Bryan Heathman's Blog, page 6

Audiobook Distribution – Catch the Wave in this $1.4 Billion Business

Audiobook distribution is a great way for speakers and authors to generate a solid income from product sales. An author who can motivate and inspire their audience can make a mint selling audio products back-of-room. Audios have a quality of immediacy that just can’t be found on the printed page, and the numbers don’t lie.

The audiobook industry is now estimated at $1.47 billion, up over 13.5% in 2014 (Audio Publishers Association 2015 survey data). Unit sales of audiobooks are up 19.5%, nearly 5 times the increase of overall book trade sales (books were up 4.2%). This adds up to a major opportunity for authors who want to amplify their distribution by selling audiobooks. If you want to stand out, record your ideas. In addition to adding revenues to your business, audiobooks are a great tactic to add to your book marketing plan.

When I tell you this, it isn’t just some theory I saw in a TED talk. My company, Made for Success, has published thousands of audio recordings from over 200 speakers and authors in the self growth industry including 40% of the top 10 speakers in the world. These audios are big sellers in dozens of countries, and we’ve been doing this for more than a decade – before the Kindle was… well, Kindle.

By publishing an audiobook, you can make your content available across the globe both as physical CD’s and digital downloads. Top retailers such as iTunes, eMusic, Audible and other leading distributors have made the bulk of their profits from audios, and they are constantly adding new content to their catalogs. Are you getting your slice of that pie?

I often get the question “But what about physical CD sales of audiobooks?” Sure, the digital audiobook business is on the decline, slipping 7% in dollars in 2014. But professional speakers are making serious dough selling their audios on CD at live conferences.

There are several types of spoken word audio programs that you can create and use to boost your book business. The three most common are 1) Audiobooks; 2) Keynote speeches and; 3) Audio lessons. Subscribe to this newsletter if you are interested in more information on audiobook publishing and emerging trends such as podcasting.

By definition, an audiobook is a performance of a book. It can be abridged or match the book manuscript word for word. A keynote speech, on the other hand, is a live or studio recording of a presentation on a given topic. Selling audios of your presentations can go a long way to increase your credibility. Lessons are the third most popular form of audio program. These segments are typically a 30- to 60-minutes in length and can be sold individually or in a series. Here are some popular examples of each:

Audiobooks: follow these links to several recent audiobook releases that have caught-on by these first-time authors:

Giftocracy by Michael Tetteh

The Last Apostle by Dennis Brooke

Keynote Speeches by professional speakers:

Whatever it Takes by John Maxwell

Words on Leadership by Les Brown

Audio Lessons are also very popular, such as these lucrative series by leading speakers:

Leadership and Success by Zig Ziglar

The Gentle Art of Persuasion by Tom Hopkins

The Ultimate Success Series by Chris Widener

Motivational Legends with Jim Rohn


To Bootstrap or Not To Bootstrap?

When you create your audiobook, you’ll want to ensure a great listener experience. This means the quality of your material and your production values have to be high. I reached-out to Liv Montgomery, Made for Success’ most prolific audio recording pro behind the mic for some audiobook recording tips, as she has recorded over 75 audio programs:

Audio Recording Tip #1

Fortunately, recordings of phone conferences and webinars are strictly taboo. I say “fortunately” because the audio quality on those things is inevitably awful. Making good quality audios is easy enough to do; there’s no need to dumb down the process. So live a little! Make it great, and your audios will practically sell themselves.

Audio Recording Tip #2

At the same time, recording your book in your own voice will lend that touch of authenticity to your message. If you have a good speaking voice, you can infuse your text with color and light, adding special significance to your words and their meaning. This is where I’ve seen many speakers really shine.

Audio Recording Tip #3

Thanks to technology, you can create a perfectly saleable audio in your home. Many turn-key podcast systems are available that include software, headphones, a microphone and a pop filter. This is an inexpensive way to go and it can produce some awesome results. There is some technical savvy required to set it up, as well as a bit of practice to get a solid performance. If you aspire to record more than one product, this option is worth the learning curve and the investment in your career options.

Audio Recording Tip #4

If you would rather leave the audio engineering to the professionals, you may want to choose the in-studio option. Finding a recording studio in your area and booking studio time should be as easy as a quick Google search. Recording spoken-word audios typically costs $75 to $200 an hour for studio time, plus 2 to 4 hours of engineering time for each 1 hour of recorded audio. You can expect to spend $300 to $800 for an hour of recorded audio, depending on the quality of your performance.

Audio Recording Tip #5

If public speaking isn’t your thing, using professional voice talent is an option. This will produce the highest quality audio product and it will lend polish to your image. Hiring a audiobook narrator to voice your audiobook may be a more expensive way to go initially, but the investment should pay for itself in quarterly royalties and branding.

Getting the Royal(ty) Treatment

So far you’ve written your material, rehearsed it, honed your performance to a knife edge, and recorded a masterpiece. You’re ready for the sweetest sound of all: ch-ching! Let the royalties begin.

But how do you get the seamless integration into retail catalogs you were hoping for? How do you get around the gotchas at iTunes and Audible? What librarian convention do you attend in order to get your goods into the County bookmobile? And how do you tour around to hundreds bookstore buyers to get shelf space?

