Book PR 1-2-3: Think Like a Journalist
Presentation at Bookexpo America 2013
Javits Center, NY, NY
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Monday, May 6, 2013
Book PR 1-2-3 at uPublishU at BEA
CONTACT: Susannah Greenberg, Public Relations, 646-801-7477, publicity@bookbuzz.com
In 2013, uPublishU is entering its second year as part of Bookexpoamerica, North America's largest gathering of book trade professionals. uPublishU is targeted at self-published authors. It will feature over 40 speakers and 14 sessions, including a keynote by author and speaker Guy Kawasaki; Robert Gottlieb, founder and CEO of the Trident Media Group; and #1 New York Times bestselling author Barbara Freethy. Bookexpoamerica takes place at the Javits Center, NY, NY, May 29 - June 1, 2013.
June 1, 2013, Javits Center, New York, NY
1:30 pm – 2:20 pm, Room: 1E07.
REGISTRATION
SPEAKERS:
In 2013, uPublishU is entering its second year as part of Bookexpoamerica, North America's largest gathering of book trade professionals. uPublishU is targeted at self-published authors. It will feature over 40 speakers and 14 sessions, including a keynote by author and speaker Guy Kawasaki; Robert Gottlieb, founder and CEO of the Trident Media Group; and #1 New York Times bestselling author Barbara Freethy. Bookexpoamerica takes place at the Javits Center, NY, NY, May 29 - June 1, 2013.
Book Publicity For the Self-Published Author Will Be Panel Topic at uPublishU Conference
at Bookexpoamerica
Panel Title:
Book PR 1-2-3: Think Like a Journalist!
1:30 pm – 2:20 pm, Room: 1E07.
REGISTRATION
 |
| Susannah Greenberg |
Organizer and Moderator:
Susannah Greenberg, Susannah Greenberg Public Relations
Jeff O'Neal, Editor-in-Chief and co-Founder, BookRiot.com
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| Jeff O'Neal |
Learn how to get the book news and reviews your book deserves and to build the best the best book PR campaign by thinking like a journalist. Learn what kind of PR and marketing the media and readers respond to. Focus will be on developing a message and understanding and knowing the media more than social media how-to.
Discover how to persuade journalists to do a story, feature, review or interview about your book, by giving the press what they need. Essentials would include: a story idea; a headline; a pithy book description which sells; well crafted talking points and suggested interview questions; an author biography highlighting your most important credentials for media appearances; and explanations of any connections the book or its author may have to trending topics in culture and the news. But also PR and marketing can entail creating content which might entertain or engage and be "likeable" in social media.
 |
| Karen Schechner |
The session will highlight the importance of matching your content to the right media to reach the desired demographic, in effect micro-targeting or narrowcasting to your particular book buyer, whether that might be via NPR, Oprah, HuffPost, New York Times, BookRiot, or Flavorwire or even a much smaller media outlet more targeted to your subject matter.
Specific media examples of book news and review media who effectively reach book buyers will be identified and discussed as well. Further discussions include the use of social media to make the most of media placements by sharing them online and creating organic and viral spread.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Start-Ups in Publishing: Disrupting, Unbundling and Decentralizing the Traditional Publishing Model
Start-Ups in Publishing:
Disrupting, Unbundling and Decentralizing
April 1, 2013, New York, NY
#pubpt Speaking on Trends in Publishing: Publishers, Publishers Services and Startups: Union Square Ventures, DailyLit, Plympton, Ganxy, narrative.ly, 29th Street Publishing, Ziggeo, Medium, Zola, Open Air, and social network analyst and author Maksim Tsvetovat.
Albert Wenger, Managing Director at Union Square Ventures and cofounder of DailyLit kicked off the Publishing Point event, which was organized by Susan Danziger and Jennifer 8. Lee, with a presentation on trends in the publishing industry. Wenger spoke about the decentralizing, disrupting and unbundling of the publishing model due to the internet.
Examples of new models included funding from crowdsourcing including www.kickstarter.com and www.indiegogo.com. as well as venture capital funds. He cited 3000 books funded by Kickstarter, calling that a relatively small yet significant example of unbundling. He commented that books are still published in a recognizable state but that that is not necessarily the end state. Models more native to the net will emerge he posited, pointing out Daily Lit and Wattpad as examples and others serving a variety of publishing functions including: Elance.https://www.elance.com/ , Behance.http://www.behance.net/ and Storybird.
