Book Marketing Matters™
Brian Jud's free, bi-weekly ezine dedicated to helping you get your fair share of sales in special-sales (non-bookstore) markets, and sell more books profitably
Volume 14, Issue 1, Number 319 January 5, 2015 |
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| | Greetings!
Here is your January 5 edition of the Book Marketing Matters special-sales ezine by Brian Jud. It contains regular columns with tips from Dan Poynter, John Kremer, Guy Achtzehn, Rick Frishman, Eric Kampmann, Paulette Ensign, Judith Briles, Tonya Evans and Roger C. Parker. The guest columnist in this issue is Carol Topp.
This newsletter is sent by subscription only. Please pass this information along to people you feel may benefit by it. If there were any problems with this delivery, please let me know. If you prefer to have this sent to you as a pdf, please reply with "pdf" in the subject line or body copy. If you no longer wish to receive this -- or if you received it in error -- please reply with "Remove" in the subject line. All of us at Book Marketing Works wish you success in your book-marketing efforts, Brian Jud Click here to view this newsletter as a pdf document |
News From APSS
(The Association of Publishers for Special Sales) | |
We have concluded our first full year as the Association of Publishers for Special Sales - APSS. Thank you all for your contributions to making this a successful year for us. Here are some of the highlights of 2014. Our second annual Book Selling University was held in late October in Philadelphia. Our attendees rated the speakers and overall experience very highly. We are looking into the possibility of having several regional events in 2015 instead (or in addition to) another annual event. Our first venture outside the U.S. will be a one-day special-sales workshop in Vancouver in February 2015. We conducted a membership survey in November with a high rate of completion. We have already begun to address several of the major responses such as making APSS members more aware of the benefits offered to members. We are now sending a 'Weekly APSS Benefit' email each week highlighting a different benefit. APSS added new membership benefits such as discounts on Ingram Spark, printing through LSI, ebook conversion, foreign rights; sales, and sales-promotional items. We continued many of the existing benefits that our members wanted most. These include discounts on shipping, book reviews and many Bowker products and services. We started the first local APSS Chapter in Connecticut. If you are interested in working on a local chapter near you, contact Brian Jud at BrianJud@bookapss.org. APSS conducted 24 bi-weekly webinars. See a summary of these webinars on January 8: The Best of the Best - the Top 50 Marketing Tips from 2014. Details and the registration link are below. Links to all 24 may be found at www.bookapss.org. We produced 12 monthly issues of this newsletter, The Sales Informer. It is generally sent only to paid members, but twice each year we will send it to all 4,000 APSS members, including those registered in the Idea Marketplace. To learn more about APSS and how we can help you sell more books more profitably, please visit us at www.bookaps.org. We wish you great success in 2015. |
| We can sell your books to non-bookstore buyers -- non-returnable | | Do you want us to sell your books?
Commission-based special sales. Non-returnable. We pay shipping
We get about 3,000 hits per month  on the ESP search engine. Most of the titles in our program receive some action on a regular basis. We cannot show them all, but here is a list of the direct inquires for which we send sample books. We usually customize them with the customer's logos or with a tip-in insert page. www.premiumbookcompany.com |
| Notes From the Front Lines (Excerpted - with permission - from the Book Publishers' Handbook, by Eric Kampmann, President, Midpoint Trade Books ekampmann@aol.com) | The Seven Signposts on the Road to Good Publishing. Publishing books is like taking a journey. You need a map to point the way; or signposts to guide you. For example, when I backpack I look for blazes on trees. Or, if I am above the tree line, I seek out cairns or stone markers that I follow with care so I stay on the trail. As with any journey, a good publisher knows he must follow certain signposts to successfully produce, sell, and market his books. Ignore an important signpost and you can get lost, or go in the wrong direction. Each marker represents a decision you must make - sometimes on your own or with the advice and counsel of someone with more experience. Over the next seven issues of Book Marketing Matters I will describe one of seven signposts on the road to good publishing. Here is the first. Editorial Content. You know what you want to write. But no book should be published before it has received good editorial input and direction. A seasoned editor brings objectivity and can lend clarity, coherence, and structure to what you have to say. If your book isn't accessible, it won't get good reviews and come to the attention of your audience. |
Poynter's Pointers (Excerpted - with permission - from Dan Poynter's Fifteenth Edition of | | Ask not what the customer can do for you, tell what you can do for the customer. |
The Cover Story - Michele DeFilippo (Your cover is a critical part of your marketing effort. Contact Michele at 1106 Design today for book cover design with hand holding. (602) 866-3226 or http://www.1106design.com) | 
