by Shennandoah Diaz

Writers are an enthusiastic and passionate bunch, but when it comes to marketing, we see more confused faces, blank stares, and resistance than in any other industry. It’s easy to be idealistic about writing a book, but when it comes down to it, publishing is a business, and authors who want to sell books need to be on top of marketing. To offer some guidance on the topic, here are the top five mistakes we see authors make in their marketing efforts.
#1 Not Doing Any Marketing at All

The worst thing you can do as an author is nothing. Publishers and bookstores alike are concerned about bottom lines and profit margins. They won’t risk their money on a title with no marketing support. Even if you do manage to get it into bookstores, if you don’t drive people in to buy your book, you may be stuck with hundreds of returns as the books that never sell make their way back to the warehouse (leaving you looking like a dud not worth publishing again). In many cases, you have roughly three months from the date of publication to prove the strength of your title. If it doesn’t move, you can say goodbye bookstore and hello backlist.
#2 Waiting Until They’re Published

Everyone wants a bestseller. Did you know that bestseller status is based on velocity of sales and not on the total amount of sales? That velocity is built largely on preorders from retail stores? Retail stores start making their purchase decisions as many as six months before the date of publication, which means you have to prove you have the followers before you even have a book. You need to start building your author platform now. It takes three months to get traction, six months to see results, and a good year to build up a decent platform. Don’t wait.
#3 Expecting the Publisher to Do It All for Them

Again, publishing is a business. If you go out and start a business, you don’t expect the bank who fronts the loan to do marketing for you. Publishers take on titles based on the assumption that you will actively sell your book, and they are expecting you to deliver. Even though this can be frustrating, it’s your career hanging in the balance if the book doesn’t sell.
#4 Automating Everything

Too many people—not just authors—think that marketing is automated content. It’s not. I’m all for re-purposing content and streamlining processes, but a constant stream of one-way ads and promotional posts is a cop-out. Today’s market demands engagement. They want direct access to the real you in real time. Don’t set your marketing on cruise control.
#5 Not Making It Professional

Last but not least, too many authors plop a DIY website with no content and a few weak profiles on the Internet and attend one writer’s conference and call that being a professional author. You have to dress for success, and your marketing materials have to be up to snuff. You need to invest in professional websites, vibrant materials, and a professional appearance so you always make a great first impression. Any author with the intention of getting into Barnes & Noble should expect to spend at least $5,000 to $10,000 on marketing.

If you are an aspiring author, I implore you to take heed and put some thought and money into your marketing. To succeed in retail, you need great marketing in addition to a great book. Don’t leave it up to chance!

Shennandoah Diaz is president of Brass Knuckles Media, an uncensored PR & Marketing firm catering to creatives and the avant garde. Passionate about education, Diaz empowers creatives by sharing articles and teaching workshops on marketing, social media, and publishing. Learn more at www.brassknucklesmedia.com or at www.shennandoahdiaz.com.

Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Whether you’re a debut author about to launch a book (congrats!) or a writer trying to get published (good luck! I hope you do!) or a sophomore or seasoned author who’s thinking of biting the publicity bullet (yes, you should!), there are things to know about publicity in advance.

I love the phone calls and emails I get from authors and writers who are thinking about publicity. I love that they are taking initiative and getting answers, they are preparing to give their book the best chance and they are eager and full of questions about publicity – what is a publicist? what do you do? will it sell books? can you make me a bestseller?

Inevitably, there are similar questions that pop up – and I’ve addressed those here – in case these help you understand what publicity is, what it isn’t and what it can and can’t do for you as an author.

5 Things You Should Know About Publicity Before You’re Published or Before You Hire a Publicist

#1 Publicity is Awareness but not Sales & Marketing

Many authors admit they know nothing, or almost nothing, about publicity – except that they know they need to do it. More often than not, publicity is confused with sales and marketing. Publicity is not sales. Publicity is not marketing. Yes, they go hand in hand. Yes, they can (and should) be synergetic. But publicity (also known as PR) does not guarantee sales. Is there a correlation between when a media hit (book reveiw/feature/blog mention) happens and sales? Yes. Usually. Almost always. But, publicity is about creating awareness and chatter about your book. Sales and marketing is about moving that sales needle. Everything from the book cover design, language on the book, colors on the cover, genre, endorsements – and much more – are well researched by sales and marketing teams to motivate people to buy that book. Publicity is about getting the media and audiences talking about a book, creating visibility for a book – and thus will generate awareness of the book and the author, and also traffic to find more out about the book either to bookstores, the author’s website, or booksellers online. And, hopefully, once there, the sales and marketing of the book (the cover, the colors, the language, the endoresements!) and what the consumer sees when they arrive at that site, will make them purchase it. So…. publicity is not sales and marketing. They are completely different animals – but both very necessary.

#2 Publicity doesn’t happen overnight

Publicity doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, it’s a very long-term and strategic process. When you open up the newspaper or pick up your favorite magazine and read an article, or even see a segment on the Today show, chances are that story has been in the works for months and involves a lot of people – including a publicist spearheading it – and a lot of moving pieces and parts that take up time. Even book features and book reviews are the same way – and moreso in some cases because book space is limited and reviewers are getting pitched hundreds of books a day. There are two types of media: short lead (online, broadcast and newspaper) and long lead (print magazines/print media). Yes, short lead media allows for the feature to be published quicker, but both take a lot of back and forth and advance planning. A solid publicity campaign takes six to 12 months to execute. Be patient! Be persistent! Be realistic! In order to give your book the best chance, realize that publicity is a long term strategy.

