Lisa Tener

Book Writing Coach

Author's Platform

Amazon Author Central: Claim Your Author Page Today

by

writing coach
Your Book Writing Coach

My fabulous Virtual Assistant Geri Lafferty told me to snag my Amazon Central Author Page a few weeks ago. Last night, my husband, Tom,an expert on SEO (search engine optimization) and Google searches echoed her suggestion. Tom often tells me what to do–and his advice works–I usually come up first and second place for searches on “writing coach,” “book writing coach” and “book proposal coach” on Google.  I finally hopped to it, staying up past midnight to complete it.

No. That’s not because it was complicated at all. It’s because I started on the project around 11:30 pm and couldn’t figure out my RSS feed blog address (I finally got smart, e-mailed my web guy at BoomTown Internet and heard back first thing this morning) !

It will take you anywhere from 15 – 45 minutes, depending on whether you already have a bio you like. You can import your twitter feeds, blog posts, upcoming events and even videos (that’s the part I still need to complete).

Yes, any links are “No Follow” which means you may not get credit with Google for them but here are 3 reasons to do it anyway:

1. Amazon Author Central provides sales data for your book(s) from Bookscan. Okay, this is huge. When distributors stopped making sales data available to authors a few years back it meant that the only data you got was from your publisher. Have you ever tried to read a publisher’s report? Confusing, and not terribly detailed. In contrast, Amazon Author Central provides sales data over a  period of time, by geography and Amazon ranking. While Bookscan data does not reflect all sales, it includes about 75% or more. This is awesome.

2. The Internet rewards those who reach out to their tribe (readers) wherever their tribe hangs out. If your tribe hangs out at Amazon, you want a presence and you want to be approachable and interactive. And does your audience hang out at Amazon? I should hope so, if you want them to buy your book.

3. You can offer several ways for new readers and existing fans to interact with you, meeting their specific needs and interests: blog, twitter feeds, videos, etc. You can even start a discussion with your readers.

Sold? Check out my Author Central Page to see how I did it. (and please give me a like while you’re there). Then, start your Amazon Author Central Page today and set it up with your bio, book(s), photo, twitter and blog feeds, etc.  and tell me what you like most about it. Share your link here as well, so we can look you up and like you!

Highlights of Harvard Medical School’s CME Publishing Course

by

This is one of the best conferences on book writing and publishing–probably the best if you are writing a health related book. So, if you attended, here are some highlights to remember and a few reminders about how to get published. If couldn’t make it, here’s your crash course.

At dinner with literary agent Rebecca Gradinger and Vicki Dunckley.

At dinner with top Literary Agent Rebecca Gradinger and psychiatrist/soon to be author Vicki Dunckley (I’m the one smiling behind the camera), one theme that came up is  that it’s harder than ever to publish fiction–even a talented author who would have easily been published five years ago.  Guess that’s why they’re all going digital/self publishing.

The good news is, there’s always a market for good self-help, how-to and other nonfiction–as long as you develop your following and have a new angle or fresh voice on a topic of interest to a strong niche audience. The competitive market should propel you to think creatively about your book concept and write the absolute best book you can. My clients are seeing great responses (and signing book deals) even in this market. You can, too.

Bring Your Book to Life participants practice their pitches at lunch.

The 70 second book pitches were the best ever this year. And Bring Your Book to Life participants did an especially inspiring job. Here they are practicing and fine tuning their pitches at lunch–all heard back from agents who heard their pitches and wanted to  connect and see their book proposals when ready.  I felt like  a proud mom.

What makes a good pitch? A compelling hook, a clear market, impressing agents with your platform or following, something fresh…and humor always helps!

While no one’s going to ring a buzzer and say, “Time over” when you pitch in real life, this is great practice at making in impression in a very short amount of time. Try it at home–a great exercise.

Connecting with Rusty Shelton, President and Founder of Shelton Interactive

I always enjoy connecting with Rusty Shelton–he was the publicist on my first book and many of the greatest opportunities in my career have come through Rusty. He’s one of those people who is always doing great things for others–even when the publicity contract is over!

Rusty’s new company, Shelton Interactive, designed my new website which I will unveil in the next few weeks. This year was particularly special in that Rusty and I had breakfast in the Oak Room with one of our favorite agents to discuss the book we’re working on and received enthusiastic feedback. More on that soon…

Harvard often provides the opportunity to connect with clients of mine whom I’ve worked with for a year or more, but never met in person until now.

I enjoyed connecting with Dr. Vicki Dunckley, whom I’ve worked with for over a year without having ever met her in person. Vicki just became a blogger on Psychology Today and I’m sure that helped agents get excited about her book pitch–she went from very little platform to instant platform.

