177 Search Results for thursdays with amanda
-
Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: Social Media Overload"Thursdays with Amanda: Social Media Overload
Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.When I first started using Facebook, it was really a member’s only type of site. It was a site for you and your friends and others like you. You had to be a college student with a college email address in order to register. I mean THAT’s how closed-off it was. Eventually, it opened up to high school students. And then in what I imagine was an attempt to not exclude homeschoolers, and other less traditional students, it opened up even more, allowing people to register using any old email account.
And now…
I log in to my Facebook account, stare at my news feed and realize that I don’t know half of the people showing up in it. I check my number of friends: 726. …and I can’t help but feel that I haven’t even met that many people on earth, let alone that I feel close enough to them to consider them “friends.”
I’ve noticed that numerous Facebook “Friends” have gone on Facebook sabbaticals lately. What used to be a thing that would happen maybe once a year to one of my “friends” now seems to be a monthly occurrence. There always seems to be someone who is announcing a FB break-up. Someone who has decided to take a day, a week, a month off. Someone who has had it with the weird sense of responsibility and addiction that social media can cause in a person’s life.
I’m not gonna lie: I used to think this was a bit silly. I mean who lets Facebook–FACEBOOK–spiral so
-
Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: Using Google to Find Your Readership"
Thursdays with Amanda: Using Google to Find Your Readership
Amanda Luedeke is a zombie literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform and eating brains. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her cravings for human flesh and wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
This weekend, we’re having our annual MacGregor Literary marketing seminar, where we invite our authors to come out to Chicago (this year, we opened it up to the general public, as well!), set up camp in a hotel conference room, and talk nothing but marketing for an entire day. For an industry comprised primarily of introverts, I’d say the word “exhausting” barely begins to cover how this event makes authors feel. And yet we’ll see fifty-plus authors who have dusted off their luggage, said goodbye to the comfort of their pajama-friendly workspaces, and braced themselves for a barrage of smalltalk and awkwardness…all because they realize the single truth that can make, break, or change an author’s career:
Careers are built on great sales numbers. They aren’t built on awards or fan mail or an extensive publishing history. They aren’t built on publishing with the biggest houses and befriending the most top-selling authors and contracting multiple books in a year.
They’re built on the number of copies sold. And the only way an author can ensure that they have truly done all they can to get those numbers is to promote, promote, promote.
It is as this point–when the book begins to earn money for the publisher–that it is no longer seen as a risk, but instead, an investment. A wonderful, magical investment for which the publisher will do anything to keep.
And so, we’ll be spending a weekend, going over this essential part of the puzzle. My contribution this
-
Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: Will My Agent Help Me Market My Book?"
Thursdays with Amanda: Will My Agent Help Me Market My Book?
Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.I thought I’d spend some time today, sharing two minor annoyances that I run into while at conferences…
Since I have branded myself as “the marketing agent” or “the agent who understands marketing,” I always get a few people who sit down across from me at a conference, expecting something beyond a simple “yes, I’m interested in this project,” or a “no, I’m not interested.”
The first type of person is the guy who tells me that he needs an agent because he needs help with marketing and publicity. So, all of the reasons that make most people want an agent (the fact that we can get their work in front of top publishers, the fact that we will negotiate an airtight deal, the fact that we will help them strategize a long-term career), are outshined by his one major need for someone to help him peddle the goods.
Let me be frank, though I do strive to help authors with marketing (it’s why I write here every Thursday!), an agent doesn’t help with the actual act of marketing and promoting a book. We don’t Tweet for you or set up speaking engagements or launch your Facebook page. We don’t create your media kit or provide you with a list of guest blogs or spend time extensively researching your target audience. We don’t do this, because we don’t have the time…and because for a majority of us, it’s not our strength. Now, while I may be different in that I theoretically COULD do these things for you, I chose
-
Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: How to Find Time to Market and Write and Not Give Up on Life"
Thursdays with Amanda: How to Find Time to Market and Write and Not Give Up on Life
Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.One of the top questions or complaints I get when discussing the whole “You HAVE to market your book!” thing with authors is the time factor…and the fact that there is not enough of it.
“When do I find time to write?”
