BAMW for Writers

Moved to New Location

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 01:36:00 +0000

All of my marketing posts will be on my newest blog, Blog4writers, on my new Web site:

http://emilyakin.com/blog/

Use the search box or the Categories menu to find marketing articles archived on the blog.

Taking a Different Approach

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:22:00 +0000

Since I started this blog a couple of years ago, things have changed! In the publishing industry, more and more book publishers are taking submissions only from agents. More authors are self-publishing than ever before. And---new self-publishing and subsidy publishing companies are springing up.

Because the market is changing, your marketing approach should also change. I've decided to move this blog to www.grmarketing@wordpress.com, where I have changed the title to Golden Rule Marketing for Writers. Still, I'll concentrate on the Christian market, but the principles and methods that will be presented on the new blog will be useful for writers in other markets, too. If you follow the new blog, you can follow my revision of my marketing e-book as I re-tool it for the changing times. Posts on the new blog will update some of what you've followed on this one.

I invite you to visit the new blog and subscribe, either by RSS feed or my e-mail. If you subscribe to the new blog, you will be entered in a drawing for a free copy of my e-book, A Business Approach to Marketing Your Work. Go to Golden Rule Marketing for details on how to enter.

Golden Rule Marketing

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:34:00 +0000

Recently, I discovered a great Web site for writers at WritingtoServe.ne t. I submitted an article entitled "Golden Rule Marketing for Writers," and it is online now.

http://writingtoserve.net/?p=920

If you comment on that article, you will be entered in a drawing for a free copy of my e-book, A Business Approach to Marketing Your Work.

Word of Mouth Marketing Revisited

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:52:00 +0000

Last year, I posted a brief article about word of mouth marketing. See it here. Recently, I read a book entitled Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking by Andy Sernovitz. It's the best comprehensive treatment of the subject I've seen.

The best way to sell your product or service is to get people talking about it. It's nothing new. It's just that there are new ways to generate word of mouth "advertisement" for your business. Visit the Word of Mouth Marketing site for a summary of what's in the book.

Once you've reviewed the main points in the book, you might think, "Why do I have to know about this? I'm a writer, not a business person." If you write books, word of mouth can sell books for you. Fiction writers use blogs, Twitter, and Facebook to generate buzz about their books. It works for writers of non-fiction books as well. Article writers need to be known by the editors to whom they want to submit work.

How can word of mouth marketing help you in your writing career? Get the book if you think you need it. This is a prime example of how a business marketing technique can be adapted to marketing your writing.

Networking through Social Media

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:30:00 +0000

In past posts, we've explored networking as a component of marketing for writers. All posts containing references to networking can be found here. Most people prefer networking in person, but online networking has become popular because of its convenience and affordability. Since this blog deals with marketing for writers, I'll share some of the information I've found on how social media are used as a marketing tool for writers.

What are "social media?" “Social media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives. Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. These sites typically use technologies such as blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis, and vlogs to allow users to interact”. Read this entire article here.

The more familiar SM tools are Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube. Christian writers might want to check out ShoutLife. I have Shoutlife, Facebook, and Twitter accounts myself, and I'm still trying to figure out how I want to use them, so I'll share my thoughts and some links to further information on each.

Facebook : Once you set up your profile, you can search for friends through your e-mail account's address book or search by a person's name. Once you invite someone to be your friend, he or she must accept your invitation before you have access to their information. I've found several old friends on Facebook, and I've been able to keep up with what's going on with them. It's fun, but it doesn't help me with marketing my writing unless my old friends buy my books or provide leads to writing jobs.

The best thing to do is check it out for yourself. Spend a little time learning about it, and then you can decide if Facebook fits into your marketing plan. Here are some useful links about Facebook.

Twitter: If you haven't tried Twitter, at least you've probably heard about it. Many TV news personalities are announcing that they are on Twitter. Twitter posts, called tweets, answer the question, "What are you doing?" People who use Twitter for business promotion will say something like, "I'm putting the finishing touches on my new novel." Others will tell you that they're out the door to get a pedicure. My gripe with Twitter is that you are supposed to try to "follow" a lot of people so that they will follow you. However, I've found that some people tweet constantly while they really don't have much to say. For example, I'm trying to follow other writers, literary agents, bloggers, and Christian groups. I've had to stop following some people because they tweet about their personal life and don't provide much industry information that I'm looking for.

