Online Promotion Made Easy

Ten Things Doctors Can Do To Get Speaking Engagements

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

By Scott Lorenz

Westwind Communications

As a doctor, it is important to gain speaking engagements to promote yourself and your practice to both your peers and to gain new patients. Here are the top ten things you can do to get more speaking dates.

1. You need a terrific website that is informative and grabs the viewer’s attention as soon as they click to your page. A website is one of the first things someone who is interested in you will check out. If they like it they’ll contact you, if not they won’t. Your website is the perfect place to post a video of you at a speaking engagement or feature an article you’ve written. One way to insure your website is as good or better than others is to benchmark it against websites of your competitors or practitioners in your same field. It is also important for your website to look professional. In order to achieve a clean, professional look hire a web designer who is familiar with medical marketing to design your website. The days of doing it yourself are over.

2. Patient testimonials are a useful marketing tool and can be easily added to your website. Testimonials can be acquired by asking your patients. Simply ask them questions and videotape their responses. Once you have a few testimonials, edit and compile the videos and upload them to your website and YouTube.

3. Doctors who publish articles get asked to speak. My clients are invited to speak on a regular basis because their articles are discovered online. How? A conference organizer who is looking for a speaker on a particular topic will search the Internet for someone demonstrating that expertise. If you have an article on that topic they can find you. It’s that simple. When writing articles, it is important to understand that you have two main audiences. First, you have patients. Second, you have your peers. Your patients are not going to understand the serious medical lingo that your peers might. One solution to this issue is to develop two different websites; one for patients and one for your fellow doctors. With a peer-friendly website, you can add the more technical articles and information. On your patient-friendly website, you can put things in layman’s terms which patients will understand and appreciate.

4. Position yourself as an expert in your particular medical field. One option is to add the word “expert” after the topic you are expert in. For example, one of my doctor clients is a “propofol expert.” If someone were to search a topic of interest online and add the word “expert” to their search, the experts in that area would show up in the search results. Go ahead try - it. Search on “propofol expert.” You’ll find Dr. Barry Friedberg. By finding your specific expertise and promoting it via articles and press releases, when people need an expert in your field, you will be sure to pop up in their Internet search. You can also get yourself listed as an expert by visiting http://www.expertclick.com/ or http://www.authorsandexperts.com/.

5. Writing a book is an excellent way to publicly demonstrate your expertise. The most common approach is to write a book proposal and then find an agent who will present your proposal to a publisher who will publish your work. A different approach is to compile past articles you’ve written and then self-publish your book. Visit http://www.book-marketing-expert.com/ for ideas on publishing and promoting your book. Whichever route you choose, your book will show the media that you are serious about the work you do.

6. Now that you have your book written and published, what do you do with it? The answer? Promote it! You can either promote the book yourself or hire a PR firm to get the word out and promote the book for you. The PR firm will create a press kit, which includes a press release, a bio of the author, sample media questions, as well as a fact sheet that covers some of the issues in your book along with excerpts and direct quotes from your book. You can also sell your book at the end of a speech or require the people who schedule your speech to buy “X” number of books to give to the participants. For more strategies on book promotion check out http://www.westwindcos.com/

7. While searching for speaking engagements, be sure to visit these useful websites. First is http://www.profnet.prnewswire.com/, which sends out media and speaking leads to PR executives and communications representatives at hospitals, associations and universities. A second website to utilize is The National Speakers Association (http://www.nsaspeaker.org/). Another website, http://www.doctorsreview.com/, has two thousand scheduled meetings readily available on their site. On the DoctorsReview.com page, you can narrow your results by searching for a specialty or travel destination. A final suggestion is to visit www.projectspropublica.org/docdollars to gain an idea of who is paying doctors to speak.

8. In order to be a successful speaker, I recommend presentation and media training. A good friend of mine, Jess Todtfeld, was Bill O’Reilly’s producer at Fox for many years, and also worked at NBC, ABC, and CBS. Jess’s website http://www.successinmedia.com/ offers media training in both New York and Los Angeles. On his site, you can also find advice on how to pitch to the media and how to create an effective speaking presentation. Media training will help you improve your speaking skills as you will learn to speak succinctly.

9. Another way to gain speaking arrangements is to reach out to the media directly. The Harrison Guide to Top National Media and Interview Shows is an effective way to gain access to the media. For example, each of the top shows from Good Morning America to Dateline list the dozens of producers’ contact information. Another resource is called Media Atlas; they offer an online database you can access. It is easy to go online through these options and hone in on a specific audience and get in touch with the media associated with them. Once you’ve identified a member of the media that covers your topic, send them a pitch letter and a press release.

10. Finally, there are free online services you can utilize to publicize yourself and your book. CraigsList http://www.craigslist.org/ is a great place to post a number of press releases and it does, in fact, work to your advantage. Depending upon your topic, people do search for all types of things on CraigsList. Two other websites are http://www.pravenue.com/ and http://www.pr-inside.com/ where you can also post releases along with photos and video at no charge. All three of these free websites are fine options for your press release to gain circulation online.

One more thing. Keep your Curriculum Vitae (CV) up to date with education, affiliations and articles as you may be asked to email it to a prospective customer on the spot. Furthermore have new headshots taken so your photos look like you and not your high school yearbook.

If you follow these steps you’ll be well on your way to obtaining more speaking engagements. For a more detailed strategy with tips and articles on these subjects visit http://www.westwindcos.com/.

About the Author

Scott Lorenz is President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm. Lorenz works with doctors, lawyers, inventors, authors, start-ups and entrepreneurs. As a seasoned publicist he is often called upon in the early stages of a company’s existence to get them “on the radar.” His clients have been featured by Good Morning America, FOX & Friends, CNN, ABC Nightly News, ESPN, New York Times, Nightline, TIME, PBS, NPR, USA Today, Washington Post, Woman's World, & Howard Stern to name a few. To learn more about Westwind Communications visit www.WestwindCos.Com or contact Lorenz at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 734-667-2090. Follow Lorenz on Twitter @aBookPublicist

Ten Ways to Sell Books On Amazon

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0000

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Award-winning author of the HowToDoItFrugally Series of books

You can use Amazon to improve your ratings and your ratings don't get better until you sell books.

So, telling you how to get better ratings on Amazon is tantamount to telling you how to sell books.

Many of you know that I rarely talk sales when I can talk more important things like cross promotion and branding. You may know that I believe if you network well, you won't have to sell anything, ever. Not in the traditional sense.

That is my disclaimer. I'm going to tell you how to let Amazon help you sell more books anyway! A promotional drop in the bucket can move Amazon ratings drastically! Especially if you keep dripping promotion into the pail. Use the perks that Amazon provides for you (see the list below), and you'll find your book selling. Especially if you don't give up. Just keep dribbling little bits of information into these Amazon tools. It's about frequency and longevity. Here they are. Pick one (or more) and keep at it:

1. Use Listmanias on Amazon and, along with your own book, sprinkle in the titles of your authorfriends. Let these authors know you did it. That's a way to make a new promotion friend. There is a chapter in The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't that tells you how to use this free promotional perk along with a lot of other free tools on Amazon.

2. When you read a book by an author you know (or even one you don't) do yourself and them a favor by adding a review to Amazon. It takes but a minute and YOU and your book get exposed too, if you use a promotion-savvy signature. Simply type in a couple of dashes and then add "Reviewed by xxxxx and your book title." You can even make your title a link to the sales page of your book on Amazon.

3. Tell other people about what you're doing, how your book relates to current events and more by posting on your Amazon plog. Another name for it is AuthorConnect ™, and it's really a blog provided by Amazon. You do have one don't you? Spread the word about your fellow authors' books, too, and then ask them to pass on the word about your plog, complete with URL. This is known as viral marketing and it works.

4.. Check out my co-produced audio classes including the free one: A Do-It-Yourself Guide To Promoting Easy And Cheap! by Carolyn Howard-Johnson which includes other Amazon tips. They are at http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/search.asp.

5. Flesh out your book's page on Amazon. Use the Wiki (or Amapedia) to add information on your awards or other publishing you've done.

6. Ask your friends and professional associates to review your book on Amazon. See that word "ask?" They will be happy to do it. They just need a nudge!

7. If you have a book suited to it, you can add pictures to your book's page. Check out my "Promote or Perish" picture on The Frugal Book Promoter page. Here's the URL: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193299310X/.

8. Don't get caught up in the idea of trying to sell your book yourself to increase your profits per book. If you do, you'll find your overall promotion suffers. Read that word "promotion" as "readership." Read it as "exposure." Read it as "credibility." You and your book need to be seen more than you need a couple of extra dollars profit on any given book. Yes, you may make less per Amazon-sold book, but the Amazon publicity is invaluable.

9. Look into the So You'd Like Tos . . . on Amazon. They will allow you to rant or write essays to your hearts content and gather readers as you do it. They work similarly to Listmanias.

10. Make friends. When someone adds a review to your page, invite them to be an Amazon Friend. Include a thank you in the message. Nose around a bit. You'll find all kinds of ways to let Amazon Friends know about your next book . . . and your next. And keep in mind that when someone is your friend, your book or picture may show up on their profile page. Their friends buy books, too!

-----

The author is Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T, winner of USA Book News' "Best Professional Book 2004", #1 Bestselling E-book at: http://starpublish.com/starbooks.htm and Book Publicists of Southern California's Irwin Award winner. its sister book, THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS.

Learn more at: http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/.

Her complimentary newsletter Sharing with Writers is always full of promotion tips, craft and publishing news. Send an e-mail with "subscribe" in the subject line to HoJoNews@aol.com .

TODAY: The 7 Graces of Marketing by Lynn Serafinn New book asks: Can we heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell?

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:23:00 +0000

The 7 Graces of Marketing (paperback and Kindle) is available from Dec 13th at http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/book

Today is the official book launch of the brand new book The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell by my friend and colleague, Lynn Serafinn. I wanted to share this news with you, because this book truly stands out as a title many are calling "ahead of its time".

While Lynn is known as a leading online marketer, this book is definitely NOT a "how to" book on how to "do" marketing. Rather, it's a book about how we can "be" with marketing, both as business owners AND consumers.

A bold, holistic and often spiritual examination not merely of the world of advertising, but also of our entire worldview, The 7 Graces of Marketing reveals how our relationships with Self, others, our businesses, our economy and the Earth impact every aspect of our lives. Addressing both the conscious and unconscious mechanics of marketing, Lynn shows the impact consumer culture has upon our health, our economy and the delicate ecological balance of our natural world.

The book is intended to be a starting point for discussion, hopefully leading to global changes in the world of commerce. Here are Lynn's poignant opening words from the book:

This is a book of questions, not a manual of answers. And I shall make no apologies for the fact that you are quite likely to have many more questions after you have finished reading this book than when you began...Instead of needing to find all the answers, let us agree to engage in the free dialogue of ideas. Let us unlock any barriers that may lie between us. Let us see and respect each other for what we all are: sentient, intelligent beings, who are made of the same 'stuff' and who share the same planet. Let us see and hear each other. Let us allow ourselves to be seen and heard. And now, with that in mind, let us begin with the first question of this book, and the one that will underpin all the other questions to follow: 'Is marketing making us ill?'

From this point, Lynn invites us to dive into a fascinating dialogue spanning 400+ pages of extensive research, historical examples, a wide variety of philosophical and sociological perspectives, refreshing humour and masterful storytelling, as she takes us on a compelling exploration through "The 7 Key Relationships", "The 7 Deadly Sins of Marketing", and ultimately, "The 7 Graces of Marketing".

