Why did you write a book?

The amount of effort that goes into crafting a manuscript, revising it, sharing it, eating some humble pie while you revise it again, and then entering into the publishing process ... it can be a huge burden for normal humans.

What is it about writers that drives them to not only begin a manuscript but to actually see it through to the end product: a book?

Why do we do it?

For some writers, particularly fiction, it's the incessant voice of the muse pushing them to tell a story. They cannot help but write. If they have an audience already waiting for the next installment, they've not only created a fictional world where their imagination has been able to develop, but they've created a real world of people who want to share that imagination because it sparks something in them: emotional memory, living vicariously through the characters, or maybe just the entertainment of an alternate world. They connect through stories.

For other authors, the need to share a message with the world is so strong that a book -- or two or three -- is the place they can place all their thoughts and have those ideas reach an audience. Not only do these tomes offer a place of expression to share a passion, but they help the author and the readers connect with each other over a message. If a book's message is strong enough and is shared by many, it can create change. Nothing is more powerful than a message supported by passion and connection.

For business people, a book is a way to share expertise. It is a format that potential clients can take home with them, study, read, and learn from an expert. It can even be a way to prime a client before they embark on hiring you for your specialty. For example, a company that sells knitting supplies: yarn, needles, patterns, and that even offers classes, would benefit from having a book about knitting for beginners. How? Not only will the beginning knitter be better informed about the process, the need for practice, the tools they'll require, and exactly what to expect, but the book will have them already believing in the knitting store as their source for all their questions and supplies. They'll trust the store because they wrote the book on the subject.

We often get bogged down in the idea of how to sell a book, how to market it and find an audience--all incredibly important details to the success of the work. However, with all the time and effort that goes into a project as determined as a book, it is good to remember what your intentions were, are, and will be.

How to Launch a Book: A Report from Bill Glazer's Book Launch Party

Last weekend my colleague Grael Norton and I attended the launch of Bill Glazer's first book in Orlando, Florida. For three days about six hundred people from all over the country convened in a ballroom ... doing the ... book launch thing. What's more, they all paid to get in.
Paid to get in? Plus airfare and hotel for three days? For a book launch? Of a first-time author?

Absolutely. Let me explain how that's possible. I should also mention that the book was on many bestseller lists prior to its launch, including USA Today and Amazon.com.

Bill Glazer (seen here with me and his book, Outrageous Advertising That's Outrageously Successful), has spent years and years building his platform as a retailer, copywriter, and as an expert on direct marketing. In our materials we call this platform an author platform--regardless whether you've written a book or not. Therefore, by the time he wrote his first book he was already in a great position to sell lots of copies.

The secret to his "outrageously" successful book launch party last weekend, however, was that even as he organized this event, he kept in mind the question that's on every customer or prospective customer's mind: "What's in this for me?" (In fact, this question should be on your mind every single time you market a service, a product, or book.)

How did he persuade over 600 entrepreneurs to come to his book release party (who not only paid to get in, but were expecting to spend on additional products and services)?

Well, definitely not by inviting them to attend a "book launch party." As you know well, nobody cares about your book or its release unless there is something in it for them. Bill Glazer understood he needed to answer the question, What's in it for them? so he organized a three-day direct marketing workshop and conference with high-profile marketing experts and copywriters like Dan Kennedy (pictured right), Yanik Silver (he got away), Paul Hartunian, and many others. People may not come to a book party, but they would certainly come if there was something in it for them!

This was not a free event, but many attendees had the opportunity to get tickets by purchasing copies of the book ... in bulk. This did not only further boost the sales of the book, but also provided attendees with instant gifts (the book) to give to family or business clients. As my wife, who is not into marketing, observed: "Very smart! Everybody wins!"

Think about it. What was in it for me? I got to hear some of the best minds in direct marketing share their secrets and strategies. In other words, I got to attend a high-profile marketing conference. Not only that, but I was able to give away a number of these books as gifts.

What was in it for the author? A successful book launch with well over a million dollar's worth of books presold before the book even launched.

Now, think about this: Would I have gone to attend a book launch? Definitely not halfway across the country. But the author, Bill Glazer, asked the question, What's in it for Atilla? So he organized a marketing workshop and conference instead ... and we all went, paid, and came away thinking we got the better deal.

Meanwhile, Bill Glazer thinks he had an outrageously successful book launch party. And he did, all because he kept his customers' question in mind: "What's in it for me?"

Now, I realize that a book event of this magnitude is beyond the reach for most authors. However, it ought to give you a vision of what's possible, even if on a smaller scale, if you you, too, just ask that question every time you try to sell your book to your market: "What's in it for them?"

---

Not everything went smoothly on this trip. After Grael and I (pictured in this "celebrity" photo) left the conference and went to the Orlando airport, we stood in the security line for a very long time. We took off our shoes and placed all loose items in the security baskets to be scanned. After going through the scanner and putting our shoes back on, Grael commented on how long the whole thing took me, and that we'd better hurry. I didn't say a word, just followed him out to the gates. However, we must have taken the wrong turn somewhere, because when we realized we were in the wrong place, we had passed the "point of no return" security sign and had to get back in line again to pass through security. We didn't talk much on the plane flying back to Tucson.

What's It About: How to Write Enticing Back Cover Copy for Your Novel

You stand at the doorway of your favorite coffeehouse, scanning the area for your friend. Julie is tucked away at a corner table, reading a paperback. She doesn’t notice you until you take the seat across from her.

"Oh, sorry!" she says. "I've been completely engrossed in this novel. It's really good!"

"Cool. What's it about?" you ask.

"It starts out in Baltimore, when Lisel—that's the main character—is fourteen. Her parents pretty much ignore her because they're so focused on her older brother. The brother's name is Carl, and he's really smart. All he's ever wanted to do when he grows up is become a doctor. The parents are immigrants, and they've done okay given that their English isn't great, but they really want Carl to achieve the American dream.

"Okay ..."

"Lisel resents this a little, but it's the way it's always been, right? So she doesn't think about it much. But then the whole family takes a trip to Boston so Carl can do a college interview, and while they're driving there they get blindsided by an out-of-control driver. Carl ends up with permanent brain damage. He has to relearn how to tie his shoes."

You nod, grateful that Julie has gotten to the point. "So it's about how the family copes with this."

"Well, not exactly. The book skips ahead to when Lisel is in medical school. See, her parents transfer all their ambitions for Carl onto her, and she doesn't want to disappoint them. She gets into Harvard, and she meets this guy who seems perfect ..."

Your friend tells of Lisel's struggles to get through medical school, her painful breakup with the aforementioned guy after she discovers he's been cheating, and the challenges of building a practice. Your mind begins to wander as she describes, in intricate detail, Lisel's attempts at a love life.

"So she agrees to a blind date set up by her mom, and she totally doesn't want to go," says Julie. "But he actually turns out to be really cool, maybe someone she can trust. She tells him she used to like acting in high school, before the thing with her brother, and he convinces her to audition for this theater group really close to where she lives—"

"Okay, okay," you say, waving your hands desperately. "But what is the book ABOUT?"

"That's what I've been telling you for the last seven minutes." She blinks a few times, clearly mystified. "Hey, I've gotta use the restroom. Could you watch my stuff?"

As Julie cheerfully makes her way to the other side of the coffeehouse, you pick up the book, flip to the back cover, and read this:

Most of Lisel's childhood was spent in the shadow of her brilliant and ambitious older brother, Carl. When a car accident left Carl severely brain damaged at the age of seventeen, she quietly took on the dreams he would never fulfill in an attempt to ease her parents' grief. She went to medical school, graduated with honors, and now maintains a thriving practice.

But cracks appear in Lisel's seemingly perfect life. The only human beings she interacts with on a regular basis are her patients and the men she meets on disastrous Match.com dates. When she joins a community theater group, she finds that rekindling her interest in acting only magnifies her dissatisfaction with everything else.

Should the choices we make in high school determine the course of our entire life? Are parental approval and the trappings of success enough to sustain us? In turns heartbreaking and hilarious, A Hand-Me-Down Life is a deeply satisfying story about one woman's quest to find her own path.

Here's the million dollar question. Assuming this is the kind of book you might enjoy, which description is more likely to make you want to read it: the blurb on the back cover, or the blurb as Julie might have written it?

* * *

At Wheatmark, we've encountered many authors who are capable of penning interesting books, but become absolutely lost when it comes time to create the promotional copy for those books. Too close to their own work to know how to sell it, they often fall back on Julie's rambling monologue approach to plot summary.

If you've run into the same problem, take a few deep breaths and relax. We're here to help.

The key thing is to keep it simple. Pare it down. Don't tell the entire story in your blurb.

That's great, you say, but how do I know what to leave out?

Good question. There are actually many ways to summarize any given plot, and the one you choose should depend on who you think will read it.

For instance, the Hand-Me-Down Life blurb is geared toward readers who like stories about quarter-life or mid-life crises. If we wanted to hook people who are into family dramas, we could play up the pressure Lisel's parents put on her to fill her brother's shoes. If the overall tone of the book is light and humorous despite the serious subject matter, we might emphasize the romantic interests—neither of whom even get a mention in the current blurb.

Obviously, you shouldn't make your book out to be something it's not. You just need to focus on certain elements of what it is so you can present a coherent narrative.

Still don't know which plot points to highlight? Try writing different versions of the blurb. Put the samples up on your blog (if you don't have one, you should) and show them to friends. Which version makes people want to flip open to the first page?

If you've done your job, then readers will want to know the whole story. And to find out, they'll read the whole story!

How to Manage Book Sales

One of the questions we try to help authors answer is whether they should direct their book buying traffic to the Wheatmark bookstore or to an online retailer such as Amazon.

My short, possibly not that helpful, answer to this is: Both.

The long answer to this is still both, but with some added explanation!

The Wheatmark bookstore, for Wheatmark authors, is where the book is available for the full retail price and offers a higher royalty to the author.

On the surface, this seems like a great way to earn back the publishing investment. Which it is, particularly if you are selling your book to only a few people or to a one buyer who is buying a LOT of copies, like a textbook being purchased by a school.

