Articles

For Businesses

Charitable Strategies: Managing Your Corporate Giving

by Sandra Reimer

It was Friday afternoon one month before Christmas, when Verne Sawyer, owner of Frames Plus and Colours of Art in Frederick Mall in Kitchener, turned away from a line up of customers to answer the phone. It was a charity asking for a donation—the seventh request that day! As owners of small and medium-sized businesses do their best to survive, charitable giving can feel like one more demand on their limited time and money. But there are ways to make charitable giving more of a joy and less of a chore.

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For Writers

Marketing and Publicity Tips for New Writers

By Sandra Reimer

What 5 tips can a new writer best follow to position themselves for marketing/publicity?

Understanding these five things lays an excellent foundation for all other marketing efforts.

  1. You are not selling books you are selling an experience to readers. What experience might readers have when they read your book? What is unique about your book and why would someone want to read it?

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So You Think You’re Selling Books

by Sandra Reimer

Whether you’re a self-published or traditionally published author you need to promote your books. So how can you effectively promote your work? Let’s get one thing straight, you are not selling books. Books are bound pieces of paper with ink marks on them. You are selling an experience. One definition of marketing is exchanging something of value for something you need. You give the reader an experience and in exchange he or she gives you something that you value—it may or may not be money.

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Creating an Effective One-Sheet

By Sandra Reimer

A one-sheet or personal promotional page is a quick snapshot of who you are as an author or article writer. So how do you know if you need a one-sheet?

As an author:

If you are trying to get media interviews, speaking engagements, bookstore signings or the chance to present your work at other events, a one-sheet is invaluable.

 As a publicist, when I pitch an author to a media outlet or bookstore I talk to them briefly about the author. If the contact person is interested in the author as an interview guest or a speaker at an event I ask if I can send them the author’s one sheet via email as a pdf file (you can also send a hard copy).  The contact can quickly skim the one sheet and decide whether or not their customers, listeners, or viewers would be interested in the author.

Elements of an effective author’s one sheet:

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