Micheal Phelps - Swimmer, Olympic Gold Medalist, and now... Author?

When you're a success I guess the next big thing is to write a book about yourself. Miley Cyrus has done it, and now Simon & Schuster wants Michael Phelps to do it too. The book entitled "Built to Succeed,” will be published by Free Press (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) in December.

Taking advantage of course of book marketing is the fact that Phelps is already really famous. So just saying his name would make dollars drop on the register I bet.

The book will focus on the Beijing Olympics and how Micheal Phelps won his eight gold medals there. Including the secrets of his success, how he trained and how he won. But it will also look back at his life and his childhood - what life was like being raised by a single mother and being diagnosed with ADHD - attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

If such a kid with a semi-abnormal existence got to grow up like Michael Phelps then I guess being psychologically impaired might be so bad for the rest of us.

The book is bound to have images - how did Michael Phelps get so hot and buff?

I got this letter in my mailbox recently about a new book marketing company called BookWhirl:

It has recently come to our attention that a company, by the name of BookWhirl,
has been contacting Xlibris authors and offering to provide internet book marketing
services to promote their book. While we encourage you to explore every avenue
available to you to maximize your book sales and exposure, we recommend that you
exercise caution when dealing with any company that has no discernible history or
that seems to appear overnight. To protect yourself, it is advisable to background
check any company that contacts you by visiting the Better Business Bureau
online at http://www.bbb.org/ .

At one of our author’s behest, we took the liberty of doing some background research
on the aforementioned company and found that the address listed on the website does
not exist. Using an online research program, we were able to determine that there
is no building existing on the site, only a vacant space. Furthermore, our attempt
to send a letter communication by Federal Express was returned to us citing the
reason “No Address Existing”. In a subsequent exchange of e-mails with a BookWhirl
representative, we requested for a correct US address, but were given the same
address that appears on their website, and that was listed by Federal Express
as not existing.

Authorhouse Giving The Store Away With A Lot Of Publishing Promotions This August

I was quite surprised when I took a look at all the different offers that Authorhouse has posted on their website. Aside from the Free Gas Card which they already started giving out last month, they're also giving out promotions on

• Publishing packages -- save up to $300 or get up to 20 extra books on select publishing packages. This means though the offer may not apply to all their publishing packages so best to ask first
  
• Book marketing -- Take advantage of Buy One, Get One Free marketing services. Authorhouse has seemed quite eager to push their book marketing services. This buy one get one offer sounds a little vague but I'm sure they probably should be of the same value or the free service might be of less value.
  
• Book purchasing offer -- Get 10% free books and free shipping on author book purchases. This is the best offer I think, because not only do you save on your book costs (10% more) I presume over the usual author discounts they provide as well as free shipping. That's a nice combination.
  

These offers are running through the whole month of August.

iUniverse's Expands Author Marketing With Newly Appointed Director

The Bookseller posted that iUniverse just appointed a director for author marketing. What does this mean for writers and authors exactly?



Let's define author marketing first. Author marketing is when authors with published works decide to spread the word about their work through a variety marketing efforts, like marketing campaigns for books that happen online, in print and through media publicity.



The goal would be to get as many people know about the book's release, the book's theme that would get readers interested in buying the book.



iUniverse apparently wants to provide affordable services to help authors develop a platform and sell books through a broad range of quality marketing services for iUniverse authors

Xlibris New Book Marketing Service Product - All About Search Marketing

Apparently Xlibris can win over Google with their new marketing services product for your book. Xlibris places ads on search results pages (SERPs) of Google for specific keywords that are related to your book.

The motive here is to drive visitors and would-be book buyers to your website or the bookstore that sells your book. The requirement here would be that you will need an online purchase location for your book. If you don't have one then this product will be rather useless to you.

Xlibris did not mention how much the product cost in their email - which must mean this might be expensive.

Amazon Bullying The Publishing Market?

