Book Marketing Maven

Last Chance - Book Promotion Survey Closes December 31

2009-12-29T10:58:41-06:00

How will you be promoting your book in the new year? Take a quick survey by December 31 and receive a copy of my special report, 10 Steps to Online Networking Success. I'd love to find out what type of book promotions you have planned for the upcoming year and I'll be sharing the survey results the first week of January.

The Book Promotion Strategies survey contains just seven questions and takes only a few minutes to complete. You'll also get a chance to win a complimentary copy of one of my Savvy Book Marketer Guide books. Thanks and Happy New Year!

How Often Should You Email Your List?

2009-12-28T09:45:00-06:00

Most people suffer from email overload these days, and many online marketers are seeing a decline in the number of people who open their broadcast emails. To use email marketing effectively, it's important to think carefully about the frequency and content of your email messages.

Many online marketing gurus advise communicating with your list frequently, so people don't forget you. But, sending too much email (especially too much promotional stuff) can motivate people to click the "unsubscribe" button. You need to find a balance that works for your audience.

Ezines can be sent out weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. If you send a weekly ezine, keep it very short and easily digestible, and don't send additional promotional emails every week.
Some ezines that I subscribe to contain a lot of great information, but they are so long that I may skip over them in my in-box, thinking I just don't have time to read them right now. Sometimes I get back to these ezines later, sometimes not.

For my own monthly ezine, The Savvy Book Marketer, I include a brief greeting, a feature article and several short blurbs about book marketing resources. I always have more story ideas than I can cover in the ezine, so I use that extra content on my blog.

Be especially careful about sending out too many promotional emails to your list. I've unsubscribed from a number of lists because I got two or three emails a week from them. Sometimes less really is more!

If you haven't already done so, sign up with a reputable email marketing service to handle your subscriptions and mailings. I recommend choosing one that also offers autoresonder services (the ability to send emails at pre-determined intervals). I use Aweber. MailChimp and Constant Contact are also good choices.

What has worked for you? How often to you mail to your list? Are you seeing a declining open rate for your emails?

How to Sell Your Book to Libraries

2009-12-21T08:22:00-06:00

America's 123,000 libraries purchase nearly $2 billion worth of books annually, according to statistics from the American Library Association and the Book Industry Study Group. Here are some ways to capture your share of this lucrative market:

Get your book reviewed in a library journal.

Solicit testimonials from librarians.

Make sure your book is available through major library wholesalers.

Apply to work with a library distributor such as Quality Books or Unique Books, if you have a nonfiction book.

Contact libraries in your area to inquire about speaking opportunities and programs for local authors, and contact libraries in towns you visit.

Send direct mail to libraries, either on your own or through co-operative mailings. Address mail to the Collection Development Librarian for your subject area, and include a flyer with book details and a list of wholesalers and distributors that carry your book.

Consider donating a sample copy of your book to a few top library systems, to encourage purchases for branch libraries.

Exhibit at library tradeshows through co-operative exhibit programs such as those offered through IBPA and other organizations.

Advertise in a library journal through a co-op ad.

Nonfiction books are especially well suited to library sales. To sell fiction to libraries, it's helpful to have reviews in journals, book awards, or a strong local tie-in, such as a novel being set in the region.

For more in-depth information about selling to libraries, along with contact information for top library systems, wholesalers, and review journals, check out The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Selling to Libraries.

Promote a Book with Video - How to Get Started

2009-12-18T07:48:00-06:00

In today's guest post, my favorite technical expert, MaAnna Stephenson, discusses the hardware and software needed to promote a book with video.

According to a recent article in Scientific American, "video files will be part of 90 percent of all consumer Internet traffic (that generated by households, universities, and Internet cafés) in 2013." This statement is part of a report issued by Cisco, which is the leading supplier of networking equipment and network management for the Internet.

Cisco issued that report just one day after Apple announced that their next iPhone will be able to not only record video clips, but will also be able to edit and send them via email or upload them to YouTube using voice commands.

What this means is that it will no longer be enough to provide great text content for online marketing. As a promoter, you'll have to make it visually entertaining as well. Fortunately there are a lot of free or inexpensive applications available that you can use to make your own videos to promote your book. In fact, if you're on a PC, Windows Media is already available to you. There are even more programs available for MAC users.

