Ready to Practice Your Skills Working with Authors?
You’ll boost your confidence by using the tools in this course along with manuscripts and other typical author materials to work practice the actual work you will be doing for authors.
Book Marketing Challenge Exercises (below)
These exercises are optional, but it is highly recommended that you take the time to do them. If you do, we are happy to look at what you’ve done, answer any questions that came up and give you feedback. Please send completed exercises to InstructionSmith at Support@InstructionSmith.com.
You can download the exercises for sections 17 through 24 on Book Marketing here or do them right from the screen below. Either way, you will need the source documents below each exercises.
Book Marketing Challenge Exercises
1. On the recommendation of another client, Janica, and in the hunt for your first author client, you take a look at the web site of Lawana Gladney (a real author and noted psychologist, so please do not contact her!). Your friend mentioned that Dr. Gladney would like to get some media attention for her newest book, so you decide to download her media kit and send her a lovely note and make some suggestion about how you could help her do that.
a. Give Janica a candid analysis of Dr. Gladney’s media kit – what she did well and what you would recommend adding or changing. Really give some thought to this using the media kit information in the course and your own judgment on what it would be like to be a journalist trying to get enough information to interview Dr. Gladney). Send your analysis directly to Janica at Support@InstructionSmith.com. b. Estimate a package price for doing the work to update the media kit and send that to Support@InstructionSmith.com as well.
2. Janica is so impressed by your professional knowledge of what goes into a media kit that she’s told you that the other area Dr. Gladney needs help in is with her Amazon page.
a. Do an analysis of the Amazon page of Dr. Gladney’s most recent book and send a summary of what additions could be made to her site that you could help with that would really help to sell more books to Support@InstructionSmith.com.
b. If you were going to add information to her Amazon page, what two Amazon sections/pages would you access to do that?
3. The author of a business book has asked for your help in writing interview questions for the media kit, especially using a top ten list from the book. Write some interesting and media-savvy questions that come to mind for you.
Download the author’s book page here
4. You meet a potential client who says she really doesn’t need your help because she has done everything on the checklist. When you go to her web site and download her sell sheet, this is what you find.
What works about this sell sheet and what elements is she missing to have an effective collateral piece?
5. Another author client has asked for your assistance in creating a virtual book tour and is hoping to be mentioned in some topic-appropriate blogs. If the author’s book is on finding a new career after age 50, find three blogs, three web sites and three Internet radio shows directed to baby boomers you might recommend to the author and give the web addresses of each.
6. Your author’s book came out last year and now he is interested in entering competitions for book awards. If today’s date is March 1, find three reputable awards your author might be able to apply for now and their application deadlines.