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THE BOOK MARKETING EXPERT NEWSLETTER!
A newsletter all about SUCCESSFUL publishing and POWERFUL promotion
September 2, 2010 Issue #228
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in this issue
— Note From The Editor
— 2 books for $20 is back!
— Need Book Marketing Content?
— Feature Article: Beyond the Bookstore: Holding Book Events in Non-Traditional Venues
— Contest, Contest!
— Make Your Mark Online
— Join AME’s Book Marketing Channel on YouTube!
— Book Bits and Bites
— Using an Autoresponder to Create More Sales – Final Steps
— Twitter’s Game Changer
— AME/LULU Webinar University
— Keep Up With Back Issues of Book Marketing Expert
— Penny in the News!
— Hear What The Publishing Insiders Have to Say
— Why Goodreads Matters
— Facebook Tips and Tricks
— Amazon Know-How
— Reader Tip: The Importance of Bookmarks
— Twitter Tip: Twitter World Tour
— Twitter Tip: Tweet to Get Your Blog Noticed
— Reader Tip!
— WHO ARE WE
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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.
Note From The Editor
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Welcome to another issue of the Book Marketing Expert Newsletter!
Dear Author,
Happy Back to School! And since we’re nearing the start for the majority of the kids heading back to the classroom, I thought it would be great to kick this issue into high gear with a powerful piece on book events and bookstore signings! For years when I was first working with authors they would lament the fact that bookstores were tough to get into (even 11 years ago, this was the same story), so it forced us here at AME to get really creative. I mean *really* creative. We’ve had events in shopping malls, video stores, even gyms. All it takes is a little imagination. So if you’re looking for a great place to do an event, you’ll love this week’s article.
And speaking of back-to-school, AME is a proud supporter of ClassWish.org (http://www.classwish.org/) which is a fantastic organization that supports getting kids the school supplies and resources they need. It’s a new and better way of raising funds for schools. Check them out and if you have kids, or know someone who does – encourage your school to be a part of this.
If you haven’t entered our contest to celebrate the new AME website, there’s still time! The AME Website Makeover Contest is easy and boasts over $3,000 in fabulous prizes, including a free website evaluation, social media consultation and of course books, books, books! Ready to play? Here is the contest form and details of how to play and win: http://bit.ly/dj5oBz.
And, here’s a “don’t miss” event coming up on Sept. 25 in San Diego: the 21st Century Book Marketing Event. I’ll be speaking there again this year, and I’d love to see you there! (http://mixiv.com/vp/60394/19173).
Wishing you publishing success,
Penny, Paula, Susan, Michelle, Nancy and everyone at Author Marketing Experts, Inc.
P.S. – When you “Like” our AME page on Facebook, you’ll find articles and tips from Penny, YouTube videos from our book marketing channel, notices about upcoming webinars, Publishing Insider shows, and more: http://www.facebook.com/bookmarketingame?ref=sgm
2 books for $20 is back
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This time we’re pairing Red Hot Internet Publicity with The Best of the Book Marketing Expert Newsletter. No kidding. We’ve got an e-book packed with 327 pages of our best issues – ever! Hurry and grab your 2 books today: http://bit.ly/9Btj6e.
Need Book Marketing Content?
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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). The complete list is at http://amarketingexpert.com/articles/.
Feature Article: Beyond the Bookstore: Holding Book Events in Non-Traditional Venues
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If you’re tired of hearing “no” every time you try and secure a book signing, take heart. Signings have become a lot more challenging since more books than ever are being published each year and stores are cutting back on events. What’s an author to do? If you’re hungry for an event and not willing to wade through the endless submission process of a bookstore, consider doing events in non-bookstore markets.
What’s a non-bookstore event? Well, obviously it’s anything outside of a bookstore but more than that, it’s a unique location, likely in your city or town. We’ve done events at video stores, electronics stores, grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, even Hallmark stores. When you start to dig into this market, the possibilities are really endless. It’s just a matter of finding a place that will make sense to host your event.
