by Sue Papadoulis via SuccessfulAuthorSecrets.com or LoveYourLifePublishing.com.

Using public relations (PR) is the fastest, easiest and least expensive way to build your brand, increase your customer base, explode your sales and give you expert status. Don’t overlook going after fr^ee publicity in the media – it is far more extensive and influential than a paid for advertisement. As an author, you’re already an expert in your field – now it’s just a case of making sure the media see you in the same light so you can sell more books.

Here’s my 10-step plan to writing a great press release that will get noticed.

Get the layout right. You need:

The date and city of issue
A headline in larger, bold font
An opening sentence in bold
Text that supports your headline and opening sentence
Your contact details

Create a great headline. Just as in a newspaper article, the headline must sum up the press release contents in a concise manner. See if you can mirror what you see in newspapers and magazines. Keep it to one short sentence and remove unnecessary words.

Write a snappy opening sentence. Your opening sentence can be just as important as the headline in attracting interest from a journalist who may scan this alone and determine whether or not the entire story is of interest. Remember, these words are also indexed by search engines, so if you’re loading your release onto any online distribution sites add some key words (but not to the detriment of the quality of the content).’

Support your headline and opener with quality text. The remaining text supports your story and must answer the questions of who, what, when, where, how and why. Write the text in the format used by your target media outlet. For example if you’re targeting a local paper, write it as a newspaper article – the sure sign of a great media release is when you read it word for word in the paper.

Use quotations. Quote yourself high up in the release – in the second or third sentence. Keep quotes short, sharp and newsworthy (often referred to by the media as a ‘grab’ which summarizes the main point of the story). Add them as a single sentence at a time, rather than as a paragraph of text. A single sentence is easier to read and scan.

Include an expert if possible. If you can find a third party to support your position it will give you and your release instant credibility and move it away from being a promotional piece into the realm of serious news story. This could be a happy customer who’s willing to be quoted or a representative of an industry association. You could even quote a third party who’s already publically spoken about your issue. As long as it’s in the public domain and you correctly attribute the quote, you are able to include it.

Provide full contact details. Include your name, landline, mobile phone number, email address and web address.

Keep it to one page. More than one and a half pages and a journalist just won’t read it. If you’re struggling to include everything, then make a plan to come up with six angles over six months. Over that period of time you can include all the information you need to about your business. By staying in touch regularly, you’re also building a relationship with a journalist which can be a key factor in generating free publicity.

Offer images and make yourself available for an interview. Often, a journalist will want to do an interview rather than lifting quotes directly from a media release. A media outlet may be happy to use your images, or they may want to take photographs themselves, so make yourself available.

Send it out! Develop a list of targeted media outlets, and don’t overlook online PR release sites such as www.free-press-release.com and www.prweb.com.

© 2010 Sue Papadoulis
Sue Papadoulis is a leading specialist in helping small businesses generate free publicity. She is the founder of the DIY PR Kit which provides step-by-step advice and templates to show you how to score free media coverage on TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and online. Access Sue’s special video (valued at $279), How to Generate Free Publicity for Your Business, free at www.diyprkit.com.

Post by Lynne Klippel
Lynne@LoveYourLifePublishing.com

Do you feel overwhelmed with book ideas? Instead of having one book inside does it feel like you have a raft of books ready to be launched?

It can be challenging to select the topic for your first book. Use these questions to guide your decision making process.

The most successful books have a clear focus and present useful steps to solve a specific problem for a specific reader. In fact, the more clearly you define your target reader and your topic,t he easier it will be to market your book.

Which topic is more targeted?

Stress reduction vs. Mediation techniques for Olympic athletes

Money Management vs. Financial education for new college graduates

Spirituality vs. Corporate executives and the power of prayer

The more tightly you can define your target reader and the specific problem your book will solve, the more successful your book will be.

How will your book contribute to your business?

If you are a corporate consultant, writing a book about French cooking might be a fun and creative project. However, it would not bring you more consulting clients. When you select your topic, make sure you have a clear path from your book to your products or services. Your book will position you as an expert. Use that positioning to your advantage and link your topic to your business.

How passionate are you about the topic?

When you write a book, you’ll be spending the next 3-5 years marketing it. If you pick a topic that bores you or does not resonate with your highest purpose, it will be hard to find the energy to market it effectively.

What gives you the credibility to write this book?

Take a good look at your training, education, and life experience. Do you have personal success solving this problem? For example, if you are writing about financial abundance but you are currently bankrupt, you have a credibility problem, both within your heart and with your readers. If you have never run a successful business, it will be hard to write a book telling others how to run their business successfully.

Many entrepreneurs who are new to their field are so excited about their training that they want to write a book on the topic. It’s better to select an area where you have some real-life experience so that you feel confident about your knowledge of the topic.

When you write a book about a problem that you’ve successfully mastered, you will write with first-hand knowledge of both the impact of the problem, the solution, and the possible pitfalls that people may encounter. Look to your life experience, both personally and professionally, and you’ll find plenty of great book topics.

What topic would be the most fun for you?

Writing a book is a commitment of time and energy. If you select a topic that you enjoy, perhaps even love, the process of writing your book will be fun instead of feel like drudgery. If you just adore talking about branding, have some wonderful success stories, and can’t wait to learn more about new ways to create brands, you’ll probably enjoy writing a book on branding.

Examine your own reading list, both books and ezines. Which books or newsletters do you read as soon as possible because you as so fascinated by the topic? If you have a book shelf full of books on personal development, attend conferences regularly, and work as a life coach, writing a book on accounting would not be much fun for you.

When you’ve answered these questions, you will naturally discover your ideal book topic. In fact, it will seem so logical that you won’t believe you ever considered another topic in the first place!

Lynne Klippel, a life-long book lover, is passionate about helping people with a positive message share it in a book. She focuses exclusively on non-fiction, Business Building Books, designed to help coaches, speakers, small business owners, and spiritual practitioners write books that get them more clients, media attention, and additional income.

Lynne is the author of six books, many information products, and a popular speaker. Her background as a teacher, librarian, and certified coach gives her the ability to break complex tasks into simple steps and motivate you so that you can reach your goals…

Her mission: to be your friend in the book business, sharing information, resources, and just as much help as you need to get your book out of your head and into the hands of eager readers. Lynne lives in Missouri with her husband and sons, and a house full of books.

Gayl Murphy, Hollywood Correspondent and Media Expert

A rather shy woman named Elaine – with a background and expertise in marketing – telephoned me the other day to talk about hiring me to media coach her in her quest to land the perfect client, so she could do a job she could really love.

Elaine explained, she’s been on the interviewing merry-go-round for so long, with so few nibbles on the brass ring, that she’s really starting to doubt her ability to ever land something (anything) really great.

Elaine called me because, she said, “Being at the end of one¹s rope offers options that being on the top of one’s rope doesn’t.” So she wanted to hire me to help her better sell herself and her skills in the client/job market. Fair enough.

Now from an outsider’s perspective, the combo of a marketer and a Hollywood Correspondent teaming up to land a client might seem like apples and oranges, but it¹s not. And I told her that she came to exactly the right person by calling me, and I¹ll tell you why.

My area of expertise is the “Media.” I’m a veteran Broadcast Journalist, Celebrity Interviewer, Media Coach, Speaker and Author. And when I’m not in front of a camera, or in back of a microphone, I coach businesses of all sizes, including experts, authors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and celebrities on how to work with the media and get their message out and how to tell it to sell it on TV, radio and it print. My book is “Interview Tactics! How To Survive the Media Without Getting Clobbered! The Insider’s guide to Giving a Killer Interview,” and that’s what I teach, coach and speak about.

So how does interviewing for a dream client, or dream job, relate to shinning on TV, or nailing a great radio interview?

Contrary to what you’ve heard, there’s more than one class of media, there’s two. The little media; you, me and everyone we know — our circle of friends, our family, associates, employers, employees and colleagues. You get the picture.

And then there’s the big media, or mass media, which is everything else; TV, radio, online, newspapers, magazines, books, satellite, commercials, infomercials, on-demand, cable, pay-per-view and so forth.

You’re a medium, and I’m a medium. This story and the website you’re reading it on are media. Every time you share your story with another person, or in a group, you’re talking to some form of the media ­ one-on-one, telephone, microphone, camera, computer, etc., because the “Media” is anyone, or anything that has the ability to take your message and move it forward — be it one listener, or one billion listeners.

And that’s the good news, because it means the rules for broadcast media darlings and non-broadcast media darlings are exactly the same! Murphy’s Law: “If you can’t tell your story in a concise and succinct way, with confidence, commitment, color, energy and detail, you can’t sell your story to anyone or anything. You’re not moving it forward.”

In the words of Steely Dan, it’s not enough to just “smile for the camera” anymore. You must have an inner mechanism ­ or “Interview Tactics!” ­ that enables you to flip your “media switch” and deliver your message, or pitch with the media-savvy knowingness of a two time Oscar winner, regardless of who is listening.

So how do you take your message and craft it in a way that people will hear it, take it in and move it forward?

As a veteran Hollywood Correspondent, I’ve interviewed over 14,000 celebrities and newsmakers, and I’ve had the unique opportunity to observe, not only how people successfully deliver their message, but how those on the receiving end listen and take this information in and process it.

The truth is, if your story is well-crafted – meaning it’s compelling, succinct, has energy, is well-constructed (beginning, middle and end) – and captures your listener’s imagination and attention in the shortest amount of time, your listener can¹t help but pass it along. They will tell someone else (maybe even the world) about you.

What this says is: what works in big media, works in little media. What works on TV and radio, works in the boardroom, the conference room, a job interview, a client interview, a trade show, even over the phone. These are “Interview Tactics!” and I’ll tell you what I told Elaine.

When you’re telling your story, bring your energy with you. Relax and enjoy.

In business, your product and service is your story (even if it¹s someone else’s business). You created YOUR brand of it, so your perspective is unique. You live it, so have a good time telling it.

Being interviewed is supposed to be fun. You get to be the star of the “Me Show,” starring “Me” (in this case it¹s YOU!).

When telling your story, your job is to capture your listener’s attention and imagination with your message. One of the best ways is by using color and detail. Don’t just tell me about that how rough and rocky the road to success was, describe how big the boulders were.

Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Know in advance what you’re going to say, just don¹t write a script. Think bullet points. Your story will flow easier that way.

When you can, connect your message/story/product/service to a news story, or trend in the headlines to make it relevant and newsworthy. The press and lay-people love to hear, and pass along, stories that are “ripped from the headlines.”

Stay on topic and stay focused. Be specific. Give facts, details and information. Do your research.

Keep people engaged so they’ll continue to ask you questions about what you do and how you do it. This makes you more dynamic and your story more compelling.

Speak up and speak well. If your voice is thin like Elaine’s, your message is thin. Listen to good speakers and hear how they sound. Confidence lives in your voice as well as the words.

Get a feel for your listener. Do you tell the epic version, or the Reader’s Digest version? Which ever you decide, get to the point and stay there. Don’t worry about leaving things out. Once you’ve opened the door you can always add more information on the back end.

All interviews are a give-and-take proposition. So listen carefully to what’s being asked of you. If you do your homework and you’re prepared you won’t need to anticipate. You’ll KNOW!

Have some solid sound-bites ready at a moments notice. Sound-bites are great because they’ll help you tell your story and keep it attention grabbing.

As for Elaine and her quest for the perfect client, she’s currently working on her voice and reworking her message and her pitch, so that when she throws it out there, she’ll be compelling and dynamic to listen to. And maybe, she’ll even get the brass ring!

Gayl is a Presentational Coach, Speaker and Author of “Interview Tactics! How to Survive the Media without Getting Clobbered! The Insider’s Guide to Giving a Killer Interview!”

As a Media Expert, Gayl Celebrit-izes CEO’s, entrepreneurs, authors, entertainment industry professionals, experts, inventors, investors and celebrities in business and entertainment to CELEBRITIZE themselves and their brands so they can TELL IT TO SELL IT! http://www.InterviewTactics.com

As a veteran Correspondent, Gayl’s has reported the news for ABC News, SKY News, BBC Radio, BBC TV, E!, HollywoodToday.net and BigMediaUSA among others. She has personally interviewed over 14,000 of the biggest celebrities and newsmakers in the world.

Another great post from Penny Sansevieri

After years of working with authors on Internet tours, talking about blogging, podcasting, social networking, and all other assorted online promotional tools, the basic questions still remain: How the heck do I promote myself on the Internet? Broken down in simple steps, this article is designed to give you a good starting point to kick your Internet promotion into high gear. It’s not difficult but you have to start somewhere. Let’s start with your web site.

Web site: Why would someone visit it? Why would anyone care? Before you start marketing yourself online, ask these basic questions. You can get anyone to a web site once, but getting them back a second, or third time is where authors often lose momentum. Studies have shown that less than 14% of web site visitors will buy the first time they visit. It’s only on the second or third visit that they decide to make a purchase. Anyone can drive traffic to your site, it’s getting them back that counts.

The point of your tour: getting incoming links

Here’s the thing: anyone can get incoming links, the point is, you want GOOD and quality incoming links from sites that can actually send you traffic and readers that will buy your book. We get numerous calls from authors who have bought into inexpensive programs that do nothing more than drive unqualified, “tire kicking” traffic to their web site. This kind of traffic is not going to do you any good; in fact, if you’re not careful, getting a bunch of errant links from sites that Google doesn’t feel are right for your topic or market can get you downgraded online instead of a better ranking. So how do you beat this?

