PMA-U 2008

by Jean Boggio, IPNE Scholarship Winner

May 27 - 29, Los Angeles, California

The big news was the announcement on the night of the Ben Franklin Awards that PMA has changed its name to IBPA - Independent Book Publishers Association. New lapel pins were handed out in our arrival packets and now we could wear them. PMA has expanded so far beyond just marketing that the new name is justified.

I arrived in LA late the evening before PMA-U was to begin. The next morning I was up bright and early and down to the PMA area shortly after 7:00 am. The first person I saw that I recognized from his picture was Dan Poynter! As his was the first book I read on self-publishing, I had to introduce myself. His first question was, “Where is your book?” “Up in my room,” I replied.

“Always carry your book under your arm. Then when someone says, ‘is that your book?’ you can say, ‘why, yes it is,’ and act surprised. That will lead to an opportunity to tell them about your book.”

From then on I dutifully carried my book under my arm and the next time he spotted me, Dan gave me a thumbs up.

The next person I met was Paul Krupin whose book on writing Press Releases I have also read. I told him I needed to speak with him at some time when he had a free moment for some publicity advice. He took my book, which I was of course carrying under my arm, and flipped through it. His immediate advice was that it would be a hard book to sell (memoir) and that I had best develop speaking skills around a key topic and sell the book in the back of the room. Very good. I had been thinking along these lines myself.

Everyone was now making their way to the large room where the opening speeches would be made. Robin Bartlett was first. His topic? Find Your Niche! How appropriate for me. That was my biggest goal for the week. His advice? Learn everything about it, work it, stay within it and find ways to sell outside the bookstore. In addition, know your audience. Go where they go, shop where they shop, watch them, talk with them, see what they buy and why. Do one-on-one market research. Beyond that, maximize use of the internet and social media. This would be a theme throughout the week.

Robin further advised the audience to identify areas where we had no expertise and form our own informal advisory board. These could be bookstore managers, business leaders, librarians, teachers, readers, reporters and publicists, editors and publishers, web designers, techs, kids and vendors.

Robin then gave us some simple rules of the publishing road that centered on developing media knowledge. He recommended having a website and making frequent changes. Learn to upload content and manage the site yourself. Constantly enhance and improve it and make sure it sells. He suggested we get a video camera for talks (someone later showed us the new Flip camera available on Amazon that interfaces with your computer for uploading to YouTube). We should become familiar with social media such as Facebook. He mentioned Flickr (a photo storage facility), YouTube, Blogs, and audio/video podcasts—all of which can be set up on your website. We must become experts on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online booksellers.

He then gave us some guidance for getting the most out of the PMA-U opportunity that included having a back-up course to switch to if your first choice isn’t what you need, ask for help in selecting courses to meet your needs, ask questions, network – write notes on the backs of the cards you collect, get to know PMA members and staff, look into new technology, talk with vendors, connect with related markets, learn about other affiliates, listen and question more than you sell, and last but not least, pace yourself and have fun.

In closing, Robin advised us to put a lot out there – the more you tell, the more you sell – but NOT the core value. For that people need to read the book.

Robin was followed by Dominique Raccah of SourceBooks, who advised us to begin with the end in mind and to follow our passion.

At lunchtime there were opportunities to network again by sitting at tables labeled for specific topics. You could have lunch with one expert and dessert with another. And of course, there was opportunity to network with classmates as well.

In the afternoon I opted for the Top Ten Things in Book Publicity. I picked up a key piece of advice there that would stand me in good stead a week later when I started out on my first book launch tour. “Be glad for what you have and don’t worry about what you don’t have.” This was referring to attendees at sales events.

Another suggestion that I’ve placed on my To Do list is extracting articles out of the book. These can be posted on your website or submitted to appropriate magazines.

Blogging was highly recommended in several courses (I had three at the time and now have a fourth). It was stressed that there is even more value in commenting on the blogs of others on similar topics, including your URL to encourage dialog. The search engines like that. The idea behind blogging is “building community.” Amazon Connect was highly recommended for blogging and can be tied in to your other blog(s).

Book events were touched on – talk about the topic, not the book. If no one comes, reassess what you’re doing wrong.

The afternoon was capped by the BEA Survival Guide, where we newbies received guidance on how to make the most of the opportunity, how to find areas to rest, food and other comforts. We were given little survival packets including Tylenol for our headaches, band-aids for our blisters, and little personal battery-operated fans to help us keep our cool.

