Books | Deborah H Bateman - Author

Self Publishing Books Can Get You Past the Recession

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

Having an internet business can really shore up the income for anyone who wants just a little more money for their time. It isn’t surprising that people would be looking for more sources of income – the financial crisis looms far beyond the horizon, with no magical solution in sight. People getting fired or otherwise removed from work left and right. Working hard is no longer working as well as it should. This is the time to work smart.

Most internet businesses in fact revolve around selling a particular product. For most people, producing or creating a product worth selling requires enormous amounts of capital to truly make the best out of. Luckily, thanks to the nature and concept of said internet, there are products worth selling that don’t require capital, factories and sometimes even any sort of delivery system beyond email.

The solution: self publishing ebooks.

Ebooks, or electronic books are exactly what it suggests – a digital or digitized book. Formats can vary, from the standard Word file to the more commonly used PDFs, but they all carry some common advantages. For example, a thousand books would pretty much be impossible to carry by one’s lonesome. Selling those books would require shipping, which would cost more money and would demand more of you.

A thousand ebooks could fit within a single DVD or flash drive. Millions, perhaps, depending on the size of the ebooks themselves. This means that even a cheap hosting account could store products that make you big money.

While books and paper will never truly lose their audience, some people were born, live and cannot live without their electronics and gadgetry. This connection with these electronic innovations allows them to read anywhere they want, whatever they want – truly a fantastic gift for people on the go who don’t want to lug around big and dusty tomes or wait for information to come in the mail.

If you’re still wondering, that basically means that there’s a massive market out there for a smart entrepreneur to take advantage of. A massive market of internet connected people with money in their pockets. They want a more convenient method of correlating and cross-referencing data – or at least, want something they could read on their break that isn’t related to work.

There’s money to be made here and there’s room to breathe too.

A single ebook could be sold an infinite number of times. Without the need for repeated printing and the costs associated with it, the money made from a single ebook could properly be maximized in a way that a print book could not be. This means you could make an enormous return on investment without even flinching, more so if you have a ghostwriting or copywriting deal with writers that you hire.

The economy’s looking terrible and no matter how charming or intelligent our leaders are, chances are it’s going to last for another few years. That does not mean that there are no opportunities to be made. That does not mean that you cannot make as much money as you used to. It’ll require a lot of work and a lot of smarts, but running an internet business with ebooks could make you a lot of money if done correctly.

The 800-Pound Gorilla: 305-page guide for Writing, Publishing, and Selling Ebooks and 17 video tutorials at Writing, Selling Ebooks.

See the original article at Writing Ebooks Blog.

Author: Robert Boyd
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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PyroMarketing – The Secret of Book Marketing Success

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

Book marketing professionals know the secrets of success that drove the sales of Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life to a chart-busting best-seller and Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” into a huge cinema phenom. Those of us in the business understand that sales of both blockbusters were driven by techniques outlined in a new book called PyroMarketing by Greg Stielstra who gained fame in book publishing circles when he served as the marketing director for The Purpose Driven Life, the best-selling hardcover book in history.

PyroMarketing embraces an idea that really has been in use for some time – niche marketing. That tool is well-known and used every day by book promoters but Stielstra lays out the niche marketing principles with a new, crystal clear message that is so compelling that it is a must-read for anyone who wants to promote an idea, service or product.

In a nutshell, PyroMarketing involves finding the “driest tinder” (customers most apt to buy), touch it with a match (customers experiencing a benefit), and fanning the flame (customers’word-of-mouth marketing), and save the coals (keeping a record of customers).

As a book-marketing expert, Stielstra found the driest tinder when the Rick Warren organization tapped into the Christian faith community in America to market The Purpose Driven Life. An initial six-week campaign for Purpose Driven Life involved 1,200 people who read the book each day, listened to sermons each Sunday, and met with friends each week in book study groups. At the end of six weeks, 400,000 people were intimately familiar with the book. Within four months, 2 million books were sold. More than 5,000 churches signed up during the fall 2004 campaign.

