Great marketing Web sites for writers

The Web is a great resource for writers because so many professionals make information available free. I’ve come across some sites that are useful to me, and hopefully, they’ll be useful to you as well. Most writers focus on process and that’s the way it should be. But if you want to sell your work, or if you want to market your book, information from insiders comes in handy. It's true that I spend time speaking at events like the presentation I did for a civic group here in Florida. But sometimes you can devote an hour or two on the Web and accomplish just as much.

One site that is also a freelance client of mine is Beneath the Brand. This site focuses on the advertising industry and marketing in general. I learn as much as I share there. If you want to know more about branding, marketing and publicity in general, from an industry and tech perspective, this is a great resource.

Marketing Tips for Writers and Book Authors is a fairly deep site—also included are writing and business tips. This is part of the Writers-Editors site, where for a fee, you may join as a member and get listed in a freelance directory. You will also receive access to a continually updated job/markets board, and receive a regular newsletter that is definitely useful. Before I became a member of ASJA, I also obtained a press pass through this group.

Danuta Kean is an expert on publishing in the United Kingdom, and much of what she writes on her site is applicable to publishing in the U.S. All sorts of tidbits and insight, with many links.

If you thought Midwest Book Review was just a place for reviews, you’d be wrong. This site has a whole page of links to resource sites for writers.

Publishing Central is a busily designed commercial site, but there are lots of links and articles, grouped by category.

Finally, don’t forget about Zeitgeist, pages at Google where you can find top search terms for the week and hot trends. Lots to digest in these pages. (photo by Jen Day)

A reminder: read my column Web Savvy at The Writer. It’s premium content, but twice a month I bring writers news and information about Web related developments, practices and opportunities.

Author Cheryl Snell hits home run with manuscripts—twice

Visit links noted below to learn more about Snell's work.

Most authors are glad to get a contract for one book. Cheryl Snell can celebrate getting two, and one of those contracts is a double deal, so technically, she hit three home runs.

Snell says it was hard to find a publisher for her novel ‘Shiva’s Arms.’ In an email interview, she wrote, “It took awhile. The first publisher I sent the manuscript to accepted it, but wanted me to cover half the cost of publication. It was a reputable company, as it turns out, but I thought co-publishing was the same as working with a vanity press, so I passed. The next company went belly-up before the book could even be edited. The third time was the charm however (cliché or not), and Writer’s Lair Books offered me a two book deal.” The novel wasn’t her only charm. Pudding House Publications, a well-regarded publisher of poetry chapbooks, picked up Snell’s manuscript, ‘Samsara.’

Right now, Snell is planning author events, hoping to reach out to readers in different ways.


“An online campaign is one way to cast a wider net,” she says, offering other authors a tip for a good resource. “Felicia Sullivan, the editor of Small Spiral Notebook, has a good online marketing how-to at her site. She has a suggestion or two about using video. I noticed that Out of the Book Films recently sent a thirty minute video of Ian McEwan’s book around to bookstores, and caused a bit of a stir. An authorless author event could supplement the traditional readings nicely, I think. And, of course, I like the idea of a blog book tour.”

Asked what inspired her novel, Snell points to geography. “It began as an effort to record my husband’s stories about growing up in Bombay. Pardon me, Mumbai. We’d been talking about the nature of nostalgia—I swear! But as soon as I put pen to paper, my characters began to run amok, to take on a separate reality. I was dragged along in their service. Didn’t Flannery O’Connor remind us that the novel is an art form, and when you use it for anything other than art, you pervert it? The novel’s set-up—American girl marries into a traditional Brahmin family—is drawn from my life, but I am not Alice, although I know her very well.”

Her successes will bring demands aplenty, but Snell doesn’t foresee obstacles to her writing. “I’m pretty rhythmical in my work habits. I always say that if inspiration wants to find me, I’ll be at my desk from 9 a.m. to noon. Well, O’Connor might have said it first.”

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Learn more about Cheryl Snell’s books and her work at these sites:

http://www.shivasarms.blogspot.com
Blog for Snell’s novel, ‘Shiva’s Arms.’

http://www.writerslairbooks.com/snell.html
Publisher site, Writer’s Lair Books, for Snell’s novel, ‘Shiva’s Arms.’

http://www.puddinghouse.com
Publisher site, Pudding House Publications, for Snell’s poetry collection, ‘Samsara.’

http://www.alsopreview.com
Literary site for Alsop Review, where Snell is book reviews editor.

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Please visit Covering Florida for our essay about Patriot Day, in honor of those who died at the World Trade Center September 11, 2001.

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