Marketing for Authors - reprint article from Book Marketing Newsletter by Penny C. Sansevieri (reprinted with permission)

Feature Article: Why Having a Platform 

May be the Only Way to Sell Books

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Some years back, the industry starting tossing out the word "platform" like confetti during Mardi Gras. Everyone was using the phrase and it quickly became the word du jour. Publishers wanted authors with platform. Books by authors with a platform were easier to sell to their market and therefore, easier to promote. Problem was, everyone was using it and no one was defining it. During the first twelve months that word really hit everyone's radar. I got endless questions from authors about what a platform was. No one really understood it or why they needed it.

Truth was, five or ten years ago a platform was only good if you were a high-profile non-fiction author. Fiction authors relied on their genre, their readers, and hopefully, their reviews. But having a platform was also a tricky thing because what it consisted of varied from genre to genre and was also often left to a publisher's discretion. None of it was terribly objective. Publishers, who were particularly keen on an author platform, would often select books to publish based on certain criteria but that criteria, and what their "must haves" were when it came to an author platform, were undefined and ever-changing.

Cycle forward now seven years or so. Everything has changed. Publishers are no longer gatekeepers of publishing and hence, no longer the main entity to define a platform. Now, however, other challenges emerge.

Not only do we live in a world where anyone can publish but we also live in a world where even if you can't write a book (or don't have time) you can hire someone to write it for you - and voila: suddenly you're a published author. There is an inherent problem with this model which is this: in order to gain any kind of attention for your book, you're going to have to have a platform.

I see this on author calls all the time. I often get authors who come to me with books they've written or had ghosted and they have zero momentum online. Meaning little or no blogging, very little in social media, and in some cases, no website. Now, don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with writing a book, having one ghost-written, or publishing a book if you're a platform virgin. But you must realize that not having a platform will present you as a newbie, to a certain degree, even if you've been in your market for dozens of years.

For fiction authors it's the same thing. The fiction market often relies on reviews either from professional reviewers or from readers. With the flood of books hitting the market that's become a tougher road. But if you have fans built up (yes, fans are considered a platform) and you're active on your website and in some form of social media, you're years ahead of most authors hitting the market.

So, let's break this down for you. What does it really take to build a platform? Surprisingly, not much. We often want to make a task harder than it needs to be. Truth is, 80% of the authors I either meet at events, speak to over the phone, or write me personally are just lost when it comes to this area. So lost in fact that most of them just do nothing. Feel like you belong to this crowd? You're in good company. Lack of understanding often brings inaction or, in some cases, the wrong action.

What is a platform, really? To break this down, a platform is not who you know but who knows you. When you think of it this way you'll understand that a platform is really a series of actions that get you in front of your reader. To use another analogy they are the legs of the table you stand on that raises you above the crowd. What will your "legs" be? But wait. If you run ads are they considered "legs"? Well, no. While I can't comment on the effectiveness of ads for your particular market, I do know that consumers don't favor them. They do, however, favor organic activities. What's organic? It's when a reader finds your content naturally. When it's not pushed on them in the form of an ad. Organic could be a blog post you wrote, your social media, guest blogging you've done, etc. Consider these:

Social Media: Of course I was going to start here because it's the easiest and simplest way to reach your reader. Well, ok, maybe for some it's not. Social media requires work but most authors misunderstand what I mean by "work." It doesn't mean you need to work every social media platform out there. It means you need to find the one (or several) that you feel best serve your market and use them consistently. By consistently I mean daily. Post one thing, engage and move on. If you can spend hours noodling with social media that's great, but if you can't, do a few really effective things and move on. Being productive and busy aren't the same things. If you spend two hours on Facebook cycling through your friend feeds without posting or commenting (maybe you hit Like) you've just wasted two valuable hours of marketing time. Social media doesn't always require the kind of time you think. More isn't better, it's just more.

Blogging: Here's another, often misunderstood marketing tool. Blogging is (or it can be) the single best way to grow your platform. Why? Because it's your voice and your expertise on your site. Do you need to blog daily? If you can, that's great. If you can't, that's fine, too. Blog twice a week. The problem I see with people trying to throw a lot of content out there just for the sake of pushing content is that most of it is garbage. Have you noticed this recent trend? Lots of people writing lots of stuff, but much of it isn't worth your time. Don't be one of those people. When it comes to blogging, less can be more. If you're writing something that's incredibly helpful, insightful, or engaging but you feel you can only do that twice a week, that's fine. Frankly, I'd rather see one thing that totally inspires me, rather than 10 things that don't. For fiction authors, don't cop out on this, either. You can write in character if you want, give away snippets of your book, discuss some unique ways to do book research or talk about the publishing industry because so many of your readers may be writers, too.

Goodreads/Library Thing: It's becoming more apparent that the way to find readers is to go to where they are. These two sites have millions of readers and in an upcoming piece I'm going to write about how to work these platforms to your advantage. Though know this, much like social media you should be on there daily if you can be, or a few times a week if that's not possible.

Speaking/events: We all know that bookstores are shrinking and so is event space, but if you want to do speaking it's a fantastic way to draw in an audience. If you aren't on the speaking circuit and don't know places where you can do events or talks consider some unique sites. I've written a lot about author events in non-bookstore venues such as Hallmark or card stores, restaurants, kitchen or cooking stores, grocery stores or markets, gyms, gift shops, etc. If you have a book that ties into one of these areas, or perhaps one I didn't mention consider going after them for an event. Likely they've never done a book event in their store so you'll have to educate them. Offer to bring your own books (selling on consignment often works well in these venues) and if doing a talk isn't in the cards because of store traffic, consider just getting a table and signing books. But, in either case, bring your mailing list sign-up sheet and encourage folks to give you their email address. Offer them something as an incentive to sign up. I never, ever, ever do a single signing or speaking event without bringing a sign-up sheet and giving folks something for free to encourage getting an email.

Website/mailing list: Everyone who writes a book needs a website. Period, end of story. If you think your book will sell well without one, you are mistaken. And look, I know that when you publish it seems that everywhere you turn someone has got their hand out for money. Yes, if you hire good people to do great work for you it will cost you money. But that's really the ticket: hire good people to do great work. Your website doesn't have to be this mega-fantastic site but it should be well-designed (read: please don't design your own site, create your own book cover or cut your own hair. I've done all three and it wasn't pretty). You should have a mailing list sign-up. I know you may have a million reasons why you don't want one but I'll give you one major reason why you should: Platform. When you capture emails you are making your website work for you. It not only becomes your 24/7 sales tool but your re-marketing tool. Our newsletter (which we've had for years) has become one of our #1 ways to market. We get in front of our reader every two weeks with helpful, insightful information and they remember us. How will you get your reader to remember you?

Blockbuster world: I've written pretty extensively on why I feel we need bookstores and why I don't want them to close but the biggest reason I think bookstores are important is that we don't want to live in a blockbuster-only world. Imagine what it would be like if the only bookstores were in Wal-Mart, Target and airports. What would that mean for your book? Well, likely it would mean that if you weren't a blockbuster, your book would never be on any of these shelves. You may argue that even with stores your book isn't on any shelves. That's true for a lot of us, and even with Barnes & Noble and a lot of independents it's hard to find a home for your book on a bookstore shelf. This is why platform is even more crucial. Consumers are driven by big names and those big names are driven by their platform, in some cases their readers. Consider the success of certain books from unknown authors that were entirely reader-driven. Welcome to the new world of the blockbuster. Reader engagement is crucial - now more than ever you must engage with your reader. You can do that via your blog, on social media sites, in places like Library Thing and Goodreads and via speaking events and your mailing list. Readers are gold, they are your platform.