First, you’ll want to download the Google toolbar. This toolbar comes with a Page Ranking piece (in some cases you may have to download this separately). This Page Rank is important because it’s an indicator of how important Google thinks a particular site is. Ideally sites you target will have a Page Rank of 4 or above. We like to target sites that have a ranking between 4-6. Then look at the nature of the sites you’re pitching. Are they related to your topic? Do the sites have lots of great content? Would they consider reviewing your book, maybe interviewing you or excerpting your book? Regardless of what they’re willing to do, the idea is to use these sites to help spread the message about your book and give them great content. All sites are looking for great content and if you can offer it to them, it’s a win-win. Here’s what not to do: don’t just link swap with your friends. I know writers who belong to writer’s groups and just swap links with other writers. This isn’t good for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the site you might be linking to (or getting a link from) has nothing to do with your topic.

Slow and steady wins the race: The idea of ‘touring’ or promoting yourself online is about building traffic, links, and authority status within search engines. I tend to reference Google a lot since most of us default search there. People ask me how long they should promote themselves online, I tell them for as long as they need to. As long as there are sites you can pitch yourself to you can continue promoting. Our web site, Author Marketing Experts, has never been promoting in an aggressive fashion. Yes, we use new promotional techniques and cutting-edge Web 2.0 trends but it’s never been about a fast push; it’s always been about slow and steady growth. Because of this we have great ranking, linking, and placement on Google. I’ve never paid for a single ad-word placement or fancy traffic program that leverages links only.

Using blogs, podcasts, and article syndication: the Internet is full of tools to use. Blogs are a great way to promote to but consider this: why not comment on blogs in your market that are getting a lot of traffic? You may not be able to get a review but you can always comment and, you’ll get a link back to your site in the process.

Podcasting is another great tool, there are a ton of podcasts out there that you can promote yourself to. Check out iTunes and Podcast Alley to find some that might suit your topic and market.

Article syndication: another powerful but often overlooked market. Write a piece between 500 and 2,000 words and send it out into cyberspace via sites like Isnare, Ezine Articles and Article City and watch the links start building to your site.

If the idea of social networking, social bookmarking, video and the like are overwhelming then I recommend that you start simple: begin by pitching yourself online and see what you can grow from there. Most of the time the main reason an author abandons any thought of an online campaign is because they are overwhelmed by their choices. Start small and build from there, this is how we did it and how we grew our market. You can too. Then, when you’ve gotten your ‘sea legs’ when it comes to Internet promotion, you can branch out into other areas.

Good luck, here’s to your Red Hot success!

Published At: Isnare Free Articles Directory http://www.isnare.com

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a book marketing and media relations expert whose company has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. Visit AME.

This Essay was in the LA Times on June 15, 2008 written by Seth Greenland.

Today’s authors must sell their work — and themselves. The publisher’s promotional budget wouldn’t cover bus fare to the book party for “Shining City.” What to do? Try a hot tub, high-priced escorts and a pimp.

Not long ago, I found myself seated with a pimp and three high-priced escorts, the kind favored by the former governor of the great state of New York. I was in a lawn chair while the four of them were in a hot tub — what is the word? — gamboling in the steamy water and . . .

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Once upon a time, an author published a book and left the selling to the experts in the marketing department. This was the case as recently as last week. But that quaint notion has suddenly gone the way of Duran Duran. Now, because of recent developments in the world of publishing, writer and merchant are fusing into one. Willy Loman and Arthur Miller have commingled. Call it — forgive me — Birth of a Salesman.

Publishers still occasionally provide promotional support for an author to whom they have paid a whopping advance. Other authors, however, the ones without giant deals, are placed on an ice floe and set adrift. Yes, you say. Of course. ‘Twas ever so. But if once comfort might have been derived from such platitudes, this was before the Internet and the anticipated Death of Print.

And yet, the ironic thing about the Death of Print is that no one seems to have told the publishing industry. Even as review column inches shrink and fewer writers appear on radio and television, books continue to tumble out like bunnies during birthing season.

It is a faint and slightly maundering sound, muffled, no, smothered by the cacophony of the culture. But to borrow a phrase from the indefatigable Mrs. Loman: Attention must be paid.

How?

Why, the author video. In the last few months, I have become an expert on this subject, as any author now must be. My new novel, “Shining City,” will be published in July, and the promotional budget would not cover bus fare to the book party. To attract readers, I find myself looking to do something . . . sizzling. All of which brings us back to that hot tub, with those three high-priced escorts and that pimp.

Yes, yes, I know — this seems utterly gratuitous: blatant, even prurient. David McCullough would never sit next to a hot tub in which John Adams is frolicking with Dolley Madison and Betsy Ross. But McCullough and I are very different writers, and given my material, pimps and hookers are not so far off the mark. “Shining City” is about a regular guy from Van Nuys, a middle-class dad, who inherits his brother’s dry cleaning business and learns it is a front for a high-priced call-girl ring. He needs money, so he does some on-the-fly moral calculations and, presto, he’s a pimp. Whatever you may think of the character’s principles — feel free to judge him with your book group — it’s great material for an author video.

These days, of course, author videos come in a variety of flavors — as many as there are writers, it seems. The most basic features the author — who has, say, written six novels and never had to do anything this degrading — seated in her book-lined office casually addressing the camera. “Hi,” she says, “I’ve written a new novel. Here is what it is about and I would like you to buy it.” In its subtlety and sophistication, it’s like a television ad for detergent circa 1962.

In other videos, the author remains invisible. Instead, we see computer-generated words combined with a series of graphics meant to give a feel for the book. The aesthetic is that of a neighborhood 14-year-old with iMovie on his laptop — but it’s better than the dramatization, in which a scene or scenes from the book are acted out, making us forget about the writer altogether and wonder about the movie, not a good thing when the idea is to pique someone’s interest in a book.

Then, there is the high-end soft-sell that portrays the author, torn from the comfort of his office, thrust into the world and moving through locations that evoke the book. In one recent example, John Banville can be seen in Benjamin Black mufti, wandering the streets of Dublin talking about the hero of his new thriller. For novelist Jay Cantor, the setting is a Cambridge, Mass., cheese shop. I don’t know what this has to do with anything he’s written, but it did get my attention — hmm, what is Jay Cantor doing near that brie wheel? — and this, after all, is the idea.

For my video, I hooked up with my friend Jason Kachel, who is the Sergei Eisenstein of the Los Angeles bar mitzvah circuit. If you haven’t attended one of these events lately, you might be surprised to learn they often include what has become known as a montage. This is a short film featuring the celebrant; at its most expressive, it can evoke the work of Fellini shot through with the sensibility of Mel Brooks (memo to Cannes: This should be a sidebar — “Un Certain Bar Mitzvah”). Jason is peerless in this form. What is the connection? He is used to working with people bereft of thespian talent. People, in other words, like me.

I HIRED HIM immediately and we set about writing a script. Although we had no intention of dramatizing the book, we needed human scenery, so I logged on to Backstage.com, created an account, and did an e-mail blast to the appropriate cohort (Author Seeks Actresses for Book Video), and we had our extras. As for the pimp, I called another friend, the novelist Mark Haskell Smith, and quickly explained the proposition: Was he willing to take a day off from writing to spend an afternoon with several beautiful women in a hot tub? He did not take long to commit. Locations were procured, craft services arranged.

We began our shoot at 6:45 a.m. and concluded 15 hours later. Editing took a few days, a score was composed by Stu Thomas, and Bob’s your uncle — the “Shining City” video is now online.

Will this help sales? Who knows? It’s a chaotic new world and if a novelist can’t have a little fun shilling for his own book then what, finally, is the point? But this is literature, and froufrou aside, it remains serious business. Accordingly, I try to carry myself with dignity and restraint.

Which is how I wound up on the Internet in my underwear. *

Seth Greenland’s second novel, “Shining City,” will be published in July.

Susan’s note: Authors and professionals we can help you. If you want coaching and 2 or 3 short video segments about your book, your business and or an interview check out the BizSpeak & Video Workshop and the Authors’ SpeakEasy Workshop

It is a great way to market your services and spread the word through many distribution sites.

For the past 16 years I have been working with professionals and authors to support them in growing their business and income through speaking. We have literally have trained hundreds of people and I have watched them go through our programs and climb to the top of the ladder. Some of them are making millions of dollars as a result of learning how to communicate their messages clearly, getting branded and learning how to call people to action to buy their services. Here are a few of their brands we created: Opportunity Knocks, The E-Zine Queen, The Essential Entrenprenuer, The Extreme Dreamer….

What do all of these folks have in common? They are passionate about what they speak about and they continue to receive training no matter what level they are at and they all have Speaker Services in common. The following are just a few of the comments I received this week from some of our clients.

Barbara Niven, Actress and Speaker wrote- Susan, I got another booking for my eating disorders speech! Another $10,000 one, thanks to you and Jack! I will be speaking to students at several high schools and told them if they can do that amount I will speak several times at different venues over a few days time. I think we can really help make an impact and a difference.

Richard Petty, MD wrote- Four of our group made it to the video shoot on Sunday, and it was an amazing experience for all of us.I really hope that if you didn’t manage to come this time, you will be able to have the time and money to do it next time. I may be slightly biased, but I really thought that Laurie, Jodi and Doug did the best presentations of the day. Coincidence? I think not. If you are wavering, I would really suggest having a look at their videos once they are posted. I think that you will be astonished to see what we are ALL now capable of doing.

I am going to share a story which isn’t about me, it’s about all of us. About two weeks after the Boot camp I spoke at a meeting in Chicago. I’ve spoken before, and I know that I can persuade people using data, logic and an occasional merry quip. But this time was different.I remember the MC introducing me, and I know that I showed a few slides to illustrate my points. But I don’t remember much else apart from noticing that the entire audience got teary eyed at one point, and the reaction at the end – and in the following weeks – was extraordinary. Karl has talked about the impact that the Bootcamp had on him, and I am sure that it has changed all of us. . Don’t worry if the speech isn’t perfect. I know that mine wasn’t! But it got the points across better than anything that I had done before.

And Eileen Joyce wrote the following verse following the March Bootcamp

What happened to me in the Speakers’ Bootcamp
I went not knowing quite why
I flubbed a lot of exercises
And had the time of my life

Each day opened something new inside
Although I couldn’t tell you what

Then the day after it ended
I see who I am, what I’m doing and saying
who wants to hear it and what we all get from it!

I’m selling
a way to open your heart—to the secrets it holds
so you can fully express all your pain and your passion.
Start living each day like it’s the last one you have.

I call it Speaking From Your Heart
And we all can do it!

THANK YOU Jack Barnard and fellow beings

If you want to make a difference in your speaking and transform the way you deliver I suggest you consider Speakers’ Bootcamp, Authors’ SpeakEasy, the Video Demo Showcase and getting listed on Speaker Services. Feel free to e mail me susan@speakerservices to set up a free session to talk with me as to how we can help you.

The following post is from Book Bites -Lynne Klippel

SEO, which stand for Search Engine Optimization used to scare me to death. It seemed too hard, too expensive, and only for techno geeks who were good at statistics.

Consequentially, I ignored it and made some blunders- like naming a website Femme Osage Publishing.com. Who would be searching on the internet for such an obscure term?

While I cannot claim to understand everything about SEO or cover it fully in one article, I can share what I’ve learned so that you can avoid some of the internet mistakes that I’ve made.

SEO is the process of making your website attractive to internet search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN. Using keywords is one of the easiest and most effective ways to make your webpage popular with search engines.

Keywords are words that people type in the search boxes when they are looking for information. For example, if I want to find a book cover designer in Seattle, I’d go to Google or Yahoo and type “book cover designer Seattle”. In less than 1 second, I’d see a list of 300,000 websites that contain those four terms, making it easy for me to find book cover designers in Seattle.

Successful authors pay attention to keywords when they select titles for books, domain names, products, and e-books. You know people are searching the internet for information. Why not make your book or website easier for them to find?

That’s the purpose of keyword research.

If you like, you can spend thousands of dollars getting a consultant to do your SEO. The first thing that consultant will do is keyword research.

Instead of maxing out your credit card, I suggest that you do your own keyword research using a free tool. My favorite is at http://tools.seobook.com .

Go to this site and click on the Keyword tool

Then, put in a phrase that relates to your book topic or website.

Be sure to click on the box deleting ‘adult terms’ before you hit search so that you don’t have to wade through any nonsense.

Quickly you will see a list of keywords and how popular they are with internet searchers. Pay close attention to 3-4 word phrases that fully describe your topic.

Notice which terms are most popular with on-line searches and which ones have little interest. A good rule of thumb is to use key word phrases that are moderately popular to avoid competing n an overcrowded marketplace.

Use this list to spark your creativity. Include some of these terms in your website copy. Test your book title or product ideas to identify other websites that offer similar information.

When you play around with this tool and use Google, MSN, or Yahoo to search on titles you are considering, you will be able to make a wise choice of title and give your website a better chance of being noticed online.

It is actually fun!

And…if you’ve made a blunder with a difficult domain name or title, you can fix it.

I kept the business name Femme Osage Publishing.com and added a one-page website at www.BusinessBuildingBooks.com that directs people to several of my websites. That new web address is much easier for people to spell and find online.

Now you know a bit about SEO and have a free resource to find keywords. While there is much more advanced information available on this topic, start with keyword research. Just a little bit of time and effort on this research will pay you great dividends. Plus, you can impress your non-techy friends when you talk about doing your SEO and keyword research for your book. You’ll sound brilliant!

