Book Marketing Bestsellers: Book Promotion Blog

Transformational Leaders: An Introduction

2012-05-28T05:03:00.000-07:00

Last week I did a teleseminar for the Transformational Leader Mentor Program with Marci Shimoff, Geoff Affleck, and Janet and Chris Atwood.

During the teleseminar I had a chance to meet some of the participants and thought I'd share what they are doing. Here goes:

Gina Calvano. Email: gina@indigoforce.com. Web: http://www.indigoforce.com.

IndigoForce offers high-performing students and adults a guided process for discovering their unique talents, interests and values and the ability to match them to majors, jobs, industries and life plans that can easily enable their happiness and success.

Gina is currently working on two books: Powerful Connections Made Easy: The Introverts Guide for Sure-Fire Networking Results and Caged in My Cube: A Turnaround Guide for Loving the Job You Hate.

David Saywell. Web: http://www.davidsaywell.com.

Following a six-month odyssey through some of the most remote parts of Australia, David Saywell has completed his first book. Filled with universally timeless, philosophical, and thought-provoking verse, The Beginning… will be available later this year.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davesaywell
Twitter: http://twitter.com/davesaywell

I hope to share a few more I met in a few days.

The Top 10 Things You Can Do in 2012 to Sell More Books, Part II

2012-05-22T00:24:00.000-07:00

Here are the other five things you can do in 2012 to sell more books. For the first five things you can do in 2012 to sell more books, see http://blog.bookmarket.com/2012/05/top-10-things-you-can-do-in-2012-to.html.

6. Speak.

Speaking builds a word-of-mouth army better than anything else. Speak locally - at garden clubs, libraries, bookstores, Rotary clubs, poetry nights, schools, hospitals, story swaps, book club meetings, etc. Then expand out to a wider area, to nearby cities, to nearby states. Eventually, expand out to an even wider audience.

When someone hears you speak, they become a bigger fan than if they had just read your book. If they like you when they hear you speak, they will tell ten times more people than by just reading your book.

Speaking is especially effective for spirituality, mind/body/health, self-help, romance and relationships, business, how-to, and religious titles (as well as memoirs and children's books). 95% of the New York Times bestsellers in these categories gained a lot of their sales momentum from the authors speaking over and over again.

7. Book Yourself on National TV.

TV is still the largest mass market media. It reaches more people than any other media - and with more impact. It's worth spending the time contacting the ten or twenty news and talk shows that reach your audience.

For most national TV shows, you can get the contact information in one of three ways:

1. from their websites,

2. by checking the ending credits of the show, or

3. via your network of friends and fellow authors.

To book an appearance on a major national TV show, you have to tie your book, topic, or cause into a current news or celebrity event.

Have a book on relationships? Tie it into the latest celebrity wedding, breakup, or new relationship.

Have a book on business? Tie it into the Facebook IPO, the G8 summit, or the J P Morgan Chase fiasco.

Your appearance on one major TV show will not only expose you to millions of viewers, but it also opens the door to dozens and sometimes hundreds of other media: newspapers, magazines, radio, more TV shows, etc.

8. Hook Up with Reading Groups.

This tip is especially valuable for novels and memoirs – since those are the kinds of books that most local reading groups read and discuss.

Start by asking your local bookseller for local reading groups that read books like yours. Most reading groups are centered around fiction (novels and short stories), but some also focus on poetry, self-help, relationships, social issues, woman's issues, travel, etc.

When you find a few local reading groups, offer to answer questions if they choose your book. Tell them you will come to their meeting and answer questions live. For more distant reading groups, offer to answer questions via a phone call.

Once you've established relationships with some local reading groups, you might want to offer the same live Q&A sessions to bookstores across the country. You can email over 700 indie bookstores using the Top 700 Independent Bookstores data files (available via http://www.bookmarket.com/top700.htm).

Ask the booksellers to suggest local reading groups which might be interested in your particular book. At the same time, ask them for the name, email address, and phone number of the leader of the group. Then contact those leaders with your offer.

Besides live Q&A sessions, you could offer these reading groups a reading guide to your book, a list of questions to consider, background info on you or the book (character bios), and other material that would encourage them to read your book. You can send these out as short ebooks or offer webpages with this info.

When you have a few successful events with book groups, ask the leader or members for testimonials telling how much they enjoyed the interaction with you. Use those testimonials to help you book more reading group events.

9. Work with Bookstores to Sell Your Book.

Booksellers can make an incredible difference in helping you to sell your book. One bookseller sold over 1,500 copies of a mid-list novel that she fell in love with. She hand sold them to everyone who came into the store and asked for a reading recommendation.

When setting up bookstore appearances, don't just sign up for a book signing. Do a reading from your novel, or do a short 20-minute lecture on the subject of your book.

With novels, start reading somewhere in the middle (with perhaps a brief intro to that section of the novel) and end at a cliffhanging point in the story.

When bookstores book appearances with authors, they generally do the following promotions:

newsletter listing (print and/or email)
website listing
blog about the upcoming appearance
tweet to their followers
put something up on Facebook
put up a poster
list the event in the local newspaper calendar sections and other media that do event listings

As the author, you should help the bookstores to get more readers into their stores by doing some of the following:

Contact the local newspapers and try to get an interview. Ask the local bookstore for their media list.
Contact local radio and TV shows and try to book an interview.
Tweet about your appearance.
List your appearances on your Facebook fan page and other social media pages.
Blog about it.
List all appearances on your event calendar on your website.
Contact local reading groups about your upcoming talk.
Offer booksellers posters, bookmarks, or other supporting promotional material for your book that they can post in their store or give away.

As with other people you work with, ask booksellers to provide you with testimonials. Booksellers respect the recommendations of fellow booksellers.

10. Build an Author Platform.

Begin today to dominate the Internet for your name, book title, and book subject. Build your platform so that no one can miss you when they seek out you, your book, or your topic via the Internet.

The Internet is the most significant marketing and promoting tool ever invented for getting the word out about a new book, product, service, or cause. You can reach people around the world at very low cost via the Internet. Start by dominating the social networks.

For example, if you Google my name, you'll find I dominate the first page (note that the listings may vary for you depending on when you do the search):

1. My website: http://www.bookmarket.com

2. Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/johnkremer

3. LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkremer

4. Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-kremer (my blog on The Huffington Post)

5. AskJohnKremer.com: http://www.askjohnkremer.com (another of my blogs)

6. Blogger: http://www.blogger.com/profile/16486115512048790419 (my profile on Blogger, where I host another of my blogs)

7. Gather: http://johnkremer.gather.com

8. Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/John-Kremer/e/B001H6L2T4 (my Author Connect profile on Amazon)

9. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/johnkremer (my personal profile on Facebook)

10. MyIncredibleWebsite: http://www.myincrediblewebsite.com (a personal hobby website where I test out various traffic-getting strategies as well as share personal interests).

The second page of Google includes my GoodReads.com profile, The Book Marketing Network social network I founded, a YouTube video of me, my MySpace profile, and my Google Plus profile.

The third page of Google includes my Quora profile, several other websites of mine, my Forbes.com profile, one of my Twitter lists, and a number of guest appearances on other websites.

While the name John Kremer isn't as competitive as Judy Smith or Gregory Jones or many other names, I am competing against a vice president of marketing at Yahoo, a German psychologist who has written several books, a championship bass fisherman, several high school and college athletes, and at least 50 other John Kremers around the world. And 25 of the top 30 Google listings still point to me.

There's nothing that prevents you from doing the same - building a similar Internet platform and dominating it for your name, book title, or book subject.

Go to it. Start today!

=====

Well, those, were 10. Can you give me numbers 11 and 12? Just comment below. Much appreciated.

