Here are some highlights from Jacqui Honeywood's CYA Conference session on Social Media and Blogging:

Her blogs are http://b-brand.blogspot.com.au/ and http://crapmamma.com/ and she can be found on Twitter at @BBRANDjac and @CRAPMamma .

Jacqui compared for us the conversion-to-sales power of the 'I've put so much work into this book, it's fantastic, buy it!' approach to the 'this is the situation in my life that I was struggling with that caused me to write this book to help my son' approach. The back story to the book sells far more copies, and the beauty of social media is that it gives us the ability to share the background to our stories and why you wrote them.

Your first aim is to grow your online readers. Your second aim is to sell your product.

Successful social media use includes blogging, and requires work on both strategy (technical) and community (speaking to people online).

Technical things are like defining your audience, setting objectives and doing search engine optimization (SEO).

Community things are like engaging, responding, commenting, sharing and connecting.

Why blog?
To connect with your audience
To maintain an ongoing connection
To keep relevant
To have an online presence
To promote a brand
To give credibility to your work
To personalise your stuff, your product
To engage a sense of loyalty
   It is very important to respond to comments and to comment on other blogs.

What will you blog about?
The community that you want to tap into probably already exists. Instead, think about how you can help that community do what it wants to do. Remember, blogging is not about you, it is about them.

Your content has to be of value to your audience.
Does it motivate?
Does it educate?
Does it inspire?
Is it authentic?
Is it helpful?
Does it provide solutions?
Does it elicit emotion? (If it does, it will provoke more likes and shares)

As long as you are doing that with most of your content, you can filter in some of your promotional stuff.

At the end of your blog post you need a call to action.

Before you hit 'publish', take a moment to consider whether this blog post will work towards your strategy and community objectives. If the answer is 'Yes' hit that button, if 'No' then some re-writing and re-thinking is required first.



If you would like a copy of the more detailed Conference Notes that are being sent out to CBHunCC members via email, send through your name and email address through the Contact page.

These are some of the highlights from Ben Long's CYA Conference session on Self- Publishing Picture Books.

Ben Long http://www.benlong.com.au/ shared his experiences in the physical printing and selling of two picture books. Some of us had high hopes given the title of the session that we would learn something about the online self-publishing of picture books. That was not to be. However there were still several worthwhile tips from Ben's session that are worth passing on to you.

Blank Dummy. When getting quotes from printers, you can ask them to give you a blank dummy of your book according to the quote specifications of paper size, finish, weight, binding and quality. That way you can inexpensively test the feel and appearance of the your of book and tweak the specifications if need be.

Payment plan for illustrator. This needs to be mutually agreed and included in the contract. One way is to pay a defined amount upfront according to a schedule of deliverables eg $3000, and then to pay a fixed amount per book eg $3 once a certain sales target has been reached eg 1000 copies. Another way is to pay a defined amount upfront according to a schedule of deliverables eg $3000, and then to share profits 50/50 once all the agreed expenses and upfront fee have been recouped. (Ed. How to account for the various contributions of illustrator and author in terms of time, talent, reputation, finance, marketing and risk underwriting may not be as clear cut as 50/50.)

Drawing up a contract. Things to consider: Are all the upfront expenses detailed, together with who is responsible for paying for them? Is it clear how the royalties/profits would be determined and distributed, and how often? Is it defined who has intellectual property rights over what? Are the expectations of the parties to the contract listed and quantified? Is there a detailed schedule for the payments to be made at each stage of the contact? Does the contract deal with who would be responsible or liable in the event of a lawsuit under various scenarios (eg for breach of copyright)?

School visit tips. Send book order forms to the classes you will be giving presentations to beforehand. On average you will get about 7 sales per 20 students per class. $15 is an important price point. Above that price point sales drop off sharply.

Distribution. Have you notified library vendors and suppliers about your book? They are likely to purchase your book in multiple copies. Details of Australian library vendors and suppliers are on this web-page: http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/services/cataloguing/library-vendors/



If you would like a copy of the more detailed Conference Notes that are being sent out to CBHunCC members via email, send through your name and email address through the Contact page.

These are only a few of the tips that Paul Collins of Ford Street Publishing gave at the CYA Conference on 4 Jul 2015:

Some advice for presenting at libraries and schools: Get yourself one of those tall portable banners for your latest book. They are economical at around $165 each, all you have to do is prepare the artwork in PDF format and take it to a printer. Set them up where ever you are giving a talk or launch and make sure that when photographs get taken that you are standing near the banner. Then each time that photo gets shared, you have an in-built free plug for your book.

Also take some merchandise with you. Print some bookmarks, but only print on one side. That is so you can write on the other side. Children like to get your autograph, and should they present you with a scrap piece of paper, you can whip out a bookmark instead and sign that. It will be more durable, and more likely to be kept and treasured that way. Make friends with your local printer. It is possible to get bookmarks printed on paper wastage from big print jobs, thus reducing your costs.

Fridge magnets can be produced cheaply and provide good publicity. It is better to have your book cover on the fridge magnet than a character or scene from your story. Make sure the magnet has your website URL on it.

Having a website is essential. But you must keep it up to date. Don't give someone else complete control of your website. Having the capacity to make Do It Yourself changes to your website is good.



If you would like a copy of the more detailed Conference Notes that are being sent out to CBHunCC members via email, send through your name and email address through the Contact page.