Archive for tips
How Authors Can Sell Books Speaking at Schools and Libraries
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Author, publisher, educator, Barbara Techel speaks with Lynn Serafinn about a lucrative avenue for public speaking and book sales that is not always explored by authors.
Authors are always looking for new ways to promote their books. While I specialise in online promotions, there is certainly a need for authors to know how to promote and sell their books “in person” to their potential readers. In the past, many authors have depended upon book signings at book shops, but in this day and age, with millions of new books coming onto the market every year (Google estimates there are 130 million unique titles currently in publication, and others say even this figure it’s far too low), it’s getting harder and harder for authors to get their books into bookshops.
So are there any unexplored avenues for book sales authors many not yet be exploring?
Author, publisher, educator, Barbara Techel thinks so. Barbara is the author of several children’s books including the award-winning Frankie, the Walk and Roll Dog, which is based upon the life of her dog, Frankie, who moves about in a doggie wheelchair owing to having contracted disc disease that caused paralysis. Since 2007 Barbara and Frankie (who is in a doggie wheelchair) have shared their positive and inspiring messages with thousands of children and adults at schools and libraries around the United States.
Having had wonderful success with this, Barbara wrote a book called Class Act: Sell More Books Through School and Library Author Appearances
I recently interviewed Barbara on my radio show The Garden of the Soul, and was mightily impressed with the wealth of information she shared with my audience. In fact, the show ran much more like a teaching webinar than a radio broadcast. I was so impressed with her information, I wanted to make sure my Spirit Authors audience listened to the broadcast. You can hear it (or even download it) by the podcast player below:
Speaking at Schools and Libraries for Authors - Barbara Techel on Garden of the Soul Radio [ 58:57 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadIf you cannot see the player on your screen, CLICK HERE to listen to it on the BlogTalkRadio website.
During the interview, Barbara shares:
- how to find, pitch and book appearances at schools and libraries
- how much to charge for your talk
- how to promote your event
- how to plan and prepare your most effective speaking approach
- what to include in your presentation and tweak it to appeal to various audiences
- how to arrange and fulfill book orders that result from your talks
- how to use the modern technology of Skype to reach classrooms everywhere (a really novel idea, no pun intended)
While Barbara’s experience is mainly in the area of children’s non-fiction books, and her audience is primarily school children, I do believe all you authors out there whose books are not specifically in the children’s market can equally gain a lot of valuable ideas from this interview, so do give it a listen. After all, you are creative! Tweak Barbara’s ideas and make a brand new marketing campaign for yourself. 
AND… if you’d like to check out Barbara’s book, here are the links to it on Amazon US:
Paperback on Amazon US:
Class Act: Sell More Books Through School and Library Author Appearances
Kindle on Amazon US:
Class Act: Sell More Books Through School and Library Author Appearances
I’d love to hear your comments about this info after you’ve listened to the show, so please DO share them below.
AND DON’T FORGET to subscribe to the Spirit Authors blog for more tips on writing, publishing, book promotion and new mind-body-spirit book releases.
Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC is a certified, award-winning coach, teacher, marketer, social media expert, radio host, speaker and author of the number one bestseller The 7 Graces of Marketing: How to Heal Humanity and the Planet by Changing the Way We Sell. Her eclectic approach to marketing incorporates her vast professional experience in the music industry and the educational sector along with more than two decades of study and practice of the spirituality of India. In her work as a promotional manager she has produced a long list of bestselling mind-body-spirit authors. She is the founder of Spirit Authors, a site dedicated to providing information on publishing and book promotioin for and about mind-body-spirit authors, both established and aspiring.
Passionate about re-establishing our connection with the Earth, Lynn also supports the work of the Transition Town Network in her hometown of Bedford, England.
Lynn is also the Founder of the 7 Graces Global Conference, or 7GGC, a meeting of minds taking place in various cities around the world and via worldwide live stream. The aim of 7GGC is to bring together business owners, marketers, media professionals, journalists, conscious consumers and eco-focused community groups, who will create a Tipping Point for change towards greater awareness of and responsibility for the impact our work has upon our health, happiness, economy and natural environment. Come BE the change at http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/7GGC
5 Easy Ways Authors Can Use Audio to Promote Their Books
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Author, book promotion coach Lynn Serafinn shares her tips on building your list by giving away great audio to your social media network.
Authors are always looking for ways to promote their books online. However, many are under the mistaken impression that promoting your book means you need to put excerpts on your blog or give away free chapters for download. And while giving away parts of your book might seem to make a lot of sense, it’s not necessarily the most effective way to promote your book online. The Internet is flooded with information. Even free content has got to kick some serious butt to make an impression on readers these days, who probably have a backlog of things on their “to read” list.
So instead of running the risk of becoming yet another unread masterpiece, I’d like to suggest authors put down the pen (or their keyboard) for a little while and start recording their voice instead.
Yes, I’m talking about giving away audio instead of all your precious writing. Why audio? Well, for one thing, if you follow some of the tips below, you don’t have to do much to produce the content. Secondly, audio has a higher perceived value than simple text. And lastly, audio get your audience closer to you. Speaking to your audience directly, and letting them get to know the sound of your voice, is both powerful and intimate.
What kind of audio can authors give to their readers?
Here are some ideas:
- Get yourself booked on some Internet radio shows and then give away the recordings of some of your interviews (ask the host if it’s ok first, of course). Make sure the interviews are content-rich and interesting to the listener. If they are just “pitches” about your book, no one will be interested in them. In a future article, I’ll give you some tips about getting booked on shows.
- If you don’t have any interviews in the coffers, set up a webinar on your topic (or a series of them), use the recordings of those. Not only will it be a good promotional activity on the day, but you can reuse the audio as an ongoing give-away gift.
- You can also do a live reading of the most powerful part of your book in front of a small audience and record that, or record it directly into your PC if you don’t happen to have an audience on hand.
Use your imagination, but make sure you give away at least 15 minutes of audio as your free gift. Some of my giveaways have as many as 8 hours of audio, depending upon the subject matter.
How good must the quality be?
If you are recording at home, be sure your audio is recorded and mixed down to MP3 format at a sample rate of 44.1kHz at 16 bits. If your recording is from an Internet broadcast, it will be compressed and the audio quality will be much lower resolution, but for a free gift, that is usually acceptable. Some conference line recordings, however, are at set to such a low fidelity they are really not usable. Do a test run first and listen back to it. If there’s a lot of noise (indicating low bit rate) or it sounds like you have a lisp every time you say the letter “s” (indicating the sample rate it too low), it might not be a wise choice.
HOW do you deliver your free audio gift?
Be sure you have created a way for people to DOWNLOAD the audio, rather than use an online player (such as Audio Acrobat). Remember that people like to play MP3s on their iPod or other portable player while driving in their car or commuting on the train to and from work.
Secondly, don’t deliver your audios all at once. Spread them out over a few days or send one audio per week. There are two reasons for this. The first reason is to allow your audience to take their time “consuming” your content. People might be speed readers, but there is no such thing as a “speed listener.” An hour of audio takes an hour to listen to it. When you deliver too much audio all at once, people are LESS likely to listen to any of it (I still have a couple of my offers set up like this, and keep meaning to change them). But the other reason why it is a good idea to spread out your delivery of audios is this: when you deliver four audios over a period of four weeks, it allows you to build a stronger relationship with your audience.
Make your “squeeze page” (the page where they enter their name and email to get your audio) as MINIMAL as possible. Don’t confuse the reader with other offers or links on your page. Make the audio the-one-and-only offer on the page, and resist the urge to link out to other pages of your website.
On your download page (the page people go to after they sign up for your audio) make sure you have a “call to action”, which should comprise of a picture of your book, a quote from a great endorsement, and a link to buy your book online (don’t forget to use your affiliate link if you have one!). Also put this same call to action at the end of any follow-up emails you might send them. If you are delivering a new audio every week, your readers will see this call to action every time they go to retrieve their new audio.
WHERE do you offer these free audios?
Ok, so here’s where the magic comes in. Here are some of my favourite uses. And the nice thing about them is that once you have them set up, you just walk away from them and let them do their magic:
- As a ‘thank you’ gift when they subscribe to your ezine/ newsletter (this is probably the most common way people use them)
- As a ‘welcome gift’ when they “like” your fan page on Facebook
- As a ‘bonus gift’ on a JV campaign for another author’s book launch
- As a ‘Thanks for Following Me’ gift to new Twitter followers using Social Oomph
- As a ‘random gift’ on Twitter or Facebook. Every now and then when you tweet, just tell people you’ve got a free audio for them. You can use Twaitter to schedule them to go out 1x a day, 1x week, or whatever you like.
And here’s a Bonus Tip:
*** Give your audio as a totally ‘unexpected gift’ in your bio at the end of an article… like the one you see below. 
I myself have numerous audio offers going out on a regular basis throughout the year, which add hundreds of new names to my list without my even trying. I hope these ideas spark your creative juices and help you build your own list and social media following with lots and lots of wonderful new people.