You say you don't have the money for a slick, high-budget production? No problem. Folk-style video is so common that even the most reasonable efforts to make it a quality production will stand out. And, there's another perk to making your own videos. They will have a genuineness and sincerity factor that high-budget productions can't match.

If you’re a little intimidated by the learning curve and expense of equipment you’ll need to produce a video, don’t be. The best way to get started in promoting your book with video marketing is to make a movie trailer from still shots. The software to do this is free and may already reside on your computer. Following is a list to get you started.

If your operating system is Windows XP or Vista, then Windows Movie Maker is probably already installed. If you use a Mac, look for iMovie software that is either already installed or free for download.

Photo Story 3 is another video editor and is available as a free download and makes movies from still shots, like book covers. It also has a way to edit a sound track. (Works with Windows.)

Paint.net is a free image and photo editing software that will allow you to customize your still shots, like your book cover and such. It will also allow you to create new stills for text.

Audacity is an audio editor (for your soundtrack), and is available as a free download.

A warning about copyright: There are lots of sites that offer stock clips and soundtracks. Do not use anything that does not have a public domain or Creative Commons license.

If you want to make a live video, there are several inexpensive digital cameras with built-in mics and a USB connector. Two of the most popular models are the Flip Video Mino and the Kodak Zi6. Both come in high definition models. If you get the HD Flip model, be sure to get it bundled with a tripod. It works great sitting still, but doesn’t provide clear detail when being moved around.

You’ll also want to consider your lighting source and background when you shoot a video. Follow the KISS principle and Keep It Simple, Silly. Remember, there’s a difference in hokey and folk-y. Keep your background clear of clutter.

If you don’t want to put yourself on camera, you can still make an interesting video with still slides and a voice-over. Mics come in a lot of price ranges and the general rule about higher price – better mic holds true. However, if you are simply doing a voice-over after you have the video edited, you can probably make do nicely with a good USB headset mic, which is the same kind you would use to make a call through your computer on Skype. Plantronics makes a very good one that is affordable. And, you can use it for podcasts too.

So, jump right in and start making a movie. You might be surprised at how much fun it can be. You can find the cameras and headsets listed above on Amazon.com.

MaAnna Stephenson is degreed in electronics and is the author of multiple technical manuals. With over two decades of experience as a Web site director, she has helped many non-profit agencies and small businesses achieve their online goals.

MaAnna is the author of the Just the FAQs series of e-books that teach the technical aspects of online marketing to non-geeks. Visit Just the FAQs for more.

Related Articles:

7 Ways to Promote Your Book With Video

Book Video Trailers: 11 Steps to Make Your Own

Holiday Greetings and Gifts for Your Customers and Associates

2009-12-16T11:23:37-06:00

At this time of year, it's nice to say thank you and happy holidays to your clients, book buyers, affiliates, subscribers, and other professional associates.

Why not create a free ebook as a thank you gift? Each year, I compile my top blog and ezine articles into an ebook and send it to my customers and newsletter subscribers. I also make the ebook available to others through my blog and social networks. If you haven't received a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook, you can get it here.

If you're running a bit short on time, you could send out your own ebook in early January as a Happy New Year gift. The free ebook can work for other holidays as well, especially if the holiday ties in to your topic. For example, if you write about parenting, create a Mother's Day gift book.

A greeting card, handwritten letter or personal thank you email are always appreciated, any time of year. For your VIPs (such as consulting clients and top affiliates) consider sending an autographed copy of your print book or an Amazon.com gift card.

I wish all of my readers a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and prosperous new year!

How Will You Be Promoting Your Book in 2010?

2009-12-14T07:43:08-06:00

I invite you to take a quick survey and receive a copy of my special report, 10 Steps to Online Networking Success. I'd love to find out what type of book promotions you have planned for the upcoming year and share the survey results with you so that you can see what others have planned.

The survey contains just seven questions and takes only a few minutes to complete. You'll also get a chance to win a complimentary copy of one of my Savvy Book Marketer Guide books. Just click this link to take the Book Promotion Strategies survey. Thanks!

Build a Money Making Opt-In Subscriber List with One Simple Idea

2009-12-12T08:29:00-06:00

I'm always delighted to have Kathleen Gage share her expertise in online marketing. In today's guest post, she offers some great tips on building an opt-in subscriber list.

