For over 12 hours myself and 800 men and women drank in information from Brendon Burchard during Day One of the four day Experts Academy conference.

The day was capped off by bestselling author, Debbie Ford sharing her insights into what it takes to make it as an author.

Both Brendon and Debbie agree that no matter how good a book is the author MUST take responsibility for marketing and sales. Whether that means you as the author will do the actual footwork or hire someone you absolutely must be accountable for the process.

Major Barriers to Entry
In years past the only way to get a book to market was through a traditional publisher or a very laborious process of self publishing. There was no such thing as print on demand.

Barriers to entry for the majority of authors was so restrictive that most died with their book inside of them.

Anyone who has the dream of writing a book likely believes you have a very important message to share with others. Unfortunately, it takes more than a belief to get your message out to your market.

It takes strategic marketing. Without marketing your book likely won’t sell many copies.

Consider the following three questions.

• What is your message you are compelled to get out?
• How would others benefit from what you have to say?
• What are you willing to do to get your message out?

These questions and more were posed throughout the 12 hour training session.

The reason most experts crave getting their message out is they want to inspire, leave a legacy and transform others through their words. Regardless of the genre you write in there are those who NEED to read your words.

Thus resides the problem. You know there are others who would definitely benefit from your message yet the thought of finding a publisher and then marketing your book(s) is daunting at best.

The Game Changer
Enter Kindle; the game changer. No longer does any author have any limitations to what is possible. That is, other than themselves. But that’s a topic for another discussion.

The great news is virtually anyone can publish their works and reach a global market through the power of the Kindle book format. More great news is you can literally get your Kindle book online and in less time than you can imagine take that book to the top of the charts… if you know what you are doing.
Here’s the deal; once you get your book done you absolutely must let potential readers know about your book. Simple as that. You cannot avoid this.

In the years I’ve been working with authors the #1 challenge the majority have is knowing how to market their works. Not only knowing how to market but doing so in a very cost effective way.

This is where many authors hit a major roadblock. It doesn’t have to be this way.

There are some very simple, easy to implement systems you can put in place to market your books with little, if any, out of pocket expenses.

Fulfill Your Dream
If your dream is to get your book(s) read by lots of people, reach a global market, change others through your words and create back-end revenue streams join me for Secrets to Making Your Kindle Book a #1 Bestseller.

On September 20th (for the first time ever) I am going to share exactly what I did to take my Kindle book to bestseller and how you can too. Not only will I show you what I did and how I did it, you will also learn how to generate revenue on the back-end.

It’s one thing to become a bestseller, something completely different to know how to monetize your new found status.

If you’ve already registered for this event you made a great choice.

If you haven’t yet registered I encourage you to do so before the price goes up on Monday at 9 p.m. PDT and/or all the spots fill up.

If you’re ready to learn from someone who has “been there, done that” this event is for you.

The webinar will be recorded and transcripts provided. But again, seating is limited. Check this out right now and reserve your spot today.

http://www.kathleengagetrains.com/kindle-2

Because I am completely committed to your success as an author I am adding in a bonus session a few weeks after the event on the 20th. In this bonus session you will have the opportunity to learn even more about marketing a book and other information products.

Here’s what I want you to do. Go to http://www.kathleengagetrains.com/kindle-2, reserve your seat and get ready for an amazing experience with lots of incredible insights every serious author needs to know about marketing and selling your Kindle book.

Recently I ran a 99 cent experiment on Kindle to see if the pricing makes a difference. In some cases it does. In other cases it doesn’t.

Before you can find out for yourself you need to have a Kindle eBook to sell.

Kindle books are all the rage but many people have no idea where to begin to create one.

Someone who does know is Daniel Hall. Daniel is the go to person when it comes to Kindle ebook development.

On Tuesday, August 30th I am hosting Daniel on a webinar Publish an Amazon Kindle eBook Today

Complete Step-By-Step Instructions

Join us for this event on Tuesday, August 30th @ 2pm Pacific (5pm Eastern, 4pm Central, 3pm Mountain)
which I am hosting with my friend Daniel Hall.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at: http://realfastbook.com/kathleenweb.html

To maximize profits your content should be published in as many different formats as possible including on Amazon’s Kindle.

In this webinar event we will show you EVERYTHING you need to get international distribution for your content as an ebook on Amazon’s Kindle.