#3 Publicity is an investment

There’s a terrible catch 22 when it comes to publicity – you gotta spend money to make money, and even then, there’s no guarantee. Often times, authors know they need publicity and they know it’s going to cost money but they need the money from the book sales in order to pay for the publicity. Yet, they need the publicity in order to create awareness of the book so people will be motivated to check it out and consider buying it. It’s a terrible conundrum. Legitimate publicists do not work on commission – I’ve been asked more than once if I would consider working off a model where I make money if and only if the author makes money. Again, see #1. Publicity is not sales. It’s like starting a business – it’s an investment. You’re paying a publicist for the effort and the work done on the publicity campaign, not on sales success. Try and find a budget that’s reasonable for you – and know it’s an investment in your book and in your long-term career.

#4 Relationships matter…and they don’t

Many times authors will ask me what kinds of relationships I have with media. There are lots of people in the industry who will say you need a publicist who has relationships because that’s the only way to get coverage. Is this true? No. Is it important to have media relationships? Yes (it’s a sign of a good publicist for sure). Is it the only way to get coverage? No. You should definitely ask this question when interviewing a prospective publicist, but don’t let people get you down that you can only get coverage if you’re on a first name basis with an editor in chief. What relationships get you is this: when I pitch media that I’ve worked with for a long time and have relationships with, I know they are going to open my emails and thoughtfully read and consider my pitch. Are they going to guarantee me coverage because I have a relationship with them? No. But, because they know me and my work, they will open it and respond and consider my angle because they know I bring them stories that matter, stories that are relevent to their audience and stories that are well thought out and comprehensive. A good publicist has relationships, builds them over time, doesn’t abuse them, and gets coverage for clients in media even when they don’t have an in or a relationship – that’s the sign that they pitched a really good story, so good that the editor bought it whether they have a relatinship or not. So yes, ask a publicist what kind of relationships they have, but more importantly ask them what kind of results they have.

#5 Buyer beware

Last, a word of warning because I have seen this happen more than once – be careful of scams. There are a ton of publicists and publicity firms out there. If it feels like a sham, if your gut is telling you it’s a scam, if it’s too good to be true, it likely is. There’s no guarantee in publicity. If someone is guaranteeing you XXX amount of media hits and interviews and agreeing to reward your money back if you’re not completely satisfied, then that’s not a legitimate or professional publicity route. If they’re promising to blast out your book to thousands of media – that’s a pitch machine and not a personal, professional publicist working to get you the best, most appropriate and targeted opportunities and exposure for your book. If you’re allowed to pay with a credit card or required to pay in full all up front – that’s not legitimate and you could very well lose all that money. I’ve seen it happen. So, interview, ask questions, ask for references and to talk with clients, follow up on those references and talk to real people. Be smart and take your time – you want a PR partner who you feel can passionately stand behind you and your book, don’t get fooled or scammed by shiny promises.

Crystal Patriarche is founder of Sparks PR Agency, a full-service boutique agency that provides strategic public relations to business clients through its BizSparksPR division and book publicity and consulting to authors through its literary BookSparksPR division. She’s also a journalist whose articles on books, entertainment, beauty, health, motherhood and careers have appeared in many national magazines, newspapers and websites. For more, visit

Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com

Purchasing Works Of Art
By David Tatham

The public today seem to be very picky about what they have in their homes. A lot of people are in reality starting to invest in various forms of art that will not only be fine decoration, but a talking piece. In reality, this is one of the finest methods to tie a room together and give guests an interesting subject of conversation. People who have not had the opportunity of trying this method of investment will need to examine these excellent tips and get a superb new look.

Before looking for anything, be absolutely certain to think about the amount of money that is required for this type of purchase. Paintings are going to range in price, depending on who the artist is, and where they are living. The prospective purchaser will have to make sure that they study and calculate what they might like to buy the most. Keep in mind, this is not always going to be cheap so be ready to spend a much money for the top paintings.

Afterwards, be sure to research the various types of paintings that are at present most sought after. Naturally the modern designs are going to give the home an modern and sleek appearance that might be unseen to many people. There are brightly coloured designs as well as styles that can be quite contemporary and sleek.

The bottom line is what the collector likes and how they currently have their homes decorated.When doing some research, be sure to learn about some of the most sought after painters as well. David Shepherd is a very well known painter that truly knows how to present nature and wildlife in the most unique ways. Those who are interested in watercolours will need to make sure that they see Russell Flint. His watercolours are very vibrant and will easily be able to catch one’s attention.

Take the time researching the great masters and make sure to see what they have to offer in the way of original paintings and prints. A little patience needs to be employed throughout the art buying process. There is definitely no need to commit to any type of purchase. Browse through various galleries and check out various openings to make sure that all of the right outlets have been tapped into.

Individuals who have not invested in or purchased a work of art or signed, limited edition before will need to look in much greater detail so that they find something they will enjoy looking at whenever they come home. A reputable art dealer needs to be located so that the right paintings are purchased. Galleries are great, but they can be very highly priced. A dealer is going to have a number of different pieces that are difficult to source and incredibly unique.

Speak to these local dealers to see what stock they hold and try to find out about any exhibitions in order to make the right decision. Do not forget to take the overall delivery and installation into consideration. Professional delivery is typically included with the any large works of art, and usually the professionals will also install the painting too. These arrangements will need to be made before purchasing so discuss with the dealer about what they offer when placing the order. Buying art does not always have to be such a complicated process.

Actually, many first time collectors have been able to find the painting they had always wanted very quickly. Talk with various vendors and gallery owners to find out what is available and begin shopping today.

