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 119, Number 337 September 14, 2015 |
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| | Greetings!
Here is your September 14 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 |
(The Association of Publishers for Special Sales -- formerly SPAN) | | The 2015 Toronto Canada Book Selling University Three events in two days that can help you sell your books in large quantities with no returns October 16 - 17 Ryerson University, 350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON Canada 1) Personal consultations, Friday, Oct 16 (1:00 - 5:00 pm) - four hours of book-marketing information about selling your book - not books like yours. You will leave with a list of companies to contact with practical tips on what to say and how to close more large, non-returnable orders for your books - fiction and non-fiction. 2) Motivational mixer with the guru of the "Power of Focus," Les Hewitt, Friday, Oct 16 (7:00 - 11:00 pm) - listen to motivational speaker Les Hewitt and learn the joy of personal conquest. Les will show you how to soar into the league of intriguing authors such as Charles Dickens, Maeve Binchy or Alice Munroe - authors who kept the public hungry for their next sequel. There will be plenty of time to meet and greet your fellow authors and publishers in this networking spectacular. 3) Book Selling University, Saturday, Oct 17 (9:00 am - 5:00 pm). A content-heavy day of dynamic, practical, book-marketing information. Discover how you can become more profitable selling your books in ways that you never imagined and to people you never knew existed - in large, non-returnable quantities. Attend all three events and watch your sales, revenue and profits soar! See http://www.bookapss-canada.org/
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Discover This Week's "Marketing Tips" - at www.bookapss.org (changed every Thursday)
- The Top Ten Reasons to Begin Promoting Locally Before Expanding Nationally
- Get your book cover or marketing message on promotional items such as coffee mugs, pens, pads, bookmarks, key chains, shirts, umbrellas or any of hundreds of other promotional products. Get free consulting on using promotional items
- Find sample marketing plans for selling books in many genres
- Are you solving the right problem? Find out how you can. Get Unstuck with a new idea every week
- Novel Ideas - A well-known blog for fiction queries only. It's a great place to get feedback and allows participants to send a revised query letter after the critique.
- Read It and Reap -- A new book business book is reviewed each week
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| 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. Signpost #1: 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. |
| | New computer programs, new printing processes and the Web are transforming the writing, producing, disseminating and promoting of information. Books will never be the same. The winners are author, publishers and readers. In the future, nonfiction book publishing will see minimized inventories and maximized relationships between authors and customers (readers). Publishing will become customer-centric and "books" will thrive on uniqueness, customization and variety. Book writing, publishing, selling and promoting are changing-for the better. |
(Peri Poloni-Gabriel of Knockout Design has been in the business of designing | The Fruits of Graft delves into the similarities between the Great Depression and our current economic state. The main visual chosen for the cover depicts the greed in both business and government and provides a background to the title type. Secondary imagery of men out of work in both eras completes the cover. Serif type fonts and the use of small caps add an established, traditional look to the cover. |
| The Book Shepherd - Judith Briles Dr. Judith Briles is The Book Shepherd (www.TheBookShepherd.com) and Chief Visionary Officer of AuthorU (www.AuthorU.org). She is the author of 34 books including The CrowdFunding Guide for Authors & Writers and Author YOU: Creating and Building Your Author and Book Platforms. Register for her online course, How to Write a NonFiction Book in 4 Weeks and connect on Twitter @MyBookShepherd. Her radio podcast, AuthorU-Your Guide to Book Publishing, gets over 300,000 downloads each month and can be heard at http://bit.ly/AuthorURadio | Author Nugget: Delete People Who Don't Work with and for You Always be loyal to your book and your vision ... don't let others tell you what you think ... don't let them seduce you in going down a path that doesn't feel right ... don't spend moneys that you don't have. An editor needs to get your book; the illustrator needs to express what you see; the cover designer needs to be current with what's hot in the book stores in style yet expressive with your topic/content; the interior designer needs to be able to do more than just lay out line after line of text; if you work with a content/developmental editor or ghost writer, it's critical that your voice is predominant, not his or hers; and if you have a book shepherd or consultant, it's essential that not only does she get your book, it's vital that she has all the components on her team to complete your book project. Fulfillment is important. Each of the individuals you engage has a fulfillment to you to deliver what they promised. But, and it's a BIG but, you have a fulfillment to them. As the author, you need-no, you must-deliver to each of them the book (or section) that they are to fine tune in the stage it needs to be in. If you don't, it delays production and increases costs. Tip: Creating your book as a DIY project is usually a fatal mistake; keeping the wrong people on your team is equally so. |
You're On The Air (Lori Dolney Levine, Senior Talent Executive, Fox After Breakfast) | The most important thing is to have fun, relax. This is only television; it's not a big deal. Have a good time. |
The Very Idea (Editorial by Brian Jud) |
Books are like people in that they require different strategies at different times in their lives. Titles navigate their life cycle from introduction through growth, maturity, and then decline. This could run its course during one week or over a number of years. Since the period of greatest profitability is in the growth stage, extend this period as long as possible. You can do this by finding new users, selling more books to new market segments, publishing in different formats and using creative promotional techniques. |
