Pre-Buzzing Your Book Launch

ProBlogger had a really interesting blog post recently about how to sell your product by creating an effective product launch campaign before your product is released. In layman’s terms, it’s called pre-buzz.

Authors know all about pre-buzz. Once they find out their manuscript has been accepted for publication, their mind races to think of ways to promote it. Booksignings might be one of them. Buying postcards and business cards might be another couple of things the authors might do in terms of publicity tools, but if you’re aiming online, the first thing I would think of if I had a new book out was how to find ways to get those thousands of Internet buyers interested.

Setting up a virtual book tour should be at the top of everyone’s list. Whether you set one up yourself or hire us to do it, there is no other way to get more exposure for your book if you do it right.

I sent out a few questionnaires to last month’s clients to see how effective their virtual book tour went in their own opinion and one of the questions I asked was “How much pre-buzz did you create for your virtual book tour?” I will be sending a flurry of blog posts through here to let you know how that went, among other valuable information in case you’re planning a virtual book tour launch. If you’d like, you can sign up for our feed at top left to be alerted when new posts are published.

I do hope that all authors realize the importance of pre-buzzing your book launch. Do stay tuned for more posts on this subject to make sure your book campaign stands out from the rest and while you’re waiting, wander on over to ProBlogger…they’ve got really good tips that will help you create that online presence which virtual book tours are good for.

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Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books with Richard Dudum

Richard Dudum is the author of What Your Mother Never Told You, A Survival Guide for Teenage Girls.  His book is at the top of the charts at Amazon.  He is on tour this month with Pump Up Your Books Promotion and I asked him about his marketing strategy. 

  

So far I have done very little to market the book, but the response has been wonderful.  The book was first made available at Amazon.com in mid November 2007.  In the last four months I have sent three press releases.  In addition, the book has been reviewed by a number of people who have written newspaper articles or have posted their reviews on the Internet, including on Amazon.com.

  

I have also had the opportunity to be interviewed on Television stations in San Francisco and Florida.  In addition, a news station in Wichita, Kansas ran a story on the book.  All of the pieces are, or soon will be on the “Media Tab” link of the website at What Your Mother Never Told You.

  

You can also find more about his book at his website.

Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books with Dr. James Hardt

Book Promotion:  The Art of Smart Thinking

Self-publishing- ups and downs.

My book, The Art of Smart Thinking, originally went to press in a pre-publication effort in April of 2007.  This book developed over a number of years as I audio-tape recorded question and answer sessions about my work that I set up with friends.  These audiotapes were transcribed and went through many stages of edits. 

In April of 2007 my assistant Terese had 400 pre-publication copies of my book printed as quickly as she could manage in order for us to use it as promotional material at a conference in Atlanta, GA.  We had hoped to sell the book, but upon arriving at the conference and finding that it was an unexpectedly small event, we decided to give the books away.  We came back with a large percentage of our original 400 copies.  Shipping the books back and forth from the event was a surprisingly expensive ordeal.  That should have been a clue as to future hurdles that I would need to learn to overcome. 

By September of 2007, we managed to give away and sell the rest of the four hundred copies that were left after the conference.  I had also done another round of edits on the book.  To sell the book (and the brain wave trainings it describes) we promoted the book through our website and e-newsletters sent out to our Alumni.  After the last of the original 400 books were gone, our office felt a great need to have more books printed. At this point we also had a good deal of confidence and hope for the future of the book.  One of the individuals involved with pre-publishing the book in April of 2007 proposed a plan for achieving a New York Times Best-Seller.  Although the idea was very attractive to me at the time, the proposal involved a great investment of time and resources and the book was not going to be “out there” in the public eye for over a year.  For us, this prospect of major delays was not a viable one.  So we looked for another answer. 

One of the challenges of marketing The Art of Smart Thinking is the subject category of the book.  While The Art of Smart Thinking is truly an important topic of interest for anyone who has a brain, it focuses on self-growth and self-improvement with a twist.  By combining information about psychology and physiology of the brain and brainwaves (EEG) with my personal scientific research and technological information, the book tells the story of how to improve your life while also telling some of the story of my life,- which has been dedicated, since my college days, to developing the field of knowledge known as neurofeedback.   

The book has a strong scientific basis, but is also easily read since it was composed by my conversationally speaking answers to people’s questions about the brain and consciousness.  However, in addition to Science, the book also has a spiritual theme.  This unique mixture of topics in a ‘self-help’ book is quite new to our culture and especially new to literature.  Science, technology and spirituality often do not mix in literature unless it is within a philosophical context.   