If you’re new to the distribution game, the details can seem overwhelming. The best way to go is just to start and then follow the thread, taking it one step at a time.

The technology of audio delivery is advancing rapidly and Made for Success Publishing makes it our business to stay on top of the latest distribution channels like iTunes, Audible and Spotify to the rapidly growing internationally streaming options. If your book or audio distribution is stalled and you want to put it into overdrive, you can get in touch with us for an assessment of your work. There are a variety of tools and insights we can offer you.

Made For Success Publishing has produced and distributed thousands of audio recordings into retail, library and through dozens of corporate licensing contacts. We have extensive experience creating professionally polished audio products designed for distribution, all in the effort to spread a wide net for your work. For the authors who want to jump to the head of the class, we can help get you on the right track.

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

Goodreads Giveaways & Good Times: Step by Step Book Marketing Instructions

Have you ever had one of those moments when you just felt “on it”? On top of the world? In the zone? You know what I mean…it’s that feeling you get watching Bruno Mars singing those lyrics during Super Bowl 50 “Too hot. Hot damn!” Maybe it was one of those good-hair days. You were wearing your favorite “go to” shirt and a new pair of Italian loafers. You had an answer for everything – people just wanted to hang around you.

Or maybe you’ve had that experience where you went to an event and clicked so thoroughly with the folks around you, it turned out you were the most popular person in the room. Your best joke had a cadre of eager listeners in a tight shoulder-to-shoulder semi-circle, edged forward and waiting for you to deliver the punchline like a swift uppercut.

By the end of the evening you’d clinched a new deal, had four new phone numbers and a box seat for next weekend’s big game. At the midnight hour, just before you went home, all of you toasted to good health. A glow seemed to follow you out the door, settling like a mist under the chassis of your car as you drove away while humming “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.

Whether this is a page from your everyday life or it’s something you’ve never even thought of going after, this kind of experience is available to you as an author when you find your groove. It’s the kind of thing that could happen for you when you put your book in front of a thirsty crowd of readers on Goodreads.

Get Your Groove On

Goodreads is a social network started by readers and dedicated to the proposition that the best books are the ones your friends recommend. In another article, Goodreads and the Power of Massive Book Exposure, we talked about why Goodreads is such a boost to your book distribution. In short, if you’re an author, it’s the best place in the world for you to be.

When you show up on Goodreads and giveaway autographed copies of your book, you’re sure to be in your groove. Here’s a step by step guide to using Goodreads giveaways to promote your book.

Goodreads Giveaways Step by Step

Building excitement and anticipation for your book release is to job of every author on the planet. Using sweepstakes and giveaways on Goodreads is a great method to build anticipation and generate positive Reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

Recognize that there is a cost associated with putting your book in front of potential devoted fans. However this type of promotion is much more effective and economical than paying for advertising. It also puts you in that rare category of “life of the party.” Here is a 7-step recipe for running a Goodreads giveaway:

First, create an account on Goodreads.com. Get familiar with the site, and start making comments in relevant groups when you feel comfortable with the venue. Make sure you adhere to common guidelines of forum etiquette.
Sign up to be recognized as an author by the Goodreads team. This requires approval, which can take a couple of days, but hang in there. It’s worth it.
Host a giveaway on Goodreads to put your book in the hands of thirsty readers. These are physical copies of your book, and they are always AUTOGRAPHED. When people ask for them, respond quickly, courteously and thoroughly.
Write a description for your giveaway that sounds juicy and makes people want to get their hands on your rare fare. Use excerpts from reviews to lure people in, and avoid using a book synopsis of a blurb from your back cover.
Get the schedule right. Like they say, what’s the secret of comedy…? Timing! And just as skill with a well-timed joke can make you the toast of the town, a well-timed Goodreads giveaway can boost your publishing success. Schedule your giveaway for a future date, and build excitement for the event. Don’t just release it; launch it.
Keep your giveaway open for just a couple days. This means your giveaway will be listed on the New Giveaways and the Ending Giveaways at the same time – double exposure for a picture-perfect finish. Regardless of length, end your giveaway on a date that doesn’t have a lot of other giveaways ending. Everyone else likes to end their promotions on the end of the month or national holidays like Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July. If you extend yours beyond these dates, your giveaway will rise to the top of the Ending Giveaways list and give you greater exposure.
Keep it pretty. Make sure your book cover is solid and your synopsis is excellent. More than any other features of your book, these two things will close the deal for you. Also, the more reviews you have, the more book sales you will make. If your book giveaway looks lonely, it is sure to stay that way. Keep it attractive, and you are sure to be the life of the virtual party.

There you have it – the key to good times on Goodreads. Now you can take these steps, apply them, and be sure your book giveaway is a winner. If you’re like many successful authors I publish, once you get into motion promoting your book then opportunities start to fall into place organically.

Still not sure where to start? Feel free to reach-out for a marketing consultation for your book!

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

Goodreads and the Power of Massive Book Exposure

When it comes to talking about the fundamentals of book promotion, using GoodReads is about as fundamental as you can get. Can 41 million readers be wrong? Probably not. With that in mind, here are steps you can take to maximize the return on your investment of time and attention to your book marketing campaigns.