I love to know whether or not you found this article to be helpful. Please DO leave a comment below to let me know, or to write to me at http://spiritauthors.com/contact ask any questions you may have about this information.
Happy recording!
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Did you know that a lot of nice people hate marketing?
Artists, authors and holistic business owners are some of the most common. Maybe YOU are one of these people? Find out about the relationship between marketing, business owners, and the future of our planet in this 10-page eBook and 18 minute audio book “Why Nice People HATE Marketing” at http://spiritauthors.com/pages/bonus/why-nice-people-hate-marketing-request.html which is a sneak peek at just a handful of the cutting-edge ideas presented in the upcoming book The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell by Lynn Serafinn coming at September 2011. You can pre-order the book now on Amazon.
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What Makes a Good Bonus Gift for an Online Book Launch?
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Photo from 123RF
When authors have a book launch, they very often gather together a group of network partners to support the launch by offering a bonus gift. Offering a bonus gift for someone else’s launch can be a great way to find new targeted subscribers for your mailing list (see more information about why you might wish to join a campaign at the end of this article).
I manage many book launches every year, and every time I do it’s necessary for me to give some guidance to network partners about what makes a good, appropriate and effective bonus gift. If you are going to be offering a bonus gift for a book launch, it is essential you choose the right kind of bonus gift AND present it properly. Otherwise, you are likely to be very disappointed with the results of all your efforts.
I thought I’d share this information with my blog readers because it is not only relevant to bonus gifts for book launches, but pretty much to any kind of special offer you might use for leads generation. These guidelines are based upon years of experience in what works and doesn’t work in YOUR best interest, and hopefully increase the probability of opt ins for you.
What IS a good bonus gift?
- It must be 100% FREE
- It must be DOWNLOADABLE
- It should be something special that is NOT routinely and easily accessible via your website (especially your home page!).
- It must be in a format accessible to most (PDF, MP3, MP4 are all recommended formats).
- Suggested gifts include eBook, special report, audio course, eCourse, templates, video series, etc.
What is NOT a good bonus gift?
- An offer of a discount for something they must buy.
- An offer of free coaching or consulting (see more below).
- An offer of a free place on a live course on a specific date.
- Something you would have to send to people via snail mail.
- Something which would cost YOU money to give (such as a printed book).
- Something in a non-universal format (e.g., an eBook in MS Word doc format would not be acceptable).
- Something anyone could easily find by visting your website.
What is an “opt in page” and why do I need it?
Your opt in page is the place where people will come to REQUEST (not receive) your bonus gift. It should include a sign up form where they are required to enter their name and email (I suggest you do NOT ask for any other information).
How do I get a sign up form?
Any email delivery or autoresponder system such as AWeber, GetResponse, Constant Contact or Mail Chimp will allow you to create a sign up form. If you don’t have any of these services, I recommend you get one. Mail Chimp is free for the first few hundred subscribers.
What should my “opt in page” look like?
It should be VERY basic with no distractions, such as outbound links, adverts, etc. It should ONLY show your bonus gift and the opt in form. It should be on a special stand-alone page that is NOT on the home page of your website.
What happens after people sign up?
The opt in form will have a function where you can tell it where to send people after they sign up. They should be taken DIRECTLY to a download page. THEN, you should also set up an automated follow up message that says something like, “Thanks for downloading my bonus gift (Title of Gift). Just in case you didn’t get the chance to download it, here’s the link to the download page again: (link to the page).
But I’m looking to get clients. Why can’t I offer free coaching (or whatever it is you do)?
Frankly, because you never will be able to fulfill the requests you will receive.What if you receive 100 requests? Are you prepared to give away 100 precious hours of your time? You shouldn’t be. If people are asking for free coaching and have no intention of hiring you, you are simply wasting both their time and yours.
Instead, give people a free downloadable gift (eBook, MP3, etc) that costs you no time to deliver, and then, if you want, put a message at the end of the eBook that you will offer a free consultation to the first 10 requests, or something along those lines.
But I want people to visit my website so they can check out my products and services. Why can’t the opt in page have info about these?
Please remember, on these launches people will be clicking to receive DOZENS of free gifts. They are not interested in checking out anyone’s site while they are doing this. It’s overwhelming enough for them (yes, it’s actually overwhelming for people to have so much choice). If you overwhelm them further with “information overload”, or it looks like you are trying to sell them something, they will CLICK AWAY from your page. Trust me, I have had many a JVP not follow my advice, and not receive but a handful of opt ins during a campaign.
Personally, I typically get hundreds of opt ins on my bonus gifts BECAUSE I make simple, not distracting pages that do not attempt to “sell” people anything. Remember: once people are on your list, you can send follow up messages with information on how to take the content further. You can also put this information IN the product itself (in fact, you should).
~ EXAMPLE ~
If you want to see an example of a bonus page that receives LOTS of downloads every week,
so you can try to model your page after it, have a look at this one:
http://spiritauthors.com/pages/bonus/why-nice-people-hate-marketing-request.html
~ JOIN A CAMPAIGN ~
If you would like to be a partner on a book launch, check out the latest campaign I am running HERE:
http://spiritauthors.com/latest-book-launches
~ NOT SURE WHY YOU WOULD WANT TO BE A PARTNER? ~
Find out 7 reasons why you would want to partner on someone else’s book launch NOW in an article I wrote:
http://spiritauthors.com/news/7-reasons-to-partner-on-someone-elses-book-launch-now/
I hope you have found this information helpful! And do check out my upcoming book launches, and come join us if you like.
Until next time, I send you warm wishes,
Lynn Serafinn
About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors
Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self.
Her upcoming book, The 7 Graces of Marketing, is coming in June 2011.
She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced a long list of top-10 book campaigns, including many #1-sellers. She created Spirit Authors to offer training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. Contact Lynn about YOUR book project at at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.
Be sure to subscribe to this blog for regular book writing and promotion tips (just fill in form at right of your screen).
Sign up for Lynn’s bi-monthly newsletter Creative Spirit (fill in form below) packed with inspirational articles, self-promotion tips, broadcast guide to her radio show, and news about upcoming spiritual author book releases.
Throughout the year, Lynn also hosts large-scale telesummits with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Your subscription to Creative Spirit will ensure you’ll be the first to know how to attend these free events.
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7 Facts about Self-Publishing Royalties and Print-on-Demand
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Book promotion expert Lynn Serafinn from Spirit Authors shares her tips on what every first-time author should know about royalties, retail price and printing costs before they self-publish a book.
Recently, in one of my LinkedIn Groups, a new author asked, “Does anybody have experience with self-publishing companies and the way they pay royalty fees?” I thought the answer to this question was something many new authors would like to know, so I thought I would share my response with my Spirit Authors readers. Below is a copy of the post I made on December 15th, 2010.
Hi there LinkedIn,
Here’s a breakdown of how most self-publishing royalties work:
By self-publishing companies, I assume you mean “publishers” such as iUniverse (probably the most known, but really only one of many) who set up your book to be distributed via print-on-demand (POD). The company I used for my first book is a small company called Authors Online – http://authorsonline.co.uk. I chose them because they are a small friends-and-family run company who take good care of their clients.
The POD press most often used is a company called Lightning Source. There are 2 major Lightning Source plants (when I last checked), one in Kentucky and one over here in England in Milton Keynes.
These kinds of companies don’t generally get your books into shops, but rather focus on Amazon, B&N, etc. The self-publishing publisher sets up your ISBN and arranges for your book to appear on all these online retailers. But be SURE you read the fine print. I had a scenario not very long ago when one of my clients went with Create Space (Amazon’s own print-on-demand publishing company) and they did NOT place the book on all 6 (now 7) Amazon sites throughout the world, cutting down SIGNIFICANTLY on my client’s sales. So be sure you ask if the company GUARANTEES you will be on all Amazon sites… but (if your book is in English), most especially Amazon US, Canada and UK.
Ok, so here are 7 facts about self-publishing and typical royalty structures:
1) Amazon buys your book for 45% of the retail price. That means, if you book retails for $10, Amazon pays your publisher $4.50 (not you… unless you actually START a publishing company and are selling the books directly to Amazon).
2) From that $4.50, your publisher subtracts their printing costs. Not sure of what they are in the US, but here in the UK, the costs are typically 1p (let’s say 2 cents) per page, plus 70p (let’s say $1.25) for the cover. So a 100 page book would cost $3.25 to print (don’t quote me on the exact figures; these were current as of 18 months ago in the UK. DO ask your publisher these questions).
3) If the book costs $3.25 to print, and you have received $4.50 from Amazon, it means your NET is $1.25.
4) Most self-publishers do a 50/50 split of the net, or in that ball park. That would mean your royalty per book sold is a whopping $0.67. Most payouts are quarterly, starting 4-6 months after publication.
5) Of course, you could also set the retail price higher to ensure you get a higher royalty. The best thing to do is to go online and check out similar books in the same niche, and check out their page count, and see how much their retail price is. Bear in mind, that Amazon will normally sell you book for LESS than retail, but you will still receive 45% of retail unless you tell them you are willing to take less in order to drive up sales (not recommended for first-time author, frankly!).