“From the first campaign and for the next couple years,” explains Stielstra, “it seemed that for every book sold at a discount to someone in a church-based campaign, five more books were sold through retail stores. By focusing on the driest tinder within the church and encouraging them to spread the word, we were rewarded with many more sales to people beyond its walls. Fanning the flames didn’t just double the campaign’s impact, it multiplied it by a factor of five!”

In an exchange I had with Rick Warren, the author emphasized that his personal pre-existing contacts with pastors and church leaders was key in creating initial interest in his book. That very limited, specific market was the driest tinder, the book study groups was the match which produced customer benefits, and ministers and study group members talking up the book was the all-important fanning of the flame. The bookkeeping function of saving the coals by recording customers into a database is a sometimes-overlooked step which promises to deliver repeat customers.

Early on film producers wouldn’t touch “The Passion” and so Gibson employed PyroMarketing techniques to generate $500 million to become the top-grossing R-rated movie of all time. By the fifth day alone, the film had earned $125 million in box office receipts against only $45 million in combined production and marketing costs.

While it is amazing when you look at the success of Warren and Gibson, PyroMarketing techniques are not a collection of hidden secrets suddenly discovered. In my own practice, I find it helpful to re-evaluate all my processes to make sure all elements are followed and to look for new angles to pursue. Part of this constant evaluation of how I meet customer needs involves keeping up on what’s going on in marketing, promotion, public relations, and publishing. To accomplish this I am reading constantly to keep pace and better understand how my colleagues are thriving. That’s why I recommend anyone read Stielstra’s book, PyroMarketing: The Four Step Strategy to Ignite Customer Evangelists and Keep Them For Life. I have experienced success promoting authors using the same basic principles Stielstra spells out in his book and found that discussion to be a very helpful check-point.

In book marketing, a book cannot be promoted without first identifying who the readers are in advance of a single sale. When we find the reasons why that reader will read that book, we then craft the most effective message to be conveyed to the information sources that reader relies upon. We don’t bombard the market with propaganda but send out promotional information to selected streams that reach specific persons. That approach has always worked and always will. Salesmen know that you can’t sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo because he has no need of one, but you’d have a shot at selling him thermal underwear.

So in drawing up a promotion plan for a client, I first find the niche(s) the client can go after and determine how that specific media can be pursued. Getting media coverage is all about creating interesting angles. I try to find out everything I can about the author using a questionnaire that even asks about fraternities or sorority membership, roommates in college, and other tidbits about them personally and about the book itself.

To successfully market a book, Westwind Communications determines who will read it and then targets that media directly. By way of example, one of my clients has published a book of poetry. Now the average person won’t buy a collection of poetry. However, certain people love poetry. So we aim our book marketing efforts for this client to poetry magazines, poetry web sites and poetry societies who are the “driest tinder.”

The reason most authors seek book reviews is that the people reading them represent the “driest tinder.” You don’t read book reviews unless you are looking for a book to read or give. So, it makes sense to target reviewers at media outlets. Furthermore, people will tell their friends about a book review they read in a magazine or newspaper, see on television, or hear on the radio because the media is a third party, disinterested source disseminating the information. That’s why getting book reviews is so important in starting the “word of mouth” every successful author desires. The challenge is that these reviewers are bombarded with hundreds or thousands of books every year and it takes skill to cut through the clutter to get a book reviewed.

For any author, we make sure galleys and the finished books are sent to the reviewers at major publications and broadcast outlets. We write and send press releases, pitch letters in an electronic press kit, and make follow up phone calls to media outlets encouraging reporters and reviewers to write about our client’s book. Being reviewed by The New York Times, Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and USA TODAY are major goals. In fact USA Today has 4.3 million readers every day. Furthermore, it gets more notice from the other media than the other four newspapers combined. That’s a major reason why we will make a concerted effort to get our authors noticed by USA TODAY.

We also contact national magazines and others that may be interested in the author’s personal story. Sometimes the media is more interested in the author than the book itself and that is just one more angle we’ll use to promote our client’s book. We contact TV and radio outlets. Every day thousands of interviews are conducted on TV and Radio stations across North America and several hundred are with authors. We have developed relationships with many producers over the years and those contacts combined with well-thought-out pitches produce results.

