Valley PR Blog

Are you published yet?

By Linda VandeVrede on May 28th, 2010 In People, Writing

Dan Poynter's manual is a best-selling guide on self-publishing

PR Consultant Brian Solis blogged last month that “businesses must become media in order to earn greater relevance and ultimately thought leadership within their respective markets.”  I would argue that individuals, particularly PR professionals, should also consider becoming their own media publishing center.  (Here is his full post on the topic).

As a public relations professional, getting published adds credibility to your business and expertise.   If you’ve always wanted to write a book, why wait any longer?   So few hurdles remain now.  

Local public relations experts are already on their way – here are their insights.

Jason Baer  www.convinceandconvert.com

“I am co-authoring a book with Amber Naslund about social media’s impact on internal organization structure. It’s about how social media turns your company Inside Out, and should be published in early 2011.  Talking about social media’s impact on the brand/customer relationship has been well chronicled. What hasn’t been discussed as much, however, is the equally important (and perhaps more so) change in internal communication and staffing that social media and real-time business necessitate. I’m able to stick to a schedule because having a co-author that you can’t let down helps a lot. To me, it’s a $25 business card. I’m looking to do a lot more speaking in the coming years, and the book boosts credibility with event planners and speakers bureaus. I’m sure that having an agent is important for first-time authors. But it definitely helps to have created a lot of content that publishers can examine. Sure, we wrote a solid book proposal, but the fact that Amber and myself have several hundred blog posts each makes it a lot easier for publishers to take a chance on us. (Wiley, in our case).”

Ann Videan  www.videanunlimited.com

“I am putting the finishing touches on my novel, Rhythms and Muse, which juxtaposes award-winning vocalist Alexander Lauren’s 1970s high school experiences with her current day Hollywood lifestyle. She discovers her life’s purpose truly is to enhance the world through music.  I hope to self-publish this summer, once I obtain permissions and licensing contracts from the music publishers who own lyrics I mention throughout the book. I also need to make final edits, and duplicate a CD of five original songs complement in the story. The idea for the plot of this book came to me in 1987 based on a number of personal experiences. I didn’t have an ending till it showed up in a dream one night back in the mid-1990s. I expect to only write this one book in the women’s fiction genre, as what I truly want to write is young adult adventure/fantasy. To stick to a schedule, I found a critique partner who was also writing a novel. We meet twice a week over lunch or tea to discuss our books. I finished the last quarter of my novel quickly, once I decided to treat it like a client and set aside two hours every day just to write. After tinkering away at the story for decades, I was able to finish it up in about six months by creating a dedicated writing schedule. My story revolves around a 40-something woman who realizes all her dreams figuratively and literally. To gain visibility and credibility, I plan to sell my books at nationwide “Dream Realization” workshops. I’m hoping this new audience of dreammakers will not only purchase my novel, but also feed my marketing consulting work. These women’s workshops serve as an add-on to the business tribe and word-of-mouth marketing strategy sessions I currently facilitate for my clients. There is so much to know about the publishing industry, and it is changing so rapidly now with new technology, that I’d simply recommend hiring a publishing coach. By the time I came to this realization and called the publishing coach myself, I had already created a document that took me years of research to compile, including research online, library and bookstore visits, and interviews with writers, editors publishers and other book industry experts.”

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Some resources to get you started – here are some books on publishing and self-publishing you might consider reading before you plunge ahead:

Publishing Basics – by Robert Bowie Johnson

The Economical Guide to Self-Publishing – by Linda F. Radke

Self-Publishing Manual – by Dan Poynter

Writing the Non-Fiction Book – by Eva Shaw

1001 Ways to Market Your Books – by John Kremer

Also, check out the website www.booksjustbooks.com for tips on obtaining an ISBN number, information on copyrights, finding printers, etc.  For local assistance on the book publishing process, join the Arizona Book Publishing Association, which meets monthly and features different speakers on a wide range of topics in the book industry.  Their June 30th meeting will feature a roundtable format with experts available on writing & editing, book design, and printing.

And once your book is finished, consider creating a book video trailer to help promote it.

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