And here’s the kicker… you can publish on Kindle without spending a dime to do it!

Why is this so important? Find out by clicking here

You will also find out how I managed to take my Kindle ebook (yes I learned from Daniel’s method how to get my first Kindle done) to #1 in a few categories with no cost whatsoever.Read more on this and be sure to register for Daniel’s webinar right away. We have limited seating and they will go fast.

http://www.kathleengage.com/2011/07/kindle-experiment.html

Does the 99 Cent Kindle version eBook Selling Strategy work?

The jury is still out for lots of authors as to whether or not the 99 cent selling strategy for a Kindle version book works. I, for one, plan to find out. And I plan to find out within the next 48 hours.

I am a members of several author forums and groups both in LinkedIn and elsewhere. When information surfaced about Amanda Hocking, an avid writer for many of her young 26 years making millions from selling her 99 cent ebooks there were those who cheered her and others who said they would never stoop so low as to sell their works for so little.

Then there were the heated discussions about John Locke’s success with his book, How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months!

Countless angry authors jumped on the bandwagon to say, “I guess the way to make a million with Kindle ebooks is to write a book on how I did so.”

If anyone read Mr. Locke’s book they would quickly realize that he sold over a million eBooks with his novels NOT with his eBook about how he had over a million downloads. They would also know he gave the exact strategies for how he sold so much.

Human nature is such that we tend to judge without knowing the full story. The fact is, many authors are making a great living selling low cost versions of their books. On the flip side there are plenty of authors who can’t give their work away.

Is selling an eBook for 99 cents the right thing to do or not? Personally, if I make my millions 99 cents at a time, so be it. I’m all for it.

The following comment was posted on my blog when I wrote about Amanda Hockings.

“My friend made a decent chunk of change by selling his ebooks on the Kindle marketplace for just $0.99. He didn’t get rich but he sure made a lot more money than I thought was possible when selling such low-priced items.”

What price point you sell your Kindle eBooks at is entirely up to you, but before making a final decision consider a few important
factors.

1. Most buyers don’t have to put much thought into pressing the “buy now” button for a 99 cent decision.
2. You reach readers you may otherwise not reach by selling low.
3. Depending on the genre of the book you can use the 99 cent version as a marketing tool.
4. If you do sell tons of copies you can laugh all the way to the bank.

On the flip-side, you may not sell many copies at all. I daresay that won’t feel very good to any author.

Being one who loves testing a theory I decided to put my eBook, 101 Ways to Get Your Foot in the Door to the test. Until Monday, August 1, 2011 I have priced it at only 99 cents to test this price point. After that I raise the price. That’s right, I am testing this out for a very, very limited time period.

Buy your 99 cent copy now. Click here.

The paperback version sells for nearly $20, but you get it for 95% off the full price. Am I crazy? Maybe. Will I sell a lot? I have no idea.

What I do know though is I will be watching my numbers to see if the book rises on the charts.

The fact is, when a book does go up the Amazon charts you open yourself up to other potential buyers. When your book does extremely well you have other marketing opportunities with your new found position such as blog postings, media releases, tweets, mentions on your Facebook wall and posting in LinkedIn to name just a handful of activities you would benefit from partaking if the strategy works.

Is 101 Ways to Get Your Foot in the Door any good? Rather than me telling you, check out reviews of the book. Then
click the “buy now” button. After all, it’s only 99 cents for you and a way to test a theory for me. Besides, it’s a fun read. Click here to get your own copy.

Here is my current Kindle version position.

Buy your 99 cent copy now. Click here.

I will share the results of sales rankings for 101 Ways in an upcoming blog post.

So what are your thoughts on selling your Kindle version book for a low price? Comments welcome.

I wanted to share this article with you from my friend and colleague, D’vorah Lansky. D’vorah is an online book marketing expert who has written a wonderful book on online book marketing. As you read this article, D’vorah is in the very midst of her book launch campaign. If you are interested in book marketing online, I encourage you to head over to Amazon and check out her book: http://BookMarketingMadeEasy.com/amazon

By D’vorah Lansky, author of Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online. I’d like to share with you a few tips regarding virtual book tours and outline a few things that you can easily put into play, for your own book. The good news is, a book launch does not just have to be for a newly published book. You can create a book launch for any of your books, at any time. The key is to be passionate about your topic, be willing to share the message of your book and be committed to connecting with and building relationships with others.