Thus, marketing the book on a mass scale was a somewhat daunting task, for which we had no experience.  Through the advice and referral from a wise and supportive friend, John Assaraf, we found a marketing strategist, Michelle Price, who has experience marketing books that deal with self growth topics and who also has had significant success in marketing books that are of a similar genre as The Art of Smart Thinking.  Upon her advice, we decided to set our goals on achieving an Amazon.com best-seller based on a “targeted marketing strategy” consisting of emails delivered to people who have already expressed an interest in neurofeedback and other closely related topics.  Her proposal to attain Amazon.com best seller status projected a timeline of only a couple of months and her suggested investment was significantly less than the proposal for a New York Times Best Seller.  

We rushed an order of 1,000 books and were able to get them delivered to our office just a few days before the scheduled release of our book on Amazon.com.  Again, the shipping costs were outrageous and overall, the shipping costs have significantly reduced our ability to break even from our book sales.  We have spent over $100,000 in producing, printing, shipping and marketing the book and revenues have been less than $30,000 to date.   

For marketing the book I invested in a small marketing package that included: 1.   A copy written sales letter, 2.   A website devoted to the book (www.theartofsmartthinking.com) which includes a free e-course to support The Art of Smart Thinking and free gifts from authors that are related to the content of my book, and 3.   Several email lists that were comprised of email addresses of individuals who expressed a desire to know more about topics related to the content in The Art of Smart Thinking.  

I consider the investment in this targeted marketing campaign to be the most successful piece of our marketing strategy.  We released the copy written sales letter the night before the book was made available on Amazon.com and immediately we shot up in the charts to number one on the worldwide Movers And Shakers best seller list.  We maintained number-one status here for only a brief time before falling behind the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto’s Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West (by HarperCollins which had languished in obscurity until her assassination).  In the third day, we rose to #3 World-wide Best Seller and were very excited to hold the number three spot all day long and then, to stay in the top ten for about another week or two.  As a result of our book sales, Amazon.com ordered 3,000 books on one day and then another 5,000 books the day after that.  We were forced to rush the order and printed10,000 copies to meet the demand from incoming book orders.  Again, placing a rush order and shipping on the last minute ended up costing us a great deal more than it should have; however, more importantly, we were able to fulfill orders for Amazon.com in a timely and professional manner. 

While it has been a significant investment to publish this book ourselves and to market the book ourselves, I honestly can say that it is a wonderful experience to have.  I can better influence how the book is perceived and where it gets publicity.  I am directly connected to its progress and I feel a happy responsibility for the outcome of our efforts.  Some of the professionals involved in the marketing effort were also astonished at the powerful and sustained results we achieved in sales at Amazon.com.  So astonished were they, that they asked to interview me about how I felt with this amazing and unexpected degree of success. 

Because I had to formulate my thoughts and feelings for that interview in early January, I can now more fully recall and re-create my experience here for you. 

It was an entirely new kind of pleasure that I had never experienced before in my life.  Many people could understand the idea of a new kind of pleasure in life as being, for example, a new zesty exotic flavor, or an amazing new position in sex, or a deeper level of love and commitment with a partner, or the blessed birth of a child, or the attainment of a great and enduring life-success for one’s child.   

The new kind of pleasure I had was none of these, but maybe was more than all of these and probably closest to that last one listed:  the attainment of a great and enduring life-success for one’s child.   I’ve labored, often unpaid or underpaid, for over 30 years to bring forth a technology for the spiritual awakening of humanity.  In this quest I’ve raised and dedicated about $11 million.  For the first 20 years in this work I was so far out ahead of my culture and university colleagues as to be considered a very dedicated oddity.  But here in the closing days of 2007, the book describing my life’s work was winning hundreds and even thousands of new people to their own awakening into the vast and beautiful possibilities for their own higher consciousness and a better, happier life for themselves and their friends and families. 

A strange new pleasurable feeling began to seep into my awareness.  It did not have a name and it was utterly new in my experience.  I did not even know what to call it.  Without a name for it, I was left marveling at the wonder of it.  When the interviewer asked me how I felt about this unexpected success of my book, some of my new pleasurable feelings crystallized into words.  Part of it was joy that the good news (of a method for broad and easy access, by ordinary people, to formerly forbiddingly unattainable advanced spiritual states) was being heard by thousands of my fellow human beings. 

Part of it was relief that a message and a knowledge that I had nurtured, developed, protected and carried for so many decades, almost alone, was now gaining a wider audience, so that it was less likely to be lost.  Knowledge can easily be lost, and has been lost all too often in the past.  But now I felt relief and joy with thousands of new people excitedly discovering the existence of a publicly-available Technology and Method for healing emotional wounds, empowering effective forgiveness, reversing aging in the brain, boosting IQ and creativity and enabling rapid access to advanced spiritual states.  This knowledge that I had been carrying almost alone, for decades was now almost flying out into our culture,- reaching a wider and more general audience than I had ever known before, and therefore the danger of the loss of this knowledge was being dramatically reduced.  It was a little bit like one’s child securing a stable, beneficial and enduring position in life from which they could then do the work of healing many others. 