Of course, the topic had a great deal to do with their enthusiasm. If you’re wondering how computers affect your kid’s brain and what you can do about it check out Vicki’s blog and her Psychology Today column. The moral of the story here–start with your own blog and then pitch a fresh and polished post to a big blog like psychology today, the Huffington Post or WebMD.

Oh, so much more to tell you about, but that will be another post for another day…

If you were at the conference, do share the highlights:

– What was the most important tip or advice you learned?

– What insights or breakthroughs did you experience at the conference?

– Did you get clearer about your book?

Julie Silver, MD on Writing a Health-related Book

by

Dr. Julie Silver

Every year I teach on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s CME publishing course, I inevitably learn something new from Dr. Julie Silver, the course director. I’ve asked Dr. Silver to share some of her advice, both, in general, and in writing for the health care market.

Lisa:  How have you seen publishing change in the past couple of years?

Julie Silver, MD: The use of social media.  I tell authors that using social media is like learning to use the telephone.  You just need to know how to do it.  It’s now part of the fabric of our society and how we share information and knowledge.

Lisa:  Yes, it’s pretty hard to interest a publisher if an author doesn’t have an online presence–a quality website and some social media presence–no matter how interesting the book.

What advice are you giving aspiring authors that’s different from what you told them in the past?

Julie Silver, MD:  Some people discount the value of traditional publishing, because they think that social media, including blogging, is the same thing.  Social media and all forms of self-publishing have an important role, but it’s not the same thing as traditional publishing.  So, it’s not an either or but a “use everything” strategy that really gets people’s work and messages out to their intended audience.

Lisa:  What would you say are the three most important places to be online if you’re writing about health and wellness?

Julie Silver, MD: You should always target your online time and publishing to address your core audience.  The biggest website with the most hits is not necessarily the one that you want to spend on.  Consider your audience and how you can best reach them.

Lisa:  That’s important advice. It’s great to be on the Huffington Post or WebMD, but if you’re writing about autism, you’ll reach even more potential readers through a site like autismspeaks.com. And as someone who writes about cancer, among other health topics, you blog at Livestrong.com–a site where people are specifically going on to find out about cancer topics.

Graduates of the Harvard Medical School publishing course tend to come back year after year, why would you say that is?

Julie Silver, MD: Publishing is changing quickly and keeping up with industry information and trends is critical to success.  Also, the more often they come, the more connections they make with publishing professionals who can help them to reach their goals.

Lisa: Yes, I’ve worked with authors who built relationships with agents by coming year after year. I also think some people come the first year just starting to think about a book. They go home with a bunch of ideas or thoughts brewing and then need time to play with it. They may work with someone like me to clarify the book or proposal and then return a year later with a much clearer sense of their book or even a full proposal written and a plan to pitch the book to agents. I’ve seen that strategy work very well, especially if they work on building their platform during that first year and come back with a strong following.

What are some recent successes stories from the HMS publishing course and what are some of the factors that made their book successful?

Julie Silver, MD: One of my favorite stories is about Jill Grimes who published an adult nonfiction book titled Seductive Delusions: How Everyday People Catch STDs.  Usually an adult nonfiction book will not crossover into a young adult (teen) audience, but Dr. Grimes’ book is now part of the Texas high school curriculum.  That’s an amazing accomplishment!

Lisa: I often tell my book writing students and clients that they can think of their audience as a dartboard. The core audience is that bull’s eye and it’s critical to write specifically for that core group, not to try to write for everyone. You can have additional chapters for specific niche audiences, but you want to write the bulk of the book for your core audience. The magical part is that other readers will be attracted to the book, even if they are not the core audience. But if you write the other way around and try to write it for everyone, you lose your voice, no one “gets” that the book is for them, and you have a harder time reaching anyone.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Julie Silver, MD: One of the key things I tell people is to make sure that their book idea isn’t something that can be easily Googled–like how to treat your high blood pressure.  If you can google it and get similar information, it’s no longer going to work as a book in today’s market.

Lisa: We touched the tip of the iceberg. If you want to learn more about Harvard Medical School’s CME publishing course, click here. You don’t have to be a doctor to attend. One of my current Bring Your Book to Life students is writing a book about her depression and successful treatment with TMS, a therapy that uses magnets on the brain to cure depression.  She has no medical training, but I’m quite confident that this book (and author) are going to wow some of my colleagues at the course.

One thing I recommend to my students is to take advantage of all the extra’s–sign up for an evening writing workshop, take part in the “Shameless Pitches” and ask agents for feedback on your book ideas. Will you be joining us? If so, what do you hope to get out of the course?

