Book Marketing, Publishing, Author Resources
Listen to the Healthy Helpful Authors Partner Training Call
We had some of our 427 partners in the promotion for 11/17 come on a training call. I reviewed how we are leveraging the positions we have to be more attractive to potential readers.
If you have a health related topic, or something that can help others who want to live a healthy happy lifestyle, this book promotion is a great way to join our network FREE.
Come to out Facebook Page to join us, or read about the book promotion here
While working with authors who have joined our free Facebook page to promote good health, helping people and sharing great books during November, I found some authors are still having trouble with Facebook
That’s because Facebook is NOT a place to sell book directly.. it’s a HUGE RESOUCE for building a network that will help you sell more books than you ever thought possible.
The key to Facebook, social media, and ALL future book marketing and promotion: Today RELATIONSHIPS are more important than transactions.
Think about this.. you go into a bookstore and see a bargain bin. Do you expect to find the best ideas and help there? NO. Those are the losers. The books that aren’t worth full price.
While some of the old rules of retailing apply to books and information products (i.e., having a sale).. for the most part, the more direct selling an author does, the lower the value of his expertise.
What you want is readers BEGGING FOR HELP and ANXIOUS TO ENGAGE. Social media is perfect for this.. and Facebook is the hands down leader.
So what do you do?
You stop saying “come buy my book” and start building relationships.. it’s as simple as that.
Start by finding like minded authors. I’ve talked to thousands for non-fiction expert authors over the past decade. Nearly every author I meet understands that their book is like a business card… just the start of relationship.
Finding authors in your niche, or related topics is easy today. Many of them already have a Facebook Page.
For an example.. I’ll use Brandi Funk’s “Cut Your Health Care Costs Now”
You’ll want to join us on this one.. It’s current, it’s gaining momentum fast, and (BIG HINT) It’s the one Warren is working on right now, so you know you’ll get more promotional oomph immediately 
Go to Our FACEBOOK PAGE and LIKE the page
Make Sure You Use the Facebook LIKE ButtonThe button below is very important to our networking. It’s active and link to the page we’re talking about. If you see a thumbs up and the word “Like” then you need to click it to “like” the page (used to be called “be a fan”) If you see an unlike link, you know you have already “liked” When you “like” using this system, you aren’t really making much of a commitment.. just networking and letting others know you are interested. I suggest you LIKE the page of any author you know or want to network with. If there ever is a reason to disconnect, you simply click again (the owner of the page does not get notice) No big deal how many pages you like/unlike with this.. VERY |
Our partners are posting on blogs, their Facebook pages, their newsletters, Twitter and more about others in the promotion. These tell people about Brandi’s book, and the idea of getting healthy information out this month. So here’s what you do:
This publicity is permanent because the links on the web will be left up, indexed by search engines, and found by readers again and again.
Brandi will continue to post health tips here and network with the partners in the program. Soon there will be thousands of LIKEs (fans of the page) and high authority link juice (that’s SEO talk for “Google will like you more”)
When you start promoting like this… Shining the light on others besides yourself, you’ll find plenty of other pages and others to help out. They will be happy to tweet and talk about you AFTER you have done it for them. Simply LIKE their page, comment on their blog, share a link, blog about them or whatever else you can think of to promote their good work (for free and in just a few minutes of your time) and they will LOVE YOU.
Remember. You can get anything you want out of life if you help enough other people get what they want. While it’s normal for you to include your web site with your signature, mention your book or blog in a post, or share a resource that will lead to making you money.. more and more, people are attracted to those who HOLD OFF selling and help others first.
As all of your partners work to build the network. You can create your own Facebook page, cross promote new products, all that marketing stuff… but READERS want to see conversation. Makes sure you start with conversation!
Build the network and you will build your own brand. The next step is ON FACEBOOK
November is a great time to think about health.
It’s National Diabetes Awareness Month, and I’m reminded of a huge best seller success we had a few years back bringing awareness to the dangers of diabetes. During that promotion, dozens of authors built connections with readers and several started relationships that continue to this day.