Again, you need to try it and see. I've found these sites useful in my quest to learn Twitter.

Shoutlife: This site is for networking between Christian authors, musicians, and organizations. I set my account up last year, and, after setting up information on how to buy my e-books, I lost interest. You can find and invite friends to your list and join groups just as you can on other social networking sites. Your personal profile page can substitute for a Web site if you're just starting out with promoting your writing. There's also a blog option.

What's best for you? For readers who already use these sites, I welcome your comments on how you've used them to promote your writing career. If you have never tried any of these, choose one and give it a try. It will take some time, and you're the only person who can decide if it's worth the time invested.

Revisiting the Marketing Mix - Chance to Win Free E-book

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:22:00 +0000

The BAMW in this blog's name stands for A Business Approach to Marketing Your Work (for Writers and Editors), the title of my e-book on applying the Four P's marketing model to writers and their efforts to market their work. See my Web site for more information.

Periodically, I think it helps new subscribers if I revisit this marketing concept. Let's start with my initial post for a complete explanation of the purpose of this blog:
http://bamw.blogspot.com/2007/02/bamw-blog-launch.html.

For a sample Four P's analysis for beginning writers, go here.

For a series of links to Web sites offering marketing information for writers, link here.

Finally, if you subscribe to this blog via e-mail subscription, you might win a free copy of the e-book version of A Business Approach to Marketing Your Work. Each person who subscribes between now and 12:00 noon on May 1, 2009, will be entered in a drawing for a free e-book. Your subscription notice provides me with your e-mail address, so I will contact you if you are the winner. The e-book will be sent to you as an e-mail attachment.

Blogging-Marketing for Writers

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:34:00 +0000

I have so many blogs, and all the writing I do on them is for free. So---why do I bother with blogs if I'm spending a lot of time and not getting paid for it?

I am building an online portfolio of writing samples for those who might consider buying my work.
I am showing my expertise in the subject matter that is contained in my blogs.
I hope to attract subscribers who may buy my work, read my work, or be interested in my editing/mentoring services.

If you happened upon this blog, I invite you to subscribe. I post about once a month. You can subscribe by e-mail or RSS feed. If you have any difficulty with that, make a comment below, and I will respond to your request.

I also invite you to take a look at my other blogs and subscribe to them if you like what you see. In Tennessee Christian Reader, you'll find book reviews, most by me, but some by other authors. In my devotional blog, I'm publishing some previously written devotionals so that I will have online samples if I ask for a work-for-hire assignment. On my Blogger version of Wired to Write, I provide first-hand information and links to other sites providing resources for writers.

I use Blogger most of the time, because I've found it very user-friendly. However, since many writers sing the praises of Wordpress, I've also set up a couple of blogs there. I started the Wired to Write blog on Wordpress and the content is still there. However, since I found Blogger easier to use, I transferred to Blogger for regular posts. Wordpress does have one feature that I really like. You can do a blog post which will appear in chronological order, or you can set up a static page like my Online Resources for Christian Writers page.

If you're a writer seeking publication, you need to have a blog and post regularly. If you have a Web site, you may have the option of setting up a blog on it. Check it out. If you don't have a Web site, go to www.webs.com and set up a free site. There's a blog option in their Web design package. Once you get your site and blog up and running, you may decide that you need to upgrade to a paid version, but the free version is enough to get you started.

I invite you to comment on this blog or any of the others listed here. When you do that, other subscribers become familiar with you, and you're on the way to establishing a networking relationship with other writers.

Do You Have a Platform for Selling Your Writing?

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:52:00 +0000

Marketing is a bad word for many writers. For writers who are newly interested in getting their work published, marketing is an unwelcome surprise. The writing is what the writer is interested in, and selling it is not even on the radar screen.

If you go to a workshop on book publishing, you are sure to hear the word "platform." Every writer should have one, they say. Just today, I read two excellent blog posts on the subject, and I want to share them with you rather than writing my own treatise on the subject.

First, Rachelle Gardner, literary agent, has provided an excellent definition of what a platform is. She also offers separate articles on fiction and nonfiction platforms. Read every word. You will get quite an education.

Second, Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, discusses platforms on his blog, From Where I Sit.

If you read all of these posts, you will know everything that's important to know about platforms for writers for the foreseeable future.

Looking for a Writers' Conference?