One of the most pressing questions from authors, speakers, coaches and consultants using the Internet to market their products and services is, “How do I build a responsive opt-in subscriber list?”

A very simple way is with a Sig File (signature file). A Sig File is a tagline or short block of text at the end of an e-mail message, article or blog posting. The Sig File can identify the sender and/or provide additional information such as the company name, list of services, and contact information.

However, the most effective use of a Sig File is to have a call to action for an ethical bribe. An ethical bribe is exactly what is sounds like. You are offering visitors to your website, blog or landing page something FREE in exchange for them giving you their name and email address.

Effectively using a Sig File is one of the most important things you can do to begin building a solid opt-in subscriber list. Lists filled with people who have expressed an interest in something you are offering at no cost are warm leads for those who may want to purchase your paid products.

Avoid falling into the trap of thinking you don’t have time to offer something free. Ethical bribes that are FREE are the cornerstone of building your online business.

I have dozens of “giveaways” that I have developed over the years. Everything from eReports, eBooks, teleseminars, ezines, a 4-day email course and more. This has allowed me to build a list from the ground up (this means I started with nothing and built a highly profitable list of subscribers). The most successful among us started with nothing and built from there. And so can you!

Your giveaways should not require a lot of time on your part to fulfill the request from your visitor. Other than a teleseminar where you have dozens, hundreds and even thousands of people on the call at one time, avoid things like free coaching time. Otherwise you could cripple your business by having to be on the phone 24/7 fulfilling “free consulting”.

You have to start somewhere and a high value giveaway can be just the ticket. One idea is to an over the phone interview with an expert, record it and give the recording away. (Be sure to get the expert’s permission before giving away their information). From there, you develop a simple landing page with an opt-in box that immediately puts the subscriber into your database.

For more ideas on building your list, increasing your visibility, using sig files, developing money making information products and more, see what Kathleen Gage is up to at Street Smarts Marketing.

Want to see more great guest posts like this one? Just enter your email address in the "Free Updates by Email" section on the left side of this screen, and each new post will be automatically sent to you by email or RSS feed. If you're not familiar with feeds, click here to learn more.

How to Make Your Tweets Appear on LinkedIn

2009-12-10T07:30:00-06:00

Many people use a utility such as at the Twitter Facebook application to make their tweets automatically flow through to their status update on Facebook. Now there's an easy way to flow your tweets to LinkedIn.

Because LinkedIn is a professional network, it may not be appropriate for all of your tweets to appear there. The beauty of this system is that you can selectively decide which tweets go to LinkedIn. Even if you don't want your tweets to flow to LinkedIn, you can create a clickable link to your Twitter account from your LinkedIn profile.

It's easy and just takes a few moments to set up. First, you'll need to sync your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Just check the Twitter box under your Network Updates box on the homepage and then specify the Twitter account that you’d like to sync and/or display on your LinkedIn profile.
As part of the setup process, you can choose whether to send all your tweets or just select tweets from Twitter back to LinkedIn as a status update. If you choose to be selective (which I recommend), just include the hashtag #in at the end of any tweets that you wish to appear on LinkedIn.

See this page for a more detailed explanation of the set up process, and get more tips on how authors can use LinkedIn.

Want to see more articles like this? Just enter your email address in the "Get Free Updates" section on the left side of this screen, and each new post will be automatically sent to you by email or RSS feed. If you're not familiar with feeds, click here to learn more.

Websites for Authors: Contact Information is Essential

2009-12-08T07:33:00-06:00

As I was doing some research for a client yesterday, I was reminded of how many blogs and websites have no contact information. I understand why owners of personal blogs don't post their contact information, but it's essential for business-oriented sites like blogs and websites for authors.

If you're promoting any type of product or service, people need to be able to reach you, at least by email. Someone may have a question about your book or want to ask you to write an article or speak at an event. Maybe they want to contribute a guest post to your blog or propose some sort of joint venture. Your readers may have helpful suggestions about your site. If no one can contact you, you're missing out on business opportunities.

Blogs and websites for authors should feature contact information prominently on the site. Just beneath your photo is a good spot. You can also include contact information on your site's About page and Media page.

