the notion that a publisher’s marketing rep will do all the marketing work for them. Most marketing reps juggle multiple authors—in my situation, I’m dealing with upward of 30 authors at a time—so expecting us to devote the time that you would like to marketing your book is unrealistic.

This doesn’t mean we don’t want to devote all of our time to your book; it just means that we simply don’t have the time to do so.

Kelly Martinez is a Marketing Publicist for Cedar Fort, Inc. You can follow Cedar Fort on their blog, www.cedarfortbooks.com and their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cedarfortbooks.

3 Things Authors Should Know about Publicity by Josh Johnson from Cedar Fort

First-time authors often think the biggest part of their work is done when they put the finishing touches on their manuscript with their editor and send it off to the printer. However, they don’t always recognize that they, as the authors, can promote their book and interact with fans and readers—in person and online—after their book comes out.

Here are a few quick things that we wish all new authors would learn about publishing and promotion.

1) The future is online, and the future is now.

For the last decade, media and bloggers have been emphasizing the importance of digital promotion and talked about how the Internet would revolutionize the way that people consume news, information and content. But guess what?  The future they have been predicting for years has already arrived. Yahoo News already has a greater readership than the New York Times!

Authors that want to promote their work and realize their potential need to be engaged with their fans online. Whether that means a blog or website, or even just social media fan pages like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, engagement online is key.

2) And I should care…why?

Author engagement in any shape or form is really essential to helping a book do well.  Establishing relationships with readers will keep them coming back for more and help spread the word to more readers. Authors really are the ones who will promote their book better than anyone else could.

There have been barrels of ink spilled about the importance of self promotion online, some worth reading and some not, but one thing authors need to know more than any other advice is how they’re going to present themselves as well as the what.

When doing interviews, guest posts on blogs, pitches to media, and even just talking to fans during a signing, authors need to keep in mind a single key message: “What am I telling my listeners, and why should they care?”

This key message should be their mantra. They know their audience more than anyone. What are they telling their readers that is unique about themselves and their work, and why should they, as readers, care?  It’s best to follow this message up with what fans should do about the message (buy their book), but that’s secondary.

3) Content rules all online.

When authors are promoting and engaging with fans, it’s important to be frequent in communication. That doesn’t mean there has to be a new masterwork post or update every five minutes, but they should be posting regularly enough, with enough original content, to keep their fans and audiences aware of their material online, and wanting to learn more about them. Authors can get creative with how they engage, but they should try to be original.

That’s it! Stick to these basics and authors will go a long way with online promotion. And just think, by being online at all, they are beating an awful lot of folks who still think that the digital future is tomorrow, when it’s actually today.

 

Josh Johnson works at Cedar Fort as a Marketing Publicist and Public Relations Author Representative. Cedar Fort, Inc. is a book publisher in Utah. We publish fiction, nonfiction, you name it. We love new authors. See our site for guidelines & new titles. You can also visit Cedar Fort at www.cedarfortbooks, Facebook, or Twitter.