Publicity

Like many self publishing authors, when I was getting my first book ready to birth into the world, I realized that I had no platform, no support and very little marketing ability. How could I get people to find my book, like it and buy it? What tools could I use to self-publish – should I use Lulu, Createspace, Lightning …

Book sales may seem like a mysterious void of uncertainty, but the truth is most authors fail for very predictable reasons. Luckily, if you’re doing these things wrong, they’re (mostly) easy to fix. 1) You have no reviews. Are you driving people to buy from an amazon page with no reviews on it? Good luck – reviews sell books. You …

What if I told you I could help you sell %500 more books in less than a month; that I had personal media ties; that I could get you top exposure everywhere and keep the momentum going to sell thousands of books for years to come? Obviously, such an opportunity wouldn’t come cheap. If I said I can do all …

I just saw an interesting sales letter for a program that generates a cheesy social media chatroom box. The idea is actually pretty awesome, and I’ve seen these around: instead of a big colorful ad that says “LOOK!!! CHEAP!!! AWESOME!!!” the ad seems to “reveal” a private conversation about some secret, insider information. With our natural curiosity, need to socialize, …

Recently I read John Locke’s kindle book, “How I sold 1 million ebooks in 5 months.” It’s well worth reading so you should check it out. Locke reveals exactly what his title promises. A few of my favorite tips are below: 1) You need to have more than one book. A complex marketing strategy to promote yourself won’t be as …

I put out my self published non-fiction research book about a year ago. I did almost everything wrong. I’m starting to come to grips with what I should have done, which I’ve arranged in the following 3-step plan for those who can benefit from my mistakes. 1) Distribution. The book has to be OUT there, easy for people to buy …

About six months ago, I finished my book “Jesus Potter Harry Christ” and was hungry for reviews. The first thing I did was send out a chain letter to about a thousand blogs I thought might be interested in it. I even sweetened the deal with cash prizes. Feedback: a few of those sites contacted me, but only a handful. …

Update! After posting this, I got distracted and added a “maintenance mode” plugin in for several months, which resulted in PR going back down to zero. Lesson learned. Sometime today or yesterday Google updated its PR database. “Pagerank” is a somewhat nebulous term that seems to refer to how “popular” your site is – how many people are linking to …

There are two types of people in the world, and only one of them are successful. The Dalis are brazen self-promoters and headline grabbers. They are invincible in their self-confidence, creative and crazy in their media-friendliness, daring in their publicity stunts. The Van Goghs are quietly reflective, they ask people for favors, they are patient and sensitive, they trust other …

I just got an email from Tim Ferriss with his latest stunt: “Opening the Kimono to 200 People and Baring It All”. After proving that he knows how to make a bestselling book marketing campaign, with two books as long term New York Bestsellers, everybody wants to know Tim’s promotion secrets. And for the first time, he’s revealing it all at …