I regularly attend major media events in New York City for face-to-face meetings with journalists, editors, writers and producers from top national magazines, newspapers and radio/TV programs. I have successfully pitched such media outlets as 20/20, Prime Time, CNN, People, Good Morning America, Newsweek, Time Magazine, Dateline NBC, The View, Oprah’s O magazine, Cosmopolitan, Fox News, Good Housekeeping, Newsweek to name a few.

Details on Stielstra’s PyroMarketing approach are given at http://www.pyromarketing.com.

Scott Lorenz, is President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that has a special knack for working with individuals and entrepreneurs to help them get all the publicity they deserve and more. Lorenz has handled public relations and marketing for numerous authors, doctors, lawyers, authors inventors and entrepreneurs since 1980 and is an integral part of the strategy for many authors in their own book marketing. Learn more about Westwind Communications book marketing approach at http://www.westwindcos.com/book or contact Lorenz at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 734-667-2090.

Author: Scott Lorenz
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Top Ten Reasons Why Your Book Marketing Strategy Is Not Working

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Deborah H. Bateman

The publishing business has changed dramatically in the past few years. Today, nearly anyone can publish a book it seems. Hundreds of thousands of new books hit the shelves every year. But very few people are successful at all in regards to marketing their books, with the average number of sales being around 200 over the life of the author. Marketing books is a real challenge for many people. In my work with hundreds of authors, I have identified 10 primary reasons why a book marketing strategy may fail.

1. THE BOOK AND/OR THE AUTHOR ARE INVISIBLE

Today the Internet is the primary source of information for book buyers. But even those who buy books in the ‘real’ world use the Internet to do research before buying in the real world.

Book buyers, while doing their research, will NOT search by your name or your book’s title. They will instead search using a very generic phrase like ‘children’s book’ or ‘thriller’ or ‘spy novel’.

It is a fact that hardly anyone goes beyond page three of search engine results. Authors who hope to be visible to the book buying public must be on one of the first three pages for the GENERIC SEARCH TERM (like ‘children’s book) that describes their books. If you are not on one of the first three pages for that generic term, you are virtually invisible to nearly all book buyers. If you are invisible, nothing else you do in regards to marketing your book will matter much.

2. THE AUTHOR MAY BE USING THE WRONG APPROACH

If you are using book marketing ideas and book marketing strategies that USED to work (when bookstores were the primary book outlets) those marketing strategies will most likely not work much at all in an Internet. In fact, you will likely fail.

Today, Internet sites have taken center stage in regards to being the primary book outlet. To be successful in regards to selling books today, you must have traffic to your book marketing site, and you must have a lot of it. You must know how to convert that traffic into book sales. All the traffic in the world will not matter if it does not convert to sales.

3. THE AUTHOR LACKS AN EFFECTIVE SEO STRATEGY

In the ‘old days’ (just a few years ago) the strategy was to tell as many people as possible that a book existed and wait for sales to come in. This ‘yell and tell as many people as possible’ strategy simply does not work today, as the Internet is search engine driven. Telling a lot of people is very hard work, is very expensive in regards to both money and time, and relies on huge numbers to produce small results.

In today’s Internet environment, the potential book buyer begins by typing a generic phrase into a search engine, in essence saying ‘Here is what I’m looking for’. Book sites are then indexed by the engines based upon how important they appear to be in regards to the generic phrase entered and in regards to how that particular site stacks up against the competition for that generic phrase.

SEARCH ENGINES decide who is important and they decide who ends up being seen by the book buying public. Think of a search engine as a yellow page directory. You will only be listed in THIS one-of-a-kind gigantic online yellow page directory if you understand and follow the SEO rules given you by the engines. If you don’t know and understand the rules, you will be at the end of the listings. And, if you are at the end of the listings, no one is going to find you, as they will likely look at just the first three pages.

4. THE AUTHOR IS PRESENTING THE WRONG MESSAGE

Book buyers are interested in one thing, and one thing only – WHAT YOUR BOOK WILL DO FOR THEM.

Often authors like to talk about other things. But the book buyer is not really interested in the author’s history, how the author came to write the book, what lead the author to write it, how the author struggled. They want to know what this book will do for THEM. You must speak to THE BUYER’S NEEDS SPECIFICALLY. The author must do this. If not, they will have a visitor, but not a book buyer.