The Goodreads Trifecta of Promotion

Community & Good Citizenship: Get involved in the GoodReads community and when your book is released, ask people to review it on the site. As a member of the Goodreads community, you’ll want to observe decorum. Use the same common courtesies you would in any other online social setting. Take a week or so to observe the tone and the content of threads within the groups. When you feel confident that you’ve got the knack, start participating by leaving considered comments. Once you become a bit more known you can create threads of your own. After you’ve become a trusted member of the community, you can add your book title or have someone add it for you. This gradual approach means you are less likely to look like an amateur and more likely to be considered a respected voice in the community.

Book Giveaways: Once you’re established on Goodreads.com, you can create buzz and get reviews by giving away free copies of your book. To do this, click the Goodreads link to “Create A Giveaway.” These are physical books you’re giving away, so you’ll need to have copies of your book on hand to send to reviewers who request it. Be sure you conduct only one Giveaway at a time or this can get expensive and confusing. Some experts suggest allocating 25 books to Goodreads Giveaways, and run multiple giveaway campaigns over a period of time. With that said, this is an excellent way to generate the best kind of publicity for your book – word of mouth.

Paid Advertising: Goodreads advertising means you can reach an ultra targeted market for an incredibly low investment. Here is real data from an ad I bought on Goodreads. The budget was $49, but in fact we only spent $1 on the total campaign in 30-days. This cost may seem like it’s too low to be effective, but the ad for the book generated 13,300 impressions. Because there were only 2 click-throughs, there was virtually no cost to the author for this phenomenal exposure. Where I come from in the world of book marketing, this is an astonishing amount of reach for very little expense.

Following are the stats for the ad, promoting the book “Gotcha” by Dr. Sally Earnst.

Daily Views: 181

Daily Clicks: 0

Daily Cost: $0.00

Total Views: 13,300

Total Clicks: 2

Total Cost: $1.00

Promoting your book is fundamental to your success as an author, and leveraging the power of Goodreads makes it an easy call. Good selling!

More Practical Goodreads Tips

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

Goodreads for Authors: Reflections on Fundamentals

“Gentlemen, this is a football.” Vince Lombardi famously spoke these words to his team when he took over as head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1959. While it’s probably true that the players he was speaking to were well aware of the ball’s name, reinforcing the fundamentals never hurt anybody.

In fact, the Packers went on to unprecedented victory under Lombardi’s leadership because of his relentless drills on the fundamentals. The Packers became champions many times over, helping football to become the national mania it is today. The Super Bowl trophy is known as the Vince Lombardi cup, and winning it is a testament to the team’s ability to master the basics.

So what does this have to do with you as an author and the success of your book marketing? It’s simple: if you want to succeed, never stop reviewing the fundamentals. Return to bedrock as often as you can. Honing your book marketing skills in just a few basic areas can launch your career and keep it aloft for a long time to come.

As an author, one of the most basic steps you can take to promote your book is to be present places where the readers show up. This means a portion of your promotional time needs to be focused on Goodreads.com. Not only is this good for you, it’s good for the millions of Goodreads members who are wondering what to read next. Unlike some social media sites, this is one place where your book promotions are not only okay, people are hungry for them.

Simple Does Not Mean Stupid

Goodreads has a simple premise: it’s a free membership site devoted to books and book lovers. It was started back in 2007 with the intent of allowing readers to make book recommendations. Since then, the site has grown to over 41 million members with nearly 300 million page views per month. That’s a whole lot of eyeballs.

This makes Goodreads the biggest book club on the planet, and getting involved in it is a smart move for you as an author. The average members are well healed, well educated professionals, mostly women, with a deep seated passion for the written word. They work in fields like Education, Law and Market Research, which means they’re pretty sharp cookies. You don’t have to worry about talking over their heads.

Still, just because this is the average reader profile, that doesn’t mean you can’t find other bookish types on the site – men, women, young, old, rich, poor, conservative or woowoo. The sheer number of members means you can find just about any kind of group you’d like to reach, with tastes that range from Horror to Humor and from Self Help to Sci Fi. Whatever you’ve written, Goodreaders are likely to give your material a fair assessment.

Once you’re a member of Goodreads, you can engage in their Author Program. This status is free, and it allows you to take advantage of the rich pool of avid readers and hungry buyers and promote your magnum opus. Upgrading your status from a standard member to an Author means submitting an application to Goodreads’ staff for review. You should hear back from them in a couple of days, so sit tight. It will definitely be worth the wait.

Here are 10 fundamentals to have ready when you set-up your Goodreads account:

Book Title
Sub-Title
Description
ISBN number
Cover artwork
Author photo
Author bio
Links to other social media accounts
Link to your website
Link to your blog (an RSS feed is preferred to automatically keep your blog posts current on Goodreads)

Whether you want to participate in group discussions, create a Book Giveaway, or advertise on the site, the sheer numbers of this social media giant make it fundamental to your book promotion campaign.

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

Bookstore Signings: Are They Profitable or Like Chasing a Unicorn?

Is it worth it for an author to do a book signing tour? As a publisher, I get asked this question often. Authors want to know if they should invest the time and effort in a meet-and-greet with their readers, and what exactly the payoff is. With so many options for promotion – from social media to social climbing – narrowing the field of marketing activities to promote a book only makes sense.

