The first thing I’m going to tell you is to never have a contest. Have a giveaway, or a sweepstakes, or a drawing, but not a contest. The reasons are legal and boring, but take it from me, I’ve checked, and you just don’t want to use the word “contest.” Random drawings, in fact, are…
If your book is about to be published, save a little in your budget for giveaways. I’ve had a few books come out that were square, so I created little three-inch-square business cards that look like mini books because they have the image in the same shape as my cover. I often get compliments and…
There are always ways to promote your book in unusual ways. The simplest example is that you can never tell whom you’re talking to, and if you’re an author, you need to remember that. Two summers ago I was on the phone, making reservations for the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard for a summer vacation. I…
People think it’s hard to get on TV. It is hard if what you’re shooting for is the Today show! But if you have a local cable show or news station, often they’re looking for people to come on. In fact, I got my monthly segment on WTNH on Good Morning, CT, because I wrote…
To celebrate today, the debut of dunt da daaaa … the book trailer for Little Chicken’s Big Day, I’m posting other videos I love too. But first, our own Little Chicken. Once again I am invoking the name of Darcy Pattison, who has not only helped by advising me on when to upload my video…
Why should the cute babies, stupid cat burglers, and people doing things they shouldn’t (back to the stupid cat burglers) get all the attention? You can easily harness the power of this incredible social media site for the benefit of your business. It’s easy to forget that YouTube is yet another social media site, isn’t…
Using various blog posts and Darcy Pattison’s advice in her Book Trailer Manual as guides, I deleted my old YouTube channel and created a new one. The downside to doing that is that all the views and my followers are now gone. The upside made that worth it. Here is what Darcy, the book trailer…
If you don’t have Skype, go download it. Now. What are you still doing here? Okay, I see I’m going to have to convince you. This is an amazing application and you should – no, need – to be using it as a business tool! For World Read Aloud Day, I Skyped with a number…