There have been news that Amazon is taking out the icon "buy now with 1 click" for several publishers. How important is this one button? Here's an explanation from the International Herald Tribune:

The button allows registered users to purchase titles instantly, with free shipping. Customers can still buy the affected books, but they have to navigate to an open marketplace that links them to third-party sellers of new or used books. And they have to pay for shipping.

Just recently it has disabled this button for British Web site with hundreds of books published by Hachette Livre UK, from back-list Stephen King novels to, naturally, "The Hachette Guide to French Wine."

According to Hachette's CEO Tim Hely Hutchinson, Amazon - one of the biggest online retailers, he said, was demanding a bigger slice of the "cake." Publishers traditionally sell books to retailers at a discount off the recommended retail price, but Amazon was demanding more than its existing 50 percent.

"Amazon seems each year to go from one publisher to another making increasing demands in order to achieve richer terms at our expense and sometimes at yours," Hutchinson said in the letter. "If this continued, it would not be long before Amazon got virtually all of the revenue that is presently shared between author, publisher, retailer, printer and other parties."

For now, the dispute remains unresolved. So the buy buttons are missing from older titles like "Labyrinth" by Kate Mosse or "Duma Key," by Stephen King, who still managed to get favored treatment for titles in his "Dark Tower" series. Many of Hachette's titles have also been dropped from Amazon promotions suggesting additional titles for customers in their favorite genres.

The dispute with Hachette is not the first in which Amazon has resorted to removing the "buy now" buttons for certain books. In the spring it started disabling the icons for some small publishers in the United States who resisted Amazon's demand that they use an Amazon-owned company, BookSurge, for print-on-demand services. Amazon is the dominant seller of such titles.

I used to admire Amazon a lot, specially the business model that Jeffrey Bezos put together. How they were consumer centric and user friendly. But now it seems it's all about the money.... tsk tsk tsk

Unorthodox Book Marketing, Tung Desem Waringin To Throw Away 100 Million Rupiah To Market Book

Some guy will throw away more than ten thousand US dollars out of an airplane this Sunday as his way of promoting his new book. I'm all for it, giving away free stuff is always a good way to promote yourself. Take a look at politicians!

Tung Desem Waringin, author and motivational speaker will be throwing 100 million rupiah ($10,740) from an airplane on Sunday as part of a marketing ploy for his second book according to a Reuters article.

A spokesman for the organizers, Diki Sidik, said Jakarta police had refused to issue a permit for the event but Tung would go ahead with the plan outside the capital.

"Rather than spend a lot of money for unsuccessful marketing, better give the money to the people," Sidik said.

The first time around, apparently this author rode around in a horse. It was said that he sold 10,091 books that day in Indonesia with the amount of publicity he got, he also reached out to companies. That's one aggressive guy. Most people just pay someone else to do their book marketing. Looks like he went the extra mile

Message from Xlibris: Timing is Critical For a Successful Marketing Campaign

Xlibris just sent me this quaint little message about how to make a successful marketing campaign for my book

Timing is Critical For a Successful Marketing Campaign

The difference between a successful book and one that is never heard of is often a professional, well thought out marketing plan. With more than 175,000 new titles published last year in the United States alone, it is incredibly difficult to capture the attention of the reading public. Without a concentrated and organized effort to create positive word-of-mouth, the chances of having a high-selling book are almost zero.

The essential elements of a successful marketing campaign are timing and focus. Spring has traditionally been a strong season for book sales, the time is right for you to focus your marketing efforts and breathe life into your campaign. Xlibris has launched six comprehensive Spring Marketing Packages (at a 50% discount for March) to coincide with the season and help you achieve your marketing goals.

Add a great assortment of printed marketing materials to help your promotional effort and save even more in March.

Call 1-888-795-4274, ask to speak with your personal marketing consultant, and let them help you decide which is the best marketing approach for you and your book.

