1) Pick a subject

The first step to writing a How-To book is honing in on a subject. When it comes to this genre, the more specific you are with your subject the better. There are a lot of How-To books out there so you need to make yours stand out. For example, there are a lot of different books to teach you how to play guitar, but Mastering Jazz Guitar in Three Easy Steps is both specific and simplified version. If you have a broad idea, try to take it one step further by narrowing it down. This may even lead to several book ideas.

2) What makes you an expert?

When you’re choosing a subject, make sure its one that you have some experience with or some expertise within. If you’ve spent your life as a woodworker, for example, then writing g a how-to book about woodworking makes sense. People want to get advice on a subject from someone they feel is an expert. No one wants to read a how-to book on building rockets by someone that’s never built one.

3) Who is your audience?

This step should be relatively easy to figure out. When choosing your subject, think about who you envision as your audience. Because, while you do want to be specific with your subject matter, you don’t want to be so specific that there is virtually no audience for your book. For example, a book about how to play basketball will have a market, but a book about vegans who play basketball likely won’t.

4) Outline

Next–and this is crucial–make sure you outline your book before you start writing. Outlining is merely a suggestion in most cases, but when it comes to How-To books, it’s essential. This book should be a step-by-step process regarding the subject matter where the reader gradually gets better at the task as they go. This means your book needs to be ordered perfectly so that it’s not taking large leaps in the level of difficulty, leaving frustrated readers in its wake.

5) Research

Even if this is a subject that you know a lot about (and it should be at this point) make sure you do additional research. This involves factual accuracies as well as field testing. The last thing you want is for another book to be doing exactly what you’re doing, but better. Make sure you’re telling your readers the best methods. In addition, once you’ve finished your first round of writing, grab a friend or two and see if they can learn the required subject matter from your book. If not, they may be able to point out areas that need reworked.

The post Genre Focus: How-To Books appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

From building credibility to expanding your reach, LinkedIn is a playground of opportunity. In today’s post, we want to maximize your profile to help you get noticed by the people who matter the most: your target audience. These are the people who are interested in your genre of writing, who find a commonality between your work and what sparks their curiosity.

So, what exactly makes up a good LinkedIn profile? Well, we’re happy you asked because we’re going to offer you some food for thought to help you ramp up your efforts.

Picture

LinkedIn is a professional networking site that’s designed for the business community. To that point, a professional picture is imperative. If you don’t have a professional head shot, do your best to find the neatest, most professional picture that you have of yourself. The old adage was correct when it said, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Because your LinkedIn profile picture serves as a first impression to a future reader, smile!

Complete Profile

There’s plenty of information to enter when it comes to a LinkedIn profile, but a profile that’s complete helps build your credibility. Skills, volunteer associations, education and much more are the fields that you should complete without question. LinkedIn is essentially an extension of your resume. While resumes are meant to be short, this social media platform is where you can expound on your experiences.

Summarize

A LinkedIn summary is much like an elevator pitch. This is the portion of your profile where you really focus on your accomplishments. When crafting this section, you want to keep your target audience in mind. Outline a handful of achievements that would interest the people that you are trying to reach. Bullet points make this section much easier to understand and digest. Remember, this is where you can really sell yourself as an author.

Updates

As with other social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn gives its users the chance to publish updates on their profile. Status updates give you the opportunity to voice your opinions and share industry-relevant content. Always keep in mind that LinkedIn is a professional networking site, so keep your more light-hearted content reserved for platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

The goal of your LinkedIn profile is to show your network that you’re a professional who’s well-versed in your genre and can add value to their lives.

Check back in the coming weeks when we provide you with more tips to help maximize your LinkedIn profile.

The post Tips to Maximize your LinkedIn Profile appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

If you’re unfamiliar with LinkedIn, it’s a social networking site that’s designed for the business community. The main focus of LinkedIn is to allow users the chance to network with people they know professionally. Users are able to share content from others, publish their own content and provide relevant, informative updates.

If you’re new to the platform, we’re here to offer you six reasons why you should create a LinkedIn profile of your own.

Credibility

In this day and age, social media is the axis on which most businesses turn. As an author, it’s almost as if you’re running your own business – the promotion and marketing of your book. Creating a LinkedIn profile can help you position yourself as an established and esteemed author, and can bolster your credibility to those doing their research on you and your work.