What is a Virtual Book or Blog Tour?

A Virtual Book or Blog Tour is much like a traditional book tour but instead of the author flying from city to city, they are featured on a wide variety of blogs and websites across the internet. Your tour can consist of guest blog posts, videos, audio interviews and even an online book study.

Your book blog is the online hub for your book tour. It is where people will come to find out more about you and your book. It is where the hosts of your tour can access your media kit and it is where your visitors can view your videos and purchase your book. Once you set up your blog you can easily add pages to host the above mentioned content. (For an example, you can view my book blog and check out the 21-Day Virtual Book Tour, http://BookMarketingMadeEasy.com/tour)

Another thing you can do, in preparation of your virtual book tour is to connect your blot to the social networks with a WordPress plugin such as Twitter Tools (which you can locate on WordPress.org) or the Facebook application called Networked Blogs (NetworkedBlogs.com). These tools allow you to automate announcements of your new posts to the social networks.

There are numerous things that you can do to spread the word about your book launch. A few examples are:

• Set up an event page on Facebook and invite your Facebook friends, who are interested in your topic
• Update your Author Central page on Amazon. Here’s my page as an example: http://budurl.com/bydvorah
• Add your new book to several of the social networking sites for authors, such as GoodReads.com and AuthorNation.com

Over the course of my virtual book tour, I will be sharing lots of tips and examples that you can apply to your own book tour. If book marketing is of interest to you, I invite you to stop by and introduce yourself.
Here’s to your book marketing success! D’vorah

D’vorah is the author of Book Marketing Made Easy: Simple Strategies for Selling Your Nonfiction Book Online - Visit her book blog and check out the full virtual book tour schedule at: www.BookMarketingMadeEasy.com D’vorah offers programs for nonfiction authors interested in growing their brand and their book sales through online book marketing practices and strategies. You can purchase her book on Amazon at: www.BookMarketingMadeEasy.com/amazon

Retweets welcome.

According to a 2002 article in the New York Times by Joseph Epstein, author of over a dozen books, 81 percent of the adult population of America dreams of writing a book. “Beyond the obvious motivation for wanting to write a book – hoping to win fame or fortune – my guess is that many people who feel they have a book ”in them” doubtless see writing it as a way of establishing their own significance,” comments Epstein.

Sadly, most will never get their book completed. The great majority won’t even begin writing, and for those who start, the process is sporadic at best. And there are those who spend years and years just getting their first draft done. I have met some “authors” who have been working on their books for ten years.  Ouch!

The following five points will help you to achieve your dream of becoming a successful author.

1. Develop the right mindset

What this means is you have to deal with your own personal demons. The demons can show up in any number of ways; negative self talk, lack of confidence in your writing, surrounding yourself with nay-sayers, and habits that do not serve you.

Rather, you need to surround yourself with possibility thinkers as well as other authors who are succeeding. In addition, read and listen to information that keeps you in the right state of mind.

2. Write a book readers want to read

It’s great to want to write but is what you write of interest to the reader? A great way to see what is popular is notice what books are making it to the top of the Amazon.com and B&N.com charts. This will indicate trends and popular themes.

3. Create a buzz before the book is done

Marketing your book needs to start BEFORE the book is done. You can do this through blogging, article writing, interviews, guest blogging and posting in your social networks. There are countless ways to market and create a buzz. All you need is your imagination and a willingness to do it.

4. Build an opt in subscriber list

You would be amazed at how many books can be sold by way of an opt in subscriber list. The key is to constantly build your list. You do this by having something of value people are willing to give their name and email address in exchange for; a report, an MP3, a video, a lesson from a course you teach, or any number of items that would be of interest to your market.

5. Guest blog about your book

Many blog owners are in desperate need of great content. Search out bloggers whose readers would be likely candidates to buy your book. The easiest way to secure guest blogging opportunities is to have great content on your blog. This takes the “unknown” factor out of the equation for those who may be interested in having you blog for them.

Here’s a bonus tip; realize it all takes time. The greatest challenge we face in our world of instant gratification is people want what they want right now.  The fact is, success takes time, commitment, vision and persistence.

Writing a book is one of the most powerful ways you can establish your expert status, attract more clients, and garner media attention.

Another fact is, you’re going to need to learn a few new skills. Authors need to know how to build a platform, ace a media interview, sell books, and avoid a bunch of pitfalls that can costs time and money.

