Wednesday, 15 October 2008

A Few Tips On How To Market And Sell Your Self Published Books

A Few Tips On How To Market And Sell Your Self Published Books
By Helen Hecker

Self publishers need to have a good marketing plan to sell books and should be written prior to writing your book and in place a year prior to publishing your book. It's one thing to write a book, but an entirely different thing to write one that's saleable, viable, and marketable. In today's publishing environment, a book's success depends greatly on a strong marketing plan.

Mail a press release to all the trade journals in your field over and over again; you can use the same release. Invest in press release submitting software and set aside time every week to send out a press release online to the press directories. Make sure your press release spells out the 'who, what, where, when, and why.'

Learning to write and use powerful optimized press releases can often drive tons of traffic to your website while providing multiple back links that can lead to increased page rank and numerous top ten search engine rankings for your targeted keywords. Using press releases can be a very effective marketing tool if used properly. Press releases can generate thousands of dollars in sales when picked up by national trade or print media.

Using press releases for marketing or promoting your book or book's website has become increasingly popular as publishers discover the powerful benefits of using press releases. Make sure you have at least one good press release, written in AP style, which you can send out for the lifetime of your book.

Place free ads periodically for your book's website on Craigslist in different categories to drive even more traffic to your website. Make five telephone calls a day that relate to marketing your book. Make sure to promote and market your book each and every day, both online and offline.

When you get a nice write up or feature about you and/or your book, have it laminated and set it up on an easel at trade shows. Create an online contest and list it in online contest directories to drive traffic to your website. Every day it's important to focus on a variety of marketing approaches.

Submit articles to online article directories that focus on your book's topic to drive customers to your website. Find a non-exclusive distributor with a good reputation to carry your book for the book store trade, as well as for other retailers. Contact non-bookstore booksellers and offer to leave books on consignment.

Offer to trade writing a monthly column in a trade publication in your books' genre, in trade for display ads on the same page. Contact any companies, corporations or organizations that might use your book for promotions; offer significant discounts for volume orders or for thousands of copies offer a specified amount above book production costs. If your book solves a problem, focus on this in your marketing.

If your book fits a specialty market, find a store that fits the genre and offer to leave books on consignment; many publishers have sold thousands of books this way. Get as many testimonials about your book, as possible, from experts in the field relating to your title, not customers; use on your fliers and back of books.

Remember to make sure your book is listed in Books-in-Print; don't assume it's already listed. Make sure your sales letter or flier is first class; this is your formal presentation of your title to the prospective buyer.

Use your book promotion and book marketing dollars wisely; go after the free and cheap resources daily. If you apply yourself every day and you promote your book like crazy, you can achieve that ultimate goal of selling thousands of copies of your book, many self publishers have. Yes you can market and promote your book on a shoestring budget, just be careful about your marketing dollars.

For more information on book marketing tips and selling more books go to http://www.TwinPeaksPress.com founded in 1982, specializing in help for authors, self publishers, ebook and book publishers with tips, advice and resources, including information on media, library and other mailing lists, and press releases - online, wire service and offline distribution

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Monday, 6 October 2008

BestSelling Author Asks: Will Publishing Articles Qualify You As An Expert?

Best-Selling Author Asks: Will Publishing Articles Qualify You As An Expert?
By Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Webster tells us that an expert is A person who has special skill or knowledge in some particular field.

So, does writing articles for an Ezine or for other publications qualify you as an expert?

That depends, doesnt it?

Most people, I suppose equate publications with knowing something. After all, why would someone bother to put pen to paper or paws to the keyboard if she didnt know a lot about what she was writing?

The short answer, of course, is to APPEAR to others as an expert! True experts write articles, but bozos and phonies do, too. So, how do we separate the genuine from the fakes?

Lets go back to Webster for a moment.

Again, an expert is a person who has SPECIAL skill or knowledge.

I can start my car by placing the key into the lock and twisting, but does this make me an expert at driving, at keys, locks, or automotive mechanics? Of course not, because ANYONE can do what I do with a key; it takes no SPECIALIZED knowledge or skill, whatsoever.