It’s a great question, and the answer is usually a resounding yes. However it all depends on what you want to get out of a book signing. Not all authors see the value in it, and with good reason. It takes a bit of imagination and a view of the big picture to understand where benefits are from a bookstore signing event. A single event won’t reveal the big picture.

I was having a good-natured debate about this topic with one of my authors the other day over coffee. Liv Montgomery has published more than a hundred titles with Made For Success. Like many authors, Liv believes that the amount of work involved in putting on a great event just doesn’t pay off. She says the effort could be better spent on online promotion, one of her specialties. Staring into her latte she told me, “A great book signing is like a unicorn – it’s tough to find, and even harder to bring home.”

This sounds poetic, but the idea itself is a myth. Book signings do work. Liv’s experience with individual events has been at par, closing 10% of the room. But, it barely pays for a nice lunch at a place where they set the table with fine crystal and linen. But it’s the intangibles of the book signings that put the author’s career in motion and move books by the carton. Let’s explore this a little further.

When Do You Want To Score – Now or Never?

In reality, the success of your publicity as an author depends most of all on consistency. It’s like a well-played game of baseball. If you hit a home run once in a while, you may win occasionally. But you’re more likely to win consistently with a series of solid base hits. I parried this back to Liv, and she yawned. “Give me a handful of golden keywords,” she said, “and I’ll show you some base hits.” It’s hard to argue with the amount of passive income she’s generated from online promotions. One of her programs was a Made For Success best-seller last summer, five years after we launched it.

Whether or not the path to success is paved with the sublime or the mundane, success is success. Many major keynote speakers I represent have consistently done book signing events in bookstores. I’ll give you a case in point and the reason to do local appearances.

Another author I work with, Bill Chandler, uses book signings to great effect. In fact he used local events to sell over 10,000 copies of his book, “The Ultimate Inventors Handbook”. Bill is not a boring guy, and neither is he bored by book signings.

Bill’s background as a marketing professor helps because he understands the psychological dynamics of mass-market buying behavior. “Works like a charm,” he told me over a steak salad, dabbing the corners of his mouth with a unicorn-white cloth napkin. In fact, Bill’s experience gives us every reason to talk about book signings as a worthy tool for promotion.

Tracking the Success of Your Book Signings

Organizing a tour of bookstores is time-consuming. When you look at the hard cost of trading your time for book sales, a book signing can mean a high cost per lead – especially if your event is under-attended. Nobody wants to be “that author” sitting behind a table in a bookstore with no line, no fans and not a single book sold.

Yet it happens more often than you might think. So where’s the payoff? What’s the point in expending all that energy just to sell 5 books? What if the only attendees who are buying include your mom, your best friends and a few neighbors?

Ah, but not so fast. There is magic in book signings, and they can turn a dull career into a sparkling magical beast. What many authors don’t realize is that 83% of books are purchased through word of mouth. When a trusted friend reads a book, they tell others. This is one dynamic that makes book signings a very smart move for authors.

Book signings pay off in the following ways:

Drumming up book sales – Use book signings to increase your in-store book sales. Besides rubbing elbows with your community, you will also encourage readers to talk it up with their friends.
Book Buyer Relationships – Bookstore buyers are people too, and they want to put a face to the names on the spines they buy. If you can deliver buzz to their store, they are much more likely to stock their shelves consistently with your books. If you know what you are doing, bookstores may request unsold inventory to be signed by the author which is merchandised on a special table in bookstores. This will bring in sales long after the day of the event and give you premium shelf space in the bookstore.
Creating Media momentum – This is the single greatest benefit to do book signings. Local media interviews and other publicity around your event can generate significant momentum for your book sales. Even though you may only sell a handful of books on the day of the event, the media publicity you generate around the event will bolster your reputation and your book sales. My friend Bill likes to focus energies on one major city at a time, until he has accomplished exposure in 2-3 states. This can be enough to get the ball of momentum rolling fast enough to sell 10,000 books.

Book signings can be an incredible tool for bolstering your book sales and your career as an author. Authors who commit the effort must also be gifted with imagination, but the payoff is as fine and rarefied as a unicorn.

Over the years, I’ve developed a step-by-step recipe for how to prepare for a bookstore signing, what to bring, how to staff the event for success and a 10-step formula for drawing a crowd in bookstores. To find out how to tame this mythical beast we call bookstore signings, click here for a How-To Guide and Checklist.

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

Resolution to Start Blogging

Let’s talk about Life Hacks. The term “hack” started out in the digital lexicon as a reference to virtual breaking and entering into a computer system. Hacking has now become a term of endearment for getting the most out of life. According to Wikipedia, “life hacking” refers to any trick, shortcut, skill or novelty method that increases productivity and efficiency in all walks of life.

What better place to apply tips, tricks and life hacks than your blog? It certainly gives new meaning to hacking the blogosphere, turning life’s lemons into a kind of Citron Frappé.

If you are a blogger and especially if you are an author, your goal ought to be finding the best marketing hacks – not be to seen as a hack writer, heaven forbid. The more high quality exposure you can garner, the more positively it will reflect on your reputation. A high traffic blog is a great way to do that.

If you want to gain exposure for a book, a point of view or a project, talking up your topic is not only good publicity, it’s expected. The blog on your website is an excellent platform for broadcasting your point of view. Be it known, however, that there are blog hacks aplenty. What we’ll cover here in this brief space is just a sample.

