August 31, 2009 at 5:22 pm (Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Choosing a Publisher, Networking, Tips, marketing, self-publishing)
Tags: Amazon, book publishing, Bookfinder, self-publishing, Tesla Roadster
Your book content – fiction, non-fiction, children’s, religious – naturally presumes a value to readers intending to be entertained or learn something from your work. How do they decide they want to read your book?
They don’t. You do. Sound like an incredible power? It is. It’s name: Marketing
When Thomas Edison turned 16 do you suppose he wanted a Tesla Roadster? Probably not. In order to want something you need to know it exists. One definition of marketing is convincing a a mass of people to want what you have. That puts you, the author of your book, in the cat bird’s seat. Who knows your book better than you, after-all.
How readers know about books has changed a great deal over the past decade, and my guess is that trend will continue. With Amazon, Twitter, Podcasts, Bookfinder, etc. we no longer rely on a single-minded source for telling us about books. A good CEO (the self-published author) knows how to leverage the expertise of others and delegate work. Consider the long-term. Research self-publishers with ongoing marketing support and services. Being published is rarely even enough.
Karl Schroeder
Have fun. Keep writing.
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August 29, 2009 at 12:11 pm (Book Review of the Week)
Tags: book review, moaning banshee, Outskirts Press, readerviews, self publish
The Mystery of the Moaning Banshee
by Barbara Carroll
This self-published book was recently reviewed by www.readerviews.com:
I forgot how much I love reading a good Gothic tale until I read this story. The author captures the reader from page one until the very end. It is a great story to read as a family, or for older readers to read alone.
When Cassie Baker inherits her great grandfather’s old Victorian mansion in a small town on the Maine coast, she gets a lot more than she bargains for. Cassie, at thirteen, is the oldest of eight very adventurous siblings. The estate includes an old mansion with secret passages and unexplained happenings, a Carriage House, Care Takers cottage, an old lighthouse, a spooky marsh and cemetery and a beach house. Silas, the spooky old caretaker, warns Cassie about the dangers of the estate.
As Cassie and her brothers and sisters begin exploring the old estate they encounter many scary and unexplainable things. Apparently ghosts and banshees come with the estate that has been closed up for over fifty years due to an unexpected death of a relative. But it is rumored that the estate is also home to a hidden fortune and Cassie needs to find it to pay off long-time unpaid bills and save her family’s home from auction. Many exciting adventures await Cassie and her family as they look for the treasure and the answers to so many mysteries.
As these brave children encounter puzzles, ghosts, crooks and thieves, elements of this story remind me of one of my favorite movies “The Goonies.” Hopefully “The Mystery of the Moaning Banshee” by Barbara Carroll will not be the last time that we have heard from Cassie and her family.
For more information or to purchase a copy, visit the author’s webpage: www.outskirtspress.com/moaningbanshee
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August 27, 2009 at 7:34 pm (Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Book Signings, Events, Networking, Tips, marketing, self-publishing)
Tags: books, marketing, promotion, radio producers, self-publishing
Here are 5 things to do when composing a letter to a radio producer to promote your self-published book:
1 – Do keep your letter short. No more than one page.
2 – Do include your hook. This is a 5-10 word sentence or phrase that should attract everyone’s attention about you or your book.
3 – Do format your letter so it’s easy to skim. Use bullet points.
4 – Do write your letter with the producer’s point of view. Re-read it as if you were the producer. Is it clear what you want and what value you offer to the radio listeners?
5 – Do be available to respond to interest immediately. These people are often on deadline and if you are the easiest solution to their problem, you’ll get the call.
Karl Schroeder
Have fun and keep writing…
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August 26, 2009 at 11:34 pm (Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Book Review of the Week, Book Reviews, Events, Networking, self-publishing)
Tags: book, publishing, radio producer, self-publishing, television producer
After your book is published, here are 5 things to avoid when pitching to a radio or television producer:
1 – Don’t pitch your book. Pitch an idea for a show.
2 – Don’t over promise. Be able to deliver what you say.
3 – Don’t be dull. Your letter has to communicate how vivacious you are.
4 – Don’t hide your message. Make sure it’s clear what you are suggesting.
