4 Tips On Sowing Small Marketing Seeds That Yield Large Results

I love farmers. They have a wonderful profession and one that helps sustain life for each of us. Imagine, a small seed that you can roll between your thumb and forefinger can help feed an entire family. But that small seed takes a lot of attention to go from the tiny shell to a bountiful feast. In many ways, the seeds of our marketing efforts are the same. That's what I want to discuss with you today. Hopefully, this will encourage you not to lose heart as you sow your marketing seeds for your book or business. If you don't lose heart, a bountiful harvest may await you in time.

In our society, we have conditioned ourselves to expect instant results when we want something. That includes our marketing efforts. It's easy to grow discouraged when we work hard at marketing our books but we don't see massive results right away. That's understandable, but it's the wrong way to view our marketing activities.

If we spend the time doing the right things in our marketing plan, then just like the farmer's seeds, our efforts will sprout, grow and yield fruit as we go along. I offer these suggestions on how to grow your marketing efforts into a yield you will be proud of.

• Be consistent in your efforts- While I believe that there is wisdom in being flexible, there is also a danger in not giving your marketing plan time to germinate. Be careful not to jump to something else before you give the time for your plan to bear fruit.
  
  
• Use quality seeds- Through a little research (like what you can do on this site and the many others that I introduce you to), you can make sure that your marketing seeds are of high quality, designed to yield results for you. Look at what others have done successfully as a guide for you.
  
  
• Broadcast your seeds generously- A farmer would not be successful if he or she planted one seed at a time, cared for it, grew it and harvested it before planting the second seed. Rather, the farmer broadcasts many seeds. Some germinate while others do not; but in the end there is a sufficient harvest. The same holds true for marketers. Look for ways to implement your marketing plan through a generous broadcasting of it's seeds. The more exposure we give ourselves, the bigger the yield we can expect.
  
  
• Co-Op your efforts- Many small farmers join with other small farmers to increase their marketing power. By doing this, a small farmer can participate in advertising, afford great legal council, increase his or her buying and negotiation power. The same holds true for marketers today. Rather than go at this alone, find ways to work with others who are trying to do the same thing you are doing. By creatively working together, you can multiply your efforts and effectiveness.
  

I hope these ideas help you to have heart with your own marketing efforts. I know it can seem hard when we start out, but just like a farmer, there is nothing quite as satisfying as seeing our own marketing efforts start to germinate and eventually lead to the bountiful yield we all are working so hard for.


 -------- Tony Eldridge is the author of The Samson Effect, an action/adventure novel that Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the author of the Twitter marketing book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests.

Podcasting for Authors By Yvonne Perry

Today is Tuesday and that means it's time to invite a guest to share her expertise with authors. I am thrilled to introduce you to Yvonne Perry, Owner of Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services, who will speak to us on Podcasting for Authors.

Before we get to her post, I have a couple of quick house announcement.

1. Subscribers of my free Video Tips For Authors Newsletter just got the new video video called, "Creating A Book Excerpt With BookBuzzr." The tips are free to anyone who signs up for my newsletter.

2. I want to let you know that Tuesday (tonight) at midnight my 50% off sale for my new training, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests ends. This training has the full e-book text with over 4 hours of embedded instructional videos (in 20 short clips). The BookBuzzr official review of this training says:

"Phew! I've just gone through Tony Eldridge's Conducting Twitter Contests and first reaction; Wow!... Saying his course is about Twitter Contests would be limiting it! The course has nuggets of information that will benefit your outcome of twitter even without conducting a contest."

Now, on to Yvonne Perry's post...


Podcasting for Authors
By Yvonne Perry

When I started Writers in the Sky Podcast in October 2006, many people had never heard the word "podcast." So, whenever I told someone that I was doing a podcast I got a blank stare or total silence and had to explain. A podcast is a series of recorded shows (interviews, demonstrations, workshops) that are uploaded as digital files to an online site and released episodically. Podcasts can be video- or audio-based shows offered as links or in a player on a blog, YouTube, iTunes, or other online podcast directories where people go to find music, movies, videos, or audio books. Podcasts can be downloaded and played on an MP3 player, iPod, or computer; but unlike music files, most podcasts are free to download and listen to.

I remember when authors were practically considered celebrities and getting in touch with them directly was nearly impossible. You had to go through the publisher. Today, we have publishing companies that will publish anyone's manuscript regardless of its condition. Nowadays, authors are plenteous and accessible. The drawback is that authors are now expected to do their own promotion regardless of how their book is published, but some do not know how to promote a book. After all, they are writers, not marketers.

I started my podcast as a way for authors to promote their books that I had edited. During our 30-minute show, we ask the authors to talk about the content or story of their book and then share his or her publishing experience and a few marketing tips. People started emailing me to say how much they appreciated the book promotion aspect of the podcast. Within the first month of going live with our podcast, I had so many authors booked to be on the show that our podcast was filled for nearly six months in advance.

Taking our promotion effort a step further, I wanted to fill the need authors have for someone to guide them with online promotion. So, I started offering book marketing as an added-value service and expanded my team to include an author's assistant and podcast coordinator. Being a guest on our show requires the purchase of a marketing package. Even though we are listed on multiple podcast directories and have a lot of listeners, a one-time guest appearance is not going to give the author enough online exposure to make a splash. The podcast interview comes as a perk when the author purchases a media release, article, press kit, book review, or virtual book tour (http://writersinthesky.com/author-publicity.html). In addition, all podcast guest information is posted on our blog and mentioned in our monthly newsletter. We also write a media release that features all the guests lined up for that month's appearance.

Conventional publishers offer expert editing for the manuscripts they publish. However, most publish-on-demand companies that have cropped up in huge numbers do not seem to even read the books they publish—much less edit them. Wise authors always have their books edited and proofread before publishing and that's where my company comes in handy. As a free-lance editor, I work with authors to get their books ready for the publisher or printer. If an author has us edit his or her book, we automatically throw in a podcast interview.

Listening to Writers in the Sky Podcast on a computer is easy. Just click this link: www.writersintheskyblog.com and go to our blog. On the right sidebar there is a list of archived shows. Click on the interview you would like to hear and it will open a post that has a link to the audio file.

Hosting or being a guest on a radio show or podcast is quite popular now, and many authors are using this talk show format to promote their books. It gives authors a chance to talk about their books and let the audience get to know them. If you are interested in being a guest on our podcast, see http://writersinthesky.com/writing-podcast.html.

If you are interested in hosting your own podcast with an easy-to-use cost-effective service, see http://nashvillewriter.audioacrobat.com.


****

Free-lance ghostwriter, editor, and author Yvonne Perry is the owner of Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services. This highly-experienced team offers writing and editing services for articles, books, Web copy, book reviews, media releases, press kits, biographical sketches, newsletters, and business documents. Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/writersinthesky.

Creating Instructional Videos For Your Website Or Blog

As most of you know, I create a lot of instructional videos for my newsletter subscribers. In fact, today they get a new video called, "Creating A Book Excerpt With BookBuzzr." They will also have access to my last video tip, "How To Upload And Install WordPress To Your Server." The tips are free to anyone who signs up for my newsletter. Since people have been asking me how I create the videos, I thought I'd share a couple of tools I'm familiar with that you can use to create your own screen capture instructional videos.