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:53:00 +0000

Writers who want to have their work published increase their chances when they attend writers' conferences. Besides the workshops and motivational speakers, conferences offer the opportunity for writers to network with other writers (as well as editors and agents).

Is your budget tight this year? Conference fees are usually reasonable. It's the travel expenses that run the cost up. No matter where you live in the USA, you can probably find a conference within a few hours' drive of your home. I found my first Christian writers' conference, a four-hour drive from my home, by word of mouth from another writer. As I began to seek out more opportunities, I searched online in Shaw Guides where there is an extensive database. You can search by state, by topic, or by genre.

If you're looking specifically for Christian writers' conferences, some of them appear in Shaw Guides, but there are other lists. ChristianManuscriptionSubmissions.com contains a fairly complete list. Sally Stuart of Christian Writers' Market Guide fame lists conferences in her blog and in her column in Christian Communicator about a month in advance. Her market guide contains a list sorted by state.

John Vonhof, freelance writer and conference teacher, has built a Web site that lists a some of the larger conferences, but it also contains lots of information on how to prepare for a conference.
Start with the Conference Process page, then take some time to explore the rest of the site. It's time well-spent.

If you live within a day's drive of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, please check out Kentucky Christian Writers Conference Web site and blog. This year's featured speaker is Terry Whalin (author, speaker, publisher, and former agent). When you visit the KCWC blog, take minute to subscribe to the blog. The 2009 faculty will be posting information about themselves and giving previews of some of the content of their workshops. I must confess that I am on the steering committee for KCWC, so my opinion may be somewhat biased. However, I can honestly say that I am more excited about 2009 conference than at any time in the past. Because Elizabethtown is within a half-day's drive of a number of major cities, I think it's possible that we will top our 2008 record. I hope you will be one of our conferees!

Where Have I Been?

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:54:00 +0000

I haven't taken any major trips and haven't been so sick I couldn't write. I guess I have to use the holiday excuse. I can't believe I haven't posted on this blog since October 29, 2008. I vaguely remember jotting down a New Year's resolution to post once a month on BAMW.

There are so many great online resources for writers to learn about marketing in general and marketing for writers in particular. Here's a great post on planning your marketing on the We CAN! blog.

And another one on self-publishing by literary agent, Rachelle Gardner.

I recommend that you subscribe to both of these blogs, even if it means that you unsubscribe from this one!

Both of the above blogs deal with book marketing for the Christian market. If you aren't ready for a book, how do you market your articles or devotionals? For the Christian market, you need to have a copy of Sally Stuarts' Christian Writers' Market Guide. You may be able to borrow or share a copy, but you can order it direct from Sally. For the secular market, Writer's Digest publishes a market guide that is usually available in public libraries. They also offer an online market guide to supplement the printed guide.

I'll continue to search the Web for marketing resources specifically targeted to Christian writers. Maybe I won't post once a month, but I'll post when I find something that's worth blogging about.

See my reading blog and my Wired to Write blog dealing with online resources for Christian writers.

Guerillas and Duct Tape

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:49:00 +0000

Freelance writers and editors are business owners whether they want to admit or not. If you get paid for what you do, you have to report it as income. Next, you'll have to track your expenses so that you can deduct them from your income when you do your annual reckoning with the IRS.

I've mentioned before that writers/editors can learn marketing techniques from other types of business. Writers must know how to find markets for their work, and editors must continually look for new clients for their editing or mentoring business.

Two Web sites that offer good marketing ideas that you might adapt to your situation are as follows:

Duct Tape Marketing - The name says it all. Duct Tape is cheap, and you can fix a lot of problems with it. There's a lot of information on this site, so I'm directing you to the marketing page, but please take some time and surf around. There's a blog, too. I'm subscribed, and I've gleaned useful information from that.

Guerrilla Marketing - This concept has been around for a while. In fact, there's a book entitled Guerrilla Marketing for Writers, published in 2000, before the Internet marketing concept really took off. However, as quick Amazon search shows that there are a number of other books with "guerrilla marketing" in the title. I'd go with the newest one, if I were thinking of buying a GM book. There's a good description of the history of guerrilla marketing at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_marketing.

You may not want to wade through all this information right away, but there are plenty of good ideas contained in these two marketing concepts. If you know of another source, I invite you to comment and let us know what it is.