6) If you go FULLY self-published (i.e., set up your own ISBN, deal with Lightning Press, etc), then your royalty is 45% of retail. Subtract your printing costs from that, and that is your net profit per book. That is what I am doing with my next book.
7) Last option: getting the books printed in bulk (most do this overseas) can drive the cost per book WAY down, but you have a massive front-loaded investment at high risk because the minimum run is usually 1000 books or more to get a good price. PLUS you have the set-up costs, as it is not the same as digital POD. Any time I have seen new authors do this, they end up with a house full of hundreds of unsold books, and feel very discouraged. I don’t recommend it unless you have a solid promotional platform and good distribution set up. ALSO, bear in mind that if you go this route, book distributors tend to take the books on consignment and they don’t pay anything if the books don’t sell. And who do you think is responsible for the marketing? You guessed it – you. Furthermore, they might take 300 books from you when they first come out, but they can RETURN every book that hasn’t sold (or worse–been returned to the retail shops!) after a certain period of time.
BTW, I help self-published mind-body-spirit authors via my site Spirit Authors at http://spiritauthors.com. I’m re-opening Module 3 on self-publishing in February 2011. The course for writing your book (Module 1) and building your online platform (Module 2) are already available. You can take a 7-day test drive of those courses for only $1.
I also do full-service Amazon book launches at http://spiritauthorscoach.com. Drop me a line if you would like to chat.
Warm wishes,
Lynn Serafinn
About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors
Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self.
Her upcoming book, The 7 Graces of Marketing, is coming in June 2011.
She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced several top-10 book campaigns, including FOUR #1-sellers, in 2010 alone. She created Spirit Authors to offer training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. Contact Lynn about YOUR book project at at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.
Be sure to subscribe to this blog for regular book writing and promotion tips (just fill in form at right of your screen).
Sign up for Lynn’s bi-monthly newsletter Creative Spirit (fill in form below) packed with inspirational articles, self-promotion tips, broadcast guide to her radio show, and news about upcoming spiritual author book releases.
Throughout the year, Lynn also hosts large-scale telesummits with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Your subscription to Creative Spirit will ensure you’ll be the first to know how to attend these free events.
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How and Why to Establish Yourself as an Expert on LinkedIn
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Book Promotion expert and Founder of Spirit Authors, Lynn Serafinn, shares a morsel from her 10-week course Module 2: “Pre-Publication Marketing Musts” (subtitle “100 Days to Build Your Online Promotional Platform”).
LinkedIn is perhaps the most elusive of online tools for many new social networkers. Many people first come to it and cannot understand how it can possibly help them with business and network building, but that is simply because, on the surface, LinkedIn appears to be starkly formal with little opportunity for interaction compared to the colourful interface Facebook provides, and the face-paced exchanges found in Twitter.
But while LinkedIn is definitely more of a professional network than it is a social network, when you explore all it has to offer you will find it to be not only a place where you can thrive and establish your renown as a professional (including a professional author), but also where you can find a virtually endless supply of information and referrals, as well as have access to thousands of people in your target audience.
While there are so many aspects to explore in LinkedIn, today I just want to share 1 very quick tip with you that can help you make LinkedIn work for you as you build your online platform, either for your book promotion or other business.
What’s the tip?
To establish yourself as an expert.
How do you do that? You do this by answering questions others post in the LinkedIn Q&A. You can access the Q&A by clicking “more” in your LinkedIn profile, and then selecting “Question”. When you are prompted, select “answer questions.”
When people post questions on LinkedIn, they have to put them in at least one category and/or subcategory. I recommend searching for a topic that is closely related to your specific area of expertise. I frequently answer questions on writing/editing, technology, internet marketing, etc. Have a look around for subjects that match your expertise most.
When you find a question you think is “juicy”, and which you feel confident about providing information, read over the replies received so far and then give an answer that gives added value to the person who asked the question. BE GENEROUS in your reply. Share from your expertise and experience. Give links to outside sources you believe would help the person. The key to this process is to focus on what you can GIVE the other person. There is nothing more irritating to me when I go on LinkedIn and read replies to questions that are obvious spam or simply attempts to gain attention. Invariably it backfires on the person. But if you are generous with your wisdom and your professional knowledge, people really appreciate it.
After a question has been online for some time (usually 7 days), it closes unless the person who asked the question keeps it open. After it closes, LinkedIn sends a request to the person who asked the question asking them to rank who gave the best answer to the question. If your response to the question is selected as the “best”, you then are ranked as an “expert” in that particular subject. Your expert status is then a permanent part of your LinkedIn profile. Every time your answers are selected as the best, you gain another accolade as an expert.
Establishing yourself as an expert on LinkedIn helps others to see that you are knowledgeable on specific subject areas AND that you are a generous and helpful person. People can also click your expert status and see exactly what kind of knowledge and information you are sharing, which further establishes your credibility.
The long-term benefit of this is that people will come to trust you both as a professional and as a person. If you think that will not have a positive impact upon your business (and even your book sales) think again. Because LinkedIn is a professional network, as opposed to a social network, it does indeed have limitations on how you can market yourself compared to Twitter or Facebook, for instance. But in helping you establish your professional credibility, LinkedIn becomes a great balance to the other components of your online platform.
There’s a lot more to LinkedIn, what to speak of blogging, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and many other components on online promotion. I cover these in GREAT detail in my course Spirit Authors Module 2: “Pre-Publication Marketing Musts” (or “80 Days to Build Your Online Promotional Platform”).
This 10-week online course is open to new members, and you can sample the first week for only $1.
At the end of your $1 test-drive, if you choose to complete the course, it’s only $197 for 10 lessons, with access to the site for a full 12 weeks.
- Lessons include audio, video, written transcripts and workbooks.
- You receive 1 lesson per week, and all materials are fully downloadable and yours to keep.
- The lessons are SUBSTANTIAL. The audio lessons average 90 minutes in length.
- You do NOT have to attend live classes, and can download the material in your own time.
- While you are enrolled on the course, you are invited to attend the monthly Spirit Authors member calls.
- You also have access to the member forum, to share ideas and establish connections with others
- PLUS: lots of bonus gifts when you join (2 bonuses when you take the test drive, and more when you sign up for the complete course)
- AND: Access to a members-only resource area
- This course is also suitable for holistic business owners who want to develop their online presence.
To take the course for a $1 test drive (or to read more about it), go to:
http://spiritauthors.com/register-module-2
You will be charged only $1 for the first 7 days
Then, if you choose to continue, pay only $197 for this 10-lesson course (please note: the cost of this course WILL be going up in 2011).
Course content:
- Lesson 1: Your readers: knowing, finding and reaching them
- Lesson 2: Your pre-launch essential checklist and action plan
- Lesson 3: Integrating and leveraging blogs and RSS
- Lesson 4: Using autoresponders, newsletters and giveaways
- Lesson 5: Unlocking the secret powers of Twitter
- Lesson 6: Unlocking the secret powers of Facebook
- Lesson 7: Unlocking the secret powers of LinkedIn
- Lesson 8: Multimedia platforms (YouTube, BlogTalkRadio)
- Lesson 9: Choosing and using forums to expand your influence
- Lesson 10: Tricks for staying sane, saving time and keeping it real
OR… if you’re just starting a book project, you might be interested in my 8-week Spirit Authors Module 1: “Starting and Writing Your Book.” Read more at http://spiritauthors.com/register-module-1.
About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors
Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced several top-10 book campaigns, including FOUR #1-sellers, in 2010 alone. She created Spirit Authors to offer training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. Contact Lynn about YOUR book project at at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.
Be sure to subscribe to this blog for regular book writing and promotion tips (just fill in form at right of your screen).
Sign up for Lynn’s bi-monthly newsletter Creative Spirit (fill in form below) packed with inspirational articles, self-promotion tips, broadcast guide to her radio show, and news about upcoming spiritual author book releases.
Throughout the year, Lynn also hosts large-scale telesummits with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Your subscription to Creative Spirit will ensure you’ll be the first to know how to attend these free events.
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How NOT to Make a First Impression – What Authors Should NEVER Say
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Book promotion coach and campaign manager Lynn Serafinn from Spirit Authors shares her tips on what authors should NEVER say to new online network connections.
Recently I received a private message from a new connection on LinkedIn that I thought was so exemplary of everything one should NOT say in a first contact letter, I thought it would make an excellent article for my readers.
Below is a paraphrase of what I received:
Hi Lynn,
My name is Fred Flintstone and I am inviting you to view a few chapters of a soon to be released classic. It’s a controversial memoir about being a Stone Age man in a modern world. Please let me know what you think via the Guest Book at www.fredflintstonetheauthor.com. Please forward the link to someone else who may benefit from it.
Fred
(Please note: Of course, this is NOT the actual letter I received, and did tell the real author I would be sharing this example with my readers)
Let me ask you this: If ‘Fred Flintstone’ were actually a real person and this were a real letter from someone with whom you had just connected (and had not yet even exchanged any messages), what would be your reaction? Be honest.
