What can you  do to get better results from your book marketing efforts?  Of course inherent in this question is how to get better results but still not break the bank doing so. Here are some out-of-the-box ideas I have seen have worked and some I have initiated that have worked that might help you.

Let’s start with the author who took to the streets in New York selling his book like some kids sell lemonade at lemonade stands during hot Summer days. According to this author he was able to sell more than thirty books each time he trekked out to sell on one or another street corner. Of course you can riff off of this idea and hold an event using a tool like Eventbrite or Meetup to create a buzz around the topic of your book. You could sell your book at a clothing store like I did with the book I helped three young women co-author, “Shy-Town Girls.” Here we held a fun event at a young women’s clothing store in Chicago and ended up with 50 or so book buyers. The store was also happy  as they were able to get in new people who might become long-term customers. This strategy for us also led to our book being picked up to sell in their store.

Second, try hosting a radio show on a site like Blog Talk Radio. I have been using this strategy for years and it has brought up our numbers (see the Blog Talk Radio link to the right of this page) to more than 10,000 listeners on some shows. Most people are actually getting tired from lots of reading and opt to listen to podcasts-radio shows like this as a nice break from the continual eye strain from reading.

Third, consider groups on LinkedIn that match your area of expertise and locate people there who might be interested in doing a book review of your book. For example, if you have a book on leadership, check out a group that focuses on leadership discussions. Look at the people most active in the group to approach to consider doing a book review. Of course you can also write reviews of other authors’ books that complement yours and then request a review. I have also had great results asking people who ask to link with me if they would like to receive a free review copy of my latest book, “Networking is Dead” and if they like it I ask if they would be so kind as to write a review. So far I have had over 50 people offer to review the book in the last few months.

What other strategies have you used that have worked? Want to learn more? Join us for a free tele-chat Tuesday, May 7th at 11 Central.

Dana Klosner entered my life eight years ago. She took me up on my offer to write a book that, I believe, is very needed in the world–a book for moms who want to re-enter the workplace. I have chosen to publish this book as I do with book ideas that are focused on making a huge impact in the world.

Join me as I work with Dana who I asked, in addition to me publishing this book, offer her insights on her journey. I think I picked a good person for this task as Dana is a seasoned writer with experience in this space. This will be the first of a number of blog posts about her journey. I hope it will help those of you looking to write your own book.

Dana

I met Melissa Giovagnoli (G) Wilson eight years ago when my husband was considering changing jobs. While he was in the midst of his job search I realized he must not be the only one mid-career considering making the jump. So, I did what I always do. As a freelance journalist I got to the job of researching the subject of how to make the switch without losing salary, benefits or vacation. It became a one thousand word article in the Working Section of The Baltimore Sun. Through that research I came across Melissa’s book, “Networlding; Building Relationships and Opportunities for Success” and she became one of my sources for the article. She was dynamic. She was a ball of energy. And she really believed in her motto of positioning yourself in mutually beneficial relationships. She believes in paying it forward and sharing her knowledge.

At that time, Melissa said to me, “You must be drowning in information. Much more than you need for a thousand word article. You should write a book!”

Me, write a book? Where would I start was all I could think. And with my two kids ages five and nine needing my attention and my writing career just beginning to take off it just didn’t seem possible. It never came to fruition.

Well, eight years and countless magazine and newspaper articles to later and my kids, now teenagers 13 and 17, not needing mom so much anymore I decided it was time. I wondered if Melissa was still out there? Did I miss a golden opportunity?

About three years ago I wrote an article for Long Island Parent On-Line about stay-at-home moms returning to work. I realized that was my calling. That was my book.

I found Melissa on Linked-In. I took the risk and contacted her. She got right back to me and wanted to hear more. We set up a time to talk on the phone.

