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THE BOOK MARKETING EXPERT NEWSLETTER!
A newsletter all about SUCCESSFUL publishing and POWERFUL promotion.
January 7, 2010 Issue #211
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in this issue
-- Note From The Editor
-- Holiday Savings! Get 2 books for $20 during our special promo!
-- Join Penny at the How To Get Published class Feb. 15 in NYC
-- What Type of Content Works Best on Social Media Sites?
-- AME-University: Book Marketing, Publishing, and Internet Marketing classes
-- Marketing Lessons Learned in Line at Your Local Grocery store
-- Facebook Frenzy
-- Six Quick Tips for Twitter Success
-- Five Quick Ways to Rev up Your Site's Searchability
-- Look Who's Talking
-- Twitter Rules for the Road
-- Join The Publishing Insiders in 2010
-- How to Sell Lots of Books on Amazon
-- How Google Ranks Your Site
-- Does Your Blog Post Title Grab Attention?
-- Introducing Facebook Social Networking - Supercharged!
-- Social Media - Did You Know?
-- Twitter Tip - ReTweetability Index
-- Reader Tip!
-- WHO ARE WE
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Penny C. Sansevieri, Editor
penny@amarketingexpert.comWelcome to a new issue of THE BOOK MARKETING EXPERT NEWSLETTER.
You are receiving this newsletter compliments of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. To opt out, please scroll down to the bottom of this newsletter.
Note From The Editor
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Welcome to another issue of the Book Marketing Expert Newsletter!
Dear Author,
Welcome to a bright New Year, we're so excited to have you back and we hope you got some R&R during the holiday break.
This year is going to be exciting, and we're glad you're along for the ride. First off, I've got some great speaking events coming up - in particular I'll be speaking with Larry Kirshbaum at the Learning Annex in New York. This is a great event and a great opportunity to meet one of the legends in publishing (no, not me). Second, after another fabulous 'best of' newsletter issue we're rolling out some exciting new marketing tips and advice in upcoming issues of the Book Marketing Expert, so stay tuned!
I wish you all a fantastic 2010. I hope you enjoy our final 2009 best of!
Wishing you publishing success in the year ahead,
Penny, Paula, Susan, Lauren, Nancy and everyone at Author Marketing Experts, Inc.
P.S. - Don't forget to become a fan of our AME page on Facebook, where you'll find reviews for AME authors, tips from Penny and notices about upcoming classes, shows and more:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Author-Marketing-Experts-Inc-AME/43882181670?ref=sgmHoliday Savings! Get 2 books for $20 during our special promo!
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Just in time to stock up on your favorite writer gifts! As a loyal Book Marketing Expert newsletter member, you are invited to receive a personally autographed copy of Penny Sansevieri's completely revised Red Hot Internet Publicity: An Insider's Guide to Marketing Your Book on the Internet. Perfect for a gift, or to keep for yourself!
The sure-fire way that will help you establish your brand and promote your books online, with over 964 of the latest and most powerful ways and places to promote you and your books online. You'll benefit from some of the most little-known blogs, social media sites and chat rooms.
Penny will share her decade-plus of online book marketing and promotion expertise. Her successes include 10 bestsellers, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Will yours be next? This guide will show you the way.
When you reserve your advance copy within eight (
days, your complete Internet Book Promotion Package will include:
* Your personally autographed copy of Red Hot Internet Publicity, an $18.95 value,
* the internationally recognized "Book Promotion Made Easy" by back cover copy expert Eric Gelb, a $12.00 value, and
* The Twitter Handbook - all about how you can use this amazing medium to establish your brand and promote your books online, a $14.95 value.
In all, a $45.90 value, yours now for just a $20 investment, plus $2.50 to defray postage.
http://tinyurl.com/lgh8r8This special book marketing and promotion package is available only for the next eight (
days. So please reply now so we can speed your Internet Book Promotion Package to you today.
I look forward to personally autographing your copy of Red Hot Internet Publicity.
