Book Marketing Tip of the Week
September 30, 2007: Poet of Love Day,
Ask a Stupid Question Day,
Independent Publishers Day~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this issue . . .
-- The Long Tail in Book Publishing
-- Books about Publishing and Marketing
-- Condé Nast Portfolio magazineThe Long Tail in Book Publishing
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Here is a very interesting excerpt from Chris Anderson's bestseller, The Long Tail:“The average Barnes & Noble carries 130,000 titles. Yet more than half of Amazon's book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles. Consider the implications: If the Amazon statistics are any guide, the market for books that are not even sold in the average bookstore is larger than the market for those that are. In other words, the potential book market may be twice as big as it appears to be, if only we can get over the economics of scarcity.”
Do you get it? Even if you can't get your book distributed via bookstores, you can sell more books than many titles now sold via retail stores. You just have to find the long tail that fits your book and the audience for it.
WidgetBucksBooks about Publishing and Marketing
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Here are a few books that have been published in the past year that you might find interesting. The books are about book publishing, writing, marketing, publicity, and Internet marketing. Please note that most of the links will take you to Amazon.com if you want to place an order for any book (I get a small commission if you order via these links).Bolme, Sarah, Your Guide to Marketing Books in the Christian Marketplace (Charlotte, NC: 2006), softcover, 185 pages, $17.99. The director of the Christian Small Publishers Association features marketing info specifically for the Christian marketplace. Full of resources for selling Christian books. Incredibly useful.
Bowerman, Peter, The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into a Full-Time Living (Atlanta, GA: Fanove Publishing, 2007), softcover, 294 pages, $19.95. Perhaps the best book on self-publishing today. Certainly a new rival to Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual. An incredible wealth of tips and guidelines.
Dunn, Kathi; Ron Hobart; Susan Kendrick; and Graham van Dixhorn, Cover That Book: Insider Secrets for Writing and Designing a Bestselling Book Cover (WI: Dunn+Associates Design, 2005), 2 CDs plus PDFs, $79.00. Among other things, this package features 11 ways a book cover can make or break a book, 13 tips for coming up with great titles, the art of back cover copywriting, and much more.
Gillin, Paul, The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to New Social Media (Sanger, CA: Quill Driver Press, 2007), hardcover, 238 pages, $25.00. Features lots of great stories, examples, and tips on how to use the new Internet social media: blogs, podcasts, videos, wikis, etc.
Hernandez, Anthony, Marketing Your Books: A Holistic Approach (Ashland, OR: Dawnstar Books, 2003), softcover workbook and two videos, 80 pages. The workbook is a great tool for creating your book marketing plan. The video explains how to use the workbook and motivates you to use it.
Horowitz, Shel, Grassroots Marketings for Authors and Publishers (Hadley, MA: AWM Books, 2007), softcover, 290 pages, $24.95. Shel is the ultimate frugal marketer. If you don't want to spend a lot of money marketing your books—but still want to sell a ton of books—read his book. He provides lots of doable ideas that don't cost a lot of money but can produce great results.
Jeffrey, Scott, and Dr. X, Everything You Need to Know to Become a Best-Selling Author (Kingston, NY: Creative Crayon Publishing, 2004), manual plus 10 CDs, $195.00. Dr. X is an anonymous CEO at a top ten publishing company. These CDs feature interviews with him on how to craft a winning book proposal, land a publishing contract, navigate the publishing process, get publicity, market your book, and create a results-oriented author website.
For a free download of 60 Effective Strategies for Selling More Books by Scott Jeffrey, click here: http://www.bestsellingauthor.com/downloads/ BestsellingAuthor-60EffectiveStrategies.pdf
McAuley, Jordan, The Celebrity Black Book, 2007 Deluxe Edition (Los Angeles, CA: Mega Niche Media, 2007), softcover, 759 pages, $75.00. If you want to find any of the top celebrities in today's world (movie and TV stars, musicians, athletes, politicians, authors, supermodels, directors, producers, artists, and more -- 55,000 celebrities in all -- this book provides a key contact address. Unfortunately, no phone numbers or emails. But I bet some of that info is available at their website: http://www.contactanycelebrity.com.
Mykle, Robert, The Author Book Promotion Manual: How to Get Your Books into the Bookstores and off the Shelves (Lake Worth, FL: Aaron Publishing: 2003), softcover, 84 pages, $12.95. A very basic book promotion manual.
Pitts, Barbara Russell, and Mary Russell Sarao, The Everything Inventions & Patents Book: Turn Your Crazy Ideas into Money-Making Machines (Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2006), softcover, 289 pages, $14.95. A wonderfully designed step-by-step guide to turning ideas into marketable inventions.
Pitts, Barbara Russell, and Mary Russell Sarao, Inventing on a Shoestring Budget! (Dallas, TX: Second Sight Publishing, 2006), softcover, 218 pages, $15.00. Includes a 40-page resource directory and 15 coupons for various inventing services (which offers a great example of how to sell advertising in your book and still offer a great service to your readers).