That desired message must be communicated to the book buyer in less than 30 seconds. You must know what your target market profiles really want, and you must provide it more effectively than the competition. If you are not saying what the potential book buyer wants to hear, they will never buy your book. Your book marketing strategy must speak to the needs of the buyer.

5. THE AUTHOR IS NOT COMMUNICATING A STRONG BRAND

When the Internet shopper goes to the engines, the shopper is presented with millions of authors and author sites. You may look very much like everyone else. Your book may be ‘just another book’ to that shopper. What are you telling that potential buyer that NO ONE ELSE is saying? Without a sharply researched, one-of-a-kind brand that speaks directly to the needs of buyers, as THEY perceive those needs, you WILL appear to be just like everyone else. A great book marketing strategy must communicate a strong brand.

6. THE AUTHOR IS NOT POSITIONED PROPERLY

Type a generic phrase such as ‘children’s book’ into the Google engine today and you will get over 30 million listings. Every one of those pages is presented to that potential book buyer. Your book is just one of those millions of listings. As an author, YOU know your book is not like all the rest, but the BOOK BUYER does not, unless you have taken a strong marketing position. An effective book marketing strategy must position you in relation to the competition.

7. THE AUTHOR IS NOT USING EFFECTIVE CALLS TO ACTION

All marketing sites are websites, but very few websites are marketing sites. A book marketing site must be sharp and clear, clean, and it must brand the author and position the author better than the competition. There must be a logical, step-by-step map for the visitor to follow and there must be compelling calls to action in all the right places. If you do not do this, you might end up with visitors but remember: a visitor is not a book buyer and won’t become a book buyer without a sharp brand, proper positioning and a strong call to action.

Anyone can build a website. But a website is just another website. A book marketing website, on the other hand, should be a results-producing machine and should produce the results you seek. An effective book marketing strategy will incorporate effective calls to action in all the right places on every page of the website.

8. THE AUTHOR MIGHT BE BORING THE BUYER

Most authors are not boring. But do remember always that the attention span of the searcher is very short. There are millions of competitors and competing websites, just one single click away. You have just a few seconds to present YOUR brand, YOUR position and the primary reason why someone should buy YOUR book. A good book marketing strategy will deliver a powerful and compelling message in just a few seconds.

9. THE AUTHOR’S APPROACH MAY BE PERCEIVED AS SELLING, RATHER THAN TELLING

An effective Internet marketing strategy can be compared to fishing. When fishing, no one jumps into the water, jams the hook into the fish’s mouth and tries to force it to bite the hook. This is what many book selling strategies are like – they are ‘in your face’ sales messages.

If you yell out your sales message, attempting to jam your really great book hook in their mouths, don’t be surprised when they swim away. (Think about how YOU feel about spam, pop up ads, Twitter-blab and commercials). It is a fact that no one likes to be sold. Internet shoppers do however love to find what they seek.

Instead, in this environment, you must offer irresistible bait instead, through the use of effective marketing language. The shopper (or in this case, the fish) will then come running, they will tell all their friends and they will bite your book hook willingly. A great book marketing strategy does not sell, but rather entices the visitor to action.

10. THE AUTHOR’S EXPECTATIONS MAY BE SET TOO HIGH

* Don’t put up a book marketing website and believe people will magically just show up. They will not.

* Don’t put up a book marketing website and expect people to buy. They will not.

* Don’t put up a book marketing website and believe you are finished. You are not.

As regards real world businesses, building success takes years and a great deal of effort. In the Internet environment, building your online store may take just as long – perhaps longer. It will require a lot of ongoing effort to make it succeed. The Internet is not a magic bullet. A real world business may have a few competitors just down the street. Your Internet business has millions of competitors, all right next door, just one click away.

Today, the whole world is your potential book buyer base. But this will not matter if you don’t learn how effective book marketing strategies work in today’s Internet environment. If you are not getting good results, don’t complain. Get some help. Visit the free publicity focus group at http://www.freepublicitygroup.com. There you will find a free, no cost, no obligation individualized personal marketing strategy analysis. This analysis will answer all your questions and will provide rock solid solutions to your marketing challenges.