The challenge can be to know where to gain the right insights and information. One person who is committed to helping authors grow and succeed is my friend and colleague, Lynne Klippel.

Lynne has brought together an amazing group of teaches for a very special and unique teaching experience.  Lynne has worked with authors from around the globe who have gone from unknowns to bestsellers faster than they dreamed possible.

Click here to learn more and register.

If you are serious about becoming a successful author, Lynne’s event
is your golden ticket! Check it out.

CONTESTS: Awards Set Your Book Apart But Ya Gotta Enter Contests to Get Them

By Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Excerpted from The Frugal Book Promoter (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo)

I pity the poor reader these days. Reviews can’t be relied on for unbiased opinions, so a reader may have trouble telling which book is most likely to set her heart a’ beating. As she shops, she often turns to the blurbs or endorsements on the back of the book. She may read a few of the first pages. But a book that has won a contest for book awards from organizations like Jeff Keene’s USA Book News award (usabooknews.com) or the New Millennium award (indiebookawards.com.com) or, yes, from universities like Columbia’s Pulitzer, will probably clinch a sale faster than many others.

Let’s take that one step farther. Authors who have won literary contests (contests run by journals, publishers and the like for poetry, short stories, novellas, novels and other literary entities) also gets bragging rights that might get inserted into their media kits, query letters, and Web sites. That makes it easier to sell a promotion idea (or a next book!) than someone who is new to writing. Gatekeepers—anyone from acquisition editors to feature editors at newspapers—can be influenced by a contest. Make that a contest win, place, or show. It may be what’s needed to set you apart from the many authors clamoring for attention. In fact on a slow news day, just about any award looks like a nugget of gold to a busy editor.

So why are authors so ready to hate contests? Fear of rejection is an easy answer. An article in the revered Poetry & Writers’ magazine mentions that writers often consider contests rigged and resent the fees (usually from free to $25 for literary contests and from free to $125. for book awards.). The magazine article pointed out that publishers and organizations become dependent on the fees they charge for contests and note that rarely does an unknown author win. I’m not sure the last part isn’t sour grapes; the point of many contests is to find delicious new voices that will keep the not-so-voracious appetite of publishers for new material well fed. If it is the truth, perhaps we should do something to hone our own skills to approximate those of more established authors.

Hint: There are other benefits to contests. Some offer critiques of entries—a value that cannot be overestimated in terms of learning more about the contest-winning process and one’s craft. Some publishers sponsor contests to attract submissions of great new manuscripts.

Regardless of the category (and there are some that don’t seem to fit neatly into either category), a contest win is a contest win is a contest win in terms of marketing.

Some contests only accept nominations from publishers. You may need to prod your publisher a bit if you know of a contest for which you think your book would be suitable.

Here are some guidelines for using contests to gain exposure and expand your credentials:

• Choose contests that fit the size of your pocketbook. No-fee contests work well until you refine your contest IQ. Those include following submission guidelines to the n^th degree and selecting contests that suit your material and your voice. Pick contests that impose fees at least as carefully as you might select a tomato from the produce department at your market. Sometimes journals that award prizes to the best work submitted for their pages in a given year are a good, frugal way to start.
• Choose contests based on the kind of writing you do. Read up on past winners. Examine past winners for genre, voice, length.
• Find contests from a source that lists less popular contests as well as those that have names attached to them like Hemingway, Faulkner, and Pulitzer. (See resources for finding some later in this chapter and some I like because even beginners have a chance at winning on my Web site at howtodoitfrugally.com/contests.htm)
• Pay attention to the contest’s guidelines, except for the one that calls for no simultaneous submissions. This rule is patently unfair to the author. You know it and they know it. It’s a rule, not a law. It is a courtesy, however, to notify those contests or journals you have submitted to if your entry wins elsewhere.
• To increase your chances and to keep you from worrying about each entry, submit work to several contests at a time.
• Keep track of entries so you don’t submit the same material to the same contest twice.

Hint: Some journals still don’t accept online entries. Don’t recycle paper copies that have been returned to you. Editors complain about entries that look as if they have spent a night in the rain.

