What's Working for You?

[John Kremer]

I'd like to start a new forum where people can talk about what's working for you right now in marketing your book.

I think this will help other authors to prioritize their activities if they can find out what's working for other people. This would be especially valuable to new authors.

I've share the hottest tool that I'm using right now. And that's Twitter. As you will note on the main page of this Book Marketing Network website, both my http://www.bookmarket.com website and this network have been rising in Alexa ranks (and visits) because of my use of Twitter.

[albertasequeira]

Dear Dr. Mani,

Someone else on this site gave information on a company that was great for promotion. It costs $175, press release, radio, television, etc. I'm going to go with it when I get a few dollars ahead.

Here is the info for you or anyone else.

Bostick Communications
7516 Cordoba Circle
P.O. Box 770059
Naples, FL 34107

ph - 239.598.0895
fx - 239.598.0896
e-mail - [e-mail]

website: www.bostickcommunications.com
--------------------------------------------------


ALSO, there is a great site called Books In Sync (www.booksinsync.com). It cost $25 "A YEAR!." Seriously. You get a press release, reviews, etc.

The owner, Theodocia, is tired of authors being taken with cost for services. I've joined and for the first time in two years, I'm getting orders on my site from PayPal.

Visit their site and join. How can you go wrong for $25. I'm also on there under Multi-books (more than one) Alberta Sequeira.

[Dr.Mani - Internet Infopreneur]

Thanks, Alberta, will check them out :-)

[Jim Donovan]

With my new book, Don't Let an Old Person Move Into Your Body coming out in September, I'm going back to basics.

What worked for me in the past was looking for niches. Poynter is right when he says, "Tolerate book stores, don't pursue them" (assuming we're talking about non-fiction).

Back when I knew less-than-nothing about book selling, I hung on John K's eery word and still do. FYI That resulted in about 100,000 copies of my first book before I sold it to a big publisher.

Today, it's Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, etc.

My early success there has been due to just being myself (who else can I be:-) and sharing useful information. If one keeps self promotion to a minimum, people will respond. If I want what you're selling, I can figure it out on my own.

Something we can all do when appropriate, is to help promote each other. Retweet, share on FB, etc. That, in itself, has a way of coming back to you.

[Steve Miller]

Jim, can you tell us a bit more specifics? So you sold about 100,000 copies. That's incredible/remarkable/wonderful, even if it had been traditionally published from the start! So how exactly did you go about selling 100,000 copies of a self-published book (I think you were saying it was self-published.)?

Did you just go physically from store to store to talk to owners about selling your book? Was it 90% through stuff like this? Or, was a lot of it from the back of the room when you did seminars? Or, were there just a ton of John Kremer's 1001 things that you tried, so that lots of them netted some sales?

At some point, did it reach a tipping point where word of mouth took over?

[Dr.Mani - Internet Infopreneur]

Jim, I'm sure you have a lot to teach us all, and hope you'll share some specifics.

I completely agree with this bit:

"Something we can all do when appropriate, is to help promote each other. Retweet, share on FB, etc. That, in itself, has a way of coming back to you."

Almost all of the 35 people who are committed to promoting my book launch on
August 25th are people I've worked closely with over the last 15 years, helped
with their own launches and know well.

Relationship building is probably the single biggest "marketing tactic" that works!

All success
Dr.Mani

Author: 'Think, Write & Retire'
www.ThinkWriteRetire.com/launch.htm

[Deborah Weed]

Hi John,
I am just starting out in "authordom." A health crisis turned my life around, from the world of marketing and entertainment to doing what I love: being an author, speaker and artist.

One thing that I have noticed is that there are a ton of children's books and I want to stand out. So, I am currently composing all original music to be utilized in an interactive theatrical production of my book, The Luckiest Penny. Right now I am in the leaping stage. I will share whether it works. . .

Also, I am a sponge--in the learning stage. I appreciate anyone's guidance and I believe that you ROCK! Thank you for being generous with your knowledge!