Many authors find that they sell more books on Amazon and are concerned that the traffic driven there is buying the book at a discount and thus the author isn't seeing as much royalty cash from each sale. Although that is true, there are are advantages to selling on Amazon.

I argue that if you are going to try to sell your book to a greater population, you should focus a lot of your effort on your Amazon sales. The reason is pretty simple: People (and I mean just about everyone at some point) buy books on Amazon. As consumers, they are familiar with the format, probably have a gift card from the CoinStar machine at the grocery store or an aunt that they have a few pennies left on, and it is part of their buying pattern. Not to mention the fact that the price on Amazon is lower.

The reduced price may cut into royalties, but, if you can sell more books on Amazon at the discounted price, then you'll be making more money in the end than if you only sold books on Wheatmark's store for full price and sold a third of what you did on Amazon. Right?

There is another element that makes Amazon a great place to sell your book: Functionality.

You can have a Kindle version for sale there, you can have multiple titles that pull together to boost your sales rank, people can leave reviews, and the tagging function also assists with visibility. These are things that are great for marketing.

What the Amazon site can't do is offer bulk discounts, which Wheatmark can. Our bulk author discounts are a great advantage. For example, if you are going to market to book clubs, you could drive the sales to yourself, buy bulk copies through us with your author discount and then sell them directly to the book club and make profit!

You could, of course, only sell through yourself all the time to make the highest profit per copy of book, but then you'd also have to handle the shipping. Trust me, as someone who has to do a lot of shipping, you want to try to skirt that responsibility whenever possible!

Also, we offer discounts on large book orders, like when a university buys a textbook or a book store buys a lot of them, so buying through Wheatmark is a better deal over Amazon or BarnesandNoble.com.

There are many ways to begin making money on your book. The bottom line is to know your goals as an author and to work towards those goals with your marketing. In the end, when you are selling copies of books, it won't make much of a difference where people buy them.

Just sell more copies this month than you did last month and you'll be on the track to success!

Amazon Rankings Explained

For many authors, checking their Amazon ranking is an addictive daily activity.

For others, it's a confusing statistic they don't understand (which is probably why they have time to do things like shower. When you understand it, it can become an obsessive hobby that causes you to forsake all other daily activities).

So here it is, the meaning of your Amazon rank, plain and simple:

Your rank is how many books on Amazon are selling more copies than yours.

Let's break what this means down a bit.

Your book is ranked 14,000.
This means that there are 14,000 other titles on Amazon that have sold more copies than you.

But is that a good number?
Absolutely. There are a bajillion titles on Amazon and there are more and more listings added every day. If there are only 14,000 titles selling more copies than you, that's a gold star for you!

How can other books have the same rank as my book?
Because there are ALSO 14,000 more titles selling more copies than it. It isn't like class rank where there are 300 students and you are ranked 20th in your class because 19 other students have better grades than you. This is where many authors get confused. Amazon calling your position in the "how many titles are selling more than yours" platform a RANK is misleading a bit. I'm guessing they just couldn't think of a better term (or Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, is just trying to confuse us all and make us write blogs about it).

Why does my rank fluctuate?
To drive you crazy of course! OK, not really. The rank is generated by a system that is constantly calculating it. However, your rank is reported to you by a system that is not constantly updating you with information that is usable. One minute your book rank is 1,000,000 the next 500,000. So it will change and it won't make much sense.

How do I know what my rank is then?
Try not to be too fanatical about checking your rank. Think of it like you would a diet where you track weight loss: you want to take an average of a few days because the constant fluctuations can give you a misread of the reality.

If my rank jumps by 100,000, does this mean I've sold a bunch of books in a spurt?
No. Sorry. What it means is that you maybe sold 2 books and the 50,000 titles you were behind sold none. There are really a supermillion amount of titles on Amazon. Many of those titles don't sell. Not a copy. So when you just get started, your one book sale can skyrocket your ranking far and away from those duds. Try not to get too excited about the rank. Focus on the amazingness that you sold a book despite all the competition on Amazon!

So, if I can't really use rank as an indicator, how can I determine success?
Rank is a good thing to watch because it gives you something you can see to help you determine if your marketing efforts are working ... over time. What should you really look at? Book sales. You should be selling more books this month than you did last month. And so on and so on so that you are always making progress ... even if it just one book at a time!

How to Market a Book: Author Bios and Profiles

Next thing to discuss is your author bio and profile.

You may be wondering, isn't that the same thing? Ah ha! No! OK, yes. Sort of. See? That's why I have to write about these things.

Author Bio
An author bio is similar to the blurb about yourself you put on your book jacket. It is a short overview about you that should include, if nonfiction, why you are qualified to write the book on the topic you've chosen.

If fiction, you may just want to mention something about what spurred you on to write.

The key to the bio is that it should be short, a paragraph. Bios are used for some of the following situations:

• Captions on photos
• On blog tours
• For publicity materials like flyers
• Blog and Amazon profiles
  

Author Profile
The profile can be a much lengthier description of you and your background. A profile is where you want to do what my mom calls "brain dumping." Anything you think people might be interested in, educational degrees, certifications, how many pets you have, what area of the world you inhabit, your hobbies, etc. Your author profile will likely be used in situations like these:

• author interviews for background
• on your website or blog
• snippets may be taken to give articles layers

Credentials
One other thing you may want to list is your credentials as they relate to your writing topic. For example, if you've written a book about dealing with death and you are a psychologist, you'll want to create a list of all your licenses, certifications, whether you lecture or teach, and if you write articles. The reason for this is simple: your qualifications underscore how much trust your readers will have.

This is most important for nonfiction books. For fiction, you may be a certified Ford mechanic in your daily life, but if you've written a novel about a girl who wins a horse show after overcoming all odds, well, it isn't going to help sell your book. Now if you happen to be a horse trainer ... that's, well, a horse of a different color!

Keep checking in for additional posts about the "How to Market a Book Publicity Shopping List" Series.

How to Use the Web to Sell Your Book

Grael Norton, publishing consultant at Wheatmark, presents on How to Use the Web to Sell Your Book. Click play to view the whole lesson.

Alternative Virtual Book Sales Sites

This morning an excited tweet came across my Twitter stream from a friend who is preparing for her first trip to Ireland. Some people buy maps and plan events for their big trip. She's buying accessories. She wants to be the most fashionable tourist in all the pubs.

She tweeted the link for me to go check out her purchase on Etsy. Intrigued by the boutique name, ShrunkenCatHeads (yes, dear readers, I'm intrigued by such things) I was poking around the jewelry for sale on the site and lo and behold, there amongst the Mexican tile earrings and rings, was a book for sale.

I've seen many things for sale on Etsy, a free-for-all boutique site that is like a virtual flea market online, but this was the first time I'd come across an author who was hocking their written wares along with their crafts.

A quick search through the Etsy catalog turned up pages and pages of books for sale that authors, on their own and looking for a place to sell, had begun touting on the site I had normally considered a place to buy cool posters, cheap art prints, and uncommon objects of wonder.

Wheatmark, as part of our basic services that we offer, makes sure your book is distributed to online retailers such as barnesandnoble.com and Amazon. Etsy, being a little more on the fringe of book selling, is further than our fingers reach.

Admittedly, for many authors Etsy wouldn't be a viable marketing option. The site isn't generally a draw for people who are shopping for books. However, Etsy could be a great option for some.

For example, if you have written a book, but you also enjoy making letterpress cards, knitting, quilting, painting, or any other type of activity that results in a consumer good, starting your own Etsy boutique might be a fun way to not only sell your crafts and collectibles, but to also put your books up for sale.

Etsy won't ship the book out for you, you have to do that yourself, but if you are one of our many authors that has bought copies of your book with our awesome author discount, it becomes one more place to market your book.

Etsy would be a great place for the following types of books when coupled with supporting goods like posters, T-shirts, and other things you might like to sell there:

• Children's books -- particularly books with characters you've turned into sock puppets for sale so parents can use them along with the narrative
  
• Memoirs
• Science books
• YA books
• How-to Books (particularly if it is a how to on something you make that you also sell on your site!)

Etsy is not great for:

• authors with nothing else to sell

The idea is to have a boutique that offers you up as a creative package and shows that, by the way, you have written a book. There are lots of ways to personalize your site, your profile, and to help drive traffic to your author website and blog!

The other nice thing about Etsy is that it is a community with seller support. You can join in virtual tutorials on being an Etsy seller that include tips and techniques you translate well for use on your blog, website, and Facebook accounts. The virtual labs are full of helpful people joining together to make a community of successful virtual boutique owners.

This is just one more way to gain notice on the Internet, one site at a time!

Writing Contests: The Good, The Bad, and the Waste of Time

Many writers hope that by winning a writing contest you will gain entry to the book industry and begin the trajectory towards author fame.

Although this can be true of some prestigious contests, there are tons of contests out there and not all of them are going to boost your profile.

Here is a "what it's good for/what will sneak up on you and thrash you" list on entering writing contests.

Why you should enter a writing contest

• get feedback about your writing
  
• if you win, that's very positive feedback
  
• if you don't win, you can see what they chose and compare
  
• resume building: even being able to say you're a finalist has cache
  
• winners sometimes get stuff: book contracts, representation, cash, etc.
  

Why you shouldn't enter a writing contest

• many of them are not legitimate. Beware of the contest that promises to include your winning work in an anthology for a fee--those are not real writing contests
• takes up a ton of time. Getting submissions together is a pain. All that work for something that means, in many cases, nothing. If no one knows the contest, they probably won't care if you won it.
• some contests snag ownership of the written material. Contests that do this are not good contests.

Here are a few things to watch for when deciding to enter the contest:

Read the fine print.

• Legitimate contests may charge fees for entry, but they don't charge you a fee for the award.
  
• Take care to read the directions. Some contests require you to be unpublished, or not traditionally published, or to send a hard copy, etc. The rules are usually very specific.
  
• Do not send your work to a contest that attempts to retain ownership of your work for simply entering.
  

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. has a great "Writer Beware" article on contests. Check out their site for the full article.

The Secret of El Barto: Getting a Book Deal as a Self-Published Author

When Steven Keslowitz was an undergraduate at City University of New York in Brooklyn, just about every class paper he wrote used The Simpsons as the foundation for his thesis.