Revolutionary Days: A Chronology of the Mexican Revolution by Ray Acosta Working with only historical images can be a challenge in cover design because they are usually in black and white and often of poor quality. For this title we created a focal point by removing part of the background image so the soldier's sombrero "breaks the frame." To introduce some color, we overlayed a subtle Mexican pattern on a maroon background and chose a warm gold gradient for the title. |
The Book Shepherd - Judith Briles (Judith Briles is the Chief Visionary Officer of www.AuthorU.org. She's known as The Book Shepherd ( www.TheBookShepherd.com), and is the author of 30 books including Show Me About Book Publishing and Author YOU: Creating and Building the Author and Book Platforms. Download podcasts from Judith's radio show, Your Guide to Book Publishing at: http://rsrn.us/youpublish | | Book reviews are important to future sales. As an author, it's not the time to be shy. You want your buyers to post reviews. The two main ones would be Amazon.com and Goodreads.com. Amazon has millions of buyers of books-they read reviews. The more reviews that you can get posted, the better. They count and tell the viral world that others are reading and liking your words. Goodreads is a source that many librarians check out. The want to see what readers and consumers are saying about current books, especially in the self-published and independent published arenas. |
You're On The Air (Deborah Wetzel, morning news anchor and talk-show host on WCBS-FM, New York City) | | Look for the clues that the interviewers are giving you. They may gesture to let you know they're getting ready for another question or for another guest to join in the conversation. |
The Very Idea
(Editorial by Brian Jud) |  When confronted with a dilemma, don't ask, "How can we solve this problem." While that may lead to a solution, it may not be the best one. Instead, ask, "In how many ways can we solve this problem" to generate several options from which to choose. Here is an example. A toothpaste factory had a problem. They sometimes shipped empty boxes without the tube inside. The CEO of the company assembled his top people. Six months (and $8 million) later they solved the problem by using a high-tech precision scale that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box weighed less than it should. The line would stop, someone would walk over, remove the defective box, and then press another button to re-start the line. As a result of the new package monitoring process, no empty boxes were being shipped out of the factory. With no more customer complaints, the CEO felt the $8 million was well spent. He then reviewed the line statistics report and discovered the number of empty boxes picked up by the scale in the first week was consistent with projections, However, the next three weeks were zero! The estimated rate should have been at least a dozen boxes a day.
Puzzled, the CEO traveled down to the factory, viewed the part of the line where the precision scale was installed, and observed just ahead of the new $8 million dollar solution sat a $20 desk fan blowing the empty boxes off the belt and into a bin. He asked the line supervisor what that was about.
"Oh, that," the supervisor replied, "Bert, the kid from maintenance, put it there because he was tired of walking over, removing the box and re-starting the line every time the bell rang." In how many ways can you solve a problem facing you as you begin the new year? |
Ideas for Selling to Non-Bookstore Buyers - Guy Achtzehn (President of The Promotional Bookstore, offering commission-based sales of books to non-bookstore buyers, guy@msgpromo.com) | Book-marketing intuition occurs with experience, but there is a way to accelerate the instinctive process. That is to get the information you need, and then manage and manipulate it into profitable marketing strategy. It sounds simple - and it is. But is it not necessarily easy. My seven steps to selling successfully in non-bookstore markets were summarized in this and the six previous editions of Book Marketing Matters. Step Seven. Qualify your prospects and rank them in prioritized clusters. Not all prospects are equal, and they may be at different points in their buying processes. Rank them in order of those most likely to buy to those least likely to buy so you call first on those you expect to purchase sooner than later. This uncomplicated process makes forecasting and marketing easier. If you know there is some demand for your title, and you know the approximate number of people who desire that information, you will have a better handle on your expected revenue, the number of books to print and where and how to spend your marketing budget. |
Leadership and Growth Concepts - Tom Hill (Founder and CEO of the Eagle Goal Coach, an organization devoted solely to assisting others find and follow their life's passion. Tom can be reached at tom@tomhillwebsite.com) | If you are part of a mastermind group, we would, at a minimum, want you know this about your members: Where are they? Where do they want to go? Your group is "how" you are going to get there - FASTER! Here is a basic framework to think about--
Six Year Vision: an experience in which a personage, thing, or event appears vividly or credibly to the mind, although not actually present, often under the influence of a divine or other agency: a heavenly messenger appearing in a vision.