David Tatham, specialist picture dealer for over 25 years, has a detailed knowledge of Lowry’s biography. Signed, limited editions and paintings can be viewed and bought from the website. http://www.lowry.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Tatham

http://EzineArticles.com/?Purchasing-Works-Of-Art&id=6092199

We’ve all heard that if you are in business, you need to have a Facebook Business page or Fan page. Now that you’ve gone ahead and built your Facebook fan page, what’s the next step? If you build it they will come… or will they?

If you now do nothing with your Facebook page, it will do nothing for you. Congratulations, you have a cyber-slug!

If you don’t have the time to spend keeping your page updated, or you don’t have the cash in your business to pay someone else to keep your page updated, you are wasting your time. It’s that simple.

We’re a fickle crowd. If you are not keeping your page current and populated with new and interesting bits and pieces to read, you won’t be top of mind with those that have liked your page.

Without posting on your wall, your fans are not seeing your page in their newsfeed. Your fans will have to remember to find and revisit your page. They won’t.

When was the last time you actively visited a page on Facebook purely because you thought of it?

Or did you see a post or comment in your newsfeed from a friend that caught your eye and you clicked through to find out more.

My guess is option 2. Most of us operate that way. We see what others are doing or talking about and then go and have a look see.

With that in mind, how can you apply the browsing habits of most online users to your Facebook page strategy to ensure people continue to visit your page?

1. Post 2 to 3 times per week

Yes, per week. Be on your wall posting articles, comments, questions, videos, photos, etc at least 2 to 3 times per week to keep your page fans engaged.

If you are not talking to your page visitors, someone else will be.

2. Post at different times of the day / different days of the week

Unless you know exactly when your page fans are online, make an effort to post at different times of the day and also, post on different days of the week.

By posting at different times of the day, you can make sure you are appearing in the newsfeed of your fans at differing times. People are online at different times of the day. Some like to early morning browse. Some jump online after lunch. Others do a quick catch up on what’s happening at dinner time or when they’ve finally put the kids to bed and have a few moments to themselves.

Likewise, some people are more active on weekdays. Others browse on the weekend when things have slowed down at work.

Know when your target market is online and post specifically to tap into their peak browsing times.

3. Repost your content

It’s perfectly fine to write one single article and post the same article to your wall 2 or 3 times. Just make sure you spread out the time between the posting.

For example, you may post an article at the start of the month and repost it at the end of the month. Why? No one can possibly be on Facebook 24 hours a day. There will be fans that would love to read your content but were not online when you first posted it.

Reposting gives people the chance to catch it on the second time around.

4. Post Content from other Sources

Be seen as in information disseminator. As well as sharing your own information, source material that you know will appeal to your target market.

If you read an article that was helpful to you in business, chances are, it will also benefit others. So share it.

Your Facebook page visitors will appreciate the gesture and may even “on-share” it, citing you as the reference point where they found it.

This is where the ability to tag in Facebook can be really useful. An article you found and posted can easily be shared as a link by someone else, with a tag to your page as a thank you for sharing. Win-win!

5. Respond to Comments or Questions

If someone posts a question or a comment on your page, reply. Sounds simple, but I’m amazed how many people don’t even bother to visit their own page to see what is happening on the wall.

Engaging with your visitors is an ideal way to establish rapport and build up a following of loyal fans who will love to hear from you.

If you do this, chances are next time they have a question in your field of expertise, they’ll ask you. Their friends will also see that they’ve posted on your Facebook business page wall and some will click through to see why.

Why Did you Build a Facebook Business Page?

Your aim when building a Facebook business page should be to generate traffic to your page, as a source of potential leads, clients and customers.

Your challenge is to keep them interested when they get there. Keep them engaged. Keep them coming back.

That way they’ll see you as the expert and seek your advice and opinion when they have an issue to solve or question to ask.

About The Author

Wendy Moore is the founder of www.savvywebwomen.com and creator of the Savvy List Building Blog – the information packed resource that shows business owners and entrepreneurs how to get in front of an audience that wants to buy what they are selling. To receive your FREE Special Report and weekly how-to articles to expand your online List Building toolkit, visit www.wendymoore.net.

Sorry for the buzz kill title of this article, but instead of spreading pixie dust as many marketing articles do, I thought I’d take a hard look at the realities of self-defeating behavior and some of the things authors might buy into that will sabotage their careers. Over the years I’ve written a lot of articles on how to be successful, but to be successful you must first learn how to fail up, meaning that you learn from what you did wrong, take full responsibility for it and move on. Lessons in publishing are often costly, both in time and dollars. I don’t presume to tell you that you should avoid making any mistakes, but many of them are avoidable. Here are a few for you to consider.

Not learning enough about the industry

The first piece of this is simple: get to know the market you are in. This is a bit of a dual message because I’m not just speaking of the market you are promoting to: your area of expertise, but also to the publishing industry at large. Who else is publishing in this area? What are they publishing? Is your area of writing hot or a fading trend? These are all good things to know before you jump headlong into your area. Getting to know your market can help you not only avoid expensive errors but also possibly incorporate trends into your book that could help to leverage its success. How to learn about the industry? Read up on it at sites like Publishersmarketplace.com, subscribe to the free or paid newsletter the site offers. This will give you a good sense of what’s selling, who’s buying, what’s being published. Publishers Weekly is another good resource. If you can’t afford a subscription try their online site at publishersweekly.com, or check out your local library to see if they carry any copies. This is a great industry resource.

