• Person has a great idea. They tell a few people.
• They tell them they should write a book.
• They open up their laptop and pound out a book for about four/five weeks.
• They get a graphic designer to produce a really cute cover.
• They publish the book with a place they found online.
• They announce to the world (and the friends who encouraged the project) that the book is here.
• They spam (I mean email) everyone they know and have a “book signing.”
• They sell about 50 books and give away about five to people who know a lot of other people.

This is grassroots marketing – without a lawnmower or a water hose.

Well, after about three months, they’re tired, frustrated and can’t figure out why their book is not selling like they thought it would. They put their blood, sweat, tears (and money) into this little baby.  Dog gone it!  How do they get the word out about this book – and sell all these copies they have stored in their basement?

No joke. This is real.  And the kicker is that they probably have spent about $1,000 so far on graphics, editing, printing and any other miscellaneous “marketing tactics” folks they knew have recommended.

Now they’re wondering if they should spend more money to enter contests, buy a vendor booth at a conference or run some ads.  It’s like a money pit.

Their “good idea” that should have produced income and be an asset to their life and the lives of others – has now become a liability.  They’ve run out of money and run out of energy to promote this book.

What should they have done? Really simple, here are seven steps to make sure your book gets some traction in an overcrowded market:

1. Build your platform. You have the passion – so share it.  Start speaking, tweeting and spreading your message about the book everywhere BEFORE the book is published.  Note: Nine to 12 months is not too early.
2. Create a massive email and/or mailing list. Wherever you speak – ask people to join your mailing list so they can be the first to know about the upcoming book.
3. Create a blog site. The content on this blog should attract the audience of the book.  Give, give, give your content away.  Position yourself as an authority by publishing articles and creating a community who cares about your topic. Post personal videos on your blog too and have guest bloggers.
4. Start a blogtalk radio show (internet radio) and begin interview all the other experts/authors in this field. Build them up and start associating with those who are ahead of you, and you will then begin to be seen as one of the “movers and shakers” too.
5. Go to writer’s conferences. Read writer’s magazines. Attend writer’s meetings. Read author blogs and go to every author book signing you can find. The more you know about the industry and see what works and what doesn’t – will save you time and money.
6. Produce a book trailer. Taking a cue from the movie industry, book trailers peak the interest months before it hits the market.  Don’t be cheap with the trailer (or the book cover). The more you look like a big shot, the better response you’ll get for your book debut.
7. Leverage you. Schedule a professional photo shoot to represent your brand. This is key. You need great publicity shots if you want great publicity. While writing your book, connect with others. Become a social media junkie and share your message. Don’t worry about the response or the numbers at first. Just be consistent. Share your ideas, book cover samples, the whole writing journey with your cyber buddies.  The more you involve them in the process, the more they will care when the book is finally here.

Finally, get a PR coach. Ask yourself how much it’s costing you to try figure out “seemingly easy” things without having professional advice.

If you want to reach success faster, invest in the right training, coaching and mentoring. Surround yourself with people who know what they’re doing and heed their advice.  It will be less expensive (and much less frustrating) than trying to always go solo!

Anything worth having takes advance planning, commitment and an investment.  If you are willing to do this, you will be a success – even beyond just selling a few books. You would have established a viable business – and possibly even making yourself a Rock Star.

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• TAKE INTEREST IN OTHERS’ WORK.

We have two ears and one mouth for a reason. You should listen twice as much as you talk.  There are people in the Chocolate Pages Network who simply post, post, post and never take the time to read anyone else’s blogs.  They never take time to look around the site to see what resources are there. They never send anyone else a message. They go in, post their work, and it’s like wham bam — I’ve put my stuff in so I’m done.  Many are trying to brand their product or service, but that’s not really branding – it’s more or less like spamming. The purpose of a social network is essentially to develop relationships. Whether you’re part of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace or Chocolate Pages, the point of it is not just to collect people like rocks and put them to the side. Form relationships with people.  If you learn enough about a person, you will know what their strengths are and how they can possibly help you.  And if you tell them more about what you do, you may be able to help them as well. Synergy Energy!

• SHARE INFORMATION.

There are members of Chocolate Pages Network that live in the United Kingdom and some who reside in Los Angeles. Some live in the Mid-West and some in the South.  But we all have one common goal: to let the world know about our books! Iron sharpens iron. You will go much further if you partner with others. Partnering gives you limitless opportunities that you can not produce alone. You can gain more buzz for your book by combining your strengths with others’ strengths. We are not in competition with each other! Work with each other and you are guaranteed to go further. What you do for others, God will make happen for you. We know the principle. We learned it in church, but it’s time we apply the principle to our lives. God will set updivine connections for you that you will propel you to your next level.

• SPEND TIME ON THE INTERNET.