For me one of the greatest joys is helping people to heal their emotional and psychic wounds and then go on into states of happiness, joy and bliss.  As the book sales expanded into the 1,000s I felt a contentment and a fulfillment in being able to bring this good news to many many people.  It was an acknowledgement that my sacrifices in so many areas of my life had been worthwhile.  My labors were bearing fruit and knowledge of better ways to organize your own mind and personality and spiritual seeking were becoming known to thousands of my fellow human beings.  I felt joy, happiness and fulfillment in being able to tell other people about better ways to forgive and to deepen love, compassion and understanding.  Sharing the good news with thousands of new people was an almost unspeakable new joy.  A certain part of me that had been working ceaselessly toward this goal was, finally, able to relax.  The warmth of contentment spread throughout my entire awareness and I was at peace. 

I felt that I had successfully set into motion something that could now not ever be stopped.  I felt that “ignition” had occurred for a new stage of the consciousness development of humanity.  I felt that the awakening of humanity had now become inevitable.  The forces of ego and darkness would no longer prevail.  People were finally going to discover how to self-regulate their own brain activity and thus discover the greatest freedom they had ever had.  Instead of being like bound and gagged prisoners in the trunk of the vehicle of their own lives, they now had the potential to remove the gags and the ropes and shackles and to move into the driver’s seat of the vehicle of their own lives and to steer in new directions and to attain new and better outcomes in their lives.  Vivekananda, in his book Raja Yoga, says, “The goal of every soul is freedom and mastery” and I saw that this goal will now be attained very broadly throughout the ranks of humankind. 

Of course, there are many things that I would do differently next time I decide to self-publish, such as to contract with a shipping company for a better rate than “retail” shipping, but I did not know those things before I started.  

Our plan was simple:  a targeted marketing campaign based on an email sales letter that was professionally written by a copywriter.  We did not predict the hugely successful results; however, we did strongly intend for a successful outcome.  My staff was extremely supportive and enthusiastic about making the book happen and to make the book a chart-topper.  I give them a lot of credit for taking on the project with me and for making it a reality and a great success! 

Book Marketing Buzz Author Interview: Camille Marchetta

Camille Marchetta, author of the new literary novel, The River, By Moonlight, was kind enough to answer a few questions about book marketing, virtual book tours and other facets of book marketing in general.

Her credits include: Staff Writer for the television series Dallas, producer of Nurse and Dynasty, co-executive-producer of Falcon Crest, and story consultant on the television series, Central Park West.

Welcome, Camille. I am very impressed with your television credits. How did you land those fantastic writing positions?

Thank you. That’s nice of you to say. Honestly, I do feel very lucky to have been associated with so many of television’s landmark shows. Looking back, it can all seem easy enough, but the truth is that two years after I arrived in Los Angeles wanting to write, I had only one assignment to my credit, and a lot of projects getting nowhere fast. I was working temp jobs to earn money. But then a producer, who was hoping to make one of my spec scripts into a film, introduced me to an agent named Lynn Pleshette, an untiring powerhouse of a person, and still a good friend. At the time, she represented (and still does, I believe) a writer named David Jacobs to whom she sent a sample script of mine. David wasn’t able to get me a job on the show he was then story-editing, but he promised that as soon as he could, he would hire me. And he came through on that promise, big time. Soon after, he created the series, Dallas, and gave me a script assignment for the mini-series. Then, in the first full season, I joined the staff of the show as a story-editor. Dallas was such a huge hit. My career was launched. The other work just followed naturally in its wake.

I remember, as the rest of the world at that time, watching the final season of Dallas in which everyone was glued to their sets to find out Who Shot JR? Did you have people trying to get you to tell you who really shot JR before the rest of the world found out?

It’s hard to keep track, but that episode was actually the last in the second season (the show lasted 13). And all of us - the cast, the crew, the production staff – had people trying to pry the answer out of us. Friends were calling me from London, where the bookies were taking odds, begging me to tell them who’d done it. Our offices were broken into. Scripts were stolen. Bribes were offered. But we’d had the foresight to write (and film) different endings. Only a handful of us knew which was the real one. And none of us told. Not even those of us who could really have used a little extra money. I’ve always thought that was amazing, and a real tribute to the spirit of the show.

What was the most rewarding thing about writing for television? The least rewarding?

I suppose the most rewarding was watching first Dallas and then Dynasty climb to #1 in the ratings while I was working on them. Success is very thrilling. As for the least rewarding, well, failure really hurts. I wrote a couple of pilots for series that I thought had great potential, and when the networks didn’t agree, I was crushed. I still think they were wrong.

Why did you decide to start writing books? Did you still write for television while you were writing them?