Step-by-Step Marketing Plans

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:12:00 +0000

My online marketing class is now in its fifth week. We’ve worked our way through the traditional marketing mix model, learning how to apply the Four P’s to the freelance editing business. We’ve already worked through Product, Promotion, and Place. This week, we’re working on Price. When we’re done, hopefully the students will have developed a basic marketing plan with which to promote their businesses.

There are other models from which you can build your marketing plan. Recently, I checked out the resource library on the The American Marketing Association’s Web site. Some of the articles in the library are probably more technical that the average writer or editor wants to read. However, scanning the titles, I found this one that I gives a step-by-step guide to creating a marketing strategy.

http://www.marketingpower.com/ResourceLibrary/Pages/Best%20Practices/AFive-StepApproachtoCreatingaMarketingStrategy.aspx

While you’re reading this article, take a minute to browse the other offerings in the resource library. You never know when you’ll run across something that will be the key to unlocking a great marketing strategy for your business.

Defining Your Product

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:40:00 +0000

Right now, I'm into the third week of my six-week Marketing Your Services online class (offered through The Christian PEN). This is my third year to teach this class, and I have nine class members this time. The course if based on the classic marketing mix model used in marketing classes everywhere. For a complete explanation of the concept, see NetMBA.

Last week, we defined our products. This week, we're studying the promotion component of our marketing mix. Most of the class members are current or aspiring freelance editors and/or proofreaders wanting to know more about how to market their services. Some of them already have Web sites, so I am including the links below.

http://www.tinadeebooks.com/

http://www.jesse.us.com/papyrus.htm

http://www.mentorspen.com/

www.MLevigne.com

http://www.helpuwrite.com/ This one is parked right now, but it's an interesting URL.

http://www.carolynoravitz.com/

I've re-designed my Web site, too, because I'm working through my own marketing mix with the class. I'm not finished with my editing-critiques page, but the home page describes what I offer to potential customers.

All ten of us are using the Four P's model to build an effective marketing plan for our businesses. After defining the Product and making decisions on Promotion, we'll move to Place and Price components of our marketing mixes. We're building on the same structure, but our marketing plans will look very different when we're done because each of us offers a different "mix."

I'm considering offering a similar online course for beginning writers on developing a marketing plan for getting your work published. If there's any interest out there, please contact me by commenting on this blog or by e-mail, akinemily(a)gmail.com. Because I'm trying to make it hard on spammers, please change the (a) to @ in your e-mail address box before sending the message.

Borrow Marketing Techniques from Business

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:10:00 +0000

If you're a writer, you probably think of yourself as an artist. If you're a writer who wants to be published, you need to think of yourself as a business owner or manager. Business marketing techniques are used in the publishing industry all the time, but writers seldom study the marketing techniques that are part of every commercial message they encounter.

Branding is a word I've run across recently in some of the marketing-for-writers sites and blogs. It's a technique that's used to market everything from toothpaste to luxury cars. Take a look at this post on Christian Authors Network blog. I think branding works better for fiction authors than for non-fiction writers, but it does have value for both. I won't repeat the principles laid out on CAN's blog, so be sure to link over and take a look.

Having a tagline that describes your "brand" of writing helps when you build a Web site and begin to think about search engine optimization. Businesses with something to sell on the Internet use SEO to attract visitors to their sites. SEO-Space has published a list of the top 100 marketing buzzwords for 2008. "Branding" is number 13 on the list. Scan the rest of the list, and you'll see other terms that might give you ideas on now to market your writing. After all, if you're aspiring to publication, you will be selling yourself and your work on the Internet and through other venues. For example, "social networking" is number 21. Many writers are establishing their presence on sites like MySpace, Facebook, or YouTube. For Christian writers, there's ShoutLife. Can you use this method to market yourself?

Social networking and blogging can help you establish your brand by helping you identify your core interests. As you network with others with the same interests, you can discover how you can use your interests and your writing ability to help others or to further causes that are important to you. Once you know what your product is, then you will know how to present it to your target customer.

I subscribe to blogs like SEO-Space and CAN not because I think I will find a marketing plan tailored just for me. I scan them everyday looking for ideas, bits and pieces that I can put together into a comprehensive plan for myself. I'll never be done with studying marketing techniques because they change often.

I invite you to subscribe to this blog, because I plan to continue gleaning marketing ideas from the Internet and posting links here. Part of my purpose for writing is to help others reach their potential and accomplish their goals. This blog is one of my tools.

