San Fernando Valley June LitMingle - Marketing 101 with Cindy Marcus

Agents and bookstores, and promotion, oh my! Marketing our work just feels overwhelming, and kind of scary. After all, we are writers, not promoters. But in today's market, we need to know how to sell, even if we haven't finished that manuscript. 

At the June San Fernando Valley LitMingle, Santa Clarita Valley LitMingler, Cindy Marcus, author of three nonfiction books and dozens of published plays and musicals, shared her doable approach to marketing in her insightful presentation, Marketing 101, or as she refers to it, Marketing .5. Cindy's technique can be summed up in one three-letter word— FUN! Of course, FUN is to be expected from someone with her theatrical background. 

Cindy believes that if you build your marketing platform, they will come. Even if you're pre-published, Cindy believes marketing yourself, your hobbies, your interests, etc., can develop a place holder for your success.  

How do you do that? Well, I can't possibly do Cindy's presentation justice in this blog post, but I will share a few highlights:

• Find a platform that's FUN to you, i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., and spend ten minutes a day having FUN.
• Use the 70-20-10 rule when posting:
• 70% content your market cares about.
• 20% about you and/or other personal things
• 10% about what you're selling. 
• Find your online audience, i.e. Augmented Reality, Graffiti Art, Origami,  etc., and market yourself to it. (This is especially beneficial if your book just happens to be about this very topic.) Find where they meet and join in the conversation. 
• Ask yourself the following: 
• What does my market want to know about this topic?
• What could I share something that would make their life better?
• How can I share it in a way that would be fun? Recipes? Tips?  
• Approach your audience like you would research for a book character. 
• Who are they? What do they need? Want? What matters to them? When you find the answers, share them with your online audience. 
• Build a community within your community. 
• Cindy recommends starting with six people who support each other by retweeting, regramming, and sharing online information. 

Cindy acknowledged the apprehension most writers feel about marketing, but to quote author Joanne Kraft, Not all marketing people are writers, but all writers must learn to be marketers. 

Thank you, Cindy, for sharing your marketing insight and helping the San Fernando Valley LitMinglers learn how to have FUN while marketing their craft.

Note: The San Fernando Valley LitMingle will be on summer break in July and August. San Fernando Valley Monthly LitMingles will resume Monday, September 26. For more details about this, and other SCBWI LitMingles, check out the SCBWI LitMingle Calendar.

Social Media/October's Hollywood Schmooze

Social Media expert Greg Pincus advised us at this month's schmooze last night. He said: "Just know what your purpose is and have fun!" these may not have been his exact words but that was his message in a nutshell.

Follow Blogs!
Comment on Facebook!
Put you two cents in wherever you can -- politely, to further dialogue not to squash it...Great, advice everyone.

Ann Sampler and Kathy McCullough, two local published authors were there too!!! Thank you so much for coming, everyone.

And the new attendees -- great contributions, everyone. It was lively and spirited.

Other words of wisdom:
MAKE YOU MESSAGE UNIQUE
PICK AN IMAGE OR LOGO AND DON'T CHANGE IT RANDOMLY
USE YOUR NAME AS YOUR WEBSITE -- YOUR NAME IS YOUR BRAND WHEN YOU ARE AN AUTHOR.

it's all about creating opportunities to connect with people

you can not be sure of the affect but at the very least people -- including editors and agents -- will know you exist and are serious about your work.

All the best and see you at the next schmooze -- we are off for October and November, so have a great holidays season -- which now includes, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza and New Years! Whew! That's a lot of holidays.

Also, we are looking for a new co-coordinator to help lead the Hollywood Schmooze (with me, Deborah Fletcher Blum. We will miss Rene -- she has done an awesome job of getting this off the ground and running smoothly for the last two years. Yeah, Rene!!!

So, there is no better time to get involved . . .  you can email me with ideas for topics and any other thoughts. Once again, see you at the Schmooze!