Three Year Strategy: a method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems, for obtaining a specific goal or result
18 month Plan: a specific project with a definite purpose
90 day Action items: something done or performed
Daily Task List: a definite piece of work assigned to, falling to, or expected of a person; duty. |
Marketing Planning (Excerpted from Brian Jud's e-booklet, Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan: 461 Tips for Profitable Marketing Planning; www.bookmarketing.com) | Strategic planning recognizes that under certain conditions, sales of Title A may be more responsive to a heavy schedule of media performances while direct marketing might be more effective for stimulating sales of Title B. Tactical planning delineates the steps that should be taken to arrange the media appearances and the outline for implementing the direct mail campaigns. |
Book-Marketing Tips - Roger C. Parker | | Marketing Funnel or Profit Wheel--which is more important? Many authors are already familiar with the concept of the marketing funnel, a "narrowing hallway" containing offers that an author's prospects can try out. These offers typically range from "free" through low-priced e-books and reports, to progressively more expensive teleseminars, webinars, and coaching opportunities. Although helpful, the traditional marketing funnel idea may encourage authors to not just write a book, but prepare a "suite" of product and service offers, it doesn't emphasize the idea of a continuing process. The Profit Wheel offers an alternative to the "funnel" concept. The profit wheel identifies the 6 stages of a prospect or reader's relationship with the author. These stages are Awareness, Comparison, Transaction, Reinforcement, Advocacy, and -- most important -- "Repetition." An author's true success comes when their web presence helps them leverage every stage of the Profit Wheel. It's never too early to review your Profit Wheel, and authors can't do it often enough. A monthly review of Profit Wheel marketing is not too excessive, but is encouraged. |
Marketing Strategy
(Excerpted from Brian Jud's e-booklet, The Buck Starts Here: 635 Tips for Creating Successful Marketing Strategy; www.bookmarketing.com) | To establish a sustainable competitive advantage, perform different activities than rivals or perform similar activities in different ways. With uncoordinated activity you will end up performing most activities the same way everyone else does, making it hard to gain a unique advantage. |
Legal Matters That Matter to Writers - Professor Tonya M. Evans (Contact Professor Evans at Legal Write Publications, info@legalwritepublications.com or www.legalwritepublications.com; The information contained in this column is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. If you need advice regarding a specific legal matter, consult a lawyer as each case is fact-specific.) | | One New Way to Register a Copyright & New Rules. Registration with Electronic Copyright Office (eCO): the Copyright Office online system. Advantages include: - Lower filing fee (for online filings only)
- Fastest processing time
- Online status tracking
- Secure payment by credit or debit card, electronic check, or Copyright Office deposit account
- The ability to upload certain categories of deposits directly into eCO as electronic files
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Booklet Ideas - Paulette Ensign | | Depending on the calendar you follow and how you view life, any day can be the start of a new year when you think about it that way. The start of a new year is often a target date to re-set intentions. You already knew all of that, yes. Are you wondering where tips booklets play a role in this? Read on. Tips - small, specific, individual to-do's - that is how things get done. You see them many places you look. Tips for travel, tips to raise healthy kids, tips for just about everything and anything. It's the information you share with people who come to you for your expertise. You give those folks small bite-size pieces of what you know so they can absorb it and accomplish something with it. Ideally they come back to you for more. You know that giving them too much at one time is a recipe for disaster. Well, maybe "disaster" is a little strong. At the very least, it's a recipe for a mismatch, for lack of progress. Give them small do-able pieces of information first. As you consciously or even informally identify what you want 2015 to look like for you, it's completely possible you stated things broadly. In fact, that may have played a role in why some of those things you said a year ago remain undone. Maybe you heard that mapping out a year at a time is a good idea, and it turns out