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What’s the hook to sell your book?

February 18, 2012 By 5 Comments

Every book has what is called a hook. Most books have multiple hooks. Do you know what the hooks for your book are?

Check out this short video on how I found the hook for a book on organic eating in a book I recently received from the author.

 

I do NOT benefit from any sales of this book. So if you think I used this book as the example because I will benefit financially … wrong!

I used this book to show you how easy it actually is.

What do you do to find a hook for your book? Comments and insights welcome.

Filed Under: Books

4 Ways to Market Your Books

February 16, 2012 By 1 Comment

Looking for simple to apply ways to market your books?

Check out my short video. Be sure to subscribe to my blog to receive regular updates.

Comments welcome and encouraged.

Filed Under: Books

Selling books via YouTube

February 14, 2012 By 22 Comments

YouTube is a great way to gain visibility for your books. There are three things you need to know about using YouTube to get the most value for your time invested.

The six minute video explains this in detail.

 

5 Ways to Finish Your Book Faster

FREE Webinar

February 16th – 5 p.m. PST

Click here

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The 3 Biggest Myths Authors Need to Shatter

February 12, 2012 By 18 Comments

Most people who want to sell lots of books dream of doing so in order to have a great impact on the world.

Unfortunately, the majority will never achieve their greatest potential. Why? Watch my 9 minute video where I explain the 3 Biggest Myths Authors Need to Shatter.

I cover the myths, 3 ways to market, and how to get the most out of one of the best book marketing strategies around.

5 Ways to Finish Your Book Faster

FREE Webinar

February 16th – 5 p.m. PST

 

Click Here

Filed Under: Books

Do What it Takes to Finish Your Book or Suffer Pains of Stagnation

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Featured Expert, Judy Cullins shares some powerful insights…

Do you say or think any of these comments about writing your non-fiction book?

“I’m not sure my peers and audience will want my book.”

“I don’t expect great sales or to be a bestseller.”

“It’s not like I’m ever going to be on a top TV show.”

“If only the local paper interviews me I’ll be happy.”

“I just hope to make back my printing costs.”

As a book coach, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard emerging authors say these words. Perhaps you recognize yourself in them.

PUBLISHING STATISTICS: Of the half a million books published every year, most books sell less than 500 copies. Publishers want only the famous to promote. The real sales for less known authors who are willing to market every day will come from the internet, blog marketing and social media promotion.

Who cares what the statistics are? What do they really have to do with your book? Is your book really competing with 500,000 books? Let’s say you write a self-help book – maybe only 20,000 were published this year – that’s still big competition, but it’s smaller than half a million, and if yours is a self-help book about succeeding in business, maybe only 2,000 were written on that topic.

Remember, many readers read more than one book on a subject. Just because they read another book in your topic doesn’t mean they won’t also read yours. And, if you use some book coaching, you can learn how to angle your book to a smaller, yet powerful, target audience. It’s far easier and more profitable to market a book (to an online audience that you can easily…) where you can readily find them online to market and promote to.

Why do most books sell less than 500 copies? Of course quality matters. But most likely, it’s the lack of direct and indirect marketing the author does, siince marketing takes double the time you spend on writing. If you don’t implement 2-5 marketing strategies each day, you won’t sell more than the 500, and most likely, less. Yes, the quality of the book may make a difference, but I’ve seen some really badly written books become bestsellers. It’s all about the promotion. The bottom line is that most books don’t sell many copies because most authors give up after giving little or no effort to promoting their books.

For eBooks and print books – look beyond the stats – how you can create a business around the book – and repurpose it into a lot of other sales to build your wealth stream.

So think big. Raise the bar. Shake off your fear and self-doubt. Here are a few ways to raise the bar, to make your book a success, but remember that none of them will work if you don’t work at it yourself.

Book Coach Judy Cullins’ Raise the Bar Tips

What You Believe about Your Book, You can Achieve.

1. Build Your Confidence – Get Feedback from a writing or book coach.

One of the biggest mistakes authors make is to publish their books before they are ready. Many authors are shy and afraid to let people read their work. But the more people who read your book and give you feedback, not to mention having it professionally edited and proofread, the better your book will be. If the book is really bad, you will be saved a great deal of embarrassment and money by not publishing it based on the feedback you receive. Feedback also gives you the opportunity to see your book anew through other people’s eyes and to improve it. Best of all, when people tell you they like the book and why they like it, you will feel good about it. You will build your confidence. That is a real boost when you promote it.

2. Ask “What If?”

Visualize your book’s end results. It’s much more doable to accept your goals as already true. Here’s a mental rehearsal exercise to create more sales.

Now that my book “title” is published and well marketed,

I SEE Example. I see myself smiling at my success.

