GET YOUR BOOK MARKETING 'HOJO' WORKING!

ANOTHER BOOK MARKETING GURU, CAROLYN HOWARD-JOHNSON, has offered more tips on marketing your book. If your book is on idle, perhaps it is time to look at other ways to promote and market. As Carolyn clearly says, marketing is not a 'one shot' activity. This may be a bit corny, but if you do not put in the time, you will not make a dime. Again, there are many great links in this blog to follow and if you want your book to be a success, there is no time like the present. I have used Carolyn's books in my own marketing efforts. They work!

In terms of promotion it matters not a whit who publishes your book, you, dear author, must learn to promote it if you want to give it a fighting chance on the freeways of commerce. If your name isn’t King, Grafton, Oates or Bradbury, forget a free ride. Even famous names like these once paid their promotion dues and some still are. John Grisham’s story about selling books—store to store, person to person, out of the trunk of his car—is legend, if not letter-perfect true.



Further—and this is the more vital part of this message—no matter how big the budget or adept the publicity and advertising department of your publisher, there are some things they cannot do as well as you can. They, after all, are the publishers. For the public, the magic is in the author’s name, her smile, her story, her signature.



It is said that business and art don’t mix. Actually they mix very well. The chances of success for artists who are natural promoters (Think Warhol. Think Dickens.) grow incrementally compared to artists who prefer to remain cloistered.



The reasons that authors tend to fail at promotion are two-fold. They think they must only show up at bookstores with a good pen because that’s all that is expected of Hilary Clinton or J.K. Rowling. They may be frightened by the magnitude of what they suspect they must do to give birth to this book of theirs—their baby—and so they dig in their heels and go into a severe state of denial.



My HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers (www.howtodoitfrugally.com) addresses both groups. Unfortunately authors often don't hear about the need to promote until it is too late or nearly too late for their books. That almost happened to me. And that is the reason I wrote THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T. I should have added or CAN'T. There just isn't that much profit built in the sales of book these days. It troubles me because now there are books out there--mine and others--that teach authors to market their book for very little money. The cost of a book should not be too much for a writer to invest in the future of his writing career.



THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER will lead you up the publicity rungs of the publishing ladder. You’ll learn what you might do before your book is published, what you must do soon after it is published and beyond. Consider everything offered in the book, as if you were testing desserts at a smorgasbord; then select what suits your book, your personality and your pocketbook.



You will need to know how to write and assemble a media kit, write a great media release (please call them media releases, not press releases!), how to write a great query letter so you can ask (and get!) reviews. You should have a Web site, and a blog. A newsletter is also a good idea. And this is just for starters.



To do all of the above things, you'll need to know how to build a contact list. Without a list of your personal contacts, your fans (as your popularity grows) and the media, all else is to little or no avail. Marketing is not a one-shot thing. You, the author hold the future of your book in your hands. No matter how much your publisher or publicist or anyone else loves your book, they will not love it as much as you do. So, why would you neglect giving it a great start in life?



When you finish THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER you’ll know what it took me—with a publicity background—three years to learn. Publicity for authors is a specialized arena of public relations. I tripped and fell into many PR potholes; negative experiences can be good teachers but learning from a book like this is less painful.



THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER is not a text. It contains many opinions—some as black and white as the page you find them on. You may also notice omissions. I avoided topics that have been covered ad infinitum and for which I have nothing new to add but you will find some new (or rarely used) ways to promote that have not been scorched, stirred and then warmed over.



I hope you'll learn what you can and do what you can. Give your publisher a break. At a very minimum, the two of you are partners. Know that the publishing world is not operating with the same ground rules they did even a couple decades ago.



The good news is that THE AUTHOR is in charge of his own career these days.

Award-winning author of the HowToDoItFrugally Series of Books for writers, including USA Book News' award winners
The Frugal Editor http://budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor
The Frugal Book Promoter http://www.amazon.com/Frugal-Book-Promoter-What-Publisher/dp/193299310X/

SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER, HoJoNews@aol.com.