It’s also Movember, an anti cancer campaign where men are growing a mustache this month. I’m personally using as an excuse not to shave. (no photos please)
If you have a book that promotes good health or a better life, this is a great time to be on the lookout for cross promotions and good causes.
As we say, the best way to attract new readers for your book is to get involved and network with other authors with similar great books. Remember, your best buyers will not be buying just one book and the most likely readers from your book (and leads for other business) will be those buying books on subjects like yours.
When you see a good book, do as many of these as possible.
You are an expert author. You should know the best books. As Mark Twain Said
“Never trust anyone that writes more than they read”
When you meet an author, they ALWAYS appreciate the compliment of “I bought your book” (try it, it really works on ANY author, no matter how famous). Let them know that you bought it through reviews, email, comments on their blogs, or some of the idea below
There’s trick we use to get readers of newsletters, email list and blogs to buy. We make sure there are offers from many sources. Studies have shown that people tend to be turned of from a barrage of messages saying “buy my stuff” but love to hear about great products from others.
A review in your newsletter, an excerpt from book on your blog, or mentions on your radio show, speeches and teleseminars will add value and make you stand out as the expert (see Twain quote above)
Most authors are as anxious as you to get more publicity for their book. Instead of begging for coverage, use the tools at your disposal to lend a hand to authors you meet. And if you don’t know them, use this as an opportunity to connect.
When an author has a new book out, they are busy… but this is exactly the time that they will want to be on your radio show, be interviewed for your blog, or talk to your audience.
It’s simple:
Buy a book, promote the author as much as possible the ask them to be your guest.
I’ve done these 3 steps over and over. There are many variations, but I know try to always approach an author I want to have recommend me by ordering their book, finding their Twitter and Facebook ID and sharing it with my readers, commenting on their blog on any post that I can and only then calling them.
Rather than a cold call, I get to hear “Thanks for calling. I appreciate you” .. after that, they are in your camp, asking you how they can help you and looking for ways to cross promote, endorse and grow with you.
Gust post by Stephen Shapiro
Look at any group of people who effortlessly work well together. Odds are the individuals share a lot in common with each other. They might have similar backgrounds, expertise, interests, or personalities. This is natural. Contrary to conventional wisdom, opposites do not attract. We find it easier to work with people who are like us. As a result, teams that lack diversity are the norm.
In fact, there is plenty of scientific research suggesting that homogeneous teams do indeed perform better than more heterogeneous ones for “low difficulty” tasks – those with lower levels of ambiguity, uncertainty and complexity.
However, research also shows that in situations involving “high difficulty” tasks, heterogeneous groups consistently perform the best. Innovation is, by its very nature, fraught with uncertainty and complexity. It is obviously a high-difficulty task. Although homogeneous teams are more efficient, it is the uniformity of thinking on these types of teams that limits breakthrough ideas and reduces innovation. Ensuring a range of innovation styles should be the goal in constructing such groups in order to maximize team performance.
Unfortunately, diverse teams, left to their own devices, are rarely efficient. Differences of opinion, creative tension, and infighting will naturally emerge. Individuals who think differently do not naturally communicate well with each other. Therefore, it is important that innovation teams be given the tools to “play well together.”
Putting this together, we end up with three simple principles. And these are the three key principles of Personality Poker:
Innovation is the life-blood of your organization. It is crucial for long-term growth. Without it, your business will almost certainly become irrelevant and commoditized. Unfortunately, although it is important, it is not always easy. However, applying these three simple principles can help you create high-performing innovation teams that consistently “beat the house.”
Best selling author David Meeman Scott’s new book will be out next week but as usual, he’s been marketing and promoting it for some time.
Real-Time Marketing and PR: How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now is already a best seller. Readers have been anticipating it because he’s built his tribe of followers and engaged them in many ways over the past few years.
In this video, Scott shows how two companies took advantage of a news event as it happened. When you watch it, think about how you can jump on stories related to your book in real time.