[Steve Miller]

Deborah,

One thought is to sell your childrens' book in places where parents buy stuff or do stuff, but their children have to hang around with nothing to do. Example, I've got a Soho Hero nearby (people make copies, get stuff printed, do business cards, Fed Ex stuff, etc.). I asked the manager/owner about selling my book there. She said, "Sure, I'm selling one author's childrens' books on the wall there. While parents do their copies and stuff, their children have nothing to do but read those books. When it's time to leave, they want the book and the parents buy it for them. I've sold lots of them."

That makes so much sense. And if your book is in stores like that, then it's not competing with other books. Just make sure it gets placed low enough so that the children can see it.

Since my book is a personal finance book, I'm putting it in stores where young people shop, but parents have time on their hands. Like a local shop that sells used video games. The parents are bored stiff, waiting for their children to make a decision. I'll let this group know if it works. It sure makes sense. And believe me, store owners are looking for something - anything - that might bring them some more money! If you give it to them on consignment for a limited period of time, to see if it sells, what do they have to lose?

J. Steve Miller, author of Enjoy Your Money! How to Make It, Save It, Invest It and Give It http://www.amazon.com/Enjoy-Your-Money-Make-Invest/dp/098187567X/re...

[Dr.Mani - Internet Infopreneur]

What's working NOW for me?

2 things.

1. VIDEO Book Trailers. I started a new thread about it on the forum. My 1st ever attempt at making a YouTube video is this book trailer. It has received over 300 views in a week (with some promotion to my lists) and has got some viral exposure on Twitter, with many people re-tweeting it. It also led to a press release follow up, as I could justifiably claim that it made me the "Second Most Discussed" subject on one sub-category of YouTube :-)

2. PERSONAL Touch. For 3 hours today, I took time to make contact with people on my list of 'potential marketing partners' who had not yet replied to my initial contact email. Looking for alternative routes of communication, I took the 4 to 5 min. each to register on help desk set-ups to make sure my approach email reached someone in their organizations.

The results so far have been encouraging. Out of 22 people I managed to reach, I've already got 6 people commit to helping promote on launch day (August 25th). This is 6 folks who would not have done it without that extra effort to 'get personal'. And when you consider that they all have audiences of a few hundred to several thousand prospective buyers of my book, it becomes a worthwhile investment of time and effort.

All success
Dr.Mani
Author: Think, Write & Retire - How To Turn Words Into Wealth, Easily!
http://www.ThinkWriteRetire.com/launch.htm

[Steve Miller]

Dr. Mani,

That's very helpful information. Thanks for giving the specifics, like how many people respond, etc. Lots of people talk about what they're doing to market their books, but it helps when people give some actual figures as to how contacts respond, and in the end, how many books actually sell as a result of specific efforts.

[Dr.Mani - Internet Infopreneur]

I agree that specifics help much better than generics - and why I loved reading your blog, because you share details that matter when making these tough choices!

Since my last post, another 5 people have replied to my 'personal communication', making the promoters list bigger by almost 50% - definitely a worthwhile return on what now looks to have been modest effort investment!

[albertasequeira]

Dr. Mani,

Books In Sync also does a Book Trailer for $59 and puts it on Youtube. See what else comes with it.
www.booksinsync.com

[Edie Jarolim]

I can't say what's going to work because my new book, Am I Boring My Dog, isn't out yet (it will be in less than two weeks!), but I've been finding Twitter very useful for finding a potential audience for it. John, I noticed on your link to Ten Million Eyeballs that you don't recommend Facebook. Although I've been trying to get into it, I find your description of it as too time consuming very heartening. Twitter is enough of a time sink for me because I like it so well. Trying to keep up with Facebook too -- not to mention my blog -- seems overwhelming.

One thing I got my publisher to spring for was a series of video promotions, which I posted on my page here. I think they're great -- but I can't figure out how to get people to watch them, which is a waste. Any thoughts about how to promote them would be appreciated. I've been posting them on Twitter, but am trying to avoid the shameless self-promotion route and go for something more organic...

Edie
http://willmydoghateme.com