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Using Tech for Book Marketing

Kate Gingold from Sprocket WebsitesKate has been building websites with her husband Don since 1996 for all sorts of clients, including authors.

Kate regularly writes about online marketing for Sprocket Websites and provides tips and techniques for entrepreneurs and small-business owners. Since being an author today is not really different from being an entrepreneur with a small business, most of those tips are just as useful to authors.

Kate is an author herself. She writes books on local history, including the award-winning "Ruth by Lake and Prairie," a fictionalized account of the true story of Great Lake pioneering to the shores of Chicago and beyond to found Naperville, Illinois. 

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Ruth By Lake and Prairie

Author Tips and Tales

The Writer’s Conference – the Gift You Give Yourself
Kate Gingold Host
/ Categories: Author Tips

The Writer’s Conference – the Gift You Give Yourself

December is the month we buy stuff to give to other people. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas or Chanukah, you probably will buy a bottle of sparkling wine to share with a friend on New Year’s Eve. While you are doing all this gift-giving, consider giving something to the writer in you, something like a writer’s conference.

Yes, it can seem indulgent. When the author’s cut of each book sale is between six and ten percent, paying hundreds of dollars to attend a conference feels inappropriate. But you – and your career – are worth it! 

Attending a writer’s conference can be a mountain-top experience that is reinvigorating on many levels. It reminds you of why you write and inspires you to write more. It sparks new ideas and moves you past roadblocks. It lets you hang with people who understand exactly how you feel about writing. 

Being with other writers, writers who are better and more successful than you, seems like it would bum you out, but most folks are gracious and kind. When you think about it, there is a lot of room for “competing” authors. A reader can read a book way more quickly than an author can write it and they are hungry for more. 

Writing conferences help build your skills as well as boost your attitude. Even if you have a degree or have taken classes before, there is always something new to be learned. Or to be re-learned. You may have heard the same lesson many times before, but suddenly it will take on new meaning because it applies to the specific manuscript you are working on right now. 

Of course the other big plus at a writer’s conference is the networking. While some people are much better at this than others, you can reap rewards at whatever level you are currently at and, ideally, push yourself just a little bit to move on to the next level where more rewards await. 

I have personally heard stories about chatting up big-name writers, agents and editors at the bar after hours, although that is beyond my current comfort level. But I have put faces to names I’ve only read about, talked to people who were in a position to help me and connected early with up-and-coming folks whose influence became useful later. For shy folks, finding the other shy folk is the first step. Each of you is non-threatening, and once you team up, you can support each other. 

So as you are giving to friends, family and charities this season, consider giving yourself a gift as well and resolve to take yourself to a writer’s conference in 2020. You can write yourself a thank-you note later. 

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Full disclosure:  Writing for Sprocket Websites is my day job, so if you have questions about digital marketing, I'm happy to help!

 

Marketing Author Interview

Following a presentation for In Print Professional Writers Group, Kate's husband (and publisher!) Don was interviewed by author Louise Brass for WBOM Radio. During the conversation, Don shared many of the marketing tips from his presentation. You can listen to it online here.

The Sprocket Report

The Sprocket Report is published every other week with Internet marketing tips, tools and techniques. The archive features articles from 2011 up to the present. You are welcome to read how business owners are using technology to market themselves and apply those tips to your author business.


 

 

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