Presenters’ Links:
Medium, Narratively, Open Air Publishing,Plympton/DailyLit, Zola Books, Ganxy, 29th Street Publishing, Author and Social Network Analyst Maksim Tsvetovat, and Ziggeo.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Harnessing Social Media to Promote Your Titles and Company
American Book Producers Association
Harnessing Social Media
to Promote Your Titles and Company
05 Mar 2013 12:30 PM • In Good Company, 16 West 23rd Street, 4th Floor
Susannah Greenberg, Matt Pantoliano, Sarah Christensen Fu, Nancy Hall.
March 5, 2013, American Book Producers Association Event.
Photo credit: Susannah Greenberg Public Relations
March 5, 2013, American Book Producers Association Event.
Photo credit: Susannah Greenberg Public Relations
With
Susannah Greenberg, President,
Susannah Greenberg Public Relations
Susannah Greenberg Public Relations
Sarah Christensen Fu, Founder
Hey, Sarah!
Hey, Sarah!
Matt Pantoliano, Senior Digital Marketing Manager,
Simon & Schuster Children's Division
Simon & Schuster Children's Division
UPDATE: Click here to see the story about this event which was published in Publishers Weekly on March 6, 2013
(What follows is an account of this event written by Susannah Greenberg)
Matt Pantoliano of Simon & Schuster spoke about a successful social media campaign for Young Adult Author Cassandra Clare, a "cover reveal" fueled by tweets. With each tweet more of the cover would be revealed.
Below is a link to a campaign for a "chapter reveal" where more of the chapter of a Cassandra Clare book was revealed with every tweet.
Matt Pantoliano spoke about the new S&S teen social media outlet PulseIt. Looks great! #ya #teens
Matt Pantoliano also mentioned a video chat events online service at www.shindig.com
and another one called Spreecast. "Spreecast is the social video platform that connects people through video conversation."
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| Sarah Christensen Fu |
Sarah Christensen Fu of hey-sarah.com spoke about bringing Mary Higgins Clark in closer rapport with readers by creating a Facebook page and then a video based on questions sent to the author through Facebook.
Greenberg recounted a social media campaign which launched a YA novelist who was self-published. The campaign succeeded through buzz built by blogger reviews including The Pioneer Woman blog, online phenomenon such as Goodreads with its giveaways and quizzes and participating in Twitter chats on #yalitchat. In addition, she referred to success in launching Albert Whitman Teen books and was able to make media placements on NPR and in the Wall Street Journal by reaching out to journalists through social media.
She also mentioned online book pr tools: streaming video of events through www.ustream.com and internet radio talk shows for audio samples of authors on www.blogtalkradio.com
More on Social Media
by Susannah Greenberg
by Susannah Greenberg
Top Social Media Include: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, Blogger, Wordpress, Instagram, Foursquare and Tumblr. These are the key ones. Get to know them. Spend time on these sites familiarizing yourself. It will be an important investment of time.
Each one has a unique character or personality to it, a unique mode of communication and type of following. For instance, Facebook encourages connections between friends and socialization. Twitter is great for following trends. LinkedIn is good for business contacts. Pinterest is good for visual interest and images. Mobile and location based services like Foursquare are on the rise. Foursquare is based on gaming incentives. Also look at customer review sites like Yelp! and shopping sites like Amazon. Look to photo sharing sites such as Flickr. For books in particular, Amazon, and Goodreads, a social reading site, are especially important.
Build your platforms early and attract your following. Get liked. Get followed. Get linked. All your social media platforms combined will raise your SEO (search engine optimization) so that people can find you or your book when they search for you or your topic online. You cannot have too many social media platforms with regard to improving your SEO. It may be too many to manage if you are a small company. If so, pick three or four which are most important, most likely that would be Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Build your email lists from your social media sites for direct email to your audience later when you are ready to launch.
In the process of reaching out, you will and you must find your community. Find your niche. Target the right media. Microtarget. Narrowcast. Find your most likely constituency first and build out from there to expand and grow your audience, your customers, your readers and book buyers.
In the process of reaching out, you will and you must find your community. Find your niche. Target the right media. Microtarget. Narrowcast. Find your most likely constituency first and build out from there to expand and grow your audience, your customers, your readers and book buyers.