Well, my first reaction was quite dismissive, if you want to know the truth. I was almost ready to archive it without replying. But then I thought, What was this person really thinking and feeling when he wrote this? I imagined that he thought this letter made him sound confident. After all, our culture is always talking about people needing to embrace self-belief and have a feeling of self-worth. So was this letter a display of genuine confidence or was it from someone who was trying to appear to be confident according to some guidance he learned somewhere?
While my instincts told me this was the latter, I felt it wasn’t fair of me to dismiss the letter simply on the grounds of how authentic I deemed it to be. However, I knew full well that many other people on LinkedIn were likely to dismiss Fred’s letter, not giving it a second thought. And then, what would have been to point of the poor author’s efforts, trying to reach out to his connections?
… Connections! I thought. Ah, yes, that was the real problem.
Fred was not connecting with me. He was talking ‘to’ me, not ‘with’ me. He was not engaging. He was telling me what I should think about his book (that it was a classic) and, furthermore, was asking me to forward it to others ‘who may benefit.’ The words take the ‘high ground’. When you are on high ground, you cannot connect with your reader.
I decided to check out Fred’s profile. Now what was SO interesting is that he worked in the marketing industry. And frankly, to me, the letter showed it. Most of traditional (or what I call ‘Old School’) marketing does not, as a rule, embrace connection as one of its strategies (or values). Furthermore, ‘Old School’ marketing (hey, should I spell it ‘Old Skool’, you think?!) has no qualms about telling us what we should think about their products. Old Skool Marketing (oops, there I did spell it that way) is, in my view, disconnecting and disempowering to its customers. That is precisely why I don’t use it. Still, the old methods are taught in so many marketing training programs even today.
This got me started thinking about my own values and how I believe in empowering people. If I simply deleted Fred’s message, ‘rejecting’ and judging him in my mind, how would I be honouring my life purpose and all I stand for?
I wouldn’t be.
So do you know what I did?
I decided to write Fred back, telling him honetly about my reaction, and giving him a suggestion of what he might have written. It was exactly the same kind of feedback I would have given one of my own clients. Here’s what I wrote back:
Hi there Fred,
Hmm… as one marketing person to another, may I be so bold as to advise that possibly the worst thing you could EVER do in your first communication with someone is to say, “I am inviting you to view a few chapters of a soon to be released classic”?
You might think it sounds confident, but it actually does not impact the reader that way. It comes across as bragging, as we do not know each other at all yet. What’s more, LinkedIn has a very different ethos from other networks, and messages like this are generally not seen as good form.
I’m not writing this to criticise you, but rather to advise you so you don’t end up alienating people on LinkedIn or your other social networks. In social networking, the first rule of thumb is to connect at a personal level and to be generous with your advice and personality.
Here’s an example of an alternative “hello” letter you might have sent:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Lynn,
My name is Fred Flintstone. When I read your profile I wanted to connect because I see you are a fellow author and that you work with other authors.I’d love to hear more about your book, your message and what you do to help authors. Drop me a line and tell me more when you get the chance.
I just published a memoir about being a Stone Age man in a modern world at www.fredflintstonetheauthor.com. As you are experienced with promoting authors, I’d be most pleased if you visited it sometime.
Looking forward to connecting,
Fred
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Can you see the difference, Fred? In your letter, it’s all about you. Furthermore, you are asking me to help promote you without even bothering to talk to me as an individual. In the one I just wrote, you show that you have looked at my profile and considered me as a human being. Then, you are inviting me to tell you more about myself. THEN when you ask me to visit your site, it is humble and appreciative and not “you should read my book because it is a future classic”. That will never win people over to you.
BTW, this is the sort of stuff I teach people all the time. I help authors build their platform, which means building relationships. I have produced 6 top-10 authors this year alone, 4 of them have gone to #1. So trust my advice and it will help ensure your book has a chance at becoming a classic.
Warm wishes,
Lynn
Ok, I have to admit, when I hit ’send’, my heart did a little flip-flop and I asked myself if I wasn’t been rather BOLD in sending this letter. But then I thought, I’ve got nothing to win or lose here. My intentions are actually to HELP this person succeed in his project. He can reject it completely if he wants. He can write back to me and tell me I’m an arrogant jerk who should mind her own business. I was prepared for whatever happened.
As it turns out, Fred did write back a few days later.
He wrote:
Hi Lynn
Thanks for your letter. It was… enlightening.
What do you charge for your services?
Fred
I SWEAR to you, this is a true story!
ALWAYS REMEMBER: Your contacts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc., are real people. They have hearts and souls and desires and talents just like you. Connect first. Find out to WHOM you are writing. READ their profiles. Ask questions. You don’t need to sell ANYTHING if people like you.
Connect! Connect! Connect!
I hope you found this real-life example useful. AND I want to thank Fred, who is a GREAT sport for letting me paraphrase his message, for giving me some great content for my readers. I know it will help many people.
Fred, I really do hope your book becomes a classic.
About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors
Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced several top-10 book campaigns, including FOUR #1-sellers, in 2010 alone. She created Spirit Authors to offer training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. Contact Lynn about YOUR book project at at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.
Be sure to subscribe to this blog for regular book writing and promotion tips (just fill in form at right of your screen).
Sign up for Lynn’s bi-monthly newsletter Creative Spirit (fill in form below) packed with inspirational articles, self-promotion tips, broadcast guide to her radio show, and news about upcoming spiritual author book releases.
Throughout the year, Lynn also hosts large-scale telesummits with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Your subscription to Creative Spirit will ensure you’ll be the first to know how to attend these free events.
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Facebook Tags – Subtle but Powerful Tools for Your Book Promotion
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Spiritual author and book promotion coach Lynn Serafinn from Spirit Authors gives top tips on how, when and why to tag people, fan pages and groups on Facebook. As always, your comments and feedback are most welcome below!
I get some of the best ideas for blog posts from questions friends ask me on Facebook. Tonight, my one of my friends asked me how you “tag” people in Facebook. I realised in my written explanation to her that there was actually a lot of detail and subtlety involved, so I thought it would make a great blog post to share with other authors, and people who want to know more about developing their online platform.
“Tagging” is one of the most powerful tools on Facebook. A “tag” is basically a link you create to a person, page or group on Facebook that you place within your wall posts, photos or notes. When you “tag” a person in a wall post Facebook, your post will automatically appear on their wall as well as on your own. If you tag them in a photo or note, it will appear in their updates.
Here are some guidelines of HOW you put tags in a Facebook post:
- When you type an “@” sign into a wall post, Facebook recognises that as a signal you want to tag someone. Let’s say you wanted to tag me in your post. My first name is Lynn, so you would type “@Ly” (important: do not put a space after the @ sign) and then WAIT a second or two. Facebook will open up a window with everyone in your friends list whose names have “Ly” in them. When you see my name, CLICK on my picture, and I will be tagged. You will know the tag is activated because my name will turn blue, and it will turn into a link that takes you to my profile page.
- You can tag a maximum of 6 names in a single wall post.
- You can also tag PAGES or GROUPS. Just follow exactly the same steps as above.
- As mentioned above, when you tag a person, page or group in a post, your post will appear on THEIR wall automatically. This is a great way to spread messages virally and it also means that the parties you are talking to or about will see your message without checking their updates.
- The other advantage to tagging is that NEW people will see you who might not have seen you before, especially if you are tagging to a page or a group. Anyone who checks out the group or fan page will see your post.
- You can also tag people in a note or a photo. There is a section on the right side of the note that lets you create tags exactly the same way as above. You can tag more people in a note or photo than in a wall post (the current limit is 30).
- NOTE: You cannot put a tag in a comment. You can, however, put a web link in a comment.
Now here’s the obvious question: WHY would you want to tag someone?
One way to use tagging is to tag people, groups or fan pages to say something nice about them or to help spread some news that would be of interest to the people (or members of the page/group) being tagged. Here are a couple of examples of when you might use tagging to a page or group:
- If you want to share some news about the page or group to you profile page (such as a new blog post, event, book, video, radio show or other news item THEY have posted). In this case, you might post the news to your personal Facebook profile, but tag the page/group in the post. That way, it will appear on their wall, and they will see you are helping to spread the word about their good work.
- If you see or create a news item, tip, video, event, etc., you think would be of interest to the members of the group or fans of the page, but you also want your own friends to see it, you might post the news to your wall, and then tag the page or group. For instance, if I wanted to bring a post to the attention of Spirit Authors, I might say, “Spirit Authors, you might find this useful” (Spirit Authors would be tagged).
