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How to Drive Buyers for Your Book, in Droves
Feb 13th
Congratulations – you just wrote a book. But if you think all the work is done, think again. As an author of a business book, you still have work ahead of you. You have to market your book. After all, these days it’s up to the author to do most of the marketing. Publishers provide a limited amount of marketing.
And as an entrepreneur, that usually means you have to be big on creativity — to make up for a small monetary budget.
The topic of marketing your book was one we explored recently in an hour-long chat on Twitter. We tapped into the expertise of 4 “guerrilla book marketers,” plus savvy members of the community. Talk about creative ideas for marketing books! Highlights of the chat, along with additional resources, follow.
Chat Overview
On Tuesday, January 31, 2012, we were joined online for an open Twitter chat called “How to Drive Buyers for Your Book, in Droves. The session was moderated by Ivana Taylor, who was joined by authors Stephanie Chandler, Phil Simon and Bruce Brown. These savvy guerrilla book marketers provided insight into how to promote a book and sell more copies — what works and what doesn’t in today’s environment.
Guest experts Phil Simon, Stephanie Chandler, Bruce Brown
The Twitter Chat was one of the festivities held in conjunction with the Small Business Book Awards, which honors the best small business books. The Chat elicited hundreds of tweets — including these highlights:
Question 1: What’s better – self publishing or using a publisher and why?
“Authors no longer need bookstore placement to help sell books—too many opportunities online. #BizBookAwards” - Stephanie Chandler (@bizauthor)
“It’s not an either-or type of thing. It depends on the book and your budget. And not all #self-publishing is the same. #BizBookAwards” – Phil Simon (@philsimon)
Question 2: How important is the book’s title for sales?
“Title and cover are huge. People have low attention spans these days. #BizBookAwards” – Phil Simon (@philsimon)
“Title is #1, Cover is #2 in importance. #BizBookAwards” - Bruce Brown (@BruceBrownNC)
“I prefer snappy, short titles, but they likely won’t search well, SEO-wise. Funny titles backfire. #BizBookAwards” - Bruce Brown (@BruceBrownNC)
“It’s essential. Without a good title, it is easy to get lost in the fray. #BizBookAwards” - Del Williams (@delwilliams)
Question 3: Some authors have a website and/or blog for their book. Is this essential, nice to have, or unnecessary?
“Every author needs a website—with a blog. Need to give media/buyers a way to reach you. #BizBookAwards” - Stephanie Chandler (@bizauthor)
“If a specific site leads to one big sale or speaking gig, then doesn’t the book’s site pay for itself? #BizBookAwards” - Phil Simon (@philsimon)
“A website is a must. Authors without websites would be giving away a huge opportunity. #BizBookAwards” - Vedran Tomic (@VedranTomic)
“I love book sites that have downloads and resources to help you engage in material. #BizBookAwards” - Ivana Taylor (@DIYMarketers)
Question 4: On a scale of 1-10, rate the importance for book sales of: social media, signings, publisher support, testimonials?
“Tough to say. Depends on the genre and luck. There’s no recipe for selling books. Tim Ferris is a black swan. #BizBookAwards” - Phil Simon (@philsimon)
Question 5: What is the single best method for driving book sales, and why?
“The majority of book sales happen online and so should your marketing efforts. #BizBookAwards” – Stephanie Chandler (@bizauthor)
“Don’t be afraid of giving away freebies, street teams, contests, etc. #BizBookAwards” - Phil Simon (@philsimon)
“Raving, rabid readers. But seriously, having a sizable, international tribe that will promote it for you. #BizBookAwards” - Bruce Brown (@BruceBrownNC)
Question 6: How important is it to get on a bestseller list? Important enough to “buy your way?”
“Best-seller lists are antiquated and don’t count so many sources of sales. Ask @mitchjoel. #BizBookAwards” - Phil Simon (@philsimon)
Question 7: How much of a difference can a book publicist make?
“A more affordable option can be to work with a virtual assistant with experience promoting authors. #BizBookAwards” - Stephanie Chandler (@bizauthor)
“Publicists do have existing relationships that can grease the wheels with important media types. #BizBookAwards” - Phil Simon (@philsimon)
“No one loves your work and your message as much as you do. So unless you’re really gonna sell mongo, DIY. #BizBookAwards” - Bruce Brown (@BruceBrownNC)
Question 8: How do you find a publicist?