Publicity

Given the sheer volume of users to the site, it makes sense as a professional author to create a LinkedIn profile. By doing so, you’re opening yourself up to a lot of promotional opportunities to spread the word about your book.

Reach

To this point, there are active users in more than 200 countries around the world. It’s this immense number that proves the power that LinkedIn has to connect people from all corners of the world who might be interested in your book and its genre. LinkedIn has untapped potential for you to discover. It simply takes effort and the wherewithal to connect with the right people.

Research

While LinkedIn opens you up to a wider audience, it’s also a great tool for doing research of your own. The search functionality on the site gives you the opportunity to look for people with shared interests and other commonalities. This will help you break the ice with future contacts and craft an introductory message that will set you apart from the others in their inbox. Not to mention, there are myriad professional groups on this site that you can join to further immerse yourself in the industry.

Opportunity

There are a plethora of events, contests and other avenues available on LinkedIn that are perfect for an author. Not only will you be able to join in a larger discussion, you’ll also uncover new and innovative ways to promote your book, such as using the “Update” feature on the site to provide relevant news about your work. This update will then appear on the newsfeeds of all of your connections.

Networking

The foundational core of LinkedIn is networking. This social site opens doors and gives you access to hundreds of thousands of authors and potential readers. Find them and connect with them. This tactic opens up a larger conversation that you can be part of, which can help expand your reach to others in your niche.

Check back in the coming weeks, when we’ll offer helpful tips and tactics to maximize your LinkedIn profile.

The post DIY Social Media: LinkedIn appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

From building credibility to increasing your visibility, Pinterest is a viable tool for authors to use to spread the word about themselves as an author, and for their work as well.

In this blog, we’re taking this topic a step further and giving you some helpful tips on how to make your Pinterest page pop!

The idea of Pinterest is to share visually appealing content via images and video with other users on the site. Because of the site’s social nature, it’s not just about pinning pictures and linking back to your book or your website. It’s also important to curate boards of pins from other users – pins that speak to your personality, and will help you connect with potential readers. The more you connect and increase your exposure, the more likely you will be to grow your following, eventually giving you a larger potential audience for pins that are about you and your book.

To help you grow your Pinterest audience, below are three ideas you can implement immediately!

Offer value.

Though it’s great to create a compilation of aesthetically pleasing content, if you begin to repin every single pin that you find to be interesting, you’ll have a board of images that don’t offer a lot of value to your users. So, rather than going on a pinning spree, do your research and look for popular pins that have a lot of engagement and curate those pins to add to your boards.

Tip: Before you share, be aware of the popularity of the pin. This will help keep your boards interesting and provide value to your followers.

Spruce up your boards.

Social media sites are constantly being revamped and adding new algorithms into the mix. So, what worked at one point, might not work anymore. Though this might sound scary, there’s a simple solution for this problem. At the end of each month, go through your Pinterest boards and identify pins with less than five repins. From there, you can delete this content. This is done so that you can increase the likelihood of Pinterest recommending your pins to other users – thus potentially expanding the reach of your content!

Tip: Here’s how to delete a pin: Click on the image – Edit – Delete Pin – “Are you sure you want to delete pin?” – Delete Pin. Voila! Say goodbye to that content!

Put yourself out there.

One way to gain more traction with your boards is to adjust the visibility settings. If you think that a particular board could be performing better, one way to increase the views on your boards is to change the title. When changing the title of your Pinterest board, you’ll want to make it something that will resonate with people. Use words and phrases that people use in everyday life, and keep it simple!

Tip: Here’s how to change the title of your board.  Click on the board you want to change – Click Edit Board button – An edit screen will appear where you can change the name (title) and other variables – Rename your board – Scroll down and click the red “Save” button.

Be sure to monitor the newly named board and adjust if necessary.

Remember that social media as a whole, Pinterest included, is a game of trial and error where you’re constantly testing new ideas to see what works and what doesn’t. So, take these three ideas in stride and use them to promote your content and make your page pop!

The post How to Make Your Pinterest Page Pop appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Today, we’re delving into an additional social property, Pinterest, and giving you three reasons why this social media platform can help bolster your promotional efforts.