Tip For Self Published Authors: How To Make The Most Of Your Book Publicity On Amazon.com

Amazon.com may be the most powerful selling channel on the planet for self published authors. With the tag line "Earth's Biggest Selection," the site has become a platform for authors to connect directly with readers. Many of Amazon.com's features, which are designed to help readers find what they are looking for, can be utilized to drive readers to your book's detail page and result in a sale for you. Below are some of the features you can use to market and gain greater visibility for your book on Amazon.com. Get online and explore!

Customer Reviews

Located just below the editorial reviews on your book's detail page, customer reviews are almost always impartial opinions of other consumers who purchased your book and want to tell other shoppers what they thought. How can this help you sell more books? Encourage anyone who tells you how much he/she enjoyed your book to write a review on Amazon.com. As your positive reviews grow, so may your sales.

Search Inside the Book

With Amazon's Search Inside the Book feature, customers no longer have to visit their local bookstore to see the actual interior pages of a book.

How does it work? When customers search for books, the actual text of your book is searched to display the most relevant results, rather than simply the author, title and keywords. Customers can also browse sample pages and perform additional searches inside the book to confirm your book is exactly what they are looking for.

AmazonConnect

Communicate directly with your readers and potential readers through AmazonConnect: post messages that will appear on your readers' Amazon.com home pages and your book's detail page, provide stimulating content for potential buyers of your book, and build a reader community by establishing loyalty and direct one-on-one relationships with your readers.

Before you get started, you might want to check out the AmazonConnect Author Directory to browse through the list of registered authors.

Amazon Shorts

Receive additional ongoing income streams and grow your online audience by publishing short fiction and non-fiction through Amazon Shorts. Offering the widest range of digital short-form content, Shorts will help you reach new audiences,drive sales and create robust marketing opportunity and visibility on Amazon.com. As a self-published author, you can leverage your rights ownership and provide readers with a risk-free way of sampling your work and promoting your full length book titles. Visit www.amazon.com/shorts and learn more about the program.

Buy X, Get Y Advertising Program

Buy X, Get Y is a paid promotion that allows you to increase the visibility of your book by pairing it with a top-selling book (or other product) to offer shoppers added value for purchasing both items simultaneously. Promotions are featured in the "Best Value" section of each product's detail page for one month. The products, when purchased together, are offered at a 5% discount.

Tags

What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label strongly related to a product. Tags can help customers on the Amazon site find products they otherwise may not come across. Anyone can add a tag to a product on the Amazon site and assuming that person has purchased at least one product from Amazon in the past, that tag will be visible to other customers.

How can this be beneficial to you, the author of a published book available for sale on Amazon? From your book’s detail page, you can add tags that are relevant to your book’s topic; once you add these tags, your product will come up when customers on the Amazon site click on that tag to see all associated products. The image below shows the tags currently associated with BookSurge author Richard Ridley’s book, The Takers. In order to add a tag, you simply type it into the box, “Your Tags” and click the “Add” button. Your title will automatically be associated with that tag.

Notice that the tags associated with The Takers are words such as “horror book” and “young adult,” which relate to the book’s genre and target audience.

You’ll also notice from the image above that it is possible to suggest tags for Amazon search; this allows you to specify the search for which you think the item should appear, along with your explanation of why it is relevant. To submit tag suggestions for your book(s) to Amazon search, you’ll want to go to your book’s detail page and look for a section called "Tags customers associate with this product" (featured above). You’ll then click on the “suggest link” and you’ll be taken through the process of making a tag for Amazon search. Please refer to the Tag for Amazon Search Guidelines for more details.

Rankings

Your book's sales ranking on Amazon.com can be a great selling tool to include in promotional materials. How do the rankings work? The calculation is based on Amazon.com sales and is updated each hour to reflect recent and historical sales of every item sold on the site. As your book's popularity grows, so will its reviews and ratings which, when favorable, will add to the marketability of your book.

Listmania!