Lynne Klippel, a life-long bookworm, is passionate about helping people with a message share it in a book. She focuses exclusively on non-fiction, Business Building Books, designed to help coaches, speakers, small business owners, and spiritual practitioners write books that get them more clients, media attention, and additional income.

Lynne is the author of five books, many information products, and runs an active publishing company. Her background as a teacher, librarian, occupational therapist, life and career coach, and administrator gives her the ability to break complex tasks into simple steps and motivate you so that you can reach your goals. She also hosts Web Sorority Talk Radio, a talk show featuring authors who appeal to a female audience.

Here’s some more ways to use video clips for authors.

1) Have you been You Tube’d? If you haven’t this is the #1 place to load your book video.

2) Put your video on your own website, don’t let a single visitor land on your site without getting the touch and feel of your book.

3) Send a sample of your book video to every media contact you pitch. Never let a press kit leave your office without a disc.

4) Got a social networking page? If you do (and you should) add the clip or a link to it on the page.

5) When you pitch the media, don’t forget to insert a link to the trailer in your email. Don’t send it as an attachment; chances are an over aggressive spam filter will have it for lunch.

6) Blog about it every chance you get. No, I’m not talking about repeating a blog over and over but blog on what success you’ve had thanks to your video. And oh, yes, add a link to the book video too.

7) Trying to get a signing but have been unsuccessful? Let your book speak for itself, literally. Drop off a copy of your book trailer to an as-yet-unconvinced bookstore person and I can almost bet you’ll get asigning in the store.

Ready for your close-up? There’s no quicker way to a potential producer’s heart than through his eyes and ears. Seeing a book come to life can sometimes be a great way to sell someone on the conceptof turning your book into a movie.

9) If you’re doing a signing bring the book video to show while you’re signing books. I’ve known authors who’ve done this and they sold almost twice as many books. The video really pulls in readers!

10) Just like you can tell a book by its cover, you can often tell a bookvideo by its packaging. Get your CD cover professionally printed. Don’t skim on the first impression! In fact, why not have your video burned to a business card size CD that you can pop into the card slot of a presentation folder?

Reprinted from The Book Marketing Expert newsletter, a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. For more info see: http://www.amarketingexpert.com.

Linda Hollander was a speaker and author and this clip was of her speaking at the Speakers’ Summit08.

Here’s some more ways to use video clips for authors.

1) Have you been You Tube’d? If you haven’t this is the #1 place to load your book video.

2) Put your video on your own website, don’t let a single visitor land on your site without getting the touch and feel of your book.

3) Send a sample of your book video to every media contact you pitch. Never let a press kit leave your office without a disc.

4) Got a social networking page? If you do (and you should) add the clip or a link to it on the page.

5) When you pitch the media, don’t forget to insert a link to the trailer in your email. Don’t send it as an attachment; chances are an over aggressive spam filter will have it for lunch.

6) Blog about it every chance you get. No, I’m not talking about repeating a blog over and over but blog on what success you’ve had thanks to your video. And oh, yes, add a link to the book video too.

7) Trying to get a signing but have been unsuccessful? Let your book speak for itself, literally. Drop off a copy of your book trailer to an as-yet-unconvinced bookstore person and I can almost bet you’ll get asigning in the store.

Ready for your close-up? There’s no quicker way to a potential producer’s heart than through his eyes and ears. Seeing a book come to life can sometimes be a great way to sell someone on the conceptof turning your book into a movie.

9) If you’re doing a signing bring the book video to show while you’re signing books. I’ve known authors who’ve done this and they sold almost twice as many books. The video really pulls in readers!

10) Just like you can tell a book by its cover, you can often tell a bookvideo by its packaging. Get your CD cover professionally printed. Don’t skim on the first impression! In fact, why not have your video burned to a business card size CD that you can pop into the card slot of a presentation folder?

Reprinted from The Book Marketing Expert newsletter, a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. For more info see: http://www.amarketingexpert.com.

View a video clip of Linda Hollander speaker and author at the SpeakersSummit08. She was talking about Corporate Sponsorship.

Today’s post is from The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week- Joan Stewart
http://www.PublicityHound.com

http://www.publicityhound.net/ (Blog)

I totally agree with Joan and we have been encouraging our speakers and authors to create video.

At the end of this post you can see a few videos I shoot today at the Women’s Small Business Expo with my new baby – the ultra flip video camera.

Stop wasting time trading links with other websites, posting the same how-to article to a gazillion article directory sites, and doing sneaky little things at your own website to try to trick the search engines.

Those strategies can actually hurt you.

Spend your time instead creating video, one of the most powerful ways to pull traffic to your website or blog. It will boost your position in the search engine rankings and, in some cases, take tons of business away from your competitors. Do it right, and they’ll be so shell-shocked they’ll pack up and go home.

During my 70-minute teleseminar with video expert Mike Stewart earlier this month, the 400 people who were on the line listened as Mike outlined lots of creative, powerful ways to use video in your publicity campaign, or to sell products or services.

We’re not talking about full-length productions here. Just short clips of about two and a half minutes or less.

Here are our ideas on how to use video in a publicity or marketing campaign:

–Create short videos about your products and services, upload them to your website, and include video links in your press releases.

–Speakers, create short video snippets of your presentations and post them at your site.

–Use videos to demonstrate how to use your product.

–Authors, create short little videos that discuss portions of your books.

–Take visitors on a tour of your website using a screen-capture software program like Camtasia.

–Shoot your own video of events the media won’t cover, and submit the video to local newspapers and TV stations, many of which offer consumer-generated video at their websites.

–Use video on a one-page sales letter. If a picture is worth a thousand words, video can close the sale.

–Generate leads and pull traffic by creating videos and posting them to YouTube and other video-sharing sites.

–Use video at your blog, or create a video blog on a free WordPress platform like I’m doing. (I should be ready to introduce it to you next week.)

If you missed last week’s call, you can hear the replay and see the nifty video I shot myself at http://www.JoanandMikeStewart.com

Mike will show you the absolute easiest-to-use equipment you’ll need to start producing video that will turn you into the type of marketing warrior that will send your competitors running home to their mommies.

Susan’s Note:

If you find that you need professional help in creating your videos check out Speaker Services one and three camera video events. June 8- 3 camera video demo showcase, July 12 & 13, Biz Speak & Video Workshop (one camera shoot) . Authors’ SpeakEasy is in Sept 19-21.

These are the videos I did today and I will recycle them and use them in other formats too. I guess you could call this video blogging .

Linda Hollander – The Wealthy Bag Lady- owner of Women’s Small Business Expo

Heidi Parr Kerner, Speaker, Networking Queen

Desiree Doubrox – owner and founder of An Empowered Women’s Network

I posted the USA Today article on April 10 about Web Video Marketing Gold. Even though we have been offering one and three camera shoots for many years I see that people are finally getting it. So I been thinking about it alot and wondering how I could integrate more video into my services.

I have been following the recommendations of my colleagues who referred the Ultra Flip Video and I ventured off to purchase it at Best Buy along with a tripod. This sweet little videocam (you can hold in your hand) and is so much fun.

I have been practicing and learning. Here is my first attempt and mind you no make up. I plan to do some video blogging at the upcoming Speakers’ Summit and it will be the perfect place to do that plus I want to put more video on my website and on my Speaker Services channel on youtube.

I have also created an alliance with Michelle Price, a brilliant web 2.0 marketing strategist who will design a plan to build a channel for you on youtube plus get you out on blog tours as well as distribute your videos on the various sites so you will be all over the web. She has had amazing results with some of her clients. BTW: This is service is authors or professionals who have a service and wants to create a buzz.

If you have videos ready to go that is great and we can still work with you and design the perfect out reach for you.

If not we have The Authors’ SpeakEasy Workshop coming up in September where you will learn to speak in soundbites and create your 2 or 3 short videos plus you will get the entire distribution packet.

Contact me if this appeals to you- 310-822-4922.

Let’s get on the web video bandwagon!

This post about LinkedIn comes from Mahesh Grossman, President
The Authors Team, and Author of Write a Book Without Lifting a Finger.

He writes:

LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, just changed my life.

To be honest, until a few weeks ago, I never took it seriously. From time to time a friend or an acquaintance would ask me to “link” with them, and I would, but I didn’t understand what to do with my network. In fact, I’m not sure I ever invited anyone to link with me.

Now I understand some of the power of this tool–and it’s especially useful for authors.

So here are five ways you can use LinkedIn to help you write, publish, and promote your book:

1) Ask for help with your content, including Web sites and people to interview.

LinkedIn has a feature where you get to ask questions, either of your network or of people in a particular industry. I am working on an e-book that will be a list of a particular group of sites. I asked the network where to find more of these sites and I got an amazing response that made this e-book my top priority. But you could also ask a question like “Do you know how I could find people to interview for my book who have a successful arranged marriage?”. Not only would you get suggestions on where to find people to interview, anyone with a successful arranged marriage would be likely to offer to be interviewed.

It’s also possible that people have already asked questions on your topic, so if you search the Answers section using appropriate keywords, you are likely to find some usable information as well.

2) Get introduced to famous authors and ask for testimonials

I am shocked at how many famous authors are on LinkedIn. I have a few bestelling authors as direct links myself–and I am only one introduction away, meaning someone in my network can introduce me–from several authors who have sold more than ten million books–and there aren’t that many authors who have done that. So if you were to join LinkedIn and link to me, you would be one level away from the bestselling authors I know, and two people away from these authors who have sold massive quantities of books. That’s pretty amazing. So if you have high quality work that has been vetted by a professional coach (one that has been published by traditional publishers!), you could approach a very big name author through LinkedIn.

3) Have a particular agent you want to be introduced to? There are 326 agents on LinkedIn.

I did a search on the term “literary agent” and found 326. I wouldn’t try to get introduced to all of them, but you do your homework and find a particular agent that is the most likely to be interested in your work, it could be a good way to make a connection. Once again, you have to really have studied the publishing business and know what you are doing to make this work. But it is an interesting strategy. (And I know of a number of editors from major publishing houses who are also on LinkedIn.)

4) Want publicity? There are lots of periodical editors and TV producers you can network with.

I know several publicists on LinkedIn, and some are connected to top editors and producers. Want to get in Time magazine or Sports Illustrated? There are writers and editors from those publications. Want to get on national television? Once again, you can reach out and try to connect with these folks, who are also on LinkedIn.

5) Want to connect to people who might help market your book? Ask the right question.

Once again, LinkedIn Answers gives you the opportunity to ask how to do something, and let people volunteer to help you. Ask a question like “I’m the author of a book about living a balanced life. I would like to be interviewed on 50 teleseminars this year. How do I find people who might want to host me on a teleseminar?” Whatever your goal is, ask how you can do it, or find people to help you. Some good Samaritans will come forward and say, “I’d be happy to have you on a teleseminar.”

So those are five ways to work with LinkedIn.com. The bigger your network, easier it is to get help.

Mahesh Grossman is the author of Write a Book Without Lifting a Finger (www.writeabooktoday.com) and President of The Authors Team (www.AuthorsTeam.com), a company that helps credible business experts become Incredible Business Authors, through ghostwriting, editing, coaching, publishing, publicity and marketing. For a fr/ee list of more than 400 agents as well as a newsletter with tips on planning, writing, publishing and marketing your book, go to www.getanagentnow.com.

Here’s to your bestseller.

If you are an author and want to know how to market your book I encourage you to subscribe to John Kremer’s Book Marketing Tip of the Week and visit his website it is a rich source of information.

John is offering a once a month complimentary Q & A Teleseminar.He wrote in his e-zine.. I am no longer answering individual book marketing questions via the phone or email, but I have committed to doing two free Q&A teleseminars every month for anyone who wants to ask me questions they need to have answers for (on book publishing, publicity, and marketing).

The first free John Kremer Q&A Teleseminars will be held twice on Tuesday, March 4th, once at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, Noon Pacific time, and a second call at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 p.m. Pacific time. I will answer anyone’s questions during those two times (obviously different questions each call). You are welcome to attend both sessions or to listen to the calls later.

Phone-Number to Dial for both calls:

218-486-3696

Use Conference ID for both calls:

2092800#

New pages just added to the Book Market Website:

Selling Books in Bookstores and Working with Distributors: Q&A http://www.bookmarket.com/qbookstores.htm

Designing and Pricing Your Books: Q&A http://www.bookmarket.com/qdesigns.htm

Getting Publicity for Your Books: Q&A http://www.bookmarket.com/qpublicity.htm

Selling Your Books Outside of Bookstores: Q&A http://www.bookmarket.com/qspecialsales.htm

Selling Your Company and Other Rights: Q&A -http://www.bookmarket.com/qrights.htm

Success Stories: Novels
http://www.bookmarket.com/tipnovels.htm

Success Stories: Poetry
http://www.bookmarket.com/tippoetry.htm

Success Stories: Selling Direct to Consumers Face to Face http://www.bookmarket.com/tipdirect.htm

Success Stories: Selling Books Online
http://www.bookmarket.com/tiponline.htm

Success Stories: Promoting Books via Contests http://www.bookmarket.com/tipcontests.htm

Success Stories: Buying and Selling Rights http://www.bookmarket.com/tiprights.htm

Success Stories: Selling Books via Bookstores http://www.bookmarket.com/tipbookstores.htm

Success Stories: Promoting Books via Publicity http://www.bookmarket.com/tippublicity.htm

My next post on Monday 3/3 will be an interview with an author and speaker Dr. Joe Capista about his new book What Can a Dentist Teach You About Busines, Life and Success. I am participating in his book blog tour in conjunction with the release of his new book.