“How do I prevent from getting sucked into the social media world?”
“How do you strike a balance between writing and marketing?”
I hear these questions time and again, and they always come from authors who are wearing panicked expressions as the reality sets in that yes, marketing is an absolute must, and yes, the brunt of the marketing burden is theirs to bear, and no, after you get your publishing deal, writing the next book doesn’t get any easier mentally or physically or emotionally.
And my knee-jerk response?
We make time for the things that are important to us. I’ve never met an author who didn’t have time to read the next installment in their favorite series…or who wasn’t able to catch the latest episode of Downton Abbey/Doctor Who/Castle/etc., even if it mean DVR-ing it…or who failed to show up for their day job because they were too busy.
It’s all about priorities, and for most authors, marketing simply isn’t a priority because it’s viewed as WORK. And even worse, it’s a form of WORK that doesn’t result in a paycheck at the end of the week. As far as the author knows, it may NEVER result in a paycheck. So that’s where the trouble sets in.
It’s a mind game, really. I’ve had authors who
-
Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: Working with a Designer"
Thursdays with Amanda: Working with a Designer
Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.On Monday, I posted the PDF designs of the business cards that I have been using to promote my book, The Extroverted Writer, at conferences. Now, in my book I talk a bit about working with a designer. And, coming from a marketing background in which a lot of the work we did involved print design, I do know a thing or two about making designers happy. But since having my cards made, I feel I have a lot more advice to add to the table. So, here goes…
5 Tips on Working with a Designer
1. Know your specs! While designs can many times be easily shrunk down, they should NEVER be expanded. Expanding or stretching a design will absolutely ruin it. Furthermore, designs/photos used on the web can be of a lower quality than designs used in print. Communicating exact dimensions (including any bleed space) as well as whether the design is for web or print is crucial to avoiding design disasters.
2. Communicate what you want! If you have an idea of what you want the design to look like, let the designer know. They aren’t mind-readers and will 100% of the time come to you with a design that looks nothing like what you’d been envisioning. I have found that it often helps to provide visuals for a designer to work from. To design www.PlaylistFiction.com, I sent the designer a number of stock photography examples of textures and colors so that she could get the feel of what we were going for.
-
Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: Why Creating “Stuff” Is a BAD Marketing Move"
Thursdays with Amanda: Why Creating “Stuff” Is a BAD Marketing Move
Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.If you don’t mind, I’m going to pull out my soapbox and set up a Ted Cruz-sized camp. I’m going to talk about the strategy of CREATING more STUFF in an attempt to PROMOTE your BOOK and why this strategy is a complete waste of time.
I see author after author spend money and time on book trailers and digital shorts and book-specific websites and splash pages and artwork and THINGS. I see their eyes light up when they realize, for example, “I’m great in the kitchen!” and then they decide that being great in the kitchen means they should create some recipes that are pulled straight from their book and they should offer these recipes online BECAUSE THAT WILL DEFINITELY GET PEOPLE BUZZING!
But then no one downloads the recipes.
Why?
No one knows they’re there. Which happens to be the very reason that a book (your book) may do poorly. It’s not because the book is bad or boring or poorly written. It’s because no one knows it exists.
Marketing is all about showing and telling people that something exists and then convincing them (in a soft, casual way) that they need said thing.
So let’s really dig in to the madness behind this “create” mentality…
You have a book. Yay! You hope people buy the book. I mean you’ve told your friends and family, right? That should count for SOMETHING.
But the numbers come back. Sales are bad. You haven’t even cracked 2,000 copies sold. You need to DO something. In pops this recipe idea. GREAT!
-
Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: Answering Your Marketing Questions"
Thursdays with Amanda: Answering Your Marketing Questions
Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.Awhile back, I asked for some topic suggestions. I received a range of questions and ideas, and so I’m going to address some of the smaller (but still important!) questions here…and keep in mind that Thursdays with Amanda is all about marketing and platform. So the questions that fell outside of that range probably won’t get answered here.
1. Lisa wrote “Sometimes, I just feel so burnt out of the social media, platform building. I always love hearing tips about having a healthy balance.”