I HEAR Example. I hear praise and testimonials from satisfied readers.

I FEEL Example. I feel exhilarated that my book appeals to my audience and they become my 24/7 sales team.

3. Work backward from the results to what steps to take to get there.

Working backwards can help you figure out your specific goals. If your end goal is to create 8-12 ongoing clients that yield you a six figure income, how will you make that happen?

If your end goal for 6 months is selling 600 copies of your how to book at $15.95, how will you make that happen?

Judy Cullins’ Rule of Thumb: Business from expanded services, more expensive book and audio packages and programs yield about 2/3 of my yearly income and books are about 1/3. Get real in your expectations, and don’t give up.

Build a Sales Funnel to Reach All Audiences

–Offer your free eBook to get opt-in subscribers.
–Offer a low cost eBook of around $15.00 for those who don’t trust you yet.
–Offer middle range products from $25-100.
–Offer high end products or services at over $100.

This rule of thumb on your sales funnel also includes your services.

The point is to connect the dots – to figure out how you can get your book noticed – by using the loftiest goal possible – and then following the dots forwards and backwards. Until you get them all to connect to achieve your goal. Be sure to consider all the possibilities. Think of a dozen ways you can get your book to hit the big time. How it happens doesn’t matter so long as it happens. You have a thousand opportunities if you just look for them and let others know you’re looking for them.

4. Engage in Baby Steps.

Write and take action on High Level Activities (HLA’s) each day. Give your book away to opinion molders. When I sent a review copy of my LinkedIn Marketing book to 6 business leaders who knew me and my other books, I asked for testimonials. I was so amazed at their generous comments.

5. Set up an affiliate program to sell your books.

Anyone who visits my site and sees the “make money selling books” URL can make 50% of the sales. Think how this one step expands an income stream.

Everyday focus on what you can do that day to promote your book and make sure that each success leads to another. If you land a spot on a radio show, ask the hosts if they have suggestions for other shows you can be on. If you get an interview, tell the interviewer about another great author you know. Referrals help make friends and friends help other friends. Network, meet people, talk up your book to everyone you meet.

If you are reluctant to act, get some professional help. If you think you can’t afford to, you may stay stuck for years. Too bad. Your audience awaits your great information, personality and skills to help them to a better life.

What part of your book project are you stuck on? Leave a question or comment and I’ll do my best to give you what you need to solve your concerns.

About Judy Cullins
Book and Blog Coach Judy Cullins helps you transform your blog into an income stream for life. Judy is the author of 14 books for business people and authors includes “LinkedIn Marketing: 8 Best Tactics to Build Book and Business Sales,” and “Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast!” Access “Write Your eBook” by clicking here.

Filed Under: Books, Coaches & Consultants Tagged With: , ,

Fear stops 90% of people from ever achieving their dreams

January 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“Fear stops 90% of people from ever achieving their dreams” says, author expert, Bert Martinez. Let go of your fears, try something new, and step into a promising future, allowing these 52 leadership experts and stories to guide you and inspire you along the way. Each conversation contained in these 348 pages is empowering, inspiring, and priceless, and you will find yourself in the pages of these interviews and in these accounts of occupational achievement and personal triumph.

To learn more about Ready, Aim, Excel! Please visitwww.ReadyAimExcel.com

·  Internationally respected authority on business management,Dr. Ken Blanchard, one of the top twenty-five best-selling authors of all time, reveals how praising progress can dramatically enhance your effectiveness as a leader.

·  Discover the keys to positive, lasting change from Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Global Leadership Expert and Best-Selling Author of Mojo.

·  Dr. Cathy Greenberg, New York Times Best-Selling Author, reveals the most important ingredient to success and happiness.

·  Uncover your emotional intelligence and realize your vision with Dr. Relly Nadler, leading Emotional Intelligence authority, Author, and Executive Coach.

·  Discover how to quickly and easily turn on confidence from Bert Martinez, international expert on business and marketing.

This ground breaking book is just released today.  www.ReadyAimExcel.com.

Filed Under: Books

Busting Writer’s Block Just released

January 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Are you an author (or want to be author) who deals with writer’s block? If you answered yes, you’re not alone.

In answer to the challenge of writer’s block, John F. Harnish aka John Franklin wrote a fabulous book called Busting Writer’s Block.

In addition to his insights John compiled insights from dozens of other experts on the topic of overcoming writer’s block,

Following is my contribution.

In the years I have been mentoring authors one of the greatest challenges is writer’s block. A great way to overcome writer’s block is to think beyond what you are writing to why you are writing.

How will your words impact your readers? How will what you are sharing improve the quality of one’s personal or professional life?

The blocks a writer experiences are often based on ego. When we can get out of our head and into the heart of our message the blocks will be minimized.