Growing up, as well as an avid movie-goer and television-watcher, I was a voracious reader. So, writing books was something I always wanted to do, and by the time I finished a season on Dynasty, not only did I feel I was at last ready, but I had enough money put away to take a “sabbatical.” I went to London and wrote my first novel, Lovers and Friends. I wrote my second, The Wives of Frankie Ferraro, after Falcon Crest. For a long while, I alternated between books and television, but for now at least I’m focused entirely on my novels.

Do you feel that marketing books has changed since your first book was released? Who was your publisher and what kind of marketing did they provide for you?

Publishing has changed since my first novel, but I’m not sure that marketing has, though I suppose now even conventional publishers use the internet as well as older media to publicize their books. Arbor House, a division of William Morrow, was my first publisher, and their people did all the usual things of sending the book out for review, getting me some interviews, and paying for an ad in The New York Times. But, really, they spent pennies on me (and with St. Martin’s Press, my second publisher, it was even less). Most of their marketing and advertising budget for that list, if I remember correctly, was targeted to Ken Follett, whose book was released at the same time as mine. In financial terms, I suppose that made sense. A campaign to publicize a well-known author may cost a lot more, but the potential is there to sell enough books to make a huge profit, whereas, with a midlist author, the return – unless a miracle happens – will always be quite modest. For me, for any author, though, it’s very frustrating.

How are you marketing The River, By Moonlight, now?

The book is self-published, so the responsibility for its fate is entirely in my hands. And I’m trying anything and everything I can think of. The publishing package itself included a press release and distribution of the book to a number of critics. I’ve contacted others on my own. I’ve done emailings. I’ve written letters and sent press kits to bookstores and libraries. I’ve done one reading, and have two more scheduled, and hope those will lead to others. And of course there’s this virtual book tour. I have high hopes for it. I can’t think of a better, more efficient, or fun way of reaching out to readers, of letting them know what’s on my mind. And I hope, as a result, that they will not only buy my book, but let me know what’s on theirs, via my website or, when possible, through the sites where I’m scheduled to appear. I’d love to hear from people. And of course the wonderful thing about self-publishing is that there’s no time frame. The bookstores aren’t going to pull the novel from its shelves (it’s not there!). The publisher won’t give up, stop selling, and remainder copies. The River, By Moonlight is here today, tomorrow, for always. I find that thought very satisfying.

What are your views about the state of publishing today? Do you feel it’s harder to get a book published by a NY publisher and, if so, why do you think this is happening? Was it easier years ago before everyone decided they had a book in them?

It’s not the number of people writing now, though it’s always daunting to walk into a store and see the vast quantities of books available; and I sympathize, I really do, with the need to clear shelves to bring in the next lot. But, though I don’t know this for certain, I suspect that there have always been more books written than the publishing houses could accommodate. The history of self-publishing is a very long one. To me, the problem is not how many, but what kinds of books are published. Since the big houses – for the most part – are no longer independent, but are owned by conglomerates, decisions about what books to buy are not made these days (or at least not often) by editors who fall in love with one. Instead they are chosen by committee, for their earnings potential – not a love match, but an arranged marriage. I think this is bad for everyone. For the editors, the publishers, the writers, the readers. But I don’t see the point wasting much time or energy bemoaning this. It’s just a fact of life. I’m more concerned with trying to figure out ways to get good books, however they reach print, the readers they deserve.

What do you see happening in the future as far as the big houses are concerned? Do you feel the smaller houses are going to become as saturated with new books as the bigger houses?

I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the business of publishing, or worrying about its fate. It’s too depressing. I try to concentrate on writing, which is my job. So I don’t have what I’d consider an “informed” opinion. Still, I do have one. I think the publishing companies will continue to follow the path of the film companies, which are also owned by conglomerates. They’ll increasingly specialize in “blockbusters” – with varying degrees of success. Some will go bankrupt. Others will merge, get sold, resold. The smaller houses will concentrate on quality, grow, get bought by the bigger ones, and lose their way. Others will spring up. And on it will go, with some wonderful books continuing to be published amid a vast amount of junk. And now (an exciting development in my view) into the mix has come the self-published book, some from writers who couldn’t find (for any number of reasons) a conventional publisher; others from writers who simply want more control over their work, who don’t want to compromise, make cuts they don’t like, be saddled with covers they detest, be marketed in ways they find embarrassing. The problem is how to sort through this mountain of books, and especially in the case of the self-published works, to evaluate them fairly and give them a chance to succeed. I think some progress has been made doing this, with author websites where excerpts can be posted so potential readers can judge for themselves whether a book is worth buying, with PR companies like Pump Up Your Book Promotion, and especially sites like this one that give authors a chance to meet readers directly. But there’s still a long way to go.

Last question. I just have to ask, you authored a book with Ivana Trump. Did you ever meet The Donald?

Yes, I did, at least twice, but only briefly. And he certainly wouldn’t remember.