The book is already receiving a lot of critical acclaim from other authors and speakers from the world of business and marketing, who are earmarking it as "the new paradigm" for the future. Here are just a few samples of what others have said:

* * * * *

"At last--here's a brilliant reframe of marketing and selling. Lynn Serafinn offers a brave new world, where competition and scarcity give way to collaboration, abundance and greater connection among all humanity--and we still profit and prosper as we help each other. I love it!"
~ DR. JOE VITALE, author of The Attractor Factor, Buying Trances
"The world NEEDS this book! Lynn is ahead of the curve, and leading us toward how we will ALL look at marketing in the future."
~ RICHARD S. GALLAGHER, author of How to Tell Anyone Anything and What to Say to a Porcupine
"This is what the world has been waiting for! Finally a marketing book that guides us out of fear, lack and limitation into love, prosperity and abundance."
~ DR. ERIC PEARL, author of The Reconnection: Heal Others, Heal Yourself

"An amazing book…It's so ahead of the times, and is the kind of book that can set a new paradigm altogether."

~ WILLIAM GLADSTONE, Founder Waterside Productions Literary Agents, author of The Twelve, co-author of The Golden Motorcycle Gang

"Natural, fresh and original, The 7 Graces of Marketing is the defining organic approach to marketing…" ~ LIZ GOODGOLD, author of Red Fire Branding: How to Create a Hot Personal Brand to Have Customers for Life!

* * * * *

Buy The 7 Graces of Marketing from Dec 13th at

http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/book

I am pleased to be supporting Lynn in the launch of this book, which is taking place on Tuesday December 13th.

When you buy The 7 Graces of Marketing during the launch, you can receive dozens of personal and professional development gifts from Lynn's friends and colleagues, as well as the complete set of MP3s (over 10 hours of audio) from Lynn's 7-part "7 Graces of Marketing Telesummit", with 24 internationally renowned guest speakers discussing all of the "7 Deadly Sins" and "7 Graces" of marketing. Nearly 2000 people registered to attend this exceptional live event which took place last week, and now you can get the complete audio set as a gift, simply by buying the book, along with nearly 50 other free gifts.

To pick up your copy of the book (in paperback or Kindle)

and claim your bonus gifts, go to:

http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/book

I hope you'll check out The 7 Graces of Marketing by Lynn Serafinn this week, so we can begin the dialogue for a more connected way of doing business and marketing that will serve both humanity and the Planet.

Dreaming of Harvard?

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:27:00 +0000

How to Get Top Colleges to Stock Your Book

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Do all authors love campuses or is it just me?

I love walking at UCLA after teaching one of my classes with a pile of books in my arms. I like shuffling though fallen liquid amber leaves near the bell tower at USC when I go to buy my annual logo treat to myself. I even liked wending my way through the shabby back halls of Herzen University in St. Petersburg. I've often thought of finagling a way to attend a class at Harvard. Perhaps through a summer program? Do they have an extension program that would allow a Californian in?

Somehow I never got any further than dreaming. And then a subscriber to my newsletter "Sharing with Writers" let me know that I am already there. Or rather my book is. She found The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't, on the Harvard.com bookstore Website and sent me the copy-and-paste from it. She said "Congratulations you are at Harvard!" and I have to admit my heart skipped a beat.

So, it's not quite the same thing as I had in mind! But my little promoter heart went pit-a-pat. I have to assume that part of my heart is fed by the campus-loving chamber of the same heart.

How can such a coup be turned into some fun promotion thing for my readers? First of all an author would have to check to see if his or her book was already on the site. If mine was, yours may be, too. Who knows how they pick and choose what they will post there. They may just electronically grab books down from Amazon using some kind of algorithm. I'd like to think they only choose examples of the very best writing, the very most informative books, and the very best sellers. Ahem!

If your book is not there, pitch them to see if it could be added to their online bookstore

And then, of course, make a fun promotion of it. It would, of course, be a matter of tying in your book's theme to Ta Da!!Harvard!In an invitation to readers to visit there. In a media release. On your Web site. How about in your e-mail autosignature?

From there you could check out your own alma mater's bookstore (if it doesn't happen to be Harvard). Then move to the brick and mortar stores associated with these online stores! If you book has sold well from a school's online store, the buyers may want to mass display it on a table by their front door. Well, you never know!

I thought it would be interesting for authors to see the clip (see below) and to also to see Harvard's bookstore bio (just below that). All part of the game!Now isn't this fun?

Harvard Book Store
www.harvard.com
Full Search Results

The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't
by: Howard-Johnson, Carolyn
2004/07 ISBN:193299310X Trade Paper Print on Demand
$17.95 Special Order

Here is their little bookstore bio. Can you make the information in this work for your promotion somehow?

About Harvard Bookstore:

Harvard Book Store was founded in 1932 by Boston native Mark Kramer with $300 he borrowed from his parents. Then, as now, Harvard Square was a magnet for students, cultural enthusiasts and intellectuals. Mark chose to start his bookstore at the center of this vibrant community. Two years later, Pauline Kramer, Mark.s new wife, joined him in running the small bookstore offering used and remaindered books to the discriminating Cambridge community. In 1962, at the time of Mark's death, his son Frank Kramer took over the family business and he has actively directed the bookstore.s activities since that time.

The theme of quality bookselling expressed through a broad inventory and personal service was established early by the Kramers, and it remains the primary goal of the company. Today, our expanded bookstore is a Harvard Square landmark and a destination for visitors from all over the world. We provide a comprehensive and provocative selection of new, used and bargain books. As one of the few bookstores in the nation with an academic emphasis, we feature authoritative sections in philosophy, fiction, cultural and critical theory, cognitive science, politics, and African-American studies. We also feature the ability to special order books not available in our store.

This web site is our latest effort to make our selection and services available to book-lovers around the world.

In 2002, our seventieth year of business, Harvard Book Store's excellence in bookselling was recognized nationally when we were awarded Publishers Weekly's Bookseller of the Year.

------

Howard-Johnson is the author of the HowToDoItFrugally series of books for authors. Her newest in the series is The Frugal Editor:

Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success and "The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success Cheryl Wright, editor of Writer2Writer, says "both books will become well-used references around the world." Howard Johnson's blog http://www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/ was named to Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites. Learn more athttp://carolynhoward-johnson.com/ and http://howtodoitfrugally.com/

The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Today I have the great pleasure of being the host on Day 11 of the Virtual Blog Tour of author Lynn Serafinn whose book The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell launches on Amazon on Tuesday December 13, 2011.

Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC is a certified, award-winning coach and teacher, marketer, social media expert, radio host, speaker and bestselling author. Her eclectic approach to marketing incorporates her vast professional experience in the music industry and the educational sector along with more than two decades of study and practice of the spirituality of India. In her work as a promotional manager she has produced a long list of bestselling mind-body-spirit authors. Passionate about re-establishing our connection with the Earth, she supports the work of the Transition Town network in her hometown of Bedford, England.

Yesterday, Lynn visited Gregory "Coach" Fernander at http://coachatgregory.blogspot.com , where they talked about the subject of responsibility in marketing & in life.

Today, I'd like to share with you a recent podcast interview I had with Lynn when she speaks about the 7 Graces of Marketing. I hope you enjoy it.

-------

----------

I hope you enjoyed this interview with Lynn Serafinn and that you’ll check out her book The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell at http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/book-launch/pages/pre-launch.html

Here's why:

The 7 Graces of Marketing Telesummit

A FREE 7-Part Online Happening!

December 6th-9th, 2011

Register at http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/free-telesummit

When you visit the page at the link above and request a "launch reminder", you will automatically receive a FREE pass to Lynn's 7-Part online happening “The 7 Graces of Marketing Telesummit” with an illustrious panel of 24 bestselling authors and world-renowned speakers and media experts on society, business and marketing coming together to discuss how we can bring ethics and values back our business and marketing practices, and restore balance to our health, our economy and our natural environment.

Here's the spectacular list of guests speakers for the event:

Dr. Joe Vitale * Greg S. Reid * Dr. Eric Pearl * Dan Hollings * Pamela Slim * Liz Goodgold * Allison Maslan * Suzanne Falter*Barnes * Tad Hargrave * Misa Hopkins * Richard S. Gallagher * Ward Vandorpe * Barbara Altemus * Andrea Conway * Renee Baribeau * Renee Duran * Michael Drew * Chris Arnold * Jeffrey Van Dyk * Tanya Paluso * Kate Osborne * Shelagh Jones * Paula Tarrant * Lynn Serafinn

You can listen to the telesummit online in the comfort of your own home, and even ask questions during the broadcast.

If you are reading this after Dec 9th, 2011 you can still access the playback for a limited time when you register at http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/free-telesummit

This telesummit is a completely free
"no purchase necessary" gift from Lynn

FREE GIFTS

When you buy Lynn's book on Tuesday December 13, 2011, you can ALSO receive the MP3 download of all 10 hours of this historic telesummit, plus a complete library of beautiful personal development gifts from authors, speakers, coaches and other enlightened professionals from around the globe including one from me;

An audio book titled: Bliss in Divine Oneness

To claim your FREE pass to the 7 Graces of Marketing Telesummit

and read about the free gifts, go to:

http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/book-launch/pages/pre-launch.html

Thanks for reading! As usual, please feel free to share your comments and thoughts below. I love reading your feedback.

AND… be sure to follow Lynn tomorrow when the next stop on the Virtual Blog Tour is Tambra Harck, who will be interviewing Lynn on how can consumers help biz owners behave with more Grace? To visit that "stop" on the tour, go to http://theartofwellbeing.typepad.com/the_art_of_wellbeing/

Your Author Platform: It’s Not About You!

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

by Joel Friedlander

As some of you know I’ve been conducting book marketing mastermind sessions with some top book marketers recently.

Exposing myself (figuratively, of course) to the ideas and practices of these experts has changed my thinking on some topics.

One of these is the author platform, something I’ve written about often before.

And here’s what changed for me: I’ve always thought of the metaphoric platform as something we patiently and consciously build, board by board with our marketing and networking activities.

You write a blog, give talks to groups, establish your authority, authenticity and helpfulness, gathering fans and readers along the way. This foundation becomes your platform.

The Big Change

But what if you thought about it from the other side, so to speak? What I learned from talking to these marketing pros is this:

The platform isn’t about you at all. It’s about the unmet needs of your audience.

That’s the platform that already exists. It’s there for you if you can address those unmet needs, because then you’ll have the platform to sell from, to spread your message or your stories.

The audience creates the platform. What you do with all your activity is try to move yourself onto the platform so that you have a place to speak from.

What does this mean in reality?

For an example out of left field, look at the contest going on right now for the Republican presidential nomination here in the U.S.

For months there’s been a large percentage of Republicans who have been unhappy with the candidates in the race. This unmet need of the audience created a powerful platform for anyone who could legitimately get up there to make their case.

So when someone like the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, got into the race by jumping up on the platform already created, he rocketed to the top of the polls.

Was it his marketing, speaking, or books that did that? Nope. It was the power of all those unmet needs—the power of the platform—that did it. Once people got a closer look at him, he fell right off, but that’s not the point.

Think about your own subject area. No matter how many books have been written about it, there are still lots of unmet needs.