Keslowitz, at 19, then turned to Wheatmark to publish his first book The Simpsons and Society: An Independent Analysis of Our Favorite TV Family and Its Influence in Contemporary Society based on a compilation of those papers.

With chapters entitle things like "To Speak or Not to Speak: Maggie Simpson vs. Stewie Griffin" and "Bart the Genius: And the Value of Standardized Tests," Keslowitz took the concept of "Everything I know I learned from my ..." posters a step further and used the iconic cartoon family as a way to explore many perceptions from real life.

The Simpsons and Society quickly sold enough copies to qualify for our Great Expectations program.

One of the few self-published authors to get his book shelf space at Barnes and Noble Booksellers, Keslowitz famously wouldn't take no for an answer. As the oral history around Wheatmark tells it, he focused all his energy on Barnes and Noble. Calling individual stores in an ever-increasing radius from his college residence, and never giving up until they took a book or two, The Simpsons and Society gained ground simply through its author's tenacity.

When he entered the Great Expectations program, it was decided that Wheatmark would do several things to help the book. The first was to do a revision that would include additional chapters and a more thorough editing job. The second thing that was done was some legal work. Because The Simpsons is a trademarked sitcom, there were some questions about using some of the material. Wheatmark hired a well-known lawyer, Jonathan Kirsch, on behalf of the author to comb through the book and make sure it was legally tight for continued publication.

After selling nearly 3,000 (2,929 to be exact) copies of his book, Keslowitz was offered a book deal through the largest independent book publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

Over the years, Keslowitz's book has continued to sell and has even been used as a classroom text book at Tufts University and Carnegie Melon. Harvard may not be far behind (just kidding ... maybe).

His resume now includes having been featured on cnn.com and being listed on Ingrams Hot 100 book list.

Kewlowitz's story is not necessarily the norm. However, his inability to give up wasn't really the norm either.

It does show that by self-publishing you are helping make yourself a viable commodity in the book-buying world.

Never give up!

You can purchase your own copy of the current version of Keslowitz's book on Amazon.com

Writing a Press Release

How can you get your press release noticed in a pile of leftover papers by the TV station's fax machine or in a busy reporter's inbox? By creating a great press release! You can actually help media outlets instead of fill their recycling bin with a useful press release. Here we'll look at exactly what you should include and how to position your press release. (For a sample press release format, download our free book marketing guide and swing by page 84.)

Here's what you need:

• a place to send it
  
• a hook
• a fact sheet
  
• high-resolution images
  
• short headline concept
  
• easily editable release content
  
• quotes
  
• contact information

Where to send your press release

First of all, it is a good idea to understand what happens in a newsroom. At most newspapers and magazines there is a publisher, a head editor, and then middle editors--usually called section editors--that are responsible for overseeing the content that the reporters create for sports, lifestyle features, and news. For TV news and radio, those middle editors are called producers. But they essentially have the same function: ferret out stories the reporters might have missed and also approve story content the reporters present.

Those middle editors and producers are really who you want to send things to. They help control the flow of stories around a media outlet and best know when to snag something and who to filter it to.

The only time this isn't efficient is if you already have a contact at the media outlet. In that case you should send it to both the section editor and your contact.

The next thing to understand about media outlets is that they have needs.

A Hook

Most media outlets have to create content for multiple days a week. It can be tough on content deciders to plan for all of these days. One of the things they like to do to help structure their plans is to use themes. For example, how many times have you seen a bunch of Mother's Day stories grouped together in the Sunday paper on May 10th? That's called a package. Wouldn't it be fabulous if your book about surviving motherhood was featured on that page? Of course it would!

You have to tailor your book's message to help promote it as a potential theme for the media outlet to hook into. Whether it's a holiday, a national awareness month, a local news story everyone has been following, or an anniversary of something, by giving your press release a REASON, you better your chances for a little attention.

One of the common mistakes with press releases is to write about your book in a way that positions your book as important for simply existing. That's an express bus route to the recyling bin. By making your book relate to something a media outlet's audience will be interested--instead of relating it to yourself and your book's existence--your chances are far better. The question every audience member asks about information is, "How is this important to me?"

The answer about your book to them better not be, "Because I wrote it."

A Fact Sheet

Before you get into the long-winded body content of your press release, consider having a simple fact sheet on top. Most media content deciders are scanners. They give information a cursory glance before passing it on to someone else. If you provide a simple bulleted fact sheet, you help them process the important information quickly. Also, you provide easy access to the main information you want to share so it can be used as a televised graphic, a calendar entry for events, or as a short blurb on a page (and any coverage is good coverage).

An example of excellent fact sheet fodder is the following:

WHY: Mother's Day is May 10th!

WHAT:"Surviving the Battlefield of Motherhood" written by local author Posie Buttons

WHY: A hilarious look into the rough-and-tumble world of mothers. The perfect read for mothers, children of mothers, fathers, and those on their way to motherhood status.

QUOTE: "I used to chronicle the funnier or more difficult motherhood moments in a diary for my children while stationed in Iraq, but when I'd filled up too many notebooks, I realized it was time to put it into a book to share with others," said Posie Buttons, local author and former U.S. Marine, about her new book, Surviving the Battlefield of Motherhood.

EVENT: Buttons will be reading from her new book at Hastings Books on 16th Street on Saturday, May 9th from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. Free.

CONTACT: For more information, contact Buttons at pbuttons@notrealemail.com

This gives them content, a sound bite, and a hook. And they didn't have to call you on the phone! (Perfect for when those other stories didn't come through at the last minute.)

High-resolution images

Newspapers always need quick stories of local interest that they don't have to spend a lot of time on that MOST IMPORTANTLY have a full-color high resolution image they can run with it. Next time you meet a newspaper reporter, ask them if the story they are working on has "art." Watch their face crumple a bit. Good art is hard to find and is really important for page designs. YOU have amazing art. You have a book cover and probably an author photo. You are already headed for gold! The best art gets the best play.

TV and radio have a similar need. TV needs something they can make into a graphic. Radio needs something they can post on their website along with the show's online feed.

A Short Headline

One of the most difficult jobs for media outlets is coming up with headlines that are short enough for the audience to get through but that still have the correct information. (Here's one way to see this at work: You often see headlines that use the word "dead" instead of killed, murdered, or homicide. This is because those words actually have different legal connotations. In order to get it right without getting in trouble with lawyers, line lengths, and syllables, they use "dead." Just a little insider trick!)

You can help get your message out correctly by providing a short headline option on your fact sheet and on your press release.

Instead of writing:

"Local author and former Marine pens book about the trials and tribulations of motherhood"

Try something more wieldy:

"Ex-Marine pens book on motherhood"

The Press Release
Now the press release! Your press release should include a city and dateline and then go right on into the body copy. Again, a sample press release format is available in our free book marketing guide.

The content of your release should be tailored to the angle of the story you want to present. In our example above, the author is a local one, a former U.S. Marine, and she has written a book about motherhood. The book is what the author is selling and why the media outlet is interested in her. What makes her interesting to the audience (and why the media outlet might contact her for an interview) is that she is local and a former Marine.

You don't want to structure your press release content to simply celebrate your ability to publish a book. With modern technology, lots of people are doing it. Your press release should highlight why you are different and why your particular book will be of interest to their audience. Again, "Because I wrote it" just won't cut it.

Keep your press release article short. If a media outlet is interested, they'll most likely rewrite it anyway using the facts you present as their jumping point.

Quotes

One thing that will help get you into an article is providing quotes in the press release. Feel weird inserting your own quotes into your own press release? Think of it like acting. You are acting as a reporter. You aren't writing about "I" your are writing about "an author" who happens to be you.

By including quotes you'll give the reporter the extra flavor they need to write a great story, again, without even having to call you on the phone. If they DO call you, they'll have better questions for you to help futher your book's cause because they'll already have some background on you!

Contact information

Make sure that your contact information is on your fact sheet, your press release, your email signature, and on your cover letters. Do not let anything stand to chance. Don't think, "I'll tell them about my website when they call." More likely your website will get them to call. Make sure any number is made available to them where you would like to be reached: cell numbers, home numbers, email, websites, Facebook, MySpace, etc. Most media outlets are on deadline. If they can't reach you on their schedule, they may just pass you by.

Now you are armed and ready to get started on your next press release. Remember, as you gain great clips for your book, you can include them in your burgeoning press kit for media outlets to draw on. Not only does it give them something to quote, but it shows how in demand you are!

Kindle It's On Fire: Make Your Book Available to Kindle Users

What is a Kindle?

Kindle is Amazon’s version of an electronic document reader. In other words, it’s a little gadget that allows you to read books on it without having to buy a physical copy of the book.

Amazon allows you to buy e-versions of the book specifically formatted for the Kindle reader device.

The Kindle allows direct downloads from the Amazon site of books, newspapers, and other text documents. The downloads are done wirelessly, so you can add editions to your reader easily.

Readers like the Kindle for several reasons. First off, the Kindle is very portable. You can load several books, magazines, and newspapers on a Kindle and avoid having to take bulky texts with them. Secondly, the Kindle allows for speedy downloads. Why not quickly download what you want to read instead of having to make a trip to the store or wait for shipping? You can have it NOW. It’s the ultimate in instant gratification.

Why should your book be made into a Kindle version?

More and more, readers are turning to electronic readers for their book purchases. For example, Wheatmark author James Best has sold more Kindle versions of his most recent book, “Leadville” than actual copies. It is smart to offer up formats to books that people are using!

Another reason to have your book formatted for Kindle is that it gives your book credibility. If you look at the bestsellers, they all have Kindle versions. Make your book look like a bestseller by simply offering a Kindle version!

Authors do receive royalties on Kindle sales and your Kindle-version book sales do count toward your Great Expectations tally.

Jump into the technological mainstream with a Kindle version of your book today!

Thinking About Self-Publishing? Check Out Our Free Mini-Course!

The Wheatmarkians have created a great new tool for authors who are considering self-publishing, but who may not be ready to bite the bullet, or, who aren't sure if they have enough information to get started.

That's where the 7 Steps to Self-Publishing Success mini-course comes in. The mini-course is a great way to ease into the process without any commitment (swear).