“Absolutely find one via referral from someone like you or like you want to be and who you trust. #BizBookAwards” - Bruce Brown (@BruceBrownNC)
“NOT a friend or family member who “wants to get into the business.” #BizBookAwards” - Bruce Brown (@BruceBrownNC)
Question 9: What are the benefits of being nominated for a book award?
“When you win, you get to call yourself “award-winning author” and that is pretty cool! #BizBookAwards” - Stephanie Chandler (@bizauthor)
Question 10: Any last words of advice for aspiring authors?
“Writing a book is a journey. Embrace the unknown. Do it because you like to write, not for external rewards. #BizBookAwards” - Phil Simon (@philsimon)
The Guest Experts
Phil Simon (@PhilSimon): Author of “The Age of the Platform” and “The New Small”
Bruce Brown (@BruceBrownNC): Author of “31 Days to Greeting Card Marketing Mastery” and a past champion of the Small Business Book Awards, 2010. Bruce also wrote a 3-part series about how he galvanized his community’s support to win the Award. Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
Stephanie Chandler (@bizauthor): Author of “Own Your Niche” and “From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur.” Stephanie is also the founder of Authority Publishing and Business Info Guide.
**Bonus**
Although he couldn’t join us, John Locke (@DonovanCreed), author of “How I Sold 1 Million Ebooks on Amazon in 5 Months,” contributed an in-depth interview with his book selling insights.
Moderator
Ivana Taylor (@DIYMarketers): Author of “Excel for Marketing Managers,” the publisher of DIYMarketers.com, and the Book Editor here at Small Business Trends.
Our Partners – Thanks
Thanks to our promotional partner for this special Twitter event – JustRetweet, a website designed to help you draw visibility to your Twitter account and make it easy for you to connect with others on Twitter.
And a big thanks also goes to the rest of our media partners for spreading the word about the Small Business Book Awards:
How to Drive Buyers for Your Book, in Droves
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Enter to Win: The Big Biz Book Giveaway
Feb 3rd
Ready to win some amazing business books? Of course you are! Now through February 7, 2012, you can enter to win business books like:
- I Love You More Than My Dog by Jeanne Bliss
- It’s Your Biz by Susan Solovic
- Visual Marketing by Anita Campbell and David Langton
- Social Media Marketing eLearning Kit For Dummies by Phyllis Khare
- The Entrepreneur Equation by Carol Roth
The Big Biz Book Giveaway is being held in conjunction with the Small Business Book Awards. Many of the books we’re giving away are also nominees in the book awards, so be sure to vote for them now through February 16, 2012.
How to Enter
You can enter to win the book contest each day through February 7, 2012 by sending a tweet that includes the hashtag #BizBookAwardsWin. While most of the giveaways are for the United States or North America only, there is one for International winners on February 7, 2012, so be sure to check the day’s listing.
What: Big Biz Book Giveaway
When: January 31, 2012 through February 7, 2012
Where: Twitter
How to enter: Just send a Tweet that includes the hashtag #BizBookAwardsWin to enter or simply click the “Click here to tweet” link below to be entered:
You can also copy and paste the Tweet provided below into Twitter to enter:
I’m entering to win the Biz Book #Giveaway! Just tweet #BizBookAwardsWin to enter to win great biz books today http://ow.ly/8Q72h
Good luck!
Enter to Win: The Big Biz Book Giveaway
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Attention Authors, Publicists, Book Lovers: Small Business Book Awards Now Open
Jan 13th
Nominations are now open for the Small Business Book Awards. Go on over and nominate your favorite business book. It’s easy and doesn’t take long.
This is the 4th year we are holding the Awards. They recognize business books of special interest to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Last year there were 106 books nominated and 41,000 votes cast by the community.
This year, over 100 books have already been nominated with over 2 weeks to go.
Books published between November 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011 are eligible.
You can nominate one book – or as many books as you like. Anyone can nominate. Authors, you are encouraged to nominate your own book. Publishers and publicists can also nominate books.
Or if you just happen to be a fan of a book and would like to recommend it to the world, please nominate it and make some author happy.
There are no fees to nominate — it’s completely free. See Official Rules.
Click on the “Nominate a Book” button and fill out the form. It’s short and takes just 2 or 3 minutes. You’ll need a link from Amazon or some other Web page dedicated to the book, along with a couple of sentences’ description (just look it up in Google to find the Amazon page). That’s all you need. If you have more information fine, but it’s not necessary.