Below is an example of a post I made on Facebook recently about a new page I had found by one of my networking friends. I “shared” the page use the “share” link, and then I wrote this tagged post to accompany it:
Just discovered my good friend Dana Lynn Smith’s new page The Savvy Book Marketer. She is a wealth of information. Spirit Authors and Next Top Author folks, check her out and “Like” her page for great tips. Dana is also a member of the Virtual Faculty at the Spirit Authors membership site, btw. )
Note there are four tags in the post: 1) Dana Lynn Smith’s personal page, 2) Dana’s business page “The Savvy Book Marketer”, 3) the “Spirit Authors” business page and 4) the “Next Top Author” group. That means that, altogether, this single post was (on the day I posted it) visible to over 5000 people, just about all of them authors. I noticed that within a few minutes of posting this, Dana’s fan page increased by 5 members, and if people start “liking” or commenting on the post, it is likely to generate more interest. Not bad for a post that took a few seconds to compose.
In this post, I am not only helping Dana Lynn by sharing her page and saying something nice about her, but I am also helping the people I have tagged in the post (Spirit Authors page and Next Top Author group), because they are a targeted group of authors, all hungry for new information about book promotion. Furthermore, as I “shared” The Savvy Book Marketer page, people will see the logo and description of the page, which makes the post far more visible and attractive, and makes people far more likely to check it out than if it were a simple link.
But the beauty of this is that I am also gaining from this. How?
Because I am being seen as someone who likes to give value to others. And because of this, people enjoy staying connected to me. Furthermore, because the tags make the post appear on Dana’s pages, new people might see me on either Dana’s personal page or on her business page. If they perceive me as being someone who can offer good value to them, they are likely to seek me out as a connection. They also might see the Spirit Authors link and check that out too. Believe, me, I have more Facebook invitations these days than I can keep up with.
IMPORTANT TAGGING NETIQUETTE:
- NEVER abuse tagging to SPAM your Facebook friends or Facebook pages. Spamming means that you just tag people for the sake of them paying attention to a promotion you are doing. Do NOT do this. If you want to invite people to a promotion, create an event, business page or group and invite them to join voluntarily. If you are running a promotion, go ahead and post it in your updates, but don’t tag people in the updates unless they have something to do with the promotion OR you know them very well personally, and they would wish to know what’s happening (e.g., if you are launching your book, and close friends and family would like to be informed).
- Don’t be a Facebook “squatter” or “poacher” on other people’s pages. By “squatter” I mean someone who uses tags or hangs out on someone else’s business page ONLY to promote themselves. By “poacher” I mean someone who joins pages solely to find people to invite to their own pages. For instance, if I had gone to Dana Lynn’s page and said, “Hey all you Savvy Book Marketers! I’m the best thing since sliced bread. Come on over to my page,” that would be pretty tacky. Now, if DANA said such a thing about me to her own group, that would be completely different.
What I am showing you here are some of the fundamentals of social networking, and indeed what I call “spirit-based” marketing. Social networking is the cornerstone of my business and of all the promotional platforms I help authors create for their books. But even though it is a powerful tool for your book promotion, always remember that the key to spirit-based social networking is to help others, and to gain a reputation as someone who willingly and joyfully helps others, trusting that there is enough business and prosperity in the world for all of us.
Tags in Facebook are very powerful if you use them correctly. Use them with sincerity, creativity and generosity, and over time you will see your network grow and your business flourish. Besides… I think they’re FUN.
About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors
Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced two #1-selling book campaigns, and another #2-selling campaign, in just the past 4 months. She created Spirit Authors to offer training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring.
Be sure to subscribe to this blog for regular book writing and promotion tips (just fill in form at right of your screen).
Sign up for Lynn’s bi-monthly newsletter Creative Spirit (fill in form below) packed with inspirational articles, broadcast guide to her radio show, and news about upcoming spiritual author book releases.
Throughout the year, Lynn also hosts large-scale telesummits with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Coming up over the next few months:
- 3-day summit on Evolution of Consciousness
- 3-day summit on Cellular Memory Release
- 4-day summit on Healing the Corporate World
- Your subscription to Creative Spirit will ensure you’ll be the first to know how to attend these free events.
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Self-Published or Publisher? When is the Right Time?
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Lynn Serafinn shares thoughts on shifting from a being die-hard indie artist to approaching a major publisher.
Some of you who know me and my work might be surprised to find out that it was only a few months ago when I wrote my first full book proposal. It’s true I was a ghost-writer for another author and my work has been (anonymously) published in several books by a prominent New Age publisher. But I never needed to write proposals for those books. And it’s also true I’ve written loads of business and project proposals in my time– especially when I was the head of a college department– so I know what it takes to write a proposal to “land” a contract. But I had never written an actual book proposal for my own writing until this contest.
Why? Because most of my life, I’ve been something of a “die hard indie”. It comes from my background as an independent musician/label owner in the 1990s. Since the 80s, our band had tried to get our recordings heard by major labels, but learned quickly that it was virtually impossible to get a big label to listen to an unsolicited demo. So, we started our own label, and gradually built up a following by getting our titles into major independent distributors in the US and the UK. We reached a level of success when our release entitled the Imagine EP hit #1 on several club charts in 1994.
It was then we had a brief encounter with a major record label-one of the top 3 in the world. The A&R (the person who signs artists to the label) had been given our record as a “buzz” title from the owner of an underground record shop in Boston, and he called us from New York saying he wanted to come down and meet us in Arizona (where we lived at the time), as he was interested in signing us. Had they done so, it would have meant we would have had worldwide distribution, MTV videos and have been sent on tour with some of the biggest names in electronic dance in the world at that time. It was every musician’s dream come true.
Or so we thought.
When we actually met the A&R face-to-face, it became very obvious he had clear intentions of changing our image and sound into something we were not, and we simply didn’t want to become. Our band was an electronic trance group, but he proposed a long list of “improvements” for us, including bringing in big rock drummers and sexy young female vocalists. Being in our late 30s, the A&R more or less said we were “too old” for MTV and we would have to do something to make us “saleable.”
But the truth was, in spite of the A&R thinking we were “too old”, we were actually “too young” as artists to move into the arena of working with a major label. We weren’t used to working to deadlines and were accustomed to having the luxury of taking as long as we wanted to complete projects. We were still finding our “voice” and creating our sound, and bringing in professional producers who would impose their own “spin” on our embryonic sound threatened to stop our creative growth altogether. And from a marketing standpoint, although we had managed to get a #1 club hit, we were still just getting started on building our following and didn’t really know our target audience fully, or how to reach them at a global level. Because we had a very small platform, if the A&R changed our image as he intended, we were likely to lose the audience we already had, and not appeal to the audience to which he would be targeting.
We started to realise we simply weren’t ready for this leap. Believe it or not, I used to wake up at night with panic attacks at the thought of it! After all those years of thinking this was what I wanted, I realised something wasn’t right about it. As a result, our connection to the label just sort of dissolved after a couple of months, and our label continued on with our own independent enterprises.
My experience in the music industry certainly coloured my decision to go self-published when I was getting ready to release my book The Garden of the Soul in 2009. I figured big publishers are probably like big record labels in that you needed to know the right time to approach them. And now that I have been self-published for the past year, and have since created successful marketing campaigns for many other authors, both published and self-published, I do think my reasoning was correct.
In my experience, there are 7 main factors to consider in your decision to approach a publisher:
- Discipline. Could you make a commitment to meet writing deadlines if given them? Have you transcended the trap of ONLY being able to write when you are “inspired” or can you sit down and get into the groove when you need to?
- Stylistic maturity. Is your writing style “mature” (well past the embryonic stage)? Could others easily talk about your style and your message as compared to other books? Is your style powerful and developed enough that editors would not want to change it significantly?
- Emotionally prepared. Are you ready to “show up” as a public image? Are you ready to be seen, and critiqued? Are you ready to speak transparently on a global level? Are you ready to release your vision, unattached to whether people like it or not?
- Identity. Do you know who you are as a writer and as a person? Do you have a clear idea of your ‘public image’, i.e, who you are to your readers, fans and audience? Can you stand calmly within the wisdom of your own identity when dealing with a publisher?
- Platform. Do you have a well-established platform (i.e., a large fan base of people who know your name and your writing)? This is undoubtedly one of the major factors publishers will consider when you approach them, and something that will make it much less likely for them to try to “reshape” your image.
- Marketing. Do you know how to reach your audience? Do you understand principles of marketing? Can you explain how you would market your book to publisher in a way that would make them say, “Hey, this one has some great ideas”?
- Time Commitment. Are you ready and able to commit LOTS of time to promoting your book? Is your life free or flexible with regards to family or other work commitments? Could you travel frequently without disrupting the rest of your life?
Speaking for myself, I couldn’t give a 100% “yes” answer to any of these things when I first met the A&R back in 1994. In 2009, when I went to publish The Garden of the Soul, I’d say I had these covered about 75%. But, in my opinion, 75% wasn’t enough for me to approach a publisher at that time. Before I approached a publisher, I wanted to be able to give my full 100%. THEN the time would be right… at least for me.
When I wrote my proposal this year, I felt it to be truly a transformative process. I realised when I was writing it that I had finally reached my “100% Ready” place. I knew who I was. I felt I could write at the drop of a hat. I had a platform. I understood marketing. And most of all, I had already written my book and I completely believed in it.