At the Pitchapalooza I participated in a few months ago one of the big hits was a pitch for a book about tree pruning. It turned out the best book on this narrow subject was very old, and had never been modernized or replaced. The person pitching had the exact credentials and the ability to create the new version the market needed. Every one of us on the panel immediately recognized a winning proposition. Why?

The unmet needs of that niche market are what will propel that book to regular, healthy sales. The people who are just waiting for a book that’s been written recently on this topic make up the platform for the author.

I could go on, but I think you can see the meaning and importance of this idea.

Certainly you have to do all the marketing practices you are doing, without them you won’t be able to use the platform you identify.

But look around, it’s a different world. People in all niches and interest groups and genres have these unmet needs, whether they realize it or not.

It’s up to us to find them and fill those needs. Welcome to the new author platform—it’s not about you at all.

Article by Joel Friedlander

Joel Friedlander is a self-published author and book designer who blogs about book design, self-publishing and the indie publishing life at TheBookDesigner.com. He's also the proprietor of Marin Bookworks, where he helps publishers and authors who decide to publish get to market on time and on budget with books that are both properly constructed and beautiful to read.

What are the 7 Graces of Marketing and Life?

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

A sneak peek into author Lynn Serafinn's new paradigm

If you want to dive more deeply into the topic below, please join Lynn and 23 other guest speakers at "The 7 Graces of Marketing Telesummit" on December 6th-9th. Register FR*EE at http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/free-telesummit

My friend and colleague, Lynn Serafinn, has just published her new book The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell. The ideas she presents in this 400+ page book are a call to action, not only to business owners and marketers, but to everyone one of us as a consumer. I'm very excited about her book, and about her new paradigm "The 7 Graces of Marketing". Today, I asked Lynn to give us a short overview of "The 7 Graces", and how they pertain not only to business and marketing, but also to life in general. This will be a whirlwind tour of these ideas (after all, the book is over 400 pages long), but I think you will get a taste for what they're about, and hopefully think of ways to apply them in your own business and life.

* * * * *

Lynn's sneak peek into the 7 Graces paradigm:

Grace #1: Connection

This is the "antidote" to the "Deadly Sin of Disconnection". Connection is at the foundation of everything in life—Connection to Self, Source, others, our businesses, and our audience—determine how effectively and authentically we communicate and conduct our lives. When business owners are disconnected from Self, their businesses cannot be genuine representations of who they are. And the problem is, as businesses get bigger and bigger, that Connection becomes increasingly difficult to maintain. When business owners are not connected to Source and others, it opens to door to exploitation of both natural resources and people. Connection is the first of the 7 Graces, because without it the other Graces cannot manifest.

Grace #2: Inspiration

This is the "antidote" to the "Deadly Sin of Persuasion". The literal meaning of the word "Inspiration" means "to breathe life into". As business owners, we have a choice to be "life giving" to our audience or "life robbing". Persuasion, wherein we will do anything and everything to make a sale/profit, is life robbing. As business owners, it is our responsibility to "feed" society, and thus ensure not only that our products and services are life-giving, but also that our communications (marketing) is life-giving. For marketing to be filled with the "Grace of Inspiration", it should never incite fear, anxiety or feelings of inadequacy.

Grace #3: Invitation

This is the "antidote" to the "Deadly Sin of Invasion". Nearly every form of marketing we see today is invasive. Our attention span is continually interrupted, whether it is through television/radio adverts, pop up messages, uninvited email adverts, cold-calling or billboards. As business owners and marketers, we need to bring back the "Grace of Invitation" into our communications. This means that when visitors come into our "space" (our website, our office/shop), we treat them like respected guests, offering them hospitality and generosity. Conversely, when we come into our customers' space (as when we send out emails), we must do so with courtesy and care, ensuring we never become the dreaded "houseguest from hell".

Grace #4: Directness

This is the "antidote" to the "Deadly Sin of Distraction". So much modern advertising depends upon Distraction to seize and maintain our attention. Nearly every advert you see will utilise random brand identity triggers and humour to get us to pay attention. What is wrong with this is that people end up buying products simply because they remember the advert, and not necessarily because they have been given direct, clear information about the product or service. Directness is simple: we marketers need to get back to "telling it like it is" instead of hyping up our businesses. The public need to be informed and empowered. The Grace of Directness allows that to happen.

Grace #5: Transparency

This is the "antidote" to the "Deadly Sin of Deception". Deception in marketing is rife, but is sometimes extremely subtle. In the book, I give many examples of how language and imagery are often used in a deceptive way in marketing, where technically (and legally) the message is "true", but the unconscious message we perceive is untrue. Transparency literally means "to shine light through". When we are Transparent in marketing and in life, we are not merely being honest, but we are also allowing the true intention behind our thoughts, words and deeds to be seen and heard clearly. When we walk in Transparency, both in business and in life, we are walking in the Essence of who we really are.

Grace #6: Abundance

This is the "antidote" to the "Deadly Sin of Scarcity". The chapter on Scarcity in the book is one of the biggest, because it's simply such a massive topic. Scarcity marketing is all around us, and it appears in so many forms, from limited-time offers to the various kinds of "obsolescence" used to incite us to buy beyond our needs or means. Abundance, on the other hand, is the fundamental belief that there is enough for all—when we are living in rhythm with the planet. It is our natural state of being. If we operate our business from the fundamental belief in lack or Scarcity, we will always bring Scarcity strategies into our marketing. The irony is that Scarcity begets Scarcity. In other words, if we operate from a Scarcity mentality, we are likely to create the very Scarcity we most fear because the end result will be overconsumption. Overconsumption is destroying both our economy and the ecological balance of our natural world. But if we operate from a fundamental belief in Abundance, we will not bring such fear and anxiety into our marketing, and overconsumption will be a thing of the past.

Grace #7: Collaboration

This is the "antidote" to the "Deadly Sin of Competition". Many people have the false notion that competition is necessary to create healthy economies and stronger societies. But this is largely a myth and has no foundation in Nature whatsoever. While I believe in "free enterprise", this is not the same thing as Competition. In the book, I cite many studies that have proved how Competition diminishes creativity and innovation. When we conduct our businesses or our lives with a competitive mindset, we not only reduce our own performance, but we also reduce the support we receive from others. On the other hand, Collaboration always results in something greater than the sum of its parts. Every single marketing campaign I have produced is based upon Collaboration. The permaculture of the world is actually one giant, interdependent Collaboration. We've been brought up in a competitive world, but the more connected we become via technologies like social media, the more we see that Collaboration is the way we perform best.

* * * * *

I hope you enjoyed this overview of The 7 Graces of Marketing from author Lynn Serafinn. If you want to dive more deeply into this paradigm, I do invite you to join Lynn and 23 other world-class guest speakers at…

"The 7 Graces of Marketing Telesummit"

December 6th-9th, 2011

7 Dynamic Sessions with 24 Guest Speakers

Register FR*EE at

http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/free-telesummit

On this 7-part online event, Lynn and her guests will be exploring

the "7 Graces" and "7 Deadly Sins" in detail.

And then… do check out Lynn's book The 7 Graces of Marketing on December 13th. When you do, there are dozens of wonderful gifts for you, including the audio download of all 7 sessions from the telesummit, and many other goodies. Check out the gifts, and request a launch reminder so you don't forget to pick up your copy (in paperback or Kindle) at: http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/book-launch/pages/pre-launch.html

Getting a Head Start on Holiday Sales

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

by Penny C. Sansevieri

You know I used to laugh at the “Christmas in July” ads until I promoted my first Christmas-related book. We actually started the promotion in July and it was the perfect time. Why? Well, maybe no one is buying or thinking about December in July, but the holiday buying season is tough. In order to make any kind of headway you must start early, not just to capture the December sales but also to get in front of any early shoppers. Once those Christmas in July ads start to hit radio and TV, consumers (those who like to shop early) start to gather ideas for their own shopping lists.

When is it too late to start thinking about the holiday market? November is definitely much too late, October is iffy, but if you’re staring September in the face and haven’t done a lick of marketing towards holiday sales, that might be your last chance. Better to start early – mid to late summer is always great. Here are some tips to help you get a head start on the holiday buying season.

Events: start early. If you’d like to do events in December I suggest you start calling stores now. Many stores don’t do in-store events after Thanksgiving, but if you have local connections or some independent stores they might be open to this. Speaking at non-bookstore venues falls under the same category: start early.

Promos: start planning your promos in the fall. I recommend starting the promo roll-out right after Thanksgiving and planning a succession of promotional announcements all the way through late December. If you need to get special pricing on books, or if you’re going to bundle your book with some other items, this will give you plenty of time to plan for that.

Website: now is the time to make sure your website is ready for your holiday marketing. As you begin planning your promos make sure your web designer is ready to go to make any changes your site might need.

Targets: definitely define your target markets as soon as you can, the earlier the better. If you don’t have a good, solid idea of who you’re marketing to yet don’t use your holiday campaign to test this. Test market early. You’ll be glad you did. Don’t waste a holiday promo if you don’t have to. Knowing who you are going after will save you in costly marketing mistakes (and this goes for any time you are marketing).

Ebooks: I suspect with all the e-readers that have hit the market in the last 12 months - and with both Target and Best Buy carrying e-book readers - you’re going to see a lot of promotion for this over the holidays. Make sure your book is keyed into this market, what I mean is: if you had planned to get your book converted to an ebook, now is the time. Also, you might want to offer a special promo, if someone buys your e-book have them forward you the receipt for an additional special holiday bonus.

Social media: if you’re not on Facebook or Twitter yet, now is the time to join, and even if you are this is a great time to maximize your efforts and plan how you’ll use your social media to enhance your holiday promos. Will you offer specials to your social media “tribe” only? Will you have exclusives just for them? Consider early on what your social media strategy will be.

Exposure: if your exposure online is minimal, now is the time to ramp it up. Contacting blogs, websites, doing article syndication, participating in blogs, doing guest blogging… all of these things are great ways to gain exposure online. Remember, it’s not just about the holiday promos, it’s about making sure you are searchable online. That way, if someone searches on what you’re offering, you’ll come up in the search results. This will help you capture holiday shoppers who haven’t been exposed to you or your message yet.

The key to successful holiday promotion is planning and enough advanced marketing so that you’re not spinning your wheels in the Fall wondering why you’re not making any traction. If you’re ready to explode your holiday market start early, it’s the best way to make sure you have a spot waiting for you when the busiest shopping season of the year comes around again!

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert and an Adjunct Instructor with NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, micro-blogs, ezines, video sites, and relevant sites to push an author’s message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com/. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Copyright © 2010 Penny C. Sansevieri

Calling for Submissions for WITS December Newsletter!

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:56:00 +0000

Writers in the Sky Newsletter is now accepting contributions of material from our readers. To share a book review, announcement, or article about writing, editing, or book marketing please email Katie@writersinthesky.com. Our next issue is due to send next week so please get these in as soon as possible.

Publish to Promote; Publish to Share

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:00:00 +0000

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
This is the story of three women.

This is a story of their love of writing and publishing.

This is a story of the joy they get from helping other authors realize their potential.

This is the story of cross-promotion at it best.

Pat Avery, Joyce Faulkner and I had published writing-related books of one kind of another as well as other kinds of books, so we knew the writing and promoting challenges that all writers face. We wanted to publish something that would encourage emerging authors as well as seasoned ones. We wanted our project to be something that new authors with only one book could sell at book fairs and similar events to increase their profits--you know, so they could cover the expense of their booth. And we wanted it to be something that people would use so that participants in the effort would continue to be seen.

