Frequently Asked Questions About Kickstart Marketing Programs

Why Kickstart Marketing? Not everyone wants or is ready for intensive marketing training, yet sometimes, all the tips and advice can inundate instead of illuminate. Kickstart Marketing is here to do just like its name says: it provides easy-to-follow instructions on tasks to kick-start your book marketing efforts.

So this replaces a marketing service? Kickstart Marketing addresses many of the same tasks a marketer would do for you. However, a professional book publicist offers one thing a newsletter can't: Contacts. Good publicists have developed strong relationships with people in the biz' and that makes them worth their pay. However, not all of us can afford hundreds or thousands of dollars on a publicist for our books. That's where Kickstart Marketing comes in--to help you learn to be your own publicist.

Even if you hire a professional, you should be working with them, not just dumping the project in their hands and hoping for the best. The classes and newsletter can easily compliment the efforts of a professional publicist. If you do hire a publicist, check their experiences with books in your genre and discuss with them what tasks they will be doing and how the things you do fit in the overall plan.

FAQ ABOUT THE CLASSES

What classes do you offer? I have several classes on marketing tasks and am developing more each year. Check the Workshop Schedule for classes and when they are offered. How do the classes work? Each class is held via a forum. All the classes are already posted on the forum, along with extra threads that have additional information, links and questions from previous students (with answers).

Once you've signed up, I give you a user name and password to the website and access to the forum. Then you log in to the website, go to the forum and start. Read the lesson, check out the links for more information, do the assignment and post it.

What's the goal of the courses? Each class has been designed to give you an end product: a video, a scheduled tour, a marketing plan. If you follow the homework, you should have something concrete to show when you're finished.

How are the classes scheduled? An overall course is up for five or six weeks. However, there is no schedule within that time. You go to the forums at your convenience and do as much or as little of the work as you feel necessary. I've had some students post daily with questions and work. Others merely download the information and never post. I check the class forums several times a week, depending on the level of activity and student needs.

Do I have to do one class a week? Nope. Jump ahead, lag behind. Do several classes at once. Post what you have when you have it. I check and reply to each post regardless of the lesson, through the last week.

How much time does the homework take? That's totally up to you, your skill level going in and you're interest. For example, I've had students complete a video in a week because they had a god idea of what they wanted to do, and simply needed help in putting it together. Meanwhile, others have spent weeks on the script lesson as we discussed and tweaked. I'm not assigning grades, so the work you do is completely dependent on what you want to get from the course. I promise to help you as much as you need (within reason, of course!).

How do the forums work? When you register, I'll give you a handy, illustrated document about how to work the forums. You can also download it here.

Why are you teaching these? What are your qualifications? I'm a small-press author with steady sales who is teaching the things she knows. I don't rely only on my experience, but on the experience of a great network of professional and amateur authors. When I don't know the answer to a question, or a student needs better advice than I have, I consult those experts. My talent lies in breaking down what can seem like a daunting task and putting it into easy steps; then provide further information. I kickstart your marketing motor, then direct you to places to help you keep it running.

I had instructor training in the Air Force, have taught children of ages ranging from three to fourteen, and taught adults in online and live conferences. I started Kickstart Marketing at the request of one of my publishers, who thought I could teach her other authors how to better market their books.

FAQ ABOUT THE 30-MINUTE MARKETER

Why 30-Minute Marketer? Because we want to write, yet we must market our books in order to get readers. Publishers, especially small-press publishers, can't do it all for us, and marketing services are expensive. Further, it's easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer volume of ideas and advice provided by marketing newsletters and blogs. This weekly newsletter breaks it down in to tasks that generally take 30 minutes or less to accomplish.

What does 30-Minute Marketer do? The newsletter provides a regular one-year schedule of marketing activities and follow-ups, breaks down large projects into easy-to-handle tasks and provides new ideas for consideration. However, it doesn't just give you tips: It explains how and leads you through the major steps.

How does it work? Once a week you get a no-frills newsletter in your e-mail with the following:

1. A regularly repeating task: These are the basic marketing tasks that have been known to work and are assigned once a month or so.
2. A follow-up task on the week before. For example, if you sent a press release, you call to follow-up on the release.
3. A project: These are big ideas, like setting up a virtual book tour, that are broken down into several small steps over 3-6 weeks. My goal is to teach you as well as lead you through the project.
4. A new idea. Sometimes, you won't be interested in any of the previous tasks or have a little extra time to try something new. These tasks are gleaned from the many tips floating about the writing world. However, rather than just give a tip, I tell you how to accomplish it.

Do I have to do all the tasks each week? No, which is why I give you four options each week. Marketing is not a one-size-fits-all venture. Choose the options that best fit your book and your abilities and situation.

So this only takes half an hour? I try to make each task one that you can complete in less than 30 minutes. Results may vary by experience and inclination. Your first press releases may take an hour or more, for example; scheduling a signing may be as simple as a 10-minute phone call.

Also, if you decide to do several of the tasks, you can take several hours to do everything on the newsletter. Again, I aim to make it two hours of work, total.

Do you follow your own advice? (red faced) Haphazardly. I have done the tasks, but I haven't been good about doing them regularly. My 2010 goal is to practice what I preach.

Will this really help me sell more books? To be honest, there are no guarantees save one: if you do nothing, you get nothing. If you follow the newsletter, you will have done 54 to 216 marketing tasks over the course of a year.