I hit the jackpot. Over the years Melissa has expanded her business and has become a coach to CEOs and other professionals who want to write and market their books. I couldn’t believe my luck! She’s the book whisperer. We discussed my idea and Melissa thought it was great. She gave me my first assignment. Go to Amazon and look at all the other books on the market that are similar to my own. Look at the reviews. Of course take in what the favorable ones have to say, but maybe more importantly, look at the negative reviews and see what their books are missing. We should be sure my book includes what those are missing. I got to work. Those books reviewed said they were geared towards women with MBAs, Law Degrees and Doctorates and didn’t help the average woman. I will be sure to reach out to the average woman, who perhaps didn’t leave a high-level, high-paying job to stay home to raise her kids but left a more everyday job and now needs to start over.

Melissa was also a wealth of information as far as the marketing end of the business goes. This is more great news for me, because as a journalist the only person I had to sell my ideas to were editors. She mentioned people like Seth Goden a guru of marketers. She said she was one of only seventy people to be part of his Domino Project which is a sure fire way of getting the word out about your book.

She also mentioned she knows another marketing guru, Chris Brogan. I ran out and got Seth and Chris’s books and I am in the process of digging in to them.

I know that with Melissa’s help “From Mommy Track to Career Track” will be a success.

I’m looking forward to my journey with Melissa.

1. Become a Networlder. A Networlder, unlike a networker, has 10 or fewer key people they consider partners. These partners are participants in regular exchanges of emotional support, information, knowledge, promotional support, as well as leads and referrals for new business or career opportunities. The focus of Networlding is on mutually beneficial exchanges with like-minded and like-valued people. The great thing about Networlding partnerships is that they are fun and get results three to five times as fast as traditional networking relationships.

2. Create a Primary Circle. We all have networks. We just don’t necessarily realize it, and we spend most of our time with a few people. Networlding is about becoming aware of our network and consciously creating exchanges with a few people who become our Networlding partners in a primary circle. Social science research states that we can’t communicate regularly with more than 15 people. Therefore, we have found Primary circles are no larger than 10 people.

3. Initially, you only need one Networlding partner in your Primary Circle. In an extensive study we did with 200 executives, we discovered that the majority of people connect with only five Networlding partners once a month, every month. This means that even one person with whom you share similar or complementary values and who is ready, willing and able to become a Networlding partner, can create a whole new world of opportunities for you and you for them.

4. Find Networlding Influencers for your Primary Circle. These influencers are people who know how to influence and are ready, willing and able to do so for you and others with whom they Networld. For example, you might know people who are in your industry who are highly influential but are not Networlding influencers because they keep their power to themselves.

5. Put others in Secondary and Tertiary Circles. Again, whether you consciously do this or not, some people will fall into your secondary or tertiary circles. People who might go in a secondary circle are those who are not, right now, ready, willing or able to exchange with you once a month. These are people, however, with whom you should stay in contact with and connect every three months. Tertiary circles are for almost everyone else, because you never know who might become a good partner later and vice versa. This is especially true for LinkedIn,because as you build your first connections on LinkedIn, you will develop secondary and tertiary networks.

6. Become an influencer. You can be someone who is not at the top of your field, but because you are willing to practice influencing—connecting people together who have not yet met but who should meet—and you can quickly become a top influencer, creating many opportunities for yourself.

7. Spend 80 percent of your relationship building time with your Primary Circle. We know this is counter intuitive but once you have found those 10 or fewer great Networlding partners, spend the majority of your time focused on your partners and your “collective” gain. This will make all the difference in achieving better business opportunities, faster. I call it the Power-of-Ten. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a large secondary or even tertiary networks as evidenced on LinkedIn, but there can never be very many that form a close knit alliance and co-create with you. When I changed my way of growing my network I met Jocelyn, my co-author for Networlding. She was just taking the role of Chief Marketing Officer of Motorola. Because I offered her the opportunity to co-author Networlding with me, we formed a great partnership that resulted in a huge contract working with Motorola but also, through Jocelyn’s network, I was introduced to Larry Mohl who went on to become a chief learning officer at a couple of companies including American Express. Now Larry has become my most recent co-author on our parable similar to “The One Minute Manager” called “Networking is Dead.”