That is how the Complete Writer's Journal was born.

A journal would be something that everyone could use including artists, scribblers, writers, and journalers. It is also something consumable and any good capitalist knows the importance of that. Once conceived, we asked writers to contribute quotations from their writing or to make up new ones. The quotations could be inspirational, helpful, funny or serious. We used a true submission process. There was no charge to enter. We -- brilliant editors all three -- chose 100 quotations for publication and each of the 100, of course, wanted the journals for their own needs.

They wanted them:

 For their own use.

 To give to their relatives -- remember, for some this was the first time anything had ever been published! Many went into envelopes along with holiday cards.

 To sell as add-on sales (in addition to their own books) at book fairs, signings and other events.

(The publisher, Red Engine Press (www.RedEnginepress.com), gives a hefty discount in quantity to any author who wants to do utilize these journals this way, not only the participants. With discounts in large quantities they come out around $6. each and the retail price on the back is $14.95. A nice profit.

 To give as thank you gifts. I sent out hand-embroidered tea towels to editors and producers after they had run a feature or done some other nice thing for me. This handmade idea fit in with the sewing imagery in This Is the Place. I bought them wholesale and each gift cost about $12. In gross quantities. I thought this was perfect but if I had access to this journal at the time, I could have afforded to send out many more gifts and I am certain the editors would have found journals more practical than tea towels

• To use as promotion gifts rather than pencils or magnets. Those tend to get tossed into people's junk drawers. The journals are a little pricey but work well in instances when authors need only a few, say to gift the crew for a radio show.

 To encourage people at signings and events to buy more than one book. All that takes is a sign that says, "Buy Two Books: Get This Journal at No Cost" or maybe at half price. Whatever the author thinks he or she can do.

We also added a couple of pages of advertising in the back matter. If you choose to produce something of this sort your ads can be for your books or may be sponsoring ads from other authors. More and more publishers of all kinds (yep! traditional) are beginning to do that. I haven't quite figured out how this would work for literary novelists but I can see real potential there for genre-types. Help me keep thinking! If an author spearheaded a promotion of this sort, the participants' purchases might cover the cost of the publication.

Now, every single time one of our authors sells or gives a journal, they put their names and those of all the other ninety-nine authors out there for others to see. Editors, writers, and, yes, readers. And we all know that is the best part of the project.

A similar collaborative effort might work for groups of authors. Organizations. PEN fellows. Critique groups. A project like this could just as easily be a calendar or a lovely chapbook of poetry or a little how-to book or even a book of humor.

Be sure to read the section in my book The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't on how I used an e-book (since then I've done several others) to promote. There is nearly no real cost involved but they, like this venture, come loaded with goodwill.

And that, like all good stories about promotion, is a story with a happy ending.

-------

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON’T. For a little over 2 cents a day THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER assures your book the best possible start in life. This book is full of nitty-gritty how-tos for getting nearly free publicity. Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares her professional experience as well as practical tips gleaned from the successes of her own book campaigns.

Howard-Johnson is an award-winning author of both fiction and nonfiction and former publicist for a New York PR firm and a marketing instructor for UCLA's Writers' Program. THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER tells authors how to do what their publishers can’t or won’t and why authors can do their own promotion better than a PR professional. Purchase it on Amazon or many university bookstores. Learn more about the author at http://howtodoitfrugally.com/

10 Marketing Strategies for New Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 12:00:00 +0000

In business, success hinges on a successful marketing campaign. This also applies to new writers who want to take their talent of writing and make a profitable business with it. To help new writers who may know nothing about marketing and business, here are 10 marketing strategies for new writers.

1. Make your site reflect your writing style

This is a unique marketing strategy for writers. When people search for writers, they often judge the content on their website. The potential clients are looking for a certain style that matches their vision. Therefore, always use your own style of writing when creating content to promote your business; do not simply rewrite other writer's content.

2. Create an eBook

Create a free downloadable eBook that potential clients can read. The main goal of your eBook should be to provide writing samples and help your clients understand your full abilities. You may write short fiction stories, or you may write in-depth technical articles. It mostly depends on the type of clients you wish to attract.

3. Use agency sites

Starting out, not many people are going to know you are a talented writer. You should greatly consider joining an agency site that acts as a middle man, connecting writers with clients. Once you build a client list, focus on your own site, and ask your clients to promote you to their friends who need writers.

4. Create a full bio

Before people do business with other people, they want to know with whom they are doing business. Create a full bio on your website; make sure you include pictures, location, contact information, reviews and other important information.

5. Create business cards

Do not limit yourself to the Internet. There are plenty of brick and mortar business owners than can use the help of a writer. Many writers construct public relations articles to help their client's image. You should give everyone you meet a business card, and let them know what type of writer you are and how you can help them achieve their goals.

6. Promote yourself on social media sites

Social media marketing is unarguably one of the best marketing methods. Every social media site has pros and cons, so be sure to create an account on each major site, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and even YouTube. Experiment to see how each site can benefit your business.

7. Use articles

Write and place articles on high-quality article directories. High-quality article directories are usually directories that do not compensate their contributors in any way; this cuts down on the amount of low-quality or spam articles. Make sure you link back to your site in the articles you submit.

8. Network

Do not be afraid to meet new people. You never know who will come along and greatly help your business succeed. By constantly meeting new people, you can exponentially increase your customer base. Your business depends on the relationships you make with people.

9. Post ads

Take advantage of free ad sites, such as Craigslist. You may even want to post ads in the local paper. Many people still search classified ads to find services.

10. Create a Google business listing

If you want to take your writing to the next level, create a free business listing on Google. Make sure to include important information that can help your listing reach the top result for your industry in your area. People who search for freelance writers in your area can come across your business listing and contact you for your services.

Take advantage of these 10 marketing strategies, and eventually, you will grow your business and won't need to do so much marketing.

Bill Smith is a contributing writer at http://privatestudentloan.org/.

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Ten Ways to Know if Your (Internet) Marketing is Paying Off

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:00:00 +0000

By Penny C. Sansevieri

So you’re out there marketing. You’re doing all the right things (or so you think). You’re following the book marketing advice of some leaders in the industry. You’ve got a checklist and you’re methodically checking off your goals. But how do you know you’re doing everything right? The fact is, most of us don’t. Yet we forge ahead, keeping pace with our marketing plan, without ever knowing if it’s paying off. We don’t see it in sales. Does that mean it’s not working? Not at all. You could be seeing the effects in other places but just aren’t keeping track of it.

I find that especially in social media you need to keep a close eye on what’s working and what’s not. If you’ve spent *any* kind of time online you know that you can be in front of your computer for what seems like 20 minutes and yet three hours have gone by. If the three hours of marketing is paying off, then it’s fine to spend the time. But you need to know the difference. Here are a few things you can review to measure the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of your marketing.

1. Jumping in without a plan: Set clear, measureable goals because most marketing is invisible. Let’s face it, you send an email and wonder half the time if the intended recipient got it or if it ended up in a spam filter, never to be seen again. That’s the power behind goals. You need them and you need to run your campaign by them. So what are your goals? And no, you may not say sell books. Yes, that factors in - but there are a million small steps along the way before you even get to sales. Consider these goals and see if any of them fit your book, topic, and future:

a. Establish yourself as an expert or get known in your particular field. Hey, maybe you just want to be known as the go-to person for everything related to paranormal romance. That’s great and it’s a realistic, attainable goal.

b. Increase the visibility of your brand. OK, sort of the same as the bullet before this one but more geared to the non-fiction author.

c. Increase traffic and incoming links to your website. This is a great goal. Whether you are fiction or non-fiction it’s a great focus.

d. Do what makes sense for your book: if your followers aren’t on Twitter then why have you spent the last month or so promoting yourself on there? Mind you, Twitter works for most of the books we manage, but there are a few that don’t make sense. Twitter skews older than most people think so don’t be surprised if your YA reader isn’t on there. Before you launch head first into a campaign, make sure it fits your demographic.

2. Neglecting other marketing: I know it’s easy to get all a-twitter about Twitter but what else are you doing to promote yourself and your book? If you’re good at events and speaking are you still focused on that? Don’t get too myopic on doing just one thing for your marketing. The truth is, you need to do a lot of different things, balanced out over a week or a month for your marketing to really make sense.

3. Set goals – be clear on what you hope to achieve in social media: What are your goals for Twitter? If it’s just about gathering followers then you are missing a big piece of this social networking tool. For many marketing people it’s all about the number, but numbers don’t make as much sense unless they are driving interest to you and your book. If the numbers keep growing along with traffic to your website then you’re on the right track. But if you’re just growing numbers for the sake of being able to say that you have 10,000 followers then it makes no sense. That’s like buying a fancy car you can’t really afford. Eventually the debt of it will drag you down. It’s the same with Twitter and Facebook and any other social media site. It’s not about the numbers. It’s about the activity.

4. Be clear on who you are trying to reach: many of you say you’re trying to reach readers but is that really true? We all want to sell books, but who are you really going after? In all likelihood you will have a variety of different targets you are going after. Consider these: booksellers, speaking opportunities, interviews, bulk sale targets, reviewers, and readers to name a few.

5. Measure effectively: in order to know if stuff is working you’ll need to measure effectively. As I pointed out earlier on in this article you may not want to do that by fans or followers - instead consider these ideas as ways to measure your success:

a. Retweets on Twitter: the best sign of success on Twitter is the amount of retweets. Are you getting them and if so, how often? If your tweets are good and your followers are active, you should see a few a week at least (depending on the amount of followers you have). If you’re curious about the amount of Tweets that get RT’d – check out retweetrank.com. Twitter Analyzer (twitteranalyzer.com) is another great tool for determining how far tweets have traveled.

b. Site hits: are the hits to your site increasing? Are you watching your analytics to be sure? If you’re not, you should be. Watch your site stats closely and monitor the increase in traffic and where it’s coming from.

c. Inbound links: how many new ones are you getting? Did you do a vanity search before you started this campaign? If not, do that now. Make sure you know how many new incoming links you’re getting as a result of your efforts.

d. Sign-ups to your mailing list: are they increasing? If you’re doing the right stuff in your social media they should be increasing weekly.

6. Increasing the contacts in your industry: remember that social media marketing is just like going to a networking meeting. You want to expand your reach and get to know others in your industry. If you’re not increasing your reach and contact base then you need to be. This is another great way to gauge how effective your marketing is.

We always want to make progress in our marketing but we’re not always sure how to do it or if what we’re doing is making a difference. Follow these steps and see if it doesn’t help your marketing momentum. If it’s paying off, you’ll know sooner rather than later and you can keep doing the good stuff, and punt the bad.

Bonus: additional tools for tracking marketing

Bit.ly: this site serves as both a URL shortener and also as a measurement tool. Bit.ly can help get you real time results on clicks to links you are posting to Facebook and Twitter.

Google Analytics: if you don’t have any back end web analytics (and even if you do) Google gives you a lot of valuable data.

Trackur: this is a great monitoring site to see what’s being featured on you online and off. It’s not free like Google Alerts but much more comprehensive. Their basic package is $18 a month.

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert and an Adjunct Instructor with NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, micro-blogs, ezines, video sites, and relevant sites to push an author’s message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com/. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Copyright © 2010 Penny C. Sansevieri

TV and Radio: Your Stepping Stones to Credibility

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:00:00 +0000

An Excerpt from The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Building your on-air repertoire is like building a cinder block wall. You’re the mason; you use your first appearance as a foundation to mortar another hefty block on top of it and then another. CHJ

So, you’ve landed a radio interview or a spot on a TV show. It’s so exciting that you’re tempted to sit on your laurels. Nope. This coup is only a first step. You’re going to propel it into more.