Penny
http://tinyurl.com/lgh8r8Join Penny at the How To Get Published class Feb. 15 in NYC
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This Learning Annex Class will be held in Midtown Manhattan on Feb 15, 2010 at 6:45 pm.
Many people dream of being a published writer, but very few realize that dream. The reason often isn't because they can't write. It's because they don't know the people who decide what gets published, or they don't know the business end of the writing game.
Taught by publishing powerhouses Larry Kirshbaum and Penny Sansevieri, this class is packed with insider tips, marketing strategies, and publishing success stories.
Larry has worked with such name authors as: James Patterson, Michael Connelly, Nelson DeMille, David Baldacci, Nicholas Sparks, Sandra Brown and Sidney Sheldon. Penny Sansevieri has managed authors for over 11 years and in the last 15 months helped launch ten books on the bestseller list.
This is your chance to learn publishing from the inside out! In this seminar you learn how to:
- Negotiate your first or next book contract
- Instantly stand out from the crowd
- Get Published faster, easier, and less expensively than ever before
- Understand the "big picture strategy" to succeed as a best-selling author
- Write powerful book proposals that publishers can't refuse
- Create a successful author platform
- Plus the hottest new marketing strategies, including harnessing the power of the Internet
- And more!
Larry Kirshbaum founded LJK Literary Management, a literary agency, in 2006 after 35 years on the publishing side, most recently as Chairman and CEO of Time-Warner Book Group (now Hachette Book Group).
Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. has more than 10 years of experience in publishing. Her firm was one of the first to launch online campaigns harnessing the power of blogs and social media to create viral programs and red hot buzz for the books they manage!
To learn more, and sign up, visit
http://www.learningannex.com/live_classes/95.What Type of Content Works Best on Social Media Sites?
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If your goal is to build a presence on the Internet using free social networking sites, it's imperative that you provide the right kind of content for your audience to digest. This one tip can help you develop a loyal following that appreciates your message so much they help spread your links for you to other like-minded individuals.
Web-based social media content isn't the same kind of text that you would read in a professional publication. Your audience is used to verbiage more conversational in nature. You want to write as if you're having a one-on-one conversation with your reader, as I am to you right now.
Content on social media sites should also be provided in easily digestible chunks. See the paragraphs I've created here for you? They're not 20 lines deep. You don't want to try to post content that would rival a novel on one single social networking page. When you have that much content, you need to break it up into multiple pages, leading your reader from one to the next - or create an info product like an eBook and sell it or give it away from the pages you create.
Depending on your goal with using these Web 2.0 social sites, you may want to practice the art of using teasers with your audience. A good teaser provides just enough value to your reader to make them believe they didn't waste time reading your work - but it leaves them wanting a little more, which is why they'll click through on your hyperlinks and buy your products or services.
Good social media content answers questions or solves problems that your audience has. You can use free keyword tools to figure out how consumers are searching on Google and create content online that uses those keywords and makes your Web 2.0 masterpieces "findable" on the 'Net.
AME-University: Book Marketing, Publishing, and Internet Marketing classes
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These free teleclasses from AME-University may be just the thing to get your book marketing savvy ramped up!
Book Signing Gold! w/ Penny Sansevieri
When: Thursday, January 14, 2010, 4:00 - 4:30 pm
Description: Bookstores got you down? Take heart! There are lots of things you can do to promote your book even if your book isn't in the bookstores! Did you know that only 35% of Americans get their books in bookstores? We'll talk about all of the other places you can sell your book AND we'll also look at creative ways to do non-bookstore signings and events! Got a book signing coming up? Want to know how to strike book signing gold, drive crowds of people to your event, sell more books AND get invited back? Then this class is for you! We'll teach you how to plan an exceptional book signing from start to finish! PLUS! 10 Super Savvy Ways to Promote Your Book without setting foot in a bookstore! Don't miss this exciting class!