Yesterday, I spoke to a group of authors who are going through a year long program called Quantum Leap. The Harrison brothers owners of RTIR and producers of the Publicity Summit invited Jack Barnard and me to talk to the authors on how to grow their businesses and services through speaking.

I spoke to them about the marketing end of speaking and gave them an overview on how to create a winning strategy. We also know that authors have a tricky time speaking about their books and need a bit of help in the presentation department. Jack shared how to play the game of speaking and how to get the ticket. Several of the folks resonated with that and signed up for our 5 day Speakers’ Bootcamp at the end of March.

Today Wendi McNeil weighs in on Marketing Strategies and Tips that will help you to position yourself…

Becoming a professional full time speaker isn’t easy…everyone knows that, it takes a lot of dedication, determination and most important you have to have the passion, if the passion isn’t there then my suggestion would be, don’t even attempt it! I could spend days teaching you how to package yourself as a professional speaker and how to gain more exposure, but the following article as been bundled to give you just a few quick tips and ideas so you can start implementing them into your business.

1. Niche Yourself

Yes, I know you have heard this many times and it couldn’t be truer! One of the biggest mistakes a speaker can make is having too “general” of a topic. You want to narrow your expert niche as much as possible. Become the Speaker of Choice, research your topic industry so you know “what’s hot” and “what’s not”. Take that research and develop a niche around it, be sure it is something you have experience with and will be able to present it as a professional expert speaker in that field. Don’t waste your time, energy and money on developing a “niche” that just isn’t going to get any recognition because it isn’t something that planners will be looking for! Do your research and I do put emphasis on this tip! Once you have discovered your niche, you must continue to practice your speaking skills and update your material and presentations to keep-up with the trends and changing issues.

2. Build your credibility

There are many ways to build your credibility and become known as an expert, but this tip is about building your credibility by knowing your audience.

Your job as a presenter is to take the context you will present and put it into a form that your audience will understand and can relate to. You want them to really understand what you’re saying. Always remember your presentation is not about you, it’s about the audience, what they want to know, and what they want to know is what’s in it for me? How will you help their business grow?…How will you help them save time…save money…How will you make them feel!

Vision yourself sitting in the audience you will be presenting to and ask yourself, “What do I want to get out of this?”, “What do I want to learn?”, “What’s in it for me?” Once you can perceive yourself as a participant of the audience than you can start putting the pieces together in building a top notch presentation that your audience will remember and one that will have members coming to you and asking you to get your schedule out because they want to book you.

The more you relate to your audience, the more you know your audience, the better your chance of building your credibility…you have an audience that is happy, engaged and drawn to you and one that is saying…Hey, this speaker knows his stuff…he knows us!

3. Develop an eye-catching media kit

Planners get hundreds if not thousands of proposals and media kits every year. You have to “wow” them immediately to grab their attention, before they set it down and go to the next one!

Make sure that your media kit is up to date, precise and professionally put together. Nothing else turns away a meeting planner or organization more than an unattractive, boring, and unorganized media kit. They won’t even bother with it nor have the time of day to look over the remaining contents if they don’t like what they see at first glance and many times the hours, days and money you have spent in putting it together are now wasted as it sits on the planners’ shelf gathering dust. I know this seems a bit harsh, but being on the ‘inside’ I know this to be true, as I have seen it many times, so just spend some time on your kit when putting it together or possibly re-do the one you already have, remember you want to catch the eye of the reader to draw them into reading more.

4. Have an online presence

Develop a website with information on your experience, topics you cover, promotional material available and testimonials from previous clients. You don’t need a big, fancy, or expensive website to attract visitors and the attention of meeting planners, just make sure you are catering to the planners needs and have the information easily accessible and downloadable. If you’re an article writer make sure you add your articles to your own site.

If your budget doesn’t allow for your own web site, join speakers’ organizations and add your name to their online listings – The more exposure you get, the better your chances of being found by people seeking speakers.

5. Work with meeting planners

Very important: be willing to work with them. Don’t be so stubborn that you talked yourself right out of one of the most important speaking engagements of your career. Most planners are eager to work with the speaker, but you also have to be willing to “give a little to get a lot”. Remember you want to be a magnet to planners and the “hiring” company, not an itch under their skin. So be pleasant and be negotiable and give them the best performance possible and in return they will continue to book you and recommend you!

You want to position yourself within the meeting planner realm as being enjoyable to work with, fun, and easy-going! Trust me on this one, there is nothing worse then working with a stubborn, un-pleasant speaker who is unwilling to budge or negotiate, it doesn’t matter if they are well-known or have years of experience, planners don’t have the time for this nor want to deal with it. I also want to mention, don’t be too quick to pass on a free speaking engagement as this can bring you more opportunities (Many great enterprises were built from small opportunities).

6. Introduce yourself as a contingency speaker

This is one way to get your “foot” in the door. One of the biggest fears of a meeting planner is a “no-show” or cancellation of the scheduled speaker. You can send out a letter via email or regular mail to event planners, program managers, etc.

Your initial contact with the event planner should be on eliminating one of their largest fears. If you have a properly written letter and have done your research, you will more than likely make an immediate friend. This is where the business relationship begins and in most cases, the event planner or “hiring” authority will book you in because you have approached them this way.

7. Marketing yourself

Add this to your weekly business tasks, this is of course a must, if you don’t market you all know they won’t find you! You have to go to them…let them know you are unique, you are knowledgeable, you are the best and that you can knock the socks off their audience. Don’t be afraid to approach meeting planners, you want to keep your name fresh in their mind! Be PERSISTENT!

Standing out from the crowd is a major challenge for today’s professional speaker. Marketing yourself and your company, should be one of your major priorities, which requires to be done on a regular basis. Unless you have ample time on your hands and the expertise it takes to market yourself effectively, one of the best suggestions we can make is hire a professional marketing specialist or consultant/public relations company. Find someone that will work side by side with you in developing a marketing campaign that will benefit you and your speaking career.

If your budget does not have room for the expense of a professional PR agent then there are many ways you can gain exposure and become known as an expert in your field by doing some simple marketing techniques that are sure fire ways to get you the attention you need. Remember to be unique!

8. Interact with potential clients

It is very important to mingle and network! Get yourself noticed. Hand out business cards every where you go. Talk to everyone you meet. Go to seminars and meetings that are the same as your expertise. Watch and pay attention. Who are the attendees, what is their reaction to the speaker on the platform? Most importantly, be very personable and agreeable with every meeting planner you meet. You want to leave the impression that you are easy going and willing to make adjustments at the last minute. Meeting planners don’t like to work with difficult and irritating speakers, it doesn’t matter how well known you are in the speaking industry. They look for someone with humor, an abundance of energy, flexibility, and great content!

9. Write a book/ info products

This is a BIG credibility builder. I know it’s not as easy as it sounds, but if you are an expert in your field and you have information you want to share, I would suggest writing a book or some informational products. This is an excellent marketing tool and an addition to your income. We know you have the speaking ability and you know what you want to say, but some speakers just don’t know how or have the time to put it in book/product form. You do have the option of outsourcing that task. There are many companies who specialize in that field and can assist you with your project.

10. Article writing

Almost everyone knows about article marketing and submitting them online, but I just want to mention it again. I would have to say I bring up article marketing at least 5 times a day in many different conversations because that is how important I feel article marketing is. You are a speaker…you are an expert…so you shouldn’t have any trouble writing a simple article. Add article writing and submitting them online to your marketing plan and do it on a regular basis. This is one of the best and FREE ways of promoting yourself and your business, and also gaining more visitors to your website!

Many times I see an excellent article that was written with just the authors name, no contact information…nothing! Well, if you’re like me you don’t have the time to try and do a search on this author to find their site and learn more, you want instant contact information by just clicking your mouse so you can be taken directly to where you want to go. So, don’t forget to add an eye-catching bio at the end of your article so readers can find you and learn more. Be sure and include your contact information including website and email address.

Wendi McNeill is the owner of Charli Jane Speaker Management and while working closely with speakers for many years, she assists them in growing their business and shares her expertise, knowledge and passion that are needed to grow your speaking business. She knows what planners are looking for and how to make a good impression by using simple techniques that can cut off months of research, save you money, time, and energy by mentoring and guiding you in the right direction. You can also learn more about speaking leads, visit www.CharliJane.com to learn more about her services.

Do you realize that most website users spend less than a minute browsing each website they visit? Therefore it is vitally important to find a way to capture their interest immediately. One of the best ways I know to reach out to potential clients in an innovative, interesting and personal way is by having video on my website.

Whether you are a speaker, author or entrepreneur or any kind of professional it really makes a difference in getting hired. Gone are the days when we searched the yellow pages for an attorney, accountant or a doctor. We want recommendations from our friends or colleagues and what if we could get a look at these folks before ever calling? I personally want to see if we are on the same page and feel who they are. If I am inspired I will take the next step and call them. This is the same truth for an author whether you want to read their book or for hiring a speaker.

Well for some of us it can be quite a challenge to produce the video and then to have it look professional. Speaker Services offers one and three camera professional videos.Take a look at some of the videos we produced for our clients.

The first was for Judd Matsunaga, Elder Law Attorney and he invited TV News Reporter Judd Mcllvain to join him in the following piece. This is a one camera shoot and was created at the BizSpeak and Video Workshop.

Here’s Marlin Keeser, Speaker & Author talking about his book Our Life on the Run created at the Authors’ SpeakEasy and Video Workshop. One camera shoot.

Here’s Libby Higgins, Website Designer sharing her expertise on her website. One camera shoot created at the BizSpeak and Video Workshop.

Here’s a 3 camera shoot done at the Video Demo Showcase. This is Loree Taylor Jordan. It’s about 7 minutes long.

Once you have video you can post it on YouTube, Google or the Speaking Channel
plus several other distributions sites.

If the idea of video appeals to you. Give me a call to discuss which venue is best for you needs. 310-822-4922 PST .

Author readings and signing sessions, once the staple of publishing publicity, are being usurped by virtual encounters and promotional videos.

By Teresa Méndez | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the November 30, 2007 edition

The author tour, with its accompanying readings and signings, has come to be the quintessential tool for promoting books. It is a chance for writers to charm their readers and for readers to glimpse the person behind the words. At its best, the meeting can be electric. (At worst, nobody shows up.)

But in the past five years or so, observers say the traditional author tour has been in decline: Fewer writers are being sent out, and those who do tour make fewer stops. Among the many reasons for this shift are marketing tools that have made it possible to orchestrate a virtual encounter, without the hassle or expense of travel. Publishers and authors are now touting books through podcasts, film tours, blog tours, book videos, and book trailers. In fact, it’s unusual for a book not to have some sort of Web presence. (Blue van Meer, the fictional main character in the 2006 novel “Special Topics in Calamity Physics” by Marisha Pessl, even has her own MySpace page.)

Publicity departments used to be places where wacky ideas originated but languished, says Carol Schneider, executive director of publicity for Random House. Now, with the Internet, she says, “they are really able to carry [those ideas] out.”

Each is a small experiment, an incremental move, as the publishing industry has begun to embrace the Internet and other new media. It’s hard not to wonder, though, whether their cumulative effect will one day render the face-to-face bookstore meeting between writer and reader obsolete.

An author’s emissary: a short film

Man Booker Prize-winner Ian McEwan opted not to take his 10th novel, “On Chesil Beach,” on the road this past summer. In his place, a short film was screened by bookstores in 54 US cities. On Veterans Day, the second in the film series “Out of the Book,” by Powell’s Books, kicked off its tour. The movie features commentators including Joan Didion and Bob Woodward discussing the late David Halberstam and his book about the Korean War, “The Coldest Winter.” Meanwhile, a company called TurnHere has launched an ambitious project to create an online book channel with short Internet videos – the founder likens it to an MTV for books. So far, BookVideos.tv has exclusively aired Simon & Schuster authors. But it recently announced plans to expand coverage to 10 other publishers.

Both video ventures promise a few things bookstore appearances can’t always deliver. They offer insight into a writer’s inspiration and process – back stories that may not come through by simply listening to a writer read his work aloud.

And now, the video

To promote her memoir, “The Glass Castle,” Jeannette Walls enlisted her once-homeless mother, Rose Mary, a captivating character in the book, to appear in a three-minute video. Rose Mary shows off a few of the paintings she created that are mentioned in the book. Just imagine an author trying to tote her mother’s artwork – not to mention her mother! – on tour.

Such films are polished and packaged, which certainly cannot be said of every writer.

“Some authors are really engaging and some authors, frankly, are not,” says Dave Weich, marketing director of Powell’s Books. Video offers a way around that. “There’s a lot of editing that takes place,” admits Sue Fleming, vice president of online marketing at Simon & Schuster. “We can forgive a certain lack of mediagenic-ness.”

The videos have another advantage: They eliminate the humiliation for an author of showing up at a bookstore event only to find the place empty. Joseph Finder, who toured Boston and the Midwest over three weeks in August for “Power Play,” his most recent thriller, says store owners feel terrible about poorly attended events. And there’s always an excuse: Either the weather was too nice. Or it was too foul. Or else a local football game drew away all the customers.

Finder has produced a book a year since 2004 – and toured for each. Still, he says, a perennial question among author friends is: “What’s the point of the book tour?” He has even penned a short piece lamenting the downsides of the tour for Publishers Weekly, a leading trade publication. This year, for the first time, Finder experimented with a book trailer for “Power Play.” But he says he’ll keep touring as long as his publisher will send him. “You don’t know what works or doesn’t work,” he says. “You have to do everything you can.”

