How to Create a Media Frenzy for Your Book

Written by Dr. Jamie Fettig


Prepare talking points before making media appearances.

Many new authors spend so much time and energy trying to get inrepparttar newspaper or on radio that when they get there, they don't know what to say. But if you take an hour to prepare concise, compelling comments about your book, you'll come off as a real pro, increase sales, and maybe even be asked back!

The average radio interview lasts five minutes, of which three might be broadcast, and on average you might get six inches of coverage in your local newspaper. You don't have a lot of time to waste hemming and hawing about your book, andrepparttar 108603 journalist interviewing you doesn't want to waste his or her time either. So before you even start soliciting press coverage, write down and memorize your talking points.

You say you know your book? I'm sure you do. But when you're underrepparttar 108604 gun of a timed interview, or an interviewer hits you with a surprise question, it's easy to stammer or get confused. Talking points are your lifeline. I suggest preparing a list that looks like this:

a.What'srepparttar 108605 "elevator pitch" (a 10-second summary) of my book? b.Who is my book targeted to? c.How did I decide to write it? d.What are three passages in my book that I want to quote? e.What can people get out of my book? f.Where can people buy my book?

Write those down on note cards and memorize them, but keeprepparttar 108606 cards with you when you do interviews, just in case. That way, you'll come off more professional and makerepparttar 108607 most ofrepparttar 108608 time you get.

Focus heavily on PR.

If you don't believe inrepparttar 108609 power of public relations andrepparttar 108610 media to turn an unknown book into a bestseller, I have two words for you: Oprah Winfrey. Get your book 15 minutes on her show and you'll sell a million copies. That'srepparttar 108611 power ofrepparttar 108612 media.

Of course, getting on Oprah isrepparttar 108613 Holy Grail of book marketing, and while you shouldn't NOT try to get on her show, you shouldn't focus only on that. PR is your most powerful tool for creating awareness and selling books. So early on, while you're still in final editing, start making lists of media outlets, cashing in on contacts, making calls and sending out e-mails.

E-commerce, a no nonsense business perspective (Part 2)

Written by Oliver Phillips


Copyright 2005 Oliver Phillips. May be freely reproduced "as-is" for private or commercial use.

In Part 1 of this guide, we focused onrepparttar potential applications of e-commerce and explained in detailrepparttar 108602 first 5 of my "Ten Golden Rules of e-business" In Part 2 we recap onrepparttar 108603 rules, and explain in detail rules 6 to 10. The other document in this series is also avialable at goarticles.com

Ten Golden Rules of e-business

1.Start re-skilling now. If you don’t have huge financial backing your idea will not get offrepparttar 108604 ground UNLESS you can do much ofrepparttar 108605 work yourself. 2.You have more chance of making money if you can take just one step uprepparttar 108606 supply chain. 3.The real profit makers onrepparttar 108607 Internet match supply with demand, but do not sell anything! 4.You can’t just build a site and expect to start generating income any more. 5.There are few truly new ideas - most things have already been done. Exploit a niche, leverage breaking technology, or dorepparttar 108608 same thing but just better. 6.If you come across an idea that hasn’t been done, congratulations you could be on your way - but think long and hard about why no one else is already doing it. 7.Expect any competitive advantage you may establish to be short-lived. Where will your profit come from tomorrow? 8.Be amazed at how little your e-business is worth. 9.Don’t buy an e-business “offrepparttar 108609 shelf”. At least one person does not want it – why not? 10.Establish a budget to build your site then add at least 30% more to build an adequate administration interface.

6. If you come across an idea that hasn’t been done, congratulations you could be on your way - but think long and hard about why no one else is already doing it.

If you do come up with a new e-business idea, then you could indeed be on your way to making your fortune. But before you jump in with both feet and start investing money inrepparttar 108610 project first considerrepparttar 108611 idea very carefully. If we accept that so many things have already been done in e-business, why hasn’t your idea? You may well have spotted an opportunity that everyone else has missed, orrepparttar 108612 idea may be one that others have already considered - but rejected.

Think about why someone might have already discarded your idea? Why might they have decided it was not viable? Thinking about your project in this way will help you be more objective – It’s all too easy to be blinded by your excitement and enthusiasm and miss potential flaws inrepparttar 108613 idea which later prove costly.

If you’ve objectively critiquedrepparttar 108614 idea and can’t find any serious flaws then you might just have a winner.

7. Expect any competitive advantage you may establish to be short-lived. Where will your profit come from tomorrow?

E-business has few, if any, barriers to entry. The technology is mature, technical skills and knowledge are widely available and your website is your business; you could be a large quoted plc but your competitor could run a similar operation from their bedroom andrepparttar 108615 Customers you are both competing for can probably not differentiate between you! Assume that whatever you have done, your existing competitors can do. Also bank on new competition you didn’t expect. You decide to move into a new niche you’ve spotted and there might be 5, 10 or 15 other businesses about to join you. You’ve found a new product to import that you can’t get inrepparttar 108616 UK, blink just once, and someone else is selling it also!

The “e” in e-business does not stand for easy. e-business is anything but this, despite perception. Your marketplace evolves at a frightening rate, product life cycles seem unfeasibly short, competition grows exponentially, all of who can emulate you and in many cases do it better than you! You will have to gorepparttar 108617 extra mile just to stand still!

If you take nothing else from this guide at least remember this; if you do manage to establish a competitive advantage your business planning should assume that it will be gone tomorrow.

In practice this means you take worst case asrepparttar 108618 norm; you scale down your income projections and beef up your cost lines. You consider strategies for coping, exit and, if possible growth, all inrepparttar 108619 context of perfect competition. You make finding and researching new opportunities, part of your core business. Where will your profit come from tomorrow?

Overly cynical and far too negative - I hope so. These traits are far more likely to keep your Business alive than apathy and complacency.

8. Be amazed at how little your e-business is worth.

Traditional businesses are valued using traditional methods. Despite reasonable profits, your Business is still only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. Thoughrepparttar 108620 same valuation techniques should be used to valuerepparttar 108621 e-business as a traditional business, two factors tend to over-ride however favourable a valuation is returned.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use