Blogs for Writers: http://www.SharingWithWriters.blogspot.comhttp://TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com

WEB 2.0-WHAT IS IT AND SHOULD YOU CARE?

I have asked several good book marketing friends to help our authors in their book promotional efforts. Their advice is so good that it should be of benefit to all! Nikki Leigh has become a leading expert in Web 2.0 and offers these insights. readers are strongly advised to follow the links for more great information and book marketing tips.

Web 2.0 – What is It and Should You Care?
By Nikki Leigh

Learn to Sell More Books

An Online Home for Authors Who Want to

Learn to Promote Their Books More Effectively
http://www.learntosellmorebooks.com/

Web 2.0 – it isn’t as complicated as it sounds and it is very beneficial for you to learn more about it. Let me start by saying that you are probably already using Web 2.0, but you don’t know it. Web 2.0 is a term that is being heard more often each day. These are great new options that we have on the internet and they can be very beneficial to you and your promotion.
What is Web 2.0
The simplest definition of Web 2.0 is “any option that gives you the opportunity and ability to interact with others”. Interacting with potential customers is something that should be important to any author or business person that wants to get information out about their product or service.
In the past, we were limited by how much and how easily we could communicate on the internet. Think back a few years ago when only people who knew HTML code could post information online. However, with the arrival of Web 2.0, almost anyone can post content online to share with other people.
This is the biggest difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 -
• Web 1.0 – Webmasters could post content and basically had control of what was available
• Web 2.0 – The general public can post content and has control of what is available
Below are questions to give you examples of Web 2.0 options on the internet.
• Have you posted a video on YouTube?
• Have you watched a video on YouTube?
• Have you read or posted information on a blog?
• Have you listened to or recorded a podcast?
• Do you have a profile page on MySpace, Facebook, Linked or other social networking sites?
• Have you posted pictures on any picture sharing sites on the internet?
All of these are examples of Web 2.0 and many people are already using Web 2.0 technology without knowing it. But, why is this important to your promotion?
Why You Care
Authors, artists, and other business people benefit when they get their message in front of their target audience and when they can interact with potential customers. Web 2.0 gives you many ways to do that. One advantage is that you can reach a worldwide audience if you want. A second advantage is that you can do targeted marketing to reach only the people you choose. This targeted marketing gives you the best chance of making a sale because it gets your message in front of the people who want or need the product or service you want to sell.
Below are some social media and Web 2.0 examples and the benefits from each. The ideas I share here are just some of the ways to use these websites to promote your work. The options are only limited by your creativity. One of the things I love about my work is customizing a promotional campaign for business people and their products or services. There are unlimited ways to do this with Web 2.0.
Facebook – Facebook gives you the opportunity to network with new people. You can search to locate your target audience and then present your product or service through your profile page, various applications, groups and fan pages you can easily create to promote your work. Facebook also offers targeted advertising on their site.
My Space – This site offers the chance to meet new people and network with them. Searches for your target audience are possible on MySpace. Your profile page, bulletins, blog posts, comments, videos, pictures and discussion groups provide opportunities to present your information and to communicate with other people.
YouTube – YouTube is a great place to post videos or promotional trailers about you and the products or services you offer. This is a great opportunity to literally speak to your target audience. There are also tools to get your videos in front of more people. You can comment on videos that attract your target audience to get your name in front of them.
Amazon – People with items on Amazon have many ways to build up a presence on the Amazon website, their sales pages, through a blog on Amazon, submitting ratings and comments – to name a few. I’m working on an e-book to help people increase the effectiveness of their Amazon presence.
Linked In – This website is a great place for business people to network. It is different from MySpace and Facebook, but it provides extensive business information and background for members. You can connect with others, write testimonials, share details about your professional background and much more. An interesting area of Linked In is the “answers” section. It’s a great way to boost your online credibility.
Online Credibility
We’ve all seen and heard about scams on the internet. It’s a great place for people to establish and promote a business, but that also attracts people who want to make a fast buck and who cheat people. That is one reason why it is important to build online credibility. Through the internet, you can network and do business with people around the world, if you want. That distance makes it important to prove your expertise and help potential clients see you have something of value to offer. You can do this through the information you share, answers and comments you post, examples of your work, testimonials and references from past clients and much more.
Use Blogs to Promote
Anyone who wants to promote on the internet needs to have a blog. Having an effective and active blog is no longer an option. A blog gives you the chance to get yourself in front of people who need your product or service, share useful information, stay in touch with potential clients, and more. However, once you start a blog, it is critical to keep it active. Search engines love blogs. This means that you and your information will be in search engines almost overnight. When people are searching for something – the vast majority start with a search engine. They need to be able to find you there.
Virtual blog tours are a great way to utilize Web 2.0 options. In the tours I coordinate, I use blogs, podcasts, radio shows, and any other avenues that I can find to get the word out about a client’s product or service. Your information gets into the search engines right away and is archived so people can find your details long after they are posted.
The internet is a gift for people who want to promote their business, products or services to a small or large audience. There are many free promotional options on the internet that we can utilize. Who you target is up to you, but either way, the internet is a gift that you need to unwrap and dig deeper into the opportunities that it offers.