Now it's very likely that you read through this piece and thought, "my reader isn't in any of these places." I'd be surprised if that was true but if you are sitting in a very niche market or have devised other ways to get in front of your reader and grow your platform, then good for you.

The point is that developing your platform is a fancy way of saying: "Get in front of your reader as often as you can." Figure out how to reach your individual reader, and you've now figured out how to build your platform. In an age where everyone can publish (and it would seem that everyone is) the thing that will define you and separate your message from the noise will be your platform. Without it, yours may be the best book that no one has ever read.

WHO ARE WE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author Marketing Experts, Inc. is a full-service book marketing, promotion, and publicity company. We serve authors at all stages of marketing and promotion. We offer a full range of packages and services to choose from.
To see a price list or schedule a free consultation, send your e-mail to penny@amarketingexpert.com with the subject line "Author Services Info." You can also visit our website at www.amarketingexpert.com.

Reprint permission 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You are welcome to reprint any items from "The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter." However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

8 Ways to Get reviews That Aren't Fake by Penny C. Sansevieri

We've always had a problem with "fake." Whether it was a fake Kate Spade handbag, or a knock-off clothing line, fake has always been a part of our culture. Most of this is made popular by the "don't you want to have it, too?" mindset that often surrounds celebrities: "Get the dress Jennifer Aniston wore for only $200!" Most of us, however, can spot fake. Or, to help avoid litigation, many reputable companies offer knock-offs of celebrity Oscar gowns and what-not. Fake, however, is not limited to fashion anymore.

Now, fake and counterfeit has begun permeating the publishing industry. We've seen things like 35 Shades of Grey and other knock-off titles that seem to circumvent any legal challenges, but there's a new challenge on the frontier, that of fake reviews. Do you believe reviews? A majority of us don't, but more often than not we believed the consumer reviews. Not so much anymore, especially now when reviews can be bought, or in some cases, simply faked. The message seems to be: if you want to get noticed, you'd better be prepared to "fake it till you make it." That's a nice saying, in theory, but when you're talking about polluting an Amazon page with a bunch of dummy reviews, that's another story.

So, what's an author to do? I'm sure as time wears on it will be tempting to buy into this but what happens when we do? We end up with a cluttered market packed with "I loved this!" and we're left to wonder, did the person really love it and, even worse, did they even read it? We all want to be liked, or rather, we want our work to be liked but to what end?

Several years ago we were on a team retreat, at that time a savvy team member came to me and said "We can't put our stock in reviews, these folks are inundated with books to look over, we need to find other channels." And so we did. Where we used to do review-centric programs (meaning that the success or failure of a marketing campaign depended on the number of reviews we got), we now offer campaigns that are balanced and yes, we like to get reviews for our customers, but that's not always the best way to grow your market. Here is perhaps a different set of ideas (and maybe a few you've heard before) about getting exposure and (if you're lucky) getting reviews:

1. Stay engaged: I see a lot of folks who aren't engaged in the process or their reader. I'm not talking about running through your to-do list of marketing activities. I'm talking about staying engaged with your reader. Talking to them via your blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, whatever. Your reader is your end user, you want reviews to get to them, but in the absence of reviews guess what? Your outreach to your reader will have a far greater impact on your market and your sales.

2. Know the rules: The rules of the game are important. Part of what's so discouraging to bloggers (and eats away at their time) is that authors don't often take the time to know who to pitch. That's what makes paid reviews so tempting (among other things), you can send in a check and then you get reviews. Real, honest, and thorough reviews take time but keep this in mind: when this shakes out and presumably "consumer" reviews don't have the credibility they once did, where do you think authors will start to go? To the long-time, credible reviewers - where it all started. So, get to know them now. They have a following and people who read them know, they can't be bought.

3. Start early: As with anything in marketing, start early. I'm going to run through some networking tips in another section but for now, start thinking in terms of early, early, early. How soon should you start? Six months at a minimum.

4. Review other books: Reviewing other people's books works great on a number of levels. First and foremost, it's important to support other authors in your market. You want reviews? Guess what? So do they. Get out and review their books, they'll appreciate the effort. Then, when it's time for your book to come out, let them know you're published, offer to send them a copy and (if they have the time) encourage a review. Keep in mind that they may or may not do it, you aren't trading reviews here, you're paying it forward.

5. Please and thank you: When was the last time you thanked someone for a review? If you haven't, you should. You'll write more books and may want to pitch them again, and even if you don't, saying thank you takes no work at all. Show them your appreciation. Consider this, Midwest Book Review has worked tirelessly to do reviews for years, they ask for nothing. Occasionally I'll get a letter from them saying "if you want to help out, we could really use stamps." It's a small thing, with a huge impact. We're all in this together, help out the people who help so many others. Spread the word about the review, thank them, be gracious. You'll be glad you did.

6. Network: If the idea of networking makes you think of long, boring events where you hand out your cards like candies out of a Pez dispenser, take heart - it doesn't have to be like that. You can network on a variety of sites. Let's take LinkedIn for example, which is a great place to network with the media. Join groups in your area of expertise and contribute once a week or so, connect with media and bloggers in your market and then comment on their updates and posts. See? You don't even have to leave your house or, for that matter, attend some boring, colorless event to stay connected.

7. Social media contacts: When was the last time you went through your social media contacts, your Likes on Facebook, connections on LinkedIn? Part of your monthly networking outreach could be to send a quick note to 4 contacts on each social media site. Why? Because there's a big likelihood that you are connected to a blogger, bookstore buyer, or reviewer. You simply never know who is part of your network unless you take time to explore them!

8. Reviews aren't the end game: At the end of the day reviews may not be the way to greater sales. Consider this: have you ever pitched yourself as a contributor to bloggers or blogs? Have you reached out to any newsletters in your industry? Have you considered excerpting your book online somewhere? Consider other options, brainstorm with other authors who are facing the same challenges.

While we love easy, easy isn't always best. A slew of five-star reviews on an Amazon page is now considered suspect. If you want to build your credibility you'll need to work harder. Consumers want authentic, they want transparency. By looking outside of the norm and really maximizing what you already have access to, you can rise about the review noise and, in so doing, will begin to build much more credibility for yourself in the long-term. Credibility breeds respect, and that could bring you more legitimate reviews than you know what to do with.

We now live in a world where anyone can publish at any time. With one click of a button you can become an author. But I believe the journey is much greater than that. It's more than just putting words on paper and hitting a few buttons. It's an effort and it requires time, patience, persistence and passion.

Someone asked me once "Wouldn't it be great if everyone loved your book?" Not really, I said. Not everyone's going to love what I write or what I do. I love the love, but it's in the criticism that I often find my biggest growth.


WHO ARE WE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author Marketing Experts, Inc. is a full-service book marketing, promotion, and publicity company. We serve authors at all stages of marketing and promotion. We offer a full range of packages and services to choose from.
To see a price list or schedule a free consultation, send your e-mail to penny@amarketingexpert.com with the subject line "Author Services Info." You can also visit our website at www.amarketingexpert.com.