How to Get on TV Before You Publish: An Interview with Eli Davidson

by

Eli Davidson
Eli Davidson helps authors get known

On Thursday, I interviewed Media Magnet and award winning author Eli Davidson about how to get massive publicity and grow your author platform–a must for getting published and for getting your message out to readers.

In book writing class this morning, everyone was abuzz with excitement about the call, “I can’t believe how much powerful information Eli gave on that call. That was the most information- rich, generous teleseminar I’ve ever been on.”  “I was overwhelmed with the idea of creating a platform–I didn’t think I could do it, until I heard Eli talk about her system.”

In fact, Eli intended to pack so much powerful information into that call that we didn’t  have time to cover the last topic–how to get on TV before you publish (or even write) your book. I asked Eli if I could interview her on that topic for the blog–and here’s her response–generous as always.

Lisa: Eli, your passion for helping authors came through so clearly on the call. I can’t tell you how excited my students and clients are about what you shared.

Eli: My book proposal was turned down by every publisher because I didn’t have a big enough platform. My self published book went on to win three national book awards. I want to help other authors avoid being passed over because their platform isn’t big enough.

Lisa: Why is TV so important?

Eli: The best way to answer this is to put yourself in your readers’ shoes. This is how publishers think, so it will illustrate the point. Imagine two websites with two books on the same topic. One author as a good site.  One author has a good site with a video clip from a local TV appearance. Which author has more credibility?

Lisa: Unless it’s a trick question, the one with the TV clip.

Eli: Media establishes you as the trusted expert. TV establishes you as the trusted and recognized expert. As an author, when you have a clip of your appearance on a television show you become instantly recognized for your expertise in a topic.

Lisa: And there’s some search engine value, as well. Isn’t there?

Eli: Absolutely,  good video content will give you a competitive edge in the search engines. Television interviews on a particular topic are the most highly ranked by google. These video clips confirm that you are the leading expert on a topic.

Lisa: How do you get your foot in the door?

Eli: This is what I teach, and it takes more time than we have here. However, here are some tools.

1. I suggest that authors start with their local stations. Have a very local angle to your story. Since it is your town, you probably know the hot buttons in your region.
2. Call the station. Find the producer for the morning show (I find these are the easiest to get booked on.)
3. Give them a 10 second pitch. (A pitch is the idea of a TV segment. Since I am a fellow author, I translate these media insider terms.) That pitch needs to be so sizzling that they want to hear the rest of your idea for the segment. Please do your research, be prepared, and have a great pitch before you approach TV producers. They are a tough crowd if you don’t approach them correctly.
4.  There are four words that make you a media insider. In my class “Ordinary to Extraordinary: How to be a Star in 90 Days“I will be teach every one those four magic words.

Lisa: Good, because I’m registered for the the class and a whole bunch of my students and clients have signed up as well. How did you get on TV in Austin, TX a year before your book came out?

Eli: I was in Austin, Texas speaking at a conference. I hired a publicist. Her rate was $2,000 per month with a three month minimum. This was a discounted rate, her normal fee was $5,000 per month. She contacted all the local TV shows to let them know I would be in Austin in three weeks. (When contacting news shows contact them three weeks before you want to be on the show. ) The publicist created a pitch about the rising stress rate in Austin. As an expert on the topic, the pitch offered viewers tools to lower their stress.

Lisa: And it resulted in more than one interview, right?

Eli: Yes, I did interviews on the FOX and ABC affiliates in Austin, Texas. I brought a mock up of my book cover on the show. It was just a simple color xerox on glossy paper.  No book. A color xerox.
What I discovered the hard way was that it wasn’t the publicist or the book that got me on TV. It was a system.

Lisa: And that’s what’s so powerful about what you teach. It’s a strategic system to get publicity and build your platform–one that aspiring authors and authors can implement themselves.

Eli: Yes, and save thousands or tens of thousands of dollars and get better results! In the three months I paid for those were the only TV bookings I got.  I spent thousands of dollars on publicists over a period of years. I only got one other TV booking using publicists. Instead of throwing in the towel, I developed a Media Insiders Blueprint with the help of the media insiders who were my coaching clients. Most authors have to quit building their platform because the cost is so prohibitive.

Instead of paying $2000 or $5,000 a month, I used my Media Insiders Blueprint. My wonderful intern used this Blueprint and booked me on TV shows. (She was so good that we hired her as a part time employee.)
This system is how I got  national TV appearances such as The Today Show. The Today Show gave away sample chapters of my book. It all started with getting on a local TV station.

Lisa: The moral?

