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THE BOOK MARKETING EXPERT NEWSLETTER!

A newsletter all about SUCCESSFUL publishing

and POWERFUL promotion.

March 3, 2011 Issue #241

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in this issue

— Note From The Editor

— Get a Free LibraryThing Book Giveaway Promotion With Any VAT Purchase

— Feature Article: Fans, Friends, and Followers: How to Build a Solid Author Platform that Sells More Books!

— Ready to Get Your Book the Attention it Deserves?

— AME Resources for You – At No Cost!

— Book Bits and Bites

— An Agent Just Requested My Manuscript! Now What?

— Webinar: Finding A Publisher

— Promote Your Books on LinkedIn

— Face to Face Still Matters

— Penny in the News!

— Hear What The Publishing Insiders Have to Say

— Fire Up Your Business (Make More Money)

— 10 Tips for Effective Book Covers

— How to Build a Blog Following

— Submissions Needed for National Indie Excellence Awards

— Twitter Tip – Integrate LinkedIn and Twitter

— Twitter Tip – Move Your Facebook Fans to Action

— Reader Tip!

— WHO ARE WE

— ————————————————————

Penny C. Sansevieri, Editor penny@amarketingexpert.com

Welcome to a new issue of THE BOOK MARKETING EXPERT NEWSLETTER.

You are receiving this newsletter compliments of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. To opt out, please scroll down to the bottom of this newsletter.

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Welcome to another issue of the Book Marketing Expert Newsletter!

Dear Author,

Welcome to another issue of the Book Marketing Expert Newsletter! We’re thrilled to have you back. So, have you heard all the scuttle on eBooks these days? We’ve been covering that and so much more in our Successful Self-Publishing series on The Publishing Insiders. Links to the show are in this newsletter.

Oh and I can barely contain my excitement. We mentioned it briefly in the last newsletter, but now we’ve gone live with our AME Viral Sweepstakes. More details are in the newsletter, but check it out: http://amarketingexpert.com/book-sweepstakes/. It’s a revolutionary way to promote a book!

We’ve got another jam-packed issue, including Part 2 of our Fans, Friends, and Followers series. I hope you will enjoy it!

Wishing you publishing success,

Penny, Paula, Susan, Sherrie, Yoonmi and everyone at Author Marketing Experts, Inc.

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Due to popular demand, this promotion has been extended!

A great way to promote your book is with a book giveaway contest! AME is excited to offer you this opportunity to promote your title on LibraryThing.com! This incredible online social networking hub brings more than 1.2 million book lovers together worldwide.

We’ll promote your book with a one-week campaign. You commit to mailing 10 winners a copy of your book. The amazing benefit of this promotion is the exposure you get on LibraryThing.com’s most popular page. We’ll send you a link to track your results while the campaign is running, so you can see just how popular your book is!

The retail value of this service is $249! If you want to participate in this promotion only, we’re offering a $50 discount through March 15th – so only $199. The author is responsible for the cost of their books and shipping charges to mail to the winners.

To take advantage of this offer, email sherrie@amarketingexpert.com.

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Part 2: How to Grow and Build Your Platform

Steps to growing your platform

Now that you know what you need to do to identify your platform, it’s a matter of expanding it. But where to start?

The place to start is research. Remember all the homework I had you do around other authors in your genre? You’re going to use that now to expand your platform as well. Here’s how:

Follow the leader

If you have identified others in your market, then you know the leaders you should align with. Success leaves clues, follow them. Track where other authors have been featured online and make those websites, blogs, Twitter accounts, or Fan Pages part of your promotion. If you do your research well, you will begin to unearth all sorts of great places to align with. In fact, you might want to head on over to Google Alerts and plug in the names of the authors you are following so you can see what kind of exposure they are getting and where. Not familiar with Google Alerts? It’s a free service from Google that will let you monitor keywords and names online. Just type “Google Alerts” into your search bar and voila! It’s free and great for research!

Networking

Next up is connecting with other authors in your market. It might seem counterintuitive to network with “the competition,” but in reality there is no competition. Let’s face it, if you read a lot of mystery or romantic suspense you probably don’t read just one author, and you are also probably open to considering a few others, right? Readers who buy self-help fall into this same market. Think “Lays”: you can’t eat just one.

Networking with authors in your market could really open up some doors. Just like in-person networking, getting to know your market could help you gain access to new promotional opportunities, speaking events, etc. Authors are a very generous breed, get to know the folks who have already been out there and then be prepared to do the same for authors who may contact you.