Useful Blogs for Writers

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:21:00 +0000

I've recently subscribed to several new blogs. Some of them are for Christian writers while some are for writers who use their skill in business or in the secular market.

Publishing Dream, by J. M. Hochstetler of Nashville, TN, features a description of viral marketing for books in the July 24, 2008, post. I couldn't find a permanent link, but you can always search from Blogger's search box if you happen to read this post months from now.

http://publishingdream.blogspot.com/

Viral marketing is just a form of word-of-mouth marketing. I know I hesitate to buy things from vendors I know nothing about. I usually ask friends for referrals on everything from dental care to finding a vacuum cleaner repair service. If I'm happy with a vendor, I'll usually recommend them to someone else. The vendor's customer base grows virally because every satisified customer can potentially refer at least two or three more.

If you're a writer, and you have a book to sell, the technique on Publishing Dream might work for you. But what if you write for magazines, newspapers, Web sites or blogs? How to do you find "customers" who will buy your work and come back for more?

First, you need to find periodicals, either print or online, that buy freelance articles. In the Christian market, the best place to find markets is in Sally Stuart's Christian Writers' Market Guide. Many public libraries have it, but you can buy it online at Sally's site. Sally also has a blog where she posts updates and additions to what's in the book:

http://stuartmarket.blogspot.com/

ProBlogger is worth subscribing to if you are learning to blog or wanting to improve what you're already doing. I searched "marketing your writing" on ProBlogger, and this is what I came up with:

http://www.problogger.net/?s=marketing+your+writing

Terry Whalin, author-journalist-blogger-editor-literary agent, maintains a blog that every Christian writer should subscribe to. Check it out at http://terrywhalin.blogspot.com/. A number of his posts are about marketing books or about selling your book idea to publishers, but there's plenty for an article marketer to learn there, too. After all, if you write enough articles on one subject, you will have the makings for a book eventually. Note: Terry will be featured speaker at Kentucky Christian Writers Conference (June 19-20, 2009) in Elizabethtown, KY. If you live within 500 miles of Etown, you might want to consider attending.

If you have found a blog that provides useful marketing info for writers, editors, or bloggers, please post a comment, and I'll check it out for possible inclusion in my blogroll.

Recycling the Marketing Mix

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:06:00 +0000

I know we have some new subscribers, so I want to point out to everyone that I started this blog to supplement my e-book, A Business Approach to Marketing Your Work for Freelance Writers and Editors. The book is available on my Web site at http://www.writingontarget.com/. It is an offshoot from the online course I taught for The Christian PEN. It's based on the marketing mix model, a standard analysis tool for businesses as they develop their products. The components are Product, Place, Promotion, and Price. A freelancer is offering a product, either writing or editing services. This link will take you to an older post where I developed an example of using the Four P's model for writers.

BAMW for Writers: Four P's Analysis for Beginning Writers

If you have questions, please post a comment or e-mail me at akinemily@gmail.com.

Freelance Writers: Marketing First Steps

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:58:00 +0000

At Kentucky Christian Writers Conference last week, I led a round-table discussion called Wired Writer. We covered a lot of territory based on what participants wanted to know. Some of the group members were published writers. Others were just starting their quest for publication.

I compiled an online resources list for the group in lieu of a handout. Access this list at:

http://wired2write.wordpress.com/online-resources-for-christian-writers/.

Most participants were interested in marketing their writing. The first thing any published Christian writer will tell you is to get a copy of Sally Stuart's Christian Writers' Market Guide. Here you'll find plenty of markets for magazine articles, devotionals, books, and more. Sally also has a blog where she posts the latest updates.

To sell your writing, you must also sell yourself as a competent writer, well-versed in the subject matter you write about. I've located some online articles about getting started as a freelance writer. Check them out. You'll find marketing helps and suggestions on how to determine what you'll write about.

Marketing Tips for Freelance Writers

WritingWorld.com's Getting Started

Marcia Yudkin's Helps

Marlene Bagnulls' Helps

Spend some time reading through all this information. You're sure to find something that will help you get started as a freelance writer. If you're a published writer, you may find some new ideas for your writing/marketing efforts.

Please take a minute to subscribe to this blog, either by e-mail or by RSS feed. I plan to post about once a month from now on. I'll try to include some links to some online marketing helps in each post.

Comments are welcomed.