5 – Don’t be annoying. Producers are busy. Bombarding the with correspondence or emails will hinder your chances for success.
- Karl Scrhoeder
Have fun and keep writing.
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August 25, 2009 at 8:10 pm (Networking, Tips, self-publishing)
When it comes to writing a book, nothing necessitates production like demand. Whether that demand is real or imaginary is irrelevant when it comes to motivation. Of course, “real” demand is certainly better in terms of promotion and readership. But “imaginary” demand also accomplishes the same goal — incentive for you to write a certain amount within a certain period of time.
You’ve found this blog. Do you have one and would like to share? If note, think about starting one. Short for web-log, blogs are online diaries that allow you to post content quickly and conveniently for the world to see. Each blog posting is time-stamped with the date and time of your entry. Other readers can post comments to your blog if you allow them to.
Blogs that are updated consistently and frequently are more popular than those that languish. There’s your demand. If you want a blog with “buzz” you will find yourself motivated to add to it every day. Even if you’re only adding a paragraph with every posting — those entries add up. Keeping ahead of your public’s expectations is a great motivator to write!
- Karl Schroeder
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August 24, 2009 at 8:57 pm (Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Choosing a Publisher, Tips, marketing, self-publishing, writing)
Retailers like Amazon, blogs, online forums and countless other products of the digital world have introduced over the last decade a unique new element in the way readers find books: less expensive, open source consumer information. No longer are large advertising and marketing dollars spent on a small portion of books targeted at the largest audience possible through traditional brick-and-mortar outlets. At least not on the level of decades past when readers had no choice but to visit these stores to learn about and buy new books. What does this mean for how writers produce books?
To help explain, let’s take a look at the example of the bean farmer, corn farmer, and rice farmer, all three of whom farm all 3 crops to sell at the farmers market. However,
The bean farmer is better at bean farming.
The corn farmer is better at corn farming.
And the wheat farmer better at rice farming.
One day the bean farmer decides to turn his entire field to beans, and in result brings the best beans at a higher volume to the market. This farmer may only be serving those consumers who like beans, and will lose those that prefer corn and rice. But he will accomplish at taking in the whole bean market because his beans are the best.
Are a rice, corn, or bean farmer? In other words, how specific is your audience (the tighter the better) and how pertinent your content? Once this has been identified and the self-publisher search begins, look for one that has marketing services and support to most effectively reach those readers.
- Karl Schroeder
Have fun and keep writing!
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August 22, 2009 at 10:00 am (Book Review of the Week)
Tags: book review, Natalie Wickham, Pajama School, self publish
Natalie Wickham submitted the following review she received for her self-published book. Here is the link to review online: http://blissfullydomestic.com/homeschool-bliss/pajama-school-review-and-giveaway/
Pajama School is the autobiographical journey of Natalie Wickham, a homeschool graduate who chronicles her journey through honest, vivid, and candid stories.
While chronicling her journey, Wickham provides a strong message that God’s plan for her family far surpassed what her parents could ever have planned for their children. As she willingly tells all, Wickham discloses the reality of her educational experience and its relationship to the many challenges she faced growing up.
She illustrates how God took her classmates (her sisters) and transformed their relationship into that of best friends. She expresses the highs and lows of switching churches, finding a curriculum, living with an ailing grandmother, living with a sister with a disability, mending relationships with family members (including her father), and surviving terrible tragedy.
And as she tells her stories of being homeschooled, she seems to be expressing thanks to her mother, father, and sisters who made her journey more complete.
One of my favorite passages in the book is this:
“That’s what the world of homeschooling is like. It stretches far beyond the boundaries of a single family, a community, or one local church. It is comprised of all sorts of people, from varied backgrounds and different walks of life, but who are united in a common goal – to take seriously the upbringing of their children and provide them with the best education possible. That will mean different things for different people. But that’s the beauty of homeschooling. Stereotyped as we may be, no two homeschool families are exactly alike. A peek into any homeschool will quickly reveal that. But still, there persists a familial bond of sorts as we are brought together as part of a bigger community for events such as these.” (p.57)
Wickham’s book is entertaining, but more importantly, it is a ministry. As she expresses in her own words, “Homeschooling has prepared me for a life of learning, because one of the most valuable things I’ve learned is that true education is not limited to the walls of a classroom. True education takes place every day as I learn from the expertise and experience of those whom God has placed in my life. This understanding is what has helped me learn and grow, even through the difficult life lessons that God has allowed me to experience.” (p.204)
Pajama School is a delightful book that I would recommend to anyone, not just a homeschooler.