Your Big Networking Event

Outside of the networking you will do with your fellow authors, you will also want to identify bloggers, reviewers, and other marketing connections online. Much like with the authors, you will want to network with them by following their blogs, commenting on posts, retweeting their information, etc.

Building Your Platform

Now that you have done all of this legwork, it’s time to look at the platform you are building and what building blocks you need to get there.

Hopefully by now, you’ve identified various areas of focus, authors to follow and blogs/websites and other social media to follow. If you haven’t, go back and make sure you complete this research. Without this piece your platform will never make sense.

Next you’ll want to break down your platform building so that it’s both manageable and easy to implement. Here are some tips for breaking this down:

1) What? For your particular market, what makes a good platform? Is it a fan base, speaking, product? Write that down first; if it’s a list then start a list.

2) How? How will you attain this? Start formulating a list and ideally, try to break this down into as many pieces as you can. Meaning that you want to have a list of action items that you need to implement in order to grow your platform.

3) Action: what action do you need to take to make this happen? Make a list of tasks: Perhaps it’s blogging, getting a Twitter account, or networking with other blogs, forums, etc. Create your action list and make it as complete as possible.

4) Divvy up the work: now you need to break the work down into manageable, actionable items. For example, if part of your platform is blogging, don’t just write “Need to blog” on a list. Make sure that it’s quantifiable, otherwise you likely won’t do it. How many times do you need to blog, etc?

The above work (and yes, at times it will feel like work), will really help you to gain direction. As you begin to pull together all of these pieces, a roadmap will start to emerge. You’ll begin to see where and how you need to show up online. What this will do is keep you laser-focused on goals that will directly help you expand your reach online, as opposed to that endless to-do list that makes you drift from one area to another, never really gaining ground.

If you consider your marketing roll-out as your final exam, then the homework you do prior will really help you breeze through the test. What you’ll find on the other side is a campaign that not only works, but might even make you feel like a rock star. Oh, and book sales? Yeah, I know I said ignore them, but as they said in Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.” Build your platform now and readers will beat a path to your door.

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Books don’t sell until they are noticed. So how do you get people to recommend and talk about your book? It’s not always easy to do.

Until now.

Author Marketing Experts and Book Sweepstakes LLC are about to launch an innovative new sweepstakes platform that provides people the tools and a powerful incentive to promote your book for you until it spreads like wildfire. We provide the platform, the rules, the management, and even the fantastic prizes.

We’re planning a major launch for March 17th and we’d love for you to be a part of it. We only have room for six authors, so claim your space now by heading on over to: http://amarketingexpert.com/book-sweepstakes/.

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“Like” our AME Facebook Page for marketing articles and tips, YouTube videos from our book marketing channel, notices about upcoming webinars, Publishing Insider shows, and more: http://www.facebook.com/bookmarketingame?ref=sgm.

Need Book Marketing Content? Visit the articles page on our AME website and you’ll find a range of articles by Penny, which may be used along with her byline (provided at the top of the page) at no cost. The complete list is at http://amarketingexpert.com/articles/.

Learn ‘How to Succeed Online and Sell More Books’ and much more on AME’s Book Marketing Channel on YouTube. New videos are added regularly to keep you up to date on all things book marketing! http://www.youtube.com/user/BookmarketingAME.

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Good For a Laugh: ‘This Is Why Your Used Bookstore Clerk Hates You,’ http://blogs.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2011/02/this_is_why_your_used_bookstor.php.

Highly Addictive Fun: Can You Name the Novel Based on the List of Characters? http://www.sporcle.com/games/namethatnovel.php.

Read an E-Book Week: March 6-12, 2011. For E-Book and E-Reader Information Visit http://www.ebookweek.com/.

Judging Countries By Their Covers: US vs. UK Book Jackets, http://flavorwire.com/151582/judging-countries-by-their-covers-us-vs-uk-book-jackets.

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Don’t panic! Celebrate! Some people wait years to get an agent to actually request to read their materials, whether it be a manuscript or a book proposal. I should know, I’ve helped over a hundred clients get to that first step, and I know exactly how you feel.

Remember, that this is just the beginning. Your manuscript or book proposal better be good and it better be ready, because you often only get one shot to make the right impression with these agents. This is what you should have been doing while you were waiting for them to reply. If you need it, though, there’s help out there. In fact, there are even former editors from major publishing houses and former agents that are willing to help you whip that manuscript in shape. Check this out: http://www.GumboWriters.com.