Picking the Right Venue The first piece of this is picking the right venue. The venue can depend on a few things; first, you might look at the topic of your book to help generate some ideas. We once had an author who wrote a book on wine/movie pairings – pairing the right wine with a movie. I placed this author in a Blockbuster Video and the results were tremendous. I had another author with a computer book and I placed him at a computer store on a busy Saturday afternoon. He sold out of some 65 copies of his book in one afternoon. Another great venue is a Hallmark or some other gift shop. Why? Because people are going to a gift shop or Hallmark for one thing: a gift. Autographed books make great gifts.
Selling the Idea to the Venue This will take a bit of work because it’s likely that the venue has never even entertained the idea of doing an event, let alone an author signing. You’ll need to make sure they are clear on the WIIFM (what’s in it for me): tell them you’ll be promoting the event, marketing it to the media (which we’ll cover further on in this article). Make sure they know that you’ll handle the book orders (meaning getting the books to the store) if need be.
Yes, there is a lot more legwork involved for these events, but the payoff is huge. You may have to sell the books to them on consignment; what that means is that they take the books and can return to you whatever they don’t sell. Encourage the venue, however, to keep a stock in their store after the event in case people come by when you’re gone. I’ve done this before, and nine times out of ten the books never get returned to the author and are sold instead. Also, in many cases the store will often reorder and before you know it, you’re part of their inventory.
The other piece to this is to try, whenever you can, not to go through their corporate offices. Much like doing an event at Starbucks (which I’ve also done) and Hallmark, a pitch to corporate could take weeks and even months to approve. Most stores have the ability to approve from 3-5 events per year, meaning that they can have events at their store without having to go through the corporate offices. Most major corporations do this so that the stores can provide community support without getting bogged down in tedious paperwork for event approval. If you can avoid the red-tape of a corporate approval, do that whenever you can.
Selling the Books As I mentioned, you will likely have to do a consignment. The inventory part for most major stores gets tricky, and if the books have to be approved for inventory, you’ll end up going through corporate again. More red tape. Try to work with the venue as much as you can so you don’t have to create an inventory of your books. The upside, however, is that if the inventory process is easy, you will be on their reorder list for the future!
Marketing the Event This is the easy part, believe it or not. Local media loves local authors and while that’s a good foot in the door – the unique venue location will virtually seal the deal. Market yourself to media well in advance of the event and then again the event day. Also, if you’re doing an event in a mall, see if you can get the other stores to participate by doing bookmarks or bag stuffers. Bag stuffers, by the way, are a great way to help the store market your event. You could also do a custom bookmark. With printing so cheap these days, it might be easier to have event-specific bookmarks made up that you can give to the store to help them push the event to their patrons.
Make sure you get the store OK first, before you hand them bag stuffers and bookmarks. Also ask if you can create a poster that includes your book cover and the event information. See if you can get a placement on the venue website and perhaps a notification sent to their mailing list. Unlike bookstores that crank out author events all the time, a unique venue that doesn’t see author events all that much will be much more receptive to promotional ideas.
More Venue Ideas Once you take your eye off of the bookstore focus, the opportunities for book events are endless. Consider the following: street fairs, farmers markets, gyms, yoga studios, wineries, art stores, Starbucks, coffee shops, restaurants, grocery stores, airports. Yes, I said airports. I’ve traveled a great deal and almost every time I go through the San Diego airport, Dallas Fort Worth or San Francisco, I see an author signing their books. Look out for this: if you’re not paying attention you could miss it while rushing to catch your flight.
Other Benefits to Doing Non-Bookstore Events The benefits of these types of events are pretty significant, especially if speaking and events are part of your marketing tool kit. Book events held in these exclusive markets will not only take you off the track of competing for space in a bookstore, but because they are unique they will draw much more attention both from the media and readers.
Having a traditional book signing is always great. It will help you get into the bookstore market and might even get your book on their shelf. But if bookstores aren’t open to an event, don’t let that discourage you from planning one. Being unique will not only help you gain more attention, but it will help to keep you out of the rejection funnel that often comes from competing in a high-traffic market. Also, venue events outside of bookstores are a fun way to build an audience, get your feet wet doing events and speaking and grow your career as an author!