Reprint permission 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You are welcome to reprint any items from "The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter." However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

The Eightfold Way: The 8 Basic Don'ts for Novel Writers by Steve Moore (reposted with permission from the Book Marketing Expert Newsletter)

The media has become fixated on spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Higgs boson (the so-called "God particle," a name that would surely make Mr. Higgs cringe). The Higgs mechanism (i.e. the spontaneous symmetry breaking) is necessary to give mass to some of the vector bosons in the electroweak or weak and electromagnetic interaction theory. Forgotten in all this media hoopla is the theory that led to the idea of quarks and gluons, the Eightfold Way of symmetries popularized by Mr. Gell-Mann. (Note that I refrain from using the term "discovered." In theoretical physics, the math is "out there." You just have to figure out what math matches up to the experimental data. Experimental physics is where "discoveries" are made.)

Now that I've had some fun imagining your eyes glazing over as if you'd just had tequila mixed with sleeping pills, let me say that this post is not about physics. (My eyes are glazed too, because the above is hardcore physics and I've been sipping my Jameson's while writing like a madman.) The Eightfold Way I consider here is the shining path that leads you to a finished novel that someone might want to read. It's my distillation of rules for writing a novel-a distillation that is not the quality of a fine Irish whiskey, but I've put some thought to it and would like to share (I'd like to share the Jameson's too, but the Internet hasn't discovered e-drinking yet).

What are the rules for successful novel writing? There are many and everybody has his or her own list. All writers are not equal-what works for one might not for the other. Moreover, since I'm not David Baldacci or Stephen King, you might think that I'm being a bit presumptuous-I am not a successful novelist. I might be considered prolific, but, by my own standards, I'm not successful-I would certainly like to have more readers. Nevertheless, I'm an avid reader. Since I'm also a novelist, when I read a novel, I read with a critical eye, especially in my capacity as a reviewer. Readers rule, especially nowadays when there's a plethora of novels available just waiting to be read. My Eightfold Way is reader-oriented. It's a list of DON'Ts if the writer wants to keep his readers happy. Are you ready?

(1) Don't just write about what you know. In fact, the adage "Write about what you know" is completely off base. I don't know who said it initially, but he or she clearly wanted to eliminate the competition. Here's the scoop: If you have no imagination, you shouldn't be a novelist. I'm not just talking about sci-fi, either, where this rule is obvious. If you're writing a romantic novel about vampire love or a thriller about finding a serial killer, I bet you have no direct experience in either (not $10k-how about one of my eBooks?). Your imagination has to rule your writing. Moreover, what you imagine has to be put into words that move and still make sense to the reader.

(2) Don't confuse your readers on time, place, or point-of-view (POV). The action in my novel The Midas Bomb, for example, covers only a week. I had the timeline laid out, of course, but I soon realized that the reader could be confused by the rapid succession of events, especially since flashbacks are mixed in. Consequently, the day and time are a subheading to each chapter. (One reviewer expressed appreciation for this, so I know I made the right choice.) For POV, I'm not a purist. Switches within a chapter are OK as long as they're clear-for example, at the beginning of a new chapter section. However, it's a little weird when Susie knows what Bob is thinking, unless Susie is a mind reader. Bottom line here: don't make your reader say, "Huh?"

(3) Don't write overly explicit and excessive character description. I hate it as a reviewer; I avoid it like the plague as a novelist. Leave something for the reader's imagination. If you're too excessive, you might contradict the image he already has in his mind. Your character might have a dragon tattoo, but it's unimportant to the reader if it's unimportant to the plot. Minimalist writing should be your goal. Of course, you have to be clever enough to provide some logical but misleading clues in a mystery, for example, or the reader will have no fun. The key to description is that old slutty Goldilocks-you want just enough, no more, no less.

(4) Don't be verbose or erudite, especially in dialog. Many experts call Herman Melville's Moby Dick the greatest American novel. I don't think so. It's number two on my list of "worst books in the English language" primarily because it's an overly detailed manual on how to turn whale's blubber into lamp oil. If anything, Greenpeace should ban it. In fact, most of the books in my list suffer from verbosity and eruditeness. One reader talked about the pages and pages in Giants of the Earth describing the motion of grass (maybe that's where the phrase "boring as watching grass grow" came from?). The 70+ page speech in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is another turn-off. The pages and pages of description of sea flora and fauna in 20,000 Leagues under the Sea is a huge turn-off. You get the idea.

I reviewed a book recently where the author obeyed his grammar checker to the nth degree and omitted all contractions in his dialog. Oops! Contractions are an important part of natural dialog; the latter should always reflect everyday speech. Anything else sounds pompous. Of course, you might want your character to sound pompous, but handle with care. Street jive is the other extreme, of course. The trick is to entertain your readers, not bore them or annoy them.

To me, verbosity also includes an overuse of adjectives and adverbs. That's the minimalist thing again. Consider: "You're a cad!" she said angrily. The "angrily" is unnecessary as are most variants of "said." These latter are wraith-like words that a speed-reader passes over. Of course, artistic license allows you to spring a surprise. Consider: "You're a cad!" she said with a wink. Now the adverbial phrase "with a wink" expresses possible flirting instead of the obvious anger. It's no longer superfluous.

(5) Don't dwell on minutia. That's the minimalist idea yet again. Moby and 20,000 Leagues again come to mind. Assume the reader already has a good idea about how to brush his teeth, for example-I'm reminded of those websites where one watches someone go through their day. Boring! I have better ways to spend my time. If a character goes from point X to point Y, the reader doesn't need to know what happened between X and Y, unless it's essential to the plot (he sits on a butterfly and changes the space-time continuum?).

(6) Don't be cute. The TV series Lost had many followers, but most people were turned off by the convoluted pseudo-spiritual ending and the many flash-forwards were confusing, to say the least. The writers were too cute. I've seen this happen in novels I review. I might be old-fashioned, but I avoid flash-forwards entirely. Garcia-Marquez in one of his novellas, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, gets cute and announces the ending right up front, then spends the rest of the novella telling the reader how that came to pass. He gets away with it-he's a Nobel prize winner, after all. Generally speaking, though, you won't.

(7) Don't use cliched plots. Yeah, I know, there are only so many different story types, but I've read about too many twins separated at birth, too many aliens that seem like mafiosos, a plethora of amnesia victims running from bad guys, hordes of star-crossed lovers with families that don't understand, and so forth. In particular, if I can map your story into one of Shakespeare's plays by any stretch of my own fertile imagination, I'm suspicious. Cliches also reduced my enjoyment of the Star Wars trilogy-too many plot elements were lifted straight from Asimov and Edgar Rice Burroughs' work.

If I were an agent (thank goodness I'm not), the last thing I would want to read in a query is "My book is like." (I did tell agents that my young adult novel The Secret Lab is NOT Harry Potter in space, but that's different-I like Harry and friends, but every YA agent in the world was looking for the next Harry.) Use that imagination. If your novel's plot seems cliched, at least throw some plot twists in that wake up your reader. As a reviewer, I love a reversed cliche. (Unlikely heroes fall into this category-remember the tailor who "killed six with one blow"?)

(8) Don't name your characters without some serious consideration. In January's Writer's Digest, Elizabeth Sims in the article "Namedropping" lists many good ideas about how you should choose a character's name. Like Ms. Sims, I take character naming very seriously as a writer. As a reader and reviewer, I cringe at some authors' choices. Jeff Smith isn't a Latino, Jane Brown isn't Chinese, and so forth. Again, think of your reader. He or she will be upset if all your names sound like they're taken from a first-grade reader. Moreover, the appropriate name for a character must somehow fit that character's personality. Some best-selling writers violate this rule-a pox on their house, I say, or on their editor's, at least.