Before I do, I want to let you know that Tuesday at midnight my 50% off sale for my new training, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests ends. This training has the full e-book text with over 4 hours of embedded instructional videos (in 20 short clips). The BookBuzzr official review says:

"Phew! I've just gone through Tony Eldridge's Conducting Twitter Contests and first reaction; Wow!... Saying his course is about Twitter Contests would be limiting it! The course has nuggets of information that will benefit your outcome of twitter even without conducting a contest."

Now, on to our post about creating screen capture instructional videos...

I have been involved in the creation and distribution of screen capture videos for years. Since my time with sites like LearnFlash.com, WatchandLearnPhotoshop.com and LearnWebDevelopment.com, I quickly learned the value of these training tools. They allow quality training to be delivered at a fraction of the cost of live classroom training with the benefit of no travel required.

They can also have a benefit over cumbersome technical manuals that often confuse, rather than explain a concept. When was the last time you were ready to toss your manual out the window after hours spent in confusion with it?

My guess is that the best learning experiences you had were when you looked over the shoulders of someone who knew what they were doing, right? Well, your readers are often the same way. Think about your topic and ask yourself, would my followers benefit from watching me show them how to perform an action? Is there a concept that I can actually show, rather than tell them how to do?

If the answer is yes, then you may be interested in providing screen capture videos. These videos record everything your computer screen shows you while recording your voice as you explain what you are doing. Imagine someone standing behind you, watching, as you show and tell them how to perform a task.

There are many programs that allow you to create your own screen casts. I will talk about the two I have used and would recommend.

1. Camtasia: This is the granddaddy of them all. This program allows you to record, edit and produce your videos with little technical skills needed. It allows you to separate and record your audio separately if needed and it even allows you to narrate your PowerPoint presentation and turn them into a video with ease. It contains a lot of effects for your video presentation and it helps you create video formats for the web, YouTube, iPhone, dvds, and more. It's pricy at $300, but it comes with a free 30 trial.

2. CamStudio- CamStudio is a free, open source screen capture program that will work for people who don't have the cash for Camtasia. It will produce a great quality output but the editing features don't even compare to what you will get in Camtasia. You can, however, use other video editing programs to clean up your videos with no problem. I have not used this in about a year, and I see that new features are being added to it all the time so it's definitely worth the look.

Both of these products come with extensive online help via forums, and in the case of Camtasia, training videos you can watch.

So, check it out today. You can start to deliver your content in a new, powerful way in no time by creating instructional videos that your users will love.

Tony Eldridge

Marketing Tips Around The Net: March 26th

It's Friday and that means it's time to travel the net and look for a collection of marketing posts that have caught my eye. So grab a cup of your favorite beverage and let's get ready to learn a lot.

Before we do, I have a request for all of you who offer free gifts (e-books, reports, white pages, mp3s, videos, etc...) for people who sign up for your mailing list. I am compiling a resource that I want to roll out in April for people to find these resources all in one place. Just fill out the form below with your information. I will then review your free resource (yes, this is for free resources only) and if I think it will bring value to the readers of this blog, I will add it to the permanent resource listing.

Name
Email
Company
Website Link
Link To Resource
Free Gift Type (e-book, mp3, etc)
Free Gift Name

(If you are reading this post from a syndicated feed, you will need to visit the post on my blog to see the form).


Now, on to our trip around the net...

1. Does an ecommerce site have to be as social as more general Web sites?- Phyllis Zimbler Miller ask the question: Is your website a good "fit" with your current use of social media marketing?

2. Mindmapping Your Novel Can Help With Writing Scenes- Joanna Penn discusses how you can use Mindmapping while trying to get that rough draft out of your head on onto paper.

3. The Self-Confidence to Sell More Books- Dana Lynn Smith hosts Rob Eagar who share his tips for gaining the confidence you need to sell more books.

4. Friend or Fan! Sorry FB, I'll Take Friend Any Old Time- Carolyn Howard-Johnson gives her take on creating a fan page on Facebook.

5. Seth Godin’s Advice for Authors- Roger C. Parker hosts Seth Godin who passes out some great advice for authors.

6. Why Amazon Rankings Can Be Deceiving- Angela Wilson takes a look at the ratings you find on Amazon.com

7. Great Ideas for Marketing Your Book Online- Yvonne Perry (my invited guest blogger on this site next Tuesday) gives some great tips for authors who want to market their books online.

8. The Skinny on Amazon Bestseller Campaigns- Sandra Beckwith takes good, hard look at the practice of creating an Amazon Bestseller Campaign.

9. 10 Things Your Blog Doesn't Need- Jill Smokler gives a list that all bloggers should read.

10. Social Media for Authors: How to Harness the Power- Lisa Tener looks at how you can harness the power of Social Media to promote your book online.

11. Marketing Is Made Up of Many Many Things- Alfred Lautenslager tells why your marketing plan needs to be made up of many ideas.

12. Death of a Blogger- Hal Brown gives an insightful, interesting read that will give you pause about setting priorities.

13. 4 Foundations of a Successful Blog- Dareen Rowse discusses the 4 basic foundations for creating a great blog.

14. Free Online Marketing Help For The Technophobic Author- Here is a guest post I submitted to L. Diane Wolfe's blog. Hope you enjoy it.

15. 8 Tips on Creating an Army of People Who Will Market Your Book- Here is another guest post I submitted to Dana Lynn Smith's blog.


That's it for this week's trip around the net. Get the lawn mowers and edgers tuned up and why not think about packing a picnic basket for you and your kiddos and enjoy the birth of spring. I will see you next week.

5 Reasons Why Writers Should Mobilize Their Blogs By Piotr Kowalczyk

It's been a few days since I have been on the blog due to a number of issues that have come up. Suffice it to say that life sometimes gets in the way, jumps up and down, waves its arms and demands our attention. Now that I have given life it's due, I am ready to get back to my blogging schedule. Since Tuesdays are our normal guest post day, I am celebrating my return to blogging this week with a guest post today from Piotr Kowalczyk, who will talk to us about mobilizing your blogs.

Before I do, please allow me to point to a couple of resources that hit the net in my absence.

1. Free Online Marketing Help For The Technophobic Author- L. Diane Wolfe published a guest post from me on her Spunk On A Stick blog. While there, check out her Circle Of Friends series and the release of the last in the series, Book V.

2. 8 Tips on Creating an Army of People Who Will Market Your Book- Dana Lynn Smith has published a guest post by me on her Savvy Book Marketer site that can help you find people to help promote your book.

I would appreciate it if you could check out these sites after Piotr's post on this site. Now, let's see what Piotr has to say about mobilizing your blog...


5 Reasons Why Writers Should Mobilize Their Blogs
By Piotr Kowalczyk


Mobile Web is growing fast

According to a study by Morgan Stanley, there will be over 1 billion "heavy mobile data users" by 2013. It's a major trend: people switch from desktop activity to mobile activity. On the other hand, mobile readers are disappointed when using mobile web. Non-mobilized pages are too slow to load on cellphones, they look ugly, and most importantly – they are unreadable.

