Most Popular Posts of the Week

Here are the most popular posts of the week, according to the number of readers.  If you missed any of these, here is your chance to catch up on your reading!

What Authors Can Learn About Book Marketing from Rapper Jay-Z

How Do Books Get Stocked in Bookstores?

How to Announce Your Book By Email

What's It REALLY Like to be a New York Times Bestseller?

Interview With NYT Bestselling Author Suzy Spencer

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What Authors Can Learn About Book Marketing From Rapper Jay-Z

Jay-Z is a well-known rap mogul, but if the marketing plan for his book pans out he will also be known as a best-selling author.

The marketing plan for Jay-Z's upcoming book "DeCoded" is certainly outside the box.  It consists of a scavenger hunt, with pages of the book hidden in plain site, like billboards, while others require a bit of searching, like inside of a jacket in a store display window.

Perhaps the best part of Jay-Z's plan is that both he and his publisher are not paying for it, at least not the majority of it.  That's being covered by the search engine Bing and the broadcasting company Clear Channel.  The scavenger hunt is a means for Bing and Clear Channel to advertise and get people to use their services.  The estimated cost of the scavenger hunt marketing plan for Jay-Z's book is well into seven figures.  Of course, it helps that Jay-Z has a ready-made audience of rap fans.

So, you aren't a rap star.  What can you take away from Jay-Z's marketing plan for his book?

1.  You don't have to market your book alone.  You can partner with another person or business to get your book out to the public.  Terry Johnson, author of "Cardinal Fever" arranged for the minor-league Springfield Cardinals baseball team to buy 1,000 copies of his book and give them away at one of their games.  Partnering like this allows the author to advertise their book and have someone else pick up the cost.

2.  Unusual marketing plans get people talking about the book.  I'm writing about about Jay-Z's book right  now in this blog, and the story has been picked up by numerous media outlets, including MTV News.  That's great exposure for a book.

3.  You can try new and different things.  Book marketing doesn't just have to be book signing events and media interviews.  With the Internet, authors can do unusual things that just might get them noticed.  One author auctioned off the names of characters in one of their books.  People could bid to have a character named after them in the book.  The author donated the proceeds to charity.  It also grabbed attention for the book.  Marketing a book doesn't necessarily have to cost you money, and depending upon the idea, can even make you money.

What unusual things have you done to create a buzz about your book prior to its release date?

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Guest Post: How to Announce Your Book With E-Mail

How to Announce Your Book With E-Mail

By Sandra Beckwith


What's the best way to announce your book via e-mail?
I've received quite a few book announcement e-mails lately, including some that were trying to achieve "Amazon best-seller" status. Sadly, most of the messages were not very compelling. More often than not, they were self-congratulatory ("I've achieved my dream!") or self-serving ("If you buy my book on Amazon at 11 a.m. tomorrow morning, my book might become a best-seller!"). Some were brief: "My new book is out. Here's a link where you can buy it." Others were rambling. None of them told me why I'd want to buy the book - what was in it for me, the reader.
I don't want you to repeat the mistakes I keep seeing in my inbox, so I'm sharing seven tips that will help authors with any level of marketing experience write a book announcement e-mail message that isn't obnoxious, annoying, offensive, or downright sad:

1. Start with the text from your back book cover. It should tell us why we will want to buy your book, right? You might need to massage it to make it more personal, since e-mail is such an informal means of communicating.
2. It's not about you. It's about the person you're writing to. Tell me what your book will do for me. Will it educate, inform, entertain, enlighten? What's in it for me? How will your book improve my world, help me improve someone else's world, or help me forget about my world?
3. Include a link where we can purchase the book. Seriously - you'd be surprised at how many messages omit this.
4. Forget the "help me make my book an Amazon best-seller" plea. Unless you are my total BFF, I don't care if your book is a best-seller. All I want to know is whether I'll like or need your book or whether I know someone else who would like it. If you feel compelled to be focused on that best-seller-for-five-minutes-on-Amazon plan, at least share information about your book, too.
5. Don't come on too strong. You might suggest that it makes a nice gift, but don't tell me that I "should" buy it for everybody on my holiday gift list.
6. Ask me to share your news with my networks. If I know people who will want to know about your book, I'll help spread the word. But sometimes I need to be reminded.
7. Remember that the quality of your announcement reflects the quality of your book, so make it as high-quality as you can. I received one this week that looked like a ransom note, with multiple fonts and sizes. And I know this wasn't what the author intended. You don't need to have a professionally designed, all-HTML'd-up message, but you do want something that reflects the quality of your book.

