Get a goodie bag worth $500 today when you purchase one of the funnier beach books of the summer.

Fifteen Minutes of Shame, a novel from bestselling author Lisa Daily, is a romantic comedy about what happens when America’s favorite TV love guru finds out her husband is cheating – live, on national television.

I’m proud to announce that NY Bestselling Author Lisa Jackson will be touring with us again at Pump Up Your Book Promotion in August! The book on tour this month is called LEFT TO DIE and looks scrumptious! Here’s the cover:

Is that the most beautiful cover you’ve ever seen? More details on Lisa later, but if you’re interested in hosting her on your blog via an interview, book spotlight or a review, let us know before slots fill up. This book will be touring in August, so the deadline to apply to host her will be the last week of July. Here’s your chance to take part in a virtual book tour with a NY Times bestselling author! If you’re interested, email me at thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com with the words “I want to host Lisa Jackson” in the title.

Become a part of the LEFT TO DIE VIRTUAL BOOK TOUR ‘08 campaign by contacting us early!

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Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books is a continuing series to help authors learn how to promote their books. If you would like to be a guest blogger for our book promotion and publicity series, click here.

Our guest blogger for today is Kamilla Reid, author of The Questory of Rootkarbunkulus.

I am often asked how I came up with the idea for “The Questory” and how I actually made it into a real live published book. Well, it’s a bit of a long story so I’ll try to omit the boring parts.

Hmmmm….Well, I had the idea for DréAmm, the location for my book many, many years ago and because I was involved in live theatre I wrote it as a musical. But I never really liked the feel of it in this format. It felt limited. Plus, I hadn’t quite come into the ‘hook’ yet, that thing that made me go “yes, this is it!” It wasn’t until years later when I caught a snippet of that reality tv show “The Amazing Race” that I finally got that ‘aha!’ moment. I loved the idea of teams of kids all racing against each other in a glorified kind of scavenger hunt to find something very, very important. DréAmm then became a magical land where virtually anything could happen. That’s when the main character, Root Karbunkulus just showed up and toured me around. Of course then the plot got really got good with all sorts of agendas going on, personal and otherwise. In the end, the name ‘DréAmm’ stayed but everything else was ditched.

Around this same time I was leaving the theatre and facing a new role as Single Mum; the perfect combination for finally doing that thing that you promised yourself that you would do but never did.

As far as getting published, I knew from the start that I wanted to go out on my own first. After years in live theatre where budgets dictated everything and I just couldn’t treadmill out another 6-person musical, I wanted complete freedom to explore this new field on my own. I wanted to write my book and have fun creating the book cover and I wanted to make an awesome website and book trailer. I wanted to do it all for the fun of it but also to learn the business of books.

I think self-promotion is absolutely necessary. Right out of the gate I was building an amazing website and book trailer. The trailer won awards and took off on the internet, which was great for creating some buzz. But it was also the most important part of my book tour. I played it on big screens before every reading and it was a huge hit with the kids. You can view it on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIgo1wS_0JI or at the book’s website, http://www.rootkarbunkulus.com.

which is also truly incredible and creates a big impression on my teen readers. I had trendy dogtags made up and used them as prizes for Q and A’s along with props and my signature red ‘Valador’ cloak as a costume. I did a huge book launch, too that really got the word out at the beginning. You can also view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA-b7DAfZrQ&feature=related

The book tour was by far the most rewarding and successful as it helped me to sell 1000 books in 8 weeks. Since then it has been a steady sell. I also submitted my book for reviews and used them in promotions. The internet was probably my biggest challenge as, after the website and trailer, I just had no idea where to even begin. But I think the internet is a huge, HUGE asset to promoting and so I have been learning as I go along.

It has been very worth it to me.

On the downside, wearing too many hats, not to mention the Single Mum Crown began to take its toll. I was doing too much and getting burnt out. But the good thing is that I had managed a fair amount of success on my own, which was a great thing to bring to the tables of agents and traditional publishers.

And now I feel like I’m living the dream! To me there is nothing greater than sharing my stories with the world, knowing my words are making readers laugh and cry and smile and cheer. I love getting emails from kids who have read my book and can’t wait to find out what happens next. It is pure joy!

About the Author:

At age 29, Kamilla Reid became the youngest person to hold the position of Artistic Director for a professional theater company in Edmonton. During this time at Celebrations Theatre she honed her artistic skills by writing and directing five shows per year. Over this ten year incumbency the position evolved and Kamilla developed her own independent theatrical production company to which the dinner theater contracted out. This worked quite well with her new schedule due to the birth of her daughter.