Eli: Even if your book isn’t done, you are an expert. You don’t need a book to get on TV. You don’t need a publicist to get on TV. April Beyer is a dating coach. April has been on all the top TV shows (Dr. Phil, 20/20, The Early Show) without a book. If she can do it, so can you.

Eli Davidson is a self taught author whose self published book Funky to Fabulous won three national book awards: USA Best Books, Independent Publishers and Indie Next Generation “Motivational Book of the Year.” Davidson has x-ray vision for seeing media opportunities and creatively converting them into easy to use systems for fellow authors.

You can listen to our interview here, where Eli shares insider secrets on how authors can leverage the Huffington Post (and its 28 million readers/month).

You can sign up for Eli’s generous pricing until Midnight Sunday. Find out more or register for Ordinary to Extraordinary: How to Be a Star in 90 Days. I hope to “see” you in class.

Author Platform: How to Attract Massive Media

by

Eli Davidson
Eli Davidson shared generously of her knowledge

I may sound like a broken record when I say how critical it is for aspiring authors to develop a platform or following online, but this is the number one reason great books with fresh perspectives and clear niche markets get turned down by literary agents and publishers.

While I’ve advised my clients to develop their author platforms– their websites, blogs and online and offline publicity–I’ve been looking for powerful strategies they can implement without breaking the bank. When Media Magnet Eli Davidson contacted me about offering a teleseminar series that shares her blueprint for getting massive media on your own–we’re talking The Today Show, The New York Times, Dr. Phil’s Decision House, Better Homes and Gardens, Joan Knows Best, The Huffington Post–my ears perked up. As I heard her passion for empowering authors I knew she was the person I’d been looking for to help my authors and aspiring authors.

Here’s our interview where she shares some amazing secrets for how authors can harness the power of the 21 milllion readers of the Huffington Post and how to become a trusted source for top journalists. I was blown away by the level of detail and the power behind Eli’s strategies–some of which she’s never shared before and will only share again in her courses.

Listen here.

I’m recommending that every single one of my book writing students and book proposal clients sign up for Eli’s blueprint: Ordinary to Extraordinary: How to Be a Star in 90 Days. I’m taking the class and became an affiliate to help spread the word, because this is exactly what aspiring authors and new authors need to get their message out and develop that author platform so critical to success. And I can’t believe the generous introductory price (and bring a friend free) offer she’s made.

Eli will also hold a special “authors and aspiring authors only” call for you if you sign up here, because she has special strategies for authors and is passionate about empowering authors in the publicity realm.

If you have any questions after listening to the audio, Eli has offered to answer your questions here.

How to Find Your Voice as a Writer? Hint: It’s Authentic

by

Your Book Writing Coach

Authenticity is a bit of a buzzword nowadays:  Live an authentic life. Act from a place of authenticity…

Writers have known this secret from…I don’t know…maybe when they started drawing on caves. They drew pictures of their experiences that told a story–the animals they encountered, the landscape they traversed.

It hasn’t changed all that much. We just have words now to paint our pictures.

Your job is to make those pictures become real for your reader. And to do that, there has to be a part of you in the writing–even if you’re not writing a novel or memoir but a how-to book. Maybe especially in a how-to book.

Readers like stories and they respond to stories that employ all their senses. So, even in an anecdote, don’t just tell us how your client Suzie went from the poorhouse to millionaire entrepreneur. Show us how you reacted–what you thought, felt and did–that first moment she called you on the phone or sashayed into your office, swinging her hips and whistling Good Morning Star Shine from the musical Hair.

Did you feel a pang in the pit of your stomach worrying that you might not be able to help her? Did you think she was a little loony? Find a way to make that come across without telling us (your readers) but by showing us.

Often, writing from an authentic place means writing into that place where you don’t know what you’re going to write–exploring, asking questions, going beyond the known to the unknown. Asking, what really was going on inside me at that moment?

Linda Joy will share about Authenticity when it comes to developing your following or author platform

My colleague Linda Joy talks about authenticity often–she talks about building your business, your brand, and even your platform–or following– from authenticity.

Sure, some people may be scared away when you break out of Generic-me into Real-me mode. But that’s okay. Those who are scared away are the ones you’re not meant to work with anyway. The people who are meant to work with you will be attracted to that real person who are you being.

Click Here to Register

Join me and Linda tonight when we share how you can write your book–and build your platform as an author from that place of authenticity on our free teleseminar: Birth Your Book: From Inspiration to Published Author.

Write a Book
Courses + Programs
Services + Successes

Contact Lisa

Screen Shot 2020-09-07 at 10.05.50 PM