Social sites dominate mobile web

A report by Openwave shows that four out of ten top mobile destinations are social networks. Why is that so important for a writer? Because probably for most of us social networks like Twitter, Facebooks and alikes are an effective way to communicate with readers. Ask yourself a question: how many of the readers of your blog and potential buyers of your book are opening your messages from a mobile device? In my case it's a prevailing majority.

Links from mobile apps

And here comes the problem with links. If you tweet a link to your site, which is (still) not mobilized, it’s OK when a reader opens it from a computer. It can be disastrous when opened from, let’s say iPhone's Tweetie. The reader will probably never try it again. You loose a chance to be read – and to be retweeted.

Do yourself a favour and open in a cellphone's Twitter app a link to your blog you recently tweeted. Is it readable? Does it load well? Does it load at all? As a reference there are two iPhone screenshots of my blog: mobilized and non-mobilized.

(Click Images For Larger View)


Mobile feed readers

In fact, loading problems with articles I tried to open from my Tweetie have made me switch to read on an iPhone RSS feeds instead. A mobile feed reading app is a guarantee, that you'll have access to a readable form of subscribed blogs.

It's a good idea to make a full text of your post available for feeding. However, if for some reasons, you choose the option to show only an excerpt, we're back with a link problem.

Future habit of reading

And here comes the most important part. It's about a change of a reading habit. Reading electronic content goes mobile. Ereaders, smartphones and tablets help with this process. Technology doesn't stick us to a desktop computer screen any more. E-books become mo-books. I start a day from reading Twitter updates on an iPhone – before I start a computer. I read on the iPhone a book or feeds in the evening – after I shut down my laptop. That's why I fixed a major issue – my blog being a missing (or broken or slow-loading) link in the mobile reading experience.

A reader (especially the one who reads fiction literature) will never be back to read an e-book on a computer screen, if he tried it once on a mobile device. Why not being there with all what you need to say to make YOUR book or writing being chosen for a mobile reading pleasure?


*******

Piotr Kowalczyk - tech-fiction writer, self-publisher and e-book enthusiast. He strongly believes in mobile e-books. They can bring the joy of reading to those, who don't feel like consuming books the old-fashioned way. His dream is to be a default fiction author for any mobile device with e-reading capabilities. His zany, ironic short stories are like ultra-slick easy-to-brake gadgets - showing how deeply our lives depend on technology. Currently he runs litexperimental projects including One Picture Stories, created solely on an iPhone, as well as Hashtagstories - told with a sequence of Twitter hashtags.

10 Years Today

I just wanted to post a quick note today to let everyone know that today is my 10 year wedding anniversary. In 10 years, I have definitely received the better end of the deal, and my wife, Emily, has stood by me faithfully. She has endured my writing, faithfully proofed my books a million times, and put up with more hair brain ideas than I can count.

Happy Anniversary, Emily. I do, and always will, love you.

Tony

What To Write About In Your Blog, Newsletter Or Ezine

As you market your book, products or services, you may have decided to create a blog. When you start out, you are full of ideas to write about. The first few months are wonderful. But then you start to wonder, "What am I going to write about tomorrow?" And if you started off with a daily blog, you can quickly start to worry. If this sounds like you, I would like to offer a few ideas that fit into almost any blog, newsletter or ezine that may help you discover topic ideas that can keep you busy writing for years to come.

Before I do, I'd like to introduce you to Conducting Effective Twitter Contests. It's a training/video product that can help you conduct great Twitter contests while helping to build your credibility as an expert. And for a limited time, I am running a sale where you can save 50% right now. Check it out today.

So, what about those blog topics? Rather than think about specific topics to write about each day, I recommend that you think about categories to write about. When you think about categories, it's a lot easier to brainstorm ideas. And if you run cold in one category, you may feel hot in another category. Consider these ideas:

• How-To Posts- People often look for tutorials on how to do something. You can give step-by-step instructions on how to do just about anything. I have written these types of posts on how to use simple HTML when you comment on a post, how to create free banners and ad boxes for your website, how to create favicons for your web page, and many others. For ideas on how-to topics, browse YouTube. Many of those videos are how-to videos and can give you a wealth of ideas to write about in your posts.
  
  
• Reviews- These are very popular posts for a couple of reasons. One, when someone is looking to make a purchase, they want to know what others think of the product before they make a purchase decision. Two, reviews can introduce people to new resources they did not know existed. Once you start adding reviews to your lineup, you will probably get people contacting you asking that you consider doing a review on their product.
  
  
• Commentaries- Sometimes you read a news event or read another blog post and you have something to add to the conversation. Instead of simply commenting on the post, why not add your voice via your own blog entry? You can link back to the original post that got you thinking and in many cases, you can create a great dialog with may authors who are posting on the subject.
  
  
• Guest Posts- Dana Lynn Smith has a wonderful post that she did on this blog yesterday talking about the benefits of having guests write posts for you entitled, Enhance Your Blog and Ezine with Guest Posts. Take a look it for some great ideas, but suffice it to say for this post that if you set up guest authors on a weekly basis, you can have 20% of your posts taken care of if you do a daily blog (M-F).
  
  
• Series- Sometimes you have a big topic. You can break them down into a series of posts. This will do a couple of things for you. One, it will give you a short term schedule filler as you schedule your series out. Two, series can be a great way to keep people coming back to get "the rest of the story". Once people invest themselves in story, they generally want to see it through. Series can be as short as a two-parter to as long as you want them to be. Be careful not to burn people out. A 99 part series on how to cook meatloaf may sound appetizing for a few days, but it soon may leave your readers' palate looking for something different before the series ends.
  

Hopefully, these categories will spark some ideas for you. As you come up with ideas, write them down, even of you decide not to use them right away. It's amazing how quickly a great idea can turn into vapors and disappear if you don't record them. With a little brainstorming, you will be surprised at how quickly you will have a full schedule planned out for your blog, newsletters or esines for a long time to come.

Tony Eldridge

Enhance Your Blog and Ezine with Guest Posts by Dana Lynn Smith

It's Tuesday, and that means it's time for a guest author to share their knowledge of book marketing with the readers of Marketing Tips For Authors. Today's guests is a veteran of the blog. Dana Lynn Smith is back to talk about the value of inviting guests to write for your blog or e-zine.

Before we get to today's blog, I have a couple of quick house announcements:

1. If you have not checked out my newest release, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests, I invite you to now. Dana Lynn Smith says "If you'd like to boost your Twitter followers, I highly recommend Conducting Effective Twitter Contests. The combination of video and text reinforces the message and is terrific for people who learn better by watching or who feel a bit intimidated by online marketing."


2. Time is running out to view my current free video tip on how to upload and install WordPress to your server. Due to a technical difficulty, I have delayed the next tip by a few days. But when the new tip is out, the video on installing WordPress to your server will be archived. Sign up for the free Video Tips For Authors Newsletter now to see the current tip and I will give you over 45 minutes of instant access to on-demand tips just for signing up.

Now, on to Dana's post...