You used your first celebrity endorsement to garner more accolades. Now you use your first radio or TV experience as a recommendation for others. You are now experienced.

Here’s how to do it:

 Add this appearance to the query letters you send out to garner more appearances. As the prestige of your resume grows, continue to upgrade the paragraph that outlines your qualifications and the radio shows that featured you. Highlight the ones that asked you back.

 Ask the producer if she will record your appearance and send you a tape. Now you can mention that a tape is available in your query. If you should get a request for it, have it copied and send it by priority mail along with a copy of your book and another letter thanking those who requested the tape for their interest; use this note as a second opportunity to sell your ideas and your qualifications.

 When you do an interview, offer to donate some of your books. Suggest that they might then use as them gifts for their call-in guests if they would care to run the segment on you or your book at a later date. Or if they run segments on similar subject matter.

 Tactfully remind your new contacts that you are an expert. Don’t assume because you write fiction that you are not. My first novel is set in Utah and my situation there made me a unique observer of that culture. You can find an angle. Bobby Ruble spent a lifetime in law enforcement including a stint as Chief of Police in Kennesaw, GA. before he wrote his mystery, HAVE NO MERCY. A lifetime of related experience qualifies him as an expert and allows him to plug his book as he goes.

 Publisher Pam Schwagerl (http://www.tsabahouse.com/) asks her authors to offer a link exchange—the author’s webpage to the TV station’s page and back again.

 Authors should also suggest that the station feature their interviews on the station’s website by streaming them. Or at least to include a pitch for the interview and a link to your site.This is a win-win offer that usually results in a slam-dunk! the interview. Project what an interviewer might ask then come up with these small golden coins of wisdom; that’s easy for you to do because you’re a writer, right?

Hint: Radio hosts appreciate your tying something you say to a local angle. It's simple. Just mention their broadcast area when you thank your interviewer.

---------------

Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This is the Place, and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered are both award-winners. She is an instructor for UCLA Extension's Writers' Program and has shared her expertise at venues like San Diego State's world renowned Writers' Conference and Call to Arts!EXPO. She was recently awarded Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment by the California Legislature and her city's Ethics award for her work on promoting tolerance. Her nitty-gritty how-to book, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER won USA Book News' Best Professional Book 2004 and her chapbook of poetry, TRACINGS, was awarded Military Writers Society of America's Award of Excellence.

Carolyn is the founder of Authors' Coalition (http://authorscoalitionandredenginepress.com ) and editor of the newsletter for that organization. She blogs at www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com that helps authors turn a dull book fair booth into a sizzling success. Her website is: http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/ .

How to Make Money on Twitter (no, really)

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:00:00 +0000

by Penny C. Sansevieri

For many of us, Twitter is a good news/bad news social networking site. The good news is it’s super popular and it seems like everyone is using it. The bad news is that for the newbie Twitter person (and even if you’ve been on this site for a while) it can be confusing to know what is working, what isn’t and what’s actually making a difference.

After almost two years on Twitter, I’ve learned a lot of lessons - both in using Twitter to maximize your marketing goals as well as learning how to turn your Twitter tribe into engaged Twitter buyers. The list I’ve culled here isn’t new information, but I tried to present it in such a way that it will show you how to monetize Twitter and maximize it towards your Twitter efforts.

1) Be helpful first: believe it or not, the first piece of selling isn’t to sell, it’s to be helpful. As a guide for your market, you should be a “voice,” an opinion maker, and also – offer helpful insight, tips, guidance. By being helpful, you will build trust and people buy from someone they trust. Be helpful first, and a salesperson second.

2) Ask for what you want: when followers are inundated with messages, you need to ask for what you want. If you want a sale, offer them a special buy-in, offer them something they can't get anywhere else, then offer this in a shorter period of time. Meaning, only make the offer for a day, an hour, or a few days - depending on the sale. This dials into #3 but bears repeating anyway...

3) Offer exclusives: this is possibly one of the biggest keys to Twitter. If you don’t offer your followers something they can’t get anywhere else, they may not take your sales pitch very seriously. Offer specials and select offers exclusively to your followers. Not only will they be getting something unique, but you will make them feel special.

4) Follow your customers: be sure and follow the people who are your customers or those you’d like to engage in your product or services. This is key: to know who they are and what their needs are. You'll gain this insight by following them.

5) Ask for help: if you need help, insight, whatever - ask for it. The best way to engage on Twitter and to build your following and enhance the trust factor is to converse, which leads me to point #6:

6) Create Community! Don't broadcast, communicate. If you want to turn a follower into a buyer, they'll need to feel like more than just a number on your Twitter-counter. Communicate with your Twitter-peeps and make them feel a part of your community. When someone feels a part of your community, they will be more likely to buy from you. People buy from people they trust. You build that trust factor by not just being a megaphone for information, but by conversing with your community.

7) Become a filter. People buy from people they trust, that's point #1. The second piece to this is that people buy from people who seem to be the experts. When you become a filter, i.e. the go-to place for all things related to your topic, you'll build strong, engaged followers who will be inclined to buy from you. Being a filter can take a lot of forms. You might comment on news topics, share interesting blog posts, or tweet on a new book or product review. Again, become the expert in your field and people will view you as such.

The key to selling on Twitter is not to sell per se, but to build trust and community with your followers. It's really not that different from your corner store. Maybe you go there because it's close, but more than likely you go there because you trust them. You know they'll have everything you need and you trust what they have is good, quality product. The same is true online, in fact, even more so. Your followers don't have the luxury of meandering into your "store," so you have to build that trust another way. You build that through engagement, interaction and the quality of information. Build the pathways, build the trust and the sales will follow. But, if you try to capture the dollars before you build your foundation you'll find that your followers will leave you and sales will fall short.

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert and an Adjunct Instructor with NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, micro-blogs, ezines, video sites, and relevant sites to push an author’s message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com/. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Copyright © 2010 Penny C. Sansevieri

How to Make Your Blog Readers Into Rabid Fans

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:00:00 +0000

by Joel Friedlander

One of the reasons I like blogs as a foundation for social media book marketing is that they offer many levels of engagement for visitors, from web surfers to dedicated readers. Engagement is the degree to which blog readers feel connected with you, your content and the ideas or solutions you present.

Engagement is what turns casual readers into regular subscribers, and subscribers into raving fans. Have you ever thought about how readers show this engagement?

For instance, think about the different ways people can engage with your blog:

 They may be sent by a search engine to an informational article in your archives based on the keywords used in the article. This is a great way content continues to draw new visitors to your blog, but this visitor is initially at a very low level of engagement with you.

 They may come from a link on another site they like, or a link in a guest post. This type of connection is a little more engaged, simply because there was probably a similarity in the content and the link itself that drew them to your site.

 They may come from a site that directly refers your site as an information source, a reference, or an authority in your field. These visitors might be ready for a higher level of engagement.

 A closer connection is coming to your site through a direct link you’ve placed in an outpost, like a comment on a LinkedIn discussion or a post on Twitter that draws people to a blog post with an engaging headline of your own. Since these visitors have shown an interest in your material (in the click) before arriving, they are at a higher level of involvement.

 Those who contribute comments engage with your ideas in a public way, adding to their level of engagement.

 Repeat visitors to your blog are more engaged than casual or one-time-only visitors, who could make up one third to a half of all visitors. So a person who comes back to your blog is higher on the engagement scale.

 Subscribers are near the top in engagement. By agreeing to let you send them email and blog posts, subscribers are in fact requesting more engagement with you and giving you permission to address them in a personal space—their inbox.

 Fans are at the highest level of engagement. They share in your issues and concerns, and advocate for you on their own initiative. Although they may be small in number, they have a disproportionate influence due to their activism.

You simply can’t interact with readers and potential customers in so many ways in any other online medium that I’m aware of.

This look at the levels of engagement also naturally leads to the question, “What am I doing to support these different ways for people to engage with my writing, my books, or my other activities?”

Let’s take a look at some clear and simple action steps you can take to make these levels of engagement a reality for visitors to your blog.

Keyword research and awareness. About half the visitors to my blog come from search engine referrals. One of the big reasons for this is that I’ve been researching and consciously using the keywords associated with my niche in my blog posts for some time. You can do the same with a small effort.

 Action: Use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to research keywords in your niche. Check Brian Clark’s free report on writing copy for ideas on how to include keywords in your blog writing.

Guest posting and article writing. You can’t get referral traffic to your blog without putting content out in other places off your blog. Writing guest articles and submitting articles to article directories are both ways to spread your content—and your keyword links to your site—to attract referral traffic.

 Action: Contact one blogger in your niche this week about writing a guest article for his or her blog. Do this every week. Get their permission after 60 or 90 days to repost the article at article directories. You will probably have to edit the article for this second use.

Using email to stay connected. Get an account with an email provider and put an opt-in box on your blog. Offer a sample of your work, a regular newsletter, a quote of the week, a free resource like a PDF, or anything else of value in exchange for a subscription.

 Action: Make sure your RSS, email and newsletter subscriptions are clear, easy to use, and “above the fold” (in the top portion) of your blog. If you’ve been offering one thing for a long time, create something new to revitalize interest in your offer.

What Will All This Reader Engagement Do for You?

I think it’s clear that as an author you have a lot to gain from promoting visitor engagement on your blog.

Here’s my best advice, although it might seem counterintuitive or odd: Don’t blog about your book.

This is the first thing most authors think of when they start blogging, and it’s usually not a great idea. What works really well is when you blog not about your book, but about its subject.

Why does this work? In the case of books, nobody really wants to read what you have to say about the book, or how many chapters it has, or the information in it, because it can come off as making a sales pitch. Your blog’s readers do want to hear your passion for your subject, your insights into new developments in your field, and your opinion of other resources.

It’s this type of writing that will make your blog’s readers interested in the knowledge, information and overall content you share in your book. You’ll lead them to wanting to buy your title and follow your creative process by connecting to them as a person, not just an author pushing for a sale.

Your blog’s ability to provide the online community with many levels of engagement is one of its most powerful characteristics. When you take action to make sure that you’re using that ability as best you can, you maximize your greatest online asset, and you will step up your marketing to a whole new level.
Joel Friedlander is a self-published author and book designer who blogs about book design, self-publishing and the indie publishing life at TheBookDesigner.com. He's also the proprietor of Marin Bookworks, where he helps publishers and authors who decide to publish get to market on time and on budget with books that are both properly constructed and beautiful to read.

6 Common Myths About Book Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:00:00 +0000

by Dana Lynn Smith

Book reviews are a powerful promotional tool, but there are some misconceptions about how to obtain them. Here are some common myths about getting book reviews.

Myth #1 - Book reviews are just for new books.

It's true that book review journals read by librarians and booksellers review books at or soon after publication. It's best to focus your review efforts during the first year of a book's life, but some venues will review older books.

Myth #2 - No one will review a self-published book.

It is more challenging for self-published authors and small presses to get reviews in certain venues, but it's certainly not impossible. Self-published books are far more likely to be reviewed if they are produced to industry standards (well written, edited and designed). A number of book review websites welcome self-published books or even focus specifically on them, and there are several book journals like Midwest Book Review that are friendly to independent and small presses.

Myth #3 - Book reviews are just for books being sold to bookstores and libraries.

