Post #48 – Women’s Memoirs, Book Business – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler
Book Marketing
OK. The title of this blog is a bit of an exaggeration. But not by much. Tracy Kauffman Wood, one of our wonderful students, started a regular memoir open mic night in Philadelphia. She announces the monthly event through her FaceBook page and her blog. Everyone is invited to bring a short piece they have written. Tracy always has a memoir vignette ready to share.
Below is the video of her most recent reading. You’ll hear references to her grandmother and to Lenny’s Hot Dog stand, and perhaps even mention of Pepper Hash. During The Depression (the original one, not our current economic state) Tracy’s grandmother opened a hot dog stand. Having no money for relish, she developed a recipe for Pepper Hash that became the inexpensive substitute and was soon a treasure and loved by her customers. Last year, Tracy let us publish a short vignette she wrote that included the recipe. If you’d like to read that piece and get your own copy of the recipe for Pepper Hash, here’s a link.
What Are You Doing to Build Your Audience?
If you are writing your memoir or thinking about publishing your memoir, then you are already aware of the rapidly changing publishing scene. There will always be news about a million dollar advance. But don’t count on any advance. Actually, don’t on getting an agent or a publisher unless you can intelligently discuss what you have been doing to build a platform of potential buyers. How many Twitter followers do you have? Have you moved away from a personal FaceBook page to a professional fan page? How many FB friends do you have? Do you have a blog? How long have you been blogging? Have you installed Google analytics so that you can track the number of visitors to your site?
Last week, Kendra wrote about creating videos and gave you our recommendations for inexpensive but great equipment and software. Creating videos that you post on YouTube is another way to build an audience. Do you mention your videos on your blog and on FaceBook?
There is no magic bullet to developing a platform — your future readers. Start small. Become comfortable with one approach before adding a second. Don’t jump from one effort to another. Think of these are building blocks. All will be needed to make you and your memoir successful.
Congrats Tracy. Thanks for sharing this video with us.
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Good for Tracey. This is awesome. Since we are almost neighbors (I am in Chester County, a suburb of Philadelphia), I would love to get in touch with her or have her visit my blog and give me her contact info.
Thanks very much.
Susan
Hi Susan:
I’m sure you can contact Tracy through her FB page. I believe she is listed as Tracy Kauffman Wood. If you can’t find her, let me know and I’ll make sure you two get in touch. It would be great if you could bring a memoir piece you have written to the next open mic.
-Matilda
Thanks, Matilda. Tracy and I have connected. I am going to do my best to get to her open mic memoir night and read from my book.
Susan
Susan:
I’m so glad that you have connected with Tracy. One of the goals of Women’s Memoirs this year is to help build the community of women memoirists. This is such a great example.
-Matilda