=====

John Kremer is the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, webmaster at http://www.bookmarket.com and http://www.askjohnkremer.com and other websites, developer of the Traffic Interchanges Internet Marketing Program, and founder of The Book Marketing Network (http://www.thebookmarketingnetwork.com), a free social network for book authors, publishers, publicists, ebook authors, self-publishers, and others interested in writing and promoting books and ebooks.

The Top 10 Things You Can Do in 2012 to Sell More Books, Part I

2012-05-22T00:14:00.000-07:00

These top 10 ways are not in any particular order of priority. But the first five tips involve marketing and promoting your book via the Internet. The final five tips primarily involve marketing and promoting your book in the real world.

1. Comment on Top-Rated, Highly-Targeted Blogs.

Your first priority should be to establish relationships with top-rated, high-traffic blogs and websites that target your topic and/or your audience.

One of the best ways to do that is to comment on the blog posts and articles featured on your target blogs or websites. If you write smart useful comments, the blogger or website owner will notice – and, just as important, so will that blogger's or website's readers.

If you leave good comments often enough, there's a good chance the blogger or website will invite you to become a regular commentator, guest poster, or columnist.

This strategy requires that you make a list of 20 to 30 such blogs and websites and focus on commenting on 3 to 5 of those blogs or websites every day. You must have on-going consistent interaction with your targeted blogs and websites.

The alternatives to writing comments on blog posts or articles is to do one or more of the following:

Tweet their new blog posts or articles consistently.
Post their new blog posts – with comments and links – on your Facebook page. And LinkedIn page. And other social network pages.
Pin (on Pinterest.com) an image from their new blog posts or articles – and write a comment to accompany that image.
Write a weekly round-up of the top blog posts for your topic (featuring, of course, the blog posts and articles from your targeted websites and blogs). Post that round-up to your blog. Feature it in your newsletter. Tweet about it, etc.

2. Create a Viral Video.

I'm not talking about the bland book trailers many authors are creating and posting. I'm talking about videos that are actually watched and shared with others.

There are three ways to create viral videos – or, at least, to get more views for your videos:

Piggyback off videos that have already gone viral (or are in the process of going viral).
Create videos like the one showcased at blueribbonmovie.com – a combination of great words, images, and music or spoken words.
Create a YouTube channel and post new videos two to three times a week. The goal is to build an audience for your videos over time by consistently producing new videos two to three times a week.

Study the videos you like, especially the ones that get tons of views. Model those when creating your own videos.

Be sure to include your website URL (for example, http://www.bookmarket.com) at the beginning of your video description on YouTube. For the URL to be clickable within the description, you must include the beginning http://www.

3. Write a Q&A Column.

Offer to write a Q&A column for a high-traffic website targeting your audience. You might target a magazine website for this column (because it might also lead to a column in the magazine itself).

Connect with the website via its Facebook page, Twitter page, YouTube channel, blog, or forum. Begin the relationship there, and then build it into a real relationship where they will welcome further input from you – and suggestions on new columns.

The value of a Q&A column is that it allows you to be featured on the home page of a high-traffic website on a regular basis. The column almost write itself once you start getting an audience. Readers send you questions, and you answer them with succinct, but useful answers.

4. Offer Free Ebooks.

If you want to build up an audience for all your work and jumpstart word of mouth, give away your book as an ebook (or sell it for 99 cents) as a Kindle ebook.

Give away the ebook as a PDF or Word document on your website (but capture the requester's email to build your email list).

More important, though, is to give away your ebook on high-traffic, highly targeted websites (targeted to your topic or audience).

You might be seeing a pattern in my advice so far.

5. Do a SuperStar Blog Tour.

Or a Mega Blog Tour. Or a Blogpalooza. I’m not talking about the old-style humdrum virtual book tour of 15 or 20 blogs. I’m talking about an event blog tour that creates Internet buzz on a major scale. Event blog tours can build brands, create incredible website traffic, and sell tons of books.

The neat thing is that effective event blog tours take less time to carry out than the traditional Amazon Bestseller Campaign - and are almost always more effective in selling books, building a brand, and driving traffic.

If you want to know more about event blog tours, check out this recording of me speaking about the value and method of carrying out an effective impact blog tour: http://www.bookmarket.com/blog-tour-palooza.htm.

Be sure to read points 6 through 10 as well. Check out the rest of the post here: http://blog.bookmarket.com/2012/05/top-10-things-you-can-do-in-2012-to_22.html

Teleseminar: Get Your Products Noticed and Sold

2012-05-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

Sam Horn, author of POP! Create The Perfect Pitch, Title and Tagline, is joining Steve Olsher for a value-packed conversation about how you can get your products and services noticed, remembered, and bought.

Best of all, you'll have a chance to ask Sam about your business and receive her on-the-spot coaching (which you'd normally pay thousands for) on creating a unique value propostion (UVP) that your ideal clients instantly understand and are ready and willing to pay for.

In the first 5 minutes of this interview, you'll understand why Seth Godin and many others love Sam, and why her clients credit her with helping them land millions in funding, close deals, and catapult their impact and income.

It's not everyday that one has the privilege of learning directly from someone who wrote the book on creating the perfect pitch, title and tagline.

On Wednesday, May 23rd at 4:30 pm Eastern, you have a chance to do exactly that.

There are two ways to participate for free:

Online: http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventID=29530272

Phone: 206-402-0100 and enter pin code 937087#

Again, that's this coming Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. Eastern, 1:30 p.m. Pacific.

Sam is also making a rare, open-to-the-public presentation at Internet Prophets LIVE! on June 8th to 10th. You're invited to see Sam along with Jay Conrad Levinson, Larry Winget, Janet Bray Attwood, Armand Morin, Mike Filsaime, John Kremer, and 23 other world-class Internet marketing and mobile marketing experts as they share their proven, no- and low-cost guerrilla strategies for profiting online.

To reserve your seat, please click here: http://www.internetprophets.com/?10006. Tickets are only $147 and less than 60 seats remain available. No matter your line of work, you'll walk away with hundreds of tangible, actionable initiatives you can immediately leverage to transform your business.

SkillBites: A New Opportunity for Book Promotion

2012-05-18T00:09:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Judy Weintraub

One of the success tips widely touted by content marketing experts is to re-purpose your material so, with minimal additional effort, you can leverage your prior efforts across multiple platforms and develop additional income streams. If you’ve written a book, for instance, you can use the material for speaking engagements, blog posts, and articles.

There is a new way you can re-purpose your material and create ongoing passive income: Create a SkillBite.

A SkillBite is a convenient how-to resource (short-form media such as an ebook, podcast or video) designed to be absorbed in 10 to 20 minutes. It has just enough content to enable the audience to implement the concepts contained within with reasonable proficiency, but is short enough to fit into any busy schedule.

Michael Tasner, bestselling author of Marketing in the Moment: The Practical Guide to Using Web 3.0 Marketing to Reach Your Customers First, wrote a SkillBite ebook called The Complete Guide to Twitter Traffic. By reading this resource, the reader learns basic to intermediate-level tips that help them increase their traffic on Twitter, from choosing the right user name, to designing an engaging landing page, actively participating in Twitter communities, and automating campaigns - all in under 20 minutes.

"Skillbites.net has given a new and innovative platform to sell my books. Not only was their process easy and effortless, I've already made a nice profit from selling the book!” - Michael Tasner of Taz Solutions

Jay Levinson and Terri Levine, co-authors of Guerrilla Marketing for Spas, have written a SkillBite with the same name. Obviously it doesn’t include all of the concepts in the full book, but rather covers the most important tips and techniques – the ones that will get the user the most bang for the buck. In less than 20 minutes, for less than the price of a Vente Starbucks coffee, the reader can acquire valuable information while the authors collect regular commission checks from sales which require no more effort than creating the SkillBite itself.

