Best Seller Authors

Book Marketing, Publishing, Author Resources

This Book Made Me Think

My highest praise for a book is “it causes me to think in a new way about things.”

I read books to get a background on what is going on in the world rather than the sound bites on TV, which don’t tell the story with enough depth. But I refrain from writing reviews and getting into political discussion online. There’s just so much misunderstanding and emotion and the rhetoric rarely has anything to do with my illusion of reality.

Why I’m Writing Today

I love reading books because there’s a period of a few hours where I get to focus on a topic that someone spent real time on. It’s also the reason I write books and encourage others to write.

The events and interviews Trita Parsi shares in A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran are the best I’ve see on the subject of the US relationship with Iran. I’m sure I’ll be sharing the ideas with friends and quoting Parsi frequently.

Today, I’d like to share a different story about my new friend @TParsi.

My Story on How I Find Great Books

This story starts with me catching up on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I watch all the episodes online and find that Stewart and Stephen Colbert introduce 3-4 good authors each week.

If Stewart didn’t read the book, it’s the best job of faking it I’ve ever seen. I don’t agree with Jon often on many things, but respect the intelligence behind the comedy. (and it’s more fun than any other news source). It’s a great interview. Parsi is smart, and Stewart show it.

In the short clip below, I learned a few things I didn’t know. That’s the first tip for authors,

Don’t hold back. Share as much as you can in interviews

 

After finishing the show, I jumped on my laptop and watched the second half of the interview. While watching, I used my iPad to download the book from Amazon

I read the book and got several insights that made me reconsider how I think about the situation. The book was very readable, but went into depth on all the points in the Stewart interview. The whole process didn’t take a trip to the store, a delay to get the book or any sort of planning. Connections happen in real time today.

How We Read Book’s Today

I consider myself informed, but there were some players in the stories told who I’d forgotten. I looked up a couple online and made a few notes about things I might tweet.. especially the quotations. (I’m hoping Kindle opens up cut/paste in the future. The issues there will be the subject of another blog post)

Here’s where the reading experience diverges from just reading the book.

I posted a tweet when I finished the book:

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You might note I have a viewpoint, but I didn’t express it strongly nor expected to get into a discussion about geo-politics on Twitter or here.

Not long ago, this would have been the end of the story. What was different was this response from Parsi

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Trita Parsi is a busy guy. He’s leading a large organization, speaks and is on TV often. Still, he found time to answer my tweet.

At times I’ve gone out of my way to connect and follow a Twitter account of an author when I read their book. I’ve met some famous people and contributed to their blogs or online chats.

I didn’t have to this time. Parsi, or someone on his staff is monitoring conversations online.

Look at that response.. “Thanx!” wasn’t even a word and it made my day. I just had to write this review and share the experience. In that, Parsi gets another connection and who knows what will come from you reading this?

I’d like to think that I’m a big shot blogger and have so much clout that people treat me special. But the truth is, I was just one happy reader today. While I counsel clients to be on the lookout for radio show hosts, bloggers, and thought leaders. Everyone reading your book can be a contact that gets you to more readers and new connections.

More important that the press you get, the engaged readers you connect with are the kind of people who help spread a message. Despite my anti-political position, I’m now likely to talk to a dozen people about Iran in the next week. I may point a few back to this post (regular readers will know I will share this post Smile)

All it took to stand out what an abbreviated thank you.

Are You Talking To Your Readers?

The first thing we do with all new clients today is review online and social media. You’d think that everyone is online, but we find that most authors haven’t been able to get to this level of engagement.

The best authors have systems that make this happen. If you want to become a recognized thought leader and expert, make sure you are doing the same.

NOTE: If you want the Social Media Checklist I use with companies and celebrity clients, follow this link to get free (for a limited time)

What to Do When Your Manuscript Gets Rejected

dealing with rejection

Dealing with rejection by a publisher. Some say it’s an author’s worst nightmare. But it happens to thousands of manuscripts by thousands of authors every week of the year. An author pours his heart into a story and is convinced it’s going to appeal to everyone who reads it. Then he gets rejected by not one, not two, but five or more publishers. Are the publishers crazy? Or is his work truly awful? His manuscript probably wasn’t rejected for either of those reasons, but it still stings nonetheless.

If you submit a manuscript to publishers and it gets rejected, what are you to do? The first step is to revise your work and try to improve it. There are many ways to do this. Sometimes the publisher will tell you why your work was rejected and give you a place to start, but usually not. You can also seek the constructive criticism of trusted friends and fellow authors, and you can take an honest look at your work yourself. After you’ve revised, you resubmit. But what if this only results in more rejection letters? Is there anything else you can do?

Dealing with Rejection: The Self-Publishing Solution

You don’t need the backing of a major publisher to successfully sell your book. What you do need is drive and motivation. If you have the time and are willing to put forth the effort, you can self-publish. Self-publishing opens the door for many authors, and lots of them achieve great success and profit through self-publishing. Beyond self-publishing, there is a specific method that makes things even more possible for more authors: print on demand (POD). Print on demand is a way to self-publish without requiring a significant amount of money up front to purchase hundreds of copies of your book. It’s a way to self-publish in which your book is only printed when someone buys it. It’s that simple.

Why POD?
With POD you’re assuming a much less significant risk in self-publishing. If no one wants to buy your book, you aren’t out all of the upfront costs of offset publishing and left with a huge inventory taking up room in your basement. It helps you maximize your profits. POD publishers will also help you get your book listed on Amazon and available through brick-and-mortar bookstores. Best of all, most POD publishers won’t judge your book or reject it. They’ll print it for you, but it’s up to you to do the necessary marketing. If you don’t succeed, POD publishers don’t lose anything. There are lots of great POD publishers out there. Two of the major players are Lightning Source and CreateSpace. Rather than hoping that a major publisher picks you, with POD you have the luxury of choosing your publisher and creating your own book deal.

It’s very disheartening when your manuscript is continually rejected, but don’t forget that you have other options. You don’t necessarily need the backing of a major publisher or an agent to get your book out there and turn a profit. If you’re tired of getting rejected and are ready to just get on with things, self-publishing through print on demand may be just the thing for you.

After you’ve used a grammar checker, Life Coach Ben Sharp recommends you overcome the sting of a publisher’s rejection by publishing your book on your own. Once you outgrow print on demand, check out Associated Printing Productions, Inc.

Your Words Can Change Lives

We talk about book marketing, Internet promotion and the packing of you content to profit as an author and business. In today’s competitive market, the author platform is the key determining factor to the success of your book. Yes, your words can change lives

But never underestimate the power of the written word.

Words Can Change Lives

A kind word, an expression of gratitude, or an honest compliment can make someone’s day, turn a life around and become the inception of a world changing enterprise.

Whether you are writing your book, your blog, or just passing someone on the street today, use your words to make the world better.

As we wrote Profitable Social Media: Business Results Without Playing Games, we put some of the memes into the simplest phrases possible, using these word in tweets and social media postings. Honing the message to make certain that it caught attention, was repeatable and had meaning for the reader made our message easier to talk about, and easier to share.

If you get the message from this powerful video. Please share it with others today. You never know which simple messages will be the words that can change lives.

Will Your Next Book Use Pinch Technology?

Interactive Books Are Getting Better all the time.

Sales of eBooks, and book delivered to an e-reader like the Amazon Kindle are skyrocketing, and there is more video uploaded in the time it takes to read this short post than you could watch in a week.

Text or mostly text books will be a around for a long time to come, but why not present your information in a way that is more engaging to the reader.

Mike Matas shows off one new title for the Apple ipad in this TED Talk video.

How will you use this in your next book?