A great way to move from the head to the heart is take a few minutes before you sit down to write to get centered. Visualize yourself as a channel of the message you carry.

Regardless of what genre you write in you are the messenger. It is when we think we ARE the message the blocks seem to appear.

The talent of writing is a gift we have been given. It has been said that our talents are a gift from God. What we do with our talent is our gift to God.

Get your Kindle copy today for only $3.00. It’ll be the best $3 any author will invest. Do every author you know a favor and send them this blog post. They will appreciate it and so will I.

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Discover one way to use blogs to market and sell more books

November 27, 2011 By 10 Comments

Those who make great money online are those who continually seek opportunities to position their expertise.

An excellent way to do this is with blog tours and guest blogging.

What is a blog tour?

Blog tours became popular by authors who were seeking a more cost effective way to get the word out about a book. In days past a book tour for an author consisted of going from location to location to do readings, signings and hopefully sell a few books.

This has always been a very expensive way to promote books. For many authors it has also been extremely ineffective.

Enter blogs. Somewhere along the lines someone got the idea that rather than simply writing for their own blog, why not do guest appearances.

What was a very mysterious activity as recently as only a few short years ago is now a very common practice. And rather than simply promote books, a tour is now used for promoting a number of different things such as live events, teleseminars, information products and services.

A simple definition of a blog tour is a virtual tour where you stop at a number of blogs and post relevant information.

Participating in a blog tour has replaced the need to make “personal” appearances for many experts.

In the purest sense a blog tour is done over a specific period of time where the expert “visits” several blogs.

A blog owner hosts one stop of the tour unless of course, they have several blogs you are posting on. The best part of all is you can do a tour from literally anywhere in the world as long as you have Internet access.

Some people prefer to do sporadic guest blogging rather than a structured blog tour. In essence guest blogging is exactly as it sounds. You post on a blog as a guest. But, you must get the blog owner’s permission to do this type of posting.

Being a guest blogger is different than simply posting comments about other people’s posts. In essence you are the “star” blogger.

In this lesson you will learn what you can do to make your star shine each and every blog you are a guest of.

Benefits to blog tours and guest blogging

There are a number of fabulous benefits to either. You definitely increase your visibility and credibility. Both allow you to create a buzz about a book, event, or telseminar to name just a few things.

Without a doubt your writings will be viewed by new eyeballs. This is exactly what you want.

When done right, you are able to reach more of your target market. The reason you want to be clear on who your market is and who is reading the blog you are going to post on is for increased reach with the best market.

There’s no point in writing for blogs that are not viewed by those who are interested in what you have to say and offer.

Guest blogging opens up opportunities for potential joint venture relationships with the blog owner. What better way to get your foot in the door than to do a stellar job with your guest blog appearance?

Search engines love blogs and when you use the right keywords you are creating incredible opportunities for better SEO.

In addition, you can increase your own opt in subscribers if you do have a link in your bio at the end of your post.

Want to learn more about Blog Tours? Check out what Dvorah Lansky has put together. Click here for 7 Tips for Maximizing Your Blog Tour.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blogging, Books

What are you saying to yourself?

October 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

What are you saying to yourself?
from featured expert, Jeannette Koczela

We go around all day with an inner voice that is talking to us.  This is called self-talk and for the most part it is unconscious.  When you are learning to use the Law of Attraction to attract your desires it’s important to become aware of your self-talk and guide it more consciously so it works in your favor.

Here is an excerpt from the chapter on self-talk in Jeannette Koczela’s new book, “Money Mindset Makeover:”

You can use your self-talk to apply the principles of the Law of Attraction. You do have a choice—to focus on mere appearances or focus on the underlying truth.  You can make this choice by deciding what you say to yourself.  Your self-talk determines your mindset.  Your mindset determines your power to attract.

What is your self-talk or inner voice saying?

  •  Are you telling yourself that your desires are on their way to you, or are you telling yourself that you will never have enough money?
  •  Are you telling yourself that you can create your wealth, or are you telling yourself that you can’t get out of the financial struggle mode?

This is where positive thinking comes into play.  You can admit to yourself the truth—that the universe is on your side, that the universal substance wants to deliver your desires to you, that your natural state is one of abundance. Wallace Wattles, in his book, “The Science of Getting Rich,” is emphatic on this point:

“ The thinking substance is friendly to you and is more anxious to give you what you want than you are to get it.” -Wallace Wattles

Do you realize the implications of this statement? This means that whatever you decide that you want, you have a friendly, all-powerful ally—“the universal substance.”  Its desires are your desires; it wants what you want.  What can you do to harness this great power to your benefit?

