Author: Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Ellen Whitfield is senior publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers.  Interested in what's possible for your book sales and building readership? Check out our services, tell us your goals, and get a customized publicity campaign tailored just for you.

4 tips for writing a great book synopsis

Posted on | by Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

A succinct, compelling book synopsis is a crucial element in any book marketing campaign. Yet, for many authors, penning a well-constructed description of their work is easier said than done. This is understandable. Who wants to see the fruits of their labor crammed into the space of a couple of paragraphs? No one wants to force their baby into such a little box.

As difficult as it may be, it’s important when writing a book synopsis to think about your book from the perspective of a total stranger. Why should they be interested in you or your beloved book? What are the five main points you think will stand out to them, and why are they important? Condense your book to an easily digestible, compelling description. And you will have much more luck convincing editors, bloggers, publishers and book reviewers to give it a chance. Try to use brevity to your advantage and give your audience just enough information to get them hooked.

Sure, writing a book blurb can feel like a ruthless, editorial bloodbath. But cutting your book down to the most vital or tantalizing points will give you a new understanding of your work, and your book will be better for it. If you’re feeling uncertain, here are some common book blurb pitfalls to avoid.

Don’t over explain the plot

One of the most common problems we see with book blurbs is when an author can’t decide when to stop describing elements of the plot. The result is usually an overly long book blurb. It’s bloated with plot points, yet short on why we should read the book. It’s important to give readers an idea of the story they’re about to read. But there’s no point in giving away all the twists and turns before they’re even invested in the main character. Try to focus on summing up the main plot and its themes in a single sentence, two at the most. That should be enough for readers to get an idea whether they’re interested.

Don’t oversell your book with “filler” adjectives

Another dubious feature of a book synopsis is when the author appears to be reviewing, rather than describing, their own book. Sure, maybe your book really is a “compelling,” “heart-rending,” story. And it might really be “perfect for readers of all ages.” But why should anyone take your word for it? Too many superlative descriptions act as filler and, unless they can be attributed to an actual reviewer, often make the author look specious. Rather than wasting your word count, try to focus on why your book is compelling or heart-rending and tell that to the reader.

Highlight your book’s primary conflict

Authors can get so overwhelmed with information that they forget to outline the main conflict of their book. It should go without saying that conflict is an essential element to every good story. Since it’s likely the thrust of your narrative, it’s good to make the central conflict of your story clear from the outset. Is your protagonist struggling with illness? Social oppression? Evil god-like forces? The conflict of your narrative is more often than not what will draw your readers in, so why not make it clear from the outset?

Avoid clichés and overused descriptors

By trying to be thoughtful about outlining the details of your main plot, themes, and central conflict, you’re also telling the readers about why your book is unique. Yes, at the end of the day, your story may be a classic tale of a protagonist’s struggle between the forces of good and evil. But should you describe it that way? Surely, it’s not as generic as that, right? Try as much as possible to avoid these clichés. Describe your book with language that highlights your individuality as an author. Don’t let your book blurb sell your book short!

Think of your book synopsis less as a description of your book and more as an adaptation. Rather than just telling readers about your book, imagine you’re adapting your book into a new poetic format, that gives its complexities in miniature condensations of narrative description. And, as always, consider cutting a sentence or two when you’re done!

How to write an author bio that stands out

Posted on | by Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Nothing can strike fear into an author’s heart quite like the author bio. Sure, you may have just finished off the final touches of the next great American novel. But the task of condensing an entire career into a couple short paragraphs is a lot trickier than it may seem. Plus in today’s age of digital media, your author bio may follow you from one corner of the internet to another for years. You’ve suddenly got quite a potential challenge on your hands. Luckily, you can follow a few tips to ensure that you position your author’s bio to paint as complete (and efficient) a portrait of yourself as possible for years to come.

Don’t date yourself!

To be clear, I’m not talking about ’80s references here. One of the biggest mistakes authors tend to make when writing an author bio is churning out long lists of previous publications, awards, and “forthcoming” works. This makes a lot of sense in a professional CV, but not so much in an author’s bio. Anticipate that any bio you’re going to write will be repopulated around the web for the rest of time. It’s not going to look fresh in 2020 if you’re talking about that “forthcoming” Writer’s Digest piece from fall 2007.

Rather than getting too specific, it’s best to simply list publications and awards in the past tense with as few specific dates as possible and only where they make the most sense.