Find your voice. Be real. Be responsive to feedback. Look at your data for insights. Facebook offers insights on pages. Google Analytics helps you analyze traffic. Blogger.com gives you detailed stats on how many page views your blog posts receive.
With regards to voice, remember that when you use social media for marketing and pr, you are speaking to more than one audience. You are speaking to b2b and b2c, that is you are speaking to the trade, the customers, the media and the general public all at once.
With regards to voice, remember that when you use social media for marketing and pr, you are speaking to more than one audience. You are speaking to b2b and b2c, that is you are speaking to the trade, the customers, the media and the general public all at once.
It is and will be increasingly important for Book Producers and Literary Agents as part of a selling package to sell a book or project to a publisher to have the author and book platform and following established before the publisher buys the project. It is a marketing asset for the sale of the book. It is equally important for book producers and agents and any independent entrepreneurs to build their own businesses through social media outlets and channels. It is becoming how we do business.
Help yourself along in your social media efforts by having a social media campaign checklist and a timeline. Plan ahead. Stay with it. Short but frequent efforts and consistency are important to keeping your community and followers engaged.
Integrate traditional and new media into your campaigns. As much as social media counts, so do traditional media outlets. Do not forget them! NPR still counts. So does the New York Times, the Today Show, CNN, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and MSNBC. But now also look to online news web sites of import including the Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Book Riot, The Millions, Gawker, The Daily Beast and more.
Analyze and strategize. Data is available quickly and for free. Look at Alexa web rankings to see how much traffic a web site gets. Look at what is trending on Twitter to discover social trends. If you are launching a campaign for your company, Google yourself, and search for yourself on Twitter. See what comes up on Google. See what people may be saying about you on Twitter. Look at the same for your competitors. Look at which pages have the most likes on Facebook in your areas of interest. Google keywords related to your subject matter. Sign up for Google News Alerts on your subject matter. Try out Google Analytics. Look into free online services such as bit.ly and ow.ly which help you book mark and track visits and traffic on specific links you create.
Explore the possibilities of online advertising. Facebook advertising and Google Adwords, for instance, are cheap, effective, targeted and easy to do compared with old school media advertising and the results are far easier to monitor.
Explore the possibilities of online advertising. Facebook advertising and Google Adwords, for instance, are cheap, effective, targeted and easy to do compared with old school media advertising and the results are far easier to monitor.
Keep up and keep learning about social media. It changes almost daily. Expand your book trade reading from publications such as Publishers Weekly, Publishers Lunch, and GalleyCat, to include tech oriented publications such HuffPo Tech and Mashable. Read David Pogue's column in the New York Times. Follow the groups Digital Book World and Tools of Change. Keep up with technology trends in terms of books pr and marketing and ebooks and apps. Use Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social media to scan them for information on your trade as well.
Finally, remember that social media is only a tool. Your expertise, experience and "real life" social networking are still critical to the life of your business and books. Do not undervalue your experience and knowledge when faced with the glories of the newfangled. You still must remember old rules such as have good ideas, be creative, write well, be succinct, and have an eye for design and aesthetics. Also, remember that it is important to find good partners or team members to work with to complement the skills you have or don't have.
MORE RESOURCES:
Finally, remember that social media is only a tool. Your expertise, experience and "real life" social networking are still critical to the life of your business and books. Do not undervalue your experience and knowledge when faced with the glories of the newfangled. You still must remember old rules such as have good ideas, be creative, write well, be succinct, and have an eye for design and aesthetics. Also, remember that it is important to find good partners or team members to work with to complement the skills you have or don't have.
MORE RESOURCES:
The #1 Top Social Media Marketing Book on Amazon:
In this book, Likeable, Kerpen notes how a book can be interactive and includes links (hyperlinks in the case of the ebook) where you can contact the author with questions and comments. I clicked and contacted Mr. Kerpen through Facebook to let him know I'm reading his book and to thank him for it. He practices what he preaches with regards to responsiveness to customers through social media. He wrote me back to thank me almost immediately! He also encouraged me to contact him with any questions I might have and asked me to write an Amazon review if I liked the book. Gracious, attentive, and also LIKEABLE marketing are all exemplified in this response I think.