Sampson, Brent, Sell Your Book on Amazon (Parker, CO: Outskirts Press, 2007), softcover, 164 pages, no price on book. Provides much the same info as my section on selling to Amazon.com in 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, but provides more step-by-step details to carrying out the various possibilities.
Sansevieri, Penny C., Red Hot Internet Publicity (New York, NY: Morgan James, 2007), softcover, 205 pages, $17.95. Penny offers up-to-date, social networking, Internet marketing ideas that will boost the sales of your books.
Saunders, Karen, Turn Eye Appeal into Buy Appeal: How to easily transform your marketing pieces into dazzling, persuasive sales tools! (Aurora, CO: MacGraphics Services, 2006), ebook, $47.00. Provides great
examples on how to change your marketing pieces to real sales pieces.Silverman, Francine, Talk Radio for Authors (West Conshohocken, PA: Infinity Publishing, 2007), softcover, 338 pages, $17.95. A directory of radio shows around the U.S. and Canada, organized by subjects covered. Includes contact info and what the shows are looking for.
Van Yoder, Steven, Get Slightly Famous: Become a Celebrity in Your Field and Attract More Business with Less Effort, 2nd edition (Berkeley, CA: Bay Tree Publishing, 2007), softcover, 270 pages, $16.95. Features plenty of real-life stories on how to brand and publicize yourself, create an effective Web 2.0 site, and network to get more famous.
Weber, Steve, Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors (Falls Church, VA: Weber Books, 2007), softcover, 203 pages, $18.95. A wonderful guide to promoting your books via Amazon.com, blogs, YouTube, MySpace, Google, and more.
Whalin, W. Terry, Book Proposals That $ell: 21 Secrets to Speed Your Success (Phoenix, AZ: Write Now Publications, 2005), softcover, 182 pages, $14.00. A very good book on writing book proposals.
For more books on publishing, marketing, publicity, online PR, etc., see: http://www.bookmarket.com/1001bib.htm, which features the online bibliography for my book, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books. I describe many other useful and inspiring books on that page, as good as or better than the ones I've noted above.
Condé Nast Portfolio magazine
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Portfolio is a new monthly business magazine. In addition to the other books they reviewed in their September 2007 issue, they also featured photos from four art books: Amelia Earhart: Image and Icon; Modern Photographs: The Machine, the Body, and the City; Norman Foster's Foster 40; and Francois Montmirel's Poker: The Ultimate Book.Send info to the editors at Condé Nast Portfolio, 4 Times Square, New York NY 10036; Fax: 212-286-4435. Email: editors@portfolio.com. Letters: letters@portfolio.com. Web: http://www.portfolio.com.
Joanne Lipman, Editor in Chief. Email: jlipman@portfolio.com.
Jennifer Close, Assistant to the Editor in Chief. Reviewed Doug Stumpf's novel, Confessions of a Wall Street Shoeshine Boy (9/07).
James Impoco and Amy Stevens, Deputy Editors
Chris Jones, Managing Editor, Portfolio.com
Matthew Cooper, Washington Editor
Kyle Pope, Senior Editor. Reviewed Richard Bookstaber's A Demon of Our Own Design (9/07).
Ken Wells, Senior Editor. Reviewed Patricia Beard's Blue Blood & Mutiny: The Fight for the Soul of MorganStanley (9/07).
Jesse Eisinger, Senior Writer. Covers financial crises. Reviewed Ian Ayres's Super Crunchers (9/07).
Kevin Gray, Senior Writer. Profiled the son of Lebanon's assassinated leader Rafik Hariri (9/07).
Jessica Liebman, Editorial Assistant. Reviewed Cynthia Cooper's Extraordinary Circumstances (9/07). Also suggest the following books for reading by fired CEOs: Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, Jake Patterson's How to Coach Little League Baseball, and Andy Borowitz's Who Moved My Soap? The CEO's Guide to Surviving Prison (9/07).
Eileen Soltes, Editorial Assistant. Wrote an article about how executive tell-alls don't sell, featuring Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence (9/07).
Roger Lowenstein, Contributing Editor. Wrote about Garry Kasparov's How Life Imitates chess (9/07).
Mary Bridges, Associate Research Editor. Reviewed Nicholas Fox Weber's The Clarks of Cooperstown and Joseph Finder's novel Power Play (9/07).
Kevin Maney, Contributing Editor, Technology (based near Washington, DC, where he used to be a tech columnist for USA Today).
Duff McDonald, Contributing Editor. Wrote an article about Dick Snyder, a former book publishing executive (9/07).
Nancy Hass, Contributing Editor. Interviewed fashion designer Francois-Henri Pinault (9/07).
Ben Schott, author of Schott's Original Miscellany, edits the Calendar page featuring anniversaries, special events such as Fashion Week and Advertising Week, and some seminars (9/07).
Franz Lidz, author of Unstrung Heroes, wrote about the Yankees (9/07).
James Sterba reviewed Rick Kipsey's Golfing on the Roof of the World (9/07).
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The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul, a waking angel stirs. — James Allen, author, As a Man Thinketh
More great quotes at http://www.quotablebooks.com
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