Not Accepting Feedback

A couple of weeks ago an author who has sat in on a number of my classes, both online and off, asked me numerous times how she could get onto Huffington Post as a blogger. I told her I would try to pursue a Huffpo blogger for her to get feedback on her work. I did this as a favor because, well, she was relentless in her pursuit of this and I had to admire that. So, I finally got a blogger to review her work and the critique came back not so good. In fact it was terrible. I sat on it for a day, wondering if I should share it with her. I finally decided that if she was so relentless about her career, she would be equally relentless about crafting a perfect message, right? Not so much, actually. When I forwarded her the feedback she shot me off an email saying that many other people loved it and that astrologically this was a terrible time to accept feedback so she would dismiss it. Some moon phase or something. I honestly can’t recall. No, I’m not making this up. OK, listen, full confession time here. I have a friend who calls me whenever Mercury is retrograde, “don’t buy anything electronic” she says, and I listen. Well, sometimes. Anyway, point being that I get that we’re all driven by a different drummer, but if someone takes the time to critique your work why would you not try to learn from that? Look, I know not everyone is going to be spot-on with their feedback, but take from it what you can and move on – better yourself, better your writing.
Feedback is a crucial part to any writer’s career. If someone who is more knowledgeable than you about the industry you are in is willing to give you feedback you should listen. Really. In a room of one hundred authors I can pick out the successful ones. You know who they are? They are the ones who aren’t so wrapped up in their egos that they aren’t willing to listen and learn.

Not Surrounding Yourself with Enough Professionals

Let’s face it, your mother and immediate family will love anything you write. These are not the people who will offer you the kind of guidance that will further your career. Yes, they will (and should) love and support you through this work, but you need professionals you trust by your side giving you advice, wisdom, and direction. You don’t need to keep a group of experts on retainer, but you need to know who they are so you can call on them when you need help.

Not Doing Their Research

What would you think of a store owner who opened a yogurt shop in downtown San Diego only to find that five other stores were opening within months of his, one of them a very successful franchise with a huge following? Wouldn’t this make you sort of wonder why on earth this store owner would do that, I mean open a store without doing the proper research? Then why on earth would you launch head first into publishing without knowing your market – I mean the publishing market? So many authors learn the ropes after their book is out, and by then it’s too late. Well, not too late really because you still have a book, but late in the sense that you can’t really do anything about mistakes made and the money it’s gonna cost you. There are a ton of online resources out there. Get to know them, I’ve listed a number of them in this article and there are more, many more. The Internet is abundant with free content. Use it.

Measuring Their Success in Book Sales

Many of you might be shaking your head wondering how I could possibly say this, but it’s true. Book sales, even in the best of economic climates, are sketchy and planning your success or failure around them is a very bad way to market your book. Here’s the reality: exposure = awareness = sales. The more exposure you get, the more awareness there is for the book, the more sales you may get. But this equation takes time and in the midst of this marketing many other really great non-book-sale-related things may happen. An example of this is an author who didn’t really sell a lot of her books as she was marketing, but found that her speaking gigs started to pick up. Each speaking gig netted her about fifty book sales, and because of the market she was in, many of those book sales turned into individual consulting gigs that brought in much more revenue than a single book sale ever could have.

Get the picture?

The other reason I say this is because book sales can be tough to calculate, many reporting agencies don’t report sales for three to six months. I know this sounds crazy but it’s part of the reason why publishing is such a tricky business. So, if you’re doing a huge push in December and you look at your statement in January and find that you’ve only sold 3 books, it might be because you’re looking at sales figures from September or October when you weren’t doing any marketing at all.

Still not convinced? Then let me share my own story with you. As of today, Red Hot Internet Publicity has been out since July of 2009. I suspect to date it’s sold 5,000 or fewer copies. Not impressive, is it? Does that number bother me? Not at all. Want to know why? Because out of the copies sold I have probably brought twenty to thirty new authors on board who will likely be authors for life. Also, I got a teaching gig at NYU because someone handed someone at NYU this book and all of a sudden – there you have it. So if I measured my success by book sales, you bet I’d be depressed. Thank God I don’t. Book sales aren’t what drive my success. The same should be true for you. Start measuring your success in other ways and book sales will come. I promise.

Seth Godin aka brilliant marketer addressed this in a recent blog post too: http://bit.ly/9n1Y9v

Not Understanding How New York Publishing Works

We may not like how the corporate publishing model works, we may find fault with it, but to understand it is to understand how the industry works. For example, knowing the publishing seasons and why Fall is the biggest time for New York publishers to launch a book and perhaps the worst time for you to send your book to market if you’ve self-published.

Also, know that that corporate publishers don’t publish to niches, or rarely do, so if you’re publishing to a niche, you may have a real leg up.

As for bookstores, the big six in New York pretty much own most of the shelf space in your local Barnes & Noble, so if you’re vying to get in there, you are going to have to do more than show up with a book in hand and a winning smile. You’re going to have to promote yourself to that local market and gain enough interest for your book that people start asking for it in bookstores.

Understanding the corporate publishing model means knowing and researching your industry and again, not just the industry you are writing for, but the market of publishing in general. Knowing what’s selling, what’s not – who’s buying, who’s closing their doors. Knowledge is power. Arm yourself with it and you’ll have a much more successful campaign.

Playing the Blame Game

If something goes wrong, own it. Unless it’s really not your fault, unless you were taken for a ride somehow, swindled or whatever. Own it. Take responsibility. Here’s an example. Recently an author came up to me after a class I taught and said she’d pitched 200 bloggers and only 5 of them wanted her book. What was wrong with them? Well, maybe it wasn’t the bloggers at all. Bloggers are busy, busier than they’ve ever been so your pitch has to be strong and your book exactly right for the blogger you are pitching. If you’re not getting a lot of pick up on your pitch you might need a new pitch and/or you might need a new set of bloggers. Don’t assume it’s someone else’s fault. Investigate what happened and take a critical look at the results. If you don’t feel you can be objective, hire someone to sift through the data. Assuming success eluded you because of someone else’s lack of interest or follow through might be undermining your campaign and you could be missing out on important data that could really help turn your campaign around.