Treat each person you meet with uncompromising respect. Seth Godin, today, sent out a powerful email on conflict. He shared the insight that the way to address conflict is to respect those you are in disagreement with and by doing this, change the dynamic of the conversation to be more of a learning experience rather than a fight to see who is more right than the other party in the argument. If you respect others you will find the partners who are best suited for your Primary Circle. In the author world these people can be found through people you know but also through sites like LinkedIn and TED and Amazon where thought leaders are coming out with new and intriguing books daily

8. Be proactive rather than reactive. Proactive could look like you promoting someone you admire. I took this approach with both Seth Godin and ended up on his Domino Street Team. Now I have taken this approach with Chris Brogan. I took the time to join his great new program called “Mastering the Digital Channel” and getting coached by him and now, working to book him for speaking engagements. Proactive turns into third-party endorsement which really works in a world looking for constant great content from thought leaders.

9. Stay in touch with your connections. Wouldn’t it be easier to stay in touch with 10 people than thousands? Look, I have more than 50,000 people who follow me and I can’t keep in touch with them. But I can stay in touch with 10 people at a time and do all I can to make their lives better, and, in return, I benefit. Why? Read the next tip.

10. It’s all about “The Great Exchange.” When you find, engage, and promote the best people you currently know who are ready, willing and able to offer you something in return (e.g. you promote them and they provide you with a dollar return or coaching or something), you now can create a strong return on your investment of time. The other choice would be to keep doing what your doing, confusing activity with accomplishment with a low return on your time.

What other suggestions do you have? Please feel free to share.

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  Q&A: How digital anthropologist Brian Solis is reaching ‘Generation Connected
  ‘

I just joined a course created by Chris Brogan. It is much more interactive than any course I have taken and it is all online. Leave it to Chris to come up with a successful way to create both community and learning. Everyone is sharing so much good information. It will be a highly recommended suggestion to all my community folks. But what is most important and why I am sharing this info is that deciding to learn more about social media is a humbling experience.

Why? It’s because I have been involved in learning about all things online for marketing and more effective sales for more than two decades. I had to admit that I need to learn more. I needed to learn from an expert. What I’ve been learning now through this course is that now there exists a whole community of people who are ready, willing and able to learn from each other.

I am grateful that I did get humble, not just for this course but for all the things I know I need to learn. I love to learn. I am a geeky kind of girl. My husband calls me “Gadget Girl.” But I pale in comparison to the people in this course with Chris. They are amazing. What I am realizing is that if allow myself to be humble, to suck it up and just watch, listen and, of course, learn . . . now, I’m on my way.

Yes, it’s a long way, just the joy as they say is in the journey. I’m beginning to see just how true that is. So, what about you. Are you ready to learn? Where will you start? What cool group can you jump into? Let me know if you want me to share more about Chris and his course. As we all learn, we all benefit.

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1. Start with a great title. My suggestion is to use numbers, such as “Three Ways to (eg Write a Great Headline or Write a Winning Proposal or Strike Up An Engaging Conversation.)

2. Write from your personal experience. There is nothing better than a great story that is personal and filled with passion. For example, you might start with a success you had in your work where you didn’t think anything was going to work, but, at the last minute you came up with a great idea.

3. Ask a question that is provoking. Here, separate your question from your story. Ask an open-ended question, even something as simple as, “What do you think?” works as a call to action.

So, what other suggestions do you have? Share this post with your friends to get their ideas. Writing great posts will only improve your connection to your followers while also improving your writing skills.

Sugata Mitra is Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, England. He is also one of the winners of TED 2013. Below is his presentation on the future of teaching. He shows us all that children from all walks of life can learn the most complex subjects like computing, physics and mathematics with no live teacher but themselves. By sharing their learnings, child-by-child mentoring of one another and a deep curiosity and appreciation of learning, a magical thing happens–the playing field of true learning is undeniably and forever leveraged. This is “peer learning.”