Listmania! is a tool created by Amazon.com to help shoppers help one another find useful products, (or in our case, readers find books they may not have otherwise come across). The lists appear on the right side of the page when a keyword search is conducted and at the bottom of a product's detail page. The lists appear when they pertain to the keyword that was searched or contain the product currently in view.

Create a Listmania! list (and ask your friends, family and fans to also) featuring your book and other similar books and products - a great way to lead readers straight to your book! Visit Amazon.com to learn more about creating Listmania! lists.

So You'd Like to ... Guides

So You'd Like to ... Guides are similar to Listmania! lists. They are created by Amazon.com users to help other Amazon.com users find products they may not have otherwise come across. Just like Listmania!, you (and your friends, fans and family) may want to create a So You'd Like to... guide that features your book. It will increase the likelihood that people will come across your book while browsing on Amazon.com.

via Booksurge.com

Xlibris Launches A Book Exhibition Marketing Campaign

A trade show can really help your sales by hitting the right target audience. Xlibris’ Book Exhibition Marketing service now gives you the power to do so - that's straight from their website.

With a choice of over 20 shows each year at which to display your book and unleash the full potential of your marketing campaign by establishing a physical presence. Their packages combine the book exhibit with the Press Release Service and a Newswire campaign.

The packages range from $999 to about $1800

It includes the following shows just in case some of you out there might be interested

Show Name	Show Date
American Library Association Midwinter	11 Jan -14 Jan 2008
American International Toy Fair	17 Feb -20 Feb 2008
Michigan Reading Association	15 Mar -17 Mar 2008
London Book Fair New Title Showcase	14 Apr -16 Apr 2008
Public Library Association	25 Mar -29 Mar 2008
Florida Library Association	23 Apr -24 Apr 2008
Texas Library Association	15 Apr -18 Apr 2008
Bookexpo America New Title Showcase	29 May - 01 Jun 2008
Connecticut Library Association	28 Apr -30 Apr 2008
New Jersey Library Association	29 Apr -30 Apr 2008
Pennsylvania School Library Association	01 May -03 May 2008
Beijing International Book Fair	03 Sep - 07 Sep 2008
Bookexpo Canada New Title Showcase	15 Jun -16 Jun 2008
American Library Association Annual	28 Jun - 01 Jul 2008
National Education Association	01 Jul -03 Jul 2008
Frankfurt International Book Fair	15 Oct -19 Oct 2008
Ohio Library Council	12 Sep -12 Sep 2008
Illinois Library Association	03 Oct - 05 Oct 2008
New England Library Association	19 Oct -21 Oct 2008
California Library Association	14 Nov -16 Nov 2008
New York Library Association	05 Nov -11 Nov 2008
Pennsylvania Library Association	10 Nov -11 Nov 2008

Visit the Xlibris website for more details about this book exhibition service

Amazon Launches Paperback Of The Future?

Jeffrey Bezos has been know to be the visionary who set up the multi-billion dollar retailer Amazon.com - he does it yet again with Kindle in the hopes the ebook reader will do for books what the iPod did for music.

In this review by The Guardian's Danny Bradbury, he quoted Jeff Bezos, "we knew we would never out-book the book," he explained. "We would have to take the technology and do things the book could never do."

Kindle has 30 hours of battery life, 2-hour recharge time, it lets users instantly receive newspapers and magazines subscribed to via Amazon. Making more than 90,000 books, blogs, magazines and newspapers available to any reader anywhere in the world - at a fee of course. But will this ebook reader device make it to mass markets? His article mentions many possible flaws to the device.

Other publishers worry that the whole ebook concept is flawed. Like many, HarperCollins is currently in the throes of digitising its content. "We're partly digitising because we are saying that we're not as interested in the book as a content delivery mechanism," says group digital publisher Clive Malcher. "We want to start with the content and deliver it in the most appropriate medium."