A locksmith is an expert, the real deal. Having seen, keyed, re-keyed, assembled and dissembled numerous locks, he knows a lot more about them than I do. He can fix a broken lock, and improve one that is barely functioning.

That smithy may have gone to school and have a certification or he may have apprenticed with a Master Locksmith over the course of time which are generally accepted indicia of expertise in his field.

You get the point. There are CRITERIA for determining expertise, so what criteria can we use to distinguish the expert writers from the amateurs?

(1)That locksmith we spoke of has to pass some sort of test to practice his craft. It could be a real world test, where someone calls on him to make a set of replacement keys or to re-key a lock. If he does it without a hitch, hes competent. A writer must be comprehensible to readers, make a point and support it, factually, if hes producing non-fiction. If he cant spell, or construct grammatical sentences, its doubtful hes a writer.

(2)Real writers say something SPECIAL, that hasnt been said before, or they say what has been said, but they do it in a SPECIAL WAY, with a special style. If theyre merely imitating or plagiarizing the work of others, theyre certainly not experts, unless like painters and counterfeiters they are referred to as MASTER forgers, or MASTER counterfeiters. But then IMITATION itself, is elevated to an art form, and arguably, it deserves special recognition; ethics notwithstanding.

(3)Experts in nearly any walk of life are NOT SELF-APPOINTED. If you want to write a book and have a major publisher invest in it and issue it, you and your product will be screened, evaluated, filtered, and edited, generally by multiple people and committees that will have to agree on your competence and expertise. Expertise is always subject to verification, debate, and dispute.

(4)Experts are generally excellent in one field and possibly two, but they are not DaVinci, who was a brilliant painter and engineer and scientist, and more.

Are Ezine writers experts?

Undoubtedly, some are quite special. They say new things or say old things in new ways, and theyre eminently comprehensible, and even enjoyable.

But there are others who are saying nothing new, nothing special, that are imitators, and are really trying to APPEAR to be experts.

Theyre the counterfeiters, but theyre far from being MASTERS at it!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is the best-selling author of 12 books, over 700 articles, and the creator of numerous audio and video training programs, including The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable, published by Nightingale-Conant-a favorite among salespeople and entrepreneurs. For information about booking Gary to speak at your next sales, customer service or management meeting, conference or convention, please address your inquiry to: gary@customersatisfaction.com

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Saturday, 4 October 2008

How To SelfPublish Your Own Books Manuals Reports Or Newsletters

How To Self-Publish Your Own Books, Manuals, Reports Or Newsletters
By Julia Tang

You can make a lot of money by writing and self-publishing your own material, if you are willing to write books, manuals, reports or newsletters that millions of people across the United States, and throughout the world for that matter, desperately want to buy.

Today, more than ever before, is the age of information. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, there continues to be an incredible demand for information throughout America and the world. There is an astronomical demand for information packed books, manuals, reports and newsletters of almost every imaginable kind.

It's really much easier than you might have ever guessed to start filling your bank account with cash from information you possess. People crave information that appeals to their basic needs and will somehow educate or enlighten them. Simply by putting your own specialized information into books, manuals, reports or newsletters, you can start putting a hefty price on information you have no doubt been giving away.

FIND YOUR MARKET-THEN WRITE YOUR MATERIAL

Anyone who can communicate an idea to another person, should be able to get their same message across on a written page. If you are either an expert on some subject, or are interested enough to obtain the information for a project, you have what it takes to go from having an idea, to self-publishing your own material in whatever format it develops into. There are hundreds of publications filled with ads by people just like yourself, who discovered they could make a lot of money writing and publishing their work. Looking through opportunity magazines, or other publications that cover the field you are interested in, is a good place to start looking for ideas.