Media Training Magic! w/ Penny Sansevieri
When: Thursday, February 18, 4:00 - 4:30 pm
Description: Are you ready for your close up? If you're not sure then this class is for you. Before you spend valuable marketing dollars to get yourself on radio and TV, you'll want to make sure you know what you're doing when it comes to media exposure. This class will teach you what you need to know about media training. BONUS: We'll also share with you the media mistakes you'll NEVER want to make!
How to join in:
To sign up or learn more about these classes send an email to
author@amarketingexpert.com.
The AME website has a complete class listing for handy reference:
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/iclasses.html.Missed a class? Here's an easy way to catch up on past classes, just visit the AME-University All Access Pass.
Marketing Lessons Learned in Line at Your Local Grocery store
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When was the last time you looked at the magazines in your grocery line? I mean really looked at them, not just scanned them for Brangelina references? Magazines are a great marketing tool and a great way to get some ideas for your own campaign. So how would you use this information? Well, you can use it in web copy, book cover copy, and any marketing materials. Think about all the places you use words to draw the reader in, that's what you should be focusing on. The next time you're in line at your grocery store, take a close look at magazines, you'll find pieces of the following list in just about all of them:
Solve a problem: this is a big one and the #1 attractor to any magazine out there. Magazines know that if they're not solving a problem for you, you're not likely to buy them. A recent issue of Ladies Home Journal for example talked about how to use social networking to keep friendships strong. Why is this huge? Because social media is a buzz word now and staying connected to people is the primary source and use for social networking. You'll also see a lot of money-related topics (living well on less, etc). Solve a problem, preferably a current one.
Tell stories: people love stories and remember more about what you're selling when there's a story attached to it. So weave your advice into a story or anecdotal piece. Magazines always use stories and do so very well.
Speak directly to the reader: if you look at women's magazines (in particular) you'll find lots of words like: you, our, I and we. This is done intentionally and helps personalize the experience and draw the reader in. Also, you'll notice that magazines never use complicated words that aren't "layperson language;" this again is intentional, don't talk over your reader.
There are many more things that magazines focus on, but these are the major areas and should get you a good head start on any copy you're writing for your campaign. Remember, it's all about your reader and not about you. Get your reader engaged in your message and you're more likely to make a sale.
Facebook Frenzy
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Are you on Facebook yet? No? Why not? Or maybe you're on Facebook and not sure what to do now that you're there. Well, check out these recent stats (courtesy of Marketingsavant.com):
* As of 2/14/09 Facebook has 175,000,000 active users
* Facebook grows by well over 600,000 users per day
* If Facebook were a country it would now be the 6th most populated country in the world
* The fastest growing segment are women over 55 (up 175% according to this report)
* Women dominate Facebook (meaning there are more women than men on Facebook)
Tips for an effective Facebook page:
· Update frequently. Facebook is not the field of dreams, just because you built it doesn't mean people will beat a path to your door
· Use it to post events, updates on your book, product or message - keep your followers current about what's going on in your world. Don't tell us you just washed the dog.
· Facebook is not a way to push a message, but rather communicate *with* your market.
· Make sure your picture is current, don't use a logo - I tend to think that doesn't personalize your page enough. People want to see you, let them get to know who you are.
Six Quick Tips for Twitter Success
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1. A bio is a must. A recent Harvard Business Review study showed that 82% of unsuccessful Twitter accounts have little or no bio information.
2. You should provide more than 3 links per 20 tweets and you should update more than once a day.
3. If you don't provide links in your tweets, you should plan to post more often (studies suggest as much as six times a day). You should have no more than 15 updates a day.
4. Twitter names are becoming like URL's were in the early years of the Internet. Make sure and grab all your branding and your name.
5. Don't use underscores_ when you're creating a user name. Not only does it look amateurish but a number of spammers have hacked into Twitter that way. You don't want to look like a spammer.
6. Always engage and reply to the @reply responses on Twitter. Why? Well first off it's important to engage your followers, but second, those @replies help with your Twitter ranking.
Five Quick Ways to Rev up Your Site's Searchability
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1) Content is king, so are keywords. Find the keywords that people are searching on for your market and then create content around those words.