Thank you for stopping by, Camille. I wish you much success with your new book, The River, By Moonlight, and hope all of you readers out there will go out and pick up a copy. Better yet, save the steps and buy it at Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/26kf53!
You can visit Camille’s website at www.camillemarchetti.com.

Thank you so much. I enjoyed the questions and the challenge of answering them.

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THE RIVER, BY MOONLIGHT VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘08 will officially begin on Feb. 1, 2008 and continue all month. If you would like to follow Camille’s tour, visit http://www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/.  Leave a comment on her blog stops and become eligible to win a free copy at the end of her tour! One lucky winner will be announced on this page on February 29!
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Camille’s virtual book tour is brought to you by Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tours at http://www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com/  and choreographed by Dorothy Thompson.

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Tags: Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tours, online book promotion, author publicity, virtual book tour, book promotion, Camille Marchetta, The River, By Moonlight, literary fiction, Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Dallas, Dallas mini-series, Dynasty, New York, Hudson River Valley

Rachel & Judy’s Letter to My Lover Valentine’s Day Contest!

Would you like to become involved in Rachel Greene Baldino and Judy Ford’s virtual book tour? Read below how you can!

Since February is the time for cupids and hearts and all things romantic and sometimes not-so-romantic, what better time than to write a letter to your lover?

On February 1, 2008, Rachel Greene Baldino and Judy Ford, authors of the book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Enhancing Sexual Desire, are embarking on a virtual book tour around the world collecting letters from bloggers who would like to tell their lovers how they really feel about them – the good and the bad – and become a part of their tour!

If you would like to become involved in their contest, this is how it works:

1. Think of the things you would like to say to your lover, but haven’t had the time or the reason, whether it’s to say how much you love them or how they drive you up the wall. Yes, the good and the bad and the funnier or more outrageous the better! Let everything hang out!

2. Do not use names. Name your blog post “Letter to My Lover” and begin your post with “Dear Lover…” They’ll have to guess who it’s for!

3. Post your message on your blog between now and February 14th and send us the exact link to thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com. Please put “Letter to my Lover” in your subject line.

4. When we receive your link, we will add it to Rachel and Judy’s tour page.

5. But, that’s not all! Rachel and Judy will pick one of the bloggers who participate a FREE copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Enhancing Sexual Desire! That’s their Valentine’s Day present to you!

6. And…we will promote your blog through our daily promotions using your blog post as part of their virtual book tour, thus bringing you lots of traffic during February!

7. We also ask that you include a jpeg copy of Rachel and Judy’s book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Enhancing Sexual Desire, in your blog post. You can find their book cover here (you are welcome to copy and paste from there).

8. All participants will be listed on Rachel and Judy’s tour page so that everyone can read YOUR letters to your lover!

That’s all there is to it! Hurry before time runs out. Become involved in a nationwide campaign to tell the world what you think about your lover and see how much fun it will be to read the letters of others. Share your letters and become involved in RACHEL AND JUDY’S “LETTER TO MY LOVER” VALENTINE’S DAY CONTEST!

Rachel and Judy’s virtual book tour will be highly publicized including press releases and other promotions and is brought to you by Pump Up Your Book Promotion, an innovative public relations agency specializing in online book promotion. You can visit their website at http://www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com/.

Tags: virtual book tour, Valentine’s Day, letter to my lover, Valentine’s Day contest, Rachel Greene Baldino, Judy Ford, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Enhancing Sexual Desire, Pump Up Your Book Promotion

“They treat your book like it’s their book”

I got the most delightful email from Cheryl Malandrinos, one of my tour coordinators, this morning.

One of her clients, Garasamo Maccagnone, author of St. John of the Midfield, and who is touring in February, sent her this email in which I’d like to share:

“The Pump Up Your Book Promotion staff is a remarkable group of professional people who babysit you through your entire tour.  I highly recommend them.  They treat your book like it’s their book.”

I emailed Cheryl and told her that whatever she’s doing, keep doing it.

The staff of Pump Up Your Book Promotion and I strongly believe that even though there are many authors going out in any given month, and some of us have four, five tours at one time, and I’d be lying if I told you we don’t get stressed, but the reason why it can be stressing at times is that we strongly believe that even though we are handling more than one author in any given month, we must make each author feel special, unique, one-of-a-kind, which they are rightly due.

The way we are set up - being is because there are so many authors wanting tours each month - is to take each author’s tour and judge it separately.  While it may appear that we place our authors on the same blogs each month, there is a reason for that, too.  Each blog we are contracted with fulfills a certain purpose.  While one blogger might be great for hits, another blogger might be great for promoting that stop.  We have one blogger who posts the interview or guest post on their blog, then turns around and announces the stop on other blogs.  They are not paid to do this, either.  That’s why they are valuable to us, and we keep them aboard.