Believing in the Unbelievable

There are no guarantees. No one can promise book sales, fame, or Oprah. Period. End of story. If someone is promising you these things, run, or if the offer seems too good to be true it likely is. If all else fails ask someone you trust. I get folks asking me all the time about campaigns, programs, and marketing opportunities. Feel free to do the same. Whether you are working with us or not, now or in the future, I will always give you a fair and honest answer. If you’d rather go to someone else, great – but find someone whose opinion you trust and ask before signing on the dotted line.

Success is not about hard work alone, it’s also about making smart, savvy choices and not being blinded by your own ambition, creativity, or ego such that it undermines your work. To be successful you need to be relentless, believe in your work and your mission but you also need to be objective, realistic, and humble. That is a successful mix for any author and in the end, isn’t really about getting the book out there? Focus on what matters. Good luck!

Helpful Resources:

Some great and helpful books:

Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual, Volume 2: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book (ParaPublishing, 2009) Dan Poynter

The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Write, Publish, Promote and Sell Your Own Book (Writer’s Digest, 2009 or 2010) Marilyn Ross & Sue Collier

Doing Business by the Book: How to Craft a Crowd-Pleasing Book and Attract More Clients and Speaking Engagements Than You Ever Thought Possible – Sophfronia Scott (Advantage Media Group, 2008)

1001 Ways to Market Your Book – John Kremer (Open Horizons, 2009)

Red Hot Internet Publicity – Penny Sansevieri (Cosimo, 2009)

Get Published Today – Penny Sansevieri (Lulu Publishing, 2010)

Great Publishing Blogs

The Self Publishing Review http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/ 

POD People http://podpeep.blogspot.com/

Nathan Bransford http://blog.nathanbransford.com/ 

Moby Lives http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/ 

Holt Uncensored http://www.holtuncensored.com/hu/ 

The Book Deal http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/ 

Galleycat http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/?c=rss

So you’re out there marketing. You’re doing all the right things (or so you think). You’re following the book marketing advice of some leaders in the industry. You’ve got a checklist and you’re methodically checking off your goals. But how do you know you’re doing everything right? The fact is, most of us don’t. Yet we forge ahead, keeping pace with our marketing plan, without ever knowing if it’s paying off. We don’t see it in sales. Does that mean it’s not working?

Not at all. You could be seeing the effects in other places but just aren’t keeping track of it.
I find that especially in social media you need to keep a close eye on what’s working and what’s not. If you’ve spent *any* kind of time online you know that you can be in front of your computer for what seems like 20 minutes and yet three hours have gone by. If the three hours of marketing is paying off, then it’s fine to spend the time. But you need to know the difference. Here are a few things you can review to measure the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of your marketing.

Jumping in without a plan: Set clear, measureable goals because most marketing is invisible. Let’s face it, you send an email and wonder half the time if the intended recipient got it or if it ended up in a spam filter, never to be seen again. That’s the power behind goals. You need them and you need to run your campaign by them. So what are your goals? And no, you may not say sell books. Yes, that factors in – but there are a million small steps along the way before you even get to sales. Consider these goals and see if any of them fit your book, topic, and future:

Establish yourself as an expert or get known in your particular field. Hey, maybe you just want to be known as the go-to person for everything related to paranormal romance. That’s great and it’s a realistic, attainable goal.

Increase the visibility of your brand. OK, sort of the same as the bullet before this one but more geared to the non-fiction author.

Increase traffic and incoming links to your website. This is a great goal. Whether you are fiction or non-fiction it’s a great focus.

Do what makes sense for your book: if your followers aren’t on Twitter then why have you spent the last month or so promoting yourself on there? Mind you, Twitter works for most of the books we manage, but there are a few that don’t make sense. Twitter skews older than most people think so don’t be surprised if your YA reader isn’t on there. Before you launch head first into a campaign, make sure it fits your demographic.

Neglecting other marketing: I know it’s easy to get all a-twitter about Twitter but what else are you doing to promote yourself and your book? If you’re good at events and speaking are you still focused on that? Don’t get too myopic on doing just one thing for your marketing. The truth is, you need to do a lot of different things, balanced out over a week or a month for your marketing to really make sense.

Set goals – be clear on what you hope to achieve in social media: What are your goals for Twitter? If it’s just about gathering followers then you are missing a big piece of this social networking tool. For many marketing people it’s all about the number, but numbers don’t make as much sense unless they are driving interest to you and your book. If the numbers keep growing along with traffic to your website then you’re on the right track. But if you’re just growing numbers for the sake of being able to say that you have 10,000 followers then it makes no sense. That’s like buying a fancy car you can’t really afford. Eventually the debt of it will drag you down. It’s the same with Twitter and Facebook and any other social media site. It’s not about the numbers. It’s about the activity.

Be clear on who you are trying to reach: many of you say you’re trying to reach readers but is that really true? We all want to sell books, but who are you really going after? In all likelihood you will have a variety of different targets you are going after. Consider these: booksellers, speaking opportunities, interviews, bulk sale targets, reviewers, and readers to name a few.

