Book Marketing Tip of the Week
February 19, 2008: National Chocolate Mint Day, Cherry Coke's Birthday, Phonograph Patent DayDetails on these days — and 18,500 others! — can be found in
John Kremer's Celebrate Today Special Events Data Files.In this issue . . .
-- Important Notice: Please Read
-- BookMarket.com Design Update
-- Q&A: Targeting websites
-- annual household spending on books
-- MegaBook University with Mark Victor Hanson and others
-- Best Website video on successful websites
-- Seattle Post-Intelligencer blogsImportant Notice: Please Read
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This is official notice that I will no longer be answering individual book marketing questions via email or telephone. I have to take greater control of my time and I have been way too generous with it answering lots of people's individual questions. So, here is my offer to anyone who needs to ask me a question.1. You can consult with me via a personal consultation. The cost is going up. It will now be $3,000 per month. That means you pay one fee to have access to me via phone and email for one month. To arrange such a consultation, you can email me at JohnKremer@bookmarket.com or call me at 575-751-3398.
2. I will be hosting a free monthly consulting call where anyone can join in to ask me questions. No charge. That phone call will be scheduled for the first Tuesday of every month. I'll stay on the line until every question is answered. The next call will be on March 4th. Two times will be made available, one in the afternoon (3:00 p.m. Eastern, Noon Pacific time) and one in the evening (8:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 p.m. Pacific time) so everyone has a chance to call when they can. I will announce the phone number to call in and the website URL to access a week before the call.
I will no longer be doing book title, book cover, or news release critiques except as part of private consultations as noted in #1 above.
I will be spending the additional time in an intense spiritual quest. I will give no details on that quest. It is very private. Please do not ask me.
BookMarket.com Design Update
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I've updated the look and feel of the BookMarket.com website in a major way. Check it out at http://www.bookmarket.com.I've also added a good number of pages and new features which I will be announcing as I get them up and running in the next few weeks.
Q&A: Targeting websites
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Question: I'm trying to follow your advice on how to bring traffic to my site but I'm hitting road blocks. My book is a mother-daughter memoir so I googled "memoir" and "mother-daughter memoir." I just got publication sites for mother-daughter memoirs, couldn't even find an author site to discuss exchanging links. My book is also about nursing home care - and abuse - so I googled that and got an endless list of elder abuse lawyers. I'm now looking into holistic medicine, which is also in my book, but so far finding stores that sell supplements, and grief support groups - the grief process is also in my book - but finding counselors who sell their own books. Please advise!John's Answer: Be more specific: Google mother-daughter relationships discussion sites or something like that. Get out of the general categories dominated by people who have something to sell to the more specific links where people want to discuss things. Hook up with websites created by people who want to talk about the subject rather than trying to sell something.
Once you find a few sites that are perfect for you to link to and get links back. Ask those sites for help in finding other websites. Or check out what websites already link to those sites. You can find what sites link to any other site by searching the following search engines:
Alta Vista: http://www.altavista.com — Enter the website URL into their search form as follows: link:http://www.thesite.com. The form will return the names of the sites where links to the site were found.
Ask Jeeves: http://web.ask.com — Enter links to thesite.com into their search form.
Google: http://www.google.com — Enter link:thesite.com into their standard search box.
MSN Search: http://search.msn.com — Enter link:thesite.com into their search box.
Yahoo: http://search.yahoo.com — Enter link:http://www.thesite.com
into their search box.annual household spending on books
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According to a report from the National Endowment for the Arts, the annual household spending for books in 1985 was $33 and for 2005 was $28. That's for an entire household!Personally, I doubt these numbers. I'm not sure where they got those numbers, but they don't match anything in my experience. And this doesn't include just experience with authors and publishers. It includes a lot of experience talking to people from all walks of life in all areas of the country -- talking in Wal-Marts, grocery stores, hardware stores, post offices, airports, sidewalks, and more.
What is your experience? I bet most of the people you know -- friends, families, neighbors, etc. -- spend more than $28 per year on books.
MegaBook University with Mark Victor Hanson and others
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You still have time to sign up for the MegaBook Marketing University coming up in Los Angeles on February 29th to March 2nd. Just click on the graphic below for more information:
Best Website video on making $100,000 in a single day
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Nelson Bates, the author of the book Best Website: Simple Steps to Successful Websites, has just made a short video on how you can make $100,000 in a single day with a website. You can watch the video here: http://www.BestWebsite.com/video.Seattle Post-Intelligencer blogs
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Linda Mohr is the author of Tatianna: Tales and Teachings of My Feline Friend. The announcement of her new cat blog, Catnip Connection, was on the the front page of SeattlePI.com on February 14th. Check out her blog at: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/catnipconnection.José Astorga, author of A Bull in a Glass House, is also writing a PI blog called The Bull's Corridor where he provides insights on how to succeed at work: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebullscorridor.
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God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through. — Paul Valery, poet and critic
More great quotes at http://www.quotablebooks.com
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