The Book Marketing Network

For book/ebook authors, publishers, & self-publishers

I'd like to start a new forum where people can talk about what's working for you right now in marketing your book.

I think this will help other authors to prioritize their activities if they can find out what's working for other people. This would be especially valuable to new authors.

I've share the hottest tool that I'm using right now. And that's Twitter. As you will note on the main page of this Book Marketing Network website, both my http://www.bookmarket.com website and this network have been rising in Alexa ranks (and visits) because of my use of Twitter.

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Hello Patrick,

Welcome to the group. This is my favorite chat room by far.  I'm an author and speaker also.  Within the past week, I've teamed up for the first time with another author and speaker, and more importantly, a recovering alcoholic. See I talk on "The Effect of Alcoholism on the Whole Family" after losing a husband and daughter from this disease.  We have an interview with two radio shows and our first talk (together; I've done a lot) at a Bristol-Plymouth Tech Reg School for their Continuing Educational Class. I'm getting paid and Rich is my guest speaker.  Maybe next Fall they will pay him/

Money, money. The others have read my replies on this. Charge or not. Now after six years of my writing three books with two in the making, I'm charging.

 Yes, there are some locations who won't pay, then you have to decide if it's worth it. We're sure halfway homes and certain locations can't.  It all depends how important the location is to do it for free.

Don't worry about writing errors.  That's why we all have editors!!


 

Alberta,

thank you for the welcome. You must give some interesting talks!  I really, truely came here to read more about books.  but my flaw is I tend to stay in areas that I know and understand.  and with that, I will say this about pricing.  My brother and I were out giving talks for 3 different pay scales.   free, almost free and why not free?  we started to charge a little for the talks trying to "gain credibility". We put $1500-$2500 a talk out there and got  Nothing..... Zero, Zip.  Pricing, ( this is my hot spot) tells people what to think about our product. People precieve money differently.  We set the speaking fee at  $10,000.....Plus travel and Hotel.  

And we waited....

1,2....3  emails came in....  

That is our budget...
Can you do it for $9500 plus hotel???
What dates do you have available? ....

those were the emails that started to come in

10K a pop.  We spoke in L.A, california,  Texas, near the Alamo and Duluth Minn, and a few other places. 

we learned that "professional" speakers charge certain money to speak.   and organizations sometimes say  " find me  5 "like" speakers and we will decide from there....

  we could not book at  $2500 but booked 5-6 gigs at $10K .

we learned this.  Yes,give it fast and  free as you learn and hone your craft.  Find our audience, make your content relevant  and current and get through the
no's "    say to the world " this is a valuable product!"  and start negotiating from there.  NOT  "well, if you would be so kind as to give me more gruel " like Oliver twist.

The world will pay it,  Just ask.

I don't mean to ask the obvious,  but have you considered taking your talk to the corporate world?  the HR field pays much better for talks about dealing with dependency. And with the workload and hours  corporate America is keeping, your information could help keep companies from losing productivity and keeping their talent healthy?

I don't mean to step on toes, I don't want to offend, just help others.

Best,

Well, for myself, I am not offended. But I am curious. For you charging $2,500 or $10,000, what subjects are you speaking on? And what kind of crowds - not so much size but style? If you don't wish to say, I understand. I was just wondering! Thanks!

I like all the help I can get. I contacted the Speaker's Guild in Boson, MA to have my name put down as a speaker.  I was told, I would have to have been getting paid already in the price of $4,000 for them to take me on as a member.  If I was making $4,000, I'd feel like I'm on my way.

Here's what I'm up to next. The Taunton Chamber of Commerce gave me all the names of the businesses (114) in the Taunton Industrial Park. This includes from the president, HR and managers. 

I want to contact them with RIch Barnes and I coming in as a team, him the recovering alcoholic and myself as a family member with losing two loved ones from alcohol abuse. 

We don't want to get paid as a one speaker and want separate check if this happens.  These are large companies and I was going to charge $500 a piece for two hours (an hour each).  I guess I fear changing more.  Am I foolish not to?

 

One of the biggest mistakes I made early on when using Twitter was that I did not realize that the best part of Twitter was what I could learn from others.  I used it as a forum to talk. Now I use it as a forum to listen. 

Yes, Twitter postings and shares help my website rankings and searchability.  Yes, I have been "found" more easily and by more people because of it.  Yes, the contacts I have made have been invaluable... but that all happened when I started treating Twitter as a conversation and not a podium.  It has been a godsend since that day.

Ah, that's one reason I unfollow anyone who unfollows me. Because I'm looking for a conversation, talk and listen. Not just listen. Not just talk.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't use the power of Twitter lists.

Check out the Twitter lists of booksellers, literary agents, book cover designers, people worth knowing, etc. that I share on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/JohnKremer/lists

I tried to make a youtube video to promote my book...check it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUQfkxOXBi8&feature=plcp

My book is also now available on iTunes..

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/our-explosive-sun/id488021578?mt=11

In your description of the book trailer, include your website URL: http://www.solarmax.no.

Include the entire URL, including the http://www so that the link is clickable.

Put the URL at the beginning of the description so people see it right away when they watch your video on YouTube.

Hi, Theresa,

  I like what you just wrote here, especially your last paragraph about doing what you want. Everyone must walk their own path as an author and  especially now, in bad economic times. 

 

I put what's working for me in a book, which I'm giving away today in Kindle format. Below the giveaway details, I tell a bit of how these giveaways are working (and sometimes not working) to result in sales.

Many authors are finding this book helpful, as you can see from reviews. It's called Sell More Books! Book Marketing and Publishing for Low Profile and Debut Authors: Rethinking Book Publicity after the Digital Revolutions. Available today, free on Kindle. Any reviews would be much appreciated!

http://www.amazon.com/Marketing-Publishing-Profile-Authors-ebook/dp...

If you don't have a Kindle, just download a free Kindle for PC

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000...

or free Kindle for Mac

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_mac_mkt_lnd?docId=100...

I also have a backwards dictionary (listed in the alphabetical order of the last letter) free today for help with Scrabble and other word games (find a three letter word that ends in q?). Really, really need reviews for this one. It's here

http://www.amazon.com/BackWords-backwards-word-gamers-ebook/dp/B004...

I've been experimenting with these giveaways on Kindle for about a month and have been impressed, with select books, with the results. For some of my books, sales hardly increased at all, but for one book, the sales skyrocketed. I'm not sure what made the difference - perhaps it's relevant that the one that skyrocketed is a general interest book (on personal finance) that hit it big in several popular Amazon Categories as a result of the free offering, and has stayed at the top for about 4 weeks now, and has many great reviews already in place. I can give the details if people are interested.

Thanks for being a part of such a wonderful forum!

Thanks for sharing, J. Steve Miller. I just downloaded your book and am excited about reading it (and putting the advice into practice).

I delayed doing a free promotion because it was "free" for about three months. During that time, my sales were a slow trickle. I did a two-day free promotion and was shocked...in a great way. I did very little promotion since my decision to do it was last minute. I had a huge number (for me) of downloads, but after it was done, my sales skyrocketed. It's been over two weeks, and my sales have been continuing. I can't wait to do another free promotion!

Do you recommend doing two days or one day at a time instead of 5 days of free promotion?

Thanks again for sharing!

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