See, for example, Books Forward author Tori Eldridge:

Tori Eldridge is the Anthony and Lefty Awards-nominated author of The Ninja Daughter, which was named one of the “Best Mystery Books of the Year” by The South Florida Sun Sentinel and awarded 2019 Thriller Book of the Year by Authors on the Air Global Radio Network. Her short stories appear in several anthologies, and her screenplay ‘The Gift’ earned a semifinalist spot in the prestigious Academy Nicholl Fellowship.

This paragraph tells us a lot about Tori. We know that she’s published in several anthologies and been nominated for several awards. But we don’t need to know all of the specifics. Only in one case is the date necessary — the 2019 Thriller Books of the Year award — and it’s used here to maximum effect. If you can help from bogging your reader down with specifics, the achievements you do choose to highlight become a lot more interesting!

Slipping in the goods

We’re all interesting people, and we all have exciting things to share about ourselves. But for authors, it’s crucial that your author bio only shares information that’s most pertinent to your brand and the kind of promotion you’re trying to do. For instance, if your book is about running an effective workplace, you might not want to fill your author bio with information about how much you love raising ferrets or decorative pinecone collecting.

The information listed in your author bio is likely to come up repeatedly in author interviews and media coverage, so it’s best to include information that you’re comfortable talking about that will help drive interest to your book.

Here again, we can look to author Tori Eldridge for a good example:

Before writing, Tori performed as an actress, singer, dancer on Broadway, television, and film. She is of Hawaiian, Chinese, Norwegian descent and was born and raised in Honolulu where she graduated from Punahou School with classmate Barack Obama. Tori holds a fifth-degree black belt in To-Shin Do ninjutsu and has traveled the USA teaching seminars on the ninja arts, weapons, and women’s self-protection.

Here it’s clear from Tori’s bio that she would be an interesting media interview, she’s comfortable in front of a camera or behind a microphone, she has interesting stories to tell about growing up in Hawaii, and that she has expertise in one of the main subjects of her book, The Ninja’s Blade, and can speak further on the topic of self-defense.

If you find you have less colorful facts to include in your author bio, don’t force it! Maybe you can take one or two important facts about yourself and interestingly frame them. Perhaps you can focus on mentioning one or two achievements or self-defining experiences. Try to include a couple of pertinent facts to your book or make good interview questions. Don’t be afraid to sound boring; less is more!

All roads lead to social media

Finally, another key to a good author bio includes links to personal websites and social media accounts. In fact, think of the author’s bio as more of a prologue to the information that interested readers will find by visiting your personal website and social media pages. The key here is that you want to just give readers enough to paint a broad picture of who you are and what you’re bringing to the table as an author. That’s why it’s best to keep the bio short, sweet, and always pointing tantalizingly toward these personal accounts for more information.

The pros and cons of Facebook ads

Posted on | by Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

Authors are always doing what they can to get their books in front of more people. But the real goal should be to get your book seen by the most people in your target audience. Number of eyes doesn’t mean anything if they are not likely to turn into sales.

That’s where targeted Facebook ads come into play. Advertising on social media is an extremely effective strategy for promoting your book or building up your social media accounts. As always with promotion strategies, there are pros and cons to Facebook advertising.

The Pros

Targeting a Specific Audience

Blanket advertising is not always the best strategy when trying to get more people to purchase your book. You want there to be a larger click through rate on your ad, which is more prone to happen if the audience seeing the ad is interested. By using the data on Facebook, you can target people based on their interests, gender, age, and location. You can always change these parameters as well, depending on how well an ad is performing.

Number of Users

You can reach so many people on Facebook. There are currently 2.7 billion users on the platform, so even with targeting you are reaching a wider audience than you would on other platforms.

Different Facebook Ad Options

There are multiple types of Facebook ads that you can run depending on your goal. The ads fall under three different categories: awareness, consideration, and conversion. You can choose what you’re wanting to accomplish (more traffic to a website, more page likes, more sales, more brand awareness, etc.) and Facebook will run an ad tailored to that goal.

Comparison Opportunities

You can run multiple Facebook ads at a time, which allows you to monitor which ads are performing better than others. They allow you to set up an ad with an A/B Test which means the same ad runs with two different ad sets (different target demographics/psychographics) so you can see which audience is responding more. This allows an efficient way to monitor who you should be targeting and can save you money by only spending money on the ad that is giving you the most engagement.

Easy to Change

Facebook ads are also easy to tweak if needed. You can go in and change the target audience at any time. You aren’t locked in to the ad set you originally create. Having the ability to change demographics as well as the image/copy at any time is helpful in making sure you are getting the best results possible.