It's never a good idea to put a direct hyperlink to your email address on your site, because that makes it easy for spam bots to harvest your email address and sell it to spammers. One solution is to spell your email address with spaces or alternate symbols in between.

For example: john -at- yourwebsite.com.

On my websites, I used an encrypted Javascript link from Hivelogic. This service is free and easy to use, but it's not completely foolproof. There are ways to hack Javascript code. For more ideas on protecting your email address online, read Protecting Your Email from Spam by MaAnna Stephenson.

Excerpted from The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Blogging for Authors, available in late December, 2009. Visit this page for a sneak preview and get a 25% off coupon.

If you found this article helpful, I invite you to share it using the "ShareThis" or "Tweet This" buttons below.

Book Publicity - Five Tips for Writing a Strong Press Release

2009-12-03T08:00:00-06:00

Press releases are an important book publicity tool for authors and publishers. I’m delighted to have publicity expert Marsha Friedman share her terrific press release tips in today’s guest post. Although these tips are geared to writing a release to attract talk show hosts, these same principles are applicable to other types of releases.

1. Headline! Headline? HEADLINE!!!

Arguably the most important aspect of your press release, headlines are so vital that there are entire books written and seminars taught on how to construct the most effective ones. Now, don’t let this scare you. Writing a killer headline is definitely a skill that can be developed; all you need is a clear and concise overview of your topic. Write down your show idea and look it over. Now look it over again.

What is your key message? Is your show idea newsworthy? Are there any well-known people that you can tie into your topic? Do you have any impressive statistics that are relevant? Is there anything controversial that ties directly into your subject? The answers to these questions will help you develop a headline which is ready for increased attention by producers and hosts.

Your headline must communicate the topic of the show instantly in an eye-catching way. It should not be longer than 1 sentence and will act as THE sound bite on your topic. Now that’s a lot of weight to put on a single sentence!

Sometimes to alleviate the weight of the headline, you may need a sub-head to support it. If your headline gives just a taste of your show topic, then a sub-head is useful to explain it further. When someone reads the headline and sub-head together it should immediately click what the concept of the show is. Do this correctly and you will definitely grab some attention!

2. Discussion Topic

This is your chance to present a concise summary of your show topic. It should continue naturally from the headline to further expand the topic. The headline gets the attention and the discussion topic gives the reader more.

The length should be two or three sentences, tops. This forces you to present (and think about) your topic in a concise manner. Again try to tie your topic to current events, big name, big money, or controversy! Don’t be worried about repeating yourself in the different sections of the press release. After all, you want to get a cohesive point across! (A great tip: try writing the Topic Summary and Headline together. It is a great way to save time!)

3. Talking Points/Questions

These are an absolute must for radio and TV as they are the shaping tools that guide the host through your topic. Often times the host will read directly off of the press release during the interview. This not only makes them look knowledgeable, but it saves them heaps of time! So why not have them read YOUR questions so you can give very specific answers which will not only make you look knowledgeable but also make for a great interview.

Yet again you will need to tie in current events and any controversy that will stir interest (are you tired of hearing this yet?). Generally it is good to give no more than 10 of these conversation shapers. If you do get invited as a guest, your interviews will generally last anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes…so concise is a word that you should familiarize yourself with right now!

Remember: the more interesting the questions – the more interesting your interview!

4. Topic Overview

Once you have gained their attention with your eye-catching headline, topic summary and talking points it is time to present the full show idea. This is your opportunity to fully flesh out your topic to position you as an expert on the topic you are discussing. Do not write a sales piece here – write your show! Work your name, personal quotes and product name into the summary.

Liberally use the following to build your topic and profile: statistics, testimonials, current news facts, professional title (which is real and honest). Use anything that will interest the producer, host and in effect THEIR AUDIENCE! Try to limit this to a page maximum, with an ideal range to be 4-6 paragraphs with around 4 sentences max in each one.

5. Biography

Now this is the one element that people tend to forget, underplay or overplay. THIS IS ABOUT YOU! This is your chance to position yourself as the expert you are in order for you to be invited as a guest. Use your qualifications, education, career, relationships, memberships, travel history, how many dogs you have….etc. Basically use anything that can help qualify you as an expert on the topic. If you are writing about religion, for example, anything that you do in your life that pertains to religion is applicable and increases your plausibility as an expert on that topic.

