Book Marketing Musings

The World Is Fiction

You may wonder if you live in reality when you hear that 78% of USA Today’s weekly top 150 book titles in 2011 were fiction, up from 67% from four years ago.  USA Today also reported that 25% of the titles in the weekly top 150 had an e-book version outsell any individual version tracked, up from 2% in 2010.

America By The Numbers

America is getting older, fatter and more diverse.  Every eight seconds an American is born, but one dies every 12 seconds.  Every 37 seconds the U.S. gains an immigrant (legal).  The U.S. has more than doubled in my lifetime going from 150 million in 1967 to 308 million 2009.  But everything new is old. The top-selling album of the decade, from 2000-2009 was the Beatles’ No. 1 Collection (11.5 million albums sold).  Are you writing books for the book-buying demographic of today?

Advice For Selling Books From Dale Carnegie

In the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, author Dale Carnegie tells us advice that could apply to authors:

“In talking with people, don’t begin by discussing the things in which you differ.  Begin by emphasizing – and keep emphasizing, if possible, that you are both striving for the same end and that your only difference is one of method and not of purpose…

“Hence it is of the very greatest importance that a person be started in the affirmative direction.  The skillful speaker gets, at the outset, a number of ‘Yes” responses.  This sets the psychological process of the listeners moving in the affirmative direction.  It is like the movement of a billiard ball. Propel in one direction and it takes some force to deflect it; far more force to send it back in the opposite direction.”

Marketing Lessons From Pawn Shops

The value of something is dictated by the buyer, not the owner.  If you don’t honor your promise, you spend your collateral.  Those who sell in desperation get paid as such.  Something used to one person is new to another. Cash is king.

Marketing Lessons From Porn

·         Sex sells.

·         People buy on looks.

·         Weird and different is profitable.

·         Good action trumps a mediocre script.

·         Happy endings are a must.

·         The more partners you have, the more successful you’ll be.

·         Pun-filled titles are catchy.

·         Sometimes you come out on top starting at the bottom.

8^th Annual Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition

In 2012, as the Internet celebrates 20 years as a commercial network, the 8^th Annual Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition will get under way June 5-8 in Chicago. Bby far the world’s largest e-commerce vent, this is where an expected 7,500 e-retailing executives will come to learn the latest practices and tools for connecting with the 21^st century consumer, via in-depth examinations of such topics as social media, mobile commerce, e-marketing, Web merchandising, improving back-end operations, boosting conversations and profitability, and much more.

“The IRCE 2012 speaker faculty features 175 experts from all disciplines and all segments of the broader e-commerce market” says Jack Love, Publisher of Internet Retailer. Amongst the topics covered at the event – which costs as little as $600 or as much as $1435 to attend depending on how long you stay for and how far in advance you register – are the following:

• Paid search strategies for the smaller merchant.
• Is a Facebook Like campaign worth the resources for small retailers?
• Powerful new mobile sites could put apps on the back burner.
• How to spark conversations on Facebook.
• How to make your online company look bigger than it is for the sole purpose of increasing sales.
• Beyond price:  How to compete when you can’t compete on price.
• Identifying the consumers sweet spot
• Creating landing pages that turn searchers into buyers.
• Making  your product reviews do more.
• Shifting a paid search campaign into overdrive with new Google tools.
• Fresh ideas for amping up your e-mail marketing.
• Not last year’s SEO: New rules to raise rankings.
• Turning shipping into a profit center – even when you’re offering free shipping
• Social shoppers share their secrets: How e-retailers spin that knowledge into gold.
• The many flavors of a social strategy: What will work for you?
• The ins and outs of Facebook ads.

Publishers would probably benefit from attending this event. Authors may find it interesting as well.

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person.