Hello, my name is Alice Osborn.
I am an editor, book coach, a poet, a singer-songwriter.
My business right from the inside out is over 10 years old and in that time I've taught
workshops in fiction, memoir and poetry and I love helping writers become published authors.
If you're looking for a book coach, here are a few things that I would recommend.
How diverse and deep is their education and how many clients have they served over the
years?
I would also look at their website.
I would also look at their blog and their writing style.
I was able to succeed while a lot of my colleagues were struggling was because of my education.
I do have a graduate degree in English and rhetoric composition from NC State.
I had to defend a thesis that I wrote.
All of that is a wonderful vetting process because if you do that then you are really
on your way to being a professional, a writing professional.
Not quite because there's still a lot more to go perhaps to learn about being an editor
or about being a writer but if you've written a thesis and you've defended it I would say
that's a really good indicator that you're serious and you know what you're talking about
when it comes to literature and theory.
Benefits of being featured in a local bookstore are three-fold.
So you get your local fans together and they publicize for you and they're your best sales
people.
Two, you have the ability to have photos taken and video taken at the event and you can
market all of that media at a later date.
And three, if you're able to contact online media through newspaper, radio, TV you can
get media to your event and what that means is free publicity.
They can write your event up in the paper, they can write about what you do, how you
help people and that will generate even more branding, more marketing, more publicity for
you and also sales for you.
It's a three-fold process of getting out there and having a local event.
A book marketing consultant can help authors get into bookstores by giving them a list
of bookstores that are willing and able to feature authors.
They should also have a connection with the bookstores themselves, not just say, oh here's
a list, they've actually been at that bookstore, they've been hosted by that bookstore.
They can also help you with a media list so that you don't have to spend the time figuring
out who this person is or this person is and the numbers and the emails and the websites
and that they have also relationships with those folks too.
Perhaps that person who's the coach has used that media person so that their client can
also use that media person so it's a whole connection.
The goals that I would recommend an author have before getting a book launch organized
would be, okay, I want to have 30 people come, that's a good amount to fill up the room,
I want to have maybe 15 books sold, sounds a little bit low, but this event is not just
about selling books, it's also about publicizing for the sales of future books, so that would
be a very reasonable goal.
You can also say, well, I want to have really good food, I want to have live entertainment,
having an organized program and making sure that it's at a good time.
The advice I would give someone who is wanting to have a book launch at a local bookstore
would be first be a customer of that bookstore or be a volunteer of that bookstore.
Get to know the bookstore way before your book is even in process.
Find who the owner is, talk to them, say I'm an author, I want to learn as much as I can,
I don't know, but I'm willing to learn kind of attitude and get on their mailing list,
see what authors come to that store, attend the events, attend the free events, and if
you keep showing up, they'll say, well, that person's really serious and they're making
an investment in their time and money, especially if you are buying books from that local bookstore.
Bookstores are really great for book launches, but sometimes there's nontraditional spaces,
too.
There's a trend where she had a book launch at the Talbots and Talbots came to her because
she's a regular shopper there and they had a cake and refreshments and they did all the
social media for her.
It may be a good idea to combine bookstores but with another venue, too.
Independent publishing is a wonderful avenue for someone who's considering where I should
publish my book.
Yes, traditional publishing can be more of a vetting process with the reviews or if
you're looking at being a professor and you need to have that publishing, traditional
publishing credit that's important to your career.
But for all other avenues, I would say self-publishing is the way to go because you have control over
when your book is published.
You're not at the whims of other books on the publishing house's schedule.
You have, say, in what your cover looks like and what the interior looks like and what
your title is and what your brand is because there's a lot of traditional publishers that
say, no, let's say you're an African-American person and they say, well, you can only write
this and they say, no, I want to write this and they tell you what your audience is and
I've heard this happen and maybe you don't want to be put in a box.
