Think Beyond The Book Industry To Discover Ways To Write, Promote & Sell Your Book

If you want to know about the trends in book publishing, such as which books are selling well, what industry experts are preaching, and which genres are surging, you no doubt want to keep up with the book industry by reading any number of publications, blogs, and websites.  Publishers Weekly, New York Times, Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today are good at shedding light on the book world.  Many other sites offer useful information – books.tumblr.com, readersread.com, shelfari, news.yahoo.com/books, reddit, npr.org/books, omnivoracious, etc.  You can also connect with many groups related to some aspect of book publishing on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  But, if you really want new ideas regarding the writing and marketing of books, you need to look elsewhere, and you need to think differently about the information you uncover.

Book marketing benefits from applying the general principles of marketing and the application of things specific to the book world.  You can’t sell a book like one would luxury cruises but you can take certain aspects of the marketing practices of other industries and find a way to apply it, on some scale, to what you seek to do to get your book sold.

The first place to learn of ways to promote and market your book is to look at similar industries – music, movies, television, DVDs, white papers – anything with content.  Read up on those industries and see if there’s a method you can apply to your world.

Second, turn to what seems to be opposite of what you do and see if you can grab a useful idea.  If your content informs and has substance, or entertains and makes us feel good, what could you turn to that is seemingly opposite that?  Selling gadgets, food, hats?  Check into it.

Third, books are relatively inexpensive items.  Look at what sells for big bucks – premium furniture, cars, luxury condos, jewelry, vacation packages.  Can you take the practices of the rich and elite and use them to sell a two-dollar e-book?  Maybe.

Lastly, forget the words publish, promote, and sell for a moment.  Now just let other ideas, facts, theories, or histories come at you.  Going to a museum, a sporting event, even a funeral may spark an idea about what you’re trying to accomplish.

Reading up on the industry is a must but where you’ll really leverage success is from finding ideas outside the book industry, and incorporating them into how you create, promote, and market your book.  Perhaps by reading Playboy, attending the open house to a mansion, walking through a history museum, or waiting online at a grocery store will inform you of a spark-worthy idea that may just help you become successful at being an author.

Good luck.

DID YOU MISS THESE GEMS?

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Why do I search for meaning #online?

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Will Your Book Be Relevant – Or Read – In 2114?

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Interview With Leading Book Marketer Brian Feinblum

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65 Websites For Writers & Publishers

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014.

Can A Writer Cause An Earthquake?

Writers are driven by their hopes to be discovered, to have their voices heard, to make an impact on the lives of many. In today’s explosion of communication vehicles – Web sites, social media, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, music, radio, and television – it seems the ability to rise above the clutter is impossible. But it seems to be an odd contradiction that the tools to communicate are more available than ever before, but the ability to be heard has been diluted. Further, though the ability for society overall to be heard has shrunk in proportion to all of the voices out there, the ability for select individuals or specific messages to be heard on a grand scale is actually much more possible than ever before.

Let’s call a moment where 50,000 people could read your content an earthquake. But let’s say 5,000 reading it is a tremor. And 1,000 reading it is a blip. So, 20 years ago, there may only have been a few hundred books – if that many – that sold like an earthquake. Now, my guess is that double that number of earthquakes is happening. However, the number of tremors may be decreasing and as such, we have a book industry of a vast majority of blips and a small but growing number of earthquakes. However, as a percentage of all books published in a given year, there were a greater percentage of books that were earthquakes two decades ago than today.

When you look at social media, there are many earthquakes, though still, the vast majority of blogs, videos, and podcasts receive the exposure of a tremor, or more likely a blip. So, even though the number of social media earthquakes, as a percentage of all digital transmissions is tiny, the total number of earthquakes is accelerating each year, by my estimates, to big numbers.

So what does any of this mean?

Be optimistic, writers. Though the odds seem against you to achieve an earthquake, the opportunity to cause an earthquake is the greatest it’s ever been.

If there were (making up a number) 200,000 earthquakes in social media, you have a 1 in 200,000 chance to be the one to cause an earthquake. Others would say your chances are worse. If there were 800 billion social media transmissions (made this up) and only 200,000 led to an earthquake, then your odds are 1 in 4,000,000. But your competition isn’t against the people who fail to cause an earthquake. Your competition is the individual who can create an earthquake,. 

In any case, these are crazy numbers. All you can do as a writer is write and then creatively market your words so that you can cause an earthquake.

And when you do, it’ll rock the world.

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014.