Enhance Your Blog and Ezine with Guest Posts
by Dana Lynn Smith

I write most of the posts on my blog, but once a week I invite a guest to share his or her expertise with my readers. Guest posts are win-win for everyone. Readers get valuable tips and insight from a variety of experts, guest posters build their expert status and get links back to their websites, and bloggers get additional content for their sites. Guest posts are often used in ezines as well.

Guest posts can take the form of how-to articles or interviews, and you can even post audio or video clips from the guest. Fiction authors can interview other authors in their genre.

Where can you find experts or authors to contribute to your blog or ezine? Seek out others in your field or genre through your social networks and your own contact list. Send guest post invitations to the owners and guest posters of the blogs, ezines and print newsletters that you enjoy reading. Use search engines to find other blogs and ezines in your field.

When sending a guest post invitation, describe your blog or ezine, suggest topics of interest (or request permission to reprint a specific article from their site), note whether you accept previously published content, specify a word count range for the article and a limit on the length of the resource box, and request a photo. Here's an example:

"I enjoy reading your blog and I would love for you to do a guest post on The Savvy Book Marketer blog about how to write effective press releases. My audience is primarily authors and independent publishers. About 500-600 words would be ideal, with a 30-word resource box. Previously published content is fine. Please send me a photo as well."

Some bloggers request that all guest posts be original content (articles not already posted elsewhere). That's nice for SEO purposes, but may limit your ability to get guest posts since your experts may not have time to produce an original article for you. If you're willing to accept articles published elsewhere, you'll have access to many more articles.

On the day a guest post runs, be sure to write a thank you note to the contributor and include a link to the article. In addition to being good manners, this encourages the author of the article to share the link with their social networks. And don't forget to link to the article from your own networks.

In many cases, you can reprint articles without asking permission. Look for a "permission to reprint" or "creative commons" notice on blogs and ezines that you read. You can also search article directories such as EzineArticles.com for articles to reprint. It can be a bit time consuming wading through article directories, because some of the articles are of low quality. Still, there are many excellent articles available.

When reprinting other people's articles, be sure to include their resource box with a link back to their website. I let writers know I'm using their article, even if it's not required. It's courteous and helps build relationships.

 Excerpted from The Savvy Book Marketer's Guide to Blogging for Authors by book marketing coach Dana Lynn Smith. For more book marketing tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana's blog at www.TheSavvyBookMarketer.com, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free newsletter at www.BookMarketingNewsletter.com.

Watch Out For Marketers Who Tell You Their Way Is The Only Way

In today's post I want to discuss some of the marketing claims that you may see from people. This is not a slam on anyone in particular, but some common sense discussions that I believe is important to have from time to time.

Before we get to that, I do want to invite you to take a look at my newest product, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests. If you ever wanted to send targeted prospects to your blog or website, then this training will show you how a well-crafted and executed Twitter contest can do just that and a whole lot more.

Now, let's take a look at this issue of someone claiming that their marketing methods are the only method and others are wrong. Believe it or not, there are some ad copy that make claims like this. For many marketers, this is a calculated attempt for someone to play the numbers, knowing that enough people will take action on the message. For others, it's an attempt to play on someone's fears.

The truth regarding marketing methods is not usually as black or white as some would have you to believe. Be very wary with someone who is indicating that this is so. Here are some examples for you to consider:

• Blogs vs Web Sites- With the strides that free blog platforms have made recently, and continue to make, many people are looking to them as their primary web presence. There are pros and cons for doing this, and many marketers feel strongly one way or the other. While having a strong opinion is never wrong, be wary of someone who claims that one option is the only right option, while the other is absolutely wrong. There are too many variables for someone to legitimately take a stance like that.
  
  
• Targeting vs Law of Large Numbers- Which is the best way to go after prospects? Target your efforts toward a specific niche or to take the shotgun approach of using the law of large numbers by going after everyone knowing that the more you go after, the more prospect you will find who will take action on your message. It may surprise you to hear me say that both are legitimate strategies. I have used both strategies very successfully. There are a number of factors that may help you determine which to use in certain marketing plans. Marketers feel passionately one way or the other and that's okay. But an experienced marketer will admit that if done correctly, either way can have success, even though one may be unilaterally repulsive to them personally. Again, be careful if someone tells you that one is the only way.
  
  
• Long Sales Pages vs Short Sales Pages- Have you landed on a sales page and had to scroll down a mile before getting to the price or a buy button? Along the way, you are given a lot of supporting evidence to prime you for clicking the buy button by the time you get to the bottom of the page. Some marketers swear by this while others hate it with a passion. Which is right? Well, the truth is that a lot of people have tremendous success with these long sales pages while a lot others have tremendous success using a short sales page. Passion for one way or the other is not wrong, but be careful if someone tells you one way is the right way and the other way is the wrong way.
  

These are just three simple examples that you may run into as you seek out help with your marketing plan, but there are a lot of other issues just like these. Remember, it's not wrong for a marketer to feel passionately about their advice or what they teach. It's not wrong for them to emphasize the pros of their method while talking about the cons of the other method. But when someone says that their method has the only pros and the other method has only cons, then you might want to think twice about how much you really want to follow this person's advice.

When considering a coach to help you with your marketing strategy, whether via a book, consulting, online courses or whatever medium, be persuaded on the merits of their sales points, not on the argument that their way is the only right way and all others are wrong.

The bottom line is that there are usually many ways to accomplish your marketing goals. If you find someone who resonates with you, great! Work with them and your plan and go out and make a million dollars! That is, in essence, what we are trying to ultimately do.

Tony Eldridge

Marketing Tips Around The Net: March 12th

It's Friday and that means it's time to take our trip around the net to look at book marketing posts that have caught my eye. I will even give you a few podcats and Blog Talk Radio shows at the end that you won't want to miss.

Before we get started, I want to share a resource with you that can help you send targeted people to your blog or website and help you to establish relationships with experts who can introduce you to their followers. It's my new training, Conducting Effective Twitter Contest. With a combination of video and text training, it's the easiest and quickest way to learn. And for a limited time, I have slashed the price by 50%. Check it out today...

Now, on to our trip around the net...


1. Business blogging: Are you getting any search engine juice?- Phyllis Zimbler Miller talks about the importance of making sure that the search engines know that your blog or website exists.

2. Working With Your Local Library- Dana Lynn Smith explains how authors can find marketing opportunities with their local libraries.

3. How to create a successful webinar for authors- Roger C. Parker discusses how to pull off a great webinar event.

4. AuthorSolutions Is Not Evil: 3 Things I Learned- Jane Friedman shares her experiences from a visit to the home office of Author's Solutions.

5. On Writing and Creativity: Lessons Learned By My 35th Birthday- Stop by and wish Joanna Penn a happy birthday. In return, she will share with you some great wisdom when it comes to writing and marketing your book.

6. The Real Winner in the Childish Milkaholic Lindsay Publicity Stunt is E*Trade- Sandra Beckwith takes a fun look at how e-Trade is getting a lot of free publicity that they couldn't buy thanks to Lindsay Lohan.

7. Writing for Children: Guest Post by Vivian Zabel- Carolyn Howard-Johnson invites author Vivian Zabel to shares 17 points on writing children stories.

8. Working from Home - The Reality- L. Diane Wolfe shares the reality of working at home.

9. What is Web 3.0?- Just when we thought that we had our arms around Web 2.0, Sarah Bolme starts talking about Web 3.0.

10. 10 steps to gigantic blog traffic- Jeff Newman shares his tips on how to explode your blog traffic

11. 6 Steps To a Better Blog – Part Six- In his final installment in the series, Hal Brown gives a wealth of resources when it comes to building a powerful blog.

12. Facebook One Click Add as Friend button- Dinesh Dhakal shares a cool button you can add to your blog for people to easily add you as a friend on Facebook in one click.

13. Why Your Book Isn't Selling- Penny C. Sansevieri shares some great ideas that can help your book sell more copies.

14. Blogging Dynamite: The Power of Connections- Nicholas Z. Cardot talks about the real power of blogging success.

15. How to Blog: Choose a Niche for Your Blog [Why Niches are Important]- Darren Rowse talks about the importance of a niche to a blogger.


Listen to great content:

Blog Talk Radio:

Getting on Radio and TV Penny C. Sansevieri, March 18th: 7:00 Eastern

Authors Articulating with Jo-Anne Vandermeulen Jo-Anne Vandermeulen, March 16th: 9:00PM Eastern


On Demand:
Yvonne Perry interviews authors Marilyn Geary and Jacqueline Jannsen to discuss their book LeaveLight: A Motivational Guide to Holistic End-of-Life Planning: Available March 12th

Sarah Moore will be joined by author Lewis Tagliaferre to discuss his book Voices of Sedona to discuss his book Voices of Sedona: Available March 19th

That's it for this week's trip around the net. I hope you enjoy your weekend. I will see you back here on Monday.

Creating Free Banners, Ad Boxes and Buttons For Your Blog And Website

If you have ever wished that you could create a custom header for your blog or an ad box to promote your book, products or services, then you're in for a real treat. Today, I'm going to introduce you to Banner Fans, a free site that allows you to create these things quickly, easily and with very little technical skills required.

Before we get to this, I want to remind you about my newest release, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests. With this training product, you get a mix of video instruction and text that teaches you step-by-step instructs on how to launch a successful Twitter contest and use it to drive traffic to your site while putting your name in front of the followers of experts in your niche. Though this is great training on how to conduct Twitter contests, it's also a strong marketing training product that you can start using today.

Now, regarding our topic for today, there will come a point when you will need to create some sort of graphic for your website or blog. While there are great fee-based tools out there that will give you more control over your final output, Banner Fans is a free alternative that can give the marketer on a shoestring budget a viable option.

What can you create with Banner Fans? Here are just a few of the template sizes you can use (Click image for full-size view):

Not only can you use one of eighteen preset standard sizes, you can also create banners with custom sizes so you can get the exact size you need. If you want to take a look at one of the banners I have created, just look at the top of my blog. The header was created with Banner Fans.

If you want to learn more about creating free banners, here is a video that I made for my newsletter subscribers that walks you through how to use this nifty free tool. I hope you enjoy it.




Tony Eldridge

BookBuzzr: Free Marketing Tool For Authors

It was nearly a year ago when someone by the name of Vikram Narayan contacted me and asked me to take a look at his new creation, BookBuzzr. It's a tool that allows authors to display as much or little of his or her book as they wants. Readers can then read the content on a platform that mimics the turning pages of a book, down to the curl of the page.
Vikram claimed it could be a great marketing tool for authors. Well, I took a look at BookBuzzr and responded, "Why don't you tell my readers about this tool?" I invited him to be a guest blogger and he submitted a post entitled, BookBuzzr: How to Market Your Book on Facebook, MySpace and Other Social Networks.

It's been nearly a year, and I thought it might be a good time to revisit BookBuzzr and see what's been going on with it.

First of all, the whole BookBuzzr team is a pleasure to work with. Few organizations are as responsive to their targeted audience as they are. And you can see this collaborative and responsive nature built into their product. Consider these author-friendly aspects of this marketing tool:

• It's free.
  
• It contains ready-made e-mail signatures promoting your BookBuzzr content.
  
• It integrates with your Twitter account to tweet milestones.
  
• It allows you to invite your contacts in all major online address books with a few clicks to read your BookBuzzr content.
  
• They provide a very cool "Buy Now" button linking to your book's shopping cart link.
  
• BookBuzzr has an online profile that allows people to tag themselves as your fans.
  
• BookBuzzr is working with search engines to get content indexed. That means more people can find your content.
  
• They provide ready-made HTML code that allows you to share your BookBuzzr content on a blog, in a post or on a website.
  

In my opinion, BookBuzzr has moved beyond my early expectations. It's more than a simple tool that shares your excerpts (or entire book--that's up to you) with readers in a cool way. It is a launching point for some powerful Web 2.0 marketing opportunities. And unlike many technical geniuses, the people behind BookBuzzr created their tool to be used by every author or publisher. No technical skills needed.
If you need code, they provide it automatically.
If you need to use BookBuzzr's marketing power, you just click a few buttons and follow easy-to-understand instructions.
If you have questions, they have created a rich community support site. Heck, they even answer e-mails that you send.
With a growing community of authors at 4,000 plus and counting, there is no reason why you should not check out BookBuzzr and see what it can do for your book.
I did. Please enjoy my entire award winning action/adventure book, The Samson Effect, on BookBuzzr. New York Times best selling author Clive Cussler calls it a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." Even Hollywood has acquired the film rights to it, so read it now before you watch it on the silver screen.

Tony Eldridge

Holiday Book Marketing by J. Aday Kennedy

It's Tuesday and that means that we have a guest author who will share her marketing wisdom with us. J. Aday Kennedy is a multi-talented author who will be talking to us today about creative ways to take advantage of many lesser known holidays in our book marketing efforts.

Before we get to her post, I want to mention my newest release, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests. If you have ever wanted to establish relationships with experts who can introduce you to their followers or find ways to send targeted people to your blog or website, then this training can help.

Now, on to our guest post for today...


Holiday Book Marketing
By J. Aday Kennedy

Have you noticed there are times of the year you have difficulty selling books? A calendar can help solve that problem. How? There is a holiday for the strangest celebrations. These holidays can be used to market your book.

The best time to utilize the calendar is before you have written a single word. Take your character and start giving it likes, and dislikes based on holiday celebrations. Here are a few examples.

In January it is difficult to promote and sell books, because Christmas put a strain on your prospect's finances. Rubber Duckie Day is Jan 13, so give your character a rubber duck collection. That is an odd detail in a character's makeup, especially an adult, but it gives them an interesting personality quirk and you have reason to promote your book in January.

Not only do you have reason to promote, but you have opened the door to an unusual setting for a book signing; a store that specializes in bath products or a large store with a section devoted to bathrooms. One of the benefits of selling books at a "non-bookstore" is that your book is not competing with other books. Your book has no direct competition.

Another tie to your character's collection is that January is Bath Safety month and Bubble Bath Day is the 8th. Create a drawing/contest to collect names for a prospect mailing list. Fill a bag or basket with bath items (The dollar store can provide some inexpensive items.) The larger the prize, the longer you can draw out the contest. Contact radio stations, newspapers, and other media. The radio station will publicize the contest on air and provide you with free advertising for the length of your contest.

Does your main character design clothes for animals as a hobby or career? National Dress Up Your Pet Day is January 14. Schedule a book signing at a dog groomer, veterinarian's office, pet store, animal shelter or pet supply store. Offer a discount to patrons that bring photos or take a photo at your signing with their dressed pet. For every certain number of animals that get adopted, offer a gift. (Have a sign up and draw names.)

*** You can tie your book to holidays that do not seem to have a direct link. Find reasons to promote your book in every month.

February is Library Lovers Month. Offer to hold a book signing or reading session for free at a library. Provide a discount to every library card holder old or new. Donate a portion of each book sold to the library. You can make bookmarks encouraging children to read. Design a contest/scavenger hunt. All of the answers can be found in the various resources the library offers.

*** When you offer a prize make sure it promotes your book, you or your services. Baseball caps, T shirts, pens, buttons, etc… You have created good will and a walking and talking advertisement.

March is National Middle School Month. How can you celebrate and promote your work? Schedule an author school visit at a middle school and create a time capsule for the class and make fun questionnaires for them to fill out. Then select the date with the teacher to open the capsule. (The last day of school [if done near the beginning of the year] date of middle school graduation, junior high graduation or high school graduation or a different date that looms in the future.) Donate a copy of your book to the classroom/school you visit. Go to Vista Print and make a promotional item (T shirt, coffee mug, baseball cap, sticky note pad) with a picture of the main character of your book with a slogan about middle school. You could have a contest for the entire middle school. The class with the best theme room wins a pizza party from your main character or a party with your main character's favorite food.

At the party you can attend with chances for more prizes to be won. You've achieved a few things. Excitement about you and your book; incredible photo opportunity [all of those classrooms decorated with your book as the subject]; and a newsworthy event for the local media.

April is the month to celebrate April Fools Day. Visit a local joke shop. You can look online, as well. Collect a bunch of practical jokes and make a basket or joke bag. Run a trivia quiz contest All of the answers can be found on your website or links to your online publications. Structure the questions and answers to promote you, your services or products. "The Joke Bag/Basket" is the prize.

No matter what time of year it is, there is a holiday to be celebrated. Put on your marketing hat. The more creative you are the more it will put an indelible mark in people's minds. Each time you are mentioned in the news your reputation will grow and hearty anticipation for your next event will proliferate. Search for holidays on the web and plan a year of marketing your books and services.

*****

 J. Aday Kennedy, the differently-abled writer, is an award winning multi published author of inspirational/Christian pieces and of children’s literature. Six picture books are under contract eagerly awaiting publication. She is a ventilator dependent quadriplegic making her dreams come true a story at a time. As a speaker, Aday entertains, instructs, motivates and inspires audiences of all ages. To learn more about her and her writing, visit her website and blog. www.jadaykennedy.com, & http://jadaykennedy.blogspot.com/

How To "Get" When Marketing In The 2.0 World

I have met a lot of people who want to do business on the Internet. They set up a web page, auto-responder, and shopping cart full of good content, and then place ads on the search engines and on other websites. This kind of Internet marketing can be described as old Web 1.0 way of doing business.

What's the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0? The chief difference is in the interactive and social nature of the relationships. Web 1.0 is very static. It's almost like sticking a billboard up that advertises you and your business. Web 2.0 is community driven. It's like approaching a mixer and mingling, learning about others and finding ways to help each other.

If you are a business owner, would you attend a party, walk around and shake everyone's hand with a broad smile and a hearty laugh while slipping them a business card and saying something like, "My name is Tony Eldridge, book marketer. Here's my card. I have some fabulous book marketing products you'll be interested in."

No? Well, as you get into the Web 2.0 world, you need to think of it in the same way. This world is about relationships and providing value for the community. Those who provide value build their reputation and help to create trust in this world.

So, whether it's Twitter, Facebook, blogging, or any other Web 2.0 venue, spend time cultivating great relationships and becoming the go-to person who provides great content and value to others. Doing this may take longer than buying an ad, but in the long run, you'll gain something that an ad cannot give you. Loyal followers who have built a relationship with you on a foundation of trust. This leads to raving fans who will come to you when they need the products and services you offer.

So, how do you "get" when marketing in the 2.0 world? Start by creating relationships and finding out what people need. Then find ways to give in those relationships. Give your time, your help, your knowledge. In doing so, you will be on your way to creating long-term value in your 2.0 world.

Tony Eldridge

Marketing Tips Around The Net: March 5th

It's Friday and that means it's time to take a trip around the net. This week, I have increased my 10 stops to 15. There have been some great posts and articles for us to chew on. After the 15 posts I highlight, read on to see some interesting upcoming Blog talk Radio programs and some On-Demand podcasts and mp3 you can download for free.

Before we get to the post, I have a couple of quick housekeeping announcements:

1. By multiple requests, I am leaving my current video for my newsletter subscribers active for a few more days. Uploading and Installing WordPress to Your Server is still available to those who sign up in for the free newsletter in the next few days. When you sign up, you also get instant access to over 45 minutes of free instructional videos as my way of saying thanks for signing up!

2. Do you want to find followers on Twitter who are interested in what you have to offer or send targeted people to your blog or website? If so, then check out my new training, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests. It can help you do that and a whole lot more.


Now, on to our trip around the net...

1. How to Submit Your Books for Review- Sandra Beckwith invites guest author Dana Lynn Smith to share her knowledge on submitting books for review.

2. List building done right - Twitter, Facebook & Your Website- Roger C. Parker breaks down Phyllis Zimbler Miller's new report which provides a case study in list building and personal branding done right.

3. How to engage in conversation on Twitter- Phyllis Zimbler Miller gives tips for communicating on Twitter

4. So You Want to be a Professional Speaker...? Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4: Check out this 4 part series from a professional speaker, L. Diane Wolfe, as she shares her knowledge with you.

5. Another Case of Customer Service Stupidity- Shel Horowitz shares a bad customer service experience he had as a reminder of what we as marketers needs to remember.

6. How to Sell More Books to Corporations- Dana Lynn Smith invites guest Brian Jud to explain how we can snag corporations as buyers for our books.

7. Podcast: Ebooks Q&A With Joshua Tallent From EBookArchitects- Joanna Penn interviews an expert in e-book publishing to share everything you need to know about e-book publishing

8. Authors Den To Offer New Benefits to Stable of Author Perks- Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares some news about a new service on AuthorsDen.com: AuthorsDen Marketplace.

9. The BEST Way to Generate Lots of Comments on a Your Next Blog Post- Darren Rowse shares 4 tips on how to generate a lot of comments on your blog post.

10. Good Blogging is like Good Standup- Drew Bennett explains that what makes a comedian great can also make your blog great.

11. How to create a best landing page for your Facebook Fan page?- Dinesh Dhakal walks you through the process of creating a great landing page for your Facebook Fan Page.

12. How To Make $40,000 On Foreign Rights- Penny Sansevieri shares how to cash in on foreign rights with your book.

13. Is Your Blog "Bookmark" Worthy? 5 Tell-Tale Signs- Jennifer Brown Banks helps you examine your blog to see if it's worthy for people to bookmark.

14. Is Your "Buy" Button in Jeopardy?- Sarah Bolme keeps us up with industry news as she comments on Amazon.com and your "buy button".

15. The Amazing Power Of Commenting- Hal Brown talks about the power of leaving comments on blog posts.


Listen to great content:

Blog Talk Radio:

E-books: the savior of publishing or the foe? Penny C. Sansevieri, March 9th: 7:00PM Eastern
Getting on Radio and TV Penny C. Sansevieri, March 18th: 7:00 Eastern
Authors Articulating with Jo-Anne Vandermeulen Jo-Anne Vandermeulen, March 9th: 9:00PM Eastern


On Demand:
Yvonne Perry interviews author Jennifer Chase to discuss her new novel Dead Game: Available March 5th
Yvonne Perry interviews authors Marilyn Geary and Jacqueline Jannsen to discuss their book LeaveLight: A Motivational Guide to Holistic End-of-Life Planning: Available March 12th
*18 VIP Panelists speak on everything you need to write, publish and market your book: Via Lynn Serafinn- 5 free mp3s on these subjects:
STARTING AND WRITING YOUR BOOK
PRE-PUBLICATION MARKETING MUSTS
PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION
YOUR BOOK LAUNCH: DESIGNING AND DELIVERING
BENEFITING FROM THE SUCCESS OF YOUR BOOK
*Affiliate Link

That's it for this week. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I will see you bright and early on Monday.

The Non-Techie’s Guide To Basic HTML

Have you been in a situation where you wish you could have added a hyperlink to a text, but you didn't know how? Or perhaps you wanted to bold or put a word in italics?

For most of us, this isn't a big deal. We use WYSIWYG editors (What You See Is What You Get). That means all we have to do is highlight a word and click the Bold, Italics or Link button and the HTML code is added under the hood without us having to do a thing.

But for the rare times where we may wish we could bold a text, but there is no bold button, or wish we could add a hyperlink, but can't find a hyperlink button, this post will help.

When will you need to know this? Let's say you are really mad at me and want to bold the text in a comment for this post. Since there is no Bold button, you'd need to use HTML in the comment field. Or, more practically, if you want to link to your webpage (Which I encourage in your comments), then you can use HTML to do that.

We're going to look at how to do three basic things with HTML: Bold, Italics, and Hyperlinks. Now, just like there are more than one way to say "Hello" (Hi, Howdy, Wassup!), there are more than one way to do some of these things. But here are the simple ways.

First, you have to tell the text that it needs to be formatted for HTML. You do this with tags. Tags are enclosed in <>. Anything inside the <> is a tag.

Each formatting action you want to make has to have:

1. Open tags <>
2. Close tags </>

Let's look at how to bold something. This code:

<b>This Is Bold</b>

Comes out like this:
This Is Bold

1. The letter b is how we instruct the text to bold
2. The text we want to bold is enclosed in an open and a closed tag:
<b> </b>

Pretty easy. Want to try italics?

<i>This Is Italics</i>

becomes: This Is Italics

Now, hyperlinks are a little more involved, but still pretty easy if you have followed what we did so far:

1. We have our open and closed tags:
<a> </a>

2. Next, we have two elements to define.

• The URL we want to send people to when the text is clicked
  
• The text we want people to read
  

href="url" is the attribute which defines the link "address". We slip it in the opening tag. It will look like this:
<a href="url"> </a>
Between the open and close tags, we enter the text that we want people to read:
<a href="url">Google Search Engine</a>
The last step is to replace the "url" in the open tag with the actual link we want to send people to when they click on the text Google Search Engine (be sure to leave the quotation marks):
<a href="http://www.google.com">Google Search Engine</a>
Here is what people see:
Google Search Engine
So, that's all there is to simple HTML. With this, you should be able to do the basics when you are without the all-important WYSIWYG.
Feel free to give it a try and leave a comment and a clickable link to your site.
Tony Eldridge
(If you are reading this as a syndicated post, you will have to visit the actual blog post to see the HTML codes in the text boxes.

Webcasts and Telecasts: A Great Way To Meet People

If you have been following me for any length of time, you know that I am partial to multimedia training and messaging. My free newsletter, Video Marketing Tips For Authors and my new product, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests both utilize screen capture as an audio/visual way to learn. But these videos are just as small way to use multimedia to platforms.

Last week, I was invited to be a panelist during Lynn Serafinn's Grand Opening event for her innovative new membership site, Spirit Authors Virtual Coaching and Learning Experience. She had VIP panelists for each night, Monday through Friday, and each night dealt with a different subject regarding writing and publishing a book.

On Tuesday, I was a panelist with The Savvy Book Marketer, Dana Lynn Smith, and The Wordy Woman, Shelley Lieber. Together, we discussed the importance of pre-publication marketing for your book. If you want to download and listen to that call, or any of the 5 calls, that week, then visit the Spirit Authors Virtual Coaching and Learning Experience and you'll have an opportunity to download the mp3s of the webinars for free.

This all brings me to the point of my post today. People like Lynn Serafinn, Yvonne Perry, Roger C. Parker, Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Jo-Anne Vandermeulen, Joanna Penn, John Kremer and a host of other marketers have chosen webcasts, telecasts, Blog Talk Radio, mp3s, and a host of other multimedia channels to deliver great training. But not only does this afford the learner another way to instill the lessons being taught, it's a truly social way to introduce to and collaborate with others in your field.

Whether it's experts meeting and sharing or listeners gathering to learn, multimedia channels allow the world of social media to get just a little more social. When you can attach a voice to a name, hear the laughter of a participant, engage in kitchen-talk round tables, or brainstorm in real time, you are left with an experience that is much different than simply interacting with a static written word.

As marketers, look for ways you can make your social networking world a little more social. As participants, don't be afraid to try new ways of learning and interacting. In fact, with technologies like mp3s and PDAs, it's now easier than ever to download great content and listen to it while you are grocery shopping. Not only is it a great way to learn, but it can be a huge productivity coup for you.

Tony Eldridge
* Link to Lynn Serafinn is an affiliate link.

Tips on When to Get and How to Use Reviews by Dave and Lillian Brummet

Today is Tuesday and that means it's time to invite guests to share their wisdom with us. Today, we have co-authors Dave and Lillian Brummet who are sharing an excerpt from their book, Purple Snowflake Marketing- How To Make Your Book Stand Out In The Crowd. Specifically, they will be sharing information on "When To Get And How To Use Reviews".

Before we get to the excerpt, I have a couple of quick announcements.

1. If you have not signed up for my Free Video Tips For Authors Newsletter, please consider doing so now. For the next couple of day, you can watch the current tip, Uploading And Installing The WordPress Software To Your Server before the next tip replaces it. And if you sign up now, I will give you over 45 minuets of instant access to other video tips as my way of saying thanks.

2. If you have not checked out Conducting Effective Twitter Contests, I invite you take a look. Through a combination of text and videos, you will learn step-by-step how to launch a successful Twitter contest.


And now, on to Dave and Lillian's post...

Tips on When to Get and How to Use Reviews
by Dave and Lillian Brummet

*Excerpted from Chapter 3 of the book: Purple Snowflake Marketing – How to Make Your Book Stand Out in a Crowd, by Dave and Lillian Brummet


When to Get Reviews

The best time to start getting reviews is long before the book has gone to print. When you think about it, how else do authors get those nice snippets from reviewers on their back cover, front cover, inside pages, websites and promotional materials prior to the release of their book?

However, reviews are valuable at any time during the life of your book. In fact this should be an on-going process throughout the marketing plan. So pace yourself a little - you will want continued exposure for the long-term. Also, keep in mind that a publication will not likely include a blurb about your book if their direct competitors have just recently done the same thing. Your budget will determine how many copies you can afford to send out for review. So, again, pace your marketing plan.


How to Get Reviews

As always the most essential key is to research the publication you want to query and learn about their readers. The next essential key is to research their submission guidelines. Then you can query the reviewer with a nice letter that includes some basic ideas about the book. Be clear about why the book fits their magazine and their targeted audience at this time. If they feel it does not fit, do not argue. You can always try again, but let several months pass before you query the reviewer again with a new approach.

Always query with a professional informative letter. Books sent without prior communication will just result in yet another book in the trash bin, and that is hard on your budget, use of time and the environment. Queries ensure that they are interested and able to accept more work. It is also necessary to confirm the format they require. The query should relay why your book is going to be something they don't want to miss out on. What is so special about you or your book that will get them to sit up and take notice? THIS is what you need to say, but say it softly. No one likes a loud, pushy or bragging voice.

In addition, it is helpful to prospective reviewers if they know more about your book. Is it a children's book? A religious book? Do you consider the content as humorous or adventurous? Is it a book that will compel feelings of happiness or sadness? Do you have an informative website? What format is the book available to review in at this time -- galley, PDF manuscript or a published review copy? Are you in the manuscript, editing or publishing stage? Do you have an ISBN and a release date? Do you plan to provide other promotional materials (author bio, etc) for reviewers? Are you looking for review blurbs for the back cover or first inside pages of your book? Or are you looking for general reviews for promotion materials and online stores? Are you in a hurry for the review? Provide this information before reviewers are forced to ask. They will appreciate a considerate and prepared author and because of your foresight they will feel valued, respected and will not have to spend time searching for the information.

Most professional reviewers do not usually work with manuscripts. Typically, more than 80% of the books Lillian has reviewed to date were either published copies or Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs), which are manuscripts printed on paper and attached with spiral binding. Occasionally, the publisher will provide ARCs, however the author normally provides these. Some reviewers will work with electronic books; others do not. Be sure to clarify all of these things prior to sending your query letter.

Look at the books on your shelves and see how reviews are used. Through this simple analysis, you can glean information for your own promotional material development as well.


What Happens to the Review Copy?

Most reviewers are not paid for their work. Only a few hard working reviewers are privileged to land a paying position for a publication or online site. Therefore, the book is the payment. Some authors find this worrisome. They are concerned that the reviewer will sell or exchange the book at a used bookstore. It is our opinion that if someone has spent several evenings reading our book, then several more hours writing a review, publishing it, then giving it to us for free and sometimes posting it online for us… well, they can do what they like with our book! When you think about it, if your book is worth $20, they are "earning" less than $5 an hour.

We always include a letter along with review copies that gently reminds them of our conversation in the past and requests a notification of the book's arrival and their decision on it. We suggest that if the book is not destined for their own bookshelves, that they consider donating it to a library, school, mission for the poor or women's shelter. We even had responses where the contact was thrilled that we had considered this as they have been throwing rejected review copies (usually unsolicited) away in the past. Perhaps this small suggestion will help keep other authors' books out of their trash bin as well. However, the main goal is not waste reduction or community good will in this scenario - instead, the idea is to keep your book in circulation, continually building exposure and extending the value of your marketing budget.


Be Selective

Be very selective when querying reviewers. Make sure you have visited their website and are familiar with their style and preferences. We recommend reading the article: "How to spot a phony reviewer" at http://www.midwestbookreview.com which will help you avoid some pit falls.


Publication Lead-Times

If you are trying to get into a pre-publication magazine like Publisher's Weekly, you are looking at a three to four month lead-time. This means you need to submit the book to one of their reviewers about three or four months before the deadline date.

These kinds of publications often require ARCs or Galleys because they only review books prior to their publication. Unless your publisher provides these you will need to print out the manuscript and send it with the other promotion materials. These pre-publication magazines are published for wholesalers, larger bookstores, distributors and libraries. Some are targeted towards a specific audience, while others are more general.

...And one final tip we'd like to leave you with today is that being reviewed online (e-newsletters, review sites and e-zines) is often easier than getting printed reviews in newspapers, newsletters and magazines.


---------
Dave & Lillian Brummet: Authors of Trash Talk, Purple Snowflake Marketing, & Towards Understanding; Hosts of the Conscious Discussions talk radio show & the Authors Read radio program ( www.brummet.ca )

Find The Followers Who Are Interested In Your Products, Services And Books

When we engage in marketing, we do so in the hopes that we can find who are interested, or need, our products and services. This is why corporations spend millions on advertising and PR. They flood the general audience with their messages in the hopes that enough will take action to make their investment profitable.

They also know that the more people are exposed to their message, the greater the likelihood they will eventually take action. This is why they run the same newspaper ads and television commercials over and over. Not to simply catch the people who missed seeing their ad the first time around, but to expose people to their message over and over. In essence, they are building their brand.

This kind of advertising is very effective, but it takes an investment in time and money to really pay dividends. As small business owners, professionals, or authors we probably find ourselves with limited resources in both time and money. This is exactly why people like Jay Conrad Levinson of Guerrilla Marketing fame help so many people. Jay shows ways that you can make a big impact in marketing your business without breaking the bank. (Note: at the time this post was published, FireFox had trouble pulling up Jay's site, but Internet Explorer did not.)

This is also the purpose of sites like this: Marketing Tips For Authors. Each week, I try to pass on tips and advice to help you market your book, your products/services, and yourself.

It's also the reason I created Conducting Effective Twitter Contests. This training will walk you through the process of creating a Twitter contest that will specifically find people who are interested in your business. In fact, it is designed to help you create a marketing plan using viral elements that will truly help people seek you out.

When you talk about conducting a Twitter contest, you are talking about a focused marketing activity that can cost nothing but your time to launch, but one that can pay huge dividends for you by finding followers who want to hear your message.

Conducting Effective Twitter Contests launches today. It's a mixed training platform of text and videos that will take you through the pre-launch activities to help make sure you are aiming your contest at the right set of eyes all the way through the post-launch marketing activities to make sure that your contest doesn't fizzle after it starts.

This training is available via CD or instant download, meaning that you can start learning how to Conduct Effective Twitter Contests in just a few minutes. You could be just days away from launching a powerful, effective marketing campaign without breaking your bank.