IS BAD PUBLICITY POSSIBLE WHEN TRYING TO GET ATTENTION FOR A BOOK?

You're not a celebrity and not too many people are waiting for your book. Is any public attention for the book possibly bad attention?

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Permalink Reply by Rico Marciano on June 19, 2012 at 12:40pm

I've spoken to many PR firms, Media Hosts, big shots at B&N, and bloggers who are sick and tired of receiving thousands of emails and calls from authors trying to peddle their goods, that doesn't conform to professional protocol. This type of public attention is bad attention for all authors. In a meeting with B&N of NYC, they said they refused 650 books from self-publishers mostly due to a lack of professional editing and designing. There's no excuse for poor protocol as there are many free seminars, webinars, and teleseminars, featuring successful people from all aspects of PR, publishing. They are donating their valuable time to inform authors of the correct protocol necessary to attract public attention and become a successful author. Today, for instance, I'm attending another free seminar with Jack Canfield.

Permalink Reply by Sondra Sneed on June 19, 2012 at 12:52pm

Good points, Rico.

I also do a great deal of (expensive) self study and it does help. It reminds me of when I had to learn to navigate the large-company corporate world. When I was in art school they didn't teach us how to be a professional, they taught a very high-brow attitude about our "work." I took a lot of bruising in the real world and it was finally with some years of corporate experience that I was able to smooth the rough edges, communicate in a civil manner, and learn how to play on a team. I've since found collaboration to be the most productive way to create a polished work.

Permalink Reply by Rico Marciano on June 19, 2012 at 3:42pm

Sondra, I also started in the corporate world of big business and you're right...college never teaches you about being a professional business person. As the leader of a big corporate business, I found that the most successful people to hire, were those people who possessed a team, or athletic mindset. Personally, I learned a lot of great things about business in that arena...and a lot of bad things which I felt never worked. I left a cushy job in that world to go out on my own and I never regretted my decision.

Regarding bad publicity...remember, you never get a second chance--to make a first impression.

Permalink Reply by Sondra Sneed on June 19, 2012 at 12:57pm

Jeff, I'm counting on this to in a way build controversy around my first book. Which, by the way, I have officially re-titled based your suggestion.

It's taken some praying and the consensus is that your title "WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE DEAD" is a promise about the book's content, when THE YEAR I FELL TO EARTH, is really only the first chapter. I had to shave some ego to come to that conclusion and I want to realllllly thank you for lending the nudge. Thank you.

Permalink Reply by John T Cullen on June 19, 2012 at 4:25pm

I have often heard people say: "There is no such thing as bad publicity." Amen to that.

I used to wonder about those commercials on TV. Who would possibly rush out and buy a $35,000 Lincoln Navigator after dozing through one of those slick ads? Or buy hair cream, toilet bowl cleaner, Scandinavian beer, or whatever?

Or John T. Cullen's Summer Movie in a Novel campaign (http://www.summermovienovel.com/).

Then it occurred to me: it's not about selling product directly. It's about making your brand name a household word. Just appearing in front of people makes an impression. Look at all the bad boy and bad girl publicity for various famous vapor heads who have little to offer except their latest outrage in a minor key of forgettable.

Or John T. Cullen's Summer Movie in a Novel campaign (http://www.summermovienovel.com/).

And the old saw from long ago copy writers who knew their stuff: don't forget to mention your product at least three times or nobody will remember it.

Or John T. Cullen's Summer Movie in a Novel campaign (http://www.summermovienovel.com/).

Bring the popcorn, grab the nearest pillow or person, and prepare for chills and thrills. Reads like one of those hugely delicious old scary movies, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers...

My only reservation is that, back in the 1950s, the real hidden purpose of those old movies was to propagate the human race. The reason teenagers went to those movies was the unspoken rule that the girl would scream in fear (or pretend to) and the boy would hold her protectively. Usually, that "accidentally" led to a kiss or some petting. In those bleak, horrifying, repressed times, it was a safe way (in the dark theater) to step around society's Orwellian and Kafkaesque regulations and make body contact.

