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Marsha Friedman explains how to 'Celebritize Yourself'ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Published: June 21, 2011  Kay B. Day
Friedman, author of the book Celebritize Yourself, has worked with individuals and businesses as the CEO of a national public relations firm. Noting the huge number of new books published each year, Friedman told Web Savvy, “Celebritizing yourself is all about marketing, letting people know your book exists.” She also offers a caution writers should take to heart: Publicity is not the same thing as sales.
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 Marsha Friedman
In
other words, you not only want the visitor to explore your website, you
want to stimulate that visitor to click on the link and purchase your
book. Aside from that, it’s necessary to make sure your
publisher—whether traditional, subsidy or self—has a distribution system
in place. Otherwise, most bookstores will not schedule events for you.
On
the website for her book, Friedman has a blog, her Twitter feed, video
of TV appearances, a sneak peek at the book and even free tips for
writers. Once you’re there, you’re inspired to hang around, and ideally,
to buy the book to learn more. That is the point.
She also
stresses the value of social networks, pitching yourself to blogs and
building communities. She said she’s constantly writing articles
“sharing information about how to write.”
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In Celebritize Yourself,
Friedman provides a walk-through for the writer, hitting on the
questions a writer needs to ask herself from the beginning and ending
with what to expect in “The Big Payoff.” She includes interactive forms
for the reader to use in self-exploration, and she touches on numerous
media and how to use them to your advantage. The book itself is a
blueprint of sorts for the goal of celebritizing yourself.
Friedman's
use of the term "reverse engineering" is an interesting idea, though
I’d wager most writers don’t think of it. She used the term in relation
to novelists but it’s applicable to any writer. Simply put, you consider
your target market and how to reach that market. Many writers work
backwards on this, considering marketing once the book is done. But
Friedman said writers should think about how they’re going to market up
front. “Think about how you will market the book so you have a plan in
place to get you where you want to go.”
If you consider audience
and ways to reach them before you write the book and perhaps as you are
working on it, there may be benefits once you hit the streets to sign
and promote your work.
Friedman mentioned a novelist she’s worked
with—he’s a doctor. He wrote a medical thriller and one theme was
malpractice. That is a subject of interest to many, so he was able to do
public appearances based on real expertise developed in his field.
Rather than pitching a book head-on, he pitched his expertise, which
supported the marketing of his book.
Remember the question about
your passion? Friedman said some writers often overlook expertise that
can translate into a sellable book. One writer talked to Friedman about a
book on angels. Friedman told the writer, “It’s very hard to promote a
book on angels.” As they talked, the woman mentioned she was a landscape
designer. Friedman told her, “That’s your book.” The woman had focused
on one of her passions but she had completely overlooked the passion
that could lead to her goal of becoming an author.
Friedman makes
it clear the writer determines the path to celebrity. Some want it
while others may not. If you’re one who does, Celebritize Yourself
offers hands-on advice from an expert whose voice is very clearly
encouraging you to reach for your dreams and seize opportunity.
“Opportunity,” wrote Friedman, “has no birthdate, though it most definitely has an expiration date.” |
Florida journalist Kay B. Day has won awards for poetry, nonfiction and fiction. The author of two books, she has written for The Christian Science Monitor , United Press International, The Florida Times-Union and Sky News. To learn more about Kay Day, see www.kayday.com. To read Kay's other Web Savvy columns about writing for the Web, click here.
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