Make time for success. After you complete your work day, — don’t surf the net while at work, maintain integrity — instead of watching TV from 6.00 to 9.00 at night, spend time on the Internet. Listen to blog talk shows. If you haven’t listened to the Chocolate Pages blog talk show, take a listen. That’s just one of many!  Blogtalkradio.com has many virtual shelves that explain how to gain internet publicity.

Also, I have a new show at blogtalkradio.com/ministrymarketingsolutions that concentrates primarily on Internet publicity, marketing and book promotions. This is just one more resource that will help brand your ministry, grow your business and build your platform for your book.  Your book is a business! When you have a book, you have another stream of income, not just a book.  Keep in mind, you’re building a business. AND BLOG!!! Create a strong BRAND online first!

• PARTICIPATE IN TRADE SHOWS AND CONFERENCES.

In my latest book, Synergy Energy, I list approximately 30 various trade shows and conferences that are scheduled throughout this year. You may want to participate as a visitor or you may choose to have your own booth so people can gain information from you. To cut costs, you can even partner with another author to have a booth at the Book Expo of America or the ICRS show. You not only save money, but you both get to promote your book so it’s a win-win situation.  Also consider that if you buy a booth by yourself, you will not be able to network with other vendors because you won’t be able to leave your booth. Consider bringing along a partner so that you may take full advantage of the resources available.

• PARTNER WITH BOOK CLUBS, BLOGGERS AND RADIO ANNOUNCERS.

If you know different authors that have had success with book clubs, you can ask them for contact information for their particular book club. Many blog sites actually do reviews of books and author interviews. Partnering with them is a great way to expand your voice. Radio station announcers are always looking for creative ways to reach out to their listeners. By providing them with books that they can give away to their callers, you gain publicity and essentially free radio advertisement. This is called ‘trade for mention.’

• PARTNER WITH ANOTHER AUTHOR TO DO CO-OP MAILINGS.

If someone buys a book by Kim Brooks that doesn’t mean they can’t buy a book by Stacy Hawkins Adams.  If it’s in the same genre, it would be good to work together because if a consumer likes Kim’s books, they may very well like Stacy’s books. Mail your post cards with advertisements for both authors’ books to libraries, church bookstores and general bookstores. Remember, we are not in competition with each other. There are people who do read more than one book a year so they can read yours as well as another author’s.

• CONDUCT SEMINARS AND CONFERENCES WITH OTHER AUTHORS.

There’s a group called The Anointed Authors on Tour. They travel different parts of the country as a team promoting their books and performing book signings. Each person has a set responsibility to make the tour a success. This is proof of how authors can gain great success by working together. Many authors have very similar topics. Their perspective may be a bit different, but both authors can benefit by creating buzz for their audiences and cut not only the cost, but the work, in half.

• SUPPORT EACH OTHER’S BOOK RELEASES.

When an author has a book release, it’s as if the author has just given birth to a new baby! You congratulate them! Everyone who gives birth likes to hear that their baby is beautiful, so take the time to go to their book release. Offer to blog about their new release via your personal blog or e-mail. Ask that author to send you some bookmarks and flyers that promote the new book and place them at your own book table when you market your product.  When you bless someone else, it is guaranteed to come back to you.  The key to remember is if you learn to give and release, God will work a miracle. Just expect it. When you give unto someone else you live in abundance. Those that give usually are the ones that receive the blessing back.  Those that are afraid, stingy and selfish tend to get more negative energy. In the end, it really blocks your own blessings. We always want to be a blessing to each other.

• CREATE A LINK TO OTHER AUTHORS ON YOUR WEBSITE.

It doesn’t hurt to put someone else’s link on your website or on your blog. You can also place a link to various bookstores on your site. That drives traffic to their stores.  If we don’t support them in our community, many of our community bookstores will not be around. If they’re not around, there will be nowhere to have the lavish book signings many authors often look

forward to. Remember, when you add links to your site, you also increase traffic to your own site.

• TRADE EXCERPTS WITH OTHER AUTHORS.

Offer to include another author’s content in your e-zine or newsletter and ask if they would be willing to do the same for you. The more useful content you give your market the more they will love and support you. Also offer to sell another author’s book at your events and ask them to do the same.  Offer commission or an incentive to make it financially worthwhile for others to promote your book. You can’t physically go to every seminar or conference, but you can ship books to another author to sell your books at a conference you are unable to attend.

For more tips and advice on how to get your voice heard, your book read or your products sold, see Pam Perry’s business website and sign up for her free webinars. Go www.PerryWilliamson.com

Follow the tweets on Twitter: @teampw

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http://www.perrywilliamson.com/webinar/

Never before, a “Superstar Success Training” like this one: a mustfor emerging authors, experts, speakers, business owners, coaches, consultants, ministers and others who inspire for a living…

Join Pam Perry and Ramon Williamson for an evening of insight, motivation and real-deal training to unlock and launch you into “thought leader” success.