It's really simple. Established to fill a client demand for more information (and we do mostly whatever we can to make our clients happy -- well, short of anything illegal ... I think) about the process while they were working on their manuscripts, the Mighty 7 is a great way to begin thinking about your project from the marketing side and to better educate yourself on what the project will need to be a real success.

With ZERO OBLIGATION (I love writing the spam talk!), you can enroll and see if it is helpful to you. The course is based on our own Grael Norton's experiences and has some incredibly helpful insights into the pitfalls you may find when self-publishing. PLUS! There is an entry that includes some threat of peril (step 3) and you know you HAVE to read about the peril you may not know about, right? Of course you do.

Here's the link to the page where you can sign up for The 7 Steps to Self-Publishing Success mini-course brought to you by Wheatmark, Inc. And again, there is no obligation, no salesman will visit you, we never sell your information to anyone, and you WILL be warned of peril.

Used with our free book marketing workbook, which you will also be getting with the mini-course, you are going to be ready to hit the ground running with your next self-published project (and you still won't have paid a cent!)

You can't miss it! Well, you can ... but don't! It's free, so there is no reason to!

Best Series: The Rest of the Story

There were a few things that Jim Best wanted to highlight at the end of his presentation.

The first thing was that Amazon keeps adding features to help you sell more of your product on their site. An example is the new Author Stores. So make sure you keep your eyes peeled for new strategies. Along side their new features, he noted that Amazon was bit slow to propagate a few areas and that patience was needed:

• Discounts
  
• Look Inside
  
• Pairing
  
• Exploring Similar Items
  
• Also Bought/Also Viewed
  
• Key Phrases
  
• Amazon Staff Reviews
  

One of the most interesting things that Best presented, aside from his Top 10 Tips, was his lists of what did and did not work for him as an author trying to push his book in a very busy industry.

What Didn't Work on Amazon

• Amazon Associates
  
• Amazon Communities
  
• Amazon Contests
  

What Didn't Work Anywhere

• Adwords
  
• Traditional Media Review Requests
  
• Western-themed Organizations (Best's books are western fiction)
  
• Contests
  
• Unsolicited article queries
  
• Webring
  

What May Have Worked

• Advertised for 3 months in True West
  
• Distributed over 2,500 cards and bookmarks
  
• Published 2 websites: jamesdbest.com and stevedancy.com
  
• Published author's blog
  
• Email campaigns
  
• Shopkeeper Book Trailer (230 views)
  
• Independent bookstores
  
• Internet communities
  
• Mailed over 120 promos to True West respondents
  
• Sent 6 packages of books to soldiers in Iraq
  
• Left copies at OAT ship library
  

I'll leave you with the final Jim Best quote of the presentation:

"When you do nothing--nothing happens."

Well, that about hits the nail on the head.

For those of you who are ready to get busy, check out our FREE book marketing workbook that is a great way to map out your book selling campaign!

Best SeriesTip No. 10: Keep At It!

The Best Series is based on a presentation by Wheatmark author James D. Best, author of The Shopkeeper, The Shut Mouth Society, and the upcoming release Leadville. Best has offered 10 tips on how to use Amazon to sell your book and we'll look at each tip in depth in a series of blog posts.

Tip No. 10: Keep at it

"Until you become the next Nelson DeMille, it's a long, hard slog."

Book marketing isn't a turn-key business. You can't just wave your flag and declare, "I wrote a book, read it!"

Self-publishing gives authors so much flexibility and control over their final product. Many, however, aren't ready for the continued job driving demand to their book.

The most important thing, after getting your book published, is to really work hard on your marketing campaign. It can be frustrating, feel futile, and it is a lot of work.

But, your goal is to sell more copies each month than the month before. Even if it's 1 or 2 more, you are succeeding.

Keep at it! If you've followed the steps in The Best Series, you have an excellent book that looks professional, you've got your platform started, and you are managing your Amazon life in a professional and useful way.

Like they say, never give up.

Up next The Best Series Conclusion: what worked, what didn't work, and other bits that didn't fall into a tip.

Best Series Tip No. 9: Be a Good Amazon Citizen

The Best Series is based on a presentation by Wheatmark author James D. Best, author of The Shopkeeper, The Shut Mouth Society, and the upcoming release Leadville. Best has offered 10 tips on how to use Amazon to sell your book and we'll look at each tip in depth in a series of blog posts.

Tip No. 9: Be a Good Amazon Citizen

• Always polite
  
• Your writing is being judged
  
• Don't fake it
  
• Be a little edgy
  
• Professional in communications with Amazon
  

Some would say this is obvious, but if you've ever watched someone have a meltdown at a cashier counter over, say, a price reduction, you know that we aren't all on our best behavior when dealing with the public.

I once heard it said that you should always act as if you are being filmed for television. (Now considering the state of most network reality show programs, this is no longer the helpful governor of etiquette it once was, but just forget about the Seacrest juggernaut "Mama's Boys" and the painful-albeit-entertaining sluttiness that commenced and think "Hey, I shouldn't pick my nose on TV.")

This is good advice for the virtual world as well. It is very easy to feel as if you are in a safe bubble and that your interactions online are with your monitor and not an actual human on the other end. It is simple to fire off an angry email laced with offensive language to some faceless drone.

The reality is that you MUST be polite. You must be calm. You MUST BE A GOOD CITIZEN.

Every review, blog, forum query, etc., that you compose is being judged and reflects you as an individual.

This doesn't mean that you can't have a personality. Even Miss Manners was a bit snarky. In fact, it was her sarcasm that made her readable. You can have some edge in your writing. Just remember that you never know who is reading what you are putting out there. You don't want to alienate potential book buyers.

The other set you don't want to alienate are the "faceless drones" at Amazon. They can be really helpful when you have problems, need something, or would like your book to continue to be for sale on their site. 

Remember, despite sometimes cantankerous problems you may face with the giant megastore (glitches happen, ya'll), Amazon can be your greatest ally.

So don't poke the bear. 

Be smart, be prepared, be polite and your Amazon book empire will continue to grow!

Next tip: Tip No. 10! Keep At It!

The Slow Burn

Earlier this month, Wheatmark tallied up all the Great Expectations authors, authors whose books have sold 2,000+ copies, to see who was doing what.

As we scanned the titles, the sales numbers, the publishing dates, and the dates the letters welcoming them into the program were sent out, there was one very surprising and, frankly, exciting trend.

It can take months even years for a book to become a success.

While the meeting went on and my attention strayed, I couldn't help thinking about how this was such a different concept than traditionally published and released books.

With traditionally published books, the book is pushed out for a season, if that long. Since most of us aren't James Patterson, when our books are put on the shelves, they rarely get the long-term shelf life most of the famous authors do.

This means books, particularly ones without huge marketing budgets behind them (don't assume your publisher is going to offer marketing support for very long) get kicked out to make space for the newer titles.

When you publish your book yourself, you have control over its life expectancy. The title will be available for purchase unless you decide to cancel it.

The independent author's best channel for sales is online. Without having to fight over shelf space, you only have to fight for an audience--what we call your author platform.

Building an author platform and audience can take time. With self-publishing, you have that time.

Most of the Wheatmark titles do bang up business the first few weeks the book is out. Friends and family of the author dutifully order the book and authors often buy up a bunch for their own sales, signings, and such.

After the initial extravaganza however there is usually a slowdown. In a bookstore, your slow-selling title would be replaced on the shelves. But because you have control, you can double up your efforts and begin marketing your book to other online audiences, take time to find radio interviews, and have a flexible speaking schedule because you aren't dealing with a make-or-break deadline.

Everyone knows the fable of the tortoise and the hare. Self-publishing your book makes it possible for you to be the tortoise: slowly and steadily building your reader base to help drive demand to your book.

And we all know who won that race.

For more marketing tips and to help plan your marketing strategy, check out our free marketing workbook.

Best Series Tip No. 8: Drive Demand--to Amazon

The Best Series is based on a presentation by Wheatmark author James D. Best, author of The Shopkeeper, The Shut Mouth Society, and the upcoming release Leadville. Best has offered 10 tips on how to use Amazon to sell your book and we'll look at each tip in depth in a series of blog posts.

Tip No. 8: Drive Demand--To Amazon

• Author websites and external blogs
• Join organizations focused on your genre or specialty
• Give books away to opinion leaders
• Book fairs and signings
• Book cards
• Email campaigns
• Selective advertising
• Google Adwords

One of the great things about Amazon is that you can get your book listed there. You don't need an agent, a publicist, or anyone else trying to schmooze your book's way onto a brick-and-mortar store's shelf space. All you have to do is get it distributed on Amazon and you're in business.

But in order to get your book to begin to sell, you have to make your buyers aware that it exists. You need to drive the demand. There are lots of ways to do this, most of which are fairly inexpensive to free: they just require some (OK, a lot) of elbow grease and access to the Internet.

Like a mighty river starts with a trickle, so must you begin your Amazon book campaign. One of the best ways to drive demand for your book (which is for sale on Amazon!) is a website or blog--an external one, not the one on Amazon (since, you know, if they are reading your Amazon blog they know your book is there). Your blog should be about you the writer and about your book. It should also mention somewhere, with a link, that you can purchase the book on Amazon.

But how do they find your blog? You find groups and organizations online (or in real life) that relate to your book's genre. You comment on their blogs and mention your own links. You become a fount of information and goodwill and they check out your blog. Even if they don't read every word you write, they'll hopefully notice your link to your book and will click on it. If all the spheres are aligned, they'll buy your book.

Other ways to drive demand are to give copies of books to opinion leaders: newspapers, bloggers, radio personalities, speakers, etc. If they like your book, they'll be a great mouthpiece for it, which (fingers crossed) they'll mention is for sale on Amazon.

Other ways to drive demand to Amazon is through book fairs and signings. You'll find you are asked a lot, "Is your book on Amazon?" Why, yes. It is! Then hand them a business card, book mark or other type of media that has your book's information on it so that when they get around to ordering, they won't have to try to remember who that nice lady with the book was at the signing.