The SkillBites publishing platform provides a new venue for content and is supported by the following services:

Access to ghostwriters who produce or condense an author’s work
Access to editors to refine an author’s work
Arrangement of audio or print production of the author’s SkillBite
Expanded distribution through the sale of the author’s SkillBite via alternate channels such as Amazon and Kindle.

Authors retain the copyright to their material and, for a limited time, there is no upfront fee to launch a resource on the platform’s main portal, SkillBites.net.

SkillBites has designed a simple process for authors to publish their works. They support authors with frequent communications, marketing assistance, blog posts, social media support, contests, and other tools.

About the Author

Judy Weintraub is the founder of SkillBites.net and the author of The Essentials of Negotiating Effectively and Building Successful Partnerships, both of which are available at Skillbites.net.

In addition to operating SkillBites.net, Judy is an attorney with the firm Weintraub Legal Services, providing responsive legal services to businesses as well as mediating and arbitrating commercial disputes.

For more information on how to create a SkillBite, visit http://skillbites.net/submit-your-content or call SkillBites at 855-754-5524.

Promo Day 2012: A Book Promotion Event

2012-05-13T00:02:00.000-07:00

What is Promo Day 2012?

Promo Day is a free online international event for people in the writing industry. A whole day dedicated to promoting, networking and learning.

As Promo Day is an entirely virtual event there are no travel or accommodation expenses and people from all over the world can take part. Virtual attendees can ask questions during the workshops in the forum, promote their writing, and network with other attendees and presenters - all from the comfort of their own computer.

When is Promo Day?

This year's event takes place on Saturday, May 19th, all day.

Where does Promo Day take place?

http://www.PromoDay.info

Who can take part in Promo Day?

Avid readers, writers, authors, publishers, editors, graphic designers, etc. That means anyone with an interest in books, blogging, writing, marketing, and networking from anywhere in the world.

2012 Promo Day workshops (just a few):

How to make LinkedIn work for you with Jo Linsdell
Creating your own online newspaper with Terri Main
Radio interviews with Denise Turney
365 days of promotion with Sandy Lender
How to generate a marketing domino effect with Karl Staib
Blogging with Jo-Anne Vandermeulen
Book reviews with Dana Lynn Smith
Using Pinterest to market your book with Penny Sansevieri
Social media marketing with Jan Verhoeff
How to sell more books with John Kremer
Self-publishing with Valerie Coleman

How do I register for Promo Day?

Just go to the Promo Day website http://www.PromoDay.info and click on Register for Free Entry. You then just complete the registration form to create your profile.

Author Success Story: Getting Local Publicity for Memoirs

2012-05-12T05:09:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Dennis Foley

May 1st was the official release of my new book, The Drunkard's Son, a Chicago Story. About six weeks before the release date, I contacted a number of newspaper columnists and radio hosts in the Chicago area to gauge their interest in the book. Two media people who I had interviews with about seven years ago when my first book came out asked for copies of the new book and for interviews.

As a result, columnist Mark Brown of the Chicago Sun-Times ran an article in the Sunday paper on April 29th and Rick Kogan of WGN-Radio had me on for a half-hour interview on the same day.

We sold about 500 copies in 5 days as well as 50 kindle copies. And what's best is now more members of the media are taking an interest in the book. The Chicago Tribune sent out a photographer to do a photo shoot for an article that will run in about two weeks and after I contacted two local Chicago neighborhood papers with the links to the Sun-Times article and the WGN Radio interview, they called for interviews and are now running stories on the book.

I also made copies of the Sun-Times article and handed out these copies to students and teachers at the high school where I teach. The students and my fellow teachers were already supportive of my book, but the Sun-Times article worked to give the book even more credibility and more sales.

About the Author

Dennis Foley is the author of The Drunkard's Son published by Side Street Press. More details here: http://www.sidestreetpressinc.com.

Six Figure List Building Web Summit

2012-05-10T04:21:00.000-07:00

As part of her upcoming Six Figure List Building Web Summit, Kathleen Gage has put together an amazing line up of experts to share their best strategies on building your customer and prospect lists.

In addition to the 14 experts teaching the best of the best with list building, Kathleen is giving a 3-part live training webinar on how to create profitable telesummits. This alone is great stuff.

Imagine the power behind knowing how to build a powerhouse list and creating telesummits for your market. The combination of the two is incredibly powerful.

There's just one thing, this program with the bonus live 3-part training is only available until Tuesday, May 15th at midnight Eastern time.

The 14 experts, all of whom make 6 and 7 figures via online marketing, will describe how they go about building their lists. It is their subscriber lists that allow them to sell more products, build an indelible brand, generate multiple streams of income and, most important, serve their audience.

Find out more here: http://www.askthebooksellers.com/KG

Here’s some of what you will learn from the 14 List Building Experts:

The quickest, most effective way to use Facebook to build a great list.
How to make great money even if you have a small list.
How to identify your ideal clients so you don’t waste time chasing after the wrong market (knowing this will save you time, frustration and money).
How to build your list organically so you don’t have to pay for leads.
When to use paid advertising and when to steer clear of it.
How to avoid the most common and costly mistakes most people make with their list building efforts.
How to build conscious partnerships that create a winning outcome for everyone.
The #1 thing you MUST do to build your list effectively.
How to assure people want to stay on your list and are excited to buy your products and services.

You can sign up here for the Six Figure List Building Web Summit: http://www.askthebooksellers.com/KG

The Wall Street Journal Reports: 10 Ebook Novels in One Year

2012-05-08T00:14:00.000-07:00

Glenn Beck is getting a lot of publicity on his new plan to publish a 10-book series of novels as ebooks. Watch this Wall Street Journal TV report:

Notice how the media expect him to make a ton of money via ebook publishing because of his publisher platform.

The beginning of the story in the Wall Street Journal:

Two years ago, while on vacation, talk-show host Glenn Beck read all six books in Chris Stewart's series The Great and Terrible. In its good-versus-evil story line he saw a metaphor for the current state of the world.

Now Mr. Beck's publishing imprint is having the books rewritten and re-edited into a series of 10 e-books that blend Middle East politics, techno high jinks, and end-of-the-world derring-do, while cutting the references to Mormon scripture and gospel beliefs.

The series will be released over the next 12 months, reshaped for a broader audience...

Here is the link to the video on WSJ.com (if the above video doesn't work): http://online.wsj.com/video/glenn-beck-turns-focus-to-e-books/3C6B0564-0211-4ED1-8B68-9D09CA32BCF3.html

The story on WSJ.com

Walt Disney on Laughter, Imagination, and Dreams

2012-05-07T04:43:00.001-07:00

Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. And dreams are forever. - Walt Disney

Author Success Story: Nepotism Sometimes Works

2012-05-07T04:09:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Joyce Davis

My niece owns a small boutique shop in Hood River, Oregon. I sent a number of my horse books to her and, voilà, a royalty check every quarter. My greatest reward was hearing that a stable owner shared quotes from my book with her customers by pasting them on the walls of her barn.

I continued marketing in that vein while living in Hawaii, giving books to small boutique shops or small book stores. As a result one owner agreed to give me a book signing day.

The book is about my experience in getting back into horses after a 40-year hiatus without them. I figured I needed to know more than climb aboard and take off for tall timber, so I studied and wrote about it. The result is It’s Hard to Stay on a Horse While You’re Unconscious. I know, a long title. Now, I think it ought to be retitled Whoa!

The unconscious part, however, can be considered both a physical and psychological state. In it I wander through my spiritual thoughts, as well as putting forth some biology research by including two appendices: one on the horse’s brain, the other on the horse’s eye. Both help to explain why a horse sometimes acts in strange and unpredictable ways. Mostly the book is a testament of my love affair with horses that has endured since I was 9 years old.