Publishing lore credits “Valley of the Dolls” writer Jacqueline Susann and her husband, Irving Mansfield, with creating the modern book tour in the 1960s. She is said to have doggedly pushed her books onto customers and even sweetened up the truckers who delivered them with coffee and doughnuts. But some form of book tour dates back at least to the 19th century. Between 1853 and 1870, Charles Dickens gave more than 400 readings across the US and Europe.

Reaching far-flung outposts

These days, a book tour by a well-known author usually travels to just a handful of cities. Chances are, even the most ambitious promotional treks won’t reach a small bookstore in, say, Dubuque, Iowa. For that reason, those involved with online marketing suggest that virtual events are actually reaching people who wouldn’t otherwise come into contact with big-name authors.

“It’s an interesting paradigm,” says Mr. Weich of Powell’s Books. “People tend to ask, ‘Isn’t this just going to replace the author tour?’ But most places in America don’t get author tours, at least of [McEwan and Halberstam's] caliber.”

As for the question of whether new media will supplant a centuries-old book-touring tradition, even critics of junkets say that meet and greets will survive.

“In a way, the author tour has suffered from its monopolist role in book promotion,” says Weich. “It’s a really tired format.”

He believes competition from other types of marketing may encourage the book tour to be more imaginative, to reinvent itself.

Budget tours

Already, publishers are thinking more strategically. Morgan Entrekin, head of Grove/Atlantic, says he is sending about 20 to 30 percent fewer authors on tour, and those he dispatches are visiting 20 to 30 percent fewer cities. But this winter, Mr. Entrekin arranged for the authors of “Halsey’s Typhoon,” a nonfiction account of a treacherous World War II Navy mission, to visit naval bases and shipmate reunions. It was an author tour, but aimed at a niche audience.

In August, Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine and author of “The Long Tail,” launched BookTour.com to connect authors with potential audiences. The site is a way of using the Internet to improve the author tour.

“We’re all authors, so we’ve seen the ugly side of book touring first-hand,” says Mr. Anderson. “The reason we chose to start our company around the book tour itself, is we believe in face-to-face contact…. We believe in author tours. We just think they can be done a lot better.”

Soon, they may be.

 See 10/7/07  Post Virtual Book Tours

A few days ago Jack Barnard and I met John Kremer www.bookmarket.com at his Book Marketing Blastoff Seminar in Los Angeles. He had asked us to talk with his authors about how to speak their books and also to introduce Speaker Services to his attendees.

John Kremer

In the short time we had Jack shared a few tips ie: you need to solve a problem and to be able to speak it in 2 or 3 sentences so people will ask you to tell them more.

It was quite an eye opener for John to see that the authors were challenged to do the exercise. I told John months ago over lunch that most authors do not know how to speak their books and needed training. He got it!

John suggested that we join together to offer a Book Market and Authors’ Speak Easy Workshop which includes a one camera shoot. We like that idea and also we are looking at doing a one day seminar with John just before the Book Expo which is in Los Angeles at the end of ’08.

John suggesst that authors have video on their website and was thrilled to learn that we offer video in a few of our worskhops. Whether you are an author or a professional person or a speaker it is a great marketing idea to have video on your website. Video inspires trust. I know for sure that the speakers who are listed on my website get booked much faster then those who do not.

Take a moment and check out some of the one camera video work we have done. See BizSpeak and Video Workshop and Authors’ SpeakEasy Workshop . For our three camera shoot see Video Demo Showcase .

I am sharing a few items with you today about soundbites and MediaSpeak that Jack offered as a handout when he spoke to John’s folks.

The soundbite

Sound-bites are those few words the media extracts from everything you said and puts on air, to show you at your best…or worst. Sound-bites should be planned by you, not found by them. Here are some tips:

Keep them short. Watch and listen to the media. Sound-bites are rarely longer than 15 seconds, and more frequently five to ten seconds.

Pithy: Concisely meaningful, forcibly convincing, terse, interesting. And juicy. Especially juicy.

Carefully crafted: take your time, test your efforts on colleagues or even the public. Make sure there are no unintended inferences or hidden meanings.

Specific meaning: Each message point should have a specific, clear intention with regard to the particular audience.

Specific effect: Each message point should be designed to generate a specific effect…arouse an emotion, stimulate an action, clarify a point, be memorable, create a background for other messages.

MEDIA SPEAK (The Questions)
√ Audience…Who exactly is your audience?

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√ Message…What exactly do you have/need to say?

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√ Different Media…What language does this media speak?
• live interview • radio interview • panel • book signing • TV interview • print interview

________________________________________________________

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You need to be able to speak your book/product/message/theme/
philosophy in various formats. In any media encounter or speaking opportunity, this is the key question: what is your intended outcome?

We just finished 3 days of the Authors’ SpeakEasy Workshop. We had folks from all over the country. Here are a few photos of the attendees.

I’ve posted a few of the videos that we created at the workshop on my website. Take a look at www.speakerservices.com/authorsspeakeasy

Jack helped me chisel my message. I came in with a lump of stone and now I have a piece of art. I love my message-it even inspires me!

- Susan Orosco, Speaker, Author

Martha Vercosa from Brazil, Business Consultant, Speaker

Sasha Xarrian, Author of Outrageous Mastery, A Trilogy

Here’s our friend Marlin Keesler, Author of Our Life on the Run

Niche pitch-wow! I learned how to put many concepts into 2 short concise sentences that will sell my product. – Ellen Martin

The workshop is an extremely holistic experience-experiential-reflective and factual. Jack Barnard is a dynamic workshop trainer. – Jean Shula

Ellen Martin (l) & Jean Shula (r)
Ellen is an RN. Pastor, Author & Inspirational Speaker-Jean is a Psychotherapist, Life Coach, Speaker and the author of The Coming of Aging: Learning to Live from the Inside Out

This last week has been a whirlwind for us as we spent 4 days at the International Coaches Federation Conference as exhibitors. There were 1,600 coaches attending from 30 or more countries. We talked to lots of coaches who were interested in learning how to grow their business and income though speaking.

Here I am in front of our new banner. And it really worked. People actually stopped and read it and asked for more information.

Here are a few friends and clients that stopped by to say hello.

This is Otto Siegel

This is Lorenda Phillips

We left the ICF Conference and shot 15 speakers on Sunday at the Video Demo Showcase. Here’s a photo of Angie Milhous (not a very good photo) and you see her in front of the audience.

This weekend we are doing the Authors’ SpeakEasy Workshop and then it is my birthday. I am going to the Oaks in Ojai, CA for a well deserved rest.

Oh, I forgot to mention the Speakers’ Community membership site is up and running and our first teleclass in November 12, with 2 time author and speaker Chellie Campbell who will be talking about how to create a 6 figure income by sitting at home.

You can join us for the teleclass if you join the Speakers’ Community. It’s free for 60 days until the end of the year. Not only that you can post your listing in the Community Directory.

Here’s TJ Walker weighing in on How to Prepare for A Major Speech You Must give In the Next 24 Hours

On no! You have to give a big speech on major trends facing your business and industry to a large group of important people tomorrow! In less than 24 hours! And you haven’t started preparing yet.

What do you do?

Step one. Spend one hour with a colleague or two brainstorming major themes and ideas you’d like to discuss. Try to write down as many themes as you can in one sentence or less. Don’t debate these themes and don’t flesh them out. Don’t analyze or criticize. Just blurt out and write down as many interesting ideas you can think of that relate to your area of expertise and that would also be of interest to your audience.

Step two. After the first hour, stop brainstorming and start analyzing your themes. Scratch off ideas that are boring. Remove topics that have already received lots of news coverage. Eliminate glaringly obvious points. Strike off messages you have mixed feelings about. You may have started with 20 or even 30 message points. But don’t stop this process until you’ve narrowed your messages down to five. Limit yourself to 45 minutes here.

Step three. Write your five messages down in bullet points on a single sheet of paper. Next, say your messages out loud. How does it feel? Don’t worry about wording yet; you’re just looking for a broad architecture for you speech at this point.

Step four. Write down one concrete example for each message point and create a new outline with these examples.

Step five. Stand up and give your speech (preferably while being videotaped). At this point, your speech might be short (5 to 10 minutes), that’s OK. Don’t worry about length yet.

Step six. Either review the tape or get feedback from colleagues. Focus only on what you like at this point. What examples stood out that were interesting and memorable?

Step seven. Now, and only now, begin to think about time/length of your speech. Is your speech going to be 10 minutes long or 60 minutes long? Simply insert more and more examples for each message point until you have the right amount for your total time. (FYI, you can never have too many examples if they are interesting and relevant to your audience.)

Step eight. Make sure you have a simple, clean and easy-to-read outline that is entirely on one page of paper. Make the font so large that you can read it without having to pick up the paper and hold it close to your eyes.

Step nine. Rehearse the speech one more time. You are now ready for the speech.

Step ten. Get a good night’s sleep.

This entire process (minus sleep) should only take about 4-5 hours.

Additional Tips:

- Resist the urge to add more message points.
- Resist the urge to add more numbers and facts.
- Resist the urge to revise, add, and edit PowerPoint slides.
- Resist the urge to write out your speech word-for word.

I had to share the following e-note with you that I received from Steve Martinez, President of Selling Magic. This is the kind of note that keeps me going. Thanks, Steve.

Susan,
I was thinking about you the other day. No, it wasn’t a romantic dream. I was thinking about how you helped me with your passion for speaking and helping others. You have certainly helped me grow my business and although I haven’t scheduled anything lately to attend your sessions. My lack of response does not indicate that I won’t be. I have made great progress as an outgrowth from the strategies and techniques that I learned from attending some of your meetings.

I’m currently listed as a “sales expert” with an international group and things are going well in my consulting business. Our second e-book is out . . . http://www.sellingmagic.com/TSE_V2_7.pdf and a Christmas edition is in the works. I have been contacted by a book publisher to include some of my sales articles in their collection of articles. Although there is no payment for these works, it is great exposure for my business.

I just wanted to encourage you to keep doing what you’re doing. It works.

Today I am sharing an article written by Marisa D’Vari.  She offers great tips on growing your business through speaking.

“It’s my dream to have my books in bookstores!” enthuses a first-time author. Though I smile and stay silent, my mind is screaming, “Wrong! You should be strategizing how to get your books out of bookstores!” Returns are a serious problem in bookselling today, and unless authors are proactive, it can only get worse.

Publicity and word of mouth are the traditional “fixes” that grow your books legs, allowing them to march out of the stores. A third element can enrich the mix–public speaking.

Many authors speak about their books at bookstores in the course of doing launches and tours. Why stop there?

Whether your books are fiction or nonfiction, individuals and groups can benefit from your knowledge, and they will even pay to hear what you can tell them. In fact, public speaking can create a strong subsidiary market for your knowledge in various forms. For the purposes of this article, I will focus on speaking as a mechanism to increase media attention and word of mouth for books.

Finding Eager Audiences

A popular myth asserts that the bookstore is the most appropriate venue for speaking about your book. In actuality, nothing could be further from the truth. Consider the typical bookstore talk audience. If they are not part of your family and friends network, their only common denominator is that they like to read and value the opportunity to experience authors reading and discussing their own work.

Now consider that a more targeted audience may be available to you, which you are not addressing. Spend a few minutes doing some intense brainstorming to target the three groups of people who would be most strongly motivated to buy your book.

Then ask yourself the following questions:

1. What do these people read, watch, and do for fun?

2. Are there any clubs, associations, or organizations these people already belong to?

For illustrative purposes, let’s assume your book is on gardening, and you’ve determined that your #1 audience collects gardening books, visits gardening centers for fun on weekends, and watches gardening shows on cable TV.

Good start. Now you want to find organizations, clubs, and/or associations that cater to these individuals. A quick, friendly call to your local librarian can point you in the right direction. Call the clubs, organizations, and associations, and find the appropriate person to hear your verbal pitch that you become their speaker. In most cases, you’ll be warmly welcomed, but they’ll expect you to speak for free.

Free?! I can hear you grumble.

Relax. The engagement is free, but you’ll bring a box of books and sell them at full price. You can bring a brochure and offer consulting services. And you can invite this wonderfully targeted audience to subscribe to your e-zine so that you have them as customers forever. That way, you can sell them more gardening books down the road. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even create your own gardening products one day and can work with this valuable list.

Depending on the subject of your book, it’s also possible that power players from top corporations are in the audience. They may be so entranced by your speaking ability that they offer you the opportunity to speak to their corporation. Then you could make a nice fee for your trouble.

Your biggest opportunity is to parlay the speaking engagement into a publicity opportunity that will get a photo of you splashed on the appropriate pages of local papers. Just call up the editor of the appropriate section of the paper, explain that you are a local author invited to speak in front of Such-and-Such group, and suggest that it would be great if they could have a photographer there to immortalize the event.

Start with the largest newspaper and work your way down to neighborhood papers (which, by the way, can usually be counted on to show up!).

Parlaying Publicity

Even if the photo “just” circulates in your own community paper instead of the Sunday “Styles” section of The New York Times, you will soon find yourself having achieved “celebrity status.” Everyone from the corner grocer to the dry cleaner will be saying they saw your picture–and “What’s this, you’ve written a book?”

Smile and say you’d be happy to personally sign it for them the next time you’re in, adding that there are some copies over at Such-and-Such bookstore. You can even make this offer stronger by adding that you’ll give them a little freebie–this could be a bookmark you produce yourself or a publisher’s promotional item.