But before we dive into today’s topic, let’s take a step back and give a brief overview of this social network. In short, Pinterest allows users to share content such as images and videos with others. When people see something that they like, they “Pin It” to their board. These boards are essentially a collection of “pins” – videos/images that fit into a common theme. For example, a Pinterest board could be named Favorite Books, and your book could find its way onto that board!

Now that you have a general idea of what this social site’s all about, let’s move on to our three reasons why you should start a Pinterest page!

Builds Credibility

As an author, Pinterest will give you an outlet to show your personality, as well as your knowledge and expertise in your specific genre. Let’s say that you’re a mystery novel writer and you create a Pinterest board titled,Whodunnit? that features your favorite mystery novels and mystery-writing tips. Not only will this type of board attract other people who are interested in this genre, it has the potential to reach people who might be interested in buying your book, too. This tactic helps increase your credibility as an author and your value to readers as well.

More Visibility

Pinterest is a very visually inspiring site, and each category, whether it’s books, favorite quotes or even writing tips, offers the user what seems to be an endless scrolling experience of engaging content. There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to this content, because through the images and videos that you upload to Pinterest, you can actually add hyperlinks –clickable links that will take the user to another page. For instance these links could lead users back to your website, blog or social media profile. Adding hyperlinks to your pins will help you introduce users to more of your content and to help expand your reach.

Adds Regularity

When building a following on Pinterest, one of the most important aspects is to consistently update your boards. One way of doing this is by creating a pinning schedule that will keep you on track when it comes to updating your profile. Regularity keeps your presence on Pinterest known. If you’re unsure about what to post, take some time and do your research. Scour the site to see what other authors are doing. (Maybe even pin some of their posts that inspire you to your boards!) From there, you can get a better understanding of what sort of content resonates with your target audience.

Always remember to create and consistently update boards with visually engaging, relevant content, and odds are Pinterest will become a great promotional tool for you and your work!

Stay tuned in the coming weeks when we give you tips on how to make your Pinterest page pop!

The post DIY Social Media: Pinterest appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

So without further ado let’s dive in to see how Twitter can help you!

Build a strong profile­ – A complete profile is important to boost your credibility on Twitter. Your profile is essentially like an online elevator pitch, so it has to be short, sweet and to the point. In your profile, you’ll be able to showcase:

• Your location – Where are you from? This includes the city, state and country.
• Website URL – Share your website address with your followers. This can be a link to your website or your blog. It can help drive traffic to your site, and provides additional information of interest that your followers are looking for about you and your work.
• Bio – Your bio is the perfect opportunity to concisely promote yourself in 160 characters or less. In this section, you’ll be able to tell people who you are and what you do. But as with virtually all things Twitter, your character count is limited, so skip the wordiness and go for straight talk about you and your work.
• Profile picture – A solid profile picture is extremely important for promotional purposes. In this space, you can showcase your book’s cover or include a professional picture of yourself (perhaps the one from the book jacket!), so it’s easily recognizable for those followers who know you and for those who are learning more about your work.

Pictures – You know how the old saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Though it’s true, in Twitter’s case, a picture is worth 140 characters. When tweeting, you want to select compelling images of your book, a promotional event, your business card or simply a picture that is relevant to your audience’s interests. Composing tweets with images included is a great way to get your audience to engage with you. As a note, if a picture is grainy or fuzzy, it’s best to avoid using it; instead use only high-quality images.

Observe – The world of social media is constantly changing, day in and day out. That’s why it’s important to stay on top of those changes to better promote you and your book. With that being said, it’s a useful practice to observe what your favorite authors are doing on Twitter. Learn from them and try to recreate their social ideas – with your own personal touch, of course!

Take these three Twitter tips in stride and let those 140-character tweets fly

The post Three Twitter Tricks to Promote your Book: Part Two appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Whether you’re just beginning to use Twitter, or have been using this social site for quite some time, it’s always helpful to explore some new promotional avenues. With that being said, let’s delve into some Twitter tricks to help you promote your book:

Keep your cool – One rule of thumb is to not be overly sales-y with your tweets. If you’ve seen it once you’ve seen it a hundred times: people outwardly posting tweets that say, “BUY MY BOOK!!” or something of that nature. More often than not, when you see a tweet like that, you’ll keep scrolling.  In short, write tweets that are more eloquent. This leads us to our next tip:

Be interesting – You want your tweets to amuse, help, inform and entertain your followers. As an author, you have the innate ability to write, so use your skill to craft great tweets that are informative and will grab your followers’ attention.