ANSWER: It’s important to note that there is not one-size-fits-all approach here. Some get lost in the social media abyss while others are very good about being intentional with their time. So please understand that what works for you may not work for others and vice versa. With that being said, here’s a BIG soapbox of mine…
I’ve had a few authors this year complain that there isn’t time for marketing. These are authors who 1) do not maintain any sort of real world job, and 2) do not have kids in the house that need supervision. So you can imagine I have little pity for them, considering I work with an author who is a single parent of FIVE as well as a full-time minister.
So a general rule that I throw out there is to treat writing and marketing as equals. One hour of writing for every hour of marketing. If you are afraid that this rule will leave you with barely any writing time, then it may be time to cut
-
Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: How to Throw a Book Launch Party"
Thursdays with Amanda: How to Throw a Book Launch Party
Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.Well, it’s not Thursday…it’s Friday, but for the sake of Brand you’ll have to suffer through my wrongly-titled post.
We’re all back from ACFW, which proved to be a bunch of fun, as always, but also quite interesting in terms of industry stuff. But something happened there that rarely ever happens at any conference…ever.
A literary agency threw a launch party.
You may have heard/read me talk about Playlist Fiction. In thinking about how to help the authors create awareness and buzz we considered what most publishers/authors consider. We considered running an ad. But let’s face it:
1. Ads are expensive
2. Ads get buried by other ads
3. Ads are forgetful
So when Chip asked me what my ideal method of creating buzz at ACFW would be, I said a party! Which of course meant it became my responsibility, but I took it on happily.
Here’s how I did it…
- We got some big names to agree to attend, and we asked them to read excerpts from the books our authors did
- We created invites (we had a Facebook event page, a physical paper invite, and we hit up the big My Book Therapy e-blast as well as a few blogs)
- We secured a local venue (Buca di Beppo) and promised free dessert (I mean hello! ACFW is 90% women. There was no way we could lose here)
- We got the go-ahead from the conference directors and made sure that our time slot wouldn’t interfere with ANYTHING
- We unashamedly mentioned the party during the agent panel
-
Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: YOU’RE INVITED!"
Thursdays with Amanda: YOU’RE INVITED!
Are you attending ACFW this year? Or maybe you’ll be in the Indianapolis area? If so, you’re invited to a party!
PLAYLIST FICTION DESSERT PARTY
Friday, September 13 from 9:30pm-11pm
Buca di Beppo, Indianapolis (35 North Illinois Street – one block from the Hyatt Regency Hotel)
With special appearances by TOSCA LEE & SUSAN MAY WARREN!
Come on out to mingle with other YA readers and writers, learn about Playlist Fiction, participate in giveaways, eat free dessert, and more!
Please RSVP on our official event page.
And check out our invite! (NOTE: the free ebook promotion will run September 13-17)
WILL WE SEE YOU THERE?!
-
Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: Brainstorming Street Team Strategies"
Thursdays with Amanda: Brainstorming Street Team Strategies
Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.Last week, I talked about the importance of brainstorming, and as promised, I’m going to go through a brainstorming exercise here on this blog so that you can see the train of thought…the bad ideas, the good ideas, the weird ideas.
Here are the rules:
I am going to pretend that I wrote one of my favorite books of all time, The Great Gatsby. I’m using this, assuming that most of you have either read it or seen one of the many movie adaptations. This way, we can hopefully all be on the same page with understanding the book’s content.
So, I’m pretending that I wrote this book and that I need to come up with ideas that will put my Street Team to work.
I will spend 20 minutes, focusing on idea-generating.
No idea is a bad idea.
If an idea comes, coupled with a notion of how that idea would benefit my Street Team, I’ll jot all of it down. But if it doesn’t–if I get an idea but I’m not quite sure what the benefit for the Street Team would be–I’m not going to worry about it. I can figure that out later.
Okay, so before the twenty minutes starts, I need to know a few things (and if you plan on attending my ACFW session on Marketing Plans, you’ll get this much more in depth!):
TItle: The Great Gatsby
Genre: Literary
Themes: Jazz, 20s, Flappers, New York Wealth, Agnosticism, socio-economic classes, infidelity, romance, Plaza Hotel … (this should be enough for me to work
