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I have been listening to a lot of marketing teleconferences the past several months. I would like to implement one of the ideas. However, I am not sure how to go about it. I was hoping to get some input from those who are more experienced than myself.

I would like to contact Nestle's about purchasing my book entitled "Life is Like Making Chocolate Chip Cookies". It is a motivational/self-help/spiritual book which is about life experiences and making changes.

The question I have is what do I need to do in order to contact Nestle's and get them to notice me and/or talk to me? My book will be out in print the middle of November, with an actual publishing date in March.

Any help would be invaluable to be. Thank you!
Susie

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Susie,

My best advice would be to build a credible media kit, soon. Write and rewrite your author bio, work up a full page or so of great reviews, include events and signing calendars, include a super author interview you have worked up the questions to and answered (and edited), have a few choice sounds bites ready for phone interviews, an author pic, one sheet, etc.

One marketing tool that could be very useful in the Nestle work is a brief, but engaging, video trailer in which you actually talk about some of the challenges addressed in your book while making Nestle Chocolate Chip Cookies...2-3 minutes of video highlighting a few life changes, etc. and you (or a model) whipping up scrumptious cookies could be a real eye catcher and is very simple to do with Windows Movie Maker installed on most PCs.

I like to include a CD of my media kits I've done for authors in a print media kit. They cost very little to produce, actually less than printing out (in color) all the pieces of the media kit, and let the media and pubic relations folks get the full meal deal at their leisure.

Good Luck,

Kimberlee Williams
Caged Heart/Vanilla Heart Publishing
Wow, Kimberlee!!!! Thank you so much for the input! I didn't realize how much has to be done. I thought a special letter of some kind was what was done. I still want to do this so will have to think on each thing you mentioned and see how I can make it happen. Now I have to learn how to make a media kit and a trailer on top of everything else. *grin*

Thank you again!
You are so welcome! I tend to work from this mini tutorial on online media kits for all my authors, using it as a checklist. You can put the pages in your own media room on your web site, but also it is a great checklist for your CD press kit and mostly simple WORD docs :)

http://www.anniejenningspr.com/pages/onlinemediakit.htm
hahaha Media room now! Is there a page one in this group so I can go back to the beginning? Many of the things you are mentioning I have 'seen' in passing. Now I guess I need to dig into the forums' archives and see what was said. Evidently I missed a lot.

Thank you again for your help, Kimberlee!
Hi Susie! Your book entitled "Life is Like Making Chocolate Chip Cookies" sopund great!

You must contact the advertising department at Nestle's by email sending them a CV, media kit (like Acagedheart suggested) and a sample copy of some of your book. Convince them why endorsing the book would be good for them. What a catchy title. Often here in Turkey, when a book with such a title would be launched, the chocolate king here would package the book with a sample of chocolate or offer a discount of X amount with next purchase of chocolate. Best to you!
If you have time click on my column and enjoy reading about women of the Middle East and what that conjures up: http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/yazarAd.do?kn=68
Thank you, Charlotte, for your input! I do need to ask a question though. What is a CV? I probably already know and my brain hasn't kicked in for the day. *smile* I have some ideas about the packaging which I will add yours to them.

Thanks again for the help!
Can anyone tell me what a CV is that Charlotte mentioned in her above post?

Thanks!
CV is fancy schmancy for a resume - Curriculum Vitae, Latin (like who speaks Latin anymore, anyway?) for 'course of one's life'.

I think that in this case, keep your list of accomplishments etc. focused on your skills as an author, but also perhaps on the marketing plans you have implemented or plan to implement, and heck, include a few pro reviews and excerpts
Thank you for the quick response!!!! I appreciate it so much!!!

Now I have to figure out how to get reviews and figure out the marketing plan. I have a plan in mind but perhaps not as good as it should be. *grin*

Again, Thank you!!!
Hi, Susie.

The critical thing in contacting Nestlé is finding the right person to send your materials. Nestlé sells chocolate chips and chocolate chip cookie dough. Each product has a marketing manager (sometimes called a product manager). Finding the name of the marketing manager is difficult. Companies such as Nestlé guard the names of key personnel closely because they fear competitors will poach them. You'll have to be a "detective" to uncover the name.

Once you do discover the names, you must be prepared to offer a strong financial incentive for Nestlé to use your book. I presume that you will offer the book as a premium to either the chocolate chips or chocolate cookie dough. Naturally, Nestlé will not want to buy your book at full retail price to use as a premium. They'll want a steep discount. This is where your business acumen must take over.

Typically, a marketing/product manager will want a 70% discount off the retail price. As a business person, you'll want to balance what you can afford to sell the book for versus what the company wants to pay. You may want to look at the economics of selling the book at printing costs plus 10%. This rule holds true for traditionally printed books. It does not hold true, however, for digital short-run printed books or POD books.

Good luck.
Thank you, Frank. I have the name of the lady I talked to and she gave me some good info. I plan to pursue this after the first of the year.

I appreciate the info that you gave me on the financial incentive and the price. I figured they would want a good discount to do this. Doesn't the quantity of books offset the discount?

I am trying to figure out how to approach them. I will be approaching the person who handles the chocolate chips. Perhaps to do a promotion for Mother's day.

The first block I received from them was getting coupons to give out during my book signings. Now I have to come up with something else. If anyone has any suggestions, I could sure use them. One idea I had was to do fridge magnets shaped like chocolate chip cookies with the name of the book on them. I can make them on my computer. What about giving everyone a chocolate chip cookie? So far the two book signings I have will not attract too many people but will get my name and book out in the community.

Thanks again, Frank for taking the time out of your busy holiday to respond to my post!

Blessings from my spirit to your spirit!
I have another idea with Valentine's Day being next month. You may want to create gift baskets with chocolate to sell with your book and maybe approach local radio, TV, flower and gift shops about this idea. As a PR move you could offer to give two baskets away, one for a local radio and one for a local morningTV talk show.

Kenneth McGhee - Author

Teamwork - Moving Beyond Teambuilding Exercises

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