One-Hit Wonder: Gone With The Wind

I recently visited the Margaret Mitchell House while in Atlanta. I found the 30-minute tour about one of America’s most successful novelists to be fascinating. It’s hard to believe she was a one-hit wonder.

Apparently, she reluctantly published Gone With The Wind in 1936. It was her first book, and despite wild success – she sold a million copies in six months – and despite the box office bonanza of the movie three years later, she never tried to get another book published.

She died 13 years after her book was released. She lived to see age 48, but certainly she had time to write and cash in on her fame if she wanted to. She did apparently write after her book was published, but she had strict instructions in her will to burn any manuscripts she left behind.

Was she afraid to have another book published that would compete with her first one, inevitably to be compared and held to a higher standard? Was she concerned with endangering her legacy and the success of her first book?

She began writing her book when she suffered injuries caused by a car accident. She was somewhat disabled by it, and her husband suggested she write a book. Mitchell, a journalist and the daughter of a historian, was fascinated by tales of the Civil War. Ironically, she wrote the book due to a car accident, and she died in another car accident years later.

Mitchell went on to win the Pulitzer Prize, sell over 30 million copies worldwide, and to have a movie come out based on her 1,000 page book. The movie, which has grossed well over a billion dollars (with inflation factored in), celebrates its 75^th anniversary this year.

Her book took more than a decade to write and get published. She was shy and secretive about anyone reading her manuscript. But by chance, a publisher learned she was working on a book, and encouraged her to share her work with him. The unknown, never-before-published author was an instant success, and her fame continues to this day.

It got me to wonder how many authors who would die to experience a tenth of her success, yet how many would trade in their life for hers – to die young and to never have published anything else? I guess such things aren’t up to us, but if we could choose to have her life, would we?

Authors live for their legacy. They want to be read and loved while they are alive, but they desperately want to be talked about long after they are dead. Maybe we should all strive to write that one perfect book – and not worry about writing anything else?

There are more books written about Margaret Mitchell than there were written by her. Perhaps that’s the sign of truly being influential, even if it makes you a one-hit wonder.

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http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-glimpse-into-the-future-for-your-book.html

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014.

The Book Publishing 1% -- The Good And The Bad

The book publishing industry, like every other industry, has a handful of wild successes and many, many more stories of failure and falling short of reaching one’s goals. It’s no different than the lottery – you have a handful of winners, and the rest are wannabe winners. Call it the 1% complex.

1% of the country is filthy rich. There’s a shrinking middle class, and then there’s the rest – working-class poor on down to the homeless. Something like fewer than 100 people in our world have a combined wealth equal to the bottom half of the planet. Yes, about 3,500,000,000 people equal the wealth of less than 100. But does this cause people to demand capitalism be shunned? The opposite has happened. The rich-poor disparity and slow-growing economy has spurred people to try being entrepreneurs.

Book publishing holds out the promise of being a bestselling author, but we know that less than 1% of all authors ever become bestselling ones. And being a bestselling author could be a short-lived, even unprofitable possibility. But no one is turning away from the chance to become a bestselling author.

Knowing the odds are against you stops few in this country from trying. In fact, it seems to inspire many to fight the odds. We let our dreams lead us.

Perhaps the idea of bucking the odds to get published and bought has invited millions of writers to pursue writing books. But what is guiding them to then take their book and promote or sell it effectively?

You can’t copy the methods of the 1%, simply because some of their methods are unknown, not available to you, or such methods existed under circumstances that no longer exist.

There’s no straight formula or path to follow, except that you should avoid the paths of others that can’t be replicated. For instance, if everyone is sending their book to 20 reviewers, you have a choice:

(1)               Will you send it to the same 20 – and stop there?

(2)               Will you send it to a different 20 instead?

(3)               Will you send it to the same 20 – but in such an unusual, attention-getting way?

The 1% club in book publishing may have your attention but the best approach to book publicity and book marketing is one that is customized and uniquely built around your assets and resources.

One thing I have noticed:

Though money can influence whether a book is successful, no amount of money guarantees success. How you spend it, when you spend it, and what quality book/author is attached to the money will be key too. Further, a great book will not be a success unless it has a champion behind it, and often a concerted effort or professional campaign is used to inspire or work with this champion person, group, or force. Few books succeed accidentally, but not all books that have a manipulative PR machine behind them advance far.

So what’s the take-away here? Realize that fewer than 1% of those who take to the written word truly succeed if success is defined by fame, fortune, and bestseller status. But if you aspire to join the ranks of the 1%, be prepared to do some things that were not part of the playbook of that 1%.

