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THE BOOK MARKETING EXPERT (mini) NEWSLETTER!
A newsletter all about SUCCESSFUL publishing and POWERFUL promotion.
May 18 2006 Issue #118
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in this issue
— Note From The Editor
— We’ve got some exciting news!
— Exceptional E-mail Newsletters
— Staggering Statistics
— Striking Internet Gold: Do you Press the Issue? Part 2
— Virtual Author Tours (still not convinced?)
— The Next Big Thing
— The Secret to Writing a Book Lightening Fast
— Virtual Success: Convert Site Visitors to Buyers
— Event Planning Help
— High Profile Publicity: From Menendez to Murphy, the Secrets to Great PR
— Expert Recommendation!
— Who We Are
Penny C. Sansevieri, Editor mailto:penny@amarketingexpert.com
Welcome to a new issue of THE BOOK MARKETING EXPERT (mini) NEWSLETTER You are receiving this newsletter compliments of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. To opt out, please scroll down to the bottom of this newsletter.
Note From The Editor
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Dear Readers,
Welcome to another issue of the Book Marketing Expert Newsletter!
So what’s the secret to your book success? Well, for one thing it’s repetition of your message. One of the best ways I’ve found to stay on someone’s radar screen is through an email newsletter (like the one you’re reading). This week we’re talking about ezines and creative ways to start one of your own!
Remember our January Magazine offer? Well it’s still running! And here’s one of the first interviews, check out David Steele in January Magazine: David Steele
Wishing you publishing success! Penny
P.S. Remember when we told you about our amazing success with our new Virtual Author Tours? Well we keep striking gold with these things and you can too! Check out the amazing success story below – you might want to rethink your marketing plan!
We’ve got some exciting news!
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Both my books: From Book to Bestseller and Get Published Today have been picked up by a mainstream publisher. Also, my latest book: Striking Internet Gold (not yet published) was picked up as part of the package. Morgan James Publishing will be publishing these books in 2006!
Exceptional E-mail Newsletters
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One of the rules of thumb in marketing is to stay on the radar screen of your reader. A good way to do this is by starting an email newsletter or ezine. At AME we’ve had our newsletter for nearly six years and it’s been very successful for us. Certainly it’s a lot of work but it’s worth it, both to keep us top of mind with our target audience and also to share helpful marketing information with our readers. If you’ve been a subscriber to our ezine for a while you know that while we use it as a promotional tool, it’s 90% helpful advice. But what if you’re in between book releases, and you’ve got nothing current to sell? This time, probably more than any other, is when it’s important for you to keep your message out there. When you’re promoting a new release it’s a no- brainer that the word of your book will be getting out there but when you’re knee-deep in writing the new one it’s more crucial than ever for you not to lose the momentum you gathered through your last campaign.
Many of you probably already get these from a variety of sources. These days, Ezines have almost replaced magazines with topics ranging from how to publish your book, to building an effective Web site or decorating your home. There are Ezines for everything and just about every topic. So, if the pond is so full, why would you start one? Well, in today’s busy business climate, people are inundated with messages and advertisements all the time. On average we’re exposed to over 100,000 ads each day. With ads becoming diluted, an e-mail newsletter is a good alternative to this noise. An e-mail newsletter, sent once or twice a month with information, tips, and helpful advice keeps you on your reader’s radar screen and keeps your message in front of them, week after week, month after month.
So, let’s say you decided to start an e-mail newsletter, what on earth would you write about? Well, if your book is nonfiction the topic should be fairly simple. Write about your area of expertise. You can pull chapters from your book to use as articles in the newsletter and offer current, relevant hints to your readers. A newsletter doesn’t have to be long, in fact, given the amount of reading most of us already do online I suggest keeping it short and simple. Five to seven pages should be your target; you can even go less if you want. It’s entirely up to you, you’re the boss and you decide what works and what doesn’t for your readership. If your book is fiction, then your newsletter might excerpt chapters for your upcoming not-yet-released blockbuster novel, an updated listing of where your readers can find you doing a signing or a talk and possibly, even some writing tips for those readers who aspire to finish their own novel someday. You can also use your newsletter to involve your readers with contests and surveys, or ask them to share their own writing, publishing, or marketing stories.
There are a number of ways you can get subscribers. If you’re doing an event, talk, or book signing, bring a sign-up sheet with you so people can subscribe to your Ezine. Friends and family are always great supporters and might even pass an issue or two along to someone they know might be interested in your product, topic, or service. And finally, if you have a Web site make sure you have a place for people to sign up if they want to subscribe to your Ezine.
If you’re e-mail list is small, you can send your Ezine by hand through your own e-mail program but as your list expands, consider getting a service like Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com), Graphic Mail (www.graphicmail.com), or Kickstart Cart (www.kickstartcart.com). For a nominal monthly fee, these services will help you manage your ever increasing list of newsletter subscribers and send out your newsletter on the date and time you specify.
Once you’ve established your newsletter and run through a few issues, you might want to think about expanding your audience reach by posting your newsletter at various Ezine directory sites. You can submit your Ezine to the directories listed below. Read the submission instructions at each site first before you start the submission process.