About the Author

Joyce Davis is the author of It’s Hard to Stay on a Horse While You’re Unconscious. Find out more about her book here: http://www.wishonawhitehorse.com/things_to_do.

Book Author Success Story: A Beginning

2012-04-22T00:05:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Marion Mathis

After I retired I asked what to do with so much time. After doing a personal inventory of my experiences and background I decided to write a book. In school I had been told that I should be a writer. My father was a plumber and as the story goes he steered me to a real man’s job. I didn’t even think about writing as I raised a family and worked.

Turns out writing the book was the easy part. Selling it, getting it recognized in the public eye has been the real challenge.

Chapter fourteen takes place at the 10,000-person Dallas Margarita Ball in Dallas. Because of this, the charity's Ball Director gave me exposure to their attendees and helped me get on a local Barnes & Noble New Mystery shelf. I made cold calls to Barnes & Noble store managers and gave them free copies to read and maybe stock. This resulted in another Barnes & Noble store stocking my book. It is too early to tell how many more stores will chose to stock my book.

I was able to round up over 3,000 email addresses to send personal memos to describing the story and asking for their consideration. I included the story line pulled from the back of The Tear in the body of the email. This effort has been difficult to measure though I have confidence that it has increased my exposure and maybe word-of-mouth advertising.

In addition, I have sent copies to soldiers overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan as well as other military bases. I was able to find the addresses and requests from the website Books for Soldiers. This again is difficult to quantify but my feeling is that it will promote the book. The books will be passed around from soldier to soldier getting a lot of exposure. In the final analysis, whether the book is a good read or not will determine its real success.

About the Author

Marion Mathis is the author of of a debut thriller, The Tear of Ra, The Second Coming of 9/11. His book can be ordered via his website at http://www.MarionMathis.com.

Prior to writing his first novel, he served as an Electronic Officer in the Navy aboard an aircraft carrier operating out of the Pacific Ocean and the Far East. During his tenure with the Navy he occasionally worked with the Navy’s Intelligence group.

He graduated from Southern Methodist University and resides in Dallas, Texas.

Book Marketing on the Mobile Web

2012-04-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Deltina Hay

Thinking of the mobile web as just a new way of using the same old Internet is a mistake. The mobile web is more than people using smaller screens to access the Internet. It is also about how people are changing the way they use the Internet - and the new tools that are emerging as a result.

Almost all people with mobile devices (over 5 billion) have Internet access via their mobile device. More importantly, people are taking advantage of that access by searching, purchasing products, and clicking through on mobile ads at unprecedented rates.

This is great news for those of us who market on the Internet. But it can be equally bad news for those who are not prepared for this mobile opportunity. Luckily, there are many affordable ways you can prepare your existing online presence and market your books on the mobile web.

Mobile-Optimized Websites

If you rely on your website to market your books, then it is imperative that you offer a mobile version of your website. But before leaping in and creating a mobile website just because you need one, pull back and plan for a mobile site that meets your readers' needs, fulfills your marketing objectives, and integrates the features you need now and in the future.

Plan for User Expectations - People use the Internet differently on mobile devices than they do on PCs. Mobile device users typically know what they want when they reach a mobile website, and are more likely to take action once they get there. Plan for this behavior by prioritizing the content on your mobile site.

Plan for Marketing Objectives - Mobile visitors are not going to navigate around your site the way they might on a PC, so have your immediate goals in mind when planning your mobile site. What are the goals of your mobile website: sell more books, get book reviews, drive traffic?

Plan for Mobile Features - Mobile device users love to access social media sites and share information, and they are location and action motivated. Using this insight, include mobile-friendly features on your website that encourage visitors to share and review your books, access your social media sites, and make purchases.

Choosing the Best Solution - There are a host of mobile website solutions available, and choosing the right one can seem daunting. But with careful planning, you can narrow your choices to the solutions that best fit your needs. Here is an article that can help you make sense of the mobile website solutions available: http://mobilewebslinger.com/2012/04/18/mobile-website-solutions-for-everyone.

Use Mobile Website Best Practices - Regardless of the mobile website solution you choose, there are some mobile website best practices that should be applied to mobile sites (http://mobilewebslinger.com/2012/04/20/16-mobile-website-best-practices). These practices can help you create your own mobile site and help you narrow your options if you are considering a service.

Mobile Apps

Mobile applications can offer an unencumbered environment in which to engage your audience. A well-planned mobile app can give you additional exposure and improve reader interaction. Mobile apps can also be great outlets for selling books and ancillary material.

But mobile apps are not for everyone. Depending on their complexity, mobile apps can be expensive to develop and maintain. It may be best to focus on optimizing your mobile website and on making it easy for users to save your website as a shortcut on their mobile devices’ home screen.

If you decide to add a mobile app to your mobile web strategy, there are a number of affordable tools to help you get started. The Bootstrapper's Guide website is a great resource for services, tools, and tutorials for creating mobile apps.

Mobile Landing Pages

When planning a mobile ad campaign, plan it all the way through. When targeting a mobile audience, make certain your ads direct users to a mobile-optimized landing page. Further, any calls-to-action on your mobile landing page should direct users to mobile-friendly destinations.

QR Codes

QR codes are two-dimensional bar codes that, when scanned by a mobile device, return information like maps or product info, or direct users to a specific URL or mobile app.

QR codes can be beneficial to marketing and useful to your readers. In addition to placing them on business cards and posters, place QR codes inside your books directing readers to ancillary material, further reading, mobile apps, videos, etc.

Placing a QR code on the cover of your book can direct users to landing pages with more information or special offers. This could mean the difference between a reader buying your book or the next one on the shelf.

QR code on back cover and interior page of a book.

Location-Based Marketing

Location-based services offer people a way to connect around a particular location, whether it be a café, a theater, or a park. Users check in (letting others in their network know where they are) from that location and comment, leave reviews, and even reap rewards from within the service. Some popular location-based services are Foursquare, Google Places, Yelp, and Facebook Places.

Even if your book has nothing to do with locale, you can take advantage of location-based services. Use these services to check in with your readers from location-based hot spots. You might also consider partnering with a local coffee shop or bookstore to promote your book through their check-in rewards. There are many useful location-based marketing strategies to explore: http://thebootstrappersguide.com/locationbasedservices.html.

Augmented Reality

When you hear the term augmented reality, you may have a futuristic vision of people walking around viewing the world through Internet-powered glasses. But there is another facet to this technology that is relevant to marketing your books in the present: object recognition.

Google Goggles is a case in point. Goggles is a mobile application that recognizes objects that a user scans and returns information on that object. It recognizes location information, common objects, logos, and so forth. This may seem frivolous at first, but watch what happens when I scan one of my book covers using Goggles.

Book cover scanned by Google Goggles

Not only does Goggles recognize the cover and return the title information, it directs the user to Google Product Search which lists many options for purchasing the book.

Near Field Communication

Near field communication (NFC) is chip technology that allows close proximity transactions to take place. Unlike QR codes, NFC provides two-way communication. Thus a user can swipe an NFC chip embedded in a poster or on a product with their smartphone and a transaction takes place – like purchasing tickets, making a reservation, or buying a product. If you have heard of Google Wallet, then you have heard of NFC technology.

But let's think beyond Google Wallet. Imagine placing NFC stickers (http://www.tagstand.com) on your book's promotional material like posters or bookmarks. This type of promotion enables prospects to purchase your book on the spot with a simple swipe. And with all new smartphones coming off the assembly line with built-in NFC chips, this is less of a futuristic view than an opportunity for the taking.