At this point, you’re beginning to generate “word of mouth” sales. The dry cleaner might very well tell her niece in the Midwest that she met you, a “real live author,” and the niece could buy your book and tell several friends.

Continue to market yourself to associations, organizations, and even trade shows that tie in with the subject of your book. You’ll quickly see that one booking leads to other bookings, and that you’re increasingly in demand as a speaker.

Help! I Don’t Know How to Speak!

What? Of course you do! You’ve been speaking since you were two or three.

What you probably mean is that you don’t know how to organize your thoughts into a compelling, entertaining talk that people will enjoy so much that they’ll want to take a piece of you home in the form of your book.

Here’s a template that you can use to create an entertaining talk. Try to keep it to 20 minutes, at the most. Remember that though your expertise brought the audience in, the entertainment value of your talk is what will keep them hooked!

Talk Template

Introduction

- Why the audience needs to know your theory about the subject of your book (which I will call X from now on)

- How your audience can use X to solve their problem

- Your credentials for writing the book and discussing X

- How you have broken down the complex issue of X into three key points

- POINT ONE

Introduce this point clearly and distinctly.
Support this point with facts, statistics, and an anecdote.
Conclude this point.
- Do the same with POINT TWO and POINT THREE.

- Summarize the points you’ve made, accentuating their benefits.

- Announce that you’ll take questions for 10 minutes before making your concluding statement.

- Make your concluding statement, summarizing your key points again.

- Strongly state (not merely mention) that your book is available at the back

of the room, PLUS add a special benefit they’ll get with their purchase.

Special Benefits: People do not buy unless they’re motivated. The fact that you’re a speaker and an author helps, but ensure profitability by offering more. What’s more? Autographs are good, but not enough. Try these ideas!

- Create a freebie that you can give away with your book.

- Give a special “this night only” discount.

- Say that people who buy the book will be entitled to get your e-zine.

(You do have an e-zine, don’t you?)

Make Yours a Happy Book

Remember, your objective in speaking is more long-term than selling a carton of books. You can use news of the event to create media releases to send to papers all over your area in advance, and even after the event. You can use pictures the media took the night of the speaking event for future publicity and your Web site. You’ll have several new names to add to the “hot list” on your database. You will have improved as a public speaker!

Remember, a returned book is not a happy book. Create happy books by speaking on their behalf. Silent by nature, books don’t have the power or ability to assemble a targeted audience and reveal their brilliance in spoken form. You do.

Marisa D’Vari specializes in presentation training, media training, and book publicity. This article is adapted from her book “Media Magic: Profit and Promote with FREE Media Placement.”

BTW:  Have you checked out the brand new membership site- Speakers’ Community ?

There is a 60 day trial period available till the end of the ’07 and you can post your profile in the Community Directory which is open to the members and the public.

Yesterday I spent part of the day with John Kremer and learned more about this amazing man.

He is all about book marketing and teaching you how to sell more books — a lot of books. He teaches a workshop called Book Marketing Blast-Off Seminar which is being offered in Los Angeles, December 7-9. John is the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books and for the past twenty years, he has edited the newsletter on the subject: Book Marketing Update. Also for the past twenty years, he has consulted with some of the top bestselling authors in the country.

- He has designed the strategy that enabled a self-published author to become a New York Times #1 bestselling author of 9 books!
- He has worked with several other small publishers to set up publicity campaigns and distribution networks that enabled them to sell hundreds of thousands of books!
- He has ferreted out little-known book markets that enabled publishers to sell 5,000 … 10,000 … 20,000 books in a single sale!
- And he has saved publishers hundreds of dollars, sometimes thousands of dollars by telling them what works and what does not work — and why!

This is John

Over lunch John agreed with me that many authors do not know how to speak their books whether it be a 30 second pitch, a book signing or a fourty minute talk. And that some authors don’t even recognize that speaking is a fantastic way to market their products.

So here’s what we dreamed up to support authors and wannabees. Speaker Services (Jack Barnard and me) will make a guest appearance at the Book Market Blast-Off in December and offer tidy tidbits to the attendees. After the New Year and the date is not set yet that we will mutually produce a 3-4 day workshop where authors will learn the inside secrets of speaking and how other book publishers are selling more books every day.

BTW Authors: The Authors SpeakEasy workshop is coming up November 9-11 in Los Angeles taught by Jack Barnard and it includes a one camera video shoot. I still have a few openings. Take a look.

I am thrilled about the Speakers’ Community Membership Club I announced it less then a week ago and we have 20 members so far. The first teleclass is Monday, November 12 with Chellie Campbell. We will be talking about How to Make a Six Figure Income Without Leaving Your Home.  Chellie is the Author of Zero to Zillionaire and The Wealthy Spirit and creator of nationwide workshops that ease financial stress shows how to make more money – and have more time off for fun!

This call is FREE for all Speakers’ Community members. Not a member? Join now to access the call and take advantage of my special FREE 2-month Speakers’ Community trial offer. Read more about it and the benefits and instant bonuses. Go to www.speakerscommunity.com

I would love to hear your comments.

I am so excited. Tomorrow I am picking up John Kremer at the airport and spending the afternoon with him and then sitting in on his workshop at the Learning Annex in LA. He’ll be teaching How to Become a Bestselling Author. John Kremer is the author of “1001 Ways to Market Your Books,” “Book Marketing Made Easier,” and more. He is also the developer of the Top 500 Independent Bookstores list as well as the bookmarket website. His website is www.bookmarket.com which is a rich resource of information on book marketing.

I’ve been talking with him on the phone and when I saw he was coming to LA I called him and said I want to see you in person. We are both great resources for each other as he deals with authors and wana bees and we want to support authors with their media and speaking skills.

I’m sure we’ll cook something up-so stayed tuned.

In the meantime I am sharing John posted a list of specialty retailers in S. California on his e-zine today.

New age and metaphysical bookstores . . .

Alexandria II Bookstore, 567 S Lake Avenue, Pasadena CA 91101; 626-792-7885. Email: info@alexandria2.com. Web: http://www.alexandria2.com. Since 1985, this new age store offers books, music, videos, candles, cards, crystals, aromatheraphy, and wiccan supplies. Does not want emails from suppliers.

Answers Bookstore, Center for Spiritual Discovery, 560 S Melrose Drive, Vista CA 92081; 760-724-9077; Fax: 760-724-9366. Email: office@crsvista.org. Web: http://www.crsvista.org/bookstore.html. Motto: A bookstore to enhance your life. They carry metaphysical and self-help books, tapes, music, cards, and calendars.

Awakenings Bookstore, Mission Hills Plaza, 25260 La Paz Road #D&E, Laguna Hills CA 92653; 949-457-0797. Email: service@awakenings.com. Web: http://www.mataphysicalbookstore.com. New age books, gifts, music, crystals, jewelry, and more.

Bodhi Tree Bookstore, 8585 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood CA 90069-5199; 310-659-1733; Fax: 310-659-0178; 800-825-9798. Email: bodhitree@bodhitree.com. Web: http://www.bodhitree.com. The largest new age bookstore in the country, featuring 40,000 titles.

Catch the Spirit Bookstore, David Kennedy, Manager, Seaside Center for Spiritual Living, 1613 Lake Drive, Encinitas CA 92024; 760-753-5786, Ext. 12; Fax: 760-753-7647. Email: davidckennedy@gmail.com. Web: http://www.seasidechurch.org/books. Features titles by Ernest Holmes, Joel Goldsmith, Christian Sorensen, Michael Beckwith, and others, including children’s and relationship books.

Creative Center for Spiritual Living Bookstore, 1330 East Valley Parkway #G, Escondido CA 92027; 760-741-0853; Fax: 760-871-7174. Email: leszmor@aol.com. Web: http://www.escondidoccsl.org. This Science of Mind center offers a complete metaphysical bookstore.

Heaven on Earth Gifts and Books, 1885 S Centre City Parkway, Escondido CA 92025-6525; 760-233-4000. A new age bookstore.

Inner Bliss Rejuvenation Center, Rebecca Enders, Book Buyer, 2120 Jimmy Durante Blvd #108, Del Mar CA 92014; 760-518-0979. Email: rebecca@innerbliss.com. Web: http://www.innerbliss.com/main.php. Offers books, raw foods, supplements, and other health tools along with colon hydrotherapy and detoxification. Features 20 titles.

Lady of the Lake Metaphysical Books, 3102 University, San Diego CA 92104; 619-281-7231. Web: http://www.ladyofthelakeinc.com. New age bookstores. Also stores in Temecula, Idyllwild, and Vista, California. The website is not active but is advertised.

The Latest Thing Books & Gifts, 1525 Mesa Verde Drive East #113, Costa Mesa CA 92626; 714-754-7541. Offers books, audios, music, cards, crystals, and more in metaphysical, new age, spiritual, religious, and self-help categories.

Living Prana, Bharat (Prana) Gogia, 575 Second Street, Encinitas CA 92024; 760-944-9439. Email: livingprana@gmail.com. Web: http://www.livingprana.com/store.htm. Motto: Self-awareness and healing through stillness. Offers yoga classes and Ayurvedic healing. Features books, gifts, CDs, aromatherapy, crystals, and herbs.

Mystic Gyfte, 210 S Indiana Avenue, Vista CA 92084; 760-643-2120. Email: info@mysticgyfte.com. Web: http://www.mysticgyfte.com. Metaphysical books, audios, and gifts. Also classes and readings.

The MediaSpeak Symposium was a great success. Here’s a few comments.

Pitching to live producers was an experience needed to jumpstart the process to demystify the experience.
- Cindy Kludt, Grief Counselor, Author

Susan and Jack created an amazing learning situation with a variety of media experts.
- Laurie Hacking, Coach, Author

The MediaSpeak Symposium provides authors, entrepreneurs and business experts with the confidence and tools to obtain the interviews and globally promote their products and services.
-Craig Nabat, Entrepreneur

Terrific 3 days to actually test out the methods. The Symposium was a tremendous experience. It really helped me to put everything in prospective.
- Aubrey Fine, Professor, Author

Dr. Fran Pastoria and Aubrey Fine practice their pitch

Marlin Keesler pitching his book to Dr. Meg Haworth

Pitching to Nita Vallens, Inner Visions, KPFK FM

Plan a Powerful Blog Tour by Steve Weber excerpted from Publishers’ Marketing Association

Many Internet marketing programs focus on luring readers to your Website. But you can reach even more people with a campaign that meets your potential readers where they already congregate.

This means arranging a series of appearances known as a blog tour, a virtual author tour, or guest blogging. Blog tours are especially valuable for authors who can’t travel or are uncomfortable with public speaking, and when touring is impractical because a book’s readers are widely dispersed.

While blog tours expose your book to a much larger audience than a traditional bookstore tour—and cost you less in time and money—they also help your host bloggers by providing free content for their readers and affiliate revenue from book sales.

Typical blog tours include these elements:

· an excerpt displayed on each host blog in the days preceding the tour to publicize the tour appearance
· a one-day appearance, beginning with a short essay on the topic of your book and then inviting discussion
· follow-up visits for the next four to seven days to answer questions and comments from blog readers

Targeting Host Blogs

The first step in arranging a blog tour is finding potential host blogs. Identify the most popular blogs read by your book’s target audience. Some likely candidates may spring to mind, but new blogs can gain readership quickly, so it’s worth surveying the field periodically.

Building your list of target blogs requires legwork, because no comprehensive directory exists. To determine the popularity, authority, and quality of blogs in your market, you’ll need to sample contents yourself.

Three sites are good starting places for your search:

· www.Technorati.com. This blog-tracking site lists the 100 most popular blogs at www.technorati.com/pop/blogs. But to find niche content, you’ll need to look beyond the mainstream. Use the advanced search tool—www.technorati.com/search—to drill down into specific topics.
· www.Blogsearch.Google.com. Type in keywords related to your book. Ignore results from personal blogs that focus on the author and get little traffic.
· www.Forbes.com/bow/b2c/main.jhtml. Forbes’s “Best of the Web” directory reviews blogs with high-quality content.

Once you’ve created a list of potential blog hosts, prioritize them in terms of three criteria:

Activity level. How frequently do new posts appear on the blog? Bloggers usually must post new content a few times a week to sustain a loyal readership. Scan the past few months of a blog’s archives to determine the posting frequency.

Reader involvement. How often do readers chime in with thoughtful comments? The vast majority of blogs allow readers to follow up with their own commentary. Frequent and thoughtful reader comments indicate audience engagement.

Traffic volume. Traffic is the natural result of audience loyalty and involvement, and it’s an objective measure of a blog’s impact. A handy yardstick for measuring blog traffic is available at Alexa (www.Alexa.com), which provides estimated traffic reports on many Web sites. (A subsidiary of Amazon, Alexa isn’t limited to blogs, so you can also use it to find all sorts of Web sites targeting your readers.)

Tracking Traffic

At Alexa.com, click Traffic Rankings at the top navigation bar. Enter the address of the blog you want to evaluate and click Get Traffic Details. For most blogs, you’ll see an Alexa rank from 1 (the most-visited site on the Web) to about 5 million, meaning very low readership. For the top 100,000 sites, Alexa provides detailed traffic estimates. Under the heading Explore This Site, you’ll see these links:

· Traffic Details shows the blog’s relative reach and number of page views, and whether traffic is trending up or down.
· Related Links shows other sites popular with the same audience (which makes this a good place to discover still more potential blog hosts).
· Sites Linking In shows which sites, ranked by authority, have incoming links to the blog (follow these links to identify more sites that target your audience).

