Angela Recommends

ARTICLE RATING: 10/10

Will your book stay inside of you and never reach its potential?
This is an article written by my friend, Kathleen Gage, and you can read it here as well. She’s a well-known online marketer and helps authors do Amazon book campaigns.

Over the weekend I was in San Diego for the 21st Century Book Marketing Conference. My colleagues and friends, Christine Kloser and Lynne Klippel and I were exhibitors.  We knew this would be a great experience and create amazing opportunities, but the event far exceeded our expectations.

The 21st Century Book Marketing Conference was the vision of Arielle Ford and Mike Koenigs. Their goal was to provide a great learning and networking opportunity for all who attended. They definitely achieved this goal.

Not only was the event held at a wonderful facility, the lineup of speakers was beyond compare. Over and over the speakers, which included Jack Canfield, Dan Poynter , Marci Shimoff, Debbie Ford, John Kremer, Peggy McColl, Rick Frishman, Mari Smith and more, gave insights into the absolute necessity of using social marketing to promote virtually anything…especially  books.

Things have changed
The terrain for book publishing and book marketing has drastically changed in the last few years. Options we have today were not available in the past. Amazingly, the things we absolutely must do to not only survive, but thrive, are often ignored by struggling authors.

According to one expert the average yearly income for authors is only $14,000. Holy cow! I was shocked.

It made me wonder why authors wouldn’t do everything possible to learn the art and science of marketing. Sadly, many authors are either doing as little as possible to market their books because they just don’t find it as interesting as writing or they are still using outdated methods to reach readers and sell books.

You have to have control
Repeatedly, 21st Century Book Marketing Conference speakers emphasized how important it is to have control over your marketing; simple as that. And Social Marketing allows you to have more control that most people realize. Besides, it’s incredibly cost effective … if you know what you are doing.

Many attendees are thinking of writing a book, but not sure where to start; while others hadve their manuscript done and are now ready to get their book published. Regardless of where one is in the writing process the only way any author can fulfill their dream is to take action every day.

With just about every author I spoke to at the conference my question was, “What are your plans for marketing?”

Some had a handle on what they could do while quite a few others looked at me with a quizzical expression.

You need to know
The bottom line is every author needs to know something about marketing. Whether or not you do your own marketing is not the issue. The issue is, marketing has to be a part of your plan for the success of your book.

During his hour long keynote presentation, Jack Canfield emphasized that not only should authors and publishers learn the skills; we must also work on our mindset. When he and Mark Victor Hansen were complete unknowns, turned down by over 140 publishers, losing money rather than making money, the one thing they did was to lay a solid foundation for success by creating a clear vision of what they wanted. A huge part of the vision was their marketing. Jack said they referred daily to John Kremer’s book, 1001 Ways to Market Your Books.

What they did
Actually, they put up 1001 yellow sticky notes on a wall and wrote down each and every idea in John’s book. From there they did a minimum of five things a day to market their first Chicken Soup for the Soul book. With each thing they did they took down a yellow sticky note.

They also went to great lengths to get on as many radio shows as possible. It was from repeated efforts they finally became successful.

Jack went on to tell the audience the only difference between he and Mark becoming bestsellers and others not doing so is the level of willingness to do whatever needed to be done day in and day out. Simple as that.

As the terrain has changed, authors actually now have much more opportunity than in the past. Today we have social networking sites to sell books. We can use Amazon.com bestseller campaigns to reach our goals. We can choose to self publish, do print on demand or seek a traditional publisher.

Secure your future
All of this and much more was discussed at the conference. A hot, hot topic was how to take control of your future by developing and marketing products. This can be in the form of reports, books, teleseminars and webinars to name just a few.

Without a doubt, the world of authorship and publishing has changed. To not learn how to market your books (or future books), develop products, and find ways to stand out from the crowd is to minimize one’s chances for success.

The challenge can be where to get the best information. There are so many things available how does one make the best choice?

1.  Avoid this syndrome
Avoid the “impulse buy” syndrome. Research the person you are buying products and services from to make sure they are “the real deal”.

2.  Avoid the “Products are my dust collectors” syndrome. When you invest in something you owe it to yourself to study and apply the material.

3.  Avoid the “I can get everything for free” syndrome. I will be the first to admit there is a lot of great information one can obtain via the Internet at no cost. However, there comes a point you have to make a financial investment.

4.  Avoid the “I’m going to get-rich-quick” syndrome. The fact is, you can make a great living with information products. Another fact is you have to work at it. Success is not going to happen without effort.

Lots of people would love to have the type of success Jack Canfield has. Not only on a financial level, but on the level of contribution he makes to worthy causes.

As you think about the author success stories that abound, take a complete look at what it took to achieve this. It didn’t happen by respected authors sitting back and hoping for success. It has to do with gaining the best knowledge base, training, and mentoring possible. And…. applying the information.

You can do it too
One of the best ways an author can make money is with information products. Isn’t it time to start your own products that you can make available to your market? It’s actually easier than most people realize. Click here to access information on how easy this can be.

If you do have a book in the works, how do you plan to market it? Why not with an online book launch? Check out my report on how to Become and Online Bestseller. Click here. You will be glad you did.

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Why do I post articles by ‘competitors’?

Well, it would be just a bit outrageous for me to think I could mentor every author on the planet. Kathleen has a very different system from mine. While her system helps you do amazon launches, mine allows you to market your book without amazon or even a website, if you don’t have one (although I do recommend that you do have one).

Since I only take a few people a year, and you may want to do what Kathleen does, I’m grateful to be able to widen the field by exposing her work to you, so you have a bigger choice!

aloha – Angela

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