Nikki Leigh is an award winning and best selling fiction and non-fiction author. She has over sixfteen years of promotional experience. This background has been helpful with her book promotion and her new promotional venture, Promo 101 Promotional Services which offers many online promotional options. Her promotional books - Book Promo 101 and Book Promo 201 lets her share many of the things she's learned. For details about Nikki Leigh, visit http://www.nikkileigh.com. For detailed promotional and virtual blog tour information, visit - http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/. She also has a blog where she posts a wide variety of promotional articles - http://promo101tips.wordpress.com/ - check the category list for any specific topics that are of interest to you.

You can see her book on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Book-Promo-201-Internet-Marketing/dp/159431716X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249135511&sr=1-1

PRAISE FOR HAIKU SMILES

THE FOLLOWING IS THE LATEST BOOK REVIEW FOR "HAIKU SMILES"(ATTMPRESS) BY AWARD WINNING AUTHOR, NANCY LEE SHRADER.


At 157 pages, Nancy Lee Shrader’s Haiku Smiles makes for excellent reading because it succeeds in presenting haiku according to the way the ancient haiku poets meant them to be: galaxies of meaning packed in the space of a raindrop.

Haiku Smiles will delight readers in search of poetic entertainment that touches on so many topics and themes: brief 5-7-5 syllabic encounters that satisfy like lengthy visits offered by much longer poetry.

Nancy Lee Shrader’s pen is a mighty one! Obviously an attentive student of poetry, she has honed her craft insightfully well as indicated by the poems in this collection. Brilliantly observant, she has translated her awe of the world around her into the lines of her haiku with which readers can relate with their own wonder about nature’s beauty and power. With strong word choice and vivid imagery, Nancy is able to capture a sliver of the natural and preserve the moment in the form of a haiku. No easy task!

Here are two haiku from Haiku Smiles:

“Crimson”

Dances in crimson

Roses blush in the garden

Embarrassing spring

“Caustic”

Caustic rivers run

Deceitful rocks hide below

Corroding the shore

As a published poet myself, a conductor of poetry workshops, and a longtime judge of poetry contests, I can with much pleasure and assurance recommend Haiku Smiles to anyone in search of uplifting poetry. As expressed in Nancy Lee Shrader’s own words from her haiku “Kettles and Conversation”: “Dreams are voiced here.”

Salvatore Buttaci
--

CAROLYN HOWARD JOHNSON OFFERS GREAT TIPS

Carolyn's newsletter for authors is always filled with useful information regarding book promotion. She also has several blogs that are very helpful.

