Book Marketing Tip of the Week
July 23, 2007: Private Eye Day
and Civil Disobedience Day~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this issue . . .
-- Rolling Stone magazine
-- create your own relationship sites
-- Real Simple magazine
-- Self Pub NewsRolling Stone magazine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rolling Stone is a biweekly music magazine that features interviews, many music reviews, and a few book reviews. Send information and review copies to the editors at Rolling Stone, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York NY 10104-0298; 212-484-1616; Fax: 212-484-3434. Email: letters@rollingstone.com. Web: http://www.rollingstone.com.Jann Wenner, Editor and Publisher. Does many interviews.
Joe Levy, Executive Editor
David Fricke, Senior Editor. Reviewed Crystal Zevon's biography of Warren Zevon, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (5/07).
Nathan Brackett, Senior Editor, Record Reviews.
Peter Travers, Senior Editor, Movie Reviews.
P.J. O'Rourke, Contributing Editor, Foreign Affairs Desk. A book author.
Raoul Duke, Contributing Editor, Sports
Ralph Steadman, Contributing Editor, Gardening
Gavin Edwards, Rolling Stone Knows. Email: rsknows@rollingstone.com. Q&A column about music.
Nathan Deuel, Deputy Editor, Rollingstone.com
Robert Dreyfuss. In an article on Bush's Christianity, he referred to the Left Behind series and Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life (2/04).
Richard Abowitz. Reviewed Craig Werner's Higher Ground: Steve Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield and the Rise and Fall of American Soul (4/04).
Jon Caramanica. Reviewed Kool Mo Dee's There's a God on the Mic: The True 50 Greatest MCs and KRS-One's Ruminations (4/04).
Gavin Edwards. Reviewed James Henke's Lennon Legend: An Illustrated Life of John Lennon (2/04).
Michaelangelo Matos. Reviewed Bart Plantenga's Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World (2/04).
Create your own relationship sites
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One of the best ways to create lasting relationships with your readers is to create some sort of membership site -- a fan club, a coaching site, an encyclopedic site, an all-for-one, one-for-all site, a wiki, etc. If you would like to know more about creating such sites, you might want to check out Ryan Lee and Tim Kerber's Membership Site Bootcamp at: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=629793.Yes, that's an affiliate code. If you like the program's description and decide to buy into the bootcamp, I will make some money. But that is not why I'm writing about this program. I'm writing about it because I do think every author and publisher should consider creating a member site of some sort -- if for no other reason than to nurture and sustain relationships with readers. Novelists, for example, should have fan clubs. Business authors should have some sort of consulting membership site.
I intend to create several membership sites in the next six months to deliver some incredible new information. I will be studying this bootcamp material during the next week or two so I know how to create successful membership sites.
If you do decide to sign up for the Membership Site Bootcamp as describe in the following link, I will give you a six-month membership in the first membership site I create. That could be anywhere from a $300 to $600 bonus. Go here to read more about the bootcamp: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=629793.
Real Simple magazine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Real Simple is a monthly magazine on home, style, food, organizing, beauty, and other simple solutions to day-to-day life. Circulation: 1,810,000. Their Simplify Your Life section featured The Enlightened Bracketologist (3/07). Note below how else they have featured authors and books.Send info and ideas to the editors at Real Simple, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, 41st Floor, New York NY 10020; 212-522-1212; Fax: 212-467-1398. Web: http://www.realsimple.com.
Kristin Van Ogtrop, Managing Editor. Email: kristin_vanogtrop@realsimple.com.
Corynne Corbett, Executive Editor. Email: corynne_corbett@realsimple.com.
Jennifer Sucov, Executive Editor
Jacklyn Monk, Deputy Managing Editor. Email: jacklyn_monk@realsimple.com.
Leslie Alderman, Deputy Editor. Email: leslie_alderman@realsimple.com.
Anne-Marie O’Neill, Deputy Editor. Email: anne-marie_oneill@realsimple.com. Edits the fashion and beauty sections.
Sharon Tanenbaum, Associate Editor. Wrote an article about Judith Levine's Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping (3/07).
L. Bayly Ledes, Beauty Director. Email: bayly_ledes@realsimple.com.
Karen Kozlowski, Fashion Director. Email: karen_kozlowski@realsimple.com.
Lori Powell, Food Director
Lygia Grace, Senior Food Editor
Kate Merker, Associate Food Editor. Develops recipes and write food articles.