Trade journals like Publishers Weekly and Library Journal are designed to meet the needs of booksellers and librarians, so they focus on books that are available through major distributors and wholesalers at standard discounts. But there are plenty of other places to get book reviews, including book blogs, topical blogs, online bookstores, specialty publications, literary magazines, and reader networks.

Myth #4 - You can't get reviews for ebooks.

It takes some extra research to identify revenue venues that will review books that are available only in ebook format. Many reviewers accept only printed books, although that is slowly changing as the use of ebook readers becomes more widespread. There are several websites, such as Kindle Obsessed, that focus on ebooks.

Myth #5 - No one pays attention to the reviews in online bookstores.

I do believe that reviews (or lack of them) influence shoppers in online bookstores. In my book, How to Get Your Book Reviewed, I cite a study by the Yale School of Management that backs this up. With so many books to choose from, shoppers are often looking for some factor to help them decide between several books.

Having very few or no reviews on an Amazon sales page can give the impression that the book isn't very popular. Reviews can also give the shopper more insight into the book, beyond the product description.

Be sure to encourage customers and book reviewers to post their review or recommendation on Amazon.

Myth #6 – It's not worth the effort of pursing reviews.

Book reviews serve two basic purposes: they bring your book to the attention of people who might not have learned about it otherwise, and they help potential customers decide if your book is a good fit for them. The more reviews you have, and the more places those reviews appear, the greater your reach and your selling power.

All book marketing plans should include a strategy for maximizing the value of reviews, endorsements and testimonials.

To learn more about getting reviews for your book, see How to Get Your Book Reviewed, by Dana Lynn Smith, and follow the virtual book tour. Get more book marketing tips on The Savvy Book Marketer blog.

Amazon Offers Perks Authors Can Use to Promote

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:00:00 +0000

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Ahhhh, Amazon. When it comes to book sales, she strides on the sturdiest of legs.--Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Among authors, Amazon.Com has earned its name. For many it is their most important tool for online sales; sometimes it is their not-so-gentle giant. It is a business many love to hate. Several of its policies are perceived to be anti-author. Because it has so many features that are an advantage to authors, I, instead, hate to love it.

Amazon will sell your books here and overseas. She may not cater to authors of any stripe, but she tolerates them as long as they are assigned an ISBN (the number on the back of your book near the barcode). Small or large publishers, subsidy, and selfpublished books may be found in her pages making her a unique buying and selling tool.

She also offers -- with an outstretched hand and only a few guidelines—avenues that will expose your book to a very important target, readers. Because Amazon is fickle—always adding a feature or taking something away and always changing page designs, I can only attempt to give exact instructions for implementing the features she offers. It is important for you to sign in so that a little index tab sporting your name pops up on the home page.

Mine says "Carolyn’s Store." Yours will be equally well personalized once you are a customer. Click on that tab for a myriad of possibilities for you book.

Amazon’s YOUR ABOUT YOU AREA is the cog in the wheel that exposes you, the author, to readers. Sometimes Amazon calls it your PROFILE PAGE. This area on Amazon.com is a page—much like a website of your own—that you can tailor to appeal to readers surfing for something to read. When a visitor to Amazon finds your book, or the reviews, essays, and recommended reading lists you have posted on the site, they will also find a link to this page where they can read more about you—not necessarily the private you, but the author you. Because these perks reach your targeted audience— readers--and because they cost you nothing but time, they are a bargain. Make them part of your promotion strategy. Here’s how you post your page:

 Go to http://www.amazon.com/.

 Find the tabs near the headline. You’ve signed in with Amazon so you’ll find a personalized tab at the top of the page. Click.

 Find an area that says "Friends and Favorites" or something that indicates their perks like Listmanias, reviews, etc. Click.

 Find the link to Your About You Area or Profile. Install your page Add your picture or book cover art. Use a short synopsis of your book as part of your biography.

While you’re there, explore this area. There are many features here which I discuss in The Frugal Book Promotor: How to Do What Your Publisher Won't. The one you are reading is only one abbreviated excerpt from many I could have chosen.

Now you have Your About You Area posted, you have the foundation for a virtually free media blitz on Amazon ready go. My favorite Amazon feature is their So You’d Like To...Guides. SYLTs are set up so that you can post essays, rills or rants on any subject that you wish. At the bottom of the article you type in the ISBN numbers (but Amazon calls them ASIN numbers) of books or other products related to the subject of your piece.

Readers who visit the pages of the books you listed may then find your article available to read. So You’d Like To…Guides are an excellent place to recycle your old articles (Learn more about recycling in Chapter 6 of The Frugal Book Promoter) because the interest of readers is as wide as the world and beyond. That means that pretty much anything you still own the rights to can be posted here to be read by book-lovers. Edit the material so that it relates to your book in some way. This connection is the primary reason for giving an essay to Amazon.

Here are some tips for contributing a successful So You’d Like To:

 Find the So You’d Like To…. link on Your About You or Profile Page.

 Read the instructions and guidelines at the top of the page.

 Come up with a title that invites browsers to read it. One of mine that has attracted heavy readership is So You’d Like To… Know More About Elizabeth Smart’s Culture. Every time Elizabeth's court case made the news, this essay got another spurt of curious readers and the subject of the essay is closely related to my award-winning novel, THIS IS THE PLACE.

 Copy and paste your article into the text window.

 Carefully edit. Amazon’s free offer deserves to be honored with your best. Besides, you reputation as a writer is on the line.

 At the end, type in up to 50 related book, tape, and video titles according to the instructions. I used the book written by Elizabeth's parents and others on facets of Utah's culture including its renegade polygamist cells.

 Include some books on your list that will attract heavy traffic from book-lovers. That helps exposure. Longer lists are spotted throughout Amazon more often than short ones.

 You can use my So You’d Like To…Guides as examples by going to:. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/cm/member-guides//A3JH18T58CY65P/ref=cm_hp_stats_sylt-count/002-9442750-5248854 So far I have 23 of them and each day they attract more readers.

 Include the title of your book in the body of the essay. If you have chosen your subject carefully your book will be a natural fit.

 Click on the publish button when you are done. You don't want your brilliant new ploy for getting hundreds of readers to go to waste. (My SYLT Guides have been read by more than 100,000 readers so far.) You may begin with a short list and add to it using the edit feature.

 Voila!This list will magically appear on many pages throughout the Amazon site. It will be targeted primarily to the books that you chose to list but may appear elsewhere.

I recently started helping authors I know by offering to include their books on one of the So You’d Like To… lists. I rewrote one of the BACK TO LITERATURE columns I had published at http://www.myshelf.com/. It was an opinion piece on how important it is for authors to be accessible to their fans. Then I posted an offer to fellow authors who share a list-serve with me. I told them what I was doing and asked for volunteers. I also asked them to promise me they would be accessible to fans by offering a gift or a signature label to them if they were contacted. I had to turn away so many grateful authors who wanted to be included that I’m planning another article as soon as I figure out a new angle that will help other authors and give the right kind of exposure to my books. Here is the link for that essay:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/guides/guide-display//H3M5DP3WRXDS/ref%3Dcm_bg_dp_l_2/102-2927160-6432116./0029442750-5248854

Some of my SYLTs have made it to Amazon’s top 100, but I haven’t figured out the criteria they use and I can’t find anyone else who has either.

There are at least a dozen other ways to use Amazon to publicize your book. Read more about how to do so in either the paperback or e-book version of The Frugal Book Promotor: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't. To purchase an ecopy go to: http://starpublish.com/starbooks.htm and to get the paperback, well, go to Amazon.com, of course!

-------------------

Carolyn's THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T is USA Book News' Best Professional Book 2004 and winner of the Book Publicists of Southern California's Irwin Award. Her THIS IS THE PLACE and HARKENING are both multiple award winners. Learn more about her and download her FREE promotional e-books at http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/.

How to Help Google Find Your Site

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:00:00 +0000

by Penny C. Sansevieri

If you’ve ever searched your site on Google and then sat in wonder trying to figure out what page it was on, take heart. Many site owners are wondering the same thing. Search results ping back hundreds of sites, but when you find yours showing up on page five - or worse - page fifty, you know it’s time to take action. Studies have shown that 93% of web users don’t look past the first page of results. So what’s a website owner to do? Well, there are a few things that are out of your control: algorithms for one and competing sites for another. But you can make sure your site is armed for effective ranking and high searchability. Here’s how.

1) Make sure you have an analytics system and know how to use it: first and foremost you want to make sure that you have access to your back end statistics. Why? Because they're important and because you want to know how much traffic your site is getting and where it's coming from. Also, learn how to read these reports. I would recommend considering Google analytics, it's the easiest to learn, manage and install. You'll want to monitor this data a few times a month (especially if you're knee-deep in book promotion) to see where your traffic is coming from and whether the work you are doing to send people to your site is paying off in unique visitors.

2) What is the one major goal for the site? Do you know what you want your site to do? If you don't, then start here and make this your #1 priority. You must have one major goal for the site (yes, you can have additional goals for it but you need to identify your #1 priority first). If your goal is to sell books then you need to be clear about this message. Why is Google going to care about this? Because part of the reason some sites don't get consistent good traffic or ranking is that their site is a mish-mash of 9 different major goals and confusing messages. If your site visitor is confused, Google will be too.

3) Keywords: I know this is a tricky area. The term "keywords" often conjures up the idea that hours of research are involved in getting the perfect set of words. Well, it might take you a few hours but it's worth it. You want to know this not only to identify what your users are searching on but also, what words Google will rank you best for. Identify first where your major searches are coming from via your back-end site statistics, then head on over to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and see what's coming up in your market search-wise. Once you have these keywords you'll want to use them on your site. See #4

4) Use of keywords: there is a good way to use keywords and a bad way. The good way is to use them in sentences, headers, blog posts, articles, Twitter postings. The bad way is to do keyword stuffing, which is where you stuff a blog post or intro paragraph on your site with so many keywords that not only does that paragraph not make sense, the keywords won't even get ranked in Google because there are so many of them used in a non-sensicle way. I'm not kidding. Google can spot keywords stuffers a mile away. Here's a tip if you're using keywords in a blog post- use them in your header, first paragraph and last paragraph - then sprinkle them throughout the 2nd or 3rd paragraph. Just enough to capture the traffic, but not enough to seem like you're spamming the search engine world with an overabundance of keywords.

5) Linkbait: if you're getting a lot of incoming links to your site, great! But make sure there's a good reason for people to visit. This is called linkbait. Some SEO experts use this phrase to mean capturing people through a loss leader online that brings people back to your site. They will then capture them into their funnel via a "teaser" posted somewhere online. There's nothing wrong with this as long as the teaser and the linkbait have good content, but for the purposes of this piece we're focused on the content on your site and if you're leading people back to your URL via linkbait, make sure both are substantial.

6) Have lots of content on your site: this goes back to #5 - linkbait. Content, content, content. Make sure you have a blog and that it's updated at least twice weekly. If that's all the content you have on your site you're doing better than most. A blog is a great way to develop content and keep the site fresh, focused, and personal.

7) Dump flash: having flash on your site is like putting up a brick wall around your domain name and making sure no search engine can get in or see it. Now there are different types of flash and some of it can be searched, so check with your website people - but generally, flash is bad for the site (users don't like waiting for the flash to load or display) and search engines can't even see it.

8) Sitemap: if you don't have a sitemap, have your designer add one. Google loves sitemaps and it's a great way to make sure all your pages are getting spidered in Google.

