I had the pleasure of talking to Summer Land last week via Skype about writing and marketing your book once it has been published – a sometimes tricky topic but, as I mention in the video, Summer does it very well. Further details below.

Topics Discussed

– How Summer pitched the idea of her book at the Sydney Writers’ Festival – and that book was picked up on the strength of that pitch!

– How the book was structured. Given some of it was collected from existing blog content there was a balance between keeping the separate stories, but also make it a unified text.

– The benefits of already having an online presence or authority, be it through social media, or blogging, or both. They really help in making a prospective author more attractive to publishers. “Pitch your book – but also pitch yourself.”

– The issue of writers writing, packaging and giving away free content to support ventures when they might otherwise get paid for these if submitting for publication. And how, on the back of these successes, traditional media tends to become interested in self-made stories.

– Marketing strategies as joint ventures between publishers and authors.

– Social media marketing/promotion ideas for books – creating Facebook events, inventing and encouraging people to use specific hashtags (we cover Summer’s very successful Instagram #summerlandishselfie), Pinterest, book signings and more.

– Summer is reading Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

Summerlandish is available at major bookstores and online at Booktopia. For more buying options, visit her website. It’s an excellent website: well laid out, visually appealing. Lots for fledgling writers and bloggers to learn!

Thank you so much for your Summer!