But one thing is certain: keep educating yourself on what can be done to promote your book and keep trying your best. And never stop reading Book Marketing Buzz Blog!

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http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-glimpse-into-the-future-for-your-book.html

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014.

Which Changes Will You Make To Experience Success As A Writer?

So much is written about the new year resolutions, and change.  What if you want to change but don’t know where to start or how to do it?  What if you don’t have an awareness a change is needed?  Is change overrated?

It’s a good idea to assess your life at all stages.  You don’t have to evaluate where you stand daily nor do you need to wait for January to roll around to inspire change.  Life changes, whether by reaction or initiation, but it happens to all of us, so how prepared are you for it?

Change can happen in many forms:

In one or two aspects of your life or across the board

By adding something new

By deleting something old

By adjusting the degree to which you already do something

By altering your relationships, body, possessions, habits

By changing your perspectives and viewpoints

By moving your environment

By agreeing to being open or closed to new things

Many changes have to do with the things that influence our lives—money, people health, and careers.

Perhaps the key to change comes first from an awareness of what should be changed.  Then you must be aware of your options for change.  Then you need to weigh them against one another as well as the option not to change anything.  Finally, you’ll need to take steps towards taking the action necessary to bring about the desired effect.

Maybe nothing needs to change and all you need is to execute better or to work harder or to persevere.  Perhaps your strategy is good but you execute poorly.  Maybe you just had bad luck or you let something hold you back that no longer is a factor.  Perhaps your head is in the right place, but not your heart.  Maybe you are all heart but without the tools, skills, or resources to get what you want.

Take a nothing-to-lose approach and act with desperation in your heart.  When you are driven by desire and passion and are willing to take risks and explore new possibilities you open yourself to winning big.  Living with reckless abandon on the wings of hope and desire can help you soar high or fall hard trying.

Live the dream or suffer the nightmare.

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Do You Believe In Book Publishing’s False Prophets?

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A look into the future of books and language and the struggle for relvancy

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-glimpse-into-the-future-for-your-book.html

Are authors sexy enough to sell books?

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/are-authors-sexy-enough-for-books-they.html

Which books are worthy of PR?

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/which-books-are-worthy-of-publicity.html

Will Your Book Be Relevant – Or Read – In 2014?

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/will-your-book-be-read-in-2114.html

Interview With Leading Book Marketer Brian Feinblum

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/interview-with-book-marketer-publicist.html

What An Author Is Worth

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/whats-author-worth.html

65 Websites For Writers & Publishers

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/over-65-websites-for-writers-publishers.html

Mass Communications Disconnect

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/mass-communications-disconnect.html

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014.

Marketing Books Puts Me At A Crossroad Of The Mind's Journey

One of the things I love about working in the industry where ideas are exchanged and words mean something is that I am exposed to so many concepts, experiences, theories, beliefs, and perceptions. It feels like I’m at a clearing house for the human mind.

Being presented with so many voices and diverse offerings of viewpoints, insights, and facts makes me feel like I’m learning and growing on a daily basis. Some books repeat what others say. Some conflict with each other. But most offer something unique and special on the ever-expanding spectrum of possible approaches to life.

Books allow me to live thousands of lives I could never get to live, due to time, science, circumstances, fears, needs, money, and other factors. But with each book, I am exposed to fresh ideas and unique perspectives. You realize just how big the world of possibility is, and how small the universe of probability is.

As a marketer and a publicist, one is not required to like the books he or she promotes. Nor does one have to agree with an author's conclusion. Sometimes it’s best not to give too much thought to any of that; otherwise you will wrestle with your soul over truth and values. But it’s hard to insulate yourself against the ideas shared by so many authors. Each book becomes a puzzle piece, challenging you to see if or how it fits into your equation of how you perceive the world to be. And when something shakes up that formula, even by the slightest factor, you can feel your equilibrium displaced. Suddenly, you vibrate to a different wave.

All of these books, good, bad, or otherwise take me somewhere, with a few staying with me forever. I love books, in part, because they represent the sum of one’s life experiences, or their insights and perspectives, or their ideas – leaving out all of the stuff that is of no consequence, but that seems to make up the majority of our lives (sleep, waiting in line, doing chores, going to school, going to work, commuting, etc.). Books are the edited highlight reels of our lives. They represent our best ideas, our deepest thoughts, our sense of truth and justice, our passions, and our most significant experiences. It’s like having a DVR of one’s life – skip the commercials and get right to the heart of things.