Measure effectively: in order to know if stuff is working you’ll need to measure effectively. As I pointed out earlier on in this article you may not want to do that by fans or followers – instead consider these ideas as ways to measure your success:

Retweets on Twitter: the best sign of success on Twitter is the amount of retweets. Are you getting them and if so, how often? If your tweets are good and your followers are active, you should see a few a week at least (depending on the amount of followers you have). If you’re curious about the amount of Tweets that get RT’d – check out retweetrank.com. Twitter Analyzer (twitteranalyzer.com) is another great tool for determining how far tweets have traveled.

Site hits: are the hits to your site increasing? Are you watching your analytics to be sure? If you’re not, you should be. Watch your site stats closely and monitor the increase in traffic and where it’s coming from.

Inbound links: how many new ones are you getting? Did you do a vanity search before you started this campaign? If not, do that now. Make sure you know how many new incoming links you’re getting as a result of your efforts.

Sign-ups to your mailing list: are they increasing? If you’re doing the right stuff in your social media they should be increasing weekly.

Increasing the contacts in your industry: remember that social media marketing is just like going to a networking meeting. You want to expand your reach and get to know others in your industry. If you’re not increasing your reach and contact base then you need to be. This is another great way to gauge how effective your marketing is.

We always want to make progress in our marketing but we’re not always sure how to do it or if what we’re doing is making a difference. Follow these steps and see if it doesn’t help your marketing momentum. If it’s paying off, you’ll know sooner rather than later and you can keep doing the good stuff, and punt the bad.

Bonus: additional tools for tracking marketing

Bit.ly: this site serves as both a URL shortener and also as a measurement tool. Bit.ly can help get you real time results on clicks to links you are posting to Facebook and Twitter.

Google Analytics: if you don’t have any back end web analytics (and even if you do) Google gives you a lot of valuable data.

Trackur: this is a great monitoring site to see what’s being featured on you online and off. It’s not free like Google Alerts but much more comprehensive. Their basic package is $18 a month.

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert and an Adjunct Instructor with NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Copyright © 2010 Penny C. Sansevieri

You know I used to laugh at the “Christmas in July” ads until I promoted my first Christmas-related book. We actually started the promotion in July and it was the perfect time. Why? Well, maybe no one is buying or thinking about December in July, but the holiday buying season is tough. In order to make any kind of headway you must start early, not just to capture the December sales but also to get in front of any early shoppers. Once those Christmas in July ads start to hit radio and TV, consumers (those who like to shop early) start to gather ideas for their own shopping lists.

When is it too late to start thinking about the holiday market? November is definitely much too late, October is iffy, but if you’re staring September in the face and haven’t done a lick of marketing towards holiday sales, that might be your last chance. Better to start early – mid to late summer is always great. Here are some tips to help you get a head start on the holiday buying season.

Events: start early. If you’d like to do events in December I suggest you start calling stores now. Many stores don’t do in-store events after Thanksgiving, but if you have local connections or some independent stores they might be open to this. Speaking at non-bookstore venues falls under the same category: start early.

Promos: start planning your promos in the fall. I recommend starting the promo roll-out right after Thanksgiving and planning a succession of promotional announcements all the way through late December. If you need to get special pricing on books, or if you’re going to bundle your book with some other items, this will give you plenty of time to plan for that.

Website: now is the time to make sure your website is ready for your holiday marketing. As you begin planning your promos make sure your web designer is ready to go to make any changes your site might need.

Targets: definitely define your target markets as soon as you can, the earlier the better. If you don’t have a good, solid idea of who you’re marketing to yet don’t use your holiday campaign to test this. Test market early. You’ll be glad you did. Don’t waste a holiday promo if you don’t have to. Knowing who you are going after will save you in costly marketing mistakes (and this goes for any time you are marketing).

Ebooks: I suspect with all the e-readers that have hit the market in the last 12 months – and with both Target and Best Buy carrying e-book readers – you’re going to see a lot of promotion for this over the holidays. Make sure your book is keyed into this market, what I mean is: if you had planned to get your book converted to an ebook, now is the time. Also, you might want to offer a special promo, if someone buys your e-book have them forward you the receipt for an additional special holiday bonus.

Social media: if you’re not on Facebook or Twitter yet, now is the time to join, and even if you are this is a great time to maximize your efforts and plan how you’ll use your social media to enhance your holiday promos. Will you offer specials to your social media “tribe” only? Will you have exclusives just for them? Consider early on what your social media strategy will be.

Exposure: if your exposure online is minimal, now is the time to ramp it up. Contacting blogs, websites, doing article syndication, participating in blogs, doing guest blogging… all of these things are great ways to gain exposure online. Remember, it’s not just about the holiday promos, it’s about making sure you are searchable online. That way, if someone searches on what you’re offering, you’ll come up in the search results. This will help you capture holiday shoppers who haven’t been exposed to you or your message yet.

The key to successful holiday promotion is planning and enough advanced marketing so that you’re not spinning your wheels in the Fall wondering why you’re not making any traction. If you’re ready to explode your holiday market start early, it’s the best way to make sure you have a spot waiting for you when the busiest shopping season of the year comes around again!

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert and an Adjunct Instructor with NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Copyright © 2011 Penny C. Sansevieri

Guest blogging is a great way to supplement your article marketing. The practice of bloggers inviting other bloggers to publish on their blog has been going on since blogging began, but now this somewhat quietly kept practice is becoming more and more popular. If you are an online freelance writer you’re always looking for ways to get more traffic to your blog, and gain more exposure for your writing to attract more clients. The occasional guest blog posting gig can get you exposure to a new audience, confirm your expert status and attract fresh traffic to your blog.

As bloggers see the incredible results that they can gain from both guest blogging on other blogs and hosting guests on their blogs, they are engaging in the practice more and more.