What's not in this list? Many details. That's the easy answer. All the grammatical details, for example (rules upon rules about split infinitives, ending a sentence with a preposition, etc.). Rules about not switching from third to first person (tell that to Patterson) or excessive use of the passive voice. Rules about appropriate punctuation (tell that to Garcia-Marquez in Autumn of the Patriarch, at least in the Spanish version, or Joyce in Finnegan's Wake). I care less about these rules. Rules are meant to be broken and writers often do so, even famous ones (should I say, especially famous ones?).

Nonetheless, my Eightfold Way contains what I consider essential that you NOT do as a novelist. I might still find your novel entertaining if you break one of my rules, but I might not. I probably should change my phrasing to "worst books in the English language that so-called experts say are great"-there are many indie books out there that are not worth your time because they break many of these rules. Same goes for some best-sellers that have passed through the legacy publishing gauntlet. The "so-called experts" will be reluctant to give the "great" grade in this case, especially counting their bias against indie books. You, the reader, on the other hand, are very lucky. There are many "great books" out there, both legacy and indie, in many different genres-you just need to find them and enjoy them.

However, just as Einstein might have a problem receiving tenure in today's tough academic environment, writing a novel well does not guarantee that you will have readers. Name recognition is the key. That can be achieved through publicity and marketing. If you have the budget, contract with an agency that will help you in these areas. Moreover, it helps to have not just one book but several. Einstein's theory of special relativity alone would have eventually made him famous, but when you consider everything else he published in 1905, not to mention his magnum opus, the general theory of relativity, you just knew the guy wasn't a Johnny-come-lately. He was a prolific scientist-as a reader, look for prolific writers, and, as a writer, be prolific.

In libris libertas!

Steve Moore writes sci-fi thrillers, short stories, and book reviews. He also has an active blog where he comments on current events and posts opinions about writing and the publishing business from the perspective of an indie author. Visit him at his website http://stevenmmoore.com

WHO ARE WE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author Marketing Experts, Inc. is a full-service book marketing, promotion, and publicity company. We serve authors at all stages of marketing and promotion. We offer a full range of packages and services to choose from.

To see a price list or schedule a free consultation, send your e-mail to penny@amarketingexpert.com with the subject line "Author Services Info." You can also visit our website at www.amarketingexpert.com.

Reprint permission 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You are welcome to reprint any items from "The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter." However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Feature Article: The Secrets to Getting More Book Reviews (even if your book is already out) by Penny C. Sansevieri

We hear it all the time: "the window for reviews is shrinking," and yet we still see reviews appearing everywhere. So how can you capture a share of this market? It's true that often reviews from big-name bloggers go to equally big-name authors. Well, can you blame the blogger? If someone had a choice between reviewing Shades of Grey and one of my recent books, I'm sure Shades would win and I totally get that, but it's hard when you're starting out. You often get reviews when you get reviews, so the old adage of "media draws media" is very true. Then where do you start?

Years ago, when I was first in the industry, it was pretty simple. You could find a reviewer, send him or her a copy and that was that. Now, it's a lot different. Bloggers get hundreds of books mailed to them by publishers on a monthly basis, while book review departments in newspapers have either shrunk or been removed entirely. It's a whole new world. The good news is that there are still great opportunities to get reviewed, but you need to understand the new rules of exposure.

Blogger reviews: Blogger reviews are still great (even though bloggers are busier than ever) but in order to get your fair share, I recommend networking with the bloggers. How do you do that? By following their blogs and posting authentic and helpful comments on their posts - or by retweeting a review of a book that you particularly loved. Get to know the bloggers you'll be pitching to. They will also appreciate that you took the time to read their blog, instead of just pitching them. It's true with any kind of networking. You tend to go to the front of the line when you know someone, right? So get to know the bloggers.

If you have a series of bloggers you are following who are influential but don't necessarily review books, you could ask them if they might let you guest blog or perhaps run an excerpt of your book on their website or you might coordinate a book giveaway with them. As a blogger myself, I love it when someone writes me for an interview and has actually read our blog. How do I know they've done this? Often they'll weave that into their pitch. For example, "Dear Penny, I saw that you wrote about mobile marketing in January and interviewed Gillian Muessig in May, I think my topic would be a nice addition to your blog because -" See? Now that's much better than: "Dear Penny, I have an idea for your blog I think you might like." There's a chance I will love it, but a far greater chance I won't because the person pitching just spotted our website and thought: "They might like this." It takes a bit more work to do it the other way, but your returns will be greater and you're also building relationships as you go, making the tradeoff worth it.

Review other books: In order to get reviews, you might need to become a reviewer. I know this might sound crazy. Who has time to review books? Well, that's how we got here in the first place, remember? Reviewing other people's books (who write about similar topics to you) is not only a great thing to do for your industry but a great way to network. I review every book that's appropriate to my market (on Amazon). People love peer reviews, trust me. Imagine if the person you're reviewing reviewed you? See how that works? Make sure to send them the review when you're done. It's a boatload of great Karma that could help you get some reviews, too.

Media connections: With newspapers eliminating review departments, how on earth can you get some traction for your book? How about articles and write ups? And even when newspapers do reviews, it can still be a hard road to get them. Especially if your book is self-published, POD or eBook. With 1,500 books published each day, it's tough to weave through the maze of authors out there trying to get attention for their book, too. Here's what I recommend. Get to know the media in your market. Pick a series of newspapers in your immediate area or state. You can find a pretty good listing here: www.newslink.org. You can also select other areas, depending on your book, the reach of your topic or your business. Often smaller regions of the US will still have active review departments so be sure to check all appropriate papers for both reporters who write about your topic, and review department criteria (where they want you to send the book, etc.). By getting to know the reporters who write about your topic, you can network with them early (pre-release) by commenting on articles they've written, or offering them ideas or statistics for future pieces. Remember the networking piece for bloggers? That works here, too and it's a great way to gain attention for your book and get a mention or review in a local or national paper.

Media Leads: I wrote an article on media leads, how to get them and how to respond to them. You can see it here (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/maximizing-media-leads_b_748574.html) and suffice it to say that the sooner you start with this (yes, long before the book is out), the better. It's another great way to network with a reporter.

Amazon Reviews: We've all heard of the big, top ten Amazon reviewers, but like any big-name reviewers they get inundated, too. Amazon is a great portal to expand upon and you should do whatever you can to populate your page with reviews because rarely do readers buy books "naked" (this refers to the book page, not the state of dress). I highly encourage you to review the Amazon list of top reviewers (folks who do post reviews on Amazon) and then pitch the ones that are right for your market. The lure of the top reviewers is that they possess a certain clout, but because of that, the other folks who are solid, faithful reviewers tend to get overlooked. Consider your options with Amazon, and definitely do your research and find some reviewers: http://www.amazon.com/review/top-reviewers.

(MY OWN PERSONAL NOTE REGARDING THE ABOVE TIP ABOUT CONTACTING AMAZON TOP REVIEWERS - PLEASE DON'T ASK ME TO REVIEW YOUR BOOK BECAUSE I'M A TOP AMAZON REVIEWER. I GET DAILY REQUESTS NOW AND I CAN'T SAY YES MOST OF THE TIME, AND I FEEL BAD SAYING NO TWENTY NINE TIMES A MONTH.)