I’d love to be someone else for a day and to be many someone elses for many days. But short of that, I love reading the thoughts of others and for varying moments, feeling like I’m in their world – without the risks and consequences (and sadly, the rewards).

Many of my day’s activities and routines are virtually unchanged from prior ones, but what differs greatly is the book that I read and delve into. One day, it’s a personal finance book, another day it’s a military photography book, then a self-help book, and then a humor book. It never gets boring.

But it’s clear there’s one drawback to being a reader and an information consumer. It deprives me of being a liver, a doer, an action-taker. I sit safely on the sidelines of life, letting my mind masturbate in the dreams, lives, thoughts, feelings, and ideas of others. I’m a voyeur, an observer, a mere fan. One day, I want to be on the big field, playing the big game.

Truth is if I wanted it any other way, I’d do something about it. So far, for whatever reason, I’ve calculated that life is best experienced from my current vantage point. But I know that I will take to the stage at some point, with a book of my own, one that I hope will change the world – or at least inspire and impact someone the way I’ve been touched all of these years by the millions of words of so many others. 


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A look into the future of books and language and the struggle for relvancy

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-glimpse-into-the-future-for-your-book.html

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014.

What’s Really New About Your Book?

Publishers, literary agents, consumers, and the media will ask you this question. How will you answer them?

The vast majority of books lack saying something revolutionary and many can present something evolutionary. Whereas few books, especially non-fiction ones, offer anything wildly and dramatically new, many can take an existing concept and present it in a new way.

Here are some ways for your content to be fresh and truly new:

-         

      **Actually discover or create something new and write about it.

-         **Revise or refresh outdated content.

-          **Retool old content so it ties into current events.

-          **Crossover industries -- maybe your prior book on leadership in business can be applied to coaching Little League.

Many books get sold on a promise, on the notion that a book will deliver something of value to the reader. It is sold on perception -- the market’s goal is to paint a picture of consumer need or desire and to show how the book leads you to fulfillment. Sounding as if your book’s new is important to many.

What makes something sound new?

·         Includes the latest data on…

·         Based on a recent study….

·         For the first time (ever, in a decade, in our lifetime)…

·         Never before published materials…

·         Cutting-edge science…

·         From behind the doors of Corporate America…

·         Confessions from...

·         Learn the revealing insights of an expert in…

·         A look into the future…

·         What’s trending…

·         Breakthrough solution to…

The media and book publishing industries are jaded. They are skeptical about results, truth, something being new, and the words coming out of an author’s mouth. But if you do your research and see how you can honestly position yourself and show how you bring a new approach to things, you’ll be in demand. You can’t just claim you are unique or new -- you must demonstrate it -- and quickly.

And if you can accurately claim you are saying something new you must be prepared to support or prove these claims or theories. How does that diet really work? Who did that business strategy prove successful for? How did your approach to selling, relationships, parenting -- whatever -- change the bottom line or lives of others and can that performance be replicated by others?

Other ways to be :"new" :
      -          Merge two different ideas, from two different disciplines, and create a new approach to something

-          Dress up or mask the fact you content is not so new by using humor, stories, or words of enlightenment/inspiration to inspire readers

-          Be comprehensive and aggregate existing ideas or information in ways other books have not

Whether you truly have something new to say, seek to say it in a new way. In order to get people interested in you or your book, you want to seduce them with a short pitch. We use an email or Tweet to incite curiosity. For the media, we use a press release. For consumers, we use book jacket copy. For sales, we have a tip sheet with key information.

So before you get to have your book read, bought, or reviewed, you must lure someone in with the hope and hype that you have something timely, relevant, unique…and new.

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As Someone Who Uses Words For A Living,  Does Your Social Media Bore People?

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18 Questions You Need To Ask To Make Your Book A Success

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/18-questions-writers-must-ask.html

Why do I search for meaning #online?

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/whats-online-why-am-i-looking-for-it.html

Are authors sexy enough to sell books?

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/are-authors-sexy-enough-for-books-they.html

Will Your Book Be Relevant – Or Read – In 2014?

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/will-your-book-be-read-in-2114.html

Interview With Leading Book Marketer Brian Feinblum

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/interview-with-book-marketer-publicist.html

What An Author Is Worth

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/whats-author-worth.html

65 Websites For Writers & Publishers

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/over-65-websites-for-writers-publishers.html

Mass Communications Disconnect

http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/mass-communications-disconnect.html

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014.