The Cons

Costs

While you can set up Facebook ads with any size budget, the bigger the budget the better an ad will perform. This doesn’t mean that your $5/day ad won’t generate more engagement, but if you want substantial numbers, it could become expensive. Also, if your targeting is off, it can be a lot of cost for not enough return.

Limitations to Facebook

While you are reaching a wide amount of people, it is only Facebook users that you are reaching and a lot of people who have accounts have started to move on to other, more progressive social platforms. This fact could lead to lower numbers of engagement on your ads. But again, a lower percentage of 2.7 billion, is still a pretty large number.

Diminished Organic Views

Only a small percentage of your customers will stumble onto your post organically since the Facebook algorithm limits brands visibility, so to reach more people you may have to boost your posts.

Marketing your book can definitely be overwhelming, and understanding your options is key. It is important to take all of these things into consideration before creating an ad, however the pros usually outweigh the cons when it comes to advertising your book or your brand as an author on Facebook.

Tips for your family and friends who want to support your writing career

Posted on | by Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

So many authors are reluctant to ask their family, friends and assorted contacts for help when they are promoting their book, but I always tell them to think of it from the opposite perspective. Wouldn’t you want to support a friend or loved one’s writing career who had a new book coming out?

The thing is, most people don’t know exactly how to show that support, and they just need a little nudge in the right direction. So we put together a handy guide you can pass along when someone asks, “How can I help?”

For friends and family, here’s how you can help the authors in your life.

Preorder a copy of their book — and not just for yourselves, but for others.

Everybody’s getting a copy for Christmas! This is the most tangible way to help. For those who don’t have the financial means to order several books, there are a lot of other things that can help.

Talk about the book on social media.

Include links to the author’s website so people can order copies for themselves. Follow the author on their social media pages, and share their posts as appropriate to help drum up excitement.

Rate and review the book on all platforms possible.

Amazon doesn’t allow reviews before a book’s publication date, but Goodreads and other sites do. These ratings can be a deciding factor for whether someone buys the book or not. Seeing even just a handful of positive reviews can be a big incentive to check it out, so leaving a 5-star rating and review is an easy way to have a critical impact.

Add the book to Goodreads lists to boost its SEO (Search Engine Optimization) power.

When someone searches for books about specific topics — for example, “books about teenage witches” — Goodreads lists are often among the first results to pop up. By adding the book to several topical/thematic Goodreads lists and asking others to vote on it, you are making it more visible to its targeted readers.

Suggest it as a book club pick to any groups you’re involved with who may enjoy it.

The author may even be able to do a virtual Q&A with book clubs if that’s something you’d be interested in.

Request that your local library carry the book.

Check to see if the book is available at your library. If it’s not, check online to see if they have a form on their website where you can request that they carry the book. Many libraries have request forms specifically for this purpose (and if yours does not have an online form, a conversation with the librarian is a good place to start!). If the library chooses to carry the book, they will purchase a copy (another sale for the author!), and the book will be able to reach a new audience of readers who may not hear about it otherwise.

Talk to your local booksellers and see if they know about the book. If not, give them an elevator pitch!

Their recommendations are invaluable, so even putting the book on their radar can be helpful.

And of course, spread the word!

Word of mouth is still so important. Talk about the book to your friends, your coworkers, in your personal and professional circles, anywhere you can. Being an advocate for the author in your life is truly a gift — and you may support your other friends and connections discover a great new read!

What to expect leading up to your book launch

Posted on | by Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

The day a book launches is one of the most exciting of an author’s career, but the weeks leading up to it can be nerve-wracking. Knowing what to expect can help give you a sense of calm as you move into “launch month.”

I like to describe the publicity leading up to your publication date like a snowball: it starts out rather small and moves slowly, but as you get closer, momentum and size build up.

First, many readers prefer to wait until launch day or launch week to cross-post reviews (Amazon actually doesn’t allow reviews to post before then, although other sites do). This burst of reviews in a short period of time can be beneficial; it’s similar to advertising, and the sudden, frequent exposure to the book’s cover and title can lead to more orders!

Second, local media publications in your area are more likely to post a review or blurb about the book near the launch date, in order to create a more timely hook for their newscycle.

So how can you help build the momentum?

Check in with your network of family and friends around this time to ask them to help spread the word about your book.

They can do this through Goodreads reviews, social media outreach, or good old-fashioned word of mouth. Many of your supporters will want to help you during this time, but they might need you to tell them how.

Post regularly on social media.