Social sites: Websites like Library Thing and Goodreads offer another great opportunity. First, these communities have millions of very active members and are a great place to garner reader reviews. Both sites have a great Reader Giveaway program that we love and use often; in exchange for handing over a free copy members (winners) are encouraged to post a review of the book. Very win-win if you're looking to get the word out there about your book.

While the world has changed a lot in regards to reviews, there are still a lot of opportunities out there for getting to the right people and getting those people to talk about your book. Not only that, but building a strong community of media and blogger contacts will help you not just for your current book, but for future titles as well.


Submissions Open: Tips and Tricks for Writers and Authors
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Submit your best blog post on writing, book marketing, publishing or social media to our weekly Blog Carnival: https://amarketingexpert.wufoo.com/forms/ame-blog-carnival/
The carnival blog post appears every Monday; submission deadline is the previous Friday.

WHO ARE WE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author Marketing Experts, Inc. is a full-service book marketing, promotion, and publicity company. We serve authors at all stages of marketing and promotion. We offer a full range of packages and services to choose from.
To see a price list or schedule a free consultation, send your e-mail to penny@amarketingexpert.com with the subject line "Author Services Info." You can also visit our website at www.amarketingexpert.com.

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You are welcome to reprint any items from "The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter." However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph:

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Feature Article: How to Market Your Fan Page With the New Facebook Changes by Amy Porterfield

Facebook expert Amy Porterfield shares some insights into the recent changes.

First up, Amy can you tell us what the biggest difference is with the new Fan Page changes?

Here's the thing, it is no longer about the number of Likes. Just because you have a lot of likes, a lot of fans, doesn't mean you're going to have success on Facebook. If you want bottom-line results you must create ways to keep fans coming back for more, collect leads from quality fans and get them to take action inside and outside of Facebook.

With all the new changes, Pages are now more visually stimulating, which means that you can actually get more engagement just by the fact that there's a new layout on your Facebook page. To couple that with some of these strategies we'll talk about in this article, you'll have some surefire ways to get more action from your Facebook fans.

A lot of people are concerned that their Welcome Tab is gone and there's a new cover photo, can you tell us about that?

You bet. First let's go over the Timeline Cover Photo. Here are some specifics about these changes. Now you're going to have a big cover photo on the top. That big cover photo is a great opportunity for you to brand your business.

First of all what you need to know is the specs for that cover photo are 851 x 315 pixels. I know 851 is kind of an odd number but the closer you get to that, the crisper your photo is going to be, it's not going to be blurry or it's not going to be stretched too much or whatever.

Also, you have a new profile image. Here's an example of Coca Cola's page where you see the little profile image on the left. 

That image is 180 x 180 pixels. 

https://www.facebook.com/cocacola?__adt=4

Here's the frustrating thing about these new timeline covers for pages. There are a lot of restrictions. You can see these right on the Facebook Blog, too:

* Facebook says that you cannot include price or purchase info, such as 40% off or Download it at our website, you can't put that type of information on your cover photo.

* You also cannot include contact information such as web address, email, mailing address or any other info intended for your About section on your Facebook page. You know we all have that About section where we can give details of how to reach us. They don't want that type of information on your cover photo.

* In addition, you cannot reference a user interface element. What that means is you can't say "Like" or "Share" or any other Facebook site features. They don't want you to say Like our page or Share our information on Facebook on that cover photo.

* No calls to action, which is the hugest bummer. You can't do "Get it Now" or "Tell Your Friends" or "Sign up here" or "Go here to get more info;" you can't do any type of call to action.

* Facebook says that the cover timeline photo is not meant for promotions, coupons or advertisements.

* They also say that the cover photo should not be primarily text-based or infringe on anyone else's copyright.

As you can see, these timeline restrictions are pretty strict. There are a lot of things that we cannot do on the timeline cover. Here are some examples of what other companies have done with their cover photo:

https://www.facebook.com/social.fresh They have a really cool image, it's colorful, it catches your attention and it makes things interesting on their page. You could just go with an image and do some type of creative branding like they've done here.

https://www.facebook.com/CaptainMorgan Or you can do what Captain Morgan does, and they've basically expanded their brand.

https://www.facebook.com/AmyPorterfield With mine, I set it up to be more of a list building opportunity. I will say I know that I'm walking the line with this experiment here. I promoted my webinar on my cover photo. I've heard that they have taken people's cover photos down and you've had to fix them and replace them. I haven't heard anybody losing their Facebook page over this but do what you feel most comfortable with because I don't want to get you into any trouble.

Facebook is rolling out something called Applications, or Apps, can you speak to that?

Along with the timeline cover photos being a huge change on Facebook, Facebook has also changed how we use tabs. Tabs used to be on the left column of our Facebook page - now tabs are called Apps. Tabs and Apps - those words are pretty much interchangeable right now. It's your custom page that you can create inside your Facebook page. The specs for these custom apps are now 810 pixels wide which really allow you to do so much more with your custom pages inside Facebook then you ever could before. I'm going to show you some examples of this.

In addition to that, Facebook has also allowed you to create thumbnails to highlight your different applications. You can create thumbnails that have an image on top of them. That image could be 111 x 74 pixels, kind of a weird number but trust me these are the best dimensions to make your images look really great.

You cannot have thumbnail images on top of photos, videos, notes, likes and events. Those application boxes cannot be changed. Also you can move around your thumbnails and you can have up to 12 applications on your Facebook page.

If you go to my Facebook page, right below my cover image you'll see my applications and you'll only see the top four unless you click that button on the right, then it will be a drop down and you'll see the other four. What's cool about this is I was able to create custom thumbnail images for the three you're seeing right there on top and the two on the bottom; Social Media Updates, Free Video Series, Webinars, those are all thumbnails that I created. I've created the jpeg image then uploaded it.

There are some strategies for thumbnails that I want you to think about:

* Create a reason to click inside your thumbnail - as you saw, I have Social Media Updates, Free Video Series, these are things that I know my ideal audience will find valuable.

* Get strategic with the three apps above the fold - those three that you saw next to the big thumbs up; those three you can move around. Make sure those are the best three you have on top because until someone clicks that blue arrow to the right that I showed you, they won't see the ones below it.

* Rename the app itself, and you should think in terms of getting your fans to take action.

There's a lot you can do with the Applications or Apps, and we'll talk about that in part two of our Facebook Fan Page Marketing strategy session with Amy Porterfield.

Here's the great webinar I reference in this article: https://marketinganimals.infusionsoft.com/go/fbadsamy/amyp/

Amy Porterfield is the co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies and a Social Media Strategist for entrepreneurs and small businesses. With 12+ years marketing experience, Amy has worked with mega brands like Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, along with Tony Robbins International where she oversaw his content marketing team and collaborated on multiple online marketing campaigns. She currently creates online programs to teach entrepreneurs and small businesses how to leverage social media to gain greater exposure, attract quality leads and turn their fans and followers into loyal customers. To learn more about Facebook and social media for your business, check out Amy's blog: http://www.amyporterfield.com


WHO ARE WE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author Marketing Experts, Inc. is a full-service book marketing, promotion, and publicity company. We serve authors at all stages of marketing and promotion. We offer a full range of packages and services to choose from.
To see a price list or schedule a free consultation, send your e-mail topenny@amarketingexpert.com with the subject line "Author Services Info." You can also visit our website at www.amarketingexpert.com.

Reprint permission 
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You are welcome to reprint any items from "The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter." However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph:

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Love The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter!

