What’s YOUR Top Question? Ask our Experts!
ByOur VIP Panellists want to know YOUR top question!
Our Spirit Authors Grand Opening is coming Monday February 22nd through Friday February 26th. To celebrate, we’ve assembled a VIP panel of 18 top mind-body-spirit and publishing experts to talk about writing your book, publishing your book, promoting your book and benefiting from having written a mind-body-spirit book.
Our guests want to know YOUR questions!
Here are some of the questions we have received so far:
- What’s the first step I should take in writing my book?
- How can I stay focused and motivated if I am writing with no looming deadlines?
- What is involved in the editing process of a book?
- Where and how can I market an ebook online?
- What tips do you have for getting my book written when there are so many other demands of business and home?
- I don’t have a lot of money for this project. How do I get my book published at a low cost?
- I’ve got so many writing projects going at one time and none of them are getting finished. How do I move forward?
- How can I get my book “to the top” and be a bestseller?
- How can I get children’s spiritual books published? What are the guide lines for them?
So tell us! What’s YOUR top question about writing, promoting, publishing or turning your mind-body-spirit book into a sustainable business?
Write your questions in the comments box below and THEN, be sure to register for our FREE Spirit Authors Grand Opening Webinar Week, Feb 22 – 26. Click HERE for complete details and to reserve your place.
Lynn was hired for the Amazon book launch of my book 
“I was truly blessed when I found Lynn Serafinn, best selling author of 
I've known Lynn for a few years now, and recently had the opportunity to join her in the book launch campaign for Patrick Ryan's "Awakened Wisdom: A Guide To Reclaiming Your Brilliance".
Lynn is amazing! She makes it all seem easy and effortless, and I'm sure there are voluminous amounts of work necessary behind the scenes to bring all of the book launch elements into being.
And, Lynn makes it incredibly easy to join in the fun! She provides the marketing copy, pre-written tweets, blog posts, as well as setting up a network for launch participants. All you have to do is plug yourself in!
Building relationships through networking and marketing should be fun and enjoyable! If it's not, I suggest you try working with Lynn. It will open your eyes to new possibilities!
1. If you self publish and use an ISBN number from the self publishing company, are you bound to that or can you get another ISBN if you later get a contract with a publishing company?
2. If you print and distribute a book yourself without an ISBN, can you later publish it with a self publishing company?
Thank you!
Angela
Dear Lynn & Fellow Authors,
Being a total rookie at writing, one of my first questions would be: “What is the correct method required in safeguarding your writing material as your own?”
Thank You,
Rufus
What is the best approach to on-line radio for advertising my writing?
My book had a delayed printing in 2008 & made it into the world just in time for the 2008/economic melt-down. In 2009 the effects on my business from the melt-down & recession prevented me from promoting my book.
Now, I want to do a low-key, inexpensive, event; this would be a belated launch for my children’s book: Arthur Collins and the Three Wishes. I think that a book store would be the best place for the launch, but I’m worried about making the pitch to them. I’m following Carolyn Howard- Johnson’s Frugal Book Promoter Instructions. Any suggestions?
Hi there, Linda.
Great question. Must say that greatest marketing expertise (and my greatest enthusiasm) is in online promotion, but I have set up a few in-store events with major chains, and three things you should be ready for is 1) they really expect you to do all the marketing 2) If they are a large chain, they might pay virtually no attention to you when you are there and 3) they are really only interested in one thing: footfall. Before you pitch to them, my suggestion is that you sit down and make a marketing plan for the event. That will convince them more than anything. If you cannot demonstrate that you have a viable plan to bring in X number of people, they won’t be very interested in giving you floor space.
About 10 years ago I hosted a major Indian spiritual leader/author at major London chain. I had to give them an estimated turnout (I told them about 50). I did 100% of the advertising, but they made all the book sales. We basically got only our book costs back (that was in the days before print on demand, and I had a massive shipment of books from Singapore in tow). From a book sales point of view, we didn’t “draw” anything from their in-store customers. The only people who bought the book were those who were in the shop because they had responded to our advertising. So really, it’s a pretty one-way street with retail shops. You won’t get much back from them. Some of them will even charge you for the floor space.