In a letter from Jeff Bezos posted on the homepage of Amazon.com, it took them more than 3 years to develop it. Kindle is wireless, patterned after the cell phone technology without the bills, the software and contracts. The screen is nothing like a computer, it's said to be on electronic paper and weighs only 10.3 ounces (less than a paperback), with the content of 200 books.

Will their analogy to music really work? I'm not sure. I still want to hold a book when I read and flip pages, and even smell the paper. It might be worth considering though now that everyone's going green - environmentalists will love this product.

I'm not sure ebooks will fly as well. They have been around for awhile but they haven't really stood out as a replacement for the real tangible book. And I doubt they ever will. For some reason, being published in print is just not the same with being published online

AuthorHouse Launches 2 New Services For Self Published Authors

Just when I thought Xlibris had the upper hand with all their promotions going on, not to be outdone is Authorhouse who just purchased iUniverse I heard recently launched two new marketing services products for their self published authors.

Book Buyer’s Preview that allows book buyers, librarians and researchers across the globe to read a selection from the first chapter of your book. When book buyers access their ordering database, the preview will appear with your book’s ordering information to aid buyers in making a purchasing decision. This will be made available to trade databases including in Ingram Book Group and Baker & Taylor, the two largest book distributors in the world as well as post a preview of your book on the Barnes & Noble site BN.com as well as Buy.com

Media Interview Connection that puts you, your book and your credentials in front of 75,000 journalists across the country. This sounds pretty much like a press release I think, only that they arrive in the form of alerts.

These all sound really nice. But I wonder how I go about getting them. I was on their site all day today trying to figure it out. What I understand is I have to pay for them, but I can't see anywhere how much they cost. They have got to make their website a lot friendlier. I'm wondering are these part of their publishing package now? Or are they add-ons? My goodness if they don't state the price though, makes me think they might be pretty darn expensive.

8th Harry Potter Book - Coming Soon?

Harry Potter enthusiasts, children and adults alike are being intrigued by a new website acting like a teaser for something in relation to the Harry Potter series, with his dad - Jame Potter seeming to take the lead role this time. The title says James Potter and The Hall of Elders' Crossing. Sounds very Harry Potterish to me.



A spokesman for Warner Bros, the company that brought Harry Potter to the big screen and was believed to be behind the website, did not confirm or deny its involvement in the “secret test marketing” when contacted by NEWS.com.au.

You'll need passwords to read snippets of an online book that doesn't really reveal anything about the website or what it is trying to promote. Mostly magic stuff similar to what Harry Potter used to learn in Hogwarts as well as concepts in the world of wizards. There is certainly some connection as copyright information is stated on the website. Many have commented that it could just be a hoax. But if you're interested anyway...

First password: Genisolaris
Second password: Corsica

I guess this is the common denominator between readers and writers - good books. In this case a very crafty marketing ploy at the very least. The website isn't amazingly impressive, but it does showcase some professional features. It makes me think of how I would like to market my book when I get it published. This should revolutionize book marketing.

Conventional Publishing Challenged - The Tucker Max Dare

I found an article on Comment Is free entitled "Publisher Brought to Book: Unadventurous publishers and booksellers are facing a challenge from new writers who find an audience on the internet." This article basically outlines how Tucker Max, a writer originally rejected by many publishing houses he tried to contact because his book was not saleable. He went online to self-publish 2 books through online publishing houses - Lulu.com & iUniverse.com.

He authored a new type of book that has begun to challenge the publishers and bookstores that leave small independent authors without a voice.

Tucker Max was a "belligerent and debauched" ex-law student who started by establishing a following on the internet and eventually joined the New York Times bestseller list with his book, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.

According to sources, the publishers' real problem was they had no idea how to market the book.
This, Max realised, is where conventional marketing techniques have failed to capitalise - not only on his own work but on internet literature in general. What the publishing houses had not fully realised was that Max's site had a monthly hit-rate of more than two million unique visits, and a fan base that was actively teeming with support on the website's message board. After months of constant rejections, the book was finally picked up by Kensington Books, the last independent publishing house in the US. His idiosyncratic self-belief eventually paid off in 2006. The UK edition has since been picked up by Penguin, and he has reportedly been offered a $300,000 advance on his next book.

