June 2009 Archives

In order to conduct a successful book marketing campaign as a POD published author, you will need to understand the challenges that can hinder your success. If you are not aware of these challenges and try to blindly market your book, you will find yourself caught in the middle of a book marketing minefield - surrounded by landmines that can seriously limit your career as a published author. Once your book is released and you begin to market it, you will discover:
In recent years, the ebook publishing market, which has literally exploded in the secular world, is also rapidly becoming an emerging Christian book market. While recent trend of ebook sales may have seen intermittent decline at specific quarters within the past years, ebook sales have also during other quarters reported dramatic increases (1) and experts are still optimistic that ebooks are the future direction; that is in the long run. Some analysts have suggested that any decline of ebook sales seen this year may be attributed to the flooding of the ebook secular market with many low quality materials; this is pretty obvious and one does not need to be an expert to observe this. Others have suggested that much of the information that many ebooks offer are easily obtainable at no cost on the Internet (2); that is with a little focused search on the Internet.
"The Lord gave me this idea."
 
How often I've heard a new writer say this? Often, this sentence preceded great stories. But just as often it introduced writings that were so half-baked I found myself searching for a tactful way to say "Please don't blame the Lord for this." 
Every writer dreams for a strategy to sell their book before its written. But with 200,000 - 400,000 new books being written in the United States every year its not likely using the traditional publishing routes. So what can a budding writer or aspiring author do to capture the attention and bank account of a publishing house?
Ah, writing. For those of us who love to play with words, it's like standing in front of a smorgasbord, agonising over which delicacies to try. You can potter about with your writing as a thoroughly delightful hobby - writing wedding speeches, penning dreadful doggerel for people's birthdays, or writing stories to entertain your children. Or you can work at it, hour after hour, determined that your book is going to be the next bestseller. You can choose the writing life that's perfect for you now, then change direction later, as your circumstances change and your experience grows.
As the Christian market continues to explode in size, publishers still find it difficult to discover new talent. One of the reasons for this is many hopeful writers believe the Christian market is easier to break into than the mainstream market. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you are aspiring to write for the Christian market, not only must you write gripping, compelling prose that keeps a reader turning pages, you also must write within the parameters of the Christian Booksellers Association. Certain rules and dictates apply. Christian readers want the same subject matter as non-Christian readers, only without a bombardment of ill language, gratuitous violence, and adult situations.

As many small-time authors and self-publishers have discovered the hard way, the traditional book publishing model is fraught with problems that conspire against an individual author/publisher making a decent living from their work. The traditional model normally involves two basic choices: 1) use a commercial publisher, or 2) self-publish.

Most people start e-newsletter campaigns with the best of intentions. They may even have a plan. They create elaborate introductory issues and plan to send out monthly missives complete with valuable information and timely updates. But then life gets in the way. Hopefully it is because they are just so busy with all the new work generated by those e-newsletters! 
Ezine publishing is an important part of most online businesses. With the right attitude and steps, it is very much possible to make a profit, through online ezine publishing.
Surprisingly, book stores are not always your greatest source of book sales. Most authors and publishers do want their books to be available in all of the book stores, and rightly so. You want your book to be there, too, but you want to sell more books. You want your book to be a "household name" - a topic of conversation in coffee rooms and at dinner tables everywhere. Your publicity campaign is designed to create interest in your book, and to drive buyers to the book store market.

Public Relations is the art of getting other people to talk about you and sell your stuff for you.

If I came up to you on the street, interrupted your conversation with your girlfriend, and said, "Hey, buy this product. You'll like it!", you wouldn't buy it. You'd probably be ticked off at me, too. It wouldn't make you desire the product. That's how advertising works - advertising interrupts potential customers and forces them to listen. At least, it used to - now people tune out advertising. They don't even comprehend it.

A press release-also called a media or news release-is simply an announcement that is distributed to the media. It is emailed, faxed or mailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, and TV/radio stations to notify them about your company, its products/services or other important news.

DEFINITIONS

Retail margin is basically the difference between your book's wholesale price and your book's retail price. For example, a book with a cover price of $10 and a wholesale price of $5 has a 50% retail margin.

Wholesale price is the cost of your book to a retailer. To use the same rudimentary example, a book with a cover price of $10 and a retail margin of 50% will be sold to a retailer for $5.