Once you’re certain it’s perfect, you’re ready for the next step, which is to note exactly what it is that they are asking for. Often times, they’ll tell you to send the first 10 pages or the first 50 pages. Do exactly as they say. Nothing less, nothing more.

No, it doesn’t necessarily mean they liked your concept more or less just because they requested to see 10 pages rather than 50, or the full manuscript instead of a partial. They have their own personal reasons, and more often than not, it’s in the best interest of time management.

Make sure that it is properly formatted. If you visit their website, or search Google, you’ll be able to make sure your manuscript is presented in a way that they expect.

Tip by Jeff Rivera, who is the founder of http://www.HowtoWriteaQueryLetter.com. With over 100 clients to date, he has a 100% track record of getting at least 10 literary agents to request to read his client’s manuscripts and proposals.

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A story merchant’s advice on getting published!

The good news is that the world is desperate for great stories. The bad news is that the Internet has made so many stories available the story marketplace has become a jungle – seemingly impenetrable to the new author.

This interview will:

· Describe the current story marketplace.

· Show you where you “fit in.”

· Help you decide between “traditional” publishing and “self” publishing.

· Help you decide if you need an editor before you approach publishing.

· Show you what the economics behind publishing are all about.

· Tell you how much a traditional publisher makes for each book sold.

· Define what the word “platform” means and why you’re hearing it from all directions.

· Help you understand the importance of marketing.

· Suggest ways of building a following for yourself using the Internet.

· Tell you how the Story Merchant can help you strategize your career and create tactics to make it happen.

· Answer your questions!

Literary manager/producer Dr. Ken Atchity has sold nearly hundreds of books and dozens of bestsellers, including publishing fifteen of his own. You may know him already as the author of A Writer’s Time, Writing Treatments That Sell, and How to Publish Your Novel. He’s also sold nearly 100 movies, both television and theatrical, and has produced thirty films, including “The Kennedy Detail” (Discovery), “Gospel Hill” (Fox), “Joe Somebody” (Fox), “The Madams Family” (CBS), and the forthcoming “Lost Valentine” (with Betty White) and “Hysteria” (with Maggie Gyllenhaal). Visit his website at http://www.storymerchant.com and sign up for his free informational and inspirational newsletter at inspire@storymerchant.com.

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If you didn’t realize there were promotional opportunities on LinkedIn, you are not alone. You can use the Amazon Reading list to promote your book, and you can also use the publications section on your profile for the same purpose. Learn how: http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/book_marketing_maven/2011/02/promote-your-books-in-the-publications-section-on-linkedin.html.

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While we specialize in online promotion, we also know that there are plenty of offline promotional opportunities for authors. Here are 7 Offline Ways to Build Your Personal Brand: http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/7-offline-ways-to-build-your-personal-brand/.

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* The Self-Publishing Carnival of the Indies included Penny’s article, “Smart Self-Publishing: How to Get Published Without Getting Scammed:: http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2011/02/self-publishing-carnival-of-the-indies-issue-5/.

* Business by the Book blog ran the first in Penny’s series, “Fans, Friends, and Followers: How to Build a Solid Author Platform that Sells More Books!” http://www.thebooksistah.com/blog/publishing/fans-friends-and-followers-how-to-build-a-solid-author-platform-that-sells-more-books/.

* Penny has a series on book marketing underway at BookBuzzr, http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/?s=Penny+Sansevieri&x=0&y=0.

* Keep up with Penny’s latest blog for Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri.

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Be in the know and hear what the publishing insiders: Penny Sansevieri, CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. – and her guests – have to offer in terms of tips and insights into the industry! Listen here. Publishing Insiders is now available on iTunes, so you can keep up with the show wherever you go!

Upcoming show:

Smart Self Publishing Series, Part 4: Why Book Design & Editing Matter, March 8, 4 p.m. Pacific

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders/2011/03/09/smart-self–publishing-series-part-4-why-book-design-editing-matter

If you want your self-published book to stand out, you need: a good front cover, strong overall book design, compelling back cover copy and, most importantly: strong editing. Our guest Sue Collier, President of Self-Publishing Resources and co-author of The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, will discuss these issues, why they matter so much, and how authors can find the right professionals to ensure their book shines.