Following the day’s sessions there was a cocktail hour sponsored by several vendors, where enough food was provided to make dinner. Again, there was more opportunity to meet up with friends made along the way and various experts.

I did not linger long, however, as there was a dinner scheduled for the scholarship recipients and I had to get ready! We met in the lobby and under the guidance of Carlene Sippola, we walked the few blocks to the Athletic Club where an elegant feast awaited us. We were able to have some good in-depth conversations with our fellow recipients during the meal and I met some amazing publishers in various stages of establishing their businesses.

The morning of the second day I was again early in order to take advantage of the expert advice that was available. Again, I sought out a publicist to compare opinions and again it was confirmed that I had a niche book and public speaking was my key to sales.

I had chosen Publicity I as my first course of the day, but as I was already doing many of the things being recommended in that class, I slipped out and went to my back-up on Websites with Lars Claussen. Much of what he said was also basic for me as he had designed my websites and I was well into them. However, he was kind enough to spend a few minutes with me after the class and show me some next steps, such as uploading files from Word rather than retyping them into the website.

In the course, Lars did emphasize that your website must be solution oriented and designed so the reader doesn’t have to spend a lot of time finding his solution on your site. Part of this is identifying for whom the site is a solution. He spoke about search engine optimization with use of key words and inbound links, and putting up a podcast.

Some publicity recommendations that Lars made were to put up the book one page at a time, and send out tips and newsletters. Of course, he echoed Robin’s admonition to update your pages frequently.

Publicity II was a little more in-depth and covered promotion timelines and use of news releases. The importance of follow-up was stressed as well as proofreading of news releases. Email is now the preferred way to send. Constant evaluation and follow-up are necessary – what was the response? Did it work, why-why not, was it the hook? timing? your media choices? The subject line must have news value. Post the news releases on your website and update often. Put your signature on every page.

Some links were given: profnet.com - to find reporters who are writing about your topic.

If you answer this, make sure you answer on target. Know what it is you are responding to, give enough info to pique interest, use bullet points and 3 paragraphs. Tell them when you are available to talk if they want more info.

Do not send attachments, but put in links to the publicity page on your website.

If you don’t know who at the newspaper should receive your news release, send it to the Assignment Editor.

I finished the first day with Steve O’Keefe on Maximizing Amazon. He stressed the variety of tools that Amazon provides to maximize your presence there. You can link to more through your Product Description, such as Ampedia and Search Inside. He also recommended Amazon Connect to connect your blog to the site. He suggests adding tags but not all at once. It generates more search engine activity to do them one at a time. Put a video in your blog, which will then also go to Amazon.

Push for customer reviews (but not by members of your family). He states you need 5 positive reviews to buffer 1 negative one. Your goal should be 20 good reviews.

He echoed the axiom stated earlier – the more you tell the more you sell. Recommends Search Inside. Don’t forget an author photo. Put the back cover copy in the editorial info. Add any awards won. Put in the Table of Contents with description of chapters, and an excerpt.

Other tips: Break paragraphs into smaller ones. Describe the book physically (appeal to sense of touch). Use keywords – stack into descriptions. Write it out first then put it into the page.

Include citations from reviews – 20 words is fair use.

Review other books in your genre – mention yours in a logical way, ie, signed xxx author of.....

To counter bad reviews – use your blog, use publisher/author comments. Remember that new reviews go on top, so get more (except Publishers Weekly stays on top).

Utilize Listmania – give your personal recommendations, with your book as #1. Check books that others have bought.

If someone emails you that they like your book, ask them to review it on Amazon and email them the URL.

You can also use Amazon Marketplace to directly sell autographed copies. Also check out Amazon Friends. Make sure you have an RSS feed for your blog – click on the orange symbol on the blog to get the address.

Using tags – check similar books to see what tags they are using.

Dinnertime once again saw a cocktail hour with enough food to make a meal. This time I took advantage of that and went early to my room to review my notes and prepare for the final day of classes.

After the usual early start, picking the brains of the publicity experts, I arrived at Blog Basics, presented by The Blog Squad – Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff. Although I was already blogging, I was really looking forward to this one.

