Click Here To Purchase Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel

Today, Norm Goldman Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest Phyllis Zimbler Miller. Phyllis is the author of Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel and this launched her into Internet marketing, including using social networking such as Twitter and Facebook to market her book.

She has a B.A in journalism from Michigan State University and worked as a journalist for several years. She also studied advertising design at the Philadelphia College of Art before earning an M.B.A. at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and working in marketing in Los Angeles.

Good day Phyllis and thanks for participating in our interview.

Norm:

You recently wrote an article concerning How You Became an Internet Marketing Pro at age 60. What is an Internet Marketing Pro?

Phyllis: 

I actually didn’t use the term pro – Carol Fishman Cohen from irelaunch.com added that word to what I identify myself as – an Internet marketer.  And by this term I mean someone who uses a variety of free and low-cost Internet strategies to promote a brand, book or business.  I’ve become addicted to learning and sharing as much as possible about this incredible arena.  But I’m not sure anyone can ever become a “pro” because there’s so much to learn and dozens of new applications are added to the Internet each day.

Norm:

How important is it for authors to learn the techniques of marketing their books through the Internet? As a follow up, how has the Internet changed the playing field concerning the marketing of books? 

Phyllis:

If authors wants to have as wide a presence as possible today it is extremely important to learn how to effectively market their books on the Internet.  And what’s great about this is that the most effective strategies are free or low-cost and can have global reach to the English-speaking world. 

The other great thing about marketing on the Internet is that the Internet has levelled the playing field.  For example, a major publisher may spend thousands of dollars on a single book ad in The New Yorker which may not “connect” with potential readers while a book author can invest her time on free social media sites developing relationships with people who are interested in reading her book.

Norm:

When doing Internet marketing, what are the essential steps authors should consider?

 Phyllis:

The very first step is to have an effective website (not just a blog) that an author can control himself/herself.  This website’s URL is what an author will use in social media profiles, blog comments, etc.  You want to drive people to your website where you demonstrate how your book is for them.  

The reason I said website and not just a blog is because, if you only have a blog, it’s often difficult for first-time visitors to your site to instantly “get” what you and your book are about.  And if they don’t “get” what’s on offer immediately, they may very well click off your site.  

Therefore, you want a static home page that clearly states what’s in it for a potential reader to stay on your site and learn more about you.  And, of course, you want the BUY THIS BOOK button very clear on the home page – a lack that many, many book author websites have.

The need for effective book author websites is why my business partner Yael K. Miller and I started building WordPress websites for book author clients – giving them an effective marketing site that they can manage themselves once the site is up.

Beyond this essential website step, all the other essential steps should be undertaken one by one as the author becomes comfortable with the techniques.  And because we’re talking about writers, I would definitely encourage people to have a blog on their website for two reasons: 

1) This encourages a potential reader to keep in touch with you. 

2) Search engines love new content so a blog on your website will keep the site’s content fresh and thus appetizing to search engines.

FYI – Carolyn Howard-Johnson and I have written a helpful report on blogging for fiction writers that is available for free at www.FictionMarketing.com

The third step would probably be social networking on sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  But these sites require that an author have a strategic marketing plan in order to be truly effective marketing tools.  Unfortunately, many authors jump onto these sites without sufficient knowledge and planning.

Norm:

I noticed you have written several articles on book marketing. What kind of a feedback have you received from these articles?

 Phyllis:

I use tweetbeep.com to alert me to people on Twitter talking about book marketing.  Whenever I see someone asking for book marketing advice, I tweet the URL http://budurl.com/bookmarketarticles  – and I usually get very enthused thanks for sharing such valuable info.

Norm:

You are the author of Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel . Could you tell our readers a little about the book? 

Phyllis:

MRS. LIEUTENANT is based on my experiences as a new Mrs. Lieutenant in the spring of 1970 during the Vietnam War.  I wanted to preserve a very specific slice of women’s social history, but I fictionalized the story to protect identities and to increase the dramatic tension.  At the same time that I was going through the self-publishing process with the novel, it was named a semi-finalist in the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, so that was an unexpected validation of my belief that people would be interested in the story. 

Norm:

Could you tell our readers how you went about marketing this book? 

Phyllis:

In 1992 the Jewish holiday book Seasons for Celebration that I wrote with Rabbi Karen L. Fox was published by Perigee (a division of Putnam) although we had to do almost all the marketing ourselves.  The offline marketing techniques we used then weren’t very successful (and cost a lot) so I had already decided that I would market on the Internet when the novel came out.

Then Amazon gave each of us semi-finalists a page on Amazon, and that’s the moment of my epiphany.  Someone had something on her page that I didn’t – a blog (in January of 2008 I didn’t even know what a blog was).  I said to myself:  I have to have this too!  And I was off and running to learn everything I could about marketing on the Internet and then putting that learned wisdom into action, including starting a blog about the novel separate from the website that I was having developed for me.  (I didn’t know then that it’s better to have the blog as part of the website.)

The truth is that in the beginning I spent money on Internet marketing techniques that weren’t effective.  Then I started learning about free and low-cost strategies such as social networking sites, article marketing, guest posts, and I started to put my focus on these techniques.  Plus I was fortunate to have forged an online relationship with Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com, and in November of 2008 she asked me to co-host with her the BlogTalkRadio, which we’ve been doing ever since.  (FYI: Nancy just started an online newspaper YourClaremontPress.com – and I write a weekly blog post for that online newspaper.)

Norm:

What has been your overall experience as a published author?

Phyllis:

I’ve been a published author since 1992 and can truly say that it’s something to which you have to commit yourself wholeheartedly.  You can’t expect the reading public to beat a path to your door – you have to go out into the world with your work and be willing to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.  

Norm:

What are you upcoming projects?

Phyllis:

I’ve just written an ebook to share my knowledge with others – WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE LAUNCH OF AN ONLINE INFORMATION PRODUCT – and I’m on a virtual book tour in August with PumpUpYourBookPromotion.com for this ebook.

Two weeks ago a movie producer found MRS. LIEUTENANT on the web, so I’ve been in discussions on a possible movie project, and I’m hoping to develop the graphic novel series LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS – plus connect with middle school and high school social studies and history teachers for using MRS. LIEUTENANT as part of my proposed program History Through the Arts.

I also keep promising myself to return to working on the novel’s sequel – MRS. LIEUTENANT IN EUROPE – which will focus on being part of an occupying force in Germany only 25 years after the end of World War II.

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered and where can our readers find out more about you?

 Phyllis:

My new website www.MrsLieutenant.com – built by Yael K. Miller now that we build websites for book authors and others – has a brief video about why MRS. LIEUTENANT is excellent for book clubs to discuss.  My company has just launched the monthly marketing program and we also do Twitter workshops for professionals – plus I write National Internet Business Examiner articles. Follow me on Twitter.  There’s info about me on all of these sites, and I also have other military-related sites.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors

Click Here To Purchase Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel