Two Powerful Programs for Authors at Changing Hands Bookstore

This past Saturday I took part in a fantastic event at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, AZ. The program was called Two Powerful Programs for Authors: Red Hot Internet Publicity and The 7 Steps to Publishing Success.

My co-presenter was Penny C. Sansevieri, President and Founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. If you haven't heard of Penny, you must not have a computer! She is seemingly omnipresent on the Web via her site, blogging, twitter, Facebook, Squidoo, podcasts... you name it, Penny's on it! She's full of energy and inspiration, and it was truly a pleasure to spend a few hours learning with her.

So, what did we learn? I'll start with my presentation. In my opinion, the most important "take-away" from my presentation of The 7 Steps to Publishing Success is Step #1: Find the Market for Your Book.

Authors frequently skip this critical step before they start drafting their manuscripts, and sometimes even neglect it until after they've published their books! The savvy author keeps their audience in mind before they draft word one of their new project.

And remember: even if we know who our audience is, we don't necessarily know where they are. That's what finding the market for your book is all about: knowing exactly to whom you're going to be targeting your marketing efforts, as well as where those readers are. We might even add that you'll want to figure out how you're going to reach those readers, too. The Web? Advertising? Bookstores? All these questions should be considered early in the process.

Now let's talk a little about Penny's presentation. I thought it was packed full to the brim of useful information, which is typical of the kind of high-quality content Penny provides her audiences. At the same time, she broke down the often-overwhelming task of marketing a book on the Web into simple steps.

Penny recommends that authors focus on using just a few specific tools very well: a website, a blog, a twitter or facebook account, and the website Squidoo.

I learned a bit about Squidoo from the call Penny and I held earlier in the week, and I must say: I was impressed. Squidoo seems like a great way for authors to stake a claim on their niches -- be they fiction or nonfiction (though probably nonfiction in particular.)

Penny stressed that a professional-quality website is a must, and I'm inclined to agree. As more and more content reaches viewers via the Web, the bar has risen for what readers will stick with and what they'll ignore. It's just like books: amateur-created websites are easy to spot and many people will simply move on without another thought.

I could go on and on about all the valuable insight Penny shared, but I've got some good news: Wheatmark filmed the whole event!

We'll keep you posted about when we've got this great content available for you to watch.

I'll also notify my family, because I don't think they've seen the new winter beard I've been sporting!

By the way, The 7 Steps to Publishing Success minicourse can also be accessed by email here.