With that said, once we add these blogs to our authors’ tour sheets according to what genre they are, etc.., we go on a man hunt to find blogs that would increase their publicity.  It’s a variety of stops which, when added up, creates enormous online presence and added visibility to their potential book buyers.

But, what most people think, because that’s what they see, that’s not all there is to it.

We take your book and read it in order to get into the mindset of the author writing it and understand the point they are making with it.  We find hooks that we can use in our promotion which can then be used to make the author stand out - whether it’s a news hook or a general interest hook - and we use these hooks to create an even more powerful campaign.

For instance, one of the clients I am representing right now has experience in television and has co-written a book with a well-known celebrity.  Had I not picked up on that in her bio, I would have overlooked one of the best hooks for her book possible in terms of what a virtual book tour can do for her.

But, every tour is different.  Every tour has that special quality that makes it stand out and it’s all because of the work we put behind the scenes in creating a virtual book tour to be proud of.

A virtual book tour is a vehicle.  It’s a vehicle to get the readers to the blog to where the author is appearing so that they may purchase the authors’ book.  If that interview or guest post or book review does nothing but to waste the readers’ time, then what’s the point?

There is a lot going on at Pump Up that the general viewer might not pick up on, but if you study one of our clients’ tours, you might pick up on what we do.  We don’t just send your book out on tour, we treat your book like it’s our book because that’s the only way we can convey to our reader that this book is worth buying.

I want to personally thank Gary for his endorsement and let him know that it didn’t take but a second and a half to get it up on our endorsement page.  ;o)

Tags: author publicity, book publicity, book endorsements, Garasamo Maccagnone, virtual book tour

Self-promote with a passion

Virtual tours are off to a great start with seven wonderful authors on tour.  I’ve got one author with me today who is going to tell you what she does to promote her book, but let me tell you who she’s all about.

Her name is Anita Hackley-Lambert and her book is called F.H.M. MURRAY: FIRST BIOGRAPHY OF A FORGOTTEN PIONEER FOR CIVIL JUSTICE.

Now this woman is a self-promoter with a passion.  The book is the biography of her great-grandfather and her great-grandfather just so happens to be one of the co-founders of the NAACP.  Wowzers.

If you happen to visit www.virtualbooktours.wordpress.com, you’ll see the different places she’s going to stop at giving interviews, what not, but what Book Marketing Buzz is interested in is what she is doing to promote the book so that you, the reader, can see that it takes an incredible amount of passion to go the nine yards to promote a book, especially in Anita’s case where it is so close to home.  If you visit her tour stops, you’ll hear about this remarkable lady, but today, I’m going to give you her marketing side and how she has learned how to self-promote with a passion.  Take it away, Anita…

“I have a great lesson to share about marketing and promoting my book, F.H.M. Murray: First Biography for a Forgotten Pioneer for Civil Justice. First let me say, that I paid thousands of dollars for a quality promotion from a reputable named publisher and got ripped off.  If you use someone else, do the research first.

That lesson taught me to learn to self-promote. I have done well. In fact, I sold my first 100 books before my book came off the presses. For me, there is no single promotion step that works better over another. I use a variety of promotional tools and methods. For example, I send out several FREE press releases announcing my book at least two months prior to its  publication date, followed by monthly releases of up coming author events like book signings and speaking engagements. There are a number of great free sites to list your book in like AuthorsandExperts.com or AuthorsDen.com, and others. I distribute flyers, announcements, invitations, etc. electronically, hand outs, and via snail mail. I use email marketing, web sites, and blot sites.  And, I make good use of family and friends. Before long, other sites will see your information and help you promote by adding your links to their websites or blogs.

My current promotions include Virtual Book Tours, Sankofa Literary Society (super marketing tools for writers), and the use of book trailers.” 

This woman is definitely a go-getter when it comes to self-promoting and doing it with a passion - knowing in her heart that F.H.M. Murray, one of the leaders of early America, is right along side of her, and making sure his memory lives on forever.

If you’d like a copy of Anita’s book, it comes with a lot of cool incentives which you can find out about by clicking here.

Thank you, Anita, and keep pumping up that book!

Tags: virtual book tour, self-promote, Anita Hackley-Lambert, F.H.M. Murray, NAACP

Achieve Your Dreams Virtual Book Tour ‘08 Where YOU Are the Star!

It was the day after Christmas and I had to return back to work.  Stopping off at the post office, I received a package in the mail.  I knew it was a book as I was quite used to getting them in the mail at this point - whether they are to be reviewed or one of the books from the authors I represent.

I really didn’t pay it no mind and threw it in the back seat.

I got home, grabbing the box out of the back seat and turned on the computer to start my nightly rounds of finding blog stops for my authors to appear on, answer email and work on the website.  But, the box was sitting there, beckoning to be opened.

I decided what the heck; let’s see which book this is.