Review all the advertisements in the magazines you have chosen to see what popular topics and subjects are being written about in books, manuals, reports and newsletters. Then ask yourself if you can come up with a better way, or have equally interesting information you can present from a different angle, or with a different twist that would be of interest to the readers in that market. If the answer is yes, then you can enter that market and also make some incredible money!

CASH IN ON YOUR OWN CREATIVITY AND EXPERTISE

Be creative in developing your material. Perhaps you are aware of some technique that allows people to accomplish their goals faster in a certain field. Maybe you can think of a better way to cash in on a current fad. The bottom line is that people are hungry for information and ideas, and you can become the writer or self-publisher of information people want to buy. People are eager to buy information that can help them improve their lives 1) Financially; 2) Physically; and 3) Emotionally. If you can fill any of those needs with information that can be put onto a written page, there are millions of people waiting to hand over their cash to get it.

KNOWING HOW TO PACKAGE YOUR INFORMATION CAN EARN YOU A FORTUNE!

After you have written your material, you will have to decide on how you will package the information to make it salable. Depending on your market, some packaging will sell better than others. For example, you can print your information in a series of publications, print it in a book, manual, report or newsletter, put it on a cassette tapes or present it at seminars. You can focus on one area, or utilize many area.

One thing is certain, people are paying billions of dollars to obtain well packaged information! there are books that sell for up to $100 and more, with manuals in a close second. There are reports that consist of 10-12 pages selling for up to $10 or more, while seminars can cost as much as $15,000 for a single weekend. It may sound incredible to the average person, but people are willing to pay top dollar for information. However, the packaging must be perceived as being worth the price you are asking.But before you decide on how to package your information, you must first consider who your primary audience is, and cater to those people in everything you do.

FOCUS ON SUBJECT MATERIAL THAT IS SALABLE

Information for your subject matter can be found in various places. For the best results, start with your field of expertise and turn it into a book, manual, report or newsletter.

Focus on providing your targeted market with simple, understandable, and helpful information. It must overwhelmingly appeal to your customers' wants and desires...

Never forget that this is the age of specialized information. People are completely willing to spend their money for tens of thousands of different forms of information, provided it is useful to them. Your job is to either find a need and fill it, or create the need and supply it.One of the best ways to get started is to sit down with some paper and write down every subject you have some degree of knowledge about. Your list of subject doesn't have to be in any particular order. Don't force it. When ideas for headings no longer come easy, stop and start up again at a later time. When you feel comfortable that you have covered most of the areas you know, start picking out the topics that interest you the most. Then you can start researching more material for your writing projects.

FILL YOUR MATERIAL WITH SELF-INTEREST BENEFITS

Many new writers fail to understand that if they expect any hope for business survival, let alone success, they must come to realize early on that a big part of their job is to arouse the emotions and desires of their customers. Your product, whether a boo, manual, report or newsletter, must be portrayed as being jam-packed with self-interest benefits.

Millions of dollars in failed business ventures are wasted every year simply because entrepreneurs fail to understand that what customers want to hear is not necessarily what they have to say. You should never forget this valuable lesson. It can make you rich!

YOUR MATERIAL MUST STIR EMOTIONS AND DESIRES

Emotions are what move people to buy anything. therefore, the job of your product and advertisement vehicle is to move your prospect to buy. You have to stir enough emotions, not only to cause desire, but the rationalization that provides an excuse based on logic.

Even after a prospect makes a commitment to buy your book, etc.,they may think they have acted logically. None of your customers will ever admit that emotions had anything to do with their purchase. What you must always be aware of however, is that logic probably had little to do with the buyer's decision. That is because human actions are often caused by instincts and compulsions that most buyers are unaware of.

As you write your material for publication in any form, or as you develop an ad or other sales package, always think in terms of how a particular benefit will stir a reader's emotions and desires. Try to understand how your product might be perceived by reader's by focusing on your own feelings.

ADVERTISING IS VITAL TO THE SUCCESS OF YOUR SELF-PUBLISHING VENTURE

The success of your advertising will ultimately depend on the salability of your book, manual, report, newsletter, etc. Good advertising will make a good book sell better, but it cannot transform a poor book into being successful.

