Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

self publishing

What Does A Retired Baseball Legend Do? Publish!

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by Kimberly A. Cook                    (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Catching up on my overloaded DVR this past weekend. Decided to check out Derek Jeter’s visit to the “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”  I can’t stay up that late on a work night. Or just about any night these days. Anyway, the guy is such a class act and easy on the eyes to boot, it was fun.

AND found out he not only has his book coming out today, “Jeter Unfiltered,” he has started a publishing company including books for kids and a media platform for professional athletes.

http://youtu.be/AejNA_42RRA

How can this guy get any cooler? Not sure. His company www.jeterpublishing.com is launching both his book and a series of book for kids about the ten rules he follows in his life and career. Great list for all of us. The goal of his “Turn 2 Foundation” he started in 1996 goal is to turn kids away from drugs and toward healthy lifestyles. Not sure how the name came about, but I know it’s a Navy phrase for “get to work.” Hmmm.

In addition, he has started a media platform for professional athletes to be able to tell their stories directly to the public, not hampered by paparazzi or journalists. This venture is titled www.theplayerstribune.com

Read a very interesting article by Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks quarterback, about how he was a bully as a kid and how that has to stop in todays epidemic of domestic violence. Pretty hard-hitting writing. http://www.theplayerstribune.com/lets-talk-about-it/

Now, I am definitely more of a football fan than baseball, but I always admire smart and classy and Derek Jeter is both. So maybe this means when I finish my writing career, I can become a New York Yankees shortstop? Don’t think it quite works that way, but I can dream!

Link to The Tonight Show appearance: http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/segments/12976

Four Marketing Lessons From The Budweiser Puppy

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by Kimberly A. Cook                  (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

The Super Bowl is one of the biggest marketing platforms on the planet. That’s one reason why I watch the tv commercials so closely. Ad folks at the top of their creative game come to play. The take away for book marketing is always educational.

Budweiser Puppy Tweeting on a very large keyboard!
Budweiser Puppy Tweeting on a very large keyboard!

Four classic marketing rules were demonstrated by the Budweiser Puppy ad this year:

One: Babes, Beauties and Beasts: Working on the newspaper it was widely known pictures of babies – (i.e.*etrade),  good-looking men or women – (GoDaddy) and beasts, (Budweiser Puppy, Clydesdales) always resonate with readers. Us humans like to see pint-sized people, pretty people and fun animals. Score one for Madison Avenue using the age-old rule since the time of the real “Mad Men.”

Two: Hold the viewer/reader to the screen with feeling: We adore the puppy who finds a friend, is taken away from his home and buddies, then rescued by his buds and brought back home. Not one shot of a beer bottle.  Budweiser knows they are selling a feeling, commitment, brand loyalty and family and friends, not a bottle of beer.

Same with selling books. We writers are selling escape, education, thrills, solving problems, providing comfort and laughter.  It’s not really a book or a bottle of beer; our books offer an experience, touch feelings and/or help fix problems.

Can’t get much more heart-string pulling than a puppy, unless it’s the homecoming parade for the soldier from Afghanistan Budweiser used as their second commercial. We still have troops at war and when only his wife greets him when he comes home, then everybody is there it’s a tear-jerker. Besides the fact a crowd like that might freak out a returning combat vet it does send a heartfelt message. (By the way, women veterans come home too and I don’t see much of that, note to advertisers.)

Three: Use the three-act play structure for commercials, movies or books. Commercials are mini-mini movies or short, short stories but the same plotting and structure needs are present. The Budweiser puppy commercial has a set up, turning point and climax complete with a dog adopter villain and a happy ending all in 60 seconds flat. The B-story line sets up a possible human romance too.

Four: Social Media is here to stay and both Super Bowl ad and book launch campaigns require planning. The Budweiser Puppy Love Super Bowl ad was released online Wednesday, by Thursday it had gone viral and the Budweiser Puppy had his own Twitter account and was tweeting. According to the #HashTag Bowl, in 2012 only 25 percent of Super Bowl ads used hashtags, this year hashtags were used by more than 50 percent of the advertisers. So Twitter is here to stay and that Budweiser doggie is one smart social media puppy! #BestBuds

Links:

Budweiser Puppy Twitter Account: http://www.twitter.com/BudweiserPuppy

Budweiser Puppy Wins Super Bowl! http://marketingland.com/1-3-million-shares-budweiser-puppy-love-ad-declared-years-super-bowl-winner-72922

Twitter Rules Hashtag Bowl http://marketingland.com/game-over-twitter-mentioned-in-50-of-super-bowl-commercials-facebook-only-8-google-shut-out-32420

Which Cat Food/Book Publishing Option Is For You?

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by Kimberly A. Cook             (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Sometimes there are just too many choices. Last month when my family life was crazy, Spec Ops Cat decided to get in on the act and he got very sick. Long story short he is much better, but not before I opened 22 cans of cat food, baby food, tuna and spent big bucks at the veterinarian on my favorite pussy cat.

Cat food refrigerator chaos!
Cat food refrigerator chaos!