Among some of the tips were:

• Write in your blog a minimum of three times per week – search engines like this.
• Get readers to subscribe through the RSS feed.
• Display your Table of Contents.
• Add a chapter one at a time.
• Use the blog to get feedback from readers, which helps to build the book and gets readers
• involved.
• Post sample chapters in exchange for email addresses.
• Content should be conversational.
• Remember you are writing to ONE person.
• Submit your blog to blog directories; it provides a link back to the blog.
• Use key words strategically – it’s what readers will use to find it.
• Include the beginning of the title in the body.
• Use the key words in the content for the search engines and for the readers.
• Get a YouTube account and a video set-up (Flip Video – 60 minute size).
• Upload to YouTube – that creates a code so you can upload to your blog.

I also learned that there are better, more versatile blog platforms available. They recommended Typepad. (Guess which platform I used for my new blog on eminent domain?) Somehow you can add a READ MORE link after several short paragraphs so readers don’t have to do so much scrolling.

Don’t give too much personal information in your profile – keep it professional.

Tell stories with a point.

Use audio – MP3 to read chapters and podcast on your blog.

Other recommendations:

• Cross-post with Facebook – feed your blog into Facebook, and get Twitter, the new 140 character social messaging tool that is becoming very popular.
• Link to other blogs – list them in a sidebar.
• Ning – allows you to create your own social group site.
• There should be one blog per audience and it should educate, entertain, engage and enrich lives. It should be a call to action – build a community, get subscribers, garner comments.
• Link out to your resources when you are writing your blog post articles.
• Make an editorial calendar schedule and keep a file on things to blog about.
• Technorati is the biggest blog directory – search by key words.
• You can use Export-Import – to move old blog material to new blog. Say on your last post - “Moved to new location...” and give the link.

By this time I was quite hyped and anxious to get back to work and put all these new ideas into practice, but there were still more sessions to go. My next one was Passion Planning with Domique Raccah. This turned out to be a more generalized focus, but did have a few specifics to carry away. For me the most important was again pertaining to my website and blogs and that was to create a new feature every week. Another was to identify what I am best at and possibly get other experts for the other functions (like design, publicity).

After lunch (picked the brain of yet another publicity expert – so far all concurring on the same approach for my book) I attended Media Hooks with Joel Roberts and Antoinette Kuritz. Now she was one of the publicists I had consulted earlier so I already knew what I had to do for my book – but this course would tell me more about how to do it.

Joel Roberts was a dynamo. His focus was on teaching us the importance of your approach to the gatekeeper at the radio station to interest him or her in your pitch to get on the show. He selected various people from the audience and had them come up and in 30 seconds give the gatekeeper the hook. None of the participants was very adept at doing this, being embarrassed up in front of the room. Joel would question them, then have them try it again, with similar results. He would patiently probe them for the information that would lead to the best hook for their topic, then finally come out with a dazzling synthesis of what they told him that would be guaranteed to get the attention of a producer, and convince the producer that the audience would be entertained by what you had to offer. That was the essence of a hook.

The other thing Joel emphasized was to consider the person’s time by starting out by saying – “I have a pitch for you – is this a convenient time?” If no, then, “May I email you?”

He demonstrated zeroing in on what would get the attention of an audience and stating it succinctly.

Now there was one more class to go and I chose Editing with folks from Storey Publishing. Their presentation contained tips and costs for the various types of editing, and stressed the importance of not neglecting this function. Some websites were provided – Writejobs.com where there is good talent, hungry and cheap. They highly recommended Editing911.com.

In editing, on-going relationships should be fostered that will lead to good feedback. The =editor will get to know the style of your books. Some recommendations were:

• Test candidates for speed and quality – send the same short piece to several.
• Give them instructions – style sheets.
• Pay for an initial analysis – $2.50 per page, 10-page sample.
• Talk with them first - meet or email.
• Finish the book, put it aside. Re-read it word by word and clean up what you find.
• Read through and understand the editor’s comments – email to ask if not sure.
• Check table of contents in final form to be certain of match with pages. Same with the
• index.
• When the book is back from the printer—scan for things dropped or odd characters,
• check captions.
• Make a file for corrections for the next edition.

That evening was the excitement of the Ben Franklin Awards Dinner and the unveiling of the new name of our organization. The books of the award candidates had been on display in the hallway during the preceding days to heighten the suspense. It was an exciting event as winner after winner was called to receive their award to appropriate piano accompaniment from the musician hired to provide it.

I felt that I had gained immeasurable knowledge during those few days being exposed to a wealth of experience. I learned what my focus must be and ways to proceed to attain my goals. It’s now time to put all that into practice over the next year while I look forward to IBPA-U in May 2009 in New York.