Book Marketing Tip of the Week
March 1, 2010: American Housing Day, Peanut Butter Lover's Day, Old Roman New Year, College Scholarship Day, International Sister's Day, U.S. Nursing School DayDetails on these days — and 18,800 others! — can be found in
John Kremer's Celebrate Today Special Events Data Files.In this issue . . .
-- author tip: Sell your books in bed & breakfast inns
-- Social networks you might want to join
-- Resources for audio products
-- Book Promotion for the Bold and the Bashful
-- How to Plan Sponsorship Events
-- some author sites
-- Tweets you don't want to miss
-- housewarming party book launch
-- RIP: Gourmet, Cookie, Elegant Bride, Modern Bride
-- Persistence pays ... 1001 Waysauthor tip: Sell your books in bed & breakfast inns
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Miller Caldwell, author of Untied Laces, offers the following selling venue that's working for him to sell his autobiography.Around your home, there is likely to be a bed and breakfast inn. Clean and tidy, regulated and well rated in the local community.
Now what I do is introduce the hosts to my books and give them £1 each time a book is sold. The best site is not the hall or lobby but in the breakfast room where there is time to browse and purchase an author-signed book. My neighbour has a B&B at Rivendell Dumfries, Scotland. Last month (January) he gave me £108 from book sales.
It's a win/win situation as only my books are there! (unlike the bookshop which takes 30% and makes my books compete with so many others.)
Of course, I have a website, give many talks about my life (confronting Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and bringing an African head of state to tears). Each year, I bring in £30K from my speaking and writing.
John's Comments: I can attest that the breakfast room in a B&B is the best place to sell books. I've spent time at a B&B in Scotland, and the breakfast room is a great place to meet people and, when quiet, a great place to read. I could see this working as well in American B&Bs. When I travel with my wife, we often stay at B&Bs. I rarely see any books for sale in these venues. Couldn't you use an extra $100 per month from book sales at your local B&B or inn?
Note: Your books will sell better in these venues if you autograph the books and personalize them for the B&B.
Social networks you might want to join
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Here are a few social networks that you might want to join as a way to interact with a key audience for you book. Choose the network that comes closest to targeting your market.Baby Center Community: http://community.babycenter.com — A place for parents to share their child-raising experiences.
BlackPlanet: http://www.blackplanet.com — A social network of 16 million African Americans.
Digital Verse: http://www.digitalverse.org — A social network for poets.
Divine Caroline: http://www.divinecaroline.com — A social network where women come together to express themselves, find answers, and share their lives through storytelling. Sections cover relationships, parenting, home and food, body and soul, travel, style, career and money, play, neighborhood and world.
FanNation: http://www.fannation.com — A social network for sports fans operated by Sports Illustrated and CNN Digital Network. Supports blogs, photos, games, groups, friends, and more.
More social sites at http://www.bookmarket.com/socialnetworks.htm
Resources for audio products
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Reader Question: What I would like to know if you have any resources for audio books. I've done Kindle and Smashwords, but I'm exploring now putting the book on CD.John's Answer: Below are some resources for creating and producing audio books. These four pages are only a few of the top-rated resource pages on my BookMarket.com website.
http://www.bookmarket.com/teleseminar.htm
http://www.bookmarket.com/eproducts.htm
http://www.bookmarket.com/audiovideo.htm
http://www.bookmarket.com/podcasts.htmBook Promotion for the Bold and the Bashful
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March 3rd - Marika Flatt, founder of PR by the Book. Topic: Rock Star
Publicity: Book Promotion for the Bold and the BashfulIf you'd like to take part in this informative series of teleseminars, you can sign up for less than $1 per seminar here: http://bit.ly/jwu6K.
For more information on the people and topics for upcoming teleseminars, click here: http://www.bookmarket.com/friendsteleseminars.htm
How to Plan Sponsorship Events
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Roberta Vigilance has released two ebooks on How to Plan Sponsorship Events (39-page ebook for $19.95) and How to Secure Sponsors Successfully (22-page ebook for $19.95). If you are looking for sponsors and wanting to organize special events, check out her ebooks. You can order and download them here: http://www.EventsAndSponsors.comRoberta has created events and secured sponsors for Tommy Hilfiger, King Bravel Records, Adidas, Rite Aid, Roc-A-Wear, and Kinko's.
some author sites
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Here are some sites that authors or novelists might find of value:Book Club Queen: http://www.book-club-queen.com — This site for book clubs offers book reviews, author interviews, and book discussion guides. Not sure if these are paid listings or not. 800 unique visitors per day (this site suggested by a reader of this newsletter).