What To Blog About:

Start by blogging about your process of developing ideas. How does your work evolve from concept to creation? For example when an author faced with a blank page, how do you fill it with meaningful notions that readers can savor?

You can also write about the various types of inspirations you have. What was the first seed idea you had for your book, your team retreat or your upcoming product launch? Where did that initial inspiration come from? What related themes arose from this kernel? Whose work inspired you most, and how did they impact your point of view?

Next, try taking one small aspect of your work and expounding on it in a single blog post. Better yet, create a series of posts that break down the topic into several thought-provoking segments. For authors, give some background to a key point in your how-to guide or a pivotal scene in your novel.

Another great topic of choice for your blog is to discuss where your work is headed. Let your readers see a glimpse into the future – just enough to tease and keep them wanting more. If you help them to see over the horizon, they will loyally travel the distance with you.

Content curation is a great way to add value to your blog without breaking much of a sweat. Find images, memes, videos and reference materials that your readers will enjoy. Don’t just re-post them – amplify the reasons this content is worth your readers’ precious attention. Whet their appetites, then shine a light on where they can get more mind food like this.

Where To Blog:

Reach out writers and offer to serve as a guest author on their blogs. Better yet, become an active voice in select blogs and groups as a regular contributor. This applies leverage to your blog campaign, giving you multi-faceted exposure.

Another tactic is to choose four or five blogs that are related to your topic, and engage in conversations in the comments areas. Don’t be spammy – that will actually hurt your reputation. Offer thoughtful input, be polite, and think of how you can add value to the conversation.

Besides blogging on your own website and capitalizing on guest blogging, there a loads of opportunities for posting your content on the Internet. Article directories and social networks are reliable places to start. For example, you might create posts on your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. You can also join groups where you can become an active and credible voice in the conversations.

When To Blog:

The best answer to this question about timing is, be relentlessly persistent. Whatever schedule you establish for yourself, pursue it with regularity like a Swiss watch.

The easiest interval to maintain for posting on your blog is a weekly schedule. More than that may become a burden to you, unless you have a willing assistant. Posting less than weekly allows your brilliance to slip from the minds of your readers, so err on the side of more frequency. Post at least twice a week in the social media groups and forums you belong to, and show up daily on your favorite social networks.

However you promote your ideas, be generous. Give away great content, cool tools, fun tips, helpful hacks and sincere praise. Engage others in your work, and reel them into your world. Let them be delighted when they come to read you, and pay them off with goodies to reward their loyalty.

Your readers are the reason for writing. Without them, you’d simply be keeping a journal. Show them your appreciation, and you will hack your way into their hearts.

The Writer’s Advantage: Harness the Power of the Written Word

Do you have a story waiting to be told but know your writing skills need improvement? This expert resource will help you develop both your technical and creative writing skills. Bestselling authors reveal entertaining and informative methods to craft a story, organize complex thoughts, and write effectively to engage your readers.

How to effectively write a book, essay, or business plan does not need to be a mystery. Learn a foolproof system for taking highly complex ideas and plots and organizing them into a cohesive flow that is easy for readers to digest.

Let Dianna Booher, author of over forty books, share her insights on transferring ideas from your head onto paper and gain insights from bestselling author Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro, on how to turn a complex writing project into a manageable task within your normal workday.

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

The Book Launch Formula – Becoming a Home Town Hero

Have you ever noticed that no matter how successful you become, there’s always someone who likes to knock you down a peg? Maybe it’s an older sibling, an in-law or a friend of yours from your high school days.

Maybe you are the exception that makes the rule, and you don’t have anyone who fits this description. I imagine if you think hard enough, the odds are high that you’ll think of someone like this not too far from your inner circle.

The reason I bring it up is that, when it comes to your success as an author, this paradigm is repeated on a large scale in your home town. The people who know you best or for the longest time are the ones who are least likely to give you the kudos you need to succeed on a grand scale.

There’s always going to be a clique in your neighborhood who believe they know you too well, or they think they do. They figure you’re a known quantity – they knew you when – and there’s little mystery to be revealed where you’re concerned. These people don’t mean to be dismissive or disrespectful. It’s just human nature. It’s only when you’ve got your name in lights in someone else’s town that your neighbors will accept you as a success.

This means when it comes to your career, your home town is the absolute best place to hone the skills it takes to successfully promote your book. It’s nice and safe. No matter what you do, the people close to home are going to love you anyway and hold to their stubborn opinions. This makes it an excellent place to take risks, refine your media publicity skills, and do lots of live events.

Book signings, media interviews and keynote addresses are the recipe for becoming a home town hero. As your skills get more refined, you can get your act together and take it on the road. That’s when your career will be ripe for that “overnight sensation” miracle we all read about in Huffington Post.

The Magic of Book Launch Events

If you’re an author, it’s essential to plan a series of promotional events in your local market to launch your book. Don’t just release your book and try to convince people to buy it. Create tension and excitement in advance, centered around the big day your book will finally be available.

Think about it. How many sunny days have you spent with your nose pressed against the window, tapping on your keyboard instead of playing volleyball on the beach? How many family gatherings have you attended where people have asked, “How’s your book coming along?” For that matter, how many events and celebrations have you missed because your writing came first?