After you've built up some contacts, a nice way to keep everyone in the loop (and drive demand to your Amazon page) is an email campaign. Even if, again, they don't read every word of your email talking about your upcoming signings, interviews you've done, or any of that other hard-won publicity you are likely to write about...they'll still be reminded that you have a book. Where can they find that book? AMAZON!

The last two points we'll mention are actual paid advertisements. These can be helpful, if you have the budget, in selling books, but in the end may not be worth the price. Buying a print ad in a magazine that deals with your genre can be helpful. Also, using Google Adwords isn't a bad way to go. But if your budget is very small, don't worry that you're missing your audience. Simply using the online venues available to you will be enough to begin the stream of interest to your Amazon page.

One question that comes up frequently about selling on Amazon is royalties. Many authors have done the math and have figured out that by purchasing inventory and selling the books themselves, they make more money per book. Should they drive demand to Amazon where the book is discounted? Won't they make less money? Jim Best's answer: By all means, drive the demand to Amazon.

Not only will Amazon take care of the ordering, shipping, and over all customer interface with the product, but more people will have access and will feel more secure ordering from tried-and-true Amazon. It makes good sense that if more people are will to purchase your book on Amazon (even at a discount), then say, the few who order from you (where you have to package and ship the book as well as deal with sales tax and keeping inventory on hand) you'll end up making more or the same money in the end!

Next tip on the horizon: Be a Good Amazon Citizen

Best Series Tip No. 6: Publish a Blog on Amazon

The Best Series is based on a presentation by Wheatmark author James D. Best, author of The Shopkeeper, The Shut Mouth Society, and the upcoming release Leadville. Best has offered 10 tips on how to use Amazon to sell your book and we'll look at each tip in depth in a series of blog posts.

Tip No. 6: Publish a Blog on Amazon

• Amazon has few restrictions on author blogs
  
• Keep it professional and well written
  
• Make it interesting
  
• Add relevant links
  

Amazon isn't just a place to put a picture of your book and then have people buy it. The savvy author will also realize that it is a place to interact with your readers. One of the things that Amazon offers (and doesn't put a lot of restrictions on) is a free blog on the book page.

Part of your job as an author marketing a book is to be creating a concrete author platform. Your author platform is like a club that talks about you, your books, and also buys your books. It would stand up to reason then that the bigger your club, the bigger a success you will be as an author.

A blog on your Amazon page is an entry point into the club. It keeps people on the page longer, giving them more time to decide to buy, and also it allows you a way to get your message onto the sell page. Bad review? Address it in your blog post! Working on a new book? Start your marketing early by talking about it in a blog post on your already published book!

A few tips on writing an Amazon blog:

Keep it professional and well written.

This is your chance to show people what you and your work are all about. This is not the place to start introducing poor grammar, typos, and it is for sure not the place to rant on using obscene language about how no one is buying your book.

Your blog posts should reflect your skill as a writer (you know, 'cause, like, you're trying to sell your book which is, like, totally your culmination of skill as a writer, duh). If your entries are well written and include delightful wit and insight, you are more likely to persuade someone to put your book in their cart because they'll want to read more of it!

Make it interesting

Your Amazon page blog is not the place to discuss what you had for breakfast (unless you've written a cook book) or where to discuss how your dog just destroyed your couch (particularly bad if your book is about dog training).

So what should you write about? You should write about you the writer and also about your book.

Here are some suggestions of topics:

How you came up with the idea for you book.


The most trouble you had writing your book was blank


Your favorite thing you've heard from a reader


Ideas you're working on for your next book

Relevant links

Amazon is not too restrictive about blog content like they are about other pieces of your page. In your blog you can (and should) include external links to your website, other websites that talk about positively review your book, your external blogs, and even to your book trailer on YouTube.

Blogging on Amazon is a great way to keep your potential buyer on the page and to help reinforce their decision to buy your book. By blogging, you have an active way to talk to your buyers and help bring them into your author platform. As more and more options become available to buyers, it is the personal connection that will put your ahead of the rest. Your blog is a great way to establish that feeling of familiarity and to help sell those books!

Next in the Best series: Tip No. 7: Review Amazon Products

Best Series Tip No. 5: Get Lots of Tags

The Best Series is based on a presentation by Wheatmark author James D. Best, author of The Shopkeeper, The Shut Mouth Society, and the upcoming release Leadville. Best has offered 10 tips on how to use Amazon to sell your book and we'll look at each tip in depth in a series of blog posts.

Tip No. 5: Get Lots of Tags

• Customer Tags--Determines Hierarchy in Searches
• Add every relevant tag, but only relevant tags
• Get friends and relatives to vote for all your tags
• Amazon Tags--Submit Relevant Tag Requests
• Write a top-notch description

A tag is a way for Amazon to categorize your book. Adding tags that will help--and then getting several votes for those tags--will add weight to your book for Amazon searches.

When a book browser goes on Amazon and searches for "Western fiction," they're tapping into the power of tags. When your book, if it is a Western fiction book, is tagged with those same words and multiple people have agreed those were adequate descriptions, your book will begin to come up when customers search those keywords.


The tag list is viewable if you scroll down the page. You can add tags, vote for tags, and search for tags here.

When you add tags, make sure they are relevant to your book. If your book is about pirates, you may not want to have a tag for gardening. For example, on the Amazon page for The Shopkeeper the tags include adventure, cowboys, historical fiction, Western fiction, Nevada, etc. These are all searchable terms a book buyer can use to find it on Amazon.

Ask friends and family members to go on your book pages and vote for your tags to help validate them. The more votes, the better!

You can also submit relevant tag requests to Amazon Tags to help you have even more street credibility.

One of the things that you should also keep in mind is your book description. By having a top-notch description that includes many of the words you've used for tags, you'll make it easier for the virtual Amazon path to lead to your book's door.

Your goal is to help people find your excellent book, tags are the breadcrumbs you leave for them to find you!

Next in the Best series: Tip No. 6: Publish a Blog on Amazon

Best Series Tip No. 4: Get Customer Reviews

The Best Series is based on a presentation by Wheatmark author James D. Best, author of The Shopkeeper, The Shut Mouth Society, and the upcoming release Leadville. Best has offered 10 tips on how to use Amazon to sell your book and we'll look at each tip in depth in a series of blog posts.

Tip No. 4: Get Customer Reviews

• Get Real Reviews--People Spot Phonies


• Ask Early & Follow Up--People are Busy


• Make Sure They Like It--Otherwise, Mum's the Word


• Manage Helpful Votes--Keep Selling Reviews on Top

When getting ready to purchase something, how do you determine whether the product is one of quality? Most people do research, they read up on the item and weigh the pros and cons from the reviews the item has received online.

If you were to go on Amazon.com and look up, say, weed whackers, you are not likely to purchase the model that received zero stars and horrible reviews. Books are the same way. You need reviews and you really, really want good ones.

Reviews help to entice people to make a buy decision. Having reviews that talk positively and intelligently about your book will help persuade your buyer to put your book in their shopping cart.

How do you get reviews? You ask for them.

The majority of your first book sales will most likely be to people you know. Ask them to review your book on Amazon. That is, if they liked it. If they didn't, ask them to stay mum about it. You don't want them to pretend they liked it either. You also don't really want to go on there and write your own glowing review. Readers can spot phony reviews fairly easily.

Although you don't really want a negative review on your page, a well-written lukewarm review won't necessarily hurt you. Often a not-quite a rave will realistically portray your work and often will have nice things to say about it despite a low-star rating.

It is often easy to get people to agree to review your book. It is even more of a battle to get them to follow through. People are busy. You need to ask early and follow up. You'll probably have to follow up with them several times. Despite your discomfort in "nagging" them, in the end, their excellent review could make the difference in a sale. So keep pushing. Don't threaten their kneecaps or anything, but gentle pushes reminding them to log on and review your book won't likely break a friendly relationship.

If you do receive a negative review, well, that's life. Find someone who likes you and likes your book to put up their positive review soon. As the favorable reviews stack up, you'll be able to push that negative review lower on the page and it will have less weight to the buyer.

What if no one likes your book? The truth is difficult sometimes. If no one likes your book and the reviews are going badly, it is time to look at your product. Take the feedback into consideration and get ready to go back to the drawing board. You may need to consider some revisions and more professional editing.

Remember, having an excellent book is tip No. 1.

Another thing you might want to consider is who you are giving the book to. It might not be fruitful to give your sci-fi erotica novel to your Aunt Mona, whose views make the mother in Carrie seem lenient. Get reviews from readers who are familiar with your book's genre and can accurately review it.

Upcoming in the Best Series is Tip No. 5: Get Lots of Tags.

The Best Series Tip No. 3: Publish a Second Book

The Best Series is based on a presentation by Wheatmark author James D. Best, author of The Shopkeeper, The Shut Mouth Society, and the upcoming release Leadville. Best has offered 10 tips on how to use Amazon to sell your book and we'll look at each tip in depth in a series of blog posts.

James D. Best's Tip No. 3: Publish a Second Book

• Established readers buy second book, first-time buyers go back for first book
• Amazon pairing helps sell both books and it looks professional
• Build credibility
  Nonfiction: image of expertise
  Fiction: image of success

In order to leverage your marketing efforts, one of the best things you can do is publish another book! (Stop sighing and making skeptical faces. It isn't a gimmick. It really works.)

Think about it. As readers, most of us are likely to seek out another title by an author of a book we enjoy or find informative. When you think of your favorite authors, don't most of them have multiple titles in their pocket? Why shouldn't you?

By publishing a second book, you reap several benefits.

One benefit is simply that Amazon, for many readers the go-to place to buy books online, will automatically pair your first and second books on the same page so that readers will see your marketing efforts on both books' pages.

A second benefit is that readers will often go back and buy the second book or first book depending on their enjoyment of the one they've already read. Sometimes they'll buy both in one wallop just based on your reviews and product description. Wouldn't it be better to bring them in and offer them options?

Another benefit is that, as an author, having multiple titles gives you the appearance of credibility. For example, if you've written a book on sales techniques and it is up for sale on Amazon as a lone wolf, you'll sell some copies, but you are competing with many, many titles. Now you write a second book on management techniques as a follow up to your first book. Not only will you have paired books on your page, but you'll look successful and like an expert. Buyers will feel more confident in your ability to instruct them because your expertise is obvious: you've written TWO books!