Being a self-published writer was ABSOLUTELY the best thing for me when I had chosen to do so. The experience helped me develop as a person, as a writer and as a businesswoman. But now I have firmly established my platform, and really know who I am as a writer, I feel confident about making the shift to working with a publisher over the coming year… and at the same time, I also have the confidence that I am able to flourish as a proud indie author, and enjoy the ride on my own as well.
I hope you found these reflections and pointers to be of value in your own journey as an author. Please do leave a comment below to share your own thoughts and experiences.
About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors
Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and
bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers
that unearth the Self. She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced several #1-selling book campaigns. She is the founder/creator of Spirit Authors, a virtual learning environment and community that offers training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. As part of her work with spiritual and self-help authors, she also regularly hosts large-scale online virtual events (usually free of charge) with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Subscribe to her Spirit Authors blog at http://spiritauthors.com/category/news/ so you can receive more useful tips and news about upcoming online events. While you are there, do check out the excellent and affordable online courses for authors available. If you are an author seeking 1-to-1 support or campaign managment for your upcoming book launch, you are also invited to request a free consultation by filling in a contact form at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.
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Box Your Can’t-Get-Started Writing Blues by Laurel Marshfield
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A great writing tip from Virtual Faculty member Laurel Marshfield of Blue Horizon Communications
The most difficult problem you face in writing your book can be summarized in just two words.
Getting started.
You have a brilliant idea, of course, and an outline or some notes. Maybe even a chapter draft, or two. But now what?
If you are like most will-be authors, you begin casting about for other things that demand your attention — first.
The birdfeeder needs cleaning. The gardening stuff at the back of the garage needs weeding. Heck, the entire garage needs to be emptied and put back in pristine order. It’s good feng shui, you tell yourself.
In other words, after the brilliant idea, the outline, the notes, and the drafts, you’ve earned the right to your resistance.
Why? Because you don’t know — that is, know specifically — what to do next with your book. Writing it feels so frustratingly vague, so frighteningly VAST.
So, you tackle the things that you do know how to do: birdfeeder, gardening stuff, garage. And then you feel guilty and pained. Uncomfortable.
But wait. You needn’t be stuck in discomfort. There is a solution to resistance. A simple solution. It is a . . . Box.
Yes, a box. Not a literal box, but the imagined form of a box, which you can use as a magical tool to get to work on your book — without suffering from let’s-just-do-other-things-first-itis.
Here is what it takes to create a Box:
::: First, you set a “start” time for your writing period. This is the top of your imagined box. (10:00 AM, say)
::: Second, you set a “stop” time. This is the bottom of your imagined box. (11:00 AM, say)
::: Third, you write a list of small and very specific tasks that you will complete during your allotted sixty minutes of writing time. This is one side of your imagined box. (For example: Write notes for Intro, list contents for Chapter Three, check Amazon for books about _____)
::: Fourth, you check off each task as you complete it (surprisingly reinforcing), during your pre-set writing time. This is the other side of your imagined box. (Notes: check; Contents: check; Amazon: check)
Why does this oh-so-simple Box strategy work?
Because, when you know precisely what you need to do, your mind will help you walk down precisely that road . . . writing the notes, listing the contents, doing the research.
But when you don’t know, how is your mind going to help you do that? It isn’t possible.
And so, your mind presents you with all sorts of other tasks, tasks it does know how to do — a brilliant solution for an unsolvable problem!
But the take-away is this: It really is up to you to tell your mind what to do. And you can do that best by creating a Box: Start Time, Stop Time, List of Tasks, Checklist (aka: Top, Bottom, One Side, Other Side).
One word of caution: Begin using the Box by assigning yourself a short, thirty-minute work period with a few quickly accomplished tasks. Practice a little, before you Box a full-out session of, say, two hours or more.
While you’re planning your starter session, I’ll tell you how I happened to invent this resistance-dissolving tool.
Several years ago, after my parents passed away, I was faced with the overwhelming job of organizing and selling the accumulated (and I do mean accumulated) contents of their home. I spent days wandering from room to room and floor to floor, wondering where to begin.
Finally, I started writing down what needed to be done in each room. And what needed to be done overall. And what might come first, second, third, fourth . . .
By writing lists, I made sense of the seeming chaos that had no discernible starting point for establishing order.
After that, I made a task list for my first day of real work, drawing courage from the preliminary order that my Big Picture lists had given me.
But in reading my task list, I felt myself slipping into avoidance. Should get light bulbs before stores close. Only seven hours left.
Thirty-five things shouted up at me from my task list on that first day. Important Task! Very Essential Task! Get This Done, or Else!
But, I reasoned, I had all day, so. Why not take a break, for right now? Go buy those light bulbs.
Ironically, a light bulb went off in my mind, just then. The avoidance-busting Box solution had arrived.
I made a new list, one with just three things on it. Then I looked at my watch, gave myself an hour, told myself that if I got all three things done in under sixty minutes, I could have a small reward. Thus primed and motivated, I set to work. And it worked.
After my reward (not buying light bulbs), I Boxed another hour’s worth of tasks and churned through my second set.
On good days, I was able to get through seven or eight work periods this way, leaving my parents’ house after nine or ten in the evening, driving an hour and a half to get home and feed my cat, before falling into bed, exhausted.
In the end, I got it all done by using the Box. There were estate sales, the house sold, and the rest is a strategy that can be used for anything.
But it is especially helpful for authors struggling to leap over their resistance to writing . . .The Book.
So, whenever you feel stuck, just remember this little resistance-dissolving mantra:
Start Time, Stop Time, Task List, Checklist.
Box Your Book Time, You . . . Won’t . . . Resist, BigTime.
Laurel Marshfield is a developmental editor, ghostwriter, and co-author who helps new and experienced authors prepare their books for publication. For daily book tips, advice, and book news, follow Laurel @BookEditorLM on Twitter. To learn more about her editorial services for authors, please visit her website: BlueHorizonCommunications.com She is a member of the Virtual Faculty here at Spirit Authors.
Click HERE to download 5 free podcasts from Spirit Authors, where you can hear Laurel speaking on “Preparing for Publication.”
Note from Lynn: The topic of resistance Laurel discusses in this article is also addressed in Week 5 of Spirit Authors Module 1, where we explore “Knowing What Blocks Your Progress.” Get a preview of that lesson HERE.
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Reflections on Next Top Spiritual Author Contest Round 1
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In a previous post, I told you about the Next Top Spirit Author Contest in which I am a contestant. The contest is open to unpublished or self-published authors. Authors did not need to have completed (or even started) their book to enter. I entered my book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self, which I self-published just a little over a year ago. My hope is to take it to a much wider audience, and also to get some backing for the follow-up I am currently writing, A Practical Guide to the Garden of the Soul, which contains 80 practical lessons for cultivating the four principles in The Garden of the Soul.
Today (Monday May 3rd) marks the final day of Round 1. Since the contest opened to the public vote on March 29th, tens of thousands of people have voted for their favourites amongst more than 3000 entries. Now the field is going to be narrowed down to 250 who will advance to Round 2, based primarily upon their public vote, as well as a small challenge the authors were given to do.
Round 2 will be a bit different because the 250 Round 2 authors will then construct a book proposal for their book, which will go under the scrutiny of Hampton Roads publishers, who are offering the Grand Prize in the contest– a pretty nifty publishing contract. A portion of the points in Round 2 will once again come from the public vote.
So by Tuesday, thousands of authors and authors-to-be, including myself, will find out whether or not we will advance to the next phase of this competition. I can feel the energy getting really “buzzy” amongst the authors these past few days.
Although this is only Round 1, the contest has already been quite a journey. For many, the very act of creating an audio or video “pitch” was a major achievement. For others, it was the challenge of stepping out of their comfort zone to ask people to vote for them. Speaking for myself, if nothing else happens as a result of having entered this competition, I am grateful for two things: 1) being put under a deadline to make a new book trailer (I am SO pleased with how it turned out and it is getting a lot of hits on YouTube) and 2) meeting dozens of great new authors who are now connected with me on Facebook and Twitter. Both of these are great gifts in their own right.
In some ways, Round 1 has been a bit like being in the auditions for the X-Factor (our UK equivalent of “American Idol”). Behind the scenes, we have a “share” page on the contest site that is sort of our equivalent of “The X-Factor House”, where everyone hangs out together and learns the idiosyncrasies of the others. It’s really interesting to watch and interact with all the fascinating personalities there. And just like The X-Factor, while there is a lot of love and connection amongst the contestants, there is also the underlying knowledge that this is, after all, a competition, and people will be voted off, bit by bit. It could happen to any one of us. That’s the nature of any competition, and it is vital for all of us to know how to “be with” the competitive process, without allowing it to affect our sense of Self and inner determination.
When I was a young musician, I took every defeat in competitive scenarios as a blow against my self-worth. Because I grew to fear judgment and rejection, I became afraid to take risks for many years, and thus I limited my creative growth and personal empowerment for a very long time.
But these days I approach such challenges quite differently. I apply my whole self to the task, and allow myself to take the risk of being “rejected”. These days, I feel the most important thing in life is to have the self-knowledge that I did not hold myself back from applying myself fully, and that I did the absolute best I could at that particular moment.