In this article I want to share five simple tips for getting started as a guest blogger:

1. Choosing the right blogs
Your goal as a guest blogger is to find a new audience for your writing, to get wider exposure and to attract fresh traffic back to your blog. So, it makes sense to choose blogs that focus on keywords similar to yours, within the same industry and a similar compatible niche, and a similar audience demographic.

Choose blogs that are more established and higher ranked than yours for the biggest bang for your time, but don’t neglect those up-and-coming blogs with a growing, loyal following.

Spend the time to regularly visit the blogs in your niche that you would like to guest post for. Make note of their idiosyncrasies, practices and biases. Take notes and keep these issues in mind when you are writing your post so that you don’t slip up and offend your host, or embarrass yourself.

2. Making contact with the author
Compose a simple email to the blog owner explaining that you are offering to do a guest blog post for them. If this is your first contact with this blogger, briefly explain your blog’s topic and include a link.

Let the blogger know what you like about their blog, how your writing will fit in with their blogging style and topic, and how your content will add value to their audience.

3. Establishing a clear, mutually beneficial arrangement
Guest blog posting is a win-win for the guest blogger and the host blogger. The guest blogger gets exposure to a fresh audience, a nice boost in traffic back to their blog and more favorable search engine ranking from the highly relevant link.

The blog host wins because they get some fresh, relevant content that provides something new for their readership, and buys them a bit of time to do other things. But the blog readers also benefit because they gain exposure to a new writer and a different look at the topic.

Be sure to spell out the terms of the arrangement so that both parties are clear on things like the approximate word count of the post, publication date, number and types and placement of links, ownership of the content, etc.

4. Coming up with the right content for the blog
Refer to the notes you took when you were choosing blogs to guest post on, and write from the perspective of someone who is familiar with the audience. Read through recent posts to get ideas for filling in and rounding out the blogger’s approach to the topic. Ask the blog host if there is a particular topic they would like for you to cover.

Be sure to always present your best work when guest posting. Do your research, format the post carefully and ask for someone to proofread it for you before you submit it.

5. The importance of follow up
After your post has been published, be sure to check back and respond to the comments. This is a great opportunity to forge a real relationship with another blogger and their readers, so don’t overlook this important part of the arrangement.

Go ahead and start guest blogging. It’s a great way to broaden your reach as a freelancer, create relationships and get some new, targeted traffic for your blog. If you are looking to host guest bloggers, it’s a great way to add fresh perspectives to your blog and give your readers a bit of variety.

Guest blogging is just one of the ways to get your name out there when you are an online Freelance writer. For more information about freelance writing, online marketing and personal development, visit, http://www.productivepen.com today.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Guest-Blogging---5-Tips-for-Generating-Traffic-and-Gaining-Online-Exposure&id=6520445] Guest Blogging – 5 Tips for Generating Traffic and Gaining Online Exposure

We’ve all heard this: capture email addresses on your website so you can market to them again. So we do, we capture email addresses and then we wonder what to do with them. What if you don’t really have news? Do you mail the list anyway? How can I monetize my list, and how much is too much?

We’ve had The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter for over eight years now and the newsletter, bursting in content, is one of the best promotional tools my company has. We’ve never done a single piece of advertisement for my firm, all of it has come from word of mouth, online, and our newsletter.

The key to a good newsletter list is simple really and the biggest piece of this is you’ve got to have something useful to say. While your friends and family might enjoy hearing about your latest book signing, people who happened onto your site and subscribed to your ezine might become bored with this information and unsubscribe. If you have a list or are considering starting one, consider these tips to get you going and help you maximize your newsletter.

Timing: How often you send the newsletter will really depend on your crowd, but I don’t recommend anything less than once a month. I know some people who send a quarterly newsletter and that’s fine if you don’t really have much to say, but if you’re looking for content so you can send the newsletter more frequently, then read on; I have some ideas and ways of maximizing the use of content for your newsletter.

Distribution: How will you send your newsletter? If your plan is to email it, forget it unless you have less than 100 subscribers. Anything over that and you should consider using a service like Aweber or Constant Contact. These places will handle your subscribes and unsubscribes for you. If you start mailing to a list larger than 50 from your email service, you run the risk of getting shut down for spam.

Easy Opt In: Make it easy for people to sign up. Make sure there’s a sign-up on your website, preferably the home page and then a mention of it again on your most popular page which, for most of us, is our blog. The opt-in will take new subscribers to your welcome page (which we’ll talk about in a minute) and handle sending your new readers right into the mailing list.

Ethical Bribe: So what will you give readers to get their email? It might not be enough just to tout that you have this fabulous newsletter; in fact, often it isn’t. Have something that they’ll want, a key item: e-book, tip sheet, whatever will entice readers to sign up for your newsletter. Here’s a hint: give them something they’ll have to keep referring to again and again so that your name and book stays in front of them.

Free: There are some folks in the industry who try to charge for their newsletters. Listen, I get it. A newsletter is a lot of work, but if done properly, it is a key promotional tool and therefore, should be free. Magazines can charge for subscriptions, you can’t. Make it free. Don’t even put a value on it. I know folks who do this, too. I think the value of the newsletter should be evident in its content, not in the price you chose to put on it.

Welcome pages: After someone signs up for your newsletter, what will they see? A simple thank you page on your website is a waste of an opportunity. Make sure there is a welcome page that shares their freebie (the ethical bribe) and tells them about one or two of your products. It’s also a great idea to offer a special on this welcome page as a “thank you” for signing up to your mailing list.