Here is the latest great advice/marketing tips from Penny C. Sansevieri, editor.

Feature Article: Why Isn't My Book Selling?
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It's a question I get asked a lot: "Why isn't my book selling?" This question isn't reserved for the author who is clueless about marketing. I've been asked this by savvy authors, even business people who can't seem to figure out the system for selling.

Sometimes the reasons why a book isn't selling are easy: the cover is poor, the content is not edited or the topic is unappealing. But in most cases that I've seen, you need to dig deeper. So, overlooking the obvious, let's go a step further because the mysteries of selling might be a lot easier to fix than you think.

1. Start Early: In many cases starting early means earlier than you think. Often, I see authors beginning their campaigns a month prior to book launch. If you do that, keep in mind that your results won't show up for months (and months), often it takes up to six months to see anything you seed start to grow. That's partially why marketing people will encourage you to start early because it can take so long to see results.

2. Limited availability: Having a book that can only be purchased off of your website isn't a great way to promote a title. You want to make sure that the book is where your consumer is: on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and even if you aren't stocked on a bookstore shelf, you want to be sure that someone can order it. Limit your book availability and you limit your success. If you don't give your consumer enough places to get your book, they will probably get someone else's title instead. Don't let your marketing serve the competition better than it serves you.

3. The rule of seven: You need to be everywhere. A lot. But what does that mean, exactly? It means that your reader (or potential reader) needs to see your book in a lot of different places. Have you asked yourself how many ways you are marketing the book? Are you active in any social media? Do you participate in blogs? Are you getting reviews? Think of the seven ways or access points that you need for your book to gain traction with the audience. Seven seems to be the magic number for many marketing people so go with that, use it as a goal. Your book should have access points in seven different areas. With so much out there begging for your readers' attention you want to be sure that your book is getting an equal amount of attention.

4. Multichannel marketing: How many different ways are you marketing your book? No, I don't mean the rule of seven, though this applies here, too. What I mean is how many channels are you using to market your book to the reader? Email? Video? Print mailings? A successful campaign is one that encompasses the rule of seven, so seven public channels to reach your reader, but also consider multi-channel marketing, as well.

5. You don't think this applies to you: Often when I give these talks, I have authors who say, "Well, this may be true for some, but it's not really what I'm about." It might not be what you are about, but I can guarantee you it applies to everyone, across the board. Are there success stories that break out of the norm? You bet, but it's rare.

Now You Know, What Do You Do?

Let's say that you're reading this, you are knee-deep in promotion and thinking "oh, brother, this is me. What now?" A lot of authors just toss the first book out and focus on the second figuring they made the mistakes with the first and chalk it up to a "learning curve." I don't think that's a great idea. You put a lot of work into that book, yes? Don't you want it to succeed? I thought so. Here are some tips you can implement, right now, to get things back on track:

* Get to know successful authors: Yes, it's good and cathartic to commiserate with other authors who feel their book isn't selling, but beyond that it won't really do much for your success. Step out of your comfort zone and start looking for authors you want to emulate. Successful authors who have it going on. Build your list. Find at least 10 authors in your market that are doing well and presumably selling books.

* Investigate: What do other authors do in your genre? You now have a list of other, successful authors, right? If you've collected this list, follow them on their blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest. Follow them everywhere, start to build your tribe. Get to know them almost better than you know your own marketing campaign. You may say "well, they have more money than I do to market!" That might be true, but I bet it's not - not entirely anyway. Most of the really successful authors don't get there with just a checkbook, they probably have a great sense of who their market is, what their market wants and exactly how to give it to them. I'm not telling you to copy, I'm telling you to learn from other successful authors.

* Google Alerts: Now that you have your list of fabulous authors, plug their names into Google Alerts and see where they show up. Yes, when I say investigate I mean doing just that. Do your homework. Why does this matter? Because the blogs they show up on will be great places for you to network, and guess what? All it costs is a little bit of time.

* Count the ways: How many different ways can a reader access you? Count them. I'm serious. You should have at least seven access points. Maybe you are syndicating articles, maybe you are on YouTube, maybe you are on Facebook, Pinterest, whatever it is it's an access point. If you don't have seven of them and aren't sure where to start, go back to bullets two and three.

* Get rid of what's not working: I was at an event a few weeks ago and talked to an author who was doing lots of Google ads. He was careful to stay within his daily budget, but he wasn't sure if they were working. Why was he doing them? He had been to a seminar that talked about Google Ads and thought he'd give it a shot. Initially it did well, then not so much. He kept doing them because he thought eventually it would turn around. Sometimes things like ads have a lifespan, if you aren't monitoring this stuff you'll never know. Don't hesitate to get rid of what's not working and be brutally honest with yourself. Remember that if you keep doing something that's not working it will take away time and probably money from doing something that could make your book successful. The choice is yours.

* Distribution: Make sure your book is out there, and I mean really out there. You may hate it that Amazon takes 55% of your book sales but would you rather have 45% of a sale or nothing at all? Don't have an ebook yet? Why not? It's easier than ever to have your book converted to an ebook. It's so easy I've known authors to do it in less than 15 minutes. It's no longer a matter of whether you can publish a book; it's whether someone can find it. You might not be in stores nationwide, but if you can be on online e-tailers that's a big and helpful start.

* Persistence: Maybe the biggest piece of success is persistence. I know I sound like a motivational speaker right now, but it's true. Persist, persist, persist. Often I find that authors are just weeks away from their success and they give up because of some of the reasons cited in the first part of this article. Persist even on the days you can't be bothered. On those days do just one thing. Just one.

The key to success isn't always easy or clear-cut, but the key to failure often is. If you have produced a good looking, well-written book but it's still not selling then go back through this article to find the missing piece or pieces. Once you do, I can almost guarantee your book will start to take off.

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You are welcome to reprint any items from "The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter." However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Improving your facebook wall posts... some marketing tips by Penny Sansevieri.

How to Improve your Facebook Wall Posts

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Here are a few factoids around Facebook wall posts you might not have known:

* Posts delivered between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. tend to receive 20% higher user engagement

* Best day for Fan engagement? Wednesday - up by 8%

* So how many posts does it take to increase user engagement? If you're thinking more you are wrong. Posting one to two times per day produces 71% higher user engagement.

* When it comes to Facebook more is not better, sometimes it's just more. Posting with 80 characters or less receives 66% higher engagement. Very concise posts, between one and 40 characters, generate highest engagement.

Bonus Tip:

Ask questions to spark dialog and consider fill-in-the-blank posts which tend to receive 9 times more comments than other posts.

WHO ARE WE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author Marketing Experts, Inc. is a full-service book marketing, promotion, and publicity company. We serve authors at all stages of marketing and promotion. We offer a full range of packages and services to choose from. To see a price list or schedule a free consultation, send your e-mail to penny@amarketingexpert.com with the subject line "Author Services Info." You can also visit our website at www.amarketingexpert.com. 

Reprint permission ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You are welcome to reprint any items from "The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter." However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph: Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. www.amarketingexpert.com

My Thanksgiving gift to bloggers and authors everywhere...

Most of you know that once in awhile I like a post enough from Book Marketing Experts that I want to share the wealth with you. Their newsletter allows you to do that as long as you say where it's from. So without further adieu, here is the featured article from Penny C. Sansevieri, editor, and here is her marketing advice this month.