About the Author: Deltina Hay

This article is based on Deltina Hay’s new book, The Bootstrapper’s Guide to the Mobile Web: Practical Plans to Get Your Business Mobile in Just a Few Days for Just a Few Bucks, scheduled for release on May 1, 2012, from Quill Driver Books.

Visit the book's companion site, http://www.TheBootstrappersGuide.com for tons of free resources, worksheets, and examples to help build your mobile web strategy.

Deltina Hay is the author of the critically acclaimed books, The Social Media Survival Guide and The Bootstrapper’s Guide to the Mobile Web.

She teaches the online version of Drury University’s Social Media Certificate program and offers a video tutorial series on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/deltinahay).

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Book Marketing Update: Bill Peterson on Author Promotions

2012-04-19T00:05:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Bill Peterson

Missions of Fire and Mercy - Until Death Do Us Part is being marketed by myself through several different social outlets. My website is http://www.missionsoffireandmercy.com. Within my site, readers can connect to my Facebook, blog and Twitter messages. All interact with each other and I blog at this website several times a week and add chapters and new stories on occasion.

In addition to the above, I am a member of the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA), from whom I have been awarded a Silver Medal in the Memoirs category. I also blog on this website as well.

I am also a member of the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) where I continue to sell books and get great response through word of mouth advertising.

I am a member of several other veteran organizations where I continue to have input in the conversations there through email. I also add excerpts or chapters from my book through my email contacts occasionally. I also sent out emails to all my contacts announcing a book sale for a limited time.

I attend social gatherings such as the Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans. I have been to two of those and plan to attend two or three more this summer.

There are two retail outlets that I frequent where my books are offered for sale.

I have done four speaking engagements to vet organizations and a church group. My plan is to do as many engagements as I can at several area libraries and our local Boy Scout group.

I also am planning to write to three different magazines to feature a chapter from my book.

About the Author

Bill Peterson is the author of Missions of Fire and Mercy - Until Death Do Us Part. Find out more at his main website: http://www.missionsoffireandmercy.com.

Danny Iny's Write Like Freddy Blogging Tips Webinar

2012-04-18T00:14:00.000-07:00

Listen in to this great webinar I hosted for Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing and his new Write Like Freddy program for growing your blog's traffic by writing great blog posts.

Be sure to listen to the entire session because the Q&A at the end of the is very detailed. Lots of great questions. Lots of detailed answers. Worth listening to.

Click here to join the program and claim your bonuses!

Book Review: Social Media Marketing for Dummies e-Learning Kit by Phyllis Khare

2012-04-17T00:05:00.000-07:00

Guest post review by Lee Leffler

Authors who want results from social media need to read and follow Social Media Marketing for Dummies e-Learning Kit by Phyllis Khare. This new book (March 2012) explains in simple, clear terms how to market anything using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and more.

What distinguishes this book from the more technical books on social media marketing?

step-by-step instructions

full color

tons of screenshots

easy reading

Internet marketing strategy

Backed by the "For Dummies" brand (Wiley), this book does not waste ink on long anecdotes or musings. Divided into eight lessons, one per chapter, this 290-page volume breaks down each tool into bite-size pieces. You start by planning your approach to social media marketing and end by analyzing your return on investment (ROI). When you finish this book, you will have a viable plan, biographies and photos in various sizes, functioning accounts in Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn, a feedback mechanism, and an editorial calendar to keep you moving forward.

Quizzes and checklists help you take the right direction. The paperback edition includes a CD ROM with 3 hours of audio/video instruction.

The book's author, Phyllis Khare, is a social media expert with 30 years of educational performance experience. Her writing style is both fun and succinct, and her technical points are easy to comprehend.

She is the social media editorial director for iPhone Life magazine, co-author of Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies (Wiley, 2011), and a columnist (reach: 14 million+) for FB & Business, LI & Business, Tweeting & Business, and The Big G & Business.

Authors of all types are waking up to the value of social media marketing for promoting their works, themselves, and their ideas. Do not hesitate to purchase Social Media Marketing for Dummies e-Learning Kit in paperback or Kindle. The value of this social media guide is priceless.

About the Author

Lee Leffler has a Master of Arts degree in Professional Writing and an undergraduate degree specializing in Computers and Learning. A skilled writer, computer expert and computer trainer, she has worked in email marketing, website development, social media marketing, technical writing, technical support, training, software design and software testing.

Known as The Newsletter Gal, Lee specializes in email marketing. She owns Web Marketing Star, an Internet marketing services company.

Seth Godin on the Real Business of Book Publishing

2012-04-16T00:05:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Seth Godin

The biggest problem facing book publishing has nothing to do with the Justice Department or agency pricing.

No, the challenge the big book publishers are facing is that a perfect industry is being replaced by one filled with chaos and opportunity.

Perfect? Limited shelf space plus limited competitors plus well-understood cost of creation and production meant that stability reigned. The industry was polished and understood.

For three hundred years or so, book publishing had nothing in common with technology businesses where the underlying economics of the business were questioned regularly.

That meant that just about all of the creative energy in the business went into finding new content, not new business models.

Yesterday I wrote about a short film online called Caine’s Arcade (see film below). It’s worth noting that more people have spent ten minutes watching this film in the last week than have read all but a handful of books over the same period of time. And even more profoundly, that this short film has raised almost $200,000 for the star’s college fund without really trying.

Conceptually, this is a book.

Of course there’s no paper and there’s no store and there’s no sale. Which is why people in the book industry won’t see it as a book. That’s because they grew up in an industry that never worried about technology changing what they do or how they do it.

[As I read this, I'm worried that some my think I meant that Caine's Arcade ought to be turned into a book, written down and printed. Yikes. No, I meant that the act of finding Caine, of investing in a short film, of bringing that idea to the public--it's stuff like that that publishers are actually quite good at--the format and the economics will change, but the risky act of bringing ideas to the public is what publishers do.]

Revolutions enable the impossible at the same time they destroy the perfect. There’s entirely too much handwringing about how the perfect book industry is no more. That’s true. It’s no longer perfect. What’s happening now, though, is the impossible.

If the companies (and the people who work for them) are going to be in this business just five years from now, they will only thrive if they understand that an entirely new business model will have to be built and understood. And it will have nothing whatsoever to do with paper. It will be about ideas.

Which is what book publishing was supposed to be about all along, right?

About the Author

Seth Godin is the founder of The Domino Project and has written twelve books that have been translated into more than thirty languages. Every one has been a bestseller. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and, most of all, changing everything.

Caine's Arcade: The Film

Book Launches: How Do You Measure Their Results?

2012-04-13T00:07:00.000-07:00

Question from Reader:

I've been reading your tips on book marketing for some time now. Well, I have been facing a critical problem here with book launches. My question to you is:

How do you evaluate the need for a book a launch? A book launch technically should not be only to elevate your author. How do we judge the success and what should ideally be our parameters? Is it media coverage, turnout, sales, good word-of-mouth?

John's Answer:

I judge a book launch or any other marketing campaign by book sales first.

The other criteria - media coverage, traffic, word-of-mouth - are useful measures and will generally lead to book sales. But it is the actual book sales that count.

As for the need for a book launch, I think a launch is always needed in some form. Every book deserves a good launch.

Word-of-mouth, which is responsible for 80% of all book sales, doesn't occur in a vacuum. Something has to start the word-of-mouth. A good book launch is one of the best ways to start the word-of-mouth going for a book.