I guess that’s why I love online promotion so much. None of that sort of stuff comes into the picture.
If you want to do a live event, I suggest spending some time (months) creating a good targeted list of invitees (about 5 times more than you need), and then renting a room in a small community centre, local school or church hall (if you look hard enough you can find one for next to nothing) and create a proper event where you give a talk, dramatic reading, etc. I haven’t read Carolyn Howard Johnson’s work, but Carol Hoenig’s Author’s Guide to Planning Book Events is a nice little book that sparks a few ideas for creating unique live events that tie into the theme or setting of your book. If it’s a children’s book, how about setting up a Saturday afternoon kid’s event? Have games that involve the characters or themes of the book. Do a book reading. If your book has pirates in it, have a treasure hunt. If it’s about three wishes, make an activity around this. Get the local moms to bake goodies. Make it an event where the community gets involved. Make the cost of admission the cost of a book (signed of course) plus a few dollars/pounds more to help cover your room rental. Spend some time finding groups that could be invited en masse. And don’t forget to get every single email and/or address from them! Make the event truly memorable AND repeatable, so someone from a school or scouts or someone would ask you to do it again in THEIR community. In my opinion, this has MUST more style and “stickability” than a sleepy book store launch (unless your local shop is creative and community-focused of course).
To me, marketing should be about connecting people to YOU, not just to your book. I also believe that connection and community, whether online or face-to-face, is the most important (and all too often absent) ingredient for our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. All too often, it’s the connection that is missing in our marketing.
I am passionate about teaching spirit-based marketing and promotion, which I feel is emerging from within the online counter-culture. I will be teaching authors about this concept on the Spirit Authors courses (it’s also the subject of my next book).
By thinking outside the box (i.e., not being dependent upon the retail mentality) and looking at ways to engage directly with our public, we are awakening their hearts. When their hearts are engaged, they are more likely to let us in, AND the next time you have a new book, they’ll be first in the queue to get it.
Hope that helps a bit? Of course, this is just my own opinion.
I hope you will be joining us on the webcasts? With 18 people on the panel over the span of 5 days, you’ll get a lot of diversity of outlook and experience. I am sure others can give much more insight to this and other questions people are asking.
See you there?
Warm wishes,
Lynn
Dear Lynn and team,
Thanks for the useful info above. My immediate question is about POD. I have an all colour book, do you know who is the most cost effective for print on demand? They all charge more than I could reasonably ask per book – not good to make a loss on each sale even without marketing costs etc!
Thanks
Jen Tiller
REALITY QUEST
strategies for well-being
Hi, How do i go about getting childrens spiritual books published and what are the guide lines please, i have got 4 short stories already written.
These are all such great questions. Can’t wait to share them with the panel. Keep them coming!
Linda, thank you for the honor. Most authors consider it an honor when someone reads their book(s). (-:
You may find it difficult to get a bookstore to launch a book that is old by their standards. Hooray for online bookstores. They keep books from never dying! You should go for it, though, if that is your dream. As I suggest in my book, let the event planner know you will participate fully and that you have a long list of folks to invited. (-:
An alternative would be your local library. They have large rooms, often don’t charge and certainly have the means to attract lots of kids (and their parents!) to your signing. Make that reading. A reading with book sales would be even better.
Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Blogging at Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites pick http://www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com
Hi there Carolyn,
So glad you dropped by! Perhaps you can come and be on one of our Spirit Circle calls in the coming year?
I agree with what you are saying about libraries. I’ve been giving talks at libraries and many people buy my books at these events. For me, mind-body-spirit fairs are even better, because the audience is already pre-disposed towards the topic, and of course people buy my book at workshops I deliver and “performances” of parts of my book.