Best Seller Authors

Book Marketing, Publishing, Author Resources

Authors: Share Your Expert Knowledge To Be Seen as an Expert Author

imageI teach authors to create content for their readers beyond their book. Most of us spend much more time online, watching video, or listening to audio than we ever spend with a book.

Go where your audience lives

I almost always suggest an author have their own radio show. Easy to set up, and adaptable to talk about any subject with any guests. I also suggest every author of a blog and social media pages about their subject.

And since you are the expert, you can guest post on other blogs, and share links to relevant content from anywhere on the web. Read and share the top blogs and sites in your field and you’ll get ideas for your own content, and a reputation for being a great source on your expertise.

Where do you find the time?

Well, fist off, it’s much faster than writing a book Smile  And there tools cropping up that make it very ease to find and share with your readers on your blog, in social media and in your own media products.

Take a look at Scoop.it, one of the rapidly developing tools to filter out the noise and then easily share what you find: (video)

Some Curation  Ideas for Authors

  1. Subscribe to the top blogs in industry. Be sure to comment on relevant posts. You are the expert. Your opinion matters.
  2. Subscribe to active readers who comment on those blogs. Make sure you reach out them on their favorite social media sites. They may have their own blog, Facebook page, Twitter account.. you’ll find out by clicking on the link they use on their blog comments and then searching for where they are most active
  3. Join the Facebook groups and pages in your niche. Connect with the top contributors and offer comments of value (not just a pitch for your own blog)
  4. Do a search on Amazon for the top book in your category. Many of those authors will have a blog or active social media profile
  5. Join your industry group on LinkedIn. Contribute and connect
  6. Search for videos on your topic. If you find someone who is doing a good job posting, connect with them. If now (still likely in some niches) make plans to produce some videos on the basics

Once you have feeds from the blogs in your RSS reader (I user Google Reader, it’s just like reading email). Scan on a regular basis for posts and articles to share.

When you find an author, writer, or contributor you respect. Ask them to be on your radio show, or write a guest post for  your blog.

Each of these steps is easy. New tools like Scoop.it can really speed things up, but most of the time you spend on this activity will be the reading you do (which you would do as an expert in your field) and connect and having conversations with the other experts. Neither need any special skills, budget or cutting edge tools. The commitment from you is the key ingredient.

When I released Twitter Revolution, I didn’t do any of the book marketing and promotion campaigns we’d run before. Instead, I just used Twitter to reach out to other social media authors and speakers. It wasn’t long till I became known as and expert who added value to their goals and they were happy to review and share my book.

Who have you met by networking and sharing. Please add your success story to the comments below.

How Could I Be So Wrong?

A simple idea can change everything.

I was reading “Being Wrong” yesterday and picked up where I’d left off a few weeks back when I first met author Kathryn Shultz through a TED talk.

The story at the start of this video is a perfect example of an idea that can change your life. While I’ve intellectually agreed with all Kathryn talks about, the story of the Chinese symbol was enough to get me to order the book imedately. Reading through, I’ve learned much about how we feel about being wrong and new ways to help myself and others turning mistakes into data points we can learn by.

I may still run off the cliff from time to time, but I’m not afraid to look down as much now.

Is Gamification Just Lipstick On The Pig?

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I’ve been thinking a lot about the games we play.

Some would say that life is a game. No, not the board game, LIFE. The rules are not very clear, and many of us find we’re lousy players… but I find hope in the idea that when I learn the rules, and practice playing, I win.

I sum it up with this quip:

“If you can tell the difference between work and play, you aren’t doing one of them right”

So what about gamification of the things we call work?

Salesforce.com Chief Scientist JP Rangaswami talks about going beyond sticking a few game ideas into existing work flows and calling it gamification. He says:

“putting the lipstick of gamification on the pig of work.”

 

The gamification of work is going to take a while. In many cases, it means looking at process that have worked well for decades, identifying where we can do better and redesigning jobs.

I think this innovation will prove to be a huge wave of increased productivity for those who do it. The things we’re calling social media today are the tools to change our business. In a few years, we’ll be just calling it the way we do business.

As we continue in this revolution, what games will you be playing?

Your Readers Demand a Kindle Version of Your Book

I’ve been telling you that you MUST have your book available in Kindle format for years. It was only a matter of time till this report for the Wall Street Journal

The online retailing giant says that for the first time, it has sold more electronic copies of books than actual print editions. Since April 1, Amazon has sold 105 Kindle books for every 100 print books sold. The company has sold more than three times as many Kindle books so far this year as it did at the same time a year ago.

And that’s just Amazon and the Kindle version!