Bullseye – It’s extremely beneficial to know your audience and to determine what type of person will most likely buy your book. Once you’ve nailed down your target audience and their interests, you’ll be better equipped to aim for the bullseye. If you’ve written a children’s book, it’s the parents that you’ll want to reach. Send out tweets that offer tips, advice or even activities that parents can do with their children – bonus points if they’re loosely related to your book topic. These sorts of tweets will attract the type of followers that you are looking for, and can potentially lead to book sales.

Reciprocity – Ultimately, you want people to read and respond to your tweets. That’s exactly what others are aiming for as well. Open the lines of communication between you and your followers. Comment on something that they’ve shared, especially if it relates to your topic. Engage with your followers to show that you’ve noticed them and in return, they’ll notice you.

Short and sweet – As you may already know, you only get 140 characters to articulate your message in a tweet. So, when you want to promote your book via Twitter, don’t waste characters on a long URL. Rather, use a site that shortens links such as Ow.ly. This will enable you to include more valuable content within your tweet, all the while directing your followers to your website or other online promotional material.

Check back in the coming weeks for even more Twitter tips and tricks to help promote your book!

The post Five Twitter Tricks to Promote your Book appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

This time, we are going to cover Google+ and offer tips on how you can maximize your presence on this valuable forum.

Before we start, if you don’t have one already, you will need to create a Google+ account.

Now, it’s time to add information about not only you, but about your book as well. A perfect place to do so is in the “About” section on your Google+ profile. In this section you can share basic information such as your name, some background information about yourself, and the name of your book and what it’s about. All of this will provide prospective readers with a better understanding of you, the author, and the book you have written.

As on many other social sites, the use of hashtags is a prevalent way to drive traffic to your page. Let’s say that you wrote a book about a famous athlete. When promoting your book, you should include hashtags that directly correlate with the athlete and his or her sport – #Olympics, #USAswimming or #basketball, for example. That way, if someone else is interested in one of these topics and searches for it within Google+, there will be a good chance that your post will appear in the search results.

Also, it’s wise to frequently share relevant posts that contain original information. Remember, every post counts, so make the most of each by adding interesting information – perhaps an excerpt from your book – or simply asking a question to help strike up a conversation. Doing so will help push your page up through the rankings of the Google search results.

Pictures are just as important as written content; eye-catching graphics can directly impact the click-through rates on your posts. Post a picture of your book’s cover, photos from book events, or perhaps even upload pictures that are relevant to your book’s topic, if you have the rights to do so. Images are an easy way to create a dynamic, interesting presence on Google+ and across all social media sites.

Lastly, be aware of trending topics. This information can be found in the trending box on your Google+ profile. By doing so, you will be able to keep your finger on the pulse of what is trending and craft posts about your book that align with this information. This will allow you to reach out to a broader scope of people.

These are only just a few of the ways you can maximize your presence on Google+. As always, remember to use your creativity and imagination to create content that will appeal to people who are interested in your book’s topic!

The post DIY Social Media: Promote Your Book on Google+ appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

If you’ve written a cookbook, this popular meal also offers an opportune time to promote it.

Whether you’ve recently published a cookbook, or are thinking about publishing a cookbook, take a bite out of these tips that might help you enjoy a slice from the pie of success!

Thanksgiving is known for its mouth-watering foods. Each year, there are those daring people that want to try new recipes to add to their traditional food repertoire. What better way to promote your new cookbook than to give those daring people exactly what they wanted – a new recipe.

In previous blogs, we talked about using social media to promote your book. This avenue of communication is a great way to offer your followers a recipe teaser. Let’s say, for example, your cookbook contains a recipe for a spin on traditional mashed potatoes. Take that recipe and post it to your social media sites in those crucial pre-Thanksgiving planning days! Start out by posting the recipe on Facebook. Along with the recipe, add your book’s title and a URL where an interested consumer could purchase your cookbook online. You can also promote your recipe teaser on Twitter by encouraging your followers to visit your Facebook page for the full recipe!

This recipe teaser is a great way to promote your cookbook and will in turn give consumers a sneak peak at what your book has to offer as well as reinforce your position as an authoritative voice in the kitchen.