Depending on how narrowly focused your book is, you may find only a few relevant quality blogs, and that’s fine. It’s better to focus on a small, well-qualified audience who will respond to your book instead of a general audience on whom you’ll have little impact.

Alexa’s reports aren’t foolproof; they’re drawn from a small sample of Web users who use its browser toolbar. Rankings for high-traffic sites are more statistically accurate than reports for niche sites. But Alexa is a handy, free source of objective information about Web traffic, and more accurate than anecdotal reports from bloggers and Webmasters, who are notorious for overestimating.

Another good source of traffic estimates is MetricsMarket , and Google PageRank can also help you determine how much juice a blog has. Google’s patented method ranks the importance of Web sites on a scale of one to 10 based on the authority of incoming links.

To check rankings, use toolbar.google.com. Quality blogs and Web sites will have a PageRank of at least five. To determine PageRank, check a blog’s main page or a Web site’s home page; other pages often are unranked.

Building Your Excerpt

Once you’ve identified appropriate hosts for your blog tour, the next step is creating your excerpt—an online document providing a description of the book, a passage from the text, cover artwork, and an author photo and biography.

Your excerpt can resemble a traditional paper flyer but include more detail. It should serve three purposes:

· convince the blogger to host your appearance
· promote your appearance to the blog’s readers
· prepare the blog audience to discuss issues and ideas raised in your book

Essential information like the author name and book title should be embedded and visible in the photos of the cover art and author photo. That way, if a Webmaster accidentally leaves out part of your text—or it’s deleted at some point—readers will still have enough information to buy your book. If possible, combine all the elements of your excerpt into a single document to ensure that it’s displayed properly and that nothing is omitted.

A typical excerpt includes these elements:

· a brief setup describing the book’s topic, audience, and perspective
· title, author name, and retail price
· blurbs and testimonials
· credentials of nonfiction authors; previous books by fiction authors
· a short passage from the book
· affiliate links for buying the book at online retailers
· author photo
· standard bibliographic information such as ISBN, binding, page count, and publisher

Try to cap your text at 2,000 to 3,000 words. Some readers won’t scroll down through two screens of continuous content. Interested readers often print longer excerpts, however, so when you provide them, include a message at the top that encourages printing.

What Makes an Excerpt Successful

Your elevator speech should be the heart of your excerpt. Don’t automatically take a passage from the front of the book.

More hints for a compelling excerpt:

· Give chunks, not boulders. For nonfiction, select the most essential, engaging nuggets in your book. Winning excerpts often contain lists, like “Top 10 ways to save money when buying a car” or “Three ways to ask someone on a date.”
· Use cliffhangers. For fiction, try leaving readers in suspense. Encourage interest in one or two characters.
· Find a news angle. For both fiction and nonfiction, try to provide a news hook. Does a current controversy or movie relate to your book’s topic? Topicality is blog oxygen, and a strong current-events hook can persuade A-list bloggers to host your tour.
· Highlight benefits, not features. For nonfiction, briefly describe the problems your book solves. Explain how it differs from competing titles.
· Include white space. Break up your text. Separate paragraphs with blank lines, to relieve gray blocks of text. Readers are more likely to read your excerpt if they can scan chunks.

All together now: If you are providing more than one image, assemble everything in a layout file in PDF or HTML format. This prevents the blogger or Webmaster from losing any pieces.

Don’t send your excerpt as an email attachment. Most people are apprehensive about receiving files from unfamiliar sources. Instead, post the document on a dedicated page on your own site and provide the link so hosts can copy the document or link to it. After you’ve posted the file on your domain, don’t delete it, because some blogs will link to your page instead of keeping the material on their sites. The excerpt on your domain may get traffic for years to come.

For an example of an excerpt, see: www.PatronSaintPr.com/samples/mclaren/mclaren-obd.htm.

And Here’s the Pitch

With your excerpt ready and your A-list of blogs for your tour on hand, it’s time to pitch the tour to host bloggers. Contact each blogger individually by email, explaining why your book is of interest. Provide two or three compelling reasons why your tour will be thought provoking and entertaining for this blog’s audience.

Start with your top prospects and work your way down as time permits. Contact bloggers directly; don’t simply leave a comment on a blog and hope the blogger notices it. Most blogs have a mechanism for contacting the blogger through an email address or form.

The more popular bloggers are, the harder it may be to get their attention. If you can’t find contact information, look at the bottom of the home page, where you may see instructions for contacting the Webmaster. Or try reaching a decision maker via an “advertise with us” link.

Make the subject line of your email specific; a generic “Please read this” is often deleted unread. Tailor your pitch for each blogger, addressing everyone by name so your message won’t be mistaken for spam. Offer a complimentary review copy of your book. Provide your complete contact information—including phone number—to further differentiate your message from spam.

Not every blogger will accept your pitch, and you shouldn’t take the rejections personally. Some sites simply don’t use book excerpts. Blogs run by newspapers or magazines often don’t use third-party content except in sections labeled “Opinion” or “To the editor.” An acceptance rate of 25 percent is a good target, and you shouldn’t schedule more than three to five blogs per week.

As realistically as possible, pitch yourself as a potential long-term partner, not a drive-by opportunist. Successful blog tours will prompt return invitations and can launch mutually beneficial relationships.

Acing the Appearances

Depending on how a blogger administers a site, you may be given a login and password or simply email the blogger. After opening with a short statement that recaps themes expressed in your excerpt, ask the blog audience for reactions.

Responses can continue to come in for several days, giving you the opportunity to reappear, replying to comments and answering questions.

Make your own responses succinct and keep the conversation moving. Blogs are two-way streets, and exchanging ideas makes compelling content. At the end of each of your responses, ask a question, such as “What’s your take on that?” or “How do you feel about this?”

Be prepared for the occasional rude or embarrassing question. For example, if your book is about barbecuing, be ready for questions from animal-rights activists. Feel free to ignore off-topic comments, and simply continue with your message. But don’t shy away from substantive arguments—nothing sells a book better than controversy.

At each stop on your blog tour, mention your previous appearances on other blogs, and provide the links. This will generate continued readership and cross-linking among blogs.

Blog tours don’t always cause a big spike in sales, but they do fuel word of mouth for your book and build name recognition. Each time you appear in front of your target audience, it’s a plus. When a blog appearance goes particularly well, don’t let it end there. Offer to write a monthly guest column for the blog in exchange for a link to your site and a permanent buy-the-book affiliate link.

Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors (Weber Books, 2007). For more information, visit www.PlugYourBook.com.

Blog Tour Experts

The blog-tour strategy outlined here is based on one developed by Patron Saint Productions. Its Web site contains free sample materials you can adapt for your own tour. See www.PatronSaintPR.com/samples.html.

Another company that specializes in blog tours is Author Marketing Experts Inc., headed by author Penny Sansevieri. Her site also features several free resources and a newsletter. See: www.amarketingexpert.com/free.html.

A Sample Pitch

SUBJECT: [Author Name] as guest on [Blog Name]

Dear [Blogger Name],

I’m a regular reader of your blog, and I believe it’s one of the best sites about [topic]. I’m writing to see if you would consider having me [or my author, Author Name] as a guest on your blog on Monday, May 9, to discuss my [or his or her] book, [Title].

I believe the book is of particular interest to your readership. [two or three reasons, briefly]

I’m hoping to have a dialog with your readers. If you approve, I’ll take a day on your blog, make an opening statement, and respond to comments as long as they keep coming.

I hope you’ll give this a try. I’ve prepared an HTML document with a short excerpt from the book and its cover art. You can view the document here at my site: www.example.com. You’re free to reproduce this document on your site or provide links to it.

I’d also like to send you a complimentary review copy of the book; just let me know where to mail it.

Thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely,

[name and full contact information, including postal address and phone number]

Archiving Your Results

· Save screenshots of your blog appearances and a journal of your correspondence with bloggers. They can come in handy later.
· Review a tour to see which sites and techniques were effective.
· Record the contact information for each blogger—email addresses, phone numbers, and mailing addresses.

This way you’ll have a running start if you decide to conduct another blog tour.

To see archived screenshots of a blog tour, go to www.PatronSaintPr.com/samples/mclaren/mclaren-blogreport.htm.

Susan’s note: I think it would be helpful too if an author had a 1-2 minute streaming video available too. There are two opportunites through Speaker Services to create short video segments. Authors’ SpeakEasy and BizSpeak & Video Workshop .

It is a week before the 3rd annual MediaSpeak Symposium and I am excited and busy getting ready for the event. October and November are busy months for me. I am tired thinking about all that I’ve taken on.

I will be an exhibitor at the International Coaches Conference in Long Beach, CA, October 31-November 3.  On November 4 we are shooting 18 folks for the Video Demo Showcase and then November 9-11 is the 3 day training Authors’ SpeakEasy in LA. For my b-day, November 15 I am going to a Spa for 2 days with my fellow Scorpio friend for a well deserved mini vacation.

I was cruising around the Publishers’ Marketing Association website the other day and I found a great article by Patricia Fry, To Be a Better Public Speaker which I share with you today.  I will add to her list of tips- to check out Speaker Services trainings especially if you are a professional or author who is interested in public speaking, marketing your services and products and growing your business through speaking. If you need assistance please call me or e mail me at susan@speakerservices.com and I will gladly guide you to make good choices for yourself.

One more thing-my webman, Sam Levy, tells me that the Speakers’ Community Membership site will be ready very very soon.  Meaning that you can sign up and try it out for 30 days… Saty tuned for the grand announcement.
Here’s Patricia…

Authors often engage in public speaking to promote their books. But not all authors are prepared and trained for this activity. And some authors don’t want to participate.

There are authors who:
• are absolute naturals in the public-speaking realm
• hate the thought of standing before an audience
• are game to speak in public but have poor oratory skills

If speaking is one of your planned book-promotion activities, please take advantage of the following advice for authors:

· Join Toastmasters and actively participate for at least a year. You will benefit in ways that you can’t even imagine. Go to www.toastmasters.org for a list of clubs near you.

· Volunteer for opportunities to speak. Take leadership of a project at work or for a charity. Offer to go around and educate citizens on a political issue or raise funds for the library expansion.

· Attend other speakers’ programs. If you are observant and alert, you will learn volumes about public speaking by listening and watching. How does the audience respond to the speaker? What techniques seem to work (and what don’t work) for this speaker? What would you do differently to put the audience at ease and make this a more pleasant experience?

· Get involved with a storytelling group. This is a particularly enjoyable way to improve your speaking skills, and you’ll also get training and practice in using vocal variety.

· Hire a voice coach. If you have a soft voice that doesn’t carry well or a voice that is not pleasant to listen to, a voice coach might be able to help. You’ll find voice coaches listed under music teachers in the Yellow Pages.

· Find a mentor—someone whose speaking abilities you admire.

· Start locally. Before heading out to parts unknown to speak about your book in front of huge crowds, plan speaking gigs in your area. Speak to the women’s group at your church, your local Optimists and Rotary Clubs, a gathering at the museum or bookstore, or even a group of neighbors.
Powerful Pointers
While each of us has a unique way of speaking, and we don’t want to be carbon copies of each other, some public-speaking rules always (or almost always) apply.

Speak out. Practice speaking up so that everyone can hear you, whether you’re addressing a large audience or a small group. Some speakers choose to sit down on the job. In a very small, intimate group, or when the audience is sitting in a circle of chairs or on the floor, speaking while seated is generally okay. But in a room containing six rows of chairs or more, you should express respect for those in the back by standing so that you can be seen as well as heard.

Don’t respond one-on-one when an audience member asks a question. Instead, repeat the question and then respond so that everyone in the room can hear you.

Make eye contact. Move your attention around the room as you speak, making eye contact with each person

Don’t apologize. Avoid sabotaging your presentation with excuses for not being well prepared or for poor speaking skills. Stand tall and appear self-assured, and you will gain the confidence of the audience.

Use vocal variety. Make your talks more enjoyable by using an assortment of vocal tones and pitches instead of speaking in monotone. If you need help developing vocal variety, practice reading to a child. Use your highest and lowest voice and everything in between.

Eliminate nonwords. Inexperienced speakers generally use so many fillers that Toastmasters actually has an “ah counter” at every meeting. Fillers also include uh, um, er, and so forth.

Eliminate verbiage such as “yada, yada, yada” or “know what I mean?” Likewise, watch the overuse of words like “really.” “I was exhausted” is a stronger sentence than “I was really exhausted.” You can explain how exhausted you were by saying, “I was exhausted beyond anything I’d ever experienced before,” or “I was so tired I slept for 14 hours.”

Be prepared. You will be more at ease if you know what to expect. Find out if there will be a lectern or microphone, for example. How many people are likely to be in the audience? How will the room be set up? Also, have your props or notes organized so there will be no annoying fumbling during your presentation.

Know your audience. Gear your speech to the needs and interests of this particular audience. When I talk about local history, I give a completely different talk to students at local elementary schools than I do when addressing civic organizations or historical society members.

Anyone can get up in front of a group and speak. How well you do it is what counts.

Patricia Fry is a full-time freelance writer and the author of 25 published books, including The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, which, she reports, is getting five-star reviews. To order the book read Patricia’s publishing blog.

My colleague Fern Reiss sent me this article today and I could hardly wait to share it with you. She is so full of great info for authors.