About our guest: As president and CEO of SPR, Sue Collier oversees all book project work, coordinating a team of experts and holding true to the result-getting principles she learned from founder Marilyn Ross. SPR provides turnkey service to individuals and organizations seeking to publish and promote their own books, handling all aspects of book editing, design, production, and marketing and promotions. Sue also offers personalized coaching services for authors and small presses, providing them with the benefits of her extensive publishing background. Over the past two decades, she has worked with hundreds of clients, guiding them through the self-publishing process, and helping them produce professional, attractive books.

Shows available for download at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders include:

* Smart Self Publishing: Making Money with Ebooks

* Smart Self Publishing Series: Becoming Your Own Publisher

* Branding: The Secret to Selling More Books

* Top Publishing Trends for 2011

* Secrets to Getting Your Book Into Libraries

* Getting Your Book into Bookstores with Elaine Wilkes

* This Book Will Make You Money with special guest Jim Kukral

* Blogging Ideas the Whole Year Through

* How to Make Money on Twitter

* A Self Publishing Success Story

* From Blog to Book

* What Van Halen Can Teach You About Book Marketing

* The Digital Book Revolution

* Powerhouse Promotion with Marci Shimoff

* It’s Getting Hot in Here – erotica equals hot books and even hotter sales!

* How to Maximize Book Reviews

* E-books: the Savior of Publishing or the Foe? with Joe Konrath

* Special Guest Mari Smith, queen of Facebook

* Special Guest Seth Godin

* All Things Twitter! with Warren Whitlock

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I’ve just been invited to speak in a groundbreaking tele-seminar series that will change the way you do business in 2011 and beyond (at no cost to you).

Fire Up Your Business: The Fast Track to Profits in the New Economy

Register here: http://fireupnow.biz/cmd.php?ad=540935

Some of the biggest names in business also will be speaking during the series, giving away their best, most powerful tactics, strategies and tools for you to create profits in 2011 – this is one tele-seminar you can’t afford to miss.

This tele-series covers what you will need to know for your business to succeed in the post-recession, consumer-driven economy. If you want to:

* Increase profits

* Reach more customers

* Capitalize on social media

* Create digital products

* Generate a steady stream of qualified leads

* Convert leads into lifetime customers and clients

Then you need to secure your “front row” seat today and listen in right from your phone or computer:

Fire Up Your Business: The Fast Track to Profits in the New Economy

Register here: http://fireupnow.biz/cmd.php?ad=540935

I look forward to Firing Up Your Business together!

~ Penny

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Your book cover is a critical piece of selling your book – even your ebook. In fact, many in publishing consider the cover to be the #1 marketing tool. Here’s what you should know: http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2011/02/17/10TipsForEffectiveBookCovers.aspx.

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Every blogger wants a blog with active followers who comment on posts, share the blog with others, become buyers, etc. But how do you go from startup to having a tribe? Learn some relationship building for bloggers: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2011/02/11/don%E2%80%99t-go-it-alone-relationship-building-for-bloggers/.

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The 5th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards® announces a call for submissions. NIEA recognizes excellence in independent- and self-published books, a category that accounts for a rapidly growing segment of a publishing industry going through almost constant transformation.

Books published from 2008 to the present by self-published authors, small press, and independent publishers can be submitted for consideration in the categories of their choice.

Winners and Finalists will be announced nationally in mid May 2011.

All winners and finalists receive extensive media coverage and top award recipients are eligible to win prizes valued in excess of $12,000. These include sessions with outstanding media and PR consultants, marketing experts, and others in a position to assist authors and publishers in creating greater success with their books.

For information about the contest, including how to submit books, please visit www.indieexcellence.com. The deadline for entries is April 10, 2011.

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LinkedIn is growing and becoming a force in social networking. The site also has a Twitter application which you can use to build your social influence and grow your connections. Learn how: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-linkedin-with-twitter-for-better-networking/.

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Once you have a Facebook Page and your following grows, you’ll want to keep your fans active. But how? Here are 13 ways to keep your fans engaged: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/13-ways-to-move-your-facebook-fans-to-action/.

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If you’ve got a Reader Tip you’d like to share, please send it to penny@amarketingexpert.com with the subject line “reader tip.” Submissions should be 75 words or less.

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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 penny@amarketingexpert.com with the subject line “Author Services Info.” You can also visit our website at www.amarketingexpert.com.

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

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—– Copyright 2011 Author Marketing Experts, Inc. —–
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Contact Information

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email: penny@amarketingexpert.com

web: http://amarketingexpert.com/

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