My vet had me try many different kinds and brands of food to get him to eat. I cooked up everything from poached fresh chicken breast to Fancy Feast blue can Chicken Primavera; which when I popped off the can top I would have eaten it. Cat? No. In the end, when Spec Ops Cat finally decided to eat one of his regular brands, Friskies salmon shreds with gravy, I of course did my happy dance out of his sight so as not to scare him.

Now a wad of cash and happy cat later, the varieties of cat food reminds me of today’s publishing environment. (How’s that for a transition?) You can go from poached fresh chicken – Smashwords, to baby food – independent print on demand, or choose basic cat food – CreateSpace, or move on up to traditional publishing with Fancy Feast. Pretty much the choices can make your head explode.

Reminds me of an episode from the book “Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lt. Belenko,” by John Barron – a defecting Mig pilot who was taken to an American store thought they had made it just for him. He’d never seen so many choices of toothpaste! We Americans do like our choices.

So while I’m trying to figure out what to be and write when I grow up and all the publishing choices overwhelm me, luckily author/former Green Beret Bob Mayer writes a great blog post about what he sees coming in hybrid publishing. Bob reminded me that in the end it all doesn’t matter if you don’t actually FINISH a book or poem or short story.

There’s the rub of it. So my action plan is to finish the manuscripts and then worry about what choice of cat food/book publishing option I will take from the menu; which will probably have more choices by then. First things first as author Stephen Covey would say.

And that is why when it comes to which publishing option is best for any author, I can refer people to the cat food aisle. Pick what is best for you and your book. Or ask a cat for advice, but remember; cats don’t shop, they have staff.

Bob Mayer’s Blog Post here: http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/the-illusions-of-traditionalself-publishing-the-reality-of-hybrid-publishing/

Is Boutique Book Printing The Future Of Publishing?

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by Kimberly A. Cook           (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

A few years ago I found out about the Espresso Book Machine. This fabulous piece of equipment prints a book in front of your eyes. What they’ve done is taken the print on demand machines kept in the warehouses which spit out books ordered online and made them into retail destination machines.

This is great for so many reasons. If you want to print one book, you can do it. If you are on vacation in Melbourne, Australia and you need a copy of your book, you can go to the one there and have it produced for you. Most of these machines are in university bookstores or independent bookstores, but they are spreading across the globe.

They can publish your book and put it in their program, but that is not the same as being with Ingram or a major distributor. But in these times of fiscal issues for all authors, I’ve been seriously considering using this as a way to have paperback books when I need them and focus on having my future ebooks in multiple formats.

Author Bob Mayer said he was seeing his fiction work sell 99 percent in ebooks and non-fiction 50 percent ebook and 50 percent paperback. There will always be a need and room for the paper books, but I want to cut my expenses. With locations around the world, it also makes any author available internationally without having to ship!

Our mega book store in Portland, Powell’s Books, put in an Espresso Book Machine last year. I chatted on the phone recently with the representative. Excellent customer service and I could actually go down and visit with them in person and then watch my first edition non-fiction book print if I wanted. How cool is that?

Check out the company at www.ondemandbooks.com and check out Powell’s page about it at www.powells.com/bookmachine/

Could this be the future of print on demand book publishing?

So You Want To Know How To Get Published?

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by Kimberly A. Cook           (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

It might be easier to explain how to build an Ark. From scratch. But since a friend asked for a writer friend, let me give this a shot. A long time ago in a galaxy far away before the Internet, traditional publishing lived in New York City and writers tried to get agents who then submitted their work to publishing companies who decided who would get published.

Then along came the Internet in the mid-1980s and web pages and writers were called content providers. (Always hated that title.) A new product called ebooks came into being in the early 2000s and soon a group of rebels (authors and writers) realized they could overcome the Death Star of New York publishing houses and authorpreneurs/publishers were born in the great Indie publishing skirmishes which continue today.

Are you a cookie, cupcake or pie writer?
Are you a cookie, cupcake or pie writer?

So one decision you need to make about getting published is whether you want to be with the traditionals or join the rebels. But wait! Before you make that decision first you need to figure out what kind of author or writer you want to be for the long haul. This is crucial. I wrote a blog post about this very topic in November 2011, so please read it here.     https://kimberlyacook.com/2011/11/01/which-dessert-would-you-choose/

To summarize the post, decide if you are a one book cookie, a two book cupcake or a career pie. Before you publish any book, please decide if this is a career, a hobby or a one time event. It makes a big difference on how you spend your time and book money.

If you want to go the traditional route, research is in order. Check out www.writersdigest.com and check the listings for agents and publishing houses and the genres they accept in the annual Writers Market, both online and in hard copy. If you want to publish a gift book or children’s book, research those markets. There is a real difference between wearing your writer/art cap and your business/marketing helmet. We have to be able to do both jobs when it comes to the world of publishing.

If you decide to go Print On Demand, self publishing or ebook only, read the blogs I list under Writizing Biz for some great advice and folks to follow. There are pirates and scallywags out there who will take a ton of your money and not deliver the finished product you hoped for, so be diligent in your research and ask advice from others. To thine own book and career path be true.

Don’t be a writer unicorn who gets left off the ark by playing silly games. Strap on your business gear and get ready to enter the publishing wars; power to writers and readers!