Prior to launch, you may have been posting about your book on social media less frequently in order to not overwhelm your followers. However, the weeks leading up to your launch is the time to really use those platforms to display your excitement and share this part of your journey! You should also use social media to share any reviews, and to thank the people who wrote them.

Make sure your website is fully updated and running smoothly.

As more people hear about your book, your website is likely to have more visits. Make sure buy links (including IndieBound) are displayed prominently to give you the best chance at getting those orders! If you have a reader newsletter, make sure that you have a system in place to capture email addresses of anyone who wants to subscribe.

Be savvy about making your book launch event a success.

Encourage your contacts in the area to come, and to spread the word about the event to their networks as well. Stores appreciate when events gather a crowd, and it gives you an opportunity to spread your message beyond your circle. Ask the store what format usually works best for them, whether it’s a short reading, a Q&A, a conversation, etc. Bring bookmarks and extra pens for signing, and a notepad to take down any email addresses for contacts you may make. Plus some water and mints — you’ll be doing a lot of talking!

In the wake of COVID-19, many stores are offering virtual events instead of in-person events, which is a great option to reach a wider audience beyond where you can travel! Even if an event is virtual, we still recommend being strategic about when, where, and with whom you set up events: you want to make sure you can draw an audience, so that it is a good investment for you and the bookstore.

If the bookstore doesn’t set up a Facebook event for your launch, you should set one up yourself! It’s a great way to let a wide audience know about your launch, and you can include a lot of information in one place.

Have fun!

And most of all, remember to enjoy yourself! This is a special time, and at the end of the day, nothing can diminish your hard work, creativity, and the amazing accomplishment of releasing your own book!

The importance of having a business page on Facebook

Posted on | by Ellen Zielinski Whitfield

You’ve finished your book, it’s off to the printers and you’re ready to start telling the world about it. What’s the first thing you do? Tell everyone you know! And what better place to do so than on social media. Social media has made large audiences accessible to everyone with access to a computer or smartphone, and it’s a great way to connect with your current and potential audiences.

Of course you want to tell all your friends and family about your new book, but you also want to make sure you’re reaching people you don’t know! The first step in doing this is creating an author’s page on Facebook, not just using your personal account. Just as you wouldn’t send an important work related email from your personal email address, you don’t want to deliver important book related messages to your audiences from your personal Facebook page.

The differences between a business page and a profile

A profile is meant for someone’s personal use. To share pictures, news stories, and goofy memes with their friends and family. It’s totally ok and encouraged to share book updates with your friends and family as well, but it wouldn’t and shouldn’t be the sole use of your page.

A business page is meant to be used by businesses, brands, and public figures. And directing your friends and family there too is a way to keep your book promotions organized and keep your personal page more personal.

Having a published work means that you are now in the public realm, and it’s time to start cultivating your brand.

Advantages to a business page on Facebook

  • You can have a built in “shop now” button for your book’s buy links.
  • You can invite people to like and follow the page.
  • You can access analytics to learn how to better optimize your page’s set up and posts.
  • You can give access to more than one person to run the page.
  • You can run ads to grow your brand.
  • An author page will let you have unlimited likes/follows. But your personal profile is limited to the number of friends you have. (Facebook actually caps that amount at 5,000 friends.)
  • Your author page makes it socially acceptable for a stranger to connect with you online without feeling creepy. When someone enjoys your books and goes to Facebook, they probably won’t be able to find your personal profile, and even if the reader does, you may not be comfortable adding a stranger as a friend (and they may feel impertinent adding you as a friend!).
  • By using an author page, you can allow your personal acquaintance to “opt in” for content about your book by encouraging them to like that page where you plan to share info about your book — that way non-bookish friends don’t feel spammed by your new book content. This is just being polite!

Furthering your author brand

Having an author business page creates a sense of professionalism for your career as an author. Although it might not feel like a career yet because you know you wrote the book in bursts between meetings, brief respites before the kids get home from soccer practice, and in your head on long commutes, being an author is work and should be treated as such! And along with the professionalism comes a boundary between your personal life and your life as an author. It may not seem important to have that distinction. But as your career progresses you’ll be glad that you drew that line early on.

But, as with anything with promotion, it’s only what you make it. Just having a fan page in and of itself doesn’t do much. Like just having a book trailer, a twitter account, or a website doesn’t do much. Those things have to be “worked” and incorporated into a comprehensive promotional strategy to have earned meaning.

Interested in social media book marketing but unsure where to start? Let us help you! Check out our social media book promotion services.