The New PR: Secrets to Turning Fans into Evangelists
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Twelve years ago when I was first in business it was unclear whether blogs would even make a dent in news and communication. Back then, if you wanted to get your book out you had to market to radio, TV, and print publications otherwise your message would die quietly and all your efforts to publish the book would go with it. Cycle forward to 2011. We live online and social media has almost replaced the nightly news.
Publicity and marketing have changed in ways that no one could have anticipated and that's a good thing. Why? Because now so many channels have opened up to help us market. Could you imagine living in a world where if you didn't get traditional media or even a regional paper to pick you up, no one would ever know about you? I did, and we marketed in that world. Believe me, it wasn't easy.


And while it's great that we have these channels, there is always a downside to this new, tethered, social media world. We have a lot of news. A lot of it. And not all of it is news, either. Some is just wasteful white noise and much of it, we ignore. Now, the challenge is no longer can you get peoples' attention, but can you keep it? And can you keep their attention long enough to get them interested in your book enough to turn contacts into evangelists? One thing I've learned: it's not a challenge everyone is up for and that's OK. If it's not your thing to wrestle your way to the top of the Twitter posts or Facebook mentions, that's fine. But if you want to get noticed and sell books, you'll have to ramp up your game. Here's how to do it:


Be good or be gone: For lack of a better term, there's a lot of junk online. A lot of people ramble on about things that only they care about. We currently run a program that gets a lot of "Likes" to a client's Facebook Page. We're such a numbers driven society that people love this program. Here's the kicker though: you can get Facebook Likes but that doesn't mean they will keep liking you. You have to post good, interesting, unique and compelling content. There is so much information out there, you must be good, or be gone. You won't even have to leave the virtual party because if you keep posting self-absorbed, look at me posts, no one will listen anyway.


Say something new: Please do not tell me the same thing I've already heard a million times. Don't just repeat what everyone else is saying, offer your perspective, your viewpoint. Now, there's a caveat to this: sometimes when you're in a particular field you will feel like you are repeating yourself. In many cases, especially if you are teaching the masses, your clients or fans will need to hear a message several times before they get it. Sometimes repetition is good. But if you're just repeating what someone else is saying with no new spin or twist on it, then it's just boring.


No one cares what you say: Truth be told, no one cares what you tell them. What people care about is what their friends say, who their friends recommend. You must be so compelling, interesting, funny, helpful - or whatever - that people will start to evangelize your work. That's when it happens: when you are interesting enough that people want to tell other people about you. Remember, no one cares what you say. They only care what their friends care about. A survey done by Edelman Digital noted that fewer than one in three people trust marketing messages. Scary, isn't it?


Give consumers what they want: It amazes me how often marketers make consumers conform to their needs. Remember, it's not about you, it's about your consumers. Give them what they want and they will give you what you want. So often I see authors with messages that are highly ego based, meaning it's about them. Leave your ego at the door and make it about your consumers. People want valuable insights, access to information and lots of free stuff. Yes, I said free. If the thought of free makes you shiver, here's an article that shows you how to monetize "free:" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/how-to-monetize-free_b_676794.html


Numbers matter: Let's face it, we're a society that pays attention to the numbers we see on Twitter and Facebook. If you are promoting yourself and have 10 followers on Twitter and 16 Likes on Facebook, you might want to think about paying more attention to these properties. Consumers like what other consumers like and the numbers associated with these sites often determine how "likable" you are. Bigger numbers get consumer (and media) interest.


Getting people to pay attention: You have to stop your consumers in their tracks, get them to put down their iPhone, iPad, droid or whatever gadget they're consuming their news feeds on and get them to pay attention to what you are saying. How do you do that? This goes back to my first point: Be Good or Be Gone. Get people to pay attention by adding solid, helpful and insightful content to your feeds. If you ramble on about the flight you missed or the bad day you're having, I can guarantee that people will turn the virtual channel.


Do stuff people will love: Getting people to love you is easy. Do stuff they'll love. This is why I talk so much about giving away information, being helpful, being on top of your industry. I am always stunned when authors come up to me at conferences to tell me how much they love our newsletter (The Book Marketing Expert) or how much they love the information we share on Huffington Post. Give people what they want and they will give you what you want: love - and, hopefully, book sales.


Do stuff people will hate: Not everyone will love what you say and that's OK. When I wrote "Why Some Authors Fail" ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri/why-some-authors-fail_b_534629.html) I thought everyone would hate that piece. It turns out some people did, and that's OK. I once had a good friend and business coach tell me, if everyone loves you you're doing something wrong. Embrace it.


Make random connections: Not all of your contacts or connections need to make sense. They are following you for a reason, because they want to be part of your information funnel. Here's a cool little idea you might want to consider. Make random connections. What I mean by this is that every couple of weeks (or more if you have the time), email or direct message someone who is following you on Facebook and/or Twitter and ask them if they like the information that's being sent to them and what you can do better. When you ask these questions, you may not always like the answer but I can almost guarantee that you will find it helpful. Our best information often comes from our audience. I've known some authors/speakers to develop entire content for a book based solely on audience questions. Their questions and feedback will show you their interest and hot buttons. Ask!


Stay on top of current trends: This is a big one for most of us. We're out of time, out of ideas and well, out of time. Staying on top of current trends seems like it's just another time suck. But trust me, it's not. First, head over to Google alerts (it's free) and sign up for alerts in your market or area of expertise. What happens when you do that? You'll get all news items and blog posts on your topic funneled to you. This will help you gather ideas on new topics to blog on and new developments in your arena. Staying topical is important, especially if you're trying to keep someone's attention.


Be trendy: No, this isn't a repeat of my previous paragraph. Here is what you do: go over to Google Trends, and search current trending topics. Want to drive more traffic to your site? Increase your Facebook Likes and Twitter followers? This is a great and fun way to do it: talk about current trends. Now, granted, you need to be able to speak to these trends and they do need to have at least something to do with your book. But if you can tie a hot topic into your specialty you can really drive some interest to your content. Why? Because if it's trending in Google, it means the searches for this are pretty high. Higher searches mean a higher volume of potential people who can find your message.


You might wonder how all of this can help you get more exposure for your book, get more people to talk about your book, and sell more copies. Here's how: it's not enough to get mentioned in the news. While it's great, that alone won't sell your books. You have to get in front of enough people in a very interesting and unique way. You have to get them to fall in love with your message so much that they'll talk about you, Tweet about you, and tell all their friends to go buy your book. The new PR isn't going after Oprah (though big shows are always a great boost), it's really about the consumers and the message. How will you get your community so enamored with your message that you turn contacts into evangelists? That's the new PR.


Sites mentioned in this article:


http://www.google.com/trends


http://www.google.com/insights/search/




Reprint permission 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
You are welcome to reprint any items from "The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter." However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph:


Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marketing tips for promoting your book from The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter

Reprinted with permission. This resource comes from editor Penny C. Sansevieri's newsletter.


Promote Your Book: 250+ Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques, Tuesday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. Eastern

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders/2011/10/18/promote-your-book-250-proven-low-cost-tips-and-techniques

Do you have what it takes to be a successful author, but you're not sure how to go about it? Are you a published author with a book that is struggling in the marketplace? Promote Your Book gives enterprising authors the advantage they need in order to more successfully navigate the publishing industry and gain a better understanding of their responsibilities as a published author. Join us as author Patricia Fry offers insights into tried and true book promotion techniques.