that is just too overwhelming for you. That could be like someone getting an in-depth 200-page book from you about your expertise as their first exposure to what you offer. Overload, overload, overload. Your best plan for your purposes and your style might be a week or a month at a time, rather than a calendar quarter much less a whole year. The shorter time span is something you can see with enough details to make it happen. Those to-do tips you write in your tips booklets are also small enough slices of specific information to increase the likelihood of your readers' success. And when you take that same information and put it into different formats for people to learn in various ways, you increase the success rate even more, for you and for them. Starting your new year tomorrow by planning a week or a month with specific tasks brings you and the people you serve greater satisfaction all around. You may choose to expand the time frame when you are comfortable with the results, or the shorter planning period could turn out to be ideal for you. A year is somewhat of an arbitrary measure of time anyway, and one that may be a complete mismatch for you. Think about the content you want to provide, the delivery methods you want to develop, the frequency of your product and service offers, the range of prices so you have something for lots of people. Capture all of that so you see the many choices you have. Then choose. There is nothing that says you must address and create all of that now, or ever! The more you see the big picture, the more you realize the choices you have and can develop the specifics. ACTION: Choose now in units of one - one topic, one tip, one delivery method, one ideal recipient, one date to deliver the completed product. Being as specific as that means you can actually get something done rather than just think about getting something done. It gives you room to identify, refine, assess, and to re-choose. You can make any day be the start of a New Year and plan from there. |
Guest Columnist - Carol Topp, CPA (Carol Topp is an accountant and author of Information in a Nutshell: Business Tips and Taxes for Writers. She may be reached at Carol@CarolToppCPA.com) | Have you ever thought of yourself as a government agent? You are if you sell a product to the public and add on sales tax. Small business owners act as an agent of their state government when they collect sales tax. Whenever a writer sells a product, such as a book or CD, sales tax must usually be added to the sales price. The author is doing the state's job in collecting the sales tax and then paying the tax to the state, usually monthly or quarterly |
| | | When your book idea is in its embryonic stages, before it's even taken full form, conduct preliminary research. First, search the Internet to get a sense of how much information on the subject is online, which usually indicates the level of interest in it. Use your initial inquiry for two purposes: 1. To note the perspectives of the coverage 2. To gather additional knowledge on the subject Research to find out: * What materials exist * How others have approached the subject * What others have stressed * What others have omitted * How thoroughly the subject has been covered Make printouts or detailed notes of the information you find that you can keep in your files and use for later reference. |
Kremer's Korner (Excerpted - with permission - from John Kremer's Sixth Edition of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books. Contact John at http://www.bookmarket.com) | | One way to draw attention to your books is to sponsor an award competition that is in some way connected with your books. For example, if you were publishing a book on cooking with woks, you might sponsor a wok recipe contest. Using their books as prizes, a law book publisher established scholastic awards at various law schools. In another case, Addison-Wesley sponsored a national Best Teacher Award competition in connection with their book by Marty and Barbara Nemko, How to Get Your child a Private School Education in a Public School. The award emphasized the value of committed teachers |
Helpful Website of the Week - Adele M. Annesi
(Adele is a freelance writer and an editor with a high-tech analysis firm in Stamford, CT and may be reached at a.annesi@sbcglobal.net) |
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) http://www.helpareporter.com Looking for free PR? Nearly 30,000 media members have quoted HARO sources in stories. Everyone is an expert at something, and sharing your expertise may provide that opportunity you're hoping for. Founded in 2008, HARO is one of North America's fastest-growing social media services. The resource is free to sources and reporters.