Finally, it is time-consuming to build your author platform. You write blogs, read other people's blogs, you update your Facebook account and are constantly tweaking your Amazon page. With a second book, you aren't just working to market one title. With two or more titles, you'll be working just as hard as you would with only one title. It would be to your advantage to do the same amount of marketing, but potentially reap more sales from multiple products!

Having a second excellent book helps you look like a bestseller!

Up next, Tip. No. 4: Get Customer Reviews.

The Best Series Tip No. 2: Look Like a Bestseller

The Best Series is based on a presentation by Wheatmark author James D. Best, author of The Shopkeeper, The Shut Mouth Society, and the upcoming release Leadville. Best has offered 10 tips on how to use Amazon to sell your book and we'll look at each tip in depth in a series of blog posts.

• Look Inside (or Search Inside)
  
• Kindle
• Editorial Reviews Section
• Profile Page
• Customer Images
• "Also Bought" and "Also Viewed

Now that you've followed Tip No. 1 and have an Excellent Book to distribute through Amazon, you need to make sure that your book looks like a bestseller.

Check out the best-selling books in Amazon. Look at their Amazon pages and check out all the bells and whistles they have going for them. Then get those bells and whistles for yourself.
Best is a firm believer in the Look Inside option for books on Amazon. It allows potential buyers to peek at the book and see if they like it. The Da Vinci Code has it, why shouldn't yours?

Another thing that Best did to make his book look like a bestseller was to have a Kindle version made. The reason? Plain and simple. The bestsellers had Kindle flags on their pages. In order to get a Kindle flag, you need a Kindle version. The great part is that he now sells Kindle versions of his books as well!

Another point he made was to keep the writing as professional as possible. In the Editorial Reviews section, the content should represent the quality of the book it is selling. Remember to edit it well. Sneak over to other book pages and find ones you think are really well done and mimic their content. Most authors won't have reviews by Publisher's Weekly, so in many cases the Editorial Reviews will be information about the book that you've written yourself.

One of the nice things about Amazon is that other authors have come before you. You don't need to break new ground, you can crib the brilliance of others!

Several other elements that are often skipped by the self-published author are pieces like the profile page. But don't neglect it! One month Best said he had more than 400 views on his profile in December alone. Entry points that support the call to action to buy the book help underscore credibility and allow multiple ways to bring your message to your buyer.

The last point with tip No. 2 is the "Also Bought" and "Also Viewed" link to your book. There isn't much you can do to manipulate this except to ask people you know to buy a second book while they are in there buying your book. However, Amazon will automatically pair your multiple titles if you have them. So you don't need to suggest buying your own book!

To build a winning image, you need to have a book that looks like a winner. By creating an Amazon page that looks professional and mimics the same techniques as the bestsellers, you'll be in the game with your excellent book.

Next tip: Publish a Second Book

The Best Series Tip No. 1: Offer an Excellent Book

The Best Series is based on a presentation by Wheatmark author James D. Best, author of The Shopkeeper, The Shut Mouth Society, and the upcoming release Leadville. Best has offered 10 tips on how to use Amazon to sell your book and we'll look at each tip in depth in a series of blog posts.

Best Tip No.1: Offer an Excellent Book

One of the first things an author must consider before heading into open selling waters is whether their book is an excellent book. An excellent book doesn't mean the next J.K. Rowling. It means a quality book. Have you edited, revised, re-edited, revised again, and repeated the process several times? Is the book professionally copyedited and then proofread? The editing stage is crucial and should not be skipped. If you plan on selling your book in competition with other professional-level books, you need to make sure your book has gone through similar rigorous editing that a traditionally published book goes through.

Another aspect of the excellent book is the design and layout of the book. The interior should be elegantly designed to go along with the content of the book. A correctly designed interior can set you apart from the pack. Publishing books is becoming more easily available every day.

However, just because someone can upload a Word document, doesn't mean they know how to make a book. By working with your publisher or with a designer, you can make sure that your book will be well designed and well received.

And of course, lastly, because the first thing your buyer will see is the book's cover, you need an eye-catching and appropriately designed cover. Chartreuse may grab the reader's attention, but it isn't necessarily appropriate for, say, your book about wolves. Choosing a design that is fitting for your book and that will also be easy to see on a web-based seller like Amazon will help your project win readers before they even open the book.

For more information on book editing and design, visit our Author Resources section of the Wheatmark website.

Next tip on the horizon: Look Like a Bestseller

After the Blog

You've set up your blog, you've put up a post or two. Now what?

How do you find people to read your blog? And just as importantly, how do you find other blogs to read to help you generate traffic?

There are several ways. One is by hunting Google and blog rolls on other blogs.

Finding Blogs

Google has a drop-down menu of alternative search options. Instead of simply Googling, "spy fiction" and getting the millions of links that will come up, you can specify "blogs" and it will only show you blogs that contain your search phrase.

Another way you can look for blogs to read and comment on is by looking at blogrolls. A blogroll is a list of links on the side the author of the blog page you're on has added as favorites of theirs. As you develop your own blog, you'll want to add to your own blogroll. It is a simple way to provide other readers links to information that you yourself enjoy and it is a great way to find other blogs you may like from other people's pages.

Another way to find blog is to find a retail or organizational site that is involved with the topic of your book. More and more these days, these sites will also include a blog tab somewhere on the home page. This is another place to find like-minded readers as well.

Most comment sections of blogs make the commenters fill in a registry. As part of the registry there is usually a place to read the person's bio and find their blog or website as well.

By clicking those links, you can travel to new blogs and new places to leave comments and thus find a new slew of blogs to read and virtual friends.

How do you keep track of it all?
There are different ways to monitor your blog reading. You can simply bookmark them in your browser favorites, but that can get unwieldy and it doesn't let you know when there are new posts.

Most blogs take advantage of RSS feeds.

An RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) is something you can subscribe to on a blog. The logo looks like this most often:


This will appear either along your browser bar or where you decide your feeds should go.

One way to collect all your RSS feeds and other Web feeds is to use a reader like Google Reader.
This is an easy way to see all of the posts to all of the blogs when they are put up. You can even add blogs to this that don't have feeds by adding the URL link to the reader's memory! Also, it's free when you sign up for a free Google account.

Just remember, to drive traffic to your own blog, it helps to read and comment on others. How many times has a stranger commented on your blog, you clicked on their name, and ended up at another blog? It's a great way to navigate your interests and a wonderful way to find other people that want to share and talk about the same things you do...including your next book!

Liking These Links!

Deciding whether to self-publish? There is more to it than making a Word document.

Want to get to blogging but need even more professional tips? This entry even includes a hilarious illustration on how to become a famous blogger!

Shameless plug: I was a guest blogger on Publishing Renaissance, a great blog for self-publishing authors to find each other and talk about what they are working on!

Marketing your Book: Writing coach shares stories from the book marketing trail.

The Blood-Red Pencil blog makes me giggle again! "As to your question, in today's tough marketplace I would suggest not sending an editor something that gives him or her a reason to reject it out of hand."

These next two links were snagged from The Book Oven Blog:

Want to make writer friends and collaborate? Check out Protagonize!

Need a Pavlovian cue to keep you writing?

Marketing for Fun: 1:2

Back in December I wrote about a fun way to market your book: creating unique quizzes on Quiblo and other similar sites.

I want to revisit the "Marketing for Fun" topic today.

A few weeks ago, contriving ways to antagonize @mikecane on Twitter (I know it isn't mature, not the point!), I went on CafePress's site and created a free shop, uploaded an image I created in Photoshop, chose a cute T-shirt option to put it on, and then began to tweet about its creation and availability to @mikecane to (successfully) annoy him.

And although I was giggling with glee like a little kid as I created the CafePress shop, I was also really excited about what it could do for book marketing.

Why not, after all the blogging, Twittering, Facebook grouping and fan paging, go on and create a CafePress site offering materials that feature parts of your book? It's a fun departure from social networking because it allows you to think creatively! And you can buy a T-shirt!

There are a few things I know about copyright that I'll share with you. This is not actual legal advice as I am not a licensed legal advice giving person, but is instead just me saying some stuff that I think pertains to copyright. I repeat, this is not legal advice. Do not send your attorney after me (I have no money anyway ...).

If your book cover has images that you or your designer purchased from a site such as iStockphoto, you cannot use it on purchasable goods without the proper extended licenses. You can, according to their customer support line, use the images for any freebies you want though. This means, that if you create a mug on CafePress with your book cover on it without the extended license, you can buy it yourself and then give it as a gift, but you can't make it available to sell ... got it?

But you CAN take excerpts from your text and put in on the shirt because you own the rights to your text. And, if your book is available through Wheatmark, we'll be happy to lend you our bookstore URL to list as a purchase site on the promotional item.

You can also use any of your own photos as long as you took them or have permission from the photographer.

Are you going to become a major clothing or promotional item retailer? Not likely. But it is just one more way to get your marketing message out there.

CafePress and Zazzle are both great options for creating unique promotional items in support of your work.

Try it out today!

Can You Sell Books As a Self-published Author?

I was on Facebook blathering on about something unrelated to books, and saw this little publisher ad off to the right. I clicked on it.

It was for a hybrid publisher. Not sure about it, I poked around on their site. It made me cranky.

Self-publishing authors need to be wary of publishers who promise their project will be respected like the "old guard" imprints and scare you with phrases like "debilitating stigma of self-published books."

Yes, it is more difficult to sell books as a self-published author. It is difficult to sell books as a traditionally published author. It is difficult to sell books. Period. Doesn't matter if you publish with Random House or through Lulu. It can be an uphill battle if you aren't already famous. And even if you are famous ... it is still work.

From our many authors, we have a lot of titles that we consider successful.

The keys to the self-publishing success bus? A professional-caliber book and marketing.

Wheatmark offers all the services you need (and want, we don't force you to have copyediting if you don't want it ... but trust me, you need it) to have a quality book. Proofreading, copyediting, developmental edits, even book doctoring are all things we can do for you. We also offer custom cover design (you can see some of our best on flickr) and publicity kits to help you get the word out.

Our motto is: The independent author's most powerful ally.