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) | Books do not have the liability that other products may carry. Some toys and products oriented to children may come apart or be swallowed, leading to negative publicity and legal problems. |
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) | Adam Braun shares five ways to unlock your creativity. 1. Go for a long walk. Increased physical activity increases brain activity as well. 2. Watch a documentary. It's brain candy. They teach as well as inspire. 3. Organize a Jeffersonian dinner. Thomas Jefferson organized these dinners regularly. Invite 8-12 people and have table topic conversations. No side conversations. You will form wonderful relationships. 4. Go alone to a live music concert. You will find something magical about being alone in the crowd. 5. Take a hot shower. The subconscious mind will come up with breakthroughs for you. For full article, click here: http://adambraun.com/5-best-places-to-unlock-your-creativity/ |
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) | You can do three things to create a sustainable publishing business: 1) publish for uniqueness, 2) develop a distinctive competence, and 3) create competitive advantage. |
Book-Marketing Tips - Roger C. Parker | Use White Papers to Test Market & Promote Your Book. White papers, 12-page educational documents, offer many advantages--before and after your book's publication. Before publication, offer a downloadable white paper on the topic you address in your book. This allows you to test market interest your book and gain early reader feedback on your ideas. White papers are certainly easier and faster to write and produce than a book, which makes them ideal for testing the waters of reader interest. In addition to helping you fine-tune your book's title, content, and marketing copy, you can use your download data to prove the popularity of your topic to prospective literary agents and publisher acquisition editors. After publication, your white paper will continue to help you attract potential book buyers and build your mailing list. When website visitors download your white paper, you can include an extra page describing your book and its contents in detail. You can also use additional white papers to test the market for information products that leverage off your book, such as worksheets, in-depth reports on special topics, audios and videos, and yearly updates. To succeed, your white paper must educate and inform, rather than sell. Start your white paper by describing, in an editorial format, one of the problems or goals your market faces. Follow-up with an analysis of previous attempts to address the issue and a description of a new and better way of addressing the problem. All of this should lead up to a description of your book on the last page. For more information on Whitepapers, please visit www.whitepaperdesign.com |
Marketing Strategy
(Excerpted from Brian Jud's e-booklet, The Buck Starts Here: 635 Tips for Creating Successful Marketing Strategy; www.bookmarketing.com) | Find new titles to bring to market (or new markets for existing titles), different distribution channels, novel ways to offer price incentives while maintaining your margins and original ways to promote your titles above the ever-increasing clutter of competitive advertising, sales promotions and publicity. |
Legal Matters That Matter to Writers (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.) | Give Up the Mail-it-to-yourself Myth! I am sure you have heard of it. Virtually every writer has. And maybe you are among the considerable number of writers and industry professionals who not only believe the Poor Man's Copyright myth but also repeat it as if it were the law. This is the most pervasive and destructive myth in the publishing industry. The Poor Man's Copyright, also known as the Mail Myth, is the mistaken belief that a copyright is created or somehow protected when you send a copy of it to yourself in the mail. If you learn nothing else from this e-Report, you must learn this: the mail-yourself-the-manuscript-and-then-you'll-be-protected belief is a myth. It is simply not true, and I do not want anyone who reads these words to perpetuate this myth for one more moment. Rest assured, the only thing you will prove when you mail your work to yourself is that the post office is still in the business of delivering mail. |
Booklet Ideas - Paulette Ensign | How inclined are you to promote your clients' success? Some coaches and consultants have done so for years and it works great for them. Others have not considered doing it, feel they cannot appropriately do so, or have specifically been restricted from citing anyone by company or individual name. In situations where your business is not otherwise bound by some level of confidentiality or company rules, sharing in general terms how they used your bite size brilliance to achieve and surpass their goals serves multiple purposes all at the same time. It brings added promotional exposure to your client, which means you are providing additional value and benefit to them by working with you. You can help them reach audiences they would not otherwise reach, potential new clients and revenue for them. Sharing those successes also directly helps you and your business. Your readers discover new ways to use the booklet or other product formats in ways they may not have known or forgot. Examples of your client success can increase the comfort level of people who want to work with you or are considering extending their work further than they already have. You are providing what is known as "social proof." Those testimonials of positive outcomes can make all the difference in the world when a potential client or a current client is pondering the value of investing their time and money in your products and/or your services. Even though each person and each company's results will vary based on many different things, the success stories you provide let people know what is possible, and let them know from someone other than only you tooting your own horn. When a person comes to you for the first time, a frequent question is to ask whether you have ever worked with anyone in the same field as the prospective client. That is more of an effort to create as much comfort as