Advertising is vital to any business venture because:

1) It allows a business to deliver their message repeatedly and reinforce it in the minds of targeted consumers.

2) It allows a business to reach hundreds of thousands of potential customers at a relatively low cost compared to individual calls.

3) It allows a business to target their market and test their product.

4) A business identity can quickly be established.

5) A forum for showing a product, together with benefits and advantages can be established.

BASIC ADVERTISING RULES

Effective marketing is a vast field. It includes using marketing tools such as: direct mail; space and classified ads; signs; radio and TV commercials; business involvement, and more. In fact, the approaches you can take and the methods you use are only limited by your imagination and resources. There are basic rules however that do not change however. They are as follows:

Rule No. 1-You must get a prospects ATTENTION. ( Your headline is the most important part of an advertisement.)

Rule No. 2-You must create reader INTEREST (Your ad should be built around an idea that offers value.)

Rule No. 3-You must arouse the reader's DESIRE. (By focusing on all the benefits they will receive.)

Rule No. 4-Your ad must move them to ACT. (Tell your readers exactly what it is you what them to do.)

In order to avoid making careless advertising decisions that can cost you money, it is important that you understand and participate in your own strategies. That means getting involved and researching what strategy will produce sound advertising.It is essential that you have a plan before you take action on developing an advertising strategy. Your plan must be based on an objective analysis that resulted from your knowledge and it doesn't matter what your background is, you can learn to master the type of mail order advertising that is needed to launch a self-publishing business.

Through research and careful planning you can become familiar with the writing skills you will need to create effective ads. Obtain all the information you can from the masters in the business. Read and study every book, manual, report, newsletter, sales letter, ad, article, and publication you can get your hands on that will help you in developing your own successful strategies and techniques. Then bring all of that knowledge together to obtain winning results.

10 MONEY-MAKING REASONS WHY SELF-PUBLISHING IS THE BEST CHOICE

You become a self-publisher by taking your material (book, manual, report, newsletter, etc.) and by-pass all the middlemen. You by-pass the middlemen, by going directly to a printer and handling all the marketing and distribution of the product yourself. As a self-publisher you invest your talent,time and energy and money. The benefits you receive are complete control over your product and all the profits~

Here is a condensed version of 10 good reasons why you should self-publish:

1) Self-publishing may be the only way to get published. With thousands upon thousands of manuscripts, etc. being sent to publishers continually you may not be able to get to anyone to even look at your idea. Self-publishing may be your only solution.

2) As a self-publisher you get to keep all of the profits from your sales. Why accept 45-6% in royalties from a publishing company when you can have it all!

3) You have absolute marketing and editing control when you self-publish. According to A Writer's Digest poll, 60% of the big publishing firms do the final editing; 23% select the final title; 20% will not even consult an author on the cover design, and 37% do not involve authors in promoting their own material.

4) Major publishers may receive up to several hundred manuscripts a week. Unless they have already published your work, the odds they will even look at your material aren't very high.

5) When you self-publish you are in control every step of the way. By depending on another publisher to make things happen for you, you take the chance of never getting anywhere.

6) By self-publishing you gain the perspective of being able to see the complete marketing picture from a publisher's point of view.

7) Even if a publisher did accept your work, it would take an average of 18 months before the first copy reached the marketplace. Self-publishing will save you valuable time. Especially if you can't afford to miss a market that can quickly pass by.

8) Waiting for a letter from a publisher that never comes can be frustrating and embarrassing. Self-publishing eliminates the waiting and wondering.

9) When you self-publish and get more directly involved in marketing you will obtain a more total business picture.

10) As a self-publisher you will receive more tax advantages.

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Julia Tang publishes Smart Online Business Tips, a fresh
and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people
like you! To find out the best online business opportunities,
and to discover hundreds more proven and practical internet
marketing secrets, plus FREE internet marketing products
worth over $200, visit: http://www.best-internet-businesses.com
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