Sara Quessenberry, Recipe Editor
Deborah Baldwin, Home Senior Editor. In an article on getting rid of pests, she featured Gail Ablow's A Horse in the House and Other Strange But True Animal Stories (4/07).
Kate Parker, Home Editorial Assistant. Email: kate_parker@realsimple.com.
Marcus Hay, Senior Style Director. Email: marcus_hay@realsimple.com.
Gail Blanke, RealSimple's Life Coach, Motivator column. The author of Between Trapezes wrote an article on creating your positive reality (3/07). Wrote a column on lightening up (4/07).
Laura Bronson, Editor, RealSimple.com
Kristy Ojala, Senior Editor, RealSimple.com
Nina Malkin, author of An Unlikely Cat Lady, wrote an article on pet peeves where she featured Julia Szabo, author of Animal House Style, as an expert (4/07).
Adam Bluestein, Contributing Writer, and Jennifer Rapaport wrote an article on kitchen safety that quoted two authors: Walter Scheib, author of White House Chef, and Lidia Bastianich, author of Lidia's Italy (4/07).
Elizabeth Razzi, in an article on money saving secrets, quoted the following authors: Pauline Frommer, of Frommer's Travel Guides; Jennifer Litwin, author of Furniture Hot Spots; Jill Fairchild, publisher of Where to Wear shopping guides; and Kimberly Lankford, author of The Insurance Maze (4/07).
Sara Reistad-Long, in an article on allergies, quoted Dean Mitchell, author of Dr. Dean Mitchell's Allergy and Asthma Solution (4/07).
Mary Gaitskill, novelist of Veronica, wrote a personal life lesson story on being wounded by words (4/07). Note how a novelist got noticed by and featured in a general woman's magazine.
Self Pub News
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last week I included the following little note in this newsletter:Self Pub News is a new website for making announcements about new books, upcoming conferences, book signings, special deals, and more. If you want your news included, send an email to Tom Nixon, editor, at info@selfpubnews.com. Web: http://www.selfpubnews.com.
Obviously, I should have noted that you don't simply send an email without first checking on the website and seeing what kind of info the site wants. Here are the details:
If you would like to increase the probability of your book being mentioned on this site, we (meaning I) would encourage you to:
1. Write up a book announcement of no more than 100 words.
2. Include a graphic of your book cover.
3. Make sure to mention the publisher's name and when it was published. Only books published in 2007 will be considered.
4. Provide a link to your book on Amazon.com.
And, yes, none of this ensures a mention, but it gets you so much closer. Also, please remember it's only me, so if you don't get a response and it's not posted, that probably means that the competition for space was significant.
One important note and/or fact of life: the majority of the books showcased are likely to be nonfiction. That is the reality of the publishing world.
In his SmallPress blog (http://www.smallpress.typepad.com), Tom Nixon wrote the following, making note how important it is to be professional when looking for connections, publicity, and promotional opportunities:
Today, thus far, I have received 26 emails about making a book announcement on Self Pub News. Apparently, self publishing guru John Kremer mentioned it in his weekly newsletter (for which I am grateful).
However, out of those 26 emails, only one of them came across as professional. He used proper spelling, punctuation, and formatting. He clearly had gone to the site and gave me exactly what I asked for (and it was easy to see that he had because he even mentioned that his book announcement was 100 words, one of the parameters).
That one will get placed on Self Pub News. All of the rest, I had to send a generic email requesting further information (which makes getting into SPN that much harder for them).
Two things:
1. People, before you go firing off emails, please check out a site. If those writers had, they would have seen a post telling them exactly what I require.
2. How well you present yourself does play an important role in writing and publishing. Half of the emails I received either had significant grammatical errors and/or came across as very unprofessional. If you are a professional writer or publisher, it's important that people see you that way.
This is in no way to take people to task, but you have to remember that, in this business, you are dealing with people who work with words for a living. Words are important and how you present those words is equally important.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens. — Carl Jung, psychologist
More great quotes at http://www.quotablebooks.com
Previous: Marketing News / Women for Hire Speakers Connection / Highways / Self Pub News / Forest magazine / Gift List Media / Book Marketing Network / Alaska Writers Workshop / Gourmet
Index: http://www.bookmarket.com/tipsindex.htm
Copyright © 2008 by John Kremer
Email: JohnKremer@bookmarket.com
Open Horizons, P O Box 2887, Taos NM 87571