John Kremer is the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books as well as the developer of the following programs:

Book Marketing Magic: http://www.bookmarket.com/novelmarketing.htm - How to market novels, children's books, memoirs, and more. $48 special offer

15,000 Eyeballs Internet Marketing Program: http://www.bookmarket.com/15000eyeballs.htm - Ten lessons on how to get thousands of impressions for you, your book, your blog, or your website. $50

Real Fast Book Marketing: http://www.bookmarket.com/realfastbookmarketing.htm - How to sell 100 to 200 copies of any book in two weeks or less. $97

Blog Tour Palooza: http://www.bookmarket.com/blog-tour-palooza.htm - How to carry out a blog tour or virtual book tour that gets millions of impressions, builds your brand, and sells thousands of books. $297

How to Create a New York Times Bestseller: http://www.bookmarket.com/newyorktimesbestseller.htm - New York Times bestsellers don't happen on their own. You need to make them happen. Here's one key way to do that. Now only $97

20-Minute Book Marketing: 16 Markets for Your Books

2012-04-12T05:00:00.002-07:00

Here are a few of the venues and markets Doug Bolton has used to sell his self-help book, Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World.

Note: These are based on notes I took during Doug's appearance on my 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast series at http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-doug-bolton-on-finding-new-markets-for-your-books.

1. County Fairs - There are county fairs in the fall. You will need to pay a table fee, but you could go to every fair a county may have plus the state fair. I sold 26 books at my state fair last year.

2. Holiday Bazaars - At holiday time you could have a table at the many bazaars that are held. Again there will be a table fee, but you should sell many more books than needed to cover that cost. You can do the same with summer craft fairs.

3. Beauty Salons - The beauty salon is probably the most unusual. My wife has been going to the same hair dresser for many years. I lost my main barber, so I started going to her hair dresser to get a hair cut. I liked her work so I kept going. We became very good friends. When my book came out I told her about it. She bought one, and loved it. I then approached her about trying to sell it in her shop. We both thought it was stretching it a little. She decided to do it. I sold 23 books in one month there, because she loved the book. She told every costumer about it as she did their hair. A built-in sales lady with a trapped costumer!

4. Wineries - Many wineries have small gift shops in their wine tasting areas. I went to a local winery where I knew the owner. He was happy to let me place my book in his shop. I sold 7 books out of there (I still have books there). He also let me set-up a table during his Mother's Day brunch. I sold 7 more copies at that event. Then we put together a signing there, and I sold 13 more books there. A total of 27 books at one winery. Of course you have to be where there are wineries, but don't pass them up if you have them near. They are great outlets.

5. Private Mail Depots - They are places you can take your mail and boxes to be shipped. I have one only a mile away, and I used it for years to do my shipping. When my book came out, I approached them about selling it in their gift shop area. They agreed and I sold out of the first order in one month. I am now working on putting in a separate stand with books in it.

6. Bookstore Chains - Contact the nearest Barnes & Noble store. They love to feature local authors. I sold 100 books at my local Borders before they closed down.

7. Local Independent Bookstores - There is a small chain here in Oregon and up in Washington called Rainbow West. I was able to get 16 copies of my books spread out to all of 6 stores. There is another single independent bookstore in town, and I sold books there as well.

8. Reviews - Another avenue that some authors pass up are reviews. You don't have to pay to have a review. When you get a great review, the person that did it tells others about it. I got three book orders from Indiana just because a local reviewer in a small town did a great review, and the people that knew her bought the book. I also display copies of my reviews at signings.

9. Gift Shops - I am blessed to live near the Oregon coast, a haven for gift shops of all kinds. There is one town called Cannon Beach that has twenty gift shops in it. You can spend a day at one of these towns and do very well. Don't expect big orders. Gift shops will only want a couple of your books, but give them your card and mark on it how they can order more.

10. Drugstores - Independent pharmacies are a good outlet as well. They all have gift shops.

11. Doctor's Offices - I have sold books in chiropractor offices, dentist offices, my primary doctor's office. You won't be able to place them in a clinic that has several doctors, but if you have a private doctor, and he/she is open to letting you place a free book in his/her waiting room, you could do very well. I sold 5 at my own dentist office recently. They have three of my books at all times, and one free one in the waiting room. I get a call every once and while that they need more copies.

12. Churches - Talk to your own church about doing a talk and then sell your book afterwards. You should offer to give a percentage to the church. Then if this works, call all the churches in your area to see if you can do the same at their church.

13. Organizations - If you belong to any organization, see if they will let you have a table at any of their meetings. I sold books at a state meeting of retired teachers.

14. Consignment Shops - Consignment shops usually will put your books on sale. If you have a local Women's Assistance League in you town, talk to them about placing your books in their gift shop. I did that in my home town and sold 16 books there. You will have to expect a 40% share for them if you do a consignment.

15. Colleges - OSU bookstore has a section featuring books from authors who have graduated there. I just came up with another unusual way to sell books.

16. Coffee Clatches - You remember those when political people would had them in homes? Mine would be done during the summer and be outdoor events. You just need to find the right people to hold them on their property. It would need to have an area tat is big enough to hold up to a 100 people. Refreshments and snacks should be provided.

I am still looking for other new ways to sell. Anyone reading this guest post, please leave comments about any special markets you have found to sell your books. Thanks!

About the Author

Doug Bolton is the author of Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World. Check out his book at http://www.dougbolton.com.

You can read his blog at http://www.dailysignsofhope.com. His blog has over 11,000 followers and continues to grow by 40 or more followers every day. The secret to these numbers? As Doug notes, "The secret is posting everyday, and having great content."

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Here are two more book marketing venues provided by reader Roy Murry, author of The Audubon Caper: The Untold Story of the Theft of an American Treasure true crime book:

17. I work in a golf pro shop. The pro, my boss, lets me put books out while I work. His wife loved the book. The winter golf community bought 160+ books. Each day I work someone buys a book or gets a free first chapter copy.

18. The other venue is a bar. I have been going to the same bar for a number of years. They were so proud of me they had a book signing for me. I sold 48 copies.

This all happened because I gave out the first chapter of The Audubon Caper free (cost 10 cents a copy). That free chapter sells the book. Being in the right place also helped. My book was released March 22, 2012.

John's Comments: Over 200 copies sold from just two venues in less than a month. Now that is a book on the way to becoming a local bestseller for sure.

Check out Real Fast Book Marketing for more tips on how to sell hundreds of books in two weeks or less.

Please share your favorite venues for selling your books. Share in the comments below. Thanks!

Do You Waste Time and Money on Useless Book Marketing?

2012-04-12T00:18:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Jan Bear

For many authors, book marketing is overwhelming and exhausting. Experts tell authors how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest; and then there's blogging and guest blogging, participating in Goodreads, answering questions at forums, blog commenting. And that's not even to mention all the offline promotion.

On top of that, reliable sources say that your best marketing for this book is your next book.

The array of options is dizzying, and your time is limited. The truth is, any of those methods can work - for the right audience. And none of them will work for the wrong audience.

Target Marketing Is the Key

The principle of finding and meeting the right audience is at the heart of restoring sanity to your book marketing efforts. In marketing circles, it's called target marketing, and it involves finding the people who are most likely to want your book, and speaking directly to them. Once you know your target market, the rest of your decisions fall into place.

Choosing Your Book's Topic

The best time to start thinking about your audience is before you write your book. Knowing your audience can help you find an unmet need that your book can answer. If you're a doctor writing about diabetes, you may find out that there are many books about adult-onset diabetes but not enough about juvenile -- or vice versa.

Target marketing can tell you if the audience will support the effort you're planning to put into writing the book. If only a small audience shares your passion for the Atlantic hagfish, you may not want to devote years of effort on a massive exploration of its beauties, but instead write a short ebook to start building awareness and an audience.

Writing Your Book

Once you've chosen your topic, knowing your audience can help you write a more successful book.

If you're writing fiction, how you tell the story depends on who you're talking to. Children or adults? Science fiction or romance fans? People familiar with your setting or someone who has never been there? If you keep your audience in view, you'll help them enter into the story you're telling.