Thomas Nelson, Cost-Benefit Analysis, & the Pareto Rule

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:54:00 +0000

Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, maintains a blog called "From Where I Sit, Musings on My Life, Thomas Nelson, and the World of Publishing." I subscribed to it out of curiosity, and I've found it to be a great way to be ahead of the trends in the Christian publishing market.

In particular, Hyatt's April 15th post describes Thomas Nelson's rationale in dropping out of industry trade shows and establishing their own.

http://www.michaelhyatt.com/fromwhereisit/2008/04/a-change-in-our.html

In developing this new strategy, Nelson management used common business analysis tools that are available to any business, even freelance writers and editors. First, they compared the cost of attending existing trade shows to the perceived benefit the company received from being there. Although the cost-benefit analysis revealed that they got very little return on the investment in trade shows, Hyatt said this was not the primary reason for dropping out and doing their own.

Particularly interesting to me was this paragraph:

"We intend to make Open House an annual event for our key Christian retail accounts. Amazingly, our top 100 Christian retail accounts generate more than 80% of our revenue in this channel. Therefore, we must be intentional and strategic in how we connect with them. Open House provides us with a better way to invest in our future and theirs."

In my e-book on marketing for writers and editors, I discuss the Pareto Rule (80/20 rule), a principle that says 20% of your customers will generate 80% of your business. Applied to accounts payable, most businesses find that 80% of their late-paying accounts come from 20% of their customers. It appears to be a recurring phenomenon in many aspects of business.

Nelson's new strategy precisely targets the customers who generate 80% of their business. The benefits of cultivating these customers will probably far outweigh any approach to cultivate everyone who might eventually become a customer.

How can you as a freelancer apply these principles? Make a list of your current clients for whom you write or do editing work. Are some of them easier to work with than others? Are some of them slow sending out their paychecks once the work is done? Are there any other concerns you have with individual customers? Think it through and identify your top two or three "best" customers. Try targeting the bulk of your marketing efforts to those, only moving to those lower on the list when things get slow.

You may not be the CEO of Thomas Nelson, but your small business can benefit from using the same business tools that large companies use.

Find out more about my e-book on marketing for writers/editors at:

http://www.writingontarget.com/marketing.htm

Word of Mouth Marketing

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:13:00 +0000

Have you ever moved to a new town and wondered how to find a good doctor, dentist, car repair shop, or grocery store? I always ask my neighbors and people I work with for recommendations. This is word of mouth marketing, pure and simple. It's also a form of viral marketing, another popular term with professional marketers.

If a customer is happy with your product or service, he/she does not mind recommending you to friends. The trick is to get your customers talking about you and your work. For some writers and freelance editors, word of mouth supplements the networking activities that help them get work.

It's a complicated subject. There are several books about WOM. Check out this Web site for ideas, and try to think of ways to use it for your writing/editing business. I'll review a book I'm reading on the subject on this blog soon.

http://www.womma.org/

Note: I haven't been very active with my blog posts lately, but I'm planning to post at least once a month in the forseeable future. Subscribe if you haven't already.

Sally Stuart Has a New Blog

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:21:00 +0000

If you write for the Christian market, you probably know about Sally Stuart and her Christian Writer's Market Guide. Published annually, it is the the source for information on Christian periodical and book publishers. If you need the book, you can buy direct from her Web site, www.stuartmarket.com.

The blog is at www.stuartmarket.blogspot.com. The marketplace changes constantly, so having access to Sally's updates via the blog is a boon to regular purchasers. For writers who aren't familiar with the Christian market, the blog is a great way to learn a little about it before purchasing the book.

Another way to stay up to date on the market guide is to subscribe to Christian Communicator. Sally's marketing column appears in each issue with extensive updates available nowhere else. See http://www2.fwi.com/~watkins/acw1.htm#communicator for more information.

Grammar and Style Resource, A Must-Have for Writers

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:36:00 +0000

http://www.saworship.com/article-page.php?ID=3924&Page=index.php

The above link goes to a great article about Kathy Ide's book Polishing the PUGS: Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, and Spelling. Kathy is a freelance writer/editor with extensive experience in the Christian publishing industry. The whole story is in the article, so be sure to check it out.

Cecil Murphey, prolific Christian writer, says you need two copies of Kathy's book, one for yourself and one to give to a friend. That's high praise for any book.

So, you say, what does grammar, style, etc., have to do with marketing? It's a component of your Product. Your chances of getting your work published is better if what you submit is free of grammatical errors, punctuation goofs, and usage mistakes.