Don McCauley is a marketing strategist with over 30 years of experience. He helps individuals, small businesses and professionals create low cost publicity and marketing campaigns to increase sales. He demonstrates how anyone can develop a massive marketing and publicity campaign for little or no money by utilizing cutting edge strategic marketing and publicity resources. The goal is alway to produce bottom line results

Don serves as facilitator of the Free Publicity Focus Group. He is an author and currently writes for regional and national print and electronic publications. He serves as host of The Authors Show radio program, a production of eBroadcastMedia.com. He is an Inbound Marketing Certified Professional and is Web CEO University Certified. Prior to establishing his marketing and publicity consulting business, Don spent many years as a marketing manager and trainer for several large US corporations. He has also personally built three highly successful service businesses from scratch across three different industries.

He spent 8 years as marketing director of a regional corporation. During this time he was responsible for developing, implementing and managing marketing and publicity campaigns.

More information is available at http://www.freepublicitygroup.com. He can be reached by email at don@freepublicitygroup.com

Author: Donald E. McCauley
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Sell More Books by Steve J. Miller-Guest Post-Interview

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Deborah H. Bateman

I would like to welcome Steve J. Miller to Deborah H. Bateman-Author site to share with us his new book “Sell More Books”. I hope you enjoy reading about Steve and his new book.

About the Author:

Steve is the founder and president of Legacy Educational Resources, providing global resources for teachers of life skills in public schools, churches, and service organizations here. A self-styled “wisdom broker,” he collects wisdom from many fields and packages it for teachers and writers via his published books and the Web.
Steve is an educator, investor, entrepreneur, and speaker, having taught audiences from Atlanta to Moscow. He’s known for drawing practical wisdom from serious research and communicating it in accessible, unforgettable ways. His wife, Cherie, and their seven sons continually remind him what works and what doesn’t. Connect with him here .

Interview with J. Steve Miller

WCPress: Why another book on book marketing?

JSM: While many books are available, few take into account the latest in publishing and marketing. We find that most authors are confused and overwhelmed by all the options. Thus, there’s a need to simplify the task and help authors narrow down their best choices.

WCP: Why target low profile authors?

JSM: Because publishing and marketing are different for them in many ways. Typically, low profile authors discover that bookstores and big media want the big names. It’s easy to get discouraged. But I found success in marketing my books, even though I lacked a platform. I wrote an award-winning personal finance book when I had no degrees in personal finance and no vocational experience as a financial planner. My book on music was published by a respected traditional publisher, Tyndale House, even though I held no degrees in music; neither was I a professional musician. I think I’ve picked up some tricks along the way that can help other low profile authors.

WCP: So is this all about your personal experience?

JSM: No. Although I describe what’s worked for me (and what totally failed!) I read widely in book marketing and ran my ideas by many authors and publishers. Real experience from a wide variety of people has a way of making a mess of tidy formulas! I saw that what sold tons of books for one author may not work at all for another, and what works for one book may be totally inappropriate for another.

WCP: Do you recommend social networking, such as Twitter and Facebook?

JSM: For some authors and for some books, they work great. Other authors may be wasting their time. To me, it boils down to finding and connecting with the readers and influencers on your topic/genre. I try to help authors understand whether or not these will work for their books.

WCP: What about blogging?

JSM: A blog can be a great hub for many authors – the first place to send people who want to find out more about you and your books and your social media presence. Also consider a blog for maintaining a press page, much like the page we’re on now. But I’d suggest that many people who are trying to post several substantive blogs per week in order to build a following, if it’s solely to sell your books, you may be wasting valuable time. Again, each topic and each author will have to think through an appropriate strategy. I try to cover that as well in the book.

WCP: Thanks for your time and good luck helping fellow authors with their publishing and marketing!

JSM: Thanks so much!

I hope you enjoyed the interview with Steve J. Miller about his book “Sell More Books”. I know if you are an author and are interested in selling your books this will be a great resource for you. Go order your copy today!

PS. Come back and visit us again soon!