While taking this approach to a competition (and life in general) does not ensure we will “win” a specific reward, I do believe when we are fully ready to step into both the risks and responsibilities involved in the act of succeeding, we will win the award, the title, the prize, the praise, the gift– or the learning– we are meant to receive. If you do not hold yourself back from the Universe, it will hold nothing back from you.
As far as I am concerned, the fact that everyone in the contest has stepped up to the plate and “pitched” their vision to the world makes them all winners, already on the pathway to their own dreams.
I wish all the spiritual authors in the contest the very best of luck.
If you have voted for me already, I’d like to thank you warmly for your support. And if you haven’t had a chance to yet, it would be great if you took a few minutes to do this before the end of the day today (Monday). Here’s how:
- Go to http://www.nexttopauthor.com/profile.cfm?aid=2016 and watch my video entry.
- Register to vote; they will send you a confirmation email before you actually can vote.
- Check your email for the confirmation email, and click on the confirmation link
- Go back to http://www.nexttopauthor.com/profile.cfm?aid=2016 and vote for me (you can also vote for other authors by doing a search).
As my thank you gift to everyone who votes for me, you can pick up 4 audiobook excerpts from the book. That’s over 1 hour of fr*ee audio. You’ll see the link to the gift right after you have voted.
If you are on the social networks, it would be great if you clicked the big Twitter or Facebook buttons on my page and shared them with your friends.
Thanks everyone!
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Your Book Marketing Plan – Who Should You Be Promoting To?
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Great tips from guest blogger and Virtual Faculty member Dana Lynn Smith, “The Savvy Book Marketer”
As you write your book and develop your book marketing plan, one of the first priorities is to define your target audiences.
The primary target audience for your book is the “ideal reader” that the book was written specifically for. In your book marketing plan, define the characteristics of your ideal reader, asking questions such as these:
- What is their age range, gender, and education level?
- Where do they live?
- What is their family status – single, married with kids, retired couple?
- What is their income level and occupation?
- What are their interests and hobbies?
- What makes this person the ideal reader for your book?
- What are their book buying habits?
In addition to the ideal reader, most books have several secondary audiences. Your book marketing plan should include strategies for reaching audiences such as these:
Readers – people who buy the book to read. This is the most obvious category and it includes your primary audience as well as secondary audiences who have an interest in your topic or genre.
Purchasers – people who buy the book for someone else. For example, people buy books as gifts, parents and grandparents purchase books for children, women buy men’s health books, companies and organizations purchase books to give away as gifts and premiums. Who would be likely to purchase your book for someone else, and how can you reach those folks?
Retailers – companies who buy your book to sell it to others. If you’re selling through physical bookstores or other retailers, you have the task of convincing these resellers that your book will sell in their stores and demonstrating how you can help generate demand.
Influencers – people who communicate with your target customers and can let them know about your book. The influencers may be the most important category of all, especially in online marketing and social media. Think about how much you can multiply your marketing efforts when other people spread the word to their own readers, customers, and networks.
Your book marketing plan should outline specific tactics for reaching influencers, including print, broadcast and online media. You can reach the media through traditional publicity efforts as well as online press releases and article distribution.
Other important influencers include authors, consultants, and bloggers who cater to your target customers. These folks can mention you, your website, and/or your book in several ways, including blog posts, links, Twittering, ezine articles, and media sharing tools like Digg.
Here are some tips on working with influencers:
- Search the Internet to compile a list of the top websites, blogs, ezines, magazines, newsletters, online forums, books, ebooks, clubs, and association that cater to your target market or cover your topic.
- Study each site to get a good understanding of what they do and how it relates to your book, and look for possible promotional opportunities.
- Write a thoughtful, customized email or letter sincerely complimenting the prospect about their site, publication, or organization, and suggesting some specific ways that you might work together to your mutual benefit.
It’s also important to read the top blogs and online forums on your list and look for opportunities to make useful comments about posts. When commenting, include a short signature such as “John Smith, author of How to Grow Roses.” See this article for tips on how you can subtly promote your book by commenting on blogs.
How can you enhance your book marketing plan with strategies for promoting to all of your target audiences?
Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer Guides. For more tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana’s book marketing blog and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free book marketing newsletter. She in a member of the Virtual Faculty here at Spirit Authors. Click HERE to download 5 free podcasts from Spirit Authors, where you can hear Dana speaking on “Pre-Publication Marketing Musts.”
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7 Keys to Writing Great Ezine Copy for Your Book Launch
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Campaign manager Lynn Serafinn shares a simple formula to give power to your words
If you are planning an Amazon campaign for your book launch, you will need the help of a great network of personal and professional friends to help you. But something you might not have thought about is the fact that you will need to provide some “ezine copy” for them to use to help promote your book. That’s right: YOU will have to provide the article or articles your “joint venture partners” (JVPs) will send out to their lists.
The reason for this is two-fold. First of all, your JVPs are probably pretty busy, and if you ask them to write an article for you, it is less likely they will have it ready in time to meet your timetable. Secondly, YOU are the person who knows best what you want to say about your book. Those are the two most important reasons why you should write the “copy” (article) for your JVPs’ newsletters when they offer to promote you. And you’ll need to write several over the course of the campaign, in order to speak to the different audiences your partners represent.
I know this might sound a little daunting to some of you, especially those of you who don’t like the idea of “selling” (which covers just about 99.9% of the mind-body-spirit authors I know), so I thought I would give you a little formula to get you started, so you could see it is not so much about selling at all, as it is about connecting and inspiring the reader. It’s a stripped-down part of a lesson I teach in Module 4 (Your Book Campaign – Designing and Delivering) on the Spirit Authors site.
When you write your copy, make sure it meets the following criteria:
- It is between 400-700 words.
- It is written casually in the 3rd person as if the JVP is writing about you.
- It arouses curiosity in the title and opening line.
- It inspires the reader by sharing something meaningful about you and your book.
- It has a specific place where the JVP can (and should) personalise it.
- It’s NOT a sales letter but…
- It has a short, clear call to action at the end (i.e., it tells people when, where and why to get your book).
How to keep it real
The key thing to remember when you create your copy is that the primary purpose of it is to arouse curiosity, and not to “sell” your book (yes, I thought you’d be happy to know that!).
The other thing to remember is to write it in the third person about you, as if your JVPs were writing the article. There is tremendous power in your partners’ saying, “I found this book to be inspiring.” Make sure your partners can personalise it at key points in the article to make it more their own. And if “keeping it real” means that you need to send copies of your book to your partners, do so (or at least a pdf version of it). It will help them say (nice) things about you in a much more authentic way.
And most of all, don’t make your ezine copy just about the book. Make it about YOU. Audiences like to know the person behind the book. Talk about how the book came to be. Bring the reader on a personal journey. Let them into your world. If you only talk about the book, a vital human connection will be missing.
I hope you found this article useful as you prepare for your book launch. If you have any questions or comments, I would be happy to reply to them below.
The key thing to remember when you create your copy is that the primary purpose of it is to arouse curiosity, and not to “sell” your book (I thought you’d be happy to know that!). The other thing to remember is to write it in the third person about you, as if your JVPs were writing it. There is tremendous power in your partners’ saying, “I found this book to be inspiring.” Make sure they can personalise it at key points in the article to make it more their own. And if “keeping it real” means you need to give advance copies of your book to your partners, BE GENEROUS and do so. At the very least, send them a pdf of the galley print.
See an example of this in action
If you want to see an example of this in action, have a look at the article I wrote called “How to Have a Life Well Lived” on my “Cosmic Universe” blog. I was the campaign manager for Patrick Ryan’s book campaign, so I made this copy (and several others) for the JVPs on his Amazon campaign. If you analyse it carefully, you will see 7 key elements I mention above.
It must have worked, because his book went to #1 in spirituality in Canada and #2 in the US on the day of his launch in April 2010.
Want to learn more?
Come along to Spirit Authors and take a 14-day “Test Drive” for only $1. You can test drive Module 4 (about Amazon launch campaigns) or another learning module to suit your needs on your writing journey. To find out which module is the “write” one for you, go to http://spiritauthors.com and answer the short self-assessment on that page.
AND… if you are seeking a manager for your mind-body-spirit campaign, fill in a contact form at http://spiritauthors.com/contact and tell me about your book project. Please note I only accept a limited amount of clients per year. Please allot 4-6 months for your launch.
Warm wishes,
Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC
Transformation Coach, Book Promotion Coach, Author, radio host
Creator of Spirit Authors
http://twitter.com/LynnSerafinn
http://twitter.com/SpiritAuthors
http://facebook.com/LynnSerafinn
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http://linkedin/in/lynn-serafinn
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5 Steps to Create an Amazon Bestselling Book Campaign
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Many people hire me to create and manage their Amazon book campaigns, or to support them as a book promotion coach/consultant. In either case, I have noticed many of my clients experience a steep learning curve at the beginning of their campaigns, as they try to get their heads around all the components and how they work together.
