Book Marketing Tip of the Week
February 4, 2008: Co-ed Fever Day, Feast of Fools Torture Abolition Day, Homemade Soup Day, Paper Airplane DayDetails on these days — and 18,500 others! — can be found in
John Kremer's Celebrate Today Special Events Data Files.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In this issue . . .
-- Nexus Newspaper Reviews: Educational Books
-- USA Todays's Open Air magazine
-- The Amazon.com sales rank widget (and bestseller campaigns)
-- Why you should give your novel away free: 10 million copies sold!
-- New social networks from John Kremer
-- Cool Book of the DayNexus Newspaper Reviews: Educational Books
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Nexus Newspaper Reviews has hired a new educational book editor, Alison Weston. They are interested in reviewing educational books and other product covering the following topics: autism, communication disorders, special education, language disorders, speech disorders, disabilities, pervasive developmental delays (PDD), Asperger's Syndrome, developmental delays, articulation disorders, phonological processing disorders, oral motor disorders, craniofacial abnormalities, stuttering, fluency disorders, voice disorders, dysphagia, swallowing and feeding therapy, cognitive therapy, traumatic brain injury, aphasia, stroke recovery and therapy, CVA, and speech and language disorders.Nexus Reviews provides book and product reviews to a syndicate of 2,925 US newspapers. Send review copies and media kits to Alison Weston, Nexus Reviews, 5676 High Meadow Drive, Norcross GA 30092. Web: http://www.nexusreviews.org.
USA Todays's Open Air magazine
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The nation's newspaper USA Today has begun publishing a quarterly lifestyle magazine called Open Air. This glossy color magazine will feature articles on travel, nutrition, lifestyle, health, sports, outdoor recreation, and related subjects. Its motto: Be active. Live well.
The first issue will be published on Friday, March 7th, with other issues on May 2nd, September 5th, and November 7th.
Send story ideas to Alexa Yablonski, USA Today, 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean VA 22108; 703-854-3400; Fax: 703-854-2122. Email: ayablonski@gmail.com. Web: http://www.usatoday.com or http://www.openair.usatoday.com.
Jack Curry, Open Air Editor. Email: jcurry@usaweekend.com.
Photo submissions email: openairphotos@usatoday.com.
The Amazon.com sales rank widget
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Reader's Question: Why would you promote someone selling a gadget to attach to your computer to tell you your Amazon sales ranking? If your book is in Amazon, which most of them are because Amazon gets their info from somewhere else, your sales rank is automatically listed on your book page. You don't need anybody else's widget. And because of the millions of books that Amazon lists, if you sell ten books, you can go sky-high in your ranking.I think this is such terrible hype to tell people. I know of a young lady who was talked into printing 30,000 of her books and her printer told her he could get her a top notch sales ranking at Amazon. She printed 30,000 units, got a No. 2 sales ranking for one day and is currently sitting on 29,750 books. I get so tired of all these people trying to sell you seminars, widgets, conferences, etc. The poor kid out here trying to get their book published is getting taken down the pike.
John's Answer: First of all, the widget is free. They are not selling it. So why not use it if you have a good reason to do so? The widget is not for you; it is for your potential customers to check out.
As I see it, the widget is a tool you can use on your book sales page to give your book credibility. Obviously, if you book is sitting at 4.5 million, you would not use the widget. But if your book is in the top 100,000, then use the widget. It tells potential customers that your book is available at Amazon.com (and they can order it simply by clicking on the widget) and that your book is highly rated. I don't think that is bad, especially since the widget is FREE.
As for the second part of your question, I am a strong believer in doing Amazon Bestseller Campaigns, but only if they are part of a much more extensive on-going promotion. Single promotions sell a few hundred books in most cases. That's never enough to justify printing so many copies. Your young lady friend was totally misled by her printer. That is sad. I never recommend printing more than you know YOU can sell. Generally, that means starting with 1,000 or fewer copies. You can always go back to press if you are pleasantly surprised by consumer demand for your book.
Why you should give your novel away free: 10 million copies sold!
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In 1999, bestselling author Paulo Coelho sold only about 1,000 books, so his Russian publisher dropped him. After he found another publisher, Coelho took a radical step. On his own Web site, he posted a digital Russian copy of The Alchemist.With no additional promotion, print sales picked up immediately. Within a year he sold 10,000 copies; the next year around 100,000. By 2002 he had sold a total of a million copies of multiple titles. Today, Coelho's sales in Russian alone are over 10 million copies and growing. “I'm convinced it was putting it up for free on the Internet that made the difference,” he said in an interview.
For the complete story (and it's worth reading the full story, click below:
http://blog.bookmarket.com/2008/02/paulo-coelho-100-million-sales- and.htmlNew social networks from John Kremer
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During the past week, I've added a few new social networks to my arsenal. You might also check these out to add to your book marketing arsenal and increase your presence on the web. All of these sites allow you to create links back to your website.Information Marketing Resources blog: http://marketingresources.sosblog.com - This is my new blog to feature marketing resources I discover that will help you market books and other information products. Lots of good stuff here (or will be soon).
JacketFlap social network for children's book authors: http://www.jacketflap.com/JohnKremer - The link is to my page on this website devoted to helping children's book authors. Includes editors and publishers of children's books, plus lots more for children's authors. You can create your own profile on this site if you are a children's book author.
Personal News Network: http://johnkremer.pnn.com - A people powered network promoting sharing stories online. Includes stories from authors, storytellers, musicians, and actors. If a company or person decides to sponsor your story-telling page, you get a cut of the revenue. If you have a webcam connected to your computer, you can create an instant video to feature on this site. You can also send photos direct from your mobile phone to post to this site.
Red Room Authors: Where the Writers Are: http://www.redroom.com/author/john-f-kremer - I have a page here but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. Authors are welcome to join and create a presence here.
Cool Book of the Day
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Annie B. Lawrence, author of Love's Secret, was recently interviewed on Cool Book of the Day. She's giving away a copy of her book to a random comment on her blog on February 12th and another on the 29th. Check out her interview at http://www.coolbookoftheday.com/loves-secret.More Seattle Post-Intelligencer blogs . . .
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Doreen Orion, author of Queen of the Road, is a psychiatrist that lives on a bus. She followed up on my tip a few weeks ago and is now also a blogger at SPI: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/queenoftheroad.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love; the more they give, the more they possess. — Rainer Maria Rilke, poet
More great quotes at http://www.quotablebooks.com
Index: http://www.bookmarket.com/tipsindex.htm
Copyright © 2008 by John Kremer
Email: JohnKremer@bookmarket.com
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