If you're writing nonfiction, knowing your audience will solve similar questions, such as how well versed they are in your topic and how much -- if any -- jargon to use. If you're writing to an audience reading English as a foreign language, you'll want to cut down on the idiomatic expressions, such as "Elvis has left the building." If you're writing to a hyperlocal audience, you might want to use the dialect of the people you're talking to.

Designing Your Website and Marketing Materials

If you know your target market, you can choose colors, images and fonts that make sense to them, make them feel at home. You will help them see you as one of themselves and view you as a trusted authority.

People are reading these nonverbal signals all the time - on the cover of your book, when they arrive at your website, when they pick up a promotional postcard at a book fair. They're asking, "Is this for me?" and they make that decision very quickly, before they've even had a chance to think about it.

You want to make sure you connect with your people, because otherwise the right ones won't see your book, and the wrong ones will be disappointed (and give bad reviews) if they read it.

Finding Your Readers Online

Now that you know who your audience is, you can invest your time in social media wisely. If your book is business-to-business, LinkedIn might be your best bet. If it's fiction, Goodreads will serve you better. You can use Twitter's search function to find your people on Twitter. The result is you're not talking about hours of browsing the social sites, but instead you can budget your time to get the best use out of it.

Meeting Your Audience Offline

When you know your audience, you can laser target your advertising and promotion efforts offline to make the most of your marketing budget. You can also find targeted audiences of people predisposed to like your work.

One woman, whose novel involved a beauty shop operator, set up a book signing in her hair dresser's salon. Another, whose murder mystery involved a racehorse, got a book signing at a horse racing arena and sold out all the hardbacks she took to the event.

By focusing on your audience, you can find where they congregate and get your book in front of them. So much easier than trying to scream loud enough to be heard by everybody.

Finding Your Book's Target Audience

Finding your book's target market takes some thought and imagination -- but authors have plenty of that. By crafting your message to the people most receptive, you not only save time and money on your marketing budget, but you also save yourself from the unnecessary discouragement of having the wrong people saying, "No."

There's never been a book that "everybody" liked. Embrace that, and find your people. Speak to them in words and images that they relate to. You'll find that your book marketing -- and the next book's writing -- go much more smoothly.

About the Author

Jan Bear helps authors build their online platform even if they don't have any experience producing for the web. She writes about book marketing at http://www.MarketYourBookBlog.com. She is the author of a new book, Target Marketing for Authors, available at fine online booksellers.

Book Readers As Production Designers

2012-04-11T00:07:00.000-07:00

Do you realize that every time you read a book without pictures you become a production designer, casting director, and costume designer? Hell, you can be a director if you want to. Whether you know it or not, when you read a book without pictures, your brain fills in the blank spots. You can see the people, how they are dressed, which way they are moving, and what it looks like around them. Neat, huh? - Peter Wooley, author of What! And Give Up Show Business?

I discovered the above great quote on a website I found via a wonderful video. So here is the progression of the discovery:

1. I was watching a video that will be included soon in one of my 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcasts.

2. That video led me to another video that was showcased on the original video's page. You can see the video right below, where production designer Peter Wooley describes the day he met actress Katherine Hepburn. It's a great story.

3. The above video led me to Peter Wooley's website at http://www.wooleypeterwooley.com where the top banner featured the following quote:

4. And that led me to checking out Peter Wooley's book, What! And Give Up Show Business?, which showcases many great stories about Hollywood movies and stars.

Note: Peter Wooley has been a production designer in the motion picture and television industries for over 30 years. His work includes Going Home, Sounder, Cleopatra Jones, Blazing Saddles, and High Anxiety.

Do you have any great Hollywood stories? Or stories about interesting encounters with famous book authors? If you do, please share them in the comments below. Thanks.

John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books

Book Publishers: Don't Belittle Your Book Authors' Ideas

2012-04-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Don Hendon

On May 5, 2010, I wrote to Milburn Calhoun, and suggested repositioning 365 Powerful Ways to Influence. I did this based on the advice of Mack Hanan, the well-known marketing consultant who wrote an excellent testimonial for my book.

Hanan thought my book should be retitled and sold as a reference book for salespeople and sales managers, using direct marketing and social marketing methods. It would not be sold through stores because big-box chains were reluctant to buy Pelican books based on their discount policy. The repositioned book would be similar to Physicians Desk Reference. The new title would be Salesman’s Desk Reference Book.

I did a market analysis, using the 2010 Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, and sent it to Calhoun.

My analysis showed there is a market of 11.5 million people in the U.S., including 2,816,100 sales managers, marketing managers, advertising and promotion managers, public relations managers, and supervisors of retail sales workers as well as 8,633,300 sales reps, including:

Sales reps working for manufacturers and wholesalers

Sales engineers

Insurance agents

Advertising agents

Real estate brokers

Securities, commodities, and financial services agents

Travel agents

Retail sales reps

Counter and retail clerks

Demonstrators and product promoters

Milburn Calhoun’s 14-word response, sent the same day: You failed to count 2,000,000 desk clerks, 50,000 personal trainers, and 200,000 pool attendants.

I thought it was rude and sarcastic. What do you think? I welcome your comments. Please contact me at donald_hendon@hotmail.com.

John's response: No book publisher should slam one of their book authors in this way. It's okay to disagree. It's okay to amend. It's okay to explain how their analysis is superficial or insufficient (if that is what you think). But it is not okay to treat their suggestions lightly.

Book authors are your lifeblood. Treat them well and they will help you sell more books.

Book Authors: Hold on to Your Rights

2012-04-08T00:02:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Don Hendon

Pelican, a publisher based in Gretna, Louisiana, is a family-owned business. The head is a retired medical doctor, Milburn Calhoun, in his middle 80s. Pelican specializes in regional books (Louisiana and the south) and cookbooks. Occasionally, they publish a mass-market book.

In early 2010, Pelican refused to give an extra 5% discount to big-box chains such as Wal-Mart, Costco, and Sam’s Club. As a result, those chains don’t carry Pelican’s books—with a few exceptions. In February 2010, Pelican released my book, 365 Powerful Ways to Influence. Sales were very low because buyers at the big box chains refused to handle it.

In late 2011, I found a notation on my royalty check indicating Pelican had sold the rights to my book to a publisher in India. I asked Pelican to tell me the name of the publisher, as specified in our contract. I told them I was going to India in late 2011 to give seminars and would like to work with the local publisher. (Note: I have given several thousand seminars in 36 nations on 6 continents.)

Pelican refused to give me this information, and they refused to give me copies of this book. Both actions were violations of our contract. I eventually found the name of the Indian publisher through an Internet search. I had to buy copies of the Indian edition of my book from online bookstores in India. In the meantime, I search the Internet to see if my 365 Powerful Ways book has been published in other nations.

Two of my other books have been published in several nations, and my original publishers have given me complete information, royalties, and copies of translated books. These books are:

Classic Failures in Product Marketing (Quorum, 1989). 5 foreign versions: Singapore (Toppan, 1990), Japan (Dobunken Shuppan, 1993), Malaysia (Hardknocks Factory, 2001), Thailand (A. R. Business Press), and Indonesia (Elex Media Komputindo, 2003). Plus a paperback version in the US (NTC Business Books, 1992)

How to Negotiate Worldwide (Gower, a UK company, 1989). 7 foreign versions: United States (Wiley, 1990), Norway (Dagens Naeringsliv Forlag, 1990), Italy (Franco Angeli, 1991), Taiwan (Commonwealth Publishing, 1992), Indonesia (Binarupa Aksara, 1993), Sweden (Richters Forlag AB, 1996), and Mexico (Editorial Lumusa / Grupo Noriega Editores, 2006)

I learned my lesson. I have retained the foreign rights to my latest book, Guerrilla Deal-Making, co-authored by Jay Conrad Levinson, the famous guerrilla marketing guru. It will be in bookstores in the late fall of 2012. It won’t be published by Pelican.