LISTEN to what others say about Pam and Ramon’s webinars:

“Thank you for sharing this information! The energy level is awesome.” – Angel

“I’m flat out excited! The real deal collaboration! Love masterminds!” – Regina

“Awesome advice!!” – Angeline

“Great job tonight. Looking forward to growing together.” – Kadena

“This is amazing!!!!!!”  – Andrew

“Awesome webinar; captivated; this is so good and so helpful; thank you!” – Donna

“This is wonderful. Really worth staying up till 2:00 am in London.” – Sue

“Thought Leadership in the New Social Media Economy”
with Pam Perry and Ramon Williamson

Date: Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Time: 8PM – 9:20PM ET

http://www.perrywilliamson.com/webinar/

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Yolanda Adams

About the Author

Ever since her late-‘80s debut Just As I Am, Yolanda Adams has triumphantly carried the torch for contemporary gospel and inspirational music via 12 glorious albums. Stunningly beautiful, exceptionally educated, filled with the spirit and blessed with one of the most powerful voices in any genre of music, this Houston-native and one-time school teacher has been a stately beacon of God’s light, earning numerous accolades and awards for her shining efforts, including the first American Music Award for Contemporary Gospel Artist, four Gospel Music Association Dove Awards and four National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Grammy® Awards (including 1999’s Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album for Mountain High…Valley Low which featured her secular breakthrough hit “Open My Heart,” and 2005’s Best Gospel Song for “Be Blessed,” for which she was a co-writer).

Growing up her mother studied music, so she grew up well aware of R&B, jazz and classical music as well as gospel. When she debuted on the independent Sounds of Gospel label with Just As I Am (1988) and later on gospel’s Verity label with Through the Storm (1991), Save the World (1993), More Than a Melody (1995), Songs From the Heart (1998) plus live sets in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. (both in 1996), she was often criticized within the Christian community for blending secular music with gospel as well as for her fashion-conscious attire. However, with the shifting tides of music and culture, Yolanda was ultimately embraced as a positive and pro-active presence, and a modern image of faith, attestable by her seven NAACP Image Awards.

She went on to be to major label Elektra/Atlantic Records where she blossomed even further with the releases Mountain High…Valley Low (1999), Christmas with Yolanda Adams (2000), The Experience: Live (2001), Believe (2001), Day By Day (2005) and What a Wonderful Time (2007).

Yolanda is heard on over 40 radio stations reaching over 5 million listeners who tune in daily across the country on “The Yolanda Adams Morning Show,” a program of her creation and ownership in thrilling conjunction with Radio One. Most of Yolanda’ fans know she was once a school teacher, but far less know that she earned her college degree in Radio/Television Broadcasting!

Yolanda is currently working on her eleventh studio album and planning to tour in Fall 2009. Yolanda Adams was born, raised and currently lives with her daughter Taylor Ayanna in Houston, Texas.

http://www.click2houston.com/video/22425505/index.html

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1. Link to helpful articles. Add your own comments or ask for feedback.
2. Teach a lesson in 140 characters. Add #lesson after
3. Invite people to subscribe to your ezine, blog, or facebook page.
4. Tell your followers you have a free gift on your website.
5. Re-tweet good posts by other people, but don’t go overboard—most of your tweets should be yours.
6. Announce a conference, book or CD release.
7. Make introductions to people who are also on Twitter. (Just use the “@” sign)
8. Congratulate others when they share good news.
9. Sparingly link to your own blog posts. Don’t over promote yourself.
10. Tweet out videos (yours or others) from Youtube.
11. Post an inspirational quote or message. Show your personality. Add #quote after it if you can.
12. Ask questions that encourage responses. Engage!

And see this infographic on how people are using Twitter.

Twitter:  @pamperry

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Pam Perry’s Klout score: 73

http://klout.com/pamperry

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An Author’s Plan for Social Media

Make your list and stick to it!

Get a PR  Coach to keep you accountable if you have to!