possible when considering moving ahead with you. Rather than say no, you have not, you can still honestly say that you have worked with a wide range of people and companies in various fields, and that it is less the issue of the particular market than it is how the business owner has chosen to define success. One client's success is measured by a specific revenue or profit increase. Another is measured in the increase in the size of their mailing list or their reduction in expense or increase in market share. You have examples represented among your clients of different measures of success, which is really what this is about. Think of how you feel when you visit a website or read a newsletter of someone you are considering working with and you read peppered among the website pages or in the ezine the results of other people. As long as the results sound reasonable and not overly dramatic in some way, you are encouraged that you could enjoy similar or even better results, yes? ACTION - Quantify by percentages the results of your clients as much as possible rather than give hard numbers. Saying a client experienced a 13% sales increase as result of offering your booklet as a gift with purchase or doubled or tripled the size of their mailing list are all noteworthy, appropriate, and realistic examples. |
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 ) | Business owners are usually advised to open a separate checking account for their business. Sometimes sole proprietorships fear a separate account will be expensive or cumbersome, but it is not so. Many banks offer free checking to small businesses. A separate business account is not more work; it can actually simplify record keeping because you will avoid mixing personal and business expenses. |
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) | While the major mail-order catalogs drive a hard bargain - requiring as much as a 60 to 70% discount - they can move a lot of books. Not only that, but the exposure they give your books to their customers will often result in spillover sales through bookstores. Where else could you find outlets that are willing to pay you so they can advertise your books to as many as five million people? |
| | How Is Your Book Distinctive? When publishers receive interesting book proposals, they bring them before inhouse committees and editorial boards. These groups are composed of individuals from various in-house departments, including sales and marketing people. Since everyone at these meetings is involved with books, they tend to think in terms of comparable books, especially those that are currently on the market. They will say, "Oh, is it like __________?" Or "What makes it different from _____________?" Publishers also are trend oriented, so they look to publish books that will build upon or capitalize on themes of successful books. For example, publishers rushed to get on the chick-lit bandwagon, and after the success of The Da Vinci Code, they clamored for similar books. |
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) | 
indiegogo Have a project for which you'd like support? Indiegogo is a crowdfunding resource that enables donations
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Create and Manage Your Own Website/Blog with Word Press By Dan Uitti Dan will guide you to self-manage your own website using "Word Press." Hire an expert to get you started with a working framework; then learn to TYPE, upload photos and place them strategically within the text. Attract attention to your impatient visitors, who seem to use an 8-second timer to learn all about you before moving on. Add a PDF file of your form or special announcement flyer when you must. Decide for yourself if you wish to get email requests from your readers at the risk of getting lots of annoying SPAM. Use it as a platform for your BLOG, Calendar of events and links to your Social media accounts (Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and others). September 24, 6:00 pm Eastern
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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 |
| Book Lemur - Promote your eBook and get results |  BookLemur connects ebook readers to books and authors and we enjoy finding new authors and books and introducing them to thousands of subscribers. So there are 6,800+ subscribers, and it's growing at about 100 per day!
APSS members receive a 20% discount to promote their titles
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| 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.
By Brian Jud -- $24.95
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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 |
| |  Increase Your Profits with Sales Promotional Items Get your book cover or marketing message on promotional items such as coffee mugs, pens, pads, bookmarks, key chains, shirts, umbrellas or any of hundreds of other promotional products. See more examples at www.bookapss.org/PromoItems.pdf Find out how you can use promotional items to: · Lure new customers · Remind procrastinators to buy · Encourage repeat purchases · Create brand awareness · Boost sales · Create customer loyalty · Attract more people to your trade-show exhibit · Spread word-of-mouth advertising · Have a fun giveaway for book signings and other events Contact Guy Achtzehn at The Promotional Bookstore, guy@msgpromo.com or (717) 846-3865. Provide your APSS membership number for a 10% discount on promotional items
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Contact Information for Brian Jud
| | For copies of all the previous issues of Book Marketing Matters visit www.bookmarketingworks.com/mktgmattersnews To subscribe to Book Marketing Matters click here: I won't share or sell your email address. Discover even more information about non-bookstore marketing by visiting the Special-Sales Tip of the Week at www.bookmarketing.com
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. Find rated lists of suppliers to publishers at www.bookcentralstation.com. 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, planning, marketing, publishing law, design and writing.
Contact Brian at P. O. Box 715, Avon, CT 06001; (800) 562-4357; brianjud@bookmarketing.com or go to http://www.bookmarketing.com
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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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