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Pam's Book Marketing Tips - Pam Lontos | Do radio interviews. These shows need several guests every day. Remember, they want you, too! Their advertising rates are based on listenership. If you are so interesting that you bring them new listeners, you will be asked back over and over. Be entertaining. Tie the topic of your fiction or non-fiction book into what's in the news right now. Also, think of ways your topic can help their listeners. |
| Upcoming Marketing Events | The Best of the Best - the Top Marketing Tips from 2014 Thursday, January 8 at 6:00 pm Eastern time During the past year APSS has sponsored 24 semi-monthly webinars. These webinars have been on topics to help you sell more books, more profitably. In our first webinar of 2015 we will review the top tips of 2014 that have helped - or can help -- you the most. Here are just a few of the topics that you will re-discover on our whirlwind tour of the past year's book-marketing webinars: How to find more prospective buyers Tips for selling more books to schools New ways to sell more books during in-store events Hints for selling more books to the military and government buyers How to break into the lucrative market of special sales How to write and present a proposal to sell books in large quantities Negotiating tips for maximum sales New ideas for selling to all retailers - not just through bookstores Hints for selling more books during the fourth quarter Perform a mid-year evaluation to reach your annual goals How to plan for selling more books in 2015 What's in a Name? EVERYTHING! How to Name Your Book (By Scott Lorenz) Thursday, January 22 at 6:00 pm Eastern time Besides writing a great book, nothing is more important than the title. For some authors naming their book is more difficult than naming their children. Is there a method, a strategy to titling a book? "YES," says book publicist Scott Lorenz, President of Westwind Book Marketing. Tune into a free webinar on January 22nd when Lorenz will offer up tips, techniques and best practices so you can give your book a fighting chance. He'll discuss proven methods to become discoverable by Google, Bing and Amazon just by naming your book correctly. He's researched and written about his findings using Alliteration, IDIOMS, Clichés and high ranking key words in the title and sub-title. You won't want to miss this stimulating conversation about naming your book. |
| Get Links to All of Jud's
Book Marketing Webinars
| I have conducted over 50 webinars that can help you sell more books. Watch and listen as I describe how to increase your sales to non-bookstore buyers, how to get on TV and radio shows, get more publicity, conduct bookstore events, get more reviews and awards and more.Get links to recordings of my 60 - 90 minute webinars.
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Buy Lines -- Free Information | Do you need a jump-start to get your sales moving? If so, consider a one-hour consultation with Brian Jud. Get answers that will ignite your sales efforts. Brian can help you create a quality product, distribute it to markets you may not even know exist, price it profitably and promote it more effectively so you can...
Sell more books
Beat your competition
Become more profitable
Sell in untapped, lucrative markets
Minimize -- if not eliminate - returns
Contact BrianJud@bookmarketing.com for more information |
| Sell More Books, Make More Money In Special Sales |  Now Available - the most current and complete resource for increasing your sales and profits in non-bookstore markets.
The ultimate do-it-yourself guide to selling your books in large quantities with no returns. Not just who to contact, but when and how.
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| Do You Want to Increase Your Sales, Revenue and Profits? |  A one-day workshop in your office -- customized to your titles -- shows your staff how to make large-quantity sales |
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I wish you success in your book marketing efforts. There are several ways in which I can help you sell more books more profitably. Let me tell you how by emailing your contact information to me at brianjud@bookmarketing.com. Sincerely, Brian Jud
Book Marketing Works |
| | | Brian Jud now offers commission-based sales to buyers in special markets and several other programs to contact prospective buyers in special markets for you through personal sales calls, customized mailings and telephone calls. There is a program for any budget. www.premiumbookcompany.com Brian is also an author and book-marketing consultant helping publishers market and promote their books to increase their sales and profits. Brian is a media trainer, frequent speaker at publishing events and host of the online Publisher's Bookstore listing many discounted titles on publishing, publicity, marketing and writing. Contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001; (860) 675-1344; brianjud@bookmarketing.com or go to http://www.bookmarketing.com |
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