I had a great time at the RNA Conference 2016 in Lancaster last week. It was four days of networking, industry appointments, and fun.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting some of the notes I made on each of the sessions I attended, so follow this blog using the sign-up on the right of this page to make sure you don’t miss anything!
To kick off, here are a few bullet points from the Author Marketing Session, presented by that great double act, best-selling authors Liz Fenwick and Brigid Coady. All the photographs are by John Jackson. I know my limitations behind a lens…
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| Brigid Coady |
- Start by writing the best book you can. All your marketing efforts should take second place to that.
- A brand is a promise. Every interaction with your readers should add value to your brand, and create an emotional attachment.
- Katie Fforde and Carole Matthews are fantastic “brands”
- What are you willing to share online? Does it fit with what you write?
- R J Ellory, the crime writer who faked his own reviews, was cited as a “damaged brand” which is taking a long time to recover.
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| Liz Fenwick |
- Avoid politics and religion when you’re interacting online
- Keep a flow of information and interaction between you and your readers on Facebook, Twitter etc, always promoting the same values
- Find out everything you can about your target audience. If they’re Australian, make sure you’re on social media at midnight, etc. Be where they are, when they’re there.
Lancaster University Campus - Use scheduling services such as Tweetdeck, but take care tragic international events don’t overtake your happy tweets.
- Support local bookshops and library campaigns to get your name out there.
- Engage your reader with everything from the cover, through blurb, bio, photo and your first page.
- Use Facebook Author page to monitor stats and help understand your audience.
- Liz and Brigid decided they spent about 3 hours writing and 1 hour on marketing, every day.
Don’t forget to follow my blog by signing up at the top of this page, to make sure you don’t miss the next instalment of my notes from the RNA Conference, 2016.