Words Matter Week: http://www.wordsmatterweek.com — Celebrate the first week of March by celebrating the value of words and writing.
Write Better Fiction: http://www.write-better-fiction.com — General advice from Richard McCullough, the Rich Writers Coach.
Tweets you don't want to miss
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Here are a few more John Kremer-related tweets you might find of value:=> RT @ChrisPirillo Mobile App Count - Windows Mobile: 693; Palm: 1,492; Apple: 151,000; Android: 19,000. http://bit.ly/c9mjdV
=> RT @4kaylin Just remember, if the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off. #funny
=> RT @jdlasica Why your organization should check out Google Buzz. http://cot.ag/dBTvIY
=> Most people, when given a chance to help, will go out of their way to help.
=> Love is the driving force for all marketing. Or it should be. Without love, it's all just politics, not business. #BM
=> RT @martinsoorjoo Another free ebook from Hubspot - How to Use Facebook for Business http://ow.ly/1asTz
=> Free Twitter Mania Manual: http://bit.ly/bzqJAH - Free, no charge, no sign up, just great Twitter advice
housewarming party book launch
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Carma Spence-Pothitt, author of Home Sweet Home Page: The 5 Deadly Mistakes Authors, Speakers and Coaches Make with Their Websites's Home Page and How to Fix Them!, is hosting a book housewarming party. Her housewarming party includes an online book tour, teleseminars, live chats, and even three Twitter contests.Her housewarming party begins on March 15th with a buffet table filled with free recipes for home page success, a game room of fun free ways to improve your home page, party favors (free stuff), door prizes, and more. You can check out her party by going here: http://bit.ly/a2CDdG.
Check out the Chat Room to find out how to enter the Twitter contests.
Also, if you subscribe to her The H.E.A.R.T. of Business ezine, she'll give you a free copy of her ebook, 77 Tips & Tricks for eBook Authors.
Her housewarming party is an interesting way to do a book launch. It's worth checking out to get ideas for your own book launch.
RIP: Gourmet, Cookie, Elegant Bride, Modern Bride
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Conde Nast has discontinued publishing the following four magazines: Gourmet, Cookie, Elegant Bride, and Modern Bride. Even in today's world of the Internet, I don't understand how CN could be losing money on some of these magazines. Alas.Persistence pays ... 1001 Ways
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"Just wanted to let you know that your 1001 Ways to Market Your Books inspired me over 15 years ago to never give up and to use EVERY avenue to get the word out about my books."My first (non-electronics) book was going to be called Extraordinary Uses for Everyday Things. Although I wrote a good query and a book proposal, interested an agent and then a publisher, the book was cancelled, along with a dozen other titles, just as it was to go to print.
"I left the project alone for awhile, repackaged it (removed some complex projects and shortened the name, etc.), interested another agent, a new Publisher - Andrews McMeel - and Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things was finally published in 2003.
"Again, using your techniques, I proposed and sold sequels, spin-offs, foreign editions, compendiums and more. I also mailed sales letters and flyers to specialty retailers, like Science Museum stores, and the first title is still selling strong.
"The first book has sold over 120,000 copies and all of the titles have just passed the quarter-million sales mark.
"I just wanted to thank you again for your tips, inspiration and great guidebooks (which I recommend to writers all the time!)." — Cy Tymony,
http://www.Sneakyuses.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Order either or both of the above ebooks / multimedia programs by clicking on the appropriate cover above or one of the links below:
Novel Multi-Media Program: http://bit.ly/7qd4FC Still only $127.00.
Literary Agents Ebook: http://bit.ly/9daLNQ Still only $30.00.
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Quotable Books
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For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green
tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.
— Martin Luther, religious reformer
More great quotes and quotable books at http://www.quotablebooks.com
Index: http://www.bookmarket.com/tipsindex.htm
Copyright © 2010 by book promotion expert John Kremer
Email: JohnKremer@bookmarket.com
Open Horizons, P O Box 2887, Taos NM 87571