Make Your Mark Online
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Ready to make your own *big* impression online? We’ve had a *huge* success story I’m dying to share with you. A recent campaign we did got the author on PAGE 1 of Google out of 115 million competing web pages, and the best part? He wasn’t even on Google when we started. If you’re ready to get found online, consider one of our Red Hot Internet Marketing campaigns. Email us today for more information: info@amarketingexpert.com.
Join AME’s Book Marketing Channel on YouTube!
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Be sure to subscribe to AME’s YouTube channel; new videos are added regularly to keep you up to date on all things book marketing! http://www.youtube.com/user/BookmarketingAME.
Book Bits and Bites
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* Mouth-Watering: Cakes and cupcakes inspired by books, http://bit.ly/cU751F.
* We Saw it Coming: New Laura Lippman thriller sells more e-books than hardcovers, http://bit.ly/aYU5H1.
* Are Toys Next? Homer the Memoir Cat gets a comic book, http://bit.ly/aH4Ad8.
* One for the Fans: Try the Ray Bradbury quiz in honor of his 90th birthday, http://bit.ly/byaLFQ.
Using an Autoresponder to Create More Sales – Final Steps
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Here are the final two steps of our 5 Step System as outlined in the last few newsletters.
4. Promotions
Every email you send out should leverage your high quality newsletters to make product recommendations. As an author, you’ll certainly want to mention your book. But think about what different offers you can create around your book. Could you add an audio version? Or another book you’ve written and bundle two or more books? Or if you are in a particular line of work, offer an initial consultation with the purchase of your book? Once you decide on a powerful offer, then you must use the right phrasing to convince your readers to click on those links and check out the products you’ve offered them.
5. Monetization
Monetization is about more than just putting a product in front of someone. You have to sell it to them. You have to use benefit-laden language, scarcity, social proof, and envy to drive their interest in a product and really hit home with each call to action. Saying “click here for more info” isn’t going to cut it. You need to sell it to them.
Here are two statements that say basically the same thing. See if you can guess which one you should be using:
Statement A: Click here for more information about dog training
Statement B: Click here to visit Secrets to Dog Training
I hope you can see where Statement B is far more enticing.
In closing, the best way to maintain subscribers without wasting valuable energy is to make sure everything is of the highest quality. Bring people onto your list, and keep them there wanting more. Duplicate your successes and learn from your mistakes with every rotation.
Together, these create the Five Steps that will turn prospects into happy subscribers into repeat customers.
Tip offered by Susan Gilbert, AME’s Search Engine Marketing Expert and Web 2.0 company owner, http://www.susangilbert.com/, which provides Social Networking websites and services.
Twitter’s Game-Changer
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Why Twitter’s “Who To Follow” feature can make a big difference for you, http://dld.bz/tkKv.
AME/LULU Webinar University
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AME and LULU Publishing have joined forces to present publishing seminars. These free classes are led by Penny Sansevieri and will ramp up your book marketing efforts to the next level!
Webinars are held at 7 pm EST and require computer access. FMI, email lulu@amarketingexpert.com.
Learn more about the Lulu webinars on their Facebook page or at Lulublog.com:
http://www.facebook.com/Luludotcom?v=app_2347471856
http://lulublog.com/2010/05/04/lulu-university-classes/
What they’re saying about Lulu University:
You do great work, can’t wait for the next webinar. I will have to catch the recording of tomorrow’s session because I have appointments that conflict. But I will definitely make it a point not to miss any of yours that I’m aware of.
~Marlene Morris
www.RelevantSpirituality.com
September 13 – Getting on Radio and TV Today!
Are you ready for the big time? Then this class is for you! During our session we’ll unveil the secrets of getting on radio and TV – today! We’ll teach you how to create a “book hook,” how to position yourself onto an ongoing story and how you can get your pitch noticed for immediate results!
September 27 – Marketing Bonanza
Got a burning marketing question you want to get answered? Then this class is for you! We’ll address all of your marketing questions and help you solve your difficult marketing problems, or, just make sense of what you’ve learned on previous marketing calls. BONUS: ready to share your success stories? We’d love to hear about your successes and how you did it.
Keep Up With Back Issues of Book Marketing Expert
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We’re offering our 2009 Book Marketing Expert issues in e-book form. Interested in getting caught up with some back issues? Email us at info@amarketingexpert.com.
Penny in the News!