There needs to be a payoff for the monumental investment of time, heart and soul that you’ve poured into your manuscript. Your fans and would-be followers want to share in the success of your book launch – which is why it needs to be a book launch instead of a book release.

Along with this comes the responsibility to have a series of appearances right in your home town. It’s not all that difficult to schedule these events. Just call your local bookstore and ask. The worst odds you face are 50/50. It’s surprisingly easy to get your foot in the door, and many bookstore managers are hungry for authors to show up and create some buzz for their store.

In fact, Barnes & Noble stores have a position in each store called the “CRM” whose responsibility includes scheduling author signing events. So ask for the “CRM” when requesting a signing in your local B&N store.

Libraries, schools, country clubs, civic organizations and social fraternities also make great venues for book signings. Usually all it takes to schedule an event is making that initial phone call, then following the thread until your date is inked on the calendar.

Let the Local Media Be Your Mouthpiece

Once you schedule your book launch event, naturally you’ll want to make sure you invite colleagues, friends and family. But don’t neglect the local media. This is a huge piece of the puzzle, yet so often it’s overlooked by humble authors with a “who, me?” attitude. This is true even of retired corporate executives, professional speakers and others who’ve enjoyed success but are still tentative about promoting themselves in the author space.

Yes – the fact that you’re having a book signing is a big event. Let the community share in your excitement. Put yourself out there, and you’ll be amazed by the return you get on your investment of time and heart.

Contact local media outlets such as radio, TV and publishers. Journalists are receptive to submissions, and many strongly support the work of local authors. Also, don’t be shy about reaching out to the media in neighboring cities as well. The farther afield you travel, the more likely you are to broaden the scope of your celebrity.

Local media coverage is not always easy to get, but it can be had for the right price. Often that price is simply your respect for their format. Look into the specific requirements of each of your local media outlets before you get in touch with them. You’ll find that they’re much the same across the board with a few subtle variations on the theme. Make it easy for them to promote you, save them time, be interesting and be easy to reach.

A friend of mine got his product featured in the USA Today by counting the average number of words per article by the journalist who covers his topic. When he submitted his article, it took the journalist very little time to modify the article for publication to her tastes.

Working with the media is where having a press kit comes in handy. We cover this topic in an article called Book Publicity Media Kits – The 5 Essential Elements Journalists Need.

When you have your author bio, book descriptions and press release prepared ahead of time, contacting the media is a breeze. And when you play by their format rules, you’re handing them every reason to cover your book launch events.

Combining book launch events with local media promotion is a great recipe for becoming a home town hero, one that plants the seeds of red carpet celebrity and stellar book sales. I’ve seen this happen many times in my career as a publisher and look forward to reading about your success stories.

The Writer’s Advantage: Harness the Power of the Written Word

Do you have a story waiting to be told but know your writing skills need improvement? This expert resource will help you develop both your technical and creative writing skills. Bestselling authors reveal entertaining and informative methods to craft a story, organize complex thoughts, and write effectively to engage your readers.

How to effectively write a book, essay, or business plan does not need to be a mystery. Learn a foolproof system for taking highly complex ideas and plots and organizing them into a cohesive flow that is easy for readers to digest.

Let Dianna Booher, author of over forty books, share her insights on transferring ideas from your head onto paper and gain insights from bestselling author Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro, on how to turn a complex writing project into a manageable task within your normal workday.

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

How To Make Your Author Website the “In” Place To Be

Once upon a time, when books were only printed on the static page, the conversation was more like a monolog. This meant the author’s career was a bit like a college lecture on, say, frog dissection. It was a lonely, dusty, echoey place to be. I mean, who wants to wake up and smell the formaldehyde? Not fun. Not fun at all.

Even as recently as ten years ago, there was little chance for a reader to get involved in an author’s work except by writing to the author, or maybe showing up at a lecture or book signing. Thankfully, all that has changed.

In the age of digits and downloads, the author’s website is, well… electric, and even electrifying. Now it’s more like a hip coffeehouse, or a dinner of nouvelle cuisine at 10:00 pm. It’s become a busy hub for a wide array of content and media – interactive and highly actionable.

This shift in dynamic may seem obvious, but it’s overlooked more often than it should be – much to the detriment of the author. If you’re not sure where your own author website falls on the scale between humdrum and howling – between frog dissection and sautéed frogs’ legs – these tips may lend you just the clue you’re looking for.

Whisper – You Don’t Have To Shout

Does your website shout at readers with a dozen or more calls to action? You want to involve them, not confuse them. The adage from the advertising world is to direct a Visitor’s attention to just one thing, with one “Call to Action” message. Make sure your website is easy to use, with just the right balance between form and function.

Focus on content over design. You want a crisp, clean look with one clear call to action. Still, the substance of your message is more important than the look and feel, so keep the bells and whistles to a minimum. Don’t use Flash if you can help it (due to mobile phone limitations), and trim your images to a manageable size before adding them to your posts. Let the site load time be fast and light.

The intent of your website should focus on the reader, not on you. Yes, this is your website, but you’re not the one using it. It’s all about your readers and what you can do for them.

Use your About page for boasts, toasts, testimonials and kudos. Keep the rest of the site focused on your reader. Have a tab for book news and reviews, offer a newsletter, and make sure you’re easy to contact – things that show you’re not only aware of their presence, but you’re glad they came.