Find suitable contests on the Web, in books, and through organizations. Here are a few leads:

• Use the “Deadlines” section of Poetry & Writers magazine to find reputable contests. Most are very competitive and charge fees. Check them out at pw.org
• CRWROPPS is an announcement list for contests and calls for submissions. To subscribe send an e-mail to crwropps-subscribe@topica.com.
• A fat volume called Writer’s Markets (budurl.com/WritersMarkets) publishes an updated edition each year. It lists contests, publishers, agents, and tons more. Buy the book and get online access to updates.
• Check professional organizations like your local Press Women, the National Federation of Press Women, and the Wisconsin Regional Writers’ Association (WRWA).
• Do a Google search on “writing contests” plus your genre.
• Subscribe to Winning Writers newsletter at winningwriters.com. I love this one for finding free contests.

Once you’ve won a contest—finalist or first place—you are newsworthy:

• Add this honor to the Awards page of your media kit. If it’s your first award, center it on a page of its own. Oh! And celebrate!
• Write your media release announcing this coup.
• Post your news on media release distribution sites that allow you to post your release yourself. Find a list of these sites at howtodoitfrugally.com/mediareleasedisseminators1.htm.
• Notify all your professional organizations.
• Notify bookstores where you hope to have a signing and those where you have had a signing.
• Notify your college and high school. Some have press offices. Most publish magazines for alumni and their current students.
• Add this information to the signature feature of your e-mail program.
• Add this honor to the biography template you use in future media releases—the part that gives an editor background information on you.
• Use this information when you pitch TV or radio producers. It sets you apart from other others and defines you as an expert.
• If your book wins an award, order embossed gold labels from a company like labels-usa.com/embossed-labels.htm. You or your distributor can apply them to your books’ covers. If you win an important award, ask your publisher to redesign your bookcover or dustcover to feature it a la the Caldecott medal given for beautifully illustrated children’s books? If you don’t know this medal, visit your local bookstore and ask to see books given this award.
• Be sure your award is front and center on your blog, your Web site, your Twitter wallpaper, and your social network pages.
• Your award should be evident on everything from your business card to your checks and invoices.

Robert W. Schaefer, one of the readers of the first edition of The Frugal Book Promoter, wrote to tell me that he would appreciate a plan of attack for getting an award for a book:

§ First and foremost, write a great book. One with great content. One that is organized well. A reminder here. It’s almost impossible to do this without some personal guidance, which is why I recommend writers conferences (see the next section of this chapter), and well-vetted writing classes in your genre.

Caveat: When you change genres, take another class. Do it even if you have been supremely successful at writing in another genre. Authors who have achieved stature should be especially cautious about embarrassing themselves by launching into another arena without knowing all the new stuff they need to know. Poetry is not fiction. Writing a romance requires some skills science fiction does not, and vice versa. Journalists have a great start, but they’ll find knowing more about some elements of fiction like dialogue may inform their news stories as well as help them write a better novel.

§ Get your book edited by a professional editor. You’ll have an easier time of selling it if you do this before you begin the submission process, and because many publishers have cut their editing budgets, you’ll be more assured that the job is done well enough to have it qualify for an award. Read my The Frugal Editor (budurl.com/TheFrugalEditor) to know more about editing and how to choose a qualified one.

§ If you are self publishing, hire an excellent book cover artist. Mind you, I didn’t say a graphic designer or fine artist. People like Chaz DeSimone (charlesdesimone.com) know things about book cover design and marketing pitches that others may not know.

§ If you are self publishing, hire a good formatter or interior book designer, too, one that knows the intricacies of frontmatter, backmatter, headers, footers, and page numbering.

§ If you write nonfiction, learn the art of indexing. It isn’t as easy as the word processing programs seem to make it, but I think it’s one uphill battle that’s worth fighting on your own because no one will know your book—know what you feel is important for your reader to know—like you do. There are, of course, also excellent professional indexers who will work closely with you. If your publisher provides an index for you, check it to see if important categories or details have been overlooked.

§ Follow the guidelines above for finding the perfect contest, one that is a match for your book.

§ Attack this process with confidence and be willing to make an investment of time and some money.

As you can see, the more you know about publishing, the better equipped you will be to produce a product (and your book is a product!) you can be proud of—perhaps even a prize-winning book. You wouldn’t expect to become a computer programmer without knowing how the hardware worked, now would you?

——-

Carolyn Howard-Johnson promotes her multi award-winning poetry and fiction using contests of all kinds. She also sponsors contests as a way to market her writing career. Learn more about her methods in any one of her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers: www.howtodoitfrugally.com.