book publicity publicity marketing book publishing self publishing publishing smart marketing ebooks

Dustin Wax creator of The Writer’s Technology Companion web site wrote an article titled Writing ebooks for publicity and even for profit…

As a publicist who sees hundreds of books of all types each year, I don’t believe that ebooks are a hot product in and of themselves. There are only certain types of people who will buy them and use them. The marketplace is actually pretty small and most people still buy and read regular books.

So in my view, and what I advise my clients is this: Once you own a body of intellectual property, sell it every way you can. An ebook is just one form of publishing. You can print it POD, publish it in with Kindle, package it in a pdf file, break it into pieces and let people subscribe to it, you can teach with it, use it as a freebie for people who pay for a workshop, you can use it as a calling card for higher cost services, and lots more.

I think you can benefit a lot if you look at what you are doing as if you are making candy.

Sweet, enjoyable, memorable candy.

It comes in all sorts of flavors and colors and sizes.

I see four types of candy on the Internet: products, services, software and information.

* Products need to be manufactured and delivered.

* Services need to be performed.

* Software can be delivered in a box or a download, and can be easily updated.

* Information can be provided in lots of ways.

There are lots of hybrid forms to these four basic types of candy on the Internet.

You can make mind candy — intellectual candy. This is candy that teaches people something and helps them grow.

People always remember where they get good candy. It produces a physical sensation that creates the sensation of physical pleasure and specific chemicals are released in the body — chemical memory is the result. This is the branding that takes place when we see or even better experience, something remarkable.

So no matter how you publish, focus first on creating something truly incredible. Then when people hear about it, they’ll want it, and they’ll be interested in anything else you sell.

So write to sell. Write content for information or code for programs. Write what you are best at.

Don’t stop the development process till you can reliably demonstrate that what you have created actually sells repeatedly to different people at a known rate. Do this once, twice, three, four, five times to different groups of people until you vereify that the communication you use produce the same action on the part of the people you present to. If you talk to, email, or communicate with ten people, and sell one product, that’s a ten percent response rate. Two products, then that’s a twenty percent response rate. Three products, and that’s thirty percent.

And that’s incredible for any product and marketing communications.

Then publish. Publish your ebook, publish your hard copies, publish your videos, and your dvd’s and mp3’s. Promote your speaking, your wrkshops and your consulting.

You can see more of my ideas on this how this translates into marketing and publicity at the free articles at my Direct Contact PR website

In particular look for the article titled “The Magic of Business”.

From a publicity point of view, the media actually don’t care what the product is. They are only interested in publishing three things: news, education and entertainment. They honestly couldn’t care less about whether you wrote a book. To most media that fact that you wrote a book is just a credential to you being a person who’s qualified to give a newsworthy comment. if they like the book, if it has real added value to a lot of people in their particular audience, then they may choose to write about the book. But for the most part, they aren’t real inclined to help you sell product. Their view is that if you want them to advertise your product, then take out an ad.

What they want to publish is the news. education and entertainment that satisfies their audience. This is what you need to provide them, if you want to be published.

So we can get people publicity whether they’ve written and published a book or not. All we focus on is what they media needs.

So no matter what type of book or service you have, getting publicity is a completely separate task and requires you to use different ideas and actions.

You can interest media in writing about you if what you offer is exceptionally good. If create and offer something interesting, then you will improve your chances of getting favorable publicity significantly.

Hence the key to your success is being truly great at what you do. Help the people you can help the most. Please them and satisfy their needs beyond expectations. That’s what will get you attention. That’s how you create and deliver value.

That’s also how you market and achieve success and happiness.

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The Seven Powers of Book Printing

What happened to books before, during and after the development of the Gutenberg Press. This wonderful video provides you with a perspective that should make any author or publisher think twice before finalizing their creative work.

http://www.youtube.com/v/g6Hr1P3F-M4

How do you write something that will sell?

Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.

How do you know when you are done? When one prospect after another picks up and doesn’t let go.

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Seth Godin looks at the world and sees things differently than the most people. He also has a remarkable talent when it comes to communicating what he observes and concludes.

There are a whole bunch of very important and insightful statements that he makes in this video, which he gave speaking to Google in 2007. This 48 minute segment covers material from his book “All Marketers Are Liars”.

One of the crucial ideas he conveys here is that technology simply doesn’t matter as much as marketing. Smart marketing is what creates success.

Who do you tell your friends to go see? Who do you tell your colleagues to go to for help? Who do you recommend when someone needs something?

This is where you need to be.

Another question is do you deliver your messages to people who want it when they want it? This is the essence of his permission marketing.

Then the real meat of this presentation (and Seth is a vegetarian) is all about how successful marketers convince people to believe a story.

Stories convince people because they make people feel a certain way. This is the challenge of marketing — to deliver on the story.

Another idea he covers is how the goal of creating a purple cow, that amazing remark-able product, that is so incredible you share it with ten of your friends because it is just so cool.

One superb nugget he delivers is that he compare how a super successful company spends ten times the money they spend on marketing on the design of the product. The average company spends ten times the money they spend on design on marketing and advertising.

Which one is more remarkable?

I see the same thing with people who write books. In my situation, the best book is easier to achieve success with. Want to get lots of publicity? Write a good book.

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