Take a look. What do you think? How can you take this and use it in your community? 

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It’s the weekend! How many of you feel, first, great, but then . . . hit a low?

Here are 20 things I promise I am not going to do this weekend so I really let go:

1. I won’t think about the work I have piling up.
2. I won’t spend more than twice a day looking at my emails.
3. I won’t talk about business with my family or friends more than one hour.
4. I won’t read business books. (I love business books but need a break from them!)
5. I won’t watch any business shows (except for Shark Tank).
6. I won’t think about any new business ideas.
7. I won’t over eat (yes, I am getting into more personal things now).
8. I won’t try to plan every moment of my day (in my case that includes asking my husband not to do that for me! )
9. I won’t lay around and do nothing (that’s never good for anyone and it gets you depressed) which leads me to:
10. I won’t talk about depressing things.
11. Therefore, I won’t go see a depressing movie (my husband, again, tries to push this envelope, but I have his number now and pre-screen all movies, plays and anything that could resemble something depressing).
12. I won’t watch the news.
13. I won’t read the paper (too much of a risk to see depressing things).
14. I won’t stop thinking about good things. In other words, I’ll force myself to think positively.
15. I won’t write anything. I usually write during the weekends but, this weekend, I’ll relax more.
16. I won’t spend time worrying (of course easier said than done).
17. I won’t stay in all weekend (no matter what, I know getting out for some fresh air is important (no matter the weather this weekend in Chicago!)
18. I won’t stop imagining. (I have a strong imagination!)
19. I won’t say negative things (if I can help it.)
20. I won’t stop thinking of ways I can make a difference. (Yes, I am a Pollyanna.)

So what WON’T you do this weekend? Join me!

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It’s 9:30 on a beautiful Saturday morning in Palm Springs. I just stopped by the hospital around the corner to visit my sister who is gravely ill. I take a break after an hour visiting where all the connection I can get is a small hi and she falls back asleep. I’ll come back later to see her.

I go over to my brother Greg’s flower shop around the corner. I take pictures of his behind-the-scenes wedding preparation to keep me busy. After seeing my sister so sick, any little thing juxtaposed to that seems like a dazzling show of some kind.

I look at my latest book displayed in my brother’s florist shop and smile. This little showcase of his pride for my work touches me deeply. I realize what is most important, family, friends, sunshine and, of course, love.

Small. It’s not a word we think about when we think of sales. We want lots of business and lots of money. But what if we flipped our paradigm upside down and tried the idea of small when it comes to sales.

Seth Godin’s blog post today was focused on this exact subject. I would call it a paradox of sorts–start small to grow big. A couple of years ago I saw Seth practice his art of thinking small to his goal of “redefining publishing” did it work? Of course.

Over the past two years and into this year I found that thinking small to grow bigger and faster actually works so well that it increased my business by 50%. But why?

As Seth points out, it’s because you are focused on the individual rather than the masses. That more personal focus actually provide much better relationship leverage. The result? Better exchanges and, thus, better opportunities.

Finally, you just need a few exquisite happy clients or customers and you can experience yourself the “power of small”

Take a look at the amazing TED Talk, below, of Amanda Palmer. Amanda started her performing career as a street performer, connecting at the ground level, daily, with people all over the world. She crowd funded. She blossomed. She grew her Networld to tens of thousands. What she did not count on though was the judgment of crowds. But what she was able to accomplish eclipses the negative whiplash she experienced from her powerful and authentic connection and exchange with others.

As a book coach I am constantly asked how to grow one’s platform prior to a book coming out and when one should start. My answer is always, “Start connecting genuinely and start now.” Amanda’s story will help you understand how she accomplished both of these goals.

Check it out. Let me know what you think.