Did I mention spelling? No, I mention spelling separately because the spell checker doesn't catch everything. For example, you might commit a typographical error by typing "their" instead of "there." The spell checker will say you're OK, but a PUGS savvy writer would catch that error by spell checking the spell check.

Check out Kathy Ide's site at www.KathyIde.com.

BAMW Book Review

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:31:00 +0000

Cyndy Nelson, a freelance editor/writer and member of The Christian PEN (www.thechristianpen.com), reviewed my e-b00k in the current edition of PEN's electronic newsletter. I quote a portion of her review.

"The information in A Business Approach to Marketing Your Work: for Freelance Writers and Editors (and The Christian PEN's online course on Marketing Your Services) will help launch your career in writing and/or editing. Emily is quick to note that The Four Ps approach can be used in any marketing plan. The main selling point in this booklet is the writing exercises. Not only does the reader get important marketing information that's easy to understand, but the written exercises help readers to remember this unique marketing approach. Emily has included links to many helpful Web site sites with examples of what she has addressed in the book, from promotional materials to networking to budgeting."

The e-book has been tweaked a little she she bought hers, but it is still for sale on my website, www.writingontarget.com. If you buy the book between September 13 and 21, I will give you an evaluation of your written exercises at no charge. Just mention this blog (BAMW) in the Notes section of the Paypal payment page.

Marketing Resources for Writers

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 13:17:00 +0000

Some writers say they spend as much as 80% of their time on marketing activities. The type of marketing activity depends on what the writer is selling. Marketing yourself as a writer or as an authority on a specific subject is different from marketing a finished product like a book.

Follow these links to find a wealth of information on marketing for writers and editors. Bookmark the ones you find helpful.

www.americanchristianfictionwriters.com/

http://www.christianauthormarketing.com/

http://www.christianwritersinfo.net/index.htm

http://www.the-efa.org/

http://www.freelance-editor.com/Writing-Links-Resources/

http://www.bizweb2000.com/articles.htm

http://www.marketingforwriters.com/

http://www.absolutewrite.com/screenwriting/hot_topic.htm

http://www.writersweekly.com/this_weeks_article/003402_04262006.html

http://www.writersmarket.com/content/howmuch1.asp

http://www.pleasantword.com/default.asp?id=7966

Blogger Persists, Gets Book Deal

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:03:00 +0000

In the September issue of The Writer magazine, there's a story about Leslie Talbot, whose first book was published earlier this year. The content of her blog helped her get an agent, and, through the agent, she got her book deal.

Many unpublished writers think of blogging as a waste of time. Maybe it is if you aren't organized and purposeful with it. Talbot blogged regularly on the subject of the single life. She went to conferences to network, and, because the content of the blog showcased the quality of her writing, she managed to get her foot in the door.

It's true, she did a lot of blogging without being paid for her time. It has paid off for her in the long run, though. Take a look at her blog/website and you'll get most of her story there.

http://www.singularexistence.com/

Four P's Analysis for Beginning Writers

akinemily@gmail.com (Emily M. Akin) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:15:00 +0000

I'm having difficulty posting this material, so I'll post what I can for now, and I'll come back to explain more about it later.

Product: What do you produce? What are you selling to editors and readers?
·Fiction or nonfiction? Poetry, games, puzzles, anecdotes, humor?
·Articles or books?
·Your areas of expertise? Subject matter? Style (book or periodical)?
·The quality and timeliness of your product.

Promotion: How will you let your customers know about your product?
·Advertising – print, broadcast, Internet, word of mouth (viral marketing), networking (blogging).
·Public relations – free.
·Personal selling

Place: How will your customers (editors) access your product and decide they want to buy it?
·Remember that editors are the middlemen between you and the reader.
·Query or book proposal sent in the mail (or e-mail).
·Presented in person at a conference (like a farmer's market).
·Establishing myself as an authority in a subject matter area.
·Establishing a presence on the Internet to make others aware of my writing.

Price: How much will you charge for your product?
·Your first work may be free in order to get published clips.
·Editor sets price on articles. It's a buyer's market.
·Choose low-priced markets at first.
·Move up as you gain published clips.
·Alternative: cut out the middleman and publish/sell your own work.
·You can negotiate your price or rights sold. It doesn't hurt to ask.
·Can you make a living with your writing? Your income from your work must cover the outgo of your expenses before you earn anything as the writer.