Think of your role as something like being the gracious host of a great party. If you just talk about yourself, you’ll only inspire a lot of yawns, and folks may decide to turn in early or head to the shindig down the block. Instead, present your guests with a scintillating array of topics to nibble on. Also introduce them to other personalities they may enjoy, and get the conversation going.

When someone shows up at your site, offer them exclusive unpublished content that they can’t get anywhere else. Give them juicy morsels they would gladly pay for, like a short video, podcast episodes, short fiction, white papers, explainers and sample chapters.

Create content worth sharing, something your readers might pick apart over coffee or happy hour with their incredibly interesting friends.

How To Keep Readers Coming Back For More

Be generous. Whose work do you read or recommend? Why is it worth anyone’s precious free time? Support your peers and your fans at the same time. Shine a spotlight on people and topics that might not otherwise cross your reader’s path.

Be human. Talk about your works in progress, and share the biggest triumphs and trials you have in the writing process. Are you stuck on one idea? Did you just shift the gender of your lead character and now you have to rewrite half your book? Did you suddenly realize that your magnum opus on finding happiness is really more about finding faith? Are you simply bored with the sound of your own voice and can’t wait to finish your manuscript? Let your readers peek behind the curtain.

Be social. Encourage your readers to promote your fresh content on social media, and make it easy to do. For example, you can use the free service at ClickToTweet.com to socialize your blog content. Summarize the topic of your blog post into about 100 characters, and include your ClickToTweet link. This will automatically post your headline, witty comment or quip to Twitter. For added link juice, use a hashtag.

Encourage comments on your blog and get involved with the conversation. In fact, why not encourage comments on the comments to build a real sense of community?

With a slight shift in focus, you can transform your author website from a dusty lecture hall into a roaring success. The career you wake up may be your own!

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

Tell the World with a Book Trailer Video – Author Training Series

Get out the popcorn and dim the lights! As an up and coming bestselling author, it’s time to promote your book the old fashioned way: with a promotional trailer.

Whether your book is a fictional story or it’s the true story of a brand, passion or success philosophy, your book ought to be in pictures. Posting book trailer videos online is a solid step on your path to publishing success.

Seriously, take a look at the way a single movie can bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in a single weekend. How did you first hear about the movie? Was it social media, a movie critic or word of mouth?

The same dynamic of movie awareness works equally for books. So it is important for you, the author, to get the ball of momentum rolling with a book trailer to tease interest in your book.

To get people to spend a week or two reading your book, they are going to have to want it… bad! So your promotional activity will need a hook, which often starts with your book trailer video.

From the Big Screen to the Screen In Your Hand

Video promotion on the internet is far less expensive than traditional advertising, and after a few preliminaries, many authors can do it. As an author with a book to promote, this includes you. About 1-2 minutes of video is all you need to get your message across to smartphones and tablets everywhere. With the right planning and a little push, these mobile devices are where you book may be read as well.

You can use inexpensive tools to make your book trailer if you know which ones to shop for, such as EasySketch Pro or VideoMaker FX. Because they’re user friendly and widely available, using these tools may mean that your video ends up looking the same as everyone else’s. The difference is how you use the tools. Creativity is key. If you can hire someone to create a quality book trailer for you, so much the better.

Making and sharing your own videos does seem exciting to a lot of authors, and I admit it can be fun. But before you cast yourself as the next John Huston or Cecil B. DeMille, take time out to do some planning.

Think about your process and map it from start to finish. The video production process includes only a handful of steps, but each one is key to your book trailer’s success.

First, start with your book trailer’s concept. Decide ahead of time what the viewer’s key take-away will be. Create a clear call to action that is the natural conclusion for the message they’ve just seen.

Next, decide how much of your story you want to reveal in your book trailer. What’s the heart of your video? Where do you want the viewer to begin and end? Script it, and have a clear idea of the visuals you plan to use. Video production professionals call this step storyboarding.

Record the audio first, then use it as the anchor for your video. It’s much easier to sync the video to the audio, instead of the other way around, and the results are more professional. Whatever approach you use, there’s almost always a creative solution for any production obstacles you find.

Online Traffic = A Packed House For Your Book Trailer

Now that you have a finished video, it’s time to get the word out. Though it’s not the only game in town, YouTube is the obvious distribution channel of choice. It’s where the viewers are, and viewers are what you want most for your new book trailer.

YouTube has so many astounding statistics, it would be a waste of space to try to name them here. If you want to research it, here’s a link to the source itself.

I will add, though, that YouTube.com boasts more than 1 billion unique users, or one-third of all people who use the Internet. That’s nearly as many people as inhabited the planet 100 years ago, when the movie industry was new. It’s 1/7 of the world population today. You don’t have to convince people to go to YouTube. You just have to get their attention.

To get your share of viewers for your trailer, start with a keyword rich title. It should include your book title or central character, as well as any other descriptive information or keywords you’d like to capitalize on.

Next, your description should also be keyword rich. Begin the first line with a link. This should coincide with your call to action, either to the page where viewers can join your mailing list, or where they can buy your book directly. Your description should be as long as a full article for best keyword optimization and Google juice.