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Over the past two months, I have waded into the national debate regarding gay marriage by writing two widely distributed editorials. These op-eds largely addressed the false comparison between African-American oppression and the push for gay rights. I am neither a member of a pro-family organization nor an official advocate for traditional marriage. I am a Christian, an Independent voter and private citizen who felt compelled to speak out in support of the African-American legacy and the traditional, nuclear family. But my experience over the past two months may be instructive for other Christians, the church in general and the Black church specifically as the fight to protect the next generation of children wages on.

fredhodgepic.JPGDr. Fred L. Hodge Jr. is the founder and pastor of Living Praise Christian Center in Chatsworth, CA. Alongside his wife, Linda Hodge, they are committed to building people of purpose, power and praise. Dr. Hodge's unique mandate from the Lord is to develop the believer in the area of family prayer, worship, and missions. With over 30 years in ministry, Dr. Hodge has traveled extensively imparting his many years of ministry experience and wisdom into ministers and church leadership across the nation. Dr. Hodge is anointed to teach and preach a life changing word that will inspire you to move to the next level of life. His teaching is prophetic in nature as he is current and relevant to our times. A man of great faith, he has inspired multitudes to exceed their own expectations by taking the limits off of their lives and believing God for the abundance promised in His Word.

Publicity is crucial to book sales. Unfortunately, many publishers are cutting back on marketing. Your book may be the best thing since sliced bread, but I guarantee that sliced bread will get more publicity. What can you do if you don't have the money to hire a marking firm? Here are some ideas to get your book and name noticed.

Below I have listed 10 strategies you can use to jump start a good book publicity campaign.

Contact the press immediately if your topic is making headlines. Ask not have not. You'd be surprised how many times you will be taken up on your offer to participate as an expert for an article or news story when you just ask.

"The only reason to self-publish is because you can't land a publisher." 

Call me crazy, but for me, self-publishing was the first choice. I wanted to keep control of the project and timetable, keep the rights, and, most importantly, keep most of the profits. How did it turn out?

Imagine the Millions, by Paulette Ensign

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Imagine an order for three million copies of a book or a tips booklet you wrote. Having trouble with that image? It might be that you're focusing on selling single copies, one at a time. It could be that you think there is some unattainable magic that happens somewhere in between the number one and the number million. Maybe you believe you don't know what the mechanics are for selling three million copies.

Christian retail is a hot market. Mainstream stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, and even grocery stores throughout the nation are profiting from the sale of Christian books, music, and DVDs.

Your book is published, the boxes have been delivered and it looks great! Now what? Well if you are a self-published author, you've got a lot of work ahead of you. It's up to you to market and sell your book. While you may have some supporters who go to bat for you by in large it's up to you to get out there and slog, slog, slog.
The succeeding article is about Marketing Self Published Books, Profitable Book Marketing, Book Marketing Strategies, and many other useful tips about online book marketing.

Marketing your book is too important a task to leave to the good intentions of a publisher. Harsh words? Maybe, but after spending so much time writing your book, don't assume the publisher will put the same effort into the marketing of your book. I hear this issue every day from authors who contact me to promote their books. Believe me, writing your book was only the first step, making your book known so it can be sold is the survival step.

The biggest don't of a marketing plan is not having one!  The second biggest don't is having one, even if it is just a handwritten list on a legal pad, but not following it.

A do of a marketing plan is to keep following it and not get discouraged.  If something isn't working for you, try something else.  Maybe skip it and go back to it later or not at all.

Amazon.com has sold an estimated quarter of a million Kindle ebook readers with more being sold everyday. That creates a great opportunity for you, as Amazon is actively seeking digital content to sell to Kindle customers, and those customers are avidly downloading books, periodicals, blogs and more
Have you ever wondered how publishers go about deciding whether to publish a manuscript?

I recently talked to Andrea Mullins, the publisher of New Hope Publishers (who just happen to be the publisher of my book, Abundant Gifts). Andrea outlined the process in great detail. Though this process might differ slightly from publisher to publisher, most follow the same basic process. (I know, because I have worked with at least a dozen of them, as an author, editor, and/or book coach.)

Mistake #1. You wrote an unnecessary book
Harsh? Perhaps. Honest. Absolutely. Are there already 20 titles on your non-fiction subject? Does the world really need a 21st? If so, how is yours different? Put another way, write a book people will want to read. No books on your subject? That could be good or could mean little market exists for the book.

In Writing Fiction, by Virginia Smith

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To kill time in the grocery line the other day, I got into a conversation with the lady behind me. When I told her what I do for a living, her nose wrinkled.

"Why do you write fiction? Why not write a book that means something?"

Any time I have a problem with writer's block I will still make sure that I start getting content down even if it is only ideas or notes that I can use later.

I will often find that once I start jotting down ideas and notes that the writers block goes away and I can start creating good quality content again.

A sunny day with time to write your book, and then you cant get the creative juices flowing. You probably just need some ideas, a boost, a kick in the pants, whatever it is you need don't want to waste the day.

So how can you overcome this debilitating situation and get going?

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