When I pulled the book out of the box, it was wrapped as if it were a Christmas present from someone.  I didn’t recognize the address, so I ripped into it as it had really gotten my curiosity up at that point.  But, before I did that, there was an envelope inside, which I promptly read first.  It was a Christmas card from one of my past clients, Judi Moreo.

She had hand-written: “Dorothy, may all your dreams come true this next year.”

I thought that was the sweetest thing, but did not realize the significance of what she had written until later.  It was not until I ripped into the box when everything started to make sense.

I was impressed that it was leather-bound.  Or felt like it anyway.  On the front with gold lettering were the words: “Achievement Journal” and at the bottom were the words “You Are More Than Enough.”

It was the cutest book I had ever seen.  Inside you were to write your greatest achievements so far and other cool stuff.  For example, one question was “What do I say when I talk to myself?”  That’s going to be a fun one.  Or, “What do I say when someone asks how I am?  What did I mean?”  That’s a fully loaded cannon!

Bear with me…there’s a great point to all this which you’ll find out in a few. 

I emailed Judi and I thanked her for the gift.  She emailed me back saying this was her new book and could she have a tour for January?

I don’t know if anyone has looked at their calendar lately, but according to my calendar, January 1st is but four days away.

But, how can you turn down such a wonderful and kind woman?  I was just about done with January’s authors tours anyway, so I emailed her back to say yes, but I had an idea.

I said, “Judi, I have an idea.  How about we get all the bloggers in the world to blog about the ways they are achieving their dreams instead of a regular book tour and list these bloggers on your tour page?  And how about if we pick them at random and promote these stops just like we would if you were being interviewed there?  And we could call it ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘08 and since the first of the year we usually think about our goals, what not, this would be the perfect thing to promote your book!”

Well, she loved the idea. 

So, that’s what we’re calling it.  The ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘08. 

My question to you is, would you like to join in the fun?  If so, here are the prerequisites:

Would you like to become involved in Judi’s Achieve Your Dreams Virtual Book Tour? Read below how you can!With 2007 behind us and 2008 on the horizon, it’s time to reflect on how we want the rest of our journey here on earth to go. Do we settle for letting life happen or do we take steps toward achieving our dreams? Do we think about it or do we DO it?

If you have watched the movie, “The Secret,” then you understand the power of affirmative thinking = affirmative action. Are you taking those steps in the right direction to enjoy life at its fullest – whether it’s through financial success, relationship bliss or perfect health?

On January 1, 2008, Judi Moreo, author of You Are More Than Enough Achievement Journal (Stephens Press, Dec. ‘07), will embark on a virtual book tour throughout the blogosphere, but it will involve YOU. She wants YOU to be the star in a campaign to let the world know how you are taking those steps in realizing your dreams.

If you would like to become involved in her ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ’08, here is how it works:

1. Repeat this passage from her book: “Every step I take brings me closer to the realization of my dreams” until you understand its powerful message.

2. Think about what steps you are taking to achieve your dreams and write about it. Your entry can be as long or as short as you’d like.

3. Post your message on your blog and give us the link so that we can post it on Judi’s tour page down below. The email address to send your entry is thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com.

4. When we receive your link, we will put it on our daily rounds of promotions, thus bringing you instant traffic, so get those links to us soon!

5. We only ask that you include the passage above before your blog post so that people will understand what you are doing.

6. We also ask that you include a jpeg copy of Judi’s book, You Are More Than Enough Achievement Journal, in your blog post. You can find her book cover at http://tinyurl.com/3cqa46 and link it to http://tinyurl.com/ywf67x.

7. All participants will be listed below so that everyone can find out how YOU achieve your dreams!

That’s all there is to it! Hurry before time runs out. Become involved in a nationwide campaign to bring in 2008 with a bang and help others realize that dreams are not something that happens; dreams are something that YOU make happen. Let’s make 2008 the year when you realize your dreams and make them happen. Share your stories and become involved in Judi Moreo’s “Achieve Your Dreams Virtual Book Tour ‘08″ where YOU are the star! Judi’s virtual book tour will be highly publicized including press releases and other promotions. Let us know what steps you are taking to achieve success and be read by thousands of Internet users!

If you would like to visit Judi’s personal tour page, click here!

Tags: virtual book tour, Judi Moreo, You Are More Than Enough Achievement Journal

Why It’s a Real Cool Thing to be a Blog Host

“Just thought I’d let you know that after yesterday’s blog appearance, my blog received 547 hits. Any time you need someone to host, you know where I am!”

This email was sent to one of my tour coordinators tonight.  What a lovely feeling that is, too.

But, a lot of people just don’t have the time to be a blog host, or they just don’t want to get involved.

Well, let me tell you a secret.  It’s a real cool thing to be a blog host and I’ll tell you why.