Finally, give a clear compelling call to action, such as subscribing to your YouTube channel, joining your mailing list, or simply buying your book. It may seem obvious to you, but your “call to action” won’t be to your viewers. They’ll be too mesmerized by your masterful storytelling prowess!

If optimizing your videos is too slow a process for you, advertising opportunities abound on YouTube and Facebook as well. Find videos on the site that have an audience similar to yours, and buy inexpensive ads that attract a crowd to your own video. You’ll find hordes of people showing up on your channel, hungry for more.

After posting your book trailer video to YouTube.com, be sure to upload the video to your Amazon Author Central Account and Goodreads account.

After that, what more can you say – except, “Pass the popcorn.”

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.

Book Marketing with Facebook Ads – Who Says You Can’t Buy Happiness?

The tale is almost as ancient as writing itself. Picture the author in an ancient Italian city, scribbling away into the night by the dim amber light of a candle. He eeks out his living in a garret above the crowded street below—one teeming with readers he hopes to entertain, influence, convince or transform.

His livelihood depends on it. Somehow he must overcome obscurity and get his book into the hands of as many readers as possible. As an author, he must reach them to survive.

Fast forward to the 21st century, and—BLAM!—a burst of light explodes onto the scene in the form of technology. It spreads like wildfire to the far corners of the world in the span of a decade.

The garret is now a home office in outer suburbia, and the crowded street is replaced with a finely edged lawn. Ink spilled from a quill becomes the glow from a tablet, spread at the touch of a button to a prospective audience of billions through Audible and Kindle. Friends and followers who were once as far away as the moon are now near through social networks, video and Skype.

In the history of the world, authors have never had it so good. Yet with so much opportunity available to everyone, the ancient question remains unchanged: how do you stand out? As an author, how do you keep your family (and your banker) happy, and reach those teeming masses of readers? The answer may surprise you and is not a closely held “secret” as some would have you to believe.

Reaching a Massive Audience

Twenty years ago, social networks had more than their fair share of social misfits. As AOL was supplanted by MySpace, the color and candor of the scene started to change. It became mainstream. In the era of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, social media gradually has become reason enough for late adopters to join the world online.

Social media networks keep your message in front of the consumer. But how do you do this if you don’t’ have an established list of followers? Reaching out to like-minded people one-by-one on social networks isn’t the way to reach large numbers of people. If you join a Facebook group and post something that says “Buy now and save!” you’ll get no response and may even get banned from the group.

Paid advertising on these networks is an efficient way to reach the people who want and need your book. It puts the power into the hands of the author. This spells opportunity to connect with far more than your immediate social circles as well, and that makes everyone happy: your friends, your family, your banker –and especially you, the author!

Over the years, marketing tools come and go. Smartphones and social media have changed the landscape of marketing in ways no one could have predicted. The next disruption is right around the corner. Regardless of the latest marketing technologies, there are three principles that hold true for decades.

1) Audience Targeting: Segment your audiences, and cater your efforts just to the buyers. Clearly identify what makes them tick (emotionally). Consider going beyond old-fashioned demographic segmentation and look for patterns in personality types. Take, for example, two 45-year-old women that live in the same city—one is a successful real estate professional and one is the CEO of a software company. Would the same advertising appeal to one woman who is motivated by building a massive network versus another woman who is focused on leading software development?

Paid social media advertising offers some of the best audience targeting opportunities ever afforded by the marketing community. No longer do we target large blocks of unsegmented people via network television buys. Now, authors can easily target readers based on where they live, age, gender, books they have read and movies they watch.

2) Multiple Campaigns: If you’re launching one marketing campaign at a time, you won’t get very far. In today’s climate your offer will need to cater to multiple audiences simultaneously. This may require launching multiple marketing campaigns with highly specific targeting. Taking the example of targeting the two women – perhaps one campaign targeting the real estate professional is themed around entertaining while another campaign is geared towards leadership education.

3) Specialized Messaging: Your promotional messaging can’t be a catch-all for multiple audiences. Using a catch-all philosophy only “catches” a few. Profile your target audiences to increase conversion rates from your offers.

Take a look at your ideal audience and identify their greatest pain and their biggest pleasure. Then apply these pressure points when designing your social media campaigns for higher conversions.

You may think that paying for advertising isn’t necessary for your business, but in the final analysis, when do you want to succeed—now, or someday? Are you enjoying the warm amber glow of that dim candle, or would you like to explode your book awareness from the comfort of your suburban office?

Opportunity doesn’t wait. With sound advertising practices, you can apply leverage to your book marketing campaigns and invest your time wisely somewhere else—say, edging that finely manicured lawn.

Marketing for Millions: Proven Marketing Strategies for Million Dollar Success

Marketing for Millions: Proven Marketing Strategies for Million Dollar Success by Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, et al. is presented by Made for Success Publishing. This standalone audiobook app combines a 15 hours of marketing audio training and inspiration, with supplemental features for download-once and listening anywhere.

Learn successful marketing techniques, attract new opportunities, and create a “millionaire mindset” with advice from Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Bob Proctor, and others who have created and marketed successful enterprises and changed their own lives and the lives of millions.

Bryan Heathman is the President of Made for Success Publishing. Bryan works with best-selling authors in the role of publisher and marketer, including the late Zig Ziglar, Chris Widener and John C. Maxwell. Bryan is the author of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.