After forty produced plays, Kamilla felt she’d creatively done all she could within the live theater format and, during a period of massive change whereby she found herself in the role of single mother, she began scrawling and plunking on the keyboard and finally, drawing out the long held images of DreAmm and its freckled young inhabitant Root Karbunkulus.

Currently Kamilla is working on book two of the “Questory” series. You can visit her website at www.rootkarbunkulus.com or her blog at www.rootkarbunkuls.com/blog.

]]> http://bookmarketingbuzz.wordpress.com/2008/07/08/book-marketing-buzz-book-promotion-publicity-tips-how-to-promote-your-books-with-teen-fantasy-author-kamilla-reid/feed/ pumpupyourbookpromotion http://bookmarketingbuzz.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/tim-bete-and-capn-billy-the-butcher-macdougall-to-give-away-book-today/ http://bookmarketingbuzz.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/tim-bete-and-capn-billy-the-butcher-macdougall-to-give-away-book-today/#comments Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:33:26 +0000 pumpupyourbookpromotion http://bookmarketingbuzz.wordpress.com/?p=147

Tim Bete and Cap’n Billy “The Butcher” MacDougall are my special guests at Pump Up Your Book Promotion Social Network’s Author Day today! Tim and Cap’n Billy are the authors of the new humor/parenting book GUIDE TO PIRATE PARENTING. You can visit their tour page here to find out more about them, then come on over today from now to 10 p.m. at the Author Day section of our social network and join the party! Leave a question and Tim and Cap’n Billy will answer them all, plus give away a free book to one lucky person who participates!

Woohoo…ahoy matey!

No, sorry, not a darn thing to do with book promotion, but is it?

As I’m always on the lookout for bloggers who can host my clients, I came upon this really interesting blog that I’d like to share with you. The title is History’s Mysteries and what this blogger does is take each day in history according to what day it is today and she/he blogs about it. For example, for today July 2, she/he has picked July 2, 1937 when Amelia Earhart disappeared. What else makes this in interesting history blog is that she/he has included pictures which adds to the beauty of the blog.

What can book promoters (you, the author) who have blogs (and if you don’t, shame, shame, shame) can you learn from this?

I may or may not be back to the blog (unless the blogger has thought to add a feed where half the posts come into my email box and I’m forced to go over there to read and as a history buff, that would be a good idea on the blogger’s part), but what caught my eye besides it being informative was that it wasn’t a blog that simply promoted…anything.

It was a blog that gave to the community instead of pitching something and if the blogger has a product somewhere down the line that tied into what he or she was doing, I’m sure they would place that information in the sidebar so it doesn’t detract from the already pleasantly informing information they have up there.

As book promoters who use our blogs to promote our products (namely, books), we of course can’t do that. Our blogs are to help others find out more about our books, right? So how can we do this without coming over as a sales pitch?

Unfortunately, you can’t. You need to keep adding information to your blog that pertains to your book; however, maybe you can use a bit of ingenuity in the middle of all those blog posts about where you got the idea to write your book, book excerpts, promo to where you’re appearing on the net or offline to promote your book, and well, you get the idea.

You need to provide something that gives to the public. Let them go away from your blog not filled with excerpts and book promo, but something that has the wow factor. Something different that no one else is doing.

I occasionally mention my company on this blog but I don’t throw it at you. Instead, I include book marketing tips and guest posts from authors telling you how they buzz their book which comes in handy when you are trying to promote your book. For readers, it helps them learn more about the author and their book. So, it’s all good.

The main point of this blog post is to ask you what can you do to give to the community?

While you might not be a history buff like me, wander over to History’s Mysteries and have a chance to learn something today. Meanwhile, take one pointer from the blogger…blogging every day will help you get your blog into the search engines. That’s how I found them in the first place. ;o)
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I’m all for places to submit books.  This looked like a really cool site.  It’s called The Polka Dot Banner and appears to be a place where you can submit your book information for free but for added promo, there’s a fee.  Definitely worth checking out.  The link is www.thepolkadotbanner.com.  If you decide to check into it, let us know if you think it’s worthwhile!

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 is a continuing series to help authors learn how to promote their books. If you would like to be a guest blogger for our book promotion and publicity series, click here.

Our guest blogger for today is James Burns, author of THE 3 SECRET PILLARS OF WEALTH: HOW TO CRACK YOUR WEALTH CODE USING THE TOOLS OF SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES.