1. Set up a URL for the book, and/or maybe one for your name. Need help finding a URL? I use Ajaxwhois.com for simple effort in searching.
2. Set up a blog. If you want it free and super fast, WordPress or Tumblr. I’d recommend getting hosting like Bloghost.me.
3. On the blog, write about interesting things that pertain to the book, but don’t just promote the book over and over again. In fact, blow people away by promoting their blogs and their books, if they’re related a bit.
4. Start an email newsletter. It’s amazing how much MORE responsive email lists are than any other online medium.
5. Have a blog post that’s a list of all the places one might buy your book. I did this for both Trust Agents and Social Media 101.
6. Make any really important links trackable with a URL shortener. I know exactly how many people click my links. [bit.ly]
7. Start listening for your name, your book’s name. ( Covered in this post about building blocks.) [search.twitter.com]
8. Consider recording a video trailer for your book. Here’s one from Scott Sigler (YouTube), for his horror thriller, Contagious. And here’s one from Dallas Clayton for his Awesome Book. (Thanks Naomi for pointing this out).
9. Build a Facebook fan page for the book or for bonus points, build one around the topic the book covers, and only lightly promote the book via the page.
10. Join Twitter under your name, not your book’s name, and use Twitter Search to find people who talk about the subjects your book covers.
11. When people talk about your book, good or bad, thank them with a reply. Connect to people frequently. It’s amazing how many authors I rave about on Twitter and how few actually respond. Mind you, the BIGGEST authors always respond (paradox?)
12. Use Google Blogsearch and Alltop to find the people who’d likely write about the subject matter your book covers. Get commenting on their blog posts but NOT mentioning your book. Get to know them. Leave USEFUL comments, with no blatant URL back to your book.
13. Work with your publisher for a blogger outreach project. See if you can do a giveaway project with a few bloggers (here’s a book giveaway project I did for Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years book).
14. Offer to write guest posts on blogs that make sense as places where potential buyers might be. Do everything you can to make the post match the content of the person’s site and not your goals. But do link to your book.
15. Ask around for radio or TV contacts via the social web and LinkedIn. You never know.
16. Come up with interesting reasons to get people to buy bulk orders. If you’re a speaker, waive your fee (or part of it) in exchange for sales of hundreds of books. (And spread those purchases around to more than one bookselling company.) In those giveaways, do something to promote links back to your site and/or your post. Giveaways are one time: Google Juice is much longer lasting.
17. Whenever someone writes a review on their blog, thank them with a comment, and maybe 1 tweet, but don’t drown them in tweets pointing people to the review. It just never comes off as useful.
18. Ask gently for Amazon and other distribution site reviews. They certainly do help the buying process. And don’t ask often.
19. Do everything you can to be gracious and thankful to your readers. Your audience is so much more important than you in this equation, as there are more of them than there are of you.
20. Start showing up at face to face events, where it makes sense, including tweetups. If there’s not a local tweetup, start one.
21. And with all things, treat people like you’d want them to treat your parents (provided you had a great relationship with at least one of them).

This sounds like a lot of steps. It is. But this is how people are finding success. Should this be the publicist’s job? Not even a little bit. The publicist has his or her own methodology. The author will always be the best advocate for his or her own work.

Never put your marketing success in the hands of someone else. Always bring your best efforts into the mix and you’ll find your best reward on your time and effort.

You might have found other ways to be successful with various online and social media tools. By all means, please share with us here. What’s your experience been with promoting your work using the social web?

Article by: Chris Brogan is the New York Times bestselling author of the NEW book, Social Media 101. He is president of New Marketing Labs, LLC, and blogs at [chrisbrogan.com].

Need a short cut or system?

See video ==> Social Media Leverage Multipliers http://bit.ly/oqxDf9

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My novel, A Good Excuse to Be Bad has its national release June 28, 2011. When I noticed how I close I was to the book launch date I realized that although I have had the busiest, most trying, family in crisis year than I’ve ever had still needed to apply the action items I often encourage my clients and my Dee Goody Mail members. So as a reminder to myself and to up my accountability, I am sharing my checklist here.

1. Relax. (you don’t have to do anything us, but enjoy it all. so chill)
2. To enjoy this time throw a party.
3. Now promote that party in every free outlet you can find.
4. Get some door prizes for the party.
5. Promote the biggest door prize on your site and every where you can near the venue two weeks before the event.
6. Book a second event, because this party will be so cool. Your buddies will not want it to end, so have another place for them to meetup and provide an invite at this party.
7. Invite people who matter to you and gift them for being such a great help.
8. Prepare what you will read. Practice it.
9. Pay for an ad in your local paper or local email blast.
10. Prep the venue staff for your party. Early visit. Take your book. See who will be working for you. Give them a phone script in case someone calls wondering are you actually there.

Bonus. Have Fun. If no one else have fun, you better! LOL

One more thing. Today is the last day to enter to win a free autographed copy of A Good Excuse to Be Bad. Click the Good Reads pic or the link above to enter.

Dee Stewart is an inspirational book reviewer for Romantic Times Magazine,  contributing writer to Hope for Women Magazine, staff columnist for Christian Fiction Online Magazine, owner of Christian Fiction Blog and DeeGospel PR, an entertainment PR boutique. She is alsoMiranda Parker, novelist for Kensington Publishers Dafina Books. Her debut novel “A Good Excuse to be Bad” releases July 2011

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