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* Penny was one of the experts featured in the article, Author Branding: The You That is Everywhere, http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2010/08/author-branding-the-you-that-is-everywhere/
* The Independent Book Publishers Association ran Penny’s article The Lowdown on Finding and Using Keywords, http://www.ibpa-online.org/articles/shownews.aspx?id=2991
* Penny has a series on book marketing underway at BookBuzzr – TGIF Book Marketing Tips: Social Networks, http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/social-networks/
TGIF Book Marketing Tips: How to Make Money On Twitter (no, really), http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/how-to-make-money-on-twitter/
TGIF Book Marketing Tips: The Real Secret to Twitter, http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/the-real-secret-to-twitter/
TGIF Book Marketing Tips: Why Inbound Marketing Makes Sense, http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/why-inbound-marketing-makes-sense/
TGIF Book Marketing Tips: Inbound Marketing Rocks! Now What? http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/inbound-marketing-rocks-now-what/
* Penny will be a speaker at the 21st Century Book Marketing Event September 25 and 26 in San Diego, which will focus on all the latest information on publishing and marketing your book. Visit 21st Century Book Marketing’s site for more information.
* Keep up with Penny’s latest blog for Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri.
Hear What The Publishing Insiders Have to Say
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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 shows:
Pursue Your Publishing Dreams!
Publisher Marc Allen believes in encouraging people to go for their dreams, and daring to do what they love — and then showing them how they can get wonderfully rewarded for it. Publishing for him has always been a vehicle to realize his greatest dreams. Books have completely changed his life, and can change the world. Join us to learn what Marc has to share! About our guest: Marc Allen is an internationally renowned author and president and publisher of New World Library, which he co-founded (with Shakti Gawain) in 1977. He has guided the company from a small start-up with no capital to its current position as one of the leading independent publishers in the country. His latest book is The Greatest Secret of All. It may be Marc’s most important book, because it gives us not only one of the clearest explanations of the “secret” of creating what you want in life, but also the far greater secrets of a life well-lived, a life of happiness, inner peace, ease, and fulfillment, where you contribute to making the world a better place for all. Learn more at http://www.newworldlibrary.com/ and http://www.marcallen.com/.
Shows available for download include:
Amp up Your Online Book Promotion
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?
Special Guest Mari Smith , queen of Facebook and dubbed “the Pied Piper of the Online World” by Fastcompany.com, on the hottest new Facebook apps to what’s hot and what’s not in the world of social media.
Special Guest Seth Godin , marketing guru and author of the upcoming book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
All Things Twitter! with Warren Whitlock , author of the first book on Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online.
Why Goodreads Matters
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Did you know that the popular book social network Goodreads has a program to help authors promote their books? Learn how to use the Goodreads Author Program, http://dld.bz/tkGw.
Facebook Tips and Tricks
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You’ve got yourself on Facebook but are you stumped on what’s next? Here are 4 strategies for engaging your Facebook fans, http://dld.bz/tkFH.
Amazon Know-How
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Sure, having your book listed for sale on Amazon.com is important. But, there are other things you can do on Amazon; consider these “Ten Ways to Sell Books On Amazon,” http://dld.bz/sUTE.
Reader tip: The Importance of Bookmarks
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I printed up a number of book marks with a color copy of the book cover, a teaser synopsis and an excerpt from a review on one side, and a brief bio of me on the other. I sent five to all sixty-one public libraries in Maine. Result? Forty direct sales and twelve requests for author appearances.
I also drop copies off at every bookstore which I happen to pass.
Robert G. Fuller, Jr.
www.unnaturaldeaths.com
Twitter Tip: Twitter World Tour
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Ways to promote your book with a Twitter World Tour, http://dld.bz/tkH9.
Twitter Tip: Tweet to Get Your Blog Noticed
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Here are 6 clever ways to use Twitter to get your blog noticed, http://dld.bz/tkFV.
Reader Tip!
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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.
WHO ARE WE
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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.
Reprint permission
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You are welcome to reprint any items from “The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter.” However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph:
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 2010 Author Marketing Experts, Inc.——————————–
Contact Information
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email: penny@amarketingexpert.com
web: http://amarketingexpert.com/
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