A word of warning though: don’t sensationalize yourself. By doing this you will immediately turn-off producers and hosts. Instead, effectively communicate your achievements and expertise on the topic that you are presenting. Simply rehashing your resume with bullet-points is an absolute “no-no”.

The press release is your marketing tool to get invited as a guest on radio and television shows. If you take your time developing exactly what your interview segment will be about and put lots of thought into developing your press release to clearly reflect that you will be more successful in getting the media attention you desire. So get writing!

For 20 years Marsha Friedman has been a Public Relations expert as CEO of EMSI. Signup at www.emsincorporated.com for her free PR Insider Newsletter today! Or call 727-443-7115, ext. 202, or email mfriedman@emsincorporated.com.

Use Social Follow to Attract Followers on Your Social Networks

2009-11-30T09:20:00-06:00

These days, it’s vital to make it easy to for people to find you on social networks and to encourage them to connect with you there.

I’ve recently added a new button my website, using a service called Social Follow. In the upper right corner of this site, look for the button with the icons for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and RSS feeds. I also repeated this button father down the right column, beneath my photo.

In addition to these major social networks, you can add icons for numerous other services including Blogger, WordPress, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, YouTube, Flickr, Squidoo, Hub Pages, MySpace, Ning, Shelfari, and more.

You can create multiple buttons for different sites within the same Social Follow account, and you can also set up a Profile on the Social Follow site.

To get started, register at Social Follow and follow the steps to create your button. For step-by-step instructions on how to create your Social Follow button and profile, see this free tutorial from Just the FAQs. If you're a TypePad user like me, you can copy the button code into a Notes TypeList and place it in your sidebar.

Before you begin, you will need to already have an account on the social services that you wish to include on your button, and you’ll also need to know your personal URL for each of your social sites. Usually, you can find the URL by looking at the URL in your browser when you are on your profile page for your favorite social sites. For example, my URL on Twitter is http://twitter.com/BookMarketer.

Give Social Follow a try and watch your followers and contacts increase!

Other Social Markteing Articles

The Golden Rules of Social Networking

2009-11-28T08:31:00-06:00

Social networking is a terrific way to make contacts and develop relationships. Here are some tips for putting the social into social networking:

Be selective about which networks you join and who you invite as a friend. Only invite people who appear to share common interests with you.

Send a personalized friend request, introducing yourself and stating why you want to befriend the other person.

Get involved in the community. Remember that you need to give more than you get. Offer helpful comments and links, compliment others, share a bit of personal information about yourself, and be a friend.

Don't be overly promotional. It's okay to promote your products and services on occasion, but don't make that your main focus. Be careful of appearing too promotional. Sending out an announcement of your book launch is fine; sending frequent promotional messages about your book is not.

Excerpted from The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Successful Social Marketing.

Other Social Marketing Articles

Learn How to Boost Your Profits with Amazon Associates

2009-11-23T10:00:00-06:00

Every author who has a book for sale on Amazon.com should be enrolled in the Amazon Associates affiliate program. In the November issue of The Savvy Book Marketer Newsletter, you'll learn how to earn revenue from the Amazon Associates program, even if you don’t have a book on Amazon. Other topics in this issue include:

Thanksgiving Special - Save 25% on Savvy Book Marketer Products

Free Book Marketing Resources

Creating a Successful Author Blog

Social Networking for Authors - Audio Program Now Available

Book Publicity - Use a Benefit Funnel to Write Compelling Copy

2009-11-21T12:48:33-06:00

In today’s guest post, veteran author and book marketing consultant Shel Horowitz shares a great tip for writing book publicity copy that grabs attention. I just love the example he uses to illustrate his point.

If you've studied some of the big-name direct marketers, you may have heard of a "customer funnel" or "product funnel." That's *not* what this column is about, so don't skip it because you think you already know. (If you don't know, I explain in the last paragraph.)

The benefit funnel is different, and as far as I know, I'm the only one using that term (though I didn't invent the concept, which has been around for at least 100 years). It's the idea that that you put yourself in your prospect's mind, and keep asking the things your prospect would ask, until you have an answer so compelling that you just have to make the sale.