Also of Interest:
Free: How Today's Smartest Businesses Profit by Giving Something for Nothing
by Chris Anderson
According to the Social Media Examiner Readers
The Top Marketing Sites for Social Media Marketing Trends
Sites, blogs, and newsletters for learning the latest about social media marketing trends.
1. Mashable earned the top spot with 82%
2. Techcrunch followed with 61%
3. AdAge earned the third spot with 54%
4. emarketer – 44%
5. Brandweek – 36%
6. MarketingProfs – 27%
7. SmartBrief for Social Media – 26%
8. Altimeter Group – 26%
9. MarketingSherpa – 21%
10 ClickZ – 20%
2. Techcrunch followed with 61%
3. AdAge earned the third spot with 54%
4. emarketer – 44%
5. Brandweek – 36%
6. MarketingProfs – 27%
7. SmartBrief for Social Media – 26%
8. Altimeter Group – 26%
9. MarketingSherpa – 21%
10 ClickZ – 20%
http://www.
Susannah Greenberg thanks her co-panelists Sarah Christensen Fu of Hey, Sarah! and Matt Pantoliano of Simon & Schuster and the hosts of the event at the American Book Producers Association including the moderator Nancy Hall of Nancy Hall, Inc., a full service book producer, ABPA Board Member Valerie Tomaselli of MTM Publishing, also a book producer, and the President of the organization, book producer Richard Rothschild of Print Matters Inc.
Susannah Greenberg thanks her co-panelists Sarah Christensen Fu of Hey, Sarah! and Matt Pantoliano of Simon & Schuster and the hosts of the event at the American Book Producers Association including the moderator Nancy Hall of Nancy Hall, Inc., a full service book producer, ABPA Board Member Valerie Tomaselli of MTM Publishing, also a book producer, and the President of the organization, book producer Richard Rothschild of Print Matters Inc.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Where Are The Women CEOs In The Book Industry?
Where are the Women CEOs in the Book Industry?
By Susannah Greenberg
Three recent news stories and the subsequent media coverage of them have me thinking about gender equality in the workplace and more specifically in the book industry:
Pioneering Woman Astronaut Sally Ride's passing and posthumous coming out;
and Anne-Marie Slaughter's article in the Atlantic Why Women Still Can't Have It All.
How far have we really come nearly 50 years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned sex discrimination at work? How far have we come from the days of Sally Ride's flight into space, the first for an American woman? How far if it still makes headlines that a woman, a pregnant woman, is made CEO in Silicon Valley? How far if it is still a matter of heated debate in the wake of the Atlantic article as to whether women can work and be mothers?
My thoughts then turned to our own industry, which I am proud to be a part of, but it is not above the fray. Is there a glass ceiling in the book world? Do women in the book industry have an equal chance to rise to the top? How many women as they mature, gain experience and qualify for more senior management positions are forced to drop out, or start their own small businesses, because of the gender pay gap, the pyramid effect, or the lack of affordable childcare? Where are the women CEOs? Are women proportionately represented among the CEO ranks in an industry mostly populated by women?
To be sure there are women CEOs in some key leadership roles in book publishing: Gina Centrello of Random House, Marjorie Scardino at Pearson, and Carolyn Reidy at Simon & Schuster, come to mind.
However, the Publishers Weekly Salary Survey of 2009, the most recent available online, shows a serious pay gap between men and women, and also that although women are the majority (85%) of the employees at the entry level, they do not hold the majority of leadership positions.
Publishers Weekly Salary Survey of 2009:
- Women avg. pay: $64,600
- Men avg. pay: $105,130
- 85% of employees with fewer than three years of experience were women. The only area where men outnumber women is in management, where the highest paying jobs are found.
What can be done? For one thing, women in publishing must be encouraged to keep up with the digital revolution transforming the book industry, from ebooks to Internet book selling, to social media marketing. This is one reason for the panels on digital books and online book marketing which I have been organizing for the Women's National Book Association New York City Chapter since 2009, (like this one in March 2012 which was written up in Publishers Weekly) which not only provide valuable information but also hold forth the role models of women succeeding in the digital realm within our industry. For another, while progress is being made, we should not become too comfortable and complacent with women's achievements in the book industry. We need to be vigilant and to continue to demand more progress or risk losing more ground. Battles can and are still being fought for women's equality and won; like the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.
