Best Seller Authors

Book Marketing, Publishing, Author Resources

Video Opportunity in Los Angeles

Author 101 University is a must attend event for authors who are serious about making it in publishing.

imageI’ve told Rick Frishman that the “101” title is misleading. This has become a networking event that we go back to again and again.

The next one is March 3-6 in LA. I’ll be shooting video segments for my TV show.

Time will be tight, so I’m giving priority to my readers. You do have to be attending Author 101. If not, we’ll have other opportunities announced here in the future.

To get on the schedule, leave a comment below and let me know you’ll be there.

Author 101 is Sold Out

Last I heard, the event is sold out. Publishers, agents, book marketing professionals and authors gathering like this has a tendency to draw a crowd fast.

If you don’t have a ticket, but want to come and be in a video. let me know. I may be able to get a ticket. (leave a comment with your and I’ll email you privately).

Is Your Text File an eBook?

I still see many books for sale without a Kindle version.

And I still get asked if the author marketing suggestions I teach are good for e-books.. from people who decided not to print a book as a cost cutting idea.

Here’s the future for a reading experience. This children’s book demo is a little bit over the top in terms of style, but the technology used is here today and affecting how we’ll expect to read tomorrow.

What are you doing to adapt your story and involve your readers?

Book Marketing Goes Through the Looking Glass. Alice on the ipad

Best Seller Author Success Story: Geri Winters

Guest post by Geri Schneider Winters, Wyyzzk, Inc.

Geri-Schneider-Winters_69578[1]Marketing your own book is a necessity, especially when you are published by a "real" publisher. This is a lesson I learned the hard way.

In late 1996, I was asked to teach a class on a specific technique for writing software requirements. The students loved the class, and asked me if there was more information on the topic. At that time, there was not. Someone said, "Will you write a book for us on this topic?"  So I said yes!  I talked to a friend who had published a software book, and when he found out the topic, he got really excited. His publisher (a top publisher of software books) was looking for a book on exactly that topic! My friend introduced me to the publisher, and a book was born.
And so, by a very lucky sequence of events, I was a published author of a best selling book with the top publisher for the industry  There were no other books on that topic for 3 years, and the topic was hot.

I knew nothing. I thought the publisher would take care of everything. So there I was riding the top of a great wave, and I did nothing about it. No marketing, no followup, no promotions, no speaking engagements. No method for finding out who was purchasing my book.

The publisher promoted the book for a while, primarily by sending notices to book sellers and text book salesmen. But over time, they had other, newer titles to promote.  And because I knew nothing, my contract drastically limits my options as to what I can do myself.

Fast forward to 2005, and I had become interested in marketing and promoting my business. Over several years, I learned all kinds of things about how to promote my self as an expert. Warren taught me the things I should do as an author.  And I have been kicking myself these last several years for not doing this earlier.

You see at this point, I am trying to build a market, when 10 years ago, I had one.  I gave up all the advantages of being an author, and it is really hard to bring that back.  People want to know "What have you done for me lately?", not what did I do over 10 years ago. If I contracted with a publisher today, I would retain rights to e-books, books on tape, or at least be able to give away sample chapters.

Once my book is out of print, I can apply to recover the copyright and do anything I want to with it. But the book is still in print and still selling a hundred copies or so a year. So chances are, by the time I get the copyright back, no one will be interested in the topic.

I have also learned that books stay in print far longer than I ever thought. I have to consider 10 years or more of demand for my books, and consider how I will satisfy the demand for the book, as well as follow on products and services.  And that means I have to know who buys the book.

What am I doing today? I wrote another book last fall, and am testing it on a few people in my market.

I have some refinements planned based on feedback, and have some nice quotes from reviewers. When I am happy with the book, I will create a full marketing plan for it, along with plans for follow up products and services. Will I go with a regular publisher? I have not yet decided. I will be looking a lot more carefully at my options, and making sure that any contract I sign gives me the flexibility to promote my new (and future) books. Because now I know the publisher will not do it.
Warren’s advice in this area is priceless. He has taught me – and many, many other people – what to do to avoid the mistakes I made the first time. I hope I have a great topic again, but I am not going to depend on that. I am going to do the right job with marketing and promotions, and use the book to increase my business.

Would you read a book with ads?

With e-reader prices dropping like a stone and major tech players jumping into the book retail business, what room is left for publishers’ profits? The surprising answer: ads. They’re coming soon to a book near you.

To understand why this is inevitable, consider the past few years. The historically staid and technology-averse publishing ecosystem has been ripped apart and transformed.

Take the first seven months of 2010 alone: In April, Apple came out with the iPad and quickly sold over three million units. Apple also launched its own proprietary bookstore, iBooks. In June, Barnes & Noble lowered the price of …

More at Wall Street Journal

Are You Marketing Your Book With A Full Deck?

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:

  1. People in your organization must “play to their strong suit.” That is, make sure that everyone understands how they contribute to and detract from the innovation process. This includes ensuring that you have the right people with the right leadership styles in your organization.
  2. As an organization, you need to “play with a full deck.” Embrace a wide range of innovation styles. Instead of hiring on competency and chemistry, also hire for a diversity of innovation styles. Every step of the innovation process must be addressed with people with the right innovation styles.
  3. “Deal out the work.” That is, you must divide and conquer. You can’t have everyone in your organization do everything. Instead, get them to divvy up the work based on which style is most effective at a given task. You can’t have everyone generating ideas, or focusing on planning.

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.”