We will be reviewing all nominations to make sure that they are eligible. We may also edit book descriptions to make sure they are informational in nature and to eliminate obvious sales hype.
Nominations first, then voting later
Right now we’re in the nominations phase. You have through January 31, 2012 to nominate small business books.
The second phase is voting. Voting will be from February 1, 2012 through February 16, 2012.
Picking the winners
Winners will be picked by popular vote. The top ten vote getters overall will be the Best Business Books of 2012. In addition, the top five vote-getters in each category will be the Category Winners. And what do the winners get? Lots of recognition!
The Book Awards are an outgrowth of the weekend business book reviews we do.
Each weekend we review at least one small business book. We’ve been doing in-depth book reviews regularly since 2007, and have over 250 in-depth reviews in the site. We started the book reviews because most small business books don’t get the recognition they deserve and get lost among the popular best sellers or the “Wall Street type” business and finance books. Our goal is to bring to the attention of small business owners those books that provide practical information to help them run their businesses better.
Follow #BizBookAwards on Twitter
Want to know which books are being nominated? Be sure to follow the Small Business Book Awards hashtag on Twitter #BizBookAwards.
Attention Authors, Publicists, Book Lovers: Small Business Book Awards Now Open
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
The Entrepreneurial Adventure Book is Here!
Jan 6th
In 2008 I started my entrepreneurial journey with the founding of iThemes. This month, in fact, is my four year anniversary of becoming a full-time entrepreneur and living my lifelong dream.
Throughout the years as we’ve enjoyed our definition of success and others have seen it, I’ve been increasingly asked by friends and acquaintances about how they can get started in entrepreneurship.
Thus, I started StartupSofa to be an online resource for budding entrepreneurs, done talks, webinars and workshops, and now am proud to release a short book called “The Entrepreneurial Adventure: Is It For You?”
Entrepreneurship is an adventure — a long, arduous journey like climbing one of the world’s highest mountains. As such budding entrepreneurs should know the risks involved, what an entrepreneur does for the world and ask themselves some tough questions before starting on the journey.
In this book I share my experiences as a startup entrepreneur and offer advice on aligning your life’s passions and purpose, and how to prepare for the entrepreneurial climb.
It’s short enough to read in less than an hour, but I’ve packed with lessons I’ve learned and resources I’ve found extremely helpful for starting a business.
In this book, you’ll …
- Learn how a compelling vision of the future helps keep the right motivations aligned
- Realize the risks and rewards of being an entrepreneur
- Be challenged with essential questions to unearth your life’s passions and purpose
- Understand what an entrepreneurship does for the world
- Get tips for starting a business without risking everything
- Find a blueprint of essential books and resources to prepare you for your entrepreneurial journey
If you’re an aspiring or budding entrepreneur, this book is for you.
Here’s how to get the book:
- Purchase it in the Kindle Store
- Signup for this email newsletter (or be an iThemes customer!)
- (Coming Soon! In print)
Here’s to those daring and ready for the entrepreneurial journey!
Related posts:
- Wanna Start a Business? Check Out our Pre-Entrepreneurship Bootcamp Dec. 17
- The Entrepreneurial Headfirst Dive
- Business Validation and Getting Mentioned in ‘For Dummies’ Book
View full post on Cory Miller | Adventures in Entrepreneurship
Anorexia Bulimia Recovery – Eating Disorders Treatment Book
Dec 13th
The Exact Steps That Saved My Life 9 Years Ago From The Eating Disorders – Anorexia And Bulimia. Help Save Lives And Make Money At The Same Time. 75% Commissions To Affiliates. Lots Of PPC Opportunity.
Anorexia Bulimia Recovery – Eating Disorders Treatment Book
The Complete Erectile Dysfunction Guide Book
Dec 7th
75% Commission On Each Sale! Promoting The Most Valuable Ebook On The Market For Men: -the Complete E.d. Guidebook: The Essential Guide To Overcome Erectile Dysfunction And Enjoy Great Sex – Includes 2 Bonus Books On P.e. And Maximizing Size.
The Complete Erectile Dysfunction Guide Book
Write Your First Book Or Ebook
Dec 5th
Start Writing Your First Book Or Ebook Tonight! Whether You Want To Get A Book Published, Or Create An E-book To Sell Online, This Book Writing System(tm) Ebook/workbook Is Exactly What You Need To Get Started.