9) All pages should be created equal: when you look at your site stats, check and see where people are coming in (what pages they're entering your site on). You might find that most visitors aren't coming in through your home page, they're entering somewhere else. What's on the page they are entering through? If there isn't a lot of content on there you'll want to make sure and make it substantial. Remember: Google sees all your pages, so be sure that they all pass muster.

10) Twitter: if you want to get a lot of incoming links to your website then hop onto Twitter. All Twitter posts are searchable and live forever online so a) never post anything you don't want your grandmother to read and b) make sure and post often, including links back to your site when appropriate. You shouldn't put links to your site all the time otherwise you'll just look like a spammer. A successful method to offer a good number of links without seeming too salesy is to link your blog to Twitter via Twitterfeed. Then every time you update your blog it will update Twitter, send a link back to your site and voila: another incoming link. Yep, the stuff Google loves.

A final tip for helping Google find your site is through incoming links. Google loves these and it will really help your site bump up in searches. You'll want high-traffic, high-quality incoming links, so that means links from sites relevant to your own in topic and sites that are coming up high in searches. What’s the best way to get links? Well, you could offer them a review copy of your book (when they review it they will likely post a link to your site) or if the site has a blog (most high-traffic sites will) then you can post comments on their blog (see my article on Social Networking on Blogs for an explanation of how this works: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/social-networking-on-blog_b_408165.html).

These tips might seem simple, but they work. If you've been perplexed about your site ranking and tempted to call Google and say "Hey, where's my site??", try this. It's effective and will not just get you ranking in the short-term, but it will help you build your site's credibility for the long-term.

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert and an Adjunct Instructor with NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, micro-blogs, ezines, video sites, and relevant sites to push an author’s message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Copyright © 2010 Penny C. Sansevieri

19 Ways to Get More Readers for Your Author Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 11:00:00 +0000

by Joel Friedlander

Author blogs are an intrinsic part of your author platform. You can get more readers for your blog. You may have read many of these ideas before, but let me ask you: How many have you done in the last 30 days?

Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. You are building a media asset, and that takes time. Many of these techniques take a little effort and can be done in a few minutes a day. There is never going to be a day when you do them all at once, so look at it more like a menu.

1. Write more often—if you don’t have enough traffic, write more often. This is not necessarily good news, since you may feel you already have enough to do. But when you’re growing a blog, there’s no better way to increase the energy flow to your blog than increasing the amount of energy you put into your blog.

2. Write better articles—look at the last 10 articles you’ve posted to your blog. How many did people really care about? How many did you write for yourself, more than your readers? If you have to, and in contradiction to #1 above, write less frequently but better.

3. Do something different—give readers a reason to come to your blog. If you’re doing what everyone else in your niche is doing, why should they? What is it that no one has done? What angle is uncovered? What insight is lacking in the conversation?

4. Do something big—create a big list, a smashing resource directory, an exhaustive collection of tools, a survey of every viewpoint on a subject. Whatever it is, make it useful, the kind of thing you yourself would link to or bookmark for future reference.

5. Kidnap a celebrity—interview the biggest star in your niche, or the most controversial, or the person with the biggest blog in your field. Aim as high as you can, you will be surprised. Make a regular feature of profiling or interviewing movers and shakers in your industry.

6. Start an argument—disagree loudly with an established authority in your field, an “A-list” blogger, or the institutional overseers of your domain. Demand a response.

7. Rant—find an injustice in your field, something blatantly unfair or a monopolistic company taking advantage of the little guy. Rant about it, invite others to contribute.

8. Guest post—take your show on the road. Create a goal to contribute to someone else’s blog on a related topic once a week, once a month, whatever you can do. Query bloggers and read their archives. Fashion a headline for an article they’ll find irresistible.

9. Comment—leave comments that add to the discussion, that amplify what others have said, that disagree respectfully with the author, that bring something to the table. Pick 5 or 10 blogs and stay in touch with them, commenting when appropriate.

10. Upload articles—put some articles on articles sites like ezinearticles.com and make sure you link back to your blog. Use the same keywords you use in your blog posts.

11. Explore your analytics—dive into your blog’s analytics to find the keywords people are using to arrive at your blog, then. . .

12. Research keywords—use keyword tools to find as many keywords related to your blog as you can. Compare different forms of common terms in your field, since they can have radically different search volumes. Use this information when you write your blog posts.

13. Curate content—serve up links to content elsewhere that you’ve checked out. Use your expertise and the time you spend surfing to collect links that others will find useful. Use social media to spread these links and do link posts on your blog to save others the time of finding great content.

14. Run contests—have a regular contest, giveaway, prize, sweepstakes, awards or some way to create an event. Use your blog to promote it and ask participants to link back.

15. Frequent forums—make a habit of commenting on forum threads that concern your topic. Like commenting, aim to improve, amplify or otherwise contribute to the ongoing conversation. Don’t forget to put a link to your blog in your signature that shows up when you post a comment.

16. Give something away—put together an e-book, a PDF, a template, a checklist, a special report, a worksheet or anything else that others can get real value from. Give it away every day, not just once. Make sure people know they can share it with everyone, and remember to put a live link back to your blog in the giveaway.

17. Write list posts—write the top 7 things, the best 9 widgets, the 5 things people haven’t considered, the 9 top places to get stuff, the 5 best tools for the job, and the 3 reasons list posts beat all others.

18. Take a course—there are several excellent blogging courses that will teach you a huge amount about blogging and gaining traffic. Blog Mastermind is the one I used to grow this blog, and you can find others. Invest in yourself, it pays. (affiliate link)

19. Ask readers—run a survey, ask for comments, ask your readers what they need, what articles they would like to read, where they are stuck, what they need help with.

Blogging is more fun, and more effective, when you have more readers. Every blogger wants more readers, but you have to spend time on more than just your writing to get that blog traffic.

Pick a couple of these ideas and put in 15 minutes today. It takes many little streams to build to a river.

Got something to add to the list?

Article by Joel Friedlander

New Math Adds Up To FREE Publicity

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:00:00 +0000

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson,
Author of This is the Place and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered

This is a reprint from The Span Connection, the official newsletter of the Small Publishers Association of North America

The new math for free publicity is: E-book + E-gift = Promotion. Oops. Error.

Make the answer FREE promotion!

My best promotional effort was not my idea. It accidentally fell into my lap. It is a free e-book called Cooking by the Book. There are three magical concepts in this paragraph: 1. Accidental 2. Free 3. E-book. I’ll share more about these three promotional potions a bit later.

Cooking by the Book is a concept developed by Kathleen Walls, author of The Last Step. She asked more than two dozen authors from several countries to contribute to a book that would be given away free to anyone—as a gift of appreciation to the support teams it takes to write and market a book and to the legions of readers who cook but who had never read any of our books. Each invited author had written at least one kitchen scene in his book. Each segment begins with an excerpt from that scene.

The recipe comes next and then there is a short blurb about the author. We believe that a whole new cookbook concept was born; an outstanding promotional tool was also created.

This E-tool was intended to cross-pollinate promotion. Each contributing author was to publicize it any way she chose. The only caveat was that it must the contributing/promoting author must not charge anything. This meant that each contributor would benefit from the efforts, the lists, and the contacts of the others. It turned out that we had some superior promoters among us. Joyce Livingston set up a page on her site promoting her book, Lucy’s Quilt, as did most of the rest of us.

Contributor Peggy Hazelwood promoted it in her newsletter for book lovers and I promoted in Sharing with Writers (subscribe at http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com/). Mary Emma Allen writes novels and nonfiction but she’s also a columnist for the New Hampshire dailies The Citizen and The Union Leader where the cookbook was a featured. David Leonhardt, author of Climb Your Stairway to Heaven, incorporated it into a Happiness Game Show speech that he’d delivered over a dozen times in Canada and elsewhere.

We all gave away coupons offering this gift at book signings. Because it costs nothing, it is a gift that can be given to everyone, not just those who purchase a book. Some had bookmarks made up featuring this offer. Reviewer JayCe Crawford said, “For a foodie-cum-fiction-freak like me, this cookbook is a dream come true,” and that review has popped in places we didn’t even know existed (one finds these pleasant promotion surprises by surfing the search engines.)

Our most startling success came from sources we had no connection to at all. It was featured in Joan Stewart’s The Publicity Hound newsletter, in Writer’s Weekly, on MyShelf.com, in the iUniverse newsletter and more. I had the highest rate of interest I’d ever had when I queried radio stations and that was in competition with a pitch for This is the Place just before the 2002 games in Salt Lake City and an intolerance angle on the book right after 9/11.

I’m not through yet: Mothers day is always an important holiday for marketers, and in case you haven’t noticed, mothers tend to do lots of cooking!

Back to those three magic words:

1. Accidental: I don’t take credit for knowing a good thing when I saw it. What I learned from this is to never dismiss something that is placed on your desk without careful consideration--even if it seems vaguely hokey. I worried that the other authors would not do their share of the promotion, as an example. Or that the recipes and excerpts might not be what I'd hoped. Our editor needed to work on some of the excerpts but the recipes were great--down to the last one.

2. Free: This charmed word often convinced editors to present our cookbook as a freebie to their visitors and readers. Many featured it on their home pages. Usually the contributing author who pitched it was privileged with their own promotional site’s URL being used as a link, thus motivating those authors who hadn’t publicized as actively as others to do more. Some editors chose to place the entire cookbook download on their own site.

3. E-book: This concept is important because it’s so easy for people to obtain and is truly free. The author need not plan for postage or processing expenses. In the invitations, queries, and releases I sent out I emphasized a no strings attached attack: No site registration. No signing up for a newsletter. No purchase.

The E-book concept is also important because—though it may not be new to you and me—the media is still rather infatuated with it. This aspect alone can be the hook for obtaining an article or an interview.

Oh, and there may be a fourth magic word. Cookbook. We found this word had universal appeal. You might find something else that works much better for you, ties in better with what you’re doing. I’ve been thinking of doing something similar tied to the theme of genealogy because my novel This Is the Place is based on the stories of my own ancestors, four generations of them. A freebie promotional offer should not be knit too closely to the title of your book, but rather something that reaches out to draws in those who might not otherwise be exposed to your work. Cookbook. Genealogy. I'm sure you can find a general topic that is suitable.

Besides, everyone loves something that is FREE.

---------------------------

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, is the multi award-winning author of This is the Place, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered and several chapbooks of poetry. A former journalist and New York publicist she is also the author of The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success (www.budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor) . This article is free at http://budurl.com/CarolynsFreeContent

Rock Your Business: Leverage, Package, & Market with Group Support!

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:00:00 +0000

This is the time to shake yourself out of excuses and limitations and rock your business. Over the last eight years of ACPI’s growth, I’ve seen coaching practices thrive; and I've seen new coaches become overwhelmed, and a few practices collapse. Why?
You enter the helping professions for the right reasons. Your natural talents, so perfect for coaching, teaching, counseling, or care-taking make a huge difference or serve people in an awesome way. You've learned powerful transformational strategies. Moreover you want to share those ideas with others. Therein lies the dilemma.

Does this sound like you? Most people in the helping profession are so passionate about the content they spend the majority of their time focusing on it. They fail to see that this content must be organized, packaged, structured and leveraged into an effective business model to consistently connect with your customers. Without this demonstrated business model, everything comes to a sudden halt. Why?

Without a proper business system, the numbers of people that you actually reach and the extent to which you connect with and eventually serve them remains small.