What would they ask? * "So what?" * "Why should I care?" * "What's in it for me?" Let's take a real-life example: my very favorite press release I wrote for a client (which is featured in my book, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, incidentally).

The assignment: write a book publicity press release promoting a book on electronic privacy. Not a very compelling topic, at first glance. Most PR books will tell you to write a headline like "Electronic Privacy Expert Releases New Book"--and reporters will hit the mental snooze button, and the physical delete key/recycle bin. There's no news in this headline! No reason for anyone to care, except perhaps the author's mother. In the US alone, several hundred thousand books are published each year. Big yawn.

But let's go back to our reader's concerns and see where they bring us: A book was published--so what? It's about electronic privacy. Why should I care--what does electronic privacy mean to me? It tells you how to protect yourself from electronic snoopers. I don't know what you mean. What's in it for me? Your personal records are floating around, where big corporate marketers can lay traps for you or unscrupulous people can grab them and use them to steal your identity or learn information you'd rather keep to yourself. Ooh, that sounds scary--now I get it! Except that back then, I didn't know about identity theft. But by asking those kinds of questions, I arrived at this headline and lead:

It's 10 O'Clock-Do You Know Where Your Credit History Is?

How about your employment records? Your confidential medical information?
How would you feel if you found out this sensitive and should-be-private material is "vacationing" in computer databanks around the world--accessible to corporate interests who can afford to track down and purchase it, but not necessarily open to your own inspection.

According to electronic privacy journalist and technology consultant (name), this scenario is all-too-common. In a groundbreaking but highly readable new book...

Do you think a press release like that will get noticed by reporters? It's "grabber" copywriting--and you can use this technique to liven up any marketing piece. If it works in press releases, think about the impact in ad or direct mail copy.

PS: Those other funnels in the first paragraph have to do with the idea that you bring a lot of customers in with an inexpensive product, deliver more than you promised, and then sell progressively more expensive items to those who want them...until you've gone from, say, a $15 e-book all the way up to a $15,000 weekend bootcamp. You sell fewer of each item as you go down the funnel, but you make more on each one. Consider that a bonus tip--it's the method that a lot of well-known Internet marketers (not me) have used to create seven-figure incomes.

Shel Horowitz is an internationally known copywriter and marketing consultant, author of Grassroots Marketing Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First and several other books, and creator of the Frugal Marketing web site.

Enhance Your Blog and Ezine with Guest Posts

2009-11-19T10:13:01-06:00

Although I write most of the posts on this blog, we are fortunate to have other experts share their knowledge on a range of topics. Guest posts are win-win for everyone. Readers get valuable tips and insight from a variety of experts, guest posters build their expert status and get links to their websites, and bloggers get additional content for their sites. Guest posts are often used in ezines as well.

Guest posts can take the form of how-to articles or interviews, and you can even post audio or video clips from the guest. Fiction authors can interview other authors in their genre.

Where can you find experts or authors to contribute to your blog or ezine? Seek out others in your field or genre through your social networks and your own contact list. Send guest post invitations to the owners and guest posters of the blogs, ezines and print newsletters that you enjoy reading. Use search engines to find other blogs and ezines in your field.

When sending a guest post invitation, describe your blog or ezine, suggest topics of interest, note whether you accept previously published content, specify a word count range for the article and a limit on the length of the resource box, and request a photo. Here’s an example:

I enjoy reading your blog and I would love for you to do a guest post on the Book Marketing Maven blog about how to write effective press releases. My audience is authors and others in the publishing business. About 500-600 words would be ideal, with a 30-word resource box. Previously published content is fine. Please send me a photo as well.

Some bloggers request that all guest posts be original content (articles not already posted elsewhere). That’s nice for SEO purposes, but may limit your ability to get guest posts since your experts may not have time to produce an original article for you. If you’re willing to accept articles published elsewhere, you’ll have access to more articles.

In many cases, you can reprint other writer’s articles without asking permission. Look for a “permission to reprint” statement on blogs and ezines that you read. You can also search article directories such as Ezine Articles for articles to reprint. It can be a bit time consuming wading through article directories, because some of the articles are of low quality. Still, there are many excellent articles available.

When reprinting other people’s articles, be sure to include their resource box. I let writers know I’m using their article, even if it’s not required. It’s courteous and helps build relationships.