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August 19, 2009 at 4:57 pm (Book Promotion, Book Reviews, Choosing a Publisher, Distribution, Networking, marketing, self-publishing, writing)
Tags: books, Kurt Anderson, literature, New York Times, publishing, self-publishing, Urban Eye
I opened the Books section in yesterday’s New York Times Urban Eye to read the headline, “Why Literature Doesn’t Matter.” Really? How sad. It matters to me. It matters to my family, friends, and colleagues. It matters to the self-publishing authors I work with every day. Literature doesn’t matter… I wish someone would have told me.
According to Urban Eye, a recent Sunday Book Review article penned buy novelist Kurt Anderson was to fill me in. Anderson writes, “During the 1960s and ’70s…people who hadn’t read a word of a first-rate contemporary novel — no Cheever, no Bellow, no Salinger, Heller, Styron, Doctorow, Updike or Roth — nevertheless knew the novelists’ names… And then everything changed.”
But book sales in the US have remained strong, and are even growing over previous years in Europe. Despite the current recession effects, statistics show that readers are still buying books. Not matter? Anderson goes on to claim, “But irony of ironies, after literature was evicted from mass culture, pop culture itself began to fragment and lose its heretofore defining quality as the ubiquitous stuff that everybody consumed.”
Ah, I’m seeing to whom, or rather to what, Literature doesn’t matter to – pop culture. Wait, then this is a good thing for authors and readers. The fragmentation that Anderson talks about is the segmenting of consumers into smaller, more clearly defined profiles. What that means to self-publishing authors of fiction, non-fiction, etc., is not that your work doesn’t matter, that Literature doesn’t matter, but that it doesn’t matter to everyone. Perfect, now you can coordinate and focus your subject matter and marketing efforts to readers who will benefit from, and buy your books.
Talk to your self-publisher early on about your custom marketing plan.
Karl Schroeder
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August 18, 2009 at 9:59 pm (Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Distribution, Networking, Tips, copyright, marketing, self-publishing)
Perhaps you’ve been following news about the Google Book Settlement over the past few weeks. The overall implications of the deal are still unclear, with notable opposition coming from The Authors Guild and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.
The details of the settlement involving copyright concerns and royalties first initiated through the Google Library Project in 2004 are a bit esoteric and apparently complex. Don’t be overwhelmed. There is no downside to registering your self-published book, so don’t miss the deadlines.
Outskirts Press has provided a step by step overview of the process in their most recent newsletter. Check it out here.
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August 15, 2009 at 12:45 pm (Book Review of the Week)
Tags: andrew rafkin, book review, mediterranean madness, Outskirts Press, self publish
This self-published book was recently reviewed by ReviewYourBook.com:
Living in a port community this book was very intrguing and exciding to read. The imagination of the author and the great thrill of this story grabed my attention in a way that keeped me wanting to read on, and not put it down. I love books that have great plots and lots of excitement, and this story is one that should be put in movie form, “It was that good.”
The research that Mr.Rafkin did, along with plenty of action and suspense is why I say that this is a must read. The characters that he uses are true heroes in this fight that we have against terrorism in the world today. The combination of how the North Korean and Iranian extremists that want to hurt us, along with their ambitions to destroy the freedoms that we enjoy, is why the heroes in this book are real and make me feel like being part of the story.
–Terry Katnic, Amazon Review
These events later served as inspiration for his first non-fiction true life adventure, Red Sky Morning.
He served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and later Graduated from California State University, Dominguez Hills with degrees in economics and marketing. He is a successful entrepreneur and president of Palos Verdes Security Systems, and certified by the Department of Homeland Security.
Andrew has published three books and is currently finishing up the trilogy to Creating Madness. He lives with his wife, Lynn in San Pedro, California, and spends his spare time reading, fishing, hunting, golfing, and making wine.
Visit his website: www.andrewrafkin.com
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