Sell More Books to Libraries
by Fern Reiss, CEO, PublishingGame.com/Expertizing.com

You can sell lots of books to libraries—if you know how to approach the library market. Here are my top tips on breaking into this lucrative part of the book business; for more tips, see www.PublishingGame.com/libraryreport.htm.

Go for reviews
The way most libraries make their purchasing decisions is via the reviews in the major trade journals—Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, School Library Journal, Kirkus, and Foreword Magazine. So it’s important to be sure your book is reviewed in those publications. If you’ve published traditionally, you can expect your publisher to handle this step (though it can’t hurt to ask the publicist or editor if this will happen automatically—and follow through to make sure it does.) If you’re self-publishing your book, be sure you send a bound galley(nota finished book) to these publications at least five months before your publication date that is, five months before the books become available to bookstores, Amazon, etc. A good review in one of these review journals (and for the purposes of publicity, usually even a bad review is a good review) can lead to several thousand library sales.

Take the back door into reviews
If you don’t get a review in one of the major publications, consider taking the back door approach if appropriate: Go for a review of the audio version of the book. (Hadn’t considered doing an audio book? Start thinking about it.) The audio review section of Library Journal, for example, is easier to get into than the print section, so in lieu of a review of your printed book, think about whether it might be worth producing an audio version if only to make librarians aware of your book title. If they review the audio of your book, be sure to make it clear that there’s also a printed version—in which case they’ll mention it in the context of the review.

Figure out how your book is unique
Libraries are always trying to fill gaps in their collections (as opposed, for example, to bookstores, which are only trying to fill collection gaps if they see a strong consumer demand for the niche). But for librarians, niche books are very desirable. So if you can position your book so that it’s a ‘the only’ title—the only book on cooking whole meals in a fondue pot, the only book on how to have a six figure career without ever leaving your house, the only book on how the world might have been different if JFK hadn’t been shot—you have a strong shot at library sales. I positioned my book, The Infertility Diet: Get Pregnant and Prevent Miscarriage as the only book on how to treat infertility and miscarriage nutritionally.

I positioned Terrorism and Kids: Comforting Your Child as the only book on how to talk to your kids about 9/11. (That’s not true anymore—but it was when the book first came out, shortly after September 11th.) With The Publishing Game books I had a problem, because they were not the only books on how to find a literary agent, how to self-publish, and how to successfully promote your book. So I figured out another tactic and positioned them as the only 30-day step-by-step roadmaps to these topics. Because I was able to position my books as ‘the only’ books in their category, they all enjoyed reasonable library sales.

Speak at libraries
The more speaking you can do at libraries, the better your library sales are likely to be. (Also, the more speaking you do at libraries, the better your bookstore sales will be, because at least some of the patrons who come hear about your book at your library talk will then go out and purchase the book at their local bookstore.

So how do you get library bookings?
First of all, libraries are often more likely to book programs than readings. So think about what sort of package you can put together that would interest a library audience. When I was promoting my Publishing Game series to libraries, I offered librarians a choice of several different length programs on finding an agent, self-publishing, and book promotion. Each was available with a question/answer session and an autographing session. Just a straight book reading or signing wouldn’t have been of much interest—but the more in-depth program appealed to authors, and the libraries were able to provide full-house audiences every time they ran the program.

Second, remember that libraries have budgets for programming. Although many authors do library talks at no charge, you can charge for library programs. I charged $500 per talk for my one to two hours at each library—and got it at libraries across the country. Not only that, but the publicity that the libraries did in advance to announce my talks contributed to book sales and buzz in every town to which I traveled.

Tailor your website to libraries

Most authors know they’re supposed to have a website. But the more you tailor your website towards library sales, the better those library sales are likely to be. So think about libraries when you’re putting together or updating your website. In addition to a section for the press, put up a section specifically for librarians. Include any special publicity aimed at libraries, any articles you’ve written for the library market, any ideas you’d like to see the libraries implement for your book. My website section for librarians includes a contest aimed specifically at libraries, my book’s reviews in the trade journals, ordering information, my terms for library book orders (though this is uncommon, as most libraries will order via wholesalers, not directly), my offer of a column for library newsletters, my offerings of programs and lectures to libraries (and the consequent booking information), and endorsements by librarians who’ve booked me as a speaker. For some more ideas on what you could put on a library section of your website, see www.publishinggame.com/booksellers_librarians.htm

So start thinking libraries. Because there are lots of libraries—and thus, lots of potential sales.

Interested in learning more about selling books to libraries? Find out more at www.PublishingGame.com/libraryreport.htm.

Fern Reiss is CEO of PublishingGame.com and Expertizing.com and the author of the books, The Publishing Game: Find an Agent in 30 Days, The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days, and The Publishing Game: Publish a Book in 30 Days as well as several other award-winning books. She also runs The Expertizing® Publicity Forum where you can pitch your book or business directly to journalists; more information at www.Expertizing.com/forum.htm.

Sign up for her complimentary newsletter at www.PublishingGame.com/signup.htm

Susan Note: Check out the Authors Speak Easy Workshop that Speaker Services if offering Nov 9-11. It’s for authors and those who are writig their books. You even get to do a short video that you can place on your website right away.

I am researching resources for the Authors’ SpeakEasy Workshop in November on how and where self-published authors can distribute their books.

Our friend John Kremer www.bookmarket.com contributes several booksellers/retailers resources for you and shares how to approach the Airport Shops.

Airport Shops: Hudson Booksellers
Hudson Booksellers, Sara Hinckley, Vice President of Book Purchasing, 1521 Johnson Ferry Road #250, Marietta GA 20062; 770-998-5032 or 678-560-5960. Email: shinckley@hudsongroup.com. Web: http://www.hudsongroupusa.com. Lisa Strollo, Vice President, Merchandising; Email: lstrollo@hudsongroup.com. Hudson operates more than 400 Hudson Newsstands and 66 Hudson Booksellers in airports around the country.

If you want to have your books featured in these airport bookstores, email a sell-sheet with cover image, title details, and publicity plans, and other available sales information to booksellers@hudsongroup.com.

Or, you can also mail a sell-sheet and/or finished copy of your product with title details, publicity plans, any available sales information, and contact information to Hudson Booksellers, 1521 Johnson Ferry Road #250, Marietta GA 20062.

“You will receive a response within four weeks of receipt of the product. Please note that Hudson Booksellers locations are very small. Our selection is focused primarily on current and past bestsellers and classics. Our key categories are fiction, business, and narrative nonfiction. We do carry titles from almost every major category. We do not carry any self-published books, or books published by vanity publishers. We only carry oversized books if they are current bestsellers or local souvenir-type bestsellers.”

If you published your own book, don’t present it that way. Present it as coming from your publishing company. For example, my 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, while self-published, is not a self-published book. It is published by Open Horizons.

On the other hand, if your book is published by a POD publisher, you might have a tougher time selling them on stocking your book. Some major booksellers treat POD as worse than self-published. While some POD books merit that designation, many are as good or better than other self-publisher books — or even books from larger publishers.

Specialty Shops

- Andy Warhol Museum Store, Web: http://www.warholstore.com. Art museum bookstore.

- The Big Idea Infoshop, Email: books@thebigideapgh.org, Web:
http://www.thebigideapgh.org . Left-wing and alternative political bookshop. Hosts several book discussion groups.

- Carnegie Museum of Art Store, Web: http://www.carnegieartstore.com
Features art books, gifts, jewelry, posters, notecards, children’s books, apparel, and videos. Museum: http://www.cmoa.org

- Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Museum Shop
Web: http://www.naturalhistorystore.com
The shop features toys, art, books, and gifts related to animals, dinosaurs, wildlife, botany, geology, fossils, American Indians, ancient Egypt, and other nature topics. Museum web: http://www.carnegiemnh.org

- Carnegie Science Center, XPLOR Store
Web: http://www.sciencecenterstore.com
Museum web: http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org

- Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh Museum Store
Email: store@pittsburghkids.org
Web: http://www.pittsburghkids.org

- Journeys of Life, Jean Haller
Email: info@journeysoflifeonline.com
Web: http://www.journeysoflifeonline.com
Founded in 1990, this store specializes in psychology, self-help, new age, spirituality, men’s and women’s issues, recovery, and related topics. Also music, gifts, crystals, 12-step items, aromatherapy, and jewelry.

- The Open Mind Bookstore, Phil Harris, Book Buyer
Email: om@theopenmind.com, Web: http://www.theopenmind.com, Email Phil: phil@theopenmind.com. Mind/body/spirit bookstore.

- Senator John Heinz History Center
Email: estore@hswp.org
Web: http://store.pghhistory.org
History, political, and regional books.

HOW TO FIND YOUR STORY ANGLES
compliments of Ann Convery annconvery.com

1. Where are your best stories hiding?

1) In the problems you solve.2) In the stories of your clients and customers.

3) In what you can comment on as an expert. (Especially trends)

Tell us how you solved a problem that baffled others. Is this a trend? How did you solve it in a unique way? What about the stories of your clients and customers? These are the major stories that will put you on the map.

Remember – YOU are not the story. Your clients and customers and solutions are.

Where to Find Story Angles. Look at the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal and see all the sections they have. How many stories could you fit in to each section?

Business / Women in Business / Women and Start-Ups / Women and Venture Capital
Entrepreneurial
Small-business
Business Communication / Management / Downsizing / Time Management
Business turn-around
Internet marketing
International trade / trends
Leadership skills
Employee training / happiness in the workplace / conflict resolution
Technology
Science
Politics
Finance / Personal Finance / Debt Reduction / Business Growth / Women and Money
Local trends in the neighborhood
Metro – what’s affecting life in your town
Travel- do people travel to see you? Can you write a travel piece?
Sports / Family Sports / Parents and sports / Soccer Moms
Family / Teens / Kids / Extended Family / Seniors
Relationships / Marriage / Divorce / Re-Marriage
Dating / first dates / dating do’s and don’ts / dating after 40 / dating after 60
Community / community projects / local trends
Kids
School
Exercise / Diet / Yoga / Fitness / Gyms/ At-Home Gyms / Do’s and Don’ts
Health / Wellness / Tips / Warnings / Mind-Body Connection
Beauty
Arts
Style / Dining / Fashion / Home and Garden / Weddings

Get the idea?

Join us at the MediaSpeak Symposium, Oct 11, 12 & 13 and learn more plus pitch live to the media outlets.

Those of you who know me know that I am passionate about my service and completely committed to assisting business folks and authors in growing their business and income through speaking.

However, if you do not know about our services and training take a look at the following video and see what others are saying about us.

Click here to view : http://www.audioacrobat.com/playv/WHL0WfCx
Third party referrals are always the best.

I have been promoting and talking about the MediaSpeak Symposium for months. If you are a business person, author, speaker or a coach etc. the Symposium is a great opportunity for you supercharge your business, attract media attention and to paticipate in the Pitch Fest. I invite and encourage you to attend the 3rd MediaSpeak Symposium . Here’s the info.

MediaSpeak Symposium, Master the Message, Master the Media, October 11-13 in Los Angeles. The theme for the three days is Ready, Set, Pitch. PR and media exposure is critical to your success.

Supercharge your book, screenplay, product, business, service or cause when you talk to the media . The caveat of the 3 day event is the pitch fest . Pitch your story to broadcast and print media.

Learn more and register http://www.speakerservices.com/mediaspeak07 .
Mention this note and receive a 10% discount (good for friends too).

The MediaSpeak Symposium was a fabulous training on how to approach the media and speak your message in a way that is arresting and newsworthy. For any professional who wants to be seen and heard by millions, this is an event not to be missed!
- Chellie Campbell, Speaker & author of The Wealthy Spirit and Zero to Zillionaire

Listen to replay of audio interviews with the faculty of the Symposium

Dr Letitia Wright, Publicity 2.0: Online PR . Click here to listen http://www.speakerservices.com/teleclasses/detail/80
and
Nita Vallens, How to Get Booked on Radio Talk Shows, Give a Great Interview and Get Invited Back and Jill Lublin- Guerrilla Publicity – Practical Strategies to Increase Visibility. Click here to listen http://www.speakerservices.com/teleclasses/detail/79

If you are an author or want to be author here is a brand NEW workshop designed for you Authors’ SpeakEasy, November 9-11

Authors need to promote themselves and their books. To get their books out to the public — for any effective action at all — there will be networking, book signings, media interviews and speaking engagements. In order to be successful at the media adventure, you — the author must master the media. Authors: Identify your Niche-Pitch®, Master your Message, Master the Media, 2-3 minute Interview Video Segment.

Learn more . ltd to 20 attendees

See all upcoming events
http://www.speakerservices.com (3rd col on right)

There is one slot open for the 3 camera video demo showcase Nov 4
See http://www.speakerservices.com/videoprod.html for details

Won’t you join us?

Susan

We are generating interest quite a bit of interest in a new workshop: Authors’ SpeakEasy Workshop.

Here’s the short version and you can see the entire program at
AUTHORS’ SPEAKEASY, A Speaker Services production, Friday-Sunday- November 9-11 in Los Angeles

Authors need to promote themselves and their books. To get their books out to the public — for any effective action at all — there will be networking, book signings, media interviews and speaking engagements. In order to be successful at the media adventure, you — the author must master the media.

AUTHORS’ SPEAKEASY is a playful, provocative, focused three-day comprehensive event specifically designed to catapult authors to the next level of media mastery.

Authors: Identify your Niche-Pitch®, Master your Message, Master the Media, 2-3 minute Interview Video Segment.

This is for would be authors too.

Learn more and register