Directories: E-ZineZ – a searchable Ezine Directory (www.e– zinez.com) EzineSeek – categorized and searchable directory of Ezines (www.ezineseek.com) eZINESearch – (www.ezinesearch.com) Tile Net – a project of Lyris Technologies, Inc. (http://tile.net/lists/) Get Published – (www.published.com/add/) New List – a series of mailing lists that provides more than 6,000 subscribers updates on new Ezines. You can even add your own newsletter to the list. (www.new-list.com/instructions/)
E-mail newsletters are a great to keep your message active and stay in contact with your audience, customers, or future readers. Done correctly, word about an Ezine will spread like wildfire. Offer an incentive to your readers if they pass one of your newsletters on to a friend or offer them the opportunity to run an ad in your newsletter announcing the release of their book. Enroll and engage your readers in your message, get them actively involved in your newsletter by allowing others to contribute articles or other forms of content. Build a loyal reader base and you’ll find not only valued customers, but messengers willing to spread the word about you and your book!
BONUS: If you’re looking for an easy to use Ezine template to get you started, send us an e-mail at e- mailnewsletter@getresponse.com and we’ll get one right out to you!
Staggering Statistics
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7% of the books published generated 87% of total retail bookstore sales.
1,187 titles sold 50,000 or more copies.
24,000 books had sales of over 5,000 units.
93% of all books published sold less than 1,000 copies.
Striking Internet Gold: Do you Press the Issue? Part 2
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Last issue we talked about how a good press release can increase your page ranking. If your release is timely, well written and newsworthy, chances are you will get picked up by someone in the media. Submitting your release to companies like the ones listed below will also help increase your page ranking.
http://www.free-press-release-center.info
Here are some tips to ensure that you get optimal results:
1. Create a captivating title: This is the first thing search engines read – it will also be viewed as the title of the web page. Try to use important keywords in there, but also make sure it will captivate the media and get you noticed.
2. Heading tags: Much like the title, this is one of the first things people and search engines will see – optimize the beginning of your release with relevant keywords. A well written press release will announce the most important aspect of your story right away.
3. Don’t overdo it – often, if you use the same words over and over, regardless of how relevant they are, you run the risk of being viewed as spam. First and foremost, craft a press release that is well written – this will guarantee exposure faster than any SEO tricks out there.
Tip offered by Jeniffer Thompson of Monkey C Media
Virtual Author Tours (still not convinced?)
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If you’re still not convinced that virtual author tours pay off consider this. A title we’re working with (Cookin’ for Love), which was featured in the July issue of MORE Magazine, soared to 18,000 on Amazon when it was featured in several blogs. We never got that kind of a spike – even after the MORE feature came out.
If you haven’t considered touring yourself virtually, you might want to. For more information on how we conduct our virtual author tours, send a quick e-mail to
Virtual Author Tours!
The Next Big Thing
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Did you know the megatrend in business is spirituality? Integrity, trust, doing good, and giving back all translate into high performance and healthy profits, and businesses are beginning to take notice. Patricia Aburdene, author of Megatrends 2010, calls it “conscious capitalism”.
The Secret to Writing a Book Lightening Fast
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People ask me how I was able to crank out three books in record time, frankly they’re baffled. The answer, however, is very simple. Creating a newsletter and a blog has forced me to constantly be creating content; this content was then folded into new material for my books. So, another good reason to start a blog and a newsletter!
Good Search
Virtual Success: Convert Site Visitors to Buyers
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In a past newsletter I’ve written about using the What’s In It For Me (WIIFM) principle of Web copywriting. In brief, it’s copy that helps convert site visitors to buyers by telling them what they’ll get from buying your book. In this issue and upcoming weeks, I’m going to be giving you a series of tips for raising your conversion rate. Implement them, then track your traffic to see if the new copy drives more traffic to your actual sales page. Today’s tip: Make sure your site reinforces to visitors that they’re in the right place. For example, if they’re searching for an inspirational book, does your copy reinforce that desire, or does your copy talk about you and your latest vacation???
Tip submitted by Nancy Hendrickson, Website consultant, copywriter and fabulous member of the Author Marketing Experts, Inc Team. Contact her with your “virtual” questions at: nancy@amarketingexpert.com
Email Nancy!
Event Planning Help
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If you need to do some planning for an upcoming event, then you might want to give RSVME.com a try. This program allows users to develop quick questionnaires to either coordinate events or take tallies from a variety of recipients. www.rsvme.com
RSVME
High Profile Publicity: From Menendez to Murphy, the Secrets to Great PR
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Read our blog on some great PR secrets we think you’ll love!
AME Blog!
Expert Recommendation!
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Expert Recommendation Every so often we find a great product or service and this one is certainly in that category. If you’re ready to offer your book in an ebook format on your site but aren’t sure where to begin, this service will help you create an ebook in only a few minutes and once you’re done with it, you can add it to your site and start selling! Ebook Generator!
Who We Are
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Author Marketing Experts, Inc. is a full-service book marketing, promotion, and publicity company. We serve authors at all stages of marketing and promotion. We offer a full range of packages and services to choose from.
To see a price list or schedule a free consultation, send your e-mail to mailto:penny@amarketingexpert.com with the subject line “Author Marketing Experts Info.”
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Copyright 2006 Author Marketing Experts, Inc. Thank you for reading!
Author Marketing Experts, Inc.
Contact Information
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email: penny@amarketingexpert.com
web: http://amarketingexpert.com/
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Without a doubt, the most successful ezine I’ve dealt with to distribute content is EzineArticles.com. I’ve written a series of articles on Internet marketing, positioning myself as an Internet marketing expertand get fabulous pick up on Ezines and Marketing Related websites. I’ve also had some success with GoArticles.com.