Pitching in a Pandemic
Books can give comfort in difficult times and allow us to feel connected when environmental factors like this pandemic keep us apart, but they do not usurp safety and health.
Books can give comfort in difficult times and allow us to feel connected when environmental factors like this pandemic keep us apart, but they do not usurp safety and health.
One of the perhaps forgotten challenges to writing and publishing books is explaining to others what it’s about. In the publishing world, this struggle is combated with what we know as “comp titles,” which Penguin Random House defines as “an elevator pitch for your book.”
A social media strategy is an essential part of publishing and marketing a title. It’s the perfect way to get your whole team, both new and old, up to speed on both your ideas for social media as well as the main selling points of your title. Now, getting started on this document may seem overwhelming at first, but here are some tips to guide you in the right direction.
When I find myself unable to focus on a book, audiobooks allow me to read while I keep my hands busy or just zone out. Sometimes all I need is to have someone else read to me, the words of the story taking on a life of their own with their narration. So if you’re like me and miss traveling––or merely need to escape your current couch situation––these are some audiobooks to help you escape to a different place.
Goodreads allows users to keep track of books they’ve read, books they want to read, and the reading journeys of other registered users. While Goodreads is a wonderful resource for readers, it also houses a very lucrative market for indie publishers and authors. Through the Goodreads author program, Q&A groups, word of mouth, and the Goodreads recommendation engine, indie publishers and authors are able to establish a presence among the bigger five guns in the publishing world.
Reprinting is common in any literary genre, but a new trend has emerged in Young Adult fiction, partly thanks to the internet: the inclusion of fan-made artwork in a book’s special or collector’s edition.
That’s when a beta reader comes in. Beta reading is common in small online communities, from writing clubs to fanfiction groups. Your beta reader could be a stranger across the country hopping onto your Google Doc and looking for grammatical errors, or they could be your best friend crossing out half of your story in red pen.
Like every kind of genre fiction, we knew that the mystery genre has a large audience, which would be great for Ooligan to break into. We just needed to get there. How? Well, that’s part of the mystery.
Ultimately, all of this is done to get that book in the hands of someone who has felt the same passion I’ve felt my whole life.
A targeted social media push is a must to reach your audience and, hopefully, spur sales, but reaching a YA audience can be tricky. You can target parents, educators, and librarians who are perhaps the primary buyers. However, to create demand from the bottom up, you must reach young readers where they live which is, ironically, on YouTube.