best authors Archives - Best Seller Authors

Mar 12 2012

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

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

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:

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

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 )

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)

Dec 24 2010

Use Your iPad to Write a Book

Sometimes when I’m working on my next BestSeller book, I get a bit of writer’s block, I get up from where I am writing and take a walk

Within a few minutes, I’m interrupting the walk to write down an idea.

Chris Voss show us a another alterative… Write wherever you want with these Apple iPad book writing apps.

Dec 07 2010

Holiday Love Book Launch Sells Out New Best Seller Author

72 Authors joined together to share gifts and a book from Dr. Tianna Conti: Love’s Fire: Beyond Mortal Boundaries.

The publisher notified Amazon and made sure there were books in stock. All the authors involved contributed bonuses and a special offer was made for December 7th (the 13 year anniversary of the story on which the book is based). All send out email to their followers, and shared the book with social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.

“We woke up this morning to a best seller” said Warren Whitlock of BestSellerAuthors.com “Amazon had run out of stock! Fortunately, there were enough back orders for the book to be a best seller.”

By 7 AM, the reported rank of book sales was dropping while the publisher worked with Amazon to get an additional quantity of books into the system. An note of the web site was posted reading

Special Announcement:

As of 5:32 AM This morning, Amazon ran out of Love’s Fire. Thank you for making us a BEST SELLER.

GOOD NEWS: Amazon confirms more books in warehouse. While the page may say "out of stock" you can order an still get your book for the holidays.

Author Tianna Conti wrote Love Fire to share what she has learned about love and relationships after experiencing events when her husband passed right after they were married. The book launch was timed to go with a new movie Tianna’s production company is releasing and fell on the anniversary date of her late husband’s passing. Tianna was joyful when she heard the news of the book’s success:

First, thank you not only for Best Seller…it has transformed Dec. 7 one of the worst days of my life into a triumph for the message to enhance others lives and possibilities. Today, the book is coming out, tomorrow the movie and I adore you for your expertise and timing of our launch. It is a memory of a lifetime for me far beyond best seller…a new life and we did it together…..created a holiday miracle……heartfelt love and appreciation.

BestSellerAuthors.com is built around Warren Whitlock’s mission to help authors promote new books, share messages, and teach authors to promote their books using social media and online marketing.

Warren Whitlock is a speaker, author, and book marketing strategist. He is a co-author of the first book on Twitter “Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online” and is working on a new book for 2011 called “Profitable Social Media”

Oct 18 2010

When Should A Author Invest In Himself?

I just read an excellent article called The 10 Worst Business Ideas of All Time by Dave Logan.

Most of the ideas were focus companies and used language that might turn off some authors. However, as we’ve said many times here, Your Book is a Business

When I speak to authors, explaining how successful authors invest in themselves, their marketing, the brand seen online and relationships to move to the next level, I often here objections about “tough times” or “I’ll do that when I get the book done”

To get another perspective, I quote #3 in the 10 here:

Since times are tough, suspend training.

A company that’s flush with cash doesn’t prove its commitment to the employee by investing a little on training and development. But that same company does prove its commitment to shredding the culture and setting its principles on fire when it sacrifices these activities in tough times.

When times are hard, employees (and managers and executives) often don’t know what to do. This is exactly when training and development (done well, not the ultra-lame stuff that’s pre-packaged and devolves into simple and useless steps) can make the difference. Even more important, this is when company leaders are most closely scrutinized, so it’s good to be seen doing the right thing.

Whenever you think “I’m too busy” or “I’ve got to make some money first”.. remember how successful businesses and entrepreneurs stand out.. They do the right things when it hard to do the right things.