Check your facts: The quickest way to lose subscribers is to publish a newsletter full of factual mistakes. Do your fact and link checking prior to it going out. Seriously. It’s important not just to the credibility of your newsletter, but to you as well. I mean who wants to buy something from someone who can’t even be bothered to check their facts?

Also, please get your newsletter edited. I’ve seen some newsletters with a disclaimer that they are unedited. If you aren’t an editor and can’t afford one, see if you can get it done for free and then blurb the person in your newsletter as a way to reciprocate. Remember, everything is your resume. Would you send a CV to a potential employer that was full of typos? I didn’t think so.

Promote: This is key because once you decide to do a newsletter you’ll want to promote it. You can do so by adding it to your signature line in email (“sign up for my newsletter and get a free …”), you should also never go to a book event without a sign-up sheet, and add your newsletter info to the byline of any article you write that gets syndicated online.

Collaborate: If you’re strapped for content and time, why not open up your newsletter to other collaborators? Our newsletter, The Book Marketing Expert, is a collaboration of a lot of voices. We have publishing tips, website tips, social media tips, and the main article. It’s a great way to let others have a voice in your newsletter, which helps to promote them – and the best part of this is that if you have a collaborative newsletter you can all promote it to the different people you touch in your travels. This will help increase your sign-ups exponentially because you’re hitting that many more people. Your collaborators should be in the industry, but specializing in different areas. This will give your newsletter the flavor and interest it needs. Don’t worry about sharing your newsletter space with others, we’ve done it this way for years, and it’s a great way to build lots of useful content.

Be generous: Give lots of good information. By giving away good information people will want to read it, and when they read it you will build a readership and loyal following, not just for your newsletter but for your books and products as well.

Balance: The key to a good newsletter that will not only get read, but passed along, is balance. By this I mean balance giving with selling. My general rule of thumb is 95% helpful information and 5% selling; while that number may seem low trust me, this is a great balance. Yes, you can offer specials and offers to your readers, but that’s the 5%.

Content creation: While it may seem daunting to have to write content for a newsletter every month or every two weeks, you can use and reuse this content because not everyone will find you in the same place. What I mean by this is that some folks will find you on your blog, others might find you on Twitter and still others will find you by searching online and happening on an article you’ve syndicated. Once I create content for The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter, that content is then redistributed and reused in places like our blog, my Twitter account (@bookgal) our Facebook Fan Page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Marketing-Experts-Inc-AME/43882181670?ref=ts) or on my page at The Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penny-c-sansevieri). Use and reuse your content, though not too much. I generally will use my articles in one or two other places and that’s it, but the point is that they can be used again.

The idea behind a good newsletter is one that not only brings your readers in, but keeps them interested. It’s the marketing funnel we marketing people love to talk about so much, once you get someone to sign up, stay on their radar screen with helpful content. Once you do, you’ll find not only loyal readers, but loyal buyers as well.

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert and an Adjunct Instructor with NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of five books, including Book to Bestseller which has been called the “road map to publishing success.” AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour, which strategically works with social networking sites, blogs, micro-blogs, ezines, video sites, and relevant sites to push an author’s message into the virtual community and connect with sites related to the book’s topic, positioning the author in his or her market. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her website at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free ezine, send a blank email to: subscribe@amarketingexpert.com Copyright © 2010 Penny C. Sansevieri

Can an Unknown Writer Compete at a Higher Price Point Than a Franchise Author?

The question posed by the subtitle is too absurd to even consider, yet it happens all the time. My favorite story involves a fellow who thought so much of his skill that he priced his e-book at $16. After a year of vigorous promotion he complained he’d sold only four copies, and one his wife bought for a relative. If e-books by major authors are priced in the $10 range, shouldn’t this have told the writer something about pricing his work?

Success Stories Abound for the $.99 E-Book

All anyone has to do is look at Amanda Hocking’s success and the way she priced her material. If I remember correctly, she even gave away some of her work to “grease the wheel.” Many authors, who often possess more marketing savvy than writing skill, have given away three-fourths of their books and offered their respective endings for a buck or so. And some of these books have sold in the tens of thousands of copies–and in a few instances even more.

It Seems Like $2.99 Is the Far Outside

I attended a seminar not long ago at which a successful e-book pioneer discussed pricing. This person had experimented with all sorts of price points and determined that $2.99 was the absolute outer limit for an e-book that was not previously released by a mainstream print publisher. His position was that $2.99 is the stretching point an e-book can withstand that’s not of the Stieg Larsson ilk, and anyone even remotely attune to the the publishing industry knows how seldom a phenomenon like that occurs. It might be worth noting that the first e-book concerning Bin Laden’s death was released at the same time as the print version, and the e-book price tag was $1.99!

So It Appears That $.99 to $2.99 Is the Comfort Zone

At the recent BEA conference, the CEO of one of the major publishing firms explained what everyone already knows, and this is that no one in the print business has yet learned how to market e-books. He went on to say that all of the distributing mediums which currently exist are quite good for hunters (of material) but not very good for what he called gatherers. With this in mind, it’s paramount for e-book writers to understand that unless a marketing plan is in place to drive a reader to a particular work, even a free book won’t be read–because no one will know it exists.

Robert L. Bacon, Founder

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Also Free! Receive The Perfect Write� Newsletters that feature articles on writing at a publishable level. Click here http://www.theperfectwrite.com and scroll to the bottom of The Perfect Write� Home Page for the simple two-step sign-up box.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?E-Publishing-Price-Points---At-What-Level-Should-a-Self-Published-Writer-Price-an-E-Book?&id=6483958] E-Publishing Price Points – At What Level Should a Self-Published Writer Price an E-Book?