M. E. Wood

PROMOBEATS INTERVIEW

Julie Hood

Please join me in a big Word Museum and PromoBeats welcome to The Organized Writer, Julie Hood.

Moe: Please tell us what name(s) you write under, the name of your book(s), the genre of your book(s), and the formats available.

Julie Hood: I'm Julie Hood, the author of The Organized Writer: 30 Days to More Time, More Money and Less Frustration. The book is a how-to book for writers and it's currently available as e-book at BookLocker (and hopefully soon to be released in print!).

Moe: What do you do to promote your book(s)?

Julie Hood: My biggest promotion activity is a weekly, how-to newsletter for writers called Writer-Reminders. Each issue provides tips, tricks and resources for combining a writing career with the rest of your life. I use the same daily format as my book so readers can get a feel for what the book will provide, and I try to keep it short with only one or two paragraphs on each topic. Everyone is incredibly busy, and who has time for long articles about writing?

The free give-aways at OrganizedWriter.com are also incredibly helpful for promoting The Organized Writer. Subscribers to the newsletter get a free ebook, The Sidetracked Writer's Planner, an excerpt from Day 3 of the book. It includes a shopping list, 20 printable forms, and instructions for creating your own Writer's Planner.

Writers can also download (and send it to all their friends!) a free calendar with motivational quotes for writers, holidays, monthly to dos, monthly focus activities, reminder checklists, and seasonal query recommendations.

Moe: What method or methods of promotion have you used that works well?

Julie Hood:

1. Probably the best thing I've done (or maybe I should say luckiest!) is partnering with Booklocker.com and WritersWeekly.com. Because I'm trying to reach writers, and they have a huge mailing list of writers, this has been one of the most effective ways to reach my target audience.

2. Word of mouth: My subscribers are some of the most loyal readers on the planet, and they have been very helpful with spreading the word about the book and the newsletter.

3. Writer-Reminders newsletter (above)

4. Book Reviews (reviews available online)

5. I've also written some free articles with a long bio at the end to help drive readers to my site.

6. Interviews

7. Free calendar (above)

Moe: What method or methods of promotion have you used that have not worked well?

Julie Hood: This is a tough question, because I feel like any kind of exposure is good for your business. Most marketing experts say you need at least seven exposures to your potential prospects before they will buy. I have avoided a few things, though. I generally don't pay for advertising or use banners. I also think book signings can be a waste of time because they usually aren't targeted enough to your readers.

Moe: Where did you learn how to promote your books? Is there a special place or places where you find good promotion information?

Julie Hood: I have a huge file of book promotion ideas I started collecting before I started writing. I believe you need to know how you are going to market the book before you even write it. How big is your market? How will you reach your readers?

Here are my favorite books on promotion:

1. How to Publish and Promote Online by M.J. Rose and Angela Adair-Hoy. If I could only buy one marketing book, this would be the one because it focuses so much on the inexpensive internet marketing. My copy is dog-eared and full of flagged pages and scribbles.

2. Jump Start Your Book Sales by Marilyn and Tom Ross. This book is fun to read, full of links and good ideas, and the chapters are well-organized.

3. Guerrilla Marketing for Writers by Levinson, Larsen and Frishman. This book helps you to think differently about marketing. It describes the "weapons" you can use to sell your books. I particularly liked the suggestions about how writers should help each other sell books.

4. 1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer. Every author needs this 704-page bible on book marketing.

I also took M.J. Rose's book promotion class, Create a Buzz Plan without the Guesswork, and it was worth every penny. She provided invaluable advice on what works and what doesn't, and even came up with my buzz line: Ever wonder how much you could write if you were just more organized?

Moe: Do you like to promote? Or do you find it frustrating?

Julie Hood: For the most part, I like to promote because I see it as a way to share information with others. I just wish promoting wasn't so time-consuming!

Moe: Have you been interviewed as an author? By which mediums?

Julie Hood: I've done several email interviews for web sites. You can read them here beneath the bio. For information on TV and radio interviews, I really like the audio tapes on PRleads.com, click on seminars for more info.

Moe: Do you have any good promotion tips for your fellow authors that you would like to share?

Julie Hood: My motto for book promotion is Target Your Market. You have to figure out who is going to read your book (and who will want it so much they will pay money for it), and then you have to know how you are going to find these target readers.

The internet has made this process much easier, but you still have to find your readers and share your knowledge with them, solve their problems, and provide entertainment.

This brings up another distinction to keep in mind: are you selling nonfiction or fiction? If you are selling fiction you must convince your reader you have the answer to their problems. How can you do that? With articles that answer common questions, a web site full of resources, or even a newsletter that provides regular contact with your readers.

If you are selling fiction, you are selling entertainment and must compete with all the other forms of entertainment available: TV, movies, magazines, and on and on. What will make me read your book instead? For fiction writers, I always like to see a short story online to give me a feel for your writing. If you put the first chapter online, make sure it draws me in so I can't wait to hear what happens next.

One final thought - I think you must have a web presence so if I'm looking for your book on Google, I can find you.

Moe: Please add anything else here you'd like to say.

Julie Hood: Good luck with your publicity efforts, and thanks for giving me a chance to chat with you! Julie

Moe: Please add a short bio, your personal website url, your publisher(s) url or your book (s).

Julie Hood: Julie Hood is the author of "The Organized Writer: 30 Days to More Time, More Money and Less Frustration," an ebook with a roadmap for combining a writing career with the rest of your life. She manages the OrganizedWriter.com web site and writes Writer-Reminders, a weekly newsletter for writers. Newsletter subscribers receive a free ebook, The Sidetracked Writer's Planner. When she isn't writing, she sneaks in cleaning house around a busy household with two children, her husband, and two avid golfers.

Thank you for sharing your promotion tips with us Julie! We learn through sharing.
M.

06/03