You're Published! Now How Do You Tell The Readers?Written by Michael LaRocca
The first thing you must do is quit thinking like a writer and start thinking like a reader. That shouldn't be a problem, because you are one. If you don't enjoy reading, you can't write something that someone else enjoys reading. So, when you read, how do you choose what to read?My wife can walk into a bookstore, look at cover blurb of a book, conclude "I'll like this," and buy it. Then she'll read it and be correct. Every time. I almost never do this. For me, it's word of mouth. It's book reviews. A good reviewer tells me enough to decide if I want to buy book. I've rarely been led astray by a reviewer. I suspect that, if you look at your own reading habits, you're like me. You find new authors to read based on book reviews. Once you find one you really like, you buy everything else he/she has written and snatch up every new one as it comes out. So there are your goals. Number one, write well enough to keep those readers coming back. Number two, get those reviewers to say "Hey, this author writes very well." Meaning, contact those reviewers. You want to be reviewed as much as possible. Walk into any bookstore, log onto any e-publisher site, or visit Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Guess what you'll see? A whole lot of books. If one of them happens to be yours, how will people notice it? Your publisher will market your book, of course, but they market all their titles equally. What you want is for a potential reader to walk into that shop or log onto that site with your name and title already in his or her head. Your publisher will submit your book to reviewers. I don't know about quantity, but reviews (even negative ones) generate sales. Work with your publisher to ensure everyone is covered. Also make sure you don't both send same book to same place because that's just plain embarrassing. If you'll swing by http://free_reads.tripod.com/bookreview.html you'll find a list of book review and author interview sites. Mostly electronic but a good print selection as well. At this writing there are 111 of them. When your book hits shelves, if not sooner, visit every dang one of them. Write to everybody and see what happens. It'll take you about ten hours.
| | WHAT'S IN A NAME?Written by Meredith Pond
Julia Roberts, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Michael Jordan. Recognize any of those people? Without a doubt, when someone mentions name of a celebrity, you know exactly who they're talking about and can even picture their face or last movie they were in. Indeed, having a name that people recognize is a very important part of success. After all, if we weren't so familiar with Julia Roberts, she wouldn't be making a cool 20 million per film, no matter how good of an actress she was.Well, name game plays just as a big part in business world as it does in Hollywood. If I mention name of Cory Rudl, Kevin Nunley, or Jim Daniels, you most likely know name and at least something about them. This is because these guys have all made names for themselves in world of Internet business. You know them, and most likely would have respect for any advice or service they offered you. That notoriety and respect is what makes guys like these so successful. That's all fine and good, but how did they do it? Well, start with a subject you know something about. If you're a marketing guru (or would like to become one), start by doing a search on Internet for discussion groups or forums you can post your ideas to. Come up with new topics, offer advice, and always include your signature file in every new message, along with your URL and email address. Come back daily and get your name out there. After you've been doing this for a while, people on those discussion boards will begin to take notice.
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