We work everyday to give our authors the best possible experience. On our site we have several author resources links that include tips on all parts of the writing and publishing process and they are open to anyone to check out.

One of our greatest resources is our free book marketing workbook, Book Marketecture, which is a thorough look into how to plan a marketing campaign so you can reach your goals.

Beware of publishers that make it sound like publishing is a cake walk. It isn't. It requires dedication and enthusiasm throughout the process and the intended shelf life of your book.

Wheatmark is here to help. If you have a book you want to publish and you are ready to do the work, don't get duped by companies that aren't up front about their business practices.

There are lots of companies to choose from. Obviously, we would like to work with you--but do your research to make sure you find the right place for you and your work!

The Secrets to Marketing Fiction

Attention fiction writers:

Exceptional post about marketing fiction from Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., a book marketing and media relations company that's developed some fantastic cutting-edge book marketing campaigns.

Click here to read the post.

Visit Author Marketing Experts here.

Price Your Book to Make a Profit

Recently there has been a lot of a discussion about the retail pricing of independently published books, most of it centered on self publishing book companies setting list prices too high.

I get frustrated when publishing and self-publishing industry “experts” write that these higher prices are a problem, without offering any evidence that this is the case. In the absence of price sensitivity studies, or of testing book sales at different price points, the “experts” are simply offering a guess based on their experience. I suspect that their experience comes from pricing books for the brick-and-mortar bookstore market. What a company like Barnes and Noble suggests for list prices for their stores, isn’t necessarily right for a self-published books that will primarily be sold through online bookstores.

The online books sales market is, in fact, such a new market that it is unclear what pricing strategies are most advantageous to book sales.

In the absence of hard data, how should you price a book? You should price a book for profitability.

For example, if you opened up a specialty clothing boutique next to a Wal-Mart, you wouldn’t try to price your clothes at prices competitive to the box store. You’d go out of business. You don’t have the buying clout of the big boys, so you have to compete in some other way in order to maintain your profitability. You would offer better, more interesting garments at a markup that allowed you to make money!

Independent authors should do the same. Your book is a “boutique” item. It’s a loser’s game for the independent author to try and compete on price with major publishing houses selling through the chains. Even the major publishing houses and the bookstores chains are having trouble making a profit with their current pricing models.

You have a specialty product, so price your book for profitability.

Take for example one of Wheatmark’s up-and-coming titles, How to Keep Jellyfish in Aquariums by Chad Widmer. Widmer’s book, although written in a way that will engage just about anyone, is not really an “anyone” kind of book. It is a specific book aimed at a specific group of people interested in a specific topic. A niche book does not need to use an unprofitable price to entice buyers. What a niche book needs to be is a quality book that is chock full of information that appeals to these highly motivated buyers (people who are interested in raising jellyfish at home).

Online channels require more intensive and personal marketing. It is harder to wave your book in front of someone, but with quality time spent on them, online marketing campaigns can be hugely successful.

My advice, don’t sell your book short. Price it based on what makes you a decent profit, and then market like crazy directly to your target market. You can always lower the price later if sales don’t materialize, however, I suspect if you’ve implemented a strong marketing campaign and aimed it at the right motivated buyers, lowering the price will not be necessary.

Remember, every time you lower the price of your book, you guarantee that you will make less money on each book, but you don’t guarantee more book sales. However, every time you raise the price of your book, you guarantee that you will make more money on each book, but you don’t necessarily get fewer book sales.

Self-Publishing Success Stories

Think you can't be successful self-publishing a book? Think again. An article posted today on Publishers Weekly runs down a list of about a dozen self-published authors that have recently found trade publishing success.

Of particular interest to me was the following quote from the article:

"Chanda says that it takes 'a special kind of drive' for a self-published author to put in the work needed to see the results Kingsley did. 'To be a successful author, self-published or otherwise, you need to know a little, if not a lot, about the market.' "

It's the last part of the quote that caught my eye. Writers "need to know a lot about the market" for their books.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately as we finish up the Beta test of Wheatmark's new marketing analysis for books. What do we do for the writers in this program?

Basically, we look at the different distribution channels independent authors have access to and provide a "grade" for their likelihood of success in those arenas. We also do some research on their books' competitive networks.

Put another way, we're exploring potential sales channels to gauge the size of their books' markets and their likelihood of success at being able to reach those markets.

I've still got a limited number of slots left in this Beta test. If you're interested in being a part of the program, please send me an email at gnorton@wheatmark.com.

Marketing for Fun: 1:1

Personally, I get a little run down with the same old online marketing techniques. You check your Facebook account, scan your Twitter feed, read your Amazon reviews (can you hear the droning in my head?) which are all excellent and, I'd say, necessary ways to market your book.

The Internet channel is the most open one for self-published authors. However, taking full advantage of it can be work though, sometimes, not fun work.

So why not liven it up a bit?

Today I was toying with alternate ideas, silly ones, that would help engage readers and potential readers into your book world.

Let's just consider this the first installment of:
Kat's Krazy Kool Stuff She Found for You to Market Your Book with Online

Quiblo.com
Register at quiblo.com and you can create quizzes, surveys, polls, and their ilk. While it may seem like a time waster (and believe me, it is) it is also a brilliant, fun way to engage your audience in a truly active way. Create surveys about your book, quizzes about your characters, polls about your title, even personality quizzes based on how people felt about your work.

It's silly, it's fun, it's interactive, and it can include your book cover image. You can make as many as you want after registering.

They are easy to create, fun to play with, and, best of all, still a marketing tool.

Check it out!

Because books can be fun!

A Glimpse into Traditional Publishing

Over the last couple of days, I've been contacting some of our Wheatmark authors to say hello and see what they were up to.

Most often this is the conversation I have:

ME: Hello this is me, how are you? How is your book doing? What are you working on?
THEM: Weeeeellll ... I haven't really done much with the book because it isn't selling and I don't have the money to hire someone to do publicity ...
ME: (Sounding very much like a TimeLife Books Series commercial from the 1980s) Have you tried using the techniques in our FREE book marketing workbook?
THEM: No.
ME: It's awesome. I'll send it to you!
THEM: Thanks!

There is another trickier topic the authors and I have talked about: Traditionally publishing a book.

Seen as the Holy Grail to many self-published authors, traditional publishing promises the sparkling literary lights of New York and L.A.

Or does it?

Many self-published authors aren't familiar with what it really means to traditionally publish a book. They assume that shelf space at the local Barnes and Noble will open up, a marketing department will be thrown behind them, and movie studios will clamber to option their book with Natalie Portman starring in the main role (possibly while the author sits by the pool drinking mai tais).

And sometimes, this happens.

Mostly though, it doesn't. The initial thrill of being chosen will wear off quickly as the author realizes they've lost control of the rights to their project, or that the book will be minimally released, not supported by the company's marketing department, and then find their title canceled not too long after. And! They'll still be called upon to work on the marketing of the book. Exhausting!

But for those seeking the challenge, expense, and potential heartbreak at a shot at best-seller status, I want to direct you to a fantastic blog entry by Jessica at BookEnds, LLC, a literary agency.

Their post entitled The Anatomy of a Book Deal is a great eye-opener to what it takes to be published and how the process works!

Check it out!

Wheatmark Author Climbing the Charts at Amazon.com

On Wednesday, November 26, 2008, Jim Best's book, The Shopkeeper, rose all the way to #2464 on the Amazon sales rank. This is 2,464 out of 5,000,000 and it puts his book in the top 0.0005% of all titles available. What's more interesting is that he's done it all without putting money into marketing. He's put plenty of time in, certainly, but since publishing with Wheatmark, Jim has utilized his Amazon page as his greatest marketing tool. He has 18 five-star reviews. He has a blog on Amazon. He's also published a second book with Wheatmark, The Shut Mouth Society, which ranks at #15,953.

In fact, if you went to Amazon and typed in Western, in the book department, The Shopkeeper would come in at #3, right behind Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian at #2.

An independent fiction author can compete.

Thoughts on Social Networking

"Think of it like a giant cocktail party."

Over at the BookSquare Blog, the brilliant Kassia Krozer has written a wonderful post about social media and social networking that not only does an excellent job of explaining what socia media and social networking are, but why they are so important for book marketing.

As Kassia so eloquently puts it,

Social networking means that the book club is online — and the participants range from people who’ve read the books, people who want to read the books, people just passing through the conversation, people who sell books, people who sell books to people to sell books, and, yes, people who acquire, edit, market, and distribute books.

I urge you to read her post, and also to sign up for information about her upcoming BookSquare University - designed to help authors build relationships on Facebook, and which Kassia describes as "a gentle introduction to social media for non-technical authors."

Happy Book Marketing!

Laying the Groundwork for Your Book Marketing Outreach

“The mistake so many marketers make is that they conjoin the urgency of making another sale with the timing to earn the right to make that sale. In other words, you must build trust before you need it. Building trust right when you want to make a sale is just too late.” ~ Seth Godin

It's never too early to begin marketing outreach for your book. Book not published yet? Great--that's an ideal time to begin your marketing outreach, or ramp up your efforts in that direction.
It takes a great deal of time and effort to establish yourself as a trusted presence with the audience to whom you are trying to market your book.
Begin your publicity, sales and marketing research and networking as early as possible:

• Use your existing contacts
• Start commenting on relevant blogs
• Join pertinent groups and attend meetings
• Volunteer for a related cause
• Partner with another person who shares a common interest or expertise in your book’s subject.

Make the effort and give yourself time to establish relationships and make valuable connections that will help when you’re ready to begin marketing your book in earnest.

Book Publicity: Are You Reaching Libraries?

If you are marketing your book to libraries, it can be frustrating not to know how many libraries (and which ones) have actually ordered your book as a result of your book publicity campaign. Your publisher sends you a sales report containing the number of books sold, but because of privacy laws you will never know the identity of the purchaser, or in this case, which libraries have bought your book.

Wouldn't it be great to know if your book made it to the libraries on your marketing list? Sure, you can call up every single one of them or search their online databases one by one, but now there is a better way. WorldCat is a site where you can search the holdings of thousands of libraries worldwide. Try it! Enter your book's title or just check out this sample title.