Write Your First Book Or Ebook
10 Things About “Profitable Social Media” Book
Dec 4th
Not long ago at the huge BlogWorld Expo, I met Warren Whitlock in person for the first time. Warren is someone I’ve known through social media channels for years, but had never met IRL (“in real life”). I was delighted when he gave me an autographed copy of the new book “Profitable Social Media: Business Results Without Playing Games:” that he wrote along with co-authors Lee Pound and Edward Philipp.
Rather than doing a traditional style of book review, I thought I’d tell you 10 things about the book:
- The three authors are experienced in online marketing, social media, and publishing. Warren Whitlock (@WarrenWhitlock on Twitter) is an online author, speaker, publisher and social media marketing strategist. Lee Pound is a former newspaper editor who helps business owners publish books that showcase them as the recognized expert in their field. Edward Philipp (@EdLovesSumo on Twitter) is the co-founder of TeleSeminarNation.
- The book consists of advice and insights from over 50 social media strategists and Web marketers. Those who are active in social media will recognize the book’s interviewees – people such as Jim Kukral, Jay Baer, Chris Brogan, Brian Solis, Liz Strauss, Michael Port, Bob Burg, Brian Clark, Denise Wakeman, Scott Allen, Mari Smith, and Rebel Brown.
- The book starts out by describing Heisenberg’s “uncertainty principle” and applying it to social media. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle “says that you cannot know both the location of an object and its momentum at the time to any degree of precision.” Applied to social media marketing, it means that “you can’t know who your message is reaching at any given time. All you can know for sure is that somebody is seeing it and that most of the time that somebody cares nothing about what you have to say” and “you must attract people who want to see” your messages. The way to do this is to create small communities and establish relationships using social media.
- The book then notes the old marketing axiom that you must “touch” your audience at least 7 times before they will buy. According to the book: “Those seven touches are not marketing messages. They are rapport building messages. Social media is one way to create many of those seven touches in a very easy and non-threatening way.”
- The book is organized into chapters that speak to the kinds of needs that small business owners, entrepreneurs and online marketers have. Chapters include: Getting Known and Getting Found. Branding Yourself with Social Media. Protecting Your Reputation in the Internet Age. Building Your Business With Social Media. Speaking and Writing on Social Media. Profitable Social Media for Non-Profits. Moving People Into Your Sales Process.
- Despite all the emphasis on sales and profitability, the book makes the point that social media is about marketing, not sales. It’s about building relationships as a precursor to selling. It is not for selling directly.
- Quoting Internet marketer Paul Colligan, your objective is to get people from social media sites to your websites or on your email list. He says social media doesn’t replace other marketing — for instance, direct email had an opt-in conversion rate five times that of social media, in his testing. But he uses Twitter, Facebook and other social media to get people to opt in to his email list. Then he makes offers through the email list – rather than directly on social media sites.
- What I liked best about this book is that it connects the dots between social media and sales, in the following sense. Use social media as a first step or one of several phases in your marketing plan. I’m sure you’ve heard experts say ad nauseum to use social media to develop relationships — and wondered what the point of all those relationships is. Profitable Social Media always comes back to the endgame: higher sales. But it also points out that you need to think of your marketing and selling process as having multiple purposes and phases. Your ROI won’t come directly from putting out a sales offer on Twitter. Instead, use social media like Twitter to develop interested followers. Once they are interested enough, you entice them to visit your website or sign up for your email list, or remind them to visit your brick and mortar store. Once they’ve done that, you may be positioned to sell – but don’t try shortcuts.
- One aspect of the book that I’d urge the authors to revise in future printings is the quality of the images. The images are mostly headshots of the interviewees or screenshots. It looks like the images were grabbed from the Web and aren’t high enough resolution for print. This doesn’t detract from the overall advice in the book, just from the experience of reading the book.
- Overall, if you like to read advice from well-known social media marketers and Internet business people, you will enjoy Profitable Social Media. You get advice from 50+ experts rolled into one convenient package.
10 Things About “Profitable Social Media” Book
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
The Pizza Therapy Pizza Book.
Nov 20th
Albert Grande Of Pizzatherapy.com Shows You To Make Pizza.
The Pizza Therapy Pizza Book.
SEO Revenge – SEO Book!
Nov 20th
If You’re Looking To Generate Easy Cash By Promoting A Killer SEO Book, You’ve Found It! SEO Revenge Affiliates Is The Best SEO Book Around For Affiliate Marketers To Make Money Online
SEO Revenge – SEO Book!