A book event is always a great idea to spread the word about your newly published work. In the case of promoting your cookbook, what better way to attract people than to offer them the food that is in your book? Hold either a food tasting of some of the recipes that are included in your cookbook, or a food demonstration at a local store or supermarket.

And don’t forget, once you’ve secured the timeslot for your event with the venue’s management; publicize it throughout your community by word of mouth and on social media!

Remember, just like the other events that we have talked about in previous blogs, always remember to bring “leave behinds” and copies of your book to the event.

Lastly, consider contacting your local TV markets. Public television can be a fantastic outlet to publicize your book to a larger audience that you might not have been able to reach through your own promotion. Check with your local TV news channels to learn more about their program schedule, to potentially solidify a time slot on your local TV stations. Often times than not, the morning programs will feature a cooking segment, which is the perfect time to put your book in the spotlight and demonstrate a recipe from your book on television.

All in all, promoting your cookbook is an integral step of the publishing recipe. As always, add a dash of imagination and a sprinkle of creativity when promoting your book. But, if you are stuck, you can always refer back to our previous posts for an extra boost in the right direction!

Good luck and we hope that you will one day cook up a batch of success!

The post DIY Social Media: Promote Your Book on Facebook appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Twitter is a fantastic tool to use when promoting your book. This social media platform allows users to post short (140-character or less) “tweets” to their followers. While Twitter isn’t the instant fix to propel your book sales, it can help you reach users who might be interested in your book’s genre.

Here are a few tips that could help you maximize your Twitter presence.

Back to basics- Before we delve into the particulars of Twitter, let’s review the basics. First, create a username that is relevant to your name or book so that if someone searches for you or your book online, your Twitter profile will appear in the search results. Maybe it’s your first and last name, or your first initial and last name. Essentially, make it as easy as possible for users to find you.

The next step in this process is to choose a clear image of yourself to add to your profile. This will allow your followers to identify you with your book and will add both a personal and a professional flare to your profile.

Once you have finished these initial steps, you now have the capability to tweet, “retweet” another user’s post, mention another user by including their Twitter name in your tweet or employ the use of the pound sign, now known in the Twitter world as the “hashtag.”  All of these different options enable you to cultivate your Twitter persona.

Be a follower- The point of promoting your book on Twitter is to gain a following, and to do so, you have to follow others. However, randomly following people won’t help boost your credibility. Instead, look to follow people in the industry or significant people in your book’s genre. Furthermore, it’s a good idea to follow local book stores, libraries and other places that support local businesses. This will allow you to engage and eventually start a conversation with them via Twitter about promoting your book at their establishment.

Hashtag-The hashtag (#) could be the most useful tool in your Twitter promotion arsenal. The hashtag is used to identify specific topics. This little character has taken the Twitter world by storm by taking seemingly ordinary topics and creating buzz around them. Perhaps you wrote a book about a popular sports figure. Adding a hashtag with the sports figure’s name, their sport and other keywords that apply can help label the content of your book.

A caveat: As we mentioned before, quality posts are better than quantity; the same principle applies to the use of hashtags. Refrain from overusing hashtags in your tweets.  For instance “#Do #Not #Tweet #Like #This”. This will cause your followers to raise an eyebrow and question your credibility. Instead, strategically place hashtags before words that you feel will drive the most traffic to your Twitter page.

Quotes- Tweeting quotes from your book can be a great way to “tease” your followers about the content of your book. In order to maximize the suspense and intrigue your followers, choose quotes that are interesting and insightful, but don’t tell the entire story. When you pull a quote from your book, make sure that it’s concise and will allow you the opportunity to include your book title and relevant hashtags in the tweet.

One important rule of thumb: in order for people to read your book, you have to get them to read your tweets. It might sound contradictory, but do not make every single tweet relate to your book.  They say, “variety is the spice of life,” and this applies to Twitter as well.  Do not shamelessly promote your book in each tweet; instead, tweet genuine thoughts or interesting links. If something piques your interest, share it with your followers. And always use catchy headlines and proper grammar when composing your tweet. You don’t want to spoil all of the hard work you put into writing your book with a poorly written tweet.

These are just a few pieces of advice that you can use on Twitter to promote your book and help you create a following that will join you on your future endeavors!

The post #PromoteMyBook: Twitter appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.