Send your announcement to as large a list as you can assemble, remembering that some people will be more interested in this news than others. And some are just naturally better at sharing and forwarding. And whatever you do, make this just the starting point for your book launch. There's lots more you could - and "should" - be doing.
Sandra Beckwith, the author of two publicity books, teaches a popular publicity e-course for authors. Sign up for her free book publicity e-zine at http://www.buildbookbuzz.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sandra_Beckwith


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The 12 Commandments of Selling Books at Book Fairs, Conventions and Fairs and Festivals

As with book signing events, your goal for fairs and festivals is to draw a crowd to your booth, sell books and “create the demand” for the book.

1.      Register for the event as early as possible

1. Contact the event organizer
2. Find out the cost of the booth or registration
3. Register for the event and inform your marketing representative

2.      Spread the word about your appearance at the event

1. Church bulletin
2. Online newspapers free event calendar listings
3. Free online listing at Craig’s List http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.html
4. E-mail  invitations to your address book
2. Share expenses
1. Split the cost of the booth with another author, if festival organizers allow booth-sharing
2. Decorate the booth with a banner and tabletop posters announcing that the author is available to sign copies of books.  Make the booth as attractive as possible!
3. Establish a family member or friend to help you during the event
4. Items you will need for your booth:
1. Books.  You will need to determine how many books you will need to have available for the event.  You can always keep extra copies in your car, if needed. 
2. Giveaways.  Just like at trade shows, attendees are always looking for free items.  Have a supply of bookmarks, business cards and push cards on hand to help promote your book if people don’t buy a copy on the spot.
3. Décor.  Most festivals will give you a table and a chair, and not much else.  Find out if you’ll need table coverings, a tent or awning (if an outdoor event), or a power supply for any video or audio needs you may have.  Also make sure you have pens and posters to advertise who you are and why you are there, preferably with a photo of your book cover on it.  You may even want to have a banner made for your book that you can re-use at future events.  You’re only limited by your imagination.
5. Be prepared with conversation starters.
1. “How did you hear about the event?”
2. “Are you an avid reader?”
3. “Do you live in the area?”\
4. Have a one-minute pitch ready to go that tells people who you are and what your book is about.  Practice it so that it seems natural and not forced.
6. Have a guest-book on your table for people to sign their name and e-mail address. By doing this at every event, you can create a large mailing list for e-blasts or newsletters about your book.
7. Practice good booth etiquette.
1. If you are sharing a booth, be considerate and polite to your fellow authors.
2. Don’t complain to your fellow authors if the event isn’t going well and you aren’t selling many books.  Attitude is contagious! 
3. Work out ahead of time how you will approach customers at the booth so you aren’t overwhelming them and pressuring them to buy books.
4. Be friendly and approachable.
5. Don’t just sit at the booth and wait for people to come to you.  Engage passersby in conversation and offer them any giveaways you may have.  Use the opportunity to tell them about your book.
8. Arrive early, allowing plenty of time to set up for the event.

10. Have book ordering information available in case you run out of books.   Business cards and push cards can be used for this purpose.
11. Send a thank-you card to the organizer after the event. If the event was especially successful, send a letter of commendation to the event organizer.  They may ask you to be a featured author next year.
12. Book early for next year’s event.

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Stephen King Discusses EBooks

Bestselling horror author Stephen King recently discussed the future of the publishing industry with CNN, which predicts 50 percent of all books sold in 2015 will be EBooks.  King was one of the first high-profile authors to embrace EBooks.  My favorite quote from this interview by King:  "Books aren't the important thing.  Books are a delivery system.  The important thing is the story."  Bottom line:  authors that don't embrace change and keep up with the latest delivery systems for their books will get left behind.

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