2) Don't abuse keywords. Have you ever seen those sites that seem to use keywords over and over again (i.e. keyword stuffing)? That's an abuse of keywords and while it might temporarily inflate your search engine ranking, it won't last. Once Google figures out what you're doing (and trust me they will) your site ranking will drop drastically. It's not pretty.
3) Google runs the world. Well, not really but they certainly do run the Internet. If you're going to optimize your site for ranking, make sure that it shows up high on Google; in the end it's the main search engine we default to and the one that matters to your consumer. Studies show that an average website gets 61% of its traffic from search engines, 41% of that from Google alone.
4) This stuff takes time. Nothing happens overnight, especially online (unless you're a dancing pancake video that gets sent out to a billion people in a 4 hour time span). Ranking and searchability takes times. If you have a book launching in the next 3-6 months, start this work now. You'll be glad you did.
5) Update your site. While updating your site in principle might seem like an easy thing, it can be one of the biggest obstacles for a site owner. Why? Because often our website people are overseas and once that 12 year old from Lithuania goes back to school it's anyone's guess how to find him. So here's a tip: get a blog - a blog (if updated frequently) will ping the search engines and let them know you have fresh content on your site. Oh, and seriously, fire the 12 year old and hire someone locally. You'll be glad you did.
Look Who's Talking
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Wondering who's talking about you? While I love Google Alerts, this is one to consider, too:
http://www.WhosTalkin.com is a social media search engine. All search results include current mentions on Web sites, blogs, social media posts, basically anything online. The results are also shown in chronological order, making it often more helpful than Google Alerts, which tends to filter out of date results too.
Twitter Rules for the Road
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When it comes to tweeting effectively, remember the 60/30/10 rule.
Here's how this breaks down:
* 60% helpful content
* 30% engagement with followers sharing insights, feedback, opinions
* 10% personal posts
Join The Publishing Insiders in 2010
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Be in the know and hear what the publishing insiders: Penny Sansevieri, CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. - and her guests - have to offer in terms of tips and insights into the industry! Listen here. Publishing Insiders is now available on iTunes, so you can keep up with the show wherever you go!
2010 will kick off with a bang, with great shows full of tips:
Get Your Book Done in 2010!
If you're really ready to get that book done you'll love this interview! Lynne Klippel and Christine Kloser of Love Your Life Publishing, Inc. will teach us the ins and outs of getting your book done including quick tips to get from idea to completed manuscript. Their process has worked for thousands of authors, now we'll hear the secrets to their success and how you can get your book done lightening fast too! This show will air 01/12.
Special Guest New Media Expert Seth Godin! This show will air 01/22.
All Things Twitter! will air 01/26.
How to Sell Lots of Books on Amazon
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Our New Author's Edge Book Marketing Program
Recently, a number of our clients launched Amazon bestseller email blast campaigns. But the results have been awful.
According to Wall Street Journal online, "Email's reign is over."
Spam filters block a very high percentage of emails. In addition, many readers receive over 300 emails every day and click delete regularly.
More and more people use Google to find the information they want. In addition, social networking sites including Twitter and Facebook are further reducing email's power.
Based on the decline of email marketing and the excellent results our Virtual Author Tour generates, we developed the Author's Edge program.
This system doesn't use email marketing at all.
Author's Edge feeds your book and content into the Internet and draws organic traffic to your website. Namely, readers that love your content and your book.
This proven system combines blogging, SEO, backlinks and social marketing in an exceptional way that sends interested book buyers directly to your web page. We will use keywords to drive targeted traffic to your website for the long-term so you continue to sell books and generate passive income long after the official program ends. Since you control your webpage, so as long as you keep it live, you can sell more books.
With this program, we will design your own custom Amazon webpage that's attached to your website and linked to Amazon. Our team will drive traffic to your website via a very aggressive blog campaign. Our copywriters will craft a new sales letter to drive your book sales. We will help you select a package of gift bonuses or you can use bonuses from our library - often buyer behavior is driven by bonus gifts.