For that reason, I thought it might be a good idea to write a short article giving an overview of the initial steps I use when I put together an Amazon campaign, so you can become an Amazon bestseller like my clients.
The basic concept of an Amazon book campaign is to drive people to a special page you will create that tells them about your book, and to get them to return to that page to buy your book on the specified day of your launch. The reason why you want them to come on a specified day is to drive up your Amazon sales rank. The reason why people will want to return to your page (as opposed to just going to Amazon to buy your book) is that after they buy your book, they can come back to your page to claim some great bonus gifts.
Who is offering the gifts? A group of “JVPs”, or “Joint Venture Partners” you have brought together. Finding and choosing JVPs is a topic I cover in the first week of Module 4 at Spirit Authors. For now, let’s assume you already have a good selection of JVPs who have confirmed their participation in your launch, and let’s move on to our 5 steps to get your campaign going.
Step 1: Design the Timeline and Components of Your Campaign
First off, you will need to choose the components of your campaign, and construct a timeline showing when all these components will occur. Here are a few examples of components that go into a typical Amazon campaign:
- Bonus gift offers from JVPs
- Email/ezine blasts
- Twitter campaign
- A Contest
- Virtual Blog Tour
There are different strategies, technical aspects and creative elements to each of these components, which would take too long to discuss here. For now, let’s say that you decided you were going to utilise all of them in some way.
Step 2: Coordinate Your JVP Materials
Assuming you have already determined the level of commitment promised from your JVPs, your next step would be to gather relevant materials from them, such as headshot, bio, and bonus material information, including a link to the opt in page where people will sign up to receive their gift.
A word of advice: It is highly likely you will need to guide many of your JVPs as to what is an appropriate bonus gift. A good bonus gift should be a downloadable entry-level gift. A not-so-good gift is one that requires the customer to buy something else to receive it, or requires them to travel to specific geographic location. The bonus should also not be an offer of free or discounted coaching or consultation, because if they have a high number of requests, they might find it impossible to honour them all. You, as the manager of your campaign, need to guide your JVPs to choosing the right kind of gift.
As you collect this information from your JVPs, make sure you use some sort of tracking system to cross check you have received all the info. I use an Excel spreadsheet for tracking.
Step 3: Creating Your Pre-Launch Page and Follow-Ups
Next, you will need to assemble all your JVP information, along with key info about you and your book, onto a webpage we are going to call your “pre-launch page.” On this page, people will find out about you, your book, the date of the launch, and the bonus gift offerings. Make sure you standardise the format in which you will publish the JVP content on the web, so everyone’s entry looks similar.
Apart from the JVP information, the key ingredient on this page is a sign up form, where they will sign up to receive a reminder about the book launch. This sign up form should be connected to an auto-responder that sends them a follow up message saying something to the effect of, “Thanks for your interest in my book. I’ll be sending you a reminder the day before it comes out so you can get those great bonus gifts you read about. Be sure to mark your diary.”
Step 4: Create Promo Copy
The next thing you will need to do is create some great promotional copy for your JVPs to use for your campaign. There are basically 3 types of promo copy you will prepare for your JVPs:
- Newsletter/ezine articles
- “Tweets” (for Twitter)
- “Virtual interviews” (if you are planning to do a Virtual Blog Tour)
I usually make two contrasting pieces of ezine copy for my JVPs per month, to give them diversity and choice (they are likely to send only one per month).
I usually make 50-100 Tweets for my JVPs—and I try to make them 120 characters or less. It’s really not as complex as it might sound, and it can make your campaign vibrant, fun and very effective.
A “Virtual Interview” is when your blog tour hosts send you a few questions in advance before the date of their “stop” on your tour.
I cover the details of how to create all these types of copy on Module 4 at Spirit Authors. In fact, I dedicate an entire week to EACH of these types of copy.
Step 5: Create Clear Instructions for Your JVPs
The last step to getting your campaign off the ground is to create a set of clear, written instructions for your JVPs. I always include a timeline, a description of the components, and a break down of how everything will run. I write it in such a way that it is visually easy to read, and convert it into a PDF document. I give them tips on how to use the materials, and how to increase traffic to their bonus.
Follow a Real Live Launch
As I am currently the project leader for the upcoming Amazon campaign for Patrick Ryan’s book Awakened Wisdom: A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance, the easiest thing you can do to understand the things I have been describing would be to look at the page we have put together for that launch at http://www.awakenedwisdom.com/Public/Amazon/booklaunch/index.cfm. As of this writing, we are still finalising some details on it (and there are a few more JVPs coming along). Of course, I also hope you’ll check out Patrick’s book and sign up for a launch reminder while you’re on that page (I made the video, by the way. Do you like it?).
And if you are on Twitter, follow me at http://twitter.com/LynnSerafinn and you can see some of the Tweets I’m sending out about the book. Hopefully they will give you ideas of how to make your own. Most everything I have learned about online promotion is the result of watching others who know what they are doing, so now it’s my pleasure to invite you to do the same (hopefully I know what I’m doing!).
This article has been a very brief overview of the 5 steps needed to put together your Amazon book campaign. If you’d like to know more about creating, running and benefiting from an Amazon book campaign for your upcoming book, have a look at my 8-week course on the Spirit Authors website: Module 4: Your Book Launch – Designing and Delivering. For a limited time, you can take a 14-day test drive for only $1, and receive some special bonus gifts that are yours to keep just for trying it out.
If you feel you need a more personal touch, fill in a contact form on the Spirit Authors site to request a 1-to-1 consultation. Please be aware that I only take on a limited amount of book launch clients throughout the year, and that we will require 4-6 months to work on your launch, depending upon the strength of your online platform.
I hope you found this whistle-stop tour useful. Drop me a comment below to let me know what you think.
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TOP 10 Reasons Why an Outline is Important When Writing a Book
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NOTE: This article is an abridged extract from Spirit Authors Module 1 Week 2. You can Test Drive Module 1, or any of the other 5 Spirit Authors courses on writing, book promotion, publishing, and business-building, for only $1 for 14 days at http://spiritauthors.com.
If you are in the middle of a book project and you keep getting stuck, or it seems to take on a life of its own and go “all over the place”, it’s probably because you have no outline OR you did at one time and you have since abandoned it. Because I have seen that so many new authors writing their first book do not make an outline before beginning their project, I thought I’d share with you the TOP 10 Reasons why defining a structure and creating an outline for your book is so important:
- It makes writing easier. When you go to sit down to work, you know exactly what parts of your book need to get done. And remember, just because you have an ordered outline, you are NOT committed to writing it in order. You can start anywhere.
- It makes reading easier. Books that have a structure are easier for readers to comprehend.
- It makes your message memorable. Readers can remember your message when there is a structure attached to it. It makes abstract concepts more memorable, and enables readers to feel they have gained something they can take away from the book, after they have finished it.
- It helps ensure you are thorough. If you have an outline, you won’t accidentally omit something vital to your message or storyline.
- It helps limit continuity errors. While thoroughness refers to ensuring that all important thoughts and details are included in your text, continuity refers to ensuring your thoughts and events following a logical sequence. An outline can help you see the continuity of your book before writing it.
- It helps ensure your book has symmetry. Symmetry means that all the assembled parts of your book have a “shape” when pieced all together.
- It helps ensure your book has balance. A good outline can help you see if some parts of your book are less substantial than others. A well-balanced book is organised in such a way that the ideas are balanced both in quantity and in quality against each other.
- It helps keep you focussed. When you have an outline (and stick to it) you won’t be as tempted to go off on a tangent. This doesn’t mean you will NEVER deviate or come up with great new ideas. But if the outline is there, you can see how these new ideas fit into your original intention.
- It helps to motivate you. When you have an outline, you see yourself making progress and ticking off the “boxes”, so to speak. This helps keep you motivated as you move closer and closer to your goal of finishing your book.
- It helps you develop a regular writing practice. If you have an outline to depend upon, you are far more likely to sit down at your desk (or wherever you happen to write) and START WRITING rather than waiting for the “muse” to shoot arrows at you.
And, incidentally, did you notice I just used STRUCTURE to create an OUTLINE for how I presented these ideas, by saying “Here are the TOP 10 REASONS”? When I decided to write this post, I FIRST decided I would find 10 top reasons, and then I started writing. I had never organised them in such a way before, but the outline “made” to article write itself. Isn’t it a lot easier to remember them than if I simply talked about the topic without a structure?
This article is an abridged extract from Spirit Authors Module 1 Week 2.
In that lesson, you learn how to define a structure and create an outline for your book. You can Test Drive Module 1, or any of the other 5 Spirit Authors courses on writing, book promotion, publishing, and business-building, for only $1 for 14 days at http://spiritauthors.com.
I began working in 2009 For Lynn Serafinn, in the capacity of her Public Relations Consultant. She had just published her book, 
Lynn's workshop on Spiritual Marketing made me realise how pervasive the conventional fear-based marketing paradigm is and how simple it is to create an alternative based on creativity and cooperation.
Lynn was hired for the Amazon book launch of my book 