I have to acknowledge that with my schedule and diverse interests, not to mention my short attention span that writing the book now seems to have the easy part. I had ideas of grandeur that the book would just magically sell and it has when people know and hear about it but therein lies the devil in the details.

The promotion is a special art and I think you have to enlist a team of people to help you. I had a nice book signing party that a company called Sognari International in Irvine, California did for me and sold 200 books in the first evening and then I followed up with giving several live seminars afterwards but then things stalled.

My plan now is to continue building partnerships and joint ventures using edge craft which is a way of thinking horizontally of who can become a strategic partner, affiliate or opportunity that I normally wouldn’t recognize because I’m too busy chunking upwards or downwards for the obvious relationships. To this end, I’ve found several real estate, insurance and financial literacy partners who want to collaborate in selling my book so I create a royalty or income opportunity with them. I have the conventional sales with the big booksellers but that does not do much to monetize for me.

I am doing the virtual book tour and will be doing more of these under the tutelage of Alex Mandossian who is a master salesman in this arena. Alex tells a great story of when Al and Tipper Gore came to a famous bookstore in Marin County, California and not too many people showed up, about 200. I sold that many books at my book signing and I’m nowhere in the same category as a former vice president. The idea of a virtual book tour and tele-seminar for your book means you can have thousands of people attend and there are not seating limitations. You have to get as many people hooked into your vision as possible and as soon as possible to create the momentum.

I am also working with a PR firm for guaranteed radio; this is a new idea in PR to get it guaranteed. My publisher is launching 50 new press releases in several areas spinning my book as it relate to a current financial event and then I’m turning to a guy in the industry who is legendary in turning people into a top seller. I write regular articles and make sure they get out there because it is all about getting out there when you consider 70% of all news is placed…why not join that.

The biggest hurdles are time and money. When you self-publish you have to have a huge reserve for the marketing. I know content and ease of reading are important but let’s face it; some uninteresting books have made it to the best sellers list because it was marketing over mastery and therein lays the secret. You have to be an unabashed maverick with the energy of a hummingbird in flight to promote your book. In sum, you have to be seen to be sold and this is not for the faint at heart.

About the Author:

James is a tax attorney who served honorably in the United States Marine Corps’ Force Reconnaissance (akin to Navy SEAL program). James brings the same commitment and loyalty to his clients that he exhibited when he served our country. He is also CEO of White Diamond Properties, Inc. a real property investment acquisition firm and is on the Advisory Board of Wave Uranium Holdings (WAVU.OB), a development stage company that engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of uranium properties in the United States.

James is on the Advisory Board of Sognari International www.sognari.com/james which is an entrepreneur platform that has famed Michael Gerber involved and they are creating opportunities that are discussed in the book.

You can visit his website at www.3pillarsofwealth.com.

Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books is a continuing series to help authors learn how to promote their books. If you would like to be a guest blogger for our book promotion and publicity series, click here.

Our guest blogger for today is LaConnie Taylor-Jones, author of WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN.

Book promotion is by far one of the most challenging endeavors an author will ever face. At least it has been for me. With thousands of ISBN’s issued each year, exactly how does a new author inform readers there’s another kid on the literary block?

Well, there are several traditional venues to consider: book and/or banner ads, local book signings, and launch parties. However, when the time came for me to promote my debut novel, I discovered a whole host of other promotional avenues such as: on-line promotion, podcasts, book trailers, and virtual book tours. Recently, I’ve added a few social marketing concepts that include: Shelfari, blog sites, MySpace and Yahoo groups. These Internet marketing tools are not only effective, but have allowed me to reach thousands of readers with the push of a button. Despite the convenience and expediency of today’s technology, none of them will ever take the place of a good, old-fashion word-of-mouth recommendation from a reader. I’ve found this type of promotion to be invaluable and it has increased my reader base, tremendously.

At the start of my promotion campaign, I wondered whether my efforts would one day pay off. I believe it has. Not only have my sales ranking on Amazon.com soared, they’ve remained constant. I’ve even had other authors contact me and comment that they’ve seen my book titles advertised everywhere.

Guess my promotion campaign is working after all.

About the Author:

LaConnie Taylor-Jones, a native Memphian, is a health educator consultant and holds advanced degrees in community public health and business administration. Married, she is the mother of four and resides with her family in Antioch, California located in Northern California. She is also an active member of the Contra Costa Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the African American Community Health Advisory Committee, Black Women Organized for Political Action, and the San Francisco Area and Black Diamond chapters of Romance Writers of America. You can visit her website at http://www.laconnietaylorjones.com/.