Learn how to promote creatively; when, why and how to get involved in social media; how and when to submit news releases and tip sheets; ideas for arranging book signings, radio, and TV appearances; tips for submitting articles and stories for publication; how to land and present speaking gigs and much more.

Shows available for download at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders:

* How to Get Your Book Reviewed
* All About Ghostwriting
* Publishing Insights from Ellora's Cave
* Re-Purposing Your Content
* The Future of Author Events
* Selling Your Book in Bulk and Special Sales
* What Authors Must Know About Book Cover Design
* Literary Agents and Their Evolving Role in Publishing
* The Dos and Don'ts of Distribution, Parts 1, 2 and 3
* SPECIAL GUEST Seth Godin: Poke the Box
* Smart Self-Publishing: Why Book Design & Editing Matter
* Smart Self-Publishing: Making Money with eBooks
* Smart Self-Publishing Series: Becoming Your Own Publisher
* Branding: The Secret to Selling More Books
* Secrets to Getting Your Book Into Libraries
* Getting Your Book into Bookstores with Elaine Wilkes
* This Book Will Make You Money with special guest Jim Kukral
* How to Make Money on Twitter
* A Self Publishing Success Story
* From Blog to Book
* The Digital Book Revolution
* Powerhouse Promotion with Marci Shimoff
* eBooks: the Savior of Publishing or the Foe? with Joe Konrath
* Special Guest Mari Smith, queen of Facebook
* All Things Twitter! with Warren Whitlock

WHO WE ARE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author Marketing Experts, Inc. is a full-service book marketing, promotion, and publicity company. We serve authors at all stages of marketing and promotion. We offer a full range of packages and services to choose from. 

To see a price list or schedule a free consultation, send your e-mail to penny@amarketingexpert.com with the subject line "Author Services Info." You can also visit our website at www.amarketingexpert.com.

Reprint permission ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You are welcome to reprint any items from "The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter." However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Attention mystery and thriller authors and readers!

To go to the site just click on the logo. :)

There is a new and informative newsletter regarding all things mystery and thrilling! Catherine Coulter is a member author and this baby is just getting started so why not submit and subscribe while things are just perking up with this newsletter. Enjoy!

Edgy Christian Fiction Lovers and Ning - we're here to stay!

Most, if not all, of my Ning groups that I participate in are shutting down when they start charging fees in July. This site will stay up and I anticipate it growing even more. We've got 650 member. None of the members have to pay the fee. Just the person who runs/hosts the site...me. But thanks to some generous people who have found it in their hearts to give (for whom I'll give some advertising space as a thank you) I'm halfway to the amount I need. If I don't get any more I'll still pay the rest. I am THAT invested in you all. Where else can you talk about stuff that most Christian loops will get on your case for bringing up? Where else can you tell people about your work, your self-published book, snag critique partners who won't be offended, and offer marketing support for each other? And we are clearly Christian. No question about that. So, if you haven't joined already and want to do so, click on this link and join. Just know that it sometimes takes me a day to get to approve your membership due to my job and church. Got to keep those weirdos out of our edgy little cyber support system.

Here is the link...    http://edgychristianfictionlovers.ning.com/

Does Your Blog Post Title Grab Attention? by Penny C. Sansevieri

When I'm in read-a-blog post mode, I'll patiently work my way through my feedreader - and every single time I've done that, I've been astonished again and again at how 'ho hum' the majority of blog posts are titled.
Seriously! I've missed a plethora of truly sterling information because the authors made their blog post sound as exciting as tooth-brushing one of my dog's teeth after their morning meals.

It is CRITICAL that you make your blog posts intriguing enough to stand out of the clutter and visually grab my eyes and say, you MUST read this!!

I would truly urge you to make it a New Year's Resolution to REALLY hone your headline content at the very least. And once you have that mastered, you should also learn how to infuse your posts with emotional hooks that cause your reader to simply DO what you want them to (buy your product, sign up for your ezine, etc.).

Writing in a sales copy fashion is very different than writing for a book and has great rewards after adding it to your online skill set.

Reprinted with permission. Author is Penny C. Sansevieri, Editor penny@amarketingexpert.com

NOTE: You are welcome to reprint any items from "The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter." However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph:

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Branding: The Secret to Selling More Books by Penny C. Sansevieri - reposted with permission

Featured Article - Branding: The Secret to Selling More Books
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you've ever wondered what motivates people to buy a book, consider this: consumers don't buy a book, they buy a brand or, as a friend of mine says, consumers crave a brand. This is true now more than ever. Why? Because people want consistency (think McDonald's), they want value, and they want to be entertained, enlightened, or educated. A brand, when done properly, can really pull in readers to your site, your message, and your book. Here's how to do it.

Brands, in their traditional form, are the things we think of like Coke, Kleenex, and Advil. These are big, robust brands that are recognizable both in messaging and packaging. The two key components in effective brand strategy are both of these things. If your message and package are different, or fragmented and not uniform, you will confuse your audience.

Regardless of whether you are fiction or non-fiction, a brand is a brand. Think Nora Roberts or Dan Brown, both of these authors are brands. Their messaging is consistent and their packaging uniform. The audience is told in word, color and image exactly what they are going to get and the "brand" does not disappoint. When creating a brand for yourself, here are a few things you should consider:

Understanding the "look" of the market: there is a look and feel to each market. For some markets it will be a consistency in color, messaging, or packaging, and for others, it's just a "feeling." For example, if you're a thriller writer, websites for thrillers tend to be dark and foreboding. There may not be a consistent message but the feel is the same: scary. Getting to know your market is the #1 thing you should do when you're thinking of developing your brand.

Identity crisis: who are you? So who are you, really? This isn't meant to be a psychological exam, but rather an in-depth look at your brand, your market, your current focus, and future goals.

There's a saying that goes: "If you don't know what road you're on, any path will do." The same is true for your brand and your career. Define where you want to go and then build to that message.

Brainstorm your brand: if necessary, get some outside help. Branding doesn't have to be expensive, but it does have to be thorough. Understanding your brand and your message is important because if you don't control it, your consumer will. I spoke to an author the other day who had been propelled on her journey by her brother's suicide. From that, she learned, grew, and is now working to inspire others to overcome some of the most horrific challenges life can throw at you.

Platform building: building a strong brand is also about platform building. Understand that your platform can be a lot of things: the message and consistency of your blog, any book promotion you do, blogs you have a presence on. All of this is important, you want to get known in your market, and you want to lead with a strong and consistent message.

Consistent marketing materials: by this I mean business cards, letterhead if you have it, bookmarks, folders, etc. Again, don't scatter your efforts by having a hodgepodge of marketing materials that looks cobbled together. Everything is your resume. This is very true with anything you mail out or any "leave behinds," like bookmarks, postcards, and business cards.

Delivering on a promise: whatever you promise, you must deliver. In fact, promise less and deliver more. If you have promised the reader a "thrill ride," don't give them a soft-peddled story. If your message doesn't live up to its promise, you'll lose your reader. Probably forever.

The center of the universe: your website. An author's website is the single most important piece of your brand. Yes, your book is important, but before a reader gets there they will often find your website first. Make sure it's brand-focused and professional. Don't have someone design it who does not understand your market or your work. Make sure your site is professional and follows whatever "theme" you are trying to create.

Building a strong brand is more important than ever. A brand not only shows consistency but it shows you're serious about what you're doing; and if you show you're serious, your readers will take you seriously, too.

Reprint permission ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You are welcome to reprint any items from "The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter." However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph:Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com