Please contact me if you have any comments. I’m at donald_hendon@hotmail.com. Web: http://www.donaldhendon.com.

Facebook Timelines: How to Design and Manage Them

2012-04-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

Guest Post by Seth W. Lieberman, CEO, Pangea Media/SnapApp

Below is a quick overview of some of the things Facebook page administrators should know to design and manage their Facebook Page with the new Timeline.

1. It’s not Optional. That’s right. Effective March 30, Facebook started migrating all company and brand pages to Timeline, a switch that it had started with personal pages several months ago.

2. Facebook Pages look different. There are all sorts of new things with Facebook Timeline:

Pages sport a cover photo which is a great way to set up the page personality, feature a close up of a product, etc. Just be aware that there are rules about what can/not be included.

Your profile picture has a new size—if you try to use your old one, it probably will end up off center, with random cropping, etc.

Tabs are now near the top of the page and feature icons. You can have 12 at a time.

Pinning and starring are a new way to highlight important posts.

You can no longer set a default tab for first time visitors—bye-bye like-gating your page. However, you can still like-gate tabs.

3. Private messaging is here. This means brands can respond directly to fans or visitors with the caveat that only the visitor can initiate the conversation. This is a huge opportunity for companies, but make sure your business has a strategy for dealing with a possible flood of inquiries and comments—positive and negative.

If you aren’t ready, you can turn this feature off; if you welcome a flood of inquiries, this is your chance!

4. Interaction is more important than ever. Timeline provides new opportunities for companies to interact with and engage their audience. The best way to take advantage of these opportunities is with engaging, interactive content.

Videos, quizzes, surveys, sweepstakes, contests, and coupons are the type of content that is most often interacted with, liked, shared, and otherwise consumed. Your best bet is to fill your Tabs and Favorite Apps slots with quality, interactive content and update it frequently.

5. Use the new Admin panel and Insights. Use the tools available to you to manage posts, post milestones, keep track of likes, networks, people talking about this, etc. To get deeper analytics on how your individual apps are performing including impressions, share rates, responses to calls to action, etc., make sure that you are choosing a solution that offers this information.

SnapApp recently hosted a webinar on Marketing Strategies Using Facebook Timeline that featured both tactical information like how many pixels a cover photo or profile image should be as well as information on some of the strategic/ content options that companies should consider.

About the Author

Seth Lieberman is the CEO of Pangea Media/ SnapApp. SnapApp is a marketing platform that empowers brands, publishers and agencies to foster conversations across the web. With the SnapApp platform companies can easily create engaging content including quizzes, surveys, sweepstakes, and contests that can be published on Facebook, websites, in emails, Twitter and more.

To learn more about SnapApp contact them at: 855-SNAP-APP or check out their website here: http://www.snapapp.com.

20-Minute Book Marketing Podcasts: Author Success Stories

2012-04-04T23:07:00.002-07:00

During the month of April I am hosting the 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast series on my Ask John Kremer blog. You can check out the podcasts as they are uploaded by clicking on the various links below:

April 1st - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: David Koop on Personal Selling - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-david-koop-on-personal-selling

April 2nd - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Anne Saunders on Travel Books - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-anne-saunders-on-travel-books

April 3rd - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Claudia Brownlie on Selling Kindle Ebooks - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-claudia-brownlie-on-selling-kindle-ebooks

April 4th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Marc Pitman on Using Twitter to Sell Factory Seconds - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-marc-pitman-on-using-twitter-to-sell-factory-seconds

April 5th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Erno Rossi on Back Cover Copy That Sells - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-erno-rossi-on-back-cover-copy-that-sells

April 6th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Danny Iny on Blogging to Sell More Books - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-danny-iny-on-blogging-to-sell-more-books

April 7th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Gary Goldstein on Social Media Promotion - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-gary-goldstein-on-social-media-promotion

April 8th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Tom T. Moore on Author Book Promotions - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-tom-t-moore-on-author-book-promotions

April 9th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Judy Belmont on Mommy Blogger Book Reviews - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-judy-belmont-on-mommy-blogger-book-reviews

April 10th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Paula Langguth Ryan on Selling Multiple Copies to Professionals - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-paula-langguth-ryan-on-selling-multiple-copies-to-professionals

April 11th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Cy Tymony on Getting Local Publicity - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-cy-tymony-on-getting-local-publicity

April 12th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Doug Bolton on Finding New Markets for Your Books - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-doug-bolton-on-finding-new-markets-for-your-books

April 13th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Jeffrey Marks on Selling Genre Novels - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-jeffrey-marks-on-selling-genre-novels

April 14th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Pierette Simpson on Local and National Book Launches - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-pierette-simpson-on-local-and-national-book-launches

April 15th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Michael Loyd Gray on Having a Great Agent - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-michael-loyd-gray-on-having-a-great-agent

April 16th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Judith Briles on Why Authors Fail - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-judith-briles-on-why-authors-fail

April 17th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Duke Lunsford on Motivational Seminars and PR - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-duke-lunsford-on-motivational-seminars-and-pr

April 18th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Dianne de Las Casas on Creating a Movement - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-dianne-de-las-casas-on-creating-a-movement

April 19th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Gerald Kolpan on Videos and PR - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-gerald-kolpan-on-videos-and-pr

April 20th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Catherine Lanigan on Author Promotions - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-catherine-lanigan-on-author-promotions

April 21st - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Stephen Schochet on Radio Interviews and Publicity - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-stephen-schochet-on-radio-interviews-and-publicity

April 22nd - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Anthea Carson on Book Signings and Book Events - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-anthea-carson-on-book-signings-and-book-events

April 23rd -20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Lissy Peace on Selling Movie Rights - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-lissy-peace-on-selling-movie-rights

April 24th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Mike McCann on Ebook Marketing - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-mike-mccann-on-ebook-marketing

April 25th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Anne Miller on the Power of Metaphors - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-anne-miller-on-the-power-of-metaphors

April 26th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Kathleen Rehl on Honeycomb Marketing - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-kathleen-rehl-on-honeycomb-marketing

April 27th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Jim Misko on Selling Books Via Costco - http://askjohnkremer.com/20-minute-book-marketing-podcast-jim-misko-on-selling-books-via-costco

April 28th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Kid Chef Eliana on Marketing Cookbooks - http://askjohnkremer.com/kid-chef-eliana-on-marketing-cookbooks

April 29th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Jane Lassar on Great Radio Interviews - http://askjohnkremer.com/jane-lassar-on-great-radio-interviews

April 30th - 20-Minute Book Marketing Podcast: Joan Stewart on Selling Books on Goodreads - http://askjohnkremer.com/joan-stewart-on-selling-books-on-goodreads

John Kremer is the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books as well as the developer of the following programs:

Book Marketing Magic: http://www.bookmarket.com/novelmarketing.htm - How to market novels, children's books, memoirs, and more. $48 special offer

15,000 Eyeballs Internet Marketing Program: http://www.bookmarket.com/15000eyeballs.htm - Ten lessons on how to get thousands of impressions for you, your book, your blog, or your website. $50

Real Fast Book Marketing: http://www.bookmarket.com/realfastbookmarketing.htm - How to sell 100 to 200 copies of any book in two weeks or less. $97

Blog Tour Palooza: http://www.bookmarket.com/blog-tour-palooza.htm - How to carry out a blog tour or virtual book tour that gets millions of impressions, builds your brand, and sells thousands of books. $297