Her newsletter can be found at:
http://www.AuthorsDen.com/adstorage/1713/SharingwithWriters_July_11_2009.pdf

You can get a less formal email version by contacting Carolyn at, Carolyn HowardJohnson"

http://www.SharingwithWriters.blogspot.com, a blog on all things
publishing
http://www.TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com, all things grammatical and
ungrammatical
http://www.TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog focused on YOUR reviews
http://www.TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com, a blog focused on editing,
formatting and craft

FROM HER JULY 12 NEWSLETTER-In the News: The number of members of the American Booksellers Association
(ABA) declined. Their funding has declined, too. Authors who are
emphasizing bookstore sales at the expense of online sales may be making a
big mistake.

"A HITCH IN TWILIGHT" Just Released

A Hitch In Twilight 20: Tales of Warped Imagination

By Vic Fortezza


20 short stories in the tradition of The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock. Dreams, Nightmares, schemes, past lives, war, high-rolling and mayhem...tales that will have you on the edge of your seat.

About the author:

Vic Fortezza was born in Brooklyn in 1950to Sicilian immigrants. He has had 37 short stories published in small press magazines worldwide. He contributes articles to buzzle.com. He has two novels in print, Close to the Edge, and Adjustments. You may spot him on the streets of New York, hawking his work. Website:http://vicfortezza.homestead.com/

"WHERE YOU ARE" Just Released

Where You Are- By Michael Burns


"I can't take it anymore. Love, L" writes Paul Embry's wife of less than a year on the envelope of an electric bill. Thus begins the late summer and fall of Paul Embry's discontent as he struggles to come to grips with the ambivalence he feels about his marriage that this act offish young wife generates in him. In phone conversations with her,later, Paul learns that she has fled to San Francisco, California; he comes to discover that her motive is to catalyze a change in their lives, to induce him to pull up roots from the town where he was born and lived all his life, to begin a new life in a new city, far from the stultifying influence of the depressed New Hampshire mill town where they had married and were living.


About the author:

Michael Burns was born in St. Johnsbury,Vermont. His family moved to New Hampshire in 1950 where he attended high school, graduating in 1957. He deferred entrance to college to serve in the U.S. Navy for four years, seeing duty in Southeast Asia in the early days of the Vietnam War. After mustering out of the Navy,Burns returned to New Hampshire where he met and married his wife, and matriculated at the University of New Hampshire.



Encouraged by his freshman English teacher, Burns first became interested in writing fiction in 1963. He continued writing after being inspired by the late Thomas Williams, National Book Award-winning author and mentor to many young writers, among them John Irving.



In 1971, Burns joined the faculty of St. Paul's School, a college preparatory boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire. He retired from that school in 2004 after 33 years of teaching chemistry, life science,and creative writing. At present, Burns is living with his wife in rural New Hampshire where he is at work on his fourth novel. Gemini,his first novel, was published by Poncha Press in 2001. Where You Are is Burns' second novel.

BOOK SUBMISSION ERRORS

Authors need to show more consideration to their peers. It is incumbent upon authors to read publisher's web sites prior to submission. We have had several cases where the author has sent in the first three chapters, as required, then the whole ms, as we requested. We like the book and offer a contract. Then the author reviews our website and decides, perhaps, that our publishing parameters are not what they expected (being, like the vast majority of both large and small presses, print-on-demand, for example, or "oh, I want this published in hardcover" as opposed to paperback).

In the first place, authors need to keep informed as to what is happening in the industry. Almost all publishers, in some form, are using print-on-demand technology. Very, very few "warehouse" books in this day and age.

Secondly, and most important to us, a lot of time is spent reading and carefully reviewing each manuscript submitted to us. The time spent on submissions from authors who have not reviewed the website, contract, et cetera, is time taken away from other authors who know what we do and how we do it.

Bottom line, authors, regardless of where you submit your ms, please read the material on the web site. It is there for a purpose.