The mentor of Napoleon Hill and Earl Nightingale tells us that you must act, speak, and think as if you are already rich. Have you ever tried this?

It is a necessary step in the process.  It is putting yourself into your dream.  And it all goes back to trust.  Do you trust that the universe is friendly to your plans to get rich?  If you do, then you can act like it.

If you were already rich, how would you think and talk and act?    What would you say to yourself?  To others?  Wattles said simply to believe that you are getting your desires, and consider it done.

You can start reminding yourself that wealth is on its way to you.  Have that quiet assurance that everything has been put in motion for you to get rich—because, in reality, you ARE getting rich.  This is how you can use your self-talk to make your money mindset makeover.

Your mind listens to your words and then creates that reality. That’s why your self-talk is so important.  Your thoughts are powerful, and your internal dialogue is even more powerful.

Jeannette Koczela began her career as an Impressionist oil painter and has exhibited all over the country. A growing interest in computers led her to become a graphic and web designer. These businesses combined her talents and interests for many years.

Then she discovered her passion for life coaching and found that after a decade of casually coaching colleagues, she decided to train to be a certified spiritual life coach.

Her coaching business, Empowered Spirit Coaching, teaches people to partner with Spirit and raise their vibration to a place of empowerment so they can attract more ideal clients and grow their business. She has created several coaching programs, a home study course, and is a published author. Being highly sought after for her insights and coaching abilities, Jeannette is also the founder of the “International Association of Professional Life Coaches,” a premiere professional membership and online directory for life coaches.

The metaphysical and esoteric has always interested Jeannette and she has practiced Transcendental Meditation for 35 years. She is a member of the Invincible America Assembly, a group of 2000 people who meditate together daily for world peace.

To learn more about how to use your self-talk to deliberately create more abundance in your life, get a copy of “Money Mindset Makeover,” which is being launched Oct. 17.  When you purchase it in the next 3 weeks, you will have access to over 20 special gifts from leaders in the self-development industry. You can find out more by clicking here.

Editors Note: I can personally recommend Money Mindset Makeover. I read it a short while ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Get your copy now. Click here.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Books

Keys to An Author’s Blogging Success

October 24, 2011 By 4 Comments

Expert Guest Blog Posting By D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed., Authors of Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online

Blogging as an integral part of your online book marketing strategy. Your blog is the hub of your online empire. Create an attractive, interactive environment where people will want to visit often.  Creating a blog and writing a few posts every week isn’t going to help you sell more books unless you also work at promoting your blog.

Online blog marketing opportunities abound, and most of them are free. Make use of every chance you get to find new followers and get links back to your blog posts.

Here are some easy ways to promote your blog:

  • Begin using social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Automate announcements of new blog posts by using the “Twitter Tools” plugin on your blog and the “Networked Blogs” application on Facebook. This will automatically submit new blog posts to such sites every time you post. Doing so is an important way to gain new readers and subscribers.
  • Use every post to invite readers to subscribe or follow. Add a footer to your posts that says something to the effect of, “Enjoy this article? Receive email alerts when new articles are available! Just click on the follow button or subscribe above.”
  • Seek out guest bloggers to post to your blog, and when you use one of their posts, ask that guest blogger to help promote it by tweeting to his followers and posting a link on his blog. This approach gives your audience exposure to a wider range of topics and lines of thought. It also induces reciprocity, as other bloggers will likely want to have you become a guest blogger.
  • Become a guest blogger. Offer other bloggers high-quality articles in exchange for a link from their site to your site. Add a line below your email signature with a link back to your blog. Every time someone reads one of your email messages, you’ll be advertising your blog.
  • Use quality search engine optimization (SEO) strategies in your blog description and in every post you write. Use your keywords in the title and throughout your post. This way, you will get better search engine results when people search for the topic(s) you write about.
  • Post comments on other blogs. You will have the opportunity to provide a link back to your blog when you fill out the requested information in the “comments” box. This commenting strategy works especially well on blogs that are frequented by your target audience and the professionals who serve them. You will quickly become known as an authority on your topic.
  • Respond to comments! Authors who respond to comments generally get a lot more comments than those who ignore their readers.
  • Use social media to promote your blog posts. Announce your new posts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media sites.

The more ways you can find to promote your blog online, the more visitors, readers, subscribers, and followers you’ll get. That means the more people you’ll reach with your message and the more people you’ll be able to introduce to your book.

D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed. and Marketing Wizard has been marketing online since 1994. She is the author of the Amazon bestseller, Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online. Visit her blog at: www.BookMarketingMadeEasy.com Get your free guide to Guest Blogging and check out D’vorah’s upcoming course on Virtual Book Tours for Authors at http://VirtualBookToursMadeEasy.com

Filed Under: Books
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