I’ve been teasing you in earlier blog posts about telling you the nitty gritty no holds barred insider secrets and what not of what goes behind the scene in putting together a virtual book tour.  Whether you put one together yourself, or you hire someone like moi to do it for you, it’s something that really every author should include in their promotional campaign. 

The reason why I started sending authors out on tour was because I saw the advantages, and they sure outweighed the disadvantages.  Yes, I sold books, but more than that, I gave my book the best chance at getting a lot of online attention.  I can’t think of one other promotional venue which would do your book more justice than embarking on a virtual book tour if you’re aiming for online sales. 

I’ve been on both sides of the ring.  I’ve been the author and I’ve been the tour coordinator.  And, I’ve also been the blog host.

If anyone asked me to host them as a stop on a virtual book tour, I would immediately take them up on it because I know that for the few minutes it takes to put their interview, guest post or review up on my blog, I will reap great rewards.

Those rewards would come in blog hits.

But, let me tell you how this works.  If you are one of my authors, I help you learn how to promote your tour.  You are not only touring, you are promoting.  Daily.  I am promoting right alongside you, but I give you tips and hints on what to do and where to go so that your one tour stop will be read by thousands of readers.  If it is only I doing the promoting, that has the potential of being cut in half, so it’s very important, whether you are setting up your own tour or hiring an agency to do it, that you get the word out about your stop and do this each and every day that you are touring.

Back to being a blog host.  If you are the blog host of the day, you will get traffic from not only my company sending readers your way, but the authors’ traffic, also.  If the author told everyone on their email list, announced it on social networking sites, told everyone in their author groups, posted it on their blog and/or website, and in writers’ forums, can you imagine the traffic from this?  Double that after we do our own promotions and see how that adds up. 

So, let’s say that maybe half of the people that the author and our company has promoted to shows up, that’s still lots and lots of hits.  And, let’s say you are promoting something on your blog that the visitor happens to stumble on and goes, “Wow, that really looks neat!” and buys it?  Cha-ching.

So, there are lots and lots of reasons why it’s a cool thing to be a blog host.

Not only are you getting hits, but you are also opening up your blog to thousands of potential subscribers or buyers of your product. 

And, not only that, you get some mighty fine free books out of the deal.  And, that’s hard to pass up.

Okay, who’s ready to sign up?

Tags: book marketing buzz, virtual book tour, online book promotion, book publicity

Don’t Quit Until You Have Nothing Left

What’s the picture of that football player scoring a touchdown got to do with book marketing?  Read on and you’ll see. 

I was talking to one of my clients tonight about different virtual book tour companies.  He had queried one of the “others” out there before he came to me for his virtual book tour, and after a quote from them that would have bought me a seven day cruise in the Bahamas and enough Margaritas to last me a lifetime, he decided to look elsewhere.

And that’s when he found me.

We were having a lengthy conversation about what I do for my authors and I told him I believed that charging more than what I charge is highway robbery.  Now, if you put in the amount of time you spent working on a tour and multiplied that by a decent hourly wage, you’re working for peanuts as someone in my company told me not too long ago. My rebuttal to her was that in order to have the business, maybe you have got to give a little more of yourself and go the extra mile and not quit until you have nothing left because somewhere along the road, you’re going to discover a really neat thing about yourself.

You are going to discover the winner that resides inside your overworked, weary, self. 

On a different note, authors, I believe, have got to be the most resilient types of people out there because no matter that their royalties doesn’t pay for their book publicity campaign, they will go the extra yard to win the game even if it costs more than they know they can comfortably afford. They are desperate.  They know the odds.  They’ve been through having the bookstore manager tell them he can’t stock their books because there just isn’t but so much space on the shelves.  They’ve been through checking their Amazon rankings daily and freaking out if their book reaches that million ranking mark.  They’ve been through having their book become only one out of thousands and thousands of books vying for the same position.  But, they’ve got winner on the brain, so they’ll do anything they can even if it takes their very last dime to get their book noticed.

I had a client who used his grandmother’s inheritance to pay for my gold tour.  I didn’t learn this until after the fact, but I feel this is ridiculous to put authors through this.  But, you can’t tell them that because they believe in their book and they’re not quitters.  So, I gave him the best tour I could muster, but that didn’t make me feel any better.

As a business person, I have to make money, too.  But, I don’t have to take advantage of people who want something so bad, they’ll do anything it takes to get it.

There’s a flip side to the coin, though.  I spend 80 hours a week on my tours, leaving hardly any personal time except for sleeping.  But, it’s what I choose to do because I am not a quitter.  I will go the extra mile for my authors until I have nothing left to give. 

I want to send you over to a link that my client sent to me tonight and I want you to watch it and understand the meaning of it.  The meaning hit home to me as I know it will hit home to you, too, if you are an author trying to claim your piece of the pie.

Thanks to my client (you know who you are!) for sending me the link and I hope it encourages all of you to not quit until you have nothing left.

You can visit the link here.