Because of the subject matter, the book's scope for literary acclaim is limited, but the wonder is that it has seen the shelves at all, and it is the power of the internet that has given Max and authors like him a voice.

Max's success did not go unnoticed in the publishing industry, and a number of other writers have since landed book deals on the strength of their online following. Their subjects are various, but New York Times bestseller successes have been enjoyed by books spun off from websites such as Thebestpageintheuniverse.net, a long-running catalogue of satire, criticism and vitriol that has become one of the most popular non-commercial sites on the web. The subversive cartoon site ColoringBookLand.com and satirical news site Thephatphree.com are other such examples. In the UK, the most recognised of these is probably the anyonymous blogger Belle De Jour, who is also a best-selling author and subject of ITV2's new flagship drama The Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

The sites and their cross-over books have attracted reverence and revilement in equal degree, and because of their content, they are always likely to be sniffed at by literary critics. Regardless of merit, though, their niche appeal poses a unique challenge to the publishing and bookselling industry.

With the conventional bounds imposed by marketing strategies removed, authors can write about what interests them, no matter how niche it seems. Publishers have the choice to publish, regardless of whether it seems saleable (because an unvisited site is much less of a financial headache than a warehouse full of unsold books). Ultimately, readers have the choice of what to read, far more so than they do in conventional bookshops, where deals have been struck to ensure that big books make big profits, while the weak - meaning the original, the untested - fall by the wayside.

This is by no means the end of the predictable McNovels that dominate our bookstores, but with online publishing opportunities increasing, and online booksellers like Amazon, (whose stock is dictated by demand,) becoming ever more dominant, bookstores might finally have cause to rethink the way they fill their shelves.

The 8th Harry Potter Book - NOT Published?

For all book-lovers out there, J.K. Rowling added one more book to her Harry Potter series.
According to Publsher's Weekly, "The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the real-life incarnation of a collection of wizarding fairytales mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as a gift left to Hermione by Professor Dumbledore."

Apparently the book is handwritten and contains illustrations by Rowling. This has to be one of the most personal books ever written as according to J.K. Rowling - writing the book “has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years,” she told the AP.

Only seven copies of the title were printed, with a brown leather binding and elaborate silver and gemstone decorative accents. Reuters reported that in a dedication to the book, Rowling states, “Six of these books have been given to those most closely connected to the Harry Potter books during the last 17 years. This seventh copy will be auctioned; the proceeds to help institutionalized children who are in desperate need of a voice. So to whoever owns this book, thank you—and fair fortune be yours.”

Sotheby’s will auction the book December 13 with an opening price of $62,000. The winning bid will be donated to Rowling’s charity The Children’s Voice.

I hope whoever gets the last of the 7 copies, will post the book online for the rest of us humble-folk who will probably never lay a hand on it.

I'm willing to bet though that time will come, this book will be published - especially with the growing demand and hype. Maybe that's the point of all this - to make some noise and establish the relative demand of the book - and then they can publish it full tilt, because right now I still see some copies of the Deathly Hallows already at something like 10% off in some bookstores. Guess that's how traditional publishing works.

Random House Markets Coupland's Latest Novel In YouTube

Douglas Coupland's new novel "The Gum Thief" published by Random House will be marketed with a series of videos which were posted on Youtube recently.

The videos follow the book's theme in the form of narratives from the protagonist perspective as well as that of other characters from the book.

This is a new way of marketing for the book and is projected to interest younger markets into reading contemporary fiction.

Traditional book publishers such as Random House are turning towards more contemporary forms of advertising as well. It is smart to target Youtube as part of their marketing campaign. Wonder if their strategic partner in print on demand would offer that too...