Book buyers can click over to Amazon and buy your book. And of course, they get the bonuses too. In addition, we will create your own Amazon affiliate program account so you can track your sales.
We expect that this program will drive boatloads of book sales for you.
In addition, as a special to Book Marketing Expert members, when you invest in this program within the next 11 days, you will receive a one-on-one 30-minute coaching session with Penny Sansevieri, author of Red Hot Internet Publicity and creator of the Virtual Author Tour.
For more information, email
info@amarketingexpert.com.
How Google Ranks Your Site
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Backlinks!
What is a Backlink? Clickable words or images that take a user from one web page to another. The more backlinks pointing to a site, the higher the receiving site tends to rank in all search engines.
Why Backlinks? Think of it as a 'Vote of Confidence.'
The more votes a site has, the higher your search engine ranking.
Not any backlink will do, though.
Google Webmaster Guidelines provides these basics for linking:
* Link should originate from a relevant site/topic
* Link is text based
* Anchor text of link is relevant (Anchor text are the words that when clicked on are linked to the site that is receiving the backlink.)
Social bookmarking, blog commenting, social media sites and article submissions are all great ways for achieving these backlinks.
Does Your Blog Post Title Grab Attention?
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When I'm in read-a-blog post mode, I'll patiently work my way through my feedreader - and every single time I've done that, I've been astonished again and again at how 'ho hum' the majority of blog posts are titled.
Seriously! I've missed a plethora of truly sterling information because the authors made their blog post sound as exciting as tooth-brushing one of my dog's teeth after their morning meals.
It is CRITICAL that you make your blog posts intriguing enough to stand out of the clutter and visually grab my eyes and say, you MUST read this!!
I would truly urge you to make it a New Year's Resolution to REALLY hone your headline content at the very least. And once you have that mastered, you should also learn how to infuse your posts with emotional hooks that cause your reader to simply DO what you want them to (buy your product, sign up for your ezine, etc.).
Writing in a sales copy fashion is very different than writing for a book and has great rewards after adding it to your online skill set.
Introducing Facebook Social Networking - Supercharged!
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These 24 videos will take you by the hand and show you everything you need to know (step-by-step) about setting up and mastering Facebook marketing so you can start generating traffic and selling your books and products.
It's really that simple!
Don't be intimidated by the phrase "Social Networking." It really isn't as hard as it sounds. In fact, these videos make setting up, building, and profiting from Facebook as simple as tying your shoes!
It is not hard to build your own Facebook empire, as long as you know what you are doing. This video series was created specifically to help people learn the right way to practice Facebook marketing.
Bonus: We'll even include the two (2) ebooks: Facebook Secrets and Twitter Handbook
Only $499.00 will get you started today! Visit
http://www.amarketingexpert.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=105&osCsid1=c0b733defd96acc5b30e502a0b926f69.Social Media - Did You Know?
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While getting on TV or a major radio station or being featured in a publication has clout and cache, social media has proven to more effectively engage with your *interested* consumers: meaning those ready to buy. That's not always the case with traditional media anymore.
Twitter Tip - ReTweetability Index
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ReTweetability Index:
http://www.retweetability.com How retweetable are you? This site will show you how much your tweets matter. It's like High School all over again, only with technology.
Reader Tip!
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If you've got a Reader Tip you'd like to share, please send it to
penny@amarketingexpert.com with the subject line "reader tip." Submissions should be 75 words or less.
WHO ARE WE
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Author Marketing Experts, Inc. is a full-service book marketing, promotion, and publicity company. We serve authors at all stages of marketing and promotion. We offer a full range of packages and services to choose from.
To see a price list or schedule a free consultation, send your e-mail to
penny@amarketingexpert.com with the subject line "Author Services Info." You can also visit our Web site at
www.amarketingexpert.com.
Reprint permission
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You are welcome to reprint any items from "The Book Marketing Expert Newsletter." However, please credit us as a source with the following paragraph:
Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.
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Contact Information
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email:
penny@amarketingexpert.comweb:
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