Authors Offer 'Four Ingredients' to Self-Publishing Success

Recently, Beyond Hall 8, a blog about the Frankfurt International Rights Fair featured a post on two extremely successful self-publishing authors from Down Under.

Rachael Bermingham and Kim McCosker's cookbook 4 Ingredients has so far sold 820,000 copies, primarily in Australia and New Zealand, where it is the biggest selling book of the past year.

What the authors say about why the book has been such a tremendous success should interest independent authors everywhere:

'One - it's a very marketable [and classicially simple - AW] concept. Two - the book came out at the right time. It's a cookbook for busy people who wish to save time and money in the kitchen so they can get out and do the things they want to do rather than have to do. Three - you have two very driven, very passionate and very energetic women who have remarkable professional skills behind this project. Four - and this is the most important key of all - marketing! Rachael's background is in marketing and it's been invaluable to the success and growth of the '4 Ingredients' books, business and brand.'

For any author considering, or already committed to self-publishing, the take-away lesson from Bermingham and McCosker is clear: to be successful it's vital to be passionate about your project; create the most professional product possible; and--whether it's through your own blood, sweat, and tears, or those of a hired-gun, put everything you can into crafting and executing a targeted marketing plan.

Happy Book Marketing!

(A special thanks to Mike Cane for tweeting a heads-up on this post.)

Why Authors Should Twitter

Lovely post by Mark Bertils of Index // MB's Minding the Gate touting the benefits of blogging for publishers. For all you authors out there, read the blog post substituting "author" for "book publisher." As Mark says, "Twitter is great at driving attention. The end."

As free technologies for conversing with the world about you, your book, and whatever else is on your mind go, Twitter can not be beat. You can find like-minded (or not) readers, writers, and thinkers, follow them - share your ideas and casually spread the word about your book while you're at it.

I'd say it's at least worth a try.

Happy Book Marketing!

How Blogging Benefits Your Book Marketing Campaign

Here at Wheatmark, we often encourage our authors to use blogging as a great way to reach readers and garner visibility for their books. Blogging can benefit authors in a multitude of ways.

Blogging during the writing process (before publication) can be a wonderful way to find support for your writing among those who share an interest in the subject of your book. By blogging about your book before you have completed your book, you can increase awareness of your writing, and even receive valuable feedback that you can incorporate into your final book.

By blogging after the publication of your book you can inform readers of any marketing activities and events you have going on, and can encourage readers to post reviews of your book on their own blogs or in other online locations. A resourceful author might include blog posts on material that didn’t make it into the final edition of your book, and post on any ideas for forthcoming publications.

For inspiration on getting started on your own blog, check out these popular author blogs, care of the Internet Writing Journal.

More Online Book Marketing Help for Authors

Hey all you authors in search of marketing help -- there's more free and valuable stuff for you. Hopefully you have already downloaded Wheatmark's free Marketecture Workbook and found it helpful (give us some feedback - we're here to please!).

Well, if you liked that you'll be happy to hear (via the fabulous Mr. Joe Wikert) about the free downloadable PDF that Penguin Group USA has made available to all authors. It's called Internet Advice for Authors: Getting Started, Getting Online, and Getting Noticed and we're told it's a great guide for authors in need of online marketing know-how. Kudos to Penguin for sharing the love!

Now you authors have plenty to do! Happy book marketing to you and have a great weekend!

Book Marketecture: A Step-by-Step Workbook for Creating Your Book Marketing Plan

After much time and effort, the free PDF version of Book Marketecture: A Workbook for Creating Your Book Marketing Plan is now posted on our website and available for download.

I authored the workbook and my co-workers Susan Wenger and Hayley Love edited and designed the layout. We created the workbook for self-published authors, and it starts with the basics -- how to create a marketing plan for your book. I've been in book marketing for more than 15 years and I know that when it comes to marketing your book, a well-thought-out, targeted plan can mean the difference between success and failure.

Book Marketecture is filled with exercises, activities, and resources designed to help you:

• define your unique marketing goals


• determine your key marketing message


• identify and reach your book’s specific core market within your budget and timeline

To download a free copy of Book Marketecture: A Step-by-Step Workbook for Creating Your Book Marketing Plan, visit the Wheatmark website at: http://www.wheatmark.com/free-book-marketing-workbook.cfm

We hope you find the Book Marketecture workbook a valuable tool for effectively marketing your book, and would love to hear your feedback and whether you found the exercises and activities helpful, or where the workbook could be improved. Thanks!
~ Kat Meyer
Manager, Book Sales and Marketing
Wheatmark, Inc.

"Inside Search" Now on Barnes & Noble.com

As I mentioned earlier, Microsoft has pulled the plug on its Live Book Search program that enabled people to look and search inside a book online. Wheatmark will continue to send books to Amazon and Google for indexing just the same, and this month we are adding Barnes & Noble to the list of vendors that will index books that are in Wheatmark's Inside Search program.

Microsoft to End Its Live Book Search Program

Today, Microsoft announced it was ending its forays into digitizing books and searching their contents online. This comes not even a year after opening the Live Book Search program to publishers like Wheatmark. (See our original post here.)

What it means is that MSN and live.com will no longer index and host the content of your book, but Amazon's Search Inside and Google Book Search will continue to do so. So when you want Wheatmark to submit your book for Inside Search, we will continue to submit it both to Google and Amazon for indexing.

By the way, this announcement doesn't mean that Microsoft has abandoned the indexing and searching of book content online. If you read it carefully, they are working on ways to get publishers to use their indexing technology to do the work themselves. When a publisher has done the online indexing and has set up the book content on its own site, MSN and live.com will continue to provide search results from the book's content! With indexing, hosting, and copyright headaches out of the way, this does sound like a smart move to me!

New HarperCollins Non-traditional Publishing Imprint

In a sign of things to come, HarperCollins announced that it's starting a new imprint that will not pay advances to authors... nor will it take returns from booksellers.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the new operation "also likely won't pay for more desirable display space in the front of bookstores, a common practice. Instead, the as-yet-unnamed unit will share its profit with writers and focus much of its sales efforts on the Internet, where a growing portion of book sales are shifting."

I'll bet that this is the first of many new imprints at traditional publishers that will follow this model.

Meanwhile, I can't resist quoting Robert S. Miller, the founding publisher of Hyperion (who'll be leading the as-yet-unnamed HarperCollins imprint), who was himself quoted in Friday's New York Times:

“The idea is, ‘Let’s take all the things that we think are wrong with this business and try to change them,’ ” said Mr. Miller, 51. “It really seemed to require a start-up from scratch because it will be very experimental.”

Methinks Mr. Miller need not reinvent the wheel.

If he's looking for successful models to emulate, he might check out the self-publishing services and independent presses that have been selling via the Internet (mainly using Print-On-Demand technology) for oh, about ten years now!

To read the full New York Times article, click here.

Ebooks--Will They Work for You?

I have been following the development of ebooks for eight years now. The one thing I still remember from Book Expo America 2000 in Chicago is how the topic of ebooks seemed to dominate every single workshop I attended. Ebooks were the next big thing.

We've been publishing books for eight years now and converting to and distributing our titles as ebooks has always been in the back of our minds. (We were even fortunate to register the domains ebookpublishing.com and ipublisher.com in time!) Yet the big ebook invasion promised in 2000 never really happened. There are still too many competing ebook platforms and formats to choose from. (See the recently resolved battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD for high-definition DVD formats.) Digital rights management (DRM) is also a mess. Besides, we already offer superior book publishing services and distribution of paper books, and we will do the same with electronic books only if it benefits our authors and the sales of their books.

Having said that, this may be the time to reevaluate launching our ebook services and I need your help! Amazon has recently introduced its ebook reader, the Kindle. This device breaks away from the other competing technologies by including its own wireless distribution system: you don't need a computer or Internet connection to be able to purchase and read ebooks on the Kindle. As we look into the launch of our ebook publishing services, Amazon's Kindle will definitely be on the top of our list for available formats.

I need your help with the following: Assuming that you have written or are writing a book, post a comment below with your thoughts on whether you think your book would be well-served by distribution as an ebook. Do share with us also whether you have a strong preference for a particular ebook format: Kindle, MobiPocket, Adobe Reader, Microsoft Reader, Palm Reader, etc. If we were to provide you with your ebook, would you want it distributed and rights managed by Wheatmark (through Kindle, Amazon, online ebookstores) or would you just prefer to get a particular ebook file (e.g. PDF) that you would host and distribute on your own website yourself?

Any comment you have, please, share it with us by posting it below. Anonymous posts are OK.

How to Increase Your Book Sales without Spending Money

May Sinclair, one of Wheatmark's published authors, has sent us some valuable tips she learned on how to increase your book sales without spending your money. The technique involves utilizing Amazon.com's closed platform for selling books. Click here to read the article in our Author Resources center.

Sell Yourself, Not Your Book!

Here's a book marketing advice I hope you'll take the right way:

Forget about trying to sell your book. Nobody is interested in buying your book.

What people are interested in is you, your services, your cause—and not a book.

There are many, many great books. But hardly any book out there can sell itself on its own. The bestselling books out there became bestsellers not because their authors were trying to sell books.

You will sell the most copies when people you have sold yourself to will want to get you and your ideas packaged between two book covers. It is not a book they are looking for, therefore, it's not a book you should be selling to them. Sell them yourself—in the form of a book. Most authors get it backwards: They are trying to sell a book instead of selling themselves. They are using their profession to sell their book, when in fact they should be using the book to sell their professional services.

What you want to do is to market not your book, but what your book is about. Use your book to promote your business, your practice, your cause. If you are a professional speaker, sell your speaking service using your book, rather than try to sell your book using your speaking business. If you are a counselor, use the fact that you've written a book about relationships as a way to solidify your credentials. If you are exposing human rights abuses in your book, all the more you should be thinking about advancing (marketing!) your cause, not your book.

"I don't know how to market a book!" is the most common excuse I hear from authors. Forget marketing books. How good are you at marketing YOU? Are you or your service marketable? Can you sell yourself? If the answer is yes, you don't need to know that much about book marketing. When you "market your book," do not market it, market yourself. Market your practice, your services, your advice, your concept, your cause! If you do a good job marketing YOU, your book sales will follow.