There are two simple reasons. First, you feel like you have to create new content consistently to be fresh and new. The second reason is the lack of leverage. You don’t use the principle of leverage, which is comprised of the system to re-purpose and package your content and the action can use those gifts to make a HUGE difference and have a thriving business along the way.

Wouldn’t you like to create a specific action plan so that you know exactly what you should be doing in your coaching business every day? Organize your overwhelmed mind into the system to leverage your expertise? The benefit to you is no worry, increased clients, and a larger income.

Dr. Caron Goode is offering “Leveraging Your Expertise & Expanding Your Incredible Presence” –a 6-month mentoring program for a unique group of six persons. The program starts September 1, 2011.

Leveraging Your Expertise is for more advanced business owners—visionaries and big thinkers who have business success and are ready to expand credibility and influence leverage with social media, packaged content, and marketing.

In this small group, you’ll be developing some specific skills:

 Developing content

 Packaging content in several forms

 Developing an E-book , a white paper or webinar, if you desire

 Engaging through social media

Mastering the principle of leverage is an extraordinary experience, and the nature of the training itself results in relationships that will last a lifetime. Your business will be transformed.

Read more here

From Book to Bestseller: what it takes to crack the list (and why you might not want to)

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:00:00 +0000

by Penny C. Sansevieri

In the past 15 months, we've had 10 books on the bestseller list. When I say "bestseller" I mean major lists: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, et al. Still, even after numerous books and a variety of lists, the "list" itself still confounded me, so I decided to do a little research to find out what it really takes to hit a list.

First off, the term "hit a list" can mean hitting a bestseller list at any point of entry. This can even be the bottom 100. Many books that hit a list are never viewed by consumers, they land there, stay for a week, maybe longer or shorter, and then vanish. The numbers and metric for this can be tricky and in fact, not entirely accurate. If you've ever tried to hit a list and found yourself disgusted with the odds, I hope this article sheds some light on the ins and outs of how the process works. I do recommend though that you do some research on your own, there are some excellent blog posts out there that look at the finite pieces of these lists and how they are constructed.

First off, let's look at the facts. Bestseller lists vary by season, market, and genre. First, let's look at seasons.

Surprisingly enough, how many copies you need to sell of your book will often depend on when you release it. Pre-Christmas releases, for example, require bigger number than a release that happens in May. Why is this? Well, the holiday should speak for itself and the same is true for key Fall months like September. The hotter the month (not in temperature but in publishing releases) the harder it is to get onto a list.

The next piece of this is reporting. Another piece that might surprise you is that not all reporting is accurate. Never mind the fact that reporting can be slow; you could hit 20,000 sales of your book in October but not see this reporting until November for example, but they can also be inaccurate, and there's a whole market share that's never reported on. Technical, scholarly, law-related books can make up over two-thirds of the book market and are never reported on. Christian titles work the same way. You might say, "Well, what about The Shack?" This Christian title hit a list because it was sold en masse in retail outlets and not sequestered to Christian retailers that don't get the benefit of reporting to the lists.

Finally, let's look at list structure. Each list pulls book data differently, meaning that the New York Times does not pull trade book data, whereas the USA Today list does. USA Today also pulls these titles onto a single list, whereas the New York Times divides these lists up by genre.

A friend of mine who spent years in publishing once told me that publishing is all about perception, and this is very true. What she meant by this is that print runs (publishers refer to these as "advance print runs") as well as any and all advance buzz a book is getting will also help it land on a list. Generally a book that is just "born" into the publishing world with no buzz, advanced reviews, etc. won't capture the attention of a big list. The author might hit it well locally, but generally not nationally unless (like in the case of The Shack) there is some online viral buzz that builds. There is also the consideration of sales surge. This surge often happens during a very short period of time and doesn't always have to equate to huge numbers, it's the velocity of the push that matters. An associate of mine in publishing once told me that a book she was working with only sold 4,000 copies before it landed on a major list. The smallness of the number is staggering when you think about it. Keep in mind that this book hit a list during a slow period, too, so that also worked in its favor.

Also, lists aren't always based on sales. The New York Times, for example, is known for a non-sale list, meaning that they circulate to 37 reporting (book) stores to find out whether a book is doing well. If it's being talked about by the stores, it will often make the list.

When you do the research, you realize that there is no way *anyone* can "rig" a list and promise you bestseller status. Well, there is one way: by buying up a lot of copies of a book within a short period of time. There have been companies promising bestseller status that do this, but once their warehouses are uncovered the companies often fold. Also, these books at some point will flood the system yet again, usually as used copies on Amazon, which will compete for sales attention with their newly printed counterparts. Any way you slice it, buying up your own books with the hope of getting on a list should be the last thing on your marketing agenda.

Marketing your book with an eye on the bestseller list is great, but much like waiting for Oprah to call, it's not a preferred way to gain or keep your marketing stride. Instead, focus on things you can actually control that will benefit you. Like, let's say regional promotion or an aggressive Internet campaign. Or how about reading groups both online and off? Slanting your campaign to hit a list isn't a great idea, in fact, it's often the worst thing you can do. Yes, there are books that publishers know will hit a list right out of the gate. These titles are generally celeb or news driven, but for the most part, 99.9% of all bestseller status is unpredictable. Gather your marketing chips and put them on a bet that is more likely to pay off. I know authors we've worked with who get the word from their publisher that their book just hit a list, and they'll often call me elated and excited. Now that's a wonderful surprise.

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert and an Adjunct Instructor with NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, micro-blogs, ezines, video sites, and relevant sites to push an author’s message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Copyright © 2010 Penny C. Sansevieri

Entrepreneur Marketing to Inspire You, Not Tire You

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 11:00:00 +0000

By Dr. Caron Goode

Last week, a student in the ACPI coaching marketing class floored me with her praise, “Caron I have to say that your class inspires me, not tires me. I took a year-long marketing class at a prestigious business school last year, and I thought this marketing class would be the same old. I was wrong, your marketing mentoring is uniquely different...finding my passion and taking it forward. Just WOW!”

Language of Marketing Old

Her comment gave me cause to watch the words and sales of other marketing ezines I read. I noticed how subtly different my marketing mentoring program is in that does inspire as opposed to the language of my marketing email within the last 10 days, which asked these questions:

What problems are you solving?

Why aren’t you making a six-figure income?

Not working hard enough? Outsource what you hate!

Want to be a millionaire like me?

Of course I want all of those things, but I never sign up because the energy doesn’t feel like a compatible match. Here are my answers:

 Well, I’m not solving problems. I like inspiring people to solve their own problems.

 Well, I am making a six-figure income, I just don’t shout it to the world or belittle others who don’t have a six-figure income or tease them to find an easy way to do so.

 YES! I am outsourcing, and I still work long hours by choice – if enjoying your passion is work. I love it!

 Yes, I want to be a millionaire too, like everyone else who buys a lottery ticket a week (I don’t) because isn’t that the American myth and motivator. We can all see it and feel it.

Language of New Marketing

The marketing questions from other ezines are old school; they are based on being competitive.
Instead, The heart is where we start. I’d rather ask questions like . .

What does your heart tell you is true in this situation?

What is the possibility of you making a six-figure income? In what time frame?

What is working for you right now?

What is true and possible with these products?
You can learn any marketing system, but if you still aren’t focused on the “doing” aspect, you won’t move ahead. Marketing fatigue is doing all of it by yourself. Inspiration comes from high energy of group support and mentoring.

When seeking marketing information, we want role models to emulate, and we make our decisions from emotional compatibility. Do the following marketing principles resonate with you?

 Your self-esteem, not your mentor, is the foundation of your inspiration.

 Yet, we all need a buddy system or group support to keep focused on the work.

 Move beyond competition to seeking cooperative marketing efforts with a group that shares your values.

 Finding ways to take your expertise and wrap it like a Christmas gift for your clients and having partners to do it with is exceptional!

Leveraging Your Expertise & Expanding Your Incredible Presence

You’ll find Dr. Caron Goode’s mentoring programs unique, and an inspiring investment that results in products, group marketing, and master-mind friendships. If you have six-months and three hours a week to invest in grounding and solidifying your business with packaged content and social media marketing, then please visit http://acpi.biz/.

The August Issue of Writers in the Sky E-zine is Now Available!

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 11:00:00 +0000

The August issue of Writers in the Sky E-zine is now available! This publication provides a rich resource of articles and information about the craft and business of writing, publishing, and book marketing. Go to http://writersinthesky.com/writing-newsletter.html and scroll down to the archives and click the link to this month’s issue. It will download as a PDF. If you would like to get once-a-month email delivery of the e-zine, you may subscribe for free at https://app.quicksizzle.com/survey.aspx?sfid=13065

9 Ways to Market Your Book With No Money

noreply@blogger.com (Yvonne Perry) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:00:00 +0000

by Joel Friedlander

Recently the good folks at BookBuzzr.com, a company with innovative book marketing programs, asked me to do an interview for them, and of course I agreed. This article is adapted and expanded from part of that interview.

If you are an author with a minuscule marketing budget, how can you ensure that your book is noticed at the time of the book launch?

This is a terrific question, and one that applies to many authors. With the tools so readily available, it’s tempting to simply push books out there, upload them to Kindle and wait for the orders to come in.

But it rarely works out that way. Inevitably authors come to understand that nobody is going to market their book for them. It takes a kind of dedication to continue to find ways to let people know about your book. You can get off to a good start with a book launch.

Book Launches for Fun and Profit

Book launch is an exciting, terrifying and exhausting time for self-publishers. As an author you might have thought your work was done when the manuscript was finished, but the publisher knows the hard work is only starting.

Self-publishers are in a good position to market their books, regardless of the budget involved. You know your book better than anyone. You also know the people who are likely buyers of the book, and what other books deal with the same subject.

As you consider your book launch, think about two things:

 Who are the people who will benefit most from your book?

 How can you communicate those benefits most effectively to those people?

9 Ways to Market Your Book For No Money

If you know who the people are, you just need to figure out how to communicate. Hey, you’re an author, a content creator. This won’t be that hard.

Not only that, many of the best communication methods we have cost nothing but your time. Here are some examples:

1. Writing articles for publication on article sites or in offline media

2. Participating in discussions in online forums about your book’s subject

3. Communicating with the media by issuing regular media releases

4. Curating content from other sources for people in your niche

5. Creating content for publication by bloggers in your field

6. Going on a blog tour and visiting blogs in your niche

7. Sponsoring contests and giveaways, using your book as a prize

8. Querying book bloggers and reviewers to see if they will review your book

9. Setting up a mailing list for people interested in your work, and using it to communicate ideas that expand on your other communications

This list could go on. Although there’s no financial cost to these activities, each one will support your image as an expert in your field and put you in contact with networks of people interested in your subject. And each place you make a contribution is somewhere else people can find out about your book.

That’s where book marketing meets the real world. There’s nothing more valuable than the contact you have with readers of your content. And there’s no more efficient way to spread your message than through the networks of other people interested in your work.

In a sense, your book launch may never end. We will probably never run out of communities to communicate with about our work. And when you publish your next book, think how much ground will already be prepared for your book marketing efforts.

Joel Friedlander is a self-published author, a book designer and blogs about book design, self-publishing and the indie publishing life at TheBookDesigner.com. He's also the proprietor of Marin Bookworks, where he helps publishers and authors who decide to publish get to market on time and on budget with books that are both properly constructed and beautiful to read.