Doreen McGettigan

Imagine That…

Imagine that we American women united so no person or organization could control us by dividing us. Imagine that we actually did something other than persist. Imagine us coming together to solve problems. Imagine we built a bridge on what we have in common and our differences washed away under that bridge. Imagine that…

Imagine that on the topic of:

Schools- We agree we want the very best educational system for our children. We agree that every child has the right to an education regardless of race, religion, sex or disabilities. Imagine that we got together in our small towns and our cities and created a plan, we could make our school boards, administrators and educators accountable for every cent

Read the rest of this entry »

Writing Wednesday

Wednesday is the day I share what I have learned on my journey to publication, marketing and getting ready to publish again. If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments and I will do my best to answer them.

Whichever path you choose to take for your book, traditional, independent or self-publishing the fact is you will be responsible for marketing your book.  As soon as you start writing a book you should start writing a marketing plan. A marketing plan has three major parts, marketing advertising and public relations.

I wrote about marketing plans here: doreenmcgettigan.com/?p=5230

Advertising here: http://doreenmcgettigan.com/?p=5540

Public Relations (PR) Part 1

Any book can become a best seller if it is written and marketed well. You must create a reason for people to ‘need’ your book. A good Public relations professional is well worth the investment if your publisher does not provide one. If hiring a PR rep is not in your budget, no worries.

What exactly are public relations?

It is the professional maintenance of a favorable public image for you and your business.

The art of managing the spread of information between your business and the public.

Planning Promotions for the purpose of creating goodwill

Creating an author platform

Publicity- press releases- media pitches- communication intended to create a positive image

Creating promotional text, audio, and video

Planning launches, conferences, book signings etc…

Creating promotional materials- business cards, book markers, post cards etc…

Some tips for putting your PR plan together:

Know what is news- News is information that is relevant to the public as a whole. Sadly for us writers, putting our hearts, souls and in most cases a lot of time, a year sometimes more of our lives into our work, experiencing rejection on steroids over and over again and ending up finally, as a published author is NOT news. There are more than a half-million of us a year and the numbers keep growing.

To become newsworthy you must establish yourself as an expert. This is a little bit easier for non-fiction writers but definitely possible for fiction writers.

My second book, The Stranger In My Recliner is the story of a homeless woman named Sophie. My husband brought her home and she lived with us for nearly three-years. After experiencing first-hand the lack of action by government, community and private agencies, the research I did on homelessness, interviewing her friends and family I feel comfortable saying I am an expert on the topic of homelessness.

If you are stuck figuring out your topic of expertise ask your beta readers what message they received from your story…

Have a concise message, who; what; why; when and where. Have you perfected your two or three line elevator speech?

Know who you are pitching. You don’t want to pitch your expertise on rebuilding car engines to the entertainment reporter.

Follow journalist, producers and reporters on twitter but DO NOT pitch them on social media. Trust me just don’t. Simply be entertaining but professional. Join the conversation and favorite and like their stuff, not all of their stuff because that can make you look like a stalker. Be patient…

Have you joined HARO?  http://helpareporter.com

Next week I will share tips on writing a press release and a media pitch.

What is your area of expertise?

Happy writing,

Doreen

“Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and above all accurately so they will be guided by its light.” Joseph Pullitzer 1847-1911

I would love to connect with you here:

http://www.twitter.com/doreenb8

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bristol-boyzStomp/113804488656243

I’m going!

https://www.facebook.com/MidlifeBoulevard

I’m a minion:

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com

Friday Fragments are bits and pieces of your week that are usually brief; too short for a stand-alone post, but too good to discard. Collect humorous observations, “Heard” items, and other small gems and put them together in a Friday Fragments post. Then leave a link to your Friday Fragments here:

Half-Past Kissin’ Time

My husband told me yesterday to stop thinking about summer being over and to concentrate on enjoying each day of September. He is so right. The days are still sunny and warm, without being oppressive and the nights are comfortably cool. Then he asked me to go on a couple of beach dates. Just another of the million reasons I love that man.

I have some exciting things to look forward to this fall. Not only will I be teaching again but I have been working with a committee since last spring to put together a workshop series sponsored by the Press Club of Pa. They will be held the fourth Saturday of every month (except December.) They will be on social media, branding, style (for men and women), networking, understanding the news, how to get attention from the media for your product, business, store, event, non-profit, blog or book, writing and publishing, pitching your business and more. We have been so lucky to have top experts in these fields offer to join us. We even have a few celebrity guests. I will be writing more about these classes next week!

http://www.thepressclubpa.org

Our Florida adventure has come and gone but I have no doubt we all created memories that will last forever. My husband and I took five of our grandchildren to Daytona Beach to visit my mother and John’s sister. We were worried that at least the driving part would be a nightmare but I have to tell you the kids were so good and we had SO much fun. Kudos to John for renting the top of the line Town & Country minivan equipped with DVD players and satellite radio and kudos to me for creating maps and putting them on corkboard for each child with colored stick pins. One color for cities we stopped in and another color for cities we passed through. They really got into it and now they know how to read a map. We had a great time with family and friends, went Go Karting, to batting cages, the beach, to Zoomair Daytona a zipline adventure and more…

During our vacation my laptop kind of crashed and even though there was a TV by the pool the kids always wanted to listen to music so I was forced to detox from my news addiction. After reading this post on Boomeon written by Cathy Chester, taking an occasional news break is going to become a habit for me:

http://www.boomeon.com/posts/taking-a-short-break-from-the-news

Have a safe and fun Labor Day,

Doreen