The full moral and spiritual transformation toward justice that will allow equality in the workplace, including the book industry, equality that will benefit women, men, and families--equality for women, for gays and lesbians, for minorities, for people of different races, religions and cultures, for the disabled, for parents, for aging workers -- is slow in coming. Until then, organizations like the Women's National Book Association fulfill an important mission for women's equality, one WNBA has been fulfilling since its founding nearly 100 years ago: women helping other women succeed in this book business.
Of Related Interest:
CATALYST: Statistical Overview of Women in the WorkplaceUnited States Department of Labor: Myth Busting the Pay Gap
New York Times: In Google's Inner Circle, a Falling Number of Women
Cover Story: 50 Top Women in Book Publishing. Book Business honors leading female executives who are helping to shape the industry
Book Review. The New York Times. Business Day. OFF THE SHELF. 'Good Girls' Fight to Be Journalists
The Washington Post: Marilyn Ducksworth, Former Penguin Employee, Sues Publisher for Age Discrimination
Susannah Greenberg is a past president and past publicity chair of The Women's National Book Association of New York City, and columnist for The New York Bookwoman. She is the president of a book publicity firm, Susannah Greenberg Public Relations. She can be reached atpublicity@bookbuzz.com, Twitter @suegreenbergpr, Facebook, LinkedIn or via her blog:http://bookbuzzbysgpr.blogspot.com. Susannah recently read: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson. (Reviewed below by Fatima Shaik.)
Please get in touch with Susannah at publicity@bookbuzz.com with your comments on this article or if you can point to more data which shows what percentage of CEOs in the book industry are women. Continue the conversation on Twitter with hashtag: #wnbadiscuss.
This article was originally published in the September 2012 New York Bookwoman, the newsletter of the Women's National Book Association New York City Chapter.
Friday, July 6, 2012
"HOME GROWN AUTHOR NIGHT", July 21, Oaksterdam University: ANNOUNCING: "HOME GROWN" Author Night, July 21, 6 ...
"HOME GROWN AUTHOR NIGHT", July 21, Oaksterdam University: ANNOUNCING: "HOME GROWN" Author Night, July 21, 6 ...: General Public Release Tuesday, June 19 OAKLAND, CA. ------ The public is invited to Oaksterdam University, Saturday, July 21, from 6...
This event includes author Greg Campbell, author of POT INC.: Inside Medical Marijuana, America's Most Outlaw Industry.
A review of POT INC. :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/three-books-on-illegal-or-not-drugs/2012/05/15/gIQAFi3kSU_story.html
Media interested in arranging an interview with Greg Campbell, or receiving a review copy, may contact me, Susannah Greenberg, Public Relations at publicity@bookbuzz.com.
This event includes author Greg Campbell, author of POT INC.: Inside Medical Marijuana, America's Most Outlaw Industry.
Greg Campbell. Photo by Eric Bellamy.
A review of POT INC. :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/three-books-on-illegal-or-not-drugs/2012/05/15/gIQAFi3kSU_story.html
Media interested in arranging an interview with Greg Campbell, or receiving a review copy, may contact me, Susannah Greenberg, Public Relations at publicity@bookbuzz.com.
Friday, June 8, 2012
BookExpo America 2012: Beyond The Hunger Games: YA Book Marketing and Public Relations Strategies
BookExpo America 2012:
Beyond The Hunger Games: Young Adult Book Marketing and Public Relations Strategies
Tuesday, June 5, 2012, Javits Center, NY, NY. The panel I organized and moderated at BookExpo America 2012 on Tuesday morning was standing room only and the panelists were outstanding!
 |
| Photo by Publishers Weekly |
Becky Anderson, Anderson's Bookshops;
www.andersonsbookshop.com
Derry Wilkens, Sourcebooks;
www.sourcebooks.com
Michelle Renaud, Harlequin;
www.harlequin.com
Michelle F. Bayuk, Albert Whitman.
www.albertwhitman.com
Back row, standing:
Susannah Greenberg, Susannah Greenberg Public Relations, moderated and organized.
http://bookbuzz.com
My own report on this panel to come.
Publishers Weekly covered it:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bea/article/52455-bea-2012-ya-marketing-digital-vs-physical-.html
In GalleyCat! (June 11, 2012):
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/5-ya-marketing-tips-from-publishing-professionals_b52745
My photos of the Sourcebooks exhibition booth on the floor of BookExpo America:
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