Or John T. Cullen's Summer Movie in a Novel campaign (http://www.summermovienovel.com/).

Oops, that's four.

Permalink Reply by Katherine E. Hinkson on June 19, 2012 at 11:43pm

I think following protocols is manditory, but I think when J.K Rowlings' Harry Potter first came out a minister helped raise it to "Most wanted" by his book burning. Good or Bad publicity? I know it managed to kick start a newphew and a few of his friends interest in reading again.

I'm not about to push a book if it means being rude or cut throat. Promoting is a business and should be treated as such. You can promote without being obnoxious.

Permalink Reply by John T Cullen on June 20, 2012 at 12:25am

You are a genius, Katherine. We should pay some rabid zealots to burn our books. Even when it stops being news because everyone is doing it, maybe city hall will catch fire and that will make it newsworthy.

Can you see the headlines? Rabid zealots, foaming at the mouth, burned a pile of Wilma Winkelstone's "My Darling Dog Willy, My Best Friend and Helpmate" claiming it is secretly satanic by some definition they refused to reveal to nosy press reporters. News crews were called when Zealot Rev. Loonie's bed sheet caught fire. Running across the city Green, screaming scriptural verses backwards in an ancient language, he managed to set fire to a row of port-a-potties, which rolled down hill and destroyed the city's police car fleet as horrified riot officers watched helplessly.

Assistant pastor Rev. Toonie stated that "It is divine justice visited upon all who promote the writing of fictional lies." The story is making headlines around the world. In the US, author Wilma Winkelstone is said to be in hiding, in fear for her life, as the Association of Infallible Channelers issued a fatwa or death warrant upon her. Congressman Elmer Knucklehead has filed a motion to declare tomorrow a Day of Book Burning in honor of Rev. Loonie's courageous stand for motherhood, apple pie, and Darn Righteous Procedures. Meanwhile, the French (who else?) have nominated Mrs. Winkelstone for a Nobel Peace Prize. Also, her slight health care coverage in Tupelo, Mississippi has been canceled out of spite.

Permalink Reply by Sharon Lindenburger on June 20, 2012 at 1:58am

John, this is hilarious! You remind me of Mark Twain.

"The Association of Infallible Channelers"....what a hoot!

I think a humor book should be written about the self-help industry! We could have a field day with it!

Permalink Reply by John T Cullen on June 20, 2012 at 3:10am

Thank you, Sharon. I have had a terse communique from Ms. WIlma Winkelstone, who remains in hiding at this time. Through her husband Elmo, an air raid warden in Grantville (my neighborhood), Ms. Winkelstone sent a note scratched on an unexploded 14 pounder tank shell: "Remain earnest at all times. It is our only hope." She self-published her statement in charcoal on a merlot surface edged in gilt and robin's egg glaze. I have forwarded it to Style Magazine for curating by academic and religious experts.

Permalink Reply by Sondra Sneed on June 20, 2012 at 9:47am

If you insist on all those descriptors, kindly use comas for a reader such as I. "She self-published her statement in charcoal on a merlot surface, edged in gilt and robin's egg glaze." Is that what you meant? What is a merlot surface?

Permalink Reply by John T Cullen on June 20, 2012 at 2:50pm

Merlot is a color, named after a wine. A merlot surface would be a wine-red geometric plane.

You are joking, of course. "comas' are what Hosni Mubarak has been lingering in, whereas 'commas' are grammatical 'stops' as Fowler beautifully calls these punctuation marks. Commas--that is surely what you meant?

"Such as I" sounds stilted, though it is technically correct ("such as I am"). It seems to me more euphonious to use "for readers like me." But that's just I.

Permalink Reply by Sharon Lindenburger on June 20, 2012 at 12:50pm

John, I hear that the Association of Infallible Channelers have called an emergency meeting to ask God what to do about Ms. Winkelstone. In the meantime, we'll see what Style Magazines curators have to say. Also, the American Kennel Club has weighed in, saying that the persecution of Ms. Winkelstone is also a declaration of war on dogs.